Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1494
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, September 14, 1879
“For no other Foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:11.
BUILDING is very important, but the first question must always concern the foundation. However quickly, however cleverly a man may build, if the foundation is unsound, he is a foolish builder. And however slowly, however laboriously a man may proceed, his building will not put him to shame if he has set his walls erect upon a firm basis. This is emphatically true in spiritual things, for there, the foundation is of the utmost importance. The hearer of the Word of God who is not a doer, also, comes to a fatal end because, as the Savior says, he has built upon sand and, therefore, his fabric in the day of storm and flood is swept away. But he who hears the Word and does it is secure because he digs deep and lays his foundation upon a rock and, therefore, his building survives the rains of trial from above, the floods of persecution from without and the mysterious winds of Satanic temptation which howl from every quarter.
The best masonry must crack and fall if the groundwork is unstable—the higher the pinnacle, the speedier its fall if the base is insecure. As to what the foundation is in the religion of Jesus Christ, there is no question. This verse declares it to be decided beyond controversy. A man may build the superstructure, in some measure, according to his own tastes and judgment, but it must be based upon the one Foundation. There may be room for varieties of style in the upper building, but there can be no variety in the groundwork. That is fixed forever by the unchanging God, who says, “Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation stone.”
It must be acknowledged that all Christian minds and lives do not take exactly the same form and fashion—there are among the best of Christian builders certain grades of excellencies—one man builds with gold, another with silver and a third with precious stones. But as to the foundation, all are on a level, Christ is all and in all! Whether the gracious life is rich as a golden palace, or pure as a temple of silver, or substantial as a tower of marble. Whether it is public or obscure, wide or narrow, it must, in every case, be built upon the same basement of eternal Rock—“for no other Foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid.”
You may say, “we will agree to differ” about matters which concern the superstructure, but we must agree to agree as to the Foundation, for if we are not at one with the plain statement of the text, we are in the wrong. The Apostle is dogmatic to the very last degree—“No other Foundation can anyone lay.” “But,” says one, “various teachers did lay other foundations.” The Apostle will not admit that they were foundations—they were not worthy of the name—the imposture was too shallow to succeed. No builder, if he looked upon a heap of sand poured into an excavation, would admit that it was a foundation. If he saw a mass of decayed vegetation and garden rubbish heaped together, no architect would for one moment allow it to be spoken of as foundation!
Paul declares that there is but one Foundation, and that there is none beside it, or beyond it— and that the one only, unalterable, immovable, everlasting Foundation is Jesus Christ! It is not to be imagined that there are other foundations somewhat differing and only a little inferior to the Lord Jesus—there is no other and no other can be laid. It is not a question of comparison, but of monopoly! All other groundworks and principles, whatever may be said in their praise, are mere lies if they are set forth as foundations, for the Lord Jesus has exclusive possession of that title and in Him, alone, all that is fundamental is summed up—“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
And truly, when you think that God, from all eternity, has made His only-begotten Son to be the Foundation and Cornerstone, it will be seen that this Rock goes deep into the very nature of things, yes, deep as infinity itself and, therefore, there cannot be two of the kind, for of whom else is it written that verily He was foreordained before the
foundation of the world? Of whom else is it said, “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was”? When you think that this Foundation is nothing less than Divine, for Christ is very God of very God, it is as impossible that there should be two foundations as that there should be two Gods!
You must imagine two redemptions before you can conceive of two groundworks for our confidence. Who will dream of two atonements, two Saviors, two Christs? Yet must such a thing be before there can be two foundations! None but Jesus, the Divine Savior, could sustain the weight of a single soul with all its sins, much less of all the souls, which are built up into the Temple of God! Jesus alone can sustain our eternal interest, deliver us from eternal wrath, or lift us into eternal bliss. “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus.” His own words in prophecy are very positive—“I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Savior.” And equally expressive is His personal declaration—“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me.”