Rock of Offence
ISAIAH 28:16
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone (We know that Zion represents the bride in this hour, and this foundation stone is Christ which is the revelation of the word that has be laid down before us in this age by the opening of the seven seals), a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. (This phrase “make haste” means that you will not be shaken, you will not be disturbed, you will not have to run off quickly to the next thing that comes along because you are in doubt of what you have – He that believeth in Christ the rock of the revealed word of this hour shall not be ashamed of failure. We know the story of the man who built his house upon the rock – when the storm came, he was not shaken down – we are certainly living in a time of raging storms)
ROMANS 9:28-33
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed (This seed is referring to the descendants of a God race of people – people with the seed of God dwelling within them at this end time age), we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
30 ¶ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. (The Jews never came to a right standing with God by the keeping of the law, but the gentiles by faith in the supreme sacrifice and the finished work of Christ have attained to a right standing with God that the Law of Moses could have never produced)
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; (The Jews stumbled at the revealing of the son of man ministry of their day – the one whom John had introduced to them – they were offended at him)
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Rock of Offence
We want to study a little into this subject because we know that a rock in the bible is symbolic for a true revelation of the word of God – Jesus said that upon this rock of the revelation of who he is for the day that you live in is what his church would be built on in every age. Christ is the word of God revealed for the day that you live in.
**So this rock of offence is simply the revelation of the word for each age that the elected of that age receive but at the same time becomes offensive to the nominal religious people. Many of Jesus follows left him in John CH:6 because they had become offended at his teaching of the word concerning himself.
*And in this day, many left the support of brother Branham’s ministry as the years went on because they also became offended at the revelation of the word that he taught in their churches.
I PETER 2:6
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
**This word “confounded” in the Greek is the same word in Romans 9:33 “ashamed” which in the Greek means - whom some hope has deceived.
**In other words, there are many people that hope and trust in many things that will eventually lead them to becoming ashamed because the hope of what they believed in was simply a deception of mans ideas that they had put their trust in houses built on sands of false hopes. But we are promise here that this Chief corner stone that would be laid as a revelation in the heart of the bride of Christ of this hour would not lead us to a failed hope.
*Last week we study this story of the disciples on the sea and in the storm of Mark 4
MARK 4:35
35 ¶ And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.
When God makes a promise to us, as human beings we tend to build this picture in our minds of how that promise is going to look like when it is being played out.
No doubt the disciples had a picture in their minds of a safe and peaceful passage from one side of the land to the other side – but as the story goes along and as the storm gets worse we find that they began to change their idea of a safe landing on the other side of the lake to that of being convinced that they were all going to drown which would make Jesus promise to them a hope that had failed.
**We noticed from last week’s study that this was an evening time promise that Jesus had made to them – His evening time word had promised for them to pass from one side of the land to another land on the other side. We found out that this is also what Noah did, Noah passed over from one world into another world. Moses did the same thing with the children of Israel, they passed over from one side of the red sea to the other, and then their children passed over the Jorden River from one side to the other. Enoch also passed over from this world to another without seeing death. So we see this pattern throughout the entire bible because we know that all of us at some point will have to pass over from this side to the other side.
*And so this story here that we studied last week was showing us something of our own lives, because in this we saw how that he was going to be with them while they were passing over – but although he was with them, they became offended at him in that they question his care for them.
*In other words, he had made them an evening time promise that they would pass over to the other side, but when the reality of the promise was being lived out, they had become so convinced that his promise was going to fail that they had become offended at him and began to accuse and to question the Lord as to whether he really cared for them.
MARK 4:38-40
38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
(***Notice how that when they were faced with such a desperate situation, the first thing they did was to question His care for them – “Carest thou not that we perish?” He cared for them more than they could ever know, yet in the desperation of their circumstances, they had become convinced that there hope in him would end that night in failure)
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? (Their faith in his promise had given way to fear – so the cure of fear is a renewed faith in the original promise of the word of God)
*It is quite easy for people to become offended at God along the journey of life from this world to the next world in the ways of his dealings with us because of how human beings misunderstand God’s higher ways of thinking – we think that his care should be to protect us from all troubles so that we would never have to encounter the raging storms, not realising that it is in these very storms of life that his care for us is truly revealed and made manifested.
GENESIS 4:3-7a We see in Genesis that Cain became offended at the Lord because he lacked the revelation of the word that Abel had received for that hour, he thought that his own idea of worship with the fruit of his works was better than God’s idea of a slain lamb.
3 ¶ And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 ¶ And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.
**Man will have their favourite politician or their favourite singer, or movie star, or some other person that fits in with their personal ideals of greatness, but the Lord Jesus who is the greatest man that ever lived, the greatest character of any person is often regarded as an offence.
You would think that everyone would automatically have Christ as the admiration of their life, but the fact is that not only was he refused and rejected by the majority of mankind, but they also crucified him – he certainly didn’t appeal to their popularity. WHY?, because they stumbled over the revelation of the word that he was trying to bring to them – His teachings were a rock of offence to them as spoken by Paul.
ROMANS 9:33
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
This scripture is of course a compound scripture in that it also applies directly to the religious people of the world in this hour.
WHAT.WAS.THE.HOLY.GHOST.GIVEN.FOR_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-3 THURSDAY_ 59-1217
162 … There was a Stone cut out of the mountain without hands that rolled into the world and smashed it out, and it become like wheat--or chaff on the threshing floors. Let that Stone, the Christ Jesus, that Stumbling Stone to the world, a Stone of an offense, a laughing Stone, a Stumbling Block to the church; but a precious and a Lodestone to the believer (a lodestone is a naturally occurring magnetic stone that in the old days was used as a compass in navigation), a Stone of assurance, a Stone of rest (Oh, my.), resting... I know that I've passed from death unto Life. My soul is at rest. Oh, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest to your soul." "A--a Sign that's to be evil spoken of," said the--the prophet to Mary. It'll be a Sign. Sure it will. But It'll be an assurance; It'll be a love. It'll be a satisfaction. It'll be something that you know you've passed from death unto Life.
163 My brother, my sister, as your brother, as your servant in Christ, let me persuade you with all my heart, don't you let this go over your head, or go by you, or under you. Receive It into your heart, and you'll be a happy person on earth. I'm not promising you you'll get a million dollars. No, sir. Brother Leo, I think there's been too much of that promised now, millions of dollars and things that... Different ones said, "If you'd be a Christian, you'd get a million dollars, and you'll be a rich man." I'm not promising you nothing. I'm promising you this. The only thing I can promise you is salvation. His grace is sufficient for every trial.
LUKE 20:17-18
17 And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?
18 Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.