viii. 14. _And He shall be for . . . a stone of stumbling
and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel._
This prophecy refers to our Lord Jesus Christ, and it has had a
threefold fulfilment. It was fulfilled--+1. In His own personal
history.+ When He was made manifest to Israel He was so contrary to
their conceptions of what the Messiah would be--in the lowliness of
His condition, in the spirituality of the kingdom He set up, and,
above all, in the ignominiousness of the death He accomplished at
Jerusalem,--that they "stumbled at" and rejected Him. +2. In the
experience of His disciples in all ages.+ In them He has been again
despised and rejected. This He foresaw and predicted (John xv. 18-21,
&c.). In the world there is an irreconcilable hatred of Christ as He
reappears in His people (Gal. iii. 28, 29). +3. In the hostility
which faithful preaching has always created.+ The preaching of the
Gospel is the preaching of Christ (Acts v. 42; 1 Cor. i. 23; 2 Cor.
iv. 5). The great evangelical doctrines all centre in and flow from
"Christ and Him crucified," and can never be clearly and faithfully
proclaimed without awakening the disgust and enmity of the carnal
heart. They necessarily humble sinful men, and they hate to be
humbled. The offence of the cross is not yet ceased; multitudes still
stumble at the truth, being disobedient.
1. How sad that Christ should be an offence and a stumbling-stone to
a single soul! That His Word, which is sufficient for all the
purposes of salvation, should become to any "the savour of death unto
death"! 2. How terrible, and earnestly to be shunned, is that
unbelief which thus reverses the design of God's greatest mercies!
3. Whatever others may do, let us, with penitent and thankful hearts,
make Christ our "sanctuary."--_Manuscript Sermon._