SEMESTER 6
388 – The Solid Rock
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: ECCLESIOLOGY VI (HYMNOLOGY) LESSON # 88
THE DOCTRINES AND EFFECTS OF CHURCH MUSIC – THE SOLID ROCK
Read: I Cor. 10:1-12
INTRODUCTION:
1. Obviously, the word Rock is used here metaphorically, representing Christ.
2. In the context we have read, Paul warns of any self-confidence. (I Cor. 10:12)
3. The song writer concurred and expressed it to be so in the refrain. “On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.”
4. Christ identifies Himself as this only Rock of security. (Mat. 7:24-25)
5. It is to this passage in Matthew 7 that the writer obviously refers.
6. Let us view the great truths this song-writing saint understood and stated in this song.
I. THAT JESUS BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE ONLY PROPER HOPE
“My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteous; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”
1. “Nothing less” is used here to denote the highest possible ground of faith.
2. Jesus’ blood and righteous are our mutually impeccable hopes. (Rom. 4:3-8)
III: On the cross, Jesus Christ traded places and righteousness with the believer.
3. I dare not trust anything else; church, baptism, moral goodness, or good works.
4. I must not mix my hopes, but wholly lean on Jesus name. (Rom. 10:13)
II. THE SONG WRITER SAW THAT HIS GRACE WAS IMMUTABLE
“When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vale.”
1. When the darkness SEEMS to hide His face, I rest on His UNCHANGING GRACE.
III: Through many dangers toils and snares, I have already come, and His grace is unchanging!
2. No matter the fierceness of the storm, we have an unmovable anchor.
3. This anchor is always within the veil at God’s throne, not just once a year!
III. THE SONG WRITER REALIZED HIS OATH AND COVENANT
“His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.”
1. His oath is to His people and to the Father. (Heb. 6:13-14 and Rom. 4:16)
2. The covenant is within the Trinity. (Joh. 6:37-39)
3. His Blood is the seal of the covenant, and His righteousness is the ground of our justification. (Heb. 13:20)
4. I am as helpless to save myself, as Abraham was to have a son. “All around my soul gives way.”
III: How that in the Abrahamic covenant, Abraham did not pass between the pieces. (Hear on tape.)
IV. THE WRITER’S ONLY PLEA WAS TO BE IN CHRIST
“When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.”
1. Not a cry for perseverance or victory, the cry was for NOTHING, but to be in Christ.
III: Oh! let me banish every other hope, realized or unrealized.
2. The question is not, are you faithful enough, but are you in the faith? Are you in Christ?
3. That is simply to say: “Is your hope built on nothing less? Nothing else!”
4. Will you stand faultless before the throne? Only if you are dressed in His righteousness alone?
5. What is your hope, and what is your message? Upon what is your hope built?