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There cannot be two of the kind, for —

1. God from all eternity has made His only-begotten Son to be the foundation. Of whom else is it written that verily He was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world?

2. It is Divine, and it is as impossible that there should be two foundations as that there should be two Gods.

3. Otherwise there must be two redemptions. There is —

I. NO CHURCH BUT WHAT IS BUILT ON CHRIST. Whatever community may call itself a Church, or even the Church, if it is not built upon Christ it is not a Church at all. A foundation is —

1. The first portion of a building; and so is Jesus first with His Church, for His people were chosen in Him (Ephesians 1:4).

2. The support of all, and there is no Church but that which derives all its support from Christ. Call the community a religious club if you like, but it is no Church —

(1) Where the atonement is denied or ignored.

(2) Which places its dependence for its present power and future progress anywhere but in Christ. If we depend upon the secular power, education, eloquence, prestige, or our own zeal and ardour, we are leaving the rock for the sand.

3. Has the shaping of the building, and the true Church forms itself upon Christ as its ground-plan and outline. His law is the law of the Church. All the decrees of councils, synods, &c., and all the ordinances of men, if they at all differ from the law of Christ, are treasonable insults to the majesty of King Jesus. Steadfast is that Church which carefully follows His guiding line, but that which departs from it has left the foundation, and therein ceased to be a Church.

4. Indispensable. You could do without certain windows, you might close a door, and remove parts of the roof, and still it might be a house, but you cannot have a house at all if you take away the foundation; and so you cannot have a Church if Christ be not the foundation. If any people find their joy in a teaching which casts the Lord Jesus into the background, they are not His Church. The Church is not formed —

(1) By the union of men with men. The best of men may form a league, for good and useful purposes, but they are not a Church unless Christ be the basis upon which they rest.

(2) By a mere union to a minister. The Church is not built on Paul, nor upon Apollos; we are not to be believers in Luther, Calvin, or Wesley, but in Christ.

(3) By the following of any particular form or rite.

II. NO GOSPEL BUT WHAT IS BUILT ON JESUS CHRIST. For —

1. There is but one Mediator, by whom God speaks words of grace. If, then, any man say, "God hath spoken to me, and bidden me say other than what Christ has said," receive him not.

2. The true gospel has Christ's Divine person as its glory, and there can be no gospel without this.

3. Christ is the essence of the gospel.

(1) If, then, you hear a gospel in which free-will, good works, or the forms and ceremonies, are set up as being fundamental things, it is not the good news from heaven.

(2) The teaching of doctrines is not the teaching of the gospel if those doctrines be taught apart from Christ. Paul's body of divinity was the life and death of that only embodied divinity, the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-5).

(3) Some preach experience, and experience is admirable when Christ is set forth in it; but if you take up an experimental vein of things, whether of human corruption or of human perfection, and Christ is put in the background, you are marring the gospel.

(4) So, too, with practice. By all means let us have practical preaching; but merely to denounce vice and to extol virtue is a mission fit enough for Socrates or Plato, but does not well beseem a minister of Christ. His example shames vice and encourages virtue.

III. NO HOPE OF SALVATION BUT THAT WHICH IS BUILT UPON CHRIST. Some think it must be well with them because their parents were excellent Christian people. But if this is your only hope you are lost, for "Except a man be born again," &c. "Ay, but," saith another, "I had all the ceremonies of the Church performed upon me." Yes, but they cannot bear the weight of your soul. "Ah," saith another, "but I have diligently performed a great many good works." Abound in good works, but do not trust them. Human merit is a foundation of sand. "But I have had spiritual feelings," says one. Yes, but there is nothing in feelings and excitements which can be a ground of hope. "Why," says another, "it has troubled me that I have not had these feelings." Do not let it trouble you, but go to Jesus Christ and rest in Him.

IV. NO CHRISTIAN BUT THE MAN BUILT ON JESUS CHRIST. Here is a Christian, and of one thing in him I am sure: I cannot tell whether he is an Arminian or a Calvinist, but if he is a Christian he has no foundation but Christ. Every man to be a Christian must —

1. Rest his whole soul upon Christ as to eternal salvation.

2. Have Christ for his model.

3. Grow up in Christ, for the temple of God grows. Nor need we wonder, for it is a living temple. An ordinary, clumsy bit of work displays the mason and the carpenter, but perfect architecture looks as if it grew. But all our up-growing must come out of Christ.

4. Live for Christ. Christ's glory must be the great object of his being.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

WEB: For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.