And the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this morning as we turn to his word. Let us turn
to the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter three,
and verses 11, 12, and 13. The first epistle of Paul to
the Corinthians, chapter three, and reading verses 11, 12, and
13. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man
build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the
day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. The Apostle Paul tells us in
verse 10, according to the grace of God which is given unto me,
as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another
buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereupon." So this is really an account about building. And it is a spiritual account
about building. And it's important for us that
we do build in a right way. And the Apostle tells us, as
he began this chapter, that he said, I could not speak unto
you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes
in Christ. He was speaking to the Corinthians.
The Corinthians were a relatively new Christian church, and therefore
they weren't aware of very much of the great depths of the gospel. And therefore he tells them this,
that because they were carnal, because of their worldly ambitions
and their worldly life, he wasn't able to speak to them too much
on the depth of spiritual things. And he just lists really the
reason why they were like that. He tells them, for there is among
you envying and strife and divisions. Are you not carnal? and Walker's
men. He gave that simple illustration
and then he also said there were some who said I'm of Paul and
I'm of Apollos and I'm of someone else and he says is that not
a worldly situation? Well we have to be very careful
don't we in our religion and in the way we operate and the
things we do and what we think and what we say. Now we can imagine
surely that If we were to build a building naturally, if we came
to a building site with a load of materials to start building,
and there was no foundation, it wouldn't be very sensible,
would it, just to start laying bricks upon the ground. We probably
wouldn't make very much progress eventually, because no doubt
the ground wouldn't be suitable at that initial level. and therefore
any building that was built wouldn't last very long. And we conclude
therefore that it is essential, it's obvious that for a building
to stand up and be firm, it must have a good foundation. And sometimes foundations can
be dug relatively shallow, and sometimes foundations have to
be dug very deep. And it's important that there
is a good and a right foundation. And the Lord Jesus, you know,
he spoke about the foundation when he was on the earth and
in the Gospel of Luke. We read the very important point
he makes in the sixth chapter, and he speaks like this. given the account of that man
that built his house upon a rock and a man that built his house
upon the sand. And he comes down to this, and
he says, Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and
doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. You can think
that must be a good person, and he is a good person. He says,
he is like a man which built a house and digged deep, and
laid the foundation on a rock." Now, that man was therefore spoken
of as a good man. And it's just the same today
in our spiritual life. Usually, it means that to find
the foundation, to find a good foundation, it means There is
a digging, and the digging often needs to be deep. And again,
what does that mean? It means that we don't find a
good foundation to build upon immediately. It takes some effort. It takes some digging. And it is really just like that
in our spiritual life. And we don't find A good foundation,
perhaps immediately, when the Holy Spirit speaks into our heart,
we may not be very sure about what the foundation is. And it
may need a considerable amount of prayer and reading of the
Scriptures to find that good foundation. just a superficial
reading of the Word of God, just a very superficial prayer that
may not be sufficient to come down to that good foundation. Real religion is not something
which is just shallow, it's not something which is just superficial,
because again Referring to that account Jesus gave, there was
that man who built his foundation on the sand. And the difference
was that the sand was easy to dig in. He didn't dig very deep. It was all the same. And he put
his foundation on that. Now, the truth is that a sandy
foundation is not a bad foundation until the storms and the rain
and the floods come. and then sand becomes very weak
and that's why the building collapsed. It looked alright to start with.
And that's just the same really in our spiritual life. Things
may look alright to start with. We may think, well this is pretty
easy. It's easy to be a Christian and I can just walk along in
this path and there's no difficulty and what's the problem? Many
people, or some people rather, seem to have a difficulty and
don't seem to make very much headway and I've made good progress
and I'm doing very well. It may be that the building is
not down onto a really good foundation. Now we're thankful to know that
the Word of God tells us exactly what a good foundation is and
the Apostle Paul tells us what that is when he wrote to the
Ephesians and he tells us this in chapter 2 verse 19 now therefore
you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God well that's a good position
to be in isn't it to be united with people who are the household
of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. So what's that foundation? This
is the real reason. This is the real foundation.
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, the chief
foundation, the good foundation, the foundation, Jesus Christ. Now, therefore, this is really
the center of our consideration this morning. It is this good
foundation, and the foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore the apostle tells
us this, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. And so, in our spiritual life,
and my friends, it's very important that we all have a spiritual
life, And if we do have a spiritual life, is our foundation the Lord
Jesus Christ? Now, you may say, well, of course
it is. Well, I hope it is. But in order
for us to know it, it may be that we've had to dig down deep
to get down to that solid rock foundation. which is of course
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's not then a superficial
religion. Because if we are founded on
that rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean that we are walking
in communion and we are walking in union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And such a path in this world
is not an easy path. If your religion is superficial,
and if it's really a carnal religion, the religion will be very easy.
And there won't be any difficulties. And you'll be walking along thinking,
well, life's really quite easy being a Christian. Whereas the
Word of God tells us the very opposite. The Word of God tells
us that if we are a true Christian, we will not find our life on
this earth an easy life. And the reason is because this
world is not our resting place. It's not our home. We are traveling
through this life. This world is a wilderness. It's a rough place. It's a difficult
place. It's not a comfortable place
to the true child of God. But to those who are carnal,
It's an easy world, and they're satisfied with it. The child
of God who has built his house upon the rock, the Lord Jesus
Christ, on that good and firm foundation, which will not be
moved when the storms of life come, which they will, because
our religion will be tested, and that very often to ensure
that we are established upon the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, the fact is that as
we are on that rock, then when the storms of life come, as they
will, we shall not be moved. and the Lord Jesus Christ will
be to us in that a real support. He'll be firm, somebody we can
rely upon, someone that we can go to in every time of need,
in every trouble, in every trial, in every temptation. We can go
to the Lord Jesus Christ and we can be sure he will be there
as our rock, he will be there as our strength, he will be there
as that one who sustains us, who gives us that grace, that
ability to stand firm against all the efforts of the evil one,
the devil, to dislodge us from that foundation. Now, on the
other hand, if we're just on a shallow foundation, a sandy
foundation, we'll easily be moved and we'll be washed away, and
we will have nothing to support us. And the likelihood, of course,
is that if we're on just that poor foundation, the devil will
leave us. He'll be happy. He'll let us
stay there until the time we come to die. And then you see
the foundation will give way. There won't be a rock to support
us. Don't just go on in life assuming
everything is easy. If everything is easy we need
to question the reality of our religion. Well, here then the
Apostle tells us this great truth. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is
the one foundation. He is the great foundation. And bless God, he is laid. And
so this morning, as we may view our religion and view the condition
of our soul, to be able to ascertain whether we are resting, whether
we are upon that good foundation, whether we are upon the rock,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And whether we've had to dig
deep, it's been hard work to get down to that rock so that
we know we are established in the things of God and that we
shall not be moved. And our religion may well have
already cost us something. It may have cost us much labour. Much labor, much prayer, much
study in the word of God. Well, is that true? Has your
religion cost you much prayer? Have you often had to pray to
God that he would open to you and give you a right understanding
as to your position and condition before a holy God? that he may
reveal unto you the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? It won't be sufficient just to
have a head knowledge, just a carnal understanding. You will need
the spiritual understanding. You will need to know that Christ
has died for you. You will need to know that he
has shed his precious blood for you. It won't be satisfactory
to just have a general religion. You would need a personal religion,
a personal knowledge. That's what the Apostle Paul
desired, that personal unity, communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ. To know that the Lord Jesus draws
near to you, and draws you to Himself. And you see in Him that
blessing of your salvation. That which you didn't produce
yourself, your salvation. And the Apostle tells us in an
earlier chapter, in the first chapter, he tells us The reason
for these things is very simply this, that no flesh, that's no
carnal mind, should glory in his presence. You won't be able
to pat yourself on the back and say, well, I'm a great Christian
and I've done this and I've done that. But you will be able to
glory in what Christ has done for your soul. And that's why
he goes on to say, but of him are ye Christ Jesus who of God
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Now if we have a good foundation
and if that foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ then it is
that by his grace we shall be able to build on that foundation
and building on that foundation will mean this that we will grow
in grace and and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. And my friends, that growth and
that knowledge will be really in these words that we've just
read. Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. And these truths, the Spirit
of God will apply to our heart as he opens up our spiritual
understanding. And then it is, you see, that
the building grows. And it's on a good foundation.
And now we see here, that's what really the Apostle is speaking
to us. And he says here, now if any
man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. He gives us this illustration
for our instruction. He gives us six materials. And three are good, gold, silver,
precious stones. And three are not so good, wood,
hay, and stubble. You may say, well, what does
that mean? Well, I believe it means this.
The three good materials, gold, silver, precious stones, are
really the solid and soul-strengthening doctrines of the Word of God. The doctrines of God. The doctrine
of the Lord Jesus Christ, those things which will build us up,
and the others, the wood, hay and stubble. Well, they're not
precious, there's no real value, and it's probably those things
which are false, those things which are easy to come by in
our religion, really just to pick them up, and it's a very
easy kind of religion. They all may appear to be satisfactory,
but there is a testing time. There is a testing time. And
the important thing, therefore, is for us to be found building
with these things, gold and silver and precious stones. And surely
they are then the doctrines of the Word of God. And these things
don't suddenly appear in our lives. We learn these things. as the Spirit instructs us. And
the Word of God tells us, it describes it like this, here
a little and there a little, line upon line, line upon line,
precept upon precept, precept upon precept. My friends, the
truth is that you and I grow, the building grows as the Spirit
of God reveals to us the great truths of the Gospel, but they
will not mean anything unless we have that good foundation,
because in reality they all relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. So
if we don't have a good foundation, there won't be any building.
There won't be any real building. There may be some false building,
like this hay and stubble, etc., and straw, but my friends, it
won't actually stand any good test. But bless God, if by His
Spirit you've had to dig deeper, you've found religion not as
easy as you thought, and you've found you've had to pray much,
that God would be merciful to you. Now, it's a wonderful blessing
to realise that you will not have come into this position
unless the Spirit of God has instructed you and showed to
you by His Spirit something of your spiritual state, which is
that you are a lost and perishing sinner, that there is no hope
for you, that your sins have mitigated against you. You've
sinned against Almighty God. You are condemned by your sins. There's no hope for you naturally.
And that's why you will be moved by the Spirit of God to come
and to pray unto God that he will come and have mercy upon
you. That he will come and he will
speak to your soul. And you will need the Lord to
speak to you through his word, by his word, into your heart,
not something which is just a figment of your imagination. It's not
wood, hay and stubble. You will need something really
firm from the word of God to encourage you that you're on
the right way and that you are building on that foundation and
you are led to know that the Spirit of God is with you, that Jesus Christ is your hope
of salvation, your hope of salvation. We need to dig deep to come down
to that personal knowledge. And as the Spirit of God then
moves our heart and hears our cries and hears our prayers Then
it is, the Spirit of God reveals Christ unto us as our all-sufficient
Saviour. And then it is, the Spirit of
God leads us into all truth as it is in Jesus. And what does
it do? The Spirit of God, oh bless God,
for the Spirit's work, it leads us to Calvary. It leads us to
the cross of Christ. It leads us to a suffering redeemer. The work of the Spirit digging
deep to get down to this good foundation. And then as the Spirit
of God gives you and me faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We look to Him and we see in Him all that we need. He is our
all-sufficiency. He is our great salvation. And what a blessing it is then
to find that then we are standing upon the rock Christ Jesus. All
other ground is sinking sand. My friends, our religion must
stand upon Christ and upon Christ alone. And to know then that
he is the foundation, that he is indeed the chief and precious
cornerstone. Nothing less than that. It means
Christ means something to us. Christ really means something
to us. Isaiah speaks very much about the Lord Jesus Christ in
prophecy. And what a blessing it is that
we have a glorious Bible that tells us so many Wonderful truths. And he says in the 28th chapter
and verse 16, therefore, thus saith the Lord God. You see,
this is a great truth, isn't it? Thus saith the Lord God. Almighty God is speaking. It's
a blessing when he speaks like that to our hearts. Behold, I
lay in Zion, that's in the church, for a foundation stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth
shall not make haste." Again you see the picture there, the
same as digging deep, it takes time. I know of course we have
exceptions like the dying thief upon the cross who was saved
at that very late time, but generally speaking The Christian path is
one of not making haste but pressing on, pressing on. And the life
of a true believer is one pressing on. It's not standing still,
it's pressing toward the mark that is set before us in the
Gospel as the Apostle Paul said. And if for a moment you just
ponder the life of the Apostle Paul, you'll get some idea of
what it was to press toward the mark. Because he had an exceedingly
difficult life, didn't he? If you read anything of the life
of the Apostle and then what he tells us when he writes in
the second epistle to the Corinthians and what he endured, you'll understand
that there was a lot of pressing in the Apostle's life. It wasn't
easy. And so it will be for you and me today. The Christian path
hasn't changed. We sometimes foolishly think
it has. And don't forget one or two important
words. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he
said, if we suffer with him, we should also reign with him. And by suffering it means there
will be those things which are against us. Persecution, affliction,
difficulties in our lives, perhaps in our own hearts. We have an
ongoing battle, an ongoing battle, because the devil rises up so
often and wants to stop us digging, and wants us stopping, pressing. He wants us to go backwards.
He wants us to wander away. He wants us to go into the broadway. that leads to endless destruction. He doesn't want us to be found
walking this way. He doesn't want us to be listening
to the great truth of the Word of God and to observe what we
read here. Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, well, let's just think
for a moment then. If the Spirit of God has moved
our hearts to seeking unto the Saviour, we realised our need,
our lost condition, And we pray to God that he will have mercy
upon us and he will lead us into all truth. Then what a blessing
it is if he leads us into all truth. And we read here, wisdom,
wisdom. And we're told the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom, spiritual wisdom, God-given wisdom. Well, has the Spirit of God shown
us and given us to know the fear of the Lord? The fear of the
Lord. Now I believe that comes in two
ways. First of all, when perhaps the
Spirit first works in our heart, we fear that we might fall into
hell. We fear that we might fall into
hell. That's the work of the Spirit. It caused you to fear. Because of your sins, you might
fall into hell. And then there is the fear of
the Lord, where we do not want to offend our Heavenly Father. We don't want to offend our God.
And it's a fear that we do offend him. We don't want to. Now, both
of those situations are really the wisdom that God gives. Wisdom to observe those things. And this is building. This is
building on the foundation. The foundation of Christ. It's
building. Every man's work should be made
manifest. If we're building in that right
way, seeking unto the Lord, and he gives us, and he shows us,
and we're blessed with that concern to have this right wisdom, this
fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord, you know, there's
a line in the hymn, fear of the Lord is an unctuous light to
all that's right, and a bar to all that's wrong. Perhaps you've
been very happy to be involved in certain things in your life,
perhaps worldly pursuits, and you thought, well, there's no
harm in doing those things. And then when the Spirit of God
comes into your heart, as the fear of the Lord, and it shows
to you that those things are not really profitable. The light
shines. It's an unctuous light which
shines into your heart to show you that which is right and a
bar to that which is wrong. And there's been a change, a
change in your life. What is it? The building is going
up. The work of God is being revealed
to your soul. There's some movement. Yes, you
now have to turn away from those things which perhaps you thought
you could enjoy illegally. But now you realise, well, they're
not profiting your soul. Bless God then, if you've been
given that wisdom, that faith to believe. Fear the Lord. Fear
the Lord. And then he says, and righteousness. Righteousness. Righteousness
is a pleasant word, isn't it? It means doing that which is
right. Not doing anything which is wrong. Righteousness. Now again, we find that our nature,
our carnal nature, likes doing things which are wrong. That's
right, isn't it? You can answer before God, your
carnal mind likes to do things which are wrong. But bless God
if the Spirit of God works in your hearts so that we desire
to do those things which are right. But what we find is, we
don't have really the natural ability to do everything that
is right. Because as the Apostle tells us, sin is mixed with all
we do. So even the best things that
we do, in a right way, there's never perfection in that. And therefore, all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Well that's not a pleasant thing
to be using. But it's building. It's the work of the Spirit which
is showing to us the truth of God. And what does it mean then? What does it do? I believe the
Spirit then makes us look out of ourselves. Because we realise,
as the Apostle said, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And that's not an easy lesson
to learn. What does it make us do? Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and we see in Him a perfect life, a perfect righteousness. Everything the Lord Jesus did
was right. There was no sin. It's opposite
to us by nature. Righteousness. So here we have,
but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Made unto us, the Lord Jesus
is made unto us righteousness. And we have this picture in the
Word of God as the robe of Christ's righteousness. That means clothing. And it's pure. And it's spotless. And the wonderful truth is that
the Lord Jesus Christ, he gives us this wonderful righteousness. And the Word of God speaks of
it like this. It's imputed. It's put upon us. It's given to us. And you know
there's an exchange. And there's a glorious exchange.
And the Lord Jesus takes upon himself our sin. Our sin is imputed to him, and
his righteousness is imputed to us. Now what a wonderful revelation
that is. That's a part of this building,
a glorious movement in this building, On this foundation, the foundation
is Christ and we then see the blessing of his righteousness
and we see the need of his righteousness. You may say, well why is that?
Because no unrighteous person can enter into heaven and we
in and of ourselves are unrighteous and we need His righteousness. Well, bless God. You see, if
we're on the right foundation, then you see there'll be this
movement. The Spirit of God will lead us into the blessings which
are to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. And so we have righteousness
and then sanctification. What is sanctification? Well,
it's really Holiness, isn't it? Now, we are by nature unholy. Unholy. We're not holy at all. That's right, isn't it? I'm sure if the Spirit's working
in your heart, you'll know you're not a holy person. And you will
need, therefore, to be blessed with this sanctification, this
holiness. Now, it means this. Our nature is still sinful. Our nature remains sinful until
we pass out of time. But the blessing is the Spirit
of God gives us this sanctification in our new nature. That which
is born in the Spirit, we are born again and the Lord gives
us then this sanctification, this holiness. Our new nature
is holy. is sanctified. Our old nature
is not. And so what a blessing it is
when you and I understand the battle which exists between our
old nature and our new nature. Our old nature wants us to continue
in sinful things. The new nature wants pure things. It wants the things of Christ. because it realises and knows
those things are eternal blessings. The things in this poor world,
the unholy things, are passing, they're perishing, they'll fade
away, they'll leave them all behind when we leave this earth.
Bless God then, if he's given us the wonderful evidence of
holiness in our new nature. And so here we have this great
truth then. Every man's work shall be made
manifest. Yes, it's really the work of
God in our souls, isn't it? Making these manifest. Sanctification
and redemption. Well, what a blessed word redemption
is, isn't it? Redemption. That means that the
price that was needed to be paid to atone for our sins so that
we can go to glory has been paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has redeemed our soul. Well, what a movement that is
when the Spirit of God applies this truth to our very soul. Oh, the building's growing, my
friends. It's a glorious position, isn't
it? To know that we are redeemed.
And how are we redeemed? Well, Peter tells us, redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. Now then, Christ's blood perhaps
at one time meant nothing to us, nothing to us. But when the Spirit applies his
word, it's then that we rejoice in the great work of redemption.
And we're thankful to believe that our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Oh, it comes together, doesn't
it? We see the wonder of it. Our soul rejoices. We go on and
we're rejoicing that the Spirit of God has revealed these things
to our souls, not something that we generated ourselves. And therefore,
here we have this great statement then. Every man's work should
be made manifest, for the day he shall declare it, because
it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is." Now, my friends, if our soul
is relying upon Christ's finished work, if we're on that foundation,
then as we pass through life, there will be those fires. those
fires of temptation, those fires of affliction, those fires of
persecution, which will make us go back to these foundation
truths and to rest upon them and to believe that they emanate
from Almighty God and that we are established in the truth.
And all that we're going to lose is all that is of the flesh.
We might say, perhaps sometimes they're peripheral things. You
know, sometimes people get very involved in peripheral things
in religion, and they think they're so important, and my friends,
they miss out on the real fundamental truths that you and I need. What a blessing then to have
the evidence that we possess these wonderful blessings of
gold, silver, and precious stones, the true doctrines of Christ,
the blessings of the Word of God, establishing our soul to
help us and to enable us to continue when we come then into these
times of fire. Oh, there are fiery trials, aren't
there? The fiery trial which is to try you, says the Apostle,
is some strange work. God does send fiery trials. to
test our religion. But all it will do is to burn
up the rubbish. And that which God has given
us in this heavenly building will not be burned. No, it will
shine brighter. When gold and silver is put into
the furnace, what does it do? Does it become dull? No, it shines
brighter. And my friends, it's God brings
into your life and my life testing times to test the reality of
our religion to see whether we are really founded upon that
rock Christ Jesus and whether there are those, have been those
buildings, those revelations to our soul that we rejoice in
the work of Christ and we bless God for it. Wonderful truth,
isn't it? You know, you will go rejoicing
then to know that you have the evidence of being a child of
God. And Hezekiah tells us, by these
things men live. It's by these things we have
the evidence of the life of God in our soul when it passes through
the fire. And Zechariah tells us that there
will be only a third brought through. bring a third part through
the fire, you and I may have to lose two parts of what we
may have thought was wonderful things. And you can analyse it
as to whether it's your work or God's work, as to whether
there is any little bit that brings glory to you. If it is,
it'll detract from God's glory. And my friends, God is a jealous
God. God will have you all the honour and all the glory, and
you and I will be very grateful it is so. We will thank God it
is so, and we will desire it may be so, that he may be lifted
up and honoured and glorified, and we may be as nothing, so
that Christ may be all and in all. Well, what a wonderful truth
this is. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, Now if any man
build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the
day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Amen.