Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. For the first words declared,
first words preached from the pulpit of this building, we're
going to use 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11 for text, which says, Other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. other foundation can
no man lay, then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. There
is no other foundation. There's no other foundation.
There is nothing else to stand on before God. If you want a strong building,
if you want a building that will last, then you need a sure foundation. And there's only one. There is
only one, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Christ being the sinner's foundation,
that is good news that is declared to us in the Word of God, which
the Word calls the Gospel. That's what the Word calls the
Gospel. If we want to know what the Gospel
is, It is the good news of Christ being the foundation of our hope. That's the good news. That is
the gospel. Christ is the gospel. Don't you wish people knew that?
People don't know that. People do not know. I didn't
know that until God revealed it to me. Christ is the gospel. The sure foundation of Christ.
He is the gospel. The law is not the gospel. The do's and the don'ts. Well, now you know you better
do this. And you better not do that. That
is not the gospel. That's not the gospel. Man's
deeds. Man's works. What man is going
to do for God. What God needs man to do for
Him. That's not the gospel. That's
not the gospel at all. That's not even the truth. That's
a lie. God doesn't need man to do anything for Him. God does not need man to do anything
for Him. God is God. And man is not God. So the message of what man must
do, that most definitely is not the gospel. Christ is the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
gospel. Who He is. What He has done. Who He did it for. What He accomplished
in it. Where He is right now because
of it. That's the gospel. The declaration
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the gospel and that is
the only gospel. That's the only gospel. There
is only one. Other foundation can no man lay
than the foundation that has already been laid, which is Jesus
Christ. He's the foundation. No other
foundation, no other gospel. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
1. Galatians 1 verse 1 says, Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man. What he's saying is let's remove
man from the equation right off the bat. Let's just get man out
of it. Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by
Jesus Christ and God, the Father, who raised Him from the dead. Verse 2, He said, This is from
Me and all the brethren which are with Me unto the churches
of Galatia. Verse 3, He said, Grace be to
you and peace. Grace and peace from God the
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. This foundation, this
gospel, has something to do with grace and peace. The foundation of the gospel. The gospel has everything to
do with grace and peace. Free gift. Grace means free gift. And peace. Verse 3 says, Grace
be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now watch verse four. These are
three of my favorite words. Who gave Himself. Who gave Himself. If we want
to learn something about God's grace, this gift of God, If we
want to learn something about God's peace, the grace that God
gives, and the peace that God gives, here it is right here.
Verse 4 says, Who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver
us. Not try to deliver us. Not make deliverance possible
for us. Not put the offer of deliverance
out there on the table just in case some wretched sinner is
willing to take Him up on it. No, no. Who gave Himself for our sins
that He might deliver us from this present evil world. Who is the world? Who is the
present, this present evil world? I'll give you the answer. I am
the world in my flesh. We are the world. They got it
right. We are the world. In our minds,
if you want to know whether or not you are the world, get into
your mind. Get into your mind. Everybody
talks about sin, and am I a sinner? Am I not a sinner? Just go into
your mind. Go into your heart. Think about
what comes out of this mouth. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. Think about our actions. We had
to be delivered from ourselves. What did we have to be delivered
from? Ourselves. Ourselves, our sinful selves. That's what I need to be delivered
from. Paul said, who shall deliver me from the body of this death
right here? Deliver me from me. Please deliver
me from me. The only hope that we who are
in this world and are this world have is in the fact that he gave
himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present
evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Now whose will was it? Was it man's will for this to
happen? This was all done according to
the will of God and our Father. Verse 5 says, To whom be glory. Who gets the glory? To whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. All right. Now watch this. Watch this right here. Verse
six says, I marvel. that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ." This glorious
gift God gave Christ to do this for his people. And he said,
I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Verse seven
says, which is not another. There is not another gospel.
The grace of Christ is the only good news that there is. He's
the only good news that there is. There is not another. Just
hold your place right here and turn back about two pages. 2
Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 1. Paul said, would to God you could
bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for
I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused
you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. What he's saying is, I want you
to know the truth. That's what he's saying, just
bear with me in my insufficiency. I just want you to know the truth.
He said, verse 3, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety. And I want us to recognize that.
Recognize the danger of subtlety. As the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity. That means the singularity. The one focus that is in Christ,
in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4 says, For if
he that cometh preaches another Jesus, and I'll tell you, other
Jesuses are being preached all over the world today. They're
being preached all over town today. And my heart breaks for
those who listen to the other Jesus who is not the Lord Jesus
Christ of Scripture. God manifest in the flesh, only
mediator between God and man. God Almighty. I feel so sorry. Other Jesus. We need to make
sure that we are hearing and bowing to and worshiping the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4, he said, If he that
cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, meaning
the prophets and the apostles, or if you receive another spirit,
which you have not received, or another gospel, which you
have not accepted, you might well bear with him." He said,
if a man brings any other foundation to you than the foundation of
Christ alone, if it's not Christ alone, that word alone is just
as important. It must be Christ alone. It has
to be Christ alone. He said, you're going to be led
to a foundation that is no foundation at all. None whatsoever. Look
back at Galatians 1 with me. Verse 6. He said, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. but there be
some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. The gospel is all about Christ.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade
men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
What he's saying is, get man out of it. That's what he's saying. If you add man to the foundation
of Christ alone, Christ alone, you add man to that foundation,
you'll ruin it. You'll ruin it. Now in 1756, the year 1756, man really put his hand to it
and invented modern day concrete. You know what modern day concrete
does? Go out and look at all that concrete we just had poured
out there. You know what modern day concrete does? It cracks. Ask a concrete contractor, if
you pour that for me, you're going to make it so it won't
crack, right? Everyone will tell you, concrete cracks. I cannot
ensure that it's not going to crack. Over time, it crumbles. It won't last. It will not truly
last. Last longer than some other substances
we have. But it won't truly last. Do you know what the only foundation
material on this earth is that will truly last? I mean through
the ages, through the test of time. You know what that is?
Our Lord told us what it was in a parable. Turn with me over
to Matthew 7. Matthew 7 verse 24. Our Lord said, Therefore whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them. What were His
sayings? What did He say here in chapter
7? He said a bunch of things, and you read it sometime. You
can read what He said, but I'll just give you the cliff notes
to it here. This is what He said. Bow to
the judgment of God alone. Fear God alone. Cry out to Him
for mercy. Seek Christ alone. Beware of false prophets. And don't go stand before the
judgment throne of God pleading your own works. That's what he
said, all right? Now verse 24, Therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken
him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and
it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." A God-made foundation,
not a man-made foundation. A God-made foundation. David
said, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. I love the
logo for that insurance company. I forget which one it is, but
they have the Rock of Gibraltar. You've seen that rock? Well,
you know, they got a little outline of it. If you go on the internet
and look at the actual picture, the rock looks like this. And
the little bitty town below it with all of its buildings looks
like this. That rock is huge. Lead me to the rock that is higher
than I." He said continuously, the Lord is my rock. He's my rock. The Apostle Paul
said, that rock is Christ. On Christ, the solid rock, I
stand. All other ground, I'm telling
you, all other ground is sinking Our Lord said that right here
in verse 26. If it is not the solid rock And what that means is all rock. Pure rock. Only rock. Rock alone. It may look like
rock. It may be real close to rock.
But if it's not pure rock, it's not going to stand. A few years
ago, We dug a trench in my front yard. I needed a new water line. Got a ditch which. Dug a trench
through my front yard. My yard is full of shale. I didn't have any experience
with shale before. I didn't know the word. I should
have. I guess it's everywhere. But I just didn't. And to me,
it looked like big rocks were coming out of the ground. And
at that time, I wanted to build a little retainer wall. So I
got those rocks and made a pile out of these big rocks. I was
going to set them to the side. And I didn't get right to building
the wall. So they sat there a little while.
And the rain descended. And it didn't take long at all.
And if you have any experience with shale, it started crumbling. It just started, it's a sediment,
it's just sediment compacted together. And it started crumbling. And I realized immediately don't
use shale to build a retainer wall with. All right, well I
finally did get around to building the retainer wall. And my house
already had nice big stones in the yard in different places
and I gathered those stones up and I built the wall. But down
almost at the bottom, in the center of the wall, a piece of
shale snuck in on me. It looked like a rock to me. I really thought, and I put it
on the bottom because it was big. It was a big rock. And the rain descended. and it
started to crumble. And my wall started to sag, started
to sink. And I had to take that center
portion of the wall out, take all those stones out, and I had
to get that shale out of there. As long as that shale was in
there, my wall was not going to stand. That shale represents the lie
of false religion. That's what it is. It represents
the lie that says something else can be your foundation. It's
okay. You can have something other
than the rock as your foundation. It may look right at first. When
I put it in, everything looked good, everything looked straight,
it may look right at first. But if it's not Christ alone,
it's not gonna stand. It's just not gonna stand. If
it is not the solid rock alone, it's not going to stand. To add
anything to Him, or to take anything from Him, It will not stand before
the judgment throne of God on that day. On that day, it will
not stand. Now, what is it to stand on Christ
alone? If we have to, What is it to
stand on Christ alone? What does that mean? And I'll
go ahead and tell you we're gonna continue this and we're gonna
expound on this even more in the message here in just a minute.
This is gonna be a continuation. But I pray the Lord will truly
reveal to us what all of this means concerning our salvation. The only hope we have of actually
standing before the holy and just judge of the earth. That's what we have to understand.
We're going to go meet a holy. What does holy mean? It means
he has to do what's right concerning this sinner. Based on what the
law says, sinners are owed. He's holy. He doesn't have a
choice. He has to do what's right. He is just. What does that mean? That means He's going to do what's
right. He has the power to do what's right. May the Lord begin, honestly,
revealing to all of us right now, what is it to stand on Christ
alone? To be able to stand in the day
of judgment. The hymn writer explained it
very well. What is it to stand on Christ
alone? Edward Mote, this man explained it very well, he said,
my hope is built on nothing less, nothing more, nothing less, than
Jesus' blood, the Lord Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. Those flattering enticements
of man's words, men standing up there just telling everything
you're doing for God and just how thankful God is to have you.
And he said, I dare not trust the sweetest frame. I wholly,
completely lean on the Lord Jesus Christ name. What's his name? Savior. Call His name Jesus,
for He might save His people. Not what He said. He's going
to. He's going to. That's what you
go meet God with. Christ is going to. He's going
to. He shall save His people. Edward Mote said, On Christ the
solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. What is it to stand on Christ
alone? It is to cling to and to trust in and to find all of
our hope of being forgiven for all of the sin we've committed
against God. There's no point in lying about
it or trying to hide it. I have committed so much sin
against God. I'm a sinner against God. That's
what I am. And the only hope that we have
is being covered in the blood that Jesus Christ shed to put
away our sin, to pay the debt of our sin. And with that, standing
on Christ is to cling to and to trust in for all of our acceptance,
all of our favor. If He's going to say, I'm well
pleased with you, come on in. It's to hold to the righteousness
That means the goodness, the good deeds, the perfection, the
obedience, the holiness. How obedient do you have to be
to get into heaven? You can't break one law. How
holy do you have to be to stand in the presence of God? You got
to be as holy as God is. It's to cling to that holiness
and that obedience and that perfection and that goodness, that righteousness
of Christ alone. Christ alone, not my righteousness. He is alone. Somebody asked a
man a long time ago, his name was John Jasper. They said, John,
if you died and found yourself standing at the gates of heaven
and the question was asked to you, what right do you have to
come in here? What would you say? John Jasper
said, I would say, I'm not here on my right. I'm here on the
right of another. My Lord, my Savior, my God, my
King, Jesus Christ, I plead him. I plead him, I plead him alone. That's what it is to stand on
the foundation of Christ alone, standing on him alone. Now, Lord
willing, we're going to continue this theme in just a moment,
all right? We're going to pick up where
we left off. And what we're going to look
at is the house that is built on that foundation. That's the
foundation. Then we're going to look at the
house that is built on that foundation. All right, you're dismissed.