Now, our Lord took very common everyday
things and events and used them as illustrations. He took the
things that everyone was familiar with and made spiritual application
with them. The parables, that's what those
are. As you know by now, I firmly believe in this type of preaching
and try to practice it myself. Now, as you all know, I've been
working on a house. We've been building a house and
they just started the actual construction process today. So
this building has been very much on my mind, too much so. really, and I ask you to bear
with me for the next couple of months or so while I try to do
two jobs at once. Well, I'm glad there's some construction
people in here like Rick and Stan and others where this message
should be. You should get a real blessing
out of it. And you ladies, if you don't
have any understanding of building, you may after this message is
over. But I believe it will be a blessing
to you. I want to take one phase of the building process and dwell
upon it tonight. I want us to look together at
the most important part of a building, and that is Right, everybody knows that,
the foundation. I want us to see how this relates
to Christ. I want to relate this in very
simple terms to an actual foundation. Christ, the only foundation to
build upon, to build our lives upon, that our salvation is built
upon. A true disciple is someone who
is, as I said before, is motivated by an intimate knowledge of and
a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. He's one who has Christ as the
underlying principle or foundation of everything that they think,
say, and do. Christ is the foundation upon
the underlying principle or foundation of everything they think and
do, basically. Christ, our foundation. There
are two points in this message. I want us to look at the foundation,
and then we'll look briefly at the building on the foundation.
I'll say it again. Gather yourselves. I know you're
tired, but this will be a blessing to you. Gather yourselves up. Spiritual practical applications
here. Verse 11, 1 Corinthians 3, verse
11, Paul says, "...other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ." No foundation, no other foundation can a man
lay than that is laid, Jesus Christ, the foundation. Notice
some things with me about the foundation. First of all, in
this building of a building, the first thing that must be
done is to build a foundation. And before you can build a foundation,
you have to have some plans. Now, Mindy and I thought about
building a home. We sought out the help of a man
who draws out plans, draws out blueprints. And we went to him
and we sat down. not being able to find what we
were looking for in various magazines and so forth. We went to this
fellow and we sat down and together we worked out this plan in detail. Detailed drawings and a layout
or a blueprint of what was to be built. Detailed drawings. And this is a perfect picture
of salvation. How that God, in God's purpose
God purposed our salvation in eternity past. He sat down, if
you will, and made a covenant, an agreement, perfect detailed
drawings and conclusions about this thing of salvation, about
this thing of a universe, of creation. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit got together in the working out
of these drawings and these planes. God purposed it. God was the
master architect. And he made a covenant with his
son and with the Holy Spirit. And they determined that there
had to be exact details. And they wrote these details
down in a book. The word, the word was written
and it was planned this way. God chose a people. And he knew,
according to his purpose and his plan, these people were going
to fall in sin. So the plan was to send his son
down here to live a perfect life, to shed his blood, live a perfect
life and put that righteousness, shed his blood for the remission
of their sins and come back to glory. And the Holy Spirit was
going to come back and bring those people back one day. And
Christ is called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. So that's the detailed drawings. And secondly, in this thing of
the planning of a foundation, of a building, the cost has to
be determined. We studied that parable in here
one Wednesday night. Christ said, which of you intending
to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost?
Well, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
counted the cost. What it would take to build this
building called a universe called man called salvation. They counted
the cost and the cost was determined and the cost was the blood of
God's own Son. That's what it would take. Not silver or gold, corruptible things,
but incorruptible. The precious blood of the Lamb,
God's Son. Precious blood. It was highly
valuable materials. The best materials were to be
put into this building. And that's my next point. Not
only do you have to have detailed drawings of a building, you have
to determine the cost. Minnie and I, we first sat down
and determined whether or not we would be able to afford this
thing. Some people don't do that, and they end up bankrupt in the
end. Not to say we won't, but we tried to sit down and count
the cost. It always runs over, doesn't
it? Not God's plan. He knew exactly. That's the reason
this thing of universal atonement, that's hogwash. It's particular
redemption. God knew just how much blood
it would take and he applied it accordingly. Well, the third
thing is the materials have to be procured or purchased for
the building of the building. materials have to be purchased.
And I checked with several different men to several different companies,
got various prices to do the foundation work for me. And I
got the cheapest, not God, not God. He got the best, the most
costly material. Christ, his only begotten, well-beloved
son, was who he was going to send. Look at Hebrews chapter
5 with me, Hebrews chapter 5. The Lord Jesus Christ came. Emmanuel was his name. He was
the materials. He was the material in the building
of this thing, in God's purpose. Jesus Christ is all, and in all. All things are made by him and
for him, and without him was not anything made which was made.
He is all. He is all. He's the materials
of God in the workings of this universe. Hebrews chapter 5,
look at this, or I'm sorry, Hebrews 10. Look over Hebrews chapter
10, verse 5. He says, wherefore when he cometh,
well verse 4, he says, it's not possible that the blood of bulls
and of goats should take away sin, but when he comes, who comes? God's Son. When he comes into
the world, he says, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body. God gave him a body to come down
here to work with. A body thou hast prepared me,
and in burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin God had no pleasure.
But then he said, Lo, I come. The Son of God came in the volume
of the book according to that wise master plan, according to
the blueprint. He came, just like he said. And
according to those detailed drawings, Christ had to come down here
and do everything according to the scriptures, according to
the plan, exactly like God wrote it. So the materials had to be
procured. And God came in the body of Jesus
Christ. God with us. A child was born,
the Son was given. So, in the foundation, it must
first be planned. That's God's purpose, God's covenant
of grace. And the cost had to be determined.
And the materials procured. Christ Himself came. He came
down here. And then, after you've made the
plans, count of the cost, after you've got the materials ready
together, then the work begins. Then the work begins. And the
first thing you do in the building of a foundation is you dig. It's called a footer. If any
of you know building terms, we call it a footer. You dig the
footer. I've titled this message The Footer of Faith, Faith's
Footer. But you dig the footer. The work
begins. You start digging the footer. Now there's some things
you have to know about when you dig a footer. It's got to be,
it's got to be, when you dig this footer, it's got to be so
deep that it's impervious to frost and to weather. You've
got to dig it down deep enough to where frost and freezing won't
uproot that thing. If the ground freezes, you know
how the ground heaves up? Well, the footer's got to be
deep enough to where that frost won't get to that. That's the
reason you have codes and regulations, to prevent damage to your foundation. It has to be below the frost
level. It has to be, in other words, impervious to the weather. Well, Christ came, and he had
to be impervious to sin. He had to be impervious to sin. Christ had to be the sinless
man, the impeccable, the holy man. And secondly, you've got
building regulations that you have to go by in the building
of a foundation and digging of a footer. You've got to dig it
the proper width. The code today is 18 inches wide
and 8 inches deep. It's got to be the proper width
and the proper depth according to the building codes. It's got
to be right or the inspector won't pass it. He came out there
and he turned ours down one time. He said, not good enough, you've
got to do this, you've got to do that. It's got to be according
to specifications, to every point of those specifications. Christ had to come, and in living
a life as a man. He had to come and live this
life according to God's specifications. Every jot and tittle. God's the
inspector. And Christ had to come and live
this life perfectly in every jot and tittle, according to
the book. He had to live it according to
the book, according to God's scriptures, according to the
Word. And he did, in thought, in word, and deed, as a man.
He lived a life perfectly. Perfectly. Proper width and depth. And not only do you have to dig
it down below frost level with a proper width and depth according
to the specification, but a wise thing to do in the building of
a footer, it's not required these days, but in certain buildings
it is. A huge tower it is. You have
to have steel reinforcement. We call it rebar, don't we, Rick?
You have to have steel reinforcement rods in this foundation. What's
that? That's Christ's deity. A man,
a mere mortal man, cannot hold up the weight of this building.
He had to be more than a man. Yeah, he had to be God, God in
human flesh, to prevent the crumbling under the weight of this building.
Christ was more than a man. He was the mighty God-man, mighty
to save, able to do all God's bidding, able to withstand Satan's
assaults, able to withstand the weather, able to withstand the
weight of the world on his shoulder. And that's what he did. He was
not only man, but he was God, he had a deity. And he, rather
than falling under its load, Christ rose and we ascended with
him, the whole building on top of the foundation. So, the foundation
has to be planned, you have to dig the footer, and then you
pour the concrete. After you dig it, after you go
through the plans, Count the cost, dig the footer, and you
pour the concrete in the hole that you dug. You pour it out
into the ground. What does the Scripture say?
Psalm 22 says, I'm poured out like water. He poured out his
soul unto death. There's the real work started,
isn't it? when Christ poured out his soul on the day he shared
his precious blood on the ground. Right into the ground. He shared
his precious blood on this stony heart to do this work. Yeah. Let me tell you some things
about concrete that relate here. Concrete in the building of a
foundation. Concrete, first of all, Has to be the proper mixture
of cement, sand, and water. That's the triune God. God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Got to be a perfect
mixture of all three. Perfect mixture. Scripture says
there are three that bear record in heaven. Father, the Word,
the Spirit, and these three are one. These three come together
to make up one perfect work. One foundation. Christ. There
are three that bear witness in earth. Spirit, the water, and
the blood. And these three agree in one. And something else about
concrete, not only does it have to be a perfect mixture, but
it has to set up. After you pour it, it's got to
set up for a certain amount of time. You can't just be building on
it. As soon as you pour it, it'll sink. Right? You've got to wait
a certain amount of time before you can build on that concrete.
When they poured those walls, the basement walls over there,
I went over there and started looking at it. Every now and
then I'd go over there and a fellow told me, he said, you need to
let that cure for a good while. You need to let it, he told me,
a week or two weeks or so before you fill any dirt in and so forth.
But we were in a little bit of a hurry, a little bit of a hurry
to do some work there, and so we poured some dirt in against
it. And I worried about that thing.
I worried about that thing falling in. because it might have been
too green. So I observed it. I watched it. I went over there, pecked on
it, you know, checked it out, observed it carefully. Well,
Christ came down here. It hailed. It hailed. Christ
came down here, born of a virgin. Scripture says he grew up as
a tender plant. He was green concrete. He grew
up and matured. He grew up in wisdom and stature.
And the Scripture says he was in favor with God and man. He
lived a full life as a man. He sat up for thirty-three years. Rock hard. Matured perfectly
as a man. As a paschal lamb, he was observed
by all that saw him. They had to observe that lamb,
you know, for seven days to make sure it was without spot and
without blemish. God the Father checked his son out. To see if
he fulfilled his law perfectly. To see if he was that spotless
man. He knew he was. He knew he was. But according
to the scriptures, he had to be set apart. Had to be set up
and watched carefully for thirty-three years as a man. Why? To establish, to set up righteousness
as a man. As a perfect, mature man. He
couldn't have done the work when he was twelve years old. Uh-uh.
Too green. He hadn't yet been touched with
the feeling of our infirmity. See, we have a high priest who
grew up, who was touched with the feeling of our infirmity
in all points, like as we are, yet without seeing it, he stood
up to it. He stood up to all these things.
And Jesus Christ, the Rock, he became a perfect man, a man,
the only man that was ever said by God that God approved of him,
approved him. He met his approval. He went
one day from heaven, he said, he's ready. It's ready to build
this building on this rock. Set up the rock of our salvation. So, that's the foundation. You've got to build, you've got
to plan it. That's God's covenant. You've got to dig it. Christ
came, did the work. Concrete poured out. Christ died.
He went back to glory. Now look back at the text again.
Look at verse 9 with me. Are you with me? Look at verse
9. This is the building, this is
the second thing that we saw the foundation, this is the building.
Look at verse 9, he says, we are laborers together with God.
You are God's husbandry, tillage, you are God's building. What's the work God's doing?
What's the building? You are. We are. That's what it says,
isn't it? You're God's building. People are God's building. People. Scripture says on down, we're
the temple of God, the dwelling place of God. That's what it
says, doesn't it? A temple of God. No, you're not.
You're the temple of God. The Spirit of God dwells in you.
Yeah. The church of the living God.
God's house. God's dwelling place. And this
true building, all true children of God are built upon the same
foundation together. Jesus Christ. Look over at Ephesians
with me. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians
chapter 2. The whole building is built upon
this foundation. Ephesians 2 verse 20. Look at
it. And we're built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. In whom? It's in Christ. All
the building is fitly framed together. Fitly framed. The fellow started framing it
up today. I got my eye on it. I got my eye on it. Well, somebody's
building this building, and it ain't us, and it ain't us, and
it's being fitly framed. Ain't going to be a mistake here.
We may worry about what God's doing with us. He's not worried.
He knows exactly what He's doing with you. Every nail, every board,
every block, every brick, fitly framed together, growing up under
a holy temple and a Lord in whom you also are building together.
We're all tied together that's that that's where the solidity
of a building come from it is built together together on the
foundation habitation of God through the spirit of how this
building built up. How this building built up but
not only do you have to have a. a master architect if you're
going to build a big building. Now, he can't just hire some
old Joe Smull, you know. He's going to build an Empire
State Building and say, who are we going to get? I don't know.
Let's get Stan. All right. What has Stan ever built before?
Well, he built the garage up behind his house. Good enough.
No. No, not in this building. No
man is going to get his hand in on this building. You've got
to have not only a master architect, you've got to have a master builder.
You've got to have somebody a whole lot bigger than a man building
this building. The building can't build itself. Scripture says
in Hebrews 3, 4, every house is built by some man, but he
that built all is God. God's the builder here. We're
built up a spiritual house by God Himself. Scripture says,
born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of
man, but born of God, built of God, created in and on Jesus
Christ. How? How did God start this building? Well, we're chosen of God, we're
redeemed by Jesus Christ, his person and word, and we're sanctified
by the Holy Spirit, called out and kept by the Spirit. New creatures
in Christ Jesus, a building, fitly framed. Not only do you
have to, in a building, not only do you have to have a wise master
builder, but you have to have materials, once again. Not only
do you have to think about what you're going to build the building
with and see if you've got the cost, You've got to actually
get them and put them out there. That's what I did today. I went
out and ordered the concrete blocks and sand and cement and
all that, and told the fellow where to put it, and I made sure
they were out there. And they're there. They're ready to go for
some other work. The wood and everything's there.
It's ready. And the building blocks, and,
you know, that carpenter's building that building for me. It wasn't
up to him. to provide these materials. Now, he's in on this thing, yes.
But I'm the contractor. I'm the one that provides these
materials. Not him. I'm paying for them. I'm providing
them. And God provides all the materials in the building of
this building. You'll see this. There are many building blocks
in the building of this thing called salvation. Faith is one
building block. It's a kugel. It's a block. It's
the material that God uses. Scripture says, Are you saved
through grace? But you didn't provide it. You
didn't get this faith of yourself. God gave it to you. God provided
this faith. It's a gift of God. Faith, I've
said it before, faith is nothing more than trust or total dependence
upon God, upon Jesus Christ for salvation. Total trust and dependence
upon him. Scripture says, grow up in him.
in all things. That's faith, dependent upon
him for everything. Because he said, without me you
can't do nothing. You can't do anything without
a... A man would be a fool to go out there and start building
a building without a foundation, right? What holds that building
up? The foundation. The foundation. A building doesn't
hold itself together. It doesn't hold itself up. The
foundation is the whole key. It sits on the foundation. Faith
is the substance. It's the substance of things
hoped for. There's another thing, hope,
that brings me to my next thing. Hope is another building block.
The song says, my hope is built on nothing less. It can't be
less. Can't be. It won't stand up,
will it? Salvation won't stand on anything
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. It takes both, doesn't it? Christ's
person and his work. The love of the Father, the application
of the Holy Spirit. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Scripture says, be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the
hope that is in you. Now, if you come along, and you
come in our house, and we're sitting in that house, and all
of a sudden a storm comes by. I mean a big one. And you say,
what's your hope we hold up? And I might just say to you,
don't worry about it. You know why? I saw the foundation. I saw the thing being built.
I was right there making sure she was built just right. And
I tell you what, if your faith is built on the foundation, Jesus
Christ, let the storms come. Let come what may, you won't
be worried. So how are you going to hold
up through this trial? Don't worry about it. I've got a good
foundation. Yeah, God built it. Christ in
me is my hope of glory. Here's another building block,
love. Now about these three things, faith, hope, love. First and foremost, God's love
for us. I had this backwards, but I just
now realize that ain't where, you know, start with our love.
Start with the love of God. God's love is what started this
thing. And Mindy and I, our particular
affection For lack of a better term, as illustration, our particular
affection was set on a particular building we wanted to build.
And so we chose that one. How many drawings are there in
the world you could choose from? Millions! God looked at us, each
one individually, and chose us according to his love, because
he loved us. Think about that. He loved us.
And then our love is in this thing. God uses our love. Yes,
he does. Christ asked Peter, do you love
me? We better love him. That's part of the work. That's
part of the work. That's an evidence of God's work
in you. If that building, if we enjoy that house we're in,
that'd be evidence that it was a well-built house. We'd be satisfied
with the work a carpenter does. Right? If God does the work in
a man, he'll be satisfied. That's what God did. with Christ,
satisfied with Christ. Do you love me? Don't rest. I continually exhort us all to
not rest until you settle this thing, whether or not you know
whether you love Jesus Christ or not. Settle it. Settle this
issue. Do you love me? Christ asked
Peter. And Christ is the foundation.
He must be the foundation of all that you love. Let me ask
you this. Did you that know Christ, you
can answer this question. Did you really ever know real
love before Christ revealed himself to you? I went with several girls,
well a few. I thought I loved them, some
of them I told so. I didn't know what I was talking
about. They call it puppy love, dog
love. physical attractions or whatever.
I didn't know perfect love. Boy, I do now. I do now in Christ. You know something about that
love in Christ. You know what real love is. Real
love. And like I said, the most important
part is God's love. We love Him only because He first
loved us. Another building block is wisdom.
You've got to know some things. What does a man have to know
to be saved? Well, he has to know some things. You can't be ignorant
in this thing. No, you can't. You've got to
have some wisdom, some knowledge. But I tell you what, all we need
to know, basically, is something about the foundation. Yeah, we
do. That's basically all we need
to know, something about the foundation. All we need to know
is found in Him, who God is, who and why we are, and our hope
of the future. Scripture says the wisdom of
this world is foolishness. But if you know Christ, he makes
sense of it all, doesn't he? If you know Christ, you can understand
why. Why? He asks the question. People
say, well, why all this stuff? Well, he that's spiritual understands
most things. Scripture says all things. You
understand that God left this whole thing up in Christ, didn't
he? That's the whole purpose for
it all. And someday when he's through, he's going to destroy
it all. Everything but what's in Christ,
to the glory of God, the glory of Christ. In Christ are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And I ask you this,
do you think of all things in relation to Christ? It'll give
you some wisdom and some knowledge if you do. It'll bless you. I get the greatest blessings
when just these little, these simple illustrations like this.
If you look around you, you'll see Christ in everything. Everything. He's all and in all the Scriptures
say. Look around you. You know, we've
gone through this, but light, Christ is the light, the shelter. He's our shelter from the time
of storm. He's the path. Christ is the way. Just keep
going, you know. He's our, what we stand behind. Just keep going. He's the rose,
lily of the valley, roses. He's in everything, Christ. And
do you think of everything in terms of Christ and your relationship
with Him? Well, that's wisdom. Another
building block, and I'll hurry. I don't even know what time I
started, but I'll hurry. Righteousness, righteousness is a building block. Christ was made to be seen for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made to bear righteousness
of God in Him. He is our holiness without which
no man can see God. He is. He is our acceptance. Life, life
eternal. In Him is life. He that hath
the Son hath life. Well, when you see, you know, Christ
is life. And we talked about this the
other night in the message, how this right here is what it's
all about. This is real living. Christ said,
you have life. You know the Son. He'll give
you life. You'll have life, he said, more abundant life. A whole
lot better than what you ever had before, you thought you had.
Abundant life. And this physical life that we
live, we enjoy it. Mary and Stephen are enjoying
that little child now unlike anything they've ever had in
their lives. And the rest of you, the same with your children
or your husband and wife. Everything that we enjoy in this
life is enhanced by your knowledge of Christ. Why? Because you see
that God gave it to you. He didn't have to, but He did.
If you see who gave it to you, and He freely gave it to you,
and He abundantly gave it to you, it makes it that much sweeter.
We look at that little girl, and not a day goes by, well not
very many anyway, that I don't thank God for her. It's a gift. What a name means, a gift. And
had not God revealed himself to me, I might not even acknowledge
that. I might take it for granted. But boy, it makes her that much
sweeter to me, knowing that God gave her to me. Appreciation
for the things of this life. A greater appreciation, don't
you? Well, there's no other foundation you can build this life on than
Jesus Christ. You can build your life on it.
Listen to these things real quickly. You can build your job on it.
Yeah, you can. You can build your job on Christ.
Whatever you do, you can do it as under the Lord. Realizing
God gave you that job, you can work as under Him. Scripture
says so. Says to do so. You can build
your marriage on Him. Yeah, you can. You can build
all your decisions on Him. Make all your decisions. You
know, if we really took the time, Rick, if we really took the time
to try to find an answer to something in our marriage or whatever,
our life, I don't know if we can find it, don't you? I know
we can. It's there, but we don't have
time to do it. We ought to make time. We can
build all our decisions on Christ, on God, on His Word. You can
train your children up in Him. We better be doing so, training
our children up in Him. Scripture says you train a child
up in the way it should go and not depart from it. You can build
the future on Christ. You can rest your life. You can build the future on Him.
Yes, you can. Father don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it. He's got a good foundation. He'll
hold up. You can build the future on Him.
And your future hopes and desires are in Him, according to His
will, for His glory. Now, let's sing that song I quoted,
number 272. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. Number two seventy two. Solid rock. Solid rock.