Grounded. Grounded so you can't be moved. Grounded upon the foundation. Now that is what we want, isn't
it? Now this is the Lord's work. Only He can ground us. If He doesn't ground us, we will
not be grounded. Peter said in 1 Peter 5, the
God of all grace, who hath called us unto eternal glory by Jesus
Christ after that you suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. That's the same word. Settle
you to where you cannot be moved. We're said in Colossians 1, 22,
to be holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight if
we hold the beginning of our confidence. If we continue in
the faith, I'm sorry. That's the next scripture. If
we continue in the faith. Grounded and settled. That's the word. Grounded and
settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. The writer to the Hebrews said
we'll be partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end. Like I said, the only way we
will persevere in the faith is if God himself, by his grace,
grounds us so that we will not be moved. response to this is,
Lord, ground me. Cause me to be rooted in my eternal
union with Christ. Cause me to be grounded and settled
on the foundation so that I will not be moved. And the foundation that we're
grounded on. I love that scripture. Other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. which is
Jesus Christ. He himself is the foundation. Now think about this. Every aspect of our salvation
is grounded in him. My eternal union with Christ. I've been in him from eternity.
Being chosen in him before the foundation of the world. being
justified by His righteousness, being redeemed by His blood,
being regenerated, given life by His Spirit, being preserved
all the way to the end. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform it into the day of Jesus Christ. Now Paul said in 2 Timothy 2,
he was warning us about some who actually says their faith
is overthrown. That's the language. Their faith
is overthrown by false doctrine. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. Now I am completely dependent
upon his knowledge of me. Not my knowledge of him, but
his knowledge of me." That is the foundation. Now, we can't
really consider being grounded without thinking of the parable
the Lord gave of the house being built on the rock and the house
being built on the sand. You're familiar with that, but
would you turn to Matthew chapter 7. Begin reading in verse 21. Not everyone that sayeth unto
me, Lord, Lord. It's a good thing to say. That's
his name. And I think it even is interesting
the way he repeats it. Lord, Lord, these people are
so enthusiastic and so seemingly sincere. But not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
But he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven.
Now, notice he says to these people, many will say to me in
that day, Lord, Lord, I have the language. We thought we did
your will. While we cast, we preached in
your name. And there was great power to
what we were doing. We were casting out demons. And
in thy name, we did many wonderful works. Now notice their opinion
of their own works. The quantity, many. The quality,
wonderful. That was their assessment of
what they had done. We've done your will, what are
you talking about? Look at what all we have done.
Verse 23, and then will I profess unto them. I don't know about a scarier verse of
scripture than the word of God. Then will I profess unto them.
After they've made this great profession of all the things
they've done. Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. I never knew you. You hear what that means? Let's
be real plain. I never loved you. I never knew
you, but rely on me. I never knew you to love me.
Oh, you had plenty of good work, so you thought. But I never knew
you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. In all their high estimation
of their works, the Lord summarizes it like this. You work iniquity. That's it. And he's the one who
knows. And then he gives us this parable.
Verse 24. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth it. Now, they did a lot. They preached in his name. They
cast out demons in his name. And his name, according to their
profession, they did many wonderful works. But they never did the
one named Nebo. They never did his will. They never heard his word and
did his will. Now listen to the scripture.
This is the work of God. John chapter six, verse 29. They
said, what must we do to work the works of God? And he said,
this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath
sent, period. That's it. That's the work of
God. It's to believe on Him, the Lord
Jesus Christ, whom God has sent, believing God sent Him, and believing
He did exactly what God sent Him to do. That is the work. You know, the hardest thing you're
ever gonna be called on to do is to trust Christ alone. Nothing else. Now that is the
doing of his will. Not what these fellas said that
they did. It's to look to Christ alone. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine and doeth them, I liken him unto a wise
man which built his house upon the rock, the foundation. Christ Jesus is the foundation. He's the rock. Now we just sang,
my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I enter into that. Here's where
my hope is. Hebrews 1.3 says, when he, my
hope's in him, when he had by himself with no contributions
from me, when he by himself purged our sins and put them away. He sat down, having finished
the work, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
high. Now all my hope is there. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to his image that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he also called. Whom He called, then He also
justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified. You see, my foundation is all
Him. It's all Him. I have no other foundation than
that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, this man, wise man. You know, wise men trust Christ
only. Foolish men do something else.
Wise men trust Christ only. Now, this wise man, he built
his house upon this rock, and then we read of the rains descending. Trials that the Father sends.
We read of the floods coming up. Satanic temptation. We read of the winds blowing
and beating upon the house. And it stands. Why? It was founded on the rock. That's why it stands, Christ
Jesus. Now, this is what it is to be
grounded. It is to God to ground you on the rock. I think it's
in Luke's account, it says it couldn't be shaken. It couldn't
be shaken. Now, turn with me for a moment.
Hold your finger there, Matthew 7, and turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 12. This house could not be shaken. Verse 27, and this word, Hebrews 12, 27,
we'll start in verse 26, whose voice then shook the earth, but
now he hath promised saying yet once more, I shaken off the earth
only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifies
the removing of those things that are shaken as of things
that are made, created. that those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. Now, what is it that cannot be
shaken? Only that which is eternal. If it's made, it can be shaken. And you remember what Paul said
in second Timothy one, nine, he said, he saved us. He called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works. but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Now, if I have anything from
the Lord, it's eternal. It's what he's given me from
before the foundation of the world. That's all I'm relying
on. What he has given me before time began. That's what David
was relying on when he said, although my house may not so
with God, Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant. Not something made in time. Ordered
in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation. All my desire. Though he make
it not to grow. Now this is the foundation of
the believer. That which is eternal. Not something
done here in time. Now Christ came in time. and
accomplish that which he purposed to do in eternity. He's the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, but all my salvation,
all the salvation of every believer, our foundation is Christ Jesus,
his eternal work. Doesn't have anything to do with
what I've done. Now that man that founded his
house upon the rock, when the rains came down, when the floods
came up, when the winds beat against this house, great trials,
great troubles, The house stood firm. It was founded on a rock. And then we read of the foolish
man. Look in verse 26. And everyone that heareth these
sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish
man, which built his house upon the sand, that which could be
shaken. that which could be moved, that
which was not solid, something other than Christ. And he faced
the same thing the other fellow did. They both faced the rain
coming down. They both faced the floods coming
up. They both faced the wind beating
upon their house. They faced the same thing. But
this man, because he was not on the rock, his house was flattened
because he was not on the foundation. Now, would you turn with me to
Hebrews chapter six? This is, there's such an important
passage of scripture. If you want to understand what
this foundation that the believer is grounded on is, and this is
what I'm praying that God grounds me and you on, this passage of
scripture in Hebrews chapter six. We're given a six fold foundation. This is not six foundations.
but six aspects of the one foundation that the believer is grounded
in. And he names it as repentance
from dead works, faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms,
laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
That's the foundation. If you're grounded, if God has
grounded you, this is the foundation you're grounded on. And all six
of these aspects are the one foundation, which is Christ Jesus,
the Lord. But let's see what led him to
make this statement in Hebrews chapter six. Let's begin in verse
11 of chapter five. Of whom, speaking of Melchizedek,
of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing
you are dull of hearing. And that's what he says to the
Hebrews. He says, you're dull of hearing. You're sluggish in
your hearing. You're not quick to hear. You become dull and slow. I pray the Lord delivers me from
being dull of hearing. I want to be quick to hear, slow
to speak, quick to hear, slow to wrath, quick to hear. And he says, you're not quick
to hear. I ought to be I ought to be able to talk about Melchizedek
easily without you bogging down. Verse 12, for when for the time
you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you
again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God. The ABCs
is what that is. The ABCs. Now, if you don't learn
your ABCs, you're never gonna be able to spell, are you? You've
got to begin with the ABCs. And if you're always having to
teach the ABCs over and over again, you're not going to make
any proficiency in reading, are you? That's what he's talking
about. He's talking about the basics, the foundation. And if
you want to know what the foundation of it is, these six things clearly
demonstrate it. We're going to get to them in
a minute. He says, for when the time you ought to be teachers,
you have need that one teach you again, which be the first
principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have
need of milk and not a strong meat for everyone that uses milk
is unskillful in the word of righteousness. If you can't handle
meat, you're inexperienced, unskillful. You're a spiritual infant is
what he's saying. And I don't want to be a spiritual infant
of you. I want to be grounded by the Lord himself. Now let's
go on reading. Everyone that uses milk is unskillful
in the word of righteousness for he's a babe. He's an infant,
but strong meat belongeth to them who are of full age, who
are mature. Even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. You
see the difference between law and gospel. You see the difference
between faith and works. You're given a discerning ear
and that's what he's talking about. Now let's go on reading
verse chapter six. Therefore, Leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection or maturity,
not laying again. Now, in a construction project,
what if you're always laying the foundation over and over
again? Well, messed it up, got to tear it up, start over. Messed
it up, got to start over. Always laying the foundation.
You know what happens? Superstructure never goes up, does it? You can't
always be laying again the foundation. And so what he's not saying we
want to get away from these truths. He's saying or this truth he's
saying learn your ABCs. These ought to be as automatic
to every believer as breathing. These are just this. Fundamental,
foundational, six-fold truth of Christ Jesus, the foundation. This ought to just, we ought
not have to, explain that to me again. No, this ought to be
automatic. This ought to be something just
like you've learned your ABCs. I can still say my ABCs. ABCD,
I can't do them backward. I heard somebody do that the
other day. I can't do that, but I know the ABCs. Therefore, I can read. I can have some understanding
of what's going on. So he gives these, It's one foundation
revealed in six different ways. And the first thing he speaks
of is in chapter six is not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works. Repentance from dead works. A change of mind regarding any
work you have ever done before God gave you life. You see, it's nothing more than
a dead work. Now repentance from dead works
is understanding by grace you're saved through faith and that
not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works. Not of
works. Now this is the foundation every
believer is founded on. Salvation has nothing to do with
my works. I wish I could say that strong
enough. Salvation, my standing before God has absolutely nothing
to do with anything that I do. Can you rest in that? Every work that came from me,
I mean, people use, you know, they talk about free will and
accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior and, and receiving
Christ like that's what you do in order to, to all of a sudden
you have life because you did something, any work that is in
make salvation in any way to any degree, dependent on something
you do. That's a dead work. That's a
dead work. You, you, you're not laying on
the foundation. You haven't been laid on the foundation. You see,
when God lays somebody on the foundation, they're convinced
of this, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. Now I can, I can rest in that
foundation. Let me hold your finger there
and turn to Psalm 66. Verse 18. This verse of Scripture used
to worry me to death. It just bothered me. If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Have you ever
looked at that verse of Scripture and thought, I'm afraid I regard
a lot of iniquity in my heart. You think of the sinful things
that go through your mind and the sinful motives, the sin just
go on and on. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
David says, the Lord won't hear me. Now, is he talking about
the sinful thoughts that go through his mind and heart? Well, if
he is, the Lord is not gonna hear any of us. If I regard,
if I show respect to and look to my self-righteous, filthy
rags, That's what he's talking about. If I regard iniquity in
my heart, what's the scripture say regarding our righteousness?
You know, iniquity, as far as that goes, iniquity is a word
that usually has to, that almost always, maybe it always does
have to do with our good stuff. Transgression is the bad stuff.
Sin is the nature. Iniquity is the good stuff. If
I regard iniquity in my heart, if I think this will make me
pleasing to God, God's not gonna hear me. That's what that means. That is repentance from dead
works. You see that if you look to anything
that belongs to you, God's not gonna hear you. It's only through
Christ. That is an example of repentance
from dead works. Faith toward God. It's the second
thing he mentions. The first foundation is understanding. I'm laying on this. Salvation
doesn't have anything to do with my works. It's His work only, being
grounded on the foundation. If I don't have that down, and
I won't keep it down unless the Lord causes me to keep keeping
it down, I realize that. But until I'm grounded there,
to Him that worketh not. Have you ever been there? To
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. You don't work. You repent of
your dead works. Second thing is faith toward
God. First we have repentance, and
now we have faith. Faith toward God. You believe that the Father sent
the Son. You believe that? You believe
the Father sent the Son? Do you believe that the Son did
what the Father sent Him to do? That He actually accomplished
everything the Father sent Him to do? The pastor calls His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins, and that's
what He did. And you are relying on Him. You're not looking to yourself
in any way. You're simply relying on this, that what he did is
enough to make you perfect in God's sight. Holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable. You're relying on the Holy Spirit
to make you believe. You're relying on him to give
you the faith to believe. As a matter of fact, you're relying
on his faith. Would you bring your faith into God's presence?
No, you bring his faith. You rely wholly on his faith,
his faithfulness. That's what faith is. It's believing
that he's all. You're not putting any stock
in your faith. You're not putting any stock
in your repentance. You really believe that he only
is all. in salvation. I love this acrostic,
faith, forsaking all, I trust Him. Isn't that good? That's the way you spell faith,
forsaking all, I trust Him. Now that's the foundation we
lay on. We look to Christ only. And we
know He's God. You know, it says faith toward
God. Well, if you have faith in Christ, your faith is toward
God. He's the God man. And it is who he is that puts
the success and power on what he does. Faith toward God. That's a foundation. And then
the third thing he mentions is verse two of the doctrine of
baptisms. The doctrine, there's one doctrine
of baptisms. Now, baptisms, there are numerous
baptisms in the scripture. There's water baptism, baptism
by immersion. There's the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. There's that baptism of fire that the Lord endured
when the fire of God's wrath immersed him. All of those baptisms speak of
one thing. And whether you're talking about
the baptism of the Lord by fire, the reason he was baptized by
fire is he's united with me and he became what I am. He was made
sinless. Water baptism, what am I saying?
In water baptism, I'm saying that my hope of salvation is
that I'm united to him, that I'm in him. When he lived, I
lived. When he kept the law, I kept
the law. When he died under the wrath
of God, I died under the wrath of God. My sins were paid for.
When he was raised from the dead, I was raised. In the doctrine
of baptism, there's one doctrine, union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's all my hope. union with him, both he that
sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one. One with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now you can't really understand any doctrine in the scripture
apart from this glorious, mysterious doctrine of the eternal union
of the elect with Jesus Christ. This is one thing, it's impossible
to comprehend it, but we believe it, don't we? We believe. My hope of salvation is union
with Christ. And that's the foundation I'm
laying on right now. And only if God's placed me there.
But I have no other hope but that I am united to him. And
when God sees me, all he sees is his blessed son. That's my
hope. I'm grounded on that. And look what he says next in
verse two. There's the doctrine of baptisms and there's the doctrine
of laying on of hands. Now, maybe you've been in services
where men lay their hands on other men. and something happens,
and you've seen that. And indeed, in the scripture,
it was through the laying on of the apostles' hands, not anybody
but the apostles, but through the apostles' hands, the Holy
Ghost was given, and they were given this supernatural ability
to raise the dead, eat poison, speak in tongues, on and on,
all those different things that they could do through this supernatural
gift, but that has nothing to do with what they're talking
about here. When he's talking about the laying on of hands,
he's not talking about some man laying their hands on some other
man. Turn with me to Leviticus 16. This is the heart and soul of
the gospel. This is the foundation of our salvation. Leviticus 16. And this is on the great day
of atonement. Verse 20. And when he hath made
an end of reconciling the holy place, Leviticus 16 verse 20,
third book in the Bible, and when he hath made an end of reconciling
the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar,
he, the priest, the great high priest, shall bring the live
goat and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the
live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the children
of Israel. and all their transgressions
and all their sins, putting them, their iniquities, their transgressions
and their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, not
just putting the guilt of them, but putting the sins themselves,
the transgressions themselves, the iniquity themselves, and
shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness,
and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities, unto
a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the
wilderness." Now that lets us know why Christ was dying on
Calvary's tree. The Lord took my sins and put
them on his son, put them in his son. He bore those sins. Who his own self bear our sins. That sin you committed in the
last five minutes. If you're a believer, that was
placed in the Lord's body and he bore it. And understand this,
sin can't be two places at once. If it's taken from me and he
took it, I do not bear it. Now, this is the foundation of
our salvation. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now, the doctrine of the laying
on of hands is the doctrine of God taking my sins and placing
them upon his son. And him taking the very righteousness
of his son and making it mine. Now that is the foundation of
our salvation. And look what he says next. Verse two, and this is the fifth
It's the same foundation, but it's a part of it that there's
really no understanding of the foundation without this, the
foundation of the resurrection of the dead. Now that is, of course, first
of all, talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You know what
my foundation is? An empty tomb. an empty tomb. He was raised from the dead.
Why? Because God was satisfied with
what he did. And he raised him from the dead.
He was delivered for our offenses, and he was raised again for our
justification. That's the foundation of my salvation,
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Resurrection is
what only God can do. No man can raise another man
from the dead. This is something only God can
do. When I was raised from spiritual death, that's what only God can
do. I was born again, born from above, given life that was not
there before. There was a time when I had no
spiritual life, dead in sins, and God raised me from the dead
and gave me life. My foundation that I'm laying
on is that the life I have is what He gave me. It doesn't have
anything to do with me doing anything to get it. It's the
act of God in raising me from the dead. And there at the end,
He's gonna raise all of His people from the dead to be just like
Christ. That's our hope. You know what
my hope is? This foundation I'm laying on,
that gives me this hope. One of these days, I'm going
to behold Christ's face in righteousness, and I'm going to be satisfied
being raised up in his likeness, not being a sinner anymore, not
having this old nature to deal with anymore, being perfectly
conformed to the image of his son. And that's all founded in
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then last,
he speaks of eternal judgment. Now don't miss that word eternal.
Eternal judgment. Eternal is that which never had
a beginning and never has an ending. God is eternal. And none of us understand this. It's impossible, being in time,
it's impossible to understand eternity. But we can make some
stabs at it. God's not bound by space. Me
and you can't be two places at one time, can we? God does. He's not bound by space. He's
not bound by time. I don't know what's going to
happen tomorrow. He does. I don't really understand what
happened yesterday. He does. I don't even know what's going
on right now. He does. He's not bound by time. He doesn't
look at things in a sequence of events. When this happened,
that happened, and that happened, He's eternal. He's eternal and
everything He does is eternal. You know, I've been eternally
justified. There was never a time when my
justification began. Everything we have, according
to 2 Timothy 1.9, was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now I'm laying my hopes that
everything that I have is eternal. That's the foundation I'm laying
on. I'm not laying on something that I've done or responded to
in time. I'm referring to, I'm relying
on eternal judgment. Revelation chapter 13 verse eight,
this ought to be one of your favorite scriptures, ought to
be one of my favorite scriptures. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Hebrews 4.3 says all the works,
all the works were finished from the foundation of the world. I'm eternally justified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now people can make objections
to that. Go ahead. Go ahead, make every
objection you want, but God's eternal, and that is the very
foundation of our salvation. That's the rock God grounds us
on. Repentance from dead works, salvation
from gone by works. Doesn't have anything to do with
my works. Faith toward God, we look to Christ only. The doctrine
of baptisms, union with Christ. The doctrine of the resurrection
of the dead, that which only God can do. the doctrine of the laying on
of hands, and the doctrine of eternal judgment. And I like
saying this in the way it says in verse three, and this will
we do if God permit. We're going to be flailing back
and forth unless God is pleased to do this for us. This will
we do if God will permit. Grounded. Grounded on the foundation
so that you cannot be moved. I love seeing old foundations
where you can't tell where the foundation and the superstructure
are separated. It's been laying there so heavily
you can't even see the difference. I love saying that and I hope
that is what me and you are. Rooted in him and grounded in
him. Let's pray. Lord, what a glorious, firm foundation
thy son is Lord, grant us repentance from dead works. Enable us to have true saving
faith. Lord, cause us to glory in union
with thy son and his glorious resurrection. Lord, enable us to see the laying on of hands, the transference
of sin to our blessed Redeemer, and His righteousness coming
to us, and enable us to rest in Thy eternal judgment. In Christ's
blessed name we pray, amen. Dwayne, could you lead us in