Our Foundation

Our Foundation

I Corinthians 3:11 - For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12  Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

13  each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.

14  If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.

15  If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

16 ¶ Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

17  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

When man tried to build the tower of Babel they were not able to do it because God confused them, but God is building what man was not able to build.

Ø     God is going to have a building that is built out of living stones

Ø     He is constructing a building whose top is in heaven and the foundation of it is right here on the earth.

Ø     This is why He had to send His Son Jesus right here on earth to lay Him as the cornerstone upon which the whole building must be built.

Ø     There will be a people that are built upon a sure foundation

I Corinthians 3: 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

13  one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.

A building that is built upon a sure foundation cannot be moved so it is very important that the foundation that is there is correct.

Hebrews 6:1  Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Here is the first true foundation upon which this building must be built. There must be a true repentance.

Ø     The word repentance doesn't just mean feeling sorry for something you did wrong.

Ø     The word repentance means “to turn away from with the intent to forsake never to return to it again”.

When God turns us from the filth of our own doing and we choose to turn back to it again, the scripture says, "It is like a dog returning to its own vomit".

In that case the repentance, if it took place, was not a true repentance because in true repentance you abandon it. You never come back to it.

There is a people that are going to get hold of this truth in this last day, no question about it.

Ø     I believe that this is the final message that is to go forth in order to produce the Sons of God.

Ø     This is the message that will bring them into the fullness of Christ’s nature.

Ø     There are people that are going to hear this truth, they are going to embrace it, and they are going to believe it.

The second part of our foundation mentioned in Hebrews is that we also have to have "Faith towards God."

It isn't good enough just to repent from dead works and to forsake them.

I don't know of any area that the people of God have less faith in than to believe that they can actually live without sin.

Ø     When confronted with the idea that a people could actually be perfect with God and live without sin most Christians today will actually argue that it is an unreasonable notion.

Ø     They will question and state that it is a notion not based upon any reality.

Ø     They will tell you that people just don't live without sin.

Ø     They will look at the masses of the people and realize that most people do not live without sin.

Ø     They become very conscious of the fact that there is still some sin in their own lives that does so easily beset them.

Hebrews 2:14  "For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

Now when He talks about destroying the devil we know good and well He didn't obliterate the devil, unfortunately he's still around. What He did do was to destroy the power that the devil had over death and us.

Ø     When Jesus came into this world the devil had the power of death over all the sons of God.

Ø     When Jesus passed His test in this world He triumphed over the devil.

Ø      The devil no longer had the keys of death and hell in his hand, but Jesus had the keys of death and hell in His hand.

Because of Adam all died and no one would have been able to come out from sin and death unless Jesus, Himself, had come in the fullness of time, being sent by the Father to fulfil the plan that God had.

Ø     He rescued us from under the power of sin death so we could be brought back to life and back to a living relationship with God.

Ø     He destroyed the devil’s place of power over us of sin and death that held all of humanity in bondage.

For most people it is hard to contemplate living without sin and I’ll tell you why; in order to live without sin we have to deny ourselves of our own desires and one of the last things that people intend to do is to deny themselves anything.

Ø     If we are going to be holy we have to deny ourselves and follow God.

Ø     His ways are not our ways.

There is a cost to Holiness, but make no mistake, there is going to be a holy people.

Ø     I believe that God always has seven thousand that never bow the knee to Baal.

Ø     I believe there are a holy people in the earth today.

The secret of their success is “repentance from dead works and faith towards the living God”.

Ø     "Without faith it is impossible to please God”.

Ø     We have to believe that God IS and what He says it absolutely true .

Ø     We have to believe that “He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him”.

Ø     God does not reward people who are passive about Holiness. It’s for those who are diligently seeking.

Ø     It is going to cost us everything.

God has not made this so easy for us so that nothing is required of us.

Ø     If a father does everything for the child and requires nothing of the child, the child doesn't grow up to be very much.

Ø     To do so would never bring us to the place of character and development that He wants us to be in.

When Jesus stepped into the world as the first living example of God's only begotten Son and one in whom God stated He “was well pleased”, It was because Jesus was about His Father's business.

Ø     Jesus knew one thing; if He was going to be successful in accomplishing the purpose for which God sent Him into the world, He and His Father were going to have to co-labour in it together.

Ø     The Father wouldn't do it without Him and He couldn't do it without the Father.

Ø     Jesus said, “apart from the Father I can do nothing".

The whole redemption of creation and the whole salvation of man were dependent upon the Son accomplishing His part by submitting to the Father, in obedience to His will.

Ø     God put before us an example of a walk that we should follow.

Ø     God gave us the example through Jesus as to how we ought to do His will.

Ø     Jesus accomplished His father’s will not only for Himself, but He opened the way so that we could also accomplish it in the same way He did.

God desires to now go on and build us into that holy habitation that He ordained for us to be from the beginning. For you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be a living tabernacle.

Our foundation may be here on Earth, a foundation of true repentance and faith towards the living God, but this building reaches Heaven and in us, God’s true Holy tabernacle, God will dwell forever.