Who You Are In Christ, The Believer is on the Rock of Christ
Randy Peterman · Apr 20, 2008
Who You Are in Christ, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926059215215

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

For summary, this is awesome. This is why there's co-teachers, because I was just like right into the lesson. The 33 Things is a list that was compiled by a guy by the name of Francis Schaeffer. Louis Schaeffer. I was like, Francis Schaeffer? He's different.

And it's 33 things in the scriptures that the Bible says are true of the believer once they're saved, once they're identified with Christ. So we're going through the list. This is number 14 on Schaeffer's list, I believe, but we're in a different order for the lesson series. But we're going to go over on the fact that we have now been moved to being on the foundation of Christ. And if you really want to catch up, there's a bunch of recordings on the internet, on our church website, with handouts for many of them also. All right, well, let's get started here.

Hopefully Roger will come back with that list for me. All righty, well, we need to talk about the need for a solid footing. This is actually a picture from yesterday. I took some pictures of Evelyn, my two-year-old, playing on one of those suspension bridges where the footing is really awkward. I remember being a little kid and actually falling on those and pinching my fingers. So I was always scared of them.

It was not a secure footing and I had discovered that in a very firsthand fashion She's more stable than I am or I was for some reason or I was maybe being chased by somebody but So we need to talk about having a solid footing now that There are lots of areas that the solid footing in Christ impacts in our lives Can people think of you know, can we list off some areas in our lives that are impacted? by having a solid footing in Christ There's probably not too many wrong answers. If you say cheese, I'm going to say no. But pretty much anything else that you can list that involves our lives. What are some impacts of having a solid footing in Christ? When you think about marriage or raising children, you're pretty much on the same page. You're not grounded in your doctrine. You could go off on penitentiary. You could have two wives. There's all kinds of things that could happen.

Earlier this week I ran into a news article that was summarizing a study that was done in 1971 by this guy, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, and he took a group of anti-war protesting young men back in 1971, and he put together an experiment, a psychological experiment, to see what would happen if he had most of them be prisoners and some of them be guards.

Or in today's terms, what do they call my brothers? I shouldn't have the name of it off the top of my head. Correctional officer. So he had guards or correctional officers and prisoners and most of the men volunteered to be prisoners because they thought, I feel like I am a prisoner in this country where there's war going on. So I'm a victim. And so they could identify with this concept.

And each day the guards treated the prisoners just a little bit worse. To the point that what was supposed to be a two-week experiment was canceled after just one week because the guards had gotten to the point of causing severe emotional trauma. One guy had to be pulled out because he had a mental breakdown. And the guards basically took the slippery slope of moral authority, that they had been given ethical authority in their position as guards, with no restraints. And by the end of the week, they were forcing the inmates to do things that was basically sexual abuse to one another in less than the two-week time frame.

And this is a quote from him. I'm going to read it for the sake of the recording. Evil is a slippery slope. Each day is a platform for the abuses of the next day. Each day is only slightly worse than the previous day. Once you don't object to those first steps, it is easy to say, well, it's only a little worse than yesterday. and you become morally acclimatized to this kind of evil.

What finally finished the experiment was actually that his fiancée showed up at his office and as she showed up she saw a group of chained men with bags over their heads being led somewhere and she said, I am not going to marry you if you are not completely shocked by this and you don't stop this.

She wasn't going to have it. It had gone too far. She's like, any guy who can sit and watch that has problems. And I don't want to be married to him. So he stopped the experiment. But this quote from him I thought was very intriguing because this is not the Bible. This is not the scripture telling us that mankind has the propensity for evil and wickedness. This is just experience and experiment in life.

Now, when we talk about having a solid footing, we need to to discuss the importance of the foundation. We're going to take a look at Matthew chapter 7 verses 24 through 27. Would somebody mind reading that out loud in your Bible? A little context before somebody reads it. This is Christ speaking before the New Testament time frame. So when he's talking about hearing the words of his and doing them, it's before salvation, but there's a principle that we're looking at here. And I want to make sure that we make that distinguishment that this is an issue of identifying the biblical principle of the foundation of Christ.

So if somebody wouldn't mind reading that out loud. these sayings of mine and do it now, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his home upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, and he built upon that house of his own mind that was found upon a rock. And everyone that hears these sayings of mine and does them not shall be likened unto a fool who built his house upon a rock. The rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, All right. Now, what's the principle that we see in this passage? Okay, we've got a foundation, but the principle that's stated in there is that without a solid foundation, what happens? you have collapse.

The subheading I had on the first slide here that is kind of the intro screen was that it's every engineer's dream. Having a foundation that's absolutely solid and completely reliable and doesn't need a lot of work. I mean, obviously, we have some engineers in this classroom. My dad was a civil engineer.

But if you've got a foundation that is solid and stable, you can do something and build something on it that's reliable. If you've ever built a house, and I have not, but I've helped people build houses, there's just a huge amount of work that has to go into making sure that everything you build on top of that foundation is going to be stable and reliable. Any other questions about this? I just want to make sure that everybody's very familiar and understands the principle of needing a solid foundation and that Christ is that foundation. Uh huh. Yeah.

My father-in-law, Claire, actually worked on a house. He built a house with some friends in California. Their inspector came and inspected the house and was shocked because everything was as true as it was. He's an engineer. I've never met a man who is more precise besides my grandpa. I think my grandpa and then second would be my father-in-law, Claire, where everything is down to this fraction. Of course, he works with thousands and millions of an inch with his job. So for him, a quarter of an inch is like a mile.

But the inspector said that he'd There was a house that was on this track, this group of housing tracks that was being built, and no one measured the house. They were putting the roofing tiles on and they came up short on roofing tiles and then measured the house and discovered it was 14 inches wider or deeper on one end than the other. Through the entire process, nobody measured.

The drywallers just came in. People who were putting up the walls and framing. Jessica, your Bible is right here on the corner. They were just, oh, there's extra. OK, well, we got more drywall. We got more wire. And nobody measured. So anyways, having a good, accurate foundation is important. But we won't get ahead of ourselves, because that's coming up in some other passages. We need to take a look at the institution of the foundation.

2 Corinthians 1.21-22 says, Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. This is actually a photograph I took at our house.

I find it highly amusing. It says, laid by Supreme Concrete, Inc., in 1973. Supreme Concrete, I think if the Lord was ever to be in the business, he probably wouldn't have a name like Supreme Concrete. But I did think it was kind of amusing. Now, he who establishes us, establishes there, you'll notice the word is not foundation in this here, but it is establishes us, and it's assuming on the foundation, establishes to make firm, to make stable, or to make steadfast. The concept behind the Greek words there is actually describing a path that is stable that your foot can walk on and you have no real problems. So the steadfast makes sense there.

It's passive. In the Greek, again, it's a passive concept. The Lord is establishing you. You are not doing it yourself. That's not a big surprise in this series. We've run into pretty much most of the concepts are the Lord's work in our lives. In every instance, it indicates that the Lord is the one doing it. It's not us. We don't make ourselves founded. We don't establish ourselves. What do we do? We trust. We believe. We have faith. How could we as a human being How could we establish ourselves in God of our own accord?

There is no way. There is no way to do that. It would be really frustrating for God's plan if there was, wouldn't it? God would be like, oh jeez, I guess there's other ways. He didn't set it up that way. He made it very easy. The great thing is that if He's the one doing it, we don't have to work and we don't have to worry. So God instituted this foundation and set it up. And he is the one that establishes us. And he establishes us in Christ.

These are pictures of some holes that have been dug for a kids fort. In my own backyard I've been digging holes for a fence replacement repair job that I'm doing. And let me tell you, two feet of digging in clay is kind of crummy. But the foundation isn't into dirt. It's not just two feet.

We are placed in Christ. It's a foundation and it's firm. No amount of wind or waves or any of those things can wipe out this foundation that we've been, this establishment. And then he goes on to say that this This establishing is being done by God. Only God has the authority to place others into the foundation of Christ. No one else can do that. Like we said, we can't do it as human beings. When man tries to do things, it's like nailing jello to the wall.

I don't know if you've ever heard that phrase. My dad used to say it when I was growing up. All right. I've heard so many funny things that people have said in response to that. Man's attempts are like nailing jello to a wall. If you've ever even made those jello jigglers where it's much thicker, it still gets torn and ripped up and worn out.

We cannot do it of our own accord and we can't do it in our own strength. It has to be done with the authority of God. But the interesting thing is that God doesn't just tack us on to Jesus, to use the analogy of being nailed to something. He doesn't tack us on to Jesus. He identifies us with Him, and we're going to take a look at that a few slides from now. And he's sealed us and given us the spirit. He continues on there.

Now, we saw that concrete seal that was there on my driveway. Historically, the king's seal was a sign of authenticity of a document. If he sent a letter and he sealed it, that was an authentic document. You couldn't later on make it an unauthentic document and just take the seal off of it It was an authentic document.

You don't mess with it. That's from the king. It's there. God has the authority. He seals us. Again, our salvation is what? Secure? Insecure? Wishy-washy? Our salvation is secure? If you were the one doing it, then you might be able to come up with a list of reasons why it might be insecure.

But you're not doing it. You're not the one that's establishing you. God is the one that is establishing you. But he doesn't stop there. It's not enough that we are sealed, but he also gives his Holy Spirit to us to indwell us. So not only are we sealed, but we're indwelt by God. That's a very important concept.

I remember when I was younger and in a charismatic church, we used to pray for the Holy Spirit to come all the time. We thought that, you know, like here's my teacup, you know, we just thought, well, I've got to make sure that I keep the Holy Spirit in me and don't screw up. And as soon as I screwed up, then the Holy Spirit was out of me. And then I had to hope the Holy Spirit would come back into me. That's not what the scriptures teach, but that's what I was taught, unfortunately. But here it's very clearly given that we're sealed and we are given and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

I'm going to go out of slide order because I decided that it would be good to show you this first. This is an illustration that I have created. It's not amazing in any regard. We're going to pretend that these are containers, sort of, here. And in Christ... Oh, I've got a laser pointer. Here, I'm going to use the laser. Now I feel so sophisticated. In Christ... Except I'm shaky, so it's moving everywhere. In Christ, the believer is placed. So we are inside the container, if you will, of Christ. But the Holy Spirit is yet still inside of us. And through the Holy Spirit, we have access to God. So the relationship that we have is not one of in and out, And moving around, there is a placement in two that is there.

I don't like your card. I know. I figured that somebody was going to pick it apart. I actually really do like it. Oh, OK. Put it up at the right end. I'm sorry, where? The laser? Right. Put it up at the right end. I actually wanted to emphasize, this is not positional.

This is more of a conditional scenario. This is the problem with the chart. We're going to run into the scenario. But positionally, conditionally, we're in Christ as well. OK, I'm not arguing with you, but I'm just saying that the limitation of the chart was there. Yeah, it's great. But the idea is, let me go back now back to my order of slides. But.

Because of what that presents for us, being in Christ and then the Holy Spirit working inside of us, we have access. That's one of the impacts of the foundation. So we need to take a look. What does being in the foundation of Christ mean to us? There's some practical theology here. Ephesians 2, 18-22. I'll go ahead and read that out loud.

For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. See, you know, the thing is, the condition that could reflect the fact that that formation that you've put in there, of course, I mean, right here, but still it extends down, right? So the positioning conditionally represents...

I had other charts. I decided to pull them out. I was like, wait, we could do this chart and that chart. I'm like, wow, I'm going to be so charty that people are going to be like, hmm, what's what? But yeah, there's... Let me get back to your patients first, a second, because it reflects that, does it?

If we're built together in the dwelling of God in the spirit, which really reflects our earthly existence, much of it is gone out of this body, right? Well, our position and condition are unified, and he's speaking to God's activity in our own condition in the body.

Bud. Well, I don't want to put you on the rabbit trail, Alan. That's all right. Back in the 50s, you know, these old GI homes were built Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Well, the biggest thing is that because of Christ's position, there is not even a chance of the shifting, and that's really part of the point. But it is good. That's the problem.

Anytime we try to bring the character of God down to a finite It always comes up a little short. We're like, wow, that foundation, that's a really good analogy. And then you start to think about all the things that could go wrong with the foundation. You're like, well, no. But the principle of the parable is still important to identify that the stability of the foundation is there.

Let's ignore my chart now since I've already showed it to you. But no, I know. I know. I'm just saying that I've already shown you the chart. But I wanted to emphasize that we're no longer strangers and no longer aliens. The principle I wanted to show was the concept of being contained in the relationship. We're not strangers and aliens.

Strangers and aliens look on the outside from Christ, they look on the outside from God, and they have no idea that the Holy Spirit could be working in their lives and causing this deep communication. I mean, we could take a whole series and study what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. But for the lost person, this concept of the Holy Spirit is either spooky or heebie-jeebie or I don't even know what to do with it. The thing that's really good, just to realize that we have it there, is that we're totally contained in Christ.

Positioned as you are. Identified with Him. Totally. And that cannot be altered. That's one of the wonderful things. And then we base our activity, our whole life, upon that solitude. How do I illustrate it? I was trying to think, well, I could do 3D modeling. I was like, I don't have time for 3D modeling. But the idea was to show containment like you're doing a cutout. Have you ever seen a cutout of something?

But again, we have access because we are not strangers and aliens. Do we, as believers, walk in a daily mindset that we have access to God the Father? Because again, in my past, I didn't feel like I could confidently have access to God. What? You're saying I can confidently have access to God? I mean, not like praying gingerly and timidly and hoping he was listening to like half of it, but being right there and confidently having access to the Holy Spirit.

Again, who is indwelling us and is given to us as a gift along with the seal. We're there. Nothing between us. Conditionally, we have access. Positionally, we're hidden with Christ in the heavenlies. You can't get closer than in Christ. So we have access and we're no longer strangers and no longer aliens.

But then he goes on, he says that we are fellow citizens with the saints. Now here's where this is going to tie in with the messages that have been going on in April discussing the body. I don't want to steal the thunder of what the elders are going to be teaching, so I hope that I don't, but at the same time it's true doctrine and if you hear it twice it's not going to hurt you. He says, fellow citizens, this covers the whole church.

It's exclusive only to non-believers. That has been a struggle for me in my own theological journey. As I said in the past, I went to seminary and so much of what we heard at seminary was bound up in this idea of exclusiveness, which was kind of a problem, that it was hard for me to really believe that God was working in other churches and other seminaries. Because unfortunately the environment we were in was rather exclusive. The body here is fellow citizens with the Saints. We are fellow citizens. I don't care if you're Methodist, Episcopalian, or whatever else. If you truly believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, you're my brother or sister in Christ.

Now, that does mean that we have to ask the question, how do we deal with the differences, the divisions that exist? Because he's saying we're all part of the same building, even though we might meet in different buildings. And I'm not going to propose to answer that, because that could be like an entire series or sequence of lessons. Yeah, well I know that you've got that as part. Sure, go ahead. all those wonderful fruits, not our fruits, but the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

And that's what's to govern our relationship, and that means fellow believers. There's nothing, you know, a lot of science about this. It's a very basic doctrine that we all kind of know, we know that it exists. In the case of the Colossians, everyone talks about how it's known to exist among the body of Christ.

It's a very general thought. Well, it's going to be good. I can't wait. Yeah, you're not compromising. It's just what we really inherently know, that Christ is working on our lives, those fruits that are to be manifest in our lives. You know, that passage in Galatians where it kind of contrasts those two. The unity is already there and established in Christ. It's not established in ourselves. We don't establish that unity. God has already done it. Exactly.

And that's where, you know, when I get into discussions with people who are, you know, brothers and sisters in Christ who go to another church or might have a doctrinal difference, like I said, in seminary I was kind of trained to get really dogmatic and intense and the Lord has shown me grace. Hey, you really need to understand the doctrine of grace before you go hammering away at all these other people. Because the truth of the matter is that they may have learned something that I can benefit from as well and I need to be submitting myself to God's Word, and they need to be submitting themselves to God's Word.

If we're both doing that, it's going to be a lot less of an issue. You're going to have a lot less of this butting heads thing. Now, I have butt heads with a number of people. I like to think of myself as friendly, but the truth of the matter is I'm overly opinionated.

But the Lord has taught me this principle that I need to identify them as being in Christ. I may disagree with the doctrine and we need to have the right heart and mind and attitude towards saying let's discuss the doctrine and again submit ourselves both to God's word. What does it say? Are we interpreting things correctly and consistently? But I need to have this mindset of understanding as as I discuss with them that they are in Christ, if they're truly in Christ. If they're wearing their Elder John badge from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I can probably doubt their salvation.

We can say, okay, I'm not going to come in just smiley and happy and say that whatever they say is going to have some truth in it. I need to be discerning. But we recognize that between genuine believers There is unity because of God that He has already created, even though we may not experience it conditionally. Positionally, we'll be corrected in our doctrine when we reach heaven as well.

Because I'm sure that I've got a mistake here or there. I'll try not to teach those mistakes, and if I need to be corrected, please do. Like if I make bad charts. Actually, a couple of months ago now, I had to get up and correct myself because I taught something inaccurately the week prior.

We'll keep going on. Sibling rivalry shouldn't exist in God's household. When he says here that we are, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Paul is not encouraging sibling rivalry. He's not encouraging, hey, we're in the same house, let's pick a fight. If you're looking at a house and you see that the walls are collapsing in on themselves, how likely are you to want to buy that house? Unless, of course, you're a house flipper and you know that it's going to be an easy thing to fix, right? But the concept is that in the body we need to not have a quarrelsome attitude, but instead, as we submit ourselves to the direction of the Holy Spirit, we will find doctrinal unity as possible. Instead of division, doctrine does divide.

Trust me, I've left enough churches I can tell you all the doctrines that have divided my family from various churches. The problem was often that we didn't submit ourselves to the scriptures together. Going to the elders and sitting down with them together and saying, I still don't agree with you or I still don't get it, let's go over this again until we get it. Because you're my brother in Christ and we need to have unity.

That's not to say there are never reasons to leave a church. I mean, listen, if things get way out of hand and nobody's submitting themselves to the direction of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures clearly say, don't do that, and they're doing it, then you need to consider what goes there. But a lot of people leave a lot of churches without really sitting down and trying to resolve things. But that's another series. So we won't beat that too much.

Then he says, the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Now, if you were in the main service the last two weeks, you heard at least two lessons that involved understanding the apostles and the prophets. So I won't belabor this as well. But in this class, we do need to ask, wait, I thought that our foundation was in Christ. What's the big deal? Why is he saying that now the foundation is the apostles and the prophets? So let's ask, what does he mean? Why would he use this illustration?

Let's make sure that we've got our ducks in a row here. Any thoughts on that? Yeah. And really the foundation of the church is in the sense of the foundation of this body that the Lord has started and not the foundation that we're placed on. So we need to understand that he's using the same word in a slightly different context.

But he goes on, like you said, to talk about the cornerstone and that's what we really need to do. On the right hand side here I've got this picture I found of all these government officials and city higher-ups standing around for this cornerstone that has been put up to start a new building. And there's often a tradition here that anytime this new big building gets started, we're going to make a big ceremony out of it and have this cornerstone. But we need to recognize that in reality, despite the fact that a cornerstone may be some reason to have a little celebration in the shindig, that there are some really important things and aspects of a cornerstone. We've kind of talked about those a little bit already. A cornerstone sets the foundation's entire direction and must be perfectly level in place and have a perfect right angle and must be solid.

Like we talked about, if it's not a perfect right angle, if it's 92 degrees instead of 90 degrees, then things get wider. And you start to wonder why the materials are screwed up. And suddenly we're short on this, that, or the other thing. Why? Well, because you've actually got, over however long your building is, you could actually have potentially, especially like in a skyscraper or something, hundreds or thousands of extra square feet. Because you really blew it. Because it got wider. Engineers go crazy when the architects make non-rectangular shapes. suddenly the geometry gets a lot more exciting because then we have all these extra square feet.

But in Christ, we went over last week the kind of king that we have. Christ is the kingship that he has and his perfection. In his being a cornerstone, he is true and he is right. He has established that 90 degrees. He is perfectly level. He is perfectly stable. Any thoughts or questions on the cornerstone before I jump on? All right. I thought it was pretty self-explanatory, but you've got to say it, otherwise you may miss something.

Now he's going to continue on here, and he says that we're growing into a holy temple in the Lord. A temple is not just about what its outside looks like. He's using language that would be familiar with the Jews that were there. Nor about its location, but whom is inside the temple. The location of the temple is not the big deal. If we are being made into a temple, it doesn't matter if we're in Denver, or Jerusalem, or any number of places. Texas. Does it matter? That doesn't matter. We're the body.

We're being built into the temple together. It's not about the location. It's about who is inside this temple that we're building. Again, this brings comes back to the issue of unity. If we're indwelt with the Holy Spirit, if God is within us and Christ is containing us, then the differences that we have are really based on things that we need to resolve because they're not based in the work of Christ to create division. God doesn't bring about division into our lives for, hey, let's see if we can cause some turmoil. I want to stir things up. That's not the way that God operates.

We're, as a body, being built into the dwelling place of God, which is an outward appearance to the world around us. If the church is seen by the world, what do they see? What do they see? Do we shock people with our graciousness? If they're surrounded by people who live in a merit-based system, a legal system, a law-based system, and we as Christians show up acting graciously to one another and to them, it's going to be shocking.

That's the kind of temple we are called to be, a shocking temple. And he says the builder of this temple is the Holy Spirit. The last part is growing into a holy temple of the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is building this temple. He's doing it actively now in our lives, building us together.

We focused on spiritual growth for the individual believer for the most part in this study. But that individual believer growth is not just for you. That growth isn't just for you. Your growth is for me. Did you know that? I'm not saying that selfishly. Your growth is for me. My growth is for you. I don't get anything from me growing and not being around you. If I grow by myself, that doesn't edify the body.

The Holy Spirit uses us one another for our growth. And that's a powerful thing to think about. When you and I converse and we talk about spiritual things, whatever it may be, it's edifying for one another. I need you to grow because the Lord may be using you in five years or five minutes to teach me something.

We could get to the next slide and Bob will raise his hand and say, Randy, that's the best chart I've ever seen. Just kidding, there's not a chart on it. But whatever it is, Bob's contribution was intended for the edification of the group to make sure that we had right theology.

Oh, I know. No, but what I'm saying is that that's a perfect example if you're wanting to clarify to make sure that all of us in this group were edified and growing together. Stan? That's one of the things that I think this whole concept of justice can't get beyond the door. I mean, as far as he's saying, which means it's very, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Again, you brought this up in the past, it's the principle that's presented and sometimes we get tangled up in the literal understanding instead of recognizing he's presenting a principle. I'm not saying we shouldn't interpret literally, I'm just saying that we do sometimes get distracted by, oh this is an illustration and then we'll...

I've heard people try to suck the marrow and really get into the depth of some kind of doctrinal thing and they almost use the scripture as a springboard instead of literally interpreting and understanding it. They use it as a springboard. Oh, it's a foundation! Well, if it says foundation, and then they start to go into, you know, well, what kind of concrete does the Lord use? And it's like, what? He's not saying concrete, you know, and so they get too deep. But yeah, it's important to...

We're being conformed, and we're going to take a look at being conformed in just a little bit, but I think that is a really important part of the doctrine, and I've got ten minutes to try to knock that out. But we'll just go at the right pace. Now we need to talk about the matchlessness of the foundation that's here. There is no other foundation besides Christ.

Part B of that verse through verse 11 for where God's fellow workers you are God's field God's building According to the grace of God, which was given to me like a wise master builder I laid a foundation and another is building on it But each man must be careful how he builds on it for no man can lay a foundation Other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ. I Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so is through fire.

This passage has caused all kinds of controversy in a lot of churches, and we're going to try to tackle it in as short a time as we have. If we don't make it all the way through, I would rather have been clear about what we did cover than race through it and be ambiguous.

You are God's building. He says there, you are God's building. It is according to grace which God gave to him that the building project began. But God has a blueprint. If you look at Romans 8.29, God has a blueprint.

He's working these things through. He's conforming us to the image of Christ. If you're being conformed, and there's that issue again, if you're being conformed to the image of Christ, it's not into an unknown thing. There is a blueprint. And you know it's a perfect blueprint. That's a good place to start.

And you know where you're being conformed into the image of, you do. It's been revealed in the scripture and you can study it and learn and see who is this Savior. And you are in Him. And obviously part of the purpose of the study is to look at the blueprint of Christ. We have a blueprint. We've got a perfect foundation. We have a perfect builder, the Holy Spirit. We looked at that in the last passage. And God has the perfect materials.

If we look at Ephesians 2.10, which of course was an area where I had to correct what I was teaching, the Lord has those materials set up and ready for us to build with. If we're abiding, we will build with those materials. If we are resting in our relationship, if we're resting in this lifestyle of Christ, we will build with those materials. So the Lord has supplied the blueprint, the foundation, He supplied the perfect builder, and He supplied the materials.

That means that this building that's going on doesn't have to cause us a lot of stress. Because God's already done a lot of the work. All we are doing is being agents. If a man builds on that foundation, now Paul says something that's interesting here. Paul says he's building on that foundation. Okay? But he also indicates that the believer is building on that foundation in this passage.

So there are two principal areas that we need to take a look at when we say a man builds on that foundation. If you're a teacher, and some of you in this classroom are, and if you're not a teacher, you're still a teacher probably for somebody somewhere in your day-to-day life, You have a responsibility to be using the right materials. You have the responsibility to be teaching true and careful doctrine, because you are supplying that person with something to build in their own lives. Because they also are going to be responsible for what gets built.

How many of you have ever paid someone else to build you a house? Or, I bought a house that was already pre-built, and so I inherited the junk. I'm sorry, it's not all junk. There's some problems in the house. If you paid someone else to build the house, would you be just the biggest goober on the planet? If you just said, OK, build me a house.

And nine months later, or however long they said it was going to take, you showed up to see if it was right. You show up and the shingles are on, and that's when you discover it's got the 14 inch difference from one end to the other. You'd be a goober. That would be a bad steward of the money that God has put you in charge of.

I'm inside you're you're laughing I'm afraid I'll okay house is done well well let's let's not go into that rabbit trail but but but but the thing yeah but the thing that we see is as believers is that we're responsible The principles are we're responsible with what we build with. Think of the Berean. Okay, the Berean church. Paul goes and he teaches and they check everything he says. Okay, he's given us material.

He's telling us this is what the blueprint looks like, but I'm double checking him. I'm being diligent in that. I'm not going to just take... Yeah, this goes here. No, no, I'm making sure that he used a level. I'm making sure that the measurements are close. I'm okay with 91 degrees, but I'm not alright with 95 degrees on this corner. Well, actually, with theology, we want to have 90 degrees. But the idea is that you're double-checking.

You have somebody who's building. As a teacher, I'm responsible for what I teach to you. If I teach bad theology, it's going to be burned up in the fire. I'm not going to give you good materials for you to build with. That's humbling. I have to answer to the Lord for why I'm being a goober and teaching bad theology.

But you also, and when I am a student, like in the main service, you also are responsible for what you choose to build with. When you receive theology, don't just take it in, check it out. I've had to buy lumber on a few occasions, and the first time I bought lumber I didn't know what I was doing. So the first 2x4 I stuck my eyes to. I grabbed it off there, stuck it on the little cart, and the next one, and the next one. I was really surprised.

Roger's making the arch symbol. It's like St. Louis. You have to make sure that you have good quality material that you're building with. As a recipient of teaching, make sure that the teaching that you're getting is right on. If it's not, have a chat. Let's talk about this. Why? I've had people come up to me and say, Randy, your theology wasn't as strong in this lesson as it was in other lessons. You might consider spending more time preparing. And I'll take that because I want to make sure that what I present to every single person anytime I have an opportunity to teach is right on. Just make sure that whatever you're taking on, you're building on this foundation with good materials. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Sure. Most likely not. If we're taking credit for the good things we're doing, it's going to burn away. That's good aid and stuff.

The life of a believer is something that glorifies eternally without our really noticing along the path. If we're working at doing good things to please God for our rewards, that's all we're getting. I guess what I want to complement that with and what I would emphasize is that The doctrine that we get, the result of that doctrine is going to be obvious in the works that take place.

Because you're having faith in that. It's not what you do, it's who you are. Exactly. What you do is evidence of who you are. It's the life played out in the believer. It's all of Christ. It's an important parallel, I don't disagree at all. I want to emphasize that this isn't about works, this is about the doctrine. and that those things will be shown out over time as the Lord works in our lives. And again, there will be rewards, and that's what I wanted to... let me make sure I covered all of that. There will be rewards, okay? If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.

Now here's the cool thing, is that Ephesians 2.10, as we talked about this in the past, says that God has planned these good works for us to be able to do.

If we're abiding, we're going to do those works. We're not going to think about it. It's just part of the lifestyle. How cool is that? God created these things for you to do, and then he's going to reward you for them that he already did in you. All you were was just saying, OK, I submit.

But we're not robots, right? No. So where does the power come from? It's the Holy Spirit. It's the faith that we're created in Christ that the Spirit might work through us to glorify Him in our lives, right? It's all an act of faith. It's not let go, let God. It's believing that we're were placed in the foundation that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And now the Spirit's for them. Yeah, go ahead. I'll let you finish. But how amazing is that, that the Lord has prepared the works, He's prepared the energizing power of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we walk in faith, and then He's going to reward us for those things that He did. I remember thinking, oh, I've got to get the rewards. I've got to do the stuff. I've got to make sure I've got my checklist. I'm going to do the Jesus thing.

And instead, it was like, wait a minute. This is pretty shocking. In contrast to that, because the biblical doctrine is that God is going to do these things, and give you the opportunity to do these things, and it's not you. It's not you doing it. I was working so hard to make sure I was doing it. That's not the right mindset. Yeah. Yeah. God doesn't have it right here. Let me correct his plan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If we're walking in faith, then we wait for the Lord to open up those opportunities. He may use us in correction, but we shouldn't assume that.

There's one last slide and I do want to look at it because I think it's a very important doctrinal point. Salvation is not in question. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet is through fire. That's one of my favorite passages when people say, well, I don't see the life of Christ in that person. I don't think they're a believer. They're probably not saved. This is saying, listen, this is the three little pigs. They're built with the straw and they're built with the sticks. And even the bricks aren't even on the list of the good things.

But that doesn't mean the person is any less in Christ. Now that doesn't mean that we should sit by and idly watch. That's the thing, is that if somebody is not building with the right materials, and you sit by and idly watch without ever attempting to communicate with them, obviously waiting for the Holy Spirit to draw that relationship together. That's a bummer that you might make that choice. Instead of coming together and saying, listen, your identification was with Christ. It's a logical imperative that you do these righteous things because your righteousness is in Christ.

And coming along. Yeah? Yeah, Bob? Yeah. Yeah, if you're if you're being paid for that's what those were. Yeah, on more than one occasion I've had people bless me and they were just doing their thing. They were just walking with the Lord. The Lord was doing his thing in their life. And I was so blessed and they were like, I don't know. I'll come up to them and I'll say, man, that was really awesome. Thanks. That really helped me. That encouraged me. And they're like, I didn't know. Because it wasn't for themselves. It wasn't the flesh. It wasn't checking something off the checklist. It was the life of Christ. Let's close. We need to pray. You need to be dismissed. I can talk for far too long.

Heavenly Father, we come before you. We just ask that you would continue to open our eyes to the ways that being founded on you impacts our lives. Thank you for providing for us in so many ways the details of the growth of our life, that you have supplied a blueprint, you've laid the foundation, you've put the builder inside of us to build us into you and you've given us all the material through life experiences to build this beautiful house that you have planned. Thank you that we're being conformed to your image and we just thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.