Tuesday, April 28, 2020

"Now Hear This" #10

THE ONLY RIGHT FOUNDATION

Throughout this foundational sermon, Jesus exalts the Father as always ready and able to help the entire human family. Living in a fallen world ruled by the prince of darkness, we all are compelled to make decisions that can have eternal consequences as well as disastrous outcomes in the here and now. Our habits, assumptions, beliefs we embrace, the people we learn to admire and emulate, even belief about our origin and ultimate fate can lead us down a very dark path.

That is why Jesus repeatedly warned His hearers about following the teaching and example of those He called "hypocrites". Hear His poignant warning .. Matthew 7:21-23
  • "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord', shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in the day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practices lawlessness."
 Jesus says don't be fooled by those teachers and leaders among you who profess to be doing the work of God in this world but what they say and what they do just doesn't match up. Some can create the appearance of doing great wonders in the name of the Lord, but if their actions fail to measure up to what God sent Him to tell the whole world, Jesus will tell them 'I never knew you'.

Regardless of who you listen to, admire and want to follow, be sure that you do exactly what John wrote to Christians near the end of his life as an Apostle of Jesus at 1 John 4:1 ...
  • "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have done out into the world."
Every one of us has the ability and permission from Jesus to embrace and follow only His teaching given to us by the Holy Spirit in His word. If what is being said and done just doesn't line up with what Jesus taught us, both personally and through His inspired Apostles, it must be rejected.

So, what is the foundation upon which you have or are building your life?  Hear Jesus again ...
  • "THEREFORE, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 
  • "But, everyone who hears these saying of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."
The foundation upon which you are building your life is sure to be tested by the elements the ruler of this world will use to attack it. It's beauty, it's location, it's cost will ultimately mean nothing if you have built it on any foundation other than the teaching of Jesus Christ.

His "THEREFORE" is the absolute summation of all that He had said to them and us in this huge introduction to God as our Father. Check your foundation because you really don't want to neglect that and find out in the day of Jesus' judgement that you built on the sand, it will fall!
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1 comment:

  1. BobApril 30, 2020 at 1:06 PM

    Great thoughts!

    Ask any builder about the importance of a firm, solid foundation. He will tell you that if the foundation begins to shake, all thing above it are shaken. We as faithful children of God have an unshakable foundation for our faith. Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven: 
    Heb 12:26  whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. 
    Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. 
    Heb 12:28  Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: 
    Heb 12:29  for our God is a consuming fire. 

    The stone which the builders rejected the same is be­come the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psa., 118 -.19-24.
    The Apostle Peter placed special empha­sis on the rejection of this stone and its becoming the head of the corner. Speaking of Jesus, Peter said to the rulers of the Jews—"Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye cruci­fied, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before ye whole. He is the stone which was set at naught of you the builders, which was made the head of the corner." (Acts, 4: 10, 11.)
    So important a foundation stone; so great a struc­ture....the prophet said "Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foun­dation a stone, a tried stone, a pre­cious corner stone of sure founda­tion ; he that believeth shall not make haste." (Isa., 28:16.) Upon this cor­ner stone rests the greatest structure of heaven and earth. The time, the very day for the laying of this stone was set hundreds of years before. The stone had been tried. JESUS THE CHRIST --THE sure foundation stone.
    "We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built to­gether for a habitation of God in the Spirit." (Eph., 2 :20-22.)
    This great institution which has spread into all the earth, a refuge for all the weary and heavy laden .
    " How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word"

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