Christian Quotes

Review

Paul  is trying to whittle away at the pride of the Corinthians—trying to help them get their eyes off men and on to God—and thus end their carnal divisions. Last week we saw that Paul and Apollos were just servants in God’s field: one planted, another watered, but GOD gave the increase. “So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (3:7). The church is originated and maintained not by man but by God.

Overview

In verse 9 Paul transitions from an agricultural picture to an architectural one—a picture he sticks with through verse 17. The passage is deep, powerful and very serious. He says that people need to take heed how they build on the foundation that has been laid (Jesus Christ) or risk losing everything but their own souls at the judgment seat of Christ. He goes on to say that anyone who defiles (destroys) the temple of God (the church), “him will God destroy.”

Lesson Plan

Today we are going to look at BUILDING ON THE FOUNDATION. Who are the builders? What are they building? How should they build? What materials should they use?

The Foundation

Paul says he laid the foundation (v10) and others were building on it. This corresponds to what he said earlier in verse 6: “I planted, Apollos watered.” He calls himself a wise (better: skilled) masterbuilder, but qualifies that by saying it was “according to the grace of God given unto me” (i.e. the skill was not his own but God’s gift). The Greek for “masterbuilder” is architekton, which is where we get our word architect; but commentators agree that in the language of today it would more closely correspond to “Site manager”—i.e. not someone who visualizes the finished building and then draws up a detailed plan, but someone who actually works on site and superintends the building.

It seemed to be a typical day in Israel. Jesus was teaching the people as a crowd of scribes and other religious leaders looked on. We don’t know what the weather was like on that particular day, whether it was cool or hot, whether there was a breeze or not, but we do know that the religious leaders were getting pretty hot under the collar. With consummate skill, Jesus had just silenced one religious group, the Sadducees, who had come to the popular young Rabbi thinking they were going to outsmart Him. Suddenly, out from the crowd stepped a scribe with a question that he thought would put Jesus to the test.

If you have your Bible, maybe you’d like to follow along as I read to you from Matthew’s account of this story. Matt. 22:34-37:

“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer [a scribe who had the particular job of interpreting the law], asked him a question, tempting him [or testing Him], and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”

Jesus singles out loving God with the totality of our being—heart, soul, and mind—as the GREATEST commandment. Out of all the commandments in the Old Testament, loving God is the greatest, Jesus says.

Our Lord was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. This is what it says:

“Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might [or strength].”

Now for whatever reason, when Jesus quotes that verse from Deuteronomy 6, He changes the word “might” to “mind.” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”

I want to talk about that for a few moments tonight: loving God with all our MIND.

Tonight I want to read just one verse to you from the Old Testament book of Leviticus 17:11. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

I want to talk to you tonight about the blood of Christ. There is nothing more precious to the Christian than the blood of Christ. It brings us so many benefits and blessings. No wonder the devil hates it! No wonder he wants to take the blood of Christ out of our hymn books. No wonder he wants to take it out of our Bibles. The devil wants us to have a humanistic, bloodless religion; but thank God for the precious blood of Jesus!

What are some of the benefits of the blood of Christ? What are some of the blessings that can only come to us because of the shed blood of Jesus? One of the first things is ATONEMENT—covering for our sin. Others are RECONCILIATION, FORGIVENESS, JUSTIFICATION, REMISSION, REDEMPTION, SANCTIFICATION, ACCESS TO GOD, and VICTORY.

Tonight I want to look for a few moments at just one of these blood-bought benefits: Atonement.

Matt. 7:21-27

The passage I just read is found at the very end of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, which is the longest recorded discourse of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the greatest and most important sermon of all time. You remember that this great sermon begins with what we call the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…blessed are they that mourn…blessed are the meek…blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and so on. Then He goes on to talk about other matters, such as adultery and divorce, making oaths, loving our neighbors, prayer and fasting, earthly riches, worry, hypocrisy, and so on and so on.

As our Lord comes to the end of this wonderful sermon, He begins to issue various warnings. Have you ever noticed how much of the New Testament is occupied with warnings? Why is that? It’s because living on this earth is such a serious matter. Our lives are so short, compared to the eternity to which we are all destined. What we do here, the choices we make, are going to have consequences that reach out far into the ages upon ages ahead. At the same time, there are so many things down here competing for our attention. Even as Christians, it is so easy to get distracted, to get our eyes off eternal matters and to only think of the here and now. And so the New Testament is full of warnings, proddings, wake-up calls. And this little illustration at the end of this great sermon is one of those warnings.

What is our Lord warning about in this little story of the two builders? Well, we’ll have to look at the context for a moment. He has just been talking about false prophets—wolves in sheep’s clothing. “Beware of them,” He says. There will be people, religious people, ministers, pastors, preachers, who will appear to be sheep because of their outward deportment, but inwardly they are wolves. “Don’t be deceived,” our Lord is saying. “Don’t trust them; don’t follow them. Beware of them.”

As you know, for the last several months in my devotional talks we’ve been looking at the Lord’s prayer in Matthew chapter 6. However, I want to take a break from that tonight and look at something completely different.

I’m going to be reading from the book of Ephesians. I know that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable, but it does seem to me that the book of Ephesians is one of the mountain peaks of the Bible—full of wonderful truth regarding Jesus Christ and His great atoning work on the cross for us sinners and of the whole scope of redemption from before the beginning of time until that great consummation in the ages to come. It’s also full of practical application of gospel truth to our daily lives.

I want to read just a short passage from Ephesians 5:15-20.

The first verse in the passage I read is a kind of key verse for the whole section beginning there and ending at chapter 6:9. This passage concentrates on the believer’s  walk, and especially with regard to relationships. After making some general statements about relationships, Paul will talk specifically about relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and servants.

Two key concepts are the words “walk” and “wise.” “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” Circumspectly means diligently or accurately. Our Christian life is not to be aimless and erratic, but diligent, orderly, watchful, careful.

Text: Matt. 6:5-13

Once again tonight we are going to be looking at this model prayer that the Lord gave to His disciples and to the church. You remember that we’ve already talked about the invocation: “Our Father, which art in Heaven” and how it reminds us of our intimacy with God and that we are part of a large worldwide family of those who are God’s children by new birth. It also reminds us that because God is our Father, nothing is too small for us to bring to Him in prayer because as a Father He cares intensely about us; and because He is our Heavenly Father, His omnipotent power makes Him able to do anything.

After the invocation, we looked at the first of the 7 petitions: Hallowed be Thy name. This is a prayer that God’s name will be reverenced and held sacred throughout the world. It is a prayer that men and women, boys and girls will come to know God and that as His children they will honor and obey Him and treat His name with the sacredness it deserves.

Then last time we looked at the second petition: THY KINGDOM COME. Jesus is a King, and some day soon He is coming back to earth to set up His Kingdom—a Kingdom of righteousness and joy and peace. But until He comes and sets up His visible Kingdom, He is already setting up His Kingdom in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls—those people who surrender their lives totally to Him and acknowledge Him as their King. So when we pray “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying for two things: we are praying that His invisible Kingdom of grace will be extended—that more and more people will surrender their lives to Him; that the gospel message will go forth with power throughout the earth; and we are also praying for the coming of that great day when His Kingdom of Glory will be manifested and visible on the earth. Thy Kingdom Come.

Tonight we want to look for a few moments at the next petition: THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

Text: Matt. 6:5-13

Some time ago I began focusing my devotional talks here on the Lord’s prayer. On the first occasion we looked at the words, “Our Father.” The next time we looked at the larger phrase, “Our Father, which art in Heaven.” Then on the third occasion we looked at the first of the seven petitions found in the prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name.”

Just very briefly to recap:

This is a model prayer—not necessarily to be repeated word for word—a skeleton or outline.

“Our Father” reminds us of our intimacy with God. “Our” reminds us that we are part of a family that is worldwide. “Our Father in Heaven” reminds us that this Father is the creator and supreme Ruler of the universe—all powerful, all knowing. Nothing is too big for Him. But because He’s our Father, nothing is too small.

After the invocation follow the seven requests:

1. Hallowed by Thy name

2. Thy kingdom come

3. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven

4. Give us this day our daily bread

5. Forgive us our trespasses

6. Lead us not into temptation

7. Deliver us from evil (or better, “from the evil one”)

INTRODUCTION

I want to speak about a MAN.

He is only mentioned in one place in the Bible.

His whole biography takes up a mere 11 verses.

Only six verses of his actual words are recorded in the Bible—just six!

We know hardly anything about him.

He was not a king or a political leader.

He was not a prophet—at least not in any official sense.

He was not a priest as far as we know.

We don’t know what his occupation was; whether he was rich or poor; or whether he was married or had children.

But we do at least know his name: his name was SIMEON.

Let’s read together his short biography. It’s found in Luke 2:25-35.

Here we have the extremely short biography of an ordinary man walking in total obedience to the Spirit of God and as a result being a partner with God in His purposes at a very important juncture in the history of the world.

What can we do to satisfy the heart of our Father in heaven? The answer is near thee, even in thy mouth. Vacate the throne room of your heart and enthrone Jesus there. Set Him in the focus of your heart’s attention and stop wanting to be a hero. Make Him your all in all and try yourself to become less and less. Dedicate your entire life to His honor alone and shift the motives of your life from self to God. Let the reason back of your daily conduct be Christ and His glory, not yourself, nor your family nor your country nor your church. In all things let Him have the preeminence. —A. W. Tozer, Born After Midnight, p. 70

The church is saddened by our recent loss. One of our most valued parishioners has passed on — Mr. Someone Else. The death of Mr. Else creates a vacancy which will be quite diffi cult to fi ll. This is so, of course, because Someone Else has been with us for many years. During each of those years, he did far more than a normal person’s share of the work, the giving, and the commitment involved to make a church function. Many of our people cannot even imagine a time when Someone Else was not with us!
Whenever a task was to be done, his name was at the top of so many people’s lists. They’d often even say, “Someone Else will do it.” Whenever there was a need for a volunteer effort of any kind, individuals were certain that Someone Else would be ready and waiting to step forward.
Also, it was just common knowledge that this man was one of the most committed donors in our church family. Any time a financial need was announced, people just naturally assumed that Someone Else would take care of the need. Someone Else was truly a wonderful person; of course, if people are honest, they will acknowledge that far too much was expected of him. And so, we sadly realize that Someone Else is gone, and we cannot depend on him any longer. When you are asked, now and in the future, to increase your commitment, your willingness, and your giving, please remember that Someone Else can no longer fi ll that gap — it’s up to you!