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