We want to finish up what we've been in the last couple of Sundays, which is found in 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. Christ, our foundation. I'll read verses 10 and 11, and then we'll pray again. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. This is the word of the Lord, and he that hath the ears to hear, let him hear. Let's pray. Father, we come to you now so needful of your Spirit, your strength, your help, your mercy. Please show us more divine truth here concerning Christ, the only one we can build a sure life upon. And Lord, again, we pray if there's one here that does not have Jesus as their foundation, You will reveal that to them. You'll give them the grace and the strength from you to turn from their sin, turn to you, and believe on Jesus. For us as your people, Lord, feed our souls, remind us of truths we know, and carry them to us in a new and fresh way that we might rejoice in them and apply them to ourselves. We thank you again for each one who's here. Lord, we ask you to forgive our sins, which are many, and we pray it all in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Well, we've been in this passage a couple of weeks now, and what we've seen so far is, first point, what sort of foundation is Jesus Christ? And we've seen that he is, first of all, a laid foundation, laid by God. That's verse 11. Now, I know if you look in verse 10, Paul says, I have laid the foundation, but all he means there is, because the very next verse clears it up, the foundation's already here. And so I'm building on that. Then we noted that Jesus is a low foundation, especially when He came to earth. He was humbled and became obedient to death. All of His life was humility, as Philippians 2, verse 8, Paul says. Then we noted that Jesus Christ is a stone foundation, a stone of strength. 1 Corinthians 10.4 Paul there says, the rock that followed Israel through the wilderness was Christ. Christ the rock. That's why our hymn writer put it on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Then we saw that he is an unseen foundation to our physical eyes. And then a precious foundation. 1 Peter 2.7, Peter says, unto you therefore who believe, he is precious. Precious foundation. And lastly, we saw last week that He obviously is a permanent foundation. Hebrews 13, 8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. Now, this morning we have two more things under that heading and then we will conclude with the second point. Jesus Christ is an elect or chosen foundation. Isaiah chapter 42, if you'd like to turn there. Isaiah 42 verse 1, here God the Father speaks of His Son. Behold My servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect. and whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." Jesus is a chosen foundation. Now we know in God's eternal plan there was no one else of the three-person Godhead to do what needed to be done but him. But still the scripture stresses that Jesus was chosen. So he was the chosen foundation and then all his people are chosen in him. Elect, precious. And then lastly, Jesus is and was a tried foundation, tested. In Isaiah 28, 16, which we looked to the last couple of weeks, it says, Behold, I lay on Zion a cornerstone, a tried stone, a precious stone. All you have to do is read through the Gospels and look at the life of Jesus on earth and see how much He was tried, right? Tested. He went through the fire of persecution and affliction His whole 33 years. from his beginning of his humble birth until his death as a criminal on Calvary's cross. And so, there are many, many things that we could say more about what kind of foundation Jesus is. But now, we want to consider today, so what are we to do with this foundation? What should we do? And I've got five things here I want to share with you. First of all, what are we to do is to believe all that the Scripture says about Him. Let me stress all. Luke chapter 24. Luke 24. that we're looking at Jesus' post-resurrection appearance on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24, verses 25 through 27. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe, and here's the important word, all that the prophets have spoken. ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Now, why I make that a point of emphasis is because there are many people willing to believe that Jesus died to save people, died as a Savior. On top of that, they also are willing to believe that he lived a sinless life. But the scripture has so much more to say about Jesus from Genesis to Revelation than just those two fundamental facts, right? And so we need to believe all that the scripture said about Him. Because some of the things that it says, especially in prophecy, people are kind of hesitant to believe. About His wrath, about His coming judgment, and those sort of things. So again, we can't compartmentalize Jesus into just two or three main facts. Because again, as Dr. W.A. Criswell said, Jesus is the scarlet thread that runs from Genesis through Revelation. He's found everywhere. And if you don't think you're seeing Him on a particular page, keep looking. Ask God to help you and you will see Him. So there's much more to believe about Jesus when we consider our whole Bible than simply the main facts. We must do that. We must admit our need of Him. We must admit that we need Him. Not just that we want a ticket out of hell and into heaven, but that we need Him in all His fullness every day of our lives. And that's a hard thing for some people to admit because all they want to know, as I said, for sure is, well, when I die, I'll go to heaven. That's not taking in all of who and what Christ is. because we need Him every breathing, waking moment. He has to fill our lives, fill our souls, strengthen us, guide us, help us. And so more willing we are to admit we are nothing and He's everything, then we'll be much closer to believing on Him as we should. You need Him. You need Jesus. And just be honest about your own spiritual condition. And I'm talking about even after you're a Christian. Admit your ongoing need for Him. Day by day. Thirdly, what are we to do with this foundation? Is to reject all other foundations. Because they really aren't foundations. Anything else we might build our life upon is, as Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7, sand. Right? Foolish man built his house upon the sand, and the rains came, and the floods beat, and the winds blew against that house, and it fell. and great was the fall of it. The wise man built his house upon the rock, and all those storm winds and rains came, but it stood firm because it was established on the rock. And so we have to remember that there are no other foundations, no other foundations to build upon but Christ himself. See, some people try to build their foundation on going to church, being religious. having made some sort of decision at some point in time in church, being baptized, being a member, going to Sunday school, the list goes on and on, giving to the church. Those are not foundations. Those are all the result of an obedient heart that is built on the foundation of Christ. And so we have to realize there's nothing else that will strengthen you and settle you and last you into eternity but Jesus himself. Nothing else. No one else. Some people put confidence in others that they know that are Christians and what they can glean from them. And certainly having Christian friends who can speak into our lives are very needy and helpful, but you don't build your foundation on that. Because they are like you, sinners saved by grace. You can only build your foundation on the one who is designated by God as the only one. Thirdly, or fourthly rather, excuse me, to build upon Him alone. Which is kind of similar to what I just said. Just two scriptures that we all pretty much know. John 14, 6. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. I know a man who used to be a pastor. He's in other kinds of ministry now. He went to Florida State. And they had a chapel every day back in those days. He's a little older than me. And so one day at chapel, to the surprise of everybody, Billy Graham was there. And he preached, and then he had a question and answer period. And so several questions were asked, and then one young man asked, I hear what you're saying, and I do believe Jesus is a way to God, but aren't there many other ways? And Billy Graham just simply quoted John 14, 6. And the young man, kind of frustrated, said, well, I know it says that, but what about the sincere Muslim, the sincere Buddhist, who really and truly wants to get to God? Does God not count that for anything? Is that not our way? He quoted again, I'm the way, the truth, and life. No man comes to the Father but by me. So by then, the young man had nothing else to say and walked out, frustrated. We must build upon him and him alone. And then this is something that I think we all maybe pass over sometimes. It's at the end of verse 10. But let every man take heed how he buildeth their home. So the last point is to take care what we build. Now, let me go on and read verse 12 and following. Now, if any man build upon this foundation of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." Now, I've already said in the first sermon of the second, don't understand this to mean that Christians will still face some sort of judgment on their lives and their works at that last great day, the judgment seat of Christ. That's not true. Because if it was, what we would be saying is Jesus did not make a complete atonement for us on the cross. He either paid for all our sins past, present, and future, or He didn't. What this does mean is, again, as Paul says at the end of verse 10, take heed how you build thereon. How you build thereon shows the worth or worthlessness of what you are building on Christ. See, a lot of times we can do some great things, religious things, Christian things, helpful things to others. But if our motive is not to glorify Christ, that's that wood, hay, and stubble. It may do good to a lot of people. It may be something that's certainly in line with God's will. But we have to make sure that we want the foundation to get all the credit and glory. And that's probably one of the hardest things in Christianity, especially for pastors and teachers and evangelists. It's very easy for those given those gifts to look at what God has accomplished through them and kind of take a little bit of credit. And so Paul says, be careful, because what you may be building is only going to be burned up and won't last into eternity. See, the point of everything in our lives is found in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31. We had that on our church t-shirts. So whatsoever you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all for the glory of God. If we're not seeking to glorify the foundation Jesus Christ in everything, then anything we attempt outside of that is worthless. It may give us some self-satisfaction, but it doesn't bring honor to Christ. So we have to take care how we build thereon. We have to make sure that we have as our focus everything pointing to Him. Everything pointing to Him. Everything giving Him glory and honor and praise. So as we wind this up this morning, what foundation do you have? Now some of you may say, I don't really have one. That's good to know that and admit it. But I really want to urge those who think they have a foundation, but when you analyze it, it's not Christ himself. It may be things connected with Jesus, things about Jesus, but it's not Jesus. And as Paul says, there's no other foundation that you can lay but that one that God the Father has already laid. Jesus Christ. So we need to ask that hard question of ourselves. Even as we go on through our Christian lives, are we really building on the right foundation? Now, if God makes you aware this morning or has made you aware that you don't have the foundation that is Jesus, you can. You can. You ask Him to give you repentance from your sin and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ and He will do that. It's all His work. Every bit of it is His. But if He opens your heart and mind to see your sin and your need of the Savior, then thank Him and respond to it. And us who have been Christian, whether it's been a week or 50 years, we need to keep asking ourselves, are we building everything on Christ? Not on ourselves, not on others, not on religion, or anything else like that. We're building on Him, because everything built on Him will last into eternity. And don't look at it like, even though Paul addresses that, don't look at it like, the more I do the right thing, I'll get a bunch of rewards in heaven. See, when he talks about that, it's never meant to encourage us to do it for what we'll get up there. is to encourage us to realize that those rewards will be the outflow of His grace to us when we've been faithful. And He gets all the glory and praise for that. We don't. So we focus on that as we go through this life and build. And one other thing is a very simple point. You need to be building. Don't just be satisfied with being saved. So many people are like that. Well, I know I'm going to heaven. That's all I got to worry about. No. No, not at all. In fact, if that's your thought and attitude, there's a danger there that maybe you've never really come to Christ to begin with. Those who do, the Holy Spirit will motivate us to build. So that's another good question for us as Christians to ask. Are we building anything? And if so, is it the right things that will honor our Lord? Amen. All right, let's bow for prayer.