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Firm Foundations By Neville Naden

Well, it's good to be in Gilgandra, not for a funeral.
Last time I was here, I was conducting a funeral in this little church.
A lot of our mob lived in Gilgandra for many, many years.
And many of them have spoken into our lives in regards to the Gospel.
And we have a great legacy.
I'm thinking of people like Uncle Bill and Auntie Old.
I'm thinking of people like Cesslant, Cessn and Laurel, Uncle Ralph.
And there were just so many others.
You know, Uncle Fred is still with us today,
and he continues to proclaim the truths of God's Word.
And we're so thankful as the Naden family, Townie family, come what may,
that we've had a legacy that's been passed on to us in regards to the faith.
And it's just good to be able to come home and just be with your mob
and just be able to share again from the Word of God
and what it has to say to us.
Friends, I want to thank Steve and Henry
for inviting me to come and share with you this weekend.
I remember when I first was asked to come and share,
Steve was visiting me in a hospital up at Broken Hill.
Even the triple-legged, I had a procedure done,
which wasn't real flash, but something that I had to get done.
Otherwise, I was in real big trouble.
And they came and visited me.
And Steve said to me, he said,
and then he said, has Henry spoken to you yet?
And I said, no, what about?
He said, well, we want you to come and share with us at our rally in October.
And I knew that I had a youth camp that I was going to at that particular time.
And we were coming to Dubbo any hour
from Mum and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary, which was yesterday,
which is great for our mob because our mob were flat-out made for 60.
We live in that long level.
They weren't having a 60th wedding anniversary,
but they celebrated that yesterday.
And then we're heading off to camp a bit later on down at Eden,
down in God's country, isn't it, Terry?
So we're going to be doing that.
Friends, one of the things I wanted to share with you this morning,
and we'll do some, we'll unpack a little bit this afternoon,
is I want us to look at some of the big picture stuff
when it comes to the Bible,
because I think sometimes we tend to think that what Christ has done
and Christ's involvement in our lives was an afterthought of God,
that now that sin has entered the world,
that God was going to remedy sin by sending his Son into the world.
And I want to say to you this morning that that is not the case.
God had a plan of redeeming mankind from eternity past,
and that plan will continue into eternity future.
And so as I read the Scriptures, I ask myself the question,
what is contained within the Bible?
What is the Bible all about?
And if I was to ask you the question of what's in the Bible,
I wonder what your response would be.
Well, let me try and summarise what I believe
to be in the Bible in its entirety.
The Bible has God's plan of redempting salvation for humanity
from eternity past to eternity future.
That is what's contained within the Word of God.
And the Bible was written not for the unbeliever out there,
but for the believer here.
Hence the reason we've got Paul writing to the believers at Rome,
Paul writing to the church at Corinth,
Paul writing to the church at Ephesus and so forth and so on.
He's writing to God's people.
And as we read the Old Testament,
the Old Testament provides a platform in which to build the New Testament.
And it's all one part and parcel of the big picture stuff.
And it's interesting that when we look at the big picture
and we go back to Genesis,
Genesis is the beginning
and the word Genesis basically means beginnings,
and we see that God was at work even back then.
So Jesus coming is not an afterthought of God.
He was always a part of his plan of redemptive salvation for humanity.
And we need to understand that truth.
And so in the first 11 chapters of Genesis,
we have a lot of activity taking place, don't we?
Chapters one and two, we have creation.
Chapter three, we have the fall.
Chapter six, we have the flood.
Chapter 10 or 11, we have the Tower of Babel.
And then when we get to Genesis chapter 12,
God begins to speak into one nation,
and that nation is the Jewish nation, the Hebrew nation.
And let me take you there to Genesis chapter 12,
and let's have a bit of a look at that this morning.
So remember that prior to this,
God was working with humanity on a universal basis, OK?
He was revealing himself to humanity.
Now he calls aside Abraham,
and it was through Abraham that he was going to fulfill his purposes and plans.
And so Genesis chapter 12, we have these words.
The Lord had said to Abraham,
leave your country, your people and your father's household,
and go to a land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.
I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse.
And all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.
So God is calling aside a family for himself.
And we know that Abraham and Isaac, Isaac had Jacob,
and he saw Jacob had 12 sons who became the children of Israel.
OK, and we can read about their story in the rest of the Old Testament.
But the interesting thing about the call of Abraham is
that God was going to bless humanity through Abraham's offspring,
but he was going to bring about the blessing himself.
Let's turn to Genesis chapter 15 and have a bit of a look there.
Note what it says there.
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision.
And he says to Abraham, do not be afraid, Abraham.
I am your shield, your very great reward.
But Abraham said, Oh, sovereign Lord, what can you give me
since I remain childless?
And the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus.
And Abraham said, you have given me no children.
So a servant in my household will be my heir.
Now, here it is, Abraham, Sarah is barren.
Abraham being the patriarch that he is.
He acknowledges God, how are you going to fulfill this promise
that you've made to me when I don't have any children?
None whatsoever.
And the one that's going to inherit all of my estate
is one of my servants.
That's what he said.
And then in verse five, he says, he took him outside
and said, look up to the heavens and count the stars
if indeed you can count them.
Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.
Now, here is God promising to Abraham
that he was going to fulfill his promises to his family
and that he was going to have innumerable, innumerable offspring.
Now, he couldn't see that at the time, could he?
No, because his wife was barren.
He was very, very old man, you know, probably 100 years of age
when this promise came to him.
Now, I don't know of anyone that had children that age,
but here he was, God was promising Abraham
that he was going to bless Abraham
and it was through those blessings that the world would be blessed.
And then it goes on in verse six, Abraham believed the Lord
and he credited to him as righteousness.
He also said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of the Ur of the Chaldeans.
Now, we've got to remember that Abraham was a man, he was a sinner.
He was an idolater, his father, you know, terror, engaged in idolatry.
So he didn't call him out of a godly family, not at all.
He called him out of a family of idolatry where they worshipped other gods.
We need to remember that because that allows us to understand
a little bit that God has called us out of a situation of sinfulness
and idolatry in that we are serving everyone else apart from him
and even ourselves.
And then he goes on to say, but Abraham said,
our sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?
How can I know that these things are going to happen?
What can you show me to cement it in my mind
that these things are going to happen,
that you're going to bless humanity through my offspring?
Now, he does a very interesting thing here.
Note verse nine.
So the Lord said to him, bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram,
each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.
Abraham brought all these to him and he says,
cut them in two to raise their halves opposite each other.
The birds, however, he did not cut in half.
Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses,
but Abraham drove them away.
As the sun was setting, Abraham fell into a deep sleep
and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
Then the Lord said to him,
I am for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country,
not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years.
Hey, that's the enslavement in Egypt, isn't it?
That's what he's talking about. That's what he's referring to.
And then he says this,
but I will punish the nations they serve as slaves
and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
They, however, will go to your fathers in peace
and be buried at a good old age.
Hey, God says, mate, your family's going to come out of this land,
but you're going to die.
Hey, what? You know, we go to visit people in the hospital
and the doctor brings some news to them and says,
hey, look, I don't know of my choke.
You need to get your house in order. You're going to die.
And it's devastating.
Abraham had total confidence in the things of the Lord.
Verse 16, in the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here
for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
Now, I like this next part because this next part shows us
that our salvation is not of anyone else but of God.
OK, we need to get this into our psyche
because that's where there is security in knowing
that God has done all the work in order to affect our salvation.
Now, verse 17, when the sun had set and darkness had fallen,
a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared
and passed through the pieces.
On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and said,
to your descendants, I will give this land from the river of Egypt
to the great river of Euphrates,
the land of the Canaanites, Kenazites, Catamites and all those types.
And he said, you know, you've got them all there.
And so he said, I'm going to give it to you.
You know what happened?
Back in them days, what would happen
when people wanted to secure a covenant,
what would happen was they would do exactly as they did.
They would get the ram and the goat and the dove
and they would cut them in half and they would place them on either side.
They would separate them.
And then the two people making the covenant
would then walk between them as if to say
if they had this covenant with you,
then what's happened to these animals will be upon us.
The same will happen to us.
And so that's the way in which they secured a covenant back in them days.
The interesting thing about this story is
that when this covenant was secured, you can read it there,
God walked through by himself to secure that covenant.
You see it there?
It says,
And so in effect, what he was saying to Abraham is
that the covenant that I'm making with you is not relied upon you, Abraham,
but it's relying upon me.
I am going to fulfill this promise to you and your people.
Hey, what a wonderful thought
that my salvation, your salvation and the salvation of humanity
is not dependent upon me,
my pastor, my brother,
totally dependent and totally reliant upon God.
And friends, if we get that wrong,
if we get that wrong, then we're moving away from the foundation,
which the Bible is teaching us.
You know, Ephesians chapter two, verse eight and nine, what does it say?
It is by grace you have been saved through faith.
That is not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works.
That's what? Just any man should boast.
It's God's grace.
And you know something?
Not even the not even the belief, not even the faith that we have
is something that someone places within us.
I can preach up until the cows come on,
but unless God does the work of bringing about faith
within the life of a person, then I labor in vain.
I why?
Because it is God that is doing that work of redemptive salvation.
It's not up to you at all.
That's why I'm very reluctant at services to do an altar call.
I pray for the people that as they come into the church,
that God would do that work in their lives,
of bringing himself, bringing people to himself
by placing the faith that is needed within the minds and hearts of people.
And when they come to that situation, when faith is present, guess what?
Salvation is present.
It's that simple.
Salvation, you know, you hear people talk about a simple faith?
Then that's it.
And friends, if we had to those things, anything else,
and we're going to have a bit of a look at this this afternoon.
If we had to those teachings, anything else,
then we are doing the wrong thing by God's word and by God.
Now, Steve said to me this morning, he said,
what are you going to speak on?
I said, well, Matthew chapter 16, I want us to turn their mouth.
So that's a little bit of an introduction.
We're not going to go for too long.
And I promise you, I won't keep you too long in this part.
And the interesting thing about Matthew's gospel is Matthew wrote to the Jews.
He wrote to God's chosen people.
And so you'll see a lot of reflection on Old Testament stuff in Matthew's gospel.
But when we get to Matthew chapter 16, Jesus is partway through his earthly ministry.
And he's been doing miracles and, you know, people are being healed.
The lame has been made to walk again.
The blind can see.
And so there's so many things that Jesus is doing.
And he's teaching people about things which are to come.
He's teaching them about the kingdom of God.
And we are seeing some wonderful things happen.
And as they were journeying along,
Jesus decides to ask the disciples a question.
Now, the interesting thing about the question is this.
And I don't know why he asked the question.
And the question that we must ask is, why did Jesus ask the question?
Didn't he know what was going on?
Didn't he know how people thought to him?
Let me read it to you.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi,
he asked his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is?
They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah,
and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
But what about you?
He asked, who do you say I am?
Simon Peter answered, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus replied, blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah,
for this was not revealed to you by man,
but by my Father in heaven.
You see the linkage there?
God is saving people in the Old Testament,
and he's doing all the work.
And now he's placing within Peter the faith to believe
that Jesus is the Christ.
He says, blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah,
because flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you.
People can preach at the cow's command.
But unless God does that work of redemptive salvation
in a person's life,
they've got bucklish chances of being saved.
Just won't happen.
Hence the reason we as the church need to be praying faithfully
and being out there on the highways and byways
and pleading with God that,
Hey God, have mercy upon my family.
Have mercy upon them.
Be gracious to them.
You know the difference between grace and mercy?
Grace is God giving to us what we don't deserve,
whereas mercy is God withholding the punishment
that we do deserve.
And so we need to be praying that God will be gracious
and merciful to our families.
Why? Because he's the one that's going to determine
at the end of the day,
he's going to enter into the kingdom of God,
not you and I.
It's going to be him.
And he says, I tell you that you are Peter
and on this rock I will build my church
and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Now I don't know, you know,
Henry and Steve want to be talking about foundations.
And I don't know,
different people will look at foundations in a different way.
We all have our own worldviews of stuff
because the one with people speaking to our lives.
When I went to found out,
you know you women probably talking about makeup,
you know, the simple foundation way.
Yeah.
Some of us guys have been involved in the building industry
for many, many years and probably thinking about buildings.
But friends, the thing about any foundation
or any building is that it has a plan.
And we see the unfolding of God's plan in the scriptures.
Now the question, let's get back to that question
that we wanted to ask early.
Why did Jesus ask this question?
Didn't he know what people thought about him?
Didn't he know what the Pharisees thought about him?
Hey, just to add an argument with some of them,
you can read that in the earlier part
of that particular passage.
It's a little bit like God when, you know,
after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden
and God goes for a walk in the cool of the evening,
he says, Adam, where are you?
Eve, where are you?
Hey, didn't he know where they were?
Of course he did.
He wanted them to realize where they were.
And it's no different in this situation.
When he asks the question, when Jesus asks the question,
who do men say that I am?
It's not that he didn't know.
He wanted the disciples to realize
that this is a worldview of things.
Your view needs to be a little bit different.
You're not to have the view of the world.
You need to have the view of the things
that I'm teaching you.
And so here he was, he was saying, this is the worldview
and this is the way in which I want you to understand
who it is that I am.
And so the discussion goes,
who do people say that the Son of Man is?
And they reply some say, John the Baptist.
Hey, John was beheaded, we know that, hey.
And they say, they'll stop,
that some were saying that he's come back to life
because he was doing,
Jesus was doing all the things that John was doing.
Others say Elijah.
Hey, no greater Old Testament prophet did what Elijah did.
And Jesus was reflecting the gifts and ministries of Elijah.
And so some were saying, yeah,
some were saying, John the Baptist,
some were saying, Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah.
So people were reflecting on who it was in the past
that could have come back to life
and do the things that he was doing.
That was the worldview.
And then he makes it personal.
And he asks, he says, but who do you say that I am?
And friends, we need to be answering that question
for ourselves today.
Do we see Jesus as just being another great prophet,
a great teacher, a miracle worker?
Or do we see him as far more than that?
Peter saw him as far more than that.
Peter answered, you are the Christ,
the son of the living God.
You know that word Christ comes from the Greek word Christos
which is a translation from the Hebrew word Messiah
or the English translation of the Hebrew word
which is Messiah.
And so what Peter was saying effectively was
that you are the one that was promised,
the one that the Old Testament spoke about.
You're the one that all these people
you're the one that all these prophets were referring to.
He said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
And note what Jesus' response was.
Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah,
for this was not revealed to you by man,
but my father in heaven.
And I'll tell you that you are Peter and on this rock,
I will build my church.
Hey, what a wonderful, wonderful picture.
After lunch we're gonna talk,
we're gonna be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter three
where it talks about a foundation.
And those of us who've been in the building game,
you know, I've mixed plenty of concrete
and we know that there are three ingredients,
major ingredients for mixing concrete.
Cement, gravel and water and maybe sand, okay?
Note how many ingredients that are in this mix,
in this foundation.
He says to Peter, I tell you, you are Peter
and on this rock, singular, not plural, not many things.
Upon this rock, one thing, and what was that rock?
He said, I'm going to build my church
and the gates of hell will not overcome it.
It was a proclamation of who Jesus was.
Okay, that is the foundation for Peter and for Jesus.
It's upon you proclaiming who Jesus is
that I'm going to build my church.
A little bit later, Paul talks about Jesus
being the foundation, no other foundation can anyone lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
He is the foundation, he is singular.
It's not like the Baha'i faith.
I don't know whether or not you've been to a Baha'i temple,
I trust not, but if you go there,
you will see that it's got seven doors,
each door representing a particular deity
and it's free, you can go through any doors
to get to heaven.
Hey, it doesn't work like that.
Doesn't work like that.
There is but one way, there is one mediator
between man and God, the man Christ Jesus.
And friends, we need to be proclaiming him,
not our religiosity, not our churchology.
We need to be proclaiming him
because it is he and he alone that saves.
And sometimes we as a church get ourselves
into all sorts of fights and bickering
and what is the proper doctrine that we need to be teaching?
Can I say to you something and it might offend some?
Doctrine divides.
Jesus knew that this was gonna be a problem
for his disciples when he sent them out.
You know why?
Because he prayed for them, that they might be unified
in their proclamation of the word of God.
Doctrine divides.
Christ never divides.
There's a lot of things that I don't agree
with the way in which a lot of churches do things.
But hey, if they love Jesus,
then they are my brother and sister in Christ
and I need to do things that are going to encourage them
in their walk with him and they me.
You know, we're talking about reconciliation,
I'm gonna close with this.
We talk about reconciliation,
we'll have another crack this afternoon.
We talk about reconciliation within the framework
of the church and how people, you know,
black and white can be reconciled.
The issue for me with reconciliation,
biblical reconciliation is not like secular reconciliation
and I'll tell you why.
Because it's not what I do for my brother
or what he does for me that brings about the oneness
that we can experience.
Guess what?
It's what Christ has done for both of us
that brings about oneness.
That places a bigger obligation and a bigger responsibility
for me to be able to encourage my brother
or my sister in Christ.
If I see my brother in need, what am I gonna do?
I have to try and meet that need.
It places a bigger responsibility
on my brother and sister
and it places a bigger responsibility on me
to be able to meet some of those needs.
So friends, can I just say to you,
just in closing this morning,
I think I've been up here enough,
is that Christ is the foundation of the church.
And we should not be adding anything else to it.
And sometimes we do, we get all legalistic about things.
Don't we?
And we say, oh, he's not no longer a Christian
because he don't come to church anymore, that fella.
Or we don't see him at prayer meeting,
he's not a very good Christian, that bloke.
Hey, he might not be a very good Christian,
but he's still bought with the blood of Christ.
Why?
Because he has faith that God has placed within him.
And sometimes we try to measure up
through believe-ism with works.
Ephesians is clear, it's not by works,
just any means you base.
And the thing is, if we see a brother or sister
who is struggling in their work, in their walk with God,
then hey, let's pray for them.
You don't need to say anything to anyone else,
or to them, pray for them.
Because if we believe that the building of the church
is Jesus' work, then we need to be asking him
to do that work in people's lives.
I grew up in alien churches,
brethren churches where legalism was right.
And I was involved in much of it in the early days myself.
And it wasn't until I came to realize
that hey, salvation is all of God.
And that I became to appreciate
that hey, people will still struggle
in their walk with him, and it's not my job
to run them down.
Someone once said the church is the only army
that shoots us wounded.
And that is so, so true.
We need to be growing alongside them
and encouraging them in the things of God
and building them up.
Hey, they're gonna have enough people
outside the church running them down,
calling them hypocrites and all sorts of other things.
The church needs to stick together in unity
and become the church that God wants it to become.
And we need to remember that always.
Let me pray with you,
and then I'm gonna hand it back to either.
Father, again, we thank you for your word to us this morning.
We pray, Lord, that as we listen,
Father, we might have a greater appreciation
of all that you've done for us in Christ.
He is the foundation of the church.
He is the rock upon which the church is going to be built.
And Father, we pray, Lord,
that as we go about encouraging one another
and building one another up in the things of God,
that Father, and as we pray for our community
and our loved ones,
we pray, Lord, that you might be gracious
and merciful to them.
Help us to get a greater appreciation
of your grace for us
in order that we might be compelled,
Father, to go to the highways and byways
and compel people to come
and sit under the ministry of your word,
that the work of faith might be implanted within them.
So be with us for the remainder of the day.
We ask we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
If your brother know me,
may the Lord stand up, stand up for Jesus,
I don't know if you reckon.
O stand up, stand up for Jesus,
His soldiers of the cross,
It must not stop the law, from victory unto victory, His love we shall believe.
Beware it, all is bandwidth, and Christ is Lord in need.
To come set up for Jesus, these shoulders of the cross,
With thy royal banner, it must not stop the law.
To come set up for Jesus, the trumpet call away,
All to the mighty conflict, he pleased his glorious day.
He had up and now serving, against the numbered four,
Let courage rise with danger, and strength with strength of hope.
To come set up for Jesus, these shoulders of the cross,
With thy royal banner, it must not stop the law.
To come set up for Jesus, many his strength alone,
We of our friends will fail you, we may not trust your own.
Put on the gospel of love, each peace put on with friend,
May beauty fall so dangerous, in never wanting men.
To come set up for Jesus, these shoulders of the cross,
With thy royal banner, it must not stop the law.
To come set up for Jesus, the strike will not be long,
This day the noise of battle, learn it's the bitter song,
To live to overcome, a crown of hearts shall be.
Here is the king of glory, they'll reign eternally.
To come set up for Jesus, these shoulders of the cross,
With thy royal banner, it must not stop the law.
To come set up for Jesus, these shoulders of the cross,
With thy royal banner, it must not stop the law.
Thank you, Lord.
We thank you for your time.
We pray for the service this afternoon.
We pray the Holy Spirit will have work in the hearts of the people.
May his souls be saved.
People will be redeemed.
Thank you, Lord.
In the praise of his name, the Lord now saves us.
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