5,27 Foundation Issues
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“Is it a difficult task to discover the Father and Maker of this universe; and having found Him, it is impossible to declare Him to all. For this is by no means capable of expression, like the other subjects of instruction,” says the truth-loving Plato.
“Is it a difficult task to discover the Father and Maker of this universe; and having found Him, it is impossible to declare Him to all. For this is by no means capable of expression, like the other subjects of instruction,” says the truth-loving Plato.
For “the divine,” says the poet of Agrigentum,—
“Is not capable of being approached with our eyes,
Or grasped with our hands; but the highway
Of persuasion, highest of all, leads to men’s minds.”
No one can rightly express Him wholly. For on account of His greatness He is ranked as the All, and is the Father of the universe…We speak not as supplying His name; but for want, we use good names, in order that the mind may have these as points of support, so as not to err in other respects. For each one by itself does not express God; but all together are indicative of the power of the Omnipotent.
It remains that we understand, then, the Unknown, by divine grace, and by the word alone that proceeds from Him; ”2
Clement of Alexandria. (1885). The Stromata, or Miscellanies. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire) (Vol. 2, p. 464). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
How do we “really” know Him? Who is He? How has He affected your life?
Jesus is Precious
Jesus is Precious
—Our Foundation
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
that is, Jesus Christ is precious;
that is, Jesus Christ is precious;
The Highest of all Precious Things
The Highest of all Precious Things
Jesus Christ our Lord is in himself to believers most precious. He is worthy of an angelic speaker to tell out all his worth.
He is, Essentially precious. He possesses an intrinsic worth. We worship him as God, we believe him to be “very God of very God,” yet is he co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, and hence we can never too reverentially speak of him, nor set too high a value upon him. He must be precious who is infinite God.
Essentially precious. He possesses an intrinsic worth. We worship him as God, we believe him to be “very God of very God,” yet is he co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, and hence we can never too reverentially speak of him, nor set too high a value upon him. He must be precious who is infinite God.
His manhood was without taint of sin, he came into this world with no corruption, he lived in this world with no transgression. What a miracle of miracles that the Infinite should take upon him the form of a servant, and be found in fashion as a man!
When we see how by God’s coming down to man, man goes up to God, Immanuel, God with us becomes our peace, and brings us to God.
To every sinner who feels his sin, Christ is precious; to every child of God who is saved, the Saviour must for ever Precious; to every heir of heaven who has experienced the sweetness of his saving grace, Christ must appear to be Precious!
So Precious:
He cannot be Bought
He cannot be Bought
If a man should give all the substance of his house to purchase an interest in Christ, it would be utterly contemned. Rich men might gather together all their goodly things, yea, silver, gold, even sapphires and diamonds. He gives himself away right freely, according to the riches of his grace, but he is utterly
unpurchasable
unpurchasable
for he is so precious that he cannot even be priced. He is God’s unspeakable gift.
He cannot be Matched
He cannot be Matched
There is none like him. The fairest of the fair are uncomely and deformed when compared with him. “He is the express image of his Father’s person, and the brightness of his Father’s glory.” ().Ye shall find none that can be likened unto him.
Miss him as your Saviour, and you have lost the only salvation possible; gain him, and you will want no other, for he is made of God unto you “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption,” and all your souls can want; yea, he himself is all.
If you search eternity, there shall ne’er be found one fit to be second to him, he is so precious.
He cannot be Lost
He cannot be Lost
All the precious things in this world are loseable. The jewels may be stolen, the house may be broken into by the thief, and the casket may be taken away, but Christ is such a jewel that even Satan himself can never rob the soul of him when once it hath him. My heart evermore rejoices in that precious truth. Let Jesus Christ be once mine as the gift of God, I am safe. Is not Jesus a priceless, precious jewel, since he cannot be lost!
He cannot be Destroyed
He cannot be Destroyed
Men have tried to focus all the heat of persecution upon the Christian, they have never been able to separate him from the love of Christ; and though earth and hell have stirred up their malice, and the furnace has been heated seven times hotter, and the child of God has been tossed into it, and apparently deserted to the fury of his enemies, yet never in a single case has the preciousness of Christ Jesus in the heart been destroyed, nor the believer’s interest in it; for Jesus and his servants have lived together, according to the glorious promise, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
See the preciousness, then, of Christ—because he cannot be bought, he cannot be priced, he cannot be matched, he cannot be lost, he cannot be destroyed.
Is He Precious to you?
Is He Precious to you?
Do you KNOW this God that I am talking about?
Do you KNOW this God that I am talking about?
This, however, does but touch a very small corner of the field, for our Lord is precious from the service which he renders to us. Who shall tell all the benefit which Jesus confers on a believer? As we cannot comprehend so wide a subject in a single discourse.
There are four precious things which Jesus is to a believer—life, light, love, liberty. I will defy all mankind to find four more precious things than these, but they are all in Christ.
First,
He is Life
He is Life
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men”()“As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.” What a precious thing is life!
He is himself the resurrection and the life. Moreover, he is the sole nutriment of all spritual life.
Now, Jesus Christ is the water of life and the bread of life to such as live unto God. He is absolutely necessary for the continuance of our spiritual life.
He is light
He is light
What would not they have given in Egypt during those three days when the thick darkness was over all the land, even darkness that might be felt, if they could but have had light back again?
“Truly” as Solomon says, “the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” Now, the soul has no light, no true light, no heavenly light but what Jesus brings. When a spirit is once made to feel its guilt, it is shut up in prison until Christ brings it light in the darkness of its dismay. There is no hope to a convicted spirit till Jesus shows his atoning blood; there is no clear knowledge of the way of salvation till Christ brings the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in his own face. You who love him know what brightness he has given to you-how your heart has laughed for very joy. Yes, he is precious because he raises us from the dead and gives us light.
He is Love
He is Love
Oh, what wealth of love Jesus brings into the heart when he enters it!
Oh, the joy of having Christ to go to! All other friends will sometimes be unfriendly, and the best of them must part with you at your decease, or you with them when they depart out of this world unto the Father; but your Lord will never, never leave you, he will abide with you, and death shall only draw him nearer, for then you shall see his face, and you shall be with him where he is to behold his glory for ever and ever.
He gives Liberty
He gives Liberty
The highest liberty is that which emancipates the soul from sin; the grandest liberty is that which sets free the heart from fear, which leaves the soul without a dread, and enables the spirit to walk even in God’s presence without alarm. It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth, since Christ has died and risen again? What room is there for fear for the man who has been set free by the precious blood of Jesus? The liberty of the children of God, the liberty to pray, the liberty to talk with God as a man talketh with his friend, the liberty to grasp the promises, the liberty to lay hold of God himself, and say that the divine attributes are all our own; this is what Christ has given us, and is he not therefore precious, most precious?
I have no other theme, and I thank God I want no other; it is not worn out, and never will be, though I should stand here by the space of the next six thousand years! He is PRECIOUS!
Jesus Provider
Jesus Provider
our Foundation-
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Precious Faith
Precious Faith
Precious Faith-
Until a man has faith he does not see the value of the promises. He says, “the Bible is a dry book.” Till a man has the faith of God’s elect, he thinks very little of Christ; he may confess that he is a good example and a wise teacher, but he does not say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” Faith is to our souls what our eyes are to our bodies. Without eyes light would not be valued: without faith Christ is not dear.
Without a mouth food would not nourish: faith is our mouth, and without faith Christ does not nourish us.
Now, faith in itself is like a title-deed, signed, and sealed, and ratified, and on the possession of faith hangs your evidence of right to Christ and to the covenant of grace. Hence faith becomes a very precious grace, it sees Christ, it grasps Christ, it claims Christ by right, and by faith it holds to what it claims.
Now, faith in itself is like a title-deed, signed, and sealed, and ratified, and on the possession of faith hangs your evidence of right to Christ and to the covenant of grace. Hence faith becomes a very precious grace, it sees Christ, it grasps Christ, it claims Christ by right, and by faith it holds to what it claims.
Faith is precious, let me say, because it is rare. The faith of God’s elect is the work of the Holy Spirit, and is not vouchsafed to all. They are favoured men indeed who exercise real faith, but, alas! “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it.”()
Wherever it is possessed, it is most enriching—faith touches trials and they become mercies; faith touches affliction and she glories in them; faith touches losses and they turn to gains; there is nought that faith deals with but what is transmuted into good.
Grace and Peace
Grace and Peace
Grace and peace are multiplied through knowing God and Jesus Christ our Lord. Such knowledge of God is personal and relational, but it also involves intellectual content. Grace and peace abound when believers know more about God and come to know God in a deeper way in the crucible of experience— knowledge is not simply intellectual (knowing things about God and Jesus), or even personal in the sense of having met someone, but knowledge that results in committed living.
(1:2) This is
sanctifying grace
sanctifying grace
the work of the Holy Spirit producing in the yielded believer His own fruit.
In New Testament Greek, grace is charis. It means a gracious favour or benefit bestowed, and at the same time it also means the gratitude (or grateful thanks) appropriate to the grace received. In the New Testament it refers to God’s sovereign kindness at work: his favour to men and women, who are totally undeserving. So grace is the source of unique joy and pleasure. Peter knew the grace of God in his life and wants his readers also to reach out and be blessed by God himself (see ).
This peace is
sanctifying peace
sanctifying peace
the tranquility of heart that is the result of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
Peace-
The usual Hebrew greeting was shalom; this conveys the image of wholeness, unity and harmony. The New Testament Greek word translated ‘peace’ is eirene, which originally meant peace due to absence of war. It is a divine peace, the direct result of being reconciled to God by the death of Jesus on the cross. It is peace with God, and as a result of this, the believer gains the peace of God.
Peter prays that all of God’s people will have grace and peace in abundance and that these things will overflow into their daily lives.
What is your Foundation?
What is your Foundation?
Foundations are the most important part of any building, no matter how great or splendid the superstructure may be. If the foundations are inadequate then all is in danger of collapse. The only lasting foundation is Jesus Christ and his word, and a life built on anything else will not last.
Jesus is Precious
Faith is Precious