The Foundation Of True Faith

No building is better than its foundation. When my wife and I were in Alaska several years ago, our friend Don Nelson took us up to the area of the permafrost and explained that unless the builders drive their pilings down below the permafrost, the buildings will not remain firm. Some buildings have settled unevenly because the builders were not careful to lay a good foundation by driving the pilings below the frost line.

In my hometown of Midland, Michigan, the Consumer Power Company was constructing a building to house their nuclear plant, but they discovered that the ground below the building was not firm enough. It kept settling. The people of the community became aroused because, if the building was going to be that unsure, then the nuclear plant might very well be a community hazard. They finally abandoned that building for a nuclear plant and followed another application. We can learn from them. We need a solid foundation.

We could learn something from the ancients who lived before Christ. For example, to build the pyramids of Egypt, a solid foundation was needed. The great pyramid of Giza was built around 2,500 years before Christ, and it still stands today. It covers 13 acres of ground and contains 2,300,000 blocks of granite and limestone, some weighing up to 5,000 pounds each. We have not yet learned how they built the pyramids with rocks of that size. As far as we know, the builders had no heavy equipment to handle such building stones. With that foundation, the pyramid still stands. So the foundation and the material tell their own story.

Life is something like that. It too needs a strong foundation. It requires more than human wisdom to be stable. Human wisdom is too unstable to base your life on. In I Corinthians 2:1-5 we read about THE FOUNDATION OF TRUE FAITH:

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

In Paul’s words, I find three solid ROCKS upon which to build your life if you want it to stand.

The first rock is:

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

The apostle Paul calls the first rock the testimony or the mystery of God. Paul cast aside the wisdom of men and the excellency of speech. That does not mean he could not have used them, because having attended, no doubt, the Greek University in Tarsus, he would have been trained in rhetoric. He could have used the wisdom of men and the excellency of speech. Instead, he used one theme Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

On the surface, that may sound really simple, but it is extremely complex. It is so complex that no human wisdom could develop it. It was conceived in the mind of God, the magnificent mind of God, that the sin of the human race required the death of the Son of God. No human wisdom could work that out. It took divine wisdom. It took the mind of God to work that out.

AND IT WORKS!

When Paul’s missionary party was put in jail at Philippi, the Bible tells us in Acts 16 that Paul and Silas began to sing and praise the Lord at midnight. As they were singing and praising the Lord, there was an earthquake, all the doors of the prison were opened, and the chains of every prisoner fell off. The jailer was about to take his own life when Paul called out to him and said, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here” (verse 28).

Listen to what the jailer said when he came to Paul and Barnabas. These are his words as recorded in the Bible. “What must I do to be saved?” (verse 30). Here is the answer to the question the jailer asked. Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (verse 31). Do you know what that statement did? It shattered all human ideas and all demonic opposition. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” But the complexity behind it was in the mind of God. By the death of God’s Son on the cross, that jailer could be saved. The first rock on which to build your faith is the visitation of God through Jesus Christ. That lies at the bottom or the foundation.

The second rock is:

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

The verification of God was accomplished by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The second chapter of Acts tells us that the first-century disciples were gathered in Jerusalem. And as they were praying, the Holy Spirit came upon the waiting assembly. I don’t think they knew what they were waiting for. They were told to wait. But they probably did not know that what they were waiting for would happen that day. After that outpouring, after that verification of God, Peter laid it before the multitude. He said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” That’s Acts 2:38. That is the verification of God.

In our text in I Corinthians, Paul said he avoided the enticing words of man’s wisdom. They were contrary to the Spirit. Let me demonstrate this with the old saying, perhaps you have heard it, Never count your chickens before they hatch. Remember that? Now in enticing words of man’s wisdom, it might be said like this: “Never calculate on your juvenile poultry until the incubation period has fully materialized.” That wouldn’t say any more. It just multiplied words. That is what enticing words of man’s wisdom does. It multiplies words.

Some years ago I was present at a professional society, and I heard a scholar who titled his lecture on the resurrection of Christ-like this: “The Historical Accuracy of the Markan Account of the Resurrection.” See, those were enticing words of man’s wisdom. He could have simply said, “I am speaking on Mark’s account of the resurrection.”

Know this: When you believe on the Visitation of God, you will experience the Verification of God by the Spirit of God. Yes, that is true because God demonstrates the truth by the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. That’s what I call the Verification of God.

The third rock is:

The Vitalization of God will bring enabling. Jesus said to His disciples, before He ascended, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Wait until you receive the promise of my Father, He said. Then He said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

That vitalization changed Peter from the denier of his Lord to a valiant proclaimer of salvation. He told the authorities when they arrested him, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). And he was right.

That vitalization carried Peter into a Gentile’s house, Cornelius the centurion. Against all tradition, he went to this Gentile’s house and told him how to be saved.

That vitalization struck Saul of Tarsus to the ground on the way to Damascus and made him a fearless preacher. That is what it will do. That is what it has done.

That vitalization today sends the Gospel around the world. HERALDS OF HOPE, INC., is broadcasting the Gospel to three-fourths of the world. Three-fourths of the world means at least four to five billion people are within the listening range of my voice.

It is the dynamite to release the truth! So the apostle said, “I don’t want your faith to stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God,” the Vitalization of God.

When you believe in:

So with Paul, I appeal to you to base your faith on these rocks of truth and know the God who stands behind it all. Amen.