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Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Luke.
[00:00:14] And Jesus spake also a parable unto them.
[00:00:19] Can the blind guide the blind?
[00:00:24] Shall they not boast? For into a pit the disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is perfected, shall be his teacher.
[00:00:38] Shall be as his teacher.
[00:00:41] Oh, I'm sorry. Did I not say verse 40? Sorry. Luke, chapter six, verse 40.
[00:00:48] I'll read it again. The disciple is not above his teeth teacher, but everyone, when he is perfected, shall be as his teacher.
[00:00:58] And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?
[00:01:04] But consider us not the beam that is in thine own eye?
[00:01:09] Or how canst thou say to thy brother, brother, let me cast out the mote that is in thine eye. And thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye. For there is no good twee that bringeth forth corrupt fruit, nor again a corrupt tweed that bringeth forth the good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather fig, nor of a bramble bush gather. They grape the good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
[00:02:24] And why call ye me Lord?
[00:02:28] Lord.
[00:02:29] And do not the things which I say, every one cometh unto me, and heareth my words and doeth them.
[00:02:39] I will show you to whom he is like.
[00:02:43] He is like a man building a house who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon the rock.
[00:02:52] And when a flood arose, the stream brake against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well builded.
[00:03:03] But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that built a house upon the earth without a foundation, against which the stream break, and straightway it fell in, and the ruin of that house was great.
[00:03:27] Now, there are two other portions of the word that I would like to read.
[00:03:33] One is in the first letter of Peter and chapter two.
[00:03:39] And it is one verse, verse six.
[00:03:45] One Peter, Chapter two, verse six. Because it is contained in Scripture.
[00:03:54] Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
[00:04:15] And then in the second letter of Peter, chapter one and verse ten. 10 Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure.
[00:04:41] For if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble.
[00:04:47] For thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
[00:05:05] I want to say something this evening about what I consider to be a most important matter.
[00:05:21] I really do not think that one could speak about a subject more vital, more essential than this.
[00:05:35] And it is the matter of foundation.
[00:05:39] Foundations.
[00:05:41] In Luke chapter 6 and verse 47, he said, he is like a man who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon the rock.
[00:06:05] Did you hear that?
[00:06:07] He is like a man who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon the rock.
[00:06:27] Foundations are the most important thing about a building.
[00:06:35] The interesting thing is that, generally speaking, you do not see foundations.
[00:06:41] Foundations are the one part of the house which is not immediately apparent or obvious.
[00:06:53] It is hidden.
[00:06:56] And this is absolutely true.
[00:07:01] The individual believer and the work of God.
[00:07:07] The house of God.
[00:07:09] The foundations are not always apparent. They are not always obvious. You cannot see them at a glance.
[00:07:21] They are hidden.
[00:07:22] Yet the foundation are the matter, as it were, that governs the whole structure, the strength of the structure, the preservation of the structure, the security of the whole structure.
[00:07:48] No wonder the Lord Jesus, when he preached this tremendous message that we call the Sermon on the Mount, ended with these words, which by and large are taken as a gospel illustration.
[00:08:02] Now, I have no argument with this parable that he spoke at the end of the Sermon on the Mount being taken as a gospel illustration. It is an illustration of the Gospel. But what do we mean by the Gospel if we would relegate this parable of our Lord only to those who are saved and unsaved, as if automatically the saved go deep and lay a foundation upon the rock, and the unsaved build only on the soil. I think we only have a half truth.
[00:08:46] The gospel is this.
[00:08:49] Not only that a person hears, but he does he. He do. He does he do many, many believers hear?
[00:09:11] This is not the matter in question.
[00:09:17] You can hear the Word.
[00:09:19] You can read the Word.
[00:09:22] You can memorize the Word.
[00:09:26] That is not the matter in question.
[00:09:30] The matter in question is whether we hear and do the Word.
[00:09:39] We become not only hearers of the Word of God, but we become doers of the Word of God. Could there be anything more simple?
[00:09:53] And yet we have to say that multitudes and multitudes of believers fall into the second category of people who hear and hear and. And hear and hear again and hear again and do not do that. Is why church history is filled with the illustration of the truth of this parable.
[00:10:23] Works that when the moment of crisis come, do not merely collapse, but they become the very haunt, the very, the very nest of evil things.
[00:10:47] It is so interesting because when we read Matthew's account over against Luke's account, we find something quite interesting.
[00:10:59] Matthew tells the story principally in the same way as Luke does.
[00:11:07] But from Matthew's account, if you wish to make a note of it, you will find it in Matthew and chapter seven.
[00:11:21] From verse 24 to 27, you will find that the way Matthew records this parable which our Lord spoke, as if these two houses were a mile or two away from each other.
[00:11:41] Here was one house built in the valley, on soil, on earth, on sand.
[00:11:50] And here, a mile or two away, perhaps up on the mountainside, or was a house built on bare rock.
[00:12:01] And our Lord just used illustrations. One man built a house on the sand here, and somewhere up there a man built another house, but he built it on the rock.
[00:12:16] Luke, being a doctor, appears to me to give attention to detail.
[00:12:25] And it is one all important detail which Luke alone includes.
[00:12:31] And here it is. He says he is like a man building a house who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon rock. Verse 49.
[00:12:46] He that heareth and doeth not is like a man that built a house upon the earth without a foundation. In other words, these houses could be built side by side.
[00:13:00] The difference was this, that one man built quickly and got the job done and built on the topsoil, but the other man digged and went deep.
[00:13:16] Now that's an interesting point, isn't it? He didn't just dig as if he went to a foot or two foot, but he digged and went deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
[00:13:33] I think this throws the whole parable into a new light.
[00:13:42] Suddenly it becomes starkly clear that you can have two Christian lives side by side which look so much alike.
[00:13:58] You can't see the foundation.
[00:14:00] You can only see the little windows and the curtains and the window boxes, the little fun garden and everything else. You can't see what is underneath.
[00:14:14] What finds out the difference is the storm.
[00:14:20] When the storm comes, the fact of foundations becomes only to a pattern.
[00:14:34] The storm comes in. One house stands, it shakes, but it stands, and the other house falls under the impact.
[00:14:51] Now why do you think that the apostle Peter, writing his second letter to believers, says, give diligence, brethren.
[00:15:08] Not give diligence everyone, but give diligence, brethren.
[00:15:17] Those who've been born of God Give diligence to make your your calling and election sure.
[00:15:27] For if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble. Not meaning you'll never fall, you'll never trip, but rather you'll never know this kind of collapse.
[00:15:40] But a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be ministered to you. In other words, you'll move into the presence of the Lord finally with something in your life that is eternal. It will go into the kingdom, it will go into eternity, it will be in the city, it will be found at the end.
[00:16:11] I say to me it is tremendously important.
[00:16:15] Why?
[00:16:16] Because whether we realize it or not, we as the people of God are moving into a period of shaking unparalleled in world history.
[00:16:33] There have been many times of shaking in world history, but the book tells us that at the time of the end, God has promised, I will not only shake the earth, but I will shake the heavens also.
[00:16:57] That the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
[00:17:04] Now, I find this very interesting because we. I remember some years ago, or must now be about 10 years ago, when relatively speaking, we had to say that for us anyway, in our generation, it seemed as if things were reasonably okay. And we said two or three times, you know there's going to come a time of shaking. When you look back over the last 10 years or 15 years, my word, we've known some shaking, some earth shattering things have been happening in the earth. And bit by bit, stage by stage, it is going on.
[00:17:46] Now, if this shaking is going to come by the grace of God, we have a little time left to us in which we can make our calling and election. Sure, we have a little time given to us. It may be a few years, it may be a decade. But listen, even those of you who are the youngest in this room tonight, how quickly life goes.
[00:18:15] Now, those of you who are getting into your 40s and 50s and even older, you know very well that 10 years is gone. Like a week.
[00:18:23] You turn around and I remember years ago at a conference, Mr. Spark saying to me, you know, I don't know where the last 25 years of my life have gone.
[00:18:35] And I said, do you think it's because the world has speeded up or do you think it's age?
[00:18:43] And he said, well, I think really it's age.
[00:18:48] As you begin to get older, time flies.
[00:18:53] I remember when I was a child when one year seemed eternity. I couldn't remember the previous birthday with all those candles. Well, there weren't so many then. I mean, those candles glittering on it and the presents and so on. And one couldn't wait for the next occasion. But it seemed to be ages and ages and ages and ages and ages. Ages in coming. Do you remember those long school terms?
[00:19:21] Oh, dear. They seem to be like the millennium. They seem to be a thousand years.
[00:19:29] You used to endure them. If you were like me. You used to endure those terms and think, will they ever come to an end? Will they ever.
[00:19:38] But today I find for myself there is no sooner or one Christmas, then it's the next Christmas. It's no sooner one anniversary of some kind or another than it's the next. And some. Some one will tell me, you know, when I last saw you?
[00:19:54] No, I say seven years ago. I said seven years ago. Of course, it's ridiculous. No, no, no, no. It was two years ago. No, it wasn't. It was seven years ago.
[00:20:04] We think we have a decade in front of us. That decade will go like the wind.
[00:20:10] And people have got this. The devil says, now, don't get panicked. Don't get panicked. Don't let him frighten you again. He has a great tendency in this direction. Don't let him panic you. Don't let him get you into anything. We've got a hole. We've at least got 10 years. We've at least got 15 years. But these years fly.
[00:20:36] And then we suddenly find that our life has been filled up with clutter. All kinds of things we've been doing. Rushing here, rushing there, rushing there. But the things that are our priority we have not really given. It's not that we will not. We're going to when we have time.
[00:20:59] Always we are going to give ourselves to these people prior priority matters when we have time.
[00:21:10] The interesting thing is we never get time.
[00:21:18] If the apostle Peter said, give diligence, brethren, to make your calling and election sure. For if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble.
[00:21:30] Don't you think that we should listen to him?
[00:21:39] If the apostle Peter said, in another place, because it says in Scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
[00:21:59] Don't you think it's true?
[00:22:02] What does it mean? He that's just exercised a kind of decision faith that right at the very beginning we made some decision for the Lord. Thank God for that. It's a gift of faith has come to us in the person of the Holy Spirit. We cannot be more thankful that we've had converting faith given to us that we've been born of God. But Listen, don't you think that it is important not only to have that kind of faith, but to have gone right on with God?
[00:22:44] He that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
[00:22:51] If you really think about the kind of issues that are holding you up and holding me up, they're all matters of in the end of real trust.
[00:23:04] Why can I not surrender to God? Because I cannot trust that it's the best thing.
[00:23:11] Why can I not really give over to God what He wants? I know in my heart he wants it. Because I cannot believe that it's going to be for my good, that I shall be satisfied, that I shall be joyful.
[00:23:26] So I would rather hold on to things than surrender. I would rather, as it were, be in charge of my own destiny and of my own way and my own development than to surrender to Him.
[00:23:42] But this matter of digging and going deep and laying a foundation upon the rock is a matter of trusting in him on every issue.
[00:23:59] No one can allow God to deal with them unless you trust in Him.
[00:24:07] But once you know that he only wants your good and has your welfare at heart and your preservation and fulfillment, then you are prepared to trust him and walk with Him. You will never be put to shame.
[00:24:32] You will never be put to shame.
[00:24:36] Now, I say this because I think it's very, very important, this whole matter of foundation. We are living in a period of shaking. But what we have experienced at present about the first tremors of a gigantic moral, political and economic earthquake.
[00:24:57] As we move on, this thing will shake and shake and shake and shake and shake until all the well known ways and paths will disappear.
[00:25:10] And in the end, this moral and political shaking will become a physical shaking so that the stars themselves will fall out of the heavens and things will appear in sun and moon, and the tides will somehow begin to become restless.
[00:25:33] The scripture speaks of it all. In Luke 21 it says, Men's hearts will faint for fear because of the roaring of the sea and because of those things which they see in the heavens. This isn't speaking just, you can't spiritualize it.
[00:25:48] The Lord was speaking of physical things, the convulsions that will come at the end. It's beginning as a spiritual matter and will finally end in physical things.
[00:26:01] Now, if this shaking is going to come, dear people of God, whether in my individual life, your individual life, whether in our life together as the people of God, whether in church life or the service of God, you and I need to dig and go deep and lay the foundation upon the rock and get on with the building.
[00:26:35] I know some will say, oh, we've heard so much about building, we're sick to death of the whole thing. We've heard building, building, building and more building.
[00:26:44] Well, here's a bit more coming up.
[00:26:49] Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect.
[00:26:57] What is a cornerstone?
[00:26:59] It's not an ornament.
[00:27:02] A cornerstone has no meaning unless there is a building.
[00:27:10] Behold, says God the Father, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect.
[00:27:17] That is predestined, chosen, precious. Oh, wonderful.
[00:27:24] He that believeth on him, into him shall not be put to shame.
[00:27:32] If you let God do this work in your life, you make your calling and election sure. If you allow the Holy Spirit to really discipline you and trap, train you and educate you and. And start to break you, bring you to the place where you can lay down your life in faith. No man can lay down his life for the Lord and for his brothers and sisters unless he trusts in the Lord.
[00:27:58] You will immediately say, if I lay down my life, they'll all walk over me. Yes, they will. I can guarantee that.
[00:28:04] I can guarantee it.
[00:28:06] Don't let me give you any ideas of it being a bed of roses. You say if I lay down my lap, everyone will love me.
[00:28:13] They will all caress me, they will all think well of me. They will do nothing of the kind.
[00:28:20] There is nothing like the Church for walking on our corners.
[00:28:24] They will tread all over you.
[00:28:28] Some of them will use you, some of them will exploit you. Some of them will try to manipulate you. You. Some will lecture you, some will break you with great delight.
[00:28:40] What are you moaning about?
[00:28:44] How else can anyone come into the building work of God unless they lay down their lives? And how can your the laying down of your life be proved unless it is that your brothers and sisters are the means for proving? It is exactly how it happens.
[00:29:09] You cannot know what it is to have a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit unless you believe on him daily. You must appropriate that fullness of the Holy Spirit. And if you have never entered into your inheritance and birthright in the person of the Holy Spirit, you must enter in by faith.
[00:29:35] How can you know what it is to be immersed in the person of the Holy Spirit unless it is through Jesus, the one who immerses us, who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit and in fire.
[00:29:47] There's no other way.
[00:29:49] You have to put your trust in Him.
[00:29:53] Why be afraid so? Some people will think you're a crack. Some people say, oh, so and so, gone all queer.
[00:30:01] Join the Charismatics. Let them think it what does it matter as long as you're calling an election sure.
[00:30:09] I'd rather be called a charismatic and have a calling an election which is sure than to be thought of as very sad and balanced and find in the end that when the storm comes, the house falls, you can't pour out your life in service apart from trusting in him.
[00:30:32] No one can do it. I know many people who have started in this matter of serving the Lord.
[00:30:38] The so called mission field is filled with failure.
[00:30:43] Sometimes there are people from whom all the joy and the peace and the life and power has long departed, leaving bitter, frustrated, unhappy people.
[00:31:05] I know many who started to serve the Lord. But then when they find that all their time is taken up and all their energy is taken up and somehow or other it's not so glamorous or self fulfilling as they thought, they would prefer to draw out, resign themselves, retire early.
[00:31:29] It cannot be done.
[00:31:31] And the only person who can go on pouring out his life is the person who can trust in him.
[00:31:38] Because you see, the deepest instinct in us all is self preservation. And when you pour out and pour out and pour out and pour out, there comes a point where you feel like a one pouring out.
[00:31:50] It will be the end.
[00:31:52] And anyway, what am I doing point out? No one seems to appreciate it anyway.
[00:31:56] Look at them.
[00:31:59] I spend my time, I never get a word of thanks, a word of commendation. No one seems to say anything. No book or pamphlet is written about me.
[00:32:11] I'm taken absolutely for granted. I might be a fixture for all they care for such is pouring out.
[00:32:22] No one can go on pouring out their life unless they really believe in Him.
[00:32:31] Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone Elect precious.
[00:32:39] He that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
[00:32:46] I wonder who will put to shame.
[00:32:52] Will circumstances, Will Satan, will the world?
[00:33:01] Who will put us to shame?
[00:33:11] Jesus said, every one that cometh unto me and heareth my word doeth them, I will show you to whom he is loved.
[00:33:27] He is like a man building a house who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon the rock.
[00:33:49] Digging deep.
[00:33:51] I have, I think God is calling you and me to dig deep.
[00:34:05] You see.
[00:34:06] Let me take another line for one moment.
[00:34:10] Okay.
[00:34:12] Some of you say, look, don't really agree with you in your view of the end.
[00:34:19] I mean, people have always been saying this great shaking is going to come and of course it will in the end. But I'm not all sure that we're really at the end.
[00:34:27] Maybe another century or two.
[00:34:30] After all, didn't they Think in Martin Luther's day that it was great shaking and it was the end.
[00:34:37] And there are many others who thought like that. Well, all right, all right. But let me tell you something.
[00:34:44] It doesn't matter who you are in this room. If we are not in the time at the end, then all of us will have to face the kind of storm that comes to believer and unbeliever alike.
[00:35:05] For instance, your husband can suddenly be taken, your wife can suddenly be struck down.
[00:35:20] Then into your life comes a storm and shakes every part of a storm structure.
[00:35:31] All that you have known, all that you have believed, everything.
[00:35:42] Sometimes it may be a child, sometimes it's a beloved parent, sometimes it is the death.
[00:35:55] A brother or a sister who meant so much to you.
[00:36:01] It comes to all saved and unsaved.
[00:36:07] These are the storm.
[00:36:09] When, as our Lord says, when a flood arose, the stream break against that house and could not shake it.
[00:36:25] These floods in the east are sudden things. They build up, they're local.
[00:36:29] It is interesting.
[00:36:32] You can stand 200 yards away and dry almost in the sunshine. You can see black cloud over there and tremendous water is pouring down.
[00:36:41] And within a few moments 20 foot wall of water can be moving down one of these wadis, these dried up valley riverbeds.
[00:37:02] Sometimes it's not bereavement, sometimes it is sickness.
[00:37:07] Into a person's life comes some sickness that's just will not yield. There's prayer, there's faith. Won't yield.
[00:37:18] This can be a storm which can shake a whole structure of a person's life to it foundation to find out what it's there.
[00:37:31] Sometimes it can be disappointment.
[00:37:34] Disappointment over career.
[00:37:39] The overlooking of a person due for promotion for somebody else may not seem much to some people here, but for some it can be a terrible storm which shakes themselves because they even question God. Why, why, why?
[00:38:00] Into every human being's life there comes sooner or later storms.
[00:38:10] So even if you do not agree with me about my view of what is happening in the world and where we are as the people of God, in the economy of God, in the, in the sort of ongoing purpose of God, the fact remains that this storm, this, these storms will come to all of us, young or old.
[00:38:39] We have time.
[00:38:41] There is only one answer here. It is, it is simplicity itself.
[00:38:51] Everyone that cometh unto me and heareth my words and doeth them, a child should be able to understand that.
[00:39:08] Really, you know, we have to say this.
[00:39:16] Much of our church life, let's face it, is sham.
[00:39:27] I don't mean just us. I mean in general, so much of our church life is shared.
[00:39:35] We live on others lives.
[00:39:45] It's only when they're withdrawn that we suddenly find out.
[00:39:48] Oh, we wonder what's wrong.
[00:39:59] God is so gracious to us.
[00:40:05] God doesn't want to shake us to pieces. He has no desire.
[00:40:11] Why do you think he has saved you? Do you think he saved you too much? You. Do you think he saved you to put you to shame? Do you think he saved you to shake you to pieces? Do you think that is the kind of God and Savior who is yours? No. No, never.
[00:40:30] The Lord and Savior who brought you to faith in himself is the one who longs to make you unshakable.
[00:40:45] But you and I, we have a responsibility.
[00:40:51] If we have another time next week, I want to speak on the other side of the coin of this matter. Divine faithfulness.
[00:40:58] But tonight we underline human responsibility.
[00:41:07] What is your responsibility?
[00:41:11] To come to him.
[00:41:13] Not enough.
[00:41:15] To come and hear his words?
[00:41:17] Not enough.
[00:41:23] You must come to him, hear his words and do them.
[00:41:34] Well then what does it mean?
[00:41:44] Listen. This is what it means.
[00:41:50] If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his craft and and follow he that loseth his life for my sake and the gospel the same shall find it.
[00:42:14] They are his words.
[00:42:17] How do you do them?
[00:42:24] How do you do them?
[00:42:26] You follow him.
[00:42:28] You deny yourself, you take up your cross.
[00:42:41] Or you say, I don't know. There are many other things you know. The Lord said, yes, of course it is.
[00:42:47] But this is the gateway.
[00:42:53] You let go and God will move in every one that cometh to me and heareth my words and doeth them.
[00:43:12] I will tell you to whom he is like.
[00:43:16] He is like a man building a house who digged and went deep and laid the foundation upon the rock. I can just imagine those two houses, one side by side.
[00:43:30] Both bought the plots of ground. Both started to get excited. Both drew up the plans, got their architects on the job. I don't know if they did have them, but you know what I mean.
[00:43:40] It was all very exciting. One started straight away and he was off like the wind.
[00:43:48] And the other was digging, just digging. Now, I tell you one thing, except for the winds out in those parts, it can be a very hot job digging.
[00:44:00] That fellow must have lost a tremendous amount of perspiration.
[00:44:06] I can just imagine it. And this other man in the other house was already almost moved in while the other fellow was still buried in a trench.
[00:44:16] I could just imagine them in the other house, still down in his trench, digging.
[00:44:32] Sometimes it's much easier to get on with a job seemingly and take a shortcut.
[00:44:40] Much, much easier to have all froth and bubble and somehow or other it all seems to. We're getting on with it, we're getting it done, but it isn't.
[00:44:49] Digging and going deep is a costly business.
[00:44:54] Maybe it's the job you're at. You find it too, too much, too much. Why do you find it too much?
[00:45:05] Because you find it too much of a discipline.
[00:45:10] But maybe it's digging and going deep and laying a foundation upon the rock.
[00:45:19] You see what I mean?
[00:45:27] Not always easy to be punctual at work. It's not always easy to give conscientious service, especially if you've got a very critical boss.
[00:45:36] But maybe it's all part of digging, going deep and laying a foundation upon the rock.
[00:45:45] God often puts us with very difficult people in the church. He we don't like. Sometimes he puts younger one with an older one.
[00:45:54] We don't always like it, we cannot count.
[00:46:01] And we build a house very fast, but it has no foundations.
[00:46:08] Persevering because you believe in him means that somehow you dig. And there's an awful lot of spade work. Digging, digging, digging.
[00:46:21] Not very glamorous, not very exciting, but you're digging. Do you know there's another way to dig?
[00:46:29] Study the Bible.
[00:46:32] Now, some of you say, well, I was brought up in a Christian home. I've known the Bible since the day I was born.
[00:46:40] Ah, that's the trouble.
[00:46:47] Do you know what digging for you is?
[00:46:50] Meditating on the word of God.
[00:46:58] Really meditating. See, sometimes we only want what's excitable. Anything that we've only had a revelation.
[00:47:05] Every time we open the book, it becomes very exciting.
[00:47:09] Sort of divine light flooding us, the whole room swimming around us, the light swaying backwards and forwards and angels hovering in the background. And somehow we go, my word, this is so exciting.
[00:47:24] That's not digging and going deep. Digging and going deep is really reading the word of God, digesting the word of God, getting right down to it.
[00:47:42] There are a thousand other ways in which we dig and go deep.
[00:47:49] But all I want to say this evening is this, that whether it is individually or whether it is corporately, God has given us a key to this matter.
[00:48:04] What is it?
[00:48:05] That we should hear the Word and we should do it.
[00:48:09] Well, you say, I don't know how to do something.
[00:48:12] Oh, yes, I tell you, if you will only trust in him, you'll never be put to shame.
[00:48:19] So if you don't know what to do, but you know that the word of the Lord has come to you, you and come to you quite clearly and you know it.
[00:48:27] Trust him, go back to him and say, I trust you for this word. I want to be willing to follow you the whole way on this thing. Help me to understand it and you will find that the Lord will take you at your word.
[00:48:47] You may not have any flashes of sudden illumination to begin with or any sort of dramatic sensational ecstasies or feelings to begin with. I'm sure sometime you will know something.
[00:49:05] But if you will only begin to go directly to the Lord on some of these things, you will find the Lord will take you.
[00:49:19] He digged deep, he digged and went deep and laid the foundation upon the rock.
[00:49:27] What do you think this topsoil is that this other man built the house on? I always find that very interesting. You see if you can imagine the rock is underneath that 6ft, perhaps 4ft, perhaps 2ft, perhaps 10ft. But the rock is underneath. But between the rock and this man's building of his house was all the top soil.
[00:49:54] What do you think the top soil is?
[00:49:59] I think sometimes it can be the top soil of our own energy, of our own resources, of our own strength, of our own self.
[00:50:17] It's not easy to, to allow our self manufactured Christianity to be destroyed.
[00:50:25] But God has his way of doing it.
[00:50:28] When we dig and go deep, sometimes he puts you with a person who's impossible.
[00:50:34] You can love every other believer in the world but that person. And the interesting thing is God puts you with that person and that person has the most wonderful ability to rub you up the wrong way.
[00:50:47] In the end it becomes sort of almost a storm cone warning. I mean as soon as they appear you just feel you can't face it. Your Christianity disappears.
[00:51:03] Digging and going deep, how do you discover yourself? Often by somebody else.
[00:51:13] This is the whole value really of being together, going on together, of finding our relationship to one another.
[00:51:22] Now there's so much more that one could say that I don't think it needs to be said.
[00:51:27] Because really what we have said is enough shaking will come to us all, all together apart in my estimation from the personal storms that will come to will be this other shaking that the book speaks about.
[00:51:56] What then should we do?
[00:52:01] Take heed to God's word.
[00:52:04] Don't try to get the beam out of your brother's eye, the mote out of your brother's eye, when there's a beam in your own.
[00:52:17] Dig and go deep and lay the foundation upon the rock.
[00:52:23] Get the Beam out of your own eye.
[00:52:27] Then you will be able to minister to your brother.
[00:52:35] What kind of fruit are you bearing?
[00:52:42] Fruit of the spirit.
[00:52:45] If not, it's as faction or rivalry or jealousy or hatred or deceit or dishonesty and not love, joy, peace, long suffering, faithfulness and so on.
[00:53:13] We've got to face these things. Allow God to deal with. Sometimes he uses circumstances, Sometimes he will use your job, sometimes he'll use the college. Sometimes he will use your brothers and sisters. Sometimes he will use your husband or your wife or your children or your parents. But he will use all kinds of things to bring you to the place where you will see there's a lot of topsoil that's got to be removed.
[00:53:39] Don't blame others.
[00:53:41] Don't all the time say oh, it's so and so they're at fault.
[00:53:51] Dig and go deep and lay the foundation upon the rock.
[00:54:01] Who is the rock?
[00:54:04] God?
[00:54:06] What is the foundation?
[00:54:09] Jesus.
[00:54:12] How do you build?
[00:54:14] By the Spirit?
[00:54:15] With what do you build?
[00:54:19] Living stones.
[00:54:27] So I don't know if this finds you out. Finds me out.
[00:54:32] It is a very, very solemn and rather frightening prospect that all of us must face storms personally and then it will become apparent to everybody whether we had foundations or not.
[00:55:01] I've seen some very fine looking saints collapse in a heap and have not been able to handle a matter as well as some simple little child of God who only took a few faltering steps but who trusted the Lord.
[00:55:27] Now if this is really true, we have time, thank God for that.
[00:55:32] And I think one of the ways we're in as a company is just here. It's not just individual. I believe this is happening to us corporately.
[00:55:39] We're having to really make our corporate calling and election. Sure, we've got to make, we've got to find it. It doesn't rest on Lance. It doesn't rest on another brother. It doesn't rest on another brother. This is a calling and election of us as the people of God, as a company of God's children.
[00:56:00] We don't always find these dull group meetings too up to our standard or to what exactly we want.
[00:56:08] Sometimes we don't find these meetings together when we come together exactly what we want.
[00:56:16] But it is a much better thing to have to start digging, going deep and finding the rock underneath the topsoil of our own energy or resources or secondhand experience.
[00:56:35] Oh, many, many believers can hide in a company, especially if there's an anointed ministry, an anointed leadership. They can hide in it very easily. You can coast along. Everything is wonderful because someone senses the Lord's mind. And when somebody senses the Lord mind, we often say, yes, yes, yes, that's right.
[00:56:54] Or when there's a wrong, then we know, oh, that's not right. But we know it much more easily when the subconscious. Someone who says, I believe this is the way the Lord wants me. Yes. We say, of course, how wonderful we're moving with God.
[00:57:08] But you take away that person or you take away a few people, and what happens? Suddenly we don't know where we are. We don't. So we start to blame one another. So we go, this one's wrong. They're wrong. The others are wrong. The old one's wrong. The young ones are wrong. Somebody else. This section, that section, the other. This teaching. That teaching.
[00:57:26] No, it's topsoil.
[00:57:30] That's all.
[00:57:32] We thought we were on the foundation, but we weren't on the foundation. We were on topsoil. Secondhand experience, secondhand church life.
[00:57:45] We didn't have our own feet down upon the rock so that we could be riveted together as brothers and sisters, each contributing, each functioning. All along we thought we were, but we were.
[00:58:04] So digging and going deep and laying a foundation upon the rock is a costly business corporately.
[00:58:09] And there are many who say to me, write to you. Some of you write to thank God. I love every letter I get.
[00:58:16] Even those who moan when you are away. Anything is better than nothing.
[00:58:29] Lovely to hear from anybody. Some people I never hear from, ever.
[00:58:35] But it's lovely when you do hear. But, you know, some people write to me and say, oh, dear, I wish we had the old days back, or this or that or the other. But, you know, don't wish for old days. It's stupid.
[00:58:50] God is in this whole thing.
[00:58:52] And what God is doing is this.
[00:58:55] He's sorting out the topsoil.
[00:58:59] Now, if you and I are not prepared to cooperate, there's no hope.
[00:59:05] We have to dig and go deep and lay the foundation upon the rock.
[00:59:13] Then we know that we're going to be all so strong in the Lord.
[00:59:18] Then we'll be able to flow together in a completely new way. We'll be able to give to one another as we've never given before. It won't be one person or a few, but all the ministries will come into their own. My own will come into a new way.
[00:59:37] And you're coming to him, hearing His Word and doing it.
[00:59:48] I say it's not very easy, this digging business. I'd much prefer to have got the house and the house warming and then have wonderful big conferences in this house and have house parties and everything else. And all of it so lovely. All flowers everywhere, lovely. Everything laid out, food on, everything tables, sideboards, everything wonderful and no foundation.
[01:00:15] This business of getting down to topsoil and digging and going deep and finding the rock underneath is a messy, dirty, sweaty business.
[01:00:28] It's not very glamorous.
[01:00:31] No lovely flowers, no lovely tables laid with beautiful table. Because we're still down in a trench, digging, digging, digging, and, you know, we seem to be. Will we ever get to the work?
[01:00:43] The others are having a marvellous time and still we're digging.
[01:00:49] Don't give up. Young or old, keep on digging.
[01:00:55] There's quite a bit of top soil we've got to get through, but in the end, underneath is the rock. And when we find the rock, there's a foundation. And when we find the foundation, then we hear the word of God. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame to come down to that rock where the real building can begin and not the sham building, where the real kind of work can be done. I'm not saying that there's no work ever being done. My goodness, you know, I believe a tremendous amount has been done. But again and again and again, we hide in one another.
[01:01:47] And this cannot be.
[01:01:50] If you're going to occupy a position in God's eternal administration and government, you've got to learn how to discern his will, to know his mind and to do it yourself.
[01:02:03] You've got to know how to stand firm when everybody else seems to be going wrong.
[01:02:12] You've got to learn how to ask forgiveness, how to get the beam out of your own eye before you get the mote out of your brother.
[01:02:32] May the Lord help us in this matter.
[01:02:38] He is like a man building a house who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon the rock.
[01:02:52] Shall we pray, dear Lord?
[01:02:59] Do we pray really write this word in our hearts?
[01:03:05] There can be, Lord, surely not one of us who is not in need of going deeper?
[01:03:18] Lord, we want to get on with the whole building.
[01:03:23] But, Lord, we do feel this word about really hearing Thee and doing Thy word.
[01:03:31] Do help us, Lord.
[01:03:35] We thank thee for those things which are eternal.
[01:03:39] We thank Thee for thy self.
[01:03:43] We thank Thee for Thy word.
[01:03:48] We thank Thee for thy work.
[01:03:52] We thank Thee for Thy will.
[01:03:55] Lord. These things abide forever.
[01:03:58] Oh, Lord, help us to come right down each one personally originally to that rock beneath all the topsoil of second hand experience of inherited ideas of so much, Lord, that is our own energy, self manufactured Christianity. Help us Lord, we pray. Let Thy Holy Spirit take this whole matter on in our hearts and lives and Lord, as a company of Thy children. O Lord, help us, we pray. In this phase we're in where we're having to go through top soil right down to the rock.
[01:04:38] Help us Lord, and help us all to be understanding of one another.
[01:04:44] Dear Lord, give us this grace. We pray.
[01:04:48] And now we ask this all in the name of our Lord Jesus, of whom Thou hast said, Father, that if we believe on him, we shall never be put to shame.
[01:05:02] We thank Thee.
[01:05:04] Amen.
