Presented By on August 9, 2008
The Word of God is the foundation of knowledge. It is that foundation that is so essential that without it there can be no spiritual building.
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It is indeed an honor and a privilege to speak to all of you this afternoon on a very special Sabbath, I did not know what baccalaureate meant and in the last few days I've studied that, this is a baccalaureate sermon I'm told and indeed I do want to extend a welcome to all family and friends of ABC students who are here today and also I want to extend a special welcome and thank you to all of the ABC students for a wonderful year. Seems that each year goes by faster than the previous one but I think this one went by faster than all the others. It does seem like it was last week that we were at the orientation and reception and now here we are at the graduation, it really seems difficult to know or to understand how rapidly the seven months have gone.
When I think about ABC I think back to, of course, the beginning of ABC, this is our ninth year of ABC, the ninth graduation of the students that have come through, I don't have the actual number, I'm sure someone does but it must be somewhere over 300 students that have gone through the ABC program. It has been a privilege and an honor to participate in this program, I recall back in 1999 when the program was being developed I received a phone call, must have been somewhere around the spring or summer of 1999, I don't quite remember, and asked me if I were selected or if I were asked to be an instructor, what could I teach? And I thought there were a number of things that any pastor could teach if he were asked, and I said, Well I could teach a class on the fundamental beliefs, I'd been involved in the development of some of that and I felt I could do that. I said I could also do a class possibly on church history, especially in the Colonial period, having studied that up in New England, or I could also do a class on the history of modern Israel or Israel in prophecy, going back through Ephraim and Manasseh, since I had researched that at Harvard for a number of years when I was living in New England. But I didn't hear anything after that, I said this is what I think I could do and then I went to the Feast of Tabernacles in 1999 in Corpus Christi and in 1999 at the Feast of Tabernacles there was a nice brochure being given out at the Feast about ABC and I opened up the brochure and there was a list of instructors and there I was! And I was teaching a class of fundamental beliefs. Now in our brochure currently we refer to that class as Doctrines I or Doctrines II but I've explained to the students as we begin each year, that these are the fundamental beliefs of the Church of God. And as our fundamental beliefs, they are foundational, they are indeed our foundation of beliefs and therefore it is very very important that we understand clearly about our fundamental beliefs. So I've enjoyed for the last nine years having the opportunity to teach the fundamental beliefs to all of the students who come through.
In 1999 another event occurred and I'm going to connect these two events together and I'm going to tie these two events together in a moment, but another event occurred in my life. In December of 1999 I made my very first trip to Africa. I've been back a number of years since and I've learned a lot of lessons, I believe the travel to Africa has profoundly changed my life, profoundly affected me. It gave me an insight into some things that I could only imagine or could only think about or only read about but to actually see it in place was very, not only interesting, but was quite dramatic, it's hard to explain the dramatic events that occur when you go from our culture and our society to a society that's very different. And when you get out away from even from the cities, even different yet.
I learned a number of lessons, a lot of things that really stuck with me over the years but one in particular that I want to relate this afternoon because again, I'm going to tie these two events, the fundamental beliefs of the United Church of God, the foundation of our beliefs with an experience that I had in Africa going back to about the year 2000, it wasn't on my first trip but one of the early trips. And when you went to Ghana back in those days, and still the same today, the members are primarily centered around three locations, three primary city areas where you'll find the majority of the members of the church. Accra which is the capital city where you fly into, there's a city called Kumasi that's about midway as you go north into the center of Ghana and then if you make a triangle and come back to the coast a little further west, you'll come to a place called Elmina. Elmina is actually a Portuguese word but yet the Portuguese had quite a bit of influence along the coast of West Africa. Just north of Elmina is a small village — in fact there is a cluster of small villages that really has one of the largest gathering of members in all of Ghana in a place called Agona. Agona is itself a small village, in many of these villages there is no electricity, it's absolutely amazing, I don't know when it occurred, maybe 30-40 years ago and I believe the money came from one of the Arab countries, possibly Egypt, to build a man made lake, it's the largest man made lake in the world, Lake Volta in the center of Ghana and it was built in order to generate electricity. Well there's still no electricity, they have this huge lake but there's no electricity being generated or at least not enough to provide for the entire country. So a lot of these villages have no electricity.
The first time I went to Agona we met for services on a piece of property owned by the church. The local church had obtained a piece of property, it allowed the church members to come, they actually farmed or grew produce there, they would grow pineapple or casaba, plantain and just other things that they would of course eat. So they had this piece of property, they had a house on it, they had another building that was falling apart, in fact the back of the building was completely gone, parts of the side of the building had fallen down and we would meet for services in this building, again with no back, barely had a roof and had other parts falling off, or — as the church was bigger and by the time I came back maybe the second or third time, the church was large enough that we met outside underneath the trees. But on one particular visit they were so excited, they said, we want to show you what we've been doing and they had begun building a building in which they could hold services in and also meet for the Feast of Tabernacles, on the property. And they had poured the foundation, the foundation had been poured and really the foundation was a wall that had been dug down into the ground and they filled it up with dirt to make a dirt floor for the floor of the building and then they were building up around that and built the walls. Now when I saw it for the first time, they had about three walls mostly done, the back wall wasn't quite finished and there was no roof yet, although they were putting rafters up, they were on ladders that had been woven together, tied together, bamboo pieces that they were using for ladders and hanging off at the tops of the rafters, putting rafters on this building.
Now this building would be bigger than this room, it would seat about five hundred people. They were planning for the Feast of Tabernacles. They were so excited they were getting this building built. Well I was thrilled to have seen that, been a part of that, then I left the country, came back a few months later, made another trip to Agona, and here we are, going to hold services still outside. And I said, well what happened to the building? They got very quiet and were very sad and I said, show me, where is the building? So they walked over to the other part of the property and here was the building and it had collapsed, the walls had fallen down, the foundation had crumbled. There was another friend with me from Houston and we walked up to the building and immediately it was obvious what had happened, there was no steel in the concrete — they had simply poured the concrete with no reinforcing of the concrete and when the rains came and they came a lot, the building had crumbled and had fallen apart. All of their efforts for many months were lost because the foundation had collapsed.
Now when I saw that and I thought about what a lesson that was when it comes to the foundation of our beliefs and relate it to a spiritual concept of the fundamental or foundational beliefs, not only of the United Church of God, but we believe, of God's Word and the fact of course, God's Word being the foundation. It really struck home to me that if you build a building, if you build a structure, spiritual or physical, without the proper reinforcement, without a foundation that's solid, then you will suffer disaster. It really drove the lesson home to me and of course they rebuilt the building, the building is now still mostly complete. In Africa, rarely do things get finished, they're still part finished with the building, they put rebar, they put steel in the foundation and then built upon it and it's solid today, we used it for the Feast of Tabernacles for the last several years. Fundamental, foundational, our spiritual foundation is essential for spiritual health, for spiritual growth, it is absolutely necessary, it is critical; it is absolutely essential that our foundation be solid and be built with reinforcement.
Another example that to me drives this point home — as a young boy looking at the Plain Truth magazine as a part of the church back in the 50's and the 60's, we had a lot of article about Ambassador College. As a young boy growing up in the 50's and the 60's, that was obviously something I wanted to do, I wanted to go to Ambassador College and I remember the vivid pictures and how often we had lots of pictures of the college. I always remember this one particular picture of an engraving, it was engraved in the granite on the side of a building in Pasadena, California. That engraving said something that was pretty powerful, that engraving was quite powerful, it identified very clearly the premise and the foundation of Ambassador College and that was very simple — "The Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of knowledge." That also impressed me and later on of course, when there were actually three colleges, each one had an engraving or a plaque that had that statement on it. In fact one of the earlier classes of ABC, I put a plaque out front on a rock of this building, "The Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of knowledge." It is that foundation that is so essential that without it there can be no spiritual building, there can be no superstructure, there can be nothing that will last without the foundation. The Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of knowledge.
Let's go to Matthew 5 — you're all familiar with Matthew 5, it's the story of the Sermon on the Mount, it's a very interesting story, especially if you consider the timing of this particular event, you look at the timing through the book of Matthew, you look at Matthew 3, you find that Christ is baptized by John the Baptist. We're told that after His baptism in chapter 4, He goes into the wilderness and He's tempted there by Satan. Then there is an interesting verse as you come to the end of Matthew 4 and it says that He goes back to Galilee to begin His ministry. Now it's a very interesting concept that Christ of course, the reason He goes back to Galilee, He's fulfilling the prophecy, it says there will be a light dawn in Galilee of the Gentiles, that Christ would actually begin His ministry there was prophesied in the Old TestamentThose books that make up the Hebrew Bible generally accepted by Christians, Jews and to some extent Muslims. It contains a threefold division: the Law (the five books of Moses), the Prophets and the Writings.. So He goes all the way from Jerusalem, which is the religious center of Judea, you know everything of religion comes from there, which later on even Christ and the disciples say, can any good thing come from Galilee? How can anything of religious merit come all the way from Galilee? It should come from Jerusalem. But Christ very deliberately goes back to Galilee to begin His ministry, at the end of chapter 4.
Then, while in Galilee, the Sermon on the Mount takes place, the longest discourse you might say, of Jesus Christ during the course of His ministry. Beginning in chapter 5 and going through chapter 7, and it's very interesting if you've read some of John R. W. Stott's work, he makes quite an interesting comparison between the Sermon on the Mount as is found here in Matthew 5, 6 and 7 and compares it to Exodus 20 and the giving of the law from Mt. Sinai. He draws the parallel and makes a lot of statements of the likenesses of the two. Again, this is his view, it struck me as being interesting, not necessarily that's it dogma but it's at least very interesting. He says, "In both instances, the word of God is speaking; only a small group is allowed to come upon the mountain." You read about Moses going up and Joshua going up. "Only a small group is allowed to come up (part way up the mountain in their case and Moses of course, to the mountain top). In the case of the Sermon on the Mount, it's the disciples that come up to Christ; later on of course others are there, but in the beginning, only the disciples. We also find that as in the teaching from Mt. Sinai comprises the core of the Old Covenant, the Sinaitic Covenant, the teaching from the Mount of Beatitudes, as it's called, comprises the core of the New Covenant. The teachings were given from a mountain in both instances; the Sinaitic Covenant was a call to action for Israel in the beginning of the nation of Israel. The New Covenant is a call to action for Christians in the beginning of a spiritual nation. The Sinaitic Covenant begins with Ten Commandments; the Sermon on the Mount begins with ten beatitudes. (Depending on how you count them, 9 you know, blessed are you...and then of course there's the one that says Rejoice so you can get ten out of that if you work at it.) The Sinaitic Covenant frightens the Israelites, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the people are amazed because Christ taught them as one having authority. The Israelites did not want to listen to God in Exodus 20 and the Jews of the first century rejected Christ and His teaching." So this is all from John R. W. Stott's book on the Sermon on the Mount. He draws that comparison between the two, simply showing the significance of these teachings of Christ in Matthew 5, 6 and 7.
Now if you follow the geography of this particular area, you go along the Sea of Galilee and the northern part of course of the nation of Israel and you can travel around the Sea of Galilee, you go from Tiberius over to Capernaum and as you're driving along the road you'll see a sign that says, "Mount of Beatitudes, Turn here." And you drive up to the top of this mountain and you see, of course there's a church there and you walk out, it directs you out to this precipice where you look out over the Sea of Galilee and you come up to the top of that and you can look right across at the Sea of Galilee, you can see it very clearly at that point and then you look down and there's an indentation in the mountainside there where it almost forms a very natural amphitheatre and of course that's the traditional site where Christ gave the Sermon on the Mount. Now whether He did or He didn't, obviously we don't know, He didn't leave any note for us there, we've not found anything there but that's the traditional site. But the point is, He's there on the mountainside. In Matt 5:1 starts the story:
Matt 5:1-2 — And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
It's interesting as Christ begins to teach, the very word for "taught" there is a similar word that we find translated "doctrine" later on. He's teaching them principles, principles to live by, foundational principles are going to come from this teaching of Christ. We find it listed here in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. But let's skip to the conclusion of this message. Christ had a very interesting conclusion to His message on the side of this mountain. Let's begin in V. 24:
V. 24-27 — "Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that hears these sayings of Mine and does them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it."
V. 28 — And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine...His doctrine — His teachings...for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
Let's go to Luke 6, I want to read the same account there because there's a little more detail in Luke 6, the same story Christ uses in Luke 6.
Luke 6:47 — "Whosoever comes to Me and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built a house and dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock. But he that hears and does not is like a man that without a foundation, built an house upon the earth against which the stream did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great."
So the analogy or the comparison between a foundation and no foundation in this particular case, or a rock versus sand as in the case we find back in Matthew. The analogy of the story works quite well to describes in a spiritual context, what it takes to build a spiritual house. Without a solid foundation, without fundamental, without foundational understanding, the spiritual house will not stand. It was always interesting to me, and as I mentioned earlier, going to Ambassador College, or looking forward to going to Ambassador College and remembering that engraving. It was, I suppose it was granite or whatever it was, the stone, it was actually engraved in it in Pasadena, and Big Sandy. I'm not sure what they had in Bricket Wood, it was a plaque, it would be on a rock to make the statement very clear. The word of God is the foundation of knowledge, it is fundamental, it is foundational, it is the rock, obviously, it is the solid core upon which our spiritual house must be built. As we look at ABC, as we look backward, as we look forward at ABC, we feel the same way. I'm very happy we have a plaque but whether we had a plaque or not, this is the fundamental principle upon which our lives must be based, whether we are ABC students or whether we are here as members of the Church of God, who happen to be a part of this congregation or we've come from far and yonder to visit, to enjoy the weekend, to enjoy the activities. The principle is absolutely the same, your house must be built on that foundation. If your house is not built upon that foundation, it will not survive.
Look at Psalm 11. I find an interesting statement from DavidKing of Israel, killed the giant Goliath with a sling and stones, a man after God's own heart, only turned from God in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5), had an affair with Bathsheba, Messiah would come from line of David, main author of Psalms and highly musical. in Psalms 11 which he writes about the righteous. DavidKing of Israel, killed the giant Goliath with a sling and stones, a man after God's own heart, only turned from God in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5), had an affair with Bathsheba, Messiah would come from line of David, main author of Psalms and highly musical. often wrote and certainly Solomon did as well, about the righteous and the wicked and how that the wicked are trying to destroy the righteous and how that God will often allow them to do that. I mean I always read this verse in Daniel that always struck me, in just a profound way — where it talks about in Daniel and it talks about the end time and the activity of Satan and it says what? He prevailed, you know, actually talking about the false prophet in this particular verse, he prevails over the saints of God. The saints don't always win along the way. It's not a football game that you always win, there are losses and defeats along the way, there are difficulties that happen and DavidKing of Israel, killed the giant Goliath with a sling and stones, a man after God's own heart, only turned from God in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5), had an affair with Bathsheba, Messiah would come from line of David, main author of Psalms and highly musical. says this in Psalms 11:1:
Psa 11:1 — In the Lord put I my trust, how say you to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain"? For lo the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart."
V. 3 — If the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?
If Satan can undermine your foundation, what can you do? What is your defense? How can you stand up to that - if Satan destroys your foundation. You know there's a scripture and we'll come to it later on, that talks about a house can burn, but you know you can rebuild on the foundation. My wife's brother had a terrible tragedy a few years ago, they had a beautiful home in Georgia, they came home one day and the house was virtually in flames, it was just destroyed, completely destroyed, total loss, their home that they had built on this beautiful property in Georgia, just a beautiful old Georgian home, it looked like, although it was a new home and it burned. But he built the house himself or worked on most of it and he'd built a foundation, it actually had a basement that had a ceiling probably as tall as this room here, he'd built it down so far and built it so solid, that the foundation was left and they leveled the house, took all the house out and rebuilt it on the same foundation. And he has a bigger more beautiful home today than he had back then. But the foundation remained because it was built so solid.
Notice the verse: If the foundation be destroyed, what can you do? That's a critical critical question. Notice Isaiah 28, it's a prophecy of Jesus Christ as of course the cornerstone and a part of the foundation when we speak of the Church. Isaiah 28:16:
Isa 28:16 — Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone...I just marvel at the various descriptions, it's a stone, it's a tried stone, it's a precious cornerstone...a sure foundation."
You know, when you think about the analogy of the Church being a building that will never be destroyed — why will the Church not be destroyed? Why will Satan not win when it's all over? Because of us? It's because of the foundation; it's because of what the Church is built upon, not because you and I are so great and we have such wonderful membership that Satan will never succeed in destroying the Church, the Church will never be destroyed because the foundation will never be destroyed and there will be those who will remain. The gates of hell shall not prevail. Why? Because the foundation is sure, the foundation is a stone, a cornerstone, a tried stone, a precious stone. I always marvel when reading the stories about the building of the temple, you read through Kings about the building of the temple and also the building of Solomon's house, it actually describes the stones that went into the foundation and it says some were eight cubits and some were ten cubits. The stones used for the foundation were 15 feet, and 12 feet, were the size of the stones that became a part of the foundation. It was incredible for any day or any time, to put that much effort into a foundation and yet that is what we see of the church as well.
V. 16 — Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believes shall not make haste."
It's just the comment about Christ and what Christ will do, what He is — the head of the Church, He's also the foundation, the foundation upon which it is built. Paul uses the same analogy in several places in scripture, let's go to Ephesians 2. He uses the analogy of a building and how we as Christians are part of a building, but there's a foundation to that building, I come back to that answer, Why will the Church survive, why is the Church never to be destroyed? When you read the foundation, you realize why, you realize from a spiritual perspective the Church cannot be destroyed, it cannot be destroyed. Satan may win some battles; Satan may succeed in causing weariness, the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. talks about wearing out the saints. I always found that intriguing as well, there's a portion of Daniel that's written in Chaldean and the word for "wearing out" is only found once in the scripture — the word that's translated from the Chaldean in that section of Daniel, it's only found one time in the scripture and it literally means "to cause mental anxiety." Satan doesn't wear us out physically, he wears us down mentally until you have no energy to continue and the scripture says he "wears down the saints" — he wears them down mentally, emotionally, much more than physically. But he will not succeed, the foundation is sure.
Eph 2:19 - Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.
I'm reading from the King James, there are other translations that translate the word "household" is the same word that is translated "family." So we are therefore no more strangers and foreigners, but you're fellow citizens with the saints and of the family of God! The word "children of God" — we are part of that family, that's a powerful powerful thing. God will not neglect His children; God will not leave us to ourselves.
V. 20 — We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom (or upon whom or upon what) all the building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord.
The concept of "fitly framed together" is fitting the whole building together, every part having a place and fitting in very nicely. Sometimes I've read this and I think of the concept of laying hardwood floors where you have the tongue and groove and everything fits together. You know when you lay that, and I'm by no means an expert, but when you lay that, you allow a little room for expansion, you allow room for growth — that's fitly framed together — where there is room to grow. This building is a growing building, it is not static, it grows, it is a spiritual temple, it is a spiritual building, it is on a foundation that will not be moved and that's a wonderful comfort, should be to all of us as a part of the Church of God.
V. 22 — In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit.
So we see the Church is like a building, not "a" building, the Church isn't a building, the Church is composed of people, that's what the Church is, but these people are a spiritual building, we are part of the family of God, we are a special group to God. We ourselves don't deserve it, God called us out of this world, He made us special, we weren't special in one sense, God made us special and a part of that building. Look at I Corinthians 3, again the apostle Paul talks in terms of a building and in terms of a foundation. If you begin in verse 1 of chapter 3 you see that Paul is criticizing the Corinthians, he refers to them as being carnal, that they were not spiritual and that they needed milk and not meat. But in spite of their weakness, in spite of their difficulties, they are still together the body of Christ, they are the Church and therefore they are a building, a temple that is built upon a foundation — the foundation.
I Cor. 3:9 — For we are laborers together with God, you are God's husbandry, you are God's building.
Now that's a very direct statement, Paul says "you are God's building," talking to the Corinthians. Now a few verses before he tells them they're carnal, tells them they need milk, you're not even able to take the meat of the Word! Then he turns around and says, "You are God's building." Again, not that we want to be carnal, or not that we want to be those that just simply need milk, but the point is, these people were called by God, they were placed as a building and they were the people of God, they were called the building of God.
V. 10 — According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation...fundamental, foundational...and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. For other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ.
The foundation of the Church, Christ is the cornerstone, the apostles and the prophets, you can't get another foundation. Once you build the foundation...you know, it's very difficult, I've seen it done, but it's very difficult to pick up a house and move it and put it on another foundation, it's very difficult. First of all, it may not fit, it may not be the right size of the new foundation, you're going to have to build another foundation to match the footprint of that house. But it's very hard, I've seen it happen. Most of the time when a house is moved, it's not a house that's not necessarily sitting on a solid foundation, it's a house that may be sitting on pillars, you've seen that typically, at least in the area where I grew up, we didn't have foundations to our houses, our houses were built on pillars or sometimes even on wooden pillars or maybe a stone pillar and there would be a crawl space or an opening underneath the house, but those are the houses that didn't last very long if there was a storm, that's why you had to have a storm cellar, because you didn't want to stay in those houses.
In the house I grew up in, I could watch the stars at night through the roof, or through the walls, it wasn't very stable where we lived. We were sharecroppers and living on a farm and we lived in the sharecroppers homes, you know the old shotgun houses that were up on blocks, those are the type houses mostly that you can move. You have a house that is anchored to a foundation, it's very difficult to jack it up and move it. Again, it certainly has been done but it's very very difficult. There's one foundation, you don't pick the Church up and move it to another foundation, you don't change your fundamental principles upon which you are founded. You know we faced some of those issues back in 1995 — were we going to change the fundamental principles, were we about to change the very foundation upon which the building had been built? It was a pretty difficult time, it was very very hard. Paul goes on:
V. 11 — But let every man take heed how he builds thereon for other foundation can no man lay than that that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
V. 12-13 — Now if any man build upon this foundation, 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.
V. 14 — If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, 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.
You can destroy a beautiful home and as my brother-in-law did, rebuild that house on that foundation. He lost the house, but the foundation was still there. Christ isn't going anywhere, to build upon that foundation is very very important.
When you think about the statement, "The Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of knowledge," you also must acknowledge that it is a particular type of knowledge; it is not just simply knowledge. There are a lot of very intelligent people in this world who have a lot of knowledge but is that the kind of knowledge that we're talking about when we say, "The Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of knowledge?" What kind of knowledge is the Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ.? What kind of significance does it have in our lives? I think we're all familiar of course with the story back in Genesis 2. We are told at that particular time, in the beginning, that God had two trees in the Garden of EdenThe land in which the Lord planted a garden for Adam to live in (Genesis 2:15). It was located at the branching of 4 rivers: the Euphrates, the Hiddekel (the Tigris), the Pishon, and the Gihon (Genesis 2:8-14). It was also the location of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life (Genesis 2:16). and that these two trees were, you might say, opposites. One was the tree of life and one was the tree of what? The knowledge of good and evil. There were two aspects of that tree, but that tree, of and by itself, composed a problem for humanity. For humanity to choose that knowledge of good and evil, was to reject the tree of life, it was to choose a different way.
Gen 2:16 — And the Lord God commanded the man saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die."
So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, good and evil. But good and evil mixed together is still a potent mix, it produces death, it leads away from God. So the Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of knowledge. The Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of a particular type of knowledge; it is the knowledge that leads to the tree of life. It's the knowledge that leads us to the family of God, it is NOT the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that tree, we're told, is a problem. Genesis 3 is the story of man making on his own the choice, determining that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is good and something to be desired. You know the story and how it turns out but God gave man the opportunity, certainly had the opportunity to choose, He told him what to choose, man chose the opposite.
In the New TestamentThe 27 authoritative books of the apostolic writings: the four Gospels of Christ, Acts (a history), 21 apostolic letters and the book of Revelation. we find the statement that knowledge puffs up. KnowledgeThe broad range of information held by a person; an attribute of God (Romans 11:33); what we need to know about God (Hosea 4:6). puffs up. KnowledgeThe broad range of information held by a person; an attribute of God (Romans 11:33); what we need to know about God (Hosea 4:6). used to hurt someone else, a point of vanity, a point of how great I am, is not the knowledge upon which the word of God is founded. It is not the knowledge that you find in the word of God. The word of God provides the knowledge that leads to God's family, it provides the knowledge that leads to eternal life, it provides the knowledge that will change your life and you will not be the person that you were before. The knowledge found in the word of God is life-altering, it is life changing, it is a powerful witness of who God is, it is a powerful witness of His plan of salvation, it is a powerful witness of our purpose in life.
The major questions that the world wants to know are found in the word of God, the powerful questions that people cannot sort out for themselves are found answered in the word of God, the Word of GodThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. is the foundation of knowledge. It is not the knowledge of good and evil — obviously there are things there that we can read about in God's Word that it tells us not to do. You might say, well those are evil things, but in the principle of God's word providing the knowledge for eternal life, it is the foundation of that knowledge. Look at II Timothy 3. In our study of fundamental beliefs of United Church of God, we take a hard look at this scripture. This scripture strikes to the very core of what leads us to the fundamental beliefs.
II Tim. 3:16 — All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Well that all sounds wonderful, God's word, scripture is powerful, it's profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction. But why? Why do we need doctrine, why do we need correction, why do we need reproof, why do we need instruction?
V. 17 — That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
There are books that have been written, I mean I've picked up books myself before that have really been powerful books, I've heard people talk about books that were life-changing, they changed your perspective on something, they changed this or changed that or caused you to look at this, you can find books that will help you do just about anything, from losing weight, from going from an introvert to an extrovert, there are books that tell you how to do these things. None of them rise to the level of the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ.. Occasionally over the years we get criticism from individuals saying, well why don't you quote the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. instead of quoting this book or that book, as though the books that have principles, there's anything wrong with them, well there's nothing wrong with them, but it's a valid concern that we never want to get to the point that we stop quoting the word of God or that we stop relying on the word of God. This is the book that changes lives; this is the book that changes who you are. The book doesn't do it by itself, but it provides the knowledge that will do that. It's a book that profoundly changes people's lives.
I've told the story of my own father, who for ten years, as we were striving to keep the Sabbath, my mother, my sister and I, was very angry, just rejected the entirety of this truth that we had, or that we refer to as a truth, he referred to it as something else. I won't repeat what he called it back at that time. But he didn't feel it was very productive for our family and my mother was very rigid in her desire to keep it and at that time we were doing so poorly on the farm, my father bought this little country store and we were to live in the back of it and we were to sell just general merchandise in the front of it and my mother told my father, the day he bought the store, she said, "Well I want to tell you something, I will never sell a pork product or a cigarette." And if you know these little country stores, there's plenty of that for sale. So my father was working nights to try to make ends meet and my mother was to run the store in the daytime and he would sleep in the daytime. And every time a customer came in and brought up the cigarettes or put something on the counter to pay, she would say, "Wait just one minute." And she'd go make my father get out of bed and get dressed and come and sell that product. And she did that all day, every day and he couldn't sleep day or night and so finally one day he said to my mother, he said, "If I prove that this is wrong, will you give it up?" And she said, "Of course." And he opened the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. for the first time in his life. Six months later, he said, "I want to go to church with you." It was so compelling and convincing for someone who had no biblical understanding, had never read the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ., really had never gone to church and it so profoundly changed his life. He went from a man who could be so violent when he was angry — I was riding in the car one time and a guy blew his horn and he got out, pulled him out of the car and knocked him cold right on the side of the road — and became the most gentle mild individual you would have ever wanted to meet and was baptized himself shortly thereafter.
But the word of God, it is a powerful witness of what it can do to your life, to all of our lives, to what we find in the word of God. ScriptureThe divinely inspired writings of both the Old and New Testaments. The term Scripture is used in the New Testament to refer to both the Hebrew Bible (Luke 24:44-45) and the new apostolic writings accepted as inspired (2 Peter 3:16; 1 Timothy 5:18). is given by inspiration, it is God-breathed. Theopneustos is the Greek word, it is God-breathed. It doesn't come from man, it comes from God, it isn't what man says, it's what God says that makes a difference. It is the foundation of who we are, it is the foundation upon which we must build our spiritual house.
A number of years ago we had a member in Houston, the idea of a foundation really also struck me in this particular example. This member in Houston was a very wealthy member and he had bought a new home that was probably, at that time, and this was twenty years ago, cost around a million dollars. I mean it was such a huge home, he had a racquet ball court in his home, a full racquet ball court inside his house, and he would invite us over and we would see the house. He lived there about a year when he began having all kinds of problems, the driveway began to divide and buckle, the foundation began to crack and the walls began to crack and the whole house, he found out, had been very poorly built and the foundation was beginning to give way. Of course that's not totally uncommon in Houston; they say in Houston that there are only two kinds of houses in Houston — those that have foundation problems and those that will have foundation problems! The soil is so poor, there are no basement to be built, it's just the soil is just not stable. You have to put piers, if you do it right, you have to put several piers to prevent that from happening and a lot of the older homes did not do that, and you'll see differences of several inches sometimes in the driveways and even in the basements of the houses, or not in the basements, but in the foundation of the house, you can see it move that much. He spent years fighting in the courts to try to get that corrected. It's a big business in the city of Houston repairing foundations and the way they have to do it is to dig underneath the foundation, because the foundation is a slab, dig underneath the foundation and pour piers underneath, after the fact, to try to shore up the foundation. It's a very expensive proposition, it's a whole lot better to do it right the first time.
We find that as people of God, we're built upon that foundation, the word of God IS the foundation of knowledge. It is a principle upon which we must live; it's a principle upon which we must build our spiritual houses.
The theme of the ABC year this year is building Godly character. In other words, we plan to give knowledge in ABC, and we want to help you build on that knowledge. We want you to build a spiritual house that is something of value, we want that, we desire that, we want to help you. It was also influenced of course by Ambassador College in the past in the fact that Mr. Armstrong proclaimed that the college was a character building institution. Now the college never built character for anyone, the college doesn't build character, individuals build character, but the goal and the purpose was to create an atmosphere that made it more conducive to building that character and it does work. Doesn't mean everybody does it, but it does work. At ABC we try the same thing, to build a Godly atmosphere where individuals can build character. We want that, we desire that, building upon the foundation.
I found it very interesting, this principle as well on the recent trip to Estonia and to Sweden. Estonia was a big surprise to me as far as a country. Estonia of course came out of the eastern bloc of countries in the early 1990's and it's been a very fast developing country since that time. But this country, which was kind of locked away for a number of years, really builds upon family values. We were in an area called Tartu, it was the name of a city, and Tartu has one of the oldest universities, it's a university town, one of the oldest universities in Europe actually. And I thought, well a university town, it's going to be a little bit on a different side, a little bit wilder than maybe other cities. We've lived in university cities before and there are a lot of things that go on. I was very surprised, in the area where we were, which was right next to the campus, there was shopping and an area with a lot of restaurants and a very very nice area to go, we would walk there at night to go to dinner. And they had a festival while we were there and the festival had a big stage and they had bands that were coming in, a lot of big speakers, I was just really wondering, what will this be like, in a college town. The nights we were there, I think we were there three or four nights, every night they had the bands, they had the music and they had the families all around, it was a very wonderful atmosphere. In fact I thought I was at a church dance because all the kids occupied the dance floor, all the little children running around and people were having a good time with their families and I realized that when you build an atmosphere like that, you reap a lot of benefits. The area is virtually devoid of any violent crime, there's very little crime and a lot of emphasis on family. You build or create an atmosphere in which character can grow and be built; you certainly have a much better chance of success.
I also saw this in building a home, we built a home in Texas at one point and we found a little area, secluded, had a gated area, gated community and in order to build, because we wanted to build our own home, in order to build here you had to go and you to talk to the owner of the property, it was a private owner. And he gave me, must have been a couple inches thick, he said, this is what you're going to have to do to build in this area, he said, you're going to have to build to this standard and to this quality, there will be no house built in here that will not achieve that quality. Now that didn't guarantee that every house in that development was quality built and I'll tell you, because of the atmosphere, where everyone is striving for the same thing, it created a much better chance of having a quality home than if you built somewhere else.
If we can create an atmosphere where God and Godliness is predominant, then we have a much better chance of achieving the character, building the character, creating the atmosphere that we believe, certainly as we read in scripture, that God's church should have. That's what we strive for, we can't build character for anyone, but you strive to build an atmosphere where that can thrive and that's what we attempt to do and that's a part even of what we're trying of course at ABC as well.
If you think about it brethren, the Sermon on the Mount ends with a story, it's a story of building a house, either on sand or a rock, the story is about a foundation and what you do with your life. Are you, am I, going to take the foundation of knowledge that we've been given, whether it's at ABC or whether it's in the church for all of us as Christians, and build a house on it? The truth is, you will build a house, like it or not, you're building a house and that house will be tested, you have to determine if it's built upon the right foundation, you have to determine if the word of God is the foundation of knowledge for you and if it's what you rely upon — you have to determine that.
Our knowledge of scripture is often tested. There's a story that was presented for truth, I'm not sure if it's true or not, but it was a story that I read, the story said it was true. Story about a preacher who one Sabbath, at the end of his sermon, he said, Brethren, next Sabbath I'm going to give another sermon and he said, in preparation for the sermon, I want you to read Mark 17 for next Sabbath. So the next Sabbath comes and he stands up to give his sermon and he introduces his sermon by saying, How many of you have read Mark 17 during the week? And about half of them raised their hands. He then announced that the topic of his sermon was lying, you see, there is no Mark 17 in scripture and that was his introduction. Now if that wasn't true, we have another problem! But it was written to be true.
If you've ever read George Barna's book on the Second Coming of the Church, and he talked about the church in the 21st century, he said there are five ways that you establish God's word as the foundation of your life. There are five things you must do to establish that. Barna is also the one who said that there were two profound changes that occurred in the life of church members in the 1960's that has profoundly affected people's view of the church today. He said the two decisions were these: One, people were no longer encouraged to bring a BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. with them to church and two, they were no longer encouraged to dress up for church. So the message that was sent is that church is not important enough to dress up for and the church has nothing to do with the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ.. He said over two profound changes in the culture of America, when it came to the church in the 1960's and we're still reaping that today. Now that's Barna's conclusion. But he says in order to establish God's word as our foundation for life, in spite of what the people around you are doing, one must do five things.
1. One must hear the word of God taught. Which certainly fits with what Paul said, how can they hear without a preacher?
2. One must read the word of God in a formal teaching situation.
3. One must have private and personal study of the word of God.
4. One must memorize key components of the word of God.
5. One must meditate on and practice what the word of God says.
If you want the word of God to be the foundation of your life, you cannot avoid doing these things. There is a need for formal teaching, there is a need for your own private study, there is a need for memorization, there is a need for meditation and practice and of course there is a need to read in a formal setting as well. Those are the principles that Barna says — now is he right? Well, I don't know but I think all those five principles make sense to me and I think we apply all of them, certainly the formal teaching and the formal reading of God's word at ABC to help establish that foundation.
I'm told, or at least I've read, that a Baccalaureate sermon ends with advice, some advice for the graduates. So now comes the advice, it's not Dear Abby, its Dear Jim this afternoon, and here's my advice!
First of all, for the church, since many here are certainly members of God's church, not a part of ABC, so first the church and then ABC. As a church, this is advice: We must captivate the hearts of the membership with the word of God. We must captivate and excite the hearts of the membership with the word of God. Where is the excitement for the word of God? Where is the enthusiasm for the word of God? Secondarily, we must earn the respect of our brethren by modeling a Godly life, based on the word of God. Christ said if you don't do My words then you're like the one who built the house on sand, or built the house established on sand. Number 3, as a church, we must clearly and convincingly communicate our purpose for life as established in the word of God, the profound teachings of God's word, the difference in what the word of God says and what the world says it says is profound. Number 4, we must provide an understanding and explanation for a compelling and captivating vision that is clearly based on the word of God. The word of God is powerful and must be a part of all our lives.
Here's my advice to ABC students: Go and build your house, build on the rock and not the sand, build out of quality material, but if you fall short, rebuild on the same foundation. If the foundation is sound, you can rebuild, God is patient and God is merciful, but don't waste time, go and build your house. Build it on the foundation of knowledge, the word of God. And I truly truly say, and sincerely say, may God bless you in your endeavors wherever they may take you. It has been a pleasure and an honor to teach the fundamental beliefs of the church of God to such a fine group — now go and build your house.
