When we moved our family to Texas, we enlisted the help of a real estate agent. She was an authentic Texas lady with the Texan accent, hairdo, and sense of service. She was a tremendous blessing to us because we had just a few days to find a house. She took us to several houses, then she took us to a house in North Richland Hills. It was the right location for where we wanted to live. As she pulled onto the cul-de-sac and we saw the house she said, “I will not sell you this house.” That was a strange thing to say but then she told us to look at the garage door. It was not level! She said that house has a bad foundation!
Many churches have moved away from the teachings of the Bible. They emphasize things that look good and are properly in order but what kind of a foundation are they laying in the lives of their people? This concerns me because what will happen to their lives when pressures come, and persecution arises? Will they be able to stand? You can listen to the latest teachings and sing the latest songs but when hard times come the thing that is needed to stand is a strong foundation.
Many years ago, I attended Bible college and one of the required courses was called Doctrinal Foundations. I thank God for that class because it laid a foundation into my life that has stood the test of time. The basis of that class came from these two verses in Hebrews 6:1–2, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Let us look at these verses. There is no way that I can take the time to teach on these foundational truths in the space we have here. So, I ask you to take this simple teaching and use it to inspect your foundation.
The author of Hebrews begins this teaching in the last verses of chapter 5 starting with verse 12. He begins with saying that the Hebrew church should have been teachers of these foundational truths but could not because they were still babies. Spiritual growth does not just happen with age. It happens when believers take the milk of God’s Word and apply it to their lives. As they mature, they move on to a place that their senses are trained to discern good and evil. The Greek word for discern is diakrisis and it means pass judgment on or to be able to judge. Yes, you read that right! A sign of spiritual maturity is the ability to judge. There are people that tell us, “You are not supposed to judge.” That it is not true! In fact, the ability to judge rightly is a sign of maturity.
In verse one, the writer of Hebrews says that we must leave the elementary teachings of Christ. He does not mean that we forget about these truths. The writer says that with the idea that it is time to graduate from the elementary teachings of Christ. If you entered a first-grade class and you saw a 40 year old man who was taking the first grade for the 34th time, you would say, “It is time for you to leave.” That is what the writer of Hebrews is saying. We need to lay a foundation of the elementary teachings of Christ in our lives.
Here are the six things that we need to check to see if our foundation is safe. We need to take these elementary teachings and ask ourselves what the Bible teaches on these subjects. These subjects are in a divine order. The first is repentance from dead works. Many churches have turned away from the subject of repentance. So, check that part of your foundation.
The next is faith towards God. The subject of faith is taught in many churches. That is great and needed but are you building the foundation stone of faith by using it? With all these foundational truths, it is not good enough to know, you also need to do. This is something that I check on a regular basis. Has fear snuck in to destroy our faith? That is what we need to inspect.