Christ, Our Foundation — Edwin H. Waldvogel

Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste.". You know that's Isaiah 28. Prophecy concerning the Lord was at a time when Israel was in great need.

Christ as the Sure Foundation

But oftentimes you find that God comes to his people right when they're in desperate need and reminds them of his goodness to them. And here he told them, don't worry I'm going to lay this cornerstone in Zion, a tried stone, a precious stone.

You believe in him you will not make haste. In the other quotations it says he'll not stumble the person that believes in him. But it's a marvelous thing to know that we're standing on good solid ground when we build on Christ Jesus.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. There isn't a better foundation to build on. Other foundation can no man lay, we read, than that which has been laid. Apostle Paul is speaking about that.

But every man has to take heed how he builds on that stone. We're all building. You're a builder. Your life is built and growing up and God likens us unto a building that is put together and fitly joined together.

The Lord just seems to work in our lives until we have a good foundation and our good building, strong building. Those of you who have seen buildings that have to be framed together, that's an old way of building and you find that still used in Europe before the war and during the war and after the war.

It was interesting to me to see that in Switzerland. They had a big lot and they laid the whole house out on that lot. And all these big beams, they use large ones. I would estimate they're eight by eight about.

And then you have the cross beams and everything is fit perfectly. And then they have these wooden pegs they drive in and anchor it tightly. Everything's numbered then, it's taken apart, put on the building site and stands.

And if the foundation is absolutely level, that building will go up without any hitch. And those buildings withstood the bombings more often than the other buildings that were built with construction as we use it today with bricks and cement blocks and so on and a brick face on it and so.

Because somehow the air pressure would knock out the stones that filled in the beams. They had to have these wooden beams and then they covered those with plaster, straw generally, and plaster over that cement.

And when the concussion came and the bomb bombs burst, why they'd knock holes in the framework and the framework would stand. And it was interesting to see those things after the war. I saw many of those.

But here was a building that really stood and it's because it was fitly framed together. It's put together in such a way that it was solid, you couldn't move. And that's the way God likes to build our lives also.

But there is an expression there in Corinthians where the Apostle says, watch out, you're building on that foundation, the foundation of Christ Jesus. We are building every day. The Southerners, I don't know if you ever remember them, that's long ago.

They had a double quartet of good black singers and they could sing. Sunday mornings they had their programs and they, everybody should be building a chapel. It's one of their songs. A place for God to reside within us.

And it was a good song and I always enjoyed hearing them sing it because that is exactly what the Bible speaks of. But you and I, we are building. And Jesus talks about that too in the Sermon on the Mount.

Hearing and Doing Christ's Words

If you hear these sayings of mine and do them, I'll liken you unto a man that built his house upon a rock. He had a good foundation too, didn't he? Rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not.

It was founded on a rock, on a good foundation. And right another house was founded on the sand. And I never thought of it in that light but reading one of the British commentators on the Sermon on the Mount, he said, you have those people sitting in your church every Sunday.

They sit one right next to the other. They hear the same word, they hear the same songs and the houses grow and they all look nice but you don't see the foundation. You don't know if they're really obeying in the heart the Word of God or not.

And then the storm comes and this house goes down, the other house goes down. He said, they are right in your church. I never really, it sort of gave me a nudge, you know, to think in that light. But it's true, there are people in the meetings that we attend and some are building upon the rock and others are just drifting along.

They're not doers of the Word. They don't take it to heart really. They know it. They can quote it. But that doesn't do the work. We have to live the Word of God. It has to become our portion. And I'm thankful that God works like that among us.

Obedience and the Teaching Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The important thing is that we obey the Word of God and that the Holy Ghost who has been given to teach us and guide us into the truth, that He is guiding us into the truth of God. And that we are learning to stand on the rock.

We're learning from God how to put that foundation deep and obey everything that God speaks to us. And sometimes there are trifles that we think are little things. Doesn't make that much difference in our mind, but all the commandments of God are important.

And if we transgress in one little command, Jesus talks about the person who transgresses in the least of these commands and teaches men so. You teach them by your example. You don't have to obey fully.

You don't have to, you know, just take that Word of God so seriously. And this is the attitude that creeps in among the saints today. We don't have to. But one day where it's going to be very, very evident if you have to or not, if we are going to be surprised someday, that people that are what we could would consider, I'm thinking of Brother Bowers right now, not very greatly gifted in speaking.

Not gifted in the gifts of the Spirit as we know them, as we like to emphasize them. Those gifts that call attention. But the man had something better than that. He had something very, very firm and solid that his life was very simply geared to obeying the will of God from the heart and dealing with God about the things that God dealt with him about.

God Gives the Increase in Christian Service

Now how are we building? I used to be in that business years ago, a little bit of renovation work and things like that. And we built, I think, one or two houses. You know, it's an education. It's nice.

I liked it. And I was in the business with Brother Carl Saylor, who is down in the home in Glens Falls. And the other fellow's gone to be with the Lord many years ago. But they were very fine carpenters from Europe and I learned from them.

They took me right into the business because they couldn't speak English. And I had to do the paperwork and the dealing with people and because I knew the English language. And so they took me in and taught me and I tried to learn everything I could.

And I thank God for those were happy years. I like to work with my hands. I like to produce something much better. Now I shouldn't say this because I love the Lord and his ways, but I'd rather do that than preach.

You know, when you get a piece of wood or a couple of them and put them together and build something, you can see what you're doing. But in a meeting like this, sometimes you can speak and bring the Word of God to people.

You never know just how much you accomplish. Only God knows that. And the Apostle says, well, you've got to realize that the one that sows the seed is nothing. And the one that waters it, he's nothing either.

It's God that gives the increase. And so we have to repent on God to make his Word go into hearts and really grow there and give us an awakening. But the Holy Spirit has been sent to teach us into the light, guide us into all truth.

It's strange, isn't it, that in Pentecost we don't often emphasize that angle or that work of the Holy Ghost. But we ought to be very grateful that God has come to open our understanding and understand the will of God.

And he gives us the power to do it by his indwelling life. And so we're a really a privileged people. But sometimes we don't see those privileges. And that has bothered me sometimes lately because I read from other church magazines and see what's going on in the world today.

Spectacular Manifestations and Spiritual Discernment

There's a trend in Pentecost that likes to have some spectacular gift manifested. The other day, one of them leaders came to a man in Yugoslavia who has had a church there for some years. And the church is growing.

He has a beautiful church, one of the largest ones in the state of Slovenia. And that man got a visit from the representative of the Pentecostal churches in America. And he came and introduced himself.

And I was surprised this man said, I'm not interested in getting acquainted with you. What did you bring us? He said, you brought us a lot of noise. You brought us some dancing and clapping of hands and waving back and forth.

And you brought us all kinds of spectacular gifts. But he says that is not what we want. That doesn't do the work that God wants to do and that we feel we need. And I was surprised at his boldness, but he spoke right up like that.

And there are many who feel that way. Something's wrong. And we are all apt to be attracted to those manifestations of the spirit that are spectacular. Whereas we think something is happening here. And then we'll come to a meeting where we hear the word of God and where the truth of God is emphasized and obeying the truth.

And they'll say, well, nothing really happens here. Somebody came to our church in Ridgewood years ago already. And two fellas and they were in the meeting. They said to my uncle, nothing happens here.

In our church, we break the benches. I thought, you got to repair them again. What's the sense of breaking them? But you know, that's a real criterion of a great blessing. Now we rock and roll and we break the benches.

Now I want to say that carefully because I know that God can manifest himself in any way. But there's a tendency today in people to run after those things that are spectacular because there's a feeling there.

There's a sensation there. And something happens. They see that. People are, they call it slain by the power of God. And sometimes that is true. They sense the power of God and they fall on the floor.

My brother was at a meeting like that and he went to the altar and laid hands on him and he did fall. And he said, nothing happened to me. I just got up again. But I felt no anointing. I felt no touch, but I fell.

And so they ministered to him again later on and he fell again. But he said, I just, you just get up and nothing happens on the inside. And I thought, my oh my, what a goal and what a thing to strive for.

I don't think really, honestly now, that Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood, that we might have some spectacular feeling. We might laugh and laugh and laugh or we may do something else like that.

I don't think he purchased and paid the price for that kind of a blessing. You know, he died for something far more wonderful than that. We need to learn, all of us do, to discern a little bit. What is really beneficial to me?

Testing the Work Built on Christ

What is it that makes me to build on the rock? Every man's works going to be tried as by fire, Peter says. Everyone, or Paul says that in Corinthians third chapter. It's all going to be tried and you build on that rock hay, wood, and stubble.

Those things that can be consumed. And others are building on that rock gold, silver, precious stones. Oh, now you don't find that very showy. You start to build with precious stones and gold and silver.

But if you build with hay and wood and stubble, you can put a building up fast. It goes up very quickly. But when the fire comes, it burns very quickly too. It's gone. And so the Apostle tells us, look, God has something better for you than that.

And he has laid the foundation himself. And the cornerstone is Jesus Christ. And we come to him and when we observe his life, now Jesus lived here on earth to be one of us. He came and he identified with us at his baptism by the John the Baptist.

John's looked at him and he saw the purity. He saw the holiness. He saw something there. And he said, I have need to be baptized by you and you come to me. And Jesus said, that's the way it behooves us now to fulfill all righteousness.

And so he identified with those sinners and he did that because it was the only way that he could lift us was to become one of us. And he walked on this earth and ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ's Baptism and Spirit-Anointed Example

We read that John said, I didn't know him, but the one that sent me told me that you're going to see the Holy Spirit of God will come and descend on him and abide on him. We'll stay there. And here was that vessel that was clean and pure and the Holy Ghost came.

Now Jesus lived in this world under the anointing of that Spirit and he did that because every one of us are called to follow him and to live by the same power. And that power is available for us. We have the example.

It would be strange if Jesus set an example that none of us could emulate. But he did set an example for us to follow in his steps, to really be changed and be transformed and have the same purity, the same holiness, the same obedience unto death, the same humility.

Jesus came for that purpose to establish those truths and those marvelous, marvelous qualities, shall we call them, in us and make us like unto the Son of God. God looked from heaven and he said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And Jesus didn't go around making a lot of noise, did he? The Bible tells us in Isaiah, and it's quoted, that he won't lift up his voice in the streets. He never caused a riot. He never called people together to march against something.

He never did anything of that nature. But he quietly did the will of God. And in that quietness, in that holiness, hearts were drawn that were really, he said, everybody that's of the truth hears my voice.

There's an attraction there. Those who really mean business, they hear, they know. And they come to me. And so today we realize too that he has come to us and he has brought us to himself. And we have found in him such a wonderful Savior, glorious Savior.

Pursuing Holiness and Full Consecration

And he wants to pursue, he wants us to pursue just building on that rock, obeying his Word, letting him change us inwardly, letting the Holy Ghost work in us and make his Word alive in us, convicting us, showing us our shortcomings.

And you know that's what's going on today. And there are people that are listening to his voice and they want to be ready for his coming. They want to be sanctified. They want to be purified. And then there are others that do not want to go all the way.

They don't want to be fully consecrated to God. They'll go partway. They want his blessing, but they don't want to obey. We have, we run into that at camp here all the time. People come here sometimes, even on the staff, and you realize they have never learned to really obey the Lord.

They chafe at things. They find fault with them. And what is it? What is the matter? Well, there's somewhere there's the will that has not been fully surrendered to the Lord. What is it going to differ in a hundred years if you conform to the rules at camp for two weeks or not?

Anybody can bring that sacrifice, you'd think, but they can't. You can't because there's something inside that rebels against that. And that is this thing that's becoming more evident in the world and in the churches.

There's that. We don't want that. We won't listen to that. We don't care. And you know someday there's going to be an awakening that's going to bring about a weeping and a gnashing of teeth, and Jesus tells us that, and it'll be too late.

But I thank God that he gives us opportunity, and I know that he's put it in our hearts. Jesus, we want you more than anything else. We want to know you. We want to be transformed into your image. We want you to work deeply in us, Lord.

And anything else doesn't really satisfy our hearts once we've tasted of his beauty and his glory and his power. When I was a boy, I got out of high school, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit there, and I really wanted to learn to live in the Spirit of God.

Testing Personal Promptings by Scripture

And I get a leading, you know, a feeling. I ought to go over to the East Side Mission. I had a key for the place. I ought to go over there and pray. You're all alone there, and you can walk up and down.

You can pray out loud, and nobody bothers you. And I'd get on the train, and I'd go over there, and when I got there, I'd start to pray. Then I got the feeling, that wasn't a good leading. You should be somewhere else.

And there came a time in my life when I was trying to obey those promptings that I thought were the Spirit within me. And you know, it just made me so mixed up after a while. And there are people like that.

They want to be led by the Spirit of God, and they really don't use the Word of God at all. They just think that they're going to get a direct illumination from heaven. Now really, that is very foolish.

When you find that the Word of God is given by the best form of prophecy, and God has borne record to it, Jesus obeyed it, and Jesus followed it. He set the example for us. And then for me to come around and say, well, I'm going to be led directly by the Spirit.

What idiot? What's wrong up there? The top story. The elevator doesn't go all the way up, I guess. That's the problem. And I got to being driven around, and I tell you, I was in real distress. And one day, I remember going to the post office at Ridgewood, the old one, and as I went there, I told the Lord.

I said, Lord, I'm not going to pay any attention anymore to these promptings that I get, these ideas that come to me, where I really feel that you're leading me. I'm not going to do anything anymore along that line.

But I'm just going to look into your Word and obey your Word. And I remember telling the Lord, I said, Lord, and if that's a secondary place in you, I'll take it. But I'm not going to become a victim of all kinds of ideas that I thought were in the Spirit.

And as I left that place, we sang the song that you sang in my heart, but in the German language. The Lord knows German. He knows English. But in the German language, it says, the one who trusts this rock has not built on sinking sand.

If you really trust in that rock, you're safe. And I sang that all the way back to my home, and I just sang, Lord, you said it, and from now on, I will not listen to these ideas that come to me, but I'm going to be led through your Word.

And that was a great day for me. And the Lord built me and gave me an opportunity then to just get into the Word of God more. You cannot be perfected without the Word of God. You may think, and people think sometimes, that their prophecies and their messages are equal with the Bible.

Prophecy Must Be Tested, but Scripture Stands

And oftentimes, they talk like that. God spoke right to me, right from heaven. Every word that comes to you through prophecy or through tongues and interpretation, we are told in the Bible that it has to be tested.

It should be proved. Let the others sit by and let them judge. Is that really God? Is there no flesh mixed in with that, no personal feelings, but it's really the Word of God? If you read Radiant Glory, some of it will be mentioned in there, what tests Mrs. Robinson was put through to be sure that she had the Word of God.

I read those things. I have the original biography there. And you know, sometimes I say, Lord, that's not fair to treat a person like that. It was so difficult. But she wanted to be absolutely sure that it was God.

And after a while, God made it clear to her. And the works that followed, the results proved it. And that always has to be the test. But all these gifts we read, let others sit by and judge, because there is always a possibility.

The Holy Spirit is perfect. His gift is perfect. But He has to work through people. And we're not perfect. But He is. But you'll never find that you should test the words of Scripture. That's settled.

You never read there, now when they read the Scripture, let the others sit by and judge, was Peter really inspired or wasn't he? You never find that. You can take this Word of God and it stands. And the Bible stands.

And we want to stand on it. And you know, it changed my whole life. And I thought, first of all, I'm losing out. I'm not really what I ought to be, being led by the Spirit. But contrary to that, it turned me around and made me see the glory of God in the Bible and just the glory of obeying the Word of God.

And God has been pleased to manifest Himself and give gifts. And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for all I've seen and all of experience. But we want to realize that the important thing is that you and I are grounded upon that rock.

Comparing Scripture with Scripture

And that happens by obedience to the words of Jesus. We're building a house. We're building. And in these days you are building. And the storm is certainly coming. It's come in other lands so violently, you wonder, you say, oh God, don't let that happen to us here in America.

But they must come. The testing time must come. And you and I, we can be sure, because the Spirit of God, when we ask Him, Holy Ghost, teach me. Holy Spirit, you be my teacher. We sing, Spirit of God, my teacher be, showing the things of Christ to me.

In the second chapter in 1 Corinthians, we read that the Holy Spirit has been given unto us that we might know the things that are freely given unto us of God. The Holy Spirit opens that word. And we begin to understand.

And we ought to then compare scripture with scripture. I quoted, or I said something this morning about a verse in the 145th Psalm. And I had heard that in a testimony. Some fellow got up and said he was so glad he wasn't pickled, but he was preserved.

But that is not the interpretation of that verse. And we're apt to take things like that and put our own little, use them for our own little purposes. That is never right with the Word of God, I mean, in the final analysis.

What does the Word of God say? What does it speak? What did it mean to the people that it was written to? What does it mean to us today? Oh, you'll find the glory of God there. And Pentecostal people have such a privilege of having the Holy Ghost as their teacher and teaching us the things of God.

Bible Students Building on the Rock

But every one of us ought to be Bible students, and we ought to build on a good foundation. So I'd like to encourage you, don't do what I had to go through. I went through that thing for some year, maybe a year, and it was a stressful time in my life until the Lord just made me to know, take my word and live it.

Live it out. First Bible I ever got, I got from my father. And he wrote four lines in it, just very short statements. Read it through, pray it in, live it out, pass it on. Your dad. I treasure that. My father, my uncle also, were in Pentecost at the very beginning almost, and they really were blessed of God.

My father never mentioned some of the gifts he had, but they were so outstanding that I marvel sometimes. He'd say, the Lord would say, get up. So he obeyed. He got up behind a pulpit and didn't know what he was going to say yet.

And he said when I, he would give me the sentence, and sometimes one sentence after another. And there were other times when he gave me one word after another to say. Now you would never notice that because he spoke such correct English.

The grammar was so right we could take that down and almost print it right off the way he spoke it. My uncle didn't have that same kind of a blessing, but he was another one that lived in the Bible, studied the Bible, applied the Bible, claimed the promises of the Bible.

That's what we have to do. Lord, you said it. Hallelujah. And I'm gonna believe you for it. And you know that word stands. Let's build on the rock, shall we? That's my word to you tonight, folks. You young folks who are counselors here, you want to help others to find the Lord.

You'll teach them best by taking heed to your own life that you are building on the rock, that you love the Word of God, that you bow before that Word, and it has authority in you. And then you'll find there's a power there that will communicate that to others, and they'll see here that fellow is real.

That woman is real. That girl has the real thing. Hallelujah. Shall we thank the Lord? Dear Lord Jesus, we want to thank you for Pilgrim Camp. We want to thank you that we can come here and we can have your Word so richly.

Every meeting we hear it, we thank you for that. And we know you send your Word to heal us. You send your Word to correct us. You send your Word to make the man of God perfect, throughly furnished unto every good work.

We just say thank you, Lord. And we pray, our God, that you'll help us all to appreciate that more. Don't let us be drawn away by something that is spectacular, Lord, but empty. Something that doesn't really reach down into our hearts to make us more like Jesus.

Prayer for Obedience, the Holy Spirit, and Readiness

We pray that you will give us a great hunger for the Word, and give us a deeper hunger to do your Word, to do your will, O God, to obey your Word for the glory of your name. We thank you, Lord, for all you've done here, and we know you're going to continue in this last period.

You're going to bless these young folks that are here, the counselors that are here, the workers that are here. O Father, we just pray that you will bless us in such a way that all these children that come on the camp grounds may realize somehow the power of God.

You will bear witness, Lord, to lives that are lived for God. And this is our desire, Lord. It's not by might nor power, but by your Spirit. And we pray that we shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, and you will be pleased, Lord, to let your Spirit come upon those who give the Holy Spirit to those that obey you.

And we pray that we shall be obedient, Lord, that there may be a greater flow of conviction, of salvation, of being infilled with the Spirit, of divine healing, Lord, that the older folks that come may receive just the help they need from you.

And Lord, above all, we want to be looking up and we want to be ready for that glorious time when Jesus comes and we meet him with great joy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Father, I pray that you will just put your benediction upon us, all of us here on the campgrounds.

We pray you'll bless the staff meeting now for the glory of your name. Amen.