Clearing Spiritual Rubbish: Building on Christ's Foundation

There is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 10. Rubbish a sermon delivered by CH Spurgeon in the year 1874. Remember that Jerusalem had been totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and what destruction by the Babylonians meant may be inferred from the vast heaps of the Dust of powdered bricks and charred wood which have been discovered upon the sites of cities which were utterly Raised To The Ground by the fierce soldiery of the terrible King. [00:00:10]

Now this it seems to me is intended or at least may justifiably be used for a type of the work which God's people have to carry on in the name of Jesus and in the power of His spirit in the world we have to build the wall of the church for God but we cannot build it for there is so much rubbish in our way. [00:03:31]

When Paul began to build for God and the apostles went forth as wise Master Builders they lay before them in towering heaps the old Jewish rubbish hard to remove heavy to bear away and in quantity equal to a huge hill the foundation was there thank God we have not delayed that that is laid in Christ Jesus and firmly laid and other Foundation can no man lay. [00:05:22]

The apostles had to begin their gospel labor amongst their fellow countrymen in the midst of this much rubbish no sooner did they begin to remove the worthless deposits then the lovers of tradition assailed them raised a great dust and became their violent persecutors following them from City to City scandalizing them and committing all manner of violence against them. [00:06:25]

Yet those who went before us labored on amidst that foul and noise some rubbish and was so successful in their Earnest excavations that at this day no one thinks of worshiping Jupiter or Saturn or Venus or Mercury these demon deities have gone to the limbo from whence they came they had been smitten Smitten by the gospel and they have withered like grass. [00:08:48]

This popish rubbish was found in layers first one doctrinal error and then another and then another and then another till at this time the errors of the Church of Rome are as countless as the stars as black as midnight and as foul as hell her Abominations reek in the nostrils of all good men her idolatries are the scorn of reason and the abhorrence of faith. [00:12:30]

There is much rubbish arising from the World the Flesh and the devil so that we are not able to build the wall look at human sin how that impedes us oh if there were no false systems of religion if priest and Scribe were silent if false prophet and Antichrist were both out of the way yet the sins of men are a vast and hideous mass of rotten rubbish. [00:16:30]

Do you not often feel that you cannot be built up in Heavenly Graces because of the rubbish of your own corrupt nature Oh What a Fool the fool was what a total ruin did it make of our moral nature Brethren do not discover I do almost every day some fresh heap of rubbish which I hardly knew was there points in which we thought ourselves strong turn out to be our weaknesses. [00:31:47]

Then there is often times in Christian people the old rubbish of legal thought of legal acting and legal fearing in our old estate we were going to be saved by our own merits that was our notion since our conversion we doctrinally abort the idea of any thought of human Merit but experimentally we indulge it the legal spirit will come in like an ill weed. [00:33:16]

And therefore finally let us by divine grace work on in faith with diligence in faith I say believing that our work of faith and labor of love are not in vain in the Lord believing that prayer is not a vain exercise the Drawing Near to God in communion is not a vain thing that trusting in the Lord is no idle dream but that surely he will complete what he has begun. [00:43:14]

Look that she be built on the foundation that is the last and yet the first question are you on the foundation some build very rapidly but they are not on the foundation yes you have a fine character and you make a noble profession but is the palatial structure based on the rocky Foundation or on the sand. [00:44:25]

But if you are a poor and needy sinner and you have rested your soul on Jesus and then renewed in Heart by his Spirit have been zealous for good works then is it no longer sand built on Sand but the work of the spirit of God upon the One Foundation which God laid from all eternity in the person and the work of his only begotten son. [00:45:26]