True Unity: The Foundation of Apostolic Teaching

Truth for a Unity which isn't based upon truth is false it's manmade it's not God's plan it's unreal it's Furious very well then I say the Apostle now is teaching us all that in this way builded he says upon the foundation you see brings us to the vital thing at once there can be no true Building without a right foundation you got to start with Foundation says Paul you can't talk of a building without knowing something about its foundation that's absolutely vital and Central. [00:14:32]

An apostle was one who had to have seen the Risen Lord by definition an apostle is one who is a witness to the resurrection because he has seen the Risen Lord now that you see was one of the qualifications of Paul himself he saw the Risen Lord on the way to Damascus if he hadn't he could never have been an apostle he might have been a preacher he might have been a prophet he might have been a great teacher but he could never have been an apostle if he hadn't seen the Lord on the road to Damascus. [00:16:06]

The Apostle is one who is specially commissioned by Christ having seen him risen from the dead to go out and preach the message not only that the apostles were given a very special Authority they were given power to work miracles and to do various other things and it was these that attested their Authority as Apostles now those are the three main characteristics of an apostle you'll see in a moment how vital it is that we should Bear all that in mind without those three things no man is an apostle or in any sort of apostolic succession. [00:17:53]

A prophet is one who receives a direct message from God one to whom truth is revealed directly by the spirit not as the result of reading the scripture or anything else but a direct message given which he in turn is to impart to others the Apostle Paul defines it for us in 1 Corinthians 14 first verse he that prophesy proph prophesieth he says speaketh unto men to edification and exaltation and to comfort and there is no doubt that in the Christian church in the early days there were these people called prophets. [00:20:25]

The foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and the answer is this it means partly the men themselves as Believers the men as those exercising Faith they after all were the first Believers the apostles and Prophets The First Believers and in that sense the whole super structure goes up from them there is no doubt at all that that is partly the meaning that as they were the first to be laid there in this great building as kind of foundation Stones so it is right to refer to them as Believers as those exercising this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:22:25]

The teaching of the Apostles and Prophets that after all is the fundamental Foundation none of us can come into the church without believing it is as the result of believing that we derive all our benefits and are made what we are the difference is between Believers and unbelievers unbelievers are not in the Church Believers are in the church well what do they believe well they believe the teaching so that the foundation in the last analysis is the teaching of the Apostles and Prophets their Doctrine they taught of course what they believed themselves. [00:23:34]

Christianity is the most intolerant faith it says this and this alone is right and is true and the Apostle even says if any other men preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached even though it be an angel from heaven let him be a cursor there is no other gospel other Foundation can no man lay than that which is laid in other words the only basis of unity today as it was in the early church is the apostolic message and whatever men may think or say we must assert this. [00:25:31]

It's not my opinion or anybody else's opinion that matters what does the word teach what did the apostles teach I know nothing apart from that it isn't modern knowledge or modern research or modern understanding or modern ideas of God no no it's what these men taught it's the only gospel and clearly it's something that can be defined if it can't be defined how could the Apostle reprimand the Galatians how could he call them back how could he ask them certain questions they knew what he taught and it can be known. [00:26:21]

The foundation that man by nature is dead in trespasses and in sins that he is under the wrath of God it's the Apostle who says it I'm not saying it it's the Apostle and therefore I say to you that unless you believe that man by nature is dead in trespasses and sins and that there is such a thing as the Roth of God upon sin whatever else you may be are not in this Holy Temple in the Lord in which God dwells this is the foundation. [00:27:28]

The blood of Christ it is by his death by his sacrificial death by his substituting himself for us to Bear the punishment of our sins it is by the blood of Christ listen to it wherefore remember that in time that ye being in times past Gentiles In the Flesh were called uncircumcision that he were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. [00:28:50]

The blood of Christ he bore my sins in his own body on the tree It Is by that alone that I am delivered and then the power of God in regeneration the gift of the spirit Union with Christ that's the doctrine all that the Apostle has been teaching Us in this wonderful chapter very well then my. [00:29:56]

The apostolic message is the only basis for true unity, and Christianity is an exclusive faith. The teachings of the apostles are clear and definable, and adherence to these teachings is essential. The foundation of the church includes the belief in humanity's natural state of sin and the necessity of Christ's sacrificial death for salvation. The blood of Christ is central to salvation, and any denial of this is a denial of the foundation of the faith. [00:30:00]