Have your Bibles open to Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 12.

A couple years ago, as our custom is, a number of my friends and I were

sitting in McDonalds having our morning coffee and solving the world's

problems. There were several people there, waiting for their food, when

suddenly the power went out. Well, the food was cooked, the people were

there to buy it; there was just one problem. Their registers are all

operated by power and computerized. So the problem was, "How do we total

up how much each customer owes when he or she orders their sausage and

biscuits for 99 cents and their cup of coffee for 55 cents? How do we

know what to charge? Then when they give us two dollars, how do we

know what to give them back?" I felt sorry, then I got aggravated.

The young lady who managed the restaurant at that time came around

asking if anyone had a hand-held calculator. She was finally able to

round up a couple hand-held calculators. The clerks could not add or

subtract!!!!! These were people who had already graduated from high

school or quit in desperation. They could not take 2 from 5 and get 3!!

They could not subtract 1 from 2 and get 1!! They could not add 9 and

5 and get 14!!!!! THEY COULD NOT DO THE BASICS!!!!! They did not

KNOW THE BASICS. We here in the state of Georgia have plowed multiplied

millions of dollars into education. We've got all these computers now,

and we have successfully managed, with all the money and improvements we've

made in our system, to go FROM CLOSE TO THE BOTTOM ALL WAY TO THE

BOTTOM in our educational system. WHY????? They can be given a

computer and as long as they have a picture from which to work, and

don't have to read, they can use it. However, when they have to read a

message that appears up there, the computer is of no value to them.

So we've plowed millions of dollars to buy computers and our kids still

can't read and write. The reason is - we've GOTTEN AWAY FROM THE BASICS.

I remember years ago in school, when girls could take courses in home

economics, and they were taught how to cook, how to go to the grocery

store and buy what they would need to prepare a meal, how to figure out

what the cost would be, how to work with a budget, how to make their

clothes. Now they take them into a home economics course and they talk

about sex and related topics!!!! That's one of the reasons girls

coming out of school now can't boil water without scorching it. Why?

We have gotten away from basics all way around!!!! No where is that

more true than in the realm of religion.

In Hebrews 5:12, the author, in writing to a group of Jews who were in

danger of going back to the tenents of Judaism, he says, "For when for

the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again

which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such

as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." There were people who

should have already been rooted and grounded in the first principles;

but they had moved away from them. They had forgotten them; and the

Hebrew author says, 'you need for somebody to start with the very first

principles, the basics, and teach you those things again.'

In the book of II Peter 1:5, Peter writes, "And beside this, giving

all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowedge." But

what if we do not have the foundation on which to add???? The point

he's making is, we cannot add these christian graces if we do not have

a foundation upon which to lay them. We must have that to we are going

to be adding. It amazes me sometimes, of the ready access, ready

availability of Bibles. They're on everything from cheap paper to

cassettes, discs, even on the computer. Now, still people have

absolutely no idea what the Bible says. Why don't they??? Well, they

don't read it!!!! If they do decide, 'I think I want to read my

Bible', they want to start with the book of Daniel, the book of

Ezeliel or the book of Revelation. The sad truth of the matter is,

half our people can't even pronounce those things or read them if they

saw them, much less determine what is in them. That would be

comparable to a person going to school and deciding they're going to

study mathematics. Now they can't add 1 and 1 and get 2. No, they

don't want to study that stuff. They're going to study algebra or

calculus, trigonometry!!!! Just one problem - if they can't do the

basics of addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, there is no

way under the sun they can do those more advanced functions. Why?

Because they're predicated on a foundation of basics. That's true with

everything. If we miss the basics we're in trouble.

I remember being in college and in my first quarter of Greek I got

sick - first week. I missed about ten consecutive days out of the

first two weeks of Greek. They said on the third day I was absent the

professor looked up and said, "Um, out three days already, he must

have dropped the course." I did have an awful hard time trying to

catch up because I had missed some of the very basic principles. I had

to go back and get help so I would have something upon which to build.

One of the reasons the Church is in the mess it's in in so many places

of the world today, particularly in this country, is because we have

gotten away from basics. The apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 3:9, begins,

"For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye

are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto

me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another

buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth

thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which

is Jesus Christ." I Cor. 3:9-11. What did you say, Paul? 'As a wise

masterbuilder, I laid the foundation.' What are you doing Paul? 'I'm

making it possible for folks to build, because if you do not have a

foundation that is solid, sure and firm, the building you build upon it

is going to fall.' Do you children remember a story about somebody

building something and it falling down - say maybe over in the book of

Matthew, chapter 7? Let's see if we can find out why it fell.

Matthew 7:24, "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and

doeth them, I will liken him unto a WISE man, which built his house

upon a rock." Now, let me stop there for just a minute. When we think

of a rock, we think of something that's firm, solid, secure. It's

going to be there, it's going to provide stability. So Jesus said,

'I'm going to liken the man who hears my sayings and does them to a

man which built on a rock.' He built his house on the rock and what

happened? The rains came, the wind blew, the floods came, but the

house stood!!!! Why? it was built upon a rock!!!! How many of you

every played in a sandbox or walked on a beach somewhere? What

happens to sand when you step in it? It just squishes down, gets up

between your toes. Where you step, you've mashed it down and have

left a print there. Guess what? If someone bigger and heavier than

you comes along and steps where you've stepped, the sand goes down

again. So Jesus said, "And every one that heareth these sayings of

mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who

built his house upon the sand." Matt. 7:26. Now, what happens when

we dump water on sand? Swish!!! Moves!!! That's why when the ocean

waves continually wash up on the shore, they talk about the land

eroding away. The water carries it away. Well, that's what happened

when the floods beat upon that house that was built upon the sand. It

didn't have a solid foundation. Paul says the foundation we're to build

upon is Christ, I Cor. 3. If we build upon any other foundation, we're

going to be in trouble. Paul, you wrote to the Corinthian brethren,

you preached to these Corinthian, you said you said the foundation.

Well, what did you tell them? I Corinthian 15 beginning, "Moreover,

brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you,

which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye

are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye

have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that

which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to

the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the

third day according to the scriptures." I Cor. 15:1-4. Then Paul

goes on a records some of those appearances after his resurrection.

What did you tell those folks, Paul? 'I told them about the death,

burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ.' What happened when you told

them those things? According to the book of Acts, Acts 18:8, "...and

many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized."

We're talking about basics. One of the problems is, a lot of preachers

standing in pulpits today don't even know the basics, nor have the

capability of teaching them to someone else if they had them, because

they don't believe the basics. The Hebrew author said when we get

away from those basics, we need to learn them again. The apostle

Paul said the only thing safe upon which to build is the foundation

he laid. And he said, "For other foundation can no man lay than

that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. " I Cor. 3:11. We're just

fortunate enough that in God's divine wisdom, he made sure we knew

what the apostle Paul told those folks when he said that foundation of

Jesus Christ, about his death, burial, resurrection. What was that?

That was the gospel. What did they do when he preached the gospel?

They heard, they were baptized.

Now I realize that there comes a point at which, as the Hebrew author

goes on to say in chapter 6, we need to go on the perfection; but if

we don't have anything on which to build, how do we get there!!! I

realize that as Peter would write, there is a time when we need to

start adding on to those basics and grow to become more like Jesus.

I realize that. I realize also that if we start out wrong we don't

wind up right. I realize that if we don't have something on which

to build, our house is not going to stand. That's what has happened

to us in the field of education today. Now I don't have my PH.D.

in education; I admit that; but I'll tell you one thing. IF WE DON'T

GET BACK TO THE BASICS WHERE WE'RE TEACHING OUR KIDS TO BE ABLE TO

READ AND WRITE AND FIGURE, WE'RE GOING TO GET WORSE AND WORSE!!!!!!!

It is pathetic when people who leave high school and go to college

get there and suddenly, having taken a series of tests, find out,

'hey, I can't do this.' Do you realize what percentage of college

students each year are now having to take one or more remedial courses

before they can actually start their college curriculum!!!!! What it

boils down to is, they can't read, write, figure!!!! Doesn't matter

how many computer buttons they can punch, if they can't do the basics

and don't have any common sense to go along with it, they're "up a

creek without a paddle." Now maybe some of our liberal elements and

society would like that because then everybody will wind up depending

on the government to tell them what to do, how to do it, when to do

it and where they can do it!!!!! But for an intelligent individual,

that's not an option, because he/she realizes he/she is responsible

for himself/herself. This person doesn't want someone else making

their decisions. That's what we call FREEDOM, I believe. They

have that sort of thing in places like North Korea and in the old

communist countries. Those folks didn't have to think for themselves.

They were told what they COULD DO, what they COULDN'T DO, when they

COULD DO IT, when they COULD BUY FOOD, when they COULDN'T BUY FOOD,

IF THEY COULD BUY FOOD!!!!!!

God made us creatures of choice, capable of thinking. Then he also

made us responsible for using those abilities and capabilities and

developing them. But we must start somewhere; we have to start with

the basics. I mentioned earlier that when a lot of folks finally

decide they want to study the Bible, they want to start out with

Ezekiel, Daniel or Revelation. I know what I'm saying is right. They

can't read. They can't read!!!!! The reason I know they can't read

is this - they get over to the book of Revelation and they start with

all these interpretations that see the European common market and all

these things in the book of Revelation. Some folks have even gotten

computers in there now. There's just one problem. They can't even

get through the first chapter because the first chapter tells them

"THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, WHICH GOD GAVE UNTO HIM, TO SHOW

UNTO HIS SERVANTS THINGS WHICH MUST SHORTLY COME TO PASS......TO THE

SEVEN CHURCHES WHICH ARE IN ASIA.." Rev. 1:1,4. Then we become almost

as bad as the evolutionists and try to get thousands and thousands and

maybe millions of years in there. No, he said these things must

quickly be done, they must shortly come to pass. Now can we learn

from those principles? Absolutely!!!! Were they designed

primarily for us? NO, NO, NO!!!! They were written specificaly to

the seven churches of Asia, at a time when the world was in upheaval

and about to be in a greater one. It was written to comfort those

saints who were suffering martyrdom, imprisonment, being killed because

of their faith. So I know the "would be" students of the Bible can't

read - they can't even get out of the first chapter and understand

the basics. How then, do you turn and listen to a person like that

tell you what to do in order to be saved????????

You see, we must start and lay a solid fondation. Paul said he laid

that - that's Christ. We have all this material, very simple, very

plain, that lays that foundation. Jesus made it as plain as he could.

'You hear these sayings of mine, do them, and you're wise. You hear

these sayings of mine, don't do them, and you're foolish. You build

a house and it's going to fall.' A lot of houses are crumbling today

spiritually speaking, and they're crumbling because people are not

hearing the sayings of Christ and when they do hear them, they won't

do them. You can rest assured that house will fall. How do I know??

Jesus said it!!!! He's smarter than me, smarter than you.