I please Almighty God to bless
us together as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn to
the book of Psalms and Psalm 11 and we'll read the third verse. Psalm 11 and reading verse 3. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? We may think and it's probably
true that we live in a very difficult day and with many attempts by
the evil one to destroy the ability that we have to worship and to
serve the Lord but we should be conscious that clearly there's
nothing new and it's clear that in David's life he was concerned
about such a situation. That's why, under the influence
of the Spirit of God, he writes such words But it's good as he
commences this psalm to recognise where was he. He tells us, in
the Lord put I my trust. Well that was David's statement
and may it indeed be our statement today. Because as we look around
naturally and we can only look around naturally at the future
for Christians in our country probably In the world, not rosy
at all, so many ideas to hinder and to stop the blessed privilege
we have of worship, and also perhaps to limit the way that
Bibles are distributed. And again, we've enjoyed these
privileges for many years, and how often we perhaps haven't
appreciated the wonderful favour which is ours. Now we know of
course that in the case of the Israelites, the Jews, that they
walked contrary to God and the net result was that they were
carried away, captive into Babylon and they spent 70 miserable years
far off from Jerusalem without any temple to worship in, and
a time of mourning. And we read they hung up their
harps and their willows. They weren't able to sing the
Lord's song in a strange land. You know, that could very easily
be the situation that may develop in our country. And how we need,
therefore, to pray to God earnestly that we may be delivered from
such situations. It's easy for us to think that
things are going to continue as they always have done. Well,
they continue now for many years, but there's every indication
that the enemy is at work, endeavouring to take away these privileges. And so, as David said, if the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do, well what
can the righteous do? We can look to God, we can only
look to God really. I read that 68th Psalm because
it started off with encouraging words. The 68th Psalm, it says,
let God arise. Let his enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee
before him. And he gives a little illustration.
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melteth before
the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let
the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yea, let
them exceedingly rejoice. And again, it's interesting to
recognize that here is David again speaking, and to realize
the pattern that we have in these few verses. Having made his plea
to God, he then comes and says, Let the righteous be glad. Let
them rejoice before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. And so often such a condition
and such a situation is far from us really. And yet we should
rejoice and we should be glad because although the future does
not look rosy, yet we should be thankful today. We still have
the Bible to read, we're still able to come together to worship. We're still able to distribute
the Word of God. And we should recognise God's
goodness to us in this result. One of the failings, surely,
with the current age is that we forget to exalt and to praise
and to thank God as we should. Because his mercies indeed are
new every morning, as Jeremiah said in his difficult age, great
is his faithfulness. It's good for us to come before
our God with a thankful heart and with praise in our heart
for all that he said and all that he does. because he still
does great things. We still are able to observe
his work going on but he will be praised and praise is worthy
and what a blessing it is therefore if we have a willing heart and
a real desire to acknowledge the goodness of God. And so,
coming back to this 11th Psalm, in the Lord put I my trust. Well, that's a good place and
that's a safe place. And may we truly be found there,
putting our trust in the Lord, committing our way unto him. And as we see things becoming
difficult around us to recognize the Lord does not change. He is still the same almighty
God that delivered Israel on so many occasions. He didn't
deserve it, and we don't deserve it. We don't deserve God's mercy,
but he does hear and answer prayer, and he has told us he will be
inquired of by the house of Israel to do these things for them.
we can easily become very self-centered and just really pray for ourselves
and the little circle around us and yet how needful it is
to pray we are commanded to pray for kings and those in authority
over us and you know that's something which is not done as we should
something that we should do every day without fail and yet so often
you see don't remember to do these things they seem to pass
out of our mind well David says if the foundation be destroyed
we might think what is that foundation? what is that foundation? well
it's really the ability to come together to worship and it's
really the ability to think upon the great and glorious truths,
the foundation truths, which we love and believe. Think of
the great blessing we have in the Godhead, God the Father,
and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And again, are we
truly thankful for that, that we have such a great God? an almighty God, a ruler of the
universe, not just of this earth, but the ruler of the universe,
the creator of all things, the creator of the universe. And how wonderful it is to recognize
how great this God is. He is indeed high and lifted
up. We should be thankful, therefore,
to be able to come together and worship the Creator, the One
who's made us, the One who's made all things, so that we may
indeed come and bow down before our God. And you think of the
glorious work of the Saviour, you think of the Saviour, you
think how we're able to remember His birth, We come year by year, don't we,
in a specific way to remember the birth of the Lord Jesus.
And as most of you know, we hope to distribute a Christmas card
to our neighbourhood. And it's very direct and it's
very pointed. And it directs people to the
Saviour. Well, we should earnestly pray
that this may be made a great blessing and it's not something
we should just perhaps pass by in a casual way but the Lord
has given us the ability to do this and what a mercy if we're
able therefore to pursue this opportunity and then not just
to distribute the cards and then forget about it so easy isn't
it? just to forget about it where
we are to pray for God's blessing. We ought to earnestly pray that
people may be blessed this Christmas time as we're privileged to do
this and again we should be thankful for the freedom we have of this
great blessing of a foundation to be able to act in this free
way still in this time to direct people to the Lord Jesus Christ
and to direct people to the wonderful birth of the Saviour. You see,
this proves the uniqueness and the greatness of God. And yet
today, how often people just pass over it, think it's of no
consequence. Well, one of the great blessings
is, of course, that the prophecy would regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ in detail. in a number of places in the
Old Testament, was fulfilled. And we should recognise that.
And when perhaps people may question it, and endeavour to destroy
such a foundation, to be able to point them to the Scriptures,
to point them to the wonderful truth which has been fulfilled
in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, of course,
not only the birth of the Saviour, the life of the Saviour, the
perfect life of the Saviour, the only one who lived a perfect
life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, how wonderful that is
to be able to trace out. And again, how often we are backward
in doing these things. We often seem ashamed that we
worship such a great and glorious God. Well, if the foundation
be destroyed. You see, we may not be able to,
perhaps in time to come, even speak about these things. As
we know, the courts have already condemned someone as a criminal
who has prayed in their mind. It seems incredible, in the day
and age in which we live, to think that you and I could be
condemned and criminalized for praying in our mind that nobody
knows about apart from God. Well, we should just recognize
that we enjoy freedom in the present time and be thankful
for it and pray that it may be maintained to us. Just try and
imagine. if we were not able to pray,
not able to pray at all, not able to have prayer meetings,
not able to pray for one another audibly, and also not to be able
to pray silently. What a terrible state that would
be. And yet you see, there we have
in our country at the present time, This being fulfilled, a
great foundation that we have, the foundation of prayer. Oh
my friends, prize it. And indeed value it and make
the most of it. So we have then the life of the
Saviour. He prayed didn't he? He set us
a glorious example and then of course he lived that perfect
life and he lived that sin atoning death and that is indeed a glorious
doctrine for believers and we don't want to have this eroded
from us that we're not able to speak about the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well let us thank God that we
still are enabled to come to our God and to pray and to speak
about his death and then of course to speak about his glorious resurrection
and also his ascension into glory and also then as He then speaks
for us, intercedes for us to our Father in heaven. These are
foundational truths, foundational doctrines for us. What if they're
destroyed? What if they're taken away? How will we continue? How will
we face the future? Well, we need to earnestly pray
that the devil and all the host of his evil helpers will be not
able to bring such a situation to pass in our nation. Well,
we can look on, can't we? And we can pray on. And we can
believe that the Word of God encourages us to press on. And it's explained to us through
the final perseverance of the saints. We're not promised an
easy life. But we are promised a good end. And we are promised an eternal
home. And we should thank God that
that cannot be removed from us. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? Well, what can the righteous
do is very clear in the Word of God, that we can come and
we can commit ourselves to our God. And my friends, may we be
able still to pray on, pray on. And the prophet Isaiah speaks
very gloriously. A well-known verse in the 42nd
chapter of Isaiah. And it's a wonderful, sorry,
45th chapter in Isaiah, verse 22. And this is what it tells
us. And how wonderful it is, it says this. Look unto me. Look unto me. There's our place
of refuge. Look unto me and be saved. All the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else. No, there's no one else. But what a blessing it is if
we can come there via Previous verses in this 45th
chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah tells us, assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, ye that are
escaped to the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me, a just God and a Saviour. There is none beside me. And how true that is. And therefore,
what a wonderful privilege is ours to hear such a gracious
and wonderful invitation to come to our God, look unto me. Do
we do that? Do we look unto God? Do we look unto Him and be saved? All the ends of the earth pray
unto God and there is none else. Well, it'll be a mercy if we
understand that. And as the prophet goes on, he
says, referring to the Saviour, I have sworn by myself The word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. People don't
believe that, do they? I hope you and I believe that.
And as I have said sometimes to you, the great truth is that
every knee, every knee will bow to God. We'll either bow while
we're on the earth, acknowledging Him to be our Lord and Master,
or we shall bow down before Him at the great day of judgment.
No one will be excluded. It tells us, isn't it, every
knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear, every tongue will
acknowledge that the Lord is God. Surely shall one say, in
the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. There surely is our place
of rest. Surely there is a place of comfort
for us. So may we recognise the encouragement
to look unto our God, look unto me, and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else. You know the God's servant Micah
again wrote very similar words in the seventh chapter of Micah
and he tells us, let me read a couple of verses from verse
five. Trust ye not in a friend, put
ye not confidence in a guide, Keep the doors of thy mouth from
her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth thy
father, the daughter riseth up against the mother, the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of
his own house. And then Micah says, Therefore
I will look unto the Lord, I will wait For the God of my salvation,
my God will hear me. Confidence in almighty God. And so, as we come to our God,
as we look unto the Lord, do we come in faith, believing that
this great and glorious God will hear us. He will hear us. Micah says, I will wait for the
God of my salvation. We mustn't become impatient,
but we must continue in prayer. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. How wonderful it is to be blessed
with fervent prayer, effectual fervent prayer, to seek the God
my Bless us with that. You see, we live, don't we, in
a day of small things, relatively. We see the lukewarmness of the
Church of God. We see them wandering all around,
and yet to have that humble confidence in our God. To look to Him, to
trust in Him, and to pray that He will come and visit our souls. You know, real religion is personal. Real religion starts with ourselves. We may look around at others,
but we want to look at ourselves and to pray that the Lord will
look upon us and grant that we may be indeed a green tree, not
a dry tree, and a fruitful tree, and not a barren tree, Because
we in this world, as Isaiah tells us, ye are my witnesses. And we don't want to appear to
be a witness as a dry tree with no fruit, with no evidence of
the grace of God, and no evidence of his love and mercy toward
us. Well, what is the devil trying
to do? to destroy the foundations to
destroy our hope to make us come to that condition where we give
up where we conclude it's no point in praying because God
doesn't hear and God doesn't answer my prayers well perhaps
we don't ask in a right way perhaps we ask because We want to consume
the answers upon our lusts, as the scripture tells us. You see,
we need to pray rightly. We need to come and pray that
God's name may be honoured and glorified when prayers are answered. And again, how necessary it is
that we do acknowledge when God does hear an answer prayer. Perhaps that's one of the biggest
failures in our lives. We pray, God's gracious, He answers,
and we don't praise Him. And we don't thank Him for it.
Really, there is so much, is there not, to thank God for. And how miserably sinful we are
when we're so selfish And so self-centered, we consider ourselves
rather than consider the majesty and the greatness of God who
deserves all our praise. If their foundations be destroyed,
what shall the righteous do? Now, my friends, we know that
we have a God who is able to do far more exceeding abundantly
than you and I can ask or even think. And it's important that
we recognise this in our desires, in our worship, so that indeed
we come to a God who is kind and gracious. And what a mercy
to be blessed with the wonderful outpouring of the Spirit of God
as we come to Him in prayer. And so, Peter was reminded by
the Lord, and this is a wonderful, encouraging word for us today.
The Lord said to Peter, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And what was that in reference
to? The Lord said to Peter, but whom
say ye that I am? What was Peter's response? Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What a mercy if all
of us can come to that position in answer to that question and
be able to honestly say, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
Living God. And what was the Lord's response? Blessed art thou, Simon by Jonah,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. This is the great blessing. And
then he says, And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter and
upon this rock, it doesn't mean Peter, it means himself, upon
this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. That's a lovely and wonderful
promise the Saviour gave to Peter. And my friends, how good it is
for us today to realise that all the efforts of Satan, and
there are many, and there are varied, will not be able to prevail. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it, because the Lord God omnipotent reigns. And what a mercy it is to realise
we have such a God and such a Saviour to encourage us and to strengthen
us still in this day and age in which we live. You know, the
apostle, when he wrote again to the Hebrews, we spoke about
the Hebrews this morning, and in the 13th chapter, the last
chapter, he tells us this in the fifth verse, he says, let
your conversation be without covetousness and be content with
such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee." Never leave us, nor forsake us. Just think of that. You and I
are traveling on through this world with so much opposition. It may increase more and more,
and yet to realize we won't be alone. We won't be alone. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. That's why he's able to go on
and say, so that we may boldly say, boldly say, the Lord is
my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Well, in our little lives, perhaps
the Lord has come, the Lord has been our helper. And it's a good
thing if we have the evidence of it. And my friends, don't
deny it. Do acknowledge it. The Lord is
my helper. And because of that, Paul was
able to say, I will not fear what man shall do unto me. He
had the evidence that God had not cast him off. He had the
evidence that God was faithful. He had the evidence that God
was a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God. And therefore, he was able
to believe that the Lord would never leave him, nor forsake
him. Even if the foundations were
destroyed, what can the righteous do? Well, we've already covered
that, really, by saying, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, looking
unto the Saviour, that great and glorious One who knows all
about us. Commit our way unto the Lord.
Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. I know such
words are easy to say, but what a blessing if God gives you and
me faith to believe the truth of them, and to realise that
such words emanate from God. They're not man's words, they're
God's words. And what a blessing it is, therefore,
to be able to take God at His word, at His word. You know,
we read the 11th chapter, 11th Psalm, rather. The 12th Psalm
commences with, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases. for the
faithful fail from among the children of men. Perhaps that's
where we find ourselves today. We come to God, we pray, help
Lord. Lord loves to hear and answer
prayer. What a mercy it is then to realise
that this is the God that we have. The Great God, the Almighty
God, the Ruler of the Universe, the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Wouldn't it be a blessing for
us today as we think of a world like this, if the foundation
be destroyed, to realise that God is with us. And as the Apostle
Paul says, if God before us, who can be against us? When things
appear to be dark and gloomy, to realise that God doesn't change. God is always light. Darkness
may be around us. And that's why we're encouraged
to look to him. There is the glorious light of
the Gospel shining forth, and it's wonderful, isn't it, to
realize how strong and powerful that light is and how good it
is to come to that humble understanding of the greatness of God. And
let me just quote again a verse which I often quote. It's a very
wonderful statement in the 2nd Corinthians and the 4th chapter
and the 6th verse. Well, the 5th verse tells us,
for we preach, not ourselves, May we never do that. But Christ
Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake,
for God, who commanded, and when God commands, it comes to pass. For God, who commanded the light,
the light, To shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts. Just ponder that. This light
has shone in our hearts. And what is that light? To give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But, he says, We have this treasure,
which it is, in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Again, to exhort the Saviour,
we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed,
but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken cast down but
not destroyed that's because we have the promises which God
has given to us in His Word and what a blessing it is therefore
that we have this and the Apostle goes on in this fourth chapter
towards the end he tells us this for our light affliction any
affliction, really, compared to what the Saviour faced is
light. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding an
eternal weight of glory it's good isn't it to realize that
we have an illustration here in units that we can understand
a light affliction and an eternal weight of glory you see how much
heavier how much greater is the eternal weight of glory and it's
a blessing therefore as you and I travel through life with many
things to perplex us and the possibility of the foundations
being destroyed to realise the great truth that we have here
for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and in time things
It is, but for a moment. It's fleeting. It's passing.
It'll soon be gone. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And my friends, you and I, by
the grace of God, are travelling through time into eternity and
to be found in eternity with our great and glorious Saviour
who is with us as we travel through this earth who doesn't leave
us who doesn't forsake us well says David what can the righteous
do? we've already spoken about it
look to the Lord commit our way unto him cast all our care upon
him, pray unto him earnestly, fervently, that he may hear and
answer our prayer. As we read together, the Lord
tryeth the righteous. He does try us. He tries our
religion, and that's a good thing. You and I don't want to go through
this life assuming we have a good religion when we don't. We want
a good religion which is founded upon the rock, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We want a religion which is centred
upon what he has done. A religion that has revealed
to us the glorious light of the gospel. and a religion which
sets our hearts and our affections upon things above and not on
things on the earth. Well, what a great mercy it is
that we have a faithful God and therefore as we journey on to
have that confidence in him and in answer To this question, if
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Well, to remember then that God
is faithful and God will not lay on us more than we're able
to bear. There have been many martyrs
in the history of the world. God has enabled them. to bear
even that martyrdom and to take them home safe to glory. How many we can read of that
were either burnt at the stake or beheaded, they went now in
a humble confidence that God was with them and God was with
them and brought them safely through. So may we indeed come
to that position as David was able to in the first clause in
this 11th Psalm and say, in the Lord put I my trust. Amen.