Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 11 and reading for our
text, verse 3. Psalm 11, verse 3. If the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalm 11, verse 3. The implication is, if the foundations
are destroyed, the righteous cannot do anything. They rely on those foundations. They are helpless. They need
those foundations there. But the answer to why the foundations
will not be destroyed is in the following verse, verse 4, the
Lord, Jehovah that is, is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne
is in heaven, his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children
of men. Our Lord says, because I live,
he shall live also. The foundations of the Church
of God, the foundations upon which the righteous lean cannot
be destroyed. As you know, the church, the
chapel here has had renovations in this last year and the floor
has been replaced. And while it was being replaced,
one of the concerns was, was the floor tied in with the foundations
Or were the foundations going to be compromised? There was
thoughts concerning the foundation of the building. The foundation
always comes first, then the rest of the building is put upon
it. Some buildings, like our chapel
at Cranbrook, have actually got very little foundation. I think
there's just perhaps sleepers on the ground that it's built
on. But it's been many several hundreds
of years like that. But others, we think of Solomon's
Temple, which we are told there, that was made out of great stones,
stones that were of 10 cubits and of 8 cubits, that is 15 foot
by 12 foot of hewn stone, stone that has
been sawed, as it's put in the Word of God. It's hard for us
to think in days with no great mechanical labour, using just
man's labours and primitive, you might say, tools to move
such stones into position to build the temple. was the very first thing that
needed to be done and it is a vital point in any building that before
anything else happens then there is the foundation that is laid. We spoke this afternoon about
how our Lord used the parable of the man that built his house
upon the sand and the one that built his house upon the rock. The parable is to teach the difference
between one that hears the word but doesn't do it and one that
hears it and does it. But it also emphasizes the teaching
of the vital necessity of a good foundation. The one on the sand,
when the winds came, when the wind blew, when the waves came,
then it fell. Great was the fall of it. but
one that was upon a rock, then that stood, and he is vital. Other foundation can no man lay,
says the apostle, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,
and him crucified. So, I wanted to very much think
this evening on the foundation, the foundation that is laid first,
that is in the word of God, and then to look at this text with
that in view, with going like we did this afternoon, those
things that when we thought of the floor, that which was under
our feet this afternoon, it brings back to us spiritual teaching. And when we think of the foundation,
But that also brings to us the spiritual teaching that goes
along with it. I remember years ago over in
Australia, in Echuca, a lot of the houses over there were built
on slabs. You poured the concrete slab
first and then you built a timber framed house and then built the
bricks up around the outside. And this chap had his slab poured
and then they built upon it and when the house was built then
they noticed the slab was cracking and they did test and they found
out that the concrete was not the right specification it wasn't
strong enough and the only saving part of it was that instead of
making it 6 inches thick they'd made it I think 8 or 10 so they
got the extra thickness to help them But they had to underpin
it, and there was a question at one time whether the whole
building would fall down. So the foundation is very vital
that that be done first, later, and then is the building on it.
Paul says in his teaching, I have laid the foundation, let another
take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Many of course would say that
they are building upon the Lord Jesus Christ, but how they are
building upon it often is wood, hay and stubble. We need to be
very careful how we build on that one foundation. As vital
a foundation is rhyme. I want to look at the whole text
here, so firstly I want to ask as to who the righteous are. Our text says if the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Who are these that are righteous? And then secondly, the righteousness
is need of foundation that cannot be destroyed, or we might say
their felt need. And then lastly, Foundations
that cannot be destroyed and upon which the righteous depend. But firstly our text says the
righteous. It is describing a people. The word says that there is none
righteous, no not one. So who are these? We read again, their righteousness
is of me. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. But the righteousness of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is imputed or put to the account
of those that believe on his name, those that are his people. Those that have been called and
through calling know their election. And it is that righteousness
that they depend upon. Paul in Romans chapter 10, he
is very concerned for his own people that they had a zeal for
God but not according to knowledge. They were going about to establish
their own righteousness and had not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. They were laying a wrong foundation,
a foundation of their own works. He says they were ignorant of
God's righteousness and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
says it speaks on this wise, not who shall ascend into heaven,
who shall have wonderful visions or heights of experience or depths
descending to the deep depths of experience. We're not to think
in that term. He says that the faith of Jesus
Christ is that which we preach. If thou believe in thine heart
and confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Whosoever believeth in the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be saved." And it is that faith, that faith
of which we preach, the Word says, pull what we preach. And that is what enters into
the heart of the people of God. makes it like those on the way
to Emmaus whose heart burned within them while the Lord talked
with them and opened up the Scriptures concerning Himself. They are
the righteous ones who are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as their
only hope, their faith is of God, it comes from God and it
centres in God and they in God's sight are righteous. In Jeremiah, Jeremiah 23, we
read, this is the name wherewith he, that is the Lord, shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. And another 10 chapters on, 33,
this is the name wherewith she shall be called, Church of God,
the Lord our righteousness. It is the same name, a surname. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ is that which He wrought out here below on this
earth. As God, as the Godhead, He is
righteous. But we have the law saying, that
he that hath two coats, let him give to him that hath none. And with our Lord Jesus Christ,
He had His coat. Let us not rent it. Let us ask
lots for it. Who shall it be? Without a seam,
says the hemrider, this garment's wove, bequeathed in everlasting
love, their time began, designed to be, a royal robe to cover
thee. And so in all the time of our
Lord's life here below, all that He did, perfect, spotless, sinless,
He was working out this robe of righteousness. to impart to
his people, to put on their account as if they had lived the life
that he lived, as if they had fulfilled the law as he had fulfilled
it. And then at Calvary he suffers,
he bleeds, he dies, he lays down his life and he pays the debt
that his people owed. And so that debt is clear and
then he is free to bless those people who believe on his name. the Lord Jesus Christ, the foundation
for the people of God, and to you which believe he is precious. And the Lord said to those of
John, chapter 8, who believed on his name, If ye continue in
my word, then ye shall be my disciples indeed, ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And these are
the righteous, These are those to whom the Word of God has come,
they have been born again, they have been quickened by the Spirit,
they have been brought to fill their need and to flee unto the
Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in Him. These are those that
is spoken of here, those that the Lord has chosen and loved
eternally. I want to look then secondly
at why the righteous need of foundations that cannot be moved
or cannot be destroyed. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? What is the concern of the righteous
then? We may say of all God's people,
all of the people upon the earth, it is those that have been quickened
into divine life, they know the reality, they know the truth.
They know the reality that they are sinners. They know the just
sentence of God against sin, the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die. They know the existence of their
souls. They know that though their bodies
will die and go down into the grave, their soul lives and shall
return to God that gave it. And they also know how holy,
how upright, how perfect God is. That He cannot look upon
iniquity without utter abhorrence. That He is a just and holy God
and He will punish sin. there must be a complete atonement,
there must be a complete satisfaction for God to pass over their sin. And when we realise the worth
of something, that is why it is such a concern that it be
not destroyed. If we had a situation where we
were perhaps on a cliff, we were stranded and we wanted to get
down and we had this rope and it was tied to something very
strong and we were going to let ourselves down by this rope.
If we knew what it would be if that rope was to fail, if we
were then to fall and be killed, we'd be so concerned. Is that
rope strong enough? Will it hold my weight? Or will
it break? And what is the rope holding
onto? Will that tree pull out by the
roots? Will it be strong enough? And
the more we're aware of what would happen, if those things
we were depending upon gave way, The more concerned we would be,
we can see our need of them, the value of them. You know,
if someone's got lots of riches, they've got plenty of money in
the bank, and then something goes wrong, they might have a
car accident. Oh, don't matter, just send it to the repair shop
and they'll repair it. And oh, we've got some major
damage at home. Well, don't matter, we know a
good builder who'll come and do it. How different to the person
who's just living on the borderline, has only just enough money in
the bank to get by one week after the next, and they have these
things happen. Where are they going to get the
money for a new car? How are they going to get that
repaired? A different thing. If we've got a stock of our own,
we're not concerned. But if we've got nothing of our
own, and we're utterly dependent upon another, then we are concerned
that that supply is there, that in this case the Lord will provide,
the Lord will give us His righteousness, He will accept us at that last
day, that our foundation is right. It's too late beyond the grave
to find out we've gone the wrong way. that we weren't on the right
foundation. It's too late then. Be encouraged,
those of you who will feel that concern, maybe in the lines of
the hymn writer, but can I bear the piercing thought, what if
my name should be left out when thou for them shalt call? It
is a necessary thing. If we really are alive to our
need, What we are is sinners, and remember when the Lord says,
by grace, He doesn't make us saints in the sense that we are
not sinners anymore. Day by day we are mindful that
sin is mixed with all we say and do. When the Word tells us
that we're to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, that's not growing more and more and
more in our esteem or more perfect and more sanctified and more
holy. God does sanctify His people. But grace and works are opposite. So we grow in grace, we're looking
at our works and seeing more and more that they are stained
and dyed with sin. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly Thee, on Jesus' name." And it is a living soul
that then grows more and more dependent upon the Lord Jesus. Remember in the Song of Solomon,
in the last chapter there, there's a picture of the Beloved and
we picture of the spouse, the Church of God, and she's coming
up out of the wilderness and she is leaning upon her beloved,
putting that weight and trust and hopes all in the Lord Jesus
Christ, not in her own works, not in what she has done, not
in what God will see in her. I am black, but come we, it says
in the beginning of that book, that is the language of the people
of God, who on one hand, they feel their own sin, but on the
other hand, they see the comeliness of Christ. They see his robe,
his spotless robe. And that is our acceptance before
God. But when we're relying and leaning
on that foundation, if we were shipwrecked and we found a rock
and we got on top of that rock and the waves were beating upon
it, wouldn't we be concerned that that rock didn't move? That we were safe to be upon
that rock? Wherever we are, where we are
sheltering, we want to make sure it's right. I've used this illustration
many times. Many years ago, with our son,
I was in the woods at Cranbrook and suddenly there came down
a tremendous downpour of rain, and we were too far from home
to have a refuge, a hiding place there, but even though it was
winter time, there was one tree that was not deciduous, it was
a holly tree, a nice canopy of leaves, and we ran to that and
we hid under it, and we sheltered under the holly tree, and that
was We could trust in that to keep us nice and dry, we could
just sit under it because we knew it was sheltering us. But if that had been in Australia,
if that had been instead of rain, a bushfire was coming along,
that wouldn't have been a hiding place, that wouldn't have been
a refuge. We would have been rightly really concerned that
when that fire came, it would consume the tree, it would consume
us as well. It is our knowledge of what we
are resting on, what we're hiding in, what we're trusting in. The more the stronger our faith
is, the more it will be at peace and rest and comfort. You think
of dear Peter, you know when he was In prison, James had been
killed with the sword. After Easter, he was going to
be brought forth, and he was going to be slain as well. But
he was asleep. I often thought about, he was
asleep. Asleep with that. Would we sleep?
Could we sleep? When we're waiting almost certain
death the next day? Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, his mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in
thee. The Lord it is that gives faith
and trust in himself. And we know of that account how
the Lord appeared and delivered Peter and saved him. Loosed the
angel cave, loosed his shackles, awoke him, opened the doors,
put the heathens to sleep, brought him on his way. Peter's trust in the Lord was
well found. And it is a blessed thing where
God who gives faith, the Lord Jesus Christ who gives faith,
gives that so the people of God can rest and trust in Him. You
think of Noah in the ark, he made the ark, they came into
it, the Lord shut them in and he was in it, come down into
the ark. But when they started to feel
the fountains of the great deep broken up When the rain started
to come, would the ark be sufficient? Would it stand? How many ship
launches have gone wrong since that time? But the Lord gave
the design and the Lord shut them in and they were safe. But
the more we know the danger, the need, the more careful, prayerful
we'll be, the more what's at stake our souls at stake, all
that He's done to save us from the burning lane. We're mindful,
and how many of you are mindful of that? How many of you think
of your soul and think of what if God required that of you,
of me tonight? Where would we stand and where
would we be then? Do we have a right thing, a right
apprehension of it? And my concern, that which we're
trusting on, the foundation of our hope and our faith is sure,
it is real and we're on that foundation. You know, it's no
use having a good foundation next door, we want one where
the building is. It's no use thinking, well, the
person in the next seat is on a good foundation, but I'm not. It must be personal. And so the
righteous have this need, and when you think of the words of
our text, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do? There is no salvation apart from
the foundation of God. They can't do anything. They
haven't got another way. They haven't got an alternative
way. They haven't got something else
they can have recourse to. There's only one gospel, one
name, one salvation, one way. The world, and sadly our own
king, thinks that he can be the champion of faiths, as if there's
all sorts of different ways to heaven. The Lord tells us of
the way, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. There's the foundation, one foundation,
the church is one foundation. And so the righteous are concerned
and they know this, if that could be destroyed, they have nothing
else, that is their only hope. But the scriptures are very,
very sure we do not need another hope because that hope and that
foundation will never and can never be destroyed. But be encouraged if you have
that concern because it has the stamp on it of you knowing the
worth of your soul and the reality of things. If you have no thought
and no concern, of eternity, the worth of your soul and where
you shall spend eternity, that's where we ought to be concerned. Well on to look then thirdly,
foundations that cannot be destroyed and upon which the righteous
depend. Now I want to especially think
of this as a foundation that is done first. First. And the first one that
I want to look at is a creating God. A God who laid the foundation
of the world. We find this in scripture that
that phrase, the foundation of the world, occurs ten times through
the scripture. Men would today, they would try
to undermine and say, God didn't create, it just happened over
millions of years. Or even those with the name of
Christian, that would say, well, we can kind of fit in the evolutionist
approach with biblical Christianity. It doesn't need to be a short length of time in the world.
It doesn't need to be 6,000 years. The scriptures clearly say the
world roughly is. The creation days, they could
be millions of years or something. That does not fit. with the Scriptures
at all, and it does certainly not fit with the foundational
truths of the Word of God. Jeremiah says that the gods that
have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish
from underneath the heavens and the earth. And our Lord referred
again and again to in the beginning, And of course the Word of God
begins, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And where the Apostle Paul would introduce to the heathens and
bring to the Gentiles the true faith, he declares to them who
worship him, and had an altar to the unknown God, and he sets
before them the creating God. In Him we live and move and have
our being, who made the heavens, the moon, the stars and all that
is in them. And there's many times that when
the ungodly are introduced to the true and living God, they're
introduced in that way. He is the Creator God. He hath made all things. It's
no wonder that Satan attacks that doctrine. It's no wonder
that the world hates it. It's no wonder that men in their
natural state and enmity against God will see creation in all
its wonder and they do not want to see a creating God. They'll
wonder, they'll enthuse on the miracles and wonders of the creation
as soon as you suggest that there's a God responsible They hate that. A cloud comes down. They don't
want to know about it. But it is that which man shall
be held accountable at the last day, on the Judgment Day, because
God is known by the things that are made. Even His eternal Godhead. We are made in the image of God. And our very intellect, our very
soul, our very spirit, Our very being and being placed at the
pinnacle of the creation tells us that there is one above us
and that that is God. We are put above the animals
and above creation, we know that. Man makes the laws, man is in
control under God in this world. But does man then think he is
the top and there's no one above him? that He is intelligent being
but there's no intelligent being above Him, is vital for us that
we hold fast to this foundation. Don't think it's a secondary
issue at all. It's a vital issue of a six-day
creation approximately 6,000 years ago and that God formed
everything out of nothing and they were made for Him and for
His honour and glory. And by Him all things consist,
He maintains it by the word of His power." Now what I want to especially
look at then in the points that I'm going to follow is that the
Lord takes this creation, He takes this point of when the
world was created and man is formed. And he uses that as the
basis. And then he says, right, before
the world was formed, before the foundation of the world,
from the foundation of the world, there were laid these foundations
of salvation. And those are the ones I want
to, with the Lord's help, bring before you now. And then so from
the foundation of the world, The foundation of salvation is
already laid. No wonder it is as soon as man
sinned that God is able to say and give him a promise of the
Messiah and not cut man off straight away. No wonder when David sinned
and he is brought to confess it that Nathan says the Lord
hath also put away thy sin thou shalt not die because the foundation
was already there. It was already laid, it was already
done, but you say Christ was not suffered yet, he's not come,
he's not come of Calvary. No, but it was what was done
before this world began. And that is the foundation. It
can't be changed in things in time. It can't be taken away
by man who's been formed because it was done before time. So I
want to look at some of those. Firstly, the God then who laid
the foundation of salvation before the world. Matthew 25 and verse
34, we have this statement, a kingdom, a kingdom prepared. This is the Lord telling of what
shall happen at the end of the world, at the judgment, when
the Son of Man shall come in His glory. And all nations gathered
before Him, the sheep and the goats, and He sets the sheep
on one hand and the goats on His left, and the sheep on His
right. And He says to the sheep, Then
shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world." There's a foundation. A foundation of salvation from
the foundation of the world. A kingdom was prepared for the
people of God. A kingdom of this world? My kingdom, says the Lord, is
not of this world. If my kingdom were from hence,
then would my servants fight? But the Lord says in another
place, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, it is within
you. That is, the kingdom of grace
is put within. But that which the Lord has reserved
for his people, of which there is a place reserved for them,
in heaven and to be part of that kingdom, that was done, that
was prepared for you, for these righteous ones, for the sheep. What is the mark of the sheep? They shall hear my voice and
they shall follow me. The next one is in Ephesians.
where Paul says in the first chapter of Ephesians, verse 4,
that we were chosen in Him, again, from before the foundation of
the world. According as He had chosen us
in Him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. What a foundation! Before this
world was even laid, God had chosen a people in Christ. Not looking at what deeds they
would do in this life, not looking at them but of His own sovereign
choice. looking at them in His beloved
Son, that He would redeem them from the fall, He would save
them, and they were then chosen in Him. We know that choosing
by the calling, whereby He calls His people, but that flows out
from a foundation already laid, already in Christ Jesus. Our election is known, or our
choosing, chosen by God, is known by calling. But may we hold it
very firm. Each one that has been born again,
each one that has been called, your salvation did not begin
when you were called. The Apostle Paul's salvation
did not begin on the Damascus road. It was begun and laid the
foundation of it before the foundation of the world. The next is found in the beautiful
prayer and intercession of our Lord in John 17. The Lord says in verse 24, a beautiful
prayer to His Father, and is concerning these righteous ones. Remember what I said about Paul
saying to Ephesians, chosen of him, he says, Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. The eternal love of the
Father to the Son. One thing that was so emphasized
with Abraham was that he had not withheld his son, his only
son, from the love of the Father to the Son. And the Lord is emphasizing
this is before the foundation of the world. Then in Revelation
chapter 17, we have this word in verse 8, the base that thou sawest was
and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go
into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder whose names were not written in the Book of Life
from the foundation of the world." A Book of Life. In another place
it's the Lamb's Book of Life. And the names were written in
that Book of Life before the foundation of the world, or from
the foundation of the world. These are foundations. The foundation
comes first before. Before Christ came, before he
died, before even the way of salvation was made known to man. in promises, before you were
born, before you were pulled by grace, these foundations are
all lame. How can they be moved? They're
ancient. They're deeply lamed. You know,
when Paul gives the, in Romans 8, that beautiful chain of foreknowledge
of God, predestination, predestinate, those who foreknew, he predestinated. and those he predestinated then
he called and then he called them he justified and whom he
justified then he glorified and there's this glorious chain in
the middle of it is calling but then you go backwards and you
get foreknowledge and predestined and you go forwards and you get
justified and glorified but for you and I what is vital are we
called Are we quickened? Do we know the Lord? What is
the Lord to us? What is the Word to us? And then
we can go back to those deep foundations to quell the fears
of the trembling soul as if their foundation might be destroyed
or as if their soul could be lost. No, look how deep it goes. It goes back right before time. Then we have with Peter, in Peter's
first epistle, chapter one, verse 20. Who verily was foreordained. This is our Lord Jesus Christ
that's been spoken of, that you were redeemed. Redeemed for as
much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you who by Him do believe
in God, that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory,
that your faith and hope might be in God. There is the righteous,
those that believe in Him, that believe that He's raised from
the dead and given glory, have faith and hope in Him, but we're
told of the foundation again, foreordained, before the foundation
of the world, that manifest, only manifest, only shown, only
revealed now, that this is for the comfort of the people of
God, this is their security, how deep this foundation is laid. And I'll just bring one more
before you, in Hebrews, in chapter 4, and we have there in verse
3, for we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said,
as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."
There is an outworking in this world of all the finished work
of God, His purposes, We think of in the sufferings and death
of our Lord all the time that the scriptures might be fulfilled. All that was done upon earth,
all that was done to him was to fulfill the scriptures, was
to fulfill what was done from the foundation of the world.
So dear friends, when you come into this house of God, when
you think of its foundations, Think of that which God has laid
before or at the foundation of the world in the way of salvation. That cannot be moved. That the
righteous can really trust and lean hard upon. What can men
do in time that can undo and ruin that done in eternity? They
cannot. The eternal God is thy refuge.
Underneath are the everlasting palms. What the Lord has done,
heaven and earth shall pass away, but my world shall not pass away. May we be strengthened in this,
to see what the Lord has laid in His Word, in the foundation
of stand ashore. Dear friends, again we come back
to the creating God, Pivot, as it were, that start of the creation,
the start of time, the beginning of time. Don't let evolutionists,
anyone, move that point. That point is what the Lord said.
All these foundation things are before them. I mean, in time
it is worked out. May the Lord bless the Word and
may this be special to us as concerning the foundations of
God. and for the foundation of the
world. Amen.