Good evening. Good to have our
folks back from Lexington, especially our pastor and his wife. And
there were others of you, I guess, that were not there as well.
So anyway, welcome home. Let's open tonight's service
with number 186, the church's one foundation. Let's all stand
together. Number 186. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his only bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. ? Elect from every nation ? Yet
one o'er all the earth ? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord,
one faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one
holy food and to one hope she presses with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed. ? And the great church victorious
? ? Shall be the church at rest ? ? Yet she on earth hath union
? ? With God the three in one ? ? And mystic sweet communion
? ? With those whose rest ? Please be seated. Tom, I was going to
ask you to close the service tonight without him. but it's appropriate that we
open. No, no, that's, our text tonight comes from Psalm 11. If the foundations be destroyed,
what shall the righteous do? And hope the Lord will, will
speak to our hearts tonight. Hannah, it's good to have you
with us. And Eric and Drew, where's Drew? There he is. Good to have
you guys with us. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 12. It's good to be home. Thank you for your prayers
for Jennifer. She's home and doing much better. She had her chemo shot this afternoon,
so probably feeling a little puny right now, but she's doing
well. And so thankful for Robert and
Michael messages they brought Sunday. I know you all were blessed
by that. Your brethren in Kentucky send
their warm regards. And a lot of them are going to
be here for our conference in January. So look forward to that. Be here before we know it. I
was asking Tricia the other day, I said, can we do this before
Christmas? She said, do you know when Christmas is? I said, it's
in two weeks. Time flies. All right. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 12. Help, Lord, oh, help us. For the godly man seeth, for
the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak
vanity, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips and with
a double heart do they speak. Men flatter themselves when they
talk about their free will and their good works, They speak
lies and double speech. They'll talk about grace and
then they'll talk about works and will. The Lord shall cut
off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things,
who have said, with our tongue will we prevail. We'll pray this
prayer. We'll make this decision. We'll
command God to save us with our tongue. We shall prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? We determine the destiny of our
soul. For the oppression of the poor,
for the sign of the needy, now while I arise, saith the Lord,
I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The
words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace
of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation and forever. The wicked walk on every side
when the vilest men are exalted. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come into thy presence in the name of thy dear son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, thanking you that we have acceptance and righteousness
and love and grace and help in our time of need. Lord, we come
to you confessing that outside of Christ, we have nothing to
offer you. We have nothing but our sin to
bring to you. Oh, what great hope you give
us in knowing that as he is, so are we. Knowing, Lord, that
he has satisfied thy divine justice, that he's fulfilled thy law,
and accomplished the salvation of thy people, so that it is
truly not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of you, Lord, that showeth mercy. We know that it is your sovereign
right to have mercy upon whom you will have mercy and compassion
upon whom you will have compassion. Oh, how we hope and pray that
you would be pleased to have compassion on us tonight or that
you would guard our tongues from speaking perverse things and
lead our minds and our hearts to To think on thee and to understand
the things that thou hast said. Most importantly, Lord, that
you would give us faith to believe you. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 326 from the hardback
temple. 326 from the hardback. We'll
all stand together again. More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus. ? More, more about Jesus ? More
of his saving fullness see ? More of his love who died for me ?
More about Jesus let me learn ? More of his holy will discern
? Spirit of God my teacher be ? Showing the things of Christ
to me More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus in his word. Holy communion with my Lord. Hearing his voice in every line. Making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus on his throne. Riches and glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increase. More of his coming Prince of
Peace. More, more about Jesus. ? More, more about Jesus ? More
of His saving fullness see ? More of His love who died for me Please
be seated. We open your Bibles with me to
Psalm 11. Psalm 11. And the text I want us to think
about for the next few minutes is verse three. If the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do? If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? Now, my first question is, who
is attempting to destroy the foundations? And the answer to
that is Satan. He's the one who is on a desperate
attempt to take away our foundations. He's called a liar. He's called
the father of lies. He's called the accuser of the
brethren, the angel from the bottomless pit. And his objective
is to destroy the foundations of the righteous. If we have
no foundations, then we have no hope. Abraham looked for a
city which hath foundations, whose builder, that's an architect,
and maker, that's a contractor, is God. He's the one who lays
the foundation. He is the foundation. If the
foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? Now,
who are the righteous? Who are the righteous? That's
my second question. Those who are found in Christ. Not having
their own righteousness, which is by the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men in their
ignorance of God's righteousness go about trying to establish
their own righteousness, not knowing that Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Those
who are found in Christ are righteous. Those who are outside of Christ
are wicked. And I'll repeat what I said Sunday
week ago. All the righteous believe themselves
to be wicked and all the wicked believe themselves to be righteous.
That's how you know. If you're righteous, you know
that you have no righteousness of your own. You know that all
your righteousness is because of and in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you are not righteous,
if you're wicked, you believe yourself to have some righteousness.
You've got something you're going to present to God in hopes of
him approving of you. But here the Lord says, if the
foundations be destroyed, if the destroyer is successful in
taking away our foundations, the righteous have no hope. So,
I want to know what these foundations are and I want to make sure that
they're not destroyed, don't you? Otherwise, the righteous
have no hope. Satan is called a murderer. He's
called a serpent. He's called the god of this world,
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And yes, he is a
grotesque fiend, but most people would not notice him because
he doesn't present himself that way. He presents himself as the
angel of light. He presents himself as a minister
of righteousness. He presents himself not in the
scary garb of a red devil, but he presents himself as a preacher
and a religion of works. and free will. That's his disguise. That's his disguise. The Lord
called his emissaries wolves in sheep's clothing. What is his objective in taking
away the foundations and destroying the foundations is to rob Christ
of his glory by robbing his people of their hope. That's Satan's
objective, to rob Christ of his glory by robbing his people of
their hope. The hope of our salvation is
in the foundation that God has laid. And as an accuser of the
brethren, he's always seeking to destroy our foundations. He's always, he's always tempting
us to look to the law, to look to our works for the hope of
our acceptance before God. And here, David said, if the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? What hope
do we have if we have no foundations? Now, verse 1, David begins by saying, in the
Lord, in the Lord. How oftentimes we find that phrase
in the scriptures, being in Christ. As I quoted from Philippians
chapter three, not having our own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that righteousness, which is by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ, all to be found in Him. That's our only
hope. But we're in Him, we're righteous.
We're in Him, we have acceptance in the Beloved, Ephesians chapter
1. Outside of Him, we have no acceptance. In the Lord put I my trust. All the hope of my salvation,
all the hope of my righteousness, all the hope of my acceptance
before God, all the hope of my sin having been put away is in
Him, in Him. I have nothing outside of Him.
How say ye to my soul? Now, here's the accusations that Satan would
bring by our own flesh, through our thoughts. There's a Pharisee lurking in
every one of us, isn't there? There's a, that we were born
with nothing but a works mentality. And when the Lord gives us a
new nature, that old man of work still hangs around, doesn't he?
And here's what, here's what the accuser of the brethren would
say to us. Flee as a bird to your mountain. Flee as a bird to your mountain.
And the believer says, no, I'm not going to the mountain, I'm
not going to my mountain to get acceptance with God. Now, one
of the first references to the mountain in the scriptures is
found in Genesis chapter 19 when the Lord sent those angels into
Sodom to get Lot out. And the scripture says that Lot
lingered in Sodom. You ever done that before? You
linger in sin and what did God do? He took him by the hand and
he drug him out. He drug him out. And the Lord
to prove Lot said to him, flee to the mountains. And Lot said,
I cannot escape to the mountains, let some evil should overtake
me there. And he asked the Lord, he said,
can I just go down to Zoar? It's a very little city. Now
Zoar translated means insignificant. So Lot was tried by the Lord
by saying, go find safety in the mountains. I'm fixing to
rain fire from heaven to destroy this city. And Lot said, I cannot
flee to the mountains. Evil will overtake me there.
So that's one of the first references to mountains. What's the most
famous mountain in all the scriptures? Mountain of the law, isn't it? It's that Mount Sinai where Moses
was given the law, that mountain that quaked with fire and smoke
and even if an animal was to touch that mountain, it was to
be pierced through. Nobody could touch that mountain
and live and yet, What does the accuser of the brethren say?
What thoughts do we have that erode the foundation of our hope
in Christ? As a bird, flee to your mountain.
What do we say? We say with lot, I cannot escape
to the mountains. I can't go back to the law. And
what did the Lord say about mountains? Mountains are barriers, those
things that separate us from God. What did the Lord say about
the mountains? He said, if you had faith as
a mustard seed, you could say unto this mountain, be ye cast
into the sea, and it would go to the bottom of the sea. And
then when you get to the book of Revelation and the judgment
of God is being poured out on the world, what do the men who
are wicked, the men who don't have righteousness in Christ,
what do they do? Those who don't have a foundation,
what do they do? They cry to the mountains to
fall on them. What are they doing? They're
crying out for their works to hide them from God. That's exactly
what the Lord said when he said he was going to separate the
sheep from the goats. And the goats would say, the wicked would
say, but Lord, we've done many wonderful works in thy name.
We've been to Mount Sinai. We flew to the mountains like
a bird. We've hid ourselves in our own works. You see, this
is the means by which the evil one erodes away our foundation. There's nothing there. There's
nothing firm there to build on. There's nothing strong there.
When the Lord asked the disciples, whom do you say that I am, what
did Peter say? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And the Lord said, blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood did not reveal that unto
you. My Father, which is in heaven, that I am the Christ, the son
of the living God. That's your confession and that's
who I am. And upon this rock, I'll build
my church. I'm the foundation. But here's
what the evil one says. Here's what our works, our perverted
works thoughts. It's what free will, works religion
says. Flee to the mountains. When the
wrath of God comes, flee to the mountains. You'll be safe there.
No, you won't. No. We can't be saved by the
law. We can't be saved by our works.
You know, we think, well, if I just do a little better. I
just try a little harder. I'll work on that a little bit
more and then things will be right between me and God." And
when we think like that, all we're doing is eroding away the
foundation. And if the foundations be destroyed,
what shall the righteous do? What hope do we have if we don't
have a foundation? And so in verse 2, in verse 2, For lo, the wicked bend their
bow." And when the Lord talked about that armor of faith, remember
the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness
and belt shod with the preparation, I mean the belt of truth and
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel and the sword of
the spirit which is the word of God and the shield of faith
which is able to quench the fiery darts of the devil. That's, you
know, here's a picture of the, of these, Satan shooting these
flaming arrows through the dark. Notice with me in verse 2, there
are arrows upon the string that they may, you see that word privately,
maybe you have it in the margin of your Bible, it means in darkness,
in darkness. When the light of the gospel
is not shining, when the truth of the foundation is not made,
this is why we have to keep hearing the gospel, isn't it? because
He's always shooting those fiery darts in the dark. And when the
light gets dim as to who Christ is and what foundation He builds
for us, we just automatically start thinking about fleeing
to the mountains. What can we do? And what's the
Lord say? If the foundations be destroyed? You see, there's a constant attempt
to destroy the foundation. Do you find that in your experience?
Every day. In our flesh, in our world, in
religion, and all inspired by this evil power of Satan. It's all an attempt to destroy
the foundation. And if the foundation be destroyed,
what should the righteous do? Where are we going to go? How
are we going to have any hope? If the accuser of the brethren
is right and he shoots those fiery darts, the only thing that's
going to quench his darts is faith, isn't it? Faith. That's the substance of things
hoped for. That's the evidence of things not seen. Faith. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God, for they that come to Him must believe that
He is. And that he's a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. Faith is not just understanding
some doctrine. Faith is not just having, faith
is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for he is our foundation. And there is no other foundation.
Paul said I'm the, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 he said I'm a master
builder. And I've laid the foundation.
And no other foundation can be laid than the one that I've laid.
And that foundation is Jesus Christ. Listen to what the Lord
said in Isaiah Chapter 28. Behold, behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation. Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 16. Behold,
I lay in Zion. Now, you know Zion, that's the
church. It's the only place the foundation is. Every other place
is like when the Lord concluded the Sermon on the Mount, what
did he say? If you hear these words and do them, believe them,
you're like a man who builds his house upon a rock. That's
a foundation. And when the winds blow and the
rains fall, when the wrath and judgment of God comes, when the
circumstances of life are overwhelming, that house will not fall. Why? Because it's built on a
rock. It's got a good foundation. Makes all the difference in the
world, doesn't it? But for those who hear and don't do and don't
believe, they're like a man who builds his house on shifting
sand. And when the storms come and
the winds blow and the rains fall, that house will fall and
how great will the fall be thereof. Oh Lord, I wanna have my house
built on a rock, don't you? He is that foundation. He says,
if the foundations be destroyed, behold, Isaiah 28, verse 16,
behold, I, God speaking, the father speaking, I lay in Zion
a foundation. I'm the one who sent him in the
power of the spirit of God in order to accomplish the salvation
of God's people. He made the law honorable. He
satisfied the demands of God's righteousness. He put away all
the sins of God's people by the sacrifice of himself. God says,
I lay in Zion. In other words, God's saying,
I'm looking to that foundation that I put there, nothing else. A stone, a tried stone, a tried
stone. Here's a stone that's been, well,
the contradiction of sinners has come against him. The full
weight of the law held him in perfect scrutiny to its demands.
And God says, he's a tried stone. He's been put to the test and
he is a sure foundation, a sure foundation. If the foundation
be destroyed, What shall the righteous do? Am I going to run
to the mountain? The fiery darts of Satan that
accused me of not being righteous before God erode away my foundation. The foundation of the Lord Jesus
Christ is destroyed when sinners try to build their hope on anything
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I'll say it again. The foundation
of hope is taken away. It's destroyed. When sinners
try to build their hope on anything other than the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The dying and the doing of the
Lord Jesus Christ is our substitute. He is our foundation. God says,
I lay in Zion. And it's the only place the foundation
is. You won't find this foundation anywhere else. You won't find
it in false religion. You won't find it in the world. You won't find it in education.
You won't find it in psychiatry. You won't find it anywhere else
except in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ because God says
that's where I put the foundation. The only place He is. If the
foundation be destroyed, what should the righteous do? Where
else can they go? They've got no place else to
go. That's why Peter said, Lord, you alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. You've shut us up to yourself. We've got
no place else to go. You're the firm foundation. We
can't build any place else. Thou art the Christ. And the
Lord said, yes, I am. And upon this rock, I shall build
my church. And the prophet said, speaking
of those wicked outside of Christ, what is your rock higher than
our rock? You got a better rock than we have? Yeah, yeah, the
rock we have is the only rock there is. You take away my foundation,
I've got no place else to go. I've got nothing else I can do.
Don't destroy my foundation. Sometimes we're criticized to
being too narrow-minded. Why don't you all just agree
to disagree with other folks that have different ideas about,
about salvation, about the Word of God. No, we can't because
if I give credence to a false gospel, it destroys my foundation. And if my foundation is being
destroyed, what can I do? I've got no place else to be
saved. I've just got the one foundation. You can't take it
from me. So I can't agree to disagree.
I've got to expose the error of a false foundation. I've got
to protect the truth of my foundation because that's the hope of my
salvation. I've got no play, I've got no help outside of that.
The Lord said in Ephesians chapter two, verse 20, we are built upon
the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. Now, what the Lord is telling
us there is that his word is the means by which he reveals
Christ to us. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. You search the scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life. These are they which testify
of me. This book is about him, isn't
it? And so Paul said, We build the hope of our salvation on
the apostles and the prophets. Everything that God's penman
were given by God to tell us about Christ who is himself the
chief cornerstone. Don't take away my foundation.
In whom all the building is fitly joined together into a holy temple
in the Lord. This building would not stand
if the foundation wasn't firm. I know I've given you all the,
some of you all were here when we built this building. If you're
close to this building and, well, I don't want to say that. I was
going to say, if you need a place to get out of a threat of a storm,
this would be a good building to be in. We took extra pains in building
the foundation properly and tying the walls to the foundation,
the roof to the foundation. Everything is solid concrete. It's a firm building. But the
firmness of this building doesn't compare, doesn't compare. The Lord could take this building
out if he wanted to. I'm just saying, compared to
most buildings, I know something about this building. But the building that's fitly
joined together on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the chief cornerstone,
that building's not coming apart. And when the last shingle, when
the last shingle is put on that building, That's when we're gonna
see the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, which hath
12 foundations, 12 foundations. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3,
I am a wise master builder and I have laid the foundation and
no other foundation can any man laid than is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. And then he said, take heed.
Take heed how you build on this foundation. Don't put wood, hay
and stubble on it. No gold and silver and precious
stone. In other words, build on Christ,
build Christ on Christ. Everything in this building,
not just the foundation, but everything else fitly joined
together. If the foundations be destroyed,
what shall the righteous do? What does Satan, who is the destroyer,
want to take away from us? The fact that the Lamb of God
was slain before the foundation of the world. Now that's a foundation,
isn't it? It's called the covenant of grace.
When God the Son struck hands with God the Father and promised
to be the surety of His people. And God the Father promised to
give to His Son those that He chose in the covenant of grace.
And God the Holy Spirit entered into that covenant promise. This
was before Adam was ever created. And God the Holy Spirit promised
to come in His power and make those whom God chose, make those
whom Christ would redeem, willing in the day of His power that
give them faith to cause them to come. And what do the religious want? They want to take away that foundation.
You can't hang the hopes of your salvation on a promise that was
made back then. You've got to make your promise.
You've got to make a covenant with God. You've got to be in
agreement with hell. You've got to say, in death I'm
in agreement. No, we don't. God says, I'll
disannul that covenant. The only covenant promise that
I have any hope for my salvation is that the promise that God
made to God without any interference on my part whatsoever. I didn't
have anything to do with it. Now that's a firm foundation,
isn't it? A foundation that's based on some promise that we
make, a decision that we make, a work that we perform, a law
that we keep, That's not a very good foundation, is it? That's
a destroyed, that's a foundation of sand. And if the foundations
be destroyed, what should the righteous do? What hope do I
have in being righteous before God if the foundation in the
covenant of grace where the Lamb was slain before the foundation
of the world is taken away? I have no place else to go. The Lord Jesus Christ in praying
that high priestly prayer in John 17 verse 24 said this, Father,
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Oh, don't take
that foundation away. Don't call that foundation into
question. Don't weaken the foundation of
the covenant of grace. That's the hope of my salvation.
And if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?
What are we going to do? What hope are we going to have?
And then in Hebrews, the Lord says, enter into his rest for
the works were finished before the foundation of the world. Before the Lord Jesus Christ
finished the work in his flesh, they were already finished in
the covenant of grace. You see, when God decrees something,
it's done. It's just a matter of time before
it's carried out. What the Lord Jesus Christ was
doing in his body was fulfilling in his flesh that which God had
already, he said the works were finished before the foundation
of the world. And if the foundations be destroyed, what should the
righteous do? If we take away the hope of knowing that God
had already purposed and ordained and accomplished everything in
the covenant of grace before the world ever began, the righteous
have got no place else to go. You see, the righteous aren't
looking to an experience. They're not looking to a decision.
They're not looking to a feeling. They're looking all the way back
to Calvary and then they're looking all the way back before creation. and they're hanging all the hopes
of their salvation on that foundation. And if that foundation be destroyed,
what shall the righteous do? And then the Lord Jesus Christ
said in Matthew chapter 25, the king shall say to them on his
right hand, come ye blessed of the Lord and enter into the kingdom
prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. You see, the covenant of grace,
that all took place in eternity past before the fall, before
Adam was created. That's the foundation. There's
no salvation apart from that foundation. If the foundation
be destroyed, the righteous have got no place else to go. The
Lord said, this kingdom has been prepared for you. from before
the foundation of the world. Before I created the stars and
the moon and the earth, before I took that which was without
form and void and gave it purpose and direction, this foundation
was already laid before the foundations of the world were laid. The Lord
asked Job, he said, Job, where were you when I laid the foundations
of the earth? Well, before the foundations
of the earth were laid, the foundation of salvation, was already made
in the covenant of grace. And if the foundations be destroyed, what should the righteous do?
We've got no place else to go, do we? What about the foundation
of election? The Lord said in Ephesians 1,
verse 4, He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of
the world that we should be holy. sanctified, perfect, sinless,
and without blame before Him in love. Now that's a foundation. Why do y'all keep stressing election?
Why do you keep stressing election? Well, because tis not that I
did choose thee for Lord, that could not be. My heart would
still refuse thee had thy not chosen me. I agree with Brother Spurgeon.
It's a good thing God chose us before we were born. Because
after he saw us, he never would have had anything to do with us. We're elected in
the covenant of grace, chosen. And men think that they're going
to do something to make God choose them. I'm going to accept Jesus. I'm going to make him Lord of
my life. I'm going to ask Jesus to come into my heart. And I
know he's bidding for my vote. So I'll cast my vote for Jesus.
He's not running for office. That's the foundation. What about the foundation of
perseverance? What hope do I have that I'm not gonna fall away?
that he's going to keep me and present me faultless before his
throne with great joy. What hope do I have of that?
Well, it's a foundation. Turn to me to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy.
Chapter 2. He speaks of, I hear the Lord,
the Lord exposes some of these men who are presenting themselves
as ministers of God, when in fact they are emissaries of Satan. And the Lord gives their names. He says in verse 17, and their
word will eat as doth a canker of whom is Hymenus and Philetus. These two men are going to take
away your foundation. They're going to destroy your
foundation. Who concerning the truth have erred saying that
the resurrection has passed already and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. And let everyone that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity." What is iniquity? The word means unequal. It's
man's attempt to build for himself a foundation. And God says it
doesn't measure up. The foundation of God standeth
sure, for the Lord knoweth them that are His. There's my hope. Don't take away my foundation.
Don't make Don't make the hope of my salvation based on whether
or not I have a feeling of or even assurance. My hope is in
that he knows me. He knows me. There's my hope.
And his foundation standeth sure. And don't get me to look at something
that I've done to get assurance of my salvation. There's no foundation
there. Oh, but remind me once again
to look to what he's done and to look to who he is. Then I'll
know that the foundation of God, which is that rock which he laid
in Zion, standeth firm. It's a sure, it's a tried stone,
a sure foundation. And then what about the church?
People say, well, you know, that's a church, and that's a church,
and you guys are a church, and everybody's a church. Everybody's
a church. We don't believe that for a minute,
do we? If those folks across the street
that are preaching a message contrary to what we preach is
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, then our foundation's
been destroyed. Our foundation's been destroyed. There's one church. And when
John saw the church coming down from heaven, it was the new Jerusalem
which hath 12 foundations. And he tells us what those precious
stones were, jasper and sapphire and emerald and topaz and amethyst
and all these precious stones that were layered one on top
of the other, the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 apostles built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being
the chief cornerstone. There's just one church. And
if it's not built on Christ, it's not a church. It's just
a religious clubhouse. It's just a lot, a bunch of self-righteous
people trying to establish their own foundation. And we say, They're
not a church or we're not a church. We can't both be the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker was God. I wanna be
a part of that Zion where the rock of Christ is laid, don't
you? I want to look diligently. I've
had people ask me sometimes, well, how do I know what church
I should choose? What church should we go to? Should we do
it out of convenience? Should we do it out of, you know,
a church that's offering our children something? Do we do
it? Oh, no. No. Be like Father Abraham and
look for a city which hath foundations. Look for a city whose builder,
whose architect, and whose whose maker, whose contractor is none
other than God himself. This isn't built by man. Upon
this rock, I will build my church. That's why I want to be a part
of it, don't you? Turn to me to Hebrews chapter
six. Hebrews chapter six. Now, the book of Hebrews was
written to Hebrews, okay? These were Jews that came to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But that first generation of
Jews were I mean, they had a lot of baggage. They had a lot of
grave clothes. They were still hanging on to
a lot of those Old Testament types and pictures and ceremonies. You know, even the Apostle Paul
at one time, you remember he was trying to diffuse the accusations
that were being made about him about preaching against the law
of Moses. And so he agreed with some of
the brethren to take on the vow of a Nazarite. And he shaved
his head. And part of the vow of the Nazarite
was to make a blood sacrifice. The Apostle Paul was going to
make a blood sacrifice. God stopped him, a riot broke
out and he was never able to fulfill that thing that he was
trying to do. But what was it? He was trying
to make peace with these Jews, wasn't he? These Jews were struggling
and that early generation of Jews, they were trying to figure
out, well, What part of the Old Testament do we follow in? How
much of it was ceremonial and how much of it did the Lord Jesus
Christ fulfill? And that's what the book of Hebrews
is all about. It's all about Christ being better and what
he came to do was to fulfill the types and shadows of the
Old Testament. But now here in chapter 5, the
Lord says, I have many things to say to you, verse 10, about
Melchizedek. But they're hard to be uttered
seeing that you're dull of hearing. Why? Because you've been going
back to Sinai. You're going back to the law.
You're going back to the types and shadows of the Old Testament. For when for the time you ought
to be teachers, you need that one teach you again which be
the first principles of the Oracle of God and become such as need
of milk and not of strong meat. He said, you're having to go
back, you're going back to these types and shadows of the Old
Testament and you're focusing your attention on doctrine and
Paul's calling that God's calling this doctrine that they were
holding on to milk and you've missed the meat. Now, those who
would destroy our foundations would take away election. They
would take away particular redemption. They would take away the covenant
of grace. And they would say, well, you
know, those are deep doctrines for mature Christians. Those are things for in-house
debate among the educated. That's not what God says. He
says, that's the milk. You guys are still going back
and dealing with the milk. And you ought to be eating meat
right now, but you're not. For everyone that useth milk
is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
So you're just drinking milk, you're acting like a bunch of
babies, and you've been sitting on to the gospel enough now to
where you ought to be. The meat, the meat is loving
and obeying. and following the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the meat of the Christ
himself is our meat. That's what he said. He said,
my body is your meat indeed. I'm the foundation. I'm the one
who satisfied the demands of God's law. Now, you all are just,
you're going back and you're having to be taught these doctrines
again? Well, what are the doctrines?
Strong meat belong to them that are full of age, verse 14, even
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil. You see, you cannot look to the
Lord Jesus Christ without being able to discern good and evil,
right and wrong, truth and error, because he is the light. that
exposes all of that. You can debate doctrine all you
want. And that's what he goes on to
say. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let
us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works. Now, that's total depravity.
They were debating about, you know, their depravity and he's
saying those are the ABCs of the gospel. You're having to be taught these
things as if you didn't know them. Faith towards God. What did the
Lord Jesus Christ said? He said, you believe in God?
The Jews did. This is the word Elohim. This
is God's title. You believe in Elohim? Believe
also in me. Everything you're ever going
to... You see, just believing in God, that's the milk. Believing
in me, that's the meat. The doctrine of baptisms, The
washings, all those Old Testament washings, they were still caught
up with that. How many times did we wash our hands and we
go through all these ceremonial washings? The laying on of hands,
that didn't have anything to do with the apostles laying their
hands on men to ordain them into the ministry. That's the priest
who laid his hands on the scapegoat, transferring the sin to the scapegoat
and send him out into the wilderness. And he said, these are precious
doctrines. But they're the ABCs. They're the foundation. They're
the foundation. And you can sit there and debate
doctrine all you want. But let's move on. We're not going to have Christ
without doctrine. But you can have doctrine without
Christ, can't you? And that's what he's accusing them of. You
all happen to be taught all these doctrines once again and you
miss the meat of the gospel. Those things are foundations.
Yet the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?
Of the doctrine laying on of hands, the resurrection of the
dead, eternal judgment. These are the
things that the Old Testament taught and the Jews all believed.
These things you'll do if God permit. One last passage. Turn with me, if you will, to
the book of Micah chapter 1. Micah chapter 1. Micah is right after Jonah and
before Nahum. Micah chapter 1. Look at verse 6. Here's what
God says about the foundations that other men lay. This is not
the foundation that God has laid. The foundation that God has laid
is in Zion and that foundation cannot be moved. But there's
going to come a time when God's going to shake all other foundations.
And look what he says, therefore, I will make Samaria as a heap
of the field and as plantings of a vineyard And I will pour
down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover
the foundations thereof." Now, when God the Holy Spirit
speaks to you and me, what does He discover our foundation to
be? God says, I know. I'm going to
discover the foundations thereof. And that that's not built on
Christ, what shall the righteous do?
Don't take away my foundation. I fear the wrath and judgment
of God when the shaking of all false foundations is made. I
don't want to have any part of that. I want to be as far from
it as I can. I want to have a firm foundation,
don't you? If the foundations be destroyed,
what should the righteous do? We've got no place else to go,
do we? We have one foundation. Our heavenly father, we're thankful
for your word and we pray that you would speak to our hearts
and reveal to us the glory of thy dear son, our meat, our life,
and the light, the light of our being that exposes our foundations. We ask it in his name, amen. Number 272, let's stand together. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On priceless solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. His oath is covenant, His blood
supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand.