All right, brethren, Psalm 104. We've looked at several verses
in this psalm. Tonight we'll look at another.
And let's remember the theme of the psalm, though. It says
in verse 1, Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, My God, Thou art
very great. Thou art clothed with honor and
majesty. The theme of this psalm is the
greatness of our Lord, the honor and majesty of God. You know,
sometimes the gospel scriptures take us in in close and we see
God's working individually in His people and intricate work
that He works in His people, sometimes the scriptures zoom
out and we get a wider view of God's working. And that's what
we're going to see in this verse tonight. And the one who we're
beholding, the greatness here is the Son of God, Christ our
Lord. Verse 5. It says, he laid the
foundations of the earth that it should not be removed forever. The word foundation, we most
commonly associate it with a house or a building of some sort. Every
structure has to have a foundation or it can't stand. It's got to
have a foundation. The church of God is compared
to a house, God's building, and Christ is the one foundation.
He's the one foundation. Without Christ, our foundation,
the church cannot stand. And that's so of individual believers
that he saves. We have to be on Christ, the
one foundation. And that's so of the earth. That's
so of the earth. It has to have a foundation.
Our text says, our Lord laid the foundations of the earth
that should not be removed forever. The Lord asked Job, he said,
where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? He
said, declare if thou hast understanding, who hath laid the measures thereof,
if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line
upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? Who laid the cornerstone thereof?
When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted
for joy. Our text says our God, our Savior,
is the one who laid the foundations of the earth. He's the creator. Nothing caused itself to be.
He created everything. He's the life of all the living
and He sustains the life in all the living and He's working everything
together. for the good of His people according
to His purpose. Scripture says He created all
things and we're told that Christ the Son created all things. Our
Father rested all the weight upon this foundation. He rested
it upon the shoulder of His Son to do everything necessary to
glorify God the Father, to glorify His name, in the salvation of
his chosen people. All of it was on this one foundation
resting upon the shoulder of Christ our Lord, the whole government
on his shoulder. Our Lord said here, He laid the
foundations of the earth that it should not be removed forever.
I won't have you turn to Colossians 1. I have some other scriptures
I want you to see. For time's sake, I won't turn
there. But, you know, it's in Christ we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sin. And it tells us, and
He's the express image of God. And then it says, by Him were
all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible
and invisible. Thrones and dominions, principalities,
powers, He created them all. They're created by Him and for
Him. And then it tells us, and He's before all things, and by
Him all things consist. And this one who did this, he's
the head of the church. He's the head of his church.
He's the firstborn. He's the beginning. That in all
things he might have the preeminence. So as we look at this, that's
what we're going to try to do. We're going to try to give Christ
all the preeminence. We're going to look at him and
what he did in laying the foundations of the earth and how that applies
to the salvation of his people. First of all, Christ laid the
foundation and He is the foundation. He laid the foundation and He
is the foundation. The foundations of the earth,
spoken of here, are not literal objects. Though scripture does
use literal objects to speak of the foundations, such as the
pillar and upon the waters and what have you, but the foundations
typify Christ. He's the foundation. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is the one who by His power created all things
and by His power upholds all things. Now, by His sheer sovereign
power, He created everything. He spoke and it was. He created
everything by His power. He preserves His creatures by
His power. He works all things together
by His power. He is ordering and disposing
of all things by His sovereign power. Whatever is coming to
pass in this world is right according to His eternal purpose. And it
is all for His glory and the good of His people. But it is
Christ Himself who is the founder. and the foundation. He is the
founder and the foundation of the earth, upholding it by the
word of His power. I do want you to look at Hebrews
1. I know you are familiar with it, but I want you to notice
here how He connects the word of His power with His glory as
the Son of God and with His accomplished redemption of His people. He
said in verse 1, God who at sundry times and different manners spake
in time past to the fathers by the prophets hath in these last
days spoken to us by his Son. We've been in these last days
since he came. And he's spoken to us by his
Son, whom he's appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds. He made all the world, who being
the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His
person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. He laid the foundations of the
earth by his sovereign power. There is no doubt about that,
but it is more than that. The foundation on which everything
that was created is founded is the covenant word of Our Lord
Jesus is the covenant word of Christ our surety that He made
to the Father to glorify God in the saving of God's elect
Jew and Gentile. This is the word of His power
by which everything is held in store. We know Revelation 13.8,
it says He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. before this world was created,
before He laid the earth on the foundations, before it was ever
created, when the Son of God entered covenant with the Father
to come and take flesh for His people, to go to the cross and
honor God's law for His people, to justify His people, to make
us righteous. When He entered that covenant,
when He entered that covenant, because His Word is unbreakable,
because He is faithful, He will fulfill His promise, He became
the Lamb slain right then. And was not that the foundation
of the world? He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. That's the foundation before
the foundation. That's the foundation on which
everything was created. It's Him entering covenant with
the Father to fulfill God's law and save His people. It's by
His wisdom and understanding that He created everything, but
that's the wisdom and understanding of our God. That's the wisdom
and understanding for which He created everything. The Lord
by wisdom has founded the earth. That's the wisdom by which the
earth was founded. That everlasting covenant of
redemption, that covenant of grace, that covenant of mercy,
that covenant of salvation, He entered into to honor the Father,
and the Father agreed to honor Him. to bring glory to His name,
and we're the benefactor, or the benefit, we get the benefit.
He saves His sinful people by this covenant. So that's the
foundation, and Scripture tells us, another foundation can no
man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He is the foundation. Everything was founded on this
covenant promise, and it's by this word of His power that He's
upholding all things. It makes all the worlds consist. Everything consists. Now, you
think about the power of our Lord to do this. Determine the
end from the beginning, end of the covenant, the works finished
from the foundation of the world, it says. And He hadn't created
a thing yet. And it's all determined, it's
all purposed, it's all determined in Christ. And then the power
to come forth and create everything and bring everything to pass
exactly as He purposed from eternity. Now you think of the power and
the wisdom of God to do all of that. And then contrast that
with what Scripture says about us. Know what Scripture says
about us? We're crushed, it says of man,
his foundation is in the dust. And he's crushed before the moth. If it said we were crushed by
a lion, by a roaring lion, you know, we might hold our head
up a little bit, but we're crushed by a moth, by a moth. Our Lord, he can order lice in
a moth. to just crush us. Now that's
the difference between the power that our Lord is and the foundation
He is for His people and what we are, what we are. Now, because
our Savior laid the foundation of this earth in His covenant
Word, And according to that promise, He's working everything exactly
according to that Word and bringing everything to pass. Now here's
the second thing this text says to us. There's not one covenant
promise that can go unfinished. Not one. And not one shall. Not
one shall. This is why the Father chose
the Son to work out the salvation of His people and found this
earth on His covenant Word. This is why He chose His Son
and did that. It says that the earth be not
moved forever. That the earth be not moved forever.
Now this is an example how we have to understand Scripture
in light of other Scripture. We have to take Scripture and
understand it in light of what other Scripture says. This doesn't
mean that this earth that we live in right here is going to
last for eternity. That's not what it means. We
have other scriptures that tell us that this world is going to
be burned up. It's going to be dissolved. But
it's not going to happen until the Lord has finished with His
covenant Word and finished what He promised the Father He would
do. Now, the work of redemption is finished. He did that. He's accomplished that. He went
to Calvary's tree and he honored the law for God. He honored it, declaring God
to you, and he honored it for his people. And he accomplished
it. He made us righteous. The righteousness
of God put away our sin forever. Perfected us. I mean, this is
not how men see it. This is how holy God says it
is. Perfected. Righteous. That's what he says. in His Son,
by His Son, by what His Son accomplished. But there is work that remains,
and the work that remains is He must call out those that are
yet lost who He has redeemed. There may be some yet to be born
physically. They must be born, and He must
call them through the preaching of the Gospel. That must happen
because God's holy and God's just. God is not going to pour
out wrath on His Son and satisfy His justice on His Son and then
pour out that wrath on somebody for whom Christ died. He's not
going to do that. And yet we're dead in sin, we're
blind, we're undone, and He's got to call us. He's got to create
us anew in our heart. And that's the covenant He promised.
That's what He promised to do. And He promised to do this through
the preaching of the Gospel. And so, you know, foundations
is plural. Here's another foundation. Christ
is our foundation. And this whole thing, earth is
founded on His covenant word to the Father to save His people.
But here's another foundation. Because He pleased God to save
through the foolishness of preaching, His apostles are foundations. He has settled, taken His apostles,
and He has settled His apostles, planted His apostles firmly on
the Lord Jesus Christ, our one foundation, knowing assuredly
He's all the salvation of His people, so that they went forth
preaching Christ and Him crucified. And through their word, He calls
out His people. And this is what the Lord works
in His faithful ministry. He founds us on the one foundation,
so we preach Christ and Him crucified, declare His wonderful works,
and that's our message. And through it, He keeps calling
His people out, so that the Scripture says, all those He's called,
it says, you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, being the preeminent foundation. So, because
this work remains to be done, he will hold this world in store. He will hold it in store. He
is working everything together right now using earthen vessels
like me and you, who by nature, our foundation is in the dust.
but He's using His earthen vessels that the power may be of Him,
that He might get to glory. And through this simple thing
here, the world-caused foolishness of preaching, He's calling out
His people. He's calling out His people.
So that's why the world's being held in store. That's why the
Lord calls His witnesses the salt of the earth. You're the
preservative for which this world's being preserved, because He has
others to call out. I just read 2 Peter 3.9 to you. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness. He is longsuffering
to us, to His elect, to His people, to those He has redeemed, because
He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. And they are coming. He has to
bring us to repentance, so He will bring us to repentance.
And it is only then, only after the last one has called to Him,
that He says the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.
and the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. Can you just,
you try to think of what that'll be, who knows what that'll be,
but the heavens passing away with a great noise? And the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. So nothing of this earth's
gonna remain. Nothing of this earth, when he's
called the last one, he gonna burn up this creation. Dissolve
it and all things in it. If our works and what we're depending
on to bring us to God is of our hand, of this flesh, of this
earth, it's all going to be dissolved. Every bit of it. The only thing
that's going to remain is what Christ has created. That's the
only thing. And when He comes, Him being
the Judge, this earth shall flee away. Listen, I saw a great white
throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And yet Christ shall remain. This earth and everything, all
the works in it are dissolved. Christ shall remain, the One
who was before all things, and by whom all things consist, He
shall remain. Look back at Psalm 102 and look
at verse 25. Of old has thou laid the foundation
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They
shall perish, but thou shalt endure. The Hebrew writer said,
Thou shalt remain. Yea, all of them shall wax old
like a garment, like a vest. Thou shalt change them, and they
shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall have no end. The children of thy servants
shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
That's all the work of the Lord, brethren. Those Christ has created
in His righteousness shall remain with Christ our righteousness.
You've been born again of His Spirit. That will never be taken
from His people. You've been created in His righteousness.
He'll have His people to be with Him. So when this earth and all
the works of it are dissolved, Christ will remain and His people
will remain. And so this is the promise of
our Father. In Isaiah 54.10, the mountains
shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall
not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Saved the Lord, it's saved by
His sovereign mercy, unchanging mercy. Now, then He's going to
bring forth a new heaven and a new earth. Though everything
here is going to be dissolved, we are looking for a new heaven
and a new earth. And He will bring forth this new heaven and
this new earth whose foundation is Christ. Everything of this
new creation will be created by His redemptive blood, by His
regenerating grace, so that everyone that dwells in this new creation
will be entirely righteous. There will be no sin, there will
be no trace anymore of the fall and of the devil and his works
or of the curse, all will be created in the righteousness
of Christ, a new heaven and a new earth." Look at Isaiah 65, Isaiah
65, verse 17. He says, Behold, I create new
heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered,
nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing
and her people a joy. We're talking about new Jerusalem.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice
of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. We're looking for a city which hath foundations, scripture
said, whose builder and maker He's God, Christ our Redeemer. This is so. He made this first
heaven and earth by His great power, but it's that covenant
word from eternity on which it's all founded. Everything He's
working is based on that covenant foundation. He's that covenant,
He's that foundation, and He's the one who's bringing it to
pass for His people. He's accomplished redemption,
and when He's called the last of His elect out, That whole
covenant will be fulfilled, and the Father is going to fulfill
His covenant to the Son. Now, lastly, knowing this is
so, seeing the world and the mess it's in, just remember this,
brethren, there's nothing new under the sun. There's been rich
and poor, and the rich have taken advantage of the poor since the
beginning. But our Lord is the King, and
He's the Founder, and He's the Foundation, and everything He's
doing is coming to pass for the salvation of His people. And
He's never failed. He shall not fail. Now, knowing
this, how does the Spirit of God apply this to you and I who
believe? How does He apply this to us? Go with me to Jeremiah
31. Jeremiah 31. One, He points us to His creation. to everything that he's bringing
to pass that he's done for ages in this earth. And he tells us
by seeing all of that and that he's bringing it to pass, let
it remind us that he's the one bringing his covenant to pass
and he will not fail. Look at this, Jeremiah 31, 35.
Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and
the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar, the Lord
of hosts is his name." Those are his hosts. They all belong
to Him and He's ruling them all, the moon, sun, stars, everything
He's created. If those ordinances depart from
before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall
cease from being a nation before me forever. If those ordinances
can cease, then His elect Israel will stop being His people. That
can't ever happen. Look over Jeremiah 33.19. Jeremiah
33.19. The word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, If you can break my
covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, that there should
not be day and night in their season, then may also my covenant
be broken with David my servant. And he made that covenant with
David, but he also made that covenant with the greater David,
and that covenant can't be broken. that he should not have a son
to reign upon his throne. That son is Christ. And the Levites,
the priests, my ministers, that's all those he saves, that he's
made priests unto God. Look down at verse 25. Thus saith
the Lord, If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I
have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will
I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servants, so that
I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captivity
to return, and I will have mercy on them. How can I be so sure
of this? Just like the Lord did with Noah. He smelled Noah's sacrifice and
he was well pleased and he entered that covenant and said, I'll
never again destroy this earth. Our Lord has smelled the sweet
sacrifice Christ has made on behalf of his people and he's
well pleased. And he's entered a covenant that
now he will honor his son, since his son has honored him and fulfilled
his part of the covenant, the Father's going to fulfill his.
And He's going to call His people to Himself. And so He says, just
what He said to Noah, while the earth remaineth, seed time and
harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and
night shall not cease. Now, we're to be good stewards
of everything God gives us, including the earth. But the devil called
God a liar in the garden. He called God a liar in the garden.
And the devil's behind this deception that if we do not save the climate,
then we will destroy it. That's completely opposite of
what God just told us in his word. Now, who's true? Who's
true? I know that, you know, they say,
well, you see the ice caps melting. Yeah, but we're just a little
blip on this long span of time. How many times have God done
this throughout the ages to do whatever needs to be done in
the earth? to provide as all He knows how to provide. But
here's the thing, this is to show us the things He brings
to pass in the world through the seasons and with the moon
and stars is to show us His covenant promise of salvation, that it
can't be broken. And for that reason, this covenant
with night and day can't be broken. He says, there is seed time and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall
not cease. My covenant will I not break, he said. I will not alter
the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn by
my holiness, I will not lie to David. His seed shall endure
forever. His throne as the sun before
me. It shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful
witness in heaven. So be assured, brethren, our
Lord is ruling His creation. He founded it and He is the foundation
because He is the greater foundation. of that greater covenant. Here's
the second thing. Go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. The Spirit of God teaches us
to hear the Lord Jesus and to hearken to Him and have grace. It means to be gracious and to
serve Him reverently and with godly fear. And He says here,
when you hear His Word from heaven, How is He speaking? He is going
to speak through His Gospel, through His Word. And He says
in Hebrews 12.25, See that you refuse not Him that speaketh.
For if they escape not who refused Him that spake on the earth,
Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that
speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth." Remember
when he died, said it's finished, the earth shook, there was an
earthquake and the graves opened? He said, but now he's promising
yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven,
when everything's going to be destroyed. And this word yet
once more signified the removing of those things that are shaken.
Those things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. That's everything. He's made
in his new creation by his righteousness. That can't be shaken. This earth,
as powerful and strong as it seems, it's going to be shaken.
These heavens, as majestic as they are, they're going to be
shaken. That's all going to be dissolved. But this that can't
be shaken is what Christ has created in His blood, in His
righteousness, by His doing, by His dying, according to His
covenant promise to the Father. So when you hear Him, heed, hearken
to Him, and have grace. Have grace. Has He been gracious
to you and me? We are saved by grace. We keep
coming to His throne of grace, and He keeps giving us more grace,
because we need more grace. Because we sin, and we dishonor
Him, and we need grace. We need to be strengthened. We
need to be upheld. We need to be sustained. We need
to be kept. So, go to Him for grace, and
hear Him. Whatever He commands you, do
it. Do it. If you failed, Leave it behind
you and press toward the mark. Lift up your hands that hang
down and your wobbly knees and run the race looking to Christ
and don't stop. Oh, the devil will try to turn
you out of the way and he'll try to make you think you don't
know him and what have you. Go to Christ. Keep walking looking
to Him and whatever He's commanded in His Word, You do. And I tell you what He'll do
by that, by giving you more grace, He will make you have grace.
He will make you have grace. Paul Peter said, I read this
to you just a minute ago, he said, seeing that all these things
should be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in
all holy conduct and godliness? looking for, looking for, hastening
unto, just longing for, looking for, hastening unto the coming
of the day of God. Wherein the heavens, being on
fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, there's
that covenant on which it's all founded. According to His promise,
we look for a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found
of Him in peace, without spot and blameless, and account that
the long-suffering of our Lord, His waiting is salvation. It will terminate in all His
people being found in Him, not having our own righteousness,
but that which is of our Lord Jesus, without spot and blameless. That's how it will end, everything.
I want you to go back now to Psalm 104 and just look at how
the psalm ends. And this is really what all these
scriptures tell us. Verse 31, the glory of the Lord
shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in His
works. You know what the Scripture calls
every sinner that He saves by His grace? He calls us the works
of the Lord. And you know what the Scripture
says? His works shall praise Him forever. We're not going
to have anyone to glory in but Him. When we see, when He shows
us what we really were, And how thoroughly He saved us. And you
see the sin you didn't even know. And just how thoroughly ruined
you were. How many times you would have fallen away had He
not saved you. All that person that cut you
off that you just, oh, why'd they treat me the way they treated
me? He'll show you. By that, I worked that and the
next two or three things together to save you from dying another
hundred yards up the road. And I did this for you thousands
of times. But more than that, I saved you from your sins. I
kept interceding for you, and the Father kept having mercy
towards you for my sake. And we'll fall at His feet and
say, Lord, we praise You for Your works, everything
You've done. To every sinner who is without
Christ, hear the Lord Jesus. hear Him speaking. Don't assume
you know God. You might not. Hear the Lord
and believe on Him. Hear Him and believe on Him.
I pray, I can't make that command come, but He can, and I pray
He will make it come into my heart and your heart and make
us hear Him and believe Him. And to you that believe Him, listen to this song. How firm
a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith
in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to
you He has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? I pray He blessed that. Amen.