I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Psalms and Psalm 11 and we'll read the third verse. The book of Psalms, Psalm 11
and reading the third verse. If the foundations be destroyed,
What can the righteous do? It's a question that David poses
and it's a good question that we ought to be able to look at
and we ought to be able to answer because we live in a difficult
age, a changing world as it were, when everything seems to be questioned
and doubt put on so many things that for perhaps hundreds of
years people have thought to be without question. But nonetheless
today we live in an inquiring society which nothing wrong with
that at all. But of course the evil and the
devil endeavors to turn away from the truth. and to direct
minds to believe a lie. And when lies appear more palatable
to our natural mind, then it is that people tend to follow
that which is pleasing to their flesh. They don't like to accept
things which don't agree with their natural mind. The things
that they think should be right and should be true, whereas people
have turned away from the truth of the Word of God. And so we must remember that
what the Lord has spoken in His Word is truth. And because we have the Bible
which is truth, that should be a foundation to us. And a foundation to us in all
that it refers to. We must realise a necessity. It directs us to the one foundation. And the one foundation is, of
course, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the whole of the Word of
God is a foundation to us. And therefore we should not doubt
any part of the Word of God. Because if we doubt any part
of the Word of God, the reality is, why should we not doubt the
whole of the Word of God? And so we have a statement here
by David. So many years ago, so appropriate
then, so appropriate now, this great question, if the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Well, we are thankful to
be able to reiterate that the Word of God is true, and there
is a foundation, and it cannot be destroyed. And it cannot be
destroyed because it is that which God himself wrote. Because
we are told that men of old were inspired, were moved, by the
Holy Spirit to write those things which are contained in the Word
of God. It's not that a man got up and
thought he would write history, a man got up and thought he would
give a writing of his own experience. It was because the gracious,
glorious Holy Spirit inspired men of old to write that which
the Lord of God brought into their minds and ordained that
they should write. And that's why today we have
the Bible written by some 40 people, but yet there is in the
Word of God a great and a glorious harmony. There is no discord
in the Word of God. People sometimes try and prove
that certain texts in the Word of God are not true. And they
do that to try and dispute, therefore, that there is truth in the Word
of God. But we're thankful to know that
that is not so. The Word of God is true. And
there is no disagreement in the Word of God. Everything can be
approved to be right and proper and the very Word of God. So this question is, if the foundations
be destroyed, what can the writers do? Well, we should first of
all be very thankful to know that they cannot be destroyed. Because God is eternal. And what
God has said comes to pass. And what God has done is done. God does not change his mind.
is not fickle like man is. God is the same yesterday and
today and forever and that should be a comfort to us and it should
be a strength to us and it should be that which you and I are able
to stand firm upon notwithstanding the great opposition today where
people doubt the word of God and many So-called Christians
doubt parts of the Word of God. People pick and choose. And they
like this bit, and it suits their understanding and their belief,
and therefore they say, well, that's true. And then other parts,
they doubt, and they say, well, of course, that isn't true because
of this and that, and they make excuses. But it's a great blessing
when God gives And it is that gift of God when He does give
faith to believe the Word of God. You see, when we rely on
our own natural minds, that's when we fall, that's when we
fail, that's when we try and wrap things in accordance with
our own natural ability, our own natural mind, and we find
that we can't make everything stack up. We can't make everything
work out. But it's when God gives us faith
to believe, then it is that we obtain and prove and receive
that peace of God in our hearts. Because there we find a resting
place, a place that we can resign in, and that place is the truth
of God and the Word of God. This great statement, if the
foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Well, first
of all, they're not destroyed. And secondly, we can rely upon
the word of God and what he has said. And that, of course, is
from the very beginning and indeed from eternity past. Our minds cannot comprehend eternity. you and I never will be able
to because it has an eternal value which we as humans living
in time cannot really fully comprehend eternity. We can have some appreciation. It's good when we do have some
appreciation and the only appreciation that we can really have stems
from this truth that there is no beginning and there is no
end. And that we have a God who had
no beginning and has no end. Now you see, you and I cannot
fathom that with our natural mind. And that's why God gives
us faith to believe the truth of God's work, that there was
no beginning and there will be no end. It is an amazing truth. But bless God if he gives us
faith to believe it. And you and I will be ridiculed
without any doubt for having a faith that believes in such
a truth as that. But nonetheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. And what a blessing that is.
What a mercy that is. That's why we read that verse
or that chapter rather in Timothy, the second epistle to Timothy
that the Apostle wrote. And that great verse, verse 19,
which tells us, nevertheless, and he says nevertheless because
of the words that he's written before. And he tells us from
verse 15, and it's worth just noting, study to show thyself
approved unto God, not approved unto man, approved unto God. And if we are approved unto God,
it's because we've been given faith to believe in God and in
the Word of God. A workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly divided in the word of truth. You see, that's
the problem today. Many people are ashamed because
they can't actually give answers in accordance with man's logic
to prove the Word of God. But we can by faith, and that's
why we should be not ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of
Truth, but shun profane and vain babblings. By that, the Apostle
means profane, people that don't really believe. word of God and
we are plagued with people today who don't really believe the
word of God. They're profane and vain babblings. They speak
things which are of the devil and not from almighty God. And
he tells us, for they will increase unto more ungodliness and their
word will eat us as a canker. A canker is a disease which just
eats away. Of whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection
is past already and overthrow the faith of some. That's what's
happening today. The faith of many is being overthrown
by evil men who produce their own logical arguments that doesn't
concur with the great truth of God. And so the Apostle says,
nevertheless, having stated that, nevertheless, the foundation
of God foundation of God what a blessing that is to have a
foundation of God that standeth sure having this seal the Lord
know them that are his and let everyone that nameth the name
of Christ depart from iniquity now this is a great truth the
Lord know them that are his from eternity past And that confuses
natural man. That doesn't agree with natural
man's logical mind. It is a great truth of God. It stands sure the Lord knoweth
them that are his. It's not suddenly that the Lord
looks down and thinks, oh that's a nice chap or a nice woman.
She's worthy of some notice. I'll encourage her and I'll incorporate
her in the Lamb's Book of Life. Not so. The Lord knoweth them
that he is from eternity past. And that is a great truth that
is difficult for natural man to appreciate, and it's impossible
for natural man to accept. You see, we like to have something
that you and I can plan out and work out in our little mind. The Apostle Peter, in his first
chapter, he really goes into this in a very beautiful way,
and he tells us, as he wrote to the churches in Asia, and
he tells us this, elect. People don't like that word,
and they turn away from it. But the Church of God, the true
believer, is thankful for it, elect according to the full knowledge
of God, that knowledge which was before the world was created. To the full knowledge of God,
the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. And then he says, blessed be
the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That means we've
been born again, blessed of God. And that is for a good purpose. And this is the purpose. to an
inheritance incorruptible, to pass through this life, endure
the hardships of this world, as we read in that second of
Timothy, where Paul says to his son in the faith Timothy, therefore
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Good soldiers
of Jesus Christ are to endure hardness, and that means opposition,
and that means a battle. And so this inheritance which
is incorruptible, which is to come, which is undefiled, and
that fadeth not away. The earth will fade away, the
earth will be burnt up. But he said there will be a new
heaven and a new earth, who are kept by the power of God through
faith, through faith, this great important evidence that God gives
us to believe the truth of God. Not to believe the words of man,
but to believe the truth of God. Don't rest on the words of men. Don't rest on the fallacious
arguments of man. Many people today try and rest
upon the arguments of the evolutionist professor Richard Dawkins, but
they are false. There's no foundation in what
he says. And so today we are blessed to
have the foundation of God. Now those who receive living
faith are told this, kept by the power of God through faith,
under salvation, ready to be revealed in the last times, wherein
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye
are in heaviness through manifold temptations. You see, the Lord
does bring his people into these paths. It's not an easy life
for the true Christian. And that's why we should be encouraged
by the word of God to read it, to trace out our path and to
recognize that by such statements that we find that life is not
easy, it is the evidence that we are among those whom the Lord
has called to walk in this way, this way which is a God-honouring
and a God-favoured position. And so the apostle goes on to
speak and he says, Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and
searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of
Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow,
unto whom it was revealed. And who is it revealed to? It is revealed to those to whom
it was ordained. revealed unto those that we read
of in this in this verse the foundation of God stand this
sure having this seal the Lord knows them that are his all those
the Lord knows for his unto them it will be revealed and what
a blessing it is that we have such a truth and such a statement
and to know that therefore as the apostle it goes on you know
he speaks a very wonderful, blessed word about our redemption. And he tells us this, he says,
and if you call on the Father, who without respect to persons,
judges according to every man's work, past the time of your sojourning
here in fear, for as much as ye know, that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, things of time, silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your father's
but with a precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot and here we have this great statement then
who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but
was manifest in these last times for you That means before the
world was created. Foreordained before the foundation
of the world. Such a word is very clear, isn't
it? And how people argue with it.
What a blessing if you and I are given that grace to receive it. As the word goes on to say, 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. So it's not something which has
occurred since the world was created. It's that which was
known to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
before the world was created, before time. It was in eternity
past. What a blessing then to know
that we have this great truth. And so, if the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do? If these statements are destroyed,
if we get rid of them, we don't have a foundation. We won't then
have a faith, we won't have a belief, and we shall be eternally lost. listen to the words of poor sinful
man. Let us listen to the great truth
of Almighty God and rejoice in it. You know when the guy in
the Apostle Paul who was a great advocate under the Holy Spirit
to speak these truths to our souls that he speaks throughout
his letters and in the letter to the Corinthians and the third
chapter, he speaks to us about these things. He says, according
to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master
builder, I've laid the foundation. Now he's already laid the foundation
of the truth of God and he's laying the foundation now of
this I have laid the foundation, and
another buildeth thereupon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." So in this
life, in our life, there is only one true foundation that you
and I should build upon, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. But of course that results upon
the Lord giving us faith to believe that the Lord was born into this
world. And he was born into this world
because sin entered into the world. And because sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, then mankind needed to be
saved from that sin. From that sin which condemns
us to eternal hell. Never, never underestimate Sin
is the most terrible thing and the smallest sin means that you
and I condemn before a holy God, a righteous God. But my friends,
let us be found then building upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that
one who has died upon Calvary's cross to redeem his church. And
building upon that foundation really means that You and I should
desire to spiritually grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is building upon that foundation,
building to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our great and glorious
Saviour, that one who has died upon Calvary's cross to indeed
atone for our sins. If the foundation be destroyed,
What can the righteous do? My friends, if there was no foundation,
we wouldn't be able to do anything, but we can thank God today. And
I hope we can thank God today for this great and sure foundation
of the truth of God's word and for the foundation stone, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet Jeremiah. who wrote many great
and wonderful truths in the 28th chapter. And the 16th verse,
he tells us this, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold,
I lay in Zion, that's in the Church of God, for a foundation,
a stone, a tristone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation,
he that believeth shall not make haste. The truth of God is revealed
to the Church of God, but as the members of that Church of
God walk through this world, we are taught the great truths
of the Gospel, but we don't receive it all immediately. It's not
as though we suddenly come to the light and everything is revealed
and everything is clear. No, it's like this. As the Lord
tells us here, he that believeth shall not make haste. It is here
a little and there a little and in our spiritual life it is line
upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept. It is a growth in grace. It is a greater knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And I think I could truthfully
say, the more we know, the more we realise we don't know the
mystery of godliness, the mystery of the Gospel, the mystery of
Christ. My friends, it's a deep beyond
the natural understanding of our finite minds. what a blessing
it is to realise that we have a God who reveals to us individually
that which you and I need for our soul's eternal salvation. And of course it must be founded
upon none other than that sure rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now to come to this gracious
and glorious and wonderful understanding. It means that there will be that
seeking to have a good foundation and in order to do that we read
of course in the Sermon on the Mount and also we read in Luke's
Gospel the truth of these things where the Lord speaks about the
foundation and how important it is to have this good foundation
that is founded upon the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
Lord speaks to the Church of God and tells them about the
necessity of having this good foundation. And he speaks about
a Builder. And in speaking about the Builder,
he speaks about that needs to have a good foundation. And this
is what he tells us in the sixth chapter of Luke. He says, Whosoever
cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will
show you to whom he is like. Now we want to be like someone
who the Lord Jesus speaks of well. He says this, He is like
a man which built a house and dig deep. So what does that mean? It means that real Christian
religion is not shallow. Many people today have a shallow
religion. We might say, well, they have
perhaps what we might term an easy believing-ism. But my friends, it's not really
just like that. It really is seeking after the
truth and not being left with something which is just on the
surface, has no root, just on the surface. And so the Lord
comes and says, he is like a man that digs deep. And if he dug
deep, and he did, he got down to what? Bad ground? He got down
to solid ground, indeed very solid ground. He got down to
rock. I don't know if you young people
ever tried digging in a rock on the seaside. You don't make
much progress, do you? And you may have dug, I don't
know, you may have been on the seaside, you may have dug down through
the sand initially, may have been easy, and suddenly your
spades got stuck and it couldn't go any further, it hit something
really hard. You dug down a bit further and
you found, well that's rock, that's why I can't get down any
deeper. Well, Jesus gives us this example
of digging down to the rock and then he says on that rock you
see that's the place to build and he says this and then you
see when there was a flood and when the stream bit vehemently
upon the house and the winds came and they tried to shake
it but it didn't move it was founded upon a rock But then
there was the other example. He says, but he that heareth
and doeth not. And that may be, like I've already
said, to study the Word of God, to study it carefully and prayerfully
and come to a right appreciation of what it really means. Not
to just casually flick through a few pages in the Gospels and
then shut the book. It means what it says, to study
the Word of God He that heareth and doeth not is like a man that
without a foundation built a house upon the earth. When the Lord
Jesus spoke this parable on the mount, he said he built it on
the sand. And against which the stream
did beat vehemently, and it fell. And great was the fall of it,
and the ruin of it was very great. Well, sometimes we may have seen
houses collapsing, and generally they're collapsing because they
didn't have a good foundation. The foundation may have been
washed away through rain and storms in a sandy foundation,
or it may have not gone down deep enough to withstand all
the elements. How good it is in a spiritual
sense, when God gives us grace not to stop until we get down
to a right understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the
good foundation. And we are to be aware that the
devil endeavours to destroy that foundation and destroy our faith
to believe that we must seek earnestly after the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he will reveal himself to us. As our Saviour, we know
that the whole Church of God, as we've already indicated, is
a Church that has been chosen before the foundation of the
earth. They were elect. They are precious. They were
chosen by God. But you and I, of course, today,
do not know who they are that Almighty God chose before time. We are not aware of that and
therefore we are to earnestly seek under God that we may have
the evidence that we are one of those whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. And therefore the Lord graciously
tells us that we are to seek for that evidence, to seek for
that knowledge and if we do seek we shall find We shall find,
by the grace of God, that our names are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. And it's a wonderful blessing
if the Lord gives you and me that desire, that concern, to
seek. Not to sit back with our arms
folded in a comfortable armchair and think, well, everything will
just work out, everything will be all right. We are to earnestly
seek unto God. We are to earnestly pray unto
God that he will reveal himself unto us as he does not unto the
world. And what is that revelation?
That revelation is very gloriously and very simply to show us that
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died in order to remove
our sin. He stood in our place. He bore
the punishment due to us instead of us. Now when the Holy Spirit
bless God for the work of the Holy Spirit, shows to us that
we are amongst those who have been loved with an everlasting
love. How we should rejoice, how we
will praise God, how we will thank God to know that we are
in Christ and that Christ is our great and glorious Saviour. And then you see, the devil will
not be able to remove the foundation Although he may try. No, he won't
be able to. What can the righteous do? Look
to Jesus. Praise the Saviour. What can
the righteous do? Don't listen to the devil. Don't
listen to his lies. He's always been a deceiver.
He always will be. My friends, don't listen. Listen
to the Word of God. Listen to the truth of God. Study
the Word of God. Don't listen to the thoughts
that the devil brings into your mind. You see, if you and I turn
to the Word of God, the devil won't like that. The devil will
run away, especially when we come to that which describes
the way of salvation, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. Oh, my friends, he can't stand
that. He knows that he's defeated.
And may you and I come and be found then in that solid rock,
standing upon Christ, not giving any room. to anyone else but
Lord Jesus in that wonderful and glorious prayer that he spoke
to his father, recorded in the 17th of John, and what a glorious
truth it was, and what a wonderful truth it is that you and I may
be able to be encouraged by as we come down towards the end
of that prayer. He says this, I will, verse 24, Father I will,
that thou, they also, whom thou hast given me, you see that blessed
number that no man can number, who the Father's given to the
Son in eternity past. Father I will, 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. O righteous Father, the world
hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known
that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name,
and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them." A foundational truth spoken by
the Son to his Father, spoken by our Saviour to our Father. I know that you and I today may
have the evidence, therefore, that we are on that foundation,
the Lord Jesus Christ, which cannot be moved. It cannot be
moved because it has been placed now by the blessed God, So may
we come tonight, or this morning rather, and be thankful that
we go back to the psalm of David. David was a man of God. David
looked forward, just like Abraham, to the day of Christ. We can
look back to the day of Christ today, and we can bless God for
the whole truth of God. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? Well, my friends, bless God.
God's foundation cannot be destroyed, and so may we be blessed today.
If we are amongst those who are called, who are chosen, who are
elect, those who do depend upon God. depend upon his word and
we can move and go forward in that God-given faith, trusting
that all things are working together for our eternal good. All things are being used to
prepare us for our eternal home and to rest upon that solid rock
and to be able to say, on Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other
ground. is sinking sand. Amen.