Good morning, everybody. Would
you turn to Psalm 11? In the Lord, but I my trust. How say ye to my soul, flee as
a bird to your mountain? For lo, the wicked bend their
bow. They make ready their arrow upon
the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundation to be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids
try the children of men. Just a thought, isn't it an awesome
thing to think that the Lord's looking at you right now? That's
a very awesome thought. He tries. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest. This
shall be the portion of their cup For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. His countenance doth behold the
upright. Let's pray. Lord, how thankful we are that
you are the righteous Lord that loveth righteousness. What a glorious God, what a glorious
Savior, what a glorious Spirit. We pray that we might be graced
and privileged to hear the gospel in the power of your Spirit.
We pray that you would be our teacher. We pray that you would
give us new hearts. We pray that you would give us
hearing ears. We pray that we might be enabled to worship,
to believe on your son, and to actually trust him for everything.
Lord, we pray for our friends that aren't here. We ask that
you would keep them by your grace. Bless us, oh Lord, for Christ's
sake. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. And Lord, those that are going
through trials and troubles, we pray for your blessing upon
them. We pray for our children. Lord,
we pray for the upcoming Vacation Bible School, that you would
be pleased to make yourself known to those children. We pray for
your blessing on the teachers and the hearers. Bless us for
Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen. In the Lord put I my trust. David said that on 25 different
occasions in the Psalms. That gives us some idea of the
importance of this statement. In the Lord, in the Lord put
I my trust. I don't trust myself. I don't
trust my works. I do not trust my feelings. I
do not trust men. I do not trust human schemes
or human plans. I do not trust human religion.
In the Lord, in the Lord, put I my trust. With regard to everything that
happens providentially, in the Lord put on my trust. I was looking in the paper this
morning of all these different politicians together and having
some kind of summit, and I thought, they don't realize it, but they're
just the Lord's poems doing His will. He's in absolute control
of everybody and everything. In the Lord put I my trust. I don't put my trust in myself
to save myself. In the Lord put I my trust. Now, why would you say to me,
since I'm trusting in the Lord, why would you say to me, flee
as a bird to your mountain? That's what, that's a reference
to. Now, quite often he did flee to the mountains when he was
escaping Saul. What's his name? Saul. But he
says, why, if my trust is in the Lord, why are you telling
me to flee to a mountain? There's no safety there if I'm
trusting in the Lord. For lo, and this is why they
said you need to flee as a bird to your mountain. For lo, the
wicked bend their bow. They may ready their arrow upon
the string, that they may privily in the darkness, in covert, covertly
shoot at the upright in heart. They want to destroy the upright
in heart, the wicked do, because they have no love for the gospel,
they have no love for the God, and they want to destroy the
upright in heart. Now this is a verse I want to
dwell on. We're gonna look at all of them,
but this verse, if, the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? I think of that question. If
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Now, I read several commentaries
on this passage of the scripture. And it was a reminder to me of
the weakness of commentaries quite often because one man says
an error and he just perpetuates it to others. I mean, so many
people, every commentary I read on this, I was amazed by this.
When they talked about the foundations, they talked about the foundations
of government, the foundations of economics, the foundations
of moral values, the foundation of the family. If those things
are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Do you think David had any
of that in mind when he wrote that passage of scripture? I
guarantee you he didn't. He wasn't thinking of things
of that nature. When he was talking about the
foundations, if the foundations be destroyed, this word if is
a hypothetical if. What do I mean by that? Well,
remember when Paul said, if Christ be not risen, 1 Corinthians 15,
he talks about the devastating results that there would be if
Christ was not risen. It's a hypothetical if. Turn
to Hebrews chapter six for a moment. Here's a hypothetical if. Verse four. Well, look first six, if they
shall fall away. There's a hypothetical if, if
they shall fall away. Now look at verse four. For it
is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted
of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. They were born again and have
tasted the good word of God. and the powers of the world to
come, if they shall fall away? I mean, there's no hope if those
people fall away. So what he is talking about is
a hypothetical if. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? Now, think about this. Our foundation is the Bible being
God's inspired word. It's not written by men, it's
written by God. It's God's inspired word. Now, if that's taken away, what
can the righteous do? I mean, what are we to believe? Me? You? Man's thoughts? No, no. If that's taken away,
we're in trouble. What can the righteous do? If the foundation of grace, now
here's the foundation of my salvation, that salvation is all together
by grace. That it doesn't have anything
to do with me doing anything to get it started, to continue
it, or to hold out to the end. It's grace. Now, electing grace. Take that away, what can the
righteous do? That means I've got to save myself. That means
I'm in trouble. If you take away redeeming grace,
Christ's effectual redemption for the elect, where he actually
put away their sins, where if Christ died for me, I must be
saved. You take that away, what are the righteous going to do?
You take away the irresistible nature of God's grace. It doesn't
take no for an answer. It's not an offer that it comes
and gives life. Take that away. What are the
righteous to do? It makes salvation by works.
It makes salvation dependent upon me. If the foundations be
destroyed, the foundations of our salvation. You're in Hebrews chapter six.
Turn with me there again for a moment. Hebrews chapter six. This is such an important passage
of scripture. because he names six foundations. And these are the foundations
of our salvation. What he says, therefore, verse
one, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us
go on into perfection, not laying again the foundation. Now here's the foundation. We
shouldn't have to be laying this again. This ought to be something
that is automatic to us, like the ABCs. If you get the ABCs
down, you can learn to spell, can't you? But if you don't have
the ABCs, you're not going to learn to spell. Now, this foundation
should not have to be laid over and over again. This ought to
be settled. This ought to be automatic. And he named six things,
the foundation of repentance from dead works. Now what's that? That means every religious experience
you had before God saved you was a dead work. There was no
spiritual life in it. There was no saving benefit in
it. And if you take that foundation
away, that means salvation is by works. There's something we
need to do. What's the next foundation he
mentions? Faith toward God, which is the same thing as faith in
Christ. He's the God-man. You know, when we have faith
in Christ, it's not just as a man, but as the God-man. That's why
what he does is successful. That's why we can trust him.
He's the God-man. Now you take away faith, what
are you left with? Works. Works. Salvation depended upon
something you do. Look what he says next, verse
two of the doctrine of baptisms. Now this is the foundation of
our salvation, not water baptism, but what baptism represents. When Jesus Christ kept God's
law, I was in him. I kept the law as well. When
Jesus Christ died for sin, I was in him. My sin was paid for. When he was raised from the dead,
and this is what baptism signifies, when he was raised from the dead,
I was raised from the dead too. All my salvation was accomplished
by virtue of union with him. That's all my salvation. You
take that foundation away, what do we have left? And then he
talks about the laying on of hands. Now the laying on of hands
has to do with the transfer of sin and the transfer of righteousness. Now this is very high, holy,
mysterious, and it's also very simple. Very simple. On Calvary's
tree, my sin was transferred to him and became his sin. His righteousness is transferred
to me and becomes my righteousness. Now that's where this transferring
of hand, this laying on hands comes from when the great high
priest would lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice. And
the sins of Israel symbolically were transferred to that sacrifice.
And the innocence of that lamb without blemish was transferred
to them. You take that away, what do you
have left? Nothing. If that's destroyed,
what can the righteous do? And then the next thing he mentions
is the resurrection of the dead. Here's all my salvation. When he was raised from the dead,
I was justified. That's my salvation. When he
was raised from the dead, I was justified. Now you take that
away. What can the righteous do? And
then eternal judgment. Saved in eternity, saved eternally. You take that away, you destroy
that foundation, what can the righteous do? So this is what
he's saying. He's not saying if you take away human government
and a healthy economy and family values and so on, what can the
righteous do? Now, I want a good government. I want family values. I want
all those things, but my salvation, that's not the foundation of
my salvation. The foundation of my salvation is Jesus Christ
is all. and you take that away, what
can the righteous do? Now, he says in verse four, the
Lord is in his holy temple. Now, that's why the foundations
cannot be removed. The Lord is in his holy temple. Therefore, the foundations cannot
be removed. Now this hypothetical, if they
are, I mean, you're in trouble. But the fact of the matter is,
they cannot be. Why? Because the Lord, I love
thinking about this right now. I'm so happy about this. The
Lord's in His only temple. Ruling, reigning in absolute
control. totally satisfied, not pacing
back and forth, worrying about what's going to take place, but
he is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne. That's talking
about his reign, isn't it? That's talking about his rule.
He rules from his throne. If I ever see the Lord spiritually,
I'm gonna see him like Isaiah did, sitting on a throne, high
and lifted up. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids
try the children of men. Now, this is a comforting thought
to think that he tries the children of men. His trial is perfectly
righteous the way he tries. It's perfectly righteous. And
when he tries his children, they come out smelling like a rose. Why? They're righteous in Christ. You know, I'm not worried about
some kind of judgment that's going to take place where the
believers' works are judged and they're going to be given a higher
or lower reward based upon how they performed here on earth.
That is an abomination. Jesus Christ is my righteousness. How can you improve on that?
And I'm tried, and I'm gonna come out smelling like a rose,
smelling just like Jesus Christ. Absolutely justified, perfect
in Christ. The wicked are tried, and they're
going to be exposed for what they are. Now, the Lord is in
his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven, his eyes behold.
His eyelids try the children of men, the Lord tryeth the righteous.
And you know what is found out about them? They're righteous.
The Lord trieth the righteous. But the wicked in him that loveth
violence his soul hateth. Now here we have the two different
types of people. The righteous and the wicked. Everybody is in one of those
two groups. The righteous, and these are people God calls righteous.
Not people me and you call righteous, people God calls righteous. And
the wicked, and I've said this so many times before, but maybe
somebody will hear it for the first time. I hope so. All the
righteous, without exception, believe themselves to be wicked. And all of the wicked, without
exception, believe themselves to be righteous, or at least
they have the potential to be righteous. I may be a bad person,
but I can turn things around. I mean, if my circumstances are
okay. All of the righteous believe themselves to be completely wicked
in and of themselves. And all of the wicked believe
themselves to be righteous. Where do you fall in there? Where
do I fall in there? And the Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. God hates. That's what the scripture says.
God hates that one who loves violence. Now, violence doesn't simply
mean physical violence. Somebody that beats other people
up. Somebody that maybe shoots people and cuts up people and
physical violence. That's certainly included. But
this word violence has to do with all sin, all injustice,
everything that's not right. Him that loveth violence. That's talking about really every
unbeliever. Look in Psalm 5. Verse four, for thou art not
a God that hath pleasure in wickedness. Neither shall evil dwell with
thee. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. That's what the Bible says with
regard to God. Thou hatest. And let me remind
you that his hatred's not like our hatred. His hatred is with
regard to perfect holiness and perfect righteousness. It's not
a vindicative, you did me wrong, I'm gonna get you back. It's
not a jealousy or an envy that creates hatred. It's perfect
righteousness. Look in Psalm 7, verse 11. God judgeth the righteous. And
God is angry with the wicked every day, nonstop at all times. And then we have this passage
in verse five, the wicked and him that loveth violence, his
soul hateth. Now to speak of God having a
universal love for all men, number one, it's not scriptural, is
it? I can't back that up with scripture.
And number two, that makes the love of God meaningless. If he can love you, and you wind
up in hell, and he can love somebody else, and they wind up in heaven,
his love didn't have anything to do with that salvation, did
it? It's what the one did that the other did not do. So this thing of, I, Why would
you want to talk about God not loving everybody? Two reasons. Number one, because
the Bible does. That's a good reason, isn't it?
Because the Bible does. But number two, if he can love
somebody and that person ends up in hell, that takes away my
hope of being saved. My hope of being saved is that
his love is that great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. You
take that out of the equation, I have no hope. So I've got a
selfish motive in this. Number one, because God says
it, but number two, you're taking away my hope if you tell me he
can love somebody and that person can end up being in hell anyway.
That's why we want to stand for them. for the, yes, the love
of God that's in Christ Jesus, our Lord, but also the hatred
of God. God's love is always saving love. I've heard preachers
use this term common grace. That just grates on me. Since
when is grace common? This is the common grace for
everybody. Well, God's good to everybody. I wouldn't in any
way deny that. His goodness is toward all of
his creatures. You know, he gives rain on the just and the unjust,
but as far as something about common grace or, you know, but
no. Let's go on reading, verse six.
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone,
and a horrible tempest. This should be the portion of
their cup. Now, do you remember one morning in Sodom? They woke
up, people making plans for the day. Maybe it was a sunny, pretty
day like this. People thinking about the things
they were gonna do. And all of a sudden, there was
rain from heaven, fire and brimstone, and destroyed everybody. Now that is the portion of their
cup. And we know what a morally perverted
place that was, what it was famous for. And remember the words of
our Lord. He said, it'll be more tolerable
for them on the day of judgment than it will be for those who
hear my gospel and reject it. Lord said that. Now that is a,
solemn thing to think about. And you think of right now, there
is a lake of fire for the wicked, for those who
do not believe the gospel. That should be the portion of
their cup. And here's the reason. Four, the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. Now we've been talking about
foundations. Here is the foundation of my salvation, of every believer's
salvation, the righteous Lord. That's the first thing I want
us to think about. He's righteous. Everything he does is righteous. Remember Abraham's words, shall
not the judge of the earth, what? Do right. He is righteous in
all that he does. That fire and brimstone that
we just read about, that is the result of his righteousness. God is righteous. But here is
the foundation of our salvation. Every believer is righteous in
Christ. I mean righteous, perfectly righteous. The righteousness of Jesus Christ
and the very righteousness of God demands the salvation of
everybody that Jesus Christ died for. The righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. He's a just God, first a just
God and a savior, but he's first a just God. He's made a way to
be just, absolutely righteous and justify the ungodly. Now
that is the foundation of everybody's salvation that is saved, isn't
it? The very righteousness of God. Think of this scripture
in Romans 1, 16 and 17. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. You know, when Paul says that,
I'm not either, I'm proud of it. I'm proud of the gospel we
believe. It glorifies God, it exalts God,
it gives Christ all the glory. It's a gospel worthy of God.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, the gospel
is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein In the gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed. Yes, the mercy of God is revealed.
Yes, the grace of God is revealed. But what is the word the Holy
Spirit inspires Paul to use that's revealed in the gospel? The righteousness
of God. Now that's the foundation of
every believer, the very righteousness of God. For the righteous Lord
loveth righteousness, His countenance doth behold the upright. Now, his countenance beholds
Christ and everybody in him, and everybody in him is upright. Now, if the foundations are destroyed,
what are the righteous gonna do? We're in trouble, aren't
we? But thank God the foundations cannot be destroyed. Because
the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven. Amen.