If the Foundation Be Destroyed

[0:00] Psalm 11. Let's read it together. And of course, I'm always the King James guy. So if you've got any other translation, God will forgive you. But nonetheless, begin in verse 1.

[0:24] In the Lord put I my trust. How say you 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 privately shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple.

[0:46] And I notice that's the word Jehovah is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth.

[1:03] 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, the righteous Jehovah, that is, loveth righteousness. His countenance doth behold the upright.

[1:22] Now, in light of where we're at today in this world, in this country, in this generation, I think this is an appropriate passage of Scripture for us to take a look at.

[1:34] I think with the condition of the way things are going now, the most vital question for God's people is found in verse 3 of chapter 11 of the Psalms. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? What can God's people do?

[1:54] In the context of chapter 11, in the context of chapter 11, the nation of Israel is in terrible shape. It's about like the United States is, maybe worse.

[2:07] Sin has become the character of the people. The king's son is in rebellion against his father, attempting to take the throne from his dad.

[2:21] So the future of the kingdom is uncertain and it's very shaky. The foundations are crumbling. And that's what David addresses here. The foundations of the nation are crumbling.

[2:35] If the foundations be destroyed. Now, what are the foundations? Literally, the foundations are everything that the kingdom of Israel had been established upon.

[2:47] And everything that makes it strong and makes it successful and that maintains its existence. The well-being of the land depends upon those foundations.

[3:00] The things that have made it strong, the things that have made it mighty. If those foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

[3:13] Now, it's evident for us, all right, that we're in the same boat. Things just aren't like they used to be. Not that we want to live in the past all the time, but some of those things of the past that we cherished and still cherish are being destroyed, are being taken out of the way.

[3:34] The cultural philosophy and ideology of the day has changed, along with political correctness that has come along. And that has sent a lot of believers to their closets.

[3:46] And that's the place where they've determined they're going to express their faith in God is simply in the closet by themselves. And there's others that want to follow after them.

[3:57] But, of course, that's not the thing that God wants us to do. Christian principles that have held lives together and families together have eroded. Now they're out of date, irrelevant, and even dangerous to society.

[4:12] Abdu Murray, in his book, Saving Truth, has said that we're now living in what's been called the post-truth culture, or the post-truth generation.

[4:26] And he, you know, it's not a new term, post-truth. Post-truth became really a word back in 1992. And it's been growing in its usage ever since.

[4:39] In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries, they always had a word of the year. And in 2016, they determined the word, they used it as one word, post-truth, was their now word of the year.

[4:54] And in 2016, that phrase, that word, post-truth, ballooned to a 2,000% usage.

[5:07] That's a lot. Post-truth. Now, what does it mean? Abdu Murray places two elements or two modes of post-truth. Number one is that we may acknowledge that truth exists.

[5:19] No question. Truth exists. But what are we going to do about that? What are we going to do with truth, even though it exists?

[5:31] Or the fact that certain things are true. The idea here in post-truth culture is, even though we believe there's truth, certain things being true, we don't care about the truth if it gets in the way of our personal preferences.

[5:48] Okay? Does that sound familiar? Yeah. Now, the second mode of post-truth is a willingness to propagate blatant falsehoods, knowing they're false, because doing so serves a higher political or social agenda.

[6:06] That's exactly where we're living today. So, the foundations are crumbling. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

[6:21] What can they themselves do? What can we do? If the foundations are crumbling to the extent they are, is there anything we can do? Other than pray.

[6:33] You know, in reality, you look at the large scope of things, there's nothing we can do to change it. God's the only one that can change that. And praying, yes, is a necessity.

[6:44] But in ourselves, there's not a thing in the world we can do to change that. So, in reality, you know, we're in a pickle here.

[6:55] We can't trust in political change or climate to improve things. Any counter-effort toward that, as we see, is many times just useless.

[7:07] So, it's almost best to be as far from the conflict and danger as possible. Just run. How many of you ever come to the point where you thought, Boy, I'd be nice if I just had a little island all to myself.

[7:20] And just go and live on that island and have peace and tranquility. And, of course, somebody will find that island, right?

[7:31] And come try to join us. Well, In reality, the conditions of the world and our country today determine that more than any other time, I believe, the church must be the church that God had determined it to be.

[7:53] The church has got to rise up and be the church in defense of the Word of God. Remember, when Jesus dealt with the apostles and he asked the question, To whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

[8:08] And they gave the answer. And Jesus said to Peter, Peter, flesh and blood have not revealed this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven has revealed this to you.

[8:19] Thou art Peter. And upon this rock, two different words you recall. Peter, the small fragment of the large rock. But he said, upon this large rock, I will be building my church.

[8:32] And what else did he say? And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I thought it was interesting, the insight that Nick Carraway had the other night about getting prepared to have house churches, small group churches and homes because of what may transpire down the road.

[8:54] And so I thought that interesting. So, but in reality, again, Jesus said, The gates of hell, all the stratagems, all the schemes, all the power, all of their attempts of Satan and his demons will never, ever be able to destroy the church.

[9:16] It cannot have its way against the church. It will not prevail. That word prevail means to overpower, to be strong to one's detriment. It can't do it.

[9:27] It can't do it. It's God's church. Amen? And he will protect it. Now, in all of this, there's something else for us to consider. How many of you, sometimes when you see all the mess that's going on, maybe you've watched the news to your detriment, or read the newspaper or whatever, and you just not only shake your head, but it just drags you down.

[9:53] Yeah? Yeah. Now, there's another thing that you and I have to remember and have to consider here as God's people. And that is that no matter what's taking place in the world, we always need to keep God in the equation.

[10:10] Got to keep him there. Try to see things from his vantage point, from his perspective, from what you see in the word of God. But always keep him in the equation.

[10:25] Psalm 90, verse 2 says, Always has been God.

[10:42] Always will be God. And remember, he'll be God and is God in everything he is. God gives us a good example of all of this in the book of Job.

[11:01] Turn there with me, if you will. The book of Job. Chapter 38. You remember the dealings with Job and all the troubles and problems he had because God had allowed Satan to touch him just to prove to him and whoever else the character of his belief in God was.

[11:27] And of course, his dear, precious friends came along with their precious philosophy. You know, Joe, what have you done wrong here?

[11:38] You know, don't put your head in the sand. And you've got to realize you've done something wrong for God to allow all this to happen or for God to do this to you. And of course, it comes to the point where Job is confused here.

[11:52] He doesn't know for sure what's going on. And he's confronted the Lord with it. But in chapter 38, beginning in verse 1, God begins to confront Job about his complaint.

[12:05] Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

[12:16] Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.

[12:30] Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof?

[12:42] When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. And then on and on he goes throughout that chapter with the same type of scenario. Job, where were you?

[12:55] And that comes on the heels of back in chapter 35, chapter 35, when Job had already cried out, May the Lord or may the Almighty answer me. Oh, that one would hear me.

[13:07] Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me. Oh, for a hearing. Oh, for an answer from the Almighty. He wants God to tell him what's going on here.

[13:17] Well, he does. Amen. And chapter 38, and he says, Job, just tell me one thing. Where were you? Where were you? Now, consider that just a minute.

[13:29] Back in chapter 38. Who then is darkening counsel here? That is, who distorts by judging it falsely? Or as we say, places in a false light by meaningless words.

[13:47] What God is laying out here, and what God has been doing with Job here, is nothing less than a full plan of God's purpose. And the thing is, Job has a distorted view of it.

[14:02] Now, don't point an accusing finger at Job, really. I mean, he doesn't know what God's doing. He doesn't know that God's even involved in this, what transpired between Satan and God.

[14:14] He doesn't know that. He just knows what's happened to him. So don't point an accusing finger at him. Now, when we look at it from this vantage point, look back at Job, what do we say Job should have done?

[14:34] Trust God. Oh, yes. Trust him completely, fully. Have you ever been to a point in your life where you found that your ability to really latch on and fully, completely, absolutely trust God in a certain circumstance you were in?

[14:55] You find it hard? Yeah. Many of us have. All right? So don't point that yet, because there's some things we see in this. All right? God's in control here of everything, though Job does not realize here.

[15:11] But that's a good place for us to start looking at our circumstances in. Realize, if we've been saved by the grace of God, and I think many times if we've, even if we've not been, God working in the lives to draw people to himself.

[15:25] But if we've been saved by God's grace, we've yielded ourselves to his life, right? Or our life to him. For his control. For his purposes.

[15:36] How many of you have said at some point in time, God, here I am. Do with me whatever you want to do. Don't want to shake your hand. Raise your hand.

[15:47] Yeah, okay. If we've come to that point, and if we've done that, then, how do we view life? How should we view circumstances in life? God's perspective because we realize God's in the midst of this.

[16:04] He's right in the middle of the equation. All right? So, just consider that and get God's perspective on the thing. So, that's a good place to start.

[16:16] So, God surprises Job with the questions. All right? Now, those questions are intended to do something in his life. What do you reckon these questions are intended to do?

[16:27] Make Job seem very small. And stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's trying to get Job to realize that he's wrong.

[16:41] To see his error. And really, the absurdity of the challenge that he's brought before God. God says, Job, gird up now thy loins like a man. And that's the idea of taking that long flowing robe that he's got on and fastening it with a girdle like men do when they run or when they're in battle, engaged in conflict or when they're working.

[17:05] Pull that up. Cinch it around you. Gird it up. Make thyself as strong and vigorous as possible. And be prepared to put forth your highest effort here.

[17:20] You're going to challenge me. Literally, the idea. Job, give it your best shot. Give it your best shot. Muster up all the strength and ability and knowledge and understanding you've got.

[17:33] And go ahead and give it your best shot. Now, in verse 4. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if you have understanding.

[17:44] If you possess a competent understanding. If you're capable of judging this thing. Answer this. Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth?

[17:56] Upon what are the basis of the pillars and foundation laid? How does this thing just hang in space? How does that happen, Job?

[18:09] Where were you when I did all of that? Who hath laid the measures thereof? Who hath adjusted its polar and equatorial distances from center?

[18:20] You realize how precise all of this thing is that we call earth and space? Never forget, a long time ago, I was flying somewhere.

[18:30] I don't remember where I was going. But I was flying somewhere. And you know how they used to have those little pamphlets in the seat backs in front of you? I pulled one of those out one day. I was looking at that.

[18:41] And it was telling about the earth and its axis and where it's at in the midst of space. And how, if it was just to move the slightest little bit, it'd burn up.

[18:56] It's that precise because of the sun. Job, where were you? Tell me. Tell me how I did that to make sure and how I sustain all that through the generations.

[19:12] Now, where were you? Does this thing have foundations like a building? Is it fashioned with a cornerstone to keep the mighty structure all together?

[19:25] Now, difficult questions, no doubt. Amen? To which, of course, Job has no answer. It's unfathomable, the depth of what he sees here in the design and wisdom of putting all this together in the formation of the earth.

[19:45] So integral, the design here. It all had to be just right. Only a sovereign, almighty deity could do that.

[19:57] Only him. A perfect creator for a perfect creation. So, Job, where are you at here? You see the absurdity of it?

[20:10] I don't want to get on a hobbit horse here because we don't have time to get on a hobbit horse. But I know God's given us his word. What we consider his completed revelation to mankind at this point.

[20:22] But even if we were able to completely absorb every word in this book and understand it, we still wouldn't rightly be able to say, I fully understand and know the heart and mind of God.

[20:46] You just can't do it. You can't do it. Thankfully, he's given us a lot here for our little pea brain minds to try to absorb. But how can we think we really understand all that God is, all that God's doing?

[21:04] And even, you know, we know from the disagreements of various groups of many of the things in the word of God, that even in that, we have a hard time understanding it completely and fully.

[21:22] All right? So, we've got to be careful. Put God in the context of it all, in the midst of it all, in the equation, and follow him and trust him.

[21:34] Now, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? David's friends give him advice.

[21:47] What is it? Run, David! Flee like a bird to the mountains! David rejects that idea because he says, My life is hidden in Jehovah.

[22:07] My life is hidden in him. There's no need of any other refuge. In Psalm 16, verse 1, he says, Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust.

[22:19] And in Psalm 36, 7, How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.

[22:32] Now, however well-meant and well-grounded the advice of his friends are, he considers it too full of fear. If I run, that means I'm fearful.

[22:44] I'm afraid. I'm scared. But for him, he's too confident in God to be afraid. Amen? I love that idea.

[22:57] Too confident in who God is, and in particular, his relationship, his personal relationship with God, to be fearful of all these, in particular Absalom, his son, that wants to put him to death and out of the kingdom.

[23:14] Boy, it's a good thing for us to consider, is it not? How aware are we cognizant of our relationship with God daily?

[23:32] And throughout the day? We may start the day out communing with him and his word, which is good. But as we go through the day and do whatever comes along in the day, are we cognizant of our relationship with him?

[23:50] Of who he is? What he's doing in our life? What the work of his spirit within us is doing. Especially when we come through confrontations that aren't very comfortable during the day.

[24:07] You see, David, at this juncture anyway, was doing that. You tell me to flee to the mountains? That's just full of fear. I trust God too much to be fearful.

[24:21] I'll just follow him and know he's in the midst of this and let him do in it what he wants to do. Now, the justification for his confidence is found in this.

[24:35] He says, Jehovah sits enthroned above all that takes place on the earth. Everything that's here. God's enthroned above that because enthroned above the earth and enthroned above Jerusalem is a holy temple.

[24:52] And it's that holy temple from which Jehovah, the Holy One, does his work. Now, he sits in the heavens, King of kings, Lord of lords.

[25:05] And in that temple is the place where he issues the final decisions of all earthly matters. And there, of course, is also the judgment seat to be found.

[25:18] Now, he's the one that sits on that throne as the all-seeing, all-knowing God. And that idea of all-seeing is a sharp, penetrating gaze.

[25:31] You ever had anybody, maybe a spouse, maybe a father, or even a mother, or even a principal?

[25:47] You've done something, just like that. You're looking. You're looking. But only he gets, where you know he's just piercing you through with his eyesight.

[25:59] That's the idea here. And the reason I said principal is, when I was in, we lived in South San Francisco, California, when Dad was in the Navy, I was always a good kid.

[26:11] I never did anything wrong. But for some stupid reason, Satan made me do it. He had to have. We were on the playground, and it was time to go in.

[26:24] Bell rang. So we always lined up, you know, to go in the building. And for some silly reason, I see this little girl running across the playground. Asphalt playground, mind you.

[26:36] Guess what I did? I just, I just stuck, I mean, I didn't even have to think about it. I just did it. Stuck my foot out there, and she goes tumbling around on that asphalt playground.

[26:53] Guess who got sent to the principal? Mr. Farrar. I'll remember, I don't remember any other teacher's name except that principal. Mr. Farrar. He was that tall, and he had that gazing look.

[27:09] And he had a paddle. And he knew how to use it. I saw him come into the classroom one day. He'd do that. He'd just walk into the classroom unaware.

[27:21] And there was this one kid leaning over his desk, talking to somebody in front of him. He just sneaks up behind him. Whack! You know, that's the kind of guy he was. That's that penetrating look.

[27:33] Thankfully, that's all I got, because I'd never been in trouble before. The penetrating look. Why did you do that? I have no clue. Pleased, stupidity and dumbness.

[27:46] Anyway, anyway, that's the penetrating look, the fixed, penetrating look that God sees. Sees into the thing, to the foundation of the very nature of whatever it is he's looking at.

[28:00] That's what God does. He knows it all. Nothing escapes his understanding, his knowledge, or his sight. And we can rest in that, my friends.

[28:12] Amen? We can rest in that. Now, what are the righteous to do? What can the righteous do? When the foundations are destroyed.

[28:26] When they're crumbling. Well, look at verse 7. Verse 7. For the righteous Lord, literally, for righteous Jehovah, loveth righteousness.

[28:42] He loves what he sees. He loves what resembles himself, is the idea here. You ever thought about that? He loves what resembles himself.

[28:55] You and I, as the people of God, dressed in the righteousness of Christ, he loves what he sees, because he sees himself in our righteousness.

[29:08] The righteousness we possess. Not our personal righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ with which we are adorned. The upright shall behold his countenance.

[29:22] Psalm 140, verses 12-13. I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name.

[29:34] The upright shall dwell in thy presence. In Psalm 17, verse 15, As for me, I will continue beholding your face in righteousness.

[29:46] That's rightness, justice, and right standing with you. I shall be fully satisfied when I awake. That is, to find myself beholding your form and having sweet communion with you.

[30:00] You soak that up a little bit there. Alright? Soak that up. As for me, I'll continue beholding your face in righteousness.

[30:13] I shall be fully satisfied when I awake to find myself beholding your form and having sweet communion with you.

[30:26] You realize to me, with me, that beholding the face of God. Now we know the word says no man can see God at any time lest he die with us and our mortal bodies.

[30:41] But do you realize God has a way of manifesting himself, making his countenance viewable, if you will, and that is through his love for us.

[30:56] Do you realize there's nobody else on the face of the earth that has that privilege except the believers?

[31:07] Amen? To be able through the love that God shows to us, manifests toward us in so many ways, beholding the countenance of God.

[31:19] What a privilege. What a blessing. man, reserved for the upright, is what he says. So what can the righteous do?

[31:32] Well, we can live righteously. Re-establish what's crumbled, strengthen what remains, live with the standards that God has given to us to live and established for life, and do that no matter what anybody else says or how anybody else responds to it, just do it.

[31:51] Amen? Yeah, just do it. Isn't it funny how certain things come to your mind that are stupid? And this is one of them.

[32:02] How many of you remember Little House on the Prairie, the TV show? What was the little girl's name that was the adopted daughter of the guy that owned the hardware store?

[32:19] With the curls, she's always prissy. Always dressed up in her sweet little dress. Just trying to get the best of Laura Ingalls.

[32:30] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, whatever her name was. Yeah. She just loved to stand out. Amen? Yeah. And that in a deceitful way and in a selfish way.

[32:43] But what we see here is this. because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we ought to stand out and be careful with this.

[32:59] We ought to be proud to be able to stand out because that manifests the person of Christ whom the world needs to see and needs to recognize.

[33:13] so live with the standards, no matter what the response from others are. Live with such faith in God that your faith in Him supersedes everything else.

[33:25] And let it be known that you love God, that you live for Him, and that you trust Him. And in trusting Him then, you just leave all the consequences of all that to Him.

[33:36] Amen? Are we ever fearful of the consequences of following God? Now, stop and think about that just a minute.

[33:50] Yeah. Whatever your circumstances may be that confronts you, what's going to happen here? What's going to happen if I really show that I love God and I trust Him?

[34:04] What's it going to do to me? Remember back when we did the study on the book of Esther? Esther and Queen Esther had to go into the king for him to try to spare the lives of the Jews?

[34:21] Haman had received the king in making the decree. Remember what happened? If I perish, I perish. Mordecai said, Esther, who knows but what this may be the reason God's placed you in the kingdom.

[34:42] Okay. Tell the people to fast for three days and three nights. I'll go into the king. Knowing that going in unbidden was certain death or could be certain death unless the king held up his scepter.

[35:03] That person had pleasure with the king. she walks in not knowing but trusting God with the consequences.

[35:15] Yeah. She walks in. He looks up at her. Holds the scepter out and holds it up. What is it, my queen, that you request of me?

[35:31] Amen. She tells him, he says, it will be done. It will be done. Let's trust God. Amen. Amen. Because he sits in the heavens, enthroned in the heavens, the penetrating gaze, knowing everything.

[35:51] Knowing everything. And he's right in the middle of the equation. and he's got it all worked out.

[36:03] Amen. And we know where it's going to lead to. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you again for your love and grace and for the time that you've given us together tonight.

[36:14] Again, Father, we thank you for your word and how it speaks to our heart and speaks to our minds as well. And so, Father, I just ask that you enable us to digest what you've shown us tonight, that we can to the fullest degree trust you because of who you are and what you are, enthroned in the heavens, looking at all of it, knowing it well, and having a plan through all of it because you're right in the midst of all of it.

[36:44] So, thank you for that. And we'll thank you for what you do now, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.