Foundational Truth | Psalm 11

There we go.

Psalm chapter 11, or the 11th Psalm, I like it always say.

Psalms 11 · chapter mention

Subtitles The Lord is Our Refuge.

And I just simply titled this message Foundational Truth.

Foundational truth.

It's so very important and we think about it and realize it and understand it and be built upon it.

Because we see this Psalm that David wrote in Psalm 11, verse 1.

Psalms 11:1

It says, And the Lord put out my trust.

I say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain.

He says, For lo, the wicked bend their bowl, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privately shoot at the upright in heart.

Then it says in verse 3, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Let's go to the Lord in word of prayer.

Lovely Father, we just hung me by before you.

Again, Lord, just thank you so much for the day and for the opportunity, the freedom we have to be here this morning to worship you in spirit and truth.

And Father, I do ask you for your preaching grace this morning.

Lord, you just please have me behind the cross and I remain there.

And as we again hear your word and read your word, along with your Holy Spirit, teaching and guiding and enlightening us, Lord of your word, that we understand it, that you're speaking to us, speaking each and every heart individually and our church collectively to understand that you are the only foundation, the real foundation.

Your truth is the absolute foundation in all areas of our life.

And for anything to be worth anything, it has to be built upon you.

And I just pray, Lord, for anyone that may be lost this morning, that today be the day they'd be saved and begin their life walking with you, building upon the foundation that Christ built.

And any other decision that needs to be made, Lord, we pray it be made today.

In accordance to your will, being spirit-led.

Again, we thank you for your work.

We thank you again for your Holy Spirit.

And I pray, Father, we're sensitive to Him and more yielding to Him.

We pray for your will to be done.

We love Him, we praise you.

We ask forgiveness of sins and we ask it's all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So as you think about uh think about a foundation, what He says, that's a very screen phrase when he says, if the foundation is to be destroyed, uh what can the righteous do?

And we're gonna look at that and really think about uh what it means to have the right foundation in our life, in all areas of our life, uh, because it's what we build upon.

If you don't have the right foundation, uh it will never last, it will never be lasting.

Uh and we're encouraged in this psalm to remember uh what our foundation is.

It's the foundation, it's the truth of God's word in Christ.

And again, understanding our physical lives, the spiritual life is uh one and the same with the Lord that we're be built upon his truth, and uh and that foundation is his truth.

Uh what Jesus says to us in John 17, he's praying for his disciples, and he says, God, he said, Father, for sanctify them through thy truth.

By sanctified means set apart.

And he says, he says what?

At the end of that verse, he says, For thy word is truth.

And that's really what's happened in our society and really around the world, especially our country, our country today, is people don't believe that God's word is an absolute foundational truth.

And it's our founding fathers, they were Bible-believing men that wrote the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, those things with an understanding the context of God's foundational truth.

Uh, like the things that's going on in our world today and in our country today, with the same-sex marriage and all the different things about separation of church and state, what they've done in the world today is they've taken God's, they've taken the context of our Constitution and totally tried to shred it and twist it and turn it.

And that's what man's always trying to do with God's word.

They take God's words out of context the words not the foundation.

And I'm here to tell you, what's it say?

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

And I'll tell you, nothing.

There's nothing.

If we don't have the truth of God's word, we have nothing.

So I want us to understand, though, that we do.

That we do have a foundational truth that will last forever.

Turn to Psalm 105 this time for just a few minutes.

We'll go back to that in a minute.

Psalm 105.

I'm sorry, Psalm 104, verses 1 through 5.

Psalms 104:1–5

Look what it says in verse 1.

It says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, thou art great, art very great, thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who covers thyself with light as a garment, and stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain, who layeth the beams of his chambers and the waters, and maketh the clouds his chamber, his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angels, spirits, and ministers, who lay the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever.

So you think about the foundations of the earth, of the universe.

Who laid that?

Well, God did.

He spoke it into existence.

And he's as Jesus says, Heaven and earth will pass away one day, but his word will never pass away, will never fail.

So we see that foundational truth is what?

The word of God.

It is the truth.

And every foundation must be built upon God's truth.

Our life should be built upon God's truth.

And King David knew this.

He knew this.

And uh he was writing this at the time for the for because we don't really know exactly what he was going through.

Because we read in verse 1, what's he say?

He says, I put my trust, he says, in the Lord, I put my trust.

He says, How say ye to my soul flee as a burden to your mountains?

Understanding that he's going through a situation.

King David had some problems.

King Saul was after him, all the different things.

We don't really know the time of this, but it was definitely a time when he had problems.

But he said, I put my trust in you, Lord.

But he says, at the same time, my flesh is like, I want to run to the mountain.

And if we're honest, if we're honest with ourselves and with the Lord, there's times in our life where sometimes things don't go as we're following the Lord, doing the things God would have us to do, and things just don't seem like they're working out.

And I joke with Sister Tina sometimes, like, you know what, I think I'm just gonna head to Montana.

Instead of heading to Newport down Blackland Road, I'm just gonna head that way.

And she just laughs and said, Well, take me with you.

You know, which is just a joke.

But but really and truly, after last night, I think I may be going to Utah instead of Montana.

I'm just kidding, because they they they played really good football out there.

In case you didn't see it, they thrashed us last night.

But anyway, the point is there's things in our lives sometimes we don't understand.

And our flesh sometimes says, I just want to go there.

I want to go somewhere, just get away.

But uh King David says, I put, he says, in the Lord I put out my trust.

And he said he's and he's having a serious talk with himself.

And he said, Why would I say I want to flee here when I put my trust in God?

And that's what we have to understand.

We trust in God regardless of how things can happen in understanding situations in our life.

But he had an understanding of the foundation, that it was the foundation that was Christ, it was in God's word and being led by his spirit, understanding that.

And you think about it, it says, for the righteous, what who are the righteous today?

Well, the righteous today are the church.

That's us.

We are the salt, we are the light.

So remember to be encouraged, even in frightful and uncertain times.

I'm here to tell you, there's so much going on with the war, with our currency, with our debt, with everything going on.

If you don't think it's a frightful and fearful time, you're not watching, you're not paying attention to what's going on.

Because we are at a serious tipping point.

I really believe financially, a lot of different things for us as a government that the governments are uh our government's doing with the debt.

Uh and really we ought to understand and see and see, have our eyes open.

Not to live where we can't sleep at night, but understanding that we ought to be praying.

Praying for God's will and understanding the truth and having that foundation because we are that.

We are the salt, we are the light.

And uh you just think about some things about having strong foundations and how things can be going along, but you still have fear and you still have concerns and worries.

Well, I'll just tell you, in case you haven't noticed, a building that stood out there for like a hundred years probably or close to it, is gone.

It's gone.

And I'll tell you, as being a pastor of a church, never went through a building project, and I've heard it said, and I mentioned this the other day, that's one of the main reasons most pastors leave.

They can't, they won't they can't survive a building project.

So it's a serious thing.

It's a very serious thing.

But you know what brought me peace the last couple weeks about it?

It's seeing the foundation.

That's an awesome foundation out there.

And I really know everything's gonna be fine because we've done it right.

We have a structural or ground level foundation that's done right.

But on top of that, guess what?

We have an even better spiritual foundation that is here today, that will be here forever.

And that's we're built, this church is built upon the foundation of Christ.

No doubt, without a doubt, or always will be, or we won't be a church, but we'll have that, and then we understand we have the right foundation to build upon.

So that's a it's really to see the foundation is right.

If you have the foundation right, you can build correctly.

And that's why I'm so encouraged that that foundation looks awesome out there.

I told Brother Kenny the other day, I said, I think that found that that pad really is too nice to build upon to build on.

And it's super nice.

I mean, it looks, it looks great, it looks better than I could ever have thought it would look.

It looks fantastic.

But one day we will get to build upon it, being uh, you know, God's will.

And so that's what we understand a physical thing.

Yeah, but spiritually, why don't you turn to 1 Corinthians 3 before we look at this song?

Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 to remind us what we're doing for the Lord.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

And who we all are for the Lord, and we're fellow laborers with God.

1 Corinthians chapter 3, look what it says in verse 9.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

He says, For we are laborers together with God.

He says, You are God's husbandry, you are God's building.

You ever think about that?

You individually?

We as a church are God's building.

He says, According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, he says, I have laid the foundation and another build thereon.

But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

The other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Christ, Jesus Christ.

Now, if any man build upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, and hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

Believe I believe what it means there is why we do what we do.

The things that we do, God sees the heart and the intent of why we do what we do.

And if it's for our own benefit, for our own pat on the back, for our own applause, guess what?

It'll be burned up.

There'll be no reward there.

But if we do something for God's glory, for God's honor, for his praise, then guess what?

We'll get with a small reward for that.

He says, if any man's work abide, which he hath, verse 14, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved.

Yet, so as by fire.

It says, know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.

Do we think about that enough?

When you really think about it, the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Holy Ghost, that we have a third part of the Trinity living inside of us.

It's an amazing thought.

An amazing thought.

And it's a shame, I'm talking to myself, that I don't rely enough on him.

Sometimes I rely on my own wisdom, my own strength, my own desires and things, and then I usually fall on my face.

We're to be following the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, because He is inside of us.

Then he says in verse 17, if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

And holy means to be set apart, sanctified, set apart, for not to be self-righteous or an uppity up, as Adrian Rogers used to say, but to be set apart, walking humbly with the Lord, and not being caught up in the world.

And so we turn back to the Psalm.

We look at these verses.

What King David is saying, he says, In the Lord I put my trust.

He says, How say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain?

And it's understanding.

Again, sometimes the flesh wants to seek another way or another refuge, but it's the soul and the spirit that trust in the Lord, that He is our high tower, He is our rock, a place we can always run to.

And understanding that.

Then he says in verse 2, because he understands verse 2, that's why he makes him want to flee.

He says, 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.

And who leads the wicked?

That's the devil.

And now just a little quick little thing about bowl season coming up.

People have cameras and have corn feeders and this, that, and the other.

Well, we're like the little deer out there walking to these corn feeders.

And the devil's got the bowl there and he's baiting us all these things.

You know what the bait is?

It's not corn for us, it's the desires and the pleasures of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life.

He strolls all around us, just waiting for us to come up there so he can shoot that arrow at us.

So what do we do?

We're gonna be wise.

We're gonna be wise and understand that he's out there.

It says for the wicked.

He says, for lo, the wicked bend their bow.

They make ready their arrow upon the string that they may probably shoot at the upright in heart.

Who's the upright in heart?

Pray it's us.

It's us.

We are the light.

And we are to be seen.

So if we're able to be seen, what do we need to do?

We need to put on our armor.

We need to put on our armor every single day because we understand what the devil is aiming at.

I'm here to tell you.

I'm gonna tell you what the devil's aiming at.

He's aiming at the foundation.

We think about him aiming at our head.

But really and truly, he's aiming at our heart.

The foundation, our mind, really, about who we place our faith and trust in.

Because that's what the devil has done.

He has tried to destroy the foundation of marriage.

He's tried to destroy the foundation of family.

He's tried to destroy the foundation of a country.

And he tries to destroy the foundation of a church.

And once you destroy the foundation of those things, guess what?

They will fall.

And we see it today over and over and over again.

The foundation gets destroyed.

And how does the foundation get destroyed?

When you leave the foundation.

When you leave the truth.

When you get away from the truth.

He says in verse 3, he says, if the foundations be destroyed, that word foundation, you know what it means?

It actually means truth.

He says, King David said, if your truth be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Nothing, because there'd be no other truth.

But here's the thing, and the promise, the amazing promise is that God's truth cannot be destroyed.

The devil wants us to believe that it can be, but it cannot be.

It cannot be destroyed.

But what's he do?

So he does other things like marriage and family and country to try to.

What's left?

What's the only thing left standing?

I heard it said a few years back.

On as David Jeremiah, one of the pastors said, everything is folded.

Everything has compromised.

He's talking about the Boy Scouts, talking about the military.

He's talking about everything.

He said the only thing left standing today is the church.

And so that's why they're coming at the church with both barrels.

They want to try everything they can to silence the church, to destroy the church.

And how do you destroy the church?

The only way to try to get people not to believe in the gospel, to not to believe in Jesus Christ.

And God's word is God's word.

And understanding what he says, that if the foundations being God's truth, stand upon that truth.

Then he says in verse 4, he says, The Lord is in his holy temple.

The Lord's throne is in heaven.

His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.

What's King David will do?

He said, Man, if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Then he says, Oh yeah, I know where the Lord's at.

The Lord's in his holy temple.

And that gives you what?

When you know where the Lord's at, what's it do?

It gives you peace.

Know who's on ultimately on the throne.

And who's on the throne?

The Lord of Lords and King of kings, Jesus Christ.

He's going to come back someday to rule and reign.

And we ought to be ready for that day.

He reminds himself.

You see that word try?

It says the Lord is in his holy temple.

The Lord's in heaven.

His eyes, behold, his eyes try.

That word try means to evaluate.

And we get the word evaluation.

Anyone here ever went through the job evaluation?

Worked at a job, say 60 days, 90 days, or 30 something years?

And you go through what?

Every periodically, every once in a while, you go through, you sit down with your supervisor and you have to give a job evaluation.

I've never been a supervisor, been a crew leader.

A supervisor come to me a few times, say, hey ma'am, you come in and you work with those guys daily.

He said, I'm in and out of the shop.

He said, You help me give this, give me an evaluation.

Sure enough, fine.

And we go in there and he'll say, Well, how's he done?

Man, he's doing great.

He's doing all the things we ask him to do.

So we have a scale to 110.

He said, What'd you give him?

I said, I give him a 10.

He's like no way he's a 10.

I'm like, well, he is.

He is.

He's doing good.

He shows up every day.

He does a good job.

He said, Well, we give him a seven.

I'm like, well, what do you got me in here for?

You know, what you got me in here for?

I'm telling you the truth.

I'm telling you he's a good guy.

Well, he said, Well, here's his thinking.

Well, he's not topped out yet.

We have three stages.

You get one job and you got three, you have three evaluations before you get topped out, you pay rate.

You go to the next job and you get topped three things.

A whole different thing.

We have class A, B, C, and D jobs.

He's like, well, it's only a second evaluation.

We can't type him out yet.

I'm like, he's doing everything we're required to do.

Why not?

Well, we just can't do that.

Like, whatever.

I'm not supervisor, whatever.

So I'm I'm like, okay.

He asked me before or asked me again, you helped me do a evaluation?

I'm like, no, not really.

I don't really want to.

Well, you're not going to do what I'm asking you to do.

I'm telling you how good the guy is.

And we do that on our human side of this side of heaven.

We evaluate people, well, we don't give them the reward that they actually deserve.

Because, well, we got to have due process, we've got to be this, that, we've got to be fair and this, that, and that.

We try to do all these different things, equality and all the nonsense you hear today.

Why not reward somebody for doing a good job?

I'm here to tell you, we may not, man may not, but Jesus and God and the Spirit will every single time.

If you're doing what's right by God, living for Him, He will give you what you deserve.

But on the flip side of that, if you belong to God and you're not doing what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, He will chasten you.

Think about his job, He will demote you.

He will give you problems to get your attention.

We might think about being put on probation or whatever.

But with God, though, it's it's so much more serious than just a job, a physical job, an earthly job.

We belong to God, and He ought to belong to us, and He will test us, He will try us, but understand, it's always for us to pass, it's always for us to grow.

You think about a man having the most amazing, difficult test was what?

Abraham.

When God tested him to do what?

Offer his son Isaac.

I mean, put yourself in Abraham's place, a promised son.

There.

Teenager.

And God says, I want you to offer him to me.

I mean, it the ultimate test.

But really and truly is what God does for all of us.

Okay, how much you love your wife, how much you love your husband, how much you love your kids, or how much you love your grandkids, guess what?

God always demands to be first.

To be first.

And if you have it out of order, you got it bat out of order.

God won't take second place.

To your wife or your husband, to your kids or your grandkids, or your whatever your job or your bank account or anything else.

God is to be first in all things.

And he will put everything else in order for us when we keep him first.

It's so important, though, because the world will try us.

And we ought to be like Paul says, keep your place here, but turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Because this is real.

As you live for the Lord, we'll be tried and tested where we'll grow, but also we'll be tried and tested where we'll fail by the devil.

And it's so important we understand that.

But Paul says this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 8.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Look what he says in verse 8.

2 Corinthians 4.8, he says, we are troubled on every side.

I got the things I just mentioned a while ago about our country.

And that's just our country.

You may be having difficulties in your marriage, you may be having difficulties at work, you may be having difficulties and suffering loss, a lot of different things going on.

He says, we are troubled on every side.

He says, what?

Yet not distressed.

He said, we are perplexed but not in despair.

He said, persecuted but not forsaken.

Never forget that.

Regardless of how difficult life gets, guess what?

God will never forsake us.

Jesus said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee.

Hebrews 13 5.

He's always with us.

He said, cast down, but what does Paul say?

But not destroyed.

What's Proverbs say, a righteous man falls seven times and what?

Rise again.

The devil will try to knock us down.

And he says in verse 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

The more the world tries to knock us down, and every time we get up, who they see more of?

Not us.

It's Christ.

See Christ.

These last few weeks, our church has suffered some terrible loss, difficulty, some pillars, and some family members losing family members is very, very difficult.

But through it all, you know what it does?

To see the people continuing on that's live for the Lord and suffer loss, what it does, it encourages me.

It encourages me.

To see people suffer tremendous loss, but still here today doing what?

Worshiping God, serving the Lord, doing the things that God would have them to do.

Because we do, as a church, we do what?

We weep with those that weep, we rejoice with those who rejoice.

It's seasons.

It's what life is, it's what a church body is.

And understanding that we have the foundation and we have that God will try us and test us, and the devil will test us and tempt us.

But we ought to understand the two.

We ought to understand the two and live a life to glorify God.

That's what David is saying here.

And he says, because in verse 6, he says, Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest.

This shall be the portion of their cup.

David knows what?

David knows that vengeance belongs to the Lord, and he will repay us all in the Bible.

Because man wants to do this, get revenge, get make, make, get things, get even.

God says, turn it over to me, and I will deal with it.

Why are we to turn over to God?

Because here's the thing.

Whatever we do to that person we think is wronged us, we can never do anything justly because we are all in that same person's position at one time, like the Sunday school lesson was about.

We ought to be a forgiving people.

Why?

Because we're forgiving.

But when we turn that person over that's hurt us or harmed us or wronged us over to God, guess what?

He can touch their soul.

He can touch their spirit.

We might look at them mad or point at them or give them a bad eye or an evil look.

But guess what?

We're not to do any of that.

We're just to turn them over to the Lord, pray for them, and guess what?

But turn them over to God, and God can deal with it.

But Proverbs also tells us that when we do that, someone's giving you a hard time at work, somebody's giving you a hard time at school, you say, God, I want you to deal with that person.

And then you see God dealing with that person, you're like, man, God, go, go, go, go, God, go.

And God's gonna be like, He'll take his hand off of them because we shouldn't have that heart.

Like, boy, you're getting what you deserve.

No.

It's like laughing at your sister or your sisters when they're getting a spanking.

And you didn't.

Like, boy, look at that.

Well, guess what?

You'll be the next one to get it.

Because we're all guilty.

But he's understanding that.

That's what he's saying.

That the wicked upon the wicked, he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest.

It shall be the portion of their cup.

Understand that God will take care of the ungodly.

Then verse 7.

It says, For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright.

Isn't that a great phrase?

For the Lord, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.

That's an awesome verse.

The righteous Lord.

Never forget that God is righteous.

He's a holy, loving, giving God.

He said, And what's he do?

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.

And what's that for us?

To live like Christ.

To live like Christ.

To be loving, forgiving, giving.

Understanding that.

And you think about a simple little story.

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, it goes all the way back.

Look at Cain and Abel.

Two brothers.

Brought an offering to God.

What did Abel do?

He brought his best.

He was being righteous.

He said, God, I'm going to give you your best.

I'm going to give you my best.

And God was well pleased.

Abel's like, well, all right, Cain comes, well, I'll just give you I am my leftovers, basically.

Don't really mean anything to me.

God said, Well, I'm going to reject that.

And you see it.

Why?

Because God is righteous.

He expects us to give him our best in everything that we do, in everything that we do.

And so as you see this, understand the Lord is our refuge.

And that his foundations can never be destroyed.

And we're going to be built upon those.

Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

2 Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Talks about a couple other former church members that went away.

Paul saying this to Timothy.

He says, Look in verse 17.

Look in verse 16.

But he says, But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

He says, For their word will eat as it doth a canker, of whom Hamas and Philatus, whom concerning the truth, have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrown the faith of some.

That's what happens.

The devil will twist and turn, take God's word out of context, and people will follow the lie and get away from the truth.

And look what Paul says.

Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure.

Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.

If you belong to him, guess what?

He hasn't forgotten you.

He knows exactly what you're going through.

The pain, the suffering, whatever it might be, he has not forgotten you.

It says, the Lord knoweth them that are his.

And he says, for all of us to do what?

Remember, he remembers us, and to let everyone that nameth the name of Christ, which I believe you say we're Christian, to do what?

Depart from iniquity.

To live as Christ would have us to live.

And how do we do that?

Well, you have to have a foundation.

And that foundation being Christ.

And to build a life upon that foundation.

Where'd it start?

Start to salvation.

So if you would, please stand.

And Miss Michelle and Brother Matt would come forward.

To really think about your life, think about that verse.

That the Lord knows those that are his.

Do you belong to him?

Does he know you?

And do you know him?

Or do you have that relationship with him?

I pray if you don't, that today be the day that you'd yield to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.

You'd repent of your sin and you call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

It's a prayer.

Then it begins a relationship if you're honest and sincere as you're talking to God and say, God, I believe and understand your words, that your word says I'm a sinner.

And I believe that, but also believe that you love me and you sent your son to die for me.

And he died and he rose again the third day, and I believe his blood paid my sin death, paid my punishment.

So, Lord, I confess my sin and ask Christ to save me.

However, you word that prayer, God will save you if you're sincere.

It'll be the greatest decision you ever make.

As we sing.