Reading: Psalm 11:1-7 (Note
verse 3); 1 Cor. 3:11; 2 Tim. 2:19.
“If the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
“For other foundation can no man lay than that which is
laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
“Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth...”
In referring to this eleventh
Psalm we cannot be sure exactly as to when it was written; that
is, as to exactly what the incidents were, or the historic events
which gave rise to it; but whenever it was written, it was
clearly written in a time of very severe stress, when the
circumstances were very difficult, and the Psalmist’s
position from man’s standpoint was a very precarious one,
full of peril, and as man judged, full of pending disaster. It
was a time when whatever those foundations were literally, the
foundations were assailed; the very foundations had become
subjected to a bitter assault; and again, from the human
standpoint the foundations were destroyed; as man looked at
things, the foundations had been destroyed. David was in the
vortex of that tumult with which we are not unfamiliar, made up
of all external things seeming to prove that the situation was
hopeless. Yet inwardly there was something holding which would
not give consent to that, simply an unexplained, undefined
reality in the heart which in effect said: It is not so. Because
of the appearances and all the external evidences which would go
to prove that it was so, David was counselled to flee, to abandon
the whole situation to save his face, to save his very life; to
flee to the mountain, to take refuge in some earthly place of
security. A mountain sometimes appears to be a very secure place.
It is not always so from the spiritual standpoint, and here is
one of those occasions when however substantial a refuge a
mountain may appear to be, it is a place of weakness if hiding in
it is the result of fear. They advised him to flee to the
mountain, to take refuge in the mountain, and David refused the
counsel and said: “In Jehovah do I take refuge.”
We gather from the Psalm, and
the one preceding it, that a wicked one, or wicked men occupied
position and power. The tenth psalm contains some half-a-dozen
references to the wicked, the wicked one. Whoever this was, or
whoever they were, they occupied a place of great power and were
menacing the heritage of God, and striking at the very foundation
of God’s inheritance. Now in the midst of it all one
question arose. It is the only question; and the whole situation
is gathered up into this one question: “If the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” That does not mean
that David consented to the suggestion that they were destroyed:
although there is a marginal rendering which would make this
verse a part of the advice and counsel of his fearful friends.
The marginal rendering would make it follow on as a statement:
“For the foundations are destroyed”; if so, “what
can the righteous do?”
Well, if that is the right way
to read it, it all the more exempts David and shows that he is
not involved in it. But if it is a question into which David
enters simply as a matter of consideration—for it is
perfectly clear that he does not yield to it—it gives us
some very valuable basis for a very important consideration.
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
The answer, of course, is obvious; there is only one answer to
that question: “Nothing.” If the foundations are
destroyed the righteous can do nothing, the situation is utterly
hopeless; then the advice of these men is good advice. Abandon
the situation and take some ground of earthly security, give it
all up, abandon your vision, your vision is a false one, it
offers nothing. Now that is one line along which consideration
must be pursued for a little while. The other line is by placing
a very strong line underneath the note of interrogation. That is,
it is still a matter of question: “If the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do?” “If the
foundations be destroyed...”. Are they after all, in spite
of all appearances, are the foundations destroyed? No matter how
things seem to be and what men say about things as to the
hopelessness of the situation, and as to the great power as well
as the treachery of the Evil One, are the foundations destroyed?
Is there reason for abandoning the vision? Should we take what
men would call a safer course, and find ourselves some line of
greater security in this very precarious situation?
I am quite sure that those of
you who are thinking, and looking with your inner eyes into
things as they are today, have already caught the meaning of this
psalm, and of this verse. There is undoubtedly a tremendous
onslaught from the Evil One upon the foundations; the foundations
of God’s heritage are assailed bitterly, fiercely, and
treacherously—for you notice in the Psalm the elements of
treachery associated with the activity of the enemy, of the
Wicked. He shoots in the dark. He does not come out into the
open, and his is not warfare, his is murder. He is hiding
himself. He does not give a fair and square chance of battle. He
keeps out of the way and shoots in treachery from dark places.
And his antagonism, his treachery is directed at the very
foundations of the life of the people of God.
Now there are two ways in which
we have to look at this question of the destroying of the
foundations. In a sense, and in the deepest sense, that is an
absolute impossibility. It is impossible to destroy the
foundations. The other two passages have been drawn in to support
that side of things. “For other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Can that be
destroyed? Never! Everything has been allowed to test its power
of destruction upon Him, every hammer of satanic bitterness and
treachery has fallen upon that anvil and the anvil has broken the
hammer and remains itself without a scar: “Howbeit the firm
foundation of God standeth.” So that from one standpoint,
the true standpoint, the foundations cannot be destroyed.
But there is another standpoint
from which this has to be regarded which does amount to a virtual
destruction of the foundation, not an actual destruction, but a
virtual destruction, it amounts to it in effect. I mean this,
that the enemy is so against the foundations for their
destruction, that he is doing everything he can to get the people
to put up a superstructure of profession, of a supposed Christian
life, of an assumed relationship to God without any foundation at
all. And that is a treachery in the train of which will come
unspeakable disaster, because all those who do that are bound to
come down, they are bound to collapse, and then they will blame
God. The enemy will rush in at once into their minds and say: You
put your trust in God; He has let you down. In that sense the
foundations are destroyed, they are nullified by being kept out.
There is a great deal of that going on today.
Now it is from those two
standpoints that we for a moment have to look at this primary
proposition: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?” That means that right at the outset we have
to give very special attention to the matter of having God’s
foundation. That foundation will become impregnable and
indestructible once it is established, but it is of importance
beyond any other importance for you and for me that we have God’s
foundation, and that foundation well and truly laid. The whole
situation is entirely hopeless unless that is so.
We are fast entering into the
period of this world’s history when the foundations of faith
are to be subjected to the ultimate test. God’s great
emphasis today is being brought to bear upon the state of His own
people. He is centering His attention upon His people. There have
been great periods when His whole attention was directed through
His people upon the multitudes of unsaved; they were great days
of ingathering through the evangel. There may yet come in the
ordering of God’s purposes still further emphasis of that
kind when again He will reach out in a special way to gather in
lost sheep. He is not entirely ignoring that work today, and He
will not have us ignore it. But anyone who knows the present
situation will see that God’s main work today, for which He
is giving Himself, is not for the ingathering of multitudes of
unsaved souls; but you do find that everywhere there is a growing
movement of God in stirring the hearts of His own people,
deepening the hunger, making manifest weakness and need, and
putting Christians everywhere to the test. Are you facing times
of spiritual trial and testing? Are you finding it easier today
to live the life of the saint than it used to be? If we are
honest in our hearts we will say: No, it is certainly more
difficult and our spiritual lives are very rarely out of the
fire. We seem constantly to be brought back to the place of
testing, and every testing seems to be a deeper one than that
which preceded it. The Lord is centering upon His people and the
effect of it all is to get down to foundations, and, in a day
when God is focussing upon foundations, the Devil is particularly
concerned to get people without foundations, and that explains
great movements of today which have no foundations. We are
passing swiftly into a time of the ultimate test of our
foundation. The question for every one of us will be as to really
whether we have God’s foundation adequately, sufficiently
laid as the basis of our faith. We have to see, of course, what
those foundations are, or what that foundation is inclusively,
but I simply now draw attention to the necessity. Superficiality
of spiritual life will not last long; it will go. The winds of
God are going to blow and then we shall discover how deep our
roots are. Therein then is the need for considering the question
of foundations.
Then on the other hand, the
other point of view: the foundation being laid, whatever may be
the appearances, the circumstances, the human vortex, man’s
opinion, there is no reason whatever to abandon the vision. It is
just there that I want to place my finger for a minute or two,
not intending to go into the nature of the foundation at present,
but just to point out what is raised by this question.
There is a counsel of despair
today over spiritual conditions, and David was not exclusive in
this sense, one by himself; we all know what that counsel is. I
mean that we all know what it is to have the suggestion made to
us: “You are seeking to realise an impossible thing, your
standard is an impossible standard; that which you have set up as
your goal is impossible. Your vision is the vision of an
idealist, but it is altogether impracticable, impossible of
realization. Look, look at the havoc that the enemy has made.
Wherever there was that which represented something extra,
something fuller, something larger, deeper, greater of Christ,
whenever there was that which aimed at the ultimate end of God
and went beyond what obtained in its day, the enemy made an awful
mess there, the enemy assailed and made havoc. History has
repeated itself again and again and again in that way, and look
at the mess that the enemy has made on the earth amongst the Lord’s
people. Look at the situation, the power, the cunning and
treachery of the enemy, and how he is in the place of power, how
much he has things his way, how hopeless, how weak you are in the
presence of this. Look at the spiritual state of the Lord’s
people today. By far the greater majority of them are without
real spiritual hunger, are content with their merely formal
religion, and even where there are any who are spiritually hungry
and honestly want to go on with God, when they are put to the
test they will not pay the price. Somehow or other that hand of
tradition, long standing acceptance, that hand of a historic
system, reaches out just as they are beginning to move out with
the Lord, and although they have indicated their desire, their
wish, their longing to go on with the Lord, and have really
honestly intended to do so, just at the moment when some step is
to be taken which will lead them out and lead them on with the
Lord, something happens, some subtlety of the enemy, some
treachery of the Adversary, some fear within them at the
consequences of their step, and that hand brings them back. You
had better abandon your vision, you had better take some lower
ground. You had better find some place of greater assurance, some
mountain of a more normal and natural course of things. You are
aiming too high, the situation is hopeless, abandon it!”
I suppose most of us know
something of that counsel from within and from without. The Lord
Jesus knew something about it. That was the sum total of His
temptation for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. He
had stepped out into a realm which was the highest that this
world had ever known, and the enemy’s whole object was to
bring Him down—by suggestion, by treachery, by argument—to
take a lower level. He would say: Your course is an impossible
one. Have more sure ground under your feet than that. He would
turn the Lord Jesus aside. The whole question arises in the
presence of such arguments: “Are the foundations destroyed?”
If they are, well then the counsel is good advice, we had better
give it all up; if they are not, then there is no reason for
abandoning the vision. Are the foundations destroyed? Let us
press that in this practical way. Has God laid a foundation? We
may lay many foundations and find that they are no good. The
question is: Has God laid a foundation? The Word tells us quite
clearly that He has. Does God lay a foundation without intending
a superstructure? Surely that would be folly, and who would
charge God with folly? Then if God has laid a foundation and His
foundation is indestructible, He intends that foundation to be
built upon, and intends to have a building upon it. Can God’s
intention eventually and ultimately be frustrated by the enemy?
No more than His foundation can be destroyed! He will have His
object. What is God’s foundation? It is Jesus Christ. He is
now beyond reach of all the forces of destruction. What is God’s
superstructure? It is Christ. Call it by other names if you like:
the Church which is His Body, the Company conformed to the image
of His Son; but whatever you may term it, it is in the intention
of God, Christ developed to fulness in the saints. That can never
be destroyed. That can never be overthrown. God will have it.
If we are thinking of the
superstructure as some movement, some organisation, some
formulated system of Christian work and enterprise, well, we have
a wrong conception of God’s superstructure. God’s
superstructure is saints growing in the image of His Son, and
while Christ remains, the purpose of God concerning those who are
Christ’s remains, and God’s purpose can never be
defeated. If we have abandoned ourselves to see something on the
earth achieved, accomplished successfully, well then we shall
come to the place where the counsel will be quite good counsel to
let it go, and we shall be very unwise to hold on to it. But if
we have abandoned ourselves to presenting every man perfect in
Christ, we are not on a hopeless line. That is God’s
intention, fixed and settled before ever this world with all its
changes and its Devil came into being. “...The works were
finished from the foundation of the world.” Are you trying
to make work for the Lord? Are you trying to increase the Lord’s
work? Give it up. Enter into the works that have already been
finished and you have got a clear way right through.
If you are contemplating some
call which the Lord has given you to ministry, let me tell you
the secret of getting through, coming out at the other end in
triumph, with fruit. Yes, certainly—you may not see it—but
you will do so. Start by saying: “Lord, this was all done
before the world was; I am coming into the things done and I am
working with You in the realisation of the accomplished thing. I
am going to enter into the thing that has been done in eternity,
in the counsels of God, which relates to this specific ministry.
I enter into it by faith; working out from the settled purpose of
God in eternity past.” And you will come out of that
ministry with fruit. God will never send you anywhere by His Holy
Spirit, where there is not fruit. You may not see it now, you
will later; God knows. He works upon a known accomplishment. He
says to an apostle, leading him into a heathen city of wickedness
and pollution: “...be not afraid... for I have much people
in this city.” Not, “I am going to get much people”,
but “I have much people in this city.” “Lord, when
did You get them?” “Before ever you came into being,
before this world was!” That is the principle of God. The
necessity for doing the works of the Lord and for a
Spirit-governed and directed life. That is to get right on to the
foundation concerning which there need be no argument of despair
and abandonment; it is standing upon something solid which cannot
be destroyed.
Oh, to have our life founded
upon that; our faith for salvation, to have all our service, our
ministry founded upon that. Oh, to be delivered from things which
being of man, even religiously, will not stand the test; and to
be brought into the things which are of God and which will go
through all the testing. “...the firm foundation of God
standeth.” It cannot be destroyed. To be on that there is no
need to give up. There will be times of sore trial and testing
when the counselling of our own hearts will suggest a fleeing,
abandoning, giving up, but that is the counsel of fear. There is
one thing about the counsel of fear you may always bear in mind.
Fear never sees everything. Fear only sees one thing. Fear
only sees the present thing and is blind to all the other
factors. Fear, on the part of the spies who first went out into
the land, made them see just one thing, the difficulties, and
blinded them to the asset, God. Faith sees all the difficulties
and, while faith does not see God perhaps as imminent, it always
sees Him as transcendent. Fear is short-sighted. Fear is very
limited in its apprehension; and this was a counsel of fear:
“Flee... to your mountain.” Why? “Well, look at
things, look how they are. Isn’t it obvious that you are on
a wrong course and the enemy is just doing as he likes?”
Fear could say that well enough, but David had another side. It
was the side of faith, and he said: “In Jehovah do I take
refuge. How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain.”
Faith sees that God’s foundation cannot be moved, cannot be
destroyed, and whatever the appearances may be, faith looks
beyond the appearances, beyond the circumstances, cleaves to the
Lord and makes Him the refuge, and comes through.
Some people have suggested that
the 11th Psalm was written by David in the day when Saul was
pursuing him. I cannot see how that can be because when Saul
persecuted David he fled, and here he is saying he will not flee.
Others say it was in the day of Absalom’s treachery and the
advice given to David was to flee. Well, he did flee then, but
here he is saying that he will not flee. You have to find some
other historic setting for it. He did not flee, that is the
point. Why didn’t he flee and abandon that situation, and
say: “Yes, you are right, he is making a mess, he has struck
a blow at the very foundation of things; I had better find some
line of less resistance.” Why did he not take that attitude?
Simply because the eyes of his heart were fixed upon the Lord and
he had no personal interests to serve; no organisation, no
society, no movement to which he was so attached that if it were
blown to pieces his whole life would go with it. No, it was the
Lord. It is a great thing to be with the Lord and to be delivered
from lesser things, to be one with the Lord in His purpose. What
if all the other goes up in smoke? You were not in that at all,
that is not the thing upon which your heart was set. What you
were after was not a temporary thing, something on the earth; it
was a spiritual and eternal thing and nothing can destroy that.
Now, beloved, you see the issue
of this. You and I have got to be founded upon God’s
objective. The thing which has got to be the thing which
determines all our life, all our activity has to be God’s
end. And what is God’s end? Let it be settled once and for
all that God’s end is not to have something anchored to this
earth, even with His Name upon it. Everything anchored to this
earth will go with the earth. God’s object is to have a
spiritual thing in the life of His people; something which
relates them to His Son in a growing and increasing way—the
increase of Christ. It matters nothing about all the rest. All
the merely temporary aspects of the work are of very little
importance at all. The thing that matters is that men and women
are being perfected in Christ. We are not here to put something
down and then try and get men and women to join that, attach
themselves to that—not even a “testimony”, as we
might call it. Let us be careful that we start at the right end.
We are not here on this earth to set up a teaching, and then try
to get people to come into that teaching. If you go to your New
Testament you will find people came together because they were in
it already. They did not come to join it. The testimony is not
something that you join. You are joined by being in the
testimony. Do you get that? That is a tremendously important
thing in connection with this whole matter which we are now
considering. We shall be disappointed, and will have a hard time
if we try to get people to adopt something, take it on, accept
it. Let us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, give our witness,
let the Lord do the work in our hearts, and when He does His work
in our hearts we will cleave to one another. You will have the
expression of the Church here on the earth as a result of the
work done inside and not in something you have brought together,
even in a teaching, a testimony, or a system even called a “fellowship”.
Let us be careful in thinking we can join a fellowship.
Fellowship is a thing that is; it is the result of
something inward.
Now I gather up all I have said
into this law. The objective is to have an inward life in God,
and if we are on that line we are on something that can never be
destroyed. If your objective is anything else, to have some
outward form or order, you are on a line that will be destroyed,
it will suffer, it will be broken up. That is why we find so many
splittings up in things. Here is a pure thing which has been
wrought into a few lives, and because the same thing has been
done in that little company they are together in a beautiful
oneness, and there they do represent something very much of God;
but then others begin to join it, to attach themselves to it, or
to accept the teaching. Then another generation comes along and
takes up the teaching of that generation, and the thing has not
been done in those who adhere or succeed, and so you get
the carrying on of a teaching, or a tradition, without the inward
thing. What happens? Before long the thing is divided, and the
divisions are endless. You cannot divide a thing which is the one
thing of Christ in each heart; that makes for fellowship, that is
indestructible. But if it is anything external merely,
historical, traditional, doctrinal, it can be split into as many
fragments as there are people in it. The foundation is Jesus
Christ; and Jesus Christ in the heart, growing, developing, being
fully formed in the saints. That is an indestructible line—Christ
as the foundation within us.
I think that we want to be far
more concerned with the spiritual growth of one another.
Everything must come within that object. The spiritual growth of
one another. Everything else will come that is good and right;
any kind of outward expression will be a result of it, but this
is the basic thing, our mutual spiritual development, the
increase of Christ, and that all hell’s activities and
treacheries can never destroy. It is God’s foundation in us
which stands.