If the Foundations Are Destroyed

It was my intention to preach on Romans 4 this morning. But as I did my preparations it became clear to me that the Spirit had other ideas. Today’s sermon is going to be a look at what’s going on in our world and what that has to say to us. My goal is to help you to understand our situation better. Out of that will, in time, come things to do in response. Psalm 11 has some helpful insights on this for you to consider. Listen.

In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face. Psalm 11

Well, once again David is in some sort of difficulty. And it seems so bad, that his advisors are telling him to ‘flee like a bird to your mountain’. They think that he needs to escape from those who are after him. And these advisers have given David a reason for what they are suggesting.

if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

So, what’s this about? What do they mean when they talk about foundations being destroyed? I read some smart people on this. One said that this is about ‘a disintegration of those institutions that maintain social order, protect virtue and fend off evil.’ Another author said this. ‘The ground rules on which society operates have broken down.’

Now, one reason that I quoted those authors is that I’m thinking that once you hear how they describe David’s situation, your thoughts would quickly turn to our situation. Is it too much to say that in our situation also the foundations are being destroyed? Can’t we also say that, ‘The ground rules on which society operates have broken down’, or at least that they are in the process of breaking down? I think this describes our situation quite well.

What are ‘those institutions that maintain social order, protect virtue and fend off evil’? Here think marriage and the family, religion, government. I think that it is obvious that there has been tremendous change in areas like these. For one thing, definitions are being changed. What is marriage? What does it mean to be a man or to be a woman? What are Christians to think about such things? Now, do these sorts of changes qualify for the phrase ‘the foundations are being destroyed’? I really think they do.

Obviously, there are consequences to this kind of situation. And what might they be? Listen again to the Psalm for one example.

for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.

Another author described the wicked in this verse using the word ‘assassins’. He was thinking about how they attack hidden in the dark. I found it interesting that next to the word ‘assassins’ he put, in parentheses, the word ‘slanderers’. He did that to offer one example of how these wicked might function in our days.

We have a point of contact here with David’s situation. The foundations of our culture are being destroyed. They are not gone, but this work of destruction has begun, and it’s making quite a bit of progress. I say all this because we all need to have some sense of what is going on. It’s already affecting us and it will do so more and more.

Now, the question that David’s advisers raise fits here.

… what can the righteous do?

Isn’t that a good question? Now, those advisers raise their question assuming that the answer is, ‘Nothing.’ And that leads to their advice for David to flee, to escape, to run to the mountains. Remember that the mountains had been a place of safety when David was being chased by King Saul. Maybe they can be that again.

But notice how David responded to that advice.

In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain”.

He rejected their counsel. David did some fleeing, but it wasn’t to any mountain. He fled to Yahweh, his God.

There are those today who would agree with David’s advisers. They tell us that our situation is hopeless. So, what we need to do is find some safe place and flee there. We need to hide from what is going on. And there are those who do that. In one way or other, they are keeping their heads down thinking that in this way they will be kept safe. But that won’t work.

Then, there are others who advise the opposite. They encourage more fighting against the floods of change. But they have placed their hope in the same weapons that they have been using for quite some time, weapons that have not worked in the past and that will not work in the future.

David’s choice of action is better. But understand what he was getting at. He took refuge in Yahweh, but not in order to hide from the problems. His goal was to be able to respond well to what was going on.

Likewise, we are to run to Jesus, calling on Him to keep His covenant promises, calling on Him to protect us from evil. But we do that so that we can keep our covenant promises, our promises to live faithfully as His disciples in a hostile world.

Now, what does that include? What does living faithfully as Jesus’ disciples look like?

In our Bible studies we’ve been looking at the last three chapters of Ephesians, chapters 4, 5 and 6. As we have done that I have been quite taken with the theme that I have found there. Everything that Paul writes in those chapters is about our calling, our calling to be the Church. In those chapters, he describes some of what it means to be the Church. He begins with a call to live well.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Ephesians 4.1

What follows are some details of what that should look like.

So, Paul talks about how the Church is to be equipped through leaders sent by Jesus.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Ephesians 4:11-12

Paul talks about what the goal of this equipping is.

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13

And then, he discusses several areas of interpersonal relationships that will make or break a local congregation, things like speaking the truth, controlling anger, forgiving one another, and more.

And that’s just what’s in chapter four.

So, what does our living faithfully as Jesus’ disciples look like? It looks like our being the Church.

As the Church, we have been given things to do in this world. We are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It’s our job to fight against the corruption of sin, the work of salt, and to fight against the darkness that hides it, the work of light. That’s what Jesus called us to be. But, if we’re honest, we’ll admit that we have failed. How else do we explain the fact that the foundations are being destroyed?

One reason that we have failed is that we have been distracted from our calling. Some of those distractions are out and out evil things. But so many of those distractions are things that are good - things that are good in their place. But they have become too important and have turned us aside from what we have been called to be and thus to do.

So, taking refuge in Jesus begins with acknowledging that failure. Some individual Christians are more culpable than others, but God deals with us as a group, as the Church in America. And as a Church we have failed.

Once we admit our failure, we need to return to the fight. We need to pursue our calling. But we’re not ready to do that. We need to do some work preparing ourselves to return, preparing ourselves so that we will succeed.

So, what might that preparatory work be. Here’s a first step. We need to answer this question: What does it mean for us to be the Church? What’s that supposed to look like, at least in our context? To answer that question, we will need to answer other questions like these. What is worship? What’s it for and how are we supposed to do it? What does it mean to be the communion of the saints, that is, the community of the saints? What is that supposed to look like? Then, there is the outward face of the Church, the proclamation of the Gospel to the world. What is that supposed to look like?

Now, I’m pretty sure that lots of Christians have answers for those questions. After all, they’ve been going to church. But are the answers that they have been using correct? That is, do the answers that they have been using come from the Bible?

We American Christians need to repent of treating the Church as a business or a social welfare agency or a rehab center where the methods and goals are set by whoever is leading the group. We need to understand what it means to be the Church as the Bible defines it so that when it is time to rebuild those foundations we’ll be able to do a good job of it, a job that will honor Jesus, a job that will last.

Now, that’s quite a tall order. But, in all of this we can be so very optimistic. And we can be optimistic because of something else in this Psalm.

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven;

The Lord Yahweh still rules from heaven. We have dropped the ball, but He hasn’t. So, we know that those who are being so destructive will be dealt with. Again, listen to the Psalm describe God.

His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

So, you see, there will be justice. God will make sure of that.

But understand that it is not only these who love violence whom God notices. We are also within His gaze. Again, from the Psalm.

The Lord tests the righteous.

We Christians will be evaluated and held accountable. After all, we have been called to be the Church and that’s something that Jesus expects us to be working on. There will be justice.

Now, for the application question. What should you do as a result of hearing this sermon? My goal for this morning was simply to explain. But explanation needs to lead, at some point, to action, to changes.

It is helpful to remember that big changes are the result of lots of little changes. So, in the things that I’m going to mention, aim small.

Give yourself to prayer. And let me remind you of what I’ve told you before. It’s about quality not quantity. Three minutes of honest and specific prayer is better than a half-hour of thoughtless phrases said merely out of habit. Jesus called that ‘vain repetition’. Ask the Father to show you where you need to work for change in your own life and then where you need to work for change in our church.

Give yourself to meditating on the Scripture. Each week there is some Scripture for meditation included at the bottom of the announcement sheet. I comment on that Scripture and send it to you by email and publish it on my blog. Take five minutes to read and think about the verse and then later another two minutes to read what I wrote about it. The wisdom that we will need to rebuild the foundations will only be found as a result of a diligent search for it in the Bible. Take a little time each week to meditate on the Scriptures. Remember it’s quality not quantity.

And then, give yourself to worship. Be here on Sundays, ready to give to God the glory due His name. Before anything else, worship is about giving to God - something too often forgotten in our days. It’s when we do that well that we will receive a blessing from God. I email the bulletin to you each week as well as some comments on a hymn we’ll be singing and the Psalm that we will be reading. Invest a little time reading those things so that you will be ready to give yourself to the worship of the true and the living God.

In all of this we need to think long term. I’m assuming that I will not live to see the foundations of our culture being rebuilt by the Church. My role, however, is to prepare you for what is coming - more destruction - and especially to prepare your children for the task of rebuilding. And I am confident that in time, by the grace of God, that rebuilding will begin.