The sermon revolves around the theme from Psalm 11:3, questioning what the righteous can do if foundations are destroyed. It discusses the destruction of foundational values in society, including the church, family, and community, and offers a solution centered on scripture. The sermon emphasizes the importance of the 'fear of the Lord' as a starting point for wisdom and knowledge, stressing that a lack of this fear is a fundamental issue in both the nation and the church. It introduces the concept of a 'standard' lifted against the enemy, equating it to the crucified life of Jesus Christ. This standard is a call for believers to live a life crucified for Christ, embracing transformation and sanctification through the Holy Spirit. The sermon underscores the role of scripture as the enduring truth that guides a believer's life, urging the congregation to present themselves as living sacrifices, allowing God to transform their lives. The ultimate goal is conformity to the image of Christ, achievable through the renewing of the mind and embracing God's truth as the standard for living.

I will trust you Lord Well last week as we begun we picked a theme if you will for the whole time that we're going to spend on Wednesday nights. And this is obviously the theme in Psalm 11.3, is the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? And last week we looked at, this kind of introduction, as we looked at the foundations and how they have been destroyed and how they're being destroyed in the church, in the family, in the community or culture. I don't know how long will those YouTube stay up, You know? YouTube?

What you're doing here? YouTube will stay up for a long time. Facebook lives the last three weeks. Okay. Is this Facebook or YouTube?

It'll go on YouTube. YouTube. Okay. YouTube. YouTube.

So if anybody wants to see that, they can look on YouTube. They can look at it a lot. But we're also given a solution. It's a piercing question. What can the righteous do?

Isaiah in chapter 59 verse 19 gives us the answer. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the sun, that happens to be the East by the way, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. So we know from scripture that when the enemy comes in like a flood, God is wanting to raise up a standard. God is running to raise up a testimony, if you will. And it begins as this verse begins with the fear of the Lord.

We know that in Psalms it says we should serve the Lord with fear. Psalm 111 says the fear of the Lord's beginning of wisdom. Proverbs tells us the fear of the Lord's beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 9 says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. So this is the beginning of it all as we begin to understand the fear of the Lord.

And what I have believed for a long time, and I'm sure I'm not alone, is that what's lacking in our nation, and that includes the church as well as everything else that's encompassed by that statement, is a real fear of the Lord. There isn't that awesome, overwhelming respect and consideration for who he is and how he sits on his throne. And so it begins there. But we also know from John chapter 12, It says this, this is Jesus talking, if I and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people unto myself. Now the finishing of that verse talks about, he said this concerning his crucifixion or his death.

But this is the standard. Now in the Old Testament in that verse in Isaiah when it talks about a standard it's talking about people going to battle. And I have I struggle picturing this. I'm sure I'm not alone but they would raise up a banner to identify themselves. Okay.

That's, that's how they did that. You know, so, so they raise up a banner and everybody around them said, well, I'm with that banner, I'm with, Well, this is the same picture that we have from Jesus. He said, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw people to myself. And as he's talking about his death on Calvary, he's talking about his crucifixion, He's talking about you and I identifying with that event. We know that from Galatians chapter two.

What does Galatians chapter two 20 tell us? I am crucified with Christ. It's no longer I that live with, but Christ that live with me. So this is the standard, if you will, a crucified life laid down for Jesus in our perspective. We can read about that in 2nd Peter, 2nd Peter chapter 1, and this is a familiar verse we've looked at it often.

Simon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Who's he addressing this to? Believers. Understand this. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Grace and peace multiply. As His divine power, that's His Holy Spirit, has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, that through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We have that in reality, the promises of God has given to us in His Word, we're going to look at that, We're going to understand that in his word, as it applies to my heart and your heart, my life and your life, how we order our lives, how we live our lives, this becomes the channel, if you will, that God uses. And he's talking about a crucified life for Christ. Crucified life given for Christ.

I want to read you, it's not in your syllabus, I'll lie, whatever those Bible verses are called, you can call them what you want. From Romans chapter two verses four and five. You can make a note of that if you want to. Romans chapter two verses four and five reads this way. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance, and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So many times people will tell me, tell you, they understand, They will acknowledge the blessings of God, but they don't understand that the blessings of God are bringing us to repentance. Well, 1st Peter tells us that we've been blessed with all the promises, but what does that blessing meant to bring us to? Repentance. That we might turn from our sinful ways and live a new life that's consecrated to Jesus.

In Colossians chapter 3 it writes this way, this is evidence if you will, right? Do not lie to one another since you put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, sithian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Don't lie to one, this is evidence of the new man, it doesn't, this is how you're supposed to live. This is the things that you should put off. It's going to put on the word Jesus Christ, but we know from Galatians 2, as we shared earlier, this whole picture is a crucified life for Christ.

That's the standard. That's what we are lifting up. In Romans 8 28 we love to quote this verse, and we know all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So we quote that, we claim that, we acknowledge that, and yet the next verse tells us what his purpose is. For whom he for knew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

So here is the standard by which we are to live our lives. A new life. A new life set aside for Jesus. A new life that has crucified the old and has put on the new. A new life that becomes a partaker of his divine image, his divine nature.

You and I have that potential and possibility with us according to the promises we read in 2nd Peter. So it's before us to see how this really applies to our heart and life, to be conformed to the image of Christ. It's interesting because as I had laid out this message and I have quite a bit of a given, this is our devotion from this morning, from my outhouse first heist. It says this, In the natural life, our ambitions alter as we develop. In the Christian life, the goal is given at the beginning.

The beginning and the end are the same. That is, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ, we end with Him, until we all attain to the stature of the manhood of Christ Jesus, not to our idea of what the Christian life should be. The aim of the missionaries, the missionaries, The aim of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful, not to win the heathen. He is useful, he does win the heathen, but that is not his aim.

His aim is to do the will of his Lord to be conformed to his image. And as we put that concept before us, as God's will for you and for me, as all of us collectively are to have this before us. We can read in scripture, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.

But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is, and everyone who has this hope in himself, has this hope in him, purifies himself just as he is pure." So from 1st John it begins to explain to us quite practically how this looks. Children of God. I want to give you kind of a funny, strange example of this, but one of our sons was in an airport hundreds of miles from Green Bay, alone. I don't know where he was going, I don't know what he was doing, but he was there.

And somebody walked up to him and looked at him and he said, you're a lens, aren't you? Out of the blue. How did he know? Because he looked like a lens. You know, that's one of the characteristics of them being our children.

They kind of look like us. Not all of them, but most of them have some resemblance. Well, what is Scripture telling us about being a child of God? Where does that have a resemblance of our Father? That DNA that's transferred in this rebirth changes us to how we look, not necessarily physically, but in action and reaction, how we look to the world.

And it goes on to tell us in the scripture, when He's revealed, when will that be when He's revealed in the last day? And what does it say about us when He's revealed? We shall be like Him. Under that promise. Just think about that reality.

Just how overwhelming that should be. When I look at the mirror, people tell me Jesus is coming soon. He's got some work to do. I think it's true of all of us. But when he is revealed, we're gonna be like him.

Here's what David said when he wrote his Psalm. This should be our prayer. As for me, I will see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness. Is that our goal?

I mean, do we really consider this before us? That we are going to be like Him? I'll be satisfied when I awake. That's from death into this new life, in his likeness. And when we look at this, then we say, okay, Rick, I understand this, I can see this, I know where you're going with this.

What I don't know is how. How does that happen? Well, we do have an answer. And it's an answer that we all know. In Romans chapter 12, beginning at verse 1, it says quite simply this, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. What is the process? How does this work? Paul tells us, present your bodies a living sacrifice. Surrendering my right to myself, surrendering your right to yourself.

Being dead to yourself and alive for Christ. In Romans chapter 6, and this is a familiar passage for all of us with the self-sustaining on the thing. It says something quite simply this, if we can identify with being baptized into his death, it says, And that's often the picture presented at adult baptism, conversion baptism, where people say I've been dead with Christ, I've been buried with Christ, and I've been raised again. We've been raised to a new life. And Romans chapter 6 tells us by that same power that he raised us, he's given us the opportunity to share that new resurrection life.

That's a new life. Not conformed to the world as we looked at last week, but transformed. Not acting, reacting, not responding to the world, the way the world would act, not having the same priorities the world would have, not looking at the same things the world looks at, but different, new. We should be different. And it's by the renewing of our mind.

2 Corinthians 10-5 says this, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought captive or captivity to the obedience of Christ. That this renewing of our mind is for you and I to have every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Not thinking the world the way we used to think. Not thinking the way the world thinks. Thinking the way Jesus thinks and having his mind.

Scripture tells us you have the mind of Christ. Have you considered that? I have, but not for long. But you have the mind of Christ. This is available to us people by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And he's given us the message, not the translation of the message, but his message and his word. To have this renewing take place, to have our minds transformed, to begin to think like Jesus thinks, and to respond and react like Jesus would, casting down all of the arguments and the high things that exalt itself against God, and bringing it all into captivity. Transformation, that's what we're talking about, has a spiritual term, it's called sanctification. And that Greek word just talks about to make holy, to consecrate, to be set aside. And as 1st Peter teaches us this, Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, not conforming yourself to former lusts as in your ignorance, but as He who called you as holy, You also be holy in all your conduct, because it's written, be holy for I am holy. Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And his call for me, his call for you, is to be holy. And that isn't a call to frustration. It isn't a call to agony.

It's a promise that God has given us the grace to have this accomplished in my life and your life. That you and I can be holy as he is holy. Now, I don't have any expectations in my life and I don't have any expectations in my life and I don't have any expectations in your life that this is going to happen either instantly or until God calls you home. But be on the road. Be in, embrace the process.

Be in embrace the process. Brother Mercer Janice used to tell me, look, you're not where you were and you're not where you're going, but you're on the road. Stay on the road. Keep on the road. Be holy for I am holy.

And the Lord tells us that he is going to work this in my life and in your life, this sanctification, the setting aside, this consecrated. He says, sanctify them by your truth, Your word is truth. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Now we get to the beginning of how this is going to work in my life and your life.

We have His word, and His Word is truth. I don't read the Amplified translation often, because it would take you about five times as long. But listen to this verse from the Amplified version. It says, sanctify them, purify, consecrate, separate them for yourselves, for yourself, make them holy by the truth your word is truth. One at least from this place would hope that Everybody here acknowledges that reality, that this is truth.

His word is truth. And by definition, truth never changes. Truth is always truth. We live in a culture that wants to make truth relevant. Well, yeah, that was for them, but this is not.

That was a different culture. This is a thing. Truth is truth. It was and it is and will always be truth. Life circumstances and situations, personalities, preferences, culture, doesn't change or define the truth.

We have a daughter, we don't have the in-laws, so we have a daughter that has brain cancer. You all have been praying for her and others. Charlotte. Charlotte's doing remarkably well for having been diagnosed a year and a half ago was something that should have taken their life within six months. So praise God.

But we talked to Nathan and Nathan said, you know dad, mom, if Shara dies or if Shara is miraculously cured or if the treatment that we're going through in Germany works this healing miracle, It's all going to be God. But there's one truth that it's always true. God loves Charlotte. It's not determined by any death. It's a marvelous attitude to have when your wife is faced with terminal cancer.

But that's the attitude you and I have to have every day of our lives. Somebody once so eloquently said, nobody gets out of your life. Truth is always truth. And everything that happens in my life and in your life is ordained by God who loves us and only wants us to be conformed to his image and to be obedient to his call and purpose. So as we grasp that and as we consider that tonight, we look at the reality.

First, Second Timothy three, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Psalm 119, 160, the entirety of your word is truth. Every one of your righteous judgment endures forever. Proverbs 35, every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in it.

There's hundreds of other verses. I'm not going to go through them all, and I'm not going to list them all. But It's a confirming truth to you and I that this is truth, and this is enduring truth. And it's important that that's something that you and I, not just understand intellectually, but say, okay, if this is truth, then this is how my life should be ordered. This should tell me how I should live.

If this is a standard for truth, and it is, then it should be the standard for my life and your life. Second Timothy gives us some other instructions. It says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God a worker. This is how you and I need to pick up this book.

Go pick up this book the first thing in the morning and say, okay, I've got two chapters in the Old Testament, one chapter in the New Testament. Check, check, done. Easy to do. But this is God speaking. And we will have a chance to look at some of the gods speaking through the scripture at another time.

But understand this god speaking to me and to you, This God who spoke the world into existence, this God who spoke the name of every star in the galaxies, wants to communicate to me and you. Have you thought about that? Think about that. This God who loves me and you enough, he wants to talk to us. And he's given us his words.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, rightly interpreting, rightly figuring out what it's saying to me and to you. And it really isn't what Rick says this says, it's what this says. We can go back to 2 Timothy 3 and it says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable. It's profitable for doctrine.

It's profitable for reproof. It's profitable for correction. It's profitable for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Is this how you and I read His Word?

Listen to his word, whether it's Sunday morning, Wednesday night, whether it's on the radio or however else you might listen to it. Is this how we respond? Profitable. It's profitable for doctrine. That's instruction in the basic tenets of our faith, the virgin birth.

It's life, death, and resurrection. It's ascension, ascending of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. These are doctrines that you and I should have ingrained in our hearts and lives, so that we can not only testify about how they've changed my life, your life, but begin to talk to others about how important it is to have these basic foundational truths of God's Word. Proverbs chapter 4 verses 2 says this, I give you good instructions, don't forsake my love. And 1st Timothy, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and a good doctor in which you have carefully followed.

Timothy was given a charge to be the pastor of the church at Ephesus. And you can read through scripture to understand some of the conflicts and some of the problems that Ephesus had. You can read that book. But Paul's instruction to Timothy is the same instruction to me and to you. He said, I instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and a good doctor that you have carefully followed, not just knowing, Not just learning about, but having it become ingrained in my life and in their life.

Having us visualize it gives evidence that, one, we grasp this as the truth, the standard, and that our lives have changed because of it. All scripture is given and it's profitable for doctrine. It tells us it's profitable for reproof, that conviction of our sins and our need for a Savior. And that's a function of the Holy Spirit, people. It's not my function or your function.

But God's function is to convict us of sin. And he does that as he points out through his word. Martin Luther in his Catechism defines the law. And he defines the law this way. It's that doctrine of the Bible in which God tells us how we are to be, what we are to do, and not do.

It's quite simple. And yet it's quite profound. Because God has given us the law. Initially, and maybe I'm wrong, but initially I thought okay the law is about the Old Testament and the gospel is the New Testament. And as you begin to read it, you understand that there's an awful lot of gospel in the Old Testament and there's an awful lot of law in the New Testament.

So we can't separate it that way anymore. We can separate it by the blood of Jesus Christ, the new covenant that he established with us that isn't the keeping of the ceremonial law, but he has not abolished his ordinances, his principles, his precepts, that we began to look at last year. In fact, quite the opposite. Jesus said, I haven't come to abolish the law, I've come to fulfill it. And the potential for you and I, given to us by grace through the power of His Holy Spirit, is to fulfill the law in my life and in your life.

We talked about that Sunday. Sin is a choice. I don't like that anymore than you, but it's true. And you and I can choose by the grace of God because he gives us that ability to do what we can choose to follow him and have that be the standard of our lives. So we should be reading this.

We should be listening to this. We should be willing to hear reproof because God wants us to change. First John says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John the Baptist, in the first chapter of the gospel of john john the baptist said behold the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world jesus christ has died for every sin that was ever or will ever be committed his shed blood avails through repentance. It's available to us. This God-breeze scripture is profitable for reproof that you and I can change our games.

It says it's profitable for correction. The original word talks about reformation. It talks about being reformed, about being straightened out. I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind that one, our culture, two, our nation, three, our families, four, the church needs to be straightened out. It's interesting enough, at least it is for me, when Martin Luther and the people involved at this period of time started something, they did not call it a revival.

What did they call it? A reformation. It needed to be stringed out. It needed to be corrected. They were going down the wrong path and they needed to be brought back to the right path.

I don't know how many years ago it was, and I don't know if you remember this, like, no or not, but the United States launched a rocket and it was going towards what I think it was the moon, but I could be wrong, I don't remember exactly, but it missed, and it missed the moon by millions of miles because the launch angle was off less than a half a degree. Think about that. Less than a half a degree, which on paper probably wouldn't even notice it. But exponentially a million miles away, it's a severe myth, it missed the mark. Well, people has a definition of sin, missing the mark.

And we can be close, but that isn't it. And so we need to read God's word for correction to have it straightened out, to have it figured out. I want to read you a wonderful account of how this really works. In Acts chapter 18 we're given an account this way, it says, Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.

So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. What a gentle, gracious, but important picture for us. Here was a man, a Paulist, eloquent, mighty in Scripture, had been instructed in the way of the Lord, but obviously not exactly because all he knew about was the baptism of John. At this point in time when he was an Ephesus, there was this whole reality and revelation of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.

What repentance really looked like for Jesus' sense. And as he began to speak boldly, Aquila and Priscilla, this is a husband and wife by the way, Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside. It says privately in another translation. And he explained to him the way of God more accurately, gently, alone, but correction. I wonder who might be in my life and your life that we have given that place to correct.

From God's Word. It doesn't really count if I go to Fred and say, hey Fred, I think your beard should be whatever. If God says something about Fred's beard, that's a whole different story. But this is the way of the Lord, and this is why he's given us all of this God-breathed Word. It also tells us that he's given to us for instruction and righteousness, that our holy God, how he expects us to live in obedience to him.

His call for this process called sanctification requires a change in my heart and your heart. And it will change your outward life, but it's to be from the inside out. It's not an old Adam improvement society. It's not reading your best life now. It's not reading all of these self-help quotes, these introspections.

One of the great philosophers, his quote was, know thyself. God's word says know him. It's through the knowledge of Him who called us. And unfortunately, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord is looking at my heart and your heart. To do righteous and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

To live a life that's God-honoring and God-pleasing, Being sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit is more pleasing than sacrifice. It's not what you and I have to give up. It's not about that. It's about pleasing God. I'm sure I probably shared this story with you, but many years ago, my wife and I were on a trip in Jamaica, and we had opted to go down, forgot the name of the river, it doesn't make any difference.

But it was on a raft. They called it a boat, but it was not a boat, it was a raft. And there was a bench on the back of this raft. And you were sitting on it, and there was a man in front pulling, stalling this river. And it was gorgeous, through the blue, I mean it was a mark.

It was really a gorgeous trip. But I began to share with this man and talk to this man and he had just had a baby. His hospital bill and for the birth of the baby and all of the care was, I think he said $25. And it cost him $50 by cab to get to the hospital. That kind of shows you the perspective of the influence of us tourists on their culture.

And he was not happy about that. And so we're talking along those lines and we're just talking about life. And I asked him about, you know, what kind of income he had. Well, he thought maybe he made $500 a year. $500 a year.

Now, this goes back 20 years plus, probably more than that now. More than 30, 40. Shh. And it goes back a while. But even then, $500 a year was not much, OK?

Give me. And I asked him, I said, I forgot his name, but I said, have you ever considered giving your life to Jesus Christ? And he put his stick down and he turned around and he looked at me and he said, and give up all my worldly ways. And think, hey, how many worldly ways can you have for 500 bucks a year? You know?

That's, but that was, it wasn't anything about living righteous and justice and doing what pleases God. It was about the sacrament. I have to give something up. Well people, that's not God's heart for me and for you of what we have to give up. It's how we can please the mighty God.

And if there's any doubt in your mind at what I'm sharing tonight about God's will and purpose for me and for you, we can read it in 1st Thessalonians. This is the will of God, your sanctification. I've got nothing else to say, folks. This is the will of God. And so to embrace the process, Romans chapter 12, 1 and 2, present ourselves living, sacrificial, not inconformed in this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind, letting God's Word speak to us for all the things that it's profitable, for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteous living.

Letting God have his way with me and with you by the power of his Holy Spirit to change me, to change you, that we might become partakers of his divine image. God won't do for me what he's instructed for me to do. I have to present myself again. And that's God's call for each and every one of us to present ourselves to Him, a living sacrifice, and say, God, change me by Your Word. Your Word is truth, and your word is power.

We'll talk about that next week. Just the power of the word of God. But read Psalm 51. David's response to the word of God. Can allow our hearts to be changed.

Father, thank you for tonight. Thank you for your word that brings us to this place. Of just asking us quite simply before your throne of grace, will you, will I present myself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, purposing to have my mind renewed, not conformed to the world and not embracing the lust of the world, but embracing your new life for me. We can quote the scripture if any man being Christ is a new creation, but allow that to become reality. It's for your honor and glory we pray.

Amen. And we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. I will trust you, Lord.