“IF THE FOUNDATIONS BE DESTROYED...”
By Dr. Paul Fedena
TEXT: Psalm 11:3
THESIS: To show that foundational beliefs are crucial to Christianity & society.
INTRO.: If you want to destroy any building, you are guaranteed early success if you destroy the foundations. Also, it is impossible to build any lasting structure without an adequate foundation. Our Savior graphically illustrated this in the parable of the wise & unwise builders:
Lk.6:48-49 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
💥The book of Genesis is the foundation of the entire Bible.
👉Throughout the O.T. & N.T. Genesis is quoted from or referred to more than any other book of the Bible.
👉This shows that the writers of the Bible accepted Genesis as truth.
👉There are at least 165 passages in Genesis which are either directly quoted or clearly referred to throughout the N.T. alone.
👉Included in these are more than 100 quotations from the first 11 chapters of Genesis - the most disputed chapters in the Bible by liberals & neo-evangelicals.
👉Two of the most hotly contested events in those chapters are creation & the Flood of Noah.
NOTE: Genesis is the seed plot for every doctrine in the Bible as well as the very basis for morality & civilization itself. This one book provides us w/an account of ✨the origins of the basic entities of life & the universe: ✨the origin of life, of man, of govt., of sin, diet, clothes, the solar system, etc., etc. ✨The meaning of all these things is dependent on their origin. ✨But,
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
We are living in the “last days” according to the Bible and the Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of what we can expect.
2 Tim 3:1-7 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE HOME:
A. Marriage:
1. No one can build a home from the roof down!
2. The biblical basis comes from Genesis: God created one man for one woman for life!
Mal.2:15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
a. God states one of the purposes for marriage here; that 2 may become one so they may produce “godly seed.”
b. Jesus also referred to the origin or foundation of marriage by quoting from Genesis.
Mt.19:4-6 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
ILLUS.: 🔶If Genesis is not your foundation then why bother to marry? Why not one man for 6 wives? Why not 2 men or 2 women? (Why get upset when your son comes home & says he & Bruce are getting married?) Why not grant homosexual couples the same benefits as heterosexual couples? You say “It’s not right.” “It’s not normal.” “It’s bad.” Why not - if the Biblical norm is rejected?! (And of course in our day this foundation is being and has been destroyed! Now to refer negatively to homosexuality or transgenderism is considered hate speech! NO! It’s Bible Speech!)
🔶Suppose someone says to you: “I don’t want to live by society’s rules, I want to write my own.” You say: “You can do that if you like, but in that case, why can’t I shoot you?!” He says: “You can’t do that.” You say: “Why not? He says: “It’s not right?” You say: “Why is it not right?” You see, if the Genesis norm is thrown out, anything goes!
🔶If you are living together without the benefit of marriage, it’s wrong. Who says so? God! It’s wicked! How do we know? Because God’s Word says so! God is the Absolute authority in marriage & sexual relationships.
B. Children:
1. When children see rules as nothing more than parents’ opinions, they have no Absolute authority to obey.
2. Children need to be taught from the earliest age that God is the Creator & that He has determined what is right & wrong.
ILLUS.:
👎When parents fail to teach children absolutes, they are 36% more likely to lie to you, 48% more likely to cheat on an exam; 74% more likely to watch MTV; 2 times more likely to watch a porno film; 2 times more likely to get drunk; 3 times more likely to use drugs; 6 times more likely to attempt suicide, etc.
👎Why? Because they have accepted a non-Christian, non-Biblical view of life. One which says the Bible may not be true, that we evolved from animals, etc. They have accepted a world view some man who is fallible invented & lied and rejected the world view of God Who is infallible & Who has revealed truth.
⭐The Bible is not just a guide-book for life. It is the very basis upon which all our thinking must be built. That is why Jesus said in Jn.5:47 that we must believe the writings of Moses. (Genesis)
QUOTE: Ken Ham, The Lie, “A major reason for so many problems in Christian families today is that fathers have not taken their God-commanded resp. of being priest (head) in their household.”
“Daddy, can I have some candy now,?” “Go ask your mommy, honey.” Years later: “Daddy, is it O.K. if I start drinking and partying?” “If mommy says it’s O.K., honey.”
II. THE FOUNDATION OF LAWS:
A. Laws Are Absolutes:
ILLUS.:
✍While I am writing this we are moving towards an absolute abandonment of all law and order to an anarchistic society without laws. People are marching in what they call “protests” and demanding to “Defund the Police”.
👨✈️👩✈️As a result the police are being molested, abused, beaten and even murdered. Because a black man was killed by a white policeman, all white people are considered racist. (I am NOT racist and have never even owned a slave and have spent many years in my ministry to get the Gospel to all races, both in America and around the world!)
🙏While the death of this man was tragic and the policeman who killed him should be brought to justice, and I feel sympathy for his loved ones,
🔥what about the multi-millions of dollars of businesses which have been looted and burned and the hardworking business men and women who sacrificed so much to build them?
😖(By the way, this man was not a martyr, an angel or a hero! He was a long time criminal who put a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach twice and threatened to kill her if she refused to cooperate while he and his friends looted her home and he was on Fentanyl and Meth when he was killed and had a bag of heroin in his possession. It was not just a counterfeit $20 bill he was arrested for.
👉That doesn’t justify his murder by a policeman who needs to be brought to justice.
😢But what about the police men and women (and even a little 3 yr. old girl) who have been killed and countless others maimed for life in the aftermath?
📞What will happen when you dial 911 for a life and death emergency and the recording picks up and says “This is no longer a working number?”
1. If God is, then He has the right to set the rules & it is our resp. to obey them.
2. If evolution is true, then there is no right & wrong, everything is relative.
QUOTE: George Wald, 1967 Nobel Peace Prize winner in Science wrote: “When it comes to the origin of life...there are only 2 possibilities: creation & spontaneous generation (evolution). There is no 3rd way. Spontaneous generation was disproved 100 yrs. ago, but that leads us only to one other conclusion: that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds (personal reasons); therefore, we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.” (At least he admits it!)
B. Laws Determine Right & Wrong:
1. God gave the 10 Commandments, not the 10 suggestions.
2. Truth is static & unchanging; absolute truth is that which is right for all people, for all time, for all places and all races.
ILLUS.: On cereal boxes some time ago there was a hidden picture beneath the obvious one. You had to dig in the box & find the magic spectacles to see the hidden picture. Once you had the glasses on you could see the hidden picture. When you are equipped w/the proper “truth view” from the Bible, you will easily see truth & be able to also distinguish it from the error the world projects.
III. THE FOUNDATION OF MORALITY:
A. Clothing:
1. Why wear clothes? To keep warm? To look nice?
2. Why not remove them whenever we feel like it (many do!)?
QUOTE.: H. Mills, Greek Clothing Regulations: Sacred & Profane, “Since the demise, roughly 100 yrs. ago, of the Biblically based theory that clothes are worn because of modesty. Various theories have been put forward by anthropologists concerned with the origins & functions of clothing.”
a. The Scriptures give a moral basis for clothing: modesty.
b. When sin distorted nakedness, God demanded that Adam & Eve be clothed.
c. When Adam & Eve realized they were naked and tried to hide their nakedness with fig leaf aprons, God provided coats of animal skins.
Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
Mt.5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
QUOTE: Ken Ham, Ibid.: “There is a moral basis for wearing clothes because of what sin has done to nakedness. We must understand how men are created. Man was designed to be easily aroused sexually & to respond to one woman (his wife). This was, and is, necessary for procreation in marriage. However, sin distorts this and it is wrong for a man to look lustfully on any woman other than his wife.
Therefore, clothing should minimize to the greatest extent any stumbling block laid in a man’s way. But a man is no less guilty if he succumbs to the ‘second look.’ One should not simply accept the fashions of the day. There is a moral basis for clothing; therefore, there are standards. Knowing what men are like and knowing what sin does to nakedness, we thus have a basis for understanding what the standard should be.”
B. Abortion:
NOTE: Presently, in America alone we are butchering over 4000 babies each day. A present total of over 52 million since Roe v. Wade.
(42.4M babies killed by abortion in 2019)
1. If the model of evolution is true then life is a struggle of the survival of the fittest & there is no basis for right & wrong.
2. If the model of creation is true then killing babies by abortion is worse than chopping the head off a fish or a chicken, because God created that life in the womb of the mother & it has an eternal soul which can never die.
CONCL.: 1️⃣Foundations are important! 2️⃣The book of Genesis is THE foundational book in the Bible. 3️⃣It does matter whether you believe in evolution or creation. 4️⃣It affects every area of your life. 5️⃣But the FOUNDATIONS ARE BEING DESTROYED! 6️⃣The righteous need to adjust their thinking accordingly & not allow the world to squeeze us into it’s anti-God, anti-Bible mold.
If mankind continues to destroy the FOUNDATIONS of the Home, Law and Order and Morality, God is watching and His judgment will soon follow. What will YOU do? Let’s do all we can as Bible believers to rebuild these foundations, before it is too late.
THESIS: To show that foundational beliefs are crucial to Christianity & society.
INTRO.: If you want to destroy any building, you are guaranteed early success if you destroy the foundations. Also, it is impossible to build any lasting structure without an adequate foundation. Our Savior graphically illustrated this in the parable of the wise & unwise builders:
Lk.6:48-49 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
💥The book of Genesis is the foundation of the entire Bible.
👉Throughout the O.T. & N.T. Genesis is quoted from or referred to more than any other book of the Bible.
👉This shows that the writers of the Bible accepted Genesis as truth.
👉There are at least 165 passages in Genesis which are either directly quoted or clearly referred to throughout the N.T. alone.
👉Included in these are more than 100 quotations from the first 11 chapters of Genesis - the most disputed chapters in the Bible by liberals & neo-evangelicals.
👉Two of the most hotly contested events in those chapters are creation & the Flood of Noah.
NOTE: Genesis is the seed plot for every doctrine in the Bible as well as the very basis for morality & civilization itself. This one book provides us w/an account of ✨the origins of the basic entities of life & the universe: ✨the origin of life, of man, of govt., of sin, diet, clothes, the solar system, etc., etc. ✨The meaning of all these things is dependent on their origin. ✨But,
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
We are living in the “last days” according to the Bible and the Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of what we can expect.
2 Tim 3:1-7 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE HOME:
A. Marriage:
1. No one can build a home from the roof down!
2. The biblical basis comes from Genesis: God created one man for one woman for life!
Mal.2:15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
a. God states one of the purposes for marriage here; that 2 may become one so they may produce “godly seed.”
b. Jesus also referred to the origin or foundation of marriage by quoting from Genesis.
Mt.19:4-6 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
ILLUS.: 🔶If Genesis is not your foundation then why bother to marry? Why not one man for 6 wives? Why not 2 men or 2 women? (Why get upset when your son comes home & says he & Bruce are getting married?) Why not grant homosexual couples the same benefits as heterosexual couples? You say “It’s not right.” “It’s not normal.” “It’s bad.” Why not - if the Biblical norm is rejected?! (And of course in our day this foundation is being and has been destroyed! Now to refer negatively to homosexuality or transgenderism is considered hate speech! NO! It’s Bible Speech!)
🔶Suppose someone says to you: “I don’t want to live by society’s rules, I want to write my own.” You say: “You can do that if you like, but in that case, why can’t I shoot you?!” He says: “You can’t do that.” You say: “Why not? He says: “It’s not right?” You say: “Why is it not right?” You see, if the Genesis norm is thrown out, anything goes!
🔶If you are living together without the benefit of marriage, it’s wrong. Who says so? God! It’s wicked! How do we know? Because God’s Word says so! God is the Absolute authority in marriage & sexual relationships.
B. Children:
1. When children see rules as nothing more than parents’ opinions, they have no Absolute authority to obey.
2. Children need to be taught from the earliest age that God is the Creator & that He has determined what is right & wrong.
ILLUS.:
👎When parents fail to teach children absolutes, they are 36% more likely to lie to you, 48% more likely to cheat on an exam; 74% more likely to watch MTV; 2 times more likely to watch a porno film; 2 times more likely to get drunk; 3 times more likely to use drugs; 6 times more likely to attempt suicide, etc.
👎Why? Because they have accepted a non-Christian, non-Biblical view of life. One which says the Bible may not be true, that we evolved from animals, etc. They have accepted a world view some man who is fallible invented & lied and rejected the world view of God Who is infallible & Who has revealed truth.
⭐The Bible is not just a guide-book for life. It is the very basis upon which all our thinking must be built. That is why Jesus said in Jn.5:47 that we must believe the writings of Moses. (Genesis)
QUOTE: Ken Ham, The Lie, “A major reason for so many problems in Christian families today is that fathers have not taken their God-commanded resp. of being priest (head) in their household.”
“Daddy, can I have some candy now,?” “Go ask your mommy, honey.” Years later: “Daddy, is it O.K. if I start drinking and partying?” “If mommy says it’s O.K., honey.”
II. THE FOUNDATION OF LAWS:
A. Laws Are Absolutes:
ILLUS.:
✍While I am writing this we are moving towards an absolute abandonment of all law and order to an anarchistic society without laws. People are marching in what they call “protests” and demanding to “Defund the Police”.
👨✈️👩✈️As a result the police are being molested, abused, beaten and even murdered. Because a black man was killed by a white policeman, all white people are considered racist. (I am NOT racist and have never even owned a slave and have spent many years in my ministry to get the Gospel to all races, both in America and around the world!)
🙏While the death of this man was tragic and the policeman who killed him should be brought to justice, and I feel sympathy for his loved ones,
🔥what about the multi-millions of dollars of businesses which have been looted and burned and the hardworking business men and women who sacrificed so much to build them?
😖(By the way, this man was not a martyr, an angel or a hero! He was a long time criminal who put a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach twice and threatened to kill her if she refused to cooperate while he and his friends looted her home and he was on Fentanyl and Meth when he was killed and had a bag of heroin in his possession. It was not just a counterfeit $20 bill he was arrested for.
👉That doesn’t justify his murder by a policeman who needs to be brought to justice.
😢But what about the police men and women (and even a little 3 yr. old girl) who have been killed and countless others maimed for life in the aftermath?
📞What will happen when you dial 911 for a life and death emergency and the recording picks up and says “This is no longer a working number?”
1. If God is, then He has the right to set the rules & it is our resp. to obey them.
2. If evolution is true, then there is no right & wrong, everything is relative.
QUOTE: George Wald, 1967 Nobel Peace Prize winner in Science wrote: “When it comes to the origin of life...there are only 2 possibilities: creation & spontaneous generation (evolution). There is no 3rd way. Spontaneous generation was disproved 100 yrs. ago, but that leads us only to one other conclusion: that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds (personal reasons); therefore, we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.” (At least he admits it!)
B. Laws Determine Right & Wrong:
1. God gave the 10 Commandments, not the 10 suggestions.
2. Truth is static & unchanging; absolute truth is that which is right for all people, for all time, for all places and all races.
ILLUS.: On cereal boxes some time ago there was a hidden picture beneath the obvious one. You had to dig in the box & find the magic spectacles to see the hidden picture. Once you had the glasses on you could see the hidden picture. When you are equipped w/the proper “truth view” from the Bible, you will easily see truth & be able to also distinguish it from the error the world projects.
III. THE FOUNDATION OF MORALITY:
A. Clothing:
1. Why wear clothes? To keep warm? To look nice?
2. Why not remove them whenever we feel like it (many do!)?
QUOTE.: H. Mills, Greek Clothing Regulations: Sacred & Profane, “Since the demise, roughly 100 yrs. ago, of the Biblically based theory that clothes are worn because of modesty. Various theories have been put forward by anthropologists concerned with the origins & functions of clothing.”
a. The Scriptures give a moral basis for clothing: modesty.
b. When sin distorted nakedness, God demanded that Adam & Eve be clothed.
c. When Adam & Eve realized they were naked and tried to hide their nakedness with fig leaf aprons, God provided coats of animal skins.
Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
Mt.5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
QUOTE: Ken Ham, Ibid.: “There is a moral basis for wearing clothes because of what sin has done to nakedness. We must understand how men are created. Man was designed to be easily aroused sexually & to respond to one woman (his wife). This was, and is, necessary for procreation in marriage. However, sin distorts this and it is wrong for a man to look lustfully on any woman other than his wife.
Therefore, clothing should minimize to the greatest extent any stumbling block laid in a man’s way. But a man is no less guilty if he succumbs to the ‘second look.’ One should not simply accept the fashions of the day. There is a moral basis for clothing; therefore, there are standards. Knowing what men are like and knowing what sin does to nakedness, we thus have a basis for understanding what the standard should be.”
B. Abortion:
NOTE: Presently, in America alone we are butchering over 4000 babies each day. A present total of over 52 million since Roe v. Wade.
(42.4M babies killed by abortion in 2019)
1. If the model of evolution is true then life is a struggle of the survival of the fittest & there is no basis for right & wrong.
2. If the model of creation is true then killing babies by abortion is worse than chopping the head off a fish or a chicken, because God created that life in the womb of the mother & it has an eternal soul which can never die.
CONCL.: 1️⃣Foundations are important! 2️⃣The book of Genesis is THE foundational book in the Bible. 3️⃣It does matter whether you believe in evolution or creation. 4️⃣It affects every area of your life. 5️⃣But the FOUNDATIONS ARE BEING DESTROYED! 6️⃣The righteous need to adjust their thinking accordingly & not allow the world to squeeze us into it’s anti-God, anti-Bible mold.
If mankind continues to destroy the FOUNDATIONS of the Home, Law and Order and Morality, God is watching and His judgment will soon follow. What will YOU do? Let’s do all we can as Bible believers to rebuild these foundations, before it is too late.