The situation of the church during Timothy’s time was not good. As it was then, so it always shall be for the church in the world. Her position in the world is as a hut in a garden of cucumbers and as a besieged city. Always it appears as though the church is nigh to being overwhelmed and undone. So it was then. The apostle Paul was in prison. It is always a cause of distress for the church when the men whom the Lord gives to teach and preach are taken out of the way. Sometimes this happens by disease, weakness, or death. In Paul’s case it happened by his second imprisonment, and it was clear that he would not be released. The tide had turned in the Roman Empire against the church. The forces of the emperor and of public policy had been awakened to the church and were against her.

Additionally, a host of false teachers had arisen in the church, and they were turning away many from the faith and causing divisions in the church by their false teachings. Paul names two false teachers: Hymenaeus and Philetus. From 1 Timothy 1:20, we know that there was another false teacher named Alexander. Those men were acquaintances of Paul. He even may have taught them the gospel, as it was Paul’s habit to teach men as he traveled on his missionary journeys. Hymenaeus and Philetus erred concerning the faith, saying that the resurrection had already passed, and they overthrew the faith of some.

Thus the ecclesiastical situation looked bleak: the apostle was in prison, and false teachers were seducing many.

It appeared that the church was hanging on by a thread.

The apostle says to Timothy, “Never mind that. Despite all that you experience and though it appears that the church will collapse, the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: the Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

This is a word of comfort to the church in every age and to the church in this present evil age of massive apostasy. This is a word of comfort to the Reformed Protestant Churches (RPC). The denomination is a tiny band of churches. The whole denomination could fit in a large auditorium. It appears that the denomination could be swallowed up in a moment. There has been and there always will be conflict, not only with those outside the church but also with those who arise within the church. This has been the reality of the church’s situation for all of history and in recent history, and we can expect nothing different moving forward. Over against all those things, the apostle has a word of encouragement for us.

The foundation of God stands sure!

Never mind all those things. We do not do our calculations based on what we see.

The foundation of God stands sure!

The church as a universal body and the church as an instituted congregation is secure on the foundation alone.

This is comfort for the church.

This is also a warning to the church.

There are all kinds of pressures placed upon the church and especially upon the officebearers to build off the foundation or to expand, diminish, or change the foundation of the church. Often these pressures have behind them the motivation to expand the walls of the church and thus to make the church more inclusive. That demand to make the church more inclusive undoubtedly is driven by a desire to make the church more acceptable to and accepting of various family members and acquaintances who neither know nor love the truth. In the language of the Old Testament, the people give Tobiah, the enemy of the truth, a place in the temple because they are allied with him, and they cast out the precious vessels of the truth to make room for him (Neh. 13). So the word of the text is also a word of warning: see how you build on the foundation!

The foundation stands sure, and those who stand on the foundation stand sure. They cannot be moved.

All that is off the foundation can only be and must be destroyed.

The foundation of God stands sure!

The question arises, the foundation of what?

A foundation refers to the footing of some building. When the apostle says that the foundation stands sure, he has a building in view. Before someone lays a foundation, he already has conceived of the entire building. The foundation determines the building and is the stability of the building that will be built on the foundation.

The building in view is the church. The church of Jesus Christ is a building. Sometimes the Bible refers to the church as a temple—the temple of the living God, where God dwells and takes his people into fellowship with himself. Sometimes the Bible refers to the church as the house of God, where God the Father takes his children to be in his fellowship. The church is the place where God is, where God rules and reigns, and where God fellowships with his people.

The foundation of the church of Jesus Christ stands sure!

The apostle refers to the church universal as she manifests itself in instituted churches of Jesus Christ. The apostle is saying, “Whatever happens in an instituted church, there always will be a church universal that will manifest herself in the world. A denomination can be destroyed, and God will make another denomination. A church can be destroyed, and God will make another church.”

The foundation of the church institute stands sure, being rooted in the reality of the church universal.

In the context the apostle makes clear that he refers to the institute when he says that Timothy was a minister in the church of Jesus Christ and mentions Hymenaeus and Philetus, who had corrupted the doctrine of the church. Another reference to the church institute, the house of God, is when Paul says that in every big house there are vessels of gold and silver and vessels of wood and earth.

The church institute is the church of Jesus Christ as an elect body that visibly manifests herself in the world in a local congregation. The church as the institute has membership rolls; ordained elders, deacons, and ministers; and the ministry of the word and sacraments. Necessarily and inevitably flowing from the institute is the organic life of the church—the church in her confession and as she is secretly joined with Jesus Christ and lives her whole life as church in the world, confessing the truth together, raising her children together, gathering to discuss the word, antithetically standing for the truth in a wicked and perverse world. This is the church.

The foundation of the church of Jesus Christ stands sure. There always will be a church of Jesus Christ to which we can go. There always will be a church until the very end of the world. At the very end of the world, the antichrist will be given the power, finally, to put the church institute out of existence, and we will not be able to go to church. But until then, there will be a church because the foundation of God stands sure.

What is the foundation on which the church is built, the foundation that determines the church and is the surety and safety of the church?

The foundation is Christ!

There cannot be any doubt about that. The foundation of the church is Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone whom the builders refused but whom God made the headstone of the corner. Jesus Christ is the stone whom God laid, the stone who is precious to some and on whom God builds them as living stones. And Jesus Christ is the stone over whom others trip and break their necks; and they are ground to powder by that stone, and that too according to God’s eternal appointment of them to destruction.

Jesus Christ is the foundation.

Jesus Christ spoke of a rock upon which he would build his church. That rock is Jesus Christ himself—Jesus Christ in all the fullness of his person and works; Jesus Christ as he is the Son of God, begotten not made, God of God, light of light; Jesus Christ who as the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; Jesus Christ who walked and talked on the earth; Jesus Christ who taught the people the truth of God; Jesus Christ as he suffered and died upon the cross of Calvary; Jesus Christ as he accomplished all our salvation, obeying the law of God perfectly and making satisfaction to God for all our sins.

Jesus Christ is the only foundation of the church. On Jesus Christ the church is built.

Jesus Christ is the foundation because he who ascended far above all heavens first descended into the lower parts of the earth in order that he might ascend above all heavens and fill all things. The foundation is Jesus Christ as he went down, was crucified, and ascended to heaven and became the Spirit. Oh, yes, Jesus Christ became the Spirit. Jesus went to heaven. He is now in heaven; he is not on the earth. He became the Spirit. There is an identification between Jesus and the Spirit. The Lord is that Spirit! Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church as he became the living Spirit, as from heaven he poured out the Spirit on his church, as from heaven he came and indwelt the hearts of his people, and as he rules them by the Spirit.

That is why the church comes into institutional form in the world. That phenomenon has no other explanation than the Spirit. This is true of the Reformed Protestant Churches. The denomination did not come into existence because it was easy. It was not easy; it was gut-wrenching. We lost all kinds of things. We would be tempted to say that we lost everything. The denomination did not come into existence because it was the path of least resistance, but it was the path of most resistance. The Reformed Protestant Churches came into existence because Jesus Christ from heaven, as the foundation of the church, drew the church’s members out of an apostate church by his Spirit. We were in a denomination that was trying to build on another foundation, a foundation that was wood and hay and stubble, a foundation that was as shaky and shifting as sand, a foundation such that whatever was built on it must be destroyed. That is all you can say about the foundation of man: it must be destroyed. All that man builds is always destroyed. We sat shaking and tottering on that foundation. And Jesus Christ, the foundation of the true church, laid hold on us by his Spirit and drew us out.

Christ drew us out in order to build us on himself, so that we might be reestablished on that sure foundation. So then we must also say that the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the truth. Or we could say that the foundation of the church is the truth as it is revealed in Christ Jesus, the truth—the truth of the gospel of the free pardon of sins; the truth of the gospel of God’s absolute sovereignty in salvation; the truth of the gospel of the absolutely unconditional nature of the covenant, unconditional also in its experience; the truth of the gospel that we are righteous before God not by works or repentance but by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone because of Christ’s work alone.

The truth that is in Christ Jesus is the sure foundation of the church.

Therefore, the foundation is the truth revealed in sacred scripture. Sacred scripture is the foundation of the church. Build on that, and you build on the sure foundation, Jesus Christ. Depart from that, and you depart from the sure foundation.

This means too for a Reformed church that the foundation is the Reformed creeds. We do not have to go to the Bible anew and try to figure out what the foundation is. The foundation was settled hundreds of years ago when the Spirit guided the church into all the truth and delineated in a very clear way what the foundation is. The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dordt are the sure foundation, for they teach Christ as he is revealed in scripture. Build on that foundation, and the church is safe, regardless of what she sees around her and regardless of what happens when she builds on that foundation. The more firmly the church is cemented to the foundation, the narrower the church is. The church will not get bigger; the church is going to get smaller. When we build on the foundation, there will be those who say, “I do not want to be on that foundation. I do not like that foundation. I want a different foundation.” Build on the foundation of the creeds, and you build on a sure foundation; you build on Jesus Christ, and the church cannot be moved.

In addition, the foundation of the creeds is the creeds as they are maintained in the Reformed Protestant Churches. We are not building on the creeds as they are maintained in an Orthodox Presbyterian church or a United Reformed church. We are not building on the creeds as they are maintained in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). The PRC corrupted the creeds at virtually every point. The PRC says, “We stand on the creeds.” But the denomination does not. The PRC corrupted Lord’s Day 7, which teaches that the assurance of one’s justification comes by faith alone. The PRC corrupted Lord’s Day 32 by making assurance to come by works. The PRC corrupted Canons 3–4.17, regarding the means that God uses to give grace, and made grace to be in the law. The PRC corrupted Canons 5.5, so that in the same way in which one loses assurance by disobedience, he gains assurance by obedience. The PRC allowed the corruption of Lord’s Day 38 and the truth of the schools. She did. She allowed that. When Jesus Christ drew us out of that denomination and founded us again on him as the foundation, he founded us upon those creeds again, not as they are broadly interpreted but as they are interpreted by the Reformed Protestant Churches. That is our foundation.

If the RPC is not committed to being formed on the foundation of the creeds, then the denomination has no business being in existence. The RPC is founded on Christ, and we may say that when the denomination is founded on the creeds as they are interpreted in the Reformed Protestant Churches. Depart from the creeds as they are interpreted in the Reformed Protestant Churches, and you depart from Christ as your foundation.

There may have been those who tried to deceive themselves and others that the RPC was not much different than the PRC or other Reformed churches. There even may have been those who came with us who harbored in their minds and hearts the idea that the RPC was going to be broadly Reformed and evangelical, that the RPC was not going to stick to the creeds too much, and that she was not going to be too different from other churches.

Jesus Christ as the foundation of the church and by the Spirit, according to Christ’s will to form us squarely upon himself as the foundation, brought us through controversy. That was for our good that we might be founded on the foundation, Jesus Christ. Through that controversy it has been made crystal clear that there are two ways and only two ways: one comes to the Reformed Protestant Churches, there to be founded on Jesus Christ, or one does not come or departs from the Reformed Protestant Churches and becomes as a ship tossed on the stormy seas.

Many left the Reformed Protestant Churches. Now they sit in their living rooms, or they wander from church to church. They go back to the PRC, to the United Reformed Churches, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, or any other church that happens to catch their fancy for a Sunday. That is ecclesiastical death. They are like ships on which the sailors have pulled in all the sails, and the ships are at the mercy of the blowing winds of false doctrine. These people have been removed from the foundation, Jesus Christ, and they have no foundation.

The foundation of the church stands sure!

All who are on that foundation are safe!

Those who depart from that foundation must be destroyed!

The foundation upon which the church is built is determinative for the church.

One cannot build a square house on a round foundation, a skyscraper on a barn foundation, or a house on a skyscraper foundation. The foundation is determinative. The officebearers and members of the church must believe that the foundation—which is the truth of Jesus Christ in sacred scripture, summarized in the Reformed creeds, and maintained in the Reformed Protestant Churches—determines everything in the church. Our feelings, wisdom, what we want, what we think is good, or what we deem expedient do not determine the church, but the foundation, Jesus Christ, determines the church. Jesus Christ determines the decisions in consistory, what we do in our homes, how we build our schools, and what we preach in the ministry of the word. Everything in the church of Jesus Christ is determined by the foundation, so that the church is a true church of Jesus Christ as she is built on the foundation, which is the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

The apostle emphasizes the foundation’s surety.

The foundation of God stands sure!

The foundation’s surety is behind the truth of a seal on the foundation and the truth that the foundation is of God. The foundation of God stands sure precisely because the foundation is of God. The sure foundation of the church is not of men. There are foundations on which the church can be built that are foundations of men. There is the foundation of Arminianism, so that the church becomes the product of the will of man. Man by his choice for Jesus Christ brings the church into existence by the power of man’s will. The good works of man cannot be the foundation of the church. The church cannot be built upon the wisdom of man. All those foundations must collapse because they are of men. All that is built on those foundations collapses too. The apostle gives a vivid picture of that in 1 Corinthians 3:10–11, where he says to ministers, “Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” The apostle says, “Some built on that foundation gold and silver, and some built hay and stubble on the foundation.” What happens to the hay and stubble? They are devoured by the fire in the day of judgment. If the hay and stubble built on the foundation cannot endure, then that is doubly true for all that is built off the foundation. It cannot stand. The church that is built off the foundation cannot stand.

The foundation is of God. The foundation stands fast because it is of God. The foundation cannot be destroyed. The thing built upon the foundation cannot be destroyed any more than God himself can be destroyed. The gates of hell cannot prevail against God’s church because God laid the foundation of it.

God laid the foundation of his church in eternity. The apostle has eternal election in view when he says that the foundation has this seal: the Lord knows those who are his. The Lord knows them; he knows all who belong to his church. The Lord laid the foundation, therefore, in eternity in the election of Jesus Christ. In eternity God chose Christ as the one in whom God would reveal and glorify himself and in whom God especially would reveal his covenant.

Christ was first.

Christ was first before all else.

Christ was first before his people.

God did not choose us and then give us to Christ. Then Christ would serve us. We serve him. God laid an immovable foundation, Jesus Christ, in eternity when he chose Jesus Christ as the head of all his people and then as God chose his people in Christ.

God chose Christ as crucified in eternity. Yes, the foundation of the church is the cross, and Christ was crucified from before the foundation of the world! We can say that God had the whole building conceived in eternity as the building was going to be revealed in the day of Jesus Christ as the new Jerusalem, the perfect church of all the elect redeemed by Christ out of the world and descending out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband.

God had the building in view in eternity as individual churches too. There is a true church of Christ here and there because God determined each church in Christ from before the foundation of the world.

God laid the foundation at the cross of Jesus Christ, where God established and perfected his will for the salvation of his people and for the salvation and building of his church. Through all the blood and sweat and tears of Jesus Christ, God laid the foundation. There is no other foundation for the church than the cross of Jesus Christ. There God forgave all the church’s sins, established the church’s righteousness, and perfected his church.

We were perfect at the cross! When Jesus Christ arose and went to heaven, we went with him. He laid a foundation, and we went right with him to heaven. We sit already in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The perfection of the church was already a reality at the cross and in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

God lays that foundation when from heaven he pours out the Spirit and heavenly graces upon his people. He is setting the church on the foundation, Jesus Christ. God is laying in the heart of his church and in the life of his church Jesus Christ as the only foundation.

That is why, regardless of what happens to an institution, the church cannot be destroyed. The foundation is in her heart. Jesus Christ is there. When an institution becomes corrupt, then Christ forms the church anew somewhere else. God lays the foundation, and God sees to it that the church that is built on the foundation, Jesus Christ, stands sure. She cannot be overcome by the winds of doctrine, by all the devil’s assaults, or by her own folly and sin. The foundation of God stands sure. The existence, prosperity, and blessedness of the church does not depend on the church, but they depend upon God and the foundation, Jesus Christ, that God laid for the church.

And the foundation has a seal.

Are you on that foundation? Are you on that foundation in your hearts, so that although there are all kinds of difficulties and obstacles in your hearts, the foundation stands sure? As a church, are you on that foundation?

Serious question!

All that is on the foundation is secure.

All that is off the foundation must be destroyed!

You can know without any difficulty whether you are on the foundation because the foundation has a seal.

A foundation with a seal is a very strange way to speak. But the foundation has a seal. You can think of the seal as a builder’s mark. If a man who lays concrete is proud of his work, he puts his mark in the concrete; or a builder puts his sign outside the house that he built. So God’s foundation has a mark.

That mark is, first, a mark of authority. The mark is God’s stamp. He says, “I rule in the church. Man does not rule there.” The seal is God’s signet ring that he stamps into the church and by which he says, “This church is mine. This church is safe in me. I surround this church like the mountains of Canaan surrounded Jerusalem. I am a hedge and a high tower of this church.”

The seal is, second, an authenticating seal, so that the church is not deceived about the foundation on which she stands.

What is that seal?

The seal is this: “The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Jesus Christ depart from iniquity.”

Wherever that is taught, there is God. Wherever that is taught, there is Jesus Christ as the foundation of the church. Wherever that is taught, there the church is safe, regardless that the church has a Hymenaeus and a Philetus, who cause trouble for the church and overthrow the faith of some, so that many follow their pernicious ways.

The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity!

Do you know what the apostle is saying there?

He is saying that the Lord knows those who are his in election. Wherever the theology of election is taught, there is for certain the sure foundation, Jesus Christ. The theology of election teaches that God is God. God is God in himself. God is God in all his works. God is God especially as that is demonstrated by his absolute determination of salvation and damnation apart from any consideration of the works or sins of those so ordained. Where the sovereignty of God is so taught, that God is the potter who has power over the lump of humanity to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor, there the seal is present, and there is the sure foundation, Jesus Christ. Salvation is not of him who wills nor of him who runs but of God who shows mercy. Such a theology and truth is the seal. Because God is God who has determined the salvation of the church, she is secure in Christ, her head. This is the first part of the seal.

Notice that there is only one seal, not two seals.

We had to leave the PRC because the PRC made two seals. The PRC took the one seal and made two out of it.

There is only one seal: the Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. This is our part of the covenant, according to the baptism form. We are by God obliged unto new obedience, namely, to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength; to forsake the world, crucify our old natures, and walk in new and holy lives. But our part in the covenant is not a second seal. It is not that God does his part, and then we must do our part, and then the foundation of the church is sure.

There is only one seal: the Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Do you understand what I mean when I say that the PRC made two seals?

The PRC said, “Yes, God does his part. God always does his part. God elects, and God saves at the cross of Jesus Christ. God even gives you his Holy Spirit, but you must believe and you must repent and you must obey.” The PRC made a disjunction between God and his sovereign choice and the will and activity of man. The PRC put a but in the text and made two seals: what God must do and does and what man must do.

The apostle says, “No, no, no. There is one seal.” The Lord knows those who are his. God chose his people before the foundation of the world. He saved his people at the cross of Jesus Christ, and God so bestows on his people their salvation that they name the name of Christ.

That is faith. His people confess Jesus Christ, and they cleave to him with all their hearts. And cleaving unto him, they depart from iniquity, not as that which man does alongside God but as that which man does as fruit, and only fruit, because the Lord knows those who are his.

That is the seal of the foundation.

If you are taught the absolute sovereignty of God; that God fulfills his promise; and that as the fruit of that and the work of God’s grace in the hearts and lives of his people, they cleave to their God and hate the world, that is the truth. That is the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. And that is the truth that is the church’s sure foundation.