Ken Smythe fought the ANC in South Africa before coming to the UK and becoming a much-loved Preacher at Quainton Baptist Chapel and Chartridge Mission Church. Here, Ken speaks of his fighting years and how we must remove the fear that sometimes besets us and stand on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus in obedience and adherence to The Truth. Christians need to engage the enemy with spiritual warfare, for if the foundation is destroyed, what can we do?
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00:00Right, let's read together Psalm number 11.
00:09In the Lord I put my trust, how can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain?
00:16For look, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string that
00:21they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.
00:25If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
00:30The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven.
00:33His eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men.
00:37The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates.
00:44Upon the wicked he will rain coals, fire and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the
00:49portion of their cup.
00:51For the Lord is righteous, he loves righteousness, his countenance beholds the upright.
00:58Father God, as we read Psalm 11, O Lord, that you would stretch forth your hand and touch
01:04my mouth and put your words in my mouth, please, in Jesus' name, Amen.
01:11Did you notice the question?
01:15Did you notice the question that we read?
01:19If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
01:29Foundations have been destroyed and are being destroyed daily, monthly, weekly, daily, monthly,
01:38yearly.
01:39I am from South Africa.
01:42In 1994, the ANC, the African National Council, took over South Africa.
01:48They were terrorists who were fighting against Rhodesia.
01:52We were fighting with Rhodesia against them.
01:54Then they came down and they started fighting with us.
01:59We were on the borders.
02:00I was on the border fighting against the terrorists who were trying to come into the country and
02:04we were beating them hands down until Westminster said, stop resisting them.
02:11And we stopped resisting them and they became the government in South Africa.
02:15They are not in that government as at the moment trying to bring a charge of genocide
02:20against Israel.
02:22They support Hamas and they've asked for a stay.
02:26They've asked for an extended time to get their facts together, but it has been denied
02:30because they cannot find any facts to support their accusation of genocide because there
02:37is no genocide.
02:39But the point I'm coming to is not what they're doing at the moment, but what they started
02:43to do in 1994 when they were given the government.
02:48They started to change the name of the provinces.
02:52They started to change the names of the towns.
02:56They started to change the names of the streets.
03:00And for your information, many towns you will be familiar with, Newcastle, Dundee, Glencoe,
03:09Salisbury.
03:11All these names are names of towns in England that were named in South Africa as well because
03:20those who founded them were British.
03:24Britain came and they fought in South Africa and they left a heritage.
03:29Towns were named after people, generals, leaders in the army.
03:35I was born in a town called Ladysmith.
03:40Lady Smith is the wife of Sir Harry Smith.
03:46Harry Smith is a town on top of the Drakensberg Mountains, a neighbouring town to Ladysmith.
03:53I was farming for a long time in a place called Bulwer.
03:58Bulwer is named after General Bulwer who commanded the British army.
04:04And so our heritage in South Africa is very, very closely tied to Britain because Britain
04:11came and colonised South Africa.
04:14And so the foundation that we had built on our society in South Africa was built on history.
04:22The history is being demolished.
04:24It is being erased so that people's memories will not be brought to understand where we
04:32got to and how we got to this point.
04:35They want to close everything prior to 1994, erase everything before that, so that they
04:41can start with a new historical record from 1994 to prove that the Europeans had nothing
04:48to do with South Africa.
04:52That's what's happening in South Africa.
04:56But the heritage is changing worldwide, everywhere things are changing.
05:02And I'm quite sure that every single one of you are aware of the times that we are
05:07living in at the moment where our heritage is being erased slowly and radically.
05:14It is being erased, it's being washed out, it's being wiped away so that the lives that
05:19we knew and relied on, the systems that were there, are no longer available to us.
05:26What about NHS?
05:28My, that's now, that's a stalwart company to be able to stand by, is it not?
05:36Well I've tried to talk to a doctor for months and I've failed, I can't see a doctor.
05:44So the NHS to me is just, well, it's failed.
05:51Part of the heritage that we've inherited in England was the NHS, free healthcare.
05:58If you can get it, it's good, if you can't get it, well, tough luck for you.
06:04And so we find that the foundation, I'm just talking about the earth at the moment, we
06:09find that the foundation is falling apart.
06:15But what about spiritually?
06:17What about spiritually?
06:18We're here this evening to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy
06:23Spirit, the God three in one.
06:26We grew up knowing and believing and trusting, and still do, that God is the creator of the
06:33heavens and the earth, that Jesus died on the cross, rose again, and he intercedes for
06:39us at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
06:43We believe with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds that we are
06:47going to heaven when we die.
06:50We believe that's where our brother Keith is.
06:54We believe that, don't we, with all our hearts.
06:57That's where the foundation of our faith is.
07:02What happens if the foundations are destroyed?
07:04Have you ever wondered what the foundations of our faith are actually really?
07:12What is the foundation?
07:14Is it Jesus?
07:15Yes, it is Jesus.
07:17But what does Jesus represent?
07:21What are his qualities?
07:24What does he hold up?
07:27He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
07:31No one comes to the Father but by me, the way, the truth, and the life.
07:37Psalm 81.5 says all the foundations of the earth are unstable.
07:43Justice is being perverted.
07:46All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
07:49He's not talking about the earth.
07:52He's not talking about the earth.
07:54If you read the psalm, you'll find that he's talking about spiritual matters.
08:00Things that are spiritually stood by and accepted and held dear are unstable.
08:10The government is unstable.
08:12The government does not believe in Christ.
08:16They do not believe in the Bible.
08:17They do not believe anything that we believe.
08:20And so they will do everything in their power to undermine the stability that we have.
08:27This building is built on foundations.
08:29I can tell you exactly where those foundations are, even not having been here when it was
08:34built.
08:35Look underneath the walls and you'll find the foundations.
08:38That's where the foundations are.
08:40The building is not built outside the foundations or inside the foundations or nearby the foundations.
08:45On top of the foundations, our foundation is the gospel that we have, the good news
08:52that we have from the Lord God Almighty who causes Holy Spirit to inspire men to write
08:58the word of God that we have.
09:01And so that foundation to us is impeccably strong.
09:07Yes, it is strong.
09:09The foundation is strong.
09:11However, what about my connectivity to that foundation?
09:18How am I connected to it?
09:21Am I strong on that foundation which has been laid for me?
09:26The very foundations that we believe are trying to be destroyed and are being destroyed to
09:33the point that we are told in the book of 2 Thessalonians that possibly even the elect
09:39might be deceived with the deceit that is coming in the world.
09:44Already the deceit is so bad, not only spiritually but in the world as well, that people are
09:50complaining about the internet, that they see images there that they do not believe,
09:54that they think are true and they find it's a lie.
09:57People are being deceived daily.
10:00The banks are being overrun with complaints of things that are happening because the foundations
10:05of what they believed and thought were true are broken down.
10:09But what about the reality, the real foundations, that that we hold dear?
10:15I believe in Jesus.
10:17I believe in God Almighty.
10:18I believe in the Holy Spirit.
10:20I believe I'm going to go to heaven.
10:22I believe that the Bible is God's word.
10:25There are many, many versions of God's word that are out there in the open for you to
10:30read.
10:31Not many of them are genuine.
10:33Not many of them are true.
10:35But there are some that we can adhere to and rely on.
10:38We have the old King James Version.
10:40I've got the new King James Version that I hold by.
10:44I've also got the 1984 NIV, which is a brilliant Bible, the 1984 one, not like the new ones.
10:52They are rubbish.
10:53But the 1984 one, almost word for word, except for one or two changes, is the same as the
11:02new King James.
11:05God's foundation, we are told in Psalm 87 in verse 1, is in the holy mountain.
11:12Not on the earth.
11:13It's in the holy mountain.
11:14So where do we take the credence or the surety of our foundation from?
11:22Is it from the church?
11:26Or is it from my adherence to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and my obedience to
11:34his commandments, as we are told, for my love for Jesus?
11:39The only way that I can prove my love for Jesus is if I am obedient to his commandments.
11:47And by being obedient, there has to be an outworking.
11:51He says, love one another as I have loved the church.
11:55Love one another as I have loved you.
11:58And so the only evidence that I can show is my love for my brothers and sisters, that
12:03Christ is in me.
12:04I have a reason and a purpose.
12:06I have a relationship with my brothers and sisters.
12:10And I'm told to bear with them.
12:12I'm told to love them.
12:14Love is not just some manner of attitude.
12:20Love is a determination to see a relationship through to the end.
12:26Marriages fail because the love is not exercised.
12:31And all of a sudden, the spouse is not as good as I thought he or she would be and not
12:37as I perceive it to be.
12:40When we get married to our husbands or to our wives, we promise to love them till death
12:49do us part.
12:51Our integrity is put on the line.
12:53Are we going to trust and are we going to do this thing?
12:57And we need to say, yes, we are.
13:01That is exactly the same as our relationship that we have with the Lord God Almighty.
13:07What is the relationship with the Jews and God, Father God?
13:13Well, he considers them his wife.
13:17That he says he's married to them in the book of Jeremiah.
13:20So that is what his attitude is to the Jews.
13:25What is my attitude to the Lord Jesus Christ?
13:29Well, he's the groom and he's coming to fetch me one day and I'm part of the bride of Christ.
13:34But how solid and how strong are we individually, corporately, and in the body of Christ able
13:41to hang on to the truth that we have been given?
13:45Because the foundations are in danger of being destroyed by virtue of the volume of attacks
13:54coming on the church.
13:56It is crumbling.
13:58The church consists of two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve of us, which is possibly, and
14:07I'm guessing, an average-sized true church today.
14:12If you find churches of hundreds or two hundreds or three hundreds, well, I think you can whittle
14:17that down to the genuine number of people that are actually following and doing what
14:24the Lord is wanting them to do.
14:26The church is a good place because it has good morals, good integrity, good messages.
14:31There's a standard which is held too.
14:35But that does not mean that it is the true church.
14:38Many people go to church maybe just, and I'm talking, I can be corrected, but many people
14:44will go to church just to get away from the rat race.
14:46They just want some normal, old-time peace and quiet, where people respect one another.
14:54But that's coming to an end.
14:57People are changing.
14:59And unless we keep ourselves changing to become imitators of Jesus Christ, we're going
15:06to go the other way by virtue of the company that we keep.
15:11Bad company corrupts good morals.
15:14And so we need to hang on to the foundation that we have.
15:19The question, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do, is a very, very
15:25moot question.
15:27What can the righteous do?
15:29We can be as righteous as we want to be in Christ.
15:33We can follow his commandments to the T. But if the foundation is destroyed, what can we
15:40do?
15:43Society is trying to break foundation down.
15:46My wife was telling me yesterday, and I quite, quite remember if I've got it all right, she
15:51said, on the Coca-Cola tins and on the Pepsi tins, you've got the opportunity to write
15:59whatever you want.
16:01And what they write is, I love Allah, or I love Buddha, or I love some other God.
16:08But when you say, I love Jesus, the answer comes back, oops, we've got a problem.
16:13And you can't write that.
16:16These are the biggest companies in the world which are rejecting Jesus.
16:20And it's not only the biggest company, but that filters down through the workers, right
16:25down to you and me, the people on the ground.
16:30Everyone is against Jesus.
16:31We know that street preachers have been arrested.
16:34We know that people standing outside an abortion centre, praying silently just for the poor
16:40babies that are being murdered, are being arrested for thought speech.
16:46You better read again George Orwell's 1984 and remember what he wrote there about the
16:55thought piece.
16:57The foundations are being destroyed.
17:00What can the righteous do?
17:02Well, I believe that all the righteous can do is stand, as we've been told to do, put
17:10on the whole armour of God and to stand, and having, and withstand, and having done
17:16all to stand upon the words that we have.
17:20It doesn't matter what happens in society.
17:23And you know what?
17:24Some, one of the most horrible truths that there are is that we are all dying.
17:29Keith went to be with the Lord the other day, death comes.
17:33It doesn't matter how little we want to speak about it, how much we try and put it up in
17:41fluffy coverings, death is death.
17:48And that comes to every single man.
17:51We cannot change it.
17:54When we die is just one of those things.
17:57We don't know when our time is up, when our soul is required of us.
18:02But if we deny God, what are we going to do?
18:05If we fail on the foundation, what are we going to do?
18:09We need to have the guts and the ability to be able to stand, knowing that to be absent
18:16in the body is to be present with the Lord.
18:19And I'm not trying to say these things to scare us, I'm trying to face the reality.
18:24It's lovely to have a Bible study, it's lovely to have a meeting where we talk about history
18:30and what Daniel did and what Noah did and what Job did and what happened in Genesis,
18:36but what relevance is that to me today when I tomorrow have to go and face the world?
18:42The world which is trying to break down the foundation upon which I found my very faith
18:49and my belief in Jesus.
18:51Am I equipped to be able to stand against what is coming?
18:56Who knows when and who knows in what manner?
19:00We don't know, but we need to be prepared and we need to keep our eyes open and we need
19:08to be convinced, convinced to the point that those eleven apostles were so convinced that
19:18they went to death voluntarily, happily to be martyred because of what they believed.
19:25They believed Jesus had risen from the dead and they believed that they were going home
19:29to be with him.
19:32So come what may, we're not going to deny Jesus.
19:36Do what you want to do, a home is in heaven.
19:39That was basically their message, but are we able, do we have the guts and the ability
19:48to withstand the threat to my existence or am I going to capitulate and say, oh I'm so
19:57sorry I didn't mean to offend you through fear?
20:02Fear is a very, very real concept.
20:06Have you ever faced fear?
20:11You won't know until you do face it, that's the problem.
20:15It's not until you actually are in the situation that you can understand what your response
20:22is going to be to that particular situation.
20:26You don't know because you've never been there.
20:31But we have to be prepared to meet whatever might be coming and the only way we can be
20:37prepared to meet it is to know him in whom we have believed.
20:44God Almighty who made us, who gave every single human being breath and life.
20:50Tony read from Psalm 146 today that when he dies the spirit returns and he returns to
20:58the earth.
20:59The spirit will return to him who gave it.
21:02They can kill my body but they cannot kill my spirit.
21:06The spirit returns to God who gave it.
21:10We need to know where we are because right now as it stands at the moment we are told
21:17in the book of Isaiah chapter 59 and verses 14 and 15, justice is turned back, righteousness
21:31stands afar off, truth has fallen in the street and equity cannot enter.
21:38So truth fails and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
21:47He who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
21:52But justice, righteousness, truth, equity, those are concepts of the Lord Jesus Christ.
22:00I am the way, the truth and the life.
22:04If there is no truth, justice will turn back.
22:09Righteousness won't go anywhere near and stand afar off and look at truth lying fallen in
22:15the street.
22:16Are you prepared to stand for the truth upon the foundation that we have been given?
22:22What is the foundation that we have been given and where did it come from?
22:27Well if you read in the book of Ephesians chapter 5 you are told there that we have
22:32the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone
22:39and we are one of those.
22:42To be able to get it absolutely correct, he says there in that book of Ephesians chapter
22:492 after spending the whole of chapter 2 describing who we were, what we were, dead in our trespasses
22:56and sins and how we were removed from God in the Old Testament because we weren't part
23:04of the Jews and so we are aliens.
23:06But Jesus came and gave us peace and now therefore he says in verse 19, now therefore you are
23:12no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of
23:17the household of God.
23:19Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
23:24being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into
23:29a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place
23:34of God in the Spirit.
23:37We are integral in the plans of the Lord Jesus Christ.
23:41In the book of Peter we are told that we are being built as living stones for a temple
23:46of God to worship in.
23:49We need to realize that we are so valuable in the eyes of God that he would send his
23:54son to die on the cross for us.
23:57His blood, his blood has been applied to the lintels of the houses, do you remember in
24:03Exodus but not only that, his blood has been applied to the doors of my life and I'm covered
24:09by the blood of Jesus.
24:10No matter what happens, no matter what happens I am covered by the blood of Jesus.
24:16My sins are washed, I am redeemed and I'm going home to heaven one day.
24:22But troubles are coming and who knows if the troubles are coming before Jesus comes to
24:28take us home, whether we die or whether we get raptured, I don't know which is going
24:32to come first.
24:34The signs are there that Jesus is going to come soon, I pray that it is so, but until
24:40he does we don't know when it will be.
24:45Jesus said in the book of Luke chapter 6 verses 46 to 49, build your house on the rock, build
24:53your house on the rock and then he goes on and he speaks about the man who built his
24:57house on the sand and the winds came and the rains came and the house came crashing down.
25:05But he who built on the rock, the winds came and the rains came and the house stood because
25:11it was built on the rock.
25:13So the winds of change are happening in the world.
25:18It is a spiritual change and I can put my head on a block that it is a spiritual thing
25:26because how do you rationalise what has happened in the last ten years to man-made catastrophes,
25:40to all the illegal immigration that's happening in England, Canada, America, Australia, New
25:47Zealand, all those are Western countries, all those have Christian values and yet the
25:55borders have been broken down, illegal immigrants are coming in and it's not illegal immigrants
26:01as in the families fleeing and needing immigration because why was us we being kicked out, these
26:07are all fighting men, they are young, strong, military aged men.
26:16England I'm afraid is in a very, very dire situation.
26:23Before I came to England, it must have been ten years before, I'm guessing, but a long
26:29time before I thought it even entered my mind to come to England, what do I want to come
26:34to England for but I'm here.
26:37But I read and I saw a map of England and the map of England had some cities highlighted
26:46and I remember a little bit of it but there was a crescent of cities starting with Birmingham,
26:53Manchester, Birmingham, I can't remember but it was a crescent ending in London of cities
27:02to be islamicised.
27:05What do we have today, Sadiq Khan in London, what do we have in Birmingham, what do we
27:13have in Manchester, what do we have in the northern countries, people are scared to walk
27:18in the streets, why?
27:21Gangs with machetes, we can't even carry a pocket knife without getting arrested and
27:28yet they can go open with machetes.
27:30Look we need to understand the reality of the situation that we have in England.
27:35Thank the Lord that we are still leading peaceful lives and may we continue to pray for the
27:41government that we will lead peaceful lives until Jesus comes to take us.
27:46But let us not rest on our laurels with a false sense of security, our only security
27:54is on the foundation that we have, that is all.
27:59There is no government that is going to save us, we are Christians, we are born again believers,
28:05we are pilgrims, we are not counted in the Lord's eyes as members of the earth, we are
28:10citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
28:13So we need to take hold of what we have and pray earnestly waiting for Christ to come
28:21that he hears our prayers, pray for the government, Paul says pray for the government because
28:26this is God's will, pray for the government that prays somehow, I pray that God, Father
28:32God I pray for the government but confuse them so they can't do all the things that
28:35they want to do, stop them from getting victory in the abortion area, stop them from getting
28:41victory and trying to close down the people but I pray for the government because those
28:45are the rulers and do you know what, they are there because of the population of England.
28:51The normal population has turned away from God, England is now the most ungodly it has
28:58been in history, that's the reality of who we are.
29:04We say stand up, stand up for Jesus, yes do that, but pray and pray and pray harder and
29:14everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
29:19We need to take hold and we need to stand up and stand up for Jesus, we are going to
29:24fight a war.
29:25The Bible is a military book in a sense, it's about a war of death and darkness against
29:33light and life and eternal life, that's what it is, right from the very, very beginning
29:40the war against Satan, it is a spiritual war, we are collateral damage in the spiritual
29:46war.
29:47The gain is bodies and souls of men, read about it in Revelations, it's you and I and
29:54so we need to take hold of what we have, the promises in the Bible and pray that the Lord
30:00will cause some sort of barrier.
30:06Everyone's heard about the sandbags because of the floods that are coming and all sorts
30:10of nonsense, well how about let's get some sandbags in our prayer life as well.
30:15Lord remember me please, Lord I'm praying to you, let me not be tested beyond what I
30:20am able, but with the test and the temptation will come a way of escape.
30:28God is faithful, God is just, he will not leave us nor forsake us he said, he will look
30:33after us.
30:35Do we believe the Bible?
30:39Well then we better believe the good and the bad about it, we better believe that there's
30:44hope in this, but with hope comes testing, with hope comes trials to prove what manner
30:51of people we are of.
30:53God doesn't want cowards, we're told in the end of the book of Revelation that cowards
30:59have no place in the kingdom of heaven.
31:02He knows how strong we can be but he knows how weak we can be and all he's asking us
31:08to do, all he's asking us to do is stand, stand.
31:14If somebody comes to you, he's not asking you to go and fight, he's not asking you to
31:19go and find some bunch of Muslims down the road to say, hey I'm a Christian, what are
31:25you?
31:26That's, that's no good and whatever they might say, he's not asking that.
31:31He didn't say in the book of Ephesians, put on the whole armour of God and go out and
31:36wage the warfare, he said withstand and having done all, stand.
31:43Stand upon the word of God and our job, preaching the word, encouraging people is to get them
31:50to the point that they're able to stand, stand on your own two feet.
31:55How often do you say to the little kid, get up, come on, walk, you can do it, you can
31:59do it, you can do it, stand and he totters and you'll help him, you're not going to push
32:05him down and you'll hold him and you'll stabilise him again, come on my boy, walk, come on,
32:10another step, another step, another step, God our Father is looking after us.
32:14He says we are little children, we are little children, how much do we know of the Bible?
32:19Well, very little I believe of the reality of what we have from Genesis to Revelations,
32:26we try to understand it but he calls us just to stand, you don't even have to walk hard,
32:33just stand upon what you have but stand, don't give way, don't give way.
32:40He will help if you turn away but stand upon your promises, upon your precepts, upon your
32:47principles that God has laid upon your heart and God will do the rest.
32:51And so if the righteous, if the foundations are destroyed, what will the righteous do?
32:58What will the righteous do?
32:59I believe that we have to stand, that's all we can do.
33:03God knows the situations, God knows the times that we're living in, God knows what's coming
33:08upon the countries and God knows you and I and so all we can do is just stand upon
33:13the promises that he has given us.
33:16May God bless you and may he look after you in your days to come, Amen.