Salvation to the Lord belongeth
in this angel's hands. Oh, let darkness be lifted up
upon thy people. That song is about warfare of
the believer. Psalm 3. This is what we're studying.
I apologize when I get. Worked
up. And appear angry, but there's
it does make me mad. It makes me mad and I think it
makes you mad too. David said it in Psalm 139 wasn't do not. I hate them that
hate me. Yeah, I hate them with a perfect
hatred. I count them my enemy. And this is just another ploy,
another satanic ploy, another one of Satan's wiles and crafted
ploys to get people religious without knowing Christ. And people
will make false professions and they'll be relying on that and
trusting that all their days and go on in their wickedness
and. To pull more the child of hell
than they were before. And if I'm a faithful watchman,
I warn you of these things. All right, so Ephesians six,
Ephesians chapter six. We're studying the believers
struggles with the sand. Our archenemy seeks to overthrow
us with these things of the world. Look at, alright, let's read
the verses again, so we'll get our minds back on that. Verses
11 through 16. Put on the whole armor of God,
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the But
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take
unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth and having on the
breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked." He said we're wrestling not with
flesh and blood, but principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness
in high places, rulers of the darkness of this world. Our Lord
called Satan that, the prince of the power of the air. He called
him the god of this world, whose kingdom is of this world, whose
subjects are called worldlings. But Christ's kingdom is not of
this world, neither are his subjects. And so the armor which he provides
us is to keep us from this world and from the God of this world
using the world to allure us back into his captivity. Like Bunyan said, Christ is all
and in all of this. Christ is that girdle of truth. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is the word of the gospel. And above all, now here's our
text, verse sixteen, above all, over and above all of this, principally,
take the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. The shield of faith. Quench the
darts of the wicked. Now, all of this is an allegory
is the word I was trying to come up with a while ago. Allegory.
Which is that imagery or not imagery, but yeah, imagery of
the Lord in Revelation one is an allegory. But. Peter said this, he said, we
haven't followed cunningly devised fables when we made these things
known to you. This is not some spiritual allegory. This is a true, a real person
that that Paul is warning about. Our Lord spoke more of our adversary
than anyone did. He knows him best, and this is
a real adversary that we deal with. He's called here the wicked. Did you notice that? The wicked. As Christ is called the holy,
Christ is the epitome of holiness. Christ is the embodiment of holiness. He's the holy. That's what Christ
is called. The holy. the only one. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of holiness. On the other hand, Satan is the
wicked. He's the embodiment of wickedness.
He's the father of lies, Scripture says. He is the wicked one. And so the apostles say, this
is not a fable, this is real. And, you know, the Satan, the
devil that religion pretends to fight today, he's a peanut, isn't he? But
the Satan of Scripture is more powerful and cunning and crafty
and wily than any human, any man or woman has ever lived on
this planet. No match. Man is no match for
him. Only one man was, and is. And were we not, were we not
shielded, protected, hedged about by the Lord Himself, we would be pawns in Satan's
game. Look with me at Psalm 3 that
we sung about, Psalm 3. Look at the end. All right, we're
going to talk about the shield of faith. What is it? Well, I
just gave it away. Just told you. Psalm three, the
shield of faith is not a thing. It's not a creed, it's not a
doctrine, it's not a mental work or emotional work. It's not a
thing, but it's a person. You lay hold on a person. Psalm 3, look at verse 3. Thou,
O Lord. Now, David, now, as we have said
so many times, if you need help from God's Word, just turn to
the Psalms. You'll find something somewhere. Just keep looking. Keep searching. You'll find something.
Penned by David, or maybe Moses, who wrote some psalms. You'll
find something that meets your need. You'll find him going through
just exactly what you're going through. Because he's a man,
just like we were. He was assaulted, just like we
were. And I remind you now, David never
saw the Lord in person. David never heard the Lord speak
out loud to him. David's help was the Word of
God. But David was assaulted by the
adversary, just like we are. And David, and whenever you read
in the Psalms, about enemies, David's talking about the enemy,
the enemy, the enemy, the enemy. No doubt he had many physical
enemies, Saul and Absalom and others that chased after him,
no doubt about that. But now, Dave is not just talking
about that. No, he's talking, this is a spiritual
book. And as Paul said, we wrestle
not with flesh and blood. Paul had many enemies, didn't
he? And he's the one who said that our enemy is not flesh and
blood. It's not Roman tyranny. It's satanic tyranny. And so
whenever you read David talking about the enemy, the enemy, the
enemy, the enemy, he's talking about our spiritual enemy. David
had the same struggle you and I did. And David said this, verse
one, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that
rise up against me on every hand. But thou, O Lord, art a shield
for me." A shield, my protection. You
can just keep going in the psalm. Psalm 4. Look at Psalm 4, verse
8. David said, I will both lay me
down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell
in safety. Psalm 5. Look at Psalm 5 verses
11 and 12. Let all those that put their
trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy,
because thou defendest them. The word is, and this is one
of these marginal references, you got one, don't you? What's
it say when thou defendest them? In the middle of the margin there
it says, coverest over or protectest thee. Verse 12, Thou, Lord, wilt bless
the righteous with favor, wilt thou compass him as with a shield. Job wanted to get to, I mean,
Satan wanted to get to Job, didn't he? Read, I love that, I love
the story of Job. Satan came to present himself
to God like he must do, like everyone angels and devils must
be. And God was taunting and mocking
Satan, where have you been? I love that story. God said,
where have you been, Satan? Well, he knew his every move.
He could only go where he let him go. And Satan said, I've
been running to and fro in the earth. And God said, have you considered
my servant, Job? Have I ever? Why, yeah. I've wanted to have that, but
Satan said, you put a hedge about it. I can't get to him. He'll take it down. He's nothing. He'll cut you. God put a hedge about it, as
he does all his people. Hedges us about. He is the hedge.
He is the protection, the shield of God's people. Christ is our
shield. Now, we do believe in Christ. We do trust in Christ. Yet, it's not faith that saves
us. It's Christ. It's not faith in our faith.
This is important. This is an important thing I'm
trying to say here. It's not the faith of the shield.
I have the faith of the shield. That's making something greater
of faith than the shield. It's the shield of faith. That's
how it reads. It's the Christ in whom we believe.
That's our protection. Does that make sense? It's not faith in our faith.
It's not our faith that saves us. It's Christ that saves us.
Little faith is saving faith. The same is great faith. Why?
Because it's not faith. It's the object. It's the one
who does the saving. Faith in Christ as a shield. Now, here's a shield. Here's
what a shield does. A shield protects the whole body.
We've been talking about the armor of God. We've been talking
about the girdle of truth. The first thing to put on, we've
been talking about the breastplate of righteousness. It covers the
earth. Later on, we'll talk about the
helmet. We've talked about the shoes, child of the gospel. It
says, but above all, over and above all that, that which covers
every part of the body is the shield. Those shields they used
to carry back in hand-to-hand combat were not just a little
old, not like you see in Hollywood, you know, a little, you know,
a little bitty thing. It was a great big thing, a great
big old thing where they could hide behind the whole thing. It didn't matter what came at
They were protected. And what a good picture of Christ
that is. A shield protects the whole body, the head, the heart,
the feet, the whole man. Right? You're hid. That's what
it says, doesn't it, John? You're dead and your life is
hid with God in Christ. With Christ in God. Hid. Our
whole man. Because Satan aims at various
parts of the body. He aims at the head. He aims
at the head with these darts, these innuendos, these attempts
at the head. This is the seat of knowledge,
is it not? This is the mind. The mind is
important. You don't bypass the mind in
this thing of faith and so forth, right? The mind the knowledge
of him and Satan attempts to cast doubts in your mind about
well, God's word about the truth. Turn with me to Romans chapter
four, Romans four, Satan aims at the head. He attempts to cast
doubts in your minds, uncertainties in your mind, interject these
things. Christ is the Word. We don't believe a doctrine.
We're not believing what Calvin said. We're not believing what
Whitefield, what any of these people said, or even what Paul
said. We're believing what God said. This is God's Word. All
that we believe, we believe because God said it. Christ is the Word,
personified. Christ is the Word. He's the
embodiment of the Word. In Him dwelleth, is He at all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, you see. How do we know the Word
of God is so? Because He lived. You understand what I just tried
to say? How do we know this Book is so?
Because John said, we handle the Word of life, the embodiment
of the Word. The Word walked on this planet. The Word was made flesh. He lived
it out. He spoke it. He proved it. He
not acted it out, but he lived it out. He proved the Word of
God. Is that making sense? He is the
Word. We believe this because He is. And He proved it is God's Word. He's the fulfillment of God's
Word. Christ is our defense. All that
he is is our defense against all doubts and uncertainties. We may not understand this book,
but we're not called to understand it. You know that? We're not called to defend it
against all the gang sayers and the people who argue against
the science and all that, have tried to disprove it for years.
that it's God's will. We're not called to do that,
but just to declare it. Thus saith the Lord. I love how
Christ's done. Our Lord, when He walked this
planet, He answered everybody that asked Him a question. I
love that. How He put down all the gainsayers
and all the backtalkers and all the arguments. I mean, they ganged
up on Him by the hordes. They got the the sharpest minds
of their day. They got the doctors and the
lawyers and the Pharisees and all these people together, and
they have rehearsed all their arguments, all of their carefully
rehearsed arguments and scientific theories and all of that, and
they've gotten—we'll get him now. And they all got together
and said, Now, what do you think about And he would state a little
parable that would just leave them talking in tongues. And they'd
leave, and another group would come along, and he'd just reduce
them to nothing, babbling idiots. And on and on it goes, until
it finally says in that one place, it said, and after that, no man
dare ask him any more questions. But then he'd ask a question.
Do you remember that? He said, now I've got something
to ask all of you. And he asked that question and none of them
could answer it. He is wisdom, you see. He's the
embodiment of God's Word. He is the argument. He is the
proof. Everything can be answered in
light of the person of Christ. The words of Christ. All doubts,
ignorance, everything, every doubt you have can be, will be
dispelled by just looking to Christ. Bring it with me. Every doubt that modern man brings
into your mind, you go to the Son of God and He'll dispel that
doubt. Abraham received his courage. It says here in Romans 4, verse
18, who against hope believed in hope. I love that verse, against hope.
believed in hope. No hope is no hope for me. God came to Abraham and said,
you're going to have a son, ninety-some years old. By Sarah. Eighty-some years. And years went by and he didn't
have a son. And all the world was saying,
I thought you said, you know, He didn't understand. Abraham,
really, he didn't understand. Verse 19, it said, Being not
weak in faith, though, he considered not his own dead body. His body
now dead. He did not think about his body. Abraham wasn't relying on carnal
reasoning. You see what I'm saying? Abraham
was not considering anything but the Word of God. Abraham really didn't have a
clue. I don't know how this was going to happen. But it did, according to the
Word of God, in the fullness of time. So God's Word, and more specifically
Christ, who is the Word of God, dispels all these doubts and
fears. Satan names at the head, Satan
names at the heart. He aims at the heart, the emotions.
Tries to fill us with fears of our own hypocrisy and all that.
Oh, I've been reading William Bernal about Satan's attempts
to tell us what hypocrites we are. If you were a hypocrite, folks,
he wouldn't be telling you that. Listen to me now, you'll get
some comfort here. If you were a hypocrite, it'd leave you alone. Hypocrite is somebody's play
act. That's where the word actor came from. You know that? That's
where the word actor came from. Hypocrite, crypt, is the old
Greek word, where they get the word actor. Somebody's pretending
to be what they're not. And Grinnell pointed out, he
said, if you were a hypocrite, Satan wouldn't keep bringing
that up to you. He'd leave you alone. That helped me. I don't know
if it did you. It really helped me. Oh, my. Well, he aims at the heart, trying
to make you feel so bad about yourself. But if you just look
to Christ, Just look to Christ. Perfect love will cast out all
fear. Not your love. Don't look to your love to cast
out doubts and uncertainty. Look to His. Perfect love casts
out fear. And He'll give the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness. Christ said, let not your heart
be troubled. Don't let Him trouble your heart. Believe me. Believe me. Lay hold of this
shield of faith. Let's look at some of the darts
of the wicked. He talks about the darts of the
wicked in our text. The fiery darts of the wicked. Fiery darts. Now, turn with me
to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. In the first epistle of John
here, he mentions three things. Three things, three temptations
that sum up all temptations. Whatever temptations Satan brings, attempts us with, are summed
up in these three things here in 1 John chapter 2. And our Lord, who was tempted
in all points, like as we are, Scripture says, He was tempted.
In every way, you and I have been or ever will be tempted.
That's isn't that comforting enough? Yet without sin. And
he didn't, he wasn't tempted just to show us how to overcome
it. He was tempted as our substitute. As our righteous representative.
And he was tempted and yet without sin and therefore he repelled
every temptation, and as our perfect representative, our righteous
representative, imputed that righteousness to
us. So he didn't do that just to show us how to overcome. No, sir. No, he did it as our
head. But our Lord was tempted in all
of these points, and they're summed up here in 1 John 2, verse
14. 1 John 2, I'm sorry, verse 16. He says, all that is in the world.
Now let's go up to verse 14. He said, I've written unto you,
fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.
I've written unto you, young men, because you're strong. How's
that? Strong in the Lord and the power
of His mind. And the Word of God abided in you, and you have
overcome the wicked. you have. What do you mean? What do you mean, John? Well,
who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God. That's what he said later on.
Read on. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
now here it is, everything, every form of temptation that can be
found in the world that's leveled at us by the God of this world. Here it is, three things. The
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It's not of the Father, but it's
of the world. It's of the world. And the God
of this world uses these things, these temptations. They're called
fiery darts. In our text, he says, take the
shield of faith that you may be able to quench the fiery darts
of the wicked. Why are they called fiery darts? Fiery darts. Well, fiery because
these temptations set you on fires of hell. Hell's fire burns
within you in various ways. Right? You burn with lust, or
burn with envy, or burn with rage, or burn with whatever,
huh? And then when it's all done,
you burn with shame. It's fiery. They're called darts. Dart really
means an arrow. An arrow. An arrow is a swift
thing. A swift thing. It is a silent
thing. They're a secret and silent thing,
a thing that pierces someone through without them, when they
least expect it. So that's why it's called a fire
radar. Where'd that come from? So many old pioneers were killed. They never knew anybody was around.
The arrow pierced them through. Where'd that come from? And isn't
that what they are? These things you'll be doing? Worship. You'll be sitting here
in the worship center. And some evil thought come in your head.
Where'd that come from? Where'd that come from? It's
a fiery dark. Well, here they are, these three
things. Let's just look at them briefly, okay? I'm not going
to be much more than like 10 o'clock. Just kidding. The lust of the flesh, he said.
Sensual desires. Anybody that has a body has these. The desires of the body now are
not an evil thing. The desires of the body are not
evil in themselves. They're not. These are God-given
things for a purpose. Hungerings and cravings and so
forth are God-given things. Whatever it is, sexual, whatever
it is, not evil in themselves. I told somebody who wasn't, I
forget who I was talking to, one of the men, we were talking
about this and how that if God hadn't have made it so pleasurable,
men and women wouldn't have anything to do with one another. I'm not making it up,
it's just so. But it's nothing wrong with that
religion at points in time to try to make it something unclean. It's not. Our Lord said marriage
is honorable and all the bed is undefiled. Undefiled means
holy. Our Lord uses that as a picture
of regeneration. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
His seed entering, his bride. And it causes great pleasure
when the Lord, when regeneration takes place. The Lord gets great
pleasure. Heaven rejoices. The sinner does. Life is created. It's a beautiful
thing. The gospel, Hannah, you'll be interested in it. The old
writers used to call the gospel the pregnant gospel. That's how
they used to refer to it. The pregnant gospel. Why? Because
it's life. It's full of life. Full of life. Pregnant possible.
But the lust of the flesh now are illicit desires. Illegal desires. Desires of the
flesh that are forbidden. The man and the woman desired
what they could not have. They desired the forbidden fruit.
Lust for the flesh are desires that are all-consuming, that
absolutely consume you at the expense of everything and everyone
else. Faith. How does faith quench
this? How does faith prevent this? It's a tough subject, isn't it?
We all struggle with it. But faith shows us, number one,
faith shows us that the pleasures of sin are but for a season. This is something that faith
teaches us. Christ teaches us, I should say. He teaches us. And the world is going after
these things without any worry or fear. Not knowing the penalty. Really not thinking about it. But you know better now. The
Lord has taught you. He's given you this understanding.
Faith shows us that though sin may be sweet to the taste, it leaves your belly bitter later
on. Right? I like green apples, doesn't it? Though sin may appear to
be sweet, the pleasures of sin are sweet at the moment to the
taste, yet it will leave your belly bitter. The results of
it last much longer than the pleasure of it. Faith, I should
say, our Lord Himself teaches us, opens our eyes to see. And
now, Gurnall used this illustration. He said, Jacob thought he was
getting a beautiful Rachel when he got a blear-eyed Leah. And
that's what sin promises, some beautiful thing that you end
up with. Not what it's not what it appeared
to me. Faith shows us that sin is not what it appears to be. It's in disguise. It's truly
something hurtful, not pleasurable. It's hurt in disguise. Faith,
I should say, our Lord shows us that there are greater and
more lasting pleasures to be had. The psalm says, At thy right
hand are pleasures for evermore. I've asked you this many times,
and this is a good barometer of what I'm saying. What does this gospel mean to
you? How much do you enjoy hearing this gospel? Huh? I mean, do you really enjoy hearing
this gospel? Do you really enjoy doing this?
If you can say from the bottom of your heart, now you can't
say this every time you're flesh and blood. I know that. There's times when I don't feel
like preaching. I don't feel like coming here. I want to worship,
but I don't sure don't feel like standing up and preaching. Let's
be honest. And like that man's boy, you
may have heard this. friend of mine preacher. I always
talked to his children about you didn't say going to church. He didn't say we're going to
church. He said, we're going to worship the Lord. And that's a good way
to put it. We're going to worship the Lord.
Well, he went to wake up his little four-year-old boy one
Sunday morning and said, he said, come on, son, let's get up. We're
going to go worship the Lord. And he said, I don't want to
go worship the Lord. I thought it was funny too. He
was honest. The little kid was, I don't want
to go worship the Lord this morning. Or like, who was it, Michael
Moore? Michael Moore, when they turn
four or five years old, you know, they're supposed to go out and
sit where the big folks sit. Michael Moore is Len Nyberg's
brother's son. You know Chuck Moore. Well, when
he turned four or five years old, they brought him out in
the big congregation, you know. And he sat there a few, couple
of Sundays, and he went up to his, he went up to his mother. I think I'm going to get this
right. He went up to his mother after he said, well, he said,
I believe I've learned all I need to learn about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, can I go back and play?
Can I go back to the nursery? And if you're honest, you'll
admit the same thing. I don't want to go worship the
Lord. Ah, boy. But now, the true, what
I'm trying to say, the true, sincere desire of your heart. and it really is a pleasure to
you is to worship the Lord. It is. Most of the time. Most of the time. Well, multiply
this. Multiply the best sermon you've
ever heard a million times. Preach by the greatest voice
ever heard by human ears. in the hugest largest crowd ever
known. The man. With the greatest spirit. Most beautiful music. You won't ever want to quit.
And it won't. So faith teaches us. That thy
right hand there lasting pleasures. That's what I'm looking for.
Something more lasting than the lust of the flesh. Next dart. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6.
I've got to hurry. 1 Timothy 6. The lust of the
eyes is a fiery dart. Fiery dart. Lust of the eyes
being covetousness. Covetousness. Lust of the flesh
is the desire of the flesh for pleasure. Sensual pleasures. Lust of the eyes is Wanting the
things of this world. Longing for things of this world. Now faith teaches us, our Lord
teaches us that godliness now with contentment. Now that's
great gain. Right? That's what the Lord teaches
us. That contentment. Godliness with
great gain. Like that woman. This old woman
knew something. A woman who scarcely had anything
to eat, had very little to her name. Spurgeon tells this as
a true story, that she sat down one day to her meal. This was
a believing woman, a woman who knew the Lord, loved the truth. Sat down to a very scanty little
meal, just some bread, maybe a few potatoes, and she gave
thanks and said, Lord, thank you. I have all of this. And
Christ. All of this. It was. John Warburton, who was a very
poor man for years. Had 14 children. Blamed his wife
for being too fruitful. He had something to do with it.
But. He was very poor all his days
until his later years as a pastor of a church and the Lord started
blessing him and he said in those later years he was just so overcome
with the blessings of the Lord he'd go into his kitchen and
open up all his cabinets and just sit and look at all the
food in his cabinet and bless the Lord for everything. But our Lord teaches us that
what is the profit of man if he gains the whole world and
lose his self? Our Lord, faith teaches us this.
Faith will quench that fiery dart to have more by doing it,
by telling us it's vanity. It's deceitfulness. The deceitfulness
of riches. Riches, in other words, deceive
us into thinking, if you get this, now you're really going
to be happy. If you can just get me, if you can get this,
you're really going to be happy. This is it. This is it. This
is all you need to get now. And this will really do it. Will
it? It won't do it. 1 Timothy 6, verse
10 says, The love of money is the root of all evil. which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through it with many sorrows." His fiery darkness
pierced them through. One of the most striking verses
in all the scriptures, when Paul, in closing, in one of his epistles
said, Demas hath forsaken me. He loved his world. Demas was
a constant companion of Paul. One of the greatest trials that
a believer can endure is prosperity. More people fall at the heads
of prosperity than they do deprivation. That's right. Faith teaches us it's all vanity.
It's vanity. It looks like it's good, but
it's not. It promises you what it can't
fulfill. Right? Gold. Faith sees gold as being
real tarnished. You and I talk about this all
the time, Nancy. No. This world, as beautiful
as it is, still it doesn't have the luster. The older you get,
it starts losing its luster. You start losing your luster.
Faith teaches us that true riches are unseen. Unseen. The things that are seen
are temporal, like a soap bubble. So child will get great joy out
of soap bubble. And when it bursts, they cry. Faithful to you offer a child,
a little, little small child, a real shiny quarter. Or $100
bill. Which is it going to take? Why that quarter? Shiny. I like it because it looks good. Well, true riches now are unseen,
unseen. Faith, our Lord teaches us to
look higher than this earth. I love that song, things that
are higher, things that are nobler. These have allured my sight.
How? Why? It's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's God's
setting your affection on things of us. God said in your mind
where it should be. Where Christ sits, right? That's
God. It's the work of God. See, we're
just like those children. If offered the shiny things of
this world, if left ourselves, we take the shiny, all the glitters,
you know. That's one reason the Lord wasn't
a beautiful man to look at. Right? That tabernacle in the
wilderness, that's one reason it wasn't beautiful and shiny
on the outside. Everybody would have been drawn
to it. Beauty's inward. Well, lastly, the pride of life
is another dark, fiery dark. Pride of life. And if there's
anything men and women succumb to more than this, I don't know
what it is. Pride of life. Pride. Pride goeth
before a fall. Pride, pride. God hates it worse
than anything. And this human race is full of
it. And the Lord says that the last days men shall be proud. First of all, the lovers of self. Mosters. Pride, pride, pride. Pride of life. Desire to be somebody,
to be seen, to be known, to be esteemed highly by the people
of this world. It'll make people go to Great
Lakes wanted to do crazy things, foolish things, to be seen, to
be known, to be esteemed highly. By who? By who? Who do you want to think
well of you? What does it matter? Who? Can you think of right now,
honestly, can you think of one human being other than a believer?
that you have any respect for? Any person that you esteem so
highly? Anybody? As much as I think of
our president. I don't think as highly of him
as I think as at least of Christ's people. That's it. Pride of life. Our Lord teaches
us that Christ alone is worthy of honor and recognition. Christ alone is worthy of honor
and recognition. No human being, certainly not
me. They said, George Whitefield said this. George Whitefield
said, let the name of George Whitefield perish from the earth.
Let the name of Jesus Christ continue eternally. Faith, our Lord teaches us that To be known of God is more important
than to be known by the whole world. To be known of God. All those
names we read in Romans 16, remember? All those names we read in Romans
16? Nobody knows anything about those
people. Oh yes, God does. He wrote their names for all
eternity to remember. What's more important is to be
known of God, be honored by Him, to be commended. What would you
rather be, commended by God or man? Known of God or known by
man? You know, don't you? You know
and you believe that. You have this shield. that will
quench all these fiery dark and there's so much more to be said.
And. But faith, oh, thank God. Showing us. The truth. All right, let's say. Our Lord, thank you so much for
the gift of faith, Christ. who is the object of our faith,
who teaches us, the Holy Spirit who leads and guides into all
truth, the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
known of angels, yet disdain the honor of men if he knew what
was in them. Ah, Lord, thank you for becoming a man and not
only our righteous representative, but as our great example to show
us truth personified. Make us, mold us, shape us, conform
us to his blessed image so that we would be as he is. And overcome the wicked one.
Thank you for your word. In Christ's name, amen. You're
dismissed.