Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the second book of Samuel,
chapter 23, and we'll read for our text verses 11 and 12. This is the listing of David's
mighty men. And after him was Shemar the
son of Agi the Hararite, and the Philistines were gathered
together into a troop where was a piece of ground full of lentils,
and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in
the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the Philistines,
and the Lord wrought a great victory. 2 Samuel chapter 23
and verses 11 and 12. And the subject that I wish to
speak to this evening is parcels of doctrinal ground to be defended. The picture that is here is a
picture of the children of Israel defending their own land, and
you might say defending also their livelihood. The rest of
the Israelites, they fled from the Philistines, but this one
man, Shammah, the son of Agi, the Hararite, He stood in the
midst of the ground and defended it. In other words, because of
that one man's action, that land didn't fall to the Philistines. The children of Israel did still
have the benefit of the food that was on it, the lentils,
And the Lord got to himself honour and glory in through that man,
bringing about a great victory. This is a literal account of
a defence. of a piece of ground. And of
course, very relevant, you might say, to wars that are going on
at present in Gaza, in Ukraine, where the countries are seeking
to retain their own land. They don't want it to be taken
away. And it is actually said that
the phrase to give ground that that did originate from a military
context. In the 1500s it was a meaning
to retreat or withdraw, resign, submit or yield to a superior
force. But then in the 1600s, it was
used figuratively in every language, everyday language, to describe
any situation where someone backs down or concedes a point. The Apostle Paul was very careful
when he wrote to the Galatians It had been decided at Jerusalem
that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised the same as
the Jews, that the blessing was by grace and it was not at all
dependent upon the works of the law. And he discerned the importance
of this. He writes to them in the second
chapter of Galatians, and he says in verse 3, But neither
Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be
circumcised, and that because of false brethren unawares brought
in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have
in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. to whom
we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the
truth of the gospel might continue with you." And this was the very
point that the Galatians, they had believed through faith in
Christ alone, and that salvation was by grace, then they had other
teachers coming in saying, except you are circumcised, you can't
be saved. And they, learning that Paul's
fellow worker, Titus, was a Greek and therefore uncircumcised,
they tried to make him comply. But Paul wouldn't do that, because
by doing that, he would give way to the truth and undermine
his teaching. that it was not dependent on
that for salvation. There is another place where
he did actually have Timothy circumcised, and the reason for
that was because it would have prevented him being able to preach
the gospel. He understood that situation
not as in this situation, but a situation that until Timothy
had complied, then he was not able to preach the gospel to
those people. But here, they had received the
gospel, he had preached it, and now it was a departing away from
it. And so they would have taken
license, it would have undermined the teaching of the other apostles,
undermined everything. So he stood his ground, he would
not back down on this, and it's in this way that I want to look
at this evening. It's doctrinal ground, it's not
parcels of land, it's not fighting over land, and it is something
that the churches, that God's people need to be very careful
over while they may be looking at literal land being taken away
in other countries, and yet doctrinally, we're having taken away truths
and a standpoint that has stood for generations, centuries, or,
of course, right from the beginning, as established by God. And so, it is a very important
thing. Now some of the points that I
will be raising tonight are covered in a booklet that was published
by the Bible League Trust in 2010. In fact, it is called Affirmation
2010 and it deals with 16 points of doctrine that are being assailed
or were being assailed then and gives a reason for them and the
perversions and how men are going and churches are going away from
them. Now on our page on our website
the book is in PDF form on what we believe. The hard copies are
in the porch here and on this sermon when I put it up there
will be a link to the booklet as well. It gives many Bible
references. It's a very good stand for the
truth. Exhaustive and not what I'm going
to go through tonight. Tonight it is more the importance,
the significance of what it is to stand to a point, to not give
way on a point, when it is being assailed. And the picture we
have here, it's an illustration, David's mighty men, and it is
put here. This is not something just that
he did, but the Lord wrought a great victory. And of course,
we would remember God gave the children of Israel the land of
Canaan, and he helped them to retain it. But all through their
history, there were other nations that tried to take it, away from
them. And it is much more important
when we find that there are so many those that are warned of
in the book of Jude that shall come in amongst us and turn many
away from the truth. In the letters to the churches
in Asia there is reproof over churches that had in their membership
those that held error And there is reproof for those that not
only held in, but they taught error and were allowed to do
so by the Church. The Church should always see
it as a very dangerous thing to have in their membership those
that hold and or teach error. Ground will be lost if that is
countenanced in any way. And so it is vital that we do
stand for the truth. Otherwise we will lose those
things. We will give ground to them. I want to look then this evening
firstly at standing on doctrinal ground that is to be defended. You read in our text, he stood
in the midst of the ground. He was not fighting for it from
another position, he was actually on that very ground. But then
secondly, some of the grounds in doctrine to be defended today. In our text it says, and defended
it. that specific ground. Not generalities, but that specific
ground. And so, just to look at some
specific points under that heading. But thirdly, who brings victory? You read at the end of verse
12, and the Lord wrought a great victory. Very interesting in
this account. Though the inspired record is
highlighting the men that were David's mighty men, the glory
is given to the Lord. Not he wrought a great victory,
but the Lord wrought a great victory. And I want to notice
that in our last point. but firstly standing on doctrinal
ground first. The Apostle Paul, when he writes
to the Romans, he says in Romans 2, then from verse 21, Thou therefore
which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest
a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest
a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that are poorest idols,
dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of
the law, through breaking the law dishonest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you." Now, what he is saying is, here
are those that are contending against sacrilege, against breaking
the law, against idolatry, against stealing, but they're not standing
in that ground. They're not walking in that way
themselves. Everyone can see that they are
doing these very things They're saying that others should not
do. Now, the Lord was very clear
in this, that we are to be doers of the Word, not hearers only. The Apostle Paul, when he writes
to the Corinthians, he says in his very first letter to them,
chapter 11, the first verse of that chapter, and he says, be
ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." In other words,
he was not just a teacher, but he was an example. He walked
out, he lived out those truths that he was preaching. And it
is a reminder to us as well that these things that we contend
for, they are not just theories. They are not just intellectual
things that we study about and it doesn't have any relevance
to our lives and what we do. It does have a relevance and
in a lot of ways the government has power to make those laws
that will cause that in some aspects we cannot or we cannot
without fear of punishment by the land or jail or losing a
job hold to that ground. There's areas that are being
assailed even today. And sometimes we wouldn't really
realise what is being assailed and where the actual battleground
is. But I felt with the case of Shammah
here, the son of Agee, the Hararind, While others were fleeing, while
others were going away, the people fled from the Philistines, we
read, but he stood. What a difference. The people
fled, but he stood. One man stood. And may we be
in doctrinal things, that we stand, though others might flee,
we stand on that point, and from that point, then we defend that
point, and we defend that land. Not speaking about things that
we are not actually walking in. You imagine someone that was
defending baptism, and you ask them, are you baptized? Oh, no,
I'm not. How weak then would his argument
be, or her argument be, in favour of baptism if they were not actually
walking in it themselves? If there were those that were
standing for the church as being an institution of God, and instituted
by God, but you ask them, are you a member of the church? Do
you support the church? Do you attend? Do you attend
the meetings? Do you gather when they gather?
Oh no, I don't. And so it brings all the argument
down. It's vital that whatever we are
standing for, we think first, are we an example of this? Are we going to be like Paul's
Titus, who says, no, I'm not going to be circumcised. It's not a point with a, If I
am or I'm not, it doesn't change my salvation, but because you
Galatians are making it a point of salvation, I am not going
to walk in that way because it will reinforce that false teaching
and doctrine that you've already fallen into. So I'm not going
to do that. And it's a discerning that the
actions that we take are going to speak loud. There's a saying
isn't there, actions speak louder than words. And it's vital in
this that we actually be standing on that doctrinal ground. Now maybe of course some of the
things I mentioned tonight, you can't stand on that ground because
you're not actually in that situation. There'll be some of those that
do apply in that case. But wherever it does apply to
us, then may we be like Shema and we stand in that ground. Doers of the Word. I want to
look then secondly at some of the grounds. Now, I put some
And I want to be very clear at the start, this is not actually
a defense. Yes, I am defending several grounds,
but it is beyond the scope of one sermon to make a detailed
defense or study of the points raised. I am mostly wanting to
highlight the areas of attack today and the need of standing
and defending that ground and not giving way to that ground. And some of these points will
follow what is in the little booklet, the Affirmation 2010.
Others, they are not included in it. We realise that as time
goes on, there will be doctrines that weren't assailed years ago,
of course 2010, that's 15 years ago, that more and more are being
assailed today. And it is important that we serve
our day and recognise what is being assailed in our day. The first one I'll mention is
the infallibility of scripture. Now we believe that on that parcel
of ground you might say there's many things, that the Scriptures
are the inspired Word of God, they are God breathed. There
is the ground that there is no error in them, that every Word
of God is pure, and that we are not to add to it or subtract
to it, that from Genesis to Revelation Every word is breathed by God
and it is profitable and all our doctrine, all our teaching
is all based upon the Word of God. In most, if not all, of
the affirmations of faith, and articles of faith will have the
first ground to defend is that every doctrine that we bring
forth is based upon the Word of God, and that that Word of
God is pure. There's no error in it. And so
where people say, well, because it's not the words written in
red that are the Lord's, then it doesn't carry as much weight.
Or, well, those letters, they're of Paul. That's not God speaking. I'd rather trust in God's word
than what Paul was doing and saying. And Genesis and the five
books of Moses, well, that is just fiction. That is just some
kind of a made-up analogy. All sorts of things are set forth
today. Higher criticism, lower criticism,
all the time man coming on top of the Word of God and subjecting
the Word of God to criticism instead of falling under the
Word of God and being subjected to it. Instead of coming from
the view that the Word of God is right and I am wrong, it is
first surmised the Word of God is wrong and I am right. Many
will look at contradictions in the Word of God and first thing
they'll say, well the Word of God is wrong. Well, over in Australia
years ago, we could easily prove you might say the word of God
is wrong by reading that the cold cometh out of the north.
And anyone in Australia knows that the cold doesn't come out
of the north, it's the heat straight from the equator. Very different
than us here in England. But you go to the right place.
You go to the land of Israel, you go to the Northern Hemisphere,
and the Word of God's right. And if that's just one instance,
there's many, many things that seem to be a contradiction that
can be very easily explained. But we do not need to go and
explain to critics everything that seems to be a contradiction. We read that every word of God
is pure and our Lord quoted from the word of God, referenced right
through the word of God. In the beginning was the word
and the word was God. And our Lord says, heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. And
the Lord's word as the eternal God. is every word of God is
pure. And that is a ground that must
be stood and must be defended and we in the ministry or whoever
we are should not give any expression to undermine or shake the belief
in the word of God of our heroes or those around about us, our
children or grandchildren, to take a pen knife like the King
of Israel did and cut the Word of God, you must be very careful
that we're going to defend the Word of God, that we actually
walk it out with a great esteem and reverence for the Word of
God. The second piece of ground I'll
mention is that of the Trinity. And again, on that piece of ground,
There is many aspects to it. The Trinity, one God, three distinct
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a
person, the Son is a person, Jesus, the Father is a person. Three distinct persons, but only
one God. Right is the mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh. We read when our Lord was baptised
that the Father spoke from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased and the Holy Spirit descended in the form
of a dove and our Lord was there being baptised. In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Let us make man in our own image. Scriptures are very clear, they
don't use the word Trinity, but all the time we have three persons
mentioned. And so, then there comes another
aspect on that same ground, and that concerns our Lord Jesus
Christ, that He was truly God and truly man. And as man of
the seed of Abraham, that he had a soul. The position of the
soul was not taken by his Godhead, but his divinity, but he had
a true soul. We read in Isaiah 53, thou shalt
see the travail of his soul, and shalt be satisfied. These things are vital. The doctrine
of Christ, John, in his second epistle, writes that if any come
unto you and not have this doctrine, that you don't receive them into
your house or bid them Godspeed. The doctrine of the Trinity is
assailed by the Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians, among others
today, and though in the early days of the Gospel standard with
the doctrine of the eternal sonship of our Lord, that was assailed,
and that is why. It is Article 5 in our Articles
of the Gospel Standard. Today, there is very few amongst
Reformed churches that would disagree with the eternal sonship
of our Lord. But it is absolutely vital that
we have clear views of our God as revealed in the Word of God,
that we don't rob Him and diminish Him or make out he is something
that he is not. And so that is a vital point. It is a point that to be in error
is a heresy concerning the God whom we serve and worship and
trust in. The third one that I'd mention
is that of the doctrines of grace, that is, what is commonly called
Calvinism, often defined by TULIP, total depravity, unconditional
election and particular redemption, or in that under TULIP it is
limited atonement, and then irresistible grace and perseverance of the
saints. We believe that man in the fall,
is totally dead, totally depraved spiritually, and incapable of
saving himself or responding at all to anything set before
him in a spiritual way. That election is unconditional. God did not look upon men and
see who would in their lifetime believe or good works, and choose
them to salvation, He, without reference to them at all, chose
them in a sovereign way out of an everlasting love, with loving
kindness. He chose His people and draws
them. And so the redemption of Christ
at Calvary was a particular redemption. It was not that Christ died for
all mankind, but for his elect, for his people alone, and so
that is a limited atonement, limited by God himself. And it is put in a positive way,
that he was out of particular love to his people that were
given to him, that he laid down his life for them. He didn't
lay down his life for Judas, For Esau, for other ungodly men,
Hethafel, know he laid down his life effectually, and all for
whom he died will in God's own time and way be called by grace,
which is why we also hold to irresistible grace. He will,
through the means, through the ministry, through the word, through
the power of His Spirit, quicken into divine life those for whom
He has died and who were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And those for whom Christ has
died and then, by grace, cause them to hear, cause them to live,
He will bring them to believe and persevere right through to
the end. They won't fall away, they shall
certainly be saved. And these are the doctrines of
grace, free and sovereign grace. The opposite is that of Arminianism,
of free will, that Christ died for all mankind, and it is the
responsibility and ability of all men to just accept and receive
the gospel, they can lose their salvation, and really their eternal
destiny is in their hands, not in God's hands. We believe along
with the doctrines of grace most firmly in evangelism, in going
out with the Word of God, in preaching the Word to every man,
woman and child in every nation and kindred and tongue. We do
not just preach to the elect. We do not know who the elect
are. We are to, without any discrimination,
speak the Word of God to every nation, kindred and tongue. That is a ground, again, that
is assailed and has been really right through the generations,
but many today find it an offensive doctrine, but it is a precious
doctrine. I would say at this point, in
our text here, we have Shammah defending this ground, and one
aspect of that ground is not just that it's just ground, It
had food on it, it had lentils on it. It was a ground full of
lentils. And these doctrines, they are
food for the soul of God's people. They are precious, they are those
things, not only that their eternal destiny hangs upon, but it is
their meditation, it is their food, it is that which they Feed
upon you, think of our Lord in John 6, except ye eat the flesh
and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. The words that I speak, they
are meat and they are drink. And then, man shall not live
by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. Is doctrine unimportant? Are
the words not unimportant? No, they are food. labour not
for the bread that perisheth, but for that which endureth to
eternal life. You take away some of these pieces
of ground and the food that is on them, and you undermine the
faith. You take away the food from the
people of God. You make them uncertain so they
cannot think on it or meditate upon it without doubts flooding
in. They are to be stood forth and
great Good is done when those of us in the ministry are able
to live and to testify to the truth of these parcels of land
that are precious to our own soul. They are worth defending. We need to defend them. The next one that I mention is
that of creation. If ever there is a doctrine that
is undermined today, It is that God created the world in six
days, six literal days, that the earth is a young earth, not
much more than 6,000 years old. This agrees with science, that
the imaginations of evolution are false and wrong, that coming
at viewing creation from an evolution point of view undermines the
whole Word of God. But the Word of God is true,
and the ideas of those who weren't around not a hundred years ago,
let alone millions of years ago, who can never observe any of
these things that they say are happening, happening. And yet
the Lord says, and in Romans 1, that man shall be without
excuse of the judgment, because of his self, because of his creation,
that the eternal God is known by the things that are made.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. It's one of the most strengthening
things to faith, to view in our own bodies, to view in creation,
such wonders, such miracles, such craftsmanship, such evidence
of a creator. You know, we would go, if we
went past a building site, we never ever saw the builder, but
we saw this building slowly rise. We wouldn't say, well, there
is no builder, we've never seen one. But you'd understand there
was a builder, and by seeing the beauty of the building, you'd
understand his skill and his wonder. But men are so conditioned,
conditioned in our schools, conditioned from everything that you hear.
You go around a zoo, you go around a scenic area, and you see a
board describing what you're looking at. And nearly every
time, this animal is 10 million years old, and this hill, mountain
range has been here for billions of years. And it comes at us
sometimes unexpectedly in everything that we hear. You see a guide
at a zoo telling all of those gathered round them all of these
falsehoods. And yet, the Word of God, if
you take away that six-day creation, you take away our Lord's own
words. In the beginning, it was not
so. The Lord Himself was the Creator. By Him was all things made. Everything was made by Him and
for Him. And He takes all this away. There's
hardly a book in the Word of God that does not reference back
to the creation. And the foundation of just about
every doctrine in the Word of God is in the first few chapters
in Genesis. It's absolutely vital. It's not
an unimportant thing. And the most solemn thing that
even amongst the churches are those who profess religion to
undermine the Word of God in that very point. In all that
we say and all that we do, we should stand on that ground and
defend that ground as to what we believe and know is true,
that in six days God made the heavens and the earth and all
things that are therein. when we think of it, even in
the law of God. And that comes to another point,
doesn't it? In the Sabbath day. The law of
God speaks of how God rested on the Sabbath day and sanctified
it, hallowed it. In the law of God, it affirms
the creation, but it affirms God resting and commanding man
to do so as well. Up until our Lord that day, was
the seventh day. But our Lord rose on the first
day of the week and changed it as Lord of the Sabbath to that
day of the week when he appeared to the disciples in the upper
room. Eight days later he appeared there when Thomas was with them
and the churches followed that example and we do today. There is a Christian Sabbath
ridiculed by some that have the name of Christian and despised
by others. But it is a day set apart by
God for the gathering together of his people, for the sole worship
of God kept holy and free from pursuits of pleasure and works
of a cunning nature except for works of necessity and of mercy,
obviously the ambulance service, the police,
the fire, nursing, those sort of things are lawful to do on
the Sabbath day. But the whole design is that
we seek to keep it as a day of worship near Maya, dealt with
this when the Jews came back from Babylon. And there were
those of other nations that kept trying to come in and to sell
their wares. And in the end, he threatened
them and he shut the doors of Jerusalem and he refused to let
them in. In the end, they gave up. But
there's beautiful promises, especially in Isaiah 58, of those that keep
that day unto the Lord. There remaineth a rest a keeping
of Sabbath in Hebrews for the people of God. So that is another
ground. Another ground is that of marriage. The marriage between one man
and one woman to the exclusion of all other, till death they
do part. That was instituted by God in
the Garden of Eden in man's innocency. And that remains. There are only
two genders, male and female. God created that. And there's
only one proper union, ordained by God. Only one expression of
love in holiness between a man and a woman. And that is in the
marriage bond, not living together out of marriage wedlock, but
living together in the marriage bond. And this is something that
is undermined in so many ways today. We would stand for it
and contend for it. And we thank God that there are
those organizations like C4M that do champion that cause. But we are aware that there are
those that, by standing for it, They have lost their jobs, lost
their positions. It has cost them a lot. But we
need to, wherever, and it comes to mind the advice that was given
to some university students from one of the Lord's servants, is
standing for things. He said, don't go out of your
way to raise all of these issues. and to fight against those that
speak against them. But if you are in a lecture,
if you are in a situation where that is brought before you, where
someone speaks in your presence of those things, then that is
the time to speak. Don't just go along with that,
but then make it clear what is the truth. Another aspect today is reverence
in worship. Many churches somehow seem to
feel it more conducive to worship, to have very casual worship. They're casual in their dress,
they're casual in the format of the service. They may come
from work in a suit and then take off that suit, put casual
clothes on, and attend the house of God. Well, we read that God
is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, to be
had in reverence of all them that are about him. We are not
to think of God as just being like unto us. He is a great king,
the eternal God. The Jews, when they met with
God, when they came to Mount Sinai, had to wash their clothes,
they had to take off their ornaments, they had to be sanctified, it
was a special occasion to come before God. When we were brought
up, it was always Sunday best, even as children in Australia,
in our little shorts and brooklyn on our hair, and we were, it
was a special day, and we dressed in a special way. We did not
have suits as children, but we were smartly dressed, is not
required in that way to wear a suit, but in what is neat and
smart for us to make that effort to come to the house of God suitably,
modestly attired so that we appear as if we were coming before a
king or queen, that we were in the presence of God Almighty,
and then how actually We behave ourselves in the Church of God.
The Apostle says that he may know how he ought to behave in
the Church of God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. It's just not any old gathering,
but it is a gathering for worship. It is the house of God, consecrated
for the worship of God. And this is being undermined
in many, many places. seem to be just places of entertainment,
the music seems to take over from the reading of the word
or the preaching of the gospel, and the whole atmosphere is very
different than what it should be and what it has been in years
gone by. And may we stand again that ground
that we stand for reverence in worship, We think of other aspects
as well, holiness. Those that have believed in God,
be careful to maintain good works. We are unholy ourselves, and
yet it is the Lord that sanctifies, not only saves his people, but
sanctifies them, so that in their words, in their walk, in their
conversation, in what they choose to do, there is a holiness. Come ye out from among them,
a separation. Touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you. You shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Almighty." We think then of the church and the ministry. What a danger it is today. Yes,
we really sympathise, and this is why we stream our services
and have the recordings put up. For those who don't have a church
or don't have a sound church, that value being able to join
with a service that they agree with and where the truth is set
forth. But it is a very sad thing when
people choose rather to stay at home and listen to an online
service than to be part of a good, sound local church, or undermining
even the preaching of the word and taking away the position
of a pastor or a preaching and teaching elder, and a small or
main view of the Church of God as if it was not the Church of
the Living God, the standard of the truth of God. So that
again is something that needs to be defended. The Church of
God is not man's institution, it's not man's invention. It is God who has instituted
it, and he it is that is the head of the church. And there
is one true church, but there are many, many local churches,
fully autonomous, each having their own eldership, pastor,
and before God as a type of the one church. And I'll just finish
with this. the existence of hell and the
judgment to come. This life is not the only life. The soul is eternal. Eternity
is before us. There is a heaven and there is
a hell. There's no in-between place.
It is unfashionable today. Men don't like to speak of hell. eternal existence, in fire, in
torment, separation from God. But it is a truth that is taught
right through the scriptures, and we should hold fast to that,
as there are people that live as if there was nothing beyond
the grave, and many other things join with that. When our government
seeks to bring in assisted dying, There is a complete ignorance
of what is beyond the grave and that we are made in the image
of God. These are just a few of those
parcels of ground, those grounds of doctrine. Like here with Shammah,
he had this piece of ground that had food on it and though others
fled, he stood and defended it. that we ought to view these doctrinal
grounds as places where instead of retreating we stand and that
we defend it and that we hold fast to those things that are
food and meat for the people of God and that give honour and
glory to his name. Now I just want to close with
our third point and that is who brings the victory? Is it our
diligence? Is it our effort? Is it our wisdom? Well, the victory here is very
clear in verse 12. The Lord wrought a great victory. If you and I are to be effectual,
we must pray, we must be looking to the Lord for that wisdom and
help. We're given the promise, especially
when assailed and we don't know what is coming, and unexpected,
we haven't got time to study and answer, that the Spirit will
teach us what to say in the hour thereof. It is the Lord that
gives His people the victory. And in this portion, even though
it's highlighting these mighty men, they are not having the
glory, and we are not to have the glory. What we are doing
is for the Lord's honour and glory. It's for His word, for
His sake, and for His people's sake. And we need to remember
that. And what a promise, what an encouragement
is here. The Lord wrought a great victory. May we know something of those
victories in our land, in those things that we contend for, we
may feel to be very poor, very weak, and have little understanding. But, you know, when you think
of, in John 9, we have the man that was born blind, and he knew
the Lord had wrought that for him. And the Jews tried all they
could to malign Jesus, to malign him, to rob him of what he'd
actually had. But you know, he stood his ground. He stood his ground. He defended
the Lord Jesus. Why, herein is a marvellous thing.
Ye know not from whence he is, but he hath opened mine eyes.
One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. And that dear
man, only one thing he knew, And he didn't even know whether
the Lord was a sinner or not. But he stood his ground on that
point. If you and I know these truths
in our heart, they've been precious to us, they've been our meat
and drink, then we'll stand like that dear man. And the Lord give
us that strength and we give him then the honour and the glory
where He gives the victory. We may not convince thee, gainsayers,
but what a victory it is when those that look on are strengthened
and encouraged and still have their food and still have their
manner. The Lord bless the Word. Amen.