when Moses was in the mounts
of God, receiving the law and the covenant that God made for
Israel, receiving the pattern of things in the heavens by which
God must be worshipped and given instructions into the construction
of the tabernacle and all its services, portraying redemption,
salvation, and grace in Christ our Lord. Israel rebelled against
God. The very people for whom all
these things were being done in the mount are at the foot
of the mount in rebellion. What's happened to Moses, we
don't know. And they called to Aaron and asked him to make them
gods in direct conflict to what they had sworn just six days
earlier. They said, we'll do all that
the Lord said in his law. Every commandment, we'll do it.
Now they said, Aaron, what's happened to Moses? We don't know
what's happened to him. Up, make us gods. And they called
it worshipping Jehovah. So Aaron made him a golden calf.
You know the story. When Moses came down from the
mount and saw their idolatry, He was furious. He was furious. I just showed some of the men
back in the office a flyer from Campus Church in Welland Garden
City in England, a church I preached at. Church Brother Bill Clark
started some years ago. They had a meeting in June. On
the flyer, you found the words Bible, faith, and church. Not the faith of Christ, not
saving faith, not the faith of the gospel, just faith. Importance
of faith. Not a word about a preacher,
not a word about the gospel, not a word about Christ. Just
sheer nonsense. Advertising a meeting on Friday
night, they're going to have a fellow from Zimbabwe who is
a world-famous cricketeer. And he's going to talk about
cricket, I reckon. And going to have a girl on Saturday who
is a world-class Olympic rower, oarsman. And she's going to talk
about something on Saturday. And then on Sunday morning, one
of the elders, co-pastor with Brother Clark at the time, doesn't
even call himself a preacher, he's a scientist, going to talk
about science and why he's a Christian. I was enraged. I was enraged
when I saw it, and I still am. When I can calm down, I plan
to write to the folks I know there and deal with the matter.
And perhaps they will hear this first, and I'll get to hear from
them first. But I don't plan to let it go. I was enraged. But why? Because it is nothing
on this earth but sheer manipulation of men in the pretense of worshiping
God in the name of religion by folks who, like these Israelites,
like Aaron, know better. Know better. Moses was in the mountains, and
he comes down here and sees their idolatry, and he smashed their
God to pieces. He scattered it upon the waters
before them, and he made the children of Israel drink their
God. He rebuked Aaron shortly. And
he said, Aaron, what on earth have you done? And Aaron, he
said, well, don't blame me. Blame the flame. I just poured
in some gold. Out came this calf as if he had
nothing to do with it. And Moses rebuked him sharply
for his leading the children of Israel in naked revelry around
a golden calf, calling it the worship of Jehovah, sacrificing
peace offerings and burnt offerings, making atonement sacrifices before
this golden calf. and the children of Israel having
drunk the bitter waters in public acknowledgement of Moses' right
and in repentance for their evil, fearing God and fearing his prophet,
they went to their tents, all but about 3,000 of them. That's
a pretty good group, about 3,000. They refused. the message of God's prophet.
They refused to repent of their idolatry. They held their ground
and said, no, this is not wrong. This is not evil. We will not
repent of this thing. And so they stout hearted rebels,
they were brazenly defied Moses and brazenly defied the God he
represented. And Moses, knowing that the rebellion
had to be crushed, The rebels must be punished. Issue the summons. He called for a decision. Then
Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the
Lord's side? Let him come unto me. That's
my subject tonight. Who is on the Lord's side? He raised up a standard. Even
the name of God, the Lord, he drew a line in the sand. And
he called for those who would follow the Lord to cross the
line he drew in the sand. A decision had to be made. A
decision had to be made then. A decision had to be made there
that involved permanent consequences. A decision had to be made by
which he and God would show their displeasure at the evil performed
in Israel. And so He calls for these men
to make a decision, a life and death decision. All the sons
of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. This one tribe, all
the sons of Levi, seems to have been none of them who stood out
against repenting and stood out against the call of Moses to
repentance. Now let's pick up in verse 25
and read verses 26, 7, 8 and 9 together. Exodus 32, Exodus 32, 25. When Moses saw that the people
were naked, perhaps they were dancing around with no clothes
on, I don't know. Perhaps it refers to them having just pulled
off their golden ornaments and given them to make a golden calf,
and now they were naked of their riches. Perhaps it refers to
laying down their arms so that they had no weapons to defend
themselves. But certainly they were naked
in their sin, naked before God, naked to their shame. For Aaron
made them naked unto their shame among their enemies. Here they
are, men and women, who had been called out of Egypt, called by
God's mighty hand and delivered from darkness and idolatry and
corruption and vileness and bondage, delivered from slavery, delivered
from torment and torture all those years in Egypt. And now
they're out here in the wilderness among all their enemies. These
enemies who, by the way, are God's enemies. These enemies
who are idolaters, these enemies who worship gods of every imagination
except the Lord Jehovah. And here they are naked and shameful
before their enemies. Then stood Moses in the gate
of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come
unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side and
go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay
every man his brother and every man his companion and every man
his neighbor. My soul, what a command. Slay every man, his brother,
and his companion, his bosom friend, and his neighbor. And the children of Levi did
according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people
that day about 3,000 men. Tell me God's not a jealous God.
Tell me God will not avenge his own glory. Tell me God will be
mocked and men get by with mocking him. There fell that day about
3,000 men. For Moses had said, now this
is the Holy Spirit's commentary on what we read in verse 27.
The Lord God of Israel said, gird on your sword, smite your
brother, your companion, and your neighbor. For Moses had
said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord. How do you do that? You step across this line, you
put on your sword, and you go throughout the camp from gate
to gate and slay every man, his brother, and his companion, and
his neighbor. Consecrate yourselves today to
the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother,
that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. How long halt ye between two
opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him.
If Baal be God, follow him. Half-heartedness is useless. Indecision is destructive. Choose you this day whom you
will serve, Joshua said to the children of Israel. And Moses
does the same thing here. For 29 years, going on 30 years
now, I preached to you incessantly the gospel of God's free grace.
I take you to record. I have not shunned to declare
to you all the counsel of God three times a week for nearly
30 years. You come here and hear the gospel
of God's glory and his grace in Christ. Let me be specific
and clear in what I'm saying. I do not hesitate to declare
to you incessantly. And I do not hesitate to declare
to the world incessantly. I preach the gospel of God's
free grace in this place and everywhere I go. Some of you
have traveled with me to different places. The message doesn't change.
It doesn't change. I preach the same thing here.
I preach somewhere else. The same thing there. I preach
here. God's absolute sovereignty. I mean by his sovereignty, specifically
his sovereignty in the exercise of his grace. He has mercy on
whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Salvations
of the Lord. Unconditional election. God chose
some to everlasting life, and save them he will. Man's total
depravity. Man is lost by nature, dead in
trespasses and in sins. Unless God does something for
you that you cannot do for yourself, unless God gives you life, you're
going to hell. Salvation's entirely God's doing. We delight to declare limited
atonement. I mean by that Jesus Christ effectually
accomplished the redemption of God's elect by the sacrifice
of himself. No possibility that any sinner
for whom Christ died shall perish in hell. We preach freely and
preach relentlessly that all who believe on the Son of God
are born of God and shall persevere to the end, being kept by God's
free grace, called by the irresistible power and grace of His Spirit,
and kept by that Spirit in life everlasting. And we, believing
on the Son of God, are free from the law. Totally, absolutely,
completely free from the law. Oh, now, Brother Don, you need
to explain that. OK, we're dead to the law. I mean, the law got
nothing to do with us. We got nothing to do with law.
We're free from the law. Believers are walked together
before God in the freedom that's ours in Jesus Christ. I take
you to record. Have I ever preached anything
else to you? That's the message. God being
my strength, it won't change today or tomorrow. no matter
who changes. If we must, as the tribe of Levi,
stand alone, one tribe in twelve, alone we will stand, but we will
not depart. We will not deviate from the
word of God and the gospel of his grace to entertain sinners
on the road to hell and make them think that we're doing them
some favor and getting them into the kingdom of God. Such preposterous,
base idolatry. Men must repent of or they must
perish. And that means Bob Duff and Don
Fortner. Doesn't matter who it is. Doesn't
matter who it is. Let's look and see what we've
got in this passage. There is a dreadful conflict
going on in our day. A warfare between Christ and
Satan. between light and darkness, between
truth and error, between Christ of God and Antichrist, the Gnosticism
and the compromise, the denial of God's saving power and grace,
the operations of his spirit. And you must decide between the
two. And it's not a decision that's
made yesterday. It's a decision must be made
every day because every day you're confronted with it. You'll be
confronted with it with family and with friend. You'll be confronted
with it from the pulpits of churches, from the radio, from the television,
from the religious world around you every day. And every day
you must decide whether you will follow God or follow Baal, whether
you will worship God or worship yourself, whether you will choose
the side of Christ or of Antichrist. Second Thessalonians 2, I read
to you a little bit ago, speaks so plainly of this. We live in
this day. And if we are not deluded by
the freewill works religion of this age, enticed in some way
or another to compromise the gospel of God's glory, we will
be gobbled up with this darkness. And the only reason we're not
is if God has chosen us unto salvation. At the outset, I want
you to know, if we follow Christ, it's going
to be war all the way. Children of Israel didn't know
anything in those 40 years in the wilderness except war, just
unceasing conflict. Thank God in this place, we have
peace and joy and sweet fellowship in the gospel. Hell, I thank
God for that. But it's been now 43 years since
God saved me by his grace. And it's been 43 years of unceasing
battle with false religion. And the worst of the conflict
is in your own house, with your own family, with your own sons
and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, husband
or wife, neighbor and friend. And Larry, it's hard to just
keep that up incessantly. After a while, you, oh, let's
not say anything else. Let's figure out a way to get
along. So that's the first thing. The
Lord God calls us throughout this book to engage in a warfare. He calls us to come out of Babylon
and come to the Redeemer. I'm calling for you and me to
choose the path of faith, not of unbelief. Skepticism is the
way of the world. Unbelief is the way of the flesh.
That's how the whole world operates, and the religion of the world
operates as it does because of skepticism and unbelief. Most
of what goes on in churches in our day most of what's done in
the name of God in the name of Christ Can be performed justice. No, not just as well. It can
be performed better if God's not around Just push him out
It can go on where nothing would change if there were no such
thing as the Spirit of God. None of the results would change
Nothing would change everything would function just fine without
God because the religion of the day has said let us Set God out
of his house and to do everything they can to get rid of him Faith
is the way of life Faith is the way we worship God faith is the
way we serve our God and We don't sit down and count up and see
what we can do. We seek to know his will and
go do it. Without faith, it's impossible
to please him. The just shall live by faith. We worship and serve our God
and do his bidding by faith. And if we don't do it by faith,
we don't do it. It's just that simple. To believe God is to
rely on him. is to trust him, to trust and
rely on the revelation of God given in his word concerning
his son. It is to trust and rely upon
the promise God gives in his word, every single word of promise.
It is to trust and rely on the word of truth, the message of
God given to us in scripture. And I'm calling for you, my brothers
and sisters, my friends, My wife and her husband, I'm calling
for you and me to choose the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace in Christ and reject every religious superstition of this
world. If we would follow Christ, we
must turn our backs deliberately on the world. Hold your hands
here in Exodus and turn to Galatians chapter one. Paul writes to the Corinthians
and says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ. Not if
any man love, not some Jesus, not if any man love, not his
ideas about Jesus. If any man love, not the Lord
Jesus Christ, love him as he reveals himself in this book. If any man love, not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let that man be damned. Let him be anathema,
Maranatha, the Lord's coming. Galatians chapter 1 Paul writes
to these Galatians whom the Judaizers had duped into mixing grace and
works Who'd they'd bewitched and turned them from the gospel
of Christ? He says in verse 6 I marvel that
you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace
of Christ to another gospel Which is not another but it there be
some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ
But though we are an angel from heaven Preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be
accursed. And folks think I'm stout. Folks
think I'm too strong. Let him be damned. Let him be
damned. Anybody who preaches any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. The
religion of Christ is the gospel of God's pure, free, sovereign,
unconditional, effectual grace in Christ our substitute. The
religion of the world is any deviation from it, any addition
to it, anything that mixes grace and works. Turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 6. You can't follow Christ if you
don't turn your back on Antichrist. You can't follow Christ if you
don't come out of Babylon. If you can't, if you can't just
absolutely say no to the religion of the world, you can't follow
Christ. Second Corinthians chapter six,
verse 16. What agreement at the temple
of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God.
As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and
will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come
out from among them and be you separate, saith the Lord, and
touch not the unclean thing. David, he's not talking there
about coming out of the bar and coming out of the grocery store
where they sell beer and coming out of the theater. Maybe you
ought to come out of those things, but that's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about coming out of the religion of this world.
The religion of your mom and dad, the religion you were trained
up in, the religion that teaches you to worship the works of your
old hands as though you were God. And he says, touch not the
unclean thing. Israel corrupted themselves,
we're told back here in Exodus 32. They corrupted themselves
in the worship of this golden calf. What were they doing? They
were worshiping a calf. It's called Hordam. The worst
kind of whoredom! Spiritual whoredom! Treachery! They've been led to by a man
who ought to have been serving their souls. Even a man who was
himself God's. A man by the name of Aaron. Treachery! You know, 2 Corinthians 6. Touch not the unclean thing,
but it's not such a great sacrifice, is it? And I will receive you. What'd you lose? And I will be
a father unto you. And you shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and the spirit. And he's still talking about
religion, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. What I'm
calling for is utter surrender. willing, glad surrender to King
Jesus. Our Lord said, whosoever does
not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple.
He said, you can't follow me if you don't hate your father
and your mother and your brother and your sister. Yea, and your
own life also. You can't be my disciple. What's
that talking about? Hate your father. Hate your mother. Hate your brother. Hate your
sister. Hate yourself. You can't be my disciple. Our
Lord gives us a hint. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. He let Esau do nothing. to impede the exercise of his
love for Jacob. Who's Esau? I love Jacob. What's Esau? Doesn't matter.
I love Jacob. What's Esau doing? That's irrelevant. I love Jacob. Where's Esau going? Don't care. I love Jacob. I'm
not going to let Esau interfere with my love for Jacob. And you
can't follow Christ. If my love for that woman interferes
with me serving him, it can't be done. What does she want?
That doesn't matter. What pleases her? That can't
matter. What does she desire from her
husband? That must be insignificant. So brother Don, that's too much. Frankly, it is for most people. It is for most people. but for
none who've seen the Son of God, for none who've seen His glory. If we would give allegiance to
Christ, we must give ourselves in unreserved, utter surrender
to Him, and set our hearts in opposition to our own fleshly
lust, to the world's allurements and charms, to the devil's temptations
around us. This is the engagement and the
warfare I set before you. It's a lifelong battle. Our Lord
Jesus is called a man of war. He stood before Joshua with his
sword drawn, a man of war, the captain of our salvation, the
captain of the Lord's host. Now, if we would enlist in this
army, We've got to have three things. If we would follow our
Redeemer, we've got to have three things specifically set before
us in this passage, back in Exodus 32. We've got to be forgiven, forgiven
of our sins because we're sinners justly condemned by the law of
the Lord. Our sins must be forgiven before
we can serve him. We can't serve him as we are
by nature. We must be forgiven. And in verse
32, Moses intercedes with God to forgive these people. And
blessed be his name. There is forgiveness with the
that thou mayest be feared. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. His forgiveness is free, full,
immediate, immutable, everlasting forgiveness. But you can't have
forgiveness with God without atonement. Got to be atonement. God requires
satisfaction. God requires sin be punished. And there must be an atonement,
blood atonement, or there could be no forgiveness. It is written,
without shedding of blood is no remission. These Jews, these
millions of Jews, there's millions of them, they've been dancing
naked around this golden calf. Their hands are all equally polluted.
Their hands are all equally defiled. They are all equally corrupt
before God. They've done this thing by their
own devising, being led by Aaron and Aaron being led by them.
And they're all guilty. But the Lord made a great provision
of atonement for some. After these folks were slain,
after these 3,000 men had been put to death. Moses
said in verse 30 to the people, ye have sinned a great sin and
now I will go up unto the Lord perventure I shall make atonement
for your sin. In a word We're not eligible
for grace except by blood atonement. We can't obtain mercy except
we come to God through faith in the precious blood of Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Our only hope is in the merit
of his blood. Our only hope is in the efficacy
of his work. We must trust his blood, crying
like that publican. God be merciful to me, the sinner. God, look on the blood and have
mercy on me. Be propitious toward me, the
sinner. And third. If we would serve our God, we must consecrate ourselves
to Him. Oh, God, teach me to do this
with every breath I draw, with every waking hour, with every
day given me in this world. Consecrate yourself to God. Look
at verse 29. Consecrate yourselves today to
the Lord, even every man. Upon his son and upon his brother. That he may bestow upon you a
blessing this day. Now there's a sense in which
this applies to me in ways that can't possibly apply to you.
There's a sense in which it applies to you and me alike as believers. I must demand of myself that which I must not demand
of you who labor and work and support the cause of Christ in
this place and around the world. I've said this to you many times.
I hope Rex won't mind me telling you again. We're going up to
Ashland when New Year's, some of us were to service. I'm not
sure it was New Year's. It might have been another meeting.
But Rex met me at the door and said, man, I'd love to go with
you tomorrow, but I've got to work. And I said, don't ever apologize
for me to work because you've got to work. If you didn't work
and pay the bills, I couldn't go. So I don't dare leave the
impression to you that you're somehow to neglect your work
and neglect your responsibilities in that regard. Please understand
that. A man who's called of God to preach the gospel better.
He'd better. If it means he has to do without
and his family has to do without, that's all right. If it means
you eat pinto beans instead of meat, eat pinto beans instead
of meat, that's all right. If it means that you buy your
clothes at the Goodwill, buy your clothes at the Goodwill,
that's all right. No shame in it. No shame in it. Now, God's
people ought not to allow that happen if they can do better.
But God's servant must not seek more. He dare not seek more. Not for himself, not for his
wife, not for his children. Every day, children of God, you
men and women and your pastor, consecrate yourself to the Lord. Look how I put it, upon your
brother and upon your son. Bill, what's important is not
what you consider best, or Vicki considers best, or your boys
consider best for them. What's important is God's glory
and God's will. That's all. That's all. Nothing else. Oh, but we've got
to live in this world. Means that's one thing I don't
have to do. I don't have to live in this world. And when God's
done with me living in this world, I'm leaving this world and the
sooner the better. And I'm as earnest as I can be.
No, that's the one thing I don't have to do. I don't have to live
here. I do have to live with God. Either
in the smile of his approval or in the fury of his wrath,
but live with him, I must. These Levites were required to
openly declare their allegiance to the Lord And so are we. They had to willingly be aligned
with the minority. And they were prepared for stern
conflict, put every man on his sword. And their love for Christ
meant the hatred of their kinsmen. And you know what they did? The
children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. They did
just exactly what God required. Let me see if I can encourage
this kind of commitment. You remember when David came out
to bring his brothers the goods from their father. The father
sent him out and said, go see how your brothers are doing. When
they were fighting Philistines and Goliath was out mocking Israel
and the Philistines were having a heyday. And David came down
there and his brothers mocked him and said, you just come down
here to show off. And you going back home, there's no place for
a boy like you. And David put on Saul's armor. I can't wear
this. And he took his sling and his
stones and he started out to Goliath. David, what are you
doing? What are you doing? How dare
you? What, what you possibly think
you can do against that man with those stones and that little
slingshot? And David said, is there not a cause? Is there not
a cause? The cause being the salvation
of God's elect. The cause being the honor of
God's name. The cause being the conquest
of hell. Let me in on that. Let me in
on that. Is there not a cause? I read one day this week, some
of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet people during
the days of the Civil War said to Mr. Lincoln, sir, we have
God on our side in this conflict. And Mr. Lincoln said, I'm more
concerned about something far more important, are we on God's
side? Are we on God's side? That's
the issue. Our cause is Christ's cause.
You know it is. Our Lord promises he will be
with us. And the angels of God are sent
to hold guard over us. You remember how Elijah prayed,
Lord, open my servant's eyes so he can see this. Take away
his fear. Take away his trembling heart. Take the cowardice out of him.
Elijah prayed, and the Lord opened his eyes, and the Lord opened
his eyes, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire round about Elijah. Your conscience bears witness
with me. This is the way, the only way there is to serve our
God. And so I call you, as Moses did,
who is on the Lord's side, who is on the Lord's side. Make it
your business to close ranks as closely and as tightly as
you possibly can with all who seek to worship God in spirit
and in truth. and pray that God will do what
the Apostle Paul said, I wish he would do to these who would
teach circumcision. He said, I would, they were cut
off, which trouble you. I would, they were cut off, which
trouble you. Quite literally, he's saying,
I wish that while these fellows are going around circumcising,
they would just slip the knife and emasculate every one of them,
make them all useless. Make them all useless. So brother
Don, won't you pray for these fellows? I do. I pray God will
make them useless. Totally, absolutely useless. Give them no voice and that he
will cause his word to be heard through all the world in this
day. Let me give you one more text.
Ephesians chapter six. To this end, let us take to ourselves
the whole armor of God. These Levites. Now I can't pass
this up. Before we get to Ephesians 6,
turn to Deuteronomy 33. Let me show you how Moses speaks about
these Levites later on. These fellows who put their swords
on their sides. And Moses is here blessing Israel,
Deuteronomy 33, by the Word of God, by the Spirit of God. Verse
8, of Levi he said, let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy Holy
One. That is, Lord, Let your lights
and your perfections be with Levi, whom thou didst prove at
Mesa, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah,
who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen
him. Now he's referring to what we
just read in Exodus 32. Father and mother, I can't see
them. Neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own
children. For they have observed thy word,
these children of Levi, and they've kept thy covenant. They shall
teach Jacob thy judgments and Israel thy law. They shall put
incense before thee and hold burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. Now, look at this. Bless, Lord,
his substance. Accept the work of his hands.
Smite through the loins of them that rise up against Levi and
of them that hate him That they rise not again now look at Ephesians
6 Get your pin out and I'll help
you Ephesians chapter 6 verse 13 Wherefore I take you to record
taken to you the whole armor of God. Somewhere beside that,
put you an X for Christ. He's the armor of God. He's my
defense and my shield. That you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, having done all to stay and stand, therefore,
having your loins girt about with, who is that? Truth. Christ, I'm the truth, he said.
And having owned the breastplate of righteousness, Christ, the
Lord, our righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, he is our peace, Christ the Lord. Above
all, taking the shield, he is a buckler and a shield. Christ
Jesus, the shield of faith, not, oh, if you believe God, you got
to, here's your faith and it's a shield. The shield of faith
is the crucified Christ. Take the shield of faith. Christ
Jesus, the Lord. Oh, if I just believed enough,
I'd have a shield. If I just had stronger faith, if I was
strong as you, I'd be better. No, Christ is the shield, not
your faith. Wherewith you shall be able to
quench the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of
salvation. Christ Jesus, the Lord and the
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, which is all
about Christ. praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and all supplication for all saints. Make your first
concern God's glory and God's honor in all things. Martin Luther
made this statement. He said, if I profess with the
loudest voice, and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of
God, except precisely that point which the world and the devil
are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ. What a statement. I'll illustrate
it for you from the book. You remember how Peter trembled
before the maiden? And he cussed and denied the
Lord Jesus before that maiden around whom were all the Sanhedrin
who were demanding the crucifixion of our Lord. In Acts chapter
4, he meets up with that same group of fellows again. That
same religious group. He and John had healed this impotent
man. And these fellows came to Peter
and said, we want to know by whose name and by what authority
have you done this? And Peter could have said, He
could have said, we healed this man at the temple in the name
and by the power of the Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel. And he would have been telling
the truth. And the Sanhedrin who hate God would have slapped
him on the back and said, well, brother, bless God. Tell us how
you did it. We want that same power. And Peter knew that. But he looked at those fellows
and I can I can almost see what he saw. I've been there more
than once. He looked at those chief priests
and the Sanhedrin religious leaders, and all he could see was that
mocking little girl saying, you're one of them. That's all he could say. And
he said, fellas, be it known to you that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, this man stands before
you whole." That's what it is to confess Christ in the teeth
of his enemies. Luther went on to say, where
the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. To
be steady on all the battlefront besides is merely flight and
disgrace if he flinches at that point where the battle rages. God, let us not flinch. Make us faithful for Christ's
sake. And the Lord bless you. Bless
your substance and accept the work of your hands and smite
through the loins of them that rise up against you, and of them
that hate you, that they rise not again. Amen.