I invite you to turn to two texts
of Scripture this morning. The first one is the 12th chapter
of the Gospel of John. Turn to John chapter 12. I want
to read verse 24 down through verse 26, and then we'll turn
back to the chapter that Brother Randy read for us out of 2 Samuel. John 12, beginning with verse
24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him
follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my Father honor. Now if you would please turn
back to the book of 2 Samuel chapter 15. And I want to read verse 19 through
21. Then said the king to Attia,
that's 2 Samuel 15, verse 19. Then said the king to Attia the
Gittite, wherefore goest thou also with us? Return thy place,
to thy place and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger
and also in exile. whereas thou camest but yesterday. Should I this day make thee go
up and down with us, seeing I go whither I may return thou, and
take back thy brethren, mercy and truth be with thee. And Attia answered the king and
said, As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely
in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or
life, even there also will thy servant be. I wanted this morning
to preach on loyalty. And I felt like that the text
of scriptures that I have read to you would serve for that purpose. Now here in the book of 2 Samuel
chapter 15, we see that these words that are spoken here concerning
David and these that have come out from the Philistines to serve
with him and to follow him and to be his loyal subjects, we
see that David at this time, that his fortunes are at their
very lowest ebb. We know that all have forsaken
David, and they have turned from him and have turned unto Absalom. Absalom has won the hearts of
the men of Israel, and their hearts had gone out after Absalom,
and Absalom was going to come into Jerusalem, and he was going
to dispose his father from the throne. And we see where that
David, when he realized this, that he turned his household
over to ten women, which were concubines to keep the house,
and the king went forth and all the people after him, and they
tarried in a place that was far off. They went off into this
place in exile in order to flee from Absalom and from those men
that he had gathered round himself. Well, all at once there were
600 men which came out from among the Philistines, which came after
him from Gath, and they passed on before the king. And the king
was, of course, greatly moved by their willingness to become
his servant and willingness to share in his situation and in
his ups and his downs. And he was very moved by this,
but he felt like that he did not or could not expect this
of them. And so he said in verse 19, Wherefore
goest thou also with us? Why are you going with us? because
you just came but yesterday, and you've not been involved
in my reign in Jerusalem, and you've not been in Jerusalem
to live and to share the benefits, bounties of the blessings of
God there. And should I this day make thee
go up? Should I say, come on and go
with us, and expect you to do it, go up and down with us, seeing
I go whether I may? return now seeing that i go where
i must go and that i must flee and i must run from absalom he
says i'd go whether i may be returned out returned that you
go on back and take back our brethren take back the six hundred
men and take them back and mercy and truth be with you god's blessings
are with you we can expect that you uh... would serve me at this
time And so Attia answered the king and said, As the Lord liveth,
and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord
the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also
will thy servant be. Now these men, as we've tried
to explain, were not Jews. They were Philistines. And they
were men who had been in debt, They were men that were thieves,
if you please. They were the low-lives of that
area in which they came out. They were, you might say, like
some of us. We came out of a pit, a horrible
pit, and the Lord found us in heathen darkness. The Lord found
us as we were in a state of rebellion, and as we were contrary to God,
and we walked in rebellion against His holy law. And these men,
as far as life was concerned, they had many, many downs, and
yet they were huge men, they were big men. They actually were
from the city that Goliath was from. And they were not trained
in the military academy of Israel, but they were warlike men, and
they would be fiercely loyal to David. They would be loyal
to him. Now, you might wonder why this
is so. Well, it is so, I believe, because
David was one who commanded those that were around him in such
a way that the hearts of men that were around him were knitted
to his heart. And they believed in his cause
and they would stand with him because they believed that he
was God's servant and that he belonged in the very position
that he was in. Now David here, I believe, is
a type of the Lord Jesus in his humiliation and his suffering. Now, you all know that David
here is a man who's gone up to worship God weeping, and he's
ran from Jerusalem, and he's being greatly afflicted and greatly
tested, and the Lord Jesus was such one. He was a man of sorrows
acquainted with grief, and we know that the Lord Jesus suffered
greatly on our behalf. Well, David was forsaken. As
we said, he was forsaken by everybody. One said that all faithful friends
had went on a pilgrimage from David, and none of them had come
back. They had left him in this place. And you remember when the Lord
Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, that the Bible says that all
men forsook him. All the disciples went away.
They turned away from David. Well, you remember here in the
story, as our brother read it to us this morning, that Ahithophel,
who was David's Henry Kissinger, if you please, he had been a
friend to David from his childhood. Well, he had forsaken David.
And even Mephibosheth, who, that lame-footed son of Saul, who
had sat at the table of David and had eaten at his table, he
also had left David. So David was in a position here
where he had no one really loyal near him and around him. And
so this attire, as you might pronounce it a little different
way, that's the way I always pronounced it, really doesn't
matter, I suppose, whether it's whether it's pronounced one way
or the other, but he was a type, I believe, of the true disciple
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a type of that one that
was truly one who would lose his life in this life and save
it unto life eternal. He's a type of one of those who,
like a grain of wheat, falls into the ground and dies. And
as it dies, it brings forth much fruit. And so this Attia, he's
an example of a true disciple of the Lord Jesus. He had one
loyalty and one only. One aim and one only. And we
have here, I think, a servant's surrender to his master. Come wheel or woe, be it life
or be it death, he says, I'll go up and down with the king.
I'll go up and down with the king. Whatever falls out to me,
I'll be loyal to you, David. Now affection, yes. These men
loved David. As we mentioned, he had won their
love, and their hearts were very much knit to him. Not to whoever
was king in Jerusalem at the time. They were loyal to David. They were loyal to King David. And I say to you this morning,
are we loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ? I ask that word. Are
we loyal to the Son of God? Now, such devotion we should
have to the Lord Jesus. The same devotion that Attia
had toward David, we should have that same devotion to the Lord
Jesus Christ. There was something about David
that inspired devotion to him, and from these strangers and
these foreigners, and they felt that they could enlist beneath
his banner, and they could do so for life. Well, I believe
there is more attractiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
to him, therefore, I ought to be the more devoted than Attila
was to David. I think I should be more devoted
to Christ than this man was to King David. Now, if we know what
Christ has done for us, if we know who He is and what He deserves
at our hands, at this good hour this morning we would vow, I
think, loyalty to Him and say, as the Lord liveth, surely in
whatsoever place my Lord and Savior shall be, whether in death
or life, even there also, will his servant be? I think if we
really understood who he is. Do you know who Jesus is? Well,
Jesus is the Son of God. He's the only begotten of the
Father. He that was full of grace and truth. He's that one that
came down from heaven. He's the true bread of God. He came down from heaven. He's
the water of life. He is God in flesh. He's God
incarnate. He's that one who has been appointed
and anointed of God to be the divine Savior of His people.
And He is that one who was willing to come lay aside His own will
and serve the will of the Father even unto death. He was willing
to lay down His life for us and to suffer the awful agonies of
the cross in order that we might be able to have a right standing
before God in Him. Do we know who He is? Do we know
what He has done for us? Are we aware of the fact that
He who was rich became poor, that we through His poverty might
be rich? Are we aware of what He's done
in that that He's given us a standing before God wherein we stand the
holy and without blame before God? wherein we stand without
spot or blemish upon our soul or any such thing, where we're
perfectly clean and where we're clothed in the white righteousness
of this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we aware of what he has done
for us, should we not vow our loyalty to him this morning? Now, there have been some believers
Now this man, Attiah, he publicly announced the fact and he followed
David across after David had spoken to him about returning. He said he would not do so, he
would follow David, he would go with him wherever he went.
And so he went over publicly, he went over in such a way that
everybody could tell where this man stood. There was a public
avowal by this man of his loyalty to King David. Now there have
been some believers that I have read about who were strong believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. that they would write out a deed
of dedication to Christ and sign it with their blood. They would
pick their finger and draw blood and sign their decree of dedication
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not commend or censor such
an act. I will say that a complete dedication
must be made in some manner deliberately and with grave thought to the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've been bought with a price
Beloved, the Lord Jesus paid the price of our redemption.
You were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we
have been bought with a price. In a distinct manner, we are
to own the Lord's property in us and to transfer Him, as it
were, to transfer to Him the tidal deeds of our body, of our
spirit, and our souls. We're to transfer ownership unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the first announcement of
ourself to Him should be by baptism. If we have believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ savingly, if we know that we pass from death
unto life, if we know that the Spirit of God is taken up abode
and lives in us, if we know that we belong to the Lord, then the
first announcement. Here he crossed over the river. He went across and He was the
first to go over. And so you and I must also, my
friend, announce that we belong to Christ and do so in following
the Lord in baptism. I really believe in my own heart
this morning that we should declare I'm henceforth dead to all but
Christ. whose servant I now am. And we say that in baptism. We
say that we're dead to all but Christ. We are buried. We are
buried in water in baptism and raised up to walk in newness
of life unto the Lord. Take myself and I will be ever
only all for Thee. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life, and my all. It demands everything. And so,
beloved, it's not too much to ask. Seeing that Christ loved
us and gave Himself for us, it is not too much to ask that we
should give ourself unto Him and that we should loyally follow
Him. In Matthew chapter 10, let me
read a couple of verses to you. Matthew chapter 10, beginning
with verse 32. Let me read these verses. Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also
before my Father which is in heaven. Ataia on David. And so we are to confess Christ
before men. And the Lord said, I'll confess
you before my Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever will
deny me, whosoever is ashamed of me, whosoever will not stand
with me, whosoever will not take my condition upon themselves,
Also, he says, I will deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to
send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he
that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy
of me. He that findeth his life shall
lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. And in Matthew 12 and verse 30
he says, he that is not with me Gathereth not with me, scattereth
abroad. Are we with the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, if you're not with me,
then you're against me. Do you stand with Christ? Are
you loyal to Him? Would you stand with the King? The King of kings, the Lord of
lords. These men stood with King David. Now I'm talking about loyalty.
That's what I'm talking about. Now, you know, I heard a story
a couple of weeks ago, I guess it was, and it kind of astonished
me in a way, and I don't know that you would agree with me
that it's worthy of mention, but I want to make mention of
this because it somehow or other struck a chord in my heart. Twenty years ago, there was a
man who came from Hawaii, He had married a wife about three
years prior to his coming to New York City. He came to New
York City and he shot John Lennon to death, who was one of the
Beatles. And as the story goes, he was,
of course, convicted and given 20 years to life in prison. He was put in prison. and he
is in prison to this day. Just recently, I guess, had a
parole hearing, but he told the parole board himself he was not
deserving to get out because of the heinousness of his crime. But his wife, whom, as I say,
he married three years prior to coming to New York and committing
this dastardly crime, she has been coming from Hawaii to New
York, where he's in prison, once a month, for all these 20 years. She has been coming faithfully
once a month. Her husband is in prison for
murder, but she has been coming once a month to visit her husband. Now you may think that that trust
is misplaced, or that loyalty is misplaced, but say what you
will about it. It is an example of loyalty,
is it not? I also remember reading a story
some time back of when Thomas Paine, the atheist, was speaking
one time to a huge crowd of people. The auditorium was filled. It
had a balcony, and the balcony was filled. And as he was speaking,
he was, of course, mouthing his ignorant nothings about God and
about the Bible and and of course all kinds of slanderous remarks
coming out of his mouth, and he issued a challenge to anyone
in the audience, if they would stand in defense of Christ, in
defense of God and the Bible, that they were to do so. Well,
there was absolute silence all over the auditorium. You could
have heard a pin drop. And all at once, There was a
17-year-old girl way back up in the balcony that stood up
and began to sing, Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers
of the cross, lift high his royal banner, it dare not suffer loss,
it must not suffer loss. And as she began to sing, There
were others that began to sing and began to add their voices.
And more and more until finally throughout the whole crowd this
song was coming up. It was a tremendous way of stating
her loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. But somebody had to start
it. And she was brave enough and
courageous enough and loyal enough to the Lord Jesus Christ to stand
up. Well, I wondered this morning
in thinking about Atiyah and his devotion unto David, I wonder
what all it entailed. What did it all entail? What
did it all mean? Well, I want to share with you
just a few things here that might help us somewhat. It meant, I
think, that this man intended to share David's condition. He intended to share David's
condition. Think about where David is. Think
about his lot. Think about his situation. And
this man said, I'm going to share with you your condition. Whatever
is your case is my case. His stock, if it goes up, mine
goes up. If his stock goes down, mine
goes down. Jesus said, foxes have holes,
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not a
place to lay His head. We must keep to Christ in all
weather and in all circumstances, whether in life or death, we
must stay loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. I will and must admit
that this has been one of the greatest tests of my life, to
remain loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ all of these 51 years. But I tell you this morning that
because, now let me just try to explain that. You know this
business of being a Christian is not child's play. This business
of being a disciple is not child's play. We just read where a man
must lose his life in order to be a disciple of Christ. He must
lose his life in this life. He must serve the will of God
in this life. Not his own will, not his own
way. He must go the way. He must like
a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die. He must die out
to himself. That's what a believer is. No
wonder this is a great test to anyone who professes to be a
Christian. Jesus said, you take up your
cross and follow me. And he said that if a man will
not take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple.
Whatever cross it is that God places upon your life, if you
will not take it up and follow Christ, if you reject it and
throw it off, you cannot, he said, be my disciple. And so
that, my friend, the cause of the mystery of providence. There
are so many, many things that happen in our life that we cannot
explain and we do not understand that we cannot fit in to our
lives and fit into this scheme of things as we believe in. We
walk by faith and not by sight. But there's a lot of things we
cannot understand. So sometimes we say, well, maybe we're on
the wrong track. Maybe we ought to cast off the
yoke that the Lord has placed around our necks and throw it
away and go in another direction. Well, the fallacy of fleshly
and carnal reasoning It causes us to have a great deal of difficulty
in giving up our lives and losing our lives in this world to the
cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, as I thought about this,
I thought, well, we needed to say some other things about what
this involved, what this declaration of a time, what it really meant. Well, the next thing I would
say was, not only did he say, this meant that I'm going to
take David's case, and I'm going to suffer as he suffers, and
I'm going to put up with what he puts up with, and I'm going
to be with him loyally in that, but he was to be David's servant.
He was to fight for him, and he was to do his bidding. Your
command, he would say, is my rule. Well, beloved, can you
say that as a believer? Can you say God's command is
my rule? Whatever God tells me, whatever
God says to me out of His Word from Genesis 1 through Revelation
22, that is my command. If not, then beloved, stand back. Don't mock Christ. Just take
your position over here with the scoffers and those who would
ridicule. the Lord Jesus Christ. You stand
back out of the way. Well, secondly, it meant that
he was to be the... There's a word here that I want,
but it just don't come to me real quick. He was to do his utmost. That's
the word I want. He was to do his utmost for David's
cause. He was not a soldier in name
only. Not in name only, but he was
ready, my friend, for scars. He was ready for wounds. He was
ready for death, if need be. He would do his utmost for David's
cause. Are we willing to do our utmost? Would we vow to defend of Jesus Christ, would we vow
to stand in that place and to defend the cause of the Lord
Jesus? You know we are denounced, those
of us in this church here, are denounced as hyper-Calvins, antinomians,
we're considered extremists. Are we willing to take our stand?
Are we willing to take the mud that is slung at us? My brother,
my sister, let me tell you something. You wear the mud that is slung
at us as a badge of honor. Wear it as a badge of honor.
Let us be extremists for Christ in this day when most are extremists
against Him. Was He not an extremist for us,
the Lord Jesus? What could be more extreme than
His everlasting, free, unchanging love for our souls? Jeremiah
31 and 3, He loved us with an everlasting love and drew us
with cords of love. What greater extreme could He
have gone for us than that He has gone for us? I mentioned
2 Corinthians 8 and 9 a few minutes ago, for you know that He who
was rich became poor, that we through his poverty might become
rich. Is that extremism? Is it? It is extremism as far as I'm
concerned. And Romans 12 verse 1 and 2,
I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. So you see, beloved, that's what
we're talking about. Our extremism for him is the
only thing that could possibly make any sense. Our doing our
utmost for his cause. Our willing, my friend, to bear
scars if necessary in order that we might stand loyal to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Okay, it meant in what place
David was, there he would be. Let us make the same resolve
in our hearts, that wherever Christ is, there we will be. You remember that verse that
I read out of John chapter 12? I'm going to just call your attention
to it again, 26th verse. He said, If any man serve me,
let him follow me, and where I am, there also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor. Okay, there also my servant shall
be. So this meant that wherever David
was, that's where he would be. He said, I'm just going up with
you and I'm going down with you. I'll go wherever you go. Well,
where is Christ? Somebody said he's in heaven.
Well, we're going to be there by and by, aren't we? We're going
to be with the Lord Jesus by and by. Well, where is he now
spiritually? Where is he spiritually? Well,
I believe he's in the church. I mentioned in my prayer that
the church is the place of habitation for God through the Spirit. Well,
I believe also that he's in the prayer meeting. When two or three
are gathered together in His name and they're crying to God
and praying to God, the Lord is there. He's there. He meets
with His people. And in the young people's meetings,
where we're attempting to teach the gospel and talk about those
things that are God-honoring and God-glorifying, that's where
the Lord is. And so that's where His servant
will be. You see, it doesn't make any
difference to me whether it's just a half a dozen or a dozen.
Of course, we'd like to see all of the young people come out.
We like to see this room full of people here when the gospel
is being preached. We like to see that, but if there's
only a half a dozen or so, if the Lord's there, then that's
where his servant will be. That's where God's servant is
going to do his best to be. So if you have the Lord, or if
you know the Lord, and if you love the Lord, I think you know
pretty well where his haunts are. You pretty well know where
he's at. You pretty well know where you
can find the Lord. You pretty well know that. Where
the truth is, that's where the Lord is. And so you go there.
And where the gospel is preached and where the word of God is
honored. Well, we are highly favored of the Lord because we
have the privilege of living for the Lord Jesus. Not to enrich
ourselves, nor to gain honor or fame or esteem, but to live
for Jesus, Jesus Christ alone in this world. We have that privilege,
and so where He is, may we also be found there. And then I think
there's a third thing, or another thing here, and that is that
it involved doing what was right. For this man to stand with King
David, it involved in doing what was right. David was the best
king that Israel ever had. I don't know whether you agree
with that or not, but I believe that's a true statement. He was
God's appointed king, and he was God's anointed man. And it
was right to stand with David. It was right to stand with him.
It is right for us to stand with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
right, my friend. Now, doing right is not going
to save your soul. But if you are a Christian, and
if you're a believer, then you ought to do right. And the right
thing is for you to stand with Christ, to stand with His Word,
to stand with His doctrine, to stand with His Church. Do right
if the stars fall. Do right if you have opportunity
to do wrong. Do right. Do right if it looks
like it's going to be your end. That it'll be the very end of
your life. Do right. There was someone that said to
George Washington's mother, they asked her how she could rear
such a splendid son. And she said simply, I taught
him to obey. I just taught him to do what
was right. And there was a lady a number of years ago, I read
this story a long time ago, who worked in the welfare department
of a large city. And she ran across a cripple
boy who could not walk and she was moved with compassion and
she adopted this little boy and spent years and spent a lot of
money in those days trying to teach and trying to help this
boy to walk, to learn to walk. Well, she succeeded in doing
so and she later told this story to a group of her fellow social
workers And as she told this story about teaching this boy
and helping this boy to walk, there was not a dry eye in the
place. It was quite a story. And the boy was now growing to
manhood. And everybody that heard this
story in that room, they wanted to know what had come of this
boy, what it was that he had grown up to be. Some thought,
well, he's probably grown up to be a doctor or maybe a lawyer
or some statesman. And so they asked her, what has
he grown up to be? And she said, he now walks the
halls of Sing Sing, a federal prison. And of course, they were
all astonished. And you see, she said, I taught
him how to walk, but I failed to teach him where to walk. And
so, my friend, it is right to do right. Do right. This is what
is involved in devotion and going up and down with the King. Doing
what is right in the eyes of the Lord. Next, I think it meant
that when David returned to the throne, and he did return, you
remember, God marvelously delivered him. And in the 19th chapter,
you could read this, we don't have time. Well, let me just
read a couple of verses here. In the 19th chapter, 2 Samuel,
in verse 14 and 15, And he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah,
even as the heart of one man, so that they sent this word unto
the king, Return thou and all thy servants." Keep that in mind,
and all thy servants. Return thou, and all of these
that stood with you, all of these 600 men, even of the Philistines,
you return with all of your servants. So the king returned, in verse
15, and came to Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet
the king, to conduct the king over Jordan. And so here we find
David returning. And so it meant that when David
was returned to the throne that Attia would go up with him and
certainly he did return with David. Now I don't have time
to get into the story about how Absalom was killed but those
of you that know the story remember how that Absalom was slain and
the Insurrection was put down and David was returned. Well,
you know the Lord Jesus is coming back. He's coming back. And I
want to say that we must be very careful about getting discouraged
in the light of all of the pressure and the stress and the difficulties
that's involved in our loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, being
loyal to Him. There are times when we grow
weary, do we not? In well-doing, we grow weary. But we must be very careful that
we do not get discouraged and throw in the towel. There's a
story that was told about a boy named Willie, and he was reading
a book. And as he read this book, he
got about the middle of it, And in the middle of the book, there
was a villain who had appeared that had gotten the best of the
hero in the book and was about to kill the hero. And so Willie,
as he was reading, he was reading as fast as he could to find out
what happened to his hero. And his mother cried out to him,
Willie, come here and do your chores. Come and do your chores. And of course Willie didn't want
to do that. He wanted to read to find out
what was the end of the story. Willie, she said, come and do
your chores. So immediately he turned to the
last pages of the book to read to see that his hero had overcome
and was triumphant. And so he was satisfied to lay
the book down and go on, even though he hadn't been able to
read every detail of it. Well, beloved, I believe in the ultimate
victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that the King is coming
back, and I believe the King is going to be returned to the
throne. I think he is already on the throne, but I believe
he's coming back, and that all are going to see him, all those
that believe on him, And I say to you this morning that as He
comes back, you know, we've already turned to the last chapter in
the book of Revelation, and we've read the last chapter of Revelation. There may be some things in the
middle that we might get a little discouraged about here and there,
now and then, but we've read the last chapter. We know what's
going to happen, and we know that Christ will reign supreme,
that He will be victorious in the end. Well, there's one thing
certain. I believe we all want to be loyal
to Christ. If we know him and we love him,
we all want to be loyal to him. Well, we cannot do this in our
own strength. We know that we cannot do it in our own strength. There was one time we said, Lord,
I'll follow you whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus gave him
a cool reception. And there was another one that
said, though all men forsake you, yet will I not. And you
know what Jesus said to that man? He said, I'll pray for you
that your faith fail not. Now, beloved, we cannot be loyal
to Christ unless we stay on the Lord, unless we continue to receive
day by day grace sufficient for the way, strength sufficient
for the way, and I believe that God will impart to us the grace
to be what we ought to be, that grace to be loyal to His Son
and to stand for His cause, that grace to do right, and to walk
in the way the Lord would have us to walk, I believe God will
give us that help and that grace. And I think we all ought to claim
it this morning in the name of Jesus and receive that victory
that he can give us in our hearts. Well, may we pray. Father, in
the name of Jesus, we thank you this morning that we had this
opportunity to talk about loyalty to the Son of God. Oh, we pray,
our Father, that whenever we, Lord, leave this world, that
that it shall be said of us that we were loyal to the Lord Jesus
Christ and that Christ was our all in all. and that our devotion,
entire devotion, was unto Him, and that we were His prisoners,
that we were imprisoned to Christ, and that we tried to walk in
His ways, and that we lost our lives in this world. Oh, that
it could be said that we lost our life in this life and saved
it unto life eternal. Father, be pleased this morning
to own the message. It's been very, very stutteringly
and and poorly delivered, but I pray that this message will
be one that is living in the hearts of your people for years
and months, our Father, months and years to come, and that there
will be great strength imparted unto each one of us by the example
of Attiyah there in 2 Samuel 15. Lord, give us grace and blessing
in Jesus' name. Amen.