Dennis had already read our text to us this morning. It's in verses 145 down to 154. And though we took two verses out of the next stanza, believe me when I tell you, I will be preaching that next stanza too at some point. Now next Sunday, Brother Dean Olive is going to be here preaching, so we'll not be in Psalm 119. I don't know what he's going to preach to you. He's probably going to step on your toes real bad, knowing him. No, he's a... That'll be good, Brother Ted. But he's a good teacher, preacher. Please pray for us as we travel to Beaumont, Texas this week. TO BE IN MEETINGS THERE WITH BROTHER PETE HUTCHISON AND SISTER MARIE AND THE SAINTS AT THE FREEWAY BAPTIST CHURCH. AND BROTHER JOHNNY CARTER IS GOING TO BE THERE AND ALSO SAMMY BURNS AND OTHERS THAT WE KNOW. AND DAVID PARKER AND I WOULD USUALLY RIDE TOGETHER DOWN THERE. BUT BROTHER DAVID PARKER IS GOING TO BE HAVING SURGERY THIS WEEK. DON'T FORGET TO PRAY FOR HIM. great evangelist and friend of this church, friend of this pastor for years now, Brother David Parker, going to have heart surgery on the 26th, so remember him in your prayers. Well, there in Psalm 119, just to catch up a little bit, verse 145, I cry with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord, I will keep thy statuettes. Notice right away that he said, cried. I cried unto the Lord. And the reason why he's crying is because David not only has perilous times happening around where he is, but I believe as a prophet of God, God has allowed him to see into the future to our time, and he's seen the perilous times that we are under. Remember, I preached a sermon a couple of Sundays ago about how the state of modern religion is this hour and how the state of the local church has become this hour. And certainly, you know, the culture has gone bad. It's very evident. If you turn on your TV, you can't help but see it. It's everywhere and, and, and it's sad to see it. And I told you last Sunday that what we are to do as believers is continue to defend the faith once delivered to the saints, Jude 3. That is what we're to do. We're to stand up against evil everywhere we go. Now we can, we can, love the sinners, and we do, we pray for them, we want to be saved, but we're not to engage, condone the sins that is blasphemic to our God. Secondly, I told you last week, we must continue to occupy, or two Sundays ago rather, continue to occupy until the Lord comes, that is to stay prayed up, continue to preach, proclaim the gospel everywhere we go till he comes, Luke 19, verse 13. Then lastly, and this behooves every believer to do this anyway, if you have any love at all for our country, and I hope you do, I believe we're all patriots here on the pews, and I don't use that term lightly. We love where we live. We love this country. I've lived in foreign countries, and as nice as Germany was when I was there, it wasn't home. I'm sorry, just wasn't home. So what are we to do? We're to continue to pray 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, seek my face, says God, and turn from the wicked ways, says God, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. Unfortunately, we have very few people who grace the church pews today who make that truly a matter in their life daily to pray for their country, to pray for this president. We like to rail on him. We certainly do, and he does a lot to be railed upon. Amen? But we're still to pray for this man. We are to pray for those that are in authority over us. But sometimes we don't. Now, why is it that we need to do these things? Why are we to stand? Well, because of what they're doing. They're trashing out the Word of God. They're doing everything to ban the Word of God. They're absolutely doing everything in the main, and it will come about to even close our churches. Now, down here at the Bible Belt, where we are, we don't see much of that yet. It's happening in other parts of the world with a lot of frequency, and sometimes even in this country. And so, we must be aware, we must be alert to the fact that these things are going on. Of course, there are many Christians that think and even believe that we should never use the word fight as we think about these things. We're not to engage in the practice of fighting. And you know that when I've used the word fighting as far as fighting against the world and all these things, I'm not talking about using your dukes. We can't do that. That's not what Christians do. But we are to fight back by standing for the Word of God with our very lives, showing forth that we are vigorous, vibrant, viable visions of Christ in this lost and dying world. That's what we're to be doing. As I was preparing for this message, I ran upon this from Chapel Library in Pensacola, Florida, where we get all of our tracts. And I don't know who wrote it, but here's what it says about fighting for spiritual causes. Listen very carefully. It reads thusly. There are some who teach that those Christians who engage in spiritual fighting are living below their privileges. They insist that God is willing to do all our fighting for us, and He does. But though God is sovereign, this is Daryl talking now, we're responsible. Are you hearing me? Though God is sovereign, we still have responsibility. Now for those who think we should just let go and let God, we need to remember that God expects us to not just sit on the stools of do nothing, but take, take the opportunity to stand for Him when it arises and before it arises. This goes on to read this way. There is a half-truth and yet only a half-truth in the idea carried about by let go and let God. Certainly we know that without Christ we can do nothing, John 15, 5. Yet this does not mean that we are to be merely passive. Or that the ideal state in this life is simply to be galvanized automatons, which is robots. and just stand by and do nothing. Just go to church, go home. Go to church, go home. There is also a positive and active, aggressive side to the Christian life which calls for the putting forth of our utmost endeavors to the use of every faculty, a personal, intelligent cooperation with Christ. And we are called to this. We are called to contend. That means fight for the faith once delivered to the saints. If you do not see that verse for yourself, go to the book of Jude. It's easy to get there. Hold your hand in there in Psalm 119. Flip to Revelation. You flip back one page from Revelation 1, you'll be in Jude. And Jew, we're instructed to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. This that we believe, this that we hold true, we're to contend for. This that we do, we're to contend for. The devil don't want us to come to church, does he? He does not want us to read our Bibles, does he? He does not want us to worship and praise the Lord, does he? He doesn't want us to live holy lives, does he? Therefore, we must contend for that that we hold true and we believe. Look there at Jude 3, contend, contend. Contend in the Greek carries these definitions. To contend with adversaries, to fight, to struggle, through difficulties and dangers even, to endeavor with strenuous zeal, to strive to obtain something, whatever it may be. And if you are a true believer, and you hate every false way the same way that God hates it, then you will stand up, stand out, speak up, and speak out. When folks around you trash out your Lord, use His name in vain, et cetera, et cetera, you'll say, hey, that's my Father. That's my Jesus that you're talking about there. When all this wickedness shows up, You'll take a stand and say, no, we can't do that. You know, there's a big thing going on in Methodist churches right now. Many of the Methodist churches are leaving United Methodist Church. And the reason why is they refuse to go along with this idea of being tolerant to homosexuality. And there's a big contention going on amongst some of these. It's unbelievable. Some are standing up for what is right. God hates them that speak against Him wickedly, that take His name in vain. As a matter of fact, back there in Psalm 119, now in verse 139, if you remember, David says that this has caused the zeal of it to consume him. He says, my zeal to stand against this kind of thing has consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy word. Not only had his enemies forgotten the word, they were multiplied against it. And this is what's going on in the world today, Romans chapter 1. They hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which might be known of God, they know, but they don't want to bow to it. Romans chapter 1 verses 18 and 19 through the rest of the chapter will show you how bad it is. This consumed David. David is saying pretty much, how dare they? And David would not be deterred. David would not be silenced or made to shrink back from pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, His Messiah to come. David was sure that the fear of the Lord was clean. During forever, the judgments of the Lord were true and righteous altogether, and they demanded from us not only our utmost attention, but our utmost defense of them. You know, really, truly what you're doing today here at the Providence Baptist Church, you there listening by sermon audio, you that will listen here today by Facebook, what you are doing by listening is contending for the faith that was once delivered to Saints where you are. God has you listening. God has you watching. God has you here this morning. Even some of you that are visitors here this morning, still God has you here. And He has you here contending for the faith. Every car sitting out in that parking lot out there is a sign that we are contending for the faith delivered to the saints. Everybody on these pews is a sign of you contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. The fact that you're listening to me has to be a sign that you are contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. So David would stand up, David would stand up, speak up, speak out for the Lord. He donned the whole armor of God, whereby his loins were girded about with truth, his chest covered by a breastplate of righteousness, his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And with the shield of faith, he was quenching all the fiery darts, the wicked that were cast at him, all the while having his head covered with the helmet of salvation and his hand gripping the sword of the spirit, which is, by the way, the Word of God. He was about defending the faith. He was all about occupying till the Lord would come, when Shiloh would come for him, when Messiah would come for him. But... You knew there was a but coming, didn't you? Let's be nicer. However, before you can do battle with the devil and his world, listen very carefully, there is something that you must do before you can fight the fight of faith. You must take the battle from the outside inside. Did you see what I did there? I pointed outside of our church here and then I pointed back at myself. How in the world can you call out others? How in the world can you witness to others? Stand against sin in others when you don't take care of your own sins first. Therefore, you must fight your greatest enemy." It's not the world. It's not this culture. It's not these churches that have gone off into the deep end. Your greatest enemy is yourself. Old Vance Habner, a dynamic preacher and evangelist from many years ago, whose books I collect because I love to read his sermons, once stated, and I quote, that the man most likely to steal your crown is yourself. You're to keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4, 23. You are in no greater danger from anyone or anything more than you are of yourself. Unquote. That is what David is crying about here. Look down at verse 150 of Psalm 119. David writes, They draw nigh that follow after mischief. They are far from thy law. Well, who are the they here, David? Well, David is, I believe, intimating that it is his sins. It is the means of hell that provoke him to sin. Sure, he may have all the external enemies you could ever have in human form that would want to hurt him. But David was not afraid of his external enemies. David had slew his tens of thousands, I remind you. David had taken battle to the Philistines over and over again and won time and time and time again. He was a man's man. He was not afraid. of any physical army. Some thought he was afraid of Saul. No, he wasn't afraid of Saul. Other than this regards, he was afraid that he would accidentally kill Saul and make God mad at him. Because King Saul was God's anointed. And David knew that if God anointed that man king, he couldn't do anything to him until God said so. David was a battle-tested warrior. He knew his warcraft well. No, these are not physical enemies he's talking about in verse 150. These were the enemies from the spiritual realm that provoked his flesh. This wasn't flesh and blood that was causing him the problem. These were principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual, wicked, and high places. the enemy of the saints that lurk just inside the supernatural curtain, operating with the prince of the power of the air, their leader and your adversary. And these enemies have one work to do as far as believers are concerned. and that is to excite your flesh to sin. They can't have you. You know why they can't have you? You know why demons can't possess believers? Because the Holy Spirit's in here. Well, they can't cohabitate together like that. No way. But they sure can't obsess you. They can throw darts at you all the time, trying to get at you. How could David, how could anyone fight the good fight of faith when their own sin was at issue? You can't tell others how to live right, to come to church, to pray, give an offering, etc., etc., if you don't. David realized he can't fight if he doesn't do right. Live right as he should as well here. And upon examination of his life, he withers under the weight of his own sins and begins to cry out to the Lord for help. Remember what I told you there in that verse, verse 145? Notice, if you will, David's conviction. That's my first point, those of you taking notes. Notice, if you will, David's conviction. He says, I cried with my whole heart. What he's saying is, I cried with all of me, my whole being. It has affected him from the top of his head to the sole of his feet, inside, outside. Conviction of sins will do that, you know. When you get convicted of your sins, it will trouble your mind. It will make you sick at heart, make you ache and hurt if you're a true believer. Because you know that in your sin what you've done, you've sinned against your Creator. You've sinned against His Son, your Savior. And it ought to every time affect you that way. Sin is supposed to be repulsive to us, to every believer. And when it's not, the Holy Spirit is going to see that it will with a heavy dose of conviction. By a show of hands, you ever been convicted for your sins? Oh, don't you hold out. You know you have. You know when you sin, the Holy Spirit hasn't let you get away with it, and conviction comes on, and man, you've ached till you made it right. Conviction can be a terror, so much so that secondly, David cries out, Hear me, Lord. I mean, he's aching. Hear me, Lord. And to show the Lord that he means business, he's offering something in return. I will keep thy statutes. I'll do it. I'll do it. And why is he going to do it? So that others will see that I mean business, that I'm being true and being faithful to you. The terror of the conviction was deep in his soul and he needs help here. If before you sin you didn't cry out for help then, believe me, you let that sin go unconfessed and unrepented for, and you will cry out for mercy eventually. I don't know if that was the case for David here, but what he sees outside has certainly vexed him. We done covered that. But now he's being vexed of what he knows of himself. I will keep thy statutes. I remind you that David was living under the law there in the Old Testament. This was his way of saying, I will make payment for my sins. And that's what the Hebrews had to do. When they sinned, they had to bring an offering to the temple, to the tabernacle, wherever it was, for their sins. Sometimes they'd bring two turtle doves. Sometimes they'd bring a lamb. Sometimes they'd bring a bullock. Sometimes they'd bring a drink offering, a grain offering, whatever it was, but they had to make payment for their sins under the law. We don't have to do that because we're under grace. Under the law, the understanding was, I will if you will, says the Lord. Good works in bringing those sin offerings had to be performed to get forgiveness until Shiloh would come. Shiloh is another name for the Messiah to come. They were all in wait of the Messiah. They're doing the things they're doing. That is, the believers of the Old Testament are doing the things they do in bringing their offerings because they believe the Messiah is going to come. And when he comes, they won't have to do those things any longer. So David is throwing himself on the mercies of God. And what he's done here is in his heartache and in his conviction, he said, I will keep thy statuettes. Secondly, notice that conviction does bring chastisement if you don't take care of the conviction. Let me say it again. Conviction always will bring chastisement if you don't take care of the conviction. Now, understand chastening is spanking. Of course, none of y'all have ever been spanked, I can tell. You're such good people. And I know that you never used the Board of Education on any of your young'uns. But you have. Don't you shake your head, no, you know you have. Sometimes the Lord has to do the same thing. And I want to tell you, the Lord doesn't relish giving His children a spanking, but sometimes He has to, especially when they're disobedient, when they sin. Now, one of the things that God does in chastisement that we sometimes forget is that He'll let the conviction be the chastisement. Listen very carefully. Instead of a whooping, God pours on the conviction of the believer with such harshness that it puts the believer on their face. And once the believer knows that affliction, they are not soon quick to go back to their sin. My brother and late sister would tell you right off that they had rather have our mother spank us than to start crying and preach to us. Conviction is like preaching from the throne of God. Sometimes we might ought to wish that God would just go ahead and spank us real good, rather than the conviction, because conviction can hurt so badly. I remember one time that someone said they didn't want to see their mother cry or hear a lecture. So what they would do, they'd just go bring the belt to her in advance. So they'd go out and they'd break off a limb off the hedges and strip it up and say, here mama, this is what I've done. Of course, with my mama, she'd say, oh, really? Wham, wham, wham. But see, he's crying because the lecture is bad. The lecture hurts. Remember, God said this of David, that David was a man after his own heart. There was such a deep, abiding relationship with David and the Lord that any time that David sinned, he knew he was hurting his friend, his father, his God. He knew it. He knew it. And so this is why the word cry is used here so much. I cried. Look at verse 146, I cried unto thee. And he says, save me and I shall keep thy testimonies. Understand that David's not asking for salvation as if he is a sinner and wanted to be saved that way. David was already a believer. He's confessing that daily his enemy, his sin was there and he needed help to overcome it. And certainly he didn't want to offend his Lord with it. So help me, save me from myself. Save me from the devils and demons who would come after me. But more than anything, save me from your chastisement, Lord. Save me from that. He knew what conviction was like. He knew how hard it can be. Save me from that. But foremost, verse 150, he acknowledges how grievous his sin is. And he says, they don't either. They'll fall after mischief. And that's what your sins do, by the way. Your sins are mischief. They're far from God's law when you commit them. But they're always going to happen. You know what the devil does? And this drives me insane. The devil's always bringing up my past. How about you? I just remind him of his future and go on, though. It's the best thing to do. But the devil knows exactly how you are. He knows what floats your boat. And He'll make sin so pleasurable that you can't hardly let go of it. You and I both know that there are many darts the wicked thrown at us daily. Secondly, you know the Lord makes a way of escape for us to get away from Him. And thirdly, if you'll be honest with yourself, you also know that many of the sins you commit, you commit willfully because you enjoy the pleasure of it. That's why David wanted to be saved from. Yes, he wanted to be saved from the wiles of the devil, but also the wiles of his own flesh that was indeed his enemy. Hey, we give Satan too much credit for the things that happens around us and happens to us. You know that? A lot of the blame is on us. He don't have to be around. And our little old pet sins, our little gossips, our little white lies, our little things that we like to do behind closed doors is so pleasurable to us. THE DEVIL DON'T EVEN HAVE TO GET US TO DO IT, WE DO IT ON OUR OWN. DAVID WANTS THIS RECTIFIED HIMSELF. HE'S WAITING ON AN ANSWER. AND GOD IS EVIDENTLY MAKING HIM WAIT FOR IT. BECAUSE CONVICTION ALWAYS BRINGS CHASTISEMENT, AND HERE IS THIS CHASTENING. I HATE TO SAY THIS, BUT SOMETIMES AN AFFLICTION CAN BE THE BEST THING FOR A MAN OR A WOMAN. SOMETIMES BEING PUT ON THE FLAT OF YOUR BACK TO WHERE YOU CAN ONLY LOOK UP, SOMETIMES THE BEST THING CAN HAPPEN TO YOU. YOU CAN SIN TOO FAR. YOU CAN KEEP DOING THINGS OVER AND OVER TILL GOD HAS ENOUGH. SOMETIMES LOSING MONEY, LOSING OPPORTUNITIES, BY THE CHASING HAND OF THE LORD, GOD ALLOWS BECAUSE YOU WON'T GIVE UP YOUR SIN. Blow holes in your pockets. Cause trouble between you and your wife. Unless Brother Darrell marries you and then you're okay. Cause all kinds of... because you won't give up your sin. Because you won't do what you're supposed to do. You know, many times the ailments we have, even, we have because we refuse to get into this thing completely like we ought to. What I mean is you don't serve God as you should. Bounce around all over the place, do this, do that, do everything else, and won't get stuck right on God, with God. And I tell you, these afflictions that he puts on us can sometimes teach some long-lasting lessons that will stay with you and keep you looking over your shoulder. Sometimes they result in all-night prayer meetings TO DEAL WITH OUR SINS AND GET RELEASED FROM THE CONVICTION. I DON'T KNOW IF I'M MAKING SENSE. YOU FOLKS OUT THERE ON FACEBOOK, YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT? SOMETIMES IN MY LIFE, MY SINS AND THE CONVICTION OF THEM HAS MADE FOR SOME LONG NIGHTS IN MY LIVING ROOM WHILE THE REST OF THE HOUSE WAS ASLEEP, ME DOWN ON MY FACE BEGGING GOD TO FORGIVE ME. THE HORROR OF THE CONVICTION JUST GOT THE BEST OF ME. Holy Spirit sometimes will say, you know you're a preacher, right? You know you're a child of God, right? Yes, Lord, yes. Forgive me. And it doesn't have to be an outlandish sin. It doesn't have to be something like adultery or fornication, robbing a bank. It can be just a haughty, high-minded spirit, a gossiping long tongue, a know-it-all attitude. And those things. David said, verse 147, I prevented the dawning of the morning. He was so broken, aching over his sin and the conviction of it that it is a 24-hour pain in him. He cries out again, I've hoped in thy word. That's all I have. I hope in thy word. In your word, you promise grace and mercy. Lord, hear me, see me. David's throwing himself on the altar of God, if you will, and begged for mercy from this ache, this pain. Verse 148, my eyes prevent the night watches. In other words, he's not going to sleep. There is no six to six, six, excuse me, three to twelve and no twelve to seven, seven to three. With him, he's awake all the time. It's hurting so bad. He's losing sleep. and he's losing sleep not because of just the pain. He's meditating on the Word of God, trying to get an answer, trying to get the Lord to see him and forgive him and get help for his sins and get relief from this conviction affliction. I don't know if you've ever done that. I don't know if you've ever been so grieved over your sins or broken over your sins that you grieved about it. I don't know if you've ever had conviction so thorough that it made you cry bitter tears over your sins. You might have had when you were lost. When the Lord began to convict you of your life without Christ and where you were going to hell, then you may have been absolutely convicted and needed relief. And you cried out to the Lord, save me. Well, that's not what David's doing here, but it has the same mindset. God came and the Lord saved you and you were able to turn over finally and get some sleep. I've heard people say that there's been conviction so heavy on them before they were saved that they didn't sleep for a month hardly. And then finally, the light shone through, God saved them, and they began to sleep like a baby. Not on the pews. Stop that. Stop that. But in David's case, he wants hell to be able to stand clear of all sin encumbrances. He wants to lay aside every weight and the sin which did easily beset him and be able to run with patience the race that was set before him. And that race was to stand up, stand up for Jesus. Which brings us certainly to this point. Conviction should always bring confession. Notice in verse 149, I'll get it out here in a minute, what David confesses. He says, Hear my voice according to thy lovingkindness, O Lord. Quicken me according to thy judgment. Now listen very carefully. That word quicken here, in this instance, means to make me alive or aware or open me up according to thy judgment. It has a sense of David saying, whatever you think of me, whatever you want to do with me, however I have offended you with my sin, have thine own way, Lord. Have that on way. Thou art the potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will. Here I am waiting, yielded and still. Whatever you decide to do, do it. Verse 150, because my sins follows me like mischief, and it's far from your law, and I know you can't be happy at that. Help me, Lord. Whether speaking of external enemies or his own, David is especially speaking the truth over both of them. He cannot right the situation of his own steam. He knows God must do it. God must forgive him. In verse 151, David's confession begins, Thou art near, O Lord, near enough to see my enemies, near enough to see my sins, near enough to see me, near enough to help me. Thou art near, O Lord, and all Thy commandments, that is Thy Word, is truth. I know that whatever you do to me, for me, will be right. Do y'all know that? Raise your hand if you know that. I'm going to quit in just a minute. I hope you're not going to sleep. I'm yelling as loud as I can. And then lastly, conviction always brings a conclusion. I'll hurry along. Verse 152, David says, Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou has found them forever. In other words, your word will stand when the world's on fire. Nobody's going to get out from under your word. Remember what I read to you this morning in Revelation 20 at the great white throne judgment. Nobody is going to get out of that that doesn't believe in Christ Jesus, our Lord. But David is also saying there in 152, in other words, I can trust you. I can rest in you. You are my sword and shield, giving me light in darkness of night. Your heavenly love provides for that. And though this is the beginning of the next stanza, by the way, I want to include verses 153 and 154 as part of the conclusion of David's conviction. David cries to the Lord, Consider mine affliction. and deliver me, for I do not forget thy law. Plead my cause." Now this is strange right here. Plead my cause and deliver me, quicken me according to thy word. I thought through these verses that David was pleading his cause, that David was pleading his own cause, and he was. But what David is doing here, listen, listen, look up here. David is appealing to, he's appealing to his Messiah to come. What? Plead my cause. Listen, who do you think pleads our cause in heaven right now? Jesus. He is our intercessor. He is our mediator between us and God. He pleads our cause. He prays for us. He stands up for us. That's what David's saying. David don't have a plea. You know, we sing that song, just as I am without what? One plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. That's all I got. Well, David's saying that in advance. The Messiah hasn't come yet, but he knows what the Messiah can do and what the Messiah will do. And he says, plead my cause. So the conclusion to his conviction is, he's turned it all over to the Lord. I can trust Him. Quicken me. You can't fight the fight of faith once delivered to the saints until you get yourself right. Do battle with yourself first. I guarantee you'll be able to do battle with the enemy. I went through nine weeks of basic training. I went through nine weeks of AIT, another nine weeks of advanced AIT, some airborne training, and I latched on to every course I could find to help me. The reason I did that was that I was going to get drafted in 1971, so I went ahead and enlisted. And so I got on a bus in Chicago where I was living at the time and rode out to O'Hare Airport with the guys who also came at the same time I came in. Vietnam War was still going on. And when I got out to Fort Lewis, Washington to basic training and I started seeing some of these guys that had come off the streets of Chicago. and how they were doing business sometimes, and how unruly they were. I thought to myself, I don't want to go to Vietnam. If these guys, I'll get killed. When I got into advanced training, same thing. And then, because of my MOS, I had to take some infantry training as well. And when I saw those guys, man, I started to learn how to shoot real quick and got a pretty good aim. I thought, man, if I got to go to Vietnam, I better not go with these guys. Of course, it didn't matter. They'd send you with whoever. But if I was going to go, and I got orders to go, I was going to be ready, at least the best I could. Now folks, listen to me. These sermons that I have been delivering to you for these last few weeks, let me take that back. All these sermons that I have been preaching to you since you've been here, has been to help you get trained up FOR THE BATTLE THAT EVERY BELIEVER MUST FACE, NOT ONLY WITH THEMSELVES, BUT ALSO WITH WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE WORLD. YOU GOT TO KNOW YOUR ENEMY, BUT YOU ALSO GOT TO KNOW YOU. MOST OF ALL, YOU GOT TO REALLY KNOW YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR. Do you know him today? We sing a song here at this church. Jesus, O Jesus, do you know Him today? Please don't turn Him away. O Jesus, my Jesus, Without Him, how lost I would be. I adjure you today, get prayed up, get confessed up, get armored up. It's coming. Perilous times are here. Will you be able to stand? Will you be able to stand therefore with the whole armor of God on? Or will you just take a piece here or a piece there that looks good on you? No. Get ready. Bow your heads. Fathers, we come to you this morning. I only know the lives of these people to the extent that they've shown me. I only know the lives of these people by their appearance upon the pews and how they live for you. I only know the lives of these people by how they treat you and your word. Behind the scenes, Lord, you know them. Behind the scenes, you see, Lord. I can't answer for them except for what I preach to them. How they take it is entirely up to them and you. But Lord, as their pastor, as the under-shepherd of this flock, my heart is ablaze today that they come to a reckoning with themselves, with you, and with the times that we are in. AND THEY READY THEMSELVES TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH. LORD, IT DOESN'T MATTER IF WE BE KILLED IN BATTLE. IT DOESN'T. FOR WE KNOW THAT IF THE ENEMY KILLS US, TO BE ABSENT FROM OUR BODY, TO BE PRESSURED WITH YOU. WE CAN NEVER LOSE. BUT WE WANT TO BE FOUND LIVING FOR YOU TO THAT END. Oh Lord, how many times have I read the Book of Martyrs, Fox's Book of Martyrs, of saints who have been burned at the stake, who've had their tongues cut out, their loved ones drowned, burned in flames and yet they stood for you to the last breath. Lord, that's what I want from me. That's what I want from me, Lord. I want that no matter what the Antichrist system does to me, no matter what the world does to me, Lord, that I stand upright and say, Jesus is Lord and King to the glory of the Father. And on my dying lips, may I be rejoicing in the grand hope of our blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ, our Lord. May it be so for everybody in here. And if there's anybody in here this morning that's got sin in their life that they need to deal with, I plead, Lord, with them right now where they're sitting. They don't have to come down here in front of the church, but right there where they're sitting, that they would confess their sins to you and ask you, Lord, to forgive them, to cry like David and ask for help. And Lord, if we do need to pray with them, we'll be glad to. The church will be glad to. BUT SALVATION HAS GIVEN US A RIGHT TO COME TO YOUR THRONE, LORD, PERSONALLY, AND ASK FOR MERCY. SO LORD, I HOPE YOUR PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER THAT AND WILL, LORD, CHARGE TOWARD THE DIVINE ALTAR OF HEAVEN AND THROW THEMSELVES UPON THAT ALTAR AND SAY, LORD, HERE I AM. Please, forgive me my sins, take me, do with me as you will. These things we pray in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.