Welcome to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church in Donaldson, Arkansas. This is Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching in our regular Sunday morning service. Good morning. But to be here today, appreciate Brother Dan's remarks, the prayer there, by himself, purged our sins. You know, if people just understood that little simple thing, somebody might ask us, why don't y'all have missionaries? Well, we believe by himself, he purged our sins. We're not sending people out to get people to have him. Now, we do have evangelists, people who go out there and tell people what he did. You know, evangelism is in the Bible. The word missionary is not in the Bible, okay? So we shouldn't even have to say any more about that. But anyway, by himself. Well, this morning I've got a subject I want to talk to you about. I'm going to title this message Postures and Attitudes. And I want to talk about different postures and attitudes that we as God's people should possess in our lives. You know, a lot of times we don't know how to think about something, how we're supposed to respond, things come across us in our life when we meet people or around other people and we struggle sometimes with what we're supposed to think or be or say or do. And so the Bible says a lot about those things and even about our personal relationship with God and even our own inner feelings, the things that we struggle with in our lives concerning sin and how we are to honor the Lord and the people around us. So there is a posture and attitude, and there's so many of them, I'll never get to all of them today. You start a subject, you start studying it out, and you're thinking, I'll never get to all this. But you got something. So I got something for you this morning to think about concerning postures and attitudes. So we're supposed to forget some things. We're supposed to remember some things. We're supposed to hold on to some things. We're supposed to let go of some things. We're supposed to stand for some things. There's all these things in the Bible that we as God's people are supposed to do. Now I'm not saying that everybody has to remember every one of these things when you walk out of here today, right? But they are things that are basically become your subconscious, you know? They're things that you learn and you already know once you've come across them in the word of God. So first thing I'm gonna talk about is forgetting. In Philippians chapter three, the apostle Paul, writing from prison, writes to this church that he referred to many times as his joy in his crown. He loved this church so much. He remembered it, they began, if you recall, with the Philippian jailer and Lydia. Those were the first two converts of this church at Philippi, and they loved Paul. They took him to his home and to their homes, and from that, a church was founded. So from prison he writes to him and says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, And reaching forth into those things which are before, I pressed towards the mark for the prize of a high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Well, there's certainly some things that we are supposed to forget. Paul, as he wrote this, without question, he was thinking about some things he wanted to forget, and he was forgetting. You'll recall his former life when he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, had great power not only politically but also among the Jews in the Jewish church. And he used all that power to put Christians to death. He even entered into homes and took parents away from their children, had them put to death. And he had that on his conscience. And you can imagine, you know, how he must have felt as he recognized how wrong he was when the Lord dealt with him on the Damascus road. And he said, who are thou, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. You know, Paul recognized in his personal experience how wrong that he was. You know, there's a lot of things in our personal lives that we want to forget, right? There's some sins. We look back on our former lives. We may remember the time when we were young and we were doing stupid stuff, you know, or maybe a mistake we made. You know, you could have made a mistake in a lot of things, you know. I don't have to go into all of them, but people make mistakes in marriages, they make mistakes raising their children, they make mistakes at their workplace, they make mistakes with their friends, we sin, and those things can continue to haunt us in our lives. There's nobody perfect in this life, and I'm not trying to give anybody an excuse for their sin this morning. but there is a time that we need to forget some things. The Lord does not want us carrying all this baggage all of our life and dragging it around because we've made some mistakes. We are to forget things. In the book of John, John says that we are to confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins. So we're supposed to confess our sins to the Lord and then move on in our life. So there are definitely some things that we are supposed to forget. Now, there's nothing wrong with learning from your mistakes. We should learn from them. You know, we find ourselves a lot of times committing the same sins, making the same mistakes over and over again. And finally, when it becomes painful enough, we say, wait a minute, I better think about this a little differently now and do things differently. But I want to tell you this morning, it's not a sin for you to forget. to forget the mistakes you've made and to get up on your feet again and to get started and to enjoy the blessings that God has before you. So in order to forget some things, we're supposed to also remember some things. So the apostles had a problem remembering things. The Lord would continue to bring them up before them. And so you remember the time when Jesus fed the multitudes? He did it three times. And on the third occasion, they had gone out on their journey and Jesus told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they said, gosh, we forgot to take some bread today. We didn't bring anything to eat. We're going to starve to death out here in the wilderness. Now I don't know about you, but sometimes I think the apostles were pretty stupid. I mean, I don't know. How could you be with Jesus? And he's fed thousands of people twice and now you're out in the wilderness and you're afraid you're going to starve to death. Wouldn't they remember that he had just turned like a few little fishes and fed thousands of people? And he had taken that bread and broken it and said, here, pass this out. And they only had a couple of pieces of bread and these thousand people out there. And they begin to break this bread off. Gosh, we still got bread left over. As a matter of fact, they had, was it seven baskets full when they got there? They could have fed another 50,000 from that if he divided it the same way. But they forgot. And then one of those occasions is in Matthew and he said, do you not understand, neither remember the five loaves or the 5,000 and how many baskets you took up? You know, that's what we did. The Lord has blessed us over and over again in our lives and gotten us here to this place this morning. Now, have you ever looked back in your life, in your journey, and go back and think about your trials and your troubles. Sometimes you're on your knees praying, Lord, please get me through this. And He did. Or you wouldn't be here today. But we come to a new trial in our life and we forget what the Lord has done for us in the past. You know, the Lord once said He would never forsake you or never leave you. He's going to always be there. That is a great consolation for me. When I see a trial in my life, I know it doesn't matter how bad this trial gets. The Lord has always been there and He's going to be there with me in this trial. It may be painful. I may be full of sorrow. But I know the Lord is going to be with me and He's going to get me through it. You know, we think about old age. Sooner or later, we're all getting older, and one of these days, we're going to draw that last breath. And we worry about it so much, you know, as if this is not really supposed to happen to me. I'm not one of those people who's going to die. Everybody else dies. But not me. I'm not going to die. Yeah, you're going to die. But, you know, we forget. What do we forget? We forget that the Lord is gonna carry us home to live with him. That we're gonna see the redeemed family of God when we get there. That he has a multitude of blessings. I've told this story before. I love the story of Elder Glenn Blanchard. He went to the doctor. The doctor told Elder Blanchard, he said, your cholesterol is real high. What have you been eating? He said, well, I like to eat hamburgers and everything. And the doctor said, if you don't quit eating all those hamburgers, you're gonna die. And Elder Blanchard looked at him and he said, don't threaten me with heaven. You know, we know where we're going. Let's remember that, okay? When we start getting old, see a few gray hairs, well, think, you know, I'm just one step closer to glory, you know? You start feeling the bones are hurting, you know, you don't sleep as good as you used to, and you know, things aren't as good as they were, and they're not supposed to be, because the Lord's getting you prepared to where you don't like this life as much as you once did, and you're getting ready to go somewhere. He's getting you ready to pack your bags, We need to remember where we're going. We're going to be with the Lord. Our trials and our losses, whatever we go through, we need to remember that the Lord has been with us. You know, when I begin to look up the word remember, if you type a concordance or something, look that word up. It's in the Bible a lot. You know, hundreds of times I thought, there's no way we can even talk on Sunday morning about all the things that the Lord wants us to remember. But I came across one that was really interesting to me. It's in Deuteronomy 8 and 18. It's where Moses is speaking to Israel. And you know, they're gonna, about to forsake the Lord and they're gonna have their trials. But he says, but thou shalt remember. The Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which you swear unto thy fathers, as it is this day." I thought, you know, that is true. You know, we are not to try to become wealthy. The Bible talks about the riches and mammon. But did you know that by honoring the Lord, he blesses you with wealth? Now he'll give you about as much as you think you can handle. He's not gonna make everybody a millionaire. Don't think that. And I know that the wicked get wealthy by doing wicked things, but I'm talking about God's people here. You honor the Lord, I believe He's going to take care of you in your life. He's going to bless you to have the things that you stand in need of. You're not going to be begging for bread. You're not going to be out in the ditch trying to find a place to live. If we honor the Lord, He's going to bless us with things that we stand in need of. I remember my grandmother reminded me of a psalm when I was younger and opening a business up and wondering whether or not we would even make it. And she quoted the psalm and said that that they've never seen the Lord's people begging for bread. And that's true. You know, the Lord blesses us to accomplish those things in our life. And so we need to remember those things. You know, there's a lot of things to remember. Remember the Sabbath day. It's Sunday, right? We're supposed to remember Sunday as the day that we are supposed to be in God's house worshiping the Lord. I don't have to make a commentary on that. We all understand what it says. To young people, it says, remember thy creator. in the days of thy youth." Now, remember your Creator when you're young, that you would honor the Lord and honor your parents. Somebody might say, well, you know, you primitive Baptists, you don't have anything for the young people. Yeah, we do. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. That's about as simple as it can get. The psalmist said, I remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. Sometimes we forget about the great things that God has done in the past. You ever stop and think about the Red Sea? God parted the Red Sea. The walls of Jericho falling down. You remember all of the great miracles that Jesus Christ did? You know, we get to worry about all the things going on in the world around us. Remember the Lord's in control. Remember that He is sovereign over all things. We need to remember those things when we see the world falling around us, falling apart around us. Another thing we should remember, it says in Joshua 1.13, Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The Lord your God hath given you rest, and has given you this land. You know, that made me think about the church. You know, we need to remember that the Lord's given us this place. And it's a very special place. Special place. A place that we've learned a lot. We've fellowshiped together. I remember first coming to this church that I always remember first coming to this church. And we opened up those good old songs and started singing out of them. You know, what a difference. And you've been out in a lot of other churches. And I'm not running any people down. But I'm just saying there's something special here. You know, thus far, the Lord has led me on what a wonderful song. I remember first time I sang that, you know, I just connected with that song. I'm a stranger here below, what I am, tis hard to know. I am so vile, so full of sin, I fear that I'm not born again. You don't sing those kind of songs anywhere else. You know, tis a point I long to know. And a lot of the minor songs we sing, we need to remember that, my friends. We need to remember what the Lord has given us. Very special blessing that we have been given by God's grace, and if He's brought you to this place, and bless this place to be a blessing to you, then you must know he's working in your life in a very, very special way. So we're supposed to remember a lot of things. Well, concerning our postures and attitudes, there's some things that we remember when we talk to people. There's a time to answer people, and there's time not to answer people. So in Proverbs 26, we find something that may seem to be a contradiction. But really, it's not. There's a lot of things in the Bible that seem to be contradictions, but they're not. Proverbs 26 and four, it says, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be likened to him. And the next verse says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. Now, that's not a contradiction, okay? There is a time to answer a fool, and there's a time not to answer a fool. Now, we're talking about a fool, okay? We're not talking about one of the Lord's people. We're talking about a foolish person. and a person that doesn't care for the things of God. So we're not going to answer a fool according to his folly unless you be like him. So there's a fool out there and he's saying some stupid things and some things maybe just to get you all wound up. There's no need for you to answer him and get into an argument with him and get into the flesh or you're going to become just like he is. The Lord doesn't expect us to answer every person on everything. But there is a time that we do answer them when we have an answer that's godly and that we can rebuke them according to the Word of God. Now Jesus, we find Him many times in the Scriptures answering people. And sometimes He avoided them altogether. So if we're to be Christ-like, then we need to be like him. So in Matthew 21, we find him coming into the temple and the elders were questioning his authority and say, what authority do you have to do this preaching? And Jesus answered them. He said, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. And so he asked them a question. And so here is his wisdom as he answered them. He said, the baptism of John, whence was it? Was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned with themselves saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, why did you not believe him? And we're baptized. But if we say of men. We fear the people for all hold John as a prophet." And they answered Jesus and said, we cannot tell. So he answered them, but they were so confused, they didn't even know what to say back to him. And he said to them, neither I tell you by what authority I do these things. So there is a time and a way that we should answer people. Sometimes people ask me things. And I go away, and I'm thinking, I should have said this. I mean, I get the answer too late. But Jesus has the answer on the spot, what he should say. But there's a place where Jesus did not answer. In Matthew 27, he was accused by the chief priests and elders, and he answered nothing. And Pilate said unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor greatly marveled. Jesus Christ did not answer them. Why would he? He's fulfilling the Father's will, and the less that he would say, the more the Father's will was going to be accomplished. We don't have to answer every person for everything that they ask of us, but there is a time to do it. In Matthew 7 and 6, Jesus put it like this. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you. You know, there are some people that have the power to cause you great harm for speaking the truth unto them, and sometimes we are to refrain what we say. Now if there's ever been a greater scripture for us to say it's not by the gospel that a person is made a child of God, there it is. Jesus Christ is telling us that we don't have to answer every person concerning the truth because there are some people that can cause you great harm. You can lose your job. You can lose a lot of things. They can take things from you as they did in that day I thought the other day. What if people had the power today for the things I preach and the things I write to take away my house and everything I own? How would that be when it came to me standing for the truth? You know, sometimes we say, well, I'm in my own righteousness. I'm going to put it right in their face, you know, and just let them let them know about what I believe. so that they can become very angry about it. You see, that's the wrong attitude for us. There is a time that we are to answer, and there is a time that we should not answer. So let's move in our postures and attitudes to something else that we hear all the time, and it has to be with judging. Judge not, we hear that all the time, don't we? Most of the time that you hear judge not, it's from somebody that wants to justify their sin, right? They don't want you to be their judge. So in Matthew 7 and 1, Jesus said, judge not. Judge not lest you be judged, that you be not judged. And then in Matthew 7, 24, Jesus says, judge righteous judgment. So again, it looks like there's a contradiction in scripture. Is there a contradiction in the Bible? Well, we need to understand what this means, you know, judge not and then judge righteous judgment. So, judge not, when Jesus is saying judge not, he's talking about nitpicking, just looking for a fault in a person. Nobody can stand up under a microscope and live a faultless life. If we were to take this congregation this morning, And everybody came up here and we all stood back. I'm sure we could find things to judge anybody for. We could point our finger at any person here, even Elder Sonny Powell said even, there are no preachers that can stand up under a microscope, because sometimes the worst judges are preachers themselves. I've seen preachers judge other preachers. I've seen them bring things up to elevate themselves and dethrone another preacher, judging them over things that they, some of their other friends actually were doing. You know, Jesus is condemning that. He's saying you're not supposed to go around fault finding and finding things that are wrong with other people. As a matter of fact, He put it like this, Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged with what measure ye meet. That's telling me that when I judge other people, I'm telling the Lord that I want Him to judge me in exactly the same way. Now let's think about that for a minute. So you're looking at somebody else and you're judging them, whether it's in the church or it's one of your friends, and you're gonna say, okay, Lord, I want you to judge me in exactly the same way. I've seen people that have referred to other people and their bad lives and their bad reputations, and they themselves have done the same thing. Do you not realize what this sounds like? The Lord's about to judge you in the very same way you just judged that person. So in John 7, 24, Jesus put it like this. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Now when it comes to that, let's think about some really things that we see out in the world today that I find a lot of Christians are confused about. And this is not a political statement, but this is a moral statement. What about abortion? Are you supposed to make a judgment about that? Are you supposed to judge not? I'm not going to judge about that. You know, the world comes up with all these clever platitudes. It's a woman's body. It's her choice. The freedom. People should have freedom. Well, I agree with a lot of that. But is that righteous judgment? You see, that's not righteous judgment. concerning other sins like homosexuality, concerning what is a woman. All of those things fall into the category of judging righteous judgment. And the world will twist righteous judgment around and say, judge not. And they will change all the platitudes about it to where you, as a Christian, have lost your moral compass. This Word tells us how we are to judge things. It's not up for argument. You know, we're not gonna say, well, you know, you may be right. I know how you feel. No, it's how God feels. We are to judge righteous judgment. We're to stand for what is right and what is wrong and to know how to distinguish the difference. Now, in the Old Testament, the Lord knew that people would have trouble judging things. And that's our problem as people. We always have trouble judging things. We let people persuade us. Our friends persuade us to do this. A lot of times we have friends that persuade us to do something that is wrong. Or to think wrong. And we're not judging righteously. So in the Old Testament, the Lord established these people called judges. We're gonna have these, so if we're not supposed to judge, we got a problem with the Old Testament, right? Judge not, but God's gonna give you some judges, okay? Now in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 1 and 16, and I charged your judges at that time saying, hear the cause between your brethren and judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him. So why did Israel need judges back in the Old Testament? Because a lot of times, they did not have the ability. to judge things themselves. They didn't know God's will. A lot of times, coming to church, you're gonna learn some things here that's gonna help you make some judgment calls in your own personal lives, okay? So, there's a time to judge, time to judge not. Well, in our postures and attitudes, the next one I wanna bring before you is holding on and letting go. You know, there's some things that we're supposed to hold on to as God's people. And Hebrews chapter 10, 23 says, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. We are supposed to hold fast to the things that God has taught us in His Word. And not let go. Not compromise. A lot of times we talk to people and they ask us what we believe. Sometimes we just let it go. We're not really standing for anything. We are supposed to hold this profession of our faith. A lot of times people ask us why we do some of the things that we do. We've been doing the same thing. Our church was established, by the way, in 1906. 1906. I believe the reason that this church is still here is because this church was founded upon truth, upon doctrinal truth, practical truth, and upon the way that we worship. And I think it's been a pleasure to God to keep this church here as a light and a witness in a dark world. People stood and held on to the truth here and the principles of God's Word. A lot of people ask us why we don't do some things, and we say, okay, because it's not in the Bible. Been a lot of churches come and go since this church was established. And we haven't adopted any of the new practices that try to draw people in and draw the crowds. We've just been doing the same old thing on Sunday. And I like it. I don't want to do anything different when I come to worship the Lord. I might want to go to a new restaurant every now and then. But I don't want to change God's house to please people. Paul said, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Hold on to eternal life. Somebody might say, well, how do you lay hold upon something you can't see or you can't touch? Well, the way you lay hold on eternal life is by living the way that God taught us to live. Read the verse right before and it tells us some of the moral attitudes that we should have to lay hold on eternal life. When I love my wife, I'm laying hold on eternal life. When I love my brethren, I'm laying hold on eternal life. When I'm reading God's Word, I'm laying hold on eternal life. When I do the things taught in the Word of God, I'm laying hold on eternal life. All of those things are laying hold on the eternal life that God has given us. But there are some things that in the church we're supposed to lay hold on and keep the traditions that God has given us. Paul said, stand fast. and hold to traditions which you've been taught. Now, I'm not talking about man-made traditions, okay? There's plenty of those out there. But I'm talking about the traditions and the ordinances that God has put in this church. You know, the Lord's Supper, singing from the heart and not having a performance. I'm talking about preaching the Word of God, the doctrines that we stand for here in this church, the doctrine of election, predestination, the sovereignty of God. Those are the things that we are to hold on to as a group of people. We're to hold on to those things as the Apostle Paul says. But you know, there's some things that we are to let go. We're to let go of some things in our life that sometimes can weigh us down. And when I thought about letting go, I thought about forgiveness. You know, that's something that's very difficult for every one of us. It's probably one of the hardest things that any of us ever do. I want you to think about it this morning. There's probably something in your heart right now. If you search it out, you've got some animosity towards somebody, maybe somebody in this church. You know, certainly you should never have anything like that with your wife or husband. You've got to let that stuff go. I remember one person gave an illustration of forgiveness, and he said, it's like a bird in a cage. You're a bird in a cage. He said, but when you forgive, you're like the bird that opened the door and the bird flew out. Now you're free. Harboring things against other people, an unforgiving heart, those things are hurting you. They're not hurting that other person. You think you're hurting somebody else by holding a grudge? No. You're hurting you. Let go of it. You know, it's probably not that important anyway. Whatever happened, you know, happened. Sometimes the Lord can bring some things into our life that can cause us to think about it. So we're trying to let some things go in our lives. Well, the next thing I want to talk about is how that we as God's people are supposed to stand. Stand, where to stand and where to sit. That's two postures that are quite different. And you might think, well, When are we supposed to do each one? When are we supposed to stand and when are we supposed to sit? And Paul's first epistle to our final words to the church at Corinth. He was telling him to stand for something. I've already brought it up. Stand fast in the faith. Stand fast in the faith. We're to stand for the things that we have been taught in this church and from God's word. And I wanna say something about that, that sometimes I think we get confused. There is a difference between standing for something and believing something. Did you know that you could believe the truth with all your heart, never stand for it? You may have helped yourself, but you didn't help anybody else. Big difference. Somebody might think in their mind, I'm really standing for stuff because I believe everything in that church. I believe everything in that Bible, but they've never opened their mouth. They've never told anybody of what they believe. That's not standing for something, my friends. Although I will say this, the fact that you came to church today means you're standing for something, right? That is a testimony of something you're standing for. But unless we open our mouth and speak, We're not standing fast, as the apostle tells us. In Ephesians 6.13 he says, and having done all to stand. And in Ephesians 6.14 he said, stand therefore, having your loins guarded about with truth. So we're to stand for something, but it's supposed to be truthful. Now it doesn't do any good to stand for something that really doesn't matter. You know, there's people standing for all kinds of things in this world. We can find people standing for clubs and organizations and sporting events and who their favorite team is and you hear all about that. The former players and what they did and all of this, you know, that doesn't matter to a hill of beans in God's eyes. But what does matter to God is standing for the truth. And I believe that God's called every one of us to do that as his people. We are to stand and stand for the truth. You look in the New Testament and you look all through history and you see people standing for truth. You know, Paul, Peter, the apostles, they stood for something and they knew what they stood for. You know, where would the church be today, my friends, if there were not people at one point in their life that had stood for the things that we believe in today? This church wouldn't even be here, nor would there be any Christians anywhere. When the people stand for something, they do something about it. Our forefathers stood for something in this country. There were men that signed the Declaration of Independence because they stood for something. When they signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew that they may be doing that and they may have their lives taken for signing it because they stood for something. When we're gone from this place, if we don't stand for something, we've just been nothing, really, nothing. People need to know we've been here. We need to put our stamp on this place and time that people know we were here and we stood for something. We were here and we stood for something. Sometimes we're afraid that we're gonna offend somebody if we say something. You know, Jesus said, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. For so did their fathers to the false prophets. You know, if you're afraid you're gonna offend somebody, woe unto you because you just won't be everybody's friend. We're supposed to stand for something. So standing is, Something we're supposed to do. It's more than speaking. We're supposed to speak. But you know, being baptized, that's standing for something. There were people in the past who made a confession of Jesus Christ and were baptized. And the next day, their head was cut off for doing it. But they did stand for something. They stood for something. Jesus stood for something and he was crucified for it, right? You know, John the Baptist was beheaded for standing for the truth when he stood before Herod and told him he was committing a sin. He stood for something. What are you standing for? You know, have you thought about it? You know, some people don't even think of what they're standing for. I don't really know what I believe. I don't know what I should believe. And so, are you going to be standing for something, Mr. Piable, in Pilgrim's Progress? You're standing for nothing. Your life is wasted. Really it is. It doesn't matter how much money you acquire or how famous you may become. If you don't stand for something for God, your life is wasted. It's worth nothing. It's vanity and vexation of the spirit. John asked the multitude what they thought of John the Baptist who stood for something. So what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Why was he such a great person? Because he stood for something. And he didn't just believe something. He stood for something. He opened his mouth. He spoke the truth to people that wanted to hear and to people who didn't want to hear. To anybody that would listen. All through the Bible there's people that stood for stuff. Remember David when he stood before Goliath. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that dares to defy the armies of the living God? He stood for something, and he went out and risked his life for it, and he was ridiculed for doing so. He stood for something. Joshua, before the walls of Jericho, when they were about to enter Canaan's land, and he said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. One man stood up. Well, there were two. There was Joshua and Caleb, but there were 10 that didn't, and they persuaded everybody else, but the two that stood up for it were blessed to live long enough to enter into Canaan's land. They stood for something. They made a difference. Stephen, before the Sanhedrin, when he was stoned to death, he was preaching to the Jews about their own history, which they, by the way, had forgotten. He stood for something. He was stoned to death for it, but he stood for something. But you know what? He's in this book. He didn't live his life for nothing. You see how important that is to God? Paul stood before Felix and the other governors. His head was cut off in the streets of Rome because he stood for something. He stood for something. Peter stood before the high priest and the council. and defied them. He was standing for something. He said, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. He stood for something. There's many martyrs that have stood for things for the Lord. In Hebrews 11, in our faith hall thing, we read about all the great things Some of the people did, Abraham and Moses, Jonah. But in 3638 it says, and others had trial of cruel mockings. These are the others, by the way, that stood for something. Scourging, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stolen, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins, goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. of whom the world was not worthy. These people lived in caves. They didn't have a lot of money, and they didn't have a lot of power, and they were not well known. But God says the world was not worthy of these people because they stood for something. They stood for something. And that's what we as God's people are supposed to do. They didn't just believe something. They could have said, well, you know, I really believe everything the preacher's saying, but I'm certainly not gonna let anybody around here know what they're gonna cut my head off. You know, nobody's gonna cut your head off today for standing for something, but they would in that day. We're gonna stand for something, but even when we stand, there's a time to sit down. Time to sit down. When Israel finally reached Canaan's land and possessed their land, they sat down. You know, that's what we do in the church, isn't it? We stand for something, but we come here and we sit down at the finished works of Jesus Christ, by Himself. By Himself, He purged our sins, so I'm not gonna help Him do that. I'm gonna sit down, and I'm gonna rest. May God add His blessings to you, is our prayer. Thank you for listening to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. This has been Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching from one of our regular meetings. Come and join us as we worship God in the simplicity of Christ every Sunday morning at 416 North Hall Street in Donaldson, Arkansas. At Harmony, we don't have many things that are so common in the religion of our day, but we do have a successful Savior. We invite you to come and see.