Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you, for we seek your God, as ye do, and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithridat, and the rest of their companions unto Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue. Rehum, the chancellor, and Shimshai, the scribe, wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes, the king in this sort. Then wrote Rehum, the chancellor, and Shimshai, the scribe, and the rest of their companions the Dinamites, and the Aphrositekites, and the Tarpilites, and the Apharsites, and the Archevites, and the Babylonians, and the Shukinkites, and the Diavites, and the Elamites, and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Hasnafar brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, and at such a time This is the copy of the letter that they sent unto him, even unto Artaxerxes the king. By servants, the men of this side of the river, and at such a time, be it known unto the king that the Jews which come from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations. Be it known now unto the king that if this city be builded, and the walls set up again, then will they not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and so thou shalt endamage the revenue of the king. Now because we have maintenance from the king's palace, and it was not neat for us to see the king's dishonor, Therefore have we sent and certified the king that search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers. So shalt thou find in the book of the records and know that this city is a rebellious city and hurtful unto kings and provinces and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time for which cause was this city destroyed. We certify the king that if this city be builded again, and the walls thereof set up, by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side the river. Then sent the king an answer unto Rehom the chancellor, and to Shimshi the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto the rest beyond the river. and at such a time. The letter which ye sent unto us hath been plainly read before me, and I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition hath been made therein. There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river, and told tributes and customs was paid unto them. Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded until another commandment shall be given from me. Take heed now that ye fail not to do this. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?" Now in the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehom and Shimshi the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power. Then ceased the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia." Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Now this Lord's Day evening we come to the fourth message in a series of messages on the post-exilic books of the Old Testament. And if you remember, children, we noted in the first chapter that King Cyrus, a Persian king, who had brought together seven tribes of the Persians and the Medes, he brought them against the Babylonians. And he defeated the Babylonians and took over the capital city of Babylon in 539 BC, almost 2,500 years ago, more than 2,500 years ago. And we noted that when King Cyrus took control there in Babylon, in chapter 1 we noted that the Lord stirred His heart to send forth the people of God out of Babylon to return to build the temple in Jerusalem. God stirred the heart of a civil magistrate to serve Him and to expedite the rebuilding and the reestablishment of biblical worship in the place that God had commanded that worship be established. And that was all, if you remember, in fulfillment not only of the prophecy of Jeremiah, that there would be a 70-year exile in Babylon, but also the prophecy of Isaiah, who himself 150 years earlier prophesied that a man named Cyrus would be the deliverer of God's people. God, in keeping with His Word, brought Cyrus to this place, this point of decision. But we know that also in chapter 2, that the Lord not only stirred Cyrus' heart, He stirred the hearts of the people to return and to build again the temple of God and to reestablish worship there. Last Lord's Day, we looked at chapter 3. We noted that the people of God returned from Babylon, that there was apparently a four to six month journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem, and were told nothing of what took place during that period, but were told that shortly after their return, they built an altar and began the morning and evening sacrifices again. They had a priority to worship, and they began where they could begin. So they began with the altar, and they began with morning and evening sacrifices as directed by God through Moses. And we note it also in chapter 3, that they began to make preparations for the building of the temple. They laid aside money, they gave willingly, and they began laying aside the equipment and the materials that would be necessary to build the temple. But now in chapter 4 we note opposition, to this good work. Once a good work begins, it's not long before there's opposition. So what we see tonight is the opposition that will exist to the building and the restoration of the house of God, and to the restoration and reformation of true worship. Now, I want us to note that this hostility is increased. There's a spiral of increased hostility. They begin at one place, and it's not long before that hostility works its way out in another form, and then works its way out in another form. First, they offer to participate in the work, in verses 1 through 3. Secondly, they discourage their work in verses 4 and 5. And then thirdly, they take it upon themselves to misrepresent their work to the king. It's kind of interesting that they were so willing to help a little earlier, and now when they're not brought in to help, now they want to stop it. Before they were comfortably part of it, but if they couldn't be part of it, they wanted to stop it. They wanted to discourage it, and when that wasn't adequate, then they were willing to lie about it and misrepresent it to make sure it ceased. So we see they misrepresented this work in verses 6 through 23. And then in verses 24 and following, really, we see that they obtained an order to stop the building, really in verses 17 through 24. So let's look at these ways in which they oppose the work of God. First we note that these peoples in this land oppose the work of God. Look in verse 1. It says, Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built the temple unto the Lord God of Israel. You see the situation? The people of God have returned. Now, we've noted already that of that 47,000 and more people, there were other people than just of the tribe of Judah and of Benjamin. There were certainly Levites, and we also learned that there were those from Manasseh and Ephraim that had returned to the southern kingdom. Earlier, we learned in Chronicles that many of them returned to the southern kingdom. And we also read the prophecy in Jeremiah where it says that those from all the tribes would return at the end of the captivity. So likely there were members of all the tribes, but the predominant tribes present were Judah and Benjamin. Note that they're called the children of the captivity. They're still under Persian control. They're not a sovereign nation. Cyrus has not granted them to be a sovereign nation and re-establish the nation of Israel. They're still under Persian control. But note, it says that they're adversaries. Even though they weren't professed adversaries, they were in fact adversaries. We see here the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. We see the antithesis between true worshippers of God and false worship of God. They were under captivity and these Samaritans, these people that had dwelt there in that land, come and they make an offer in verse 2. They come to the rubble, to the chief of the fathers and say unto them, let us build with you For we seek your God, as ye do, and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Asser, which brought us up hither." Now here, the king, Esarhaddon, had brought them into this place to populate these lands. He brought the Samaritans in there to populate the lands after the Babylonians had destroyed and killed most of the Jews, and those that they hadn't, they took to Babylon. So they brought these Samaritans in here. Now let's look at 2 Kings chapter 17, and we'll just have to look at some selected verses, but I think we have to look here at 2 Kings to see a little bit of the historical setting when these people, the Samaritans, came into this land. Look in 2 Kings 17 and let's look at verse 24. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthath, and from Avah, and from Hamath, and from Sepharim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof." See, he brought these people in. And note in verse 32 about these people. So they feared the Lord and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. And then verse 33. They feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from hence." Now that seems a little confusing, doesn't it, children? That these people feared God, and yet it says they served their own gods. They worshipped God in one sense. They feared God in one sense, in that they offered reverence to Him, in that they went about the acts of worship to the triune God. And yet they worshipped false gods as well. Note in verse 41 of this passage, so it says, So these nations feared the Lord and served their graven images, both their children and their children's children, as did their fathers. So do they unto this day. At the writing of the book of 2 Kings, The Samaritans were still claiming to worship the triune God, and yet worshipping false gods as well. They were violators of the first commandment. They didn't seek God alone, did they? They didn't worship God only, did they, children? They also didn't seek God in the way that was appointed. They sought God through images. They were idolaters and yet they claimed to worship God. Now there's a big word for that. It's called syncretism. It's where someone seeks to take different truths, eclectic truths of different philosophies or different religions and bring them together and synthesize them into one religion. Do you all know what the greatest form or expression of this teaching is? Is it not Rome? Is it not Rome? Who will go into a nation and will seek to synthesize their understanding of Scripture with whatever the heathen practices are. So as to minimize the offense of the cross. of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these Samaritans gave the impression that they were true worshippers of God, but in fact they were not sincere in their worship of God. They really weren't seeking the reestablishment of pure worship. That's the issue. They were willing to work But they weren't concerned about purity of worship. They really didn't worship the same God that the Jews did. They claimed to, but they didn't. And it's even apparent in their offer. It says, let us build with you, for we seek your God. That should have been a hint. We seek your God. They don't even call Jehovah their God. They claim to worship Him, but they don't acknowledge Him to be theirs. They acknowledge Him to be the Jews' God, not their own God. We have to ever be mindful of Acts 4.12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Children, do you remember Mr. Cooksey alluding to this same principle this morning in catechism class? There are many in our days today that claim to be Christians and believe that there are other ways to God, who really don't believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. They really believe there are other ways and other truths and other ways to eternal life, and yet they claim to be Christians. And there are many of those in our day, there are even those that claim to be Presbyterians, that go to churches that have Presbyterians, that name Presbyterian on the sign, that believe there are other ways to eternal life. The Samaritans obviously did. but remember Proverbs 27.6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. These Samaritans were deceitful. These were kisses of an enemy. But notice, the leaders of God's people don't fall for it. In verse 3 we see their response. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, He has nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord our God of Israel as King Cyrus the King of Persia has commanded us. We're going to do what King Cyrus told us to do. We're going to build. You're not participating in the building. We're not going to water down the building of this work. with people that aren't sincere in their worship of God. They were discerning to be able to discern the vile from the precious, weren't they? There was a standard. And they knew that people that were building the temple, that weren't committed to worship God and God alone, as He had instituted, didn't need to be building the temple. They didn't need to be involved if they weren't committed in totality to what that building was meant to be for. They had no place, and so the Chief Fathers recognized it and wisely kept them out. But I want us to realize that these Samaritans at this point, we don't know that this was a deep plot. We don't know that this was a conspiracy, that the leaders of the Samaritans said, hey, let's just become part. And let's then undermine the work. There's no conspiracy theory in this. They very well may have been sincere and thought they were doing a good job assisting in the building of the temple. And yet, as sincere as they might have been in thinking they were doing a good work, and not having some deceptive plot to destroy the work, Yet, if they were half-hearted in their commitment to the restoration of worship, they were going to be of no help to the people of God. If they weren't true people of God, if they weren't true Jews and worshipped the Triune God, they were going to be of no value and no help, but only a hindrance to the work. So they weren't allowed to participate. Now, we've seen that they offered to participate in verses 1 through 3. That's their first attempt, whether it was a deep plot or not. But then in verses 4 and 5, when they're not allowed to participate, what do they do immediately? They discourage their work. It says they weakened the hands of the people, they troubled them, they hired counselors against them, they frustrated their purpose. Four ways in which they discouraged the work. They weakened the hands. They spoke words that were discouraging. Tried to discourage the people from their efforts. They troubled them. They put roadblocks in their way. They hired counselors. They involved other people in the controversy. A little while earlier, they wanted to participate in building. Now all of a sudden, when they can't participate, they want to put a stop. to this reformation, to this restoration of worship. And then it says they frustrated their purposes and they did so even until the reign of Darius. This harassment went on for a significant period of time. It was continual. And note that they were more concerned about stopping the Jews than in promoting their own religion. They were more set against putting a stop to the building of the temple than of just promoting their syncretistic, eclectic worship. They weren't happy just to positively seek to inculcate their views to others in their land and to promote their view of worship. But no, they wanted to put a stop to this building. So we ought not to be surprised if people in the evangelical faith aim their guns at us. It ought not to surprise us that evangelicals will often be aiming their guns at other evangelicals instead of at the world. Too often we blur the antithesis between those that are in the kingdom of light and those that are in the kingdom of darkness. That's where the war ought to be waging on that front. That's the front where the war ought to be waging. But too often, we all are like this. When we see someone or some group that's pursuing something that we're We think they're more right than us, in a sense. We think that they're more to the right, more conservative. We become very uncomfortable, don't we? We're not uncomfortable with the liberal. They don't make us uncomfortable in their presence. But when we see someone that's serving the Lord with deeper fervency than us, that makes us uncomfortable, as individuals and as bodies. They were more concerned about stopping the Jews than of promoting their view of things. But that wasn't enough. Apparently that didn't stop the people. So in verses 6-16 we learn how they misrepresented the work to the king. Now this is a very difficult passage to understand because, note in verse 6 and 7, in 5, the various kings that are mentioned. In verse 5 it says, "...they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia." Now, there was a king in between Cyrus and Darius. His name was Cambyses. He was Cyrus' son. Cyrus reigned about seven more years after his decree to send the people and to allow the people to go back to Jerusalem. Then his son reigned for nine years, and then Darius I reigned for 35 years. A long period of history. Then in verse 6 it says, And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah. and Jerusalem. Now we're in the 4th king's reign and they're still writing accusations. And then in verse 7 it says, And in the days of Artaxerxes they wrote to the king. Now Artaxerxes is the 5th king. Ahasuerus or Xerxes, he was the one that married Esther. His reign was 18 years and then Artaxerxes' reign was 41 years. So we have a question as to whether this accusation here, this letter that's given in verses 11 and following, is in fact a letter of Artaxerxes, the king, or is it a letter of Cyrus' son, Cambyses? And it's really hard to know for sure. The fact of the matter is that the term Artaxerxes is a term that many Persian kings took to themselves more as a title than as a name. It meant strong in battle. And so it's likely that what Ezra is doing here, or the writer of the Book of Ezra, is taking these things and he's saying that this conflict went on for a long period of time, then he returns to deal with this accusation at this present time. That's the way I understand it, because when I look at verse 23 and 24, it looks as when this letter is returned that the work ceases, and the work ceases until the second reign of Darius. So I understand this accusation here to be before the period of Darius, under Cyrus' son's reign. not our desert seas, which rained 60 years later. Now there are many commentators, and even the Puritan commentators, that view this as potentially an historical excursus, that what we really have are a bunch of accusations that took place. We don't have the actual accusation at this time period, but we have an accusation from the future that was available And that is brought in here, in this place. That may very well be, it may be a jump forward of an accusation, but I tend to think that this accusation is set 10 to 15 years after 539 BC. Sometime during Cyrus' son's reign, Cambyses, and very likely at the beginning, As soon as there was another king in place, it was time to see, check the waters out and see if we can put a stop to this. And Cyrus's son was not sympathetic to Cyrus's political positions. He did not rule consistently with his father. And so it's very likely that he caused this work to cease. I just want to bring out a few points about this misrepresentation. In verse 6, it's actually called an accusation, when one is brought in the reign of Ahasuerus, the king that followed Darius. It's called an accusation. I think by that we need to be mindful of the accuser of the brethren. Children, do you know who the accuser of the brethren is? In Revelation 12.10 we learn that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He is the father of lies and he acts as a lying spirit in those he seeks to employ to bring down the work of God. Matthew Henry himself said, marvel not if the same arts be used to deprecate serious godliness. So don't be surprised if misrepresentation is used in our day to bring down those that are seeking true reformation of religion. It was done, it was a device of Satan then, it's a device of Satan now. It will be one of Satan's devices until the consummation. Until the Judgment Day, Satan will continue to accuse the brethren. He will continue to use others to accuse the brethren. So we learn that it's an accusation. We also see in verses 11 and following that it is a misrepresentation of so many things. These people that were once willing to participate, if allowed, and then seek to discourage and trouble the work, now they're willing to speak evil and actually lie and misrepresent the Jews to put a stop to them. And I would contend that when someone's willing to lie to put a stop to someone that they view as competition, that they are in fact, they've in fact recognized that they don't hold the higher ground. If we're willing to compromise our integrity to put down someone that we think is in competition with us, we certainly don't hold the higher ground, do we? But we want to bring someone down to our level by lying, by misrepresenting, so that we can appear to hold the higher ground, but it implies that we recognize we don't, and so we've got to pull someone else down or some other work down. Similar methods are used today, and we all can fall prey to those methods. And it begins by viewing things as competition, doesn't it? First, in 11b, they represent themselves as loyal servants. Thy servants, the men on this side of the river, and at such a time. These Samaritans were not lovers of the Babylonians, or of the Persians at this point. They weren't happy with Persian reign in Samaria. But now, They're happy about it, aren't they? Reminds me of the Pharisees. Do you think the Pharisees liked being under Roman rule during Christ's lifetime? No. They wanted to revolt. They were desirous to revolt. They wanted their sovereignty. But, when they hated Christ enough, They were willing to say, we have no king but Caesar. Oh, we have no king but Caesar. What a lie. What treachery. And so these people, these Samaritans, were willing to lie about their commitment to the Persian rule in their place. So they represent themselves as loyal. in verses 12 and 15 as disloyal, being known unto the king that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations thereof." These are the same people that were commanded by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29.7 to, quote, seek the peace of the city where they were captives and pray to the Lord. for it. These were people that recognized God's hands in their captivity, and they were called to pray for the Babylonians. They were to recognize that the Babylonians were used by God to chastise them. And for that reason, they were to submit humbly to that rule. They misrepresented the Jews as disloyal. They also misrepresented the state of the work and have set up the walls thereof and joined the foundation. The temple foundation is just started. The walls of the city have not been touched. They're telling the king that they're much further on than they really are. They're not at that state of building yet. The walls aren't almost up. They've set up the walls thereof. The walls are still down. So they misrepresent the state of the world. They misrepresent the Jews' loyalty. Look what it says in verse 15. They asked that a search be made of the records of the fathers. And they'll find out in the book of the records and know that this city is a rebellious city and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same. And of old time, of which cause was this city destroyed? They claim that there was sedition. There was in fact one rebellion that took place. Zedekiah. who himself was a sovereign prince who was under foreign domination. He, in fact, we're told in 2 Chronicles 36.13, rebelled. And certainly it was rebellion in the eyes of the Babylonians, but he was a sovereign king. He was of the Davidic line. Now, we're told in 2 Chronicles 36.13 that his rebellion was related to his sinfulness. He wasn't a godly king. And God didn't allow his rebellion from Babylon to work for the good of the people of God. There is that fact, and yet these people were not known to be rebellious. So they misrepresented themselves, they misrepresented the Jews, they misrepresented how far along the work was, They also made unjust prognostications of the future, of what they thought would happen. They were trying to tell the king of Persia what was going to happen when these walls were established, as though they could foretell the future. Look what they say in verse 13, Be it known unto the king, and a city be built, and the wall set up again. Then will not they pay tall tribute in custom? And so thou shalt endamage the revenue of the king." They knew exactly where to get to the king, didn't they? Just tell him he's not going to get as much in the pocketbook. These people are going to want to rebel, and so you're not going to have the money. Then notice what they say in verse 16. We certify. And they're standing pretty confident that this is what's going to take place. We certify, the king, that if this city be builded again and the walls here are set up, by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side of the river. Once this city stops paying you taxes, they're going to influence everybody on this side of the river, and you're going to get no receipts from anywhere on this side of the river. Now just think for a minute, children. If somebody wrote you and told you that somebody else was going to influence them to stop paying taxes to you, what would you say? You might be mad at the person that's influencing them, but how about the fact they're really saying, we're going to fall prey to them and we're going to stop paying you taxes. They're actually indicting themselves. They're not going to do it, and eventually we're not going to do it. They're painting a horrible picture of the future. They're claiming to know the future and they're painting a horrible picture of what's going to happen if the work continues. Now we've seen their three-fold opposition, their progressive opposition. First they want to participate, then they discourage, then they're willing to misrepresent to stop the work. Now, in verses 17 through 24, we see how they obtained an order to stop building. In verse 17, we see the king's evaluation. The king allowed himself to buy their fraud and falsehood. Remember Proverbs 29.12? We looked at this a couple of weeks ago. If a ruler hearkens to lies, all his servants are wicked. If a ruler is willing to listen to a lie, he can only expect a lot of liars to be coming to court to speak to him. And don't we see that being worked out in our country today? A lot of liars in Washington and a lot of liars paying a lot of money for other people to lie to a bunch of liars. And we saw that those that listen to lies are called themselves liars in Proverbs several Lord's days ago. For willing to listen to lies were liars. The king was willing to listen. He also was not careful to examine the allegation. He did look into the historical record, but he only took the Samaritan's view of the historical record. He never called Zerubbabel to the court to hear his side of the story. What are you doing, Zerubbabel? Why did my father decree that this thing should take place? Refresh me. Tell me what the history is in your historical records about the purpose of this expedition. What's going on here? What's the goal? Remember Proverbs 18, 17, He that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbor cometh and searches him out. The king never let his neighbor come and search him out, did he? He never let the Jews come and explain themselves and search out the Samaritans' misrepresentation. As soon as he heard it was going to stop some tax revenue, he was going to put a stop. to this building. And so he gives the order in verses 17 and following. He says a search has been made, then he says that he's appointed the Samaritans in verse 21 and 22 to stop the work. He says, Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not built until another commandment shall be given from me. Take heed now that ye fail not to do this, Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king? There you see his motive, don't you? Stop it because I and my seed are not going to be hurt by reduced tax revenue. But notice, all he tells them is to cause these men to cease and that this city be not builded. He never actually says that the temple reconstruction should be stopped. He never states that. He is told that the walls are up. He assumes that the city is just about completed. He wants it stopped. So he tells the Samaritans to cause them to cease. And then we see in verses 23 and 24, the execution of this order. Now, when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehom, and Shimshai, the scribe, was ordered to cease by force and power. Now that they have this letter, they were willing to use force. They were going to rub it in a little bit, as though the Jews wouldn't submit to the decree of the king in and of itself. So now they were going to flex their muscles a little bit and use force when force wasn't necessary. And we see the consequence in verse 24, Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem, So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. It ceased for about nine to ten years. And then we see in verse 1 of chapter 5, then nearly ten years later, then the prophets Haggai, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Idu prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jehoshaddak and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem. And with them were the prophets of God helping them. It's not until God sends a prophetic word through Haggai and Zechariah that the people begin again to build the work. Now, in conclusion, in application of this text, I think there are at least four inferences, four uses that we as God's people ought to take to ourselves. One, we need to know Satan's devices. Satan uses the same tricks today as he's always used, a little bit different form, but at the root, they're always the same. Think of that Puritan book that Thomas Brooks wrote, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. And that whole book is based on 1 Corinthians 2.11, where Paul says, we are not ignorant of his, or Satan's, devices. Paul says, we should not be, obviously, ignorant as God's people of the ways that Satan will work in our own lives, in the lives of our families, and in the lives of the Church, to distract us, to take us off from our work. We need to know Satan's devices, and here at least there are several in this chapter. These aren't the only devices Satan uses, but these are several that he's used in the past, and will use again. Secondly, We don't need to allow ourselves to grow weary. Think of Paul's exhortation in Galatians 6-9. Don't be weary in well-doing. We're not to be weary in well-doing. He says we'll reap if we faint not. Obviously assuming that there's going to be a temptation to faint. Reaping doesn't come to the faint-hearted. Griefing comes to the one that continues to sow even when they hit the wall, even when they want to quit. They keep going, they keep going, they keep going. He assumes that all of us will have times when we want to quit, when it's just too much and we're seeing so little fruit for so much effort that we just want to stop. It must not work. Even though God says it, it just must not work because it doesn't appear to be working. God wants us in those times to have the eyes of faith. To just continue doing what God has called us to do as individuals, as families, and as churches. To be faithful to God. To not grow weary. It appears that some of the builders here were as willing to quit working as their adversaries were. It looks like they picked up their tools and went back home. There's no appeal made, or at least there's no reference to any appeal to continue to build. They're willing to stop. They were getting tired, I think. It's pretty clear they were willing to be stopped. People that are willing to be stopped will be stopped in the work of God. That's the reality. Thirdly, we ought not to desire to be thought of as valiant for truth. We ought to desire to be valiant for truth. Did you catch that, children? We ought not to desire to be thought of by men as valiant for truth. We ought to desire to be valiant for truth. There's a world of difference between someone who wants to be thought of as valiant for truth and one that is valiant for truth. It's a world of difference. Think of Proverbs 29, 25, "...the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." If we want to appear as spiritual warriors to men just for men's praise, then we're hypocrites. and the reality is people of God, that is a temptation that is very real in our circles. God has given us much light. We believe in all sincerity that in many ways we are the foundation by God's grace of the visible church. And I do believe that, that we and other churches like us in the Presbyterian Reformed tradition are the foundation of the visible church. If we weren't here, what kind of aberrations would be going on in the visible church? Just imagine how many there are right now. Imagine what they would be like if there wasn't a doctrinal foundation, if there weren't those that understood the truth of God and were seeking for others that claim to be Christians, that profess the Christian religion to understand the truths that we hold. God is pleased to use us in ways we don't understand, in broad evangelicalism and the like, to curb excesses. Not of our own strength, but by God's grace. But, in our circles, we will have a temptation to want to appear like, We're the stalwarts. We're the spiritual warriors. We're the ones that have it all together, doctrinally and practically. We're the ones that everyone ought to rely on. And too often, the fact is, those of us that want to only be thought of as valiant for truth, we're the ones that want to make extra effort to flex our muscles a lot. Isn't that often the case? Let's not flex our muscles. Let's just be faithful members of God's Church that are valiant for the truth, day in and day out, in the inglorious work that God calls us to, in the humble work that God calls us to. Let's not flex our muscles. Let's just be faithful members of God's Church Be valiant for truth when others will see it, but be valiant for truth when only God sees it. Be valiant for truth because God calls us to it, not for a pat on the back from our Christian brethren. Fourthly, we must serve God regardless of the outcome. And this is really related to not growing weary. We will reap eternally if we're faithful to God. Think of what Jesus says in Luke 9, 23 and 24. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. If we're following Christ, we're going to be denying ourselves, we're going to be taking up our cross daily, we're going to be daily dying to our own wishes and desires, so that we can fulfill Christ's commands to us, so that we can follow Him and walk as He walked. He goes on to say, for whosoever will save his life will lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save him. Are we willing to lose our lives to lose our reputations, to lose our estates for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we recognize ourselves to be citizens of the Kingdom of God? And are we willing to trust our God to die to ourselves and to live for Him and for the establishment of His Kingdom The kingdom that He has promised will prevail. It will destroy all other kingdoms. The eternal kingdom. The kingdom of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Please rise for prayer.