if you want to open your Bible to Psalm 124. And we will get to Psalm 124 in a few moments, but first I want to introduce our subject this morning. We're going to take a break from our recently begun study of the book of Galatians. I hinted last week that we were headed in this direction and I want to preach a sermon to you entitled, What in the World Do We Do Now? What in the world do we do now? I told you last week it didn't matter the outcome of the election. This is the same sermon. Either candidate winning, coming to pass, whatever the Lord's will is, this is the same sermon either way. I want to be sure that you know that in the beginning. I've chosen those words, they're simple words, they're familiar words, but there's meaning for me in all of them, and I want to convey that to you. What do we do? There is action expected of Christians. The metaphors used in scripture suggest that strongly. We are called salt and light, both of those, having great effect on their environment. Obviously, salt preserves, it gives taste, it gives flavor. As Christians, we are called to preserve this world, to give it taste, to give it a flavor, and that flavor is to be the very taste of Christ, because we have tasted and seen that he is good. We're also to be light. We are to expose error. We are to illumine the world around us and to point them to the light being Christ Jesus the Lord. But it's not just action. So what do we do? The second part of this title is what in the world do we do? This is the world that we live in. We can't change it overnight. We can't remove ourselves from it and go live on Mars. It's just an impossibility for us. So whatever we do is going to be done in this world until the Lord returns and brings in the new heaven and the new earth. So what in the world do we do now? This is not something that we put off until next year. It's not something we put off to the next decade. This is not even something that we put off until tomorrow. This is something that we begin to do even now. The events of this last week, really the events of this last year, have all been very, very interesting, haven't they? Perhaps interesting isn't the right word. Perhaps we should use troubling. The events of the last week, year, have been troubling. We've seen things happen on the streets of our country that we have grown accustomed to seeing in other parts of the world. But I'll admit, I was one of those who said nothing of that nature will ever happen in this country. I was wrong. But it is happening here. It's happening now. And this is where we live. Perhaps the Lord is stirring his church in this land and all over the world out of complacency, out of being nominalized, out of our unconcern. Out of our backsliding, even our confused allegiance, our slumber, may God awaken us all and revive his work in the midst of the years. That was the great cry of the prophet Habakkuk. Revive your work, O Lord, in the midst of the years. I want to give you these words from Jeff Johnson. He's an acquaintance, friend of mine. He wrote these words recently online and I've copied them verbatim. I want to read them to you because he says very clearly something that I would like to try to say. He says, it's not easy watching our country fall apart. To not mourn is to not love truth, freedom, and justice. Yet we do not need to mourn as if Christ is not working out everything for his own glory and for the sanctification of his own precious people. Truly our hope is not in this world." Those of us who are sitting here this morning as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Christian Americans. The order there is very important. We're not just American Christians. Our Christianity must define us. Our Christianity must dictate for us the course of action that we take. And as we try to involve ourselves heavily in being the salt and light of this increasingly dark world, we are to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That's what Paul wrote to the Philippian church. I'm not saying, certainly not denying, that we should not and can be patriotic. We should. We should love the country of our birth. God in his sovereign good pleasure placed us here. We have a great heritage. I'm not denying that at all, but what I want to get across this morning to you is that when we pledge allegiance to this country and its flag, we must recognize that allegiance as being temporal and momentary. It's not an eternal allegiance that we are declaring to the United States of America. As much as I love this country, I'm as patriotic as anyone in the room. I would gladly stand up and defend what we stand for as a nation with my own life, if the Lord so called, but our primary allegiance An allegiance that will last throughout all eternity and an allegiance that we as Christians increasingly must declare loudly, boldly, courageously and often is that our allegiance is to Christ Jesus the Lord. And our allegiance is to the advancement of his kingdom which now is and which is coming more fully in the future. And again, we are to consider ourselves Christian Americans. I realize you are concerned, as am I, about the future of our nation. And really, when we boil it down to its most base form, regardless of the outcome of the election, we have great cause to be concerned about the future of our nation either way. You have great concern for your children, your grandchildren. Will they know anything of the freedoms that we have known if the Lord tarries? Well, let me encourage parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles in the room. The best way to help your children now is to help them understand the truths that we are going to cover today. The best way to help that child sitting next to you is to, as you walk on the road, as you lie down, as you work, as you play, as you eat, as you live, move, and have your being, to instill in them every step of the way the truths that we're going to cover. They're just few in number, but they're essential. They're essential. So what in the world do we do now? It begins by remembering certain things. The first thing, and I really haven't put these in any order. I could do these in any order. The only order that I have them in is just for the sake of time because if we run out of time, I'll cut off and maybe we'll do part two, but I think we can get through all of this in the next few minutes. The first thing that we have to remember, and I hope you found your place in Psalm 124, is that the Lord is on our side. The sovereign Lord has chosen sides. He has openly declared which side he is on. He is on the side of truth and righteousness. He is on the side of all of the things that his word declares, and the comforting aspect of this is he is on your side if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's right to say the sovereign Lord has chosen sides, yes, but better said, I think, He has chosen you to be on His side. He's chosen you to be on His side. Look at this psalm with me, Psalm 124. This is a pilgrim psalm fitting for pilgrims such as we, right? We are sojourning through this land, this world. Think the Lord is not our home. David, as he wrote this pilgrim psalm or a psalm of ascent, which was usually sung as the people would make their way up to Jerusalem as they marched or ran or skipped or whatever they did to get to where they were going, they would recite or sing certain of these psalms unto themselves. And this is what David wrote in Psalm 124. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, Let Israel now say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now notice how real the threat posed to David was. Not just how real it was, but how keenly he felt it. He says in verse two, or verse three, When men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive. When their wrath was kindled against us, then the waters would have overwhelmed us. The stream would have gone over our soul. The swollen waters would have gone over our soul. That's the real threat, men rising up against the people of God. So much to the point and so real was its feel that David uses very picturesque words when he says, it feels like we're going to be swallowed whole. It feels like these waters are going over our soul. And that's a feeling of being overwhelmed. Yes, it's like asking the question, what in the world do we do now? But he remembers in verse six, and you could almost insert the word but at the beginning of this sixth verse because it is a contrast, blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. A couple of things to take away from this psalm before we move on. As we are remembering, it is the Lord who is on our side. regardless of how real the threat feels and how overwhelming the sense feels of losing all sense and hope of any kind of ethic or morality, of ever overturning the atrocities of abortion, legalized murder in our country, regardless how overwhelming that feels, remember at least this one thing, the sovereign Lord has chosen you to be on His side. We all know what the end holds. Triumph and victory for the people of God. Now, the way there, the way to this triumph and victory, that road may very well grow increasingly difficult. Paul would say this a little differently in Romans chapter 8. You don't have to turn there. We're going to end up there a little later. He asks the question, what then shall we say to these things if God is for us, who can be against us? You believe that? If God is for you, and I'm not meaning that God is for you primarily in this life and going to prosper you and give you a lot of money and great health and a nice car, a nice house. I'm not talking about that at all. God is for you because you are in the way of truth. God is for you because you have professed faith in His Son. God is for you because you are salt and light in this world. God is for you because you belong to Him. And if He be for us, who can be against us? So what in the world do we do now? We remember, we take heart, and we are comforted by some of the truths that we even sang this morning. When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. We remember, just as David did, the Lord is on our side. Just remember that. When you see the supposed triumph of darkness, the triumph of evil, the triumph of the suppression of truth, just remember, be encouraged, take heart, repeat to yourself, the Lord is on our side. The second thing to remember, and again, these are obvious and simple And we might even say elementary Christian truths, but how often those simple, obvious, and elementary truths escape us when we're pressed. The second thing is, not only we have the knowledge of the Lord being on our side, we have his word. We have his word. I want you to read with me if you'll find the end of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. Go to the last chapter, the sixth chapter. Paul is detailing what we call the armor of God, most likely as he was chained to a Roman soldier, he is there looking at that armor, and then in his mind, he is equating the parallel truths of how he, as a believer in Christ, is just as well-equipped, even better so for battle, spiritual battle, as this Roman soldier is for a physical battle. So he runs through all of this list of armor for us, and we get down into verse 10 of Ephesians 6, and he says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always, with all prayer, and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with perseverance and supplication for all the saints. We have the thundering mighty sword of the living God. Now can you imagine, I want to illustrate this for you if I can. Can you imagine in your mind a battlefield, say, of a couple hundred years ago. And I want you to imagine this one man in the middle of this field having the most powerful weapon on the entire battlefield. Do you think he would be ashamed of having it in his possession? Do you see him holding that most powerful weapon in a fearful, sheepish, cowardly way? No. You see him standing there with his chest out, his shoulders back, full of courage, full of strength, because he knows my weapon is more powerful than any weapon on this battlefield. That's me and you as Christians. The most powerful weapon in the world. The living and active discerning word of God. And it would be just as foolish for us as Christians to have this weapon on this battlefield in fear, holding it in a cowardly way as it would be foolish for that man on the battlefield to do the same. So the real question is this, do you believe, do we collectively as a church and as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this country around the world, do we really believe that we have the most powerful weapon on the battlefield? Jeremiah would say we read his lamentation, his weeping, his crying over the state of the affairs of his nation and his day and time. He is also the one that tells us that the Word of God breaks like a hammer. We have promises throughout the Word of God, Old Testament, New Testament, in the Psalms, everywhere, that teach us of the beauty of the Word of God, the power of the Word of God, and we have from the pen of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter one, a verse that we quote very often, referring to the power of the gospel. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the very power of God unto salvation. You realize that the word of God is nothing more than the gospel in great detail. From beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation, divide it up however you want, but the one central message from Genesis to Revelation is that there is a Redeemer. The Old Covenant foreshadowed Him, spoke of Him yet to come. The New Testament now we read has the happenings of his life and the things that he did, the things that he said, his ascension back into heaven after he accomplished our redemption. And we are left now waiting on his, not his first advent, but his second. We have the most powerful weapon in the known world, but how often we as Christians hold it in a cowardly manner, ashamed to declare, thus says the Lord. When it comes to morality and ethics, Christians should not fear to take those ethical reflections of God's holiness in the Ten Commandments and declare them openly and proudly. In love, mind you, we must speak the truth in love, but that does not mean that we have to do it in a way that depicts our being ashamed of it. I'm certainly not saying that we become brash and arrogant. Being brash and arrogant is far different than just being courageous. and speaking the word, even as Paul would say, of himself in fear and trembling, in weakness, not with persuasive words of men's arguments or with great learning, not with great erudition, none of those things. It's just the Holy Spirit of God coming, taking this word, pouring it through you as a person, coming out of your mouth because it's in your heart, and he uses that to transform the world around him. Why is this most powerful weapon essential? The only thing that will stem the tide of current happenings and the projection of our nation is a great awakening. A great awakening. How is that ever going to happen if the people of God are ashamed of his word and not preaching the true message of his gospel? The true message of the gospel is not come and live your best life. The true message of the gospel is come and die. to yourself, perhaps to your own wishes, perhaps to your own will for your life. Come to Christ, die from all of those things. That's what Paul is going to say in Galatians chapter two. We're gonna study it in coming weeks. That's why the word of God is such an essential weapon for us. The lost and dying world around us needs the message of the gospel. So what in the world do we do now? We preach the gospel like never before. First two things. Remember, we have the Lord. He's on our side. We have his word. He's not left us alone in that regard. We know his will. This is it. Some people say, oh, if I could just have a word from the Lord, if I could hear an audible word from the Lord, I would know what to do. Well, You've heard this before, open your Bible, read it out loud, and you've had an audible word from the Lord that tells you what you are to do. The third thing, not only do we know the Lord is on our side and we have his word, but we have one another. We have one another. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is gloriously equipped to handle this type of situation that we find ourselves in. First Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12, I know we don't normally skip all over, today's a little different and unique, but so be it. First Corinthians chapter 12, if you look with me there, in the 12th verse of that chapter, For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. For in fact, The body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I am not of the body. Skip down to verse 18. But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body, just as he pleased. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is gloriously equipped to handle such situations. Now let me say this, please hear this. The church, the place of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life as a Christian is going to become more important than ever. I'm not saying it hasn't always been important. It has always been important. but the place of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to become more important for you and for me than ever before. Why? Our need for the church is gonna be more keenly felt because the remnants, what few remnants were left straggling about of any type of cultural Christianity are gone. They're just gone. The Bible belt has been cut. It's very much a thing of the past. So your life and mine is going to be more dependent on the church of the Lord Jesus Christ than ever before. And it's my prayer, it's my prayer that we will begin to feel that more keenly today. And that we will feel, I need the fellowship of saints more today than we felt it yesterday and we'll feel it more tomorrow than we did today. That's one of the weaknesses of the contemporary American Christian church. One of the great weaknesses is that we are so loosely attached. One of the great strengths that we find in the scriptures is that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be so compact as a body dependent one upon another. The foot needing the eye, the eye needing the hand, the hand needing the nose. But for so long we have lived in an individual type of Christianity. That our need for one another has been left wanting. And now I think with everything else going the course as it is going, we are going to feel our need for one another more acutely than we ever have. So my encouragement to you, find a church, find a good one. Find one that preaches the scriptures, this one or another, the Lord knows. Find it, commit yourself to it, commit yourself to serving Christ there in that local body. Give yourself into the service of his church. Jesus bled and died for not just me as an individual. He bled and died for his church. And I realize for a lot of us, just speaking honestly, A lot of us have a lot of past church baggage stowed out the window. Just get rid of it. Forgetting what is behind, press forward. begin as best you can to view the church the way that the scriptures would have you to view it, as the glorious body of Christ, gloriously equipped for what is taking place in this world today and what has always been taking place in the world, and that is the adversary's assault on the truth of the living God. The church is better equipped to handle this kind of thing than any other institution that you would ever dream of. There are some good para-church organizations, and by para-church I'm talking about things that are not a local church but do the work of a church. You can think of ministries like R.C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministry or Grace to You or any type of ministry that does the work that the church is supposed to do. And there are some really good ones, but I'm going to tell you the local expression of the body of Christ is gloriously equipped to do what the Lord has called us to do. And he chooses to work in and through us in ways that bring the glory to himself, because he'll take a few people, a remnant of people, and He will open His truth into their hearts and into their minds, and He will bring conviction to their conscience to where they can do nothing else but serve Him and be thankful and filled with gratitude while they do it, and He will take that people. In the Acts of the Apostles, we have the record of He taking 11, 11, and turning the world upside down. Turning the world upside down, not because of their own strength, not because of their learning, they were fishermen. but because of the message that they preached. The Lord is on our side. We have his word. We have one another. We have the spirit of God, that's number four. Ephesians chapter one, verses 13 and 14, tell us this. in Him you also trusted. After you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. to the praise of His glory." What does all that verbiage mean? It means that God, upon the moment of your salvation, gave to you the gift of the Holy Spirit of God as a little down payment, or as a little earnest money, if you will, a guarantee for what will be fully yours later. In the eternal state, living in Christ's kingdom where he is the sun, where he is the light, there is no sin, living in that place, we will have the full measure of the spirit. We will live gloriously in that state throughout all eternity, but here and now, we have a guarantee, a remnant of the spirit. And notice what Paul says to the Ephesians. The Spirit of God is a guarantee of your inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possessions. So how long is this guarantee good for? You ever got a lifetime guarantee from a company that went out of business six weeks later? How good was that thing for you? Didn't work out real well, did it? This guarantee is good until The redemption of the purchased possession. This guarantee is good. And it's not going anywhere. So what in the world do we do now? We live in the power of the spirit. And we pray. What in the world do we do now? We pray. Pray like we've never prayed before. Because we know God hears us. And we know in prayer, we're not bending the will of God to match our own. He's bending our will to match His. That's why we persevere in it. We don't persevere in asking for something that is obviously not the will of God that he has shown us. And yet we're just going to persist in wanting our own way. That's not what persistence in prayer is. Persistence in prayer is praying about a certain matter until the Lord changes your thinking on that matter. And you begin to see things like he sees them. And that is very much also the way he gives you the desire of your heart. It's not that you have a desire of your heart out on some whim and that you present it to the Lord and say, Lord, I want it. No, it's that the Lord, through prayer, through his word, through the church, through all of these means, puts his desire in your heart over time, and then he grants that to you. So you want the desire of your heart? Pray. Be humble, be submissive. And the Lord in time will give it to you. I'm gonna keep repeating these things. So what in the world do we do now? We know the Lord is on our side. We know we have the most powerful weapon on the battlefield and we hold it courageously, we hold it boldly, we hold it unashamedly. We preach the message of the gospel filled with courage, filled with faith. We remember that we have one another. We have one another. We have the Spirit of God. We have prayer. We have hope. We have hope. You know what is different about you and me as Christians than any other non-Christian you will know, regardless of their religion or your religion? You know what the difference is? Hope. What causes Christians to bear up in seemingly unbearable situations? hope because we know that this life is temporary. It's passing. It's fleeting. We have the hope of a better, not just a better tomorrow, we have the hope of a better eternity. And you can take any one of these things, and any one of these things, and you give more to this list. You can compile things to this list just as easy as I can. Just take these things that I've given you so far today, these six things, and when you get home, write number 7, number 8, number 9, number 10, keep going, and you just keep adding to this list. But you take any one of these things is a formidable truth, is it not? The first one, the Lord is on our side, is that not a formidable truth which gives us strength when we wake up in the morning? Yes, it is. What about any of the others? We have one another being the church, is that by itself not a formidable truth? It is, take them all together collectively. And what do you end up with? you end up with God's plan for his church to march through enemy territory, conquering as they go, marching to glory, shedding their own blood if necessary, but they're doing so knowing that a better country awaits. that is built on better promises. Its builder and maker is God. So what in the world do we do now? The same things that we should have always been doing. The same things that we should have always been doing. Believing the same truths that we should have always believed and not forgotten. Because in reality, temporal things change. Earthly things change. Eternal things do not. Things in this world are going to change, one way or another, for good or bad. Eternal things do not change. Why? because the Lord God of heaven and earth has declared, I am the Lord, I do not change. That is my Lord. He is your Lord, and he is on our side. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these truths that you have reminded us of this morning. We are thankful to know you through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we are thankful that you have called us out of our sin and darkness and have conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of your love. What a comforting fact it is for us to meditate upon that as our God, our Lord, you have declared openly which side you are on. You are on the way, you are on the side of righteousness and truth. Father, we are humbled that you have brought us to be on your side. Lord, help us to stand unashamed of your word. to declare the true gospel message of Jesus Christ at every opportunity, to live in light of the gospel, to show its effect upon our lives, how we think, what we put our hands to, the choices that we make. Lord, help us to increasingly see the beauty of your church, gloriously equipped by you to minister to every situation that we would ever find ourselves in. Father, we also thank you that you have given us a guarantee of the inheritance. And that guarantee is good until the purchase, the full purchase and redemption of your body, the church. We thank you, Lord, that we can pray knowing that you hear us. knowing that you give answer to our prayer, knowing that you desire us to come and enter boldly through the way that Christ has opened for us. We thank you that we can live in hope, not having to fear tomorrow because we know our eternities are secure. Father, would you take these truths and embed them in our hearts and in our minds Might we consider them, meditate upon them, and be helped day by day, week by week, and year by year with the truth of them. Lord Jesus Christ, we are looking forward to your return. We have not forgotten that we are pilgrims in this land. We have not forgotten that you are our heavenly king We have not forgotten that you are coming. We have not forgotten that you have said you would come and that you would not leave us as orphans. So Father, we hold to those promises. We hold to them in hope. We hold to them in faith. We hold to them in the strength that you provide. And ultimately, we are thankful, Lord, that you are holding us. and no one shall snatch us out of your hand. No power of hell, no combined forces of evil are strong enough to overtake us because nothing is strong enough to overtake you. I ask your blessings upon all of these gathered this morning, their families, extended families, Lord, might your favor, your face shine upon them, we pray and ask it in Christ's name, amen.