Indeed, he does lead us and Lord willing, he'll lead us through his word today as we take our Bibles and turn to Ezra chapter 4. It's the book of Ezra, remember once again you just find the Psalms, go to the left of the Psalms, first book to the left is Job, then still going left you hit Esther, then Nehemiah, and then our book Ezra. Ezra chapter 4, I'm going to read the first two verses, sermon however is going to be basically the entire chapter. Scripture reading will just be the first two verses. That will set the stage for what we are going to see here in this chapter. And again, let me remind you that when we come to Ezra chapter 4, remember the Jews have been in exile. They've been in Babylon. by God's grace they have been given the freedom now to return to their land after 70 years of captivity. The first few waves of Jews have arrived in the land and the first thing that they want to do is rebuild their temple. Rebuild their temple so they can worship God as God has instructed them how to worship. And we saw in chapter 3 the foundation for that temple was already laid. Now we come to chapter 4 in the first two verses we read this, Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the Lord God of Israel, They approached Zerubbabel and the heads of father's households and said to them, let us build with you. For we, like you, seek your God. And we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us up here. Let's pray. Father in heaven. We do indeed thank you for your word. We thank you for this book that is before us today. And Lord, as we just sang, we ask that you would lead us now through your word. We ask that your Holy Spirit would give us understanding. We ask that you would bless me, the preacher, that I would handle your word accurately. And we ask, Lord, that you would open our eyes, that we might receive wondrous things. We thank you for this and we pray your blessing now in Jesus name. Amen. You may please be seated. This last week I had what I really would consider a providential meeting. In other words, I think it was part of the providence of God that I had this meeting. The meeting was with Pastor Hector, the Spanish-speaking minister here. The meeting wasn't particularly unique or providential. The meeting itself, that is. But I was in the library waiting for Pastor Hector, and I didn't have anything to read, but I was in a library. So as I was kind of killing time waiting for him to show up, I start looking at the shelves and I saw a book on Adoniram Judson. Little teeny, about 125 page book. And so I took it off the shelf and I started to read it. Now to you Southern Baptists, Ad Nirem Judson might not mean much to you, but to us American Baptists, he's huge because Ad Nirem Judson was the first foreign missionary of what would later become the American Baptist Church. Churches. Well, I started to read this as I waited for Hector and continued to read it after he left and the next day and so forth. And I read the book and I was just overwhelmed with what I read. I was amazed and I was humbled because of all the trials this man went through for the proclamation of the gospel where they're just unspeakable. His father was a congregational minister. So he grew up in a Christian home. When he went to college, he grew up in Massachusetts. He went to Brown University, which is in Rhode Island, Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from Brown University number one in his class, top in his class. And then he went to Andover Seminary. When he got out of Andover Seminary, he was offered the pastorate of the largest church in Boston. And that's 1912. That's back in the days when everybody went to church. And if you're the pastor of the largest church in Boston, you got respect, you got power, you have a very comfortable living, and so forth. Well, he turned it down. He turned it down to be a foreign missionary to India. Before he left for India in 1912, He wanted to marry a young woman named Anne. So he wrote to her father asking for her hand in marriage. And guys, you who haven't yet asked for some woman's hand in marriage, I want to read to you what the letter said. Try this sometime. He wrote to the father and said, I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter, whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land and her subjection to hardships and suffering of a missionary life. whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Not just she might die, but she might die a violent death. The father agreed. Yeah, sure. Take her. And Anne, the woman, agreed as well. Well, they're married just before he left for India. They traveled together with another missionary couple named the Newels on their way to India. Mrs. Newel was pregnant at the time. On the voyage over there, she gave birth to the baby. The baby died and she died in the process. So by the time they landed the Newels, it was only Mr. Newel left. They had to witness the death of the wife and the baby. And when they got there, they went through all kinds of sufferings, most of them physical, dysentery, high fever, all of those type of things. They had been at sea for five months. Now they're in Calcutta after they'd been there for just two weeks. The ruler, leader of the area, calls him up and says this, quote, the American missionaries must leave the country at once. When the caravan sails for the United States, they must be on it. They're kicked out of India. Five months at sea, they get there. Two weeks later, they're kicked out. You must leave now. Talk about discouragement. You know, I would have thought, boy, a guy dies on the way here, or the woman dies on the way here. The baby dies. We're kicked out. Maybe God does want me to take that pastorate in Boston. Maybe he's trying to tell me something. Well, they left Calcutta, but not for the US. Instead, they went to Burma. In Burma, their first baby died. The next baby lived for 10 months, and then they had to bury that one as well. Judson was falsely accused of some crime against the government. And in that accusation, he spent two years in jail. Anne would die when she was 37 years old, and his second wife died after just five years of marriage. Now, men and women, why was this mission field so difficult? Why was it so difficult to be a missionary in Burma? Well, it's really quite simple. There were no believers in Burma at the time. I mean, no believers. And that is because it was known as a country that quote, beat Christian converts until they were insane. Come become a Christian, you're going to get beat up. And remember, before we truly repent, before we truly repent and come to faith in Christ, we are in the kingdom of Satan. We are in his camp. We think we are our own. We think we have freedom. But Paul tells us otherwise. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, he says this, he speaks of the conversion of people, quote, coming to their senses and escaping from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. people, the non-christian is captive in Satan's camp. The non-christian is captive in the kingdom of Satan. And this is what Christ was referring to when He said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. What He's referring to is the proclamation of the gospel. People like Adoniram Judson are going to bring the gospel and when they declare the gospel, people are going to believe and they're going to come out of the kingdom of Satan into Christ's kingdom. But men and women, when a soul is snatched from the kingdom of Satan, he's enraged. He doesn't like that. And as one man said, quote, one step in true repentance unleashes the fury of hell. And that's what Adoniram Judson experienced was the fury of hell. Because here comes a guy with the gospel of Jesus Christ to a land with virtually no Christians. You think Satan's going to take that lightly? Heck no, and he didn't. And so naturally, and Nyram Judson received the full fury of hell. Well, we can go back, not just to 1912, but we can go back to 500 years before Jesus Christ and see the enemies of God's people at work even then. And so from this chapter, in Ezra chapter 4, from this chapter you will see clearly displayed before you the enemy's strategy, 500 years before Christ. You will also see that not much has changed in all those years. Or more specifically, you will see the two ways that the enemies of God try to hinder you, try to hinder God's people. You'll see it as we look at two things, first the enemy, We'll identify the enemy here and then the enemy's strategy. Look at the enemy. The enemy is verse 1, very beginning. Verse 1 of Ezra 4 says, of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple of the Lord God to the Lord God of Israel. Who are these enemies? Ezra calls them enemies. Who are they? Well, I said it last week. They're the descendants of people whom the Assyrian rulers brought over. The Syrian rulers brought them over to the land, and there were still some Jews who had remained behind, who hadn't gone to Babylon, and they intermarried with those Jews. They formed a mixed population, if you will, of what would eventually be called the Samaritans. And you're familiar with the Samaritans? They're mentioned a lot in the New Testament, and the Samaritans were despised by the Jews. Why? Well, because of what I just said. because they were the offspring of Jews who had married Gentiles, which you're not supposed to do. But not only that, these people then tampered with the very truth of God's Word to accomplish their own religious views. They took the religious views of the Gentiles, of the pagans, kind of tried to mix in a little bit of Judaism with it. That's the enemy that we see here in verse 1. Now the question is, what do they do? Ezra's already said they're the enemy. What do they do? Well, people, there are two ways. Two ways to try to defeat your enemy. If they're the enemy, they view the Jews as their enemy. Two ways to try to defeat them. One way is what I'll call the subtle. way, the nice way to try to defeat your enemy. Do you remember the ecumenical movement? Ecumenical movement was huge in the 60s and the 70s. Growing up in the Methodist Church in San Francisco, I heard all about the ecumenical movement. They were in favor of it. The ecumenical movement was basically this. Let's unite all the churches. I had Catholic churches, and Methodists, and Lutheran, and Seventh-day Adventists. Let's just get them all together, united. I mean, we all kind of believe in the same thing. We all believe in God, right? Let's unite and think of the social good we can do. Think of the political clout we would have. Well, it made so much sense, right? Well that's exactly what the enemies of God's people suggest right here. Notice, I've got to begin in verse 1, but notice verses 1 and 2. Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the Lord God of Israel, They approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' households and said to them, let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us up here. Do you see that? The first tactic of the enemies of God is to encourage an ecumenical movement, if you will. They're basically saying this, hey, We see you're rebuilding that temple. Let us help you. Let us join with you in the work. What they're saying is, hey, after all, we have Jewish blood in us, too. You know, we got some Jewish blood in us. We worship the same Lord. Yeah, we might worship differently than you, but it's kind of the same. We want to join with you. We want to help with this project of yours. Now, people imagine how tempting that was to the Jewish people. They're offering to help shoulder the burden. They don't even want any money in return. And remember, they outnumbered the Jews. Think how easily they can get this thing done with their help if they just unite it with them. But if they reject it, Well, then they're going to remain a small, outnumbered group of people. It almost seems like a no-brainer, right? So what was their answer? Verse 3, But Zerubbabel and Yeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers' households of Israel said to them, You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God, but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us. Men and women to us, that might seem unloving, that might seem harsh, or to use the term that we hear so often today, it might seem intolerant, but it's not. Instead, it's a demonstration that these Jews were returning to their land after captivity in Babylon. These Jews understood now that they were to be a holy people, that they were to be different and to remain different from the nations around them. Deuteronomy chapter 14 says for you Jewish people are a holy people to the Lord your God and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth again this is 500 years before Jesus Christ But we see the same thing happening today. Do we not? Many people today are calling for unity. For a unity, though, that robs the truth of the gospel from the people of God. It seems that, especially today, we need the wisdom that we see here in Ezra chapter 4. Many of you are familiar with the emergent church movement. Perhaps you've heard that term. I've thought of it recently because we have a few Southern Baptist churches talking to the pastors and they're going kind of that way. They want to make their churches kind of what is called an emergent Church. Well, Brian McLaren is one of the leaders in the whole emergent church movement. He was a formal evangelical, and now he thinks he understands things a little bit better. He wrote a book called A Generous Orthodoxy. And what he and many in the emergent church are against is, you know, those people who are so concerned with orthodoxy. You know, Jesus Christ, did he really rise on the third day? And was he really born of a virgin? All those things. A generous orthodoxy includes all kinds of different views. And so in his book, he says this, I have gone out of my way, I'm quoting him, to be provocative, mischievous, and unclear. Now I wish when I was in college I had that quote because often times in my papers the prophet would write unclear, you know, clarify what are you really saying. I wish I could say, you know, I've gone out of my way to be unclear because he goes on and he says reflecting my belief that clarity You know, that is those of you who are orthodox, think you understand things. Clarity is sometimes overrated, and that shock, obscurity, playfulness, and intrigue often stimulate more thought than clarity. Then later he writes, there is a great danger in the quest to be right. All of you who've just wanted to understand, did Jesus rise from the dead? Yes or no? Was he born of a virgin? Yes or no? I want to be right. I want to be clear. He's saying there's great danger in that. No, be unclear. Be, you know, kind of hold everything with an open hand. Men and women in Ezra 4, we meet the enemies of God posing as something good. Yet we are warned against wolves in sheep's clothing, are we not? Don't we see wolves in sheep's clothing way back here 500 years before Christ? Posing to be something good, posing to want to help you. Paul in Acts 20 says this, I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." Peter says basically the same thing in 2 Peter 2. John says basically the same thing in 2 John 7. Jude is the half-brother of Jesus Christ. Jude writes that little letter he's gonna write about the common salvation, but he changes and he says this, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, not for faith, for the faith, a certain faith, a certain understanding of who Jesus Christ is, which was once for all handed down to the saints. Apparently, Jude hadn't read McLaren's book, and he didn't know. You know, there's great danger in the quest to be right, great danger to say that you won't know what the faith is, because Jude seems to think the opposite. He seems to think there's great danger in not seeking the truth, to not know what the faith is, to not fight for that truth. Remember people, there is a reason why the church on earth is called the church militant and the church in heaven is called the church triumphant. Because on this side of eternity, it is a battle. And as I already said, when a soul is snatched from Satan's kingdom, he is enraged and he doesn't take that lightly. And he can just ask Adam and Irem Judson and his wives about that. We've just seen what we call subtle attacks. These people claim to be on their side, claim to be wanting to help with the work, just like today. So many wolves pretend to be just a better version of Christianity or just a cooler, more hip version of Christianity, when in reality it's a denial of the truth and a denial of the truth is nothing more than wolves in sheep's clothing." Well, if subtle attacks don't work, and it didn't work here in Ezra 4, then there's always Plan B, isn't there? Plan B is the not so subtle attack. or the outright attack. Plan B is no longer wolves in sheep's clothing. Plan B is wolves that are just plain wolves, no sheep's clothing at all. Notice when these Samaritans were refused that the enemies then dispensed with the niceties. They're no longer wolves in sheep's clothing. Now they are really just plain wolves. Now they just flat out oppose the Jews openly to do whatever they can to prevent them from accomplishing their task of building this temple to worship God. And according to verses four and five, they had three weapons. Here's the three weapons, discouragement, fear, and if those two things don't work, then just flat out political pressure. Sound familiar? Discouragement, fear, and political pressure. 500 years before Christ. Notice the first weapon here. It's discouragement. You look at verse 4 at the very beginning. It says, Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah. Okay, turned down our help. Now they just flat out discourage them. If you have King James Version, by the way, it reads, then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah. Same thing. To weaken the hands means just that, to discourage. They understood just how debilitating discouragement can be. One of Satan's greatest tools is discouragement. And people, again, that's why we in the church are supposed to encourage one another because there's enough discouragement from the enemies of God. That's why we encourage one another. Paul writes to the Thessalonians. Thessalonians are going through all kinds of trials and he says, encourage one another just as you so are doing. The second weapon that the enemies used, if discouragement doesn't work, then try fear. Look at verse four, the second part of verse four. It says, and frightened them from building. Again, if you have a King James Version, the word troubled says trouble them from building. But that word troubled means fear, means scare them. Now, as many of you know, fear is a very difficult thing to combat. Fear can paralyze us, and our enemies know it. And so you see discouragement. You see they try fear. And if that doesn't work, then the third thing the enemies of God use, and you see it here, is political pressure. Notice verse 5, verse 5 says they hired, my translation says they hired or really bribed people to frustrate their counsel. Verse 5, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. In other words, it went on for quite some time. They're trying to frustrate their purpose. The goal is nothing less than completely ending the Jews' attempt to rebuild that temple, to stop it, to stop it cold. Now why do they want to do that? Because they're the enemies of God. We see that in verse 1. What did they do? What did they do to try to flat out stop it from happening? Well, we're told they wrote a letter. Verses 6 and 7 says, now in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlom, Mithridat, and Tabeal, and the rest of his colleagues, wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and the text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated from Aramaic. So they wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. You go down to verse 11 and you can see the letter. Verse 11 and following it says this. This is the copy of the letter which they sent to him. To King Artaxerxes, your servants, the men in the region beyond the river and now, let it be known to you, the king, that the Jews who camp up from you have come to us at Jerusalem. They are rebuilding, notice, the rebellious and evil city and are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations. now let it be known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and by the way I thought you wanted to help us rebuild that rebellious and evil city but anyway if that city is rebuilt and the walls are finished they will not pay tribute custom or toll and it will damage the revenue of the kings now because we are in the service of the palace we're yours to command, we're on your side and it is not fitting for us to see the king's dishonor therefore we have sent and informed the king so that a search may be made in the record books of your fathers and you will discover in the record books and learn that that city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces and that they have incited revolt within it in past days therefore that city was laid waste Verse 16, we inform the king that if that city is rebuilt and the wall's finished, as a result you will have no possession in the province beyond the river. Quite a firm letter. You better do something. You better do something about this. You better stop them from building for your own good, for the sake of your kingdom, you better stop them. And that's all our concern is for you, Artaxerxes. So what happened? The king wrote back. And he said, yep, stop the work. Stop it. Verse 23, go down to verse 23. Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes' document was read, before Rahom and Shimshi, the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem, to the Jews, and stopped them by force. It worked, didn't it? So dear people, how do we apply this? How do we apply this 500 years before Christ? How do we apply this to us today? Well, I think the application should be obvious. Remember, Satan hates losing souls from his kingdom. And here we see the battle. The battle consists of first subtle attacks. We see the enemy saying, hey, we're with you. We're on your side. We want to join up. We want to help. Men and women, let me ask you, are you discerning? Are you willing to earnestly contend for the faith? Are you aware of wolves in sheep's clothing? Are you like the Bereans who were considered more noble-minded because they searched the scriptures to see if the things Paul said were so? Second, What about the not so subtle attacks that you see here? The attempt to discourage, the attempt to scare. The obvious question for me to you would be, do you encourage others? Because if you discourage others, you're doing exactly what the enemies of God want to do, discourage the people of God. Are you a discouragement to others or are you an encourager? And what about fear? Does that describe you? Well, we began with Adoniram Judson. Let's end with him and one other person. I can't help but think The very thing we see here in Ezra 4, Satan used against Adoniram Judson. And that's why I called that meeting I had with Pastor Hector, providential, because I read the book about Adoniram Judson. Discouragement? Was he discouraged? Did they try that? Oh, you bet. His friend's wife and baby die on the way to the mission field? When he gets to India after five months, the ruler tells him you have to get out? That's enough to discourage anyone. But the Judsons were not turned back, even after political attacks. Even after it was lied about that he had said something against the government and that he was put in prison for two years. And in prison, the shackles on his ankle, the chain was so small that he could barely put one foot in front of the other. And so to walk around, he had to just shuffle. How did he stand firm? You read that. You read all that he went through and you think, how did this guy stand firm? Well, there's two things that stand out in his life. The first is this. Did you know Ad Nairam Judson at one time was an atheist? Grew up in a Christian home. Dad was a pastor. Well, how'd he end up being an atheist? He went to Brown University. He studied hard. And he had a friend at Brown. Friend's name was Jacob Eames. Jacob Eames was an atheist. And you think, boy, what an odd friendship, this pastor's son and this atheist. Yeah, but they were fast friends, because they both loved to study. They both were well-read. They both loved philosophy, and they would discuss philosophy together. And Jacob Eames would oftentimes raise many of the difficult questions in theology. What about the problem of evil, and so forth? And Judson didn't have an answer. And so after he graduated, he told his parents, I'm an atheist. I reject Christianity. Well, about a year, maybe it was two years later, Judson is traveling between New York and Sheffield in Massachusetts, where he's from. And he's tired, and he checks into an inn, a traveler's inn. And he just wants to get some sleep. And he asked for a room, and the manager or whatever he would have been called in those days said, you know, I only have one room left, and you don't want this room because it's right next to somebody who's dying. And you're going to have a hard time sleeping. It's going to be kind of noisy next door, so I'm sorry. And Judson said, well, I'm just exhausted. I won't have any trouble sleeping. Give me the key. And he went into the room, and sure enough, it was quite loud next door. Sure enough, that guy was dying, and he was making all kinds of noise as he was going through the last hours of his life, as death was taking over, as his soul was being yanked from him. And there were people attending him, and they're walking around. It's just all kinds of noise. Unfortunately for Judson, the noise stopped a few hours before dawn, and he got a little bit of sleep. And he goes to the manager, and he turns in his key, and the manager says, you know, did you get any sleep? And he said, no, you were right. I got hardly any sleep. And he says, you know, what happened to the guy? And the manager said, yeah, he died during the night. And while the guy was going through all of his agony, Judson was thinking, his soul's going to be required of him. Is Christianity true? How will this guy be able to stand before God? How will he be able to stand before Holy God? And he started to remember all those things he had learned growing up in the church. Well, as he turned in his key, the manager said, yeah, and he was a young guy, too, about your age. Judges said, oh, wow. He said, you know, in fact, I heard he's really educated. The guy went to Brown University. And Judson said, really, Brown? I went there. I said, what's the guy's name? And he went and got the ledger, and he read it. Jacob Eames. It's their friend. It was his friend from Brown University. You're talking about a providential meeting. There are lots of hotels. There are lots of travelers' inns between Sheffield and New York City. And at this one particular time, Judson is there in the room right next to his friend from Brown, and he hears him die. And it turned Judson around. And you say, OK, well, that's how he came to faith. But how did he combat discouragement and fear? Well, the answer is simple. After 25 years in Burma, Judson came back to the United States for a visit. He had returned to Burma, but he came back just for a visit. During those 25 years, he had lost several kids. He had lost two wives. But he had also translated the Bible, the entire Bible, into Burmese. It took him 24 years to do it. Well, when he came back to the United States, as they say, his reputation had preceded him. He was well-known. He was actually kind of famous when he came back. So he had all kinds of invitations to speak at churches. And when he spoke and they said, you know, Adam Nyrum Judson is going to be here speaking, the place was packed. And so the first place he spoke, got up into the pulpit and he told the people what sinners they were. But Jesus Christ had left heaven. He had taken on flesh. He had kept the law on their behalf. And if they trust in Jesus Christ, they'll be saved. And he sat down. I mean, it was longer than that, but he preached the gospel. And the deacons, after that first one, took him aside and said, you know, the people want to hear stories. You can get the gospel, you can hear that from Wade. We want to hear stories. We want to hear about prison in Burma. We want to hear of those stories and what that was like. And Judson said, that is my story. The gospel is my story. That's what I declare. And that, people, is how he overcame fear and discouragement. Simple. He understood. And he believed the promises of the word of God. Now I said that I would close with two people. Who's the other one? The other one is David. Remember, David likewise experienced lots of fear, lots of discouragement. In the 56th Psalm, we are invited to observe David's fear. and his enemies are after him and he has legitimate reason to be afraid. But what does he say? In the fourth verse of the 56th Psalm he says this, In God whose word I praise, in God I trust, I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? In other words, his confidence is in God. So again, let me ask you, Do you trust God? Is your confidence in Him and in His word? James Boyce in his commentary on the 56th Psalm, he says this, he says, quote, if you are a Christian, you have trusted Him in the matter of your salvation. That is the greatest thing. God has saved you from sin, hell, and the devil. If you are a Christian, you believe He has done that. True. But if He has done that, Can you not also trust Him in lesser things, like loneliness? Or even those sometimes dangerous circumstances that cause fear and desperation? The Bible teaches that God will take care of you if you belong to Him and are following after Jesus Christ. David wrote in an earlier psalm, I'm still quoting, I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. David says, you know, now I'm an old man. Used to be young, now I'm old. And I can look back and I can say, you know, I've never seen the righteous forsaken. God has always kept His promise. I've never seen their kids begging for bread. And what's his point? Trust God. God is faithful. So let's finish our text. Look at the last verse, verse 24. It says, Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased. and it was stopped. Well, the enemies of God won, right? No. Until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. Until this appointed time by God. Men and women, the Jews' enemies will not have the last word. They simply will not have the last word and neither will the enemies of any true believer. And why is that? Because Christ is the final victor. Because he spoke once of another temple, the temple of his body. And he said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And he did just that. And that's why the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. And so dear people, this next Thursday is Thanksgiving. In that psalm of David, Psalm 56, that psalm ends with these words, I will render thank offerings to you. I will render thanks to you. Why? For you have delivered my soul from death, indeed my feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living. I will render thanks offering to you. And men and women, so should we. And why? Because our enemies will not have the last word, because God is faithful. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how grateful we are that indeed our enemies will not have the last word. Indeed you are faithful. Indeed, you keep all of your promises. Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. And Lord, may we remember your faithfulness. May we remember the truthfulness of your word, that you keep your promises, not just on Thursday, may we thank you, but every day. And may in our thanks we seek then to live for you in a way that is pleasing to you. Lord, we thank you for your word here. We thank you for the victory that we have in Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And so now, men and women, if you'd all please stand. And if you'd take your hymnals.