Lessons After 75 Years (Pt 2)

I invite you to turn this evening to Judges chapter 2.

We sang that psalm, a powerful psalm, Psalm 103. I often think of one of our ministers in Northern Ireland who was asked to give thanks for the meal after the food had already been served. When he prayed, he said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.”

There is a certain kind of wit that is often found among ministers in Northern Ireland. I cannot say that I possess this particular quality. Men of sharp wit and humor are common, though such humor sometimes requires restraint.

I recall a remark made by Charles Spurgeon. I believe it was a lady who came to him, not pleased with some of his more humorous comments. He replied, “Ma’am, if only you knew what I was not saying.” There is much that remains unsaid.

Of course, Spurgeon was very humorous. You do not see this quality as much in his sermons. But if you read his lectures to his students, and even if you do not feel called to ministry, these lectures are still worth your time. In those settings, when he was speaking directly to his students, you can see the humor he used to help convey truth and support their growth.

He offered various descriptions of how men might stand in the pulpit and the habits they sometimes developed that distracted from the message. One thing you can do is… our current president also has this ability. If you give it a name, then it tends to make people want to avoid being associated with it.

This is what Spurgeon did with certain postures that men sometimes adopted in the pulpit. For example, some would place their thumbs under a part of their suit, and he would refer to this as “the penguin.” Once a name is given to such a posture, people are more likely to avoid it.

Thus, humor can be effective when used appropriately.

Tonight, I want to continue where we left off this morning. Again, this is not my usual approach. I had intended to address only a general overview of the past 75 years of our denomination this morning. I believe that reflecting carefully on significant moments, memorials, and anniversaries is an important practice. You can see this in Scripture as well.

As we come together tonight to reflect again on what I had planned to say this morning, we turn once more to Judges 2. Please turn there.

We will read from verse 6 through verse 10.

This passage marks a pivotal moment in the history of Israel, following all they had experienced under Moses and their entry into the promised land through the leadership of Joshua. The great battles were fought, and the land was taken to a significant extent.

Then, as described here, the stage is set for the book of Judges, which outlines the recurring cycle of decline, suffering under judgment, cries to the Lord for deliverance, and God raising up individuals to lead and bring deliverance. And then they would have a period of peace or prosperity, and another generation would do the same thing all over again.

This pattern does not merely repeat in cycles, but it progresses downward over time. By the time you reach the end of the book of Judges, certain details in the text are so extreme that you may wonder how such a situation could be possible. At the end of the book, you come to civil war, an utter tragedy.

This demonstrates that when we turn away from God, there are consequences. These consequences cannot be avoided. Often, the recovery from each cycle does not bring us back to where we were, nor beyond it. Instead, it falls short, and when we fall again, the decline is even greater and deeper. In this way, we test the patience of God.

There are many lessons for us here. This is the summary presented in Judges 2, verse 6, which sets the stage for the book.

“And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.

“And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.

“And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

“And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

“And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.”

We will end the reading here at verse 10. And this, beloved, is the Word of the eternal God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray.

Lord, give help. Whatever remains that ought to be said tonight, grant guidance and counsel. We pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I am glad to stand before a people who know that the real need is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that You will not disappoint them, that the Spirit will come to minister to them, to deepen the work of grace in their lives, to sharpen their appreciation for Your mercies, and to awaken those who do not yet know Christ, so that they may enter into eternal life this very night.

So we pray, Lord, guide us, help us, enable us, and magnify Christ. It is all for Him. If it is for man, then his gain is empty.

Please, Lord, help us to have a single-minded purpose, that we do all things for the glory of God. Draw near to us now. We pray in our Savior’s name. Amen.

I am not in the habit of quoting Richard Dawkins in any positive way. Even as I mention his name, there may be a generation here who have never heard it, or who have heard it but are not sure who he is, while some of us are very familiar with him and his influence.

Richard Dawkins is one of the most prominent leaders of what might be called the New Atheism. He was especially active in the 1990s and into the early 2000s, writing books, most notably The God Delusion, and advocating for the complete rejection of Christianity. He opposed all religion and all belief in God, but he focused particularly on Christianity, likely because he is from the United Kingdom, where his interest in challenging Christianity has been especially strong.

What is interesting is that he appears to have changed his position in recent years, probably because his entire philosophy is now showing the extent of its harmful results.

And it is interesting to see some changes in this. Many years ago, he said the following: “Staving off death is a thing you have to work at.” He was speaking in the context of evolution, noting that within our world, as we observe it, there is a need to work at resisting the influence or effects of death, since living organisms must work to stay alive.

But there is a deeper insight in this idea that goes beyond the context in which he originally applied it.

Staving off death is a thing you have to work at.

Consider this spiritually. Reflect on it in light of the book of Hebrews, which we have just completed, where in chapter 2 we are told: “We must give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.”

Staving off death is a thing you have to work at.

You will know this in your own life. You will know times of spiritual decline, of coldness, of indifference. You will know times when you have felt yourself drifting from the Lord. You will be able to testify personally about times of spiritual challenge. And perhaps you are experiencing such a time tonight.

If I were to say to you that you need to stop on the path you are on and return to where you should be, some of you might respond by saying it is not as easy as that.

Why?

Because staving off death is a thing you have to work at. It is difficult. The thorns and thistles do not grow only in the ground. The weeds that begin to spring up with vigor in the summer, appearing everywhere in this region, are a reflection of what happens in the heart. When you hesitate, when you stop being vigilant, death, decay, decline, and chaos will naturally take their place.

Staving off death is a thing you have to work at.

And what is true in what can be observed in the world, and what is true in what can be observed in the Christian life, is also true of a church, of a denomination: staving off death requires constant effort.

The Free Presbyterian Church will be 75 years old on the 17th of March.

When you read the Word of God, you may observe that there is great mercy in how slowly decline often occurs, and in the judgment that is deserved. There is great mercy. God is patient with His people, as you see time and again.

But what makes this difficult is when you are living in the moment in which death has already begun to take hold. Yet there is still observable life. The institution continues to exist. The church remains. The buildings are still occupied. The bills are still paid. Certain tasks are still accomplished.

But there is decay.

This is backsliding. It is when people still come to the house of God, but something has already begun to affect their hearts and souls, causing a decay in their inner life. They are present, they show up, but the decay is happening beneath the surface.

What is true of the individual is also true of any organization, any institution, any church.

There have been times in the life of our denomination when the future was uncertain. After a strong start, the church went through a period of years in which little seemed to be accomplished. When Dr. Cairns, who served as minister here for nearly thirty years, began training for ministry in 1960, he was the only student.

There was a growing concern about whether the work would continue. No one realized what would happen during the two decades from 1966 to 1986, a time in which nearly every few months brought news of another church or another mission. Thus, the history of the denomination and its period of growth occurred during those two decades.

Yet, other periods followed. The life of this congregation also reflects a similar pattern: struggles, challenges, early difficulties, periods of growth, times of consolidation, and later decline.

What is the future? What is the future?

Judges 2:10 gives a warning. As I said this morning, this occurred approximately seventy-five years after the exodus. At that time, the generation that had known Joshua had died.

Another generation arose after them, which did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel.

These are lessons for Free Presbyterians after seventy-five years.

This morning, we considered the first lesson: some generations inherit much from the godly. Not every generation, but some do. This generation did, and I believe we can say that the current generation does. I feel that I have inherited this. I was not present at the beginning.

I feel like I have inherited much from the godly who went before—those who suffered, those who sacrificed, those who left their families at great cost due to opposition and hatred.

This afternoon, and often, I ask family members what stood out, what they are taking away, what seemed to resonate from the message this morning. Melanie was reflecting on how difficult it was to walk away from a church when multiple generations of her family had been part of that congregation.

This is at the forefront of her mind because she is exploring the Baird family history. That is her maiden name on her father’s side, and it is her name. The church to which her grandmother still belongs has a particular headstone in the graveyard. Multiple generations are listed on that headstone, going back to the 1700s.

The family has been buried there for generations. In that place, they worshiped God, raised their families, and their families raised their families, generation after generation. Those who left in 1951 walked away from that kind of legacy, and it was difficult.

They were hated for doing so. They paid a price, and we have inherited from their sacrifice. They were the ones who took up the struggle. They were the ones who fought, as it were, against the Canaanites. They were the ones who sought to establish something new.

And we are the ones who have inherited from the godly.

And so we said this morning, they inherited truth they did not discover, and they inherited a witness they did not build.

That brings us to the second point. Having considered this morning that some generations inherit much from the godly, the second point is that such generations may lose what matters most.

Such generations may lose what matters most.

Is that not what we are told? “There arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.”

This language is not without purpose. It is the Spirit of God issuing a warning to future generations. Yes, it is an account of history. Yes, it is a specific detail that is true regarding what occurred.

But you can see from the context that this is not a narrative describing events in sequence, as what follows, but rather a setting of the scene and a shaping of thought for future generations. It warns them that what you are about to read follows a pattern: having been blessed and favored, the next generation comes and squanders it through their sin.

Some generations inherit much from the godly, and such generations may lose what matters most. This is the crisis of the text.

They did not lose their outward identity. They were still Israelites. They still had their identity in their tribes. They still had their portion of land. And they had much that one could say, well, they have what their forefathers gave to them. They have it. They have it all. They have the name. They have the land. They have the worship. They have X, Y, and Z.

But they lost what mattered most.

They knew not the Lord.

This is a real warning. They lost their relationship with God. And this is something I fear.

Do you fear it for yourself? Do you? Let us begin there. Do you fear losing out with God yourself? How much do you fear it? How much?

You fear a storm might come and destroy your home, so what do you do? You pay a high price every year for insurance so that you are protected. It matters to you, so you pay the cost.

Do you fear losing out with God? If so, do you pay the cost? Do you pay the cost?

I will return to that.

There is a real danger in any institution developing a prioritization of professionalism, pragmatism, and pride. You see this in how they govern. It enters gradually, like the proverbial frog being boiled in slowly heating water. It is difficult to notice as it happens, but you begin to recognize signs of it.

Professionalism: Ah, we used to do it that way, but this is the more refined way. This is what the professionals say we should do.

What would professional military commanders have said to Joshua about going in to deal with the Canaanites? What would they have said when God commanded him to march around the city wall of Jericho? What would they have said to Gideon when he reduced his army to 300 men, a number that later becomes significant in this very book?

There are times when you must be discerning, recognizing that you are falling into an over-reliance on what seems or is perceived as the professional approach. The real danger is not that there is an element of professionalism. The real danger is that it replaces trust in God.

It becomes, “We will succeed because we are professional,” rather than, “We are trusting God.” This substitutes faith. The same is true of pragmatism. The same is true of pride. We begin to think it is about us.

We did it.

Such generations may lose what matters most.

Note, they lost a living knowledge of God. They lost a living knowledge of God, a vital living knowledge of God. They knew not the Lord.

It is possible to know your history. It is possible to know your doctrine. It is possible to know what previous generations accomplished and what they emphasized. You can rehearse, state, and articulate all the vital aspects they taught were important.

Yet you may still not be following. We can defend the standards. And yet, there is no communion.

It was not the stand that made the difference, but the communion. The stand was made because of the communion. I said this morning about the importance of recognizing that being identified is not only about what you are against, but also about what you are for. In one sense, one is a consequence of the other, and you begin with what you are for.

Separating oneself to the gospel inherently requires being against certain things. You are against what opposes it, what undermines it, what dilutes it, what taints it. And so, if you are truly separated to the gospel of God—if you are truly separated to it in the sense that this is the priority of your life—you will inevitably be against certain things.

If you are separated to God, you are separated to a God who is holy. You call yourself to holiness, and thus you humbly reject and oppose all that is not holy. You are not for unholiness.

Naturally, you will be against it.

But there were those in our Lord’s time who outwardly opposed many things that were right and good. The Pharisees. Yes, we read about the Pharisees and see the denunciations that come from the Lord Jesus. We may think of them as terrible people, and believe we would have nothing to do with them. But that is not true. That is not true.

The Pharisees would have supported the entire conservative political movement. Therefore, if you promote and desire to see the forward momentum of conservatism and traditionalism, or whatever you wish to call it, you can be sure that, if the Pharisees were present today, they would be at the heart of it all. And we would be commending them for the things that they are saying.

You know, those who are running for office and so on, because they stand for the values that matter to me. Then what would you have said when the Lord Jesus stands up and denounces them?

These people draw near to Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.

Now you can discuss the political aspect, whatever you like, but the point is this: they did not know the Lord. And they had all kinds of views, beliefs, attitudes, and traditional practices, and so on. They had it all arranged just so, but they did not know the Lord.

And our Lord Jesus exposes this, and He has no time for it. This is precisely what we are warned against here in Judges 2:10. These people were separated, they had a name, they had privileges, they had benefits, they were still part of the same tribes, and so on, but they did not know the Lord.

Many denominations have continued for a long time having a name to live, but being dead, as Jesus said in Revelation. It is possible. Indeed, it is a genuine threat to our denomination.

We are good at holding standards, for the most part. I mean, people still walk in here, and if you are new, I am not pointing at you or trying to make you feel bad or anything, but people walk in. Of course, one of the most noticeable things, the thing they notice immediately, is head covering.

You know, and they remark on it, saying they have not seen that before, and so on. They have discussions about it, and so on.

And really, if you transported us back to 1951, you would not find it unusual. It would be the most natural thing. And you would not comment on it, because any church you went to, pretty much, would be doing the same thing.

So when people ask us about that, I say, listen, we are just the same as we were. Your grandparents, we are just the same. We are doing what your grandparents did. We have not changed. Everyone else, or at least many, have changed, but we are still standing in the same place.

So we are good at that. We are good at saying, here is where we stand, this is where we have always been, and we are still standing in that same place. That is a good trait in many respects. But it is a problem if you think it can substitute for a genuine knowledge of God. It cannot substitute for it.

I remember being on a question panel years ago, and someone in the audience asked me a question. They asked about a particular part of the world that is seeing great growth in the Christian church. It is growing and multiplying, and it appears to be a measure of what we might call revival that is taking place there.

They said to me, how can that be when they do not observe head covering? Of course, I had several ways I could have answered, and I tried to be as courteous as possible.

But I think the question reveals a mindset that believes the most important thing, the highest priority, is some external practice that may be biblical, may be correct, and so on. These things are seen as the standard. God cannot work unless all these things are in place exactly as they should be. You must have them all. God cannot work.

That is not true.

I think the question actually comes from a seed of pride that imagines God owes it to us because we are still doing what we should do, and therefore He owes it to us to bless us.

But it is not so. It is not so.

They lost the living knowledge of God. They had the outward forms, the formalities. Much of that was still present, but the knowledge of God was gone. They did not know the Lord.

That is one of the most heartbreaking phrases you will find in Scripture. All the privileges were lost. They were separated from God. There was no communion, no fellowship, no love, no piety, no humility.

Here they were, inheritors of great privileges, able to tell stories about the victories of their forefathers, about how weak the enemies had been in standing against the living God, and so on and so forth. Yet all the while, they did not know God.

You will see this everywhere. You will see it in seminaries just as you will see it in churches. You will see young men debating points of theology, arguing and fighting over fine distinctions. They read only a paragraph or two in a systematic theology and then want to apply it everywhere they go, to show the world that they have read a little.

And they do not know God. They do not know God. Sometimes they do not know God. Ask them about their prayer life. Ask them about their repentance. Ask them about their fellowship. Ask them about their devotion.

But also, not only did they lose the living knowledge of God, they also lost the connection between God’s works and present duty. They lost the connection between God’s works and present duty.

I believe this is truly at the heart of what comes at the end: “nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.”

I do not think this is merely ignorance of what had happened historically. I find that highly unlikely. That the generation after Joshua had no knowledge of what Joshua and those with him had accomplished? That is highly unlikely.

Therefore, I believe the connection between what God had done and their duty had been lost. The works of God require a response from humanity. So you can say you know the works in the sense that you know them in your mind. It is like saying you know God in the sense that you can speak true statements about Him.

For example, a child might recite a catechism, and in one sense you might say they know God. They know the teachings about God, and in that sense they know something about God. But they do not know God.

The same is true of religious works. They know what He has done, but they do not truly understand how that applies to their lives. They miss the connection between His works and their own responsibility.

Therefore, you may have a church or a denomination that understands the faithfulness of past generations while tolerating spiritual coldness in the present. You may make allowances for this and accept it.

But the question that comes to us seventy-five years later is: do we know the Lord? Do we know His works? And are we prepared to follow in the same spirit of sacrifice and obedience, come what may?

You go back and read the history of that time in 1966, when three ministers were imprisoned. I do not wish to repeat all the details of that history, but the basic facts are these: they were protesting against the apostasy of the Presbyterian Church, which they had observed for many years.

They had walked in a procession each time the General Assembly met, and they had done so twice before, marching along a legal route. They were permitted to do this. What was not permitted was to gather a group of people in one place without official permission in certain locations.

They had marched, and that was their only intention: to walk along the designated route. When they returned for the third time, the police had erected a barrier, forcing them to stop. They were then charged with unlawful assembly.

This was the tactic. Three ministers were charged and threatened with imprisonment. They could have avoided this by negotiating or finding another way out. But they did not. They accepted the consequences, because they knew they were not at fault. The apology should have come from the other side.

What would you have done?

They had no idea that this would become the catalyst for gaining the attention of the nation, for awakening the people in that province to what was happening, and for causing them to begin listening to voices they had previously ignored. This led to, as I say, twenty years of unusual blessing, the multiplication of churches, and thousands of souls being converted.

So we know these details, but will we follow? Do you understand that God blesses those who pay the price? God will use those who count the cost and follow through.

We know the works, we know the details of what He has done for us, but will we follow through?

This is a warning, is it not? A serious warning.

But the warning, let me encourage you, is not a foregone conclusion. You are not to read Judges 2:10 and say that after about seventy-five years, this outcome is inevitable or must happen. I believe there is a real threat, and I believe history shows that this is a constant danger, but I do not believe it has to be this way.

God is merciful. He responds to the broken and the contrite heart. He will not despise it. And He will listen to those who humble themselves and seek His face. And this is true. This is true today as it has been throughout history.

But the real danger is that we are not desperate enough. We simply are not desperate enough. Things are relatively easy. Life is going reasonably well.

Or perhaps, even at times, we fail to see the truth that the entire church, organization, or institution is on a form of life support. When you examine the vital signs, the indicators still appear to be within normal range. Everything seems fine to some extent, but it has been sustained artificially, and it is only a matter of time before the end comes. This was the case with Israel.

However, it does not have to be this way. It does not have to be that another generation rises up that does not know the Lord, nor what He has done, nor the responsibility that rests upon them.

There can be a generation—let me speak to those of you here, let me draw this away from the broader anniversary context and bring it directly home—that this has a particular application to the younger generation.

A generation in which you do not know what it is like to lack access to the gospel. You do not know what it is like to have no church to attend, or to attend church constantly wondering whether the gospel will ever be preached, whether the Bible will ever be opened, whether any truth will ever be conveyed.

You do not know what it is like. Therefore, complacency becomes a natural response. Indifference settles upon the soul, because you cannot imagine what it is like. And so the sense of desperation is not felt.

And you younger men, as well as younger women, must absolutely recognize that this is a real threat. If you do not, with intention and diligence and sacrifice and purpose, seek God, then there will be no God in your life.

Prioritize your walk with God. If you do not, you will have nothing to pass on.

Now, if you are without children at this time, you may not yet understand how important this is.

So, in one sense, let me speak to the parents. How important is it to you to have something to pass on to your children? How important is it to you that they continue to be in a place where they are being discipled and where the Word of God is being read and taught? It is not games, nor book studies, nor dramas.

It is simply this: the plain reading and explanation of this heaven-sent gift, which is unlike anything else on the planet, through which God communicates to humanity. It is the duty of preachers to rise up and explain it and apply it. That is all.

How much does it matter to you that your children grow up in that same environment? If it matters to you, then a sense of urgency should be upon you.

All generations must build upon their inheritance. We have seen that some generations inherit much from the godly, yet they may lose what matters most. All generations must build upon their inheritance.

Every generation, whatever they are given, must build upon it. That is your calling. Whatever you are given, you can be given a difficult situation, but that is your responsibility.

And that is what Scripture shows us, is it not? You go through these pages, and these things are written for our learning. I was sharing this with someone this morning.

I remember going through a challenging time in my own life as a student, and I was wrestling with certain matters and wondering about my future, even my future as a minister in the Free Presbyterian Church, and so on—really wrestling with these things. I was feeling a deep struggle within my soul. There were certain external factors contributing to this, certain discouragements.

You know what it is to feel discouraged about what is happening in the church.

We have all been there.

And I remember being directed to Joshua. I think I have told this story before. A man came to me, excited, telling me about Joshua. He began to describe the scene. He said, I am starting to think about Joshua and Caleb. They were ready to enter the promised land and believed that God would give it to them. Then the other ten spies came with an evil report, and the heart of the people sank.

And, you know, I was imagining Joshua and Caleb waking up every morning, thinking, we could have been in the land. Here we are, wandering in the wilderness for forty years, and we could have been in there.

I’ll tell you, that ministered to me. That was a word in season, fitly spoken. I was just accepting the difficulty of the hour, accepting the imperfection of the day, and deciding to follow the Lord wholly anyway. That was a word I needed.

That is even one of those words that I have carried with me to the present time. When discouragement comes and the thought of giving up or abandoning the effort arises—something that has been largely suppressed over the years—God has given me grace to overcome those invasive thoughts.

Part of this has been learning to harness that spirit, the spirit that many of God’s saints, many of His most treasured people, have lived in generations that were difficult. They were surrounded by people who did not care. They were witnessing the squandering of the very blessings God had given.

And they chose to follow the Lord wholly. Not to abandon their post, to leave their situation, or to seek greener pastures, but to remain right there, in that place, among those people.

All generations must build upon what they have been given, whatever it is. You see these kings rise and inherit idolatry from top to bottom. They inherit all sorts of wickedness. And what do they do? They begin the work of reform. They do what they can with what they have, with the time God gives them.

So all generations must build upon their inheritance. That is the calling upon your life, young person. You must build upon what you have been given. You should go farther than those who have gone before you. You should be able to build more than those who have gone before you.

If you have been greatly favored, and most of you have, how do you build upon your inheritance?

Well, first, fundamentally, you must know the Lord. You cannot live in borrowed grace. It is not enough that you have a good heritage. You must take it to heart. It is not enough that your parents know how to pray and seek God and read His Word and live for God. It is not enough.

You need to do it. You need to get up in the morning and seek God. You need to get up in the morning and open His Word. You need to get up in the morning and confess your sins. You need to get up in the morning and ask for God’s blessing upon the work of your hands.

You need to get up every day and faithfully put God first. Faithfully put God first.

And if you are not saved, that is where you need to begin. You need a new heart. You need to repent for the first time and seek Christ. He alone can give that blessing to your life and give you fellowship and knowledge of God, without whom it is impossible.

Not only by personally knowing the Lord, but by faithfully preserving what God has handed down. And so, whatever He has handed down, you need to preserve what is good. You take the foundation as you find it, and you may come into a time of peace, or you may come in like Nehemiah and have to rebuild the entire city because it is in disarray.

Whatever time you are called to, you need to preserve what has been handed down—the good. You need to be separated for the gospel of God. You need to stand firm on His truth. You need to uphold the paths that are right and proper.

Proverbs warns of this, encouraging us to follow the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous.

So whatever you have been given, preserve it.

But also by advancing the work entrusted to you. By advancing the work entrusted to you, all generations must build upon their inheritance, and one of the things they must do is advance the work entrusted to them.

There is still a cause. There are still battles to be fought and won. There is still something for you to do. You say, well, I am not at the front. I am not a leader.

Listen, if you could only understand the influence, the steady influence of faithful Christians going about their daily tasks. The book of Acts gives us insight into this, as it touches on it. Of course, you have the climactic events of Peter on the day of Pentecost, and Philip preaching in Samaria, and all the other details of these great preachers who proclaimed the Word.

But between those moments, you see Christians going about their work, sharing the gospel, reaching out, and making a difference.

Therefore, whatever you can do, with whatever you have, advance the work entrusted to you. There are always tasks that need to be done, and there are specific ways in which you are uniquely equipped. Do not remain on the sidelines. Do not abandon your position.

Your time is short, and if you are to work, you must work today. And you never know how God may bless it.

Do you not think that we sometimes find ourselves, as I do? I come in here and walk up and down in this church. I pray over the pews and long for the day when some of you come in a little later today. In my mind, I am sitting there watching them or singing as they enter. I am thinking, Lord, oh, for the day when those out in the hall—no, there is no space for you, sorry. You will have to sit here.

I want that! Why not? I want that.

And so I have a work to do, but I cannot do it alone. And if what we have been given matters at all, if what came over here 26 years after it began has any value, then it will take all of us working together, maintaining it, and advancing it.

There are areas that need further reform, greater growth, and greater progress. I could point out shortcomings. Having said all that is positive, I could stand here tonight and identify two areas of weakness that I am aware of. But I will not do so, because I fear it might be misunderstood as criticism or as if I have everything under control—and neither of those is true.

But there is always a need for growth. We have never arrived. Every generation faces its own unique circumstances and challenges, its own distinct context to which we must adapt without compromise.

The Lord has been merciful. Yet this text serves as a warning that, after seventy-five years, the next generation may fundamentally not know God, and decline will inevitably follow. This could be true of us if we are not humble, penitent, and diligent in maintaining and advancing the faith.

It is not my primary concern that the name of the denomination should advance. It is not about that. It is merely a title, a way of distinguishing one group from another.

I was thinking this morning after I left, and I was reflecting on the fact that there were three Presbyterian churches in Ireland that I could have walked to where I grew up. Afterwards, I thought, surely someone was sitting there saying, well, you could have walked to a Baptist church. But there are not nearly as many Baptist churches there as there are here. There is one Baptist church in the town, and it is strong.

Do we truly know the Lord?

I read Psalm 145 at every wedding. Those who were present on Thursday will remember. And that final verse, verse 4: “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.”

If we accomplish nothing else, and we accomplish this, we have accomplished much. One generation praising God, serving God, and the next generation doing the same.

But this will require effort. It will require effort. It means dedicating oneself to evangelistic work, being available to meet needs in the church, pushing oneself to attend the prayer meeting after a long day’s work, and so on. It means being firmly rooted in one’s own environment and circumstances, seeking God’s favor upon one’s life and upon the church.

I trust the Lord will preserve our denomination. I know He will build His church. May we be part of what is good and what He is doing, and not one of the blots on the pages of history, having squandered the privileges we have received.