1 Crônicas 12

1 Crônicas 12

Henry reminds us that “From these expressions of Amasai, we may take instruction how to testify our affection and allegiance to the Lord Jesus: his we may be without reservation or power of revocation; on his side we must be forward to appear and act; to his interest we must be hearty well-wishers; Hosanna, prosperity to his gospel and kingdom; for his God helpeth him, and will, till he have put down all rule, principality, and power.” In the words of Spurgeon our lives should say, “Thine are we, Jesus. Neither count we anything that we possess to be our own; but all is dedicated to Thy royal use. And on Thy side, thou Son of God. For, if we belong to Christ, of course we are on Christ’s side, whatever that side may be, in religion, morals and politics. Peace be unto thee. Our heart salutes Him and invokes peace upon Him. And peace be to thy helpers. We desire all good for all good men. We pray for the peace of the peaceful. For thy God helpeth thee. All the powers of the God of nature are working to aid the Lord of grace. Risen Christ, we look upward as the heavens receive Thee, and we adore. Ascended Christ, we fall at Thy dear feet, and say, ‘Thine are we, O Son of David, anointed to be a Prince and a Savior.’ Coming Christ, we wait and watch for Thine appearing. Come quickly to Thine own! Amen and amen.” Ian Paisley - Swearing Allegiance to King Jesus 1 CHRONICLES 12:18 A SERMON PREACHED ON LORD'S DAY 24TH MARCH, 1991 TO SOME 12,000 PEOPLE IN THE KINGS HALL, BELFAST ON THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ULSTER. THE TEXT WAS 1 CHRONICLES 12:18 "THINE ARE WE, DAVID, AND ON THY SIDE, THOU SON OF JESSE." IN THIS HISTORIC EVENT recorded in this passage of Scripture, David was an exile. He had been forced out of his own country into the enemy's territory—the land of the Philistines. He had been banished. He was reviled and rejected, though anointed king of Israel. His followers were few. His critics were many and his enemies numerous, yet in this time of exile and banishment, misrepresentation, revilement and ridicule, these men came, some of them from the tribe of Benjamin. As you will notice in verse 16, that was the tribe of Saul the arch enemy of David, and they came to lonely, persecuted, reviled, hated, banished and exiled David and said, 'Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse.' The Parallel It is not hard to draw the parallel is it? I know that my Saviour is exalted. I know He sits at God's right hand expecting the Lord to make His enemies lick the dust at His feet. I know that Heaven's anthems ring out across the vast immeasurable expanses of heaven the praises of the Lamb—for the Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. But down here on earth the Lord is exiled. He is banished. He is rejected. He is reviled. He is criticised. He is hated. Not many rally to His defence. Not many want to be associated with Him. Not many want to bear His reproach and go outside the camp to where He is. Not many want to run the gauntlet of a satanic world that hates the Bible, that hates the Blood, that hates the old Book and hates the Lord Jesus Christ. Could I say to you, it was a religious crowd that got Jesus to the Cross. It was a religious crowd that buffeted and beat Him and spat upon Him in the Jewish place of leadership. And the religious crowd today, men and women, still bays for the Blood of Jesus Christ. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? He is not in the Vatican, He is not in Canterbury, He is not in the World Council of Churches—they hate Him, they fight Him, they defame Him and they reject Him. Old Sandy Peden the Scottish Covenantor said, 'Where is the Kirk of Scotland today? Not in the great Cathedrals, not in the established Church. The Kirk of Scotland is where a praying lad or lassie, separated from religious apostasy, kneels down and prays in the Name of Jesus. There at the dykeside, on the mountain, among the heather, that is where the Kirk of Scotland is.' Where is the Church of Jesus Christ in Ulster? It is outside the camp, and I am glad I am outside the camp. A BBC man said to me before this service, 'What will happen in forty years?' I said, 'I will not be responsible forty years hence, but I pray that God will send a young Joshua to bring this Church into the Promised Land—a land flowing with milk and honey.' I am only responsible for my own ministry and my own day and generation and I am responsible to prepare men to stand for God. What they do is their responsibility—but I do not think that God is going to forsake this church. I do not think it depends on man. I do not think it depends on any human leader. I do not think it depends on any talents. It does not depend on anything we have, God in the midst of her doth dwell, Nothing shall her remove, The Lord to her a helper will, And that right early prove One: The Example to Be Emulated There are three things to be looked at in this text. First there is an example to be emulated. What did these men do? It says here that they came to David. That is the first thing you have to do, you have to come to Jesus Christ. As a boy of six years old on 29th May, 1932 I came to Jesus Christ. I have the old pew that I knelt at (I do not believe in relics but I believe in precious memories) and down in our college I have that pew out of the old Baptist Church in Hill Street, Ballymena where I knelt as a lad and I came to Jesus, and thank God, He took me in. I did not know very much but I knew this, that I was a sinner. I knew that Christ died for sinners and I knew if I came to Christ he would not cast me out. That is the Gospel, that is all you need to know, sinner, and if you have never come to Christ, come today. Somewhere in this hall is there some man, some woman, with a burden of sin in their heart? Some young person who is struggling with deep battles within their soul? I tell you what to do, come to Jesus, that is what to do. No Church can save, no sacrament can save, no religion can save but Jesus saves to the very uttermost—from the guttermost to the uttermost—all that come unto Him. Motivated by David's Past That is the first thing these men did in the text, they came. They came because they were motivated by three things. Number one, they were motivated by David's past. They had heard about David. They heard of his manner and his person. They heard that he was a prince among men. They heard he would be marked among thousands and tens of thousands, that there was something special about him, something that set him apart from other men. Yes, I have heard about the Lord Jesus. I have heard that he is the fairest of ten thousand, that he is the rose of Sharon, that he is the Bright and Morning Star, and that none like Him can be found anywhere among the sons of men. Have we not heard about Jesus? Have we not heard about the wonder of His Person, the Majesty of His countenance, the tender compassion of His eye, the gloriousness of His manner, the graciousness of His speech, and the wonder of His love? They heard about David. They had heard about his person. They had also heard about his battles. They heard that one day the whole of Israel had been put to shame before the uncircumcised Goliath. That Saul trembled, that Jonathan trembled. That both had been mighty men of war but now cowardice had come and their strong bloodstream had thinned and they ran from the enemy. They had heard for forty days Goliath had held the God of Heaven up to ridicule and had put shame upon every true Israelite of God. They had heard about a young man who came from the sheepfold—a young man with a sling. He went out alone and he defied the giant, and he laid him low, and he took off his head and God won for Israel a great victory. Have you not heard of the great giant of Hell who came out and reviled mankind? Have you not heard how every man had thin blood? There was not found among the sons of men any one who could take on the Beelzebub of the pit, the Satan of the underworld of damned spirits? Then there came One of ruddy countenance, the purity of His blood was seen in His very cheeks. There came One from the Hills of Glory, from His Father's House. There came One with love and compassion and grace in His breast and He went out and fought the great Goliath of the pit; He staggered up that bloody mountain—that Hill of Reproach called Calvary. He hung stark naked on an accursed tree, bearing shame and scoffing, but in His dying, He slew death. He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is to say the devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. We have heard about Him! We have heard about the great victory that He won. We have heard about Him! Motivated by David's Present These men were also motivated by David's present. They saw him despised. They saw Saul campaigning for his life. They saw how the Princess Michal had been taken from him, for was he not son-in-law to the king? They saw this man fleeing across the wilderness and leaping from rock to rock on the mountainsides of the wilderness and upon the mountain places of Judea. They heard how Saul planned to take away his life. How Saul insisted that he must die, and how the men that should have stood by him—the men that he had befriended and helped and saved—had turned their back on him. Have we not heard today of what the so called church has done with Jesus Christ? Have we not heard that in the General Assembly the vote was for Professor Davey and not for Jesus? And they voted that the man who said that Jesus Christ was illegitimate was their man. They rejected the Virgin born Son of God. When the man who said, 'There are literally thousands of inaccuracies in the Bible,' they said, 'Give us that man, we do not want the Bible.' As Professor Haire said on that occasion, 'Our church never believed in an Infallible Bible.' He should read the Westminster Confession of Faith which he signed and swore to believe. As W. P. Nicolson said, 'A hare was always an unclean animal in Scripture, you would not expect anything else from Professor Haire, would you?' Let me say something to you, the Irish Presbyterian church said 'No' to Jesus. When we went to Crossgar to preach the Gospel they said 'No' to Jesus. They said, 'You can have what you like in your Church Hall, we do not care what you have in there, but you will not have the Gospel.' We have heard about that, but we have come to stand by Jesus Christ, that is all we are doing here today, we are going to stand by him. When a man says, 'Jesus Christ is illegitimate,' I am going to roar at the top of my voice, 'Jesus is Virgin born, shut up you liar!' that is what we are going to do. We did it in the Fair Hill in Ballymena very effectively when Donald Soper's soap opera came to a speedy end. I remember Rev. John Wylie and myself being in Court and fined £5 for disorderly behaviour! It was the best £5 worth I ever had. I will tell you something more, I never believed in paying a fine if I was innocent and we did not pay the fine, and I am eternally grateful and so is John Wylie to the Official Unionist Party who paid our fine for us. There was an election coming and they did not want John Wylie and Ian Paisley in jail so they said, 'Pay their fines.' When these old modernistic apostates came to this land we have gone after them. Weatherhead, Soper, McCloud and all the rest of them. Why did we go after them? Because we wanted to stand up for Jesus. I want to tell you from this platform that as long as this Church exists and stands true we are going say to Christ, 'Thine are we, Jesus, and on Thy side, Thou Son of God.' There is one thing you will never do in Heaven, you will never bear the reproach of Christ and if you have not borne it down here you have lost the joy that you would have got in the glory land. What did Moses say? He counted the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. I remember the first time I was in jail. The jail door closed and the lock turned and I was alone. I sat down on an old bed, it was not like the decent beds they have now in prison, it was an old hard bed, and the cell filled with the glory of God. I wept like a child. There was not one tear of sorrow, they were tears of joy, that I was counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus' sake. My friend, I invite you to say to Christ, 'Thine are we, Lord Jesus, and on Thy side, Thou Son of God, Thou persecuted Christ, Thou reviled Christ, Thou hated Christ, Thou Christ from whom men have taken Thy Spotless Birth and Sinless Life and Precious Blood and Wonderful Miracles.' All these old apostates have gone through Jesus and tell you there is no Deity there. They have gone through the Bible and tell you there is no inspiration and no infallibility there. They have gone through the Gospel and they have told you there is no new birth there. They have gone through heaven and have told you there is no gold there and they have gone through hell and have told you there is no fire there. They have gone through God's message and have left it as a carcass without blood, without flesh, without bones and without life. I believe there is Inspiration in the Bible. I believe there is Deity in Jesus. I believe there is power in the Blood of the Lamb. I believe there is gold in Heaven and fire in Hell, and I believe that the Gospel is a mighty Gospel that saves. This afternoon I say to you, let us get on the side of Jesus today. Let this King's Hall send the message to Heaven, 'Lord Jesus, we are on your side,' and if the way be rough, so be it. If the hatred increases ten thousand times, so be it. Is He not worth bearing reproaches for? Is He not worth living for and serving and even dying for? Motivated by David's Future These men had heard about David's present but these men had also their eye on David's future—his prospect. They knew some day that David really would be King. They knew he would walk in the palace corridors of Zion. They knew that all over Israel from Dan to Bathsheba Saul would no longer be King, but this young man who had been anointed by old man Samuel with oil amidst his brethren, was going to be a King, what a King, a victorious King, a King that no man could fight and no man could beat, a King of kings, and they looked forward to that day and said, 'It may be rough going but we have our eyes on the future.' I heard a preacher say one day that you should not get your eyes on rewards. What a foolish man he was! Moses had respect for the recompense of the reward. I would serve Jesus if there was no reward at the end, for serving Him is reward enough, but there is going to be a reward. Some day we are going to reign with Him, and you know I am an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus. I am going to reign with Him. In the millennium reign He is going to set us over cities. Some people will have ten cities, some people will have two cities. I have asked God for two cities, I would settle for Rome and Dublin—that would do me! Let me tell you, friend, we are going to reign with Him. I have got my eyes on the future, brethren, for the crowning day is coming. My Lord will not always be reproached and despised and rejected. Some day the trumpet will sound and the sepulchres of the righteous will be emptied, and there shall be change. They shall leave off the rags of mortality and put on immortality and they will leave off the dissolution of the dust and put on the robes of everlasting destiny and if we are living we shall be changed and together we shall be caught up to be with the Lord. What a day that is going to be! When I look on His face I will be glad I stood against old Soper and Weatherhead and every other brat of the Devil that says disparaging things against the Saviour. I will be glad I will be able to look Him in the eye and say, 'Lord Jesus, I was not much but when men hated you and despised you and put the Pope in your place, I stood against them.' I will be glad I will be able to say that, and I will be glad I am in a Church that takes such a stand. I am sad today about the state of the churches in this land. They have all gone after the modern perversions of the Word of God. They have all gone after New Evangelicalism with emphasis on the 'jelly' and they are afraid to mention the Pope or Popery. I heard a man preaching about a well known Protestant leader. He said he 'took a stand against erroneous doctrine,' afraid to say he was against the Pope. I am not afraid to say it and practise it. That is why this morning on the BBC you had an Irish Presbyterian minister and a priest in harmony against this church. Long may the apostates be in harmony with Popery, and let the people of Ulster know just where they stand. We know where we stand as Free Presbyterians. We will not give in one inch to Popery. We will not give in to this religion which puts a man in the place of the Godman; which puts a Pope in the place of Jesus; which puts a priest in the place of God the Holy Ghost. We reject his wafers, his confessional boxes, his holy water so-called, and holy beads and candle grease. We reject his Cardinals, his nuns and his friars and if he has any broilers we reject them as well! That is where we stand. It is quite clear. A fellow said to me today, 'In your younger days you were very outspoken.' I said, 'You are the first fellow who has told me that I am not outspoken today.' He said, 'I'm not just talking about today.' I said, 'Would you like me to say something outspoken on your Radio?' The Church of Rome is still worshipping cast clouts and rotten rags. I got a letter from a Roman Catholic priest just the other day with a whole list of 'holy relics that can bring peace to your soul.' I was in Rome recently attending a political meeting of the European Parliament and I went into a place where they had a 'holy well that could heal everybody'. I saw many people coming but nobody was healed. You would just be as well with water out of the tap at home. The great delusion! I say to my Roman Catholic fellow countrymen, 'I am not saying something to insult your religion, I am trying to get you to the Lord Jesus Christ. He can save you. He can change you. He can transform you. You do not need to kneel at a confessional box before a bachelor priest who has more sins than you have and yet pretends to forgive you.' It was C. H. Spurgeon who said that 'the priest is worse than the devil, for the devil has not even the cheek to say he can forgive your sins, and yet that black coated bachelor of Rome tells you he can forgive you your sins.' (Strong language!) There is only One person who can forgive your sins and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to say to you today I am looking forward to the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! Two: The Examination to Be Emphasised David does not receive these men immediately. The Lord does not receive you immediately when you say you are going to do battle for Him. He has to test you. You have to go through an examination and there is an examination here. David said, 'If ye become peaceable.' There is no such thing as peace until evil is put away. First purity and then peace. We must be pure doctrinally if we are going to be at peace with the Lord. If you are at peace with Him you will know the purity of the cleansing Blood and you will know the purity of the mighty indwelling of the pure Spirit of God. There were three men who came to Jesus and said, 'I will be your disciple,' but not one of them followed Him. One said, 'I will follow you.' Jesus said, 'Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, the Son of man hath no where to lay His head.' The man did not follow Jesus. I remember a young girl coming to Ravenhill Free Presbyterian Church. She was seventeen years old, she got converted and when she went home that night and told her parents they put her outside the door and locked it and said, 'We do not mind you being converted but if you attend Ian Paisley's church there is no home for you here.' That poor young girl in her teens came to tell us, 'I have been put out of my home.' Thank God, God had a home for her and praise God, although the Lord was right, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath no where to lay His head,' that young woman was prepared to follow Christ. In the early days of the Free Church we had a rough time you know. You could not buy a plot of ground. I could write story after story of how we got ground to build our churches. It would take the Encyclopaedia Brittanica to contain what I could write. I remember going to Armagh and the day we formed the church there the man who was a very good man and gave us the ground for our tent meetings, said, 'You can have it as long as you like.' I constituted a church and received something like 50 members. Then suddenly we had nowhere to go because the man came to the gate and when the Benediction was pronounced he said to me, 'You are out.' I asked 'Why?' and he said, 'I am not telling you.' I said, 'The pressures have been on you but it is all right, we will be out.' There was a bit of ground in the Mall between the old Masonic Hall and the First Presbyterian Church and a friend of mine who belongs to the Church of God said to me, 'Ian, if you want a bit of ground there is a bit of ground there, it is not big but you could get some sort of a building erected there.' So I bought a portable hall of a Plymouth brother evangelist and went down to erect this hall on this ground. I left the men to do the work but when I got to Belfast there was a phone message, 'Come quickly, you are in trouble.' When I got down the Chief of police (they called them District Inspectors in those days) was there along with the Chairman of the Council and the Town Clerk. Before I left Belfast I got in touch with a very learned lawyer and asked what to do. He said, 'Ian if they are on your property they are trespassing, throw them off.' So I went down and thought, "it will give me great pleasure to throw them off!" They were right on my property and my men had stopped their work. I said, 'Men, get started, you go and build that hall and I will handle these three musketeers.' I looked at them and said, 'D.I. what are you doing on my property?' I asked the Council Chairman, 'What are you doing on my property?' He said, 'Paisley, there will never be a Free Presbyterian Church in Armagh.' I said, 'Are you threatening me?' He said, 'You can take it whatever way you like, there will never be a Free Presbyterian Church in Armagh.' I said, 'You are the Chairman of the Council, which is the statutory planning authority. I take it that you are using your authority to stop any planning application I put in. I will keep that against you and it will be good ammunition when it comes to an appeal. You are bigoted and biased.' I turned to the Town Clerk and asked, 'Town Clerk what are you doing here?' He said, 'Oh, I am here with the Chairman.' I said, 'Now you have two minutes to get off this site.' They said, 'We are not getting off, we are going to stop this hall being built.' I said, 'I have just to call those men and they are going to throw you off. Now D.I. you are trespassing.' He blinked and said, 'I suppose technically I am.' I said, 'Would you please get these men off the site.' He said, 'Gentlemen you know he is right.' I smiled a big broad Paisley grin and I said, 'Yes, I am in the right, now off you go.' They got out and they stood on the street and they told me what they would do. The Chairman of the Council died at the hands of the IRA and I'm still here preaching the Gospel and there is a Church in Armagh today. I could give you the lifestory of twenty prominent personalities in Ulster Chiefs of Police, business men, religious leaders and they died in very strange circumstances. Every one of them hated and detested and worked against the Free Presbyterian Church. You say to me, 'How did you get your ground in the end?' I lifted my eyes to the hills. There was a lovely site on one of the hills of Armagh. I said to a fellow, 'Who owns that?' He said, 'It is a Brethren man.' I said, 'I am glad it is not an Irish Presbyterian, now there is hope for us.' He said, 'If you gathered up a thousand pounds and you offered it to him for the ground, you could get it.' It is a site worth over a hundred thousand pounds today. I gathered up a thousand pounds, do not ask me how! There are men in this hall today and I could look them in the eye, I used to go and knock on their doors and say, 'I could do with a hundred pounds.' You will get it.' 'I could do with £500.' You will get it.' I went down with the money in my pocket. I went to his place of business and said, 'I want that ground of yours.' He said, 'Have you a thousand notes? It must be in cash.' I said, 'I have it here.' He said, 'We will do business.' He gave me the name of his solicitor and he took the money and I bought that ground which Brother Cooke occupies 'till Jesus comes or he gets a call to a bigger congregation! I could go on and on. I recall a Roman Catholic police officer, a Head Constable who loved to take his stick and beat up the Free Presbyterians as they protested. One day he was cursing us in Donegal Pass station and one of the fellow constables said, 'I would not curse those people, something could happen to you.' He laughed and in a moment he choked and fell down behind the counter and he was in God's eternity. He was meeting the God he defied. I remember a business man who was sitting in a plush office behind his desk cursing me. There was a fellow in front of him and he said, 'I would not curse that man.' Suddenly he choked and died in that very office. John Wylie and I had an opponent in Ballymoney. He built an amazing new structure on his farm, a very sophisticated barn and it was the talk of the countryside. Everybody went to see it. He stood up in that barn and cursed Wylie and Paisley to the lowest hell. There was a man there who said to him, 'I would not do that, their God could come some night and lift your barn and twist every bit of iron in it and put it on the other side of the road.' The man laughed and said, 'You are a fool.' God sent a wind a few hours later and lifted that barn and twisted every girder in it and He put it on the other side of the road. Just to add insult to injury John Wylie went down to look over God's handiwork. He said, 'Lord you did it well. I could not have improved on it.' If we come to the Lord, in unity with the Lord, nothing can stop us. You go out tomorrow morning with a teaspoon and try to stop the Lagan. You will work all day but it will still be flowing at teatime. You can't stop this Church if God is in it. Take the blessing of God out of this Church and it will fold and fade away. But give us God's blessing and we will be mighty to the pulling down of strongholds of the Devil. We are in a better position to work for God today than we ever were. We have buildings, we have properties, we have ministers, we have a training college, we are working in four continents of the world and we have got to get into the fifth continent. God wants us to move forward, but you have to first pass the examination. I say, 'Oh God help me to pass the examination.' Three—the Engagement to Be Effected Notice four things about these men. First they had an affinity with David. They were knit with David. Oh to be knit to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be as close to Jesus as it is possible to be. I want to profess to you, friend, with all my heart, I love Jesus Christ. I love Him. I am not worthy of His love, but I love Him with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind. I grieve over my sins, I grieve over my failures, but I love the Lord. These men had an affinity with David. Secondly, they had loyalty to David. They said, 'Thine are we, David, and on thy side.' There is no use saying, 'God bless the Free Presbyterian Church' and then stay in apostasy. You have got to shout out, get out and stay out. If every Christian left the ecumenical churches in Ulster we would have a revival tomorrow. How can you stay in a church that is associated with praying to the spirits of the dead? It is more than I can understand. Read what happened at the WCC Assembly in Canberra, Australia. Lesbianism, homosexuality held up as taught in the Bible and to be practised by Christian people, think of it! Praying for the dead. They are even praying to the rain forests of Brazil. Think of it! They are praying to the jelly baby spirits caught in nuclear fall out. Think of it! I feel like old Elijah, he mocked the god of Baal and I would mock these gods of the World Council of Churches. They be no gods. There is only One True and Living God and that is the Lord Jesus. I am loyal to Jesus in religion, I am loyal to Jesus in politics, I am loyal to Jesus in morals. I am on the side of Christ in these issues. I want to emphasise that. Thirdly, they had unity in David. 'Peace, peace be to thee and to thy helpers.' Fourthly, they had spirituality along with David. You know why he said this? He said it because the Spirit of God came upon him. May the Spirit of God come upon us today! Seek my brother, my sister, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. As I finish this great Conventicle that God has given me the privilege of addressing, I say, O, blessed Jesus, we salute Thee again. We hail Thee again. We honour Thee again. Thou art God of gods, Light of lights, Very God of Very God and Very Man of Very Man. We salute Thee because of the Glory that Thou hadst with the Father before all worlds. In the Father's bosom the Shekinah Glory rested upon Thee, and all the angels of God worshipped Thee. We honour Thee because Thou didst humble Thyself and robed Thyself in robes of humanity and came down among the sons of men to identify everlastingly with human flesh and to become our elder brother for ever and to marry Thyself to Thy people. We salute Thee because on a Cross of wood—an old tree on the top of the hill of reproach—stark naked Thou didst hang, scoffed, spat upon, beaten, battered, broken, bleeding and Thou didst die for me. Lord Jesus I honour Thee, I worship Thee, I love Thee, I praise Thee. If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now. Lord Jesus I go to Thy tomb but Thou art not there, Thou art gone for Thou art risen from the dead. Thou art no dying Christ on a crucifix. Thou art no dead Christ in a sepulchre. Thou art the Living Christ. Thou art alive for evermore and from Thy girdle dangle the keys of Hell and Death. Thou art Master of Heaven and Master of Hell. I salute Thee today because Thou art Risen, Ascended and at this very moment Thou art praying for me. But I salute Thee today because Thou art coming again. Jesus Christ, brethren, is coming again. He has a word for you, 'Occupy till I come.' The best way to occupy is for every one of our members here today to say within their hearts, 'Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse. Thine are we, Lord Jesus, and on Thy side, Thou Son of God.' I am asking you to bow your head now and close your eyes and in the secret of your heart to do business with God right now. I just want you, Christian to do one thing, I just want you to whisper, 'Thine are we, Lord Jesus, and on Thy side, Thou Son of God.' Will you do that? Do it now! If there is a man or woman in this House unsaved, unforgiven, unpardoned, I wonder, today, will you cross over the line and say from today onward, 'I'm going to be on the side of the Lord Jesus. I am taking Him now as my Saviour and my Lord.' Closing Prayer O God seal today the preaching of this message. Lord, may every believer, every preacher here, every minister here, every elder here, every communicant member here, every Sabbath School teacher here and scholar here who are Christ's, rededicate themselves to the cause of the Gospel. And, Lord, if there are sinners amongst us, bring them to Christ. Help them right now in that seat to call upon the Name of the Lord, for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.' Amen and Amen 1 Chronicles 12:19 From Manasseh also some defected to David, when he was about to go to battle with the Philistines against Saul. But they did not help them, for the lords of the Philistines after consultation sent him away, saying, "At the cost of our heads he may defect to his master Saul." when he came: 1Sa 29:2-4 to the jeopardy of our heads: Heb. on our heads Related Passage: 1 Samuel 29:2-4+ And the lords of the Philistines were proceeding on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Achish. 3 Then the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him from the day he deserted to me to this day?” 4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, that he may return to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, or in the battle he may become an adversary to us. For with what could this man make himself acceptable to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men? GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL INTERVENTION SAVES DAVID FROM MAJOR MISTAKE From Manasseh also some defected to David, when he was about to go to battle with the Philistines against Saul. But they did not help them, for the lords of the Philistines after consultation sent him away, saying, "At the cost of our heads he may defect to his master Saul." - See commentary on 1 Samuel 29 for background. "at the cost of our heads" is an oath formula. The other Philistine military leaders were afraid to allow David to fight Saul. Andrew Hill: The theme of “help” joins this passage with the preceding unit (1Ch 12:16– 18). Amasai’s generalized prophecy of God’s help in bringing about success for David’s kingship (1Ch 12:18) is fulfilled specifically through the loyal “help” of others against the Amalekite bandits (1Ch 12:21–22). Allen has noted this motif of “help” for David is further emphasized in the wordplay with the noun for “help” (ʿezer) in the names of certain of the soldiers defecting to the rival king (e.g., Ahiezer, 1Ch 12:3; Joezer, 1Ch 12:6; Ezer, 1Ch 12:9) J.A. Thompson: Seven defectors from Manasseh are listed. These men must have joined David just before the battle of Mount Gilboa, where Saul was killed. David was sent away by the Philistines because they mistrusted him, though Achish did not (cf. 1 Sam 29). Apparently David accompanied the Philistines part of the way, at least as far as Aphek (1 Sam 29:1), which lay near Manasseh. The term “thousand” (1 Chr 12:20) probably denotes a tribal subdivision. These men assisted David in his raids against the Amalekites who attacked Ziklag during David's absence (1 Sam 30).