His Truth Is Marching On!

Message for THE LORD'S DAY MORNING, July 5, 2015 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister TOPIC: Independence Day, Patriotic His Truth Is Marching On! Psalm 119:89-96 (NKJV) Please turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 119. And let's read verses 89-96. Psalm 119:89-96 (NKJV) 89 Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven. 90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. 91 They continue this day according to Your ordinances, For all are Your servants. 92 Unless Your law had been my delight,i would then have perished in my affliction. 93 I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life. 94 I am Yours, save me; For I have sought Your precepts. 95 The wicked wait for me to destroy me, But I will consider Your testimonies. 96 I have seen the consummation of all perfection, But Your commandment is exceedingly broad.

Introduction In November of 1861, Julia Ward Howe, the daughter of a well-to-do New York city banker, visited a Union Army camp on the Potomac River near Washington D.C. Accompanying Mrs. Howe was her husband, Dr. Samuel Howe, and a Methodist minister, by the name of James Freeman Clarke. During their visit, Mrs. Howe heard the soldiers singing an upbeat anthem with a strong marching beat called John Brown's Body. While the lyrics were rather coarse and crude, Mrs. Howe just couldn't get the tune out of her head. Bro. Clarke, the Methodist minister suggested to Mrs. Howe that she write some new lyrics that would make the song more suitable to be sung in Church. Here is Julia Ward Howe's account of how she came to write the song that we now know as The Battle Hymn of The Republic. I awoke in the grey of the morning, and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to entwine themselves in my mind, and I said to myself, I must get up and write these verses, lest I fall asleep and forget them. So I sprang out of bed and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen, which I remembered I had used the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper. Then I went back to sleep. Later, when I awoke, there were the words I had written down on a piece of paper lying on the table. For the past 154 years, The Battle Hymn of The Republic has been one of America's most favorite patriotic songs, second only to The Star-Spangled Banner. I want you to listen closely to the least known of the five verses of this song. In fact, this verse is not even included in our hymnbook. I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burning rows of steel. 'As ye deal with my condemners, so my grace with you shall deal; Let the hero born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel, Since God is marching on.

One thing the Bible states very clearly is that the truth of GOD will continue to march on despite the attacks of man. Our scripture text here in Psalm 119 says, Forever, O LORD Your word is settled in heaven. (v.89) ORD, Jesus says it this way in Matthew 24:35 (NKJV) Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. *************************************************** For just a few minutes, let me take you on a journey through history and show you how GOD'S TRUTH HAS MARCHED ON over every obstacle and opponent that has tried to stand in its way. THE FALL OF MAN In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth. He created the beautiful plant life and animal life; and then He created man, the very pinnacle of His creation. And GOD pronounced all of His creation good. GOD'S plan was for man to live in perfect harmony with Him forever; but then Satan, the serpent came along one day and set out to destroy GOD'S plan. Satan twisted God's truth...and changed God's truth...and downright lied about God's truth...and he convinced Eve that she would not surely die if she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. And from that day forward sin marred God's creation. Had Satan defeated God? Absolutely not! You see, GOD already had a plan in place whereby man could find his way out of the darkness of sin and be reconciled to GOD. And that plan would involve the sending of a Messiah or a Savior, who would give His own life to save mankind from his sins. GOD'S TRUTH KEPT MARCHING ON!

THE GREAT FLOOD It wasn't long before SIN reigned in the hearts of all men and man continuously did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. In fact, the sin of man became so bad, GOD was sorry He ever created man. And so He sent a catastrophic flood to cleanse the earth of evil. But before the flood, GOD raised up a righteous man named NOAH. GOD gave NOAH the blueprints to build a huge ark in order to save himself and the seven members of his family. And during the 120 years it took to construct the ark, NOAH preached a message of repentance to sinful man, but no one would listen. And then the flood waters came, and all humanity except for Noah and his family, perished. At that time it seemed that GOD'S creation was a total loss, but it wasn't. GOD placed the rainbow in the sky as a symbolic promise to NOAH that He would never again destroy the earth by flood. And every time we see a rainbow in the sky it reminds us HIS TRUTH IS STILL MARCHING ON! THE TOWER OF BABEL After the flood, Noah's sons and their wives began to re-populate the earth. And for a period of time there was one universal language spoken by all humanity. But once again man did evil in the sight of GOD. Men went to work building a city and a tower that would reach as high as the heavens. This architectural structure was to serve as monument to man's greatness. But GOD put a stop to the construction, by confusing the language of the people so they could no longer communicate. For this reason the place was called BABEL, and God scattered the people all over the earth. HIS TRUTH WAS STILL MARCHING ON!

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM As time passed, GOD called a man named Abraham. BY FAITH Abraham left the security of his homeland and ventured to a land unknown to him. A land we now know as ISRAEL. It was there GOD would bless Abraham with many descendants and through his descendants the whole world would be blessed, because through his lineage JESUS CHRIST, THE MESSIAH would one day be born. AND HIS TRUTH KEPT MARCHING ON! JOSEPH IN THE LAND OF EGYPT As time rolled on, a great famine struck all the Middle Eastern countries of that day. But GOD had chosen a man named JOSEPH to be His man for that desperate time. From being his father's favorite son...to being sold as a slave...to being unfairly imprisoned...to becoming one of the highest ranking officials in the Egyptian government...god used JOSEPH'S grain storage program to rescue the lives of His people back in Israel, as well as the lives of the Egyptian people. AND HIS TRUTH KEPT MARCHING ON! THE EGYPTIAN CAPTIVITY As time passed, the Israelites found themselves in bondage to the Egyptians. Oppressed by Pharaoh and his ruthless task masters, the Jews were forced into hard labor making bricks in the scorching Egyptian sun. After 400 years of oppression, GOD chose Moses to deliver His people out of Egypt. But Pharaoh would not go down without a fight; so GOD sent the ten plagues upon Egypt and finally Pharaoh relented and Moses led the Israelites on their EXODUS from Egypt. AND GOD'S TRUTH KEPT MARCHING ON!

YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS The journey from Egypt to the Promised Land was supposed to be brief, but the rebellion and faithlessness of the Israelite people turned it into a forty year stay in the wilderness. During those forty years of discipline, GOD taught the Israelites to depend on Him by providing them with manna and quail to eat, and water to drink, and a pillar of cloud to guide them by day and a pillar of fire to protect them by night. Finally after forty years, the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, AND GOD'S TRUTH KEPT MARCHING ON! ISRAEL'S REBELLION AGAINST GOD It had been GOD'S plan from the very beginning that Israel would be His chosen people. But after entering into the Promised Land, the Israelites became more and more rebellious towards GOD. They begged GOD for a King so they could be like the enemy nations around them. And in defiance of GOD'S commands, they also married heathen, godless people and began worshiping their false gods. In time, Israel became a divided nation, with Judah becoming the southern Kingdom and Israel becoming the northern kingdom. GOD disciplined His torn nation by allowing them to be taken into captivity. Israel (the Northern Kingdom) was taken into captivity by the Assyrians and never returned to the Promised Land. Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was taken into captivity by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. During that siege, the Babylonians burned the Temple in Jerusalem to the ground and tore down the walls of the city. It seemed as though GOD'S plans for the Jewish people had been destroyed. But after 70 years in captivity, a remnant of Jews were allowed to return to the Promised Land and they went to work rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and building a new temple. And God's Truth Kept Marching On!

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST Move ahead over seven hundred years in time. The Roman Empire ruled the world. Man was hopelessly lost in sin. And at just the right time, GOD sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ into this dark world to save us from our sins. His teachings were amazing. His life was sinlessly perfect, His miracles were incredible, and His love for people was unlike anything man had ever seen before. But evil men and self-righteous men conspired together to execute Jesus by nailing Him to a cross; not realizing they were actually fulfilling God's plan to offer His Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, so that we could be set free from sin's power and consequences. Satan and all the enemies of Christ thought they had won when Jesus' dead, lifeless body was laid in the tomb and sealed with a stone. But on the third day, that stone was rolled away and Christ victoriously walked out of His tomb alive...and GOD'S TRUTH KEPT MARCHING ON. THE EARLY CHURCH After the ascension of Christ, the apostles began preaching the GOOD NEWS OF SALVATION through Christ, and the Church was born. An onslaught of persecution came upon those early Christians. They were tortured...they were beaten...they were imprisoned...they were thrown to the lions...and yes, many were even crucified, but the Church not only survived, it thrived and spread like wildfire throughout the world. AND GOD'S TRUTH KEPT MARCHING ON.

THE LAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS Over these past two thousand years, the enemies of the cross have tried to do everything possible to stop God's plan. Right now more Christians are being martyred each year than ever before in history and yet the LORD'S CHURCH still stands! The enemies of the cross have tried to DISCREDIT the BIBLE and BAN all BIBLES and BURN all BIBLES and yet the word of GOD still remains. And right here in our own country, we are witnessing a vicious attempt by the enemies of the cross to destroy the Christian heritage of our nation and silence the voices of Christians. They took prayer and Bible study out of our schools. They have aborted almost 58 million babies since 1973. They have forced us to take down our crosses and monuments of the Ten Commandments. And now they have legalized what GOD Himself has called an abomination, and that is same-sex marriages. Right now it seems as though the enemy is winning. Right now it seems as though everything we believe in and stand for is under attack and we are hopelessly defeated, but take heart Christians, HIS TRUTH IS STILL MARCHING ON! Everything that is taking place is exactly what GOD said must take place to set the stage for HIS ULTIMATE AND FINAL VICTORY. HIS TRUTH IS STILL MARCHING ON! Right now, all the godless politicians and Supreme Court Justices are having their moment in the sun, but their victories will be shortlived. One day their cold, lifeless bodies will lie rotting in the earth, AND GOD'S TRUTH WILL STILL BE MARCHING ON!

They may try to shut down our houses of worship. They may try to silence the voices of every preacher of the gospel. They may remove our tax exempt status and impose back-breaking taxes upon the Churches, but when the dust has settled, GOD'S PEOPLE WILL STILL BE STANDING...HIS TRUTH WILL KEEP MARCHING ON! Brothers and sisters, I know you are weary and disheartened by all that is going on in this country, and so am I. But let us keep marching on! Let us not grow weary in well-doing! Let us continue to march to the beat of a different drummer and go against the tide of immorality and godlessness that is taking over this land. Let us march on...march on...march on...until we stand in the glorious presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! *********************************************************************** C O N C L U S I O N The Anvil Last eve I paused before a blacksmith s door and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime. And looking in, I saw old hammers on the floor, Worn by the beating years of time. How many anvils have you had, said I, To wear and batter all these hammers so? Just one, said he, then with a twinkle in his eyes, The anvil wears the hammers out you know. And so I thought, the anvil of God s word, For ages skeptic blows have beat upon. Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard The anvil is unharmed and the hammers gone! HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON!