Faithfulness of God - Part 1 — Derek Melton

This message is entitled, Great is Thy Faithfulness. This may be a, I don't know that we'll be able to get through all of this today that I wanna share. In fact, I know I will not be able to. But we're gonna go forth in this.

The Faithfulness of God in Adversity

It's 11 o 'clock. Isaiah chapter 25, verse one. O Lord, thou art my God. I will exalt thee. I will praise thy name. For thou hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

Let's pray. Father, we need Lord assurance. Lord, many times in the day-to-day happenings of our life and strugglings that we face. And Lord, we need oftentimes to be reminded, Father, that you're an immutable God, that you never change.

Lord, that you're a faithful God to your covenant people. And Father, I pray that today, Lord, that in a season and time in many of our lives, Father, to where we face challenges and obstacles, Father, even oftentimes besetting sins, Lord, to know and to hear from the immutable word of God, Lord, that you will be faithful, Lord, to your people.

Lord, that you'll be faithful to your household. Lord, you'll be faithful to those that belong to you whom are called by your name. Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit of the living God would reveal, Lord, the very truth of the character of your faithfulness toward your beloved elect.

Lord, help us that I give us a spirit of understanding. Holy Ghost, help us in this hour to receive these truths from the word of God, in Jesus' name, amen. One of the attributes of God that is leaned upon most often in times of adversity, in times of peril, is the faithfulness of God.

I know it personally and historically speaking in my life that in crises hours, it's the precursor in my prayer. Oh, faithful God, be faithful unto me in this, my midnight hour, in this crisis time that I am enduring or going through.

And God will prove himself and always has in times past and well in times future, prove himself to be faithful. We're living in a time and in a world that's full of turbulence, aren't we? We're living also in a time of very much uncertainty.

There's threats on every surface, on every corner, on every channel, on every news station, there's danger. And it's imperative, friends, that we as God's covenant children glean from the past generations and the faithfulness of God towards them in their own seasons of adversity and of uncertainty.

The world that we live in, friends, has become a very melting pot of trouble and panic because of threats of things such as terrorism. What about economic fragility? It's very fragile in our economic situation.

Even though the media is seemingly trying to change the perspective, there's been such damage done in the minds of the American people as to the pitfalls of the economic status of our country that there is almost a panic in the hearts of the average American.

We have the very real evidences of a recession that we're seeing. We're seeing the ever-increasing percentages of unemployment advancing and advancing, and we see incomes that are decreasing. And there's a, it's really a quiet sense of panic regarding the unknown future of our nation and the stability of our nation.

It's not really spoken. It's kind of a silent panic. But when people are getting together, they're talking about the fears that they have regarding the uncertainty of the times that we're living in. I believe, friends, that we're living in a time that is unparalleled by any times that have been in the past.

Economically, I believe that our nation is facing instability as we've never faced instability before. The lack of confidence in the leaders of our nation has plummeted to a point to where the people of America are in despair and even in outrage concerning leadership within our nation because of corruptions and self-centeredness in high levels, in high cabinet positions.

But, beloved, it's during these uncertain times, it's during these seasons that are very uncertain, that are plagued with tragic happenings on the global scale that God's covenant people, and I'm using that word purposely, that God's covenant people can find comfort and rest in their God, and a God that's faithful and true, and a God that is faithful and true.

I was reading over in Revelation, I believe it was chapter 19 yesterday, that the name of Jesus Christ that is inscribed across him, that he is faithful and true, he is faithful and true. And so it's my prayer, and it's my intention to draw from the word of God this morning to illuminate the faithfulness of God towards his beloved covenant people.

God Watches Over His Word

First thing I wanna draw out, and I wanna draw a few points this morning, and then we'll conclude after we have talked about and lit some of these points, is that God is always faithful to oversee his word.

Turn with me in your Bible to Jeremiah chapter one, please. It's just over a little bit from Isaiah. I'm gonna read this out of the Amplified Bible, so don't be dismayed by the difference of translation.

The reason I'm doing this is because of clarity's sake. In Jeremiah chapter one, in verse 12, then said the Lord to me, you have seen well for I am alert and active. Listen to me, friends, look at me.

There's nothing happening on this planet or within this nation that's caught God off guard. He's aware of every situation that our nation is facing economically, morally. God is aware, and God is at work.

Well, this has not caught God off guard. This is not new to God. The very foreknowledge of God tells and reveals that our God has known about the happenings of the modern American nation from since the beginnings of time.

This has not caught God off guard. Nothing that transpires within the workings of this life and this earth ever catches God off guard. God is all knowing. He's also all powerful. And that God also holds the heart of the king in his hand.

And our God is faithful. I am alert and active watching over my word to perform it. Isn't that glorious? God says, I am active and not only active, but I am alert. And I am watching over my word to perform it.

Beloved, the performance and the manifestation of the word of God is based upon the merit of Christ and not the merit of man. God does what he does solely for his glory. Are you with me? And being so, those that are in covenant with our God experience the benefits of being one with the beneficiary, which is our God, El Shaddai, the one that is all sufficient and more than enough.

The one that is more than able to provide in times of dearth and times of lack and hardship, that our God is more than able and also more than willing to provide for his covenant children. You'll find in times of hardship and darkness for the nation of Israel, that God always would lead them through the valley of the shadow of death.

And God would always bring them to a place of devotion to himself. Some of the situations that God would draw or bring Israel through would be pruning times. And there would be times of adversity and times of hardship, but God was with them in the midst of these workings, these divine workings of providence.

God never forsook his people. See, there are characteristics about the attributes of God that work together. God's immutability and God's faithfulness compliment one another. The immutability of God simply infers that God never changes.

That God is an unchanging God. Nothing changes God. And that God is faithful to those that are in covenant with him. And God is always faithful to himself. Amen. And those are good things for us to know.

But just as God himself is immutable, so is the word of God immutable. Jesus Christ, the very son of God said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Beloved, every promise that has been made by God towards his covenant people is yay and amen in Jesus Christ.

This means that these promises are unbreakable promises. God cannot lie. He is not a man that he should lie. I'm intentionally using and drawing upon the words covenant people, covenant in this message, because covenant is the basis for the operation of the faithfulness of God towards us for our good.

I'm gonna make a few statements, and I don't want you to be dismantled by them concerning the faithfulness of God. I want you to gain a larger concept of the scope of the magnificence of the faithfulness of God and the operations of his faithfulness.

You'll have to forgive me because I'm dry today and I'm having to sip on this water. And so the promises of God are unbreakable promises. God cannot lie. God's faithfulness towards his people is based on his character, but also based on the very fact that God is in covenant with a people.

And covenant is the basis for the operation of God and being faithful towards us for our good. The lack of covenant, I want you to listen to this. The lack of covenant is the basis for the operation of the faithfulness of God towards sinners in exacting justice and recompense.

God is faithful to do good to those that are in covenant with him. And God is also faithful to bring recompense and justice upon those that are outside of the covenant of hope. So just as God is faithful and just to forgive those that are in covenant with him, he is faithful and just to damn those that are outside of covenant with him.

That helps us broaden our scope to see that God is faithful and consistent in his faithfulness. And that the blessedness of the faithfulness of God is based upon the covenant that has been cut with his dear and precious children.

What God does for our good is based upon covenant. That God has become one and we have become one with him. He's become one with us and we've become one with him. He is our beloved and we are his beloved.

And we must understand this, that the goodness of God and the good things of God that are faithfully imparted into the everyday workings of our life is based upon covenant. And if you understand anything about covenant, covenant does not at all have a basis of merit.

It does not have a basis of merit. And so we are God's blessed and beloved covenant people. And God's pleasant word belongs to us. And the promises of the word of God, they are towards us. It's impossible for our God to disregard the promises that he has decreed upon the elect of God, those that are in covenant with God.

The word of God says in Isaiah 40 verse eight, that the grass withereth and the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Shall stand forever. So beloved, when the word of God promises to keep us, when the word of God promises to protect us, it is an immutable and an unchanging promise.

God will be faithful to perform what God has promised to his elect. Beloved, I want you to listen to this. The most remote, the remotest possibility for God to fail in what God has promised cannot exist.

Let me say that again. The most remote possibility for God to fail in what God has promised his covenant people, it cannot exist. There has never been a time since time has began when God has been unfaithful to what he has sovereignly decreed.

There has never been a time since time has been time to when God has been unfaithful to what he has sovereignly purposed and sovereignly decreed. There are no books of record that give any accurate citation regarding the failings of God in regard to his faithfulness towards his people, towards his covenant people.

But yet there are volumes of records that testify to the faithfulness of God to undeserving people that are his covenant possession. Regardless of the economic woes that we hear and that we face, regardless of the personal tragedies that we must muddle through, the irreversible situational difficulties that we seem to have to go through and to entertain or the hopeless personal failures that we experience, the faithfulness of our God is an unwavering ensign.

The faithfulness of our God is an unwavering ensign. Our God is a surety watching over his word to perform it and he is faithful to that which he has promised. Our God has never lied in regard. There has never been a time when our God has been unfaithful even one whit to that which he has sovereignly decreed or purposed.

It's not possible. It's not possible. And beloved, we can hope in our God. It's not possible for God to fail in regard to those that are in covenant with him and the blessings ascribed to his covenant people.

Glory to God. Psalm 108 verse 12 and 13 says, give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man. Through God, we shall do valiantly for it is he that shall tread down our enemies. This is our God asserting dominion, asserting strength, asserting victory to those that are weak and fragile, but yet that are in covenant.

God will help us from trouble. It's vain that we have the help of man, but yet through our God, we shall do valiantly. What is the basis? The basis is the faithfulness of God towards those that are in covenant with him.

God Cleanses and Forgives His Covenant People

Glory to God. It is he that shall tread down our enemies. The next thing I want to decree is that God is faithful to cleanse and to forgive his covenant people of their sins. We always have been a little loud on that one because we have sin.

And I'll amen it real loud, amen. First John, we know where we're going. We're going to hear about the faithful and justice of God and decreeing his children innocent, although they're still guilty. In first John chapter one, verse seven, brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness has passed, the true light is now shineth.

He that sayeth that he is in light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. Oh, I'm reading the wrong passage. Let's start this way. But if we walk in the light, verse seven, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.

Beloved, listen, what is this? This walking in the light as he is in the light. This is a covenant, it's covenant. We have fellowship one with another. What is it speaking of? It is speaking of covenant and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from sin on the basis of covenant.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, do you see this? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. He is what? He's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Beloved, God's elect are oftentimes discomfited by fleshly weakness, which soon leads to sinful practices. Oh me. Many times we wander, not W-O-N, but W-A-N.

We wander into treacherous parcels without girding ourselves with the very armor of God. And consequently, we find ourselves in the very pit of despair, surrounded by every devilish fiend. We find ourselves covered with a mire.

There are also times when we are apprehended by the very pleasant things of this life and they lull us into a sleep in which we cannot wake ourselves from. And the dulling of our spiritual senses that they cause and the weakening of our spiritual strength that they emit leave us beyond the grasp of self-rescue and self-deliverance.

And it's in these times, my friend, that our deliverer comes to rescue his covenant possession, his covenant people from the very snares and the entrapments of the adversary. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and our wanderings and to cleanse us from the mire to which we have succumbed.

In Hosea 14, verse four, God's word decrees, I will heal their backslidings. I will love them freely. And my anger is turned away from them. I will heal their backslidings. I will love them freely. And my anger is turned away from him.

It's talking to his purchase prize. It's talking to those covenant possession, those that God has called by name, the very elect of God. And it's important, my friends, that you understand the audience to which I am addressing this morning.

I'm not speaking to the unconverted who are still under the dominion of sin. That are yet awaiting the stored up wrath of God. Beloved, the anger of God cannot be turned away from those that are outside of the hope of covenant.

It's up on them and not only upon them, it's upon them only continually. The audience to which this applies is to the born again believer or the converted soul who is a recipient of God's mercy on the basis of a covenant that has been cut between the Lord Jesus Christ and the repentant sinner.

Beloved, has the guilt of your past or has the guilt of your present sins plagued you to the point of despair or plagued you to the point of hopelessness? Has the adversary of your soul convinced you that the unpardonable sin has been committed and that you're beyond the scope of the mercy of God and Jesus Christ?

It's important, my friends, that you listen. Has your frail frame become the very object of devilish and demonic harassment in so much that you feel that you are beyond the very grace of almighty God?

Oh, beloved covenant child, confess your sin. Covenant child of God, confess your weakness. Covenant child of God, confess your frailty and our God is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from every unrighteous sin, every unrighteous weakness and every unrighteous frailty.

Glory to God, our God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse those who he has purchased with his own blood and called by his own name. Now, beloved, if you perceive these bounties of mercy to be only opportunities for you to continue in your sinful ways, then you are greatly deceived today.

Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the lust that they formerly entertained and yearned for with a zealous passion. If you are exploring new or convenient ways to continue in your sins, expecting to be covered by the mercy of which we are speaking this morning, then you, my listener, are unconverted and you are in the very womb of iniquity even until now.

The true convert finds his sins obnoxious, distasteful, not pleasant and not worthy of pursuit. The true convert, my friend, may sin. He may even sin grievously, but his sin cannot find a permanent home in his life.

It's a vexation to his righteous soul. These acts of sin are wholly dissimilar to the Christ-like nature indwelling him. He cannot live a lifestyle of sin. He will not, nor can he, explore new avenues to fulfill and to gratify the lust of his sinful nature.

Oh, beloved, he brings them to the cross and there Jesus Christ, by his spirit, mortifies them one by one. In 2 Peter 2, verse five to eight, God spared not the old world, but he saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes and condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those after should live ungodly.

And he delivered just Lot who was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing it vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.

Beloved, this is a type of the converted man who has Jesus Christ indwelling him, the man that has passed from death to life, that the wicked things of this life, the pleasant things of this world, they vex the inward most being of a righteous man.

The righteous man cannot explore the delicacies of this life and the pleasantries of sin because they vex his righteous soul, that he comes weeping and shameful to the very foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And there he lies crying out for the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, that he might be crucified with Christ and that the power of God might rule and reign in his inward most being and he might be set free from the exertion and the temptations of sin and evil.

Glory to God. Covenant child of God, are you vexed in your heart in regard to the sins that are hiding there? Are you vexed in the inward most being of your heart concerning the sins that are hiding there?

Is grief and anxiety welling up inside of you even now to the point of despair? Oh, beloved, our God is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you of these sins. God is faithful to his covenant people even when they're bound in the very dregs of sin.

God Completes His Work of Sanctification

I will heal their backsliding and I will love them freely. I will heal their backsliding and I will love them freely. Point three, God is faithful to complete us in Christ. God is faithful to complete us in Christ.

1 Corinthians chapter one, please. We'll see if I can't read the right chapter. In 1 Corinthians 1 .6, the testimony of the word is, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless, say blameless, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He will confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ and that our God is faithful by whom you have been called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It's a good spot for an amen, beloved. Beloved, the process of sanctification is often slow and frustrating to the true convert. We want to be like Christ and we want to be totally like Christ now. You know, in the new birth, friend, God awakens our consciences.

And when with these awakened consciences, we as covenant people, the people of God are wholly aware of existing inconsistencies toward the new nature of Christ that's indwelling us. And because of these maladies in us, we still grief.

We groan. Romans eight talks about that. We groan because awakened consciences that our Lord has exacted in us as we have trusted him are much aware of indwelling abnormalities or inconsistencies with the pure nature of Christ that indwells us.

And this is a source of grief to the true child of God. There are still trace elements of sin in us. They're attached to us. And these trace elements of sin, beloved, are inconsistent with the Christ-like nature that indwells us.

And they are a dilemma to be reckoned with by the grace and the work of grace in our lives as we learn more and more about Jesus Christ. Oh man, I'm gonna kiss you for that. Cold water. Listen, there are many times, friend, I want you to listen because this is important stuff.

There are many times when we become frustrated because we have these indwelling sins and they slow the pace of the transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Sins that beset us and that slow us down in the race that's been set before us.

And we oftentimes begin to labor, listen, beloved, we begin to labor in the power of our natural strength to perfect in the flesh what only God can perfect in the spirit. The Bible says in Galatians 3, verse three, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit that you are now made perfect by the flesh?

Beloved, listen, we are all in the school of Jesus Christ. We are all in the school of Christ. We're all being changed into the very image of his nature, the very image of Christ. But beloved, it's not we that strive into this end.

It's the work of sanctification that is a work of the spirit of God as we keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus Christ and his finished work. The apostle Paul said in Hebrews 2, chapter 12, verse two and three, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

We try to perfect or to finish in the flesh what God begins in the spirit. We see the slow process of sanctification whereby the old dregs of the sinful ways are being mortified in the new righteous life and Jesus Christ, the old life is being overthrown and the transformation is taking place.

The beloved, we want that be done now. The beloved, it transpires throughout our whole lifetime that in that day, God, by his sovereign decree, will finish what he began because salvation and sanctification are both a work of the spirit of God.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Who was it that began the work of the cross in you? Who was it that began the work of grace in you? And who is it that will complete the work that has begun? Who is it that will complete the work that has begun?

It is Jesus. He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it unto the appearing of the Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to God, glory to God. And it's imperative, my friend, that you keep your sights set upon the realities of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his finished work.

And the moment that you began to strive after more Christ-likeness, you'll find that you're falling behind in his grace. I'm talking about a striving after the flesh. I can do more so that I can be more.

Beloved, it's not what we do that determines what we will be. It's what he has already determined is what we will be. And God has called us to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus Christ and to not deviate away from the hope that is in him and that his resurrection is the very basis for our transformation.

Glory to God, not by works lest ye boast. It's the grace of God. It's the grace of God. But beloved, whenever you keep your eyes upon the realities of Jesus Christ and his finished work, wholly trusting him, the word trust is important, wholly trusting him to complete you in him, you will be continually changed into his image.

But beloved, it is a slow and it is a purposed and it is a methodical work of grace in your life, not of yourselves. God's called you to fix your eyes. He does the work. So many, especially in churches like this, we try to strive to be holy.

And we began to do in the flesh what only God can perfect in the spirit. Not a license for sin. We know that if you still have desires to pursue a lifestyle of sin, you are not converted and you're still in need of saving grace.

We're not condemning you, can't condemn the condemned. The work of transformation into the very image of Christ is by the very decree of Christ. It's by the very faithfulness of Christ. And the basis of it is not your merit, nor is it your strivings.

It's not the basis. First or second Corinthians 318, but we all with an open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.

Transformation, the change, the work of grace in our lives, the sanctification process. How does it take place? It doesn't take place by what you do. It takes place by what you see. Listen, beholding the glory of the Lord, keeping your eyes fixed upon Christ.

You're keeping your eyes and your heart and your affections in the right place has everything to do with the work of grace exacting itself and manifest itself in your life that you will be as he is in that great day.

And you can have confidence. He's made an assurance and a promise. And he's faithful to oversee his word that when he appears, you will be like him. You will be like him. You'll see him as he is, and you will be like him.

It all has to do with his work of grace. And your heart has done as you fix yourself upon him, fix yourself upon him. Your eyes fix your heart, your affections. That Jesus Christ, I live and move and have my very being in you.

God Delivers His People Through Adversity

And it's your work to complete what you began in me and not mine, and not mine. Amen. Point four, you ready? I'll close with this one. Our God is faithful and there's more to come. This is the end for the day.

Our God is faithful to deliver us from the tattering effects of adversity and trouble. I want you to hone in on two words, tattering effects. God is faithful to deliver us from the tattering effects of the storm, but not from the storm.

Listen to me, and not the effects of the storm, the tattering effects, the worrisome, the devastating effects. Because beloved, in the storm are effects of grace that work in you things that cannot be worked by any other means.

But it's talking about the effects of the storm that would be detrimental to the child of God, like despair, hopelessness, confusion. Are you with me? 2 Timothy 3, please. Are we still connected with each other?

Engaged? In 2 Timothy 3, verse 10, we're gonna read, but thou hast faithfully known my doctrine and my manner of life, my purpose and faith, my long suffering and charity, my patience and persecutions and afflictions which came to me at Antioch and Iconium at Lystra.

Listen, beloved, this is an emulation of the Christian's life. We do have the manner of life, which is the Christ-like life. We do have purpose. We do have faith. We do have long suffering. We do have charity.

We do have patience, but we also have persecutions. We also have afflictions. There are hardships. There are troubles to the Christian that will come upon us at certain places and at certain seasons in our lives.

There's no escaping that. There's no escaping that. He says, what persecutions? He said, I endured. I endured. But out of them, all the Lord delivered me. But out of them, all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Let me talk about this. Beloved, the pilgrim's way. Have any of you read the book, The Pilgrim's Progress? I wrote out from my son-in-law 10 of my choicest of books for a friend of his at work. The top, the pinnacle of all books that have been written by man.

I'm not making inference to the Bible. Of course, we know the Bible is not comparable to any work of man. It's in a whole different category. It's not a book, it's a living writ. It's different, it's up here.

But the words that have been penned by the hands of man, the number one that I have on my list of books that all Christians must read and should read yearly is The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. But beloved, the pilgrim's way is a maze winding through real tight corridors, having to face obstacles and having to endure situations that are dangerous.

And if you've come, listen, if you've come to the Lord Jesus Christ unwilling to accept the challenges of this pilgrimage, you've come to Jesus Christ in vain. If you believe that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ carried the only cross and that you are in some manner, in some manner better than he, then beloved, you are deceived and you're unfit for the kingdom of God.

You're unfit for the kingdom of God. Beloved, if you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, this revelation is nothing new to you. All those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will face persecution.

Also beloved, it rains on the just and the unjust. Also in this world, you will have trouble. The way of the pilgrim is intricately woven through terrain that is peril ridden. It's filled with treachery.

It's strewn with mountainous obstacles. And there's also dangerous and evil entities all along the way. And our Lord has exhorted us to strive to enter in at the straight gate and striving insinuates exertion and strenuous effort.

Some would like to paint the pilgrim's way as a stroll through a flowery paths of ease. But listen, what armor would, or what warrior would ever don armor for a flowery way of life? Soldiers equip themselves with vital armor because they are engaged in battle.

Beloved, the biblical terms and regarding the saints pilgrimage is militaristic. It's talking about war, warfare, fight a fight of faith. The Christian must be covered in an array of armor with weaponry, the sword of the spirit of God.

And it's not a flowery bed of ease. It's a brutal war to which our Lord leads us in the charge, the captain of the Lord's host, a right and glory and majesty and victory. He leads us, but beloved, there are effects of the war upon those who follow him and call his name.