You seem to mean what you were singing. Maybe you know why we were singing that hymn.
“Hearts that lift on high the banner, Where the conflict fierce doth
fall, Not afraid of death or danger, Hearts that understand God’s
call.”
Maybe two years ago I began to make a study of references to banners. In
some places it is called an ‘ensign’ and in others a ‘standard’. In the
Portuguese Bible it is called a ‘flag’, but there is no significant
difference with any of these names. I will tell you what caused me to
begin this study. I was reading in the paper of a group of young men
(not in Australia, and I hope it never happens here) trampling the flag
of their country, tearing it apart, spitting on it and finally burning
it. I was horrified to think that those young men had reached that state
of disrespect and irreverence to make them feel the flag of their own
country was so worthless and merited so little respect.
Customs where I have been labouring may help us to learn a few little
lessons. There are a number of days set apart, one, the day of the flag.
Before that day, for quite a considerable time, for some weeks, the
Brazilian flag is in more prominence than usual. It is always in
prominence. For some weeks before this particular day the flag is more
prominent. A great deal is written about it and said about it and the
president tells the people something about their flag. In the newspapers
there is a picture of the flag in full color. Everywhere one sees small
and large flags.
The president and his ministers are very anxious that the flag would be a
symbol to that nation. The flag itself is not of great value being of
silk or linen, not of extraordinary value, but what it signifies is of
value. Of all the flags existing on the earth, they feel it is the most
beautiful. They say, “No flag on all the earth is as beautiful as our
flag.” What it symbolizes is glorious. It symbolizes for them,
everything that is noble.
Maybe some days in our Convention could be called a day of the flag when
He who presides over this holy nation tells us what His flag
symbolizes. He has a flag flying over this holy nation. The Brazilian
flag symbolizes everything holy, desirable and decent. To those people
it is a flag worth living for and a flag worth dying for. Some people
are willing to die for their flag. There is not much of this now. The
earth is poorer for it. There is a disappearance of the spirit of
reverence towards things like that.
I remember when I was a boy going to school. I remember the place where
we used to stand and where the flagpole was situated. A boy unfurled the
flag and ran it up the pole. Every morning, every child stood to
attention and every child would salute the flag. I believe every day
Jesus lived He, in the spiritual sense, stood to attention and saluted
the honour of God’s nation. God’s Kingdom, His presence was established
to look up to, to honour and respect, to be willing to live for and to
die for. The respect Jesus had for the Scriptures meant they could not
be broken. When He was faced with going to Gethsemane He could have
asked for legions of angels, but how then could the Scriptures be
fulfilled? How much more should we not have respect. I am glad I have
not lost respect for the flag and I hope you will never lose respect
naturally for your flag.
The Children of Israel were fighting against Amalek. Moses was weary.
When his hands were raised Israel prevailed. When they went down, Amalek
prevailed. Aaron and Hur held up his hands. Moses built an altar and
called it Jehovah-nissi, ‘God is my banner’. I wondered why he said
that. He meant, “The eternal God is the source of all my inspiration and
strength, representing everything noble and worth living for. God is my
banner.” I am ashamed how some give their lives for a cause that is
despicable, communist soldiers for example. Maybe they are deceived into
giving their lives for what is not noble. Moses called the place
Jehovah-nissi, “From God I got my inspiration.”
Psalm 60:4-5, “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it
may be displayed of the truth, That thy beloved may be delivered, save
with thy right hand and hear me.” When were you given the banner? It was
the day you yielded your heart to God and told Him you wanted to serve
Him. He gave into your possession a banner He wanted displayed, a banner
displayed because of the truth. “That thy beloved may be delivered.” I
am thankful for some who have lifted high the banner and understood
God’s call and lived and died for it.
In I Kings 21 we read of a man who gave his life for the banner, Naboth.
He had a very good vineyard and the wicked king Ahab provoked by his
more wicked wife wanted it. Naboth knew the vineyard should not go out
of the family. It cost him his life. On the other hand, Judas sold out
cheaply. It is terrible to sell the Truth. May we be concerned to buy
the truth and sell it not. Naboth gave his life for God’s banner. He
understood God’s call and lifted high the banner where the conflict
fierce did fall.
Psalm 20:5, “We will rejoice in thy salvation and in the home of our god
we will set up our banners.” You know what our Brother Gordon (McNab)
said today, and what our Brother John (Clark) said yesterday and it is
no surprise to me that they felt it necessary to speak of these things.
I was trying to see what this banner some were willing to give their
life for would really symbolize. It represented to Moses everything
noble, honorable, decent, clean and beautiful. God’s banner consists of
those things. Paul in writing to Titus wrote of young men, young women,
old men and old women and spoke of great things. He said to be sober.
Sobriety is one of the parts of God’s banner, not lightness or
frivolity. Gravity would be similar.
There is also modesty. I would like to say a little about that. At
Mudgee I tried to speak about the cross of Christ. I cannot help
approving what Paul said in Galatians 6:14, “God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Philippians 3 some
were enemies of the cross of Christ and Paul said, “I tell you even
weeping.” He was not shedding tears without a very, very deep reason. He
was not effeminate. He said, “I tell you even weeping that they are
enemies of the cross of Christ.” I don’t know of anything worse since I
have been in the Work, that this immodest fashion in the world. It
distresses Workers in the United States, in Brazil, in England. They are
enemies of the cross of Christ. Where would we be without the cross? No
cross, no crown.
I cannot help feeling that if some of you folk and not only young folk,
could only think of the distress you are causing men and women who have
made a sacrifice you do not fully appreciate. I am not in Brazil because
of my comfort. There is not much comfort as we labor among poor people.
Think of the distress when Paul wrote to the Corinthians in II
Corinthians 11:2, “I was jealous over you with a godly jealousy.” “If
only you could understand.” “I have espoused you to one husband.” Our
husband is the King of Glory, the altogether lovely One. He is no
ordinary person. Paul’s said, “I was jealous over you and espoused you
to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
That’s why the Workers are distressed and why they speak. Our Brother
Rex (Truran) spoke about flattery and I don’t want to flatter but I look
into your faces and my heart goes out to you and I love you, but I am
often sad because you are following the fashion of men and women who are
enemies of the cross of Christ, following the fashion of the enemies of
Christ rather than a good, honest and attractive of the older Sister
Workers and Brother Workers.
I remembered today a verse in Psalm 20, “In the name of our God we will
set up our banners.” A woman professed in Brazil and she had a lovely
head of hair. She was very, very poor. There was a woman who made wigs
and she wanted to buy her hair but she said, “No, I am not going to sell
it.” She said, “I would like to give you a bigger price.” She was poor
and poorer than anyone in this shed. There is poverty in some countries
more than Australians ever know. She is awfully poor. She accepted the
Truth. This wig maker came back the third time but the answer was, “I
will not sell for any price what God has given me for my glory.” The
last time I was in Queensland I looked at the people and noticed some I
had known who had had their hair cut. I spoke about it and I had a
little comfort this time to see some had taken it to heart. It causes us
great searching of the heart. I hope we haven’t spoken in a hard way. I
love God’s people. No one can lay down their life and deny themselves
everything they want by nature if they have not a deep love for souls. I
hope there will be a deeper searching of souls.
I wonder if the devil has a flag. There was a flag flown on the high
seas, the flag of the buccaneers. They were unprincipled and murderous
men. The background of their flag was black and in white were the skull
and crossbones. They didn’t always fly it. Ships with the right motive
fly their flag to identify themselves and the nation to which they
belong. The buccaneers didn’t fly their flag as they didn’t want to be
identified. The enemy of our soul is a buccaneer to rob and destroy so
why would we co-operate with him? If he has a flag it has a black
background with a skull and crossbones, to speak of death.
The flag represents modesty, sobriety, prudence and chastity. There can
be no question about that and there are so many other things too. There
is honesty. When men go back and rub shoulders with their business
associates, remember that honesty is part of the banner of God. Anything
shady has nothing to do with it.
Numbers 1:52, “And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every
man by his own camp, every man by his own standard throughout the
host.” It meant every man, no question about that, every man and every
woman. God looks on the large company and also on individuals. Numbers
2:3, “Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch his own standard
with the ensign of their father’s house.” That is beautiful. Can you
feel as the people of Brazil, that it is the most beautiful ensign. It
speaks of purity, chastity, sincerity and sobriety. To pitch their tent
meant they were travelling, but they were to pitch their tent by their
father’s house. They were never to forget to what house they belonged.
Do we forget to which house we belong? It would be sad if we were to
forget to carry the banner and display it. “That thy beloved might be
delivered.” There is no help to others if we don’t display the banner.
Verse 3, “To the east side.” Verse 9, “These shall first set forth.”
There is the camp of Judah in Genesis 49. Jacob said of Judah that he
would be the lawgiver (Jesus) and the sceptre. Judah was to go first
always and that teaches me whenever I preach the Gospel and stand in
Convention the one foremost is Jesus Himself. He must always be foremost
in every move I make. It also tells of who would be on each side: the
south, the east, the west. Verse 25, “The standard of the house of Dan
shall be on the north side.” Verse 31, “They shall go hindmost with
their standards.” Verse 34, “And so they set forward everyone after
their families according to the house of their fathers.”
In Numbers 10 there is something similar. Verse 14, “In the first
place..” Judah again. The one from thence became the lawgiver and the
sceptre speaking of the king. “In the first place went the standard of
the camp of the children of Judah.” Verse 18, “And the standard of the
camp of Reuben set forward according to their armies.” Verse 22, “And
the standard of the camp of Ephraim.” Verse 25, “And the standard of the
camp of Dan set forward, which was the rearward of all the camps
throughout their hosts.” Dan brought up the rear. I don’t know if every
family carried a banner. I have a feeling they did.
We read of the numbers belonging to each camp and the picture of
hundreds of thousands of people marching and each family having a
banner. It would be a significant sight. As we go out from here
understanding God’s call we will be to our God a significant sight. If
we go out from here resolved to lift up the banner it will be a
significant sight to God. Dan was in the rear. He was not seen first of
all. There was Judah and Ephraim and Reuben and last of all Dan. There
is a hymn we sing,
“It may not be my part in the conflict with sin, In the front ranks of
battle to fight, But unhonoured, unknown, where He wants me alone, I can
faithfully stand for the right.”
may belong to the camp of Dan but does it matter? We have a banner to identify ourselves with our Father’s house.
Isaiah 11:10. This speaks of the day the Gospel came to us, “And in that
day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of
the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.” We are the Gentiles. If
there had never been this ensign where would we be? “His rest shall be
glorious.” That is worth a lot of consideration. What would I know of
the rest of God if there was never this ensign? Absolutely nothing. I
value this ensign.
I made a study of “in that day”. Isaiah 59 has a very, very nice verse.
Verse 19, “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west and his
glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a
flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” We
don’t want to have any doubt when the enemy has come in like a flood.
The floods of ungodliness are not diminishing.
In II Timothy 2:2 Paul wrote, “For men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection.... having a form of
godliness.” This is a flood that is growing stronger and stronger. I’d
like to have a part in turning the flood back. I believe you and I can.
This verse is for us, “The spirit of the LORD shall lift up the
standard.” Some day this flood of ungodliness will be pushed back
forever. I’d like to have a part in stopping it now. If we accompany it,
we increase it. If I accompany what is wrong I make the volume stronger
and make it harder for others.
Jeremiah 50:2, “Declare ye among the nations and set up a standard;
publish and conceal not.” I think that is what God would say: declare by
life and words by conduct, by dress, by everything, that you are
holding up this banner. Don’t conceal it. It is the only hope the world
has. God’s people are the hope of the world.
Song of Solomon 6:4. I would like to finish on this note expressed in
this chapter and I have a feeling that the Lord might want me to say
what is in these people: sincere, noble, sober people. We should not
leave your heart discouraged. “The LORD of Heaven said, Thou art
beautiful.” There are lots of people in Queensland where I know them
best, and a good few in Brazil, and I could say that they are beautiful.
So many haven’t changed and they consolidated my heart and so I could
say they are beautiful. The Lord says to those who love Him and
understand His call and lift high the banner, “Thou art beautiful O my
love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.”
Verse 10 is a lovely verse too, “Who is she that looketh forth as the
morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army
with banners.” Many times in Brazil I walked miles before daybreak.
Daybreak is beautiful. The bride is like the dawning, clear as the moon
and bright and pure as the sun, terrible as an army with banners. Don’t
be fearful or with an arrogant spirit. I believe God wants us to have
the boldness the apostles had in the Acts of the Apostles. They were not
uncouth but went like an army with banners. They had a righteousness
that people had to respect. They were raising up a banner.
Joseph in Egypt was tempted and there was no one to see him. He raised
up a banner and the very king respected him. Daniel and his companions
were told to eat of the king’s meat and they set up a banner. Those
banners still fly and inspire us. The greatest king of earth had to
listen to them and respect them. The cross is the greatest treasure the
world has ever seen. Let us go out and lift up our banner and understand
God’s call.
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