They are not valiant for the truth.
Valiant for the truth
I. Inquire what is the truth. It is “the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.” Without a knowledge of this, oh! how ignorant is the wisest in the things of time!
1. “The truth as it is in Jesus” was at first but obscurely revealed; a veil was cast over it which prophets and righteous men desired to remove.
2. “The truth as it is in Jesus” is a jewel only to be found in the casket of God’s Word, not in the traditions of men; and that casket--emphatically called “the Word of truth”--must be unlocked for us by Him who is “the Spirit of truth.”
II. How we may be valiant for it.
1. A cordial belief in it must be the first step to a valiant defence of it.
2. Love of the truth, an unalterable and unwavering attachment to it, must follow a firm belief in it. This principle gives courage to the soldier on the battlefield; patience to the wife amid scenes of sickness and misfortune.
3. Next follows an uncompromising advocacy of it. We fear not to give utterance to that in which we firmly believe, and which we ardently love.
4. Valour for Christ, who is “the truth” personified, will further display itself by noble sacrifices for Him, for the dissemination of His truth at home, for its propagation abroad.
5. Valour for the truth is most signally displayed by a consistent, prayerful, and persevering obedience to all its requirements. (J. S. Wilkins.)
Valiant for the truth
I. What is truth, that for it one can be, should be, valiant? Truth is real. Truth is accessible and may be known. Truth is precious. Truth imposes in every direction obligations that cannot be met except by the most genuine and resolute valour. The best philologists of our own generation refer the word to a root meaning “to believe,” and draw upon the whole group of related languages and dialects to show that truth is “firm, strong, solid, reliable, anything that will hold.” It should, seem, then, that we ought not to believe anything but what is firm, established, and that truth is what we rightly believe. For this our highest powers can be summoned into action, while nothing but a poor counterfeit of our best activity can be called forth in behalf of that which is known or seriously suspected to be unreal. The sophist may be adroit, dexterous in disposition and argument, and selfishly eager for victories. The pettifogging advocate in any profession may gain brief successes by natural powers and discipline, aided by sheer audacity. This is a result and proof of the world’s disorder. Man is for truth and truth for man--both real. And truth is accessible and may be known. He who gave us reason and nature, Whose they are, and Whom they should ever serve, has come in pity to the relief of our impotence and bewilderment by the disclosures that His Spirit makes. In the Gospel “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men.” Here is truth that is real. Here is truth that may be known. Of all precious truth, truth on which souls can be nourished, truth to which lives can be safely conformed, here is that which is most precious--truth that enters most deeply and permanently into character and takes hold of destiny. Of all truth worthy and suited to stimulate man’s highest powers, to the most sustained, and most intense sufficiency, here is that which is worthiest and most stated. Of all truth that is of such kind and in such relations to us that it is not only worth our while, but in every way incumbent upon us to put forth our highest valour to gain it and to hold it, here is the most essential. We are bidden, “Buy the truth and sell it not.” And this is not a mere appeal to our self-interest. Truth, especially this sacred truth, encompasses us with obligations. For this acquisition we do not merely do well to pay the price of toil and struggle; we fail grossly and widely in duty if we withhold the price. And what we have so dearly bought at the price of our humbled pride, at the price of our falling out with the fashion of this world “which passeth away,” what we win by the surrender of our self-sufficiency and imaginary independence, by our resolute self-mastery, our vigorous effort, and whatever besides the attainment may cost, we are to hold against all seductions and all assaults, “valiant for the truth.”
II. What is the manly valour that can find any fair and proper field for its exercise--its fairest and most proper field in connection with truth? It is not mere boldness, bravery, courage, but moves in a higher plane, and is instinct with a loftier inspiration. These may have their source chiefly in the physical and animal, that which we share with the bulldog and the gorilla; while valour is a knightly grace, and makes account mainly of the ideal. We shall esteem that the truest valour in which there is me fullest consciousness and manifestation of manhood, with the clearest conception and the most persistent adherence to worthy ends of manly endeavour. There can then be nothing forced or unnatural in the phrase of our text, “valiant for the truth.” For what should a true man be valiant rather than for the acquisition, maintenance, and service of the truth--truth known as real, judged to be important, valued as precious? And what estimate must we put upon the manhood that can be “strong in the land, but not for truth”--energetic, daring, resolved, and persistent for lower and grosser interests, but not for the truth?
II. By what call from without does truth most authoritatively and effectively summon valour to its aid? Truth is imperial, not only in the quality of the authority which it asserts and the richness of the bounty which it dispenses, but also in the breadth of the dominion to which it lays claim. We have made our first obedience when we have yielded ourselves to the truth. We are to go on proclaiming truth’s rights, and helping it to gain rule over others. We vindicate the rights of the truth, while we secure blessings to our fellow men through truth’s ascendency over them. And this obligation and opportunity subject our manhood to some of the most searching tests by which we are ever tried. Are we capable of taking larger views of truth than those which connect it with some prospect of advantage to ourselves? Do we esteem it for what it is, and not only for what it brings us? And what is the measure of our discernment of the rights and needs of others, and what is our response? The manly and Christian spirit has large conceptions of right and duty. And then truth, while imperial in its rights, is sometimes imperilled by denial and attack, and that at the hands of the very men whose allegiance it claims. Its rights are contested; its very credentials are challenged. It encounters not merely the negative resistance of ignorance and dulness, of low tastes and sensual and earthly preoccupations; it is met by a more positive impeachment. He who is valiant for truth will no more suffer it to fight its own battles than a true knight would have resorted to any such evasion in a cause to which he was committed. And the response which we make to the summons of assailed truth gives opportunity to display some of the finest qualities that belonged to the old knighthood--unswerving loyalty, courage, endurance, self-sacrifice. But there is another call for valour in behalf of Christian truth higher than that which comes from our fellow men and their claims upon it. What Christ is on the one side to the truth and on the other side to us, and what the truth is to Him, supply a new inspiration and strength, and add a new quality to Christian endeavour--a personal quality that was wanting before. He who is valiant for the truth because of what it is in its reality and reliableness shows his discernment. He who is valiant for the truth because of what it is to manhood shows a wise self-appreciation. He who is valiant for the truth because of the claim his fellow men have upon it, and upon him if he has it in his possession, shows that he knows his place, his obligation, his opportunity as a man among men. He who is valiant for the truth for Christ’s sake shows that he knows and honours his Lord, and would make Him indeed Lord of all. Consider what Christ is to the substance of the truth; what He is to the authority and efficiency of the truth; and what the truth is to Him in the assertion and manifestation of His Lordship. The truth is not only Christ’s as its great Revealer; the truth is Christ as its great Revelation. To him who asks, What is the way? we answer, The way is Christ. To him who would know, What is the life? we make reply, The life is Christ. And we proclaim, as that which is of the highest concern to man to know, the truth is Christ. He is the great embodiment of truth--truth incarnate. What He was, over and above all that He said, teaches us what we should seek in vain to learn elsewhere. He was the chief revelation of the nature, the power, the love, the saving grace of God. (C. A. Aitken, D. D.)
Valour for the truth
I. What is comprehended in this important word, “the truth”? It has been remarked that “truth is a relative term, expressing a conformity between the object and the mind, a harmony between the object and the 1des we entertain of it”: thus, truth becomes one of those terms, the precise meaning of which can only be ascertained by determining the subject of which it may be predicated. I propose to regard the scheme of Divine grace, for the recovery of man--the scheme of which we are ministers,--as that which alone deserves the supreme appellation of “the truth.” I proceed, then, to consider--
1. Man’s state as a sinner.
(1) What saith the Scripture as to sin in its nature? (1 John 3:4.)
(2) What saith the Scripture as to sin in its diffusion, its extent? It everywhere, without the slightest discernible qualification, represents human nature as universally and absolutely corrupt (Genesis 6:5; Psalms 14:2-3; Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 2:1).
(3) What saith the Scripture as to sin in its consequences? (Romans 6:23; Psa 9:17; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.)
2. God’s work as a Saviour. Justice, as one of the attributes of God, is as essentially a part of His nature, so to speak, as His Omnipresence, His Omniscience, His Truth; and, since there is more than a propriety, even a moral necessity, that all the proceedings of the Deity should be such as to bring out the full glory of His entire Name, it is manifest that He can only interpose an arrest of judgment, confer pardon, renovation, and eternal glory, on atonement being made.
II. What is required to constitute the character described by the expression, “valiant for the truth”? Valour is, strictly speaking, a martial term. We are made to feel and deplore that a contrariety of element exists in connection with the spiritual world. This gives rise to severe conflict. Now to be valiant, even in human estimation, requires something more than bravery; yea, more than courage. There must be a combination of both; or, at least, to be valiant, a man must be preeminently courageous. “Bravery,” says an eminent authority, “is a mere instinct; for it depends on mere constitutional temperament.” Courage is a virtue, indeed, for it lies in the mind; it depends on reflection and thought; but he only is valiant, who weighs the whole enterprise deliberately, lays his plans prudently, and follows them out systematically; whom defeat may bow, but cannot break; whilst triumph only stimulates him to renewed effort, inflames him with fresh zeal, and imparts to him a thirst for new glory--a thirst which nothing can satisfy till the last position is taken and the last trophy won! To be “valiant for the truth,” then, requires--
1. That there be a serious and habitual contemplation of the truth.
2. That there be a sincere embracing of the truth, and the practical experience of its power in the heart.
3. That there De active and uniform exertion in our respective spheres, for the spread of “the truth.”
4. That there be solemn and earnest prayer that the Holy Spirit may accompany, with His power, all our efforts for the diffusion of “the truth.”
III. What are the considerations, which are calculated to stir up to the holy emotions, involved in the expression, “valiant for the truth”?
1. Let there be serious reflection as to the value of the soul, and the danger which threatens it whilst uninfluenced by the truth.
2. Let us reflect on the awful rapidity with which souls are passing to their eternal destiny.
3. Let us reflect on the responsibility that attaches to the office to which we have been called, and the awful doom that awaits unfaithfulness in its discharge.
4. Let us reflect on the transcendent joy with which ministerial faithfulness will hereafter be crowned. (John Gaskin, M. A.)
Valiant for the truth
I. What is that which peculiarly merits the appellation of “the truth”? The comprehensive title of “the truth” was applied to revealed religion, alike in its principles and commandments, in order to furnish a broad and emphatic distinction between it and those habits of evil thoughts and practices which had been engendered and fostered by idolatry. By the same appellation of “the truth,” we find pure religion--whether in Patriarchal, or Levitical, or Christian times--is frequently designated in Scripture, in order to furnish a special recommendation of its character, and to illustrate its aspect and intention in the world. It is a communication respecting the being and character of God, the plan of His government, the authority and the sanction of His law--a communication with respect to the moral circumstances and character of man, the tendency by which he is actuated, and the dangers to which he is exposed--a communication respecting the method of grace, and the restoration of the favour of the Almighty, by which his apprehended miseries may be removed--and a communication respecting the high and sublime consecration of human destiny which is reserved for him in that immortality into which he is to be ushered when existence in this world is terminated. The verities which are proclaimed by the Christian system, on topics such as these, plainly possess a value that is perfectly incalculable, comprehending, as they do, the highest interests of our species. In making the assertion that Christianity is to be considered, emphatically, as “the truth,” we must not omit to mention that it is confirmed in a manner that is perfectly conclusive and convincing.
II. What are the state of mind and course of conduct which the truth, as thus defined, eminently deserves?
1. To be valiant for the truth involves a firm adherence to the doctrines it propounds. We well know that many hostile influences are around us, which tempt us to the blighting influence of doubt, and even of positive infidelity; such as the fear of incurring the ridicule and the hatred of others, the personal suggestions of our own in-dwelling unbelief, and, above all, the mysterious, though potent, machinations of him who is the arch-enemy of souls. This of course, at least, requires the exercise of spiritual combat, which must be displayed by a firm and uncompromising resistance to whatever might lead us to impugn, to doubt, and to deny.
2. To be valiant for the truth upon the earth involves a holy conformity to the precepts which it enforces. What holy vigour and boldness are required in order to resist steadily and successfully the multitudinous abstractions from holiness--the accumulated adversaries to the purification of the souls--to repudiate and repel the approaches of Satan--to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, that we may live soberly, righteously, and godly, according to the commandment we have received, to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts--to cultivate, with devout diligence, the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of God; and, with all the surrounding faithful, to exhibit the power of the truth by the purity of life. This is to be “valiant for the truth”; this is heroism indeed!
3. To be “valiant for the truth” involves the public advocacy before other men of the claims which it possesses. How many noble examples of this spiritual valour have we met with in the annals of the Church! See them in the case of the prophets who were not afraid, though briars and thorns were with them, and though they dwelt among scorpions, and who yet spoke the word of God boldly to the rebellious people, whether they would hear, or whether they would forbear. See them in the apostles, who “counted not their lives dear,” etc. See those examples again in the noble army of martyrs, and in the long and triumphant succession of confessors, and reformers, and teachers, and missionaries, who have dared ignominy, and contempt, and wrath, and murder, for the sake of the overthrow of error, and the triumph of the truth as it is in Jesus.
III. What are the considerations by which this state of mind, and course of conduct, are specially and powerfully commended?
1. A concern for your own personal welfare. “Them that honour Me, I also will honour.” On the other hand, the want of these elements of the spiritual character, which we have set before you,--to hate put God away--to be reckless of the claims of the truth--and to live in a discipleship of falsehood, is, by a necessary vindication of the Divine equity and justice, to live in an exposure to evils the most fearful which man can ever endure.
2. A concern for the welfare and interests of the Church of God. When valour and boldness among the disciples of the truth is exhibited and augmented, then it is an axiom, a thing that needs no proof, in religion, that the truth which has that exercise will grow mightily, and will prevail. (J. Parsons.)
They proceed from evil to evil.
Evil begets evil
One danger of secret sin is that a man cannot commit it without being by and by betrayed into a public sin. If a man commit one sin, it is like the melting of the lower glacier upon the Alps, the others must follow in time. As certainly as you heap one stone upon the cairn today, the next day you will east another, until the heap reared stone by stone shall become a very pyramid. See the coral insect at work; you cannot decree where it shall stay its pile. It will not build its rock as high as you please; it will not stay until an island shall be created. Sin cannot be held in with bit and bridle; it must be mortified. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Progression in sin
In the Rabbinical books of the Jews they have a curious tradition about the growth of leprosy, that it began with the walls of a man’s house, then, if he did not repent, entered his garments, till at last the tatter covered his whole body. And thus it is with the growth of sin. It begins with the neglect of duty, it may be of prayers; or the warning voice of conscience is unheeded. Habits of sin are formed; till at last the soul that lets God alone is let alone by God. (F. G. Pilkington.)