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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 4:12
Well, this morning we continue on in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 as we have begun this sort of mini-series that's now toward the end in chapter 4 of holding together what it means to become companions. And the idea here is we'll be better companions within the church body if we develop friendships within the church body.
Not everyone can be a friend, but we can all grow in companionship and companionship grows out of friendship. So that's the idea here that we're pursuing and really the past few weeks have built toward this morning, part 4, the idea of the hymn, Saving, Helping, Keeping, that's been guiding us.
But as we close the passage next week, we'll see where companionship goes wrong and when friendships fail. And so we'll be considering how and why that comes about and how we can address it even in our own relationships.
But of course this all began looking at verses 7 and 8 with this idea of being alone. I returned, I saw a vanity under the sun. There's one alone without companion. And everything that follows verse 8 builds toward the need for companionship.
Here's the blessedness. Here's the reward of learning how to develop and cultivate companionship in our lives. Two are better than one. They have a good reward for their labor. If one falls, the other will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone. When he falls, he has no one to come and help him up. Again, as we saw last week, if two lie down together, they'll keep warm. When the cold nights of life, of trials surround us or the coldness within begins to assault us, we find that companionship, that friendship is what enables us to keep going, to keep warm through that trial or through that dry season.
And then we come this morning to verse 12. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. So I hope you see from verses 7 up now to verse 12, there's been a progression.
There is one who is alone. Two are better than one. And here in verse 12, we end with a threefold cord. One, two, three. And there's something about the mystery of the third that makes the bond between the two that much stronger.
The idea throughout church history and even Jewish interpretation speculates about what this third strand could be. And there's many bizarre takes. If we had more time, we could recount some of them. It's probably safest just to say if two is better than one, three is even better than two.
The idea there's strength in numbers, especially if you were going to be overtaken by robbers or thieves in the night. The more you have with you, the better your ability to defend yourself. But of course, there seems to be something about the third strand that comes in with no introduction, no prelude, and then seems to somehow bond together the two.
And so I certainly find the appeal to see that there's something about the threefold bond of two believers, of two Christians. That's a threefold cord in my mind. I certainly believe that's there in the text.
So the idea is that anyone can have a friend. Anyone can live out the reality of verses 9, 10, and 11. But there's something about a Christian relationship that the two friends in Christ are actually a threefold strand.
And that kind of bond is not quickly broken. That kind of bond, that kind of relationship is not easily sent apart. So anyways, we've gone from one to two and now three. We have a threefold relationship by the end of verse 12.
And we're thinking about the need to withstand. That's what our verse says. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. When we think about this idea of withstanding, we're brought to another threefold relationship.
And that's the believer against the world, the flesh, and the evil one. The cord of three strands can resist a threefold enemy. The world around us, the flesh within us, and the evil one who prowls about, looking to whom he may devour.
So the idea of help is certainly against anything that may assault the believer. Overpower, overtake the Christian on his journey to glory. Jesus says in John 16, 33, in this world you will have trouble.
He doesn't say you may have. Doesn't say you might have. Doesn't say you could have. He says you will have. That's life under the sun, isn't it? You will have trouble. Most of our prayer meetings resound around what?
The trouble of life. Whether it's Aunt Peggy's sprained ankle, or someone coming to the very end of their life, or someone that's in the room that doesn't even know how to pray, because they're just in the middle of it.
They're going through it. In this world, we do have trouble. That trouble often comes to us like an ambush, as if we were traveling along, minding our own business, a destination in mind. We're already googling what restaurants there are around there, trying to figure out if our GPS can get us en route.
And what happens? A thief comes along the way. A robber assaults us out of the blue. It feels like an ambush. We get overpowered very easily by that. We should not be surprised when the fiery trial comes, but we're always surprised when the fiery trial comes.
That fiery trial threatens to overpower us, but two will be able to withstand it. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Well, the first thing I want to do is just explore this idea of the kind of help, the kind of deliverance we need, by focusing on where that help ultimately comes from.
Of course, the help all comes from the Lord. The friendship is the means of help the Lord uses. So we're going to be looking really in two big parts, and we'll have some application toward the end. The help of the Lord, and as a result of that, the help of a friend.
The first thing is just to establish, even the help of a friend, the kind of friendship that is a threefold strand, is actually the help of the Lord. This is how the Lord helps His people. He puts people in our lives, and those people are able to help us in times of need, keep us warm in the cold nights.
The Lord is our help. We'll just look at this with Psalm 124, a few verses. Psalm 124, verses 1 through 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive when their wrath was kindled against us.
So you get the idea that Israel was bound in together. You get the idea of soldiers standing next to each other with swords and spears and shields, but the recognition of Psalm 124 is, it wasn't we who stood against the threat, it was the Lord who stood with us, if it had not been the Lord on our side.
And then David sort of pauses everyone. No, no, no, don't read past that too quickly. Don't go, yeah, yeah, of course it was the Lord, but really it was the people next. No. He says, let's repeat it again.
If it was not the Lord who was on our side, we would have been swallowed up alive. Here you have a little window, not only into the faith of David and the psalm, but a window into how he views corporate worship.
David understands worship is going to change the people of God. So he's calling together corporate worship, corporate praise, and he's saying, let's all rehearse this together and celebrate this truth.
If the Lord was not on our side, we would have been ruined. We would have been destroyed. And so this aspect of corporate worship now, it begins to solidify the faith, the courage of God's people. Yes, the Lord has been on our side.
That's why we've been delivered. This is David's own experience, his own worship and devotion to the Lord strengthened him throughout the trials of his life, whether Saul was pursuing him unto death, whether he was facing travail with his own family, whether he had to be restored from that great failure and fall into sin with Bathsheba.
He found that it was devotion and worship to the Lord that changed his heart and changed his life. And so he composes this psalm. Let Israel now confess. Let Israel now say. It's what the Reformers understood.
You want the Reformation to take hold. You want people to walk forward in faith and courage. Worship is going to bring that about. Corporate worship will establish that. It's the end of Psalm 124 that the French Protestants would gather in the midst of blazes of persecution.
And they would say, our help is the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. That was not just a bare confession, that was a transformative experience of worship. The Lord is on our side. The Lord is helping us.
He's delivering us. What else do you see in that? There's sides. There's travelers and there's thieves. There's those that are journeying to glory and those that would seek to drag those very pilgrims down to hell.
There's sides. That's why there's a need for help. That's why there's a need for defense. There's no shortage, of course, of counterfeit friends, of false allies, of sand bullets and Tobias, let us build with you.
But Scripture ultimately divides everything down to sides. And the question then is, who is on the Lord's side? It's not even that the Lord is on our side. It's, are we on the Lord's side? Are we on the right side?
There's only one right side of history. And NPR and CNN won't tell you what that is. There's only one right side of history. That's what the Lord has made known in his will. The Lord's always proving his people.
And so robbers come, thieves in the night. The assaults of the evil, the deception and manipulation of the world around us, the appeal and dullness and blindness of our flesh. These all would seek to drag us away from the Lord's side, prevent us from pressing on.
And we recognize, if it had not been the Lord, all would have been lost. We recognize that the Lord is on our side, and then the Lord gathers with us all those who are on his side as well. And so this is where the beginning of companionship, of friendship results.
This is why Israel now may say, because the Lord has brought Israel into communion with him, and therefore they can all be one, they can all be unified. That is a present reality. And as a result of that, as a result of the Lord's presence, if we could put it this way, as a result of that threefold cord, when men rise up against us, though they would have swallowed us alive, we find the deliverance.
This is essentially the same thing Peter is telling the church in 1 Peter 5. Be sober, be diligent. Your adversary, you notice, what's that? That's the language of sides, isn't it? An adversary. An adversary.
That's the language of sides. Someone who is against you. Someone seeking to devour you. Your adversary. The devil. How many of us even live in the reality that every day we're facing an adversary? Do we just even live in that reality?
That spiritual reality? Do we recognize powers and principalities? How much more has to happen politically for us to recognize powers and principalities? The prince of the power of the air. How does Lindsay Clancy become a feminist icon?
Is that not just satanic to you? Does that not come off the heels of a state that wants children all within a day that they could be delivered to be murdered in their mother's wombs? Brothers and sisters, do we recognize there's sides and there's an adversary that's funneling and fueling the hostility against God's people?
And if the Lord was not on our side against that kind of hostility, what would happen? We would be devoured. Why? Because your adversary, your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Now Peter doesn't spell this out explicitly, but we can watch National Geographic's Safari highlight reels and learn something about how the prey avoids the predator. What is the predator looking for when he's looking for whom he may devour?
He's looking for vulnerability. When lionesses encroach upon zebra, what are they looking for? They're not looking at the mass. They're looking for the solitary calf. They're looking for the fledgling.
They're looking for the straggler. They're looking for someone who's alone. And so it is with this devil who walks about like that roaring lion. He's looking for someone who's all alone. Easy prey. No one's there to help.
No one's there to defend. No one's going to help resist. And so when Peter says, resist him, steadfast in the faith, he also points to just the example and that sense of unity that comes from the brothers.
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing the same sufferings are experienced by your brothers in the world. You're not alone, he's saying. Have this herd mentality among you. We're all against this adversary.
This is life or death. You can't afford to be alone if you would resist him, steadfast in the faith. That's the idea. So our help is in the name of the Lord. The Lord is on our side, but He puts us in the midst of brothers who are in the same warfare, facing the same adversary, fighting the world and the flesh and the evil one.
A Christian understands, apart from Christ, we can do nothing and yet Christ employs means to do His work in and through us. We are a means for one another. It's another spiritual reality we need to come recognize.
It's very hard to do it in 2026. We have all been affected by rugged individualism. Everyone likes to be self-made, self-sufficient. Who is comfortable with the vulnerability of co-dependency, that we're dependent on one another, dependent on each other's graces and gifts, dependent on one another's prayers?
We don't live as if that was the case. Could I just say I would pray differently and our church would pray differently if we recognized how dependent we are on each other's prayers? The Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, He's on our side and yet He uses the means of others to fulfill His good desire, to bring about His faithful, holy war.
That's the idea. If we're thinking of adversary, we're thinking of sides, we're thinking of being swallowed up by an enemy, we're thinking of ancient warfare. Ancient warfare is zero-sum. It's zero-sum.
Even if you survived, you didn't retire to some VA life, you were just wholesale slaughtered or sold into slavery. That's ancient warfare. You either win or you die. If not in combat, then in victory.
The enemy will just kill you to celebrate the victory. Or maybe they'll keep some of you to become slaves. That's ancient warfare. It's fierce. It was merciless. And so when Scripture says, we're not fighting with carnal weapons like those in the flesh, that doesn't mean that the warfare is any less fierce or any less merciless.
It just means it's at a much deeper level. It's not less than, it's far more than. This isn't just a battle for earthly life, this is a battle for eternal life. No wonder we need each other. No wonder we need friendship in the Christian life.
The battle rages on. Has any war ever been won by a single soldier? I grew up watching Rambo in the 90s. One-man army. One-man armies don't exist. In Christian terms, there is no such thing as a one-man army.
An army is a unit. An army is built together. An army grows in rapport and camaraderie and support to the point you develop such a bond, the kind of Jonathan and David bond, that you'd be willing to lay down your own life for that of your friends.
And Jesus says, there's no greater love than that. That's how I live. So one comrade dives on the grenade to spare the others. If you look at the great cabinet of medals of honor, you will see that kind of Christ-like sacrifice developed out of a sincere love for the brethren.
And what was the mold that created that kind of bond? The adversity. It was the fight. It was the fight. What happens when soldiers aren't fighting? Against an enemy? They're fighting against each other.
That's what happens. If you're in the trench together and there's no enemy and there's no artillery, the enemy is around you in the same trench as you. You start squabbling over sea rations. You start complaining against each other and who has what and who took what.
There's nothing like artillery and the pressure of an enemy to unify and solidify an army. That's the idea. The idea of the Lord being on our side because there's an adversary who is against our soul should drive us to that kind of unity, that kind of camaraderie.
We need to know the fight we're in. When trouble comes, it comes like a snare. When robbers and thieves and the world and the flesh and the evil one overtake it, it takes us by surprise. No thief on the road alerts their presence.
They don't flag it out. They don't let themselves be known. The whole point is it's going to be an ambush. It's going to be a snare. It's going to be a trap. That's when all of a sudden you don't want to be alone.
You don't want to be alone. When I was at that conference in Chicago, they would have some fellowship opportunities toward the end of the night sessions. We're in South Chicago, a few blocks away from Oblock, if you know drill rap.
Don't go Googling that, please. And so they said from the pulpit, please don't walk alone. Don't go anywhere alone once it's dark. You don't want to be alone on some of these side streets and some of these alleys.
Things might look good, but trouble will come upon you unaware. That's what trouble feels like to the Christian. That's when you can't afford to be alone. So the idea is the Lord is going to bring about an escape.
The Lord is on our side. He wants us to overpower and overcome our adversary. And how does He do that? He does that with the help of a friend. So all help comes from the Lord, but that help comes through friends.
What kind of circumstances right now are causing you to go it alone? That's just a question you have to answer. Again, woe to you if you're in the pit and no one comes to help you. Not woe to them, woe to you.
So the question for you is what's causing you to go it alone? What's causing you to risk being in South Chicago all by yourself at midnight? What's causing you to not develop and invest and frankly risk friendship?
Remember what we said toward the very beginning, the portrait exchange that always happens in our relationships. We all hold up a portrait. We all project what we'd like to be thought of, how we'd like to be related to.
But a friend is one who realizes you are not your projection and you are not your portrait and here you are warts and all and I'll still be your friend. That's a friend indeed. So if you're living in the projection, if you're living in the portrait, why?
What's preventing you? Is it pride? Is it fear? Is it sloth? Is it anxiety or insecurity? What is causing you not to seek the help of a friend and then with that what would it mean for you to become a helping friend?
If you want a friend that helps, you need to be a helping friend. It's a two-way street of friendship. You can't say, I want people to be that to me so I'll sit here and wait till they come. No, it doesn't work that way.
You want someone to come help you as a friend, you go help someone as a friend. That's the idea. Let me give some ways. This is sort of the application. I know we're starting pretty quick for application but that's because I really want to get through it.
I want to give six things, six applications of what helping means, what helping involves. If we would be the kind of friends that help, this is what I think it involves or looks like. And here's the first.
Helping means revealing to your friend. Revealing to your friend. There's a lot here that I want to include in that word revealing. Helping means revealing to your friend. And the first thing is, it means revealing some of your own struggles and weaknesses.
This is what the writer of Hebrews means when he says, Jesus is a faithful high priest in so far as he sympathizes with our weakness. He comes to his own and says, I know what that's like. I know what it's like.
He doesn't do it in some condescending way like we're tempted to. I know better. I've been there, I've done that. I know better than you. I remember going through that. I had it even worse than you. No, he's not that kind of high priest.
With his own gentle presence, he reassures us, I know what it is to suffer. I know what it is to be troubled. I know what it's like to feel abandoned. I know what it's like to face this kind of oppression.
So helping means revealing to your friend. You're revealing something of your own weakness, something of your own sympathy, something of your own history. That's a very vulnerable thing to do. Is that not most of the risk of friendship?
I don't know if I can trust you with this. I don't know what you'll do with this. Again, in wisdom, we don't throw that onto someone new. We don't try to create a friendship with that kind of exchange.
This is something that has to be tested and gradually built and established. Trust becomes a foundation for that kind of friendship. But helping means revealing to your friend. And with that, let me give another angle on revealing.
It also means revealing something about their own state or condition or perspective or walk that is uncomfortable to them. This is where a friend faithfully wounds. I reveal, first of all, in sympathy that I understand where you are.
Let me reveal even more. You're not in a good place. A helping friend is a revealing friend. Let me try to show you something. Let me try to open your eyes or open your ears to something. Again, you can see why this is built on trust over time.
This is another area of incredible risk and vulnerability. But a helping friend is a friend that knows how to reveal. And that doesn't need to be some great breakthrough. We're not meant to have some Freudian couch in our living room.
And that's what our friendship is always laying upon. I think the idea is sometimes without even knowing how to pinpoint the nerve center of the issue, you can just reveal a Godward perspective. Here's how you should think about this spiritually.
Here's what I think the Lord would have you understand. Here's a word that the Lord brought to me or put on my heart for you. As I was doing my devotions, as I was reading or praying, this came to me and I want to encourage you.
That's a helping friend that reveals. You remember when when Elisha is so gripped with anxiety because he can only see the threat of the Arameans enclosing across the hillside and his heart fails him.
And what does the old wise prophet say putting his hand on his shoulder? He says, Lord, open his eyes. Open his eyes. He wants to reveal, you know, you're looking at the wrong thing. Your eyes aren't big enough.
Your reactions in the wrong place. Those who are with us are far greater than those who are against us. The Lord is on our side. That's a friend that knows how to reveal. So a helping friend is a revealing friend.
Secondly, helping means covering your friend. This is where we go from the risk and the discomfort of sympathizing out of our own weakness, sympathizing with our friend's weakness and maybe even revealing things that make them that much more uncomfortable, perhaps even upset with us.
We have to know how to cover a friend, cover a friend. This would be the idea of warmth in the cold night, knowing how to cover like a snuggie, as we said last week, not a short blanket, not a wet blanket, not a weighted blanket, but of good comfort.
But covering can also be covering those besetting sins and weaknesses, those blind spots and failures we we reveal. And then in mercy, we learn how to cover. In some ways, you're you're a microcosm of Puritan ministry.
You're convicting with the law and then comforting with the gospel. Yes, here's the ugly truth, buddy, old pal. But here's the good hope. Christ is a savior, even for this. Christ is faithful, even in this.
Christ is a physician, even for this. So helping also means covering. And covering is not only in the midst of that weakness or insecurity, but covering is also against the assaults, the arrows, the bolts of the enemy.
Because what happens when we're struggling with sin? What happens when we're going through a night or a dry season? In a word, our minds aren't right. We're not believing the right things. We're not keeping our eyes fixed in the right places.
We're biting down and digesting a lot of lies, a lot of self-pity, a lot of victimization. We're not having the mind in the heart where it ought to be. So covering a friend also means putting that shield up to prevent some of those darts, those bolts, those arrows from hitting them when they're down, when they're weak.
You want your friend to withstand those arrows. Those troubling threats, those lies, those deceits. And as a helping friend, you can cover your friend. You can extend your shield over them. It's the great insight.
I don't know why I had never thought of this until Matthew Burt many, many years ago preached a sermon here and pointed out from Ephesians six that the the armor in reference in Ephesians six would have been Roman armor.
Every province that Paul visited would have had Roman legionaries and Roman armor was designed for a very specific function. It was it was incredibly defensive. And it wasn't just the the metal cuirass.
It wasn't just the weaponry you would have had a relatively short sword, the gladius. It was the scutum, the shield, this large rectangle, two by four, roughly. And you weren't there like some medieval knight out on your own, just swinging wildly and hoping that all your metal plating would keep you protected.
No, everything was exposed on the sides of you and behind you. The only thing that you were protecting was immediately what was in front of you. You were totally vulnerable to the sides and the back. But thankfully, you weren't alone.
You had soldiers behind you in rows and soldiers next to you. And when your legionary cried out testudo. Which was Latin for tortoise. You had been trained like marines on Paris Island. Everyone put their shields together and formed this impregnable shell.
So the idea is now you have a wall of shields in front and shields over. And there was no vulnerability because your weak spots were covered over by your comrades. Arrows that you could not defend against were defended against by those with you, those next to you and those behind you.
That's the idea. And if you were wounded and you could no longer lift your shield or be in the fight, those shields would cover over you. And I can think a few greater comforts and glories than to be wounded and be filled with terror and then see the boots press in and the shields cover you over and to know that you were safe as the men behind dragged you out to refuge.
And that's the idea of a friend that helps. Your shield's not big enough for the fight, but two shields may be. You're not able to prevent what you cannot see behind you on the side of you, but I can see it.
I can guard against it. I'll speak that word. I'll use that shield. That's the idea. And that's how we withstand. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand. And the whole armor is not your shield alone on the battlefield.
It's the shields of your friends with you. Again, we have this adversary. Satan has sought to sift us like wheat. Every Sunday is that cry to put the shields together. To build up our defense, to resist the attacks, to go forward in this fight of faith.
That's the idea. And so thirdly, helping means aiding in weariness, because if you're going through the week and you're going through the fight and you know who your adversary is and as a faithful warrior, you're fighting against the world around you with all of its lies and deceits, all of its empty promises and allure and the flesh within you that's just dragging you down, making you despise the means of grace, drawing you into a distance and dryness from the presence of God and then the evil one who stokes and uses all of these things.
And if you're fighting that good fight, Christian, you are weary. And that's why you need a friend. You have fought a good fight, but no soldier is able to fight to the bitter end without some relief, without some reinforcement.
You hold the line for your time. Going back to the metaphor of the Roman unit, they would have the whistle blow and all those men would all of a sudden turn their shield sideways as the row behind them put their shields outward and they would retreat to the back to let their arms and their legs rest to catch their breath until they made it to that front row again.
That's the idea. Helping means aiding in weariness. You could be a mighty man. You can be a mighty warrior, but you will get slaughtered in your weariness. You could be Samson. And you will be lulled to sleep in your weakness and made helpless and powerless without a friend.
The example I'd give is from Second Samuel 21. If you read earlier in Second Samuel, you'll know the giant from Gath, the great terror of the Israelites. Goliath had four sons who took after their dad and they were a tall drink of water.
We read that when the Philistines went to war against Israel, David and his mighty men and his servants went down to fight against them. And David became very weak. He was fighting, he was fighting, pushing back, advancing, and eventually he could barely lift up his arms.
And then one of the sons of the giant of Gath, a fellow named Ishbi Benob. We have some pregnant ladies if you're looking for names. Ishbi Benob is available. The spearhead weighed 300 shekels. That's just the spearhead.
A bronze spearhead. Seven and a half pounds. Just to give you an idea of the strength of this, that's seven and a half pounds on the end of the spear. And David can barely lift up his arms to fight. He's faint, he's weary.
And we read Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and struck the giant and killed him in battle. David couldn't do it. He was a mighty warrior. He was in the fight, but he was too weak for that decisive encounter.
His friend had to come and take care of business for him. Helping means aiding in weariness. David knew more than anyone the battle belongs to the Lord and the Lord is on my side. And thank you, Lord, for sending Abishai at the moment of need.
And a Christian recognizes that too. And so, fourthly, this goes into helping means slowing down for your friend. Because if Abishai's too busy to have an eye on David, or if we're too busy to be sober and diligent and watchful over one another, we will be overtaken.
Someone's not watching me. And if I'm not watching someone, we will both be lost. The idea is we need to be sober and diligent and watchful over each other together. Helping means slowing down for that friend.
That's a big thrust here in Ecclesiastes chapter four. There's one who toils and toils and toils. He never stops to reflect, why am I toiling? He never shares. He never opens up his life to anyone else.
He never slows down. He's too busy toiling. He couldn't slow down to help a friend. You know, with the September 11th anniversary coming up, the algorithms are flooding with memorials and interviews. And it seems like every year around this time of year, I just get very moved emotionally to learn more about stories from the Twin Towers.
And just remember being a high school student and watching it on the TV and just not realizing the depth of what was taking place. And there was one story I heard that I had never heard before. And it was in the North Tower, which was the first tower to be hit, but the second tower to collapse.
You had the first tower go down and every firefighter that was rushing up, whatever staircases they could realize, this one's gonna go next. We're no longer going up, we're going down. And we'll take who we find with us on the way down.
We just need to evacuate. And there was this one unit of about six men from one ladder company. And as they were going down, they came across a woman who had been on the 73rd floor. And she had an injury in her leg.
And so she had been going very slow, but as soon as the first plane hit, she had started to make her way down. And by the time they heard that tower collapse, they had finally met this woman. And the six men decided, we're not going down past her, we're gonna help her.
And the staircase didn't allow for them to carry her. So they just had to slowly let her take step by step, ready to catch her, willing to slow down. They feel the pressure, they hear the groaning of the steel.
They know that every second could be their last, but they've slowed down to help this poor woman. That was their calling. That was their oath. That was their bond of duty. They weren't gonna leave her and be haunted with that departure for the rest of their life.
And so they're willing to lay down their lives for this woman. Well, because of that, they only made it to about the sixth or the seventh floor when the North Tower finally collapsed. And there was an interview with a firefighter who said, I thought, well, that's it, we're too late.
And it just so happened, because they had slowed down to help this woman, that that little intact staircase, staircase B was the only section of the North Tower that had not completely imploded. If they had been higher or lower, they would have been crushed to powder.
But because they had slowed down to help this woman, they were spared. I just wanna tell you, brothers and sisters, sometimes your soul is spared because you slow down to help. I can think of times in my life where I was headlong towards some pursuit and something came up and I felt that pull of duty and I just kind of let that ambition or drive or need go its way to attend that.
And I can look back and see in that moment, I may have been resentful, I may have done it through gritted teeth, but now I look back and say, thank you, Lord. Spiritually speaking, I would have been crushed if I pressed forward in that way.
You preserved my walk with you by helping me to slow down for someone else. It's so often when we have an eye of mercy that we receive mercy in any form of ministry. And this is not, hello, my name is ministry, hat wearing, ID card type of, we all have a ministry.
A church is a kingdom of priests. You all have a ministry to each other. And as you grow in that ministry, as you are equipped for your ministry in this body, you will recognize you are often far more ministered to than you could ever minister to someone else.
I feel very selfish when I spend time with anyone because I feel that that's all been for me because the Lord's been ministering to me. And I think we will all feel that way if we slow down to help others, we will only be helping ourselves.
You slow down to save a soul in need, I assure you, you will be saving your own soul. And with that, fifthly, it means praying for your friend. Helping means praying for your friend. And just to go back to what I said toward the beginning, how differently our prayers would be as individuals in this body and prayers as a church body if we actually understood how vital, how integral, how dependent we are on prayer for each other.
I need those shields. I have blind spots. My back is exposed. I'm gonna be killed if not wounded. If we all had that mentality, how differently we would be prayed for, how differently we would pray for others around us.
Michael Hagen has this as a challenge. I think he says it as an exhortation. I would say this is a wonderful challenge, one that I don't do very often. He says, Christians will often say to each other, I'll pray for you.
Why not just say, hey, let's pray together right now? Few things will comfort a soul as powerfully as listening to a friend ask God to give you grace in your time of need. How much more comfort and help would we be to each other if rather than saying, I'm praying for you, we say, come here, I'm praying for you right now.
You're gonna hear my prayer. It doesn't have to be elaborate or eloquent. It doesn't have to be some theologically articulate speculation. An honest, simple prayer. Lord, my friend is hurting. Please comfort them now.
Lord, I don't know really what they're going through, but I know they're going through something. You know, Lord, give them mercy today. How different it would be in our lives if we would actually pray with the people where we say we're praying for.
Wouldn't that be of great comfort to you? And then sixth, and I think what ties this all together, the idea of sides, the idea of adversity, of trouble, of threats, of those against us that want to overtake us, those that would ruin our soul or prevent us from journeying to glory, helping as friends means unifying through that adversity.
Unifying through that adversity. We have to become unified by these forces, by these pressures that are against us. The enemy around us, the enemy within us. The Pharisee that lives in my heart. The prideful man that directs my eyes in my daydreams.
The jealousies and the backbitings and the whisperings and the murmurings, the discontentment that saturates and spoils every good grace and sweetness in Christian fellowship. We need to be unified through the adversity that we face.
Certainly we will be of little help to each other if we're not a unified unit because of what we're up against. There's no need to join shields and press forward if we're not fighting against anything, if we're not resisting anything.
If there's no arrows or threat coming our way, why would we need to be the armor of God for each other? Why would we need to help each other if there's no threat, no robber? So helping means unifying through adversity.
You remember in Pilgrim's Progress how as Christian sets out, he meets a faithful friend and that faithful friend's name in Pilgrim's Progress is Faithful. And they meet on the King's Highway. In other words, they're both on this journey to glory together.
We are walking the walk. We're both saved. And so Faithful and Christian become friends. And in fact, as they first meet each other and begin to introduce each other, they recognize we're both from the same place, the city of destruction.
We both faced a lot of the same things, just getting to the highway. We faced temptations. We faced, we ran into Adam the first. We faced wanton. We had to overcome the obstacles and escape from the slow of despawn.
And so they had this common bond. We both came out of darkness. We both came out of sin and rebellion. And now we're on the King's Highway because we heard this voice, this promise calling us to glory.
Now we can walk together on this way. We've been through a lot of the same threats and persecutions together. A lot of the same temptations and troubles we have faced. So they encourage each other and they exhort each other.
They support each other. They're sharpening one another's faith and resolve. And along their way, they enter Vanity Fair together. And they don't talk like the people at Vanity Fair talk. They don't look like the people at Vanity Fair look.
Vanity Fair and Pilgrim's Progress is a 5 ,000 year old town full of every vice and snare imaginable. And their appearance and their manner of conduct is so off-putting, so hostile, so provoking to Vanity Fair that eventually the people sort of harangue and assault them and say, you know, you're disturbing the peace.
And I think Bunyan's spelling out, there's something about how they were able to encourage each other to resist and not conform. Faithful and Christian keep exhorting each other and spurring each other.
As assaults come, as threats come, they answer with and for each other. They're building upon each other's faith. There's a reason Jesus sent his followers out two by two. It doesn't mean there's not occasions where we're all alone because the Lord's with us.
We're always guarded and defended. We're never truly alone if we're a Christian. But there's great wisdom and purpose in Jesus sending his followers out two by two. He knows what they're up against. He knows the threats.
He knows how if Peter's alone by the campfire, he might betray his Lord. But if there's another disciple there with him, he would never. And you need to start thinking that way if you're a Christian. I can't afford to be alone, not against the world, not against my flesh, not against an evil one that wants to devour me because I'm alone.
We are not supermen in the Christian life. It's funny, Alicia and I were in the parking lot at Abishan Hardware and there's the Wendy's next to that and we're sitting in the parking lot and we see Superman walking into Wendy's.
Red cape, blue spandex, foam muscles. And I'm thinking, boy, the Justice League is falling on hard times if they're going into Wendy's. There was no one with him. He was just walking into Wendy's. I kind of wanted to stay and take a picture on his way out but I thought that could get weird.
We're not supermen. We're not supermen. What's the image? It's not just a soldier in a unit. We're sheep, sheep. What's the lion after? Wolves? What's the lion after? Tigers? No, sheep. I need someone that can defend me, that can help me.
I feel defenseless. And if you've read Pilgrim's Progress, you know it's at Vanity Fair that finally the Führer is turned against faithful and they beat him and they put him on some kangaroo court trial and Judge Hategood sentences him to death and they strap him to a stake and they burn him alive.
And Christian's there praying for him, encouraging him, exhorting him. And that's so moving that another person gets converted from Vanity Fair. His name is Hopeful. And now he becomes Christian's friend to the very end.
And Hopeful becomes the encourager and the exhorter in the same way that Christian was being to faithful. Do you see how Bunyan's viewing Christian friendship through that kind of pressure and warfare?
Bunyan says in that part, now faithful, this is Christian exhorting. Faithful, play the man. Speak for God. Don't fear the malice of the wicked one. Don't fear their rod. Speak boldly. The truth is on your side.
Die for it. Life will triumph in you. He's exhorting him. I don't know if you know this, but that play the man betrays everything that's on Bunyan's mind. Bunyan almost certainly is drawing on one of the most famous episodes of martyrdom in church history, which is the spark of the English Reformation with Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, who were put under Cranmer when he was beginning to reform the church on behalf of Henry VIII.
And then of course they came to their fore when the boy King Edward VI entered on the throne and now Protestantism could finally take hold. And so Ridley did what he could to start teaching the truth of the gospel.
And Latimer as a bishop removed the stone altar and said, this is not a sacrifice. This is a meal. This is a feast. But eventually Bloody Mary came to power and they both were put in the Tower of London for 18 months.
And then finally on October 16th, 1555, Latimer and Ridley were let out. They were bound to a stake together. And Ridley, who was the first to be lighted said, be of good heart, brother. God will either extinguish the fury of this flame or strengthen us to abide it.
And then as the fire began to rise beneath him, Ridley had to shout louder because he couldn't hear over the roar of the flames and the roar of the crowd. And so he said, be of good comfort, Master Ridley, play the man.
You see what Bunyan's tapping into? We shall this day light such a candle in England by God's grace, it will never be put out. You see, that's friendship to the end. They're encouraged and exhorting and praying for and supporting one another to the bitter end.
They know what they're up against. They knew what it was to sign just for a moment or reprieval to not have to taste death. And so when Ridley was brought to the stake, he said, burn the hand first that signed that wretched document.
This is the, if you're reading between the lines in Daniel three, this is not Midrach alone. This is not Meshach alone or Abednego alone. It's the three of them. It's the three of them. When Nebuchadnezzar builds his gold image and he says, if you don't worship this, I'm gonna throw you into a furnace that will melt your skull into glass.
You're gonna worship it. One might not resist that kind of pressure in solitude, but the three of them were never separated. The three of them together said, we will not. We have no need to answer you.
God is able to deliver us from that furnace. He will deliver us into your hand, O King. But if not, let it be known. We will never serve your gods. It doesn't say who said what. I just know it was together and they were together.
That's the idea. The Lord is our help, but he helps us with each other. The Lord is on our side, but he puts others on our side. Who is on your side? Amen, if you can say, the Lord is on my side. The maker of heaven and earth, he's my help, amen.
And now what are some other names that are on your side? Who's the Lord using to help you? Who is actively praying for you and defending you? Who's encouraging you and exhorting you? And who are you doing that for?
Whose side are you on? Praying for, supporting, exhorting, encouraging, covering, helping. Again, what causes us to go it alone? We need to seek and also become friends that help. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
You wanna withstand the evil one? You wanna withstand the world around you with all of its lies and empty promises? You wanna withstand the flesh within you? If you wanna withstand, you need to stand with.
It's as simple as that. If you wanna withstand, you need to stand with. A faithful friend. Get one so you can be two, and even three are better than two. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
A threefold cord is not quickly broken, and our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Help us to be helpers of one another with all that comes with that, Lord.
Lord, lower our pride, our insecurity, our discontentment, our selfishness, anything that would prevent or corrupt your desire for us to be companions. Anything, Lord, that would prevent us from being on your side together with one another.
Help us to be unified by what we face. Let us see the call is ever out to worship golden images in this life. And let us band together and be strong in our refusal. Let us not be alone and devoured by the evil one.
Let us take great heart, Lord, that you pray for us in these very ways. And let us be faithful to pray for each other and to be a praying body in this way, Lord. Train our hands for war. Help us to have that bond of camaraderie and love that only soldiers on the battlefield could know.
The kind of love that lays down each other's lives so we esteem each other better than even ourselves. Each other's lives and souls as more worthy than even our own. To be as Paul praying for his countrymen, willing as it were to even trade his own salvation if it were possible.
What manner of love is that? It's the manner of Christ's love. We didn't consider it robbery to be emptied and take the form of a suffering servant and die obedient to the death of the cross. Help us to have his mind toward you, O God of glory, and toward one another, we pray.
For his sake and in his name, amen.