I want to begin by thanking the board of Reformed Believers Publishing as well as the other individuals who made this night possible. I also thank the board for the opportunity given to me to make a few remarks at this first annual meeting of Reformed Believers Publishing. I also express my appreciation for the keynote speech and the emphasis on the freedom of believers to publish the truth. This was an altogether uplifting and edifying evening.

Let it be said tonight on the occasion of the first annual meeting of Reformed Believers Publishing that the publishing of Sword and Shield and the formation of Reformed Believers Publishing were absolutely necessary in the Protestant Reformed Churches. They are absolutely necessary for the defense and the development of the truth. St. Augustine said that the truth is like a lion. You do not need to defend the truth. Unleash it, and the truth will defend itself. With Sword and Shield and Reformed Believers Publishing, the truth has been unleashed, and that truth unleashed will do its work according to the will and purpose of the sovereign God and the Lord Jesus Christ, whose truth it is.

I do not know, and no one can know, what that purpose is. But let it be said tonight, the unleashing of the truth has raised a storm of opposition, a storm of opposition whose winds blow with such fierceness that no labor of man could make any headway against them, a storm of opposition against which only a work and labor of God can succeed. Sword and Shield, because it stands in the service of the truth, is a labor of God. It is God’s work, and God will give that work its fruit and effect.

And let it be said tonight as well, with regard to that storm of opposition, I regard that storm of opposition as proof positive that Sword and Shield labors in the cause of the truth. Only the truth could stir up such a storm. And I regard that criticism and opposition as a privilege from the Lord Jesus Christ. “Woe unto you,” he said, “when all men speak well of you.” If all men speak well of you, if the appearance of your magazine and of your organization is greeted with universal applause, you had better question both your magazine and your organization. The very fact that Sword and Shield and Reformed Believers Publishing are damned by many is a blessing from the Lord Jesus Christ. “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely.” We take our place with the prophets, with the apostles, with Jesus Christ, and with faithful ministers and believers of every age.

And let it be said tonight too, at this first annual meeting, we commit our cause to God because our cause is not ours in the end. It never was. It is God’s. It is God’s, who is the truth, who will have his truth heard, and who will give his truth free course over against whatever man might throw against it. And so again I say, the truth is like a lion: you do not need to defend it. I do not need to defend it; you do not need to defend it. Unleash it, and the truth will defend itself!

And with that, let us commit our way to God in prayer.

Our Father in heaven, thou art a sovereign God, and thou art holy and righteous. All thy judgments and ways are perfect. Who is a God like unto thee, a God who sees all, who hears all, who knows all, who judges all? Thy word, O God, is truth, at the heart of which stands our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman, who was crucified, who was dead and buried, who rose again and ascended into heaven, where he reigns head over all, and head of his church, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

And, Lord, as we are engaged in the cause of thy truth, we beseech thy blessing upon all our labors and endeavors that we may be faithful; that we may confess thee before men, though all men deny thee; that we may speak with boldness in a world where boldness is denigrated; that the truth may be applied in every area of life, that it may judge all things; and that we may be given the freedom to speak in our own hearts and minds and before the world, in order that thy name and thy truth and thy kingdom and thy cause may advance victoriously.

And Lord, grant us strong faith that we may believe the truth of the resurrection of our Lord that the victory is already ours, that the fight is won, that the battle is over, and that the gates of hell can never prevail against thy truth and thy church and thy people.

Lord, bless the gathering tonight. May the word spoken by our speaker be an encouragement to us. May it be the means whereby that principle of the office of believer lays hold on our hearts to give us the courage, the commitment, the boldness and fearlessness, the fortitude and strength, mentally and bodily and spiritually, to engage in this most glorious and righteous cause.

And, Father, pardon all our sins. Be with us as we fellowship in what remains of the night. Keep us from evil, Lord. We ask all of this for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.