“Lord, bless this people, this our beloved church. You have been very gracious to us; be gracious to us still. Oh that we had health and strength to labor here as our heart desires: may it please you yet to give us these! But if not, use what there is of us until the last is gone, and be pleased always to find someone to go in and out before this people, to feed them with knowledge and understanding. “Father, glorify your name.”

May we not be ashamed to be old fashioned and to be thought fanatical. May we not wish to be thought cultured, nor aim to keep with the times. May we be side by side with you, oh bleeding Savior and be content to be rejected, be willing to take up unpopular truth, and to hold fast despised teachings of sacred writings even to the end. Oh make us faithful—faithful unto death.

Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

That prayer was true for Spurgeon and the 19th century Church in Great Britain, and it is just as true for 21st century Church in America. These days, there are fewer and fewer ministers and churches willing to stand for biblical truth in the face of increasing hostility. The cost to be faithful is increasing. The temptation to compromise and water down the message is always crouching at the door of each and every church.

Yet Jesus promised that there would always be a faithful remnant who would not bow the knee to Baal or to Rome or to any other ideology apart from Scripture. As the song says, may all who come behind us find us faithful.