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The unwearied mischievous attempts of the adversaries of God's people in the world, as they are made without God, so they shall end in shame to themselves.

I. THE ADVERSARIES OF GOD'S PEOPLE WILL BE UNWEARIEDLY ATTEMPTING MISCHIEF AGAINST THEM. "They shall surely gather together. This is sure upon various grounds.

1. He who foreknows all their thoughts, inclinations and purposed from everlasting hath foretold it.

2. So long as there are any of the children of the devil out of hell, he will be inspiring them with malice against the Church of God on earth.

3. The very defeats and disappointments which the enemies of the Church receive make them renew their attempts with greater violence and fury. They are not the more disheartened, but the more exasperated.

4. The fearful expectation of future vengeance is a spur to their diligent use of all the present opportunities of sinning.

II. THESE ATTEMPTS ARE WITHOUT GOD. "Not by Me."

1. The Church's enemies can neither do nor contrive the doing of anything absolutely without God. No creature can subsist, no faculty can perform any of its operations, if Providence did not concur. All the plots which are formed beneath prove vain and fruitless unless there be permission given from above.

2. The enemies of the Church can do nothing effectually but as God really employs them to be the instruments of HIS just displeasure (Habakkuk 1:12; Psalm 17:13, 14; Isaiah 10:5, 17; Isaiah 13:5).

3. The attempts of enemies against God's people are, notwithstanding, without His approbation.

4. The attempts of enemies, when they have most success, are without God's truly favourable presence.

5. The attempts of enemies at the time which the prophet here refers to will be without God's assistance, and consequently without success.

III. THESE ATTEMPTS WILL ISSUE IN RUIN TO THEMSELVES. "Whosoever shall gather together," etc.

1. The greatest attempt which was ever made by the devil against the Church, in the Person of Christ Himself, became the means of subverting his own kingdom.

2. The standing of the Church's enemies is the most precarious and uncertain thing.

3. All that they have, or can have, to support and defend them, will not be sufficient when their appointed destruction comes (Isaiah 31:3).

4. The enemies of the Church are raised up for this purpose that God may honour himself upon them.

5. The greatest of enemies that the Church of God ever yet had have fallen, though once as likely to stand as any now or hereafter can be.

6. The present enemies of the Church have indeed begun to fall, which is a hopeful token that they shall surely fall.

IV. WHY SHALL THE ATTEMPTS OF THE ENEMIES OF GOD'S PEOPLE END THUS IN THEIR OWN RUIN? "For thy sake."

1. Some read the words, They shall fall "before thee," that thou mayest see it.

2. "For thy sake" cannot mean for thy merit, but for thy benefit.

3. " For thy sake " may mean, for the kindness and care which I bear to thee.

V. USE.

1. Security and distrust are sinful extremes and both to be avoided.

2. A people dear to God and peculiarly interested in Him, are in a far more blessed condition than all the earth besides.

3. The greatest danger which God's people are or can be in, is when they engage God against them by sin, and provoke Him to favour their adversaries.

4. The obstructions of mercy are on our part, not on God's.

5. The memorials of past mercies are to be preserved for our support in future difficulties.

(T. Cruso.)

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KJV: Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.

WEB: Behold, they may gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall because of you.