WEEKLY

Volume 2 Number 10

5 August 2007
 

The Sword of the LORD

(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, July 29, 2007)

Text: Judges 7:1-22

When we talk about the sword, we usually think about battles. Christians do have battles to fight. Who are Christians’ enemies? The enemies of Christians are not human beings, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph 6:12). Our enemies are Satan, our sinful nature and worldliness: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), and “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7), and “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). Many Christians do not see the enemies so they are not alert at all. We shall face the severe attacks from the enemies when we are serious about keeping God’s Word and doing God’s will, when we are determined to live a godly life, a holy life as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable unto the Lord, and when we are not compromising or tolerant towards sins, worldliness and wrong doctrines.

The Book of Judges tells us sad stories about sinning and repenting again and again. The people of Israel forsook their living and true God, did not keep His commandments, did evil in His sight, worshipped heathen gods, and intermarried with the unbelievers; therefore, God delivered them to their enemies. They were defeated and oppressed so much that they cried unto the Lord and He sent His judges to deliver them, but after the judges passed away, they sinned again. What are the reasons behind their defeats? 

Causes of Failure

Fail to Rely on God Personally: The main reason for being defeated is a serious lack of a personal knowledge of God and personal trust in Him. The Bible says, “And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel… and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge… when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way” (Jud 2:7, 10, 18-19). We have seen many promising and bright Christians who were once very zealous for the Lord and His Word but are now compromising and tolerant towards sins, worldliness and unbiblical doctrines! Dear friends, you and I have to stand on our own feet, stand firm on God’s Word, and stand alone with God because we know Him and His Word personally and humbly rely on Him alone. Lacking this firm foundation, we are only building our spiritual life on sand!

Fail to Obey God’s Word: God’s Word is clear to His people, “I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?” (Jud 2:1-2) Dear friends, to be blessed, you and I have to humbly trust in the Lord and obey His Word, and there is no other way, “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:25).

Fail to Separate Oneself from Sins and Enemies: God is holy and He requires His people to be holy, to be separated from sins and the enemies of their souls: Satan, sinful nature and worldliness, “ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars” (Judges 2:2) and “And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (Deut 7:2-6; cf. 2 Cor 6:14-18).

God demanded His people Israel to fight a good fight to subdue their enemies, but here, they did not wholeheartedly trust in the Lord to deal with their enemies, and step by step, they “could not drive out” their enemies (Jud 1:19) and then “did not drive out” their enemies (1:21, 27-32). “When Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out” (1:28). They did not mind keeping the enemies in their midst to make gain of them and get something out of them. Then gradually, they did not see the enemies any more but only friends and loved ones, even served their enemies “And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites… And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves” (3:5-7). Nowadays, many churches and Bible seminaries just ignore the doctrine of Biblical Separation to compromise God’s Word and God’s Truth for the sake of being accepted, acknowledged, accredited or popular. They even welcome ungodly but “high-class” and rich people with high credentials to the leadership to get “worldly” influence. They think that by doing that their churches and seminaries will get more membership or more students. They tolerate sins, worldliness and unbiblical doctrines and do not mind letting their children get married to unbelievers or professing Christians. And what happens to the next generation? The ungodly leaders control the churches or run the seminaries according to their own ways, worldly standards and ecumenical mindsets! What a spiritual disaster!

God’s Punishment and Deliverance: The holy and righteous God cannot ignore sins, and He will surely chastise or punish the disobedient and the ungodly, “And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed” (2: 14-15). However, when they repented and cried unto the Lord for help, “the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them” ( 2:16). Dear friends, if God is not for us and does not deliver us from Satan, our sinful nature and worldliness, we are only victims and slaves of our enemies. If we take God’s grace for granted and keep on living against His Word, it is a serious punishment when the Lord gives us up to our own sinful lusts and we will be enslaved to our sinful nature and worldliness again and will have neither strength nor armour to stand against Satan’s temptations and attacks. The only way for backsliding Christians is to repent and cry unto the Lord for forgiveness and deliverance.

 God’s Chosen Soldiers

In Judges chapter 6, when the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, He “delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years” (Jud 6:1), and when they “cried unto the LORD”, He chose Gideon to deliver them from the oppression of their enemies. In chapter 7, there were only 32,000 men gathering under Gideon to fight against “the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude” (v 12). How could they defeat such a great and powerful enemy? Surely, “the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S” (1 Sam 17:47). The Lord said to Gideon, “The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me” (v 2). God will not give His glory to any others (Isa 42:8), so it is wise for you and me to humble ourselves, give all the glory to Him alone and never think that we can defeat our enemies by our own strength.

There is a process of selection here. First, “Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead,” and 22,000 men left and there remained only 10,000 men (v 3). Only 10 fearful and unbelieving spies did spread their fear to the congregation and stir them to murmur against Moses (Num 13:31-32; 14:2). God does not want fearful and cowardly people in His army. If you and I want to be His soldiers, we must be brave to fear God alone and not anyone else or anything else, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:17).

Next, as “the people are yet too many” in God’s sight, the Lord demanded Gideon to bring them down unto the water, and said “I will try them for thee there” (v 4). Those who “bowed down upon their knees to drink water” without any alert failed the test and went home. Only three hundred men who used their hands to take water and put their hand to their mouth were chosen (vv 5-7). They were drinking but also taking heed of any sudden attacks from the enemies. Dear friends, God will try or test you and me to see whether we are qualified for His army. He gives us health, wealth and time, but if we just use it for our own pleasure regardless of His will and glory without any alert for sudden attacks from the enemies, we shall fail. God may bring a good and kind friend to us, and if that friend becomes more to us than Christ, we shall fail. God may give us a good job, and due to our means of living, we are willing to skip our Sunday worship or personal devotion, we shall fail. God may set us in a position where we need to take a stand for His Word and His Truth, but we want to compromise and withdraw ourselves, we shall fail. Truly, “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Tim 2:20). May the Lord graciously help you and me to be alert to His will and meet for His use.

 Weapons for the Battles

Here Gideon commanded his men to break the pitchers and hold the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hand to blow, and crying, “The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon” (v 20), and to the enemies, “the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host.” It is the LORD, who fought for them and gave them the victory!

The earthen pitchers are to be broken and we are to die to our self-will, self-sufficiency, self-importance, self-love, and self-pride so that we may totally submit to the Lord and His Word. We are to hold the lamps, which is God’s Word (Ps 119:105) in our hand to shine for God’s Truth. We are to sound the trumpet. The trumpet is used to produce a loud, short, clear and sharp sound, a message of alarm, or of warning, or of command either for gathering or marching. We cannot hide ourselves while sounding the trumpet. When we sound the trumpet for marching, we let the enemies know that we are here and ready to encounter them and fight a good fight of faith in our LORD’s Name. Like Gideon, we are to put the LORD and His Word first, crying, “The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.” The sword of the LORD is God’s Word (Eph 6:17). Our Lord Jesus overcame Satan and His enemies through God’s Word and prayers. We have to do the same. We must be strong in the Lord and put on all the armour of God, not of man: having the belt of God’s truth and the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith in the Lord, the helmet of God’s salvation, the sword of the Holy Spirit, and our prayers (Eph 6:14-18). Truly, “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me” (Ps 56:9).

Conclusion

Dear friends, Satan is working hard to attack God’s Word, God’s faithful servants and children. We must be brave, alert and separate without any compromise. We must know the Lord personally and rely on Him alone. We must pass God’s test, die to self, and humbly submit to the Lord and His Word. We must put on the whole armour of God, hold fast His Word, which is the Sword of the Holy Spirit, and cry unto the Lord in prayers, and God will give us the victory. All glory be to the Lord alone. Amen.
 

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