Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Battlefield Miscues “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it . . .” says the hymn writer. How true this is! We Christians are constantly pulled from the straight and narrow toward worldly errors. Here are some common “wrongs” with which we might be all too familiar as we engage the conflict:
I want to notice something about this morning’s Scripture reading that I think is timely. Dave read for us the 29th Psalm. As I was hearing him read, “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.” Isn’t that a fascinating concept! I was with my longtime friend, Jim Moore, up in Condon on Friday. He was relating to me how he was in pursuit of an elk or something up in the woods this side of Lincoln. He found himself in a stand of huge, huge spruce trees about the time a microburst hit and winds were strong enough to push those trees over. He said he had never quite had an experience like that one, being in a stand of massive trees and having them fall over. He said they were falling behind me and in front of me. One fell right alongside of him. He said I didn’t know whether I ought to run or stay or what. Can you imagine that? Of course, I took the opportunity to point out that he was indeed a sinner and that God was a better shot than that but He wanted him to repent. Being that he is the pastor of the church up there in Condon, I truly hope he takes my advice to heart. Just a few miles west of Lolo up Highway 12 there is a roadside turnout and sign, “Fort Fizzle.” I don’t think it could be more appropriately named. That is where in 1877 as the Nez Perce Indians to the west in Idaho were moving off the reservation much to the consternation of the U.S. Calvary who felt they were going to contain them. The very beginning event of that whole thing had to do with Fort Fizzle because the cavalry knew the Indians were headed east and were coming right down the valley and true to military science of the day, what do you do? Well, you build a fort and prepare to fight them. So a fort was hastily constructed there along Lolo Creek. The Indians came over the hill and took a look at the fort and said, “I don’t think we want to fight here today.” So they just stayed up on the ridge and went around. Thus the name Fort Fizzle. Those Nez Perce Indians came east over Lolo Pass and fought a battle at the Battle of the Big Hole and then proceeded clear to Yellowstone Park, then north just a few miles short of Canada before Chief Joseph made his famous speech and said, “From where the sun stands I will fight no more forever.” Battlefield miscues – you know what we are talking about. A lot can go wrong on the field of battle. Nothing can be more heartbreaking or frustrating than falling victim to friendly fire, to being in a position where mistakes that are made, oversights that are committed are costly, even fatal. In my meditation over these verses, I just had to stop and realize that there are so many things that can go wrong when you and I as Christians face the enemy, when we realize that we are in a spiritual war. The Bible is very clear about that. But it is not all that hard for you and me to make mistakes either. The apostle anticipated several possible errors that can be committed by God’s people. We need to be aware of these mistakes that are common to spiritual warfare before we commit them and have consequences to pay. Things can go wrong. We can fight the wrong enemy, wear the wrong armor, show up on the wrong day, execute the wrong strategy, or head for a wrong result. Ephesians 6 That’s the crux of the issue. That’s why we need
what the Bible says. We can do conflict. Can we do spiritual conflict? Are we aware that
is the battleground? 13Therefore,
take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil
day, and having done everything, to stand firm. That is the point. Sometimes we come up against, by mistake
perhaps, the wrong enemy. The Bible is very clear that our struggle is not against flesh
and blood but we so readily turn it to being a struggle on a horizontal level “mano a
mano,” people on people. That is natural to us. We confuse the enemy, who is the
devil, with his victims, who are people. Let’s remember – this is fairly common in both
sides of the Bible. Back in Joshua 22, remember how the Promised Land was to be conquered
by the forces of Israel under Joshua the
general and how two tribes and a half tribe said why don’t we just stay east of the
Jordan and you all go west. We like it here. This is a great place for our herds. Joshua
told them no, when we finish conquering west, you guys can come back east and live here if
you care to. But first we get the job done on the west side, which they did. It took them
about seven years. Finally, at long last, two tribes and a half tribe, Reuben
and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh said ok, we’re going home now. We’re
going back east of the river. As they went down to the Jordan River, to cross it and go
east, they built an altar there. Now, their compadres saw what they had done and they said
how quickly they have departed from the faith. They are building an altar to foreign gods;
now we have to kill them. So they mustered an army and went down to fight against their
brethren who only weeks before they stood shoulder to shoulder with against the
Canaanites. When they got there they realized it was all a big
misunderstanding. They said we built an altar not to worship a foreign god; we built an
altar so that we would never forget who is the God of Israel and His great deliverance
among us. So they shook hands. They all went home and all was good. It’s interesting as we read perhaps one of the most
famous or well known stories in the New Testament about demon possession in the fifth
chapter of Mark where Jesus and his friends went across the Sea of Galilee on a boat. They
go to the southeast shore and there met them from the tombs this wild, crazy man. The
Bible talks about him in some detail. It says that he made his home among the tombs. Why?
We can well imagine how his condition got to where it was. At some point, we don’t know whether it was generational
– we’re not sure, we’re not told – at some point however, he opened
his soul to the powers of darkness and they willingly entered. They took over. Perhaps it was gradual at first.
Perhaps he could stay home but his mom or dad said just stay in your room. That didn’t
work. As the enemy took more and more control he got harder and harder to control to the
point where the Bible says even chains and shackles could not hold him. He could crush
them and snap them. Having nowhere else to go he moved out among the tombs and
lived in caves with dead people. There he roamed and they would hear him crying out night
and day and he would be cutting himself with stones. Luke’s gospel tells us that
everyone was petrified to go that way. They didn’t want to face this guy. Nor would
I. It’s interesting, isn’t it? He was kicked out of
society because the people naturally considered him to be the enemy rather than the victim
of the enemy. And so when Jesus showed up He dialogued, not with the man, but with the
enemy. He cast the enemy into the herd of swine. As the story comes to a close, we see
this man, as the Bible says, clothed, seated, and in his right mind, sitting at the feet
of Jesus. All he wanted was to be with Jesus because Jesus looked past and saw the victim
and dealt with the victim. What did the people want? They just wanted him gone. That’s
an easy mistake to make. There is a difference, counselors know, when there are
problems, between a presenting problem. “We fight all the time.” “He leaves
his socks on the floor.” “She never does . . . “ That’s a presenting
problem but there is a reason always behind it, always something wrong at a deeper level,
at a foundational level. We need to get beyond symptoms. We need to get beyond people. The history of Christianity documents several errors, which
are sad, when the enemy and the victims were confused. Christian people literally picked
up swords during the crusades to put the run physically, in the name of Jesus, on the
Muslims from the east. At the witch trials in England and in New England in our country,
individuals were burned at the stake and pressed with rocks and hanged because they were
alleged to be containing demons. In my own time Christians, churches and pastors and others
have railed against the Communists as though the Communists were the enemy. Folks, the
Communists are not the enemy; they are the victims of the enemy. The warfare is a
spiritual one and Christian people, of all people, need to be aware of that. We so readily
confuse the enemy with the victims of the enemy. We do that on a personal level. Could we
understand that? If we stop for just a second, close our eyes if necessary,
everyone in this room could likely conjure up the face of a person who at one point we
would regard as an enemy, an adversary, someone who gives us heartburn, someone who gives
us frustration, someone who causes in us anxiety or gives us fear. We think, “If we
could only deal with that person.” Do we realize that person is either directly or
indirectly a victim of the enemy. There is a reason people are hard to get along with. There is
a reason they are angry. There is a reason people gossip. There is a reason people seek to
make the others around them miserable. We need to be more concerned about who is behind it
or at least, who is applauding. Every time there is disagreement or falling out or strife
or anxiety or frustration on the part of the people, particularly God’s people among
their own number, we know that while the devil may not need to be in the middle of it,
causing it (that may be giving him way too much credit) we know that at least he is
standing alongside, applauding it. I have a prayer solution for each of these five mistakes. The
prayer solution I have for the wrong enemy is this: we need always to pray that God will
focus our attention on where the problem truly lies and pray at that level. Pray against
the enemy, not against the victim. Sometimes we misplace the enemy. Wrong armor Secondly, wrong armor. It says in verse 13, “Take up the
full armor of God.” We are not to be like King Saul who, when David volunteered to go
up against the giant Goliath, said, “Well, you’re going to need armor and I’m
not using mine.” So he grabbed what to him at first at least seemed to be the most
appropriate suit of arms for this shepherd boy from the Judean backcountry and said,
“Here, try this stuff on”. We can just see David trying to make his way around
wearing armor that he had never worn before. He’d never worn armor. He’s a
shepherd! He took the armor off and said, “It’s untested.” Probably a nice
way of saying thanks, but no thanks, king. I will take my chances with the living God. We readily confuse our weapons, our strengths, our abilities
with God’s arsenal and they are not the same. In Luke 22 there is a very interesting statement that perhaps
has been puzzling. This is Jesus, right before the Garden of Gethsemane, down toward the
end of Jesus’ life. A very interesting conversation takes place between Jesus and His
disciples. He says in verse 34, now fellows (my paraphrase), when I sent you out without
purse and bag and sandals you didn’t lack anything, did you? They said no, we were
fine. He is drawing a contrast here. But now, He says, things aren’t going to be easy
for you. We were on a roll then. Our momentum was up. Folks were happy to see us coming.
We left things better than we found them. But now, He says, he who has a purse better take
it, and likewise he who has a bag better take it. Maybe that’s a sleeping bag, I don’t
know what else to call it. He said let him
who has no sword sell his robe and buy one. 37"For
I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, and he was numbered with
transgressors; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment." I am going to suggest to you that Jesus was using a figure of
speech when he said grab a sword. He is trying to get them to understand that they are
going to face some real opposition here. Be ready for that. They look at each other. You
can just see those guys do that. They are kind of anticipating. They look at each other
and say, Lord, we have two swords and Jesus said to them, “That’s enough.” What is this talk of swords? First of all, Jesus certainly
was using that as a figure of speech. Did He intend for the disciples to go after their
enemies with swords? No, he did not. He did intend, however, for them to realize that the
stakes are high, that violence is coming, and that they needed to be prepared for it. But
there is one other event in Scripture when two swords were enough. I really believe that’s
what Jesus is referencing. There was a time, long before, when Israel had a king named
Saul. Saul was the people’s choice for king. Back in those days the Philistines were
oppressing God’s people mightily. Oppressing them, as a matter of fact, to such an
extent that the Philistines would not allow the Israelites to own any weapons and if, in
fact, any Israelite farmer needed something sharpened or worked on he had to take it to
the Philistine craftsman to have them fix it. That’s how much control the Philistines
had over God’s people and in all the land on the Israelite team, there were only two
swords. One was Saul’s and one was Saul’s son, Jonathan. The text says that Jonathan decided this is nuts, I’m not going to sit here and take this from the Philistines. If God is with us, He will deliver us. If you have read the story, he and his armor bearer, virtually unarmed, only two swords in the whole land, on the side of the good guys, said we’re going to go after the Philistine garrison and if they challenge us to come up after them, that’s what we are going to do. And they did and the Philistines were routed and God won a great victory that day. The momentum picked up and increased until Saul had the Philistines on the run eventually. But it all began with only two swords. Those two swords – why, they might as well have been pitchers and torches like Gideon had. They might as well have been loaves and fishes with five thousand hungry people because Jesus can take five loaves and two fishes and do what He wants with them. Might as well have been great big jars with nothing in them but water because Jesus could take that and turn it into aged wine. The point is Jesus does not need our stuff to get His job done, but oh my, how readily we assume that He does. We do tend to fall back on our resources. It is natural and it is not always wrong. It all comes back to in what are we trusting. God gives us resources in order that we might be good stewards of them but when the time comes that our resources are our first recourse, we cross the line. We will fall back on our influence if we are that kind of individual. “I think I can make that happen.” We don’t stop to pray often; we just make things happen. Sometimes, in some cases, we can just write a check and make things happen. Other times we think we are smart enough and we will fall back on our intellect, perhaps on our advanced degrees, thinking that the kingdom of God needs our advanced degrees or our education. They say that George Whitfield was an educated man. He was the evangelist who came from England to the United States back in the 1700’s. One time, so the story goes, a lady was offended by the fact that he was educated. She got in his face and said, “Mr. Whitfield, God does not need your education,” to which he responded, “My dear madam, nor does He need your ignorance.” Sometimes we think if we just get the numbers then we can make things happen in the kingdom of God. I know a true story about a pastor down in the southeastern corner of the state of Montana, who told his congregation if you get 200 people out for church, I’ll preach from the roof. And they did. And he did. We have to be careful about how many, because if it’s numbers, the Muslims are way ahead. If we are talking Christendom, the cults are growing in numbers. Let’s not play that game. How many numbers did Jesus need? Twelve was a fair start. Of the twelve, He focused on three and of the three, one. That one, Peter, was frail. Sometimes we think if we can just get legislation passed, we can have a Christian country. We cannot legislate spirituality. You can’t legislate morality either but all legislation is a reflection of morality. But there is no way a law can be passed or a Supreme Court ruling come down that says, “God now comes first in everybody’s heart.” It’s a heart thing. It’s a spiritual issue. We need to be careful in whom we trust. Sometimes we trust in our own spirituality. “I have so much faith.” Sometimes we can have faith in our faith and not in the God of heaven. We think we can somehow gyrate up all kinds of spiritual energy because we are giants in faith or something. Anyone with faith realizes how little he or she has. We wear the wrong armor sometimes. That’s why Paul gives us an inventory in the sixth chapter of Ephesians. Are we going to get into the armor today? Just a little bit. Ephesians 6:14 Jesus said I am the truth. I tell you the truth. We are talking here about God’s truth. Putting on the breastplate of righteousness. It is His righteousness, His breastplate. This is the armor, remember, of God. Having shod your feet with the preparation of His gospel. They are His shoes. The shield of faith is His. The helmet of salvation is His salvation. The sword of the Spirit is His word. These are all His implements of warfare that we are to put on -- fundamentally and primarily His. When it comes to wearing wrong armor, how do we pray? We pray that God will make us sensitive. We pray for spiritual sensitivity that will bring us to humble dependence upon Him first of all. John’s gospel made it clear in the 15th chapter when Jesus said to his disciples that He was the vine and they, the disciples (and you and I), are the branches and apart from Him we can do nothing. The branch that exists apart from the vine is dead and fruitless. It needs to go on the burn pile. If we are going to accomplish anything, it will be as branches from Him as the vine and we need to remember that humble dependence. It’s all about Him. It is His strength. It is His guidance, His power, His wisdom, His agenda that we pursue. We need to avoid putting on the wrong armor. Wrong DayFinally, sometimes we show up on the wrong day. We show up and nobody was there; they already had left. We call the day wrong sometimes. In Ephesians 6, the expression is actually repeated. In verse 13 it says take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day. That’s not the first time he has said that. He said it before in Ephesians 5:15 where he says: Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. I John ends abruptly. It says in I John 5:19: We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is reclining or resting in the lap of the evil one. This is the evil day. In Acts, Paul preaches to the Jews and the Jews get all upset. They start dragging out the Christians who were hosting Paul. (Acts 17:6) When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also;” It says in the Berkley translation those that are turning the world upside down are here and they are upsetting our world too. Guess what. The gospel doesn’t set the world upside down. The gospel sets the world right side up! That’s what it is designed to do. A.W. Tozer is quoted as saying many years ago, “Everything is wrong until God sets it right.” This world, John says, lies in the lap of the evil one. That’s our disposition, spiritually speaking. That’s where we are. The gospel fixes it. In America it’s hard to track that because we really do have cushy lives until personal crises come, which they do, in all our lives. But as a rule, we eat fairly well. We live fairly well. We have it pretty good. So we can be lulled into thinking that this is not the evil day, that this, at best, is just a neutral day. It’s kind of what you make of it. That’s not true. In Hebrews 11, the roll call of faith, if we were to read through that you would see quite a list of individuals, all of whom walked with God, all of whom bucked the world. Abraham and Moses and all of the heroes of the book of Judges. The Bible says they are all looking for that better place, that better country, that land of promise. It wasn’t there yet; they are moving toward it, knowing they were strangers and pilgrims passing through this life. They knew it. They are just visiting. This is the foreign country. Home is somewhere else and they knew it. It’s harder for us to know that. The Bible says our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also wait for a savior. Remember the story of the veteran missionaries of 50 years in Africa, medical missionaries, who gave their lives to those in the southern half of the African continent. People almost forgot they were there, they had been there so long. After 50 years they were coming back. They were coming back to the United States aboard a steam liner. On the ship with them was some sort of dignitary or celebrity or something for whom there was a brass band waiting. The band was playing for the celebrities, not the missionaries. The old missionary doctor kind of got a wistful look and said, “Nobody seems to care that we are home.” His wife looked at him and said, “Dear, we’re not home yet.” She got it! Sometimes we forget that this is the day of evil. We may think that this life is fine, and many parts of it are. We can have a wonderful home and family and marriage and church family and friends and we can even have a good situation at work. It can be that way. We can appreciate the beauty that is around us in the valley. We can count our blessings and we can see the good things and we can be glad for all of that but folks, stop just a second and look out a little way and realize that people are in line some place getting shot for a Play station 3. OJ signs a three million dollar deal to talk about a murder he didn’t do. Is that not amazing? Terri Schiavo was legally starved to death in our country and millions and millions of unborn are killed in our country legally. When we put it in perspective we can see that perhaps we may have a pocket here, maybe in your home or mine or in our church or even in our community, we may have a pocket of pretty good living. It’s (a) temporary and (b) exceptional because the world lies in the lap of the evil one. When we get to other countries, it gets worse. The persecution against God’s people and human rights offenses are almost unspeakable and yet this is the 21st century. One would have thought that we would have gotten past this by now, that every day and every way man would be getting better and better, but he isn’t because the world lies in the lap of the evil one. This is not the day to rest. This is the day of evil. We need to remember that when we pray. I’ll go back to Luke 18, another interesting passage about the woman who prayed all the time. She had the unjust judge. It says very clearly here that Jesus was telling them a parable that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Don’t quit. Always pray. We have to be careful we don’t make too many connections here but all he is doing is drawing a contrast between two different judges. He says this lady had a grievance. She was being treated unjustly – like it’s an evil world or something -- so she continually went to the judge. And she continually poured out her heart to the judge. Every day, here she comes again, continually she begs the judge to make things right. Jesus is saying it’s like with the Father. We need continually to come to Him. But the point of the parable is, keep after it. Because injustice is part of this life. Always go before the Father. A good idea of what to pray when we are going before the Father – how about this: “May Your kingdom come. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s where He wants us to go with prayer. The Bible says that our prayers are being stored up in a great big bowl in heaven – interesting imagery – and that at the last day, at the end of time (Revelation 6) that bowl gets poured out and Jesus sets the stage for His return and those prayers are going to be answered. His kingdom will come and His will be done, some day, on earth as in heaven. But not just yet. Let’s not quit praying. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |