College Study #51: sermon - "Arming the Adversary"

 

I’d like to share with you a few things that have been on my mind recently. A few of the things considered here I’ve already shared a bit of with a few of you. But to find out what I mean by that statement, “Arming the Adversary”, let’s examine a few Scriptures.

I Samuel 13:16-22, “Saul, Jonathan his son, and the people present with them remained in Gibeah of Benjamin. But the Philistines encamped in Michmash. Then raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned onto the road to Ophrah, to the land of Shual, another company turned to the road to Beth Horon, and another company turned to the road of the border that overlooks the Valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

“Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, ‘Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears’. But all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen each man’s plowshare, his mattock, his ax, and his sickle; and the charge for a sharpening was a pim for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to set the points of the goads. So it came about, on the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan. But they were found with Saul and Jonathan his son.”

Saul, you might remember, was Israel’s first king. Originally, God had intended for his people Israel to have no king, since the LORD Himself was to be their sovereign. But the people demanded a king like the nations around them. A pretty tragic thing when the people of God start looking around (instead of looking up) and covet the “perks” that unbelievers enjoy, the things of the world. They rejected the Lord and demanded they get a king.

So God obliged and Saul was chosen to be the king. From every physical angle, Saul seemed to be the best choice to occupy the throne. I Samuel 9 says that Saul was a head taller than anyone else and that he was handsome. Very rarely does the Bible comment on physical appearance, but it does say that Saul was a handsome guy. From a physical standpoint, he was the perfect choice. But Saul’s heart was far from the Lord, and the first king of Israel was a disobedient and self-serving man whose career fell utterly short of what could have been a glorious destiny. He failed to inspire Israel to seek the Lord, and sadly ended up killing himself at the end of the book of I Samuel.

Next, let’s consider a similar passage in I Kings 10:26-29, “And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. Also Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Keveh; the king’s merchants bought them in Keveh at the current price. Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse one hundred and fifty; and thus, through their agents, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.”

          Here, we’re introduced to King Solomon, the son of King David.

          Solomon is renown of course for his great wealth and great wisdom. He was king during the “Golden Age” of Israel when it was at the summit of its power and influence. The Bible says that Solomon made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. There was so much wealth that silver was just something you’d throw on the ground and leave there, something you'd walk over.

Two of King Solomon's books appear in the Bible: Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. He wrote parts of the book of Proverbs and he also authored Psalm 72: “Give the king Your judgments, O God, and Your righteousness to the king’s son.” Solomon’s wisdom has been a benefit to hundreds of generations throughout history thanks to his writings.

Not only was King Solomon a prolific writer but he was a master architect. He designed and built the First Temple in ancient Jerusalem, a tremendous structure which housed the Ark of the Covenant and which stood for some 400 years.

But while Solomon had a lot going for him: the wisdom, the resources, the architectural genius… he was a king who willfully began to turn his heart away from the Lord, and he became disobedient and self-seeking.

*So what are some similarities between these stories we’ve just read?

Both of them involve kings: King Saul and King Solomon.

Both of the kings started well but ended up disobeying the Lord and experienced defeat, whether in a physical sense or a spiritual sense: Saul ended up committing suicide when surrounded by his enemies, the Philistines (II Samuel 31), and Solomon turned his heart away from God to his many wives and to idolatry (I Kings 11).

So we see that both kings, Saul and Solomon, were not living as God had commanded them to live. But how had they been instructed to live out the solemn task of kingship?

Deuteronomy 17:14-20, "When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.  But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

"Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.  And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,  that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel."

 

As kings, they were occupying a very important and very influential role. They had the capacity to lead their people for good or for evil. They could very well have a tremendous impact in the lives of those around them. Thus God had given them very specific instructions on how they ought to live. Being so influential and having so much possible impact upon others, God wanted to ensure that their impact was for the better, not the worse, so long as they did as the Lord had commanded them.

Yet they did not. Rather than obey the Lord, they pursued their own desires and lived in disobedience. As kings, they were not to turn their hearts away to false gods, they were not to trust in wealth or in weapons like horses or chariots, they were to trust in the Lord and obey His voice.

But notice that in both cases, because of the disobedience of these two men, Saul and Solomon… because they were not living the way God prescribed… that they were giving their enemies weapons to use against them and threating the safety of their own people.

In Saul’s case, the Israelites went down to the camp of the Philistines (their own enemies!) so that they could sharpen the meager farming tools they had been forced to use as weapons. And it even says that the Philistines charged them. Of course they charged them!

So who’s coming out the winner in that situation? Why, the Philistines! Israel was lining their enemy’s pockets, paying the Philistines good money that they could in turn use to better arm their Philistine soldiers and to feed their Philistine armies. And here Israel was stuck with some farming tools, a little poorer and poorer each day, a little more unfit for battle, and much more inferior of an army, while their enemy grew rich and powerful, so much so that they could eventually surround the royal family on Mount Gilboa and seal their fate.

And I suggest to you that this happened because one man, their king, decided that he was going to live however he wanted, in disobedience to the Lord. And thus his people were in this situation of facing an enemy that they themselves were making more wealthy and thereby more powerful, in sharping worthless tools meant for farming rather than trusting in God to bring them the victory.

So Saul’s story is one which results in his enemies growing more powerful off of his own disobedience until they could eventually destroy him.

Then we have the case of King Solomon. Solomon had been given extraordinary glory, an incredible amount of wealth, and he known for being one of the wisest men to ever live. And yet, despite his incredible genius, he had the foolishness to trade with nations like Egypt and Syria, and the surrounding kings of the Hittites. He actually exported horses and chariots, the battle-winning weapons to nations that had been enemies of Israel in the past and nations which would surely use them against Israel again. He sold weapons to his own enemies. He made a quick buck but he ensured the doom of his own kingdom.

I Kings 11:23, an enemy of Israel named Rezon son of Eliadah was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon's life, and he reigned over Syria... one of the same nations where Solomon bartered off his weapons. And Syria used those weapons exactly the way they wanted: to attack and destroy Israel.

 

Solomon had the insane idea that he could trade with his own enemy, and so, with a mind and a heart far from the Lord but close to the Almighty Dollar, he imported horses and chariots to Syria, a nation ruled by his own enemy even during his lifetime.

We have, then, the examples of these two men. Both were chosen by God. Both had a specific calling upon their lives. Both pursued their own desires rather than follow the Lord. And thus, both men ended up in disgrace, their own enemies profiting from their downfalls. Both of these men had very well-armed enemies, with arsenals stockpiled by Saul and Solomon themselves. Both of them were fighting uphill battles against forces which they themselves had made all the more powerful. And it was their own disobedience, Saul’s and Solomon’s, which caused them to arm the enemies that would eventually destroy them.

Now that is a clear warning, I believe, for us today.

True, you and I are not involved in a physical battle. The Bible says that the Christian life is a spiritual battle. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6). But while we do not share a physical conflict with these kings of Israel, we are yet involved in a conflict, though a spiritual one. And like these kings, as Christians we have been chosen by God and given specific callings upon our lives. And we have the choice, like they did, to pursue our own desires and profit or to obey the voice of the Lord. We can obey and impact the world around us for God as is necessary for the Church to do, or we can disobey and experience our enemies profiting from our disobedience.

*What is the number one complaint that unbelievers have about Christianity?

May I suggest that it is this: “The church is full of hypocrites”. And for those unbelievers and for anyone who hears that complaint against the church, that it is a powerful line of reasoning, a powerful weapon against Christianity.

Why should anyone come to the church and thusly to God if nobody in the church cares, if we proclaim righteousness but live in unrighteousness, if the obedience we would have others adhere to is lost in our own disobedience?

And where did such a weapon come from? Whence did that line of reasoning come? How did it fall into the hands of the enemies of God, such a powerful tool to use against Christianity and to dissuade anyone from turning to God?

Consider that this argument, that the church is full of hypocrites, would be a pretty pathetic weapon if it were not sometimes true. If atheists and agnostics made it up to turn people away from church, then just show the counter-evidence, that there are no hypocrites in church. Ah, but the real power behind that statement lies in its being a fact! The real sharpness of that weapon against Christianity is in its truth!

We too, like Saul and Solomon, find ourselves fighting an uphill battle against those who dislike and disbelieve in God, unbelievers with arsenals of philosophy and arguments which we ourselves have given to them. We're fighting an uphill battle which we have made an uphill battle. The church handed this weapon right into her own enemy’s hands. The church gave her enemies the opportunity to say against her that she is full of hypocrites, because so many of us, the members of the church, do not take this whole God-thing seriously.

You can see the evidence of what I’m saying even in the realm of Christianity wrestling against the homosexual agenda. The biggest and best claims, in my opinion, that homosexuality is wrong and unacceptable come from Scripture. Arguments outside of the Bible for homosexuality are mostly frail and weak. The best arguments are here in the Bible and yet to bring up the Bible to argue against homosexuality is to immediately cause a paradox.

If we are to use the Word of God to impact others, then it must impact us first. Why use a book which we've allowed to be removed from schools, which we hardly care about ourselves or devote time to ourselves to make someone else change their own cares and the way they spend their own time? If the Bible does not hold interest for us, why should it hold interest for those who do not know God?

And the sad fact that divorce occurs in the church just as readily as it does outside of the church shows that Christians may argue against homosexuality that heterosexual marriage is pure, God-given and worthy to be preserved and cherished… but that the actions of the Christian marriage prove otherwise. How can we say that heterosexual marriage must be upheld by others if the church itself does not uphold it?

We have exhausted our own arsenal against homosexuality and given every weapon and every tool into their hands. They can surely say that marriage means nothing to the church and Christians have no business arguing for it, because of the disobedience in the realm of marriage that many Christians live in. And thus the church has armed her own adversaries.

Let us face this head on. There are huge implications here. We’ve treated Jesus Christ as if he fits into the category of mere interests.

I sometimes hear people, when asked why they don’t go to church, say “well, because it just isn’t my thing. It doesn’t interest me.” Where in the world did they get the idea, that God is only to be followed so much as it interests you? Where did they get that idea? From us. They got it from Christians who set God into the same category as entertainment, movies, games, thrills, rides, fashion, knowledge, school, business and all the other things that are things of interest, as if He and His house were a mere option to be chosen amid the barbeques, sports or relaxations of a leisurely Sunday morning.

If you don’t care about God, to make Him the center of your life, then why should anyone else care about God to make Him the center of theirs? The biggest impediment of the gospel in America today is not the lack of knowledge among Christians. We have Bible studies and tools at our fingertips, and many Americans have gone to church since childhood.

Listen to this great quote by another preacher: “The reason our friends and neighbors largely dispense with Christianity is not because they consider and have found it untrue. It’s because they regard it as completely trivial. Trivial! And one of the reasons that they regard it as completely trivial is because we as believers are bending over backwards to try and accommodate them in their unbelief.”

The biggest hindrance of the gospel in America today is the fact that Christians have lost their edge. We are Christians of a Christ we portray as trivial, a passing interest and not the Savior of the world. We have become as ineffective as those dull farming tools that the Israelites brought to the Philistines to be sharpened. We have placed the power of argument into the hands of the enemies of God. O God, sharpen!

Remember Moses in Exodus 2? One day he goes out to find an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, one of Moses’ own people. Moses kills the Egyptian and buries him in the sand, thinking nobody saw him. The next day Moses finds two Hebrew men fighting and says to the one who did wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?” “Hey, don’t you know it’s wrong to attack people?”

And that Hebrew responds, no doubt with a laugh, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” He was saying “Who are you? How can you tell me not to get mad at somebody, you killed someone yesterday!” Moses had lost his effectiveness.

And like Solomon and like Saul, we ought to be living like kings, directing and dictating the course of society in an influence toward God. We ought to be effective Christians. Instead, the homosexual agenda gains ground, atheists publish books that are immediate best-sellers, churches are dwindling, alcohol and drugs are prevalent, and the world flocks to its own wisdom when in trouble instead of turning to the all-wise God. We’re fighting an uphill battle because of our Counterproductive Christianity.

You must recognize that if you live in disobedience, you are arming the enemies of God. If God is just another interest to you and not the center of your life, you are arming the enemies of God. If you tell others not to do this or that and yet live however you want to live, you are arming the enemies of God. If studying the Scripture is boring, meaningless and dull to you, than you are arming the enemies of God. You are giving unbelievers all the weapons they need to come against Christianity and turn many hearts away from God.

 

And believe me, this is as much a rebuke from the Lord to myself as anyone.

We can study apologetics and how to defend the faith, and we can study the Bible until exhaustion, but it won’t matter an ounce if we’re giving room for the world to say “Christianity obviously isn’t helping them, why should it help me?”

And if you ever come to share the gospel with your friends or family, loved ones who could die and spend an eternity in torment if they do not come to Christ, you may hear the tragic words “Who are you to tell me?” Do you want people to say that to you? Do you want to make it harder for others to successfully evangelize? Do you want to hinder the gospel of Christ? Do you want to lose any edge you could have in being effective in a world that is quickly perishing?

Remember the story of the sons of Sceva? It doesn’t get much more terrifying than this.

In Acts 19, the apostle Paul was experiencing a successful ministry. We read: “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘we exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ …And the evil spirit answered and said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’ Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

These seven guys thought they could just “buy in” to the whole Jesus craze, but their effectiveness was non-existent. They had no life with Christ. No personal relationship with Jesus was effecting their own lives and therefore they couldn’t effect anyone else’s with any amount of “Christian talk”. And rather than cast out that evil spirit, they ended up allowing it to cause more damage, specifically to themselves.

So what do you do? What do you do if you find that the way you live your life gives fuel to the words of the enemy that the church is full of hypocrites? What do you do if you find yourself being a Counterproductive Christian? What do you do if you find that your Christian life is sorely lacking in any kind of effectiveness? What do you do if you’re not impacting the world for God? A few things:

One. Repent.

Hypocrisy is a sin just like any other. Hypocrisy is disobedience. Hypocrisy is failing to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind. And the road to recovery begins with repentance. Ask the Lord to forgive you.

Two. Turn from hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy can involve all the indifference and lazy attitude that we often have toward the things of God. But unless we want to stockpile the arsenals of our enemies, we must live the way that God commands us to live. Just like the kings of Israel, God has prescribed clearly how we ought to live.

John 13:34, Jesus says “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you…”

We must love one another. We must put others first. We must pursue the Lord. We must submit to the authority of the Lord. We must allow the Holy Spirit to work in us. ­We must answer the callings upon our lives. We must be the Christians that God purposed us to be. If we are not obedient then we are disobedient, there is no middle ground. And if we are not obedient, then our disobedience only lends ammunition to evil.

Three. Get sharpened.

Proverbs 27:17, "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."

If you would become an effective tool with a sharper edge in God's hand, then get in fellowship, maybe get back into fellowship. Find someone to talk to that will listen both with compassion and with the firmness to confront you where the Scriptures confront you. Find a Christian teacher, mentor and friend. There's something to be said for the strength which comes through the life of another believer.

 

Four. Become fascinated by God.

People who want to learn to appreciate good music surround themselves with it, listen to it and attend classes about it. If you would become fascinated with the things of God then surround yourself with them, immerse yourself in Bible study, plunge into Scripture yourself and discover truths you never knew existed, allow the Spirit of God to work in you, find the excitement of sharing the gospel with someone, experience the warmth and joy of putting others before yourself, of helping those in need, and of loving God with all of yourself.

We face a spiritual war fought on both sides examples and arguments. Don’t become just another example of a poor Christian that then becomes just another argument for your own opponents to use against you. I think we can make this battle for the souls of humanity so much less a battle uphill if we would quit stockpiling the arsenals of the adversaries and rather lived as God desires us to live.

God give us grace to be just what He has called us to be.