The Sword Room

The Bible’s teaching on fighting the good fight does not sit well with everyone because working out your salvation with fear and trembling involves hard work. The flesh is ingenious in its ability to create pious sounding rationalizations which enable believers to evade taking responsibility. Satan knows not everyone will fall to adultery, drunkenness, or murder, so he hits them from a different angle that allows them to avoid obedience to God and look humble and spiritual at the same time. I did not want to talk about this, but of necessity I must. It is a whole range of ideas that fall under the category of Higher-Life Theology. I will briefly explain it and give some familiar examples.

This teaching is based on the idea that the self is bad. Before you are saved the self rules your life. Once you are saved you have two forces in you. You have the good force, which is Jesus, and the bad force, which is self (you). The good force can do nothing bad and the bad force can do nothing good. The only difference between a saved person and an unsaved person, according to this thinking, is that the saved person is forgiven and has Jesus living in him. But the real self (the real you) is still just as wicked and unable to obey God as it ever was. The real you cannot understand the Bible, discern the will of God, make wise choices, or grow in grace. Therefore the thing to do is get out of the Lord’s way and let Jesus do it through you or tell you directly what to do. Let go and let God.

Here are some familiar expressions of higher life thinking. A preacher prays before his sermon that his hearers will not see or hear him today, but that they will see and hear only Jesus. A person is approached about possibly working in the Sunday School program, and she says she does not feel led to get involved. A man admonishes another believer for his diligence in Bible study, prayer, and service to the body, warning him of the dangers of striving in the flesh, as if doing anything himself automatically precludes the Lord’s working. A believer invites a friend out for breakfast, and the friend says he needs to go pray about it first to see what the Lord tells him. A man  struggles with a bad habit for years and makes no progress. He concludes that as a believer he is unable to gain victory until the Lord enables or actually delivers him. So he stops fighting the flesh all together and waits on the Lord. If and when the habit is broken it will be because he got out of God’s way and let Him do the heavy lifting while he sat back and watched.

Higher-Life Theology teaches you must get to an elevated realm of spiritual experience where self is pushed aside and Jesus lives through you unobstructed. It is based on a misunderstanding of several key texts, such as John 15:5: Apart from Me you can do nothing. How true–but as a believer you are not apart from Jesus. He is in you, and when you abide in Him you can do all things with the strength He provides (Philippians 4:13). When you fight the flesh and resist sin it is actually you doing the work through the power God has already given you. It is not as if the real self (you) is sitting back watching as Jesus fights for you. Herein lies the utter stupidity of such thinking. The self (the real you) is all bad and can’t do anything good–remember? In that case the last thing the self would do is get out of the way to let Jesus work. The self hates Jesus–right?

It is true that we died with Christ and that He lives through us (Galatians 2:20). There is a sense in which our lives are hidden in Him (Colossians 3:3). It is also true that in my flesh–which is a part of me–dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18). But when these verses are understood in the context of the whole Bible they do not support Higher-Life thinking. Scripture teaches that when a person is born again he receives a new heart that is willing and able to serve God (Philippians 2:12-13; Hebrews 11: 10-11). He receives a new self, if you will, that wants to trust and obey the Lord–and this part of him is not the same as the sinful flesh that hates God. God tells you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. He does not tell you to get your evil self out of the way so He can do it. It is true that God is in us both to will and do; and when all is said and done He gets the glory because without Him we would not have succeeded. But God is in us; we are alive in Him; a real part of us does love Him and wants to kill the deeds of the flesh. We do not need to wait on the Lord to do for us what He has already given us the ability to do or to give us a direct word in lieu of us thinking for ourselves. So if you’re waiting on the Lord to fight the good fight for you, my advice is: While you’re waiting, get off your derriere and get busy! Do not continue in sin that grace might abound; for the result will not be liberty but lawlessness. You have been warned.

It is therefore nonsense for the preacher to say he wants people to see only Jesus and not him. They are going to see and hear him whether he likes it or not, and there is nothing wrong with that. The lady who says she does not feel led to teach Sunday school should just be honest and say she doesn’t want to do it. Don’t hide behind God just to avoid taking responsibility or being guilt-tripped. The guy who admonishes his brother for striving in the flesh needs to shut his mouth and open his Bible; then he will see that his false humility is a pretense for spiritual sloth. The man who wants to pray to see what the Lord shows him about the breakfast invitation needs to understand that it is ok to make a decision–God gave us minds, and He expects us to use them. The man who gives up struggling with his sinful habit and sits back to rest in the Lord and wait on Him for victory must stop believing the lie he has told himself–namely that as a believer he has no ability to resist sin and to love and obey God. When a person says this to himself he is calling God a liar and in so many words saying that he is not really born again. For,

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Don’t ever expect God to do something for you that He has already given you the ability to do for yourself. To do so is an insult to Him. If your airplane is going to crash and the situation is out of your control, fine: pray for a miracle. But don’t sit on your thumbs in the name of spiritual humility and wait on God to bail you out when you are able to do something to remedy your situation. That is just an evasion of responsibility plain and simple. It is spiritual laziness, one of Satan’s three trump cards. To put a twist on my dad’s favorite saying: If you give a lazy man a job he will find a way to get out of doing it.

Don’t fall for Higher-Life Theology. Glorify God by working up a sweat in His name. Keep on fighting for Team Jesus. YOU can do it with the strength, wisdom, and ability He has already made available to you.

As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue (2 Peter 1:3).

Now I am going to really confuse you. I just got done saying sanctification is simple–it’s not rocket science. What I meant was that it is simple in theory. But in practice–sorry to disappoint you–it takes consistent work, like losing weight. In principle weight loss can be boiled down to a simple formula: burn off more calories than you take in over a long period of time and you will drop weight. What’s so hard to understand about that? Our problem isn’t knowing what we need to do to shed the pounds. The real obstacle is our lack of self control and discipline. Bottom line: losing weight means more exercise and less eating, and therein lies the real snag. Same with managing money. Spend less than you make, and save or invest a little bit over a long period of time. But this formula assumes you have the self-control to reign in frivolous spending and credit use, and that you are earning money–which for most of us that means getting up every day and going to work. Simple in theory but not so simple in practice.

There are people out there who will tell you that living the Christian life really is easy in practice, and that expending human effort in sanctification is bad. We will discuss that particular teaching in-depth later; but for now, let’s look at a verse often used to promote it. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). Some people invert the logic of John’s statement to mean that “not burdensome” equals “easy.” But that is nonsense. Something is said to be burdensome when it is too heavy to bear, not when it merely involves effort. My lawn is way bigger than I want it to be because I hate mowing. For me it takes about an hour to mow both the front and back, including the weed-eating. When I am done I am always sweating and breathing hard. Lawn mowing for me is not easy, but nor is it burdensome. In fact I can think of one person who would go so far as to say it’s good for me because I need the exercise. Seriously, why would we think growing in the Lord would be effortless when any other worthwhile pursuit in life takes work? If you know anything about the life of John the Apostle then you know he wasn’t saying the Christian life is easy. He lived in exile on a remote island for a few years and survived several attempts on his life.

Then there is Jesus’ statement in Matthew 11:28-30:

 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus is here talking to people who have been told that to be saved they must not only obey the Law, but also a host of man-made regulations invented by the Jewish rabbis. In another place Jesus rebukes these religious leaders for loading burdens on people that they themselves cannot bear. In contrast to rabbinic legalism, God’s plan of salvation is easy: He who believes in Me has everlasting life (John 6:47). But Jesus later tells His followers that ongoing discipleship is anything by a cake walk. Read Luke Fourteen and you will see the cost of true discipleship: loving Jesus more than your family; willingness to take up the cross and die for Him; counting the cost before making the commitment; willingness to forsake everything for the Lord. Nothing the Lord requires of us for discipleship is hard to understand. Putting it into practice is another story.

In his writings Paul makes it clear that for him growing in Christ and serving him, although rewarding, involved discipline and consistent effort. Here is a passage from Paul to this effect that I know you guys will understand because it uses sports as an analogy:

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Let’s get one thing out of the way up front: playing sports is about winning. Vince Lombardi said, “Winning isn’t everything–it’s the only thing.” Pete Rose said, “If winning isn’t everything why play?” You’ve heard it said, “We’re playing just for fun, not to win.” And I say: what’s more fun–winning or losing? No brainer. So to my mind if you’re playing for fun you’re playing to win. Now you ladies, before you x out of this post look at what Paul said: only one guy takes first place and after that it’s a tie for last place. Therefore compete in a way that ensures it will be you on the top of the awards podium.

Our four sons were all wrestlers. The youngest of them started out at age four, and he just finished his senior season at age nineteen. Since he was a small boy he dreamed of being a state champion. Over the years he attended many camps and wrestled hundreds of matches. He spent many hours lifting weights and running. He went without food a few times to make weight. He endured years of turnouts. He watched countless videos of high-level wrestlers. He worked with his coach to develop a style that was effective for him. He had a goal and a plan for reaching that goal. His junior season he made it to the state finals and dropped a close 3-2 decision. He went through his senior season as the top ranked wrestler in the state at his weight and once again found himself in the state finals at the end. But, sadly, he lost another close championship match and stood again on the second-place tier of the podium. We were very proud of him, but I know that for him anything but first place was meaningless. In hindsight it is what it is; but if he had not put in the consistent effort and planning over the years he would never have gotten as far as he did. Whatever else he does in life, the lessons he learned about being a successful wrestler will apply straight across the board.

Paul tells us that this is how the Christian life worked for him. Being a Christian for him was like being an athlete in training. He elsewhere uses the analogies of farming and military service to say basically the same thing (2 Timothy 2:3-6). There is nothing difficult to understand about his strategy, although putting feet to it is another story. So the real issue is, to use an oft-repeated coaches cliche’, How badly do you want it?  How badly do you want godliness? How much do you really want to put the deeds of the flesh to death? How earnestly do you want to put off the old man and put on the new man? You see, the ultimate question is, What do you really want? And, What are you willing to do to get it? Or again, What are you willing to give up to get it?  Not knowing what to do is rarely what keeps us from winning spiritually. The crux is almost always our unwillingness to do what needs to be done.

And don’t confuse a desire for the finished product with genuine willingness to take responsible action daily. Saying you want to be thin is not the same as consistently doing what it takes to lose weight. Moaning about how much you want to get out of debt is not the same as reigning in spending and credit use. In fact, your true desire and willingness is measured by what you are actually doing to get where you want to go. Don’t talk the talk if you aren’t willing to walk the walk. This might take a lifestyle change for you. It will mean spending a little time in the Word and prayer daily. It will involve being spiritually alert during the day for the attacks of the world, flesh, and devil and resisting them in the power of the Spirit. It will mean functioning biblically in the various relationships in your life and family. It will require ongoing fellowship with like-minded believers. If you fail here it will not be so much an issue of can’t as won’t.

Growing in Christ through the biblical process of sanctification is not rocket science, nor is it burdensome. But it is not easy either. Why would we expect it to be when every other worthwhile pursuit in life takes consistent effort? But here’s the kicker. The joy, peace, and satisfaction that comes from walking with Christ trumps the best endorphin high you’ve ever experienced. I would say it’s better than sex, but that wouldn’t be a fair comparison. Besides, you guys wouldn’t believe me anyway. I’ll bet I would have your attention for a second or two, though.

When it comes to understanding the Bible and living the Christian life I have always tried to stick with the KISS method–Keep It Simple, Stupid! As believers we often wear ourselves out fighting the good fight because we work harder than we need to instead of working smart. Spiritual growth does take effort on our part, but we often make things more complicated than they need to be. It’s not rocket science that can be grasped only by a few elites on the top end of the intelligence bell curve. Anyone who can read and think can understand and apply the Bible’s teaching on sanctification.

The first summer after I came to Jesus Christ some big-name Bible teacher came to town and packed the Seattle Center Arena for a week-long conference. It was called something like Institute In Basic Youth Conflicts, and every Christian I knew had signed up to attend. I opted out because the cost was forty dollars, a lot of dough for me in 1971. A bunch of my friends got wind that I wasn’t going and they took up a collection, which was nice. They approached me with the local youth pastor who was going to the conference with the group, and he gave me the hard sell–something to the effect that this conference would revolutionize my life, and that without it I would really be behind the eight-ball spiritually. As he spoke the half dozen or so of my friends present chimed in: “C’mon, brother–you gotta’ go, you just gotta’…” Right then and there I made up my mind to pass on their offer. I know they felt bad for me,  but not so much because I insulted them personally. They really thought missing the conference would leave me spiritually deficient. All through the week of the seminar they would get together in the evenings and discuss what they had learned, which was contained in red three-ring binders full of printed material. When I came around they got quiet, and they literally would not let me touch the red notebooks. “Sorry, brother, but Bill Gothard (the teacher) says you can’t see what’s in there because if you don’t attend the conference you can’t understand the biblical principles.”

How foolish. To me it sounded like what the Jehovah’s Witnesses say when they tell you that if you read the Bible without consulting Watchtower literature you will not only misunderstand Scripture, but also be led astray by Satan. Something inside me has always rebelled against the idea that you need to go and hear this or that guru, read this or that book, or go to some big pep rally like Promise Keepers (I never attended) to learn to obey and serve God better. Experience has shown me that once people come back home from these gala extravaganzas to the real world the result is often the same as when kids return home from Bible camp. No more bells and whistles, smoke and mirrors, fanfare and parade–just real life and an empty wallet. I am sorry but the outcomes are not impressive. For this reason you will not see a complicated workbook accompanying this post. Let God’s Word be your companion book and you’ll be just fine. Get together with some brothers to discuss it and you’ll figure it out.

Again, fighting the good fight is not complicated in theory, even though it does take effort. We are told to kill the deeds of the flesh. How hard can that be to understand? No more difficult than it was for the Israelites to comprehend God’s command to slaughter the Canaanites. Even though it would take some elbow grease and would be a bit messy, the mechanics of it were pretty straightforward–grab a weapon and start swinging. In the same way the basic how-to of sanctification is clear. Still, for some of you the truths I am presenting might seem fuzzy. I think the Lord anticipated this, which is why He presented these things in more than one way in Scripture. Let’s look at it from another angle.

That you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Here Paul describes sanctification in terms of putting something off and putting something on. But what does that mean? In the verses which follow he gives examples which answer this question. If you are a liar stop lying and start telling the truth (v. 25) Lying is the thing to be put off and truth telling is the replacement behavior to be put on. If you are a thief stop stealing and get a job (v. 28). If you are a verbal abuser stop the trash talk and replace it with words that build others up (v. 29). You put off the old man when you stop a sinful practice and replace it with a godly one. You kill the deeds of the flesh the same way–you stop doing them! Pretty deep and complicated, huh? Why in the world would you need to shell out money to go to a week-long conference or some big pep rally to learn this? Answer: you wouldn’t. Save your money and take your wife out for a nice dinner.

But no. It can’t be that simple. We just have to complicate it. Here’s an example. “I know I have a problem with stealing and that God tells me to stop. But I need someone to show me how to stop stealing.” One thing you will notice about the Bible is that while it commands you to do and not do many things, it tells you almost nothing about how to do them. The Bible assumes that as a believer you already possess all the knowledge and ability necessary to obey God. People are really amazing problem solvers. God created humans with the ingenuity to identify obstacles, see opportunities, set goals, and make plans for reaching those goals. The Bible assumes that if you want to obey God badly enough you will figure out a way by hook or by crook to do it. You will try one approach, and if that doesn’t work you will try again–and again. You will seek someone out who has overcome the same obstacle you face, and you will learn from their support and example. Most problems we face as Christians do not require the help of a mental health professional or some other so-called expert. After all, what did believers do for nineteen-hundred years before Freud? They used common sense and wisdom coupled with Scripture to fight the good fight.

And do not lie to yourself and say you are suffering from a disease over which you are powerless. Nearly every habit that God defines as sin and warns that those who practice them will not inherit the Kingdom of God has been re-labeled as a disease. But bad habits are not literal diseases. The only way you can call a sinful habit a disease is by redefining the word disease. If you go to the doctor he can do a blood test to detect an influenza virus in you blood. He can do an x-ray to see a tumor. He can order a treadmill stress test to pinpoint blockages in the heart. But just go down to your doctor and ask him to run every diagnostic test possible to find traces of drunk-ism, drug-ism, steal-ism, gamble-ism, glutton-ism, and sex-ism. He will laugh in your face, as well he should. Do not defeat yourself by buying into twelve-step disease dogma. I do not say this to be mean-spirited: I want you to succeed spiritually, and complicating things with the extra-biblical theories of man does more harm than good.

My dad always used to say that if you give a lazy man a job he will find an easier way to do it. He was not using the word lazy in the normal sense; what he meant was shrewd. One cold winter day my three brothers and I applied his principle in a humorous way. He sent us out to shovel heavy snow, and all we had to work with were some round-end shovels. (It rarely snows in Seattle, so no one bothers to own a snow shovel.) We were working up a sweat and getting nowhere fast. We could see Dad in the window watching us, and a few minutes later he strode up the walkway quoting his timeless proverb. We followed him around the house where he found a piece of plywood with which he he plowed the snow from the sidewalk in a single pass. I think it was my brother brother Tom who said something like, “Yeah, but it will never work over there on the driveway?” Our dad rose to the challenge, and soon all the snow was cleared away. Later that night we were joking about how we had beaten him at his own game. When he overheard us we figured we’d had it; but instead of punishing us he lavished high praise on us for our shrewdness.

Don’t complicate the whole business of living the Christian life. There is definitely work involved, but why work harder than you need to. Work smart by following what the Word of God says about fighting the good fight. Put the deeds of the flesh to death daily by the power of the Spirit. Put off the old man and put on the new man. I know this is getting repetitive, but you need to lay the foundation the right way or you will be building on sand instead of solid rock.

The day I was born again was unlike any other day in my life before or since. The instant I raised my head after prayer it felt like a backpack full of heavy rocks had been lifted from my shoulders. A sensation of pure joy flooded my being from head to toe. The feeling was pure and clean, unlike anything I had experienced on alcohol or drugs. I was not crying, but I could not stop smiling from ear-to-ear. Having come from a family that does not wear its emotions on the cuff I fought in vain to control the smile. (Such an open display for me was mildly embarrassing at the time.) When I left that day to go home I almost floated out the door. I went to the little house a fellow pothead and I were renting, burned all my marijuana, and threw my drug paraphernalia away. (I can still see my hash pipe sailing over the garage into the trees.) I went right down to the barber and had my shoulder-length blond hair chopped off; then I went back to the house, packed up my few belongings, and moved home with my parents. They were elated. It was the start of a new life.

By the next morning the great feeling had worn off. I started reading the Bible, hanging out with the other Jesus freaks, as they were called in those days, and growing by leaps and bounds in the faith. But many of my old friends kept calling and inviting me out to party with them. They were showing up at the house with bags of pot or cases of beer. They were inescapable. I remember one time when I was walking home after the beater I was driving had broken down, a carload of my old friends offered me a lift home. Within seconds there was a burning joint being passed around, transforming  the car into a hotbox of pungent smoke. I remember actually opening the door while the car was moving and asking to be let out. Problem was, a part of me still wanted to get high. Many times over the next few months, I am sad to say, I gave in to my sinful desires for the joint and the bottle.

Have you ever wondered why we still sin after we are saved? It all seemed so confusing to me. I mean, if Jesus had really died to take away all my sins, why was sin still a daily reality? Why must I live like a man with a split personality, a kind of schizo-Christian, a spiritual version of Jekyll and Hyde? Would it not be better if God had simply removed all desire to sin from within me? And why must the outside temptations from the world and devil still be a factor in my life? At first I figured I was unique and that no one else was asking this question; but in time I discovered that many Christians puzzle over this same dilemma. When we are saved there is no effort at all on our part–God does it all. But once we are saved the ongoing Christian life is characterized by struggle. Why?

Although I cannot prove it I’ll bet many of the Jews in the days of Joshua were asking a similar question. God had delivered them decisively and permanently from Egyptian bondage. God raised up Moses. He sent the plagues. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He sent the angel of death to kill the Egyptian firstborn. He drowned the armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. He did it all. Now all they must do is enter the land of milk and honey promised to them by God. The terrified reaction of the first spies sent in under Moses shows they were not expecting what they found–a land filled with inhabitants living in walled cities. When they finally did enter the land under Joshua they had to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty slaughtering every breathing being in Canaan. It was a bloody and unpleasant job, a job that was never finished. You’ve got to know that at least some of God’s people were asking why it must be so.

Eventually I stopped asking why and accepted the ongoing presence of sin as an inevitable reality. As I continued to study the Word I was able to gain an understanding of how to battle sin. First I realized that before I was saved I was dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). This meant that before salvation I had no ability to do anything to please God or change my condition. God had to step in and do it all, right down to making me alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5) and giving me the faith I needed to believe in Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). Once I believed God pronounced me righteous in Christ (Romans 5:1). In theological terms these acts of God are called  regeneration and justification. They correspond metaphorically to the Jews being delivered from Egyptian bondage by God.

But just as deliverance from bondage did not mean freedom from struggle for the Israelites, so too the believer in Christ must fight to occupy the spiritual territory that is rightly his. This ongoing struggle is described with the two-bit theological term sanctification. Here are some quick differences between justification and sanctification. In justification God does everything, but sanctification does involve human effort. Justification is a once-for-all act that occurs at a point in time, whereas sanctification in an ongoing process that continues through the course of one’s earthly life. Why must it be this way? Forget that and focus on the mechanics or means of sanctification. It is what it is.

My favorite verses in the Bible on sanctification are found in Romans. The first step in sanctification is to realize that you are dead to sin and alive to God: Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to god in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:11). To reckon here means to treat it as if it were so. To be dead to sin does not mean sin no longer exists; what it does mean is that as a born-again Christian you are no longer enslaved to sin, and sin has no power to control you. When you sin as a believer it is never because you have to but because you want and choose to. Your sins are not diseases over which you are powerless. No one drags you or me kicking and screaming into sin. We are dead to sin and as such possess the ability to say no to sin every time it rears its ugly head.

And that is what Paul tells us to do: Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey its lusts (Romans 6:12). Go ahead and read the whole chapter and you will see that God has given you the ability to resist sin. Then turn over to Ephesians 4:22-24, where Paul describes sanctification in terms of putting off the old man and putting on the new man, with a few examples to show how it looks in real life.

But by far the most vivid picture of sanctification in Scripture is that of killing sin: If you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13). Let me give a little context to help you understand it better. Even though we are in a sense dead to sin and alive to God, a part of the deadness is still present in our bodies. Check it out: And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Romans 8:10). Even as the Israelites under Moses were genuinely liberated from Egyptian bondage and yet still plagued by the pagan presence in the land, so too as believers alive in Christ and pronounced fully righteous in Him we must live with the lingering presence of sin within our bodies. The solution to the problem is the same for us as it was for the Israelites. You’ve heard the old adage, If you can’t beat them–join them? Well God told the Jews under Moses, If you can’t join them, kill them. And he tells us that since we can’t join up with sin we must kill it before it spreads.

Now for the most amazing life-changing verse on sanctification: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you (Romans 8:11). The amazing thing about this verse is that if you read the context you will see it isn’t talking about pie-in-the-sky but present sanctification. We are alive in Christ but pockets of deadness remain. As we do battle with the flesh daily and kill sin through the means of grace God has provided, the deadness is displaced by life from the Spirit. So that even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Wow! Do you know what that means? As you get older and your carcass wears out you can keep growing more alive spiritually step-by-step as you reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God and put the deeds of the flesh to death by the Spirit of God dwelling in you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t roll over and die for sin when you don’t have to. Fight! Win! Experience increasing levels of aliveness daily in Him! Start now!

Every time I see a popular image of Christ I want to throw up. Artistic renderings of Jesus almost always picture Him with fair creamy skin, long soft hair, forked beard, and dreamy blue eyes. One popular depiction shows him knocking at a nob-less door, completely powerless to enter because he is at the mercy of the will of the person inside. What a crock! When I was a pastor I removed all such caricatures and burned them out back of the church, and I will not violate the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4) by littering my home with such idolatrous rubbish, which almost always depicts our Lord and Savior as a wimp.

One reason so many men hate going to church is because Jesus is depicted in sermons and popular praise ditties as someone you should want to fall in love with and have a love affair with. I kid you not. I have even heard single Christian women talk about how “Jesus is my husband.” Man, that is downright kinky and creepy. The Church collectively is the Bride of Christ, but no individual woman is His wife, nor is He the personal husband of any believing woman. Churches cater to the feminine desire for security and intimacy to the nines, right down to the color of the carpet and paint. The average church is seventy percent women, and what men do attend are generally over fifty. Next time you go to church check this out and you will see it is true. Watch the men and the women. The women really swoon to the music and fluffy fifteen-minute sermons, while their husbands blankly stare out the window or twiddle their thumbs in boredom. The younger men are absent. They would rather spend their Sundays in “carnal” activities like watching football or cage fighting, mowing the lawn, fishing, hunting, or building something. They cannot relate to the milk toast Jesus of American evangelicalism. Meanwhile the women pine and moan when their husbands won’t come on board.

The Jesus-as-wimp model is extracted largely from the Sermon on the Mount. Those who are of a more liberal bent theologically and/or politically love the Sermon on the Mount–or, rather, those bits and pieces they can wrench out of context to support their brand of namby-pamby-ism. You know, turn the other cheek and all that. The problem is that this discourse was specifically addressed to those who were already committed disciples of Jesus Christ, not to left-wing politicians or God-hating progressives with agendas. Jesus is giving His followers a corrective to the false model of spirituality presented to them by the religious leaders of the day. Rather than assuming they have spiritual capital with which to commend themselves to God, disciples are to recognize their own sinful poverty before Him. They are to be humble rather than prideful, to the point of mourning over their sin. They are to hunger and thirst for the true righteousness which comes not from themselves but from God. They are to recognize that God sees the heart, so that sin is not just defined by the outward act, but the underlying attitude as well. For this reason practicing one’s righteousness before men is a sham. The proof that liberals are completely ignorant of this contextual backdrop is seen in the fact that they almost always believe in some form of justification by works, and they use the Sermon on the Mount to promote humanistic Christless do-good-ism.

But what about turning the other cheek in Matthew 5:38-42? Jesus here is referring to an insulting slap in the face. He commands the believer not to retaliate in such situations. This would be similar to someone cutting you off on the freeway and giving you the finger. Last time I checked getting slapped in the face was not life-threatening. There is no real danger to your family in such a case. Same thing with someone who wants your shirt, or a soldier compelling you to walk a mile. The Lord is not here telling us, then, that if terrorists show up at our door with a military-issue flame thrower we should invite them in to fry us to a crisp. Or that if someone wants our car we should just hand them the keys. Self-defense and common sense are not precluded in anything Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, and liberal preachers and politicians who use Christ’s words to promote military pacifism have their theological heads in a up their butts.

In contrast to the meek, mild, milk toast, namby-pamby Jesus of pop culture consider the following. The fact that Jesus in his anger took the time to make whip of cords before throwing the money changers out of the temple (John 2:14-15) can only mean that he engaged in an act of premeditated violence. Then there is the episode in Mark 5:13 where Jesus grants the request of the demons to enter a herd of hundreds of pigs and drown them in the sea. A clear case of animal cruelty. On another occasion Jesus curses and kills a fig tree simply because it bore no fruit (Mark 11:12-14, 19-25). The interesting thing here is that figs were not in season when Christ blasted the tree. Then there is Jesus’ insensitivity to the poor. Some would have you think that Jesus healed every Tom, Dick, and Harry and handed out change or tossed a burger to every bum with a cardboard sign. Not so. In fact once Jesus allowed a woman to pour a bottle of expensive perfumed oil on His feet, and when the disciples pointed out that selling the oil would have fed many poor people He replied: For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not always have (Matthew 26:11). How insensitive and un-Christlike! Or how about the time Jesus told a would-be disciple who wanted to bury his father to let the dead bury their own dead (Matthew 8:22)?

The list goes on. Jesus tells His disciples that He has not come to bring peace on earth but a sword (Matthew 10:34). He commands them to buy swords, if not for His defense for their own (Luke 22:35-38). Jesus identifies Himself as the person who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (John 8:24, 58), which means He takes credit for the slaughtering of the firstborn of the Egyptians as well as the armies of Pharaoh. He is the one who wiped out thousands of Israelites in a single day for worshipping Baal of Peor. He commanded the complete extermination of every breathing thing in the land of Canaan–right down to babies and animals. The Christ of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. And when all is said and done it is Jesus who will return in judgment and gorge the buzzards on the dead bodies of those slain with the sword of His mouth (Revelation 19:11-21). So much for the wimpy Jesus of pop culture. Stick that along with your WWJD bracelet in your pipe and smoke it! Oops–I forgot. Smoking a pipe is soooo un-Christlike. Sorry, my bad.

Seriously though, why is all this so important? Here’s why. We are being conformed daily into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). We are exhorted to be more like Jesus, and rightly so. But the model of Jesus we are being fed from pop evangelicalism is not the real Jesus. Guys, listen up: the real Jesus was a carpenter, the son of a carpenter. He was a blue-collar working class guy. He had dirt under his fingernails; He had slivers and blisters and callouses on His hands. He understood self-discipline and hard work. At the end of the day He was sweaty and smelly like you. He got hungry, thirsty, and tired. He liked to hang out with average sinners like you and me. He liked to eat and drink. He not only drank alcoholic wine but actually made it at the wedding in Cana. If the real Jesus came to your house you would like Him. He would not try to make you feel uncomfortable or pull some spiritual trip on you. He would not condone your sin, but neither would he judge you for saying poo-poo or letting rip with a fart. He would be the kind of person you would leave everything to follow. Can you say that about the false wimp-Jesus of North America?

Most of all He would have your back as your Lord, Savior, and High Priest. He would lead you into battle daily to fight your true spiritual enemies–the world, flesh, and devil.

Once in my younger days an older entrepreneur for whom I was working offered me what he thought were words of wisdom. “In life there are winners and there are losers, and the winners always eat better than the losers.” Even though I have always eaten well–too well, actually–his words have stuck with me. In this world the “winners” seem to enjoy better material pleasures than the “losers.” A part of me says this is how it ought to be.

But, really, what is a winner and what is a loser? For many being a winner means having lots of material wealth: a great job, lots of money, an expensive home and vehicles, and the financial freedom to do what you want when you want where you want. Others would define winners and losers relationally. A true winner is someone who has a close family and lots of friends. The loser repeatedly fails at marriage and friendships and can’t seem to get along with anyone except the dog. Still others would frame winning and losing in terms of education, or success in a specific field, be it music, art, or sports. The winner reaches his goals, and the loser either does not reach them or does not have them. In our culture the classic loser is the guy standing on the corner at the mall begging for money with a cardboard sign in his hand.

But ultimately, what makes one a winner or loser in God’s eyes? Jesus boiled it all down to a single question: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? The implied answer is that gaining the whole world profits nothing for him who loses his soul. In other words, if you get everything else right in this life–money, success, beauty, education, fame, love–and fail in the matter of your eternal soul, you are ultimately a loser. On the other hand, even if you try and fail in many areas of life and yet get it right with regard to your soul, according to the Bible you are a winner in the most important area of all. Not that it is always a matter of either-or: there are some who have settled the issue of their soul and also enjoy a high level of what the world would call success and prosperity. But if you had to choose between the two, it would be a no brainer.

The first step to becoming a spiritual winner is recognizing that you are a spiritual loser: There is none righteous, no, not one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10, 23). You have sinned, and I have sinned. The Pope has sinned. Billy Graham has sinned. We have all fallen short of God’s standard of perfect righteousness. There is nothing we can do in the way of good deeds to commend ourselves to God or move ourselves one inch closer to Him. In fact God views all our so-called good deeds as a pile of filthy smelly laundry (Isaiah 64:6). In other words, we already have three strikes against us from birth, and we can’t win for losing. Going to church, getting baptized, reading the Bible, and giving money won’t cut it as a payment for sin.

To make matters worse, there is a price tag on sin: For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Spiritual death is in view here: separation from God. We are born physically alive but spiritually dead. Last time I checked a dead man is powerless to do anything to remedy his situation. As guilty lost sinners we are plunging toward an eternity separated from God in a place so horrible that Jesus said it would be better to gouge out an eye or hack off an arm than go there (Matthew 5:29-30). All we can earn as sinners is a one-way ticket to hell.

But in the second half of Romans 6:23 we are told that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Whereas our sin earns a wage of death, God offers us the free gift of life. What is the difference between a wage and a gift? If your boss handed you your paycheck and said, “Here, this is a gift,” you might be puzzled or even miffed. You earned it–it is not a gift. When someone gives you a present at Christmas they earned the money, they waded through the other shoppers, they wrapped the gift, and they put it under the tree. All you did was receive it. In the same way God offers us forgiveness and eternal life free of charge because otherwise we would never be able to obtain it.

How is this possible? But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). God became a man in Jesus Christ. He lived the sinless life you and I could not live. He died on the cross to make full payment for our sins, and three days later He was raised bodily from the dead. He is alive right now and offers the free gift of eternal life to sinners. The transaction works like this: all your sins are placed on Christ and credited to Him; and all His righteousness is credited to you, even though He is not a sinner and you are not righteous in yourself. But this is not an automatic transaction. You must receive the gift God offers you.

If you have never received this gift, I would encourage you to do so now. The free gift of eternal life comes in Christ alone–there is no other way of salvation. If you have Christ you have life, and if you do not have Christ you remain lost in your sins and headed for eternal judgment. To receive Christ and His free gift you must believe in Him: Most assuredly I say to you, He who believes in Me has everlasting life (John 6:47). That’s a red-letter verse, which means Jesus is speaking–promising you eternal life if you will believe in Him. In Scripture believing means more than agreeing with certain facts or principles. Believing means to trust completely in Christ as your only hope of eternal life and stop trusting anything you can do to earn salvation. Faith is a matter of the heart, but it can be expressed in various ways. If you have read this post and you want to trust the living person of Jesus Christ, why not bow in prayer and simply tell Him in your own words that you believe in Him and are trusting Him to forgive you and give you the free gift of eternal life? Then get in touch with me using the contact link.

If you just trusted Christ you are now on Team Jesus–the winning team. Could be also that you trusted Him long ago and have been on the sidelines for years. Time to get back into the game. Or, more accurately, into the fight. Before you were on Team Jesus you were on Team Satan, and you were powerless spiritually to fight your way out of a wet paper bag. You were a spiritual loser. As a member of Team Jesus you are a spiritual winner because you share in His victory and the war for your soul has been won. But there are still battles to be fought. In fact as a member of Team Jesus you will be fighting spiritual battles battles for the rest of your life.

But you can’t do it alone. You need the help and support of other committed team members. Your fellow soldiers in the good fight will have your back, and you will support them. You will move forward together using the equipment and weaponry God has provided for you: The Word of God, prayer, fellowship, the ordinances, outreach, and much more. If you are not plugged into a local unit (church) then get connected soon. If you are part of a  wimpy church that is not committed to fighting and winning, then clear out of there and find someone who is serious and not just playing games. You need find a church where the teaching of the Word is central. Ideally you will find a small group of men there who are committed to kicking butt on the world, flesh,and devil. The stakes are too high and life is too short to settle for mediocrity. Besides, the thrill of victory feels so much better than the agony of defeat.

When I was  new believer it seemed incredible that except for a handful of people, all Israel rejected Christ. I mean, here was a man who through His miracles, healings, feedings, teachings, and exorcisms proved He was the greatest person to walk the face of the earth. He raised people from the dead, but even that was not enough to convince them. Scripture says He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). Their rejection seemed so inexcusable, given the amount and clarity of the revelation they were given.

But in some ways I can understand now why they reacted to Jesus the way they did. The Jews had been oppressed by foreign nations for centuries, going clear back to the captivity in Egypt. Once in Canaan they continually fought with the remaining inhabitants of the land, who never were completely wiped out–even in the golden age under Solomon. Israel was under constant threat of attack from the surrounding nations of Edom, Moab, Aram, Amon, and Syria. They were rebellious and divided, so much so that finally, in accordance with the judgments stipulated in Mosaic Covenant,  God raised up heathen nations to remove them from the land. From about 721 BC onward they were in a game of musical oppressors. First the Assyrians, and then the Babylonians, followed by the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Many Jews never returned from the Babylonian captivity and lived scattered across the Roman Empire in what was called the Dispersion. When Jesus came on the scene Israel had gone four-hundred years without a word from God, and they were fed up with the Roman sandal against their throats. They wanted a military deliverer to come and liberate them. And who could blame them, given the fact that all the great deliverers of the Old Testaments like Moses, Samson, Barack, and David were military men seasoned in battle?

If you live in America it’s not hard to understand. Like Israel we tend to think of ourselves as the cream of the crop among the nations of the world. We have this sense of pride in being the top dogs. We think we deserve to be free and prosperous just because we’re us. We have this sense of entitlement to smaller government and lower taxes, or whatever. Imagine if our country was taken over by the Chinese or Arabs. How would we feel? What would we do? What would we want God to do? How would we be praying?

We would do the same thing the Israelites of Jesus day did, which was exactly what Cain did. The Jews of Jesus’ day, like Cain, mis-identified their true spiritual enemy–sin. Their pride had deceived them into thinking that if they could just get rid of the Romans they would have it made. That’s why when Christ came on the scene they missed the boat. If they had understood their Bibles at all they would have remembered the words of Genesis 3:15: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Jesus came to do battle against sin and Satan, not the Romans. From the very start this was His mission, right down to His name: And you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). God even primed the pump by sending them a forerunner in John the Baptist. His message was one, not of military deliverance, but of repentance from sin (Matthew 3:2). Of Jesus he proclaimed, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). No question about the meaning there.

Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God. This was the central theme of His teaching. But the kingdom He offered was a spiritual kingdom, and the enemies to be conquered were likewise spiritual in nature. Through His many parables on the kingdom (e.g., Matthew 13) he made this clear, as He did when he told Pilate that, My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here (John 18:36). In Matthew 12:28 He said that through His life and ministry, particularly in the casting out of demons, He was demonstrating  that He had bound Satan and plundered his house as proof that the kingdom of God had come upon them. Repeatedly He told His disciples He must be crucified and rise again (e.g., Matthew 17:22-23). It was through the cross that the head of the serpent would be crushed, not through a military overthrow of the Romans.

But they just didn’t get it. They didn’t think they were sick and in need of a physician. They had been deceived by their sin into thinking the true spiritual enemy was external to themselves. That’s why they had no use for a suffering savior. They wanted a military deliverer who would rout those filthy stinking pagan Romans. Once it dawned on them that Jesus did not fit the bill, their fickle hearts turned on him in the blink of an eye. Ironically, the same crowds who hailed Jesus as a king at His triumphal entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday cried out for His crucifixion less than a week later. Tragically, their sin had not only deceived them into mis-identifying the Romans as the true enemy; ultimately it put them at odds with the one person they needed most–Christ.

So here’s what it boils down to for us. Jesus is our King, and He is ruling in heaven right now (1 Corinthians 15:25). His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, and he reigns in the hearts and lives of His people. His kingdom is not about food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). The real enemy we face in our spiritual fight is not the government. It is not the overbearing boss at work, or inconsiderate motorist who cuts us off. The true enemy is sin. It is Satan. It is the world system. This does not mean that as Christians we do not eat or drink, or that we shun civic, social, and military involvement. Or allow ourselves to be doormats for jerks. But just remember this: the jerks are not your spiritual enemies. We do not face physical foes, and the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (2 Corinthians 10:4). The enemy is not out there somewhere but within our mortal bodies. And the battle is won using the full armour of God and our sole offensive weapon–the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:10-17).

To be a follower of Jesus means to recognize Him as King, to submit to His authority above all else, and to obey His commands. It means understanding the spiritual nature of His kingdom. It means rightly identifying the real spiritual enemies. And it means to fight the good fight daily, using all the means of grace available to us–prayer, the Word, and fellowship with committed members of Team Jesus. If we keep these things in mind we will not miss the boat, as did the Jews of Jesus’ day.

If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up (Daniel 3:17-18).

Daniel’s three friends were living in a foreign land and culture, having been uprooted and deported from Jerusalem by the armies of the  Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. He built a huge golden image of himself and demanded that all within his domain fall on their faces and worship it as God. The penalty for refusing was swift and severe: whoever would not comply with the decree would be thrown immediately into a huge kiln, or oven, used for firing bricks. At the prescribed time, signaled by the playing of musical instruments, everyone in unison dropped to the ground to pay token homage to the golden idol. Silouetted against the horizon there on the plain of Dura, in total defiance to the king’s decree, were the three figures of the Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.

The rest of the story is familiar. Nebuchadnezzar summoned the three lads and gave them one last chance to comply. When they dared to refuse, Nebuchadnezzar become so enraged that his facial features were distorted. He had the kiln heated to seven times its normal temperature, and the offenders were bound and thrown in. So hot was the fire that those who cast them into the oven were themselves killed by the blast. When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the oven he saw the three Hebrew boys walking around unharmed, and with them was a fourth figure who looked like “a son of the gods” (either an angel or the pre-incarnate Christ). When Nebuchadnezzar had them brought back out, the bindings with which they had been tied were gone, but their clothing was not only unburned, but did not even smell of smoke. The boys had dared to resist compromise and had emerged victorious.

The story of John the Baptist does not have such a happy ending. In the sixth chapter of Mark we are told that King Herod had arrested John at the bidding of Herodias, his wife. Apparently Herod, the Roman governor of the province where John was baptizing, went out to see what all the hoopla was about; and when he met John he was rebuked for having married Herodias, who was already married to his brother Phillip. Whoever said that hell hath no fury like woman scorned was never more right than here, and after convincing Herod to arrest John, Herodias smoldered with rage against him. She painted Herod into a corner on a day when he had invited a bunch of big-wigs to a party. Salome, the daughter of Herodias, performed a lewd dance before the drunken Herod, who then promised to grant her a wish, up to half his kingdom. At her mother’s request she demanded the head of John the Baptist to be presented immediately on a platter. Herod was sad because he knew deep down that it would be wrong to kill the righteous John; but for fear of a tarnished image before those present, he compromised and sent the executioner to behead john and have his head brought in on a platter.

John spoke his conscience without compromise and lost his head. Herod chose to compromise to salvage his reputation. At the time it appeared that John’s refusal to compromise came with a hefty price tag. But consider this. Who really paid the higher price–John or Herod? Where is John now, and where is Herod? I’ll tell you. The minute it was lights out for John he was ushered directly into the presence of God in heaven, where he still is at this very moment. And Herod? He lived out his pathetic excuse for a life and then went to hell, where he will burn in agony forever. The cost of compromise is ultimately higher for him who, like Esau, trades what is eternal for that which provides pleasure in the moment.

As we fight the good fight of faith we will be tempted time and again to compromise with the world, flesh, and devil. You will be invited to dialogue with pagans over issues which from God’s perspective are closed to discussion. Why agree to dialogue when the issue is settled? For example, why discuss an issue like abortion,when it is clear from Scripture that abortion is murder? You see, such “dialogue,” while it has a ring of civility and open-mindedness, is really designed to do one thing–get you to cave in.

Or you will be told that once you get to know so-and-so and see what a “nice” person they are, then you will not be able to paint their lifestyle with such a broad brush. Well look, it is not my job to paint any one’s behaviors–the Word of God has already done that for me. If you are in violation of God’s Word and living in rebellion as though all is well, I am not judging you–God’s Word already has. My choice is to either agree with what God has determined to be true about your actions, or disbelieve God. Makes absolutely no difference how “nice” you may or may not be. Many pagans are nice people, as far as that goes. And sincere. (But, alas, one can be sincerely wrong.) They are pleasant to work with and they often make good neighbors. So what? Truth is truth! Do not compromise just to me a nice guy and not make waves. Opt for truth over relationship every time, if that is what it comes down to. I know that the temptation to be accepted and not ostracised or ridiculed is great sometimes. Now you know how Jesus felt. If you stand up for Him without compromise, eventually the niceness of the world will drop off, and it will hate you as it hated Him. Count on it.

The world will bait you with the oft-quoted and out-of-context, “Judge not lest ye be judged,” or, “Oh come on, this is not 1900–you’re living in the dark ages. Everyone’s doing it.” Or how about this one: “If two people truly love one another can it really be wrong?” Then again, “It’s just your opinion. You have your truth and I have mine. It’s all in how you interpret it,” etc. In response to all these hackneyed rationalizations is a stark axiom: God’s word is forever settled in heaven. Nothing has changed. God is still God, people are still people, and truth is still truth. You either believe it or you do not. Does not matter what the majority feels or thinks. The unanimous consent of the whole world cannot overrule the single vote of God. There can be no compromising of this fact.

The great German reformer, Martin Luther, waged spiritual warfare on a scale unknown to us. He had to live in hiding for fear of his life, and yet he refused to compromise truth. One of his friends said to him, “Martin, the whole world is against you.” To which he replied, “Then I am against the world.” Like Luther you must know what you believe. You must know what things are negotiable and non-negotiable. Be flexible in the negotiable areas; but in those areas that are black and white, resist compromise even to the death. This is part of the battle we are engaged in as believers. With Luther you must be able to say, “Here I stand; I can do no other.” And,

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason…I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen

Compromise is expensive in the longrun. Not only for you but also for those closest to you. Stand tall and fight it with all your might.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

In today’s culture we have lost the ability to think in terms of black and white. It is hip nowadays to say there are only varying shades of gray. Truth is relative. Good and evil are on a sliding scale. One person’s ideas are as good as the next guy’s. Check to see which way the wind is blowing today before you decide what you believe. God is presented as an all-loving daddy who would never harm a flea or, heaven forbid, punish anyone. Hence we must never judge any one’s ideas or behaviors. You know, judge not and all that: it’s in the Bible…somewhere. People should just chill out and get along. Live and let live. No more weapons and no more wars. Fighting=bad!

Men have been hit hard with this kind of thinking. They have become feminized. Masculinity has been re-defined according to feminine expectations–or more accurately, feminist expectations. Men are encouraged to become more sensitive and share their feelings, to relate to other men the way women relate to one another. No more hunting and fishing. Contact sports like football and mixed martial arts are to be avoided as barbaric. Get in touch with your inner wimp and learn to appreciate chick flicks, candlelight dinners, and long walks on the beach at sunset. The church, always a few steps behind the world, has followed suit, to where the average evangelical church service in America is seventy percent female. Men are fleeing the church in droves.

You heard me right: I said world. Today’s mushy wishy-washy thinking does not issue forth from God or from His Word. And to demonstrate my point I will show you from a few Old Testament examples what kind of men God delights in and uses to accomplish his purposes. Get ready for jolt.

First off, all the great men of God in the Old Testament had one thing in common: they had killed people. Abraham and his private army rescued Lot from the five kings who invaded Sodom (Genesis 14). Moses killed an Egyptian who was oppressing an Israelite (Exodus 2:11-12) and led in the slaughter of the Amorites, who would not let God’s people pass through their land (Numbers 21). Joshua led in the extermination of the Canaanites (Book of Joshua). Samson killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey (Judges 15:15). Elijah, after his confrontation on Mount Carmel with the four-hundred-fifty false prophets of Baal, took them all down to the Brook Kishon and slaughtered them (1 Kings 18:40). Nehemiah told the people to work with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other (Nehemiah 4:16-18); and those who opposed his rules he cursed, punched, and pulled out their hair (13:25). These men were not only experienced in killing, but some even had multiple wives and concubines. And yet we see them not only lauded in the Old Testament, but mentioned favorably by Christ in the New Testament.  We see them listed among the heroes of the faith in Hebrews Eleven. Heroes of the Faith? By today’s standards they would be better cast as villains in movies on The Lifetime Channel. Go figure.

But David takes the cake. Here was a guy who was known for his hot temper and appetite for women. He was an adulterer and a murderer. Sure he had courage, and he prevailed over the giant Goliath as he had over the bear and the lion. But how could it be said of him that he walked in God’s ways and commandments (1 Kings 3:14)? Or that his heart was loyal to the LORD (1 Kings 11:4; 15:3)? Or that he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5)? Why would the sinless Son of God allow Himself to be referred to as the Son of David (Matthew 15:22; 20:30; Mark 10:47)? And how could someone like David be called the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22)?

Apparently God does not see things the way we do. Nor would the women of David’s day see eye-to-eye with today’s feminists. Imagine the feminist response if a renowned soldier returned home from Afghanistan after winning a contest to see who could kill the most members of the Taliban. The reception would be different from what awaited David when the won the prize and came home after routing the Philistines. Throngs of adoring females turned out to welcome him with music and song: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands (1 Samuel 18:7). Scripture lauds David for killing two-hundred Philistines and using their foreskins as a dowry (1 Samuel 18:25-27) and for smiting the Philistines and leaving neither man nor woman alive (1 Samuel 27:11). The good folks at PETA will be pleased to know that the man after God’s own heart followed in the footsteps of Joshua in hamstringing the horses of the heathens (Joshua 11:6-9; 2 Samuel 8:4).

Not to mention David had an inner circle of thirty-seven studs, called the Mighty Men. Let’s look at just three of these guys (2 Samuel 23:8-39).  Abishai killed three-hundred men with a spear. Beniah killed an eight-foot Egyptian with his enemy’s own spear, and also killed a lion in a snowy pit. Shammah killed several hundred Philistines single handedly in a lentil patch. I am convinced that if David and his comrades were alive today they would not only enjoy watching Ultimate Fighting–they would be in the cage themselves choking people out and knocking them senseless! Followed, of course, by prayer and Bible study over a cold one.

So what am I saying? That we should all go out and find extra wives and concubines, or sleep with another man’s wife? That we should join the army just to go kill people for sport? That we should be cruel to animals? That we should become mixed martial artists and learn to fight? Of course not. Well, not physical fighting anyway. My purpose today is to offer a corrective against namby-pamby worldly thinking that sees the concept of spiritual warfare as bad and spirituality as passive surrender only. Men–it is OK to be men. Team Jesus is looking for a few good men. Real men, who know there are real spiritual enemies to be defeated. Men who know it is fine to eat red meat, cut down trees, shoot guns, pee outside, and watch cage fighting. God knows your weaknesses and areas of temptation. He can and will work through you, warts and all, if you will submit to His authority and trust Him. Your family is depending on you to stand in the gap. The church desperately needs men with spiritual balls of steel. Be that man today.

But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive (Deuteronomy 20:16)

And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword (Joshua 6:21).

It is putting it mildly to say that many people shy away from the Old Testament because of verses like those above. There is a lot of killing going on in the pages of the Old Testament. Most of it was either commanded by or performed directly by God. When God marked out a specific population for destruction everyone died: men, women, children, and animals. God was an equal opportunity destroyer, and He did not discriminate on the basis of age, race, or gender. Sometimes he wiped out the enemies of His people, and sometimes he slaughtered thousands of  Israelites.  The Old Testament is so replete with stories of bloodshed that the famous liberal pastor, Harry Emerson Fosdick, sarcastically referred to it as the gospel of gore. For many the God of the Old Testament bears no resemblance to the Christ of the New Testament.

So what’s the deal with all the killing in the Old Testament? As distasteful as they seem to us, these accounts of mass extermination provide us with metaphors (types) of the Christian life. Today I would like to spend a few minutes giving you a short lesson about what these bloody stories teach us as believers.

Let’s start with Abraham. In Genesis Twelve God tells the patriarch to get up and migrate to a land he has never seen. God promises to give him this choice piece of real estate as an inheritance. In obedience to God Abraham packs up his wife Sarai and all their possessions in the U-Haul truck and heads for the Promised Land. When they arrive their anticipation is doused by the presence of thousands of people in the land God said would be theirs. These people have built walled cities to live in. They are operating farms and tending herds. They have set up altars to their false gods. God had promised Abraham this was his land; but these people think it is theirs. They are not about to leave without a fight to the death.

Fast forward about four-hundred years. The children of Israel have been delivered from Egyptian bondage by the hand of God. They have wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Moses dies and the mantle falls to Joshua, who sends spies into the land of Canaan. There are now perhaps millions of people inhabiting the land. What is to be done? God does not tell the Israelites to go in and make nice over coffee and cookies. He does not tell them to celebrate diversity and learn about their culture and customs. He does not tell them to gain an appreciation for their religious practices. God tells His people to go in and kill every last one of them, from the oldest to the youngest–animals included. They are to take no spoil of the battle, but instead are directed to burn the cities to smoldering ruins. Once in the land they are to continue exterminating the remaining pockets of pagans until all are wiped from the face of the earth. Then they are to become a self-contained unit and build no alliances with the surrounding nations. They are not to intermarry with them or tolerate their false religions.

One important lesson we learn by the time we finish the Old Testament is that when it comes to trusting and obeying God, people suck! The Israelites were promised great blessing if they would just do as God commanded. But time and again they allowed the enemy to remain in their land. They intermarried with the heathen and repeatedly played the harlot with their false gods. God promised them security and prosperity if they would just follow his direction; and He warned them that they would be uprooted if they rebelled–which they did. In the end God raised up the Assyrians and Babylonians to punish His wayward people. Every time I read the Old Testament accounts of the sins of God’s people, by the time I finish the last chapter of Malachi I am more thankful than ever for the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

But these Old Testament accounts provide spiritual lessons for us. Once we are born again we still have an enemy living in our bodies–sin. Even though we are in a sense dead to sin, sin lives on within us. Even though our bodies are now temples of God’s Spirit, the flesh thinks our bodies belong to it, and it will fight to the death like a cornered wolverine. What are we to do? Kill it before it spreads! For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).

Recently I spoke with a lady who had rats and mice living in her home. She was one of these people who eats no meat because to her killing animals is immoral. (Mind you she is staunchly pro-choice on the abortion issue.) She spent a fortune on all kinds of gadgets designed to repel the rodents, but in the end they were swarming through the walls, the cupboards, and across the floors. Finally, she wised up and did what any thinking person would do–she called an exterminator and had them killed! She had allowed the mice to treat her home as if it was theirs. No way were they going to just pack up and leave. They would yield no quarter and had to be destroyed, right down to the very last one.

In Scripture we are warned that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little bit of sin will pollute your whole life if you tolerate it. Therefore yield no quarter. Do not dabble with sin. Kill it. When it rears its ugly head grab the nearest hunk of wood and beat it until it stops moving. As Ephesians 4:22-24 commands us, put off the old man and put on the new man. If you are a drunk stop drinking and be filled with the Spirit. If you are a thief stop stealing and get a job. If you are a fornicator stop fornicating and either marry a Christian girl or be faithful to the wife you already have. If you are feeding on porno then burn the girlie magazines and get rid of your computer if need be. If your views of God are being shaped by false religions or blasphemous caricatures of Him, such as in the popular book, The Shack, be done with such compromising immediately. Let your views of God and the Christian life be informed by the Word of God and nothing else. Avoid ungodly alliances and build relationships with strong likeminded Bible believers. Go to church and stay out of the bars and strip joints.

The ancient Israelites were told to yield no quarter to the enemy. They made a good start but then got lazy. The consequences are well documented as a stern warning for us. Fighting the good fight of faith is a daily discipline. The sin within is not going to leave us until we are raised in newness of life and given resurrection bodies. For the rest of our lives we will be killing the deeds of the flesh. Do not get lazy spiritually. Do not think you can have a little taste of sin here or there because that little pinch of leaven will spread to the whole lump, and before you know it you will be feeling dirty and dead inside.

Stand and fight! Kill the flesh daily, using all the means of grace God has provided. Yield no quarter!