The sword of the Lord and Gideon!

(Judges 7:20) The sword of the Lord and Gideon

God we well know is Sovereign and He has determined the outcome of creation by His careful design and yes sin has its part to play, without it we would not know the difference between what is holy and Righteous and that which is not. The tree had fruit to it that opened our eyes to the “Knowledge of both good and Evil”. Without the roaring lion firing his fiery darts, how would we ever learn to defend ourselves against them and all the devils divisive ploys? It is time for me to come to grips with this once and for all in every area of my life and not just the ones I am willing to yield too. I no longer belong to myself and as a slave I have no rights to my own sinful lusts, they have been crucified with Christ on Calvary. For this truth to resonate I need to go back to the starting line, to where it all began but in doing this, I must be careful not to be lured off on some wild goose-chase.

The question that needs answering is if we are new creatures in Christ, how much of it is up to me? Is the responsibility to walk circumspectly before a Holy God all of God and nothing of me or is it all of me and solely my responsibility, does the buck stop with me? This is where the Arminian and the Hyper-Calvinist draw their line in the sand. Both are wrong! Let scripture speak for itself…

Wherever the Holy Scripture tells us as believers to repent and turn from the error of our ways, whatever that may be and if we choose to ignore the warning, we are in danger of judgment, no! to be more precise we will be judged. However judgement is different for the believer, than to that of the unbeliever, as one is the child of God and the other is not and therefore not subjected to the Father’s discipline. It is a very easy principle to understand. Do you have the authority over someone else’s children? The answer is obviously no! It is no different for the child of God! However there is an over-shadowing truth that many chose to ignore. As God is the only true God and the creator of the universe the final judgment belongs to Him and He will meet it out with precision and with power and for all who have not participated in His adoption program, for all those who have failed to believe God and have not repented and believed of the finished work of Calvary, they will face judgment at the “Great White Throne” judgment! This will be a mighty spectacle, and it will be a joyous occasion for some, but for most an eternally regretful experience. To my friends Richard and Brett you have been warned, please pay earnest attention to it as I am praying for both of you.

The child of God on the other hand will not face this judgment as he has already been judge for his sin in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid the price by selflessly dying on that cruel Roman cross so that all who are now by adoption part of God’s family will escape that judgment. What have they done to deserve this forgiveness? We could say absolutely nothing, but although in principle this is true, they nevertheless have still believed God and therefore are covered by the righteousness of Christ! They have call upon the name of the Lord! Without confession they cannot claim to be sons of God. However many may claim to be sons and yet they are not! “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (Galatians 4:9): - Note it is one thing to say we know God, but is that enough? No! We must be known of Him, He must view us as one of His Children! How then can we be sure we belong to Him? We will be subjected to His discipline here on earth. This then is our safe-guard! This does not mean we will get away with unrepentant sin in our lives, we will not! And I an eternally thankful to God my Father for this as it keeps us in line.

Let’s use some examples from scripture to prove my train of thought… Let us start with the sin in the Corinthian Church; there was a man that slept with his father’s wife, his step mother. Most of the congregation boasted amongst themselves about this deed and Paul now steps in and severely rebukes them. This is what he has to say; “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” (1Corinthians 5:1-5)

Note: this man had been adopted by God into His family, he was a believer, and look at what Paul has to say about it, “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” However judgment was still require by God for his unrepentant sin although he had been sanctified by the blood of the Lamb. The purpose of discipline is to bring the believer to his knees seeking repentance from God His Father. God is not like frivolous men and he will not simply give up on the believer. Our confidence rests on what Christ has achieved and not our own abilities as men.

Here is another portion of scripture that confirms this thought; ““For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:6-11): - Note, here again is proof in action on how God deals with His children, we will be discipline for unrepentant sin, if not, then all this proves is that even though we claim son-ship we are but bastards.

And finally we see Paul instructing the same church, which now involves an instruction to us about our part in examining our own hearts before we take communion; “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” (1Corithians 11:23-30): - Note here we see how discipline plays out in the believer’s life, if we will not examine our walks before our Holy Father; he then inflicts judgment upon us. How does He do this? “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

With this in mind we can now understand these encouraging words; “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Our reassurance then lays with God our Father, but if we will not be serious with the call that He has called us too then we must not be surprised if and when judgment befalls us. It is for our own good! There must come a day when we begin to think as men as we look to put off childish things.

My conclusion then would be; we have a responsibility to act as children of God and in that we proactively must be involved with those decisions, if we chose to ignore our responsibility then God will, because of His love, step in with discipline.

“Gideon ordered his men to do two things: covering up a torch in an earthen pitcher, he bade them, at an appointed signal, break the pitcher and let the light shine, and then sound with the trumpet, crying, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” This is precisely what all Christians must do. First, you must shine; break the pitcher which conceals your light; throw aside the bushel which has been hiding your candle, and shine. Let your light shine before men; let your good works be such, that when men look upon you, they shall know that you have been with Jesus. Then there must be the sound, the blowing of the trumpet. There must be active exertions for the ingathering of sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified. Take the gospel to them; carry it to their door; put it in their way; do not suffer them to escape it; blow the trumpet right against their ears. Remember that the true war-cry of the Church is Gideon’s watchword, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” God must do it, it is his own work. But we are not to be idle; instrumentality is to be used-”The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” If we only cry, “The sword of the Lord!” we shall be guilty of an idle presumption; and if we shout, “The sword of Gideon!” alone, we shall manifest idolatrous reliance on an arm of flesh: we must blend the two in practical harmony, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” We can do nothing of ourselves, but we can do everything by the help of our God; let us, therefore, in his name determine to go out personally and serve with our flaming torch of holy example, and with our trumpet tones of earnest declaration and testimony, and God shall be with us, and Midian shall be put to confusion, and the Lord of hosts shall reign for ever and ever.” (C.H.Spurgeon)

May God give us eyes to see and ears to hear!

Signing off

Tyrone