Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Weekly Review
The Doctrine of Warfare.
There will be Wars until our Lord comes back.
082017
Let’s look at what the Bible says about the principle of universal military training. In NUM 1:2‑3, Jesus Christ commanded a census be taken so they would know who was able to go to war. In fact the book of Numbers deals with the mobilization and war plans of Israel. Universal military training demands total national conscription.
NUM 1:2-3, “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever {is able to} go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies.”
Numbers is the book of the mobilization of Israel’s army.
The only exception is a man who is newly married, DEU 24:5, when a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army, nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife.
The reason is the Jews wanted to have the newlyweds concentrate on their marriage and family.
The principle of mobilization is taught in NUM 31:3‑5.
NUM 31:3 And Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian. “A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.” So there were furnished from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
Each generation must be trained in war, Judges 3:1‑2.
JDG 3:1-2, Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them ({that is,} all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; Only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war.
God left nations behind in the land of Israel to train the young men for war. This is because the Bible definitely teaches freedom through military victory.
Now there must exist in the national entity a capable professional staff of high ranking officers whose life is devoted to preparing and planning for war.
Luke 14:31 teaches that every nation should have a core of professional military officers and non-commissioned officers who plan and prepare for war.
LUK 14:31, “What king or ruler of a nation, when he advances to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to attack the one coming against him with 20,000 men?”
Therefore true motivation for military training comes from God Himself. 2SA 22:35, “He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
PSAa 144:1 “Blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war and my finger for battle.”
Military training is useless and neutralized when men of a nation are apostate, degenerate, full of emotional revolt and scar tissue of the soul, anti-establishment, addicted to drugs, and antagonistic to authority. We are seeing manifestations of this upon many cowards today.
Military training gives you a scale of values you’ll never have in any other way, one of which is that it prepares you for life. This is why draft dodgers, slackers, and deserters are sinful before the Lord, NUM 32:6,14,20,23,
NUM 32:6-19, But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to war while you yourselves sit here? Now why are you discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the Lord has given them? This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh‑barnea to see the land. For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. So the Lord’s anger burned in that day, and He swore, saying, None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; for they did not follow me fully, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have followed the Lord fully.
So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed. Now behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning anger of the Lord against Israel. For if you turn away from following Him, He will once more abandon them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all these people.”
Then they came near to Him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our livestock and cities for our little ones; but we ourselves will be armed ready {to go} before the sons of Israel, until we have brought them to their place, while our little ones live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until every one of the sons of Israel has possessed his inheritance. For we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side of the Jordan toward the east.”
Therefore, there are those believers who advance and are always ready in time of crisis who are either mature believers or positive believers on the verge of reaching maturity. Such were the ones that Paul mentions in closing the letter to the Colossians! The believer who stands in the gap and doesn’t quit is always oriented to reality whether its normal or abnormal times. He is oriented to reality because his happiness does not depend upon the circumstances of life. The circumstances of life might be very unpleasant but the believer for the crisis is strong and stable.
The believer who stands in the gap and doesn’t run away because of the pressure can say with the apostle Paul in PHI 4:13, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
And this is the issue, the ability to orient to your circumstances and to be content in whatever situation you’re in! This is what is really important in your life! A believer who can handle adversities and pressures and difficulties is always oriented to reality no matter what the reality is!
The reason being is because the believer who stands in the gap has inner resources and inner happiness. A believer for the crisis is a mature believer or the strong believer who is flexible under all circumstances. And flexibility and adjustment to disaster comes from concentration on doctrine. You concentrate when it’s being taught and you concentrate when it’s being applied!
You cannot be a believer for the crisis unless you have the ability to think and to concentrate when it’s being taught! You cannot be a believer for the crisis unless you have the ability to think and to concentrate when it’s being applied! You cannot be a believer for the crisis unless you have the ability to think and to concentrate under pressure!
The principle is the very system by which you learn, which is concentration, is the same system by which you apply. The believer for the crisis has the ability to recognize a disaster situation immediately. He is occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and can cope with any disaster of life whether personal or historical. This type of believer sees the problem and becomes a part of the solution.
The believer who stands in the gap can always do the right thing because he is always thinking and concentrating on doctrine. The disaster is not freezing his thought content but instead is stimulating his thought content! He’s thinking of solutions! He’s thinking of ways to solve the problems!
The believer for the crisis concentrates in disaster on that which is important. Therefore, disaster gives the believer for the crisis opportunity to apply doctrine and demonstrate its power in life. And this is why these three men and a few others remained faithful to Paul! When the pressure came because of their identification with doctrine, they didn’t freak out! They didn’t run away. They thought doctrine!
Remember that it is true that God desires to bless you but there will also be persecutions as well!
MAR 10:29-30, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.
Therefore, believers for the crisis keep on plugging and are persistent. They will not let distractions take them away! They will not even let legitimate things distract them!
You see, it’s one thing to let sinful things distract you but it’s more respectable to let legitimate things distract you! And there’s the danger! The danger is to let legitimate things distract you not sinful things because you can justify why you were distracted. Sinful things can be recognized!
However, there are a lot of noble, virtuous, pleasant, wonderful things in life which can be just as distracting as sin or evil. Therefore, the believer for the crisis keeps plugging with doctrine and is not distracted by anything.
Even legitimate systems of human security have been set aside in the priority battle of life for the believer for the crisis. The great priority battle of life is one of the most vital battles we ever fight. There is always something that is more important than anything else in life to you. And that is the issue in the priority battle.
It is inevitable that you will establish in your thinking something that is more important than anything else in your life. And, it may be a human being! It may be a human relationship! It may be business, success, or it may be doctrine!
But, whatever it is, something is always first and that something either makes you or breaks you as a believer. It is something which will determine whether you’re a winner or loser! That’s the basic principle behind the statement in EXO 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
So, the believer for the crisis is a winner. He is a winner because he realizes the importance of PSA138:2.
Let me give some different translations concerning this verse!
PSA 138:2, I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. (NIV)
PSA 138:2, I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name. (NKJ)
PSA 138:2, I bow down toward thy holy temple and give thanks to thy name for thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness; for thou hast exalted above everything thy name and thy word. (RSV)
PSA 138:2, I will worship toward thy holy temple, And give thanks unto thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (ASV)
In all of these translations notice that the word is magnified and that’s what the believer for the crisis understands and is convinced of! The believer for the crisis has doctrine as his number 1 priority. But, if there’s something more important in life than doctrine, it is inevitable that the virtues, the good, the wonderful, the pure, the honorable, can be just as distracting as anything sinful or anything evil!
It is the priority battle in life that is so devastating and so destructive spiritually! Perception is not enough, we must apply what we perceive!
JAM 1:22, But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Since the Lord Jesus Christ is not on earth, doctrine resident in the soul is the only strength for the believer prepared for the crisis.
Doctrine creates that wall of fire that surrounds us and protects us from the storms of life, from the unseen and the visible dangers of life.
ZEC 2:5 describes that wall of fire when the Lord said, “For I, declares the Lord, will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.”
Doctrine creates that wall of fire that surrounds us and protects us from the storms of life, from the unseen and the visible dangers of life.