“Fight the battles of the Lord.” [1 Samuel 18:17]
We will not take these words in their literal sense, as they came from the lips of Saul, when he gave David his elder daughter, Merab, to marry; but will adapt the passage, and use it as an exhortation given to the church of Jesus Christ, and to every Soldier of Jesus: “Fight the battles of the Lord.” Although this exhortation is not found in the exact words, coming from the lips of Jesus, nevertheless the whole tenor of the Word of God says the same thing – “Fight the battles of the Lord.”
In the present crisis of our nation, the minds of men are extremely troubled with dreadful prospects of a terrible struggle. We do not know where this trouble may lead us. The signs of the times are dark and dreadful. We fear that the bowls of God’s wrath are about to be poured out, and that the earth will be flooded with blood. As long as there remains a hope, let us pray for peace, yes, even in the time of war let us still plead with the throne of God, crying, that he would “send us peace in our days.”
The war will be looked upon by different persons with different feelings. The Italian will consider, all through the controversy, his own country; the Sardinian will be looking continually to the progress or to the defeat of his own nation; while the German, having sympathy with his own race, will be continually anxious to understand the state of affairs. There is one power however, which is not represented in the assembly and which seems to be silent, because the ears of men are deaf to what it has to say. To that power all our support will be given, and our hearts will follow it with interest; and all through the war, the one question that we will ask, will be “How will that kingdom prosper?” You all know to which kingdom I refer – it is the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth; that little one which is even at this time growing, and which is to become a multitude, which is to break into pieces all the kingdoms of earth, and to seat itself upon their ruins, proclaiming universal liberty and peace, under the banner of Jesus Christ. I am sure that we will think far more of the interests of true religion than of anything else, and our prayer will be, “O Lord, do what you will with the earthen kingdoms, but let your kingdom come, and let your will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven!”
However, while we anxiously watch the contest, it would be good if we get involved in it ourselves. Not that this nation of England should touch it; God forbid. If tyrants fight, let them fight; let free men stand at a distance. Why should England have anything to do with all the coming battles? Just as God has cut us off from Europe by a rough and stormy sea, so let us be kept apart from all the clashes and turmoils into which tyrants and their slaves may engage in. When I speak about joining in the fight, I speak about a spiritual battle; I speak to the church of Jesus Christ. I say, “Let us join in the fight; let us have something to do. We cannot be neutral; we never have been. The Lord’s army is always in hostility to sin and Satan. “My voice is still for war.” The senate of Christ’s church can never talk of peace. For thus it is written: “The Lord will be at war.”
This will bring us to our text, and here I will consider first of all, the Lord’s battles; we are not to fight our own; secondly, the Lord’s soldiers; and thirdly, the King’s command, “Fight the battles of the Lord.”
I. First, THE BATTLES OF THE LORD, what are they?
Not the uniform rolled in blood, not the noise, and smoke, and clamor of human slaughter. These may be the battles of the devil, if you please, but not the Lord’s. They may be days of God’s vengeance but their manner of war is something that the servant of Jesus can not mingle. We stand distant. Our kingdom is not of this world; or else God’s servants would fight with sword and spear. Ours is a spiritual kingdom, and the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world, but spiritual, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
What are the battles of God? Let us here carefully distinguish between the battles of God, and our own.
Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, it is not your business to fight your own battles, not even in defense of your own character. If you are criticized and slandered, leave the slanderer alone. His cruelty will only be increased by any attempt that you make to defend yourself. As a soldier of Christ you are to fight for your Master, not for yourself. You are not to carry on a private warfare for your own honor, but all your time and all your energy is to be given to his defense and his war. You are not to speak a word in your own defense. Too often, when we get angry, and our blood pressure is stirred up, we are apt to think that we are fighting the cause of truth, when we are really maintaining our own pride. We imagine that we are defending our Master, but we are defending our own little selves. Too often the anger rises against an adversary not because his words reflect dishonor upon the glorious Christ, but because they dishonor us. Oh! let us not be so petty as to fight our own battles! Depend on it, the noblest means of conquest for a Christian in the matter of slander and lies, is to stand still and see the salvation of God. When you come to fight your own battle, put away all your own weapons and let God fight for you, and you will be more than a conqueror.
Again, we must remember that there is such a thing as fighting the battles of our own denomination, when we ought to be fighting God’s battles.
We think that we are upholding the church when we are only upholding our section of it. I would always be very sensitive to the honor of the Christian body to which I belong, but I would rather see its honor stained, than that the glory of the entire church should be diminished. Every soldier ought to love the special group in which he has enlisted, but better to see the colors of that group ripped to rags, than to see the old standard of the cross trampled in the mire. Now I trust we are ready to say of our own denomination, “Let its name perish, if Christ’s name will get more glory as a result.” If the extinction of our denomination or local church would be the result of the conquest of Christ and the promoting of his kingdom, then let it be wiped out of the record book, and do not let its name be heard any more. We should, each of us, defend the body to which we belong, for we have conscientiously joined it believing it to be the nearest to the old standard of the church of Jesus Christ, and God forbid that we should leave it for a worse group. If we find a better one, then would we sacrifice our prejudices to our convictions, but we cannot leave the old standard so long as we see it to be the very standard which floated in the hand of Paul, and which was handed down to him through several generations, through Chrysostom to Augustine, from Augustine to Calvin, and so on through the glorious race of mighty men and women who have not been ashamed of the gospel of Christ Jesus. But yet I say let our name and let our group, and let our denomination be absorbed, and let it sink, so that the battle of the Lord may be well fought, and the time of Christ’s triumph accelerated.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
