Reading: 2 Chron.
20:127.
Then upon Jehaziel the
son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son
of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit
of the Lord in the midst of the assembly; and He said, Hearken
ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king
Jehoshaphat: Thus saith the Lord unto you, Fear not ye, neither
be dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is
not yours, but Gods. Tomorrow go ye down against
them: behold, they come up by the ascent of Ziz; and ye shall
find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of
Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set
yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord
with you, O Judah and Jerusalem; fear not, nor be dismayed:
tomorrow go out against them; for the Lord is with you
(2 Chron. 20:1417).
Having despoiled (or,
having put off from Himself) the principalities and the powers,
He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (the
Cross) (Col. 2:15; A.S.V.).
While it is true that in the New
Testament the Lords servants are designated soldiers,
and while it is also true that there are battles to be fought,
there is one big fundamental and all-inclusive battle in which
the Lords people have no part whatever. To engage in
it is to write over all the work of our Lord Jesus in His Cross,
Failure!to write it off as something which does not hold
good. There is a battle in which you and I have no fighting
place. It was the Lords battle, not ours, and it is
over the recognition and settlement of that fact that most of the
trouble arises in the experience of multitudes of the Lords
people. There has been a battle which includes all other
battles, which has been fought by the Lord Himself for us.
It is important for us to know both that fact, and what that
battle was.
A Victory To
Be Appropriated By Praising Faith
The story in the Old Testament
which we have read is an illustration of it. I am not saying that
it fits into Col. 2:15 in doctrine, but in principle it does. The
principle is thisthat in both of those passages of
Scripture a battle is set forth as having already been won.
The next thing is that the
victory which already exists has to be entered into by
faith. There has to be a stand taken in relation to that,
and not a fight for it. If you begin to take up that fight
you are destined to defeat, because you have put Gods
ground away from under your feet. We shall see that when we come
to the nature of the battle. But it is very serious, and we
should recognize it. Here is something in existence, and
upon that something as an accomplished fact in the realm of
hostilities a stand has to be taken by faith, and no conflict
allowed.
In the case of the people of
Judah of whom we have read, their faith as to what had been saidThe
battle is not yours, but Gods... ye shall not need to fight
in this battlewas demonstrated by song. You do
not need that I stay to show how necessary faith was, and that it
was genuine faith and not mere optimism. No, it was faith
that was required. It was a very desperate situation naturally,
but faith was demonstrated, and it was demonstrated by
singing. Their song was the evidence that they believed God
and His Word; they believed the thing that was declared to them,
and they proved it by singing. And it was not the kind of
singing of the little boy walking along the country lane in the
dark, who sings to try and keep himself cheerful in the midst of
terrible fears. There is no doubt about it, it was a song
of assurance and confidence.
...Jehoshaphat stood
and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of
Jerusalem: believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be
established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.
And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them
that should sing unto the Lord, and give praise in holy array, as
they went out before the army, and say, Give thanks
unto the Lord; for His lovingkindness endureth for ever.
And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set
liers-in-wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount
Seir, that were come against Judah; and they were smitten
(2 Chron. 20:2022).
The Battle
Already Won In The Cross
And thenthis is where we
begin to get near to the heart of the nature of this battlethe
song was governed by the priestly and Levitical side of
things. You will see at the end of the previous chapter how
the government was put into the hands of the priests; and then
the narrative in chapter 20 shows that it was the Levites, whose
it was to praise, who spontaneously broke into praise (v.
19). Praise expressive of faith was governed by what was
priestly and Leviticalwhich shows the nature of the battle
at once. This was the question, the whole questionon
whose side was God? and God has no favorites. God is not on
one side just because He feels inclined to favour that
side. God is only on the side of righteousness, on the side
of holinessin holy array. God is on the
side where salvation is already implicit by reason of priestly
government, or the government of priestly principlesthat
is, the Blood, the Cross, all that redemption means through the
work of the Lord Jesus. And so the answer to the question,
On which side is God? is thisHe is found where that is
represented and implicit which is the work of His Son on
Calvary. That is the nature of the battle; and that is not
your battle nor mine; that was Gods battle!
So we come over to this
well-known passage in the Letter to the Colossians. It is a
wonderful passage. I have been looking at several different
versions, and, although I do not often trouble you with the
technique of different translations, I think it worth dwelling
upon two or three.
Having despoiled the
principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it (His cross).
The dominions and powers
He robbed of their prey, put them to open shame, led them away in
triumph through His cross.
He disarmed the
principalities and powers and made a public example of them,
triumphing over them in His cross.
Now you notice that is all in
the past tense; that is something done. The ground has been
taken from the enemythat is the first thing; and when an
enemys ground is taken from him, he is in total confusion.
Note the confusion back there in 2 Chron. 20they are all
killing one another. Why?their ground upon which they
trusted has been taken from them. In Colossians it is the
same confusion: put to shame. What is shame but
confusion? If anybody is in confusion, they are very much
put to shame. In confusion they are helpless, you can take
their prey; and that is what Judah did in the story we have
read. That is why I gave you those different
versions. He took their prey, prey from the principalities
and powers. Why?because their ground was taken away.
The Enemys
Only Ground Of Hope
What was the ground upon which
the principalities and powers rested their confidence, and upon
which they found their strength? Now, follow closely here;
let us look at it.
And you who were dead in
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having
canceled the bond which stood against us in legal demands; this
He set aside, nailing it to the Cross. He despoiled the
principalities and powers and made a public example of them,
triumphing openly in His cross. Therefore let no one pass
judgment on you in questions of food, drink, festivals, new
moons, sabbaths; these are only the shadow of things which were
to come.
You see the pointhandwriting
in ordinances and legal demands. Thou shalt!
Thou shalt not!the whole sum of law written in
ordinances against us. Where was and is the strength, the
solidity, of the principalities and the powers? It is herefirstly,
that whole range of legal demands; and, then, the weakness of
man. All the power of Satan is upheld by those two things against
usThou shalt! I cannot!;
Thou shalt not! But I am always doing it,
I cannot help myself! The demand, the law; and our
weakness. Oh, what a playground for the devil! All
his strength is there, all his confidence is there, all his
solidity is there. Take that ground away, take away the
handwriting in ordinances against us, take away from him all the
legal demands, and he has nothing to stand on, he is in
confusion; he is made a show of openly, put to shame, to
confusion; he is broken up, he is helpless.
You stand, and then you
take. Listen, friendsimmediately you, as a believer
in Jesus Christ, admit the slightest suggestion into your heart
or mind that there is a question about your salvation, you have
capitulated to the devil and undone the work of Jesus Christ in
His Cross; you have strengthened the devils power to spoil
you, immediately you admit anything like that. Satan must
recover ground in order to have power, and his ground is
that. What is it?our weakness over against legal
demands; that is his ground, and he will never, never, to the
last breath of our bodies, cease to try and get that ground back
in his hands.
The Enemys
Suggestions To Be Repudiated
But, listen again. You and
I are not to fight that battle. That is the pointwe
are not to fight that battle. We are to take the
attitude that the battle has been fought and finished that
is all there is to it. Let the suggestion of doubt be
presentedour attitude must be that there is no place for
such a suggestion; it is not our concern at all; God has
undertaken that, God in Christ assumed responsibility for that,
and settled it once and for all! Admit the suggestion, and
see what a mess the devil will make of your life! You know,
as well as I do, that the song goes out at once. What then
are we to do on that matter? We have to stand in faith and
rejoicethat is all. Oh, if ever a Christian, or even
a servant of God with long experience, says anything to you
indicating that he or she has some question, some doubt, about
his or her salvation, you say at once, You have absolutely
given the ground back to the devil and he is robbing you of your
life. I cannot be strong enough about this. I
know the enemy in this matter, and what he is trying to do, and
how many lives are being turned by him right in upon themselves
and made to go round this whole matter of whether God is with
them, and to question their own salvation. They are always
bringing up again this basic sin question, looking at it, talking
about it. Their consciousness seems obsessed by this matter
of sin.
If there is some specific thing
that has arisen as a ground of controversy between the Lord and
yourself, and you know it, your attitude toward that must be to
take it right back to this fundamental and inclusive ground and
put it there, and not bring into question this whole matter of
Calvarys immense triumph. If we confess our
sinsnot to one another; do not go round confessing
your sins to peopleIf we confess our sinsto
HimHe is faithful and righteous to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John
1:9). Why? Because already He has secured the
complete ground for so doing.
Confidence
Essential To Victory
But mark, there is no
contradiction here. Ye shall not need to fight in
this battle; set yourself, stand ye still, and see the salvation
of the Lord; tomorrow go ye down against them.
Does that sound like a contradiction? Oh no, there is no
contradiction. You must express your faith. Yes, there is
fighting to be done, but there is a great difference between
fighting in a victory and fighting for a victory
when it is a matter of our salvation. Oh, please, dear
friends, do not be amongst those who talk much about the devil
and the Lords victory over him, and have in your own hearts
a dark shadow about this matter. The only people who dare
face the enemy and take an attitude against the evil powers are
the people who have such assurance in their hearts on this
fundamental matter that they are in joy. Do not go out
against the enemy with a cloud of doubt in your heart. This enemy
cannot be faced with a doubt. We have to take a heavenly
position, a position on an established fact. Immediately we come
down on to the position of naturewhat we find here on this
earth and in ourselveswe are undone.
To maintain our heavenly
position we have to recognize that the whole question of
progressive sanctification is another and entirely different
issue, and there is no hope for uswe shall make no progress
in sanctification and conformity to the image of Christunless
this one fundamental issue is settled all-inclusively. We must
have a vantage ground from which to move, we must have a position
on which we stand and stand fully assured in all the will of God.
Introspection
Leads To Defeat
Now, with one further word I
will close. Dear friends, if any truth has the effect of
turning you in upon yourself, making you introspective,
self-occupied in a spiritual way, that truth has been wrongly
apprehended. You may assume the position of the most
spiritual, but you are all wrong in your apprehension. This
great work which Christ did in His Cross was never intended to
make anybody miserable. Of course, that goes without
saying; yet there are multitudes who are miserable after trusting
the Lord, miserable over the sin question in their lives; and the
number, I am afraid, is increasing. Always keep a very
distinct and broad line between fuller revelation, deeper truth
(whatever you may term itall that going-on-to-full-growth
realm of things) and this whole matter of introspection.
Some people seem to think that to become more spiritual we must
become more intense and tied-up and occupied with this whole
matter of the spiritual life, and really they are the most
unbearable people, the joy has gone out of them. I am
certain of this, that nothing will ever come to you, however
deep, however mighty, however tremendous, by revelation of the
Holy Spirit, that will make you miserable. The
revelation of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spiritand there is
no other revelationwill never make a soul miserable.
There is something wrong if a Christian is miserable on spiritual
matters, and it is either failure to apprehend the one great,
absolute reality that the victory was Gods and that He won
it in Christ, fully and finally, and we are not called to share
at all in that battle; or the truth which has come subsequently
has been misapprehended and has become something that is a burden
grievous to be borne. The Lord Jesus said, My yoke is
easy, and My burden is light (Matt. 11:30).
And what was the yoke?
Well, listen again; you will get it in various places in the New
Testament where the very word is used. They bind
heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on mens
shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their
finger (Matt. 23:4). What was the yoke, the burden?the
law, ordinances, thou shalt, thou shalt not;
the enforcement of this. My yoke is easy, and My
burden is light. He despoiled the
principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in (His Cross). How? He
nailed to His Cross the whole list of ordinances against us and
took the ground of the enemys strength and assurance from
him. You know quite well that the enemy has no abstract
power over anybody. It is always concrete, it is always
positive. The devil must have something to make his power
felt. It does not exist, in effect, unless he has got moral
ground, and the thing with which he lashes and drives and
harasses is this law of carnal ordinances which was against us,
against us, against us!
Listen! The enemy is
always saying that God is against you, His Word is against you,
things are against you. That is his ground and strength.
Butif God be for us... (Rom. 8:31). Oh, that is
another sidefor us! How? Not
abstractly. He despoiled, He made
a show, He triumphed. It was not
simply a clash between spiritual forces in the unseen; a moral
issue was involved. It was taking ground and robbing the
enemies of their strength, their coherence. Confusion
resulted. They in effect, say, What can we do
now? All our weapons are gone. Then they begin to
blame one another, to kill one another. There is no love among
these evil forces, they have no coherence of love. It is
all hatred there, and immediately they find the ground taken from
them, they turn upon one another.
Well, we will stop there; but do
get this matter settled. Any introspective Christian is
useless as a servant of the Lord. Your days, weeks, months,
years, go, and all that might be for the Lord is devoured by that
canker-worm of uncertainty as to your own spiritual life.
Life is thrown away, the devil is triumphant, he is spoiling
everything. If you want to know effectiveness, then do not
fight in that battle at all. The real power that overcomes in
this matter is faith. So believe God, and, if you will,
believe His prophetsthe thing which is declared unto you,
which is the very truth of God.
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, Jul-Aug 1948, Vol 26-4