Covenant Theology: Obedience, Disobedience, and National Judgment

The Sin of Refusing to Fight

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Covenant Theology

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2015-01-14

Synopsis: John Weaver argues from Numbers 32:23 that refusing to fight when God commands it is a sin. He distinguishes between sinful fighting (rebellion, unbiblical reasons) and righteous fighting (obedience, defense of life). Using Old Testament examples, he shows God ordained wars, sustained warriors, and cursed those who held back. Weaver applies this to modern Christians, warning that failure to fight spiritually, culturally, and politically will lead to physical conflict. He calls believers to reject passivity, emulate God as defender, and recognize the duty to preserve life.

[John Weaver] The title of the message tonight is The Sin of Refusing to Fight. I want you to look at Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23. Numbers 32 and verse 23. I'm just going to read one verse right now, we're going to come back and pick up the context momentarily. Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23, where Moses said, But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out. Well, hopefully the title of this message not only piques your curiosity, but also grabs your attention as well. When one talks about the sin of refusing to fight, it's absolutely contrary to the thinking of everyday people. Most people believe it's a sin to fight. Well, truthfully speaking, fighting can be a sin, especially when it's done in rebellion to God and His law. But however, when it's done in obedience to God and His word, it is not a sin. So when God commands us to fight and we do not fight, it is a sin.

[John Weaver] Now, the statement has absolutely nothing to do with situation ethics, where people say the situation determines whether or not it's right or wrong. No. The truth is, God is the one that determines right and wrong, and He does so by His word and His law. In Numbers chapter 32, which I'm going to show you just a little bit later, Moses is making it clear to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the Hat Tribe of Manasseh that if they do not fight, it is a sin And their sin will find them out.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to hold number 32 and look in your Bibles very quickly to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And let's read there verses 1 through 8. Watch carefully, if you would, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. Right after the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes 3. Notice it would be beginning there with verse 1. Solomon writes, to everything there is a season. Note that, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down

[John Weaver] and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing, A time to get, a time to lose, a time to keep, a time to cast away, a time to rent, a time to sow, a time to keep silent, a time to speak, a time to love, and a time to hate, a time of war, and a time of peace. So notice if you would, he says in verse 1, to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. In verse 3 he mentions there's a time to kill. And then, of course, in verse 8, there is a time of war. So obviously, then, God is stating that in everything there is indeed a season. Do you remember in 2 Samuel 11, verse 1, the Bible says, and it came to pass at the time that the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, David tarried at Jerusalem.

[John Weaver] So based upon this text, obviously it does appear that there was a time for fighting and a time for war in the Old Testament, and it wasn't the seasonal. Usually the time of fighting in the Old Testament, and the New Testament as well, would have been either spring or fall. I want to give you just a quick quote by John Gill on this statement, and he says this,"...a fit time to go out to war, when, as the commentators observed, the rains were over, And there were grass in the fields, and fruit on the trees, and corn ripe, and so food for horse and his men.

[John Weaver] This month was called Nisan, the military banners then erected. So by the Romans it is called Marchus, and by us March from Mars, the god of war. And though some take this to be the month of Tisri, entering the part of September and part of October, when all the fruits of the earth were gathered in, it is supposed to be a fit time for war, when the heat of the year was declining.

[John Weaver] So obviously, they did have seasonal warfare in the Old Testament. It was either in the spring, normally, or in the fall as well. There may have been seasons of fighting and seasons of war. But the truth of the matter is, necessity oftentimes dictated when you fought. Because if you were attacked, you just simply fought. Because it was a matter of life and death as well. It was a fight or die situation.

[John Weaver] Now the interesting truth in Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23, which I'm bringing you when it's a sin to refuse to fight, This passage in Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23 has been quoted by preachers and by Christians down through the ages to demonstrate a simple truth, and that truth is you can't get away with sin. Because Moses said very obviously, but if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. So preachers and Christians say, look, it doesn't matter what your sin is, it doesn't matter what you've done, Be sure that your sins are going to find you out. You are going to be judged.

[John Weaver] I suppose the New Testament passage that would correlate to that concept would be Galatians 6, 7, and 8. Where the word of God says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. So, when you just quote this verse, and you hear preachers quote it all the time, be sure your sins will find you out.

[John Weaver] Have you ever thought about this in the context? And have you ever wondered what particular sin it was that Moses was saying was going to find these people out? Well, let's look in Numbers chapter 32 and verse 20. Remember, and I'll show you this a little bit later. He's talking to the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. He says in verse 20, and Moses said to them, if you will do this thing, If ye will go armed before the LORD, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until ye have driven out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued before the LORD, and afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the LORD. But if ye will not do so," that is, if you will not go over-armed, if you will not fight, if you will not do so,"'Behold, ye have sinned against the LORD, and your sin shall find you out.'"

[John Weaver] Interesting. You see, Reuben Gadd and the half-tribe of Manasseh asked for their inheritance on the east side of Jordan. This was the land of Og and Sihon. If you look in Numbers, chapter 32, beginning there with verse 1, Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle. When they saw the land of Jazer, the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eliezer the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying, Adaroth, Devon, Jezer, Nimrod, Heshvon, Eliloth, and Shebam, and Nebo, and beyond, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and by service have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, the half-tribe of Manasseh was in there too, Shall your brethren go to war, and you sit still?"

[John Weaver] Now all of the children of Israel had fought to conquer the lands of Og and Sihon. You can read all about that in Deuteronomy chapter 2 and chapter 3 because those two chapters record how God gave this land to the children of Israel. So now it appears that the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh want to sit still and sit it out while the rest of the Israelites cross over Jordan and go in and fight and possess the land and dispossess their enemies there. Well, Moses said, look, your neighbors put their lives in jeopardy to get this land. And you think you're going to sit here and let them fight? Moses clearly says, if you refuse to help, it's going to be sin on your part. If you refuse to fight, it's going to be sin on your part. In fact, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. So the only alternative to sinning, in Numbers 32 and verse 23, was to go over armed before the Lord and actually fight.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to skip down, if you would please, to verse 16, because here is what they agreed to. Numbers chapter 32 verse 16, And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and our cities for our little ones. But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place. And our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities, because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, and forward, because our inheritance fall unto us on this side Jordan, eastward. Wow.

[John Weaver] So they said, look, here's what we're going to do. We'll just build some cities very quickly for our wives and our children, but we will go over armed before the Lord because we're not going to sin against the Lord.

[John Weaver] Now, I suppose that there are two questions that should be asked and answered in light of this passage. The first question would be, when is it wrong or when is it a sin to fight? The second question is, when would it be a sin to refuse to fight? I suppose the first question could be answered quickly and clearly and disposed of very quickly as well. So let's ask this question, when is it wrong to fight? Well, I would say the first answer is this, when one fights contrary to God and His Word.

[John Weaver] Because then that is rebellion. If you look in your Bibles, Numbers chapter 14, and let's begin reading there with verse 40. Numbers 14 and verse 40. Here's an interesting thing. God had told Israel to fight. And they refused to fight because, you remember the twelve spies came back, only Joshua and Caleb brought an honest report. The other ten said, oh, no, no, no. Man, those people are great, big giants, and we were as grasshoppers in their sights, and no, it's a land that he didn't know. And they brought back an evil report. Here's what happened. They refused to fight when God told them to go fight. God said, very well, your carcasses are going to fall in the wilderness. You're going to die, every one of you. You're not going to enter into that land. And your children whom you said would be victims, they're the ones that are going to get the land. Now after they refused to obey God when God had told them to go in and fight, and God told them they're going to die in the wilderness, now all of a sudden they change their mind and decide they're going to fight.

[John Weaver] Now watch it. Numbers chapter 13 verse 40, And they rose up early in the morning, and he got them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and we'll go up into the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned. Now watch. And Moses said, Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that you be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword, because you are turned away from the Lord. Therefore the Lord will not be with you.

[John Weaver] But they presumed to go up into the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which were up in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them even unto Hormeh." Isn't that amazing? God told them to fight, and they wouldn't fight. And God judged them for their disobedience. Now God tells them not to fight, and they say, we're going to fight.

[John Weaver] And so they're disobedient again. They're in rebellion to God. So it's a sin then to fight when God says, no, you're not going to fight. Do you understand that there are some people that God forbade Israel to fight against? In fact, there were times when God said, you are not going to make war with certain people. Turn in your Bibles very quickly to Deuteronomy chapter 2. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and look at verses 3-9. Deuteronomy chapter 2 beginning there with verse 3. God tells Israel, you have accomplished this mountain long enough, turn you northward. Verse 4, And command thou the people, saying, You are to pass through the coast of your brethren, the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir.

[John Weaver] And they shall be afraid of you, take you good heed unto yourselves therefore. Now look what he says, meddle not with them, For I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth, because I have given Mount Sirion to Esau for possession. You shall buy meat of them for money, that you may eat, and you also shall buy water of them for money, that you may drink.

[John Weaver] For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all thy works of thy hand. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness these forty years. The Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing. And when we pass by from our brethren in the children of Esau, which to us in Sirion Through the way of the plain from Elof and from Ezan Gaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And the Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give thee of their land for possession, because I have given Aaron to the children of Lot for possession." So there are times when God says, no, you're not going to fight.

[John Weaver] That's all there is to it. And so when you say, what is the sin to fight when God forbids you to fight, when there are plain commands and plain principles in the Word of God? I believe there's another answer as to when it's a sin to fight, and that would be this. It would be a sin and wicked and wrong to fight when you are fighting for unbiblical and unscriptural reasons. Well, I say that, have you ever considered that most wars, and I'd probably say 99% of 100, are wars over resources? For instance, all you have to do is look how one nation desires and covets after what another nation has. Look at all the wars and the people that have been killed over oil, gold, diamonds, and other precious resources. Our American empire has sought to justify intrusions and police actions and wars in other countries. However, the truth of the matter is there's usually absolutely no justification for our wars in these other countries. They're not only unconstitutional, they're unbiblical as well. So you have to understand that when we are trying to fight for unbiblical reasons, it would be a sin.

[John Weaver] And just to have an empire, just to be able to dominate and control other people and other nations would be a sin as well. If there was no biblical reason to fight, then, of course, it would be sin. And let me give you something for your consideration. You stop and think of all the military men, all the politicians, and all the money-hungry citizens in this country and other countries that have fomented wars and started wars just so they could gain power and prestige and money.

[John Weaver] And I can assure you of one thing, they will answer to God for every individual that died and for all their covetousness and all of their sins. So it is a sin then to fight when God forbids us to fight. Or it's a sin to fight for unbiblical and unconstitutional reasons. Let me just try to, tonight, answer this next question. When is it a sin to refuse to fight?

[John Weaver] Have you ever stopped to think about that? That's what Deuteronomy 32, verse 23 is all about. The sin of refusing to fight. So let me put it like this. First of all, it is a sin to refuse to fight when God has commanded us to fight. Now, there are instances in the Word of God where God commanded His people to fight. These wars are known in Scripture as the wars of the Lord. You say, well, how many wars of the Lord were there? I don't really know, but I know this, there were a sufficient number of them to be a book, because Numbers 21 and verse 14 says this, Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, what he did at the Red Sea, in the books of Arnon. Nope. Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord. So the Lord does engage in war, and he sends his people to war. He commands his people to fight many times. For instance, if you look in the book of Numbers chapter 31 very quickly, Numbers chapter 31, look at what he says to Moses.

[John Weaver] Numbers 31, beginning there, verse 1, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, At the end is the children of Israel, of the many nights, and afterwards they are shot together among black people. And Moses spoke unto the people, and saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of a million. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel shall you send to the war. So there were delivered out of thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, of them and Phinehas the son of Elijah the priest, to the war with the holy instruments, and with the trumpets in his hand. And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males. God initiated this form. God told Moses, you arm the people and go over and take care of the Midianites. By the way, this was not necessarily a defensive war, this was an offensive war.

[John Weaver] It's true the Midianites had seduced them, that's true. And they fell into the idolatry and the worship and Baal Peor, that is true. But now God says, look, that's over, and that was dealt with, but now you take care of these Midianites. I want you to turn in your Bibles very quickly to 1 Samuel, chapter 15. 1 Samuel, chapter 15. Let me show it to you again. Here is a time when God commanded His people to fight. 1 Samuel, chapter 15, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. 1 Samuel 15, verse 1. Samuel also said in Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint me to be king over his people over Israel.

[John Weaver] Now therefore, hearken thou to the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus said the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel. how he laid way for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they had, and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox, sheep, camel, and ass.

[John Weaver] And Saul gathered the people together, numbered them, and told them, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah." Notice if you would please, the Bible says God sent Saul against the Amalekites. And what did God say? I remember that which Amalek did to Israel. You can read what Amalek did to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 25. 400 years earlier. Now God says, you go wipe them out.

[John Weaver] I want you to understand, this was an offensive war. God commended this war. There are times when God commands us to fight. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles chapter 5. 1 Chronicles chapter 5. Let's begin reading there with verse 18. I'm just showing you in Scripture, it would be a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight. In 1 Chronicles chapter 5, beginning there with verse 18, notice what the Scripture says. 1 Chronicles 5 verse 18, the sons of Reuben and the Gaddites and half-tribe of Manasseh A valiant men were able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow and stifle in war were 440,703 score that went out to war. Now watch what these men did. And they made war with the Hagarites, with Jeter and Nephish and Nodab. And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand. And all they that were with them, for they cried to God in battle, and He was entreated of them, because they put their trust in Him.

[John Weaver] And they took away their cattle, of their camels fifty thousand, of their sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and asses two thousand, and men a hundred thousand. Now watch, for there fell down many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their steds until the captivity." Have you ever stopped to think it was God that ordered the inhabitants of Canaan to be destroyed? It was God that ordered the destruction and the annihilation of Jericho. Not only did God ordain these wars, but God also sustained, supported, and encouraged His people who fought in those wars.

[John Weaver] Here's what Moses said to Joshua. Moses knew that he was not going to go over and lead the people into the Promised Land. So in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 24, Moses said to Joshua, and he shall deliver their kings into thine hand. That is, he, God, shall deliver thy kings into thy hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven. There shall no man be able to stand before thee until thou have destroyed them." So I said, Joshua, don't be concerned. God's going to take care of this. When you get to Joshua chapter 1 in verse 5, here's what God says to Joshua. There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses. So will I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And then when you get to Joshua 10 in verse 8, it cannot be any plainer. For the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand, and there shall not a man of them stand before thee.

[John Weaver] Wow. So God not only ordained many wars, but He sustained and supported and encouraged His people who fought in those wars. So obviously we should understand that it would be a sin to disobey God. God spoke to Israel, and they had to fight. If they refused to fight, it would have been sin. That's exactly what Numbers 32, verse 23 is all about. I've heard people say, but Bro. Weaver, if God told me to fight, then I would fight. Really? Well, may I tell you that God has spoken to you, but He has spoken through His Word. The Word of God gives us truth. He still commands us to fight. And there are truths and there are times for which we must be willing to fight and even to die. For instance, do you realize in Psalm 94 and verse 16, God asked this question, who will rise up for me against the workers of iniquity and who will stand for me against the evildoers? Wow. Now, if God wants you to stand against the evildoers, if God wants you to rise up against the workers of iniquity, what is that with fighting?

[John Weaver] What is that with war? If God wants us to stand, if God wants us to fight, obviously, we must fight. In other words, we're to do everything that we can to incapacitate the evil, to expose the wicked, and to bring them down. You remember the quote that was attributed to Edmund Burke? It went like this, the only thing necessary For the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. In Psalm 97, verse 10, the Bible says you that love the Lord hate evil. In Amos 5, verse 15, he says, hate the evil and love the good. So here's my question. If you love the Lord, are you going to defend him? Are you going to fight for him? If you love the good, are you going to fight for the good? Are you going to stand for that which is evil and wicked? Here's another excellent quote.

[John Weaver] Let me give it to you. I want you to think about this. It's an anonymous quote. I don't know who said it, but it is really very practical. It goes like this. When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one, an unpitted sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. Stop and think about that. When bad men combine, good men must associate. And that's the truth. We must get together and stand together.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you, I believe that there are times and I'll share some of these with you from the Bible. I believe that there are times that we will have to fight physically. But not all fighting is physical fighting. There's spiritual fighting, there's mental fighting, there's emotional fighting, there's cultural fighting. When we think about fighting, we normally think about physical fighting. If I were to ask you, How many of you godly Christian men really want to be in a war and shed a lot of blood? None of you. I have no desire to be in a war. I have no desire to kill anybody or I don't even want to harm anybody or hurt anybody. Don't want to. But here's the thing I want to point out. If we refuse to fight in the areas that do not require physical fighting, then eventually our refusal to fight spiritually, culturally, politically, will ultimately involve physical fighting if we fail in those areas. I want to ask you a question. If you will not fight in an easy arena, if you will not fight when it does not require physically fighting, What makes you think that you would fight when it comes down to a physical fight?

[John Weaver] I want to show you something. This is a very, very important truth. When we refuse to do what is right spiritually, One of the results is we'll end up with war, we'll end up with physical fighting. I want you to look in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 16. 2 Chronicles chapter 16. And let's begin reading there in verse 7. 2 Chronicles 16. And note if you would please there with verse 7. And look what Hanani the seer tells King Asa. 2nd Chronicles 16 verse 7. And at that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubans a very huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.

[John Weaver] For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward them. Herein thou hast done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth thou shalt have wars." Did you hear what he said? You could have depended upon the Lord to work things out like you did earlier with the Ethiopians, but you didn't do that. You hadn't violated the word of God and hired the heathen to help you. You wouldn't fight spiritually. You wouldn't fight culturally.

[John Weaver] Consequently now, you're going to end up fighting physically. As you read through the Bible, you're going to find one principle truth, and that is this. Whenever a people obeyed and honored God, God always gave them peace. And whenever a people disobeyed and dishonored God, God always gave them war. So if we will not fight when it is easy to fight, what makes you think that you're going to fight when it's very difficult and very hard? If we won't stand spiritually and culturally and politically and educationally in all of these arenas, what makes you think you're going to pick up an AR and AK and run out and slop in mud and rain and cold and sleet and snow and fight?

[John Weaver] Here's what Jeremiah said, Jeremiah chapter 12 and verse 5. Think about this. Jeremiah 12, verse 5. He said, If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, How canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace wherein thou trustest, they weary thee, how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan? So I said, if you can't keep up with the footman, what makes you think you're going to keep up with the horses? If you can't do what's right when it's easy without the land flooding, what makes you think you're going to do what's right when it's very difficult? You see, one of the areas that we should be engaged in, in fighting right now, is for our Christian culture. You know what culture is? Culture is religion externalized. Culture is usually defined as the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people at a particular time. Now, our nation was founded on Christian principles. That does not mean that every individual in this country at that time were Christians.

[John Weaver] But it does mean it was founded upon Christian principles. And we're slowly and steadily and surely losing every vestige of that Christian culture. For instance, the hordes of immigrants from all walks of life and all religions and all political beliefs or crowding into this country, and they're detrimental to our way of life and our culture. I just read today in Marseille, France. You know what the dominant language is? Arabic. French is second.

[John Weaver] There's so many Muslims there. What is happening is our country is being inundated with all of these people and they do not wish to learn or submit or integrate into our way of life. Rather, what they demand is that we accommodate them and then submit to their culture and their religion. For example, Islam is a political religion and it wants nothing to do with the Bible or with the Constitution of Christian America. In fact, they tell you point-blank what they want to do is dominate America, subdue America to Sharia law.

[John Weaver] Here's an article, and I'm going to quote it. Abu Muzza, a spokesman for the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, told the media in a video interview posted online Thursday, don't be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead, send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House," he added. My initial response to their threat of raising the flag of Allah in the White House is nothing but buffoonery. They're too late.

[John Weaver] Obama's already beat them to it. One news article reported this.

[John Weaver] Now listen, this surprised me. Opposition to illegal immigration is higher in New England than in much of the rest of the country, according to the Reuters poll of mid-July. 76% of people in the region said undocumented immigrants threatened American beliefs and customs compared to 70% nationally. 70% nationally is opposed to it? 76% in the New England states? And yet, the truth is we're being overrun with people from all over the world who simply walk across our border and demand that we support them, educate them, sustain them in their every need, and then they demand that we bow to their gods and their customs and their ways. This may shock you, but World Net Daily reported on August the 9th, 2014, listen to this, for the first time ever, United States public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children. So according to World Net Daily, on August the 9th, this fall, there's a greater, greater number of Hispanics in public schools than there are white people.

[John Weaver] I want you to turn in your Bibles. To the book of Isaiah, chapter one, I want to show you something. Isaiah, chapter one. This happened to Israel. It's happening today, Isaiah one. Look at you would please at verse seven. Here's part of God's judgment. Look what he said. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Ferguson, Detroit, your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devoured in your presence. It is desolate as overthrown by strangers. Wow. Let me tell you something, folks, if we cannot limit or control immigrants, if we cannot have the say as to who's allowed in this country and who's not allowed, then obviously we cannot preserve our lives, our country, our culture, or our people.

[John Weaver] If we were attacked by an invading army, we would resist, we would defend ourselves any way we could. What is the difference between resisting an invading army that has been on subjugating us and an immense swarm of aliens that will do exactly the same thing by destroying our culture, our race, our economy and our religion? Stop and think about that. Do you realize it is the right of individuals and families and states, as well as nations, to fight against their own destruction. We didn't have to fight or be destroyed. Israel was warned by God concerning their unique culture. Israel was to be a unique and a special people.

[John Weaver] They were not to intermingle or intermarry with the pagans in the land. They were to preserve their culture. If they did not preserve their culture, they would be destroyed by the pagans. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 33, and let's begin reading there with verse 51. Numbers 33 and verse 51. Watch carefully. Numbers 33, verse 51, and we'll read through verse 56. Look what God tells them. Speaking to the children of Israel and said to them, when you're passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you.

[John Weaver] destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places. And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell therein, for I have given you the land to possess it. And you shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families. And to the more you shall give the more inheritance, to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. Every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth.

[John Weaver] According to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come to pass that those which you let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell. More of it shall come to pass that I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto them."

[John Weaver] You don't preserve your culture, you don't preserve your faith, you'll be destroyed just like them. And I just thought today, None other than Nancy Pelosi is appointing a Muslim to some chair on Homeland Security. And look at all the Muslims that are already there in the White House. I'm just going to be pointing out the fact it's obvious our leaders are not concerned about our country at all. And if we don't get concerned, we're not going to have a country. And if we're not willing to fight culturally, educationally, politically, spiritually, while we can, then ultimately we're going to end up fighting physically.

[John Weaver] Now, let me go ahead and give you the second point tonight in this. One, it is a sin to refuse to fight. It's a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight, and you refuse to do so. Secondly, it is a sin to refuse to fight when lives are in jeopardy. If you'll go back in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 23 again, I want you to look, if you would, carefully, or Numbers 32 it is, Numbers 32, look carefully if you would please at what was said beginning there in verse 20.

[John Weaver] And Moses said unto them, remember now he's talking to Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh. And Moses said unto them, if you will do this thing, if you will go over arm before the Lord, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord. Then afterward you shall return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, for this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out."

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to notice something. There was nothing in this text concerning Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, just simply praying for their brethren and wishing them well. God didn't say, if you're going to sit over here, you better do a lot of praying. You better really pray for your brethren while they're fighting. No, He didn't say that. Nor did He say, Don't sit over here and wish them well and just hope that somehow they'll have victory. No. God said if you don't get up and go over there and help fight and preserve their lives, it is your sin. Now, I'm certainly not against praying. And if I'm going to be fighting physically, I can assure you I'm going to be praying. And the more people that I could get to pray for me while I'm fighting physically, the better I'd like it. But what God is telling us here is there is a time to pray and there's a time to fight. Praying and fighting might mix well as you're fighting.

[John Weaver] But praying is absolutely useless when you're supposed to be fighting and you're refusing to fight. Let me show you, look in your Bibles in Numbers chapter 25. Everyone is familiar with this passage. Numbers 25, let's begin reading there verse one. Numbers 25, verse one. Here's what happened. And Israel abode in Shittim. and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of moab And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined themselves unto Baal Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of this people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.

[John Weaver] So you know the story now. They were committing fornication. They were worshipping Baal Peor. God says you hang everyone that's been involved in this. Now watch verse 5. And Moses said, And the judges of Israel slay you, every one of his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. and he is the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, so he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both him through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly so the plague was saved from the children of Israel. So those that died in the plague were 24,000. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thine is the Son of Eliezer, the Silver, and the priest, and turn my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consume not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

[John Weaver] Wherefore, say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel." Now, I want you to look back in your Bibles, if you would please, to verse 6. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So where were Moses and Aaron?

[John Weaver] Where were all the leaders? Well, they were weeping, that is, they were praying before the door of the tabernacle. And evidently, Phinehas was there as well. And when this man brought this Midianitish woman into the camp, Linnaeus stopped praying, stopped weeping, and got up and went and killed both of them. And God said, he stopped the plague. 24,000 people had died until he took care of those two wicked individuals. Why did God give him the covenant of peace? Why did God say your family is going to have this? Because he was zealous for the Lord God of Israel and he fought when he needed to fight. So there's a time to pray and there's a time to fight. God blessed Phineas for his fighting. There are times when fighting is absolutely demanded and absolutely necessary.

[John Weaver] David was a fighter and a warrior, and you have to remember that he was a man after God's own heart. He fought the Lord's battles. In 1 Samuel 25, verse 28, Abigail said this, I pray thee forgive the trespass that thine hand made, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house, because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all these days. Please understand that David was fighting physically. He was destroying the Philistines and all those that fought against the Lord and His people. David was a mighty warrior, and David learned to fight under the protection and the blessings of God. Even when he went out to face Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, verse 47, he said this, And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saith not with spear nor sword, for the battle is the Lord's. And He'll give you another hand. David leaned upon the Lord. David trusted in the Lord. And David learned that God was indeed his protection.

[John Weaver] In fact, God preserved David wherever he went. I ran across this phrase and I looked it up and I thought, I wonder how many times that occurs in the Bible. It occurs four times. I want you to listen to this. This is astounding. 2 Samuel 8, verse 6. Just listen. Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts. And the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went." 2 Samuel 8 verse 14, And he put garrisons in Edom, throughout all Edom put he garrisons. And all the Edom became David's servants, and the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went. 1 Chronicles 18 verse 6, Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became David's servants, and brought gifts. Thus the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went. 1 Chronicles 18.13, And he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the Lord preserved David, wheresoever he went. Four times. The Bible says the Lord preserved David.

[John Weaver] Think of all the battles that he fought. How did he come out of those battles alive? God preserved him. God preserved him. Have you ever stopped to think of the absolute necessity of God's preserving power in a time of war? I remember when I was in boot camp, this was many, many moons ago, because we used M1s. I remember they took us out to show us a field of fire at night.

[John Weaver] And we had two BARs. The rest of them were just M1s. It was an 11-man squad. And of course, you know, you had your cross sections of fire. And you had the two BARs on the end, each end. And all these M1s like this, every fifth bullet was a tracer. Just every fifth. And I remember when that firing commenced, all you could see was a solid sheet of red.

[John Weaver] And I thought to myself, oh, Lord, how does anyone ever make it through that? I mean, look at the multitudes that did. How did David make it through all those sword fights, and all those arrows miss him, and all those spears miss him? The Lord preserved David whether so ever he went. That's why David later on in Psalm 24 and verse 8 wrote this, Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Consequently, David acknowledged and confessed that it was God that sustained and helped him in all the battles. He said in 2 Samuel chapter 22 and verse 40, For thou hast girded me with strength to the battle, and them that rose up under me thou hast subdued.

[John Weaver] I want to submit something to you. I want you to think about this, folks. We have a problem in this country. We have a problem in America. We have a problem in our churches. And all the problems that we have in our country and in our nation and in our churches stems from an individual problem. And that is we have lost a warrior spirit and a fighting spirit. We've lost it.

[John Weaver] We're unwilling to face our enemies. We're unwilling to engage our enemies. In fact, most people are just plain scared and unwilling to fight. Anyway, Culturally, educationally, spiritually. I'm not sure that we understand the impact of what I just said. Because when God commends us to fight and we refuse to fight, and when God commends us to preserve lives and we refuse to preserve lives, we put ourselves under his curse.

[John Weaver] For instance, look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 48 and verse 10. Jeremiah 48 and verse 10. Let me tell you something about this passage as you're turning there. In this passage, God has commended the destruction of Moab. And I want you to see what he says. Jeremiah 48, look in verse 10, God says, Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood. Wow. Go back up to verse 8.

[John Weaver] And the spoiler shall come upon every city, no city shall escape, the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken. And then he says in verse 10, Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood. So God had demanded and commanded the destruction of Moab. And God said, those that I send, if you deal deceitfully and if you do not do what you're supposed to do, you are under my curse.

[John Weaver] Let me just show you what I mean when I say we've lost the warrior spirit, we've lost a fighting spirit. I think it's probably more true in the north than it is in the south, but it's coming this way in the south as well. But every day you can read the paper or listen to the news. And you find that there is an individual or a couple of individuals that are attacked by a gang or by a mob, and sometimes it's just a group of teenagers. And this individual or the two individuals are just being beaten to a bloody pulp while there are onlookers and bystanders crowding around.

[John Weaver] And the most any of them will do is either call 9-1-1 or use their cell phones to video everything. Not one will intervene, not one will try to help. What do these bystanders and onlookers do? They stand around and look. They certainly are not going to help. They're not going to get involved. They don't care whether people die or not. Brandon Smith wrote an article.

[John Weaver] Here's what he said, and he's talking about self-defense. He said this. There's a rather insane notion within modern activist movements that self-defense represents an abandonment of a higher principle. They argue that to fight is to automatically lose, And to prepare for conflict is extreme. I would say that self-defense is actually the highest principle one can value. For without the courage to physically resist tyranny, without the will required to put one's life at risk to stand against the evils of the world, all other principles will be lost.

[John Weaver] Even Gandhi, the man often idolized by pacifists and non-violent activists, recognized this fact. Now I just want to give a quote by Gandhi. I want you to listen. Here's what Gandhi said. Hence also do I advocate training in arms for those who believe in the method of violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should sit in a cowardly manner or become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor. When violence is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission." Now although Gandhi was right, I'm certainly not a follower of Gandhi.

[John Weaver] I want to follow the sovereign God of heaven and earth who has revealed himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can assure you one thing, it is never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father. So we have to ask this question, would God fight? Let me ask this question another way. Would God take lives? in order to protect his people. Would God take lives in fighting? If self-defense is wrong, if defense of a people is wrong, and if it's wicked and sinful in and of itself, then God himself certainly would not engage in it, because we know that he is the Holy One of Israel, and in him is no sin at all. Do you know what God told King Hezekiah of Judah when the Assyrians were going to come and attack? He told Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19, verse 34, For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake. and for my servant David's sake." God said, I will defend this city. He said, Hezekiah, you don't have to worry about this.

[John Weaver] I'm going to take care of Jerusalem. I'm going to undertake the defense of Jerusalem. Now, self-defense is wicked and wrong. God would never engage in it. Here's what he said in 2 Kings 20, verse 6. He tells King Hezekiah, and I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake. Wow. Here's the third time, Isaiah 31, verse 5. He says, as birds fly, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also he will deliver it, and passing over he will preserve it. Well, here it is again, Isaiah 37, 35. For I will defend this city for my own sake and my servant David's sake. Isaiah 38, verse 6. I will deliver thee of this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. Five times God said, I'm going to defend Jerusalem.

[John Weaver] Now, let me ask you a question. Since God defended Jerusalem, did God kill or take lives in the defense of Jerusalem? Oh yeah. Isaiah 37 verse 36, listen to this. Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five thousand. That's 185,000. And when they awoke in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses, or they were all dead men. That is the ones that didn't die, awoke, and they found 185,000 dead men. That's a pretty awesome figure. Now, let me ask you another question. Did God have to kill those men to save Jerusalem? No. You know what God could have done? He could have done to them exactly like he did to the Syrians. You say, what did he do to the Syrians?

[John Weaver] Well, look in your Bibles, the second Kings chapter seven, let me show you. I love this passage. 2 Kings chapter 7. Let's begin reading there verse 3. 2 Kings 7 and verse 3. 2 Kings 7 verse 3. And there were four lepers men entering into the gate, and they said one to another, why sit we here till we die? Jerusalem was being besieged, Samaria it was, was being besieged by the Syrians.

[John Weaver] And starvation was stalking the city. And by the way, the lepers couldn't go inside the city, so what they lived off of, basically, was the garbage that was thrown over the wall. Well, no garbage was being thrown over the wall. So they say, if we say we will enter the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit here, we shall die also.

[John Weaver] Now therefore, come and let us fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall die. And the Lord said, you're not going to be any more dead. And they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their ants, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life." All God did was to cause him to hear sound. He never had to kill one Syrian, but he killed 185,000 Assyrians.

[John Weaver] So could God have saved Jerusalem without taking the lives of the Assyrians? Yes. Did He do so? No. Is anyone going to be so blasphemous and so wicked as to charge God with murder? God does not violate His own law. God is the infinitely Holy One. We have to understand that life and death is in the hands of the Lord. He does as he pleases, he does as he chooses. David himself confessed in Psalm 7 verse 10, my defense is of God who sitted the upright in heart. You read through the book of Psalms, over and over David says the Lord is our defense, the Holy One of Israel is our King. You can take note of the fact that God is our defense and we can rightly conclude just like God defended His people in the Old Testament, He defends His people today. Moreover, He defends His honor and His glory and His kingdom.

[John Weaver] It's never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father. When lives must be taken in lawful self-defense or defense of others, it is not murder. It's obedience to God and His laws. You remember when Jonathan and his armor-bearer showed themselves to those Philistines in 1 Samuel chapter 14, the Philistines invited Jonathan and his armor bearer to come unto them. Jonathan said, the Lord has delivered them into our hands. And Jonathan took out his sword and began to slay the Philistines.

[John Weaver] And he slew up to about 20 of them. And I want you to listen to this. The Lord then sent an earthquake. And he caused the Philistines to tremble in fear. And they then turned and began to slay each other. And 1 Samuel 14 and verse 23 says this, So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over to Bethphagen. Let me tell you, God killed more in the earthquake than Jonathan did or any of the Israelitish army. God took them out. David oftentimes relied upon the Lord for wisdom, for direction. One time the Philistines had assembled themselves to attack. David said, shall I go up and attack them?

[John Weaver] He had done so previously and won. In 1 Chronicles 14, verses 14 through 16, God said, no, don't do a frontal assault. Go around behind them. And when you hear the wind in the top of the mulberry trees, it's me. I'm going out before you. Just follow on and you'll take care of them. That's exactly what he did. Did you know in 1st Samuel chapter 23, David heard that Keilah was being attacked by the Philistines. Now listen, David didn't have anything in Keilah, but the Philistines were attacking that city. Here it is, Then they told David, said, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they robbed the threshing floors. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said unto David, Go and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. David didn't have any family there. But they needed help. So God said, you go take care of it. You go smite those Philistines and you say heal. It is lawful to fight against those who are wicked and maliciously attacking others.

[John Weaver] It's lawful to take life if necessary in such circumstances. We have to remember two important truths. First of all, we must remember the wickedness of the wicked. The wickedness of the wicked. The wicked think absolutely nothing of violating God's law. They think absolutely nothing of taking lives. For instance, I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly to Psalm 14 and look at verse 4. Psalm 14 and verse 4. This is an amazing, an astounding verse. Let us think deep. You have to understand what David meant in Psalm 14 and verse 4 when he's talking about the wicked. Look what he says.

[John Weaver] Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread and call upon the name of the Lord? I want you to take note, he says the wicked eat up my people as they eat bread. Oh John Gill said this on this verse, he said who eat up my people as they eat bread, not David's people but the Lord's people. whom he chose for his people, who were his covenant people, and who professed his name and were called by it. These the workers of iniquity ate up, devoured, and consumed by reproaching and by persecuting them, doing injury to their persons, property, and character. They devoured their persons by using them cruelly and putting them to death. They devoured their substance by spoiling it.

[John Weaver] it and converting it to their own use, as the Pharisees were said to devour widows' houses, and they destroyed their good names and characters with devouring words. And this they did, listen, with as much ease, delight, and pleasure, and without any remorse of conscience, as constantly as a man eats bread." Have the workers of Negrin no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread? They think nothing of devouring the saints.

[John Weaver] It's like sitting down to a meal. We need to consider the wickedness of the wicked.

[John Weaver] Secondly, we must remember that every negative has a positive. When God said thou shalt not kill, the positive is thou shalt preserve life. Let me show you two passages and I'll bring it to a close. Look at Deuteronomy, chapter 22, Deuteronomy 22. And let's begin reading there with verse 23, Deuteronomy 22 and verse 23. Deuteronomy 22 verse 23. God says this. If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed to a husband and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then you shall bring them both out of the gate of that city and you shall stone the stones that they die. The damsel because she cried not being in the city and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife, so shalt thou put evil from among you. But if the man find a betrothed damsel in the field and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lie with her shall die. But in the damsel thou shalt do nothing, there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death.

[John Weaver] For it is when a man rises up against his neighbor and slayeth him, even so it is in this matter. For he found her in the field, and the trough drowned, and so cried, and there is none to save her."

[John Weaver] Now I want you to note, the woman in the city, God says take the man and the woman and stone them with stones. The woman in the field, only the man died. Why? Well, He says in the city, because the woman She cried not. Lord, she had to be consenting to the sin. She had to be consenting to the crime or else she would have cried out.

[John Weaver] But what are the implications of that? If she had cried out, it would mean that anyone who hurt her would have had the obligation and the duty to protect her and to preserve her. The woman in the field was not put to death because she cried. There was none to hear. There was no one to deliver her. And God said, just execute the man. So preservation of life is a duty, it is an obligation.

[John Weaver] If you would look in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter seven, Acts chapter seven, very quickly, you know the story in the Old Testament. I do not know if you know it in the New Testament or not. Well, again, Acts chapter seven. And let's begin reading there with verse twenty two, Acts seven and verse twenty two. Look what the Bible says. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was a full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

[John Weaver] And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them that as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren, why do you wrong one to another? And he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? wilt thou kill me as I didst the Egyptian yesterday?

[John Weaver] Then fled Moses at the same, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he beget two sons." Now, interestingly, Moses is not condemned in the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament, for killing this Egyptian and defending the Hebrew. In fact, you could say that God commended him because he listed him in the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. Now, when Moses fled, he was not fleeing because he violated God's law. He was fleeing because a wicked, reprobate ruler, Pharaoh, was seeking to kill him for doing that which was right.

[John Weaver] And by the way, his flight was also an act of self-defense as well, because flight is a legitimate means of preserving your life. And so he fled. Moses protected his brother. He preserved life, and it's right to preserve life.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make just a couple of applications, and I do want you to turn in your Bibles to Amos chapter six and verse one. Here's the first application, but you've just got to see this verse in its context. Look in Amos chapter six, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Amos 6, verse 1. Look at this. In this passage, God condemns those that are at ease in Zion when they should be fighting. Amos 6, verse 1. God says, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came." Now, wait a minute. Here's what I want you to see. Woe to them that are these in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom. The mountain of Samaria would be the government there. Wow. So he says, Woe to them that are these in Zion that trust in the government of Samaria. What?

[John Weaver] You know, Seems to me like I've heard this before. We don't have to be defensive or learn self-defense or to prepare. I mean, the government's going to protect us. The government's going to feed us. The government's going to house us. The government's going to take care of our medical needs. And when we're in trouble, all we got to do is call 9-1-1. Yeah, that's true. And when you call 9-1-1 and you need immediate help, they're only 20 minutes away, or 30, or an hour. Or in light of a total breakup of society, they're never coming.

[John Weaver] One of the reasons I am. Samaritan's Capitol. In Zechariah 1 verse 12, listen to this. And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. Now God said, I will punish those that are settled on their lees. L-E-E-S. I'm sure you don't know what lees are, but the lees are the refuse of the wine. It always settled to the bottom. And if you left the wine on its lees, it became extremely bitter. It was defiled. And God says these men that sit back and become hardened and stiffened in their sin and their rebellion and their unwillfulness to obey me. Shall be destroyed. It is a sin to fight when God forbids you to fight. It is a sin to fight if there is not a biblical principle and a biblical reason to fight. But it is a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight or when lives are in danger or biblical principles are to be upheld.

[John Weaver] Next time you hear someone say, be sure your sin will find you out, you ask them, which sin? Because that is talking about the sin of refusing to fight, and by the way, That's the sin of most Christians, most preachers, most churches. We want to be so sweet and so sinless. I've got a message. I'm not going to preach it tonight, but I've got a message. And the title of it is, Comest thou peaceably? Did you know that when Samuel, the little prophet Samuel, when he went to Bethlehem to offer the sacrifice, Before he ever got the death of him, they sent a committee out to him and they asked him, Comest thou peaceably? Why would you ask a preacher? Why are you coming peaceably? Well, if you read 1 Samuel 15, little Samuel just took a sword and hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord and cut him up in little tidbits. And they were afraid he was coming to do that to some of them. Comest thou peaceably? Can you imagine? You're a pastor.

[John Weaver] Going to the local city council or county council meeting, and before he ever gets on the step, somebody runs up to him and says, preacher, are you coming peaceably? Oh. The problem is our enemies know that we will not fight. And it's our sin. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask you for your blessing and your help. Teach us to go to the supper of the most holy faith. Give us grace to serve Thee, we pray, in Christ's name, Amen.

The Sin of Refusing to Fight

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	114152202310
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Obedience, Disobedience, and National Judgment
Genre	Sermon
Date	2015-01-14
Dictation Name
Book	Book 047: The Sin of Refusing to Fight — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	98

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: The Sin of Refusing to Fight

Weaver introduces Numbers 32:23, stating that while fighting can be sinful in rebellion, refusing to fight when God commands is also sin.

The title of the message tonight is "The Sin of Refusing to Fight." I want you to look at Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23. Numbers 32 and verse 23. I'm just going to read one verse right now; we're going to come back and pick up the context momentarily. Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23, where Moses said,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:23

"But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out."

Well, hopefully the title of this message not only piques your curiosity, but also grabs your attention as well. When one talks about the sin of refusing to fight, it's absolutely contrary to the thinking of everyday people. Most people believe it's a sin to fight. Well, truthfully speaking, fighting can be a sin, especially when it's done in rebellion to God and His law. But however, when it's done in obedience to God and His word, it is not a sin. So when God commands us to fight and we do not fight, it is a sin.

God Determines Right and Wrong, Not Situation Ethics

God's Word and law define right and wrong; Moses warned Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh that not fighting would be sin.

Now, the statement has absolutely nothing to do with situation ethics, where people say the situation determines whether or not it's right or wrong. No. The truth is, God is the one that determines right and wrong, and He does so by His word and His law. In Numbers chapter 32, which I'm going to show you just a little bit later, Moses is making it clear to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh that if they do not fight, it is a sin, and their sin will find them out.

Biblical Seasons for War

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 shows there is a time for war and killing; 2 Samuel 11:1 indicates seasonal warfare in spring or fall.

Now, I want you to hold Numbers 32 and look in your Bibles very quickly to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And let's read there verses 1 through 8. Watch carefully, if you would, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. Right after the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes 3. Notice it would be beginning there with verse 1. Solomon writes,

Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"To everything there is a season."

Note that,

Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down

and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, a time to lose; a time to keep, a time to cast away; a time to rend, a time to sew; a time to keep silent, a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace." So notice if you would, he says in verse 1, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." In verse 3 he mentions there's a time to kill. And then, of course, in verse 8, there is a time of war. So obviously, then, God is stating that in everything there is indeed a season. Do you remember in 2 Samuel 11, verse 1, the Bible says, "And it came to pass at the time that the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, David tarried at Jerusalem."

So based upon this text, obviously it does appear that there was a time for fighting and a time for war in the Old Testament, and it wasn't just seasonal. Usually the time of fighting in the Old Testament, and the New Testament as well, would have been either spring or fall. I want to give you just a quick quote by John Gill on this statement, and he says this, "...a fit time to go out to war, when, as the commentators observed, the rains were over, and there were grass in the fields, and fruit on the trees, and corn ripe, and so food for horse and his men. This month was called Nisan, the military banners then erected. So by the Romans it is called Marchus, and by us March from Mars, the god of war. And though some take this to be the month of Tisri, entering the part of September and part of October, when all the fruits of the earth were gathered in, it is supposed to be a fit time for war, when the heat of the year was declining."

So obviously, they did have seasonal warfare in the Old Testament. It was either in the spring, normally, or in the fall as well. There may have been seasons of fighting and seasons of war. But the truth of the matter is, necessity oftentimes dictated when you fought. Because if you were attacked, you just simply fought. Because it was a matter of life and death as well. It was a fight or die situation.

Context of Numbers 32: The Tribes' Request

Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh wanted land east of Jordan; Moses said if they refused to help fight, they sinned.

I suppose the New Testament passage that would correlate to that concept would be Galatians 6, 7, and 8. Where the word of God says, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." So, when you just quote this verse, and you hear preachers quote it all the time,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"Be sure your sins will find you out."

Have you ever thought about this in the context? And have you ever wondered what particular sin it was that Moses was saying was going to find these people out? Well, let's look in Numbers chapter 32 and verse 20. Remember, and I'll show you this a little bit later. He's talking to the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He says in verse 20,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"And Moses said to them, If you will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until ye have driven out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord, and afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if ye will not do so,"

that is, if you will not go over armed, if you will not fight, if you will not do so,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"'Behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and your sin shall find you out.'"

Interesting. You see, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh asked for their inheritance on the east side of Jordan. This was the land of Og and Sihon. If you look in Numbers, chapter 32, beginning there with verse 1,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle. When they saw the land of Jazer, the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying, Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, the half-tribe of Manasseh was in there too, Shall your brethren go to war, and you sit still?"

Now all of the children of Israel had fought to conquer the lands of Og and Sihon. You can read all about that in Deuteronomy chapter 2 and chapter 3 because those two chapters record how God gave this land to the children of Israel. So now it appears that the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh want to sit still and sit it out while the rest of the Israelites cross over Jordan and go in and fight and possess the land and dispossess their enemies there. Well, Moses said, look, your neighbors put their lives in jeopardy to get this land. And you think you're going to sit here and let them fight? Moses clearly says, if you refuse to help, it's going to be sin on your part. If you refuse to fight, it's going to be sin on your part. In fact, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. So the only alternative to sinning, in Numbers 32 and verse 23, was to go over armed before the Lord and actually fight.

When It Is a Sin to Fight

Fighting is sin when contrary to God's command (Numbers 14:40-45) or for unbiblical reasons like coveting resources.

Because then that is rebellion. If you look in your Bibles, Numbers chapter 14, and let's begin reading there with verse 40. Numbers 14 and verse 40. Here's an interesting thing. God had told Israel to fight. And they refused to fight because, you remember the twelve spies came back, only Joshua and Caleb brought an honest report. The other ten said, oh, no, no, no. Man, those people are great, big giants, and we were as grasshoppers in their sights, and no, it's a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And they brought back an evil report. Here's what happened. They refused to fight when God told them to go fight. God said, very well, your carcasses are going to fall in the wilderness. You're going to die, every one of you. You're not going to enter into that land. And your children whom you said would be victims, they're the ones that are going to get the land. Now after they refused to obey God when God had told them to go in and fight, and God told them they're going to die in the wilderness, now all of a sudden they change their mind and decide they're going to fight.

Now watch it. Numbers chapter 14 verse 40,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 14:40-45

"And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and we'll go up into the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned."

Now watch.

Scripture Reading — Numbers 14:40-45

"And Moses said, Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that you be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword, because you are turned away from the Lord. Therefore the Lord will not be with you."

"But they presumed to go up into the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which were up in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them even unto Hormah." Isn't that amazing? God told them to fight, and they wouldn't fight. And God judged them for their disobedience. Now God tells them not to fight, and they say, we're going to fight. And so they're disobedient again. They're in rebellion to God. So it's a sin then to fight when God says, no, you're not going to fight. Do you understand that there are some people that God forbade Israel to fight against? In fact, there were times when God said, you are not going to make war with certain people. Turn in your Bibles very quickly to Deuteronomy chapter 2. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and look at verses 3-9. Deuteronomy chapter 2 beginning there with verse 3. God tells Israel, "You have compassed this mountain long enough, turn you northward." Verse 4, "And command thou the people, saying, You are to pass through the coast of your brethren, the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir.

And they shall be afraid of you, take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore." Now look what he says, "Meddle not with them, for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth, because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for possession. You shall buy meat of them for money, that you may eat, and you also shall buy water of them for money, that you may drink." "For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all thy works of thy hand. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness these forty years. The Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing. And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath and from Ezion-gaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And the Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give thee of their land for possession, because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for possession." So there are times when God says, no, you're not going to fight.

That's all there is to it. And so when you say, what is the sin to fight when God forbids you to fight, when there are plain commands and plain principles in the Word of God? I believe there's another answer as to when it's a sin to fight, and that would be this. It would be a sin and wicked and wrong to fight when you are fighting for unbiblical and unscriptural reasons. Well, I say that, have you ever considered that most wars, and I'd probably say 99% of 100, are wars over resources? For instance, all you have to do is look how one nation desires and covets after what another nation has. Look at all the wars and the people that have been killed over oil, gold, diamonds, and other precious resources. Our American empire has sought to justify intrusions and police actions and wars in other countries. However, the truth of the matter is there's usually absolutely no justification for our wars in these other countries. They're not only unconstitutional, they're unbiblical as well. So you have to understand that when we are trying to fight for unbiblical reasons, it would be a sin.

And just to have an empire, just to be able to dominate and control other people and other nations would be a sin as well. If there was no biblical reason to fight, then, of course, it would be sin. And let me give you something for your consideration. You stop and think of all the military men, all the politicians, and all the money-hungry citizens in this country and other countries that have fomented wars and started wars just so they could gain power and prestige and money. And I can assure you of one thing, they will answer to God for every individual that died and for all their covetousness and all of their sins. So it is a sin then to fight when God forbids us to fight. Or it's a sin to fight for unbiblical and unconstitutional reasons. Let me just try to, tonight, answer this next question. When is it a sin to refuse to fight?

When It Is a Sin to Refuse to Fight: God Commands It

God commanded wars (Numbers 31, 1 Samuel 15); refusing is sin. God still commands standing against evil (Psalm 94:16).

Have you ever stopped to think about that? That's what Numbers 32, verse 23 is all about. The sin of refusing to fight. So let me put it like this. First of all, it is a sin to refuse to fight when God has commanded us to fight. Now, there are instances in the Word of God where God commanded His people to fight. These wars are known in Scripture as the wars of the Lord. You say, well, how many wars of the Lord were there? I don't really know, but I know this, there were a sufficient number of them to be a book, because Numbers 21 and verse 14 says this, "Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, what he did at the Red Sea, in the brooks of Arnon." Nope. "Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord." So the Lord does engage in war, and he sends his people to war. He commands his people to fight many times. For instance, if you look in the book of Numbers chapter 31 very quickly, Numbers chapter 31, look at what he says to Moses.

Numbers 31, beginning there, verse 1,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 31:1-7

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites, and afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spoke unto the people, and saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel shall you send to the war. So there were delivered out of thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war with the holy instruments, and with the trumpets in his hand. And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males."

God initiated this war. God told Moses, you arm the people and go over and take care of the Midianites. By the way, this was not necessarily a defensive war, this was an offensive war.

It's true the Midianites had seduced them, that's true. And they fell into the idolatry and the worship of Baal Peor, that is true. But now God says, look, that's over, and that was dealt with, but now you take care of these Midianites. I want you to turn in your Bibles very quickly to 1 Samuel, chapter 15. 1 Samuel, chapter 15. Let me show it to you again. Here is a time when God commanded His people to fight. 1 Samuel, chapter 15, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. 1 Samuel 15, verse 1. "Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel.

Now therefore, hearken thou to the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus said the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they had, and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox, sheep, camel, and ass." "And Saul gathered the people together, numbered them, and told them, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah." Notice if you would please, the Bible says God sent Saul against the Amalekites. And what did God say? "I remember that which Amalek did to Israel." You can read what Amalek did to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 25. 400 years earlier. Now God says, you go wipe them out.

I want you to understand, this was an offensive war. God commanded this war. There are times when God commands us to fight. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles chapter 5. 1 Chronicles chapter 5. Let's begin reading there with verse 18. I'm just showing you in Scripture, it would be a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight. In 1 Chronicles chapter 5, beginning there with verse 18, notice what the Scripture says. 1 Chronicles 5 verse 18, "The sons of Reuben and the Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow and skillful in war, were four and forty thousand seven hundred and threescore that went out to war." Now watch what these men did. "And they made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur and Nephish and Nodab. And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand. And all they that were with them, for they cried to God in battle, and He was entreated of them, because they put their trust in Him.

And they took away their cattle, of their camels fifty thousand, of their sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and asses two thousand, and men a hundred thousand. Now watch, for there fell down many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their steads until the captivity." Have you ever stopped to think it was God that ordered the inhabitants of Canaan to be destroyed? It was God that ordered the destruction and the annihilation of Jericho. Not only did God ordain these wars, but God also sustained, supported, and encouraged His people who fought in those wars. Here's what Moses said to Joshua. Moses knew that he was not going to go over and lead the people into the Promised Land. So in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 24, Moses said to Joshua, "And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand." That is, he, God, shall deliver thy kings into thy hand, "and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven. There shall no man be able to stand before thee until thou have destroyed them." So I said, Joshua, don't be concerned. God's going to take care of this. When you get to Joshua chapter 1 in verse 5, here's what God says to Joshua. "There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses. So will I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." And then when you get to Joshua 10 in verse 8, it cannot be any plainer. "For the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand, and there shall not a man of them stand before thee."

Wow. So God not only ordained many wars, but He sustained and supported and encouraged His people who fought in those wars. So obviously we should understand that it would be a sin to disobey God. God spoke to Israel, and they had to fight. If they refused to fight, it would have been sin. That's exactly what Numbers 32, verse 23 is all about. I've heard people say, "But Bro. Weaver, if God told me to fight, then I would fight." Really? Well, may I tell you that God has spoken to you, but He has spoken through His Word. The Word of God gives us truth. He still commands us to fight. And there are truths and there are times for which we must be willing to fight and even to die. For instance, do you realize in Psalm 94 and verse 16, God asked this question, "Who will rise up for me against the workers of iniquity and who will stand for me against the evildoers?" Wow. Now, if God wants you to stand against the evildoers, if God wants you to rise up against the workers of iniquity, what is that with fighting?

Spiritual and Cultural Fighting Precedes Physical

Refusing to fight spiritually/culturally leads to physical war (2 Chronicles 16:7-9); if we won't fight in easy arenas, we won't fight when hard.

Now, let me tell you, I believe that there are times and I'll share some of these with you from the Bible. I believe that there are times that we will have to fight physically. But not all fighting is physical fighting. There's spiritual fighting, there's mental fighting, there's emotional fighting, there's cultural fighting. When we think about fighting, we normally think about physical fighting. If I were to ask you, how many of you godly Christian men really want to be in a war and shed a lot of blood? None of you. I have no desire to be in a war. I have no desire to kill anybody or I don't even want to harm anybody or hurt anybody. Don't want to. But here's the thing I want to point out. If we refuse to fight in the areas that do not require physical fighting, then eventually our refusal to fight spiritually, culturally, politically, will ultimately involve physical fighting if we fail in those areas. I want to ask you a question. If you will not fight in an easy arena, if you will not fight when it does not require physically fighting, what makes you think that you would fight when it comes down to a physical fight?

I want to show you something. This is a very, very important truth. When we refuse to do what is right spiritually, one of the results is we'll end up with war, we'll end up with physical fighting. I want you to look in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 16. 2 Chronicles chapter 16. And let's begin reading there in verse 7. 2 Chronicles 16. And note if you would please there with verse 7. And look what Hanani the seer tells King Asa. 2 Chronicles 16 verse 7. "And at that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth thou shalt have wars." Did you hear what he said? You could have depended upon the Lord to work things out like you did earlier with the Ethiopians, but you didn't do that. You hadn't violated the word of God and hired the heathen to help you. You wouldn't fight spiritually. You wouldn't fight culturally.

Consequently now, you're going to end up fighting physically. As you read through the Bible, you're going to find one principle truth, and that is this. Whenever a people obeyed and honored God, God always gave them peace. And whenever a people disobeyed and dishonored God, God always gave them war. So if we will not fight when it is easy to fight, what makes you think that you're going to fight when it's very difficult and very hard? If we won't stand spiritually and culturally and politically and educationally in all of these arenas, what makes you think you're going to pick up an AR and AK and run out and slop in mud and rain and cold and sleet and snow and fight? Here's what Jeremiah said, Jeremiah chapter 12 and verse 5. Think about this. Jeremiah 12, verse 5. He said,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 12:5

"If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace wherein thou trustest, they weary thee, how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?"

So I said, if you can't keep up with the footmen, what makes you think you're going to keep up with the horses? If you can't do what's right when it's easy without the land flooding, what makes you think you're going to do what's right when it's very difficult? You see, one of the areas that we should be engaged in, in fighting right now, is for our Christian culture. You know what culture is? Culture is religion externalized. Culture is usually defined as the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people at a particular time. Now, our nation was founded on Christian principles. That does not mean that every individual in this country at that time were Christians.

Preserving Culture and the Threat of Immigration

America's Christian culture is being lost; failure to limit immigration and preserve culture will lead to destruction (Isaiah 1:7).

But it does mean it was founded upon Christian principles. And we're slowly and steadily and surely losing every vestige of that Christian culture. For instance, the hordes of immigrants from all walks of life and all religions and all political beliefs are crowding into this country, and they're detrimental to our way of life and our culture. I just read today in Marseille, France. You know what the dominant language is? Arabic. French is second.

There's so many Muslims there. What is happening is our country is being inundated with all of these people and they do not wish to learn or submit or integrate into our way of life. Rather, what they demand is that we accommodate them and then submit to their culture and their religion. For example, Islam is a political religion and it wants nothing to do with the Bible or with the Constitution of Christian America. In fact, they tell you point-blank what they want to do is dominate America, subdue America to Sharia law. Here's an article, and I'm going to quote it. Abu Mousa, a spokesman for the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, told the media in a video interview posted online Thursday, "Don't be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead, send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House," he added. My initial response to their threat of raising the flag of Allah in the White House is nothing but buffoonery. They're too late.

Obama's already beat them to it. One news article reported this. Now listen, this surprised me. Opposition to illegal immigration is higher in New England than in much of the rest of the country, according to the Reuters poll of mid-July. 76% of people in the region said undocumented immigrants threatened American beliefs and customs compared to 70% nationally. 70% nationally is opposed to it? 76% in the New England states? And yet, the truth is we're being overrun with people from all over the world who simply walk across our border and demand that we support them, educate them, sustain them in their every need, and then they demand that we bow to their gods and their customs and their ways. This may shock you, but World Net Daily reported on August the 9th, 2014, listen to this, for the first time ever, United States public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children. So according to World Net Daily, on August the 9th, this fall, there's a greater, greater number of Hispanics in public schools than there are white people.

I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah, chapter one, I want to show you something. Isaiah, chapter one. This happened to Israel. It's happening today, Isaiah one. Look at you would please at verse seven. Here's part of God's judgment. Look what he said.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 1:7

"Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire."

Ferguson, Detroit,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 1:7

"your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devour it in your presence. It is desolate as overthrown by strangers."

Wow. Let me tell you something, folks, if we cannot limit or control immigrants, if we cannot have the say as to who's allowed in this country and who's not allowed, then obviously we cannot preserve our lives, our country, our culture, or our people.

If we were attacked by an invading army, we would resist, we would defend ourselves any way we could. What is the difference between resisting an invading army that has been on subjugating us and an immense swarm of aliens that will do exactly the same thing by destroying our culture, our race, our economy and our religion? Stop and think about that. Do you realize it is the right of individuals and families and states, as well as nations, to fight against their own destruction. We didn't have to fight or be destroyed. Israel was warned by God concerning their unique culture. Israel was to be a unique and a special people.

When It Is a Sin to Refuse to Fight: Lives Are in Jeopardy

Numbers 32 shows prayer alone is not enough; Phinehas acted to stop a plague (Numbers 25). David fought and God preserved him.

Now, let me go ahead and give you the second point tonight in this. One, it is a sin to refuse to fight. It's a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight, and you refuse to do so. Secondly, it is a sin to refuse to fight when lives are in jeopardy. If you'll go back in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 32 again, I want you to look, if you would, carefully, or Numbers 32 it is, Numbers 32, look carefully if you would please at what was said beginning there in verse 20. "And Moses said unto them," remember now he's talking to Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh. "And Moses said unto them, if you will do this thing, if you will go over armed before the Lord, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord. Then afterward you shall return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, for this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out."

Now, I want you to notice something. There was nothing in this text concerning Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, just simply praying for their brethren and wishing them well. God didn't say, if you're going to sit over here, you better do a lot of praying. You better really pray for your brethren while they're fighting. No, He didn't say that. Nor did He say, don't sit over here and wish them well and just hope that somehow they'll have victory. No. God said if you don't get up and go over there and help fight and preserve their lives, it is your sin. Now, I'm certainly not against praying. And if I'm going to be fighting physically, I can assure you I'm going to be praying. And the more people that I could get to pray for me while I'm fighting physically, the better I'd like it. But what God is telling us here is there is a time to pray and there's a time to fight. Praying and fighting might mix well as you're fighting.

But praying is absolutely useless when you're supposed to be fighting and you're refusing to fight. Let me show you, look in your Bibles in Numbers chapter 25. Everyone is familiar with this passage. Numbers 25, let's begin reading there verse one. Numbers 25, verse one. Here's what happened. "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined themselves unto Baal Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of this people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel."

So you know the story now. They were committing fornication. They were worshipping Baal Peor. God says you hang everyone that's been involved in this. Now watch verse 5. "And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one of his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. So those that died in the plague were 24,000. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

Wherefore, say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel." Now, I want you to look back in your Bibles, if you would please, to verse 6. "And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." So where were Moses and Aaron? Where were all the leaders? Well, they were weeping, that is, they were praying before the door of the tabernacle. And evidently, Phinehas was there as well. And when this man brought this Midianitish woman into the camp, Phinehas stopped praying, stopped weeping, and got up and went and killed both of them. And God said, he stopped the plague. 24,000 people had died until he took care of those two wicked individuals. Why did God give him the covenant of peace? Why did God say your family is going to have this? Because he was zealous for the Lord God of Israel and he fought when he needed to fight. So there's a time to pray and there's a time to fight. God blessed Phinehas for his fighting. There are times when fighting is absolutely demanded and absolutely necessary.

David was a fighter and a warrior, and you have to remember that he was a man after God's own heart. He fought the Lord's battles. In 1 Samuel 25, verse 28, Abigail said this, "I pray thee forgive the trespass that thine handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house, because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all these days." Please understand that David was fighting physically. He was destroying the Philistines and all those that fought against the Lord and His people. David was a mighty warrior, and David learned to fight under the protection and the blessings of God. Even when he went out to face Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, verse 47, he said this, "And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with spear nor sword, for the battle is the Lord's. And He'll give you into our hand." David leaned upon the Lord. David trusted in the Lord. And David learned that God was indeed his protection.

In fact, God preserved David wherever he went. I ran across this phrase and I looked it up and I thought, I wonder how many times that occurs in the Bible. It occurs four times. I want you to listen to this. This is astounding. 2 Samuel 8, verse 6. Just listen. "Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts. And the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went." 2 Samuel 8 verse 14, "And he put garrisons in Edom, throughout all Edom put he garrisons. And all the Edomites became David's servants, and the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went." 1 Chronicles 18 verse 6, "Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became David's servants, and brought gifts. Thus the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went." 1 Chronicles 18.13, "And he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the Lord preserved David, wheresoever he went." Four times. The Bible says the Lord preserved David.

Think of all the battles that he fought. How did he come out of those battles alive? God preserved him. God preserved him. Have you ever stopped to think of the absolute necessity of God's preserving power in a time of war? I remember when I was in boot camp, this was many, many moons ago, because we used M1s. I remember they took us out to show us a field of fire at night.

And we had two BARs. The rest of them were just M1s. It was an 11-man squad. And of course, you know, you had your cross sections of fire. And you had the two BARs on the end, each end. And all these M1s like this, every fifth bullet was a tracer. Just every fifth. And I remember when that firing commenced, all you could see was a solid sheet of red.

And I thought to myself, oh, Lord, how does anyone ever make it through that? I mean, look at the multitudes that did. How did David make it through all those sword fights, and all those arrows miss him, and all those spears miss him? The Lord preserved David whether so ever he went. That's why David later on in Psalm 24 and verse 8 wrote this, "Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." Consequently, David acknowledged and confessed that it was God that sustained and helped him in all the battles. He said in 2 Samuel chapter 22 and verse 40, "For thou hast girded me with strength to the battle, and them that rose up under me thou hast subdued."

I want to submit something to you. I want you to think about this, folks. We have a problem in this country. We have a problem in America. We have a problem in our churches. And all the problems that we have in our country and in our nation and in our churches stems from an individual problem. And that is we have lost a warrior spirit and a fighting spirit. We've lost it.

God as Defender and Our Example

God defended Jerusalem and killed 185,000 Assyrians; emulating God's defense is not murder but obedience.

I'm going to take care of Jerusalem. I'm going to undertake the defense of Jerusalem. Now, self-defense is wicked and wrong. God would never engage in it. Here's what he said in 2 Kings 20, verse 6. He tells King Hezekiah, "And I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake." Wow. Here's the third time, Isaiah 31, verse 5. He says, "As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also he will deliver it, and passing over he will preserve it." Well, here it is again, Isaiah 37, 35. "For I will defend this city for my own sake and my servant David's sake." Isaiah 38, verse 6. "I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city." Five times God said, I'm going to defend Jerusalem.

Now, let me ask you a question. Since God defended Jerusalem, did God kill or take lives in the defense of Jerusalem? Oh yeah. Isaiah 37 verse 36, listen to this.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 37:36

"Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand."

That's 185,000.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 37:36

"And when they awoke in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses,"

or they were all dead men. That is the ones that didn't die, awoke, and they found 185,000 dead men. That's a pretty awesome figure. Now, let me ask you another question. Did God have to kill those men to save Jerusalem? No. You know what God could have done? He could have done to them exactly like he did to the Syrians. You say, what did he do to the Syrians?

Well, look in your Bibles, the second Kings chapter seven, let me show you. I love this passage. 2 Kings chapter 7. Let's begin reading there verse 3. 2 Kings 7 and verse 3. 2 Kings 7 verse 3. "And there were four leprous men entering into the gate, and they said one to another, why sit we here till we die?" Jerusalem was being besieged, Samaria it was, was being besieged by the Syrians.

And starvation was stalking the city. And by the way, the lepers couldn't go inside the city, so what they lived off of, basically, was the garbage that was thrown over the wall. Well, no garbage was being thrown over the wall. So they say, "If we say we will enter the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit here, we shall die also.

Now therefore, come and let us fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall die." And the Lord said, you're not going to be any more dead. "And they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life." All God did was to cause him to hear sound. He never had to kill one Syrian, but he killed 185,000 Assyrians.

So could God have saved Jerusalem without taking the lives of the Assyrians? Yes. Did He do so? No. Is anyone going to be so blasphemous and so wicked as to charge God with murder? God does not violate His own law. God is the infinitely Holy One. We have to understand that life and death is in the hands of the Lord. He does as he pleases, he does as he chooses. David himself confessed in Psalm 7 verse 10, "My defense is of God who saveth the upright in heart." You read through the book of Psalms, over and over David says the Lord is our defense, the Holy One of Israel is our King. You can take note of the fact that God is our defense and we can rightly conclude just like God defended His people in the Old Testament, He defends His people today. Moreover, He defends His honor and His glory and His kingdom.

It's never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father. When lives must be taken in lawful self-defense or defense of others, it is not murder. It's obedience to God and His laws. You remember when Jonathan and his armor-bearer showed themselves to those Philistines in 1 Samuel chapter 14, the Philistines invited Jonathan and his armor bearer to come unto them. Jonathan said, the Lord has delivered them into our hands. And Jonathan took out his sword and began to slay the Philistines.

The Duty to Preserve Life

The command 'thou shalt not kill' implies preserving life (Deuteronomy 22:23-27); Moses' killing of the Egyptian was commended (Acts 7).

Secondly, we must remember that every negative has a positive. When God said thou shalt not kill, the positive is thou shalt preserve life. Let me show you two passages and I'll bring it to a close. Look at Deuteronomy, chapter 22, Deuteronomy 22. And let's begin reading there with verse 23, Deuteronomy 22 and verse 23. Deuteronomy 22 verse 23. God says this. "If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed to a husband and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then you shall bring them both out of the gate of that city and you shall stone them with stones that they die. The damsel because she cried not being in the city and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife, so shalt thou put evil from among you. But if the man find a betrothed damsel in the field and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lie with her shall die. But in the damsel thou shalt do nothing, there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death.

For it is when a man rises up against his neighbor and slayeth him, even so it is in this matter. For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there is none to save her." Now I want you to note, the woman in the city, God says take the man and the woman and stone them with stones. The woman in the field, only the man died. Why? Well, He says in the city, because the woman she cried not. Lord, she had to be consenting to the sin. She had to be consenting to the crime or else she would have cried out.

But what are the implications of that? If she had cried out, it would mean that anyone who heard her would have had the obligation and the duty to protect her and to preserve her. The woman in the field was not put to death because she cried. There was none to hear. There was no one to deliver her. And God said, just execute the man. So preservation of life is a duty, it is an obligation.

If you would look in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter seven, Acts chapter seven, very quickly, you know the story in the Old Testament. I do not know if you know it in the New Testament or not. Well, again, Acts chapter seven. And let's begin reading there with verse twenty two, Acts seven and verse twenty two. Look what the Bible says. "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was a full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren, why do you wrong one to another? And he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?

Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons." Now, interestingly, Moses is not condemned in the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament, for killing this Egyptian and defending the Hebrew. In fact, you could say that God commended him because he listed him in the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. Now, when Moses fled, he was not fleeing because he violated God's law. He was fleeing because a wicked, reprobate ruler, Pharaoh, was seeking to kill him for doing that which was right. And by the way, his flight was also an act of self-defense as well, because flight is a legitimate means of preserving your life. And so he fled. Moses protected his brother. He preserved life, and it's right to preserve life.

Application: Woe to Those at Ease in Zion

Amos 6:1 condemns trusting in government instead of fighting; Christians must reject passivity and obey God's call to fight.

Now, let me make just a couple of applications, and I do want you to turn in your Bibles to Amos chapter six and verse one. Here's the first application, but you've just got to see this verse in its context. Look in Amos chapter six, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Amos 6, verse 1. Look at this. In this passage, God condemns those that are at ease in Zion when they should be fighting. Amos 6, verse 1. God says, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came." Now, wait a minute. Here's what I want you to see. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion that trust in the mountain of Samaria. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom. The mountain of Samaria would be the government there. Wow. So he says, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion that trust in the government of Samaria. What?

You know, seems to me like I've heard this before. We don't have to be defensive or learn self-defense or to prepare. I mean, the government's going to protect us. The government's going to feed us. The government's going to house us. The government's going to take care of our medical needs. And when we're in trouble, all we got to do is call 911. Yeah, that's true. And when you call 911 and you need immediate help, they're only 20 minutes away, or 30, or an hour. Or in light of a total breakup of society, they're never coming.

One of the reasons I am. Samaria's capital. In Zephaniah 1 verse 12, listen to this. "And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil." Now God said, I will punish those that are settled on their lees. L-E-E-S. I'm sure you don't know what lees are, but the lees are the refuse of the wine. It always settled to the bottom. And if you left the wine on its lees, it became extremely bitter. It was defiled. And God says these men that sit back and become hardened and stiffened in their sin and their rebellion and their unwillingness to obey me shall be destroyed. It is a sin to fight when God forbids you to fight. It is a sin to fight if there is not a biblical principle and a biblical reason to fight. But it is a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight or when lives are in danger or biblical principles are to be upheld.

Next time you hear someone say, "Be sure your sin will find you out," you ask them, which sin? Because that is talking about the sin of refusing to fight, and by the way, that's the sin of most Christians, most preachers, most churches. We want to be so sweet and so sinless. I've got a message. I'm not going to preach it tonight, but I've got a message. And the title of it is, "Comest thou peaceably?" Did you know that when Samuel, the little prophet Samuel, when he went to Bethlehem to offer the sacrifice, before he ever got to the city, they sent a committee out to him and they asked him, "Comest thou peaceably?" Why would you ask a preacher? Why are you coming peaceably? Well, if you read 1 Samuel 15, little Samuel just took a sword and hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord and cut him up in little tidbits. And they were afraid he was coming to do that to some of them. "Comest thou peaceably?" Can you imagine? You're a pastor.

Going to the local city council or county council meeting, and before he ever gets on the step, somebody runs up to him and says, "Preacher, are you coming peaceably?" Oh. The problem is our enemies know that we will not fight. And it's our sin. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask you for your blessing and your help. Teach us to go to the supper of the most holy faith. Give us grace to serve Thee, we pray, in Christ's name, Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Obedience to God's Commands

Summary: Refusing to fight when God commands is sin; obedience requires action, not passivity.

Evidence: Moses said, 'But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord' (Numbers 32:23).

God as the Determiner of Right and Wrong

Summary: God's Word, not situation ethics, defines when fighting is righteous or sinful.

Evidence: The truth is, God is the one that determines right and wrong, and He does so by His word and His law.

The Necessity of Fighting in Various Arenas

Summary: Christians must fight spiritually, culturally, and politically; failure leads to physical conflict.

Evidence: If we refuse to fight in the areas that do not require physical fighting, then eventually our refusal to fight spiritually, culturally, politically, will ultimately involve physical fighting.

Preservation of Life as a Duty

Summary: The command against murder implies a positive duty to preserve life, including through defensive force.

Evidence: When God said thou shalt not kill, the positive is thou shalt preserve life.

God as Warrior and Defender

Summary: God fights for His people and takes life in defense; emulating Him is not sinful.

Evidence: God defended Jerusalem and killed 185,000 Assyrians; 'it is never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father.'

Condemnation of Passivity

Summary: Those at ease in Zion, trusting in government rather than fighting, are under God's woe.

Evidence: Amos 6:1: 'Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria.'

Key Arguments

Refusing to fight when God commands is sin

Summary: Numbers 32:23 specifically addresses the sin of not fighting; the context is Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh's duty to help conquer Canaan.

Evidence: Moses said, 'But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and your sin shall find you out.'

Fighting is sinful when contrary to God's Word

Summary: Israel sinned by fighting when God forbade it (Numbers 14) or by fighting for unbiblical reasons like coveting resources.

Evidence: God told them to fight, and they wouldn't fight... Now God tells them not to fight, and they say, we're going to fight. And so they're disobedient again.

Spiritual failure leads to physical war

Summary: Asa's reliance on Syria instead of God brought wars; obedience brings peace, disobedience brings war.

Evidence: Hanani said, 'Herein thou hast done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth thou shalt have wars.'

Prayer is not a substitute for fighting

Summary: Phinehas stopped praying and acted to stop a plague; God blessed his zeal, showing action is required.

Evidence: Phinehas stopped praying, stopped weeping, and got up and went and killed both of them. And God said, he stopped the plague.

God preserves those who fight His battles

Summary: David fought and God preserved him wherever he went; God is mighty in battle.

Evidence: The Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went... David acknowledged and confessed that it was God that sustained and helped him in all the battles.

Self-defense and defense of others is lawful

Summary: Moses' killing of the Egyptian to defend a Hebrew was not condemned; flight is also legitimate self-defense.

Evidence: Moses is not condemned in the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament, for killing this Egyptian and defending the Hebrew.

The wicked devour the righteous without remorse

Summary: Psalm 14:4 shows the wicked consume God's people like bread; this necessitates defensive fighting.

Evidence: Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread.

Trusting in government instead of God is condemned

Summary: Amos 6:1 warns those at ease who trust in Samaria's government; modern parallel is trusting 911 or state protection.

Evidence: Woe to them that are at ease in Zion that trust in the government of Samaria.

Scripture References

Numbers 32:23

Context: Moses warns Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh that refusing to fight is sin and their sin will find them out.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Context: There is a time for everything, including a time to kill and a time of war.

2 Samuel 11:1

Context: At the time when kings go forth to battle, David tarried; indicates seasonal warfare.

Numbers 32:20-23

Context: Moses tells the tribes if they go armed and fight they will be guiltless; if not, they sin.

Numbers 32:1-6

Context: Reuben and Gad request land east of Jordan; Moses asks if they will let others fight alone.

Numbers 14:40-45

Context: Israel sinned by fighting after God told them not to; they were defeated.

Deuteronomy 2:3-9

Context: God forbade Israel to fight against Edom, Moab, and Ammon.

Numbers 31:1-7

Context: God commanded Moses to arm Israel and war against Midian.

1 Samuel 15:1-3

Context: God commanded Saul to utterly destroy Amalek.

1 Chronicles 5:18-22

Context: The war was of God; they cried to God and were helped.

Psalm 94:16

Context: Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?

2 Chronicles 16:7-9

Context: Asa relied on Syria instead of God; therefore he would have wars.

Jeremiah 12:5

Context: If you have run with footmen and they wearied you, how can you contend with horses?

Isaiah 1:7

Context: Your country is desolate, strangers devour it; judgment for unfaithfulness.

Numbers 33:51-56

Context: Drive out inhabitants or they will be thorns; failure to preserve culture brings destruction.

Numbers 25:1-13

Context: Phinehas killed the immoral couple and stopped the plague; God gave him a covenant of peace.

Jeremiah 48:10

Context: Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

Isaiah 37:36

Context: The angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians defending Jerusalem.

Deuteronomy 22:23-27

Context: Law implies duty to preserve life; the woman in the field cried but none saved her.

Acts 7:22-29

Context: Moses defended the Hebrew and killed the Egyptian; not condemned.

Historical References

John Gill's commentary on seasonal warfare

Context: Gill noted that spring (Nisan) was a fit time for war when food was available.

Edmund Burke quote

Context: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Anonymous quote on bad men combining

Context: When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one.

ISIS threat to raise flag over White House

Context: Abu Mousa threatened to humiliate U.S. soldiers and raise Allah's flag in the White House.

Reuters poll on immigration opposition

Context: 76% in New England said undocumented immigrants threatened American beliefs; 70% nationally.

World Net Daily report on minority students

Context: In 2014, U.S. public schools projected to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites.

Nancy Pelosi appointing a Muslim to Homeland Security

Context: Weaver cites this as evidence leaders are not concerned about the country.

Gandhi's view on self-defense

Context: Gandhi said he would rather have India resort to arms than cowardly submit to dishonor.

Brandon Smith article on self-defense

Context: Smith argued self-defense is the highest principle; without will to resist, all principles are lost.

Marseille, France language shift

Context: Arabic is now the dominant language in Marseille due to Muslim immigration.

Important Quotes

But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Significance: The key verse of the sermon, establishing that refusing to fight is sin.

When God commands us to fight and we do not fight, it is a sin.

Significance: Succinctly states the central thesis.

If we refuse to fight in the areas that do not require physical fighting, then eventually our refusal to fight spiritually, culturally, politically, will ultimately involve physical fighting if we fail in those areas.

Significance: Argues that passivity in non-physical realms leads to physical conflict.

Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

Significance: Shows God's curse on those who refuse to fight when commanded.

It is never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father.

Significance: Justifies defensive fighting by pointing to God's own actions.

When God said thou shalt not kill, the positive is thou shalt preserve life.

Significance: Frames the duty to defend life as inherent in the sixth commandment.

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria.

Significance: Applies Amos 6:1 to modern Christians who trust government instead of fighting.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Significance: Attributed to Edmund Burke, used to urge action against evil.

Discussion Questions

In what areas of life (spiritual, cultural, political) are you tempted to refuse to fight, and what would obedience look like?

Context: Weaver argues that refusing to fight in non-physical arenas leads to physical conflict.

How do we discern when God is commanding us to fight versus when fighting would be sinful rebellion?

Context: The sermon distinguishes between fighting in obedience and fighting contrary to God's Word.

What does it mean to 'preserve life' as a positive duty, and how might that apply to self-defense or defending others?

Context: Weaver says the command not to kill implies a duty to preserve life.

How should Christians respond to the erosion of Christian culture through immigration and secularism?

Context: Weaver discusses the loss of Christian culture and the threat of Islam.

Why is prayer alone insufficient when action is required, according to the example of Phinehas?

Context: Phinehas stopped praying and acted to stop the plague; God blessed his zeal.

In what ways do modern Christians 'trust in the mountain of Samaria' (government) instead of God?

Context: Amos 6:1 is applied to reliance on government for protection and provision.

How does the example of David, a warrior after God's own heart, challenge pacifist assumptions?

Context: David fought the Lord's battles and was preserved by God.

What does it mean to have a 'warrior spirit' as a Christian, and how can we cultivate it?

Context: Weaver laments the loss of a fighting spirit in churches and individuals.

Applications

Reject passivity and obey God's call to fight

Summary: Christians must not be at ease in Zion but actively engage in spiritual, cultural, and political battles.

Evidence: Woe to them that are at ease in Zion... We have lost a warrior spirit and a fighting spirit.

Prepare to defend life and biblical principles

Summary: Self-defense and defense of others is a duty; failure to prepare is sin.

Evidence: When God said thou shalt not kill, the positive is thou shalt preserve life.

Do not trust in government for protection

Summary: Relying on government instead of God and personal responsibility is condemned.

Evidence: Woe to them that are at ease in Zion that trust in the government of Samaria.

Fight spiritually before physical conflict is necessary

Summary: Engage in spiritual warfare now to avoid physical war later.

Evidence: If we refuse to fight in the areas that do not require physical fighting, then eventually... will ultimately involve physical fighting.

Emulate God as defender

Summary: Since God defends His people and takes life in judgment, it is not sinful for Christians to do likewise in obedience.

Evidence: It is never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father.

Preserve Christian culture and resist its destruction

Summary: Christians must actively work to maintain a biblical culture against hostile influences.

Evidence: If ye will not drive out the inhabitants... they shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides.

Recognize the wickedness of the wicked and act accordingly

Summary: The wicked devour the righteous without remorse; this reality necessitates defensive action.

Evidence: Who eat up my people as they eat bread... with as much ease, delight, and pleasure... as constantly as a man eats bread.

Do not substitute prayer for obedient action

Summary: Prayer is good, but when God commands fighting, prayer alone is disobedience.

Evidence: Praying is absolutely useless when you're supposed to be fighting and you're refusing to fight.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T05:11:41Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T17:03:40Z

Clean Transcript

The Sin of Refusing to Fight

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The title of the message tonight is "The Sin of Refusing to Fight." I want you to look at Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23. Numbers 32 and verse 23. I'm just going to read one verse right now; we're going to come back and pick up the context momentarily. Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23, where Moses said, "But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out." Well, hopefully the title of this message not only piques your curiosity, but also grabs your attention as well. When one talks about the sin of refusing to fight, it's absolutely contrary to the thinking of everyday people. Most people believe it's a sin to fight. Well, truthfully speaking, fighting can be a sin, especially when it's done in rebellion to God and His law. But however, when it's done in obedience to God and His word, it is not a sin. So when God commands us to fight and we do not fight, it is a sin.
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Now, the statement has absolutely nothing to do with situation ethics, where people say the situation determines whether or not it's right or wrong. No. The truth is, God is the one that determines right and wrong, and He does so by His word and His law. In Numbers chapter 32, which I'm going to show you just a little bit later, Moses is making it clear to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh that if they do not fight, it is a sin, and their sin will find them out.
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Now, I want you to hold Numbers 32 and look in your Bibles very quickly to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And let's read there verses 1 through 8. Watch carefully, if you would, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. Right after the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes 3. Notice it would be beginning there with verse 1. Solomon writes, "To everything there is a season." Note that, "to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down
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and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, a time to lose; a time to keep, a time to cast away; a time to rend, a time to sew; a time to keep silent, a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace." So notice if you would, he says in verse 1, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." In verse 3 he mentions there's a time to kill. And then, of course, in verse 8, there is a time of war. So obviously, then, God is stating that in everything there is indeed a season. Do you remember in 2 Samuel 11, verse 1, the Bible says, "And it came to pass at the time that the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, David tarried at Jerusalem."
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So based upon this text, obviously it does appear that there was a time for fighting and a time for war in the Old Testament, and it wasn't just seasonal. Usually the time of fighting in the Old Testament, and the New Testament as well, would have been either spring or fall. I want to give you just a quick quote by John Gill on this statement, and he says this, "...a fit time to go out to war, when, as the commentators observed, the rains were over, and there were grass in the fields, and fruit on the trees, and corn ripe, and so food for horse and his men.
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This month was called Nisan, the military banners then erected. So by the Romans it is called Marchus, and by us March from Mars, the god of war. And though some take this to be the month of Tisri, entering the part of September and part of October, when all the fruits of the earth were gathered in, it is supposed to be a fit time for war, when the heat of the year was declining."
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So obviously, they did have seasonal warfare in the Old Testament. It was either in the spring, normally, or in the fall as well. There may have been seasons of fighting and seasons of war. But the truth of the matter is, necessity oftentimes dictated when you fought. Because if you were attacked, you just simply fought. Because it was a matter of life and death as well. It was a fight or die situation.
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Now the interesting truth in Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23, which I'm bringing you when it's a sin to refuse to fight, this passage in Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23 has been quoted by preachers and by Christians down through the ages to demonstrate a simple truth, and that truth is you can't get away with sin. Because Moses said very obviously, "But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out." So preachers and Christians say, look, it doesn't matter what your sin is, it doesn't matter what you've done. Be sure that your sins are going to find you out. You are going to be judged.
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I suppose the New Testament passage that would correlate to that concept would be Galatians 6, 7, and 8. Where the word of God says, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." So, when you just quote this verse, and you hear preachers quote it all the time, "Be sure your sins will find you out."
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Have you ever thought about this in the context? And have you ever wondered what particular sin it was that Moses was saying was going to find these people out? Well, let's look in Numbers chapter 32 and verse 20. Remember, and I'll show you this a little bit later. He's talking to the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He says in verse 20, "And Moses said to them, If you will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until ye have driven out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord, and afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if ye will not do so," that is, if you will not go over armed, if you will not fight, if you will not do so, "'Behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and your sin shall find you out.'"
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Interesting. You see, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh asked for their inheritance on the east side of Jordan. This was the land of Og and Sihon. If you look in Numbers, chapter 32, beginning there with verse 1, "Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle. When they saw the land of Jazer, the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying, Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, the half-tribe of Manasseh was in there too, Shall your brethren go to war, and you sit still?"
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Now all of the children of Israel had fought to conquer the lands of Og and Sihon. You can read all about that in Deuteronomy chapter 2 and chapter 3 because those two chapters record how God gave this land to the children of Israel. So now it appears that the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh want to sit still and sit it out while the rest of the Israelites cross over Jordan and go in and fight and possess the land and dispossess their enemies there. Well, Moses said, look, your neighbors put their lives in jeopardy to get this land. And you think you're going to sit here and let them fight? Moses clearly says, if you refuse to help, it's going to be sin on your part. If you refuse to fight, it's going to be sin on your part. In fact, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. So the only alternative to sinning, in Numbers 32 and verse 23, was to go over armed before the Lord and actually fight.
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Now, I want you to skip down, if you would please, to verse 16, because here is what they agreed to. Numbers chapter 32 verse 16, "And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and our cities for our little ones. But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place. And our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities, because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, and forward, because our inheritance fall unto us on this side Jordan, eastward." Wow.
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So they said, look, here's what we're going to do. We'll just build some cities very quickly for our wives and our children, but we will go over armed before the Lord because we're not going to sin against the Lord.
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Now, I suppose that there are two questions that should be asked and answered in light of this passage. The first question would be, when is it wrong or when is it a sin to fight? The second question is, when would it be a sin to refuse to fight? I suppose the first question could be answered quickly and clearly and disposed of very quickly as well. So let's ask this question, when is it wrong to fight? Well, I would say the first answer is this, when one fights contrary to God and His Word.
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Because then that is rebellion. If you look in your Bibles, Numbers chapter 14, and let's begin reading there with verse 40. Numbers 14 and verse 40. Here's an interesting thing. God had told Israel to fight. And they refused to fight because, you remember the twelve spies came back, only Joshua and Caleb brought an honest report. The other ten said, oh, no, no, no. Man, those people are great, big giants, and we were as grasshoppers in their sights, and no, it's a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And they brought back an evil report. Here's what happened. They refused to fight when God told them to go fight. God said, very well, your carcasses are going to fall in the wilderness. You're going to die, every one of you. You're not going to enter into that land. And your children whom you said would be victims, they're the ones that are going to get the land. Now after they refused to obey God when God had told them to go in and fight, and God told them they're going to die in the wilderness, now all of a sudden they change their mind and decide they're going to fight.
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Now watch it. Numbers chapter 14 verse 40, "And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and we'll go up into the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned." Now watch. "And Moses said, Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that you be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword, because you are turned away from the Lord. Therefore the Lord will not be with you."
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"But they presumed to go up into the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which were up in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them even unto Hormah." Isn't that amazing? God told them to fight, and they wouldn't fight. And God judged them for their disobedience. Now God tells them not to fight, and they say, we're going to fight.
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And so they're disobedient again. They're in rebellion to God. So it's a sin then to fight when God says, no, you're not going to fight. Do you understand that there are some people that God forbade Israel to fight against? In fact, there were times when God said, you are not going to make war with certain people. Turn in your Bibles very quickly to Deuteronomy chapter 2. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and look at verses 3-9. Deuteronomy chapter 2 beginning there with verse 3. God tells Israel, "You have compassed this mountain long enough, turn you northward." Verse 4, "And command thou the people, saying, You are to pass through the coast of your brethren, the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir.
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And they shall be afraid of you, take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore." Now look what he says, "Meddle not with them, for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth, because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for possession. You shall buy meat of them for money, that you may eat, and you also shall buy water of them for money, that you may drink."
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"For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all thy works of thy hand. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness these forty years. The Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing. And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath and from Ezion-gaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And the Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give thee of their land for possession, because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for possession." So there are times when God says, no, you're not going to fight.
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That's all there is to it. And so when you say, what is the sin to fight when God forbids you to fight, when there are plain commands and plain principles in the Word of God? I believe there's another answer as to when it's a sin to fight, and that would be this. It would be a sin and wicked and wrong to fight when you are fighting for unbiblical and unscriptural reasons. Well, I say that, have you ever considered that most wars, and I'd probably say 99% of 100, are wars over resources? For instance, all you have to do is look how one nation desires and covets after what another nation has. Look at all the wars and the people that have been killed over oil, gold, diamonds, and other precious resources. Our American empire has sought to justify intrusions and police actions and wars in other countries. However, the truth of the matter is there's usually absolutely no justification for our wars in these other countries. They're not only unconstitutional, they're unbiblical as well. So you have to understand that when we are trying to fight for unbiblical reasons, it would be a sin.
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And just to have an empire, just to be able to dominate and control other people and other nations would be a sin as well. If there was no biblical reason to fight, then, of course, it would be sin. And let me give you something for your consideration. You stop and think of all the military men, all the politicians, and all the money-hungry citizens in this country and other countries that have fomented wars and started wars just so they could gain power and prestige and money.
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And I can assure you of one thing, they will answer to God for every individual that died and for all their covetousness and all of their sins. So it is a sin then to fight when God forbids us to fight. Or it's a sin to fight for unbiblical and unconstitutional reasons. Let me just try to, tonight, answer this next question. When is it a sin to refuse to fight?
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Have you ever stopped to think about that? That's what Numbers 32, verse 23 is all about. The sin of refusing to fight. So let me put it like this. First of all, it is a sin to refuse to fight when God has commanded us to fight. Now, there are instances in the Word of God where God commanded His people to fight. These wars are known in Scripture as the wars of the Lord. You say, well, how many wars of the Lord were there? I don't really know, but I know this, there were a sufficient number of them to be a book, because Numbers 21 and verse 14 says this, "Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, what he did at the Red Sea, in the brooks of Arnon." Nope. "Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord." So the Lord does engage in war, and he sends his people to war. He commands his people to fight many times. For instance, if you look in the book of Numbers chapter 31 very quickly, Numbers chapter 31, look at what he says to Moses.
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Numbers 31, beginning there, verse 1, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites, and afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spoke unto the people, and saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel shall you send to the war. So there were delivered out of thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war with the holy instruments, and with the trumpets in his hand. And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males." God initiated this war. God told Moses, you arm the people and go over and take care of the Midianites. By the way, this was not necessarily a defensive war, this was an offensive war.
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It's true the Midianites had seduced them, that's true. And they fell into the idolatry and the worship of Baal Peor, that is true. But now God says, look, that's over, and that was dealt with, but now you take care of these Midianites. I want you to turn in your Bibles very quickly to 1 Samuel, chapter 15. 1 Samuel, chapter 15. Let me show it to you again. Here is a time when God commanded His people to fight. 1 Samuel, chapter 15, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. 1 Samuel 15, verse 1. "Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel.
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Now therefore, hearken thou to the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus said the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they had, and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox, sheep, camel, and ass."
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"And Saul gathered the people together, numbered them, and told them, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah." Notice if you would please, the Bible says God sent Saul against the Amalekites. And what did God say? "I remember that which Amalek did to Israel." You can read what Amalek did to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 25. 400 years earlier. Now God says, you go wipe them out.
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I want you to understand, this was an offensive war. God commanded this war. There are times when God commands us to fight. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles chapter 5. 1 Chronicles chapter 5. Let's begin reading there with verse 18. I'm just showing you in Scripture, it would be a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight. In 1 Chronicles chapter 5, beginning there with verse 18, notice what the Scripture says. 1 Chronicles 5 verse 18, "The sons of Reuben and the Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow and skillful in war, were four and forty thousand seven hundred and threescore that went out to war." Now watch what these men did. "And they made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur and Nephish and Nodab. And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand. And all they that were with them, for they cried to God in battle, and He was entreated of them, because they put their trust in Him.
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And they took away their cattle, of their camels fifty thousand, of their sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and asses two thousand, and men a hundred thousand. Now watch, for there fell down many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their steads until the captivity." Have you ever stopped to think it was God that ordered the inhabitants of Canaan to be destroyed? It was God that ordered the destruction and the annihilation of Jericho. Not only did God ordain these wars, but God also sustained, supported, and encouraged His people who fought in those wars.
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Here's what Moses said to Joshua. Moses knew that he was not going to go over and lead the people into the Promised Land. So in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 24, Moses said to Joshua, "And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand." That is, he, God, shall deliver thy kings into thy hand, "and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven. There shall no man be able to stand before thee until thou have destroyed them." So I said, Joshua, don't be concerned. God's going to take care of this. When you get to Joshua chapter 1 in verse 5, here's what God says to Joshua. "There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses. So will I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." And then when you get to Joshua 10 in verse 8, it cannot be any plainer. "For the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand, and there shall not a man of them stand before thee."
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Wow. So God not only ordained many wars, but He sustained and supported and encouraged His people who fought in those wars. So obviously we should understand that it would be a sin to disobey God. God spoke to Israel, and they had to fight. If they refused to fight, it would have been sin. That's exactly what Numbers 32, verse 23 is all about. I've heard people say, "But Bro. Weaver, if God told me to fight, then I would fight." Really? Well, may I tell you that God has spoken to you, but He has spoken through His Word. The Word of God gives us truth. He still commands us to fight. And there are truths and there are times for which we must be willing to fight and even to die. For instance, do you realize in Psalm 94 and verse 16, God asked this question, "Who will rise up for me against the workers of iniquity and who will stand for me against the evildoers?" Wow. Now, if God wants you to stand against the evildoers, if God wants you to rise up against the workers of iniquity, what is that with fighting?
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What is that with war? If God wants us to stand, if God wants us to fight, obviously, we must fight. In other words, we're to do everything that we can to incapacitate the evil, to expose the wicked, and to bring them down. You remember the quote that was attributed to Edmund Burke? It went like this, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." In Psalm 97, verse 10, the Bible says "Ye that love the Lord hate evil." In Amos 5, verse 15, he says, "Hate the evil and love the good." So here's my question. If you love the Lord, are you going to defend him? Are you going to fight for him? If you love the good, are you going to fight for the good? Are you going to stand for that which is evil and wicked? Here's another excellent quote.
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Let me give it to you. I want you to think about this. It's an anonymous quote. I don't know who said it, but it is really very practical. It goes like this: "When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." Stop and think about that. When bad men combine, good men must associate. And that's the truth. We must get together and stand together.
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Now, let me tell you, I believe that there are times and I'll share some of these with you from the Bible. I believe that there are times that we will have to fight physically. But not all fighting is physical fighting. There's spiritual fighting, there's mental fighting, there's emotional fighting, there's cultural fighting. When we think about fighting, we normally think about physical fighting. If I were to ask you, how many of you godly Christian men really want to be in a war and shed a lot of blood? None of you. I have no desire to be in a war. I have no desire to kill anybody or I don't even want to harm anybody or hurt anybody. Don't want to. But here's the thing I want to point out. If we refuse to fight in the areas that do not require physical fighting, then eventually our refusal to fight spiritually, culturally, politically, will ultimately involve physical fighting if we fail in those areas. I want to ask you a question. If you will not fight in an easy arena, if you will not fight when it does not require physically fighting, what makes you think that you would fight when it comes down to a physical fight?
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I want to show you something. This is a very, very important truth. When we refuse to do what is right spiritually, one of the results is we'll end up with war, we'll end up with physical fighting. I want you to look in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 16. 2 Chronicles chapter 16. And let's begin reading there in verse 7. 2 Chronicles 16. And note if you would please there with verse 7. And look what Hanani the seer tells King Asa. 2 Chronicles 16 verse 7. "And at that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.
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For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth thou shalt have wars." Did you hear what he said? You could have depended upon the Lord to work things out like you did earlier with the Ethiopians, but you didn't do that. You hadn't violated the word of God and hired the heathen to help you. You wouldn't fight spiritually. You wouldn't fight culturally.
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Consequently now, you're going to end up fighting physically. As you read through the Bible, you're going to find one principle truth, and that is this. Whenever a people obeyed and honored God, God always gave them peace. And whenever a people disobeyed and dishonored God, God always gave them war. So if we will not fight when it is easy to fight, what makes you think that you're going to fight when it's very difficult and very hard? If we won't stand spiritually and culturally and politically and educationally in all of these arenas, what makes you think you're going to pick up an AR and AK and run out and slop in mud and rain and cold and sleet and snow and fight?
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Here's what Jeremiah said, Jeremiah chapter 12 and verse 5. Think about this. Jeremiah 12, verse 5. He said, "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace wherein thou trustest, they weary thee, how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?" So I said, if you can't keep up with the footmen, what makes you think you're going to keep up with the horses? If you can't do what's right when it's easy without the land flooding, what makes you think you're going to do what's right when it's very difficult? You see, one of the areas that we should be engaged in, in fighting right now, is for our Christian culture. You know what culture is? Culture is religion externalized. Culture is usually defined as the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people at a particular time. Now, our nation was founded on Christian principles. That does not mean that every individual in this country at that time were Christians.
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But it does mean it was founded upon Christian principles. And we're slowly and steadily and surely losing every vestige of that Christian culture. For instance, the hordes of immigrants from all walks of life and all religions and all political beliefs are crowding into this country, and they're detrimental to our way of life and our culture. I just read today in Marseille, France. You know what the dominant language is? Arabic. French is second.
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There's so many Muslims there. What is happening is our country is being inundated with all of these people and they do not wish to learn or submit or integrate into our way of life. Rather, what they demand is that we accommodate them and then submit to their culture and their religion. For example, Islam is a political religion and it wants nothing to do with the Bible or with the Constitution of Christian America. In fact, they tell you point-blank what they want to do is dominate America, subdue America to Sharia law.
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Here's an article, and I'm going to quote it. Abu Mousa, a spokesman for the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, told the media in a video interview posted online Thursday, "Don't be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead, send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House," he added. My initial response to their threat of raising the flag of Allah in the White House is nothing but buffoonery. They're too late.
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Obama's already beat them to it. One news article reported this.
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Now listen, this surprised me. Opposition to illegal immigration is higher in New England than in much of the rest of the country, according to the Reuters poll of mid-July. 76% of people in the region said undocumented immigrants threatened American beliefs and customs compared to 70% nationally. 70% nationally is opposed to it? 76% in the New England states? And yet, the truth is we're being overrun with people from all over the world who simply walk across our border and demand that we support them, educate them, sustain them in their every need, and then they demand that we bow to their gods and their customs and their ways. This may shock you, but World Net Daily reported on August the 9th, 2014, listen to this, for the first time ever, United States public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children. So according to World Net Daily, on August the 9th, this fall, there's a greater, greater number of Hispanics in public schools than there are white people.
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I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah, chapter one, I want to show you something. Isaiah, chapter one. This happened to Israel. It's happening today, Isaiah one. Look at you would please at verse seven. Here's part of God's judgment. Look what he said. "Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire." Ferguson, Detroit, "your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devour it in your presence. It is desolate as overthrown by strangers." Wow. Let me tell you something, folks, if we cannot limit or control immigrants, if we cannot have the say as to who's allowed in this country and who's not allowed, then obviously we cannot preserve our lives, our country, our culture, or our people.
#46 | 32:26 to 33:28 | cleaned
If we were attacked by an invading army, we would resist, we would defend ourselves any way we could. What is the difference between resisting an invading army that has been on subjugating us and an immense swarm of aliens that will do exactly the same thing by destroying our culture, our race, our economy and our religion? Stop and think about that. Do you realize it is the right of individuals and families and states, as well as nations, to fight against their own destruction. We didn't have to fight or be destroyed. Israel was warned by God concerning their unique culture. Israel was to be a unique and a special people.
#47 | 33:31 to 34:15 | cleaned
They were not to intermingle or intermarry with the pagans in the land. They were to preserve their culture. If they did not preserve their culture, they would be destroyed by the pagans. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 33, and let's begin reading there with verse 51. Numbers 33 and verse 51. Watch carefully. Numbers 33, verse 51, and we'll read through verse 56. Look what God tells them. "Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you.
#48 | 34:15 to 34:57 | cleaned
destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places. And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell therein, for I have given you the land to possess it. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families. And to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance. Every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth.
#49 | 34:57 to 35:18 | cleaned
According to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come to pass that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass that I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto them."
#50 | 35:18 to 35:34 | cleaned
You don't preserve your culture, you don't preserve your faith, you'll be destroyed just like them. And I just thought today, none other than Nancy Pelosi is appointing a Muslim to some chair on Homeland Security. And look at all the Muslims that are already there in the White House. I'm just going to be pointing out the fact it's obvious our leaders are not concerned about our country at all. And if we don't get concerned, we're not going to have a country. And if we're not willing to fight culturally, educationally, politically, spiritually, while we can, then ultimately we're going to end up fighting physically.
#51 | 35:35 to 36:20 | cleaned
Now, let me go ahead and give you the second point tonight in this. One, it is a sin to refuse to fight. It's a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight, and you refuse to do so. Secondly, it is a sin to refuse to fight when lives are in jeopardy. If you'll go back in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 32 again, I want you to look, if you would, carefully, or Numbers 32 it is, Numbers 32, look carefully if you would please at what was said beginning there in verse 20.
#52 | 36:21 to 36:52 | cleaned
"And Moses said unto them," remember now he's talking to Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh. "And Moses said unto them, if you will do this thing, if you will go over armed before the Lord, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord. Then afterward you shall return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, for this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out."
#53 | 36:52 to 37:21 | cleaned
Now, I want you to notice something. There was nothing in this text concerning Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, just simply praying for their brethren and wishing them well. God didn't say, if you're going to sit over here, you better do a lot of praying. You better really pray for your brethren while they're fighting. No, He didn't say that. Nor did He say, don't sit over here and wish them well and just hope that somehow they'll have victory. No. God said if you don't get up and go over there and help fight and preserve their lives, it is your sin. Now, I'm certainly not against praying. And if I'm going to be fighting physically, I can assure you I'm going to be praying. And the more people that I could get to pray for me while I'm fighting physically, the better I'd like it. But what God is telling us here is there is a time to pray and there's a time to fight. Praying and fighting might mix well as you're fighting.
#54 | 37:21 to 38:27 | cleaned
But praying is absolutely useless when you're supposed to be fighting and you're refusing to fight. Let me show you, look in your Bibles in Numbers chapter 25. Everyone is familiar with this passage. Numbers 25, let's begin reading there verse one. Numbers 25, verse one. Here's what happened. "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined themselves unto Baal Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of this people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel."
#55 | 38:28 to 39:14 | cleaned
So you know the story now. They were committing fornication. They were worshipping Baal Peor. God says you hang everyone that's been involved in this. Now watch verse 5. "And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one of his men that were joined unto Baal Peor. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. So those that died in the plague were 24,000. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
#56 | 39:15 to 40:11 | cleaned
Wherefore, say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel." Now, I want you to look back in your Bibles, if you would please, to verse 6. "And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." So where were Moses and Aaron?
#57 | 40:11 to 40:41 | cleaned
Where were all the leaders? Well, they were weeping, that is, they were praying before the door of the tabernacle. And evidently, Phinehas was there as well. And when this man brought this Midianitish woman into the camp, Phinehas stopped praying, stopped weeping, and got up and went and killed both of them. And God said, he stopped the plague. 24,000 people had died until he took care of those two wicked individuals. Why did God give him the covenant of peace? Why did God say your family is going to have this? Because he was zealous for the Lord God of Israel and he fought when he needed to fight. So there's a time to pray and there's a time to fight. God blessed Phinehas for his fighting. There are times when fighting is absolutely demanded and absolutely necessary.
#58 | 40:42 to 41:52 | cleaned
David was a fighter and a warrior, and you have to remember that he was a man after God's own heart. He fought the Lord's battles. In 1 Samuel 25, verse 28, Abigail said this, "I pray thee forgive the trespass that thine handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house, because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all these days." Please understand that David was fighting physically. He was destroying the Philistines and all those that fought against the Lord and His people. David was a mighty warrior, and David learned to fight under the protection and the blessings of God. Even when he went out to face Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, verse 47, he said this, "And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with spear nor sword, for the battle is the Lord's. And He'll give you into our hand." David leaned upon the Lord. David trusted in the Lord. And David learned that God was indeed his protection.
#59 | 41:52 to 42:48 | cleaned
In fact, God preserved David wherever he went. I ran across this phrase and I looked it up and I thought, I wonder how many times that occurs in the Bible. It occurs four times. I want you to listen to this. This is astounding. 2 Samuel 8, verse 6. Just listen. "Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts. And the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went." 2 Samuel 8 verse 14, "And he put garrisons in Edom, throughout all Edom put he garrisons. And all the Edomites became David's servants, and the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went." 1 Chronicles 18 verse 6, "Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became David's servants, and brought gifts. Thus the Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went." 1 Chronicles 18.13, "And he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the Lord preserved David, wheresoever he went." Four times. The Bible says the Lord preserved David.
#60 | 42:49 to 43:51 | cleaned
Think of all the battles that he fought. How did he come out of those battles alive? God preserved him. God preserved him. Have you ever stopped to think of the absolute necessity of God's preserving power in a time of war? I remember when I was in boot camp, this was many, many moons ago, because we used M1s. I remember they took us out to show us a field of fire at night.
#61 | 43:52 to 44:23 | cleaned
And we had two BARs. The rest of them were just M1s. It was an 11-man squad. And of course, you know, you had your cross sections of fire. And you had the two BARs on the end, each end. And all these M1s like this, every fifth bullet was a tracer. Just every fifth. And I remember when that firing commenced, all you could see was a solid sheet of red.
#62 | 44:24 to 44:47 | cleaned
And I thought to myself, oh, Lord, how does anyone ever make it through that? I mean, look at the multitudes that did. How did David make it through all those sword fights, and all those arrows miss him, and all those spears miss him? The Lord preserved David whether so ever he went. That's why David later on in Psalm 24 and verse 8 wrote this, "Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." Consequently, David acknowledged and confessed that it was God that sustained and helped him in all the battles. He said in 2 Samuel chapter 22 and verse 40, "For thou hast girded me with strength to the battle, and them that rose up under me thou hast subdued."
#63 | 44:47 to 45:32 | cleaned
I want to submit something to you. I want you to think about this, folks. We have a problem in this country. We have a problem in America. We have a problem in our churches. And all the problems that we have in our country and in our nation and in our churches stems from an individual problem. And that is we have lost a warrior spirit and a fighting spirit. We've lost it.
#64 | 45:32 to 46:01 | cleaned
We're unwilling to face our enemies. We're unwilling to engage our enemies. In fact, most people are just plain scared and unwilling to fight. Anyway, culturally, educationally, spiritually. I'm not sure that we understand the impact of what I just said. Because when God commends us to fight and we refuse to fight, and when God commends us to preserve lives and we refuse to preserve lives, we put ourselves under his curse.
#65 | 46:01 to 46:41 | cleaned
For instance, look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 48 and verse 10. Jeremiah 48 and verse 10. Let me tell you something about this passage as you're turning there. In this passage, God has commended the destruction of Moab. And I want you to see what he says. Jeremiah 48, look in verse 10, God says, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." Wow. Go back up to verse 8.
#66 | 46:42 to 47:20 | cleaned
"And the spoiler shall come upon every city, no city shall escape, the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken." And then he says in verse 10, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." So God had demanded and commanded the destruction of Moab. And God said, those that I send, if you deal deceitfully and if you do not do what you're supposed to do, you are under my curse.
#67 | 47:20 to 47:51 | cleaned
Let me just show you what I mean when I say we've lost the warrior spirit, we've lost a fighting spirit. I think it's probably more true in the north than it is in the south, but it's coming this way in the south as well. But every day you can read the paper or listen to the news. And you find that there is an individual or a couple of individuals that are attacked by a gang or by a mob, and sometimes it's just a group of teenagers. And this individual or the two individuals are just being beaten to a bloody pulp while there are onlookers and bystanders crowding around.
#68 | 47:53 to 48:37 | cleaned
And the most any of them will do is either call 911 or use their cell phones to video everything. Not one will intervene, not one will try to help. What do these bystanders and onlookers do? They stand around and look. They certainly are not going to help. They're not going to get involved. They don't care whether people die or not. Brandon Smith wrote an article.
#69 | 48:39 to 49:08 | cleaned
Here's what he said, and he's talking about self-defense. He said this. "There's a rather insane notion within modern activist movements that self-defense represents an abandonment of a higher principle. They argue that to fight is to automatically lose, and to prepare for conflict is extreme. I would say that self-defense is actually the highest principle one can value. For without the courage to physically resist tyranny, without the will required to put one's life at risk to stand against the evils of the world, all other principles will be lost."
#70 | 49:10 to 49:45 | cleaned
Even Gandhi, the man often idolized by pacifists and non-violent activists, recognized this fact. Now I just want to give a quote by Gandhi. I want you to listen. Here's what Gandhi said. "Hence also do I advocate training in arms for those who believe in the method of violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should sit in a cowardly manner or become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor. When violence is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission." Now although Gandhi was right, I'm certainly not a follower of Gandhi.
#71 | 49:47 to 50:25 | cleaned
I want to follow the sovereign God of heaven and earth who has revealed himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can assure you one thing, it is never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father. So we have to ask this question, would God fight? Let me ask this question another way. Would God take lives in order to protect his people? Would God take lives in fighting? If self-defense is wrong, if defense of a people is wrong, and if it's wicked and sinful in and of itself, then God himself certainly would not engage in it, because we know that he is the Holy One of Israel, and in him is no sin at all. Do you know what God told King Hezekiah of Judah when the Assyrians were going to come and attack? He told Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19, verse 34, "For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake." God said, I will defend this city. He said, Hezekiah, you don't have to worry about this.
#72 | 50:26 to 51:20 | cleaned
I'm going to take care of Jerusalem. I'm going to undertake the defense of Jerusalem. Now, self-defense is wicked and wrong. God would never engage in it. Here's what he said in 2 Kings 20, verse 6. He tells King Hezekiah, "And I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake." Wow. Here's the third time, Isaiah 31, verse 5. He says, "As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also he will deliver it, and passing over he will preserve it." Well, here it is again, Isaiah 37, 35. "For I will defend this city for my own sake and my servant David's sake." Isaiah 38, verse 6. "I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city." Five times God said, I'm going to defend Jerusalem.
#73 | 51:21 to 52:09 | cleaned
Now, let me ask you a question. Since God defended Jerusalem, did God kill or take lives in the defense of Jerusalem? Oh yeah. Isaiah 37 verse 36, listen to this. "Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand." That's 185,000. "And when they awoke in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses," or they were all dead men. That is the ones that didn't die, awoke, and they found 185,000 dead men. That's a pretty awesome figure. Now, let me ask you another question. Did God have to kill those men to save Jerusalem? No. You know what God could have done? He could have done to them exactly like he did to the Syrians. You say, what did he do to the Syrians?
#74 | 52:10 to 53:17 | cleaned
Well, look in your Bibles, the second Kings chapter seven, let me show you. I love this passage. 2 Kings chapter 7. Let's begin reading there verse 3. 2 Kings 7 and verse 3. 2 Kings 7 verse 3. "And there were four leprous men entering into the gate, and they said one to another, why sit we here till we die?" Jerusalem was being besieged, Samaria it was, was being besieged by the Syrians.
#75 | 53:17 to 53:47 | cleaned
And starvation was stalking the city. And by the way, the lepers couldn't go inside the city, so what they lived off of, basically, was the garbage that was thrown over the wall. Well, no garbage was being thrown over the wall. So they say, "If we say we will enter the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit here, we shall die also.
#76 | 53:48 to 54:04 | cleaned
Now therefore, come and let us fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall die." And the Lord said, you're not going to be any more dead. "And they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life." All God did was to cause him to hear sound. He never had to kill one Syrian, but he killed 185,000 Assyrians.
#77 | 54:04 to 54:51 | cleaned
So could God have saved Jerusalem without taking the lives of the Assyrians? Yes. Did He do so? No. Is anyone going to be so blasphemous and so wicked as to charge God with murder? God does not violate His own law. God is the infinitely Holy One. We have to understand that life and death is in the hands of the Lord. He does as he pleases, he does as he chooses. David himself confessed in Psalm 7 verse 10, "My defense is of God who saveth the upright in heart." You read through the book of Psalms, over and over David says the Lord is our defense, the Holy One of Israel is our King. You can take note of the fact that God is our defense and we can rightly conclude just like God defended His people in the Old Testament, He defends His people today. Moreover, He defends His honor and His glory and His kingdom.
#78 | 54:52 to 55:43 | cleaned
It's never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father. When lives must be taken in lawful self-defense or defense of others, it is not murder. It's obedience to God and His laws. You remember when Jonathan and his armor-bearer showed themselves to those Philistines in 1 Samuel chapter 14, the Philistines invited Jonathan and his armor bearer to come unto them. Jonathan said, the Lord has delivered them into our hands. And Jonathan took out his sword and began to slay the Philistines.
#79 | 55:46 to 56:15 | cleaned
And he slew up to about 20 of them. And I want you to listen to this. The Lord then sent an earthquake. And he caused the Philistines to tremble in fear. And they then turned and began to slay each other. And 1 Samuel 14 and verse 23 says this, "So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over to Beth-aven." Let me tell you, God killed more in the earthquake than Jonathan did or any of the Israelitish army. God took them out. David oftentimes relied upon the Lord for wisdom, for direction. One time the Philistines had assembled themselves to attack. David said, shall I go up and attack them?
#80 | 56:15 to 57:09 | cleaned
He had done so previously and won. In 1 Chronicles 14, verses 14 through 16, God said, no, don't do a frontal assault. Go around behind them. And when you hear the wind in the top of the mulberry trees, it's me. I'm going out before you. Just follow on and you'll take care of them. That's exactly what he did. Did you know in 1st Samuel chapter 23, David heard that Keilah was being attacked by the Philistines. Now listen, David didn't have anything in Keilah, but the Philistines were attacking that city. Here it is, "Then they told David, said, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they robbed the threshing floors. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said unto David, Go and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah." David didn't have any family there. But they needed help. So God said, you go take care of it. You go smite those Philistines and you save Keilah. It is lawful to fight against those who are wicked and maliciously attacking others.
#81 | 57:10 to 58:14 | cleaned
It's lawful to take life if necessary in such circumstances. We have to remember two important truths. First of all, we must remember the wickedness of the wicked. The wickedness of the wicked. The wicked think absolutely nothing of violating God's law. They think absolutely nothing of taking lives. For instance, I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly to Psalm 14 and look at verse 4. Psalm 14 and verse 4. This is an amazing, an astounding verse. Let us think deep. You have to understand what David meant in Psalm 14 and verse 4 when he's talking about the wicked. Look what he says.
#82 | 58:14 to 58:51 | cleaned
"Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread and call upon the name of the Lord?" I want you to take note, he says the wicked eat up my people as they eat bread. Oh John Gill said this on this verse, he said "who eat up my people as they eat bread, not David's people but the Lord's people. whom he chose for his people, who were his covenant people, and who professed his name and were called by it. These the workers of iniquity ate up, devoured, and consumed by reproaching and by persecuting them, doing injury to their persons, property, and character. They devoured their persons by using them cruelly and putting them to death. They devoured their substance by spoiling it.
#83 | 58:52 to 59:31 | cleaned
it and converting it to their own use, as the Pharisees were said to devour widows' houses, and they destroyed their good names and characters with devouring words. And this they did, listen, with as much ease, delight, and pleasure, and without any remorse of conscience, as constantly as a man eats bread." Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread? They think nothing of devouring the saints.
#84 | 59:31 to 59:58 | cleaned
It's like sitting down to a meal. We need to consider the wickedness of the wicked.
#85 | 59:59 to 1:00:07 | cleaned
Secondly, we must remember that every negative has a positive. When God said thou shalt not kill, the positive is thou shalt preserve life. Let me show you two passages and I'll bring it to a close. Look at Deuteronomy, chapter 22, Deuteronomy 22. And let's begin reading there with verse 23, Deuteronomy 22 and verse 23. Deuteronomy 22 verse 23. God says this. "If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed to a husband and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then you shall bring them both out of the gate of that city and you shall stone them with stones that they die. The damsel because she cried not being in the city and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife, so shalt thou put evil from among you. But if the man find a betrothed damsel in the field and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lie with her shall die. But in the damsel thou shalt do nothing, there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death.
#86 | 1:00:09 to 1:01:09 | cleaned
For it is when a man rises up against his neighbor and slayeth him, even so it is in this matter. For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there is none to save her."
#87 | 1:01:10 to 1:01:16 | cleaned
Now I want you to note, the woman in the city, God says take the man and the woman and stone them with stones. The woman in the field, only the man died. Why? Well, He says in the city, because the woman she cried not. Lord, she had to be consenting to the sin. She had to be consenting to the crime or else she would have cried out.
#88 | 1:01:17 to 1:01:43 | cleaned
But what are the implications of that? If she had cried out, it would mean that anyone who heard her would have had the obligation and the duty to protect her and to preserve her. The woman in the field was not put to death because she cried. There was none to hear. There was no one to deliver her. And God said, just execute the man. So preservation of life is a duty, it is an obligation.
#89 | 1:01:43 to 1:02:09 | cleaned
If you would look in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter seven, Acts chapter seven, very quickly, you know the story in the Old Testament. I do not know if you know it in the New Testament or not. Well, again, Acts chapter seven. And let's begin reading there with verse twenty two, Acts seven and verse twenty two. Look what the Bible says. "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was a full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
#90 | 1:02:09 to 1:02:43 | cleaned
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren, why do you wrong one to another? And he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
#91 | 1:02:43 to 1:03:10 | cleaned
Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons." Now, interestingly, Moses is not condemned in the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament, for killing this Egyptian and defending the Hebrew. In fact, you could say that God commended him because he listed him in the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. Now, when Moses fled, he was not fleeing because he violated God's law. He was fleeing because a wicked, reprobate ruler, Pharaoh, was seeking to kill him for doing that which was right.
#92 | 1:03:10 to 1:03:49 | cleaned
And by the way, his flight was also an act of self-defense as well, because flight is a legitimate means of preserving your life. And so he fled. Moses protected his brother. He preserved life, and it's right to preserve life.
#93 | 1:03:51 to 1:04:14 | cleaned
Now, let me make just a couple of applications, and I do want you to turn in your Bibles to Amos chapter six and verse one. Here's the first application, but you've just got to see this verse in its context. Look in Amos chapter six, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Amos 6, verse 1. Look at this. In this passage, God condemns those that are at ease in Zion when they should be fighting. Amos 6, verse 1. God says, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came." Now, wait a minute. Here's what I want you to see. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion that trust in the mountain of Samaria. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom. The mountain of Samaria would be the government there. Wow. So he says, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion that trust in the government of Samaria. What?
#94 | 1:04:15 to 1:05:19 | cleaned
You know, seems to me like I've heard this before. We don't have to be defensive or learn self-defense or to prepare. I mean, the government's going to protect us. The government's going to feed us. The government's going to house us. The government's going to take care of our medical needs. And when we're in trouble, all we got to do is call 911. Yeah, that's true. And when you call 911 and you need immediate help, they're only 20 minutes away, or 30, or an hour. Or in light of a total breakup of society, they're never coming.
#95 | 1:05:21 to 1:06:06 | cleaned
One of the reasons I am. Samaria's capital. In Zephaniah 1 verse 12, listen to this. "And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil." Now God said, I will punish those that are settled on their lees. L-E-E-S. I'm sure you don't know what lees are, but the lees are the refuse of the wine. It always settled to the bottom. And if you left the wine on its lees, it became extremely bitter. It was defiled. And God says these men that sit back and become hardened and stiffened in their sin and their rebellion and their unwillingness to obey me shall be destroyed. It is a sin to fight when God forbids you to fight. It is a sin to fight if there is not a biblical principle and a biblical reason to fight. But it is a sin to refuse to fight when God commands you to fight or when lives are in danger or biblical principles are to be upheld.
#96 | 1:06:08 to 1:07:22 | cleaned
Next time you hear someone say, "Be sure your sin will find you out," you ask them, which sin? Because that is talking about the sin of refusing to fight, and by the way, that's the sin of most Christians, most preachers, most churches. We want to be so sweet and so sinless. I've got a message. I'm not going to preach it tonight, but I've got a message. And the title of it is, "Comest thou peaceably?" Did you know that when Samuel, the little prophet Samuel, when he went to Bethlehem to offer the sacrifice, before he ever got to the city, they sent a committee out to him and they asked him, "Comest thou peaceably?" Why would you ask a preacher? Why are you coming peaceably? Well, if you read 1 Samuel 15, little Samuel just took a sword and hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord and cut him up in little tidbits. And they were afraid he was coming to do that to some of them. "Comest thou peaceably?" Can you imagine? You're a pastor.
#97 | 1:07:24 to 1:08:42 | cleaned
Going to the local city council or county council meeting, and before he ever gets on the step, somebody runs up to him and says, "Preacher, are you coming peaceably?" Oh. The problem is our enemies know that we will not fight. And it's our sin. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask you for your blessing and your help. Teach us to go to the supper of the most holy faith. Give us grace to serve Thee, we pray, in Christ's name, Amen.
#98 | 1:08:44 to 1:09:14 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T05:11:41Z

The Sin of Refusing to Fight

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver argues from Numbers 32:23 that refusing to fight when God commands it is a sin. He distinguishes between sinful fighting (rebellion, unbiblical reasons) and righteous fighting (obedience, defense of life). Using Old Testament examples, he shows God ordained wars, sustained warriors, and cursed those who held back. Weaver applies this to modern Christians, warning that failure to fight spiritually, culturally, and politically will lead to physical conflict. He calls believers to reject passivity, emulate God as defender, and recognize the duty to preserve life.

Introduction: The Sin of Refusing to Fight

Weaver introduces Numbers 32:23, stating that while fighting can be sinful in rebellion, refusing to fight when God commands is also sin.

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:23

"But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out."

God Determines Right and Wrong, Not Situation Ethics

God's Word and law define right and wrong; Moses warned Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh that not fighting would be sin.

Biblical Seasons for War

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 shows there is a time for war and killing; 2 Samuel 11:1 indicates seasonal warfare in spring or fall.

Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"To everything there is a season."

Note that,

Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down

Context of Numbers 32: The Tribes' Request

Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh wanted land east of Jordan; Moses said if they refused to help fight, they sinned.

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"Be sure your sins will find you out."

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"And Moses said to them, If you will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until ye have driven out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord, and afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if ye will not do so,"

that is, if you will not go over armed, if you will not fight, if you will not do so,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"'Behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and your sin shall find you out.'"

Scripture Reading — Numbers 32:20-23

"Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle. When they saw the land of Jazer, the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying, Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, the half-tribe of Manasseh was in there too, Shall your brethren go to war, and you sit still?"

When It Is a Sin to Fight

Fighting is sin when contrary to God's command (Numbers 14:40-45) or for unbiblical reasons like coveting resources.

Now watch it. Numbers chapter 14 verse 40,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 14:40-45

"And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and we'll go up into the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned."

Now watch.

Scripture Reading — Numbers 14:40-45

"And Moses said, Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that you be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword, because you are turned away from the Lord. Therefore the Lord will not be with you."

When It Is a Sin to Refuse to Fight: God Commands It

God commanded wars (Numbers 31, 1 Samuel 15); refusing is sin. God still commands standing against evil (Psalm 94:16).

Numbers 31, beginning there, verse 1,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 31:1-7

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites, and afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spoke unto the people, and saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel shall you send to the war. So there were delivered out of thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war with the holy instruments, and with the trumpets in his hand. And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males."

God initiated this war. God told Moses, you arm the people and go over and take care of the Midianites. By the way, this was not necessarily a defensive war, this was an offensive war.

Spiritual and Cultural Fighting Precedes Physical

Refusing to fight spiritually/culturally leads to physical war (2 Chronicles 16:7-9); if we won't fight in easy arenas, we won't fight when hard.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 12:5

"If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace wherein thou trustest, they weary thee, how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?"

Preserving Culture and the Threat of Immigration

America's Christian culture is being lost; failure to limit immigration and preserve culture will lead to destruction (Isaiah 1:7).

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 1:7

"Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire."

Ferguson, Detroit,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 1:7

"your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devour it in your presence. It is desolate as overthrown by strangers."

When It Is a Sin to Refuse to Fight: Lives Are in Jeopardy

Numbers 32 shows prayer alone is not enough; Phinehas acted to stop a plague (Numbers 25). David fought and God preserved him.

God as Defender and Our Example

God defended Jerusalem and killed 185,000 Assyrians; emulating God's defense is not murder but obedience.

Now, let me ask you a question. Since God defended Jerusalem, did God kill or take lives in the defense of Jerusalem? Oh yeah. Isaiah 37 verse 36, listen to this.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 37:36

"Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand."

That's 185,000.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 37:36

"And when they awoke in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses,"

The Duty to Preserve Life

The command 'thou shalt not kill' implies preserving life (Deuteronomy 22:23-27); Moses' killing of the Egyptian was commended (Acts 7).

Application: Woe to Those at Ease in Zion

Amos 6:1 condemns trusting in government instead of fighting; Christians must reject passivity and obey God's call to fight.

The Sin of Refusing to Fight

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	114152202310
Subject	Covenant Theology
Course	Covenant Theology: Obedience, Disobedience, and National Judgment
Genre	Sermon
Date	2015-01-14
Dictation Name
Book	Book 047: The Sin of Refusing to Fight — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	98

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Sin of Refusing to Fight: Weaver introduces Numbers 32:23, stating that while fighting can be sinful in rebellion, refusing to fight when God commands is also sin.
God Determines Right and Wrong, Not Situation Ethics: God's Word and law define right and wrong; Moses warned Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh that not fighting would be sin.
Biblical Seasons for War: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 shows there is a time for war and killing; 2 Samuel 11:1 indicates seasonal warfare in spring or fall.
Context of Numbers 32: The Tribes' Request: Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh wanted land east of Jordan; Moses said if they refused to help fight, they sinned.
When It Is a Sin to Fight: Fighting is sin when contrary to God's command (Numbers 14:40-45) or for unbiblical reasons like coveting resources.
When It Is a Sin to Refuse to Fight: God Commands It: God commanded wars (Numbers 31, 1 Samuel 15); refusing is sin. God still commands standing against evil (Psalm 94:16).
Spiritual and Cultural Fighting Precedes Physical: Refusing to fight spiritually/culturally leads to physical war (2 Chronicles 16:7-9); if we won't fight in easy arenas, we won't fight when hard.
Preserving Culture and the Threat of Immigration: America's Christian culture is being lost; failure to limit immigration and preserve culture will lead to destruction (Isaiah 1:7).
When It Is a Sin to Refuse to Fight: Lives Are in Jeopardy: Numbers 32 shows prayer alone is not enough; Phinehas acted to stop a plague (Numbers 25). David fought and God preserved him.
God as Defender and Our Example: God defended Jerusalem and killed 185,000 Assyrians; emulating God's defense is not murder but obedience.
The Duty to Preserve Life: The command 'thou shalt not kill' implies preserving life (Deuteronomy 22:23-27); Moses' killing of the Egyptian was commended (Acts 7).
Application: Woe to Those at Ease in Zion: Amos 6:1 condemns trusting in government instead of fighting; Christians must reject passivity and obey God's call to fight.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Refusing to fight when God commands is sin

Numbers 32:23 specifically addresses the sin of not fighting; the context is Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh's duty to help conquer Canaan.

Moses said, 'But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and your sin shall find you out.'

Fighting is sinful when contrary to God's Word

Israel sinned by fighting when God forbade it (Numbers 14) or by fighting for unbiblical reasons like coveting resources.

God told them to fight, and they wouldn't fight... Now God tells them not to fight, and they say, we're going to fight. And so they're disobedient again.

Spiritual failure leads to physical war

Asa's reliance on Syria instead of God brought wars; obedience brings peace, disobedience brings war.

Hanani said, 'Herein thou hast done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth thou shalt have wars.'

Prayer is not a substitute for fighting

Phinehas stopped praying and acted to stop a plague; God blessed his zeal, showing action is required.

Phinehas stopped praying, stopped weeping, and got up and went and killed both of them. And God said, he stopped the plague.

God preserves those who fight His battles

David fought and God preserved him wherever he went; God is mighty in battle.

The Lord preserved David, whithersoever he went... David acknowledged and confessed that it was God that sustained and helped him in all the battles.

Self-defense and defense of others is lawful

Moses' killing of the Egyptian to defend a Hebrew was not condemned; flight is also legitimate self-defense.

Moses is not condemned in the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament, for killing this Egyptian and defending the Hebrew.

The wicked devour the righteous without remorse

Psalm 14:4 shows the wicked consume God's people like bread; this necessitates defensive fighting.

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread.

Trusting in government instead of God is condemned

Amos 6:1 warns those at ease who trust in Samaria's government; modern parallel is trusting 911 or state protection.

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion that trust in the government of Samaria.

Scripture References

Numbers 32:23: Moses warns Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh that refusing to fight is sin and their sin will find them out.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: There is a time for everything, including a time to kill and a time of war.
2 Samuel 11:1: At the time when kings go forth to battle, David tarried; indicates seasonal warfare.
Numbers 32:20-23: Moses tells the tribes if they go armed and fight they will be guiltless; if not, they sin.
Numbers 32:1-6: Reuben and Gad request land east of Jordan; Moses asks if they will let others fight alone.
Numbers 14:40-45: Israel sinned by fighting after God told them not to; they were defeated.
Deuteronomy 2:3-9: God forbade Israel to fight against Edom, Moab, and Ammon.
Numbers 31:1-7: God commanded Moses to arm Israel and war against Midian.
1 Samuel 15:1-3: God commanded Saul to utterly destroy Amalek.
1 Chronicles 5:18-22: The war was of God; they cried to God and were helped.
Psalm 94:16: Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?
2 Chronicles 16:7-9: Asa relied on Syria instead of God; therefore he would have wars.
Jeremiah 12:5: If you have run with footmen and they wearied you, how can you contend with horses?
Isaiah 1:7: Your country is desolate, strangers devour it; judgment for unfaithfulness.
Numbers 33:51-56: Drive out inhabitants or they will be thorns; failure to preserve culture brings destruction.
Numbers 25:1-13: Phinehas killed the immoral couple and stopped the plague; God gave him a covenant of peace.
Jeremiah 48:10: Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
Isaiah 37:36: The angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians defending Jerusalem.
Deuteronomy 22:23-27: Law implies duty to preserve life; the woman in the field cried but none saved her.
Acts 7:22-29: Moses defended the Hebrew and killed the Egyptian; not condemned.

Historical References

John Gill's commentary on seasonal warfare: Gill noted that spring (Nisan) was a fit time for war when food was available.
Edmund Burke quote: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Anonymous quote on bad men combining: When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one.
ISIS threat to raise flag over White House: Abu Mousa threatened to humiliate U.S. soldiers and raise Allah's flag in the White House.
Reuters poll on immigration opposition: 76% in New England said undocumented immigrants threatened American beliefs; 70% nationally.
World Net Daily report on minority students: In 2014, U.S. public schools projected to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites.
Nancy Pelosi appointing a Muslim to Homeland Security: Weaver cites this as evidence leaders are not concerned about the country.
Gandhi's view on self-defense: Gandhi said he would rather have India resort to arms than cowardly submit to dishonor.
Brandon Smith article on self-defense: Smith argued self-defense is the highest principle; without will to resist, all principles are lost.
Marseille, France language shift: Arabic is now the dominant language in Marseille due to Muslim immigration.

Important Quotes

But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

The key verse of the sermon, establishing that refusing to fight is sin.

When God commands us to fight and we do not fight, it is a sin.

Succinctly states the central thesis.

If we refuse to fight in the areas that do not require physical fighting, then eventually our refusal to fight spiritually, culturally, politically, will ultimately involve physical fighting if we fail in those areas.

Argues that passivity in non-physical realms leads to physical conflict.

Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

Shows God's curse on those who refuse to fight when commanded.

It is never wrong to emulate our Heavenly Father.

Justifies defensive fighting by pointing to God's own actions.

When God said thou shalt not kill, the positive is thou shalt preserve life.

Frames the duty to defend life as inherent in the sixth commandment.

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria.

Applies Amos 6:1 to modern Christians who trust government instead of fighting.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Attributed to Edmund Burke, used to urge action against evil.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

In what areas of life (spiritual, cultural, political) are you tempted to refuse to fight, and what would obedience look like?

[Context]

Weaver argues that refusing to fight in non-physical arenas leads to physical conflict.

[Question]

How do we discern when God is commanding us to fight versus when fighting would be sinful rebellion?

[Context]

The sermon distinguishes between fighting in obedience and fighting contrary to God's Word.

[Question]

What does it mean to 'preserve life' as a positive duty, and how might that apply to self-defense or defending others?

[Context]

Weaver says the command not to kill implies a duty to preserve life.

[Question]

How should Christians respond to the erosion of Christian culture through immigration and secularism?

[Context]

Weaver discusses the loss of Christian culture and the threat of Islam.

[Question]

Why is prayer alone insufficient when action is required, according to the example of Phinehas?

[Context]

Phinehas stopped praying and acted to stop the plague; God blessed his zeal.

[Question]

In what ways do modern Christians 'trust in the mountain of Samaria' (government) instead of God?

[Context]

Amos 6:1 is applied to reliance on government for protection and provision.

[Question]

How does the example of David, a warrior after God's own heart, challenge pacifist assumptions?

[Context]

David fought the Lord's battles and was preserved by God.

[Question]

What does it mean to have a 'warrior spirit' as a Christian, and how can we cultivate it?

[Context]

Weaver laments the loss of a fighting spirit in churches and individuals.

Applications

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