Nonresistance AM

00:02 Greet each one this morning in the name of Jesus. Let the church say, Amen. All right. Would you turn in your copies of the Scriptures to Joshua? Joshua chapter 6, actually chapter 5. 00:19 I'm going to give you a little parable this morning before we look at this Scripture. I don't want this to be a joke, but it is rather humorous. 00:31 And it's not true, but it illustrates a point. The story is told, the parable goes like this: that there were two men who had been wounded in an accident. One was black and one was white. They found themselves in a waiting room, 00:51 an emergency room, and they were arguing as to whether or not when they get to heaven they would find out if God was black or white. And they argued and argued, and time after time they would debate. Then one day this accident happened, and they both found themselves in the waiting room of heaven. 01:12 And while they were there, they were still arguing whether or not when they saw God, is He going to be black or is He going to be white? And the black man said He'll be black. The white man said He'll be white. And then God's voice comes into the room and says, "Buenos dios, Señors." He neither black nor white. 01:34 He was something else. 01:36 He may have even been able to say, "Shalom." The point being that we tend to see God through our eyes, through our own personal preferences, our own personal makeup, our own personal frame of reference. And so for a white man, we may tend to see God as white. 01:57 For a Jewish man, he probably comes closer, at least in Jesus' case, to seeing Jesus as a Jew. White man saying black man, you know, the point is made. And I think this would introduce our subject this morning here in Joshua chapter 5, verse 13. 02:15 Joshua is leading the men and women and the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. And of course, they have been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. And during that 40-year time, they had grown lax in their covenant with God. And so to prepare them now at the end of the 40 years, the previous generation, those over 20 at the time of the testing, have died off. 02:37 And now it's a new generation ready to go into the land of Canaan. And Joshua calls them to once again confirm the covenant with God. And so they're circumcised, the men are. 02:51 And they are to put up memorial stones in the river and on the bank from the river in chapter 4. And the priests are to take the Ark of the Covenant and lead the way. And as soon as the priest's foot touched the water of the Jordan River, which was in flood stage, the waters parted and they walked across, 03:13 similar to what had happened in the time in life of Moses when Moses led them through the Red Sea into the desert and on their way to the land of Canaan 40 years previously. Of course, we know how that worked out for them. And so this is 40 years later. And during this time now, they're ready to move. 03:35 They're ready to do battle. They're ready to do heavenly battle. They're ready to go to war with the peoples around them in the land of Canaan and possess the land. And then Joshua has an interesting experience, one that we may have tended to ask the same question. Verse 13, 03:54 "It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?" Now picture this. 04:14 Joshua is maybe in prayer. He's preparing his heart. He's getting ready to lead these people into take Jericho. He's right up against Jericho. He sees this man standing there. Must have been in full military regalia. And his sword extended. 04:33 And Joshua recognizes him as a military man. And I don't know at what point it dawns on Joshua that this is probably not your typical military man, that this is a picture and an encounter with the pre-incarnate Christ, the captain of the army of the Lord of Hosts. 04:55 So he says, "Are you for us or are you for our enemies?" I need to kind of take some evaluation here and figure out who I'm up against. If you're on our side, thank you very much. If you're on their side, well, can we work out a deal here? Give up some land for peace or whatever. And of course, I'm putting words in his mouth. Verse 14, 05:13 "So he said, No." Now that's not the answer to the question. "Are you for us or for them?" No. You know, this is a yes or no question. Straight up, straight down. And yet the answer is no. Neither. "And but as commander of the army of the Lord, 05:32 I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my Lord say to his servant?" You must have a personal message for me. If you're commander of the army of the hosts of the Lord and we're going forth in the name of the Lord as servants of God, then maybe you have a word for your servant here. 05:53 And then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so. 06:05 Just a brief encounter, as it's recorded here in these three verses, but a powerful encounter, especially when it comes to considering our subject here this morning. 06:16 And that is our response to political power and to politics in our day and time and age and about the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of this earth. Now we're going to come back to this passage a little bit later in the message. But I want to talk to you this morning about government and about our response to government, 06:36 about wars and rumors of wars and about non-resistance and about our place in the kingdom of God. So we look at the biblical record of human government. And we don't see much in the Old Testament before the time of Moses. 06:53 The Old Testament, we find that human government as we know it and as it has been revealed to us basically had its origins in Genesis 9, verse 5 and 6. If you want to turn there, this is an important passage of Scripture in the institution and implementation of human government. 07:13 And this is at the end of 07:16 the flood. Noah has come off the ark. And now God is making a covenant with them. And this covenant could be considered the dispensation of human government. So God says to Noah, "Surely for your lifeblood, I will demand a reckoning from the hand of every beast. I will require it from the hand of man. 07:37 From the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man." Now this is what it looks like in verse 6, "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply. 07:54 Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it." And then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying, "And as for me, behold, I will establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you." So human government in its preliminary form, in its infant form, God-given form, 08:14 in its seed form was one of justice. Where there was a taking of human life, there would be a justice implemented by taking the life of the offender. This is the initial basis of capital punishment. 08:33 And that rages; that debate still rages today. It's been waging all of my life. And it's still waging today. Indiana has had several executions this year. 08:43 Florida is on track to have, I think, its 23rd execution before the end of the year, something like that. And so capital punishment, as we know it, begins right here. "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man." And so we asked the question about capital punishment. 09:04 Is that legitimate in 21st century America? Does it still hold a place in human government? But the institution of human government being that it is for the punishment of evil and for the reward of those who do good. 09:23 Of course, we know that from New Testament, Romans 13. If we had kept reading this morning, Romans 13 says that government is a minister of righteousness, a minister of God for the punishment of evil and for the reward of good. 09:38 That includes, I think, punishing evil internationally when aggression takes place. That's a big subject, a big subject. But what we're looking at this morning is the Christians' response to government and the Christians' response to war. When we come into the time of Moses then, 09:58 this thing gets detailed much more graphically, much more detailed. 10:03 And so what you have in the Law of Moses in Leviticus, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is the establishment of the particulars of a God-centered government. And you have the law given in man's relationship with God. 10:23 You have the law given in man's relationship with man and how it is to be justice is to be administered. Government was instituted for the law and order, punishment of evildoers, reward of those who do good. 10:38 And Moses gives that law based on a theocracy, theocracy meaning God being the King, God the King, His law, the order of society as a beacon on a hill, a light to the nations. That was what Israel was established to be. 10:55 It was a theocracy in the sense that it was a religious people relating to God. But it was also God's law relating to the people and their surroundings. God was the one in charge. Even when the kings were put in place, God worked with them to establish the kings. 11:15 Saul was established by God. David was established by God. And then on from there. But God is still in charge in the time of the kings of the selection. And the king found himself very much accountable to God. Now you can say that was a theocracy. The Old Testament was built around this theocracy. 11:37 And while they lost it and went in captivity into Babylon, they strove to get it back when they came back to the land from which they were evicted. And then, of course, we know they were taken over by the Romans, by the Greeks, by the Romans. And that's where we have that things when Christ comes on the scene is Israel no longer has its own king. 11:58 And so until Jesus, the King of the Jews, is introduced in the New Testament. Now the New Testament, things change. Things change. Jesus said very specifically in John chapter 18 that, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, 12:19 My servants would fight." So Jesus, we know very clearly from Scripture, Jesus came to establish a kingdom built on a completely different ethic, a completely different platform. It is a kingdom under His kingship, under His authority. 12:38 But it is a spiritual kingdom. It is not by being born into a church or into a denomination or into a nation that you enter into this kingdom. You enter into this kingdom by being born again, by being born of water and of the Spirit, by being born of the Word of God. 12:57 And Jesus established this spiritual kingdom through the church, the hearts and lives of believers. It becomes a separation of government and church. So that which had been won under theocracy, God the King, God's religious people, 13:17 and His law being established for the nation, now God is separating that. And He separated out the physical kingdom from the spiritual kingdom. And so we find out that one day this will be united again when the Word of God says that the kings of this earth, 13:37 the kingdoms of this earth will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And so one day during the rule of Christ upon the earth, what we may call the 1,000-year reign of Christ, as it's recorded in the book of Revelation, Christ again will reign as King over the nations. And there will be a theocracy. 13:55 In the meantime, the church is a theocracy in that we are under the authority of God. And God is sovereign over the nations. But we do not have today Christian nations. You've heard me say this before. But I believe there is no such thing as a Christian nation. 14:15 There are maybe nations that have been instituted on some biblical principles, Old Testament principles. 14:22 But basically, if Christianity, if this were a Christian nation in the United States of America, we would be utterly failing, failing because there is not much Christian happening in our government. Oh, there's a lot of rhetoric. There's a lot of rhetoric. 14:41 There may even be some proclamation of the gospel from elected officials. We saw that in the Charlie Kirk funeral. But this whole thing of mixing up Americanism and nationalism and Christianity and King Jesus and the church and the state, 15:01 boy, that's a rocky road. And it has not done well when it was tried in the Middle Ages. And it does not do well here in America because the ethics of the two kingdoms, what we're talking about this morning is two kingdoms: the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God. 15:23 The kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God ruled by two different ethics, two separate groups of people, although they do overlap. We, as a kingdom of God people, citizens, we do live in this kingdom down here in our case, the United States of America. 15:43 But while we are in the world, we are not to be what? Of the world. And so the citizens of the kingdom of God are believers in Jesus Christ who have been born again and come under the authority of Jesus Christ versus the entire population of the kingdoms of this world. 16:02 Entrance into the kingdom of God is through the new birth as opposed to entrance into the kingdom of this world through physical birth. The function of the kingdom of God is evangelism and the nurture of disciples. The function of the kingdom of this world is law and order. The function of the kingdom of God, 16:22 the means of discipline of the kingdom of God, are the Word of God, is the Word of God versus the discipline of the law of the land is law and order. The head of the kingdom of God is Jesus Christ, to whom we swear and offer allegiance, 16:43 our complete, total allegiance to Him versus the kings of this world or presidents or prime ministers or whatever you call them in any different country or age. The severest sanction of the kingdom of God is excommunication on this side of eternity anyway. 17:02 So we don't take people out to the firing squad when we excommunicate people. Or if we have to do that, we don't take them out and shoot them. We don't take them out and put them in an electric chair. We don't take their life. We just recognize that they're on a different path than excommunication versus the loss of life. 17:20 The kingdoms of this world implement their laws and order by the loss of life. That's the severest sanction. And the future of the kingdom of God is eternal. And the future of the kingdoms of this world are temporal. 17:38 One writer said it like this: "The state cannot be Christian in its methods because it does not control its citizens by the proclamation of the Word of God, but by the arm of the law, which is ultimately the method of force. The state simply cannot follow the Christian ethic. 17:57 Officers of the law do not go out to arrest the criminal carrying New Testaments and intending to appeal to him on the basis of Christian ideals." This is what separates us from secular pacifism or even religious pacifism is that we believe that the kingdom of God 18:16 and the kingdom of this world operate in two different realms with two different ethics, two different platforms, two different modes and methods of operation. 18:27 And it is no more reasonable for the government of this world to place their demands upon the church than it is for the church to place its demands upon the government. We function on two different realms. The church speaks of gentleness. The world speaks of force. 18:48 The church speaks of love. The world speaks of law. The church is based on humility. The governments of this world are based on pride: government pride, national pride, running for office pride. I think about those when people run for office. 19:09 And you listen to their rhetoric, you either have to be extremely ignorant or extremely proud to run for office and say, "Look, everybody, I have the answers. Vote for me and I'll get it done. 19:24 I, I, I, I, I." And they're either not aware of their own limitations or they are very prideful because that's the method by which you get elected. You don't get elected by humbly preferring others above yourself. Amen? That's a recipe for disaster of a political campaign. 19:44 You get elected by saying why you are better than others. And so the governments of this world function by the sword. We function by the Word. The governments of this world function with vengeance. We function with forgiveness. The governments of this world seek justice. 20:05 We seek non-resistance or forgiveness, mercy. The governments of this world demand that you stand up for your rights. And what does the church say? We must give our rights to God in order to please Him and put ourselves and our lives in His hands. 20:25 And so the church is God's primary concern at this time. Does God still sovereignly maneuver the governments of this world and the kingdom of this world? Yes, He does. But I think if you put the governments of the world alongside the church, we would have to say, based on our understanding of the New Testament, 20:45 we would have to say that of all the things that God has to take care of in the universe right now, the church is His primary function, His primary concern. Not that He's not concerned about the governments. He has that very much under His control. 21:04 But the church is His 21:09 way of operating, is His vehicle by which He is known to the world. And it is governed by love, governed by love. 21:20 I have wondered this: How can a Nazi, thinking about this, and I'm going to try to articulate this: How can a Nazi, how could a Nazi during the day persecute Jews, 21:39 torture Jews, and all kinds of other people for that matter as well, and then go home at night and play with his children? How could you do that? How could you put people to death during the day and take them, beat them, take their clothes off, 21:57 and put them into barracks that are lice infected and put them into gas chambers and put them into hard, hard excruciating pain and torture and forced labor, and then go home at night and eat a nice meal and sit down and play a game with your children? How could you do that? 22:17 Well, how could it be done today on the life of a soldier, an American soldier, a Canadian soldier who is charged with doing the same? Now, not torture, but killing and breaking things. Like someone has said, 22:37 war is about killing things, killing people, and breaking things. And then you go home after you've had a day of killing people and breaking things. And then you pull yourself up to a nice meal and sit down and play with your children. How do you do that? 22:58 How does that work? It only works, brothers and sisters, if you see yourself as an agent of justice through the government. And that's how many people see themselves. Constantine saw himself as an agent of God. 23:18 And he saw a vision before his battle against his uncle, I think it was, whom they were vying for being emperor of the kingdom of Rome. And so before the night before the Roman invasion there, Constantine, supposedly, this is what was recorded historically, had a vision of the cross. 23:40 And above the cross, with that vision, there was a writing that said, "By this, conquer." And so his justification for his rule and army was to conquer by the cross. 23:56 And so he had crosses put on their helmets and on their end signs of their military robes and so on because that was the way he was going to consolidate his power. And so he went out to conquer the nations with the cross. "God is on my side. 24:16 Who are you for, Mr. Captain of the Army of the Hosts of the Lord? Are you for us or for them?" "No, neither one." The Crusaders went to war with the Jews and the Muslims: Muslim against Christian, Christian against Jew, Muslim against Jew. 24:37 It was a messy, messy time. All the name of God and the Lordship of Christ supposedly were mixed up with military. And we're going to go and and and kill people on our way to conquer and free Palestine, free Jerusalem, free the Holy Land in the name of Jesus. 24:59 Something wrong with this. The Reformers, the Reformers. 25:08 I ran across something here just recently, yesterday, in fact, if I can find it in my notes. 25:17 While the Reformers, the Anabaptists, were the only ones that carried forward with the teaching on non-resistance and the belief in non-resistance and the two-kingdom concept, the two-kingdom reality that the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God are separate entities. The Anabaptists took that forward. 25:37 But even Martin Luther said this. He was not non-resistant. But he said this in 1520. 25:44 He wrote to his Catholic opponent, "You say that I would give room to the peacebreakers and murderers because I have taught that a Christian should abstain from violence and should not fight to recover his belongings of which he was robbed. Why do you not rebuke Christ who taught this? 26:04 What did Christ teach? That a Christian should abstain from violence and should not fight to recover his belongings of which he was robbed." Martin Luther sounding very much like an Anabaptist, even though he was far from it, far from it. Ulrich Zwingli, of course, Ulrich Zwingli was the one who gave the Anabaptists their initial training. 26:26 He was the Anabaptist trainer and then backed away from it when he saw that it wasn't going to work and be politically expedient for him. And so Ulrich Zwingli in 1522 wrote this: "Considered from the Christian point of view, it is by no means right to have a part in war. 26:47 According to Christ's teaching, we should pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. And if an aggressor smite us on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Now, Zwingli died in the battlefield defending the government. 27:05 So he turned his back on the Anabaptists' understanding of non-resistance. But he very much held that opinion early on. In 1523, he wrote: "Christ commands that we should not go to law nor engage in carnal strife. But if one take away our coat, let him have our cloak also. 27:25 And he has taught this by his own example as well. He also forbids all oaths." Wow, Zwingli, you missed the mark. You hit it there on those quotes, but you missed it ultimately. Another reformer of Basel, a man by the name of Johannes Oklampad, wrote in 1524, 27:47 and hardly an Anabaptist, but he wrote this: "How can a Christian approve of lawsuits and war? The approval of war among Christians is a doctrine of devils." Oh, wow. That sounds like an Anabaptist. But he was not an Anabaptist. "The approval of war among Christians is a doctrine of devils. Christians abhor hatred and war. 28:07 Or show me a war that is waged in love." Have you ever seen a war waged in love? "I bomb you in the name of Jesus because I love you." Wait a minute. There's something wrong with that. "What shall we say about those whose life's work consists of shedding blood? We are bidden to give our life for the brethren and to consider even our enemies as brothers. 28:28 How is it that there are so many who make less of taking the life of a man than of killing a goose? Well, listen to some of the principles upon which we base our belief in non-resistance. These principles derive from Scripture teachings: Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you. Resist not evil. 28:49 My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight? Jesus also said, "Put up thy sword into its place. For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Jesus also said, or Paul said, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. If thine enemy hunger, feed him. 29:09 If he thirsts, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." And that's not physical coals of fire. That's spiritual coals of fire. 29:20 And so there's a spiritual reckoning that comes, a guilt that comes when we when when those who oppress us to do bad are met with goodness and love. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Christ also suffered for us," Peter said, "leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. 29:41 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not. Also we're told to not render evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise, blessing. John says, "If a man say, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar. 30:01 And this commandment have we from him, that he who loves God, love his brother also." And the list can go on and on and on about the ethic by which not only the church, but those who make up the church, that is, the believers, the children of God, should reflect the character of God and the example of Jesus Christ. 30:23 Peter taught us in Acts chapter 10 that God is not a respecter of persons. "But in every nation, he that fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with Him." Someone said it like this: What would happen if the Christians of the world agreed not to kill each other? 30:45 Interesting. Luke 17: "Neither shall they say, 'Lo here,' or, 'Lo there.' For behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Verily I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see and enter the kingdom of God. Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 31:06 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. You don't find it in city hall. You don't find it in in in physical activity. You find it in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." First Corinthians 15:50 says, "For this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 31:26 Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." What we're talking about is a spiritual reality in the hearts and lives of God's people that makes a difference in how we treat our neighbor, our brother, our sister, our neighbor, and our friend and our enemy. 31:42 Now, this does not prevent a literal physical kingdom sometime in the future when Christ reigns over the nations of the world. But at this time, it is a spiritual reality. And this is what Paul preached. 31:59 He preached it to Felix and Drusilla about faith in Christ. 32:06 He preached it to Festus that Christ would suffer and should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people, unto the Gentiles. And so when he got to Caesar, what do you think Paul preached? 32:25 I think he continued to preach the kingdom of God. He preached the kingdom of God, the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Now, let's go back to our our our Joshua vision, Joshua chapter five. We've covered a lot of ground here. 32:44 But Joshua asked this question of the 32:49 captain of the hosts of the Lord's army. And we can find out from this what the captain of the hosts of the Lord's army thought was important. What does God look for from His people? Number one, God looks for worship, worship. 33:10 Verse 14: "Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, 'God is looking for people who will worship Him, worship Him in spirit and in truth. Worship Him above all else and pay allegiance to Him alone, Christ and Him crucified, 33:30 buried, resurrected, King of all kings and Lord over all the lords of this earth. And give allegiance to Him.'" Allegiance and worship, worship and service. God is concerned about that. God is concerned about His word. 33:47 He says, "Give me a word." So he said, "No, but as the commander of the army of the Lord, I now come." Joshua fell on his face and says, "What does my Lord say to His servant? What does my Lord say to His servant? What is God saying? What does Scripture say? 34:06 What is God teaching us? What does the revelation of who He is have to do with what we do and how we react and relate to others? How how do we follow the example of Christ when it comes to relating to the war to war and warfare and human government? 34:28 In other words, 34:29 would Christ serve in the Air Force? Would He serve in the army? Would He serve in the Marines? Would He serve in the armed forces? And if He would, what nation would He serve under? Well, we know He would have had opportunity to be a zealot and serve against Rome. 34:49 He would have had opportunity to try to establish the Jewish theocracy again. And yet He did not. "My kingdom is not of this world." Lord Jesus, the disciples asked Him, the apostles asked Him in Acts chapter one, "Will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" It's not for you to know the times and the seasons. 35:11 But this isn't it. This is not the time and the season for that to happen. Go and make disciples. He didn't say go and make Americans. He didn't say go and make communists. He didn't say go and make socialists. He said, "Go and make disciples." He didn't say go and make capitalists. 35:33 Although I do believe that the capitalist system is is is is consistent with with creation economics. I do believe in freedom. I do enjoy our freedom. But if we did not have freedom, would we still be free? 35:52 Free in Christ? Yes, we would be. The third thing that the captain of the hosts of the Lord is concerned about is obedience, obedience. "Take off your sandal. Take off the sandal from off your foot." What's the significance of that? Well, there may be something about the fact that the ground he was on was holy. 36:13 Yes, that happened to Moses too. For the place where you stand is holy ground. Take off your shoes. But there was also in Scripture a transaction that took place, a legal transaction. When a legal transaction was about to be entered into, they would take and exchange shoes. And so if you go to the book of Ruth and you look, 36:33 when Boaz was being asked if he wanted to redeem Naomi's property, and he said, "By the way, if you redeem the property, you also get Ruth." And the guy who was all hot and bothered to get that property didn't want the Moabite wife, widow of of his kinsman. And so he he gave his shoe to Boaz. 36:55 He gave his shoe to Boaz as a as a symbol of a legal transaction. And so what we're talking about here is a covenant, a covenant that requires our obedience. And so take off your sandal, Joshua. God's not concerned about getting a new pair of Nikes. 37:17 What He is concerned about is obedience, entering into the covenant of God. As He does His part, we do our part in living as the people of God and living as holy people of God. That's the fourth thing we see here in this passage. The place where you stand is holy. 37:37 God is concerned about holiness. He's concerned about worship. He's concerned about us hearing and obeying His word. He's concerned about obedience. He's concerned about holiness. What is holiness? Holiness is separation from the world and its thoughts, beliefs, 37:58 practices, opinions, worldview. That's why I had Trevor read this morning one of the reasons. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that ye present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, 38:18 but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Holiness is about thinking and knowing who we are as a separate people dedicated to God alone in allegiance to Him. 38:39 A lot more could be said here this morning. But I want to I want to read to you a couple of thoughts here. These quotes come from Alan Redpath on his commentary on the book of Joshua. 38:56 "These are the earthly visible results of victories." He's talking about the the spiritual warfare and the warfare in the book of Joshua, conquering Jericho. "These are but were but the earthly visible results of victories, won in heavenly places with angelic forces. 39:15 Jericho's walls collapsed without a shot being fired, so to speak, because Joshua had allied himself in worship and in surrender to this captain of the hosts of the Lord." Say, if we would align ourselves with the captain of the hosts of the Lord, what might happen in our day? 39:37 He goes on to say, "Behind the vast powers of ungodly empires and rulers in this world today, behind 800 million people committed unto the power unto death to the power of communism is satanic authority. Behind the hardness of men and women to the gospel of Christ is the God of this world, who has blinded the eyes of those who believe not. 39:58 Behind the resistance of wife, husband, children, or parents to the word of God. 40:04 Behind the divided home, the broken heart, the ruined life, and the shattered testimony is Satan, who in these last days of grace is turning on all his power, for he knows that his time is short." You can join the U.S. 40:21 military and try to take care of communism and fascism and Nazism and all the isms out there. But unless you change the hearts of people, you have not changed the world as it needs to be changed. God forgive us that we are attempting today to fight spiritual enemies by carnal means. 40:42 It cannot be done. May He forgive us when we seem to think that by planning, publicity, advertising, campaigning, and working, we will attain something, whereas in point of fact, we achieve nothing. 40:55 His point was that these are spiritual battles that must be waged by the people of God with spiritual weapons. 41:06 What I want to close with this morning is a quote from the Mennonite General Conference held in Turner, Oregon in 1937. What did we believe as a people about this, 41:25 what we're talking about this morning in 1937? Well, there's a whole document that has a lot more in it than this. But I found this to be particularly impactful. 41:38 "If our country becomes involved in war," and by the way, this was pre-World War II. This is between World War I and World War II, 1937. "If our country becomes involved in war, we shall endeavor to continue to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 41:56 Avoid joining in the wartime hysteria of hatred, revenge, and retaliation. 42:04 Manifest a meek and submissive spirit, being obedient unto the laws and regulations of the government in all things, except in such cases where obedience to the government would cause us to violate the teachings of the Scriptures so that we could not maintain a clear conscience before God." Acts 5:29. 42:23 "We confess that our supreme allegiance is to God and that we cannot violate this allegiance by any lesser loyalty, but rather must follow Christ in all things, no matter what it costs. We love and honor our country." Notice that. 42:40 "We love and honor our country and desire to work constructively for its highest welfare as loyal and obedient citizens. At the same time, we are constrained by the love of Christ to love the people of all lands and races and to do them good as opportunity affords rather than evil. 42:59 And we believe that this duty is not abrogated by war. We realize that to take this position may mean misunderstanding and even contempt from our fellow men." And it did. 43:11 Mennonite people and Baptist people, non-resistant people were not at all appreciated in World War I and not much appreciated in World War II, even though we sought to better the communities in which we served, as well as possible suffering. 43:31 "But we hope by the grace of God that we may be able to assume, as our forefathers did, the sacrifices and suffering which may attend the sincere practice of this way of life without malice or ill will toward those who may differ with us. If once again conscription should be established, we venture to express the hope that if service be required of us, 43:52 it may not be under the military arm of the government and may be such that we can perform it without violating our conscience and that we may thus be permitted to continue to enjoy that full liberty of religious faith and conscience, 44:05 which has been our privilege here hitherto." One more quote I want to give you this morning before Brother Dwayne comes and closes the service. This is a quote from John Calvin, again, another reformer at the time of the Anabaptist, early Anabaptist. 44:27 But he was not non-resistant. But listen to what he had to say, Matthew 5:45. "When he expressly declares that no man will be a child of God unless he loves those who hate him." Get that again. "Speaking of Christ, when he expressly declares that no one, 44:48 no one man will be a child of God unless he loves those who hate him. Who shall dare say that we are not bound to observe this doctrine? The statement amounts to this." This is John Calvin writing. "Whoever shall wish to be accounted a Christian, let him love his enemies. 45:08 It is truly horrible and monstrous that the world should have been covered with such thick darkness for three or four centuries, 45:16 as not to see that as an express command and that everyone who neglects it is struck out of the number of the children of God." Even the reformers who hated the doctrine had to admit that non-resistance is 45:35 the plan of God for the people of Christ in this age, in this day. Brother Dwayne.