Gooding, David: 6 - Leading God's Nation

When we broke off, gentlemen, we were considering some of the features of the, uh, northern Canaanites. I call attention now to the last feature. Their commander in chief lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. Now that's a very interesting, uh, phrase, Harosheth of the Gentiles. Perhaps in the first instance it comes from their geographical position, where Israel's territory, so to speak, came to the borders with, uh, in that direction with the Gentile nations around. You will find, for instance, a similar use of the term Gentiles in the gospel by Matthew. Uh, you'll see in his account of our Lord's ministry up in the north. Here is Matthew chapter four, verses twelve following. Now when he that is our Lord, heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt at Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali toward the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. So in that geographical sense, you could possibly understand the term here, he dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. But now notice another interesting thing. Which is the way that the Holy Spirit is apt to describe some of the other nations. For instance, when you read of the Amalekites, you will from time to time, observe the description, the sobriquet, the sinners, the Amalekites. Well, all people are sinners, of course. But there must be some point, for instance, in the, uh, the Holy Spirit's description, the sinners, the Amalekites. In the same way, the Philistines are referred to from time to time as the uncircumcised Philistines. Well, it is true that other nations besides Israel practice circumcision. But of course, a lot of the other nations weren't circumcised. The Philistines weren't Semitics. Presumably Indo-European. They weren't circumcised. And from time to time, referring to them, scripture says the uncircumcised Philistine. So we come to this matter with the Canaanites. Sisera lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. Can be accounted for, as I say, geographically, if you will. But then has perhaps moral and spiritual implications. So let's take that as a springboard for the moment, and notice in the New Testament certain exhortations that tell us to beware of developing gentile characteristics. Matthew again, chapter six and verse uh seven. We are to beware of developing a Gentile attitude in our praying. Matthew six seven, and in praying use not vain repetitions as the gentiles do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. So you pray after this manner. Beware of a Gentile attitude in your praying, and in particular, the feature that marks Gentiles, pagans, is that they imagine that they shall be heard, for they're much asking. They think that, uh, the more you say, the more pressure you put upon God. You'll see. So that if you put enough pressure on God, God will yield. He won't have any option, you know. He'll yield because of the volume of the pressure of words that you bring to him. But if God was susceptible to having pressure brought on him, uh, he would be some poor sort of a god, wouldn't he? Now here we enter all sorts of practical, uh, uh, fields of practical questions. It is right that prayer be made by all the church of God. You'll see. We have examples of people praying day and night. Persistence in prayer, yes. And Paul in his letters will often urge the believers to pray for him, the more people the better. On the other hand, there should never come a point, should there, in which we think that we're just putting on pressure on God, that he wasn't really minded to do this, but, um, we put so much pressure on him that we can force his hand. It would be bad for us if we could force his hand. He is the Almighty, is he not? And by way of contrast to the Gentile attitude, our Lord gives a pattern for praying, doesn't he? And our prayers, so to speak, and now he's not dictating a chronological order that all our prayers have to, uh, uh, conform to, but a question of proportions. Our prayers should first be, uh, but recognize that God is Father, our Father. That our concern should be for the hallowing of his name and the coming of his rule. We pray not to overturn his rule, surely. We pray that his will might be done, and his rule be effective. And having thought first about God and his interests, we bring our interests. And then... we are taught about our need to ask for forgiveness in the same breath as we ask for our daily food. We shall not on this, in this life, get to a stage when we never need to ask for forgiveness. And then we have the moral implication of our asking to be forgiven. I'm not here going to preach a sermon, gentlemen. I'm simply pointing out, starting with Judges. This enemy, the fact that they're called Gentiles, is not merely an antiquarian point of interest. We are warned in the New Testament against, uh, our Gentile way of praying. In this same chapter six, we're warned against the Gentile attitude to daily work. Verse thirty one of chapter six. Be not therefore anxious, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. But you seek first, seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow, for the morrow will be anxious for itself, sufficient unto the days the evil thereof. In this context, then, our Lord is telling us not to copy the attitude of the Gentiles to daily work. In other words, what shall be our motive? What our primary objective? What we seek first, not in chronological order, but first in importance. What shall be our attitude to our daily work? It raises the basic question of why do we go to work at all? What is our main object. Says our Lord, it shouldn't be merely to get what to eat, something to eat, and to drink, food, drink, and clothes. For if that is the main reason why we go to work, we are behaving exactly like Gentiles. After all these things, the Gentiles seek. Now I'm aware that in one Thessalonians chapter five— or second Thessalonians chapter three rather, Paul tells us straight that as Christians we are to work and not to be busybody and to sponge on other people. A Christian that won't work and idles around and sponges on other people is walking disorderly, says Paul. Yeah. And I remember also what Paul said to the elders at Ephesus when he last met them. Having charged them with their duties as elders, he held out his hands to them and said, gentlemen, I've left you an example. My own hands provided for my own necessities and those of my team. I paid for them. In addition to my teaching daily and my prayers and visitations. And I'm telling you this because you ought to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than to receive. You as elders ought to. You'll see. So yes, we have to work. But then, the motive in working. What is it to be first? And our Lord lays it out. You are to seek not first your food, drink, clothes. You are to seek first God's rule, his kingdom, his kingly rule, and his righteousness. In my youth, I thought that meant that I'd better so give out some tracts or something, uh, before I went to work. Uh, uh, uh, you know, uh, and so long as I, uh, uh, uh, ha- kept up a good interest in the propagation of the gospel, well, then that left me free to go to work. It's not that, is it? To seek the kingdom of God, what does it mean? The coming kingdom of God, to extend the kingdom of God among the heathen. Well, surely that's a very good thing to do. But then I am to start with my own life. I am to seek God's rule in my own life. And the first dividend, so to speak, the first benefit of daily work is that it gives us practical opportunity to put God's commands, God's requirements into practice. You see, to read in the Bible that I shouldn't be selfish, that's good to read it. I find out I shouldn't be selfish. But just knowing I shouldn't be selfish, but I should be unselfish, just knowing I ought to be unselfish doesn't make me unselfish. The only way I can become unselfish is by being put into situations where I shall be faced with the necessity, where I have to decide to practice unselfishness. Yeah? We become unselfish, we become loving, we become kind, we become patient by practice. As with all walks of life. And God, who knows that we need to practice, sends us to work. That is the first dividend, so to speak. See, first the rule of God. And notice the phrase that comes next, and his righteousness. Because if in my daily work I persist and practice God's commands, his rules, his precepts, it will develop a practical righteousness of character. In my life, yes? That is the first and foremost and the most important dividend of daily life. Of course, the food and clothes are also obtained thereby. And you will notice the phrase that our Lord uses. The Gentiles, as they go to work, tend to make these things their prior quest. Now your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Notice that sentence and compare it and contrast it with what our Lord, uh, uh, says in verse eight. Be not therefore like unto them, your Father knoweth what things you have need of. In other words, you don't necessarily have to inform God. It's right that we make our requests known to God, but God knows anyway. He knows what I need. But when it comes to daily work, our Heavenly Father knows that we need food and drink and clothes. He knows that. He's not impractical, and work is a way of getting it, you see. Ordained of God, of course. What he is asking us to, uh, uh, be careful about is our prime motivation. So while work daily work has a, a, a dividend of food and clothes, house, drink, and so on, its prime dividend must be the rule of God and the righteousness that comes by it. Sooner or later, gentlemen, in daily life, in the world as present constituted, you may well come across a decision. I may have told you before, I remember it vividly, sitting at meal with a, a senior Christian man. He was a, uh... uh... forget the technical term now, he was an accountant, but he sat on the board of a big firm as their advisor. Company. Chappy, you'll say, that had to advise them. The big firm that he worked for had done, uh, uh, certain things in order to escape the income tax, and had moved assets and property around about the place to hide them from the income tax inspector. Came the day when the income tax inspector asked for a meeting with the board. And my good friend, he was company secretary, so he had to sit in on the thing, wasn't he? At the crucial moment, the income tax inspector put the question to him. What were the facts about these assets? He told me, I knew as I sat there that if I told the truth, I would be dismissed subsequently from my, my job. Had a wife, house, mortgage. What should he do? Now, if his first motivation of going to work was to get food and clothes and drink and house, and he put that first here, he would have told the lie, as the directors of the firm wanted him to. And would have lost the first and big purpose for which God sent him to work in the first place, to develop the rule of God in his life. Now, being a good Christian man, he told the truth. And after it was over, the principals of the firm told him that they wouldn't need his services anymore. The Gentile attitude to work. I know people go- come back at me when I say these things and say, but what about William Carey? The boot maker who went to India and translated scripture into about thirty five different dialects. And when he was asked about the things he said he made, he made shoes and boots to pay expenses. Well, that's an attitude to daily life, isn't it? And the jolly good one. Paul did the same thing. When he had cash, he preached, and when he didn't, he made tents and earned the money. His pioneer evangelism depended upon it, do you see? Because he lived in a world where you couldn't get, uh, uh, uh, where getting gifts from assemblies was difficult because of the dangers of traveling with money and all this kind of thing, and the long distances and so on. Yes, going to work to make the expenses, okay, we understand it. But then, of course, the work he was doing was work. His preaching was work. And Christian work, likewise, is an area in which it will test our moral character. Jealousy can sometimes enter in between servants of the Lord, you know. And impatience and all sorts of things. Work is the thing that God sets up. That our prime motivation be the doing of his will, the seeking of his kingly rule, and the righteous character that is developed thereby. Gentiles then. Oh, but then there's another thing. This is Ephesians chapter 4. They sing, uh, uh, chapter four, verse twenty seven. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Because of the hardening of their heart. Who being past feeling, gave themselves up unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye did not so learn Christ, if so be that you heard him and were taught in him, even as the truth is in Jesus. So here is a question of not developing a Gentile mindset. Not merely in our, our work, but now in our minds, in our brains, in our minds, in our outlook. Notice Paul's accusation and, uh, description of the Gentile mind. Darkness in their understanding. Why? Because they're alienated from the life of God. Ignorance. Hardening of the heart. And so forth and so on. Gentlemen, I, I, I, I must resist now preaching sermons. It is enough that I quote the passage in this context to point out this is a, a concern in the New Testament from Christ, from his Apostle Paul, for instance, to avoid the Gentile way of thinking, attitude of mind. That has great ramifications, and I cannot stop now to consider them. But sheer intellectualism can be a very bad thing. Let's think for a moment about the whole basic argument that now rages in education. People People object. object if teachers in the schools teach their pupils of God as creator. That, they say, is religion, and the school should be utterly neutral. So you mustn't say, uh, uh, uh, uh, teach God as creator. You are allowed to teach atheistic materialism because that is science and is neutral. Gentlemen, it is not neutral. Atheism is a faith. You can't prove there's no God. It is an assumption. Secondly, mere intellectualism that denies proper feeling is bad. Human beings are not just brains. Plato pointed it out long ago. You'll see, suppose a man who is now invited to betray his country. What should s- he knows he oughtn't to betray his country. But is he facing a firing squad? What will help him stand and not betray his country? It won't be mere intellectualism. It will be his proper feelings. Mm. Take a father with his child. Why would he do anything to save that child's life, give his own life for the child if need be? Not mere intellectualism, it's not he worked it out, a mere matter of logic. It is the proper God-given feeling. I don't mean silly emotion and sentimentality. But love in its fullest sense. Mere intellectualism in the course of history has proved ve- uh, has produced very clever devils. If intellectualism is not properly kept in check and balanced by right feeling. But I wonder again, I'm merely indicating to you, gentlemen, that these things are, uh, exceedingly important and practical, particularly in the realm of education nowadays. And the stance that the atheist wants to make, that education should be neutral, is falsest of the fact. To teach atheistic materialism is not neutral. It already has an assumption. Two, to teach mere intellectualism and not the development of healthy right feelings is false to humanity. These people, being past feeling, have given themselves up to all sorts of disreputable behavior that goes against natural feelings. As C. S. Lewis used to say of some people, they have no chests. Not they have no brains, they have no chests. Righto, that's enough all the sermonizing. Uh, uh, forgive me for the sermonizing. We must get down to our lesson. Uh, uh, we've, we've been trying to characterize these Canaanites as Gentiles. So let's begin by looking at the strategies and the qualifications of the deliverers. And this time we shall notice that there are three major contributors. And first and prominent throughout is Deborah. She was a woman. She was a prophetess. This, of course, is no accident, gentlemen. The enemy was a hard-headed brain, intellectual, scientist, technology. How would you meet it? Well, not by, uh, choosing to be ignorant, of course not. But she was a prophetess. With God-given insight into the purpose of God in history and the battles of the Lord. Listen to the dear woman in her song of victory, and her grasp of the purpose of God as he led Israel from Sinai, right through the desert, and brought them eventually into the Promised Land, with his purposes there within the Promised Land. The God of Sinai, moving at the head of his forces, the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. To accomplish the purposes of God and to establish his people there in Canaan. And a woman who puts the Canaanite oppression in this context of the great purposes of God within history. And then she was the one through whom God, uh, dictated to Barak his tactics. Now, therefore, as far as Deborah's insight into the purposes of God in history and the battles of the Lord, you may take as a parallel, if you care, the situation that the apostles found themselves in, in Jerusalem, as recorded in Acts chapter four, verses twenty three to twenty nine. They quote Psalm two. and see an application of Psalm two to their own situation. Psalm two says, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine the vain thing and set themselves against the Lord and his anointed? Well, Peter and company prayed and said, Lord, in this very city did the nations gather together against your Messiah, against your anointed. The Gentiles represented by Pilate and the high priests and company, rose up against your anointed to cast, let's cast their bands asunder. And now, of course, Christ is risen, and they pray for God's intervention in the fight, for they were now being persecuted by the Sanhedrin, by the leaders of the Jewish nation in Jerusalem. They ask for God to stretch forth his hand and to vindicate the name of his dear son. That miracles be done in the name of thy holy servant, Jesus. Notice the term, the one whom the nation had rejected and crucified and put to the cross. That sense of God's involvement, therefore, in history, God's great purpose in history, and being, so to speak, involved in the war that God is waging. I suggest there's a kind of a parallel between Deborah, uh, her situation and the situation of the early church in Jerusalem, for instance. And of course, the military metaphors that are used in the New Testament. Ephesians chapter six and elsewhere. The military metaphors are generally in the context of the struggle against principalities, powers, mights, and dominions. Not in Christian times, as Islam has it, fighting other nations. Our warfare is a spiritual warfare against the principalities, powers, mights, and dominions. So notice then that, uh, qualification of Deborah, her insight into the purposes of God in history. Gentlemen, you'll have to read that for yourself, we haven't got the time, from, uh, uh, chapter five of the book of Judges. You will find then that she says to Barak, up, has not the Lord gone out before you? And Barak, we're told, took ten thousand men. Wasn't bad going, was it? Ten thousand men, took them up north, and marched them up Mount Tabor. Mm. Don't mind not making this up, this is the text. Read the text and see where I've gone wrong, but, um, it's in the text. He took them up Mount Tabor. Sensible man, wasn't he? Military commander. Because, you see, the Canaanites had, I don't know how many hundred chariots of iron. Ooh. And if you are commander in chief of ten thousand men, to bring on a battle in the plain of Megiddo would be suicide, wouldn't it? The old chariots would run circles around them. Like that, they hadn't got many swords or s- or or or weapons either. You'll find that out from Deborah's song in chapter five. They were short of spears and shields, you'll see. So he did a very sensible thing. He he marched them up Mount Tabor. So would I have done, I think. Because you marched the men up Mount Tabor, then wonderful as the chariots were, you couldn't drive the chariots up Mount Tabor. And the enemy, when he observed that the Israelites had gone up Mount Tabor and there were ten thousand of them, if he attempted to come up the mountain at them, well, you could roll down stones and boulders and everything else and crack the skulls, couldn't you? I mean, it was a safe position to be tactically up the mountain. Until Deborah said, get down. Lead them down the mountain. Ooh. Ooh. I don't know whether you can visualize it if you've not been to Megiddo, well, perhaps you can't, do you see? But there's this vast plain of Israel on, do you see? And there's Mount Tabor over here, do you see? To lead them down the mountain to the plain? With the chariots of iron? You would have to be reassured that the Lord God had gone out before you, wouldn't you, before you did anything like that. Wow. What did old Barak he did? He led the troops down the mountainside. And the Lord indeed had gone out before them. There came one of these lightning storms, as come- can happen in that part of the world, with an absolute deluge of rain that turned the plain of Asdraelion by the river Kishon overflowed its banks, the Wadi Kishon overflowed its banks and produced a quagmire in the plain, so that the old chariots, and Sisera's chariot in particular, got bogged down in the quagmire. The last thing you would need if the, if you were in a quagmire like that were chariots. You see. The Lord had gone out before them. And so the battle was won. The Israelites won that battle. Sisera ran off. Towards the tent in which Jael lived. Before we get onto her and her escapade, let me call your attention first to some poetry, and then to some New Testament doctrine. We'll start with Debora's song. Then sang, this chapter five— then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Ahineman on that day, saying, for that the leaders took the lead in Israel, for that the people offered themselves willingly, bless ye the Lord. Lovely picture, isn't it? The leaders and the led. Leaders daring to take the lead, and people offering themselves willingly. Bless you, the Lord. Hear, O ye kings, give ear, O ye princes, I, even I, will sing unto the Lord, I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel. Lord, when thou wentest forth out of Seir, when thou marchest out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, yea, the clouds dropped water, the mountains flowed down at the presence of the Lord, even yon Sinai, at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is remembering the great triumphal march of God, come down, so to speak, from heaven in the glory of God, from Mount Sinai, with Mount Sinai quaking and the flames and the fire, and God coming with his people, cloud of smoke by day, uh, uh, uh, and uh, fire by night, leading the people in the victorious march through the wilderness and on to establish his kingdom in Palestine. Look at, uh, verse six. in the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through the byways. Yes, the highways, you didn't go, you didn't go along them in case you get caught by the Canaanites. You had to go by the byways. The rulers ceased. They ceased until that I, Deborah, arose, that I rose a mother in Israel. They chose new gods. Then was war in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? They chose new gods, and it disarmed them, gentlemen. Had no weapons with which to fight. Notice the connection of thought. Gentlemen, it's a spiritual warfare in which we are involved. If you give way to false intellectualism, I'm not s- I'm not despising intellect, we are to love the Lord our God with all our minds. You'll say all our strength. We are to think. But if we give way to mere intellectualism in the form of modernism, that is, man's intellect is the final arbiter of truth in the universe. So modernism is quite prepared i- i- i- i- to believe in God, so long as God... fits in with man's own rationality. Man's rationality, man's intellect is the final umpire in the whole universe. That's modernism. And that, of course, is a very serious wrong, a, a fight that began in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent said to Eve, as God said. Oh, you don't take notice of what God says. You decide for yourself what is morally right and morally wrong. You shall be as gods, uh, as God, knowing good and evil. You decide it for yourself. God's word, God's revelation, what God says, oh. No, you decide. That is intellectualism. And we're in a spiritual warfare, and if we give way to that kind of intellectualism, where man's reason is the final judge in the universe, it will disarm us in the fight. What we need is to think, yes, have a mind that is informed by God, through God's self-revelation in his word. The God who in former times spoke in divers manners and proportions to the fathers by the prophets, has spoken in these last days through his son. It is the final authority. We need our intellects to think through what God has spoken through his son. But our intellects do not invent the truth. Our intellects are there to, to, uh, uh, understand the truth, not to invent it. And if we give way to false intellectualism, it will disarm us in the spiritual battle in which we are involved. You'll see. Mm-hmm. Well, anyway, to, to, to, um, uh, come down to verse twelve. Awake, awake, Tabora. Awake, awake, utter a song. Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. Notice the phrase, lead captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. Before we leave her poem, let's notice how she now lists those that came down to the help of the Lord... in this battle. And then her criticisms of tribes that didn't come. Verse fifteen, the end, by the watercourses of Reuben there were great resolves of heart. Why did you sit among the sheepfolds? To hear the pipings of the flocks? Hm. At the watercourses of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Gilead abode beyond Jordan, and Dan? Why did he remain in the ships? Well, you'll have to ask Dan when you come across him. There was a tremendous battle afoot. Some came down and joined and got involved in it, and others? Well, old Dan still sat in his ships. I suspect, uh, living conditions were hard and, well... he didn't get involved anyway. But let's pick up the phrase, Awake, awake, Tabora, awake, awake, utter a song, arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinwan. So that's her poetry recording the issues at stake in the big battle. Let's look at Psalm sixty eight, shall we? Uh, verse sixteen, or verse fifteen. a mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan, a high mountain is the mountain of Bashan. Why look you askance, you high mountains, at the mountain which God has desired for his abode? Yea, the Lord will dwell in it forever. This is the God of Sinai, of whom Deborah talked, coming with his forces to the land of Canaan, eventually to take the land and to establish his house on the Mount of Jerusalem. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them. Well, as in Sinai, or perhaps the God of Sinai. Who now has brought his armies and invaded the land and captured the land and eventually captured Jerusalem, and by David's day established, uh, the house of the Lord. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts among men, yea, among the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell with them. And you'll notice the phrase, thou hast led captivity captive, is the phrase from Deborah's song. Now let's come to He- to Ephesians, and once more to Ephesians four. You will notice the verse that we referred to earlier on, Ephesians four verse seventeen: This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind. But now let's look at the context. Look back to verse seven. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Here comes the same phrase. Context. Well, we are to give diligence, verse three, uh, well, verse two, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But of course, there is opposition. Verse fourteen: that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in craftiness after the wise of error, but speak in truth in love, may grow up in all things into him which is the head, even Christ. And for that practical purpose of maintaining the unity, of fostering the growth of the body to full grown maturity, as against the wiles of the devil. Uh, he, uh, we have been given gifts, verse seven: unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Paul is now thinking of Psalm sixty eight and asking himself what exactly it means. He hath ascended. Who's it talking about, he hath ascended? Can't be talking of God, can it? God cannot go any higher. God is in the height of everything, above everything. How can he go any higher? How can you say of God he ascended? So Paul has a little difficulty to start with, with the expression in the Psalm. Uh, a- and then he grasped the point. Now this, he ascended, he's quoting the Psalm, he ascended, this phrase, he ascended. What is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? In other words, it must refer to Christ. Before he could ascend, he had first to descend. Yes? If he had never descended, he couldn't have ascended. The wonderful story of the Christ is that for the accomplishment of the purposes of God and the redemption of his people, and to lead his once-time enemies as captives and bring them home to glory, first he descended into the lower parts of the earth. I'm going to leave you, gentlemen, to make up your mind, for there are all sorts of views upon what that phrase means. I, I, I content myself for the moment with the phrase he descended. He came from the mansions of glory to meet the foe and descended like Barak came down from Mount Tabor, and the Lord had gone out before him. Hence the victory. We are called to the fight, but the Lord has gone out before us. He has descended to earth, to Calvary, to the grave. And having descended, he has now ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And as a triumphant warrior, coming home from the battle, would distribute the spoil that he has won in the battle. So the risen Christ, having won the battle, distributes the spoil. He gave gifts to men. What gifts? Well, he gave some apostles. So let's start with Paul, the apostle who's writing this, and observe what Christ had done for him. Saul was his chief enemy. He told you he's the chief of sinners, trying to eliminate the very name of Christ from the earth and persecuting the believers, and the Lord defeated him, brought him to his knees. Hmm. Read one Timothy chapter one to see how he did it. Conquered him. Then gave him to the church. For the preaching of the gospel, for the, uh, building up of the saints. It's he that's writing the letter. Conscious, of course, as he writes it, of the tremendous victory of God that has taken him captive, who once was his chiefest enemies, as he puts it. Uh, this is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- sinners of whom I am chief. Now unto the King eternal, be praise and honor and glory for everlasting. The government of God, the kingly rule of God, shown in the life of Paul. How did the great king defeat Paul? Well, he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus was exceeding abundant, and I was saved. Yeah. Given me as a gift to the church. And in the great battle, a spiritual battle against world rulers of this darkness, gentlemen, it's not saying too much, is it? To say that if you are believers at all, the King eternal, with his age-long purpose, the early stages seen as God came down on Ca- on Canaan to lead his, uh, on Sinai to lead his people into the land. The God who, a century or two later, when the people had fallen under the captivity of the Gentiles, went out before Barak as he came down the mountain. The Lord went before him and led the troops of Israel to victory and distributed the spoils. Prototypes of the great thing that happened when he descended into the lower parts of the earth to fulfill the government of God and has defeated you, gentlemen. Christ has, I mean. And taken you captive? Is that how you would put it? Do I hear from you the same song of praise that comes from Paul to the King eternal, the only wise God, be power and dominion forever, and has taken you captive, and has given you to his church, as a gift to the church. That you and I, in our small way, in our day and generation, may serve the body of Christ. Endeavoring to maintain the unity of the body. And then to lead our fellow believers from being mere children, spiritual children, to grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ. You see, the body of Christ is not only a reality now, a reality through which Christ works and blesses his people. It shall be so for all eternity, you know. The body of Christ is not a temporary arrangement. His body will form the executive of Christ for all the great schemes God has in mind for the future eternity to be. Christ will be the head forever. But not unto the angels has he given in subjection this world to come, but Christ. And Christ working not through angels, but through his body, redeemed men and women that are filled with his life can be likened to his body, and through them he will govern and execute all the plans of God for the whole of eternity. We therefore desperately need to grow up to the stature of the fullness of Christ. We need to get our thinking right. So, beware of the Gentile mind, says Paul, in this very context. Don't think like the Gentiles think. Let our minds be in tune with the risen Christ and his revelation of God, that we might fight the battle as gifts of the risen Christ to the church. Yeah? Well, I hope that makes some sense somewhere along the line. Anyway, even if you say, but he he raved a little bit today, never mind. Uh, do you see, a a a raving prophet can start people thinking, yes, yes, to get back to the text and say, is it so? But one little word about jail. Deborah warned Barak before he started that the honor of the victory would not go to him, it would go to a woman. When God caused the sudden rainstorm and the Wadi Kishon overflowed its bank and made a quagmire of the territory, and Sisera's chariot got stuck down in the mud. He got off the chariot and ran to the Kenites, a particular tribe favorable to the Israelites. So he ran off to the Kenites, and there was no man at home, so to speak, so there was Jael in her tent, and there was the commander in chief of the Canaanites, uh, at her chin. What to do? Now, some people have criticized Jael, they said this was very bad. This was deception. She brought him in and said, my lord, come in, and she brought forth butter in a lordly dish and buttered him up, as they say, if you forgive the pun, and then, uh, said, would he care to take a rest? He must be tired after all the commotion of the day, and took him into the back part of the tent and laid him down to sleep. And when he was asleep and snoring, she, uh, she came in with the tent peg and put it through his brain. And that was terrible deceit and disloyalty and everything bad under the sun, so people say. They do well to look at the facts before they come to too hasty a judgment. Here was a lone woman with a man at the door of the tent. Armed, tough. What was she to do? If she said, no, I won't hide you, don't come in, he could have killed her there and then on the spot. If she said, yes, do come in, and took him in the back part of the tent, what would she say if her husband came home, when her husband came home? Whoa. So she brought him in, she had no other option, she brought him in, she laid him down. And then, when he was asleep, put a tent peg through his brain. He was an enemy of God, an enemy of God's people, yes, and quite unrepentant. She wasn't going to hide him. This is a story from the days in which the people of God fought with carnal weapons. We are not to fight either to protect or to promote the kingdom of God with carnal weapons in our day and generation. But you see, gentlemen, a little exhortation. When you go home to your digs or your home, just have a look to see whether there's any old gentile in the room, eh, or in your life. And if you should discover a gentile mindset, thinking like an old gentile, get hold of the nearest tent peg and put it through your brain, will you? And learn not to think like the gentiles think. Yeah? I'm being signaled that the time is to stop. I stop forthwith. But you see, it was the woman's task in those far off days to look after the tent. It was her job. She knew all about tent pegs that you have to put into the soil to take the guy rope to keep the house stable, the tent stable, yes? And so she looked after her home very well, didn't she? And used her tent peg to put an end to the Gentile mind. So God give us good understanding of his word.