Making a Real Soldier — Robert B. Thompson

Lord, as we come unto you tonight, it is with praise and thanksgiving. Lord, you brought us through many dangers, toils and snares, and we appreciate it. We appreciate your many, many kindnesses to us each day, helping us along and giving us wisdom and deliverance.

We appreciate it, Lord. We pray for each family represented here, Lord, that you would hear their prayers and bless them, Lord, and keep them safe. Let your angel be present in their homes, Lord. Keep them safe and healthy, their loved ones, Lord.

And whatever burdens are on the heart tonight, Lord, we pray you'll hear and answer prayer. Praise your name, Lord. And as we continue, Lord, we need to hear from God. We need to know what you're saying.

So, Lord, through your Holy Spirit, we pray, you will just add to each person as he or she has need. We ask in faith, believing in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to turn to Joel, the second chapter. Now, I felt to talk some about the army of the Lord.

Joel 2 and the Army of the Lord

And I know this is not Joel Amos. This is not all that commonly taught. I understand that. These are old flyers for me. Joel 2. Joel. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos.

Joel. You're pretty far back there. And I know it's not commonly taught. I understand that. But it's something that God impressed on me over 50 years ago in Bible school. In 1948, I'd walk around saying, the drums of El Shaddai, the drums of El Shaddai.

Well, El Shaddai is one of the Old Testament terms for God. It means the mighty one, the powerful God. But the drums of El Shaddai, that's kind of weird. And none of the other Bible school students were saying anything like that.

And I wasn't particularly saying it to people, I was saying it to myself. And at that time, God gave me a feeling for His army. And Joel 2 is one of the best descriptions, but I want you to know there are many places in the Bible, Old Testament and New, where the army of the Lord is described.

It's not just here in this particular place, but it's in many places. Of course, it climaxes in Revelation 19 with the coming of the Lord. Now, we notice, and we better start there, I guess, hold your big toe in Joel 2.

Let's take a look at Revelation 19 to begin with, because we have people here that aren't always here, and they're probably not used to what I teach so much. So I want you to be sure you see it in the Bible.

It's in Revelation 19, starting with verse 11, so that you'll be oriented toward the New Testament. What in the world? What'd I do? I can't move. Well, that's a sign of age, I was here to tell you. You can't find your glasses.

What's worse is when you're wearing them and can't find them. Revelation 19 .11, I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. This is the coming of Christ, whose rider is called Faithful and True, with justice he judges and makes war.

Now, see, we don't think of the coming of the Lord in this respect, ordinarily, but since His coming is close, this is becoming more real to us, and the implications of it. When the Lord returns, when Christ came the first time, we know we're in Easter season, that He died on the cross, He came as a very meek person, and He was crucified, allowed Himself to be crucified, and then rose from the dead on the third day.

So we're used to that, Jesus. We understand that, Jesus. We don't understand this description of Jesus. We don't think of it. I mean, it sounds like a Sunday school war, something you read about in the Bible, but it never happens.

This is going to be a real war. It's called Armageddon. His eyes are like blazing fire. We don't think about Jesus that way, do we? Gentle Shepherd. He has on His head many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself.

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. It's interesting that in John, the Gospel of John says, in the beginning was the Word. And it says, the Word was made flesh. And here we find at the end of the age that the Lord is called here, not the Lamb, not when He's waging war.

He's not called the Lamb. He's not called Christ. He's called the Word. The Word. Because it is the Word that will prevail. And then it says something that affects us. It says, the armies of heaven were following Him.

Well, that's where the rubber hits the road. Notice it's not army. There are two armies. There's an army of angels that actually with spiritual swords in the spirit realm against the wicked angels and the demons.

That's one army. It's an army of judges. And it's led by the archangel Michael. Then there is... Ah, that's an army of warriors. I mean to say warrior angels. And then there is the army of judges. And that is the Christian army.

We don't have swords that we fight with in the spirit realm. That's done with the angels. We pray and we say, Satan be gone. But you see, we're only speaking words and we're moving our hand. But that isn't doing anything as far as the demon world is concerned.

As far as the demon world, there has to be an action by angels and by the Spirit of God to actually move the demons. Actually move in the spirit realm. We make a judgment. We say it's time now for Satan to be dismissed from this person.

We make a judgment. We have the keys of the kingdom being the church. And we decide at this time this person will be released. That's a judgment. But all we can do is pronounce it. Maybe wave our arms to be demonstrative.

To show energy or dedication. But that's as far as we go. We're not doing anything. There's words going out into the air. So there's another army that fights. And that army is in the spirit realm. It's invisible to us.

But it actually executes judgment. Is that clear? Remember what Jesus said? I can call the legions. I can call the legions of angels to help him. Many times in the Old Testament we see that the angels slew armies.

They actually slew armies. And so we don't do that. We can't take anything in the spirit realm. All we can do is pronounce a judgment. So there are two armies that are involved. And we see when Joshua was at the border of Canaan there appeared the commander of the angelic army.

So Joshua, who's a type of Jesus was leading the army of judges bringing with them the Ark of the Covenant with the Ten Commandments. That's God's judgment. They were bringing that. The army of angels don't bring that.

The judgment is given to man and to man alone. But they couldn't fight the battle against Jericho by themselves. They had to have angelic help. So the captain of the Lord's army showed up. And between the two I mean, it's ridiculous the way they fought the battle.

I mean, they marched around blowing rams for it. You know, it went away. But then the angels pushed the walls over. So you have to if you're going to do anything in God you have to do two armies. I mean, we can make all kind of noises and religious statements but if it isn't working in the spirit realm nothing happens and that's where the problem is is in the spirit realm.

Andrew?

Yes, that's one of my favorite passages.

That's our job as judges to do that. We actually bind them with our word. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. We pronounce the judgment of God against them but it has to be carried out in the spirit realm.

It has to be carried out. We have the sword of the spirit which is what? The word of God. But it's a word until something happens in the spirit realm. And so that happens through the spirit of God and through the angels.

So that's why we see here armies of heaven. Armies of heaven. So, now here's where it gets very practical when we think and some of us are old codgers like Jim and me and we think, boy now I'm getting so tired I'd like to, you know just lay down and not get up again.

Did you ever feel like that Jim? Boy, when my time comes I'm not going to protest too much. Just lay me out there in Kaiser and bid me farewell. You do get that feeling when you get old enough. But, you see what we're hoping is that we'll go up there and rest.

But see, here we find that we're returning with the Lord to fight. And that hasn't been too much in the forefront of Christian thinking. We've pictured, well maybe we'll be in a nice mansion and maybe we'll, you know never have to worry about food never have to worry about bills no sickness, dread, fear, anything.

It'll be a wonderful place to be. We'll have a spiritual body that's not attracted by gravity so we don't have this sense all the time of being crushed down and tired and weary. That's what we're looking forward to is the paradise of God.

And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, the Lord said to Daniel go your way and rest and you'll stand in your lot at the end of the days. Go your way and rest. And you will stand in your lot at the end of the days.

But now we find that something else is happening. This is the army of angels and the army of saints being led by the Word of God the Lord Jesus Christ to enter the earth and to set up God's kingdom. Because the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom.

The Kingdom of God and the Return of Christ

And the original preaching by John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles concerned the kingdom of God in the first century. The kingdom was coming to the earth and God's will would be done here. But when the Lord delayed His coming for 2 ,000 years that hope grew very dim because so many millions of believers have died and the kingdom did not come.

So, that hope grew very dim and what became more real to us was that we would die and go to paradise. That became more real to us. But now we're so close to the return of Christ we see the terrors of wickedness rising in the earth and we know that when that happens the terrors of righteousness will grow up at the same time and we're close to the coming of the Lord.

And now the message the original gospel message of the kingdom of God the doing of God's will in the earth for which the saints have prayed so many hundreds of years thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth has been prayed by so many millions of people throughout the 2 ,000 years of the Christian era.

Now, we're close to it. And so God is opening our eyes to how we adjust to this. How we adjust our thinking to it and what effect it has on our daily life. It has a direct effect on our daily life. Because in order...

Now, I don't think all Christians this is my opinion now, I'll get it to you tell you my reason why I don't think all Christians will return with the Lord as per this passage riding behind Christ. I don't believe it.

For one thing in any kingdom the whole kingdom is not an army. Anybody that's been in the military knows that the whole army is not the infantry. You have a whole backlog of cooks which are important three times a day motor transport getting people around clerks that fill out millions of...

The army is great for writing everything down in quadruplicate. You've got an army just of clerks. And then of course there's the medical corps which is absolutely essential in many other aspects of an army.

You can't have just infantry and have an army. They're the ones that face the enemy. But you have a lot more assisting functions without which the army cannot function. An army cannot function without the food and the cooks.

You can't function without that. You have to have your food, your supplies, or an army doesn't last three days. I mean, it's over. So, in the kingdom of God it's the same way. There are those that God will train for war.

And it will be in their heart. And that's why Paul said, I press toward the mark. Everybody has a mark. Everybody has a place planned for them from the beginning of the world where they fit. And all that you and I have to worry about is our own mark.

We don't have to compare ourselves with anybody else. All we have to do is to ask the Lord each day, help me, as Paul said, to press toward the mark that's before me. The heavenly calling that is my unique mark.

Because we're all different. And we all have different roles in the kingdom. Does that make sense to you? You see that? It's very restful when you think of it. You don't have to compare yourself with anybody else.

All you have to do is go to Jesus and if you do what He wants you to do, then you're perfect. That's all He's asking. And He doesn't ask a whole bunch of stuff that's foreign to your thinking, is distasteful, onerous.

It's not like that at all. Those things happen when we're either in religion or something where we're not hearing from Jesus. But to hear from Jesus and to do what He says to us as an individual is the most restful, joyous thing in the world.

It takes some time to get there because we have so many forces that impact on us to get our eyes off the Lord. But God, as David Duplessis said, God has no grandchildren. We always relate to God one on one.

Just one. Just lovest thou me more than these. It's always you and Jesus. Unless you can't bring anybody else with you. Your Creator wants to hear you, see you, know you, and He doesn't want you trying to force somebody else up there.

He doesn't want that and He won't put up with it. He'll break that relationship if He has to, to get to you as an individual. There comes a time when Jonathan and David are separate because they have different destinies.

And so no matter how close you are to someone, you can always love them, pray for them, be with them and support them. But when it comes to meeting Jesus, you have to meet Him by yourself because you are as unique as your fingerprints and there's nobody like you.

It's just you and Jesus. And when you get that straightened out, then you can relate to people properly. If you don't get that clear, you can never relate to people properly. It always will be abrasive.

Once you get you and Jesus straightened out, then you have a firm marriage. Then you have friends and so on. But first is God. He has the number one claim on us. Isn't that true? See, that's how He made us.

Christ’s War Against Sin and Human Corruption

Alright, so our minds are looking at this so we see it's clearly New Testament that when the Lord comes, He's going to declare war on the earth. Not because He doesn't love people, but because He does.

If you think much about the state of the world today, most people are in abject misery. And a lot of it is due to self-seeking rulers. You see this in Mexico, so graphic where the poor are eating out of the dump and the politicians are sending millions to Swiss bank accounts.

It always seems to be happening down in Mexico. Every time I look at that, I get sick because in sight of Mexico City, which is a metropolis in the city dump, you'll see Mexican people out there trying to squash cans to sell and everything while their leaders are amassing millions.

And this is true in many governments. I had a laugh at the communists with all their thing about, you know, helping with the poor and all that. But in East Germany, this guy before the Berlin Wall came down, the ruler of East Germany, when they got after him, he restored away all these millions of dollars.

I don't know if you remember that or not when the wall came down. So, it's that way. It's that way in the Arab countries where the sheikhs and the rulers have 16 Cadillacs and the people are living hand to mouth.

Well, the Lord is not pleased with that. He's not pleased that some children have nothing to eat. He's not pleased that fetuses are abhorrent. He's not pleased with that. And all the politics in the world won't change it.

Education won't change it. We tried to give food to Russia for the people. As soon as it gets there, the crooks steal it and sell it on the black market. Everywhere you turn is graft and corruption, graft and corruption.

I don't know how the presidents of this country stand it because once they get an office, there are so many pressures on them that even if they had the best resolve in the world, they couldn't do it because of the financial pressures and others that are exerted on them.

So the world is a mess. It's been that way for 2 ,000 years. It's a record of war, famine, of injustice. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. And you can't stop it. There have been many savants and philosophers, teachers, politicians throughout the 2 ,000 years who have promised utopia and gave their scheme for utopia.

Utopia never has worked. The only way peace will be brought is by the Lord coming and declaring war on the governments of the earth. There is no other way. They're not going to give up their power or their money.

They're not going to do it. They're going to lie and connive and steal. No matter what you do, they'll outfumble you and they'll end up ahead of you. But when the Lord comes, see, His eyes are fire. You can't con Him.

You can't get around Him. And I'm sure people will try to offer Him a billion dollars or a trillion dollars. Oh, yes. Oh, this is a very real thing. This is not some weird Oz kind of thing. This is going to happen.

And it's going to be real. Christ came once, and He's going to come again. And when He does, He's not going to ask permission. You see, Christ... If you want a picture that will make you nauseous, it's the picture of Christ knocking at the United Nations.

Christ knocking at the United Nations, trying to get in. It is so totally farcical. I mean, it is so ridiculous. You get any sense of Jesus Christ. United Nations means nothing. Like it says in Isaiah, the nations are a drop in the bucket.

They're less than nothing. Nothing at all. All He's got to do is speak. And there's no United Nations. There's no building. Manhattan is just laid bare, you know. But they'll do it. They'll try to bribe Him just like they did back there in the book of Acts where the sorcerer said, I'll give you money.

Give me the gift of the Holy Spirit. Oh, yeah. Oh, sure they will. They'll try to buy Him off. And if He were a human, they say every man has his price. Maybe He could be bought, but you're dealing here with God.

And He can't be bought. He doesn't need anything. We don't have anything He needs except ourselves. There's no king of history that had one billionth of the power that Christ has. So when He comes, the con game is over.

The Resurrected Christ and the Heavenly Army

Now, He could have done that 2 ,000 years ago at the first Easter when Jesus Christ came forth from the tomb. He was invulnerable. There was no one who could touch Him. The Roman soldiers couldn't touch Him.

All the power of Caesar couldn't possibly touch the resurrected Jesus. He didn't ascend to the Father so nobody heard Him. We know that seems silly, but we have to think about it. We have to understand what's going on here.

Now, He could have at that time. He said, I have power to call the legions. Well, a legion was, does anyone remember, it was 144 ,000 soldiers or 12 ,000 soldiers, whatever it was. One angel wiped out the whole Assyrian army.

One angel went there and wiped out that army. So you can imagine what a legion of angels could do. And Christ, you know, they were worried about His being crucified. And I said, I can call the legions.

I can summon the legions. And He could have summoned the legions. And after the atonement was over, the blood had been shed for the sins of the world, He could have ruled from Jerusalem and no one could have stopped Him.

He could have sent out His apostles as kings and no one could have stopped Him because they would be accompanied by angels, huge warriors that no one could resist. He could have set up His kingdom 2 ,000 years ago.

Think about that. Think of the agony that would have saved mankind when you read through history the various Khans, for example, Tamerlane, Hitler, Stalin. You think of the monsters of history that caused the death of millions, multiplied millions of people, brutalized them, enslaved them.

Even today, so many little boys and girls are sold into prostitution in several countries. Such a thing. None of that would have happened had Christ elected to set up His kingdom when He was raised from the dead.

So evidently, a God who does not delight in the destruction of people, who has love, who cares for the children, who cares for the boys and girls, who cares for the adults, who cares for the old people, didn't let that go on because there was no purpose.

There's a purpose. And the purpose is that it's God's determination that Christ would not come to earth by Himself, to be a king by Himself. It was God's determination, as we read in Hebrews 2, to have a company of sons who would share the inheritance with Christ.

That doesn't mean that they're as great as Jesus. They didn't come from eternity as He did. They didn't create all things as He did. Nonetheless, they're born from the same Father. And therefore He calls them brothers.

And there will be an army of these brothers as we see here. The armies of heaven followed Him. And they will be with Him as He rides through the earth. The armies of angels doing the actual slaying, but the army of judges directing it, binding and loosening, determining who's permitted in the kingdom, who isn't permitted in the kingdom, because they have the keys of the kingdom, the power to bind and loose.

And then these invincible warriors that fought alongside Joshua, helping when they invaded Canaan. And the earth, the wicked will be destroyed from the earth. There will be an end of sin on this earth.

God's will shall be done in the earth as it is in heaven. That prayer was not given in vain. God's will shall be done in the earth as it is done in heaven. His kingdom shall come. His will shall be done.

And when we see the world, in general America in particular, becoming increasingly wicked, we realize what it will take to remove sin from the earth. But the Bible says in Daniel that God shall make an end of sin.

And He's giving us faith now to believe for that. There's a movement in the spirit world. It's not the same as it was when I was first saved. There's a movement. We have faith now to believe that God is going to do this, can do it, will do it, and the day will come when there's no sin on the face of the earth.

But you see, people being what they are, it will have to be done by war, and then it will have to be maintained by the rule of the rod of iron, as the Scripture says. That's the rule of Christ. It's not...

What shall I say? It may not be like we picture. The Scripture says that Christ will rule the nations with a rod of iron, and they'll be broken like you would break a flower pot with a crowbar. They'll be smashed to pieces.

That same promise is made also to the victorious saints. And so the army... Christ will come. From the Scriptures I'd say not sooner than 20 years. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see how the things that have to be fulfilled yet can be fulfilled in less than 20 years.

Maybe they can. I'm not going to set any dates. But He will come, and He will declare war on sin, and He will make an end of it. And the reason that the gospel call goes forth... See, there's two things in the New Testament.

Salvation from Wrath and Preparation to Rule

Two issues. Two messages. One is the fundamental message of salvation. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. And what that means is spared in the day when Christ returns with His army. That's what that means.

He who believes and is baptized will be spared when Christ returns with His army. That's one issue of salvation. The second issue is talked about much more in the New Testament than just basic salvation from wrath.

And that is the program that we go through as Christian people, the pains, the trials, the strengthening of our faith, the creating of Christ in us, which is not for the purpose of delivering us from wrath.

It's for the purpose of preparing us to rule with Jesus. See, the two different issues altogether. If the issue were only to be spared from wrath, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. That's all you have to do.

Forget about it. Just rest and wait. Don't do anything too bad. But because what's going on, and the reason for all the ministries is to build us to maturity as measured by the fullness of the stature of Christ, which is not talking about basic salvation at all, but is talking about the preparation of saints who can return with the Lord and install the kingdom of God on the earth.

And that is why God is dealing with us today as He is. And depending on your calling, each one of us needs to make sure that he is praying each day. And that he is reading his Bible each day. Because the currents are running so swift.

And the challenges are so severe. As Antichrist rises in the world, and Christ rises in His church, that flesh is only dust. It's dust. There's no middle ground. To not press into God with all your might in this century is to default to defeat and punishment.

You will be... If God's hand is on you to be in His army, and you are careless, your talent will be taken from you and given to someone who is more industrious. You will lose your crown. I'm just telling you what the Bible says.

God is looking for diligence. This is the parable of the talent. You wicked and lazy slave. God is looking for diligence. Jim knows about diligence. He's a businessman. He's been in business I guess all his life.

And he'll tell you, if you want to lose your company, be careless. Just be careless. Be careless in these days. Like the people carelessly buying stock on margin and all this.

They're millionaires one day and they're paupers the next. That's careless. They're not diligent. They're not looking at what they're doing. They're just looking as far as the end of their nose. Whoopee!

I think we're the best in this and I've got a million dollars overnight. They're not diligent. Yes. So the psalm's looking forward and like in Hebrews it's looking back at the notion that the Lord now sits at the right hand of the Father here to keep our faith waiting until His enemies be made His footstool.

That's always tripping me up because it's like are we supposed to do something first? What's the... Our job now.

Is purely defensive. Having done all to stand. Not having done all to attack. Now, the Lord under the hand of God the Father is waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. God the Father in His wisdom and Christ always moves in the wisdom of His Father.

And He has to be patient. He would like His enemies destroyed right now. But the Father has a plan. And you and I are part of that plan. And Christ can't move against His enemies until God has offered to you and to me a chance to be a co-heir with Christ.

See? You're going to have that chance. Now, the currents are running fast today. Fast. Faster than they've ever run because we're approaching the maturing of wickedness and the maturing of righteousness.

And it's going to be... You don't have to worry about going out and looking for something to overcome. The hurdles will come to you. If you want to have some fun sometime when you're driving home, just picture that you're not going anywhere, that you're standing still and the earth is turning under your car because it's all relative.

And it kind of gives you a funny feeling. Well, that's the way the Christian life is. God isn't asking you to sashay out somewhere and try to do big things for God. He isn't asking you. We use that expression today.

That's aggressive faith. That's really presumption. You'll never find it in the Bible. God is not looking for people to do big things for God. God is looking for people who will tend to their own program just each day.

Say, Lord, help me through today. Lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from the evil one. Sufficient unto the day is the problems thereof. You will have problems every day. Is there anyone in here that did not have any problems this last week?

No challenges, nothing to overcome, no hurdles to jump, no test of your faith? Probably not because God doesn't waste time. There's no time to be wasted. The reason for this continual stretching and testing and challenging of your faith is so that you will be ready to be a co-heir with Christ.

You can't just repent and be baptized and that makes you a co-heir of Christ. That spares you from destruction. It would be just like you were on a boat and someone fell overboard. And you threw them a life preserver when you saved them, didn't you?

But you might have saved them to become a bank robber. See, just saving them doesn't say anything. And just saving somebody from wrath doesn't say anything. It's what happens after that that determines whether the kingdom is built or not.

And see, you and I are living stones in that kingdom. We are living stones. And for each one of us, a place was prepared before the foundation of the world where we fit. And if we don't mind our P's and Q's and we let stuff go by carelessly, our talent will be taken from us and given to another.

That's why it says don't let anyone take your crown because what is taken is your crown, your ability to rule with Christ. And people can take that from you. And we see that in Matthew 25 where the fellow buried his talent, what was given to him.

He just buried it. And there was another fellow that was given five and he got another five and he ended up with ten. So what does the Lord do? He takes the talent from the guy that buried it and gave it to the guy that had ten.

Now he had eleven and the other fellow had nothing. And the Lord said you are a wicked, lazy servant. In other words, you were not diligent with what I gave you. Now in our culture, in our culture with its marvelous attractions and the way the electronic industry and the research and the software and the hardware and the rest of it is going, it's an endless fascination.

Worldly Prosperity as a Spiritual Snare

I mean, they don't even, you can go down now and buy a keyboard for your personal computer that makes our keyboards look absolutely sick. They're $60. They don't have just the keys like we have and then alt and control and enter and then the number pad.

They don't have that. They've got all kinds of hot keys in there. And you can jump into the internet and you can cut, paste and everything all by just on the keyboard along with the letters. And I looked at that and I think, oh Lord, you know, I need that.

But I didn't get it because I know there is no end to this. There is no end to this. As soon as you get that, someone will come out with a three-dimensional keyboard. You know, and it will operate at several levels.

I mean, there is no end to this. But what happens is that it distracts you from the intense seeking of the Lord. Now, I'll tell you this. You have, and I'm sure, and I have also. I love to read about the great mountain climbers of the world and read their autobiographies.

It's very revealing because in a way the Christian life is like that. It's like climbing a mountain. And you know, when you approach a great mountain they set up base camps. Well, there's all kinds of people in the base camps and they come and they go and they bring food and they bring oxygen and they set up tents and they do everything and then they go up some and they set up another camp a little higher up.

Well, it's a little more strenuous so you don't have quite the comforts and the things. But there's still a lot of coming and going as they move materiel and other things up and down. Then you get one that's still higher than that and there's fewer people there and it isn't quite as comfortable and everything.

They're starting to get a little breezy and cold and everything. But these base camps keep going up until finally there's two or three people who are preparing for the assault on the summit. And those people you better read about I was reading about Hillary in 1920 and so on and other ones.