“Fear the Foe?” – FBC Morning Light (3/7/2024)

Well, good Thursday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading, we're reading Deuteronomy chapters 19 through 21, and I want to focus on the opening verses in Deuteronomy 20. You know, to kind of lead up to this, I read a few articles the last, oh even in the last week, that are really quite disturbing.

One of them had to do with the number of attacks on churches in the last couple of years, and how those kinds of attacks, in the United States, those kinds of attacks have been mushrooming far more than in previous years of history.

It's never happened in the past, but man, it's happening a lot in these days, and the writer of the article suggests that this is a trend, and the potential is there for there to be only more of this.

Then the second article I read had to do with a bill that someone is presenting before Congress that is endeavoring to, it's supposedly, on the surface, it's designed to criminalize, you know, these militia groups in the United States, to keep people from coming up with another insurrection against the government.

But the application of that bill, this article pointed out, is to even prevent churches from having people attend the church who are armed, that can protect the congregation should someone come in with a weapon and want to open fire on the congregation, that, you know, the church can't train people how to conduct themselves in a way that would protect against that kind of a thing with the use of firearms, any kind of weaponry, which basically says, churches, you just have to, you're open to vulnerability there.

And then a third article pointed out that this family in Indiana, again, I can't remember if it was a husband and wife or there was a single parent household, I can't remember that detail, but the point is that the child, a young adolescent child, was taken, was removed from the home of that family because the parents would not use the child's preferred pronoun.

The child has, you know, succumbed to the pressure of the society to tell him that you're not really a boy, you are whatever you want to be at any particular time, your gender is fluid, and he decides he wants to be considered a girl and use feminine pronouns, at least I think that's the way it was.

I don't remember if it was a boy who wanted to be a girl or a girl wanted to be a boy, you know, whatever the case. The point is that the child wanted to use gender pronouns that were not the child's sexual, true sex, true gender, and the parents wouldn't do it.

They wouldn't do it because it violated their conscience. And so the DFS, the Family Services Organization there in Indiana, came and took the child for the child's protection out of the home. Now, why do I bring those things up?

The Church Under Cultural Pressure

Because we're seeing an increase in ideas and actions that marginalize the Church, and even consider the Church to be an enemy, a foe, to the state or to the preferred way the society and the culture wants to go.

The society, the culture, the government is more, is increasingly putting themselves in a posture of opposition to the Church. And when you're on the side of the Church, that is Bible-believing people who want to follow God's Word and what God has to say, we're increasingly marginalized, and that can be intimidating.

That can create fear and anxiety. Ah, here we go to our text. But it shouldn't. Why? Deuteronomy 20. When you go out to battle against your enemies, and these were very real enemies, you know, physical enemies, they were getting into physical battles, okay, there's that distinction, all right.

Do Not Fear the Enemy Because the Lord Goes With You

But when you go out and you see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, when you see that the enemy far outnumbers you, has apparently much greater power, and so forth, he says, do not be afraid of them.

Why? For the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. So it shall be when you are on the verge of battle, that the priests shall approach and speak to the people, and he shall say to them, Here, O Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies.

Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, do not tremble or be terrified because of them. Why? Because the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.

Now look, the Church today has no business taking up arms and getting into armed conflict against those who oppose biblical values, biblical truth, oppose God, oppose what the Bible says. Absolutely, unequivocally not.

And the enemies that the Church faces may also not be so armed, but nevertheless, they can incite fear. Let's not allow that to happen. Let's not be afraid. Why? Because the Lord, who is the God who brought Israel out of Egypt and was with the people of Israel in those really very physical, real battles, is our God, and he is with us.

He will go before us, he will fight for us, he will accomplish his purpose through all of these kinds of crazy things that are going on in our world, and we just want to be faithful to him and trust him, fear him and not them.

Prayer for Courage and Trust in God

Heavenly Father, give us the grace to do that, we pray. Deliver us from the anxiety that so and so easily flood our souls when we see all of these things around us that are frightening, perhaps, and putting us on the defensive and marginalizing us.

Oh Lord, may we trust you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, you have a good Thursday. May the Lord bless you in it.

Good day.