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Let me add my own welcome to the words of welcome that you've already heard and in particular to our distinguished guests this morning and To add heartfelt. Thanks for your service. I Trust that a good number of you saw the dedication yesterday of the World War two memorial.
It was quite a ceremony if you didn't have a chance to see it. I hope that they Rerun it and you have a chance to look at that. It seems hard to imagine that it's been 60 years Since the D-Day invasion an event which to all of our young people in school today is ancient history and Yet those that participated in it are some of them anyway are still with us this being Memorial Day and the fact that we have troops engaged in In combat operations at this time, it seems appropriate for a sermon on the doctrine of the sword and So this morning we want to look at passages in Romans and in passages in Nehemiah.
Which outline that for us? Because truly Memorial Day is a time for remembering the sacrifices That have been made by the men and women who have given their lives that the rest of us might be free. Our liberty and our freedom have been paid for on a thousand battlefields ranging from Bunker Hill to Gettysburg to Verdun to Iwo Jima to the Choson Reservoir to Khe San and Then later days to Somalia and to Afghanistan and currently on the streets of Baghdad and in the streets of Fallujah.
Because it's true that the price of freedom is a debt that is never completely paid. Each generation that will live free Has to pay its own installment. The bill continues to come due over and over and over again.
New Hampshire has it right on their license plates live free or die. That's the choice and that always has to be the choice. Anything else leads to slavery. But whenever the topic of warfare comes up particularly in the context of How we as Christians should respond to this you hear the same foolish comments over and over again.
Sometime from people who should definitely know better. Just last week. I saw an interview on television with a veteran of World War two Who gave the opinion that ultimately the whole exercise had been pointless.
I Suppose in his case, he never saw one of the death camps. But for example, you hear things like wars never solves anything and While it is certainly true that there has not been a war to end all wars nor will there be until Armageddon.
I doubt very seriously if the citizens of Holland and Belgium and France and The rest of the countries that were liberated in the wake of the Normandy invasion would agree with that sentiment. You also hear things like violence never solves anything.
You ever heard that comment? I'm sure you have. But that's not really true either. Mindless unthinking violence is uniformly destructive. That's true. But directed controlled and focused violence solves a great many things.
In fact if you do it right when the violence is over the bad guys are all dead and peace and tranquility are restored. If the past teaches us anything it teaches us that warfare is inescapable it's an inescapable part of the human condition.
It's also a bona fide part of human history. Nehemiah 21 14 refers to the book of the wars of the Lord. It seems that the The war they the armies of Israel kept their own battle history just like every army does.
The United States military employs historians whose job it is to go along on every battlefield and to Record accurately what happened so that this can go into the records and the the the Israelites did the same thing.
Ecclesiastes 3 8 tells us there is a time for war just as there is a time for peace. A 2nd Samuel 11 1 speaks of the time when Kings go out to battle. In fact To at least some extent David got into trouble with Bathsheba because he wasn't where he was supposed to be.
It was the spring and the time for Kings to go out to battle and his troops were in the field and his place was With them not back by himself in the city where he could get into trouble. Man's fallen state also ensures that wars will continue until Jesus Christ returns to establish his kingdom.
Jesus told his disciples in Matthew and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed for this must take place. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation in kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
In the Bible war is not a sideline. It's a major topic the concept of the just war. Predates even the early church as far back as Cicero we find it recorded that Greek philosophers were wrestling with the question of when and Where and was it proper to fight and who was it proper?
Who was proper? Who is it proper to fight and since the early days of Christianity? Theologians have debated the same issue. How do Christians look at this issue of Fighting of warfare. After all the Bible says thou shalt not kill and Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek and.
The views on the topic range from absolute pacifism. That is the refusal to support military activities in any way shape or form. The Amish for example are a are an example of that you also have conscious of conscientious objectors.
Individuals that will not bear arms, but will in fact serve in non-combat roles and Then in fact a great many of the medics that or at least some of the medics that have served in our military With distinction have been conscientious objectors.
But How are we supposed to look at this. How are we supposed to look at this what is the Christians view? How are we to approach warfare and the need for defense? Well, the just war concept has four major points.
First of all Point one is war is evil, but it's unavoidable. Given the fallen nature of man war is evil. But war is unavoidable some evil cannot be avoided and evil is to be resisted. Secondly the just war concept is normative for Christians.
This is the way we are to look at things. The just war concept does not justify or glorify war it only acknowledges what is. This is the way the world is. This is not the way the world should be. It is not the way the world was intended to be when God created it, but sin has entered the world and therefore evil exists and Finally private citizens have no right to use force on their own authority.
And you find the church fathers Augustine Thomas Aquinas Luther Calvin. They all subscribe to this theory and They did so based on four primary theological points. First of all was their view of man. Number one man is created in God's image and he has intrinsic worth and dignity.
The Bible says then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and Over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth.
So God created man in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth.
Genesis 1 that sets forth the way God intended things to be but Also under the view of man man has sinned and man rebelled. From Romans Paul writes as it is written. None is righteous. No, not one. Not even you he says.
No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace. They have not known sums the whole thing up. There is no fear of God before their eyes pretty uniformly condemnation.
And finally under the view of man. Human depravity touches every area of human life Including the lives of the redeemed. Paul also says for we know that the law is spiritual. But I am of the flesh sold under sin for I do not do what I want.
But I do the very thing that I hate it affects even me he says. And then you have the view of the state. God has ordained human government and The state exists. Primarily to maintain justice and equity it is granted the right to use force to that end.
And we'll look at the primary passage for that a little bit later. But it starts off Romans chapter 13. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist Have been instituted by God.
And then it goes on in verse 4 for he is the servant of God an Avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. And then we have the view of the church. Christians believers are to be exemplary citizens.
Christians are to be the best citizens around. Christians should so live their lives that when someone analyzes a society as One of the ancient Romans did he said, you know those Christians Emperor those Christians are among the best citizens you have they behave themselves.
They take care of themselves. You know, they don't get out and get into trouble. We're supposed to be like that. Peter says be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution whether it be to the Emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and appraise those who do good.
For this is the will of God that by doing good. You should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people and. Finally is the view of history and eschatology. God's kingdom is not going to be brought in by human effort.
We are not going to reach down grab our own bootstraps and pull ourselves up. It just doesn't work that way. Nothing but the second coming of Jesus Christ is going to establish peace and righteousness and justice upon the earth until he comes.
Man is fallen. We have the condition where there's evil in the world and it's going to keep going. In fact, we have the promise in the scripture that it's going to get worse. Not better as we go along and that brings us to the doctrine of the sword.
The Doctrine of the sword the fundamental passage that sets forth the doctrine of the sword in the Bible is Romans chapter 13. This is where you always go when you want to look at this. Paul sets forth the purpose of government and the powers that it has to carry out its tasks.
It says let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God now. Keep in mind when Paul is writing this.
Who's Caesar in Rome? Nero. So he's not saying that good government is instituted by God or that good leaders are to be obeyed. Nero is probably one of the worst leaders the world has ever seen and certainly from the Christians point of view.
The early Christians point of view having Nero in power in Rome was not a good thing. And yet Paul is saying be subject to the governing authorities. That's Nero at this time. Whoever resists the authorities.
Resist what God has appointed and those who resist will encourage judgment for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear for the one who from the one who is authority then do what is good?
And you will receive his approval for he is God's servant for your good. Next time you see a police officer think to yourself. That's God's servant right there. But if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain.
For he is a servant of God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. It's Romans 13 1 to 4 if you're driving down the road. We see this happen in our own lives, don't we. If you're driving down Highway 12 out here?
You're headed into sterling and you are driving. You're driving at the speed limit and You should happen to a counter Pete Monaghan in his patrol car in in the pursuit of his duties. What you do. You smile you wave?
You give Pete a blessing sending him on his way to bring malefactors and evildoers to justice, right? But suppose you're going down Route 12 at 80 miles an hour. Now, what are you doing? Rearview mirror side view mirror rearview mirror side.
You're looking right and see behind that sign over there quiet. You're afraid why. Because you're doing wrong and that's exactly what Paul says. He says if you do good, you don't have to be afraid of the one in authority.
But if you do but if you're doing wrong be afraid. Because that police officer that gun he carries is symbolic of something. It's symbolic of the authority of the state it's symbolic of the authority of Human government that God has entered that God has instituted.
But this is the fundamental purpose of government law enforcement. Involving the protection of the righteous and the punishment of evildoers. Because in any society there are three classes of people. First of all, there are believers Christians.
They do what is right because God commands it and then you have men of good conscience. They do what is right because their conscience demands it. They may not be totally sure why something is right and wrong.
But they know what right and wrong is and they follow that. But then you have the wicked. These people fear neither God nor their conscience. They do what is right only out of fear of the consequences.
God has given the power of the sword to the state. That is the power to punish even to the taking of life so that it can enforce the law and protect its citizens. So then how are Christians to view the issues of defense and warfare and military service.
What about the sixth commandment that says thou shalt not kill or passages like he like Matthew's 539 which talks about turning the other cheek. What about Prayers like you find in Nehemiah chapter 4 where he's praying down the wrath of God upon his enemies.
How do we view that or how do we view certain Psalms? We read one of them this morning where David or another psalmist is calling for the wrath of God Upon the enemies. How do we look at that, how do we look at that?
Well, there are several points that we should keep in mind. Number one. Remember that the Bible does not portray warfare or capital punishment as inherently wrong. Whenever we read our Bibles keep clear in our minds the difference between private duties public duties and the duties of the state.
Private duties public duties and the duties of the state. Prohibition against murder in the sixth commandment that applies to individual action. We are not on our own authority. To go get our firearms and go out and wreck vengeance on somebody.
That is not our job. We are not granted the authority to do that. God grants that authority to the state to the government. The same thing applies to Jesus injunction to turn the other cheek that is private actions what we do privately.
Or we are interfacing with one individual. Again that does not apply to the way the state is to view things the state. The government is to protect its citizens and it does that in two ways internally by an objective legal system and a police force to enforce those laws.
Externally it does that by a military. The death penalty is specifically introduced in Genesis 9 6 as an interest as an instrument of human government. Human government is one of the divine institutions.
Its duty is to protect its citizens that I just said it protects them internally by an objective system of laws and a law enforcement agency and It protects its citizens from external threats by having a strong military.
The books of Moses the five books of the Pentateuch. From Genesis onward you will find over 30 specific crimes for which the death penalty is mandated. The second thing to keep in mind is that warfare is a tool in God's hands.
He uses that to punish wicked nations and to chastise his people. You'll see both of those in the Old Testament. He sent the Israelites into the promised lands with specific instructions to wipe out the Canaanite civilizations that they were going to encounter.
God had given those civilizations time for their wickedness to be full as the Bible puts it and You know, I come from down south and down there in certain areas. He needed killing is a Legitimate defense in the court of law.
Well, if there was ever people on the face of the earth that needed killing it was the Canaanites. The List of the practices that they carried out are. Such that you're not. I would I would not recite them from the pulpit to you to a mixed audience.
The things that they did suffice it to say if there was ever a totally wicked society upon earth. It was that one and God gave instructions to wipe them out. The Israelites by the way did not carry that out fully the way they were supposed to.
They themselves went into idolatry so that some time later God sends Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. To haul off the Israelites into Babylon into the Babylonian captivity. Where they sat for 70 years while they learned a lesson and they did learn that by the way.
The Israelites that cured the Israelites of idolatry. Then the Old Testament certainly has more to say about the subject of warfare than the New Testament does. But the New Testament has plenty to say about warfare as well.
You may have heard the idea that well the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament. That is not correct. It's the same God Old Testament and New Testament. Jesus used the example of kings going out to battle to make his point about one counting the cost in Luke 14.
Jesus used the occasion of Peter's rash actions in the Garden of Gethsemane to make a double point. In Matthew 26 52 he makes two points. First of all, he condemns individual action. Peter put the sword away.
This is not the time for you to have the sword out whacking off the ear of the high priest servant. And as we as we know Peter wasn't trying to whack his ear off either. He Peter was trying to take his head off he just couldn't aim very well and.
So he said Peter put the sword up, but then he also says He who slays by the sword dies by the sword and what's he doing there? He's affirming the right of the state. He's affirming the right of the state to enforce the law and.
Finally the Bible never portrays soldiering as a dishonorable profession. Nor does it condemn individual soldiers? Several occasions Soldiers and they had to be Roman soldiers that come to John the Baptist and Luke 3 asking What should they do?
And what does he tell them? He says behave in an honorable manner. Behave in a principled way. He doesn't say anything at all about getting out about changing your profession. In Matthew 8 5 Jesus condemns us and condemns excuse me commends a Centurion for his great faith and you know that story.
The Centurion comes to Jesus and says Lord heal my servant. Begs him to heal his servant and Jesus says, okay, I'll come to your house and the Centurion says no Lord. You don't need to come to my house.
Said I'm a military man. I know how authority works. Said the one in authority gives orders and those who are in subjection follow them. He said and I recognize in you you have ultimate authority in the universe if you speak the word the universe itself has to obey you and Jesus commended him for this great authority.
I I don't know where but somewhere along the line this Centurion whose name We do not know. He has been regenerate. He has been regenerated. He has come to understand who Jesus Christ is and What claim Jesus Christ has upon him and I personally expect to meet that Centurion in heaven.
Jesus didn't say anything notice about the man's profession. Even though he represents an occupying power. He is a representative of the Roman government. And finally there's the entire story of Cornelius and Peter that's recorded in Acts chapter 10.
And Peter doesn't say anything or Luke the writer of Acts doesn't say anything about Cornelius occupation. He only talks about his character and he was definitely a man of good character. In fact, every time you encounter a Centurion in the New Testament always they are presented as people of good character and people following an honorable profession and.
And finally the Bible uses the soldier as a metaphor for the Christian older over and over and over again and It uses the military life and its discipline as a metaphor for the Christian life and the way it should be disciplined so Let's look at a practical illustration from Nehemiah.
You knew we'd get to Nehemiah. That's what the bulletin said this morning. Is a little bit of background is Israel had been invaded they'd been hauled off. Jerusalem had fallen in 536 BC and at that point Israel ceased to exist as a national entity.
The city was sacked the temple was destroyed. Now you can find the story of rebuilding the temple in Ezra but Nehemiah details the rebuilding of is of Jerusalem's walls and. The rebuilding of the city's walls means a restoration of Israel as a national entity.
When you put walls around your city that was a symbolic of protection. That's what walled cities meant in those days. Walls mean protection and that is the function of government and so when you wall the city this means that I'm organized and I'm prepared to protect my citizens and.
So Nehemiah chapter 4 provides a good practical example of military action. That's being used to establish sovereignty. Now backing up just a little bit as soon as Nehemiah shows up and it becomes apparent what he's planning to do.
There's immediate opposition and there's always opposition. Building and battling are normal parts of the Christian life. And I'll leave for your own self you look back to Nehemiah 319. If you look back to Nehemiah 319 He details How he went to start building the wall.
He was able to get things organized and get families out and get everyone out there working on the wall. But those that are surrounding them the petty kings that are surrounding Jerusalem, they don't they take exception to this and they ridiculed this and They start talking about G Nehemiah and his crew is out there trying to rebuild the wall and don't worry.
The wall is going to fall over and so forth and so on but this is God's providence because At the beginning Nehemiah's enemies don't take him seriously so he has a chance to get things underway. But once it became apparent that the progress was being made His the enemies sand ballot and Tobiah hatched this plan this plot that they're going to make mount a military attack.
And they're going to kill the workers and I don't stop the work so Take a look at what Nehemiah does. First he prays now prayer is always a good place to start whenever you're starting an operation. You wonder well, is that a good thing to do to start military operations?
Believe me. I know a lot of commanders that is exactly what they do when they start a military operation. They either get the chaplain in there or they pray themselves and Take the troops out. Because Nehemiah knows that in this military endeavor He's got to maintain the national will.
In fact maintaining the national will is just as important as the action itself. Nehemiah keeps everybody focused on just whose battle this is. This is not our battle. This is the Lord's battle. The second thing he does Nehemiah looks.
First he looks up and he prays for divine guidance as we said, that's verse 9 Chapter 4 and we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. So he prays for divine guidance and he sets a watch then he looks down and He deploys his troops first.
He deploys them in the low parts. Where they're going to be able to hide behind the parts of the wall and the rubble that's already been built and they'll be able To shoot arrows at the enemy when the attack comes.
He also deploys his troops high. Because he realizes he's got a lot of ground to cover here. And he has a rather small group of people to do it with and so He puts some troops in direct support of the people that are building.
He puts other troops up on high on the walls as a mobile force so that he can move them around. And take them to wherever he needs them. He also builds morale and esprit de corps. He reminds them what they fight for their children their wives their homes and he also Reminds them who fights with them our Lord.
Jehovah is fighting with us. Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers your sons. Your daughters your wives and your homes. It's verse 14 B. So he deploys his troops he deploys his reserves.
Notice everybody's in on this. He has half the force standing guard. He has the other half building the wall and The workers themselves are part of the reserve. You know, this this is an interesting model because to this very day.
This is the model that the Israeli army uses. The Israel has a rather small professional army. Everybody's in the reserve. I mean everybody. Israel can stop and mobilize the reserve practically overnight and defend itself.
They still do this. But the workers it says the workers are working on the wall with one hand and with the other hand they got a spear. They've got a sword on you know, you see a guy out there and he's you know.
Slapping mortar on the bricks and putting the putting the wall up. But at the other hand, he's got that sword on and he's ready to drop the trowel and grab the sword and away we go. He's set and then Nehemiah has a unified command he's got sub commanders scattered around so that they can keep an eye on what's going on and Nehemiah has got overall command and he's got his trumpeter with him.
Now that's like today the commander you can always find the commander. He's the guy that's got the radio operator right next to him so he can be in communication. Well, that's what Nehemiah's trumpeter is his radio operator, that's how he sends messages.
So he's organized. He's all set. He's ready to go. So what happens out of all of this? Well. The result of all of this preparation is that the attack doesn't come. Nehemiah proves again that the best way to ensure peace is to be ready to fight.
When it became clear that he had he was organized and he was ready to defend and he was going to defend those walls. The attackers backed off and so he was able to finish what he set out to do he built the wall.
He rebuilt the wall now tomorrow. We're going to honor the memory of the men and women that died in the struggle to build our walls. To establish and maintain our freedom, but there was another battle a Battle of far greater importance.
It was waged on our behalf 2 ,000 years ago, and it was waged by a single general. Who is greater than any before or since all of human history has been overshadowed by the angelic conflict. Besides what goes on on earth.
There is a vast unseen spiritual warfare Continues in the heavens between Satan and his forces and God and his forces. If you go to Isaiah chapter 14 You will see the beginning of this epic warfare where it's recorded where it talks about Lucifer the son of the morning the highest of God's created beings at the time.
It wasn't enough for him to be the highest of God's created beings he said I will five times and The final thing is I will be like the Most High in other words. I'm going to take God off his throne. I am going to replace him and if you want to know where evil comes from that's where it starts right there rebellion.
He rebelled against Almighty God and so this warfare continues until now, but in this particular warfare. The final battle has already been fought. The outcome is absolutely sure. Because the final battle occurred on a hill called Calvary.
Described in Matthew 27. Or it says this of Jesus as he's being crucified now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour and About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lamas about the knee that is my god my god, why have you forsaken me.
And Some of the bystanders hearing it said this man is calling Elijah and one of them at once ran and took a sponge and filled It was sour wine and gave it to him to drink but the other said wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit those three hours.
Mark the ultimate battle of the angelic conflict. Where Jesus Christ took to himself our sins bearing our sins in his own body in our place as our substitute. We have sinned every one of us. There is a holy almighty sovereign God and every one of us has offended him mightily and The ultimate question is what can we do to make ourselves right with God?
What can I do that? I may stand in God's presence and Not be immediately consumed by his holy wrath. Someone has to die. The Bible says for sin you have to have someone has to die. There has to be the shedding of blood and so it's either we have to die or Someone else has to die in our place and that person that's going to die in our place.
He can't be like the Old Testament high priest because the high priest first thing he had to do was Sacrifice for his own sins, right? He couldn't go into the Holy of Holies until he sacrificed for his own sins because he was a sinner too and So anyone who is a sinner can't die for another sinner.
It has to be someone who himself is sinless. Well, there's only one person that fits the job description and that's Jesus Christ. God has to send his own son to hang on the cross and Die in our place.
Taking the penalty that was rightly ours so that we might live and So that's what is described right here. It's a very short couple of verses in Matthew and yet this is the final battle. The war is over at the end of this even though conflict still goes on.
Because John records that Jesus shouted it is finished. He marked his final ultimate victory over Satan at that point in the short space of just three hours. Jesus Christ God's own son has carried our sins.
He has paid our penalty. He has purchased our salvation with his own blood and his triumphant shout proclaims done in Contrast to all of man's religions which proclaim do. All of man's religions say do this do that do something else.
Whatever it is only Jesus Christ and only Christianity proclaims done. It's finished and so that even those skirmishes will continue to be fought. Until Jesus comes again. The Christian life is after all one of warfare.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6. The ultimate outcome is absolutely sure. The war has been won. True Christians are on the winning side. Salvation is an accomplished fact. It may be appropriated simply by believing on the finished work of the one who won the battle and won the war.
Now I'll leave you with one final quote. From a rather unusual source. George Orwell is not known to Theologians as a place where you go to make your theological points. But in this case, I think his comment is extremely appropriate.
He said. People sleep peaceably in their beds at night. Because rough men stand ready to do violence in their behalf. So we live in freedom on this day because rough men. And some of those we're going to honor tomorrow rough men have done violence on our behalf in the past.
But as we think on their sacrifice. Always be mindful of the young men and women. Who are the rough men and women of today that are doing violence on our behalf this very day? And let us also raise our sons.
That they will be ready to be the rough men of tomorrow when their turn inevitably comes. Let's pray. All right.