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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
August, 1942
out and escorted Israel over into their land of promise? The whit ened bones of Pharaoh and his rusty chariot wheels lay along the sands of the Red Sea to testify to the sea. gulls and the great white cranes that the days of the Pharaohs were numbered; He failed to discover the. march of God and to fa ll in line. * What a roll I could call of those who truly did join the stars! Abra ham, Moses, Paul, Luther, Wesley, Moody, Billy Sunday. It would fag and exhaust a dozen voices to call that roll. Men who sensed the direc tions of God. Men who dared to take God’s path. Men who walked with Him. And what does this direction taken by the "stars” mean to you young men and young women who have just had these years of opportunity in the Word of God? The supreme choice is yours, individually. Solemnly I warn you that all your background and preparation arid previous usefulness -w ill lje absolutely worthless if you fa il to move in line with God’s pur pose from this moment onward. God could set you aside in ’ an instant, and you would learn what it means to fight against the stars of God. But all the powers of earth and all the prin cipalities in the heavenlies cannot - keep you from success if you set your w ill in line with God’s will. Victory with God “ The stars in their courses fought . . .” ! And thus it !was that the prophetess, Deborah, s t o o d u p o n Mount Tabor and surveyed the broken chariots of Sisera. She claimed no credit. She had n!ready -told Barak that the victory did not belong to him. But her heart was full of song. A great hallelujah was in her throat. It may have been a moonlit night, at the end of the day’s battle. She looked aloft and'saw 1 God’s stars marching. And then came her song, I know a man who has made his tory. He has taken a defeated people [ Continued on Page 311]
tangled world is a moment ’ to de termine the direction of God and to catch step. Pivotal Moments in History There have been great moments in history. It was a great moment when Christ stood before Pilate. A million mothers might have named their babies Pontius Pilate, after one of the greatest judges of all history, had he only joined the stars that day. I do not propose now to discuss the deeper meaning of those moments, but I do mean to say that when Pilate turned the Lord Jesus Christ over to the mob, he found the stars bearing down upon him. Pilate was doomed. He had failed to discover which way God was moving and to catch step. Certainly, Jesus was on His way to the cross and to the redemption of mankind, but Pilate had his chance upon the judgment seat just the same. And it was really Pilate who was on trial. What a moment! Not what a moment for Jesus and redemption. That had been settled yonder in the garden, in His fixed purpose to pay the penalty of mankind’s sin. But what- a moment for Pilate! The stars were marching his way. , What a moment when Paul stood before King Agrippa! The old king almost joined the stars that day. What a moment when Nebuchadnez zar saw three Hebrew heroes come un singed from a furnace of fire! Nebu chadnezzar professed belief in their God. He was oh the edge of the heavens where the stars march, and yet he lived to eat grass like an ox, an outcast from God, defeated. He did not quite catch step with the stars. What a moment when Pharoah stood before Moses, with blood in the rivers and frogs hopping around in the butter plates! Once Pharaoh actu ally seemed to have decided to let God’s people go. But no. His feet would not keep step. Who knows what history’s narrative would have been if he had marched his chariots
the field of military strategy. And right there, some of us have made a discovery^ We have discovered that it was not the Duke of Wellington who defeated' Napoleon at Waterloo. The trouble with Napoleon at Waterloo was that God was moving in the other direction. The Invisible Conflict Possibly the world’s greatest puzzle is what happened to the Roman Em pire in the early centuries of the Christian era. We have a habit of say ing almost lightly that the primitive Christian church, unarmed, overthrew the Roman Empire, proud mistress of land and sea. Historically, that is true. Do you know why it is true? The early Christians had no swords. From the day that Peter put his weapon in the scabbard at the garden gate, we read of no Christian sword lifted against Rome. But Rome crashed as though ten thousand bombers had emptied 'tons of explosives upon her. Rome undertook to stand in the way of an invincible army, that once a prophet prayed the eyes of his servant might behold. The thing that Rome could not understand was that her generals could not see that army as it marched. Rome was marching one way, and the invisible hosts of God w,ere marching the other way, and they met. That’s all. And so it was with Sisera. He knew his chariots. They were superior to the chariots of Barak. He knew his army. His army was a better army than the one which followed Barak. Sisera knew his own record. Behind him were victories. Behind Barak’s army was defeat. But Sisera did not know the direction God was taking that historic day at Mount Tabor. And now I see him fleeing afoot, fleeing for his life, with certain death lurking ahead. And Deborah the prophetess is tuning her harp. The song is in her throat. Listen to her sing: “They f o u g h t f r o m heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” “The stars”—not the h e a v e n l y
b o d i e s , but the G o d of heaven Himself — fougjit against His ene mies! There are some t h i n g s I would like to know to day. Are we fight ing from London or fighting f r o m heaven? Are we f i g h t i n g from Washington o r from h e av e n 7 Which way is God m o v i n g ? That settles it. T h i s great moment in the history of a
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