Our scripture reading comes to us this morning from 1st Chronicles 27. 1st Chronicles 27. I'll go ahead and read this passage, this chapter in its entirety. Give your attention now to the reading of God's Word. This is the number of the people of Israel, the heads of father's houses. the commanders of thousands and hundreds, and their officers who served the king in all matters concerning the divisions that came and went, month after month throughout the year, each division numbering 24,000. Jashobim, the son of Zebediel, was in charge of the first division in the first month. And his division were 24,000. He was a descendant of Perez and was the chief of all the commanders. He served for the first month. Dodai, the Ojahite, was in charge of the division of the second month. In his division were 24,000. The third commander for the third month was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the chief priest. In his division were 24,000. This is the Benaniah who was a mighty man of the 30 and in command of the 30. Amisabad, his son, was in charge of his division. Asahel, his brother, the brother of Joab, was fourth, for the fourth month. And his son, Zebediah, after him, in his division were 24,000. The fifth commander, for the fifth month, was Shamhuth, the Israelite. In his division were 24,000. Sixth, for the sixth month, was Ira, the son of Ikish, the Tekoite. in his division were 24,000. Seventh for the seventh month was Heles, the Pelennite of the sons of Ephraim. In his division were 24,000. Eighth, for the eighth month, was Sibachai, the Hushethite of the Zarahites. In his division were 24,000. Ninth, for the ninth month, was Abiezer of Nanathot, a Benjaminite. In his division were 24,000. Tenth, for the tenth month, was Mohari of Netafah of the Zarahites, and his division were 24,000. 11th, for the 11th month, was Benaiah of Parathon of the sons of Ephraim, and his division were 24,000. 12th, for the 12th month, was Heldai, the Netafathite of Nathnael, and his division were 24,000. Over the tribes of Israel, for the Reubenites, Eliezer, the son of Zichri, was chief officer for the Simeonites. Shephetiah, the son of Machah. For Levi, Hashabiah, the son of Chemuel. For Aaron, Zadok. For Judah, Elihu, one of David's brothers. For Ishakar, Amri, the son of Michael. For Zebulon, Ishmael, the son of Obadiah. For Naphtali, Jeremoth, the son of Azrael. For the Ephraimites, Hosea, the son of Abel. Azaziah, for the half-tribe of Manasseh. Joel, the son of Pedaiah, for the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead. Ido, the son of Zechariah, for Benjamin. Josiel, the son of Abner. For Dan, Azarel, the son of Jeraham. These were the leaders of the tribes of Israel. David did not count those below 20 years of age, for the Lord had promised to make Israel as many as the stars of heaven. Joab, the son of Zuriah, began to count, but did not finish. Yet wrath came upon Israel for this, and the number was not entered in the chronicles of King David. Over the king's treasuries, was Asma Veth, the son of Adiel. And over the treasuries in the country, in the cities, in the villages, and in the towers, was Jonathan, the son of Uzziah. And over those who did the work of the fields for tilling the soil was Ezri, the son of Chalub. And over the vineyards was Shammai, the Ramathite. And over the produce of the vineyards for the wine cellars was Zebdi, the Shipmite. Over the olive and the sycamore trees in the Shephelah was Baal Hanan, the Jedarite. And over the stores of oil was Joash. Over the herds that pastured in Sharon was Shetri, the Sharanite. Over the herds in the valleys was Shafat, the son of Adlai. Over the camels was Obeel, The Ishmaelite, and over the donkeys was Jedaya, the Maranathite. Over the flocks was Jaziz. the Hagrite, all these were stewards of King David's property. Jonathan, David's uncle, was a counselor, being a man of understanding and ascribe. He and Jahiel, the son of Hachmoni, attended the king's sons. Ahai Thophel was the king's counselor, and Hushai, the archite, was the king's friend. Ahai Thophel was succeeded by Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah. And Abathar, Joab, was commander of the king's army. This is the reading of God's word. The last three chapters of 1 Chronicles, you may recall, pertains to the temple. Those chapters spoke about the organization of the worship of the living God, particularly given the personnel that God had appointed to run the temple and its worship. While the worship between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, we said, has changed in many ways, there are, of course, general principles that remain the same. We are able to apply the idea of orderliness in worship, which was certainly clear under the Old Covenant, to the importance of orderliness with regard to worship in the New Covenant, which the Apostle Paul most certainly makes clear. However, this chapter shifts, it changes, it's slightly different than what we have been looking at up to this point. It is speaking about an army, particularly the way in which David's army was organized. The issue here then becomes military, no longer worship. We know throughout the Old Testament that the God of the Bible is the Lord of hosts. What does that mean? It means he is the Lord of armies. He is the commander of the army of the Lord. He is the one who is the chief general. He is the one who says, go here, and his men go here. Who says, go there, and his men go there. He leads the battle. He fights the wars. And he commands the armies in accordance with his sovereign will. Certainly, Israel's armies are not a surprise to us. The fact that we are here presented with the organization of David's army is no surprise. We are used to seeing, after all, Israel's armies as we read our Bibles. They appear in almost every book of the Old Testament, certainly in the historical books. The armies of Israel are familiar characters in the history of redemption, as it's recorded for us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. Yet we are still somewhat stopped in our tracks here, are we not? Perhaps in the facing of this passage, we are caught off guard. Israel's worship was perhaps for us easier to deal with than the idea of Israel's army. After all, we can identify with the idea of worship. It is after all the thing that we do together each and every week, twice on the Lord's day. But what are we to make of this passage, then, that presents us with the organization not of worship, but of military might and power? What are we to think of it? What's it got to do with us? How are we to take a passage like this and apply it to our lives? It seems so different, so remote, as if there is no point of contact between us and the passage. After all, as we move into the New Testament section of our Bibles and we read them, those passages of the New Testament teach us about the church. And we are not given details about heavily armed military regiments. We don't find national armies fighting in the name of God in the pages of the New Testament. We don't see such earthly holy wars being carried out as was the case under the Old Covenant when Israel was commanded by God to carry out holy wars. Is there any way then that we can identify with this passage or is it the kind of passage that we just simply resign to, okay, I read that, time to move on? or does it mean something to our lives? Hold that question for now. For now, I want us just to take a few moments, brief moments here, to examine what is exactly happening in the text. Verse one begins by introducing what is to follow. We are told, here are the numbers. In other words, once again, we are given numbers, we are given statistics about the people of Israel, including the heads of families and of the commanders of the armies. That is to say, we are here given the heads and the numbers of the troops of Israel's armies. At the end of verse 1, it tells us how the army was to be structured. They were broken down into divisions. One division for each month of the year in rotation. One each division consisting of 24,000 troops. So 24,000 troops would be active for their particular month out of the year. And now verses two through 15 tell us about those divisions. Verses two and three tell us that the first month's division had 24,000 troops in it. Verse four tells us about the second division. For the second month, 24,000 men and so forth and so on. It's worth noting here that the overall total, 24,000 men per month times 12 months, is 288,000 men all told, at least according to my calculations. I'm a liberal arts guy, not a mathematician, so forgive me if I have that wrong. I do know how to use a calculator, however. It is a significant military by any standard. Then we see a similar structure put into place in verses 16 through 22 where each chief for each tribe of Israel is introduced to us. Again, the number 12 comes to the foreground. But then we get to that all-important section, which is verses 23 to 24, and we are told there that in the numbers given are not included the Israelites 20 years of age and younger. This recalling, of course, what happened with David's sin when he tried to perform a census in Israel back in chapter 21. The chronicler goes on to recall here for us to remind us what he told us back in chapter 1. that Joab did not finish counting for Joab, Joab of all people, who's not exactly one of the heroes of the scriptures, he realized that God had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars of heaven, and that counting all the numbers of the army of the men of Israel was a sin, and Joab put an end halfway or partway through the process of counting numbers. And this was why we said that Israel received a great pestilence. You may remember that back at chapter 21. Or in the words that are recorded here back in chapter 27, verse 24, wrath came upon Israel for this. Why? You remember what we said. Why it was that God became so wrathful when David ordered the performing of a census for the counting of heads. And we said there that the reason why is because David failed at that point to live and to operate as the king of Israel by faith. David failed to trust the promises of God that God had said to Israel from on old that their children will be as numerous as the stars of the heavens and as the sand on the seashore. It was almost as if David was saying, you know, I know you have said this, God, but I'm going to count noses anyway to make sure that you, oh God, are on track. with what you have promised. It was an act of unbelief, and so David was punished for performing the sinful census, he and all Israel with him. You see, David had not realized that the time had not yet been fulfilled, that the time of God's promises that he would make Israel numerous as the stars of heaven had not yet arrived. David counting the numbers as if his day was the day in which God's promise had finally been fulfilled. You can see here in David, can't you? Perhaps bubbling up within his heart, great pride over his generation, great pride over his nation, great pride over his reign as the king of Israel. But God's promise had not yet arrived. It had not yet arrived because we know that God's promise of fulfilling, the fulfillment of God's promise would come by way of the gathering in of not just Israel, but of a people that God had foreknown and loved from every tribe, nation, and tongue of the earth. That time would have to wait. It wasn't yet in David's day. For now, Before we say how we should understand this passage, let me just say some words about how we ought not to understand and apply this passage. We should not understand and apply this passage, particularly now I'm going back and thinking about the organization of the army and the division of the army. We shouldn't understand this passage as teaching us something about modern day, current state armies and militaries. When we read about the armies of Israel and we read about their conquerors and the way in which they defeated their enemies under the old covenant, we shouldn't see that, just as an example, we shouldn't see that as justification for any particular military or any particular army here on earth to go out and to fight in the name of God unbelievers. often in the writings of early reformers, reformers whom we adore and we stand on their shoulders and we really appreciate, but oftentimes in the writings of early reformers, such as John Knox, you can find that kind of application from the Old Testament passages. Israel's armies are sort of likens to the armies of Protestant nations who are called to take up arms against pagans or in most cases, actually take up arms against Roman Catholics and to slaughter them in the name of Jesus. So it was meant in those days that somehow, just as an example, that Scotland, its military, would be justified in fighting a war against France because Scotland had the Protestant army, which was on the right side with God, fighting against a Catholic army, which was on the wrong side of God. and passages like these and others would be used in support of such military action. You see, Scotland believed that they were in a special covenant with God, that they were as a nation in covenant with God, and that as such, they had the military power and the military authority to fight in the cause of the gospel. that they could take up carnal physical weapons and use earthly armies in order to support and to fight for the gospel. Yet of such, we need to understand is not the kingdom of God. Jesus puts it this way to Pilate in John chapter 18, verse 36, Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. And that raises the question, doesn't it? What is the kingdom of Jesus. What is the kingdom of God? Where is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ? Can it be found in any particular nation found here on earth? What nation state might we go to and find, whether in this age or in other ages since the arrival of the new covenant, the kingdom to which Jesus belongs as its king? Well, I want to remind you, as we seek to answer that question, what Jesus tells his disciples in Acts chapter one. This is what the disciples asked Jesus in Acts one. They asked this of Jesus, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? You see the question, the way in which the disciples don't yet really get it. as they continue to identify the kingdom with the nation of Israel. But how does Jesus respond to the disciples? Remember what Jesus just said in John chapter 18, my kingdom is not of this world, it's of another world. This is what Jesus says to them in answer in Acts chapter one. It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. You see, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ does not belong to any nation. regardless of the fact that that nation really wants to be the kingdom of God. And we've seen that through history, haven't we? Nations making covenant with God so as to identify themselves as a Christian nation. But what we are told here is that no nation can be or is identified with the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God does not belong to national Israel as it did under the terms of the old covenant, but rather It belongs to the church. You, the people of God, in Jesus Christ, are this kingdom. It belongs to the disciples of Jesus who have been given the Holy Spirit. It belongs to those who bear witness to Jesus through and among all the nations of the earth. And here we gain an idea as to what then the weapons of that kingdom are. What kind of weapons is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ called upon to pick up and to wield? What kind of weapons? It is very clear from the teaching of the New Covenant, from the New Testament, that it is weapons of words. What does Jesus say to his disciples? He says, you will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. How is it that the church witnesses to Christ? 2 Corinthians, I want to direct your attention to 2 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse three, where it says this. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. And we know from the context here in 2 Corinthians that the way in which those strongholds are torn down is by the preaching of the gospel. It is through the proclamation of the word of God. So that the strongholds of which Paul speaks are not literal castles. They're not literal nations. They're not literal government buildings. But the strongholds that Christians are called to tear down, notice, back in 2 Corinthians 10, are lofty opinions and thoughts that are raised up against God. It is, in fact, a battle of mind to mind, of heart to heart, and the weapons of that war is the Word. This dovetails quite nicely with what Paul has to say in Ephesians chapter six. I'd like to direct your attention there. We're gonna just spend a few moments in terms of application talking about Ephesians chapter six, but if you look there in verses 10 through 20 in Ephesians six, this is the way in which the Apostle Paul prepares the army of God, that is to say the church, This is the way in which Paul prepares you, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as soldiers for battle. He tells the church to put on the full armor of God. Now, he's not saying put on a bulletproof vest or armor. He's talking about, he's using the word armor in a metaphorical sense. And so he tells us to put on the full armor of God because we are going into battle. And as we battle, we battle not against human soldiers, but we battle against the devil, verse 11. You see, this is far worse, or far more intense of a battle than you may even conceive of. That your battle is not against, let's say, political movements. Or it's not against your neighbor who continues to allow his leaves to blow into your yard or has the music on way too late at night. The battle that you are called to fight as a believer is against no one other than the devil himself. And that ought to make you shake in your boots because the warfare is invisible, your enemy you cannot see. I'd rather have a man with a sword or a gun or a cannon or a nuclear bomb to face than the devil. Yes, Jesus has the victory over the devil, and you need not fear him, but you do need to be aware of him, conscious of him, and you need to give him a certain level of respect and credence Because left to yourself without the grace of God, he will outwit you. And he will outwit me. He will tempt you and lead you into temptation all day long. The warfare, according to verse 12 then, explains what it means to fight against the devil. against powers and principalities, against rulers and cosmic powers, spiritual forces, this present darkness. In other words, we do not go against pagan armies of men, but the church faces off against forces, the forces that stand behind all pagan nations. The curtain has, as it were, by the Apostle Paul here, been taken away. The physical, the outward, the visible, the earthly, has now, in your eyes as you read Ephesians 6, been taken away so that you are now given a privileged perspective on the spiritual powers that reside behind all of the evil that you see manifested in the world today. And that's pretty scary. Having that curtain taken away is humbling. I mean, political battles. It's nothing. It's nothing. All it is is an outward expression of what's going on behind the curtain. Are you prepared? And are you actively engaged in war against what's going on behind the curtain? Or are you always fighting the curtain? You see. There's a big difference. And if you fight the curtain, but you're not fighting what's behind the curtain, you're not making any traction whatsoever in the Christian life. The church makes no advancement, tearing down curtains when we are called to tear down spiritual strongholds. This is the spiritual battle. It is a heavenly war in which you have been engaged and are engaged each and every day of your life as individuals, but also we together corporately as a church. Let me just say, it's not in my notes, but it's an appropriate day for us to talk about this. When you plant a church in an area Where there is no faithful gospel witness, that is spiritual warfare. And you are intruding upon the territory of the evil one and he will hate you for it. And he will resist us at every single turn. Be aware of that. So Paul, back to Ephesians 6, can tell us in verse 14 to fasten on the belt of truth. That is to say, concern yourself with truth. That is your primary weapon that God has given you to tear down strongholds. You give up the truth and you have no belt. And what happens when you have no belts? You run into warfare with your pants falling down, right? And trip and fall. Yet many Christians have given up that belt. They've given up the truth. They don't care about it. They disregard it. They say, well, you know, we don't really need the truth. We can't really find out what that is. Nobody really knows a bunch of different opinions. Let us not disagree. Let us all get along. And there are many things, don't get me wrong, there are many things about which Christians can have differing opinions. But there is one thing about which Christians may not have differing opinions. And that is with regard to the truth of God's word as it's revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Furthermore, we are told by Paul that we are to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Now this is not a reference to that perfect righteousness that we get in Christ, but this righteousness of which Paul here speaks is the kind of righteousness that is synonymous with living and operating faithfully in covenant with God. It is following the Lord, seeking to do what he commands, however imperfectly we might carry that out. For such uprightness, such faithfulness is important in battle. Without a breastplate, your heart is vulnerable. And when you fall into sin and the temptations of the devil, that heart becomes callous, Satan attacks. It's the place where he throws his fiery darts. And so have the breastplate of righteousness, of faithfulness, faithful integrity, walking with the Lord, however imperfectly that happens in this life. And in verse 15, Paul speaks about shoes. Every soldier needs a good pair of shoes. Otherwise he could get stuck, stuck in the snow, stuck in the mud, not be able to climb the rocks, get through the terrain. Having good shoes is essential to being prepared and to fight the spiritual battle. And here Paul says that your shoes are the gospel. the readiness of the good news. This is the way, the path in which you walk as a Christian. It is with the gospel. We are to be prepared by the gospel. We are to be prepared with the gospel for spiritual warfare. Always remembering what the gospel is. The gospel is not the kind of thing that concerns you at the beginning of the Christian life. at the time in which you become a believer, let's say, as if the gospel is for unbelievers, but the law is for believers. That is a false dichotomy that needs to be absolutely put out of our minds. For the gospel is as much for the believer on the day in which he dies as on the day in which he began to live. It is there for the believer every day, every moment of our lives. The gospel is the shoes in which we walk the Christian life, and we must never leave those shoes at home. So many Christians, myself included, tempted to leave those shoes at home when going into battle. We, not just you, me too, all of us, we tend to think that we can fight this battle ourselves. Now we can go in on the basis of our own merit, on the basis of our own flesh, on the basis of our own strength and efforts. But you see, you have to go into this battle with the gospel. We wear the cross in the warfare that we wage against the devil. We go into each day reminding ourselves of this fact, Christ has died. Why do we begin the service with the confession of sin and the assurance of pardon? Because worship is spiritual warfare. Yes, spiritual warfare takes place every moment of our lives, but warfare takes place especially on the Lord's day in the public worship of God. This what we're doing right now, the preaching of the gospel. The worship of the living God. This is an affront. To the gates of hell. And Satan hates it. So we need to understand that Christ has died. He is risen again from the dead for our justification. That we might live on the basis of his righteousness by faith alone, grace alone, and not by the works of the law. We go into battle with readiness to proclaim this gospel. We not only live by this gospel, but this gospel becomes the weapon that we use against the enemy as we preach it and proclaim it to all. It is a gospel that is to be proclaimed indiscriminately, indiscriminately to all peoples everywhere. that they might hear and be brought into the kingdom. Verse 16, Paul speaks of the shield of faith. This shield is trusting God. It's so easy to go into battle trusting ourselves. Remember, Israel often did this. They would trust in their chariots, in their horses, in their military might, in the things of this world. But we dare not trust in the things of this world as we go into battle. Verse 17, Paul speaks of the salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is, of course, the sword of the Word of God. And once again, the weapons of the Word comes to the foreground, as in verse 18, Paul also speaks about prayer. Word and prayer is what we are given. These are our weapons. This is how we are arrayed. This is how we are arranged, organized, and prepared for war. For you are the new covenant soldiers of God. And this is also how we are different. Different than under the old covenant. The army of God in the theocracy was very different, it was earthly. It had human commanders. or commanders who are merely human, but our commander-in-chief is Jesus Christ, the God-man. He is the one who equips his church as his army goes into war against the enemy. Now, David's army was indeed impressive, certainly impressive in its numbers and its commanders, its orderliness, its structure, its victories, its earthly success, but David's day was not the day of fulfillment. His army was not the army of God that would fight even unto the end. God promised to form an army that would be as numerous as the stars, which means a lot more than 288,000 men. And that promise has found its fulfillment in our day. It is and was fulfilled by Christ. And we, by faith, need to understand that we are a new and a better, even though a heavenly and a spiritual army that is not of this world. We are those stars that are numerous, counted among them. We are the grains of sand upon the seashore. We are the children of Abraham from every tribe, from every nation and of every tongue, for we are the church of Jesus Christ. And by his grace, we are marching on to victory. And by this grace, we fight the good fight of faith. And we will win it. We will win it. But never let that promise of victory lull you to sleep. As if the promise of victory, which is indeed sure, means that you can sit back, relax, and let down your guard. No, the promise of victory actually requires the very opposite of that. The promise of victory requires that we would actively be involved by God's grace in taking up the full armor of God. and charge into battle to fight each and every day against the wiles of the evil one. May he give us grace to do so, both now and forevermore. Amen.