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Redeemer Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

The Lord Is a Warrior

Exodus 13:17-15:21

Introduction
To me, there is something almost irresistible about movies involving battle and
especially those involving particularly fearsome, skilled, mighty warriors. I loved
“Braveheart” and “Gladiator” and “The Lord of the Rings” (all three installments!). Come
to think of it, this is also why I enjoy Superman so much. There is just something thrilling
to me about men who are unstoppable, whose victories are a foregone conclusion.

And even when the story lines are predictable and conventional and formulaic, even
when I know that the hero will find his way out of an impossible scenario, I still love
watching him do it.

Perhaps my love for heroes stems from a secret (or not so secret) desire to be able to
do what they do. I would love to be able to enter into battle with my sword and be able to
take out hundreds of opponents single-handedly. I would love to lead my army in its
victory parade complete with cheering and song and exuberant celebration.

But I also think that my love for victorious men comes from a love for being on the
side of the winner. I mean, who wants to be on the losing side of a battle? Who wants to
root for a team that constantly loses? It is much more energizing and it engenders much
greater hope to root for the side that you are reasonably or even absolutely convinced will win.

I want to be a winner! And if I cannot be the focal point of the victory, at least I can
be on the winning side. I’m sure you would agree. I’m sure you would agree that I am not
alone in the enjoyment of life on the winning side. I know you’re the same.

Well, then, allow me to suggest to you that this is not necessarily a bad thing. It is
not necessarily a sinful inclination for us to want to be winners, for us to long for victory
and revel in it once it is achieved. Of course, it would be sinful if victory for us had as its
chief end the magnification of our own supposed greatness. It would be sinful for us to
enjoy victories gained at the expense of virtue and obedience to God’s commands.

But I think that God has placed in us all a competitive spirit in order to magnify his
own competitiveness. His own (shall we say) “obsession” with victory. Yes, God is
obsessed with winning. He must be exalted. He must triumph. Anything less would
function to magnify another being, another god, and would therefore mean that the God of
the universe had been deposed by someone greater. Anything less than absolute victory

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over his enemies, over those who would oppose his rule, would make him less than who he
is. It would make him less than the true and living God.

So bearing as we do the image of God, we retain this desire to prevail and to be on

the side of those who prevail. Our problem is that we take this inherent desire to be the
winner and strip it of its proper aim—the exaltation of the Lord alone. We make the aim of
our victory the exaltation of ourselves at the expense of the Lord. His desire for us, then, is
not that we rid ourselves of our passion for victory, but that we rid ourselves of our passion
for self-centered, God-disparaging victory.

After all, a battle against the Lord is always a losing one. If he is always the victor
and in fact must always be the victor, then no weapon that’s fashioned against him will
stand. As the prophet Nahum has said, “Whatever you devise against the Lord, He will
make a complete end of it” (Nah 1:9). To take counsel against the Lord is to engage in a
vain pursuit, a pursuit of utter folly. As Ps 97:1-3 says, “The LORD reigns….Clouds and
thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
Fire goes before Him And burns up His adversaries round about.” The Lord will always
defeat his enemies; the Lord will always prevail over his adversaries.

That this is true of our Lord should thrill our hearts. It should excite us to know that
our God is the victorious God. Indeed, God wants his might, his invincibility to be the
object of our praise. Rather than glutting our desire for victory on ourselves the Lord kindly
invites those born on the side of those condemned to lose to defect to the side of the one
who will most certainly win. And he simultaneously bids us to join the heavenly host in
shouting with delight over his every triumph.

Now then, as we consider God’s word, which in many instances forms a record, a
testimony of his most significant victories it is impossible to miss a certain victory, a victory
that transforms his people from slaves to a kingdom of priests to the most holy God—the
Lord’s victory at the Red Sea. Turn with me in your Bibles to Exod 14:5-31:

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his
servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, "What is this we
have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" 6 So he made his chariot ready
and took his people with him; 7 and he took six hundred select chariots, and all the
other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 The LORD hardened the
heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of
Israel were going out boldly. 9 Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the
horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them
camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 10 As Pharaoh drew
near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them,
and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11 Then
they said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken
us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing
us out of Egypt? 12 "Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave
us alone that we may serve the Egyptians '? For it would have been better for us to
serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." 13 But Moses said to the people,
"Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish

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for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them
again forever. 14 "The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent." 15 Then the
LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go
forward. 16 "As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and
divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. 17
"As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in
after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his
chariots and his horsemen. 18 "Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD,
when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen." 19 The
angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went
behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind
them. 20 So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was
the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not
come near the other all night. 21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and
the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into
dry land, so the waters were divided. 22 The sons of Israel went through the midst of
the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand
and on their left. 23 Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh's horses,
his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. 24 At the
morning watch, the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the
pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. 25 He
caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the
Egyptians said, "Let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the
Egyptians." 26 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so
that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their
horsemen." 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to
its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the
LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and
covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh's entire army that had gone
into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. 29 But the sons of Israel
walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to
them on their right hand and on their left. 30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day
from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31
When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians,
the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant
Moses.

The Victory at the Red Sea

When you read of this amazing triumph by the Lord at the Red Sea you cannot help
but be full of praise for God who rescues his people so valiantly. Imagine how much more
thrilling it would have been for you to have been there among the people of God. Imagine
what it must have been like for you and the other members of your family to see the army of
the Egyptians on the horizon with no place to go, trapped by impassable waters and miles
and miles of desert landscape. Imagine seeing the water of the sea pealed open to provide a
passageway for your departure. Imagine taking your first few steps on the sea floor walking
with walls of water on your right and left. Imagine arriving safely at the other side, turning
back, and watching the greatest military in the known world drowning as the walls collapse
upon them. Imagine being there.

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Do you think that you would have been excited? Some of you would have been
speechless. Others would have been cheering. Still others would be sobbing. But a few of
you might be looking for artistic ways of expressing the almost inexpressible emotions of
elation and gratitude for God’s deliverance. You would paint or sculpt or draw or dance or
write. And of your writing, you might have written a song, a poem set to music.

Well, this last item is precisely what we see in Ch 15. Exodus 15 provides us with a
poetic depiction of the events described prosaically in Ch 14. Let’s read 15:1-18:

Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, "I
will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has
hurled into the sea. 2 "The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my
salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will extol
Him. 3 "The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name. 4 "Pharaoh's chariots and
his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the
Red Sea. 5 "The deeps cover them; They went down into the depths like a stone. 6
"Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O LORD,
shatters the enemy. 7 "And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those
who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning anger, and it consumes them
as chaff. 8 "At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters
stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 "The enemy
said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be gratified
against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand will destroy them.' 10 "You blew
with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11
"Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in praises, working wonders? 12 "You stretched out Your right hand, The
earth swallowed them. 13 "In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom
You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy
habitation. 14 "The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has gripped the
inhabitants of Philistia. 15 "Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of
Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16
"Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless
as stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom
You have purchased. 17 "You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of
Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. 18 "The LORD shall
reign forever and ever."

Now then, it should be clear to you that the destruction of the Egyptians is the
central event of this wonderful song. Look again at vv 1 & 4.

You can see that these two texts employ similar language, repeating God’s
deliverance quite straightforwardly. This language appears again at the end of Ch 15. Look
down to vv 20-21: Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the timbrel in her hand,
and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing. Miriam answered
them, “Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider He has
hurled into the sea.”

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The first lines of Moses’ song are found on the lips of Miriam and the other women
of Israel. Although this is simply an indication that Miriam and the ladies repeated the song
among themselves, literarily speaking, we cannot miss that it is another repetition of vv 2 &
4. Clearly, he wants the readers of the book of Exodus to see the song as a tribute to God’s
destruction of the Egyptians. If I may borrow from the song itself (from v 3, actually), the
Lord wants us to focus on the truth that the Lord is a warrior. The Lord overthrows his
enemies with unmistakable and overwhelming force.

The Lord is a warrior; the LORD is his name. Literally, the text says the Lord is a
man of battles; he is a warrior. And his status as warrior is apparently not something
incidental to his character. It is bound up with who he is. The Lord is a warrior; Yahweh is
his name. Yahweh, the one true God, is a warrior. He is the hero of every battle.
Therefore he is the hero of the battle against the Egyptians.

No one else may claim credit for Israel’s deliverance, not even Yahweh’s servant
Moses. Yahweh’s activity prevails in the song of Moses. He has hurled the horse and its
rider into the sea. He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea. His right hand
shatters the enemy. He overthrows those who rise up against him. He sends forth his
burning anger that consumes his enemies like chaff. He blows his wind to cover the
Egyptians with the sea. He stretched out his right hand to open the earth to the Egyptians.

“…Yahweh rescued Israel that day from the power of the Egyptians….Yahweh is the
one who made the rescue. Not tides, not storms, not bad planning, not tactical error, not
bad luck, or good luck, but Yahweh.”1 The Lord is a warrior; and Yahweh is his name.
This is who God is. Our God is a man of battles. God is the divine warrior.

Yahweh the Warrior

Now I should mention that this is not something peculiar to the book of Exodus.
God is depicted as a divine warrior throughout the Old Testament. And as the divine
warrior he is the one who both delivers his people and judges his enemies. Let’s look
together at a several examples cf. Deut 20:1-4; Isa 59:16-18; Zech 12:1-9; 14:3-5; Nah 1:2-
8.

Deuteronomy 20:1 "When you go out to battle against your enemies and see
horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them;
for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. 2
"When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the
people. 3 "He shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle
against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or
tremble before them, 4 for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you, to fight
for you against your enemies, to save you.

Isaiah 59:16 And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that
there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His
righteousness upheld Him. 17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a

1
John I Durham, Exodus (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1987), 197.

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helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. 18 According to their deeds, so He will
repay, Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; To the coastlands He
will make recompense.

Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel.
Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the
earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, 2 "Behold, I am going to make
Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is
against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. 3 "It will come about in that day that I
will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely
injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. 4 "In that day,"
declares the LORD, "I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with
madness. But I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the
peoples with blindness. 5 "Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, 'A strong
support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the LORD of hosts, their
God.' 6 "In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot among pieces of
wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand
and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again
dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem. 7 "The LORD also will save the tents of Judah
first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of
Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah. 8 "In that day the LORD will defend
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will
be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD
before them. 9 "And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come
against Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations,
as when He fights on a day of battle. 4 In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of
Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be
split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the
mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. 5 You will
flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to
Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah
king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!

Nahum 1:2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is
avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He
reserves wrath for His enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and
storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and
makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of
Lebanon wither. 5 Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed
the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it. 6 Who
can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His
wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him. 7 The LORD is
good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in
Him. 8 But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site, And
will pursue His enemies into darkness.

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Jesus the Warrior

This picture of God as the divine warrior anticipates the coming of Jesus Christ who
is frequently depicted in the New Testament as a warrior as well. Nevertheless, there is a
marked difference between the object of divine warfare from the Old Testament to the New
Testament. In the Old Testament, Yahweh made war against the bloodthirsty enemies of
God’s people like the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. But
the Lord Jesus’ warfare is different. His death, resurrection, and ascension are seen as the
culmination of his warfare against Satan and his minions. To see this, turn with me in your
Bibles to Col 2:15: “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public
display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

This is what Christ has brought about by his death, resurrection, and ascension—the
decisive defeat of the evil one. In John 12:31, Jesus says this of his cross-work: “Now
judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” And fitting
Psalm 68 to the Lord Jesus, Paul says in Eph 4:8 that it was Jesus who, “when he ascended
on high, led captive a host of captives.”

Yet it is the final battle against Satan and his servants that consummates the triumph
achieved by Jesus on the cross. Turn now to Rev 19:11-21:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes
are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written
on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in
blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in
heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
15
From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the
nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the
fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a
name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." 17 Then I saw an
angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds
which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18 so that you
may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men
and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both
free men and slaves, and small and great." 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the
earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and
against His army. 20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who
performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received
the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown
alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with
the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds
were filled with their flesh.

A time is coming when the final, all out war will be waged by the divine warrior who
is Jesus Christ. Based upon what he has accomplished on the cross, the outcome is certain.
Listen to an earlier depiction from the book of Revelation:

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Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the
power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for
the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our
God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and
because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when
faced with death” (Rev 12:10-11).

Now then, with all that’s been said of the decisive defeat of Satan and the spiritual
forces of evil at his disposal, both at the time of Christ’s first advent and what will be
realized with his second advent, where does that leave us?

Engaged in a Battle
Well, according to the Apostle Paul, we are caught up in the midst of that great
battle between a Lord who will ultimately prevail and an enemy who will ultimately fall.
For us, the battle is ongoing. In Eph 6:12, he says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” And in 2 Cor 10:3-5a, he
says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the
weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of
fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the
knowledge of God.”

We are in the middle of a raging battle, a spiritual battle. And although we are on
the winning side of that battle, this does not mean that there is no battle to be fought, no war
to be waged. On the contrary, Satan’s hatred for the Lord runs so deep that even though he
knows that his cause is a hopeless one, he will not be satisfied unless he can engage more
and more souls in his antichristian crusade. This he does by blinding the minds of the
unbelieving so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:4).
And he does it by assailing the brethren, prowling about like a roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour (1 Pet 5:8).

The battle continues and we are caught up in it. We cannot afford to forget that the
Christian life is a battle against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly realms.

The twentieth century Welsh preacher, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones understood this
perhaps better than any modern Christian pastor or theologian. He has said that “[t]here is
no grosser or greater misrepresentation of the Christian message than that which depicts it
as offering us a life of ease with no battle and no struggle at all.”2

So our failure to acknowledge this reality means our certain doom. Lloyd-Jones goes
on. He says, “[N]ot to realize that you are in a conflict means one thing only, and that is
that you are so hopelessly defeated, and so ‘knocked out’ as it were, that you do not even
know it—you are unconscious!...Anyone who is not aware of a fight and a conflict in a
spiritual sense is in a drugged and hazardous condition.”3

2
D M Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Warfare (Baker, 1976, 1977), 20.
3
Ibid., 41-42.

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There is never a light moment in the Christian life. Satan never tires of accusing the
brethren; he never tires of tempting the brethren; he never tires of exerting his will against
any idea or thought or speculation or confession or communion that exalts the name of
Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, we are in a battle that will end only with the events of
Revelation 19.

I cannot underestimate the importance of daily acknowledging the struggle and

preparing to wage war against the enemy. But we need to recognize Satan’s approach.

We need to remember that the devil is disguised as an angel of light. He is not

scary—not at all! He does not look like so many demons from Wes Craven nightmares. He
is smooth. He is sophisticated. He is subtle. And he is sublime. Next to God, he is the
second greatest being in the universe. Do not underestimate him.

Not too long ago I finished reading Iain Murray’s two volume biography of Lloyd-
Jones. It is a phenomenal read; I highly recommend it.

Well, as I read I came to find out that Lloyd-Jones suffered from depression. In
particular, he would be overcome with feelings that a friend of his didn’t really think that
highly of him any more. Over time, Lloyd-Jones came to recognize that his feelings were
the result of the pride of his own heart. He said,

[That time of temptation] was a terrible thing, it was the thing that revealed
to me ultimately the pride of the human heart. I knew I was a sinner without any
hope at all, but I never realised [sic.] the depth of the pride of the human heart.
Eventually I saw it was nothing but pride. Carnal, devilish pride. And I was
humbled to the ground.”4

At the same time, he believed this to be a flaming arrow of temptation shot by the
evil one. He believed that Satan was tempting him through it to the pride he described.
Now this experience of temptation was very severe for ML-J. And the result of it was that a
large part of his ministry involved helping Christians to know how to resist the devil. Listen
to what he said,

There is nothing which is quite so disastrous…as not to accept in its fullness

the biblical teaching concerning the devil. I am certain that one of the main causes
of the ill state of the Church today is the fact that the devil is being forgotten. All is
attributed to us; we have all become so psychological in our attitude and thinking.
We are ignorant of this great objective fact, the being, the existence of the devil, the
adversary, the accuser, and his “fiery darts.”
This is the kind of thing to which God’s people are subjected. Because they
are God’s people the devil makes a special target of them and seizes every
opportunity to get them down. 5

4
Iain Murray, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith, 1939-1981 (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth
Trust, 1990), 208.
5
Ibid., 217.

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Though our sins are our own, we cannot minimize the role of the evil one in our
struggle with sin; because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the world
forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. This,
incidentally, is why one of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer is “Lead me not into
temptation, but deliver me from (the) evil (one).” We need deliverance not only from our
own evil, but also from the one who uses our weaknesses to tempt us to sin.

So then, let’s say you are feeling “discouraged” or “depressed.” What should you
do? Look first for the sin that may be energizing it. Do not be content to say you are just
feeling down, or lonely, or even sad. If you do not have joy in the Lord, then you are
sinning somehow. Find out what it is and confess and forsake it. At the same time,
remember that the temptation to sin has a demonic as well as a human source—Satan
tempts us by appealing to our own sinful inclinations (see Jas 1:14). Knowing that Satan
and his servants are on the offensive will remind us of our need to stand firm. We must
hold our ground in the strength of God’s might by believing the truth and by clinging to the
cross in the power of the Holy Spirit.

On the Winning Side

Now because THE divine warrior has through his cross-work waged the war to end
all wars against the foe to end all foes, it means that we have the power in Christ to fight the
devil. It means that we can stand firm against the fiery darts of the evil one.

Though Satan should buffet,

Though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed his own blood for my soul.

—Horatio G Spafford (1828-1888)

In Christ, we have already overcome the evil one, so it is in Christ that we will
continue to do so; for he has fought our battle for us. We are on the winning side! He has
disarmed the enemy. He has brought him into confusion and made his chariot wheels
stiffen with difficulty. He has triumphed in his work on the cross.

Knowing that the evil one has been defeated decisively gives us strength and hope in
the midst of the spiritual battle we face every moment of every day. Do not become
discouraged or depressed! The Lord your God is with you; Jesus Christ is the King of kings
and Lord of lords; he brandishes his sword and strikes down Satan and his minions.

Dear brothers and sisters. The Lord is a warrior and Jesus is his name! Jesus is his
name! Hallelujah!

Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Lord Is a Warrior © 2004 by R W Glenn

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Minnetonka, MN 55345
Office: 952.935.2425
Fax: 952.938.8299
info@redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.solidfood.net

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Lord Is a Warrior © 2004 by R W Glenn