【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 07: Destroying Your Enemies Totally Without Compromise
Bible Study: Deuteronomy
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 01: Those Who Cannot Enter the Promised Land
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 02: A Nation's Rise and Fall Are Under the Control of God
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 04: God Himself Will Fight For You!
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 05 Part 1: The Basic Principles for Living And Prospering And Prolonging Your Days
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 05 Part 2: The Principles of Living and Prospering and Prolonging Your Days in the Land That You will Process
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 05 Part 3: The Principles of Living and Prospering and Prolonging Your Days in the Land That You will Process
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 06: Living for the Lord our God Only
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 07: Destroying Your Enemies Totally Without Compromise
- 【Bible Study】Deuteronomy 08: We Live on Every Word That Comes From the Mouth of God!
Introduction
This chapter has introduced a very important concept - a character that never compromises, and a must attitude that destroys the enemies who are delivered to you totally! Many of us may be puzzled by this. In their mind, our God is love and never kills! To bust this, we will refer to what it says in the Bible.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Deuteronomy 5:9-10)
We must know that anyone who hates the Lord our God is the enemy of God! There exists a force that prevents the Kingdom's descent upon us. Then, someone will cry out, " we need to love God's enemies!" Maybe you could try it! If you love the enemies because of your differences, then it's not a big deal. However, if you love the enemies of God, show them mercy, and look at them with pity, His anger will burn against you! Have you ever wondered why so many Christians aren't blessed? Simply because they lack the character of destroying their enemies totally and never compromise on the word of God!
A Character of Uncompromising
The main subject of this chapter is to destroy your enemies totally without compromise! Please do not misunderstand the meaning of "destroy the enemies totally" on a personal level. It means anyone or any force that stops God's Kingdom from descending. We must not mix this with our differences. We may have read something contradictory in the Bible, it's that we did not understand the meaning. Just like many people believe there is no curse in the new testament, only blessings. Do you want to serve the enemies of God? Do you want to bless your idols?
We must understand one thing: what are we doing on this earth? Our destiny is to build a victorious church! The church is His body, is holy and United! Can you imagine that a victorious church is His body with many enemies who would have caused destruction, and the pastor has to love them? I can assure you that no one but you will draw God's wrath! My brothers and sisters, we must have a character of uncompromising in the word of God and do what He commands us to the enemies!
You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. (Deuteronomy 7:16)
The Character of Uncompromising is the Key to God’s Promise
I'm grateful that when God created me, He gave me the character of never compromise! It's written in the Bible that the apostle Paul had the same character! If you ask me who are my favourite people in the new testaments? I would say the apostle Paul! I want to have a chat with him in the heavens. I deeply admire his character. What kind of character did he have? No matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ! There is no ambiguity here! How could the Apostle Paul see all the promises that were made by God and that they were Yes in Christ? This was because of his character! As a result, he built victorious churches and gained the promises of God!
In the old testament, the promise was a piece of land, Cannan, given to Abray, Isaac, and Jacob by God. It was achieved by the Israelites driving out the seven nations.
When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. (Deuteronomy 7:1-2)
When Moses was writing the book of Deuteronomy, he made it crystal clear that the Israelites needed to destroy the people on the land totally! If you are a peacemaker, you may wonder why not live harmoniously on the same land. This is not from the Lord our God, it's from your mind. It's impossible to live in harmony! For example, the Japanese invaded China and possessed the majority of the land. Could you say the Japanese did a good job? Taiwan was governed by Japan for over 59 years and many Taiwanese know Japan as they believe they are of Japanese descent. This is a traitor! You have to know that you can either be a traitor or a citizen of the country! If you want to compromise, then you are a traitor in the Kingdom of God! We must not be traitors!
Not only is the principle working in the old testament, but also in the new testament! Just imagine you are going to build a victorious church, and you accept anyone to the church believing you will all get on well with the same destiny! Can you do that? No! Many churches have failed to see the glory of God because they have compromised! If you always compromise, you will achieve nothing in your life! You are sitting on the fence, and can't make decisions. But it does not work like this in the house of the Lord. You cannot compromise, you will not be blessed otherwise.
Destroying the Enemies Totally
You cannot say to God," I feel so sorry for them, it's not pleasant for them to be treated like that." So when you read the book of Deuteronomy chapter 7, it says that you must destroy them totally! Can you challenge the Lord to not drive the enemies out of the land? No! I won't help you here even if you have problems. What kind of people was living in the land? They worshipped idols to the extent that their sins had reached full measure. That's why God wanted to destroy them completely. We must reject such a mentality.
Our God is kind and full of mercy. If this area has been ruined, then He will destroy the people there and give the land to the people who are worthy of it. We must know we may not be right, but our God is always right.
Don't use so-called petty kindness to judge God's rights to destroy!
Why is our church prosperous? Because we never compromise on how to build a victorious church! Why would you want to keep someone in the church who hates God? He could be a trouble causer but nothing else! We only want people who love God and want to build the church that was defined by God. If we compromise, they will become snares to us and the Lord's anger will burn against us and will quickly destroy us.
for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD ’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:4)
The Attitude of Uncompromising is Needed to Build a Victorious Church
A while ago, I attended a special congress meeting. A pastor shared his story about how the members took him to court. He was in tears while telling the story. After two years of battle in court, he had depression. I was sitting there wondering how this could happen. The reason is compromised.
Compromise is the greatest obstruction in building a church. If you want to build the church of God, then we can work together to reach the goal. If you just want to be healed, want to get a job, then help yourself after you have got what you want. We will not be begging you to stay. Since we only want the one who we can share the same vision with and want to be a blessing to many nations. If you show your mercy on God's enemies, you will draw God's wrath! Do you know why the Lord walks with us? The reason is very simple! We don't compromise on the command of God and we destroy the enemies totally! We will not have people who don't have the determination of building a victorious church. We don't need to increase the number of church members. If we do, God's anger will burn against us! Although we don't have large church members, we are all elite soldiers in the kingdom of God.
Do Not be Yoked Together With Unbelievers
We believe in the one who was the pioneer and perfecter of faith is to build a victorious church, and bring the Kingdom of God to the earth! What we believe is far beyond the grace gospel, we strongly believe in victory in the spiritual realm, destroying the enemies totally and taking possession of the land promised by God.
I once ministered to a girl, whose life was in misery. Her mum was a Christian, married to a non-Christian, and gave birth to her. Her mum wanted to convert him to a Christian.
However, it’s written in the Bible that
Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, (Deuteronomy 7:3)
Believers and unbelievers can not be yoked together! Unfortunately, her mum took her life, and she jumped off a building when she was 18. This had a far-reaching and immeasurable impact on her. Later on, we managed to get in touch with her, her life was in a mess. The same as her mum, she married a non-believer. Her husband spent most of the time playing games. All of these were a consequence of disobeying the words of God.
Don’t be fooled into believing that someone is a Christian just because he goes to the church and you can marry him. It doesn't work like that! Don’t ever believe you can bring that person to Christ. This may have the adverse effect that you would turn your back on God. If you marry a non-believer, you will be yoked to worship other gods. If this is the case, I’d rather stay single, rather than marry someone who is a non-believer. Do you want to be destroyed? If you don’t want to be destroyed, then you’d better follow the commands of God. Many people believe in marriage and think it is a must in life. Can you imagine the petty arguments in your marriage? I don’t think it will do you any good.
It will be different if you are already married before coming to Christ. If you are a believer and want a nice marriage, you must not compromise! People often ask me, " Pastor, we have so many sisters in the church, and brothers are way outnumbered, do you want the sisters to be single?" There is nothing wrong with being single! Whether you have a good life or not has nothing to do with your marriage. I have read the letters from the Apostle Paul, he did not agree with the ideology of "you must get married". Of course, if you have strong faith in marriage, then go for it!
Do Not Fear Enemies
It says in the Bible that among those who were greater and stronger than you, there were more numerous than you. We often face many challenges that are much greater than ours. Just like working for a company, your manager is higher than you, do you fear him? We don't! Once I ministered to a sister, who was very scared of her boss. She would be in perpetual dread if her boss came to inspect her work. I told her not to fear her boss. After she did it and got over it, her boss feared her instead. How strange! This is because we have our God, and He governed the world universe, not the boss! Thus you don't need to fear your boss!
I always tell our brothers and sisters to not fear their boss. You don't need your boss, your boss needs you! If you believe you need your boss, then you won't be there long! If your boss fears losing you, he will promote you and give you a pay rise. Likewise, you don't need to fear your husband or your other family members. You fear nothing! Finding favour in the eyes of the Lord gives you freedom, but fear costs you your freedom!
Let me explain this in more depth. If you fear your boss, then he will not appreciate you. On the contrary, if you don't fear him, he will actually value you more! Do you know why? Because we have God on our side! Your boss is nothing compared to our God! However, if you fear him, you will not be helped by the Lord! As I always say that we must understand that our God governs the entire universe! We don't need to be scared of our bosses or managers. We don't need them but they need us! Know your place, and have a positive mindset, your manager will promote you and increase your pay!
Fear or not, it's a choice! But you must remember that our God is the ruler of the universe. When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, God brought them out of slavery land with a mighty hand.
But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. (Deuteronomy 7:18-19)
Never forget that our enemies are the enemies of God! Why do you need to be scared? God will destroy His enemies and give you the promised land! He will send the hornet among them and destroy them. He will fight with you even though your enemies are greater and stronger than you, you don't need to be terrified by them!
Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. (Deuteronomy 7:20-21)
Since we started the church, it's been a journey of constant cleaning. At the start, we had all kinds of people in the church, who were gradually removed from the church one by one by God. During the process, I cared about the number of church members would drop. Nevertheless, if a pastor cares about the number of church members, he will get deeply upset. So I developed a character of not compromising. I will not stop the ones who want to leave. If I do, not only the church will be victorious, but also lose the promises of God.
Do not fear people like King Saul seeing the Israelites straying away, he was scared. This is compromising. However, I am not scared of people leaving, even if only I left, I would still build a victorious church. Only with such a mentality, the church will become better. I do not need to fear the enemies, do not need to fear people leaving, the only thing we should care about is whether we would compromise on what God commands us to do. Compromise is not the way we should proceed in our life, nor should we have it in the church.
Driving Them Out Little by Little, Not All at Once
Although we want to build a victorious church, we cannot eliminate them all at once. This is because fighting demons is a lifelong task. This is also how God works. The Lord, our God, led the Israelites to take possession of the land little by little. Many brothers and sisters hoped they could be released all at once, thinking everything would be back to normal afterward. This, I’m afraid, is not a realistic approach. We have so many erroneous traits of concepts that need to be slowly converted and rectified. Only by going through this process, you will see the promise of God in you. Going through the promise, and fighting in the spiritual realm against the demons is our lifelong task.
The Devoted Things
An attitude of uncompromising also needs to be demonstrated to the devoted things. What are devoted things? These are something that relates to idol worshipping, they draw God's wrath.
The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God. Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction. (Deuteronomy 7:25-26)
I used to minister to some people, their problems never went away but came back over and over again. I later realised that it had a significant link to devoted things. Last night, I was not well at all, I had food poisoning. One sister asked me to pray for her so I did. All of a sudden, she remembered that she had a stamp book and it contained many idols in it. This is a grave offence to the Lord. If you have any devoted things, then you will become someone that draws God's wrath. Therefore, we should never compromise on destroying devoted things.
Initially, I did not give them enough attention. I remember that before my father's passing, my father left one of the houses to my brother and one to my sister. He also left some idols to me with some value to them. I was not thinking straight, so I brought them home. I moved a few times and left them in the office in the church. Strange things happened. Many brothers and sisters got ill during that period. It was supposed to be an easy fix through praying, but we just could not resolve it. So I prayed to the Lord to enlighten me. It was revealed to me that we had some devoted things. It surged to remove them immediately. Unsurprisingly, we all recovered.
We must remember that it's not the devils that are powerful, it's our God who has the power! We developed cold because we had devoted things in our hands and our God hates this kind of thing. It spells the curse as a result. My dear brothers and sisters, we must know by now that our God not only does He bless us but also curses us. We must know our God rules! If the problems persist, then we have done something wrong. That's why we need to be uncompromising to find out what the root cause is.
I ministered to a sister for a long time and spent a long time praying for the pain in her leg. I told her she had some devoted things and asked her to destroy them. She did not. Her pain worsened later on, and she was forced to decide whether she still wanted to keep them. She eventually got rid of them and the pain went. That’s why it is critical to remove devoted things and steer clear of them. Most importantly, we need to purify our minds and remove idols from our minds. The idol inside us has a far worse impact than that on display. We must constantly purify our minds, we will not be in God’s favour otherwise. We need to build a holy nation.
Uncompromising Character is the Key to Blessings
Being blessed or not, closely relates to your character. Everything happens for a reason. If you don’t live a prosperous life, there is a reason behind it. If you want to have a prosperous life, then you cannot compromise. You must obey the commands, decrees, and laws given by God no compromise.
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine, and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young. The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. (Deuteronomy 7:12-15)
You may wonder how I can be so blase talking about this when I had food poisoning yesterday. I admit sometimes I compromise but I will soon realise it and I repent and rectify it. God will keep me safe. By now, we must examine ourselves and purify our minds to become holy in front of the Lord. Therefore, we must change ourselves to be a better self and become favour in the eyes of God.
We have to know that we deserve whatever the illness is. No one to blame but ourselves. Just think for a moment, how much do you think God is pleased with what we do? Very little! We must change our attitude and mentality, destroy all the idols in our minds, destroy the enemies completely, and become holy people. As a result, He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, your grain, new wine, and olive oil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks in the land. You will be blessed more than any people and He will keep you free from any disease.
Dear brothers and sisters, I am not the model of holiness even though I am a pastor, I still need to work hard to overcome my flesh. Many of us want to be rich and have a lot of savings in our bank accounts, but it does not resolve every problem. I still get confused when I see things happening. This may draw God’s wrath. Therefore, I am not the model standard, the word of God is. We do what God commands us. We don’t follow man’s word, but God’s. I believe this is God's blessing.
Summary
Uncompromising is the key to building a victorious church. We will spare no effort to fight the devils, and destroy them completely, we will not compromise on the word of God. The church is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will be in debt to the Lord if we fill the church with anything that does not satisfy His commands such as devoted things.
If we were to decide to build a victorious church, then we must have the character of uncompromising. This is also the key to a blessed life. I earnestly wish the glory of God displayed among us, accomplishing what He has promised. I hope you all share the same desire as me. Do you know why you are blessed as soon as you come to our church? The reason is the people who were here before you have offered themselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice. If you do the same, then the people who come to the church after you will be blessed too.
I don't want our brothers and sisters to not be blessed. Don't misunderstand that the church is a place that is full of love. The church loves what God loves and hates what God hates. You cannot cherish what God hates. We must be on the same page with our God. Don't think our God is Father Christmas! The church is a holy place and the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is also a jealous God. We will not be blessed if we compromise. I may offend many people by saying this to you, yet, what is the common denominator for many pastors who suffer from depression? Compromise is the culprit! Many churches don't see the glory of God, the church members suffer from all kinds of illnesses. Why? Simply because they comprise.
I want all our brothers and sisters to embark on the way of God, and build a victorious church. We follow in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul who did not compromise on the word of God. The Apostle Paul disagreed with Barnabas because Barnabas wanted to take Mark with him. It sounds very strange and we may wonder why the Apostle Paul behaved like that. But the even stranger thing is Mark was befriended by the Apostle Paul. Don't ever think what Paul did was wrong, as he did not want to compromise.
I have a friend called Barnabas because he thinks it's a great name. I, on the other hand, think Paul is a much better name. Why does he think Barnabas is a good name? It's because Barnabas took Paul in and brought him to the apostles. However, Barbabas lacks an uncompromising character like the Apostle Paul. If you disagree, then you can check back to the Bible to find out if Barbabas has left any legacy. Nothing but Paul's.
Initially, our transcription ministry published thirty books, because we did not want to give in. We had a lot of opposition but we were determined to make it happen. We have come so far. Back in 2014, not only I wrote every single word that was published on the website, but also I edited every audio and video recording.
It's with such an attitude that we build a victorious church. We offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. This is the price we are willing to pay. If not, what can we do in our life? Our destiny on this earth is to build a victorious church. It's a blessing that we can participate in building the church. I believe we will have a wonderful life! It will be boring if we just play cards, fish, travel, or gossip. There is only one thing that will whet my appetite, and that is to build a victorious church! We will see God walking with us.
But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. (Deuteronomy 7:18-19)
Tags destroy your enemies totally the character of uncompromising the enemy of God the word of God building a victorious church curse a victorious church the enemy of God God’s promise Do Not be Yoked Together With Unbelievers Do Not Fear Enemies Driving Them Out Little by Little Not All at Once The Devoted Things God's wrath bey the commands decrees and laws given by God