But there was a movement that took place immediately after Washington’s battle at Trenton that shifted the entire tone of the war, perhaps even more than Washington’s victory.
It’s come to be known as The Forage War in New Jersey. And it’s always inspired me. In the forage war there were a series of militias that sprung up on their own, without official government backing, to fight against the British forces under General Howe, in the midst of a deep dark winter.
A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine called “Common Sense” had spread like wildfire through the colonies at that time, and had galvanized the people, to stand firm against the tyranny of great Britain. Another written by Paine called “The American Crisis” again inspired the colonists to fight bravely.
In the depths of winter the militias fought a campaign of a sneak attacks against British supply convoys, foraging teams, and troops marching through the area. In three months they’d inflicted over 1,000 casualties, and it caused General Howe to cease his invasion of New Jersey. This temporarily prevented the British from reaching Philadelphia, where the leaders of the revolution were gathered. Howe would eventually take Philadelphia, but the delay caused by the militias in New Jersey gave the congress time to escape the city before it was taken.
This situation from so long ago, reminds me of the current situation we face in the United States, spiritually.
We find ourselves in a great spiritual conflict for the heart of our nation, and to be honest, it’s not going well. We face vast demonic hordes, increases in witchcraft in our nation, secularism, progressivism, all sorts of ideologies, and powerful forces attempting to subvert Christianity in our society. It is fundamentally a spiritual conflict, not with people but with demonic forces, principalities and powers in high places.
We’ve often relied on big name leaders, Billy Graham, Rick Warren, John MacArthur, and so on, to rally the Christian movement. But today, I believe we must be more like the militias who rose up in New Jersey. We must rally against the darkness around us, in small groups, in homes, praying and fasting, proclaiming the gospel, witnessing, ministering, loving people, meeting needs, and uniting with others, to stand against the darkness in our nation.
But what the Lord made clear to me as I wrote this message was, He would move. The battle belongs to the Lord, and he will fight it, if we will pray and stand, not give up, we will stand against the darkness, and shine brightly for the Lord. And God will give us the victory.
We find ourselves a nation on the brink. But on the brink of what? We can all feel it. Like something is coming. Like we’re on the edge of something new.
A brink is an edge. And we find ourselves on two edges that I can perceive. We as a nation seem to be headed toward decline and darkness. Though the businesses keep running, the schools keep teaching, the hospitals keep healing, we see at the very center of the moral heart of our nation, there is a great sickness, a rebellion against God that is leading us toward ruin.
Yet at the same we see God at move in mighty ways in our nation. I believe, as we see the times get darker, we will see God reorient the body of Christ, molding us and shaping us into an army ready to serve in lockstep, at the same time I believe we will see revival fires across our nation, where many will give their lives to Christ and embrace real holiness.
I sought the Lord on what he desired me to preach on for the July 4th weekend, and he gave me John 3:16-21, to speak over our nation today. God’s plan of redemption for a people who have moved away from him.
So today we’re going to look at two pathways, the path of light and the path of darkness. And we’ll look at it from the lens of what God has provided as a solution, and the decision of man when presented with the options God gives.
Liberty is to have the freedom to make our own choices. But we can help the people around us to make a different choice, by showing them clearly, the pathways before them. The enemy works by deception, deceiving people carefully down a rosy path that leads to disaster. The good thing in this scenario is that there are always cracks in the deception. The deception is fundamentally empty, and the person caught in it begins to sense that, until it’s nearly unbearable. What God provides is love and truth linked together. Truth in it’s beauty and power crushes the deception rendering it powerless. But, the truth is not an easy truth to accept, and so many refuse it or avoid it, because it is a difficult pill to swallow.
So let’s dive in today, John 3:16-21.
Starting in verse 16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
The single most famous bible verse in modern times. But let’s try to understand what it actually means.
Because of God’s love for humanity, he established a plan to save us from the sins that have held us captive. He gave us something. He gave us His Son, Jesus, the true God, come to Earth in the form of a little baby.
But there is a condition here. That whoever, anyone may, believe in him, doesn’t have to perish in their sins, but, may receive an almighty gift: immortality. To live forever in paradise with God.
God’s solution to the sin problem that started with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and their choice to disobey God, and which has continued through the ages, to Cain killing Abel, and Noah’s family on the ark, and down through the ages, of world wars, and genocides, to this very moment today, is Jesus Christ himself, he is God’s solution to the problem.
The solution is the cross. We may not like it. We may not fully understand it. But there it is. God’s simple, yet profound solution. Forgiveness of our sins. And freedom to live in holiness each day. And this means, we’re able to attend heaven, because, heaven is a place without sin.
So every man and woman born stands at the crossroads, with this option in front of them: Receive Jesus and eternal life, or Reject Jesus, and perish. It’s as simple as that.
Let’s keep going, verses 17-18: “17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
The purpose of God sending Jesus was not to condemn us, but to offer us the option to be saved from what’s coming. But, whoever doesn’t receive Jesus is already condemned, because they have not embraced the solution God has provided.
So lets break this down, if we believe, we are on the “not condemned” path.
If we don’t believe, we are on the condemned path. However, there is an interesting factor, your path can change.
One who doesn’t believe can come to believe, and they join the path of eternal life. Then again someone on the eternal life path can fall away and turn their back on Christ, and rejoin the condemned path.
This concept of the two paths is laid out in much greater detail in Ezekiel 33:12-19.
So every human being is on one of those two paths, the path to eternal life or the path to condemnation. There is no middle ground, no 3rd option.
But what’s interesting is groups of humans can be a particular path, like a nation. And what path is our nation on? That is the question. Thankfully, the course of nations can be changed, by people who doggedly pursue a mission to change it. God help us to do that for our nation, and let it start here, in our little city.
Next in verses 19-20, we get an explanation of how and why salvation plays out the way it does in the world.
It says: “19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”
This is telling us why human beings resist and refuse the light that God offers. It’s a paradox when you think about it, a difficult situation.
Light has come into the world, that’s Jesus and all he taught. But human beings prefer darkness, because of the wrong things they’ve done. So you may minister to someone and you’ll notice they repel away from the message you bring about Jesus, why? Because the light that is emanating from you, which is Jesus, scares them, they don’t want their sins exposed by the light, so they turn away from it. And they don’t want to have to stop sinning, because they enjoy or prefer their sins, or they’ve just become so used to them. And they don’t want someone telling them what to do.
For years I avoided Jesus because I knew I’d have to stop drinking, I’d have to stop chasing women, and I’d have to let Jesus be the Lord of my life. That keeps people away there’s no doubt.
There is a fear that the light will expose our evil deeds, which it certainly does, but there’s more to it than that, as we well know.
The late Stephen Hawking said, “Religion is a fairy story for those afraid of the dark.”
John Lennox the famous mathematician responded: “Atheism is a fairy story for those afraid of the light.”Verse 21: “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
The thing about living in the darkness is that it’s very dark. And as it gets darker, the darkness becomes empty. And that emptiness weighs us down. I walked this path personally, and we suffer unto we reach the point we finally begin to ask the question: What is really real?
So begins a journey toward the truth.
And as Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…” -John 8:32
Then one who begins a spiritual journey, they begin to ask the question what is really true? They start a journey toward whatever might be out there. Why? Out of sheer necessity. The emptiness of pleasure and pain of life has led them to a blessed desperation for something different. That perhaps is the beginning of a path of “living in the truth” as the scripture states here.
And living in the truth leads to the light. Notice, it says we come into the light. We don’t just look at it. We become one with the light. The light then changes us.
For some of you today, I worry that you look at the light which is Jesus, but you’ve not come into the light, which is to dive into His depths and fall in love with him completely. Looking at God and saying “I like that” is outward religion. Going into the depths of God is true life.
On the journey toward truth, we finally come into the light. The light does just what we feared it would do, it exposes our sins, and we are accountable to God. They have been done in the sight of God. We admit that’s a reality. It’s just as much a reality whether we admit it or not. But when we admit it in God’s sight we find, when we ask Jesus, he forgives our sins. And we find ourselves in the light, exposed, and shockingly, entirely made clean, by God.
So, humans stay away from God for fear their sins will be revealed. They hide in the darkness, but God sees all anyway. In the darkness, they suffer far from God, with emptiness, and this often leads to a spiritual journey, a hunger for the truth, and that truth path leads to Jesus. They finally let their guard down, they walk into the light, and instead of finding death, they find new life in Jesus.
They pay the cost of allowing Jesus to be the king of their life, they pay the cost of having to give up their past sins. And they find the cost was well worth it, because it has yielded a road to eternal life.
So in conclusion today, we will continue to see the world get darker as the world flees the light of God, but at the same time light houses will rise up, fires of God and those hungry for something real will come to those lights and be changed by them.
It is a great challenge before us. We must show mercy to those in darkness, great mercy. We must understand, that when all you’ve known is darkness, raised in it, taught it, taught the light is a lie, taught the light is evil or unjust, of course you flee! It may appear like a “catch 22”, an unbreakable cycle. Without God it would be.
For our nation → Pray, rally to the revival fires, unite with believers, share resources, outlast the night, for daybreak is coming, when Jesus returns. In the meantime work diligently in his harvest field, for a great harvest is coming, if we do not give up.
We must be like the militias in New Jersey, doggedly fighting, never giving up, but always remember our enemy is not flesh and blood, but spiritual, our enemies are demonic powers. And our only weapon is love. We will gather in groups, inspired and on fire for the Lord, ministering to the cities, praying and fasting, casting out the devils, calling on heaven’s angels, and standing firm as the darkness gets darker, because we know, in the deeper darkness, the light shines ever brighter.
