The unequal yoke

Turn with me please to the book of 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 23. Just for the sake of time, verse number 11, 2 Samuel 23, verse number 11. The context here is David's mighty men.

And after him was Shammah the son of Agi the Harite, and the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the Philistines, and the Lord wrought a great victory. Now to 2 Chronicles please, chapter 25.

2 Chronicles 25, verse 1. Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoadam of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.

Verse 5. Moreover, Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them 300,000 choice men able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. He hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor out of Israel for 100 talents of silver.

But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel to wit with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it. Be strong for the battle.

God shall make thee fall before the enemy, for God hath power to help and to cast down. And Amaziah said to the men of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the men of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. And then Amaziah separated them to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again.

Wherefore, their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger. Now finally, the New Testament, please. 2 Corinthians 6. Verse number 14.

2 Corinthians 6. 14. But be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath that believer with an infidel? And the Lord will bless us through a reading of His Word. I wasn't going to get up this afternoon, but I felt as though I let the Lord down.

I felt like Jonah this morning in a little slot of time, so I'll just take a little slot this afternoon. I've got a little word on my soul about the unequal yoke. I spoke to some young people about this just recently at a conference, and an older man, older than myself, came up to me afterwards, and he said, you know, I know what you're talking about.

It nearly done me in. He wasn't talking about an equal yoke with a marriage partner. He was talking about an equal yoke with business.

And all the things, and all the snares, and all the traps that went with it. And so I'd like to look just simply this afternoon, just for a few minutes, of a Christ that is either on display, or a Christ that is displaced. A Christ that is either on display, or a Christ that has been displaced.

We come to Shammah, the great mighty man of David. And maybe if you're a young person here today, or young at heart, maybe in your mind you've always wanted to be a mighty man for the Lord, or a mighty woman for the Lord, a mighty man of David. I remember as a young boy, it was always in the back of my mind, I always wanted to catch a robber.

I always wanted to be a hero. And one time I had my chance in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was with my friend in the mall, and we were leaving, and the storekeeper said, hey, get out of there.

And I heard the footsteps coming, and my friend was over here. And like every chivalrous man would do, he turned to protect their friend, and the robber ran right there. So he went out the door, and he went down behind the cars, and he was slouched down, and he went clear to the end of the parking lot, and he stood up, and he walked back to the next row of cars.

And I said to my friend, I'm going to get him. So I went after him at an angle, and I must not have been very discreet, because I'm trying to cut him off. He starts going like this.

And I told my friend, when he gets to the corner of the house, he's going to run, and I'm going to get him. I'm going to get him. Now, I have to balance this story.

He was maybe 14. So, all right. So he hit the corner, and I caught him halfway across the parking lot, and we had a good talk.

But anyways, there's that little desire in every one of us. And maybe I'm speaking to the young people more than the older ones, because you know this. But there's something in your soul that you want to be a man or a woman for God.

It's in there. There's that little fire that's maybe just kindled just a little bit, and there's something in your soul, and you don't know what to do. And you don't know where to start, and you don't know where to go.

If you don't get anything from my message today, keep Christ on display. Keep the Lord Jesus Christ on display in your life. Don't displace Him.

We take this man, Shama. What a situation. There the Philistines, a troop of them, are coming down, and I didn't look up how many soldiers were in a troop.

But there they were. They were coming down, and it says all of Israel fled. And I was just picturing in my mind, being there watching this situation, and how they're all running from this fertile field.

It's a flat field. It was a fertile field, according to the dictionary. And there they're all running, and here's a man, Shama.

And I don't know if he was running too. I almost think he was, and I think he stopped when he got to the middle. He's like, what am I doing here? And something happened in that man's soul, and he turned around.

He was in the middle of the field, and he decided this that day, I'm going to stand for God. I am going to make a stand today for God if it costs me my life. But I'm going to stand.

And we can come to Ephesians, and we can read this, having done all to stand. And so what is he standing for? Well, he's standing for a field. It was a field of lentils.

It was the common staple of their food, their everyday life. You remember Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup, as it were. And so here he is, he's standing.

He's going to defend this field. But it was more than that. It was the food for the people of God.

We've been hearing about getting into the book, and standing for the food of the people of God. What does the Lord Jesus say? He says, if you love Me, feed My sheep and feed My lambs. I dare say, Hashem, I love the Lord.

He stopped to defend this field. He stopped to defend this food. What else was it? It was the future of the people of Israel, wasn't it? They didn't go to Pioneer and buy their seed.

Those beans were seed for the next year. It reminded me again of the Holy Scriptures. Here's a man, he's going to defend the seed.

He's going to defend the future of God's people. And whether or not God works and saves him or not, he's going to stand. Another thing I noticed about him, about this field, it was the faith of God's people.

It was promised to him. It was the promised land. And the whole place is on the run.

Did you ever look around and feel that way? Did you ever look at your assembly? And people are leaving, and people are disgruntled, and people aren't happy. And the whole thing is just a swarm of bees, it's crazy. And God is looking for just some man or some woman to make a stand for Him, for the food of God's people, for the future of God's people, for the faith of God's people.

Here's a man, and Christ was on display. He's on display. But then we come to Amaziah, 2 Chronicles chapter 25.

And here's a man, he was a good king. But he didn't do those which was perfect in the sight of the Lord, not with a perfect heart anyway. And so here he is, and he's... I look at him like a businessman.

He's counting everything up, and he's evaluating the situation. Do I need more men to go to battle? Do I need more soldiers to lick this battle up in due time, in good order, to make quick work of this? And so he goes, and he hires 100,000 more. He already had 300,000, but he hires 100,000 more.

And then the man of God comes. And he says, don't do it. Don't do it.

He gives him the reason why. He said, because God is not with Israel. And I'd like to look at the unequal yoke here.

Maybe we haven't heard it much lately. But this is something, as a young brother looking out at my younger brothers and sisters, looking for marriage partners, looking for business opportunities, looking for help in everyday life, that really saddens me. It breaks my heart today.

Because there's a lot of people today that are looking for a partner in life, and they settle for an unequal yoke. I want to look at four things about this. I want to look at the logic behind it.

What was the logic of Amaziah in hiring 100,000 more? I want to look at the lordship betrayed in it, the displaced Christ. I want to look at the loss because of it. What did he lose? And I want to look at a lesson to be learned from this man, Amaziah.

The logic behind it. I remember when I was first saved, and you'll pardon the example, but I want to appeal to the teenagers today. I was saved before I went into my last year of high school.

And as I sat there at lunchtime every day, I would give thanks for the food and it took me all of a second and a half. I was the only one saved in the class. There was 60 of us in the class.

And I was intimidated and I was scared. And so I would bow my eyes, I'd close my eyes and I'd give thanks for the food all in about one big sigh. And I was done.

One day I was burdened about my classmates and the prettiest girl in school in my class was sitting right beside me. And that wasn't an accident, I sat there on purpose. And I was saved and she wasn't.

And it burdened me about the kids around that table and I took a few seconds, maybe 15, and I started praying for those kids, my classmates. And I got a nudge in the arm. Stephanie says, what's the matter? I wasn't done praying so I didn't quit.

And she did it again. And I said nothing. I said I was just praying for everybody around the table.

What kind of freak is this? But there is a temptation that will come into your life, young person. And you will have to make a choice. Are you going to display Christ? Or are you going to displace Him? We're going to get to that.

The logic behind it, it's just this. This man Amaziah, he's considering the situation. This will make my life simple.

This will make my life easy. This is what I need in my life at this point. To go on and progress, to go on to develop the kingdom, to increase the country.

And the logic behind every unequal yoke is just this. This is what I need. This is it.

And maybe you're in a business. And when I talked about this older man, I was speaking to the young people, this older man comes up. He's older than me.

He said, I was there and it almost broke me. There was a perfect business opportunity. His phone calls were over.

He didn't have to worry about where he was going to sell his product. They wanted to partner with him. He had what they wanted.

They were paying good more than anyone else. And so it comes down to this. Was he going to take the easy way out and partner with these people? Or was he going to trust the Lord and display Christ? Well, he went with the company.

And he almost lost it all. He lost it all. So this isn't just for the teenagers today.

The logic behind it, this is what I need. You know, when Christ is on display, He's on display in the assembly. He's on display when we preach the gospel.

He's on display in the ministry. He's on display in the life of the believer. But what an awful day in our lives when it comes.

And it will come when he's displaced. God, help us to recognize it. So we've got the lordship betrayed.

Lordship is something that is, what's the word I'm looking for, under severe attack today. Just to simply bow to the will of God. Bow to the lordship of Christ.

Display the Lord Jesus as our Lord, as our Master, as our Sovereign. But it's under attack today. You say, how can you tell? You just look around in your own heart first.

All the times you want to do your own thing. And all the times you want to go your own way. And all the times that the things that you know are true, you set them aside.

And the lordship of Christ is under severe attack. Because if we have a displaced Christ, we're vulnerable. We're helpless.

We're in trouble. And that's just where the devil wants us. To be running on our emotions, to be running on our feelings, to be running on our intellect.

Just like this man Amaziah. And he displaced the Lord. And when he did that, when he made that move, he was claiming himself to be the Lord of his own life.

Scott was just touching on that. I'm in control. I can handle this.

Brethren and sisters, we can't do that. We can't handle it. We can't.

The lordship of Christ is not only under attack, but there's an attitude against it. There's an attitude against authority worldwide. How many countries can you list in the last 10 years that had complete civil war and a change of government? Dozens of them.

And our country may not be far behind. An attitude against the lordship of Christ. But I want to bring the positive out here.

I want to see an appreciation of it. If we can just get an appreciation that the Lord Jesus is in control. And He does what's good for me.

And He does what's right for me. There's an appreciation in the lordship of Christ. There's a peace about it.

There's a comfort in it. There's a love for it. He's taking care of me.

He's responsible for me. Did you ever look at it that way? That the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died for you and saved you from your sins, He's responsible for you. You can revel in that today.

You can just sit back and let the Lord love you and let Him take care of the hard decisions in life to displace Christ or displayed Christ. So we've got the lordship being betrayed. You know the Lord Jesus Christ was the Lord of the cross.

He was in complete control. There He is on the cross of Calvary and men were trying to kill Him. They were trying to execute Him, but they couldn't do it.

He was Lord of the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of the crisis. In every situation, even Peter there as he's walking on the water, Lord save me.

There He is. He's the Lord of the crisis. You come a little further and you've got Him the Lord of the casualty.

What does Job say? He says, though He slay me, I'll trust Him. Though He slay me, I'll trust Him. The lordship of Christ.

My question today is this. As I ask my own heart this, is He the Lord of me? Is He my Lord and my God? The lordship betrayed the displacement of Christ. The loss because of it.

There's always loss. I find it interesting that the man of God encouraged this man Amaziah to go. He said, if you're going to go, go and do it.

Give it your best shot. Go with all your might. What does he say? Be strong for the battle.

God shall make thee fall before the enemy. What a way to word it, huh? If you're thinking about an unequal yoke today, I can't repeat these words. I can't encourage you to do it.

But if you do it, and you do it with all your might, you know what you're going to learn? The Lord's in charge anyway. The Lord's in charge anyway. See, that's the message this man was supposed to get.

That was the message for Amaziah. He said, you want to do it, you do it. And you're going to learn something, Amaziah.

You're going to learn the Lord's in charge. He's able to help you. He's able to make you fall.

You'll realize the lordship of Christ. And there's a loss because of it. What about my money? What about my investment? Can we put it that way? What am I going to do? It's a good question.

It's a heart-searching question. Maybe your heart is on the line today. What am I going to do? If I break up with him or if I break up with her, it's going to break my heart.

It's going to feel like your stomach is trying to digest your heart in the middle of your throat. That's what it feels like. What about my investment? What about my hundred talents of silver? What about my business? Oh, I love these words.

The lesson to be learned of it. The Lord is able to give you much more than this. Is he displaced in your life? Is he displaced in mine? Or are we going to live as men and women for God and I'll sit down with Christ on display? Christ on display in my life.

As Lord of my life. As my Lord and my God. We read in Corinthians a simple verse.

Be not, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Amen.