Spiritual Lessons Learned From Human Warefare

When I was doing the planning for the services schedule and thinking ahead about sermons, when I saw the date for today, I thought, I know what I want to speak on. It doesn't fall on the Sabbath that often. Today is a significant date in U.S. history. Actually, you could say it's a significant date in world history. And before I get into some of the deep spiritual lessons, it gives me an opportunity to tell one of my favorite stories from college. Now, there's not a deep spiritual lesson in this other than people see things from different perspectives. But I've always...well, it's funny how some stories help you remember dates in history. And this one, I've always told it when I taught history in college because it gave me the chance to teach it whether I was doing pre-Civil War history or post, because it hits on both of those. And the story is from the days when we had a two-year college in Big Sandy, which was the case when I started attending. Now, there was a campus nurse resident at the time, a fellow by the name of Bob Harrington, who was from the East Coast from the state of Delaware. So his full-time job was being the campus nurse, but he would take a class here and there as his schedule would permit. So one year, it was fall semester, which includes December, Bob Harrington was the nurse. He was taking Old Testament survey class. Now, that was an 8 a.m. class, traditionally, and it was this time that Mr. Richard Thompson taught. So being an 8 a.m. class, first class of the morning, Mr. Thompson would come in with his mug of coffee. Maybe that's where I got it. I saw enough professors always come in with their coffee, and he'd sort of lean on the lectern and said, This is an important date in American history. Can anyone tell us what happened on this date? Bob Harrington was sitting in the front row, his hands shot up, nods to him. Bob turns around and says, Yes! On this date, in 1789, Delaware became the first state in the Union to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, December 7th is Delaware Day. Sits back down. Mr. Thompson has that look like. Can anybody tell us of something else that might have happened on this date in history? Now, for those of you who have heard that before, I love to tell that story. I might have even told it up here before. Well, you still laughed. But, of course, that something else that happened is what we know as Pearl Harbor, or more specifically, the attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by the Japanese Navy on December 7th of 1941. This precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. Allow me to quote from the famous speech that President Roosevelt gave the very next day before a joint session of Congress. He said, Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. Now, I'm not going to read all of this speech, but he continued to describe how not only there was a military attack, but leading up to that attack for several days, the Japanese diplomats in Washington, D.C., were talking about peace negotiations and making discussions to lead our attention away from any possibility of being attacked. So the fact that it was not only a direct attack on U.S. forces, but also the treacherous nature of it, steeled Americans and determined them to fight to win. Let me read the close of President Roosevelt's speech.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on the Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire. Many of you might have heard that before. I apologize. I don't think I can quite do his upstate New York accent. We can learn quite a bit from the study of history, but I always try to remind myself, as many of you know, history is my thing.

I remind myself that it's only really appropriate to spend that much time of our Sabbath services studying into a historical event when we can learn spiritual lessons from it. But I believe there are spiritual lessons to gain from studying human warfare, especially this particular war. That's partly because we're fighting a spiritual war. I want to turn to a couple scriptures to demonstrate that, beginning with 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 3. These are scriptures we read fairly often, but I think they merit our turning to them. 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul wrote, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war in the flesh, or according to the flesh.

Now the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into the captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ. I inserted the word Jesus there.

Sorry. I'm going to have to bring my reading glasses up here. I'll also turn to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 and verse 11. It's funny, although the Apostle Paul was a scholar and not a warrior, he didn't hesitate to use warfare as an analogy when it was appropriate.

That's where he says, Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, reminding us who our enemy is. Earlier he talked about the powers of darkness and principalities. He says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So we are at war, not using tanks and airplanes and guns, but we're fighting against evil powers that want to subject us, that want to prevent us from entering God's kingdom. And as such, there are a number of important lessons that we may learn from what happened on December 7th and the events leading up to it. And I want to look at it that way, and approach this slightly differently than you might have heard before, because I don't want to necessarily look at these events from the American viewpoint, but rather from the British. Because I think we can learn some lessons from their viewpoint that are very applicable to us as Christians, and one that I want to bring up towards the end that you might not have thought of before, but is most appropriate.

First, we'll need some review of the history leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, there's a lot more history in World War II than I could possibly cover in a sermon. Even when I was teaching an American history class, I would give only a couple of classes to it in a survey, and then be rushing over it fairly quickly. To think of how big it was for the United States, we could even break it apart and say it was really like the United States was fighting two separate wars. One in the Pacific against the Japanese Empire, and then a totally separate war against the Axis allies, the war we fought in North Africa and Europe.

And for Great Britain, it was similar. They were fighting that war. They were also fighting an entirely different war in the Middle East, and then a different one in the Far East. There's a big difference between World War II and World War I. I'm just pausing because I'm pleased I said that without confusing the words. It's hard to say those very quickly, very many times. In the First World War, although both sides depicted each other as being greatly evil, when you study into it, it was a set of happenstance events that sort of fell into a war that nobody really wanted, and it was hard to see clear-cut good guys and bad guys.

Not so in the Second World War. There were bad guys. And we could say, clearly, Hitler was evil. He and his allies launched unprovoked attacks against other nations intending to subjugate them. Now, building up to that time, in the interim between the two wars, Germany systematically flouted treaty obligations that they had agreed to. There were limitations put on the German nation by the Treaty of Versailles, which they had signed, and they systematically began violating those. One of the big steps they took was in 1936, when Germany sent military forces into the Rhineland.

That's the area along the Rhine River that forms a border between Germany and France. And because France wanted protection, they had caused Germany to agree to never have military forces there.

But in 1936, they came in. Nobody stopped them. In 1938, Germany forced Austria to join it, making two nations into one. I mentioned, I think, in my email last night, Sue and I watched the Sound of Music presentation that was on Thursday night. If you've seen the movie or seen the musical, it's worth remembering that as the backdrop for the musical.

It was a time of great tension when some people within Austria wanted to join Germany. Others wanted to keep their independence and separate identity. And there was a lot of subterfuge and intimidation and just plain wrongdoing to force Austria into that union. Later, the same year, towards the end of 1938, Germany forced Czechoslovakia to give a large portion of its land along its border to Germany.

During that time, as these things happened, the governments of Britain and France practiced a policy known as appeasement. Appeasement, meaning they would give up a little bit to these other nations to avoid fighting. And sometimes they said, well, we sort of went too far in the Treaty of Versailles anyway, so let them have a little bit. They wanted to avoid war at almost any cost. And although this isn't one of my major lessons, there is an important lesson here. That giving in to evil just a little bit doesn't work. It never pays. Compromise can corrupt and pollute good, but it never purifies the evil. It only brings all down.

And during these years of appeasement, very few government leaders warned of the dangers of those policies. One who did was a notable leader in the House of Parliament by the name of Winston Churchill. His name, of course, is now very recognizable to us.

It wasn't so much to very many Americans at that time. But finally, after all this appeasement and what became known as the Munich Settlement in 1938, when Czechoslovakia was forced to give up that land, Britain and France determined to end appeasement. They pledged that if there was an aggression against the country of Poland with which they had an alliance, at that point they would fight. No, that kind of sealed their fate because Hitler had already made plans to invade Poland.

The only reason he delayed was to finish an agreement with the USSR, the Soviet Union, so that they could each divide up the nation and not go to war with each other. And once that settlement was made, September 1st of 1939, German armies flooded over the border into Poland. Not long afterwards, Russian armies flooded in from the other side. And although you can't say much good about Hitler, the one thing I can say for him is he started things on convenient dates. You know, the official starting date we give for World War II was September 1st of 1939.

And he launched several of his attacks either on a significant date like the Solstice or on the first of a month. Really, if that's all he's got going for him, that wasn't so good. People take what they can get. Anyways, when that happened, with the invasion of Poland, Britain and France did declare war. Now, the United States during this time was neutral. But President Roosevelt realized that it would be important to give those nations as much help as he could legally do.

Not much happened that winter, but the next spring, on May 1st, Germany launched a surprise attack to the west, sending its armies through France's neighbor, Belgium, and the very lightly guarded Ardennes Forest. Actually, military strategists thought the forest was too thick and that armies couldn't move through it. The Nazis proved they were wrong. Using their innovative blitzkrieg tactics, they quickly pushed back the British and French armies. It was looking like a disaster. And at that time, the British House of Commons dissolved the government in place and installed a new one Winston Churchill in the office of Prime Minister.

And also, he took on the role of Minister of Defense. Churchill came from a distinguished family. One of his ancestors had been the Duke of Marlborough. Not related to cigarettes, but... The Duke, a few hundred years earlier, had been a very successful general in the war of Spanish succession. Churchill himself had been an army officer as a young man. And actually during World War I, at the start of that war, led the British Navy. He had a lot of administrative and military experience. And during the latter part of that war, served on the field in Europe as a field officer.

So he knew what trench warfare was about. He was a gifted administrator and planner, and he was a great leader of men, partly because of his command of the English language. And I want to read several things that he wrote or spoke today as part of the sermon. He was able to motivate people with his inspiring rhetoric. He gave one of his most famous speeches addressing Parliament on May 10th of 1940.

And some of the principles he gives, or he mentions, I want to quote, because I think they can apply to us and our spiritual warfare. And they're things that we should note. Let me read the opening, one of the early lines, is one we've heard many times before. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. That was his way of saying, I'm just a human being. This is something I hope that every leader in the Church will look at himself in the mirror and acknowledge that.

Anything beyond that has to come from the power of God. And in that speech he laid out before Parliament the immense challenges that faced them. And he closed with these stirring words, We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say it is to wage war by sea, land, and air with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us.

To wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalog of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory however long and hard the road may be. For without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire. No survival for all that the British Empire stood for. No survival for the urge and impulse of the ages that mankind will move forward towards its goal.

But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time, I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, come, let us go forward together with our united strength. To me, those words are stirring, especially when I think not of fighting against enemy armies, but fighting against those principalities and powers of darkness. And I think that's right. There can be no hope without victory. There is no compromise. There is no part way.

We must be victorious in this war. But we can go forward with hope because, well, because of some of the principles I'm going to cover. We have help. We have support. We should note, though, that what happened for Britain at this time was not immediate victory. Churchill did manage to stir his people and encourage them, and it's amazing the determination of what they were able to endure, which I hope is an example to us of what we can endure. But sometimes determination and stirring words are just plain not enough. There have been times in history where people are stirred up and ready to fight, and they get crushed.

They lose. I want to look at an example of that in Numbers 14. Now, this is not an exact parallel by any means, but Numbers 14, beginning in verse 40, shows an example of a people who were finally roused up and ready to fight, but they were lacking some other important things. Now, this is the story of ancient Israel, ready to enter the Promised Land. Only they weren't quite so ready. Before they went in, they'd encouraged Moses to send in 12 scouts, and God said, yes, that's a good idea. They went all through the Promised Land, and they mapped it, and they studied it.

They brought back some of the fruit. Ten of those scouts said, we can't do this. There's giants in the land. They'll eat us up. Only Joshua and Caleb said, yes, God will be with us. We can do it. So the people lamented and complained, and God punished them rather badly. After that, the people said, well, we don't like this punishment. Let's go in. Now they said, now we're ready to fight, and we'll see what happened in verse 40.

They arose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, here we are, and we will go into the place which the Eternal has promised. For we've sinned. They admit we've done wrong. Moses said, now why do you transgress the command of the Eternal? This will not succeed. Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Eternal is not among you. The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword, because you've turned away from the Eternal. He will not be with you. For they presume to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the Ark of the Covenant nor Moses departed from the camp. And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwell on that mountain came down and attacked them, drove them back as far as Horma. As I said, I just want to look at this as a case where you can see sometimes you're rallied, you're ready, you've heard the stirring words, and you lose. And, well, as I said, that wasn't the case as we turn back to the 20th century. The British and French were not in direct rebellion against God. But they did have a similarity. They determined that they were willing to fight too late. You know, five or ten years earlier, if they said, we've got to stop the Nazis, they could have been effective. Now, when they finally made that determination in 1939, they were going to suffer for it. And that's what happened, you know, in 1940, even after Churchill made that inspiring speech. The Nazi blitzkrieg overwhelmed the poorly prepared troops. They pushed the French back into their own territory. The Germans broke through the line and made it all the way to the sea, thus encircling the British army, pushing them back and back ever further as they withdrew towards the English Channel. They lost a lot of their equipment. They were disorganized. And this was just about all of Britain's military manpower. If the Germans had closed in and finished them off there in that spring of 1940, Britain would have been nearly defenseless. They needed a deliverance. And this is when they got it. What happened next is what's often called the miracle of Dunkirk. Hitler, for reasons that we speculate about now, ordered his armies to stop. Later evidence says, well, he wanted them to refit the tank treads, rest the men, reorganize. He also had his air force commanders telling him, the army doesn't have to do this, the planes will take care of it, will bomb them into oblivion while they're sitting there trapped against the ocean. For whatever reason, the Germans stopped, and there was a period of time when the British could escape. And they took action. For nearly a week, it was at the end of May and early June, nearly every English boat that could possibly carry passengers crossed the English Channel. Naval ships, of course, carried a large bulk, but sailing yachts, fishing boats, even rowboats, crossed again and again, picking up as many men as possible. And for an unheard-of period of several days, the sea remained eerily calm. It's rough seas up there. And every now and then, it's calm for a short time. But here, for days on end, some people said it was almost like a mill pond. It was so still. Now, there was action at this time besides the boats moving back and forth. British fighter planes fought viciously against the German bombers overhead. Remember these bombers that were going to destroy the British Army anyways. But an amazing thing happened. Let me quote from another one of Churchill's famous speeches. He gave a speech to Parliament on June 4th to describe what had happened when it was all over. These are his words.

Churchill concluded that it must have been the soft sand absorbing much of the explosive power. That's not unreasonable, but I suspect there was more to it than that. I believe that that same divine power that caused the sea to remain calm for days on end also absorbed and shielded them from much of the harm of those bombs exploding. I'm not going to turn there, but I'm reminded of Psalm 91, where David wrote that 10,000 may fall at your side, but it won't come near you. Only with your eyes you'll look at it and see. I believe God had a purpose to work out, and that purpose did not include allowing the modern descendants of Abraham to be conquered. Not then. Throughout time, the children of Israel, when they've been in a bad situation, have called on the Creator God that made them.

And I'm sure Churchill and the people of his country were doing that then, even though they weren't what we call converted. They didn't have God's Spirit. God heard their prayers, I believe, as he did Israel in ancient times. If you look at Judges 3, I could turn to several cases of this happening. I just looked at one of the first ones that I found, and Judges were described very often. Judges 3, verse 9, When the children of Israel cried out to the eternal, the eternal raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel who delivered them. In this case, it was Osneil, the son of Kines, Caleb's younger brother. In the 1900s, perhaps God had a large hand in raising up Winston Churchill. This is a pattern Israel repeated many times. They would drift from God, bring on his punishment, and then realize they needed God's help and call on him. And God did come through. As I said, God didn't make his spirit widely available to the people of Israel in ancient times, any more than in the modern era. But I can't help but think, when the people of Britain were calling out for help at this time, God did hear their prayers. How much more will he hear ours? As I said, if we're in a spiritual warfare, we don't have to worry about planes dropping bombs on us. But those of us whom he has given the Holy Spirit and revealed his will to, how much more will he hear our prayers when we call out for help and deliverance? Will he shield us from those powers of darkness when we need it the most? We know King David understood God's deliverance, both from enemy armies and from spiritual trials. I want to look at Psalm 18, the 18th Psalm, verses 1 and 2. I'm sure we've sung words from the Psalm many times. It says, I will love you, O eternal my strength. The eternal is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. David felt strongly. Now, he had a real shield that he carried, and he knew what strongholds were like. But to him, God was the real strength, the real deliverer. Across the page in verse 17, he delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me. This is largely about physical deliverance, but God knows about spiritual deliverance. If we turn to the New Testament to Colossians chapter 1, let me read Colossians 1 and verse 13. And as I read this, think of those British soldiers by the sea wondering if they were going to escape. Because I wonder if they wouldn't have seen this almost as a prophecy for them, because it says, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. I can imagine the British looking at those Nazi armies thinking of them as the power of darkness, and they were conveyed across the British Channel into the kingdom of the house of Windsor. But of course, as I said, this is really a... I don't think it's a prophecy of that. It's a promise of spiritual deliverance for us. But that's where it's important to remember that deliverance is a start. That's not where it ends. We also need entrance into the kingdom of God.

And Winston Churchill looked at the deliverance of his army, of the military flower of youth, and said, that's not enough. We need to continue on with the struggle. Let me read some more from that speech he gave on June 4th. This first line, he says, We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of victory. Wars are not won by evacuations. So it was great to celebrate, but wars aren't won by evacuations. And here is our spiritual salvation won by having our sins alone covered.

There's more. And he continued with a strong rallying cry to continue the fight. Let me read his ending words. This is perhaps his most famous speech. I'm sure you've heard this before. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches.

We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle.

Until in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old. This should mark our kind of determination in our spiritual war that we will fight in whatever battleground Satan might choose to attack us. We won't surrender. We'll go on. Now, at times we'll suffer, but certainly if the British could be so determined to carry on their fight, we could ours. And Churchill and his country were true to these words.

They fought on doggedly. And for about a year from that time, they were alone. And that's something, as I said, when we view the war solely from the American perspective, we see what's going on, but we want to start with December 7, 1941. This was more than a year before that, and Britain had their back to the wall.

But the important thing is, they weren't fighting. They were fighting alone, but not without help. And that's something we look at from the United States perspective. Now, Hitler originally planned to send his armies across the English Channel to conquer Britain as soon as possible. But his military strategists realized that before they could cross the water, they needed control of the skies above it, because boats are really very vulnerable to planes dropping bombs. So to accomplish control of the skies for weeks and months, they sent bombers and fighters aircraft to attack Britain. This became known as the Battle of Britain.

And again and again, when the German planes would come over, British young men, RAF pilots, would scramble to their planes and rise up into the air to join the battle. It became known as the Battle of Britain. In his history of the war, Churchill described one day when he visited the headquarters, the tactical headquarters for the air defenses. It was the Royal Air Force home defense. He described this operation room as being like a small theater where it was somewhat dimmed, and there were arrays of lights to portray different enemy squadrons coming in and British squadrons rising to fight them.

And a clerk would receive reports. Now, they had radar at this time. The primitive radar, but it was still an advantage because nobody else had any radar. But they could pick up swarms of incoming planes and estimate how many there were. So he heard a clerk, actually, Churchill describes, he came there and thought it was a really dull day, nothing was going to happen. Suddenly, the phone started ringing. The clerk says, there is an attack of 40 plus, meaning 40 planes or more, then another 20 plus, then 40 plus, 60 plus, even one of 80 plus.

Now, for each time, defenders would rise up to fight them. But because they had to ascend so quickly, the British fighters burned up a tremendous amount of fuel climbing so quickly to altitude. So they had a short time to fight and try to drive off the enemy before they would have to land and refuel. That's important because if too many of them had to fight at once and then land to get more fuel, while they were on the ground, they were vulnerable. Enemy planes could come and strafe them or drop bombs, and they'd be helpless in defense. Churchill observed the coordinating officer send more and more squadrons.

At one point, he made a phone call to an office in London to borrow three reserve wings to put into the fight. Churchill looked over, and the overall commander was looking quite nervous. He leaned over and said, What other resources do we have? The answer was, there are none. And Churchill's words describe how close this was. He wrote, What losses should we not suffer if our refueling planes were caught on the ground by further raids of 40 plus or 50 plus?

The odds were great, our margins small. The stakes infinite. But another incoming wave didn't hit. It was that close. The Nazis never did succeed in gaining control of that airspace, and they didn't know until after the war how close they came. Now, this was owing not only to the bravery and the diligence of the young pilots. It did owe a lot to them, but it's also worth noting that they had a constant supply of new airplanes, of fuel, of supplies, ammunition being brought over from the United States of America.

We could say that the British effort to continue fighting was given strength from an outside source. And there, I think the analogy becomes clear to the minds of most of us. As Christians, we might be determined to keep on struggling to overcome sin, to develop character. But we need help from an outside source. From the United States government, but from God. I'm going to read Philippians 4, verse 13.

A well-known scripture, if I can find it. Philippians 4, verse 13 says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Christ strengthens us. He gives us that support, that strength, that power from outside. Now, I want to turn to a different thing going on at this time, because the air battle over Britain makes one of the best stories. And believe me, I haven't even done close to doing it justice with this little narrative. But there was a more important area in which the British people fought determinedly, and where they needed a lot of outside help.

That's what's known as the Battle of the Atlantic. Britain is a relatively small island group, and they would quickly be starved for resources. And perhaps people literally starved for food if their ability to trade with the outside world were cut off. And that's exactly what the Nazis tried very hard to do, especially using submarine warfare, which they perfected at that time.

I want to quote from a chapter in his book called The Battle of the Atlantic, 1941. Churchill said, and it's interesting, he describes this as what's going on in his mind. He said, amid the torrent of violent events, one anxiety reigns supreme. Battles may be won or lost. Enterprises might succeed or miscarry. Territories might be gained or quitted. But dominating all our power to carry on the war, or even to keep ourselves alive, lay our mastery of the ocean routes, the free approach and entry to our ports.

As I said, the German submarines were trying to sink every ship possible to cut off that supply of strength from outside. The losses of ships would be measured in the amount of water they displaced. It took me a long time to get that into my mind, and I still have hard time doing it, because it's not the weight of the ship that the weight of how much water the ship pushes aside when they say the tonnage of a ship.

But during that year, the Germans sank nearly 2.5 million tons of British shipping. That's a lot of ships going down. Britain was only able to continue the fight with help. American naval ships joined the convoys. Even though we weren't at war, President Roosevelt authorized those navy ships to shoot on sight if German submarines appeared. And he took a big risk with Congress to do that, but I don't want to make this about Roosevelt.

The Americans wanted to help. Now, most of these convoys between the U.S. and Britain were going across the North Atlantic route. It looks like an arch to us because the Earth is really a globe. And Iceland is about halfway through. So at one point, America sent soldiers to man the garrisons in Iceland so the British soldiers could go fight elsewhere. Then we took on the responsibility of completely guarding the convoys on the western half of that route, you know, from Iceland to the United States.

A little further on, we even gave Britain 50 of our older destroyers. A destroyer is one of the smaller one of the warships ideally suited for fighting submarines. You could say the United States was helping Britain to stand up in this fight even the same way God promises to help us stand, to help us fight our Christian warfare, as it says in Romans 14, Romans 14 and verse 4. Now, I'm quoting this a little bit out of the context, although I'm not misquoting the meaning, but Paul is talking about whether you judge someone because they're willing to eat meat or if they're only a vegetarian.

But the last part of this verse I wanted to zero in on. He says, Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And then this, Indeed he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. Now, Paul is talking about him, but we could put ourselves in that position. God is able to make me stand. And any one of us could say that.

When I don't think I can make it, when I don't have any strength, God is able to make you stand. He can give you that strength from outside. And that promise always gives me great comfort when I'm facing something that I think, I can't stand up through this. But I'll carry the analogy just a little further, because there is that conveyance of that strength and power, and what Britain had conveying to it was ships, commerce ships, bringing those supplies, and navy ships guarding them.

And we could see that mirrored in the Holy Spirit, over in Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 verse 16.

It says, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might, through his spirit in the inner man. God renews his spirit in us. It's not given on a one-time basis, when we're baptized and have hands laid on us, but that spirit comes in and it brings strength. It renews our strength. And as I said, that's a well-used analogy, but I think because it's so accurate. Our source of real power is that continual supply of God's Holy Spirit. I'm not going to turn there, but it says in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7, God has given us not a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. That should be reassuring to us. We have got a source of power, even when we've exhausted all of ours, it can be renewed. He gives us power. God's Spirit, his very essence, comes into us and provides that.

He gives us the strength to keep on fighting. Fighting against the attacks of Satan, fighting against the polls, the temptations of our own nature, fighting against the culture and society around us that's continually on the verge of overwhelming us.

When I think of that, it's not a bad analogy to compare our fight to become perfect as our Father is perfect. I think that's our war, our goal. Churchill said our goal is victory. Christ told us, become you perfect as your Father is perfect. That's what we're fighting for. But that we can make analogies to Britain's fight for survival in World War II. Like the British Army had to be delivered at Dunkirk, we have to be delivered from our sins, from an outside source. We need outside strength and sustenance from another source. As Britain came to rely on that supply of ships and on the United States sending the supplies they didn't have.

So thus far we can see some pretty good lessons. I want to turn to one further one, an aspect of my analogy that I think fits here. And it's the one that's not as commonly made. And it's the one that... actually the first one I thought of and why I wanted to look at it from the perspective of the British.

So... well, I'm not going to turn gears entirely. We don't have time to go through the history of the whole war, as I said. There's far more of it than we could cover, even at the fast and superficial pace that I've been covering. But in the process of fast forwarding to that December 7th of 41, when the United States entered, I want to mention the year before that the war did take a bit of a drastic change. Hitler got impatient over the British not being conquered. They were supposed to... it was supposed to be pretty easy, but they were very stubborn.

So he decided, well, I'm going to skip past that conquest. They're not going anywhere. And towards that late winter and moving into spring, he started amassing men and materiel to the east, getting ready to break his treaty with the Soviet Union and launch an invasion. Which he did at the start of summer of 1941. He launched what he called Operation Barbarossa.

He broke his treaty, launched a major invasion, and took the Soviets completely by surprise, which doesn't reflect very well on Stalin. And that took a lot of the pressure off Britain, and interestingly brought a very unusual and uncomfortable alliance between Britain and the Soviet Union. Remember, the Communists didn't like the British and vice versa.

But now they had a common foe. But having this ally didn't really help Britain as much as they wished, because the Soviets also became to depend at first on the United States' supplies. They were unprepared. And all through the war, the USSR focused completely on its own needs. And it's hard to fault them too much. They did go through the toughest fighting of the war.

And from our American perspective, we tend to overlook that. They were fighting for survival, and they suffered more casualties than the United States and Britain both put together. But Britain now had an ally, but they remained suspicious. And for good reason. I firmly believe if Stalin could have achieved his war aims by turning on the British, he probably would have done so in a moment. So Britain had some help, no assurance of a reliable helper. It would only be a combination of Britain's enemies that ended up bringing the savior that it needed.

See, Germany and Italy had an alliance also with Japan. They were known as the Axis Powers, which is great if you want to create a board game called Axis and Allies. I think there's copies of that out there. But they were the Axis. Now, it was somewhat of an alliance of convenience with Japan.

Japan was in the process of trying to conquer Asia while Hitler was conquering Europe. But Japan had gone only just so far and then realized the Americans were going to cause trouble. And they determined that the only way they could make that next step is if they destroyed the American Navy. And, of course, so they launched the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.

And while now that Japan was in a war with the United States, Hitler and Mussolini went ahead and declared war on the United States in deference to their ally. That's where I say they might not have thought that through very much, because it was going to have dire consequences. Winston Churchill got the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor not all that long after Franklin Roosevelt and the rest of the Americans. It's interesting. He was at his home away from London and having a retreat with some of his military leaders.

They were going over strategy and such like that. And he got the news. A telegram came. And, well, he described his feelings at the time in a way that really just struck me. I remember... I don't remember which night it was, but I've told some of you I've been working my way through his history of the war.

And although it's really interesting, it's also a lot of stuff. So a lot of times I'll read it on Friday evenings when I'm ready to go to sleep. Because it does help with that. But I remember one night reading this and thought, Wow, I've got to share this. So let me read... This is from the volume of his history called the Grand Alliance. Because the feeling that he describes, I think, is a feeling that we could have, or perhaps we should, when we look at our spiritual warfare.

So let me pick up quoting from his words. No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. I could not foretell the course of events. I do not pretend to have measured accurately the martial might of Japan.

But now, at this very moment, I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in it to the death. So we had won after all. Yes, after Dunkirk, after the fall of France, after the horrible episode of Oran, after the threat of an invasion, when apart from the air and navy, we were almost an unarmed people, after the deadly struggle of the U-boat war, the first battle of the Atlantic, gains by a hand's breath, after 17 months of lonely fighting, 19 months of my responsibility and dire distress, we had won the war.

England would live. Britain would live. The Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live. How long the war would last, or in what fashion it would end, no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again, in our Long Island history, we should emerge, however mauled or mutilated, safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end. We might not even have to die as individuals. Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder.

All the rest was merely the proper application of overwhelming force. The British Empire, the Soviet Union, and now the United States, bound together with every scrap of their life and strength, were, according to my lights, twice or even thrice the force of their antagonists. No doubt it would take a long time. I expected terrible forfeits in the East, but all this would be merely a passing phase. United, we could subdue everybody else in the world. Many disasters, immeasurable cost and tribulation lay ahead, but there was no more doubt about the end.

I wanted to repeat that. With all that tribulation and trial, but he says there was no more doubt about the end. And he closes this section saying, being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and the thankful. When I first read that, as I said, a Friday evening, I thought, it sounds like he's describing a religious experience, like he's walking down the sawdust trail to give his heart to the Lord.

But, you know, in a way, I think it does describe a religious experience. It should describe our religious experience. It should describe the certainty that we have of the success of God's plan, of the success of His plan of salvation for mankind and specifically for you and me. Churchill notes an incredible difference between having the U.S. help fighting the war and having the U.S.

fighting itself. He says, now the U.S. was in the war, in it to the neck and to the death. And that's when he wrote, we had won, after all. And he said, there was no more doubt about the end. And, as I said, I think if we look at God's power and what He wants for us, that could describe our feeling.

Now, well, because we know God will help us to fight. But we sometimes overlook the fact that when we don't have the ability, there are times when He will step in and He'll do the fighting for us. Not just help us, but if necessary, He'll take over. I want to look at an example of that on a physical basis. This is purely physical, but it's in 2 Chronicles 20, beginning in the first verse. It's interesting, I don't go to Chronicles very often, because many of these stories are told just as well or better in 1st or 2nd Kings. But this one doesn't appear in Kings.

I'm not sure why. But as I said, this is a case of the Kingdom of Judah being invaded and needing help. And this was a matter of them not just getting someone to help them fight, but fight for them. 2nd...oh, let me go to 2 Chronicles. And then the first one. 2 Chronicles 20. It happened after this that the people of Moab, with the people of Ammon and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat, King Jehoshaphat of Judah.

Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria. They are in Hezion Tamar, which is in Gethi. And Jehoshaphat feared, set himself to seek the eternal, to proclaim a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the eternal. And from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the eternal. Now, I'm going to skip the next few verses. It actually lists Jehoshaphat's actual prayer, which we won't read. But then he got an answer. God sent a prophet to tell them this in verse 15. It says, Listen, all of you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat, thus says the eternal to you, Do not be afraid, nor dismayed, because of this great multitude.

For the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the ascent of Z's, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jezreel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the eternal, who is with you, O Jerusalem and Judah. Don't fear or be dismayed tomorrow to go out against them, for the eternal is with you.

And the account of the battle describes how God miraculously turned the enemy soldiers to fighting each other, and they destroyed each other. And then over in verse 24, it says, So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked towards the multitude. There were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth.

No one had escaped. That's something, as I said, God told him, you don't have to fight this one. You just stand there and watch, and he took care of every single one of them. Not that, you know, there are times God can't help, but it's good for us to remember, when it's a battle that we just can't take on, that doesn't mean our hope is lost, that we'll be destroyed if we trust in him.

God will fight the battle for us when he deems it appropriate. I can quote from a statement in Romans. Romans 8.31 is where Paul wrote, If God be for us, who can be against us? If God is willing to fight the battles that we're not able to fight, why should we ever worry about anything? It's funny, in 1941 Churchill said that he believed the combined strength of the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States was easily two or three times stronger than any of their opponents.

He might have rephrased Romans 8.31 to say, if the United States and the Soviet Union are for us, who can be against us? But those are just physical nations with physical armies. In our case, we're talking about the power of Almighty God. And he's fighting for us.

At times he'll help us, because he wants us to make our own best effort to overcome. We need to engage in the struggle and accept his help. That'll happen far more times than when he steps in and does the fighting for us. But when we need it, we should have faith to realize that there are times that he will do that, as he did for Jehoshaphat and Judah, when he'll say, you don't need to fight this one. I'm going to do it for you. I do want to turn to Philippians 1 and verse 6.

Philippians 1 and verse 6. Being confident of this very thing, he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's good for us to remember, and we need to put that in context. Remember, Jesus Christ said, no one can come to him unless the Father draws him. So that means you're only here because the Father has called you to be here. Now, all of us, we're only here.

We did not start the spiritual fight. God started it for us, and he'll finish it. He began the good work, he'll finish it. And that's something for us to keep in mind when we look to our hope of eternal life in God's kingdom. And we can look at our hope that the war will end the right way, the same way Churchill did at the end of World War II.

We could be like him and say, well, we've won after all. Now, we're not saying in past tense because we're done, but we can say it comes down to the proper application of overwhelming force. And we don't have to bring the overwhelming force. God brings that with him. I'll read in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 57. This is from the resurrection chapter, and it's appropriate in that setting.

1 Corinthians 15 and verse 57 says, Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks to him because he'll give us the victory. Now, he doesn't, as I said, he doesn't tell us, sit aside, you don't have to fight ever again. There's just times for that. And it's also worth us remembering, just like Winston Churchill and Britain could have still surrendered at this point. And so could we. We're not in God's kingdom yet. We have to choose not to surrender.

But we cannot lose if we do stay in the fight. As long as we don't surrender, the victory is assured. In the spiritual war, we do have to give it all we've got. But Christ promised that the person who overcomes will be a pillar in his temple, will sit with him on his seat in his kingdom.

So that means we do have to fight. We do have to overcome. But we should have the faith to know that as long as we are doing that, failure is not an option. God will strengthen us. He'll fight for us if necessary. I'll look at one more scripture in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 in verse 1 and 2. Therefore, we also, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, and there's a long list of them mentioned in the chapter before, we could also think of the cloud of witnesses in modern times. Like I said, Churchill is not an example of someone who was called and had God's Spirit and lived by his way, but he's a witness of an example of depending on an outside help. We're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that's before us. Looking ahead to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, as I said, he began the good work. He'll finish it. The author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising shame, and has set down on the right hand of the throne of God.

He wants us to sit down there, too.

December 7th is just one day in our long journey on the road to eternal life. I like that phrase. It's so well... They use it as a title of one of our booklets because it rings true, the road to eternal life. But still, for Americans, December 7th is a date that brings memory of major events in our nation's history. So today I wanted to consider those major events, what they meant to our ally, Britain.

And to a people that were fighting for their lives against an evil menace. To Britain, December 7th meant deliverance. It meant a higher power was going to step in and make sure they didn't fail.

Our faith doesn't have to be tied to this date, but we want to remember that lesson. It gives us an occasion to remember how powerful God is. Remember the promises that He's given us. Remember that phrase, if God is with us, God before us, who can be against us? He has delivered us from the power of darkness. He will convey us into His Kingdom.