WITH THE ARM OF THE FLESH WE CAN DO NOTHING

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

WITH THE ARM OF THE FLESH WE CAN NOT CONQUER

COMPILED EDITED BY-: Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM.

“Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”
2nd Chronicles
37:7-8

Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, invaded Judah during the reign of Hezekiah.
Before their enemies could reach Jerusalem, King Hezekiah consulted with his military leaders and they took steps to prevent the destruction of Jerusalem.
When they had done all they could do, Hezekiah encouraged the people with the following words:

“Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:”
2 Chronicles 32:7

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds”

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
2 Corinthians 10:4–6

We are limited in what they can physically do in the spiritual battle. But we are assured that the battle is not really ours.
Those who depend on the arm of flesh will be sadly lacking in this spiritual battle.

You must be saved, be born again, must be one of the branches
attached to the vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.
-You must abide or dwell in Christ and He must abide or dwell in you.
-This is accomplished the moment a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit of God comes and seals and indwells that individual until the day of redemption.

So, first you must be saved
You can’t bear real fruit by yourself or in your flesh.
-Christ has to do the work.
-Christ is the one that does the fruit bearing through you.
-Remember, Jesus said, “for without me ye can do nothing.”
-The more your life is yielded over to him the more fruit he will bear through you.

Christ was able to bear much fruit through the life of the Apostle Paul, not because he was a well-educated person and he was or because he a wonderful family and religious background and he certaintly did.
-No, Christ was able to bear much fruit through the life of the Apostle Paul because Paul was totally yielded to Christ.
-Notice what Paul said in Gal. 2:20, the key – “yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”
-Christ through Paul wrote most of the New Testament

Another example is Hezekiah as we have seen from our text. He distinguished himself by following the Lord.
(2 Kings 18:5-6) He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.

“And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.”
2nd Kings 18:7

May God help us to bare His arm so that through all nations His arm will be recognised, in contrast to the arm of flesh.
True and permanent victory only comes from our most high God.
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:57

But those that chose to trust only in the arm of the flesh will only be greatly disappointed.

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed [be] the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, [in] a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed [is] the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and [that] spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:5-8

If we make flesh our arm, what will happen? We will be like the heath in the desert and we will not know when good cometh. We shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land not inhabited. We will find nothing that refreshes and strengthens the soul. Notice especially and ascertain verse 5 to know what it means when it says not to make flesh the arm – “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”
What is the Lord identifying for us? He is identifying a trust in man while simultaneously departing from the Lord. That is a very important criterion. Departing from the Lord at heart, we don’t want the Lord’s answers, we don’t want anything that hints of the Lord. We want answers to our needs and we turn to the counsels of man. If a man raises anything about the Lord, no I don’t want that; I want you to tell me what is right. Can you see the simple meaning of not leaning on the arm of flesh? When in need we are relying on human assistance bereft of God’s content, the assistance we are getting is not from God, it is totally from man. Human help outside of God is depending merely on flesh for support.

“Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because [they are] many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!”
Isaiah 31:1

Can you see the clarity of leaning on the arm of flesh, and what that really means? It means that there is no help from God, it is a turning away from God and looking for total human help and support.

*”Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? *For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form no comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.*
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
Isaiah 53:1-2

He has made bare His arm in Jesus. The Pharisees saw Jesus as a human being, and they thought He was just a human being, but there the arm of the Lord was revealed and made bare in that human being. Jesus was sent by the Father and the Father communicated Himself to His Son, and His Son was totally bereft of the human flesh and relied totally on the revelation of the Father. There He revealed the arm of the Lord.

As we look to Jesus, the flesh is not happy because the flesh doesn’t get the feeling that it’s being a support. “He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” The flesh is not satisfied with that. This is the arm of the Lord. The arm of the Lord is revealed in Jesus Christ. As I want to understand about not leaning on the arm of flesh, but leaning on the arm of the Lord, it is crystal clear before us as we watch Jesus and as we look upon Him. When a human being such as Jesus denies His flesh within communicating only God’s voice and God’s actions, what do we see in the human being? We see the arm of the Lord in the human being. That is what Jesus came to reveal – the arm of the Lord.

Just as God’s arm was seen in the working of Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, so now Christ has come to be a greater Moses and a greater Savior. He is the arm of the Lord, and with the body prepared for him (Hebrews 10:5), his nailed pierced hands have redeemed his people. In this way, the Word of God is both fulfilled and the salvation that God brings is even better than could be imagined by the saints of old.

For us, reading all of this, we should marvel at what God has done and see the precision, the power, and the passion God has to bring salvation to his people. In the Old Testament, we see it in shadows. We hear it in promises. But now in Christ, we see the whole story, and we see that God’s arm is more than a metaphor—he is a person, who has come to bring salvation to all the earth.

Life is full of the unexpected, good and bad. God is trustworthy in all situations. His Word is a way for Him to communicate all He desires for you to navigate life. Explore His promises through His Word.

Paul put his trust in God when the world let him down. He knew that in difficulty he could look to the promise of heaven because he trusted in Jesus. He did not have to get worried because of the difficult things he went through. Neither do you. God cares about how you have been wronged. He will take care of you in those times. Do not let them distract you. Keep your eyes on Him.

SHALOM!

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