SPIRITUAL
THUGS
SPIRITUAL THUGS
August 6, 2017
Sermon in a sentence: We must protect our salvation and eternal life against “thorns” that would choke them.
Congregational reading: Luke 8:4-8,11-15
Scriptures: Luke 8:4-8,11-15; Luke 21:29-36; [2 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 11:21; Phil. 4:19]
Luke 8:4-8,11-15 NKJV And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. 8 But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Luke 21:29-36 NKJV Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31 So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. 34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
In life, there are two very great issues we all have to deal with. One is our response to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which ties in with the other: determining our eternal destiny.
Most of us are very concerned about these things and have chosen to do what is right regarding our soul’s salvation and then we gladly share the word of God with those who don’t know Him. From time to time we even experience spontaneous outbursts of praise and worship to God; the overflow of a sanctified soul. These are all good indicators of our desire to live a faithful Christian life and prepare ourselves and those around us for His coming.
Nevertheless, the text we read in Luke 8 tells us to be on guard against some of the most subtle and insidious attacks we will ever face in our Christian walk: attacks from the Cares, Riches and Pleasures of life. Then, in Luke 21, Jesus adds Carousing and Drunkenness to the list. I am going to refer to these attackers as “Spiritual Thugs.”
A little history: The Thaggi cult was a band of robbers and murderers that roamed the Indian subcontinent for approximately 500 years, beginning around 1350AD.[1] The root meaning of this Hindi word “thaggi” or “thag” is “swindler” or “deceiver.” When the British came along, they called these people “thugs” – an anglicized mispronunciation of the word “thag.” Members of the group would attach themselves to caravans of travelers who were moving together from place to place, usually for purposes of business and trade. After befriending the travelers and gaining their trust, they would murder them in remote places along the route and steal their valuables. Strangulation (choking) was their most favoured method of murder.
Thag Buram (or Thug Buhram) 1765-1840
Thag Buram (or Thug Buhram) was a man many called the “King of Thugs.” Before he was hanged in 1840, he confessed to killing at least 125 men with his own hands, performing or assisting in a total of 931 murders! This easily qualifies him as one of the most notorious mass murderers in human history.
Thug Buhram had a medallion (similar to the one shown on his headdress) that was attached to a large handkerchief (or scarf) that he always carried with him. He would place the medallion over the victim’s Adam’s Apple, wrap the kerchief around his neck and tighten it until the victim died.
Quite often another thug would hold the victim’s legs and another would hold his arms while he was being choked to death.
To be frank, there are many things in life we need to think about and be concerned about; any number of God-given responsibilities we cannot and should not ignore:
- Eating well and keeping our bodily ‘temple’ in good shape
- Performing well on our jobs so we can continue to provide for ourselves and our loved ones
- Seeking to build good relationships that may lead to finding a spouse, or making time to maintain and enhance an existing spousal relationship
- Raising and educating godly children
- Being significantly involved in the work of God, in whatever area of ministry we have chosen
- Making time to volunteer in community organizations
Then there are many other things we desire for ourselves, and activities we engage in that often consume every waking moment. These are not sinful, in and of themselves, but they have a thoroughly invasive way of stealing minutes, hours, days and weeks from us:
- Waiting in line for that particular hair stylist or barber who we think makes us look good
- Wasting hours in the mall shopping for the latest fashions, electronics or gadgets we don’t need
- Keeping in touch with the whole world through our social media posts. (Well, who knows, it could even make you President one day!)
- Taking the weekend to check the stats and pick players for our sports fantasy team and following their progress all season long
- And for sure, we have to spend the next long weekend in New York with all of our best girlfriends.
- Spending time growing our business ventures. (“It’s really good to have some rich and successful Christians in society, isn’t it?”) And on and on it goes….
We read two of Jesus’s parables that help us to think clearly and help us to guard against this host of activities (even including necessary things) that have the potential of becoming Spiritual Thugs in our lives.
So, let’s stop for a few minutes and actually consider what our Lord Jesus is saying to us. His two main concerns relate to our response to the gospel and our readiness for His second coming.
Here’s what He said:
There are some who hear the gospel and respond positively, in faith. They begin to grow as Christians and blossoms appear on their branches. The blossoms turn into fruit (fruit of the Spirit) and there begins to be an expectation of a great harvest in their lives. These folks are excited and motivated. They begin to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18). Things are looking good!
However, the parable tells us of a great problem. As the good plants begin to grow, thorns are also growing very vigorously beside them. And unfortunately, the thorns grow stronger and faster than the good plants and eventually choke them to death. This is a slow choking that is barely felt by the victim. They just sort-of get used to it.
This is the nefarious work of the cares, riches and pleasures that will choke our spiritual lives if we are not paying close attention.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us that when their church got together to share in the “Lord’s Supper,” some hijacked the food and the wine and got drunk – in the church service!
1 Cor. 11:21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
So, when Jesus speaks to His disciples in Luke 21:34 and tells them to guard against partying and drunkenness, we need to pay attention. These things take our focus away from a joyous expectation of the Lord’s coming and can cause us to miss it. What a devastating thought!
These thugs are very fine and friendly, until they feel they have gained our confidence and our defenses are down. Then they attack.
We once had appropriate concern and a well-balanced level of care for our health, our family, our children’s education, our careers and our relationships.
Now we are consumed with worry and depression, asking questions and making statements like “What is God doing in my life? He’s not responding to my prayers.” We are trying to change situations (and particularly people) that we have no power to change. The stress of it all has shot our blood pressure sky high and we can’t sleep at night.
Our care and worry has not caused us to turn to God, but slowly we have turned away from Him and His word. We are so tired and worn out, we find it hard to drag ourselves to the house of God. We have no urgency and desire to maintain our daily devotions. The thugs are choking us.
We once had an appropriate concern for our financial health and our ability to pay our bills. It might not have been much, but we put a little something aside each month in RESP’s, RRSP’s, our life insurance policy and a
“rainy day” savings account. Our job might not have paid as much as someone else’s, but we lived within our means.
Now, we are consumed with “keeping up with the Joneses,” racking up credit card debt we can’t pay, making risky investments in businesses we don’t even understand and working two or three jobs, chasing after riches that are never enough.
We have turned away from faith in God to faith in the almighty dollar. We no longer believe that “my God shall supply all [our] need according to His riches in glory….” (Phil. 4:19). We work such long hours that we find it hard to drag ourselves to the house of God. We have no time to maintain our daily devotions. The thugs are choking us.
We once planned our calendars to spend quality time with our family and friends on trips and travel, exploring the city, enjoying recreational activities, concerts, sports teams we played on, eating out, games nights at home and visiting friends. We had a good mix between work and play, and we were happy with the ‘R&R’ we had built into our schedule.
But now that doesn’t seem to be enough. Now the restaurants need to be fancier. We need to travel out of town to catch our favourite band on Saturday night, so “sorry Lord,” we won’t be able to come to church on Sunday morning. And our friends who don’t serve the Lord are going to the club on Friday night and they want us to come along. One drink can’t really hurt, can it? And we really need to stay close to these friends so they can see the change Jesus has made in our lives, right? And the way that girl is looking at me – I think she likes me. And it’s not really a sin to flirt with her a little bit, I don’t think. We’re just having a little fun. Etc., etc.
Brothers and sisters: the thugs are after us!
How do we counter these threats? How do we make sure that we do not miss salvation and eternal life because of thugs?
Here is one very simple question we can ask ourselves that will let us know whether or not the thugs are getting the upper hand.
Do we have a clear, defined, uninterrupted time of communion with God every day? A time for worship, reading the Word and talking to God? A time that we prioritize and protect in spite of all the things around us that clamor for our time?
If we are in the presence of the Lord every day, He will identify the thugs. He will fight with us and fight for us to give us victory over the thorns that seek to choke our spiritual lives.
God is fighting for us
Pushing back the darkness
Lighting up the kingdom that cannot be shaken
In the name of Jesus, enemy’s defeated
And we will shout it out, shout it out!
There is no need for us to be choked and killed by spiritual thugs. We are offered protection by none other than the Lord God Almighty; our Master and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If we will commit ourselves to spending time in His presence every day, He will help us to clearly see and identify the thugs, and keep them in their rightful place.
Do not allow your spiritual life and destiny to be choked by thugs!
Appendix:
How was thuggery finally defeated in India?
Being so well entrenched in the Indian way of life, the people were gripped by fear of these men. Officials were paid to look the other way and nobody would testify in court against them.
Britain’s business relationship with India had begun in earnest in the 1600s with the cotton trade. It progressed to the point that in 1858, under Queen Victoria, the “British Raj” (or British Rule) was inaugurated, and they actually ruled the whole Indian subcontinent until 1947! Census numbers show that the Indian population at the time was 135.6 million, while the number of British officials and army officers was around 84,000. In other words, there was 1 (one) British official or soldier for every 1,600 Indian citizens.