May it please God to bless us
together as we meditate in his word for a little while. Let's
turn to the second book of Chronicles, chapter 14, and we'll read verse
11. The second book of Chronicles,
chapter 14, and reading verse 11. And Asa cried unto the Lord his
God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with
many or with them that have no power. Help us, O Lord our God,
for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God, Let
not man prevail against thee. We should be very thankful that
we have many accounts in the Bible to encourage us. Many accounts which prove to
us that there is a God in heaven a God who hears and answers prayer. And also for the many prayers
that are recorded in the Word of God. As we go through the
Word of God, you will note that there are many, many prayers.
And here we have, in this verse that we've read together, a prayer
of Asa. And it's concise, it's not wordy,
it's very direct, and it's spoken very clearly to the Lord. Asa had a need. Asa prayed. In faith, God heard
and God answered. And today we come to the same
God, the same God who still hears and still answers prayer. And
may all of us receive therefore that living faith to believe
in this great God. You know so often we limit God,
so often we almost think of God as one of ourselves, but God
is high and lifted up, God is almighty and God can and does
do far more exceeding abundantly than we can ask or even think. Now we have an account here of
what was occurring in Asa's life. We're told about his army. His
army was not small. He had some 600 or so people,
quite a considerable number. But we're told there were the
Ethiopian army. They weren't all Ethiopians,
but they were led by a person who was an Ethiopian, Zira. And
we're told that that was a thousand thousand. which of course is
a million. So naturally speaking, Aesir's
army was outnumbered, not quite by two to one, but nonetheless
quite considerably. So there was really a fearful
position that Aesir found himself in. So what did he do? Well, we know that We can read
in the Chronicles and the Kings of sometimes that Kings they
looked not to God, they looked to man. They went and they hired
armies from other people and other situations. But here we
see that Asa put his confidence in his God. And it's good for
us today to put our confidence in our God. You see Asa cried
unto the Lord his God. He wasn't praying to a God that
he did not know. He was praying to a God who in
measure he was familiar with. And God gave him faith so to
do. And so he comes and he addresses
Almighty God and speaks to him and tells him Things which are
very obvious and yet nonetheless just to perhaps strengthen himself
and he says Lord it is nothing with thee to help You see when we realize the greatness
of God and the power of God We recognize that this is so very
true Lord it is nothing with thee to help We have a God who's
able to do anything and to do everything. And often we forget
to think and to realize how great God is. We have the account here
in this chapter when God wonderfully appeared. We have the account
in the word of God on many occasions when God wonderfully appeared
and sometimes Judah or Israel never had to fight the battle.
The Lord appeared for them. The enemy destroyed themselves. And let us therefore never limit
our God. And so says Isa, Lord, it is
nothing with thee, whether with many or with them that have no
power. Help us, help us. Yes, there was his confidence
in his God. Help us. Oh, Lord, our God, he
just confirms this God who is his God. And now he incorporates
all of the Judah and this part of Israel. And he says, hear
us. Oh, Lord, our God, for we rest on thee and in thy name
we go against this multitude. It's good, isn't it, to realize
that. You know, just a little bit later
on, we come across Jehoshaphat, another gracious king. And when
he spoke and said beautiful words, when he prayed to God, and he
said this, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. sometimes we don't know what
to do but it's good when our eyes are upon God and it's easy
you know to take our eyes off from God especially when there
doesn't seem to be any result but nonetheless we should keep
our eyes steadfast upon our God because in the case of Jehoshaphat
again There was that prophet who was raised up, who spoke
to Jehoshaphat and the people and said they wouldn't need to
fight. And in actual fact, Jehoshaphat
was blessed with wonderful faith so that before they actually
started fighting, they praised God for that victory which they
were assured of and God heard. And God brought a wonderful victory. Well, here, not quite the same,
but nonetheless, there was a great and a wonderful and a glorious
victory brought about. And so Asa says, O Lord, thou
art our God, let not man prevail against thee. And then very simply
we read in the next verse, so the Lord smote the Ethiopians
before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. What a wonderful deliverance.
Well, we should be thankful to know and to believe that we still
today worship this same almighty God. And it's good, you know,
if you and I can look in our lives to times when God has appeared. God has heard and answered our
prayers. And we should never belittle
anything that God has done for us. it may seem something perhaps
fairly trivial it may seem something fairly small but yet the wonder
of it is that God has been mindful of us and God has heard our prayer
and what a wonderful blessing that is and what a wonderful
comfort that is what a consolation to realize that God hasn't cast
us off he hasn't turned his back upon us but his ear has been
toward us and he's heard and answered prayer and that's an
amazing thought isn't it when we think of this God who is controlled
of the billions of people in this world and yet to think And
that God listens to your and my prayer and hears and answers. This is the God that we have. This is the God which I hope
we adore because this God is so great and so high. lifted up and is worthy of all
praise and adoration. Well we have this wonderful account
here then in this chapter of Asa's simple prayer, a prayer
in faith to Almighty God and Almighty God bowed down his ear,
heard and delivered Judah in a most wonderful way. Well let
us never then lose sight of the fact that we have this great
almighty God. Now we have here then this natural
scene. A natural scene is very encouraging
and very wonderful but really this morning I want to direct
you really to what we might term is the spiritual application
the spiritual position which is very wonderful and very real
and we should be very very thankful for it and we can read in the
prophecy of Isaiah which I know is a very wonderful book and
in the 59th chapter of Isaiah and verse 19 towards the end
of the 59th chapter, there's a whole cluster of beautiful
chapters in Isaiah around this chapter, but chapter 59, verse
19, this is what it says. So shall they fear the name of
the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the
sun. And this is the verse, this is
the part really, when the enemy shall come in like a flood the
spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Well, there are occasions in
our lives when the enemy does come in like a flood and threaten
to absolutely overwhelm us, threatens to drown us. And yet, you see,
in that situation, to have this wonderful encouragement The Prophet
tells us here, the Spirit of the Lord, God himself, shall
lift up a standard against him. That means that the enemy will
not prevail. Will not prevail. And so when
we are faced with situations like this, it's a very vivid
statement isn't it? We can imagine what a flood's
like and we're told when the enemy shall come in like a flood
the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Well what a blessing it is today
that we have the same God, the God that Isaiah had, the God
that Asa had. And the psalmist, David, a man
after God's own heart, has written so many encouraging things in
the Word of God. And there are many short and
very many wonderful, blessed psalms to direct us and to speak
to us. And Psalm 124 seems so appropriate
with reference to these verses that we read. And David says,
and remember what David's life was like. He had many, many difficulties,
didn't he? We can read David's life very
simply and think, well, he was a king and he had much blessing
what he did, but he had a lot of opposition. An opposition
naturally, an opposition spiritually. Yet he's able to write this,
Psalm 124. if it had not been the Lord who
was on our side now may Israel say if it had not been the Lord
who was on our side when men rose up against us then they
had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against
us then the waters the floods had overwhelmed us The stream
had gone over our soul. Then the proud waters had gone
over our soul. Blessed be the Lord, who has
not given us as a prey to their teeth, the enemy. Our soul is
escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare
is broken and we are escaped. And then this beautiful last
verse, which of course is repeated a number of times in the Word
of God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and
earth. It's very beautiful, isn't it?
How the psalmist gives us that encouragement to realise that
this Lord is the one who made heaven and earth. And that should
give us some encouragement. Because if we think that this
Lord God created all things, He made the heaven and the earth,
and now here I am today, a little small person, with a little small
problem, and in comparison with the great things that this Lord
has done, it's so small by comparison. And yet the Lord, you see, looks
upon me. The Lord is mindful of me. help
is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth now David
proved it many times and what a blessing it is for us when
we prove the power of our God the help of our God he doesn't
leave us he doesn't forsake us and in a spiritual sense. He
doesn't leave our soul destitute. We may perhaps sometimes think
the Lord has passed us by. The Lord's not going to take
any notice of us. He's not going to hear our prayers. Well, we should remember the
Lord says this, He waits to be gracious. And in these times
of our need, Sometimes the Lord graciously brings about that
spirit to be patient. Your time is always, but my time
is not yet. No, the Lord does bring us into
a condition and into a situation where we are indeed patient. You know, there was situation
that the lord speaks about when he was on the earth and it's
recorded in the ninth of mark about a man who wanted to believe
and yet you say he was tempted not to believe and um he was
asked if he believed and his answer was very beautiful and
he said this lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief. You may say, well, what did he
actually mean? He actually meant this. He really
wanted to believe God's word. And he didn't want to be left
to an unbelieving heart. Help thou mine unbelief. Good thing, isn't it? That we
have such accounts, such simple statements to encourage us as
we journey on day by day. The Lord will indeed help us,
give us that strength, give us that living desire to really
believe His Word and yet tempted you see therefore with this spirit
of unbelief well you know when the these things come in like
a flower it is when the lord therefore gives us that strength
and that help to rely on him we're tempted you know one of
the greatest storms of life one of the greatest things which
come which threaten to drown us is very simply what the apostle
refers to as the evil heart of unbelief we don't get any medals
for disbelieving the word of God and yet you see the devil
constantly tries to overthrow us and tries to turn us away
from the promises of God. Tries to bring us to this position
where we say, well, I don't think that will ever come to pass.
I don't think it is. And what have we got? The evil
heart of unbelief. In actual fact, the reverse is
this. As the psalmist tells us, trust
in the Lord. At all times, ye people, all
times, trust in the Lord. Let's not trust in ourselves. Here was Asa. He didn't trust
in himself. He didn't say, well, I've got
quite a good army and I think they're going to be able to overcome
the Ethiopian army. No, he didn't even commence the
battle. He prayed to God before the battle commenced so
that he would not be able to claim any victory himself, but
he would be able to praise his God for the wonderful deliverance
which was granted. And what a blessing that is for
you and me today to come with faith to believe and to trust
in our God. And as, again, David said, trust
in me at all times. We might think, well, this is
just an impossibility. This is just beyond the power
of God. Now, let me just make this very
clear. God doesn't always deliver. But if he doesn't, he gives us
faith to rest in his will. What this means, really, is that
promise being fulfilled. And that promise is this, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall
do unto me." Confidence in our God. To rest in the Lord. That's a place of comfort. That's
a place of blessing. You see, here was Isa, he was
praying to his God. We know what the outcome was.
He didn't know what the outcome was. He prayed in faith. Or you may come and pray in faith. We may not know what the outcome
is. What a blessing it is when we
can come, therefore, and commit our way unto our God. Well, let us beware of the evil
heart of unbelief, and let us beware of what the devil so often
will come and tell us. He'll tell us that all the Bible
is lies, that we needn't believe it, The devil is a liar from
the beginning. He always has been, he always
will be. Don't believe the lies of the devil. He is a great tempter. My friends, his great aim is
to overthrow our faith. Overthrow our faith and to turn
us away from resting in the promises of God. Well, it would be a great
favour if you and I come to that position where we can face the
devil, who is a tempter, who is a great tempter. And I think
the words in the Eighth of Romans are so very wonderfully and very
beautiful and so encouraging for us on occasions like this
because it directs us to Christ and it directs the devil to Christ. And we can tell him this. This
is what Paul wrote to the Romans. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. He doesn't leave it there. Yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God. who also maketh intercession
for us. What a strength that is to be
able to rebuke the devil when he tries to overcome us. As I've
said very often, the Saviour quoted scripture when the devil
tempted him. May you and I therefore quote
scripture. It's a great blessing when scripture
is in our minds and it's familiar to us and we're able therefore
to quote words like this to the devil he won't be able to overcome
it come us and you know as you probably are familiar with the
following verses after this having made this wonderful statement
the apostle then says who shall separate us from the love of
Christ. Note that. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? And then he gives a list. Just
so that we may ponder it. Shall, tribulation. And we will
pass through tribulation. Or distress. And we will pass
through distress. Or persecution. And we will pass
through persecution. or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword. He just really spells out some
of the difficulties that the Church of God are called to pass
through. And in passing through them,
their faith is strengthened as the Lord helps them, and the
Lord stands by them. And so the apostle says, as it
is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. That's a wonderful truth, isn't
it? But think of that. And then he tells us, for I am
persuaded. I am persuaded, and may you and
I be persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Well, the Lord has given us,
therefore, such wonderful truths to ponder and consider, to turn
our attention to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, you
see, our lives are there to show forth the honour and glory of
God. And the Lord brings that about
in our lives in various ways. In each of our lives, we all
have our individual life to live. And if we are God's children,
that individual life to demonstrate and to show forth the wonder
and the mercy and the glory and the favour of Almighty God. What a privilege then it is to
be numbered amongst those who are called into this situation. What a wonderful blessing it
is. What a wonderful, wonderful favour
to realise we have indeed such a God. Solomon, who was blessed
indeed, and I mentioned to you already about trusting in the
Lord at all times. That was David, but Solomon uses
very similar words when he wrote the Proverbs and in the third
chapter and in the fifth verse, this is what he said. Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding
in all thy ways. Acknowledge him and he shall
direct thy paths. Solomon had confidence in his
God. The Lord has put on record such
words as this, so that you and I today may be encouraged. And don't forget what he says
in all thy ways acknowledge him. Acknowledge God. Acknowledge
what he's doing. Acknowledge his mercy. Acknowledge his love. Acknowledge it is the Lord. See these things are for the
honour and glory of our God. So easily we pass over them. So easily we forget really to
recognize the wonderful truth and favor of them. And later
on in this same book of Proverbs, again Solomon tells us again
the truth which no doubt he'd experienced and had realized
the blessing of. He tells us in the 18th chapter
and 10th verse, The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. Well, what that really means
is this. In our time of need, do we run to the Lord? It's a
good thing if it's the first thing we do, not the last thing
we do. The first thing we do, the name
of the Lord is A strong tower. What a blessing when we prove
it to be so. It's a support to us. It's a
strength to us. You know, towers were used in
Old Testament times to escape from the enemy. They were able
to run into the tower and the enemy usually couldn't then gain
access. there was safety. Well there
is safety in the Lord. You and I may recognise the wonderful
favour of this and truly praise God and bless him for his wonderful
favour and his wonderful mercy, which he has. Well, remember
then the situation here, Asa, trusting in the Lord, relying
on the Lord, not looking to himself, and reminding the Lord it is
nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with few, or with
them that have no power. Help us, O Lord, our God, for
we rest on thee. Isn't that good? To rest on God. There's no better place. There's no safer place. There's
no other place where really you and I find rest. In the Lord. On the Lord. Resting on him. committing our way unto Him,
relying on Him, that He will appear. What a mercy then to
think of that. And the 71st Psalm is again a very wonderful
word of encouragement. It starts off with these blessed
words, In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Well, I hope all of
us, all of us can say that this morning. In thee, O Lord, do
I put my trust, my little trust. Lord, I've nowhere else to go. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion. You see, if we trust
in ourselves, we trust in man, we can believe we shall be put
to confusion. But if we are trusting in the
Lord, we can believe that we will not be put to confusion. The third verse of the 71st Psalm
tells us this, Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually
resort. That means night or day, any
time, any time. The door of God's mercy stands
open all day and night to the poor and the needy that knock
by the way. What a mercy to realize he is
a strong habitation where the Lord reigns, where the Lord lives. He's a strong habitation. Where,
until I may continually resort, thou hast given commandment to
save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. What does it
really mean? Safety in Christ. Safety in Christ. My friends,
we have such a glorious Saviour. a wonderful saviour who knows
all about us and we should not forget that as we often quote
the 107th Psalm he led them forth by the right way not the wrong
way the right way that they might go to a city of habitation you
see we are on this earth on a journey The journey is through this world. This world is not our rest. As
we're told, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek
one to come. We're on a journey. We're traveling. I trust home to God. In the way
the fathers trod, they are happy now and we By God's grace, soon
their happiness shall see. And that means to go and to be
with Christ, which is far better. And so, yes, he did lead them
forth by the right where they might go to a city of habitation. Naturally, Israel came safely
at last to Canaan. Bless God, the church of God.
come safely at last to glory. And what a mercy that is. And
so as we have a text like this this morning, to realize there
is underneath it a great and glorious spiritual truth. And
you and I may be able to rest in it and to take heed to the
way that Asa prays naturally so that you and I may be able
to pray spiritually. The Lord indeed will appear.
The Lord indeed will bless us. The Lord will encourage us. And so Asa cried unto the Lord,
his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether
with many or with them that have no power. And that's just how
perhaps we might feel. We've got no power. not in ourselves,
but as the Apostle said, I can do all things through Christ
that strengtheneth me. It is nothing with thee to help,
whether with many or with them that have no power. Help us,
O Lord, our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go. against this multitude. O Lord,
Thou art our God. Let not man prevail against Thee. Amen.