Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 23. We don't do too many Christmas
songs, but this is a Christmas song. So at number 23 from the
Softback Tymna, let's all stand together. Number 23. Christ the Lord has come to earth,
see the wonder of his birth. He who is the mighty God, ? Takes
upon him flesh and blood ? ? Angels wonder and adore ? ? As they
watch their humbled Lord ? ? Fallen man he came to heal ? ? His Father's
purpose to fulfill ? ? Praise the Lord throughout the ages
? Praise him for his gracious birth. Proclaim on earth God's
wondrous plan. Now there's hope for ruined man. God's righteous law he obeyed,
living as a rightful head. For our sin atonement made. With his blood the price he paid. Justice now is satisfied. God and man are reconciled for
his life and for his death. Praise the Lord, our righteousness. ? Now he reigns our glorious
king ? All his ransomed ones to bring ? To him in faith and
righteousness ? Grace and mercy, perfect peace ? Soon our Lord
will come again We with him on high shall reign. We will see the God-man here
and eternal Praise our Savior and our King. Praise Him for His glorious reign. Please be seated. Good to have joy here, isn't
it? You'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103 for our scripture reading
tonight. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul and
all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the
Lord. Oh, my soul and forget not all
his benefits. Oh, forgiveness of sin. redemption, adoption, justification,
sanctification, glorification, all the benefits, all the things
that he got for us. Forget them not. Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness
and tender mercies, who satisfy thy mouth with good things so
that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Only God's people are oppressed
by their sin. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are oppressed by that labor. A lot of folks laboring, but
few people are heavy laden. Few people are overwhelmed by
their sin. And the Lord's saying here, he
executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses,
his acts unto the children of Israel. I want to know why God
did what he did. Not just that he did it, but
why he did it. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our inequities. I'm glad for
that, aren't you, Robert? I'm so thankful. For as the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that
fear him. As far as the east is from the
West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. East and West never meet. They're
infinitely separated from one another. Like a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his
days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place
thereof shall know it no more. I was visiting with Peggy in
the hospital this morning and we were talking about how life
will go on with just a few days of grieving with our dearest
friends and then life will go on in our departure. It really
will. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto children's children To such as keep his
covenant, how do we keep the covenant of God? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And to those that remember his
commandments, to do them. The Lord hath prepared his throne
in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord,
ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments.
hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord,
all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works
in all places for his dominion or of his dominion. Bless the
Lord. Oh, my soul. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, how we hope and pray
that you would send your Holy Spirit in power, enabling us
to bless you from our very soul. Lord, we don't want to go through
the mechanics of some sort of religious activity. We desire, Lord, that you would
meet with us. that you would speak to our hearts,
that you would comfort us in knowing that our sin has been
put away, separated from us as far as the east is from the west,
and that you remember them no more. Lord, enable us to remember
all your benefits, to enter into spiritual worship according to
the truth of your glorious covenant of grace. your gospel in Christ,
for it's in his name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We're going to sing hymn number 232 from the Hardback Tymnal,
232. This is a hymn I don't think we've done as a congregation
before. And Joy is graciously going to play it, and we're going
to learn it. If you already know it, sing out. Number 232, When
I See the Blood. Christ our Redeemer died on the
cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul
with the blood of the Lamb, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood When I see
the blood When I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over
you Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will save. All he has promised,
that he will do. Wash in the fountain, open for
sin. And I will pass, will pass over
you. When I see the blood When I see
the blood When I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over
you Judgment is coming, all will
be there, each one receiving justly his due. Hide in the saving, sin-cleansing
blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the
blood, When I see the blood, When I see the blood, I will
pass, I will pass over you. Oh, great compassion, oh, boundless
love, oh, loving kindness, faithful and true. Find peace and shelter
under the blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. Please be seated. Aren't you glad the Lord didn't
say, when you see the blood, I don't always see it. He does. He does. 2 Chronicles chapter
20. This chapter has been such a
blessing to me and Sunday we ran out of time. There's so much
more. in this from where we stopped
on Sunday morning, titled this message, The Believer's Walk.
The Believer's Walk. The Lord's given us some instructions
here on what we are to do, which is really nothing, when He tells
us, the battle's not yours, it's God's. So Lord, what do I do? What do I do? You know, he goes
on, look at here. We'll begin in verse 15, and
he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you,
be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude.
You know, the Lord Jesus Christ was never afraid or never dismayed. He was never anxious. Why? He had perfect faith. He had
perfect faith. That's the only reason that we
get disquieted, because we lack faith. By reason of this multitude,
for the battle is not yours, but God's. Oh, Lord, increase
our faith. Tomorrow go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz. And you shall find them at the
end of the brook before the wilderness of Jarul. You shall not need
to fight in this battle. Set yourselves and stand still."
What do we do, Lord? Stand still. But that's not doing
anything. Yep. Stand still. What did the
Lord say in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1? Stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back to Egypt. Don't
go back to Mount Sinai. Stand in Christ. He's the rock on which we're
to plant our feet. He said, you abide in me. And my word abides in you. For as the branch cannot produce
fruit without the vine, so you can't produce fruit unless you
abide in me. Standing in Christ. Standing
is doing nothing, yep. That's what the Lord said. He
said, you don't have to fight this battle. You stand still. Psalm 24 verse 3 says, who shall
stand in his holy place? Who's going to stand in Christ?
And the next verse gives us the answer, He that hath clean hands
and a pure heart, and hath not lifted up his soul to vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully. Now who is it that has clean
hands, a pure heart, has never lifted up his soul to vanity,
and has never spoken a deceitful word? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that can stand
in the presence of God. And now what the Lord is saying
to Jehoshaphat and the children of Judah, stand still. That's what he's saying to us.
The battle's not yours, it's God's. You don't have to fight
this battle. You find that hiding place. Oh,
get to the city of refuge. Stay there. Stay behind the blood. We just sang that, didn't we?
When I see the blood, those children of Israel were instructed by
the Lord to get behind the blood and just stay there. Don't peek
out the window. Don't get curious about what's
going on, what God's doing. You just stay behind the blood. Stand still. Peter put it like
this in 1 Peter chapter 5, I have written briefly He sees concluding
his epistle in 1st Peter. He says, I have written briefly
exhorting and testifying that this is the true gospel of God's
grace wherein you stand. This is the gospel of God's grace.
Christ is that gospel. And now what the Lord's saying
to us is the battle's not yours, it's God's. You will not need
to fight this battle. You stand still. Turn with me
to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. So what
battle are we talking about? All of them. All of them. The battle for your soul. The
spiritual warfare. Weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,
standing still in Christ for our redemption, for our sanctification. The Lord says, it's not your
battle. You stand still. Go down to the
valley and just stand there. Don't do anything. Just stand
there. Look at Ephesians chapter 6 and we'll begin reading at
verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and the power of His might. He's not telling us
to flex our muscles. He's not telling us to grit our
teeth and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. He's telling
us to stand strong in Christ. put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
You understand what the wiles of the devil are? You do, don't
you? I do. I know by experience very
well what the wiles of the devil are. How am I going to resist
him? How am I going to stand firm
when there's such an ominous enemy For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood. The problem is not people, circumstances. It's not what we need. We need
God to give us faith. We need him to enable us to stand
in Christ. Had a dear brother ask me recently
about maybe there's some scriptures that relate specifically to a
particular problem. And I thought about that question
and was able to get back in touch with him and say to him, you
know, if we go to the Bible looking for verses of scripture or sermons
that address a particular problem, then we end up turning the Word
of God into nothing more than a rule book for Christian living.
You don't need instructions on how to deal with a particular
problem. What you need is to be pointed to Christ. You understand that? And I told
him, he understood it in me. He said, yes, you're right. That's
exactly right. Christ is what I need. He's all
I need. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. That's where the battle is. You
know, when we look at our circumstances and think that's the battle,
we're just looking at things that the guy's a flesh. Unbelievers
see those things, don't they? You don't have to be a child
of God to have conflict in this world. Everybody's got conflict. There's plenty of unbelievers
that have a whole lot more conflict than you and I have. That's not where the battle is.
Battle is a spiritual battle. It requires spiritual warfare,
spiritual weapons, and those weapons are faith. That weapon
is Christ. Standing in Christ, getting to Christ, hearing about
the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is. He's already got the victory.
He said, in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good
cheer. I've overcome the world. I've
already overcome it. What do I do, Lord? Stand still.
Look. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand, there's
the word stand again, in the evil day, and having done all,
to stand I suspect that when Paul was
writing Ephesians, he was in a Roman prison, probably chained
to a Roman soldier, and he was looking at the war, at the armament
on this Roman soldier. And he was making an analogy
between that Roman soldier and the spiritual warfare that we
go through. And so he's saying, stand therefore having your loins
girt about with truth. It's this, you can't work, you
can't do anything with this skirt, you've got to have your loins
girded up. With what? With truth! The truth of the
gospel. The truth of who God is, the
truth of who you are, the truth of how it is God is pleased to
save sinners. The truth of the gospel. There's
no standing apart from the truth. If you know the truth, the truth
will make you free. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. stand therefore having your loins
girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness."
Where am I going to get that from? Your vital organs have
to be protected. Your heart, that's where the
best plate is, isn't it? Covers your heart. That Roman
soldier surely had some sort of armor on him. And now the
Lord's saying the breastplate that protects your heart is the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And your feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. These Roman soldiers
had shoes on with spikes in the bottom of them, gave them a firm
footing. And now the Lord is saying, have
your footing so that the preparation of the gospel, you're standing,
everything points back to Christ, you're standing in Christ. above
all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. Everything in this book points
us back to Christ. And now what the Lord is telling
us in second Chronicles, go back with me to our text. You shall
not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves and stand still. In short, look to Christ, look
to Christ. and see the salvation of the
Lord with you. Salvation of the Lord is already
there. Paul Mahan preached a message
up in Lexington on Rahab the harlot and in the text of that
message he said where was the red line that she put out the
window for the spies to escape. Where was that rope? It was in
her house the whole time. It was in her house the whole
time. It was right there. She didn't
know it. That was the token, that red
line. It was a picture of Christ and His shed blood. And now the
Lord is saying, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord
with you. If I'm in Christ and He's in
me, then His salvation's already with me. Oh Lord, give me the
faith to believe that the battle's not mine, it's Yours. Give me
grace to stand in Christ and to see that Your salvation's
already with me. It's already there. Oh Judah
and Jerusalem, fear not. There's the second thing. First
thing is to stand still. The second thing is, fear not. For God has not given us the
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. How many times the Lord has to
remind us, don't be afraid, child. We remind our own children the
same way, don't we? And when they're afraid, what
do they do? What does a small child do when they're afraid? They grab ahold of your neck
so tight that they're not gonna let go for anything, are they?
Why does the Lord stir up troubles for you and for me? Same reason. Same reason. Count it all joy,
my brethren, when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing
that the trying of your faith worketh patience, and when patience
is complete, make you perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.
Oh, child of God, grab ahold of his neck and give him a... Just don't turn loose. That's
what he's saying. Say, Lord, if the battle's not
mine, what do I do? Flee to Christ. the salvation
is with you fear not the Lord had to tell Abraham that in Genesis
chapter 15 fear not Abram for I am thy shield and thine exceeding
great reward Abram you don't have anything to be afraid of
I'm your shield I'm your buckler I'm your protector I'm your high
tower And I am your reward. I'm going to reward you with
the presence of Myself. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall see
Him as He is and be made like Him. Comfort ye one another with
these words. I am your shield. I am your exceeding
great reward. This isn't just the power of
positive thinking speech. This is the Word of God. Lord,
give me faith to believe that. What did the Lord say to the
disciples when they began to understand what he was talking
about when he spoke of his own crucifixion and he said, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God? Oh yes, Lord,
we do. Believe also in me. For in my
Father's house are many dwelling places, many mansions. If it
were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place
for you, so that where I am, there you may be also. The battle's
gonna continue till that day, but it's not our battle. It's
his. He stirred it up. He put us in
it. And he's saying, stand still and fear not. Our Lord told the disciples,
and he says to you and me, don't be afraid of them who can kill
the body. fear not them who are able to
kill your body. That's the worst thing. Hebrews
chapter 12 when the Lord's talking about persecution and troubles
and trials he says you've not yet suffered unto blood. In other
words you haven't yet had your life taken from you. And now
our Lord says fear not them who can kill the body but rather
fear him who has the power to cast both soul and body into
hell. Oh Lord give me, the fear of
God's the beginning of wisdom. Lord give me grace to fear you,
to flee to you, to trust you, to depend upon you. Stand still,
fear not. Look at the rest of this. Nor
be dismayed, tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will
be with you. Faith comes by, what you need
and what I need is more faith. That's what we need. And my hope
and prayer right now is that God's increasing our faith. That he's enabling us to say,
yes, this is the word of God. This is the precious promises
of my God. These are the sure mercies of
David. Lord, I do believe. I do believe
what you're saying to me right here. Help thou mine unbelief. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. So the first thing is stand still. The second thing is fear not.
The third thing is worship God. Worship God. Even when you don't
understand anything of what's going on, worship Him. That Syrophoenician
woman, the disciples didn't want anything to do with her. They
kept trying to push her off. And then she started begging
for mercy from the Lord. And the Lord called her a dog. He called her a dog. She didn't
know what was going on. She couldn't understand what
was happening. What did, how did she respond? Truth Lord and
she worshipped him. So even when, even when the word
from God doesn't seem to be encouraging, doesn't that, you don't, you
don't know what's happening. Go back with me to to verse 12. We have to see this again tonight.
We saw it Sunday. Look at verse 12. O our God,
will you not judge them? For we have no might against
this company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do,
but our eyes are upon thee. We don't have the power. We don't
know what to do. We're confused. The signals are
not, they're not connecting. What am I going to do? Worship
God. Worship Him. Be like that seraphim. He just bowed down to His feet. The Lord seeketh those who worship
Him in spirit and in truth. The Lord said to that woman at
the well, you know not who you worship. We worship God. And it's not where you worship
that's important. whether it be Gerizim or Jerusalem, but
it's rather how you worship. Worship is an attitude of the
heart. We don't have to be here to worship.
We worship God every time we bow our hearts in dependence
upon Him. We are the true circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. That's what worship is. Turn
with me to Colossians chapter 2. We'll begin reading at verse
21. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. That's the worship of man-made
religion. Man-made religion says, well,
you know, you worship God by what you do and don't do. By
what you abstain from and what you participate in, that's worship. Which are all to perish with
the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. That's
all that is. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. What men give you to do. You know this, the only difference
between Judaism and Islam and Catholicism and Hinduism and
Methodism, the only difference, just make the list, all the religions
of the world, the only difference between one and another is what
the list of do's and don'ts are. That's the only difference. The
gospel of God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only religion of the world, if we can call
it that, that stands out peculiar from every other religion. Why? Because it's been done. We don't
look at what we do and don't do as evidence of our worship. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. which are all to perish with the using after the commandments
and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom
and will worship." This man worshipping himself is what he's doing. Man
has set himself up on the throne of God. He believes that he can
do something to obligate God and so he's participating in
this religious activity. to that end. And it has a show
of wisdom. Oh, he looks so pious. He wears
the right clothes, he says the right thing, he carries the right
books, he cuts his hair right, eats the right, abstains from
the right thing. He looks so pious. It's got a
show of wisdom. It's just an outward show is
all it is. Trying to impress men. And humility? Oh, it's got
a great show of humility. And the neglecting of the body,
all those things I don't do. Not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh. The passions of the flesh haven't
changed. His outward behavior is manipulated
in such a way as to impress others and fool himself. God's not fooled.
God still sees the passions of his flesh. Worship God. Turn back with me to our text. Set yourself, stand still, fear
not, worship the Lord. Verse 19, and the Levites of
the children of Kohathites and the children of Korhites stood
up to praise the Lord of Israel with a loud voice on high. Oh,
with the heart man believeth under righteousness and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Speak to the
Lord. Praise him. Pour out your heart
to him. And they rose early in the morning
and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And they went forth
and Jehoshaphat stood and said, here's the fourth thing, hear
me. What I do, Lord, here's what
you do. Stand still, fear not, worship
God, and listen. Jehoshaphat says, I've got a
message from God, hear me. My sheep hear my voice. They
that are of the truth, they hear my voice. They follow after me.
Faith comes by hearing. And hearing comes by... And you know, last week, I think
I mentioned this Sunday, and last week, the Lord just impressed
me with this in a way that I've never seen it before. I always
thought faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word
of God. And it does. We don't separate the written
word from the living word. But hearing comes by the word
of God. The word that was made flesh
and dwelt among us. The one to whom we beheld his
glory. The one who is full of grace
and full of truth. Lord, would you speak to me?
Would you speak to me? I'm in a battle, a spiritual
warfare. I don't know what to do and I
don't have any strength against the enemy. I need a word from
you. I need for you to speak peace
to my heart. The preacher can't speak peace
to my heart. My wife or husband can't speak peace to my heart.
My parents can't speak peace to my heart. Lord, I need you
to speak peace to my heart. the Lord. The scripture says
the seeing eye and the hearing ear are both of the Lord. The Lord enables you to see Him
and to hear His voice because He gave you that. Don't you love
it when the man who sells himself into indentured servitude because
of a debt that he owes and now his seven years are up and he's
about to be delivered from this servitude and It's a picture
of Christ, but it's a picture of all of us. And he says to
his master, he said, I love my master, and I love my wife and
my children, and I don't wanna go out. I'll just be a servant
here with my master until the end. And what's the master do?
Takes him to the door of the house and bores through his ear
with an awl. What's that symbol of? My ear
is tuned to my master. Lord, speak to me. What did Samson
say when Eli told him, Samson heard the voice of the Lord calling
him, and Eli said, you just say, Lord, speak, for thy servant
listeneth. Oh, God, would you give us ears
to hear? Would you give us a desire to
hear your voice? Would you speak to me in my trouble? Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem. And the fifth thing, believe. Now you can look up that word
just like I did. It's the word amen. It's the
word amen. You know, sometimes I'll preach
and people will will respond to what they hear with a lot
of extra information. Yeah, sometimes I think they're
trying to tell me things I left out of my message that, you know,
I should have put in. And I'm thinking, you know, if
God, if I've preached the gospel and God's spoken, you know, the
appropriate response is, Amen. Amen. I'm not, I enjoy fellowshipping
around the things that we preach and I'm not trying to discourage
that, but But you know, we don't. Believe in the Lord your God
and so shall you be. You see that next word, established?
It's the word, it's the same word. Believe, amen. Here's the literal translation.
Amen in the Lord your God and so shall you be, amen. If God speaks, what do we, you
know, that's why when we have a guest preacher, I don't get
up behind the guest preacher and start elaborating on what
he just preached. If he brought a message from
God, we just say, amen, amen. And that's what faith does. Faith
just amens what God says. That's what believing is. So
be it, Lord. So be it. This word is translated other
places in the scriptures. Assurance, established, trust,
steadfast, continuance. The just shall live by faith. And I want you to see this again.
Believe in the Lord your God. How often times we see that in
the scriptures? The Lord your God or the Lord God. You know what that is. The Lord,
L-O-R-D, every time you see it in capital letters in the scriptures,
it's Jehovah. That's the name that God gave
to Moses at the burning bush when he said, whom shall I say
sent me? Tell them that I am sent you.
Yahweh, they translate it Jehovah. It's his covenant name. it's
his covenant name I am that I am I have established a covenant
of grace I've chosen a particular people I've slain the lamb before
the foundation the world and this covenant that I've entered
into with my son and with my spirit is the hope and confidence
that you have that I'm willing to save you I'm not willing to
save you based on anything I see in you the covenant name of God
encourages us to know that he's willing to save because he's
established a covenant. What did David say? Although
my house be not so with God. And it wasn't and neither is
yours and neither is mine. Our homes with our children and
our spouses are the tabernacle of this flesh. It's not as it
ought to be. Yet He has made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, this is all my salvation,
this is all my desire. All of that is in L-O-R-D. He's willing to save because
of His covenant mercies. And then God is the word Elohim. And it's a reference to His power
in the beginning God created. Believe in the Lord your God
because He's willing to save and He's able to save. He's able
to save. The greatest demonstration of
God's power was not the creation of the world and the universe
as we see it. The greatest demonstration of
His power was when He put away our sins and saved us on Calvary's
cross. That's the greatest demonstration
of the power of God and the greatest experience that you and I can
possibly have when it comes to the power of God is our own salvation.
It's our own salvation. We don't need the power of God
to change our circumstances. We need the power of God to save
ourselves. Give us faith. Believe, believe on the Lord,
thy God. So shall you be established. Believe his prophets. Now try
the spirits and see whether they be of God. John makes that clear.
Not everybody that stands up and preaches from this book is
one of God's prophets. Just as an interesting side note,
if you go to the end of chapter 20, and then compare what Jehoshaphat
does at the end of chapter 20 to what he did in chapter 18.
In chapter 18, Jehoshaphat got in league with Ahab. Now Ahab
was the king of Israel, the northern kingdom, which had already gone
apostate. Judah, the southern kingdom, where Jehoshaphat was,
was faithful to the worship of Jehovah. But Jehoshaphat, in
his foolishness, thought, we can reunite the two kingdoms.
and so he went into league with Ahab in battle against the Syrians
and Ahab lost his life and God spared Jehoshaphat and now there's
a new king over Israel and at the end of chapter 20 Jehoshaphat
gets in league with him again with the king of Israel and says
let's build ships together so that we can get involved in business
together and you go through the scriptures the ships is a picture
of the church and what this is a picture of josh if that thinks
well you know Israel there there the people of God to so let's
get in business with them in preaching the gospel throughout
the world and look what happens look what happens I'm at the
end of chapter Then Eliezer, the son of Dodabah,
verse 37, of Mereshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying,
Because thou hast joined thyself with Asiyah, the Lord hath broken
thy works, and the ships were broken, and they were not able
to go to Tarshish. Josh Fatt thought, well, you
know, we've got enough in common with the Israelites to where
we can get in this together. And God broke up his ships. Nothing
happened out of it. Believing on the Lord is to believe
His prophets. So shall you prosper. Now, I desperately want you to,
not in a suspicious spirit, but in a genuine spirit of faith,
to search the scriptures to see if what I say is true. We're
going to stick right here with the Word of God, and if it's
true, truth recommends itself immediately to the believer's
heart. So you know if a man's speaking the truth or not. And
what's God saying? Believe God's prophets, so shall
you prosper. Because they're just telling
you what I've already said. That's all they're doing. That's
all they're doing. And when he had consulted with
the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise
the beauty of his holiness as they went out before the army
and to say, praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. Well, for the sake of time, let's
skip over to verse 30. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was
quiet. That's what I want. That's what
I want for you, and that's what I want for me. And I can't promise
you that your circumstances are going to become quiet. Matter of fact, I pretty much
assure you they probably never will. Oh, you may have moments
of peace and, you know, thank God for him. If you're not going
through a trial right now, just brace yourself because one's
coming. That's not the, that's not the quiet spirit we're talking
about. This is the peace of God that
passes understanding. This is the spiritual quiet that
enables us to stand and to fear not and to worship and to hear
and to believe. Jehoshaphat was quiet. Why? Did Jehoshaphat work on being
quiet? For his God gave him rest. Roundabout. That's what you need,
isn't it? That's what I need. We need to
labor to enter into His rest. To rest in Christ. To trust Christ. To hear His Word. To stop trying. to believe Him, to know that
the battle's not yours, it's God's, to stand still, to hear
the Word of God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we don't even understand the depths of the battles that we
fight, that we're engaged in. Lord, we pray that that you would
increase our faith. We pray that you would enable
us to stand, to believe, to hear, to trust Christ, to wait upon
the Lord. We know that our faith Faith in which we walk by is
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, where it is from faith to faith. And so, Lord, we pray that you
would give us rest. Pray that you would increase
our faith. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 175 in the hardback Tim.
Now let's let's stand together. Standing on the promises of Christ
my king Through eternal ages let his praises ring Glory in
the highest I will shout and sing Standing on the promises
of God Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit's call, Resting
in my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God Now, now.