the revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by an
angel unto his servant John who bear record of the word of God
and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that
he saw. Blessed is he that readeth And
they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand." Tom, we're going to open with
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. Father of all, we bow to Thee,
who dwells in heaven adored, but present still through all
Thy works, the Universal Lord. forever hallowed be thy name
by all beneath the skies and may thy kingdom still advance
till grace to glory rise A grateful homage may we yield, with hearts
resigned to thee, and as in heaven thy will is done, on earth so
let it be. From day to day we humbly own
the hand that feeds us still. Give us our bread and teach to
rest contented in thy will. Our sin before Thee we confess,
O may they be forgiven! As we to others mercy show, we
mercy beg from heaven. Still let thy grace our life
direct From evil guard our way, And in temptation's fatal path
Permit us not to stray. For thine the power, the kingdom
thine, all glory is due to thee. Thine from eternity they were,
and thine shall ever be. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
be reading from Colossians chapter 1. And we're going to start at
verse 15. This is a difficult passage to
use as a scripture reading because it's so much in it, so much. Verse 15 is talking about our
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, firstborn
of every creation. He's the God that we see. He's
the visible God that we will always see, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the firstborn of every creature. He's preeminent, basically, that's
what that means. For in Him, all things created
that are for Him were all things created that are in heaven and
that are on earth. So He has created everything,
the Lord Jesus Christ has. Not only the physical things
that we see, but in heaven as well, all created by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all were created by him. He's
the creator, sustainable. And for him, it's all about the
Lord Jesus Christ. All creation and all our salvation
is all about the Lord Jesus Christ and his glory. It's not about
us. It's about him. Verse 17 says, and he is before
all things, before all things being preeminent, meaning the
most important thing. He's before all things, of course
he's before all things as well, because he's the creator. He
was before all things because all things were created by him.
But he's more important. And by him all things consist. He did not create it and leave
it alone. You know, science always, they actually catch up with the
scriptures. Scientists discover the earth was round, but the
scriptures talked about that in the past. And they talk about
the rain falling and the way the rain goes down and up. That's in scripture as well.
And then finally, the scientists in the 20th century, the physicists,
were astounded when they found that there's no such thing as
solid matter. There's no such thing as anything
that lives by itself. They know there is an intelligent
creator that's actively keeping everything together. They know
that. They were astonished by it. But it's in the scriptures,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He creates everything and He
maintains everything. Everything is dependent on the
Lord Jesus Christ, even the creation. So by him, all things consist. And he is the head of the body. This is the church. This is us. He's our head. And the church
who is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, the first one that
was resurrected. And we were resurrected in Him.
Everything that He did, He did in our stead. We were very much
resurrected in the Lord Jesus Christ. That in all things He
might have preeminence. The purpose of all this. What
is it? That the Lord Jesus have preeminence. It's all about the
Lord Jesus Christ and His glory. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all the fullness dwell. This is the will of the
Father that the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified and that all be
in him, that all dwell. And have he made peace through
the blood of his cross. This is peace between the believers,
the elect, and God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
peace, and he accomplished this through the blood of Christ,
through the blood of the cross by him, to reconcile all things
unto himself by him. He's the reconciler, the Lord
Jesus Christ is. I say whether there are things
in the earth or in heaven, and you were sometime alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet he hath Reconciled. The Lord Jesus Christ has reconciled
us. And we were in those wicked works
and we were enemies of the Lord. That's how we were born. That's
how everyone is born. And only by his grace does he
show us that we were in that condition. In the body of his
flesh, true death to present you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. Can you imagine anything that's
not real in the sight of the Father? We cannot. Whatever this
fallacy is, as it is. And that's how we are in Christ,
even though we see ourselves in the flesh. We see our flesh,
we see our sin, but he sees us in Christ. He sees that new man
that he has created us. He created us, the new birth.
He sees us how? Holy, unblameable, unapprovable,
and this is all in Christ. Now, all this is the security
of the believer, isn't it? That's what we look to, what
he has done and what Christ has done. And yet the believer sometimes
doesn't doubt that Christ is able to do all this. Sometimes
we doubt, are we among those that he favors? And that's what
the last verse talks about. How do we know? Because he keeps
us, like Brother Greg was speaking about. And having made, last
verse, verse 23, and if we continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and not moved away from the hope of the gospel. which you have
heard and was preached and to every creature in which is under
the heaven where I Paul made a minister. So how do we know
we, as we continue on faith, if we continue looking to Christ
and, and, and if the Lord keeps us, that's how we know that we
am on him. Let us pray. Father God, we come
before you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all,
to thank you, Father, for such a privilege to be shown the Lord
Jesus Christ, Father, and we pray that you continue to show
us who the Lord Jesus Christ is, what he did, and what's the
significance of what he has done in our behalf, Father. We pray
for all the other churches as well as this one, Father, that
preaches the gospel. We thank you that we're able
to be here and listen to the gospel. We pray for your Holy
Spirit to assist us both, the hearer and the speaker, Father. We pray that you utilize Brother
Greg to magnify Christ. We ask for your Holy Spirit to
open our eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ and his glory, what
he has done for us, Father. And we pray this in his name.
Amen. Let's all stand once again. We'll
sing hymn number 112 from your soft-backed hymnal. We'll repeat
the last line in each verse twice. Number 112. Holy Father, God of love, send
your spirit from above. Your servant anoint this hour
with a holy heavenly power, with a holy heavenly power. As our pastor preaches grace,
cause your power to fill this place. While he points us to
the sun, Holy Spirit, make him known. Holy Spirit, make him
known. Leave, O leave us not alone,
Make your mighty presence known, To awake the dead in sin, And
revive the souls of men, And revive the souls of men. Make the word which you inspire,
burn within our hearts like fire. With that hammer of God's throne,
break these plenty hearts of stone. Break these plenty hearts
of stone. Please be seated. Brie Wachey
is going to bring some special music now. Oh Lord my God When I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the
stars I hear the rolling thunder Thy path throughout the universe
displayed Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great
Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountains grander And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul,
my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art And when I think that God His
Son not sparing Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in That
on the cross, my burden gladly bearing He bled and died to take
away my sin Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great
Thou art How great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Saviour God,
to Thee How great Thou art ? How great Thou art ? When Christ
shall come ? With shout of acclamation ? And take me home ? What joy
shall fill my heart ? Then I shall bow In humble adoration And there
proclaim My God, how great Thou art Then sings my soul My Savior
God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art Then sings
my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great
Thou art Thank you, Bree. 2 Chronicles chapter 20 is our
text this morning. 2 Chronicles chapter 20. I've titled this message, The
Battle is Not Yours, But God's. You'll find those words in verse
15 at the very end of verse 15. The battle is not yours but God's. Now you and I were in our father
Adam When he raised his fist in rebellion against God, disobeying
the command of God, and subsequently experiencing spiritual death,
we died in him. There is a God with whom we must
do. There is a God that demands justice
for our sin. There's a God that demands perfect
righteousness in order for us to be accepted in His presence.
We come into this world spiritually dead, at enmity with God, and
God says to you and me, the battle is not yours, but God's. I'm so thankful for that. The
Lord told the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 40, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably
unto Jerusalem and cry unto her and tell her that her warfare
is accomplished. and that her iniquity is pardoned,
and that she has received of the Lord double for her sins. The battle is not yours, but
God's. Yes, we stand guilty before God,
left to ourselves. Yes, we are fully responsible
for our sin. The problem is, there's nothing
we can do about it. Nothing we can do about it. God's
got to fix it. He's got to be the one to do
it. We cannot redeem ourselves. We cannot put ourselves into
the covenant of grace. We cannot elect ourselves. We cannot choose God. We cannot
sanctify ourselves. The battle is not yours, but
God's. Now man by nature knows that
there is a God. You're right, Hugo. Even the
scientists know that there is a God. There's got to be a God
behind all of this. And man by nature will do whatever
he thinks will please that God in order to reconcile himself
with God. And here's what God says to you
and me, the battle is not yours, but God's. That's what the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world to do. Tell them that their warfare
is accomplished. The enmity that we had with God
was reconciled through the offering of the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ once for all. So we are sanctified in Him. We are set apart in Him. Tell
them that their iniquity is pardoned. All of the attempts, that's what
iniquity is. Iniquity is not the things that
we're shamed of. Iniquity is the things that we try to do
in order to reconcile ourselves to God. It's our good works,
or what we perceive to be good works, what God calls dead works. And tell them that their iniquity
is pardoned. The best thing you and I have
ever done, God's got to forgive us for it in order for us to
be reconciled to Him. The battle is not yours. Tell
them they've received double blessing from the Lord's hand. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
right hand of God. Tell them they've received double
blessings from him. He's taken away their iniquity
and he's imputed to them a righteousness that they could never have had
on their own. He stands before God in their
stead, and presents himself before God Almighty on their behalf,
and makes them accepted in the Beloved. Now there's comfort! Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people!
speaking comfortably to them, speak to their hearts, cry unto
them. The battle is not yours, but
God's. He had to fight the battle for
us. What great, what great hope we have in that. Now, when we come into this world,
as I've already said, we are spiritually dead, In the natural
man, the old man, the man that is born of the flesh, he's nothing
but flesh. Can't ever be anything but flesh. And when the Lord is pleased
to save a dead sinner, He gives them a new nature. That new nature
cannot be made more holy. It's perfect in Christ. We stand in Christ before God
perfect as he is so we where he that sanctified and they that
are sanctified are all is one we are found in him not having
our own righteousness but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ that's the new man the new man is perfectly
holy before God the old man nothing's made holy about him now Some
have concluded that therefore we live a schizophrenic life.
We live, well, you know, the flesh can just indulge itself
in whatever it wants to do because it's dead anyway and it's going
to die and go back, return back to the dust. And the new man
is perfectly redeemed in Christ and he's perfectly holy. And
so where do these two natures meet? That's my question. Because the truth is that we're
not schizophrenic. And we don't justify our sin
by the fact that the old man is nothing but dead and he's
nothing but sin. Where do these two natures come
together? We're one person. I'm one person. You're one person. You live with
these two natures, the spirit warring against the flesh and
the flesh against the spirit. We're talking about a battle.
The Lord says the battle is not yours, but God's. The battle
that the Lord Jesus Christ won for us on Calvary's cross was
the battle for our redemption. And that's been settled. But
now in this world, you and I are experiencing a spiritual battle.
If you've got two natures, you're experiencing a spiritual battle.
You're one person. You're not two people. Where do these two natures come
together? They come together at the point where God has given
you a gift of grace, but that gift is not yet been made perfect.
It's not yet been made perfect. It's love and it's faith. That's where the two natures
come together. Love and faith. You remember when the Lord spoke
with Peter after the resurrection, and asked him three times, Peter,
lovest thou me? And Peter said, yea, Lord, I
love you. Anybody can do this. Just go
to the original language and you'll find that the Lord said
to Peter, Peter, agapest thou me? Do you love me with God's
love? And Peter responded by saying,
Lord, I phileo you. I love you like a brother. My
love is not like your love. And so the second time the Lord
said, Peter, agape thou me? And Peter said, Lord, I phileo
you. And the third time the Lord said, Peter, phileo thou me? And Peter said, Lord, you know
I phileo you. Now, some have taken that passage
of scripture and said, well, you know, the Lord was admonishing
Peter to love him. No, the Lord was saying to Peter
and saying to you and me, you can't love me the way I love
you. You can't do it. We do love Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. But our love for Him is a phileo
love. It's a brotherly love. It's a
human love. It can't be experienced like
the fullness of God's love for us. It's influenced by our old
man. We can't enter into the kind...
And so here, what we the the believers growth in grace the
battle that we fight the Lord says your battle is not yours
it's God's what is the battle to love him more how we'll love
him more only as he reveals more of his love to us as he reveals
more of his love to us we are brought to love him more the
battle that you experience at the point to where your old man
and new man come together is the battle of love. And the battle's
not yours. It's God's. He's going to have
to express more of his love to you in order for you to be able
to respond in love to him. Now, the second place in which
these two natures come together, this battle that we're experiencing
in this life, believers know what we're talking about here
between these two natures. And I'm so thankful that the
older shall serve the younger. The old nature, that old man
keeps driving the new man back to Christ. And that's the way
the Lord has designed it. But here's the next struggle.
The next struggle has to do with this thing called faith. Faith
is a gift of God, and at the new birth, God gives us faith
to cast all our care upon Him. We trust the Lord Jesus Christ
for all our righteousness. We believe that the only way
that we can be justified in the presence of God is through the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. His shed
blood is the only satisfactory covering for our sin before God.
We know that. That's what faith does. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things
not seen. And yet our faith is imperfect.
It's imperfect. And the battle that we experience... Our... You see, we interpret
our battles as the circumstances of our life. You know, if I just
had a, if I had a more caring spouse, I wouldn't have the struggles
in my home that I have. If my children would just live
right, I wouldn't have, if, if I had a better boss, if I didn't
have this illness, if I didn't have this problem, then I wouldn't
have these battles. That's not the point of contention. The point of contention is our
unbelief. There is a sin which doth so
easily beset us all. It's the sin of unbelief. And
it's the cause of all of our conflicts. You see, if we had
perfect faith, our circumstances wouldn't be bothering us like
they do. We wouldn't know where they come from. We would be able
to rest completely in believing that all things work together
for good for them that love God and those who are called according
to His purpose. And we would be able to rejoice in everything
and be thankful for all things at all times. We do in the little
bit of faith that we have. But our faith is not complete,
is it? In Mark chapter 9, a father brought
his child to the disciples that had, the scripture says, a dumb
spirit that would cast this child into the fire or into the water
or try to destroy the child. It was an evil spirit in this
child. The child was possessed. And
the disciples couldn't do anything. And so the father brought the
child to the Lord and said, I brought my child to your disciples and
they couldn't do anything. And here's what the Lord said
to the disciples. Oh, you faithless generation. How long am I going
to be with you? You see, it was their unbelief
that kept them from being able to cast out the demon. So the
Lord asked the father, he said, how long has your child been
this way? Since he was born. He's been this way all his life.
We struggle with this every day. Lord, if, this is what the father
said, Lord, if you could have compassion on us, please help
us. And the Lord looked at this father
and said, if you can believe, all things are possible to them
who believe. And the Father, the scripture
says, cried with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Now that's your experience, isn't
it? That's my experience. That's where these two natures
come together. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord,
I want to have more faith. The thing that you and I need
is more faith. The disciples asked the Lord
one time. They said, Lord, increase our
faith. Increase our faith. Lord, that's
my struggle. That's my battle. And here's
what God says. The battle is not yours. It's
God's. We're completely dependent upon
Him to give us more faith. Here's where we struggle. Here's our conflict. And it's
the source of every trouble we have. Every problem we have in
this life. It's not the circumstance. It's
the faith. And the Lord is going to stir
up more trouble in order to get us to cry out. Asking for more
faith is like asking for more patience. It's a dangerous thing. The Lord's going to give you
some things that are going to require faith. The battle is not yours. It's God's. It's God's. That's our hope. Now, I want to quickly begin at the
beginning of this chapter and show you the story that's behind
this promise from God. The battle is not yours, but
God's. The battle for your salvation
is not yours, it's God's. And the Lord Jesus Christ won
that battle. He defeated Satan. He destroyed
the works of the devil. He redeemed all those he came
to redeem. He satisfied all the demands
of all God's righteousness and put away all the sins of all
God's people once and for all by the sacrifice of himself.
The battle's not yours, it's God's. And he got the victory
in that battle. The battle that you're experiencing
right now between your old man and your new man is your need
for more faith. And it's not your battle, it's
God's. It's God's. Lord, increase my
faith. Increase my love. Here's where
these two natures come together. Now Jehoshaphat was the king
of Judah, the southern kingdom. He was a good king. He was a
pious man. He believed God and he led the
people of Judah to worship God. And the scripture says that the
Ammonites and the Moabites gathered together to attack Judah. This little tiny southern kingdom
of Judah. They had an army, but it wasn't
much. And Jehoshaphat was the commander in chief, but he knew
he couldn't go up against the Ammonites and the Moabites. Here's
the enemy. And this isn't a picture of your
physical enemies. Maybe you've got somebody that
really doesn't like you. Maybe you've got a conflict in this
world with somebody that you consider to be at enmity with. But that's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about spiritual enemies here. This is the spiritual
struggle that we all have. The spiritual struggle with our
own flesh. The spiritual struggle with our own unbelief. The spiritual
struggle with our own lack of love towards God. The coldness
of our own hearts. The spiritual struggle that we
have. Though we walk in the flesh, our warfare is not with carnal
things. We looked at that last week.
Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." They're spiritual. They're spiritual. There's a
devil that's real. There's a world that's contrary
to things of God. This is a spiritual struggle. Don't interpret your enemies
as something physical. Your biggest enemy is your lack
of faith. That's my biggest enemy. Lord,
I just, I need to believe. Lord, I'm crying with tears. Lord, I do believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. So now, it came to pass after
this that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and
with them beside the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle. And there came some that told
Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee
from beyond the sea on this side of Syria, and behold, they be
in Hazon Tamar, which is in En Gedi." Now, you can look at those
words up on a map, and you'll see that those towns were in
Judah. In other words, the enemy was
already at the door of Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat didn't know it
until they were already there. Isn't that the way we are? That's the reason the Lord said
to not give provision for the flesh. He knew, he knows how
deceitful, how cunning our spiritual enemies are and how quickly they
can get to our very door without even being perceived. How easily
deceived we can be by our spiritual enemies. How subtle and how secret are
the enemies of our soul? How often sin lieth at the door
before we are even aware of it? That's my experience. Is that yours? Is this your battle? The battle's not yours. It's
God's. The Lord has given us this story
in order to show us how much like Jehoshaphat we are. And Jehoshaphat feared and set
himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout
all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves
together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of
Judah, they came to seek the Lord. Now, Jehoshaphat was the
commander-in-chief of the army of Judah. They had an army. But
before he mustered his soldiers, before he amassed his army, the
scripture says he feared and set himself to seek the Lord. Oh, Lord, would you give me that
grace? How oftentimes we try to fight
our battles by ourselves, don't we? We try to fix our own problems. I can fix that. And nine times
out of ten, they get worse, don't they? Here's a principle. That which begins in prayer will
end in praise. What do we use prayer for? Last
resort, don't we? Well, you know, there's nothing
left to do now than pray. We've done everything we can
do. Oh, if we could be like Jehoshaphat and realize the battle's not
ours, it's God's, and we need to first go to Him in prayer. Lord, this is a battle I can't
fight. I can't resist my own flesh. I can't defeat Satan. I can't
change my circumstances. I can't fix my children. And
the Lord says, the battle's not yours, it's God's. What is the acknowledgement on
our part that we believe that the battle is God's? Prayer. Prayer. That's the acknowledgement,
isn't it? Cast all your care upon Him. For he careth for you." The battle's
not yours. The battle that's waging between
your old man and new man is not yours. You can't defeat that
old man. You can't hold him down. It's
not yours. It's God's. When Jehoshaphat found out that
the enemy was at his very door, The scripture says, fear gripped
his heart and he sought the Lord. The fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. And Jehoshaphat stood in the
congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before
the new court. Now you know that this house, this tabernacle,
every part of it represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Every part
of it. The single door, the Ark of the
Covenant, the sacrificial lambs, everything about it. We could
go into all the details. It's not necessary. The spiritual
meaning of this is that Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel turned
to Christ. They turned to Christ. They went
to the tabernacle. Believing the promises that God
had made, that when you get in trouble, you come to this tabernacle. Isn't that what the Lord has
told us to do? Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
your faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the
cross and despised the shame, and is sat down right now at
the right hand of God. You have a trouble with sin,
you have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous
one, come boldly to the throne of grace to seek mercy and grace
to help in your time of need. Do you have a need? Flee to Christ. Flee to Him. He's your only hope.
And what glorious hope He is. and all other efforts that we
put forth to try to fix our problems are futile. The problem is just
going to increase, don't they? Here's what we need. The battle's
not yours. It's God's. Verse 6, and he said, O Lord
God of our fathers, art not thou God in the heavens, and rulest
not thou over all the kingdoms in the heavens? And in thine
hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand
thee? Plead the sovereignty of God. Plead the sovereignty of God.
Believe that he's able. You're not. Lord, I can do nothing. Unless
the branch abides in the vine, it can bear no fruit. Plead the sovereignty of God.
The nations of the world are a drop in the bucket before God. He hath done whatsoever He wills
with the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth.
And no man can stay his hand, and no man can say unto him,
what doest thou? His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. That's what Jehoshaphat's saying.
Lord, you're God. This battle, Lord, you're gonna
have to fight this battle for me. And that's what he's saying. The battle's not yours. It's
God's. And what a glorious commander
we've got to fight our battles. He's able. That's what Jehoshaphat
is saying. He turns towards the temple and
he confesses that his God is able to defeat all his enemies. Every single one of them. Do
you believe that? That's called faith. And you
need more of it, don't you? Art not thou our God, verse 7,
who hast driven out the inhabitants of this land before thy people
Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for
ever? Who is the seed of Abraham? Galatians
tells us. Not seeds, but seed, speaking
of Christ. Now what Jehoshaphat is doing
is he's not only pleading the sovereignty of God, but he's
pleading the covenant of grace. He's saying, Lord, we're your
people. You established a covenant in the seed of Abraham before
time ever began. And the hope that we have that
you're going to intercede and fight this battle for us is that
you've committed yourself in the covenant of grace to do so.
That's our hope. So we're not pleading our righteousness,
we're not even pleading our pain and suffering. We're not coming
before God and saying, God, I'm hurting so much, can't you help
me? We're pleading His sovereignty and His grace. Lord, you are
able to because you are omnipotent and you are willing because you've
committed yourself in the covenant of grace according to the seed
of Abraham and your ability and your willingness is the hope
that I have that you're going to intervene for me. The battle's
not yours. It's God's. Plead his sovereignty
and plead his grace. It's what moves his heart. It's
what moves his heart. And they dwell therein, verse
8, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name's sake.
Lord, we built this sanctuary. We're holding up Christ. That's
all we know to do, is to look to Christ. And as the serpent
was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. And if any man will look to Him, He'll live. He'll live. Lord, that's all we can do. I mentioned this Wednesday night,
you know, the children of Israel are being bitten by poisonous
snakes. And you know, in that way we
are, we spend all our time trying to kill the snakes. Stomping
out snakes. Fighting the snakes on the ground.
The Lord said, forget those. Look to the one on the pole.
He said, but they're all around me. Look to the one on the pole. Look to Christ. The battle's
not yours. It's God's. But that's going
to take faith. Yep. God increased my faith. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Lord, we built this tabernacle. And you've promised. Look what
he says in the next verse. Verse 9, If when evil cometh
upon us, as the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we
stand before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name
is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then
thou wilt hear and help. That's God's promise. You know
what faith is? Believing the promises of God.
That's all it is. God, you promised to save me.
You promised to deliver me. You promised to help me. The
only hope that I have is that you are faithful to your promise. Lord, I can't plead my faithfulness. I can't plead my goodness. I
can't plead my sincerity. The battle is not yours, it's
God's. Lord, give me more faith. That's
what I need. I need to believe you. And now behold, the children
of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel
invade, or do you... When the children of Israel coming
through the wilderness, they had an opportunity to wipe out
the Ammonites and the Moabites, and God didn't let them do it. Why didn't God just go ahead
and defeat all your enemies the moment He saved you? Why did
He leave that old man? Why didn't He just make you perfect
and everything? He could have. He could have. And He could be
protecting you right now from every enemy. And Jehoshaphat
says, Lord, we didn't kill them then because You wouldn't let
us. And now they're repaying us with
this attack. The same thing. You see the picture?
There's a reason why God didn't make you perfect when He saved
you. There's a reason why your faith is not perfect. There's
a reason why your love is not perfect. There's a reason why
the old man is still there. It's to cause you to cry, to
beg for mercy, to ask God to help you. Don't believe for a
moment what men say. God won't put more on you than
you can bear. That's a lie from the pit of
hell. If God never puts more on you than you can bear, you'll
never need him. You'll never need him. You better hope he
puts more on you than you can bear. And I'm not talking about
just your circumstances. Those are going to pass. Your real problem is the same
as my real problem. Every problem in our life will
ultimately be solved with money or time. Every problem. You can solve every single circumstance
of your life with time or money. Time's going to solve everything
one day. You're going to take your last breath and you're not
going to have any more of these earthly problems. There's one problem in life that
time nor money can solve. And that's the real problem.
God puts that burden on you. he calls you to see something
about your sin then you'll be crying for mercy just like me
want you all Lord save me save me the battles not yours it's
gods you can't put your sin away you can save yourself you can
defeat same the battles not yours it's gods But they turned, look at the
last part of verse 10, but they turned from them and destroyed
them not. Behold, I say how they reward
us to come to cast out of thy possession which thou has given
us to inherit. If you're a child of God, here's
your greatest fear. Lord, I'm about to be overwhelmed and I'm losing sight of you. And I fear that I've been deceived
all my life. I know my own heart and the deceitfulness
of it. And how wicked it is. And I fear
that I've deceived myself. And that these enemies are going
to take away the possession that you promised to me. The possession of your salvation.
So what does faith do? Faith keeps you believing to
the end. Lord, give me more faith. Lord, don't let these spiritual
enemies rob me of my salvation. Increase my faith. That's what
I need. O our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what
to do. Have you confessed your total
inability to God? Lord, I've got no power against
this enemy. Stop trying. The battle's not
yours. It's God's. Lord, I don't know
what to do. All I can do is turn my eyes
toward Thee. Isn't that what Josaphat says?
Look, look what he says. This enemy that's coming against
us, we don't know what to do. all we can do is turn our eyes
upon thee." And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little
ones and their wives and their children. Then upon Jehaziel,
the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jael,
the son of Matanah, a Levite. Now, you know, that's five generations
and there's very few occasions in the scriptures where the name
of a person is given and it's traced back five generations.
God's put a lot of emphasis on this Levite. His name is Jehaziel. His name means beheld of God. He's gonna preach the gospel
to them. And no doubt, as the Ethiopian
said, when Philip asked him, do you understand what you're
reading? And the Ethiopian said, how can I unless a man should
guide me? No doubt God raises up preachers, like Jehaziel,
to preach the gospel. But that's not the primary objective
here. Be held of God. This is a Levite. This was a
priest. This is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, God's preachers can talk all they want,
but unless God Himself speaks to your heart, you haven't heard
a thing. You've got to be taught of God.
You've got to hear His voice, not my voice, not some other
preacher's voice. You've got to hear God's voice. Somebody said a week or two ago,
made the comment, the preacher was preaching right at me. And an unbeliever said that. And
a believer who'd been praying for this man said, that was God
speaking. If you heard that preacher preaching
right at you, that was God speaking. That wasn't a preacher. That's
what we need, don't we? Oh Lord, speak to me. or give
me faith faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word
of God and that has to do with this word and it has to do with
the living word the Lord Jesus Christ hearing comes by him they
shall hear my voice and they shall follow me and he said verse
15 Harken ye all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem and
thou King Jehoshaphat Thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid
nor dismayed by reason of this great company, for the battle
is not yours, but God's." Listen to what David said when
he went up against Goliath. in first Samuel chapter 17 and
all this assembly that David speaking to Goliath and all this
assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not by sword nor
by spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into
our hands. Now have you ever thought about
this? I never had till this week. David said God's not going to defeat the
enemy with sword and spear. What exactly was the weapon that
David used to kill Goliath? It was a rock. It was a rock, wasn't it? That
rock that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness
from which flowed rivers of living water. the rock of ages, the
rock the scripture says that is higher than us, the rock upon
which we are to plant our feet. That's faith. Faith is looking
to the rock. David said, God's not going to
defeat his enemy with sword and spear, not by might nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord. Don't be afraid. The battle's
not yours. It's God's. It's God's. And that rock is able. He's able. Lord. Increase. Our faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father. We confess to you, Lord, that
our faith is so weak. Where? We're so ashamed of how,
how hard it is for us to believe you. Lord, even that battle cannot
be ours. We pray that you would take the
message of the gospel, speak to our hearts, but we ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. Number one 28 in the soft back
Tim. Now let's stand together. Behold the Son, our surety, into
his hands our souls were given. With God our Father he agreed
to bring us safely home to heaven. Behold the Lamb of God dying,
he gave his life for his elect. Yes, Jesus bought us with His
blood, His ransomed ones He will protect. Behold the Son of God
reigning as King upon the throne above, all things given into
His hands to save the people of His love. Behold the man upon
the throne Who rules in heaven, earth, and hell That man is Christ,
our Savior God His throne should all our fears dispel Behold our
Advocate on high, He wears our names upon His heart. He will not charge His own with
sin, Nor let us from His love depart. Look, look to Christ,
to Christ alone, Trust not the works that you have done, His
blood and righteousness alone secure your place before His
throne.