As you may please, Almighty God,
to bless us together this morning, I will speak to you from the
second book of the Chronicles, chapter 20, and verse 20. So the second book of the Chronicles,
chapter 20, and reading verse 20. And they rose early in the
morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they
went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and
ye inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall ye be established. Believe his prophets, so shall
ye prosper. We should be thankful that God
in his great love and mercy has seen fit to record the details
of this period and the account especially with regards to Jehoshaphat
and his nation in the time when they were besieged by the enemy. And we see how they acted. We see how they prayed. We see
the result of those prayers. And we see how God was honored
and glorified and really gives us a pattern to follow in our
lives today. As we live in the world, we may
not necessarily have physical enemies, although sometimes we
do indeed. We do have spiritual enemies
and we should recognize that we have a God still today who
works powerfully and a God who does still today hear and answer
prayer. We should never forget therefore
that God has given us such an example to follow and not to
just pass it over. No doubt it is relatively familiar
to us. I hope it is. It's a well-known
account. But the details are very wonderful.
And to realise how the Lord appeared for Israel. They didn't deserve
it. And we don't deserve God to appear for us. But God did
here. and answer their prayer. And
we can believe that God still today hears and answers our prayers. So we're told that Jehoshaphat
feared. We may fear. We may fear. We have made things in our lives.
We may have mountains ahead and we may fear. Well, Jehoshaphat
feared. And what did Jehoshaphat do when
he feared? He set himself to seek the Lord
and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. He wanted all the
people to recognize the relevance and the seriousness of this situation
and to realize that there was a God who they could come to
and a God who would hear and answer prayer. And so, we're
told, Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of
Judah, they came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in
the congregation of Judah before the new court and said, and then
we have his prayer to God. And what a blessing it is as
we have such a prayer. It's not a long prayer. There
are some long prayers in the Word of God. But this is not
a long prayer, but it's a very direct prayer. And we just need
to realise that. That when we come to God, God
knows what we need, He knows our situation. And we don't have
to wander all round, we can just be very direct as Jehoshaphat
was in this situation. And he says, O Lord, God of our
fathers, art thou not God in heaven? And rulest not thou over
all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not
power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art
not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land
before thy people Israel, and gavest it to thy seed, Abraham
thy friend for ever? And I do think it's important
that when we do approach unto God in prayer, We have the pattern
in this account. There's other prayers when Solomon
prayed and David prayed and Ezra prayed, which you'll find that
they addressed God and addressed him in a way to clearly indicate
that they believed they were coming to the great God, the
almighty God. And it's good for us today to
approach God in exactly the same way. And it is God honoring,
and it's good for us to encourage ourselves, therefore, that we
do come to this great and holy God, a God who can hear, a God
who does hear, and a God who can answer, and a God who does
answer. And therefore, it's good then
to follow the pattern he explains their situation he tells them
he tells God the problem that he has the enemy that's come
against them that enemy which they were told not to invade
and not to fight against when they were in the wilderness and
he says now behold I say how they reward us to come to cast
us out of thy possession which thou has given us to inherit
Oh, 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, but our eyes are upon thee. Well, that is a wonderful
example for us. We may be in a quandary in various
things in our lives. We may not know what to do, but
may we come in a similar way and to tell our God, we don't
know what to do, Lord. but our eyes are upon Thee and
we have a God who does look upon us and a God who does hear and
so we should remember that when we are in these situations to
come to God honestly and rightly and in faith believing that we
do have a God who hears and answers prayer and then I think it's
very Very good to read. This wasn't just a select number
of people. We're told and all Judah, all
the people stood before the Lord and their little ones and their
wives and their children. It means what it says. It means
and the children and the babes and the little ones. They were
all there standing before God. We should realise that times
like this, times of prayer are not just for a favoured few.
They are for everyone to come and pray, everyone to come before
God. They had a need. We have needs
in our day and age. We should not forget to come
before our God. in that same way in faith and
just like these people did and then just follow on the little
account then there was this prophet Jahaziel he was raised up by God and he
was moved by God to prophesy what would happen And it's really
very amazing to think that here was an ordinary man used by God
to prophesy and tell them what would happen. And what would
happen? He says, hearken, all Judah and
ye inhabitants of Jerusalem. He tells them, thus saith the
Lord unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this
great multitude. For the battle is not yours,
but God's. How true that is in our little
lives to realize that we may think perhaps the battle's there,
we've got to fight the battle. We remember if God is for us,
who can be against us? That may be in a natural way,
it may be in a spiritual way. Because the devil goes about
as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He might try and
frighten us away. Let us not forget that we have
a God, an almighty God, who rules and reigns. And that should be
our consolation. And that should be our strength.
And that should be our support, to remember the battle is not
ours, it's God's. It's God's. Yes, what a great
God we have. And then Jayazil tells them what
will happen. And it's quite amazing to realise. He tells them where they're going
to come and then he says, Isha, not need to fight in this battle.
Sit yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the
Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not,
nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. Now he'd said that they wouldn't
need to fight in the battle, but nonetheless they were to
go out. Nonetheless, they were to go
towards the enemy. It weren't just to sit at home
and just fold their arms and not do anything. They were to
follow the directions that Jahaziel gave them under the blessed influence
of God. And we should again take those
details to heart today, because so easy it is just to sit still
and do nothing. Well, these people didn't sit
still, but God was with them. And what a blessing that is to
know that God is with us. And we're told of what happened. Jehoshaphat bowed his head with
his face to the ground and all Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord. It's a great blessing to have
a spirit of worship. You see, God is to be honoured.
God is to be glorified. God is to be worshipped. And
that is so to take place through and by His people. These people,
they heard what the Prophet spoke to them. And they desire to obey
it and they worship the Lord. They bow down before their God. My friends, these are wonderful
examples for us to realize. And so we're then told the Levites,
the children of the Kohathites, the children of the Kohathites
stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on
high. Yeah, it wasn't just a whisper,
it was a loud voice. They wanted to praise God with
a loud voice. And that's good for us, again,
to take on board, isn't it? That we should come and praise
God, very often, for His mercy, for His favours. Surely we all
have much to thank God for, but we often fail to praise God. And often we fail to praise God
with a loud voice. These words are written for our
direction, for our instruction. And they stood up to praise the
Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And then we see
how they followed the pattern. And we come to our text, and
they rose early in the morning. They didn't dilly-dally. They weren't lazy. They didn't
say, well, we need a bit longer in bed this morning. No, they
got up early. There was work to be done. Perhaps it wasn't work that they
might have expected to do, but it was work to be done. And they
went forth therefore into the wilderness of Tikawa. You know,
it wasn't kind of walking in a nice pleasant level road, it
was in the wilderness. And sometimes we have to go into
difficult places, difficult situations. But you see, if we go, in the
strength of the Lord we can believe it will be well but the Lord
doesn't allow us very often to just have an easy path they had
to go into the wilderness into the wilderness but then you see
as they went forward what happened? Jehoshaphat stood and said hear
me O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem They were told to
listen. This is what he said. This is
so relevant for us today and every day of our lives. He says
this. Believe in the Lord your God. Believe in the Lord your God. That's an instruction for all
of us. Believe in the Lord your God.
And what's the result? So shall you be established. And just running on again, he
says, believe his prophets, those who preach, so shall you prosper. So the great need is for God
to give us grace to come and to believe. And I know, of course,
the temptation is Well, of course, we can't do that ourselves. We're
not able to believe, you know, we just can't do that. And we can easily get into an
attitude like that. It's really an attitude of unbelief
and it's not commendable. And we ought to, if we're fearful
about that, that we can't believe, we should remember the account
we have in the Gospel of Mark where there was a dumb spirit
cast out and the man, the father came to Jesus and he was asked
and they brought unto him and when he saw him straightway the
spirit tear him and it fell on the ground and wallowed foaming
and he asked his father how long is it ago since this came unto
him and he said of a child and oft times he hath cast him into
the fire and into the waters to destroy him but if thou canst
do anything have compassion on us and help us Jesus said unto
him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that
believeth. So we see here the Lord's very
clearly directing this man to the needs to believe and what's
his response? It's interesting the response
and it should be an encouragement to all of us. And straightway
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. What does that mean? Well it
means this I believe, he wanted to believe and he didn't want
to possess the evil heart of unbelief. He didn't want that.
And therefore he comes in this way, in these words, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Don't leave me to an unbelieving
condition. The trouble is, we have a great
adversary, the devil, that wants you and me to never believe the
truth of God. He wants us to disbelieve. He
doesn't want us to lay hold of the great and glorious truths
contained in the Word of God. But what a blessing it will be
if you and I have faith, God-given faith, to come like this. You see, this man came like this. And what a blessing it is to
come and to... He cried out, this man cried
out, he cried out With tears, obviously, it was a big issue
with him. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. And so when we read a statement
like this, that Jehoshaphat came and stood and said, hear me,
O Judah, and he inhabited Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God.
Well, what a blessing in our little lives. Therefore, if we
hear such a command to believe in the Lord your God. It's very
serious really, because unless we believe in the Lord our God,
as our God, as that One who brings salvation, as that One who we
believe brings us salvation, then we shall not be saved. then
we shall not be amongst those who are loved with everlasting
love. It is so necessary that you and I do believe and as Jehoshaphat
tells, so shall ye be established. Established in the truth, established
in the things of God. What a mercy therefore if God
gives us His grace the unmerited favor of God to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, as the Apostle Paul tells us, to save sinners
of whom I am chief. Now, the Apostle Paul, he was
a man like you and I, no different. But he was able to declare the
great truth and say, I know whom I have believed. My friends,
what a blessing it is when God comes to you and me and gives
us that faith to be able to say humbly, and it will be, but truthfully,
and it will be, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. and to be blessed with this wonderful
favour to be established in the truth of God, established in
the promises of God. You see, we have the Word of
God. What a blessing it is for you
and me. to have the Word of God there are billions in the world
who do not have the Word of God who've never read the Word of
God and you and I have read it read it perhaps many times perhaps
read this account many times perhaps passed over it perhaps it's never touched our
hearts perhaps we've never been given
faith to believe But what a blessing if God comes and gives us that
faith to believe, so that the devil can't overrule us. You see, he'll beat your elbow,
And remember the solemn account with Adam and Eve in the very
beginning of the history of the world when the devil came to
Adam and Eve and brought into their hearts the evil heart of
unbelief. God had told them what they could
do and what they could not do. It was very clear, and we know
they knew, Because Eve reiterated what God had said, word for word.
So she knew what she should do, and yet she didn't believe that
great and glorious truth. My friends, it's a very, very
solemn account. And we should recognize it. And
here we have a very blessed account on the other side. and we see
the people did believe what a mercy it was and what a blessing it
was and how God honoured that belief and how he brought honour
and glory to himself and it's good to realise that their faith
to believe was demonstrated in their actions demonstrated in their actions
It's good, isn't it, when God gives us grace to demonstrate
our belief. And so what happened was. And when he had consulted with
the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise
the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and
to say, praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever. And when
they began to sing and praise the Lord set ambushments against
the children of Ammon. What a good thing it is, isn't
it? You know, praise is comely to our God. He is worthy of our
praise. He is worthy of our thanksgiving.
And if the Lord has touched our hearts and caused us to blessedly
believe and established us in the truth of God, We have great cause to praise the Lord for his mercy
endureth forever. Well, it's a phrase which is
often used in the Word of God. And I hope it's used in our life
from our hearts in words that we are able to speak forth. Praise the Lord,
for His mercy endureth forever. What a blessing, therefore, if
we hear such words as, Hear me, O Judah and ye inhabitants of
Jerusalem. He didn't want to just speak
and the people not listen and not hear. He wanted them to hear
and therefore he tells them very clearly. He didn't just stand
up and start speaking. He stood and he said, Hear me,
O Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And you see, we are
blessed as a people to be able to come and hear the word of
God, read the word of God and hear the word of God proclaimed.
What a mercy it is. And what a blessing it is. And
we should not forget the wonderful privilege it is that God has
given to you and me in this day and age in which we live. What
great cause we have to thank God and to praise Him. And again,
let us note the order. When they began to praise the
Lord, they praised the Lord in gracious anticipation that He
had heard and would deliver them. Yes, they believed. They didn't
have the evidence of what was going to happen and sometimes
you and I want all the evidences lined up. The people here were
given faith to believe. Faith to believe and they therefore
were able to believe and therefore praise the Lord for His mercy
endured forever. Yes, and it was said again with
a loud voice, a loud voice. It wasn't just mumbled so that
other people didn't hear. It was there for people to hear,
for people to observe. And surely such testimonies bring
honour and glory to our God. And my friends, if God has blessed
you and me with faith to believe in the Lord God, What a mercy,
what a mercy, what a blessing, what a favour. And let us be
quite clear, every one of us, every one of us must believe,
must believe, must believe. Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Wonderful, isn't it? Again, to
have the pattern of Scripture set before us and in the Gospel
of Mark, the very first chapter in the Gospel of Mark and the
first verses, really. And we're told in the first chapter,
verse 14, Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came
into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying,
The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent
ye and believe the gospel. It's the very first words recorded
by the Saviour. What wonderful, straightforward
words they are. Repent and believe the gospel. My friends, it was a great word
in those days. It's a great word today. And
all of us need grace to do just that. That means to repent of
all our sins. Repent of all the wrong things
we've said and done. Everything small and great in
our little mind to come and to repent and then to believe the
gospel, and the gospel of course is the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world to save sinners, he came to die on their behalf
to pay the price required to ransom their souls that was the
gospel, to believe the gospel you see the Lord says in just
a very few words, six words repent ye and believe the gospel. A wonderful statement. How many
people today shy away from it? They shy away from it. They don't
understand the whole Word of God. They don't understand, perhaps,
the words that are already quoted farther on in this same Gospel
of Mark with regard to that man. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. But you see, there is no excuse
No excuse. What a blessing then today, if
God comes and touches our hearts and gives us that faith to come
and to believe. And so he tells us here, hear
me, O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the
Lord your God. So shall ye be established. Believe his prophets. So shall
ye prosper. Believe the prophets, believe
the preachers, those who are called by God to preach everlasting
gospel. My friends, if the word comes
rightly, we are to believe it and not turn away from it as
something irrelevant. It is important And here it was
here in this state was important for them, wasn't it? They had
a great issue before them. The enemy was there. And my friends,
the enemy of our souls is there trying to turn us away from God,
ready to pounce upon us, ready to destroy us if he can. Don't think that the devil's
asleep. The devil never goes to sleep.
My friends, he'll try and get us onto his ground right to the
last breath of our life. The devil never gives up. But
the great and wonderful blessing is that we have a God who is
greater than the devil and a God who has given us gracious words
to believe in the Lord, your God. Isn't that humbling? Isn't
that humbling? It wasn't the unknown God. It
wasn't like the Athenians when Paul was in Athens. Here is the
Word of God. Believe in the Lord, your God. How do you come to God in prayer?
Do you come to God believing that by His grace, He is your
God? He is the God you want, the God
you desire to worship. These people, they worshipped,
didn't they? We read about it. They fell down
and worshipped. You see, the result of God's
blessing enabling us to believe is that we're established and
we worship God. We bow down before Him, humbled
that He has looked upon us, humbled He hasn't passed us by. Humbled
that He's given us faith to believe and humbled because
He's established us in the truth. What a great mercy that is. What a great blessing it is. Now these words, my friends,
were written many, many years ago. but they're appropriate
for us today as they were then. And what a blessing therefore
if the Lord touches our hearts so that we can come and begin
to sing. And to praise the Lord God. Yes. And what happened? Well,
as you know, in this account, that was a great deliverance,
wasn't that? That which had been prophesied. So we're told to
believe the prophets. They believed Jayazil. Jayazil
stood up and told them they wouldn't need to fight in this battle. And God was there with them. And they didn't need to fight
in the battle. A most amazing account, isn't
it? And that can be so in our little
lives today sometimes. You may have difficulties in
your life. I don't know. There may be battles. You may be fearful
that you're not able to fight the battle. Well, just remember
such an account as this. because the Lord can appear and
destroy the enemy, destroy the devil. So he isn't able to slay
you as he would desire. You might remember in that account
in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, there was the account when Pilgrim
met Apollyon, the devil, and Apollyon attacked him and the
Christian slipped over and his sword flew out of his hands. And of course the sword is, in
the spiritual term is the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. Well, we're told that Christian stretched out his hand,
was able to grasp his sword and to thrust at the devil upon him
so that he went away. My friends, that's the same truth
today. You and I have the word of God. It might have slipped
out of your hand, You may have forgotten about
it, perhaps. Stretch out your hand. Pick it up. Open it. Read it. Find there the truth
of God to direct you to the great and glorious way of salvation. You may think you're lost. You may think there's no hope. Open the Word of God. You'll
find there many, many examples of those who were encouraged,
those who were strengthened, those who were blessed, as the
Word of God came into their hearts and was made a blessing. My friends,
the Lord knows exactly where we are, and He knows exactly
what we need. And the Lord can come and apply
His Word and direct us. to the great and wonderful plan
of salvation. The devil doesn't want you to
think about the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension,
the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't want
you to. But what a blessing when the Lord enables you to, as we
read in the Hebrews in the 12th chapter, to consider Him. Consider Him. It's a good thing
if you are cast down. If you're ready to perish, believe
the great truths of God. Consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Realize that he came into this
world to save your soul. Yes, your God. Your God. Specifically, to save every true
believer. What a wonderful truth that is. And what did he do? Never underestimate
the cost of your and my salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, the second
person in the Trinity, almighty God, the creator of all things,
gave his human life in order to take away our sins and cleanse
us from all iniquity and to realise that great and glorious truth
that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. You and I are washed
in the blood of the Lamb, there's no stain left, there's no sin
left. I'm clean, just God, I'm clean. Believe in the Lord your God,
that God who came, into this world to save our souls. Wretched,
undone. These people, they'd walk contrary
to God. But you see, God had mercy upon
them. God is still merciful today. He still looks upon us. He shows
us what we are. Brings us to a place where no
help in self I've found. No help in yourself. What a great
truth it is to be able to look out of ourselves to the Saviour
and to believe in the Lord our God. So shall he be established. Believe his prophets. So shall
he prosper. Prosper in the things of God. What does that mean? I believe
it means this. To grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. That won't occur. unless we've
been given that grace to believe. Because we'll be coming to an
unknown God. But if we come to our God, to
believe that He is able and that He is willing to do for us far
more exceedingly abundantly, we can ask or even think, our
God is merciful. He was on this occasion. What
a wonderful blessing it was. The Lord heard their cry. A simple prayer, wasn't it? As
I said at the beginning, it wasn't a long prayer, but you know what
it was? An effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man. And what a blessing for you and
me today, if God gives us the effectual, fervent prayer of
a righteous man. Many prayers, I have to say,
are ineffectual, because they're not fervent, and they don't come
with faith. They're just mere words. What
a blessing when God comes and gives us a spirit of prevailing
prayer. And we have that spirit of prevailing
prayer when we come in prayer to God, believing we're coming
to that prayer, hearing and prayer, answering God. And therefore
to realise this great truth, believe in the Lord your God,
so shall ye be established. Doubt no more. Believe His prophets, so shall
ye prosper. Well, it's a very simple account,
isn't it, this 20th chapter? It's a very beautiful account,
as I said when we read it together. Meditate upon it, take it home,
ponder it, and realise, amazing though it
is, we come to the same God today, who we know is the same yesterday
and today and forever. He is able, He is willing, doubt
no more.