May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the second
book of the Chronicles, chapter 20, and reading verse 20. The second book of the Chronicles,
chapter 20, and 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. the emphasis that Jehoshaphat
was putting to the people from Judah and Jerusalem as they'd
gone out to meet the enemy was that they should indeed trust
in the Lord they should trust the words of his prophets and
how important it is for us today If we are indeed to believe in
the Lord, it is really to trust in the Lord, is it not? And how
necessary for us to come to our God with that humble confidence
that we are approaching unto the great God. It was so clear
that as Jehoshaphat came and prayed to the Lord how he came
in faith, he had a great need. We may have great needs. We would
have great needs. Sometimes we don't realize just
how big they are. But Jehoshaphat came and he prayed
and he commenced by saying, O Lord, God of our fathers, art not thou
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." It's
a good definition of the greatness of our God. And we should be
concerned that we have a similar view. We come to this great God
trusting that he will hear and answer our prayers. And again,
you see, Jehoshaphat comes and he asks this question, are not
thou our God? who didst drive out the inhabitants
of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the
seed of Abraham thy friend forever." What he's really doing is remembering
the deliverances that God had wrought for his people, had brought
about. He's therefore confirming this
to his God in prayer, and desiring therefore that the Lord would
indeed come and be with him now. And he says, and now behold,
there's a new situation. And now behold, the children
of Ammon and Moab and the Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not
let Israel invade. As they'd come out of Egypt,
the Lord wouldn't allow them to invade these nations. And now they'd risen up against
them. And Jehoshaphat says, Behold,
I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession,
which thou has given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we have no might against
this great company. They cometh against us, neither
know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. Well, May it be
so in our case. May our eyes be upon our God. By the grace of God, Jehoshaphat
had that confidence in his God. And he was able therefore to
pray lightly, seeking that the Lord would indeed be gracious
to them, would hear their prayers. They got a great problem. He
didn't kind of come and say, well, now everybody come together
and this is the way we're about to fight and what we're to do.
He came and committed his way unto the Lord. What a good example
that is for us today. To come and to commit our way
unto the Lord. You see, we might try and fight
the battle ourselves. Well, if Judah and Jerusalem had tried
to fight this battle themselves, no doubt they would have failed
because the enemy was so great, but the Lord heard. And the Lord answered the prayers
of Jehoshaphat. And today we still come to the
Lord who does hear and answer prayer. And we ever remember
we have the same God. We haven't got come to a God,
we don't come to a God who changes. The Lord God does not change. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. We have the same
God today, the very same God that appeared for Jehoshaphat
and the people in his day. The same God that's appeared
for all his saints down through the ages, and that same God who
still appears for his people today. Well, the great blessing
is that the Lord gives us faith to believe, gives us a living
faith to trust in the Lord. He says, Jehoshaphat came to
the Lord in prayer. He did believe that he was praying
to the God who heard and answered prayer. There wasn't really any
doubt in his mind that he was approaching to this God who had
delivered them and therefore he trusted that he would deliver
them. And so we have a great testimony
of the Word of God, don't we? right from Genesis to Revelation.
The Word of God which is so full of wonderful accounts, to realise
that there is a God in heaven who hears and answers prayer.
There's so much evidence of all those things recorded actually
did happen and were true. There's no fallacy in the Word
of God. And so may we be strengthened
in our souls as we now walk upon the earth with perhaps temptations and
difficulties, perhaps not quite in the same way, of course, as
Jehoshaphat, but nonetheless, there will be those difficulties
and there may be mountains. We may have to say, like Jehoshaphat,
neither know we what to do. But don't forget, he didn't stop
there. He didn't stop there. And he
said, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And really that's the great secret,
isn't it? That our eyes should be upon
our God. Well, it's quite wonderful to
realize that when Jehoshaphat had prayed this prayer, that
then there came upon Jahaziel, who was able to prophesy wonderful
truths. And he decided that Judah and
all the inhabitants of Jerusalem would listen, and the king, because
he was going to tell them what the Lord said. 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. Well,
how true. My friends, may we realize that
today. The battle that you and I fight, perhaps, They may be
comparatively little battles, but to realize that if God is
on our side, indeed they're God's battles. And we can believe,
therefore, there will be a good outcome. And so, Jahaziel was
able to instruct Judah what to do. And he tells them, Ye shall
not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you." Well, that was
a very different position, no doubt, than they expected. But
Jehoshaphat believed the word of the Lord. And sometimes the
Lord may instruct us in a very different way to what we expect.
and there was this battle to fight and here they were being
told to stand still they wouldn't need to fight how was there going
to be any victory? how were they going to succeed
in this battle? well the great blessing was that
they were favoured with faith to believe the words that the
Lord spoke through the prophet and unto Jehoshaphat. And we're told, 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. What a blessed place that is,
isn't it? To be found bowing down, they
committed their way unto the Lord, They'd sought His help,
they'd sought His blessing, they'd sought His direction, and now,
having been told of this prophecy, what did they do? Did they say,
well, that's not possible, that won't come to pass, and we're
not going to believe that. No, they bowed their head to
the ground and worshipped the Lord. It's a good thing, you
know, to be blessed with living faith, to believe the Lord, you
know, laughs at impossibilities and says it shall be done. And
so here was, as we might say, a natural impossibility. But
remember the things which are impossible with men are possible
with God. So if you have things in your
life which you may think to be impossible, how can it come to
pass? Have faith in God. The Lord can
work wondrously. How many times in the word of
God has there been an account where the Lord has worked wonderfully
and brought about tremendous deliverances and made ways of
escape and has performed miracles so that his name might be honored
and glorified. And so having bowed down, We
then read, and the Levites, and the children of the Karathites,
and the children of the Korhites stood up to praise the Lord God
of Israel with a loud voice on high. God is worthy to be praised. Here they were, anticipating
the victory. They'd prayed in faith. They'd
been told they would be the victory. They didn't have an evil heart
of unbelief. They believed what had been told
them. They trusted in God. And therefore they came and they
stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on
high. Well, that is that which leads
up to these words here we have before us this evening. and they
rose early in the morning yes there was something to be done
there was something to be observed something to be seen and therefore
they rose up early in the morning they went forth into the wilderness
of Tikalah and as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said hear
me O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem And this is what
he said. Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall he be established. Believe his prophets, so shall
he prosper. Well, they were good words, weren't
they? And how true it was that as they
did believe and trust in the Lord, so they were established
and and so they did prosper. Indeed God was with them and
Jehoshaphat was really reminding them of the need to be blessed
with this true faith to believe in the Lord their God and to
believe the prophets those things that had been told them who were
instruments in the hand of Almighty God. They were not to doubt those
things which had been told them. Now, one of the great, great
difficulties that the Church of God have today is to be amongst
those who doubt the Word of God. You know, the devil is very active. He always has been. And he uses
the same philosophy that he did in the Garden of Eden to cause
God's people to doubt his great and glorious words. We're thankful
to have an account like this, where the people did not doubt.
They did believe the word of God. They did believe the prophets
and they were established and they did prosper. Well may the Lord grant each
of us that faith to put our trust in our God. They remember they committed
their way unto the Lord their God. They hadn't just expected
things to happen, they prayed about it. Jehoshaphat had prayed
about it. He'd reminded the Lord of His
promises. Perhaps it is so in your life.
The Lord may have given us a promise, given you a promise, and there
doesn't seem to be any fulfilment. You wonder where the scene will
end. Well sometimes the Lord brings
us into situations so that we have to remind our God. And that's
not in a wrong way. We have to come and say, Lord,
thou didst say, or thou hast said, and this is what I'm relying
upon, and I desire to go in the strength of the Lord God, and
make mention of thy righteousness and of thine only. What a good
place that was, wasn't it? Not to be dependent upon their
own strength or their own righteousness, but to rely upon the Lord God. That's just what these people
did in this day and age. And let us remember, there was
a great company against them. It wasn't just a theory, it was
a reality. There was a great company against
them. Naturally it seemed impossible they would gain any victory.
Perhaps sometimes in our lives it may seem impossible that things
could change, that things could turn out for good. Everything
seems against us. Well, the Lord knows what he
will do. And be sure of this, as it was
here, the faith of Jehoshaphat and the people was being tested. Were they to trust in their own
strength, Were they to trust in their own skill of bringing
about a solution? Or were they to trust and believe
in their God? Well, they were blessed with
that faith to believe and to trust in the Lord God. And so may you and I today be
blessed with that faith to believe in the Lord our God and realize
how wonderful it is to come into that situation and to believe. You know, when Israel came out
of Egypt, they believed in the great and glorious truths that
had been set before them, which they had promised and they were
indeed relying upon. And we read in the 14th of Exodus,
and Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians
and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his
servant Moses. You know, if the Lord has been
gracious to us, if the Lord has done something for us, does that not give us that confidence
to believe in God? to believe his word and the line
of the hymn which says he who has helped us hitherto will help
us all our journey through and give us daily cause to raise
new ebenezers to his praise well israel saw that great work which
the lord had done i wonder tonight if you and i have seen any great
work that the Lord has done. It may not be the same situation
obviously as it was here, but in our little lives perhaps there's
been a mountain. Perhaps the mountain's been moved
out of the way. We couldn't do it, we couldn't
move it, but God has moved it. And what
was the effect on Israel? The effect was that they feared
the Lord and believed the Lord. What a wonderful outcome then,
wasn't there? It wasn't just a question of coming out of Egypt. It brought blessings to them
so that they feared the Lord and believed the Lord. So perhaps
there may have been perhaps not a great mountain, perhaps a small
mountain, and it may have stood in the way, and didn't seem any
way to get it out of the way, and yet to think the Lord came
and was gracious to us and blessed us. And then perhaps you remember
the case of Jonah. Well, Jonah was a man of God,
and what we're told as I'm sure you're familiar with, that Jonah
came the second time. The Word of the Lord came the
second time when he'd been delivered from the wild, and the Lord told
him, arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto
it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto
Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord. Nineveh was an exceeding
great city of three days journey and Jonah began to enter into
the city a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days
and Nineveh shall be overthrown. What was the result? So the people of Nineveh believed
God and proclaimed the fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest
of them even unto the least of them. For word came unto the
king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid
his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in
ashes." Well, they believed the word of the Lord. They were a
very wicked people. But they heard the word of the
Lord and they believed the word of the Lord. And the Lord came
and delivered them and blessed them and did not bring those
judgments upon them that they had feared. And those things
which Jonah had said would come upon them. Yes, they repented
and they believed the word of God. Well, here we see God graciously
encouraging these people and Jehoshaphat was able to encourage
them to believe in the Lord your God, so shall he be established,
believe his prophets, so shall he prosper. There's no doubt
really, the Lord gives us that living faith to believe what
God has said. Well we see this in a natural
way, don't we? A wonderful deliverance. But
of course there are those spiritual scenes in our lives, aren't there?
When we need God to come and to deliver us. The devil comes
and tells us, well, there's no hope really for you. In fact,
your sins are just too great. In fact, you've sinned against
light and knowledge. fact you disobeyed the word of
God, you turned your back upon God and there's no hope for you. And there's the devil standing
as that great adversary, pointing out all our failures, all our
shortcomings. How are we to make any headway? How are we to gain any victory? How is the to be any relief? How is it to be any blessing?
How are we to receive any forgiveness? Well, the devil would endeavour
to make us try and just amend our ways and to improve ourselves,
nothing wrong in that of course, but there's no salvation just
in that. But here Jehoshaphat was blessed
with living faith to come unto his God. And so what a blessing
would be for you and me if we come simply believing in the
Lord our God. What was the situation with that
jailor at Philippi? He was in a terrible state, wasn't
he? He was the jailer. He woke up
to find the prison doors open. He was just about to take his
own life, he was so desperate. The Apostle Paul was able to
tell him not to do it. He was able to declare the truth
of God. So he came in. and desire to
know what he must do to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. My friends, if we're so, as it
were, overcome by our failures, by our sinfulness, not knowing
what to do, how we can escape, Let us be found looking to the
Savior and remembering the great truth, however bad we are, the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, the devil can't gainsay
that. He knows it's true. My friends,
may you and I have faith to also know it's true. and therefore
to come like this and to believe in the Lord our God. Believe the truths of the word
of God. Believe those wonderful promise. He that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. What does that mean? It's you
and I blessed with faith to do that. What are we doing? We're
trusting in the Lord. We're trusting in Him. And you
see, blessed with that faith, the truth is that if we believe
in the Lord, so we shall be established. Established in our faith. Established
in our Christian faith. Established to know that the
Lord is with us. The Lord has directed us to that only way
of salvation. And instead of being ready to
give up, ready to throw everything overboard, to forget all about
religion, the Lord has directed us to himself. And as we see the great salvation,
which the Lord Jesus brought about through his death upon
that cross, establishing it is. We are then established in our
faith. It's what God has done for us. As we receive that faith to trust
in him, believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. Surely we do want to be established,
don't we? You know, we have an instance
in the Word of God where those who, in actual fact, were not
established. We don't want to be amongst those
who are not established. And that's recorded in the prophecy
of Isaiah, where Isaiah tells us, and the head of Ephraim is
Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remeliah's son. If ye will
not believe, surely ye shall not be established." Well, what
a blessing, isn't it? If God gives us that grace to
believe so that we are established. And how comforting that is to
our soul. We may have been in that place
of a doubting castle, And there we were, in that place and not
able to free ourselves. But what a blessing if the Lord
comes and gives us that grace to believe in himself. No help
in self, I find. You often sort it well, how easily
we do seek it ourselves, but to be able to look out of ourselves
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Realizing that it's not what
we have done, but it's what He has done. And we therefore rely
on His work. It's a complete work. It's a
finished work, isn't it? How wonderful those words at
Calvary. When the Lord Jesus completed that, which His Father
gave Him to do, and He was able to declare the loud voice It
is finished. Yes, the work was done. Well, can we then believe in
the Lord, our God? But that work was done on our
behalf. So that the enemy, the great
enemy of Satan is destroyed. Yes, the Lord did it. The Lord
destroyed the devil. The Lord brought those truths
into our heart, gave us grace to believe, and the battle was
fought on our behalf. Yes, we couldn't fight the battle.
The Lord fought the battle for us, and he conquered. What a
conqueror we have. Now, what was the result? The
people praised their God, and it's very wonderful to realize
that here as they believed in the Lord their God, they also
believed there would be deliverance. They didn't pray and not believe. They believed. And may you and I pray and believe,
because there was then that deliverance. And when he had consulted with
the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should
praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army
and to say, praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. It's
a wonderful phrase, isn't it? So familiar, many times in the
word of God. Praise the Lord for his mercy
endureth forever. And when they began to sing, Do we have reason tonight to
praise the Lord? We do. If God has given us faith
to believe in the Lord our God, we have reason to praise Him
tonight. And so, here they were, when they began to sing to praise
the Lord, deliverance began. Deliverance began. and what a
wonderful deliverance it was. The enemy defeated themselves
and when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness
they looked unto the multitude and behold there were dead bodies
fallen to the earth and none escaped. When the Lord my friends
brings the confirmation of victory into our souls as we view the
great and glorious finished work of the Savior, and realize that
there's my hope. It's not in myself, it's in what
Christ has done. What do we see? We see the devil
is defeated. Yes, he cannot stand. He cannot
stand against the evidence of the shed blood of the Savior.
He hates the subject. He endeavored to turn us away
from it. But if God gives us faith to look to the Savior and
to believe in the completion of that work on our behalf, oh,
what reason there is then that we might praise and bless our
God so we might indeed then be amongst those who believe the
prophets, believe his servants, so shall he prosper. indeed prosper
in the things of God what a blessing it is if we're found prospering
indeed in the things of God in an earlier chapter in this
second book of the chronicles we read therefore he said unto
Judah let us build these cities and make about them walls and
towers gates and bars while the land is yet before us because
We have sought the Lord our God. We have sought him and he has
given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered. What did Jehoshaphat do? He sought
the Lord. There was a problem. He sought the Lord. The Lord
came. The Lord granted a great victory.
So my friends in our time of need, in our spiritual time of
need, when it all seems black and our sins mount up as mountains
before us. And especially if we realise
we've only got ourselves to blame. It's more painful, isn't it? Well, what a favour it is when
we're given grace to seek the Lord. Oh, to seek the Lord. That's what these people did
indeed. They sought the Lord. And he's
given us rest on every side. Yes, every side he gave to Judah. And then again, we read similar
words to that in the 26th chapter. And he sought God. This is Isaiah. And he sought God in the days
of Zechariah. who had understanding in the
visions of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made
him to prosper." These are very clear words of encouragement
for us, aren't they? To be found seeking the Lord,
to be found believing in our God, in the Lord, hearing his
prophets, and the result is clear. Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall ye be established. Believe his prophet, so shall
ye prosper. And prosper in the things of
God really means to grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, there's so much is there
not to encourage our souls, so much to believe in the great
and glorious gospel in all that it contains, especially relative
to the gracious and glorious life of our Saviour. And to know
that today He lives. He lives forevermore. We don't
come to an aging Saviour. We come to the Saviour who tells
us He is the same yesterday and today and forever. The same Saviour
that delivered Judah, in this time, with that great and glorious
deliverance, giving them so much reason to praise their God. Have we any less reason today?
As we journey on, as we fight the many battles against the
devil and all his army? It's a great army. Don't underestimate
the army of the devil. But let us remember, our strength
is in the Lord our God. Our hope is in Him. And so may we be granted that
favour to hear these words tonight, these gracious words of Jehoshaphat. We can imagine, can't we, the
people going out to battle. They've been told what would
happen. and he encourages them to believe these things. To the
natural mind, it may have seemed difficult. Sometimes these things
seem difficult to our natural mind. How can the Lord deliver
me in this way? How can there be relief? How
can there be blessing? Well, Joshua that stood. He saw
the people coming out as they went forth into Tekoa, and he
came and reminded them and said, Hear me, listen. Oh, Judah and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God,
so shall he be established. Believe his prophets, so shall
he prosper. Well may we all know the great
and glorious grace of God poured into our hearts that we might
be blessed with like precious faith to believe in the Lord
our God to be established and to believe his prophets so that
we may prosper in the things of God. Amen.