Thank you, Sally and John. Back
to 2 Chronicles 20 now. What a beautiful, wonderful story
this is. Familiar. We've looked at it
together a few times. God's people. Judah, the remnant. This is not all Israel, this
is Judah. You notice that? Remnant. Israel, as you know, in the Old
Testament, represents professing believers everywhere. But Judah
was the tribe, wasn't it? That was the chosen people. That's
who Christ came from, Judah. A remnant, according to the election
of grace. The religious world is not in
trouble like God's people. They don't have troubles. Everything's
happy. Is everybody happy? Say amen. God's people are not
always happy. We've got lots of troubles, don't
we? Judah was surrounded. And this
is a great message. It was a great foe the people
faced. They were surrounded. They had
a great fear. They were all greatly afraid,
including Jehoshaphat the king. David one time, remember he said,
what time I'm afraid, I'll trust in the Lord. David was afraid. He had many enemies, constant,
constant enemies surrounded him. That's the reason he wrote so
many songs, deliver me from my enemies. They're great, they're
many, they're powerful. I'm no match for them. Great
fear. And this is a great message.
Behold a great salvation. And it ends up with great joy.
Great joy. Verses 12 and 13 are what made
me want to bring this some time ago when I was faced with problems
that I didn't know what to do. And I read this, and it would
be good to read this often. Jehoshaphat ends his prayer by
saying in verse 12, O our God, wilt thou not judge them or deal
with them? We have no might against this
great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do. Our eyes are upon thee. O God,
we don't know what to do. Our eyes are upon you. Verses 1 through 3 tell us that
they were surrounded by enemies from everywhere. Moab and Ammonites,
as many of you know, those are the descendants of Lot and people
they were related to. God's people are surrounded by
enemies, though man's enemies may be those of
his own household. Neighbors and friends. Our Lord
said, in the world You have tribulation. Why? Because you're not of the
world. That's what Christ said. If you
were of the world, the world would love you. But you're not
of the world. Therefore, the world hates you. In the world,
you have tribulation. So we have nothing. God's people
are not up. We're passing through. So we
have troubles with the world and things in the world. And
then there's wars and troubles within us, aren't there? James
said, where do these wars come from? Come they not from your
own lust, which war against you? And Peter said, dearly beloved,
I beseech you that you abstain from fleshly lust, which war
against the soul. So we have enemies without. The
world is not our friend. The world is our enemy. And I
mean, I'm talking about the things of the world as much as the people
of the world. And all God's people struggle with the world, they
struggle with the flesh. All God's people have a constant
battle fighting these things to keep from being overcome by
them. Right? If there's no battle,
if there's no struggle, you're not God's child. And all of God's
people have this battle, and we have a fear that Jehoshaphat
and the people were afraid, weren't they? And we fear. We need the
fear of being overcome by the world. You know that? Listen
to what our Lord said after in Luke 21. This is, you know, His
Sermon on the Mount. Not His Sermon on the Mount,
but when the disciples asked Him about the end. That's in
all four Gospels in a different way, but in Luke 21, he told
them about wars and rumors of war, verse 9. Luke 21. You'll hear wars and commotions.
Don't be terrified. These things must come to pass.
And then verse 10, nations shall rise against nation, kingdom
against kingdom, and on and on it goes. And he talks about being
betrayed. Verse 16, my parents and brethren
and kinsfolk and friends. And then he said, men's, verse
26, men's hearts shall fail them for looking upon these calamities,
these distresses, distress of nations. We're all going to see
the Son of Man coming, and I love verse 28, don't you? When these
things begin to come to pad, look up. When things get real
bad, you know what we ought to say? Things are looking up. Seriously. Lift up your heads, your redemption
draws nigh. But look down at verse 34. He
warns them now. He said, Now take heed of yourselves,
lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting
and drunkenness and cares of this life. And that day come
upon you unawares. Because it's a snare that's going
to come upon the whole face of the whole earth. Watch therefore
and pray that you may be counted worthy to escape. So we fear. Don't you fear being overcome
by this world? Does the world still have a pull on you? You're
lying if you say it doesn't. We have fear of being overcome.
We ought to have a fear of sin. We ought to fear sinning. We
ought to fear ourselves. We're our greatest enemy. We
ought to fear falling away. A brother just contacted me and
he said, I'm afraid of falling. I'm afraid I'm going to fall
away. Fear is good. You know that? Fear is good.
Fear of the Lord is good. Fear of sin is good. Fear of
self is good. Don't trust yourself. Don't play
with sin. Fear makes you watchful. Fear
makes you pray. If you're not fearing, you're
not praying. You're not watching. If you're
in presumption, if you're at ease in Zion, you're not calling
on the Lord. You're not afraid. No, you're at ease. And boy,
you're easy prey to the God of this world. Easy prey. So fear
is good. See that? So they were all afraid.
They were surrounded. They were fearful. What were
they doing then? What's the answer to this fear?
What is it? Well, verse 3, Jehoshaphat feared
and set himself, set his face to seek the Lord. There you go. Seek the Lord. He said, seek
me. You'll find me when you search for me with all your heart. And
this is what I'm trying to say. You won't be searching for the
Lord with all your heart if you're not in some measure of fear.
Trouble. Troubles are good. Tribulations
are good. If we didn't have any troubles
and trials and tribulations, we wouldn't be afraid of anything. And they came out against Jehoshaphat.
Now Jehoshaphat, every major Man, every personality in the
Scripture represents our Lord in some way. In this story, we're
going to see Jehaziel as representing Christ more. But Jehoshaphat,
they came against Jehoshaphat and his people. Jehoshaphat was
king of Judah, and they came against him and against his people.
And whoever was against Jehoshaphat was against Judah. Well, that's
what Psalm 2 says, doesn't it? Against the Lord and against
his anointed. All of them gathered together. And Jehoshaphat set
his face to pray and our Lord prayed for his people in John
17, didn't he? Why are we saved? We're saved
by prayer. Whose prayer? Christ's prayer
in John 17. So he represents Christ here,
but Jehoshaphat's name means God will judge. God is our judge. And aren't you glad? Aren't you
glad that God is our judge and the judge of all the earth, and
the judge of all the earth will do what? Right. He's going to
do right by His people. He's going to do good. Can I
say it again? Can I quote Brother David? I
said, David, you plagiarized Scripture. There's more plagiarism
in preaching than any other occupation. He said, I admit it. I got it
from Scripture. He's out to do you good. The judge of all error,
he's going to do what's right. Although everything seems wrong,
mm-mm, it's going just right, according to the judge of all.
And Joshua Jehoshaphat set himself, set his face, set his heart,
set his mind, verse 3, to seek the Lord, to seek the Lord. Proclaim the fast throughout
all Judah. Verse 3. So here we sit to do
what? I hope we're here to seek the
Lord. We set our faces to seek His face, seek His help, and
fast. You don't hear about that much
anymore. The Lord didn't abolish fasting. A man was overcome by devils
and the disciples said, Lord, why couldn't we cast him out?
He said, This kind cometh not out, but by fasting and prayer. What is fasting? Well, it's doing
without food and drink to seek the Lord and what it is, is that
you are more concerned with seeking the Lord than you are your own
fleshly needs. Wouldn't it be a good thing to
miss dinner rather than miss the Lord's table? We can do without a few meals.
We can't do without one of these. You know that? Better to starve the flesh and
feed the Spirit, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better to be lean
of body than to be fat of soul? And I remember I said one time,
the Lord gives people pretty much what they want. And the
children of Israel lusted after things of the flesh, and God
gave them their quest. He filled them up full of food
and all that, and so are we. And He gave them leanness of
soul. So fasting, that's something
to do with, you know, we need to drop everything. Some people
wouldn't miss a meal for nothing. Oh, but blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after this, and don't want to miss one meal. Rather than pray with all your,
and holy manna will come down. We need this. We need this. Some people wouldn't miss a day's
work for anything. Man, may it be in our hearts
and minds and souls not to miss a worship service for anything,
anyone. That's the spirit of fasting.
That's what that means. It's not to show people I'm fasting.
That's what the Pharisees did. In fact, our Lord said, if you
do, don't tell anybody about it. But man, if God's people, you
want a blessing from the Lord, drop everything and drop everyone.
You come worship the Lord and seek His face. Fat thing, lying on the limb,
Christ and His body and His blood. Verse 4, we're in 2 Chronicles
20, verse 4. So Judah gathered themselves
together to ask help of the Lord. They came out of all the cities,
they came to seek the Lord. So what's the answer? What should
we do? If we want help from the Lord,
what should we do? What you're doing right now.
You could do nothing better than gather yourselves together to
seek the Lord. They gathered themselves together.
You know, the Lord gathers his people. You wouldn't gather if
he didn't gather you. You know that? Like the great
shepherd that he is, sheep are prone to wander. After what?
What are they wandering after? Anything. Everything. They got their heads down. They're
not looking at it. There's greener grass over here. Get your head
down, they'll fall over a cliff. And they'll all follow one another
right over a cliff if they didn't have a good shepherd to do what? Gather them. What does he do?
How does he gather? Rod and staff. Come here now. John, don't go
there. Come here. Gather here. Right? You wouldn't gather if
the Lord didn't gather you. And yet, He commands His people
Gather yourselves. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together, as the matter of some is." That's what he tells
them. It's a command. Gather yourself. Joseph, Jacob, told all his sons,
gather yourselves together and hear. Hear the word of the Lord. And he told them, good news,
there's corn, there's bread. And there's a merciful man on
the throne to give it. Oh, my. You know, if we observe
lying vanities, which is everything in this life, everything in this
world, all flesh is vanity. If we observe those lying vanities,
if we observe and hear and listen to the lies of the God of this
world, he uses these things, we will forsake our own mercies. That's Jonah 2.8. We will forsake
our own mercy, which is this place right here. And we're such
easy prey. That's why we should gather at
all opportunities. It says all the cities of Judah,
all the cities, all the churches, all the rooms, right now, in
Kingsport, in Houston, in Fairmont, I just talked to Brother Bruce
Crabtree on the phone a little while ago in Newcastle, Indiana,
in Lexington, in Pikeville, keep naming them, all the cities where
the house of the Lord is, where the name of the Lord has been
put, they're gathering together to seek God's faith. And our
Lord Jesus Christ has promised, where two or three are gathered
together, I will be right there. Do you need His help? We sing that chorus all the time,
every hour of every day. We need His help. Without Him,
we can do nothing. That's what Brother Stephen prayed
tonight. And so the text says, oh our
God, we don't know what to do. Our
eyes are upon you. As I said, I was faced with some
things. We're all faced with troubles
and trials and decisions. And we've got troubles at home.
We've got troubles with our children. We've got troubles with our neighbors.
We've got troubles with brethren. We thought we were brethren.
And we've got troubles, troubles everywhere. And we don't know
how to deal with them. Do you? You know, I've been doing
this, trying to do this for 35 years now, and I still most of
the time, I don't know what to do. So what do I do? Oh, God, our eyes are upon you. Our eyes are upon you. I need to gather here with you
just as much as you need to gather. We need to hear from the Lord.
Where did they gather? Where were they? in the congregation, in the house
of the Lord. And nothing changed. The answer,
you already know these things. I'm not going to tell you one
thing you haven't heard thousands of times, okay? Troubles? Yeah, the Lord promised it. Call
on the Lord. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord be saved. Out of what? Not just from sin,
but from troubles. A sister sent me You know, I
send texts, verses of Scripture to you, and sometimes you'll
send me one. Well, this sister just sent not one verse, but
Psalm 107. The whole psalm. Don't you love
that psalm, brother? So there we got in trouble four
times. And the Lord saved them out of them all. They called. Then they cried unto the Lord.
They weren't crying until they got in trouble. Isn't that sad? Where did they gather? Verse
5, it says they stood in the congregation Jehoshaphat stood.
If he represents Christ, this is where he is. In the congregation
of Judah, his remnant, his elect. In Jerusalem, that's the church,
the house of the Lord before the new court. I love Proverbs 8. This was one
of our daily. Monday morning text. Blessed
is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates. The Lord loveth
the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Judah. Jacob.
Waiting at the post of my door. He goes on to say, He that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul. So blessed is the man. You're
blessed if you're in God's house tonight. in the court of the
Lord, in our Lord's holding court. And we're going to hear the sentence.
We're going to hear the judgment. We're going to hear the final
outcome of the Good News. Jehoshaphat prayed. What's the
answer? Gathering together. Calling on
the Lord. Seeking His help in the congregation
where Christ is promised to be. Prayer. Prayer. Here's his prayer. O
Lord, God of our fathers, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
art not thou God in heaven? He's not questioning God's power
and God's sovereignty. He's just making a statement. And rulest not thou over all
the kingdoms of the heathen? Yes, he does. Our God is God,
the God of the Bible. He makes it plain. This is the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the God of the Bible,
the God of the Scripture, salvation of the Jews, God's chosen people,
God's elect people. Sovereign God, all-powerful God,
the mighty God, all authority Christ has given unto me in heaven
and earth. This is not this pitiful Jesus standing outside wanting
people to do something for Him. This is not the God who wants
to save everybody and can't unless they lay. That's no God at all.
That's not Jesus Christ. The God of the Bible has all
power in heaven and earth. All flesh is in the hands of
Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad? Judge of all
the earth. False religion has got man judging
God. Letting God do this and letting
God do that. That's no God at all. Those that
believe in a God like that need to get rid of Him. He can't save
a flea. Are thou not our God? He said,
verse 7, you're our God. None can withstand thee. Don't
you love Psalm Isaiah 43? God will work, and who shall
let it? Who shall prevent it? He said,
I've spoken it. I'll bring it to pass. I purposed
it. I will do it. Aren't you glad? You know why
you're glad? The Lord's made you glad. He's
revealed Himself to you. Most people don't like God like
this. I don't know. I do know why. They'd rather
be in charge of their own destiny. They'd rather have, you know,
their own works to save them and not His. Art not thou our
God that drove out the inhabitants of the land before thy people
and gave it to the seed of Abraham thy friend? What he's saying
is you saved your people before. You're the God who saved Israel
out of Egypt. You're the God that brought them
out. Nobody helped you do that. You did it all by yourself. You
did it by the blood of that lamb, and you did it by your Spirit
bringing them out. Nobody helped. You did it all.
You're the one that saved us. And what they're saying now is,
we need saving again. We need saving every day, don't
we? We need to be brought out of Egypt all the time. Like we
said in the beginning. We need saving from this world.
Who is he that will overcome it? Who overcomes this world? Well, you can't do it. Christ
said, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So
who is he that overcometh? He that believeth. He that looketh
to Him who overcame. Because you can't overcome. You
can't save the fleet. You can go and let alone yourself.
Our God did it. That's who we look to, you see.
That's who He's praying to. He's not praying just to be prayed. He's praying to God to save us.
The God who saves. Our Lord one time said, they
pray unto a God, people pray unto a God that can't save. If
God wants to save you and can't save you unless you let Him,
that's a God that can't save. Well, he's crying unto God to
save everyone. And he said, your name is in
this place. That's what he said in verse
9. Your name is in this house. Remember
that in Deuteronomy 12? Seventeen times I think. A place
that God has chosen to put His name there. And he said if they pray, this
is 2 Kings 8, Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings 8, Solomon's prayer for
God's people. Sword, judgment, pestilence,
famine, is there anything too hard for the Lord? Who sins all
this? The sword, the wars and rumors
of war. Who does that, man? God. Pestilence. Who sends plagues? Who sent COVID?
China? God did. See, I, the Lord, do all these
things. I create good. I make peace. I make evil. I wound. I heal. I kill. I heal. I kill. I make alive. I, the
Lord, do all these things. Why? Because He's the judge of
all the earth. Judgment to the world is salvation
of His people. Those plagues brought God's people
out. It destroyed Egypt, didn't it?
In this story, if I ever get to it, they all destroyed themselves. And we would have, too, if He
hadn't brought us out. So He says, Lord, Your name's
here. And I believe, don't you, that His name's in this place. You know, Wednesday night worship
used to be a very common thing among Southern Baptists and just
about everybody. It's going to the wayside now.
This is one of my favorite Man, midweek, I can't make it a whole
week, can you? I believe His name is here. And
we cry, verse 9, the last line, we cry unto thee in our affliction,
then you said that if we cry, you'll hear and you'll help.
I love that. And behold, Lord, you behold.
And I just read that, the eyes of the Lord in every place beholding
the good and the evil. Oh yeah, He sees it. He sees
it. Oh, our God, verse 12, wilt thou
not judge them? We have no might against this
great company that comes against us. We don't know what to do.
Our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before the
Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
Isn't that beautiful? And that's us. Nothing's changed.
Nothing's changed with God's people. Just some of the names. Then what happened? How does God answer prayer? How
does God speak peace to these people? How? The same way every
time. He sends a preacher, a preacher
in the gospel. That's what you kept saying,
didn't you? He pleased God by the foolishest
preaching to do what? What's the rest of it? To save
who? Them that believe. And believers
aren't going to hear it. Believers are. They need to.
They've got to. Why are you coming here? You want to hear the same
thing? Why are you coming here? Nancy's been here a hundred years
now. John, are you going to hear the
same thing? You want to hear the same thing?
Really? He must be one of the Lord, because
the message is the same. Whoever it was and wherever it
was and whenever it was, they were all in the same troubles,
the same trial, same need, called on the Lord, same Lord. And the
Lord did the same thing, sent a preacher. And this man, Jehaziel, it's
the only message he ever preached. Boy, I wish if I had one message
to preach, But this will be it. Jehaziel, his name means beheld
of God. Behold your God. Isn't that what
he told the prophet to cry in Isaiah? Behold your God. He's the son of Zechariah. Zechariah
means Jehovah has remembered. Mattaniah means the gift of Jehovah. Who could he represent? It's
Jehaziel. Jehaziel who is, behold our God. Behold my servant, God said in
Isaiah 42. Zechariah means Jehovah has remembered. He remembered his covenant so
he sent Christ to be the captain, the covenant head. He's the gift
of Jehovah. The gift of God's eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ said, my sheep are going
to hear my voice. That's how they're going to be
saved. They're going to hear my voice. How? Through a man. Through a man. Through a preacher.
But nevertheless, it is the Lord. It's the Lord who speaks. Now this Jehaziel, like I said,
he preached one message. And what a message it was. Look
at verse 14. And we finally made it. It says, he stood, and the
Spirit of the Lord came upon him. And no man can preach except
by the Spirit of the Lord. John quoted that Sunday. Paul said, he said, we preach
not ourselves, but Christ. He said, we have this treasure
in our earthen vessels, but the excellence of the power is of
God, not of us. You see, we're not in preaching
with the words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and the power of God. What is the power of God? It's
the Gospel. Christ is the power of God. And
when the Spirit of God anoints a man to preach, he's going to
preach Christ. That's what he's going to do. The power of God.
He's going to preach the Gospel. The Spirit of the Lord came upon
him where? Where was he? Verse 14. What does it say? Where is he
preaching? in the midst of the congregation. And he said, hearken, hear, hear. You mean this is it? Is this all we've come to do?
Hold on. Wait till you hear what you hear.
Hearken, all Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, King Jehoshaphat. Did the king need to hear preaching?
He sure did. He sure did. And I had written
down a read from 1 Kings, not 1 Kings, but 2 Samuel 7, where
David heard the words of Nathan the prophet that told him what
all the Lord was going to do for David. And David said, he
went in to the house of the Lord and sat before the Lord and said, oh Lord. He just heard
the preacher preach, and he sat before the Lord. He was just
overcome. King David, Jehoshaphat, needed to hear the preaching.
Harkin and the king, thus saith the Lord unto you. This is what
the preacher preaches, not what he thinks, not what Sunday school
quarterly gives him, but what the Lord says. Be not afraid
nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude. Don't be afraid,
and our Lord say this over and over again, be not afraid, fear
not. Don't fear man, fear him. Don't
fear man that kills the body and after that there's nothing
more he can do. Fear God who's really the one that kills the
body and after that send both body and soul into hell. Fear
him, I say, Christ him. Don't be afraid of man. And here's
the message. The battle is not yours, but
it's God's. But God's. Don't you love the
but God's? The battle is not yours, but
God's. Would you turn to Psalm 18 with
me? Psalm 18. This is a psalm of the cross. There are many. Psalm 18, Psalm
22, Psalm 69. There are others that directly
relate to the cross of Christ. None more so than Psalm 18. Read
it for yourself later. But we fight, we struggle, we
war against the flesh, we war against the world, but the great
battle for our souls is not yours. It's not ours. It's God's. It's the Lord. Aren't you glad?
It's not ours. It's God's. He must win the battle.
Isn't that what Martin Luther wrote in that hymn? Did we in
our own strength confide our striving would be losing? Were
not the right man of God on our side, our fighting would be losing.
He must win the battle. Well, did he? Christ is the captain
of our salvation, our Savior. Psalm 18, look at verse 4, it
says, the sorrows of death encompassed me. Floods of ungodly men made
me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about. The snares of death prevented
me. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God.
What's going on here? This is Christ on the cross.
This is Christ dealing with all the foes, principalities and
power, rulers of the darkness of this world. Satan himself,
he's facing our great foe and all the forces of evil that were
against Christ on the cross. If he wins, we win. If he loses,
we lose. And see, this battle was fought
back then. It's not a future battle in Armageddon in Jerusalem.
No, no, no, no. This battle was fought at Calvary
a long time ago. And I'll just go ahead and tell
you, he won. The earth shook, verse 7. Remember
that? The earth shook and trembled.
The hills were moved because God was rough. Verse 32, Psalm 18. Verse 32, it is God that girdeth
me, Christ said, with strength. This is Christ speaking. He makes
my way perfect. He makes my feet like hind's
feet. Setteth me upon my high places.
Teaches my hands to war. A bow of steel broken by mine
arms. Thou hast also given me the shield
of thy salvation. The right hand that holdeth me
up. Thy right hand. Thy gentleness hath made me great.
Thou hast enlarged my steps unto me, that my feet did not slip.
I have pursued mine enemies, overtaken them, neither did I
turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that were
not able to rise. They have fallen under my feet.
Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle. Thou hast subdued
unto me all that rose up against me." Sounds like he won, didn't
he? He did. He did. That battle at
Calvary. Listen to Isaiah. Listen to that. Don't you love that? He saw there
was no man. And so his arm brought salvation
unto him. His righteousness sustained him.
He put on righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of salvation on his
head, put on garments of vengeance for clothing, as clad with zeal
as a cloak. Listen to this, Isaiah 63. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Bosra, glorious in his apparel,
traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in
righteousness, mighty to save. Why are you red in your apparel,
and thy garments like him that treadeth the winepress? Because
I have trodden the winepress alone. He said to the prophet, cry unto
this people, speak comfortably unto them, tell them, number
one, what is it? The warfare is accomplished. Moses and Elijah, the law and
the prophets, met with Christ before He went to the cross.
And what they talked about was the death, the decease He should
accomplish. Salvation accomplished. Where? On Calvary by Christ. And His
last words were, It is finished. What? The battle is won. It's
won. Now, as I say, at Armageddon,
Armageddon was fought 2,000 years ago by one man. By one man, sin entered this
world. And by one man, it was put away. By one man, sin and death reigned
over all of us. By one man, grace reigned unto
salvation. One man fought this battle and
he won. None of the children of Israel
fought. Nobody shot an arrow. Nobody threw a spear. Nobody
had any hand-to-hand combat in this battle. The Lord fought
it for them. How did he fight it? He just
gave the word. He gave the word. Go back to our text. I've got
to quit. 2 Chronicles 20, look at it. Verse 16, he said, tomorrow
go down against them, go on out there, go to work. Go to school,
go over wherever it is you're going to go. Go out there. They're
out there. The enemy's out there. I'll tell
you where they're at. They're in Burnt Chimney. They're in
Garden City. You wouldn't think there'd be
any sinners in Garden City, would you? Garden City. They're in
Calloway. Well, we all live in Calloway.
There ain't no enemy out there. Oh, yes, there are at every place.
They're all out there everywhere. Wherever you go, go out there.
They're out there. Go out against them. Verse 16. You'll find them
here, you'll find them there, verse 17, but you don't need
to fight them. Set yourselves. Settle yourselves. Settle down now. Stand still. Have you heard this before? Stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. The message hasn't
changed. Didn't our Lord say, be still
and know that I'm God? That's the hardest thing for
me to do. That's the hardest thing on earth for me to do is
just be still. Not do anything. We've got to do something. That's
when you get in a mess. That's why that prayer was so
good. Lord, we don't know what to do. Our eyes are upon you. Wait, I say. Wait on the Lord.
He'll see. Be still. See the salvation of
the Lord with you, oh Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. That means toe up. No, I'm not going to say it.
Tore up. Just all bent out of shape. Listen
to what Paul said, if I can find it. He said, trouble on every
side. We're not in distress. We shouldn't
be in distress. Distress means there's no place
to turn. Oh, yes, there is. We're perplexed. There's some
things we don't have the immediate answer for. But we're not in
despair. We'll find out. We'll know. We're persecuted. We've got enemies. We're not
forsaken. We have a friend that's sticking
closer to their brother. Cast down. We are cast down. David said that, didn't he? Several
times. Psalm 42, Psalm 43. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? What did he say? He's speaking
to himself in Psalms. And him, what did he say to himself? Why art thou cast out, O myself?
Hope in the Lord. I'll yet hope in the Lord. He's
my salvation. Trust the Lord. You're not destroyed. You're not going to be destroyed.
Oh, no. You're not going to be destroyed.
The world must destroy themselves. He saved us out of it. He's kept
us from destroying ourselves. He will not let us destroy ourselves.
Isn't that good news? He said, ìThe Lord will be with
you.î The Lord is with them. Heís with His people. Verse 18,
ìJehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground. All Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping
the Lord.î The Levites, the Kohathites, these were singers, Chorites,
they stood up to praise the Lord with a loud voice on high. And
Jehoshaphat, donít you love what he said, verse 20? I got to hurry. He stood and then he heard the
preaching and he did a little preaching. Does preaching make
you want to preach? Hear me, old Judah, hear me,
old Judah, you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord
your God. Believe His prophets. So shall you prosper. This is
the prosperity I want in the end. Spiritual prosperity. faith that will not quit, that
will not faint. And when he consulted with the
people, he appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise
the beauty of holiness. And went out before the army
to say, Praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever. And when
they began to sing, what happened? Well, they were in trouble. They
had enemies. They were surrounded. So they
set themselves to seek help from the Lord. They gathered themselves
together in the house of the Lord, the court of the Lord.
They called upon the Lord. They cried unto the Lord. They
prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord heard their prayer
and sent a preacher. And they heard the preaching
from the Lord. And then they started singing. Singing is a command both glorifying
to our Lord and good for us. And a good testimony. It's a
good testimony. Sing, I tell you, sing, sing,
sing, sing, sing unto the Lord. And they started singing and
what happened? Their enemies were defeated. They were smitten. Like Paul and Silas
in the jail. Ah, boy. If we could only trust
the Lord and just, you know, praising for whatever comes and
knowing that the outcome is going to be good. It would defeat,
you know, unbelief is our greatest enemy, isn't it? He's saying,
you know, help that. Yes, it will. Sin, self, and
the world is an enemy, but it cannot defeat us. They cannot
defeat us while we look to Christ. and sing of his mercy, and think
of his mercy, and do it for him. And then look in closing, verses
26 and following, they assembled themselves on the fourth day.
Well, here they are getting together again. Hadn't you heard enough? No. This is how we were saved
the first time. You know, if the Lord saves you
through the preaching of the gospel, you'll sit and hear it
for the rest of your day. You can't do without it. The Lord doesn't save a man if
they hear it, and they seem to be saved, and they fall away,
and they don't want to hear it anymore. The Lord didn't save
them the first time. Right? So they assembled again, and
they blessed the Lord, the name of the Lord, in that place, Morocco,
Raqqa. And they returned every man.
Every man went home. They went home with joy. Rejoicing. The Lord made them rejoice. Oh,
we worship God in spirit, don't we? We rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have no confidence in the flesh because the battle
is not ours. And they came to Jerusalem, verse
28, with psalteries and harps and trumpets under the house.
And here they are again. They just keep coming back. And
the fear of God was on all the kingdoms. And verse 30, so the
realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet. The realm, the kingdom of our
Lord. The end of it is quiet. God gave him rest round about.
And we have rest, and we have peace, and we have quiet. The
heart, minds, and soul are one way. Look into Christ. Christ and Him crucified. The battle is not yours. It's
the Lord. Okay, stand with me.