Judges chapter one here, there
in verse two, it says, I have delivered them into your hand.
And as we follow this out, we find that it's also mentioned
there in the book of Numbers, as Moses was told this about
a group and Joshua was told this. And once again, here in the book
of Judges, Judges chapter seven, Judges chapter seven and verse
nine, If you'd look at this with me, we find that this is a common
way that God does his business. And he does this for his people.
It's not your battle. It is my battle. Here in Judges
chapter seven and verse nine, and it came to pass the same
night that the Lord said unto him, arise, get thee down unto
the host for I have delivered it into thy hand. how God works,
the awesome power of God, the ability to cause people to do
things that puts them in a position that they can be delivered by
God into the hands of someone else. In the book of 1 Kings,
this is also brought up as we find there in the book of Judges
1, the Lord said, I have delivered. And this is truly a statement
that is common in the scriptures that God has delivered. He has
delivered the people into the hands. In 1 Kings chapter 20,
in 1 Kings chapter 20, we read these words. 1 Kings chapter
20. And verse 26, 1 Kings chapter 20, verse 26. And it came to pass at the return
of the year that Ben-Hadad numbered the Syrians and went up to Apec
to fight against Israel. Now this doesn't look good because
we're going to find a host of people that are in the Syrians. The children of Israel were numbered
and were all present, and one against them. And the children
of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids. But the Syrians filled the country. And there came a man of God and
spake unto the king of Israel and said, Thus saith the Lord.
Because the Syrians have said, the Lord is the God of the hills,
but he is not the God of the valleys. Therefore will I deliver
all this great multitude into thy hand, and ye shall know that
I am the Lord. And they pitched one over against
the other seven days, and so it was that in the seventh day
the battle was joined, and the children of Israel slew of the
Syrians a hundred thousand footmen in one day. But the rest fled
to Apec into the city, and there was a wall fell upon 20 and 7,000
of the men that were left. And Ben-Hadad fled and came into
the city and into the inner chamber. And his servants said unto him,
Behold, now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel
are merciful kings. Let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth
on our loins and ropes on our heads. and go out to the King
of Israel. Peradventure, he shall save thy
life." Now that ropes on their heads was ropes around their
neck. We deserve to die, but we plead for mercy. But did you
notice here how many that the Lord said, I will deliver into
their hands? Two small groups of Israelites, it's called, and
this whole host, and again, we find that principle that is brought
out here in the book of Judges, I have delivered them into your
hands. Now, in looking at those 10 that
went into the land with Joshua and Caleb and came back with
an evil report, they did not believe that. They did not believe
that God had given them that land. God had said all through,
I've given this land to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob and the children
of Israel. I've given it to him. And those
10 came back and says he cannot do it. Well, by the faith that
God gives to his people, these guys realize that it's God that
doing this, that God is the victor when it came to Jericho. This
is how you're going to do it. And to a normal student of warfare,
marching around a city and keeping quiet for seven days, six days
and then on the seventh day doing it seven times is a foolish stunt. But God said, that's the way
you're gonna do it. And as a result, the victory was theirs. This
is how God, it is so different than us. It is so unplanned by
us. We couldn't figure out how to
do that. Well, it's interesting that as we follow this, we find
in 2 Kings, 2 Kings 3. In 2 Kings 3, verse 18. 2nd Kings 3 in verse 18, we read
this, and this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord. 2nd Kings 3 in verse 18, this
is a light thing, a small thing in the sight of the Lord. He
will deliver the Moabites also into your hand. I read that and it's amazing.
This is just a small thing. It's a light thing for the Lord
to do this. Well, when we measure all mightiness against finiteness,
it is a small thing. This is just a light thing in
the sight of the Lord and he will deliver all these people.
Again, in the book of Second Chronicles, we have this constant
reminder. Can you imagine how many times
the prophets of old preached on this subject? When it looked
like things were just going haywire, that he said, well, let's look
at the scriptures. Let's go back to the scriptures.
You know, really, that's all we have. What we have to say
about it is worthless. What God has to say about it
is credibility. And that's the only thing that
the Holy Spirit will use, is His word. Now, we pray that while
we're sharing it, we're using his word. But if we're just using
philosophy, if we're just using historical events, we're wasting
our time. But the Holy Spirit will use
what is written here in the word of God. Again, in the book of
2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 20, we have this brought out
again, verse 15, 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse 15, We have
that this, the battle is not ours. The battle is not ours. The battle is the Lord's. It
tells us that here in 2 Chronicles 20, verse 15, and he said, hearken
ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat,
thus saith the Lord unto you. That should settle the issue.
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. Tomorrow go you down against
them. Behold, they come up from the
cliff of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook
before the wilderness of Jeruel." Can you imagine having someone
tell you the plans and where people are going to be that you're
after? You don't have to have a helicopter, you don't have
to have drones. Lord said that's where you'll
meet him and that's where you'll defeat him. So the battle is
not yours, but God's. How gracious this is. You know,
when we get to looking at it, we can truly, it's no different
what we find recorded when Lazarus is in the tomb. The battle is
not ours. the people there had already
come to the conclusion that this man was going to be raised in
the resurrection of the last day. Both sisters confessed that. Now, a bunch of the friends probably
didn't realize that, but those sisters confessed that he will
be raised in the resurrection of the last day. Well, when we
find the Lord Jesus going up to that tomb and calling out,
roll the stone away, Overriding what the sisters had said don't
do that. He's already Stinks because he's
four days old and here we have the Lord saying the battle is
not yours The battle is my battle and he is infinite and it says
there Lazarus come forth and we read the scriptures Lazarus
came forth and What does it mean when he is doing that with us
from a spiritual standpoint, from our debt and trespasses
and sin, our dry boneness, that he would come up and raise us
to spiritual life? The battle is not ours, it is
his. And the battle is not the preacher's
or the Sunday school teacher's, the battle is his. So this is
what we find through the scriptures that this battle of saving people
is not our battle, it's the battle is the Lord's. In John chapter 11, If we keep
this in mind, these thoughts that we've watched through the
scriptures, that the battle is not yours, I will deliver. In
John chapter 11, we have a wonderful statement made here that just
fits this thought. These thoughts about God's ability
to do his business. It says here in John chapter
11 in verse 25, I am the resurrection and the
life. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. What a statement. It's similar
to what was shared with Judah and with Simeon when they were
called on to go after the Canaanites. I will deliver them into your
hand. And this is what we find Jesus
saying, I'm the resurrection, and I'm the life. There's nobody
gonna have anything happen to them without me. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and he that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out, I will deliver them. And then in, in
verse 25, or verse 43, verse 43 of that same chapter, John
chapter 11, verse, 43, it says, and when he had thus
spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. The battle is not yours. It was
an impossible situation for them, and they realized that. They
did realize, the two sisters did realize, that he's guaranteed
a resurrection in the last day. They knew that his heart was
right with God. They knew that he had been converted.
They knew he had been raised from the dead. They knew that
he had been born again. And we find this very thing is
carried out. The battle is not yours. The
battle is mine. I will take care of it. I will
win the battle. And we even find out that there
are those who know 40 years before it happened. They knew it was
gonna happen. All right, one other verse on
this subject as we think about that statement that God made
to Judah and to Simeon, I will deliver them into your hands.
What confidence you can have them. What confidence in God
when you have God saying that. One verse in James chapter one. James chapter one. And verse 18. The battle is not yours. I will
deliver them. His own will begat he us by the
word of truth of His own will begat he us With the word of
truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation
firstfruits of his creatures So here once again, we have the
inside story The The truth of how God does his business is
revealed to his people, and they take confidence that it's God's
way, God's business, and he will do exactly what he purposes to
do. That's what he did with Judah
and Simeon when he told him, I've chosen Judah to go out and
fight against the Canaanites, and I've delivered them into
your hand before they ever went into battle. Well, there's another
thing over there in that package of scripture I'd like to look
at tonight. There in the book of Judges chapter one, in Judges
chapter one, we find this, we read it, but we'd like to look
at it. Judges chapter one, And we read there in verse 4, Judges
1, verse 4, it says there, from the wilderness and this, excuse
me, I'm in Joshua, Judges 1, verse 4, and Judah went up And
the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their
hand, and they slew of them in Bezek 10,000 men. And they found
the king of Bezek, and they fought against him, and they slew the
Canaanites and the Perizzites. And Adonai of Bezek fled, and
they pursued after him and caught him. Now, you may ask yourself,
why in the world would they cut the thumbs off and the big toes?
Now, I worked with a fellow one time, his name was Bob Snyder,
and he had an elevator for putting hay up in a barn, and the shield
on the chain got lost, and he didn't take care of it, and he
stood on that chain, and he got tipped over and it twisted his
big toe off. And so he had one big toe, and
he didn't have another one on the other foot. He says, Norm,
I had to learn to walk again. It was like learning a baby again,
because I had so much bouncer. Well, there's two things that
they did, or three things probably. Number one, it was very humiliating.
Number two, it took the fight out of these people and the ability
to run away. They couldn't draw a bow. They
couldn't throw a spear. and they couldn't run. They were
essentially taken out of the battle by this activity. And that's what he did to those
70 other kings. And as we look at this, it struck
me. How does God take the fight and
the flight out of us when he saves us. How does he do that? Because he does. He takes the
fight and the flight. We're not interested in running
away and we're not interested in being his enemy any longer.
And it's kind of like him taking our thumbs and our toes off only
in a spiritual way because he really does do things that causes
us to be settled in him and not attempt to run away and not attempt
to fight him. We are submitted to him in the
salvation that he gives us. So he takes a raging maniac And
it doesn't take us long to go into the New Testament in particular
and find raging maniacs that he took care of. One was a maniac
of Gadara. Another one, I look at Saul of
Tarsus. There wasn't a nickel's worth of difference between the
two of them. And both of them had their purpose in God's purpose. That one man was so settled down,
he was sitting and clothed in his right mind, he wanted to
follow Jesus. And Jesus said, you need to go
home and tell your family what's happened to you. So he took the
fight and he took the flight out of that man. He truly was
used by God. God used this means to settle. This practice describes how is,
and it was quite common. It appears throughout the scriptures,
throughout the Old Testament, at least among those pagans, In this book, which is the most
violent book in all the Bible, it starts off pretty violent.
10,000 men are gone in one chapter and a king has his thumbs. And
then he confesses, you know, that's exactly what I did to
the kings. And so what I get, I deserve.
That's what he says. What does God do to take all
that fight and running out of lost sheep? What does he do? We know by nature all we are
is fight and run. We want to fight God and we want
to run from God. That's our nature to do. And
God does something to stop us, to cause us to quit fighting
him and cause us to quit running from him. In fact, we want to
be with him. There are several passages in
scripture that help us to understand this very thing that the children
of Judah did to this king is a reflection of what God does
for us to cause us to be settled in him. and not go looking for
somebody else or something other thing. You know, I was visiting
with someone the other day, and all of the Old Testament characters
that we find doing some horrific things, the patriarchs doing
some horrific things, they never wanted to leave God. David didn't want to leave God,
even when he committed that great crime. Moses didn't want to leave
God, All right, let's look at this. As we think about this,
it's like him calming a wild ass's colt. Job said, man be
born like a wild ass's colt. And that means unrideable. You're gonna get thrown off.
And the Lord has the ability of taking the situation and calming
it down. All right, turn with me if you
would. to the book of Romans, Romans chapter two, because the
Lord is going to take the fight and the flight right out of us
when he saves us. We are settled down. We're no
longer wanting to run. That king did all he could do
to elude Judah. Well, once he was captured and
they dealt with him, guess what? He didn't leave again. And he
never fought against them again. All right, here in the book of
Romans, the book of Romans, it's just so interesting because religion
has it turned upside down and backwards. It's they, religion
teaches that we're controlled by a carrot and a stick. You
do good, we'll give you a carrot. You do bad, we're gonna give
you a stick. And that's rules and regulations. Well, notice
this. In verse four of Romans chapter
two, or despises how the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance. Now repentance is not, and you
don't find it in parentheses there, you don't find it in small
letters, repenting of your sins. Repentance is truly taking God's
side against us. You know, once the Lord gives
us salvation, we are glad to take God's side against us. You're
right in this matter. I am a sinner. And I found out
that God saves sinners. And He calms us down with that
very thing. It is the goodness of God that
leads you to repentance. All of the activity that God
did through the Old Testament in punishing Israel for all the
things that they did did not cause one person to have repentance
towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the
goodness of God that leads us to repentance. And then follow
this with me, if you would, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. God
truly, spiritually speaking, takes the thumbs off so he can't
fight, and takes the big toes off so he can't run. He causes
us to settle down. And here in the book of 2 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians chapter 5, we think restraint, oh my goodness, constraint. I don't know if I want that.
Well, here it is. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. What does constrain mean? Restrict
us? Is it law? No, it's the love
of Christ that constrains us. We find out that God's love in
Christ Jesus for his lost sheep. settles us down, constrains us,
brings us to sit at his feet. It is the love of Christ that
constrains us because we thus judge if one died for all, then
we're all dead. How wonderful it is that it is
the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. It's the love
of Christ that constrains us. These things are what God uses
to show You can't leave, you won't fight, and you won't run. You're going to be with me. You're
here and with our full consent. In the book of Luke chapter 19,
if you go into Luke chapter 19, we find an illustration of this.
In Luke chapter 19, the Lord Jesus is going to enter into
Jerusalem And there's gonna be a great throng of people casting
down palm fronds and clothes in the way. Well, notice here
in Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19, we read these
words about this whole incident. He shares with them, with his
disciples, he says, go ye into the village over against you,
in which at your entering in, ye shall find a colt tied. Whereon
yet never man sat, loose him, and bring him hither." Now that's
quite a description that the Lord gave to his disciples about,
he told them exactly where this colt was, he told us the description
of the colt, and he told us that this colt has never been ridden
before. No one has done this. He's not
broken. He's not even green broke. So,
if any man asks you, why do you loose him? Thus shall ye say
unto him, because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were
sent, Luke chapter 19, verse 32, we read this, and they that were
sent went their way and found even as he had said unto them,
And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said
unto them, why loose ye the colt? And they said, the Lord doth
need of him. Okay, take him. And they brought him to Jesus
and they cast their garments on the colt. Now this is such
an interesting statement that's made about this unbroken colt
that Jesus sat on him. No bucking, no kicking, completely
submissive to the master. And that is truly a picture of
God's people submissive to the master. He takes the fight and
the flight right out of us in our salvation. And we have no
interest in leaving and we have no interest in fighting with
him. We believe the word that he gave us and we don't argue
with it. If it says some things that was
unpopular in our religion, we find out it's quite popular now
because that's exactly what God had to do to save us. So he settles
us down. I can just see, and maybe the
Lord jumped up on him, or was helped by a disciple, but that
colt did nothing. It was his nature to buck, but
he was overcome by the sovereign grace of this master, and he
didn't have any issues when He sat on it. And that's just what
God does for us. When the Lord comes upon us,
and we be born like a wild asses cult, self-will, strong will,
running, doing our own thing, and God comes along, we still
have that wild asses cult nature, but He has settled it down, and
we're gonna set down with Him. Alright, as we follow this through,
what did they do to that king? They took away his ability to
fight and run. And how thankful the church is
that God takes away our ability to fight God and to run away
from God. We're not going to argue with
Him over the Word. We've said several times, if
we don't know what it means, it's not going to be contrary
to what the rest of the Bible has to say about it. We just
don't have understanding. The Holy Spirit hasn't revealed
it to us. And sometimes we simply have to say, I know what it doesn't
say. This is not telling me that all
the rest of the Bible is wrong, and this one is right. So we
have this beautiful statement made throughout the scriptures
about this. Now, over in the book of, going back to the book
of Numbers, going back to the book of Numbers chapter 14, Now,
it is, we went through there, we're gonna be dealing with this
some more as we go through other books of the Bible, but in Numbers
chapter 14, when those spies came back from spying out the
land, and there was a great, well, Mike and I were talking,
10 out of 12 is a pretty large percentage. 10 out of 12 came back with an evil
report. And in Numbers chapter 14, verse
20, we read this, and the Lord said, I have, am I in the right
place? Yes, Numbers chapter 14, verse
20, and the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word,
but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the
glory of the Lord, Because all these men, which have seen my
glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness,
and have tempted me now these 10 times, and have not hearkened
unto my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swear
unto their fathers. Neither shall any of them that
provoke me see it." Now, what did they do? They fought God
and they ran from God all the time. But, the next verse, verse
24, but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him,
makes all the difference in the world. Caleb had another spirit. What was this spirit? The spirit
of God, new birth spirit. And what did he do? He neither
fought God or ran from God. And he tried to encourage those
people to go in, and he tried to encourage them not to go in
after they made up their mind to. This is folly. God said,
you're not going in. So he believed God. He trusted
God. And that's what the church does.
And they're not interested from leaving this point that they
have, that God had brought them into a comfortable place with
him, that he's put away their sin and given them the knowledge
of putting away sin. And then he said, you're at peace. I've, well, Dad used to have
chickens that flew over the fence. You know what he did? He clipped
their wings. And that's truly what God does for us. He clips
our wings. The flight is gone. We don't
want that anymore. And I've had people tell me that
their children were all saved. They're just not, they're just
away from the Lord now. And I heard a preacher the other
day say something. I'd like to know where that is. Because there's no place you
can get away from the Lord. And if they're running and they are
arguing with God, they probably don't know the Spirit of God
anyway. That's just the way it is. He is going to cause people
to come to Him and sit around Him. Peter. You know, Peter denied the Lord
three times. That last time, I knew there was a place in the
New Testament in one of the Gospels. As soon as he said it, Jesus
turned around and looked at him. Out of hate? No. The love of
God constrains us. Brought him back to center. And
he went out and wept bitterly. All right, I may have that here
in just a moment. So the servant Caleb, because
he had another spirit in him, made all the difference. Made
every bit of difference. All right. Go with me to the
book of Luke, chapter 22. Luke, chapter 22. We find the
difference between Judas and Peter. Again, Judas still running
and still fighting. Peter has his thumbs taken off
and his big toes taken off. He has no interest in leaving.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. In Luke, chapter
22, beginning with verse 54. Luke, chapter 22, verse 54. We read this, Luke chapter 22,
verse 54, and they took him and led him and brought him into
the high priest's house and Peter followed afar off. Oh, I've heard
preachers give Peter down the road right there, he followed
afar off. The Lord said, you're all gonna deny me, I must do
this alone. And when they had kindled a fire
in the midst of the hall, and there sat down together, Peter
sat down among them. And a certain maid beheld him
as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon him and said, this
man was also with them. And he denied him saying, woman,
I know not him, him not. And after a little while, another
saw him and said, thou art also of them. And Peter says, man,
I am not. And about the space of one hour
after another, confidently and firm, saying of a truth, this
fellow is also with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said,
man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet
spake the cock crow, and you know, oftentimes we don't think
the Lord is as close as he is to the situation. It says in
the next verse, And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter,
and Peter remembered the word of the Lord. How that he had said before the
cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice, and Peter went out and
wept bitterly. Jesus turned and looked upon
Peter, not in indignation, but in love and constraint, because
that's how he met him after the resurrection. Peace be unto you. In Luke chapter 8, Luke chapter
8, verse 35, Luke chapter 8, verse
35, we read this. They went out to see what was
done and came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the devils
were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in
his right mind, and they were afraid. The Lord, when he saved
him, caused him to want to be with him. That's just, the fight
was gone, the flight was gone. How gracious it is that the Lord
would cause us to be settled. Solitarsis is much the same way. He had learned whatsoever state
he was in, therewith to be content. That's so much different than
he was before. We're going to call, bring this
to a close. Our time is about up, but we
have a few other verses that we want to read. So this is going
to be like a railroad train. We're going on hitch right now
and we'll pick it right up the next time. And we'll look at
this verse a little more. We're going to go to several
passages in the book of Ezekiel, but just remember this king had
his thumbs and his big toes off. It was a common practice to take
the fight. And the flight. Out of people
they could no longer fight. They could no longer run. And
that's what exactly God does for his church. He puts him in
a state of mind that they don't want to leave. They're not going
to argue with him. They're going to sit, be clothed
and in their right mind and how glorious that is. When we read
Scripture, we just say Lord, I don't understand it, reveal
it to me, but I'm not going to argue with you over it anymore. And I don't have to leave here.
I can sit down and this will be where I'll be until he takes
me home. We'll stop there for tonight.