Book of Morning. If you would,
for our scripture reading, let's begin our service opening our
Bibles to the book of 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles chapter 20. We have
a lengthy reading. We'll read the first 30 verses
of 2 Chronicles chapter 20, and then we'll bow in prayer. And
it came to pass after this also that the children of Moab and
the children of Ammon and with them other beside the Ammonites
came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told
Jehoshaphat saying, there come with a great multitude against
thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria and behold, they be
in Hazon Tamar, which is in Gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared and set
himself to seek the Lord and proclaim to fast throughout all
Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord.
Even out of all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the
Lord. And Josaphat stood in the congregation of Judah in Jerusalem,
in the house of the Lord, before the new court and said, O Lord
God of our fathers, are not thou God in heaven and rules 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? 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? And they dwelt therein, and have
built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when
evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine,
we stand before this house, and in thy presence For thy name
is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then
wilt thou hear and help. And now behold the children of
Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldst not let Israel
invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. But they turned
from them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say, how they
reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which
thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before
the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah,
the son of Jeiel, the son of Mataneah, a Levi to the sons
of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation. And he said, hearken ye all Judah and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you,
be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude
for the battle's not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, go ye down against
them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz and you should find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jeruel. You should not need to fight
in this battle. Set 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. And Josaphat bowed his head with
his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the
Levites of the children of the Kohathites and the children of
the Korhites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a
loud voice on high. 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 you be established. Believe his prophets, so shall
you prosper. 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. And they began to sing and to
praise And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord and
to praise, the Lord said ambushments against the children of Ammon,
Moab and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah and they were
smitten for the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the
inhabitants of Mount Seir utterly to slay and to destroy them.
And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone
to help destroy another. And when Judah came toward the
watchtower in the wilderness, They looked into the multitude,
and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none
escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his
people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among
them an abundance, both riches with the dead bodies and precious
jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they
could carry away. And they were three days in gathering
of the spoil. It was so much. On the fourth
day, they assembled themselves in the valley of Baraka, For
there they blessed the Lord. Therefore, the name of the place
was called the Valley of Baraka unto this day. Then they returned
every man of Judah and Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat in the forefront
of them to go again to Jerusalem with joy. For the Lord had made
them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with
psalteries and harps and trumpets under the house of the Lord.
And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries.
when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies
of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was
quiet, for his God gave him rest round about. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
wise heavenly Father, Lord, how we thank you that one more time
you've given us this opportunity to hear your gospel preached. Father, I pray that You would
bless Your Word in a powerful way this morning. Bless Your
Word to Your glory. Bless Your Word to the hearts
of Your people, Father. Enable us to see the glory, the
power, the sufficiency of Christ our Savior and cause our hearts
and souls to rest, to find rest and peace and quiet in a full
and free salvation that's in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we Thank you for all the many, many blessings that you've so
freely bestowed upon your people. Every spiritual blessing that
we need to stand accepted before thee, you've given us in our
Lord Jesus Christ. You've given us mercy, grace.
You've given us righteousness and forgiveness, sanctification,
peace. You've given us preservation
all in our Lord Jesus Christ and his precious blood and his
obedience. And Father, we're thankful. We're
thankful for all the many material blessings that you've given us
in this life. We do not have to look very far
every day to see it's true, the Lord will provide. And Father,
we're thankful. And Father, we ask at this time
that you would be with your people in a special way here in times
of trouble and heartache and sorrow. We pray a special blessing
for our sister, Joyce Brown, Father, that you comfort her
heart this time of loss. We're so thankful for the years
that you've given us our brother Carter and the blessing he's
been to so many of us all these many years and the faithfulness
that you've given to me. And Father, we're thankful that
you've called him home, called him out of this body of sin and
pain and suffering, out of this world of sin and called him to
be with thee. Father, we're thankful. But we're
heartbroken, those who are left behind, and we pray a special
blessing on Joyce, that you comfort her heart, that you be with her
in a special way, Father, we pray. Your other people who are
sick and suffering and sorrowing, you know the needs of your people.
Father, we pray you'd meet them according to the riches of your
mercy and grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, for our world
going through this great difficulty, this virus, Father, we pray that
you would Move in a powerful way to heal the land, to heal
your people, preserve and protect your people. Make it possible
that we can meet together again face to face and worship Thee.
Father, we're thankful for this technology, but Father, enable
us to meet together face to face. Be with our leaders, that you
give them wisdom, the doctors and nurses that treat those who
are ill. Father, give them wisdom and
strength for the job that you've laid upon their shoulders. All
these things we ask and we give thanks and that name which is
above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the
Lord brought this scripture to my mind at this time of this
pandemic. I know there is a lot of concern
about our health right now, as well there should be. We should
be taking some care in this matter. Janet told me years ago that
God has given us a body and a mind to take care of it, and we ought
to use it that way. Let's use the wisdom that God's given us
and take the prudent, proper precautions for our safety at
this time. We should limit social contact.
We should use social distancing. We should wash our hands, and
as Brother Eric Floyd so eloquently put it, don't pick your nose.
We ought to do those things. Do what you can to protect yourself. But now listen, listen to me,
let your hope and your peace and your confidence be in the
Lord. This is true. Our God is in control
today, just as much as he's always has been. Don't let your confidence,
wash your hands, but don't let your confidence be in your hand
washing. Let your rest be in this, our
God's offering, our God's offering. They say, and rightfully so,
that we're fighting an invisible enemy right now, this virus.
But you know what? The Lord's in control of that
virus. It's not invisible to him. The Lord's in control of
where that virus goes and where it doesn't go, what it does and
what it does not do. And faith bows to the Lord's
will in this matter of this virus, just like it does in all things.
If the Lord prevents us, you and me, from getting this virus,
well it's right and it's good that he did it and all he's doing
and keeping us from getting it is accomplishing his eternal
purpose. And if the Lord gives us this virus and we get sick
from it, it's just as right and just as good that God did it
and God's accomplishing his eternal purpose in giving it to us. It
won't be an accident if one of us gets this virus or many of
us get this virus. So we should take every precaution
that the medical community tells us that we ought to be taking.
Be careful, but don't be panicked. Be careful, be wise, but don't
be panicked because you know that the Lord is in control.
I'd a whole lot rather have my rest be in the Lord than in my
hand washing and social distancing, wouldn't you? Now, do I have
scripture for that? Yes, I do. Hold your finger there
in second Chronicles. Look with me at the book of Philippians.
I have scripture for this book of Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four and
verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. And
again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation, let your
kindness, your gentleness, your faithful, let your moderation
be known unto all men. The Lord's at hand. Be careful
for nothing. Now, that word careful there
means anxious. Don't be overly anxious. Don't
be panicked. Be panicked about nothing. But
in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and your
minds through Christ Jesus. See, be careful. Now, be careful
and be prayerful, but don't be overly anxious. Don't be panicked.
Why not? because our God's in control.
He's in control of this. He'll comfort the hearts of his
people. Now that is good advice for God's people. But my job
is to preach the gospel to you, not just give you good advice.
So from the story that we read here in 2 Chronicles 20, can
I preach the gospel from this? Well, I believe I can. I believe
God's given me a message for you this morning. I've entitled
the message, The Battle Is Not Yours. The battle is not yours.
That's true in this matter of this virus. And it's especially
true in the matter of salvation. The battle is not yours, but
God's. You and I are indeed fighting
an invisible enemy. Our invisible enemy that all
of us are fighting is sin. And it will kill every last one
of us. Sin has a 100% kill rate. And you and I can hope to escape
this virus. Maybe we can We hope to escape
catching this fire, so we can hope to survive it if we do. But you and I cannot escape death
by sin. No amount of washing in religious ceremony can cleanse
you of your sin. No amount of partaking in religious
ceremony, religious thought can cleanse you of your sin. No amount
of social distancing, no amount of separating yourself from this
world will save you from sin. Because my friend, sin is in
you, not in the world. I mean, it is in the world, Your
problem, my problem, sin's in me, sin's in you. No amount of
social distancing from the world will save us from sin. The only
hope you and I have of salvation from our sin, the only hope we
have of being given life from the dead, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's who I want to preach
to you this morning. The good news of the gospel is the battle
against sin is not yours, but God's. And my friend, the battle's
over. You will be saved if you do nothing
except depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what's given
to us in a picture in our text this morning. Second Chronicles
chapter 20 verse one. It came to pass after this also
that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with
them other beside the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle.
And there came some that told Jehoshaphat saying there come
with a great multitude. against thee from beyond the
sea on this side Syria. And behold, they be in Hazon
Tamar, which is in Gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared and set
himself to seek the Lord and proclaim a fast throughout all
Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord.
Even out of all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the
Lord. Now you're very familiar with
this story. Bad news arrives. Bad news arrives
at your doorstep or on the six o'clock evening news. What's
the first thing we do? The first thing, do we try to
figure out some brilliant plan to be able to escape from this
bad situation we're in? We're going to first try to save
ourselves by the strength of the flesh. That's not what Jehoshaphat
did, is it? Jehoshaphat set himself to seek
the Lord, to fervently, seriously seek the Lord. He sought help
from the Lord. He sought guidance from the Lord.
Lord, what should I do? And he sought deliverance from
the Lord. Lord, deliver us from this enemy. And Jehoshaphat's
a wise leader. He first set himself to seek
the Lord, but then he called all the people of Judah. You
fast and you seek the Lord too. And they all came together with
their families and they came standing in front of the temple,
seeking the Lord, seeking help from the Lord, deliverance from
the Lord. Now you got the picture there in your mind? Here's all
the people of Judah, their families, mothers and fathers, little ones,
grandfathers, grandmothers, all standing as mercy beggars, hat
in hand before the temple, begging for a handout of God's mercy.
There they stand, unable to do anything for themselves. All
they can do is wait on the Lord to show mercy. They're there
showing their complete and utter dependence upon God's mercy,
waiting to see what God would be pleased to do. And they're
all gathered together, Jehoshaphat leads the people in prayer, verse
five. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah in
Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord before the new court. And
he said, O Lord God of our fathers, are not thou God in heaven and
rule us not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And
then I hand, is there not power and might so that none is able
to withstand thee? 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. Now
there are many things Jehoshaphat did not know at this time. He
didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't know if this
enemy was going to overrun the city and kill all the people
or not. He had no idea why this was happening. He didn't know
why this great army who could conquer them easily was all gathered
there. He didn't know why the Lord allowed that to happen.
He didn't know if they would be delivered or how they would
be delivered. And don't we often feel that
way? You feel that way right now? You've got no idea what's
going on. Why is this happening? Why did the Lord allow this to
happen? We don't know. When we find ourselves in that
situation, we don't know. Tell you where we start. Let's start with what we do know.
Here's what I do know. Almighty God is sovereign. Jehoshaphat
began his prayer, giving thanks that God, so he know, and I hear,
I don't know a lot, but I do know this God's offering. David
told us the Lord reigneth, God's offering. Let the earth rejoice.
Well, I don't know about everybody in the earth, but I'm going to
rejoice. God's offering. I find comfort in the fact that
God is suffering. He is able to deliver us and
whatever happens, it's not something that's against God's will and
God's purpose because God's offering. And this sovereign is our God. Oh, that's so comforting. He's
our God. He's our God because he's made
himself our God. He made his people to be his
in God's covenant of grace. And this is what Jehoshaphat
is praying. Lord, we're coming to you because
you're our God. The best example that I can think
of is a little child. A little child comes up and and
they've skinned their knee. They've fallen down. They've
skinned their knee. They've skinned their hands up.
They've fallen on the concrete or something. They come in running.
And, you know, there could be their aunt and uncle there. This
happened to my little nieces and nephews. They come in, Jan
and I are sitting there, and other people might be sitting
there. But who's that baby looking for? Mama. And you could try
to go help them, but they don't really want you. Where's my mama?
I want my mama. Not just any mother. I want my
mama. Since she's my mama, she can
take care of me. She's going to love me. I'm going
to feel her tender touch. That's what Jehoshaphat is saying
here. I'm crying to our God, to my father. We cry to my father. We're not just crying to an austere,
severe king who's sovereign upon a throne. We're crying to our
father for mercy. grace and help. We're trying,
we're crying to our sovereign father for mercy and grace and
help. That's what he's doing. Now read
on verse eight. And they dwelt therein and have
built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, if an evil
cometh upon us as the sword judgment or pestilence, pestilence or
famine, we stand before this house and in thy presence for
thy name is in this house and cry unto thee in our affliction,
then thou will hear and help. Now Jehoshaphat here is not asking
God to, Lord, protect us because we built you this glorious temple.
He's not asking for merit. He's asking for mercy. And when
he's asking for mercy, he's pleading God's own word. If you look back
a few pages, 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 12, this is Solomon's
prayer at the dedication of the temple. And this is what he said
then. Second Chronicles chapter seven, verse 12. And the Lord
appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him, I've heard
thy prayer. I've chosen this place to myself
for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heaven, that
there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land,
or if I send pestilence among my people, now stop right there
and notice. If the heavens shut up and there's
no rain, or the locusts come to devour the land, or I send
pestilence I sent a virus on my people. Where'd it come from? God sent it, didn't he? That's
what he said there. I did those things. Verse 14, read on. If
my people, and this happens, if my people, which are called
by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and
turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine
eyes shall be open, and mine ears a tent, under the prayer
that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified
this house that my name may be there forever. And mine eyes
and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And this is what
Jehoshaphat sang. Lord, you said you'd hear the
prayer of your people in this house. So we're doing what you
said. We've come here and we're crying
to you for help. And the significance of that
building is that building, the temple, is a picture of Christ. The people of Judah ran to the
temple. They ran to that type of Christ
to find mercy there because that's where it's found. You and I have
something much, much better today. We don't have to run to a building,
a building that may be closed to the public. We run to Christ
himself. We're not running to the picture.
We run to Christ himself to find mercy, to find salvation from
our sin. That's so much better, isn't
it? Now read on back in our text, 2 Chronicles 20 verse 10. And
now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom
thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of
the land of Egypt. But they turned from them and
destroyed them not. Behold, I say how they reward
us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast
given us to inherit. Now he says, Lord, these enemies
surrounding us, they're giving us evil when you did them good.
Now we know that the Lord hadn't brought us this far to perish. The Lord did not deliver Israel
from Egypt just so they could go out in the wilderness and
die of hunger or die of thirst. The Lord did not deliver Israel
from the hand of Pharaoh just so Pharaoh could destroy them
at the Red Sea. And the same thing's true now.
God's not going to destroy his people. Verse 12. 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. And all Judah stood before
the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children.
And here's their cry, O Lord, won't you help us? We're helpless
and hopeless by nature. We need thy strength or we'll
surely fail. By nature, we are so ignorant,
We don't know which way to turn. By nature, we're so ignorant.
We don't know which way is up. Lord, we need thy wisdom. In
the worst way, we need thy wisdom. Isn't that what why Solomon did?
Solomon told God, I don't know. Here he is supposed to be the
king. He said, I'm not able to be the king. I don't know how
to go in or come out. I don't even know how to come
in out of the rain. Lord, I need wisdom. And that's what God gave
him. He gave him wisdom. That's what
you and I need. We need wisdom. We need Christ,
who is the wisdom of God. If we have Christ, who is the
wisdom of God, we'll see how God's going to deliver his people
from their sin. We need wisdom. But we can't deliver this from,
you know, we can't save ourselves. This is what Josaphat's saying,
Lord, we don't have any power. We don't have any allies to help
us. I don't have a plan. I don't have a plan how I'm going
to deliver myself and our wives and our children, our little
ones with the arm of the flesh. I've got no plan, but depending
on thee. Lord, our eyes are waiting on
thee in humble submission. Now, Jehoshaphat's wise in this.
He put all the responsibility on God, and now he's looking
to him. Lord, I don't know what to do,
but you do. And whatever it is you're going
to do, I know this, it's right. So our eye is looking to thee
in total dependence. And that should be our attitude
at all times about everything. Why does that suddenly become
our attitude when there's a virus? But when the economy's good and
the stock market's good and unemployment's low, we seem to forget that.
This should be our attitude about all things at all times. Lord,
we're completely dependent upon you, looking to you to do everything
that we need. Now, that's a good prayer. That
prayer is a good sermon outline. It begins acknowledging who God
is and who we are, God's Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that's exactly
what he did in heaven and the earth and the seas and all deep
places. And it's pleased God to sovereignly
choose a people and he's given them an inheritance. Now, the
inheritance he gave the people here was was the land of Israel,
the promised land. But the inheritance that God
has given his people some a whole lot better than a land over there
in the Middle East. The inheritance that God has given his people
is his own son. The Lord Jesus Christ. God's
sovereignly given that to his people. And who are we? We're
nothing. We're sinners. We're nothing.
We're nobody from nowhere. We're no nothings. But by God's
grace, we know one thing. We know we're nothing. I guess
the second thing we know is this. Christ is everything. I know
I'm nothing and Christ is everything. He's all I need. He's everything
that I need. And our eyes are on him. We're
completely dependent on him to say If He doesn't save us, we
won't be saved. Now, verse 14. Then upon Jehaziel,
the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jehiel,
the son of Mataneah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the
Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. And he said,
hearken ye all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you,
be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude,
For the battle's not yours, but God's. Now as soon as this prayer
ended, God gave an answer. Now you already know this from
your experience. The Lord does not always answer prayer this
quickly. But you and I, God's people, never seek the Lord in
vain. Never. The Lord will answer in
due time. And here the Lord answered immediately.
The Holy Spirit came upon this man Jehaziel. Now he's got something
to say. Now he's got something that's
worth listening to because the Holy Spirit's come upon him and
given him a message. And here's his message. All you
people of God, you listen. Thus saith the Lord to you. Oh
boy, that ought to get our attention shouldn't it? Thus saith the
Lord to you. This is God's message to his
people. Don't be afraid of this great multitude that's come to
attack you. Don't be dismayed because the multitude is so large.
Don't be dismayed because you're outnumbered and you've got no
ability. The battle is not yours anyway, but God's. The Lord is going to fight this
battle for you. Now stop and think about that
for a minute. The Lord's going to fight this battle for you.
What's the outcome going to be? Well, Lord's going to win, isn't
He? Lord's going to take this battle. He's going to fight.
He's going to win the battle. Then we've got nothing to fear.
This silent enemy that we're talking about this morning is
the multitude of our sin. Our sins are a multitude. You
and I cannot count. Our sins are so many. David said,
my sins are ever before me. My sins are everywhere I look. There are multitudes. And every
individual one of those sins, that multitude, every individual
one of them is a killer. They're an assassin. All of my
sins are too powerful for me. Just one of them killed me. Just
one of them is a deadly assassin killed me. I can't even put one
of those sins away. I can't even deal with one of
them, much less a multitude. We're just like the people of
Israel here. I've got no power against the multitude of my sins
that's come against me. I can't put one of them away.
I can't pay for even one of those sins. I can't wash myself from
the stain of sin. I can't take away the guilt of
my sin. I can't even quit sinning. I
mean, everything I do just keeps adding to the multitude. I can't
quit sinning because I've got a nature that loves sin. That's what my flesh does. It
loves sin and it makes me powerless against sin. And I've got no
idea what to do. And then God sends his messenger
and says, thus sayeth the Lord to thee. Here's the message of
God to his people. Look to Christ, turn your eyes
to Christ and wait on him because the battle's not yours, but God's. God almighty took this battle
against the sin of his people upon himself. The father, He
sent His Son. The Father elected a people to
save. Just like He gave the land to Israel, the Father has elected
a people to save. But now there's a multitude of
their sins against Him. And the Father sent His Son, clothed
in human flesh, to be the representative of His people. He sent His Son
as a man, made of a woman, made under the law, to put away the
sin of His people by the sacrifice of Himself. And brother, I'm
here to tell you, He got the job done. The Lord Jesus Christ
did not come to try to do anything. He came as the mighty conqueror
and He put away the sin of all of His people. So don't you be
afraid. Don't you be dismayed by reason
of the multitude of your sin. The battle's not yours, but God's. He has already won the victory
over the sin of His people. Now the battle's over. The battle
is over. Though your sins be as scarlet,
though the multitude, all the multitudes be as scarlet, they
should be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they should be as wool. The multitude of your sin put
away under the blood of Christ. He fought the battle, the battle's
over. Now don't be dismayed. You rest in him. Rest in him.
Then we have another enemy, Satan. He's closely associated with
our sin. He's the accuser of the brethren. The actions, the
sin of God's people. And he accuses them with it.
This is a mighty enemy. Don't try to tackle this enemy
on your own. No need to. The battle's not yours, but God's. At Calvary, Satan was defeated. Satan was defeated the same place
the sin of God's elect was put away. At Calvary, the battle
raged. Satan did indeed bruise the heel
of the Savior, just like God prophesied that he would. But
while he was crushing the heel of the Savior, our Redeemer,
the mighty conqueror, he crushed the head of Satan. He crushed
his power. Now, the battle is not yours,
but God's. See, the battle has already been
fought. Christ fought the battle and he won the battle. The Lord
Jesus Christ came, he saw and he conquered. Now you rest in
Christ. What about Satan? Satan's real. He hasn't been put away yet.
He's still the accuser of the brethren. Well, that's all right.
Because Christ the Savior has defeated Satan. He crushed his
head. He took away Satan's power by
taking away the sin of God's elect. So when Satan makes an
accusation against God's people, God says, what sin? I don't see any sin. It's all
being put away under the blood of Christ. I see nothing here
that draws my condemnation because there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. The battle is his and he won
it. Now you rest. Just rest. Don't be overanxious.
Rest. Rest from all your works of religion.
Rest from trying to make God happy with you and rest in Christ
because the battle is over. The victory is won. And that's
just exactly what Jehaziel told the people, the battle's over.
Tomorrow, you just go out and watch the Lord's victory. Verse
16, he says, tomorrow, go you down against them. Behold, they
came up by the cliff of Ziz. You should find them at the end
of the brook before the wilderness of Jeruel. You should not need
to fight in this battle. Set 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 the battle must be fought,
but you and I, we're just spectators to the battle. We're just witnesses
to the victory of our Lord. We have no need to join in this
battle against our enemies, sin and Satan. As a matter of fact,
our participation is forbidden. The battle is well in hand because
the battle is God's. Now we're not to join this battle
against our sin, but we're told to set ourselves, set yourself
and do not give an inch. You set yourself in Christ. You
set yourself to rest in Christ and don't give an inch and go
back under the law in any way. Just stand still. How many times
does scripture tell us, be still, stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. You're not going to need to fight
in this battle because the battle is not yours, but God's. Just stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. Now, don't fear. Don't be discouraged
and don't panic. Why not? The battle is going
to be raging. Why shouldn't I panic? Because the Lord will be with
you. That's his promise. The Lord will be with you. How
much more encouragement can we get? The Lord will be with you.
Now, you see how all this is a picture of the gospel that
we preach. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is entirely in Christ. Christ has done all the work
of righteousness. Christ has come and defeated
every enemy. And this salvation, this great
salvation, Christ gives to sinners freely. He gives it to his people
freely. You can only receive this salvation
if you receive it freely, by not contributing even some of
your own works or some of your own righteousness. If you just
stand still, you'll see the salvation of the Lord, because the battle
is not yours, but God's. That's good news, isn't it? I
can tell you how a believer reacts to that. Look at verse 18. Jehoshaphat,
he heard that, and he bowed his head with his face to the ground.
And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the
Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites of the children
of the Kohathites and the children of the Korhites stood up to praise
the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. This is the believer's
reaction. Oh, it's relief and belief. The battle's not yours, but God's.
The battle's over. The victory's been won. And we
bow in reference and worship, thanksgiving and praise. Now
the next day, verse 20, 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 you be established. Believe his prophets. So shall
you prosper. Now Jehoshaphat's a good leader.
He's a picture of a pastor here. On his way to the place Jehaziel
told them to go, he stops. And what does he do? He preaches
the same message they heard yesterday. He reminds everyone, you believe
in the Lord your God. Believe in him. Rest in him.
We can't be told too many times to believe on Christ, can we?
We can't be told too many times, now you rest. Stop! Stand still
and rest in Christ. There's a battle, but don't you
plan on fighting in this battle. You just rest in Christ. You
believe God and all will be well, because the battle's not yours,
but God's. Now you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you keep believing. Don't plan on, at some point,
thinking you've grown enough, you can start adding some of
your righteousness in on this thing. Don't think eventually
you're going to grow strong enough, you can help God out a little
bit. No, you just rest in Christ alone. You rely on Christ and
God will accept you. You'll be accepted in the end.
If you believe in the Lord your God, you believe in Christ, you'll
be established. You'll be built up, you'll be
supported, you'll be strengthened. You know how? By the same message
God used to save you in the first place. Just repeating this message
over and over and over again, the battle's not yours, but God's. Now you rest. You rest in him.
You rest in him. If you start trying to add any
of your own righteousness to this thing at any point along
the way, you're going to be building on sinking sand. You're going
to be find nothing but weakness and decay and defeat in yourself.
But you trust Christ. You have nothing but victory
because he has won the victory over all his enemies. And here's
a picture of it beginning in verse 21. And when they 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. Jehoshaphat
was absolutely certain the Lord would have the victory. You know
how I know that? Did you notice how he sent the
singers first? He didn't send the army first,
did he? He sent the singers first. The army wasn't going to be needed.
He sent singers first praising the Lord because The battle is
not yours, but God's. And they went singing the church's
favorite chorus. I don't know how many times this
is repeated in scripture, praise the Lord. His mercy forever. Jehoshaphat was so confident,
he believed God so strongly, he was singing God's praises.
He was singing God's praises for his deliverance before he
ever received one blessing from God. because he was sure they
were coming because God promised him. That's believing God. Now
you rest in him. That's what we'll do. If we really
believe the battle is not ours, but God's in there. Now verse
22. And when they began to sing and
to praise, the Lord sent ambushments against the children of Ammon,
Moab and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah and they were
smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against
the inhabitants of Mount Seir utterly to slay and to destroy
them. And when they made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, Everyone
helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the
watchtower in the wilderness, they looked under the multitude
and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth and none
escaped. Here's another one of these stories
that we love. How God gave his people the victory
and they never even fired a shot. God miraculously defeated the
enemy by confusing them, making them kill one another. And by
the time Israel got there, there's this huge host. They're already
laying dead. They were already defeated before
God's people even got there. Now that's the gospel. That's
the way God's people hear the gospel. That's that's generally
speaking. That's our story of grace. First,
we come under conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, and it scares
us out of our wits. We're scared of the multitude
of our sin. We're horrified. at our sin nature. We're terrified of the destruction
that's come. Judgment is coming. Justice is
coming. God's going to destroy me and
that's exactly what I deserve because of my sin. Then, God
sends his preacher saying, don't fear. Fear not, but believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he tells us about the battle.
The battle to put away our sin. It's not ours, but God's. The battle to put away our sin
has already been fought. It's been fought by Christ himself,
the captain of our salvation. He's already fought the battle
and he's won it. The battle's not yours, but God's.
Now you rest. You believe on him. And when
we believe, we see it. The multitude of our sin has
already been covered by the precious blood of our savior. There's
no enemy left. There's therefore now no condemnation
left to them which believe in Christ Jesus because he's put
their sin Verse 25, when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away
the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance, both
riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels, which they stripped
off for themselves more than they could carry away. And they
were three days in gathering of the spoil. It was so much.
They received greater blessing than they even asked for. All
they asked for is they'd be delivered, they'd be spared. And God made
them rich too. gave them more blessing, more
riches, more spoil than they could carry away. So they could
say with David, my cup runneth over. They found rich, beautiful
garments, pictures of the robe of Christ's perfect righteousness
that he gives his people. They found gold and silver and
precious jewels. They found all those things,
which are pictures of Christ, pictures of his beauty that he
gives to his people. It's his beauty, which he puts
upon his people. This is a picture of what every
believer has. Every believer already has the
most precious jewel of all. Christ, the pearl of great price. In God's blessings to his people,
they always produce thanksgiving. Verse 26, on the fourth day,
they assembled themselves in the Valley of Baraka, for there
they blessed the Lord. Therefore, the name of the same
place was called the Valley of Baraka unto this day. Oh, they
blessed God. They didn't wait until they got
back home. Right then and there, they blessed God. But it didn't
stop there. That kept going. They went back
home. Remember how this all started? Standing there before the temple.
Standing there before that picture of Christ. They went back to
that same place. Blessing and thanking God. Verse
27. Then they returned, every man of Judah and every man of
Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go
again to Jerusalem with joy. for the Lord had made them to
rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with
psalteries and harps and trumpets into the house of the Lord. They
came back, they began begging for mercy, and they came back
thanking God for His mercy. That's the natural reaction of
the heart of a believer, thank God for His mercy. And then there's
one last thing that comes when Christ fights our battle for
us. When the battle is not yours but the Lord's, This is always
the outcome. It's peace. Verse 29. And fear
of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they
had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel.
So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet for his God gave him rest
round about. God's victories are always so
complete that Christ winning the battle means he's won the
whole war. Christ winning the battle ends
the whole war, and there's peace. No more rebellious uprisings
of the enemies of Christ. He's put them all away. Christ,
our Redeemer, has made peace for his people through the blood
of his cross. See, the battle's not yours.
The battle for peace is not yours. It's God's. Now you rest in him.
Give thanks, give thanks, and rest in Christ. Believe on him.
Oh, I pray God, give us the faith to rest in Christ, because the
battle's not ours, but God's. Let's bow together in prayer.
Our Father, how we thank you for this precious portion of
your word. And Father, I pray that you'd
apply the message of it to the hearts of your people. The battle's
not ours, but God's. Cause us to rejoice in Christ
our Savior. Cause us to rest in him. Cause
us to have no spiritual anxiety, no worry whatsoever. The battle's
not ours, but God's. He's put away the sin of his
people. And whatever happens between
now and eternity, we know the end of the story, because the
battle's not ours, but God's. He will give his people the ultimate
glorification, the ultimate end of their salvation, because he's
won the battle against the sin of his people. but cause us to
have rest and joy and peace in Christ our Savior. And as much
as it's possible, deliver our hearts from anxiety and panic
over what's going on in our world right now, because our God's
in control. He's in control of all things,
and we're thankful. Oh God, apply your word to our
hearts. Give us faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's in his precious name that
we pray and give thanks.