Let's look at 2 Chronicles chapter
20 and verse 30. So the realm of Jehoshaphat
was quiet for his God gave him rest round about. Now Jehoshaphat is a child of
God. He's a godly king. He's the godly
king of Judah and Jerusalem. And as we see from this verse,
God, his God, gave him rest. His God gave him rest. But not before Jehoshaphat was
taught a very difficult lesson. He had to go through some tough
things to learn this lesson. And this is the chief lesson.
This is the chief thing he was taught of the whole passage that
we're going to look at here in verse 20. Verse 20, there towards
the end of verse 20, it says, Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall ye be established. Believe his prophets, his preachers,
so shall ye prosper. This is what he was taught. Believe
the Lord your God. Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall you be established. Believe his prophet, his preachers. So shall you prosper. Let's go
back to verse 1 here. Verse 1, it says, 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. Now, these enemies represent
the enemies of the believer. The enemies are enemies. Notice,
it came to pass after this. These enemies came up because
of something Jehoshaphat had done. It displeased the Lord
very much, something he did. Prior to this, just as Brother
Frank read to you in the 18th chapter, Jehoshaphat erred. He
erred by joining in an alliance with King Ahab, the king of Israel,
and this displeased the Lord. King Ahab was an ungodly king. He hated God. He represents false religion. He represents free will, works,
religion is who he represents. He, as you know, was married
to that idolatrous bride, Jezebel. He built a house in Samaria for
them to worship Baal. And he put up images of Baal
and Ashtoreth, the idol gods, all around. Samaria and all around
Israel, the scripture says Ahab did more to provoke the Lord
God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were
before him. He was an evil, ungodly king. He hated God. Now, he was religious. Everything he did was in the
name of religion. And if you notice there, whenever
Brother Frank read the 18th chapter, When he said he was seeking the
Lord, he said, I'm seeking the Lord. He said, let's see what
the Lord says. And what he did was Jehoshaphat
erred in that first off, he gave his daughter to be married to
King Ahab's son. And then the second thing that
he did was he went down to spend a little time with King Ahab.
And when he did, King Ahab killed all these lambs and put on this
big feast for him. and buttered him up real good
and said, now will you go with me into battle against Syria
to take Ramoth Gilead? Now look here in 2 Chronicles
18 and look at verse 3 there. 2 Chronicles 18 verse 3. And Jehoshaphat answered, Ahab king of Israel said unto
Jehoshaphat king of Judah, wilt thou go with me to Ramoth Gilead? And he answered him, this is
how Jehoshaphat answered, he answered him, I am as thou art,
and my people as thy people, and we will be with thee in the
war. And then Jehoshaphat said unto
the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the
Lord today. You see what's wrong with that?
There's something backwards about that. He said, I'm as you are,
my people are as you are, and then he said, let's inquire with
the Lord about this. That's backwards, that's backwards. Well, Ahab calls in 400 of his
prophets, false prophets, 400 men. He didn't just call one
or two, he called 400 men in there. And they spoke like false
preachers speak. They worded their words, crafted
their words so that no matter what the outcome of this war
was, it sounded like what they said was, you know, that they
gave him the truth of how it would turn out. You ever notice
that about false creatures? When they speak, it's like reading
a horoscope. It could be true for anybody,
the way it's worded. And they craft it that way on
purpose, on purpose. And so anyway, he buttered up
King Jehoshaphat with this. And then they called him Micaiah.
And King Ahab hated Micaiah because Micaiah spoke the truth. He was
God's true prophet. And he said, I don't care what
these other men have said, I'm going to speak what the Lord
has given me to speak. And so they called him in, and
he comes in and he tells him. At first he mocks those 400 prophets. He said, yeah, go up there. You're
going to prosper all right. And he was mocking them the whole
time. That's what he was doing. And then he turned around and
he told them, now this is what the Lord has said. You're going
to go up there, and before this thing's over with, all your whole
armies and all Israel's going to be like a a bunch of sheep
without a shepherd, because you're going to fall. You're going to
die in this battle. He said, if you come again in
peace, then the word of the Lord hasn't spoken to me. And King
Ahab said, y'all heard him. Y'all heard what he said. And
he went up there and he died, just like Micaiah said he would. So here's our first point. But
now look back here at 2 Chronicles 18.27. I do want you to see this
before we go further. When Micaiah was speaking, this
is what he said. This is the last thing he said.
Look at the last part of verse 27. And he said, hearken all
ye people. Hearken all ye people. But Jehoshaphat
didn't hearken. He didn't hearken to God's prophet. And he joined Ahab in this battle.
And they went into this battle and the Lord was displeased by
this. Now here's our first lesson. Always hearken to the word of
the Lord spoken by his true prophet, by his true preachers, by his
true preachers. And be not unequally yoked with
unbelievers. God's true preachers are going
to preach God's word. They're going to preach what
God says. They're going to preach what the word of the Lord says.
Free will works preachers are going to preach whatever they
come up with. They're going to preach to make
a big man and a little God. They want man to have the final
say in everything. That's how they're going to preach.
But listen to God's preacher. Listen to every preacher that
you listen to and take them to the Word of God and see what
the Word says. John said, Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because
many false prophets are going out into the world. Hereby know
you the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. That person
who preaches who Christ is, what he came to do, what he accomplished,
what he accomplished, where he is now, who he did it for, these
things that we know to be the truth, you know that man's preaching
the truth. But the person who stands up
and denies what Christ has done is calling, he might as well
be calling Christ accursed because he's denying what Christ has
accomplished. Don't hear such a person. Don't
hear a man who's telling you that God looked down through
the ages and saw that a believer would believe on Christ and that's
why he chose him. That's a lie. That puts man as
being the end all be all of his salvation, and that's a lie. The man who speaks the truth
is going to speak this word. And God said to the law and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it's
because there is no light in them. It's not that they're misguided. It's that there is no light in
them. That's what God says. And never
under any circumstances is a believer to join himself with such men,
ever. Listen to the scripture. Be ye
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? What concord hath Christ with
Belial? What part hath he that believeth
with an infidel?" You're the temple of the living God. What
agreement is the temple of the living God going to have to do
with idols? God said, I'll dwell in them.
I'll walk in them. I'll be their God and they'll
be my people. And he says, so come out from
among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. 2 Chronicles
chapter 19 verse 1. And God sent his prophet and
told Jehoshaphat this very thing. Look at 2 Chronicles 19 verse
1. And Jehoshaphat, the king of
Judah, returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. This is
after the battle. And Yehu, the son of Hanai, the
seer, went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, Shouldest
thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore
is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Shall you help the
ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore the Lord
is displeased with this thing," he said. Well, like we're prone
to do. You know what Jehoshaphat did
when he heard Yahuwah speak these words? He just went on and seems
to have ignored him. He just went on and seemed like
he didn't pay him any attention to what he said. But here's our
second point. God, our faithful Father, will
chasten his child. He'll correct his child to keep
us looking to the Lord only. Look here now in 2 Chronicles
20, verse 2. Then there came some that told
Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee
from beyond the sea on this side of Syria. And behold, they be
in Hazen Zon Tamar, which is in Jeddah, and Jehoshaphat feared. Our father got his attention.
Now God's got his attention. God's able to use even our enemies
if need be. And God used, he used these armies
and moved these whole armies to come up against Jehoshaphat
and now he's got his attention. Jehoshaphat feared. Aren't you
glad that God can do this? Aren't you glad he can turn men's
hearts withersoever he will so that he can use nations and men
individuals within whole nations and turn whole nations if need
be to correct his child. That's a great comfort to me
and to you that he can do that because we need him to do that.
We need him to keep us and turn us and keep us looking to Christ. And his words are always effectual
to do that. Look at what he did here in verse
3. Jehoshaphat set himself to seek the Lord. That's the purpose
of God's chastening hand. That's the effectual working
of God. God has sanctified this to his heart, and now Jehoshaphat
set himself to seek the Lord. I don't care what the trial is.
I don't care what it is, what form it comes in or what it looks
like. For a child of God, the end purpose
of it is this right here, to turn us to seek the Lord. That's the purpose of it. That's
the purpose of it. And look what he did. Look what
he did, verse 3. Jehoshaphat proclaimed 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, King Jehoshaphat proclaimed
this fast, but whenever our King Jesus is determined for his child
to seek him, he can create a fast, a true spiritual fast, in the
heart of his child. And it doesn't matter where they
are, it doesn't matter what they're occupied in, when we see all
of these come out of Judah and leave Judah and come to seek
the Lord. You see there an example of how
our Lord can effectually work in the heart of His child and
make us drop whatever it is we're doing, whatever we thought was
so important that we couldn't let it go and go worship the
Lord. The Lord has the power to make
us open our hands and let go of it and seek Him. He does. We've had earthly fathers that
corrected us, and the scripture says, and they did it for a few
days after their own pleasure. But God, our God, God our Father,
does it for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness.
He keeps his child looking to him. Why is it tonight, here
we got him in the middle of the week, You've got your jobs, you've
got all your worldly things that you have to do and providing
for your home and your body and what we call our livelihood.
What is it that makes you just drop all of it in the middle
of the week and gather here to this place to seek the Lord?
What makes you do it? God has revealed in your heart
you need Christ. He's created this true spiritual
path in your heart to make you know. This stuff that I call
my livelihood, that's not my life. Christ is my life and I
have to come. I tell our brethren up there
all the time that we come and we hear the Lord and he strengthens
our inner man and he makes that old man of our flesh subdued. He subdues him. We hear this
word and he strengthens our inner man. We go out into the world
and we do our our livelihood and we work and then we've got
to come back in the middle of the week because our old man
has gotten a little stronger and our inward man has gotten
a little weaker. And we come back and he strengthens that
inner man again and seduces that outer man again so we can go
on a little bit more. But we've got to keep coming
to him. That's a true fast. That's what a true fast is. All
right, now let's look here now at the third thing. The only
way to God our Father Whether we're coming in the beginning
or whether he's chasing us and turning us, the only way to come
to him is through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Look
where they gathered, verse 5. And Jehoshaphat stood in the
congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before
the new court. Look at it, verse 8. This house
is called a sanctuary for thy name. And whenever they dedicated
this house, they said, If when evil cometh upon us as the sword,
judgment, or pestilence, or famine, if we stand before this house,
and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and we
cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help."
This house and everything in this house. From the new court,
to the altar, to the holiest of holies, to the mercy seat
on top of the ark, to the high priest that was going in for
the people. Everything about this house is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the sanctuary. He's
the holy place where God will meet with his people. Christ.
He said they stood there. You notice it says here, Jehoshaphat
stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem. Here's a
king. Here's a king who's over everybody.
But where is he now? He comes down and he's standing
there in the congregation with all the rest of the people, with
Judah and Jerusalem. Because in Christ, he makes his
people one with one another. He makes his people equal with
one another. There's not big me's and little
you's. There's not Jew and Gentile,
there's not rich and poor, there's not male and female, we're one
in Christ. And here they stand together
in the congregation, and they're standing before the new court.
What I read in the commentaries and through the scriptures is
this new court had been damaged. And this new court was where
Asa, who is Jehoshaphat's father, Asa had had rebuilt this new
court. He had made this court new. This
was the priest's court and he had made it new. Isaiah 52 says,
let's look at it. Isaiah 52, turn there with me. Isaiah 52 in verse 13 says, behold,
the Lord says, behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall
be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astonished
at this, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form
more than the sons of men. So shall he." Now get what he's
saying. He's saying, as low as my son
went, as low as he went, in proportion to how low he went, so shall
he sprinkle many nations. He shall sprinkle my people with
his blood scattered about in every nation, and so shall he
be exalted. in proportion to how low he went,
that's how high he'll be exalted. And he says, and the kings shall
shut their mouths at him for that which they had not seen,
had not been told them shall they see and that which they
had not heard shall they consider. Christ Jesus came into this earth
and he was made sin for his people. He came into this earth and he
took the sin of his people. The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of all his elect people. And he suffered and his visage
was so marred more than any man in his form, more than any man.
Just like that court of the priest had been damaged. Christ is the
court of the priest. He's the place where those that
he's made priests come to God in him. We come to him. Now the
footing of that court was all redemption silver. Every bit
of it was what it was made of. We come on the footing of redemption
accomplished. And to accomplish that redemption,
he was marred. His visage was marred. He, from
his soul out, was marred by what he suffered on that cross. But
when he accomplished the salvation of his people, God our Father
raised him to newness, just like that new court. He raised him. And now we stand here right now,
each one of us, before the new court. We stand here before the
court of the priest, before Christ our King. And everything about
that house pictured him. He's the lamb of God. He's the
altar of God. He's the blood. His blood is
the blood that's sprinkled. He's the mercy seat that covers
that broken law. And he's the high priest that
went in and offered his blood. Now of the things which we've
spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary. and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched, and not man." Now, here's what he says. Our
Christ did not just attempt what he did. He accomplished the salvation
of his people. By what he did, he, like that
scapegoat in the wilderness, they put all the sins of the
people on that scapegoat. And that scapegoat was led away
by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, into a land not
inhabited. Christ was cut off. with the
sin of his people upon him, he was cut off. And it was a real
bearing of sin. I'll tell you how real it was.
Even in the tithe, even in the shadow, that fit man that led
the scapegoat away, God said, you've got to wash yourself before
you can even come back into the camp. You can't even come back
into camp because you're ceremonially in tithe. You're defiled. You
can't come back into the camp. That's how real this was. But
he put those sins away. So that now God says they don't
exist. God says when we come to him
speaking of our sins, what sins? You've never sinned. What sin? I don't know where they are.
God who knows the end from the beginning, God who remembers
all things and knows all things says I don't know anything about
your sin. He's gone. He's gone. He says,
verse 9, look at verse 9, chapter 20, verse 9. It says there, when
evil come upon us as the sword, when this gospel sword comes
and makes us see that we owe eternal death to God's law, our
judgment, when God opens up our eyes of our understanding and
makes us see that his justice is strict justice, unbending
justice, unyielding justice. It makes us to see that we owe
his justice satisfaction, but then he makes us see that Christ
has made satisfaction. He's made satisfaction. Our pestilence,
our famine. When God makes us to see that
all this nice little robe of righteousness that we have made,
that we carved out for ourselves, and we thought we had something
that we could present to God. And God makes us to see that
our sin, our sin is like little pests just eating up our garments
and just making it moth-eaten and just making it fall apart
and have holes all in it so that God won't receive it. And when
God makes us to see that we're in a famine of bread, we don't
have the true bread. We don't have Christ the bread
from heaven. We don't have life by what we've
done. That's what he makes us to see.
He says, if we stand before this house, before Christ, if we stand
in thy presence, for thy name's in this house, your name's in
Christ, if we come in Christ and cry unto thee in our affliction,
then thou wilt hear and help. I like certainties, don't you?
He says, if you come in my son, he will help, he will hear. Listen
to the scripture. The scripture tells us this,
having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. There they stood
before this new court. We got a new way and a living
way. which he consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And we have a high priest
over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And because
he knows the feeling of our infirmities, because he's walked right where
we walk and suffered what we suffer in an infinitely greater
way, he says this. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need." He said he'll help. Don't be
like folks who, when they start, you know, when over there in
chapter 18 there, when Jehoshaphat says, let it not be so, the words
right before that, that Ahab had said, what he's meaning is
he said, whenever Micaiah speaks to me, He lets his flesh get
in the way, and he just says what he wants to say to me. And
you know what we do a lot of times when we're sitting there
listening? We'll sit there and we'll be listening to the gospel,
and whenever it starts rubbing us the wrong way, a lot of times
we'll do just what Ahab did. We'll say, well, that's just
the preacher talking right there. Now he's just talking. That's
just him talking. It might be God talking, right? It might be God talking to us.
It might be. And what we ought to do always
is listen and hearken and listen. Hearken. All right. So first,
we always want to hearken to the Lord and never unite with
unbelievers. Secondly, we know the Lord can
chasten his people. He can turn his people. And thirdly,
we come only in Christ the Lord. Now, here's the fourth thing.
We see what a true broken heart is. We see what it is to come
as a needy sinner and the cry of the heart. We see the cry
of a needy, broken, contrite sinner. Look at verse 6. The
first thing we do is we acknowledge God's holiness. Verse 6, and
he said, O Lord God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven? He's
saying what the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to say. He said, when
you pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. When God breaks our heart, this
is what we come to Him. We stop coming when He says,
come boldly. We come boldly. We come boldly
with liberty to come, but we don't come cocky and boastful. We come saying, Lord, you alone
are holy. You're the holy one. Oh, Lord
God, you're in heaven. You're way above us. You're far
above us. And then it's a cry which praises
God's sovereign will to do as he pleases. Verse 6. And you
rule us now over all the kingdoms of the heathen, and in thy hand
power and might so that none is able to withstand thee. Whatever
the Lord is pleased, that does he in heaven and earth, the seas
and all deep places. We come crying, Lord, not my
will, but thy will be done. And then here's the broken and
contrite heart with completing his everlasting covenant of grace,
verse 7. Are not thou our God, who didst
drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel? How did he become our God? How
did we become his people Israel? How did that happen? By his sovereign
choice, he chose whom he would. That's it. God doesn't love everybody. God loves His people. It's a
particular love. And somebody will say, but God
is love. Yes, He is love. That's His nature. God is love, and His nature is
mercy. And if God didn't save one sinner, if He didn't show
mercy to one sinner and didn't love one sinner, He wouldn't
change His nature of being love and being mercy whatsoever. So
that's not even worthy to be brought up. He said, Jacob, have
I loved, and so have I hated. God loves whom he will. It's
his prerogative to love whom he will. And for his great love,
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath he
quickened us together, by grace you're saved. By grace you're
saved. And then look, we've got knowledge here, verse 9. You
gave this to us. You gave it. You gave it. Salvation's
a gift. We didn't earn it. And to the
seed of Abraham, thy friend, you gave it. You know who the
seed of Abraham is? Galatians chapter 3 verse 29,
or Galatians chapter 3 verse 15 says, he said it to thy seed,
not seeds, to thy seed, and that seed's Christ. He gave the, God
gave the inherit, he chose his son, and he gave the inheritance
to his son, promised the inheritance to his son, and that's the seed
that came through Abraham's lineage. And then Christ accomplished
the salvation of his people, redeeming us from iniquity by
his own blood. And Christ himself divides the
small with the strong. He divides the inheritance with
his children. The strong are those who have
no strength in themselves, no ability in themselves whatsoever.
Those are the strong. And he divides the inheritance
with him. Scripture says if you're Christ, then you're Abraham,
see, and heirs according to promise. And it's forever. Look at that
verse now. It's forever. The covenant of grace is everlasting.
It's as eternal as God who made it in eternity. It's everlasting. And we plead God's glory. Look
at verse 11. Behold, I say how they reward
us. These enemies that are coming
up, they come to cast us out of thy possession which thou
hast given us to inherit. We're pleading God's glory. God's
given us an inheritance, and if somehow, some way, thank the
Lord it can't be, but if somehow, some way, they could take our
possession, our inheritance. They've taken his possession
and his inheritance. His people are his inheritance,
and the Lord's our inheritance. And so we're pleading his glory
and saying, Lord, Don't allow our enemies to prevail over us
because it's your glory that they're taking. It's your glory
they're stealing. That's the heart God gives to
his people. And if God gives you this heart and you come to
God with this heart, broken, contrite, praising his glory,
his holiness, his will, his salvation, God will hear you. He'll hear
you. He said, I'll hear you and I'll
help you. That's what he said. Now look
here, here's the fifth thing. The sinner who comes to believe
in Christ with this heart shall be heard of the Father, and he
shall answer." Look at verse 13, "...and all Judah stood before
the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
And then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benani,
the son of Jehiel, the son of Matani, a Levite of the sons
of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation." The Lord is going to speak to us. If you hear the
Lord speak, you're going to hear the Lord speak. By a man doing
what I'm doing right now, that's how you're going to hear the
Lord speak. He sent forth the Spirit. Do you see how particular
the Lord chooses his servants? He's of the son of this man,
of that man, of this man, of that man, of this man. It's a
particular choice to ordain. And he sends his spirit upon
him to speak his word. And he's going to speak God's
word if he's speaking by the spirit of God. He's going to
speak God's word. And he doesn't have any room
to glory because he's just a vessel, just an earthen vessel that God
has filled with his spirit and given his word to give to his
people. He's just a messenger with a
message from God to bring to his people. But that's how God's
going to speak to us. And God has done that. People
say, I don't think God's going to speak to you through a preacher.
I tell you why he's going to do it through preaching. After
that, in the wisdom of God, that's why. After that, in the wisdom
of God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that way. It's God's wisdom. This is how
God brings folks who think they're something to nothing. And this
is how he brings us to where no flesh will glory in his presence. And he brings it to where he
that glories, glories in the Lord. You see, whenever God's
preaching his preacher, Christ comes in person and he shows
up in the preaching. He's present in the preaching.
And when he begins to speak in the heart of his child, he's
present in the heart of his child when he's speaking. And he's
not going to have you and me glorying in his presence. He's
going to have us glorying in the Lord in his presence. And
so that's why he says through preaching, think about it. When
we talk to one another, you and I sit and talk to one another,
we'll be talking about the gospel. You're not listening to what
I'm saying. You're thinking about what you're going to say next.
And I'm not listening to what you're saying. I'm thinking about
what I'm going to say next. But when we're listening to a
preacher, we got to hush and listen to what God's saying.
And that's humbling. That's humbling. That brings
a man down and makes you have to listen to what God says. Ah. Let's see here now. Here's the good news, verse 15.
And he said, this is what this is what God's going to say to
his preacher, he said, Harken ye all Judah and you inhabitants
of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat. He's speaking. Everybody else
is getting in on this and this is something to God. He'll bless. He'll bless all of us, different
ones of us. secondary and on the third wave
and all this, because he really got one person he's dealing with.
He's dealing with King Jehoshaphat here, but the rest of them are
all getting blessed by this too. And he says, now you too, Jehoshaphat,
you listen to this too. 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. That's the message. Don't be afraid of this great
multitude, the battle's not yours, it's God's. He says now hearken
you, hearken all of you, hearken thou king, it doesn't matter
on what great elevation that a man thinks he's come to, God
says now you too, you listen too, you hearken too. Don't be
afraid of this multitude, the battle is not yours, the battle's
God's. You think about it. What do you
need? Well, I need to have fulfilled
the law so perfectly that every I is dotted and every T is crossed. I can't do that. I need to be
justified from the law for all my sins, past, present, and future. And to do that, I'd have to die
eternally. And I can't do that. I need to
be sanctified from my flesh saved from me into Christ and created
anew in righteousness and true holiness and I can't do that. I need to have faith and I need
to have repentance from dead works to serve the true and living
God and I can't produce those. I need to be I need to persevere
and keep trusting Christ and keep holding to Christ. And you
know what will happen if God doesn't do that for me? If He
doesn't keep me and preserve me? Somebody will invite me to
a big old feast and flatter me with a bunch of, put on a big
chin dig and next thing you know, I'll be done enjoying with them,
ready to go out and fight with them. Just like Jehoshaphat did. All of these are enemies that
we can't conquer. But listen to this, as it is
written, Christ's sake, we're killed all the day long. We're
accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But no, in all these things,
we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. He said, the
battle's not yours. Who did all these things for
us? Christ did. And He said, now, you need temporal
provision? He said, I didn't spare my son. You think I'm not going to give
you everything you need? I'm going to give you everything
you need. Oh, with our enemies is an arm of flesh, but with
us is the Lord our God to help us. That's what he said. Now,
here's the sixth thing. God gives us something to do
which proves that we believe Christ. God gives us something
to do that proves we believe Christ. Here it is, verse 16.
Tomorrow go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Zeus. God tells us right where his
enemies are. He always knows. He says, and you shall find them
at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jerusalem.
You shall 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. Please
get this. Please, please get this. The
works that the believer does whereby We justify before men
that our faith is genuine, that God has given us faith. The works
that we do are not works whereby we try to win the battle by our
works and our wisdom and our will. They are works whereby
we manifest we believe God is able. We believe God is able. Look out. Here they are. Go down. To serve God, to believe God,
we've got to go down, go down. Do not fight. What he said, don't
fight. There's all your enemies in front
of you. What is your first inclination? What's that knee-jerk reaction? I want to jack somebody when
they say something to me. I'll be honest with you. Don't
fight. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. They're mighty through God through
the pulling down of strongholds, but we'll never see that if we
start trying to pull our sword out and cut off the soldier's
ear. But I put our sword up and look, that's the next thing.
Set yourselves, be steadfast in faith, and stand ye still
and see the salvation of the Lord with you. Now, fear not
and be not dismayed. Do what God has said, for the
Lord will be with you. See, God makes His child do what
a natural man cannot do. He makes us do nothing but believe
on the Lord. A natural man can't do that.
He can't stop working and do nothing and just rest in God
and trust God to do the work. He can't do it. God's people
can, by His grace. And this is what He says. God
makes this word effectual in our heart. Look here at verse
18. That's God. There he is. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground. That's what you'll do when he
speaks like that, just like that right there in your heart. You'll
bow your face to the ground. What did we all do when he spoke?
We all jumped, didn't we? Why is it our natural inclination?
When God speaks like that, why do we always bow? That's what
we do. We bow. That's what happens when
He speaks affection in the heart. We bow. They did this outwardly
because that's what was going on inwardly. They bowed. And
then they worshiped, verse 19. These Levites and all these children,
they stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice
on high. He makes us praise Him. And then through worship, so
obeying Him. The next morning, they rose,
verse 20, they rose early in the morning and went forth into
the wilderness of Tekoa. They did what He said. And Jehoshaphat
got the lesson. Look at verse 20. 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. Jehoshaphat got the lesson. This
is what he's saying to himself. This is what I should have done
back then when I sat at Ahab's table and he buttered me up.
This is what I should have done. All right, let's see now. Does
God make good on his promise, on his word? Always. Look here
now. First of all, he defeats our
enemies. Verse 21. As they went before the army,
they were all worshiping God. Look, he says, they stood there
and they said, praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever.
That's a picture of the gospel, the gospel going forth and us
worshiping God. That's that's what that's our
mission. Now, look, here's what God does through the gospel.
Verse 22. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord
set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir,
which were come up 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 destroy them. And when they had
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 into the multitude,
and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none
escaped. Get the picture. Here's Ammon and Moab, and they're
all set, and they're ready to just pounce on Judah. And here
comes Mount Seir marching up from the other direction. And
God put it in the hearts of Ammon and Moab. And they looked at
Mount Seir coming up. And one looked at the other,
and he said, as Jehoshaphat, the other one said, yep, that's
him. That's Judah. Let's get him. And they got him.
And they went to slaying him. And Mount Seir went to fight
back. And before the whole thing was done, they were all dead.
And all God's people did was stand there praising the Lord
and saying, His mercy endures forever. Now, that's what God. See, the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. They're mighty through God. They
pull down strongholds. This is what God does through
the gospel. And secondly, believing on Christ and hearkening to the
word of his gospel, this is what God does for us. He enriches
us in his grace. He grows us in grace and in the
knowledge of Christ. Look at the picture of it, verse
25. And 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. What have we
been doing in these three days since the Lord went back to glory?
We've been being enriched by him spiritually. This is why
he saved us, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
You know how we get those riches? Believe God and hearken unto
the voice of his preacher. Believe God and keep on listening
to the gospel being preached. This is how he does it. And then
thirdly, believe it on Christ and continuing to hear his gospel.
At last, God's going to bring us to Christ. Look at verse 28.
And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and hearts and trumpets
unto the house of the Lord. Remember what that house pictured?
A picture of Christ. They ended up at Christ. That's where we're going to end
up. That's where we're going to end up. Now, one last thing,
and this is very important. This is why God says, believe
on him and hearken to his gospel. This is how the war is going
to be accomplished. It's God's battle. He's going to win the
battle. This is why He says, listen, it's not by power, not
by might, it's by His Spirit. This is why He says, do it this
way. Verse 29, 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. Our enemies
won't fear if they think we won the battle by our strength and
our power and our will, but they'll fear when they hear God did it. That's why he says, believe the
Lord. You'll be established. He'll
establish you. Hearken to his gospel. That's how you're going
to be enriched. That's how you're going to prosper.
And here's the last word. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was
quiet for his God gave him rest round about. Amen.