but to introduce this thought
here in 1 Kings chapter 20 and verse 28. 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 God of
the hills, but He is not God of the valleys. Therefore will
I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord." This chapter is a chapter of war between
Israel and Syria. A man named Ben-Hadad is the
king of Syria, and Ahab, wicked as he was, is king of Israel. We learn in the first verse of
this chapter that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, has with him 32
other kings coming against Israel. That makes it 33 to 1. Pretty
one-sided, I'd say. But if you'll read the Bible,
you'll soon learn that our God is noted for stacking the odds
against himself. I'm glad to report we have the
only God who don't need the odds. If you're going to play the lottery,
you need the odds. But we have the only God who
don't need the odds. With that thought, I think I'll
repeat what I said a Sunday or two ago after they had that lottery
thing. I'm so glad that nobody sitting here won the lottery.
And I'm going to tell you why. Well, I hope none of you played,
but I'm going to tell you why I hope none of you won. Because
as little as some of you think you need the Lord now, if you
had those millions, you'd be convinced you didn't need him
at all. So I'm glad nobody won. All right. back to our thought
the Lord stacks the odds against him now sometimes the odds frighten
us we need not forget that our God
don't need the odds in his favor in the first battle as the Lord
had promised Israel whipped the Syrians that's verses 20 and
21 they slew everyone his man And the Syrians fled, and Israel
pursued them. And Ben-Hadad, king of Syria,
escaped on a horse with the horsemen. The king of Israel went out and
smoked the horses and chariots and slew the Syrians with a great
slaughter. But in the next verse, verse
22, the prophet of the Lord came to the king of Israel and said
to him, Today was great, but it's not over. They'll be back. At the return of the year, the
king of Syria will come up against thee. They'll be back. Now in
verse 23, the king of Syria is about to get some real advice
from his advisors. you know, those religious guys
that know all the answers about everything and they think they
have it figured out. So I just want to begin in verse
23 and see the explanation they gave their king as to why Israel
whipped them. Here's what they said. The servants
of the king of Syria said unto him, their gods Talking about
the living God of Israel. Their gods are gods of the hills. Therefore, they were stronger
than we. But let us fight against them
in the plain. Get them in the low country.
And surely we shall be stronger than they. And do this thing. Take the kings away, every man
out of his place, and put captains in their rooms. And number thee
an army. like the army that Thou hast
lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. We will fight against
them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger than they.
And he hearkened unto their voice and did so. And it came to pass
at the return of the year that Ben-Hadad numbered the Syrians
and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. And the children
of Israel were numbered and were all present and went against
them. The children of Israel pitched before them like two
little flocks of kids, but the Syrians filled the country. Again, it's extremely one-sided. Israel is outnumbered many times
over. 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 God of the hills,
But he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all
this great multitude into thine 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 the Syrians
and 100,000 footmen in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek into
the city, And there a wall fell upon 27,000 of the men that were
left. Ben-Hadad fled and came into
the city into an inner chamber. Verse 28 said, the man of God
came to the king of Israel and said, because, and this is a
big because. God said, I'm going to give victory
to Israel again. not because they've been godly,
not because they deserve it, not because of their good conduct,
and certainly not because of their king Ahab, he was wicked,
but because of what the Syrians said about me. They said I'm
only God up in the hills, up in the rocks, the high country,
where all the advantage is. And they said, I'm not God in
the valleys. And because of that, I'll deliver
them into your hands once again. Some years ago, June and I were
in Pennsylvania, Gettysburg. And we rode the tour bus out
there to the battlefield, battleground, and walked right on that little
knoll, the little hill with the huge rocks coming up out of the
ground, just, I mean, just excellent setting to get behind to face
an enemy. And just down the hill in the
front of it was this huge field, flat, lower, where the Confederate
troops come across, but the Union forces were in the hills behind
these rocks. And it was just, it was so obvious. It was a massacre. It was a slaughter. It was an awful day for both
sides, but especially the Confederates. So many, so many, many, many
were killed right on that spot of ground. there was great advantage
to being in the higher country, being able to look down on the
enemy. And the Syrians here accused
God of that being his only advantage, that he's God only because they
were in the hills, the higher country. And they said if we
could If we could move this battle down into the plain, the lower
country, we would be on the same level. It'd be a different story. But God was greatly offended
at this testimony concerning himself by the Syrians. And he said, for that reason,
I'm going to show them that I'm not just God of the hills, I'm
God in the valleys also. And I want to apply this thought
to the high places, mountaintops, but more so the low places or
valleys in our lives. A lot of people, if things are
going well with them, I mean, they'll march right in on Sunday
as if to say, I've got the devil by the horns Boy, I'm with it. I'm doing fine But if things
aren't going so well If they're in a valley so to speak They
come dragging in like a whipped dog if they come at all and we've
all been there Well, I want to say to us this morning and I
believe the Lord is I know the Lord has put this on my heart
to give this to you. It'll come out, I don't know,
but just stay with me a little while. However it is with you
this morning, mountaintop or valley, there's one thing for
certain, God is still God. You say, ah, we all know that.
Do we? Do we really know that? Well,
I want to mention several valleys. that we're familiar with. And I'll try not to bog down
on any one of them, but move right along. First, I want to
say, and this has to be first, this is the first thing, God
is God in the valley of our human depravity. How very deep and
how very dark is that valley, how unknown even to ourselves
is the awful corruption of sinful, depraved nature. And the awful condition of our
hearts by nature. People sometimes will say, Oh,
if I know my heart, well, you don't know it. You don't know
it. Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who can know it? I've encountered
some pretty deceitful things and people in my lifetime. And so have you through the years.
But Jeremiah said this, he said, my own heart is more deceitful
more likely to run me down the wrong track. My own heart is
more likely to mess me up than anything or anybody else I've
ever met. It's deceitful above all things. It'll lie to you and you looking
in the mirror, your own heart. Now psychology and modern religion
You know, they all say this, there's some good in all people,
and if we can just find a way to bring out the best in everybody,
we could all get along and this would be a better place to live,
but that's not happening. That's not happening. The Bible
says that all our problems are heart problems. And all our problems
are due to something we can't fix, a fallen, sinful, Depraved
nature. Human depravity, by the way,
is two-sided. It's both active and passive. The active side, I'll read from
Mark 7, 21. It's in some of the other Gospels,
but I'll read it from Mark. This is the active side of depravity. For from within. You say, so-and-so just got mixed
up with the wrong, no, no. For from within, out of the heart
of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
within and defile the man. That's the active side. Say,
well, what's the positive side? It has to do with our help and
hope and redemption. The passive side is the inability on our part to see the need of
being anything other than what we are. It's the inability and
it's the lack of will. to seek God. John 6.44 said it
like this, No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath
sent Me draw him. You say, well, I can come if
I want to. Yeah, but you can't want to. There's people smarter than you
that don't want to come to the Lord. And if He left you to yourself,
you wouldn't want to. takes the quickening power of
God before you'll even want to come to Christ. It takes the
drawing power of God. I like that word, draw. I've
told you this before. When I was a boy growing up,
we would often, about every week, go to my grandmother's house.
And the first thing my brother and I wanted to do was draw a
bucket of water for my grandmother. And she had always let us, whether
she needed any water drawn or not, she'd let us draw a bucket. The house was a big, had a big
screened-in porch all the way across the front, down one side. And of all things, the well was
on the porch. I've often thought about that.
I guess they dug the well, built the house, and then built the
porch and had the well house right up on the porch in the
dry. Well, we'd turn the handle and
let the bucket down. And if you didn't let it drop
the last few feet, if you didn't let it drop that last few feet
to where the bucket would sink, you didn't get any water. The
bucket just floats. You're no good. Be easy to pull
up then, but you have to drop it. Let that bucket sink. When that bucket sinks, fills
up the water and you start back up with it, start drawing. It
doesn't take long to understand that it's about all two little
boys can handle and sometimes more. It doesn't take long to understand
that there's nothing in the well helping push that bucket up.
It doesn't take long to understand that there's nothing in the bucket
helping push itself up. You understand clearly that all
the drawing power is from above. And it's a must that the power
above be greater than the weight of the bucket of water down below.
It's a must. Because if it's not, you'll lose
control. And when you lose control, I
learned you better let go of that handle and get out of the
way. You'll get your arm broke or your head knocked off. And such is our condition by
nature. There is nothing in us to push
ourselves up to God. No. All the drawing power is
from above. But thank God He is God in this
valley of our depravity, which we would have never come out
of, never wanted to come out of, had God not by His grace
and in His providence worked it to come our way in life. It's amazing. We all have a story. as to how the Lord brought us
in contact with his people, how that he spoke to our own heart
through some situation, through some tragedy, some crisis in
life, how that we were convicted of our sins, convinced of our
awfulness and our deserving to go to hell. And God Almighty
pointed us to the Lord Jesus Christ as our hope. He's God
in the valley of our depravity. If He wasn't, we'd never know
Him or never want to. Thank God for that. Well, let
me move along. Second, He is God in the valley of our disgrace. We don't hear that word a lot.
It's an unpleasant word. It's a word of confession that
we hadn't made the grade. Disgrace. I said, well, so-and-so maybe
has a skeleton or two in their closet. No, a closet won't do. You've got a whole warehouse
full. Disgrace, an unpleasant word. The dictionary defines disgrace
as a source of shame to one's own family. Not just talking
about a biological family here, but to the Lord's family, a source
of disgrace. And having been quickened by
the spirit of God, knowing that we're God's child, yet we are
now more conscious than ever of the sin that plagues us day
by day. Not just so much what we do,
but what we are by nature. I've heard people say who didn't
know any better. I mean, you know, these guys
that really just are ready to set the woods on fire. They say,
I never had any more trouble with sin after the Lord saved
me. Well, I never had any trouble
before. That's when my trouble began, was when the Lord began
to work in my life. Many of us have failed miserably
along life's way in many ways. God has picked us up time after
time after time, and we press on. Feeling lower than a dog
sometimes, but we press on. Why? He's the God even in our
valley of disgrace. Don't deny it. The church of
Jesus Christ, the true church, is full of hopeless cases. in ourselves, made up of people from every
gutter imaginable. What a disgrace we are in ourselves. But God, our God is God in that
valley. He's brought us to where we are
this morning. A third thought, our God is God in the valley
of our disappointment. I don't like that word. Disappointment. There are several sitting here
this morning that have received unpleasant news in recent days
and weeks about various things. Disappointed. And they've said to me, we had
hoped. We had hoped it would be different
than it is. It's just our nature. We get
excited over things. We hope we'll turn out right.
We hope we'll turn out the way we want them to. And we get excited and we think
about these things every waking moment. and convince ourselves
it's going to be a reality, it's going to be good, only to meet
with disappointment. What a painful valley that can
be. You say, well, not me. I'm never
disappointed about it. Well, stay away from me then. I promise
you, I promise you, I can show you the way to that holler. What a painful valley. When we
have our dreams shattered and our plans to fail, God causes
things to work out differently from what we'd hoped. Don't you
give the devil credit. I said when God causes things
to work out differently from what we'd hoped. I want to say
to you that he is not a stranger to that valley. He's God in this
valley. of our disappointments. A fourth
thing, God is God in the valley of depression, despondency, distress. This is a deep, deep, dark, dark
valley. And when you're in it, people can't see in. And you
can't see out. That's how it is. And this morning, when people
are not anchored in Christ, that valley of disappointment runs
right on into this valley of depression. And people lose the will to try
anymore. and feel like they'll never try
again. Can I say to you the devil is
a liar when he tells you that you're in that valley because
you're weak and because you're worthless and because you're
a hypocrite and because you're just not as
good as other people. You're more sinful. You're less
sincere. and you're just really not cut
out for this business of trying to be a Christian. He's a liar.
He's a liar. Let me show you something. Some
of the greatest and godliest people who ever lived experienced
this valley. Moses, you remember, he was caught
between following God and coping with a bunch of complaining,
backstabbing Israelites that wanted to kill him, threatened
to kill him more than once. And Moses got in such a shape.
He said, Lord, why has thou afflicted thy servant? Why have you done
this to me? Have you been there? Moses said to the Lord, why didn't
you just deal with this mess yourself? Instead of putting
me in this position That thou layest the burden of all this
people upon me Moses went on to say to the Lord.
I never conceived them. I Haven't But gotten them I'm
not their daddy And he said to the Lord, you carry them in your
bosom as nursing children. I'm not able to bear it. Just
kill me. Get me out of this. The load
is too great. Have you ever felt like your
load is too heavy? Yeah. Many of you have. Some of you feel that way right
now. And I know your load is heavy. Moses said, Lord, I'd be better
off dead. Kill me. But the Lord never has killed
one of his children because they asked him to. And thousands of
them have. The load is so heavy. There's
no answer. There's no way out. My case is
the most miserable in history. And the devil says, Amen. Yeah,
boy, nobody ever had it no worse than you have. But listen, God is God in that
valley. He knows every inch of ground
you've been on. He knows where you're at right
now, and He knows where you're going. He knows it. He knows it. What about Joshua?
Boy, what a great man he was, but he said, he said, Alas, O
Lord God, why hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan
to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would
to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side, Jordan. This is the great man. Joshua. And he says, yeah, we saw you
hold back the waters of the Jordan. Yeah, we walked across on dry
ground. We know you did that. Yes, we saw the walls of Jericho
fall down flat. But I wish we hadn't come this
far. How many times have you said,
oh, if I just hadn't left so-and-so. It was better back there than
it is here. You just remember something.
God was back there then. He's not back there now. He's
here now. He's here now. And He's got you
here. And He's God in this valley.
What about David? David said, Oh my God, my soul
is cast down within me. Oh, that I had wings like a dove. Then would I fly away and be
at rest. I've sat right out here in my
vehicle and watched the doves a few times and thought of that
myself. If I could just get away. From
everything and everybody, I think I'd be better off and everybody
else would be better off. No. I've heard people say, well,
I think I'd be better off just not to go back to church anymore.
I want to tell you, embracing God in that valley
is your answer. Because He is God in that valley. Many times you're convinced that He don't even know all that's
going on, let alone care. Oh, yes, He's God in that valley. Sometimes we'll hear, oh, where's
so-and-so today? Oh, they just didn't come today. They just
weren't in any shape to worship God. This is not the time to
run from Him. This is the time to run to Him. He's God of that valley. You say, oh, but if He'd only
hurry and get me through this, get me through it. No. David said, when his mind was
right, he said, yea, though I walk through the valley. Not run. But walk with the wolves howling
and the wild beast waiting in the shadows. Just walk it. Just walk it. He's
God wherever you are this morning. He's God omniscient. He sees
all. and knows all there is about
it. He's God omnipotent. He's stronger
than anything else there. He's God omnipresent. He's ahead
of you. He's with you. He's behind you. He's on both sides. He's God
in that valley. But you keep walking. You've
got to keep walking. He's never lost a child in any
valley. No. Then let me hurry. He's God in the valley of desertion. When you feel alone, when you
feel like God's deserted you, He don't care. Nobody else don't
care about you and your life and your situation. You feel like he's deserted you.
You know he has a right to. You couldn't blame him if he
did. And you felt like he's left you. And your old sidekick, the devil,
confirms it and says, yeah, he's left you all right. You're just
too sorry for him to fool with anymore. You've had your chance, but it's
over. I tell you, our God does not
operate by chance. The godly man Gideon said, the
Lord hath forsaken us. Judah said, the Lord hath forsaken
us. The godly prophet Isaiah, the
Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me. Great men. But God Himself said,
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Sometimes it feels
like He does and has. I want to say these feelings
of desertion are not without design. They are ordered of God. You say, oh, it's just the devil
got his foot in the door. No, they're right on schedule. God would teach us. He would bring us into the likeness
of Christ. You want to talk about desertion,
just read about Him. John 12, now is my soul troubled. Save me, Father, from this hour. You talk about a loneliness.
He said, yet I was born for this hour. And on the cross, he said,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was forsaken
that we might not be. Because he was forsaken, we cannot
be. When we entertain thoughts of
God deserting us, we are denying the desertion that Christ suffered
for us. God owns that valley. He'll not
desert you in it. Then let me close it. He's God
in the valley of despair and desperation. Despair meaning
without any hope or confidence that things will never be any
better I've lost all hope. There's no way out. Somebody this morning maybe feels
like that's your case. Hopeless. And you feel like there's a way
out for everybody but me, but there's nothing I can do. Well,
the great prophet Elijah got in such a shape. And he said,
Lord, let me die. And it was all over the many,
many distressing and depressing, discouraging, disappointing valleys
in life. Elijah requested for himself
that he might die. And he said, it is enough, oh
Lord, let me die. Nobody cares. Nobody understands. There's no hope for me in this
situation. I want out. But God owns that valley. Then there's dear brother Job.
He said, my soul is weary of my life. I'm tired, so tired
of living like this. Let the day perish wherein I
was born. As an untimely child, I had not
been. A miscarriage would have been
better than for me to be in this world in the shape I'm in. As
infants, which never saw the light of day, Job experienced
that valley. Jeremiah experienced it. And
others we could go on and on and consult with. But I want
to say this to you this morning, you've not found a valley yet
where the Lord He is not God in that valley. Be it ever so
dark, be it ever so deep, be it ever so private and personal. It's not really your valley.
It's his valley for you. He's the God of all our valleys. I looked up some literal geographical
valleys in scripture. In the valley of Eshcol, there
were giants to be found, but the giants weren't God in that
valley. God was. In the valley of Jericho, there
were enemies to be found. But the enemies weren't God in
that valley. God was. In the valley of Jezreel, there
was much bloodshed and war. But war wasn't God in that valley.
God was. In the valley of Sorek, there's
always a Delilah to sell you out. But Delilah's not God in
that valley. God is. In the valley of Elah,
There's always a Goliath. But Goliath is not God in that
valley. God is. In the valley of Rephiim,
there's always Philistines in that valley. But the Philistines
are not God in that valley. God is. In the valley of Gibeon,
there's always deception in that valley. But deception is not
God in that valley. God is. In the valley of the
shadow of death, there's always shadows, false images, things
not true to point a finger at you. But I want to say shadows
are not God in that valley. God is. God is. Let me close with this scripture,
Luke chapter 3. This is concerning John the Baptist
coming on the scene. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
Every valley shall be filled. Every mountain and hill shall
be brought low. Every valley shall be filled. Eliminated? No. He's talking
about the coming of Christ. John the Baptist introduced Christ.
He's the one that fills our valleys. He's the one that makes it all
bearable. He's the one that brings us through it. I've told you this several times
about the fellow traveling, and he was on a rough, rough old road. Got
way out in the country, gravel road, and it rough, full of holes.
He finally got aggravated and he stopped and asked somebody,
how much further? How much further does this road
go on like this? Have you ever asked that question
about your life, about the hardships, about the valleys, about the
trials? How much farther? And the fellow told him, oh,
just over another hill or two, just another hill or two. And
you'll pass a big cemetery by the side of the road. And he
said to him, when you get past the cemetery, the road will smooth
out and you'll be fine from that point on. And so that's our hope
this morning. When you get past the cemetery,
the road will smooth out. Say, but what am I going to do
till then? Lean on Christ. Cling to Christ. He's our hope. He's our help. He's God in all
the valleys. Yes, He is. Let's stand. Thank
you.