Children of Israel are brought
into captivity and bondage. Captivity and bondage to our
own heart's lust, because of our disobedience, because we
turn aside from our God and his word, walk contrary to his will,
and do what we please. How often we forsake our God, but he will never forsake us. The difference between those
who persevere in faith and those who perish by the way is not
in their perseverance. but rather in God's. We are preserved
in grace because our God perseveres in grace. He keeps us and will
not let us go. If we had what we deserve, we
would be forsaken of him. But as he swore to Jacob, he
has sworn to us, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. How I thank God for his word
of promise. How I fall back on it with all
the weight of my immortal soul. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Oh, he may, he will scatter us
in his lovingkindness, chastening us for our sin. He will hide
his face from us to make us know our need of him. He may bring
us, as it were, into bondage and captivity spiritually. But our God will not utterly
forsake us, neither will he let us forsake him. They shall lie
down in the evening, for the Lord their God shall visit them,
and turn away their captivity." There are appointed times, seasons,
and days when God Almighty graciously visits his people, when he restores
his Father, when he sets free his captive. Turn to Isaiah 12. This day of divine visitation
is here described by the Prophet Isaiah. The Prophet is clearly
speaking about the first advent of our Lord Jesus and the accomplishment
of redemption by him. He is speaking clearly about
God visiting chosen, redeemed sinners and saving grace. But
it is a mistake to limit the text to that. He's speaking about
what I'm praying God will do with us tonight. He has in measure
visited me this day. I pray he'll visit you. In that
day, thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou
wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest
me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become
my salvation. Therefore with joy shall you
draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day ye
shall say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings
among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing
unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is known
in all the earth. Cry out and shout, Thou Inhabitant
of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee." The book of 2 Chronicles. is a portrayal of these days
of divine visitation. It is a portrayal of God's goodness
and grace in visiting, reviving, restoring, refreshing his people
after they have forsaken him, and because they have forsaken
him, they have been driven away into bondage and captivity because
of their sins. that which is recorded in these
thirty-six chapters of Judah's history is written for our learning
and admonition, that we might, by this inspired record of Judah's
history, be inspired to faithfulness toward our faithful God. It is
important when you read 2 Chronicles to note that Israel, the ten
northern tribes, those who were earlier carried away into idolatry
from which they never recovered, is not even mentioned in the
book except as it is necessary in passing to mark the time in
history. 2 Chronicles is all about Judah,
Judah, out of whom the Lion of Judah comes. Second Chronicles
is all about God's people in this world. It is about God's
chosen, redeemed people, a people saved by his grace, called by
his grace, called by his name, a people who know and worship
the living God, but a people who must constantly constantly
struggle with themselves, with sin, with ungodliness. Let's begin in chapter 7, verse
14. Begin at the good part. Here is God's promise to his
people. Before you read it, I don't know of any one verse in the
Old Testament that is more often quoted and more completely misunderstood
and misinterpreted than 2 Chronicles 7.14. You have all heard it repeatedly
quoted by our President in recent days. He's a good President,
but he's a lousy theologian. You've heard it repeated by Mr.
Latham in his day. He was a good President, but
he was an even worse theologian. The theology is horrible. It
is often used as a formula for revival. It is a formula by which folks
are pressed down with guilt and then encouraged to do this and
do this and do this, with the promise that God will visit them,
forgive their sins and heal the land. And it's almost always
applied to this land in which we live. This is a promise to
God's people. It is a promise to those who
believe God, not to just anyone, but to those who believe God.
And the forgiveness spoken of here is equivalent to the healing
that is spoken of here as well. The healing of our land is the
healing of God's land, God's Jerusalem, God's chosen, God's
people, that field of God's heritage. It is the healing of his grace.
Read with me verse 14. If my people, which are called
by my name, shall humble themselves and pray." You'll never pray until you humble
yourself before God. And seek my face, that's what
it is to pray. and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and
will heal their length." Here the Lord God promises, this is
what he says, that we who are his people humble ourselves,
pray, seek his face, and turn from, repent of our wicked ways,
he will forgive our sins, he will heal the land of his heritage,
his church, his kingdom. And the promise appears to be
conditional, and in a sense it is. It is. It will never come
to pass that you will find forgiveness except you humble yourself and
seek it. But before you humble yourself and seek it, forgiveness
is already granted. You got that? You'll never find
it except you humble yourself and seek it. You'll never find
it except you bow before God's throne and call upon him for
mercy. But just as sure as you humble
yourself before God and call upon God for mercy, just as sure
as you seek his face, I'm telling you, God's forgiveness is yours. So the promise appears to be
conditional, and in our experience of it, in a sense it certainly
is. But if you turn back to chapter 6, I'll show you something that
will help you. Here we have Solomon's prayer,
to which chapter 7 is an answer. Here we see clearly that our
repentance is always the result of God's grace, never the cause. Look at verses 26 and 27. When the heaven is shut up and
there is no rain. Oh my God, how long since you have rained from heaven
upon us. It is because they have sinned
against thee. Yet, if they pray toward this
place, toward this mercy seat, toward this altar, toward this
sacrifice, all of it pointed to Christ, the Lord of grace,
if they pray toward Christ, the name of God, if they pray toward
the throne of grace on which he sits, and confess thy name, confess
that you're God, confess Christ the Lord, and turn from their
sin, when thou dost afflict them, then hear thou from heaven, and
forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, is
the secret, when thou hast taught them the good way wherein they
should walk." Now, Bobby Estes, whenever God
Almighty withholds his reign from heaven on our souls, whenever
he sends affliction of any kind, he's teaching us. He's teaching us the good way
wherein we ought to walk. And when we have learned the
lesson, when we have learned the lesson, we will turn to him
and seek his face. And then Solomon says, when they've
learned the lesson, sin reigned upon thy land, which thou hast
given unto thy people for an inheritance. So repentance, our
turning to God, is always the result of his goodness and grace
to us. That is true before we ever knew
God. If ever a man or woman believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the goodness of God that leadeth
them to repentance. God has sent his Son, a Prince,
our Savior in Heaven, to give repentance to his people of Israel. And whenever there is repentance
found in a sinner's heart, it's because God gives it. And the
same is still true of us. Larry, you and I will cling to
our stubborn rebellion and our unbelief and our sin and our
lust with both fists until God breaks our grip and teaches us
to turn to him in repentance. Now, that's just fact. That's
just fact. The first seven chapters of this
book are taken up with the building of the Temple in Up to this point,
Israel had no fixed permanent place of divine worship, no fixed
permanent place to which men and women would gather in solemn
assembly to hear from and worship the Lord God. The Temple at Jerusalem
changed all of that, and still we must not fail to remember
that that the temple itself was but a temporary thing. It was
never intended by God to be permanent. It was a carnal, physical structure,
magnificent, yes, gorgeous, yes, richly adorned, yes, but it was
just a carnal, physical structure designed and intended by God
from its beginning. to be typical of, to be a picture
of, a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ and his great work
of redemption and grace in the saving of our souls by his blood
and by his grace. The temple was a type and symbol
of our Savior. The New Testament makes this
abundantly clear. Our Lord Jesus spoke of his body
as the temple. He said, Destroy this temple,
and in three days I'll raise it up. And the Jews thought he
was talking about the temple of conciliation. They didn't
understand he was talking about the temple of his body that must
be destroyed under the wrath of God by the hands of wicked
men, but rose again the third day in resurrection life to give
life to his people. Our Lord Jesus makes it abundantly
clear through the writings of the Apostle Paul in the book
of Hebrews that everything in the temple, all of its services,
all of its sacrifices, the veil, the altar, the mercy seat, the
priest, all of the solemn ceremonies involved with the temple worship,
the temple itself, all were pictures of Jesus Christ and redemption
and grace by him. Because the temple is a picture
of Christ and his temple, or his great work of grace, it is
also a picture of us, his church, his people, those who are redeemed
and saved by his blood. Hold your hands here in 2 Chronicles,
and turn quickly to a couple of passages in the New Testament.
1 Corinthians 3. Paul is addressing the issue
of the carnal divisions that cause fear. He gets down to verse
16, and he speaks here about the church considered as a whole.
Particularly, he's talking about the local church there at Corinth,
or the local church here at Daniel. But he's talking about the whole
congregation, not the individual, but the whole congregation. And
he says in verse 16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of
God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defiled
. . . Now, the word defile here means to divide or to destroy. If any man would split up, would
destroy, would defile God's temple, him shall God destroy. For the
temple of God is holy, which temple you are. But that's not
only true concerning the whole congregation of God's saints.
Each individual believer, every child of God, everyone born of
God's grace, is himself, individually and personally, the dwelling
place, the temple of Almighty God. Look in 2 Corinthians 6,
verse 16. Paul is admonishing believers
concerning being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And
it says in verse 16, What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. You, my brother, you, my sister,
are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will
dwell in them, and walk in them, and will be their God, and they
shall be my people. I've turned to one more passage
in the New Testament, Ephesians 2. The stones of this temple were
hewn out and marked for their place before they were ever brought
into the temple. Solomon built the temple according
to the pattern that God gave to Moses in the mount. These
stones for the temple, all this stuff had been prepared by David
before Solomon came to the throne, and the temple was built of stones
that were hewn from a quarry, and they were marked for their
specific place in the temple. Then they were brought to their
place and put in place. So that in the temple itself
there was never heard the clanging sound of a hammer, a chisel,
or a saw, or any other implement of labor in the hands of a man.
The stones were brought and put in the temple. Even so, you and
I, who are living stones in God's holy temple, were marked out
in divine predestination from the quarry of fallen humanity
in divine election, and brought by the grace of God without any
sound of man's work or labor, and put in place in the temple,
and then fitted." I love this. The stones we just cut, we have
some brick laid out here, and the fellow puts mortar in there,
and if he doesn't quite have the stone cut right, he'll put
a little extra mortar, fudge just a little. You can't tell
it unless you measure real good, but it's called the work of a
man. It always needs some help, not God's work. The Lord brings
his living stones into his temple. And here's this one, and over
here's this one, and here's Don Fortner's place. It doesn't quite fit. So what
you do is you just keep rubbing it, stone against stone, and
that's it. And that's just the effect we
have on one another in the temple of God. God, by his grace and
his providence, has marked our place in his temple, and he puts
us in our place, and with the loving effect of one another,
on one another, he fits us in his temple. Now, look at Ephesians
2. I told you there was no sound of the hammer heard in the temple.
For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Well, Harold, I don't know if you're going to fit that in the
Temple. I can't, but God did, look at verse 19. Now therefore
you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. And you are built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Now that doesn't
mean we're built on the foundation of Peter, James and John. It
doesn't mean we're built on the foundation of Paul. It means
we're built on the same foundation they were built on, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief cornerstone. Now watch this. in whom all the
buildings, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in
the Lord, in whom we are also builted together, not builted
apart, builted together, for an habitation of God through
the Spirit." Go back to 2 Chronicles. When the temple was finished,
God was honored. Solomon called for a great feast,
a solemn feast that lasted for seven days, a ceremony in which
there were thousands and thousands and thousands of sacrifices made.
And it was declared that God had fulfilled his word to David
and to Solomon. And all the people of Israel
were glad and nearly in heart for the goodness that the Lord
had shown. And everything that Solomon had
set his heart to do, he prosperously effected." Oh, the holder greater
than Solomon is here. Look at verse 10, 2 Chronicles
7. On the third and twentieth day
of the seventh month, he sent the people away into their tents,
glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown
unto David and to Solomon and to Israel, his people. Thus Solomon
finished the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all
that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord,
and in his own house he prosperously effected. Now hear me. When the
Lord Jesus Christ, our great King and Prince, our great Savior
and Lord, has finished all that he has in his heart, He will
bring his people to their own dwelling place in his own glory,
and he will have all his people glad and merry in heart because
of everything he has done. Now, let's look at Solomon's
prayer. As we read his prayer in chapter
6, we must never forget that even in this prayer dedicating
the temple, Solomon was an imminent type of Christ. He made intercession
for Israel, God's people, even as Christ makes intercession
for us as our advocate in heaven. Brother Larry Pierce read 1 John
1 down to 2.1 back in the study. If any man say, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sins. That word propitiation refers
right back here to Solomon and the mercy seat in the temple
in the Holy of Holies behind the veil. Solomon makes intercession
not only for the nation of Israel, but if you read this carefully,
and I urge you to read it carefully, he makes intercession for the
stranger and sojourner that may turn to the Lord and pray toward
his temple in Jerusalem. He makes intercession for all
the nation known to him, and for all the Gentiles God would
be pleased to call by his grace. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
prays for us, his people, Jew and Gentile, making intercession
for us. And all that Solomon saw, now
look at it and read it carefully, everything Solomon asked of God,
every single thing Solomon said in his prayer. The Lord said,
I'll do it. I'll do it. Our Lord Jesus Christ
makes intercession for us with groanings and sighs, as it were,
that cannot be refused from God Almighty. Not groanings and sighs
of helplessness, but with groanings and sighs of one touched with
the feeling of our infirmity, and spreads our case before God
and says, What? Maintain their cause, and he
does. All that Solomon asked, that's
what I'll do. Our Savior prevails in prayer. Look at verse 21 just briefly. Harken therefore unto the supplications
of thy servant. Chapter 6, I'm sorry, verse 21.
And of thy people Israel. Isn't that amazing? I don't recall reading in this
chapter anywhere where anybody in Israel said a thing. He said,
Harken to the prayers of thy servant, and of thy people Israel. That which our Savior He seeks
as our head, our representative, our surety, our priest, our intercessor. And as he makes intercession,
he seeks that for us. So Solomon says, Lord, I'm not
just speaking for me, I'm speaking for all your people. and of thy
people Israel, which they shall make toward this place." Now
listen, "...hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven,
and when thou hearest, forgive." The Jews in the Old Testament
were prayed toward Jerusalem. And Solomon speaks of it here. What were they doing? Was that
like these Talhud Mohammedans bowing down toward Mecca three
times a day in an act of idolatry? No. No. They were praying toward
Mecca. That's all they got. That's all
they got. But those in Israel who knew
God were praying toward Jerusalem where the symbol of God's The
symbol of God's mercy, the symbol of God's authority, the symbol
of God's redemption, the symbol of God's salvation, the symbol
of God himself sat in the Holy of Holies on the mercy seat,
covering the Ark of the Covenant. So that the prayer was not to
that place, but to God in heaven represented in that place. Can
you be sure of that? Yes, sir. Turn to Luke 18, and
I'll show you. Luke 18. You know the story of the Pharisee
and the Publican. Our Lord is telling about this self-righteous
Pharisee who stood and said, God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are. I don't care under what pretense
of humility he gets up to say it, any man who thinks or says,
I'm not like that fellow, I'm not like her, I'm not like other
folks, knows nothing of God or himself. You and I are just like
all Adam's sons and daughters. There ain't one speck of difference
between us. And God's people know it. This Pharisee lifted
his face toward heaven and said, Lord, I thank you. It's by your
grace I know, but I ain't like those other fellows. I'm sure
not like this publican. And then the publican, standing
afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven,
but smote on his breast, beat on his very heart, and being
the source of all his woe, and he says, God, be merciful to
me. You know what that word merciful
is, Brother Foucher? That's propitious. He says, God,
look on the blood, on the mercy, see. and forgive me." He's doing
just exactly what Solomon spoke of back here in 2 Chronicles.
God, be merciful to me. And our translation gives it,
a sinner, that ain't it. Be merciful to me, the sinner. There ain't never been one like
me. There ain't never been one like me. Now what did God promise
Solomon? He said, I'll hear from heaven.
And I'll forgive their sin, and I'll heal their land, and I'll
heal their plague." What does it say about his public? Behold,
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. He did exactly what the Lord
said he would do when Solomon dedicated the Temple, speaking
of Christ on the mercy seat. Solomon's request in this 21st
verse, then, a foreshadowing of our Savior's promise. Whoever
shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. In this
prayer Solomon specifically mentions numerous situations, numerous
situations into which the children of Israel would be brought. judgment,
by providential judgment, because of their sin. He says, Lord,
if your people are invaded by an enemy, Lord, if your people
endure pestilence, If your people are brought into a season of
drought, Lord, if your people are taken into captivity and
bondage, Lord, Lord, if your people are subdued by their enemies,
Lord, if your people are overwhelmed, Lord, if your people, if your
people, if your people, because of their feelings, if they do
not turn to you and pray to you and speak your face in humility,
hear from heaven and forgive their sins, and he makes this
argue with him. He says, Lord, do this, do this,
because they're your people. They're your people. How often
do you read this in the Old Testament? Moses says, Lord, don't kill
these people, they're your people. They're your people. Jeremiah
says, Lord, don't destroy these people, they're your people.
They've been praying, Lord God, don't destroy these people, they're
your people, destroy me, but not them, they're your people,
they're your people. Oh God, have mercy on these people,
they're your people, they're your children, feed them, protect
them, care for them. Lord, hear from heaven and forgive
their sin because of the mercy seat. and the sacrifice you've
accepted. Lord, hear from heaven, and forgive
their sin for the honor of your name. Look what he says in verse
33, that all people of the earth may know thy name and fear thee. Now, let's read the conclusion
of this prayer, verse 36. If they sin against thee, for
there is no man which sinneth not.' Do you see that? It's as if they sin against you.
I'm not presenting something that's going to be strange, because
there's no such thing as a man on this earth who doesn't sin.
And God be angry with them and deliver them over before their
enemies, and they carry them away captives into a land far
off or near. Yet if they defeat themselves
in the land with which they were carried captive, and turn and
pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have
sinned, we have done amiss, and we have done wickedly. If they
return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul
in the land of their captivity, whether they have carried them
captive, and pray toward their land which thou gavest unto their
fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward
the house which I have built for thy name, then hear thou
from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer
and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy
people which have sinned against thee. Now, my God, let I beseech
thee thine eyes be opened, and let thine ears be attentive unto
the prayer that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O
Lord God, into thy resting place." Come on into your temple. Come on into your temple, have
your resting place. What on earth is Solomon talking
about? God's resting place? A temple
in Jerusalem? No, no, no, no, no, no. God's
resting place. The finished work of God's Son
in the ultimate glorious salvation of all his people. Here God ceases
from all labor. His work is done. Come on down
into your resting place. Thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priest, O Lord God, be
called with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness,
O Lord God, turn away the face of thy anointed. Remember the
mercies of David thy servant.' Then in chapter 7, the temple
of God was filled with glory. Solomon has offered all these
sacrifices, brought them here, the priest there functioning
as the priest offering sacrifices before the Lord, and to stamp
his approval upon the whole thing. Fire fell down from heaven and
consumed the sacrifices, thereby symbolizing God's acceptance
of Jesus Christ as our substitute. The one great sacrifice was seen. And when fires fell from heaven
and consumed the sacrifice, the glory of God filled the place. I don't have any idea what that's
talking about, but I sure would like to have seen it. I don't
have any idea. Something to do with that glory
that Isaiah saw. Something to do with that glory
that Moses saw in the tabernacle. Something to do with that glory
Adam saw when he went in on the day of making a toba for the
people. Something to do with the display
of all the majesty of God's great being. by the revelation of his
Spirit in the sacrifice of his Son. And this is exactly what
happens when God saves a sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ is revealed,
the Lamb seated on his throne, accepted of God as a sacrifice
for sin, and the blessing of Abraham. The Spirit of God is
poured out on his people. Hold your hands here and turn
to Galatians 3. When the children of Israel saw
how the fire came down in the glory of the Lord upon the house,
they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the
pavement and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good,
for his mercy endures forever. Look in Galatians 3.13. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. That's what God said
when he consumed the sacrifice, it's done. Being made a curse
for us when it's written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. Now look at the next line. The sentence doesn't end there.
That the blessing of Abraham, that which God promised Abraham
way back yonder in the book of Genesis, might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ. What's he talking about? The
promise of the Spirit. The promise of salvation, that
we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
And then in chapter 7 of 2 Chronicles. Verses 12 through 16, the Lord
appeared to Solomon in a dream, and he said, I've heard your
prayer, and I'll do all that you've asked. Then chapters 8
and 9 describe the greatness of Solomon. Oh, he was such a
great, great king, that there were none like him before, and
none like him after him. rich beyond all the kings of
Judah and Israel, wise beyond all the men who worked on the
earth. That's our Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus. In chapter 9, we see that picture of the Queen of Sheba
coming to Solomon. Then beginning in chapter 10,
we have the history of Judah. All the way down to the time
of their being carried away into captivity. And what a checkered
history it is. It's a history of a people. Chosen,
redeemed, saved by God's almighty arm and God's almighty grace.
Favored like no people who ever walked on the earth. Just think
what God had done for Israel. He revealed himself to them and
nobody else. Gave his word to them and nobody
else. Stretched out his arm for them and nobody else. And it's
a history of a people constantly turning from him. Walking after
their own lust. but a people whom God would not
leave to themselves. In this book we are told that
the children of Israel had nine good faithful kings, eleven horrible
kings. Manasseh, who reigned for fifty-five
years on the throne of Judah, started out as the worst of them.
But he wound up as a monument of God's grace, and wound up
being one of the best of them, because God intervened. But in
the lives of these kings, and in their actions, I see the cause
of declension. The cause of us being carried
away into bondage. The cause of us being brought
into captivity. Rehoboam was the first to reign
after Solomon as an evil king. Rehoboam gave way to his lust. He followed
the counsel of the young men. There's a sermon in that, oh
how I wish I could persuade men and women. I wish I could persuade
you, Josh, all your life, don't pay any attention to the council
of young fools. Don't do it. What parent doesn't
wish they'd get their children? Don't listen to the kids around
you. Don't do it. They'll lead you
astray every time. Don't do it. Rehoboam went the
ways of the young men, the lust of his flesh. and the kingdom
was invaded by the Egyptians. Jehoram, when he came to the
throne, killed everybody else akin to him, just in jealousy. And again, Israel was brought
into bondage. Human inventions were made, made high places for the worship
of God. They didn't really enter directly
into idolatry. No, no, no, no. They just conceded
with their neighbors. And they worshiped Jehovah in
the high places. Not in the places where God was
based, but in the high places that the neighbors approved of.
Approving of their gods and of their ways. And then Ahaz, chapter
28, brings them into open idolatry. The worshiping of false gods.
mingled with the worship of false gods, terrible perversity involving
homosexuality and prostitution. And again Judah was invaded by
Syria. And then the good kings set before
us pictures of God's intervention. Asa, just as soon as he came to the
throne, destroyed idolatry in the land. When God visits his
people in grace and mercy, he begins to tear down idolatry.
Jehoshaphat, that great king, good king, but he left out a
witness and made a league with Ammon and Moab and one of the
others, I've forgotten who it was now, made a league with three
other pagan nations, kind of like you and I depend on our
flesh, all pray to our lust, follow the guidance of our lust.
And the world, the religious world says, beat yourselves,
fight the battle and overcome the flesh. And Jehoshaphat shows
us how God teaches us to walk before him. He says, the battle's
not yours, it's God's. He says, you won't need to fight
this battle, but rather just stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. In other words, believe God.
And then in chapter 20, verse 24, following Jehoshaphat's counsel,
when Judah came to watch over them in the wilderness, they
looked unto the multitude, and behold, they were dead bodies
fallen to the earth, and none escaped." What do you do with
your lust? What do you do to fight this
battle with the flesh? What do you do to overcome the
evil that's in you? Believe God. Behold, all my sins
nailed to the cross as dead men! I serve my lust no more, but
serve God my Savior, walking with Christ by faith." Then Joash,
he led the people to give themselves to God and give to the maintenance
of God's cause. Hezekiah cleaned up the temple. And young Josiah, He brought forth the word of
God and read it to the people and they worshiped God. When
God visits us, he establishes his worship for us. He brings
his word to us and causes us to walk before him, trusting
him alone, leaning not on the arm of the flesh. Oh God, visit
us by your grace.