and I've asked you to come by
here and preach to us. I always enjoy hearing him. And
Ida Isaacs had thyroid surgery. It was successful, and I'm sure
she would appreciate anyone sending her a card. Her address is in
the church directory, and she's always a blessing to me. I've entitled the message, The Battle, is not yours. The battle is not yours. The battle. You know, the consequences of
sin has created so many problems for everybody in this room and
everybody outside of this room. Sin has caused so many problems,
what troubles it's brought into this world. Think of the lives and homes
that have been shattered by sexual sin. How addictions have ruined homes
and lives. You think of the devastating
consequence of greed and covetousness. The wars that have been began
because of that sin and the trouble it has brought into the world.
The love of money is the root of all evil. And every man in
this room and outside of this room, spends their lives dealing
with and even battling the consequences of sin. But only the believer battles with
sin. Everybody else battles with the
consequence of sin. and the bad things that come
as a result, but only the believer has a fight and a battle with
sin itself because they understand, and only the believer understands
this, that they are sin. It's not just what you do. It's
not just the consequences of what you do. It's what you are
in the very fiber of your being from head to toe. Now, let me show you that in
the scripture. Turn with me to Romans chapter seven. Hold your finger
there in 2 Chronicles. We're gonna get back to that.
I better be able to back that statement
up I just made with scripture. Here it is. Romans chapter seven,
verse 14. Paul says, for we know. He doesn't
just say I know, we know. This is every believer's testimony. This is what every believer knows
about himself. If you don't know this about
yourself, it's because God's never done anything for you.
He's never made himself known to you. I love the we knows of
scripture, where he doesn't just say I know it, we know it. We
know, and yet he talks about something individual with regard
to himself. We all know this individually. We know that the law is spiritual. The 10 commandments spiritual,
but I am carnal fleshly. Sold under sin. Sold as a slave to sin. Now, not everybody feels that
way. Now I realize some can feel that way about their addictions
and they hate what that's brought into their lives, but that's
not really what that's talking about. That's talking about being
a slave, not to some substance, but a slave to sin. Sold under
sin. Look at the end of this chapter. Verse 21, Paul says, I find in
a law that when I would do good, that's
my desire. Evil is present with me for I
delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another
law in my members, warring, doing battle against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. Do you know that only the believer
knows that? Only the elect of God, an unbeliever. That's not his experience. You have to be given a new nature
to know anything about this. Paul went on to say, Oh, wretched
man, that I am not. This is the way I used to be.
Oh, wretched man, that I am who shall deliver me from this body
of death. I'm back to our texts and second
Chronicles chapter 20, this battle verse 15. He said, how can you
all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and now King Jehoshaphat
thus sayeth the Lord unto you, this is the Lord's word. Be not
afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude. Do you have a great multitude
of sins? The battle is not yours, but God's. Verse one of chapter 20, It came to pass after this also
that the children of Moab, the children of Ammon, and with them
other besides the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told
Jehoshaphat, saying, there cometh a great multitude against thee
from beyond the sea on this side Syria. And behold, they be in
Hazazontamar, which is in Enjeti. And Jehoshaphat feared. He knew he couldn't win this
battle. He didn't have a chance. You know what you do when you're,
no, you can't win? He set himself to seek the Lord.
and proclaimed a fast throughout all Jerusalem. And Judah gathered themselves
together to ask help of the Lord. And they knew they couldn't win
this fight. You know that you can't win this fight with sin. They knew they couldn't win this
fight. So they sought help of the Lord, even out of all the
cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. I was happy that Paul read that
passage out of Matthew chapter 21 about the Syrophoenician woman. The Lord told her, I've only
come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Lord told
her, I've only come to save the elect. That's exactly what that means. If you think that he came to
save everybody, you're wrong. He came to save the elect. If
he came to save everybody, everybody would be saved. He's incapable
of failure. He came to save the elect. What did she do? Well, what's
the point in seeking him then? I might as well give up. That
doesn't seem fair. No, the scripture says, then
came she and worshiped him. You only worship the God of election. No worship without that. Saying,
Lord, help me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. That didn't discourage her. She knew the only help there
was was the Lord God. You know that statement, the
Lord only helps those who help themselves. There's never been
a bigger lie told. He helps those who cannot help
themselves. That is the position Jehoshaphat
and all of Judah were in with these armies coming against them. They sought the help of the Lord. Verse five, And Jehoshaphat stood
in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of
the Lord before the new court and said, O Lord God of our fathers,
now listen to this. O Lord God of our fathers, art
not thou God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all
the kingdoms of the heathen? These people that are coming
against us? You rule them. They're in your hand. You're
in absolute control. And in thine hand, is there not
power and might so that none is able to withstand thy hand? You see, Jehoshaphat knew the
Lord. And he makes this glorious statement. Regarding the God
who is sovereign, he rules. He rules in all the kingdoms
of the heathen. You know, I've been reading with interest, the
conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, what's going to happen. God's in control of all of it. What's going to happen? His will.
It's always His will that is done all the time because He
is absolutely sovereign over everyone. He's sovereign over
you. Now, listen to this. Your eternal
destiny is not in your hands. It's in His. It is. Somebody says, well, I don't
like that. I do. I do. You see, that means maybe I'll
be saved. It means I will be saved if He
wills it. There's nothing that can prevent
it because He is absolutely sovereign. He doeth according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
the stuff that's going on down here, and none can stay His hand
or say unto Him, what doest thou? Give an account for yourself.
He doesn't answer to you. Whatever He does is right. And we bow. Everybody that knows
the Lord knows that. Everybody. Where's your God,
David? He's in the heavens. He hath
done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's the way it always is.
And Jehoshaphat knew that. This is the God he's coming to
at this time of need. The absolute sovereign God. All who know God without exception
know this is so. And if you worship a God, that's
not like this God, you're worshiping an idol, a non existent God. When you just made up, not the
God of the Bible. And look what he says in verse
seven, he talks about the covenant God. Verse seven, art not thou
our God. I shall be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people. Here's one of God's I wills,
and they shall. I'll be their God, and they'll
be to me a people. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Art not thou our God, who didst
drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel? and gavest it to the seed of
Abraham, thy friend forever." Now, here's the covenant of our
God. That makes me his friend. That's
not just talking about Abraham being the friend of God. That's
talking about the seed of Abraham, all of his people. God counts
me. And I wouldn't dare say this
if the Bible didn't teach it. This is true with regard to every
believer. I'm the friend of God. God counts me, he counts every
believer his friend. Now he is calling upon this covenant. Art not thou our God. I know
you're everybody's God is the absolute sovereign of the universe,
but you're the God that's made us your friend. Verse eight, and they, and they
dwell therein and have built thee a sanctuary for thy name. Speaking of the temple, which
represents the Lord Jesus himself. Saying, if when evil cometh upon
us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand
before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name is in
this house, and crying to thee in our affliction, then thou
wilt hear and help. Now, This temple that the Lord's
name dwells in, what's the name of the Lord? That's who he is. That's the person behind the
name. It's not just a audible name. It's the holy one of Israel. It's the just one. It's the sovereign
one. It's the merciful one. It's the
gracious one. It's the immutable one. It's
the independent one. His name dwells in that temple.
His name dwells in the body of Christ, the temple of God. In
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And we
call upon that name. He will hear. He will help. That is his promise. He will hear. He will help. Verse 10. Now here's our predicament. Behold, the children of Ammon,
and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldst not let Israel invade
when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from
them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say, how they reward
us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast
given us to inherit. Oh, our God, wilt thou not judge
them, for we have no might, no might, no strength, no ability
to deal with them. We have no might against this great company that
cometh against us. My enemy My enemies, my enemies,
my sin, my enemies are my sins. And they're a great multitude,
a great multitude. And I have no might to stand
up against them. Neither know we what to do. I
don't know what to do. There's nothing I can do about
this. I'm at a loss. But our eyes are upon thee. Now I know this. I'm just as
sure of this as I'm a foot and a half tall. The only thing to
do is look to Christ for everything. Our eyes are upon thee. We don't
know what to do. We don't have any strength. Our
eyes are upon thee. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none
else. Verse 13, and all Judah stood
before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children.
This is just a picture of helplessness. Here we are. or toast if you
don't do something for us. Then, verse 14, then upon Jehaziel, the son of
Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jehaziel, the son
of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in
the midst of the congregation. Hearken ye all Judah. Well, I'm
praying that's what happens with us. The spirit of the Lord comes
upon us in the midst of the congregation for the gospel to be preached
in the power of his spirit. And he said, hearken. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearken,
listen. Listen to what's being said.
Ask God to give you grace to have your ears tuned into this.
Listen to what is being said. Hearken ye all Judah and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by
reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, go ye down against
them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and you shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness Jerel. You shall not need to fight in
this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see. the salvation of the
Lord with you. Oh, Judah and Jerusalem, fear
not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them
for the Lord will be with you. Now this battle, you're not divided in this battle.
You see Hebrews 1, 3 says he by himself purged our sins. That multitude, he by himself,
you didn't help. You didn't have anything to do
with this. Whether they were your sins,
you had something to do with that, but you didn't have anything
to do with this victory. He by himself purged our sins. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Now, I love what Simeon said. Be now, Lord, let us now thy
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Jesus Christ is God's salvation. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. That's God's salvation. In the
flesh, he kept God's holy law that you broke. And in the flesh,
he took your sin upon himself and put it away and gave you
the very righteousness that he worked out when he kept the law.
It's yours. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. It is finished. Did you have any part in this?
No. By grace are you saved. This is what Moses said to the
children of Israel. at the Red Sea, fear not, stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he shall show
you today. For the Egyptians whom you've
seen today, you shall see them no more forever for the Lord
shall fight for you. And you'll just hold your peace. Turn with me for a moment to
1 Samuel chapter 17. This is the message of the Bible.
The battle's not yours. You'll remember the story of
David and Goliath. If David wins, all Israel wins. If David loses, all of Israel
lose. Verse 44. And the Philistine,
Gath, Goliath of Gath, came, said to David, come to me, and
I'll give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts
of the field. Then said David to the Philistine,
thou comest to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a shield.
I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of
the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the
Lord deliver thee into my hand, and I'll smite thee and take
thine head from thee, and I'll give the carcasses of the host
of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the
wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there
is a God in Israel, and all this assembly shall know that the
Lord saveth not with sword or spear, Here it is, for the battle
is the Lord's. It ain't me fighting, this is
the Lord's battle. And he will give you into our
hands. And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came
and drew to night to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward
the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his
bag and took thence a stone and slang it and smoked the Philistine
in the forehead and the stone sunk into his forehead and he
fell upon his face to the earth." He killed him. Now, everybody
knows the story of David and Goliath, but who knows that this
is the gospel? All Israel won because David
won. And David lets everybody know,
this is the Lord fighting this battle, not me. And that is the
gospel. The battle is not yours, but
the Lord's. 2 Chronicles 20, back to our text. You shall not, verse 17, you
shall not need to fight in this battle. State yourself, stand
you still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah
and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow
go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. Now here's
the only response to this. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground. And all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Now that's the only response
to this. Worship. And the Levites of the children
of Kothiots and of the children of the Korites stood up to praise
the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. Worship and praise
Verse 20, and they rose early in the morning and went forth
into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat
stood and said, hear me. Oh, Judah. And you had inhabited
Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord, your God.
So shall you be established. Believe his prophets. So shall
you prosper. Believe, believe what? who he is and what he did. What else? What else is there? This is the work of God,
that you believe on him whom he hath sent. He said, came not to do my own
will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day."
Believe who He is. He's God. Can He fail? Can He
fail? If He wills your salvation, is
there any way you can be anything but saved? He's God. Believe what he did, finished
the work. That was his word from the cross.
It is finished. Verse 21, and when he had consulted
with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord that they
should praise the beauty of holiness. I'll tell you what, you can praise
the beauty of holiness when you have holiness. Christ has made
unto us holiness. When you have otherness, you
know in this praising the beauty of holiness, there's nothing
fleshly about it, is there? Flesh doesn't enter into this.
This is praising him in the beauty of holiness as they went out
before the Lord and say, and here's the song of the church,
praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and
to praise, The Lord set ambushments. against the children of Ammon
and Moab and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and
they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against
the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them.
And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone
helped to destroy one another." Now here Judah comes up and they
watch this. Everybody's killing each other,
all our enemies. They're not doing anything. The children
of Israel are just watching this take place. All these men that
came up to destroy Judah, every one of them turned on each other
and killed each other, and not one of them escaped. By the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, not one sin has escaped. It's all
been put away. And this was the Lord's work,
not yours. All you do is watch. You see, the battle is the Lord's. Verse 23, verse 24. And when Judah came toward the
watchtower in the wilderness, they looked into the multitude
and behold, there were dead bodies fallen to the earth and none
escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his
people came to take away the spoil of them, They found among
them 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. Now, who gathered
the spoil of Jehovah's victory? Well, Jehoshaphat and that bunch.
They got all the spoils. All the spoils that come from
his victory. Notice it wasn't until the third
day they were able to get them all. Now you know what that represents.
He rose from the dead the third day and that's all the spoils
of his victory. Think of this, the forgiveness
of all your sins. The price completely paid. The
redemption price completely paid. You now stand before God. This
is the spoils of his victory. You stand before God justified,
without guilt. without sin. You have the promise
of the Holy Spirit giving you a new heart. You have his preserving
grace keeping you. You have his eternal covenant. You're given the gifts of faith
and repentance. Oh, the spoils of this victory
that he achieved that we just go out and gather. They're ours
because he achieved them. Nothing to prevent us from heaven. How can you take this? Because
he won the victory for me. You see, the battle's the Lord's.
If I had any hand in it, we've got all kinds of trouble. I didn't
have any hand in it. He did it all. He did it freely.
He fought for me. sounds something like this. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people
saith the Lord speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her
so she'll hear this that her warfare is accomplished. Luke 9 31 speaks of the decease
which he should accomplish. Now When me and you die, here's
all we do is show how weak and sinful we are. The wages of sin
is death, but he accomplished something by his death. Her warfare
is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned, put
away. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Not only were your sins
forgiven, not only were you not condemned, you were justified.
You've received to the Lord's hand double for all your sins
for this great victory that he worked out. Verse 26 on the fourth
day, they assembled themselves in the Valley of Baraka, which
means blessing. They assembled themselves. This
is what church service is. They assembled themselves in
the Valley of Blessing. For there they blessed the Lord.
Therefore, the name of the same place was called the Valley of
Barak. And to this day, blessed be the God and father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Every one of them in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Then they returned. Verse 27, then they returned,
every man of Judah, and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat, the forefront
of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made
them to rejoice over their enemies. The Lord did this. Salvation
is of the Lord. You know that if you're saved.
I don't have to convince any believer of that. The salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. If you're saved, it's because
He saved you and He did it all. And they came to Jerusalem with
psalteries and harps and trumpets in the house of the Lord. And
the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when
they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of
Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet for his God gave him rest roundabout. Quiet, no disturbance. The only way I'm not going to
have disturbance is if he did it all. And he did. No disturbance. And rest. Rest is the response
to the finished work of Christ. There's nothing to do but rest. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that's entered into his
rest hath ceased from his own works." You ever done that? Ceased from
your own works. As God did from his, all there
is to do is rest. If the Lord fought this battle,
You didn't have anything to do with it. All there is is peace
and rest. Jehoshaphat name means God has
judged. God has judged. Judgment's already
taken place. So all there is to do is be quiet and rest Because the battle is
not yours, it's God's. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that the
battle is not ours, but that you undertook everything for
our salvation. We give thanks. Bless this word
for your glory and our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.