2 Chronicles 20:13-25

[0:00] Good evening. 2 Chronicles chapter 20.! So, those of you that were here,! when we preached from this chapter,! this book and chapter the last time, you'll remember Jehoshaphat and Judah! were about to be invaded by armies from three different nations.

[0:27] And there was a mass amount of people, a very formidable army, was coming against him. And Jehoshaphat called for a fast of the people of Judah. And he sought the Lord.

[0:39] You know, he didn't immediately turn and say, what have we got in our military? What have we got as far as weaponry goes? Nothing like that. He immediately sought the Lord.

[0:50] And so the people of Judah sought the Lord along with him. But we concentrated more on the prayer that Jehoshaphat had than anything.

[1:03] Because it was a very significant prayer that he prayed. It was steeped in doctrine, really. We've been talking a lot about doctrine here lately. But it was steeped in this.

[1:15] And he talked about the covenant that God had made with Abraham. And how Judah, the Jewish people, Israel as a whole, were God's people. They were God's chosen people.

[1:28] And he says, have you not chosen us? Are we not yours? And won't you defend us against this army? And this is how Jehoshaphat besought God.

[1:41] And we ended with verse 12. The last time we preached from this. And we'll read that just for a recap. Verse 12 in 2 Chronicles 20 says, O our God, wilt thou not judge them?

[1:54] For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And this was a confession of Jehoshaphat.

[2:07] And because he was the leader of this people, it was a confession of the people as well. That they didn't know what to do. They had no might and no power of their own.

[2:17] But their eyes were fixed on God. Their eyes were upon God. In other words, they were trusting in what God could and would do for them.

[2:28] So that's just a real quick recap of what we preached the last time. We'll pick up in verse 13 in 2 Chronicles 20. So verse 13 says, And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children.

[2:44] Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeel, the son of Medaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation.

[2:58] And he said, Hearken ye all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude.

[3:11] For the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff of Seas, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeruel.

[3:27] Ye 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.

[3:39] Tomorrow go out against them, and for the Lord will be with you. 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.

[3:52] And the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and the children of the Korhites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa.

[4:07] 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 ye be established. Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.

[4:20] And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness. And they went out before the army and to say, Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever.

[4:36] And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord, 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.

[4:49] 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, every one helped to destroy another.

[5:01] And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude. And behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away.

[5:24] And they were three days in gathering of the spoil. It was so much. And I know that was a lot of reading, but we'll go back to verse 13. Verse 13, 2 Chronicles 20 says, And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

[5:41] This is the people that were about to hear this prophecy come from this man Jehoshal. But this was the entire congregation, as per the Scripture, the entire congregation of Judah that was standing before the Lord.

[5:59] It says, All Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones and their wives and their children. So they were all standing there. Verse 14 says, And upon Jehoshal, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeel, the son of Madaniah, Levi, the sons of Asaph, came to the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation.

[6:20] So this man, Jehoshal, we don't know a whole lot about him as far as the Scriptural account goes. But folks, God used this man, Jehoshal here.

[6:30] He used this man in a mighty way to let his people, to let the entire congregation, the entire nation of Judah, know that God was about to fight this battle for them.

[6:41] This man, Jehoshal here, he joins the ranks of David. David, who was the least of his father, Jesse. He joins the ranks of Gideon, who was the least of his father. He joins the ranks of all these people that God has chosen and God has used to perform mighty works.

[6:58] Folks, and I'm glad that God does it this way. Even Jesus Christ, as far as the human aspect is concerned, I understand that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, and I understand that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father.

[7:12] I understand that He is the King, He is the Maker, He is the Master, He is the very One that spoke everything into existence. I understand this about Jesus, but as far as the human mind could conceive Jesus, He was a poor baby, He was born to a poor family, His family was from a little town called Nazareth that nobody cared about, nobody cared anything about this town.

[7:36] He was born in a manger, He was born in filth, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, Jesus Christ, and Almighty God, they used people of a low degree, they used people that are nothing in the sight of anybody in the world.

[7:53] God is One who does this all throughout the pages of the Scripture. Not only did He use David, the least of Jesse's boys, not only did He use Gideon, folks, He called fishermen from Galilee to be the ones to spread the Gospel into the entire world.

[8:11] He used Jesus Christ in much the same manner. Again, Jesus Christ, as far as the world is concerned, being a lowly man, being a humble man, God uses people like this.

[8:23] I'm glad that He uses people like this. As far as you and I are concerned, we are nothing more than specks of dust that are floating around and walking upon this planet in a vast universe that Almighty God has created.

[8:36] But God has chosen us and God has saved our souls and God expects us to go into the world and to preach the Gospel unto every living creature, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

[8:54] Hallelujah! God uses that which is small and insignificant in the eyes of the world. God uses these types of people and He uses man, Jehaziel, someone that we read very little about in the scriptural account, but He used him in a mighty way.

[9:11] And what does Jehaziel say? In verse 15, it says, and He said, Hearken ye all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismay by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's.

[9:30] The battle is not yours but God's. Folks, at the cross of Jesus Christ, it was the exact same story. This is Gospel language that is being used here. This is Gospel logic that is being used here.

[9:43] It was not ours to fight. It was not ours to win. We could not fight it and we could not win it. We had no chance against sin. We had no chance against hell.

[9:55] We had no chance against death and we had no chance against Satan but Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary and on the third glorious morning when He resurrected, defeated all of those foes on your behalf and mine.

[10:10] Hallelujah. It is not our fight to fight. It was never our fight to fight. And God says to fear not. He says to be not dismayed at these things.

[10:22] Folks, the battle has already been fought and it has already been won. The war has already been won by Jesus Christ. No effort on our behalf is needed as far as salvation is concerned.

[10:36] Jesus Christ won salvation for us. Hallelujah. Nothing is required of us. He says, For the battle is not yours but God's.

[10:47] Verse 16. This is still Jehoshaphat talking to the congregation of Judah here. It says, Tomorrow go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff of Seas and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jerul.

[11:04] Folks, this speaks of the sovereignty and the providence of Almighty God. This speaks of the omniscience of Almighty God that He does indeed know everything. This is speaking about something.

[11:16] Jehoshaphat here, the Spirit fell on this man in verse 14. And He was speaking, God was speaking through this man. Jehoshaphat, the Spirit had fallen upon him.

[11:27] He was speaking these words about events that would occur the very next day. Folks, I am glad that God knows what is in my future. I am glad that He knows what's going to happen an hour from now.

[11:38] I am glad He knows what's going to be going on in my life at midnight and next week and next month and the month after that and the years to follow. Almighty God knows these things. Brother Mike said just this morning during service, the 11 o'clock hour service, he said, aren't you glad that you don't know though?

[11:54] And I am glad that I don't know but I am also glad that Almighty God knows what's coming down the path and Almighty God already has a plan for what's coming down the path.

[12:06] He already knows. He's already planned for it. He's already got my back on into tomorrow. Praise God. And if you're His, He has yours too. He has yours too.

[12:18] He says, tomorrow, tomorrow, go you down. Folks, this is important. He says, tomorrow, go. Go. He doesn't say, sit on your backsides and wait on something to happen.

[12:32] Amen. Folks, just because God has our back and just because God has already fought and won the battle for us at the cross, just because of these things does not mean that we are to sit in church or that we are to sit at home and our lazy boys or that we are to do, just sit around and do nothing.

[12:51] God expects His people to work for Him, to work for Him to do what He would have us to do, to go and to preach, to go and to teach, to go and tell somebody about His goodness, tell someone about the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ so that they might be saved.

[13:11] Praise God. And it's not that God needs us to do that. God doesn't need you or I to do anything. He is completely, totally, and utterly self-sufficient.

[13:23] He needs nothing. He needs no one. He is God. He existed before anyone else or anything else existed. He spoke everything else that we know into existence.

[13:36] He does not need us, but He expects us to go. He expects us to go. It is a commandment in the Scripture. God says here through Jehaziel, tomorrow, go ye down.

[13:49] Go ye down against Him. Folks, sometimes we need to go to where we know that we are the weakest. we need to go to where we know that God's strength will be made perfect.

[14:03] It's just like He told Paul or like God told Paul when Paul was writing to the church at Corinth. And He said, my grace is sufficient for thee, but my strength is made perfect in weakness.

[14:17] Not in God's weakness. His strength is made perfect in man's weakness. Right. Just like we were talking about up in verse 14. when God chose Jehaziel for whatever reason.

[14:30] Scripture doesn't tell us why. But He chose this man, Jehaziel, to drop His Spirit upon and to speak through Him. Folks, God chose us.

[14:40] God chose mankind to be His mouthpiece. He chose mankind to be His workers. He didn't choose the birds. He didn't choose the creeping, crawling things.

[14:52] He didn't choose any of those things. He chose man to carry His message. He chose man to do this. Tomorrow go ye down against the behold.

[15:02] They come up by the cliff of Seas and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeruel. God knows it all. He knew exactly where the enemy was going to be before Judah even knew where the enemy was going to be.

[15:15] But He tells them to go. He doesn't say, just because I promised you this thing, you just sit back in your lounge chairs and watch me work. He says, go. And then we have verse 17 and verse 18.

[15:30] You shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. My goodness, don't that sound familiar from an account?

[15:42] Don't that sound familiar when Moses and the children of Israel are standing at the edge of the Red Sea and God says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

[15:52] When all those Israelites were behind Moses and they were all scared out of their wits, they were all scared of death, there was one man there by the name of Moses that had faith.

[16:02] He had faith in God. He knew the God that had spoken to him from the burning bush. He knew the God that said, you go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. He knew this God and he had faith in that God and he was the only one out of the entire nation of Israel that had that faith.

[16:21] Read Hebrews 11 sometime. Brother Ellis was talking about it just this morning about how all those patriarchs, all those people in Hebrews 11, they've done everything that they did by faith.

[16:32] And it says, by faith they crossed the Red Sea. But it was not by the faith of the Israelites. It was by the faith of one Israelite. And his name was Moses. It was by his faith that the entire nation, anywhere from two and a half to three million people, it's estimated.

[16:49] It wasn't just a couple of hundred that you see on the movies that you might see about Israel crossing the Red Sea. Two and a half to three million people crossed the Red Sea.

[17:00] And it wasn't like some of these liberal supposed Bible scholars will tell you either. They didn't cross in ankle deep water. Folks, if that's the case, God worked a miracle that is greater than Israel crossing the Red Sea because he drowned the entire Egyptian army in ankle deep water if that's the case.

[17:18] That is not what happened though. The Bible says that the water was as walls on one side and the water was as walls on the other side. The Bible teaches that God had sent a strong east wind to part those waters that had dried up the seabed and they were able to cross on dry ground.

[17:37] Don't you believe these liberal Bible scholars that say that it was ankle deep water? That's a lie straight from the pits of hell. And that lie is created to cause you to doubt the Scriptures.

[17:48] To cause you to doubt what we read in the Scriptures. Again, verse 17, ye shall not need to fight in this battle again, folks. We do not need to fight as far as the battle of salvation goes.

[17:59] It is over. It is done. There is nothing you can do. You can't work enough good works. You can't feed enough hungry mouths. You can't clothe enough naked bodies to earn your way into heaven.

[18:12] But Christ suffered enough. Christ took your shame. Christ took your guilt. Christ took your iniquity. He took your transgression. He took your sin upon Himself that you and I could have life and have it more abundantly.

[18:27] That work is finished, folks. We need not fight the battle for salvation. God has already worked that out. And all it takes is faith on our behalf. We believe in Jesus Christ.

[18:39] We believe that He is the only begotten Son of the Father. We believe in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. We believe these things in the Scripture. And this is what works.

[18:49] Salvation. As Brother Ellis said this morning, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Folks, you drop down just a few more verses in that same chapter in Hebrews 11. You find out that without faith it is impossible to please God.

[19:02] Why? Because you don't believe what God says in His Word. Amen. That's why. It takes faith. It takes faith. And folks, these people show an amazing amount of faith in this next verse that we're going to get to here in just a moment.

[19:16] Again, verse 17. 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 this may tomorrow go ye out against them, for the Lord will be with you.

[19:32] Folks, God sends us out into this world, this cold world, this dark world, this evil and wicked world. God sends us out. But He does not send us out alone.

[19:45] God abides on the inside with everyone that has repented of their sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He abides with us and He goes with us into the world. He gives us wisdom.

[19:56] He gives us discernment. He gives us the words to say and when to say them. Praise God. He goes with us. He goes with us always. When we're going out into the world to spread the Gospel, when we're going out into the world to testify of the goodness of Jesus Christ and testify of the goodness of God, when we lay our head down to sleep at night in the bed, God is with us.

[20:20] The Lord will be with you and God is with you. Verse 18, 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.

[20:34] Folks, this is probably the most significant verse in this entire long passage of Scripture that we read earlier. Why is it so significant? Folks, the first sword has not been drawn.

[20:48] The first battle cry has not gone out. The first enemy has not fallen. They just prophesied about what was going to happen tomorrow.

[20:58] Pharaoh. And these people, the entire nation of Judah, including King Jehoshaphat, fall down on their face and worship God before God has even acted.

[21:12] How often do we do that? How often do we do that? God, help us. We ask God to intervene on our behalf. We ask God to intervene on behalf of our loved one.

[21:23] God, cure this sickness. God, cure this ailment. God, do this and God do that. And we do not worship God until He has done it. Folks, when we make the petitions to God and we beseech God to act on behalf of ourselves or act on behalf of someone else, go ahead and worship Him.

[21:41] Go ahead and worship Him. Folks, we do not worship God according to our circumstances. If that was the case, none of us would ever worship God. We worship God because of whom He is.

[21:53] We worship God because He is Creator God. He is the saving God. He saved our souls out of the hell that it deserves. So whether He answers yes or answers no to your petitions, go ahead and worship Him.

[22:09] Go ahead and worship again, folks. The battle hadn't even taken place yet. It wasn't tomorrow just yet. This was just after the prophecy was given. It says, Jehoshaphat and all of Judah went ahead and bowed down and worshiped God.

[22:27] Why? Because they had faith. They had faith in that what Jehoshaphat had told them, which is what God was telling them through Jehoshaphat. They had faith that it would indeed come to pass.

[22:41] And the very end of the previous verse, the very end of verse 17, it says, and the Lord will be with you. That is reason enough for us to worship God. It's that He has promised to be with us.

[22:52] He has promised to go with us always, even to the end of the world. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. Hallelujah. That is enough reason to worship God.

[23:04] Any and all of our days and every hour of the day, we should be in praise to God just for that. These folks here worshiped God before God ever acted.

[23:17] Before anything ever took place. Verse 19, And the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

[23:29] Compare this with verse 18. It says, Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground and all Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, fell before the Lord worshiping the Lord. And this verse, the Levites and the Kohathites and the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

[23:46] This tells me that worship is not monochrome. It isn't the same for everybody. You can worship God sitting silently in your seat and that is just fine.

[23:59] I don't read where Jehoshaphat cut a scene. I don't read where anybody else in Judah cut a scene here or where they screamed or where they ran up and down the aisles or anything else.

[24:10] But the Levites, they raised up with a loud voice and they worshiped God and that doesn't mean that they love God any more than the silent person does. That doesn't mean that those that yell and those that publicly testify in the church or whatever the case is, that doesn't mean that they love God any more than someone that just sits in their pew on Sunday after Sunday or Wednesday after Wednesday and cries because of the goodness of God.

[24:36] Both of those are forms of worship. But it is not monochrome. It is not the same all the way across. Worship to God is not flat-lined. And I praise God that it's not.

[24:47] Otherwise, I will be comparing myself with all of you and you will be comparing yourself with me. Y'all have heard me preach enough. Y'all have been around me enough to know now I'm pretty silent in church services for the most part.

[25:02] That doesn't mean I haven't thrown a holy fit once in a while though because I have. But, for the most part, I'm pretty silent in church services. I guess I saved my worship for the pulpit.

[25:12] I don't know. But, either way, just because someone else worships God louder than you do, just because you worship God louder than someone else does, does not mean that your love for God or their love for God is any more or any less.

[25:27] And these two verses right here prove that to me. They prove that to me. The Levites raised up with a loud voice and worshiped God. Verse 20, And they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa.

[25:40] 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 ye be established. Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.

[25:53] So, now, we're into the morrow. We're into the day that was being prophesied by Jehoshaphat. We're into that day finally here in verse 20. It says, They rose early in the morning and Jehoshaphat stood up and what does he base what he says?

[26:08] He is preaching to Judah when he says this. But what does he base the entire sermon on? He says, Believe! Believe the Lord your God!

[26:18] Believe what He has said! Believe what He told us yesterday through His man Jehoshaphat! Believe that He is going to fight this battle for us! In other words, have faith.

[26:30] Because without faith it's impossible to please Him. Without faith it's impossible to please God. He says, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God. So shall ye be established.

[26:42] Again, without faith it is impossible to please Him. We are saved by grace. But it is not just by grace, folks. We are saved by grace through faith.

[26:52] If we do not believe the Word of God, we will not be saved by the grace of God. It is by faith that we are established. And that's what Jehoshaphat was trying to get through to Judah here.

[27:05] Believe the Lord God. Believe that He said these things and it will come to pass. He says, Believe in the Lord your God. So shall ye be established.

[27:15] Believe His prophets. What's He saying there? So shall ye prosper. Believe His prophets. And folks, what did the prophets do? The prophets are the very ones that wrote the Word of God.

[27:26] Now he may have, in this immediate context, been talking about Jehoshaphat. But folks, the prophets are the ones that wrote the Word of God. Moses was a prophet just as much as he was a pastor leading Israel out of Egypt.

[27:41] Abraham was a prophet just as much as he was one that God just looked down and chose to send out of Ur into the Promised Land. David was a prophet just as much as he was a king.

[27:53] And David wrote many of the Psalms. Most of the Psalms. David wrote a lot of things. But folks, believe the prophets. Believe the Word of God.

[28:03] Believe what has been recorded. Believe these things that were mentioned aforetime. What we're reading right now, this was mentioned aforetime. But folks, we have the entire New Testament to attach to that.

[28:17] These things were written for our admonition. They were written for our benefit. They were written that we might believe is that not how John ends his Gospel? He says, I've written these things that you might believe.

[28:31] He didn't write it just to take up space on papyrus. He didn't write it just to waste time. He wrote it that others on into the future would believe. And folks, these very words that we are reading here tonight in 2 Chronicles in the 20th chapter were written so that we might believe.

[28:51] That we might believe what God has said throughout the rest of His Word. So, again, Jehoshaphat says, Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established.

[29:01] We're established by faith. And He says, to believe the prophets, so shall you prosper. And when He says prosper, He's not telling Judah, after this battle, God's going to give each one of you a Mercedes-Benz.

[29:14] He's not saying, I'm going to give you this or give you that as far as material goes. Folks, what were they asking for? The last time I preached from this chapter, what were they asking for? They were asking for protection.

[29:25] They were asking that God intervene because these three armies that were coming against this tiny nation of Judah stood no chance. Jehoshaphat said himself, We have no power.

[29:37] Neither know we what to do. But our eyes are upon you. Our eyes are upon you. They were asking God for His help. They were asking God for His intervention. And because of what the prophets had said, because of what they had read in the other Scriptures leading up to this, namely in the Pentateuch, and they saw the deliverance of God.

[29:59] And they read about the deliverance of God. And they knew the accounts of the Old Testament. They knew the account of God delivering Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea. They knew the account of Joshua and Israel crossing the Jordan River into the Canaan land.

[30:14] And those parcels of land being divided up amongst the tribes just as God said that it would be. They knew these things. And therefore, they believed God. Folks, the New Testament is chock full.

[30:26] The Old Testament is too. But the New Testament is chock full of Christ saving people. Of Christ saving people. Of people believing on Him. You've got the woman with the issue of blood.

[30:40] One of the most famous accounts in the New Testament. She'd spend everything that she had. She'd gone to every doctor known in that area. And instead of growing better, the Scripture says she grew worse.

[30:56] And she said, if I can just get to Him. If I can just get through this crowd. If I can touch the hem of His garment. I shall be made whole. And folks, that's what it takes.

[31:07] It wasn't her touch of His garment. His garment wasn't magical. It was her faith that if she could get to this man from Galilee. This healer.

[31:18] This prophet. This preacher. If she could just reach Him. She could be made whole. And made whole she was. Praise God. The Bible says we're finding dried up like that.

[31:31] Like that. And folks, salvation is the same way. When we are saved, our sin is gone. It is forgotten. As Brother Mike's done said, it's cast into the sea of forgetfulness. It's cast as far as the east is from the west.

[31:44] So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Not to be remembered. Hallelujah. That's my God. That's the God that saved me. So, you're established with your faith.

[31:57] Believe in the Lord your God. That's being established. And you believe the prophets. You believe the Word of God. That's how you prosper. If you've been saved and your nose hadn't been in this book, you're not going to prosper very much in the work of God.

[32:13] You might prosper in this life. You might have a big house. You might have a dozen cars. You might have a garage to put them all in. But you're not going to prosper in the things of God.

[32:23] You're not going to prosper in light of eternity and in light of what God has for those that keep their nose in His Word and believe the words which they read. On to verse 21.

[32:34] And when He had consulted with the people, He appointed singers unto the Lord. And that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and to say, praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever.

[32:48] Folks, this is amazing what we just read here. Again, it says, and when He had consulted with the people after He had told them what He just told them, to believe in the Lord your God and your belief is how you'll be established and to believe His prophets.

[33:03] And this is how you will prosper. After He consulted with the people, He appointed singers unto the Lord. And that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army.

[33:13] Folks, this is amazing because Jehoshaphat didn't say, okay, I need every man with a sword up here to the front line. I need everyone with a shield to come up here to the front.

[33:24] I need everyone with a spear up here to the front. No, Jehoshaphat said, put the choir on the front. LIE! This showed the faith that he had in God.

[33:36] The choir, the singers was the front line of the defense of Judah. Why? This showed the faith that Jehoshaphat had.

[33:49] It showed the faith that the people had because I read nothing in the Scripture where the singers were saying, I ain't going up there. I ain't going up there. I might get shot with an arrow. I might get stabbed with a sword.

[34:01] I might get beheaded. No! Jehoshaphat said, put the singers up here. And what did the singers do? They didn't go up there fighting. They had the praise of God on their lips.

[34:12] Folks, when we go into battle, the most important thing you can do is praise God. Praise God every time you go into a spiritual battle. Praise God for His holiness.

[34:24] Praise God for His goodness. Praise God for His salvation. Praise God that He has promised to be with you. That's the best defense that we have is our praise of God and our worship of God.

[34:39] It's the best defense against the enemy that we have. Why? Because when the people of God praise God and they recognize God, we read the rest of this chapter.

[34:53] We read what happens. And it's not because God, again, needs us to praise Him. God expects His people to praise. Folks, if you've been saved, you've got reason to praise God.

[35:06] You've got reason to shout your hallelujahs. You've got reasons to amen God and to amen the Word of Almighty God. If you have received salvation, you've got a reason for that.

[35:20] He appointed singers unto the Lord and that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and to say, praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever.

[35:32] This is the same words that we find in the Psalms. This is the same words that was spoken at the dedication of the temple, at Solomon's dedication of the temple. Praise the Lord. Why praise the Lord?

[35:44] For His mercy. Because His mercy endureth forever. Mercy is one of the attributes of God. He is a merciful God. And He is merciful unto sinners.

[35:56] He is merciful to rebels against Him. He is merciful to those that have purposely trampled upon His law. That is purposely trampled upon the blood of Jesus Christ.

[36:07] God shows mercy to people like that. And His mercy endureth forever. Praise the Lord. For His mercy endureth forever. This is what was being spoken on the front line of the army of Judah.

[36:23] Not, let's go get them. Not, get as many as you can. Not, kill as many as you can. Praise the Lord. For His mercy endureth forever.

[36:35] And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord, the Lord, I'm sorry, 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.

[36:50] For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir utterly to slay and to destroy them. And when they had made an end to the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another.

[37:02] While the people of God were praising God. Again, not one sword drawn, not one battle cry uttered.

[37:13] Their battle cry was praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever. No insults were hurled at the opposing armies. Nothing along this was going on, but God was being praised.

[37:25] And while God was being praised, He wasn't up there just lavishing Himself in the praise of His people. He wasn't just inhabiting the praise of His people, but He was acting on behalf of His people, setting up ambushments against the opposing army.

[37:41] And God does the same thing for you and I when we praise Him against the armies of darkness, against the armies of wickedness, against the armies of the spiritual world that we are in, the armies of evil.

[37:55] When they come against us and we praise God, God overturns what they're trying to do. Folks, this isn't the first time in Scripture that this ever happened. You think of Gideon and Judges.

[38:08] Gideon started out with 32,000 people. 32,000 men. And God reduced it down to 300. But He told Gideon why He was going to do that. He said, so that you all don't think that you won this battle on your own.

[38:22] Going against the entire army, going against the Midianites. And God done the exact same thing to them that He done to this three-nation army here.

[38:33] He turned them against themselves. They destroyed themselves. Turn over to the book of Esther in chapter 7 sometimes. Read that. The very gallows, the very gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai.

[38:48] Haman was hanged upon because Haman had come against one of God's own. He used the very gallows that Haman built to hang Haman upon.

[39:00] But folks, the greatest display of this in all of Scripture is the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross where Satan may have thought that he had the victory. The cross where I'm sure that Satan and all of his minions, all of his nymphs, and all of his little demons were dancing around the foot of that cross saying, looky here at what we've done.

[39:21] Looky here at what we have accomplished. But praise God, it's just as Joseph told his brothers in Genesis chapter 50. You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. God used that for the good of all of mankind.

[39:36] For everyone that would repent and believe God used the cross, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ for everyone that would repent of their ways, believe in that death, burial, and resurrection, and come to God in faith and repentance.

[39:50] God used that. And he used the very tool, a wicked tool of the cross, a wicked form of death, a wicked form of punishment, a cruel form of punishment that was not of God.

[40:02] It was made of man. But, God used it for good. God used it for good. God turned these three armies upon one another.

[40:13] That they destroyed one another. And Judah didn't have to deal the first blow. But not only did God win that battle, let's continue reading. Verse 24, And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude and behold, there were dead bodies fallen to the earth and none escaped.

[40:35] This speaks of the totality of what God did. Folks, if God says He's going to do something, He does it. And He doesn't do it halfway like we as human beings do.

[40:47] God does it to completion. I praise God for the first chapter of Philippians where Paul says that he has faith, he has confidence that God is able to complete in us the work which He started.

[41:03] God finishes things. God completes things. He doesn't do it halfway like we did. He totally, utterly destroyed these three armies without Judah doing a single blow in verse 25.

[41:18] And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spool of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels which they stripped off of themselves more than they could carry away.

[41:30] And they were three days in gathering of the spool. It was so much. Folks, not only did God destroy these armies, but Judah took of the spools and took of the spools for days and it was more than they could carry.

[41:48] Folks, you and I, when we go to the cross of Jesus Christ knowing that we fought for nothing as far as salvation goes, we fought for nothing, God did it all through Jesus Christ.

[42:04] And we receive salvation. We receive eternal life. We receive immortal life. We receive this gift of Almighty God.

[42:16] We get more than that. Folks, we get the sanctification. We get consecration. We get the presence of God in our lives.

[42:28] We get all these things. This is just bonus material. Salvation, it was enough. Saving my undeserving soul was enough. But God gives more.

[42:40] We get all this grace for the rest of our lives and on into eternity. We're sanctified. We're set apart for the use of God. Not only here on this earth, but for all of eternity.

[42:54] And that's more than we can carry. And that's why it's going to last for all of eternity. It's more than we can carry here. Hey, I appreciate God for consecrating me. I appreciate God for sanctifying me.

[43:05] I appreciate God for justifying me. Because I was incapable of doing it myself. Just as Judah was incapable of defending herself.

[43:18] God stepped in and God defended Judah. But not only did He defend her, and not only did He destroy the enemy by confounding the enemy and turning them against one another.

[43:30] And folks, that right there is proof that God done this thing. Folks, in the camp of the wicked, confusion reigns. And I know this because Paul wrote to the Corinthian church that God is not the author of confusion.

[43:46] So if confusion is there, that's not of God. God may have caused this delusion upon them. But in the camp of the saints, what do we have?

[43:58] We don't have confusion. We have clarity. We have clarity because of the Word of God. We have clarity because of what God has said in His Word.

[44:09] And the country of Judah here, they had clarity because of what Jehoshaphat had prophesied unto them. And because of the accounts that they knew all beforehand of everything that led up to here, from Genesis all the way up.

[44:24] They had accounts of those, and they believed those things. And they spent days gathering this poll, which was just bonus for them. God destroyed the enemy, but God enriched them with the spoils of the enemy.

[44:37] And folks, God enriches us every day of our lives. Maybe not with the spoils of the enemy, but God enriches us. And we prosper in the way of God. We prosper in the things of God.

[44:48] But we must be established in faith. And we will prosper because of what the prophets have said. And if we believe in what the prophets have said. And folks, that's the message for this evening.

[45:01] God bless you all. I hope it was a help to you. I appreciate your attention. Thank you.