The Crisis Unfolded

Introduction: The Redemptive-Historical Context of Old Testament Narratives

0:07 The passage is 2 Chronicles chapter 20, 2 Chronicles chapter 20, and I would ask you to follow as I read the entire narrative that will be the object of our attention, verses 1 through 30. For many of you, this story, no doubt, will be entirely new. For others, it may be one you've read many times. Let's attempt to listen to it as though we have never heard it before.

0:36 And it came to pass after this that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them some of 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, from Syria. Behold, they are in Hazazon Tamar, the same as En Gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared.

1:08 And set himself to seek unto the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to seek help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court, and he said, O Lord, the God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? And art not thou ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations?

1:43 And in thy hand is power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Didst not thou, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and give it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If evil come upon us, the sword. If judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house, and before thee, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, and thou wilt hear and save.

2:22 And now behold the children of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned aside from them and destroyed them not. Behold how they reward us to come to cast us. Out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit, O our God, wilt thou not judge them? 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.

2:57 And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

3:07 Then upon Jehaziel the son of Israel, and his wife, and his wife, and his wife, and his son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mataniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the assembly, and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you, Fear not ye, neither be 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 ascent of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the valley before the wilderness of Jeruel.

3:52 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.

4:06 Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord. Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshipping the Lord. And the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with an exceeding loud voice. 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, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem.

4:45 Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established. Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them that should sing unto the Lord and give praise in holy array as they went out before the army and say, Give thanks unto the Lord, for his lovingkindness endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set liars in wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, that were come against Judah, for they were smitten.

5:22 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 of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked upon the people of Judah, and they said, And behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and there were none that escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches and dead bodies and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves more than they could carry away.

6:02 And they were three days in taking the spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley. The valley of Barakah, for there they blessed the Lord. Therefore the name of that place was called the valley of Barakah unto this day.

6:21 Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And when they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets into the house of God, they were dead. And when they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets into the house of God, they were dead. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel.

6:48 So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest round about. Let us seek the Lord's help in seeking to understand this precious portion of his own word. O God, our Father, how grateful we are that we come to you with the confidence that we are the living and the true God, that what we have read of your livingness, of your might and power in this portion of the history of Judah, how we thank you that you are not bound within the pages of the narrative, but that as you worked in mighty power for your people in that day, so you live now to manifest your power to your people in our own generation. And we pray that you would help us rightly to understand this portion of your word, that we may glean from it principles to strengthen our faith, precepts to give direction to our feet. O Lord, meet us in this study of your word we plead, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

8:10 Now as we come to examine this portion of the word of God. It is important for us at the very outset to understand, and if we already understand this, to underscore afresh, that the history of the nation of Israel, including of course the southern tribes called Judah, is not a series of unrelated events containing a few moral and spiritual lessons into which the people of God may dip at random in order to help themselves in any given situation of crisis. When we read the history of the nation of Israel, when we read of the dealings of God with a segment of that nation as we have read tonight, God's dealings with Judah under the leadership of King Jehoshaphat, we are reading not little isolated historical snippets, but we are reading a segment of the great history of God's redemptive activity. Back in Genesis chapter 3, God had given a promise. He had announced that he would establish warfare between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and that ultimately the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, but that in the process the serpent would bring bruising to the heel of the seed

9:37 of the woman. And that promise of God, of course, came into sharper focus as we find it in Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12.

9:45 Genesis chapter 12. When the Lord singles out a particular man and announces that through this man blessing would come in a way of redemption to the entire world, to all the tribes and families of the earth. And as we read through the Old Testament, we are reading essentially the history of the mighty work of God, fulfilling those promises made in such passages as Genesis 3 and Genesis 12. So it is in a very recent...

10:15 Now for the first time in history, that word redemption gets used in Jesus of Nazca Acts chap. So, as a long time ago it only happened in a small phone call. Now God has been a慈h. Since the buyers would come after them and capture them, and the slaying lots were commenced in such a beautiful confusion and chaos in a năm after.

10:41 Then God has made it prepare people for the federal related 먼저您 آمرونة the redeemer would come, in whose name, and by whose salvation literally all the nations of the earth would receive redemptive blessing. God working to bring the knowledge of His Son to the world. But it is the one God of redemption, fulfilling the one promise of redemption, and because God does not change, and man, the object of that redemption, does not change, and Christ, the Redeemer, does not change, then we should expect that the Old Testament narrative is full of principles that will apply to the dealings of God with His redeemed people in any period of the history of redemption. This is why the Apostle Paul can say of the Old Testament Scriptures that they are all breathed out of God and profitable for doctrine for New Testament Christians. He's writing to New Testament believers and says, all Scripture is profitable for doctrine. You don't just extract your doctrine for the New Testament. You don't just extract the New Testament manifestation of redemptive activity from the New Testament.

11:44 No, no. Here is the biblical warrant for extracting doctrine from the Old. Furthermore, he says, that those Old Testament Scriptures are profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in the path of righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Now, there's one word of caution.

12:08 Because there is an... an ongoing process of God's redemptive activity, there are new dimensions of that activity as the process goes on.

12:19 And we must beware of making one-to-one equations between God's redemptive activities with the nation of Israel and God's redemptive activities with us in the present hour. But, with that word of caution before us, we are warranted to come to a passage like this believing, that in God's redemptive activity right now, in this very hour, in this segment of His redeemed people, there are principles by which God will teach us doctrine, by which He will reprove, correct, and instruct us concerning the path of righteousness. And in a very special way, the Old Testament, which contains the history of God's ancient people, has many incidents of what we would call, extreme crisis situation. There are these crises into which God brings His people in order that He might purify His people, in order that He might manifest His power, and these portions are particularly rich for the New Testament people of God when they also are brought into these crisis situations in the accomplishment of the purpose and will of God. Now, so much with that background, giving a...

The General Circumstances: Crisis on the Heels of Revival

13:39 polemic, that is, a reasonable argument for the validity of using this passage to give directive to Trinity Baptist Church existing in 1977 in the midst of a building program crisis. All right, having laid that background, and I will not take the time to do it again tomorrow night, we want to think through the passage as it is given to us by the inspiration of the Spirit. And the first thing we must notice is what I'm...

14:09 calling the general circumstances out of which this crisis arose. We read in the preceding chapter, verse 4 of chapter 19, that Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem, and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back unto the Lord, the God of their fathers. Here is one of the most wonderful statements in all of the Old Testament narrative. The statement that good King Jehoshaphat was instrumental under God in bringing these dwellers in Judah back to Jehovah, the God of their fathers. Here was what we might call a true religious revival. Here were people who, though externally in a covenant relationship to God, had turned away from the God of the covenant, had been guilty of idolatry and every form of departure from the law of God. But under the influence of Jehoshaphat, they are brought back to the God of their fathers.

15:20 There is revival, and that revival is then followed by reformation. And he set judges in the land throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, and then he goes on to charge these judges to administer practical righteousness according to the law of God. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it.

15:38 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it.

15:38 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it.

15:38 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. The law of Moses.

15:40 In other words, this returning to the Lord was not some kind of a mystical experience. It was a genuine turning to God which resulted in practical obedience to the law of God. And as you read through the rest of chapter 19, you have further details of how this work of revival and reformation went on under the ministry of Jehoshaphat. Now isn't it strange that with that account, account of this great return in true revival and then this tremendous outworking of practical obedience when the nation of Judah is as we might say at a pinnacle of spiritual obedience and blessing in terms of that segment of its history we read in verse 1 of chapter 20 and it came to pass after this there is this coalition of these ungodly nations who come to swallow up the people of God now I believe there's a very vital principle for us in the fact that the Spirit of God has described the general circumstances in which this crisis arose it was not a crisis brought upon the people of God because of some specific human human human present departure from the law of God.

17:06 It came on the heels of revival and reformation. Now, if they had all been out selling themselves to idolatry and harlotry and every form of law-breaking, and then God raised up this coalition of pagan nations to come and give them the works, you'd say, well, serves them right. That's what God had said He would do when He set out the terms of the covenant. He said, if you turn from Me and don't obey My word, I'll scourge you with the nations around you, and I'll bring you to defeat until you become a hissing and a stench even in the nostrils of your enemies.

17:43 But what a strange thing. I imagine Jehoshaphat had some problems.

17:50 Lord, I sought with all my heart to fulfill my responsibilities as a leader in Judah, to turn the people's hearts back to Your word, back to Your law. And Lord, I've not been indifferent to the demands of practical obedience. And he sought to administer the law of God in the details of the life of the nation. And it's on the heels of great blessing that this tremendous crisis is dumped upon the people of Judah.

18:22 And I find great consolation in this. For my first reaction when a crisis of this nature comes is, Lord, where have I sinned? What? What?

18:31 What have I done to bring upon this people this kind of a strange and a frowning providence? And I'm sure it's been the disposition of my fellow elders and of the deacons as well. And in recent days we have retraced every step that has brought us to this crisis. I've retraced mine at least probably 25, at least 25 times, somewhere around that.

18:58 Gone back to the very beginning. Lord, what has brought us? What has brought us to this crisis? And we've gone back and reviewed that when God brought us into this place, as far as we knew this would take care of us for many, many years to come, this little cracker box, and we sought to be obedient to the word of God, never having done all, and even if we had, we would have to claim we're still unprofitable servants, but in every situation seeking to be true to the word of God.

19:27 When we've tried to thrash out policy with respect to the administration, the administration of the life of this congregation, our concern has been again and again, not what is in vogue, what is the current evangelical tradition, but what sayeth the scriptures. And God has done a gracious work in turning many of our hearts back to the Lord our God, with a turning that has not been a mere mystical flight into some kind of religious shiver and a shake, but a turning that has resulted in our homes being ordered by the word of God, as never before. In our lives, in relationship to work, in our social relationships, albeit imperfectly and seen in everything we do, yes, but a bonified reformation of character and of life. And it was that very blessing of God upon his own work amongst us that led to the growth. And then we said, Lord, we can't countenance going into a big building program. We want to spend money to get the gospel out.

20:31 And so every vacant supermarkets or school or any building that might be renovated was examined. Specific quotes even gotten on some of those buildings until we realized we were going to end up spending half a million dollars for nothing but a supermarket with a little different arrangement on the inside. And we said, that's irresponsible. And some of you who've been with us know how that every single avenue had been pursued until in the providence of God seeking to be obedient to the principles, the word.

21:02 We came up on the piece of land in Montville, properly examined all of the things that you're supposed to do. All of these factors, as we've traced our steps and we've pleaded with God, searches, Oh God, in nor fully acknowledging that there is an element of sin in our best deeds. Still, we must say in the integrity of our consciences before God, we have thought to walk in the light of the scriptures. And yet it's in this situation, that the crisis has come upon us.

21:33 Well, we have good company. It was as Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah were walking in obedience to the word that God sovereignly brought this crisis upon them. So dear child of God, don't assume that this crisis is a chastening from God in the sense that he's spanking us for some sin. It's wrong to assume that.

The Crisis Unfolded: Absolute Hopelessness

21:59 Now, it's never wrong to pray Lord. If, if that be the case, search us, try us, show us our sin, that we may be led to repentance and to reformation. Well, we hurry on from the general circumstances in which the crisis came to what I'm calling the crisis unfolding. Verses one and two.

22:20 And it came to pass after this, that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with them some of the Ammonites. And there's a textual problem here with respect to who this, third group was, and there's no necessity to try to resolve that problem. Suffice it to say, you had the Ammonites, the Moabites, and another segment came against Jehoshaphat to battle. And there came some that told Jehoshaphat saying, there cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea from Syria.

22:52 And behold, they are in hazes on Tamar. The same is in Gedi. Now, the crisis unfolds in this. Way, these enemies of the people of God, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and another group have come together in this unholy coalition of nations, and they have marched to within approximately 15 years of the 15 miles of the capital of Judah.

23:22 That is Jerusalem. And word then comes to this godly King who has been seeking with all his heart to implement. The principles of the word of God within the sphere of his domain, Judah, where he reigned. And the news comes to him of the coalition of the nations that are a great multitude, and they are but 15 miles from Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.

23:53 Now, from a military standpoint, their case was absolutely hopeless. Little Judah, had no logistical possibility of fighting this alliance of pagan nations. All of these hordes coming against this small insignificant nation. There is no way from a military standpoint that Judah can do a thing.

24:19 It's too late to go on out and try to get some of your allies to come to your aid. They're 15 miles from your doorstep. Now, if there had been some long-range reconnaissance, and they had found out, say, about a month before, hey, it looks like those nations are preparing for war, beginning to get together. Jehoshaphat could have sent a messenger out and come to some of the friendly nations and, hey, fellas, how about joining me for a real battle with some of these that happened in Israel's history in other times.

24:47 But the news does not come until it's too late to do anything. They are in a situation of absolute hopelessness. And that's what makes. This whole passage not unique, but so special to our situation in its application.

25:06 For in a very real sense, our crisis has unfolded in the same way. In the midst of occupying our minds with seeking to be obedient to the word of God. Some would say you people were foolish. You saw your congregation was growing.

25:23 And what you did is you kept taking the money that was coming in beyond your your operating expenses. And you were giving it away by the thousands. Taking on missionary families and missionary enterprises and subsidizing the tape ministry and sending missionaries out and sending thousands of dollars across the ocean. You were crazy.

25:43 If you'd had sense, you'd have sent out your spies, see, to look over the thing and you'd have charted your growth and you would have started salting away money by the thousands years before the crisis came upon you. Well, that's the way human reason would approach the situation. But you see, the word of God does not warrant that. The scripture says, withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thy hand to do it.

26:11 Jehoshaphat was too busy implementing obedience to the law of God to be spending all this time spying on the nations, preparing against a possible crisis that might or might never come. And we felt before God it would have been wicked for us to hoard our money, when God had brought within the orbit of our awareness tremendous needs with respect to the work of Christ's kingdom. And that text continued to motivate us. Give to him that ask of thee and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.

26:44 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thy hand to do it. Freely you have received, freely give. Give and it shall be given unto you. Press down, running over, shall it be returned into your own bosom.

27:01 These are the passages which, as it were, cried for our obedience. And so, in a sense, we're caught with the crisis upon us without enough time to do what we might otherwise have been able to do. The land situation dawned upon us almost overnight. We had some initial borings done before we ever purchased the land.

27:28 Go down the first hill. The first six or eight feet. Lovely soil. One of the men said one of the finest curves as far as all the various ingredients for good soil on which to build.

27:39 Our architect checked several projects in the area and came up with good reports. It wasn't until we were well into the project, and it's time now to actually begin to think about how you're going to construct the foundation, that the full engineering job was done, and storage engineers went in, and bored down to seventy feet. And then the story was told. That once you got down below eight or nine feet, nothing but clay, down to seventy feet, and you don't build a building that size on clay, unless you want a living illustration of what Jesus talked about in Matthew 7, about the foolish man that built upon an unstable foundation, and the first flood that came carried his building down the stream.

28:23 Well, we certainly don't mind illustrating the word of God, but not to the tune of that much money. We'll believe that what our Lord said is based on good engineering principles. So there's a sense in which you see the news of the crisis came upon us suddenly, the delays with regard to the committees. And now as we face our own inability, we do not have anyone to whom God has entrusted hundreds of thousands of dollars.

28:49 There are some churches that love the truth, in whose midst there are men to whom God has entrusted hundreds of thousands of dollars. Who could, if they faced a crisis in a church like that, very easily write out a check for $250,000 and not even feel the pinch? It would barely put a nick in their assets. Well, God has not entrusted us with anyone like that, unless some of you have been holding out on us.

29:15 We don't know of anything. So when, as Mr. Spence says, we look at the logistics of what is here, in terms of potential gifts, giving power and potential assets, and what is there in terms of the economics of constructing that building, there's a sense in which if every one of you emptied out your bank accounts to the last dime, took the shirt off your back and hocked it, we still couldn't amass enough money to make it a responsible activity to build this building. It is logistically impossible.

29:51 So that's why we're not here tonight, to send out a plea, or you could give all you've got, and we still couldn't build that building. There just is not enough money in this crowd to do it. So the crisis is unfolding, as it unfolded for the ancient people of Judah. Well, let's look now at the reaction to the crisis.

The Reaction to the Crisis: Fear and Fixed Resolve

30:15 Having looked at the general circumstances in which the crisis arose, the crisis as it unfolds, now the reaction to the crisis, verses 3 and 4. And Jehoshaphat feared. That's the negative reaction. And set himself to seek unto the Lord, and he proclaimed the fast throughout all Judah.

30:38 And Judah gathered themselves together to seek help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. Well, you have just a very brief word about the negative reaction to the crisis, and then the positive. But let's look at the negative. It says Jehoshaphat feared.

30:55 And I've checked the commentators, I've checked the words, to see if, well, was this just an abbreviated way of describing, he feared the Lord? No, it means exactly what it said. He was scared. When the news came, a coalition of three nations of Jerusalem, his knees began to knock.

31:17 He said, we're in a mess. He was scared. And I'm so glad the Holy Spirit recorded his fear. I'm so glad the Holy Spirit recorded not only his faith later on, but his fear.

31:32 You see, momentary fear is not at all inconsistent with a man of faith. I've taken great comfort from Psalm 56.3 again and again and again. It's one of those Psalms in which David is crying to God in the midst of the oppression of his enemies.

31:46 And he says, What am I afraid? I will trust in thee. Fear and faith together in the same heart. What am I afraid?

31:59 There he is. He said, if you take my life on a time scale, break in at a point, and you say, David, you're scared. He says, right. What time am I afraid?

32:08 He says, you're also going to find something else about David. He's not only scared, but he's trusting. What time am I afraid? I will trust in thee.

32:18 So there was fear. And we would be less than human beings, rationally facing the facts of our crisis, if there was not fear. If I had some kind of a fear-o-meter, by which we could measure fear, I'm sure the longer Mr. Spence talked, the more that fear-o-meter would have gone up, from 5 to 10 to 15 to 20.

32:43 What can Jehoshaphat do? He claims to be the leader of a people whose God is Jehovah. So he's fearful to turn and run as though God were dead. And yet he looks at the size of his own army against that bunch, and he's scared to death to go out and meet them.

33:02 He's afraid. And no doubt felt something of the paralysis that fear always brings. We always look back and realize what brave things we would have done in the situation after we're past it. But when we're in it and we're afraid, there's that paralysis that comes in the midst of fear.

33:21 But the Bible quickly passes over this and moves right on to the positive reaction. And in it, there are three things. Look at it. Number one, there is a determination by the appointed leader to seek the face of God.

33:37 And Jehoshaphat feared. Now notice this strong language. And set himself to seek unto the Lord. Jehoshaphat feared and set himself.

33:53 And those words speak of a deep resolution, a fixed resolve that will not be cancelled by feelings, by difficulty, by opposition. When a man sets himself, his jaw is fixed, his eyes are closed, his eyes are closed. His eyes are in a given direction, as it says of our Lord, that his face was set as though he would go to Jerusalem. And everyone who saw him, even when he passed through Samaria, they noticed this.

34:19 There was something in his whole bearing that spoke, there is determination that will not be turned aside. Well, the first positive reaction, the moment he's able to get his wits about him from this paroxysm of fear, is this determination that he shall do what? Not that he shall go and seek God, not that he shall go and seek his generals and see if there's some way they can scheme and connive and get out. No, no.

34:44 He is determined that he shall seek, not his military advisors, other allies, but he shall cry to the living God. And may I say that this is precisely the point that God has brought your Jehoshaphats to, your appointed leaders, not kings, not generals, but your elders and your deacons. And this is why a special prayer meeting, meeting for consultation in prayer, was called this past Saturday evening, because we felt, among other reasons, if we, the appointed leaders, would not set ourselves to seek the face of God, if our first recourse was to begin to plot and scheme how we might back out or how we might put pressure on this, that, or the other, we would be betraying the trust, that we have from the Lord and from you, his people. For you recognized us as elders to give you not carnal business leadership after the principles of the world, but to give you spiritual leadership after the principles of the word of God. And again, I would confess for myself and I'm sure for my fellow elders, we have not sought God as earnestly as we ought. We could sing that hymn tonight, and each of us as leaders could enter in.

The Reaction to the Crisis: Corporate Prayer and Fasting

36:06 We have not feared thee as we ought. We have not sought thee as we ought. But again, there is a relative peace of conscience that our first recourse, the moment we were able to get our bearings from our fear, was we must cry to God and see what God will do for us, his people. But then in the second place, this positive reaction was followed.

36:29 The determination by the appointed leader to seek the Lord was followed by a declaration to all the people of God to do the same. Look at the language of the text. And he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And of course, fasting in the Old Testament was almost always joined to prayer.

36:55 To fast simply to buffet one's body, to deny oneself of legitimate food is no virtuous thing in itself. In fact, such a mentality is condemned in the Scriptures. But basically the fasting is assumed in this passage to be that religious fasting which is a discipline added to prayer in which there is the voluntary relinquishment either of the total intake of food or partial intake of food so that there might be this giving of oneself with a consciousness at the level of even physical hunger to the exercises of prayer connected with this particular crisis. And apart from the annual day of fast instituted in the Old Testament, fasting was always connected with a crisis, either a national crisis or an individual crisis in the life of a servant of God. And suffice it to say then that when Jehoshaphat called the nation to a fast, he was saying, look, this is a crisis. This is not something that will yield to ordinary concerns and ordinary prayer. There must be extraordinary prayer.

38:08 Coupled with extraordinary means. And notice that the summons went out to all of Judah. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Why?

38:22 Because this was not just a crisis that involved the leadership. There are times when the leadership must pray. The leadership must fast. And those whom they lead will never know about their prayers and fastings because there are peculiar burdens they have assumed with the stewardship of leadership and every man shall bear his own burden.

38:43 But remember, if those armies came down upon Judah, every man, every woman, king or the lowest citizen of Judah, every child, every boy, every girl would be affected by the results of that crisis. And because the crisis then is one that concerns the corporate people of God, all of the people of God are summoned to cry to God with this unusual measure. And it is precisely for this reason that your elders have sent forth the call to special prayer and without attempting to bind the conscience for there is no record in the New Testament where elders or apostles ever send out a call to an entire congregation to bind their conscience to fasting. You see, the king was God's representative over God's people Israel and when a king called them to fast, that was God himself calling you to fast and you better do it. Now I would be fanatical and without scriptural warrant if I said every member of this congregation is under solemn obligation to fast tomorrow. I could not do it and have scriptural warrant.

39:54 But I can entreat you and I can plead with you to recognize the nature of the crisis and certainly it is one that warrants extraordinary prayer and extraordinary prayer is often a testimony intended with the extraordinary measure of the voluntary giving up of all food or some food, certainly not the giving up of the intake of liquids so that we might give ourselves to prayer so that it might be evident even to the members of our household. Daddy, why aren't you eating today as you have? Daddy has business to do with God. Mummy, why aren't you eating?

40:30 Mummy has business to do with God. And the constant remembrance even of that commitment to give oneself to fasting can become the occasion among other benefits of the discipline of fasting to draw our hearts out to the living God. I don't want to say anything more on the element of fasting because the dominant note is here that it was the corporate people of God summoned to seek the face of God and that call has gone forth that we might gather to pray tonight though the bulk of our time tonight of course will be taken up with setting the framework from the scriptures but tomorrow night the exposition will be more brief and we shall have more time to pray and likewise Friday night and then this building will be open tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock. Any of you who want to come by to pray before you go off to work there will be some here gathered to seek the face of God. We would encourage any of you who live in geographical proximity to one another who perhaps are not able to come early in the morning or for other reasons can't come at night gather in twos and threes in your own homes and take the principles of this passage and cry to God. Dear ones I believe that from the human standpoint this is the greatest crisis we have ever faced in our ten years of existence as the people of God.

41:52 Now I'm grateful it's a crisis in conjunction with brick and mortar and real estate. Thank God it is not a crisis of a drift or a division or gross sin among one of the leaders as I mentioned Sunday. But it is a crisis that God has brought upon us to take us all into a new dimension of laying hold of God in fervent corporate prayer. One of the things that has come back to me again and again and some of the other elders have made reference to it and the deacons as well.

42:24 The night we established before God in a combined meeting after waiting upon God and discussing all of the factors the night we were convinced as a corporate body of leaders that the time had come to forge ahead to obtain land and construct a building one of the things we discussed and then prayed over together was this Lord we don't want to get into a new building at the expense of our souls. And whatever you do in giving us land and a building Lord so deal with us that when we occupy that building we shall be further ahead in the realm of the Spirit. That we shall be more godly men and women we shall be more holy, more believing, more trusting. So what has God done? Well in the beginning stages we said we of course assuming God still keeps a stable economy and our jobs are intact there was the recognition of the sovereignty of God and the element of the Lord having to provide but there was the conviction that we can swing a building of $500,000 including the land. Could it be?

43:33 Now I'm not saying this is what God I'm just saying could it be? I claim no direct revelation. I wish I could have the excesses of fanaticism at times but I can't. Could it be that the Lord is saying alright yes you could quite well raise up a building total cost of which was half a million dollars but you've asked me to teach you new lessons of myself and new lessons of faith.

44:00 You've asked me so to work that men will know that this is my doing. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to wait until you get into this program up to your ears to where you can't get out and then I'm going to show you what I did long ages ago when I settled the strata of that earth out there in that section of Moncton. I'm going to show you that I stuck a bunch of muck down there to drive you to your knees.

44:25 And furthermore I'm going to show you that I pushed the water table up around that area to jack the expense up even higher. So having gotten on your knees you'll stay there. And furthermore I've so ordered the economy that it would be at the mercy of the young theoretical economist who come out of Harvard with funny ideas of how economy operates and I'll let them cripple a sound economy so you'll be in the midst of a spiraling inflation to jack the price up even more. That's what I'll do.

44:57 Now could it be that that's what the Lord is doing? I don't know. But that thought goes around in my head when I try to sleep at nights and this burden is upon me at times. And if so, then what is God doing?

45:12 He's calling all of us involved in this crisis to seek His face with the degree of intensity that perhaps we have never sought with which we perhaps have never sought Him before. Well, the third thing in the positive reaction there's the determination of the appointed leader to seek the Lord. Secondly, a declaration to all the people of God to seek the Lord. And then this precious statement there is an obedient response to the call to prayer.

The Reaction to the Crisis: Obedient Response to the Call

45:38 Verse 4 And Judah gathered themselves together to seek help of the Lord even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. Well, who was involved in that all? Look down to verse 13. You have this precious little detail that is added.

45:57 And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones their wives and their children. The whole gamut of the people of God throughout all the cities all of the people, men, women and their little ones give an obedient response to this call to prayer. This, I say, is one of the most living proofs of the reality of the revival and reformation described in chapter 19. Carnal religious people will respond to many things that may have the semblance of religion about them.

46:41 But when you call them to seek God even to the point of self-denying fasting that's often a sure index of how real their professed walk with God is. And I say this text is God's affirmation of the reality of the revival and reformation described in the previous chapter. When the call goes out, the response, certainly not every individual we'd be foolish to think that but there was this great representation across the whole board from the whole nation of Judah that comes and stands before God and joins in this prayer. And in a very real sense dear people we have come perhaps to the greatest test of the validity of our professed obedience to the word of God. We say that the reason for the existence of Trinity Baptist Church is that there was a group of people determined that they would follow the scriptures wherever the scriptures would lead in doctrine and in practice. And because there was no existing framework to their knowledge within which they could do that in this immediate area they came together to form this assembly. And our profession has been that we seek by the grace of God

48:07 to be reformed in every area of life and doctrine by the scriptures. Well, here's the test. The call went forth on Sunday. The call went forth to seek the face of God.

48:21 And I trust your presence is a living witness to the validity and reality of that which you profess in a way of relationship to the Lord. There are some who could not be with us tonight. Some have called me. My own wife is home with a sick daughter.

48:36 Others with little ones. And so we do not presume to judge any man's spirituality by his presence or absence. But one thing is true. If this church had been half-filled tonight it would have been a living monument of the sham and the hypocrisy of our congregation.

48:57 But thank God that has not been so. And we have some reason to believe by your very presence here tonight knowing that you were called to this place to seek the face of God. That the Lord Himself has worked in us that desire and that recognition that our hope is in Him and in Him alone. Well, you see, I said I knew I couldn't get through the whole thing tonight.

Conclusion: Paralyzed but Looking Up

49:21 I had hoped to get through the next section but I've talked long enough. We need to pray. But God willing, tomorrow night we shall move on to consider beginning with verse 5 the details of their seeking God's face. And then in the following night God's response to their seeking of His face.

49:42 And I hope the Spirit of God will ravish our hearts with great encouragement as to what the Lord will do. Suffice it to say that when they gathered to pray in the appointed place their first words of prayer were not Oh God, we're in a mess. They began with reminding themselves of who God was. We'll open up the passage, God willing, tomorrow night.

50:07 But suffice it to say, to underscore tonight, let our first words not be Oh God, here's our problem. But Oh God, Thou art God upon a throne of unshakable sovereignty and glorious majesty. Thou art the God of Thy people. Lord, You've brought us into this crisis.

50:25 We do not question Your right so to do. We do not question Your love nor Your wisdom. What e'er our God ordains is right. Holy His will abide.

50:36 Now, Lord, we stand before You. More of that again. You see, it's hard not to preach ahead. But they're paralyzed.

50:44 I'm not much for sermon titles, but I said if I had one for this one, it'd be paralyzed but looking up. It says they just stood before the Lord. They were scared to do anything. They just stood before the Lord in a posture of helplessness and expectation.

50:59 And from there on in, it's the record of God's mighty acts. Well, there we are, dear people, in a crisis into which God has brought us. The call has gone forth. The response of our hearts is one of obedience.

51:14 Let's believe that the God who's put that response in our hearts will give us prayers to pray to Him as we now seek the Lord for this need. And then when we enter into our prayer, we have .