Sequel to the Deliverance of God

Introduction: The Mighty Deeds of God's Redemption

0:05 We come this evening to the fifth and final message in this series of studies from 2 Chronicles chapter 20, 2 Chronicles the 20th chapter. I believe I am right in assuming that the vast majority of you were here this morning, as well as many of you being able to be present during the past nights of the previous week in which this chapter has been opened up verse by verse in your presence. And so I will not weary you with a lengthy review this evening. Suffice it to say, by way of introduction and reminder, that in this chapter we are beholding the mighty deeds of the great God of redemption. We are not reading. We are not reading an isolated event in the life of a man named Jehoshaphat and a people called the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. We are reading the real live record of the activity of the living God in the accomplishment of his own gracious and sovereign designs of redemption.

1:19 Here God is fulfilling, in part, his promise to bruise the head of the serpent, the wicked one, that he might deliver us from the evil of the devil. That he might give us a seed, that he might redeem a people by the seed of the woman who would ultimately, of course, be even our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus far in our studies we have worked through the 24th verse of the chapter, having noticed the five major divisions of thought that are in the text, the unfolding of this crisis in the nation of Judah, verses 1 and 2, there was this coalition of these heathen enemies, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and some of their friends in their evil pursuit of Judah and Jerusalem. Then we've considered the reaction to this crisis and the part of the king and his people, verses 3 and 4. And then thirdly, the details of how they sought the Lord in verses 5 through 13, and then in verses 14 through 19, the answer of God in word,

2:35 and then this morning we were privileged to contemplate the answer of God to their prayers indeed, verses 20 through 24. And we left the scene with those amazing words of verse 24, and when Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked upon the multitude and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and there were none that escaped. And so a day that began, no doubt, with many apprehensions and much fear, a day that began with many questions, how will God indeed enable us to go forth against so great and formidable a foe and do nothing but stand? This God has bared his arm, has manifested. His power has routed the enemies of God. And now we come tonight to the sixth major division of the narrative, bounded by verses 25 and 30, that which I've entitled, The Sequel to the Deliverance of God.

Reading the Text and Prayer for Illumination

3:45 Everything prior to this has been a description of the emergence of the crisis, the reaction to the crisis, the seeking of God, the answer of God in word, the answer of God in deed. Now here, the sequel to that mighty deliverance, follow as I read verses 25 through 30. 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. And they were three days in taking the spoil.

4:26 Well, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berechah. For there they blessed the Lord. Therefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Berechah unto this day.

4:43 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 they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. 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. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest round about.

5:23 Let us ask the help of God upon the study of this portion, of his word. O Lord, our Heavenly Father, great God of the universe,

5:35 in whose presence we acknowledge your holiness, your might, your power, your wisdom, we pray in the name of your beloved Son that you would be gracious once more as we come to the study of this section of the Scriptures that has become so precious to us, in these recent days. Again, Lord, we would openly confess that our expectation for blessing in the ministry of the word does not rest upon the experience of the past days. Surely, Lord, you yourself have come to us in the preaching of the word. But, O God, we know that this is always an act of grace, and we pray that you will be gracious to us once more. O God, come, we pray, come to our waiting hearts, come to our eager hearts in the ministry of the word. We pray, therefore, that you will open our minds, open our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of your law. Hear us, we plead, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gathering of the Spoils (Verse 25)

6:54 Amen. In seeking to analyze the contents of this portion of the word of God and you see a tremendous onus is on any man who confesses to believe in what we call plenary verbal inspiration, that is, all of Scripture is inspired, even its words. For nothing, then, is insignificant. And we are to live, Jesus said, by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

7:27 And so one does not want to force an artificial structure upon the text, but one does not want to force an artificial structure upon the text, but one does not want to force an artificial structure upon the text, but one seeks to see the natural divisions of the passage. And I would suggest that what the Spirit of God has given to us in this account of the sequel to the deliverance of God breaks down into three divisions of thought. You have in verse 25 a statement concerning the gathering of the spoils, verses 26 through 28 the rendering of praise, and verses 29 and 30 the confounding, of their enemies. The sequel, then, to this mighty deliverance is to be found in the gathering of the spoils, the rendering of praise, and the confounding of the enemies of God. First of all, then, the account of the gathering of the spoils in verse 25. 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, and they were three days in taking the spoil. It was so great.

8:46 Now, briefly, just a gathering together of the facts as they are given in the text.

8:53 Because these invaders had no lesser goal than the conquest and the resettlement of Jerusalem with their own people, they came out to battle with something more than just military hardware. If you remember back in verse 11, when Jehoshaphat is praying, he says, O God, behold how they reward us to come to cast us out of Thy possession. You see, this was not a case of an invading army that intended to conquer and then to allow the people to remain and set up a foreign government over them. Oh no, their intention was not so gracious as that.

9:39 They said, in essence, look, that land belonged to us in the first place and we don't like the idea that this crowd came in and dispossessed us. We're going to come back and take that which is our own. And so when these nations came down upon Judah and Jerusalem, they came, as it were, with all their worldly goods, assuming that their might was so great that they would conquer, conquer Jerusalem and Judah militarily, drive them out, make them a bunch of refugees, and establish themselves in the land. So you can imagine the tremendous booty that was to be found upon the heels of their defeat.

10:19 The passage says, and there is a textual problem, and I'll not go into the technicalities of it, it would not be unto edification, but I'm aware the problem is there. It's difficult to ascertain the precise wording and just the changing of a Hebrew letter and vowel point here or there can make the difference between the abundance of riches, dead bodies, or as you have in the marginal reading, an abundance of garments, etc. But this is not essential to grasping the main thrust of the narrative. The passage says that there was so much bounty that for three days they did nothing but yank off earrings and wear them.

11:01 And they did nothing but yank off earrings and wear them. And they did nothing but yank off earrings tear off beautiful garments and expensive clothing, gather up military hardware, household utensils, for three solid days until the picture is one in which we see them tying it up into bundles, perhaps running sticks through it to make a drag, such as some of us have seen in our early American history, and maybe they ran poles through it to carry it, until some of the leaders had to say, fellas, that's enough. It is impossible for us to carry it and carry back anything more to Judah and Jerusalem. The spoil was so great.

11:37 There was a superabundance and I can imagine some of them as they walked away sort of staggering under the load, looking back over their shoulder and saying, boy, it's a shame we don't have more people. Look at all the stuff we've got to leave. Isn't that what the text says?

11:53 And they were three days in taking the spoil more than they could carry away. Now those are the facts of the text. Now what's the great lesson of this? And I must confess, when I first began to meditate upon the passage, I thought this was one part we'd just sort of skip over as being relatively inconsequential, just a nice little historical detail.

12:16 True, but certainly not unto edification. Oh, but what a wonderful, wonderful manifestation of the tremendous principle of Scripture, that which I would call the prodigality of God. We say that a certain man was prodigal in the praise that he heaped upon some. And what we mean is he was excessive in his praise.

12:41 Or so-and-so was prodigal in the manner in which he provided for his friends. He put out a twelve-course meal with enough in every course to feed ten people twenty times over. It was an example of prodigality. Well, here we see the prodigality of God.

13:00 The God who in the language of the New Testament, does exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or even think according to the power that works in us. As Matthew Henry says so accurately, commenting on this passage, and I quote him, See how rich God is in mercy to those that call upon Him in truth, and how often He outdoes the prayers and expectations of His people. Isn't that a wonderful way of stating it? He outdoes the prayers and the expectations of His people.

13:37 Still quoting from Matthew Henry, Jehoshaphat and his people prayed to be delivered from being spoiled by their enemies. And God not only delivered them, but He enriched them with the spoil of their enemies. They only prayed, Lord, we have no might against this company. If you'll just get us off the hook so they don't get us.

14:04 Lord, that's more than enough. God goes far beyond what they ask. And He not only delivers them from being made a spoil to their enemies, they are privileged to make a spoil of their enemies. Had God sent fire from heaven to consume them, He would have answered their prayer and delivered them from their enemies.

14:25 But there would have been no spoil. Had God sent fear in the camp so the enemy retreated as He did in other victories, they would have had a defeat and the people of God a victory. But no spoils. They would have taken all their goods back with them.

14:39 But God worked in such a way that He not only gave them the victory, but He did exceeding abundantly above all they could ask or think. What began in verses 1 and 2 as an unfolding crisis that seemed to be an unreasonable and unjust providence? Why should, if God let those enemies come to us just at the time when we've had revival and we're seeking to reform the land and judgeships have been set up in every part of the land to administer the law of God? Lord, this is a strange providence.

15:18 Why do You give us this burden of this crisis when we're in the midst of carrying out our obedience to You in all the details of our national life? What began as an apparently unreasonable, unreasonable and unjust providence was calculated by the living God ultimately to be a kind providence to enrich them. They said in the beginning, Lord, this thing is against us. God says, no, it is for you in my purposes.

Application: God's Prodigality in Present Trials

15:53 Now already some of you are making the application in your own minds, aren't you?

15:58 As we've pursued our obedience to the Word of God, imperfectly and at times, with a measure of zeal that is a cause of shame and confession to God. But by the grace of God as we as a church have pursued obedience to the Word, seeking to be reformed in every area of life by the Word of God, seeking to conform every facet of church life, worship, discipline, prayer, family life, work life, as we seek to bring under the scrutiny, of the Word of God, every area of life, individual, domestically, corporately. What's happened? God has brought upon us this unjust and this unkind providence. And those liberal churches that don't care a hoot about the Word of God and they don't have any crisis when they want to build a building they're heavily endowed. The architect told us the other day of a church recently built that what happened is, it was getting painted. The old church and the man left the blowtorch on the side too long.

17:09 It burnt down. The insurance company gave them $600,000. Some wealthy person died, gave them another $200,000. Someone else, they just spent a million dollars for such foolishness as $17,000 chandeliers.

17:22 Six of them. No problem. They just raised their building to carry on their heresy. We say, Lord, it isn't just.

17:32 We don't want a building to promote heresy. We want a place to worship You. We want a place to preach the truth. Isn't this an unkind and an unjust providence?

17:43 You hear of that outfit that's not concerned with taking the Word of God seriously. They just want to play church and have a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of the Bible. And what happens? They buy a piece of land and when they do their test borings it reveals it's good land down as far as the test boring can go.

18:02 Why do we have to find out we've got nothing but mucky old clay down there that won't hold a building? Lord, that's not a kind thing. It's a kind providence. Lord, this thing is against us.

18:14 And it's against us when we can ill afford it. Lord, we haven't hoarded our money. We've been giving out like drunken sailors to the cause of Your kingdom. We've been sending missionaries supporting causes.

18:27 Lord, in the midst of reformation and reform and the outpouring of Your Spirit and the conversion of sinners and the building up of the church. Lord, why this strange and negative providence? Well, you see, God's designs are to do something that goes far beyond anything we could ask for. What looks to us as an unreasonable providence is lined with divine intention to enrich us as the people of God.

19:00 And God will not only answer prayer with respect to giving us a house of worship adequate for our needs, but you know what God's going to do? He's going to fill our hands with bounty until we can't contain it all. And as I said this morning, God has already begun to enrich many of us with the spoils of this conflict. I've had people come up to me, I don't know how many, unsolicited, and say such words as, Pastor, I've never known the presence of God as I have in these days.

19:34 The Word of God has brought me into the presence of God and the prayers of His people discipline by the Scriptures and by the sound theology that they've been taught and have imbibed has been the means of making God precious and glorious in my eyes. If nothing more should come than what has already come, I feel I have more than I can hold. Our esteemed senior elder, Mr. Clark, preached out in Broughton Church this morning and I met him at the door afterwards and I said, Brother, how was the ministry this morning?

20:13 And his face beamed and he said, In all the years I've preached, and that's been some, what, 35, 40 years for Mr. Clark, he said, I never preached with such liberty and unction as that with which I preached this morning. The spoils of these days of exercise, the spoils of waiting upon God, the spoils of seeking Him, the spoils of the Spirit and the spiritual conflict. Now use your imagination.

20:45 It's wonderful to read the history of the Bible with your imagination alert. Look at the text. It says that they took away, and there's no question about this part of the text from a linguistic and textual standpoint, verse 25. They took away riches, that could mean many things, dead bodies, well, is it saying that they actually took away the dead bodies of some of the horses of the rest or is it saying that they took from the dead bodies?

21:18 Well, there's a textual problem. But the next thing, there's no problem there. Precious jewels, that is vessels of worth. Here was stuff that had, as the coin collectors would say, nuministic value.

21:31 I mean, it was substantial stuff that had value. And there may have been in the midst of those things actual jewels and earrings and all the rest. Maybe a beautiful pan or pot of some kind. Can you imagine years ahead in the history of Israel when the little grandchild is visiting in the tent of her grandmother and she says, Nana, what's that funny looking vase over there?

21:56 That doesn't look like the vases we make here in Judah. And she sets her little grandchild up on her knee and she tells her about the mighty victory that was wrought back years ago and how God, and how God came and God conquered the enemies and God caused the enemies to fight against one another and slay one another. And she says, your grandpa, who's gone on to be with Jehovah, who's gone on to be with the great shepherd to dwell in his house forever. Grandpa carried that back from the battle that God won that day.

22:36 And those spoils became a monument to children and grandchildren of the mighty works of God. And I believe that's what God is doing for us in these days. That one of the great sequels to this time of spiritual conflict is going to be the gathering of spoils, not just for us, but the gathering of spoils that will be monuments of the power of God to future generations. Well, I must hurry on and stick by my notes to get through the passage.

The Rendering of Praise (Verses 26-28)

23:12 The second great fruit of that victory, the second clear sequel to the victory, is the rendering of praise, the record of which is in verses 26 through 28. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berekeh, which means blessing, for there they blessed the Lord. Therefore, the name of that place was called the valley of Berekeh unto this day. 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 they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of Jehovah. Now, no doubt, when the first signs of the day and the first signs of God's work began to be known, there were a lot of hallelujahs going up from the singers who stood. For remember, that's all they were.

24:17 They were spectators to this victory. They weren't participants, just spectators. And no doubt, there was a shout of praise from many a lip. And I can imagine that they went about for three days gathering spoils, stopping occasionally to look at one another and laugh and say, this is ridiculous.

24:34 This has come to pass. A couple of days ago, all we saw was three men in massive armies. Now we're going around cleaning up, looting the whole joint. No doubt they praised.

24:51 I'm sure the more godly stopped. And one would say, Henry, look, let's take a break now and let's seek the Lord and thank Him. There's no indication that this was the only praise, but it is significant that when they were done the work of gathering the spoils, the Scriptures tell us that they came to an appointed place that was inseparably identified with the very area of conquest. And there they had a praise meeting.

25:23 And in this place where they praised God, near to the field where God took the battle into His own hands, it says they blessed Jehovah. The great activity on that fourth day was the activity of blessing Jehovah. And so concentrated was that activity that they want that very piece of real estate in Palestine for the unborn generations to be a mark of what went on that day. And so they named it Berakah, which means blessing.

26:01 Now what does it mean to bless God? Well, when God blesses us, He confers good upon us. We say, Oh, the Lord blessed us. He confers good upon us.

26:13 Now when we bless God, do we confer good upon Him? How can we? He is the giver of all good. No.

26:20 When God blesses His creatures, He confers good upon them. When the creatures bless God, they ascribe goodness to Him. There's the difference. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

26:37 Well, how do I bless Him? I can confer no good upon Him. Well, He tells us, Forget not all His benefits. And then He goes on to enumerate all of the benefits and mercies of God.

26:49 So when we bless God, we confer no blessing upon Him. We confer no good upon Him, but we acknowledge that He is the giver of all good and that all good comes from Him. And so for how long a period, we do not know. But that day was marked out for an hour, two hours, maybe the entire day, given over to acknowledging that all of this had come from the hand of the living God.

27:20 But you see, that wasn't enough. For verses 27 and 28 tell us when they packed up all their bounty and they're going to go back now to the place where they first of all confronted news of the crisis, first of all humbled themselves even to fasting, gave themselves to fervent prayer, and in that place the word of God came, that word which would go before them into battle. They come back, and the Scriptures tell us in verse 27, they returned every man of Judah and Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them to go to Jerusalem with joy. Their hearts are full of joy unspeakable.

28:05 Why? For the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And now that joy, and now that joy must find a channel in a peculiar place, in a special company, and in a special way. And so they come to that very citadel of their national life.

28:24 They come to Jerusalem, and they take every available instrument by which joy and praise can be expressed, and they come into the house of Jehovah. What a noisy day that must have been. Our temperaments have been so conditioned that we usually associate the measure of solemnness in worship with the measure of quietness. Well, the Hebrews were a little bit the other way around.

28:51 The noisier it was, the better it was. Praise Him with the high sounding cymbals. Well, they did on that day. And I just wish they had tape recorders back in those days.

29:04 I don't think there are speakers constructed that could hold the decibels. It would blow any speaker. You can take a thousand dollars Jansen speaker, it would have blown that thing to pieces. They come into the house of God, and there they give vent to the joy of the conquest of God.

29:26 Now notice, it wasn't a joy whipped up. It wasn't a joy manufactured. It says God had made them to rejoice by giving a tangible manifestation of His mighty power. And so they return to give praise to this great God.

29:45 Now the great lesson ought to be obvious to all of us. Those who gather in the appointed place to seek God in their dilemmas will gather again in the same place to praise Him for His deliverances. For you remember the text was very, very clear in verses 4 and 5. Judah gathered together to seek help of the Lord.

30:10 Verse 5, Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem. Where? In the house of God, before the new court. Then he begins to pray, reminding God of who He is, reminding God of what He's done, spreading the case before Him.

30:33 And the great principle is that the very man Jehoshaphat and the very people who stood in the appointed assembly of the people of God, in the appointed place that God had marked out when they stood together with one heart and with one voice in the appointed place, cried to God. That same company was found a few days later back in the same company, in the same place, no longer pleading. And now, Lord, behold our enemy. They are now with outstretched hands and quanging souls.

31:12 They are gathering with our own hands the symbols and the strumming of their psalteries and the plucking of their harps. They are pouring out a paean of praise into the ears of Jehovah. And, oh my dear friends, that's why I said this morning the hearts of your brothers and sisters grieve for any who willfully cut themselves out of the assembly of God's people in the past days. lost can never be regained. It's those who've heeded the call and those who've stood in His appointed place in His gathered people and have cried to God that will know that measure of joy when the Lord is pleased to confound our enemies and grant deliverance.

Application: Corporate Praise and Monuments of Deliverance

32:06 And by the grace of God, I hope we won't forget this passage, that when God is pleased to go forth against our enemies, I believe there'll be another announcement from your elders, another announcement, not calling the church in its corporate identity to gather on Runnymede Road to seek the Lord with fasting, but to call any of you got a trumpet, any of you got a guitar, any of you got cymbals, any of you got clarinet, bring your instruments, and we're going to gather to praise the Lord. Living God, can you by faith see that building filled with people no longer with the wrinkled brow pleading and tear-filled eyes entreating, but with uplifted face praising and blessing and glorifying God for His deliverance. Those who go forth weeping shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. Bringing their sheaves with them. They went out empty to see the mighty works of God. They came

33:28 back full with the fruits of the works of God. And oh, how I long for that day. When will it come? I don't know. As we were instructed this morning, we must now wait upon the Lord. Wait in expectation.

33:52 Wait in the confidence of faith. And believe that in the place where we've cried, we shall bless Him and rejoice. Not by something contrived of men, but because God will make us to rejoice. And then there's a further thing, and I only throw it out as a possibility. That's all.

34:19 This is not what I would call exposition with application that I can make with authority, but I've got to give it anyway. I'm fascinated by the fact, and this is what's been eating away in my head. I said, now Lord, why did you move them to have that special exercise of blessing you out in the open fields in the place that was the symbol of their dilemma? You see, the occasion of their seeking God was the gathering of those armies in that geographical area. And it's as though God is jealous. He's jealous to stab things upon the memory. For remember, you see, our God is not the God of the Greeks, who only works in the realm of the head. Our God is the God of the whole man, of all the senses. And there are physical monuments all along the way in the history

35:17 of Israel. Could it be that God is saying to His people, look, I want a place, a punk, a real estate that was, as it were, the boundary of your dilemma to be the eternal monument. monument of my deliverance, so name it Baraka. And when people say, why that funny name for that piece of real estate? That doesn't look like too blessed a place. Just a little hunk of land on a slope in a part of, why blessing? I don't see much blessing, not a lot of trees there. And what I've read about the area, it wasn't anything that we would call a beautiful piece of scenery. Why blessing? Well, they would say this is where we stood and blessed God, the very God to whom we had cried in our dilemma. Now some of you already see what I'm thinking, don't you? Can it be that God will give us a Baraka out in Montville, where there'll be a piece of real estate that was the very occasion of our dilemma? And it was that thing and all that was connected with it that drove us to God. And when God gives

36:33 the conquest, maybe we'll have to change our name from the Trinity Baptist Church to Baraka. Now I'm not saying that's God's answer. God's answer may be something that means we end up selling that piece of land, raising up a building, maybe a building already raised. I have no such revelation from God. Everyone hear me? Don't anyone go out and say, oh, oh, oh, pastor said the Lord's assured. I didn't say that. I did not say that. And Philly, you're taking two tapes of this tonight in case one goes bad. So we've got a witness.

37:11 I didn't say that. I didn't say that. Could it be that? That's all. That's all I'm saying. Could it be that? Could it be that? Because is not this the way God works in history? You remember that when he brought his people through the swollen Jordan River, what did God say before he pushed the waters back on one another? He said, hey, fellas, just a minute. Now that you're through, I got one more job for you. I want you to go back in the middle of the river, pull up some stones right from the middle and pile them on the other side of Jordan. Well, that's a strange thing. That's a strange thing to do. No, it isn't. Because you see, the monument would be hidden.

37:55 So God says, take it out from where it will be hidden so everyone can see it. So there's a father on a vacation with his kid and he leaves his tribe and he comes down by Jordan and the kid says, hey, dad, what are those funny looking stones? There are no stones like that in this countryside. What they do? What's that pile of stones there? Is that an old altar? No, no, son. What's that? Well, I tell you, son, you know where those stones came from? No, that's why I'm asking you, pop, where'd they come from? He said, well, it's from the middle of that river. He says, oh, come off it, dad. You're kidding me. No, I'm not kidding you, son. Right from the middle of that river. What, did somebody have a scuba diving set and go down and get them? No, no, son, no scuba diver got those. Well, dad, did somebody dredge the bottom? No, no, son, no dredges. Those things were unknown in that day. Son, your great-grandfather carried one of those stones out of the middle of your river. Oh, come off it, dad. I'm too old to believe in fairy stories. What are you talking

38:49 about, pop? I'm telling you the truth, son. Your great-grandfather carried one of those stones out of that river. You serious, dad?

38:58 Son, have I ever lied to you? No, dad, but you do kid with me once in a while. Are you kidding with me? No, no, I'm not kidding with you, son. And then he proceeds to tell him what the God of his grandfather did. You see, God took a humble, homey little thing like a pile of stones to be a monument to his power. And all through the history of redemption, redemption impinges upon flesh and blood and stone and brick and dirt and real estate. And could it be? I don't know. But I do know this. Whatever place God gives us, it will be a

39:44 place of blessing because it will have been given to us in response to the conflict of faith in these days. And God help us if we don't praise. I mentioned to someone this morning, and you'll have to forgive me if I do a little of these excurses. I think that, is that, what's the plural of excursus? You Latin students, whatever it is, that's what I want to say. Plural of excursus.

40:21 But my mind has been thinking down the road, and I've said I haven't shared this with the other elders yet to ask what they think about it. But I want to propose to them that when we get in our new facility, that we, we direct that for at least two Sundays a year, we move out of it. If it's out there in Montville, that we get permission to use the auditorium of the high school, two Sundays a year. In the first one, when we meet in an auditorium, what I want to do is to say to the people, now look at the basketball hoops, look at the striped floor, see the mats, we're in a gymnasium. Now, I want to ask you a question. In coming from that place to this, to worship, have you lost anything? And if anyone feels he's lost anything, I'm going to say, I'm going to ask you a question. I'm going to ask you a question. I'm going to say, good. Leave it behind and don't pick it up again. If you lose anything

41:12 in terms of true worship, because of the building in which you meet, you better lose it, because it's something carnal. The true circumcision, Paul says, are those who worship by the Spirit. And aesthetics, though real, have nothing to do with the Spirit. We can't worship as abandonedly in a gymnasium, in a beautiful building erected for worship. We've lost something. And I think once a year we ought to get out to ask that question, and then preach on the nature of the church as the gathered people of God, and tell people the history of how much gymnasiums and auditoriums have been a history of our congregation. And then the next Sunday, what we do is we tell the history of how God gave us our dwelling place, whatever it is. And we tell our children, you see, and some of you who hold your little ones in your arms, now, who don't know anything except there's a big man up there who hollers, nothing's coming through. Now that's what a lot of little kids think. Sure they do. I've even had some of them

The Confounding of Enemies (Verses 29-30)

42:25 tell me, or get it indirectly. But as their minds begin to think and develop, at least once a year, they would be told the meaning of those stones, what God did when his people in desperation cried to him. You see, that's the great principle in this rendering of praise to God, first in the Valley of Meraka, and then back in Jerusalem. Well then, thirdly, we see in the sequel to the deliverance of God, not only the gathering of spoils, the rendering of praise, but the confounding of the enemies of the people of God. Verses 29 and 30. And the fear of God, notice, not Jehovah, here we have Elohim,

43:17 fear of God was on all the kingdoms of the countries, when they heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest round about. Do you see the predominant emphasis upon the divine activity all the way through? The first strand of emphasis is this, the fear of God, came to heathen nations. The fear of Elohim was on all the kingdoms of the countries, when?

43:59 When they heard, look, you go out to pick on that bunch, and their God will get after you, and he'll mess things up good and proper. Sure, that's what he said. I mean, they had a common colloquial language, didn't they? And I'm sure that's what people said. Hey, have you heard what happened to the Ammonites? You heard what happened to them? You heard what happened to them? You heard what happened to them? Well, what happened to them? Well, their carcasses are all rotting under the Palestinian sun. They went out and picked on those people of Judah, and their God got after them. He beat them good. We better not mess around with that bunch, because when you touch them, you touch their God. The fear of God came upon them, not when they heard what clever soldiers

44:49 the inhabitants of Judah were, but when they heard that their God goes before them into battle. Why, all they did, was come out with a bunch of choir boys, dressed in robes, and the minute they open their mouth and start singing, their God comes, and he drives you off the field. I'm not going to mess around with that bunch. Sure, the story went back, and it says that the nations feared, and the occasion of that fear, as we've underscored, is that their God came and fought. And then the secondary fruit of that was, for some time to come, they didn't fool around with that nation. And so Jehoshaphat and his people were free to carry on the work of reformation, although the subsequent paragraph ends with the sad note that even though God gave them all that rest and opportunity, the reformation was never complete. And you find that note again and again, lest we think that perfection can come under the old economy. But there was awaiting a better covenant, with better promises, and better privileges, in which the work of God would be done in all the hearts of the new Israel, something

46:10 that was never there under the old Israel. Well, do you see the great lesson for us as the people of God? When God is pleased to take the field in this present crisis, when God, and by whatever means he will choose to break this impasse, by whatever means and whatever time he will get us out between this rock and a hard place, one of the great benefits, the sequel to his mighty deliverance, is going to be the confounding of his enemies. There is a wonderful New Testament parallel to this, and I want you to turn to it. We read in the book of Acts these words, chapter 5, Acts chapter 5. The incident, of course, is the judgment of God upon Ananias and Sapphira, these two church members. Ananias, who thought that they could, in the midst of the crowd, get lost, in the midst of that large church, that they could be guilty of duplicity and not be found out. But God, the Holy Ghost, finds them out through his servant Peter. And you remember, God killed

47:22 them. God killed them. The same God who was saving was destroying. And that's the God we worship. He kills people, as well as gives them life. And when word got around, if you join that bunch and you don't walk straight, God may kill you. I tell you, they didn't have people lining up to get in who didn't mean business. They didn't have a little sign on their church bulletin, the friendly, warm church on the hill, come and join us. Word got around. How do I know? Well, look what the scripture says. Verse 10, Acts 5, she fell down immediately and gave up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead and carried her out and buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all that heard these things. Well, I thought perfect love cast out fear.

48:13 A child of God was to have nothing but joy and peace. My friend, that's only part of the story. Great fear came upon all. They said, God's in the midst. Not only fear upon the church, but fear upon sinners. Join that bunch and God may kill you. The wonderful thing is, we read, by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people and they were all with one accord. In Solomon's porch, but of the rest, dared no man join himself to them. How be it the people magnified them and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes of men and women. Well, as Luke mixed up, he says, no man dared join. Believers were added, even multitudes. No, there's no contradiction. There's a wonderful synthesis. It became

49:15 known that their God fights for them. This is not just a new religion with some new hymns and new songs and new way of preaching. This is God dwelling with men. Their God fights for his own cause. He's determined to have a people who reflect his praise and his holiness.

49:35 And so he makes an example out of the first two that say, we'll be part of this thing, but we won't be in business with God. And God says, I'll kill them as a lesson to the rest. Well, I don't like that. Well, my friend, your argument's with God. It's here in the word. That's not my God. Well, then you better go worship your idol and go to hell with him or bow and worship this God. And the great principle, and it's well nigh absent from the visible church in our day, is that element that even the heathen can recognize when God fights the battles of his true people.

Application: God's Honor and the Slog of Faith

50:15 And I believe increasingly in numbers of you have come to me unsolicited and said, Pastor, the conviction is gripping me that in an unbelieving age where the unconverted blatantly and openly flaunt the law of God and turn against everything sacred and everything that is even common and decent, and where the professing church is so filled with carnal methods and means of evangelism and worship, it seems that the hour is right for God to bear his arm, for God to show that he still comes to the end. And the great longing of our hearts is that God will confound his enemies, not because Trinity Church came up with a unique scheme of fundraising, not because Trinity Church came up with a unique scheme of bond floating, but because a group of people fell in love upon their faces and cried to God, and God bear his arm, and said, this is my battle and I'll win it my way.

51:38 My friends, I'd rather die attempting to see that come to pass than budge one inch to touch a carnal weapon. Say, Pastor, you're hopelessly stubborn. On that point, I yield. I am.

51:55 Because it's the honor of God. The world can raise its buildings. The world can raise its money. It's happening on every hand.

52:05 Church construction is at an all-time high.

52:10 But God could leave his universe and it would still go on.

52:18 Oh, that God will give us the vision. Am I just talking to myself?

52:23 Oh, I trust that your heart responds. Because the scripture says our most powerful instrument of evangelism lies right here. 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says, if the unbeliever comes into your midst, what should grip him above all else? He.

52:39 He, falling down upon his face, will cry, God is of a truth among his people. It doesn't say he, snuggling up, will say, oh, your God's such a lovey-dovey God. I'd like to go home with him.

52:54 That is not biblical.

52:57 Paul says, the unbeliever, the unlearned, comes amongst you. The thoughts of his heart are laid bare. He falls upon his face and he worships, crying, God is of a truth among his people. The confounding of our enemies.

53:15 And then, that secondary fruit. And God gave him rest.

53:22 You see, some, and I appreciate the zeal which moved them to do it. They've said, Pastor, can't we have three nights of prayer next week and three mornings of prayer and keep on? Well, you see, God knows our frame, that we're dust.

53:38 And there's a tremendous emotional and mental and physical drain in the kind of concentrated spiritual exercises. And you know what happens? If we would continue in those without some unusual warrant, two things would happen. We'd get so worn out physically and emotionally that we couldn't respond the same way.

53:57 Then we'd get feeling all guilty. My heart's gone cold. I'm not praying with it. And then you'd end up worse than you were in the beginning.

54:04 And the problem would not be spiritual. It'd be physical. Then the other great danger is you become susceptible to false spirits, to fanaticism. When the emotions are held at that talk level.

54:18 And when the spirit is deeply engaged for lengthy periods of time, then we are most susceptible to fanaticism, to the influence of other spirits than the spirit of God.

54:33 So don't any of you feel disappointed and say, well, the elders have gone carnal.

54:39 They're cutting back from three times a week to one. They're pandering their flesh. They're not calling us to fast.

54:46 No, my friends, there is wise and good reasoning behind what we've done. And God, I trust. He'll soon give us our day of rest when this great conflict is behind us, but not forgotten behind us. It is, as it were, beneath us as a foundation upon which we stand to carry on the more quiet, normal work of reformation, evangelism, building up the people of God.

The Quiet Rest and Normal Work of God

55:20 And when that happens, don't be so foolish as to say, oh, if we could just have those days. Like we. My friend, listen, if the special days are made ordinary, what's left to be special?

55:35 Let me put it this way. If you had your Thanksgiving turkey dinner morning, noon and night, seven days a week, what would be so special about it on Thanksgiving?

55:47 Well, what's true physically is true spiritually. I mean, if every single time I walk by my wife, she grabbed me and gave me a passionate embrace and told me she loved me. I mean, that's wonderful. I'm glad when she does that.

56:03 But if she did that every time I pass by her, it would have no meaning left to it.

56:09 Am I right?

56:12 You say, I don't know. I'm not married. Well, let me tell you.

56:16 That is true. That is true.

56:21 No, you see, God is wise in his dealings. And he ends this narrative in a very soft and quiet and ordinary and unglamorous note. Look at it. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, and his God gave him rest round about.

56:43 You say, I feel that now. No, no.

56:48 It was the God who was upholding his people that gave them rest and gave them quiet. And that's how God will deal with us. I don't know how long these days of intense spiritual exercise will go on, but I know this. When God is pleased to give the deliverance.

57:06 And we'll know when it has come. What it will be and how, I don't have a clue. But I know it will have God's signature on it when it comes.

57:16 It may be one great issue. It may be the coming together of a hundred different issues. But I know this. We'll know when God has come to take the field that God has come.

57:29 But then don't anyone be so foolish to have sentimental hankerings for these days and say nothing's happening around here. We've had the same order of worship. I mean we've been praying for three straight months. There's no special prayer meetings.

57:48 It's just that whole Wednesday night prayer. I mean we just pray for the missionaries and we just pray for this. Nothing great, nothing. That's exactly what some of you do.

58:00 I'm warning you beforehand, that's unbiblical. It's not in keeping with the ways of God. God gave them rest.

58:12 God gave them quiet. And that's what God will do for us. And don't be surprised when it comes. And then you go on.

The Slog of Christian Living and Worship by Faith

58:19 Have you ever heard the word slog? I never had until this past May, but oh, it's rung in my ears ever since. Pastor McLeod at the Leicester Ministers Conference, where I was privileged to minister in Scotland this past April, talked about the slog of the ministry. Much of the ministry is just that.

58:39 Much of being a husband and a father is slog. What's slog? Well, the word tells you what it is. It's just hanging in there.

58:48 Hanging in there. And that's the way much of our life as a church will be. Because, you see, we walk by faith, not by sight.

58:58 It's not hard to believe God's present in these days, when you can feel His presence can almost be cut with a knife.

59:06 But to come on those Sundays when the air is hot and your body is indisposed to worship, and to sit in your pew there and say, Lord, you're here. Lord, you're here in faithfulness to your covenant promise. And because you're here, you're worthy to be worshipped. And I don't care what I feel like.

59:25 No goose flesh on my arms like in those days back there in August. No bubbling up of my spirit, but God, I don't care. You've told me to praise you. And I'm your child and you're worthy to be praised.

59:38 I'm going to praise you because you're God and I'm your servant.

59:44 And most of the Christian life is lived that way.

59:49 And if you want some other way, you'll have to make it, but you won't find it in this book. He who would be my disciple must deny. Himself, take up his cross daily. You ever see anyone running up the cross?

60:07 Say, well, they're wonderful. Found a cross. Going to carry a cross today. Wonderful one.

60:12 It's an instrument of death. Jesus said, take it up daily. I buffet my body, the apostle says. We that are in this tabernacle do groan.

60:24 Not because we don't have the spirit, but he says because we have the first fruits of the spirit. Oh, thank God there'll be those days when it's...

60:32 There's joy unspeakable and full of glory.

60:36 When the joy of the Lord consciously imparted will be your strength. But there'll be other times when all you're conscious of is abounding weakness as in 2 Corinthians 12 and God will say, my strength is made perfect in weakness. You'll say, Lord, I'm so weak, you've got to take it away. And God says, no.

60:54 When you're weak, you're strong. My friends, we have a whole Bible to give us a whole picture of the whole reality of what it is to walk with God as individuals and as a church. And thank God this passage, in that sense, is a specimen of that whole. From all the exhilaration of that praise meeting out in the open field, carrying back the booty and the bounty and that hallelujah meeting.

61:21 You know what word's been going through my head and I better get it out or I wonder if I should... I call that a hallelujah hold down back in Jerusalem.

61:28 That's what it was. Because they got all their instruments. That's the thing that's beautiful about it. Everybody got his instrument.

61:35 I mean, those are days. You don't have those very often. You couldn't take them. They'd kill you.

61:43 And then there was rest. And then there was quiet in the work of God advancing.

Conclusion: Waiting in the Path of Duty

61:50 Well, that's the passage. And I trust before long we'll live the sequel to God's deliverance. Do you believe that we shall yet see that deliverance? Let us wait upon Him.

62:08 Let us walk carefully before Him. And in the meantime, remember the deliverance came in the path of duty. You know what we're going to do Wednesday night? We're going to gather to pray.

62:19 Pray for what? Pray for the causes of God's kingdom. Pray for our missionaries. Pray for those who've gone out from us to take the gospel.

62:29 We'll have a special prayer meeting for these concerns Thursday night. We can't give up the normal concerns. It's while they were in the path of duty that the Lord came with deliverance. We're not going to move out of the path of duty.

62:40 We're going to keep our feet by the grace of God planted right down in that path. Believing that He that hath my commandments and keeps them, I will manifest myself to Him.