And we are continuing our study of faith and the exploits of faith, beginning at Hebrews 11 and verse 32. It says, And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Now if you would, turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. We're going to continue our study of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who turned to flight the armies of the aliens by faith. And last week, we noticed in chapter 20, the armies of the aliens, Moab and the Ammonites, and how they had come up. And they were in En-Gaddai, and they were essentially at the gates, if you would. As the old expression, Hannibal is at the gates. And there they were. And the Bible tells us that Jehoshaphat was told about this and he feared and he sought the Lord. And it says in verse 3, And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim to fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah. They came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever. And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name's sake. If when evil cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. And now behold the children of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldst not let Israel invade, When they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and destroyed them not, behold, I say how they reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. 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. And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And I'll stop our reading there tonight. But I want to look at, as we left off in verse 3, where it says, And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord. And then we read that he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. This was all done by faith. Again, as the Scripture bears out in Hebrews 11, by faith these things were done. And the faith of Jehoshaphat begins right here in verse 3. And in all of this, so we're going to take a look at it. And we want to look at how the armies of the aliens were turned to flight. Again, in verse 3, the first thing we want to look at tonight, and again, this is just continuing on from last Wednesday. In verse 3 it says, "...and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah." Now, I don't know if you've ever fasted, and that's alright. But Judah didn't fast because they were going to see the doctor in the morning. This was done for spiritual reasons. And this is something that is lost today in western civilization. God has, and you can turn over if you would, in Luke chapter 5, Luke chapter 5, and you can read down through the book of Acts, and you can see how that the Scriptures tell us that there were times when they fasted. And we notice here that the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is an implication that fasting was to continue. That this was not something that ceased to be when the revelation of the Scriptures ceased. This was something that was to continue on. In Luke chapter 5. And notice, if you would, verse 33. And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees? But thine, that is the Lord's disciples, eat and drink. And he said unto them, Can you make the children of the bride chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? And so the reference is that Christ said, why would they fast when I'm right here with them? But then he goes on into verse 35, But the days will come, and we're in those days, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. And he has been taken away in the physical sense, hasn't he? And so there's an implication here that this ought to be ongoing in His people until He comes. And what they did was, is that the Bible tells us, and you can again read, that in history, in Jehoshaphat, He proclaimed a fast. And there were days past and gone when pastors of churches, he would proclaim a fast as the spiritual leader of the church. He would proclaim a fast and the congregation would fast for things. And it still goes on. It goes on in Europe. It goes on in East Asia. It goes on in Africa. And I don't know if it goes on here in America. I don't know. I've never heard of a pastor proclaiming a fast. I imagine we Baptists would schedule a fellowship dinner that day. But you understand. He proclaimed to fast. And the word proclaim means to call by name. To call out. And the concept of this word means that it was to accost a person in a hostile manner. He was the king of all Judah. And he said to Judah in a hostile manner, you're going to fast. And you know the king, our king, the king of kings, he says some things to his people in the same fashion. What Christ says is not to be taken as suggestions. It is a command, it is a proclamation, and he is accosting us all in this manner. It ought not to be taken in a light fashion what God has said about anything. You know, it's not like, and I joke around, I saw this on a sitcom years ago, and the fella, he opened up a box to do some kind of work on something, I can't remember what it was, but I remember this, and somebody said, well, do you want to read the directions? He says, no, that's the manufacturer's opinion of how it's supposed to go. Well, this is not an opinion. It is thus saith the Lord. And we find here that God bears out. This fast, again, was not optional. It came from the King. And He proclaimed it. And we find here concerning the fast, and again we have to remember, the fast was not only not optional, but the purpose of it was to seek the Lord, to know God and His will. The purpose of fasting is not to pass out, to see how long you can go before you just succumb to eating or drinking or whatever. The purpose is an affliction and an abstaining from this to seek God's will and to know Him in a greater fashion. That's the purpose of it. And it was done time and again throughout Scriptures. Maybe the absence of it in churches of the Lord today shows why we have such little knowledge of His will and Him. Well, we find here that this was the purpose. They were pursuing God. They were pursuing God. Listen again to these words that are here in 2 Chronicles 20 and verse 3. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to what? Seek the Lord. And the very first thing he did when he set himself to seek the Lord was he proclaimed to fast throughout all Judah. So that's what fasting is about. Pursuing God. seeking after Him, His will. And so this was done. Now typically, and we find it so in our text here of 2 Chronicles 20, fasting is accompanied with prayer. It's accompanied with prayer. And this is a tremendous thing that was done. And notice secondly tonight, In these verses, verses 4 down through verse 13, I'll not read all of them again, but you look here in verse 4, it says, And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And in this we see Jehoshaphat and Judah acting by faith in accordance with the Word of God. They gathered themselves together. This is a thing that needs to be done. There was no division among them. The Bible even teaches us and tells us, if you look down into verse 13, and all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children. You see, there wasn't the little kids worshiping God over here in junior church or kids church or whatever. It was the whole family was coming to God together. There was not a division amongst them. And we find that that happens today a lot. They have junior church and children's church and so on and so forth, and yet we're supposed to train them up and to worship as families. So here it is. And I know people say, well, that's the Old Testament. Well, that's all Jesus had to teach from, wasn't it? And these are principles that are laid down in Scriptures. And so he lays this out, and the Bible tells us all of this, and it brings up these things. And you remember, and again, he's walking by faith. And you turn all the way back to Exodus, where Moses went in and told Pharaoh to let God's people go, and he said, I'll tell you what, why don't just the men go? And Moses said, no. We will all go. And we will take our animals because we're going to go out three days and sacrifice God to God in the wilderness. So, Jehoshaphat follows the pattern that God had given them all the way back to Exodus. And it goes even further than that. Word to Abel, learn how to sacrifice from his daddy. from his dad. How did Isaac know when they went up to top Mount Moriah that he said, listen Abraham, or listen dad, he said, we got fire and we got wood, but where's the sacrifice? How did he know they were supposed to have a sacrifice? Because he'd been taught. See, that's how this is all built on faith, isn't it? And we see this again in our text when it says here, and Judah gathered themselves together, even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. There wasn't one city of Judah that didn't come. Isn't that something? There was no city in Judah that said, you know, it's really far. And since that fellow over there from that city is gone, he can just tell us what happened when he gets back. Or you know what? Send us a message. No, they all came to the temple to seek the Lord in one accord. They gathered themselves together. Notice the language that is used here by the Holy Spirit of God, and we have it rendered in verse 4, and Judah gathered themselves together. Who gathered who? People say, well, God gathered them. Scriptures say they gathered themselves. You see, there is a responsibility of God's people to gather ourselves together. And it's so today. If you look in Hebrews chapter 10, The book of Hebrews chapter 10. There's a responsibility that we have to gather ourselves together to seek the Lord, to worship Him, to hear His Word, to pray. Did not Jesus say that my house shall be called a house of prayer? Certainly it should. Certainly He did. In Hebrews 10 and in verse 25, not forsaking the what? The assembling of who? Ourselves together. And then he goes on, he says, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Well, it's approaching. And it's approaching more today than it was yesterday, than it was Sunday, the last time we met, and it was even two weeks ago, or a year ago, or ten years ago. The day of Christ's coming is approaching more and more, and not just because we've lived another day either. Scripture is being fulfilled. And we see that we're getting closer to the time when He should come. And God said in His Word, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Especially in that day. Especially as you see His coming approaching. So we're to assemble ourselves together. Now they did this. And the Bible bears this out. And we find that the Lord's Church today, it is being assaulted as never before. There are so many assaults on the Lord's Church. I don't even know if we can number them. I have a dear friend of mine, he drew walls or bastions or bulwarks around it, and it's the Lord's church, and then there's ancient landmarks, and he labeled them all, and then outside of it are little tiny things of fire, and he labeled them all. It's from the 70's. And he sent it to me, and the little pieces of fire are supposed to be things that are attacking the church, and I said, well, there's about a thousand you could add to that over the last 40 years. He said, I know. So what are we to do? Assemble ourselves together and seek the help of the Lord. Things have gone by the wayside. The ancient landmarks have been taken down, being forgotten. In fact, they're not even taken down, people just aren't shoring them up. Brother Gale, his daddy had a metal building out, and outside the metal building, he says, look out over there. And I says, yeah, what is it? And he goes, somewhere over there is a cinder block in the tall grass. He says, that's the property line and it marks something else. I can't remember what the something else was. and you had to go out there and you had to stomp down or move around. So you could see that cinder block that he had put in the ground. That was the property line. But she didn't know where the property line was because it had not been maintained. You couldn't see it. It wasn't that somebody took a sledgehammer and busted it up or they plucked up the cinder block and moved it. The grass had just grown up because nobody took care of it. That's what goes on today. Landmarks aren't being maintained. They're not being passed down from one generation to the next. Or maybe we're cherry picking which landmark we want to pass down to the next generation saying, well this one, that one's important, these ones, they're not so much important. The whole counsel of God needs to be handed down to the next generation. Not this doctrine, or that doctrine, or this point, or this point, because I really like this one. The whole counsel of God has to be handed down. And it is the responsibility of parents to teach their children, and grandparents to teach their grandchildren. And it is the responsibility of the church to equip those parents and grandparents that they might do that work. And so gather yourselves together, that you can be equipped to do that work. Now all they had come that they might ask help of the Lord. Notice this again, and you look in the word ask in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse 4. The word ask literally means to beg or to beseech. It is the exact opposite of demanding. They didn't come to demand God's help. Because you can't demand anything of God. They came in a humble fashion to request of God that He would be merciful unto His people. Look over in the Psalms in Psalm 46. Psalm 46. And you know it's a It's a tremendous thing, or it's really a sad thing, how we go to God for eternal salvation, which is a big deal, for a lack of a better expression. But we turn to someone else or something else for help with minor things. No, we're supposed to go to Him for everything. And the Scripture says in Psalm 46 verse 1, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. The Scripture says, and notice all of these quote-unquote natural catastrophes, if you would. All of these things in the psalm is said, though all of this happens, therefore will not we fear. Why? Because God is our refuge and strength and a very present help and trouble. So we're not going to be afraid. Turn over to the 121st psalm. Psalm 121. And notice, if you would, beginning in verse 1. Again, to ask help of the Lord. That was the purpose of which they had assembled together. You know, sometimes you often wonder why some folks assembled together. Why did they come? Was it to seek the Lord? What was the purpose of it? Was it to glorify Him and to receive the marching orders of instruction that He had given to His people through the preaching of God's Word? What was the purpose of their assembly? To seek the Lord, to ask help of the Lord. In the 121st Psalm it says in verse 1, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. What a song! What a tremendous psalm that's recorded. This is one of the songs of degrees or songs of ascents. This was something that they would sing as they went up the steps of the temple to worship God. They came to ask help of the Lord. Again, the word ask implies and teaches us that they were throwing themselves upon the mercy of the Lord. They were saying, as their father Israel had, that they were not worthy of the least of all the mercies which he had shown unto the servant. And they weren't worthy of all those mercies. You and I aren't worthy of all the mercies. And yet we throw ourselves again at the mercy of God. They came boldly, but they also came humbly. And they came, and I'm reminded, they came to ask help of one and only one, the Lord. That reminds me of the words that Simon Peter said, to whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of eternal life. Well, who else can we go to? We don't have another to go to. And there is none other beside Him to go to. It is the Lord alone that we are to come unto. Now, I'd like you to observe again by faith. This is all done by faith. Where did Jehoshaphat and Judah go physically? Well, let's read in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. And notice if you go to verse 4 or 5, and then we'll skip down to verse 9. 2 Chronicles 20 and verse 4. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah. They came to seek the Lord, and Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court. Verse 9. And it says, if when evil cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and crying to thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. You see, where they were was they were in the new court of the temple. You can look up on the computer, I'm sure, or you can look up in a book. about the temple and all the things that were done, and all the additions, or there were different temples. You can look up all the things. But here they had assembled. Josh, Pat, and all of Judah, out of every city, and their wives, and their little ones, and their children. I mean, they didn't leave. They didn't say, well, just the children come. We're going to leave the little ones at home. No, they all came. They all came. So where were they? In the house of the Lord before the new court. This was done by faith. They didn't remain in their homes. Turn over if you would to 2 Chronicles chapter 6. 2 Chronicles chapter 6. See, David had desired to build this house unto the Lord, but God said, it's good that it's in your heart to do it, but you're not going to do it. Your son Solomon's going to do it. And so David prepared materials to do it. And then Solomon ascends unto the throne, and David tells him, this is what you're going to do, and Solomon, he does it. And they finish building the temple, and it's done. And now they have, for lack of a better term, they dedicate it unto the Lord. I don't know what other term to use than that. It seems a perfect fit for it. But they dedicated the temple unto the Lord. And I'd encourage you to read this chapter. But for time's sake, I'm going to cherry pick through it. But in 2 Chronicles chapter 6, If you would look in verse 17, here is Solomon praying unto God concerning the temple that was built. And in 2 Chronicles 6 in verse 17 it says, Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let thy word be verified which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David. But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built. Have respect, therefore, to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee. That if thine eyes may be opened upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said, that thou wouldest put thy name there to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place. Hearken therefore unto the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place. Hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven, and when thou hearest, forgive. If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house, then heareth thou from heaven, and do and judge thy servants by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head, and by justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness." Now note verse 24. And if thy people Israel be put to the worst before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee and shall return and confess thy name and pray and make supplication before thee in this house, then hear thou from the heavens and forgive the sin of thy people Israel and bring them again into the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. And you can keep reading on down through here. But did you remember the words that Jehoshaphat said? Go back to chapter 20 and notice what Jehoshaphat prays and what he says in verse 9. If when evil cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine. Those are the same things Solomon said to the Lord. He says if these things happen and we come before this place, this temple, where you abide, hear us from your throne. Hear us. Now look in chapter 7 of 2 Chronicles. Here we found in chapter 6 that Solomon, he's dedicating this temple to Gaius. He says, if this is what's going on Lord, we're going to come here before your throne and we're going to pray and if you hear us, or if we come here, you'll hear us from heaven, right? Notice what God answers him in this chapter. God enters into a covenant with them. See, we can go and say, you know God, if I pray before this wall right here, then you're going to hear me. But unless God makes that agreement, that's meaningless. And in chapter 7, we find that God does enter into covenant. He says here in verse 1, Forever now skip to verse 12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be opened, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually." You see how God entered into that covenant? He said, yes. If this is going on and you come here and He says, and this is an infamous verse, it's a famous verse, and it's so misappropriated and misapplied in our day. This was a covenant between God and Israel, not between God and the United States or any other nation. Now there is a principle here that if we would do this, it would be good. And it would behoove any nation or any people or the Lord's church to do it. But this covenant was between God and Israel. That's the context. And he says in verse 14, if my people which are called by my name, well, there's only one people called by his name. And it ain't the United States of America. And it ain't any other Gentile nation. He has one nation that he's called by his name, Israel, and he has one church. So says Ephesians chapter 4 and Matthew 16, 18. And the Scriptures bear this out and it says, that if they shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Well, if this was applicable to any Gentile nation, ain't nobody turn from their wicked ways, have they? They just want to be blessed and keep on going, don't they? But there has to be a turning away from wicked ways. And that's incumbent on us to seek Him and to turn from those things. That's our duty. But he says this, this was the covenant that God entered into with Solomon and with Israel. And now Jehoshaphat appears before this place. It's God's dwelling place. And the temple is not a type of the New Testament church. It's not. There are similarities between the tabernacle and the temple and the Lord's church, but it's not a type. What was there that was in the tabernacle and then now in the temple? The Holy of Holies was there, where the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat were behind the veil. It is a type of the true place, not made with hands, where Jesus Christ took His own blood. and put it on the mercy seat. What God was saying is, if you guys come here to the temple where the blood is put, which is a shadow and a picture of what Jesus would do, if you'll come here and you'll come through the mediator, Jesus Christ, I will hear. You don't have to come to church and pray. You don't even need, if you're in the hospital, go down to the chapel and pray. You can pray right where you're at. The picture here was not the temple. The picture was the sacrifice that was there on the mercy seat. It's always about Christ. Always about Him. That was where atonement was made. And our atonement, or better put, reconciliation, was made by Jesus in the eternal heavens upon the true mercy seat, not with blood of bulls and of goats, but with true and genuine blood of the Lamb of God. And He is the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And He has rent the veil and opened up so that we have a bold access. And Jehoshaphat, he believed it. And it hadn't even taken place yet. I mean, it was hundreds of years yet to come, but he was walking by faith. He believed what God had said to Solomon, and he believed the type of the person of Jesus Christ. We have the Lord Jesus today and we need to believe Him. And we need to call upon Him so that the armies of the aliens will be turned to flight. This is what we find. It's all done by faith. Look over in Hebrews 4 and we'll close this evening. Hebrews chapter 4. Again, the armies of the aliens were turned to flight, and we'll get into that here in our study. But you look at Hebrews 4, and in verse 14, 15, and 16, we're still able to come before His throne of grace. The veil has not been sewn up shut. It's still rent. We still have access through His name. In verse 14, seeing then we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Well, I need help to turn to flight the armies of the aliens. And so does every one of His children. So by faith we go before His throne just like Jehoshaphat did. And we ask alone to the Lord for help. And we wait for His help to come. Remember, 121st Psalm, Whence cometh my help? My help is coming from the Lord. Well, it's coming. And it will get there when God believes and knows and brings it to pass. We don't need to take things into our own hands. Do you think that the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Edomites, those amounts here, do you think that they could have broke through because God wasn't ready yet? It's absurd! He was holding them at En-Gaddai. And they couldn't come. There was nothing that should be done. Because God was in control, wasn't He? And when Jehoshaphat and Judah turned, and they asked of the Lord, and they cried unto Him, and they sought His help, and they did it by faith. They did it exactly as God said it was going to be. And again, this wasn't Jehoshaphat. Okay, 2 Chronicles chapter 6 says we've got to be here in the temple. Okay, everybody here in the temple. Hey Jacob, you've got to come in a couple feet. You're not quite in the shadow of the temple. We've got to get everybody in this square or rectangle so we can check this box off that we're in the presence of the Lord. No. It was by faith. It's from a heart and a regenerated individual that cried out unto the Lord in mercy, seeking for His assistance and His help. So here it is again. how one man, Jehoshaphat, led the God's people, and by faith, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. And Lord willing, we'll pick up there next Wednesday. We pray the Lord will bless the message tonight. Let's all stand.