[0:00] Good evening. It's good to see you and I know it's beautiful weather outside. I hope you've had a good day and trust that you've had a good week so far.
[0:13] Take your Bibles. Go me to the book of 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles. Let's start in chapter 13. Start in the first verse chapter 13, but we're going to be looking again at two chapters.
[0:24] This past Sunday night, we looked at chapters 11 and 12. Tonight, we'll look at chapters 13 and 14. Hopefully, you'll see the parallels between these two chapters. You'll understand why we're reading them simultaneously.
[0:40] Neither one of them are very lengthy, but we will cover a number of verses. We'll be looking at 2 Chronicles 13 and 14 in our time together this evening.
[0:51] Let's pray and then we'll get right into the text with one another. Father, thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity we have together together.
[1:02] I thank you for the fellowship we've already been able to enjoy. I thank you for the time that we have been able to spend around the table with one another. We pray, Lord, now that you lead and guide in this time. As we open up the word of God together, we pray that you would speak its truth into our hearts and minds.
[1:19] And, Fathers, we seek to know more of you. We pray that we would come to a greater understanding. An understanding of who we are in Christ. An understanding of who you are in your holiness.
[1:32] And in your splendor and your majesty. And, Lord, help that understanding to shape and mold us. We do pray for all that is going on, as always.
[1:43] That Christ be magnified. That the word of God be lifted on high among our youth and our young children. And we pray that in all ways you be exalted.
[1:56] We ask it on Christ's name. Amen. Before I forget, this Sunday evening is our graduate celebration. We'll be celebrating our graduates.
[2:08] We'll recognize them Sunday morning. We'll be celebrating them Sunday evening at 5. So we'll have a meal together. It's not at 6. It'll be at 5. Brother Troy wanted me to announce to everyone that that meal is a potluck meal.
[2:21] So bring a dish. And he'll take care of the chicken and things like that. But he said he didn't put a sign-up sheet out there. Let's see how Brother Troy said it. He didn't put a sign-up sheet out there because he figures you'll bring what you want to bring anyway.
[2:35] So bring what you want to bring, he said. So that will be this Sunday. Again, that is at 5, not at 6, as we recognize and celebrate our graduates this year.
[2:48] So continue also to remember our baby and child dedication. It's going to be on Mother's Day. The sign-up sheet is out there on the bulletin board.
[2:59] All right, let's get right into the word of God together. 2 Chronicles chapter 13. In the 18th year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. And he reigned three years in Jerusalem.
[3:10] And his mother's name was Micaiah, the daughter of Urael of Gebeah. Now there was a war between Abijah and Jeroboam. And Abijah began the battle with an army of valiant warriors, 400,000 chosen men.
[3:23] While Jeroboam drew up in battle formation against him with 800,000 chosen men who were valiant warriors. Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemarim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, Listen to me, Jeroboam, and all Israel.
[3:43] Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt? Yet Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master.
[3:56] And worthless men gathered about him, scoundrels who proved too strong for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he was young and timid and could not hold his own against them. So now you intend to resist the kingdom of the Lord through the sons of David, being a great multitude and having with you the golden calves, which Jeroboam made for gods for you.
[4:17] Have you not driven out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests like the people of other lands? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams, even he may become a priest of what are no gods.
[4:32] But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. And the sons of Aaron are ministering to the Lord as priests, and the Levites attend to their work. Every morning and evening they burn to the Lord burnt offerings and fragrant incense, and the showbread is set on the clean table, and the golden lampstand with the lamps is ready to light every evening.
[4:52] For we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but you have forsaken him. Now behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the signal trumpets to sound the alarm against you.
[5:04] O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for you will not succeed. But Jeroboam had set an ambush to come from the rear, so that Israel was in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind him.
[5:19] When Judah turned around, behold, they were attacked from both front and rear. So they cried to the Lord, and the priests blew the trumpets. Then the men of Judah raised a war cry. And when the men of Judah raised the war cry, then it was that God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abishan Judah.
[5:37] When the sons of Israel fled before Judah, God gave them into their hand. Abishan, his people, defeated them with a great slaughter, so that 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain. Thus the sons of Israel were subdued at that time, and the sons of Judah conquered, because they trusted in the Lord, the God of their fathers.
[5:54] And Abishan pursued Jeroboam and captured from him several cities, Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages, Nephron with its villages. Jeroboam did not again recover strength in the days of Abishan.
[6:06] The Lord struck him, and he died. But Abishan became powerful and took 14 wives himself and became the father of 22 sons and 16 daughters. Now the rest of the acts of Abishan, his ways and his words are written in the treatise of the prophet Ido, chapter 14.
[6:22] So Abishan slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And his son Asa became king in his place. The lamb was undisturbed for ten years during his days.
[6:33] Asa did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God. For he removed the foreign altars in the high places, tore down the sacred pillars, and cut down the ashram. And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment.
[6:47] He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. And the kingdom was undisturbed under him. He built fortified cities in Judah since the lamb was undisturbed.
[6:58] And there was no one at war with him during those years because the Lord had given him rest. For he said to Judah, let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars.
[7:09] The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God. We have sought him, and he has given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered. Now Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin bearing shields and wielding bows.
[7:28] All of them were valiant warriors. Now Zerah, the Ethiopian, came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots. And he came to Marsha.
[7:40] So Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation in the valley of Zephathah at Marsha. Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, Lord, there is no one beside you to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength.
[7:55] So help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you, and in your name have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God. Let not man prevail against you.
[8:08] So the Lord routed the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and so many Ethiopians fell that they could not recover, for they were shattered before the Lord and before his army, and they carried away very much plunder.
[8:23] They destroyed all the cities around Gerar, for the dread of the Lord had fallen on them, and they despoiled all the cities, for there was much plunder in them. They also struck down those who owned livestock, and they carried away large numbers of sheep and camels.
[8:37] Then they returned to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles chapters 13 and 14. Thank you for your patience as we looked at that. I want you to see this evening, Overcoming the Enemy. Overcoming the Enemy.
[8:49] This is one of the rare occurrences in the book of Chronicles, either 1 or 2 Chronicles. Here we're reading it in 2 Chronicles, in which we are given more details regarding an individual than we are given in his first mentioning in the book of 1 Kings.
[9:05] In particular, it is the king Abijah. And we are given much more details to his reign here in the 13th chapter than we are given to the mentioning of his reign in the book of 1 Kings, namely because he only reigns three years.
[9:19] And if you will recall, or if you go back and look at the parallel account, you'll know that Abijah is one of those kings who does not do what is right. Actually, he does wickedly in the ways of Rehoboam, his father. He does not follow after the Lord.
[9:31] And that's really all we are told about him in the book of 1 Kings. Other than that, there's a mentioning of him burning incense on the high places and accepting the idolatrous practices of those nations around them.
[9:44] But we are not told anything about his battle that he has with Jeroboam. We're told that he wards against him, but we're not told anything about him. Also, we can gather from 1 Kings, if we put things in chronological order, remember the chronicler is not concerned about chronological order.
[10:01] So we mention this verse that very clearly, if you read the parallel accounts, Jeroboam dies after Abijah. So he outlives him by actually a couple of years.
[10:13] Abijah dies and Asa sends a throne. Jeroboam dies after that. In our account here, the chronicler records the death of Jeroboam before the death of Abijah. And I've told you this before.
[10:26] We don't get upset about that because it's not chronologically correct because we understand the purpose of the writing. The purpose of the writing was to show us how to overcome the enemy and how we can stand in the context as the people of the Lord then and that day when the chronicler was writing and how we can stand now in our time and in our day as the people of the Lord to stand against the enemy.
[10:54] The first thing we need to understand about overcoming the enemy is the conflict itself. We are told here that in the 18th year of King Jeroboam's reign, Abijah becomes king.
[11:06] We know they only reigns a short amount of period, but we know that during his reign he wars against Jeroboam. Jeroboam is still the first king of the Northern Empire. And again, we're not spending a lot of time on the wrongs that they did there because, again, the mentioning of Abijah's wrongs and his misbehavior is irrelevant to the account of Chronicles.
[11:28] He doesn't have to retell the fact that he did wickedly because that's already recorded for us in Scripture. We do mention the fact that Asa, his son, does right because it fits the context.
[11:39] Because what is the context? It is displaying for us the faithfulness of God at maintaining his covenant. And that covenant is maintained.
[11:51] And even in these two accounts, that's why I wanted to read both of them together. The covenant is maintained not because of the goodness of the individual. Because we see parallel reckonings here with Abijah and Asa.
[12:06] Now, we're not talking about personal salvation. We're talking about maintaining the covenant of God. So, it is not because they are deserving.
[12:18] It's not because they're worthy. It's because his word will not fail. We are not looking at the first thing we need to notice about the conflicts. The conflicts are not instruments of discipline that the Lord is using to chastise or discipline his people.
[12:36] So, it's so much different than that. Okay? So, it's not like God says, well, Abijah is doing so much wrong. I'm going to bring Jeroboam down to fight against him. Or Asa is doing so much wrong.
[12:46] I'm going to bring the Ethiopian king against him. These are not disciplinarian actions. No, those are different. There are battles that are fought.
[12:57] The God says, I'm going to use this nation. Well, if we put it in context, the Assyrians were used as military force to discipline the disobedience of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Babylonians were used as a military force of discipline to discipline the disobedience of Judah.
[13:14] In those instances, there is no victory, and there can be no victory because God has declared judgment. This is rather the opposition that comes because not from what they have done.
[13:27] Now, this is to understand the conflict accurately. We need to get this point across. It is not because of what they have done. If that is the case, Asa would not be in battle because he does right.
[13:39] Abijah, we would expect to see there because we know from other contexts that he did wrong. This is not because of what they have done. They are in the midst of a conflict because of who they are. Because of who they are.
[13:53] They are the people of the Lord standing under the covenant of God, and the enemy stands in opposition to them. Now, that's important because sometimes the conflicts we experience are God's means and measures of disciplining us for those whom he loves, he disciplines.
[14:17] Sometimes the struggle we have is because of the things we have done. But sometimes the conflict we are in the middle of is not because of what we have done.
[14:33] It's simply because of who we are. We are engaged in a spiritual battle because of our identity as being the covenant people of the Lord God under Christ.
[14:49] Sometimes the conflict is simply because of who we are. And the question then is, how do we overcome the enemy then?
[15:00] If it's because of something we've done wrong, then we repent. We confess of it. We acknowledge it. We admit it. We fall on our faces and say, Yes, Lord, I agree with you.
[15:10] You are righteous in your judgments of me, and let me forsake this sin or this wrong or even this not doing what I should be doing. Let me forsake this.
[15:21] Let me turn in faithful obedience to you, and then we can move beyond it. The discipline has done its work. But if the conflict is simply because of who we are, how do we overcome the enemy? We understand properly the conflict.
[15:33] We understand, secondly, in the midst of the conflict, we gather this from both. When Abijah goes to battle against Jeroboam, Abijah goes with 400,000 men. Jeroboam goes with 800,000 men.
[15:44] Some Bible scholars, and I always say the term Bible scholars, and we have to put quotations around it because understand this, that not all Bible scholars are believers. Okay?
[15:54] There are just some people who are scholars of ancient manuscripts. Some Bible scholars want to reduce that number to 40,000 and 80,000 because they think these numbers seem inflated.
[16:05] I don't think that's true, and I think Scripture testifies to it because if you read the census numbers of David's counting of able-bodied men, and then you come here, and you see how many men are fighting the battle, you put the 400,000 and 800,000 together, and what we have is about one-fourth of the men that David counted were unfit to fight in this battle, which is a pretty good number.
[16:27] It is a reasonable number to think that one-fourth had either aged out of military service or had some kind of illness or sickness, and they could not go fight the battle, so we have 400,000 and 800,000 men respectfully.
[16:38] One thing that I read, which is astounding, that if we look at it from this point on, we have the numbering of it. From this point on, notice the increase in Judah's military and the decrease in Israel's military because by the time we get to Asa, then his military forces went up to 580,000.
[16:54] The next time we see a number given to us of Israel, their number has decreased from 800,000 down to around 600 and something thousand, so there's this constant increasing of Judah and this decreasing of Israel.
[17:05] That is, again, a sign of God's faithfulness, but that's neither here nor there, where in this battle, you have 400,000 against 800,000. When we go to the battle of Asa, recorded for us in the 14th chapter, Asa goes to battle with 580,000.
[17:18] He's got 300,000 from the tribe of Judah, another 280,000 from the tribe of Benjamin, some with large shields and spears, others with small shields and bows, right? So we have them gathered together, but they're going to fight an army of a million people.
[17:37] Historically speaking, by the way, this is a king or a pharaoh out of Egypt probably trying to accomplish what Shishak failed to do because when we read that Asa captured these cities or Abijah captured these cities and during the years of peace, Asa fortified these cities.
[17:51] That was in direct rebellion to what Shishak did. Remember, he made Israel the vassal state or Judah the vassal state. And if you read history, there was a king who came out of Africa, actually a pharaoh who came out of Africa, more than likely from the region of Ethiopia, who married into the family of Pharaoh.
[18:09] And since his bride could not ascend to the throne, he did. It is recorded in history for us. And this is probably him coming with the mass of the Egyptian army.
[18:21] Some people again say a million men. Is that even possible? Yes. Extra biblical historical records account for us that he went to battle with more than that at that same timeframe. So you have 580,000 against a million.
[18:34] So here's what I want you to see from both parallel accounts. Understand this about the conflict. On your own strength, you'll never ever overcome it. Because the enemy that is against you is so much more powerful than you.
[18:49] So when we understand the conflict, sometimes it is because of who we are and on our own strength and ability, we don't compare.
[18:59] It seems to be an insurmountable enemy. 400 against 800,000, 580,000 against a million.
[19:13] Why? Because the strength of the enemy is greater than we can withstand on our own. And this is something that is not only true here, but it is true now.
[19:26] Greater is he that is in us than he is in the world. Sure, that is absolutely biblically true. But may we never think, greater are we than he who is in the world.
[19:40] It is greater this he who is in us than he who is in the world. On our own, we don't stand a chance. So how do we overcome the enemy?
[19:53] We understand the conflict. Secondly, we walk into it with confidence. We notice the confidence here. And the confidence arises again from the very cause of the battle, that is, who they are.
[20:11] We see the confidence stated first by Abijah. Abijah says, Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel. Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by covenant of salt?
[20:22] We see this repetition of the covenant of salt. We find it mentioned first in Genesis. We find it again in the book of Leviticus. And really what it implies there is, because of salt's preservation and enduring properties, it is, this is a covenant that will persevere and endures.
[20:37] It is a covenant that will not pass away. So we see the confidence that Abijah has to begin with is, he stands confidently in the covenant of God.
[20:49] He stands not in his own ability nor in the size of his military, but he stands confidently because of what God has promised. Right?
[21:01] In the declared word of God and the realization that what God has promised and declared will not fail. And he states it very abundantly. And he goes on, he says, you intend to resist the kingdom of the Lord through the sons of David.
[21:15] So he identifies his position as being the possession of the Lord. You're not resisting the sons of David. You're resisting the kingdom of the Lord through the sons of David.
[21:27] That's a big difference. Because when the enemy attacks us because of who we are in Christ, he is not resisting you. He is resisting the kingdom of Christ through you.
[21:44] That's properly understood. And we come with this realization. I don't mean to... I don't want to have...
[21:57] This is not bad theology. I just don't want to say it too loosely. Satan doesn't care enough about any of us to oppose us personally. It is who we represent that he opposes.
[22:15] And it is who is... that is in us that he opposes. And so we understand this. The confidence comes because we know that it is not personally us.
[22:27] We know that it is... the realization that it is a direct opposition against the Lord. And then he begins to declare the atrocities of the northern kingdom. Notice during the covenant that is given with the Israelite people in the wilderness that God says that the priest of Aaron of the Arianic priesthood should come before him with a bull and two rams.
[22:47] Right? That's how they should consecrate the priest. They should have a bull and two rams. Jeroboam wants to make it a little bit more requirement. So he says, you come with a bull and seven rams. And anybody that comes with a bull and seven rams, you can be a priest.
[22:58] You don't have to be a descendant. Aaron, just bring me a bull and seven rams. Any time you get to man-centered and man-focused and man-originated religions, it's always going to make you do more. Okay?
[23:11] Study world religions. The ones that make you do more are the ones that have departed from biblical Christianity. So you come with enough, you can be whatever you want to be.
[23:24] And so, you know, B.J. says, you've got your golden calves, you've got your large army, you've got all of this. He says, but we, he says in verse 10, but as for us, the Lord is our God.
[23:37] And we have not forsaken him. Notice the confidence. We're not talking about the fact, well, did Abijah do everything right? No. But he can make this statement because he said, the priests of Levites are serving in the temple.
[23:52] They're offering the ordained sacrifices. They're burning the incense. They're putting it on the clean bread. They're putting the bread on the clean table. The lamp that is supposed to be lit every evening is there.
[24:03] We're doing everything God has called us to do and we have confidence in reality that God will not forsake his word. And this is confidence.
[24:15] So what confidence do we have to face an enemy that outnumbers us and it is stronger than us and it is greater than us? It is really the very reason the enemy attacks us is because of who we are.
[24:31] We have our confidence in the word of God. Number three, we see our commitment because it would be real easy to say, well, if we're so confident we know who we are in the Lord and we know who we are in Christ, when the enemy comes we just stand in that confidence.
[24:47] Well, confidence really leads us to commitment and we see commitment in Asa. It says, Asa did good and right and the side of the Lord, I'm in chapter 14, verse 2, for he removed, look at this, commitment moves us, right?
[25:07] When we are committed to something then there are actions that follow. You say, well, I'm a committed believer, I'm a committed follower of Jesus Christ. You show and display that commitment by what you do, right?
[25:18] Not what you say. In any relationship, you show your commitment based on your actions, not your words. It is not a verbal, oh yes, yes, I really believe that, I really believe that.
[25:31] Beliefs and commitments are displayed through actions. Now, we don't read of any actions of Abijah. He spoke of it and God showed him favor and because of his covenant relationship, God delivered him from the onslaught of Jeroboam, even though he was surrounded because when he cried out, we see that the Lord fought the battle for him because of who they were, not because of all the good that Abijah did.
[25:51] Well, that's good, but don't always rely on that because we have this confidence, but confidence doesn't lead to cockiness. That's a big difference right there, right? I've heard football coaches say there's a fine line.
[26:01] We want to be confident, but we don't want to be cocky. We need to walk on the side of confidence, but don't go to the other side. Sometimes we find people we have to push them back across, right? We want to be confident, but we don't want to be too cocky.
[26:12] We don't want to be those, oh, we're going to take it for granted. God's always going to fight our battle for us. No, confidence leads us to a greater commitment. A commitment means we do something. Asa, it says that he led the people to do something.
[26:24] He removed the foreign altars and the high places, tore down the sacred pillars, cut down the ashram, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the long commandments. So he led the nation to repent, to return.
[26:36] He is one of those good kings. We go read about him in 1 Kings. He repairs the temple. He restores the artifacts of the temple. He refurbishes the temple. Asa does bad later in his life. We're not going to spend a lot of time on that because the chronicler doesn't, right?
[26:48] We see here the commitment that he has at the very early stages, though, and he's restoring the temple. He refurbishes the temple. He puts riches back into the temple. So he's one of those that's pouring back into it, and he's leading the nation.
[27:01] He cleanses Judah from all the high places. So he is one of those who goes back and he does right, and he's doing good. But notice this, because it is telling. Not only he built the fortified cities in Judah, but we're told over and over again because the Lord had given him rest.
[27:19] And then it says, let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers and gates. The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God. We sought him, and he has given us rest on every side. Listen, this commitment came during a period of ease and rest.
[27:36] that is, he didn't wait until the battle to begin to be committed. The battle displays our commitments.
[27:52] It shouldn't determine our commitments. Asa led the nation to commit and take action during times of rest.
[28:05] during times of ease. Don't wait on the conflict to say, well, I need to get serious. It's when we have committed to serious living that when the conflict comes, we have the greatest amount of confidence.
[28:24] Too often, we say, well, the struggle draws us closer to God, right? Well, the struggle shouldn't move us closer. The struggle should really just highlight the reality that we were already close.
[28:35] we don't need to wait until we get into this valley. The mountaintop experiences are great too and those moments of ease and those moments of comfort and those moments of lack of conflict, those should be the times where we draw because all the conflict really does is highlight the commitments we've already made.
[28:58] it highlights what we were doing and what we were counting on and what we were relying on in periods of ease and in periods of comfort.
[29:11] But when Asa does this, he's doing it during a season. He said, because we have rest, let us commit. Because it's easy, let us fortify. Because God has given us peace, then let us ensure that we worship him and we adore him.
[29:25] So we see that to overcome the enemy, we have this conflict, we understand, we stand with confidence because we've made a commitment. Now fourth and finally, we get to this confession. Because even then, after this commitment, the conflict and the enemy still shows up.
[29:44] He says, now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them, an army of a million men of 300 chariots, and he came to Mereshah. Now by the way, this is one of the few times that you see the people of Judah going on the offensive and going out to the field.
[29:57] Most other times, we find them fighting from within the walls or behind the fortified city walls or in the cities, but this is one of the few times that Asa leads his people to go on offense and they go meet him.
[30:09] There's one other time in which they do it in Judah, but they fell miserably, but this time they do it. And this battle, in case you want to lose the significance of it, they fight here against the Egyptians. I know it says Ethiopians, but this is the Ethiopian king who was favorable over Egypt at that time.
[30:25] The Egyptians do not come back. This battle is so detrimental to the Egyptian empire that the Egyptians lose kind of their standing as a power force.
[30:37] So I want you to understand the weight of this conflict. They don't come back for over 300 years. I mean, it really set them back. It put a really huge dent in their empire.
[30:58] And it's one small army out of Judah. Why? Because of this simple confession. Because he was committed to the Lord, he took action.
[31:11] And in taking action, he led his army to face an enemy that he knew on his own he could never defeat. Sometimes commitments lead us to do things that are impossible.
[31:27] And when he gets there, he makes this grand confession. Verse 11, Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, Lord, there is no one beside you to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength.
[31:42] It is a confession of God's power, but it's also a confession of man's weakness. He's confessing God's wondrous power and ability.
[31:57] There's no one but you that can deliver against the powerful and those who have no strength. Sometimes, in the face of our enemy, the best thing that we can ever do is to make the confession that we cannot win that battle.
[32:16] We don't have the ability within us. It is not our strength nor our might. It is not by our will that we say, God, there's no way because the enemy that is against me is so much stronger than me.
[32:30] We don't like that. We don't like to acknowledge that. We don't like to admit that because we would like to assume that we can take on, I know me personally, I would like to assume that I can take on anything that comes my way. But what we find is Asa says, I'm out here to fight this battle.
[32:44] He led the army out there, right? And as soon as he gets out there, he says, now Lord, I've come to a place where I'm against this enemy. This enemy, I think you want me to fight, but I need to confess to you, Lord, there's no way I'm winning this battle.
[32:56] I can't do it. I have no strength. And he cries out, so help us, oh Lord, our God, for we trust in you. Why even go to the battlefield?
[33:07] For we trust in you. And in your name have come against this multitude. We have come in the name because we understand that the resistance is not against us.
[33:23] It is because of who we are in you. It is because of who we are in our standing in Christ. And so we fight this enemy that we know we can't beat and we do it in your name.
[33:37] He says, oh Lord, you are our God. Let no man prevail against you. There's a confession of God's sovereignty.
[33:50] He confesses God's ability. He confesses his own inability. And he ultimately confesses God's sovereignty.
[34:02] God, you are sovereign. You overrule all man. It doesn't matter if they have a million plus and 300 chariots and they've brought us to a place.
[34:14] More than likely, it's hard to locate these places with full assurance, but many people believe that it's one of those wild wadi beds where the chariots would be most effective. So they went to the place that was beneficial for the enemy.
[34:28] They went to the place where everything was stacked against them and they said, God, don't let man win against you. And he left it there. And God responded much like he did to Abijah.
[34:43] Abijah and the Lord routed the Ethiopians before Asa, before Judah and the Ethiopians fled. And it was the Lord who routed Jeroboam before Abijah and Judah.
[34:58] How do we overcome the enemy? We understand the conflict. We go with confidence, full of commitment, but the confession is we don't. But we trust in him who does.
[35:13] And we say, Lord, I'm here to fight that battle, but I can't win it on my own. And we find that recorded for us in 2 Chronicles chapter 13 and 14.
[35:25] Thank you, my brothers. Amen.