Introduction
These are troubled and frightening times in our world. Never, since “The Great Depression”, has the world been in the economic condition that it is in today. The conflicts between the Jews and Arabs are thousands of years old, and any conflict that arises is nothing new for the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac. Things remain unstable in the Arab world. Afghanistan is once more becoming a serious challenge to our efforts to turn that country into a Democratic country. So is Iraq! Iran is a powder keg waiting to explode. And, now, North Korea’s maneuvers dare not be taken lightly. And, besides the economic challenges that America faces, the Church in America is both weak and worldly. Yes, there is a remnant that will be saved. Yes, there are those who strive daily to walk the narrow way that leads through the strait gate, the way that will ultimately bring this remnant – the Bride of Christ – to His throne.
Could this be the time that Jesus
spoke of in Luke’s Gospel?
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth DISTRESS OF NATIONS, with PERPLEXITY, the sea and the waves roaring:
Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
And then shall ye see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:25-28 KJV)
We do not know, and though some prophecy experts take great pleasure, and with great certainty, would make us believe that what is happening today exactly fits the prophecies of these verses. I do not know, and I am not going to make such a claim. I was once young and now I am old. I have lived through a myriad of sermons that have said that what was happening at that point in time was a perfect match for such verses as this. I have lived through about a half dozen named Antichrists. I was alive when Father Divine touted himself as being God, had his compound in New York, with a harem of believers, many of them women who were at his beck and call. I was alive when an African American preacher in Chicago publicly claimed to be Jesus Christ, sat on his crimson throne, draped in royal regalia, and seduced many. I have lived long enough to have heard Pope Paul II named as the Antichrist, and John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissenger, and others. I have heard that the numerical value of the leaders on the Pope’s mitre total 666. I remember a couple of books that predicted the day Jesus would return – “77 Reasons Why Jesus Will Return in 1977,” and “88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Return in 1988.” He didn’t! Those authors frightened millions and sold millions of their books, tapes and videos.
None of the long list of prophesies that I have heard have come true. Therefore, I am not going to make any predictions, other than to say that I believe that in God’s time – when He determines their actual fulfillment – will see to it that His Word is fulfilled as far as the end of the present “Dispensation of Grace” and those things that will follow, ending ultimately with “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
Jesus had a lot to say about world conditions as they would exist during what Christians know as “the last days” or “the endtime”. Here is what we do know:
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark.
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39 KJV)
Indeed, we do not know if what is happening today, or if the moral depravity of our world has reached the limit with God, or if the stage is set for God’s final showdown with this wicked and adulterous generation, but we do know that this could well be the time.
If this should be man’s “swan song” and if man has pushed the grace of God to the limit, and if Jesus should return at any moment, it would be the realization of the glorious hope of every believer. True Christians do not live their life paralyzed with fear as do those that have no hope We know that God, in His own time, will bring us to Himself and flying airplanes into the Twin Towers in Manhattan is not the way to Paradise.
We are all very much aware of what is going on in our world. CNN and MSNBC will not let us “not know”. Headlines are glaring! The news is nonstop about such topics as “The War on Terror,” “Anthrax” – and whether we have enough vaccine to deal with these biological threats. Now we are told that the antibiotics that have been around for a very long time easily treat the Anthrax problem. The smallpox threat is something that we are told – at least early on – we are not prepared for. And who knows what will pop up next.
For the Christian, it is certainly important to be informed, BUT it is not acceptable for us to be paralyzed with fear, and for looking on those things which are coming on the earth. We have read beyond that in our Bible and we know “it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him” (Ecclesiastes 8:12b KJV). “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” (Proverbs 20:25 KJV). Christians should know that wisdom tells us to fear God – meaning to stand in awe of God – and that the fear of man can only entangle us in the web of anxiety and faithlessness. Our determined goal should be to stand in faith on the unfailing promises of God and let God handle endtime prophetic fulfillment in His own way and time.
Who is Going to Help us Deal with the Uncertainty
of The Days that We Now Find Ourselves In?
What does the future hold for us, for our children and grandchildren, for our businesses and the goals that have not yet been reached? The Bible is full of answers, but I would like to draw our attention to a man in the Old Testament by the name of JEHOSHAPHAT. Some verses in 2 Chronicles Chapters 18- 20 will be studied, but first…WHO IS JEHOSHAPHAT?
Jehoshaphat was king of Judah who reigned in 853 B. C.
He was the son and successor of Asa.
He tried to be a model of piety and a guardian of the faith by sending teachers of the Law throughout the kingdom and closing down the shrines of Baal.
He married his son to Athaliah, daughter of Israel’s notorious Jezebel and Ahab, and in doing so he unwittingly brought trouble and degradation to Judah.
His 25-year reign was considered a high point in Judah’s history.
Jehoshaphat, because oif his alliance with Ahab – “the son of Omri (who) did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him” (1 Kings 16:30 KJV) – found himself involved in a battle with Ahab against Ramoth-gilead. An indication of Ahab’s lack of character and apparent disdain for his son-in-law, is seen in the way he handled this military operation – “I will disguise myself, and will go into battle, but put thou on thy robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself; and they went to battle” (2 Chronicles 18:29 KJV). In spite of his disguise, “a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness…and about the time of the sun going down he died” (2 Chronicles 18:33, 34c KJV).
Realizing that he had made a wrong decision by listening to Ahab’s false prophets and with Ahab bleeding to death in the chariot, “Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him: and God moved them to depart from him” (2 Chronicles 18:31 KJV).
Jehu – the seer – shows up in Chapter 19 and presents Jehoshaphat with a serious question – “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath come upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thy heart to seek God. And Jehoshaphat…went out again through the people…and brought them back unto the Lord God of their fathers. And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do; for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully, and with a perfect heart.” (2 Chronicles 19:2b, 3, 4-7, 9b KJV)
A lot of historical and biographical information has been given in order to paint a picture of a man that in very tough times made his mistakes, but made things right with God and when faced with the toughest battle of his life shows us who will help us when we have no place else to turn and don’t know what to do. The incident to which I refer is found in Chapter 20 of 2nd Chronicles. The following verses will set the stage for driving home the main lesson of this sermon.
Although Jehoshaphat was able – by divine intervention – to escape from the ill-chosen alliance with Ahab against the men of Ramoth-gilead and had returned home in peace, he was soon faced with his own battle – one of huge and frightening proportions:
“It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other besides the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.
Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side of Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is Engedi.” (2 Chronicles 20:1, 2 KJV)
The way that Jehoshaphat faced this challenge is a good example for everyone of us when we face our individual situations that seem overwhelming and impossible to us, even the fear of endtime events as Jesus spoke of them.
“And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a 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 all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.” (2 Chronicles 20:3, 4, 13 KJV)
Jehoshaphat was struck with fear just as America was struck with fear on September 11, 2001 when three planes – with more than two hundred passengers slammed into the two world trade center buildings in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Thankfully, our president, his cabinet, and both houses of Congress immediately called our nation – and the world – to prayer. War was almost immediately declared on those that perpetrated this heinous crime against America. As Judah “gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord:” (2 Chronicles 20:4), so did our nation, and we continue to seek God for His wisdom and empowerment to win this war over our enemies.
May I suggest to you that the god of our enemy is not the same as our God. The ecumenists, along with those who preach what is today called “the gospel of inclusion”, attempting to make us believe that there is only one God, the one that Muslims, Jews and Christians all believe in, and that all of these religions will ultimately end up in heaven together, is what I am referring to. THIS IS NOT WHAT THE BIBLE…GOD’S INFALLIBLE WORD…TEACHES! Our God is the God of the Bible…not the Koran. Our God is the God of the entire Bible, not just the first five books – known as the 5 Books of Moses. There are millions of false gods in the world and the human race – in unbelievable numbers – pray to and worship them. These are gods with eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, and hands that cannot help. These are gods that keep women and children illiterate and reduced to anonymity and the most menial servitude. These are the people whose women are second (or third) class citizens, important only for producing boy babies that will grow up to fight for an ungodly cause. This is not the same god as our God. Our God is the God that Jehoshaphat prayed to. Here are excerpts from his prayer:
“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 thou not 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?
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.” (2 Chronicles 20:6, 7, 11, 12 KJV)
When Jehoshaphat had finished praying, “Then upon Jehaziel…came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation…And he said…be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you…for the Lord will be with you.” (2 Chronicles 20:14, 15, 17 KJV)
Upon hearing this Spirit-inspired “Word of Knowledge” and encouragement, Jehoshaphat and all of the people did two important things. They “fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord” (20:18b) and then they “stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high” (20:19c). “And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten…they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the Valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord.” (2 Chronicles 20:22, 25d, 26 KJV)
Conclusion
America is not in the best shape spiritually and certainly the world as a whole is far from giving honor to the only wise God, the Creator, but our cause is just and the freedom of choice given to all by God must be sustained and protected. Hopefully, all that is happening will cause America to do what Jehoshaphat and all of Judah did – fall down before the Lord, admit our absolute inability to fight and win on our own and to implore Him for forgiveness, mercy and empowerment to win the battle.
God wants us to win in every challenge Satan brings against us. God wants to bless us, and He will if our heart is truly repentant before HIM. This is a time to bring everyone…by family…to the place of prayer and then rise up from the worship of God to praise HIM for what we know HE wants us to have once we have emptied our hearts of our sin and selfish ambitions. The all-important question is: “Will we do it?” WHO IS GOING TO HELP US? God will…IF…if we humble ourselves, confess our sins and turn from them. This, more than meddling in endtime prophecy…and being paralyzed with fear…it is the solution.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD!
Hear it!