How to Fight the Devil and Win
2 Chronicles 20:1-20:28
INTRODUCTION: the story of one of the most one-sided battles in the annals of human history. The children of Moab, Ammon and mount Sier had risen in rebellion against King Jehoshaphat of Israel.
v-4-confessed his helpliness
in v-12-obeyed Holy Spirit
in V-12-18—put his trust in the Lord
in V-20 and gives thanks to Lord in 21-22
Faced with the greatest crisis of his live-Jehoshaphat does exemplary manner. V-3 -Gathers others to pray and fast Seeks Lord through FASTING 3And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
–Confessed his helpliness V-4 4So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD. V-12-18 12O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” 13Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the LORD.
14Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. 15And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. 17You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.”
18And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the LORD, worshiping the LORD.
Put His trust in the Lord and His word v-20 20So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”
Gives Thanks to the Lord in vv-21-22 21And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the LORD, For His mercy endures forever.”
22Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated
1. Who were these enemies.
2. Where did they come from?
3. Who were their ancestors?
A. MOAB WAS ON OF THE SONS OF LOT WHO WAS ABRAHMS'S NEPHEW
Moab was one of the sons of Lot who was Abraham’s nephew.
1. Do you remember the story of Lot?
2. Lots Wife-Told to leave-Don’t look back or pillar of salt
B. Sodom and Gomorrah,
1. The two cities that were filled with the gay crowd, the lesbians and homosexuals who lived outwardly in defiance of the laws of God and of nature, were about to be destroyed by the judgment fires of God.
2. Lot took the easy path, but where did it lead him?
A. He lost his family, his soul was grieved for the sin around him, and he even tried to give up
his two daughters to the lusts of the crowd to protect the two strangers who stayed in his
house.
It is said that the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin so feared for his safety that his residence in Moscow contained eight bedrooms. Each night Stalin chose a bedroom at random to ensure that no one knew exactly where he was sleeping.
B. He had lost touch with God.
Did he know who those two strangers were? Why was he so willing to allow his own daughters to suffer for them?
C. It seems that Lot had lost more than he had ever hoped to gain in such a condition.
d. Lot never erased the memories of Sodom and Gomorrah.
e. His soul had been vexed but yet he refused to leave until God forced him to.
f. I wonder how much of his heart was still in that place of sin?
How much of the idolatry, the debauchery and the evil of that city had been engrained into both his own heart and the heart and minds of Lot’s children.
G. Lot’s actions had sown seeds of idolatry and now those seeds had matured into children who hated Israel, yet had one time been a part of the heirs of promise.
H. How many people have lost out with God only to turn against the church and against the ministry with a vengeance?
Black Bart was a professional thief whose very name struck fear as he terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line. From San Francisco to New York, his name became synonymous with the danger of the frontier. Between 1875 and 1883 he robbed 29 different stagecoach crews. Amazingly, Bart did it all without firing a shot. Because a hood hid his face, no victim ever saw his face. He never took a hostage and was never trailed by a sheriff. Instead, Black Bart used fear to paralyze his victims. His sinister presence was enough to overwhelm the toughest stagecoach guard.
I. How many have been given over to a reprobate mind because they allowed the things of this
world to destroy the love of God, and the knowledge of God that once was in them?
J. Moab was one of Lot’s sons but now he was leading an army of his people against Israel to
cast them from the Promised Land.
B. Then there were the Sons of Ammon.
1. Ammon was the eldest son of Lot and it seems that his father’s example was forever burned
into the heart of this son.
2. How many times had Ammon and Moab heard Lot long for the happier days when his wife
was yet alive and his business in Sodom was flourishing? Can we not see now why God told
Lot to never look back?
3. As long as we dwell in the past, we will only remember the good times.
a. Satan has a way of erasing from your memory in time, the bad things that have
happened. If you lived a life of sin in the past, you will easily remember all the times that
you laughed, felt high, felt as though you were on top of the world, and all the times that
you spent with your friends just living it up.
b. But it will be hard to remember the times that you came home late at night and didn’t
know where you were, or woke up the next morning wondering where you were and sick
as a dog. You won’t remember the neglect of your family or the sinful heart that
condemned you the whole time.
C. Along with Moab and Ammon came the children from mount Seir.
1. These were some of the original people of the region that should have been wiped out
when Israel came in the first time, but now they too were coming back to haunt Israel for
its disobedience.
D. King Jehoshaphat was worried.
1. Who wouldn’t be with three armies poised to invade and conquer your land with
overwhelming numbers. Israel couldn’t hope to stand against such a powerful force as this.
During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. "You were one of Stalin's colleagues. Why didn't you stop him?" "Who said that?" roared Khrushchev. An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle. Then Khrushchev replied quietly, "Now you know why."
2. I’ve been there and felt outnumbered and outgunned in this spiritual warfare that I’m
fighting. The spirit is always willing but the flesh is sometimes so very weak.
3. We all tend to look at our battle through the eyes of flesh and we forget that it is always God
who fights our battles.
4. These 3 armies weren’t just coming to defeat Jehoshaphat, they were coming to rid the
Promised Land of every man of Israel once and for all.
5. They had the power to do it now as far as they were concerned and nothing could stop
them.
6. I wonder if they sat in their tents on the hills around Israel and the camp of King
Jehoshaphat and laughed about the coming victory. They just knew that battle was theirs.
7. They didn’t count on was the God of Israel. We may not have the power to overcome the
devil in this fight we are in, but praise the Lord, the God that is in me is greater than any
enemy that comes my way. What have I to dread? What have I to fear when I’m leaning on
the His everlasting arms?
8. Jehoshaphat may have had a weak army but he had a strong faith in God so he fell on his
face before the Lord to seek for God’s help.
THAT'STHE FIRST SETP TOWARD WINNING ANY FIGHT OVER THE DEVIL
FALL ON YOUR FACE BEFORE GOD AND SEEK HIS WISDOM!!I.
A. God heard Jehoshaphat’s cry and he brought the answer through the priesthood that God
had set in place. Jahaziel brought the good news. Israel had nothing to fear for God would
fight for them.
1. The Lord’s instructions were: go get into position to make the enemy think that you are
going to fight him, but stand still and let the Lord fight the battle for you. That was God’s
instructions to Jehoshaphat and to you and I right now.
“Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” -
----He spoke it to Israel at the Red Sea. ---- He spoke it to Joshua at Jericho. - ---He spoke here to Jehoshphat in Israel.
----And he still says the same thing today.
“STAND STILL AND LET THE LORD FIGHT YOUR BATTLE!!.
You can’t win it anyway. You don’t have the power to overcome all your
enemies, but your God does and it is the delight of his heart to fight the battle
for you.”
II. THE SECOND STEP TO WINNING YOUR BATTLES AGAINST THE DEVIL
.LET THE LORD DO THE FIGHTING!!
A. You just pray and then stand still and watch what God does next!
B. III. THE THIRD STEP--GET RID OF THE DOUBTS AND FEARS THAT WILL TRY TO OVERWHELM Face to face, sword to sword seeing the enemy and Israel was afraid. .
1. Jehoshaphat calmed their fears and restated God’s command to stand still.
2. That’s what we are commanded to do. When you have done all you can just stand still,
that’s all. Just stand still and let the Lord fight your battle against sin and the devil.
3. So Israel stood still, and that night they kept a watch while the rest of the camp rested in
peaceful sleep, knowing that God was watching over them.
4. Don’t you need to know that God is in control and watching over you? Stand still, calm your
fears, let faith arise in your heart, and then rest in the arms of God. He won’t let you down.
Here we find the final and greatest step in fighting and winning over the devil. Jehosphaphat had fallen on his face in prayer, God had answered with direction, Israel was only to stand still and see the victory won by God, and now they were to obey God, march out and face the enemy, BUT...................................
IV. THEY WERE TO MARCH OUT WITH LOUD SINGING PRAISES TO THE GOD OF
HEAVEN FOR HIS GREAT MERCY!!
A. This was a prayer and praise of faith and trust in God.
God inhabits the praises of His people and Israel knew it. Their praise reached to the throne
of God and God answered by bringing the great victory on their behalf.
Automaker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground to a halt, and the repairmen couldn't find the problem. So Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and then threw the switch. The generators whirred to life--but Ford got a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the rather tightfisted car maker inquired why the bill was so high. Steinmetz's reply: For tinkering with the generators, $10. For knowing where to tinker, $9,990. Ford paid the bill.
B. The Ammonites, and the Moabites and the children of mount Seir had come to lay an
ambush against Israel to wipe them out.
2. But they were ambushed by the great God of Israel and not a man of them escaped.
3. Israel never shot an arrow, never swung a sword, never threw a single spear, and yet every
enemy was dead on the battlefield. God’s wrath had slain them in the night and the battle
was won.
4. Now came the time to rejoice in the victory. Those enemy soldiers had worn all of their
jewelry, precious stones and gold into the battle. They were so overconfident that they
couldn’t lose that they just didn’t worry about their wealth.
5. Now that wealth belonged to Israel and it took them three days just to gather it up and they
had trouble finding enough vessels to carry it back to Jerusalem.
6. God had a great victory for you as well if you will just let him fight your battles for you. He
already has an ambush laid for the powers of hell and the devil. He has built the Lake of Fire
for their eternal punishment.
But what spoils of the battle has he given to you and I? We have all of the glories of Heaven and the riches of the grace of God as our own. We are heirs and joint heirs with Christ to all that Heaven is and has to offer!
My friend let the Lord fight your battles. Rest in Him and then get ready for the time of rejoicing after the battle is over. God has some wonderful things in store for you!
