Anchors of Truth

When War Why?

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: C.A. Murray

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000042


00:12 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth live from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:17 Winds Of War with C.A. Murray.
00:22 Welcome once again to the second evening of our series
00:25 entitled, the Winds Of War.
00:28 And if you watched last night, you know that Pastor C.A. Murray
00:31 threw us a curve when we thought he was going to be
00:34 talking about war in heaven.
00:35 But he actually was talking about the war that's
00:38 taking place in the human heart.
00:39 And so tonight, we invite you to invite your friends and
00:42 family members to stay tuned for this message, When War Why.
00:49 A very classy title.
00:50 One that I'm sure you have not heard before.
00:52 But I'm sure the message also will be new and unique
00:56 in the way that Pastor C.A. unfolds that message.
00:59 We have also tomorrow evening, then we have Sabbath morning,
01:02 and also Sabbath afternoon.
01:04 So don't forget we've just begun this series.
01:07 And if you're in the driving vicinity, we invite you to
01:09 come to Thompsonville at the 3ABN Worship Center,
01:12 the largest city in the world.
01:14 At least we believe so.
01:16 But before we go into the message, we invite the
01:18 Lord's presence, so bow your heads with us
01:21 as we ask for God's divine guidance.
01:24 Gracious Father in heaven, we thank You.
01:26 Last night, our hearts were warmed as we understood
01:29 that truly there is a war taking place.
01:32 Not in the Middle East, not around the world,
01:35 but truly in the hearts and lives of each of your children.
01:39 And we know there are various reasons for those wars to exist.
01:43 We have been told to examine ourselves to understand why,
01:47 what about us causes the wars to rage in our hearts.
01:51 So tonight, take us again to the foot of the cross.
01:54 We also pray a blessing on your manservant, Pastor C.A. Murray
01:58 as he breaks the bread of life.
02:00 May we not just listen to it, but may we hear what
02:04 the Spirit is saying to each of us individually.
02:07 And we thank You. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
02:11 Tonight, I welcome once again Pastor C.A. Murray.
02:22 Thank you Pastor John. And good evening.
02:26 Every time I see Pastor John standing at this desk,
02:33 I have a little sense of pride.
02:36 I remember when he was a young lad there in Brooklyn, New York.
02:39 And he's someone I love and respect greatly.
02:42 Thank you for being with us again tonight.
02:44 Our subject is, When War Why.
02:48 On tomorrow, Why War Who. Sabbath morning, When War How.
02:55 And then Sabbath afternoon, War No More.
02:59 So we thank you for being with us.
03:01 I want to say just a couple of things.
03:05 Somewhere in this message, I will repeat something
03:09 that I said on last evening.
03:11 Now I need to say that to you because, it's not because
03:14 I am lacking things to say.
03:16 In fact, I spent some time this afternoon triaging and
03:19 cutting stuff out because I knew it was a little long.
03:23 But there are one or two points that we will reiterate
03:27 because I feel they are important.
03:31 And I also feel that they are things that we, as Christians,
03:34 sometimes neglect and need to re-establish and
03:38 reaffirm in our lives.
03:39 And so there are some things that we're going to repeat
03:42 almost verbatim from last night and try to re-emphasize them,
03:48 to red flag them, because they are things that I really believe
03:52 Christians need to take a special look at.
03:54 In fact, when we get to that point, I will tell you,
03:57 "here we are," so that you don't miss that point,
04:00 and you know where we are.
04:04 We're going to go to the book of 2 Kings chapter 13
04:08 and begin reading at verse 14.
04:11 2 Kings chapter 13 and begin reading at verse 14.
04:19 I'll give you a moment to find it with me.
04:21 2 Kings chapter 13 and beginning at verse 14.
04:29 Shall we pray.
04:30 Father God, we thank You for the power in Your Word.
04:37 We thank You, Lord, that Your Word is indeed a lamp
04:41 unto our feet and a light that shines brightly on
04:46 the path before us.
04:49 And so Lord, tonight as we look again at the struggles,
04:53 the wars of Your ancient people, may we see clearly
04:59 to make application to our own lives
05:03 and the struggles that we're called to face and win in Jesus.
05:10 Teach us this night those things that You would have us to know.
05:13 And then help us, embolden us, enable us to do them.
05:17 Because surely it is in the doing that we are
05:21 made like Christ Jesus.
05:23 And we thank You. In Jesus' name, amen.
05:27 I'm in 2 Kings chapter 13 and I'll begin reading at verse 14.
05:35 The Bible says:
05:43 I'm reading from the New King James.
07:06 One of the precedence that we established on last evening
07:11 is that Satan and the Lord both use war,
07:19 but in two dramatically different ways
07:24 with two very, very different purposes
07:29 that are diametrically opposed each to the other.
07:33 They are mutually exclusive.
07:37 God uses war one way, Satan uses it another.
07:42 And so, their purposes are different.
07:46 And much has to do with our response to those wars
07:55 that's chastising of the Lord.
07:58 Our lesson today is drawn from the closing days
08:01 of the ministry of the prophet Elisha.
08:04 He was sick, the illness was protracted.
08:08 We are not told either in the Word of God nor the
08:11 spirit of prophecy what he was suffering from.
08:14 But we are given to understand that the
08:17 illness lasted a long time.
08:22 It was during this suffering that this incident takes place.
08:28 And I need to say here parenthetically,
08:30 even during this long and severe illness,
08:34 Elisha never lost his faith in God.
08:39 Never lost his trust in the Lord, never lost his
08:43 confidence in God.
08:46 So even during this illness, he is deathly sick,
08:49 he continues to minister to a fallen Israel
08:53 and to its fallen king.
08:56 Prostrated by disease, yet still on the battlefield for his Lord.
09:03 Israel is in spiritual shambles.
09:06 Ahab is no longer the king, he's not on the throne anymore.
09:11 But the legacy of evil left by Ahab and Jezebel
09:15 has done a thorough work in turning God's people
09:19 to a pernicious, malignant, aggressive idolatry.
09:24 This country is not the same post Ahab and Jezebel
09:28 as it was pre Ahab and Jezebel.
09:31 This is a different country, an idolatrous country,
09:34 a country that has turned its heart and its mind from God.
09:40 Ellen White talks about the condition
09:42 in Prophets and Kings, page 254.
09:45 She says:
10:02 In other words, God was now using the Syrians and its king,
10:08 Hazael, to chastise His own people.
10:13 God was using a heathen king to be the whip on Israel.
10:19 And I want to say here just parenthetically,
10:21 you know, we can learn from anybody.
10:25 If your heart is open and your mind is open,
10:28 you can learn from anybody.
10:30 Even those people that we sometimes look down on.
10:33 Remember I said last night Ellen White said that
10:36 because of the skin color of some of the people that were
10:38 giving information to the Northern army, it was rejected?
10:41 And it almost cost some of those soldiers their lives,
10:45 and many it did cost their lives or they were
10:47 thrown into prison because they rejected the person
10:50 because they looked down on the person.
10:52 Never look down on anybody.
10:54 Being a Christian means having enough sense
10:56 not to have to look up to anybody, but not looking
11:00 down on anybody either.
11:01 Amen?
11:02 So God was using a heathen nation to chastise
11:06 His own people.
11:08 Jehu had slain the house of Ahab.
11:13 Ahab himself had died in battle.
11:15 Jezebel was thrown out of a window and eaten by dogs.
11:19 You remember that story.
11:20 Jehoahaz, Jehu's successor, had let things slip and the
11:25 country had again regressed.
11:29 And the Syrians had taken many of the towns and some of the
11:33 cities lying just east of the capital.
11:36 You see, ladies and gentlemen, that is how God works.
11:40 He will warn you that disaster is coming.
11:44 He will try to encourage you gently to come back in line,
11:50 to turn you from error.
11:53 But if He's got to speak louder, I say again,
11:56 He will do that too.
11:57 One preacher told me, "You know, God will allow you to
12:00 break your ankle to keep you from breaking your neck."
12:04 Now he knew what he was talking about because
12:06 I have broken my ankle twice playing basketball
12:10 on the Sabbath.
12:13 mm-hmm
12:14 I had gotten a scholarship to play at Erie Community College.
12:17 Knew I shouldn't have been there.
12:19 But I had free education.
12:22 So I was playing basketball on the Sabbath.
12:24 Year one, I heard my ankle when it snapped.
12:26 Boom.
12:27 Broke.
12:29 And then one year later, almost to the day,
12:32 I broke the exact same ankle in the exact same spot.
12:36 And I heard the voice of the Lord say, "See."
12:44 Exact same ankle.
12:45 And so the pastor told me when he came
12:46 to see me in the hospital, he said,
12:50 "God let's you break your ankle.
12:54 Next time, it may be your neck."
12:58 mm-hmm
13:00 God will let you break your ankle to keep you
13:02 from breaking your neck.
13:04 Amen?
13:06 In fact, when the pastor told me that, I kind of straightened up.
13:11 Now I need to spin something here for just a moment.
13:14 I had a full basketball scholarship
13:17 at Erie Community College.
13:19 And evidently, I was good enough because I went
13:21 down to Alliance College in Pennsylvania,
13:23 and they gave me a full basketball scholarship.
13:26 But I gave up that scholarship
13:29 to go to Oakwood College and become a minister.
13:32 Now that sounds good, but that's spin.
13:35 And I'll tell you why.
13:37 I've got a newspaper here that is from February 24, 1978.
13:45 I'm going to hold this up here and maybe the guys can get it.
13:49 You're not going to be able to read it,
13:50 but you can kind of see it.
13:52 This is a newspaper that is 33 years old.
13:54 It is the New York Post.
13:58 It says, "Brooklyn tackles Hunter at CUNY."
14:02 This is Brooklyn College playing Hunter College.
14:06 And the reason this made the newspaper is not because
14:08 Brooklyn College is playing Hunter College
14:10 for the championship.
14:12 It's because a friend of mine...
14:14 And you know him too, Pastor Lomacang.
14:16 Arturo Belisle.
14:17 Remember, he use to play with us on Sunday morning.
14:20 Arturo Belisle was the point guard on the
14:23 Brooklyn College team.
14:26 And he couldn't play in the big game because the big game
14:31 was on Sabbath.
14:33 Now my wife always flinches when she hears me say "big game"
14:35 because she says, "You know, it's always a big game.
14:37 Every week there's a big game. There's always a big game."
14:40 But this was the big game.
14:42 This was the championship game.
14:44 And Arturo played with us.
14:48 And could not play.
14:50 And he said, "'I do what I believe in.'
14:52 Arturo, a Seventh-day Adventist, says, 'That's what counts.
14:57 God comes first.'"
15:00 So he didn't play in the big game.
15:02 Now, Arturo is a very important person on the team
15:04 because he was the point guard.
15:06 The point guard is the person that distributes the ball
15:10 to everybody else on the team so they can get easy shots.
15:13 It's like the person who actually sets the table
15:16 and brings the food.
15:18 And if the point guard doesn't bring the food, nobody eats.
15:22 And this article says that Arturo loved God
15:27 more than basketball.
15:30 And so his coach said, "Can't you get some kind of
15:35 dispensation from your priest?"
15:40 Right here in the article.
15:42 And Arturo preached a sermon that day in the locker room.
15:46 He said, "First of all, we don't have priests.
15:48 And secondly, even if I could get a dispensation
15:52 from my pastor, I can't get a dispensation from God.
15:56 Because the Sabbath comes from God, not my pastor."
16:01 And so Arturo didn't play.
16:04 And the team said, "That's all right.
16:07 We'll win the game for you without you."
16:10 Well, they lost.
16:12 They lost bad.
16:14 But he stood up for the Lord.
16:17 So why do I carry this article from 33 years ago, Pastor?
16:22 Because it's a statement to me.
16:25 It's a humbling thing to me who had to break his ankle twice
16:31 for playing on Sabbath before I got it through my skull
16:36 that God comes first.
16:38 And Arturo put God first.
16:43 He didn't play in the big game.
16:45 But at the end of this article, the coach said,
16:47 "You know what I'm going to try to do?
16:49 I'm going to try to arrange all our games next year
16:52 so he doesn't have to play on the Sabbath."
16:55 You stand up for God, God will stand up for you.
16:59 Amen?
17:00 And amen.
17:05 And so, the fact is that when we do stand up for God,
17:10 God will stand up for us.
17:12 Now God will send or allow you to get into a little trouble,
17:18 scrapes and skirmishes, little battles, tests and trials,
17:22 little life flow insurrections, dare I say ankle breaks.
17:29 He will allow you to break your ankle
17:32 to keep you from breaking your neck.
17:36 These are calls from God to either, as I said last evening,
17:41 get you going, keep you from stopping,
17:46 or keep you from changing into a wrong course.
17:51 The Syrians, then, were God's appointed and anointed agents
17:56 to tell His people, "You're getting off course.
18:00 Your spiritual train is off of the track."
18:05 You know, the Bible says in 1 Peter 4:12,
18:10 don't be surprised at the fiery trials which are to try you.
18:15 God is going to allow some stuff to enter your life.
18:22 Because you need the stuff.
18:25 Amen?
18:26 God is going to allow some tests, some trials,
18:29 to come into your life.
18:30 I talked with Arturo after this and this sounds like he got
18:33 total support, everybody loved him and respected how he stood
18:38 for the Lord.
18:41 But he said, when the cameras were off
18:44 and the newspaper reporters were gone,
18:46 and particularly after they lost that game,
18:49 he took a lot of heat for his faith.
18:53 Same thing that Martha said to Jesus,
18:57 "If you would have been here..."
19:02 But he wasn't there.
19:04 He was serving the Lord.
19:06 And he took some heat for serving the Lord.
19:11 And so, God was warning Israel that you're off course.
19:17 And for a while, it looked like the Syrians were going to
19:21 overrun the entire country, the whole kingdom.
19:26 Total destruction was avoided because of a reform movement
19:30 that was begun by Elijah and carried forward by Elisha.
19:37 Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11.
19:40 The Bible says:
20:04 God doesn't want death, God doesn't like death,
20:07 God does not promote death.
20:11 But sometimes, God has got to trouble the waters
20:14 to get our attention.
20:16 Now that statement, or one similar to it,
20:18 appears some three times in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
20:24 God is trying to say, turn before death comes.
20:29 And therefore we avoid it.
20:30 War is not God's first option.
20:33 God does not desire the death of His people.
20:37 And I say that because I have heard people say
20:39 that the God of the Old Testament is a
20:42 God of death and destruction and legalism and war,
20:45 and the God of the New Testament is a God of grace.
20:48 But really if you work this out, things may be just the opposite.
20:53 Particularly when you read the book of Hebrews.
20:57 Hebrews says that the blood of goats, rams, and bulls
21:01 could never take away sin.
21:03 Could not.
21:04 And so, the Old Testament had to be a God of grace.
21:08 Had to be.
21:09 Because bulls and rams and goats couldn't take away their sins.
21:13 It was the grace of God looking forward to the blood of Christ.
21:17 And so the God of the Old Testament is just as much a
21:20 God of grace as the God of the New.
21:23 Perhaps even more so because Christ had not yet died.
21:27 So God is a God of love.
21:30 And He does not desire the death of His people.
21:33 Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life...
21:38 ...and have it more abundantly."
21:41 And so, in the book of Prophets And Kings, page 254,
21:44 we find this statement by Ellen White.
21:55 Are you listening to me?
21:57 "It was because of His love for erring Israel
22:01 that God was permitting the Syrians to scourge them."
22:04 To spank them, if you will.
22:07 The Bible says, "As many as I love, I chasten;
22:10 I rebuke and chasten."
22:12 Broken ankle, not broken neck.
22:18 You may wonder why there is this constant annoying
22:21 turmoil in your life.
22:23 Not full blown war but an insistent, incessant
22:30 unsettling of your life.
22:32 You can't seem to quite get settled down.
22:36 It may be a heads up from God that you're losing your way.
22:42 It may be God trying to gently tell you,
22:45 you need to come back in line.
22:47 And here's where we'll repeat what I said on last night.
22:50 Every war, every challenge, every bit of turmoil
22:56 in our lives is an opportunity for self examination.
23:04 When there is war in your life, when there is conflict
23:07 in your life, it is an opportunity that demands,
23:12 first, self examination.
23:15 God is saying, this is your chance to look at your life
23:20 and make sure you're in the right way.
23:23 Galatians chapter 6 verse 4, I say it again,
23:26 "Let a man examine his own works," God said.
23:32 So God will bring some disturbances in your life
23:34 trying to get you to check yourself out.
23:37 God will put you next to somebody at work
23:40 who doesn't particularly like you, and who you may not
23:43 particularly like.
23:44 And so before you ask for a transfer...
23:51 ...see what God has got in that for you...
23:53 Amen? ...for your growth.
23:56 Look at your own life first.
23:58 Is the devil in them...
24:01 Or...
24:04 mm-hmm
24:07 The devil may be a lot closer than you think.
24:11 So God is asking us to redress and look at our own lives.
24:15 You know, after we got into Afghanistan and realized
24:19 they were a lot bigger, a lot badder, and a lot tougher
24:21 than we thought, the general sent back to the White House
24:24 and said, "Mr. Bush, we're going to need more troops."
24:29 He looked at his situation and realized he needed some help.
24:33 God is saying, do the same thing in your life.
24:35 You may get into something that's a little bigger,
24:37 a little tougher than you're ready for, so you call back
24:39 to the Lord and say, "Lord, I think I need
24:41 a little more faith."
24:44 And it's coming.
24:46 But you never make that call if you don't assess the situation
24:50 and look at yourself.
24:53 And I say again, everybody in the world may be wrong
24:58 and you right, but I doubt it.
25:05 It may be a heads up from God.
25:08 You may need a little spiritual chiropractic
25:13 to get straightened out.
25:16 So Elisha remains faithful in spite of the opposition,
25:23 and in spite of the prevailing times in which he finds himself.
25:29 You know what's interesting?
25:31 God will bless a whole nation in His effort to bless
25:35 just one faithful person.
25:37 God will bless a whole house in His effort to answer the prayers
25:42 of one faithful Christian.
25:45 Yeah.
25:46 I had a member of my church who was the only male in the family
25:54 that loved the Lord.
25:56 Wife didn't go to church, kids didn't go to church.
25:58 Her sister lived with them and she didn't go to church.
26:01 And we prayed for a car for him.
26:07 And a member of the church gave him a car.
26:12 And not an old beat up car.
26:14 I think, a year old car.
26:16 You know, when he got that car, everybody rode;
26:19 sinner and saint.
26:21 Amen.
26:22 Everybody got to ride.
26:24 So in God's anxiety to bless the Christian,
26:28 the non-Christians also got blessed.
26:30 Amen?
26:32 And so Israel was held back from destruction
26:36 because of people like Elisha who stood up for the Lord
26:40 in really, really rough times.
26:43 Once when he was in Damascus, in enemy territory,
26:49 Ben-Hadad, the Syrian king, who had also attacked Israel
26:53 and was its sworn enemy, sent his general, Hazael,
26:58 with 40 camels of food and presents and gifts
27:02 to ask Elisha if he was going to die.
27:06 Ben-Hadad was sick and near death, he was on his deathbed.
27:11 And Hazael went to Elisha and said,
27:15 "Is the king going to die?"
27:18 And Elisha began to cry.
27:21 And Hazael said, "What are you crying for?"
27:24 And Elisha said, "I'm crying because I see that one day
27:30 you're going to be king.
27:32 And you're going to treat God's people just as badly
27:36 as Ben-Hadad did.
27:38 Syria is not going to change under you
27:41 as it was under Ben-Hadad."
27:44 He said, "By the way, tell the king he's not going to die,
27:50 but he's going to die."
27:55 He said, "Okay."
27:56 So he went back and he told Ben-Hadad.
27:59 The first thing the king asked him is,
28:01 "What's the news? What's the news?"
28:03 He said, "Elisha told me to tell you
28:06 you're not going to die, but you will die.
28:13 This disease is not going to kill you,
28:15 but you're going to die."
28:18 And so the next day, Hazael went into the king.
28:21 He was weakened from his disease and couldn't
28:24 get up from his bed.
28:26 He took a thick cloth, the Bible says, and dipped it in water.
28:30 And instead of placing it on the kings head to cool
28:33 his fevered brow, he placed it over his nose and mouth
28:36 and suffocated the king.
28:38 So he didn't die, but he died.
28:42 Not from the disease but from an assassination
28:46 of his top general.
28:48 And then the Bible says, Hazael became king in Syria
28:54 just as Elisha had predicted.
28:57 But Israel had not repented, Jehovah had not relented,
29:01 and Hazael was just as bad to Israel as was Ben-Hadad.
29:07 I say again, God can use the unrighteous to chastise
29:12 the righteous.
29:14 And so, just because the battle emanates from unchristian
29:19 sources does not mean it's not used by God.
29:26 So, when war, why?
29:29 You have to ask why.
29:31 God used the Assyrians as a whip.
29:34 God used Nebuchadnezzar as a whip.
29:38 God used Cyrus as a whip.
29:43 Sometimes, the chastising of God comes from unexpected places
29:48 and through unexpected people.
29:54 Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5.
29:56 The book is Hebrews, chapter 12 and verse 5.
30:01 The Word of God says:
30:21 Don't be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.
30:26 "For whom the Lord loves, He chastens."
30:32 Syrians at the gate, Syrians in your life.
30:37 War, dare I say holy war, an act of supreme love.
30:45 I say again, God will allow you to break your ankle
30:52 to keep you from breaking your neck.
30:56 God will put you in hot water to keep you out of boiling water.
31:03 For whom the Lord loves, He chastens.
31:07 I maintain that the hardest of all Christian disciples
31:14 and discipleship, and all of the Christian discipline
31:19 that His disciples are called to endure,
31:23 is a dispassionate objective sanctified self evaluation.
31:32 I've seen Christians, or at least professed Christians,
31:35 or alleged Christians, complain about everybody
31:39 or everything and never really entertain the notion
31:43 that they may be the problem.
31:45 If you're always at war, if you're always in strife,
31:49 you really have got to look within.
31:52 You see I'm begging this point?
31:54 Coming back to it again and again and again and again.
31:57 Because we're spending a little too much time looking around
32:00 when we ought to look within.
32:02 Particularly in these last days.
32:06 We need to look at ourselves and make sure we're in the faith
32:10 and that we're in Jesus.
32:13 And most importantly, that Jesus is in us.
32:21 The truth is, far too many Christians harbor unforgiving
32:27 and accusatory spirits.
32:30 Ellen White says this.
32:34 She says pride is the number one sin in the church.
32:43 And it keeps us at war with each other.
32:47 It is almost impossible to detect,
32:52 and all but impossible to cure...
32:57 ...unless you've got Jesus.
33:00 Amen?
33:01 Unless you've got Jesus.
33:05 The test of your Christianity is how you respond under pressure.
33:10 And I can't wait till Sabbath to give you your pressure test.
33:15 Sabbath morning we're giving you a pressure test.
33:17 Real simple test.
33:18 I found this about the Word of God, Pastor John.
33:21 When God gives you a test, it's never really complicated.
33:25 It's always easy and the results are clearly black or white.
33:29 No gray.
33:30 When God gives you a test, it's either obey or disobey,
33:33 live or die, not trying to play any games,
33:35 not trying to trick you.
33:36 It's going to be real real simple,
33:38 real real direct, the results will be real real important,
33:42 and real real clear.
33:44 And that's what we're going to do Sabbath morning.
33:45 I'm going to give you a test.
33:47 You can evaluate yourself, pressure test,
33:51 to see how you do under pressure.
33:52 Amen?
33:53 It's coming.
33:59 Anybody can smile during peace time.
34:05 mm-hmm
34:07 But what do you do when the winds of war blow?
34:10 You know, I've got a story I've got to tell, a cute story.
34:12 I heard this in the seminary.
34:14 It's about a little fellow.
34:15 I think I've told it once before for children's story.
34:17 About a little fellow going to church on Sabbath morning.
34:20 A little fellow.
34:21 He's got a big part to say in the Sabbath School program.
34:24 Just one line, but he's so nervous he's afraid
34:27 he's going to forget it.
34:29 Just one line, "Trust in God."
34:32 "Trust in God."
34:34 You know, for those people who have stood up front,
34:36 nervousness will make you forget almost anything.
34:41 I've sung songs and right in the middle of the song...
34:47 It happens.
34:48 You just forget.
34:51 And this little boy didn't want to forget.
34:54 So he's in the back seat of the car with those three words
34:56 on his little piece of paper.
34:57 "Trust in God. Trust in God. Trust in God."
35:02 And it was a warm summer day.
35:04 And so the dad just opened the front window.
35:06 You know, he pushed the button.
35:07 And he opened the back window to let a little air
35:09 come into the car.
35:10 And the wind blew into the car and snatched that
35:13 little piece of paper and blew it out the window.
35:16 And the little boy screamed, "Daddy, Daddy, stop the car.
35:20 My 'trust in God' just flew out the window."
35:26 And when I heard that story, I thought about us as Christians.
35:31 How many of us, when the winds of war begin to blow
35:35 in our lives, our trust in God flies out the window?
35:42 Anybody can smile during the good times.
35:46 Anybody can smile during the happy times.
35:50 How do you behave, how do you equip yourself,
35:54 when the winds of war begin to blow during the rough times?
35:59 Has God moved? Has God changed?
36:02 Is God far away?
36:04 He's right there where you left Him.
36:06 So you've got to trust Him in the dark
36:08 just like you trust Him in the sunshine.
36:10 You've got to trust Him during the darkest storm.
36:13 What's that song, Pastor, you sing?
36:15 Trust His Heart, or It Only Takes a Storm?
36:18 It Always Takes a Storm?
36:19 Even in the storm, you've got to trust Him.
36:21 And let me say this parenthetically.
36:23 The time to find God is during the sun shiny days.
36:27 Not during the storm.
36:29 You don't go looking for God in the storm.
36:32 Find the path in the sunshine so that when the storm comes,
36:36 you already know where to walk.
36:38 You know where to step.
36:39 You know where the land mines are.
36:41 Because you've walked that path everyday in the sunshine.
36:44 So you can find them in the storm.
36:46 Because the storm is coming.
36:50 And the sad truth is that when the winds of war begin to blow,
36:55 so many Christians have their faith fly out the window.
37:04 Luke 21:19
37:05 Interesting little text.
37:09 "In your faith possess ye your souls."
37:11 I like the NIV reading here.
37:13 It says, "By standing firm, you will gain life."
37:19 Amen?
37:20 "By standing firm, you will gain life."
37:24 In other words, when the battle wages hot, stay cool.
37:32 Amen?
37:33 When the battles wages hot, just stay cool.
37:37 Someone told me years ago when I was going through
37:40 some things in my life, and this is so true,
37:44 five words, "Every body gets a turn."
37:50 Amen?
37:52 If yours hasn't come yet, keep living, it's on the way.
37:59 Amen?
38:01 Everybody gets a turn.
38:02 Nobody is going to skate into heaven on beds of ease.
38:05 Everybody gets a turn.
38:06 My turn this year, your turn next year.
38:10 We're all going to suffer for Jesus.
38:12 Everybody gets a turn.
38:15 And everybody can have Jesus.
38:17 And everybody can have success,
38:19 and everybody can have victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.
38:24 The old axiom says, "The curse causeless does not come."
38:29 So when you're in a war, you've got to ask "what,"
38:33 and you've got to ask "why."
38:38 I must admit that when I first read 2 Kings chapter 13
38:44 verses 14 through 18, I got a little upset
38:52 when I read it.
38:53 I got a little mad at God.
38:56 I read my Bible, try to read it through once every year.
38:59 Don't always succeed.
39:01 Some years catch me and it's not done.
39:02 But I've read this text several times.
39:04 And I must admit, every time I hit it, Pastor,
39:07 I got a little ticked off.
39:11 Just irritated me, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
39:14 My thinking was this.
39:17 My reasoning was, if you're going to test somebody,
39:22 and this was a test,
39:27 let them know the test is coming.
39:34 You know, if you're going to test me,
39:36 tell me a test is coming.
39:39 I'll study for the test and then I'll pass.
39:43 Doesn't that make sense?
39:45 Don't sneak a test in on me and expect me to pass
39:51 when I'm not prepared.
39:54 Now let's go to 2 Kings again.
39:56 2 Kings chapter 13.
39:59 And I'll tell you why I thought like this.
40:02 We're in 2 Kings.
40:06 2 Kings 13.
40:15 Alright, let's pick it up at verse 18.
40:17 The Bible says, "Then he said, 'Take the arrows.'
40:20 And so he took them.
40:21 And he said to the king, 'Strike the ground.'
40:24 So he struck three times, and stopped.
40:26 And the man of God was angry with him and said,
40:30 'You should have struck five or six times;
40:32 then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it.
40:36 But now you will strike Syria only three times.'"
40:41 So he was being tested, and he failed the test.
40:44 But he didn't know that he was being tested.
40:48 And when I read that, I said, "Why didn't Elisha
40:52 tell him that this is a test so he could pass the test?"
40:58 You know, you don't sneak stuff in on people.
41:00 When I was pastoring, I was a visiting pastor.
41:05 And I told my churches the first Sabbath, "I am coming
41:09 to your house, so prepare.
41:12 You don't have to clean up anything,
41:14 you don't have to prepare any food.
41:16 Because I'm not coming to assess your cleanliness,
41:18 I'm not coming to eat your food.
41:20 I'm coming to pay a pastoral visit to pray with you.
41:24 But I am coming."
41:26 And I said, "If you've got any problem with that,
41:28 too bad; I'm a visiting pastor, I'm on the way."
41:32 And one member said, "Don't come to my house."
41:36 And I said, "Why?"
41:38 And she said, "Because I've never had a pastor visit me,
41:41 and I wouldn't know how to act."
41:43 "Well," I said, "you're going to learn this time,
41:45 because I'm coming."
41:47 And I visited every member in every one of my churches
41:50 within the first year.
41:52 Except for Ephesus because I had 2000 members
41:54 and I had a sick list of 65 people.
41:56 Just couldn't get to everybody.
41:58 But all of my churches; Springfield Gardens, Bethel,
42:01 Amityville, Ebenezer Freeport, all of them the first year,
42:05 every members house.
42:07 But I told them I was coming.
42:10 Amen.
42:11 I didn't sneak in.
42:12 Well, I didn't announce my coming.
42:14 I told them I was coming, I just knocked on the door,
42:15 "I'm here."
42:18 So I said, why would they give this poor king a test,
42:23 not let him know the test was coming,
42:26 and then get mad at him for failing the test.
42:28 That was my reason.
42:31 Elisha tested him, Joash failed.
42:33 But you know, when you read the Word of God with an open heart
42:36 and an open mind, God will explain things to you
42:39 and make it very very clear.
42:40 And you will realize that everything God does is fair.
42:44 God is never unfair.
42:47 And so the Lord spoke to my heart.
42:51 And I realized first of all, life doesn't always warn you
42:57 when a test is coming.
42:59 You don't always get a heads up when a test is coming.
43:01 That's why Christ said, "Abide in Me, stay in Me, stay with Me,
43:05 so that whenever the test comes you will be ready
43:07 for the test."
43:09 Life doesn't always give you a sign,
43:10 "Test on the way."
43:12 That's why Christ says, "Be ye also ready.
43:14 Stay in Me, bear this in mind, abide in Me,
43:17 and you will bear much fruit."
43:18 Abiding in Christ, by the way ladies and gentlemen,
43:21 is a peace keeper.
43:23 Amen?
43:24 It keeps you in peace with the Lord Jesus Christ.
43:26 Okay, so the reason Israel was in this horrible spiritual fix
43:32 was because they had strayed from the hand of God.
43:36 Not just strayed, they had turned their backs on God.
43:41 Ellen White says that Satan was doing all in his power
43:44 to complete the ruin that he had wrought during the
43:47 reign of Ahab and Jezebel.
43:50 Israel was in the wrong spiritual place.
43:52 Active apostasy had given way to open rebellion.
43:57 And it had to be addressed and redressed by God.
44:02 Ellen Whit says in Prophets And Kings that years of
44:06 backsliding and idolatry had done its work.
44:10 The face of God had almost been erased from His people.
44:14 And the Syrians were now at the gate.
44:17 Joash, this king, Ellen White says was a young upstart
44:23 idolater with little respect for God or man.
44:27 He was a young godless youth called to be king.
44:30 He didn't respect God, he didn't respect his people.
44:33 But he had enough sense to know when he was in trouble
44:36 and over his head.
44:38 And so he goes running now to the sick bed of Elisha;
44:42 Elisha, in the last years and months of life.
44:47 And there are so many lessons to be learned.
44:48 One, I say again, when you come to God,
44:52 I'm so very very glad that God never says, "I told you so."
44:57 And He never turns His back on you.
44:59 You come to God after giving the devil all of your youth,
45:04 all of your strength, all of your life, and your service,
45:08 and you come to God in a broken-down weary state
45:12 in your old age, and the Bible says angels rejoice.
45:20 And God rejoices.
45:22 Such is His love for us.
45:27 John chapter 6 verse 37.
45:30 "He that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."
45:36 That's a comforting text.
45:40 They say that there are no atheists in the fox hole.
45:44 They say when the bullets begin to fly,
45:45 everybody finds God from somewhere.
45:48 So when this godless king looked around,
45:51 he looked out his window and saw Syrians on the eastern front,
45:55 Syrians on the flank, Syrians occupying Jewish land,
46:02 he found God.
46:05 He found the God that he had spurned.
46:08 And praise God, He didn't turn His back on this
46:11 young upstart king.
46:14 The greatest truth, I think, in the Bible may be the fact
46:20 that if you've got enough sense to call on Him,
46:24 He's got enough love to answer.
46:28 You got enough sense to call, He's got enough love to answer.
46:33 So Elisha is dying, in 2 Kings 13:14.
46:36 And when the king comes crying, he stops dying long enough to
46:41 minister to him.
46:43 And you know the story.
46:44 Elisha had the king go get a bow and arrow.
46:51 And the prophet put his hand on the hand of the king.
46:58 That, itself, was a great statement.
47:01 I don't have time to go into all the ramifications and the
47:04 historicity of that particular act.
47:06 But his putting of his hand, Elisha's hand,
47:10 on top of the hand of a king signaled to that king
47:13 that God, not only supports what's going to happen,
47:17 it has got His hearty endorsement.
47:19 He's telling the king, "God is with you.
47:23 He's standing by you.
47:25 What you're going to go through, you are not
47:28 going to go through alone."
47:31 And that promise, ladies and gentlemen, ought to just
47:34 make our hearts melt with love.
47:37 Whatever you're going through.
47:38 And it doesn't matter.
47:39 First of all, there's nothing you've done that surprises God.
47:43 There's nothing you've done that takes God unaware.
47:46 There's nothing you've done or going to do
47:49 that God is not prepared for.
47:51 And so when He says, "I will never leave you
47:54 nor forsake you," He knows everything that you're
47:58 going to go through and has already determined,
48:00 "I can handle it."
48:03 So he put his hand on the hand of the prophet
48:06 to let him know, "We're in this together."
48:11 Ellen White says, all God's bidding are enabling.
48:15 And so he tells now, the prophet, "Draw and shoot."
48:22 And the prophet helps the king to shoot.
48:25 And as the arrow is flying, the prophet says to the king,
48:31 "The arrow of God's deliverance and deliverance from Syria."
48:40 So God is predicting something.
48:42 You remember I told you yesterday that when God is
48:45 in the fight, when the chastisement or the war
48:48 comes from God, He's going to tell you when it's going to end
48:52 and how it's going to end.
48:54 Here's a prediction right here.
48:56 He said, "That arrow is symbolic of your deliverance from Syria.
49:02 This thing is going to end."
49:09 And He promised him, he would not be fighting alone.
49:13 Jeremiah chapter 15:20. I truly love this text.
49:18 A part of God's promise.
49:21 "'I will make you a wall to this people,
49:24 a fortified wall of bronze; that they will fight against you
49:30 but they will not overcome you.
49:31 For I am with you to rescue you and save you,'
49:35 declares the Lord."
49:36 That's the NIV.
49:37 When you're in a battle, you've got the promise that you're
49:40 not fighting alone.
49:42 You will not be overcome.
49:44 Romans chapter 8:37 says, "We are more than conquerors
49:48 through Him."
49:51 So he was told to open the window and shoot.
49:54 And as the arrow was flying, he says, "This is the arrow
49:58 of God's deliverance."
50:00 He shot it to the east.
50:03 Then he said, "Take some arrows and strike the ground."
50:10 And this is where he failed.
50:12 He struck it three times and stopped.
50:18 The prophet was upset.
50:20 And he said, "You should have struck it more.
50:22 Now you're not going to have the delivery
50:24 that you should have had."
50:27 Why shouldn't he have known?
50:31 Or, why should he have known?
50:36 Number one, he knew the times in which he was living.
50:42 He knew that the country was in spiritual hot water.
50:46 Number two, he knew that he was far away from God.
50:52 Number three, he knew that the prophet was promising him
50:57 that God was going to be with him.
51:00 And so he should have struck.
51:03 And if he didn't know the time, he should have known the time
51:07 because he knew the spiritual shape of his country.
51:11 He should have known.
51:14 Now our time is getting away from me, so I want to jump over
51:17 and do a couple of things real quick.
51:22 In Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 1, the Lord says a couple of things
51:29 that I want to highlight.
51:31 And we'll close with this.
51:33 "The Lord answered me, 'Even if Moses and Samuel
51:37 were standing here pleading with Me, I would not have
51:41 mercy on these people.
51:42 Tell them to leave My presence and go elsewhere for help.'"
51:50 Those are the statements of an angry and disappointed God.
51:55 He's saying, "Captivity is coming.
51:59 And even if Moses and Samuel were pleading your case,
52:03 I'm not going to change My mind.
52:05 You have sinned too much and too often.
52:08 Go away, look for help elsewhere."
52:11 And if you continue to read that passage, you will find
52:14 God saying, "If they ask you where we should go,
52:19 and what's going to happen, tell them this for Me:
52:23 'Some are going to die by the sword,
52:26 some are going to die by disease,
52:29 some are going to die by famine,
52:32 some are going to go into captivity."
52:35 Now that's the benediction, the malediction,
52:38 of an angry God.
52:41 He tells Jeremiah in chapter 16, "Listen Jeremiah,
52:44 don't get married and don't have any children.
52:47 Because what is coming on this country
52:50 is not going to be pretty.
52:51 So stay single so you don't have a wife to worry about,
52:54 and you don't have any children to worry about.
52:56 Because I'm going to destroy this nation."
53:00 That's a God who's upset and disgusted
53:04 at a people who have turned their backs on Him.
53:10 But in the very same chapter, in the same chapter where
53:14 Jeremiah says, where God says through Jeremiah;
53:18 captivity, death, famine, sword, verse 14 He says this,
53:25 Jeremiah 16:14.
53:40 "...but they will say, 'As surely as the Lord lives,
53:44 who brought Israelites up out of the land of the North...'"
53:47 Now depending on what translation you have,
53:50 it may say, "out of Babylon."
53:54 "'...where He had banished them.'
53:56 For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers."
54:02 Seven chapters later, He says it again almost word for word.
54:08 And then in chapter 24, He compares His people
54:11 to two baskets of figs; one bad, one good.
54:15 He says, "I know you're bad, but I choose to see you as good."
54:20 If you want a window on the God that we serve,
54:28 ladies and gentlemen, it's right here.
54:31 In chapter 15, He says, "Get out of my sight.
54:35 Find some other god.
54:37 I'm tired of you, go away.
54:39 Find some other god to pray to.
54:41 You're going to die; famine, sword, captivity, disease."
54:51 And before the chapter is over, the same wounded God
54:57 is saying to Jeremiah, "By the way,
54:59 tell them that they're Mine."
55:05 Can you imagine that kind of love?
55:08 "Tell them I love them.
55:11 Tell them that they're Mine."
55:14 When I read that the other night at two o'clock in the morning...
55:16 You know, you're up in the middle of
55:17 the night writing stuff.
55:18 And I'm sitting there crying, feeling like a big dummy.
55:24 Tears running down.
55:26 This is a God who's offended.
55:28 This is a God who's had people turn their backs on Him.
55:31 This is a God who is so agitated that He says,
55:34 "Jeremiah, tell them to get out of My sight."
55:38 And before the chapter is over,
55:42 He's saying, "Tell them they're Mine.
55:47 Tell them, one day they're not going to just say,
55:49 'The God who brought them out of Egypt.'
55:52 Tell them they're going to say, 'The God who brought them back
55:54 from Babylon too.'"
55:57 Can you see the kind of God we serve?
56:01 Can you see the love of the God we serve?
56:04 No matter who you are or what you've done,
56:08 God may be angry, God may give you a slap on the wrist,
56:14 but in the next verse He's saying, "He that cometh unto Me,
56:21 I will in no wise case out."
56:25 One of my favorite texts in the entire Bible,
56:28 Paul's letter to the Romans; in this God commended
56:33 His love to us.
56:35 "In that while we were yet sinners,
56:42 Christ died for us."
56:45 He's going to allow a little war in your life,
56:48 a little turmoil in your life.
56:50 But in that war, in that turmoil,
56:52 He's right there with you.
56:55 Amen?
56:57 Never leave you, nor forsake you.
57:00 And so the Bible says, be content with all you have.
57:04 Be content where you are.
57:05 Hebrews 13:5-6.
57:08 Be content where God has placed you.
57:11 Be bold to say, "God is my helper."
57:14 Because He has said, "I will never leave you,
57:18 nor forsake you."
57:20 What can man do to me?
57:25 It's really a rhetorical question.
57:28 Because man can't do anything when you're in the hands of God.


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Revised 2014-12-17