(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, 1 Kings chapter 20, kind of a long chapter, sorry CJ, but this is a great chapter in the Bible. And I want to try to go verse by verse through this chapter in kind of a Bible study type sermon tonight. But just to give you the context so far of where we're at in the story in the book of Kings, this is at the time of Elijah's ministry. This is when Elijah's going around doing his miracles. And then also, this is when Ahab is the king of Israel. And Ahab is one of the most wicked kings that has ever existed on this earth. The next chapter tells us that he was the most wicked king at that time up to that point. He was the husband of Jezebel, just a very wicked man. And then also to give you some context, Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah at this time. He's the son of King Asa, who did right in the sight of the Lord. He's the one that took the Sodomites out of the land, and then Jehoshaphat also did the same thing. So he was following God. He was a good king. And then Ben-Hadad we have here is the king of Syria. And Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, actually worked with Jehoshaphat's father early on in the book of Kings. He actually worked with him to fight against Israel. He had a league with King Asa. They were yoked together for some reason. The Bible doesn't give us a lot of details as to why they were working together, but they were working together. And Ben-Hadad had already attacked and come against Israel previously in chapter 15. So as far as what I could get in the study, there's really no reason that Ben-Hadad should still be attacking Israel, but he is. And so that's kind of the context so far. But first, I want to go through this just because even though that these are two wicked kings involved in this, I think there's a lot that we could apply directly to our lives. So the title of my sermon is Principles for Life's Battles. Let's pray real quick. Dear Lord, thank you for this opportunity to preach, Lord. I pray that you'd be with Brother Aaron tonight as he's preaching. And I pray that you just take me out of the way and that you would use me to edify your people, Lord. Help me to preach under your power, not mine. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. All right, so starting there in verse number one. And Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, gathered all his hosts together, and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria, and he warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-Hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine. Thy wives also, and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. So this is pretty crazy. Just imagine someone coming up to your family and saying, hey, your silver, your possessions, your wife, your kids, all the goodliest of your possessions, they're all mine. He just declares war against Ahab and against Israel. And that's, you know, in the Christian life, we're fighting a war. Every single day is a battle, and it may not be a physical battle where you can necessarily see every attack. You might not necessarily be able to see every play in the battle, but you are in a battle every single day. And this is exactly what the devil does to us. He comes to us, he declares wars on us, and he says, I want what you have. I want your wife. I want your children. I want all that you possess. The devil wants everything that we have. The devil wants everything we have as families, as individuals, as a church, and especially when you're in a church like this, where you're doing more for the Lord, where you want to start cleaning up your life, you want to start winning souls to Christ, you want to start reading your Bible, it just puts a bigger target on your back, and the devil's going to come for you more and more. So this is kind of a representation of that. Ben-Hadad comes and just says, everything you have, I want it, and that's exactly what the devil does. First Peter chapter 5, keep your finger there in 1 Kings. Like I said, this is going to be our text tonight, so we're going to be coming there a lot. First Peter chapter 5. First Peter chapter 5 verse 8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. And you know, the devil today, he's just walking about this earth seeking what Christian he can devour. That's what he did with Job. He saw Job was an upright man and he wanted to devour him. That's what he will do to you and me, especially the more we do for the Lord. He's just looking for Christians to destroy. We ought not to be afraid of that, but it's good to know that that's the devil's agenda. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. When we say that we're fighting a spiritual war, it's not just some catch phrase that we're saying. It's not something we just say to sound cool and spiritual. There are real dark forces in this earth, in high places that we're actually in battle with every single day. And this is a good representation of that. If you look down there at verse 4, go back to first Kings chapter 20. First Kings chapter 20 verse 4, let's see what Ahab does. And the king of Israel answered and said, my Lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have. Now this is a really weird thing that Ahab does. What does he do? He allows it. He says, cool. You know, Ben Hadad says, Hey, I want your wives. I want all your possessions. And he goes, sure, you can have it. Now would any of you do anything like that? No, it's absolutely crazy. And Ahab was absolutely crazy. Ahab is one of the dumbest people in the whole Bible. And he's one of the, one of the people that we look to, to know what not to do, right? Ahab was a complete moron. But yet Christians today, they're doing this exact thing without even knowing it. Because the world comes and attacks us and attacks our families. And because it may not be a physical fight, many Christians aren't even aware of it because they're not even in their Bibles. So unknowingly, they're rolling over to things. Or maybe they are reading their Bibles and they just don't care. They're just like, well, my kids can make it through public school just fine. You know, well, we could still have the TV and it's just not going to affect us. The devil's coming in, he's attacking them and they just roll over to it. They say, yeah, all that I have is yours. I'll just give it all to you. First Corinthians chapter 13 verse 6, I'll read it for you, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men and be strong. And you know what? Ahab's wives and Ahab's children and Ahab's possessions, you know what they needed? They needed a strong man to stand fast. And today as a movement, as a church, as a nation, we need men to be strong again and protect our families and our churches from the devil's attack. All they needed was a strong man to stand up and protect them. But Ahab failed. Ahab was not that strong man. And in our lives, especially as men, we have to realize that when battles are being fought, it's up to us to lead the battle. No one else is going to do it. And if you as a man don't lead the example of Bible reading, you know, what example are you leaving for your family? If your family doesn't see you soul winning, then who are they going to see it from? If your family doesn't hear sound preaching and learn what the Bible says, where are they going to hear it from? The answer is nowhere. So it's up to men in a society to lead a godly society and to protect them from the attacks of the devil. But Ahab, he just totally failed. He just let his wives and his children, he just rolled over to them. I know it's a sad thing today in the United States of America when families, when children's lives are being destroyed because of weak men. You know, whether it's just fathers or just men in general, there's just weak men today in America. It's really sad. Go ahead and turn to 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2 verse 13. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the father. And you know, it doesn't matter your age or your status, men are to be in leadership today. And you know, God writes unto fathers and he has very specific instructions for fathers in the Bible. And he has instructions in 1 Timothy for young men in the Bible. And the thing is, the thing you need to understand as a man is that the Bible says, let no man despise thy youth. And it doesn't matter if you're a 12 year old, you can be used to preach the gospel and be an example to older Christians that have never preached the gospel. It doesn't matter if you're a teenager, you could be an on fire soul winner and be an example to water down adults and your example can fire them up. It doesn't matter if you're in your 20s, you can be a strong man, you could get serious about the things of God, you could get in your Bible and learn what the Bible says about these things. And you as a man can be a leader to someone else because you are a leader to someone else. Someone else in this church is looking to you if you're a man, like I said, it doesn't matter as your age. But we're examples to people and we need to take that seriously as men and realize that if we don't lead the battle, no one else will. So that leads me to my first point, go back to 1 Kings chapter 20, we'll read verses five and six, and the messengers came again and said, thus speaketh Ben Hadad saying, although I have sent unto thee saying, thou shall deliver me thy silver and thy gold and thy wives and thy children. Yet I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time and they shall search thine house and the houses of thy servants and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand and take it away. So my first point is if men do not resist wickedness, we will lose everything. You know the devil, he comes and attacks people and he sees you roll over like Ahab does. And you know in Romans chapter one, the Bible talks about the workers of iniquity, the Bible talks about reprobates. And one of the characteristics of reprobates is that they're implacable, they're unmerciful. Reprobable means you're unable to please them. There's nothing you can ever do to meet them halfway. There's nothing you could ever do to help them see your side of things. You know the devil and the workers of the devil, the reprobates on this earth, there's no compromising with them. So what Ahab did here was completely stupid by just rolling over because look what happens. After he rolled over, Ben Hadad said, you know what, that's not enough. Since you met me with zero resistance in that which I wanted, not only am I going to take your wives, not only am I going to take your children and your possessions, I'm also just going to send my servants into your houses and take whatever I want, whatever's good in my eyes. And in my life and in your life, if you put no resistance up to the devil, if you just let your flesh go as you please, you know what, the devil's just going to take more from you than you expected. So you have got to be on guard and you've got to be resisting. If men do not resist wickedness, we will lose everything. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, leave your finger there, like I said. But this isn't what we're taught today. We're taught that it's because of preachers, like the preachers in our movement, why we're going to lose our freedom someday. It's because of Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez. It's because that we preach against the homos that we're going to have everything taken from us someday. But the Bible says it's quite opposite of that. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17, now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. You know, it wasn't because King Ahab was just only an idiot, although that was part of it. It was also because King Ahab just did not have the spirit of the Lord on him. And the Bible says that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So it's not hard preaching that's going to make us lose our freedoms. It's not hard preaching that's going to cause us to be invaded by an army that wants to take our wives and our kids and our silver and our gold. It's because where there's no spirit of the Lord, liberty is gone. So obviously in Israel at this time, when you have such a wicked king like King Ahab, they didn't have the spirit of God with them. They weren't focused on the right things. Proverbs chapter 14 verse 34 reads, righteousness exalted the nation, but sin is their approach to every people. You see, what Israel didn't need to do to solve this problem. They didn't need to build a wall to keep Ben Haydad out. It wasn't about building a wall that was going to keep their enemies out. It was the fact that they did not have the spirit of the Lord with them. It was the fact that they had a spiritual sickness in their country, which is evident by looking at King Ahab. Okay. And that's exactly what's wrong with America today. We don't need a wall to solve our problems. We don't need politicians to solve our problems. It's where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. We lose that as a nation. We lose that because our churches stop preaching the full counsel of God because they're afraid like King Ahab is just afraid. That's how you lose your liberty. That's how you get your possessions overtaken. That's how you get the devil to just take everything you have because the spirit of the Lord's not there. Go to Hosea chapter four, Hosea chapter four. Obviously Israel's not a God-fearing nation at this point. They aren't now too, by the way, but neither is the United States. Hosea chapter four, verse six, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou has rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou has forgotten the law of thy God. I will also forget thy children. You know, Ahab wasn't promoting the law of God in his nation. Ahab wasn't teaching the nation of Israel the law of God. Otherwise he wouldn't have just let his family get taken by a foreign invader. That's not a very Christian thing to do, but you know what? You know why Israel today is destroyed? Because of lack of knowledge. Because they've rejected God like the Bible says here, and that's exactly what's going to continue to happen in the United States of America if we do the same thing. We have a lot of Pastor Ahabs today in America where they just see the wickedness in their churches, but they're too afraid. So Pastor Ahab just rolls over and lets it happen. Let's look at verse seven in 1 King 20. Verse seven, then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, Mark, I pray you and see how this man seeketh mischief, for he sent unto me for wives and for my children and for my silver and for my gold, and I denied him not. So he's saying, oh man, all this bad stuff's happening to me. And this is what the elders say in verse eight, and all the elders and all the people said unto him, hearken not unto him nor consent. You know, wow, what a novel concept. That's some real wise advice, right? Hey, your family's getting taken over, they want to just take everything from you, here's some really godly counsel, hearken not unto him. And you know, it doesn't take a genius to give that kind of advice, but you know, I'm not a very smart person, but what my advice would be to the old IFB is hearken not unto him. When the devil says, hey, let the homosexuals into your church, hey, we don't need to really stand for the King James Bible anymore, it's not big of a deal. You know, here's a real simple piece of advice for you, hearken not unto him. It's not that real deep of a piece of advice, but it's pretty simple, and the elders of the people were able to figure that out. James chapter four, verse seven, James chapter four, verse seven says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You know, this is a promise from God, that if you submit yourself to God, and you resist the devil, he will flee from you. You know, and when this is happening to King Ahab, what he needed to do was he needed to submit himself to God and resist the devil. This situation, this battle that he was in, he had to show some sort of resistance. And in your life, when you're going through a battle, when you're struggling with temptation, you have to resist. You can't just, it's not going to come automatic, it's something you actually have to do and put effort into. First, second Corinthians chapter four, or chapter two, second Corinthians chapter two. You know, we got to obey God rather than men. We ought not to let the Ben Haydads of this world scare us and cause us to just take no action like Ahab did. Second Corinthians chapter two, verse 14. My second point is God has already promised us the victory. Second Corinthians chapter two, verse 14, now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savior of his knowledge by us in every place. Look, God, he always gives us the victory. It's a guaranteed fact. And even when you feel like sometimes you're losing or you feel like you're maybe losing this battle, there's a victory there. There's something in there that God is going to work for good. He's going to try you and you're going to come forth as gold, right, like Job says. Every single battle in our life, if we are submitting ourselves to God and we're resisting the devil, we will have a victory. There's no question about it. It's a guaranteed promise in scripture. First John chapter five, if you'll turn there. First John chapter five, verse four, for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Do you have that faith today? If you have that faith today, then you've overcome the world. You know, we're children of God, almighty God, the creator of this universe, the same God that created the universe in six literal days, the same God that plagued Egypt with all those plagues and split the Red Sea for the children of Israel and did all the miracles by the prophets. You have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego going through the furnace of fire, not even burning up. You have Elijah causing the iron to swim. That's the same God that you and I serve today. You know, and we're children of that God. And not only that, but in the New Testament, he's filled us with the Holy Spirit. So you have the Holy Spirit today as a New Testament Christian. You have the sword of your spirit in your hand. You have the promises of God. We can't lose. God has already given us the victory. It's impossible for us to lose. Second Chronicles chapter 16, if you'll turn there. You know, the Bible says that if we just have enough faith, you know, the faith of the mustard, what is it, if we have faith as of the seed of a mustard, right, that we can remove mountains. If we would have just that much faith, we could remove mountains. But do you have enough faith to fight for the King James Version, you know, against your friends? Do you have enough faith to fight the battles in your family that come your way when they say, hey, let's go shooting on Sunday. Hey, let's go camping this weekend. Hey, you know, why are you in a cult? Do you have enough faith, right, to fight those battles that come your way? Do you have enough faith to fight the battle of, you know, providing for your family off one income? The Bible says that he will provide for us. You know, you just have to have enough faith to fight that battle. John Chronicles 16, verse 9, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. You know, God is just looking all over this earth. His eyes are just scanning all over this earth for someone, for some group of people, for some church, just to show himself mighty by, just if the people there would have a perfect heart towards God. It could be anyone. It could be this church right here. God is looking. God has the desire to glorify his name, and he has the desire to use every Christian on this earth, and we can be used in a mighty way by God if we would have a perfect heart towards him, if we would have faith in his promises. Job chapter 23, verse 10. Job chapter 23, verse 10, but he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Like I said, even when we're in a battle where even like Job, where obviously I don't think anyone in this room has had such a strong, such a bad struggle as Job, where he lost his family, all of his possessions, all of his health, he lost everything, but he came forth as gold. Even in such what would seem like a loss to most people, he had a victory in that. There is victory in every single battle for a Christian. Romans chapter 5, if you'll turn there. Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, verse 3, and not so only, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given us. When we go through just tribulations in our life, or even if we're that generation that sees a great tribulation, and you say, how can we be winning? We're running from the government. My brothers and sisters are losing their lives. Here's how you can still have a victory, because tribulation worketh patience, and because patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame. Even if you were to die as a martyr of Jesus Christ, or no matter how you die, if you're saved, you have the victory, because here's the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, your victory is eternal life. Even if you were to die in battle, you can't lose. A Christian can never, ever lose if they submit themselves to God, and if they resist the devil. Go back to 1 Kings chapter 20. 1 Kings chapter 20, I'll read for you 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6. Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. God has not given us the spirit of fear. So when you know that you automatically have the victory, I mean, that's pretty good assurance. When you know I have the victory, no matter what, it's inexcusable for a Christian to be afraid ever, because of that right there. Verse number 9 in 1 Kings 20. Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben-Hadad, tell my lord the king, all that thou did send for thy servant to do at the first I will do, but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed and brought him word again. So this just goes to show Ahab's stupidity again, and this also reminds me of the old IFB, because he goes, okay, all right, so the first thing you said, I'm totally okay with that. I'm still totally okay with you taking my wives, my kids, all my possessions, no problem. But when it comes to coming into my house and taking whatsoever you want, I'm not okay with that. And you know what? The pastor Ahabs of this world, they say, yeah, you know, it's fine. We'll bring the homosexuals into our church. We're totally fine with that, but we won't let them get married. You know? Oh, go ahead. Come in. You can be around our children, no problem. But we're not getting bisexual bathrooms. We're not going to go shop at Target. You know, that's not the battle. That is not what matters at all. You know, Christian pastors need to stop being like Ahab, stop following the most weak, pathetic king that the king of Israel ever had. So many pastors today resemble more like King Ahab than King David. That's a sad state of affairs in Christianity today, because they're more worried about public bathrooms than about sons of Belial molesting their children in their church. They don't care if they come in and rape their children, molest their children, as long as they don't have to see a bisexual bathroom. That's how stupid these pastors are, and that's how stupid Ahab was. It's a horrible example, but you can still see how that could apply to us in our life. You know, when we go through our battles, don't just roll over to the devil's conditions, to the sons of Belial's conditions. Why? Because they're implacable. They're unmerciful. There's no pleasing them. There's no meeting them halfway ever. You know, if someone breaks into your house and tries to take your wife and your kids, you shoot them. And if a homosexual tries to come into this church, you don't let them in. You don't let them in. Verse 13, And behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab, king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. When the man of God comes up to Ahab, even though Ahab was wicked, God had so much mercy on Ahab. You know, that's another thing we need to just be thankful for, that even when we're making wicked mistakes and just making stupid mistakes, God can still have mercy on us. Even King Ahab, who did not deserve to win this battle. What an idiot. He's just letting his wives be taken, and God still is going to give him the victory. The man of God comes up to him and still promises that he's going to give him the victory. Psalm chapter 126, Psalm chapter 126, hey, isn't God good that the promises of God will never fail you no matter who you are? Even if you're King Ahab, God's promises will never fail you. That's amazing, the grace of God. Psalm 126, verse 6, He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. You know, God has promises for us as Christians. Just like God promised to bring Ahab the victory, you know, one of the things that God promised us is to give us the victory in the fight for souls. He says, hey, if you have a heart for souls, if you have the precious seed, the precious word of God in your hand, you'll doubtless come again with rejoicing. There's no way possible you can fail. It's a promised victory. But what do you got to do? You got to have a heart for souls. You got to have the precious seed. Revelation chapter 22, if you'll turn there. Revelation chapter 22, what are some other promises God gives us? Revelation chapter 22, verse 12, and behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. I don't have to doubt it. Once I'm saved, you know, thank God it doesn't take works to get saved, but I don't have to doubt it. Once I'm saved, the work I do for God, Jesus Christ has his rewards for me for that. I don't have to wonder if I have rewards in heaven. The work that we do for God, it's a promise, it's 100% fact that our rewards, Jesus will bring with him. That's a great promise. Philippians chapter 4, I'll read for you. Another great promise in the Bible, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Jesus Christ. You don't have to doubt it. You don't have to worry about it. You know, the battle of providing in your life that, you know, obviously this is mostly something men fight. You know, unfortunately because of circumstances, sometimes women fight this as well, but that battle, guaranteed victory, guaranteed victory, the Bible says, I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. You know, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. It's 100% fact that you will win that battle, but do you believe it? Do you have faith? Do you actually believe the promises of God? Do you believe John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Do you believe that promise today? What a great promise in scripture, you know, do you believe Psalm chapter one, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of the sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law that the meditate day and night, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in the season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Do you believe that? What an amazing promise from God that if you put your delight in the law of the Lord, if you meditate there in every single day, you bring forth your fruit in your season. You don't stand in the way of sinners. Everything you do will prosper. Why? Because God has guaranteed us the victory. Even King Ahab, the wicked man that he was, God guaranteed him the victory. Go back to first Kings chapter 14, first Kings chapter 14. And Ahab said, so the man of God just said, hey, you're gonna win this battle, verse 14. And Ahab said, by whom? And he said, thus saith the Lord, even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, who shall order the battle? And he said, thou. Which I'm sure is kind of a surprise to Ahab because I have to imagine he realized what a bad leader he was. So it probably surprised them that God still told him to lead the battle. But here's the thing. The battles that we face as a church or in your individual life, you have to order the battle. Yes, you have to resist the devil. Yes, you have to submit yourself unto God, but you also have to order the battle. That means action. That means actually doing something. That means actually being a doer of the word, not a hearer only. You know, only you can order the battle in your Bible reading life. That's something that only you can do. Only you can order the battle in your prayer life, in your church attendance life, in your fasting life, in all of these battles that you fight in your battle to fight against sin in your flesh. Only you can order the battle, but you have to actually take action. It's something that you actually have to fight and do. Ephesians chapter 3, if you'll go there. God promised Ahab the victory, but he said, order the battle. And God has promised us the victory, but he wants us to order the battle. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. You know, God is able to do more than you can ask or think. You know, what can God do with Verity Baptist Church Vancouver more than any of us can ask or think? You know, this church right here, this group of believers right here, if we'll just submit ourselves to God, if we will resist the devil, if we'll order the battle in our lives and in our families and as a church, God can do more than you can ask or think with this church right here. What an amazing promise that is in scripture. But do you believe that? Do you have that kind of a vision today? Are you looking to order that battle? Are you eager to order that battle? Or are you like King Ahab? You're like, who shall order the battle? Or do you just, just get out there and order the battle in your life. Get out there and win souls. Get out there and read the Bible. Stop waiting for all, everything to come to you and waiting for everyone to do everything for you. You go order the battle yourself. Verse 16, we won't read these for sake of time. Verse 16 through 21, Ahab does that. Okay. He orders the battle and God gives him a victory even though he did not deserve it. Let's look at verse 22. And the prophet came to the king of Israel and said unto him, go strengthen thyself and mark and see what thou doest for at the return of the year, the king of Syria will come up against you. My fourth point is winning the battle can only happen through the power of God. And you know, it says, hey, even though you just won this battle, you know, at this time next year, he's going to come again. And every single battle that you fight, you ought not, you ought not to think that once you win a certain battle, that all right, it's over, it's done because every single battle that we fight, it's the same battles that generations previous to us fought. It's the same battles the generations after us will fight. These battles just keep coming and coming and coming. You know, the devil's been corrupting God's words since the creation of the world. You know, that's a battle that has always been fought. That's a battle we have to continue to fight. We have to order that battle. You know, the battle of Sodomites, obviously something that's getting more and more prevalent with each generation, but I'm sure that our children are going to have to fight that same battle. It's going to come again next year. It's going to come again next year. So we ought not to think, you know, like Pastor Jimenez talked about, once we win a battle, we ought not, we ought not to get lifted up with pride and think that, all right, we won that battle. We're strong. We're Verity Baptist Church, Vancouver, awesome. No, we ought to just realize that this is coming again and we ought to continue waiting on the Lord because it wasn't by our strength that we won that previous battle. It was by God's strength only. And if we don't have God's strength in the future, we'll lose that battle. If we stop believing God's promises, if we stop resisting the devil, if we stop, you know, trusting in God, turn to Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31, Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31, but they that wait upon the Lord, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall Mount up with eagles, with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not be faint. You know, it's not your strength that's going to cause you to win any battle. It's only when you get your restraint, your strength renewed by waiting upon the Lord. And you know, although, and it just also shows the grace of God that even King Ahab, you know, when he just barely hearkens to the word of God, to the man of God, God gives so much back to him. So, you know, when you make a step towards God, you know, you're going to expect some amazing results from God. Verse 16 through 21, let's see, sorry, no verse, where am I at, 23, and the servants of the King of Syria said unto him, their gods are the gods of the hills, therefore we were stronger than they, sorry, they were stronger than we and let us fight against them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger than they and do this thing. Take the Kings away, every man out of his place and put captains in their rooms and number thee an army like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot and we will fight against them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice and did so and it came to pass at the return of the year that Ben-Hadad numbered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel and the children of Israel were numbered and were all of them present and went against them and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids but the Syrians filled the country. So the Syrians here, you know, what is the world all about? They're all about the physical. You know, when you think about physical armies, they're like, okay, how do we get a numerical advantage? How do we get a terrain advantage? How do we get better guns than the enemy has? And that's what they say. They say, well, because their god is the god of the hills, we'll just fight them in the valley and we'll get the advantage and that's how the world thinks. They're all about the physical but us as Christians, we need to realize that it's a spiritual fight and our god is both the god of the valleys and of the hills, right? So our victory does not, you know, it does not matter numbers, armor, strength, physical strength, has nothing to do with us. It's about our god. And as a church, it has nothing to do with our ability and our skill or our numbers. It's how much are we willing to have a perfect heart towards god. The children of Israel as they pitched before them, it said they were like two little flocks of kids. So the Syrians come up with this massive army. They matched the army that they had horse for horse, chariot for chariot, and the Bible says that Israel was like two little flocks of baby sheep, okay? That's not exactly the most comforting thing if I was in a war. If I was in a war and I look like baby sheep and then there's this gigantic army in front of me, right? That would be a scary thing but here's the thing. I'm sure that it looks really easy for the Syrians to destroy Israel and I'm sure it looks really easy for Goliath to kill little King David but what the world doesn't understand is the god that's behind King David and what the world doesn't understand is the god that's behind Israel and you ought not to be afraid in the battles that you face in your life when you have god on your side. Don't worry. Let's look at verse 27 first here or 28. Verse 28, and there came a man of god and spake unto the king of Israel and said, Thus saith the lord because the Syrians have said, The lord is god of the hills but he is not god of the valleys. Therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thy hand and ye shall know that I am the lord. God wants to bring us the victory for his honor and glory. He wanted to show those Syrians, hey, they will know that I am the lord. That's exactly what god wants today. You know, I'm not really good at math. I don't like math but here's one math equation that I love. You plus the lord equals a majority. Me plus the lord equals a majority. This church plus the lord equals a majority. It doesn't matter if we look like a little flock of sheep of baby goats. It doesn't matter what we look like to the world. It doesn't matter if we only have a church of 90 when we're packed. You know what? We can flip this city, this state, and this world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ because of the god that's behind us. Has nothing to do with our skill. Has nothing to do with our appearance or anything that we could bring to the table like Isaiah said, but they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength. That is the great thing we can learn from this chapter. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. God doesn't need our numbers. God doesn't need our talent. God can do anything he wants. All he needs is a humble group of people that's willing to do his work. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That's what you ought to be focused on, is making sure that the power of Christ is resting upon you. You know, if you want to preach or if you want to go soul winning, you ought not worry about if you're the best speaker or the most organized person in the world. You just got to worry about having the power of Christ upon you. You know, when you go to your job and you try to provide for your family, you ought not to worry about if you have the 12 years of college education. You ought to worry about if you have the power of Christ upon you. This church, we don't got to worry about the 30 foot steeple that the old IFB loves to worry about. We don't have to have, you know, all of the youth camps to spend the million dollars on the playgrounds or anything like that. We just have to worry as a church that we have the power of Christ resting upon us. That is all we need. Like the song says, Christ is all I need. We don't need anything that this world has to offer. No amount of money, no amount of skill. God's not interested in that. You know, God doesn't even get glory as much from a person who's a super good speaker as he does from just someone who just has the right heart and maybe not be the best speaker and just has the power of Christ upon them. That's where God is glorified and that's what God is interested in. God wasn't interested in the children of Israel here having some gigantic army to defeat the Syrians. He was just interested in the army that looked like a little flock of sheep to destroy the Syrians so that they may know that our God is the Lord. That's why. Let's go to verse 29 and we see that this came to pass. They pitched one over against the other seven days and so it was that in the seventh day the battle was joined and the children of Israel slew the Syrians in 100,000 footmen in one day. That little flock, that little itty bitty army of Israel killed 100,000 footmen of the Syrians in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek into the city and there a wall fell upon 27,000 of the men that were left. Look, God will help us fight these battles. God will be fighting with us. Something Pastor Jimenez always says is that we're fellow laborers with God. God uses us but he will come through for us. They killed that 100,000 and then God just for good measure killed 27,000 of them by dropping a wall on them. God has so much power we ought never to fear to fight his battles. Verses 31 and 34. This is the danger though because even after a victory is won, being lukewarm can destroy you. And this story will blow your mind how dumb Ahab was because he just had God come through for him and win a huge battle even though he didn't deserve it. And then a year later God came through for him again even though he didn't deserve it. Even though he totally rolled over and was totally weak, God came through for him again. And then if you look there, verses 31, and his servants said unto him, Behold now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins and ropes upon our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perventure he will save thy life. So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads and came to the king of Israel and said, Thy servant Ben-Hadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, and this is Ahab speaking, Is he alive? He is my brother. Oh brother Ben-Hadad. Now the men did diligently observe whether anything would come from it and did hastily catch it. And they said, Thy brother Ben-Hadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then Ben-Hadad came forth to him and caused him to come up into the chariot. So Ben-Hadad, he comes up to Ahab and he says this in verse 34, And Ben-Hadad said unto him, The cities which my father took from my father I will restore, and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus. And my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him and sent him away. So what's all that saying? Ben-Hadad's pretty much just trying to bribe Ahab into not destroying him. He's saying, you know, Ben-Hadad just lost these two battles and they're like, man, maybe if we just put sackcloth and ashes on us, he'll be merciful to us. And Ben-Hadad says, I'll give you cities, I'll give you these shiny streets that I took from your father. And he goes, I'll give you all these material things. And Ahab sold out to materialism. After a great victory, you know what he did? He did not do God's will. He gave up and he became lukewarm and as a result, God destroyed him for it in verse 42. We'll go there real quick and then we'll come back to it. But verse 42, the man of God says unto him, because thou has let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people. Look, even after a great victory, God can still remove his blessing from you if you become lukewarm. Ahab had no excuse to become lukewarm after he saw God come through in such an amazing way for him. He had so much mercy bestowed on him. Ahab had zero excuse to have this covetousness break the will of God in his life. No excuse from it. So what that tells me is you better be careful after all that God has done for you and all that God has done for me and all the mercy that he shed on me that I didn't deserve and all the battles that he's helped me won, you better be careful not to take that job in a city that has no good church. You better be careful not to trade the will of God for the things of this earth, for material possessions because God will destroy you. You want to know what ended up happening to Ahab two chapters later? Dogs were licking his blood. Even after God was so merciful to him and brought great victories, you know what? He sold out to the world, to the shiny cities that this world has to offer. Next thing you know, dogs are licking his blood. You better be careful not to stop soul winning to work a few more hours at work just to get that extra boat. You know, I'm not saying for providing for your family, but you better be careful not to spend so much time on your business and in your job where you're forsaking the things of God, where you're not reading your Bible that day, where you're not praying that day so that you can make a little more money so you could go on a better vacation. You better be afraid of doing that after all that God has done for you and all the battles that God has helped you come through. You better be afraid to death of doing that. And you know what? Ahab wasn't and he did die because of it. Go to Matthew chapter 22. See it's a two-sided coin. God has unbelievable mercy for us. God has guaranteed us victories. There's no chance of failure. All we got to do is we got to just obey. We got to submit ourselves to God. We got to resist the devil. We have to order the battle in our lives. We have to trust in His power and not our power and God will give us the victory guaranteed. Or you could just sell out to the things of this world and God will kill you. God can kill us even in the New Testament. That's the God that exists today. Where do I have to go? Matthew 22, verse 37. Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. You know what? All of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul better be on the things of God. You better be careful when you start getting those thoughts taking you to covetousness. You better be careful when you start thinking about that car a little too much or about that boat a little too much or about moving to that new city where that perfect job is a little too much. Jesus Christ said, thou shalt love the Lord your God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. It should consume everything inside of you, absolutely everything inside of you. First John chapter 2, turn there. First John chapter 2, verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you in your heart love the things in this world, you don't love God. That's a scary verse in the Bible because us as human beings, it's our natural desire to be fleshly, to be carnal, right? We have the law in our members that are warring against each other. One's contrary to the other. You got to love the things of God. You cannot love anything in this world or you do not love God. Not saying you're not saved. I'm just saying if you love the things in this world, you don't love God. And I don't want that to be said of me. That could easily be said for Ahab. I don't know if Ahab was saved. I mean, he was married to Jezebel, so I don't know. But one thing I can tell you is he did not love God at all, has zero love for God. And in the end, he suffered for it. Go ahead and turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. Just in conclusion here, Ahab is a great example of what not to be in your Christian life. Do not be an Ahab in your life. Pastors need to stop being Pastor Ahabs and just rolling over to sin in their churches, just rolling over and not preaching the truth or just allowing compromises with the world and then trying to make stupid stands on things that don't even matter. At the point where your wives and your children are already be taken from you and then you're fighting about them just coming into your house and taking other things, that's a pretty stupid battle. That's pretty stupid when you're letting sons of Belial into your church but you're worried about bathrooms. You know what? Ahab is an idiot and people who think like Ahab are idiots. But look, if us as men do not resist, then we'll lose everything. If the people of Israel did not resist, you know what would have happened? The Syrians would have came in and they would have done just what Ben Hadad said. He would have came in and taken all their wives, all their kids, all their silver, all their gold, everything that they saw good in their eyes would have been taken if they did not stand up and resist. God has already promised us the victory. So there's zero excuse for you to be afraid. There's zero excuse for you not to do His will. All we have to do is submit ourselves unto God, resist the devil and we have the victory. It's that simple. That's a great promise in Scripture. That's a great thing we could learn from this chapter but we have to understand that the victory is only ours through the power of God, not our own power. God's not interested in us getting any glory. He's not interested in pastors getting any glory. He's interested in His name being exalted, His word being exalted, the truth of the word of God being exalted and Himself being glorified. And if you would just get interested in that same thing, God can use you in ways that you could not even think or ask. And He could use Verdi Baptist Church Vancouver in ways that we cannot even think or ask. We could be used in an amazing way by God. But when you win and the victories come and the victories come and the victories come and battles come back and you get lukewarm and you get covetousness, you know, especially when you were on fire, especially when you were doing great things for God, God will destroy you because He destroyed King Ahab who was doing nothing for God to begin with. How much more someone, you know, to whom much is given shall much be required. And you today sitting in this church have been given a lot. You've been given more than most people in this earth. So to whom much is given shall much be required. Have no love in your heart for the things of this world. Be completely consumed with the love of God. Completely let it indwell you and God will use you greatly. First Timothy chapter 6, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life where unto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. Look, we've been told to fight the good fight today. You know what? I'm going to fight it. This church is going to fight it and we're going to do it from the power of God and that's how we're going to win. We're not going to be doing it through the power of Bible college or through the power of money. We're going to do it through the power of God. And in any battle you fight in your life, if you do it through the power of God, you will win. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this great chapter, Lord. Thank you for the examples you've given us. Even teaching us things by wicked man, Lord. I just pray that we would not be like King Ahab. I pray that we would just resist the devil. That we would submit ourselves to you. That we would order the battle in our life. That us as men would just be good examples to our church and to our families and to this society, Lord. I pray that you would help us to keep our zeal and never to sell out to covetousness, God. I pray that you would use Verity Baptist Church Vancouver in the most mighty way imaginable, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.