Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church everybody open your hymn books and turn to page 409 page 409 and your hymn books the fight is on 409 the fight is on on the first the fight is on the trumpet sound is ringing out the cry to arms is heard of far and near the Lord of Hosts is marching on to victory.
The triumph of the Christ will soon appear.
The fight is on, O Christian soldier.
And face to face with stern array.
With armor gleaming, colors streaming.
Though right and wrong today, the fight is on.
But be not weary, be strong and in his might hold fast.
If God be for us, his armor o'er us.
We'll sing the victor's song at last.
The fight is on, O lousy soldiers.
Brave and true Jehovah lead, and victory will assure.
Go buckled, God has given you, and in his strength forever we'll endure.
The fight is on, and face to face in Mergley.
The street is on, be strong in his might.
If God be for his band, we'll sing in victory.
The bone's got his glorious name, the more the fight is on.
And face to face with certain wrong, strong and if God--
Brother Stephen, can you please open us up with a word of prayer?
Next song in your hymn book is gonna be song 473.
Song 473.
Chip ahoy.
Not chips ahoy, ship ahoy.
Song 473.
Verse.
I was drifting away on life's pitiless sea.
And the angry waves threatened my ruin to be.
When away at my side there I didn't scry.
I cropped a whole ship up above.
The angels I heard sweet song.
The captain's kind ear.
My wiccan pets washed away.
The blood I saved.
The lore I swayed.
The strong to save.
That's him today.
No.
That's him today.
That's a beautiful song because David was encountering some hard time.
Possibly that was during the time that he was fleeing from Saul.
David said his spirit was overwhelmed.
David said they are stronger than I.
They hold more power than me.
But David humbled himself and he sought the Lord.
Do you know what David was saying here?
Don't doubt in the night what you are sure about in the light.
David was at a low in his life.
He was running for his life.
And David had already been anointed by Samuel.
David had already defeated Goliath.
David had already seen God's hand.
But now he was hiding in a cave.
Yet he did not doubt the Lord
because he knew the promise of God.
Go back to Judges chapter 20.
Judges chapter number 20.
So God told them to go up again the second day.
Look at what happened on the second day.
Judges 20 verse 25.
The Bible says this.
"And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day,
and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel.
Again eighteen thousand men all these drew the sword.
They suffered another great defeat.
The Benjamites won again, you know,
while being severely outnumbered."
You know, the Benjamite plus the Gibeahites, okay?
"And between those two days Israel have lost forty thousand men."
That's a great loss.
That's forty thousand lives.
So I say the first lesson.
Don't doubt in the night what you are sure about in the light.
Lesson number two.
Don't change your position as a response to opposition.
Don't change your positions as a response to opposition.
Because the children of Israel could have given up after two major defeats.
These are no small defeats.
They could have re-evaluated their stance against the sodomites.
They could have let us go, right?
They could have toned down the preaching.
They could have been secret sensitive.
They could have changed their convictions.
But notice what they did.
Look at verse 26.
Then all the children of Israel and all the people
went up and came unto the house of God and wept
and sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until even
and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
They did not blame God.
They did not change their positions as a response to the opposition.
Instead they sought after God.
They humbled themselves.
They wept.
They fasted.
And they offered offerings.
That's why we should never let the outcome decide what is true.
Let the Bible decide.
Amen.
Don't flee from the battle when you get fired for the cause of Christ.
Don't let the outcome change your conviction.
Don't let the outcome change your position.
Don't apologize to the sodomites when your old sermons are being scrutinized.
Don't abandon the battlefield when you suffer great loss.
And don't back away from the men of God when the battle is raging.
In the future, you may suffer real physical persecution.
You may even be put to prison.
Your friends at church may be killed for the cause of Christ.
Will you still be faithful?
To me that's a legit question because you may have known some terrible persecutions in time past.
But a great tribulation in the end time will be much worse.
The Bible says, "Such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
You have seen nothing yet, okay?
So when you actually encounter physical persecution, will you change your positions?
Will you tone down the message?
Will you change your convictions?
When your family turns against you, will you soften your standards?
When your children turn against you, God forbid, will you stay faithful?
When your pastor commits wicked sins, will you still serve God?
These are real questions for you to ask yourself.
I mean, I like the attitude of Job.
"Though he slays me, yet will I trust him."
Job is saying, "I'm not going to let the opposition change my position."
Let the Bible decide. Don't let the outcome decide.
Don't let the outcome decide what's true.
Let God decide. Let the Word of God decide.
Also realize that we will not win every single battle,
but we will win the war in the end.
Don't just assume that because you are saved,
you will win every single battle.
God sanctioned the fight.
He wants us to fight a good fight of faith.
He wants us to be a good soldier,
but he did not promise every single victory in this world.
Because the Antichrist, you know,
the Bible says in Revelation 13, 37,
and it was given unto him to make war with the saints
and to overcome them.
So the Antichrist will win the war against the Christians
in this life, on the earth, okay?
We will not win every single battle.
Job said this to his wife.
What shall we receive good at the hand of God,
and shall we not receive evil?
Sometimes bad things happen.
Sometimes we will suffer defeat,
but we will win the war in the end,
but we may not win every single battle.
Judges chapter 20, look at verse 26.
And sometimes God allows us to go through defeats,
to go through trials just to make us get closer to Him.
Because notice what the children of Israel did after two defeats.
Look at verse 26 again.
Judges 20, verse 26.
"Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up
and came unto the house of God,
and wept and sadded before the Lord,
and fasted that day until even,
they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord."
You know what? They were closer to God.
After the first defeat, they wept and they asked counsel of the Lord.
But after the second defeat, not only did they wept,
but they also fasted and offered offerings.
See, when you go through trials and persecutions and defeats in your life,
draw closer to God, right?
Let God comfort you.
Stop complaining to others and simply pour all your cares on God,
because He cares for you, right?
Psalm 34, verse 18 says this,
"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,
and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all."
See, when you suffer defeat, when you suffer pushbacks,
just draw closer to God, right?
Pray fast, just pour all of your cares upon God.
So I said, lesson number one, don't doubt in the night
what you are sure about in the light.
Lesson number two, don't change your positions
as a response to opposition.
Lesson number three, in this hard fought battle,
don't grow impatient, God will deliver you when he chooses to.
Don't grow impatient, God will deliver you when he chooses to.
Look at verse 27, Judges 20, verse number 27.
"And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord,
for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days.
And Phineas, the son of Eliezer and the son of Aaron,
stood before it in those days, saying,
'Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin,
my brother, or shall I cease?'
And the Lord said, 'Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into thy hand.'"
Here's the thing, if they give up after the first and the second defeat,
they will never see God's victory, right?
If you skip church, when life is not going well, you may never see the victory.
If you skip Bible reading when you lose your jobs, you may never see the victory.
If you skip praying when the battle is raging, when your friends turn against you,
you may never see the victory, right?
Here, we see God told them, "Hey, go up again, tomorrow I will deliver them into thy hand."
But we also see a person, Phineas.
Phineas was the grandson of Aaron,
again proving that this event took place earlier in Judges.
I don't think Phineas was the judge or even "leader" here, but Phineas was the priest.
But I do think it's kind of interesting that when a priest assumed the role of spiritual leadership,
inquiring God, the victory followed.
Don't get me wrong, it was not only due to Phineas' inquiry to God,
because Israel as a whole, they humbled themselves and they sought the Lord too.
And the priest's presence does not just automatically guarantee victory,
but without spiritual leadership, there will be no victory.
That's why we need pastors, right? We need godly pastors.
And we sought two bad priests in the last two chapters,
and here we finally sought a good priest that sought the Lord, right?
Look at verse 29, Judges 20 verse 29, "And Israel said liars in wait round about Gebeah.
And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day,
and put themselves in a raid against Gebeah, as at other times.
And the children of Israel and the children of Benjamin went out against the people,
and were drawn away from the city, and they began to smite of the people and kill,
as at other times, in the highways of which one goeth up to the house of God,
and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel,
and the children of Benjamin said, "They are smitten down before us,"
as at the first, the children of Israel said, "Let us flee and draw them from the city onto the highways."
So basically, Israel made Benjamin think that they were running away,
but they were setting up an ambush, okay?
And the sympathizers and the sodomites thought they were going to defeat them just like the other two times, right?
That's, you know, that's pride in its full display, right?
They thought, you know, they were defeated twice.
"Hey, I'm going to do it again."
But the Bible says, "Pride goeth before destruction."
To me, that's also practical because the sodomites and the sympathizers,
they may think, "Finally, we get them fired!"
"Finally, they don't have a building!"
"Finally, we bomb their building!"
"We win!"
But they don't know that their destruction is coming, right?
Look at verse 33.
So 25,100, you know, Benjamites and the Gibeides, they were killed in this battle.
It was a great victory.
But don't miss the wording here.
"It was not the children of Israel that smote Benjamin, but the Lord."
Notice verse 35.
"And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel."
Because at the end of the day, we should give God glory for the victories, right?
It is all God.
Don't take credit for yourself.
And look at verse 36.
"So the children of Benjamin saw that it was smitten, for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites,
because they trusted unto the liars in wait, which they had set beside Gibeah.
And the liars in wait hasted and rushed upon Gibeah, and the liars in wait drew themselves along
and smote all the city with the edge of the sword."
Basically, you know, long story short, they set up an ambush,
so they killed a bunch of men of Benjamin, jumped onto verse number 43.
"Thus they enclosed Benjamin round about and chased them,
and choked them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sun rising.
And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men, all these were men of valor."
So basically, among the twenty-five thousand one hundred men that died,
eighteen thousand of them were from the main pursuit, right?
Because they were running away, and then Israel killed them from the main pursuit.
Look at verse forty-five, "And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Ramon,
and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and pursued hard after them unto Gaidon,
and slew two thousand men of them." So between the twenty-five thousand seven hundred men,
eighteen thousand were killed during the main pursuit, and then seven thousand were killed,
that was the remaining fleeing troops. Look at verse forty-six,
"So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men that drew the sword,
all these were men of valor." Okay, so here we have a hundred men difference between verse thirty-five
and verse forty-six, because verse thirty-five said we have twenty-five thousand one hundred
men that were killed, but then in verse forty-six, I mean it seems to be one hundred men short.
To me that's not a contradiction, but simply just a rounding thing, okay? So a total of twenty-five thousand people
killed, but the exact number is twenty-five thousand seven hundred. Look at verse forty-seven,
"But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness, onto the rock Ramon, and abode in the rock Ramon
for four months." So you still have six hundred men that successfully fled, fled from the men of Israel.
They were saved for four months. They were in hiding for four months, but that's not the end.
Look at verse forty-eight, "And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin,
and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city as the beast, and all that came to hand.
Also they set on fire all the cities that they came to."
So if you do the math, you have 26,700, you know, Benjamites plus the men of Gibeah,
and 25,700 men were killed, leaving 1,000 men left, okay?
And I, you know, kind of believe that the remaining 1,000 men, they were probably killed in verse forty-eight,
because as they came to the city of Benjamin, they basically burned the city and they slayed people, okay?
So I believe the majority of the 26,700 sympathizers plus the sodomites, they were killed, okay?
So again, here's a lesson. Don't grow impatient. God will deliver you when he chooses to.
And we will win the war in the end. We may lose some battles, we may have some setbacks, but God will give us the final victory.
As Lord Jesus Christ said, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Our job is to be a good Christian soldier and keep marching and keep fighting, keep preaching against false doctrines, and we will win the war. Amen?
But also I can do think that women and children of Benjamin, they were killed as well. Look at verse 37 again.
Judges 20 verse 37, "And the liars in wait hasted and rushed upon Gevia, and the liars in wait drew themselves along and smote all the city with the edge of the sword."
So they sacked the city, and then in verse 48 the Bible says they set on fire all the cities that it came to.
So it's likely that they not only killed the men but also women and children.
And also based on verse 48, they smote the people in Benjamin and the men and the beasts and everything that came their way.
Again, I'm not going to say whether they are justified or not because some people will say that the children of Israel,
they were being overly cruel and they shouldn't have killed all the women and children, just all the beasts, livestock, whatever.
But others think that that's what ought to happen when you are sheltering the sodomites.
And others think that that's kind of like why God wants Israel to wipe out certain hidden nations due to the abominations they have committed.
Again, there are multiple views on that. I'm not going to be dogmatic on either way.
But turn the Bible to Deuteronomy chapter number 20 because the overarching principle in the book of Judges says
people do that, people do what is right in their own eyes.
So again, I could not say that because I don't see God sanctioning them to kill everyone.
But again, I see the point because they are committing sodomy, they are sheltering the sodomites.
You are in Deuteronomy chapter 20, look at verse number 16.
The Bible says, "But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance,
thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth; but thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Parasites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
And the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee,
that they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they have done unto their gods, so should ye sin against the Lord your God."
So here God authorized a genocide killing everyone, women and children.
You know what? He has justified for doing that, right?
Everything that God does is justified because they were committing abominations, probably diseases, you know, from the sodomy.
Maybe they burned the whole city and killing even the animals just to kill all the disease, right?
I don't really know if that's the intention. I don't see God commanding them to sack the cities in chapter 20.
So I'm not going to assume too much, but we can still learn something from this that your sins have consequences.
Don't be a sympathizer. Don't side with the enemies of God. Don't be more loving than God, okay?
Or you will suffer devastating consequences. Those people died for sheltering the sodomites, for protecting wickedness.
To me, the people of Benjamin are like those faith leaders and Christians who speak against me and side with the sodomites.
You know what? The Bible says God is not mocked. They will reap what they sow and they will suffer devastating consequences.
Just like the men of Benjamin. The sympathizers will lose. They might even be physically killed.
But personally, I do think that this is one of the most encouraging chapters in this book.
Because it gives us comfort when we may not seem to have immediate victories.
This chapter gives us comfort when we suffer great defeats.
Because let's be honest, the Christian life is not an easy life.
The Christian life is a life filled with trials and tests and multiple battles.
To me, you may be a father carrying the weight of providing for your family.
You may get up early and just go to bed late.
You may start to wonder, "Should I get up tomorrow again?"
But if you ask that question, God will tell you, "Go up."
Maybe tomorrow you are so tired of working, maybe you cry out to God, "Should I go up again?"
And God will tell you, "Go up."
Do the right thing. Keep pushing hard.
Because the Christian life is not an easy life.
You may be a mother taking care of the home, watching the kids, and you may feel overwhelmed.
I've seen ladies taking their kids, going in and out, in and out.
And maybe next week, you may ask God, "Hey, shall I keep doing that?"
And God will tell you, "Go up."
Because just keep doing what you're supposed to be doing.
You may go so wanting and nobody gets saved, and you may start to wonder, "Should I go up again?"
"Should I knock on doors again?"
But God will tell you, "Go up."
Don't be bothered by the defeats in your life.
See, we may even pray for something and just watch everything fall apart anyway.
But unanswered prayer is not unheard prayer.
Just keep doing what you've been doing, and God will choose to deliver you, and God will deliver you when he chooses to.
And people may find the same sin over and over again, and they may eventually feel tired of the struggle.
But maybe that's God's way for you to fully surrender and yield to him.
Just go up. Keep fighting. Don't let the outcome decide what your position is.
Because as Christians, we may lose the first battle. We may lose the second battle.
We may suffer one defeat after another, but God will help us win the war in the end.
See, that's what Israel did. After the first defeat, they junior. After the second defeat, they junior.
And when they have done all, they just stood and saw the salvation of the Lord, right?
So let me just give you the three lessons from this hard fought battle again, from this civil war.
Number one, don't doubt in the night what you are sure about in the light.
Number two, don't change your positions as a response to opposition.
Number three, don't go impatient. God will deliver you when He chooses to.
That's close in a word of prayer. Thank you all for this chapter.
And thank you for this great lesson that you have given us,
so that we can be persistent in our Christian life.
Pray that we'll keep fighting and just not worry about the defeats and the setbacks.
And just hold fast on your promises.
And I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen. Last song of the night is going to be song 412, very fitting song.
412. 412. Onward Christian soldiers.
On the first. Onward Christian soldiers.
Marching as to all.
With the cross of Jesus.
Going forth.
Christ the royal master.
Leads against the foe.
Forward to battle.
See his banditian soul.
Marching as to all.
With the cross of Jesus.
For the sign of tri-Satan's hope.
Do you please close that?
Amen, you are dismissed.