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[0:00] Isaiah 42, and I'm going to read verses 10 through 17 tonight.! Isaiah 42, verse 10.

[0:12] Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise from the ends of the earth.! You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands and all who live in them.

[0:24] Let the desert and its towns raise their voices. Let the settlements where Keter lives rejoice. Let the peoples of Selah sing for joy. Let them shout from the mountaintops.

[0:37] Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim His praise in the islands. The Lord will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior.

[0:47] He will stir up His zeal. With a shout, He will raise the battle cry and will triumph over His enemies. For a long time I have kept silent.

[0:59] I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation.

[1:13] I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known. Along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them.

[1:25] I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do. I will not forsake them.

[1:35] But those who trust in idols, who say to images, you are our gods, will be turned back in utter shame.

[1:47] This is the lamp to our feet. The heaven sent light to our path. Let's hear it. Pastor Jason. Last week in Joshua 10, we saw that the Lord was fighting for Israel.

[1:59] Israel and in that passage that I just had read for you in Isaiah 42, it says the Lord is not done fighting for His people. The Lord continues to fight.

[2:10] Isaiah saw a time when God would put on His armor and would strap on His sword and would go to battle for His people.

[2:21] To win them out of the nations. To bring them back to Himself. And it says that He would stir up. Isaiah says that He would stir up His zeal.

[2:32] Maybe you've seen or at least know about how warriors or soldiers, and you've seen them stirring up their zeal. Getting ready to fight.

[2:46] Maybe you've seen the New Zealand rugby team. Maybe you haven't. Maybe it's only me that finds those corners of the YouTube world. But you've seen the New Zealand rugby team.

[3:00] And they're called the All Blacks because that's the color of their jerseys. And before every rugby match, they do the Hakka, which is the traditional Moray War dance.

[3:13] And so there they are getting ready to play rugby. And they line up and they begin to chant this war chant. And they yell and they scream at the other team.

[3:25] And they hit their chest. And they screw up their faces into this fierce battle cry look. And then in the Maori language, they say things like, We live.

[3:38] You die. And then they get ready to play. That's stirring up your zeal. That's getting yourself ready to go into combat. And Isaiah says that's what the Lord is going to do.

[3:51] He's going to stir up his zeal. Isaiah said, Praise the Lord. That day is coming. It's coming. God is going to march against the nations.

[4:03] And he's going to triumph over his enemies. But now, what Isaiah saw in the future has now come. Those days are now here. And God is fighting.

[4:16] God is marching against the nations. And that's what we call missions. He's fighting for his people to win them and to save them. And so last week we saw the Lord fighting for Israel.

[4:29] And he said to Joshua, Don't be afraid. Remember the nations had gotten together, these five kings, and they had gone up against Gibeon. And the Lord says to Joshua, Don't be afraid.

[4:40] I've given them into your hands. And so in response to that, Joshua doesn't have a tepid response. He takes the entire army, all of his best fighting men, and they march through the night up to Gibeon.

[4:53] And in the morning, or in the last watch of the night, the Israelite army just crashes into these five armies of the Canaanites.

[5:06] Into God's enemies. And it was bright swords, and it was yelling and screaming. It was death cries. And it says that the Lord threw those five armies into confusion.

[5:18] So the generals couldn't find their soldiers, and the soldiers couldn't find their generals. And people couldn't talk to one another. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know where to go. And it was the Lord fighting for his people.

[5:29] He's throwing them into confusion. And then discipline broke. And down the road they ran. Running for their lives.

[5:43] And the Lord was fighting for Israel. And as they ran, purple, black, huge storm clouds appear in the sky. And a hailstorm like never been seen.

[5:57] And God hurled large hail down upon the Canaanites as they ran. And it says so that more were killed by the hailstones than all of the Israelite army.

[6:07] The Lord was fighting for Israel. But at the very height of the battle, it became clear to Joshua that time was running out.

[6:19] Victory was in hand, but he needed more time. He didn't need more soldiers. He didn't need a chance to regroup. He needed more time. And he had the audacious. It has to be one of the great prayers of the entire Old Testament.

[6:34] He has this great audacious faith to pray, Lord, make the sun stand still in the sky. And make the moon stand still in the heavens.

[6:46] And the Lord made the sun and the moon stand still. He stopped the earth spinning. He stopped the moon in its orbit around the earth.

[6:56] And the way Joshua 10 ends is, surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. But tonight, I want to take that truth and press it home to us.

[7:12] We need this view of God. He is the God that fights for us. Everything was written to teach us, to encourage us, to show us God, to encourage our faith.

[7:27] And so the point tonight is not that surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. It's surely the Lord is fighting for us, for you and for me.

[7:39] And so the scripture doesn't wear out. We heard about moral absolutes. But it's not just the moral law of God that never wears out and doesn't change.

[7:50] All of scripture never wears out. Isaiah, the grass withers and the flowers fall. But the word of the Lord stands forever. It's evergreen. Your Bibles, they're evergreen.

[8:01] The truth in it is ever new. It never changes. It never wears out. And so Isaiah 42 is true. The Lord is a warrior. Psalm 24 is true.

[8:13] Who is this king of glory? Who do we worship? It's the Lord. The Lord mighty in battle. And Joshua 10 is true. Surely the Lord fights for us.

[8:25] So how does he fight for us? That's what we want to look at today. We want to bring that truth that the Lord fights for his people. And we want to bring it down and say, well, how does he fight for me?

[8:37] Because we want to tailor this encouragement to us, to where we are. And so how does he fight for you? How is God your warrior? Your man of arms?

[8:47] Your hero. Your warrior. And I have nine ways. And so that means we're not going to be able to spend a lot of time. But I want to give you as a comprehensive picture as I could in the time that I had to say, this is how God fights for you.

[9:05] This is how he has fought for you. And this is what he continues to do and will do. And so nine ways. And the first is he sets the captives free.

[9:15] He sets the captives free. And that doesn't sound like fighting. But when you know the situation of the captives, it's definitely like a hostage situation or a slave situation.

[9:27] And so maybe you've seen those videos of an airplane taken hostage. And what are you supposed to do?

[9:37] And then you see the soldiers storm in and set the hostages free. They had to fight to set the captives free. And that's what the Lord does. He sets us free.

[9:49] In 73 BC, Spartacus was a prisoner. And he was a slave and a gladiator.

[10:01] And so he was in this school, this gladiator school. That's where he was enslaved. And he was forced to fight. But he and some of his fellow gladiators, it says they seized the kitchen utensils.

[10:16] And they broke out of this school. And it was a small snowball that began something much, much greater. And it rolled over again and again until it became this full-fledged war of not just a few people that broke out of a gladiator school.

[10:36] It became a full-scale slave rebellion. And so where did Spartacus get his army? Well, he got it from the Roman slave population.

[10:48] And so as his little army, his band of men, took a village, a plantation, a business, whatever they did. They overran farms and towns. They would set the slaves free.

[11:00] And many of those slaves would join Spartacus and his army. So Spartacus the gladiator became Spartacus the rescuer. And so thousands and thousands of ex-slaves joined this band of soldiers.

[11:19] Now what does Jesus do? And what does Jesus say that he does? Jesus says, I'm like the strong man that breaks into the slave owner, the harsh taskmaster, the strong man's home.

[11:32] And I subdue him. And I tie him up. And then I go into his house. And I take his possessions away. I take his slaves away.

[11:44] And so where were you? What were you when God saved you? Well, you were as much of a hostage as any hostage ever was.

[11:55] You were as much of a slave as anyone ever was. You were a slave in Satan's house. And he said, do this. And you said, that's what I want to do. And I'll do it.

[12:06] We were willing slaves, but slaves nonetheless. And we were tight bound to him. There's no escape. But then Jesus came. He came to your soul.

[12:19] Came to your place. And he set you free. And he fought for you. The devil never gives away any of his slaves freely. But Jesus came and he fought for you.

[12:31] He wrestled us away from the devil. So he fights for us and he frees us. But then like Spartacus as well, Spartacus just didn't free the slaves.

[12:43] He then turned them into an army. He equipped them. So that's what Jesus does. And that's the second thing. How does the Lord fight for us?

[12:56] How does he help us in this battle? Well, he equips us for battle. He frees us and then he puts a sword in his hands, in our hands. He takes us into the armory.

[13:07] He takes us into the place where all the weapons are held. And he strips off of our slave clothes, our slave rags. And he gives us armor all of our own.

[13:18] It's armor that he's made. It's armor that he's crafted. He's constructed. He's polished. He's sharpened. And he puts it into our hands.

[13:30] And so piece by piece, he gives us exactly what we need to now take our stand. To join him in that fight. And so Paul in Ephesians says, So be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

[13:44] So how do you become strong in the Lord and in his mighty power? He says, Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

[13:55] For our struggle, our wrestling match, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against rulers and authorities and powers of the dark world.

[14:09] And against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God. So the Lord sets us free and then he gives us a belt.

[14:23] A belt of truth. And you probably shouldn't think of your nice dress suit belt. But a thick leather belt for war. Wrapped around you that you can hang weapons on.

[14:35] It's the belt of truth. And he gives us a breastplate of righteousness. And then he puts military grade gospel boots on our feet. So we're ready. They don't wear out.

[14:45] They're always ready to go. And he gives us a shield and a sword and the helmet of salvation. And so what are we lacking? What are we missing? What do we need to take our stand?

[14:56] Nothing. The Lord knows what we need and he gives it to us. He equips us with everything. And so even though all the powers of hell rush upon us and they're trying to undo us and they're trying to destroy us.

[15:13] We stand. We're not running naked into battle. Because our Lord is fighting for us and he equips us. And so even though the enemies rush upon us, we don't run because he's fully equipped us and he's standing right beside us.

[15:34] Right beside you, dear Christian, is the king of glory, mighty in battle. Stronger than Shamgar, who had an ox goad, something to move cows around.

[15:56] And he fought the Philistines and killed 600 of them. And he's stronger than Ehud, who took his left-handed sword and he buried it into Eglon, the king of Moab's belly fat.

[16:12] Stronger than Benaiah, who went down into a snowy pit and killed a lion. Who fought a huge Egyptian and he snatched his spear away and then killed him with his own spear.

[16:23] So next to you is the Lord, mighty in battle. He's stronger than Eleazar, who one time he stood, Eleazar stood next to David.

[16:36] And together they taunted the Philistines until the Philistines came out to fight. But apparently, we don't get the details, but apparently the Philistines really came out to fight. And all the Israelites retreated except for Eleazar.

[16:49] And he stood his ground and it says he struck down the Philistines until his hand froze on the sword. And so the Israelites only came back to strip the dead.

[17:03] He took the entire Philistine army on and won. And what I'm saying is, is beside you is the king of glory, mighty in battle.

[17:16] And he fights for you and he rescues you and he equips you. And third, he gives you prayer. He gives you prayer. He gives you a wartime walkie talkie.

[17:29] And Ephesians, as Paul is talking about that full armor of God, after he describes all of it, and then he says these words, And pray in the Spirit on all occasions.

[17:41] Prayer is a wartime tool. So just listen to John Piper on this. Consider, or could it be that many of our problems with prayer and much of our weakness in prayer comes from the fact that we are not all on active duty.

[17:59] And yet we still try to use the transmitter. We have taken a wartime walkie talkie and tried to turn it into a civilian intercom to call for servants for another cushion in the den.

[18:12] But we see repeatedly in the scripture that prayer is a walkie talkie for warfare and not a domestic intercom for increasing our conveniences. The point of prayer is empowering for mission.

[18:28] Quote, pray for me. The utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. Pray for us. That God may open to us a door for the word.

[18:42] Strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. How does God fight for us? He gives you prayer.

[18:55] He gives you this walkie talkie. He said, here, here it is. And it goes straight to the commander in chief. It goes right to the Lord of hosts. And if you need anything for this fight, pray.

[19:09] And I'll give it to you. Do you need reinforcements? I'll give it to you. Do you need air cover? I'll send it to you. And so God in giving us prayer is God fighting for us. And God answering prayer is God fighting for us.

[19:23] So my question would be, are we using that prayer time walkie talkie to fight? Or when we get in the midst of the battle, do we forget that we have a walkie talkie that goes straight to the to the strategy room in heaven?

[19:37] So how does God fight for you? He answers our prayers forth. He limits our temptations. He limits our temptations.

[19:50] Why aren't we tempted beyond what we can bear? Well, it's because God does something. God actually limits the enemy's ability to tempt us.

[20:04] He takes away those opportunities. Or he gives us grace right in the middle of that temptation. And so when we pray, Lord, lead me not into temptation, he answers that prayer.

[20:15] And so who who really knows what God how many of the devil's schemes and plans just never come off? They never come to anything because they're run by the sovereign throne of heaven.

[20:30] And God takes out his stamper and stamps denied. Can't do it. We're not going to I'm not going to let you do it. You could try something else, something different.

[20:41] But that would be too much. And you say, well, maybe I don't I don't see the Lord fighting for me. But my question is, is why haven't you been swept away by sin?

[20:54] Don't you have that sin in your heart? Don't you have those capabilities of of sinning like that in your heart? Well, I do, too. But the Lord.

[21:07] Fights for us and he keeps our temptations in check. Fifth, he delivers us from the evil one. He delivers us from the evil one.

[21:21] Ephesians, again, says our struggle is against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. They're out there.

[21:33] They're fighting against us. They're spiritual. And they're evil. And they're ancient. And they're strong. And they have angelic strength because that's what they were.

[21:46] And they have demonic malice. They hate you like the devil hates you. And so what do we sing? We sang it last week. If in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.

[22:02] Still, our ancient foe does seek to work us woe. On earth is not his equal. Martin Luther wasn't his equal.

[22:16] John Calvin wasn't his equal. Jonathan Edwards wasn't his equal. There's not been a godly man who is his equal. But we don't rely on our own strength and our own goodness.

[22:32] The devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But the Lord delivers us from the evil one. When David was a shepherd, he stood guard.

[22:44] And he stood guard against lions and bears. And there were times when lions and bears came to his sheep. And somehow snuck in and grabbed one of them.

[22:56] And I want you to picture that. The lion has the lamb in his mouth. And the lion begins to carry it off. Run away. And David says, and he tells Saul, When a lion or bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it.

[23:14] And I struck it. And I delivered the lamb, the sheep, from its mouth. And that's the picture. That's what we're praying when we pray.

[23:25] Lord, deliver me from the evil one. I can so easily get into his jaws. I can so easily. He can clamp down upon me and carry me off.

[23:39] Have you seen that happen? Christians are going along. And then the jaws of the evil one are on them. And then they're drug off. And now they're all alone. And they're isolated. And the devil is having his way with them.

[23:52] That's the picture. And so we pray, deliver me from the evil one. Lord, he's like a lion. He's like a bear. I cannot contend with him.

[24:02] I'm a lamb in his jaws. Please come after me. Strike him. And deliver me. And so the Lord fights for us. He delivers us from the evil one.

[24:14] And we will make it to heaven because the Lord was doing that delivering ministry. That delivering action. He is that good shepherd. That's fifth.

[24:26] He delivers us from the evil one. Sixth. He commands his angels to protect us. Psalm 91. It's the psalm that the devil had the audacity to quote to try to get Jesus to sin.

[24:43] But just because the devil quotes it, it doesn't make it not true. And Psalm 91 says, For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

[24:54] There is an unseen enemy out there. But there are also unseen allies. Unseen enemies. Unseen allies. So, kids, do you have an attic door in your house?

[25:10] You know what I'm talking about? It's that door in the ceiling that you pull it down and you can go and look in your attic. Well, I have an attic door in my house. And if you were to take that attic door down and pull down the steps and go up there, you would see things that you wouldn't normally see in my house.

[25:27] Things that are kept hidden. I won't tell you what's up there. Stuff hidden away. Out of sight. And most of the time, out of mind. And the Bible only very occasionally pulls down the attic door and lets us peek in and see what's going on in the heavenly realms.

[25:46] It's not very much. But the Lord is called the Lord of hosts. Lord Sabaoth. That means the Lord of armies.

[25:57] And it's not just the armies of Israel. It's the armies of heaven. And so how does God use those countless angels, that huge army?

[26:10] Well, Hebrews tells us they're ministering servants for us who will receive salvation to protect, to guard, to serve us. Again, we don't know very much.

[26:23] And so I can't say very much. But it is something for us to know. There are unseen enemies. And there are unseen allies.

[26:36] And the Lord is at their head. And He is commanding them to protect us and to serve us. Number seven. He frustrates our enemies' plans.

[26:49] Job 5.12. He thwarts the plans of the crafty so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness and the schemes of the wily are swept away.

[27:02] So the devil has schemes. And evil men have schemes. Evil men are always plotting. Psalm 2. They're plotting.

[27:13] Scheming against God and His people. Scheming against the innocent. You see that a lot in the Psalms. Of evil men going after the innocent. The young.

[27:23] The helpless. The weak. The poor. These are evil men carrying out their evil plans. But Job says, the Lord has a way of undoing many of those plans.

[27:34] And so they come up with a plan and they look at it one way. And they turn it around and they look at it another way. And they say, you know what?

[27:44] We need to tweak this. And so they tweak it a little bit here and they tweak it a little bit there. Until it's all ready to hatch. All ready to go.

[27:55] But like a North Korean ICBM missile, they don't know that the Lord has burrowed their way into the software of their plan and set it up for failure.

[28:12] So the countdown begins. Three, two, one. And then the plan explodes. The missile explodes on the pad.

[28:25] And they say, what's happened? We checked it this way and we checked it that way. We thought we had everything in line. We thought it was all ready to go. But why didn't it work? Well, the Lord is fighting for his people.

[28:38] He's the greatest cyber hacker. For evil plans. He frustrates the plans of the wicked. Eight, he turns the enemy's plots against them.

[28:50] So this is not only the ICBM crashes on the thing, now the ICBM launches into the sky and then lands right back on their heads. He uses their plans against them. He not only frustrates them so they don't come about the way they want it, he actually takes those evil plans and those evil actions against his people and against himself and he uses it to destroy them.

[29:13] You see the greatest illustration of that on the cross. Where the devil finally has the Lord of glory in his hands and he can finally do something about it and he can kill him, he can destroy him, he can ruin him.

[29:25] And he has them in his hands. And that was the very thing that disarmed the devil and destroyed his works and ruined all of his plans.

[29:37] He uses it to destroy, he uses their own plots to destroy them. In the, in Aikido, in the martial arts, Aikido doesn't have any karate chops or karate kicks.

[29:51] The whole idea, the whole scheme is that you use your enemy's momentum and his violence against him. And so, the Lord is an accomplished Aikido master.

[30:09] He knows how to use his enemy's violence against them. So, think of Saul of Tarsus breathing out threats. It seems in some ways that Saul of Tarsus was handmade for the devil.

[30:22] Saul. He was zealous. He was zealous for his religion. And he was proud and he was angry.

[30:33] He was full of fervor and zeal and he was educated. He was really a perfect weapon. And Saul rushed on Jesus and attacking him.

[30:47] Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He's attacking his people. He's attacking Jesus. But Jesus just swept aside, threw Saul to the ground, completely disarmed him, completely turned him all around.

[31:01] And so now, Saul is this perfect weapon in the Lord's hands. He didn't lose his spiritual fervor. He didn't lose that zeal that was his naturally. Now it's directed towards the enemy.

[31:16] Now it's in God's hands. And so all that education that made him such a daunting foe before now becomes useful in God's hands. And so all of his training turned now against the forces of darkness and for God's people.

[31:33] The Lord knows how to not only frustrate the plans of the wicked, he knows how to completely disarm them and use their weapons against him. I want to give you a more practical and current, not practical, but at least current example.

[31:53] Because is the Lord done doing these things? Is that just Saul of Tarsus? Is that just one time? No. No. No. Jackie Watkins was a young pastor's wife.

[32:12] And 20 years ago she was in a church play at another church. And she was Mary in this play. Mary as in Mary and Joseph. And the music pastor of this other church was playing Joseph.

[32:28] And Satan was at work. And they weren't careful. And they became emotionally entangled even as they're doing this play.

[32:40] Emotionally entangled. And later they became physically entangled. And for two and a half years the affair went on. The devil had a plan.

[32:51] And he was working it. So finally two and a half years later just covered in guilt. Covered in shame. Wanting to be done with this.

[33:02] They told their spouses. And it was pain. It was agony. And there was counseling that followed. And there was attempts at repentance.

[33:13] Attempts at reconciliation. And then there was divorce. And God was giving them the consequences for their sin. For their rebellion.

[33:25] it wasn't pretty. There was more sin. There was more guilt. There was more pain afterwards.

[33:39] And Jackie's friends left her. And her church family is totally destroyed by the situation. She's just left alone in shame.

[33:50] and it seemed like there was nothing to do but try to live out the rest of her the wreck of her life. But God fights for his people. And when she was down there in the mud low as low with the devil riding over her neck the Lord reached down into that mud and began to speak the gospel into her heart in a way that she never experienced before.

[34:20] I don't know if she wasn't saved or she just totally never really got it before. I'm not sure. But he began to lift her up out of the mud. She wasn't worthy.

[34:33] It wasn't deserving but God was fighting for her. And something new and something different began to click in her heart. Something different. And she really repented. And he really repented and things were different and things were changing.

[34:49] But you know what? Things don't go from night to day. It's not the flipping of the light. Years went by. And how do you recover?

[35:00] How do you recover from a fall like that? And Jackie would ask herself if she would ever be useful. Was she just, oh, has been a washed up person?

[35:12] Would God ever use her? Was she too dirty? Would she forever wear that starlet letter on her heart, on her chest for all to see? But you know what?

[35:22] God fights for his people, even when they're dirty and sinful and guilty. And little by little, God began to give her opportunities. It was opportunities with women like her who were carrying around shame and carrying around guilt.

[35:41] And God began to use her in the very areas where Satan had destroyed her. And now she was a different woman and she was useful and she was restored.

[35:57] And now, instead of a weapon in the devil's hands, she's now a weapon in God's hands. And she has a podcast and she has a blog and on those places she tells her whole story and she tells of God's grace and she tells of the shame and the disgrace and the consequences of sin.

[36:16] She's full of warning. She's full of grace. And God is using her against his enemy. God is using her fall to fight the evil one.

[36:31] And that's our God. When we're down in the mud, he still goes fighting for us. And he fights for us with grace and mercy.

[36:43] Or maybe you wanted to say, time out. Stop. We've got to pump the brakes. Because stories like that are hard to hear because there's something in us that says that shouldn't be.

[36:58] So the question is, why, how can God do that? Why is there hope for Jackie? Why is there hope for any of us sinners? sinners? Well, because last night, Jesus fought for us on the cross.

[37:16] Fought for us on the cross. How was Jesus fighting on the cross? Well, a raid against him was the devil.

[37:31] We don't really understand all of that. we see the soldiers and they're mocking him and the Jews are mocking him and the proud Pharisees are there standing against him.

[37:47] And against him was all the pain, the physical pain of the cross. The most excruciating torture.

[37:58] And against him was the shame. Because now he's naked and exposed and it seems like all of his hopes and all of his words are just nothing but lies. There's this shame.

[38:13] And so Jesus was in the pit fighting against the lion and he gritted his teeth and he didn't open his mouth. The lion of the tribe of Judah clamped those jaws tight.

[38:29] Because if he would have opened them, twelve legions of angels would have poured out of heaven and the lion of the tribe of Judah would have devoured the sinful world.

[38:42] And so he fought the pain and he fought the shame and he fought it all. But greater than that he wrestled with God because he became that true Jacob, the true Israel, the one who wrestles with God and overcomes.

[38:56] God and the God of the Red Sea who hurled the warriors into the water and the God of the hailstorm came to the cross and came against him.

[39:10] And Jesus was fighting for us. But it was not a victory by power and might. It was a victory by death and humiliation and sacrifice.

[39:25] sacrifice. And so that sort of justice came and he fought all that was in him. And he bowed his head and he said, not my will, but your will be done.

[39:40] And in love for us, in love for us sinners, God slaughtered the lamb. And he slaughtered the lamb for Jackie's adultery.

[39:53] And he slaughtered the lamb for her hard heart to forgive her. And he slaughtered the lamb that my lust and my greed and my covetousness and all my stinking sin and so much more might be forgiven.

[40:08] And so we're going to sing Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. And that's the gospel. And so when the hailstones fell and the sun stood still, they said, surely the Lord was fighting for Israel.

[40:29] But if you go to the cross, it's Christ, God's beloved, condemned as though his foe, his enemy.

[40:42] And he as though I accursed and left alone. And I as though he embraced and welcomed home. And so see the cross and don't miss it.

[40:56] The Lord fights for his people. He fights for his people even if he has to fight himself.

[41:08] And that is a mystery. That is a glory. And so Paul says, behold the love of God. See this love of God.

[41:19] that's what I want you to do. The Lord fights for you. Fights for you in all those ways. And he fought for you on the cross. And so go in the joy of the Lord.

[41:31] Go in the joy of that. Go in the knowledge of that. Not afraid. Not shirking. Not going through life timid and wondering, am I going to be enough?

[41:46] Next to you is the king of glory, mighty in battle. You saw him in Joshua 10. You see him at the cross. He fights for you. So be encouraged and go in the joy of that.

[41:58] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we thank you for what you did for us.

[42:11] and condemning your son in our place. And destroying him, slaughtering him, sacrificing him in order that we could be forgiven.

[42:33] And Lord, that is a sacred mystery that how could the very Trinity be doing something like that.

[42:45] And why would you do it for people like us? That is too much for us to understand, too much for us to rise to. And so I would just pray that you would give us strength in our inner man that we might know more of the love of Christ that he has for us.

[43:05] And your love for us. God, that we would go in the joy of knowing that we have a Lord and a Savior and a God who is not only our friend, not only our Father, but he is a warrior for us.

[43:21] And he will fight our battles. And he will fight our enemies. And he will equip us and help us to stand. And so he will lead us into the promised land and give us the heavenly kingdom.

[43:38] Pray for those here who are still at war with this mighty warrior. Pray that you would wake them up from their deadly trance, the crazy rebellion that they are in.

[43:56] I pray that you would open their eyes and you would show them that that is no way to live. at war with their God. Cursed and alone.

[44:08] And so I pray that you would, in your mercy, call them to yourself and save them. Thank you so much for your gospel. Thank you for your word. I pray that we would go in the joy of it and in the hope and the encouragement of it.

[44:22]  Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.