How Battles are Lost and Victories are Won - Part 2 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the worries of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

This is Lasere Bradley Jr. welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. We'll be continuing today with the message how battles are lost and victories are won. Surely we all desire to have victory in our lives, victory over the weaknesses of the flesh and the enticements of the world, and so we need to look at God's Word to find out how victories are won, that we have to come to the Lord our God who gives us the strength, and only there can we expect to have victory. And then the third thing we would observe here, that which led to defeat, was trusting a positive attitude. You might say, well, is there anything wrong with a positive attitude? No, that's much better than a negative attitude. But I'll tell you, a positive attitude is not going to gain the victory, if that's all you've got. They shouted, oh, this is a great day, the ark is back, the earth rang with a shout, you talk about enthusiasm, they were having a pep rally, friend, we're in great shape now, we're not going to be defeated anymore, we've got the ark here, don't you feel good? Isn't this a great day?

Hell, it felt great, but they were just about to have 30,000 men wiped out. So you can cheer and shout all day long, but if the Lord's not there, it's an empty shout. People get to the place, they rely on their emotions. It comes down to an issue and somebody says, well, I feel real good about this.

It may be something that God says is wrong, but they assume because they feel good about it, that makes it all right. You can feel good about something and be on your way to destruction. Just a positive attitude doesn't work. They were self-confident. They shouted with a great shout.

With a great shout, the earth rang again. Positive attitude, looked like everything was in order, feeling good about the whole matter, but they confused enthusiasm for faith. Zeal and enthusiasm are good. I dread to try to minister to people who have no enthusiasm at all. A church that has no zeal and no enthusiasm, dried up and half dead, trying to push them along just for survival, that's not what we're going to see. But you can have all the pep and zeal and positive attitude and smiling faces and everything you want, but if God's not there, it's empty. They had the enthusiasm, but they didn't have the faith. They depended on emotion rather than on fact. We certainly do not indicate that emotion ought to be left out. There is an emotion of seeing the Lord exalted, seeing His word, elevating His name, and talking about His death, elevating His name, and talking about His great works.

There's an excitement in that, and we ought to be excited about it. But if you're depending only on your emotions, you can easily be deceived. You see people sometimes who are constantly swept about by every new idea and every new concept that comes along, never really established. And you find out so often that the problem is their being guided by their emotion.

This is how I feel. If you're like most people, you possibly will feel a lot different tomorrow than you will Thursday. Some people are not quite as up and down as others.

Some live on the end of the OEO and they're up and down several times in the day, and some it takes a day or two for the mood to change, but unless you're most unusual, you do have changing moods. And so if you're going to go according to the mood of the moment and what your emotion of the day may be, you can easily fall into great difficulties. And then the fourth thing that brought defeat, they failed to deal with sin. In the second chapter of 1 Samuel, verse 17, it's talking about these two sons of Eli that later were killed. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men abhorred the offering of the Lord.

In other words, they were going through the routine. They were presenting the offerings, but they abhorred it. And they proved it by the ungodly lives that they lived. We read that Eli had failed to restrain his sons. He said, I don't like what I hear, but that was all that was done.

No action was taken. Failure to deal with sin. God said, you haven't handled the matter, I will. And these two young priests will die on the same day.

And they did. And the news was brought to their father Eli, and he falls off the bench and dies at the same time. Dark day in Israel's history. Sin being ignored. And let me tell you, in our own lives individually, if we fail to consult God's Word, and therefore are made to see and recognize our sin, if we are trusting in the outward aspects of religious performance rather than in God Himself, if we're thinking because we've got a good positive mental attitude that that's going to carry us, we can see that it's going to lead to defeat. It's going to take a matter of dealing with the sin in our own heart.

And if it's from a church standpoint, dealing with the sin that arises there, in a biblical way, to try to recover those that have fallen and to deal with those who will not repent. Isaiah chapter 59 says in verse 1, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.

The Lord's arm is not shortened. It's not that God lacks the ability to deliver you. It certainly wasn't that God lacked the ability to deliver them on this day that 30,000 men were killed. But they had not dealt with sin. So whether we're talking about our own personal battle or the battle in which the church itself is involved, sin must be confronted and dealt with.

Thankfully, there's another side of the story. We see how battles are lost. But in chapter 7, we see how victories are won. Verse 3, And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

The years have passed. The Philistines captured the ark, and they thought they had accomplished a lot. They were proud of themselves, but they had more than they could handle because it was still God's ark. And so when they put it in the temple of their pagan god, next morning, that little statue had fallen over on his face, and they had to go set him up again. That's a pathetic plight, isn't it, when somebody has to prop their own god up? That's all the value there is in a false god. He can't do anything for you.

He can't help you. He's going to fall over, and you'll have to continue to prop him up. So they propped him up, and he fell over again. God, obviously, brought him down, and it broke his hands and his feet, and so there was continued problem. And on it went. So they decided, We've got to get rid of this ark. We'll take it to another city. And every time they took it to another city, there were more problems. And then wherever the ark was, there were diseases that afflicted the people.

People said, Get that thing out of here! They moved on to the next place. Judgment comes again. They had taken the ark of the Lord, and so it didn't work well for them. Well, years passed, and now comes the time that Samuel is on the scene, and he says, It's time for you to return to the Lord your God.

How then are victories won? First of all, by returning to the Lord. The people had been away from him. Their hearts had wandered.

Their actions were impure. They needed to return, to return to the Lord. How often do we wander? Oh, even though you're still filling your place and going through all of the outward forms of religion, it's easy to wander in your mind and in your heart. And the call is to return, to return to the Lord where you previously had walked in harmony with Him. We read in the book of Isaiah, chapter 55 and verse 7, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

That's a wonderful call, is it not? Let the one who has disobeyed, the one who has forsaken the Lord, the one who has gone in the wrong direction, let him forsake his way, forsake the wrong way. Here's true repentance. Let him return unto the Lord. And while Satan would have you believe, there's no reason to return because you have dishonored God and he will not hear you. But he says return to the Lord and he will hear you. And he will forgive you and he will cleanse you when you come in sincerity, repenting of your sin, returning to Him because you realize how desperately you need Him.

Return to the Lord. Jesus said in John chapter 15 in the fifth verse, without me ye can do nothing. So if we expect to gain victory individually as a church, we recognize we must continually understand the truth spoken by Jesus that without Him we can do nothing. We can do nothing that is profitable, nothing that will bring victory, nothing that will glorify God without Him. So if we're on some other course, if we're like the people were in chapter 4, trying to devise a scheme, trying to work out a plan on our own, trying to pump themselves up and shout, you know all that shouting they did, making them feel good, the only real effect of that was it inspired the Philistines to stand strong.

They said hear all that over there, boy they must be in good shape and we have got to muster our forces and we got to stand together, we got to quit ourselves like men, so we just stirred up the opposition. So if you're going on with a bunch of shouts that are empty in vain, all you may do is just encourage the enemy to get tougher in his opposition. But now, Samuel says the real solution is that you return to the Lord. Second thing he says here is that you're to put away strange gods. This god, Ashtaroth, was indeed very corrupt. The people worshipping this goddess were involved in all kinds of sensual sins, doing it in the name of religion. Says you've got to turn from the false gods that you have been worshipping. First John chapter 5 verse 21 says, little children keep yourselves from idols. Now I'm sure that probably not a person here today that would say, yes there was a time in my life that I worshipped a little god of gold or silver.

Maybe some of you did, but that's probably not the case with most. But let me tell you, an idol is anything that becomes a substitute for god. Anything that becomes more important to us. Anything upon which we set our affection and utilize our time and our efforts and our resources and we're more interested in it and concerned about it than we are about god. It becomes an idol.

It can be a house, it can be an automobile, it can be just wealth in general, stocks and bonds, it can be a position. You want a certain position in life. You want to be recognized, you want to be esteemed for your accomplishments. It can be your job.

It can be people. You put other people on the pedestal. You want their approval. You want to be liked, you want to be popular. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be liked.

You'd rather be liked than to be disliked. But when you make that your whole focus and you're willing to compromise everything else, to have friends and to have people approve you and like you and you're never willing to stand for what's right, when that brings about opposition and may someday bring outward blatant persecution, then that becomes an idol. Have you ever prayed the prayer that the psalmist prayed, Lord, search me, try me, make me to know what's within me? You may have never considered the fact that there is an idol on the throne of your heart.

But if you sincerely pray that God will show you if there is such, I believe he'll do it. He'll use his word in bringing to your attention the things that you ought to consider. Just look at your own life. How do you spend your time? What are the things you think about most?

What kind of reading material do you read most often? How often are you ministering to other people? How concerned are you about growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

Seeing some of the failures in that area can soon bring to our attention the idols of the heart. The next thing we see here is that they were to pray. Certainly, returning to the Lord, and prayer is a part of that, putting away idols, that's absolutely essential.

Serving him only, as the prophet says, if you do that, he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Verse 5, And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. Verse 8, And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.

What a contrast. Wasn't anything said about prayer back in chapter 4? Everything was focused on the ark. Now Samuel says pray, and then the people say, Samuel, do not cease to pray for us. We need help. We need God's help. We need him.

We can't make it without him. Pray. Pray without ceasing. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find.

Knock and it shall be opened unto you. These are the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. When you realize the seriousness of the battle in which you're involved in your own life, the conflict within your own heart, do you not understand, I cannot win this battle myself.

I need divine help. And the promise is that if we seek it, you'll give it. But how often there's a failure to even pray for the help that is available to us. What a challenge we have in this day as far as the church is concerned. Yes, there are places where large numbers of people assemble, but so often you find that the message is not really the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

It's the message of self-esteem and being made to feel good about you instead of worshiping the true and living God. How can the church move forward? How can the churches in this church move forward? How can the churches in this day not only survive but grow?

How can we see true converts among us? We desperately need help. Do we pray to that end? Prayer is vital. Verse 6 says that when they gathered together in Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before and fasted on that day and said there, we have sinned against the Lord and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. Third thing was confession.

It wasn't just prayer asking God's help. It was confession. We have sinned. We acknowledge it.

We're not trying to whitewash anything. We have been idolaters. Our lives have not been what they should have been. We have been careless and negligent and we confess it. We acknowledge it before God and therefore we're asking for His forgiveness. Back in the book of Leviticus chapter 26, the 40th verse, God had informed them long before how vital it was that they confess their sins because it says if they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their trespass which they trespass against me and that also they have walked contrary unto me and that I also have walked contrary unto them and have brought them into the land of their enemies if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the land God says if they will confess their sin not going on obstinately stubbornly pursuing their own course but confess their sin and turn to me I will remember the covenant that I made with their fathers with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob Now that principle is still for us today. True confession of our sins is a vital part of the Christian's experience. Isaiah chapter 51 tells us that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. God would have us to come before him confessing our sin acknowledging our failure. And then we see that in verse nine Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering holy unto the Lord and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him. So a sacrifice was made this pointing to the fact that Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and came in the fullest of time and went to the cross and laid down his life for us and on the basis of that sacrifice we have the hope that he will hear us and our sins will be forgiven. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 12 says that our sins are forgiven for his name's sake for his name's sake. So if we want to win the victory we don't start making some attempt to obligate God on the basis that we've done a credible job. No we come with an acknowledgement of our sin and our failure but we're praying Lord bless us for thy name's sake for thy name's sake.

Now look at what a contrast. Chapter 4 recorded 4,000 men killed in one battle 30,000 in another. The battlefield is strewn with bodies. The high priest dies. His two sons killed in battle. The name given Ichabod says the glory of the Lord is departed. There is defeat.

There's how battles are lost. But following the people's response to Samuel in chapter 7, when there was a return to the Lord, there was a putting away of their idols, there was sincere prayer, there was recognition that their blessing had to come on the basis of a sacrifice being offered. Says verse 10, And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and the Lord discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. The Philistines worshiped the god Baal. Baal was known as the storm god.

They thought when there was a great storm that Baal was in charge. Well isn't it interesting that God turns the tables on them and as he delivers his people, he causes a great thunder on that day which confused the Philistines and frightened them and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came unto Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shin and called the name of it Ebenezer saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So the Philistines were subdued.

They came no more into the coast of Israel and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. What a contrast. In the first scene, dead bodies everywhere. The first scene, it's a day of death and darkness. First scene, the glory is departed.

Second scene, the people have humbled themselves. They've learned the secret of how the victory is won. They're trusting God, not themselves, and God thunders a great thunder. Who would have ever thought that these courageous soldiers in the Philistine army were going to be defeated by thunder? But God always works in a unique way so that it can be recognized the battle is the Lord's and the victory is on the basis of his blessing rather than our ingenuity.

And so the people, the soldiers hearing that thunder were confused, disconfited as the scripture says, they were smitten before Israel and the people rejoiced because God had blessed them and they set up the stone Ebenezer saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Not hitherto we had a positive attitude, not hitherto we found the right secret of success by some new plan or scheme, but hitherto the Lord hath helped us. That's what we desperately need individually in our own lives. We need the help of the Lord. That's what we need as a church. As we stand against the dramatic changes taking place in the culture around us, that we might be able to resist the temptations that come, that we might be able to overcome the threatening roars of Satan who would seek to devour us, that we might put on the whole armor of God and be able to stand successfully against the wiles of the devil. I hope that in the comparison of these two portions of scripture you can indeed today see how battles are lost and victories are won. May we return to the Lord and trust in Him for the victory that we all so desperately need in our own life, in our own church, in the advancement of the kingdom of God in the world today against all of the opposition that comes from our great enemy. Today we've brought you the concluding part of a message entitled How Battles are Lost and Victories are Won. If you'd like to get the complete message on CD, request it when writing us.

The address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Till we greet you next time, this is LeSara Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. Waiting, looking above, filled with this goodness lost in His love. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.