Look to the Lord.

I have preached the end-time messages in these three Sabbath worships.  First, I spoke about faith to obey the words of Christ in the end-time from the prophecy in which He predicted the armies surrounding the city of Jerusalem.  Second, I spoke the coming judgment of God in the end-time from the destructive flood of Noah.  Third, I spoke the danger of false christs appearing in the end-time. 

All of these are the warnings which Jesus spoke.  There are so many last-day events which will happen without break.  You may feel anxious about them.  You may wonder whether you will endure the difficulties.  Jesus says about people living in the end-time in Luke 21:26 as follows: “Men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.”

But there is one thing that we should remember; that is, God will fight for you in the end-time battle.  He will fight for your sake.  Look at Matthew26:52,53.  When Jesus was about to be arrested by the mob whom the leading priests and the elders of the people, Peter pulled out his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear.  Then Jesus scolded Peter and said to him;

Matthew26:52 But Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

26:53 "Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?

Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword in its place.”  Why did He say so?  It was because He knew that fighting was not God’s will.  Furthermore, He knew that God was on His side.  He knew that there were twelve legions of angels who were always ready to come to Him.  One Roman legion was 6,700 soldiers, and twelve legions would be 80,400 men.  That was a big number.  It is about 1230 times more than the number of this congregation.  Jesus knew that the angels in that number stood on His side.  And He knew that God would take the initiative to fight if necessary, but He also thought it foolish for Him to fight without the consent of His Father. 

Perhaps you can find the best example from the Exodus to understand the meaning of fighting.  Let us think what the Israelites did to flee from Egypt.  Did they fight against the Egyptian army?  No, they didn’t.  God did fight.  It was God who sent the ten plagues to Egypt.  It was God who destroyed the firstborn.  The Israelites did nothing to fight against the Egyptians.  Perhaps they could not do anything.  They were slaves for so many years.  They had little weapons.  They did not have military forces.  Because of this He had to depend upon God.  Look at Exodus 14:10-14. 

Exodus14:10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

14:11 Then they said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?

14:12 "Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?' For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."

14:13 And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

14:14 "The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace."

The Israelites were brought out of Egypt and came to the banks of the Red Sea, they saw from behind the Egyptian army pursuing after them.  There were no boats.  There were no bridges.  There was no way of escape.  The Israelites were terrified and cried to the Lord and Moses. “We should have better stayed in Egypt.”  But Moses said to them, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”  He was saying, “Don’t think of the disasters but see the work of the Lord.”  Why did he say so?  For the Lord was going to fight for the Israelites as written in verse 14.  What they did was only to be still.  They needed only to trust in the Lord.  Look at verse 19 and 20.   

Exodus14:19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.

14:20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.

The Angel of God and the pillar of cloud protected Israel.  They prevented the enemy from approaching.  Exodus 13:21 says the Lord guided Israel during the day with the pillar of cloud, and at night with the pillar of fire.  Exodus 14:24 says that the Lord looked down the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud.  That means the Lord of God was in the pillar of cloud and protected Israel and separated them from the enemy.  Let’s look at verse 21 and 22. 

Exodus14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.

14:22 So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

As Moses raised his hand over the Sea, God opened the way through the Sea just in front of the people.  He caused a strong east wind and pushed the walls of water to each side.  The Israelites needed only to step in and walk through the middle of the Sea on the dry land.  That’s all.  It was God’s job to do the rest and He did it. 

It is important to know God’s work and humans’ work.  We should not worry about His work.  We should not try to do the work that belongs to God alone.  We should let Him do His work.  Look at verse 24 and 25. 

Exodus14:24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians.

14:25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians."

The Egyptian army noticed strange phenomena.  They could not drive their chariots easily.  They saw calm nature changing wild.  They began to know that they had been fighting against the Lord.  They were terrified and tried to escape.  But it was too late.  Look at verse 27.  The Lord ordered the waters to rush back.  And the Egyptian army were swept into the Sea. 

Here is a great lesson to learn.  That is obedience.  We will be exposed to be in great dangers as we live in the end time.  We may find it difficult to do our responsibilities.  We may find unexpected obstacles in front and behind, and may not know what to do.  But we should trust in the words of God and go forward to obey Him, because He will fight for us. 

To obey God, we need to keep our eyes on God who will fight for us.  Just in front of the Red Sea the Israelites cried to the Lord and Moses and complained.  They only look at the disaster.  But Moses said to them, “Look at the work of the Lord.”  They believed the word.  And they walked through the divided waters of the Red Sea.  Thus they received salvation. 

I think many of you have been up to CN Tower once in your life.  The CN Tower has Glass Floor.  Can you walk on the Floor?  If I look down through the Floor, I cannot walk.  I have been there three or four times.  Every time I stood on there, but I felt weak at the knees and could not walk.   I know that the Floor is very strong and I will not drop on the ground, but the moment I look down, I find my feet impotent and cannot walk.  So I should not look down in order to walk on the Glass Floor.  Likewise we should not look at the coming crisis in order to survive in the last events.  We should look at our Victory Jesus Christ.   

There was a pious Christian called Robert Wong in China.  He was put into a communist prison because of his faith.  He was first in solitary confinement for four years.  Then he was imprisoned in labour camps for fifteen years.  During much of that time, his family was not allowed to visit him.  But he was allowed to write to the family letters of only one hundred Chinese characters a month.  How many sentences can you write by one hundred Chinese characters?  You can type some sentences on only two lines. 

Then Robert wrote “hymn 115” in a letter home.  His mother did not understand its meaning when he received the letter.  But when she opened the Chinese hymn number 115, she saw words; “Give Me the Bible.”  Then she understood that the son wanted to have the Bible.  At this time, the authorities were allowing Robert’s family to visit him monthly.  So she carefully concealed a small New Testament in the package of soap and gave it to him.  When he received the Bible, he drew courage from its pages day after day.  He did not look at darkness of his life but kept faith to look up to Jesus who is Source of his life. 

Satan deflects our attention from Christ to the crisis. But we fixate on Christ who stands on the throne of heaven.  We don’t look at what is but what will be.  We don’t look at the present but the eternal world.  We don’t look at sickness but health will be restored in the Kingdom.  We don’t look at our earthly poverty but heavenly riches.  We don’t look at earthly problems but heavenly solutions.  We don’t look at what we see, but fixate on the eternal joys that we cannot see.  We can stand fast in the earthly crisis only if we look to the blessings that Christ has promised for the future. 

John looked to the Lord’s promise in vision.

Revelation21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

Let us live a life of faith on earth, looking to the heavenly promises of Jesus Christ.