The Lord Is For The Righteous (2 Chronicles 14)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:04.839 Brothers and sisters. Let's turn to second chronicles, Chapter Fourteen, and here 2 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:13.029 God's word, as he continues to give it to us through the history of 3 00:00:13.269 --> 00:00:25.579 his people. Second Chronicles, Chapter Fourteen. This begins a three part story 4 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:33.700 of the reign of King Asa. Here now God's word. Second chronicles fourteen. 5 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:39.570 Abijah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David, 6 00:00:40.210 --> 00:00:43.969 and Asa, his son, reigned in his place in the days of 7 00:00:44.289 --> 00:00:49.090 in the in his days, the land had rest for ten years and asa 8 00:00:49.250 --> 00:00:52.600 did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord, his God. 9 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:58.399 He took away the foreign altars the high places and broke down the pillars 10 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:03.679 and cut down the ASHREM and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God 11 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:07.549 of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment. He also 12 00:01:07.670 --> 00:01:12.189 took out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars. 13 00:01:12.909 --> 00:01:18.859 And the kingdom had rest under him. He built fortified cities in Judah, 14 00:01:18.859 --> 00:01:22.180 for the land had rest. He had no war in those years, 15 00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:26.980 for the Lord gave him peace, and he said to Judah, let us 16 00:01:26.019 --> 00:01:30.540 build these cities and surround them with Wall Les and Towers Gates and bars. 17 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:36.250 The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord, our God. 18 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:42.409 We have sought him and he has given us peace on every side. So 19 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:47.560 they built and prospered, and ASA had an army of three hundred thousand from 20 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:52.319 Judah, armed with large shields and spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand 21 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:57.000 men from Benjamin that carried shields and drew beaus. All of these were mighty 22 00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:02.430 men of valor. Zarah, the Ethiopian, came out against them with an 23 00:02:02.469 --> 00:02:07.870 army of a million men and three hundred chariots and came as far as Mershah 24 00:02:08.830 --> 00:02:13.750 and Assa went out to meet him and they drew up their lines of battle 25 00:02:13.870 --> 00:02:17.979 in the Valley of Zeph Atha and Marsha, and asa cried to the Lord, 26 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:23.780 his God. O Lord, there is none like you to help between 27 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:27.500 the mighty and the weak. Help us, oh Lord our God, for 28 00:02:27.699 --> 00:02:31.530 we rely on you. In your name we have come against this multitude. 29 00:02:31.930 --> 00:02:37.490 Oh Lord, you are our God. Let not man prevail against you. 30 00:02:38.449 --> 00:02:44.639 So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians 31 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:49.319 fled. Asa and the people who are with him pursued them as far as 32 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:54.039 Gar are, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive, for they were 33 00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:59.310 broken before the Lord and his army. The men of Judah Care Right away 34 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:02.669 very much spoil and they attacked all the cities around Gar are, for the 35 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:07.430 fear of the Lord was upon them. They plundered all the cities, for 36 00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:09.949 there was much plunder in them, and they struck down the tents of those 37 00:03:09.990 --> 00:03:16.580 who had livestock and carried away sheep in abundance and camels. Then they returned 38 00:03:16.819 --> 00:03:27.569 to Jerusalem. May God bless his word to us well. This is a 39 00:03:27.729 --> 00:03:34.569 fantastic story of strength, of power, of Godliness. That's the kind of 40 00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:38.849 story that makes you sit up and notice and reminds you a lot of David 41 00:03:38.050 --> 00:03:44.520 and of Solomon. These both this great warrior, when it's needed, with 42 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:50.560 conquering power and plundering in the name of the Lord, ruling over enemies and 43 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:55.030 all the rest. It also the peace of Solomon. We see here are 44 00:03:55.110 --> 00:04:01.469 because of Ace's obedience and his righteousness among his people. We see that there 45 00:04:01.550 --> 00:04:06.189 was peace in the land, that they weren't for ten years fighting enemies, 46 00:04:06.310 --> 00:04:11.539 and during that time we're able to build up a lot of strength and power. 47 00:04:14.219 --> 00:04:16.500 But if you keep reading, as we will in the coming weeks, 48 00:04:16.579 --> 00:04:24.970 the story of ASA does not end well. We prefer our stories to start 49 00:04:25.089 --> 00:04:29.209 with a problem and end with a solution, to start with a question and 50 00:04:29.449 --> 00:04:35.250 end with an answer, to start with conflict and end with resolution, but 51 00:04:35.370 --> 00:04:42.600 ace's story works in the opposite direction. It starts with success but ends in 52 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:50.800 failure. It starts with righteousness and ends in disobedience, and that's a frustrating 53 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:55.430 story to hear. And I have to tell you that now, because we 54 00:04:55.509 --> 00:05:00.870 can't think about these great successes that Asas having here, without really knowing that 55 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:05.350 there's more of the story to come. I wonder if you know anyone like 56 00:05:05.509 --> 00:05:12.100 that, someone who started well but did not end well, or perhaps doesn't 57 00:05:12.139 --> 00:05:15.860 seem to be ending well. Maybe a friend of yours? I do. 58 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:20.569 I'm there are people. I went to seminary with, young men who wanted 59 00:05:20.610 --> 00:05:28.370 to be ministers, whose books were filled with great theology, good books, 60 00:05:29.009 --> 00:05:34.759 wonderful books. They talked about serving the Lord with passion and zeal. And 61 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:41.319 some of them, of course, many of them, did find a calling 62 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:46.040 in a church and are serving faithfully in the Lord. But some of them, 63 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:51.750 despite all of these good things close friends are now, in fact now 64 00:05:51.870 --> 00:05:58.069 found themselves in divorce, in addiction and one of them with a long term 65 00:05:58.189 --> 00:06:05.019 prison sentence. We wonder how these kinds of things can happen. How can 66 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:13.819 we start well but and so poorly? We also wonder can they happen to 67 00:06:13.860 --> 00:06:19.050 us? The history of King as allows us to reflect on this, particularly 68 00:06:19.170 --> 00:06:25.209 in the context of the dividict covenant. I know that last clause just sounded 69 00:06:25.250 --> 00:06:29.529 like a bunch of theological Mumbo jumbo. It's not, though it's important. 70 00:06:30.089 --> 00:06:32.439 I hope it's not Mumbo jumbo because we've been talking about this for a long 71 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:38.920 time. But the DIVIDIC covenant is important because King asays not just acting as 72 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:46.310 a man before God, not just that he is a king king over Israel, 73 00:06:46.389 --> 00:06:50.949 with a calling that God has placed on his life. He is standing 74 00:06:50.990 --> 00:06:57.709 in the Line of David Sons and the promise that God made to David The 75 00:06:57.829 --> 00:07:03.540 dividict covenant. God told David that as his son's led after him or followed 76 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:09.540 after him, if they reigned and ruled in righteousness, that God would bless 77 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:13.459 them and reward them and that there would be peace and strength and victory and 78 00:07:13.540 --> 00:07:17.810 all the rest. There would there was consequences, in other words for the 79 00:07:17.889 --> 00:07:25.930 people of God dependent on the King's would who is Asa? What would he 80 00:07:26.089 --> 00:07:30.600 do? His rightousness before God not only earned him a measure of reward but 81 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:35.399 had it effect on all, all the people. And that's important for us 82 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:42.160 because our king, King Jesus, is also a divided king. He is 83 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:46.550 the fulfillment of these promises, and what we learn about asa teaches us about 84 00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:50.750 Jesus. What we learn about a says he fulfills this role in this covenant, 85 00:07:50.910 --> 00:07:57.629 teaches us how Jesus fulfills his role, how he does it better and 86 00:07:57.790 --> 00:08:03.220 how we have safety and security in him. We're going to do that in 87 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:09.819 three sermons of fourteen, focusing on these chapters fourteen, fifteen and sixteen. 88 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:18.009 This first sermon is about the good times, the great times, the times 89 00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:22.089 when there was a vital connection being lived out between the King's obedience and the 90 00:08:22.129 --> 00:08:28.319 King's success. In the story of Asa, we have a memorable reminder that 91 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:35.519 the Lord loves the righteous and hates the wicked. Asa's story teaches us that 92 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:46.710 faithfulness to God begets freedom in God, that righteousness before the Lord begets the 93 00:08:46.870 --> 00:08:54.350 Lord's The Lord's reward righteousness from righteousness before him be gets rewards from him. 94 00:08:56.860 --> 00:09:03.139 So let's consider that first H ASS righteousness. Want to take through these somewhat 95 00:09:03.139 --> 00:09:09.570 quickly. Asa In this chapter is a model of righteousness. You should read 96 00:09:09.730 --> 00:09:15.850 this and find your hearts inspired. I want to be like that. This 97 00:09:16.009 --> 00:09:20.529 is a good story, a good thing. He's doing a very well same 98 00:09:20.690 --> 00:09:24.080 thing in chapter fourteen. When we get there next time, ass example is 99 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:28.720 one that's worth paying attention to and following. So let's note some of these 100 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:37.080 praiseworthy things. The first verse two, Verse Two, Chapter Fourteen, asa 101 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:41.110 did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 102 00:09:43.309 --> 00:09:46.110 Now, of course that's a summary of that. Asa was good and that's 103 00:09:46.230 --> 00:09:50.429 important in and of itself, but we have to add here this perspective by 104 00:09:50.470 --> 00:09:54.820 which good is defined. He did what was good and right in the eyes 105 00:09:56.580 --> 00:10:03.299 of the Lord his God. A life divorced from God's will and God's way 106 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:09.570 will not and cannot be good. As has perspective, and the chroniclers perspective, 107 00:10:09.649 --> 00:10:13.490 is that good is defined by God. What is good is defined by 108 00:10:13.610 --> 00:10:20.809 what God what by God himself and what God declares. Imagine, for example, 109 00:10:20.929 --> 00:10:26.000 trying to sail across the Atlantic, from let's say the United States to 110 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:31.639 Europe, and you're going to do this without a map? Right, you're 111 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:35.000 not going to follow the map, or maybe you're going to do it blindfolded, 112 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:39.389 or maybe you're even going to go the opposite direction. This is what 113 00:10:39.590 --> 00:10:43.830 life is like in this is what life is like when somebody says I'm going 114 00:10:43.909 --> 00:10:48.110 to do good, but I'm going to do it apart from the Lord, 115 00:10:48.590 --> 00:10:52.580 either not paying attention to what he says, doing it blindly or just going 116 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:58.539 the other direction. At best, you're going to be steer it off course 117 00:10:58.659 --> 00:11:03.820 and wander all over the place, but eventually you're going to wind up shipwrecked. 118 00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:07.970 If you turn your ship around and sail it into the rocks of the 119 00:11:07.049 --> 00:11:13.769 eastern seaboard, it's going to end tragically. And that's what happens when people 120 00:11:13.889 --> 00:11:18.159 try to define good and live their lives in a good way apart from God. 121 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:22.480 But that's not what asa did. Asa did what was good and right 122 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:28.240 in the eyes of the Lord, his God. It's number one. Number 123 00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:33.909 two comes from versus three and five, and that's the ASA eliminated false worship 124 00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:39.750 in Israel. Now will speak a lot more on this next time in Chapter 125 00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:45.110 Fifteen, where this these particular things are focused on, but note it here 126 00:11:45.190 --> 00:11:48.779 as well. In verse three, we read that he took away the foreign 127 00:11:48.779 --> 00:11:52.899 altars and the high places, he broke down the pillars and cut down the 128 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:58.620 ashuream verse five we continue. This thought continues. We read that out of 129 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:01.809 all the cities of Judah, this is all the cities which were under his 130 00:12:01.929 --> 00:12:07.169 control, the high places and the incense alters. He took them out and 131 00:12:07.330 --> 00:12:13.049 the kingdom had rest under him. Obedience to the Lord very much includes worship 132 00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:18.600 to the Lord. You can't do good before the Lord while worshiping another God. 133 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:24.559 In other words, it's not enough to simply not steal from your neighbor 134 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:30.830 but fail to worship the God who made you. They come together. If 135 00:12:30.909 --> 00:12:33.149 you know the ten commandments, you might say that the first, the second, 136 00:12:33.269 --> 00:12:37.870 the third and the fourth are very much intimately connected with the fifth, 137 00:12:37.269 --> 00:12:41.990 sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and ten. How we live before man 138 00:12:43.230 --> 00:12:48.500 is very much connected to how we live before God. They all go together. 139 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:52.379 Asa is concerned with this. He doesn't just want people not stealing and 140 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:58.090 not committing adultery and not coveting. He wants them worshiping the Lord. This 141 00:12:58.289 --> 00:13:03.970 is a theocracy. After all. He is God's King, commanded to obey 142 00:13:05.129 --> 00:13:09.169 God's law. And that leads to the third point. As King, he 143 00:13:09.450 --> 00:13:15.879 commands his subjects to obey. He rules over them with the law of the 144 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.720 Lord. In verse four and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God 145 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:26.559 of their fathers, and to keep the law of the commandment. The righteous 146 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:31.750 king of the Lord commands his subjects to follow his laws. You know, 147 00:13:31.830 --> 00:13:35.789 Jesus does the same with us. Jesus is a good and righteous king. 148 00:13:35.990 --> 00:13:41.539 He doesn't say holiness is important to me. Righteousness is a that my kingdom 149 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:46.100 is a kingdom of righteousness. Now, all you people that belong to me, 150 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:50.539 just go ahead and do whatever you want. No, he commands us 151 00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:52.779 to follow the will of God. He tells us that we are to live 152 00:13:52.899 --> 00:14:00.570 righteously and according to him and the ethics of his Kingdom of grace. He 153 00:14:00.690 --> 00:14:05.450 commands us to obey. This is the work of a good king. Number 154 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:13.840 four, he strengthens himself against his and God's enemies. We read in proverbs 155 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:18.840 a story about walking the the writer of the proverb says I walked by the 156 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:22.919 House or the field I'm forgetting at the moment, of a sluggard and he 157 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:28.509 sort of pays attention to all the ways in which it's in disrepair because the 158 00:14:28.590 --> 00:14:33.309 sluggard is refused to work. The walls fallen down, the vines are overgrown, 159 00:14:33.350 --> 00:14:39.139 all these kinds of things. Asa doesn't do that. Instead, he 160 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:43.460 builds with what is God has given him. He's like the steward who has 161 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:48.379 been given some money to take care of and invests it properly asas a king, 162 00:14:48.940 --> 00:14:52.129 King of the Lord. He's ruling under God and has been given authority 163 00:14:54.009 --> 00:14:58.370 to, I'm take care of and protect his people, and he's doing that. 164 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:03.850 I'm DESA does this. When we read and versus thirteen and thirteen, 165 00:15:03.970 --> 00:15:09.519 fourteen and fifteen, that he fights when Zarah, the Ethiopian, comes against 166 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:18.519 him with this mighty army, asa fights, he builds up his his resources 167 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:22.870 during times of peace and in times of war. He doesn't hide from battle, 168 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:28.870 but he fights in the Lord. And that brings us to number five 169 00:15:28.110 --> 00:15:33.149 and my last observation here, and that's the asa though. He fights and 170 00:15:33.269 --> 00:15:37.019 he builds and he works and he commands. He does this all not in 171 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:43.820 his own strength, but in the Lord's this is another aspect of Ace's model 172 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:48.820 for righteousness. Here, and you see that we read of his great fighting 173 00:15:48.059 --> 00:15:54.690 and is is attacking and all of this in verses thirteen through fifteen. But 174 00:15:54.769 --> 00:15:58.690 how does all that begin? In Eleven, we read and Asa cried to 175 00:15:58.769 --> 00:16:04.559 the Lord, is God, and listen to this beautiful prayer. Oh Lord, 176 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:08.879 there is none like you to help between the mighty in the week. 177 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:14.320 Help us, oh Lord, for we rely on you and in your name 178 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:18.190 we have come out against this multitude. Oh Lord, you are our God. 179 00:16:18.309 --> 00:16:25.429 Let not man prevail against you. You See, as has fighting, 180 00:16:25.590 --> 00:16:32.070 as has strength. Is All very theological. It's all very much based in 181 00:16:32.230 --> 00:16:37.580 his personal relationship with the Lord and his understanding of who he is. God 182 00:16:37.899 --> 00:16:42.740 is the God of his father's that's why the people are called to obey. 183 00:16:44.740 --> 00:16:48.250 There is none like God. He speaks to the Lord not as a hope 184 00:16:48.330 --> 00:16:55.370 or a principle or a faith, but as you. He addresses the Lord 185 00:16:55.490 --> 00:17:00.450 and the second person. Oh Lord, there is none like you. Help 186 00:17:00.529 --> 00:17:03.039 us, oh Lord, our God, for we rely on you. In 187 00:17:03.359 --> 00:17:08.960 your name we've come out against this multitude. It's worth noting again that every 188 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:14.799 time he's saying oh Lord, here he's using the name that the Lord had 189 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:21.109 given to him and his people, Yah way or Jehovah. He is expressing 190 00:17:21.190 --> 00:17:26.150 the Covenant Name that God gave Moses when Moses said, what shall I say 191 00:17:26.269 --> 00:17:32.220 to Pharaoh, or how shall I tell these people who has sent me to 192 00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:41.099 say these things? Yah Way, you are our God. Asa is extremely 193 00:17:41.339 --> 00:17:45.609 confident. I love that. I love his confidence in the Lord, his 194 00:17:45.809 --> 00:17:51.450 strength and his promises and as he goes out and he's leads his men in 195 00:17:51.650 --> 00:17:57.799 battle, these mighty men of Valor, they succeed because of the Lord. 196 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:07.000 So in some asa does everything that he does before the Lord, because of 197 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:15.910 the Lord and in the strength of the Lord. Those are powerful words and 198 00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:21.470 they help us to see how a righteous person's life is to be lived out 199 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:26.740 in real world scenarios. To live before the Lord, because of the Lord 200 00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:30.859 and in the strength of the Lord, is not just a nice thing. 201 00:18:32.339 --> 00:18:37.539 You right up and hang in the wall of your house, or are you 202 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:42.250 paint on the side of your truck, as we heard from pastor hop these 203 00:18:44.089 --> 00:18:49.809 words, to live before the Lord in light of his eyes, to understand 204 00:18:49.849 --> 00:18:53.609 our ways in him, because of him and the things he has done, 205 00:18:53.690 --> 00:18:59.079 the covenants that he has made and in his strength, because he is powerful, 206 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:02.240 to save and he protects the weak and he watches over his people. 207 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:07.079 These aren't things just to hang up in your bathroom. They are a creed 208 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:12.750 to live by. They are the intentions and principles which should drive every action 209 00:19:12.910 --> 00:19:17.990 of ours. And at this point in a says life. This is what 210 00:19:18.190 --> 00:19:22.309 he did, this is the life he lived, and he lived it very 211 00:19:22.390 --> 00:19:27.380 well. And we know that not just because it's so much resonates with the 212 00:19:27.460 --> 00:19:32.700 rest of scripture and godly living as it's expressed to us and every place, 213 00:19:33.859 --> 00:19:40.410 but it's also confirmed by God's reward. This righteousness led to this great reward 214 00:19:40.490 --> 00:19:51.609 of God, namely victory and freedom and peace. The Righteousness, the righteousness 215 00:19:51.890 --> 00:19:56.799 that asa exercised resulted in the power of God being a poured out on his 216 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:03.599 people. All that asa had hoped for in God. God gave, God 217 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:07.470 promised this, these things to the righteous son of David, and they were 218 00:20:07.509 --> 00:20:14.390 fulfilled here. Peace in the land, victory over enemies, success in endeavors. 219 00:20:15.150 --> 00:20:21.819 Let me flip back to him eleven, which we sang earlier. Verse 220 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:26.579 Three. His Wide Dominion shall extend from seed to utmost see and unto Earth's 221 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:33.619 Remotest Bounds. His peaceful rule shall be yea. All the king shall bow 222 00:20:33.740 --> 00:20:37.130 to him. His rule, all nations hail. He will regard the poor 223 00:20:37.289 --> 00:20:44.650 man's cry when other helpers fail. This is the promise of God to his 224 00:20:44.930 --> 00:20:48.569 king, to the Messiah, so, the anointed one, to this divided 225 00:20:48.609 --> 00:20:52.400 king, who would stand up and rule? Why? Idly, powerfully, 226 00:20:52.559 --> 00:21:00.960 peaceably? And this is all happening under ASA. In this God treated asa 227 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:04.789 exactly according to the terms that he had promised to David and, in a 228 00:21:04.829 --> 00:21:12.789 way also to Moses and even Adam, that righteousness begets rewards. Why does 229 00:21:12.869 --> 00:21:19.779 God do this? Why does God reward righteousness in this way? Well, 230 00:21:19.859 --> 00:21:25.180 one reason is that he must. God Is Holy, God is good and 231 00:21:25.339 --> 00:21:29.819 God is righteous. What kind of King would he be if he commanded anything 232 00:21:29.900 --> 00:21:33.450 less than the things that he desires, if he ruled in a way that 233 00:21:33.730 --> 00:21:37.970 wasn't in accord with who he is? He would be a King Worse Than 234 00:21:37.009 --> 00:21:44.210 Asa. Asa ruled according to the words that he had been given. Would 235 00:21:44.210 --> 00:21:48.160 it be right for God, who commands those words, to rule in another 236 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:53.440 way? Asa commanded the people to obey the words of the Lord. Would 237 00:21:53.440 --> 00:22:00.640 it make sense for the Lord himself to command people to obey something else to 238 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:07.589 reward unrighteousness? Of course not. Another the reason the Lord Rewards righteousness is 239 00:22:07.789 --> 00:22:12.309 that it is for our good. There is no good apart from God. 240 00:22:14.470 --> 00:22:18.980 All of our hope, all of our blessing is found in him. Think 241 00:22:19.019 --> 00:22:22.740 about a father. Would a father they do right by telling his kids to 242 00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:30.930 go be homeless, to leave the House and fend for themselves and withdraw themselves 243 00:22:30.970 --> 00:22:36.930 from his love and protection and mercy and and provision? Of course not. 244 00:22:37.849 --> 00:22:41.250 A good father says, come to me and I will protect you and keep 245 00:22:41.250 --> 00:22:47.480 you and and all the rest. Our Good as children is found in our 246 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:51.960 fathers and are good as in God. As God's children, is found in 247 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:57.789 him as our heavenly father. Our lives are blessed when they are lived in 248 00:22:59.029 --> 00:23:07.029 his blessedness, in his household. One more reason God demands righteous or demands 249 00:23:07.069 --> 00:23:12.700 righteousness and rewards righteousness is that his justice demands it. God is not only 250 00:23:12.859 --> 00:23:19.099 a lawmaker but a law enforcer and a judge over those who break his law, 251 00:23:21.380 --> 00:23:25.579 and there's a lot of good in that. Think about how meaningless and 252 00:23:25.700 --> 00:23:30.650 how vain it is to live in a society where there are laws on the 253 00:23:30.730 --> 00:23:34.410 books that are never enforced. What point is that? How is that a 254 00:23:34.529 --> 00:23:38.690 good thing? And would God, who has made the law and issued it 255 00:23:38.849 --> 00:23:45.519 forth created the world and everything in it? Would he be good? Would 256 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:49.359 he be holy? Would he be just? If he establishes righteousness and the 257 00:23:51.400 --> 00:23:56.029 in laws for how we should live and live in him and then simply walk 258 00:23:56.069 --> 00:24:00.349 away from that, choose not to enforce it's a Oh never mind, not 259 00:24:00.470 --> 00:24:03.670 a big deal after all, when it's the very thing in which blessedness comes, 260 00:24:04.630 --> 00:24:11.099 when it's the very thing in which we live. So God's rewards for 261 00:24:11.180 --> 00:24:15.259 righteousness and, of course, the flip side of that, his punishments for 262 00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:22.900 disobedience, is a perfect equation. It's good, it's holy, it it 263 00:24:22.099 --> 00:24:29.089 makes sense of everything and it's true to who he is. The evil we 264 00:24:29.490 --> 00:24:36.089 face, however, when we consider this powerful equation, righteousness leading to reward, 265 00:24:36.130 --> 00:24:41.079 unrighteousness leading to punishment, the evil that we face in this problem is 266 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:48.240 not in God's goodness or his justice or his blessing. The evil we face 267 00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:52.670 is our own sin, which flips this equation, righteousness leading to reward, 268 00:24:52.750 --> 00:24:59.190 in the other direction and we find, instead of blessing, condemnation and disaster 269 00:24:59.230 --> 00:25:03.869 again. The problem is not in the way that God has set things up. 270 00:25:03.470 --> 00:25:10.059 The problem is the way we act within that system. There are good 271 00:25:10.099 --> 00:25:14.619 laws, holy laws, which are enforced by a powerful enforcer and a just 272 00:25:14.859 --> 00:25:18.619 judge. Our problem is that we walk into that situation. We say, 273 00:25:18.660 --> 00:25:23.049 I don't want to live that way. I want to live in a gravity 274 00:25:23.130 --> 00:25:27.170 filled world, as though there was in gravity. I want to live in 275 00:25:27.410 --> 00:25:32.250 a world in which, dum, there are certain rules, as if there 276 00:25:32.289 --> 00:25:37.519 weren't rules. I want to travel to Europe, but in the other way. 277 00:25:38.039 --> 00:25:42.839 Well, how do things end up? In disaster and condemnation? It's 278 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:48.119 only right, it's only logical, it's only good, it's only just and 279 00:25:48.359 --> 00:25:56.430 fair. And for asa this would eventually mean his disaster, as will come 280 00:25:56.549 --> 00:26:00.829 to in Chapter Sixteen. It meant would mean destruction from the hands of his 281 00:26:00.950 --> 00:26:07.259 enemies, disease in his body and eventually his death. In the same is 282 00:26:07.339 --> 00:26:12.660 true for every single person who decides to be king apart from the Lord, 283 00:26:14.900 --> 00:26:19.009 for every single person who establishes good in their own eyes, righteousness in their 284 00:26:19.089 --> 00:26:25.210 own eyes and in their own ways, who decides to find not their righteousness 285 00:26:25.289 --> 00:26:33.480 in him but righteousness in themselves, and unfortunately for Israel, as the king 286 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:38.920 goes, so goes the people, and so it wasn't just assa who suffered, 287 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.400 it was the people who who suffered as well. And it would leave 288 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:48.509 Israel, and all the world for who that was hoping, or at least 289 00:26:48.509 --> 00:26:52.150 should have been hoping, in, the Messiah, without a King. It 290 00:26:52.230 --> 00:26:57.750 would leave Israel without the righteous king, that righteous, dividic king that they 291 00:26:57.910 --> 00:27:07.259 needed, but only for a time, only for a time, because a 292 00:27:07.259 --> 00:27:12.059 day would come when God would provide a different sort of king, a king 293 00:27:12.099 --> 00:27:18.650 who would not only begin well but who would end well. When King Jesus 294 00:27:18.849 --> 00:27:23.930 came, he didn't just live perfectly according to God's commands, and I don't 295 00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:30.359 mean perfectly in the throat of human sense in which we approximate perfection, but 296 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:37.519 I mean perfectly in every jot and tittle of the law, in his intentions, 297 00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:41.839 in his heart and his conscience, and every single thing that he did, 298 00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:45.789 perfectly obedient to the will of the Lord, not just at the beginning, 299 00:27:47.349 --> 00:27:52.269 but all the way up to the end, which included his willingly going 300 00:27:52.630 --> 00:27:57.150 to death, his own death on a cross, to suffer not for his 301 00:27:57.430 --> 00:28:03.579 sins but for yours and mine, for Israel's and all of God's people. 302 00:28:07.059 --> 00:28:11.500 Jesus came into this world. God sent his own son into this were his 303 00:28:11.660 --> 00:28:18.609 into this world to secure a righteous kingdom through his righteous rule and provide reward 304 00:28:18.849 --> 00:28:26.650 for all of his objects. Where asa failed, Jesus succeeded. God sent 305 00:28:26.849 --> 00:28:33.440 his own son to rule as a king born from David, but he made 306 00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:38.200 all that possible that he was his own son, he was God's own son. 307 00:28:42.230 --> 00:28:48.670 All that asa did well, Jesus did perfectly. In every place that 308 00:28:48.750 --> 00:28:56.740 asa failed to succeed, Jesus knocked it out of the ballpark. When Jesus 309 00:28:56.859 --> 00:29:03.099 went to his death on a cross, he didn't just rise again from the 310 00:29:03.220 --> 00:29:07.299 dead, he rose again victorious for all who are in him, for all 311 00:29:07.859 --> 00:29:15.809 Israel, lifting all of us up in his own righteousness, so that we 312 00:29:17.130 --> 00:29:22.329 can leave behind our false claims to ruling our own lives and cling to him. 313 00:29:22.369 --> 00:29:30.319 Jesus is rule doesn't establish for us the sort of flip side of ace's 314 00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:37.039 life. In other words, asa lived great at the beginning, failed at 315 00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:41.150 the end. The moral of this sermon is not do like Jesus did, 316 00:29:41.269 --> 00:29:45.109 living good at the beginning and the end. That's not the point. The 317 00:29:45.269 --> 00:29:51.750 point is live in Jesus, who did this for you. If you try 318 00:29:51.869 --> 00:29:55.339 to do what Jesus did, you are going to end up doing just what 319 00:29:55.460 --> 00:30:02.019 asa did. You'll start out well, when you'll end poorly. You'll finally, 320 00:30:02.059 --> 00:30:04.940 at some point or another, all of your righteousness, all of your 321 00:30:06.019 --> 00:30:10.849 hopes, will crumble under your feet. But if you live in Jesus, 322 00:30:10.890 --> 00:30:15.130 if you put your hope not in a man like asa or a man like 323 00:30:15.289 --> 00:30:19.049 yourself, but in Jesus, the God man, you will have a hope 324 00:30:19.089 --> 00:30:26.960 that is built on nothing less than on Jesus Christ's righteousness. That's a great 325 00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:33.119 hope. It means that you can have a lot of security. It means 326 00:30:33.240 --> 00:30:41.109 that the fear you feel about going astray, to fear I feel about going 327 00:30:41.349 --> 00:30:48.390 astray, about not ending well, this fear can be removed because Jesus promises 328 00:30:48.470 --> 00:30:55.259 to be the author and perfector of our salvation, as the author of Hebrews 329 00:30:55.299 --> 00:31:00.619 puts it, the beginning and the end. By finding our righteousness not in 330 00:31:00.059 --> 00:31:06.569 another man like asa or in a man or woman like ourselves, but finding 331 00:31:06.609 --> 00:31:10.529 our righteousness in the king, who is better than ASA and perfect in every 332 00:31:10.609 --> 00:31:17.529 way, we have a sure salvation, a sure salvation a perfect salvation. 333 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:26.440 And so I want to say to you inclosing, if you find yourself straying 334 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:32.799 from the paths of the Lord, if you find yourselves straying from righteousness in 335 00:31:32.910 --> 00:31:38.349 all his good ways, then here of King Jesus, tonight, here of 336 00:31:38.430 --> 00:31:45.430 the Messiah who God did send to rule over all the nations, the one 337 00:31:45.549 --> 00:31:52.819 who did extend his Wide Dominion From Sea to utmost sea, to Earth's remotest 338 00:31:52.059 --> 00:31:57.859 bounds. His peaceful rule shall be and is as he comes into our lives, 339 00:31:57.900 --> 00:32:05.289 as he establishes peace in us, the reward of righteousness that was promised 340 00:32:05.369 --> 00:32:09.730 to a son's promise to all of us for righteousness. We can't have it 341 00:32:09.890 --> 00:32:16.000 in our own because sin keeps cut seeing, Sin keeps coming in, messing 342 00:32:16.039 --> 00:32:24.079 everything up, bringing us down and earning US destruction. But we can have 343 00:32:24.279 --> 00:32:30.509 it by trusting in Jesus and giving from God what he freely gives to us 344 00:32:31.190 --> 00:32:38.869 by His grace. Find Your Salvation in Christ that's where God offers reward and 345 00:32:39.029 --> 00:32:46.460 righteousness that can never fail, a peace that endures forever. Let's pray