Second Kings chapter 17, brother, you, you prayed
beautifully. Thank you, Brian for praying.
Thank you for the praise team, for helping us love the Lord in
song. But it's on my heart to pray
again. And so before we even read one
verse or I make any other comment, can we just turn our
attention to the Lord once more? Lord, it's only going to be by
the power of your Holy Spirit to make this more than a lesson.
For this to be a life changing Bible study, it has to come from
you. And so we ask, Lord, that you
would visit us. Thank you that you live in US.
Thank you that you've sealed us. Thank you that you are a
guarantee. But Lord, we pray for the
manifest power of the Holy Spirit.
And we ask Lord, that even as we go through these truths that we
would hear the voice of Christ. And Lord, our request is single,
that we would love the Lord Jesus Christ more, that the love
that we can all testify of that is filled with inexpressible joy
and glory. O Lord, wash us again in that
kind of a love. We trust that you're able to
provide it. And we pray that you deal with
every obstacle, every distraction, anything that would
hinder 1 heart in this place from receiving what you have to
say. Lord, we adore you and we pray
that you help us cherish you more through this study.
In the name of the living Christ, we pray Amen and Amen.
Second King. 17 If I were to title this Bible study, I think
I would go with the final straw. The final straw, because we have
been studying week after week, 1, King after another, failing
to uphold God's righteous standard and the nation's abject
abhorrence of God's Word. And now we have come to the
patience of the Lord reaching its breaking point.
This is significant because this is going to manifest in the
Kingdom of Israel facing its ultimate punishment, the forced
evacuation of this people from the Promised land.
This is going to change the rest of our study in the Old
Testament. This is absolutely massive.
It's imperative and there's so much in it for us to consider.
But we have to keep this in mind that even before the people
crossed the border and entered into their new home, the Lord
warned so many times that if they continued in sin, they
would be vomited out of the land, just like the previous
inhabitants. But even though those warnings
came to them before and after they lived in this land, none of
them could imagine that it would be possible no matter what they
did. And this was a false security
that many of them had false hope in.
And it was something that the Lord addressed through His
servants, the prophets, on more than one occasion.
In fact, it's all over the writings of the prophets.
So allow me to give you a couple of examples.
One that comes to mind is Amos chapter 6, verse 1.
And you don't have to turn there unless you want to see with your
own eyes. But he says there are woe to
those who are at ease in Zion, to those who feel secure in the
mountain of Samaria that was the capital of the Kingdom of
Israel. And in that same chapter, in
verse seven, he says, therefore you're going to be the first one
to be exiled. I think of Jeremiah Chapter 7,
verses 3 and 4 where the prophet says, thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your deeds and I
will let you dwell in this place following it with this.
Do not trust in deceptive words. And the word specifically that
Jeremiah had in mind was this is the temple of the Lord, the
temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
What were they saying? There is no way that God will
allow anybody to conquer the temple.
It's permanent. And they had all these strange
explanations in their own hearts and even from false prophets who
were saying peace, peace when there was no peace.
So here's what we can learn right from the beginning.
It's a dangerous thing to try to rationalize God's justice with
our carnal wisdom. And man has many clever ways of
trying to dismiss the concept of divine judgement against sin.
And they do this again in many ways.
Some try to redefine what sin really is, others put into
question God's willingness to judge and what his wrath truly
entails, and some just lie about his desire to bring about swift
justice against iniquity and make him out to be someone who's
not wrathful at all. So this was a constant
diversion. This was something that was
prominent in the days of the prophets, and it caused many
people to be crystallized in their sin.
And you have to recognize something.
This deception was not only prevalent in the days of
Jeremiah and Amos and Isaiah and Ezekiel, it was true in the days
of the apostles. I'll ask you to turn here in
Ephesians chapter 5. I know I told you to turn to 2nd
king 17. Just keep your hand there.
But look at this in the New Testament, in Ephesians chapter
5, verse 5 to 6, Paul says, for you may be sure of this, that
everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous,
that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the Kingdom of
Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with
empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God
comes upon the sons of disobedience.
So this was prominent in Paul's day as well.
You had people who are being taught, people who are persuaded
that God will not judge certain sins, that these are just
impulses. This is natural, that this is
something that he winks at, this is something that he will not
consider or take into account. And Paul calls those empty
words. And more than he says, this is
deception. Yes, there are sins that we can
commit that God will pour out his wrath on, namely, if you are
outside of Christ. Do you think it's any different
today? Do you think that there are
people who are downplaying the wrath of God that are redefining
what eternal judgement really is?
It's becoming increasingly popular in churches, in
Christendom. Be careful.
Be careful of those who would try to question God's character,
His nature, who emphasize one element of Him while ignoring
another. This people here understood that
God was patient, I'm talking about Israel, but they could not
fathom how and why He would punish.
So let's read the first 6 verses together because what you and I
are going to look at is the final king of Israel, not of
Judah but of the Northern Kingdom.
Second king 17 verse one in the 12th year of A has king of
Judah. Hoshea the son of Elah began to
reign in Samaria over Israel and he reigned nine years and he did
what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings
of Israel who were before him against them came up.
Shamanese are king of Assyria and Hoshea became his vassal and
paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria found
treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to Sew king of
Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had
done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria
shut him up and bound him in prison.
Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to
Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.
In the ninth year of Hosheh, the king of Assyria captured
Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and
placed them in Hala and on the high bar the river of Gozen and
the city of the Medes. Behold, the final ruler of this
Kingdom. And as significant as that is,
he doesn't seem to be the focus of these verses at least.
Did you notice how many times the title King of Assyria
appears in these verses? It's repeated a total of 6
times. This is a linguistic attempt to
try to help us understand that there is one Kingdom now that's
overshadowing another. In other words, there's a new
sheriff in town. The king of Israel is no longer
in charge. A foreign nation now has come to
take full control. And yes, it's gradual, but we
see where this is going. And this is so important for us
to consider because it's kind of odd to see the king of Assyria
encroaching upon the Kingdom of Israel under this
administration. Why is it strange, at least
initially? Look back at verse 2.
And he did what was evil in the side of the Lord, yet not as the
kings of Israel who were before him.
So he was evil, but he was not as evil as his predecessors.
And so some students of the Bible have come to this and they
were puzzled. Why does an invasion occur under
a king who is not as wicked as those who came before him?
It would make more sense for an Ahab like King or it has why
Hoshea and many explanations have been given, but I think
it's more simple than people make it out to be.
It's actually not as complicated because it doesn't say that
Hoshea was innocent, does it doesn't say that he was
righteous. It just shows that he's sinned
differently than those who came before him.
If anything, this is a reminder to all of us that sin is sin and
that we all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of
God. Because we are very tricky and
we are very clever in how we try to make ourselves less sinful
than others. We compare, we contrast, and you
and I may transgress in different ways, but choosing
certain sins over others does not give us a better chance of
being acquitted. That's exactly what James talks
about in James 211. He says that the law says do not
commit adultery, and it also says do not murder.
And if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have
become a transgressor of the law.
OK, so you don't sin in this way, but you sin in another.
You're still, you're still a transgressor in your own right.
You still have broken God's law. You're still stained with sin
and you need a Savior. Hoshea here is is not innocent.
He can't escape this. He himself is in trouble and you
and I have to understand because if we compare, we can convince
ourselves that we can make make it past God's righteous standard
when all the while we are desperately in need of it.
I think of Isaiah having this conversation the other day with
somebody where Isaiah there in Isaiah chapter 6 in the presence
of the Lord. He says I'm a man of unclean
lips and a moment among the people of unclean lips.
The context makes that so much more profound than people
initially understand it because in the year that king Uzziah
died, Isaiah had that vision. How did Uzziah you remember this
for a couple weeks ago. How did Uzziah sin?
He went into the temple of the Lord assumed to be a priest.
How was he punished? He became a leper.
What was a leper to do if they to do it, they came into close
proximity with somebody who was not a leper.
They were to announce what unclean, unclean, unclean,
unclean. And here's Isaiah the prophet
who up to chapter 6 was telling all the people of Israel, woe to
you, woe to you. And then once he sees the
glorified Lord there on his throne, he says, I'm a man of
unclean lips. What is he saying there?
He's saying many things, including this.
I'm no better than Uziah. I'm no better than that man in
the presence of Jesus Christ. I need a savior.
Well, I'm a prophet. Who cares?
I preach well in the presence of the Lord, even your best deeds
are unclean. So Jose here, he's not going to
go free. He's also going to be facing
judgement. And here's what's so
significant. Assyria does not immediately
take over the Kingdom, does he? It's gradual and before he takes
full control, he takes control of the people in terms of
taxation. So now they're subjugated to
them. They have to pay every year.
They have to give up their resources.
And look at this at verse 3. This stood out to me here.
It says here that he had to pay him tribute.
That's the last word there. Verse 3, the word in the Hebrew
is found all over the book of Leviticus describing what the
offerings that the people were to make in the temple as an act
of worship. And I think there's a subtle
lesson there. I think there's a reminder here
that whether we are aware of it or not, we all worship someone
or something. This is how low the nation got,
that instead of focusing and giving all their tribute to the
Lord, they gave it to another king.
Whatever your ultimate allegiance or loyalty is to is
what you worship. There's no other way around it.
And so in refusing to worship the true God, he is in essence
worshiping another king. And that is true for all of us
to fail to faithfully worship the Lord.
You will give what belongs to God to something else.
You was we heard so many times become a slave to someone or
something else. And those have tragic
consequences when God is not the object of your worship.
Let me give you an example. I know we haven't read these
verses, but Scroll down to verse 15.
It says here they despised His statutes and His covenant that
He made with their fathers and the warnings that He gave them.
They went after false idols and became false, and they follow
the nations that were around them concerning whom the Lord
have commanded them, that they should not do like them.
I think the King James captures this verse a little bit more
accurately. DSV says that they what they
went after false idols and became false.
King James would say they went after vain things and became
vain. But when you look at the Hebrew,
it's even more profound. It draws out the meaning, I
believe obviously in the original language for us to
consider the the severity of wrong pursuits.
The word there for vain or false in the Hebrew is Havel.
When I looked into this word, I wanted to know what it meant.
It was interesting. It means to act mentally void,
something that's profitless, something that's futile.
In other contexts, it would be the word breath or vapor.
So if you go with the original, you know how you can translate
that one part in that verse? They went after empty things and
became empty. And here's what came to mind.
You all know it, that before you came to Christ there was a
hollowness in the soul, right? You can testify that and you
know it. When you're not walking closely
with the Lord, you, you feel like you're a shell.
You feel like I'm missing something.
And I believe that's a proof text to back that feeling up.
In pursuing empty things, what happens?
They became empty. And that's a sad state of
anybody who does not have the Lord as their King.
Here's the beauty of our God, that He is so willing to rescue
us from tyrannical masters that have deceived us and lied to us,
and keep us bound and bring us unto Himself and become our Lord
and fulfill us as He becomes our Lord and our Savior.
Hoshey had that choice. I believe that's the reason why
the Lord does not allow Assyria to immediately ransack
everything. He allows them to come in steps
close enough for Hoshea to taste the misery of being ruled by
something or someone else. So what does Hoshea do?
Does he cry out for mercy? Does he realize that I'm, I'm,
I'm doing the wrong thing here, Lord, I surrender, I repent.
Now look what he does in verse 4 again.
But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had
sent messengers to sow king of Egypt and offered no tribute to
the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year.
Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in
prison. He blew it.
The one opportunity for you to cry out so that you can be
liberated, to be saved, you turn to another savior.
And why he messes up here is not because his attempt to conspire
against Assyria angered the king.
It's because he went to another solution apart from God himself.
Can I ask you a question? Did God give precise
instruction, namely to the kings, of how they should relate
to the nation of Egypt? Does anything come to mind from
the Old Testament? We've referenced this passage
over and over again throughout our studying kings.
It's in that passage in Deuteronomy 17 and in verse 16,
he was so specific in telling what his future rulers ought to
do and how they should relate, namely to the Egyptians.
Listen to this in Deuteronomy 1716.
Only he being the king, only he must not acquire many horses for
himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to
acquire many horses. Now look at this, since the Lord
has said to you, you shall never return that way again.
The Lord knew the temptation that would come.
And Egypt in the Scriptures is often a picture of the world.
And under those circumstances, was Israel ever meant to engage
with the place that they were delivered from?
And this may not resonate with you now, but I hope that you'll
remember it for a time where it'll really count.
The temptation to rely on fleshly carnal actions, wisdom,
or worldly partnerships will be much more intense when you're in
trouble. When you find yourself surprised
by some kind of distress or decision, you feel like there
are no answers. Be careful being a Lord to go
back to the way you used to think or your former man,
because in those moments you know what the Lord does.
He allows those things to happen so that he will watch to see if
you'll come to Him. Where will you run?
Who will you call? What will you rely on?
What will you implement? And there's a place in Isaiah 30
where the Lord speaks about this very incident through the
prophet Isaiah. Oh, it's worth turning there in
Isaiah 30, verse one. Ah, stubborn children, declares
the Lord, who carry out a plan but not mine, and who make an
alliance but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
who set out to go down to Egypt and do what without asking for
my direction? To take refuge in the protection
of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.
So what was the problem here? Not that they couldn't find
answers elsewhere and practical means, but they did so without
asking direction from God. That's what broke God's heart.
Do you want to enrich your relationship with the Lord?
Can I offer one thing? Make it a regular habit to
consult Him. This is his desire.
He takes delight in receiving your request, and if you do
that, listen, he not only will hear you, you will receive
something in return. You will inherit a steady peace.
If that's a pattern in your life, I can guarantee it.
You will know more of His presence because you're
constantly coming to Him, and you will know the very blessing
of God on the thing that you're asking Him to help you with,
because He doesn't just watch, He waits.
He waits and He waits for the moment that you turn to Him to
do something else. Look at the same passage in
Isaiah 30. Scroll down to verse 18.
It's in the same context, and look what He says.
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore
he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all those who wait for him.
Do you see that? So not only does he observe to
see what will you do when you're pressed and understanding this,
that He waits not just for you to obey, but for you to know His
mercy. He longs to show mercy and
notice that the deliverance, the answer is not necessarily
immediate. And the same passage we're told
blessed are all those who wait for him.
So, so many people are frustrated in turning to the
Lord as a reflex because they they want immediate answers.
OK, but there's a specific blessing for those who wait for
the answer and you can comfort yourself with this.
I've done my part to turn to him to receive from him and I trust
that he is merciful to me in that place.
This, this king refused to do it, at least for the time being,
and this captivity would be so shocking to the original readers
that the authors compelled by the Spirit to do something with
the rest of the chapter. He's going to give a summary of
why they were exiled. This is staggering.
This is altering for the future of this people.
And so from verse 7 back in our main text in 17 Second Kings 17,
from verse 7 down to verse 23, there's going to be an overview
comments that you're very familiar with because we've seen
them over and over in our study of Second Kings.
But as I was staring at this passage the other day, praying,
Lord, I know there's something else here.
You don't repeat yourself without, without a goal, just
meditating and just asking the Lord for something.
I realized that certain words and certain phrases were
standing out. And as things stood out, I
realized that there's specific reasons why the people were
removed from the promises of God, and they're the same
reasons, the same causes, the same factors that might lure you
and me away from God's perfect will for our lives.
See, the Promised Land signifies that God's good promises, his
gifts. And though the people remained
his people, even though they were in exile, they removed
themselves from a position of receiving his promises.
It's possible for Christians to do the same.
Praise God, he seals us and keeps us until the end for
eternal life. But you can miss out a lot in
this life. That's why for the rest of the
study, you have to really pay attention.
This is my heart. This has been my prayer because
I think there are at least four reasons why Christians are not
under God's total blessing, are not walking in the fullness of
his plan for their lives. And it's here.
It's it's exemplified with this nation.
And so let's look at 4 reasons, 4 causes for a person who is in
Christ to miss out on all that Christ would have for them.
And the first one is this no awe of God.
There is no awe of God. Look at verse 7 to verse 8.
And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned
against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the
land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the
nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel and
in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.
Highlight that phrase at the end of verse seven, had feared other
gods. Obviously that doesn't mean that
they were in dread of different deities or local powers.
This speaks of them having a greater reverence and adoration
for other things instead of the Lord Himself, and that was a
cause for them to slip to a wrong path.
And this is not mentioned first without purpose.
This is where a lot of things go wrong for people.
When they're no longer mesmerized and amazed of who God
is, things become problematic. Another way of saying it is that
the true protection that we can inherit from evil comes from
standing in amazement of who the Lord is.
Proverbs 813. The fear of the Lord is the
hatred of evil. The fear of the Lord is the
hatred of evil. That tells us more than just
what the fear of the Lord is. That also explains what the fear
of the Lord does. It causes you to hate evil.
It inspires you to abhor that which God abhors.
Whatever He loathes, you love. And anytime you find yourself
attached or attracted to that which God hates, you can know
this for sure. You are deficient.
I am deficient in my awareness of the majesty of God always.
Whenever sin looks better than the Savior, I have lost my sense
of awe of who the Lord is. You know, I was thinking about
different verses. I mean, when you talk about the
concept and the truth of the fear of the Lord, so many things
can come to mind. And there's this obscure passage
that I've, I've preached on before, but then I saw it in a
different light because I remember once, I don't know when
exactly, I remember spending a time addressing the issue of
fear, ungodly fear, and what fear inspires a man to do.
And fear, really that emotion, when it is tolerated, leads you
to sin in different ways. So I know I told you to go to
Isaiah earlier, but this is so worth going to again, go to
Isaiah and look at chapter 57, verse 11.
Notice the specific criticism that the Lord gives through the
prophet to the people. Whom do you dread and fear?
So that you lied and did not Remember Me, did not lay it to
heart, Have I not held my peace even for a long time?
And you do not fear me. So again here you see how what
fear can do to a person, they can encourage you to do what
lie. Maybe you've known that
temptation when you were faced with something and you
understood. If I tell the truth, there are
going to be consequences. So I'm going to exaggerate or
I'm going to downplay this, or I might just outright deny it.
Fear stimulates us to different sins, but the diagnosis is
deeper than that. Look at the last part, he says,
and you do not fear me. So it's not just the presence of
an unrighteous fear, it's the absence of the fear of the Lord.
So what? Because they didn't fear the
Lord, they felt the liberty to lie.
And the Lord says, you didn't fear me.
That's why you succumbed to this.
And that should be a strong reminder for us that when we do
not have the Lord as our ultimate satisfaction, ultimate
delight, ultimate wonder, other things that take His place will
lead you to do things they never planned doing.
Which brings me to the second point.
Let's go to our main text. They didn't have an awe of God.
But notice what we find here in verse nine.
One word in this verse and the people of Israel did secretly
against the Lord their God, things that were not right.
They built for themselves high places and all their towns from
watchtower to fortified city. What word stands out to you in
that verse? Good secretly.
Isn't that fascinating? The public blatant ideology of
this people. You know where it began in
private, you wouldn't know that apart from this verse.
At least I can confess that because everything that we've
seen was just out in the open. But no, in review of the sins of
the nation, the Holy Spirit says it started in secret.
Number two reason why people will disqualify themselves from
God using them and blessing him with his maximum blessing.
They live in secret sin. They live in secret sin, and
again, I don't think it's random that the second point is
following what we just touched on concerning the fear of the
Lord, because when you fear the Lord, it's very hard to sin in
secret. I firmly believe that the one
who honors the Lord in this way will live with the following
understanding sin and sin, whether it's private or public,
whether it's internal or external, other people know
about it or not, it doesn't matter because the Lord is aware
of it. That's one of the ways you know
that you're walking in the fear of the Lord.
And I firmly believe that people walk away from what God has for
them because so many have convinced themselves as long as
other people don't know about this, I am OK.
You're not, because God knows and he's the one who ultimately
blesses. Promotion comes from the Lord.
Psalm says empowerment comes from the Lord.
True treasure comes from the Lord.
And on the flip side, a child of God who believes I may be able
to fool others, but I can't fool God.
Oh, you have secured for yourself a trajectory of great
gifts and blessing and security. I can't fool God.
I can't. He knows what's in here.
He knows what I think about. He knows my motives.
Man, if you're there and you stay there, every area of your
life will be blessed. Every area your marriage will be
blessed. Your relationship with your
children will be blessed. Your relationship with others
will be blessed. Your ministry will be blessed.
Everything will be blessed, but if you think like these
Israelites that you can actually like a ceiling and walls can
keep God from seeing what I'm doing, come on, who are you
fooling? So many truths that encourage me
in the Scriptures. Deal with the heart, where you
have guys like Nehemiah who prayed from the heart, Abraham's
servant looking for a wife for Isaac.
He prayed in his heart. And that shows me every time
that the voice in my heart is just as loud as what I'm saying
in this microphone. It's quiet to you, but to Him is
just as loud. That changes so much, is it not?
We see here that the people refuse to believe that.
And so it started secretly, but then they began to go in the
high places. Third, reason 1/3 cause for us
to veer off God's promises is in verse 10.
They set up for themselves pillars and ash Him on every
high hill and under every green tree, and we continue.
And there they made offerings on all the high places, as the
nations did, whom the Lord carried away before them.
And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger.
And they served idols of which the Lord had said to them, You
shall not do this. Number one, there is no law of
God #2 they sinned in secret #3 You can't expect God's full
blessing if you imitate the world.
Where do I get that from? Says here in the middle of verse
11, as the nations that whom the Lord carried away before them.
One of the most shocking verses in the New Testament regarding
believers is what James says and James 44 You adulterous people,
who's he speaking to? A bunch of churches, He says.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the
world is what enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be
a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
And the world that James is referring to speaks about the
godless, self-centered, Antichrist value system of this
world. He's not talking about the
things that we see and we can enjoy in this live.
No, he's talking about the passions, the desires, the
ambitions of those who hate Christ.
And when believers succumb to these things, they make
themselves unfit for much in the Kingdom because the Lord can't
use somebody to reach the World if they're enamored by the
world. And that's what we find here
with this nation that was called to be a light to the nation's.
Now they wanted to be like the nation's.
This the Lord had no use for them.
How can I make you shine? How can I, how can I expect
people to taste something different when you want to blend
in so much? And so why does so many
professing believers want to look like the world?
Why do they want to cuss like the world?
I don't understand this trend of Christians cussing.
Why? What do you get out of that?
Why and how are you entertained by the same vulgarity that the
world drinks in and enjoys the ambitions of the world and at
the same time expect testimonies.
I'm not talking about legalism. I'm talking about blatant
obvious things that a line has been drawn.
This is of the world. This is of those who are in
Christ. It won't happen.
And you might be wondering, well, I know some people who
have ministries and they look, they look like the world.
They sound like the world. They're they're pretty
culturally savvy, if you want to call it that.
OK, fine. They have a platform.
I can tell you this, they don't have God's power.
OK, fine, they have money. They don't have God's favor.
Well, they have so many coming to their meetings, fine.
But do they really have true disciples of the Lord Jesus
Christ or just spectators? I'm talking about the real raw
blessing of God. I'm not talking about marketing
success. I'm not talking about physical
things. I'm talking about the deep
things of the soul, real fruit, things that will carry out into
eternity. I can't expect that if I'm going
to flirt with the things that breaks my God's heart.
So this nation wanted to be like the nation.
So be it. You want it so badly, go live
with them. You like idols?
Go live with those who worship idols.
They have plenty of them in Assyria.
But you can't have both. Last thing, let's come back to
our main text in verse 13. Yet the Lord warned Israel and
Judah by every prophet and every seer saying, turn from your evil
ways and keep My commandments and my statutes in accordance
with all the law that I commanded your Father's and that
I sent to you by my servants, the prophets.
But they will not listen. But we're stubborn as their
fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
Let me say this before we go to this fourth point.
You don't need to be entrenched in all of these things.
All it takes is one of them. If I don't have an awe of God,
that's all it takes. If, if I live in secret sin,
that's powerful enough. If if I am imitating the world,
that does enough damage. And though these are all
interconnected in their ways, we can see them as separate
threats. Here's the last one.
If I want a definite way of stepping out of bounds of what
God has for me, all I have to do is ignore His word, ignore God's
word. So here's the kindness of Lord
in verse 13. He sent prophets and every
minister that he had, every seer, they were saying the same
thing. It was a giant megaphone.
Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments over and
over again. And we got a little sample of
the roster prophets that were there at this time.
Guys like Jonah and Hosea and Isaiah.
These were men who were ministering at the same time is
incredible. And they still did what Verse
14, the first few words, they would not listen.
We should all be concerned for anybody on the individual or on
a corporate level who is not sensitive to the Scriptures,
sensitive to the Word of God. I I worry for those who are
consistently distracted when the pure Word of God is being
taught, no matter who's teaching it or worse, when it's heard.
But it's never taken to heart because you see other things
will unfold over time when a person or a society as a whole
are exposed to the Word like this generation was, but does
not listen, but turns a deaf ear but refuses to receive it.
When you hear the Word of God irresponsibly, it's dangerous.
Jesus spoke about that on so many occasions.
Listen. What is He going to say to every
church on Sundays as we listen? He has an ear, let Him hear.
In other words, you can hear sounds and words but not really
Get it? That's exactly what was
happening here. And here is the gradual decline.
We have an outline right here. So it starts with verse 14,
right? But they would not listen.
But look at the next phase, verse 15.
They despised His statutes and His covenant that He made with
their fathers and the warnings that He gave them.
So you went from not listening to now despising.
And the word despising. Here is the image of not taking
it seriously. Yes, but the conviction that you
once knew and praise God for is an annoyance.
You shun it now. You turn off your conscience as
quickly as possible. You deflect.
You never allow it to apply to you.
And over time your conscience becomes more and more numb,
insensitive and things that once pierced your heart.
And you couldn't wait for the benediction of the end of the
service so you can find some quiet place or go home early to
get on your knees. Just bounces off of you.
Oh, you wouldn't say it, but inside you despise it.
It bugs you. I'm happy that I can say this
about very few experiences and not many.
But I'll tell you how I've seen this in my own life from the
platform. This was years ago.
I remember seeing a specific season of somebody's life where
they would come to church always once the meeting was over, they
only came for the fellowship. And the only way I can explain
that was they didn't want to hear God's Word.
It was too hot, it was too convicting.
So I want my friends, I want my fellowship, but they didn't want
God's Word. And I've seen that happen more
than once. And the way they were living
backed it up that God's Word wasn't doing its work in them,
and they didn't want to sit under God's Word.
This can happen in different ways, but that's not even the
final step. There's another thing that takes
place. Look here at verse 16.
And they abandoned and they abandoned all the commandments
of the Lord their God and made for themselves metal images of
two calves. And they made an Asherah and
worship all the hosts of heaven and serve Baal.
So you went from not listening to despising and now you have
abandoned. Here's the image.
It's no longer a negative feeling that you have.
You are now actually walking in the way of the world.
You are now pursuing the things that the world loves.
You are now sacrificing of yourself to that which the world
sacrifices for. And for some they might be at
this phase, you know, picking and choosing certain things in
the Scriptures. Others it can be radical
apostasy. They just deny the thing
altogether. They don't want anything to do
with the Lord. And that happens unfortunately
to some. So they walk away and they
sometimes deny it. And when you when you stay there
long enough and you don't allow the word to torch the lies and
the temptations that try to callus your heart, and you don't
allow God's thunderous and comforting voice to obliterate
anything that tries to steal his goodness, his blessings from
your life, you become more vulnerable to things that you
thought were deplorable. You are now desensitized and you
begin to entertain and even embrace things like what we read
here in verse 17. And they burned, and they burned
their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used
divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the
sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
Do you see it? Who would have thought that
would start with not listening would lead to burning?
Burning who? Their children.
You think this is outrageous? This is exaggerated, Is it?
Is there not a silent Holocaust happening while we're having
Bible study here in America? Is it so outlandish to believe
that there are people who are literally killing their sons and
their daughters? Do you think such people are
listening to the word of God? No, such people have abandoned
it. And so understand when you
deviate from this, when this does not become the means of
your worship, of your guidance, of your delight, you can go from
not listening. And the way you do that at home
is you just tuck this away. And when you come here, you're
here, but you're not really here.
And if it's really a church, a pulpit that preaches the truth,
if you're not careful, you can begin to despise.
And there's many ways of despising the truth and all I've
seen it. It goes from despising to
abandoning, from abandoning to making decisions that can leave
scars on your life and other people's lives because it all
began with you choosing to ignore the Word of God.
So this is how the people walked away from the promised land.
And here's how the Lord by the Spirit through the author,
brings this section to a close in verse 18.
Let's just read from verse 18 down to verse 23.
Therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed
them out of His sight. None was left but the tribe of
Judah only. Judah also did not keep the
commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs
that Israel had introduced. So right there, you and I are
being prepared that Judah is headed for trouble.
Verse 20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel,
and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of
plunderers, until he cast them in is rather cast them out of
his sight. When he had torn Israel from the
House of David, they made Jeroboam the son of the back
king, and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and
made them commit great sin. The people of Israel walked, and
all the sins that Jeroboam did, they did not depart from them
until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had
spoken by all His servants, the prophets.
So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this
day. For the rest of this chapter,
we're going to realize that Assyria didn't stop there
because although they made the land vacant and they dispersed
the people of Israel, they're going to now replace the vacancy
with their own kind of people. And the decision that is Siri
will make here will actually have effect leading up to the
days of Jesus. So I can't keep you here for
another hour, but I'll choose to leave that for next week.
I think what we heard suffices for us to digest the word of the
Lord. Help us, Lord, to examine our
hearts. And we pray, Lord, that we would
just have a renewed awe of you. We pray, Lord, that you would
never allow us to be casual with the Scriptures.
Help us fall deeper in love with you.
Thank You, Lord, that in crisis moments, even if the troubles
that we are facing come from our own sin, You watch and you wait
to be merciful to us. Help us believe that every
single time. If it's a mess that we didn't
ask for or if it's a mess that we created, help us believe that
You're blazing eyes of love look upon us and you're waiting for
us to turn to you and ask for your help.
And if that's, if that's for anybody here who finds
themselves in muck and mire, may they take this truth today and
apply it immediately. And Lord, for all of us, all of
us here, help us, Lord, stay near you.
We want our lives, this short, brief life to not be empty, but
to be filled with your life. So if there's anything that is
vain, anything that we're pursuing that's replacing you,
oh, show it to us. We will abandon it.
We will not abandon you, Lord, by your grace, keep us close to
you. So Lord, even tonight we worship
you and we worship you with hearts that are longing to have
all that you have for us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Amen. Oh, let's worship the Lord
together. Let's stand and adore him and
love him and fear him, for He is worthy and it is for our safety.