If you have your Bibles, please meet me in Second Kings chapter
16. And as you turn there, I want to
testify that I feel a little bit more inspired this Friday
evening. And I'll tell you why because
there have been different things I was reading in the Scriptures
this week, but one particular passage has been my focus of
meditation. And they are the words of Jesus
Christ, specifically in the Gospel of Luke when He was
helping those two destitute disciples on the road to Emmaus.
And he said something there in Luke 2425 to 27.
And I so wanted to meditate on these truths that I had to
memorize it and take it with me wherever I was going throughout
this week. In that passage he finally looks
at those two disciples of his, and he says, O foolish ones, and
slow of hard to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these
things and enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and all
the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures
concerning Himself, two things stood out to me.
Number one, it was the Word all. It appears three times, all,
all, all. And what moved me was that the
Lord Jesus Christ handled all of the word of God, saw prophet in
all of the word of God, interpreted and applied from all
of the word of God. Second to that, the Holy Spirit
was very specific in saying how he handled the word of God in
that he interpreted it to them. And that word interpret is very
plain. What Jesus did is he came to the
Scriptures and he brought up the meaning of the Word of God.
So Christ didn't just simply reference a few verses.
He was in general in how he pointed to a certain passage.
He would take a text and he would break it down and
translate it in a way that was understandable.
And why that moved me was the outcome of it.
Because when you Scroll down to verse 32, those two same
disciples reflected on their encounter with this man who is
mysterious at first, but then later revealed that he was
indeed the resurrected Christ. And they admitted, did not our
hearts burn within us when He talked with us, not just when he
talked with us, when he opened to us what the Scriptures?
It was the interpretation of the Scriptures that caused a flame
to grow in their hearts that burned away all the cobwebs of
apathy and weariness of unbelief.
And that's what we endeavor to do here in this church, to
interpret the Word of God with the hope that our hearts would
burn within us every single time we encountered the Word of God.
And so just meditating on that, I couldn't wait any longer for
this Bible study, hoping that even in an obscure passage like
this, we would experience something supernatural, that the
presence of God would be more real to us because of the word
of God. Explain to us, Amen.
Well, can we ask him for that? Lord, we thank you for this time
together. And we, Lord, believe in the
power of the Scriptures. But Lord, we are also aware that
we need the power of the Holy Spirit.
So we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you would
save this meeting from becoming a flat, stale lesson.
Instead, we pray for life changing truth.
We want to see Christ. We want to know his wisdom, his
character, his heart. And Lord, we trust that you will
guide a step by step in the study in his name.
We pray these things. Amen.
Well, last week we briefly examined the biographies of
several kings in rapid succession, all within a single
chapter. But as we approach Second King
16, the brisk pace that we experience will come to a sudden
halt. The reason for that is because
this entire section is designated to a single king.
It's as though the author of this book, back in chapter 15,
put the pedal to the metal, and as we come to the beginning of
chapter 16, he slams on the brakes.
Evidently, there's something that he wants us to see here.
Carefully, he slows things down so that we can observe certain
traits and truths connected to this one ruler by the name of A
Has. And this is significant because
A Has is recognized as one of the most shameless and infamous
kings in Judah's history. If you were hoping for a more
spiritual, scenic, and encouraging route, I'm afraid to
tell you that's not going to happen.
We are going to see something very discouraging.
And I know last week we were trying to digest this horrible
montage of one failing king following another.
But we have to trust in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit that
though this will be a heavy chapter, it is for our good.
There's something here for us, and that's what we have to do.
We have to honor this text for what it says.
And they're going to be familiar things that we see with a has.
But there's something that stands out about Him, and it's
in the last 10 verses of this chapter.
We're going to try to fulfill all of this text, and it's in
the later part of it that we see something unique about Him.
But we can't rush there just yet.
So let's now begin the first 3 verses.
A second King. 16 In the 17th year of Pika, the son of
Ramallah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to
reign. Ahaz was 20 years old when he
began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem.
And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God,
as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the
kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an
offering according to the despicable practices of the
nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.
There's a massively important truth found in these first 3
verses. There are many things that we
can say, but I just want to drive home one thought.
Good fathers don't always produce good sons, and bad
fathers don't always produce bad sons.
We're reminded right out of the gate who A has father was
Jonathan. We looked at him again last
week, but let's be reminded what kind of king he was back in
chapter 15, verse 34. Jonathan did what was right in
the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah
had done. That's a rare occurrence.
You would expect then, that his son A Has would follow in the
steps of his pious and righteous father.
But we don't see that. Do we know?
Quite the opposite, he did what was evil in the sight of the
Lord. And remember, this is a king of
Judah and he's imitating the kings of Israel.
And one of the things that we mentioned last week that's worth
repeating is that godly influence does not always
promise godly imitation. Parents need to know that
parents who love Christ and honor his word and live for his
glory, they need to be comforted because I can tell you've had
conversations with those who are thinking I must have done
something wrong. I, I must have not prayed enough
or, or set a good enough example or have amazed my children
enough with God and what it's like to walk and worship God.
That's not always the case. You have many instances where
people make their own choices despite what's before them.
The flesh is that persuasive. The environment that we are in,
in this generation is that powerful.
Satan is that tricky. So it's not only a truth for
parents, it's a truth for pastors and leaders in the
church as well, those who make disciples.
Even though you may not be an elder in a church, as much as
you hope that your example and that the fragrance of Christ
that rests on you would inspire absolutely everybody under your
influence, that's not always the case.
If people sat through the best preaching in the person of Jesus
Christ and walked away wanting to kill him, Don't be so
overwhelmed when people do not respond to your passionate
presentation of the truth or how you walk in that truth by the
grace of the Holy Spirit. Good fathers, good leaders,
don't always produce good sons. That's not to say that there is
no impact or potential opportunity in the presence of
the righteous, but it doesn't guarantee it.
On a more encouraging note, 1 is not bound to continue the legacy
of ungodly influences as well. Where do I get that from?
Well, when you consider who A as his son is.
So Scroll down to chapter 18 and look at this familiar name in
second Kings 18 verse one in the third year of Hoshiya, son of
Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah, the son of a Has king of Judah
began to reign. Look at verse three that
chapter. And he did what was right in the
eyes of the Lord according to all that David his father had
done. Now when was the last time we're
getting ahead of ourselves here? But when was the last time you
and I read about a king, even a good king, who did what David
had done? Hezekiah will prove to be one of
the greatest kings in Jerusalem's history, one of the
great reformers of the southern Kingdom.
Ahaz was his dad. How does that work?
Well, it just reminds us that you should never believe the lie
that the lack of guidance or Christ like example, growing up
as a justifiable reason to remain defeated in your
spiritual growth or in your ineffectiveness.
And I've heard this from people. If only I had a godly father.
If only I had a believing mom. If only I had a better crowd in
my life, especially in the formation of my early years.
If only, if only, if only. What would I be now?
What would I look like now? Would I have to deal with this
trauma or these habits or this frame of mind?
And if you're not careful, if you think about what was lacking
in your life, you will always remain immature.
And you allow unbelief to callous your heart and never
trust that God is able to bypass all of that lack and work
directly in your heart and do miracles in you.
Hezekiah destroys any excuses. And I'm not here to condemn you.
I'm here to encourage you don't look back and say, what if?
Look up and say, please do a work in my heart.
If you did it in this man who had every right and excuse, so
to speak, of walking in evil, oh surely you can do it in me.
Sure, you can help me walk righteously and make an impact
for the glory of God. Now let's move on, shall we?
In chapter 16, verse 3, he did these despicable things, and
we've seen in many occasions that these kings in the Book of
Kings have similar accounts in the Book of Chronicles, namely
Second Chronicles, and it's no different for this man.
What you find in Kings here is quite jarring, but it gets even
worse when you consider Second Chronicles 28.
We don't have time to turn there, but here's what you'll
find about Ahaz in Second Chronicles 28, that he also
resurrected Bale worship. And here we read that he burned
his son as an offering. But in the mirroring account, we
learned that he burned his sons, plural.
So he sought to essentially exterminate his descendants as
an act of worship. You'll find that in chapter 28
verse three of Second Chronicles.
Which made me wonder if A has had this evil ambition, how did
Hezekiah come about? Have you ever wondered that
where did Hezekiah come from? If according to Second
Chronicles he burned his sons, Well you have to come to 2nd
Kings 18. When we study it, we'll consider
it further I'm sure. As if this wasn't twisted
enough, A has surpasses the preceding kings and yet another
way with his evil deeds. It's found in verse four.
And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and
on the hills and under every green tree.
We've seen this picture of these high places, the mention of
these high places on so many occasions.
But here's where it's different, with many of the kings,
including the good kings, these high places, which were really
convenient stations of worship that distracted people from
going to the one place that got designated for worship, namely
the temple. They were just tolerated.
They were ignored. They weren't adequately dealt
with or addressed. So many kings would just let
them be. They didn't really deal with
them. It has takes it a step further.
He doesn't just ignore them, he participates in them.
He himself sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.
This man is vile. This man is wicked.
Sam is between a good father and even a godlier son.
And when I came to this point in my personal reading, I thought
to myself, how much longer can this go on before there is
divine intervention? When will God step in and stop
the madness? Look at verse 5.
Then Resin, king of Syria and Pika, the son of Ramallah king
of Israel came up to wage war on Jerusalem and they besiege Ahaz
but could not conquer him. It's not surprising that an
invasion was on the horizon, or maybe shocking is that this is
Jerusalem. But still, God already warned
his people that if you continue in rebellion, the final stage of
judgement is that I will have 4 nations come and ransack, take
over everything, and even pull you out of the promised land.
But here's what's more surprising is the last part of
verse 5. You have a coalition, You have
Israel that's so wicked now that they're partnering with Syria to
actually come against Jerusalem. But notice what it says here.
They could not conquer him. Why is that?
Is this another instance of the Lord allowing things to get so
bad so that A has would realize the trajectory of his ways and
then repent and give himself over to the Lord?
Perhaps, but I think there's something deeper going on here,
and you're going to find the answer in another book of the
Old Testament. Can you guess what book that is?
Good guess, but I'm thinking of another book.
What book speaks about A has in great detail apart from Second
Chronicles? Isaiah, Isaiah Chapter 7.
Did you know Isaiah was a prophet during this time?
And God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to give him a word.
A word of what? You ready for this
encouragement? Isaiah 7 verse one.
Let's read. We're going to read 6 verses on
a row here, so pay attention. Don't allow yourself to get
distracted. It's going to be worth it.
Isaiah 7 verse one In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son
of Uzziah king of Judah, Resin the king of Syria, Pika the son
of Remalia the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war
against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.
When the House of David was told Syria is in league with Ephraim,
the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees
of the forest shake before the wind.
And the Lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz, you and Sheer
Jaisha your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on
the highway to the washer's field.
Pause. God knows exactly where you are.
See how specific that is? Just a thought.
First four and say to him, Be careful, be quiet, do not fear
you, do not let your heart be faint because of these two
smoldering stumps of firebrands at the fierce anger of resin and
Syria and the son of Romalia. Because Syria with Ephraim and
the son of Romalia has devised evil against you, saying, let us
go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for
ourselves and set up the son of Tabil as king in the midst of
it. I have a lot of questions, don't
you? Let's try to answer the main
one. Why is the Lord God comforting
and reassuring A man, a king who gave every reason not to expect
it, who didn't deserve it. We're not talking about Hezekiah
receiving a promise of deliverance.
A has a man who burned his children alive, a man who was
worshipping false gods. And God sends a great prophetic
voice to him and says, don't be afraid, they're not going to
succeed, be at rest. Simple answer, I guess, the
grace of God. But I think we're given enough
detail to know that it's more complex than that.
It's not just the grace of God. I believe the reason why the
Lord is ready to step in in this way is because of the
presumptuous ambition of these kings.
Look back at verse 6, especially the last part says here that the
king said, let us go up against Judah and terrify and let us
conquer it for ourselves and set up the son of Tabulus king in
the midst of it. It's that part that makes
everything clear. Because you see, the goal of
Syria and Israel was not just to destroy Judah, it was to
overthrow the Davidic dynasty and to put a king of their own
choice on that throne that has been promised to David and his
sons. So what you have here is 2 kings
not just threatening Ahaz, but challenging the promise God made
to the House of David. Whether they realize it or not,
they were not just coming up against a city, they were waging
war against the character of the Lord Almighty.
God made a promise to this house, and we have to look at
the spiritual element of this. This is Satan with yet another
attempt to try to delete what God said and prove to the world
that He can't keep His word. Do you see the deeper meaning to
this? Do you see now why God is
stepping in? There's something great at stake
here. You have a very real threat
attempting to sever the messianic line, and God is not
going to allow that to happen. And so he's going to step in.
And we see here that these two nations are, again, not trying
to just complete a military feat.
They're trying to undermine the redemptive purposes of the Lord.
That's what's happening, and it's in this very passage where
you and I find one of the most quoted Messianic prophecies
concerning the birth of the Savior, right?
Look at verse 13. And I hope understanding the
context makes this passage so much sweeter to your soul.
Isaiah 713 And he said here then, O House of David, is it
too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and
shall call his name Emmanuel. So you pluck that out and you
quote it around Christmas time. And people are warned by the
thought that this was a prophecy given 700 years before the time
of Christ. But leave it in its context and
see how profound this prophecy is that the Lord is not just
approaching a has to promise Him deliverance.
Look very carefully because there's a lot of debate about
what this prophecy really entails.
Here's a clue, verse 13 and he said here then, O House of
David, he's not just speaking to a has because you have a lot of
people attempting to say that this prophecy deals with what
was going on merely 700 years ago under a has his
administration. No more than that.
There's nothing to do with the Messiah, supposedly, but here's
my first clue. Isaiah is speaking to the House
of David, to the dynasty of David, to the seed of David, so
to speak. And what does he want to say?
He wants to reassure the House of David that in this
frightening time and in any time, God's promise will be kept
and it will be known through the birth of a supernatural child.
In other words, this child he will secure and he will fulfill
God's promise to David. Because later on in Isaiah 96,
with that same theme in mind, he adds to who this child will be.
Doesn't he not in verse six that a child will be born and his son
will be given and he will what? Increase the government and of
peace. There will be no end.
And this child, out of all these amazing titles given to him, the
one that stands out I believe the most is the fact that he
will be mighty God. He'll be mighty God.
So how this fits with the story is that House of David, you have
nothing to fear now, and you never have any reason to fear
because there's a child coming who will fulfill my promise, and
that's our Christ. So there's a deeper war going on
here. There's something beyond the
surface that we are supposed to grasp.
That's why God steps in for His name's sake.
Ultimately. Let's come back to 2nd Kings 16,
shall we? How is Ahaz going to respond to
this prophetic word, to the kindness of God, the mercy of
God? Well, it's here in verse 6 at
that time resident, the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria
and drove the men of Judah from Elath and the Edomites came to
Elath where they dwell to this day.
So pause. It's not as though a has was not
going to be chastised at all. You go to this and you see
expounded in Second Chronicles 28.
They suffered a lot. They lost a lot of their
citizens. They lost some land.
So the Lord isn't just winking at this man's sin.
He promises and he protects the Davidic dynasty, but he allows A
has to be punished. It gets worse.
Verse 7 So A has sent messengers to Tig Tiglath, thy Lizer king
of Assyria, saying I am your servant and your son come up and
rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria, from the hand of
the king of Israel who are attacking me instead of melting
at the mercy of God. Instead of hearing this word
from Isaiah and saying so foolish, look at my lineage,
look at my ancestry. Look, I'm I'm a son of David and
crying out to God to receive his help.
He turns to a wicked nation and look at the desperate language
he applies. I am your servant and your son.
This is what he says to the king of Assyria.
If only I'd say that to the king of the heavens.
And so many thoughts ran through my mind at this juncture, and
the main one that came to me is this.
No man is truly autonomous. We all serve someone.
We all serve something. And the choice is yours, who
your master will be. And I'm aware that there might
be some here, more likely people who will watch us later that
would object. What nonsense.
I'm a servant to no man. I'm the master of my faith.
I'm the captain of my soul. I call the shots and I respond
to that on the basis of the authority of God's Word, that
one of the things that sin does to deceive us is make you think
that you have boundless freedom when in fact you're a slave.
You think you're free. You're actually a prisoner to
your corrupt nature. The Bible speaks about us being
a servant of one or two things. You're either a servant to sin
or you're a servant to God. Those are your options.
And even if you think you're serving self, you're serving
sin. That's exactly what's happening.
And here's what you have to do. Please listen carefully.
If you believe that there is relief or help outside of
surrendering to the Lord Jesus Christ, you can expect the same
outcomes that we see here with Ahaz when he throws himself at
the feet of a wicked master. What happens next?
Look at verse 8. It has also took the silver and
gold that was found in the House of the Lord and the treasures of
the King's house and sent the present to the king of Assyria.
So this man, in order to persuade Assyria to come to
their defense, depletes his own resources and strips the
treasures out of the House of God.
Because there is always a cost to having a master over your
life apart from Christ. Always.
And it's a heavy price. It always is.
And here's what blows my mind about a has.
If he had just looked to the Lord and said, I am your servant
and I am your son, he could have saved all those resources.
And more than just save them, God would have gladly added to
them. This is the difference between
Christ as our master and any other master.
We're going to expound to that in a moment, but I want to let
you know that this is a promise that the New Testament makes for
those who choose Christ. Can I remind you of Romans 622?
It's worth highlighting, but it has this language in it
concerning slavery, namely slavery to God.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become
slaves of God, Paul says, what's the outcome of that?
The fruit you get leads to sanctification and it's end
eternal life. Now when you hear slave, what
things come to mind? Somebody's a slave to someone
else. You think of loss, the loss of
freedom, the loss of integrity, the loss of joy.
But Paul clarifies, when you're a slave of God, you gain, you
win, you receive the fruit. Is what?
Sanctification, a spirit, empowered work and
transformation in your life. You inherit that power, you
inherit that promise, and here is the end of it, eternal life.
How can you lose? You can't lose.
So we see here that to be a slave of God, you win.
And that's why those apostles in the beginning of their letters,
they unashamedly say we're bond servants of Jesus Christ.
We're bond servants of Jesus Christ.
We're bond servants of Jesus Christ because they want to say
one of two things. One, they want to say this is my
loyalty to him. I'm a slave.
I'm forever owned by my God. And two, He is a worthy master.
He gives you the choice. Take my yoke upon you.
Take it. You can refuse it.
Take it. And when you put it on, you
realize this is light. This is light.
This isn't heavy. And so we see here that this man
chooses otherwise, and it's so sad to witness because it only
gets worse. That's not the only outcome of
choosing another master. Verse 9.
And the king of Assyria listened to him.
The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it,
carrying its people captive to cur, and he killed resin.
Here's what you can expect if you so choose to submit yourself
to someone apart from the Savior.
You can expect deceptively profitable results.
Not just profitable results, Deceptively profitable results.
What happens here? He pays the price.
He bribes Assyria. Assyria, stepson on his behalf,
goes to war with Syria, defeats the king of Syria.
What can be more permanent in a victory than that?
So you wonder if he has thought to himself, it worked, it
worked. I didn't have to give up my sin.
I didn't have to repent. I didn't have to confess that
I'm this or that. I just turned to a powerful
nation. I paid them and they're able to
do this. Who needs God?
Well, what we're going to be reminded of is this, that sin
often times when it is indulged, when it is pursued, is sweet,
but it will eventually turn sour.
Always, always. And it's not until you go to
Second Chronicles 28 where you see that take place.
Now let's turn to the parallel account.
I want you to see the playbook of sin because when A has said
to Assyria, I am your servant and your son, what he was
essentially saying was we as a Kingdom want to become a vassal
state. We are subjugating our Kingdom
to the partial ownership of your Kingdom, Assyria.
So essentially what he does is he allows Assyria to put a leash
on his neck and notice what happens in Second Chronicles 28
verse 20, the added commentary of this outcome.
So Tiglath pilots are king of Assyria came against him, him
being a has by the way and afflicted him instead of
strengthening him for a has took a portion from the House of the
Lord and the House of the king and of the Princess and gave
tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.
It didn't it was temporary reprieve.
It was short lived. I've yet to have anybody show
me. Point to me somebody who has
walked away from the Lord Jesus Christ and we're better off.
Do you know somebody? Prove it, Show me.
I've never seen it in these 12 years of walking with Christ.
Oh, don't be fooled by the social media post.
They don't come to church anymore.
They're not serving the Lord anymore, but they're all smiley
with their filters in a place that you know no Christians has
no business being at, with people that no Christian has any
right according to the Word of God associating with.
And they look all dandy and they look all comfortable and they
look like they're having a grand time.
You can't yoke yourself to another master.
And no true joy and no true strength and no true help.
You'll never see it. And it's in Second King 16 where
we're reminded of that, how Syria will weaken a HAS and it
will bring Judah to a new law. And this is where I believe A
HAS stands out. Verse 10 of Second King 16.
When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pilasur, king of
Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus.
And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest, a model of the altar and
its pattern exact and all its details.
And Uriah the priest built the altar in accordance with all
that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus.
So Uriah the priest made it before King Ahaz arrived from
Damascus. This is shocking.
So now Ahaz makes his way to meet with the king of Assyria.
I'm sure to thank him. And when he comes into that
region, Damascus, something catches his eye.
An altar obviously dedicated to a false deity.
And there's debate here. Was this an Assyrian altar,
presumably because Assyria invaded and took over, and
perhaps to pay homage to their God, they set up this altar and
worshipped on it in this land. Or is this plainly an altar that
was belonging to the Syrians? And why that's up for debate is
because when you go to Second Chronicles 28 and you don't have
to turn there, you read explicitly that it was an altar
dedicated to the gods of the kings of Syria, not us Syria.
If it's us Syria, then you have King A has deceived and
thinking, oh, it's it's the the gods of the Assyrians.
I brought about this victory. If it's an altar dedicated to
the Syrians, then you just have another case of a darkened mind.
What happens when a man long enough turns his back on the
Lord? It skews his judgement.
Imagine I'm going to replicate this altar that the Syrians had
in worship to their God when their God clearly could not
deliver them. We underestimate how sin can
make people stupid. And we look out in the world.
We say, how are they doing that? How are they believing like
that? How are they acting like that?
Such is the consequence of sin. It it's scars and it Mars and it
muddies and it blurs and so you look at it like it just doesn't
make sense. And that's why some people think
it's more Assyria because I just they can't fathom how you would
take the Syrian altar to his home.
Well, we can believe it because that's what sin does and empires
you. Either way, we see that this man
is wanting to copy paste this altar and bring it to the House
of worship in Jerusalem. This is staggering, and I don't
know what's more shocking and disappointing, the king who made
this request or the priest who complied with it.
Gone are the days when temple ministers in Jerusalem would
stand up to tyrannical requests of kings to meddle the affairs
of Israel's center of worship. We've seen in our study how in
different occasions, priests would stand up to kings who try
to interfere and tamper with the temple, risking their lives in
doing so. And you would hope that this
would be another case of it. And what do we find?
You are the priest bending over, giving over to this man's
disgusting request. And this morning I was
meditating on this text, and my mind went to another passage of
Scripture, not anywhere near here, back in Exodus.
And you know this. You don't have to turn there in
Exodus 32, when the leader of the people of Israel is on a
mountaintop communing with God, receiving instructions for this
covenant nation. And in the impatience and the
feverish lust of the nation of Israel, they turn to Aaron, who
was the high priest up and make for us Gods.
What did Aaron do? He complied.
If you aspire to be a leader in the church, listen very
carefully. You have to be continually on
guard, and you have to be continually filled with the Holy
Spirit because pressures will come from all sides to amend how
God ought to be worshipped. And that pressure may come from
governmental leaders like Ahaz or may come from the very people
that you're trying to lead into pure devotion, like in the
Exodus with Aaron. Whether you are a parent or a
pastor, stand your ground and honor God's word no matter what
it costs you, because one compromise will always lead to
more. That's we're going to find out.
How do we see it in this story? Well, he requests that this
altar would be built. Now let's look at verse 12 of
Second King 16 And when the king came from Damascus, the king
viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the
altar and went up on it. Hold on, hold on, what are you
doing? He went up on it.
Look at verse 13 and burnt his burnt offering and his grain
offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of
his peace offerings on the altar.
Apart from this being a foreign altar, you have now a has
believing he can operate as what?
A priest? Have we seen any king try to act
like a priest before Uzziah? Did it go well for him?
This is dangerous play here. You're flirting with death.
Oh, there's so many things that we can say about this passage,
but let me just make one observation.
Here you have a man who is anti God, anti repentance, anti true
worship. But he seems very, very
interested in spiritual matters. Do you see that for a man who
doesn't want God, doesn't want the word of God, doesn't honor
the prophetic word, he's heavily invested in religious affairs.
Don't you see this elaborate description?
He gave this offering and that offering he wanted out of all
the things that he took out of Damascus, he wanted an altar
built. What's the lesson here?
You have many people today who claim to be spiritual and
religious. That doesn't mean that they know
God. That language is being thrown
around all the time now means very little these days.
And here's where it hits closer to home.
It's a sobering lesson for us that you can be so preoccupied
with religious activity and be so far from God at the same
time. Isn't that right?
What about Herod? We're told her that Herod heard
John the Baptist. Gladly preacher, I love when you
preach the sermons man, you get me thinking you, you inspire me.
Or you can think and you can inspire on your way to hell.
If you have not repented and put your trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can be in front of an altar
every weekend. You can lift your hand and put
it in the bucket and raise. You can do all of that.
Still not know God? Here's Ahaz.
If you don't know who this man really was and saw him at it,
this is, you would think, wow, look at all those offerings.
Wow, look at all the investment. Surely he's a spiritual man.
No, he was a wicked man. He was a wicked man.
And so we have to understand what it truly means to be born
again, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and giving to
the Lord what He truly asks of us.
Faith and from that place of faith regeneration and the Holy
Spirit working in us to offer true and pleasing sacrifices to
him. So we see this man preoccupied
with these things, but it gets worse.
Let's come back to our main text in verse 15.
And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest saying on the great
altar, burn the morning offering and the evening green offering
and the King's burnt offering and his grain offering with the
burnt offering of all the people, the land and their green
offering and their drink offering and throw on it all the
blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice.
But the bronze altar shall be made for me to inquire by.
Now here's what's amazing. He asked of this after something
he said in verse 14, because we we assume here that this altar
was made. We don't know exactly where was
built, but verse 14 clarifies its new location And the bronze
altar that was before the Lord, He removed from the front of the
house, from the place between his altar and the House of the
Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.
What do we make of this? We remember the Tabernacle that
was later the temple. When you walk through that
Eastgate into the temple courtyard, the first thing you
would see is this bronze altar, and on that bronze altars where
all the main animal sacrifices took place.
And that's why it's so important to read through Exodus,
especially where God gives specific instructions about not
just what's to be built, but where was to be built, where was
supposed to be stationed, what materials it was to be made of.
And that's what we see here, that it was supposed to be the
first thing that somebody would witness.
Why? Because God wanted to be the
first message that you would know when you walked into His
presence. I'm a Sinner and I need
atonement. I need something, someone to
stand in my place to receive judgement on my behalf.
That's the first message that you're to get.
And what does this man do? He removes the altar, tucks it
away in the corner and replaces it with this brand new altar.
This is a madman. He's thinking to himself, I
think that the temple needs a fresh change, a touch up, if you
will, an update. And he feels liberty to maneuver
and remodel the House of God. And here's the warning for us.
Please listen very carefully. Innovation and syncretism are
always at the front door of the church, waiting to rearrange the
household of God. And often times they make subtle
advancements. Notice that A has didn't destroy
the bronze altar. He just moved it.
Right, He just moved it. And I argue that churches and
ministries do the same today, meaning they don't outright
cancel core tenets of our faith. Clear doctrines in the Word of
God, they just make false ones more central.
And so the emphasis of their message and their efforts is no
longer what God designates for his church.
It's what is the latest fad. Let's make that the thing that
people see. That's what we're known for.
And let's just push aside what God wanted from the beginning.
And if anyone protests or expresses concern of what's
being presented, what's preeminent, here's the strategy.
Oh, no, no, no, no. Just like A has.
If anybody came up to A has and said A has, where's the bronze?
Although it's over there. I don't know.
It's over there. Don't we believe those things?
Did you see the statement of faith on our website?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
You believe in the gospel. But why are you all about social
justice then? Oh, yeah.
You believe in regeneration. Then why are you proposing, more
than anything else, race? I can give you example after
example after example. Let's just push it aside and
let's bring this now. I think that's actually going to
be something God blesses. Another way of seeing this is
how destruction to our faith begins by simply removing or
replacing things in the Bible that we don't like.
I don't mind the Ark of the Covenant.
I don't mind the curtains. It's just the bronze altar.
Let's just move that. Let's just deal with that.
And every generation has known a different assault on different
truths, and sometimes there are more than one.
Can I see? Can I tell you what I see today?
What's becoming more and more prominent?
Elders aren't just men. Women can be elders as well.
And that's becoming more and more popular.
And you think, well, what's the big deal?
You're just moving it aside. You're just changing it a little
bit. You can never do that and think
that a little leaven won't affect the whole lump.
Wherever the Bible is clear on an issue, you stand your ground
and you defend it, and you preach it and you counsel it.
And yes, we're charitable and we're gracious when things are
maybe a little bit more ambiguous.
But I want you to see how this strategy is an ancient 1, little
by little now, outright bloating things, just moving them,
replacing them, covering them, coloring them.
What happens we see here that after they move it, he gets
specific instructions to your eye.
The priest, right? He says this is the altar that
we're going to be performing sacrifices on now.
But notice the last part of verse 15 and all the blood of
the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be
for me to inquire by. So hold on, what's this man
thinking? I'm trying to figure it out.
I think I'm on to something though.
He has enough awareness that it would not be good for his image
if he destroys this altar or completely ignores it.
Perhaps. Or maybe he's just convinced
that, you know, yes, we're going to have this altar.
But as long as I keep this intact, surely I can inquire of
the God of Israel and receive some kind of benefit from him
while I have this altar here as well.
And here's the lesson that people who outright challenge,
change, delete, replace, clear, choosing the Word of God, many
of them believe that they can still access God and believe
that he will shower them with favor and understanding.
What I mean by that is they're deceived as though they have the
right to remodel God's blueprint for his church or maybe maybe
even for your own life as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and
that you can have total access, total blessing, total, whatever
you want to call it. And yet the psalmist says, if I
cherish iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have heard
me. You can't explicitly, you can't
directly disobey and expect God to give you his ear.
Yes, that's all. And there are many people who
think the same. We can live in sin.
I think that everything's OK as long as I pray in the name of
Jesus. He's not a genie, he's not a
good luck charm, He's a person, he's a king, he's a God.
Well, he has unfortunately didn't see it that way.
And we see here something quite interesting.
The last part of the study. Look at verse 17.
And King A has cut off the frames of the stands and remove
the basin from them. And he took down the sea from
off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone
pedestal. And he covered way for the
Sabbath that was that had been built inside the house.
And the outer entrance for the king he caused to go around the
House of the Lord because of the king of Assyria.
So what happens here? Let's just look at it.
Slowly. The king went from replacing the
bronze altar with his own innovative altar.
And then from there he begins to now mess around with other
articles in the House of God. Verse 17, he cuts off the frames
of the stands, remove the basin from them.
He took down the sea from the bronze ox and that were under
it, and he put on a stone pedestal.
A little leaven effects a whole lump. 11 is the whole thing.
It started with one thing to replace.
It started with one thing to change.
And now all these other things are being eaten away at.
Erosion now is coming to the entire place.
And though that is, I'm sure one thing that we can take from
this, I think there's another angle to it, that when you and I
accept and establish something that God disapproves of,
something that's clearly against His will, it will begin to ruin
other things in your life. No matter what that sin in sin
is, if you hold on to it, if you refuse to acknowledge it for
what it is and turn away from it, give it a little bit of time
and it will begin to now bleed into other matters.
It will affect your marriage. Sin will take a toll on your
finances. Even sin will impact your
health. It will it will destroy
relationships. It will weaken your ministry.
It will dull your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
It will rob from you the experiential presence of God.
What I see here is that it began with one choice, but then it
began to affect so many other things, such as the way of sin.
It's rarely localized. It can really be contained.
It's like cancer. It devours and it wants to
destroy everything. It wants to shut down every
vital organ. It wants to kill you.
If only we would see sin that way, like cancer, like a lethal
disease, like poison, a drop of poison in a cup.
You wouldn't drink that cup. Even if it looked like water,
even though it looked clear, you would have put it in your mouth
because you know just how dangerous it is.
He has thought that he can just replace an altar, put the real
one aside. And what began to happen?
Corruption in the courtyard with other things.
When you read Second Chronicles 28, you know what it came down
to. The doors of the temple were
shut, and it would take Hezekiah to open those doors again and
bring life to the temple. Here's ramaning.
Notice the last part of verse 18.
Why did he do all this? Because of the king of Assyria.
Because he had a new master. And in case we didn't get it,
the author ends this account by reinforcing why A HAS was doing
what he was doing. He was a slave.
And in order to appease his new master, he made all these
changes. He went to great lengths of
disregard the one who was sovereign over Assyria and all
nations for that matter. And here's where I personally
landed at the end of this chapter.
It's so mind boggling to me that this man who said to Assyria, I
am your servant, I am your son, was in fact a son of David.
David who did what? He gave up of his personal
fortune to invest in the temple, even though he wouldn't be able
to see with his own eyes, to beautify the temple, the exact
opposite of this man. And did you know that David
himself expressed to God that he was his slave?
Oh, yeah, he had a throne. Oh, yeah, he had a mighty army.
But he even expressed to the Lord, I am your slave in a way
perhaps that you might have missed.
Here's our final passage of Scripture, Psalm 40.
Let's go to verse 6. This is a Psalm of David.
Notice what he says. In sacrifice and offering you
have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
This is a messianic Psalm, yes, but I believe there is an
element of it that is personal to David.
He's telling God what he really wants and notice this
interesting phrase. You have given me an open ear.
Now face value, that just may seem like him saying you've
given me an ear that is attentive, that is willing to
listen, that is ready to obey. Whatever you give as a command,
I will comply. But I believe there's something
else too. There's an illusion.
There's an allusion to a custom of the Old Testament relating to
Hebrew slaves. Write this down for another
time. It's an Exodus 21 where you have
instructions given by God about Hebrew slaves, Hebrew owners who
had Hebrew slaves, and they were to work for someone for six
years, but on the 7th year they were to be set free.
But there was a choice that could be made from the one that
was set free. The slave, if he loved his
master, if he loved his wife and his children whom he had under
his master, he could go back, look at his master in the face
and say I want to be your slave forever.
And the ritual was this, that his ear would be placed at the
door and an awl would Pierce that earlobe, and that would be
the mark of his permanent servitude to that master.
Goes to show what slavery must have been like for somebody to
even have that option, at least in the context of Israel.
And I think that what David is saying here to God is just that
you've given me an open ear. And do you know why some people
don't believe that's what David is saying?
Because when you look at in the Hebrew, the word ear is plural.
So how that would translate literally is ears.
You have dugout for me. So how can that be connected to
Exodus 21 when it was one ear that was highlighted?
So this, this, this just must mean that he is speaking about
his willingness to obey. He's in tune with the will of
God and he wants to be in tune with the will of God always.
Or could it be that David is saying something special and
knowing what the law of God was, he looks to the Lord in this
Psalm and he says, Lord, I know that in Exodus 21 that if a
slave loved his master, he would OfferUp one year.
I want to give you both of mine. I don't want to just give you 1.
I want to give you both my ears. Take them.
Do whatever you need to do in me for me to be completely devoted
to you. I won't just give you 1 to
Pierce. I'll give you both.
Have all of me take control. I surrender and I submit myself
to you. Ultimately, that's Jesus,
because the same passage is referenced in the book of
Hebrews concerning Christ and His perfect obedience to the
will of the Father. Here's my question for you at
the end of this study. How much of you wants to be
completely for Him? How much is there any part of
you that you have reserved to yourself?
Is there any area in your life where you know God's Word is so
clear on it, but you refuse to let it go?
Or maybe you've grown up hearing something.
You've grown up worshiping at an altar that is not really the
altar of God. You've been trained to worship
at something that has replaced the truth.
Are you willing to obey everything that God reveals
about himself? Are there some things that you
feel liberty to change? I want to tell you today that
what the Lord deserves, because He is worthy, is you
surrendering everything to him, a slave of God, a slave of Jesus
Christ. I want to encourage you tonight
that at this Bible study you would make that decision, if you
haven't yet, that you would echo the psalmist cry.
Lord, you're not after ritual. You're not after my attendance.
You're not after my money. You're not after my ministry
service. You want me.
So take my ears, take my heart, take my life and seal it for the
rest of my days to your ownership.
And I will do so gladly. His yoke is easy.
His burden is light. There is no master like Jesus.
Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, that Your Word
is ferociously powerful. We ask that our hearts would
burn within us, if they haven't already.
Help this ministry and every ministry represented here to
honor Your blueprint for the House of God and for us as
individual temples of the Holy Spirit, from top to bottom, side
to side. May every component, every
element, be aligned with your desires.
Renew in awe of you and us, Lord.
May we never give in like Uriah the priest in this story.
No matter who makes the request. In this day and age, help us
stand our ground. And Lord, we tell you gladly
that we do not rely on innovation, human ingenuity,
ideas, what's new, what sparkles, what's popular?
Lord, keep us in the ancient paths and help us trust that
Your word is sufficient. So Lord, give us eyes to see
what Your will is in your word. Give us hearts that adore it.
Help us love you Lord, and if there any, anything that we do
do for you, Lord, anything that we do say on your behalf, may it
come from a heart that belongs to you completely.
And so, Lord, at this time, we just want to sing to you and
worship you and honor you. In Christ's name we pray, Amen,
Amen, Amen. Why don't we stand and worship
the Lord? I failed to mention how a has
goes to Syria to get the pattern of a false altar to bring it
back to Jerusalem. Do you remember what Naman the
Syrian did after he was healed by God?
He asked for the dirt of the land of Israel so that he can
bring it back to Syria and make an altar to the true and living
God. And it's really a foreshadowing
of how the Gentiles are going to respond to true worship.
And the Jews, most of them, really would miss it when Christ
would come. The Word of God is amazing, and
I never failed to be amazed at the Providence of God.
Here we are talking about the House of God and the Old
covenant. And this Sunday we're going to
come together, if the Lord wills, to look at what Jesus
wants out of his church in Revelation 2 and three.
What does he want? What does Jesus think about our
church? That's what matters the most.
I can't wait to do it with you. Let's pray.
Help us, Lord, to not forget these things.
Chain them around our hearts. I'll keep them close.
Lord, we pray that we would not forget and that you would bring
them to mind and times where we need the most.
Lord bless this time of brief fellowship.
May we be a company of people always who have burning hearts
because of the Word being open to us.
We thank you for this time. We don't take it for granted and
we look forward to it again. Should you tarry, we pray these
things in the living name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen and Amen and Amen. The Lord be with you if you call
this place home or if you're visiting this Sunday.
We're glad to be able to see you if the Lord wills.
Take Care now. Have a wonderful night.
God bless you.