Every Christian has zeal. To recoil against lies about God. I'm not, don't believe that. Not going there with you. And here's why.
So, a zeal to destroy idolatry and wisdom to fortify Judah. And if you read, there's. 14th to 15 chapters. In 16 also of his life, you find he begins to fortify the cities of Judah. Because he knows the enemy's gonna come.
So he's not naive. He's applying wisdom. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Ricky is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through a topical series.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio. specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick as he begins a brand new study called How to Overcome Through Christ. Second. Chronicles.
chapter 15. We're gonna draw from that a bit.
So if you want to follow along That's where you would turn. Otherwise, just enjoy the preaching.
So as a reminder, not all questions have profound answers. It's like, you know, I was hoping for something a little bit more exciting. not necessarily the truth.
So last session, for example, we talked about Well, one of the questions was How to be a good father. Or a good man, a godly. husband or a godly man, which would apply to the women too. And the answer doesn't have to be some this, you know. Thunderous Response.
It can just be be like Christ. which is a challenge enough. And as For the idols, of course. Yeah. David prayed, I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in Yahweh.
Now he's speaking about his amongst his people. As for the Christ-likeness, Peter said, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So I preface. question and answers with They're not always profound. They're sometimes just very basic, very necessary. That allows us to say, okay. I got that, I can go forward with that.
So we come to the question. How to overcome through Christ. Parentheses IE, that is That is, that is. Asa Hezekiah Josiah.
Well, we get Hezekiah Josiah next session. That's the plan, but we'll take Asa as part of this because he is just has a lot to say on this topic and through his life. The merits of A little mini series of their own answering. A New Testament question about Christ. from Old Testament characters, which is insightful from the person who asked.
So as a text that will set our course second Chronicles chapter fifteen, verse seven. But you Be strong, and do not let your hands be weak. for your work shall be rewarded. This is the prophet telling King Asa this, and we'll color it in as we move forward. A prophet's words to a king.
At a time that the king experienced a great military victory. and spiritual victory. In fact, he got the military victory because he first had the spiritual victory. He first was Asking God to help him. Lord, there's nothing for you to help a little bit or a lot.
There's nothing with you. And of course he was Successful. And that plays into What's going to happen soon? in the life of this king.
So a quick uh anecdote Years ago, Christian spouse came to me, and their spouse. had um a substance abuse problem. And I told them straight out, well, It might take time. Be faithful. Just hang in there.
Don't give up. And they were offended by that. I didn't know at the time they seemed to agree, but. I've Came to find out, they were offended and never saw him again. But I cut my teeth in ministry.
Amongst heroin addicts and alcoholics, And even before ministry, but mainly in ministry in connection to this.
So I think I know a little bit what I was talking about. Many of those heroin addicts wanted that monkey off their back, and they loved the Lord, some of them. And a few of them wanted their graves. Loving the Lord but still addicted. I know it's a long story, but that's how my point is: miracles are rare.
I challenge anybody to say, no, you know, you can say, oh, the miracle of life. And, you know, we mean. Real. Interference by God. In the natural order of things, it is rare.
So, you know, for instance, passing me on the highway is rare. Unless you got blue lights and a siren, I guess. Anyway, so overcoming. Back to it. It does not favor the immature.
It does not favor the lazy. and it does not favor the ignorant. Thus, we have Bibles. God has given us His word so that we could be mature and not lazy. and not ignorant.
Paul's words to Timothy. And this is, you know, whenever we talk about the second letter to Timothy, we're talking about Paul writing. on death row. He thinks he's gonna die, so he's kind of pouring it out to his beloved Timothy. He said, You must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.
It counts. Who is teaching you? Where are you getting these things? It matters. And my mom used to say, would you yeah.
Where who who showed you that? You you know Would you pick that up in the street and bring it here? and he would proceed to purge whatever was going on. Hebrews CHAPTER ten Were you have need of endurance?
So that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
So, what I'm doing, attempting to do now, is cut off. the fake exits.
So that you understand, okay, really, if you want to know how to overcome, To simplify it. Endure. Make it count and endure. That could end the sur session right now. But It's I've found it helpful.
to be able to draw from these experiences of the Bible heroes. Again in Hebrews, but we are not those who draw back to hell, to perdition, to that lost life. But of those who He continues. But of those who believe to the saving of the soul. You're saying we're serious about what we claim to believe.
To the end.
So life in Christ is sometimes more clinging than singing. I Appreciate songs, of course, and they do get us through. Tough times. I've always favored the word far above any other part. But the s you know you cannot Dismiss it at all.
Look how many we're going to get to David, and he's one of the great authors of the Psalms.
So life is more about struggling than snuggling. That's original. You cannot use that. The non-disciples of Christ, they do whatever they want to do. And the devil largely leaves them alone.
Because life We'll get them all in and do what it's going to do to them, but their souls, he's not going to waste too much time with them. He's got bigger fish to fry. That's us.
So it's never one thing. How do I overcome? It just isn't in life. It may, on the surface, be something big and appear to be one thing, but there's always other things that contribute. There's a recipe, it's a cocktail.
How to overcome.
Well, do what the devil hates. All right, what does that look like? Cling to Christ even if he has to drag you. No, doesn't he carry me on the sand? Is the footprints and all?
Well, if you've ever seen footage of Navy corpsmen dragging wounded marines in combat, you get a picture of that man. They're doing everything they can to save the other guy. Christ does that with me sometimes.
Sometimes I feel like he's dragging me. I want him to. Because I don't have what it takes to get out the way myself. Cling to Christ, adhere to Him, example. Acts 9.
This is of we I Been covering this quite a bit recently. Maybe it's someone's missed it, and God says, You know, you need to say it again to get that guy.
Okay. This is when Paul gets converted. Ananias goes to his house reluctantly, but before he goes, God says, I will show him. That is Paul. He's talking to Ananias.
I'm going to show Paul how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. What would you do if God says, Let me show you what you're going to suffer the next 20 years of your life? I would say of the options.
Okay. Is this gonna be final? Leaving Church bubbly. Instead of sober-minded, It's popular and it's shallow. I mean, we all want to be bubbly, yeah, but not at the cost of sober-mindedness.
So, what did you get from church today? Jesus loves me. What did you get last Sunday? Jesus loves me. What about the one before that?
Anything else? Damn it. How's that love show up? What's he do with that love? It should flow through you.
And you can't have love flowing through you if you've not experienced some of the hardship of life, like the people you want to love on. Again, Acts 14. This is after Paul.
Well, this is later after the Ananias thing, and Paul has already now been stoned and beat and suffered. And there's a lot more to come. And he's Luke is telling us what Paul did. When he circled back to the churches after some of these persecutions, it says, strengthening the souls of the disciples. A disciple is someone who has more than just belief.
They're learning, they're trying to apply. They're following Christ. With Effort. and not just sort of meandering. strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith.
Why would he have to do that? Why would he have to exhort anybody to I thought we were just permanently elected. Saying we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of heaven.
Well, thank God the Bible's not lying to us. I think it was Martin Lloyd-Jones that said the Bible is the only book in the world that will tell you the truth about yourself. Gets right at it. You're all messed up. You're a sinner.
And if you stay that if you stay just a sinner, God doesn't want you. In the end. But He wants you, before we get that far. And so he's made available salvation. Otherwise, there'd be no consequence to being a sinner.
There is a consequence. But so you're either a sinner. Or you're a sinner saved by grace, by the goodness of God, your choice.
So much for a diet of feel good sermons. I left feeling good. I just wasn't built up. It's like going to a gas station. and enjoying the music when you need fuel.
And then you leave. with the beat stuck in your head, but no fuel.
So preaching Christ. Learning the character of God and not giving up.
So now we come to our first prophet.
Now, the question about how to overcome in Christ and naming these three kings, I would have picked, and it's not a rebuke at all. They have good subject matter, they do. But if you want to talk about overcoming in the Old Testament, who are the champions?
Well, Joseph, Job, David, Jeremiah. Those are your. your go-to guys right away. And so uh we We have been quoting Jeremiah. Here's one we we shouldn't lose mind uh track of.
Jeremiah 9, verse 24: Let him who glories glories in this, that he understands and knows me. That I am Yahweh exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight. says Yahweh. That cling to Christ to know more about Him.
And so, again, Paul to Timothy: you must therefore endure hardship as a good soldier. None a beast Promises coming to us from Jeremiah or Paul or whoever are coming from people who haven't had the same sickening, gut-wrenching feelings that you've had. When is this thing gonna end? We enter into a long tradition of faithful believers as Christians. Gypt, Christians gypped.
By sin and still useful to God for overcoming Satan.
So to trust God while overcoming is one thing.
Okay, you're having a hard time thinking, but you're just trusting the Lord, He's ministering to you, and it's all great.
Well, it's action-packed Christianity. But to trust him when you are being overcome. What about that? And that does happen. Trusting God in spite of unfairness and weakness and defeats.
We learn what it means to face Doubt. Due to God's inaction. Don't tell me you don't know about God's inaction. You're praying for something you haven't got it, that's in action. From our perspective, From God's perspective, it's not.
He's doing something. Sham 22. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you? No, he says that, but that's not the part I want to draw out.
My God, my God, why are you so far from helping me? And. From the words of my groaning. Don't you care? The disciples, when Jesus was asleep in the boat on Galilee, when it was about to sink, and they wake him up, Master, do you not care?
We perish? The inaction of God. It's a real thing to face. And only faith can face it the right way.
So now we come to King Asa. We'll get back to David a little bit, maybe. Asa was an overcomer. In his early years, and there's the benefit, it begins right there. How does how does How do we overcome as Christians?
Example ASA.
Well Asa was an overcomer. Of wickedness and idolatry. in his early years. Not so much later. He got in the flesh.
His carnality got the upper hand on him. And so Uh well, we we call it self-serving pride. And uh resentment stumbled Ace of the King.
Some Old Testament biblical models. of overcomers. From the Old Testament, I already mentioned Jeremiah, Job, but also Ruth, for example. Here's Ruth, she marries into a Jewish family. She finds that better than her Moab roots.
And then her husband dies. She's supposed to go back to her family now. But these Jews, they'll keep her in, they love on her. I was an early pastor, I didn't I wasn't crazy about Naomi. I am now, Naomi is one of the champions of the scripture.
Talk about a recovery. She just stuck to it, you know, she just hung in there.
Well, but but Ruth is also one. But some New Testament biblical models of overcomers and younger ones.
Well, Timothy, and I'll Stick with him, but I'll mention Mark, perhaps Onesimus.
Some of you know these names, some of you have homework. But going back to Timothy, Luke says this about him. When Timothy first enters the picture in the book of Acts, we don't know anything about him. And Paul and And um His group end up here in Iconium in Lystra. And this is what Luke writes: He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra in Iconium.
He had a reputation. What about his friends?
Well, they're not in the picture. The testimony belongs to Timothy.
So These are survival level servants. Their faith survives when they encounter things that gave them the option to not be so Faithful. And life remains hard. If you have heroes of faith. But it helps.
It makes it better when you have heroes of faith. Life is wasted without them. That's how we develop a testimony. That's why in Hebrews chapter 11, he talks about by it the elders obtained a good testimony. There were people before you that managed to do it, to trust God in hardship.
And so you too now have entered that tradition.
So, my question. is Or to the question. How do you overcome? Jeremiah 6:16, thus says the Lord, stand in the ways and see. and ask for the old paths.
where the good way is and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls. And we know that when Jeremiah preached that, what did the congregation say to him? No. We won't do that.
That verse could have been the text. But That would have been it. I would have then had to go to draw from Acer. But Acer's gonna give us some good stuff if I ever get to it. Study The Word of God Invest your life.
That's what he is saying. Study and invest your life in the lessons you learn. Aspire to embrace the lessons.
Now, let's overview the life of this king. He was king for forty-one years. And some nine hundred years before the coming of Christ, He was likely 18 years old when he became a king.
Now, it's hard to get some of these, you know, sometimes it tells us he was at this age, but other times you have to do timelines, and it's really tricky. The book of Chronicles is nothing chronicle about it, so I don't know why they named it that. Anyway. But that's a reasonable number. He's about 18 years old.
When we get to Josiah, you know, he comes to the throne, he's like six. but he has handlers.
So when Asa comes to the throne, he demolished. The idols. He moved against false. False religion in Judah, his territory. 2 Chronicles 14.
So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there. Verse 3. For he removed the altars of the foreign gods in the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars, and cut down the wooden images.
Well, why didn't his father Abijah do that before him? 'Cause Ebijah wasn't that good of a king. And nor was of course Rehoboam his grandfather.
So he had zeal to destroy idolatry. Every Christian has zeal. To recoil against lies about God. I'm not, don't believe that. I'm not going there with you.
And here's why.
So, a zeal to destroy idolatry and wisdom to fortify Judah. And if you read this 14th and 15th chapters. In 16 also of his life, you find he begins to fortify the cities of Judah. Because he knows the enemy's going to come.
So he's not naïve. He's applying wisdom. In verse 7, of 2 Chronicles 14. We're told of his faith to seek Yahweh. When facing Enemies on the battlefield.
This king Asa He sought God when he was facing the invasion of a million plus men. An army of over a million people coming against him. And he only had half that. And he defeats them. He wins because of the Lord.
Then God sent the prophet to teach ASA A lesson about this. And we pick that up. In chapter 15. And we'll just take verses 1 and 2.
Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Obed. And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. Yahweh is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
And he develops a little bit further. And he said, why would he come out now? That was something to give him before the million men. You know, he before he engaged them. Before he so Asa Does just that, seeks the Lord.
wins the battle And then takes territory and spoil, and then coming back to Jerusalem, the prophet is moved by the Spirit of God. to deliver this message to the king. You say, why? What's with this timing? Because one of the greatest dangers a believer can face.
face in the faith comes immediately after a great success. You're vulnerable. And in his position as king. Such a vulnerability would turn out. Take out.
lot of people. And so God sends the prophet to him right at that time, and we come along and we read it or we hear it preached, and we say, Well, that's how you overcome. You have this zeal for God. You fortify. You have your victories.
But you have to stay on guard against yourself. That you don't take matters into your own hands, which he's going to do and really irk God in doing so. And then the prophet finishes this particular address. to the king with these words. But you be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work.
Shall be rewarded. God gave me that verse a few years. It just refreshed me with it out of nowhere. And it's been such a blessing. This encouragement From the prophet.
It intensified. His crusade. Second Chronicles chapter fifteen, verse eight. And when Asa heard these words, And the prophecy of Obed, the prophet, he took courage. and remove the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin, From the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim, And he restored the altar of Yahweh that was before the vestibule of the Lord.
As a result of that, he attracted Believers from the Northern Kingdom. The enemy. The nor enemy the the northern kingdom became an enemy to the southern kingdom. after their Civil War. Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, Pledge their loyalty to him.
Verse 9. Second Chronicles. Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel, when they saw that the LORD, that Yahweh his God, was with him. That's going to stir the Northern Kingdom to pick a fight. And that's where ACE is going to stumble.
But we're not there yet.
So God's blessings win God's blessings. God's people. Unfortunately, many times God's people have no discernment. They're not even mindful of it, it seems. And if they see crowds, they think, oh, God must be busting that crowd.
Well, by that logic, every rock concert is a blessing by God. And we know better. It's not The numbers It's the quality. Are they adhering to the scripture or not?
Well, this is the nation Israel. They were now adhering to the scripture. They were not in the north where these tribal members were coming from, but Asa now has stirred a little revival. He was overcoming. Much of the losses is reforms.
created this revival. Thanks for tuning in today to Cross Reference Radio, where Pastor Rick has some answers for various questions that have been asked. We can't fully express how grateful we are that you've been with us today. But if you're ever looking for more teaching and content from us, you're welcome to subscribe to our podcast. Just go to your favorite podcast app and look for Cross Reference Radio.
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