Because of Him! (Part B)

2 Chronicles 28 This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 2 Kings.

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 in the book of 2 Kings chapter 16 as he continues his message because of him. It says here from before the children of Israel. This is according to the abomination of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel. Joshua worked so hard to get these people out of the land, not so that they could squat there and impress everybody with their sin. Oh, look at me.

Are you impressed? We burn out kids because we love our God so much. It's demonic.

It is full-blown demonism. And God did not want his people to be like that or anybody else. God did not want them to be that way. And Israel was supposed to be a light to say, hey, here's an alternative to this craziness. Well, what he could have been had he been a righteous man. If God had no problem with it, he could have spared the Jews a trip across the desert in a time in the wilderness if everybody's thinking what they were doing was just fine. But it wasn't. Verse 4, and he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places on the hills under every green tree.

I was just watching the, I don't know, 1956, I think, around the world in 80 days. No profanity in it. And nobody chasing anybody with guns in anyway. There's a scene, of course, where there's a practice in ancient India that the British empire really stomped it out, the Christian influence there, where they would burn the surviving wife with the dead husband. Who thought of that? I mean, who cares? You know what? Your husband's dead.

We should burn you. And it just, of course, the characters say, but this is the world, the darkness that is out there. And there's much more darkness. There's plenty more darkness where that came from. Darkness doesn't travel at the speed of light.

It's just there when there is no light. Well, verse 4, and he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places on the hills and under every green tree. He infested the land of Judah.

God's land, he infested it with this paganism. But what is it with the king's burning incense? Solomon, of course, he burned incense to the gods of his wives.

He just thought, I don't believe in them, but I'm going to keep peace, you know, political stuff. And he'd go to their altars and wave the little incense. And then Jeroboam, he did the same thing. And Bethel and Dan and Uzziah, the good king, tried to do it to the true God and was withstood by the priest. And now we have this one burning incense all over the place.

Incense is the prayers rising up the heaven, which it is supposed to represent, but it is voided out if it is, of course, the wrong faith, the wrong God. 2 Chronicles 28 again, therefore Yahweh, his God, delivered him into the hand of the kings of Syria. Notice that God says, whether he likes it or not, I'm still his God. I just won't be his savior.

Atheists can say, I don't believe in God. God says, well, that's too bad. I'm still your God. I'm still the creator. I'm not your father, but I am your God. And we love that our God doesn't back down.

Anyway, it continues here in 2 Chronicles. Therefore, Yahweh, his God, delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They defeated him and carried away a great multitude of them as captives and brought them to Damascus.

Then he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel who defeated him with a great slaughter. See this sorrow, because of him, all of these people are suffering. We're seeing this with this, the guy with the unfortunate name in Russia.

Okay, I'm not being crass, but I do think of it. So, Vladimir, that's not the name I'm referring to. Anyway, Mr. Unfortunate. Look how much horror he's causing everybody.

Does anybody want to call out his last name? Oh well. Oh gosh, I don't want to get started. See what silliness does?

Okay. So, this king, so spiritually blind, that he thinks the armies that defeated him, their gods, is the God to follow. And not the true God that he insulted, that was willing to give him evidence that he would bless him.

This guy's head is crazy. See this is the kind of thing you want to show an unbeliever. He says, let me tell you about Ahaz, because you're kind of a doofus like him, and maybe you can see this and turn around and repent, or get what he got. Anyway, he imagined that these gods might not hurt him if he sided with them. Again, let's go back, not to pick on India, but there's a lot of paganism there that matches what's going on here. There are those in India that worship Satan.

Not as the cheap Westerners do, some of them do, but because they figure if we worship Satan, who's the bad guy, he won't hurt us. Satan has authored that kind of illogic. He's hurting you already by making you think such a stupid thing, because you still got to answer to his maker.

Well, anyway, that's some of what is going on in this guy's head. Well, if I side with those gods, man, then I won't, you know, suffer their wrath. So he worshiped the gods of those whom God, the true God, used to smite him. So God says, I'm going to send these people to clunk you upside your head so you figure it out. And he sides with them, he goes deeper into his insanity.

It says on the hills and under every green tree, he's burning his incense and making these altars. This was no accident. He embraced idolatry.

It was systematic. He got worse as God began to minister to him. He doubled down on his hatred. God knew he had a foul heart, and these kings that come against him from the north and from Syria, they wanted to assassinate him and put their own king on the throne because politically what's happening is Syria is getting too big. So Syria, next to us Syria, sides up with an old enemy, the northern kingdom, to fight the Assyrians and says to Judah, we need you too. And Ahaz, the king of Judah, says, no, I don't want to go with you.

It's a lose-lose situation for us. And so that's when they come against him. And God, instead of God protecting him, God let them as the punishment. So he gave him a chance to be right with his creator.

He opted out of that. Second Chronicles again, 28, verse 22, now in the time of his distress, King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to Yahweh. That is this King Ahaz.

So I reread that on purpose because it's such a strong statement. He's just hardening, blaming God. And in his blame, he's like, I'm going to show you. He knows those are fake gods.

How can you not? Well, anyway, he's going to try to redo the nation. He's going to vandalize the house of God and try to remove anything that would motivate the people to follow the true God. Again, 2 Chronicles 28, verse 23, for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, saying, because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.

But they were the ruin of him and all Israel. And this is the illogic that Satan likes to give people. And I bet you he's telling, patting him on the back, the whole time, boy, you're so smart to figure this out.

Boy, the world's been waiting for a king like you. You know, again, when you're young, you can think some really silly stuff. You don't even know it's silly.

You don't even know you're doing it. Unless you have somebody, you know, I had a cousin, he's, I think he was about 17 years older than I. So was my oldest brother, incidentally, who was older than him. Anyway, he had to pull myself and my cousin aside to say, you know, you boys got to take baths. You got to bathe.

I mean, I don't mean once a month. And he just was telling, he just said, sit down to his, my father had passed by this time. And, you know, it was really no male figure that was that close. And he had a shot. I'm sure my aunt put him up to it. Listen, could you go talk to those boys? And it was really helpful. I don't know that my cousin enjoyed it.

All right, nevermind. He's in heaven now. So he can't say, hey, well, you know, why are you talking bad about me?

He can, but I can't hear him. Anyway, back to this, you know, to have somebody that can tell you how to live life better, how to do decent things. I remember a neighbor of ours, the wife had passed, and my mom said, you know, you need to go over there and tell them you're sorry. And I said, I didn't do anything. Why do I have to be sorry?

All right. My mom had a sense of humor. I ended up going over anyway.

And, of course, sorry for your loss. And I would not have known to do that. At that young age, I don't know, I was 15 or something like that. Some of you may be more sensitive. Maybe, you know, you are. Look at you. But I wasn't.

So I just, okay. And I did. And it was a meaningful moment because I remember it to this day. I remember the look on the man's face like, what's a dumb teen doing here? No, it wasn't that at all.

It was very, very helpful. Anyway, back to 2 Chronicles one more time. So Ahaz gathered the articles of the house of God, cut them in pieces. The articles of the house of God shut up the doors of the house of Yahweh and made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. See, he was fed up with Yahweh. So he strips his temple and he infects the land. He blames God for all of his bad feelings and his moods and anything that doesn't go his way.

He has it better than some people but compared to others it's not good enough. Verse 5, then Rezen king of Syria and Pekah son of Ramallah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to make war and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. Yeah, but there was a lot of suffering in the midst of all of this. They did not take out Jerusalem but they caused a lot of damage to these two. And Pekah of Israel who was eventually assassinated by Hoshia, another king, I've already covered that these two got together to force Judah to bring their troops onto their side. Isaiah 7 and 8 deal with this and Isaiah 7, you know you might be familiar with virgins shall have a child in Isaiah 7 because he's saying there are going to be miracles Ahaz has to show you Yahweh is with you and he didn't want any of that but historically that chapter is very much a part of what's happening here. Isaiah 7, let us go up against Judah, this is what these two kings were saying, and vex it and let us make a breach therein for us and set a king in the midst of it but then in response of God to that.

Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. But he didn't, it didn't register. He didn't see that these two kings that Assyria came and killed reason and Pekah was killed by Hoshia, he doesn't see that Yahweh protected him. All he sees is the other stuff, the other side. He appeals to Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria for help.

He'll get some help but not enough. Well, I mentioned we'll come to reason being killed and the reason why reason was killed. And they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. Now this Pekah, he inflicted a hundred, I have the number there, a hundred and twenty thousand casualties in one day. So you pick it up in 2 Chronicles 28 but the prophet, well before I get to that, he also took two hundred thousand women and children as captives to Samaria and then God sends a prophet to untangle, disentangle this, 2 Chronicles 28 after Pekah comes and conquers these surrounding territories in Judah's kingdom, we read, but a prophet of Yahweh was there whose name was Obed and he went out before the army that came to Samaria and said to them look because Yahweh, God of your fathers was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand but you have killed them in rage that reaches up to heaven. Well that struck fear in the troops and the troops of course they wanted the loot, they wanted the slaves and they abandoned all of it and then the Samarian politicians said look we got to do something with these two hundred thousand people and they treated them very nicely after that.

We read that, I'll come to it at some point and bring it up, so much history flying around in this. I also should add not only was he getting trouble from the north Syria and Israel but the Philistines were rising up against him in the west and the Edomites were coming against him in parts of the south and in the east and so he's getting hammered all because he won't listen to God and 2 Chronicles 28, 15 and the men which were expressed by the name rose up, took the captives, oh so this is the part that I wanted to get to incidentally I should add that keep you tied into it. This is the response of the Samaritans in Samaria not those with purses but okay I couldn't resist. These were those in the northern kingdom that had these prisoners of war and then they abandoned them, the politicians came so well we got to do something to them and that's what I'm reading now and the men which were expressed by name rose up, they were selected to help the people, took the captives and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, arrayed them, shod them and gave them to eat and drink and anointed them, that's rubbing oil on them, soothing them and carried all the feeble of them upon donkeys and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees to their brethren and they returned to Samaria. So here you have the northern kingdom which is far more idolatrous than the southern kingdom but they're so compassionate here because of that prophet rose up and said God's going to deal with you for your rage and so they treat them very kindly and they get them back home to their territory and back to their villages and so this didn't register again with this is that King Ahaz, verse 16, verse 6, don't you wish, at that time reason King of Syria captured Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, then the Edomites went to Elath and dwelt there to this day. So this is in the south by the Red Sea, David had conquered this territory, established trade routes, shipping routes and it was good for the economy. Well, Ahaz lost it all and the Edomites, the Syrians took it, the Edomites came in and it was theirs now so Judah is losing territory even before Nebuchadnezzar comes along.

Heavy losses of life and property and all sorts of things because of one fool, verse 7. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath believes the King of Assyria saying I am your servant and your son, come up and save me from the hand of the King of Syria and from the hand of the King of Israel who rise up against me. So now he makes Judah a vassal kingdom, a vassal state of the Assyrian Empire. He submits and says I'll start paying you, I'll pay you to come help and I'll continue to pay you and he dismisses the prophecies of Isaiah. Isaiah 7 again, verse 4, say to the king take heed and be quiet, do not fear or be faint hearted for those two stubs of smoking firebrands for the fierce anger of reason of Syria and the son of Remaliah. So God is saying through the prophet to the king I'll protect you from these two, not the Assyrians, I will do this but he didn't want any of that. Then Isaiah adds a few verses later speaking to the king if you will not believe surely you will not be established and he suffered and all of the people suffered with him. All he had to do was side with the prophet and avoid all of this but those two kings did come and do much damage so they did not take again Jerusalem. So we pick it up again in Isaiah 7. I hope you're following me with all of this because Isaiah is giving us the spiritual behind the scenes, someone was trying to reach this man.

He wasn't off on his own, he had opportunity. The great prophet Isaiah in chapter 7 again he says in verse 17 Yahweh will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father's house days that have not come since the day of Ephraim, Ephraim departed from Judah. So the prophet says fine, God says this, you won't receive the blessings of the Lord, you won't side with him, you're going to go to Assyria aren't you? Well Assyria is going to betray you and you're going to suffer a lot and so is the kingdom and that's what happened. Verse 8 and Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of Yahweh and the treasuries of the king's house and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria. He had to pay extra for the gift wrapping.

I'm sending it as a present, take it out of that box. Anyhow, so he's without faith, he's desperate for his life, he's fully turning to the devil, again 2 Chronicles and Ahaz gathered the articles of the house of God, cut in pieces the articles of the house of God, shut out the doors of the house of Yahweh and made for himself altars in every corner of the land. So he echoes the chronicle or echoes the writer of Kings. Verse 9, so the king of Assyria heeded him and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, carried his people captive to Ker and killed Rezin. So he kills the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser, comes and kills the Syrian king because he's paid to do this but he's still going to forsake Judah and he's going to turn on Judaism and he's going to do great damage himself. And if it was one of these things, you know, don't get the mob to help you.

You're going to be indebted to them and it won't work well for you. And that's a little bit of what's going on here. Verse 10, now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus and King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the design of the altar and its pattern according to all its workmanship. So as a vassal king he summoned up to come see Tiglath-Pileser and you know, the mountain doesn't come to Moses, Moses goes up to the mountain.

And so he goes there. Proverbs 27-20, hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of a man are never satisfied. He's not satisfied with what God has given Israel. He wants this more, you know, the gaudy altar.

That would have been a good name for this, the gaudy altar. Well, this is something that comes to we Christians, you know, God is meeting our needs, got a pretty good life and yet we're still not satisfied because we see somebody with something better. And you just have to fight this. It's worth fighting, it's worth resisting. So the devil, he found not only a goofy king but a silly priest to accommodate and to appease him.

And the significance is huge in the negative column. This picture of him going to the pagans, seeing some religious artifact that he admires so much, he has to renovate God's temple by bringing this one down. He's going to shove the other one out of the way. Anyway, this is a picture of what often happens in Christianity, in Christian ministries and Christian homes amongst individual Christians. Somebody sees something that comes from the world that belongs in the world, not in the faith, but they think it's a good fit in the Lord's work and they drag it in and the church starts to imitate the world and it's no longer spiritual.

It's just, you know, rational. Well, Charles Wesley said, watch out for the reasonable devil. The scripture protects us from these things if we abide in it. Colossians 2, beware lest anyone cheat you through, cheats you through philosophy. That's all the psychology of the world, how the world goes about it. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

The things that to them is foolish, he uses to beat them. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men. Thanks for joining us for today's edition on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 2 Kings has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. Once more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. Our time is about up, but we hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue on in the book of 2 Kings. We look forward to that time with you, so make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick as he teaches from the Bible right here on Cross Reference Radio.