Persons of Interest (Part B)

A natural man, a man who is not saved, supposes that grace shown to somebody like Manasseh or the outlaw on the cross, that's a violation of justice, and they of course would be wrong. A violation of justice would look like this, God forgiving Manasseh without Manasseh repenting. God forgiving the thief on the cross who wanted no parts of Christ, letting him into heaven nonetheless.

That would be a violation of justice. 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 21 as he continues his message, Persons of Interest. The word for tingle, salal, in the Hebrew means to quiver, to rattle, to tingle. And again, it is related to the word's symbols, and so it's not something you can, you know, it's going to ring a bell.

It's going to be unmistakable. You won't be able to ignore it, but it's in the negative, it's not the positive. We know this because the same Hebrew word is used three other times, four total, and each time it's negative.

In 1 Samuel chapter 3, in Jeremiah 19 verse 2, and in Habakkuk chapter 3, 16. And so it's a dreadful, a dreadful sensation, clear as a bell. That's the bottom line. That's what he's saying to them. He says, Behold, I am bringing such a calamity on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, it will be clear as a bell and it will be dreadful.

And that is what's happening there. And after 22 kings in Judah and 500 years, they couldn't get it right, they're not going to get it right. They crossed a point of no return by the time Manasseh is done, in spite of his repentance.

In verse 13, and we'll come back to all of that because there's a connection between Manasseh and the outlaw on the cross that repented, and the outlaw on the cross that did not repent is a connection with him in Ammon, Manasseh's son. Verse 13, and I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. Well, the measuring line indicates ownership.

You know, when you see surveyors out there, the owner is involved, and Samaria was judged for her idolatry. The plumb line indicates straightness. If you're putting up a building, just for example, the columns, the posts that will hold up the structure, well, you've got to make sure they're straight, and you use a plumb line to do, to test the vertical straightness of it.

In all my years of industrial construction, I don't remember ever seeing a plumb line used to take things apart. I mean, it's like, hey, cut that header out, let me get a plumb line and make sure this is straight. So you say, well, what is happening? And I think what's going on here, God is saying, I am being very meticulous about this, I am being very careful about my judgment. None of this is whimsical. This is all calculated and controlled, and it will be just. It will be straight. So anyway, I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

And there's the kitchen illustration. Jerusalem's purity is more important than the lives of the impure inhabitants of Jerusalem, because it's a long-term effect. It's not God saying, well, I don't care about people, it's God saying, no, I do care, and that's why they're going down, because they're going to hurt future generations.

He's putting the kibosh on that, or limiting it to some degree. What if God did nothing? Well, man would self-destruct. It's just, he is one, and Ephesians tells us, he holds all things together by the word of his power, and aren't we glad. This depopulation of Judah and the deportation of Judah, a depopulation through killing, you know, the troops will come in and kill, and then the deportation of those who survive will leave it pretty much empty. Jeremiah 51, 34 is just one of many places that talks about that. Verse 14, so I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies. And again, the prophets have been warning and warning. Just because a judgment is delayed doesn't mean it's not coming, says the Bible. The whole land of Canaan was the inheritance of God's people by pushing out the wicked and letting them come in.

Well, ten of the tribes were already removed. You would think, you would think a man like Manasseh, who was educated in the palace of Israel, was educated. You would think he would say, wow, look at that, we have all the writings of the prophets that kept saying, you better fix this or else God's going to judge it.

And it happened very close to his lifetime. Anyway, only Judah remains, well, there are remnants from every tribe with Judah, Benjamin is there, they all have people from various tribes, but the tribal control is lost. Interesting, which says in verse 14, so I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance, what's left of my inheritance, Judah, not the righteous, the righteous are included, but forsaken, the Hebrew is to strike or to pound, and this is judgment, God is saying, I'm going to judge whoever's left of my people. The righteous remnant amongst the national remnant will suffer too.

Well, where's the proof of that? Well, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, they were righteous. Daniel was snatched off, made a eunuch, believed to be, to Babylon. Jeremiah, look how much he had to suffer because of these noodleheads. So yeah, when we suffer, what if you're a Christian in Oakland?

Yeah, liberal-run cities are run by people who hate God, look at their policies, look how they vote, hey, let's try to put abortion clinics on every corner, I mean, this is real, look at the Soviet Union, that the fruit of atheism, Russia is still messed up to this day, that the hatred for God, how much do the Chikoms cover up because of their hatred for God, the abuses, aren't they rioting over there, they're tired of COVID restrictions, it's just Satan doing these things through vessels that refuse to let God in, and by default, Satan gets in, and people suffer. And so verse 15, because they have done evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day. So God is saying, this judgment is not going to be random, it's not even going to be odd, like, huh, I can't believe that happened, it's so rare.

It's deliberate, and they'll have to say, yeah, God did this, or go to their grave lying to his face and their own selves. Verse 16, moreover, that means, oh, there's more, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, so he was physically violent and he was spiritually violent. He was to Judah what Nero was to Rome. Caesar Nero and King Manasseh cut from the same cloth of hell, and many have been such ever since. Think about this, Manasseh's just as wicked as Stalin and Hitler and all these other boogeymen from history, and he gets saved. Does that not, is that not God saying, Manasseh's salvation tells us what could have happened to Hitler and Stalin? They could have repented in spite of all the evil they did. They still could have repented. Who's to blame here? Well, man, if it thumbs his nose at God and insist on going to his grave, provoking God, poking God, it's really very, very bad. Like you need me to tell you that. Verse 17, now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, all that he did and the sin that he committed are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

Yes they are. His wicked demanded it be purged, his wickedness, and it was. But the reforms of the coming king, good King Josiah couldn't undo this, made a dent, but it really couldn't. It made a dent on the individual level, but not the national level. As soon as Josiah was dead, the people were right back at it, thus the lamentation of Jeremiah over him.

Part of it. Anyway, it says in verse 17, and the sin that he committed, well God, not even God will take back all the pain caused by such sinners. The apostle Paul, his contribution to the death of Stephen could not bring Stephen back once Paul got saved.

It was done. He could not bring him back to his loved ones. There are consequences. So it's best to not live that rotten life and cause so much harm. I mean, do drug dealers get saved? They do. Not all of them, not even most of them, as it looks like to me.

But some can and do, they can't undo what they did. God has to be part of everything. These things hurt, but man, you better stay focused on what the fight is all about. It is Satan, is a real spiritual enemy, and if he drags you into a physical conflict, you've probably already lost. He's beaten spiritually. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

I didn't make that up. God tells us this. They are spiritual.

They are mighty, and we have to be just as relentless. It's like, all right, fine, God hasn't answered my prayer yet. I don't know why there's war going on around me, but I know this, I'm supposed to be at my post and continue to pray and not lose heart. It's easier to not lose heart when you've only been praying 10 years for something.

But when it gets it to 20, 30, it's really knock down, drag out war. Ask yourself, is the person you're praying for worth it? Because someone just told me, I think I just said this Sunday, it's such a good story. They've been praying for their child for 35 years, their child finally got saved. Pistols were involved. No, they weren't. It was just prayer, that's all.

Anyway, where was I? Okay, and the sin he committed, I read that, 2 Chronicles 33, nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to Yahweh their God. That's the commentary after he was converted, after he gave his life to God.

The commentator says, yeah, yeah, but the people, they were still those in the nation that remained seduced. Continue in verse 17, he says, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? Well the mention of this separate book, in the scripture, this chronicles that we have, but there are other books that are referenced, and the fact that the historians mention those as separate books indicates that the books we do have are spiritual, and the other books were historical. Now, there's history in the spiritual books that we're reading now, kings and referencing chronicles, these are spiritual books from God. Whereas the other books that did not survive, many of them, they just were historical records.

So that adds some thrust to what we have. Now there are other spiritual books that we don't have, they're lost, there are prophets that have books, we don't have them, because God has decided, well, this is enough. And if you start studying it, when I was a new Christian, I got to the end of Revelation, and I said, man, I wish there was more, I'm ready for more.

I think about that and say, man, you are so dumb, it's hard to handle what we have. And keep your head in it, because after the years it can become, you know, white noise, you don't even hear it anymore if you're not careful, you've got to stay focused. Anyway, the story of this Manasseh, his repentance and restoration, it would resonate with the audience of kings. Remember the Book of Kings is something that developed, it goes way back to Solomon, the death of David, and so no one person lived through the Book of Kings. The historians kept adding to the story as the Spirit guided them, the Holy Spirit. And this audience, by the time they get to Manasseh, the Jews that are coming out of Babylon, that we haven't gotten to that yet, but the readers will come to this, and it will resonate with them. Because like Manasseh being taken captive to Babylon, they as a people were taken captive to Babylon for the same reasons.

And just like Manasseh, they were restored to Judah, and that's the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. So this is more than a history book for those Jewish people alive then. Remember the Bible is made, parts of the Old Testament you may say, boy that is just really not helpful to me.

Well it was to somebody at some point. There are other people in history that mean just as much to God then and now as we do, so that's a bigger picture. But Manasseh's conversion, it would trouble a natural man, because the natural man's understanding of grace is deficient. The carnal man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness to him.

You must be born again. Isaiah was preaching this, Isaiah 26 10, this is what he says, let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness, in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of Yahweh. Well that's what Paul was teaching, that's what Christ taught.

When Christ said you've got to be born again, you have to have the touch of God in your life, you have to respond to that touch. So a natural man, a man who is not saved, supposes that grace shown to somebody like Manasseh or the outlaw on the cross, that's a violation of justice, and they of course would be wrong. A violation of justice would look like this, God forgiving Manasseh without Manasseh repenting, God forgiving the thief on the cross who wanted no parts of Christ, letting him into heaven nonetheless.

That would be a violation of justice. There are other laws. So in a church, when businessmen come in and they become part of the decision making, the board, if they don't understand that there are other laws, there are laws for business and there are spiritual laws, if they don't understand that, then the church will be run like a business. But when they understand that the pastor prays before he appoints somebody, not based on their credentials but on what God said, see that's another law.

We exercise every time you see an airplane, you see the law of gravity and the law of aerodynamics at the same time, one is overcoming the other. I think when we understand this better, we can communicate to unbelievers and say listen, you don't have all, there's the law of God, well I'll lay it out scripturally. Jesus, when they wouldn't receive him, it says he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent.

Then James comes along and says there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy because he's got other laws and he tells us about them. Who are you to judge another? It's grace, grace is something that is not natural and therefore the natural man has a difficult time with it unless they are submitting, opening their heart to the Holy Spirit. I tell you this because I have met people who have said that ain't right, it's not right that a man should do all this sin and then all he has to say is God forgive me.

Why isn't it right? That's the whole lesson with the serpent in the wilderness. That's it, if the serpent bites you, the viper gets you, just look at the brass serpent and I will forgive you. What if you were stubborn?

Nope, not going to do it, don't believe it. Then you died and that's the story of the gospel. God wants that submission because without it you are just a devil, that's what made Lucifer a devil, he rebelled against God. Anyway verse 18, so Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house in the garden of Uzzah, then his son Ammon reigned in his place and we don't know where this garden tomb is or grave but let's read what Chronicles has to say about Ammon. Ammon was 22 years old when he became king and he reigned two years in Jerusalem, that means he dies at 24. But he did evil in the sight of Yahweh as his father Manasseh had done while Ammon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made and served them. He did not humble himself before Yahweh as his father Manasseh had humbled himself but Ammon trespassed more and more. You see the historians in Kings doesn't tell us about Manasseh's repentance, it's almost as though he says I don't want my audience to take, say look I can just sin like a devil and then just at some point it'll be all right and so he doesn't present that, Chronicles takes a different approach and they're both right.

But the two outlaws or the two kings, one a convert, one not by their own choice. Luke 12 verse 10, anyone who speaks a word against the son of man it will be forgiven him but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven. Well that's Ammon, he's the one that was not forgiven whereas of course Manasseh was.

What a humbling lesson. In the end he gets saved after all the dirt he did, well this is relative to humanity because from God's position our dirt is just as bad. Luke 15 21, and the son said to him father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Well that's the experience of Manasseh and God lays this before us and says I am the lawgiver, I am the one that forgives. Verse 19, Ammon was 22 years old when he became king and he reigned two years in Jerusalem, his mother's name was Meshulameth, the daughter of Haraz of Jatba. Verse 20, and he did evil in the sight of Yahweh as his father Manasseh had done so he walked, verse 21, and all the ways of his father had walked and he served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them. Verse 22, he forsook Yahweh, God of his fathers and did not walk in the way of Yahweh. Well it reads as though he once was, he was raised to follow Yahweh but abandoned him for other gods and again it didn't serve him well. Verse 23, then the servants of Ammon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house, how humiliating, perhaps they executed him for his idolatry. A short, despicable life, 24 years old, a dishonorable death, and a damned eternity.

That's what he got out of it and it was all avoidable. It's enough to give you chills reading about this if you're just serious about it, if you know this is a fact as it is, verse 24, but the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Ammon, then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place. The people of the land here were the officials high enough to be able to pull this off without causing an uprising, they were palace people. Verse 25, now the rest of the acts of Ammon which he did are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. His religion is epitaph enough, what he, this paganism is enough story about him. Here's an old saying that is, I don't, you probably never heard it before, one was saved that none might despair, yet only one that none might presume. And what he is saying there is that thieves on the cross or between these two men, Manasseh and Ammon, one of them was saved as rotten as he was that no one could say there's no hope for me. We can say there is hope, if he can be saved, anybody can get saved.

But Ammon didn't get saved, he's doomed, nobody can presume, well we're all going to get saved no matter what I do, no there is a consequence, and so once again, one was saved that none might despair, yet only one that none might presume. But he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzzah, then Josiah his son reigned in his place. Well just a few facts about this king, we'll get him next week. One of Israel's, Judah's and Israel's greatest kings, David first and Hezekiah, Josiah together. His grandfather and father were two of the worst kings of the 21 kings up to that point, just of the 21 kings in Judah. His birth and life was a fulfillment of a 300 year old prophecy that named him, Josiah will come and he will deal with these pagan altars and that happened. He removed the shameful things of Judah and established the glory of God, but most of it on the surface because in the hearts of many of the people, they weren't having it.

He sent to inquire of the Lord and he stood in his place, the place where he was supposed to be under Yahweh as king. 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.