MINISTER,
Rev. Thomas O. Scarborough.
Lessons
from 2 Chronicles -- Close.
Sermon
Outline. 2 Chronicles 26.
Lessons
from 2 Chronicles. 3 August 2008.
A.
Looking back over 2 Chronicles: seeking God, trusting God
1. God is Almighty, and reigns in power and glory2. Our security is in serving God (Uzziah -- ch. 26:5)3. The greatest securities tumble without God (Ahab, ch. 18)4. Immediate results of trusting in God: stability, peace
B.
Looking back over 2 Chronicles: pictures of salvation
1. A clear distinction between saved and unsaved (ch. 23)2. Tradition and pedigree will not save (Abijah -- ch.13)3. Good works and virtuosity will not save (Joash -- ch. 24)4. Forcing yourself into God's presence (Uzziah -- ch. 26:16)
We
started in April
to look at the history of the kings in the Second Book of Chronicles,
and we would probably continue until Christmas
if I preached all
the way through the kings. But today I am going to draw our series
to a close
-- and I am going to summarise this morning some of the most
important spiritual lessons that we have
covered
in 2 Chronicles.
I am
also going to use 2 Chronicles Chapter 26
as an example
of all the truths that have gone before.
So I am just going to highlight two
things from Chapter 26 -- from the reign of a King named Uzziah
-- and say look how we see these two truths about King Uzziah
running all the way back through the kings we have looked at until
today.
* * * * * * * * *
One
of the things that was clear throughout
the chapters of 2 Chronicles is that God
is Almighty
-- He is Sovereign.
God is portrayed in this book as a God of glory and majesty and
power, who reigns
over all things.
He is
portrayed as a God who has power over nations
-- a God who has power over kings
-- who has power over armies
-- who has the power to speak to prophets
-- a God who has power over the smallest events
-- such as the thoughts a person has, or the way an arrow flies
through the sky.
So in
this book of 2 Chronicles, God is described as the sovereign God --
the God of mighty power -- the Lord of hosts. The glorious and
omnipotent God.
Many
Christians have slipped away from such a view of God today. They
have a God who can save
them from their sins,
through the death of Jesus Christ their Lord,
but not a God who reigns -- and that makes a very big difference to
the kind of faith
you have, and the kind of life you live.
* * * * * * * * * *
Also,
the book of 2 Chronicles has shown us very clearly that if God reigns
over all things -- and also has every personal destiny in His hands
-- then it makes sense to make God your priority in life, and to make
it your first priority to serve Him and please Him.
To
put it simply, we might say that God
is our insurance
policy.
If we want to be safe and secure, and if we want to be at peace in
our hearts -- then we shall seek first of all to be in a right
relationship with Him. Not that that is all that our faith is all
about -- because we don’t first want something from
Him, but we want to dedicate ourselves to
Him, because that is what He deserves
-- and He deserves nothing less.
* * * * * * * * *
Turning
to King Uzziah
this morning -- in 2 Chronicles 26
-- Uzziah was the longest-ever reigning monarch of the kingdom of
Judah. He ruled for 52
years in Jerusalem.
And
the first
thing I would like us to notice about King Uzziah
is something, as I said, that we notice about every
king we have looked at in this book of 2 Chronicles -- this
demonstrates a truth that applies to this whole
book of 2 Chronicles as we look back over all
the kings -- King Uzziah’s success
-- his well-being, his peace and progress -- and everything
-- depended on one thing alone
-- and that was his personal relationship with the Lord.
Let
us look at chapter 26 verse 5: "King Uzziah sought
God
during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God.
And as
long as
he sought the Lord, God gave him success."
Notice
the two aspects
to this verse -- "He sought the Lord" -- and then: "God
gave him success".
One
part of the verse speaks about something internal
-- something that is going on inside
King Uzziah -- he sought the Lord. He didn't just seek religion --
he didn't just seek right living -- that's important -- but he sought
the Lord.
And
the other part of the verse relates to something external -- things
that happened around
him -- "God
gave him success".
Notice
the connection
between the spiritual condition of this king, and his external
prosperity. And this is something that has stood out very clearly in
all of this book of 2 Chronicles -- namely that success and blessing
and peace in life are based upon our relationship with the Lord.
They
are not based -- as nearly everybody in this world would say
-- on my hard work -- or my cunning -- or my good luck -- or my good
provision for myself. The Bible makes it clear that both success and
failure come directly from the Lord.
So if
you want to be blessed -- then the way to achieve it is not to go
straight for the success, or straight for the money, or straight for
the security -- or straight for the happiness. The way to do it is
to go straight to the Lord.
We
also learnt the opposite
in the book of 2 Chronicles -- and that is that if you do not
serve the Lord, you can usually forget about any security or peace in
life.
One
of the most spectacular examples we had in 2 Chronicles was King
Ahab, who trusted in schemes, and in great armies, and in clever
treaties, and so on. But his relationship with the Lord
was completely absent.
In fact after Ahab,
when any king was an evil king, and departed from the Lord, people
said that he was walking in the ways of Ahab.
And
eventually, we saw how King Ahab was specially tucked away in a place
of safety,
when someone shot an arrow randomly into the air -- and it struck him
right between the joints of his armour.
That
was not just written because it was a curious story
-- but it was written for the spiritual lesson, namely that Ahab had
forsaken the Lord, and therefore Ahab's protection -- although it
seemed strong
in the eyes of men
-- was removed from him.
* * * * * * * * * *
We
also saw -- looking back over the kings of 2 Chronicles -- that not
not only does our security and prosperity and peace depend on
honouring God, or seeking God -- it depends also on trusting
in
God -- on depending
on Him in the various situations of life. This also has been very
clearly portrayed in the book of 2 Chronicles.
God
rules
over all things, and therefore we can also hand over situations
to Him in trust
-- and of course in prayer,
because that is how we communicate
with Him. And we saw again and again that God rewards
such trust -- even if
it is done from a position of weakness and fear. The fact that you
are weak and afraid
when you say, “O God, I trust in You”
does not make a difference to His reward.
Back
in chapter 20, we saw how a vast army marched against the kingdom of
Judah,
from the south -- it was so vast that the kingdom of Judah stood no
chance at all. It would just have been swept away.
And
all the people fasted, and they came to Jerusalem, and they stood
before the Lord -- the men with their wives by their sides, and the
little ones at their feet. And the king -- King Jehoshaphat -- said
to the Lord: "O Lord, we have no
power
to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what
to do
-- but our eyes are upon You."
And
because they turned their eyes to the Lord, and trusted in God
to have power over this situation, the Lord delivered them in an
astonishing way.
That
also applies today.
God is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow.
If we turn to Him even with a flickering
faith -- He rewards
that faith, and intervenes to His glory.
* * * * * * * * *
On
the other
hand, we find time and time again in this book of 2 Chronicles that
if God's people did not honour the Lord, or if they did not trust in
the Lord -- but if they relied on foreign armies instead, or in
pay-offs, or treaties, or the strength of their own defences -- then
the Lord overthrew them.
And
the lesson there for you and me is that if we have a problem and we
first start rallying our friends -- or first go to look for a lawyer
-- or first call the newspapers -- or start throwing our weight
around, or resorting to threats or bullying or bad language -- God
might very well
say, “Now I am pulling the plug.”
So
the first major truth we have
learnt
from 2 Chronicles is that God is Almighty -- He is majestic
-- He rules over everything -- and so we need to seek
Him, firstly -- and we need to put our trust
in Him.
*
* * * * * * * * *
A
second major feature of 2 Chronicles -- point "B" on the
Sermon Outline -- is lessons about salvation
from the Book of Second Chronicles.
The
lessons about salvation
were not as clear
in 2 Chronicles as were the lessons about trust
-- and yet as we went through 2 Chroinicles, there were great lessons
about our eternal salvation
scattered all over
the place.
Let’s
look first this morning at King Uzziah,
and a great lesson that we learn about salvation from this Chapter
26.
And then we’ll go back
over some of the things that we saw about salvation
in the previous chapters
of 2 Chronicles.
Let’s
turn to the final horrifying scene of King Uzziah’s reign
-- which we heard in our reading
this morning. It is the day when King Uzziah dares to force
his way into God's presence -- because that is what King Uzziah is
actually doing
when he tries to step up to the altar himself.
We read in verse 16 -- “He entered the temple of the Lord to burn
incense on the altar of incense.”
But he had not been consecrated
-- this was not allowed.
No
king was allowed simply to step up to God
at the altar.
It had to be a consecrated priest.
Verse
16 tells us: "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led
to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered
the temple of the Lord ... " and so on.
How
is this a picture of salvation? This should be very clear.
Uzziah forced
his way into the presence of God. He said to himself, “I have the
right
to enter into God’s presence, and sacrifice to Him, and speak
to Him.”
Well
how many people are doing that today.
As if anyone
may come before God and simply treat Him as their Friend.
But the Bible makes it clear that that is a big mistake.
You can only come to Him through the blood of Jesus
who is
our High Priest,
our Advocate before the Father -- not in any other way.
It’s amazing how we find this concept of salvation not through me
so clearly portrayed in the Old Testament already.
The
priests
of the temple -- 80 priests -- all of them showing great courage --
stopped
the king, and confronted
him. Maybe God was saying to Uzziah: "Stop, Uzziah. Turn
around, and I will have mercy
on you." But instead, Uzziah flew into a rage.
And
in that moment, leprosy
broke out upon him. And we read in verse 20:
"So the priests hurried
him out -- indeed, the king himself was eager
to leave, because God had afflicted him."
And
let us notice something highly symbolic at the end
of the story. In verse 21 we read: "King Uzziah had leprosy
until the day he died. he lived in a separate
house
-- leprous, and excluded from the temple of the
Lord."
And
this is a symbol
of the eternal separation
that is the penalty for trying to enter into God's presence without
the blood of Jesus Christ. That is one reason why we pray in Jesus
Name
-- it is a confession that we are not simply trying to come into
God’s presence -- just like that.
God is too holy
for that -- He is too awesome
for that.
* * * * * * * * * *
Let’s
now look back
over this book of 2 Chronicles, and see some of the other
ways that we learnt learnt lessons about Christian salvation.
Often
it is said that the Old Testament foreshadows
the truths of the New Testament. It doesn't yet portray them in all
their clarity and all their glory -- but it foreshadows them -- it is
like the sun just beginning to rise. And in fact, by looking back
on the Old Testament, we often get a clearer picture
of the New.
You
might remember that we saw in 2 Chronicles -- in a picture -- a
definite distinction
between the saved and the unsaved. We saw this particularly in the
picture of the temple, and the fact that some people were allowed to
enter
it, and others were not.
When King Joash
was crowned king, in 2 Chronicles 23, we saw that anyone who entered
the temple, who had not been consecrated
to the Lord, was immediately put to death.
We saw that clear distinction between who could enter God's
presence, and who not.
We
also looked at a New
Testament, which described the Church
as a spiritual
house
-- a temple -- which is made up only by those who are priests to the
Lord -- those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal
Saviour.
In
other words, the Church -- God's chosen people -- is made up only of
those who have been saved.
If you are not saved, then you might be attending
Church, or even be taking part in the life
of the Church, but you are not a part of God’s Kingdom
-- you stand outside
His kingdom. The Bible makes it clear that the true Church --
sometimes we call it the invisible
Church -- is those who are saved
-- those who have received Jesus as their Saviour through repentance
and faith
-- and it is only those who will see eternal
life.
We
also discovered in 2 Chronicles the very important fact that the Lord
God was not impressed by traditional observances, or by good works.
Although
the Old Testament is full of ceremony,
and full of laws,
it is clear that we are not saved in God's sight by any of these
things.
Almost
at the beginning, we dealt with a king called Abijah
-- and Abijah took great pride in his ancestry
-- and he took great pride in his meticulous observance of the Law.
And he was so confident that this would save him in the time of
battle that he climbed to the top of a hill, and shouted it across
the plain.
But
suddenly all was lost. God didn’t make things work to plan. The
enemy surrounded King Abijah front and back, in huge numbers.
And
we read that the people "cried out to the Lord."
No longer did they boast of their ceremony,
and boast of their Law
-- but they looked up to the Lord
-- and we read: "They were victorious because
they relied on the Lord."
That
is a picture of salvation -- because it is when we quit
looking at all our ceremony and good observances and all that I
have done for the Lord, and am
doing for the Lord -- and realise that we are helpless sinners,
and cry out: "O Lord, help me through the blood of Jesus"
-- it is only then
that we are saved.
Let’s
also think back on good King Joash.
We read that for thirty-nine years he served the Lord in complete
obedience. But that was not enough to save
him. That was also a picture of salvation.
People
often ask the question: "But what about good
people. Is that not good enough for God?" A very good answer
is to read the story of King Joash.
Although
he served the Lord in complete obedience for thirty-nine years, he
had not been renewed inside
by the Holy Spirit, and in his thirty-ninth year it all unravelled.
There
was in his heart all those 39 years what we call total depravity.
That is the potential
-- because he lived without really knowing God in a personal way --
the potential
to do the worst. And so although King Joash was a righteous
man, that wasn’t nearly enough in the sight of God.
* * * * * * * * * *
This
morning I shall have in my hand a little booklet which explains just
how you may receive salvation through Jesus Christ -- just how you
may come into a personal relationship with the Lord -- so that you do
have the right to come into His presence, and consider Him your
Friend -- please ask me for a copy as you leave.
AMEN.