Chronicles Part XII


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 glory
2. 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.