Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: 2 Chronicles

  • The Repentance of Manasseh

    The Repentance of Manasseh

    About this sermon

    Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, became king at twelve and did more evil than the nations Israel had driven out: he rebuilt the high places, set altars to the stars in the temple courts, burned his son as an offering, and consulted mediums. When the Lord brought him captive to Babylon, he humbled himself and prayed, and the Lord heard him and restored him. Judah’s national life depended on obedience, but individual salvation is by grace. Matthew includes Manasseh in Christ’s line, and in Christ the worst of sinners are washed and forgiven.

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    Sermon transcript

    Please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 1. We will read one verse from Matthew chapter 1. And also turn with me to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 33. 2 Chronicles 33 is in the Old Testament in the Bible, which you find in the pews on page 341. 341 in your Old Testament. Matthew chapter 1 being on page 1 of your New Testament. The page numbers begin again in the New.

    I will read the Matthew portion first. This is the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ by Matthew. Here now, Matthew chapter 1, verse 10. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah. Now turning to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 33. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. He reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.

    He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down. He also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the Lord, which the Lord had said, my name shall be in Jerusalem forever. For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

    Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon, his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will not Again, remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers.

    If only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them. according to all the law, the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses. Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

    When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to him, he was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

    Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley even to the entrance of the fish gate. And he encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. He also removed the foreign deities and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem. And he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it. And he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to the Lord, their God.

    Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, even his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are among the records of the kings of Israel. His prayer also and how God was entreated by him and all his sin his unfaithfulness and the sites on which he built high places and erected the Asherim and the carved images before he humbled himself. Behold, they are written in the records of the Hazai. So Manasseh slept with his fathers and they buried him in his own house and Amon, his son, became king in his place.

    That ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, praise you for your grace, praise you for your kindness, and let us not forget your love to us and your mercy to sinners. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. By God’s grace and by God’s providence, we now come in Jesus’ genealogy, by way of Matthew, to Manasseh.

    Manasseh, the king of Judah. Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, Manasseh, who may be the first man who was a king of the southern kingdom, who did not know what it was like to have the brothers in the north, in Israel, to be their rivals at times, but at other times to be their brothers.

    This is a man who both Kings and Chronicles say really harsh words. They say that this man was an evil man, and they even say that he did more evil than all the rest. He even became more evil than the other nations. This is God’s holy people and the son of David to sit on the throne to make the other nations, the outside nations look and make them flinch at the evil acts of this king. And this is a man who certainly could not blame this on his father. His father was king and was a righteous and great man.

    A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the life of Hezekiah. What an amazing life Hezekiah lived. Hezekiah was, and I’ll remind you of what we talked about a few weeks ago, a man who experienced, during his lifetime, three resurrections. He brought about the resurrection of the true worship of God in Judah. It was dead at that time and he brought it back. He also experienced the resurrection of the nation.

    You see, the Assyrians were at their door and they were soon to kill them and wipe out the nation and take it over. But what did they do? They shook in their boots, their knees knocked and they were afraid. But God did an amazing thing, putting to death 185,000 of the oppressive Assyrians, and they went home.

    And lastly, Hezekiah experienced a miraculous resurrection of his own in his own life, because Hezekiah was about to die. The prophet Isaiah, the biblical prophet, said to him, you are about to die. There’s no way to change it. But there was a way to change it. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord said, you’ll have 15 more years.

    We talked about the way that Hezekiah was just an amazing type of Christ where he experienced in three resurrections what Jesus does in one. Jesus bringing about his own resurrection for his own eternal life. Also, bringing back true worship. by bringing back true worship, bringing true worshippers, namely the kingdom of priests, of which you are members if you are washed by the blood of Christ. How amazing Hezekiah was in the ways that he pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

    But Manasseh was not that way. And Manasseh comes to the beginning of his reign at 12 years old. We might be willing to think, prone to think that 12 years old, that might be a very immature person. That’s not necessarily the case. talking about one who would have been grown for this and bred for this and all of his life preparing to take the keys of the kingdom from his father one day. We certainly know that age is certainly no guarantee of maturity. We remember that Rehoboam, who took the keys of the kingdom from his father Solomon, was 40 and was a very childish man, taking his friend’s advice over the advice of his father’s confidants.

    We would hope, we would hope that Manasseh would take the kingdom from his father and that he would continue the reforms and the revivals and the reformation that went on previously. There is a lot at stake here because national obedience gives to the people a national existence in the land that was promised to Abraham, and national disobedience will result eventually in banishment from the land. Manasseh does not care about this. He doesn’t believe this.

    It is as if, while we read the book of Kings, or we read the book of Chronicles, you have a plane that is headed down for the ground, and you have a pilot who pulls up and saves it from certain destruction. And then another pilot comes again, a son of the first pilot, of the previous pilot, and it’s headed down again. And then the next one pulls it up from certain destruction. Hezekiah receives a kingdom that was headed down and he pulled it up so that it would not be destroyed. He hands the kingdom over to his son and Manasseh has it heading for the ground again.

    Manasseh’s name. You may find interesting. His name means causing to forget. Isn’t that a good name for him? Causing the people to forget the words of God by Moses. Causing the people to forget the words of God by David. Causing the people to forget all the reforms that his father undertook. names have a lot of meaning. You may remember Hezekiah, Manasseh’s father, how he was going to die.

    I mentioned it just a few minutes ago. Remember how he was going to die? The Lord told him that and Isaiah, the prophet, tells him that. And he prayed to the Lord and the Lord gave him 15 more years. I want you to think about that for just a moment. The Lord gives him 15 more years and Manasseh is 12 years old when Manasseh begins to be king.

    What does that tell us? It is possible that Manasseh was born in that 15 year period. How doesn’t that change things? Now, understand, not all scholars believe that. I won’t bore you with all of the details. There are scholars who believe that Manasseh was born and he was a co-king with his father. And they reigned for some time and that he became a king at 20 or so.

    But it seems a little bit more likely that Manasseh was not born yet at that time. If Manasseh was not born yet, I don’t find any other sons of Hezekiah, I could be wrong, I don’t find the Bible telling us about any others. It may be the case that Hezekiah was praying for longer life Maybe that he might have a son to have an heir, so that God would be faithful to his promises to David, that there will always be a son to sit on that throne. And here I, Hezekiah, with no son, have none. And so, there’s none to pass this on. And if that had happened, then the line would be dead, and Jesus would have never come. And that would be a tragedy.

    But if it is the case that Hezekiah had this son Manasseh in that 15 year period, then we see God working out in redemptive history the line that is eventually going to go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it could not be stopped, not even by God’s Word that damned Hezekiah, that would have not damned his soul, but would have ended the line. And it’s interesting as we read about that 15 years of Hezekiah. Hezekiah during that 15 years, becomes arrogant and in many ways stupid. The Babylonian envoys, military people, come down all the way from Babylon and he shows them his whole armory. He became foolish and arrogant and you have to wonder, where did Manasseh get his ways from?

    Could it be the sins of the father? being given to the Son and through the Son. But we see that God will not snuff out the people that He has promised salvation and the people to whom He has promised a Savior. Manasseh brings this nation back into a nosedive. And the inspired chronicler tells us that Manasseh was evil in the sight of the Lord, as I said before. More evil than all of the other nations.

    He begins to institute worship that is just like those who are non-believers. We ought to take very careful notice about this. It gives us a picture that we ought to not follow, not worshipping our God according to the ways that non-believers would do so. Not worshipping according to the tastes of non-believers, as one preacher of the 19th century said. Not entertaining the goats while the sheep are starving.

    Manasseh rebuilt altars, of which his father had rid the land. His father had gotten rid of all this stuff, and he’s bringing it back. How often do sons undo the righteous deeds of their fathers, undoing the righteous deeds of their fathers with their actions.

    Manasseh is causing the people to forget the Lord. Manasseh even built altars for false gods in the temple. And these defiled God’s sanctuary, making it dirty. And it assumed that Jehovah, the true God, was just one God among many. Here you have a building that’s made for a God, so we’ll put a whole bunch of other gods in there as well. And Manasseh caused his son to pass through the fire. He burned his son in worship. God never commanded that, but he did it. The other nations did it.

    Manasseh allowed fortune tellers and wizards to come into the land. The Bible is very clear that in the land, those people are to be put to death within the Old Testament theocracy, the nation run by God. They were to be put to death, no questions asked, once a conviction has been made. And here he is inviting these men in, Manasseh caused the people to forget all the things Moses said, all the things David said, all the things Solomon said. God was looking for a people and for a king who would be careful to obey his commandments. As it says in 2 Chronicles 33 8, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them. All the law, the statutes, and the rules given them through Moses.

    Manasseh mocked the faithful. The faithless mocked them. It is an apocryphal story. Maybe true, we don’t know, not in the Apocrypha, that is the book that’s called the Apocrypha, but it’s a story that comes down to us by tradition, maybe true, maybe not, that the prophet Isaiah was put to death under Manasseh. Whatever the case, the prophets were dead to Manasseh because he would not listen to them.

    What do you have to do to get through to sinners who love death and love destruction, even their own self-destruction? What do we need to do when people will not listen to the truth, when they’re offended as if that matters about anything? The truth matters above all things. The truth didn’t matter to Manasseh.

    How do you get through to someone like that? Well, it’s not for us to get through to someone like that, but the Lord has a way to get through to someone if He wants to get through to them, and that is what He does with Manasseh, because Manasseh was captured, and he was taken to Babylon.

    And they put a hook in him. It may be that it was put through his jaw. You who go fishing, you may know what I’m talking about. Like a stringer. But it may have been his nose. And we have a little note in our Bible that does Intimate that. Imagine that.

    This is the one who’s supposed to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords at that time with a nose, with a hook in his face being strung along to Babylon. And they probably didn’t let him ride on a horse. He’s probably walking there being dragged by his nose hook. That’s the way God gets through to those who do not love truth above all.

    And so it is there that God saves Manasseh, saves his soul, saves him from eternal destruction. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord heard him. Manasseh was converted that day. Manasseh was saved that day, going from a pagan, child-killing cultist to become one who is a son of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

    Even though Jesus had not died yet, the death and resurrection of Christ was made effectual for him, going backwards, retroactively, being effective to save this man and to wash him. But he didn’t die there. That’s what’s amazing. He was able to go back. God had grace upon him so that he could have a son, a son who would sit upon the throne as he had.

    And this time Manasseh sought to do that which was right in God’s eyes, even though he was the worst king up to that point. He tried to bring about reforms. but his attempts at reform were failures. Did you notice that? He tried to bring back a revival, but it was too little and it was too late. He had already set the wheels in motion.

    His conversion is significant, but his reforms are so insignificant. Do you know that the Book of First Kings doesn’t even mention the reforms or any of these things? It doesn’t even get a mention. The ancient writers, you understand, they didn’t have a lot of space. They were writing on animal hides and things like that. You’ve got to save space. It wasn’t significant enough to include. The Chronicler does keep it, though. Too little. Too late.

    Why was God so merciful, though, to such a terrible man as Manasseh? Was it to show his grace to a sinner? Yes, it was to show his grace to a sinner. But if God had kept Manasseh in Babylon, where the Assyrians were, then there would not have been an heir.

    You understand? There are two things going on, two parallel lines. One is the preservation of the kingdom and the preservation of the line which will ultimately lead to the Lord Jesus Christ. And another parallel line that goes along with it And that is the salvation of individual people, individual believers. Now, one is a result of the other. The death and resurrection of Christ causes those who are individually saved to have eternal life. The individual salvation of people is wholly other. It is different than what’s going on on the national level. You may have a king who is disobeying, but individual believers who are believing the gospel. You can have the opposite.

    But still, Hezekiah His son was found to be faithful in Manasseh at the end. And as we sang and as we read Psalm 132, verse 12, if your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on their throne. Manasseh was found to be, in a sense, a faithful king for the first time in a pagan land. And God showed that He is able, even in the Old Testament, to save the most awful, the most terrible, the most horrible of sinners. Jesus can atone for such as they.

    But Manasseh still had to endure the consequences of his sins in the earthly realm. not in the heavenly and spiritual realm. He is forgiven, and as Pastor Knox began us today, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. There is no condemnation for Manasseh, because he is in Christ. But the consequences of seeing the wheels that he had set in motion, looking all around him, that he is the king of a pagan land, and his efforts to stop it from being pagan are not doing anything.

    How awful sin is, even for those of us who have been forgiven. And this is the case even for many in our time. We may come to Christ, but there is a sense in which we still have certain consequences to our sins in the earthly realm. If a crook robs something, someone takes something, he may still have to go to jail. He may be saved for time and for eternity, but he still may need to go to jail.

    Many People become believers late in life after having grown their children, raised their children in a family that was not Christian. Their children never heard the gospel and these parents come late in life to the gospel. And how sad it is that though they are saved for time and for eternity, there’s no condemnation for them. They are caused to watch as their children and their grandchildren are growing up and being raised, or maybe already adults, not knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, not having come to realize the glory of Jesus Christ and to know Jesus Christ in an intimate way, in a way that He becomes more real to us than the flesh upon our very bones. And they wonder, why did God not save me before this, so that I could have brought up my children in the faith?

    In the faith. The Lord’s working is a mystery to all of us. His wind blows upon us and we are saved. But God gives us the Lord Jesus Christ to look for and to look to for time and for eternity. If Manasseh had not gone back Maybe the line would have been cut off and there would have been no Messiah to save Manasseh. But God is faithful to His promises to David. to cause there to be a king to sit upon the throne. And we have that king who presently sits upon the throne and he is never getting off of it. And he is not bringing the kingdom down low into a nosedive.

    But Jesus Christ is causing to forget Jesus Christ is causing the Father to forget your sins, because they are washed. Your sins are separated as East is from West. And God’s glory reigns. God’s glory reigns in Jesus Christ, the One who washes. and causes us to forget our sins as well. For we are under no condemnation because of our glorious God and because of his Son, Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Josiah’s Proper Motivation

    Josiah’s Proper Motivation

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. OT Sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 12, 1995.

    About this sermon

    Corporate America’s fondness for mission statements has crept into the church’s view of itself. God himself drives Josiah’s reform, as he drives Paul’s ministry, and that is the same test Satan once put to Eve. Zechariah 4:6’s ‘not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’ names the real alternative.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are looking at 2 Chronicles chapter 34, and we are beginning at verse 8. Now, in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maasaiah, an official of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

    And they came to Hilkiah, the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

    Then they gave it into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of God, and the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord used it to restore and repair the house. They in turn gave it to the carpenters and to the builders to buy quarried stone and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had let go to ruin. And the men did the work faithfully with foremen over them to supervise. Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Neshulam, the sons of the Kohathites and the Levites. all who were skillful with musical instruments. And they were also over the burden bearers and supervised all the workmen from job to job, and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.

    When they were bringing out the money which had been brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. Then Shaphan brought the book to the king and reported further word to the king saying, everything that was entrusted to your servants they are doing. They have also emptied out the money which was found in the house of the Lord and have delivered it into the hands of the supervisors and the workmen. Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest gave me a book, and Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.

    And it came about when the king heard the words of the law that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahicham the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Isaiah, the king’s servant, saying, Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book which has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord which is poured out on us because our fathers had not observed the word of the Lord to do according to all that is written in this book. So Hilkiah and those whom the king had told went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of the son of Tokah, the son of Hazrah, the keeper of the wardrobe.

    Now, she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter, and they spoke to her regarding this. And she said unto them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Tell the man who sent you to me. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing evil on this place and on its inhabitants. even all the curses written in the book which they have read in the presence of the King of Judah, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched. But to the King of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus you will say to Thus says the Lord God of Israel regarding the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before me, tore your clothes, and wept before me, I truly have heard you, declares the Lord. Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in so your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants.’

    And they brought back word to the king. Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and the king went up to the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, from the greatest to the least. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood in his place and made covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to proclaim the words of the covenant written in this book. Moreover, he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand with him, so the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

    And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands. to the sons of Israel, and may all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn from following the Lord God of their fathers.” Then he answered and said unto me, This is the word of the Lord, which is a rubbable saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”

    Let’s pray together. O God, your word is read before us week by week, and we have been even so blessed that we have copies of your word in our hands. Therefore, O God, we beseech you that we would respond to your word as Josiah responded, and as the people of his day responded, and that for your sake. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Tonight, in dealing with the subject of the Holy Spirit, and In the interest of furthering our consideration of Zechariah 4, verse 6, I want to take up the question of motivation.

    It has become customary in Christian circles to talk about mission statements. and to structure the life of the Church for the purpose of realizing a number of very clearly defined, manageable, observable gains and goals. Now, as you think about all of this and the terminology that I have just thrown out in front of you, even specifically this phrase, mission statement, you must understand that you are not to think about church vocabulary. Instead, you are to think about a corporation, a business. For the phrase, mission statement, as it is currently used in much of Christianity, is not taken from the world of Christian theology, but from the corporate think tanks and company boardrooms where businesses contemplate business. Where they contemplate even strategies that will make for corporate success.

    The interest, then, in the discussions that give rise to such mission statements, centers on what will cause consumers to buy the product, and ensure the company’s place in the arena of corporate players. When transferred to the church, the mission statement, or vision statement as it is sometimes called, is informed by consumer or seeker interests. The question is asked, how can we make our product more attractive to the religious consumer, and secure our place as a major player in the arena of ecclesiastical and para-ecclesiastical concerns? The question of motivation intrudes into this whole matter. when it is suggested, subtly sometimes but oftentimes not, that motivation in the Church must be identical to the motivation that we find at the corporate level. In other words, after giving the crassest reading on corporate America motivation, The Church jumps in line and follows suit, looking neither to the right nor to the left.

    Our motivation, so it is stated—yes, once more, in the crassest terms—our motivation must be sales, consumer satisfaction, reinvestment, larger prophets and bigger churches. Give us quantifiable goals. Our motivation then spurred on and even defined by such goals. This our motivation then directed towards the multiplication of numbers, human and fiscal, for the good of our church enterprise, our ecclesiastical business, as we achieve preliminary goals on our way to the attainment of otherness.

    The assumption in this approach to the church is most definitely that the Church, without such motivation, not only sacrifices significance and importance, but calls into question its commitment to the Gospel. That is to say, the Church that fails to tie into the modern Church-growth philosophy, The Church that lacks its view of motivation is Christian in name only, and is destined, so say some like George Barna, as if they were dinosaurs for extension under God’s displeasure. Well, as if you didn’t know, I beg to differ. In fact, I am bold before you to contend the exact opposite. I am bold to contend before you that those churches which have embraced the church growth and its view of motivation are far from God.

    Let me say at the beginning of this critique, biblical motivation for proper action is always God himself. Period. Now, note that I did not say that proper motivation, biblical motivation rather, for proper action is always the glory of God. What I did say is that biblical motivation for proper action is always God Himself, period.

    Now, I say what I have, not in order to downplay or speak disparagingly of the glory of God, heaven forbid, but only to make sure that God receives his due, that God himself receives his due. The church growth movement is overrun with glory-of-God rhetoric. The phrase itself has become camouflaged, beneath which all sorts of evils lurk, removes church structures, regardless of what the Bible says.

    Therefore, we pursue it. Therefore, we follow it. Therefore, we invoke it. The new worship—should I even call it worship? They don’t. They call it celebration. The new celebration formats, the color-coded name tag systems, the multifaceted church programs, the overtly commercial outreach efforts. All of these are baptized under the excuse, the greater glory of God.

    Therefore, in this discussion I contend for God himself, first of all, knowing that if God is most appropriately central, his glory will shine out in a proper way and be properly invoked. So I say again to you, biblical motivation for proper action is always God himself, period. And the intent of God’s Word, I would suggest to you, has that perspective on motivation from beginning to end.

    This is the crux of the story of the Fall. Think once more about the temptation in the Garden of Eden. And I ask you to do that because you see from a certain point of view, not just Satan’s, from a very natural point of view, there is no reason not to eat of that fruit of the tree of knowledge. There’s absolutely no reason not to eat of it. The tree, from all appearances, is like every other tree, and even if it is distinguished by appearance, it is distinguished as a tree that is even more appealing, and therefore appropriate to partake of. Therefore, there is no reason not to eat of it. Reasonably speaking, there is no reason to conclude that this one tree can, in fact, confer death, while the other trees do not.

    In the end of the matter, as the tree itself is viewed As it is presented to Eve and to Adam in the garden, the only motivation for Eve and for Adam not to partake of that tree must be God Himself, not the reasons that most naturally arise in connection with the tree.

    The test, in the end, is whether the man and the woman will choose God for himself and place their confidence in him, even when everything else conspires to convince them of just the opposite. Satan will suggest to them other motivations. Eve acts on the basis of other motivations. Adam follows for the sake of those other motivations. But in the end, there is only one proper motivation that should direct Eve’s and Adam’s actions, and that is God himself. They are placed there for the purpose of choosing for the sake of God and God alone. that even after the fall, God does not stop testing his people along these lines, as I suggested to you before. The message with regard to motivation is the same in Scripture from beginning to end. Tests that rise repeatedly in the history of salvation will then bring into focus this this matter of supremest importance, that of motivation. But one of the most remarkable tests of all occurs in the reign of Josiah.

    Josiah reigned at Jerusalem at the end of the seventh century B.C. As we have read this evening, upon discovery of the law in the temple, He sent for Haldah the prophetess to explain to him the meaning of the law. Haldah prophesied, as a result, the end of the nation of Judah and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its temple.

    And there will be absolutely no remedy for this destruction. It is coming inevitably. That is the key to understanding the story in 2 Chronicles 34. This judgment, spoken of by Halter, is coming inevitably upon the nation, upon the city, and upon the temple. That means, you see, that no amount of repentance No measures of reformation will save the nation, the city, or the structure of the temple. Nothing will save these structures or this nation. No repentance, no reformation will accomplish it.

    But I want you to note now the actions of Josiah in light of that message. I doubt if there is any passage that is so glorious as 2 Chronicles 34, and its conclusion in this regard. You see, after having this message delivered to him, Josiah leads the nation in repentance and reformation anyway.

    But why? He’s not going to save himself, he’s not going to save the nation, he’s not going to save the city, he’s not going to save the temple. Why in the world should he repent and reform? What purpose does the Reformation and the repentance serve? Absolutely none, unless the goal is God, and God alone. He’s not going to save his house, he’s not going to save the city, but he repents and he leaves the nation, and repentance anyway, for the sake of God alone, period. by his repentance and reformation.

    He will not secure for himself those statistics that will give him self-respect as he speaks with other nations and compares statistics with them. It will not guarantee him a greater national income by which he might boast. It will not build for him bigger houses or palaces. There is no other motivation for his repentance and for his own personal reformation, but God alone, God himself, period.

    Josiah pursues repentance and reformation, then, for God’s sake, even though everything Now, with regard to this whole matter of motivation, we also turn to the New Testament story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. And there it would become apparent to us once more that the motivation at the heart of Jesus, our Savior, is God, and God only.

    But let me move on to another text in the New Testament, one from Paul’s letters. It comes at this issue a little differently. and in such a way that Zechariah 4 verse 6 is brought into view. You see, the church growth mafia has told us that our motivation must be the posting of the posting of figures, and that we must look to those sales figures for the purpose of generating excitement within our churches so as to keep our memberships motivated and engaged. This means, of course, that the Church understood along these lines is market-driven. But if you turn to Colossians 1, verse 23, you find the Apostle Paul not only of another point of view, but of a completely contrary point of view. In fact, Paul, from his perspective, I judge, would not hesitate to anathematize the church-growth mafia. These ecclesiastical henchmen are no friends of the Church of Jesus Christ. They are motivated by envy and by greed. The basic motivation in their soul is lust. They are of the flesh. They measure everything by appearances.

    The subject of this verse, as you look at it, is missions and evangelism. and Paul declares emphatically that the gospel heard in Colossae, note his language at the end of the verse, has already been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. Now has this man lost his senses? Or is he lying? Do you believe that? The gospel has been proclaimed, has been proclaimed already in all creation under heaven. Do you believe that?

    Is Paul here telling the truth? Can he not be charged? with lying, falsifying the evidence. What Paul says here is meant in all sincerity, and he is stating here God’s truth. You see, Paul approaches the missionary and evangelistic task of the Church of Jesus Christ as if it were already done, finished, completed. But why in heaven’s name would he do that? Why would he even make a statement like this?

    Because, you see, at the outset of his consideration of visionary and evangelistic efforts, He is determined not to think of himself nor to speak about himself too glowingly. He will not allow his soul to slip into vanity. He is determined not to think too highly of his own effort. or the effort of anyone else who would be engaged in the missionary and evangelistic tasks of the Church. The Apostle Paul, therefore, in setting out the missionary and evangelistic ministry of the Church in such terminology as this, is making it evident that the reason that he would be engaged in it is not for the sake of pursuing some sort of advantage to himself, or some sort of glory for himself.

    The task is already done. The only reason, then, that Paul can pursue it is for his absolute, abandoned love for God. No other reason. There is therefore here nothing of that motivation that seeks to destroy the souls of Churches by causing them to lust for bigger harvests. Nothing of that motivation that is driven by the desire to put numbers on the board, to call attention inordinately to the ministry of a particular enterprise, or to call attention to what the Church or its ministers have accomplished, of which they might boast and brag.

    For it is as if, as Paul makes this statement, it is as if already all the numbers are in, and the entirety of the task is completed, it’s done. The only purpose and motivation for the ministry, then, is not for the self-aggrandizement of those who would pursue it, but for God himself and him alone.

    Here also you must see the magnification of grace. And it is this message that stands out so strikingly in Zechariah 4. For just as the Lord speaks through Zechariah to Zerubbabel with regard to the laying of the foundations and the completing of the temple structure, the Lord has previously set before Zerubbabel the pure accomplishment of all that is in view with regard to that man’s task in and by the Spirit. That sixth verse in the fourth chapter, then, sets the building enterprise before Zerubbabel as if it were already a completed task. In a sense, the accomplishment is in the promise. and Zerubbabel’s motivation in the Spirit must be then God only, God himself, as he is drawn into the work that from the most sublime point of view is already completed by God’s grace. What might we say about ourselves and our own lives? What motivation might there be for you in your Christian pursuits? Your own glory? Your own satisfaction? Posting a few numbers of your own? Greater security? Bigger something or other? The only genuine biblical motivation for proper action is God himself.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • When Discipline Actually Works

    When Discipline Actually Works

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 27, 1994.

    About this sermon

    Scripture gives real examples of church discipline that succeeded, and God himself takes an active part in the process. Paul’s language in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5 assumes a ruling body of elders with real authority. Discipline done rightly is a divine transaction.

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    Sermon transcript

    We are beginning this morning our scripture reading in 2 Chronicles chapter 33, beginning at verse 1, give your attention to the word of God. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem, but did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

    For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down and reared up altars for the Babylonians, and made groves, and worshiped all the hosts of heaven, and served them. Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, Also he observed times and used enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizards, and he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set up a proud image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever.”

    Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers, so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.”

    So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to sin and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh from the Thorns and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.

    Now after this he built a wall without the city of David on the west side of Gihon in the valley even to the entering in at the fish gate, encompassed about Ophir and raised it up a very great height and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. and he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only.” Then, turning over to 1 Corinthians 5, reading verses 3-5, 1 Corinthians 5, beginning at verse 3.

    For I very, as absent in body but present in spirit, have judged already. Though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one, undisturbed for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Help us, our Father, in our prayers with respect to the Word. May we pray as we approach your Word that this Word may profit us to the full. And also, O God, give us a heart for those who proclaim your Word throughout the world in various places. And may they have the encouragement of your spirit as they preach, and may they be blessed with faithfulness as they proclaim the gospel. And may it please you, Lord, this very day, to save many, even those whom you have ordained unto everlasting life. We pray it in Jesus’ name.

    Amen. there is something exceedingly great about the story of Manasseh. The story that appears here in 2 Chronicles chapter 33. This man was the most wicked king that Judah had ever seen. we might go even further and say that this man was the most wicked king that Israel in the entirety of its history had ever seen. We may even be bolder still and suggest that this man was the most wicked man that had ever lived. But it is specifically this man whom the Lord brings to repentance, so that he became as great in his humility before the Lord as he had been in his sin.

    Now, there are many parallels between this story about Manasseh And the passage that we have been looking at recently in 1 Corinthians, the 5th chapter specifically. I’m not suggesting to you that the Apostle Paul has the story of Manasseh in mind as he goes and writes what he does in 1 Corinthians 5, but there is a common pattern as you move from one text to the other. are intriguing.

    Look, for example, at 2 Chronicles 33 verse 9. In the New American Standard it reads this way, Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the sons of Israel. To say the least, the sin of Manasseh is proverbial.

    It would seem that his sin exceeds the sins of the nations that had been dispossessed. But now look at what is said about the man in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the first verse. This man who has been overtaken in this particularly deplorable sin That is, he is now living with his stepmother as if that woman were his wife. Paul says this about him, that this is such a sin that it does not even exist among the Gentiles.

    So you have the enormity of the evil commented upon in both instances. But we also have the relationship, the relationship specifically that Manasseh sustains to Judah, his people. Once more, that ninth verse in 2 Chronicles 33, we are told that Manasseh misled Judah.

    Look now at 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6, and what is said in the case of the man that is in view in that text. Here, Paul compares the iniquitous man to leaven and asks, Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? As Manasseh’s wickedness affected all Judah, this man’s notorious sin affects no better, in fact, the entire church at Corinth. Just as the sinner in Corinth is to be delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, verse 5, so Manasseh is delivered through the judgments of the Lord to Babylon, of all places, that he might be restored finally, ultimately, to that place which God has set for him among his people.

    And finally, with regard to these parallels, which are in fact striking and intriguing, some have suggested for us quite strongly and cogently that this particular man of whom Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 5, so sternly to be disciplined through the Apostle’s admonition, is the very man for whom Paul then pleads in 2 Corinthians 2. where he says of this individual, assuming they are the same, sufficient to such a man is the punishment that has been inflicted by the men.

    Now, if this is the case, if we can see that this man himself was restored, The man in you in 1 Corinthians. We have then record in each testament, old and new, of successful discipline administered, both incidents involving severe sin, the greatest of sins, and then resolution of the same, and reclamation of the transgressors. Combining these passages creates a uniform testimony from testament to testament, the impact of which is an encouragement, believe it or not, an encouragement to individual transgressors and to congregations of God’s people alike. To the individual transgressor, because we are assured that the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the discipline of the Lord can, in fact, bring restoration and reconciliation. If in the case of these notorious sinners, then so also in our case.

    The Westminster Confession of Faith is found at the back of the Trinity hymnals, and on page 680 you have the chapter, Repentance unto Life, chapter 15. And there is a statement in that chapter from the Confession that I think is well worth committing to memory. I have in mind paragraph 4. What can, in fact, be as encouraging as these words to us, sinners that we are? Paragraph 4, chapter 15 of the Confession, reads, As there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation, so there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.

    Oh, marvelous stuff. Encouragement, then. And encouragement as it works itself out in the life of a congregation, in particular cases, need I remind this congregation of instances in which discipline has brought the desire of recovery. Manasseh, then, and the man of 1 Corinthians 5 communicate hope, hope to the spiritually and morally stricken, that through a godly discipline, restoration and reconciliation are possible.

    This is why, then, we personally must not—and underscore that—must not resent or hold in contempt the discipline of the Lord, which would be brought to bear on our own individual cases. For we may find ourselves so desperately, personally in need of that discipline for a proper restoration and reconciliation amongst the people of the Lord and with the Lord himself.

    Nor can the Church ever afford to hold discipline in contempt itself. It seems that the congregation in Corinth was guilty of this very thing. They were arrogant, to be sure, they were spiritually boastful, they were filled with all kinds of pride, and they couldn’t be bothered with taking care of the case of this particular man who had fallen into sin. But instead of following the course of the Church at court, the true Church is bound to pursue discipline because of its zeal for the purity of the Church.

    Bound as the Church is to a holy Lord, and is that not the impact of verses 7 and 8 in that fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians, where Paul speaks about the old leaven, the leavening the whole loaf, where he speaks about Christ, our Passover, having been sacrificed where he calls upon us to celebrate the feast not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of mollusk and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. But furthermore, and of great importance with Manasseh and this man of 1 Corinthians 5 squarely set before us, The Church must not move down the road of discipline without the conviction that God can bring a glorious outcome to the effort, to the enterprise of discipline specifically. And here is a tendency that dogs too many steps these days. the judgment that the situation is beyond recovery.

    Why even expend oneself? The sin is too great, the sinner is too obstinate to admit to any resolution. That sin and that obstinance preclude any prospect for a happy and glorious outcome. Let me be clear with you about this point. Such an attitude on the part of the Church is a form of unbelief. The situation is beyond recovery. The sinner is so thoroughly obstinate that we do better simply to ignore him. Let me say that one more time. Such an attitude is a form of unbelief. And it is especially this question of belief and unbelief that he is now the last dimension to the discipline process, as the Church would be engaged in that process.

    You see, it is absolutely imperative that we believe God is present and active among his people. It is absolutely imperative that we believe that. Yes, not only in our personal lives, not simply as we are a Church congregated here and we have the confidence that God is present with us as we gather for worship, or even as we gather for the purpose of celebrating the sacraments and affirm the presence of our God with us in the celebration, say, of the Lord’s Supper. But even now, more going beyond those points, yes, it is absolutely imperative that we, the Church, believe that God is present and accurate in the discipline processes of the Church. From the telling of the story of Manasseh, As it appears in 2 Chronicles, this indeed is obvious.

    And the Lord’s involvement, His presence, His activity, is direct, is it not? In fact, there doesn’t seem to be any other actor in the scene described for us than God Himself. He is the one alone, even though He may have used prophets to bring His word to man, so God is seen in that sense as the sole actor. the one who is present and active to administer discipline to this wayward king.

    But let me tell you now that the Lord is no less involved, no less present and active, in 1 Corinthians 5 and in the discipline passage that is set out in front of us there. There is a change. There is a change, to be sure. The emphasis now is upon God’s indirect presence, and you have to be sensitive to that as you read through that text to pick it up. God is indeed present and active. How so? He is present and active through his servant, who is no other than the Apostle Paul. Note the manner in which the Apostle selects to frame this thought with respect to the presence and activity of God.

    It is so thoroughly informing the mindset of the Apostle as he addresses the problem that it intrudes itself into the way in which he describes himself in his relationship to the Corinthians. Look, for instance, at 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 15. Here Paul speaks of himself as a father in relationship to the Corinthians. Now, I want you to drop down to verse 17, where Paul speaks about sending to the Corinthians his son, Timothy. And something’s sounding familiar here. First he describes himself as the father, and next he sends his son. If you move down towards the end of the chapter there, you have Paul describing himself in relationship to the fact that he is promised to come again to these Corinthians, and he is coming again to the Corinthians. in language that sounds very much like the second coming of Christ.

    But he isn’t done. Did you catch it in what we read from the fifth chapter this morning? We’ve got the Father, we’ve got the Son in chapter 4. What are you waiting for? You’re waiting for the Spirit, aren’t you? Well, the Spirit comes, does he not? verses 3 through 5 of that fifth chapter. He says, I’m not going to be there in body, I’m going to be there in spirit. Father, Son, Spirit.

    Paul will then indirectly communicate the truth of God’s presence and activity among these people by the very way in which he speaks of his relationship to them. Paul’s knowledge of God in his triune nature informs his understanding of his relationship to these Corinthians, and it communicates that sense of the presence of God, even God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the entire matter of his dealings with them in this issue of church discipline. It is this union, then, of the Triune God and His Apostle that continues to guarantee God’s presence with His Church in the discipline of the Church’s membership. You see, just as the Apostle is removed geographically from the Corinthians, he’s not there, he is also removed from us. He is removed from us in space and time. The Apostle is in heaven.

    Nevertheless, there is that sense in which he continues to function in the midst of the Church of Jesus Christ, and that even to the end of the world. And how so specifically by his witness, by the word that comes through him, as that word has been recorded in the Scriptures.

    The point being, as long as the apostolic witness is alive in the Church, God’s presence is among us to exercise His discipline upon us. We as much bound to believe now, here’s the point, we as much bound to believe that our God is present, specifically in disciplining us, as we are to believe that he is present at all in our worship, or even to be present with us in our celebration of the sacrament. We no longer look for a living and bodily present apostle, for surely none in the Church today should even dare to speak with the authority with which the Apostle Paul speaks. But God’s presence is bound to that witness. is bound to that witness, the witness of his servants. God’s presence is preserved in our midst, mediated by the apostolic word, the Bible. But secondly, the presence of the Lord is indirectly evident here in this text. demanding of us once more faith, the exercise of our faith that God is present through the specifics of church discipline.

    And here I have in mind the actions of the judicatory that would be at work in the church at Corinth, something comparable to our session. charged with the administration of discipline within the people of God. And it is my judgment, and I believe an informed and correct judgment, that this is exactly what is going on in that long, complicated, difficult sentence that runs from verse 3 to the end of verse 5 in 1 Corinthians 5. In this text, in this long run-on sentence, in view, is not a general gathering of the congregation as at other times, such as at worship, but a specific gathering, the express purpose of which is the discipline of this man who has now been exposed in his sin. Nor is it, might I add, The assumption of these verses is that the whole of the congregation will in fact be present to administer this discipline. Rather, the meeting in view is one that specifically takes place in a gathering of the Corinthians with Paul’s spirit, using the words of those verses now, with the power of their Lord Jesus, for the purpose, verse 5, of delivering this man to Satan, that his spirit might be salvaged in the day of Christ. Not only is a specific meeting in view, but it is a meeting of the Church’s judicatory at which the Lord himself then will be present to administer the discipline for those whom he has called in the church to do just that. I might add that this is the specific interpretation of that famous verse that comes from Matthew 18.

    If two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst. It’s not the encouragement to you that the Lord’s presence is with you as you gather together for your little Bible study on Tuesday nights. That text is about Church discipline. Read the context.

    The promise is specifically related to the presence of the Lord in the administration of discipline over the people of God. Not only is a specific meeting in view, meeting of the Church’s judicatory recession, but it is specifically with the judicatory as it conducts its affairs on the basis of and consistent with the apostolic witness that God is present. And insofar as the decisions of the judicatory are treated as decisions of the whole congregation and embraced by the whole congregation, The congregation is called upon to give its assent that God is with it in the administration of justice within its walls.

    As the world, and even much of the Church in our day, has decided that the exercise of discipline by the Church is a sign, a sure sign of hypocrisy, we must be biblical in our convictions. In this, that discipline is not only necessary as a mark that God is truly with us, but indispensable for the full and glorious restoration of sinners, though they be as sinful as Manasseh, and as corrupt as the man at Corinth.

    Our Father, we are the first to admit that this whole matter of discipline is very difficult for us. It is difficult for those who have office, for the administration of it. It is also difficult for us in the congregation, for it is necessary, Lord, that we would receive your disciplined grace.

    Help us, Lord, we who have office, to be about our task, and that, Lord, with our Savior in mind, and even as he is presented to us in the Scripture as that one who seeks and saves that which is lost. But Lord, we are asking at the same time that all of us who are subject to discipline, and that excludes no one, would have hearts that are ready to receive your admonitions as they are appropriate, as they come forth from your word, that we with all humility might receive this discipline so that, yes, there may be the destruction of the flesh and the preservation of the spirit in the day of Lord Jesus. Oh, help us, Lord, that we would be a glad people, even a people that welcomes your judgments, that by them we might be restored and reconciled. as is right. We pray these things through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is Head and King of the Church, in the confidence, yes, that our God is present, not only in our general worship, but also even in the administration of discipline for our good.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Demise of Church Discipline

    The Demise of Church Discipline

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 6, 1994.

    About this sermon

    A specific case of church discipline opens onto a much larger survey: discipline’s near-total collapse across the mainline denominations over the past century, a collapse Machen himself could not finally stop. Both Old and New Testament patterns of discipline are set against that decline. What looks like an isolated case belongs to a long, documented history.

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    Sermon transcript

    We turn first this morning to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles chapter 19, and we begin reading at verse 4. Give your attention to the word of God. So Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem and went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and brought them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

    And he appointed judges in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city. And he said to the judges, Consider what you are doing. For you do not judge for man, but for the Lord, who is with you when you render judgment. Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be very careful what you do, for the Lord our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bride.” And in Jerusalem also Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites and priests. and some of the heads of the father’s households of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord, and to judge disputes among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then he charged them, saying, Thus you shall do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and wholeheartedly. And whenever any dispute comes to you from your brethren who live in their cities between blood and blood, between law and commandments, statutes and ordinances, you shall warn them that they may not be guilty before the Lord, and wrath may not come on you and your brethren. Thus you shall do, and you shall not be guilty.

    And behold, Amariah the chief priest will be over you in all that pertains to the Lord, and Zebediah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, in all that pertains to the king. Also the Levites shall be officers before you. Act resolutely and the Lord be with the upright.” Then, turning over to Matthew 18, beginning at verse 15, and this is Matthew 18, verse 15, verse 15.

    And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church. And if he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax gatherer.”

    Truly, I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.

    For where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.” Finally, turning to 1 Corinthians 5, it is actually reported that there is immorality among you and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles that someone has his father’s wife, and you have become arrogant and have not mourned instead in order that the one who has done this deed might be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I with you in spirit, With the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that the spirit may be preserved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

    Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

    It is your pleasure, O God, that the message which you have for the world would go forth in the foolishness of preaching. Lord, through these weak things, then, and by weak vessels, you proclaim your truth and your mighty works. Grant mercy, O God, through the ministry of your word today, not just here, not just in this area, but throughout the world, that your people may be gathered, that they may be assembled in hope in hope of you and of coming glory, and that they might live for you presently in all godliness and reverence. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    One of the first things to face me when I took up my first pastorate was a situation I was hardly prepared for. It was a situation in that congregation in southern New Jersey that had been lingering for years. It had become the object of gossip throughout that small rural community, and it was the subject of whispered comments and those all-knowing looks among the church members within that congregation which I passed it. But no one did anything responsible before the Lord with regard to that situation. They just talked about it. They talked about a certain church trustee, a married man who had moved his wife out of his house only to move his secretary in. and to live with her as if she were his wife.

    Now many in that community never forgave me for raising the issue. And many within that congregation never forgave me for forcing the session to deal with that You see, it would seem that there was one sin, and I was guilty of it. There was one sin more heinous than adultery in the eyes of these people, and that was the sin of demanding that that particular sin be repented of. and that the situation ends. It was even worse than that. Many in that church and within that community, aside from talking about that man’s affair, had decided virtually to ignore They would ignore the sin, but they would not ignore my effrontery.

    A few years ago, I got a call from a member of a local mainline congregation here in the The man on the other end of the line wished to know if I would make a trip with him to Washington, D.C. at the end of January for the purpose of protesting the slaughter of the unborn. To take a stand with him publicly against the iniquitous 1973 Supreme Court decision with respect to the execution of the unborn. He was very emotional in his appeal, and I was impressed by his fervor. And as he spoke of the Lord in his comments, I was convinced that he was utterly genuine in his love of our Savior. But I asked him if it wouldn’t be a better use of his time if he began a judicial process within his own denomination for the purpose of bringing the abortionists and the abortion activists to ecclesiastical trial.

    There was dead silence. He then spoke and said he had never heard of such a thing. It wasn’t that it had been considered and dismissed. He had never heard of such a thing. But he went on to say that such a procedure would be completely out of place in the Church. It would be in place in Washington. In the civil court, it would be out of place in the Church.

    Mainline Protestantism is a disgrace. I hope we are all agreed about that. It has become a movement utterly and completely devoid of any genuine, true, biblical discipline. It has become a movement in which true, genuine, biblical discipline is not only not practiced, it is impossible for it to be practiced in mainline Protestantism. How bad is it?

    Adulterers, homosexuals, fetus executioners, political revolutionaries, blasphemers, heretics, open pagans, live comfortably and with impunity in all of the mainline Protestant denominations in this country. Now, they not only live comfortably and with impunity within these denominations. Many of these folks actually have the leadership and determine the attitude and mindset of these churches. You may ask, how can Bible-believing folk, how can conservative individuals who express a love for the gospel of Jesus Christ remain in such churches. I know many who do. This is their approach. They complain. They write letters. They carve.

    They grouse. that no one, none of these conservatives, brings charges in the courts of the Church against any of these offenders, regardless of the seriousness of the offense. And that’s simply not because it would be fruitless or impossible to do so. but because such action in their mind is considered to be a greater crime than the crimes that they’re seeking to correct. Church discipline has become a crime, a sin. Not that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, even though it has separated from the mainline body of Protestantism, can hold its head up too high with regard to this matter of Church discipline.

    Our beginnings are not all that exemplary. Jerry Gresham Nation was a great man, we all admit that. But when it comes to Church discipline, he was a failure. And he failed repeatedly. He was present at the 1924 General Assembly, when the protest with regard to the Author Nation came before that General Assembly.

    There was no dissent from the floor of the assembly with regard to the report that had been issued concerning the Auburn Affirmation and the Auburn Affirmationists. That report recommended no action. when he gets to the matter of the Church, preferred to talk about protecting the Church trust funds from the hands of the liberals, as opposed to protecting the honor of Christ and the purity of the Church by bringing the liberals to trial. trying to find its way.

    There were many cases in those early days that cause us shame now. There was a refusal to deal responsibly with overt sin, especially among the clergy. There was, for instance, the refusal to deal responsibly with homosexuality amongst the clergy. A sad fact that spelled disaster for a number of families, ministries, and congregations.

    A good and proper Church discipline, then, is reclaimed only slowly even by the very best-intentioned churches during the course of this century. And that’s the way it has been for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. But certainly things always haven’t been this way, have they? Discipline was at one time part and parcel of what the Church was. What has happened, then, to the Church that discipline, once recognized to be an essential mark of the true Church, has disappeared? What has happened that even Orthodox and Reformed Churches find themselves in such an uphill battle either to retain or regain discipline for themselves? As I’ve intimated, it wasn’t all that long ago that discipline in the Church was recognized as being as natural as breathing air. You were part of the Church, you were subject to its discipline, you expected it, you even welcomed it.

    I think once more about my first pastorate, a congregation in South Jersey. It was a venerable and famous Church. dating back to 1680. Reading from its session minutes from the middle of the last century, you could find a number of entries describing discipline cases that were at various stages of development. And particularly moving were the accounts of public confession. in which someone guilty of a public sin such as drunkenness confessed it before the entire congregation and was publicly received back into the fellowship of that church, that sin having been laid aside in the name of, to the honor of, and by the power of Jesus Christ. in the Church.

    What are the reasons for that? Well, there are many. Some may cite tragic abuse of power, by which the innocent were falsely accused or the guilty cruelly treated. Some may cite ugly hypocrisy, by which Church authorities condemned in others what they allowed in themselves. Some may cite the injustice of partiality, by which clerics, certain families, and individuals remained immune to discipline while others proved to be all too much a target. I think that probably all of us are aware of congregations, if not entire denominations, where everybody is so interrelated that if you were to bring charges against one individual, the entire denomination would be somehow involved. All these things that I’ve mentioned thus far are true and contributing reasons as to why discipline has become unpopular.

    But they do not account for the death of discipline in the Church. You see, all of these things—abuse of power, hypocrisy, partiality—are flaws that we observe with respect to any legal arrangement. There are flaws that we observe with respect to our nation’s legal arrangement and its judicial system. But none of us is saying that we ought to discard our judicial system altogether because of these flaws. Are we?

    Now, the disappearance of Church discipline is because of reasons far deeper and more complex than the foibles and sins of those who are called upon to administer that system. And I want to point out to you two of those deeper and more complex reasons this morning. First of all, the Church lost her sense of her true identity. The Church lost her sense of her true identity as the community of God, as a community distinct from the community at large, as a people in and of themselves. as a pilgrim and alien people in the world? The question that was being asked by many as they came through the process of this dissolution with regard to discipline, was this.

    Is this not a Christian nation? Is this not a Christian country? Do not our civil courts operate according to biblical principles and biblical law? Our societies and our churches, they are the same, are they not? Our civil courts will prosecute our case against those who violate biblical and Christian morality.

    But not only did this attitude betray a fundamental breakdown on the Church’s part with regard to her own identity as distinct from the community at large. But quite seriously now, it opened the door for the Church to conclude that all social discipline, all moral discipline, even doctrinal discipline, belonged to the civil court, belonged to the state. And that only those crimes defined to be crimes by the civil authority, were crimes. Which is the more serious crime? Blasphemy or murder?

    I can tell you what God thinks. I can also tell you what the state thinks. And they don’t agree. So if the state refuses to prosecute the crimes of Sabbath-breaking, the crimes of blasphemy. If the state refuses to prosecute the crimes related to failure to worship or the worshiping of false gods, then these crimes must not be crimes at all. And if the state won’t prosecute them, where does the Church get off? thinking that it can and even should prosecute them. The situation is even more desperate than that.

    You see, as time has gone on, if the state refuses to prosecute parental abuse… Now, I’m not speaking about child abuse. That too is a crime, yes. I’m talking about parental abuse, where parents are abused by their children who are utterly incorrigible and fairly and completely rebellious.

    If the state refuses to prosecute such an offense, if it refuses to prosecute in cases of sexual immorality, then these offenses must not be offenses. In fact, since the law promotes and protects a child’s right to a bed, since the law protects the execution of the unborn, since the law promotes and protects anyone and everyone involved in a divorce case with no guilt assigned.

    If the law protects and promotes public obscenity, if the law protects and promotes a state-sanctioned system of larceny, and I am not referring to the Internal Revenue Service. I am referring to the state lotteries. This is public graft. It is a violation of the commandment, Thou shalt not steal.

    If, in fact, the state coquettes and even promotes these things, then these things cannot be crimes, you see, but actually become the ingredients of a genuine and true morality in the mind of the state. It is a moral thing to execute your unborn child. It is a moral, commendable, righteous thing to do. The Church then has witnessed the death of discipline because she has lost her sense with regard to her true identity. But secondly, in losing her sense of her true identity, she has changed her identity. She has become something else altogether.

    Rossiter’s church discipline has died not only because the church has abdicated to the state, but because somewhere along the line the church has changed her understanding of herself, and become convinced that church discipline is not merely a matter of impropriety, it is an evil. and inevitably and invariably an evil. Church discipline therefore is out of step with the Church’s new identity. It isn’t so much that the Church has surrendered her judgment to the state. No, the Church has surrendered judgment with respect to discipline altogether.

    Somehow doctrinal and moral judgment by the Church has become inherently an exercise in self-righteousness invariably encumbered by an improper and evil authoritarianism, and utterly contrary to what the Church is in her true identity. And what is the Church in her true identity? It’s the place where you can go where they love you just the way you are. No change, no repentance, no confrontation, They love you just the way you are.

    Well, the Bible presents no such definition. Neither is the Bible bothered by the objections that are raised, suggesting that judgment by the Church is inherently self-righteous and invariably authoritarian. No. The Bible is very positive and plain in its prescriptions for Church discipline. No theoretical paper proposition.

    Here is real medicine. Here is true substance. Yes, by which the Church is to be cured. Yes, by which the Church is to be governed. that church made up of sinful people living in a sinful world. We find church discipline then administered in the Old Testament.

    That is why I read to you this morning from 2 Chronicles. It’s unavoidable there. And that 2 Chronicles passage isn’t the exception, it’s the rule. We find Church discipline in place in the Old Testament, not because the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, but because he is a holy God and his people are to be holy. They are to be like him. That involves discipline brought to bear upon them. But we find that discipline also administered in the New Testament. That is why we read from Matthew’s Gospel.

    Jesus himself makes prescription with regard to Church discipline. The apostles also present us with Church discipline through the epistles that they have written. In the actions of the Church, it is clear. And Christ and his apostles set discipline before us, not because they are the advocates of some kind of primal view of what life is all about. But because, you see, they understand that the body of Christ is to be pure, even as Christ himself is pure. We on earth are to reflect the glory of our pure and wonderful Savior in heaven.

    Just one final comment. I set before you these passages for a reason. And I want you to look at them again. But I want you to look for something in them. The manner in which discipline is bound to the person of God himself. in each one of those texts. The implication is, you remove the discipline, you remove God. The discipline goes, God goes. I plead with you. especially if you have problems in this area. If you struggle with the issue of the propriety of church discipline, to take another look at your Bibles and think the issue through again.

    Our Father, we are asking that an appropriate discipline would belong again to the Church. We are aware of the dangers, and we pray, O Lord, that the dangers would be avoided, that the Church would not pursue a course of severe treatment, cruel treatment of those who were overtaken in offense, but rather that the Church would pursue a course of graciousness, a course of humility, wherein she always looks to herself, lest she be tempted and succumb. We pray, Lord, that in those assemblies where discipline is part of the habit of the congregation and part of the mind of the Church, that you would encourage those who are charged with administering it, that they might always see before them their God and the Lord Jesus Christ. and help us, Lord, especially those of us who are having trouble getting beyond the almost wholesale denial of the right of the Church to discipline. Help us, our Father, to realize that as we are called to submit to you, so also we are called to submit to the proper authority which you have established among your people.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Hezekiah and the Suffering Servant

    Hezekiah and the Suffering Servant

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 27, 1990.

    About this sermon

    The southern kingdom’s wicked kings run remarkably parallel to the north’s, and Hezekiah’s reign pictures the suffering servant to come. Both kingdoms share spiritual wickedness as well as political failure.

    More sermons from 2 Chronicles · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Now the scripture reading this evening begins in 2 Chronicles chapter 24. 2 Chronicles chapter 24. And I read this passage as representative of the kind of thing that we find in this section of God’s Word. Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba. And Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters. Now it came about after this that Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord.

    And he gathered the priests and Levites and said to them, go out to the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel to repair the house of your God annually. And you shall do the matter quickly. But the Levites did not act quickly. So the king summoned Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the levy fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord on the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?

    For the sons of the wicked, Deathilion, had broken into the house of God and even used the holy things of the house of the Lord for the bales. So the king commanded, And they made a chest and set it outside by the gate of the house of the Lord. And they made a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord the levy fixed by Moses, the servant of God, on Israel in the wilderness. And all the officers and all the people rejoiced and brought in their levies and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. And it came about whenever the chest was brought into the king’s officer by the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, then the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer would come, empty the chest, take it, and return it to its place. Thus they did daily and collected much money.

    And the king in Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord. So the workmen labored, and the repair work progressed in their hands, and they restored the house of God according to its specifications and strengthened it. And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, and it was made into utensils for the house of the Lord, utensils for the service and the burnt offering. and pans and utensils of gold and silver, and they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.

    Now when Jehoiada reached a ripe old age, he died. He was 130 years old at his death. And he buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done well in Israel and to God and his house. But after the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Assyrian and the Islamites. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem, for this their guilt.

    Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, Though they testified against them, they would not listen. Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, Thus God has said, Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper?

    Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you. So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king, they stoned him. They stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Joash, the king, did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as he died, he said, May the Lord see and avenge.” Then turning over to Micah, chapter 3, beginning with verse 5. This is Micah chapter 3, verse 5. Now if you haven’t turned to Micah recently, it’s after Jonah. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray.

    When they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry peace, but against him who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare holy war. Therefore it will be night for you without vision and darkness for you without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.

    On the other hand, I am filled with power with the Spirit of the Lord and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious act, even to Israel his sin. Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price, and the prophets divine for money, yet they lean on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord in our midst? calamity will not come upon us. Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.”

    Let’s pray together. In this day, our God, may your people be warned well by your word. And as that word goes out to your people throughout the world, may your people take stock of themselves. And may the warning that rises out of Israel Be a warning heard well and clearly by your people today. For surely, we are taught, judgment begins at the house of God, and if we of your house are spared by a little, what will become of those who stand outside of your house? But Lord, as for us, may we give ourselves attentively to you, and may we not turn away, but rather may we turn toward you and hear those things that you speak. Embrace them, believe them, and live by them, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

    This is, again, one of those formidable tasks covering an expanse of scripture. Something that might be helpful for you is to have your Bibles opened to the passages that I have listed for you there, 2 Chronicles 10 through 28, and maybe you can follow along with the headings at the top of the page, if you have one of those Bibles that provide you with those nice, convenient headings. This will serve as a review for you of this time in the history of the people of God, bringing before you again names that might be familiar to you and other names that might not be. It will also put before you some rather intriguing and complex situations, and that for the purpose of challenging you, the people of God, at this time. One thing that’s very hard to keep straight as you move through these Old Testament passages is this fact.

    God’s Word is intended covenantally, and as That word is applicable in our own day. It finds its focus and its point of application in the people of God presently, in the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s a very easy thing for us, given our habit of mind, to move from Old Testament political situations into New Testament political situations. missing altogether the application that is here for the Church of Jesus Christ. So I ask you to keep that in mind as you move through these sections in Scripture, that the primary concern is the people of God, and the people of God of our time is the Church of Jesus Christ, constituted under Him the King, the Priest, the Prophet.

    Well, we have covered, in parallel passages from Kings and Chronicles previously, the history and the demise of the ten northern tribes. We have watched the succession of kings in the north and found that there are no exceptions. As we look northward, there are no exceptions to the rule that was established well at the outset of the Northern Kingdom by Jeroboam, for all of the kings in succession are wicked. There isn’t a righteous one among them.

    But now we turn to that ambiguous picture of the state of affairs to the south. We turn our attention to those tribes to the south that remain, Judah and Benjamin, and we will cover the same period of time that we covered last week, only looking to them. I say ambiguous because there are indeed wicked kings, kings as wicked as those to the north, but there are exceptions. There are those kings that please God and rule well. The tribes to the south, you know which ones they are. There is Judah, the larger, and there is Benjamin, the smaller. And the first king of the divided kingdom, the first king in the south was being Jeroboam’s counterpart, easy to remember, is it not?

    Rehoboam. Rehoboam is whose son? Solomon’s, the son of Solomon. And by his foolishness, he having a wicked and perverse heart, in effect, starting out where his father had left off, We know his father had begun wisely and ended foolishly. This man foolishly causes the split of the kingdom. And now he is the head over the two southern tribes, ruling from Jerusalem, the capital city, David’s capital city, the city where God had finally caused his name to dwell, where Solomon, Rehoboam’s father, had built the great, the impressive temple.

    There was a glory, therefore, that was attached to Rehoboam’s throne, a glory that is not attached to the throne that is established in the north. A glory attached to Rehoboam’s throne, to the kingdom, that is taking shape under his rule, but a glory of which he proved in no sense worthy. Now, we have placed his reign from about the year 975 B.C., and in his 17 years of rule, Nothing encouraging interrupts the very dismal mood with which his reign had begun. In fact, after watching the greater portion of his kingdom depart, secede, He suffered further humiliation, from which he learned absolutely nothing.

    Through an invasion from the south, Egypt has set her gaze upon other territories. She has dreamed of previous glory, and now she invades Judah under Shishak, her king. How tragic it is, as Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, watches the Egyptians march off with the treasures that had been amassed in Jerusalem, accumulated in the temple by his father. The glory that had been attached to Jerusalem The glory that had been attached to the temple is carried off by these Egyptians. Abijan follows upon the heels of his father, Rehoboam.

    His reign is a short one, it lasted but three years, but nevertheless impressive, an impressive interlude. He attacked to the north. He attacked Israel, and he brought about a great defeat to Jeroboam and his army. But after his short and impressive reign of three years, he is followed by Asa. a great king indeed. He and his son Jehoshaphat ruled for a total of 66 years. They are righteous men. Their reigns are prosperous. Under Asa, in fact, Judah scored a victory against Zerah, the Ethiopian who had become ruler in Egypt. And the tragedy that Judah had experienced under Rehoboam was, in part at least, reversed. So Asa, Asa does well.

    Jehoshaphat does well also. But there is this complication as far as Jehoshaphat is concerned. For he attempts to patch things up with Israel. You remember, as we have already mentioned, that Abijan had attacked to the north and scored an impressive victory against Jeroboam and his army. But now Jehoshaphat, maybe an ecumenist before his time, turns his gaze northward set his eye upon apostate. It’s important to underscore that. Apostate Israel.

    For Israel has departed in unbelief, rejecting the claims of the throne of David. Israel has apostatized the ten northern tribes. It’s not just a political problem. It is, at its most rudimentary level, a religious problem. And Jeroboam had then established those sanctuaries at Dan and at Bethel in order to keep people from the temple of God in Jerusalem. It is religious apostasy that is at work here.

    But Jehoshaphat, as fine a king as he is, turns his gaze northward, thinking about reunification. Thinking about bringing the nation back together, possibly, he makes his attempt at catching things up, and he seals a bargain with apostasy. He enters into an alliance with the king of Israel. Now, it’s no ordinary king.

    I mean, there are levels of degeneracy, are there not? There are levels of wickedness. I mean, Jehoshaphat maybe should have waited for another day when there wasn’t a king in Israel who had descended so far down the ladder of degeneracy. But no! He had to enter into an alliance with Ahab. One as wicked as Ahab.

    And as if these leaders in the ancient world learned nothing, as if nothing had been gained from watching the demise of one so great as Solomon, Jehoshaphat has now bound up in this alliance when his son Joram is married off to Athelot, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.

    Need I say more? This woman Athaliah brought with her to Jerusalem the fierce spirit and heathen habits of her Tyrian mother. Jezebel was from Tyre, and Athaliah, her brings with her to Jerusalem the fierce spirit and even habits of her Tyrian mother. She was as ambitious as her mother, and that becomes apparent from the things that then transpire.

    She had lost her son as Because in the alliance with Israel, he had joined himself to his uncle, and they both had died in Jehu’s purge. And what is Athaliah’s response in Jerusalem to the news that her son has been killed by Jehu? She responds by securing for herself the throne in Jerusalem. And how does she do that? By murdering all of her grandchildren. Now, all of her grandsons are executed, with the exception of Joash. He was saved by an ant.

    And six years later, Jehoiada, the high priest, engineers the ascendancy of Joash, Epheliah is slain, and a new era begins. And that’s what we’ve read about this evening from 2 Chronicles. The temple had fallen into disrepair, and now it is refurbished. And for nearly 30 years of Joash’s 40-year reign, things progress very nicely. But finally Jehoiada, the high priest, dies. And when that happens, it’s as if Joash falls apart. Baal, the god of his grandmother, makes a comeback. And in the end, Joash commands the execution of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiach.

    Politically, he is weak. In the end, he has to buy off the Syrians. And what a ugly end he comes to. He is assassinated by his own servants, those who were greatly devoted to the house of Jehoiachin. Now Amaziah follows his father. It’s a matter here as well of one who began well but ends terribly. And he, like his father, is a victim of assassins. And following the reign of Amaziah, we come to the extraordinary reign of Uzziah. It lasted for an unprecedented 52 years. And in his reign, Uzziah brings Judah to great heights of glory. It’s as if those former days of Solomon have returned.

    But then, in this case as well, we witness Uzziah’s tragic fall. We are told about his pride, and how on one occasion he enters into the sanctuary for the purpose of personally making an offering to God himself, but his way is blocked by the priests who object. He becomes indignant, but the Lord at that point strikes him with leprosy. Because of his leprosy, he then had to live apart from the people in isolation for the rest of his life.

    Nevertheless, the kingdom flourished as Uzziah ruled through his son Jotham. Jotham’s 16-year reign was followed by Ahaz’s 16-year reign. And that brings us to the wonderful reign of Hezekiah in the year 726 B.C. So we’ve covered about 250 years here with the succession of kings. Hezekiah’s reign is remarkable and most instructive. It’s as if, at this point, the Lord has something unique to present before His people, something very distinctive to say. As remarkable as Hezekiah’s reign is, it is not one without severe problems.

    His predecessors had turned to Assyria and Tiglath-Pileser for aid against Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezum, king of Syria. And what a mistake that had been! For once Assyria had finished with Pekah and Rezum, it turned its attention to Judah and Jerusalem.

    Judah’s kings in succession had been warned by God’s prophets. Those prophets are the prophets Micah and Isaiah. It’s hard to forget, for instance, Isaiah’s encounter with Ahaz in Isaiah’s prophecy, the seventh chapter, and how that king provoked the Lord. The kings refused to be humbled, but these kings refusing to be humbled may be contrasted by Hezekiah.

    Hezekiah learns from the devastations that come. He learns from what is transpiring in the north and the deportation that takes place. He learns from the assaults from Assyria, the assaults from which the Lord then delivers him and his nation when he prays.

    And in this king, particularly, God’s people are given a picture of that royal figure, the anointed of the Lord, who suffers in humility for his people. Hezekiah becomes a fine picture of the coming Christ. It is no mistake then that during this period, the portrait of the suffering servant takes shape. It takes shape as much in Micah’s prophecy as it does in Isaiah’s.

    Both of these prophets speak out against not just the apostasy that has taken place in the north, but the apostasy that is taking place in the south, in Judah. And both of these prophets, Micah and Isaiah, are hard upon believers who, because of the hardness of their hearts and their commitment to the invincibility of Jerusalem, are completely unprepared to lead the people through suffering to glory. They are disqualified. Over against these leaders who are disqualified stand Micah and Isaiah. And they will suffer. They will suffer for their stand in the name of the Lord.

    But matching these prophets is Hezekiah. And each of these figures will become the medium through which we see the form of the coming Christ, the coming Savior. God’s justice has visited Israel to the north and that nation is no longer His grace visits Judah and There in these ones who portray for us the suffering servant Salvation is also portrayed Of course there is a future day. Of course, there are greater enemies than Assyrians. And in that day, the one to whom these ones have pointed, the Lord Jesus Christ, He, the true suffering servant, will provide the means of salvation. for all who look to him in faith.

    As I said at the outset of this message, it’s very easy for us, when we’re moving through these portions of scripture, to translate everything into political terms, to move from these accounts concerning nations and the Old Testament into a New Testament context, and to suggest that nothing whatsoever has changed.

    And that for proper application in our own time, we must deal with political situations. But does not the New Testament teach us differently? We read this evening, as our call to worship, a section from Ephesians, chapter 6, that talks about the true nature of the conflict. We don’t wrestle with flesh and blood. the principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness enthroned in high places.

    The armament that we put on for the sake of that battle is a battle in which the Church of Jesus Christ is presently enjoined and you are called as those enlisted in this fight. Let us pray. Our God, we thank you for that one, the suffering servant, who has come as the fulfillment of all that we have seen in those who have gone before. And we rejoice our God in the testimony born to this one, even in the days of Hezekiah the king. We pray, our Father, that we might be strengthened by your spirit as we consider him our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that in having strength, our God, we might fight well against principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places. May we be outfitted for that battle, and may we do well in that fight through Christ our King. We pray these things in His name. Amen.

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