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Please stand and we’ll sing together from the song of Zechariah, stanza four, and as you’re
standing for that I would remind us that of these words of comfort and assurance
from the Holy Scriptures, 1st John chapter 1 beginning at verse 8 we’re
told the following, if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we’ve not
sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children I’m
writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin we
have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the
propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the
world. Be assured dear brother sister in Christ you who trust Christ as your
very own Lord and Savior God’s Word says your sins are forgiven for Jesus sake
praise be to God for the good news and let’s rejoice in that good news again by
singing stanza four of the song of Zechariah which is printed out in your
bulletin.
Bring the knowledge of salvation to God’s people in their sin preach that
God is tender-hearted and by him our sins forgive. His great mercy like the
sunrise brightly shines in deepest night guiding those who sit in darkness to
the ways of peace and light. Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s
Word my sermon text today second Kings chapter 16 verses 1 through 9 you’ll
find that beginning on page 379 in your pew Bible. Let us hear the Word of God.
In the 17th year of Pekah the son of Ramalia Ahaz the son of Jotham king of
Judah began to reign Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign and he reigned
16 years in Jerusalem and he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord
his God as his father David had done but he walked in the way of the kings of
Israel he even burned his son as an offering according to the despicable
practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel
and he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and
under every green tree then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Ramalia
king of Israel came up to wage war on Jerusalem and they besieged Ahaz but
could not conquer him at that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for
Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath and the Edomites came to Elath
where they dwell to this day so Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Paleser king of
Assyria saying I am your servant and your son come up and rescue me from the
hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel who are
attacking me Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of
the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the
king of Assyria and the king of Assyria listened to him the king of Assyria
marched up against Damascus and took it carrying its people captive to Kerr and
he killed Rezin. Dear friends the grass withers the flower fades but the word of
our God endures forever let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his
word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven we thank you that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine reproof
correction and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work. We thank you Lord for your all-sufficient
word and we pray that by your spirit you would illuminate us and lighten us open
our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word and may
your word bear much spiritual fruit in our hearts and lives this day and once
again we would ask that you would grant me your unworthy servant the grace to
declare and speak forth your word with clarity and power and with the
assistance and grace of your Holy Spirit. We pray these things through Christ our
Lord and all of God’s people said amen you may be seated. Dear friends the title
of my sermon this day is a bad king and the good Savior and you’ll notice there’s
a number of key words if you’re following along in your sermon outline
this morning there’s a number of key words you can be listening for the words
King, faithful, faithless, idolatry, trust, and Messiah. Well dear ones this
Lord’s Day morning we’re taking a break from our consideration of the book of
the prophet Isaiah but we’re doing so because our passage for this Lord’s Day
morning from the Old Testament book of Second Kings is a passage from God’s
Word that offers some very important historical background information that
will help us to better understand what is recorded in Isaiah chapter 7 which we
will be considering in future weeks and so in a very real sense the sermon for
this morning continues our study in the book of the prophet Isaiah even though
this morning’s passage is not taken from the book of Isaiah itself. Now dear ones
some of you may be familiar with that old Sam Cooke song entitled what a
wonderful world that song begins with the unforgettable line don’t know much
about history now some of you know younger folk may not be familiar with
that song and if not that’s okay you can Google it Sam Cooke what a
wonderful life I think you’d enjoy the tune but for those of you who are more
senior or more seasoned Saints in our midst I’m guessing that the catchy
finger-snapping tune of that song is already playing out inside of your brain
but while that song is a love song that really has nothing to do with actual
history its opening line expresses a sad reality that many today would have to
admit to be true about themselves that is to say friends many today simply do
not know much about history not only that I would suggest to you dear friends
that it seems as if many folks today do not want to know much about history
especially history that predates their own lives or or deals with parts of the
world that are beyond their particular locale but my dear listener if you claim
to be a Bible believing Christian if you claim to be a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ and if you take seriously the truth that is revealed in the Holy
Scriptures the truth which is God’s Word itself because the Bible is God’s Holy
Word then you cannot help but take history seriously if you’ve read through
the Bible or even if you’ve only bothered to skim through its pages you
will notice that the Bible records a whole lot of historical information
especially historical information in the Old Testament for example about God’s
formation of the Old Testament covenant nation of Israel and information in the
Gospels for example about the birth the life the death and the historical
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and of course information throughout the
pages of the New Testament about the history of the first century apostolic
church when God revealed his word to us he didn’t drop a systematic theology
textbook into our laps there is certainly much in the way of doctrine and
a doctrinal truth revealed in Holy Scripture but God has revealed that
truth by telling a story revealing historical information revealing his
mighty acts of salvation in human history and so while many folks today
find history to be somewhat boring I’m thinking for example of students who
approach history as just a bunch of names dates people and places that they
have to memorize and regurgitate on their history exams well many folks view
history through that lens I would suggest to you beloved that Bible
history isn’t just a boring record of names and dates places and people from
the ancient and unfamiliar world of Bible times although of course the Bible
does contain those kinds of details instead biblical history is a divinely
inspired record of God’s mighty saving works his mighty historical works of
redeeming of rescuing and of graciously ruling over his people you see beloved
when you approach Bible history with the right attitude when you approach Bible
history with faith in the God of history and in reliance upon the Holy Spirit you
will discern the hand of Almighty God at work in the historical events which are
recorded in Holy Scripture then Bible history will come alive for you and it
will pulsate with meaning and significance and spiritual power however
you may ask what about the bad parts of Bible history what about the many sins
and wickednesses of God’s people that are recorded in Scripture often recorded
with unapologetic bluntness for example there were certainly some good and
godly kings in the covenant nation of Israel we think of King David the man
after God’s own heart we think of reforming kings like Hezekiah and Josiah
and so forth but what about the many bad kings of the covenant nation that we
read about in historical books of the Old Testament like first and second kings
what are we meant to learn from them and since God inspired the Old Testament
scriptures to point forward to and to prepare his people indeed to prepare the
world for the coming of the promised Messiah Jesus of Nazareth how do the bad
kings point forward to Jesus Christ the ultimately good King and Savior of God’s
people how does this passage that we’re considering today point forward to Jesus
and how does King Ahaz teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ well friends in
our passage for this morning we learn about one such bad king I just mentioned
him by name King Ahaz the son of Jotham Ahaz reigned as a king of the southern
kingdom of Judah during the period of the divided monarchy and his reign
probably lasted from around 732 to 715 BC so he ruled a very very very long time
ago and so as we approach our passage of Holy Scripture today let us first
consider the portrait of a faithless king the portrait of a faithless king the
first two verses of our passage for today verses 1 & 2 provide us with some
formulaic biographical information about Jotham it says this and it situates
Jotham’s reign in comparison to the reigns of neighboring kings such as Peck
of the son of Ramalia and and so forth it says this in the 17th year of Peck of
the son of Ramalia Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign
Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 16 years in
Jerusalem and he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God as
his father David had done but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel now
again I mentioned that we are introduced here in the first couple verses of this
chapter with biographical information about King Ahaz and while I will not
bore you with the debates among the Bible scholars you do need to know that
there is some debate among those scholars over some of the chronological
details of this passage however let me just say to you beloved that it is
possible that Ahaz had served as a co-regent alongside of his father Jotham
toward the latter part of Jotham’s reign during which time King Jotham was likely
in very poor health after all we are told that King Jotham Ahaz’s father had
died in his believe his early 40s and so it was customary in in such
circumstances for the prince the son of the the king who was on the throne to
actually be a co-regent to actually do the work behind the scenes for for his
father in such circumstances and with that in mind if that’s the case then
most of the alleged chronological problems end up getting resolved and
again I’m not going to bore you with all of those details but in case you were
wondering there there are answers to some of the chronological difficulties
that might be raised by Bible skeptics and Bible critics on that account but
in any case case let’s consider the author or editors assessment of Ahaz’s
rule we find that assessment in verses two through three and in these verses
he assesses the king with in negative terms and he also assesses the king
critically but using positive terms as well and so negatively stated how is a
has described well the author describes him as one who did not do what was right
in the eyes of the Lord his God as his father David had done now David was
certainly not a perfect or sinless man if you know anything about the history
of King David David had fallen on a number of occasions into very serious
and scandalous sin I mean after all David basically committed murder and
adultery in connection with his affair with Bathsheba and David also showed a
lack of trust in the Lord later on in his reign when he numbered the people of
Israel and yet David is described as a man after God’s own heart because by the
grace of God David was repentant for those sins and certainly the Lord
mightily chastised King David for his wickedness and his sins and overall
therefore his reign was characterized by doing what was right in the eyes of the
Lord when that statement is made it’s not a statement to that David was
sinless but that state that David was faithful to his calling as the
theocratic king of God’s covenant people but what about a has a has again he is
described negatively as one who did not do what was right in the eyes of the
Lord his God as his father David had done and by the way as another aside
notice that a has is called that David is called a has his father you might say
well wait a minute wasn’t Jotham his father when the Old Testament uses that
language of father sometimes that term means ancestor and so David was the
father of a has in the sense that he was a has his ancestor so a has was of the
lineage of David he was part of the Davidic dynasty now friends in the book
of first and second Kings this kind of formulaic language where the author says
that such-and-such did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God
this kind of formulaic language points forward to idolatry and to the breaking
of God’s covenant remember that Old Testament Israel was a covenanted
theocracy with the Lord Yahweh himself as their royal divine king and covenant
Lord this meant that the Davidic king was to be the servant and the
representative of Yahweh Israel’s divine king the human king of Israel was to
represent the Lord Yahweh the faithful covenant God of Israel as their divine
king the Davidic theocratic king in Israel was to be a model and an example
to the people of absolute fealty absolute loyalty to Yahweh Israel’s
covenant God and Redeemer and one of the King’s highest duties was to be zealous
in guarding the religious purity of the covenant nation against the inroads of
foreign religious influences and pagan Gentile idolatrous practices and
rituals and this is at the heart of what it meant for a king to do what was right
in the eyes of the Lord the king was to guard the holiness of God in the Holy
Land by stamping out idolatry and resisting idolatry and by protecting and
promoting the pure religious worship of the one true and living God the God of
Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob the Lord Yahweh Israel’s faithful
Lord and covenant Savior but sadly like many of the other faithless kings Ahaz
grievously failed in his religious responsibilities as Judah’s theocratic
king in the words again of the author of second Kings he did not do what was
right in the eyes of the Lord his God he did not guard the holiness of God in the
Holy Land he did not guard the pure worship of God not only did he permit
and tolerate idolatrous practices and foreign influences from the Gentile
nations that surrounded Israel not only that he promoted and sanctioned idol
worship participating in it actively himself and so that brings us to the
next assessment of a has which is stated positively though it is a criticism
namely that he walked in the way of the kings of Israel and so that’s that’s a
description of how he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord it
says in verse 2 that he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his
God as his father David had done and that raises the question well how is it
that he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord well that’s answered
in the very next verse he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord
because he did what? He walked in the way of the kings of Israel. You see, beloved,
in the period of the divided monarchy, the northern kingdom was often called Israel or
Ephraim. It consisted of the northern tribes that had split off from the tribe of Judah,
and the southern kingdom was typically called Judah. Sadly, the scriptures reveal that all
of the northern kings were guilty of religious compromise with pagan practices, following the
wicked example of the very first northern king, namely Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Although some
of the northern kings were more compromising and faithless than others, all of the northern
kings did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. As an aside, my spell check when I wrote
in my sermon notes, Jeroboam the son of Nebat changed Nebat to Neet. So Jeroboam the son of
Neet. But I can assure you that King Jeroboam was not a Neet fellow. He was a very wicked king.
Well, beloved, what do we learn from this? There are many things that we can learn from this,
but beloved, we as God’s people, this underscores to each and every one of us that we as God’s
people, we need a good king. We need a faithful king. We need a savior king. We need one who,
unlike Ahaz, will guard us from sin and will protect us from the evil one who seeks to lead
us astray into religious compromise and idolatry. Dear listener, do you see your need for a faithful
chosen king for a savior king? And so we have the inspired author or editor’s assessment of
King Ahaz. And next, let us consider in particular the religious compromise and the wicked character
of King Ahaz. That’s the second point on your sermon outline. The religious compromise and
the wicked character of King Ahaz. We are told that Ahaz did not do what was right in the eyes
of the Lord and that he followed in the ways of the kings of Israel. And we see an example of Ahaz’s
extreme religious compromise laid out for us in verse three and four. It says in verse three,
he even burned his son as an offering according to the despicable practices of the nations whom
the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high
places and on the hills and under every green tree. It’s as if the author or editor is making
his case against King Ahaz and proving his accusations against him. Beloved, our passage
makes it abundantly clear that Ahaz was extreme in his religious compromise and in his vile
wickedness. We see this highlighted by the fact that he participated in the horrific and despicable
pagan practice of child sacrifice, something that the Lord had very clearly and very explicitly
forbidden to his people. And not only that, he offered the unauthorized religious worship on the
high places, such worship often involving immoral, pagan, and syncretistic practices.
Now the Lord’s condemnation of the practice of sacrificing children is made abundantly clear in
the law of Moses. And let me just take you to a few passages that make that clear. For example,
if you look at Leviticus chapter 18 verse 21, Leviticus chapter 18 verse 21, we read the following
words. The Lord says to his people in this passage, you shall not give any of your children to offer
them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. The Lord Yahweh backs up this
command with his own authority. He says, I am the Lord, you better not do this. Or consider if you
stay in Leviticus, Leviticus 20 verses one through five. It says this, the Lord spoke to Moses saying,
say to the people of Israel, any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel
who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall
stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among
his people because he has given one of his children to Molech to make my sanctuary unclean and to
profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do it all, close their eyes to that man when
he gives one of his children to Molech and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against
that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow
him in whoring after Molech. Or consider again Deuteronomy 12 verse 31, Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 31
where we read these words, you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. In other words,
you shall not imitate the practices of your pagan nation, of the pagan nations that surround you,
your pagan neighbors. You shall not imitate their pagan practices. You shall not worship the true
God in that way. Why? For every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods,
for they even burned their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. This was a
grotesque and evil but very common practice in the ancient Near East. If there was a particular
crisis, a national crisis, sometimes to appease the gods and call upon the gods for their aid
in dealing with the crisis, whether the crisis be an attack from a foreign adversary or whether it be
a crop that is failing, oftentimes the crisis would be met by offering children
alive, burning them alive and sacrifice to their gods. Can you imagine, beloved, the utter wickedness
and depravity you would have to descend to to sacrifice children to a deity in such a way?
God made it clear to his people, don’t do that. Don’t imitate the practices of your pagan neighbors.
But Ahaz did imitate those practices and he sanctioned such evil practices by his own example.
But Ahaz also sinned against the Lord through his misplaced trust in a pagan king. If you look at
verses seven and eight, it says this in response to an international crisis where Ahaz was being
threatened with war and indeed had experienced war with Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah,
the son of Romalia, the king of Israel. How does Ahaz respond? Does he turn in repentance
to Yahweh the Lord? Does he call upon the Lord for help in his time of need? No, listen to what it
says he does, verse seven. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Paleser, king of Assyria, saying,
I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the
hand of the king of Israel who are attacking me. Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found
in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the king
of Assyria. So he stripped the gold from the temple and he sent that as part of his tribute,
part of a bribe, to Tiglath-Paleser, the king of the Assyrian empire, to get Tiglath-Paleser’s
aid and assistance in helping him against these enemies. And, of course, the king complied. Verse
nine, the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it,
carrying its people captive to Kerr, and he killed Rezin. Now, it’s important to understand
the historical context here. I mean, the author or the editor of the books of the kings was very
well versed in the international political situation of the times of which he was writing,
as we see in his record of what was going on in the international scene during the days of King Ahaz.
And what seems to be the case, what seems to be going on here, is that it appears that the king
of Assyria, King Rezin, and the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, King Pekah,
they had wanted Ahaz to join with them in a coalition, or an alliance, to revolt against
Tiglath-Paleser, the king of Assyria. But Ahaz was not interested in joining in their insurrection
against the king of Assyria. And so they apparently, the reason that they went to war against Jerusalem
and against Ahaz is they were hoping to eject Ahaz from the throne and thus to put an end to
the Davidic dynasty and put in his place another king, a puppet king, who would do their will and
join their coalition against Assyria. Their war against Jerusalem and King Ahaz, of course,
threatened to put an end to the Davidic line on the throne of Jerusalem. And the Lord, of course,
does not allow that to happen. Why do you think that is? Well, the Lord does not allow that since
the promised Messiah was to be of the house and lineage of King David. If the Lord had allowed
Rezin and Pekah to be successful in dethroning Ahaz and destroying the
Davidic dynasty, then the Lord’s promises would have proven to be false. And so the Lord prevents
that from happening. But in terms of his responsibility, King Ahaz’s responsibility,
it’s important to understand that the stakes were very high for him. But again, instead of turning
to Yahweh in his time of need, Ahaz grovels as a subject king to the pagan Assyrian king, Tiglath
Peleser. He sends him a gift, a bribe, and he commits himself to sending tribute. And this would
be a very costly tribute. And by the way, if you were a vassal king to the king of Assyria and you
did not pay your tribute, you were in a whole lot of trouble. So this is something he is putting
himself in bondage to, further bondage, I should say, to this pagan king. Well, beloved, the Lord’s
condemnation of evil King Ahaz in this passage underscores many truths, but let me just mention
a couple of them. First of all, it underscores the fact that God takes the purity of his worship
very, very seriously. Dear ones, our holy God does not tolerate and is not pleased
with unauthorized worship. In the Reformed tradition, we call this the regulative principle
of worship. That is to say, all that we do in worship needs to be regulated by and based upon
and derived from and bounded by the word of God. God tells us how to worship him. You and I are not
at liberty, nor are we authorized from on high to invent our own religious practices. We need to
derive the elements of worship from the word of God itself. Another truth that we learn
is that just as King Ahaz turned to worldly resources in his time of need instead of turning
to the Lord, oh beloved, so we in the church, we too are often tempted to turn to worldly solutions
instead of turning to the Lord and relying upon his ordinary means of grace. Oh beloved church,
in our time of need, let us always look to our faithful divine King Jesus Christ instead of
trusting in worldly resources. And so, what is the end of all of this? Well, I want you
in closing, friends, to behold Jesus Christ, the faithful King and good Savior. This is the final
point on your sermon outline. Behold Jesus Christ, the faithful King and good Savior.
You know, earlier in my sermon today, I pointed out that the kings of the Old Testament were
raised up to point forward to Jesus. But again, you may ask, how did the bad kings like King Ahaz
point forward to the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, they did so not by
positive example, but they did so by way of contrast. You see, as we read of wicked kings
like King Ahaz, we are meant to learn that the promised Messiah will not be such a wicked king.
He will be the opposite of what Ahaz was. Unlike Ahaz, for example, Jesus is our faithful,
faithful, sinless even, and perfect messianic King and divine Lord. Unlike Ahaz, who sacrificed his
son to the gods, pagan gods, who was open to the practice of child sacrifice. Unlike Ahaz,
instead of sacrificing his children, Jesus sacrificed himself to save those who would become
his children. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the perfect theocratic divine King over God’s
kingdom. Ahab was a faithless theocratic King. He did not guard the holiness or the religious
purity of God’s people. He did not guard the integrity of the worship that took place
in the temple in Jerusalem. The temple being a symbol of God’s special saving presence and
gracious reign over his people Israel. God’s special presence dwelt in the temple and one of
the main responsibilities of the theocratic King under the Old Covenant was to guard
the worship of the temple and to make sure that the temple was kept up, that it was kept in repair,
and that the functions of the temple kept going on as they were supposed to. Ahaz didn’t do that.
Instead, he sanctioned pagan worship and participated actively in that pagan worship.
But Jesus Christ always obeyed his father. He was the perfect and is the perfect theocratic
divine King over God’s kingdom, God’s reign of grace and salvation in the hearts and lives
of his elect. And Jesus is a divine King not only over not merely over a little piece of real estate
in the Middle East, but he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and his kingdom is an international
kingdom. Jesus calls his church to go and make disciples not just of the Jewish nation,
but of all nations of humanity. That is our great commission in the church.
Dear listener, if he is your Savior then you are part of his everlasting kingdom. Is he your Savior
King? If not, by the grace of God may you repent this day and put your faith and trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ. For God in his word calls you to repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
For Christ was crucified for the forgiveness of sins and raised from the dead so that whoever
believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. Repent and believe upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and the word of God says that you shall be saved and Jesus will be your perfect
King of grace. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Sovereign and Eternal Lord, we thank you and praise
you for what we learn in historical passages like this one about Jesus our promised Messiah.
We ask Lord that through what we’ve considered today that our faith and trust in you would be
deepened and that we would be filled with joy knowing that you graciously reign over us,
that you protect us, that you guard us, that you keep us from the evil one who prowls about like
a roaring lion. Oh give us the grace to be on our guard and to always cling in faith to you
and to you alone. We pray these things in your name and all of God’s people said amen.
Let’s respond to what we’ve heard by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn of commitment
279 oh Christ our King