Second Kings 12 in the seventh
year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign and 40 years reigned he
in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba
and Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord
all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him But
the high places were not taken away the people still sacrificed
and and burnt incense in the high places. And Jehoash said
to the priests, all the money of the dedicated things that
is brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of every
one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set
at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring
into the house of the Lord, let the priests take it to them,
every man of his acquaintance, and let them repair the breaches
of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it
was so that in the three and 20th year of King Jehoash, the
priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. And then
King Jehoash called for Jehoiada, the priest, and the other priests
and said unto them, why repair ye not the breaches of the house?
Now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but
deliver it for the breaches of the house. they had a sign they
had delegated by the king's instruction, the money that was taken in to
acquaintances, to people that they trusted, I guess, or just
knew, and had them kind of be general contractors in this whole
renovation of the temple. But years went by, nothing happened,
you know? Something we can well imagine.
And so Jehoash finally comes around to exerting a little accountability
here, and he said, don't give any more money to your acquaintances,
but you deliver it for the breaches of the house. In other words,
you pay the people directly that are gonna do the work. Verse
eight, and the priest consented to receive no more money of the
people, neither to repair the breaches, of the house, they
stopped everything. But Jehoiada the priest took
a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the
altar on the right side as one cometh into the house of the
Lord. And the priest that kept the door put therein all the
money that was brought into the house of the Lord. I would love
to tell you that we have that offering box back there because
the scripture teaches to do that. But I had no idea. I never had
read this passage that I could remember. But even down to the
detail of putting it on the right side as you come in, there it
is. And it's just simply because
passing a plate is distracting, it's archaic. I believe it forces
people to feel obligated to put money in and everybody's looking
at everybody else. It's just not worshipful in my
opinion. Giving should be, let not your
right hand know what your left hand's doing or vice versa, whatever
it says. And the way that happens is anonymously,
freely from your heart, not feeling like you're under any obligation
or anything like that. And it was so, verse 10, that
when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that
the king's scribe and the high priest came up and they put up
in bags and told the money that was found in the house of the
Lord. See, now things are going right. Now there's more than
one person that they count the money and they see how much is
there, and more than one person knows how much is there. So if
any of it disappears, not everybody's gonna be in on that. And so somebody's
gonna say, wait a minute, There was this much money in there.
And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them
that did the work. Directly, they paid them directly,
that had the oversight of the house of the Lord. And they laid
it out to the carpenters and builders that wrought upon the
house of the Lord. So now there's accountability.
And to masons and hewers of stone and to buy timber and huge stone
to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord. And for all
that was laid out for the house to repair it. Howbeit, there
were not made for the house of the Lord bowls of silver, snuffers,
basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold or vessels of silver
of the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, but
they gave that to the workmen and repaired therewith the house
of the Lord. Moreover, they reckoned not with
the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed
on workmen, for they dealt faithfully. The trespass money and sin money
was not brought into the house of the Lord, it was the priests.
Then Hazael, king of Syria, went up and fought against Gath and
took it. And Hazael set his face to go
up to Jerusalem. And Jehoash, king of Judah, took
all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and
Ahaziah, and his father's kings of Judah had dedicated, and his
own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the
treasures of the house of the Lord, and in the king's house,
and sent it to Hazael, king of Syria. And he went away from
Jerusalem. And the rest of the acts of Jehoash
which is just another way of saying Jehoash, not sure why
it's different. And all that he did are they
not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah,
and we'll read a portion of that in a little bit here from the
Chronicles. And his servant arose and made
a conspiracy and slew Jehoash in the house of Melo, which goeth
down to Sila. For Joseph, Josashar, the son
of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, his servants smote
him, and he died, and they buried him with his fathers in the city
of David, and Amaziah, his son, reigned in his stead. Now, you'll remember that Jehoash
was the descendant of David that was protected. There was an ungodly
queen that rose up, and She killed everybody in the
house of whoever she thought was gonna be a rival to her.
And Jehoash would have been among them, but somebody took Jehoash
and hid him. A lady named Jehoshiva in chapter
11, the previous chapter, took Jehoash aside and hid him in
the temple. And God protected Jehoash even
as a baby, and now he's made him king And he did that, as
you'll recall, in remembrance of God's promise to David. God protected him in remembrance
of his promise to David that there would always be one of
the house of David on the throne of Judah. God made a covenant
with David and promised him that, and that promise was fulfilled
all the way to the Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to the
flesh, was of the seed of David. And yet he was David's Lord.
And Christ being the eternal king of his people is the perpetual
fulfillment of that promise to David. He is still the king of
Israel, spiritual Israel. And notice that Jehoash did that
which was right. And the language of verse two
is to be noticed carefully though. Look back at verse two. Jehoash did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord all his days, wherein Jehoiada the
priest instructed him. In all of the time of Jehoash's
life that Jehoiada the priest instructed him, he did right.
But then as we picked up on, I'm sure as we read through that
chapter, that didn't extend beyond the time of Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada died before Jehoash
did. And Jehoash began to do terrible
things. And now, we have obvious lessons
in this, that who you listen to, and who you, I've said to our
young people many times, there are two people, three I guess,
that you wanna, learn from, follow, and want to be your counselors in
this life. You want to be somebody that
loves you, somebody that don't care anything about you. They're
not going to give you good advice about anything. They're just
going to say whatever sounds good to them and, you know, may
or may not be the right thing, but somebody that loves you.
as much or more than they love themselves is gonna tell you
right. There's one other stipulation.
They have to know God. Somebody that doesn't know who
God is and what he did for sinners can't tell you anything. They
literally cannot teach you anything. Even if they teach you some skill
in life or some principle or something, if you do it without
God, if you follow that perfectly in a godless way, then you haven't
learned it. And you're not doing it right.
So who would it be that would love you and love God? Well,
hopefully your parents. If God gave you a parent that
loves him and loves you, don't take that lightly. How many people
in the world fit those two qualifications? And God promised he'd give you
pastors like that too, after his own heart. They love you
and they love God. by his grace. Beyond that, I
don't know. There may be, you may have a
grandparent, you may have an aunt or an uncle that fits that
same qualification, but there's not gonna be many. There's not
gonna be very many, and understand that and realize that. Jehoiah
the priest taught Jehoash right, and as long as he had that influence,
he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. But ultimately, You have to know
God, don't you? Ultimately, you have to love
God. And that wasn't apparently true of Jehoash. But even when he didn't, even
when he didn't, wasn't a believer apparently, that influence meant
something in his life. It was priceless. If you have somebody that tells
you what God said and loves you, Don't take that for granted.
Now, we have some more of this story if you'll turn to 2 Chronicles
24, just a few, just to, over into the next, the book after next in the scriptures
in chapter 24, verse 15. I want to read this part because
this will put a lot of light on our text in chapter 12 of
2 Kings. 2 Chronicles 24, 15. But Jehoiada, that's the priest
that had instructed Joash in that which was right, according
to the Lord, he waxed old, the priest, and was full of days
when he died. And 130 years old was he when
he died. And they buried him in the city
of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel. The
Lord blessed this priest to honor the Lord Jesus in all that he
did by God's instruction. He had done good both toward
God and toward his house. Now after the death of Jehoiada
came the princes of Judah and made obeisance to the king, King
Jehoash. So you've got Jehoiada out of
the picture now, that priest that instructed him in the things
of the Lord. He's out of the picture now.
And these princes of Judah, They made obeisance to the king. They flattered him and said,
oh, we love you and we'll do anything for you. But the king
hearkened unto them instead of the priest. And they left the
house of the Lord God of their fathers and served groves and
idols. They worshiped places and things instead of God Almighty. Wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem
for this their trespass yet. He sent prophets to them To bring
them again unto the Lord and they testified against them But
they would not give ear You see the theme in this in the scriptures
tonight About what you hear and how you hear it And the Spirit
of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest,
which stood above the people and said unto them, thus saith
God, why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the
Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him
and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king,
Jehoash. in the court of the house of
the Lord. They killed God's priest. They
didn't want to hear from God. Thus Jehoash the king remembered
not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but
slew his son. And when he died, he said, the
Lord look upon it and require it. And the Lord did. Jehoash
showed in our chapter that when his own safety was at stake,
Remember, he was all, oh, let's build a temple, you know, everything.
He's doing all these good things. But then when it was fixing to
cost him something, when he became endangered himself, he was willing
to give away the farm. And he gave away things that
weren't his to give away, the things that were dedicated to
the house of the Lord. And he showed in 2 Chronicles
here that when men flattered him, they came and did obeisance
to him. And he hearkened unto them, and next thing you know,
They're all idolaters. When men flattered him, he was
willing to abandon his pretend zeal for the house of the Lord
and worship idols. And that's what religion does
to a deep. Man has not changed one wit. False religion will
flatter you and they will threaten you. That's what we see. Those
were the two things that manipulated Jehoiach, It wasn't honor for
the Lord. It wasn't what he had been taught
by God's priest, by God's spokesman. What motivated him was danger
and flattery, the carrot and the stick. And that's religion. They brag
on everybody, don't they? Let's give all the mothers something
this day. And then everybody, the one with the most children,
you know, they sit there and honor one another and brag on
one another. They get up and brag on themselves.
I've been in the middle of it, so I know what I'm talking about.
Of course, that was about 50 years ago. So you think anything's
changed in religion now? I still got a television. And
every once in a while, I have the misfortune of getting a glimpse
of it today, and it's not changed. It's men flattering men, and
then, of course, they'll threaten you with hell. If you don't live
the Christian life and, you know, tithe and read your Bible, you'll
go to hell. What kind of God is that? They
threaten and they flatter, and sinners are influenced by both
to abandon the honor of Jehovah and worship idols, the idols
of Antichrist, free will, heresy. People haven't changed. God hasn't
changed. Jehoash was influenced by the
truth that Jehoiada instructed him in, but he was also moved
by idol-worshiping heretics that flattered his flesh. And here
is the specific warning of scripture about that. Scripture warns specifically
about that. People will look good for a while.
Remember the parable of the sower. Some will spring up. Boy, you
tell them the truth and they're all excited about it. Listen
to Ephesians 4 11 now just turn over there Ephesians 4 11 Ephesians 4 11
and God gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers and for the perfecting of the saints.
Remember where we read he sent prophets to them, but they would
not give ear. They would not listen to him.
He gave those prophets for the perfecting of the saints, for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. It's for the glory of Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God unto a mature man, a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Notice that
all has to do with Christ. That we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine. You'll hear the gospel of sovereign grace and
be, you know, I'm a tulip, you know, person. And then somebody
else comes along that talks loud enough to get your attention.
And you're an idol worshiper. Because there's no root There's
no root, the parable of the sower tells us. There's no true grounding
in the gospel. There's no faith in Christ. By the slight of men, the last
part of 14, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive,
you just toss to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. But 15, but speaking the truth
in love, Not that, but this, speaking the truth in love may
grow up into him in all things. If it's not Christ, then it's
not growth. It's not the growth of God, the
Spirit, which is the head, even Christ. Where does this truth spoken in love
come from? Back to the beginning of that
passage, pastors and teachers. That's what we have nowadays.
Those who speak according to the scriptures. Those who speak
concerning Christ and what he accomplished for sinners. It
happens like this. How many times do we come back
to that in the word of God? It's not complicated. And notice
something very important in the text in 2 Chronicles. Look at
the 2 Chronicles version that we read. 2 Chronicles 24. and verse 18. And they left the house of the
Lord God of their fathers and served growths and idols and
wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. It's
like religion, they worship places and things. You know that woman
at the well, she said, y'all worship up here, we worship down
here. And he said, the time is coming
and now is where whoever worships God, worships him in spirit and
truth. It don't matter where, it's who, it's who. You know,
you got the Holy Roman Empire, you know, you got the Vatican
and you know, you gotta come to the, they talk about the, Church as
though the church is the savior of sinners. No, that's just a building that
God's people meet in and worship him and look to him for salvation. But notice this, verse 19, yet
he sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the Lord. That's
why he sent them. And they testified against them.
In other words, they warned him. They said, no. You've left that
which honors Christ and you're honoring yourselves. But they
would not give ear. That's key now. It doesn't say
they didn't hear him. It doesn't even say that they
couldn't hear him, which is true spiritually, but that's not what
it says. They would not. They would not. That's man's
problem right there. Man's will. There's the so-called free will
of man. This is exactly what our Lord said to the Pharisees
in John 539. Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have life, you have eternal life, and they
are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. You look up that word will there
in verse 40. It means it was distasteful to
them. They deliberately did not want anything to do with God's
son. That's the problem. That's the
problem. Paul warned of this in his sermon
in Acts 13, 38. Listen to it. Be it known unto
you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins,
And by him, all that believe are justified. By him, they're
justified. From all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses, you're not gonna
measure up to God's law. You're gonna have to be justified
by the one who did for sinners in their place. Beware, therefore,
lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets.
Here's what the prophets said. Behold, you despisers. Anybody
that hates God's grace more even than they hate His law, which
is everybody apart from God's grace, behold, you despisers,
and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. He said, I can stand here and
tell you just as plain as day what happened. It didn't happen
in a corner. It's not hard to understand. There's no excuse.
but you will in no wise believe it because you're a despiser
because of what you are by nature. God sent prophets to them. Notice
the long suffering of our Lord in the language here. These people
had gone and worshiped idols, spiritual adulterers. And notice the long suffering
of the Lord. Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them again unto
the Lord. And they testified against them. They didn't sing, you know, flattering,
you know, oh, how I love Jesus and talk people into coming down
aisles. They said, you're on your way
to hell. You're worshiping a false God.
Would that be an appropriate message to the religion of our
day? You're worshiping a false God. You need to know this one. You need to bow to this one.
You need to believe on him. Bring them again and they testify
again, but they would not give ear. to bring you back, to bring
you back again unto the Lord. How gracious
and long-suffering the Lord Jesus said, I didn't come into the
world to condemn the world. We did a pretty good job of that
ourselves already. But that men through me might
be saved. Our Lord said in Matthew 23,
37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
the priests, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings. You know the rest
of it? And you would not. That's our text. That's a key
lesson now in our text. Our will is our problem, folks.
It's our problem. Notice what Zechariah, the priest,
said in 2 Chronicles 24, 20. Let me read you verse 20 again. And the Spirit of God came upon
Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, which he's now the
priest, which stood above the people and said unto them, thus
saith God, why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord
that you cannot prosper? You can't win. Remember what
that man said about those that were gonna beat and imprison
the apostles, or the disciples? You don't want to be found fighting
against God. Why would you spit in God's face?
That's not gonna be prosperous for you. You can't win that fight.
That enmity will not gain you anything but destruction. Because
you have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. What
a tragedy Jehoash is. Let's think about this. before
we go home tonight. The beginning of the story shows
what advantage the Lord had given him. He grew up in the temple.
He was hidden in the temple and grew up there. That was his home
at a time when Jehoiada, the priest, a true priest of God,
who honored the Lord Jesus Christ as every Old Testament ceremony
and practice in the worship of God did, the sacrificial lamb,
the blood on the mercy seat, the lamps, the light of the world,
the bread on the table of showbread, the incense, Christ's intercession
for his people. He honored the Lord Jesus and
he brought Jehoash up that way. What great advantage he had.
God preserved him and gave him the influence of a man of God
to instruct him in the truth. and worship of God by Christ,
but even in the beginning of Jehoash's reign, there's a problem. Remember, Jehoash did that which
was right in the sight of the Lord all his days wherein Jehoiada
the priest instructed him, but the high places were not taken
away. There were other kings that did that very thing. They
not only encouraged and taught the right way to worship God,
but they took away any possibility of doing otherwise. Of course,
you can't control men's hearts. But they said, you're not gonna
worship an idol right here in the land that God gave us when
he saved us from Egypt. But the high places were not
taken away, the people still sacrificed and burnt incense
in the high places. And you know what it was? They
weren't worshiping Dagon in those places. That was the way they worshiped
Jehovah. But because Christ was to be honored, according to God's
prescription of his worship, worship was only to be done in
one place, one way, very meticulously instructed by God, and they abandoned
that and still said we're worshiping God. No. Not if you don't come
to Him by Christ, you're not coming to Him. No man cometh
to the Father, but by Christ. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father. They were burning incense, that
was the priest's business. Christ makes intercession for
us, not Mary, not any saint. There's one mediator, one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Evil was tolerated. And years later, the same evil
completely consumed Jehoash, so that he was forsaken of the
Lord. That same evil, he just tolerated it. He didn't go down
there to the groves himself. He was in the temple. He was
worshiping the right way, at least outwardly, because of Jehoiada. but he had tolerated it. You remember what the Lord said
to one of the churches in Revelation? You have them there. You have
them there. That blaspheme, my name, and
you're tolerating it. I've got a problem with you. Look with me at the end of Jehoash's
story, and we'll close with this, back in 2 Chronicles chapter
24, verse 22. 2 Chronicles 24, 22, thus Jehoash
the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada, his father, had
done to him, but slew Jehoiada's son. And when Jehoiada's son
died, he said, the Lord look upon it and require it. And it came to pass at the end
of the year that the host of Syria came up against him. And
they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes
of the people from among the people. and sent all the spoil
of them unto the king of Damascus, for the army of the Syrians came
with a small company of men. And the Lord delivered a very
great host into their hand. Because that very great host,
though they had the enemy outnumbered, they had every advantage, just
like spiritually. But because they forsook God,
Because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers, God
delivered them into the hand of somebody that by all accounts
had no business defeating them. They were cursed of God. God
forsook them. So they executed judgment against
Joash. Isn't that an interesting way
to say it? It wasn't their judgment, it was God's judgment, but they
executed it. And when they were departed from
him, for they left him in great diseases, his own servants conspired
against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest
and slew him on his bed and he died. And they buried him in
the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchers of
the kings. He wasn't given an honorable
burial because he was such a wretch that in the end, All the people hated him just
like God hated him because he hated God. Now the lesson of
this story is the lesson of all of scripture. Christ is all.
Christ is all. He's gonna get glory one way
or the other. With or without you. And look, the Lord delights to
show mercy. He sent prophets to him. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Sinners who will not honor the
Son are cursed by the Father. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed, Paul said, when the Lord comes. Even the smallest compromise
with antichrist idol worship is a sign that there's no real
love for God's Son in the heart. no real faith in the gospel. Are we learning that? Do we not
see that every time we open this book? Christ is all. Christ is God's beloved son.
What did God say from heaven? Hear Him. They would not give ear. God
said, hear Him. We're not here tonight because
it's a tradition or a social event. The gospel is the savor
of life and death. Why are we preaching it? To bring
you again to the Lord Jesus Christ. God's gracious. He's gracious
to sinners. Amen, let's pray.