What sort of sets the tone for
the whole story of Asa is the declaration that Asa did that
which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. And Israel had been without a
good king for a long time. The two previous kings were evil
and they reigned about 40 years apiece. And so they were many
decades without a good king. And then the Lord raises up Asa. And this account, as well as
the one in second Chronicles of Asa's life will serve, if
the Lord's pleased, to teach us what a good and right person
is. One that's called perfect in the eyes of the Lord. I'm
interested in that by God's grace. I wanna know about that. Because
the Lord's taught us a little bit about what a sinner is, hadn't
he? What wretches we are before him. We know we deserve hell. But if God has made a way that
he can look at me and say he's good and right in my eyes, I don't want to miss that. I
don't want to miss that. In this account, the first thing
mentioned that Asa did, and understand now, it's one
thing to say someone is good and right, but what does that
mean? James would say, you can tell
me that, but unless you show me that, you might as well not
tell me that, right? That's a very limited synopsis
of the book of James, but James said, Show me your faith without
your works. Say it, say this and that and
the other. But by God's grace, I'll show
you my faith by my works, by what I do, what I believe, who
I believe is who I am. It's not just something I know,
it's who I am. And that we see here, to be truly
perfect in the eyes of the Lord, of course, means, as all scripture
declares, to be in Christ. There's no use making that complicated.
If you're going to be right in the eyes of the Lord, you're
going to have to be in Christ. Because no matter how good our
outward works might be, He's not just whistling Dixie
here when he talks about doing that which was right. He did,
for the most part. But you're gonna have to be in
the Lord Jesus Christ to be perfect, to believe on the Son of God,
to follow Him, to walk in Him, to worship Him, to look to Him
always, to trust only Him for your righteousness. That's to
be perfect in the sight of God and good and right. It means
that Jesus Christ, the Savior, did a work for you. Being perfect
in the sight of God is not about things that you do. It's about
what he did. He did a work for you on Calvary. He accomplished
your redemption. He accomplished atonement for
you with God by the sacrifice of himself. That's perfection
in the sight of God. When the Lord Jesus said it is
perfect, He's talking about his righteousness that he wrought.
He's talking about the atonement, the offering that he gave. And he's talking about his people.
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's the
same word to Leo that our Lord uttered on Calvary. So that was
a work done for us by his grace. We believe by his grace we believe
on him in that Now we also know from the Word of God that salvation
Is that work for you and that the Lord as well does a work
in you if you're his Ephesians 2 8 through 10 and Often we quote
Ephesians 2, eight through nine, which, and rightly so, it doesn't
get much more wonderful than, by grace are you saved through
faith, and it ain't your faith. It's not of yourselves, thank
goodness, because everything I produce is full of sin. It's not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. But do you remember the next
verse? We quote it now and then, for we are his workmanship. We
are his workmanship. He's the one that built the house. The one that builds the house
is worthy of more glory than the house. We are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. He did a work in us
by grace and gave us faith just because he wanted to for us. And then he did a work in us
too. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
It's him that worketh in you both the will and the do of his
good pleasure. And so This is what we'll talk about now in
Asa's life. Philippians chapter two, I think
I might could quote that, but let's turn over there just to
be sure we get it right. Philippians 2.12. Once I see
the first two words, I'll probably be able to. Philippians 2.12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now, much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God, working out your
own salvation doesn't mean you work enough to get God to save
you. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. work out. Have we worked that out yet?
That God is getting all the glory here? It's not at all uncommon
for the Lord to even bless those he saves with just good old-fashioned,
plain common sense. He blesses us with good works,
with the ability to worship him. I'd say that's good, wouldn't
you? Not meritorious, not not earning
anything before God, we need to get rid of that idea. Christ
has earned salvation for us. He bought it. He earned it and
he bought it for us. We don't need to add anything
to that. In fact, if we do, then Christ
will profit us nothing. But the Lord blesses us with
the ability to worship him, to love him. Simon said, Lord, you
know everything. You know I love you. You reckon
the Lord would have let that slide if it was a lie? If Simon didn't love the Lord,
you think that would be in the word of God? To deceive all of
us? No, he loved the Lord, his flesh
didn't. He didn't love the Lord before he met the Lord. Before
he knew who he was, before he believed on him by grace through
faith that the Lord gives, but he loved him, that's good. Works
of faith, the Lord calls them good works. Without faith, it's
impossible. Please, God. But our works are accepted in
the beloved just like our persons are. By and through the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're acceptable in the sight of God. There are different kinds of
smart, is what I want to say about that. Often, more often
than not, the Lord will not only give, he not only ordains that
we walk in good works and works them in us, but he gives his
people just good old-fashioned common sense. He hasn't chosen
the wise of this world, but there's different kinds of smart in there.
We'll talk about that, Lord willing, in a little bit. But the first
thing we learn that was done by this man who God said did
right and good. So what does that look like?
It's important to ask yourself. Everything that God teaches looks
like something. When you're studying the word
of God, ask yourself, what does that look like? What does love,
the hardest thing in the world to define is love, isn't it?
Unless you know him. Then it's the easiest thing in
the world. What does that look like? It looks like Christ hanging
on a cross to pay for my sin. That's literally what the scripture
says love looks like. What does right and good in the
sight of God look like? It looks like removing the sodomites,
first of all. Having no use. Do you remember
what the Lord said about Job? He's a perfect and an upright
man, which we read about Asa. He's perfect inside of the Lord.
Perfect and an upright man. He loves me. And he hates what
I hate. He hates evil. So he got rid
of the sodomites. It doesn't really matter exactly
what is being referred to as a sodomite here. Often in the
scriptures, not necessarily a descendant of someone from Sodom that's
called a Sodomite. God called his people Sodomites
in Isaiah chapter one. Sodom and Gomorrah. It is said
that these were prostitutes. But I think knowing that God
saw it as a good thing to get rid of them tells us all we need
to know about them. When he got rid of them, God
said, that's good and right in my sight. To tolerate evil at all is to
be somewhat complicit in it. The Lord forbids us to even bid
Godspeed to those that lie about him and preach a false gospel. The previous kings who allowed
the Sodomites to operate in the country did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord. And that one thing is mentioned
as descriptive of doing that which is evil in the sight of
the Lord. They tolerated. They allowed
these sodomites to operate. They were notoriously, openly,
continually, and defiantly evil. If we got rid, now think about
this. What does that look like, getting rid of the sodomites?
What does that look like? Well, we know if we got rid of all
the sinners, from this church or from our country. It would
be uninhabited. That's just the simple truth. So it doesn't look like that.
It doesn't look like judging one another and oh, they did
something wrong, let's get rid of them. We can't, we're too
holy to be in their presence. It doesn't look like that. We
know that from the word of God. But an open rebellion against
God and all that's good, like this, cannot be tolerated. Now
God clearly tells us here in these accounts of kings that
tolerating is bad. Getting rid of is good. If someone comes here that you
can't get around them without them blaspheming God, if they're
very, if the definite, they're called sodomites. The very definition
of what they were was evil. Which is true of us spiritually,
we're sinners. What is that? An evil person. Our very title equals sin. And so we see ourselves in this.
By nature, we're outcasts from God. What did God do in the garden?
He got rid of the sodomites, didn't he? He kicked us out.
And that's what he should have done. By his grace, there's a
way back. By his grace, there's a way. The Lord Jesus said, I am the
way. It's necessary now to note that
Asa couldn't, there's no way he could ever do anything to
stop people from sinning. If these sodomites, you know,
if they snuck back and somehow did what they did on the down
low and he didn't know about it, how's he gonna do anything
about that? And that's what people typically do. If you make something
illegal, they just do it where you can't see them doing it.
Or in such a way that they don't get caught. It's not that they
stopped doing it. You can't legislate morality.
Everybody knows that. But he could stop them from doing
it legally. He could stop condoning it. He could stop them from doing
it without accountability. And he could do this. Here's
what he could do, 2 Chronicles 14. Let's turn over there for
a minute. Second Chronicles 14. Two, three, four. Here's how
he led the nation when he was king. 14 to 2nd Chronicles 14 to and Asa
did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God
For he took away the altars of the strange gods and the high
places and break down the images. And again, you think he could
keep people from being idolatrous? They would just put them in their
homes. I'm sure they, you know, the ones that were worshiping
idols, most of them probably just had a little place in their
own house where they worshiped idols. Nobody would ever know
about it. You can't stop it. But he could keep them from doing
it publicly. He could keep them from doing
it in a blatant disregard without any consequences for it, without
any compunction about it. And he
could be the example, more importantly. Look what he did here. He break down the images, the
last part of verse three, and cut down the groves and commanded
Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers. And to do the law and the commandment. He took away all the visible
open rebellion against God. And he says, seek the Lord. Can
you imagine a leader of a country getting up and saying, we need
to seek the Lord, we need to seek God. And here's who he is. Now, there wasn't no question
about who God was then, and there shouldn't ever be. If somebody's
talking about a God and you don't know what God it is, they might
as well be talking about the devil, because they probably
are. But he said, we're gonna seek
God now. That's a gracious commandment. He wasn't throwing people in
prison for, for anything, but as an example, as the leader
of the country, he was saying, we're gonna seek God. We're gonna
find out what God said. And we're gonna stop openly rebelling
against him and worshiping idols in the very sight of all men. The leader of the nation has
great influence over the people. always does, for good or for
evil. Couldn't force people to seek
God, nor could he keep people from sinning, but he did that
which was right and good in the sight of God. He was an example
unto them. Let's get rid of these idols
and let's seek the Lord. And he was a power for good over
all the people of Israel, a power for good by the grace of God.
That's good, that's right. The second thing we see that
he did was destroy all the idols. We read that in 2 Chronicles
there, but we see that next in the text that we're looking at
tonight. Fleshly evil combated by removing
the sodomites. Spiritual evil combated by removing
the idols. You see what he's doing here?
False gods, and again, you're not gonna stop people from worshiping
an idol if they're determined to do it. But you can make it
real clear it's not gonna be tolerated by you. We don't have control of anything,
but I tell you this, if it sneaks into our church, any idol, we would have to deal
with it, wouldn't we? Swiftly and effectively, have
to get rid of it. Can't tolerate idols in our church,
neither in the building nor in people's minds. Can't be told,
I can't stop them, but we can do everything we can to take
them down, take those idols down, take them down. The best thing
you can do is preach Christ to take down idols. That's how idols
are abolished for the most part. And they're not abolished without
that. You may have to preach Christ
and also physically throw somebody out of here. But you have to
preach Christ to get rid of an idol. Preaching the gospel, supporting
the gospel, teaching our children, learning of Christ as Asa commanded. We're gonna find out who God
is. And then you do what you have
to do in your own homes. But as a nation, You know, the Bible does talk
about nations that forget God, doesn't it? And look at the wisdom of Asa
in practical matters. This is what I'm talking about,
just common sense, just real good common sense. When confronted
by Baal Shem, and the army of Israel, Beasha built a blockade
so that they couldn't come and go in Judah. Nobody could come
see Asa. He couldn't go anywhere. The
city was blockaded. They had a name for it. They
cut him off, but Asa is sitting there. Think about what had to
happen. We don't know what didn't have
to happen, but what had to happen behind the scenes is Asa's sitting
there evaluating his situation. Evaluating his assets. What have
I got going for me and what have I got going against me? One of
the things we got going for us, we got a lot of gold and silver.
A lot of gold and silver just sitting there. And he realized
that that gold and silver is gonna all be spoiled by Baasha
anyway. They're all gonna come in there
and they're gonna take it as spoils. It's gonna be, it's gone
anyway. So how can we use it to our advantage? I know, I'll send it to the surrounding
kings that have made an alliance with David in years
past. And they'll remember David, and
so they'll honor me, they'll hear me out. And I'll give it
to them to betray by Asher. to go attack the homeland of
Israel, so Baasha will leave me alone. So he used what he had, what
assets he had, to just get rid of the problem. Brilliant, simple,
but brilliant. The gold didn't mean as much
as freedom. Not everybody knows that. Not
everybody knows that. A lot of people will submit to
slavery in order to keep their gold. A lot of people do that
every day. But not Asa. No, no. No, we don't need this stuff. What we need is to be free. We
need to be able to come and go as we please and do what we please
as a nation. So Bayashah was forced to return
and leave Judah alone for a while. And then while Bayashah is distracted
by these other kings and nations, armies, Asa commands all hands
on deck. Do you remember the wording of
it? Nobody was exempted. Look, you can't sit this out.
There was an urgency to it. Why? Because Bayashah could come
back anytime. I'm sure it took him a while
to dismantle that blockade piece by piece. And he used it to build
something. He took down something that was
a threat and built another asset in the kingdom. What a smart
king. Not just godly, that's primary. Not just honoring the Lord, not
just perfect and good in his sight. A believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, but just flat smart. The Lord gave him some common
sense. And by God's grace, he used it.
And what a great benefit a king like that would be. All hands
on deck. We've got to take this blockade
down while we have a reprieve here. And we're going to use
that material, which was a threat to our nation. It restricted
our freedom. And we're going to make an asset
out of it. We're going to build what we want out of it. Smart
stuff. But you know what's smarter than
that? You know what makes even more
sense than that? That was brilliant. But the best move that Asa ever
made is found over in the account in 2 Chronicles. And he was only
able to do it by the grace of God. He was only able to do it. Turn
back with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 14. And I just want to
read, this is not a long chapter. I want to read the whole chapter
with you. 2 Chronicles chapter 14. Let's
just sort of settle into this story. Asa, God said he's a good
man. He's good and right in my sight. Like my son David was. So Abijah slept with his fathers
and they buried him in the city of David and Asa, his son, reigned
in his stead. In his days, the land was quiet
10 years. Before Baasha came and built
that blockade, they had 10 years, the Lord gave them 10 years.
Look at this, look at the way this is worded. And Asa, In the
last part now again of verse one, in his days the land was
quiet 10 years, and Asa did that which was good and right in the
eyes of the Lord his God. For he took away the altars of
the strange gods and the high places and break down the images
and cut down the groves and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of
their fathers and to do the law and the commandment. Also, he
took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and
the images and the kingdom was quiet before him now it says
in the first Kings account that he didn't that not all the high
places were taken down and I think in the context there the immediate
context of that in the first Kings account It's talking about
his mother when he he he removed her as queen, and he
destroyed her idols that she made. But then it says right
there in that context, but all the high places weren't taken
down. I think that's talking about the high places where his
mother lived. But in throughout the nation,
he did and may, I don't know why they weren't taken down,
where she was concerned, but it says right there also, nevertheless,
Asa was perfect in the sight of the Lord. And so some of it's
going to slip through the cracks, isn't it? But he had every good
intention, it seems, in that regard. And generally speaking,
they were all taken down to all the high places. and break down the image, cut
down the grubs, verse four, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord
God of their fathers and to do the law and the commandment.
Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high
places and the images, and the kingdom was quiet before him.
And he built fenced cities in Judah, for the land had rest.
And he had no war in those 10 years because the Lord had given
him rest. Well, what was it? Well, the
enemies were occupied with other things. There's a lot of geopolitical
reasons why the Lord gave him rest. Do you get caught up in
the headlines? It's easy to get caught up in
the headlines and just miss simply what God is doing. It's complicated
if you look at the world, isn't it? It's not that complicated. God's running the whole show,
and he's running it for us. That seems too good to be true,
doesn't it? Too good to be true. The Lord had given him rest.
What a blessing. What a sweet, sweet blessing
that is. Therefore he said unto Judah, let us build these cities
and make about them walls and towers and gates. Again, smart.
While we're not having to worry about who's gonna attack us next,
let's use this time to be ready, to be prepared. For when the
time comes, it's not gonna be forever. The Lord's giving us
rest right now. It's probably not gonna be forever
like that. So they built towers and gates and bars while the
land is yet before us because we have sought the Lord our God,
we have sought him and he has given us rest on every side.
So they built and prospered. It's just a beautiful story. It's so easy to miss the simple
things in it. The simple, beautiful grace of
God in our everyday lives. And Asa had an army of men, verse
eight, that bear targets and spears out of Judah, 300,000,
and out of Benjamin that bear shields and drew bows, 204,000. All these were mighty men of
valor. And there came out against them Zerah, the Ethiopian, with
a host of 1,000,000, a million-man army. It'd be hard for anybody to put
that together today. million man army And 300 chariots and came unto
Marisha So there it is ten years of peace and rest but Asa knew
He wasn't an idiot. Was he by the grace of God? We're
all spiritual idiots. We have to acknowledge that every
day, but God give you a little sense money Yeah, just give you
a little sense I'm thankful for that when he does. He can also
take his hand off of us for two seconds and we're blithering
idiots drooling on ourselves. But hopefully he won't do the
whole lot of that. We depend on him every second,
don't we? Every second to hold us up. Then Asa went out against him
and they set the battle in a ray in the valley of Zephithah. at Moreshia, and Asa cried unto
the Lord his God. Now if you read the context of
this, of this chapter, they're outnumbered two to one. Two to
one. That's not good odds in battle. That's not good. But Asa cried
unto the Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee
to help. It's nothing. I hope I never forget that verse
as long as I live. It's nothing. It's nothing with
you. Because I, from my puny and sinful
and helpless perspective, I look at things and I say it's hopeless.
It's hopeless. It is nothing with thee to help,
whether with many, or thank God, with them that have no power. God helps those that help themselves,
really? How you gonna get that out of
that verse? Them that have no power. Help us. What a wonderful prayer. There's no flowery language,
there's no fluff, is there? No fluff. Lord, it's nothing
with you to help. Help us. Help us. Boy, there's no beating around
the bush with that, is there? Help us, oh Lord, our God. You're the only one that helps.
You're God. That's a good thing to acknowledge
when you're praying. You're God. You're almighty. You can do anything you please. For we rest on you. Wait a minute, they're resting.
They had 10 years of rest and now it's war. Asa said, we're still resting. We're still resting. Because
our rest doesn't depend on men. It doesn't depend on this world.
We're resting on the Lord. peace or war, rain or shine,
trouble or not, we rest on you. And in thy name we go against
this multitude, oh Lord. You are our God. Let not man
prevail against you. Make sure when you have a dispute
with somebody, their problem is with God and not you. That's so important. Don't let them prevail against
you. That's resting on Him. That's resting on Him right there.
That's what it is to be good and right inside of God, to do
that which is good. You see, doing that which is
good is not really you doing anything at all. It's you depending
on Him to do something. How do you fight by resting?
That's how, right there. Was the Lord with Asa because
Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord? Or did
Asa do that which was good and right because the Lord was with
him? Not a hard question. But we won't get it right unless
the Lord teaches us. But what a beautiful, beautiful
situation we see there in verse 11. And what a lesson for us
to remember all the days of our lives. The best way to fight,
the only way to win is to rest. To rest on the Lord. Is that the way he said that? We rest on you. Even if it looks like a win to
you, if you're not resting on the Lord, it's a loss. And even if it feels like a loss
to you because it hurts and your heart's broke, if you're resting
on the Lord, it's a win. What is it to rest on the Lord? Well, I'll give you homework
instead of us taking the time to go through this whole, I was
gonna, we're gonna look at this whole passage, Hebrews 4, one
through 11, but read that tonight if you have just a few minutes. Hebrews 4, 11, what is it to
rest on the Lord? I'll just give you the, I'll
give you the cliff notes. To enter into the rest of God
is to believe on his side. That's what Hebrews 4, 1 through
11 says. It's to believe on his son. The Lord Jesus Christ. Believers labor. Believers walk
in good works, not to please God, not to do something for
him, not to measure up to his glory. We labor to rest. Exhorts us there in that passage
in Hebrews for labor to enter into his rest That's counterintuitive,
isn't it? Not if you know the Lord Jesus
Christ, it's not all of our effort All of our work all of our service
all of it everything that we do as believers Should have one goal one purpose
one end, to rest in Christ, to rest more and more fully all
the time in Him. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. I've been looking into this next
phrase for a long, long time, and I'm still not there yet. For I am meek and lowly in heart. It comforts me just to say it,
but I don't understand it fully. What do we understand fully?
But I'm not even close on that. I'm not even close on anything.
And you shall find rest. Learn of me, learn of me. Meek and lowly in heart, and
you will find rest unto your souls. Oh, may we seek him constantly. May we rest on him. If he gives us grace to do that,
even when we lose, we win. Amen, let's pray.