Let us turn to God's Word again. And turning to 2 Chronicles,
we read in chapter 18, but I want to direct you to the 19th chapter
and the 3rd verse for our text. In 2 Chronicles chapter 19 and
verse 3. But observing something of the
context, remember how at the end of the previous chapter where
we were reading, we have the death of that wicked king Ahab,
husband to Jezebel, the great supporter of the prophets of
Baal, and how He sought to preserve his own life even should it be
at the life of one who had been friendly toward him, even the
King Jehoshaphat. We see how he was very subtle,
Ahab. He had suggested that as they
go, these two nations, these two kingdoms, Israel on the Ahab
and Judah on the Jehoshaphat they're going into battle against
the Syrians and Ahab has suggested that Jehoshaphat wear his war
robes but he will go in disguise And the order has been given
by the king of the Syrians to do battle against none really
but the king, the king of Israel. Fight ye not with small or great,
save only with the king. We read at the end of that 30th
verse in chapter 18. And then when he came to pass
the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat that they said it
is the king of Israel therefore they compassed about him to fight
but Jehoshaphat cried out and the Lord helped him and God moved
them to depart from him they realized that it was not Ahab
the king of the Israelites no it was the king of the Jews,
the king of Judah. It was Jehoshaphat, so they turned
back from him. And then we have that remarkable
statement in verse 33, how a man draws a bow at a venture. He's
not aiming at anything in particular. And how the arrow is ordained
by gods to bring death to that wicked man Ahab. It smotes between
the joints of his harness. And it's a mortal blow, he's
a dying man. He's sorely wounded and the battle
increased, we're told, at the end of that chapter. Albeit the
King of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot against the
Syrians until the evening. And about the time of the sun
going down, he died. And Jehoshaphat, the king of
Judah, returned to his house in peace, to Jerusalem. And Jair,
the son of Ananias the seer, went out to meet him, and said
to King Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the young godly, and
love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee
from before the Lord. Nevertheless there are good things
found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of
the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God. And Jehoshaphat
dwelt at Jerusalem, and he went out again through the people
from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the
Lord God of their fathers." And as I said, the word that I really
want to center your attention upon with the Lord's help this
evening for a while is that third verse Nevertheless, nevertheless
there are good things found in thee that thou hast taken away
the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to
seek God." What a word is the nevertheless. We see it, don't
we, on occasions in the Psalms. For example, in the 89th Psalm,
And there at verse 31, concerning Israel, if they break my statutes
and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my
lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my
faithfulness to fail. Oh, thank God for the neverthelesses.
in his dealings with his people and surely those words of the
psalmist can be applied to this man Jehoshaphat he was in league
he joined affinity with Ahab who was an enemy of God we know
that here as he is preserved in the goodness of God and returns
to Jerusalem. So he is met by a prophet, Jehu,
the son of Hanani, the seer, goes out to meet him and says,
Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?
Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. And now
the prophet's word goes home to this man and has an effect
upon him. and what does he do as a consequence
of the words spoken there why he now minds his business he
might say he does what he is supposed to do, he is the king
and we're told in verse 4 how he dwelt at Jerusalem and he
went out again through the people from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim
and brought them back brought them back unto the Lord God of
their fathers he's rebuked, he's corrected God's word you see
profitable for reproof and correction and so it proves here. So I want tonight as we consider
this particular part of scripture in this third verse here in chapter
19 I want to say something with regards to the religion of Jehoshaphat. In many ways he was a foolish
man and he did wicked things. And yet, there is that in the
man that is evidence of the grace of God. Remember how Job says,
the root of the matter is found in me. In the midst of all his
trials and all his troubles, in the mysterious dealings of
God, he felt he had the root of the matter in him. Surely
in this history of Jehoshaphat we see that the root of the matter
was in him. Well what are we to make of that
root of the matter? Well two things I would say stand
out really with regards to this man. One is that he has in his
heart the fear of God. and the second is he has faith
in the Lord and I want us just for a little while to consider
those two truths and to think of them in that sense as evidence
that the root of the matter is in a person it all begins of
course with the fear of the Lord and we do see it we see it in
the way in which he conducts himself in chapter 20 for example in verse 3 we read,
O Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and
proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. The reason he's doing
this here is because again there's conflict, there's warfare now
with the Moabites and the Ammonites. They've come out against Jehoshaphat.
and he is motivated you see, he is moved by the fear of the
Lord Jehoshaphat feared not just a question of him fearing these
enemies who come against him surely there is more than that
here in what we are told in this verse in chapter 20 he feared
and set himself to seek the Lord and he proclaimed the fast throughout
all Judah The Lord in the Gospel speaks of those things that can
only be done by prayer and fasting. There's nothing meritorious in
fasting. There's nothing meritorious in
our prayers. All the merit is in God, of course.
But when we read of prayers and fasting, Well there concerning
Jehoshaphat he seeks the face of the Lord and proclaims a fast.
It means here is a man who is intent on serious business to
give himself to committing the matter into the hands of the
Lord. He's motivated principally by the fear of the Lord. All
that fear of the Lord. Is it not the chief thing? Remember
what we're told at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments. That is the duty of man. First
of all to fear God. How important is that fear? The fear of the Lord says the
wise man is the beginning of knowledge. Well, that's where
true knowledge comes from, where we have that fear of the Lord.
Again, in the Psalms we're told, aren't we, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. That's where wisdom begins. Where
is wisdom found? Well, if a man lacks wisdom,
he's to ask of God to give it to all men liberally, says James,
but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. The wisdom that we
need, where is it? It's found in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the wisdom from above, which is first pure and peaceable
and gentle and easy to be entreated and full of mercy and good fruits
and without partiality and without hypocrisy. Isn't that a wonderful
description of Christ himself, all that Christ is, who of God
is made unto us wisdom? The beginning of wisdom, the
fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom. Are
we those who fear the Lord? What we read concerning this
man, he was in league with Ahab, who was the most wicked, cruel,
God-denying man and idolater. And yet, clearly there is something
of the fear of God very much in the heart of King Jehoshaphat. He knew what it was to fear God
in spite of all else. With those who possess that fear
of the Lord, we live, of course, in a day where there's very little
fear of the Lord, even in religious circles, professed Christian
circles. We're all well aware of what takes place in so many
places, the irreverent worship, the chumminess with God, no real
sense of who He is, no standing in awe before the Holy One, or
what is it for sinners to come before Him whose eyes are purer
than to behold iniquity, that God who cannot look upon sin. And us, we are such poor creatures,
poor mortals. And He, the Ancient of Days,
the Eternal God. Do we have any real concept of
just who God is? When we come before Him, we come
to worship Him. That's the purpose of our gathering
together, principally. What are our services? Our services
of worship. But all must begin, really, if
there's any reality in our worship, it must begin with God. and do
God is and in the fear of that God you remember the language of
Ecclesiastes 5 keep thy house when they go to the house of
prayer be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of
fools they consider not what they do God is in heaven thou
upon earth let thy words be few says the preacher there or be
not rash with thy mouth What can we say to this God? How can
we approach Him? I know, in many ways, as I've
said, he's such a foolish man, he's Jehoshaphat. He's weak,
he's sinful. But he did fear God. And he's
ready to encourage others in that fear of God. In what follows
here in chapter 19, He's trying to bring the people
back to the Lord God of their fathers. He said judges, we're
told, at verse 5, said judges in the land throughout all the
fenced cities of Judah, city by city. And He said to the judges,
take heed what you do, for you judge not for man, but for the
Lord, who is with you in the judgment. And then, at verse
9, we read of how He charges them saying, Thus shall you do
in the fear of the Lord. faithfully, and with a perfect
heart, that to act, you see, in that fear of the Lord. And two things with regards to
his fear. Here is a man, surely, who feared the Word of God. He certainly
has a reverence for the Word of God, even in the midst of
all his following. Remember how he speaks here to
Ahab in the portion we read. Verse 6 of chapter 18, Jehoshaphat
said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides? He had said to Ahaz that they
should inquire at the word of the Lord, in verse 4, and King
Ahab gathers together 400 men, prophets. They must have been
prophets of both. They were not the true prophets
of the Lord. And so Jehoshaphat says, is there
not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire
of him? These These prophets of Baal,
these false prophets that said go up for God will deliver Assyria
into the hands of the king. And how does I have replied? Well he makes mention of a man,
a remarkable man I think is only mentioned in this chapter, the
prophet Micaiah. There is yet one man by whom
we may inquire of the Lord, one man, but I hate him For he never
prophesied good unto me, but always evil. The same is Micaiah
the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not
the king say so. He speaks up in support of Micaiah. And what sort of a prophet is
this? Look at verse 13 there. Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth,
even what my God saith, that will I speak. Oh this man, is
a true prophet of the Lord. The only word he will speak is
the truth of God's words. We see how this king then, Jehoshaphat,
does have a reverence for the words of God. He sends men throughout all of
the land to teach the Lord of the Lords you will have them
go through that and teaching the law of the Lord as we see
in chapter 17 we just go back to chapter 17 and there at verse
7, verse 8 and verse 9 these priests and these Levites We're told at verse 9 there,
they taught him Judah and had the book of the Lord of the Lord
with them and went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught
the people. He has a reverence for the Lord
of the Lord. He wants to see God's law being established again
in the land. Perhaps when we read these things
how applicable it is to the day in which we're living and the
land in which we're living and the lawlessness of the day. Where
are those who would bring the nation back to the Lord of the
Lords Jehoshaphat was a good king in
spite of his many sins and he has his high regard then for
God's Word he has a fear of it he has a fear of it remember
we sang didn't we just now in the mythical version of the 19th
Psalm And we sang that portion where we have those references
to God's law and different synonyms are used to describe it. It's
the law, it's the testimony, it's the statues, it's the commandments. You know the passage, we just
sang it. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure. Making wise the simple,
the statutes of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart, the
commandment of the Lord is pure. Enlightening the eyes, the fear
of the Lord. One of the names given to God's
law. The fear of the Lord is clean
and enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold. Yea, the much fine gold sweeter
also than honey and the honeycomb. Or do we come to God's Word and
say this is the fear of the Lord. Revere the sacred page. That's
what we're to do. We're to treat it with all due
regard and reverence. Revere the sacred page to injure
any part betrays a blind and feeble rage, a hard and haughty
heart," says Joseph Hart in the hymn. Oh, what folly if we don't
treat God's Word with all due regard and reverence. The Word
of God, it's quick, it's powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword,
piercing the dividing of the the soul and spirit, to reveal
the intent of the hearts of men, the word of God. Do we reverence
really God's word? This man has a fear then of the
word of God. In spite of all the folly of
his sin and his affinity with wicked King Ahab, but not just
a fear of the word, he also has a fear of God's rod. When he returns from the battle
and the Lord in his good grace preserves him alive, the contrast
we have there from one chapter to the next, about the time of
the sun going down, he that is Ahab died and Jehoshaphat, the
king of Judah, returned to his house in peace, to Jerusalem. And what does the prophet say
to him? Because of his sins, shouldest thou help the ungodly,
and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee
from before the Lord. All the mercy of God is in that.
Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. What son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? A man will chasten his own children,
his sons and his daughters. He wants to see them being brought
up properly. You correct them. But the Lord
corrects those that he loves. This is not condemning wrath. This is God's chastening hand
that has come upon this man. Nevertheless there are good things
found in thee, says God. God's dealing with him as one
of his own. And he has a fear in a sense,
he has a fear of God's rod. Are we those who are the same
as that, do we know that of the fear of the Lord? Or the Lord's
dealings, the Lord's voice crieth unto the sitter, the man of wisdom
shall see thy name, hear ye the rod, and do as appointed it. The language that we have there
in Micah 6, 9, the Lord's voice is in the rod. God doesn't just
speak in his word, does he? God speaks in His dealings with
us, the way He treats us, the situations
He brings us into. When we find ourselves in the
midst of trial and trouble and affliction, the Lord's voice
is in it. The Lord's voice crieth unto
the city. Oh, it's a man of wisdom. Remember the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. The man of wisdom sees God's
name. sees God's hand, he believes
in a sovereign God who takes account of his people. And Jehoshaphat was such, the
Lord deals with this man. We see then a man here who has
the root of the matter in him in that he knows something, surely
he knows something of the fear of the Lord. But there must be more than fear. true godly fear must be united
to faith. For whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. What a statement is that by the
apostle. Without faith it's impossible to please God. You see, there's nothing of any
worth in anything that we do. All our worth is found in the
one who is the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice how there is such
a very real connection between fear and faith in the language
of the wise man in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 14.26 In the
fear of the Lord is strong confidence. In the fear of the Lord is strong
confidence. Literally, in the fear of the
Lord is trust. That's what the word strong confidence
basically means. In the fear of the Lord is trust,
faith. If we have the real true fear
of the Lord, we'll know something of faith in God. There are two parts really to
faith, aren't there? There's the objective aspect
and there's the subjective aspect of faith. Let's just, as we begin
to draw to a conclusion tonight, think of those two aspects of
The faith is, there's the objective. What is the objective? Well,
what's the object? The object of God, the object
of faith is truth. The object of faith, as I've
already said, is the Lord Jesus. And He says, doesn't He? I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
one of those great I am statements of course that we find throughout
John's Gospel, here is Christ, he is the image of the invisible
God, he is that one by whom God has spoken in these last times.
No more revelation from God because God's revelation is complete. with the coming of Christ. We
know that. I mean, the so-called prophet
Muhammad is a false prophet. It's a false religion. There's
only one true religion, and that true religion is Christianity,
isn't it? And we were reminded, and I think
it was what Cliff said in prayer on Thursday at the prayer meeting.
He read, of course, one of Mr. Matronola's sermons, I think
it must have been in his prayer, where he referred to the Christmas
message that the King gave, and the blasphemy of what the King
said. I mean, he's a religious man,
but he, of course, he believes in multi-faith. And he said,
he might say some good things concerning the wonder of the
incarnation, the coming of the Lord Jesus, God manifest in the
flesh. And then he goes on to make such
silly statements as to say, you know, these truths are to be
found in all religions. Well, everything apart from Christianity
is false. be it the faith of the Mohammedan,
be it the faith of the Hindu, be it the faith of the Jew. The
Jews don't worship the true God. They don't worship the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The veil's
up on their faces. The true God is a Trinity. And we have it there in the Old
Testament, we have the fullness of that revelation in the New
Testament. in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the truth the faithful,
the true witness the one who reveals God there is that objective aspect
of faith it has to do with the truth of God and now this man
has a regard that the living and true God
should be worshipped In the words of the text, nevertheless there
are good things found in that thou hast taken away the groves
out of the land. He was one who was seeking to
destroy the idols. Israel, the northern kingdom,
was sunk in idolatry, Baalism, and all the false prophets. Judah
was influenced by by Israel, by all the nations round about
them. There had been wicked kings, Jehoshaphat, Aser, his father
before him, similar in character, a good man and yet he made many
mistakes. But we see how even in the early
days of his Reign, this man Jehoshaphat was determined to rid the land,
to rid the land of all idols. If we go back to that 17th chapter, we're told there at verse 3,
this is the beginning of his reign. Reigns instead of his
father. Verse 3, the Lord was with Jehoshaphat
because he walked in the first ways of his father David. He
was of the line of David of course, he's king in Judah. And he walked
in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim,
but sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his
commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. Verse 6, And
his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Moreover, he
took away the high places and groves out of Judah. And then
we read of how He sent princes and so forth and they taught,
verse 9, they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of
the Lord with them and went about throughout all the cities of
Judah and taught the people. Oh, He is determined, you see,
that the land should be freed from all idolatrous ways. Who is to be worshipped? who
is to be worshipped only the living and the true God and the Lord Jesus of course
reminds us doesn't he in the gospel in that conversation that
he has with the woman of Samaria in John 4 concerning worship
The hour cometh and now is, says the Lord Jesus, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit,
and the true worshippers worship Him in spirit and in truth, to
worship then as regard to God's truth. Faith as regards to God's truth. We are to worship God according
to his truth. And we see it, don't we, in the
first table of the law. We speak of two tables. We say
the first four commandments concern our relationship as duties towards
God in heaven. The vertical. And the last six,
of course, concern man's relationship with his fellow man, the horizontal. It's interesting when we look
at the first four commandments, because we can think of them
in terms of worship, really. There's a breadth, of course,
to the Lord of God. The law of the Lord is broad. It reaches to every state, every
condition of men. But the first of all the commandments
tells us of the object of our worship. Thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. There is one God to worship.
And then we're told something with regards to the manner. Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image or bow down to it. No images, no icons. So called Christianity. Think
of potpourri, the Orthodox churches, the so-called Church of England,
full of idols. Full of idols. But we know that
the true worship of God in this Gospel day is so simple, the
simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. We're told something then
in the Second Commandment Thou shalt not make unto thee any
grave an image, and so forth. It tells us the manner. The object
is God, nor the gods before me, and there's something of the
manner. And the name! Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. Oh, how that tests us when it
comes to our worship. Do we take God's name upon our
lips in vain? Are we sincere in all our approaches
when we pray to God? Do we mean what we say in our
prayers? Or is it just a performance? It's very solemn for a minister,
you know, to stand in a pulpit and to pray as the voice of a
congregation. You think, well, what am I doing
here? What do I know of real prayer? What do I know of prayer
in the secret place? And here I am standing before
a people speaking in prayer. Is it real prayer? Or am I taking
God's vein in vain? They shall not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. That's the third commandment. And then in the fourth, of course,
what do we have in the fourth? We have the time. Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. There's a day to be kept. There's a day to be kept, the
Lord's day, isn't there? Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath.
There's a Christian Sabbath. to be kept. We're not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together. Or we're to be those who would
serve the only living and true God. And we can only serve Him
if we have faith and that objective aspect of faith and we know something
of that. We know just who the object is
of our faith. It's God as He has revealed Himself
fully, finally, wonderfully in the person of His only begotten
Son. But then there's another aspect
of faith, what I call the subjective aspect, and isn't that trust? in the fear of the Lord is strong
confidence, in the fear of the Lord is trust there has to be trust and how
we see it in this man again the root of the matter is so much
in this man nevertheless there are good things found in thee
in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land and
hast prepared thine heart to seek God. Oh, he prepared his
heart to seek God. Oh, how we had to cry out. Oh, how we had to cry out there.
In that portion we read chapter 18 and verse 29. And the following verses. Oh, he's there in all his kingly
robes and when the captains of the chariots of the Syrians see
Jehoshaphat they think this is the king of Israel and they compass
about him to fight but Jehoshaphat cried out he cried out and the
Lord helped him and God moved them to depart from him Oh, he was a remarkable man,
really. He was a man of prayer. Remember
how later there's conflict again, and this time it's conflict with
the Moabites and the Ammonites. And what does he do? Well, he
cries out again to his gods. There in chapter 20 and verse
12, O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might
against this great company that cometh against us, neither know
we what to do. But our eyes are upon thee. How
often we have to say that in our prayers. We know not what
to do, Lord God. Our eyes are upon thee. We have
to look to the Lord. Where else can we turn? Oh, this
man, you see, the root of the matter is in Jehoshaphat. He's
a man of faith. He was no hypocrite. Sinner that
he was. He was not a hypocrite. He sought
after God. Hypocrites in heart cry not when the Lord bindeth them. That's
what we read in Job 36.13. Hypocrites in heart cry not.
But this man cries. He cries out to his God when
he's in trouble. He's no hypocrite. I will cry
out unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things
for me. He can use the language of the
Psalmist. He can seek the Lord. We're to
seek the Lord. This man seeks the Lord. Seek
the Lord and His strength. Seek His face forevermore, says
the Psalm. Oh, there is some good thing
in this man. There is the fear of the Lord.
There's faith in the Lord, His God. Nevertheless, there are
good things found in thee, Jehoshaphat, in that thou hast taken away
the groves out of the land and hast prepared thine heart to
seek God. And it is only God, it is only
God who can give us that fear and that faith. It's God's work
alone. Thou also hast wrought all our
works in us, says the prophet Isaiah. Are the lords beside
thee of our dominion over us? By thee only. Will we make mention
of thy name? How can we make mention of God's
name? It's by God only. It's by God
only. Real religion, you see, begins
when God implants in the heart of his people fear, the fear
of the Lord in the heart. Without that fear, All that we
have really is of the flesh. It all has to begin with God.
We have to learn what it is to believe that there is a God. And that God is in the heavens.
And he does whatever he will. He's a sovereign God. He's a
mighty God. He's a holy God. He's a righteous
God. He's a just God. All those attributes. He's a
God who is merciful and gracious, who has compassion. Oh, they are good and they do
us good, says the psalmist. Oh, but now we have to stand
in awe before Him. We have to learn what it is to
fear His great name. And that fear will be hand in
hand with real faith. For whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. Oh, the Lord grant that we might
be those who, as we gather together, have that faith in our hearts
and approach our God with all holy reverence. Holy reverend is his name, and
we take that blessed name upon our lips as we come in and through
our Lord Jesus Christ, the only mediator. between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus. O God, grant that we might know
it then in all our worship, in every part of our lives, to be
those who would willingly serve this God. God preserve us from
the folly of sin, we see it. Alas, even in these godly kings,
and there were godly kings, Jehoshaphat amongst them, but here is a man
in whom is the root of the matter. Nevertheless are all good things
found in thee, says God's servant, the prophet, in that thou hast
taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine
heart to seek God. The Lord bless his word to us.
Amen.