2 Chronicles, and we'll begin
in chapter 14. I've entitled this message, An
Example and a Warning. An Example and a Warning. And by this, we're going to see
two things this morning. Two things concerning this man
in our text, Asa. Asa, if you read in chapter 14
and verse 1, So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried
him in the city of David. And Asa, his son, reigned in
his stead. And in his days, ten years, Asa
did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. Now the first thing that we're
going to see is that this man Asa is an example or a picture
of every true believer. The Holy Spirit here intends
this man to be an important type and picture of us who are believers
in Jesus Christ. And I believe that as we go through
this man's life, you're going to see ourselves. We're going to see that this
man, his experiences, They were much different than ours. We're
not going to be a king of Judah. There's many experiences he had. We're not going to battle with
enemies, literal battles. But this is the experience of
his salvation. We're going to see that this
salvation of Asa is what Jude calls a common salvation. It's common because the salvation
of Asa is our salvation. The salvation of David is our
salvation. Why? Because there is only one
Savior. There is only one Savior and
there is only one way sinners are saved. Through faith in Jesus
Christ. That's how this man was saved.
That's how you and I are saved. And the Holy Spirit will show
us this through this text, I pray you will, this morning. And the
second thing we're going to see is this man's failure, a warning. This man who was a believer in
Christ, we're going to see that he had a great failure. And this is intended of the Holy
Spirit, not that we should follow Him in this failure, but that
we should, by seeing this, avert this calamity. So, we're going
to see these things this morning. Now, the Scripture tells us,
first of all, that this man, in verse 2, Asa, did that which
was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. Now I got a question,
how is it that any son of Adam can do that which is good and
right in the sight of the Lord? Now listen, you can do that which
is good and right in the sight of men, but how is it that we,
by our works, can please God? Well, the answer to that is simple,
we can't. The scripture is that we have
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That man by
nature is full of sin, that he cannot by his works Please God. And so how did Asa do that which
is right in the eyes of the Lord? Even the same as you and me. Because he was made righteous. He was made righteous through
his Substitute, through his Mediator, Christ. He did that which was
good and right in the sight of the Lord, his God. You see, this
man believed. This man trusted. And therefore,
the righteousness of Christ, as it is with Him, so it is with
us. The righteousness of Christ is imputed and imparted to all
of us who believe. You know that in Romans chapter
3, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of
Jesus Christ. That's how the righteousness of God was merited,
wasn't it? By the faith of Jesus Christ.
unto all and upon all, imputed and imparted unto all, listen,
who believe. You believe on Christ this morning,
listen, this is your experience as this was Asa's. You do that
which was right in the sight of the Lord. Why? Because you
have the righteousness of God which was made by Christ and
imputed and imparted to us. We are made righteous even by
the blood of Christ. You remember that the scripture
says, by His one offering, one offering, our high priest hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. So Ace's experience
then is ours. He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord because of His mediator, even so we have
this said of every believer. Now then, the second thing in
Asa's experience is this. He cast down all false gods. Look at this in verse 3. For
he took away the altars of the strange gods in the high places,
and broke down the images, and cast down the groves, and commanded
Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, all which he and
the commandments. And he also took out of all the
cities of Judah the high places and the images. and the kingdom
was quiet before him." When we believe on Christ, when we have
that righteousness of Christ imputed and we look to Christ
who has offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, seeing that our
salvation is completely the work of God, we confess our sin, we
confess our inability, We confess that all we had believed before
was a lie. We confess that the God we worshipped
before was no God at all. We do away with all of our own
self-righteousness. Just as Asa took those images
and burned them, took down those groves of the false gods that
was in Judah and Jerusalem and burned them, even so do we burn
all of our former religions. What good was your religion before
Christ saved you? It was worthless, wasn't it? Paul said that about his former
religion, didn't he? He said, I count these things
but done that I may win Christ and be found in Him. So, what
they should do? He did away with all his former
religion. Even so, does every believer. This is our experience.
We do away with all of our self-righteousness, and count it but done, that we
may win Christ. And thirdly, what did Asa find?
He found peace. Look at that last part, and there
was quiet before him. The kingdom was quiet. In verse
6 he says, He built fenced cities in Judah, for the land had rest,
and there was no war in those years, because the Lord had given
him rest. Have you found that to be true?
When Christ says, Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you... What? What did He give you? He
gave you rest. From what? Working. He gave you
rest from all your labors. You're not saved by your works.
You're not justified by your religious actions. We're justified
by Christ. Now sure, true faith does work. But true faith does not work
for salvation. True faith rests in the work
of Christ. And we find that His cross, by
His cross, He had made peace with God. Oh, if God would let
that sink in. He hath made peace by the blood
of His cross. Now this morning you may not
feel at peace with God, but what does your feeling of peace have
to do with it? You're not at peace because you
feel at peace, and you're not at war because you feel at war.
Our peace has been made by another. He has slain the enmity of the
law in his flesh that was against us. And so then we, like Asa,
what? We have peace. Peace with God. And notice this. This peace,
what did it generate? It generated growth. Growth. Notice Asa built fenced
cities in Judah. Why? He had peace. He had peace. God gave him peace and rest.
Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and
make them about walls, and 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 hath given us rest on
every side. So they built and prospered. What does this peace provide
us? It provides us life and growth. You see, he began to guard these
cities, didn't he? He began to build these fenced
cities around and guard these cities. Isn't that what the gospel
tells us? Put on the whole armor of God.
Yes, you're at peace. You're at peace with God. That does not mean you're at
peace with everybody else. He knew that. He knew he still
had enemies. Therefore, he did what God commanded
him to do. Built a defense. What is our
defense? Put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of
righteousness. Shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. We put on the whole armor of God because we know
we have enemies. And fourthly, we know this, that
as Asa is going to experience trouble, even so are we surrounded
by trouble. Look at this in verse 9. And
there came out against them, Zerah, and the Ethiopian with
a host of 1,000,000." Now, I looked up that. I don't know what number
that is. They didn't have a word for million.
So that's what it is. Million. They had 1,000,000,
a million, and 300 chariots came out to Marisha. And Asa went
out against them, and they set battle in Array, in the valley
of Zephira and Meresha. And Asa cried unto the Lord and
said, Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many
or with them that hath no power. Help us, O Lord God." You see,
Asa, he had peace in his kingdom, but that does not mean he had
peace with the world. And so it is with us, believer.
We have enemies. We have enemies. And you and
I, who are believers in Christ, we are going to experience trouble
in this world. Our Lord made no bones about
this. He said, In this world you shall
have tribulation. Now that's honesty, isn't it?
He was being forthright with us. We shall have tribulation.
Why? Because the world is our enemy. Satan is a real being whose hatred
is very real toward us. We have real enemies. And we are surrounded by them. Just as he was surrounded by
millions, even so are we surrounded by trouble. But consider this.
Who sent them? Who sent them? How is it that
they had peace for all those years before, and all of a sudden,
now, they come out against Him? Who did that? God did that. God sent these troubles. God
allowed these troubles to come upon Asa. God knows our troubles because
He sent them. And listen, your troubles are
never intended to destroy you. They feel. You feel like they're
going to destroy you. I know you do. That's how I feel. Isn't that how Newton felt? He
said, Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death? Doesn't he allow the angry powers
of hell to assault our soul in every part? Yes. But what does he do this for?
so that He should manifest to us and show us His grace and
power. Isn't this what He does with
our troubles? Always. He manifests to us His grace,
His love and power, and all He requires of us is this, humble
yourselves. Do you have trouble? Do you desire
to be delivered from trouble? Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, and He will win in due time." Whenever that is,
in due time, He will exalt you. He will deliver you. That's what
Asa did. He humbled himself. Now, he set
himself in array. He put his soldiers on the front
line. They got all dressed up. But who was going to win the
battle? Asa understood this. He said, if I had one person
or I had a million people, it doesn't matter. Help us. Now, if you want a prayer, there's
a prayer for you. Help me. If you can't think of
anything else, help me. Help me. Help us. That's what Asa cried in. And
what we learn from this is this. If you're a believer in Christ,
if you have peace with God, made by the blood and righteousness
of Christ, if you're acceptable for God in Him, listen, it doesn't
matter how many troubles you have, God is able to deliver
you. He is able to deliver you. Humble
yourself and you will find out that Asa had access to God. That's what we learn by trouble,
isn't it? We have access. being justified by faith, we
have access into this grace wherein we stand. I often think of that picture of
John F. Kennedy at his desk, and there's
John F. Kennedy, Jr. playing under the
desk. And no other person in all the
world could have played under that desk. I don't care how powerful
they were, they could not do it. Only the Son was able. You get that? We can come to
the throne any time. Remember when Esther came and
she was so afraid that the law said she had no right except
he yield the scepter. It was certain death. But when
he saw her, there went the scepter. When Christ sees you coming,
the scepter is yielded. Speak your mind. Speak to your
mind. What will you have of me? And
you know what? Asa had that. He said, Help me.
You know what happened? Look at that. Look what happened.
Verse 12, So the Lord smote the Ethiopians. Now who did that? It does not say that the Lord
gave them the victory. It did not say that they lifted
one sword. It did not say that they did
anything. This has happened many times where God smote them. I believe there was 185,000 Assyrians,
165,000-185,000 Assyrians. The Lord at one time just killed
them all. He smote them. The Lord did this. Are you in trouble? You have
access to God. Cry for help. And then what? Wait. Wait. Wait on the Lord. The Lord smote
them. Asa, like us, has many troubles, but we have
access to God. Now then, the fifth thing, this
is Asa, like us, needed assurance. Even after such a great victory,
he still needed comfort. Isn't this true of us? We sometimes
are given great victories. We're given great faith. We're
given great comfort. Mighty things happen to us in
this life. And I'm thankful for those. They
may be few and far between, but they happen. And I'll tell you,
what Asa received after that was what he needed. He needed
strength. He needed strength. Because we
don't depend on these victories, do we? If we start looking to
these miracles and these victories that God gives us and start depending
on them, we're in trouble. What do we need to continue in
the faith? We need to hear the gospel. We need to hear the message.
And that's what God gave Asa. Look at chapter 15 and verse
1. And the Spirit of the Lord came
to Azariah the son of Obed, and he went out to meet Asa and said
to him, Hear you me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. And what
did he have to say? He said this, The Lord is with
you. Well, didn't he just win a great
battle? Yes. But I'll tell you this, he needed
to hear it. The Lord is with you. While you be with Him, if
you seek Him, He will be found of you. If you forsake Him, He
will forsake you. He needed to be comforted by
the Gospel, so God sent him a messenger. Believers in Christ are so prone
to discouragements, so prone to fear. even because of the
sin that so easily besets us. What is that sin that besets
you so easily? It's unbelief. Unbelief is the
root of every other sin. Unbelief. Therefore, God has
given you pastors after His own heart so that they should feed
you with knowledge and understanding." That's Jeremiah 3 and 15. He
said, I'll give you pastors after my own heart to feed you with
what? Knowledge and understanding.
Knowledge and understanding of what? The gospel of Jesus Christ. We preach Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because this is all our
hope. This is all our standing. This
is all our life. It's Christ. and Him crucified. He is all our salvation. Therefore
God says to me and every preacher, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Why? They need comfort. Especially in prosperity you
need this. I think that's the most dangerous
time. When God gives us victories, it's the most dangerous time.
That's when we need to hear this message the most, not the least.
When your faith is strong and you're high, you seem to be soaring. You know what? You need to hear
this more, not less. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
sayeth the Lord, speak comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her. What shall we cry? War is over. The Lord has smote all your enemies. Satan, death, the world, all
of them were smitten at the cross. All of them were defeated at
the cross. Her warfare is accomplished. It's finished. I have finished
the work that thou gavest me to do. I've accomplished it. And her
iniquity, what about that? It's pardoned. How much of it? All of it. All of it. Pardoned. Pardoned. Completely pardoned. How can
this be? Four. This is how it is. Four. She hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sin. When Christ was made sin for
us, it was a double payment. That's like if you owed a million
dollars and somebody came and paid two. You see, your debt
is paid and you have a million in the bank. See, your debt is paid and you
have the righteousness of God. Double for all your sin. Hear the word of the Lord, the
prophet for you. Here it is. Here's a word for
you. The Lord is with you. How long will He be with you?
So long as you are with Him. Now, at first reading, that sounds
like, you know, He says, well, you forsake God, then God will
forsake you. This we need to understand of
our union with Christ. you realize that if you're a
believer in Christ, you can never be separated from God. Who shall
separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Paul
said, nothing and no one. You see, therefore, you will
never be away from Him. You are always with Him. You
are always in Him. And He is always with you. Will a believer ever forsake
Him? No. Why? He won't forsake you. He won't forsake you. This is
a comfort. He is for you. He is with you.
Therefore, we bless our Father. We bless our Father this morning
who chose us. We bless our Redeemer who saved
us. We bless the Spirit of God who
quickened us and still keeps us in the faith, who has sealed
us. what Paul says in Ephesians chapter
1, you are sealed. The king, he takes his ring and
he heats the wax, he puts his seal on it. No one is allowed
to open that by penalty of death until it is received of the king. No one person can open that.
Listen, you are sealed unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
No one can remove you from him. So we bless our God. May God
give us then the courage of Asa so that we should have peace,
that we should preach this gospel. And notice this about Asa. When
the Lord preached this gospel to him, I want you to see what
happens now in verse 8. And Asa heard these words. He
said, Be strong therefore, in verse 7, let not your hands be
weak, Your work shall be rewarded. When Asa heard these words of
the prophecy of Obed the prophet, he took courage and put away
the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin,
out of the cities which he had taken from Ephraim and renewed
the altar of the Lord. That was before the porch of
the Lord. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, listen, and
the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh and out
of Simeon. For they all went out to Israel
in abundance when they saw that the Lord of God was with him."
Oh, listen. You remember at this time these
nations were divided. You had those northern tribes
that were worshiping in all those false idols, all those false
places. There was only one place that
God said to worship, Jerusalem. Because that's where the tabernacle
was. That's where the Ark of the Covenant was. That was the
presence of God. That's where the blood was shed. And you remember,
all of the northern tribes were forbidden to come by their king.
But what happened? Those tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh
and Simeon, they began to come down and worship God. Listen, as God used Asa to bring
in the strangers and those from the northern tribe, even so,
listen, God will use His elect for this purpose, to call His
people. This is what we're doing this
morning. We're here preaching the gospel, and you who are saved,
I'm here to comfort you. But listen, if you are not, I'm
here to call you. Come. Come, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. What a message! I was reading an article, I believe
it's in the bulletin, but... You know, one thing that we have
trouble finding in this generation is a sinner. We have trouble
finding someone who's lost. Seems like everybody in America
is saved. But you can look in America and find that ain't true.
As a matter of fact, driving here, I noticed that the roads
were empty. Did you notice that? I noticed
that the roads... I could go anywhere and not find
traffic. I couldn't find traffic, I just
looked for it. And yet you find this. America thinks they're
saved. You see, God calls sinners. Now listen, if I can find a sinner,
I've got a message for a sinner. If you find somebody that's helpless
and can't save themselves, I've got a message for that person.
Christ did it. It's done. Come in. Come in. Find it to be true. And that's exactly what happened.
Now, I want you to see this. After this started to happen
and those people started to come in, something happened. Look
at chapter 16 now in verse 1. In the sixth and thirtieth year
of the reign of Asa, Basha, king of Israel, came up against Judah
and built Ramah to the intent that he might let none go out
or come in to Asa, king of Judah. You see what happens when we
call sinners? All of a sudden, somebody puts up a gate. The
road leading into Jerusalem, this man Basha, he saw people
leaving, and he said, ah, and he put up a gate to bar them
from coming. To bar them from coming. And
this sparked a civil war between the nation of Israel and the
nation of Judah. A period of civil war broke out. Now this man Asa again is a picture
of every believer. His heart was perfect all his
days. Yet regarding this civil war,
this is where we're going to find where he failed. In this
matter of the civil war is where Asa failed. And God sets this
man as he is a type, a beautiful type and picture of every believer
in Christ. Yet now he's going to be what
not to be. He's going to show us what not
the failures of this man. And I like that about God and
the Old Testament saints. He paints them warts and all,
doesn't He? He shows us everything about
them. And this is good because this
helps us because we're fallen too. We're not free from sin
either. So this is a warning. Now, therefore,
as Asa was a type of every believer, He is also said to warn us of
the weakness and sinfulness of the old nature that still remains
in every believer. I want to warn you. You are a
believer in Christ. You are saved. The work is accomplished. But God did not eradicate the
old nature that you were born with. Paul tells us of this old
man, he said, the old wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Now, he's talking about his old
nature. His old nature. In Song of Solomon chapter 6
and verse 13, it says, We are as a company of two armies. Every believer has in them two
natures. The nature of Adam that he is
born with, and by the grace and power of God, the nature of Christ. We have the new nature. that
is given to us. Now, in this text, this evil
king, Basha, this man was used of God to destroy the line of
Jeroboam. If you want to read about Jeroboam,
he's the one that separated the two and started causing the people
of the north to worship in temples he had set up. And this was an
abomination to God, and God said, I'm going to eradicate your line.
Now, God used this man, Basha, to end the line of Jeroboam. Now, Jeroboam is the one that
kept them from coming to Jerusalem to worship. But you'll notice
that God, using this man, you'd think that he would learn. You'd
think that, hey, you know what? I just killed this last man's
heir because he separated these people from worshiping God. And
notice, he did exactly the same thing Jeroboam did. He caused
them not to worship in Jerusalem. And this man Bashi hated the
Word of God. And so then there was an ongoing
war between Israel and Judah, between him and this man Asa
all the days of his reign. This was a civil war between
the children of Israel. And we can see this war of Asa
and Basha as a tie for our learning. Even though we are a believer
in Christ and at peace with God, even though the Holy Spirit resides
in us, there is still a warfare, a civil war that is taking place
in every belief. That warfare is with the old
Adamic nature. This morning you are warring
with the old man. Heaven is a place where worship
is constant. There's no interference. Have
you had interference this morning? I'm telling you, I'm preaching
and I've had much interference, okay? What is that? What's causing
the interference? Why are our thoughts not totally
consumed with the blood and righteousness of Christ? It is the old man of sin. We are warring with the old nature.
When we are saved by the grace of God, yes, Christ sets up His
throne. He puts down the old man's rule. Isn't that what He said in Ezekiel
36? He says, a new heart will I give you. I will take out the
stony heart and give you a heart of flesh. That does not mean
that He's going to eradicate the old nature of stone. He's
going to put it down so that it does not rule over you. Paul
said, sin shall not have dominion over you. Now what does that
mean? Does that mean that sin is not going to overcome us or
overwhelm us? That's not what it means. Every
believer knows the experience of that. We have been overwhelmed
by our sin. What it means is this. It cannot
rule you anymore so as to remove your faith and love for Christ. It cannot overrule you like it
once did. Before, you could not believe.
Isn't that right? Why? The flesh rules. But now
then, you do believe because, why? The Spirit rules. And so
you'll never remove the faith and love. Sin will in no way
break our peace with God, especially seeing that this peace was made
outside of ourselves. Remember, your peace with God
was not made by you, it was made by Christ. It was made according
to an eternal covenant. It was not made by you, it was
made outside of you. Then it was revealed to you. It was imparted to you. So then
no matter what we do, we cannot remove that peace. We cannot
disturb that peace with God. That peace is settled forever.
But we are never to be deceived to think that we are free from
sinning. I know that this is laughable
among this congregation to think that. But there are many people
who still believe that once they're saved, they can somehow free
themselves from sinning. Well, I just don't sin like that
no more. That person has deceived themselves. John says this, if we say we
have no sin, what? We deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. If we say we have no sin, we
make God a liar. Now, every believer knows his
sin, that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing. The creation of
this new nature in us did not destroy the old, but as Christ
is enthroned in our heart, the old man is cast down because
there is no change in it. Therefore, there is a continual
warfare. And so what this civil war of Asa and Basha represents
is a civil war within ourselves. Paul says, the flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these
two are contrary, opposed to one another. oil and water. They will never
mix. You got that? This warfare will
never cease as long as you live in this body. We truly believe on Christ. This
is a paradox, isn't it? One man wrote this. What a paradox
I feel. A heart of flesh, a heart of
steel. In love with sin, with sin at
war. Myself, I love myself of war. What a paradox. We believe on
Christ. We are given a new man and we
are given faith. We trust in the Word of God,
yet at the same time, we must confess the truth, I believe. Lord, help thou my unbelief."
Constantly, constantly. Though God has given us faith,
He does not remove this root of unbelief in our life, which
is clearly seen in all the Old Testament saints. Abraham, he
lied because he didn't believe God. He lied to Pharaoh because
he didn't believe God. Moses killed that man in faith,
that Egyptian in faith, and then what? In fear, ran from Pharaoh.
David defeated Goliath, but feared Saul. What a paradox. So now we see Asa, who is a faithful
man, believer in God, yet at civil war, he's at civil war,
and he turns in unbelief from God. Now look at this. In verse 2, he said, Then Asa
brought out silver and gold of the treasure house of the LORD
and the king's house, and brought it to Benadad, king of Syria,
and dwelt in Damascus. And what he's doing here is he's
going to make a league with the king of Assyria. He said, okay,
you go fight against Basha in the north. And while he's distracted,
I'm going to go into Ramah and tear down those walls so the
people can come and worship God. That sounds like a good plan.
Sounds like a very solid plan. Yet, where's God? Before, when He was surrounded
by millions of His enemies, He cried unto God. But now what? In unbelief, he runs to the king
of Syria for help. So he brought out this silver
and gold. Now consider how this was wise according to the flesh.
Now that's a good strategy according to man. And no doubt he was sincere. He wanted those people to worship
God. Let's give him the benefit of
the doubt that that's his goal. His goal was to get those people
to worship God. So I'm sure his motives were
sincere. He truly desired the nation to be unified, to worship
God together, Physically speaking, it worked.
If you read verses 4-6, that's exactly what happened. He went
up to war in the north. Bashar left off the building
of those walls in Ramah. And here comes Asa. He goes into Ramah unopposed.
He takes down the walls and he uses it. He uses it for good. He takes those stones that were
meant for evil and he takes them back and he builds his city and
he uses them for good. Why was this wrong? Why was it wrong? It worked. It seemed like more people were
worshiping God now. The flow of traffic was coming
to Jerusalem. Why did God rebuke him? He did rebuke him. Why was it
wrong? Even because the Lord revealed
this in the prophet in verse 7. He said, And I, the seer,
came to Asa, the king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou
hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy
God. This is the reason for his trouble. Believer in Christ, our warfare
with this old man is continual, and it often causes us unbelief
and fear. And because of this warfare,
we become weary. Isn't that right? Are you not
weary of fighting this old man? Become weary. Because there's
no unity, there's no peace in our flesh. Therefore, we like
Asa are tempted to break the stalemate and pose a peace treaty between the spirit and the flesh. We are tempted to make league,
first of all, we are tempted to make league with unbelievers.
In this temptation, we look at the church. We see the smallness
of the church. We see that there are very few. And the flesh is tempted to make
league with those churches that are full, using their tactics,
using their schemes, to make league with the church
of false believers. To make allies with those who
are truly against the Word of God. I thought of this illustration,
abortion. What believer does not hate abortion?
It's murder, isn't it? Yet how many believers make league
with the Catholic Church, who's the biggest anti-abortion league
there is? Is that not trying to make league
so that we can accomplish something good? That ends justify the means?
No. If you're really against abortion,
what should we do? Cry unto God. Plead for mercy. Not make league
with our enemies. Paul said, look, this warfare
we have is not flesh and blood. It's with principalities and
powers and rulers of darkness. We are not to use carnal means
to try to influence people to worship God. We're not to use
the means of entertainment, movies and parties, food, in order to
appeal to someone's flesh to bring them to church. What is
that doing but making league with the king of Syria? It's
trying to satisfy that flesh that you feel. It's all it is,
is flesh. We want more people. What? Flesh. You know what? If God wants more people, guess
what? There'll be more people. Isn't that right? You bet. Listen to this text. I believe it's Acts chapter 13. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, what? Believed. We don't need to make
league with anyone. And you're only making league
in order to do what? Satisfy your flesh. Calm that
civil war that's taking place in you. Instead of trusting God,
you're trying to make things happen. Nope. Preach the gospel. Preach the Word. Be instant,
in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering.
Preach Christ, only Christ. And you know what? God will add
to the church daily such as should be saved. We don't make league. Second of all, believers, let
us not compromise or make league with our lusts. Isn't this a temptation? The battle with the flesh is
long, and we are tempted to allow ourselves little pleasures. Well, I deserve it. You know,
I've been so faithful for so long. I've been preaching this
gospel for so long. Look at what I've accomplished.
Isn't that what David did? He looked on top of that hill
and he said, look at all this kingdom I've accomplished. Surely, I
can indulge myself just a little. I can't believe God won't give
me this. What is that but flesh? I deserve a break today. I'm entitled to a little fox's
fold of iron. Have you not found that to be so? Do not
give in to the temptation. Listen, sin will take you farther
than you want to go. Sin will keep you longer than
you want to stay. Sin will cost you more than you
want to pay. Believer, do not be deceived. There is no break from this war.
There is no break. If there's a break, something's
wrong with you. Sin is like water poured out.
It can never return to satisfy your thirst. Man, I'm thirsty. Pour it on the ground. That's
what sin does. Sin has a thirst. It never satisfies. Don't make
league with it. Thirdly, consider the cries of
our kin. Don't make league with your kin. Jesus said, I came not to bring
peace, but what? A sword. To set at variance a
man, those in his own house shall be his foes. I believe that's
Matthew chapter 10, verse 34 through 39. Have you not found
that to be so? Who are your worst enemies? They
have your own household. Who are trying to pull you away
from the gospel the most? Those you love the most. Don't
make league with them. Why are you making league with
them? To satisfy your flesh. To calm your civil war. No, there's
always going to be a division. The gospel always makes a division. Do not compromise. When Jesus says, that's not my
will, then we should hear Him. We should believe Him. We should
trust Him. What is this compromise? So as
to bring peace either to our own fleshly lust or kin, or to
make peace at home. Friends, this robs God of His
glory that is due Him. It robs you of your assurance
and peace and joy. Believer, let us by the power
of the Holy Spirit then take courage and cry unto our God
and not compromise with our flesh. Now this man Asa in the end,
the Scripture says this, let me see, verse 10, look what
Asa did. When he was rebuked, and this
morning you may feel rebuked, and this is a warning, listen
how Asa replied to this. Then Asa was wroth with the seer. and put him in prison. For he was in a rage with him
because of this thing. And Asa opposed some of the people
at the same time. And behold, the acts of Asa are
first and last. Lo, they are written in the book
of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Asa in the thirty and ninth
year of his reign was diseased in his feet until his disease
was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought
not the Lord. Can you imagine that? All of
the victory and success and all the things God gave him at the
beginning of his reign, and now here he is at the end because
God rebuked him of his sin of not crying unto God. Guess what?
He still wouldn't. You know what God did? He killed
him. Killed him. Listen to me, this
was a man whose heart was right with God all the days of his
life. This was a man who was a believer
in Christ. He's not alone. What about Lot? How many times did God deliver
Lot? And Lot went right back. All right, who wants to be Lot?
Anybody? What kind of testimony did Lot
leave? He left a testimony of what not to do. Is that the testimony
we want to leave? No. God keep us from compromising
in this civil war. What's the remedy? Crying to
God. Didn't that get him the victory
the first time? Do you suppose it would have got him the victory
the second time? I pray God would keep us from
this. Humble us before Him in this warfare. Recognize it's
not going away, and there is no peace to be made. We must
fight. But our strength doesn't come
from ourselves. It comes from this gospel. What's
the gospel? It's finished. Salvation accomplished. And it is the love of Christ,
remember, that constraineth us from sin. Not your love for Christ,
but His love for you. I pray God will bless us. Our
gracious Father, bless this message to our hearts. I pray you will.