2nd Chronicles chapter 16. And the title of the message
this evening, A Civil War and a Warning. A Civil War and a
Warning. Now we've been studying this
man in 2nd Chronicles now for the last few messages, this man
Asa. This man Asa was a king and we
have seen through the scripture that this man is an eminent type,
an eminent type of every believer in Jesus Christ. This man Asa
He is a man that every Christian, I believe, can identify with.
So far as I've been studying with this man, I can identify
with everything the Holy Spirit says about him. I can identify
and so can you. We can identify with him so easily
because this salvation, listen, it is a common salvation. It's a common salvation. That's
what Jude calls it. He said, I had taken to write
unto you of the common salvation. What this means is that every
person that is saved is saved in the same way. That's what
it means. You and I are saved just the way Asa and Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all of the Old Testament patriarchs
were saved. This is because there's only
one salvation for sinners. There's not many ways to glory.
There's only one. There's only one because there's
only one Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only Savior,
the Son of God. Now, the Scripture tells us,
as we've seen, I'm going to recap for you. If you go back to chapter
14, you read that this man was good and right in the eyes of
God, the same way that you and I are made right in the eyes
of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. Ace's
experience of casting down, in verse 3 of chapter 14, he cast
down the idols. This is the experience of every
believer in Christ. We gladly cast off every imagination
that we had of God. Every false and vain imagination
that we once had of God, we desire to rid ourselves of such thoughts. And so as Asa got rid of these
old gods, so do we. And as Asa was given peace in
his kingdom, even so we are given peace in our hearts. We are given
a new nature, and this nature is at peace with God. We are
at peace with God by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we read of Asa's trouble in Chapter 14 and let me see, verse 9, the Ethiopians
who came in and tried to destroy Asa and what did his troubles
do? It caused him to cry out to God. Is that not our experience? We
who are believers, we in trouble, this is the natural affection
of our hearts, is to cry, Abba, Father. This is what we desire
to do in every trouble, is cry out to God. And you know, God
delivered Asa, and God delivers us. This is His promise to you. I will deliver them out of every
Trouble. Our God is a very present help. Man, you need help? You need
help? Are you in trouble? Is the world
closing in and surrounding you? Well, cry out to your God and
He will deliver you just as He did this man. And that's what
happened in verse 12 of chapter 14. It said, The Lord smote the
Ethiopians. Smote them and drove them away. And now, consider what God does
for Asa in chapter 15 is what He does for every believer. He
sends a man to preach. Asa was given a prophet. A prophet
came to him after such great victory. And you know what he
did? He encouraged Asa. Well, that's what preachers are
sent for. God sends His men. to declare
his gospel to you. Who of us does not need to be
reminded? We, these minds and hearts are
like broken cisterns. They just leak. They leak, and
we cannot retain these things. I was talking to a woman who
was having trouble. She was reading the Scriptures.
Now, she's away from the Gospel. She's not near a preacher of
the Gospel. And she was troubled. She was
trying to read and study, and she says, these things just leak
out, and I can't retain them. I said, well, that's what preachers
are for. That's why you should be under the sound of the Gospel,
to be reminded of these things. It's safe. Where you are is the
safest place you could possibly be, under the sound of the gospel. This is where we need to be.
And what is the word that He gives Asa? He said, the Lord
is with you. What a message He gives to His
people. He said, I'm with you. But I
don't feel He's... That doesn't matter. He's with
you. He's with you. And the reason
we don't feel is it not just unbelief, If we don't feel His
presence, is that not just our fault? That's not His fault.
He's ever faithful. He's never left us. He will never
leave us or forsake us. So He sends this message to us,
and He says, I give unto you pastors after My own heart. And what does He tell preachers?
Does He tell us to whip you? Is that our job? No. Our job
is to speak comfortably to you. He said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. Listen, speak comfortably unto
them. And what are we supposed to do?
What is this comforting message? He said, you tell them their
warfare is accomplished. Their struggle is over. They
have received double for all their sins. Those sins you could
not pay one of, Christ paid double for all of them. They're gone.
Your sins are gone and therefore God can pardon you. God has forgiven
you of all your sins. What a comfort. What wisdom and
knowledge that is too high for me. Christ was made sin and paid
double for my sins. Paid double. Therefore, hear
the word of the prophet, the Lord is with you and take courage.
And that's what this man Asa did. Listen, he in verse eight,
it said, when Asa heard these words of the prophet Obed, he
took courage. Things cause your knees to shake.
I tell you if we're not in trouble now, Just wait. Just wait. Trouble comes. And when it does, it causes us
to fear. And we need strength. We need
courage. Where is this coming from? It
comes from the Word of God. It comes from, Thus saith the
Lord. Thus saith the Lord. I'm with you. Don't forsake me. Don't forsake to believe on me. That's what God says. And you'll
have assurance of this. And that's what Asa had. He had
assurance. May we, like Asa, set then our hearts, set Christ
to have all the preeminence. That's what Asa did. It said that Asa established, renewed
the altar of the Lord. Verse 80, renewed the altar of
the Lord. In other words, he established
the worship of God again. Well, that's what we should do
when God gives us such courage. Isn't that what we desire? That
Christ have the preeminence? And now then, go to your text. There's many other things here. First of all, look at verse 17
of chapter 15. Sorry. Look at verse 17. Listen what
the Holy Spirit said about this man Asa. He said, Nevertheless,
the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. And that's what
God says about you who believe. Do you realize that? That your
heart is perfect toward God all your days. All your days. Why? Because that heart that
you have now was created of God It's sustained of God. It's covered
in the righteousness of Christ. And the sins of our old nature
have been forever blotted out. But notice this. In chapter 16,
we read of a struggle here. It says, In the sixth and thirtieth
year of the reign of Beushah, king of Israel, came out against
Judah and built Ramah, to the intent that he might not let,
that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. Now what this is, is this is
a civil war. Remember I had said that the
nations of Israel and Judah were divided into two different kingdoms. And sin was the result of that,
was the cause of that. There was a civil war taking
place between Asa and this king, Bausha. If you'll go back to
1 Kings, flip over to 1 Kings and you can see what the scripture
says about this civil war. 1 Kings chapter 15. Above this, above verse 16, it
talks about the same thing that it talks about in 2 Chronicles.
It talks about Asa and how he did right before the eyes of
God. But look at this in verse 16.
And there was war between Asa and Beusha king of Israel, listen,
all their day. Now, back in our text, in 2 Chronicles,
it says that Asa had peace in Judah. He had peace in Judah
from all other adversaries, from the Ethiopians, from the Egyptians,
from the Philistines, from all those other people. Asa had peace. But there was conflict. There
was conflict between these two nations. And listen, they were
brothers. These nations were kin to one
another. They were all children of Jacob. And now this period of this man
Asa's life, we can see that there was peace within Judah, but on
the outskirts there was war. There was war, and it was civil
war. Now, this man we saw is saved
by the grace of God, saved by the Holy Spirit testifying that
his heart was pure before God all the days of his life. But
I want you to see that God is going to show us this man Asa
was just as prone to sin as every one of us. This man Asa was just
as prone to sin as every one of us. Therefore, as Asa was
a type of believer, he is also set as a warning to show us the
weakness and sinfulness of our old nature that still remains. Now, in our text, the Scripture
tells us this evil king named Beushah He was at war. He built a city named Ramah. Now get the picture. I want you
to understand what's happening here. When God blessed Asa, He
took over some of Israel. He took over Ephraim. And what
ended up happening is they saw that the Lord was with him. And
so those people from the north were defecting. They were coming
toward the south. And the king of Israel saw what
was happening. And what did he do? He put up
a blockade. That's what he did. He found
the highest road on the way from Ephraim to Jerusalem, and He
set up a wall. This word rema means high place. He set up a high wall to keep
His people from going to Jerusalem. Now this man, Beusha, he was
one, he was a wicked man. But I'll tell you, he was one
used of God to destroy Jeroboam. Remember, Jeroboam is the one
that started this. He's the one that God gave the
aid to the northern kingdoms, but he rebelled against God.
And so God did away with Jeroboam's line, and he used this man, Beusha,
to do it. And this man hated Asa. And the Word of God revealed
that there was an ongoing conflict with these men all the days of
their life. Matter of fact, after this man
Bausha dies, his next successor still is warring with Asa. And
he dies, and his next successor is warring with Asa. So there
is a continual warfare that is going on here. And this civil war, what is this
showing us? What is this telling us? I'm
not trying to just give you a history lesson. That wouldn't do you
any good. What is this the Spirit of God
telling us here? He's telling us that every believer
has a civil war going on inside of themselves. Every believer
in Christ is at war within their own heart. This civil war is
a picture, it is a type for our learning. Every believer in Christ,
listen, you are at peace with God. You are at peace with God
and the Spirit of God lives in you. It lives inside of your
body. This mortal frame, this dust,
the Holy Spirit takes residence inside of us and we are a new
creature. We're made new. But it also, the scripture tells
us, that the old Adamic nature was not destroyed. When God came up and set up His
throne in your heart, He did not destroy the old nature. I'm very thankful that the Lord
did set up His throne in my heart. Isn't that wasn't his promise
in Ezekiel? He said, I will take out that
stony heart, that heart, that old nature, and I will give you
a new heart. of flesh. What does that mean?
A heart that feels. A heart that longs. A stony heart
doesn't have any affection toward God. That's the old nature. And what does He do? He takes
that out of its place and in its place He puts a new nature
that loves God. That believes on Christ. And
He sets up His throne in our heart. And so then the old man
of sin is put down and Christ is enthroned even because the
law is satisfied. Because we are not under the
law but under grace. Listen what Paul said in Romans
6. He said that sin shall not have
dominion over you. Sin, the old nature shall not
rule anymore, shall not have dominion. I want you to take comfort in
this. I know you struggle with your flesh, but I want you to
take comfort in this. There is no sin of your old nature
that will destroy your peace with God. Is that good news? That's just so. Why is that? Because your old nature had nothing
to do with making peace with God. You see, peace was made
in an eternal covenant. An eternal covenant that God
made for us with Himself. And the blood of Christ has made
peace with God for us. So what did we have to do with
this peace? Nothing. We had nothing to do with it.
And therefore we cannot defile the treaty we had nothing to
do with. Your old nature can't have anything to say against
that. Your peace with God is settled.
Done. You have peace. You have peace
with God. But that's not to say you have
peace with yourself. Asa had peace in Judah, but Asa
did not have peace with his brethren. And I'll tell you, you and I
will never, ever, ever, as long as we live in this body, have
peace with our flesh. Ever. And if you do, something's
wrong. If you have made a, and this
is what we're going to see about Asa is that he's going to make
a covenant. And that's what sometimes believers do is we make covenants
to do away with this warfare. But nothing we do in the old
nature will do away with our peace. We will never be delivered fully
from this civil war until we are Dead. Until you breathe your
last. And then you'll be finished with
this. John says this, if any man say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves. He say, you say you don't have
any more sin, you are deceiving yourself. If any man say that
he has no sin, he makes God a liar. Every believer knows his sin
nature. That in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's rudiment, isn't it? That's
common understanding for every believer. We know that. We know
that which is born of flesh is flesh. The creation of the new
nature did not destroy the old, but as Christ is enthroned in
the heart, the old man is cast down and no longer in charge. And yet we are still, He is still
continually assaulting us. The old man is still, as you
sit there, listen, I know this, you're fighting yourself. I know,
I sit there, I understand what it is. I know what it is to fight
the flesh. I like this poem. It says, what
a paradox I feel. A heart of flesh and a heart
of steel. In love with sin, with sin at
war. Myself I love, myself I abhor. Is that not you? Is that not
exactly our experience? Yes, it is. Paul said, the flesh
lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
And listen, never will the two meet in peace. So if you're desiring
that, if you're waiting for that to happen, you are fooling yourself. It will never happen in this
life, and if it does, it's because you've given in to it. If there's
peace between you and your flesh, it's because you're gonna do
what Asa did, compromise, compromise. So then we are in a constant
struggle, always in opposition. The natures are against each
other. Therefore we cry, I believe, Lord help my unbelief. We truly believe in Jesus Christ. We in the new man are given faith
and we trust the word of God and yet at the same time and
in the same breath confess our own unbelief. Though God gives us faith, He
does not remove in this life the root of unbelief, which is
clearly seen in all the Old Testament characters, the Old Testament
saints, as well as ourselves. Abraham, what did he do when
there was a famine? Now, Abraham's the father of
the faith, isn't he? That's what the Scripture tells us. And yet,
what did Abraham do? He trusted in Egypt. What did
Moses do? He, in faith, killed that Egyptian
and then ran like a coward. David defeated Goliath with one
stone and ran from Saul until Saul died. Now we see Asa, who
is a faithful man of God, believer in God, and yet In this civil
war, he turned in unbelief. He trusted not in the power of
God, but in his own power to win this war by himself. Notice,
he said this, they built that city, and he stopped the flow
of people coming in. Now, verse 2, brought out silver
and gold out of the treasure house of the Lord and of the
king's house, and sent it to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, that
dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee,
as there is a league between my father and thy father. Behold,
I have sent thee silver and gold. Go, break thy league with Beusha,
king of Israel, that he may depart from me. And Ben-Hadad hearkened
unto the king Asa, and sent his captains of his armies against
the cities of Israel, and Smote, Ijon, and Dan, and these in Naphtali. And it came to pass, when Beosha
heard it, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease. Then Asa the king took all Judah,
and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timber thereof,
wherewith Bausha was building. And he built therewith Giba and
Mishpah. Now, what happened? Okay, he
said, well, he stopped these people from coming to worship
God. So I'm going to do this. I'm
going to get the king of Syria to go up there and battle him.
And while he's meddling with him up there, I'm gonna go in
and take that thing away. Take that city of Ramah away. I'll tell you this. His motives,
I believe, were sincere. This man was trying to stop people
from coming to worship God. Isn't that what the flesh tries
to do to you? Doesn't he try to stop you from worshiping God?
So he had a good motive for this. He said, I know what I'm going
to do. I'm going to cause a distraction. And then these people will be
able to come and worship God. But in order to do this, he had
to compromise with another evil king. Now, this seems good. This seemed like a good idea. As a matter of fact, it worked.
It worked. But believer, is this not always
the case in temptation with us? The flesh often tries to stop
us. He often tries to get us to quit
believing in God. And I'm sure we may have sincere
motives as to try to figure out how to do away with this flesh.
But listen, the only way to do away with this flesh is faith
in Christ. You can scheme all you want to,
but that's not going to stop this warfare. Like I said, I'm sure his motives
were sincere and he desired unity of the nations, but And though,
even though it worked, and it did work, why was it wrong? Well, look at what the prophet
said. The prophet comes and tells him, he says this, At that time
Hanani the seer, the prophet, came to Asa king of Judah and
said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and
not relied on the Lord thy God. Therefore the host of the king
of a series escaped out of your hand believers in Christ our
warfare with the old man is continual perpetual and Because he causes
the clouds of unbelief to darken the rays of God's face because
of the constant warfare Because it's unrelenting I'll tell you
sometimes we get tired of fighting Not right. Don't you get tired
of fighting the flesh? I tell you, sometimes this warfare
is exhausting. And we, like Asa, are tempted
to break the stalemate. And how can we break the stalemate? But by compromising, by scheming
as to how to please both God and the flesh. First of all,
we are tempted to make leagues. Isn't that what he did? He made
a league. He said, now you got a league with this guy over here,
but you make a league with me. Sometimes we are tempted because
of our smallness. Isn't it a temptation of our
flesh to try something different? Isn't it? It's a temptation to
make a league with unbelievers, with those who worship the false
gods of free will, works, religion. Paul says, surely our warfare
is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers
and rulers of darkness. Therefore, believer, our warfare,
because it's spiritual, cannot be fought with carnal things. What happened to them? What would happen if we were
to use earthly weapons to fight a spiritual warfare? I'll tell
you what happened. Look at the church today. That's
what happened. They've tried to use physical
means to draw men into the worship services. And how'd that work
out? It's only brought the world into the church. It's only infused
the flesh and spiritual things. It grew worse. I tell you, our
flesh grows weary in our mission. What is our mission? What is
your mission as a church? Is it not to preach the gospel?
And yet, while we are preaching, we are preaching the gospel,
we are supporting the ministry, the work of the gospel, and yet,
what do we see? We see very little of what happens,
and we grow weary in this. And our flesh is tempted to do
something else. No. No, we must trust God. We must believe God's means. What is the means of God's salvation? It is through the preaching of
the gospel. This is the only means God has
chosen. And we should not create diversions. That's what He did with this
man, Abinadad. He created a diversion. He's tempted to meddle. I'll
tell you, we're tempted to meddle, aren't we? We should preach the gospel and
leave it alone. Preach the gospel. We're not
to trick men into worship and enticing the flesh to worship
God by parties or movies or music or food or dancing or fun. That's not what we're here for.
We're here to preach the gospel. And you know what? The natural
man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he. He's
spiritually discerned. So why are there not many? Because
the natural man receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness
to him. The flesh says... The flesh begins to debate. Why
must we argue about doctrine? Why can't we all just get along?
Have you heard that? No, we can't. No, we can't. Paul said, if any man preach
any other gospel than that I preach, you let him go to hell. Leave
him alone. Let him go to hell. Let him be accursed. Believer,
to compromise with false religion will surely give rest to the
flesh, but it will surely bring ruin to the church. And second of all, believers,
let us not compromise or make leagues with the lusts of our
flesh or the kin of our flesh. In James
4, he said, friendship with the world is hatred, enmity against
God. Because of the battle of the
flesh is long, we are tempted to allow ourselves certain pleasures. Isn't that right? When you struggle
with the flesh, isn't that what you're tempted to do? Well, I
deserve a break today. I deserve this. I need a break. And I just need to get away by
myself and just... How many of us... Guilty. Guilty. My flesh cries all the
time, but you know what the scripture says I deserve? Hell. But God, who is rich in mercy. Well, I'm saved by grace, preacher. I'm not under the law. I surely
can give a little break to my flesh. Well, you know I've been faithful
for so long. Nobody else in this church is
faithful but me. I've just been so faithful, oh
man, look at them, they've all gone away. I deserve a rest from
this struggle. You know, in the Old Testament,
I want you to look this up for yourself. You know who the ones
who have the worst sin are the older saints. You know why? They're tired. They're tired of the struggle. And what do they do? They give
in to their families. They give in to their children. They give in to the world because
they're tired of fighting. You know what the problem is?
Not that you're tired of fighting. The fact is, you didn't trust
God to fight for you. That's a problem. This is the
problem Asa had. He was battling so long with
this country that he did not trust God to deliver him. He trusted his own flesh. And if you lean on the arm of
flesh, you will fall on your face. This is the warning. This is the warning. Don't trust
the flesh. Don't listen to its cries. Sin
is so deceptive and one sin will never satisfy. Have you known
that to be true? Your flesh says, just give me
this one thing. And then what does he want? Another
thing and another thing and another. He's never satisfied. So you
giving in to him will not satisfy him ever. Listen, sin will take
you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you
want to stay, and cost you more than you're willing to pay. That's just so. Believer, we
do not deserve a break from this war. We should trust God for the victory. Thirdly, consider the cries of
our kin and children, which are pictured by this king.
You know, Jesus said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword. Isn't that what happened when
the gospel came into your heart? Did it not make a division, not
only among yourself, but also among your kin? It brings division. He said,
I came to set a man at variance against those of his own household. You see, Christ did this on purpose. This is not an accident you're
in this civil war. This is on purpose. It's His
purpose. It's His purpose you're in this
warfare. The gospel of Christ creates
a division in our own souls and among our own kin. Our children,
our natural family is on the side of our flesh and what do
they do? They try to draw us away from
Christ. That's what they do. They're
in league with your flesh. We are tempted to compromise
faith in Christ in order to make peace in our homes. Who's not
done that? Which one of us have not been
guilty of that? By trying to make peace in our homes, we have
neglected faith in Christ. We've tried to scheme and work
our way into our family, into our home and among our kin. Let
me just sneak this in here. You're not going to sneak anything
anywhere. If God's going to do it, he's going to do it, and
he's going to do it openly with or without you. He doesn't need
us. I tell you, I have seen elders
in the church, faithful men of God, who have in their elder years
given in to their children, their wives, their husbands, and left
the gospel. And these are men I never would
have suspected. And what is this but compromise? so as to bring peace either in our
family, in fleshly love for our kin, to make peace in our home. This, my friend, robs God. That's what compromise does.
Where did he get the gold to pay this king? He took it from
God's house. And when we compromise, listen,
we are robbing God of his glory. That's just all there is to it.
We're robbing God. And you know what? He took from
his own house too, the king's house. You know what you're doing
to yourself? You're robbing yourself of joy, peace, assurance, peace. You're robbing yourself of these
things. All because you refuse to believe
God and scheme on your own. Oh, please God, help, help me
not to scheme. Help me and give me such strength
to believe God, no matter what. And not believe God just in this
moment, but every day of my life. Yes, believer, we are weak. Yes,
this struggle is long. But listen, God's strength is
inexhaustible. Your strength is minute and temporary. That's why God doesn't want you
to rely on it. Listen what he tells Asa. Look
at your text. He says this in verse 9. For
the Lord, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout
the whole earth. Listen, your God sees your struggle. He knows your struggle. And listen
why he gives you your struggle. To show himself strong in the
behalf of those whose heart is perfect. Now Asa's heart was
perfect before God. And God was willing to show himself
strong. But Asa refused to believe. Asa hardened his heart and compromised. When this message of rebuke comes
to our hearts, how does it make you feel? I know when people come to me
and rebuke me, the first feeling I get always of the flesh is
anger. How dare you? How dare you? And that's exactly what Asa did.
Look, he said, And Asa was wroth with the seer. How dare you bring
such accusations as though I don't trust God? How dare you say such
things to me, such words of rebuke? And you know what? I told you
Asa's a believer. Can it happen to us? Yeah. You know who he's mad at? Messenger. You know, when these things come
to a man's heart, they they can't get at the one who gives the
message. They just get the messenger. I've had men get mad at me. But
sadly, it's not me they're mad at. It's God. Can a believer be angry with
God? Yeah, he can. And this man, the
rest of his days were spent in pain and suffering. Look at this and I'll close. In verse 12, and Asa in the thirty
and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet until his
disease was exceeding great. And notice this. I marvel at
this. Yet, in his disease he sought
not the Lord. Can you name any others in the
Old Testament that fit this bill? Lot. Is he not one? Samson. who was hardened in his
own lusts. It's as though the scripture
is telling us that God would have healed him if he would have
but asked. Yet even in this compromise, Asa was still perfect in the
eyes of God. Is that not merciful? Is that
not show and display the great mercy of God that even this man
who was wroth with his maker was still accepted in the beloved? This never encourages believers
to follow after these men. You should be warned because
their lives ended in great misery. May God keep us from such compromises. And what's the remedy? Faith. That's the remedy for unbelief. It's the remedy for all compromise.
Believe God. Trust Christ. And lean not to
your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
him and he shall direct your paths. What an example of a believer
this man has been for us. We should learn from him. May God even teach us by his
spirit. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.