2 Chronicles chapter 14. And the title of the message is,
The Courage of Asa. The courage. We read in verse 8, When Asa
heard these words of the prophecy of Obed the prophet, he took
courage. Courage. Now, as we've seen in
our study about this man Asa, this king of Judah, we have seen
that he is an eminent type and picture of every believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the previous chapter, we've
read this and been through this on Wednesday evening. The Scripture
says in verse 2 of chapter 14 that this man Asa did good and
right in the eyes of God. And we know this, that only a
man can do good and right in the eyes of God is through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only way a sinner
is made righteous. The only way that God can look
upon a sinner and be accepting of a sinner is that the righteousness
of Christ be imputed charged to our account and imparted by
the principle, the new life of grace, the new birth. And Jesus,
we know this, that who are believers in Christ, we know Jesus is all
our righteousness. For he by his own faith and obedience
obtained righteousness. And it is this righteousness
of God that is given to every believer. Second, we saw that
Asa was a picture of believers in what he did. In verse 3, he
took away the altars of the strange gods and cut those down, those
groves down, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, God of their
fathers, and to do the law and commandments. And even so it
is with every true believer who has life and faith in Christ.
We gladly cut down our false gods. We gladly do away with
all our thoughts and vain imaginations of God we had before. Everything
we thought of God before, when it comes to the Word of God,
if it counters the Word of God, we gladly cut it down. And we don't want anything to
do with it. And thirdly, we saw that Asa
had peace. And verse 5, he took away the
high places and the kingdom was quiet before him. This is a picture
of every believer in Christ. We have peace with God. You who
are believers in Christ, God is not angry with you. That's
amazing. It's outstanding. Because everything
in me, everything of my conscience tells me God is angry. The Scripture
says He's angry with the wicked every day, and I know myself
to be a sinner. But yet God is not angry because
all of His anger was poured out on Christ, and Christ satisfied
that justice. He satisfied the wrath of God
in our stead, and He has made peace with God. And not only
did Asa have peace, but he also Built, fenced cities. What is
this a picture of? Every believer grows in the grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer. Listen,
you're not growing, it's because you're not living. Every believer
grows. And I'll tell you, we grow not
because we're determined to grow, but God grows us, doesn't he?
It's by the grace of God we grow. I don't know how many times I've
determined to know something. I sought it, and I read it, and
I studied it, and I put everything I had into it. You know what?
I couldn't do anything. I couldn't learn it. I couldn't get it.
I didn't know it. But all of a sudden, someone
preached the gospel to me again, and it came on. How is that? It's because God taught me. They
shall all be taught of who? God. God teaches us, and we grow
in the grace and knowledge of Christ. But how shall we grow in these
graces? How is it that Asa, what did he experience in his life
when he had peace with God, righteous before God? He was growing that
city of Jerusalem, even so we grow. Now then, look what happens,
he gets into trouble. Trouble comes. This is how every
believer grows in the grace and knowledge of God, through trouble. Through trouble. I like this,
in Romans, I'm not trying to stay here, I want to continue
on, so I'm moving kind of fast just to recap what we went over,
but in Romans chapter five, the apostle says this, therefore
being justified by faith. Now that's not our faith, that
is the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. We are justified by the
object of our faith and the evidence of our justification is our faith. Now, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory
of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations. I think that should be a question
mark sometimes we read that. In tribulations, really? Yeah,
we glory in tribulations. knowing that tribulation worketh
patience. And patience, experience. Experience,
hope, confidence. Do you want confidence? Do you
want to be encouraged? Do you want to be strengthened? And yet comes by patience. And
patience only comes by trouble. And this confidence, what does
it do? It makes us not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the glorious
gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you? Because I tell you this,
I have experienced it. Have you experienced the gospel?
How many people know the gospel in their head, but have never
experienced it in their heart? I've experienced it. I know what
it is. And I believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He, through this trouble, growth always comes
by trouble. And Asa had trouble when these
Ethiopians, you read that in verse 9, this man of Ethiopia
came out with a million people against him. He came out with
a million people. And what did Asa do? When he
was in trouble, he cried. What do believers do in trouble? We cry unto our God and we say,
God, God, this trouble is nothing with you. You should approach
every trouble that way. Whatever trouble you have, it
is nothing with God. When the disciples were toiling
and rowing, what was their trouble? was a storm, was the waves. The scripture says the waves
were contrary against them. And so they kept rowing and went
nowhere. But what did our Lord do? He
walked on the thing that was causing them the most trouble.
What does he do with our troubles? He comes walking on our troubles.
And he said, what's your problem? This is nothing with me. You
should recognize that, that your trouble is nothing with God.
And know this, this man also recognized God's sovereignty.
He said, it is nothing with you to help, whether with many or
with them that have no power. Do you see this? God, whatever
you decide to do, you have a right to do. Whether you want to let
the many win, or would you let us, who have no power, win? I don't know what you're going
to do. Do you not see this brings us
to the end of ourselves? You don't know what's next. You
don't know what's next. God knows, and what should we
do? We should recognize His sovereignty
and leave it in His hands to show us mercy. He said, I don't know what you're
going to do, but help me. Help us. Because we trust in
you. We rest in you regardless of
what you want to do. regardless of what you'll do
with us. This is an imminent picture of every believer in
Jesus Christ, is it not? He's made righteous by the grace
of God, by the righteousness of Christ, made peace by the
blood of Christ's cross. We grow in the grace and knowledge
of Jesus Christ. We grow by trouble, and in our
trouble, we cry unto God. And you know what happened? God
gave him the victory. He wins. He wins. And so, verse
12, the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa. And that's what God
does with all of our troubles. He smites them. He brings them
to nothing. And now then we read of this.
Here's Asa. Now, get the picture. He's just
won a major victory over the largest army he'd ever seen that
anybody had ever seen, a million people coming at him. The Lord
gave him the victory and he comes back and what does he find? Asa coming home from this victory. He's met with a prophet. He's
met with a prophet. This man, Azariah, the son of
Obed. Now, the Lord manifest, his arm
was strong, and Asa's victory. Now, believer, how many times
as a believer in Christ have we been surrounded by trouble
and the Lord delivered us? Is that not your experience?
That's my experience. That's not just something that
Asa experienced. That's something that every believer
has an experience. I've got some experience in this.
I've been in trouble. And the Lord delivered me out
of my trouble. How many times have we been surrounded
and threatened to be undone? And yet every time we have asked
of God, he was faithful. Every time he has been faithful. Therefore we sing, great is my
faithfulness. No. Great is thy faithfulness. That's what this causes us to
sing. Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, He has given us, we are
delivered out of every trouble because of Christ has given us
the victory. He's given us the victory. And
we have not seen, we have not seen the greatness of our Lord
Jesus Christ Have we not seen by the greatness of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has by His one offering forever destroyed
our sins and clothed us in His righteousness? Have you not experienced
that victory? I have. I've experienced that.
He's given that to me. His forgiveness is given to me. His blood has accomplished all
my righteousness, all my sanctification, all my redemption, so that there
is nothing left for me to do in this battle for my salvation. It's done. It's finished. Well, how does God remind us
of this victory? How does He remind us? He always
sends us a preacher. Isn't that the way He reminds
us? He sends a man to preach. Now, surely Asa experienced this
victory, but what is the prophet going to tell him? He's going
to tell him about this victory. He's going to tell him that this
was God's victory and that you should continue that he should
continue and take courage in the victory God gave him. He
gives him some encouraging words. Look at this. Look at the first
word he gives him. And he went out to meet Asa and
said unto him, Hear me, Asa and all of Judah. This is a good
word. The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. The Lord
is with you. Now, this most clearly is seen
after troubles, isn't it? In troubles, it's most difficult
to see. When I say, the Lord is with
you in your troubles, a lot of times we don't even hear that.
We're so centered around our troubles that we neglect to hear
the truth of that. But when God manifests that,
He delivers us out, what is it that we desire to hear most?
The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. Oh yes,
that's how I got out of that. The Lord was with me. Of course. Of course, the Lord was with
me. Believer, look back now. Look at the battlefield of the
cross and behold the captain of your salvation has smitten
all your sins that troubled you. Behold His empty tomb and see
that there is not one sin remains. Not one. Not one sin remains. Look back at His Word. that declares
that He is risen from the dead. Look now at your own experience
of grace. At the only evidence of your
election, redemption, and calling. Even your faith. Oh, faith is
not a small thing. It is a miracle that you believe
it all. Faith is a gift of God's grace. For by grace you are saved through
faith. And that, not of yourself, it,
faith, is a gift of God, not of works. Why is that? Because you would brag in it.
If it was your faith that you could muster, you surely would
say, ah, look at me, I believed. Look at my faith. I always enjoy
this illustration. Faith is the channel through
which grace flows, kind of like a pipe. You would have a pipe,
and the water would flow through the pipe. Now, if you didn't
have the pipe, it wouldn't flow to anywhere. But the pipe contains
the water supply. I remember reading about these
Africans. They'd come over, and the first
time they'd ever seen a water faucet. They went to Paris, and
they saw this water faucet, and they just turned it on, and there
was water. Oh, my. They were just amazed
at this, and they studied it, and they looked. They go, where
is this water coming from? You know what they did? They
stole the faucet. They took it back, and, of course, when they
turned it on, there was no water there. You see, faith is the
channel. The source of the water is Christ. The source of our salvation is
Christ. And that flows to us through
the channel of faith, which is God-given faith. It's something
God gives. So faith, believer, we believe
on the Son of God, and it is a miracle of God's grace. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for. Listen, the evidence of
things not seen. Now listen, I have not seen the
Lamb's Book of Life. I did not see Christ live, nor
did I see Him die, nor did I see Him rise from the dead. I have not seen the Lord Jesus
Christ ascended on His throne, and yet I know these things to
be absolutely sure. They are absolutely real. I know my name is written in
the book of life and has been from before the foundation of
the world. I know Jesus Christ is the Son
of God and the Son of Man. I know that He is all my righteousness. I know His death was the sole
purpose of the forgiveness of all my sins. I know His resurrection
is for my justification, and He now sits on the throne, and
I know He rules all things after the counsel of His own will.
I believe on Him alone as all my salvation. But how do I know these things
to be real and true? Even because of faith. I see
them by faith. How then shall we whose names
are written in the eternal book of God's election, we whose sins
are washed away and blotted out by the Son of God, how shall
we know that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, new creatures
created in holiness? How shall we who believe then
conduct ourselves? even by faith in Jesus Christ. Believers in Christ, we are not
to begin this walk with Christ or this salvation by faith and
finish by experience or circumstance or law. We begin this by faith
in Christ and listen, We will end this by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is the rule of life. You
want a rule to live by, here it is, faith. That's our law,
the law of faith. Do you desire to be encouraged
to know that the Lord is with you? Do you want to know that? How can you know that? Listen, the scriptures are clear that you who believe in Jesus
Christ the Lord is with you. Now go back to your text and
read this, the Lord is with you, listen to what the prophet said,
while you be with him. Now is he saying that as long
as Asa continues to be with the Lord. The Lord will be with him.
But then, if Asa turns and sins, that the Lord will forsake him
in regards to his salvation. No. This is talking about assurance. Assurance. A believer can have
assurance, or he can not have assurance. And listen, as long as you believe,
as long as your faith in Christ is your rule of life, you'll
have assurance. But the day you forsake to believe
is the day your assurance flees. I want you to know your faith
and your assurance are linked together. If your faith is strong,
listen, your assurance will be strong. If your faith is weak,
your assurance will be weak. And that's what the prophet is
telling Asa here. If you want to remain encouraged,
if you want strong courage and strength, he said don't forsake
faith in God. Because the day you stop believing
is the day your assurance falls and the presence of God seems
to leave you. Paul said this in Hebrews. Let's
go to Hebrews chapter 10. I'll let you read it yourself.
Hebrews, I'm sorry, chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 in verse 5.
Paul's speaking about the believer's conversation or manner of life.
He said, let your conversation, in other words, your character
or manner of living, Be without covetousness. Don't be greedy for the things
of this world. Don't be greedy for the things
of this world. Don't trust in them. But be content with such
things as you have. Oh man, I could spend all day
telling you what you have in Christ. What do you have in Christ? Forgiveness of sins, righteousness,
peace. All of those things I've just
mentioned. Life. You have eternal life. You have all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. You have it all. All
things are yours. For because Christ said... Now, this should be the cornerstone
of your contentment right here. For Christ said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. Now, we know that that word never,
it is a word that requires it to be said three times for emphasis. I will never, no never, no never
leave thee nor forsake thee. Therefore, we may say boldly, See, do you want boldness? Do
you want confidence? Then you should believe the Lord
will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's with thee. Therefore,
we may say boldly, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what
men shall do unto me. In 2 Timothy, the apostle said
this, he said, If we believe not, Yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. Do you get this? He's with you.
He's with you and He'll always be with you because He purposed
to be with you. He gave His Son so that He might
be with you. He called you, gave you His Spirit,
sealed you with promises, lavishes you with grace, daily benefits
and love, and yet we are constantly saying, Oh, He's left. He's not left you. He'll never
leave you nor forsake you, not even when your faith fails. So
then the prophet is not declaring the presence of God and salvation
is contingent upon his faith or faithfulness, but rather his
assurance is contingent upon his faith. Believer in Christ,
would you have assurance of Christ's nearness? Do you desire to know
and feel His abiding presence with you? Then believe. Believe God. I'm not telling
you to believe in God. Believe God. If you believe God, do you not
believe His Word? You can't have one without the other. If you
believe God, you believe His Word. And His Word said, I will
never leave you nor forsake you. Now, if you believe that, then
you have assurance that it's so. You have assurance that it's
so. This assurance is only given
as we continually look to Christ by faith and believe His Word,
rather than lean on our feelings and experiences. Behold what
the prophet does to reinforce this word of promise. He goes
back to the Scripture. Look at verse 3. For a long season
Israel had been without the true God, without the teaching priest,
and without the law. But when they were in trouble,
did turn to the Lord God of Israel and sought Him, and what did
they find? He was found of them. Go back
to Deuteronomy. See the promise again. All I'm
doing is reassuring you by the Word of God. Go to Deuteronomy
chapter 4, verse 29. But if, he's talking about when
they'll, he tells them, he says, you're going to go in these other
lands and you're eventually going to serve these other gods. He
tells them what they're going to do. He says, but if from thence
thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him. If thou shalt seek him with all
thy heart and with all thy soul, when thou art in tribulation
and all these things shall come upon thee, even in the latter
days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, thou shalt be obedient
unto his voice. Listen, he will not forsake thee. neither destroy thee, nor forget
the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them." Do
you see what God says? He says, if you, who are His
children, were to turn to Him, yes, your sin, yes, you do have
coldness and forgetfulness, your faith is so weak, But he says, even then, if you
will turn to me, believe my word, I will deliver you. I'll be found of you. I'll be
found of you. That's God's promise. Now then,
what happened in Judges? That was in Deuteronomy just
before they came over. What happened when they had the
land? What'd they do? They turned to other gods. But
what happened every time they cried? What happened? God sent them a deliverer. God was found of them. So that's what the prophet is
doing. He goes back and he's trying to show Asa by the Word
of God that the promises of God are true, are yea and amen. God said it. Shall he not do
it? Shall he not do it? Have you
forsaken God? Have you been so foolish and
sinned to leave off serving God in your flesh as you and I are
prone to do? Are you in trouble of your own
hand? Listen, the Lord is with thee. The Lord is with thee. He's not forsaken thee, but he
is near unto you. And if you seek him by faith,
you'll find him. You'll find him. And He will restore that joy
that you've been missing. We miss the joy for our own fault,
don't we? But He is so tender to restore
us. A bruised reed shall He not break,
and smoking flack He shall not quench. He won't put you out. He won't destroy you. Why? He
is with you. Believe his word. Trust his grace. He is near. You may have left him, but he
has never left you. Never left you. Oh, child of God, trust not in
your own defiled and evil conscience. Oh, what does your conscience
always tell you? Oh, it's too late. Oh, you can't do enough. You need to work harder. You
need to do more. That's what the conscience is
always telling us. But Paul says, let us draw near
with a heart of full assurance of grace, of faith. Where there's little faith, there's
little assurance, but where there's much faith, there's much assurance.
And even though there is no peace in this world, look at that,
he tells him that in verses five and six. He said, in those times,
there was no peace to him that went out or him that came in.
But great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries
and the nations destroyed of nations and city of city, for
God did vex them with all adversity. What do you see around you every
day? Is that not what's happening
today? Is that not exactly? I mean, this is not something
new that was happening in Asa's time that didn't happen in our
time. It's happening now. Nation rising
against nation. Kingdom against kingdom. There's
so much turmoil and it's up and it's down and it's good and it's
bad. It's evil and it's righteous.
It's just constantly turning and there's no peace in this
world. That's why we're not to look at it. Don't look at it. I know it's like a car wreck.
You just kind of can't keep your eyes from it. But the moment you put your trust
in it, you start, your faith, your assurance begins to go up
and down with the current of events. Don't trust that. God said that's going to happen.
That's going to happen. Believer, our assurance doesn't
ever come from circumstances or by the acts of divine providence. Listen, I'm going to give you
an illustration here. Say there was a church, and this
church was full of people. And everybody that came was so
excited to be there. And there was so much joy in
that place, and they sang, and they seemed to worship as though
they were exalting God with their lips and their bodies. They were in service. They did
so much work. They were moral people. They
were people turning from drugs and all kinds of things and becoming
decent, moral citizens. Now, by what I've given you,
could you determine if that was a church of God or not? No. No. We must trace it out
by what? By what source? The Word of God. What is the source of your faith? It must be, thus saith the Lord. Anything else won't do. Circumstances
won't give you assurance. If the message, if it is the
message of free will, works, religion, no matter how big or
successful, it's not of God. But if the gospel is of God's
sovereign grace in Christ, if we preach salvation by Jesus
Christ alone, then we may know it's of God, whether few or many,
whether the preacher is smooth or he stutters. Faith looks to God and His Word
no matter what the circumstances are. Even so, believer, in our
own lives, do not trace your circumstances to discern God's
presence. I always loved the picture because
I did it as a kid. I used to take my bicycle and
turn it upside down and spin the wheel. and then just try
to watch one of the spokes and get dizzy. That's all I got out
of it. That's all you're going to get if you try to trace your
one providence and try to trace it back to prove you're one of
God's elect. You're just going to get dizzy.
How can you know you are one of God's? How can you know God
is with you? You have to trace it from the source. God and His
immutable, unchangeable love and grace. That's how I know. Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's how I know God is with
me. Not by looking at any circumstance at any given time. Therefore
you who believe on Christ be strong. Verse 7, be ye strong
therefore and let not your hands be weak for your work shall be
rewarded. In Numbers, the scripture says
this, God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of
man that he should repent. He hath said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? What will stop God from being
with you? What is it? What is your objection
to that? Your sin? It's a big objection,
isn't it? Christ has already removed that. Your unrighteousness? No, Christ
has already given you a righteous nature. Satan? No, he's already crushed
his head. What will stop God from giving
you eternal life? What? Then why should I fear what men
should do unto me? If God hath not said it, shall
he not do it? He said he would be with me. As the preacher of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, I may preach with all boldness and
dogmatism and confidence, even because I only declare unto you
what God says. I'm only giving you what God
gave you. I'm only telling you what God said. Abide with Christ
in faith and listen. He will abide with you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Is there any simpler word? What I need to be doing? You
need to keep believing. That's it. Believe. Believe,
and He will abide with you. Oh, yes, we sin. Yes, we, in
my flesh dwells no good thing. I know that. I know I become
cold and indifferent. Because of this, God gives me
His Word, and He says, I'm with you. You take courage, and don't
let your hands be weak. You speak my Word, and you speak
it boldly without apology. I don't apologize for His Word. And God's not one to repent.
He said it, and He's not gonna take it back no matter what men
think about it. I have great confidence in what
I'm preaching because I'm preaching His Word. We preach His Word, and you should
believe His Word. Never look to your service for
assurance, but only look to Christ. Look by faith even more, and
you will be able to serve God more. You desire to serve Him? I do. I want to serve Him. But I'll tell you, the only way
we're able to do that is by faith. How shall God's people believe
the gospel except someone be sent and preach it? Is this not the
means that God has chosen to remind us? This is it. This is what God has chosen.
What the world deems foolish, what the world regards as a waste
of time, God's people don't. We see this as the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And I'll tell you,
we are constantly in need to be reminded of this. Hear the
word of God, that he will not leave you. And so as a preacher of the gospel,
I urge you to stay close to Him by trusting in His Word, believing
His Word. And notice lastly what Asa did
when he heard the Word of God. Look at that. In verse 8, he
took courage. He took courage and he put away
the abominable things out of all the land of Judah and the
cities Mount Ephraim and renewed the altar of the Lord. What did
He do? He established the worship of God again. He set Christ as the preeminent
center of His life. What does faith and assurance
do? It causes us to set Christ in
the center We don't work Christ into our life, do we? Everything
revolves around Him. He's the center. He's the center
of our life. And look what even He did. Look
what happened. Well, Israel came to Him. Israel followed Him. He said, when they heard in verse
10, verse 9, he said, They fell unto
him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his
God was with him. So they gathered themselves together
in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the
reign of Asa. Isn't that what happened to Peter and John when
they had boldness, when they had confidence, when they had
assurance? What did those Jews see? They said, these men are
learned and unignorant, but they have been with Jesus. They knew
that. They knew that they had been
with Christ. And I'll tell you, when God gives us such faith
and assurance, everyone around you will know. You don't have
to try to flaunt it. You don't have to. When you set
Christ as your center focus of everything, don't worry. It'll get out on you. Remember Ralph bartered somebody
said that about him as lady come up to him after the service and
she she was so excited And he was so tired He wanted to go
to sleep and she kept hounding. What do I do brother off? What
I do Lord save me. What do I do? He said sweetheart.
Don't worry. It'll get out on you. It'll get don't worry And
I'll tell you this the more confidence we have in Christ it'll get out
on you and when it does God will use it and draw his people to
himself. And lastly, see what else he
did. In verse 16, when his own mother,
the queen, had an idol, he removed her from his presence. I'll tell you, when a man has
Christ as the center of everything, He will reject all earthly kin, no matter how close. Jesus said, if any man hate not
his father and his mother and his sister and his brother and
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. May God give us such grace so
that no creature or kin should ever be allowed to rival our
Lord. Robert Hawker said this, Precious
Jesus, give us such grace as to follow you wholly through.
Though the ties of nature plead so powerfully, thou hast made
me, redeemed me, and given me all my comfort. Surely, thou
hast an unquestionable right to be loved and closely adhered
to above all else. That's a man who has Christ as
his all. May God give me such faith and
assurance And I'll tell you this, if your own mother kicks against
you, you'll be able to cast her aside. If we hear the gospel and believe
the gospel, Christ will have his preeminence in our heart.
And if he has preeminence, we have assurance. Isn't that what you want? I desire his presence. You know what? I have his presence.
Oh, but I sure long to feel his presence. How is this? How can this be?
Faith in his word. If you have faith, you know he's
here because you believe, you believe him when he says he's
here. and then we may speak boldly.
I pray that God would bless us with this as a picture of this
man, of Asa, that he has given us so that we might take courage. I need courage. May God give
it to us. Let's stand, we'll be, oh, I'm
sorry, we're gonna...