2nd Chronicles chapter 14. And we have here entitled the
message this evening is the testimony of Asa. The testimony of Asa. The scripture says, So Abijah
slept with his fathers, And they buried him in the city of David,
and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was
quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good
and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. For he took away the altars of
the strange gods in the high places, and break down the images,
and cast down the groves, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord
God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. Now as we've studied this last
Sunday, this man Abijah, his name means worshiper of God. And you remember how that they
were set in array against Jeroboam and how that he preached, he
declared the gospel. He preached the gospel to Israel
and how Jeroboam came in and tried to ambush him, but yet
the Lord gave him victory. What a comfort to us who are
worshipers of God. That we are to declare the gospel
plainly, boldly, and simply. That Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of the living God. That He has come, and by His
death and righteousness, by His resurrection, He has come to
save His people from their sins. And we shall not be ashamed.
We shall not be confounded by this world. What a testimony
he was to us. He's a picture of all believers
in Christ. But now he has passed on and
his son Asa has taken reign over Judah. Now this king, he was
what the scripture says, he did that which was good and right
in the eyes of God. Now surely we know this about
these kings. We know that these kings were
men. These were men. But this man
Asa, as his father before him, was a saved man. He was saved by the grace of
God. He was saved even as the same
way we are saved. So when you go and look at these
men in the Old Testament, recognize this, that these men were men. They were like us. They were,
the scripture says Elijah was a man of like passions as we
are. He was a man. And so how then
were these men saved? They were saved by grace. They
were saved by grace just like you. They believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They looked forward to Jesus
Christ. They were saved the same way.
And this man was chosen, he was redeemed, and he was called by
the Spirit of God to faith. And now, we know this. This scripture says that he did
that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. We who are believers, we know
this, that there is none that doeth good. We know that. We know this to be true, that
there is none righteous, no, not one. And yet the Word of
God says, this man did good and right in the eyes of the Lord
his God. How else was he good and righteous
in God's eyes except by the imputed and imparted righteousness of
Jesus Christ? The only way this man could have
ever done good and right in the eyes of God is through the Savior,
through faith in Christ. For there is no other way by
which sinners are saved. Acts 4 and verse 12 says that
there is none other name. There's no other name given among
men whereby we must be saved. This is the only salvation. Now consider this. If a man were
put in this position, if a man by nature, a son of Adam, were
to do the things that Asa did, Would that make him good and
right in the eyes of God? Listen what Asa did. He took
away the altars of the strange gods and the high places and
he break down the images and cast down the groves. And listen,
he commanded men. He said, you obey the law of
God. He said, you obey the law of God and do the commandments. Do the law and the commandments.
Now what if a man were able to do that today, if he were to
be a despot, if he were to be a ruler without any restraint,
and say this man desired with all of his heart to do good,
and he cast out all of the Muslims in this country, he cast them
all out, and he cast out all of the Mormons, and he only focused
on the true gospel. And he said, hey, everybody,
I'm commanding everybody, you should obey the law of God by
penalty of death. If you disobey God's law, we'll
kill you. Now if a man were to do that,
would that make him right in the eyes of God? Now these actions
and commands would not make any of his subjects righteous. Nor would his zeal for righteousness
make himself holy in the eyes of God. Why? Because man is corrupt by nature. Man is corrupt by nature. And no matter his zeal for holiness,
no matter his desire to obtain righteousness or to have others
act righteously, He cannot, by his doing, merit God's favor. Cannot do it. Because the very
core of man's nature is corrupt. And he cannot be subject to the
law of God. He cannot make others subject
to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can he make
himself subject to the law of God. For the law is more than
just outward deeds. It's more than just destroying
idols of stone and wood. Perfect righteousness is not
just changing habits, as men suppose. Perfect righteousness
is both outward and inward. If a man were to be good and
right in the eyes of a holy God, he must be righteous both outwardly
and inwardly. The righteousness which the law
of God demands is both outward and inward obedience. In other
words, it has to do with the thoughts and intents, the motives
of a man, the thoughts of the heart. Go over to Matthew and
see this. See what Jesus says about the
law. Matthew chapter 5. Look at verse 17. He tells men
why he came into the world. They thought, they were accusing
him of trying to destroy the law. And he says, no, I'm not
come to destroy the law. or the prophets. What did he
come to do? He came to fulfill the law. That's what he came to do, to
honor it. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle, not one
dot of an eye, not one cross of the tee shall pass away from
the law till it all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break
one of the least of these commandments and teach men to do so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. The scribes
and the Pharisees were the most moral of men. They were the most
zealous for the law of any culture or people in the world. They
were it. Yet Jesus said, except your righteousness
exceed theirs. Accept your morality, accept
your righteousness, your deeds. Exceed the righteousness of the
most zealous men that ever lived. You shall in no case, not one
case, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Is that not plain
speech? That's as plain as it gets. This is the best man can
do, and Jesus said, except your righteousness exceed the best
that man can do, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of
heaven. For he says this, in verses 21, he tells us what the
law is, it's not just outward deeds. He said, you've heard
it said of them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever
shall kill shall be in danger of judgment. But I say unto you,
Well, who's saying this? The one that wrote the law. He
says this. I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. What's the difference
between murder and being angry with your brother without a cause?
There's no difference there. Both are murder in the eyes of
God. He said if you look upon a woman
to lust after her, you have committed adultery with her in your heart. Oh, there's the problem. It's
the heart, isn't it? The heart is the problem. The
root cause of sin is the heart. Jesus said, for out of the heart
produce thoughts, murders, evil thoughts, blasphemy, false witness,
fornication. Where does all that evil come
from? The evil doesn't come from the environment. Well, you're,
I remember this. This is a wonderful pastor friend
of mine was a principal at a school. And this woman's child got in
trouble and she got called into the office with the child and
she was explaining why her child was bad. She said, well, you
know, it's because my child is hanging out with the wrong crowd.
That's what it is. He's just hanging out with the
wrong crowd. And my friend said, ma'am, your child is the wrong
crowd. Of course, that's the way it
is. We are by nature corrupt. And out of that corruption proceed
evil thoughts. That's why we sin is because
the very core of our being is corrupt. And nothing we can do
can rectify that. Nothing we can do. Jesus said if the tree's bad,
the root's bad, the fruit's bad. He said what you have to do is
make the tree good. No man by nature, no man by nature
therefore is subject to the law of God. Man by nature is rebellious
against the law of God. The scripture tells us in Romans
8 that the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject
to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. Again, is that not plain speech?
I love the way the scripture's just plain. I don't have to do
very much to that. It just says it. Your carnal
mind is enmity against God. It hates God. That's what it
says. It's at war with God, and it's not subject. In other words,
you're not willing to be subject to the law of God, and you cannot
be subject to the law of God, no matter how you try. Now surely this man, as we read
in our text, this man Asa, he was born of another child of
Adam. He was a sinner. He had this
evil heart. He inherited his depraved nature
from his father. But how is it that the Holy Spirit
of God should say such a thing as this about this child of Adam,
that he did that which was good and right, not in the eyes of
men, but in the eyes of God. Even by the same way that God
saves us. The only way that we can be good
and right in the sight of God is by God-given grace. By the grace of God that is given
to all of us who believe on Jesus Christ. Listen, what is said
of this man is said of every believer in Jesus Christ. You, in the eyes of God, have
done good and right. in his eyes. That's just astounding. That's just amazing. I have done
good and right. How is that possible? We were
in the same condition as this man Asa by nature. We were enslaved
to sin and under the dominion and power of Satan. We were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others, hating God. Satan was a strong man armed
who kept his kingdom in peace. When we were, before we believed
in Christ, we had no interest in the things of God. We had
no interest in the kingdom of God. Our hearts were not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed could be. We were at enmity,
hatred, and loved our sin. We loved our chains and despised
the freedom of God in Christ. We despised salvation because
we didn't think we needed it. Why won't men come to Christ?
It's an amazing thing to us who can see that Christ is all the
salvation that a man could ever want or need. And we say, why
will men not come to Christ? Even because they don't need
him. We come to Christ because we
need Him. I must have Christ. I must have
Christ. Therefore, I come to Christ.
And only if God ever opens your eyes will you see that, that
you need Him. And only when you need Him, you'll
come to Him. Come to Him. But because of God's
eternal love, that's why we came. Because God loved us. Because
He chose us. Because He decreed that we should
be his sons. Therefore the father gave us
to his son who swore that he would save us. Can you not see the picture?
We were enslaved and chained into sin, kept by Satan, as though
we were a gate between us and God. And the chains were of our
own making. We would have Him away from us. We would not want Him. But Christ
in love said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against my
church. In other words, when that word
went forth, the bars and the gates were ripped apart and He
came in and rescued us, delivered us from those bars of sin and
death. Christ did this because He swore
that He would do this. He swore to provide all that
was necessary to make us holy and without blame before God. And that's exactly what he did
when he came into the world. He did what he said he would
do. I like this, when he set his
face to Jerusalem. The scripture says he set his
face like a flint. He was determined. Christ had
a mission when He was here, and He spent every hour, every second
of every day to accomplish that mission, which was to save us. To save us. The Son of God was
made flesh, the Scripture says, and dwelt among us. Over in Philippians
chapter 2, the Apostle said this, Philippians
2 and verse 6. It says, who being in the form
of God. That word form means nature.
He was in the nature of God. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. That's how he could say, I am. I am. He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made of himself no reputation, and
took upon him the form, that word again is nature, the nature
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death. even the death of the cross. Have you considered what condescension
Christ, how low He came, how far He condescended, that even
His food, even His very substance, He depended upon God for everything
He got? That's faith. That's faith. Not one man has ever had such
faith in God as Jesus Christ. He came in obedience. He came
and served God. He humbled himself. He who had
the right to judge did not judge. Isn't that what he said when
the men came to him and said, make a judgment? He said, am
I a judge among you? I'm not a judge among you. In
other words, he had every right to judge them. But he forfeited
it so that he should be a servant. Because we weren't a servant. We would not. But he would. He did. See that Christ in his
humanity bore the weight then and the responsibility to merit
the righteousness of God in our room instead. This is what he
was doing. He came into the world so that
he should merit by his own hands a righteousness that we could
not merit. He came to be a representative
man. You notice how God deals with
all men as in representatives. Scripture says, by the disobedience
of one, many were made sinners. Even so, by the obedience of
one shall many be made what? Righteous, righteous by the substitute,
by the representative. Now how proud and arrogant then
is it for man to suppose that salvation is made up of Christ's
righteousness and man's righteousness? How arrogant is that? To suppose
that you can equate your righteousness with his. that you could add
to His righteousness. How foolish and dangerous is
that doctrine and it should never be preached among the saints.
It should never be preached. For Jesus Christ is all the righteousness
of God to everyone that believeth. Go to Romans 3. Look at Romans
3. Beautiful chapter here. Romans
3 is where we find out that there's none righteous, no, not one.
And because there's none righteous, Paul says in verse 20, therefore
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in this
sight. Not by our obedience before salvation
and not by our obedience after salvation. We are not to begin in the spirit
and then finish in the flesh. That's not how we are made good
and right in the eyes of God. That's not how it's done. It's
only by the righteousness of Christ. Scripture says, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. The only way you know
you're a sinner is by the law. The law is a reflection. It only
reveals the corruption of our nature and guilt of our sin.
The law is no guide. It's not a guide for a believer
in Jesus Christ. The law does not merely suggest
obedience, but rather demands it. Friends the law is not partial
man divide the law and I can understand why they divided for
ease of study and Accessibility and things but really the law
is the law is the law is the law one law is just as high as
the other The law Scripture says curse it is everyone that continueth
not in all things Written in the book of the law to do them
In Galatians, Paul, he says, you that desire to be under the
law, don't you hear it? Have you heard the law? And then
he uses that allegory of Sarah and Hagar. And he said, Hagar
and her son are a picture of the law. Now what happened to Hagar and
her son? They were cast out. So is everyone who desires to
be under the law. you will be cast out. Anyone who desires to put their
righteousness with the righteousness of Jesus Christ will be cast
out. If you be circumcised, one law,
you add one law to the righteousness of Christ, you've defiled the
whole thing, and Christ, Paul said, will profit you nothing. Matter of fact, he says it twice
in the same chapter. Therefore, you who believe, where's
our righteousness come from? It comes from Christ alone. Christ
alone. He is all our righteousness. Paul says, therefore, stand fast,
therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. For
the believer is set free from the law. If you are a believer
in Christ, you are free from the law, even because Christ
fulfilled the law. He fulfilled it in all its requirements
of righteousness as our representative. In Romans 3 it continues, but
now the righteousness of God without the law. Praise God for
that statement. The righteousness of God without
personal obedience. I've never obeyed the law of
God ever in my life. And you haven't either. Not personally,
no. We have, through a representative
man, we have obeyed the law in Christ. Without the law is manifest
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, listen, even the
righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. What can man do to add to the
righteousness of God? Is there anything you wish to
put to the righteousness of God? What zeal can we have to contribute
to his righteousness? None. All of our nature is corrupt
and polluted, and what happens when we put one thing to it?
We've defiled it. We've made it, we've ruined it.
We've ruined it. But praise God that he gives
us this righteousness. This is not an earned righteousness,
it is a given righteousness. It's one merited outside of ourselves,
but yet it is one that he gives to us freely, freely. He imputes this righteousness
and imparts this righteousness, not by works or merit, but by
His own sovereign grace. He says that in verse 22, even
the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ,
unto all and upon all. Those two words are very important.
Unto means in, in, in all. That's the imparted righteousness.
That's when he creates the new nature inside of us that he gives
as holy as God is. He imparts that righteousness
and upon all it means to distribute or to impute that he imputes
this righteousness to our charge of all of those who believe on
Christ. So how is it that we are like
Asa? How is it that we are good and
right in the sight of God? Only by the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. And secondly, Jesus must also
have satisfied the law by a blood offering. Without the shedding
of blood is no remission of sin. The law demanded not only perfect
obedience outward and inward, but it also demanded a a penalty,
a payment. The wages of sin is death. In other words, what good would
His righteousness do to you if you had not paid for sin already
committed? Sin must be paid for. Behold,
Jesus, who is righteous and sinless and spotless, was the Lamb of
God and offered Himself a payment for sin. And by his one offering,
listen, he forever removed our guilt. I know, believer, you feel guilty. I know your sin causes you great
pain. But take courage. For your Savior
bore the guilt of your sin in his own body on the tree, and God poured out his wrath on your
substitute. He said, Awake, O sword, and
smite the shepherd, the man that is my fellow, And therefore our
substitute died in our stead, and he offered a just recompense
of reward, and by his one offering satisfied forever God's justice
against us. And I'll tell you, God was pleased
with his offering. God was satisfied. How can I
be satisfied? Because God was satisfied with
his offering. Why should I not be satisfied?
God is pleased with His blood. Why should I not be pleased?
I should believe on Him because God hath highly exalted Him and
given Him a name that is above every name. And what is He doing
now on the throne? He is saving His people. That's His purpose. That's what
He is doing now on the throne of God. He said in his high priestly
prayer, Father, thou hast given him, the Son, power over all
flesh to do what? To give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Oh, behold, all of humanity was
corrupted by sin. But Jesus Christ, the mediator,
stood in the middle and said, do not destroy them. I will be
a ransom for them. I will be a ransom. Oh, you who believe, consider
that you are like Asa, saved by grace. And you may rest in
this, that In Christ, in Christ, we are in the eyes
of God good and right. Good and right. Is that not a
blessing? And second of all, Asa was zealous
for God's honor. Look at this. Go back to your
text now. Asa, he did that which was good and right. And look
what he did. He took away all the altars of
the strange God in the high places and break down the idols and
cut down the groves and commanded them that they should do the
law and the commandments. Now, this was not the cause of Asa's
righteousness, but rather the result. The result. And this is the result of every
believer in Jesus Christ. Listen, we used to, before God
came and saved us, we had images, we had idols. They may not have
been of wood, but they surely were of our opinion, weren't
they? Of our own making. Man by nature is a God factory.
He creates a God of his own making. If the man is cruel, his God
will be cruel. If a man is passive and unjust,
his God will be passive and unjust. We make up the gods like ourselves
until the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ shines
in. And then what happens? We throw
down those old opinions. We throw away those old views
of God when they contradict the Word of God. How many times have
you thought something of God and then the Word of God shine
on it? And you just say, oh, well, I guess that does away
with that. That does away with what I thought. We cast down
those old idols because they're useless. They cannot save us. We bow down to God, the living
God. And I'll tell you, he is our
God, our God. We worship the true and living
God and all those thoughts of those old gods we're glad to
get rid of. I remember telling you the story
of the missionary in Mexico. They had all these idols in their
families and stuff, and a young boy was saved in that family.
And he kept telling his dad, he said, Dad, these gods are
useless. These idols are nothing. And
one day his dad went to work and he laid up the idols and
took a hammer and smashed every one of those idols, but one. And he put the hammer right beside
it. And his dad come home, and he's furious. He said, son, why
did you do this to our gods? Why did you do this to our statues? And he said, I didn't do it,
God. He did. He did. He did it. And his dad
was even more furious. He said, that has no power. And he said, that's what I've
been trying to tell you. He doesn't have any power. They're
useless. And so that's what we do when
we come to Christ. We cast out all those old gods.
All we thought of God. The foolishness of universal
atonement, gone. Foolishness of free will, gone.
When we come to God, we understand that salvation is completely
and absolutely of God and not of man. And all other gods, they're
gone. We don't care anything about
those. They have no power. And that's the result And that's
not the cause. That's the result of everyone
who's saved by grace. And lastly, I want us to see
Asa's trouble. Not only did he cast away those
old gods. Now, look at verse 6. He said
he built finch cities. Verse 5. And he took away out
of all the cities of Judah the high places and images, and the
kingdom was quiet before him. Isn't that what we get when God
comes into our heart? He gives us peace. Peace, peace,
wonderful peace. Where does it come from? Coming
down from the Father above. We have peace because Christ's
cross, the blood of His cross has made peace with God. He he in verse 6 he started to
build these fence cities in Judah For the land had rest and there
was no war for those years because the Lord had given him rest Therefore
he said into Judah Let us build these cities and make about them
walls and towers and gates and bars while the land is yet before
us because we have sought the Lord our God and We have sought
Him, and He hath given us rest on every side, so they built
and prospered. Isn't this what He does with
us? He causes us to grow in grace. That peace that passes understanding,
causes us to desire to know Him. We desire to build on these things. We desire to grow in grace. I tell you, I have faith in Jesus
Christ, but I'm not satisfied with the faith I have. Are you?
I want to grow. I want my faith to increase. I want my love to increase. And this is what the peace of
God does. This is what His blood shows
us, is that we have peace with God, and He's going to cause
us to grow. But He also shows us something
else. Though we have peace in our heart, doesn't mean we're
going to have peace in this world. Look at verse 9. And there came
out against Zerah Ethiopian With an host of a thousand thousand
now. I don't have a word for a million.
So they use thousand thousand That's what that means 1 million
They came out with 1 million and 300 chariots and came to
Marisha and Asa went out against him and they set the battle in
array in the valley of of Zephanath at Moreshia. And Asa cried unto
the Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help,
whether with many or with them that have no power, help us. And he had trouble. He had a
million people come out against him, and he, that little bitty
nation, had less than half of that. Now friends, that is an overwhelming,
that's overwhelming odds. Just no way to win, no way to
win. And so what does he do? He cries. What does a baby do
when it's hungry, it's sick? It cries. What does God's people
do in trouble? We cry. We don't try to fix the
problem. We cry. That's a good reason. You cry because God is our God
and we know that only he can help us. When we're sick, what
do we cry for? Healing. When we're sad and downcast
because of our sin, what do we ask? Forgiveness. When we are
poor and without our needs and wants, we ask our Father to give
us our needs. Now, listen, and we are sure
of this. Every believer should be sure
of this. Your Father will deliver you. Your Father will deliver you. Just ask. Ask. Ask Him. If we are sick, ask
Him for healing, and you know what? He'll deliver us either
in life or death. Isn't that right? Even if we
die, isn't that healing? That's healing, isn't it? As
a matter of fact, that's the best healing. Because we'll have
no more sickness then. If we're downcast because of
our sin, don't we have His Word? If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we are without,
and he denies us our wants or our needs and puts us in suffering
and poverty, doesn't that draw us closer to him? But whatever
the trouble we face, we may have and may not have peace on the
outside, but surely we can have peace on the inside. Jesus said, my peace I leave
with you. My peace I give unto you." Not
like the world gives. How does the world give? They
give and they take. He said, I give you my peace and I'm not
going to take it from you. Isn't that special? Isn't that
something? He's not going to take it away.
No matter what this world does and no matter your trouble, He
is never going to leave you or forsake you. He is always going
to be with you. Let not your heart be troubled. Isn't that what he told his disciples?
What he tells you? Don't let that bother you. And
you know what? I like this. Look what Asa said
here. He said in his prayer, he cried
unto the Lord and he said, This problem is nothing for you This
is not a big problem for you. It's a big problem for me, but
it's not a big problem for you Whether with many or with them
that have no power now see he didn't know how this is gonna
turn out We have scripture we can see how it's gonna turn out
But he had no idea and I tell you you have no idea how it's
gonna turn out. Do you? You don't know what's gonna happen You
know what he said? Father, whether you're going
to let them win or you're going to let us win, I don't know. But help us. Isn't that a good? Isn't that a prayer? If you don't
have anything to say, you can ask this. Help. Help. That's a great prayer. Help me. Help us. I don't know if you're gonna
let them win or us, but I know this, I want you to help us.
Help us, oh Lord, our God, for we rest in thee, and in thy name
we go against the multitude. Isn't that so with us? We go
against the multitude. By preaching the gospel of God's
free grace in Jesus Christ, you are going against the multitude. We go against the multitude.
Oh, Lord, thou art our God. Let not man prevail against thee. Help us and let not them prevail
against you. You've promised to deliver us.
You've promised to save us. Now, Lord, please do what you
said you'll do. And you know what he'll do? He'll
do exactly what he said he'll do. That's what you've got. You've
got 100% guaranteed he'll do exactly what he said he'll do.
And look what happened in Lord Smote, the Ethiopians and they
fled. All believer. May God use this picture of our
brother Asa to comfort us. To show us. that through Jesus
Christ, we are in the eyes of God righteous. And because of his grace, we
gladly cast down the idols. And we have peace through Jesus
Christ, our Savior. And though we face trouble, we
cry unto our God to help us. And as the scripture says in
Psalm 34 and verse 17, he delivereth us out of all. all our troubles. I pray that God would, by His
sovereign mercy, show us that the victory is already won. What's left for you to do? Lay down and rest in Christ. Lay down. You know what a sheep
does when it's attacked? Lays down. That's what you should
do. You should lay down. Lay down
in the arms of your Savior and find rest. No matter what. He'll deliver you. He said He
would. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.