I want you now to go to the book
of 2 Chronicles. We read out of 2 Kings about
this man Manasseh. I want us to go to 2 Chronicles
33. 2 Chronicles chapter 33. And here's my subject. Let me
tell you what my title is. Manasseh, a man conquered by
grace. Conquered by grace. If we only
had the record given to us there in 2 Kings that I read to you,
we wouldn't have any hope for this man at all. Because it expresses
his sinfulness, his rottenness, his idolatry, the worst king
that Judah ever had. And in his in this record that God
gave us in 2 Kings, which I just read to you. If we just had that,
it would remind us that here's a man without God, without hope,
without Christ. And we would think then that
based upon the record of God that he gave us there in 2 Kings,
this is a man who perished under the wrath of God. That's certainly
what he deserved. And let us be reminded that really,
really, he's no worse than us. He was not a viler sinner than
we are within our hearts. Because all of us, let me say
this right from the beginning now, by nature we're idolatrous. We're idol worshipers, and the
biggest idol that we worship is self. We put self first. And if God left us to ourselves,
as the writer of 2 Kings 21 seems to indicate that God just left
Manasseh to himself, if God left us to ourselves, we'd all be
in hell today. There'd be no hope for any of
us. And as you read with me those
nine verses out of 2 Kings 21, you would come to this conclusion.
Here's a man who perished in his sins and rightfully so. And we need to understand that
the wages of sin is death. It always has been and it always
will be. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I said I want to talk to you
about monastic conquered by grace. I want you to understand that
even though the religious world all speaks about grace, all don't
mean the same thing. You see, grace is not just a
wish that God has for you. It's a work that God does. It's a work that God did actually
before the world ever began. Because we read in 2 Timothy
chapter 1 that grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world. The grace that we have been shown,
the grace that's been revealed to us, the grace that's been
at work within our hearts was grace purposed for us before
we were ever born. It's not just a desire on God's
part to help people and do people good. It is the will and work
of God to save, to rescue, to rescue a people from sin. It's God's own sovereign will
at work always for the good of and for the eternal life of His
elect. Grace. Mercy, the scripture says,
is over all of God's works. But the grace of God is only
given to His chosen people. Please remember that. You see,
mercy, all men partake of some degree of mercy. The mercies
of God being over all of his works, even the ungodly enjoy
the mercies of God, though they don't recognize that they come
from the mercies of God. But grace is given to a special
people. Not a people made special because
of something they did or because of some decision they made. It's
a special people because God made them special in eternity. You see, grace is having, or
excuse me, mercy is having life on earth, but that will end. Grace is having a life that God
gives you that'll never end. It's a spiritual life. It's an
eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is the sovereign
and saving favor of God toward His people. It is unmerited. It is unearned. It cannot be
bought. It is given to us at no cost
to us and no compensation for grace is demanding. Because what would you give for
grace? You can't give anything for it. It can't be bought. It
can't be purchased. And this morning I want to show
you an illustration of a vile man who was conquered by grace. And for those of you who know
the Savior, or as Paul said, or who are known of the Savior,
that same grace that Conquered this man, Manasseh. Conquered
you. The grace that raised him from
a spiritual death raised you. The grace that turned the light
of illuminating grace in the heart of this man, the light
that illuminated him, illuminated you. It's the grace of God the
Father in choosing you, the grace of God the Son in redeeming you,
and the grace of God in regenerating you and revealing to you the
blessed Savior in His glory. Here's a man conquered by grace. Grace, you see, is not a divine
appeal. It's a divine accomplishment. He's the son, he was the son
of the greatest king Judah ever had, Hezekiah. Hezekiah tore down the idols
that his father had made. Hezekiah opened up the gates
of the temple so that worship was again restored. Hezekiah destroyed the brazen
serpent that many were still worshiping. He called it Nehushtan,
a worthless piece of brass. The father of this man was unusual. He was the finest king in all
of Judah. He did so many things right,
and he did them for the glory of God. And then along comes
this son, Manasseh. And he sat in his heart when
he took the throne, when he was just 12 years of age. And as
he began to mature, as he was exposed to riches and the desire,
every desire could be granted to him, as he began to see the
idols and people brought idols to him, He just exposed how wicked his
heart was. And everything his daddy did,
he sought to undo. And as the record revealed there
in 2 Kings 21, so it reveals here again in 2 Chronicles 33. He was a vile man. And everything that was right,
he neglected to do. And if it could be any idolatry
that he could get involved with, he got involved in it. And every
idol that came along and people said, you know, Manasseh, here's
another idol. He was very, he showed hospitality
to that idol. And he built an altar to that
idol. And then he offered sacrifices
to that idol. Hated God. Hated God. Sought to stamp out the name
of God everywhere he went. Unlike his father who sought
to exalt the Lord, he sought to destroy everything
that had to do with God. I call him the prodigal king. The prodigal king. Because his
daddy Hezekiah and his mother Hephzibah. Hephzibah means the
Lord's delight is in her. You know that they raised him
as a little boy teaching him the things of God. You will remember
that Hezekiah was sick and he prayed to the Lord. We don't
know what he prayed about. He just left it to the Lord to
do as he would and he wept. And the Lord said, I'll give
you 15 more years. Then after he had been given
three years, then they had a son. It could be that's the reason
that he wept. Because he had no heir. He had
no son who could take over the throne of Judah. But after three
years of the 15 years that God gave him, he got a son, and I'm
sure he and his wife rejoiced, we've got a son. By the way,
his wife's father, tradition says, was Isaiah. Isaiah. How'd you like to have Isaiah
for grandfather? That's who he had for grandfather.
So he had godly parents, he had a godly grandfather. And don't
you know that this young man, Manasseh, he often sat upon his
granddaddy's knee, and his granddaddy Isaiah would talk to him about
things of God. Oh, how God exposed him to the
truth from when he was a little lad. But know this, grace doesn't
run in the bloodline. Corruption runs in the bloodline. Salvation is not inherited from
your mom and your dad, and even if you've got a grandfather who
was like Isaiah. You don't inherit grace, you
don't inherit salvation, you inherit rottenness and idolatry
that's found in the hearts of all of the people, even the people
of God by nature, though we've been delivered from that pretty
much. Because don't you, who are the
people of God, feel sometime that you still
worship an idol in itself. God help us and God forgive us. Well, Manasseh, he grew up to
the age of 12. Then his daddy died. And then it's like the floodgates
swung open. for open iniquity. Let me show
you about four things this morning, the iniquities of Manasseh. He was mesmerized by idolatry. He wallowed in every form of
false religion. No matter what idol he was introduced
to, he embraced it and said, I'll find another place for this
idol to have an altar. And he forgot the things that
he was brought up under. Actually, that's what his name
means, forgotten. He forgot. Isn't it amazing how quickly
we forget spiritual things? But we can remember fleshly things
like they happened just yesterday. He forgot. He worshiped the host of heaven,
the sun, moon, and the stars. He entertained wizards witches,
enchanters, anybody who claimed to have an idol with power, he
said, I'll worship that one too. And he encouraged others. He's
the king. He encouraged others in his idolatry. In fact, notice down here in
verses 4 and 5 of chapter 33. He built altars in the house
of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall
my name be forever. He built altars for all the hosts
of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the sun,
moon, and stars, and all the planets. He encouraged worship
of the heavenly bodies. You see, his wickedness was not
drunkenness, though he may have gotten drunk,
but that's not recorded. His wickedness was not adultery,
though perhaps he partook of that too, but we're not told
that. His wickedness was not in worshiping
Jehovah by the appointed sacrifice. He turned his nose up at the
Lord Jesus Christ, that's what he did. You see, the sacrifice
that God ordained were to be offered there at the temple.
God said, that's where I'm going to meet with you. That's where
you'll worship me, you'll approach me, and that's where I'll come
nigh to you. And the sacrifices, the morning
sacrifice, the evening sacrifice, and all the other sacrifices
that ought to have been offered there at the brazen altar at
the temple, all of those sacrifices pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice for sin. Every offering of every goat
or lamb or bullock or turtle doves or pigeons, every offering
pictured and pointed to the Lamb of God who is going to come and
do in reality what all of those sacrifices merely pointed to
and were types of. But this man Manasseh, he did
away with all that. There's no more worship of God.
There's no more exalting of Christ. There's no more blood of atonement
and blood of redemption. His wickedness, you see, was
false religion. That was his wickedness. And that's the greatest wickedness
of the day. It still is. Preachers get up, they preach
against drunkenness. Well, that's right, it's wrong.
Adultery, that's wrong. And a bunch of other outward
sins are all wrong. And yet they're spewing out the
greatest wickedness of all, false religion. God's not who you think
he is or who the false preacher says he is. God is who he says
he is. He says, to be worshiped in spirit
and in truth. You cannot draw nigh to God except
through Christ the Savior. Would you hear that? And we are virtually surrounded
by false religion. Oh, they expose outward evils,
and our evils are bad. I wouldn't deny that. But the
greatest evil is the evil in here, and it's the evil of not
worshiping the God who made us, and not coming near to him through
the Lord Jesus Christ and his bloody death. See, this is the
iniquity, the greatest iniquity of this man, Manasseh. He had all these false gods.
And I want to say something to the parents, to the moms and
dads and grandmas and grandpas. Let me tell you something. Idolatry
is still very much alive in our day. And don't be deceived and
don't lead your children and your grandchildren down the road
of, well, we want you to prosper. Well, that can be an idol. We
want you to be successful. Young people, we want you to
be successful. But prosperity is a god that
many people fall prey to. Money, popularity, fame, all
of those things, they're just a few of the false gods that
we tend to overlook. We forget about those. but there's the false gods that
are worshipped under the guise of God. You see, here's the thing
about Manasseh. He worshipped and he said, I'm
worshipping God through worshipping Jupiter and Mars and the sun
and the moon. Idolatry. He wasn't, you see, irreligious. And some people say, I just want
my children to be religious. Oh, that's dangerous. Because religion by and large
is rotten. What we want you to know is the
truth of the gospel of how the God of the Bible saved sinners.
That's what we want you to know. And I'm not going to stand up
here and expose all the different false religions. What good is
that going to do? I'll just say this, those who
don't preach the free and sovereign grace of God to sinners through
the bloody sacrifice, the righteous obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ,
they're false religion. Don't get wrapped up in that
awful stuff. Be freed by the power of the
Spirit. That's what we ask God to do
for you. To free you. And then let me give the second
thing, the warnings of Manasseh. Look in verse 10. And the Lord
spake to Manasseh and to the people. How did he speak to them?
Through the prophets. Through the prophets. How many
times do you think Grandpa Isaiah visited their home when this
man Manasseh was growing up? Somebody went to the door and
I can just hear Hepzibah saying, Manasseh, your grandpa's here.
He's a frequent visitor. But he didn't listen to his grandpa.
He didn't listen to his mom and dad. Isaiah, along with other preachers,
warned of false religion. This man didn't listen. He didn't
listen. He would have been rebuked for
rendering reverence to these idols. he would have been told
the true meaning of the temple. Wouldn't you have loved to have
listened to Grandpa Isaiah as he talked about one who would
come, who would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised
for our iniquities? One of whom Isaiah would write,
it pleased the Lord to bruise him, And maybe Manasseh said when
Isaiah told him that, maybe he said, Grandpa, who's that talking
about? And Isaiah would have said the
Lamb of God, Christ the Son, the seed of the woman. Remember,
remember, little one, how back in Genesis, the Lord talked about
the seed of the woman's coming. And Isaiah just go right down
the line. just like you do with your young
people. And as the king got older, he
was told to repent of his idolatry and worship God. And what did Isaiah receive for
his faithfulness? Tradition says that Manasseh
had him arrested, his grandfather. And he said, execute him. And they sawed him asunder. He did that to his grandfather. That's how much he hated God.
Get rid of God's servants. That's how much he loved his
idolatry. Well, he had warnings. The Lord warned him through the
preachers, through his grandfather. But he refused to hear. Can I give you some advice? There
are a lot of preachers that you should refuse to hear. Don't even listen to them. But
there are a few men that God has raised up who are seeking
to exalt God, to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, here's
one of them, Bill. Here's another one. And there
are several more. They're scattered around. God
has his voices who lift up the true God of glory, the God of
grace, the God of salvation. Men who denounce idolatry, false
religion. You cannot trust every man who
comes to you carrying a Bible. A false prophet appears to you
as one who's very nice and pleasant. Well, our preacher, somebody
says, the fellow told me not too long ago, he said, my preacher's
so nice. In fact, I got a telephone call
this morning from a guy. He says, I'm looking for a preacher. I said, well, you found one.
He said he called this guy's name. He said, you know who that
is? I said, no. I said, I'm the pastor here.
He said, well, I'm looking for the preacher who preaches a little
further up the road. A little further up the road is
the Free Will Baptist Church. I said, I don't know him. And
I don't have anything to do with him. I said, Jim, you ought to
be more cordial. Cordial? Cordial towards somebody
who despises the God of sovereign grace? We're not trying to win friends
and influence people here. I said, well, you can catch more
flies with honey than you can with bitterness. Let me tell
you something, I'm not bitter except against the false preachers. I do have great bitterness for
them. Like when a famous evangelist
died and I was talking to somebody in my family, I said, I'm glad
God shut his mouth. They said, oh, don't say that. It's high time men stood up and
told people who God is. Bow down, proud sinner. The sun,
moon, and the stars, they do obeisance to God. Don't you worship
them? Worship the God of creation.
Worship the God of providence. Worship the God of salvation.
He's the only one who can help you. Well, here's the captivity and
salvation of Manasseh. Notice in verse 11, wherefore
the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of Assyria,
which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters,
and carried him to Babylon. God said, I'm going to teach
you some lessons. And he got locked up. Know this, afflictions in and
of themselves will not bring anybody to the Lord. If God doesn't use them to get
your attention, it'll just make people meaner and hate him all
the more. But this man, when he was in
prison, The Spirit of God came to him. You see, he had been
from a youngster, he had been taught the things of the Lord.
And seed sown today, it may not germinate till years down the
line. I say to mom and dads and grandmas
and grandpas, be faithful in setting forth the Word of God
to the young people. It may be they won't believe
now. It may be years from now and you're gone. But God is powerful
and faithful and gracious to make that seed that's sown today
germinate years down the line and bring to the mind of the
young people the things that you have taught them. You have
read the Scriptures to them, you have prayed with them, you
have wept with them, and maybe you'll never see their conversion.
Hezekiah didn't see the conversion of his son. Isaiah didn't see the conversion
of his grandson. But they had confidence in the
God of grace. He will do His work. You just be faithful. You be
faithful. He's taking it in captivity.
And I'll tell you, when he was in captivity, look what the scripture
says in verse 12. And when he was in affliction,
he besought the Lord his God. The scripture says, seek the
Lord while he may be found. Call upon Him while He's near.
The Lord says, I will be found of those who search for Me with
all their heart. Here's a man that the Spirit
of God brought back to his mind the gospel that his grandpa and
his mom and dad had taught him from a very early age. He said, oh God, he began to
seek the Lord. Oh God, I'm in a mess. And it's
a mess of my own making. And then it says he humbled himself.
He humbled himself greatly. Greatly. I'll tell you what. Humility is a gift of God. Bow down, proud sinner. Brother
Scott Richson, you say, stack your shotguns in the corner.
Humble yourself before the Lord. You're nothing and He's everything.
You're a sinner. He's the Savior. Look at verse 13. And prayed. I wonder what he prayed. Maybe
he prayed something like, oh God, be merciful to me, I'm the
sinner. I need the Savior. Oh God, I
need forgiveness. I need righteousness. I need
you, Lord, I need you. And then, good news. Watch this
in verse 13. He was entreated of him. God
was entreated of this man Manasseh. God heard him. He heard His supplication. He brought Him again to Jerusalem
and to His kingdom, and look at the last statement of verse
13. Then, then Manasseh knew that
the Lord, the Lord, He's God, Jehovah, Jehovah. And then he commenced. Here's
the result of all this. Since God brought him out of
the pit, God brought him back to Jerusalem, God brought him
back to the mercy seat, God brought him back to the brazen altar.
He started clearing out all that false idol stuff. And he said,
we're going to start worshiping God again around here. And he
had a voice that was loud enough to be heard throughout all the
kingdom. He said, get rid of all that idolatry. Oh, that God
would raise up a leader who had some respect for the things of
God. God raised up this man. He cleared
out the clutter. Started worshiping God the right
way. He took the strains of God's away. Look at verse 16. He repaired the altar of the
Lord. and he sacrificed their own peace
offerings, peace. He offered sacrifices because
he saw peace has been made through that one who will come hundreds
of years in the future, the peacemaker. He'll make peace by the blood
of his cross. He'll make peace with God. And
he offered offerings, thank offerings, as God commanded Judah to serve
the Lord. He destroyed the idols, he repaired
the altar of the Lord, he restored the worship of God, he commanded
the people to worship the Lord. That's what he says there in
that last statement. And commanded Judah to serve
the Lord God of Israel. But verse 17's sad. Nevertheless, The people did
sacrifice still in the high places. They held on to some of their
altars, yet unto the Lord their God only. Would you not agree that here's
a man conquered by grace? You can't attribute all of this
to man's will. This is the will and the grace
of God at work. That's what's needed. And I can read Isaiah to you
and talk to you about the things of God, unless the Lord's pleased
to do a work in your heart, it'll be futile. But if he does the
work, he can He can make out of you
a vessel of honor, and you'll be to the glory of His grace. Conquered by grace. That's really
our testimony, isn't it? We've been conquered by grace.
Well, let's sing a closing song.