2 Chronicles chapter 7 this morning. We're going to look at a verse
of Scripture. Just a single verse. It's unusual. We usually have a continual study,
and I like to teach that way. I like to hear the Scriptures
taught that way. But this one verse I want to
stand this morning as something for us to consider
in this new year. Just a couple of weeks ago, we
celebrated the new year. And I want us to begin the new
year by considering this. In 2 Chronicles 7.14. You've heard this before, I'm sure. But let's look at it closely
this morning, if the Lord will be pleased to speak to us. If my people, did that catch
your ear? God's talking to His people now.
My people. Which are called by my name.
That's a good way to describe us, isn't it? Called by His,
we're His. What else is important about
you? besides the fact that you're his, you're God, you're called
by his name. If my people which are called
by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven. Consider that. God said, you're on the earth
and I'm in heaven. Therefore, let your words be
few. Be careful what you say because of who he is and where
he is. But he said, from heaven, I'll hear you. I'll hear you. If you'll bow, if you humble
yourself. And pray and seek my face. I'll
hear you. I'll hear you even from heaven.
and I will forgive your sin." We're in deep waters here, aren't
we? We're talking about big things this morning. We're talking about
God Almighty hearing what I say. That ought to get your ear if
you're His. His people now, He's talking to you. We're talking
about the ear of God bending, condescending to hear what I
say. And He said, I'll hear you and
I'll forgive your sin. And I'll heal your land. I'll
heal your land. Now notice in this verse the
words if and then. If signals a proposition, a premise. And the word then signals a promise,
a result. There's a premise, there's a
condition, and if that condition be met, there'll be a result.
God has promised it. You have his word on it. What
is your response to this? Honestly now, if that caught
your ear, if you catching God's ear caught your ear as His child,
what's your response to this? Did you say immediately, well
I'll do that then, I'll humble myself, and I'll pray, and I'll
turn from my wicked ways. Haven't you learned anything
about yourself? Turn to Exodus chapter 19. Was that your response? We want
to do that, don't we? We want to do that. But look
at Exodus chapter 19. And verse three, Moses went up unto
God. And the Lord called unto him
out of the mountains, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house
of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what
I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings,
and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if you will obey
My voice indeed, and keep My covenant." This sounds like familiar
language, doesn't it? We just read, God said, If you
will, I will. If you will, I will. Isn't that
what He said? and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And
you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.
These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children
of Israel." So God said, here's what you tell Israel, the people
of Israel. If you'll obey me and keep my
covenant that I've made with you, I'll bless you. Isn't that
what he just said in our text? All right, now stay with me.
You might think, oh, Brother Chris is going to go off the
deep end this morning. He's going to talk about, you
know, us doing something and God responding. Bear with me. Look at what happened here. And
Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid
before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded
him. And all the people answered together
and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. They jumped up and said, oh my,
Well, we can do that. That's no problem. Is that what
you require? No problem. We'll take care of
that. And Moses returned the words
of the people unto the Lord. And you know what the result
of this was? Before the ink was dry, so to
speak, they were already rebelling against God. They were already
despising Him and choosing their own ways and making gods for
themselves and disregarding the Word of
God. That word that they just said, we'll do that, we'll keep
that. Have we learned this lesson? Do we know what we are before
God? What then do we say to God in
response to this great statement of His, to this great promise,
this premise that He sets forth and the promise that's sure to
result? We have his word on. What will our response be? If
we say, yes, we will, we know we won't. So shall we say, no,
we won't? No, don't do that either. Don't
say no, God, we're not gonna do that. Of course not. There's another answer besides
we will and we will not. In fact, the best answer to this
proposition doesn't have the word I or me in it at all. First of all, let's look at it
this way. There is an earthly, physical
obedience, outward obedience to God's commandments, right? God calls it in his word, the
obedience of faith. But now, Romans 16, 26, now is
made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to
the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith." God sent His gospel for the obedience
of faith. Okay? We understand that. In
Hebrews 11, chapter 11, we see that men obeyed God. We've been
looking at that. We won't have to turn there.
We've been looking at that for some time in our study in Hebrews.
Moses chose the reproach of Christ rather than the riches of Egypt,
didn't he? That's an outward obedience to God. Didn't he say,
honor me and don't have any other gods before me? That's an obedience
to that. When God told Noah what to do,
it says Noah moved with fear and did what God said. That's
the obedience of faith. I believe God. He told me what
to do. I'm going to do it. And we know that that's true
and that happens. They did these things by faith,
by faith. by God-given faith, by the gift
of God, which is faith in His Son. And when God gives a sinner
faith in His Son, it changes that sinner, doesn't it? We know
that. It changes him. He gives us a new heart. It makes
him desire some things, doesn't it? And it makes him do some
things. Philippians 2.12, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, Brother Brian just read
this, didn't he? By now, much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
God which worketh in you, both to will, you want to, don't you? You will it. You will to please
God. You don't want to despise Him.
You don't want to betray God. You don't want to blaspheme God,
do you? Now remember, He's talking to my people. If you're not His
people, you do want to blaspheme Him. You may say you don't, and
you may think you don't, and blaspheme Him while you're thinking
it. But my people, there's a will in us, and it's God that works
that, amen. It's not we will, it's oh Lord,
have mercy on us. Both to will and to do, what
is it that we want to do and what we do? Of His good pleasure,
we outwardly obey Him, don't we? Like Noah, we move with fear
and build an ark. God said, build an ark. I fear
God. I know that what he says is right.
I know that what he teaches me is good for me. Guess what I'm
fixing to do? I'm going to build an ark by
his grace, aren't you? We do. He works it in us. God
must do something for us. And if he does, then we will
obey. Isn't that right? He said, I
shall and they will. My people shall be willing in
the day of my power. And if you're willing to do it,
you'll do it, won't you? If God enables you, if he gives
you the will, he'll give you the ability to do it. And he'll
work it in you. So what is it that God required?
Well, he said, if you'll humble yourselves, if you'll humble
yourself. Now, instead of jumping up and
say, oh, okay, I'll humble myself. You'll be proud of your humility. It was pride in the Garden of
Eden, wasn't it? that caused our fall, you shall
be as gods. You're just a peon now, but you're
just a pawn now, but you'll be the king if you do what I say. Oh, that sounded good, didn't
it? It still does to this flesh. It still does. You shall be as
God. The first thing that God hates is what? A proud look. Proverbs 6, 17. Zacchaeus, you
gotta come down first. And then he said, I must abide
at your house. You're going to come down and
I'm going to go live with you. Isn't that right? That's a spiritual
lesson. It's so simple and clear. So what is your response to God?
I'll humble myself. You already blew it. Didn't you? You was proud already. Before
you got it out of your mouth, you just lifted up in pride.
We will do this. No, no, no, no, no. No, we acknowledge this tree.
Look at Job chapter 40. Job chapter 40. We'll look at
some Scripture together. Verse 9, Hast thou an arm like
God? Or can you thunder with a voice
like Him? Deck yourself now with majesty and excellency, and array
yourself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath,
and behold every one that is proud, and abase him." You can't
do that, can you? Much less your own heart. You
can't bring down the proud, including yourself. It's impossible for
us to do that. Look on everyone that's proud
and bring him and tread down the wicked and hide them in the
dust together and bind their faces together in secret. Then
will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can
save thee. If you can humble somebody else,
then I'll confess you can humble yourself. You can save yourself. You can't do it, can you? You
can't do it. But God can. He knoweth. Listen to what Nebuchadnezzar
said in Daniel 4.37. Let me just read it to you because it's brief.
He said, now I, Nebuchadnezzar. You remember who Nebuchadnezzar
is, don't you? He said, look at this kingdom that I've built.
Look what I've done. Aren't I a great king? Look at
my accomplishments. And God brought him into the
dust and turned him into an animal and made him live out in the
field for a little while. He just basically took his hand
off of him. Isn't that what he did? Oh, that's why we pray. We often
pray, Lord, don't leave us to ourselves. You know why? Because we're animals. We're
worse than animals. We're vile beasts before him. But he said now, because God
restored his kingdom to him, God took it away from him and
then gave it back to him to show who had given it to him to begin
with. And he said, now I praise and extol and honor the king
of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment.
And I learned a little something Nebuchadnezzar said, those that
walk in pride, he's able to abase. Oh, there's your answer right
there. Lord, bring me low. If my people shall humble themselves,
oh Lord, put me in the dust where I belong. He's able to do it. You can say I'll do it, but you
can't get it done. But he can. Lord, humble me. Bring me low. Put me in the dust
and cause me to look up and to beg you for everything I need.
So our response to God is simple, isn't it? Keep us humble. Bring
us low. Don't let me be what I am by
nature. Job said in Job 19, nine, he has stripped me of my glory.
Ask him for that. Lord, strip me of my glory. And
he's taken the crown off of my head, Job said. That's what needs
to happen right there. God's going to have to take the
crown off of our heads. And that's our response to it.
May he do that for us also. Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are they that are in the dust. And then he said, pray
and seek my face. That's that's one thing. Because
in praying, that's what you're doing. You're seeking the face
of God. You're coming before him. Come to God instead of running
from God. Seek him instead of avoiding
him. By nature, we're hiding behind the bushes still, aren't
we? Where Adam was. Well, Adam, where are you? You're
still there, aren't you? Unless, by God's grace, you've
sought his face. When Adam had sinned, before
God had had mercy on him, he went and hid from God. He didn't
come to God and say, Lord, I've sinned. Help me, I've sinned.
No, he wasn't seeking God's face. And neither are you, unless He's
come to you first. God says, Come. Let us reason together. Why do you think so often in
the Word of God, in Old Testament and New, The Lord Jesus Christ
says this, come, come to me. That's because you're out there.
You're far off. You've been running from him.
You're hiding from him by nature. You despise him. You don't want
to have anything to do with him. But in grace and mercy, he says,
come. Come and let us reason together.
God looked down upon the children of men, and do you know what
He was looking for? It says in Psalm 53, He looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. Is there anybody saying,
God, I've sinned, I need Your help. Have mercy on me. Is there
anybody doing that? And you know what He saw, don't
you? Every one of them has gone back. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not They're not anybody seeking for God by nature. What then do we respond to His
proposition? If you'll pray and seek My face,
will we say, we'll seek You, Lord, oh, we'll seek You? No, our response is the same
as David's in Psalm 65, verse 4. Blessed is the man whom Thou
choosest and cause us to approach unto Thee. That's what we need. Lord, bring us down in the dust
and cause us to approach You. If He don't, you're going to
still be running from Him when He puts you in hell. That He may dwell in thy courts.
What are you doing in His courts this morning? Did you come to
your senses on your own? Or did God have mercy on you?
and cause you to approach unto Him, that He may dwell in thy
courts and be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even
your holy temple." Are you satisfied? Thank God He brought us. He bought
us and brought us and taught us by His grace. And then three,
if you'll turn from your wicked ways. Oh, no problem. I'm going
to turn over a new leaf. I'm going to make a decision
for Jesus. Are you now? Will you dare to promise God
that you'll do this of your own strength. No, I'll tell you this. This had better be when God calls
you to turn from your wicked ways and repent before Him. This
had better be our response. Lamentations 5, 19, Thou, O Lord,
remainest forever. Thou thrown from generation to
generation, wherefore dost thou forget us forever and forsake
us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, and we
shall be turned. I recommend that response to
this proposition. If you'll turn from your wicked
ways, I'll have mercy on you. Oh Lord, turn me. Turn me. Turn me. Do you have the heart,
by God's grace, to pray that way? Oh, but we're not through. I'm going to be brief this morning,
but I'm not done yet. There's another aspect to your
response. I had better be there. Understand
this. Even if God grants repentance
to us, our repentance will need to be repented of. Isn't that
right? Even if you obey God outwardly,
your obedience will have to be paid for by His precious blood. Because it's full of sin. Isn't
that right? There's evil pride in our most
humble thought before God. And our most selfless action
is full of self. Is that your case? Is it thus
with you? And He said, if you'll pray to
Me, if you'll seek My faith, our prayers are so cold, aren't
they? Even when He enables us to pray
and gives us grace to do it, our prayers are so cold and dead
before Him, aren't they? Our evil nature is still alive
and well within us. And though by God's grace the
spirit may be willing, and it is. He said it is. But the flesh
is weak. Thank God for the change. Thank
God for the spirit. Thank God for the new heart,
but bless His holy name. That's not all there is to it. Thank Him that He's made us new.
If you love Him, If you've ever worshipped Him at all, if you
pray at all, even as cold and dead as it is, if you pray at
all, if you've bowed at all, praise Him for His sovereign
grace, for His free grace, because you didn't before. You didn't before He found you,
before He sought you and found you and brought you. Thank God
for His free grace. Thank God for His indwelling
Spirit whose fruit you bear. The fruit of the Spirit is all
the things. that God has wrought in us and through us? It's born
by us and give glory where it's due. But would you have God's
promised blessing contingent upon even your best obedience
as a believer? I think not. No. When God says, if you'll
humble yourself, and it's interesting that he began with that, isn't
it? It all started with pride. And
we're still so full of it. So full of it. What an insidious
evil this is in our hearts. Self-righteous pride in our dealings
with others and in our thoughts toward God. But when God says this, when
He makes this proposition, if you'll humble yourself, not only
pray, Lord, humble me. Bring me low, but don't bless
me based on even my best and most humble state before you. Don't bless me based on that. Even then there'll be wicked
pride in my heart. Oh, wretched man that I am. I
can't bow low enough, but my savior did. There's my hope. There's the answer. There's where
the promise comes in. And it's sure to all them that
believe. What our brother read this morning, even as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Don't look at my humble obedience,
Lord. Don't look at my humility, even
that which You give me, even when You bring me into death.
Don't look at that, but look at my Savior. Look how low He
came. Look how far He came down to
rescue me I can't obey your command. I can't meet this proposition.
I can't meet the terms. I can't keep your covenant. But
my master did. I can't humble myself. Can you
humble yourselves? That's the command. Humble yourself.
But my Savior did. Did you notice the wording of
what he read there in Philippians 2? Being found in fashion as
a man. He humbled himself. He did what
you can't do. God will have to humble you.
But my Lord Jesus Christ, He condescended. He left the
throne of glory and came down into this sin-wrecked earth,
into this dust that we walk in, into this vile place that we
ruined with our sin, and dwelt among us and humbled Himself.
and became obedient. And I can't obey God. I flat
out can't. That doesn't mean that we won't
try to outwardly obey him and desire to and do by God's grace
the best we can. Is that a wrong thing to say?
By God's grace, we want to obey. I want to build the heart, don't
you? I want to choose Christ. But I'll tell you this, he'll
have to do it in me. He'll have to cause it to happen in me.
He'll have to cause me to approach unto Him if I'm going to. And
even when He does, my approach unto Him won't merit anything.
But the Lord Jesus Christ did for me what God requires and
did it perfectly. There's my hope. We look to Him,
not to the law. We don't preach the letter, Paul
said, because the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. I
can't obey. Not like God requires. I can
outwardly obey his word, and we do by his grace, some, don't
we? But not like he requires, not
like his perfect holiness demands, but my Redeemer did in every
jot and tittle. Being in the form of God, he
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation. That's what God's talking about
when he said, if my people will humble themselves. Are you gonna
jump up and say, okay, no problem? Or are you gonna look to him
who was equal with God the Father and yet made himself of no reputation? There's my humility right there. And took upon him the form of
a servant. And God Almighty was made in the likeness of men.
You'd think that would be coming down far enough. But even being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, he went down
lower. and died on a cruel, rugged cross
for my sins. Naked and shamed by men and spat
on and cursed. My Lord did what God requires
of me. He humbled himself. He is my obedience to this premise. And my response is, Lord, bless
me for his sake. Forgive my sin for his sake. I need the benefit, but I can't
meet the requirement except in him. But in him, I've met it. Well, let's look at the next
one. He said, If you'll pray and seek my face. Oh, You ready to take that on? You ready to come before God?
Are you ready to come as you are in yourself, in your sin,
in your flesh before God? No, not even as a believer would
I come before God in my present state. I've got a new heart. I'm changed. But I can't come
before Him as I am. Not like that. Prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it. Don't you? prone to leave the
God I love. But my Savior, He had meat to
eat that I know not of. His meat was always to do the
will of the Father, the will of Him that sent Him. There's
my obedience to this. Pray and seek my faith. God says
if you'll turn from your wickedness, if you'll turn from your wicked
ways, we do say, Lord, keep me from evil. Help me to obey this
outwardly. I don't want to get into sin
before God. Lord, hide Your Word in my heart
that I might not sin against Thee. But even when that happens,
I don't want to stand before God and myself. Do you? No. Lord, even if I could do everything
You command me to do, I'm an unprofitable servant. That's
what He said. Unprofitable servant. Even in
my best state, As a believer, new heart notwithstanding, new
nature notwithstanding, in my best state, I'm altogether vanity
before God. But my Savior, here's my plea, here's my hope.
When God says, if you'll turn from your wicked ways, If you'll
obey me, that's what turning from your wickedness is. It's
to turn to Him. It's to obey Him. It's to do what He said
to do. It's to be righteous before God. Well, I can't do it. Can
you? The folks there, the people of
Israel said, we will. We'll keep the law. We'll keep
the covenant. And they didn't. And God knew
they wouldn't when He commanded them to. But my Lord Jesus Christ, my
substitute, has bled for my sin, you see. He's washed all my sins
away in his precious blood. And now I come saying, just as
I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. You
got another plea besides that? You gonna say, oh, I'll do it.
I'll keep it. I'll perform. I've got one plea. I don't know
about you. It's that his blood was shed
for me. And now when he bids me come to him, I point to that
blood, not just physically, but in my heart. I own him as my
sin offering before God, my righteousness before God. He washed me from
my sin in that precious blood that he shed on Calvary. I wasn't
redeemed with corruptible things. How about you? Such as silver
and gold. but with the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
If God's gonna forgive my sins, it's not gonna be based on my
performance, but His. His obedience and His death. I can't, because of my flesh,
I can't turn all the way from my wicked way and turn to you,
but my Lord Jesus Christ never turned away. He never turned
aside from doing the Father's will In every jot and tittle,
He was able to say, I do always those things that please my Father. There's my obedience. The things that I would not,
those I do. But in Him, there is no sin. There was no guile found in His
mouth. He's the spotless, holy Lamb of God that takes away sin. You see why we answer the way
we do? God, be merciful, that publican cried to me, the sinner. And that word merciful means
propitious. It has to do with the propitiation
that was made on the mercy seat when the blood of that innocent
victim was splashed upon the mercy seat before God, and God
said, I'm pleased. Because that blood was offered
by faith in the Lamb of God that takes away sin. And that's what
he's saying. Lord, be merciful. Accept an
offering For me, the sinner. Isn't that what He said? Accept
an offering. I plead the blood before you.
I plead the blood. Not that I'm not like other men.
Not, I'll keep you. I'll humble myself. I'll pray.
No, Lord, be merciful to me. There's your answer. There's
your answer. Now, the shed blood and sinless
perfection of my Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ, I pray God be merciful
to me and forgive my sins and bless me and your son. Is that
your answer now? God said if my people, which
are called by my name, will humble themselves. What's your answer
to that going to be? I'm going to look to him that
made himself of no reputation and he did it as my representative. And pray and seek my face. My
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I have meat to eat that
you Lord, you haven't eaten anything. We're worried about you. You've
been up in the mountain all night praying. Oh, I've eaten. I've eaten. He
said, there's my hope. There's my hope and turn from
our wicked ways. Seek his faith. He said, I'll
forgive you sin. Do you have, do you need your
sin forgiven? Bless God on the representative substitute the
Lord Jesus Christ before God. Plead his humble submission and
obedience and his sin offering before God. And God said, I'll
forgive you and I'll heal your land. Let's think about that
this year throughout this year. Our Lord Jesus Christ has met
every requirement. He's kept the covenant. God said,
if you'll keep my covenant, I did. when he did. I died when Adam
died. I obeyed when he obeyed. I humbled
myself when he humbled himself. I kept the covenant when he did.
My sins are paid for by his precious blood. He's my hope. He's my
all and end all. And may we own him throughout
this year as such by God's grace. Let's bow and pray.