And in the 20th year of Jeroboam,
king of Israel, reigned Asa over Judah. And 41 years reigned he
in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Micaiah, the daughter
of Absalom. Asa did that which was right
in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father. They had been a long
time without this. And he took away the sodomites
out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had
made. And also Micaiah, his mother, even her he removed from being
queen because she'd made an idol in a grove and Asa destroyed
her idol and burnt it by the brook Chidron. But the high places
were not removed. That's not good. Nevertheless,
Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days. And he
brought in the things which his father had dedicated and the
things which himself had dedicated in the house of the Lord, silver
and golden vessels. And there was a war between Asa
and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days. And Baasha, king
of Israel, went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might
not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. He
was trying to put a blockade in Jerusalem so nobody could
leave there or go there. Then Asa took all the silver
and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of
the Lord and the treasures of the king's house and delivered
them into the hands of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Benhadad,
the son of Tabramon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that
dwelt at Damascus, saying, there's a league between me and thee
and between my father and thy father. Behold, I've sent thee
a present of silver and gold, all the stuff that was in the
temple. "'Come and break thy league with Baasha, king of Israel,
"'that he may depart from me.' "'So Benadad hearkened unto King
Asa, "'and sent the captains of the host, "'which he had against
the cities of Israel, "'and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbeth,
and Mekah, "'and all of Sinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.
"'And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, "'that he left
off building of Ramah, "'and dwelt in Tirzah.' Then King Asa
made a proclamation throughout all Judah. None was exempted,
and they took away the stones of Ramah and the timber thereof
with Bashan and built it. And King Asa built with them
Geba of Benjamin and Misbah. The rest of all the acts of Asa
and all his might and all that he did and the cities which he
built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of
the kings of Judah? Nevertheless, in the time of his old age, he
was diseased in his feet. And Asa slept with his fathers
and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, his father.
And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his stead. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, and Lord, we ask for your presence. Lord,
enable us to hear your gospel. Don't leave us to ourselves or
leave us to the words of a man, but by your spirit, we ask that
your gospel would be preached, that you'd give us hearing ears
and receptive hearts. Lord, we ask that you'd give
us grace to love you more. Lord, how we desire to love you
more. Forgive us for the weakness of
our love and by your grace, constrain our hearts to love you more.
We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. We pray for your blessing on
all your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's name
we pray, amen. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter
14. We're going to look more at the
Chronicles account. Gives us a little bit more detail,
or actually a whole lot more detail about this man Asa. Now
Asa was the first good king in many, many years. They had seen
Solomon go wrong toward the end of his life. And his son Rehoboam
was a very wicked man. And he reigned for 40 some years.
And then his son was just as bad as he was. And he reigned
for a long time. But the Lord was pleased to raise
up Asa. All the kings of Israel were
bad. You remember during Rehoboam, Israel was split in two. And
all of a sudden you had the northern and southern kingdoms, Judah
and all the other men. It turned to, I asked you too
quickly to turn to 2 Chronicles, turn back to 1 Kings 14. Keep your finger there in Chronicles
and turn to 1 Kings 14. This is how bad things had become
before Asa was there. And Judah did evil in the sight
of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins
which they had committed above all that their fathers had done.
For they also built them high places and images and groves
on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were
also sodomites in the land, and they did according to all the
abominations of the nations, which the Lord had cast out before
the children of Israel." Now this is how bad things have become.
They were just like everybody else. And then the Lord brings
in Asa. Now turn back to 2 Chronicles
chapter 14. And 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
10 years. There were 10 years of quietness
and prosperity. There weren't problems. And Asa
did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.
Like the king's account says, he was just like David, his great
grandfather. And what did he do? He took away
the altars of the strange gods and the high places and break
down the images and cut down the groves, and commanded Judah
to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and
the commandment. And he took away out of all the
cities of Judah the high places and the images, and the kingdom
was quiet before him." Now, the sin that was so often duplicated
in Israel was they were always going back to idolatry. That's a scary thing. They were
always going back to idolatry. Asa rids the place of it, but
soon after they're going to go right back to idolatry. Now,
what is idolatry? Because when we think of idolatry,
a lot of times we'll think of statues and images and things
of that nature. And indeed, that is idolatry. Any kind of religious image is
idolatry. Crosses, whatever it is, it's
idolatry. But idolatry, is anything that
is not the God of the Bible and is acknowledged as such. That's
idolatry. Any concept of God and acknowledgement
of Him as God that is not the God of the Bible is idolatry. Now here's a very concrete example
of what I'm saying. If the God I worship is not the God of absolute
predestination. The God I worship is an idol. I'm guilty of idolatry. If I acknowledge a God like that
as God, I'm guilty of committing idolatry. Now you see how easy
this can be drawn into. We can be drawn into this so
easy apart from the grace of God. And when this man takes
over, what does he do? He rids the land of idols. He commands Judah to the scriptures
once again, the commandments of the Lord, the scriptures.
And that is where his love for the Lord made him hate idolatry. Now, what is it that causes someone
to give in here, a lack of love or no love at all for the living
God. If you love him, you will be
intolerant of that which detracts from his glory. If you love him.
Now there's, we have this man Asa, by God's grace, he loved
the Lord and he was going to rid the land of idolatry. Now let's go on reading verse
six. And he built thin cities in Judah for the land had rest.
He didn't have to deal with war. So he fortified Israel and Judah. He had no war in those years
because the Lord had given him rest. Therefore he said unto
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, we have sought
him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built
and prospered. You know this thing of seeking
the Lord. What does somebody do when they
seek the Lord? Lord, reveal yourself to me. That is seeking the Lord. That is something that ought
to be on our hearts constantly. Lord, make yourself known to
me. Reveal yourself to me. That's
what it is. Seeking the Lord isn't some kind of... You're
seeking the Lord. Lord, reveal yourself to me. Don't leave me to myself. Now
that's what they were doing at this time. And the land was given
rest. Verse eight, and they had an
army of men that bear targets and spears out of Judah, 300,000
out of Benjamin that bear shields and drew bows, 204,000. All of these were mighty men
of valor, 580,000 soldiers. And there came out against them,
Zerah the Ethiopian with a host of a thousand thousand. A million
people. This is a whole lot more than
580,000. A million people came out against them with a host
and 300 chariots and came unto Maresha. Then Asa went out against
him, and they set the battle in a ray in the valley of Zephanith
of Maresha. And Asa, here's the gospel. 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, O Lord our God, for
we rest on thee. This is our battle. This is the
way we win this battle, by resting. We rest in thee, and in thy name
we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God. Let
not man prevail against thee. So the Lord smoked the Ethiopians
before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. Now,
I love this. Lord, this was a cry to him. You don't have to have many.
You don't have to have few. The only way we're going to win
this battle is by resting in you. What a way to fight. Rest. Rest. I listened to a message
recently where someone was talking about walking in the Spirit,
and walking in the Spirit, understand this, walking in the Spirit is
resting. You don't go in and out, you
rest in Christ. That is walking in the Spirit. And that's how they were going
to win this battle. And so what happened? The Lord came out and fought
this battle for them. And he smoked the Ethiopians.
And isn't that the way we win? The Lord fighting our battle.
The Lord winning for us. And I think of Isaiah 40. Comfort ye my people, speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, tell them that her warfare is accomplished. It's accomplished. Isn't that
a wonderful thing to know that the Lord has already accomplished
my salvation? Battle's over. And we see the
gospel in that, and we see why Asa's heart was right. So the
Lord, verse 12, so the Lord smoked the Ethiopians before Asa and
before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people
that were with him pursued them unto Gerar, and the Ethiopians
were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves, for they
were destroyed before the Lord and before his host. And they
carried away very much spoil. And I think of the spoils that
we enjoy from the Lord's victory. Justification, sanctification,
redemption, adoption. We could go on and on with all
the spoils we enjoy. Acceptance in the Beloved, His
grace continually being preserved by Him. Oh, the spoils of the
victory that He achieved for us. They recovered much spoils,
and they smote all the cities round about Gerar. For the fear
of the Lord came upon them, and they spoiled all the cities,
for there was exceeding much spoil to them. They smote also
the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep and camels in abundance
and returned to Jerusalem. Now we have this prophecy. And
the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Obed. And he went
out to meet Asa and said unto him, Hear ye me Asa, all Judah
and Benjamin, the Lord is with you while you be with him. And
if you seek him, he will be found of you. But if you forsake him,
he will forsake you. Now he starts talking about Israel.
For a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and
without a teaching priest, and without law." That's a sobering
thing to think about. These people had been without
God, without a teaching priest, or without a preacher, without
the law. sobering thing to think, the
Lord can leave a people without these things. I think of where
Amos talked about that famine of the Word of God. And that's
the way Israel was. But, verse four, when they in
their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel and sought
him, he was found of them. Now, who sent the trouble? The
Lord did. And what did this trouble do?
It caused them to turn to the Lord. Now you'll only turn to
the Lord for that which you can't do anything about. And they sought
the Lord and he was found in them and here's it found of him.
And here's what is such a blessing to think about. Everybody who
seeks the Lord finds him. It's always that way. Never anybody
that ever sought the Lord that didn't find him. Seek and you
shall find. Verse five, and in those times
where there was no, they didn't have a sense of the presence
of God, they didn't have a teaching priest, they were without law,
in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to
him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants
of the countries. A nation was destroyed of nation, city of
city, for God did vex them with all adversity, him controlling
everything. Now, you be strong therefore, he's speaking to Asa,
and letting all your hands be weak, for your work shall be
rewarded. And when Asa heard these words, and in the prophecy
of Obad the prophet, he took courage. And what did he do? He put away the abominable idols
out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the
cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim. And he renewed
the altar of the Lord that was before the porch of the Lord.
Now this is what happened when the Lord was granting this encouragement. Number one, he removed the idols
again. How'd they get there after he'd
already removed them? Well, you and I are constantly subject
to falling back into that, and they had. And he removed these,
and the altar was renewed. The supremacy of the sacrifice
of Christ, it was renewed. It was restored. It had fallen
into Not that important. Some kind of religious ritual
to go through. But now all of a sudden the supremacy of the
sacrifice was there again. And he gathered all Judah and
Benjamin and the strangers with him out of Ephraim and Manasseh
and out of Simeon. For they fell to him out of Israel
in abundance when they saw the Lord his God was with him. This
was a very special man. So they gathered themselves together
at Jerusalem in the third month, in the 15th year of the reign
of Asa. And they offered unto the Lord the same time of the
spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen, seven thousand
sheep. And they entered into a covenant
to seek the Lord their God of their fathers with all their
heart and with all their soul, and that whosoever would not
seek the Lord of Israel should be put to death. whether small
or great, whether man or woman. And they swear unto the Lord
with a loud voice and with shouting, with trumpets and with cornets,
and all Judah rejoiced at the oath. For they had sworn with
all their heart and sought him with all their whole desire,
and he was found of them. And the Lord gave them rest round
about. And also, this is how thorough
he was in his destruction of idolatry. Verse 16, and also
concerning Micaiah, the mother of Asa the king. He removed her
from being queen. You've lost your job. You're
out. How come? Because she had made
an idol in a grove, and Asa cut down her idol and stamped it
and burned it at the brook Kyber. Now some people might think,
was he being severe here? No, no, no. Even with his mother, he was
going to destroy that idol, but the high places, were not taken
away out of Israel. Now this is a precursor to this
next chapter where things aren't so good for Asa. But the high
places were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa
was perfect all his days. And he brought into the house
of God the things that his father dedicated and that he himself
had dedicated, silver and gold and vessels. And there was no
more war until the 530th year of the reign of Asa. Now all
this peace for 35 years In the 6th and 30th year of the
reign of Asa, Beasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah
and built Ramah. We read about that earlier in
Kings. And built Ramah to the intent that he might let none
go out or come into Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa brought out
silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and
of the king's house, and sent to Benadad, king of Syria, that
dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee,
there's a covenant, as there was between my father and thy
father. Behold, I've sent thee silver and gold. Go break the
league with Baasha, king of Israel, that he may depart from me. What
about that thousand or that million man army that he just asked the
Lord to defeat? And he did. And now, instead
of doing that, he looks to the Gentiles. I've made a league
with you. Go and defeat this man. Why did he do that? The same reason me and you look
to ourselves instead of Christ. How often do you do that? Same
thing. Same thing. It's sad, but it's
the same thing. Verse 4, And Ben-Hadad hearkened unto King
Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities
of Israel. And they smote Isaan, and Dan, and Abulam, and all
the store cities of Naphtali. And it came to pass, when Beashis
heard it, that he left off building of Ramah, and let the work cease. Now it worked, seemingly. It worked. Now, just because
something appears like it works, doesn't make it right, does it?
Doesn't make it right at all. And he's gonna find this out.
Verse five, then Asa the king took all Judah, and they carried
away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith
Bashar was building, and he built there Giba and Mizpah. And at
that time, Hanaiah, the seer, the prophet, came to Asa, king
of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the
king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore
is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. And
he reminds him, Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubams a huge
host with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou
didst rely on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. And that's
what faith is. I love the word rely. Rely. Relying on the Lord. I'm relying
on the Lord to bring me into glory. I'm relying on the Lord
to keep me. I'm relying on the Lord to be
my righteousness. I'm relying on the Lord for everything. That's what faith is. But he
didn't do it at this time. Look in verse nine. For the eyes
of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself
strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward
him. Now, what is a perfect heart? A perfect heart is a heart that
looks to Christ only, relying only on him. Nothing more, nothing
less, and nothing else. That's the perfect heart, and
that's the heart the Lord's looking for. The Scriptures says His
eyes run to and fro over all the earth to be a help, a strength
to those who rely only on Him. Don't you want to be one of those
people that rely only on Him? That's the perfect heart before
the Lord. For the eyes of the Lord run
to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong
in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein
thou hast done foolishly. Therefore from henceforth thou
shalt have wars. Now Asa did what you and I do
when we're corrected. Then Asa was wroth with the seer
and he put him in prison. He was angry. Isn't it horrible
the way when someone... I want to have that attitude,
let the righteous smite me, but when they smite me I get mad,
just like... Asa did. He's corrected, and
he gets upset, he gets angry, and he has this guy thrown into
prison for doing it. You know, he's the king. He can
do whatever he wanted to. And so he lets this guy have it. A prophet of the Lord. And this
is this man with a perfect heart. You know, Asa is a reminder to
us that This is us, perfect in Christ Jesus, yet so flawed,
so contradictory, so sinful. That was Asa. He proves that
here, doesn't he? This man who had a perfect heart
all of his days, yet look at the way he's ending. Verse 10,
and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. He's
going back to law. That's what happens when people
go bad. They go back to law and they start oppressing people,
trying to force their way, trying to force their hand. And verse
11, and behold, the acts of Asa first and last, lo, they are
written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Asa
in the 39th year of his reign, here's an interesting detail,
was diseased in his feet. Now, yes, he had a literal disease
in his feet, but this speaks of something. Jacob walked with a limp all
his days. Mephibosheth was lame in both
of his feet. The seraphims, what do they do? They cover their feet. Your feet
have something to do with your walk. And he became diseased
in his feet. And it has something to do with
him no longer relying on the Lord. Diseased feet. I think of the seraphims covering
their feet. They're ashamed of their walk
even though they don't have any sin. Now how can that be? Because
they know they would unless God prevented it. Now, diseased in
his feet. That's the way he dies. diseased
in his feet. And look what he did. He sought,
verse 12, and Asa in the thirtieth and ninth year of his reign was
diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great.
Yet in his disease, he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians. Now, some people use that to
say you shouldn't go to doctors, you ought to just ask the Lord
to heal you. No, it doesn't have anything to do with what he's
saying. But who do we ask the Lord? The Lord uses physicians,
but who are we looking to? The Lord Himself. The Lord Himself. He didn't do that. And Asa slept
with his fathers and died in the 140th year of his reign.
Now, Asa was a great man, perfect in heart
all the days of his life. Yet the scriptures, one of the
things I love about the scriptures, they always point out the weakness
and the flaw of perfect men. And it's a reminder to us that
thank God for his grace that makes us perfect, and that man
in his best state, like Asa, is altogether vanity. Me and you, in our best state,
are altogether vanity. Amen.