Now we're using this evening
in our study as we go through 2 Kings from chapter 14. We read the first four verses,
and I would encourage you to go back and look at that again.
But now, find 2 Chronicles 25. 2 Chronicles 25. And I'm taking
the title for the message from the words found in verse
8 of 2 Chronicles 25 verse 8. But if thou wilt go, do it, be
strong for the battle. If you're going to go with those
idolaters of Ephraim, the man of God said you go ahead and
do it, but God shall make thee fall before the enemy. You're
not going to win. You're going to be defeated. For God hath power To help, God
has power to cast down. Now that's the title of the message.
Isn't that true? God has all power to our help. If God be for us, who can be
against us? God has all power to our help. but he also has all power to
destroy. He has all power to cast down
those who would stand in opposition to his will, in opposition to
his way, in opposition to his salvation. God has all power
in heaven and in earth, and that means nobody else has any power. but that which God is pleased
to give them. But isn't that true? Isn't that
the summary is true? The true summary of the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has all power to our salvation,
doesn't he? He said, I am the Lord, there
is none else. I'm the only just God and Savior.
He's able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him,
seeing that he ever liveth for us. The Lord Jesus Christ has
all power in heaven and in earth to our help and to our salvation. The Lord prayed in John 17, Father,
you've given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given to me. And then in Psalm
33, we read this. Our soul waiteth for the Lord
for he is our help. He has all power to our help.
He is our help. He is our shield. He is He said, come boldly unto the
throne of grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need. You know who needs help? Worthless
sinners, vile sinners. Psalm 124 says this, verse eight,
our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. And then the psalmist said in
Psalm 121, I'll lift up my eyes into the hill from which come
with my help, my help come from the Lord. He is our mighty helper. He is our mighty God. He's able
to save to the uttermost. He has all power in heaven and
earth. Psalm 135, whatsoever the Lord
plead, that did he, heaven, earth, seas, and all deep places. Now we see in this chapter, this
29 year history of the king, one of the kings of Israel, his
name is Amaziah. He did reign in Jerusalem, and
that the Lord both helped him, in the battle to defeat the Edomites
but because of his idolatry the Lord also defeated him at the
hands of his own family, Joash the king of Israel. Amaziah like
his father Joash of Judah died by the hand of his own servants
because he turned away from the Lord Look at verse 27 again. Now, after that time that Amaziah
did turn away from following the Lord, his own servants put
him to death. The same thing that happened
to his father, Joash of Judah. He turned away from the Lord,
and the Lord sent him judgment. You remember back in 2 Chronicles
chapter 20, Turn back one page there, 2 Chronicles 24 rather,
verse 20. When the prophet came to Joash
of Judah, the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada,
the priest, who stood above the people and said unto him, Thus
saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord,
that ye cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the
Lord, He has also forsaken you. Those who forsake the Lord, they
cannot prosper. Now they may have a little bit
of change in their pocket, but they're not going to prosper
spiritually, are they? At all. None whatsoever. Look at verse 1 and verse 2,
2nd Chronicles 25, and Amaziah was 25 years old when it began
to rain, and he had a rain of 29 years. His mother's name was
Jehoadam of Jerusalem, and he did that which was right in the
eyes, in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.
And then, don't turn, but let me just read this to you, back
in 2 Kings 14. He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord, yet not like David his father, he did
according to all things as Joash his father did. Not like David,
but like his father Joash, who died in idolatry. Amaziah started
well. He did many things right. In
his duty as king, in some things he did that which was right,
but not like David, not with a perfect and sincere heart.
He went after God half-heartedly, not whole-hearted like David
did. David was a man after God's own
heart, a sinner justified by Christ. David had many problems
and many heartaches, but his heart was not divided. He loved
the Lord. He believed the Lord, even though
he did some terrible, sinful things, his heart was never divided. He was totally sold out to the
Lord, his God. He's called a man after God's
own heart. He prayed, have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude
of thy tender mercy, blot out my sin. He never prayed, Lord,
forgive me because I'm the king. Forgive me because I defeated
the Philistine. Oh, no. He didn't beg for forgiveness
upon merit, but rather God's mercy. That's a good lesson for
us. Is it not? Have mercy upon me,
O God. Amaziah did according to all
things as Joash his father did. Now remember what happened to
Joash his father. Turn back one page again to chapter
24, 2 Chronicles. You remember, After the death of Jehoiada,
verse 17, came the princes of Judah and made obeisance to the
king. And the king hearkened to them,
verse 17, verse 18, and they left the house of the Lord, God
of their fathers, and served the groves and idols. And the
wrath of God came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their trespass
against God. They served the groves, they
served the idols. As soon as his mentor Jehoiada
was dead, he went astray immediately. His heart was never right. Jehoash of Judah turned to his
idols and killed the priest of God. And like his father, Amaziah
turned to idolatry and forsakes the Lord like father, like son. What did Joash beget? A son named
Amaziah that was a sinner just like his father. And that's all
sinners can beget. My children, my grandchildren,
they all have the same sinful nature that I have, born in sin,
shaping in iniquity. We see and we understand what
we are by nature, don't we? is so prone to self-righteousness
and idolatry of one kind or another, the Lord must restrain us and
keep us from wickedness, from the wickedness of our own heart,
from being half-hearted and not fully following the Lord our
God. But now, think about this. Even
being wholehearted and fully desiring to follow the Lord in
faith is never the cause, ground, or reason of our salvation. It may be the effect of it. Christ
the Lord Jesus, Christ in Him crucified, is the only reason
of our salvation. His grace and His grace alone. It's God who saved us. It's God
who called us. Not according to our works. but
rather according to God's own purpose and grace. We're justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In verses 3 and 4, Amaziah took
revenge upon those who killed his father. It came to pass when
the kingdom was established to him that he slew his servants
that had killed the king, his father. Look at verse 4, but
he slew not their children, but did as is written in the law
of the book of Moses where the Lord commanded saying the father
shall not die for the children for their sin neither shall the
children die for the father but every man shall die because of
his own sin against God. Amaziah took revenge upon those
that had killed his father But he did not kill the children
of those men that killed his father. And it says there he
did so according to the law of Moses. He obeyed that part of
it because it was convenient for him to do so. But when it
came to thou shalt worship the Lord thy God only and have no
idols, he disregarded the law of God In that area, he took
what part of the law served his purpose and was convenient to
him. He said, well, I won't kill their children because that's
what the law says. But he doesn't have a problem
taking 10,000 people and throwing them off a cliff. But what I
want us to glean from this little statement right here found in
the last part of verse 4, every man shall die for his own sins. There's a gospel principle here
that's revealed as well. The Lord our God justly punishes
us for our sins. You see, our sins are against
God, not for the sins of others. God's not going to punish me
for my father's sin. He's going to punish me for my
sin. Now listen, I thought this through
when I wrote this down. God's not even going to punish
me for Adam's sin. It's my sin that's the problem
against God. Now, the reason I can say that
with some confidence, I've never read in the scriptures anywhere
where the Lord taught us to pray, forgive us for Adam's sin. Never. I've never read it. Forgive us
for Adam's sin that's imputed and reckoned us. Our Lord taught
us to pray this way. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive us our sins. You see, it's me. It's our sins. Let's not even blame Adam. Although
Adam sinned against God and it was reckoned and imputed to us,
but we have a problem. Our sins are against God. We're
the ones that have sinned against God. We're the ones that are
guilty before God. You see, sin is our problem against
God. When the Lord put away our sin,
it was our personal and actual sin we have personally committed
against Him. But thank God for the scripture
where it says, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses us
from all our sin against him. We studied in 1 John 2.12, I
write unto you little children because your sins, your sins
are forgiven for his name's sake. That's a good lesson. Let us
never blame anyone else. We're the problem. We're the
guilt. It's all my fault. It's all my
fault. My sins are my own against God
and we own them as such. In verses 5 down through verse
12, the Lord gave Amaziah the victory over the Edomites. I
thought about this. Who are the children of the Edomites?
Who is their father? Jacob, have I loved, Esau, Edomites. And Amaziah goes to war against
them. To ensure the victory, he makes
a terrible mistake, as it says there, he counts all his soldiers,
Benjamin and Judah, verse 5, and found 300,000 choice men
able to go forth to war. that could handle the spear and
handle the shield. But to ensure the victory, he's
going to hire another hundred thousand men of the tribe of
Ephraim of Israel. And he does it with a hundred
talents of silver. But there's a problem. Verse
7, But there came a man of God to him, the prophet of God came
to him, saying, O king, Let not the army of Israel go with thee,
that is, of Ephraim. For the Lord is not with Israel
to wit, namely, all the children of Ephraim that you've hired.
But if you go to battle, do it and be strong, God shall make
you fall." If you go to battle with those men, you're going
to be defeated. The Edomites are going to beat
you. For God has power to help. God has power to cast down. To
ensure the victory, Amaziah makes a terrible mistake. Instead of
trusting the Lord for the victory, he hires 1,000 mercenaries from
the tribe of Ephraim. These men were of Israel. Remember,
Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. These men were of
Israel, but they were given over to idolatry. It says in Hosea,
4, 17, Ephraim is joined to his idols, leave him alone. Don't have anything to do with
idolatry. Don't have anything to do with
those who are contrary, walk contrary to the gospel of God's
grace. Verse 7 down through verse 10,
the Lord sends Amaziah, a man of God, the prophet of God, to
tell him to fire the army that he had hired, for God is able
to give you the victory. Look what it says in verse 9,
Amaziah said to the man of God, What shall we do with the hundred
talents of silver I've given to the army of Israel? And the
prophet of God, the man of God answered, Well, the Lord will
take care of that. The Lord is able to give thee
much more. Now that's a good statement,
much more. We read that all the way through
the Scripture, don't we? Much more. Where sin abounded,
Grace does much more abound. The Lord is not with the children
of Ephraim for their idolatry. If you go to battle with them,
you're going to get whipped. You're going to lose. God has
all power to give you the victory or to cast you down according
to His will. Now we sure know this is true
with regard to our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has given us the victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave. We can trust Him for some of
salvation. No, we can trust Him for all
of salvation, thanks being the God who has given us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. He went forth conquering and
to conquer, and He has conquered all of our enemies. Romans 8,
37 says, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Amaziah
makes a complaint about, well, you know, I've spent a little
bit of money to hire this army. What about the money? What about the hundred talents
of silver? And the man of God answered,
the Lord will take care of that. The Lord is able to give you
much more. You reckon He is? He's able. He's able. The Lord is able to
give us much more. Where sin abounded, grace does
much more abound. Is not this a great truth we
find out throughout the Word of God? I want you to turn to
these scriptures. We are never losers, turn to Matthew 6 verse
30. We're never losers by trusting
the Lord, never. Matthew 6 verse 30. We're never
losers by trusting the Lord, but we have much more in Him. Matthew 6 verse 30. Wherefore,
if God so clothe the grass of the field which today is, and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall not he much more clothe
you, O ye of little faith? Seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness, and all these things be added unto
you." Now right across the page, 7, Matthew 7, 11, If you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good
things to them that ask Him? Much more, much more. Now, turn to another scripture
that we read often. Find Romans 5. Romans 5. Romans
5, verse 8. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Verse 9, Romans 5. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Much
more. A couple more. Find Hebrews,
the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 9, 14. Hebrews 9, 14. We have eternal redemption that
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, has obtained for us with His own
blood. Verse 13 of Hebrews 9, For the
blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctified to the purifying in the flesh, in a
ceremonial way, how much more? shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead work to serve the living God."
And I have one more. Find 1 Peter 1. You see, much more God is able
to do. Much more above all that we ask
or even think He's able to do much more. 1 Peter 1. Verse 6, wherein you greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness
to manifold temptation, that the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now back to 2 Chronicles
25. Amaziah did fire the 1,000 mercenary soldiers
of Ephraim. And the Lord did give him a victory
over the Edomites. But there's a big problem that
came. Look at verse 14. It came to
pass after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites.
He killed 10,000. In the battle, he captured 10,000
and had them executed. Now it came to pass after the
Amaziah was come from the slaughter, verse 14 of the Edomite, that
he brought the gods of the children of Seir and set them up to be
his gods and bowed down himself before them and burned incense. Now that's just absolutely, you
think, He saw his father go that way. God sent judgment on him and
killed his father. And yet, he does the exact same
thing his father does. He turns away from the Lord and
turns to idolatry. Amaziah brought the idols of
the Edomites into his possession. And it says, verse 15, well,
the Lord was just happy. Everything was okay. I'm okay,
you're okay. The Lord was angry. It was kindled
against him. And he sent unto him a prophet,
which said to him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of this
people, which could not deliver their own people? You think they're
going to help you? They didn't help them. That's
pretty good reading, isn't it? He brought the idols of Edomite
into his possession, and the Lord was angry and sent judgment
on him. He did the same thing his father
did, Joash, with the same results. The Lord was angry with him and
brought judgment on him. We read in Exodus chapter 20.
Turn over there, let's read this together. In the giving of the
law, Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. Remember what the Lord says about
idolatry? Exodus 20 verse 3, Thou shalt
have no other God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them. For I am the Lord thy God, and
I am jealous, visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."
That's what the law of God demands, doesn't it? Perfection or death.
The Lord sends him a prophet with a message in verse 15 of
our text. These idols of the Edomites could
not save them, Yet, Amaziah made a choice to worship them and
pray unto a God that cannot save, as we read in Isaiah 45. Look
at verse 16, a message of judgment is sent. And it came to pass,
as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Art thou
made the king's counselor? Forbear." In other words, he's
telling the man of God, just stop preaching to me. Why shouldst
thou be smitten? You stop preaching or I'm going
to have you killed. Then the prophet stopped, forbear, and
said, I know that God hath determined, one last word I'm going to tell
you, God hath determined to destroy you because thou hast done this
and hast not hearkened unto my counsel. a message of judgment God had
determined to destroy you. You have not hearkened to the
counsel of the Lord which is the will of the Lord. The counsel
of the Lord is the purpose of the Lord. What is the counsel
of God in the gospel? Christ. Remember the Apostle
said, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. All the counsel of God in salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ in Him crucified. Proverbs 29 says,
He that being often reproved and hardened his neck shall be
suddenly destroyed and that without remedy. He was reproved, wasn't
he? He was rebuked, but he hardened
his neck. He wouldn't listen. you'll be
destroyed without remedy. And that's exactly what happened.
Now, in verse 17 down through verse 24, and we'll wind this
up. Then Amaziah, king of Judah,
he took advice. He took counsel, but not of the
man of God. He took counsel from his advisors
and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoaz, the son of Jehu, king
of Israel, saying, come, let us see one another face to face. He wants to fight now and invade
Samaria and the kingdom of Israel to the north. Amaziah took advice, but not
of God nor of his prophets, but of some of his nobles like himself
and rejected the counsel of God He took bad advice, didn't he?
One old preacher said this, Matthew Henry, those who will not take
advice from the word of God, which would guide them aright,
will justly be left to bad advice of those that will counsel them
to destruction. Remember the Lord, the word of
the Lord is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway. If I look at verse 19, Joash
in verse 18 of Israel said to Amaziah, you're a thistle, I'm
a cedar in Lebanon and I'm going to crush you. Now how he knew
this, I don't know, but he did with confidence. You're a thistle,
I'm going to crush you. Verse 19, thou sayest, lo thou
hast smitten the Edomites, And thine heart lifted thee up to
boast. He was presumptuous that he could
defeat Joash of Israel. And Joash said, You better stay
home. Now about at home, why shouldst
thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldst follow even thou
Judah and those with thee? But Amaziah would not hear. where
it came from God that he might deliver them into the hand of
their enemies, because they sought after the God, the gods, small
g, of Edom. So Joash the king of Israel went
up, and they saw one another face to face, both he and Amaziah
king of Judah at Beth Shemesh, which belonged to Judah, and
Judah was put to worse. They were smitten before Israel.
they fled every man to his tent and Joash the king of Israel
took Amaziah king of Judah and Joash the son of Jehoiaz at Bathshemas
and brought him to Jerusalem took him back to his home break
down the wall now this is not a fence this is the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the
corner gate 400 cubits And he took all the gold of Amaziah,
all the silver. He's worried about losing 100,000.
He lost everything now. All the vessels that were in
the house of the Lord, the Lord God of Obed-Edom, and the treasure
of the king's house, and the hostages, and they returned to
Samaria. He was a wipeout. He was a wipeout. He was wiped out. His heart was
lifted up to boast. Amaziah's heart being swelled
and lifted up with pride, having defeated the Enamites, now seeks
to make war against Joash, a civil war among his own people. He
presumed that he was able to bring home the victory, but the
Lord destroyed him. What is his problem? What is
his problem? Presumption. Presumptuous. He that exalted himself shall
be abased. Now I want you to turn to some
Scripture with me on this issue of pride. And see what the Lord
says about pride. That was Amaziah's problem. His
heart was lifted up with pride. Find Psalm 138. Psalm 138. Page 819 if you have the Cambridge
I've got. Psalm 138, verse 6. Though the Lord be high,
yet he hath respect unto the lowly, but to pride he knoweth
afar off. Pride is a deadly thing. Turn
to Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6. Amaziah's heart was lifted up
with presumption and pride. Proverbs 6, verse 16. These six
things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are abomination unto him,
a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked imagination, feet that be swift in running
to mischief, a false witness, that speaketh lies, and he that
soweth discord among the brethren." The top of the list, a proud
look, a lying tongue. Proverbs 16, 18. Turn over there. Proverbs 16, 18. We could read
many, many, many more. This is a well-known scripture
here. Proverbs 16, 18. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before the fall. He is nigh unto them of
a broken heart, save as much as be of a contrite spirit, but,
oh, to have a proud heart." God hates a proud, proud heart. Now find 1 Corinthians 10. 1
Corinthians 10 verse 12. You say, well, that would never
happen to me. I'd never go that way. Oh, yeah?
You better say, Lord willing, by His grace. 1 Corinthians 10
verse 12, Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed,
lest he fall. Don't be full of presumption. And then Galatians chapter 6,
turn there. Galatians 6 verse 3, For if a man thinketh
himself to be something," Galatians 6, 3, "...when a man thinketh
himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself."
We are nothing. He is everything. We studied
in James 4, verse 6, "...God resisted the proud, but He gives
grace to the humble." May God save us from a proud, proud heart. The Lord gave Joash of Israel
the victory over Amaziah. He broke down 600 feet of the
wall of Jerusalem, exposed them to the enemy, to the elements,
took all the silver, all the gold, plundered the house of
the Lord, and took away hostages. Pride cost him everything, didn't
it? Even his life. Amaziah in verse 25 to verse
28. Amaziah started well, but he
had a bad end. He turned from following the
Lord. Did you notice that? Turn to 2 Chronicles 25 verse
27. Now, after the time that Amaziah
did turn away from following the Lord, his own people turned
on him. They made a conspiracy against
him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent to
Lachish after him and slew him there. And they brought him upon
horses and buried him with his father in the city of Judah,
in the city of David, it says in another place. He started
well, but ended in ruin. His own servants killed him,
and he died just as his father did, at the hand of his own servants. He died in idolatry, without
God, without hope, and without Christ. Our Lord said, except
you believe that I am, you'll die in your sins. May the Lord
be pleased to keep us by His mighty power and cause us to
die in faith. God has power to help. Oh, He's
a mighty helper. God has power to cast down too.
Let us not presume. I've told you many times, the
Lord hedges His people about on two sides. Warnings, lest
they or promises lest they despair and warnings lest they presume
against God. I don't want to be presumptuous.
I want to believe Him and look to the Lord Jesus Christ for
all of salvation.