SPEAKER_00: Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 14, 2 Kings 14, and we're looking at a section of Scripture that continues the themes that were discussed last week and flow right into the very next chapter.
SPEAKER_00: But there are some captivating themes tonight that I trust will comfort us, but also bring great conviction to our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hear the word of the living God 2 Kings chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: In the second year of Joash, the son of Jehoaz, King of Israel, Amaziah, the son of Joash, King of Judah, became king.
SPEAKER_00: He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: His mother's name was Jehoadan of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like his father David.
SPEAKER_00: He did everything as his father Joash had done.
SPEAKER_00: However, the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
SPEAKER_00: Now it happened, as soon as the kingdom was established in his hand, that he executed his servants who had murdered his father, the king.
SPEAKER_00: But the children of the murderers he did not execute, according to what was written in the book of the law of Moses, in which the Lord commanded, saying, Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers, but a person shall be put to death for his own sin.
SPEAKER_00: He killed ten thousand Edomites in the valley of Salt, and took Selah by war, and called its name Jockfil to this day.
SPEAKER_00: Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us face one another in battle.
SPEAKER_00: And Jehoash, King of Israel, sent to Amaziah, King of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as wife, and a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle.
SPEAKER_00: You have indeed defeated Edom, and your heart has lifted you up, glory in that, and stay at home.
SPEAKER_00: For why should you meddle with trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?
SPEAKER_00: But Amaziah would not heed.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore Jehoash, King of Israel, went out, so he and Amaziah, King of Judah, faced one another at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his tent.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jehoash, King of Israel, captured Amaziah, King of Judah, and the son of Jehoash, the son of Ahaziah at Beth Shemesh, and he went to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate four hundred cubits.
SPEAKER_00: And he took all the gold and silver and articles that were found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king's house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, which he did, his might, and how he fought with Amaziah, King of Judah, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: So Jehoash rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jeroboam, his son, reigned in his place.
SPEAKER_00: Amaziah, the son of Joash, King of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, the son of Jehoaz, King of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Now the rest of the Acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
SPEAKER_00: And they formed a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lakish.
SPEAKER_00: But they sent after him to Lakish, and they killed him there.
SPEAKER_00: Then they brought him on horses, and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.
SPEAKER_00: He built Elath and restored to Judah, and the king rested with his fathers.
SPEAKER_00: In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria and reigned forty-one years, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin.
SPEAKER_00: He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amitai, the prophet, who was from Gath Hepha.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord did not say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
SPEAKER_00: Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did, his might, how he made war, and how he recaptured for Israel from Damascus and Hamath what had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: So Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel, then Zechariah, his son, reigned in his place.
SPEAKER_00: That ends the reading of God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our gracious and almighty Lord, we thank you for what is set before us in this portion of your sacred writings.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you help our minds to be able to comprehend what you have given us here.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that the Holy Spirit would allow those truths in our mind to penetrate into our hearts and be translated into actions with our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, help us to draw closer to you.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to love you and delight in you.
SPEAKER_00: I do pray this now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Pride goes before destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And a haughty spirit before a fall.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: That proverb is more than a truism, it's something that plays out time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that very clearly in the passage that we're going to be looking at tonight in 2 Kings 14.
SPEAKER_00: In some ways, you could say 2 Kings 14 is a live drama of the truth of Proverbs 16, 18.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to learn in this chapter that kings rise, kings fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.
SPEAKER_00: I think you can remember that.
SPEAKER_00: You've really got a grasp on the theme of 2 Kings 14, but in fact, I think you've got a grasp on the entire book of Kings.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, 2 Kings is all about the word of the Lord continues.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the only thing that stands in these books.
SPEAKER_00: But in order to fully appreciate what's going on in 2 Kings 14, and I think it's also useful to be reminded of this from time to time when studying the book of Kings, is to really appreciate the significance of everything that's happening in this book.
SPEAKER_00: You need to remember the importance of the covenants of God.
SPEAKER_00: The covenant that God had made with Abraham, the covenant that God had made with Israel through Moses, and of course the covenant that God had made with David.
SPEAKER_00: These covenants are at the backbone of the book of Kings.
SPEAKER_00: And especially the covenant that God had made with Israel through Moses.
SPEAKER_00: If Israel obeyed the Lord, they would experience blessing in the land.
SPEAKER_00: But when they disobeyed the covenant, when they disobeyed and disregarded the law of God that they covenanted to agree with, they would experience cursing.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why we keep seeing kings come on the scene and they depart from the law of God, and God hands them over to their enemies, and eventually they are going to experience the fullness of the covenant curses.
SPEAKER_00: But in the midst of all of this, we need to remember that God had also made a covenant to Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And in this covenant, he had made a promise that through his people, the children of Abraham, ultimately the nations would be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And in order for that to happen, God must continue to show compassion and mercy upon the children of Israel in order for these redemptive purposes to unfold.
SPEAKER_00: God's mercy and grace that is seen again and again.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we saw it very clearly last week when Jimmy brought that sermon.
SPEAKER_00: This grace and mercy was never a reward for the good things that Israel had done, but it was always in fulfillment to God's promise that he had made in the covenant to Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: But also, God continues to care for this people, particularly, we see this in the Southern Kingdom because of the covenant he made with David, that there will be a descendant on that throne, and ultimately there will be a king who will be given the throne of David, whose kingdom will not end.
SPEAKER_00: We need to remember the importance of covenant at the backdrop of the book of Kings.
SPEAKER_00: So what I want you to see in this chapter this evening is first of all the factual reality.
SPEAKER_00: Let me point that out to you, but I want to very quickly bring that back to the important point that must be constantly before us that I opened with in terms of pride.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's quickly just look at the facts going on in this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: This chapter is about two kings, two kings in two kings.
SPEAKER_00: But these two kings, one is from the kingdom of Judah from the south, and one is from the kingdom of the north, which is the kingdom of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And both of these kings have some similarities with each other, but they have some very big differences.
SPEAKER_00: Yet despite the differences, they come back to some very interesting similarities.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what makes them both very similar is they have considerably long reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Just quickly have a look at verse one, excuse me, verse two, and we learn that King Amaziah, king of Judah, he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty impressive career.
SPEAKER_00: But then we're introduced over in verse 23 to Jeroboam, Jeroboam II, and he reigns for 41 years.
SPEAKER_00: Very impressive political careers as kings.
SPEAKER_00: That is a long period of time.
SPEAKER_00: These two kings are described differently at the beginning and at the outset of their descriptions.
SPEAKER_00: Amaziah from Judah is described as someone who did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You see that in verse three.
SPEAKER_00: But on the other hand, Jeroboam is described in verse 24 as one who did evil in the sight of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Yet what's really interesting is that Amaziah starts off really well, and his reign ends terribly.
SPEAKER_00: It really is a political failure.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the text says he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Yet on the other hand, we got Jeroboam, who is described as having done that which is evil in the eyes of the Lord, and his reign goes for 41 years, and the kingdom of Israel expands the borders.
SPEAKER_00: This is Israel's best king politically, not spiritually, but politically.
SPEAKER_00: Their borders expand, the kingdom thrives, the economy is humming.
SPEAKER_00: It is Israel made great again from a political and economic point of view.
SPEAKER_00: Things were going really, really well.
SPEAKER_00: And he ends after a long reign.
SPEAKER_00: Yet God seems to show mercy in the midst of that kingdom, but doesn't show that same mercy in Amaziah's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: There is a few things going on here that are curious and they're interesting, and we ought to note the contrast here.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want us to keep in mind as we go through this is I want you to keep in mind the theme that I think is captured in the title that I've given this sermon, which is Kings Rise, Kings Fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.
SPEAKER_00: This passage teaches us something about us, but then very quickly it teaches us something about the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There is lessons for you in 2 Kings 14.
SPEAKER_00: But 2 Kings 14 reminds us after we see the lessons about ourselves, which really expose us and cut us up and reveal our ugliness, we're immediately appointed to the one in whom the remedy is found.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is not a private sin, but pride is a sin that leads us on a pathway to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And pride that is not repented of will ultimately result in a public destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a serious warning for us to learn.
SPEAKER_00: Please do not read the events of 2 Kings 14 as a mere history, something that had just happened before, and to go, yes, bad kings, bad kings.
SPEAKER_00: But look at this and say that same ugliness, that same sin, the same propensity to do that which is evil can be found in us as well.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is ugly.
SPEAKER_00: And what we need to remember about the sin of pride, in the words of the Puritan Thomas Manton, who tells us that all sins are a rejection of God's law, but pride is a rejection of God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is a person saying, I am not content with God's ways.
SPEAKER_00: I refuse to submit to the lordship of the Creator.
SPEAKER_00: I will do what I think is best.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a huge lesson that we need to learn concerning ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: So I hope that as we go through this, that the Spirit of God with that knife of the Word, with the sword of the Word, would cut and slice and begin to rip open the ugliness of that pride in us in us, that we can see it for what it is.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to see the other great lesson as we are pointed to this exposure of the ugliness of pride in the human heart as seen in these kings.
SPEAKER_00: We're then going to be pointed to God.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see him as the covenant-keeping God, a God of compassion and a God of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: But we will learn, as we have in God's kindness the last few Lord's Day mornings, that whenever we speak of God's compassion and mercy, we need to remember that his mercy, his compassion is not something that soothes us in our sin, but drives us to Christ to experience sanctification, holiness, and a life that's pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what we're going to do is I want to share with you four words that I think you can use really as markers to guide us through the story of 2 Kings 14.
SPEAKER_00: I'll share them with you up front so that you have them in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to just simply look at them one at a time as we go through the narrative of 2 Kings 14.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Kings 14 can be summarized first of all by the word career.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at the career of Amaziah.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to actually read his resume and we're going to walk away from that resume and go, you know what, that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: We can see why he did good in the eyes of the Lord, why he received credit from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But we're going to see that there were cracks in his resume.
SPEAKER_00: When you read it closely, yes, it looks good, but you know how someone can kind of write certain things in their resume and make them sound pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_00: But when you begin to press in and ask questions and go, why is there a year missing between that job and that job?
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, like, oh, I hope you wouldn't notice that, and you begin to expose some problems.
SPEAKER_00: And as we look at this impressive Korea and we look closely, we'll begin to notice, oh, there's some holes, uh, there's some cracks.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to move from Korea to the second word, and this is from the section of verse 8 to verse 10, and that word is conceit.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see the pride of a king and how ugly that pride was.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't something hidden in private, but it was something that put him on a pathway to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And that inevitably leads to verses 11 through to 22, where we see the third word, and that is cost.
SPEAKER_00: It cost him something.
SPEAKER_00: The decision that he made to not depend on God, but to chase after his own ways, cost him, and it cost him dearly.
SPEAKER_00: It cost the kingdom dearly.
SPEAKER_00: And then fourth and finally, and we see this in verse 23 all the way through to 29, the end of the chapter, is the word compassion.
SPEAKER_00: But if I may add another word to compassion, it would be covenant compassion.
SPEAKER_00: God is going to show covenant compassion in the midst of pride.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, this points us to a dazzling reality.
SPEAKER_00: That despite the ugliness, the darkness, the rebellion, the selfishness, the pride of these kings, God shows covenant compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone falls in this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: But what's left standing is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And my desire is that we then conclude at the end of this let us be on the side of the word, not on the side of these kings.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be on the side of the word of God, for only the word of God stands.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I've already preached the whole sermon, but I think we need to dive into it just a little bit more to get those details.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at these four scenes one at a time.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, let's have a look at the Korea.
SPEAKER_00: We won't look at every verse closely, but I want to highlight for you what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: The scene is set up in verse one with the description concerning the king of Judah, Amaziah, the son of Joash.
SPEAKER_00: He is king.
SPEAKER_00: He has a reign for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Again, a considerable period of time to be reigning as king.
SPEAKER_00: And then what an assessment to be given in verse three.
SPEAKER_00: He did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That is no small thing, is it?
SPEAKER_00: To think that the assessment of one's political career was said to be right in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in order for it to be right in the eyes of the Lord, Means that the king had to do certain things that would match a certain standard.
SPEAKER_00: What made his reign right?
SPEAKER_00: Was it the economy?
SPEAKER_00: Was it the population?
SPEAKER_00: Was it foreign policy?
SPEAKER_00: Was it his environmental policies?
SPEAKER_00: What was it that made it right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer, of course, is very simple when you remember what's at the backdrop of kings, and that is the covenant agreement in Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: What made the king's reign right in the eyes of the Lord was he upheld the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when the king did what the law of God said, then the appraisal would be he did what was right in God's eyes.
SPEAKER_00: It's as simple as that.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice a little clue that will develop a little bit in just a few moments, that we begin to see that he did what was right, but it wasn't complete.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't go far enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's hinted at in verse 3 and then made explicit in the next verse.
SPEAKER_00: It says that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like his father David.
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting.
SPEAKER_00: What is the difference between David and Amaziah?
SPEAKER_00: Both David and Amaziah did things on the outside that were right.
SPEAKER_00: The law of God said this, and they instituted this policy.
SPEAKER_00: Match the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: They're doing that which is right.
SPEAKER_00: But the difference between Amaziah and David is David was a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: There was a love in David's heart for the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: There was a love for God.
SPEAKER_00: David, we know, messed up.
SPEAKER_00: David, he committed adultery.
SPEAKER_00: David was a murderer.
SPEAKER_00: David abdicated his responsibility as king.
SPEAKER_00: David wasn't doing what a king ought to do.
SPEAKER_00: David messed up.
SPEAKER_00: But David confessed his sins before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: David experienced the blessing of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: David experienced and drank deep of the waters of God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: David was a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: Far from a perfect king, but a man who loved God.
SPEAKER_00: A man who loved God's law.
SPEAKER_00: Amaziah, on the other hand, was a king who had done what was right, but not like David.
SPEAKER_00: You see that distinction?
SPEAKER_00: I want to apply this to us in just a moment, but I want you to see now explicitly what he did wrong.
SPEAKER_00: However, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: That's a scary word to read, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine the Lord giving you an appraisal on your life, saying, I am pleased that you do this.
SPEAKER_00: I am pleased by your devotion to doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: I'm pleased by the way in which you stand strongly against false teaching.
SPEAKER_00: I am pleased by the way in which you were sacrificial for me.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, I have this against you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a pattern we see in Revelation 2 and 3, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus looks upon his churches, and with his purifying eyes, his omniscient, holy eyes, he's always gazing into his church.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is constantly preaching to his churches through the seven letters, saying that I know your works.
SPEAKER_00: There are things that Christ will commend in churches, yet it is possible for a church at the same time to do something that the Lord will actually commend, and yet have something against them.
SPEAKER_00: How scary it is to hear the words.
SPEAKER_00: Or in this case, Amaziah did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: However, the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
SPEAKER_00: What's being described here is that King Amaziah did good things, but he only obeyed the Lord in part.
SPEAKER_00: Godliness was seen in this area of his life, but this little corner, the Lordship of God was not on display.
SPEAKER_00: He was not submitting to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He allowed distorted worship in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He defied the first commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Now the text will go on very quickly to describe in verses five to seven the obedience of this king.
SPEAKER_00: We see that as soon as the kingdom was established in his hand, he executed his servants who had murdered his father, the king.
SPEAKER_00: Note verse 6 But the children of the murderers he did not execute according to what was written in the book of the law of Moses, in which the Lord commanded, saying, Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers, but a person shall be put to death for his own sin.
SPEAKER_00: And here you see that he carries out justice, but he's measured.
SPEAKER_00: He allows the word to regulate the justice.
SPEAKER_00: He does exactly what the word of God says, and he's commended for that.
SPEAKER_00: That is a good thing that he does that.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on and has a military victory and a battle, and he wins.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that in verse 7, where he kills 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
SPEAKER_00: It is a victory that he has in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And here we step back and we see his resume, we see his career.
SPEAKER_00: A career that explicitly says that he did what the law of Moses said in relation to carrying out justice.
SPEAKER_00: We see that he had a military victory.
SPEAKER_00: So from his perspective and from the perspective of the people, here is a man who, in part at least, is obeying the law of God and they actually see victory in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be very easy for people to equate that saying, well, if he's having victory and his life's going well, he's blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, we could conclude that here is a model man.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is what I want us to quickly take home at this point here.
SPEAKER_00: Amaziah is an example of somebody who is able to obey God in part of his life, yet not receive the full commendation of God.
SPEAKER_00: What is the lesson here?
SPEAKER_00: The lesson here is it's possible for you to honor God with your life in part, to actually have success in your career, and to make the mistake that you have the favor from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I am frightened when I hear so many Christians talk like that.
SPEAKER_00: They pray for something and something works out, and they just conclude, I'm blessed by God.
SPEAKER_00: This must be God's will.
SPEAKER_00: And the concern is uh you submitting to God in all of your life, or are you equating that your the your little corner that you've submitted to God, and that little submission has resulted in some external blessing to be the favor of God on all of that life?
SPEAKER_00: That the scary thing here is that a life lived like that is opening itself up for ruin and destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're deceiving yourself into thinking that a small amount of obedience is okay.
SPEAKER_00: A godly Christian life is not partial obedience.
SPEAKER_00: A godly Christian life is all of Christ for all of your life.
SPEAKER_00: It is applying the word of God to everything, the way that we conduct ourselves privately, the way that we conduct ourselves publicly, the way a spouse treats their spouse, the way they fulfill their role before God, the way you parent your children, the way you interact with other people, the way you forgive, the way that you work, the way that you interact with unbelievers.
SPEAKER_00: The consistency of faithfulness to God is what honors Him.
SPEAKER_00: But to do partial obedience and to then be deceived by the fact that if things go well, you're okay and you have the smile of heaven is a disaster.
SPEAKER_00: And the text begins to open this up for us.
SPEAKER_00: The challenging question I want to ask all of us to consider right now is are you honoring God in some of your life, but not all?
SPEAKER_00: Are you deceiving yourself into thinking that partial obedience is full obedience?
SPEAKER_00: Are there areas of your life that you are not submitting to God in?
SPEAKER_00: In God's common grace, he may issue blessing for partial obedience.
SPEAKER_00: But please know partial obedience will inevitably lead to ruin.
SPEAKER_00: What in your life has not been surrendered to the Lordship of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: What in your life are you holding on to your way and not God's way?
SPEAKER_00: We're all quick to point out the areas externally that we can show that are God's way.
SPEAKER_00: But is the Spirit of God pointing out to you something now that you are keeping your way and not God's way?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the scene of Korea.
SPEAKER_00: We now move to the conceit.
SPEAKER_00: And this really is the ugly fruit that comes from somebody who lives in partial obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Partial obedience that will experience the common grace of God's blessing will inevitably puff up one's tires.
SPEAKER_00: It will give you a head that's big, it will make you conceited.
SPEAKER_00: You will become haughty.
SPEAKER_00: You will begin to feel invincible.
SPEAKER_00: You will begin to feel that you are something impressive.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the conceit that we see in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And it's seen in the fact that Amaziah all of a sudden, out of nowhere, wants to pick a fight with the king of the north.
SPEAKER_00: So where did this come from?
SPEAKER_00: He's just had a victory, killing 10,000 Edomites, and all of a sudden he goes, Messengers, go to the king of Israel and tell him I want to meet him face to face in a fight, in a battle.
SPEAKER_00: Well, all of a sudden the man feels bulletproof.
SPEAKER_00: He's had one victory, he thinks he's the toughest guy in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And now the king of the north hears this, and as he hears this particular request, the king of Israel gives him a little parable.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Tell Amaziah that there was a little tiny thistle in Lebanon.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a big cedar in Lebanon.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually a wild animal just squashed the little thistle.
SPEAKER_00: The point of the parable is, buddy, you don't know what you're dealing with here.
SPEAKER_00: You've had one little victory.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: Go home, have a party, celebrate your little victory among the Edomites.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, you're gonna throw a punch at me, I'll squash you, and it will not end well.
SPEAKER_00: He actually warns him.
SPEAKER_00: This was actually a very gracious warning.
SPEAKER_00: This is a battle of two guys here.
SPEAKER_00: This is um we we we see this sort of political rivalry going on, a civil war is about to break out, but the the stronger of the two is actually showing mercy to the little man.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that look, I'm giving you an out.
SPEAKER_00: You've won a victory, well done, enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: But if you come over here, you are gonna get a punch that is gonna knock you out of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Amaziah doesn't heed the warning, and this is what pride does to us.
SPEAKER_00: Pride, as I said, takes us down a pathway of destruction.
SPEAKER_00: He Amaziah refuses to assess himself soberly, he even refuses to listen to counsel, and he actually believes the lie that he is the best.
SPEAKER_00: And he then goes ahead and engages in war.
SPEAKER_00: And this brings us to the third scene, and that is the cost, verses 11 through to 21.
SPEAKER_00: And the cost is it ends up costing him his kingdom and his life.
SPEAKER_00: He ends up losing and losing badly.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem is invaded, precious items from the temple are taken out and removed and taken to Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: The walls are broken down, people are taken hostage.
SPEAKER_00: Amaziah's arrested and is humiliated.
SPEAKER_00: His conceit cost him, his arrogance brought him down.
SPEAKER_00: He's losing so much, things are unraveling in his very eyes, before his very eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Now, while he's in prison, um King Jehoash dies, and King Jehoash is then replaced by Jeroboam II, and of course Amaziah continues to live another 15 years after the death of Jehoash, and he manages to escape, but as he escapes, a conspiracy is formed, and eventually he's found, and Amaziah is killed in Lakish.
SPEAKER_00: This king, who had a really good start, had a terrible end.
SPEAKER_00: His destruction came as the result of his pride.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than obeying the Lord in all of life, he partitioned his obedience and submitted to God in so much.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to put a percentage on it, but there was only a part of his life, and there were areas he did not live in submission to God.
SPEAKER_00: He lived a double life.
SPEAKER_00: And this resulted in pride, and he began to believe the lie that he can get away with things, he can do things his way.
SPEAKER_00: And as he believed that lie, it resulted in the highest of costs.
SPEAKER_00: He lost his kingdom, he lost his life.
SPEAKER_00: Game over.
SPEAKER_00: King Amaziah.
SPEAKER_00: But this brings us now to the final scene, and this is what I want to drive us home with because this really is at the heart of this whole chapter.
SPEAKER_00: And this final scene can be called Covenant Compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's absolutely intriguing here is in these final verses, the scene now moves from the kingdom of Judah and we go up north to the kingdom of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And we have a look at the reign of Jeroboam, Jeroboam II, who has this impressive 41-year reign.
SPEAKER_00: We have passing references to the incredible expansion of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned at the start of the message that his kingdom, from an economic point of view, was booming.
SPEAKER_00: It was expanding.
SPEAKER_00: It was almost Solomonesque in how wide and far the borders were getting.
SPEAKER_00: Military victories, becoming impressive internally, but also from external onlookers.
SPEAKER_00: Things are going well.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the writer here doesn't really want to fixate on the political thriving of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He just zeroes in on the fact that he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin.
SPEAKER_00: He was a wicked king.
SPEAKER_00: He was the most successful king of Israel, but he was a wicked king.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't highly regard the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: He disregarded the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: He was just purely focused on economic advance.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he restored territory.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he had victory.
SPEAKER_00: And these things had come in fulfillment to the word of the Lord spoken through Jonah the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Yet we see that God did something to his people in this kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: God showed covenant compassion on the people.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord issued blessing.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, why?
SPEAKER_00: Why would God do that?
SPEAKER_00: From an earthly point of view, should God show compassion to Judah or to Israel from an earthly point of view?
SPEAKER_00: The alternatives are you've got a king who's partially obeying God's law, and then you've got a king who's not obeying God's law.
SPEAKER_00: Yet God shows compassion on his people in the northern kingdom where the king is not obeying the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's got nothing to do with the kings.
SPEAKER_00: God will have mercy on whom he'll have mercy, we read in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: But we see in verse 26 explicitly that the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord did not say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash.
SPEAKER_00: God preserved the people of Israel and the northern kingdom from the hands of enemies, not because of the king, but because of his covenant mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Because of his covenant compassion, because of the covenant that he had made to Abraham, because of the covenant that he had made to show that there must be a people that will accomplish his redemptive purposes.
SPEAKER_00: God is not finished with them.
SPEAKER_00: We read at the end of this text a summary in verses 28 to 29 that the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did his might, how he made war, how he had recaptured Israel from Damascus and Hamath and what belonged to Judah.
SPEAKER_00: Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings?
SPEAKER_00: Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Then Zechariah his son reigned in his place.
SPEAKER_00: And it finishes with all of this, but the emphasis of the text is verses 26 and 27 that God showed compassion to preserve a people because God is God and he remembers his covenant.
SPEAKER_00: God preserved them, and God would accomplish his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to see here is this that despite both of these kings, in the midst of that which is partly good and that which is entirely bad, one thing and one thing only is standing in this passage and is enduring.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Both kings die.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of the Lord continues.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord stands.
SPEAKER_00: And when we stare at that word of God that stands at the center of this passage and at the heart of 2 Kings 14, that same word leads us to the word who becomes flesh and dwells among us.
SPEAKER_00: And that word who becomes flesh and dwells among us, we are told in Luke chapter 1, verses 33 to 34, as the angel Gabriel speaks specifically to Mary, that this child that you will conceive, he has been given the throne of his father David, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
SPEAKER_00: And then we continue to learn in the scriptures that This child, the Lord Jesus, who has been given this kingdom, an eternal kingdom, in fulfillment to the covenant made with David, enters into this world in humiliation, subjects himself to the frailty of the human experience and weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: We learn in Philippians 2 in verse 5 and following that he displayed obedience to the point of death.
SPEAKER_00: He humbled himself, displaying obedience to the point of death.
SPEAKER_00: He displayed humility.
SPEAKER_00: He displayed in his humanity dependence on the Father.
SPEAKER_00: In his incarnation, God made flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He exemplifies what a true king does.
SPEAKER_00: He loved the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: His food and drink was to do the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: He lived in absolute humility, displaying dependence upon the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer was a part of his ongoing ministry, often praying through the night.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, he went to the cross, died, was buried, rose again victorious and in power, was endowed all authority in heaven and in earth, ascended through the heavens, was seated at the right hand of the glory of God, assumed the throne of David and reigns.
SPEAKER_00: And he will reign until all these enemies have been placed under his feet.
SPEAKER_00: He is king.
SPEAKER_00: But he's a king whose kingdom endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Kings 14 reminds us that kings rise, kings fall.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of the Lord stands forever, and that word continues to stand today in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He reigns, he rules.
SPEAKER_00: Will you submit to Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our gracious and almighty God, I thank you and praise you for our Lord Jesus Christ, the word that stands.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, help us to heed lessons in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to search our hearts before you.
SPEAKER_00: We confess, Lord, that our sins, they are many.
SPEAKER_00: But your mercy is more.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.