THE KING WHO WENT FROM SMASHING TO CRASHING
2 Chr. 16:12
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. There’s a lot of concern for our Olympic athletes going to Sochi, Russia, due to terrorists. It reminded me of…
2. There was an American basketball player that had a tournament in Belfast, N. Ireland, a few years ago.
3. After one of his games he stepped outside for a breath of fresh air when he felt a gun in his back.
4. "What's your religion?" he heard the man growl. Bobby (the player) had no real religion but he knew if he said he was Catholic and this guy was a Protestant he would kill him and if he said he was Protestant and the guy was Catholic he would kill him.
5. Thinking quickly he said "I'm Jewish." and the man replied, "Oh Allah! I must be the luckiest Arab in all of Ireland."
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly. But when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once and for all, that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.A little boy sat up all night wondering where the sun had gone. Finally it dawned on him! "I have a FEAR of speed bumps; but I'm slowly getting over it."
B. TEXT
2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 3 He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. 4 He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands. 5 He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. 6 He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest.
9 Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands and three hundred chariots, 11 Then Asa called to the Lord his God….12 The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. 15:9 Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon.
12 They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the
God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. 14 They took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side. 16 King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah.
C. THESIS
1. Tonight we’re looking at a king who, because of pride and rebellion, chose to look only to doctors and not to God for his healing.
2. We’ll see his stance was a result of waning faith, that it went against his previous experience with God, and even against his knowledge of God’s character.
3. The title of tonight’s message is “THE KING WHO WENT FROM SMASHING TO CRASHING.”
I. SAD DECLINE OF A GOOD KING
A. ASA STARTED STRONG
1. He started by caring more about what God thought than anyone else. What God hated, he hated; what God loved, he loved. Aligning ourselves with God is the most important determinant of our direction.
2. He smashed the idols. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord. Then he fortified the walled cities of Judah. He trained a large army: 300,000 from Judah & 280,000 from Benjamin. When attacked, he relied on the Lord to deliver him.
3. He & all Judah entered into a covenant to seek the Lord with all their heart and soul. They took an oath of fidelity to the Lord.
4. He deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother because she secretly worshipped idols.
5. Asa found the key to success as king because he was humble, prayed, sought God’s face and turned from wickedness.
6. As a result, Revival had broken out in Jerusalem. When an enemy attacked, Asa called upon God and God made him victorious over a superior army.
7. With God, nothing was impossible for them. This is no different for us. God never said we wouldn’t have problems, but He promised to fight our battles for us!
B. WHEN ASA GOT OFF TRACK
1. RELIED ON FLESH. Israel was threatened with war again; but this time Asa made decisions without consulting God. When Baasha, King of Israel, began to give signs of hostility, Asa bribed Ben-Hadad of Aram with a large amount of money to attack Baasha.
2. PERSECUTION. When Hanani the Seer rebuked Asa for not consulting God and messing up God’s plan for his nation’s welfare, Asa became so enraged that he threw the prophet into prison (v. 10).
3. OPPRESSING HIS PEOPLE. Next, because of waning favor with his people, he brutally oppressed some of the Israelites (vs. 10).
4. NOT SEEKING THE LORD FIRST. Lastly: “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians” 2 Chr. 16:12.
II. PROPHETIC PARALLEL: WAR, SICKNESS
HUMOR
1. Some people aren’t very forgiving
2. Dave Hagler is an umpire in a baseball league. He was pulled over in Boulder, Colorado.
3. He tried to talk the officer out of giving him a ticket by telling him how worried he was about insurance and how he’s normally a very safe driver, and so on.
4. The officer said that if he didn’t like receiving the ticket, he could take the matter to court.
5. At the first game in the next baseball season, Dave Hagler was umpiring, and guess who the first batter up was? The policeman. They recognized each other.
6. After along pause, the officer asked, "So how did the thing with the ticket go?"
7. Hagler said, "You’d better swing at everything!"
(Ortberg, J.)Asa also was unforgiving to Hanani.
8. The prophesy of Hanani (16:7-9) pointed out to Asa why it was foolish to enlist Ben-Hadad. The same reasons why it was wrong for Asa, also apply to why it's wrong to only look to physicians.
A. IT’S ACTING AGAINST HIS EXPERIENCE
1. Hanani reminded the King of his former major war
where he was far outnumbered, yet when he called upon the Lord, God gave him victory over his vast enemies.
2. Since God had done it for him before, why didn't he rely upon God again? The former success should have encouraged him to trust God again!
3. It's the same way with divine healing. The same God who healed us yesterday will heal us tomorrow. To
only depend upon doctors is to go against our former experience and to abandon the faith we once possessed.
4. God is not pleased when we distrust him and decide not to let Him help us, but feel we must only help ourselves.
B. HE ACTED AGAINST GOD’S CHARACTER AS PROTECTOR AND PROVIDER
1. “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (vs. 9).
2. It is God's constant business to watch over those who are committed to Him. God is not blind or surprised by what comes. To not allow Him to do his job is another type of violation.
3. Divine healing is similar. God has a). atoned for sin and sickness. He has b). given us many precious promises that he will heal us. He has c). demonstrated His will to heal us when He healed the multitudes through Jesus Christ.
4. To ignore God's willingness to heal us is an abrogation of His duty to provide for us. It is to snub God and despise His sacrifice!
C. HE ACTED AGAINST HIS OWN INTEREST
1. God had intended that Asa actually war against Ben-Hadad, not make an alliance with him. Asa’s action only serve to make Ben-Hadad stronger monetarily and encourage him to begin making military strikes.
2. So Asa lost an opportunity to check the growing power of the king of Syria. Ben-Hadad had "escaped out of his hand."
3. When we only resort to doctors and not to the
Lord, we also work against our own interests. It's obvious that Asa's doctors didn't do any good. In fact, they probably made his disease worse!
4. One only has to remember the woman with the issue of blood. “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” Mk. 5:26.
5. This verse points out three reasons why going to doctors is sometimes worse than going to God:
a. You’ll sometimes suffer more;
b. You’ll spend all the money you have;
c. Instead of getting better, you'll get worse.
III. GOD’S HEALING CHARACTER
A. GOD DECLARES HE’S OUR HEALER
1. God is by nature a healing God. Satan, on the other hand, has come to kill, steal, and destroy; but Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life, abundantly.” In Ex. 15:26, God says, “I am the Lord that heals you.”
2. God called himself by a Compound Name – Jehovah Rapha. Compound names represent God's character, the kind of God that He is. It’s also the technical word for "Physician."
3. God made a Covenant with Israel, that if they obeyed Him, He would take away sickness from them. “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you” Ex. 23:25
4. GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GOD WHO HEALED
a. 5X in O.T. God healed barren women;
b. 4X God healed plagues brought on by sin;
c. Healed Moses, Miriam, and Naaman the leper;
d. 3X raised the dead;
e. At least 6 other instances, two of them 1,000s of people; Total: 16 individual healings, 7 mass healings; 23 separate accounts.
B. CHRIST ATONED FOR SICKNESS
1. The violation of God's law automatically brings a curse, part of which involves sickness and disease.
2. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” Gal. 3:13.
3. CHRIST ATONED FOR SICKNESS
Matt. 8:16-17 settles it; “And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our
sicknesses” (NKJV).
4. When Jesus healed their bodies, He FULFILLED WHAT WAS PROPHESIED IN ISAIAH 53, the chapter describing His work of atonement. Physical healing IS part of the atonement.
5. NOT JUST SINS, BUT SICKNESSES TOO
a. On Calvary, Jesus "bare our sins" 1 Pet. 2:24;
On Calvary, Jesus "bare our sicknesses" Matt. 8:17.
b. Jesus was “made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) for our sins; Jesus was "made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13), when He bore our sicknesses.
c. Jesus’ blood was shed "for the remission of sins" Mt. 26:28; Jesus’ body was beaten, "by whose stripes ye were healed."
d. "Who forgives all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases." Jesus redeemed and saves the "whole" man.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Simon was born with a very rare chromosome abnormality and we were told he probably wouldn’t live long.
2. When he reached 5 years old, the doctors said he wouldn’t live beyond 12 years. Simon is now almost 27 years old and we praise and thank the Lord for sparing him.
3. Simon was born with a severe hearing loss and after some time God began answering prayers and now Simon hears perfectly.
4. Simon’s biggest problem over the years has been his chest and lungs. His condition required repeated injections of antibiotics. Doctors said that eventually
one of those infections would probably kill Simon.
5. Last May a prayer team member said she felt God wanted to heal Simon’s immune system.
6. As a result, since last June, Simon hasn’t required antibiotics or suffered any chest problems -- a wonderful answer to prayer. To God be the Glory!
B. THE CALL
1. Prayer for the sick.
2. Lord’s Supper.
[Part I.A. had some of Shawn Drake’s thoughts and II. from Matthew Henry]
