“Fully Committed to Him”
Sermon – 8 August 2004
We have just come out of a six week series of sermons entitled “Breaking Down Barriers & Building Up The Wall”. One of the points that we touched on a couple of times throughout that series was the matter of being committed to the Lord.
In particular, last week we spent some time discussing commitment as it relates to taking up our position.
Commitment is a foreign concept to many in our Western culture. We see this reflected in many different areas. Not the least of which is in the area of marriage.
One major problem in the area of marriage is those who all live together as opposed to committing to the other person in a lifelong relationship. Unfortunately, cohabitation is quite common in the church as well.
When people do get married more than 50% end in divorce. Again, this statistic is nearly mirrored in the church in general.
According to George Barna only half of people who attend a Christian Church describe themselves as “absolutely committed” to Christianity, but 92% of Evangelicals describe themselves as “absolutely committed”.
Among Christians 16% are involved in a discipleship process of regularly meeting with a group or individual for spiritual growth.
We must understand that the word “Christian” is a rather broad word.
No matter how you cut it, commitment is a big problem in this country and it is reflected in the church as well.
Let us take a look at our text for today…
2 Chronicles 15:1-7, 12, 13, 16-18; 16:7-14
This is a very interesting portion of scripture because Asa was known as a king who did right in the eyes of the Lord.
After the prophet spoke to him he took heart and began to remove the places of idol worship and repaired the temple of the Lord.
Not only so but he instituted many reforms in the land of Judah over which he was king.
It may be kind of difficult to understand what happened that caused Asa to turn away from the Lord in the way he did after seeming to be so committed to him.
We are going to look at this text and see what caused Asa to turn away from the Lord in the way he did.
1. Rejected God’s Rule –
Deuteronomy 7:1-4
When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations…seven nations larger and stronger than you – 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
For the first thirty-four years of Asa’s reign he was truly committed to the Lord.
As we have mentioned, he instituted great reforms in the nation of Judah which we have mentioned.
There is one point of wavering that may be a sign of what was to come…
2 Chronicles 15:16-17
King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17 Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed [to the LORD] all his life.
Now, the scripture is silent as to what precipitated this wavering on the part of Asa. For some unknown reason he fails to remove the high places which were the places where the worship of Baal and Asherah actually took place.
Whatever precipitates it, we clearly see a slight compromise. And in a few years that slight compromise would grow to a total disregard for the Word of God.
David knew the importance of God’s Word…
Psalm 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
A skeptic in London, in speaking of the Bible, said that it was quite impossible in these days to believe in any book whose authorship is unknown. A Christian asked if the compiler of the multiplication table was known. “No!” he answered. “Then, of course, you do not believe in it.” “Oh yes,” was the skeptic’s reply “I believe in it because it works well.” “So does the Bible,” was the rejoinder. The skeptic had no answer to that.
—A. Naismith
Well said…the bible works! But it only works if we use it and apply it!
King Asa had clear direction from the Lord that he was NOT to strike treaties with the inhabitants of the land of Canaan but he did so anyway.
We cannot intentionally spurn God’s Word and expect that there will not be ramifications.
A scripture I have quoted several times over the last weeks…
Hebrews 4:12-13
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight, everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
The Word of God is so much more than just a book, print on a page. It is everything that we need for faith and practice.
David said…
Psalm 119:15-16
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
There was another time in the history of Judah when the Word of God had fallen into neglect.
2 Kings 22:8, 10-11
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it…10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
During this time the Word of God had been so neglected that they had actually lost it! When Shaphan came to Josiah with the Book of the Law he doesn’t even seem to really know what the significance of it is because he refers to it as “a book”.
We must have the attitude that David did…
“I will not neglect your word.”
John 14:15
"If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
If we are going to live lives of obedience to our Lord we must first KNOW what He commands!
The first problem with Asa was that he Rejected God’s Rule…
2. Rejected God’s Representative –
2 Chronicles 16:10
Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.
As is God’s wont, once Asa had strayed off course and done that which was wrong in the eyes of God, the Lord sent him someone to speak the Word of god to him…to warn him.
Asa had come to such a place of hardness of heart that not only did he reject what God’s representative had to say and imprisoned him, but he even oppressed God’s people.
First instance of royal imprisonment (persecution) of God’s prophet.
It is not uncommon for people who are straying from God’s word to then reject His representative.
Luke 19:47-48
Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
Here were the people who knew God’s Word the best, some of them were experts in God’s law but yet here was the long awaited Messiah and not only did they not see him – they wanted to kill him.
They had long ago rejected the reality of God’s Word
False prophets were characterized by their low morality and unethical conduct. They were drunkards (Isaiah 28:7), adulterous (Jeremiah 23:14), treacherous (Zephaniah 3:4), liars (Micah 2:11), and opportunists (Micah 3:11).
In contrast, true prophets were morally uncompromising and above reproach. Christ refers to this test: “Every good tree brings forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit...By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:17-20).
Asa had the clear proof before him that this man was a true representative of God…
People who know that they are at a point in their life where they are not fully committed to the Lord really don’t like it when the Lord sends someone to them to speak the truth that they are not getting from His Word.
However, God is gracious and even when we are not fully committed to Him, He will continue to reach out to us by His grace in it’s many forms.
Asa had Rejected God’s Rule and he had Rejected God’s Representative…
3. Rejected God’s Remedy –
2 Chronicles 16:12-13
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. 13 Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his fathers.
This passage is not saying that it was wrong of Asa to seek the help of physicians per se.
This ailment was clearly a judgment from God intended to bring him to repentance and he would not.
Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD
Asa remained too prideful to seek help from the Lord.
Less than 200 years later God would divinely strike Hezekiah with an illness to the point of death but when he cries out to the Lord he is healed and given 15 more years of life
Asa had clearly suffered a great fall in his faith to the point that not only was it no longer said if him that he was fully committed to the Lord but now he is suffering judgment.
This is the unfortunate lot of far too many saints.
But God’s grace makes provision for those who are in such a state…
Acts 3:19-20
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you-even Jesus.
Robert Robinson, author of the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” lost the happy communion with the Savior he had once enjoyed, and in his declining years he wandered into the by-ways of sin. As a result, he became deeply troubled in spirit. Hoping to relieve his mind, he decided to travel.
In the course of his journeys, he became acquainted with a young woman on spiritual matters, and so she asked him what he thought of a hymn she had just been reading. To his astonishment he found it to be none other than his own composition. He tried to evade her question, but she continued to press him for a response.
Suddenly he began to weep. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he said, “I am the man who wrote that hymn many years ago. I’d give anything to experience again the joy I knew then.” Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the “streams of mercy” mentioned in his song still flowed. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched. Turning his “wandering heart” to the Lord, he was restored to full fellowship.
—H. G. Bosch
Just as with Asa, this man was not too far from God’s grace. Here he was “sick in spirit” but thankfully he went to the Lord instead of a “physician”.
There is another occasion in scripture…
1 Corinthians 11:27-32
Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
NKJV
The remedy for the Corinthian church is the same for those who might backslide today. Repent and return to the Lord.
Asa Rejected God’s Remedy and therefore ended up meeting death through the ailment he had received.
We must take heed from the life of Asa because he…
Asa had
Rejected God’s Rule
Rejected God’s Representative
Rejected God’s Remedy.
Remember the Word of the Lord…
2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
