Nicholson, J B: Spread The Word Conference [Revival]-03 ~ King Amaziah

If you were exercised to, to look at some of these things. I wanted to just pick up a few thoughts here and there. It's going to be a bit disjointed, I suppose. Um, but I, I wanted to read a little bit from, uh, the life of King Amaziah, uh, which is found in two Chronicles chapter twenty five. Two Chronicles twenty five. And I wanted to think just a little bit about, um, keeping our heart. Because out of it are the issues of life. The battle is the battle for the heart. And um, it is a rather frightening thing that, by and large, I get what I want. So be careful what you want, because you may get it. The desires of my heart, uh, will determine how I spend my time, and people say, well, I don't have enough time for that. It's more than likely because you don't want to do it. If you really wanted to do it, you'd find time if it meant you didn't go to bed that night. And I found that, uh, people who have a heart for God always seem to be able to get things done, you know. And if you really, really give your heart to the Lord, the rest of you will follow, including your wallet and, uh, and your sense of humor and the way you treat people and, uh, your objectives in life, your goals and dreams. Everything will follow if your heart is set on the Lord. And if you, uh, try to set your mind on things in heaven, but your heart is on things down here, eventually your mind will follow your heart too. So it's an important thing to think about where our heart is, because where your heart is, that's where your treasure is, and where your treasure is, that's where you'll invest your life. We, uh, I have a, a, a listing here relative to the kings of Judah, and some comments that are made about their heart. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God assesses the heart. And, uh, concerning this king Amaziah, I don't suppose he's one of the biggies. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about this king, but we read that, uh, in two Chronicles twenty five, he was twenty five when he began to reign. I suppose that that might even be pretty close to a, I don't know if it's a median age here, but, uh, imagine there are quite a number of us around that age. He began to reign, and he reigned twenty nine years in Jerusalem, and that catches some of the rest of us. And his mother's name was Jehoadan of Jerusalem. This woman, Jehoadan, we don't know anything about her, but it is an interesting thing that as we read through the records of the kings, that very often we may not be told the name of the king's father, but we are told the name of the king's mother. Uh, that it is the hand that rocks the cradle that rules the world, you know. And we live in a day when people think very lightly of the role of motherhood, uh, but God thinks very highly of it, and he reminds us over and over again, both the wicked kings and the good kings, he reminds them of their mothers. And we read that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart, and and the word means that he wasn't wholehearted in the thing. There was a a little opening for something else there. And we read that when it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father, but he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, the father shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin. Moreover, Amaziah gathered Judah together and made them captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from twenty years old above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. But there was a man of God to him saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it. Be strong for the battle. God shall make thee fall before the enemy, for God hath power to help and to cast down." Amaziah said to the man of God, "But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I've given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this. And so we read that he did. He sent the boys home. They weren't very happy about it. Uh, they decided to go and collect on their own, and uh, they slaughtered people and took what they wanted, whatever the case was. But then we read in verse fourteen, it came to pass after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, God gave him the victory, 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 to them. Wherefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet which said to him, why hast thou sought after the gods of the people which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said to him, Hath thou made of the king's counsel? In other words, do I recognize you? Did I hire you? Do I pay your salary? Where'd you come from? Forbear, why should thou be smitten? You're going to cut off your head with your tongue here. Then the prophet forbore and said, I know that God has determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not hearkened unto my counsel. Then Amaziah, king of Judah, took advice and sent to Joash, obviously not the advice of the prophet of God, took advice from someone else, sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, come, let us see one another in the face. Now, you see how up to date the Bible is. He's saying, in your face. I mean, this is, this isn't a matter of saying, let's have a little visit. He's calling him to battle now, and he says, I'm, I've had it with you, and I want to see you face to face. Let's have a showdown. This is a showdown at the, uh, listen to this now. Uh, Joash, a pagan, this man's not in touch with God. He says to the king of Israel, the thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, give thy daughter to my son to wife. And there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trod down the thistle. Squa- a squash. Anyway. Thou saidst, lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites, and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast. Abide now at home. Why shouldst thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldst fall, even thou and Judah with thee? But Amazigh would not hear. For it came of God that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies because they sought after the gods of Edom. And so they have the battle, and sure enough, uh, the king of Israel prevails and comes to the city of Jerusalem and breaks down the wall and takes the gold and the silver and the vessels in the house of God, the treasures of the king's house and hostages, and returns to Samaria. And we read that Amaziah, in disgrace, fled to Lachish, uh, southwest of Jerusalem, but, uh, he could hide, but he couldn't run, and they slew him there. Well, there are some real warnings here for us, aren't there? It's not exactly a happy passage to read, uh, but I think it's important for us to see the red lights that Amaziah ran. I don't know that any of us fall into sin without running a good number of stop signs. God gives us warnings, and we, we ignore them. And you'll notice what it says, uh, sort of the, the record of King Amaziah's life. It says in verse twenty, Amaziah would not. He just didn't pay attention. He had these men of God come to him, prophets sent from God, and he just didn't pay attention. You d- you can come to a weekend like this, and you can hear it and say, hmm, oh, that was good ministry. Shake the preacher's hand, oh, that's good word, brother, and walk out the door and get in your car and drive home and be just like you came. Right? The preacher can do it. He can preach it and go home and live. Unlike his message, he can just sort of live for himself. And there are some warnings in this passage that call us up short. Uh, the story is that, um, when Custer was killed at Little Bighorn, that, uh, some Indian, some native people's squads, um, went back to the battlefield after the battle had died, and and they took needles, and they drove them through the ears of General Custer, as a little reminder that he just wouldn't listen. That was Custer's problem, wasn't it? He just wouldn't listen. We read that Amaziah, um, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but he had heart trouble. He wasn't wholeheartedly for God. I would like to suggest to you that the scourge of the church in America is half-heartedness. We like a little of it, you know, but we aren't prepared to get on the altar. We, we like to preach the gospel, but we want to do it respectably, and we want to do it in our own comfy buildings, and we don't want to go out there in the messy world where people are dying and going to hell to tell them. We, we want to give to the Lord, you know, but not till it hurts. We don't want to give sacrificially. We want to be respectable, and we want to put something in, you understand? But we aren't prepared to hurt our lifestyle. We're quite prepared to serve the Lord as long as it doesn't cut across our own plans. You don't expect total commitment, do you? I'm committed as long as it just means, well, this weekend I'll do it, but don't expect me to have a Sunday school class for the next ten years or anything like that. Don't expect me to give my life to these little kids. And I would suggest that half-heartedness is about the worst disease you can have. It's Laodiceanism, isn't it? So the Christians of Laodicea, if you had gone to their assembly, they probably were fairly well dressed. They, they were rich and increased with goods. Uh, the meetings went well. They had a, a friendly chairman. Uh, they had, uh, uh, things planned out carefully, and uh, um, everything just sort of ran along quite well. And they, for all perception, if you went to their local church, they seem to have it all together. But the Lord wasn't looking at the tapestries, the pews, the beautiful sermons, the nice singing, the choir. He was looking at their hearts, and he said, you're lukewarm. You know, you don't just stay lukewarm. I mean, Amaziah got real cold, didn't he? The tragedy is that in our society, we encourage this sort of thing. Our society encourages people not to get too committed. These people that go into marriages and they already have a contract, like if the thing breaks down, here's what I take. But what kind of a commitment is that? You've already got the escape route planned before you even go into the marriage. And I, I fear sometimes, as I look around and I see a generation that has grown up without any commitment. I mean, there's no commitment in business. Uh, some guy can take me and train me and invest a great deal of time, and you know, you don't realize maybe how much it costs to train one person. They get trained, and then they find out that their competitor will pay them ten cents an hour more, and they're, they're out of there. See you later. I'm gone. There's no sense of loyalty, no, uh, commitment at any level, and this creeps into our own lives and into the church. And people are there as long as, as long as you make me happy, as long as I like the activities and I like the speaker, but if I hear that there's a better speaker down the road somewhere else, uh, well, we'll see you later. He did it, and we read that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. Now, this is the crack that is going to widen as we read the story, until eventually the whole thing comes crashing down. But it didn't happen overnight. Nobody goes down overnight. You see it with Samson, you know, it's the erosion. He's not to have anything to do with wine. What's he doing in the vineyard? He's not to have anything to do with pagan women. What's he doing eyeing the girls down in Philistia? He's not supposed to touch a dead body. What is he doing scooping honey out of the carcass of a lion? A little honey, a little wine, a little slumber, a little sleep, a little this, a little that. And then one day, the whole thing comes crashing down. But it didn't happen overnight. And when we see people going down, and we see lots of them around, man, about to bring the sweat to our brow. When we see people that we used to count on, people that were, they're not false Christians, they they were believers, and they did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. And the thing like the San Andreas Fault, you know, it just keeps opening up, and there are all kinds of warnings, and the Californians keep living like it's never going to happen, you know? God gives us his warning, and you'll notice that the first warning comes, um, from a man who's simply called a man of God, blessed anonymity. It's a great thing when we can hide behind God, isn't it? So I'm not saying that, God said this. You can disagree with me if you like. The man doesn't care to have platus, he doesn't care to have his name in lights, he just is known as a man of God. He speaks for God, and he says, O king, don't compromise by alliances with unbelievers. Now, there are a lot of things that aren't real clear, perhaps, at first reading in the Bible, but here's one of them that's real clear. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. You can't get it any clearer than that, can you? And there it is on the pages of scripture, and you can dance around it, and you can say, well, uh, my relationship's different, or I'm just doing it to share the gospel. I mean, you can, you can say whatever you like. The fact is that God is on record as saying, don't do it. Don't do it. I've talked to couples, and, you know, initially it was just, well, it's just a nice guy or a nice gal, just going out together. We've got no intentions at all. Man, you don't know your heart. If you talk like that, you don't know your heart, because once your emotions kick in, you're on autopilot. See? And there's no way you can stop it now. Uh, I, I try. I've sat down with many a young couple and pled with them. I remember one couple, I got down on my knees in front of that girl, and I said, I beg you, in the light of eternity, before a holy God, don't do it. And she smiled at me pityingly, said, oh, Jade, you don't understand. six months later, she was in my office, unconsolable. You know, you know when the time to stop it, nip it in the bud. Don't wait till it's flowered. Don't wait until your heart is so committed you can't back out, you feel. It's too late then. And that's not just when we're dealing with marriage. I think that's business relationships. And you know what a yoke is? That some people say, well, for example, you can't own stock in a company. Well, if you've got convictions about it, you better not own stock in a company. I personally don't think that's a yoke. A- a yoke means that you've got two animals and one yoke, and you've both got to go the same direction. See? You can't get out of it. And that's what happens with a yoke. When you're committed, the tragedy is that the believer has to make all the concessions. An unbeliever can't go with me, you know? If you, if you marry an unsaved person, well, they can't pray with you. They're not on praying ground. They, they can't worship the Lord. They don't even love him. They can't witness with you. They can't study the word. They, there's nothing they can do with you. So who makes all the concessions? Who does all the yielding? Well, it's, it's the believer. They have to, you have to go along with them. They can't come with you. And so a yoke is any situation that I find myself in where I have to go, contrary to my conscience, along with unbelievers. If you're in a situation like that in business, you better get out of it, because it will ultimately lead you to your spiritual demise. It's quite possible, you see, to start out and say, well, they they haven't asked me to do anything against my conscience, but eventually we get to the point where it's easier just to go along. You can't keep bucking the system, and eventually you just go along, and it's spiritual suicide. It will ruin your life for God. Well, thankfully, the king sort of half-heartedly, again, that's his problem, he half-heartedly agrees with this fellow. He says to the man, imagine bringing this issue up, the Lord has spoken, and the Lord has said, get out of this relationship while you can. You have n- you have no trucker trade with the king of Israel, get out of there. And he says to him, well, I've got an investment in this. I've put down some, some pretty substantial money here. What am I going to do with this? I'm going to lose out financially if I do this. So what, what about this, uh, this money? And I love this answer, don't you? The Lord is able to give thee much more than this. Listen, anything you're willing to sacrifice for the Lord, he is no man's better. He doesn't always pay in the same currency. But if you are willing to do without for the Lord Jesus, whatever that means, in whatever circumstance, if you're willing, uh, maybe, maybe some of you gals are, are in a situation where there's some guy and he's coming on to it at, at work, and it's persistent. Get out. Lose your job. Be, be talked about. Uh, it doesn't, really the issue is not what people think, it's what God thinks, isn't it? And you're better to save your testimony and have a good conscience before God than stick it out. I've, I've seen some of these interviews with some of these women who were actually sexually abused on the job for years, and they said, well, I couldn't leave, you know, I mean, I needed my job. I find that real, and I understand, I mean, you know, but get out, get out. Flee. There is a time when you have to take your losses. Better for him to lose his talents of silver than to lose his relationship with God, to lose peace with God, to lose the confidence that he has that God is with him. And there are some, I'm not saying it's easy. I have people come to me and, and they say, I've got a problem, I want to talk to you about it. So we sit down and we start to talk, and they, they tell me the story, and I say, well, what do you think you, you ought to do? And they say, well, you're not telling me I have to do this, are you? I said, I didn't tell you. You said that. I said, well, if you think I have, I mean, I just can't do that at all. Who said you had to do it? Well, that's what you're inferring, isn't it? Well, I didn't say anything. See, they already know what they have to do. They don't think that they can do it, though. It's too expensive to do it. Well, it is expensive to do it, but more than likely, if you look at it, and this is the argument of the man of God here, it's a lot more expensive not to do it, isn't it? There's a sense in which, uh, once you get into the pickle, you know, once you're in the situation, there's a sense in which it- it's sort of a no-win, right? And you're going to lose either way. You shouldn't have got into it in the first place. If you back out now, you may lose some money, you may lose your job, you may lose a lot of things, but if you don't back out, just think about what you're going to lose. Now, if you're willing to lose it for him, the Lord is able to give me, give you much more than this. And he will, you know. He will more than recompense you for anything you're willing to lose for him. But if, on the other hand, you decide that you'd rather lose him, uh, a fellowship with him and, and uh, peace with God and a good conscience, and you can't afford to lose your, your shekels, don't expect the world to reimburse you for anything you lose. God will always do it. He will always recompense you. Anything you do for him, anything that costs you, and it will. The Christian life is expensive. To become a Christian is absolutely free, but to be a Christian is very expensive. But anything that's worth it is expensive, isn't it? If, if, uh, somebody looks at my wife's diamond ring and they say, oh, that's a beautiful ring. How much did it cost? And I say, well, I think it was four or five quarters before I finally got it. All this gum, but finally, you know, it fell down there into the little thing, and I... So, well, that- so that's what you think of your wife, is it? It's not worth much. See, the Lord looks at us and he says, I think you're worth a lot. In fact, I gave everything for you. I didn't hold anything back. So what, what do you think I'm worth? I talked to a man one day in, in Winnipeg. He lived in a little basement apartment. He had a little window that looked out just, uh, way up at the top of the, of the room. He was in a wheelchair. He'd lost both his legs. I mean, he had nothing. His family had left him. He had nothing. Well, he did have something. Uh, he liked an occasional beer. So when I presented Christ to him, uh, immediately he said to me, would I have to give up my beers? You know what? It's hard for us to hear ourselves, isn't it? I said, listen, mister, here's your table, little cracked arborite top on this thing, this little kitchen table. I said, all right, on this end, let's put it. Here's forgiveness of sins, peace with God, a home in heaven, a fellowship with the God of the universe, Christ as your savior, the people of God as your family, and that's forever. And down on this end of the table, we'll put your beers. How many would you like? I mean, cases, go ahead, you know, ice cold, just the way you like it. Go ahead. Take your pick. It really is ludicrous, isn't it? But let's not be too hard on that old man. Look at the choices we make. If we really sat down and put it down on the table like that and said, well, what are we going to choose here? You see, we think we can have it all, don't we? We think we can have it all. We can have this world and the next one. The Lord says you can't. You cannot serve God and mammon. You can't have it all. We have to make some tough choices, and we have to decide what we want more than anything else. And so Amaziah backs off and went into battle, and God gave him the victory. So it looks like, at first, you see, it looks like, hmm, boy, this is a bit scary here. Uh, he did what was right, but not with a perfect heart. And then you read on the next couple of verses, and and he does what the word of God says, and you say, well, maybe there's some hope for the fellow. And then he goes and gets involved in this, in this unequal yoke, and then the man of God speaks up and says, you ought not to be like this, and he backs off and goes in and has the victory. Well, this is, this is cheering, this is encouraging. But meanwhile, while he's down there having this battle with the Edomites, he, he finds in Mount Seir, he finds some booty. They may have been some very beautiful idols. They may have been very nicely done. And he says, well, throw this in the back of the truck. And so he hauls this stuff home and sets it up and gets down on his knees and worships these idols. Again, we can distance ourselves from the story and say, I'd never do that. But there are times in our lives when God gives us the victory and we act as if we did it ourselves. Huh? Do it meself. I mean, how many little kids that you, you want to help them do up their shoelaces or help them whatever, do it meself. I, I can do it myself. And we get this attitude, um, uh, we have a victory, God gives us the victory, and we take the glory to ourselves and say, well, I did a pretty good job there, didn't I? You can do it when you get up to preach. People come and say, that was a real good word, and you think to yourself, hmm, well, I, I did pretty well, didn't I? Well, you go ahead and keep that attitude. Try it next time. Well, I tell you, the Lord knows how to really humble you. And why is that? Is it because God is a selfish God and he wants it all for himself or something like that? Of course not. You see, God made us for his glory, and the manifestation of the glory of God is the most wonderful revelation that has ever come to man. And God has given you the privilege of manifesting to the world the most wonderful person in the universe. And if instead I manifest myself to the world, you talk about a come down. Promoting myself instead of manifesting the glory of God. God has given me tremendous privileges. I think if we could enter into them and realize what God has given to us, there's nothing in the world that could attract us. Now, I go to somebody's house, say I'm staying with the, well, say I'm staying with Steve, right? And, uh, and I go out the the first morning, and I go downtown, and I find some old derelict. He's been sleeping in a box, and and, uh, all his all his friends, you know, they're sitting on a park bench, and and, uh, I say, hey guys, have I found a great place to live? I'm staying with this fella Holshizer, and he's got a nice place. Come on home with me. Now, I'm just there for the weekend, but you guys can stay as long as you like, you know? Bring your friends. Sure, absolutely. And I go downtown, all the way down the street, and I invite all these people home. Uh, well, do you know that's exactly what God has done for us? God has said, I give you the right to go ahead. You can ask any derelict sinner, any wicked person, anybody at all, anybody out of the gutter, any proud, pretentious, religious person, you name it. You go ahead and you invite them home to my place, and they can stay forever. What an honor to, to invite people to come and live with God forever. He's given you that privilege. He's taken his bank account, all that God owns, and he's taken you down to the bank, and he's got you to sign the little card there, and now it's a joint bank account, and everything he owns, you own. And he says, anytime you want to write a check, just feel free. All the promises of God are yay and amen. They're all yours, and anytime you want to draw on those resources, he's got more than enough for you. You can go ahead and write checks all you want. You can just, uh, uh, draw on the wisdom of God, on the grace of God, on the forgiveness of God. You can afford to be lavish. You know, you see these pictures, guys lighting their cigars with hundred dollar bills. That's small potatoes. Man, you, you can't, you just can't spend it fast enough. You go ahead. You can afford to be generous. You can afford to be lavish with people because he's been generous with you. Why do we then turn again to idols? Now we're, we sometimes think that we'd never stoop to such a thing, but John thought we might, and so he saved as the last statement in his little letter to the saints, he reserved these words, little children, keep yourselves from idols. An idol is anything that gets in the way between my heart and God. And, uh, it may be my career. And I say, Lord, you know, I'm willing to trust you in any area, but I really like this job. And I don't say it, but I think to myself, don't you dare take this job from me. Uh, keep your hands off. That's my job, and I want it, my career. The Lord lays his hand on it and says, now, am I the Lord or not? Yeah. Well, theoretically, you can be the Lord of everything as long as you don't take anything. You know, I mean, is that it? The Lord says, you're my child as long as you don't take anything. Of course not. The Lord, in a practical way, has opened all of heaven to me, and now he says, what I want you to do is I want you to trust me with all that you've got. Are you willing to trust me? And that means that maybe riding home in the car today or tonight, I get into the presence of God and I spread my little life. It's not much. I mean, what have you got? You spread it out before him and say, Lord, go ahead, you can have, you can have it all. I mean, that's what he did to me. He spread the whole thing out, and he said, there it is. Everything I've got, it's yours. Go ahead. Now, I spread my life out to him. Well, you see how, you see how really pathetic it is, don't you? Here's my little girl, and and she needs some dental work, and I said, my wife says, you got some money? And well, there it goes, human vacuum cleaner. It happens all the time, you know? There it goes, it's gone. And my little girl, well, she sort of expects it, you know? I mean, I'm her father, and I look after her, and if there are groceries or clothes or whatever it is, she's looked after. Well, then my birthday comes. Hey, she's four years old. But she goes somewhere, and she finds, uh, an old quarter with some gum on it and, and a couple of pennies and a nickel. I don't know, she found them down the back of a chair somewhere or something, you know, and she tapes them on the little card. It's all she's got, and she brings it to me. This is for you, daddy. And I say, well, thank you, honey, that'll pay the mortgage this month. Is that right? That's not, I mean, it's more than money, isn't it? What is that? That's that little girl's heart. She, she pasted her heart on the card. It's all she had. She said, that's for you. What have I got to give the Lord? Oh, maybe a little knowledge of the word of God and a little ability to speak or something, or a little of this. I mean, nothing that he didn't give me in the first place. That money, I mean, it probably fell out of my pocket when I was lying on the couch one day, you know? Everything that I have comes from the Lord, and all he's saying is, will you let me be the Lord? Will you let me be God in your life? But I have these little idols. I said, well, he can be God over this and that and the other thing. I was really grateful that he showed up for the battle and gave me the victory, but now I've got these idols in the way. Well, he gets a word again. God speaks to him again. In grace, a servant of the Lord comes to the king and says to him, excuse me, in case you haven't noticed the irony of the situation, these idols are losers, you know? These idols belong to the people you walked, and if they couldn't help the people of Edom, what are you doing bowing down before them? Do we, are are our hearts attracted to the world? We look, you know, here, I mean, we know all the stories. We know the stories about the Hollywood stars and about the big businessmen and the people that have got all the money in the world, and and people ask them, are you happy? And they say, happy? I don't know the meaning of the word. They read about, well, Christina Onassis or whatever. I mean, these people are the most miserable people in the world, right? Their idols don't work. Their idols don't help them. So what do we do? We dream about what it would be like to have all of Christina Onassis' money. Well, Christina doesn't have it anymore. She finally came to the point where she couldn't think of one good reason to get up in the morning. They're your idols. Would you want them? Look what they've done for the world. Look at the people who have given their hearts to these idols. They're losers. They're losers. The people on the front page of the Fortune magazine and the Cosmopolitan magazine and all, they're just empty shells. You know, there's nothing there. We know the stories, we preach the stories. And then we see a nice car drive by, and our hearts go bump, bump, bump, bump, boy, I wish I had that car. Well, the person that's driving in the car, are they any happier because they're driving in that car? Do the idols work? Do they do anything for them? I don't think they do. Well, then he says, what are you doing bowing down before idols that didn't do anything for the Edomites? It was God who gave you the victory. The king says, uh, are you on the payroll here? You have no right to talk to me. You're not my employee. See, that's the great thing about God. You can't buy him. Huh? God's not trying to win points. He's not trying to be popular. If he was, I wouldn't be preaching this today. And this, this is not a popular sort of a message, is it? And God's not trying to win points with us. God is God, and he's tough, you know. Uh, this is what we read here. The king is told in verse eight of chapter twenty five, God has power to help and to cast down. If you want to fight for him, well, God, God can help you. And if you want to fight against him, God knows how to take you out of the knees. And some of us have had that experience. For some silly reason, we've fought against God, and, uh, so far, God always wins, doesn't he? God wins the day. He wants us to be winners too, and he doesn't want us to fight against him. If we do, he resisteth the proud and gives grace to the humble. If we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, he will exalt us. God wants us to go up. God wants us to be winners, but he wants us to be winners God's way. And he tells us that the world is full of losers. It doesn't matter how much money, you know, what is, what's this line? It's the most ridiculous line. Um, uh, the person who wins is the one who dies with the most toys or something like that. Isn't that... How can people ever say that? How can they even think that? Here's the guy, he's the winner because he's got the hand rubbed cherry coffin, you know? He's got the nice mausoleum spot. It's really a, an absolutely ludicrous position to take in life, but people go after that with all their heart. If you've got a nice condominium in Florida, you're better off than the guy who doesn't. And eventually, of course, you got to die, and you got to leave your condominium, and then you go to what's called the long house. I think that the word of God has some of the greatest phrases, doesn't it? That's what, that's what Solomon calls your coffin, your casket. You, your final move is to the long house. And that's it. There, there it is. That's your final move. You move up and up and up in the world, and then eventually, there it is. Welcome to the long house. Pathetic, isn't it? And what we need to do, and that's why a, a weekend like this is good, is all day long, all week long, all year long, we're in the, in the pressure cooker, and we're, we're being inundated with the world's philosophies, and we're being told, this is what you got to do, this is what you got to be, and it's a great thing to get back, to get out of that for a minute and take a look at the, at the arborite table and see God's end of the table and the world's end of the table and say, well, what kind of a choice is that? Doesn't make any sense at all, does it? To pick things of time when I can have the things of eternity. Well, finally, we read that, uh, that he decided to go into battle, and sure enough, what God said came to pass. But it wasn't before he got one last warning. And you notice where the warning came from now. It's not a man of God, it's not a prophet who refuses to be on the payroll, the Lord's free man. And by the way, maybe I'll just mention a little word here. Uh, there is a tremendous amount of pressure in assemblies these days to hire a preacher. I think that's the solution, and the reason is that the men are lazy, see. They come home, watch TV, have supper, and go to bed. They don't get into the word, and there's pressure. Come on, brethren, let's get going. I say, well, you know, I'm too busy. And that's exactly the problem. You're too busy. If you're too busy to serve God, you're too busy. And we'll make sure we are too busy so that we don't have to serve God. And so eventually the men say, well, we can't do it, we'll have to hire somebody. I was out in Vancouver last Labor Day, and there was a fellow driving the ferry across to the island where the camp was, and we got talking. Uh, he was a school teacher over in a little community. He'd never heard of a, an a New Testament assembly, and um, uh, he was going to a little denominational church, and they didn't have a preacher, and so they asked him if he'd be their preacher, quit his teaching, and they'd hire him as a preacher. He said, well, listen, you know, I don't know any of the denominational teaching or anything. I'm just going to have to follow the Bible, so if that's okay with you, whatever I find in the Bible, that's what I'll teach. Well, I hope this isn't too shocking to you, but he discovered the New Testament pattern, and after a while, this little denominational church ended up being, um, a New Testament gathering. Well, with one exception, he was still on the payroll. And, you know, he said, he said to me, he said, I talked to these people coming across to the island from assemblies in Vancouver, and when I ask them how their local church is doing, they tell me about their, their interest in hiring a preacher, and they wonder if I'm interested. And he said, I tell them, you don't realize how short a chain you put on a man when you put him on the payroll. He said, you've got him on a very short chain. And he said, it's, it's the honorable thing. It's not that we're, uh, we're hirelings. He said, the fact is that, uh, I want to give you what, you know, I will give you your money's worth. You're paying my salary, you expect certain things, I want to do it for you. That's an honorable thing, isn't it? I mean, if I do ease troughing and, and I tell you I'll do a certain thing for you and you pay me, well, then you better get your money's worth. And he said, that's how I felt. He said, I could not believe the liberty that came into my life when I finally said to them, this isn't right, keep your money. There's a tremendous liberty in being the Lord's free man. I fear that, that this pressure to hire preachers to come and do, do for us what we ought to be doing ourselves, uh, is going to destroy many assemblies. It's going to ruin them. There's a little article we just published in UpLook by Brian Gunning, a young man up in, uh, where I used to live in Canada. Uh, he's a father and a businessman and an elder, and he writes a little paper called It Can Be Done. You know, it can. It's possible for a man to be a family man and a businessman and to give your heart and life to the establishment of the local assembly. It's a real possibility. Now, Brian doesn't have the best golf swing in town. He doesn't belong to the country club. Uh, there are a lot of things Brian doesn't do by choice. He gives his life to the assembly and to his family, and he handles his business affairs. Uh, and if you want to do that, you're going to have to make some tough choices, and there'll be a lot of things that you won't do that everybody else thinks is their right to do. And Brian doesn't take two months holidays and go off somewhere. He could afford it, but he doesn't do that. He, he stays there and helps in the local assembly. We need people like that today, and it's God's pattern, and I tell you, they're the rich people. You want to meet people that are really rich. They're the people who have extended their lives for God. So he has one last warning, and his warning comes from a, a rank. You know, after we have refused to listen, we've despised prophesying, we've heard the word of God, we reject the message, we say that it's okay, but it's a bit radical. I don't, I'm not sure I'll, I'll swallow all of that. Uh, I want to do what God wants, but not quite go that far, you see? And that was his problem. After all of that, when we won't listen to anyone else, God may very well bring some totally unregenerate person into our lives, and they speak a word to us, and it really knocks our socks off. We never expected it from them, and so our guard was down. You know, when we're around the Christians, like, we've got our guard up, like, don't say anything to me, pal, I'll be offended, you know. We've got our guard up, and then we go off, and we're among a, among a bunch of pagans, and some pagan gets us. Say, where'd that come from? Well, it came from God, you know. In fact, we read that, don't we? It came from God, verse twenty. This is all part of God's scheme. And here God uses a pagan to speak. Remember my brother-in-law, he, this is, he was in university, and he really wasn't living for the Lord. And his parents, they were Christians, and they'd spoken to him, and his elders had spoken to him, and other Christians had spoken to him, and he'd been able to just kind of slough the whole thing off. And then he was sitting at the university watching TV one, one night, and something happened on the, on the TV, and he, and he said something in approval, and some guy that was really a, a lowlife in the college, he turned to him and said, Bob, I never thought I'd hear you say that. And that was the beginning of the restoration of my brother-in-law. Some pagan who, I mean, Bob finally got to the place where pagans were taking notice of him. And this is the case here. And Joash sends this little note back to the, to the king of Judah, and he says, let me tell you a little story. Here's this lofty cedar, and here's this little, this little weed. And the little weed writes a note to the lofty seed- uh, cedar and says, um, I'd like your daughter to marry my son. And while the correspondence is still in transit, this animal comes along and goes, and that was the end of the thistle. And what he was saying was, you think you're pretty big stuff, don't you? You're just a mere mortal. You've got yourself so puffed up, you think you're so important, you've got to stand back for a minute, pal, and see who you really are. In fact, he goes on to say, um, you've smitten the Edomites, your heart's lifted up to boast. Listen, the best thing you can do is abide at home. You need a little time off. You need to think about this mystery. Again, another warning from God. There are some of us, and we are so busy. We hardly hit the door, and we're out again, you know? We're rushing off doing this and doing that, and some of us need just to sit quiet for a bit and really think about our lives. Uh, we walk in the door, the TV's on. You push the button as soon as you walk in the room. The music is going. We get in the car, turn on the key, the music's already on, boom. Uh, we're always buzzing around, and some of us need to be still and know that he's God. And this wisdom from a pagan is something that we all would do well to take to heart. It's, it's God's last warning to this man. After all of the other stop signs that he runs, at last God uses a pagan. He figures, well, if he's not listening to me, maybe he'll listen to this fella. And he sends him a little note and in, in effect says, do I have to draw you a picture? And that's what he does. He draws him a little picture. Here's the big cedar, here's the little thorn bush. Oops, there goes the thorn bush. He says, Mister, you think you're pretty big stuff. You're lifted up in pride. It's heart trouble again, isn't it? Thine heart lifteth thee up to boast. And the sad end of this man reminds us again that, uh, God can do without us, you know. We can't do without God. You are not indispensable. You're a little, a little creature here on this little planet. God doesn't need us, but you know God loves us, and God wants to use us. God wants to fellowship with us. Think of it, God says, w- will you be friends with me? Imagine that. And I, and I say, well, I'll think about it. Really? God wants to be our friend. And I think, uh, as, as we come to the end of, of the Old Testament, and I've mentioned there Malachi, it's a great little book to read because it speaks to the last times. This was just before the Lord was going to come, and there's a great deal similar with the day in which we live. They had all the r- religious form, you know, they knew how to handle things, and they had it all down pat, but their hearts were far from God. And Malachi begins with these words, the burden of Malachi. Sounds like it's going to be a real grumpy message, doesn't it? Real heavy. You know what the first thing God says? I love you. Now, this is after the Jews have despised him, rejected his prophets, killed them, burned them at the stake, cut them in pieces. After all that, God sent his best men to them. He's had men like Jeremiah weep for thirty years over them. He's had men who are the most eloquent of speakers, men like Isaiah, who have pledged the heart of God before these people. And after all that, God says, you know, I still love you. And I love the story of the prodigal son, because it reminds me that if I'm willing to make the turn and begin to head home, I may not run. My feet will drag, perhaps. I'm ashamed of what I've done and how I've lived. But I tell you this, the Father is watching, and he runs, and he throws his arms around you, and he covers you in kisses, and he says, welcome home. And you can hardly get your confession out. I challenge you to think of one occasion when you came home that the Lord gave you a rough time. Can you? You, I mean, you deserve it. But he doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. Say, Lord, I did it again. He says, what do you mean again? As far as he's concerned, when you come and confess your sin, that's it. You start from square one every time. You, you don't ever have two strikes against you. You come into his presence, and he says, it's not again. I mean, this is the first time, isn't it? He treats you just as if you've never done it before, and he says, it's all settled now, kissing, wipes away your tears, says, let's go on. Come on into the, come on into the banqueting room, come on into the dining room, and he spreads the peace, and we feed on the good things of God, and we wonder why we ever left the Father's house to go for the back streets of the far country. We wonder why we ever left, and we wonder how he could ever love us that much, but he just loves to have us home, you know. So if, if you've got away, why don't you come home? What's keeping you? Your pride? You know, it's pretty hard to be proud sitting in a pigsty, isn't it? I have my pride, after all. Take a look. When we get away from the Lord, we end up in the pigsty. We end up in a stinking, filthy world. We wonder how we ever got there. You know what brought him home? It was thought of a good meal. That wasn't a very good motive for coming home, was it? He was just plain hungry. But the Father threw his arms around him anyway, received him home. It may not be for a good motive that we come home, but the Father's ready to receive us just the same. I was telling you yesterday about my friend out in Vancouver who got away from the Lord, and uh, when at last he came back, he told me, he said, just the other day I, I said to my little boy Mark, Mark's just about eight. he said, Mark, I've got something to tell you. Daddy's come back to the Lord. And Mark didn't say anything at first. He went over and got a little stool, and he carried the stool over right beside his daddy, and he put it down on the floor, and he got up on the stool so he could reach and put his arms around his daddy's neck, and he said, Daddy, that makes me so happy. If it makes a little boy happy like that, what does it do to the heart of God when we come home? It makes him so happy. Why, why do we want to live in the far country? What's it got? There's a certain appeal to it, isn't there? Like, I'm on my own, I can handle myself, I can make my own way in the world. I mean, why work for the family business? There's something about it, you know, I'm working for dad. But I tell you, when you've been to the far country, you wonder why you ever left, and you may feel like he doesn't... he's ashamed to even think of me as his son. Don't, don't call me your son. I don't deserve to be that, but if I could just have a, a job in the barn somewhere. He says, son, I've been saving this place for you at the head of the table. Here's the best robe, here's the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf. Welcome home, son. And that night, there was music and dancing in the father's house, and it was a time of sweet rejoicing because the prodigal came home. You may not feel like a prodigal especially, but I tell you, if we wandered in our hearts from God, he's standing on the doorstep. He won't chase us. He won't drag us back. He'll let us come when we're ready. He's standing on the doorstep, and he's looking down the road, and he's just waiting for us to make the move. And the moment we do, we'll feel his arms around us and the kiss of God upon our cheeks. Welcome home. No, no reason to be half-hearted about the things of God. There's only one passion you can give to wholeheartedly that won't corrupt you, and that's a passion for God. May God help us to be passionate about the things of God and not ignore the warnings that come our way, not ever get away. But if we do, God says, as he says in the pe- the people in Malachi's day, I love you. And he waits for us to return, and when we do, like little Mark, he throws his arms around us and he says, that makes me so happy. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank thee for the one son who never went away, who always did those things that pleased thee. And we remember the words on record in Malachi's, uh, little book. Then they that fear the Lord. When they got together, they, they thought upon his name, and a book of remembrance was written. God took notice and thought it's well worth it to write a book about it. We're ashamed that when we get together, we don't talk enough about him. It would keep us from slipping away into the world. It would, it would stir our hearts to love him more. Help us to do that as we meet one another here and there at conferences or camps, to speak about him and to encourage one another to love the Lord Jesus more. And then we read that, that God said, they're my jewels, and I'll spare them in that day as a man spares his own son who serves him. And O God, thou didst have a son who served thee, and thou didst not spare him, but delivered him up for us all. And how wilt thou not with him also freely give us all things? Oh, we thank thee for thy generous heart, for thy loving heart. We're ashamed that we ever bow down to the idols of the world, that we ever see anything in the world. After all the world has done is give heartache and broken dreams to the world, why would we ever bring their idols home? Oh God, help us to get our eyes back on him and to be wholehearted about the thing, to give ourselves wholly to thee, to spread our little lives out on the table and say, Lord, it's all yours, whatever you want. I want to be yours alone. We give thee thanks for this time together. We thank thee for the servants here, for people like Clint and Jan and so many others who've, who've poured out their lives at this place for us and for thee. For those who work in the kitchen, Father, help us to be an encouragement to them too. And for brother Steve and for, uh, those who have planned and worked to make this weekend a time in thy presence, a time of renewal and refreshing, revival. And watch over us as we travel home. Help us not to, uh, discard the word that thou hast spoken to our hearts, but to take it seriously, to be different, to be changed, to be more like the Lord Jesus. We ask in.