"Idolatry"

Good morning, church. It's good to see you all this morning. Would you turn with me to the book of 2 Chronicles?

!

Father, as we draw near to your Word now, we think of those words from the psalmist when he says,

You have put more joy in our hearts than they have when the grain and the wine abound.

Lord, indeed, we are deeply satisfied in you because you have met our every and eternal need.

So as we come now to your life-giving Word, would you continue to feed our souls?

Show us again your goodness, your mercy, your power, and your grace, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Practices.

He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord and did much building on the wall of Ophel. Moreover,

he built cities in the hill country of Judah and forts and towers on the wooded hills.

He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them, and the Ammonites gave

him that year 100 talents of silver and 10,000 cores of wheat and 10,000 of barley. The Ammonites paid

him the same amount in the second and third years. So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways

before the Lord his God. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways,

behold, they're written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. He was 25 years old when he began

to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried

him in the city of David. And Ahaz, his son, reigned in his place. So I recently saw an interview with

Harvard professor Arthur Brooks, and he was talking about a recent study about spiritual influence on

children. And for a long time, sociologists have sort of known and studies have shown that the single

biggest predictor of what sort of faith or religion kids will grow up to have, the single biggest

influence is their parents. And according to Brooks, the father in particular has perhaps the greatest

statistical impact on the faith of the kids. Now, if you're a parent, these sorts of studies can be both

encouraging and terrifying. It can be somewhat encouraging because there are myriad influences

in the world on our children, friends and teachers and social media and movies and TVs and music and

sports. There's a whole host of voices that seek to capture the attention of the next generation,

shape their outlook on the world and on themselves. But the good news is that amidst all those voices,

parents still have the greater and more impactful role. So parents, don't live in fear. Loving and

serving your kids is still going to be the most clear and influential voice in your kids' lives.

But at the same time, isn't that reality somewhat terrifying? I mean, what parent among us is sufficient

for these things? Most parents I know, myself among them, regularly realize how far we fall short in loving

and serving and teaching and being a godly example for our kids.

But, but, as big as the role of the parent most certainly is, even their influence is not the final say.

Our passage today, 2 Chronicles 27 and 28, shows us that your spiritual upbringing

doesn't determine or guarantee your spiritual future.

And that makes our passage a passage both of hope and of warning. It's a passage of hope to those

without a good spiritual heritage, and it's also a warning to those with a good spiritual heritage.

So let's consider first the message of hope. The story of Jotham in chapter 27 that we just read

essentially tells us that no matter how bad your spiritual upbringing was, you can still be

spiritually strong. No matter how bad or inconsistent or ungodly your spiritual upbringing was, you can

still be spiritually strong. Now, how do we see that in the life of Jotham? Well, consider verse 2,

where it says,

Now last week we saw how at the height of his strength,

Uzziah, who was Jotham's father, grew proud to his own destruction. In other words, Uzziah set an example

of pride before his son Jotham. An example that said,

the good limits of God don't apply to those in power. An example that said,

the correction of others doesn't apply to those in power.

But the poor spiritual example that Jotham saw in his own father did not determine his future.

The chronicler tells us that Jotham did not enter the temple of the Lord. In other words,

he remained humble before God.

And he remained humble even though the people in his day didn't follow the Lord. The end of verse 2

says, but the people still followed corrupt practices. In other words, and even though

his contemporaries were all going astray, even though his own father had failed to model true godliness,

Jotham still did what was right in God's eyes.

And he remained humble even though, like his father, God granted him success. Verses 3, 4, and 5 recount how

Jotham flourished as a king, both internally as he kind of advanced the infrastructure of the kingdom

and externally as he brought in more and more tribute from the surrounding nations.

You see, unlike his father, who in his strength grew proud and whose pride led to destruction,

Jotham stays humble and does what is right in the Lord's eyes.

Verse 7 is the summary of his life.

So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

His father had left a crooked path to follow, but Jotham ordered his way before the Lord his God.

And because of that, he became strong. He became mighty.

In fact, he became one of the few kings in 2 Chronicles of which the chronicler has nothing negative to say.

Now, friend, I wonder, I wonder if you need this encouragement, this hope today.

I don't know what sort of upbringing you've had.

Maybe you look at your parents or your grandparents or whoever was most influential in your life,

and maybe you don't see much help there.

Maybe you don't see much of an example to follow.

And sometimes maybe you wonder,

Am I just bound to repeat the past?

Will my parents' failings be mine too?

Or maybe lacking a good example, you think,

Am I going to stumble into just different but equally languishing fields of spiritual failure in my life?

Friend, take hope from the story of Jotham.

Despite a bad upbringing, Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

His spiritual vitality was not determined by the failure of the preceding generation,

and yours need not be either.

And if that's true of us individually, it's also true of us corporately as a church.

The spiritual dryness, the lack of prayerfulness,

the doctrinal waywardness, or the moral failings that we might be able to see

in preceding generations of the church, whether here in America or abroad,

those need not be what determines our future.

Rather, we can order our ways before the Lord our God and be strong.

The Spirit can blow upon the faintest coals and light a fresh fire, you see.

Revivals often come when the prospects look most dim,

when the fields seem most dry or overgrown from a previous generation's neglect.

There God gets the glory.

He gets the glory when new growth shoots up through dry ground,

and when a new work begins amidst the ruins of the old.

This, I wonder, I wonder if this is what the chronicler wanted his generation to hear in the story of Jotham.

Because remember, his generation and a couple generations before his,

they had all returned from exile.

The exile, which was the biggest marker of spiritual and moral failure in all of Israelite history.

And you have to wonder if the chronicler's generation was asking themselves,

would we repeat those same mistakes?

But the chronicler saying, no, we can be like Jotham,

ordering our ways before the Lord our God, and as a result, growing strong.

We are not destined for failure.

The Lord our God is a God of new beginnings,

of revival and renewal, of cities rebuilt,

of families restored,

of children walking in the paths of holiness and wisdom,

even if their parents did not walk those paths before them.

That's who the God of the Bible is.

The God who can take a valley of dry bones and make it live again.

So this is a message of hope.

No matter how bad your spiritual upbringing was,

you can still be spiritually vibrant and strong.

But our passage continues with a warning.

If our spiritual heritage cannot determine our future for ill,

neither can it guarantee our future for good.

Let's pick up at the end of chapter 27 and continue into chapter 28, verses 1 through 7.

The chronicler ends chapter 27 saying,

And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David.

And Ahaz, his son, reigned in his place.

And Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign,

and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.

And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord,

as his father David had done.

But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel.

He even made metal images for the Baals.

And he made offerings in the valley of the son of Hinnom,

and burned his sons as an offering,

according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out

before the people of Israel.

And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places,

and on the hills, and under every green tree.

Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria,

who defeated him, and took captive a great number of his people,

and brought them to Damascus.

He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel,

who struck him with a great force.

For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, killed 120,000 from Judah in one day,

all of them men of valor,

because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.

And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim,

killed Maseah, the king's son,

and Azrakam, the commander of the palace,

and Elkanah, the next in authority to the king.

It's a great gift, isn't it?

It's a great gift to have a godly father or mother.

Many of us in this room can give thanks for the example of faithfulness,

or courage, or perseverance, or prayerfulness that we have seen in those closest to us.

But if that is you today, realize that there is also a danger,

a danger that your heart might think that because those who came before you follow the Lord,

then your faithfulness will be guaranteed.

But look at Ahaz.

Ahaz's father was a godly man,

and yet in the same number of years,

both he and his father reigned 16 years,

over the same number of years,

look at how different the outcome was.

No matter how good your spiritual upbringing,

you can still fall prey to idolatry and be ruined.

Do you wonder how it all started for Ahaz?

I mean, did it start as just outright rejection

of the ways of the Lord that his father had modeled so clearly for him,

these ways of the Lord?

Did Ahaz just reject them outright?

Or was it more gradual?

Did Ahaz begin to think of himself as a bit more of a cosmopolitan ruler

than his father was,

a bit more open-minded,

a bit more pluralistic?

You know, did he think at times,

surely the northern kingdom has something we can learn from?

He might have thought,

yeah, surely the gods of the other nations can't all be wrong,

can they?

Why not build some bridges?

And then the attraction of power,

the attraction of wealth,

the attraction of worldly respectability

starts to grow.

And suddenly he finds himself saying,

surely the Lord isn't the only God worthy of worship.

How narrow,

how provincial.

Let's build an altar to Baal.

And tragically,

Ahaz's heart begins a rapid decline.

And before he knows it,

he's free-falling

into the depths of apostasy and corruption,

not just following the practices of the wayward northern kings,

but taking up the evil practices of the nations

that God had driven out hundreds of years earlier,

sacrificing his own children to false gods.

And so, desiring to be strong,

desiring to be respected,

desiring to be a man of renown,

Ahaz becomes weak.

And his people pay the cost.

Verses 5 through 7 tell us of a war,

a war when the northern kingdom joined forces with Syria

and attacked Judah, the southern kingdom.

And they were attacking Judah to try to force Ahaz

into a joint alliance

against the growing threat of the Assyrian empire,

this massive empire that was waking up from its sleep

and beginning to churn its way down south into their land.

And Ahaz tries to stand his ground

against these petty kings

trying to force him into an alliance,

but the sad tragedy is

he's actually forsaken the only real source of strength,

which is the Lord God.

And Ahaz is defeated.

And some of his closest family members

and even his own son and his advisors

die in the battle.

But you know, here's the problem with idolatry.

Idolatry is like a whirlpool.

And the more you kind of swim in its current,

the harder it is to get out,

the deeper and deeper down it pulls you.

You would think that after the defeat

of verses 5 through 7,

Ahaz would come to his senses.

But tragically, no.

Let's see how he responds a few verses later.

Let's pick up the story in verse 16 of chapter 28,

jumping down a little bit.

2 Chronicles 28, 16.

At that time, King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help.

For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah

and carried away captives.

And the Philistines made raids on the cities

in the Shephala and the Negev of Judah

and had taken Beth Shemesh, Ijelon, Gederoth, Soko

with its villages, Timnah with its villages,

Gimzo with its villages, and they settled there.

For the Lord humbled Judah

because of Ahaz, king of Israel,

for he had made Judah act sinfully

and had been very unfaithful to the Lord.

So Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria,

came against him and afflicted him

instead of strengthening him.

For Ahaz took a portion from the house of the Lord

and the house of the king and the princes

and gave tribute to the king of Assyria,

but it did not help him.

In the time of his distress,

he became yet more faithless to the Lord,

the same king Ahaz.

For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus

that had defeated him and said,

Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them,

I will sacrifice to them that they may help me,

that they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.

And Ahaz gathered together the vessels

of the house of God and cut in pieces

the vessels of the house of God,

and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord,

and he made himself altars

in every corner of Jerusalem.

In every city of Judah,

he made high places to make offerings

to other gods,

provoking the anger,

provoking to anger the Lord,

the God of his fathers.

Now the rest of his acts and all his ways,

from first to last,

behold, they're written in the book

of the kings of Judah and Israel.

And Ahaz slept with his fathers,

and they buried him in the city in Jerusalem,

for they did not bring him

into the tombs of the kings of Israel.

And Hezekiah, his son,

reigned in his place.

You know, it's a bit like,

it's a bit like taking a piece of metal

and bending it,

and bending it,

and curving it round and round a staff.

You keep curving it and bending it

and molding it around this object

until eventually the twist

and the curve of the metal

just can't be undone.

That's the heart of Ahaz.

And that's how idolatry works.

We go to it for help,

like Ahaz went to Assyria,

but it doesn't help.

We're in trouble,

we're in pain,

we're in distress,

we're in affliction,

so we turn to money

or alcohol

or sex

or hard work

or professional accomplishments.

We seek help

in some project

or some object

of our own choosing.

And maybe at first

it sort of makes sense.

Ahaz,

going to Assyria,

was actually kind of clever

on the surface.

The Assyrians were bigger

and stronger than everybody else.

Why not cut a deal with them

while he could?

But ultimately,

it didn't help.

It didn't help.

And then comes

one of the most tragic verses

in the whole of 2 Chronicles,

verse 22.

In the time of his distress,

he became yet more faithless

to the Lord,

the same King Ahaz.

At this point in his life,

Ahaz does the unthinkable.

He takes everything of value

from the temple,

cuts it up,

melts it down,

shutters the temple completely

in order to take

all of that precious stuff

to make even more altars

to false gods.

And how long did it take?

How long did it all take?

How long did it all take

for the temple

to be desecrated and closed,

for the people to be defeated,

for the Lord to be forsaken?

It didn't take generations

upon generations.

It wasn't the work of centuries.

It took 16 years.

At the end of that 16 years,

Ahaz had so twisted his heart

around the idols of his day

that he simply couldn't unravel himself

from their ruin.

You know, we often think foolishly,

I'll live how I want

when I'm young.

And you know,

in our culture,

young just keeps getting

longer and longer,

isn't it?

30s, 40s,

we still think we're young.

I'll live how I want

when I'm young,

and then when I'm old,

I'll turn back to God.

Then I'll do right.

But friend,

what makes you so sure

that you'll even want

to turn back to God then?

After living your life like Ahaz

for the false gods of this age,

after serving them

and seeking them

and sacrificing for them

and twisting your soul around them

all of your days,

what makes you so confident

that you'll even be able

to recognize

your need for saving

on that day?

At that point,

will you even want

to swim out of the whirlpool?

Or will you keep paddling headlong

for the dark center

where there is no return?

The chronicler wants us

to heed the warning of Ahaz.

No matter how good

your spiritual upbringing was,

you can still fall prey

to idolatry

and be ruined.

Your parents' faith,

your grandparents' faith,

the faith of your friends,

the faith of your church community,

it will not avail for you.

You must choose

who you will serve.

Will you serve

the living and true God?

Or will you give your heart

to idols?

Will you worship

the gods of this age

and the gods of this age

will demand more

and more of you,

but they will never really help?

Or will you worship

the God

who ultimately revealed himself

in Jesus Christ,

the God

who fulfilled the laws

every demand

on your behalf,

and who offers his gracious help

to all who call on him

in faith?

Friend,

don't mistake

having a good

spiritual heritage

for having living faith

in the living God.

Take hold of Christ

for yourself

today.

Surrender your life

to him.

He lived and died

and rose again

so that you might

die to sin

and live to God

so that you might

be free

from the empty

idolatry

of this passing age

and live for a kingdom

that lasts forever.

Don't mistake

a good spiritual heritage

for living faith

in the living God.

And that's true

of churches as well.

The spiritual vitality

of the previous generation

will not be automatically

credited to us.

the history

of revivals

and renewals,

the love

of sound doctrine,

the sacrifice

for mission

and heralding

the gospel

to the ends

of the earth,

the care for creation

and for the poor,

the devoted prayer

for God's glory

to be shown.

These godly examples

of our heritage,

they will not guarantee

our spiritual vitality.

We must take

fresh ground.

Let's not rest content

to have good examples

behind us.

The spiritual affections

of a Jonathan Edwards,

the missionary zeal

of a Lottie Moon,

the doctrinal courage

of an Athanasius.

Let's not rest content

to just have good examples

behind us.

Let's seek God

for ourselves too.

And by God's grace,

let us leave

a good example

for those to come.

And brothers and sisters,

friends,

it is not

too late

to begin.

We've said

this passage

is one of both

hope and warning,

but it's also a call

to begin seeking God

today.

No matter what

your spiritual background,

you can heed

God's voice

today.

today

and begin again.

In the center

of chapter 28,

verses 8 through 15,

the chronicler

places a story

where we see

just that.

And I think

the chronicler

put this story

in the middle

to make it stand out.

In contrast

to Ahaz,

the bad king

of Jerusalem,

the chronicler

shows us

genuine

spiritual repentance

and renewal

in the most

unlikely place.

in the midst

of the rebel

northern kingdom,

in the heart

of Samaria,

genuine faith

is found.

Let's read

verses 8 through 15.

The men of Israel,

that's the ungodly

northern kingdom,

took captive,

they took captive

in that same war

previously described.

They took captive

200,000

of Judah's

relatives,

women,

sons,

and daughters.

They also took

much spoil

from them

and brought

the spoil

to Samaria.

But a prophet

of the Lord

was there

whose name

was Oded,

and he went

out to meet

the army

that came

to Samaria

and he said

to them,

Behold,

because the Lord,

the God of your fathers,

was angry with Judah,

he gave them

into your hand.

But you have killed

them in a rage

that has reached

up to heaven.

And now you intend

to subjugate

the people of Judah

and Jerusalem,

male and female,

as your slaves?

Have you not

your own sins

against the Lord,

your God?

Now hear me

and send back

the captives

from your relatives

whom you have taken,

for the fierce wrath

of the Lord

is upon you.

Certain chiefs

also of the men

of Ephraim,

Azariah,

the son of Jonahan,

Berechiah,

the son of Mishillamoth,

Jehizakiah,

the son of Shalom,

and Amasa,

the son of Hadli,

stood up

against those

who were coming

from the war

and said to them,

You shall not

bring the captives

in here,

for you propose

to bring upon us

guilt against the Lord

in addition to our

present sins and guilt,

for our guilt

is already great

and there is fierce wrath

against Israel.

So the armed men

left the captives

and the spoil

before the princes

and all the assembly.

And the men

who had been mentioned

by name rose,

took the captives,

and with the spoil

they clothed

all who were naked

among them.

They clothed them,

gave them sandals,

provided them with food

and drink,

and anointed them,

and carrying all

the feeble among

them on donkeys,

they brought them

to their kinsfolk

at Jericho,

the city of palm trees.

Then they returned

to Samaria.

You see, friends,

ultimately,

it's not about

your spiritual heritage.

These leaders

from Samaria,

they had a checkered past,

mostly bad,

just like many of us.

but they heeded

God's word

and they repented

and they made

things right.

These prisoners

of war

at their gate,

these women

and children

from Judah

that had been

stolen away

in the recent war,

they stood up

and they refused

to take them in.

They refused

to subjugate them

and turn them

into servants.

And instead,

they did the opposite.

They clothed them.

They gave them

sandals and food

and drink

and healed

their wounds

with oil

and gave them

transportation

back home.

You see,

for these Samaritans,

it wasn't about

their spiritual pedigree.

It was about

what they did

with God's word

and how they responded

when their hearts

were exposed by it.

When they were

confronted

with their sin,

with their guilt

before God,

how did they respond?

That's what matters.

Are you soft

and responsive

to God's word?

And that isn't

something

that a godly heritage

or an ungodly heritage

will determine

for you.

In just a minute,

we're going to take

the Lord's Supper.

And here,

in the Supper,

we see the gospel

displayed

in visible,

tangible form,

broken bread

that speaks

of the body of Christ,

the poured-out cup

that speaks

of the shed blood

of Christ.

These elements

proclaim the gospel.

His body was broken

and His blood

was shed for sinners.

Christ suffered

once for sins,

the righteous

for the unrighteous

to bring us to God.

But look, friends,

His broken body

now means

that you can eat

and be full.

And His shed blood

means that you can

drink and rejoice.

All who come

to the risen Christ

confessing their need

for a Savior,

admitting their sin,

and trusting in His death

and resurrection

for their rescue

will be reconciled

to God

and filled

with His Spirit.

They now become

family members

and have a place

at the table.

Friends,

is that true of you?

You are not just

hearing God's Word

this morning.

You are seeing it.

No matter what

your spiritual heritage

might be,

the Word of God

is before you.

The Word of God

that says,

you are a sinner

who deserves death.

The Word of God

that says,

in love,

God's Son

died in your place

to forgive you.

The Word of God

that says,

to all who believe,

God will grant

a new heart

and eternal life.

take hold of Christ

today,

and He will pull you

from the whirlpool

of sin and idolatry.

He has the power,

friends,

to untwist

your hardened heart,

no matter what

your spiritual background.

He'll receive you

as His own,

and your family

will be the family

of God,

and your future

will be the new growth

and the fresh ground

that only God's grace

can produce.

And parents,

when it comes

to our kids,

let this same gospel

be our hope.

It is not our example

that's going to save

our kids.

Our confidence

is in the beauty

of the gospel alone

and in the power

of Christ alone.

He is the one

who binds our wounds.

He is the one

who clothes our nakedness.

He is the one

who feeds our souls.

He is the one

who leads us home,

carrying us all the way.

May our kids see Jesus

in all His beauty,

and may they know

God's grace.

And by that same grace,

may we all

order our ways

before the Lord

and be strong.

Let's pray together.

Father,

we ask

that by Your Spirit

You would come

and You would pour out,

You would grant God

repentance unto faith.

Help us in this moment

to be grateful

for our spiritual heritage

where it is good.

Help us in this moment

to not

feel trapped

by our spiritual heritage

if it be

not so good.

But Lord,

let none of us

overly depend

on those

who have come before.

Let us only depend

on the One

who has come before us,

Jesus Christ.

And let us rest in Him.

Amen.