"Wages of Sin"

What do we do with the darkness of a sinful and fallen world?

! It's often said today that we live in unprecedented times.

! The perception is that the rising tide is that of darkness and that the world is getting worse.

We feel political instability. We feel economic stress. We look around the world and we see war and famine and suffering.

And here in the U.S. we have a sense that our society is growing meaner, more divided, more stressed.

Now, I don't know if this is true. I've lived long enough, and some of you have lived longer than me, to know that the world has ups and downs.

In the 70s, there was an economic downturn and potential of nuclear war with Russia.

In 2001, there was 9-11, and it felt like the world was an unsafe place.

In 2008, we had an economic crisis. In 2020, we had a global pandemic.

So, we've certainly not necessarily gotten into something new and different.

Maybe its forms are a little different, but certainly the tide continues to come in and out.

But the darkness still seems to be there. And we don't like that because we want things to be getting better.

We have this hope that there is… that we live in a world that there is progress, that the trajectory is better and better.

But careful view of history might say that this is not necessarily true. Certainly, we have gotten better.

I'm really thankful for indoor plumbing, refrigeration, and antibiotics. You know, these are great progresses that didn't exist years ago.

But the world has continued in darkness. Humans continue to be selfish. They continue to start wars and to hurt one another.

They continue to fight for their own goodness and gain.

And friends, it's not just in the world that we live in we feel this, but in the community of the church as well.

We feel these ebbs and flows. At one level, the church is bigger and more global than it's ever been.

The church has advanced in all sorts of places, and the gospel is being heard across the world.

And yet we also see the worst of the church, don't we? Sexual abuse, financial misconduct, doctrinal compromise.

How much we feel at times like the church broadly is the proverbial frog in the kettle, becoming more and more like our culture rather than being distinctive as God's people.

So, how do we manage this? How do we think about living with God in light of this?

Well, I believe that our passage today will address this. We're in 2 Chronicles. We'll be in chapter 21 and a little bit in 22 as we look at the stories of the next kings.

And as you turn there, if you want to turn there in your Bible, it's page 347, 2 Chronicles 21.

But remember the context that Chronicles was written not during the time of the kings of Israel, but after it, right?

After, in fact, the exile of Israel when Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were taken away, and then the return from exile.

And Chronicles was written to those people who had come back, and they knew about God's judgment on the sin of Israel in the exile.

God had seen that His people had forsaken Him.

They had not trusted Him politically.

They had not worshipped Him as He called them to.

They did not. They worshipped other gods instead, and they failed to show the kingdom ethic that God had called them to live.

And for all these reasons, God said, enough, I'm going to send you into exile.

And yet He brought them back, and now the people then are wondering, what now?

Now we live in a world that seems much less glorious than the kingdom before.

We're not a kingdom now. We're a vassal state of Persia.

We don't have a king on a throne. We are led by rulers and priests, but we don't have independence.

How can they be God's kingdom in that world?

How can they live as God's people in the face of such disappointment and such uncertainty?

The Chronicle writes in the chapters we're going to look at today about a time of great darkness in the kingdom before the exile.

And He gives answers to that post-exilic community and to us as how we live.

So let's pray together and ask God for help as we look at His Word this morning.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank You for this morning. We thank You for Your Word.

And Lord, we thank You that Your Spirit, Your Spirit that has inspired this Word to be written down,

that has preserved Your Word through the centuries,

that Lord, now Your Spirit that now illumines Your Word, makes it clear to us so that we might understand it.

Lord, we pray for Your help this morning.

I pray that I might speak clearly. I pray that Your Word would speak to us by Your Spirit.

And Lord, that You would turn our hearts to You again this morning.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

So as we read this story, it's not a particularly uplifting one.

We're going to look at three things.

We will see the darkness of sin, the consequences of sin, and then the remedy for sin.

So there's your outline if you're an outline taker, the darkness of sin, the consequences of sin, and the remedy of sin.

And rather than reading through the whole story at once, I'm going to read it in chunks as we go through it.

So first, we're going to look at the first six verses and also verse 11 of chapter 21.

Let's read those together.

This is the story of Jehoram.

So this is what God's Word says.

2 Chronicles 21, verse 1.

2 Chronicles 21:1

All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah.

Their father gave them great gifts of silver and gold and valuable possessions together with fortified cities in Judah.

But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn.

When Jehoram had ascended the throne of his father and was established, he killed all his brothers with the sword and also some of the princes of Israel.

Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.

And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

And then skipping down to verse 11.

Moreover, he made high places in the hill country of Judah and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom and made Judah go astray.

Well, here's a king that we're not going to try to emulate, are we?

The sins of Jehoram were clear from the very start.

As he ascended to the throne as one of the many sons of his father Jehoshaphat, he was given the special task of being the king over the whole nation of Israel.

Now, remember, historically, there's the southern nation and the northern nation.

And the southern nation is sometimes called Judah, and sometimes it's called Israel.

The northern part is always called Israel, and we have to figure out when Israel means the northern kingdom and when it means everybody.

But, so he was the king over in Jerusalem ruling over it.

And he looked at his brothers, the ones that God had blessed through his father with riches and wealth and fortified cities.

There was seemingly a sense of God's presence with them or blessing on them.

And he saw them only as rivals.

And following in the footsteps of the world around him, in insecurity and fear, he murdered them.

He wiped them all out.

And though this tactic never seems to work throughout history,

killing off all your rivals seems to be a common theme of those who are insecure

and those who are fearful when they take the throne.

And not only did he do that, but what we read in verse 11,

he also forsook the true worship of God.

He rebuilt the high places.

Now, in Canaanite religion, the high places were places where people would go up,

literally up mountains, hills, whatever, to find places of worship,

to worship the Canaanite gods who lived in the area.

Israel was surrounded by people that worshipped pantheons of gods.

But God had called Israel to be unique.

Remember the first commandment that God gave to Moses.

You shall have no other gods before me.

And yet here is the king of God's people building places to worship other gods.

Why would he do this?

Well, the story goes on and it says,

because he walked in the ways of the house of Ahab.

Now, if you've been here, you're starting to pick up on this.

The northern kingdom during this time was ruled by a guy named Ahab,

who was the worst of the worst.

In all ways.

And Jehoram's father, in an attempt to make peace with this unrighteous ruler,

said, let's make an alliance and let me marry my son to your daughter.

So Jehoram's wife was the daughter of Ahab.

So they were covenanted together in marriage in a unique way.

And do you know what Jehoram did?

He followed his wife in worshiping her gods.

For her mother was Jezebel, who worshipped Baal.

And so through this, all of the Canaanite worship,

all of the worship of other gods in the area were brought in.

Now, the rite of Chronicles contrasts the house of David,

that which is, though imperfectly, faithful in worship,

trusting in politics, obedient to God's law,

with the house of Ahab, idolatrous, unfaithful, self-reliant, disobedient.

Verse 11 says, he led them into a whoredom.

Why does he use this word?

Well, because the whole covenant relationship between God and his people

was viewed through one lens as like a marriage.

It was a covenant between two people committed wholly to one another.

And yet Jehoram broke that covenant by going to worship these other gods.

And you know, you should know, if you don't know this,

the Old Testament picks up this theme over and over again,

how adultery is…language is used for the unfaithful worship

or turning to worship other gods, the idolatry of the people of God.

And so Jehoram violated the marriage of God and his people,

and the betrayal was profound.

He was like a man who would bring home prostitutes into his own home

and parade them in front of his wife and family.

In this era of Judah, the sin was great.

And any righteous person would ask, how do we live in such times?

Now, before we go on and continue to answer that question,

we need to think about the question, how do we learn from this account?

Because our instinct often in the first hand is to look at this and to say,

Jehoram was terrible.

He was the worst.

I can't believe that anyone would do something like that.

But friends, this is not how we are to read our Bible.

Because we are reminded again and again by the Bible that,

but for the grace of God,

our hearts have the same seed of sin in it that was in Jehoram.

And we would follow in his footsteps apart from God's grace.

Okay, so let me explore that a little.

Really?

I haven't murdered anyone today.

Have you?

I haven't wiped out, you know, gone in and gone postal and shot up my co-workers today.

Is that really what you mean?

No, I don't think so.

But let me ask you this.

Has your heart felt the same fear and the same insecurity and the same threat for your position?

Have you ever felt jealous of your sibling

who seems to get preferential treatment from your parents?

Have you ever felt jealous?

Or have you ever criticized with your words

one of your spouse's colleagues

because they're so dang impressive

that you feel insecure around them?

So you have to find the thing that you can critique

and try to tear them down with your words.

Have you ever felt so jealous of the person in your department

who is doing so well

that you feel the need to speak of their weaknesses and their failures

to make yourself look better before others?

Remember the words of Jesus.

You've heard it said,

that it was said to those of old,

you shall not murder,

and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

This is in Matthew 5, 21,

in the Sermon on the Mount.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother

will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.

And whoever says,

you fool,

will be liable to the hell of fire.

You see, friends,

we may not murder our rivals

to the throne that we sit on,

but how often do we use our words

out of our fear and insecurity

to attack others,

to build ourselves up?

Okay.

And maybe you're so good,

you don't do that either.

And you think,

I don't bow down to idols.

I don't have any temples in my house.

I don't go up to high places to worship God.

Tim Keller says that an idol,

this is in the book Counterfeit Gods,

an idol is anything more important to you than God.

Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God.

Anything you seek to give,

you seek to give you what only God can give.

Things that we love more than God.

And friends,

we need to be aware that

we might make idols out of bad things.

So we become alcoholics

or we go on,

we're unfaithful sexually,

or, you know,

we could think about those kinds of idols easily.

But what about the idols of the good things in our lives

that we make ultimate?

Right?

When patriotism becomes fanaticism,

when career success becomes workaholism,

when financial stability becomes greed,

when romantic love becomes lust,

and when we make these things our idols,

they twist us,

and they twist the way that we live

and how we relate to others,

and most importantly,

how we relate to God.

Because we have made them the functional God

to whom we look for salvation,

for justifying our lives,

for meaning and purpose,

for ultimate security.

The things that we ought to get from God alone,

we get from these things.

So, friends,

we need to recognize

that Jehoram is not so different than us,

that our hearts are prone to wander

in similar ways,

and that the darkness of sin

is right there in our own hearts

as well as in the hearts of others.

The passage goes on,

and it talks about not only that sin is dark,

but that it has consequences.

So, as we keep moving on,

the consequences of sin,

we're going to look at verses 8 through 10,

and then 12 through 20.

So, let's read this together.

In his days,

that is the days of Jehoram,

in his days,

Edom revolted from the rule of Judah

and set up a king of their own.

Then Jehoram passed over with his commanders

and all his chariots,

and he rose by night

and struck the Edomites

who had surrounded him

and his chariot commanders.

So, Edom revolted from the rule of Judah

to this day.

At that time,

Libna also revolted from his rule

because he had forsaken the Lord,

the God of his fathers.

And skipping down to verse 12.

And a letter came to him

from Elijah the prophet,

saying,

Thus says the Lord,

the God of David your father,

because you have not walked

in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father

or in the ways of Asa,

the king of Judah,

but have walked in the way

of the kings of Israel

and have enticed Judah

and the inhabitants of Jerusalem

into whoredom

as the house of Ahab

led Israel into whoredom.

And also you have killed

your brothers of your father's house

who were better than yourself.

Behold,

the Lord will bring a great plague

on your people,

your children,

your wives,

and all your possessions.

And you yourself

will have a severe sickness

with the disease

of your bowels

until your bowels come out

because of the disease

day by day.

And the Lord stirred up

against Jehoram

the anger of the Philistines

and the Arabians

who were near the Ethiopians.

And they came up against Judah

and invaded it

and carried away

all the possessions

they found

that belonged

to the king's house

and also his sons

and his wives

so that no son

was left to him

except Jehoaz,

his youngest son.

And after all this,

the Lord struck him

in his bowels

with an incurable disease.

In the course of time,

at the end of two years,

his bowels came out

because of the disease

and he died

in great agony.

The people made no fire

in his honor

like the fires made

for his fathers.

He was 32 years old

when he began to reign

and he reigned

eight years in Jerusalem

and he departed

with no one's regret.

They buried him

in the city of David,

not in the tombs

of the kings.

So what does,

what happens

to Jehoram?

What is the consequences

of sin that come?

We see this expressed

in two different ways.

The story tells

about God's judgment,

the consequences of sin

in two different ways.

One is a passive voice

where he describes things

in such a way

that let the reader understand

this is a condemnation

of what has happened.

And then there are times

when the writer says explicitly,

this is what God did.

So passively,

the chronicler says,

there are a number of results

from Jehoram's sin.

One is,

he's starting to lose his kingdom.

Edom was a conquered territory

and they revolted against him.

Libna was a town

that was given

to the priesthood

within the confines of Israel

and this town

also revolted.

So both peoples outside

that had been brought in,

but also cities within Judah

were starting to rebel

against him.

And one of the things

you see throughout Chronicles

is that the writer is saying,

when the king follows the Lord,

the Lord honors him

by protecting the land

and expanding the kingdom.

And when he doesn't,

there is conflict,

there is strife,

there is military loss,

there's political loss

because of it.

We see in verses 16 and 17

that the Philistines

and the Arabians,

so there are multiple levels

of this rebellion

and attack against him,

and that Jehoram's foes

are triumphant.

They win.

They pillage the land.

They take away all the wealth

that Jehoram had gained,

or that Jehoshaphat

had gained a generation before.

They took it all away.

And so his poverty,

politically, economically,

were all a result

of his sin.

And when you read verse 20,

nobody laughed.

I thought someone would laugh.

To no one's regret

did he die.

No one missed this guy

after he was gone.

Other kings are honored.

They're given funeral pyres.

They are buried with David

and the forefathers

in a place of honor.

Jehoram got none of this.

It is an implicit condemnation

on his whole reign.

And in this way,

the chronicler is communicating

this is God's judgment

on this man

because of his sin.

But the chronicler also says

that God is even more direct

and active to it.

Right?

He stirs up Elijah,

and Elijah doesn't show up

anywhere else in Chronicles.

If you go back to Kings,

he has like 12 chapters.

But this is the only time

he shows up

and he writes a letter

and he speaks God's Word

directly to Jehoram.

And what does he say?

Because you have done this,

because you have sinned

in this way,

because you have walked

in the house of Ahab,

because you have gone

in this direction,

the Lord will do these things.

And then we see in verse 16,

the Lord stirred up

the anger of the Philistines

and caused them to come in

and attack Judah.

And in verse 18,

the Lord struck Jehoram

with a disease,

an incurable disease,

because he walked

not in the ways of his forefathers

who were faithful to God,

who trusted God,

who worshipped God

the way he was meant to,

but he walked

in the ways of Ahab,

the ways of rebellion,

of independence,

of self-reliance,

of evil.

We see it even in chapter 22.

Just so you know,

this is the beginning

of this next chapter

is even worse.

His son Ahaziah

is worse than he is,

and he only lives for a year,

and then God kills him,

and then his wife

takes the throne

for six years,

and she's the worst

of them all.

She destroys her offspring

and anyone who might be

a rival to her throne.

And it says in verse 7

of chapter 22,

it was ordained by God

that the downfall of Ahaziah

should come through,

and then there's a bit of a story

that I'm not going to get into,

and it says,

God raised up a man named Jehu

whom the Lord had anointed

to destroy the house of Ahab.

God was actively working

to combat this evil.

God will not allow

the unrighteousness to stand

or the sin to continue.

His righteousness requires

a response.

Now, how do we apply this

to our lives?

We need to be very careful here

because there is evidence,

certainly in the book of Acts,

we see people like Ananias

and Sapphira

who lie to the apostles

and reap an immediate

and clear judgment from God.

There are also others

who seem to bear the consequences

of their sin in different ways.

But we must be so careful

as we think of this

because it is clear

that not every sickness

is God's active response

of judgment.

It is clear that not every loss,

every thwarted plan,

every opposition we experience

is God's active judgment to us.

Some of you may be prone

to think that every trial

and every sickness

is God's judgment

and you're thinking,

how did I,

what did I do to deserve this?

How did I cause God

to bring this into my life?

And you need to be careful

because that's not

the proper way to read this.

Right?

Now, some of you

are on the opposite end

of the spectrum

and you don't see God's hand

in any of it.

And when things go bad,

you think,

gosh, I don't know

where that came from.

Couldn't, you know,

that's unfortunate

and just move on with life.

Christians are called

to be self-reflective people.

The gospel is one

of continual confession

of sin and repentance.

This is what 1 John reminds us.

Right?

If we say we have no sin,

we lie and the truth

is not in us.

But if we confess our sins,

He is faithful and just

to forgive us of our sins

and cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

So, when things like this happen,

when things happen

in our lives,

here's,

or when we see them

happening in the others,

here's what I want to,

here's my counsel to you.

One,

be very careful

not to pronounce judgment

on someone else.

Just because John Hinkson

got sick

doesn't mean that he sinned

and God is punishing him for it.

I can't know God's word

or God's will

that clearly.

I don't have the power

to pronounce that kind of judgment

on what happens to him.

Okay?

So, I want to be incredibly,

I don't ever want to say,

I know what's going on with this.

But when it happens to me,

I want to ask myself,

have I sinned?

Lord, are you trying

to show me an idol

in my life

that I don't recognize?

Have I been harboring

a hidden jealousy

that's coloring my words?

Are there motives

of my heart

that I'm not even necessarily

consciously aware of

that you are revealing

through this trial

or through this sickness?

Is there a blind spot

in my life

where I can't see my sin?

Because here's the thing.

When God brought these things

to Jehoram, right,

up to the point

where he killed him, right,

there was always

a warning and an invitation, right?

The warning was,

you are doing wrong.

Don't do this.

The invitation was,

implicitly, repent.

Turn away from this sin.

Turn back to the Lord.

And we've seen kings

fail and then succeed.

And we've seen them succeed

and then fail.

There's always the invitation

of the Lord

while we have breath

to heed the warning

and to repent of our sin

and to turn to Him again.

And so we need to hear that

and to recognize that

continuing to barrel along,

cherishing sin,

defending sin,

justifying sin,

we put ourselves

under the judgment of God.

the Lord.

The Chronicle writes this,

but the Lord was not willing

to destroy the house of David

because of the covenant

that He had made with David,

and since He had promised

to give a lamp to Him

and to His sons forever.

God's plan

cannot be thwarted

by the sinfulness

and fallenness of human beings.

Jehoram's failure

could not stop

God's covenantal faithfulness.

He remembered the line

of David,

of Solomon,

of the descendants

through Jehoshaphat,

through Jehoram.

He remembered him

through this line

all the way through,

and He was faithful to it.

And He knew

that He had made a promise

that one day

a descendant of David

would sit on an eternal throne

and rule over

an eternal kingdom

where He would bring

the fullness

of His righteousness,

and that God

was so committed

to being true

to His Word

and to this promise

that even the greatest darkness

couldn't stop

that from happening.

If you look

in chapter 22,

during the reign

of Jehoram's wife,

Athaliah,

when she tries

to wipe out

any descendants

of Jehoram,

God intervened,

and God saved

one of the descendants

of Jehoram.

And we'll see that next week

as we look

in the life of Joash

and how God raises him up

to be a righteous king

in response

to all of these things.

Think about the people

after the exile

hearing this story.

They don't have a throne

to sit on.

It's not like the house

of David had been wiped out,

but there was no king.

There was no kingly line

left after this.

They were grasping

and they were thinking,

God, where are you?

This Word speaks

to God's faithfulness

to those people.

I have not forgotten

my covenant.

I have not forsaken

my people.

Follow me.

Walk with me.

Walk in the ways

of righteousness.

And I will

continue to do this.

And even if you fail,

even if you disobey,

even if you abandon me,

I will forsake you

this generation,

but I will not forsake

my plans.

I will bring judgment

on you this generation,

but I will not give up

my redemptive plan

for the world.

And we know this

because when we open

the pages of the New Testament,

we start with Matthew

writing of Jesus,

the son of David.

That there was a baby

born in the city of David

who would grow up

to establish a kingdom

that would have no end.

And he would come

and proclaim a kingdom

is at hand.

And he would establish himself

as the true light,

the lamp

that God had promised

for David

and for his people.

You see,

God hadn't forgotten

his promise

or his plan,

but he continued

to work it

and he found

its fullness

in the person

of Jesus.

And so,

when we come

to the end

of the Bible

and we look

at Revelation chapter 5,

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

we hear these words.

Remember,

this is a scene

in the throne room

of God

and the people

are saying,

who can open

the scrolls

and bring…

who has the right

to bring judgment

onto the world,

to bring redemption

to the world?

Who could ever

do these things?

No one is worthy.

And in chapter 5,

verse 5 of Revelation,

it says this,

And one of the elders

said to me,

Weep no more.

Behold,

the lion

of the tribe

of Judah,

the root of David,

has conquered

so that he can

open the scroll

and its seven seals.

And skipping down

to verse 9,

it says,

And they sang

a new song,

saying,

Worthy are you

to take the scroll

and to open its seals.

For you were slain

and by your blood

you ransomed people

for God

from every tribe

and language

and people and nation.

And you have made them

a kingdom and priest

to our God

and they shall reign

on the earth.

Friends,

this is what God

has done

and this is what

God is doing.

He has sent Jesus

and through his life

and his death

and his resurrection,

he has finally

and fully accomplished

the redemption

of his people

and he is now

applying it

in this world

and the proclamation

of the gospel

and the glorifying

of Jesus Christ

is the centerpiece

of what God

is doing

in this dark age,

in this dark day,

in this dark heart

of mine.

Bringing his

redemptive purposes

to call a people

out of darkness

and into the glorious

kingdom of his Son.

This is what God

is doing

in the world.

And this is our hope.

This is our confidence.

When we read

the news reports

and we think

it's unprecedentedly bad,

we go back

to God's Word

and He is

unquestionably faithful.

When we think

of our own sin

and we think

I am irredeemably evil,

God looks at us

and says,

my Son has died

for the redemption

of you

and the forgiveness

of your sins.

This is what God

is doing in the world

and He will not

surrender it.

And friends,

the church may fail

in places

and at times

and God will bring

judgment on the church

and let it atrophy

and die,

but the church

writ large,

the church of Jesus Christ

will never fail.

The gates of hell

will not stand against it.

And at the end of the day,

we will join that throng

worshiping around

the throne of Jesus forever

as His kingdom of priests,

as His people.

And we will reign with Him

over the whole world

and the fulfillment

of all the hopes

of the people in Israel

during Jehoram's time,

of the people

in the post-exilic time

wondering what happened,

of the people

in Jesus' time

who wondered,

God, where are you

and how are you at work?

And us today,

this is our confidence.

God will not forsake us.

He has made a remedy for sin

and He is calling us

to hear the warning

to forsake sin

and to hear the invitation

to come to the Redeemer

and the King of the world.

Let's pray.

Amen.

Lord, we want Your Spirit

to work in our hearts.

Lord, we pray that You would comfort

those of us

who feel defeated

and weighed down

and burdened

and overwhelmed

by our sin

and by the darkness

of the world.

Comfort us with this Word.

Lord, we want You

to warn us

if we are

cavalierly

and callously

and willfully

or even

uncaringly,

Lord,

embracing

sin,

idolatry,

unfaithfulness.

Oh, Lord,

search our hearts.

Show us

if there is

any wicked way

in us

and draw us

back, Lord,

to the good news

of the Gospel

that in Christ

we are forgiven

of our sins

and made new

so that we might live

as followers of You

as Your people

in this world.

Thank You, Lord.

We pray these things

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.