2 Kings 14 (Part 1) Bible Study (Amaziah Reigns in Judah) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Second Kings chapter 14. And I know that our brother

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

beautifully prayed, but I would love for us to pray once more

before we unpack this precious text together.

Lord, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts that you've

allowed us to gather on this evening to seek your face in

your word. And Lord, we know that this word

carries so much power. And so we do pray that you would

sustain the weary heart through your word.

And we ask, O God of peace, the one who brought again from the

dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, that you

would equip us with everything that is good, that we may do

your will, that which is pleasing in your sight, through

Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory forever and ever.

Amen. This Bible study tonight will

focus on one main thing. We will be looking at a

particular man who had so much potential, who had incredible

opportunities in his lifetime to bring glory to God, but was

unfortunately ruined because of his pride.

There are many things that the Scripture tells us that can lead

someone to becoming proud. There is physical beauty.

There is one's ethnic heritage. There is the accumulation of

wealth, there is the accumulation of knowledge and

many areas, including spiritual truths that can inflate the

heart and cause and create self adulation.

But if there is one more category that we can add to

these familiar pitfalls concerning pride, it is the

wrong response to our success. And I'm not speaking primarily

about financial success. Any achievement, whether it's

sudden or gradual, that feeds our egos and causes us to feel a

sense of superiority. And this success, which is

something most of us strive for in our unique context, led to

the undoing of a man who was a king named Amaziah.

And this is going to be our case study tonight.

Amaziah is going to help us because when we are introduced

to him, we don't find a blatant idolater.

We don't find a man who is committed to despicable

practices. No, no, no, no, no.

The first few verses actually present him as a decent man, a

good man in fact. And we should take the time to

identify some of these noble characteristics, because I'm

persuaded that doing so will reinforce the sobering truth

that any of us can be infected with pride.

There is not one person in this room.

There is not one person in this world, for that matter, who is

naturally immune to pride. It is a parasite always ready to

latch on the heart and suck the life out of it to our own

destruction. So the Bible says much about

pride and we have a real life example of how it destroyed a

man again who had so much promise to do the will of God

and bring him much praise. And so let's begin here by

looking at the 1st 4 verses. In the second year of Joash the

son of Joy as King of Israel and Messiah, the son of Joash, King

of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he

began to reign, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Johadan of Jerusalem.

And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

Yet not like David his father, he did in all things as Joash

his father had done. But the high places were not

removed. The people still sacrifice and

made offerings on the high places.

So let me remind you what we're doing here with the first few

verses of this chapter. We're looking at specific

characteristics that are praiseworthy in a Messiah.

And the reason why we're doing this is so that by the end of

it, we can realize that if a man like this can become proud, who

am I to think that it it can never tempt me?

Who am I to think that it's not a potential problem for me?

And the first thing to note here from these first 4 verses is

that a Messiah was a man who had genuine concern for the House of

God. Look here again, we're told here

in verse three that I am Isaiah. He did what was right in the

eyes of the Lord. However, he was not like King

David. David was a consistent standard

in the Book of Kings for other kings to measure up to.

Why is that? Because the Bible testifies that

David was a man after God's own heart.

Imperfect, yes, but the direction of his heart was

something to strive after. And in Acts 1322, you don't have

to turn there. But we're told what qualifies a

man or a woman who is after God's own heart.

And it is this that they do all that God has revealed concerning

His will. Not necessarily that they

perform it perfectly, but they long to achieve all that God has

revealed concerning what pleases Him.

And that could not be said of a Messiah.

However, He was not a flagrant Sinner.

He was not somebody who was out there creating havoc.

No, we're told here that He did what was right in the eyes of

the Lord. And there is a particular part

that tells us how He walked and pleasing God.

Look again at verse three. He did in all things as Joash's

father had done. Hopefully you remember who Joash

was. I know there's a lot of names

with the letter J here in in the Book of Kings a couple of

chapters ago, we studied how Joash was spared from this

bloody massacre that targeted his family.

There was a priest and his wife who rescued him as an infant.

Do you remember this? And he was kept in the temple of

the Lord. At the ripe age of seven, he was

made king in the Kingdom of Judah, and when he got a little

bit older, he took on the passionate role of revitalizing

the temple in Jerusalem that was desecrated for so long.

That's who Joash is. And this concern that he had for

the House of God was a badge of honor that he was recognized

for. And when we come down to chapter

14 and realize that his Son did the things that his Father did,

then we can assume that he shared in a similar conviction

that he actually had a heart for the House of God.

Now, if that's true, then we have our first lesson about

pride, that it's possible to be preoccupied with God's house, to

contribute to corporate worship, to be invested in many

ministries, and still allow pride to gain a foothold.

Listen very carefully. Spiritual activity does not

shield you from pride. Fact, if you're not careful it

can be the cause for pride. What keeps us for from being

arrogant is not what we do for God, it's how you view God.

Big difference. What you do for God will not

protect you from pride. It's a proper view of God that

will keep you grounded, that will keep you low, that will

keep you humble, because as you view God the way he wants you to

see him, you will see yourself the way you're supposed to see

yourself. And we're going to find out very

soon that Amazon did not have a strength, at least a complete

strength in his relationship with the Word of God.

So #1 he had a concern for the House of God, but #2 as a king,

he did not allow his position to corrupt him.

Let's look at verse 5 and 6. And as soon as the royal power

was firmly in his hand, he struck down his servants, who

had struck down the king, his father.

But he did not put to death the children of the murderers.

According to what is written in the book of the Law of Moses,

where the Lord commanded, fathers shall not be put to

death because of their children, nor shall children be put to

death because of their fathers, but each one shall die for his

own sin. So remember, Joash is the father

of Amaziah. And though Joash had this

passion for God's house, he did not finish well.

He became corrupt himself. And the main reason for that is

because Jehoiada, the priest who raised him and who counseled

them and who guided him, passed away, proving that Joash did not

own his faith. And so he was easily let into

idolatry. And because of his persistent

rebellion and the constant rejection of prophetic warnings,

and the sin in his life got so heinous that he actually killed

the son of his mentor. God allowed something to happen

to Joash. He himself was murdered by

betrayal. Go to chapter 12 of Second

Kings. And let's just remind ourselves

here in verse 20, it says here his servants arose and made a

conspiracy and struck down Josh in the House of Milo on the way

that goes down to Sila. Josh was an evil man.

He brought a lot of trouble into the Kingdom, but it was not

allowed for anyone to take it into their own hands to deal

with him. That's God's prerogative.

So these servants murdered the king, and though they might have

had righteous ambition, it was evil.

Therefore they would be punished for it.

And as soon as the son of Josh MSI came into power, one of his

top priorities was to kill and to punish these murders.

Question for you, is this an act of vengeance?

It is. Is it an act of vengeance for

somebody who has killed another unjustly to be killed by the

government? It's not.

This is justice. This is in complete accordance

to the will of God. This is capital punishment, and

it was wrong for the king to enact enact it.

He had the right, if anybody had the right to do so.

But this man's executive order is not mentioned for us to just

see how justice was served. It's the righteous restraint

that he had that's highlighted. Because what we're told here is

that although he found and he punished the murders of his

father, he did not go above and beyond what the law demanded.

Go back to verse 6 again of Second Kings 14.

But he did not put to death the children of the murderers,

according to what is written in the book of the Law of Moses.

And then the historian quotes Deuteronomy 2416.

How tempting it must have been for a man who lost his father

and who had unlimited power and even the power to pardon

himself, to not go above and beyond to send a message to

those who took something so precious from him.

This is so commendable. This is so unlikely.

This is unexpected, especially in a culture with neighboring

nations that would have easily slaughtered the entire household

of those that took away somebody so valuable to you.

But he did not allow himself to go to that point.

Now what does that tell you about Amaziah?

If Deuteronomy is quoted in this passage showing how he honored

this law, what does that say about this man in relationship

to the law? He knew it, he read it, he

studied it. He was governed by it to some

measure. And this is one of the rare

occasions in our study of kings where you have a royal dignitary

honoring one of the foundations being a king in Israel.

Remember what God demanded of his kings in Deuteronomy 17,

that they were to write a copy of the law, that it was to be

reviewed and approved by the priest.

And let me read to you what the king was to do with the law in

Deuteronomy 1719. And it shall be with him.

You know how you carry your Bible around when you come to

church. I hope you do.

At least that's what a king was to do with the Word of God.

It was to be with him, it was to be on his night stand, it was to

be in his office. It was to be with them.

And he shall read it in all the days of his life.

This is a a wonderful text to advocate the discipline of

reading your Bible every day. The kings would do it.

He shall read it in all the days of his life, that he may learn

to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this

law and the statutes and doing them.

This is impressive because we have a king here who is informed

by God's Word and chose not to manipulate it, chose not to

ignore a particular law that he could have easily ignored in

order to satisfy his flesh. Instead, he submits to it and

it's becoming increasingly more difficult to digest how this man

is going to ruin his life because of pride.

And we're only really getting started.

But it's important to have this careful evaluation because it

will help us again see the power of pride.

It can sabotage anyone. So it's one thing to say a

Messiah became proud. What I want us to be able to say

is a man like a Messiah became proud.

So how much more do I need to be depended on His daily grace?

So what do we learn at this point?

I know we haven't seen how He became proud just yet, but we're

getting there. What can we learn here?

It's simple. You and I can't rely on

yesterday's obedience to keep us grounded against tomorrow's

temptations. It requires a humble daily walk

with the Lord, moment by moment. You can't even rely.

Listen, please. You can't even rely on a rich

history with God's Word. You can't Once Upon a time have

memorized Scripture, have been devoted to Scripture.

You must love it today. You must love it tomorrow.

You must abide by it day by day and allow the life in it to

surge into your soul and for all the nutrients of it to keep you

where God wants you to be. And so although this man did

honor God's word at one time, you get the sense if you're

reading carefully, that he maybe didn't have a holistic embracing

of the Word of God. Because yes, he did honor God in

this particular manner, but what did we read earlier that he did

not remove the high places. So even under a messiah's reign,

he did not allow reform to go to that extent, just like his

father. So we're thinking, OK, this is

this is a crack in his foundation.

That being said, there's still things that are good about him.

He had a relationship with God's Word.

It is commendable, but it was not consistent.

It was not complete. And that's going to lead to

greater dangers. Here's a Third Point concerning

a Messiah's commendable character.

This is probably the most shocking.

He was willing to receive correction.

He was willing to receive correction.

Look at verse 7 of chapter 14. He struck down 10,000 Edomites

in the valley of Salt and took Selah by storm and called it

Jock Theal, which in its name, which is its name to this day.

Now you read this and you think, OK, how do you get humility from

a verse like this? Well, it helps to know that this

is a summary of a much larger account found in a different

part of our Bibles. And when you go to Second

Chronicles 25, you get the whole back story to this particular

war that Amazon engaged in with the Edomites.

And it's worth looking into if we're going to dig deeper into

this fascinating case study. So let's turn to Second

2 Chronicles 25 · chapter mention

Chronicles chapter 25 and begin in verse 5.

The beginning of Second Chronicles 25 reads similar to

what we read in Second Kings 14, but when we look at verse 5, it

expands what we read in verse 7. Second Chronicles 25, verse 5.

2 Chronicles 25:5

Then Amazon assembled the men of Judah and set them by fathers

houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for

all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those 20 years old

and upward and found that they were 300,000 choice men, fit for

war, able to handle spear and shield.

He hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for 100

talents of silver. But a man of God came to him and

said, O King, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for

the Lord is not with Israel with all these Ephraimites, but go,

act, be strong for the battle. Why should you suppose that God

will cast you down before the enemy?

For God has power to help or to cast down.

Oh, so much can be said from this one passage.

Let's just touch on a few things.

Number one, it's evident here that Amaziah in this great plan,

did not seek the Lord for it. He'd not take the time to

approach the Lord in prayer and to inquire, should I go to war

with Edom Now? Why is he going to war with Edom

anyway? Well, here's just a reference.

You don't have to turn the second kings. 8/20.

At one point Edom, who was under the rule of Judah, broke free

and they came up with their own Kingdom.

And so MSI wants to bring them back under their rule and their

dominion. That's the political reason.

But our focus here is on his approach.

He did not seek the Lord, and we know that because God sends a

prophet. This was his first mistake, his

first major mistake at least. And it's a mistake that many

Christians make. We'll soon discover that Amazon

could have spared himself a lot of headache and trouble if he

had just taken the time to get before his God.

And that's something you and I have to keep in mind.

It's no different. It will cost you and I much more

if we move ahead of the Lord than if we delay and pray before

we pay or respond or execute or move or build.

Develop the discipline to inquire of God, to invite God,

to seek God. Our tendencies to just do things

in our own wisdom, especially when we think we're experts in

something. A Messiah should have sought

God, and we're going to see how he's going to pay a price for

that. But secondly, a Messiah's folly

is not just seen in his independence, it's also seen in

his distrust of the clear will of God.

So look back at verse 6. It says here that he hired

100,000 mercenaries from Israel to join him in this war.

Why is that wrong? Well, the prophet tells us why

it's wrong. God wasn't with Israel being the

Northern Kingdom, He wasn't with them, and Amazon didn't need a

prophet to enlighten him about it.

History testifies on what happens when the people of God

yoked themselves with those who are opposed to God.

I mean, didn't he not think of Jehoshaphat?

Remember Jehoshaphat who married into the family of Ahab?

All the generational problems that came with that.

And God's word from the beginning of this book tells us,

He warns us about partnering with those who hate him, who

don't honor him. And so, and as I should have

known, he should have understood that from the beginning, but he

assumed, he thought that he can move ahead.

He was under the impression that the more numbers I have, the

more likely I will be successful.

That's not how God works, though.

We're told here that he is the one who enables somebody to

succeed or to fail, and he should have understood that from

the beginning. So here's the truth about how

God works. His empowerment rests on

obedience, not on numbers, not on resources that's accessed by

compromise. Here's another thought.

Do you see the grace of God in this passage?

I do. Where do we see it?

Does a Messiah make a last second call to a prophet to make

sure that what he's doing is God's will?

No, he doesn't. God sends a prophet to a Messiah

even though he failed to seek him.

What do you call that? Grace, Grace, God's grace.

That's what you call it. And the Lord love this man

enough to intervene and to give him a final warning before he

makes this decision. I want you and I to consider a

gift from God when a man or a woman of God love you enough to

approach you when they see that you're about to make a wrong

choice and rebuke you, redirect you, and encourage you to go

back to God's Word, to trust God's Word on the matter.

Don't silence such people. Don't allow offense to creep

into your heart because of such people.

See them as an extension of the mercy of God.

No matter how inconvenient it is, no matter how painful it may

be, if it aligns with God's Word, don't shut it down.

Don't ignore it. Don't you dare see God in it.

That's what a Messiah does, though initially it's met with a

hesitancy that's very common to you and I when it comes to

obedience. Look what he says here in verse

9. And a Messiah said to the man of

God, But what shall we do about the 100 talents that I have

given to the army of Israel? The man of God answered.

The Lord is able to give you much more than this.

Then MSI discharged the army that had come to him from

Ephraim to go home again, and they became very angry with

Judah and returned home and fierce anger.

There are a lot of reasons why people remain in disobedience

and MSI gives us a very common reaction.

People often feel like they are too invested in something to

back out and make a change. That can be seen in so many

avenues of life. You know, there's some people

who are in an ungodly relationship.

You know why they're an ungodly relationship, even as a

Christian? Because they didn't pray about

it to begin with. And God's now convicting them.

But what are they wrestling with?

Why? I'm so caught up in this.

I'm so tied to this person. I'm so invested.

I can't even fathom ending something that God's telling me.

The end. You have others also who are so

entrenched in a particular sin. I've talked to them after

hearing a message that points out that very sin that they're

engulfed in. And here's how they've reasoned

with themselves. Well, I've already tainted my

body. I've already damaged my mind.

I'm already steeped in this. So what's the point of changing

now? I'm scarred.

That's how Amaziah is thinking. I've already paid a price for

this, so why change now? And here's how you and I have to

understand this. Whatever the price tag obedience

may be, to remain disobedient is always, always, always more

expensive. Always.

Some are convinced that obedience is more costly than

disobedience. You're dead wrong.

Dead wrong. Yes, to obey God is going to ask

you to surrender something. But as the man of God said, the

Lord will give you much more than this.

That's not just for Amazon, that's for all of us.

And that's one of the reasons why repentance is a joyful

thing, because it's an invitation into something

greater. To turn from this to God is not

you really sacrificing anything. You're letting go of something

inferior for something superior, something impure for something

pure, something that lies to you, something that will

guarantee you. That's what repentance is all

about. That's why I love to say, I love

to preach it. Repent.

People think that those who preach repentance are just

people who can't figure out how to enjoy life, so they want to

make other people miserable. You know, John the Baptist, as

much as he was a fiery preacher, yes, he preached repentance, But

one of the first things that we know about him is while he was

in his mother's womb, he leapt for joy.

Those who really understand what true repentance is, they'll be

joyful people, and they call people to repent so that they

can share in that joy. Yeah, I know that there is

legalistic people out there who love to bash people with that

word repent. I'm not one of them.

God forbid. Now, when you understand that

it's an invitation into something greater, something

that will deliver you and save you and preserve you, He

responds to this correction. That's the main point.

He actually says OK fine, I paid, I paid a lot for this, but

he looks through these 100,000 soldiers and he says go back

home. I love how realistic the Bible

is. I'm so happy the Bible doesn't

sugarcoat anything because something's about to happen now

he obeys God. He initially disobeyed, he

learned his fault. He makes a change, he sends them

home, but something happens. Scroll down to verse 13.

But the men of the army whom Amaziah sent back, not letting

them go with him to battle, raided the cities of Judah from

Samaria to Beth Horon and struck down 3000 people in them and

took much spoil. How's that?

This man obeyed God. God told him, send them away,

send them back home, and he complies.

So how is it then that as these men make their way back to their

Kingdom, they're so angry, they feel so cheated that in rage now

they destroy some of the cities of Judah and actually kill 3000

people and take spoil. Here's a lesson.

Sometimes there are consequences even for forgiven sin.

We have to be realistic here. I love to preach the message of

God's grace. I love to sing about it.

I love to counsel with it. I need to preach it to my own

heart. And we should never hesitate to

help those who are heavy laden and broken hearted for them to

learn God is a God of many chances and for them to

understand that He is able to rewrite your story.

That being said, we have to be honest.

There are consequences for sin, and as eager as we might be to

preach about God's grace, you and I also have to be just as

eager to tell people to not sin, to not sin, because to preach

the grace of God to the degree that people hearing it think

that there are no problems in sin, it's problematic, it's

dangerous. Some consequences for sin

linger. It reminds me of one of the

plagues in Egypt where the frogs were everywhere, in pots and

beds and shoes, and after Pharaoh wanted reprieve, he

asked Moses. Moses provides it after

interceding. And we read there an interesting

commentary that the frogs were remained and they were piling

together, cleaning up the land, and the land stank for some

time. What does that teach us?

That sometimes the consequences to our sin linger, and it's no

different here. So just don't sin to begin with.

And if you do, there is grace. But sometimes there are scars

that remain. Heard a testimony from a beloved

brother at a state who was testifying to that when he was

getting baptized. And he said something that

struck me because he was honest with his story.

He was excited that God had changed him, that he made a

decision not to fully commit to the Lord.

But in the same testimony, he realized that he's later in life

and that he will never be able to get his younger years.

Now all those years he lived in compromise, he will never be

able to regain. That's a man who understands the

consequences of sin. God will forgive you.

God can rewrite your future, but He's not going to rewind time

for you. And that's just one of the

consequences of sin. So shut it, avoid it, be fearful

of it because it does have ramifications even if it's

forgiven. Let's come to our last thought

about Amazon before we get into the turning point of his life.

Second Kings 14 verse 7 again. He struck down 10,000 Edomites

2 Kings 14:7

in the Valley of Salt and took Sila by storm and called it

Jokthiel, which is its name to this day.

So we get this impression that after this victory, God blesses

him for his obedience, he does gain victory over the Edomites.

He decides to pay tribute to the Lord and he decides to actually

name this region of his conquest, something that's quite

telling about his heart posture, that word there.

There's this, there's debate about what it really means, but

a common definition that is agreed upon is that Jock, the Al

means the blessedness of God. So what does that tell you about

a Messiah? It tells me, at least initially.

And here's our final point about his character.

He was willing to give God glory.

He was willing to give God praise for his success.

How different is this? And Saul?

Remember when Saul was told to go and eradicate the Amalekites

in First Samuel 15? He thinks he did obey God.

He actually didn't completely obey the Lord, but he is so

puffed up in his success. Then in First Samuel 1512, we're

told there that he built a monument unto himself, not unto

the Lord, but with his name on it.

So let's recap here. Amazon was a man who had a

concern for God's house. He was a man who didn't allow

his position of power to corrupt him.

He was somebody who was willing to receive correction and he

even initially gave God glory for some of his greatest

achievements. So then how do you explain verse

8 down to verse 12? Let's read it together.

Then Amaziah sent messengers to Joash the son of Joash, son of

Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in

the face. And Josh king of Israel, sent

word to Amazon, king of Judah, a Thistle on Lebanon, sent to a

cedar on Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a

wife. And a wild beast of Lebanon pass

by and trampled down the Thistle.

You have indeed struck down Edom, and your heart has lifted

you up. Be content with your glory and

stay at home. For why should you provoke

trouble, so that you fall, you and Judah with you?

But Amaziah would not listen. So Jayash, king of Israel, went

up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced one another in

battle at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah.

And Judah was defeated by Israel and every man fled to his home.

It's like reading about a completely different person.

Same in and then the verses that we just read and a little bit

beyond. I believe there are 5 truths

related to pride that will help us know its potential danger and

its potential devastation. So we looked at 4 things

concerning Amaziah the person. Now let's look at 5 things

concerning pride #1 The temptation of pride greets us

after success. And where does it greet you

first in your heart? Jesus tells us in Mark 721 and

22 that pride, among other vices, come from within, from

our own hearts. And our flesh is very capable of

taking credit away from God and attributing it to yourself,

robbing Him of the glory and convincing you that you were

able to achieve something that really was a blessing and a gift

from above. So the heart, the heart lies to

us. The heart persuades us.

But more than just your heart, there is the danger of outside

voices that fuel the pride in our hearts.

And if we're not guarded, if we're not careful, that can

create a forest fire in our souls that cannot be contained.

So we read here that Amaziah mustered up the courage now to

actually approach the northern Kingdom of Israel and say, hey,

want to fight. But when you look at the

parallel account, you get a different vantage point.

So go to Second Chronicles 25 and look at this commentary in

verse 17. Then a Messiah, king of Judah,

took counsel and sent to Josh, the son of Jehoiah, son of Jehu,

king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the

face. What's different from second

kings? The first part, a Messiah king

of Judah took counsel. So this tells me that a

messiah's foolish ambition was affirmed by flattering men.

They should have told them. Messiah, you have no idea what

you're up against. Edom is one thing.

The Kingdom of Israel. If you're going to do this, you

got to see God and you got to ask yourself why you want to do

this. There's none of that.

I can only imagine what they told a Messiah.

Go for it. There's no king like you.

Oh, I'm sure that they are shaking in their sandals,

realizing that you overtook the Edomites.

And so whatever these men said I'm sure was exaggerated, only

added gasoline to the arrogance of this man.

A man is tested by his praise. Proverbs tells us be very

careful what you do with the compliments and the

appreciations and the flowers that are placed at your feet,

because it can make all the difference.

And accepting how men flatter you can lead to God flattening

you and me. The temptation of pride greets

us after success, and it's usually just around the corner.

For some preachers, it's as they make their way after their

sermon to the Pew that they sat at before they preached #2 Pride

is easily discerned by others and rarely by the one who

possesses it. Let's go back to 2nd Kings 14

and verse 9. Jeremiah, king of Israel, sent

word to Amazon, king of Judah. So he's going to respond to this

challenge. And he provides a parable.

And this parable essentially diagnosis what's really going on

here. He talks about this Thistle in

Lebanon and how it speaks to the cedar in Lebanon.

And then he goes on to say how this Thistle will ultimately

trampled by a wild beast. But notice here what he says in

verse 10, what the king of Israel says to the king of

Judah. You have indeed struck down

Edom, and your heart has lifted you up.

So the king of Israel was able to recognize that this man is

challenging him in pride. And it's so fascinating to me

how a wicked king was able to discern that and MSI's own

counselors couldn't. But such is the nature of pride.

Those who have it usually fail to see that they do.

And everybody else has and recognizes you got it, at least

honest people. And you would think that such an

honest assessment would have caused Amazon to think and to

reflect. It doesn't.

But here's what we can learn from this.

One of the most terrifying features of pride is, again, it

blinds us. There are many sins that are

obvious to us as we participate in them, as we keep it a secret.

But pride is one of those sins that actually convince you, you

don't really struggle with it. So what's the antidote?

At least one antidote is to invite people into your life who

are willing to speak into your life.

Don't just get anybody but people who love you enough to

say, I'm noticing this in your attitude.

I see how you're acting in this way and it concerns me.

And I'd love you enough to say what's going on.

Let's talk about this. Such people are wonderful

assets. They are gifts from the Lord.

And we should be at this point, while our hearts are tender,

open and invite people and give them a license to speak to us in

such a way. Because if we're not quick to do

so, pride is a way of callousing our hearts and leading us to 1/3

troubling ingredient about it #3 pride refuses to consider

warnings or correction, at least over time.

But back at verse 11 of chapter 14, but Amaziah would not

listen. You know you've crotched crossed

the dangerous line when you are unable to listen to others

advices. And that was this man.

He did not listen. And it wasn't just the

criticisms of others, it was also the counsel that comes from

God's Word. I'm persuaded that the same

Amaziah who saw God's law and how to deal with murderers

honoring it down the road deviated from the Scriptures,

which was a contribution to where he is today.

How am I convinced of that? Go back to Deuteronomy 17 and

notice what a regular interaction with God's Word for

kings offered them. Not just guidance, not just how

to orchestrate and execute justice, but Deuteronomy 1719.

And it shall be with him, and he shall read in all the days of

his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God.

Pause. How do you learn to fear God,

which is synonymous with standing in awe of God?

You have to have God's Word. It can't come from your own

imagination. You leave your view of God to

your own imagination. You're going to be making idols.

It's God's Word that accurately portrays Him, and if you honor

it for what it is, will inspire and awe in your heart for Him.

And here's one of the byproducts of fearing God.

Learn to fear the Lord His God by keeping all the words of this

law and the statutes and doing them.

Look at verse 20, that his heart may not be lifted up above his

brothers. What did the king of Israel say

to Amaziah? Clearly your heart has been

lifted up. It has lifted you up.

But what is a regular engagement with God's word?

Promise that you would fear him so that your heart would not be

lifted up against your brothers. So let's do the equation.

If this word promises such a purifying effect.

And MSI, who was supposed to engage with God's Word, is not

humble but proud. It tells me that he stopped

interacting with God's Word. And that's a dangerous thing

because this book will keep you from becoming proud.

And if you're not careful, pride will keep you from this book.

So this man was confronted for his heart being lifted up.

And I think the problem started long before the king of Israel

pointing it out. He stopped meeting with God.

His view of God got fuzzy, and because he stopped hearing from

God's Word, he stopped God's Word from speaking into his

heart, His own heart and the counts of others were louder and

they deceived him. And now he is picking fights

that he shouldn't be picking and entertaining things that he

shouldn't be entertaining. What you're about to discover.

This man stopped inquiring of the Word and it led to something

dangerous. His downfall #4 Pride will lead

to yours and my downfall. Verse 12 What do we read?

And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to

his home. James tells us that God opposes

the proud. He gives grace to the humble,

but he opposes the proud. That word oppose in the Greek is

actually a military term. It means to set up rank against.

So here's how you translate that.

God goes to war with the proud. Doesn't matter what you're proud

about. If you persist in it, if you

refuse to reject it, if you're deceived by it, after people

have warned you, God will go to war with such a person.

He will find a way to humble them.

And nobody can be God. Nobody can win against God.

Yeah, we see here that Israel defeated Judah, but in reality

it was God who defeated Judah. And he uses different means to

do it, and that's what we find here.

But the arrogant being humbled, right?

The conceited being brought low is not always because God

directly involving himself in that person's life.

Here's what I mean. Pride can lead to other sins,

and those sins can be the means of bringing somebody low.

Does that make sense? And what you find in Second

Chronicles 25 is that a Messiah chooses to do something after

his victory over the Edomites. That's just mind boggling.

I'll be honest, when I read it, I didn't get it for for a while

I could not understand why he chose to adopt A certain habit.

I want you to see it for yourself.

Go to Second Chronicles 25 and look at verse 14.

After Amazon came from striking down the Edomites, he brought

the gods of the men of Sere and set them up as his gods and

worship them, making offerings to them that shock anybody else.

Or is it just me? So you defeat these people, the

Edomites. Clearly their gods could not

help them. And here's how you respond.

I want to worship those gods. Hello.

They could not deliver the Edomites.

Why do you want to worship them? That's a reasonable question,

isn't it? And that's one that a prophet

asked. Look at verse 15.

Therefore the Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent him a

prophet who said to him, Why have you sought the gods of the

people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?

Anybody home, Amaziah? Pride is scary.

Are we any wiser? Here's how this becomes

relatable. Is it possible that we have

committed the same sins that we've seen destroy other

people's lives? Now it's resonating, isn't it?

Because here's how we see it. He took these statues and he

brought them to Jerusalem and he worship them.

No, idols are not just statues. Anything that you love more,

anything that you're devoted more to than God is an idol.

So ask yourself this. Have you ever indulge in

anything, pursued anything? Have I ever, even after seeing

it, fail to deliver somebody else?

How many people have we seen, especially online, especially

with celebrities and people of power who have, who have

sacrificed so much for fame and money and sex?

Are they happy people? How many of them have killed

themselves? How many of these people in the

rock industry, in the hip hop industry die early?

Why? Because their idols could not

deliver them. And yet how many people even in

the church make money their God? Still, it's no different than a

Messiah. You're taking the idols that

fail to deliver these people and bring them into your own heart.

What about sexual immorality? OK, what about things like like

gossip, adultery, pornography, lying, slander?

We've seen how it's ruined marriages.

We've seen how it's ruined friendships.

We've seen how it's toppled ministries.

And what do we still do? We adopt them.

We still pursue them. And Amazon gives US1 reason why

we do that. Pride.

Pride in what sense? Well, for some people, they

don't think what these pursuits are really idols.

I'm just a hard working man. I don't know for you to abandon

serving God, loving God, meeting with God, that's an idol my

friend. I'm just a very caring person.

No, you just want to find out dirt on people so you have

something to talk about at lunch tomorrow with your girlfriends.

All these different examples that we can use.

Pride tells us this isn't really sin or if it is sin, we convince

ourselves those they went too far.

They went too far with alcohol. I, I, I know how to clearly you

don't have control. Now it's an idol.

And so we say I can, I can handle this in moderation.

I don't know what went through Amazon's mind to think that he

can bring these gods and worship them without any problem.

But we do the same with sin. God help us.

So sometimes the downfall that comes from pride is not

necessarily God humbling us directly, but allowing what

pride leads us to, and that's further sin to destroy us.

Last point, pride not only harms us, but others.

Second, Kings 14. Let's look at verse 13.

And Joash king of Israel, captured and Messiah king of

Judah, the son of Jehoash, son of Isaiah Ebechemesh, and came

to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem for 400 cubits

from Ephraim gate to the corner gate.

And he sees all the gold and silver and all the vessels that

were found in the House of the Lord and in the treasuries of

the King's house, also hostages. And he returned to Samaria.

And Messiah's pride didn't just hurt him, it hurt Judah and

Jerusalem. The wall was breached, spoil was

taken. There's vulnerability now.

There's greater insecurity than ever in this time.

Depending on who you are, pride promises collateral damage.

Think about Pharaoh and how much destruction he allowed in Egypt

because he refused to submit to God's call to repent.

Now let's bring it to our world. How many homes have been

ravished because a father stubborn, proud?

What happens to spouses? What happens to children who

live under such abuse and selfishness?

Well, apart from the grace of God, they don't turn out too

well. What about ministries that have

proud leaders in it? Does the pride of those leaders

only affect the leaders? No, it impacts that church.

It affects the community. Pride is atomic and it's power

not just in the person's heart, but in the persons that are

around that person. And one way that we can

recognize, if we still have the ability to discern that pride

has overtaken us, is that people, Not just some people,

but most people gradually want nothing to do with us.

They don't want a fellowship. They surely don't want to serve

with you in ministry. They avoid you.

And that's illustrated in Amazon his life as we read the final

verses of this section. Let's Scroll down to verse 18.

Now the rest of the deeds of Amazon, are they not written in

the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he

fled to Lahish. But they sent after him to

Lahish and put him to death there.

And they brought him on horses. And he was buried in Jerusalem

with his father's in the city of David.

And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was 16 years old,

and made him king instead of his father, a Messiah.

He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king slept

with his father's. So when this man was restored to

the throne, we don't know who they were who conspired against

them, but it's likely that there were people who were under his

administration and they thought themselves, we're not going to

deal with this man. And it's ironic, isn't it, that

the same king who brought justice to those who conspired

against his father was also murdered by betrayal.

It's quite heavy of a Bible study, isn't it?

So let me end on a more cheerful note.

Is there any way that we can know that we can remain a

perpetual humility? Is there any way we can know

that we can secure ourselves from this, this Slytherin poison

of pride? Yes, it's in the New Testament.

Let's go to John chapter 3. And this is where we'll end

John 3 · chapter mention

tonight. I mentioned John the Baptist.

Let's end with John the Baptist. John 325 Now a discussion arose

between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification, And

they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who is with you

across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is

baptizing, and all are going to him.

So pause. Here you have students of John

the Baptist, the fiery revivalist, who didn't just

preach repentance, by the way, clearly when the disciples

asked, Jesus, Lord, can you teach us how to pray like John

taught his own disciples? John had his own little school.

So yes, he told the Pharisees and everybody else, you better

repent. But with his own disciples, he

taught them different things, including how to pray, how to

fast. And people were now going to a

new Bible study on Friday nights.

Jesus is Bible study and the disciples were concerned

everybody's going to Jesus now and this concerned them and they

thought John was unaware of it. So they wanted to bring it to

his attention. Brother John, if if you've been

wondering why there's less and less people at our meetings,

it's because everybody's going to the one that you bore witness

to. And notice how John responds.

John answered in verse 27. A person cannot receive even one

thing unless it is given him from heaven.

You yourself bear me witness that I said, I am not the

Christ, but I have been sent before Him.

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom, the friend of the

bridegroom who stands and hears and rejoices greatly at the

bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is

now complete. What a response.

But this response was possible because of a revelation John

had. What is it?

There is not one thing I have that wasn't given to me from

heaven. My preaching, my success in

ministry, the audience that I had, the life that I have, the

abilities that I have, Anything and everything I realize came

from God. And so if it came from Him and

He wants to take it, He has every right.

It doesn't belong to me anyway. It's not mine.

And I'll tell you what that will unlock in your life.

Not only will it protect your heart from becoming proud, it

will encourage you to rejoice at other people's success.

So more people are now flocking to Jesus.

And what does he say? I rejoice greatly because Christ

is being glorified. He's being honored.

So if you want to avoid Amaziah's mistakes, I think John

the Baptist gives us the secret, at least a major one.

Believing that all that I have, from how I look to what I know,

to what I have, what I'm able to do, to how people are blessed,

all of that has been given by God.

And you stay there in the way you're reminded us this word you

regularly confronted on a daily basis of who God is and who you

are, what He has done and what you need from Him, what He can

do and what you can't do apart from Him.

And you will be more than safe. You will know a life of joy and

success in that joy, perpetual victory even over something as

vicious as pride. Unfortunately, a Messiah did not

have this revelation. We do.

God is for us, and He loves us enough to warn us with stories

like this so that we can avoid it for ourselves.

Let's pray. Father, our response to this

Bible study is that we acknowledge that everything we

have, all that we are, is because of you.

You permitted it, You fashioned it, You provided it, and we give

you all the glory for it. Lord, if there's any area in our

lives, whether that be a skill or a unique feature, could even

be a personality, if there's anything in our lives that we

think has something to do with us, Lord, may it die tonight.

May that lie, shrivel up and die in the sanctuary.

In light of these truths that we heard, Lord, we don't want to be

like MSI, who had so much potential but wasted it, spoiled

it because success got to his head.

If you so choose to use any of us in a way that blesses others,

help us be like this man. John the Baptist always

reminded, fresh at the top of his thinking and meditation,

It's because of God. It's because of the Lord.

We want to live in that truth, Lord.

So tonight we take our time to sit in your presence to allow

these truths to wash away anything that is collected in

our hearts. I shouldn't be there.

Give us ears to hear. Always help us trust you, Lord.

Help us be sensitive even to correction when it's right.

We want to be successful the way you want us to be successful.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Praise him can come help us worship the Lord.

Can I encourage you to do some Let's not rush and stand up and

sing right away. They'll come and they'll they'll

set things up in a minute here, but just respond to this Bible

study tonight. Ask the Lord to renew a sense of

awe of him. Ask him to always keep you in

that place of viewing him as your boast and that everything

around you, everything before you, you're not greater than

that. If there's any greatness, if

there's any goodness, again, it's because of a good God.

May the Lord help us, and then we'll stand together and sing

because He loved us enough to speak to our hearts and to keep

us in His will.