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

Please meet me in First Kings 14, beginning in verse 21 as we

complete this chapter together tonight and again.

Trust that the Lord has much to say to us in this very sobering

chapter, and what we're going to see in these final 10 verses

here is really a deep dive into the eulogy of King Rehoboam.

Last week you and I explored the concluding comments about the

life and the reign of King Jeroboam.

But for the rest of this chapter, the Holy Spirit is

going to turn our attention to review an honest review of the

rule and the leadership of the King of Judah.

And as we look at these 10 verses, I'm sure you're going to

be convinced that us not making this chapter, this one chapter,

into one session, was the right decision.

Because you're going to realize, I hope, that there are deep

insights that we could have easily glossed over if we for

the sake of saying we completed one chapter in one night.

That's not our goal, to to see how much we can cover in the

shortest amount of time. And there are so many things

here that are worthy of our meditation, which we will do

together. And with that being said, I

believe what will help us make the most out of this study is by

having one hand here in First Kings 14 and having another hand

in the book of Second Chronicles.

And so I'm going to even tell you from now, open up Second

Chronicles and place your finger there between Chapter 11 and

Chapter 12. Because what the Author of Kings

summarizes here, the Chronicler actually opens up in greater

detail. And so the book of Chronicles,

Second Chronicles specifically, is going to fill in some gaps

here and even give us insights that we would not have gleaned

from just this chapter on its own.

And if we're prepared to do that, go back and forth.

We will be rewarded without a doubt.

Lord, we pause to pray to say thank you for your word.

Thank you that we don't have portions of it.

Thank you that we don't just have snippets of it.

We have the whole counsel of God at our disposal.

We do not take that lightly. We rejoice at your Word, and we

pray, Lord, for anyone here who has lost that sense of joy over

your Word, that you would rekindle it, that you would

bring it back to life, That Lord, there will be this

insatiable thirst and hunger for the truth of God's Word.

And so we pray that there would be a supernatural transaction

and experience as we come to the Supernatural book that you have

deposited in our lives. We love your word.

We love the God of this word, and may that love only intensify

as we continue through this evening.

In your word, in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Verse 21.

A first kings 14. Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon

reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when

he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem,

the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of

Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Nama the

Ammonite, and Judah did what was evil in the side of the Lord,

and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that

they committed more than all that their fathers had done For

they also built for themselves high places and pillars and

ashram on every high hill and under every green tree.

And they're also male cult prostitutes in the land.

They did according to all the abominations of the nations that

the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

We'll pause here now and make a few points.

Interestingly, here in this general biography of Rehoboam we

have the name of his mother, and that might be something that we

just skip over as unimportant. But what's even more interesting

is we didn't read it. But if you look down at verse

31, the final verse of this chapter, you'll notice something

again. And Rehoboam slept with his

father's and was buried with his father's in the city of David.

His mother's name was Nama the Ammonite, and Abidjan his son

reign in his place. So twice at the beginning of

this biography, at the end of this eulogy, his mother is

mentioned. For what reason are we supposed

to learn about her? I believe the reason because we

see her sandwiching these other truths are really highlighting

the apostasy and the idolatry and the rebellion of this king.

We are to be impressed by this insight.

Surely this man's mother played a huge role in influencing

Rehoboam and his disobedience because not only are we given

her name, we are given her origins.

She was an Ammonite. Now here's my question.

What is a descendant of David, who's from the tribe of Judah,

doing having a mother who is from the people of Amon?

How is that working? How does that happen?

And it's no mystery because you've been here week after week

after week that David's son, Rehoboam's father Solomon, loved

many foreign wives, and he just had a collection of them from

different places, neighboring nations, and they all had one

thing in common. They worshiped false gods and

they did not honor the true God. And what we see here is that

Solomon not just had this problem at the latter portion of

his life when he accumulated hundreds and hundreds of these

women, but this was a struggle that he had even from the near

beginning of his rule and his reign.

How do we know that? How long did Solomon reign as

king? 40 years.

How old was rehab Boehm when he started to be king?

We read 41. So he had NAMA as a wife even

before he started his reign or right at the beginning of it.

So this is, this was in seed form even from there at the

beginning of his leadership over this people.

And we can talk more about that. But we've heard over and over

how these things that start in seed form become oak trees and

deeply rooted in US and become much more difficult to overcome

when we don't deal with, see the sin of the seed of a sin early

on. But there's something else here

to mention that we can land in many places.

But here's a meditation for us. We cannot underestimate the

strong influence that a parent has over their child, whether

that be a father or in this case a mother.

It is more profound and far reaching than you might think,

Solomon. Was he a busy man, or was he a

man who had time for his children?

Never mind his children, how did he have time for his wives with

all the building projects and all the things that he was

associated with and had his hands in?

It's very difficult to imagine that Solomon took the time to

disciple his son Rahel Bomb. But you know who was there?

Nah. You know who was there?

Consulting him, counseling him, interpreting the world for him,

speaking to his life, whispering into his ear.

This woman. This woman who was from a people

group that were birthed out of an incestuous relationship.

You remember how this people group came about, right?

Lot? And one of his daughters will

actually both of his daughters. The daughters intoxicated their

father. They slept with his father and

out came this people group and the Moabites.

So you have a very shady history.

And not only that, the emanates here grew to hate the people of

God and the God of Israel. And this is the kind of woman

that you have here, raising up a king over the people of Israel,

namely Jude and Benjamin. And what's even more striking is

how God gave a specific law to the people of Israel, how they

should relate to this people group.

So look at Deuteronomy 23 and look here in verse three and

four. In Deuteronomy 23 and 3:00 and

4:00 it says no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly

of the Lord even to the 10th generation.

None of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever.

Why verse 4? Because they did not meet you

with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt,

and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Bior from

Pithor of Mesopotamia to curse you.

So you read this and you may feel this is a little bit

discriminatory. This seems to be very

challenging in my view of how God is wanting all people to

come to know Him, even in the Old Covenant.

Yes, but what we see here as a law is a code is supposed to

cause you to trust in the goodness of God and the all

knowing power of God that he understands why he made such a

law given to his people concerning another people group.

And no matter how challenging this might have been in your

study of Deuteronomy, I find it quite funny that when you come

to your study of first kings, you learn of the catastrophes,

national catastrophes that came about from 1 Ammonite woman.

One Ammonite woman who is joined to the royal seed and had

influence over a leader who ultimately had influence over

the people of God. Altogether one God knows what

he's talking about. Trust his word, trust his

standards, trust his commands. And you see this and you think

to yourself, what a disaster. And what a sobering reminder,

especially young men, single young men, that whenever you are

considering, and as you're considering a candidate for a

wife, I want you to be able to remember that that's not just

going to be your wife, your partner, your companion.

That's also going to be potentially the mother of your

children. And here's what you have to ask

yourself as you, you, you logically step away from your

emotions and think critically and biblically.

Are the qualities that I see in this woman are the convictions?

Are are Are the consistent expressions of her character

something that I want to see replicated in my offspring?

That's something that you ladies can ask about other men as well.

Nobody, nobody is perfect. But there are patterns and there

are ways of thinking and there are evident marks of what this

person really is about. That should not be a mystery to

you. And some might be hearing this

and think, well, I'm not single anymore.

I'm not a young man anymore. I made my choice already, and

I'm afraid I made the wrong one. I'm afraid that I did not honor

God's standard, His word about what to find in a partner in

marriage. Am I doomed?

No, you're not doomed. There is hope for you.

And there are two things to remember if you're in that

place. One don't make the same mistake

Solomon made in allowing himself to be led by the persuasions or

the convictions, or the lack of conviction from an unbelieving,

unequally yoked spouse because of First Corinthians. 7.

We are reassured and we are comforted by the reality that

even 1 unbelieving person, namely a spouse who lives in a

household with another unbelieving spouse and with

children who are susceptible to that same kind of unbelief, you,

because of your walk with the Lord, have a power to purify

that atmosphere and even win them over to Christ just by you

being in close, close proximity. That's why Paul begs such people

don't leave, don't abandoned them because your presence there

sanctifies them. That's something encouraging for

you and I to consider. The second thing to bring hope

into your life is that regardless of the unbelieving

partner, especially when there are kids in the mixed, no

influence, even if it's from a mother, even if it's from a

father, is automatically guaranteed.

It's not automatically guaranteed because I'm thinking

of another king that we're going to study eventually, who had a

very similar mother as Rahel. Boom.

But he responded to that upbringing differently.

He responded to her influence differently.

I'm thinking of a king who was one of Israel's greatest

reformers, King ASA. Now you're in Second.

I told you, tuck your hand in Second Chronicles, right?

So if you're there, go to Second Chronicles 15 and look at verse

16. This is one point of a series of

points of the extent of Asa's reform in the nation.

And we even read this. Even Marca, his mother, King

ASA, removed from being Queen Mother because she had made a

detestable image for Ashraf. ASA cut down her image, crushed

it, and burned it at the Brook Kidron.

What a different outcome, huh? Here's my question.

What motivated ASA to do this? Yes, we can talk about both the

positive and the negative influences impact that a father,

a mother can have over their children, But I don't see that

here. I don't see it being absolutely

certain in this case. And I believe the same chapter

gives us the answer because there was somebody else who

played a role in his life to encourage him in this radical

decision. So you're there for 16.

Look at verse one of Second Chronicles 15.

The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of O dead, and

he went out to meet ASA and said to him, Hear me, ASA and all

Judah and Benjamin, the Lord is with you while you are with him.

If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake

him, he will forsake you. It was a prophet, a man of God

with the true word of God on his lips that entered into the life

of this king and spoke the truth enough for him to say, I'm not

going to go down this predictable path that others

might have because of the lack of influence that I should have.

You know what you take out of this?

That there's something more powerful than the deceptions or

the weaknesses of a parent, and that is the truth of God's word.

And as long as truth is transmitted in some way, then

there is always hope for a life to take a different course than

that which might have been paved by misguided father or a mother.

That's how powerful the truth is.

That's how powerful a youth ministry can be for young people

who come from broken homes. All it takes is for truth to be

heard and understood enough for them to say I'm not going to

head down this path that has been set for me because of a

lack of example, because of what I've seen and heard my whole

life thinking this is how my worldview should be that can be

broken in one moment of the truth being declared over that

person. And so if you're in that person

saying, yeah, I'm with somebody that's not really working with

me and wanting to see God glorified and my children

sanctified, you do you in living wholeheartedly for God and trust

that that has the ability to rescue anyone and you do your

part also. And being able to 1 exemplify

truth and to convey it, because the truth can set anyone free

from any kind of shackle from any kind of closed environment

to light. It can all change like it did

for this man. He had a mother and mothers are

powerful, are they not? He had a mother who worship

false gods and all took was a man of God to step in the scene

saying obey God. And we'll we'll learn later on

that chapter that he was encouraged and he brought

revival. That wasn't the case for

Rehoboam, unfortunately. So let's come back to our main

tax. We're still in verse 21.

Now. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon,

reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when

he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem.

The city of the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel

to put his name there. He was king for 17 years, and

left to this text alone, you'd be under the impression that all

17 years were wasted by unfaithfulness.

All 17 years were just thrown into the trash because of a man

who was confused and compromised.

And that's something that you might be left with if we don't

honor the consistent, regular reading of God's Word.

Because if you were to say I'm going to read my Bible, as I

believe you should, from cover to cover, then you would read

this in First Kings 14. But then you would journey

through Second Chronicles and you would discover something

that sheds light on this, that it wasn't all 17 years of

apostasy. So Second Chronicles and we come

here verse 14 of Chapter 11. Now we read the section in a

recent study, but we didn't continue on as we are about to.

So in Second Chronicles 1114, notice what we read here by the

Spirit. For the Levites left their

common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem

because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as

priests of the Lord. Remember that right?

Remember when Jeroboam became king and he he started a false

religion and because of that the Levites left.

They migrated. S not just the Levites.

Verse 15 And he appointed his own priest for the high places

and for the goat idols, for the calves that he had made.

And those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of

Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to

Jerusalem to sacrifice the Lord, the God of their fathers.

That's where we stopped last time.

But notice what's this said here in verse 17.

They strengthened the Kingdom of Judah, and for three years they

made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, secure.

For they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

Wow, So 17 years according to First Kings 14 He reigned.

But the first three years were secured and fruitful and

pleasing to the Lord to an extent.

The added strength that we're read about here is not stemmed

from a growing number of people that came to the southern part

of Israel. It's speaking about the

empowerment that came to the Southern Kingdom through the

piety of the people. It was their fervor, it was

their devotion, it was their sacrificial spirit that brought

a strengthening to the Kingdom of the South.

And when you think about how this godly caliber and quality,

this influx, contributed to the Southern Kingdom strength and

makes you think about something concerning you and I, something

that we often don't think about. Because here's what we see.

The nation's spiritual growth and security did not come

exclusively from leaders. It came primarily from the

common people, all whose hearts were set on seeking the Lord.

It was the general population of common families and fathers and

wives. And they made something of a

contribution because of their consecration to the Lord.

And if it's true that a nation was strengthened in that way at

this time in history? Is there any less true today in

our context? Look, leadership in the local

church is extremely important. The strength of that leadership,

the seriousness of that leadership, the devotion of that

leadership. Yes, it's all, it's all true,

It's all needed. But the maximum potential of the

testimony and the glory and the beauty of the local church

cannot be known if the people who come to that church apart

from the leadership, treat the services and ministries as pep

rallies. It's not going to happen.

It's not going to happen where you're going to have a handful

of people who are in leadership pulling the load while everybody

else just watches and applauds and talks about how grateful

they are because of how godly their leadership is.

Very limiting. Here's how you're supposed to be

encouraged that you play no small part as you participate

and make your presence known in a body of people who believe in

Jesus Christ. In the same way that these

people, whose hearts were right with God, nourish and flourish

the people that they join themselves to.

You can as well. Yes, you stay at home, Mom.

Yes, you construction worker. Yes, you engineer.

Yes, you, full time student. Your walk with the Lord can have

greater blessing. It can be monumental to wherever

God in His Providence places you, and it could be equally

detrimental. It could be detrimental to the

testimony, to the witness, to the potential of a place that

wants to glorify God. Here you have just a people,

nameless, who come to the people of the South and join themselves

to a questionable leadership, and that's the kindest way of

saying it. And yet something happened to

them. Do not underestimate your

membership. Do not underestimate your

gifting. Do not underestimate what your

white hot love for Christ can do to another people around you as

they stay around you long enough.

I'm reminded of one of the laws in Exodus when when it came to

one of the the furnishings in the Tabernacle, the lamp, the

people were to bring their own oil.

It was not the priest who were to fetch out in the vineyards

for for olives, to crush him and make oil, for the lamp to be

burning continually. He says that the people were

supposed to bring their own oil. That speaks about the communal

effort, not just leadership, but the church as a whole, members

of the same body working together to say we're going to

sharpen each other and we're going to look brighter and more

polished so that people can see Christ in the face of this

people group. That's what I see here at that.

That's not meant to convict you more than it is to encourage

you. You can do something to the

overall testimony and experience of this place and whatever place

you represent. I think about what just happened

recently when we had our recent members meeting concerning our

need to transition and the faith of the people and the excitement

of the people and the ideas of the people, the people is really

was really the catalyst for everything.

And we have no problem admitting that.

We're excited to know that that there are people here who sit

here who observe and listen, yes, but also participate,

saying that they believe in what God is doing here and they want

to move forward and see God do more.

We rejoice and give God glory for that.

And that's what you see here. The people came to the Kingdom

of the South, the King of the Judah, and they brought

something with them. Now you might be wondering why

only for three years? And that's a good question.

Why not for all those 17 years? Well, the answer is in Second

Chronicles 12. Look at verse one.

When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong,

he abandoned the law of the Lord.

Now look at this and all Israel with him.

He abandoned the law of the Lord and all Israel with him.

Here's the idea. It's not that power and

prosperity led to his downfall, is that the enjoyment of these

blessings led to his demise. Because he failed to attribute,

pay attention. Now he failed to attribute and

maintain the spiritual obedience that brought forth these

blessings to begin with, let me make it more plain.

What Rahobaum did here is what many people do in life in their

spiritual journey. He began to abandon his

neediness of God, his observance of God, his worship of God, when

all was well. When he became strong, he became

weak, and this time the people who once inspired him now

followed him. Did you read that he abandoned

the law of the Lord and all Israel with them?

What a sad thing. What a sad reversal.

The same people who came and strengthened the Kingdom are now

the people who are being weakened by a weak leadership.

And what do we to make of this? It's very simple.

It shows just how dangerous it is for anyone, anyone, whether

you're a leader or not a leader for anyone to cruise through a

season of life where there is little to no turbulence.

You got the job that you wanted. You got the girl that you

wanted. You got the guy that you wanted.

You got the house that you wanted.

Your body is healthy. The bank account is good.

You have a good group of friends, and you do things

almost every weekend. You have a nice church that

makes you feel good every week, and you're not guarding your

heart. You're not vigilant over how

quickly you can wander. If anyone thinks he stands, let

him take heed, lest he falls. And that's what this man did.

Can I? Can I tell you what the true

test of genuine devotion is? Talking about?

Devotion to the Lord. It's not when you come close to

the Lord, when your world is falling apart.

It's not when you come close to the Lord when your world is

falling apart. It's choosing to stay close to

the Lord as time goes on without troubles or trials.

That's a true test of devotion. When you can worship with equal

strength, if not greater strength.

When you still come to the prayer meetings, not because you

need something, just because you know you need to be sustained by

Him in the good times and the bad.

When you serve, whether you feel like it or not, when everything

is going well and the sun is shining and the clouds are

cleared and you still have this fervency in your bones, that's

true devotion. And these people became strong

economically, politically, and that was a result of God's

blessing in their lives for their obedience.

There was a direct correlation there, but when everything was

going well, everything was not really well.

It was the beginning of a decline, and that's what we read

right in the 25th verse. The 22nd verse actually

highlights it and Judah verse Kings 14 did what was evil in

the sight of the Lord and they provoked him to jealousy with

their sins that they committed. Now look at this.

More than all that their fathers had done, they they've reached

the place of sinfulness and disobedience that has not been

known yet. They they broke a new record, so

to speak. But then when we come back to

verse 25, we haven't read this yet, so let's read it.

In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, King of

Egypt, came up against Jerusalem.

He took away the treasures of the House of the Lord and the

treasures of the King's house. He took away everything.

He also took away all the Shields of gold that Solomon had

made. And King Rehoboam made it in

their place, Shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands

of the officers of the guard who kept the door of the King's

house. So for the first three years

Rehoboam and the Kingdom of Judah were faithful.

They were strong. And after those three years they

abandoned the Lord And at the 5th year.

So we can say that a little over a year, close to two years even,

they were walking in these abominable practices.

Male cult, prostitutes, false worship, just things that you

can't even think about and imagine we're going on before

now. The king of Egypt invades and

surrounds Jerusalem. This is not accidental.

This is not merely A surprising military stunt.

It's not again until you go to Second Chronicles where you

realize that God's Hand is behind this invasion, because in

Second Chronicles 12/2 and you don't have to go there unless

you want to. We're told that because they had

been unfaithful to the Lord Shishak, the king of Egypt came

up against Jerusalem. So what do we see here in verse

25 of First Kings 14? God's discipline on full

display? You walked away from me.

You chose to liberate yourself from my Lordship.

Then let me bring another king into your life and let's see how

you like it. So the king of Egypt comes and

he surrounds the people. And surprisingly, out of all the

things that he could have done, the thing that is highlighted is

that he goes into one of the edifices and he removes the

Shields of gold that we studied about how Solomon made and he

put on display. And King Rib home in in response

to that makes the Shields of brass and he replaces the

Shields of gold with that. What are we to make of this?

Very simple. We heard about this many weeks

ago, but we need to hear it again sometimes.

This is a principle, an illustration of what sin does in

your life. Sin always impoverishes you.

Sin always steals from you. Sin always weakens you.

And that's what we see here. We see a diminishing beauty and

majesty and glory taking place in the Kingdom of Judah.

What was once gold is now bronze brass.

It's diluting sin diminishes your quality of life.

It strips you of the spiritual treasures that the Lord longs to

furnish you with and fill your life with always.

And you know what Rehoboam does here?

What Rehoboam does does here is what people do when they walk

away from God and want to try to sustain themselves as much as

possible without wanting to admit or maybe because they

haven't felt convicted about their abandonment of the Lord

just yet. You try to fill the void that

sin creates in your life with cheap substitutes.

That's what always happens. Can I tell you something?

I have never in my whole walk with the Lord.

Never. Never.

Never. Never.

And I've seen, unfortunately, too many people who have walked

away from the Lord or people who have become lukewarm toward the

Lord. I've never seen anybody do that.

And them ending up better off than they were when they were

walking closely with the Lord. Never.

Not once. I've never looked at anybody who

walked away from the church, walked away from the truth, or

walked away from a true total devotion to the Lord and said to

myself, they look like they're doing better than ever.

Have you? If you have, please tell me.

Let's pull up their social media.

I want to see it for myself because I've never.

And that's the case here, because part of Solomon's

prosperity where silver became like like common stone, was

because God promised him that he would make him wealthy.

Obviously he went overboard with that because he acquired too

much, but a part of it shows that the gold signified his

favor, his blessing, and that gold now is reduced to brass for

one reason, turning your back on the Lord.

And as heartbreaking as this scene might be, when you know

the full story, you realize that it's not just divine display

that's on display here, Divine disciplines on display here.

You actually see mercy and motion.

You read First Kings 14 and then you skip over to the New

Testament because you don't want to continue in the Old

Testament. And you would miss this again

from Second Chronicles because Second Chronicles highlights

what really is going on here. So go there with me.

And Second Chronicles 12, I know your arm might be tired.

Second Chronicles 12. Look at verse 5.

Then Shamaya the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the Princess of

Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak.

We heard of him in First Kings 1425.

So this prophet comes and he interrupts this council meeting

and said to them. Thus says the Lord, You

abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of

Sheshak. Look at verse six.

Then the Princess of Israel and the King humbled themselves and

said the Lord is righteous. This text excited me so much I

had to gather myself. And I had to tell myself, Don't

get overly excited when you share that truth because you

want to clearly present at least two important points from this

text. So I'm doing that now.

Give me a second first thing to draw from this.

You ready? There's two things I want you to

see from this. Here's the first thing, because

we didn't see this in first case 14.

We're seeing it here in this parallel count.

Here's the first thing. It's never too late to call

anyone to repent. It's never too late to call

anyone to repentance because Shamaya the prophet comes on the

scene when Shishak and his armies were just underneath the

nose, the noses of this leadership, They were right at

the front door. And this man of art comes with a

true word from the Lord and he gives the biblical and

theological explanation for what may seem just as a political

move from Egypt. Hey, add this to your meeting.

The reason why this is happening is because you abandoned God, so

God abandoned you. This is confrontation.

This is truth colliding with a stubborn people, a callous

people. And maybe you need to revisit

First Kings 1422 to 24 to realize just how hopeless this

nation has become. Male cult prostitutes.

You know what that means? I don't want to be too gravity

here, but you had men, you had sodomites, you had homosexual

behavior happening in these false places of worship as an

expression to these deities of fertility to answer their cry,

That's disgusting, That's depraved, That's horrible.

And we we read it that they had done more than all their other

fathers had done. So at this point in Israel's

history, this is the worst that it ever was.

And yet still a man of God comes on the scene and preaches A

brief message to them, and it was enough to melt their hearts.

You know, I thought about that when I was reflecting on these

truths about our own generation in this nation.

The suicide rate, the depression, the confusion, the

entertainment, the things that people are allowing and paying

money for. The anger.

All these different vices that are just piling up, making us

feel as we stand the shadow of this filth.

Is there even a point that we just celebrate people barely

making it to church and our minds don't even go beyond, hey,

it, it's possible for this gospel to still save people.

This gospel can still save people in America.

It can save, yes, this new generation that doesn't know

they're left from the right, It still can save.

We're still, the church is still here for a reason.

The Holy Spirit is still in us, working through us for a reason.

We're not a bunker that's just hiding from the world, hoping

not to be contaminated until Christ comes back.

We're on the offensive. And so I see from this that no

matter how twisted, darkened, confused and insensitive

anybody, maybe a leadership, a political leadership, maybe it's

never too late, nor should we give up calling them to the

truth. But here's the second point.

Not just that it's never too late for us to call people to

the truth, but it's never too late to repent either.

What do we see in verse six? Then the Princess of Israel and

the King humbled themselves and said the Lord is righteous all

to be there in that meeting room to see Shema.

I wonder if he kicked the door down.

I wonder if he just surprised them.

Hey, Princess of Israel and real bomb, you've been in God.

So this is the outcome of it. What did it look like for them?

I wonder if there was a pause. I wonder if they held their

breath. I wonder who was the first one

to break the silence of conviction.

And they collectively said the Lord is righteous.

You know what that means? God is right in disciplining us

in this way because we are wrong.

That's repentance. That's brokenness.

That's contrition. And here's the point that moves

me. It's verse seven.

Look at this. When the Lord saw that they

humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shamaya.

They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I

will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall

not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

When did Lord make the decision to diminish the severity of His

judgment? When the Lord saw that they

humble themselves. The very moment that they humble

themselves was the very moment. Not a second later, God's mercy

was activated. Not a blink later, not a breath

later, the very moment they humble themselves, God sent a

word from heaven to the same prophet, He says.

Did you just see what happened? And He changed the verdict on

the spot. We're told that he he would not

destroy them by the hand of Sheshak.

Now here's what you and I should glory in.

If God's mercy can be awakened so speedily, so swiftly under an

inferior covenant, how much more is it excited when you and I

embrace His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?

Is he slower to receive you the moment upon your confession and

belief in your heart that he is Lord and that God raised him

from the dead? No, in so many ways and in

numerous ways and verses. Rather, are we comforted to know

that when we confess our sin with a repentant faith, in that

very moment we are justified and we are secured.

Not momentarily, not until you prove yourself, but forever.

Forever. I'm saved.

I'm saved because of my faith in Christ.

I'm delivered. My verdict has been changed for

eternity, and that's important, the sufficiency of what Christ

has done. Because you will never know true

joy that the joy that God wants you to know in your salvation

unless you believe in the permanency of your redemption.

Yes, He's a gracious God in the Old covenant.

He's a gracious God in the New covenant and giving us His son

and all how He is ready to forgive us.

When you are ready to humble yourself and erase all that sin

and cleanse your record completely, completely, like

blank blank, I have a couple of illustrations that would give up

my own life, of how I was relieved when something was not

given to me, when I deserved it. But I'll spare you those

illustrations. Instead, I want you to see

something interesting in verse eight.

You're still in Second Chronicles 12, are you not?

Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him that they may

know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the

countries. So yes, I'm not going to allow

the King of Egypt to completely swallow up Jerusalem.

Yet, because of Judah's historic inconsistencies and because the

Lord is a good father, he's going to allow the King of Egypt

to have some mastery over the people of Judah.

I'm going to let the king of Egypt have some kind of control

over you for a season. I'm going to let you be under

his leadership. Why?

So they can compare. Did you read it?

That they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms

of the countries? OK, so if they thought that

living under my rule was so limiting, so joyless, so void of

meeting and satisfaction, then they have to learn the hard way.

And here's the hard way. They're going to have to

experientially know what it means to have a different Lord

on their lives. You know, unfortunately, there

are many people who have seen so much, who have heard so much.

I mean, the unparalleled testimonies that the people of

Israel have experienced, the the manifestations and the miracles.

Paul even speaks about how privileged they were as a people

group. And with all of that, all of the

witnessing and all of the experiences, they were still

tempted to run after other lovers.

And so there's some people even today that no matter how, no

matter how eloquent this is, no matter how profound, no matter

how much the grace of God is being pounded into your

unbelieving heart, your skeptical heart, though you may

believe it here, there are some people who are not convinced and

won't be convinced until they look for other saviors and

realize they can't be saved. And I'm not talking about other

gods. I'm talking about things that

try to save you from loneliness. Things that try to save you from

a life that is void of pleasure. Things that promise you

something in this life that you're so longing for.

And there are some people, you know them and I know them, that

will not bend the knee completely and guaranteed until

they discover and get bruised by other idols.

That was true for real, Bomb. OK, you're obviously not

convinced because it doesn't take you much long for you to

turn your back on me. So here's another king.

See how you like it. See how you like it.

That was true for Aeroboam's day.

And listen, that was true in Hosea's day.

It turned there with me. Hosea, I want you to see this

verse. Hosea.

Hosea 2:7

Chapter 2, verse 7. What a.

This is a heartbreaking book. Prophet Hosea And early in this

book we get a verse that explains exactly what I'm trying

to explain to you. Hosea 27 She, being Israel,

shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them.

She shall seek them but shall not find them.

Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband,

for it was better for me then than now.

You see what God is saying? Yeah, you know, go do your thing

and run after these things and you're going to realize that

what you're looking for you'll never find.

And only then will you pause and ponder and think to yourself, I

think it's time to go back to Jesus, because it was far better

for me then than it is now. That's the prodigal son.

That's not just the product of son.

That's the worship leader Asaph from Psalm 73 in the last verse,

after he struggled whether or not it was worth it to be

righteous because the payoff didn't seem right.

In this life at least, you see all the wicked enjoying having

families and vacations in good health and dying in peace.

Is it really worth what's in it for me to follow the Lord and

you begin to think and feel? I mean, look, if you think that

this is not true, Asaph was a worship leader in the temple.

This worship leader who led people to sing the praises of

God felt this way. He felt tempted to think maybe

me being sold out for the Lord is not really worth it.

And then he comes to the House of God and he's reminded of

these eternal truths. And the last verse of Psalm 73,

Psalms 73:28

verse 28 says this. As for me, it is good to be near

God. Can I ask you a question on this

Friday night? I love seeing you every single

week, but it's amazing what can happen from last Friday to this

Friday. So let me ask us as a brother

who cares for you, and I hope you feel the love throbbing in

my heart for you. Are you near God tonight?

I'm asking if you believe God. I'm asking if you are near God.

How do I know if I'm near God? You know, you know not to give

you a theological masterpiece to figure that out.

You know where your affections are.

You know where your meditations are.

You know when you voluntarily worship the Lord, when nobody's

around, you know what it's like to be near God.

So here's my question. Are you near God, Near Him?

Are you walking closely with him, in fellowship, in love, or

do you feel yourself getting further and further away from

him? If you are, let this Bible study

remind you that the best place to be is not just around people

who are near God, but you being near God, not having pastors who

are near God, you being near God.

It's good for me to be near God and no matter where I am in this

world, put me in a palace. Put me on an island with all

access to all foods and services, there is nothing that

can compare to the satisfaction of being near God.

Stuff me in an igloo if I'm near God, I'm the happiest.

Put me anywhere else where any amount of money can buy

anything. I don't care if as long as I'm

far from him I'm miserable. But As for me it is good to be

near God. Let's conclude this Bible study

with the last couple verses of First Kings 14.

You're saying? Remind me why you brought me to

Second Chronicles 12 with Sheeshak Sheeshak robbing the

people of the gold Shields, Was God limiting his destructive

power? In other words, when you read

First Kings 14 and compared to Second Chronicles 12, what

you're seeing is it could have been a lot worse if Rehoboam did

not repent, but because Rehoboam repented, then God only allowed

him to take some things. It makes you wonder, what if

Jeroboam had repented at any point?

What could he have been spared from?

What could he even rescued from? But he never repented like this

man did? Now we come to the concluding

remarks of Rehoboam's life before the rest of our study.

In this book we will evaluate different kings succeeding kings

of both the Northern and the Southern kingdoms.

Look at verse 29. Now the rest of the acts of

Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book

of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam

continually, and Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried

with his fathers in the city of David.

His mother's name was Nama the Ammonite and I be John.

His son reigned in his place. Here's the final testimony of

the first King of the Northern tribes and the third King of the

Southern Tribes. It's verse 30.

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam

continually. What a regretful thing to be put

on your obituary. The last thing that you read

about these two men is that they were at war with each other

always. And the keyword here is

continually. And what's fascinating here is

that these two men who should have been working together, who

should have united the Kingdom, divided the Kingdom.

And they were not one in faith. They were not one in mind.

They were not one in purpose. They were not one in love.

What should have been one thing became two things and not just

two things. What should have been a family

became a civil war. Do you think that's just true

for Israel, or can it happen in the Church of Jesus Christ?

Is it possible for people's experience of the church and

Christian relationships to just be war continually?

Yeah, unfortunately. And perhaps we don't know just

how damaging persistent strife and discord can have on the

people of God. But Paul tells us at least one

one way it is so harmful. And this is our final verses in

the New Testament. Before we close, look what he

says in Galatians 5 and I'll I'll pause and wait here.

I won't say anything till you get there in Galatians 513.

Let this discourage you from justifying unnecessary discord

or fighting in the family of God.

And listen as you're turning there.

Know this. Within a community, there will

be moments of disagreement and conflict that that's that's a

given. That's true of your natural

family, and that's true in your spiritual family.

But every single problem, every single issue should be resolved

with the truth and with humility and love.

And again, as I said earlier, the problem with these two is

that it was continual. It just marked the relationship.

And here's what Paul speaks about concerning Christian

community and the dangers of this kind of attitude.

For you were called to freedom, brothers only.

Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but

through love. Serve one another through love,

Sir. Not just serve one another

through love. Get the love thing right first,

Get that impartation of God's love 1st and watch serving one

another come naturally as an outcome through love.

Serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled.

In one word. You shall love your neighbor as

yourself and he gives the alternative.

In this next verse, what happens within a community of believers

when they are not lovingly serving one another?

When they don't see it to be a happy thing to invest in your

happiness as I would want to have my happiness invested in

here. Here's the potential verse 15.

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are

not consumed by one another. That's the alternative.

Suck the love out of this place. Have a bunch of people who are

not regulated by a Holy Spirit driven service to one another.

And you know what? You open that place up to

animalistic kind of contention. Have you ever, have you ever

heard the term he he's like an animal.

He acts like an animal. She acts like an animal.

That's what Paul is getting at. He's using very graphic imagery

where you put two beasts in a place and they're ferociously

unconcerned about the other and they're willing to devour.

Look at the language, bite and devour.

What does it mean for Christians to bite and devour?

I'm sure it means many things, but I know it includes mainly

the mouth. When you bite something and

devour it requires this. And he goes, You Christians, you

be careful, because here's the thing.

Christians can reach a place of Holy Spirit inspired love that

these meetings and these relationships can be a piece of

heaven on earth. We can reach such heights by the

grace of the Holy Spirit. And yet we can be so

disconnected to the heart of God that we can reach lows where

Christians who should reflect Christ, are actually acting like

dogs do not bite or devour one another.

And he says watch out. And he's saying like be careful.

Meaning it's it's possible for Christians to act this way, so

don't be surprised if you've seen it.

Don't be surprised if you have a history of church hurt.

It's possible, apparently, but notice the extent of the

warning. But if you bite and devour one

another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

In other words, when this aggression and when this

division is is so prevalent and unresolved, it can lead to a

point where there is a consuming you know what that word consumed

is? It's the same word used in Luke

954 when James and John, the sons of Thunder, asked Jesus

because they were rejected by that village in Samaria.

And they said, Lord, shall we call down fire from heaven and

let them be consumed, Let them be consumed.

What does that mean to be consumed?

When fire consumes something, it it becomes nothing, it's turned

to ash. And here's what one person said,

and here's how he put it, That ongoing strife within a

Christian community can have the potential of bringing that

community to extinction, consuming one another.

We're in essence, everything becomes non existent.

It's gone, it disappears. You're saying?

What does that mean? I don't know.

Have you ever seen churches no longer become churches because

of biting and devouring? That's at least one way that can

manifest consuming and biting each other's flesh with your

mouth to the point where what once was alive is now no more.

And that can happen to our testimony before the world.

That can happen to the fruitfulness within this place.

The ministries that God breathed on at one point and used so many

things can become extinct. When you have a party against

another party in one place, void of love, void of being

stimulated to serve one another and left to the flesh, it can be

avoided. We can be saved from such a

thing. So maybe said of this ministry

and the ministry that you're a part of in the relationships

that you have in Christ. Not that you go to war

continually, but that with those people, you go to war with the

enemy. You go to war against unbelief.

You go to war against sin. You go to war against

selfishness. You go to war against pettiness.

You go to war against your personal preference being the

priority of the church that you're a part of.

You go to war with those things. There are too many people

professing Christ going to war with the church instead of with

the church against darkness and evil.

I don't get it. So many people are so invested

and so caught up and church drama and problems, and I think

to myself, if you just use that energy for what really matters,

you are at war. Just turn the gun away from your

your fellow soldier and turn it and face it towards the one who

is actually causing you to do this.

So what a testimony here and there was war between Rehoboam

and Jeroboam continually may not be so of us.

Instead, may it be said, according to Galatians, that

there is a loving service toward one another continually only by

the grace of God, only by the help of the Holy Spirit, only

when the fear of the Lord reigns in our hearts.

And So what a way to end this as we close as a church to say,

Lord. We're going to ask you now that

as we've read this and studied this together, that the opposite

testimony would be true of us. Lord, give us greater love so

that we can serve each other with greater strength.

Let's pray and do that together, shall we?

Lord, you are holy. Your word is incredible.

We're humbled by how loud it is, how accurate it is, how

surgically precise it is, how applicable it is, and All in

all, how life giving it is. We thank you, Lord, that we are

recipients of the truth, that you've made our hearts ready and

hungry for such things. We thank you, Lord, that you

have indeed fed our fire for fellowship with you and

fellowship with one another the way you designed it.

Or there's a reason why you mentioned that these two were at

war with one another continually.

It's to remind us what is possible in the negative for the

people of God who have the word of God, who have seen the

miracles of God, who have the warnings of God.

Lord, may our hearts remain soft and learn from the mistakes of

the past. May we instead walk and run in

the opposite direction. Lord, we don't want to ever

entertain or explore the depths of darkness or the flesh that we

can attain. Instead, we want to soar high.

Lord, bring us higher here at NBC.

Higher in love, higher in honor, higher in holiness.

And for every other church represented here, the same, oh

God. And for those who are

discouraged, maybe, of the the ministry that they are a part

of, to know that their saltiness and their light in that place

can have the potential power to influence others, well, there's

so many things we heard. We will not rehearse him in this

prayer time. All we want to do is ask that

whatever we need to hear for our lives, that you would, you would

make it so obvious and that we would be soft enough, even like

Rehoboam and those leaders, to admit that we're wrong and that

you're right. And to trust that in that

admission you see from heaven and you're willing to do

something about our future right there and then right there.

And then, though we believe that as we're humbling ourselves

before you and as we confess or as we rejoice, you hear us, You

hear us. So even Lord, if there's anyone

here who is not near you, as the Psalmist said he was, we pray

that Lord, in our admission of that we would feel closer to you

than ever. Because you promise when we draw

near to you, you draw near to us.

That's your promise. So even in this time let this

not just be a a mindless sign off of this Bible study.

May this be a time where we draw close to you.

We're in our faith and in our in our thoughts and our words.

We we take a step forward and we say, God keep me close to you.

Please bind my wandering heart to thee and so Lord tonight as

one body, as one church, as one Kingdom.

We say thank you. May the glue of this community

be love. May the truth always reign over

our ideas or opinions. May you dominate every aspect of

who we are. For your glory.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Let's stay in church, worship the Lord.

Thank him, honor him. Spill your heart to him.

He hears us tonight.