(Slightly edited transcript of a message preached at Faith-Grace Vietnamese Baptist Church on 28 September 2014.)
Texts: Proverbs 13:20; 17:17
Today I’d like to talk to you about something very important to all of you: friends. If you asked any young person, “What are the most important things to you in life?” friends would likely always be mentioned and often top the list, even before God and parents. It’s a very important subject, not just for teens, but for anyone. Friendships are powerful things: they can make you or break you, depending on who you choose for friends. The two verses we read show you how friends can help you or hurt you…for time and eternity, so it’s critical that you understand what friendship is and who to befriend. For this message, I’d like to define friendship, give some general principles about it from scripture, then look at two friendships in the Bible very closely to illustrate those principles.
Definition of Friendship
Friendship, most basically, is companionship, as we see in Prov. 13:20. It’s more than just someone you know—that’s what we call an acquaintance. A friend is someone that you keep company with and trust.
• Prov. 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but the companion of fools shall be destroyed.
• Ps. 55:12-14 For it was not an enemy…But it was thou…We took sweet counsel together and walked into the house of God in company.
• Ps. 41:9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread (fellowship), hath lifted up his hand against me.
These types of relationships can be terminated, but a true friend is the one mentioned in Prov. 17:17. He loves you at all times, including adversity, or bad times. Ever heard of a “fair-weather” friend? He’s your friend when times are good but not in the storms of life. Prov. 27:10, “Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not…” A friend is someone who sticks by you no matter what. On the freezer in my basement I have a magnet that says, “Friendship is when people know all about you but like you anyway.” Do you have any friends like that? Well, you have at least one, but we’ll talk about him later.
Principles of Friendship
Next, I’d like to give you three principles about friendship:
• You choose your friends. Remember Prov. 13:20? The man chose to walk with the wise or fools. They didn’t come after him. People say that “S/he got in with the wrong crowd,” as if the crowd is to blame. No, you are the wrong crowd, if you attach yourself to them. Look at Prov. 1:10: sinners may entice you, but ultimately it’s your choice who you hang around. Prov. 1:10-19 describes a gang. Right before that—fearing God (v. 7) and obeying your parents (vv. 8-9). Who’s in gangs mostly? People who don’t fear God and don’t obey their parents. Remember Derek in the movie Courageous? His parents were gone and he lives with his grandmother, but he disobeys her and ends up in a drug-dealing gang, nearly gets killed by the police, and ends up in jail. He became the wrong crowd…and paid dearly for it.
• Your friends will influence you (you are who you hang around), for better or worse. Like it or not, you are who you hang around. We saw that in Prov. 13:20, but check out 1 Cor. 15:33 in the new testament. One good apple in a barrel of bad ones won’t make them all good, y’all. It’s the other way around. The bad apples will corrupt the good one. That’s what this verse is talking about. If the people you are communicating with, as in friendship, are evil, it will affect your manners, or the way you live.
• Friendships affect more (sometimes far more) than the friends. Some people think that their friendship with someone doesn’t affect anyone but them. Let me tell you, your choice of friends doesn’t just affect you and them. It affects those around you, because believe it or not, those friends are rubbing off on you, good or bad, and influence how you treat others. An old English poet, John Donne, said, “No man is an island…” Well, no friendship is an island either; it affects those outside of it, as well as those inside it, and we’ll see how far-reaching this can be in the final part of the message.
Two Friendships in the Bible
To get to the heart and conclusion of my message, I’d like to study two friendships in the Bible that illustrate the principles I’ve given you. One of these you’re probably familiar with, since it was a very good friendship, and we can certainly learn from it, but the other you may not be familiar with. It was a very bad friendship, with tragic results for one of the friends, but we can learn from it as well: who not to become friends with and the terrible consequences of developing bad friendships.
David and Jonathan (1 Sam. 18:1-4)
The first friendship we’ll look at is that of David and Jonathan. Most people know this story. David kills Goliath and wins the heart and admiration of King Saul’s son, Prince Jonathan. Jonathan is so impressed with David, that he gives him his clothes and arms…on the spot (v. 4). Though a prince, he makes himself naked to clothe someone else, his friend. Remind you of someone else? How about Jesus? He hung naked on the cross so that you could be clothed with God’s righteousness, if you’ll trust in him as your Saviour. Notice what else it says about Jonathan: his soul was knit to David’s, and twice it says that “he loved him as his own soul” (vv. 2-3). “A friend loveth at all times,” and Jonathan is a good, though not perfect, example of this. He pleads David’s case before an envious Saul, helps David escape from Saul, stands up for David when Saul is enraged, and even visits David in the wilderness (23:16-18). The only thing that he doesn’t do is follow David, the true king of Israel, but sticks with his wicked father and ends up dead with him in battle.
• Jonathan chooses to be David’s friend, and David chooses to be Jonathan’s friend. Not only was Jonathan’s soul knit to David’s, but vice versa. No one forced it; it was voluntary and an excellent choice on both men’s part.
• Both men benefit from the relationship, David more in my opinion, since the friend that follows God the closest will get the most out of the friendship, I think. David should not have fled from Saul, since God promised to make him king, but he still made a better choice than Jonathan, who, as I mentioned above, will not part with his father, and reaps the consequences.
• Their friendship affected far more than them. Saul is greatly affected by their friendship, and actually the whole kingdom, since Jonathan helps David stay alive and ultimately attain the throne, once Saul is taken out of the way.
Amnon and Jonadab (2 Sam. 13:1-5, 30-36)
This friendship is a timeless example of the worst kind of friendship. As we’ve discussed already, the Bible provides guidance on who to befriend and who not to befriend. Prov. 22:24-25 says, “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man that shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare unto thy soul.” So in this passage we’re warned about befriending angry people and the bad influence that they can have upon us, but here in 2 Samuel 13 we see another type of person that we should avoid: the worldly-wise man. Now the first time that you see the word “subtil” in the Bible is in Gen. 3:1, in reference to the serpent. Then in Mt. 10:16, Jesus told the apostles, “…be ye therefore wise as serpents.” So subtility is like wisdom. But wisdom can be used for good or evil.
• James 3:15-17. Here we see two types of wisdom: wisdom from above (v. 17) and devilish wisdom (v. 15).
• Prov. 1:4-5. The context of subtilty here is godly wisdom. So subtilty, or wisdom, isn’t necessarily bad, but it can be, as we see here with Jonadab.
Jonadab is actually Amnon’s cousin. He is the son of David’s third brother, Shimeah (13:3, 32), who fought under king Saul against Goliath (1 Sam. 17:13-14). He also had a brother named Jonathan who turns out to be a great warrior and kills one of Goliath’s sons in battle (2 Sam. 21:20-22). But instead of being brave and heroic like his brother, Jonadab is a crafty, cowardly low-life sort of person. He counsels Amnon how to sin, and you need to avoid befriending anyone like that.
• Amnon chooses him a friend. While it’s true that they were related, Amnon wasn’t obligated to be his friend, and there were plenty other good people at court for him to attach himself to (how about Nathan the prophet and Zadok the priest?). But something about Jonadab appeals to Amnon, showing that he himself has character issues which, as we see, this friendship worsens.
• The friendship is unprofitable to both men, much more so to Amnon, who loses his life over it. Amnon has a tender conscience at first, as we see in 13:2, and doesn’t want to harm his half-sister, but Jonadab does not have the same noble character. He tells Amnon how to sin, and then when Amnon has fallen, he tattles on him to King David without taking any blame for anything. What a creep! On top of that, he tries to make himself look good to the king by explaining what’s going on; but God overrules him, he gets no praise from anyone, and he fades out of the picture. Amnon, on the other hand, due to this friendship, goes from tender to cruel because of this friendship, refusing to marry the woman that he’s mistreated. He picks up Jonadab’s cruelty through the association, and it costs him his life.
• But as we saw with David and Jonathan, the friendship affects far more than Amnon and Jonadab. Tamar’s honour is lost for life, Absalom takes vengeance on Amnon and becomes a fugitive, and the conclusion of the matter is a full-scale revolution led by none other than Absalom, who ends up stuck in a tree and slain by Joab and his men. All because Amnon picked the wrong friend! See how important this is, y’all?
I don’t think that it’s a stretch at all to say that friendship is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. As we’ve seen in these two friendships, the character and fruits of friendships literally affect world events. So it’s utterly important that you choose the right friends, since not just you and your friend are affected, but everyone else.
Let me close this message by introducing you to the perfect friend. Jonadab was a lousy friend, and Jonathan was a good friend, but the best friend that anyone ever had was Jesus Christ. Prov. 18:24 says that, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…” Emerson said, “If you want a friend, be one.” You can’t expect to have friends if you aren’t friendly to others. You can’t reap where you haven’t sown. But what does the rest of Prov. 18:24 say? “…and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Sometimes you’ll find that your friends stick closer to you than your siblings or relatives. But that’s not all that the verse is saying. It’s also pointing to the Lord Jesus, who will closer to you than literally anyone in the world. As a matter of fact, if you receive him as your Saviour, he will come to live in your heart through the Holy Spirit, and fellowship with you forever. No friend or relative can get inside of you and minister to your heart moment by moment like the Lord Jesus can. And if you don’t become friends with him, you miss out on the greatest friendship any man could ever have. Jesus himself said in John 15:13, “Great love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” and that is exactly what Jesus did for you 2000 years ago. He “shew[ed] himself friendly” by laying down his life for your sins, the payment that God requires for them; now, will you be his friend? Right now, if you’re a sinner, you’re his enemy. I realize that little children are innocent, but if you’re here and you know that you’ve sinned and you haven’t accepted Jesus as you’re Saviour, you’re God’s enemy, even if you don’t know it. Folks, don’t stay in that condition! That’s the worse place that anyone could be, and God doesn’t want you there. He has already proven himself to be your best friend by giving the very best he had for you, his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Now, will you be his friend?
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Things that God Says Are Awe-some
Texts:
Ps. 4:4, "Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah."
Ps. 33:8, "Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him."
Ps. 119:161, "Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word."
In the U.S you often here people, especially younger people, refer to certain people, places, or things as "awesome." The common usage is synonymous with "great" or "wonderful." But the scriptural usage is something different.
The word "awe" appears in scripture only three times, all in Psalms, and the references are provided above. The second reference above, I believe, provides the scriptural sense of "awe": a holy fear. "Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him." Note that the context of awe is always something holy: God (Ps. 4:3-4, 33:8) or his word (119:161). We're not to be in "awe" of princes like we are God and his word (119:161), but we are to "Render...fear to whom fear" is due, namely "rulers" (Rom. 13:1-7). So I think that it's safe to say that awe is a higher fear due to God and his word than that due to "the powers...ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1). It is a heart condition that can and should be present even when lying down (Ps. 4:4): one can "stand" in awe while lying upon one's bed!
Ps. 4:4, "Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah."
Ps. 33:8, "Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him."
Ps. 119:161, "Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word."
In the U.S you often here people, especially younger people, refer to certain people, places, or things as "awesome." The common usage is synonymous with "great" or "wonderful." But the scriptural usage is something different.
The word "awe" appears in scripture only three times, all in Psalms, and the references are provided above. The second reference above, I believe, provides the scriptural sense of "awe": a holy fear. "Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him." Note that the context of awe is always something holy: God (Ps. 4:3-4, 33:8) or his word (119:161). We're not to be in "awe" of princes like we are God and his word (119:161), but we are to "Render...fear to whom fear" is due, namely "rulers" (Rom. 13:1-7). So I think that it's safe to say that awe is a higher fear due to God and his word than that due to "the powers...ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1). It is a heart condition that can and should be present even when lying down (Ps. 4:4): one can "stand" in awe while lying upon one's bed!
One Sense of Biblical "Judgment"
Psalm 119:86, "Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments."
Reading this scripture recently inspired me to search for the sense of "judgment" in scripture. Here are my findings so far.
Judgment is essentially discernment of good and bad or good and evil. Heb. 5:14 speaks of mature believers ("them that are of full age") as having "their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Other scriptures throughout the Bible support this definition.
Job 34:4, "Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good."
Prov. 2:9, "Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path."
Eccl. 12:14, "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."
Amos 5:15a, "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate:"
Mal. 2:17, "...When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?"
2 Cor. 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
See also 2 Sam. 14:17; 1 Kings 3:9; Is. 7:15-16, May God give us all good judgment (Phil. 1:9-11).
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Things that Men Give Themselves To; or, A Survey of Biblical Addictions (Part 1; Audio)
(Audio recording of a Bible study lesson at Landmark Baptist Church, Locust Grove, GA; 24 August 2014; see link below)
Text: 1 Cor. 16:15-16
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7XpXUhut9IcdzAtWUpHOHMzQTZRYmJRdmk4eGxJV1d2NEV3/edit?usp=sharing
Text: 1 Cor. 16:15-16
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7XpXUhut9IcdzAtWUpHOHMzQTZRYmJRdmk4eGxJV1d2NEV3/edit?usp=sharing
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Spiritual Lessons from Archimedes' Death
Some material in this post is taken from Wikipedia ("Archimedes").
Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was "an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer." He is "[g]enerally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time." Archimedes "died c. 212 BC during the Second Punic War [Rome vs. Carthage], when Roman forces under General Marcus Claudius Marcellus captured the city of Syracuse [under Carthaginian rule] after a two-year-long siege. According to the popular account given by Plutarch, Archimedes was contemplating a mathematical diagram when the city was captured. A Roman soldier commanded him to come and meet General Marcellus but he declined, saying that he had to finish working on the problem. The soldier was enraged by this, and killed Archimedes with his sword. Plutarch also gives a lesser-known account of the death of Archimedes which suggests that he may have been killed while attempting to surrender to a Roman soldier. According to this story, Archimedes was carrying mathematical instruments, and was killed because the soldier thought that they were valuable items."
In both of these accounts, we see that Archimedes' work was more important to him than anything, even his personal safety. In one account, he was so engrossed in his work that he was oblivious to everything going on around him; in the other, he tried to salvage his tools to the last. As I pondered this the other day, I realized that this man who let nothing distract him from his life's work. To us it may seem foolish that he didn't abandon his study to preserve his life, but when you look at this incident closely, you see that mathematics was Archimedes' life. It eclipsed everything else therein, even his personal safety in the end.
What a great example for Christians! Archimedes let nothing distract him from his mission, just as Paul exhorts us in 2 Tim. 2:4, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." Furthermore, something was more important to him than life itself...another great example for us. Paul said in Acts 20:24, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." To Paul, the word of God was more important than life, just as mathematics was for Archimedes. If a Greek scholar will put his thirst for mathematical truth before his life, shouldn't we also put the word of God, the absolute truth (John 17:17), before ours?
Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was "an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer." He is "[g]enerally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time." Archimedes "died c. 212 BC during the Second Punic War [Rome vs. Carthage], when Roman forces under General Marcus Claudius Marcellus captured the city of Syracuse [under Carthaginian rule] after a two-year-long siege. According to the popular account given by Plutarch, Archimedes was contemplating a mathematical diagram when the city was captured. A Roman soldier commanded him to come and meet General Marcellus but he declined, saying that he had to finish working on the problem. The soldier was enraged by this, and killed Archimedes with his sword. Plutarch also gives a lesser-known account of the death of Archimedes which suggests that he may have been killed while attempting to surrender to a Roman soldier. According to this story, Archimedes was carrying mathematical instruments, and was killed because the soldier thought that they were valuable items."
In both of these accounts, we see that Archimedes' work was more important to him than anything, even his personal safety. In one account, he was so engrossed in his work that he was oblivious to everything going on around him; in the other, he tried to salvage his tools to the last. As I pondered this the other day, I realized that this man who let nothing distract him from his life's work. To us it may seem foolish that he didn't abandon his study to preserve his life, but when you look at this incident closely, you see that mathematics was Archimedes' life. It eclipsed everything else therein, even his personal safety in the end.
What a great example for Christians! Archimedes let nothing distract him from his mission, just as Paul exhorts us in 2 Tim. 2:4, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." Furthermore, something was more important to him than life itself...another great example for us. Paul said in Acts 20:24, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." To Paul, the word of God was more important than life, just as mathematics was for Archimedes. If a Greek scholar will put his thirst for mathematical truth before his life, shouldn't we also put the word of God, the absolute truth (John 17:17), before ours?
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Dealing with Your Parents, or A Story of Three Kings
(Transcription of a message preached at Faith-Grace Vietnamese Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, GA; 13 July 2014)
Text: 2 Chronicles 29:1-11
In preparing this message, I was amazed yet again about how much the Bible has to help young people. Did you know that an entire book of the Bible is aimed at a young person? Look at Proverbs 1:1, 4: “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel…To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.” Many young people have the mistaken idea that the Bible is a book for grown ups. That’s a big mistake. Paul told his dear friend Timothy, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).
One of the biggest issues in any young person’s life is how to deal with two sets of people: (1) his peers, or friends; and (2) even more importantly, his parents. The Bible is where you need to turn first to learn what God expects of you as a young person still at home and under your parents’ authority. The Bible, especially the old testament, has plenty to say about this, if we will take the time to study through it.
The portion of scripture I’d like us to consider is from one of the historical books of the old testament (Joshua-Esther): 2 Chronicles. This book is a record of kings’ reigns, mainly the kings of Judah after Israel splits in two after Solomon’s death, which we talked about in one of my previous visits, if you remember. Three kings show up in the last chapters of this book that, in my opinion, teach us some great lessons about how to deal with our parents.
Let’s begin with the passage we read earlier. Here we meet a man named Hezekiah, who, for the record, is one of the greatest kings of Israel; the greatest, according to scripture as to his faith in God. Look at 2 Kings 18:5, “He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.”
To me, that’s an amazing statement. The kings of Judah after him would include the devout king Josiah, and the kings of Judah before him would include David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14--sought; Acts 13:22--found). But according to God, neither of these men trusted God like Hezekiah did. One of the major events in Hezekiah’s reign was when the greatest army in the world at the time, the army of the Assyrians, invaded Israel and surrounded the capital city, Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s army was very weak compared to the invaders, yet he trusted God for deliverance, and do you remember what happened? One angel went out at night and killed 185,000 of the invaders’ leaders and best soldiers (2 Chron. 32:21). David and Josiah never faced such overwhelming odds: David had a great army once he became king, and Josiah was never invaded in 31 years. So Hezekiah stands out among all the kings of Israel for his faith…
But did you know that he had a wicked father? His father’s name was Ahaz, and you can read about his rule in 2 Chron. 28. It’s an awful story. Ahaz turned away from the God of his father, Jotham, and grandfather, Uzziah, both good kings overall. He desecrates God’s temple with a pagan altar and by marring some of the temple furniture used to worship God. In the end, he even shuts the temple down altogether. A very bad man! Destined to have a bad son, right? Highly likely, it would seem.
But not the case, praise the Lord. No sooner is the man dead and his son, Hezekiah, steps forward as the new king, and in the first month that he’s king, he opens the doors of the temple! What a shock that must have been to everyone. They probably thought that Ahaz’s son would have been even worse than Ahaz, growing up like he did. But just the opposite happens. Why do you think that is? I’d like to give you my thoughts on it, and use this relationship (Ahaz-Hezekiah) and Hezekiah’s relationship with his son, Manasseh, to show you three things God expects of young people regarding their parents.
1. The first thing I see about Hezekiah is his submission to his father. His father was a very bad man, perhaps one of the worst men the southern kingdom ever produced, because he led the entire nation into worshipping false gods, even in the temple of God itself. At some point, Hezekiah comes to believe in the true God of Israel. He was nine years old when his father took the throne from his good father, Jotham, so maybe Jotham’s example inspired the young boy. We don’t know. But in the sixteen years that followed, Hezekiah chose, at some point, not to go after false gods, but cleave to the LORD, despite what his father was doing. Nevertheless, he didn’t rebel against his father, but continued to do what his father told him to do. But when his father was gone, and he was in charge, he bravely stepped forward and set the nation on an entirely different course than the one his father had them on.
In every age, including this one, God expects children to submit to their parents. Let’s look at a few verses aimed at the children of Christian parents. First, Ephesians 6:1-3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” Next, Colossians 3:20, “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is wellpleasing unto the Lord.” Now, even though these verses are aimed at the children of Christian parents, they really apply to all children. Did you notice that the passage from Ephesians quotes the ten commandments? That is God’s holy law, and Paul tells us in Romans 2 that even if a person or a people don’t have God’s written word, it’s written on their hearts (Rom. 2:14-15). One of those laws is that children should honour their parents (Ex. 20:12)—the fifth commandment, as a matter of fact. If you’ve read the letters of the apostle Paul, you notice that in several passages he lists sins, and at least three of those, he mentions “disobedience to parents” as being very displeasing to God, for all families, not just Christian ones.
So Hezekiah had to submit to his wicked father for a time, but God took care of him, just like he’ll take care of you, if you trust him like Hezekiah did. I was not raised by Christian parents. They were churchgoers but they taught me very little about God and set a bad example for me in many ways. But when I came of age, I decided that I really wanted to know God and do whatever he wanted me to do, and it’s the best decision I ever made.
2. That brings me to the second thing that God expects of children. He expects you to learn from your parents lives: both the things they do right, and the things they do wrong. Hezekiah seems to be great example of a young person who learned from the bad things his father did and decided to go the opposite direction. A very wise child! He saw, I believe, that the way his father was living was not working. Something was deeply wrong, he thought, and he wanted to know why. I believe that led him into the arms of God, through his grandfather’s example or his own search, or both.
Now, God also expects young people to learn from the good example of their parents. This brings another character into this drama: Hezekiah’s oldest son, Manasseh. Manasseh was a miracle baby, in a way, since he was born after God miraculously healed Hezekiah from a deadly illness. But sadly, he turns out to the worst king of Judah, even worse than his grandfather Ahaz. But why, you may ask? He had such a good father. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Here’s a boy, Hezekiah, with a wicked daddy, who turns out great, and here’s a boy, Manasseh, with a righteous father, Hezekiah, who turns out awful. What is going on?! Well, the answer is simpler than you might think. Every child, no matter who his parents are, decides his own course in life. He decides whether he will learn from his parents’ successes and mistakes, like Hezekiah did, and benefit from that, or whether he’ll ignore them like Manasseh and suffer. Manasseh ends up losing his power and carried away in chains to imprisonment in a foreign country (Babylon). And there’s been many a man like him that ignored the good example of his parents, even Christian parents, and ends up in jail, maybe even overseas.
Do you see how important this time in your life is, and why it’s so important for you to know what the Bible says about this stuff? Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” It’s almost impossible not to stumble in the dark without a light, and that’s what this precious Book is. I didn’t start reading it until I was 18, and I wish I had started far earlier than that. My two oldest children started reading the Bible when they were 4 or 5, and God’s truth is already being laid up in their hearts, 13 years before it was in mine. One of the first things God taught me after my salvation was, not surprisingly, to obey and respect my parents. It’s wonderful how that desire, which was not very strong at all before, sprung up in my heart, and it was something I wanted to do rather than had to do. If you truly come to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, he can and will produce the same desires in you, if you allow him to, and the results are wonderful. I know that my parents saw the change in my attitude toward them, and I believe that God worked on their hearts through it.
3. The last thing I’d like to mention, in closing, that God expects of young people, I’ve touched on already, but would like to emphasize: following your parents. It’s natural for you to do so, but you have to first submit to them, learn from their examples, then decide to follow them where they are right. Look at Ephesians 5 this time, verse 1: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.” So it’s natural for children to follow their parents, and the parent-child relationship is so critical because of that. God tells his children, those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, to follow him, because its’ the natural thing to do. But God, unlike our earthly parents, is perfect and sets a perfect example. But since our parents are sinners just like us, we have to study the Bible and compare their lives to it, just like wise King Hezekiah did, and decide what and what not to follow. As a parent, it’s very rewarding to see my children follow the right things I do, but it’s a grief to see them pick up on my faults. My challenge to any parents present is to think about this and be very careful about your walk and example. You cannot set a perfect example for your kids, but you can try, and where you come short, God can use that to show them that you too are a sinner in need of God’s grace, like they are.
So, in closing, I’d like to thank God for the lessons that we can learn from men like Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh on how to deal with our parents. The Bible is the most holy and the most practical book that you will ever read, and I encourage you to get as deeply in it as you can. Your leaders here, if not your parents themselves, can help you with your understanding of it, either to come to know the Lord personally, or having done that, to grow in grace and knowledge and enjoy the happiest of lives, as young person and as an adult. Thank you so much for your attention, and God bless you all.
Text: 2 Chronicles 29:1-11
In preparing this message, I was amazed yet again about how much the Bible has to help young people. Did you know that an entire book of the Bible is aimed at a young person? Look at Proverbs 1:1, 4: “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel…To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.” Many young people have the mistaken idea that the Bible is a book for grown ups. That’s a big mistake. Paul told his dear friend Timothy, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).
One of the biggest issues in any young person’s life is how to deal with two sets of people: (1) his peers, or friends; and (2) even more importantly, his parents. The Bible is where you need to turn first to learn what God expects of you as a young person still at home and under your parents’ authority. The Bible, especially the old testament, has plenty to say about this, if we will take the time to study through it.
The portion of scripture I’d like us to consider is from one of the historical books of the old testament (Joshua-Esther): 2 Chronicles. This book is a record of kings’ reigns, mainly the kings of Judah after Israel splits in two after Solomon’s death, which we talked about in one of my previous visits, if you remember. Three kings show up in the last chapters of this book that, in my opinion, teach us some great lessons about how to deal with our parents.
Let’s begin with the passage we read earlier. Here we meet a man named Hezekiah, who, for the record, is one of the greatest kings of Israel; the greatest, according to scripture as to his faith in God. Look at 2 Kings 18:5, “He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.”
To me, that’s an amazing statement. The kings of Judah after him would include the devout king Josiah, and the kings of Judah before him would include David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14--sought; Acts 13:22--found). But according to God, neither of these men trusted God like Hezekiah did. One of the major events in Hezekiah’s reign was when the greatest army in the world at the time, the army of the Assyrians, invaded Israel and surrounded the capital city, Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s army was very weak compared to the invaders, yet he trusted God for deliverance, and do you remember what happened? One angel went out at night and killed 185,000 of the invaders’ leaders and best soldiers (2 Chron. 32:21). David and Josiah never faced such overwhelming odds: David had a great army once he became king, and Josiah was never invaded in 31 years. So Hezekiah stands out among all the kings of Israel for his faith…
But did you know that he had a wicked father? His father’s name was Ahaz, and you can read about his rule in 2 Chron. 28. It’s an awful story. Ahaz turned away from the God of his father, Jotham, and grandfather, Uzziah, both good kings overall. He desecrates God’s temple with a pagan altar and by marring some of the temple furniture used to worship God. In the end, he even shuts the temple down altogether. A very bad man! Destined to have a bad son, right? Highly likely, it would seem.
But not the case, praise the Lord. No sooner is the man dead and his son, Hezekiah, steps forward as the new king, and in the first month that he’s king, he opens the doors of the temple! What a shock that must have been to everyone. They probably thought that Ahaz’s son would have been even worse than Ahaz, growing up like he did. But just the opposite happens. Why do you think that is? I’d like to give you my thoughts on it, and use this relationship (Ahaz-Hezekiah) and Hezekiah’s relationship with his son, Manasseh, to show you three things God expects of young people regarding their parents.
1. The first thing I see about Hezekiah is his submission to his father. His father was a very bad man, perhaps one of the worst men the southern kingdom ever produced, because he led the entire nation into worshipping false gods, even in the temple of God itself. At some point, Hezekiah comes to believe in the true God of Israel. He was nine years old when his father took the throne from his good father, Jotham, so maybe Jotham’s example inspired the young boy. We don’t know. But in the sixteen years that followed, Hezekiah chose, at some point, not to go after false gods, but cleave to the LORD, despite what his father was doing. Nevertheless, he didn’t rebel against his father, but continued to do what his father told him to do. But when his father was gone, and he was in charge, he bravely stepped forward and set the nation on an entirely different course than the one his father had them on.
In every age, including this one, God expects children to submit to their parents. Let’s look at a few verses aimed at the children of Christian parents. First, Ephesians 6:1-3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” Next, Colossians 3:20, “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is wellpleasing unto the Lord.” Now, even though these verses are aimed at the children of Christian parents, they really apply to all children. Did you notice that the passage from Ephesians quotes the ten commandments? That is God’s holy law, and Paul tells us in Romans 2 that even if a person or a people don’t have God’s written word, it’s written on their hearts (Rom. 2:14-15). One of those laws is that children should honour their parents (Ex. 20:12)—the fifth commandment, as a matter of fact. If you’ve read the letters of the apostle Paul, you notice that in several passages he lists sins, and at least three of those, he mentions “disobedience to parents” as being very displeasing to God, for all families, not just Christian ones.
So Hezekiah had to submit to his wicked father for a time, but God took care of him, just like he’ll take care of you, if you trust him like Hezekiah did. I was not raised by Christian parents. They were churchgoers but they taught me very little about God and set a bad example for me in many ways. But when I came of age, I decided that I really wanted to know God and do whatever he wanted me to do, and it’s the best decision I ever made.
2. That brings me to the second thing that God expects of children. He expects you to learn from your parents lives: both the things they do right, and the things they do wrong. Hezekiah seems to be great example of a young person who learned from the bad things his father did and decided to go the opposite direction. A very wise child! He saw, I believe, that the way his father was living was not working. Something was deeply wrong, he thought, and he wanted to know why. I believe that led him into the arms of God, through his grandfather’s example or his own search, or both.
Now, God also expects young people to learn from the good example of their parents. This brings another character into this drama: Hezekiah’s oldest son, Manasseh. Manasseh was a miracle baby, in a way, since he was born after God miraculously healed Hezekiah from a deadly illness. But sadly, he turns out to the worst king of Judah, even worse than his grandfather Ahaz. But why, you may ask? He had such a good father. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Here’s a boy, Hezekiah, with a wicked daddy, who turns out great, and here’s a boy, Manasseh, with a righteous father, Hezekiah, who turns out awful. What is going on?! Well, the answer is simpler than you might think. Every child, no matter who his parents are, decides his own course in life. He decides whether he will learn from his parents’ successes and mistakes, like Hezekiah did, and benefit from that, or whether he’ll ignore them like Manasseh and suffer. Manasseh ends up losing his power and carried away in chains to imprisonment in a foreign country (Babylon). And there’s been many a man like him that ignored the good example of his parents, even Christian parents, and ends up in jail, maybe even overseas.
Do you see how important this time in your life is, and why it’s so important for you to know what the Bible says about this stuff? Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” It’s almost impossible not to stumble in the dark without a light, and that’s what this precious Book is. I didn’t start reading it until I was 18, and I wish I had started far earlier than that. My two oldest children started reading the Bible when they were 4 or 5, and God’s truth is already being laid up in their hearts, 13 years before it was in mine. One of the first things God taught me after my salvation was, not surprisingly, to obey and respect my parents. It’s wonderful how that desire, which was not very strong at all before, sprung up in my heart, and it was something I wanted to do rather than had to do. If you truly come to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, he can and will produce the same desires in you, if you allow him to, and the results are wonderful. I know that my parents saw the change in my attitude toward them, and I believe that God worked on their hearts through it.
3. The last thing I’d like to mention, in closing, that God expects of young people, I’ve touched on already, but would like to emphasize: following your parents. It’s natural for you to do so, but you have to first submit to them, learn from their examples, then decide to follow them where they are right. Look at Ephesians 5 this time, verse 1: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.” So it’s natural for children to follow their parents, and the parent-child relationship is so critical because of that. God tells his children, those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, to follow him, because its’ the natural thing to do. But God, unlike our earthly parents, is perfect and sets a perfect example. But since our parents are sinners just like us, we have to study the Bible and compare their lives to it, just like wise King Hezekiah did, and decide what and what not to follow. As a parent, it’s very rewarding to see my children follow the right things I do, but it’s a grief to see them pick up on my faults. My challenge to any parents present is to think about this and be very careful about your walk and example. You cannot set a perfect example for your kids, but you can try, and where you come short, God can use that to show them that you too are a sinner in need of God’s grace, like they are.
So, in closing, I’d like to thank God for the lessons that we can learn from men like Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh on how to deal with our parents. The Bible is the most holy and the most practical book that you will ever read, and I encourage you to get as deeply in it as you can. Your leaders here, if not your parents themselves, can help you with your understanding of it, either to come to know the Lord personally, or having done that, to grow in grace and knowledge and enjoy the happiest of lives, as young person and as an adult. Thank you so much for your attention, and God bless you all.
The Other Side of Hell
Like it or not, hell is a revelation of the love, mercy, and grace of God, indeed all of his beneficent attributes. God does not suspend one attribute when exercising another. He always acts in perfect unity (cf. A.W. Tozer’s Knowledge of the Holy for further discussion of this truth). For example, when God saves a sinner, he does not suspend his righteousness to do so. Paul’s epistle to the Romans (3:24-26) reveals that God never forgave or saved anyone, in either testament, without a righteous basis, which we now know to be the cross of Christ. Old testament saints were saved “on credit,” if you will, until Christ came and actually paid for their sins in full (animal blood was only a temporary, typical expedient; cf. Heb. 10:4). So at Calvary, God not only shows love, mercy, and grace, but also righteousness and wrath. Sin angers God (Ps. 7:11) and requires punishment for this wrath to be pacified (cf. Esther 7:10).
As for hell, the element of love, mercy, and grace associated with it may not be obvious, but it’s there nonetheless. It must be, since, as stated above, God always acts in unity; so even where sinners suffer the pangs of hell, there is something of God’s beneficence present. “How?!” you may ask.
Think about this: what is God to do with his creatures who, after repeated attempts at reconciliation, refuse him and insist upon remaining his enemies? Welcome them into heaven? Save them against their will? Then they’d be robots and not men! Similarly, what is he to do with creatures like Satan, devils, and wicked men who go from wickedness to greater wickedness? Didn’t the world rejoice when Hitler died? What if God had let that terrible little man live 969 years, like he did the patriarch Methuselah (yes, 969 literal years of 360 days apiece)? The whole world would’ve been destroyed, most likely. FYI, large reserves of deadly instruments were found after the Third Reich fell, indicating that the 11-12 million killed in Nazi genocides (Russians, Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, sodomites, et al.) was only the beginning.
In his beneficence, God created hell to contain Satan, his spiritual minions (Mt. 25:41), wicked men, and the impenitent (Rom. 2:4-5) from doing further damage to themselves and others. Dear reader, our hearts have the potential for desperate wickedness (Jer. 17:9), and without God’s beneficent restraints, we would all live like Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Amin (never repented), and Genghis Khan (enjoyed hearing his enemies suffer) and self-destruct after killing everyone around us, a la Littleton, Virginia Tech, etc. The tongue is set on fire of hell (James 3:6) because the heart of man is! Only a beneficent God stands in its way of absolute destruction (Rom. 3:15-17).
Thank you, wonderful Lord, for creating hell! You desire all to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), but you’re far too righteous to justify the impenitent and go against their free will to reject you. You’re also kind to those who choose you by containing forever those who will not submit to you and would, if they could, harm you and those who love you forever. Beware the heart of man!
I’d like to close this essay with a poem from C.S. Lewis’ The Pilgrim’s Regress. I think that this poem captures both sides of hell as discussed above and was my partial inspiration for this essay (along Tozer, etc.):
‘God in His mercy made
The fixèd pains of Hell.
That misery might be stayed,
God in His mercy made
Eternal bounds and bade
Its waves no further swell.
God in His mercy made
The fixèd pains of Hell.’
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)