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We're in Second Chronicles 27 tonight. Second Chronicles 27. Pastor Gary is still taking some time off and so we're going to continue through 2nd Chronicles 27. Last week Pastor Brian filled the pulpit. All of us as Hamricks. We are gone on vacation and so we were all together and he filled the pulpit. And now we're going to pick it up again in Second Chronicles where we left off in Chapter 26 with Pastor Austin. And we're going to continue and I'm going to just cover chapters 27 and 28 and we're going to look at two kings, polar opposites. They are father and son. And we are going to see one king was very good, one king was very bad. Probably one of the most wicked kings in the history of Kings for Israel and Judah. And in chapter 27 is where we're going to pick it up. Before we do that, let's just pray. Let's dedicate this time to the Lord. Dedicate VBS Week. And we thank God for everything that he's doing. Father Lord, Father God, we thank you so much for what you are doing this week at vbs, Lord, all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make this happen just so that kids can get to know you in a personal way and for countless number of kids to get saved. God, we thank you so much that we can have this one week with them to take them out of the world and and have them just have just an awesome experience with you. God, I thank you for this time that we can gather now as your people and open your word freely that your Holy Spirit would move in our hearts. This would not be my words, it would be your words, Lord. So we thank you for the Holy Spirit that he is here, that he is working convict hearts Lord encourage challenge us in our faith. I pray Lord that we would never leave here the same. Lord, your word tells us that it. It accomplishes something. It will never return void. And so God, you are. You're going to do a work in each and every one of us. All of us have different stories, different backgrounds, different upbringings. And right now all of us are going through something personally. So I pray Lord you would speak to each and every one of us in such a unique way. Thank you for being present. Thank you for your for the cross. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. 2nd Chronicles 27 this is probably one of the shortest chapters in all of Second Chronicles. It's only nine verses. I wish every chapter was like this. But alas, it's not so chapter 27, nine verses. But what this chapter has, it's, it's. It's impactful. There. There's not a lot to say about this king. But what the Holy Spirit does inspire the writer of Second Chronicles is very impactful. And so we're going to pick it up here in Second Chronicles 27 with the king Jotham, or Jotham. Jotham is the son of Uzziah. Now, if you remember two weeks ago, Uzziah started off well, but he had a pride issue. And then he thought he could play both priest and king, go into the temple and start doing incense. And the priest came in and said, you can't be doing this. And then he lashed out the. At them. God cursed him with leprosy, and he would die a slow death later. And so Uzziah dies. Jotham now takes the reign. And it says here in verse one. Let's pick it up here. Jotham was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. Okay, so remember, this is. This is the southern part of Judah. It says his mother's name was Joshua, the daughter of Zadok. Verse 2. And he did. You should highlight this verse. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. You will always find that verse somewhere. Whether the king did what was right in the sight of the Lord or whether the king did evil in the sight of the Lord, you will always find that for every king, Holy Spirit puts that in there so that, you know, okay, we're going to start to see a really good king here. And we will notice that there's nothing that this king does that's evil and wicked. When you read Second Kings, it is a good contemporary with Second Chronicles. Second Kings does tell us that he didn't do certain things about removing some pagan shrines. But Second Chronicles doesn't even mention that part. It just mentions that he was a good king. In the sight of the Lord, he did what was right according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Look at the parentheses. Although he did not enter the temple of the Lord just to throw that out there. Remember, Uzziah entered the temple of the Lord. Shouldn't have done that. And it says, jotham learned from his father's mistake. And it says, I'm not going to the temple of the Lord. That's not my place. Okay, that's for the priests. And it says here, though. But still the people acted corruptly. Now, after reading this, I just wanted to emphasize, just because Jotham is a good king, and makes good laws and decrees. You still have the problem of the human heart. There will still be people that act wicked. If we've got a good president or leader here in America, we're still going to have wicked hearts. So even though Jotham is a good king, it sadly, it doesn't mean that all of Judah are solid believers in the Lord. They still act corruptly and he's going to do great things. And people need to understand just sometimes those that are in leadership, even though they do the right thing, say the right thing, act the right way, the human heart is still the human heart. It's still wicked. And people want to do what they want to do. And so I don't want that to define Jotham, but the Holy Spirit puts that in there just so that we know, look, the people were still corrupt. They were still acting wicked, even though Jotham was going to do great things. Now, on the slides real quick, just to get our bearings straight where we are. With Israel in the north, Judah in the south, Samaria is the capital of Israel, Jerusalem is the capital of Judah. We've got King Jotham in the south. And as he's reigning, you have another king, Pika, I think his last name was Chu Pica is there serving as king in Samaria. And now you can't unsee it. Sorry. And he's up there. And you can read more about him in 2nd Kings 15:16 and. But we don't really hear about him that much in second Chronicles 27 and 28. But here Jotham is serving as king over Judah. The year. You can write this down. It's not on the screen. The year is roughly 7:50. Roughly 7:50 B.C. he'll reign till about 735. Okay. He reigns about 16 years. The Bible tells us so roughly 735 is when he stops his reign. It doesn't tell us that he dies right away. He'll die eventually. But if he reigns at 25, then he'll reign till about 40 to 41 years of age. And as he's reigning, I actually like this. I love history. I don't consider myself a history buff, but I love history. And just a side note, for bonus points for you world history events, you have to remember when the Bible's happening, there's other things going on in the world. And a good book I would actually recommend is called Bible History. Wait, what's it called? I didn't write it down. It's called I'll send it to you. Somehow. I do know the author I don't know why I remember the author. Oh, I know what it's called. The Bible and World History. There you go. The Bible and World History. And it's a great book that actually tells us whatever's happened in the Bible, what's happening in world events. So just here's some examples. When Jotham is reigning, interesting enough, Rome was founded around 753. Just three years prior, Rome was founded in Italy. Thus it wasn't the Roman Empire yet, but it would begin. And then Homer writes the Iliad in Greece at around 750 BC. So a lot's going on in not just Israel, but across the globe. So that just gives us a perspective of what's going on in world events. He's reigning around 750 B.C. the prophets during Jotham's reign are Isaiah, Hosea and Micah. Isaiah, Hosea and Micah. And we see again, Jotham never wavers. I'm going to continue to read in verse three, never wavers. There's no asterisk next to his name. Like, oh, actually he did this as well. He was a good king. And again, he has the shortest chapter in second Chronicles. But as we continue to read, let's see what else he does. Verse 3. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord. Okay, that's the temple. And he built extensively on the wall of Ophel. Ophel was just south of the Temple Mount. So when we go to Israel today. I wish I had a map on the screen. When we go to Israel today, ancient Ofel, we will still actually walk through. It's in between the City of David and the Temple Mount. The Mount of Olives is right over there, the Kidron Valley. And I'm actually going to talk about another valley in chapter 28. But Ophel was just, just south of the Temple Mount. So he extensively built the wall of Ofel, verse 4. Moreover, he built cities in the mountains of Judah and in the forests. He built fortresses and towers. He also fought with the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. And the people of Ammon gave him, in that year, 100 talents of silver, 10,000 cores of wheat and 10,000 of barley. The people of Ammon paid this to him in the second and third years. Also, just a side note real quick, if you're taking notes, the Ammonites were the people on the screen east of the Jordan River. I'm sorry, and the Dead Sea, which is technically modern Jordan, today the country of Jordan. And it says that he goes to war against them and they're Conquered. The Ammonites hated Israel. They were. We continually attack Israel. And so Jotham goes to war. We don't have much details about it, but it just says he conquers them. And because of that, over the next three years, the Ammonites pay tribute. Now, I did the math, and when you read other translations, it actually helps to understand, like, well, what is. You know, what's. How much is a talent, what's a core? All right, in modern terms, right now, it says here about the silver in that year. 100 talents of silver. 100 talents of silver is equivalent to £7,500. £7,500. I did the math. I think I did it right. It is equivalent to today in silver. $6.3 million. That's how much the ammonites paid over those three years. Then you've got the. The wheat and the barley. It tells us 10,000 cores of wheat. Well, what's a core? All right, and then 10,000 cores of barley. A core, if you want to equate it to a bushel. And then you're like, well, what's a bushel? I don't know. Just. Just follow along. 50,000 bushels of wheat is equivalent to 3 million pounds. So 3 million pounds of wheat and barley each over this next three years. The wheat and the barley, I guess, you know, baking bread and all that. And then you've got silver, so things are looking good. Verse 6, though. This is what I want you to highlight in your Bibles, and I'm going to talk about this verse on the screen. Verse 6. So Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God. Now again, verse two tells us he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. Now verse six tells us something more. So Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God. I love what the NLT tells us. King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to live in obedience to the Lord his God. That's a great verse. That's a good verse to highlight and a good verse to memorize and a good verse to live by. No one really talks about this king. You know, we get. We get a lot of credit. You know, a lot of credit goes to King David. David did a lot. And we get a lot of chapters in the Bible to him. We only get this one chapter to Jotham. But I love that one verse. It says he became mighty because he prepared his ways, or he was careful to live in obedience to the Lord his God. He made it personal. He had a Personal relationship with the God of the universe. And that's the first note I want to take. We do as we walk through Second Chronicles and through Wednesday nights. Principles to live by. So principles only have one from chapter 27. I want you to write this down. God wants a lifestyle of obedience, not just lip service. Now, that might just sound so, you know, cliche and Christianese, but honestly, a lot of Christians struggle with this, myself included. We can talk the talk so much about the Bible and how much we know the Bible and how much we go to church. But do we actually walk the walk? That is what matters to the Lord. Lip service is great. That's not really what matters to the Lord. Because the Lord, you know, he's concerned about the heart. And I always think about that verse in 1st Samuel 16 where it talks about, you know, God looks at the out. Sorry, man looks at the outward appearance. The Lord always looking at the heart. That's why David was unique from his brothers. The brothers had an outward appearance that was strong and mighty, that could be kings. David didn't really look that part, although he had a heart that was after God. And this just really stood out to me with Jotham. He became mighty not because of what he did, but because he prepared his ways and was careful to live in obedience to his God. This is challenging for me. I think all of us as Christians, if you're a Christian in this room, and I hope all of us are, I'm assuming there's some of us that are not following the Lord. But I'm glad you're here. You need to know the Bible does specifically say, God wants a lifestyle, he wants a relationship. He doesn't want you just to say the right things or even say cool verses from time to time. Honestly, even going to church does not make you a Christian. I mean, we can preach this to kids at vbs, but adults need to hear the same. Just because you go to church does not make you a Christian. Just because you walk through these doors and then go out to the real world doesn't mean anything unless you're walking it. So Titus 1:16, you can write this down. I put that on the screen. Titus 1:16. Paul would write this to Titus, who was a pastor in Crete. And Paul would say this. There's these people, Titus, that you need to be aware of, these false prophets or these people that claim they know the Lord and they'll sneak into your church. And he says some explicit things. He says, such people claim they know God, but they deny him. By the way, they live. So I can claim to know God all I want, but if my lifestyle does not back that up, then I'm denying him. Just by default, I'm denying him. God cares more about the way we live and our hearts than all the good things that we can say about him or the Bible. Lip service is great, but again, that's where we get that phrase, you know, you need to not just talk the talk, you need to walk the walk. All of us have to. That's a daily thing. And again, what Jesus said in John 14:15, that verse is on the screen. Jesus says, if you love me, if you love me, you will obey my commands. That's easier said than done. Honestly, God wants obedience. How do you obey God? You love him and his commands are not burdensome. Jesus says that my commands are not burdensome. So if you love me, you'll obey my commands. And the same is flip, that you obey his commands because you love him. I want to walk with Jesus in an everyday lifestyle. And every day is going to be different, right? Tomorrow is not going to be the same as today and I'm going to have my own trials and tribulations and temptations tomorrow than what I had today. But living in obedience to the Lord, like Jotham did, he was mighty and powerful as a king because he was careful. He was careful. Paul would say that a lot as well. Be careful how you live. Not as fools, but as wise. We need to be careful in how we represent Jesus to people around us. We have got to be careful to the non believer that we don't come across as a hypocrite. And we gotta come, you know, we have to be prepared to live wisely among believers that we don't blow our witness. That's a fine line. That's hard to do as a Christian. That's probably the most. Probably the hardest thing to do is to not blow your witness or be labeled a hypocrite. And that's what the Pharisees were. And that's why Jesus rebuked them all the time. Jesus had, he had it up to here with the Pharisees. He said, you keep telling the people to do this and that and you yourself won't keep it. He challenged them and that's why they crucified him. They didn't want to hear the truth. But he said, look, your hearts are so far from the Lord, you're not children of God, you're children of the devil. Satan's your dad. Sorry to break it to you Pharisees, but Satan's your dad. The only Pharisee that we really know that came to a relationship with the Lord was Nicodemus. He finally got it. But God is more concerned with a lifestyle that is obedient to him. And if I love Jesus, if I claim to love him, then I am going to obey what he says, period. Does that mean it's gonna be easy? No. Whoever said the Christian life was easy? Whoever said that should be thrown in prison? Come on. I'm just kidding. That was too far. Sorry. All right. Whoever says the Christian life is easy is wrong. Christian life is not easy. Living a non Christian life is easy. Living a Christian life is hard. It takes diligence, it takes integrity, it takes character. But if we're obedient to him, he's gonna honor you. He's gonna honor me, and he honors Jotham. Jotham was a great leader. He did a great amount of things. But honestly, God was more concerned with his secret life than the public appearance. And God is more concerned with your secret life than the public appearance that you put on for everybody. I can put on a great show to everybody, but what's really going on in my secret life? What's really going behind my closed doors of my heart? Am I harboring any sin that I have not given it to the Lord yet? Do I put on the mask? That's where actually we get our word. Hypocrite. You wear a mask, you're not really yourself. So this is challenging for all of us. But the Bible makes it clear. God wants a lifestyle, not lip service. He wants relationship. He doesn't want religion. He doesn't want you to go through the motions all the time. Okay? There's going to be times where we just have to surrender it all. Just say, God, I need you right now. I need you. Look at verse seven. Now the rest of the Acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways, indeed, they are written in the books of the kings of Israel and Judah. Again, he was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. Just a side note too, if you are 25 and under, this is good application for you. I don't know who needs to hear this, but again, the Holy Spirit puts things in the Bible for a reason. Nothing in the Bible is random. So when the Holy Spirit puts that in there, he was 25 years old. It's not just for timeline's sake. I think it's good application for anyone that is 25 and under. Take heed to this. You can Be salt and light in a perverse and crooked generation. I'm so excited for this August 5th next gen event that we're having. All right. I have a heart and a passion for the generations after me and for those that are living for the lord. At age 25 and under and you're in a hostile environment, keep pressing in the Lord. Keep doing the good work and fight the good fight of faith. And the Lord sees you. And even if you're alone, keep following him. That famous song, there's no turning back, I'm following Jesus. There's no turning back, though none go with me, I'll keep on going. If no one follows you, you keep going with Jesus. I don't know who needs to hear that, but somebody does. Verse 9. So Jotham rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. Then Ahaz, his son, reigned in his place. We now come to chapter 28. Ahaz gets a lot of verses, okay? He gets roughly 27 verses. And he is not a good guy. So here's another example of. Of someone that trusted the Lord. And you see, it's like a roller coaster with these kings. You had Uzziah that did not finish well. But Jotham said, I'm not going to live like the way my dad lived. I'm going to live for the Lord. And he was a great king, but then his son Ahaz was one of the most wicked kings to ever live. Now, is that a reflection on Jotham? No. Now, we don't know all the details. Was he there for his son? At times? Maybe, maybe not. But that's no reflection on Jotham. Ahaz has a heart that needed to follow the Lord, and he chose not to. So I want everyone to hear this. If you're Christian parents out there and you have prodigal sons or daughters, don't think that that's because you were not a good parent. You probably were the best parent. And then your kids just have a heart that is evil and wicked. We all do. And kids need to learn and understand what it means to follow the Lord themselves. And so we have this example now of Uzziah bad, Jotham good, Ahaz bad. Now there is hope at the end because one of the greatest kings of Judah is Hezekiah, and Hezekiah is the son of Ahaz. So it's back and forth, back and forth. And God has so much patience, so much patience. But we now come to chapter 28, and we're gonna turn, try to breeze through this. But it says here in chapter 28. Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord. Okay, you can highlight that he didn't do what was right. Holy Spirit's telling us right there, this guy did not do what was right as his father David had done. That's King David, for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. Okay, remember, Ahaz is a king of Judah. He's walking in the ways of the king of Israel. Israel was not doing really, really well at all. And it says, for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made molded images of the Baals. So again on the screen, if you're taking note, you still have King Pekah, King Jotham. Jotham is now gone and buried, and now his son Ahaz takes the throne. So you have King Pika. That is still in the north in Israel. And now King Ahaz is going to reign for another 16 years in Judah. And he's not a good guy. Keep reading. It just gets worse. He burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinom. You can highlight that, that word. Remember some of your translations might say ben Hinnom. I'm going to come back to this. And it says, he burned his children in the fire. This is demonic. And I'm going to come back to this as well. According to the abominations of the nations, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree. Now when you read that, you can also read Jeremiah talks about this, other prophets in the Bible. Whenever you read that term, on the hills or under every green tree, this is sexual sin. Okay, so this is. This is bad. Ahaz is wicked. And reading this, it kind of gets depressing. You go from Jotham like this high mountaintop, and you go way low in a valley with Ahaz. And all I can think of is man. God has so much patience. God has so much patience for you and me. Have you ever thought about that? He is so patient with you and me in the good times and our deepest sin, he's very patient. Now God has a limit to his patience. And we're going to see that. God gets angry, but it's a righteous anger. When you mess with killing children, God gets angry. And we see this. Abortion is not a new thing. Abortion has been going on for a long time. It's just a different method. And as we keep Reading. I'm going to pause here, verse five, we're going to pick it up again where it just. He starts to lose his mind, where he's like, I need help. But he never goes to the Lord. Never goes to the Lord. When we read here in verse 2 and it says he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made molded images for the Baals. BAAL and Asherah were always this duo, God and goddess, and they were sexual gods. Okay? And I believe that again, fallen angels, demons, whatever you want to call it, I believe that they were real and that they worshiped these real entities that were wicked. And now they would carve images known as idols that were not real, but that somehow fallen angels or demons can have influence on even the wooden carved images. And it says he made these molded images for the Baals. He's making a graven image that is not real to a real entity known as baal. Okay, and we're going to actually, I'm going to tell you another known fallen angel or demon that it is not said in chapter 28, but it is mentioned in Leviticus and his name is Molech. Molech was the God who off who wanted the children to cross through the fire as a sacrifice to him. Molech is mentioned in the Bible. It's Leviticus, chapter 18, verse 21. And God says, I forbid you to do this because the other nations around you do this and it's wicked. And Molech is a real entity that now has basically taken the position amongst all the other nations around Israel. And Israel was known as Canaan at the time. And basically saying, look, we're gonna do everything that God, we're gonna do everything against what God loves. And so in order to worship Molech, you have to offer your sons and daughters through the fire. And Ahaz takes on what the other nations are doing. He makes molden images for the bales. He burns incense in the valley of the Son of Hinom. And again NLT or other translations will say the valley of the Ben Hinnom. Okay, what the valley of the Son of Hinom is, if you want to write this down in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah 19, is also known as the Valley of Slaughter. Now when we go to Israel, if you've never been on one of our Israel trips, we will be able to, you'll be able to see, you know, the Mount of Olives, the Kidron Valley, and then we will know and see the valley of Hinnom. The valley of the Son of Hinnom known as the Valley of Slaughter. And we'll have. Honestly, it's. It's depressing, very sad Bible teachings about how they killed their sons and daughters. And it was known as the Valley of Slaughter or the Field of Blood, because so many babies and children were murdered in the Valley of Hinom. In the New Testament, it is not known as the Valley of Slaughter. But you can write this down. The Greek word we get is Gehenna. Jesus mentions Gehenna, but it's in our English terms, it'll appear as hell. Now, hell, when you dig into the deep in. In Greek, hell can appear as Hades, but Jesus will quote hell using the Greek word Gehenna more times. Gehenna is the Valley of Slaughter or the Valley of Hinnom. Now, Jesus in his day used the Valley of Hinnom as Gehenna. He would. He would call it hell because he was using it as an illustration of what hell is really like. After the exiles came back from Babylon, they stopped all of that Valley of Hinom stuff by offering up their kids in the valley. And it was now basically where you would take the trash and burn it. It was constantly burning. You would take trash there, you would maybe put dead corpses there. This was a sickening and grotesque and very smelly place in Israel, the Valley of Hom. And it was known as Gehenna. Jesus would use that illustration, saying that is what hell is like. Gehenna. It is constantly burning. Mark also tells us in, I believe it's Mark chapter nine, where it says the maggots and the worm never die. And again, that's why, because he says those terms and those terms in 1st century Israel, they would have understood the maggots and worms that are there in the trash dump of Gehenna because it was constantly burning. It was just trash and corpses. It was very disgusting. All right, if you're having dinner after this, you're welcome. But this was. This was wicked stuff. This was wicked stuff. And when we see here in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that's where they burned their children in the fire. That's why Jesus says this is hell. This is terrible. This is wicked. And this is who Ahaz is. And it says here in verse five, therefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the King of Syria. You can circle the word Syria. Syria is going to attack them. I'm just going to kind of jump through some verses. Go to verse 9. Israel and Syria kind of link arms and they defeat Judah. And Ahaz gets all bent out of shape, and he needs help. And actually it tells us in verse nine, but a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded. Oded was a prophet. There's no book by his name, but he was a prophet there in Israel. And it says he went out before the army that came to Samaria and said to them, look, because the Lord of your God, of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he's delivered them into your hand, but you've killed them in rage that reaches up to heaven. And now you propose to force the children of Judah and Jerusalem to be your male and female slaves. But are you not also guilty before the Lord your God? Now hear me, therefore, and return the captives whom you have taken captive from your brethren, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you. What Israel and Syria were doing is they would attack Judah. God was not on Judah's side because Ahaz was not following the Lord. And so basically, Israel took advantage, killed many people, and then took captives, about 200,000 women and children, back to Israel, their own flesh and blood. This prophet Oded just comes on the scene and says, what are you doing? You can't be doing this. You need to return them. So he speaks out to Israel, who's in the north, and says, you can't be doing this, taking captives. And it says that they actually oblige. They listen. It says here in verse 12, some of the heads of the children of Ephraim. These are the names of these men. Azariah. And then it tells us, Barakiah, Jessica, and Amasa stood up against those who came from the war. And they basically tell the army, verse 13, you shall not bring the captives here. We're already offending the Lord. You intend to add to our sins and to our guilt, for our guilt is great and there's fierce wrath against Israel. They understood. They're like, we're going to listen to this prophet, and we don't want to keep adding offenses to the Lord, and our sin is already great. So let's do the Lord a favor and let's just take these captives back. And it says verse 14. So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the leaders and all the assembly. And then the men who were designated by name, those four men that I just mentioned, rose up and took the captives. And from the spoil, they clothed all who were naked among them, dressed and gave them sandals, gave them food and drink, anointed them, and then they let all the feeble ones ride on donkeys. So they brought them to their brethren At Jericho, that city of palm trees. And then they return to Samaria. They have a change of heart. The. The people of Israel, change of heart after listening to the prophet Oded. And he's like, you can't be doing this. They listen. These four guys stand up, courageous and saying, hey, you know what? We have been offending the Lord. We can't keep doing this. The army listens and they actually not only send them back, but they take care of them. They tend to their needs. It's a. It's a very precious, interesting moment here. But then we get to verse 16, and Ahaz is back at it again. And he's. He's just. He's not only wicked, he's insecure. He's an insecure king, and he doesn't know what to do. He never, ever goes to the Lord for help. He will only turn to other nations around him. He refuses. He's got pride. And it tells us, here, we're going to finish this chapter, verse 16. At the same time, King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him. Assyria, they're not good people. And he says, I need you to help me because I'm being attacked and I want to Syria to help. He never goes to the Lord. And look, it says, for again, the Edomites had come. The Edomites are fighting Judah, okay? Ahaz is getting attacked. He's not following the Lord. The Lord's like, I'm allowing all this to happen when you want to just do your own thing. You want to sin against me, and you know what you're doing is wrong. I'll just allow things to happen until you repent and bow the knee. And he said. He says, the Edomites have come, verse 18. The Philistines had also invaded the cities. Look at verse 19. For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz, king of Israel. It should also. Some translations have Israel, but it should be really Judah. King Ahaz of Judah, for he had encouraged. Look at this. This guy is just sick, twisted, and just hit rock bottom. He encouraged moral decline in Judah. He encouraged it. He encouraged moral decline in Judah and had been continually unfaithful to the Lord. Polar opposite of Jotham. Says Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord. It says here about Ahaz. God brought him low because he encouraged moral decline amongst the people. And it says he was continually unfaithful to the Lord. Look at verse 20. Also, Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, came to him. And he doesn't help him. Look what it says. And distressed him and did not assist him. So Ahaz is like, I'm thinking that king of Assyria is going to help me. King Assyria is like, no, I'm just going to put more pain and affliction in your life. And he doesn't help them. And it says here verse 21. For Ahaz took part of the treasuries from the house of the Lord, from the house of the king, and from the leaders, and he gave it to the king of Assyria. It says, but he did not help him. Translation, it just means this did not help Ahaz in the long run. He went to the treasuries of the temple and himself and said, I will bribe you. I'll give you all this money if you help me. Came back to bite him. They take the money, thanks, but we're still going to attack you. They don't help him. And he's stuck here in this decline. Go to verse 22. It just gets worse. Now, in the time of his distress, of course he. Of course he's distressed. The time of his distress, King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful. He just continues, I don't know how low rock bottom is, but it's low and he's going lower. He continues to be unfaithful to the Lord. And it says he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him. And this is what he says. This is verse 23. Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them. I'll sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and all of Israel. And when's this guy going to get it? He never does. I think we can say with confidence that we're not going to see this guy in heaven. There's no sign of repentance. There's no sign of remorse. He continues to go against the Lord. Now again, it says here verse 24. And then I'm going to conclude all this with some application. Ahaz gathered the articles of the house of God. Cut in the pieces the articles of the house of the God. Shut up. The doors of the house of the Lord made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. This is just. This guy gets full of himself and. And in every single city of Judah, he made high places. Okay, whenever you read high places, that's always a connotation of sexual sin. High places to burn incense to other gods and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers. Of course God gets angry. God has righteous anger and he is not happy with what Ahaz is doing. Let's close this chapter, verse 26. Now the rest of his Acts and all his ways from first to last. Indeed, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. So Ahaz rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel because he was that wicked. But look what it says here. You can highlight this guy's name. Then Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his place. Now Pastor Gary will pick up King Hezekiah, because King Hezekiah gets a lot of attention in these last chapters. Second Chronicles, he's one of the best kings that we've ever seen, besides David. But when you go to Jerusalem, when you go to Israel, on our trips, we will go to something known as Hezekiah's Tunnel. That's talked about here in Second Chronicles. It's a cool. If you're really claustrophobic, may not want to go, but I've been through it many times, and it's awesome. King Hezekiah and his. His. The. The people of Hezekiah built that. And it's. And he was such. Such a man that was just in love with the Lord. He had flaws, but it's always good to see. All right, God has a remnant. You go from Uzziah, who was bad Jotham, great Ahaz, bad Hezekiah, great again. This is a roller coaster. This would be exhausting. This is like Dr. Phil or Oprah or something. She's like, someone's good, someone's bad. Wouldn't you just get sick and tired of this? But God does not. God does not. He's patient, but he's patient to a limit and his anger is aroused righteously. But two things I want to conclude with this. Two things. If you don't get anything else, I want you to get these two things. Number one, about chapter 28. In times of uncertainty, cling to the Lord and surrender to him. There was uncertain times with King Ahaz, and he did not cling to the Lord, nor did he surrender. And I want us to have that understanding that in times of uncertainty, and we all go through times of uncertainty, do you press in and cling to the Lord, or do you run away from him and become proud in your heart and say, I can do this myself. This is an act of humility right here. And that's what Jesus says in Luke 17:33. I love this verse. If you cling to your life, you'll Lose it. Like, if I'm going to hold on to my life, and that's what Ahaz did, I'm going to hold on to what I know. I'm going to seek other gods. I'm going to do other. All the sacrifices. What he thought he was doing was like, I'm going to prosper. I'm going to do great. He's clinging to his own life. Jesus said, if you cling to your life, you'll lose it. But if you let go of your life, you'll save it. He'll see you saying, God, I'm letting go of my life. I'm done. I need you to take it. So Jesus makes that warning. If you cling to your life, you can do that, but you're gonna lose it. You're gonna lose the whole purpose. But if you let go, say, God, I'm gonna cling to you and I'm giving you my whole life, you'll find it. You'll find it. You'll find it in him. That is fulfillment. That is an act of surrender, and that's an act of clinging to the Lord. And unfortunately, Ahaz didn't do that. Now, what's really interesting, and I'm going to take. I'm just going to take two minutes real quick. As we close in all of this, chapter 28 of Second Chronicles, there's actually a parallel chapter known as Isaiah, chapter seven. Remember what I said? Isaiah was a prophet in the time of Jotham and Ahaz. And Isaiah, chapter seven is probably the one of the most famous messianic chapters in all the Bible. And in chapter seven of Isaiah, it's all right here in chapter 28 of 2 Chronicles, when Ahaz is in distress and doesn't know what to do, God says, ahaz, I'll give you a sign. I'll give you a sign to know what to do with all these people that are going to attack you. And you know what he says? He says, I don't want a sign from the Lord. I'm not going to do that. He's so proud. So then Isaiah says, all right, the Lord will give you a sign. He'll give you a sign himself. And here's the sign. The virgin will be with child and you will call him Emmanuel. Who knew we could do Christmas in July? But that fits right here in second chronicles 28. That prophecy was prophetic. In a near prophetic. About two years later that would come to fulfillment. And it's also a far prophecy. Prophecy usually was always a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment that would be fulfilled in Ahaz's day in the sense that Israel would would survive and not be attacked. But it was also a far fulfillment because Messiah, Jesus Christ is the son of the Virgin Mary, who's known as Emmanuel. And Emmanuel means God with us. So as we close this last section, number two. In times of uncertainty, God is still with me. God is still with me. That's Isaiah, chapter 7, verse 14. Matthew, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit would they said he would then say, Isaiah 7:14 is a messianic prophecy about Jesus Christ. And he writes that in Matthew 1:23. And then Deuteronomy 31:8. Moses would say this all the time. Deuteronomy. Read Deuteronomy again. Deuteronomy had so much to say about how the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. I'm just going to turn there real quick. Deuteronomy 31, verse 8. Moses would say this at the end as he's basically given the reigns to Joshua. It's so good. Deuteronomy 31:8. And the Lord, he is the one who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be dismayed. Amen. This is good lessons that we can take and understand. We can take the example of Jotham and say, I'm gonna live in obedience to the Lord. I'm not gonna just do lip service. I'm gonna live in obedience to him. And then we can take the example that is a bad example of Ahaz and say, I'm not gonna do what he did. When there's times of uncertainty, I'm gonna cling to the Lord and surrender to him. I'm not gonna grow more proud. When there's times of uncertainty, I'm going to always remember that God is with me. God's with you. Someone needs to hear that God is with you. He's near. He's not too far. We sometimes will run and drift away, but he will never leave us nor forsake us. He's always there. As a beach umbrella is posted in the sand, you go out to the ocean, what happens? The beach umbrella does not move. You and I move. We go out to the water. We drift. But we got to look back at the umbrella and say, okay, God never moved. He's always been there. It's me who needs to come back to him. Let's pray. Father God, we come before you now with humble hearts. Help us, Lord, to understand how we can heed the example of a good king and a wicked king. Lord, help us to understand what it means to live in obedience to you. Not just by what we say, but but by what we do. Your Word tells us in James that we are not just to be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. Not just to hear what you have to say, but to actually live it out. Help us, Lord. A lot of us need to work on this. We struggle in this area. We want to live in obedience to you, and your commands are not burdensome. Lord, lift our heads when we need lifting. Encourage us. And God, I pray that we would take the example of Ahaz and not do what he does. Lord, we would surrender in times of uncertainty. We would not grow proud, but we would cling to you. We would not cling to other false gods or false religions or anything else that we think is going to fulfill us. We will cling to you, Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Lord, if we cling to this life, we will lose it. But if we let go, we will find it in you. And God, help us to remember that you are Emmanuel. You are God with us every single day. You go before us, you walk with us. You're behind us. You're all around us. Lord, why are we afraid? We're not to be discouraged or dismayed. So, God, we take, take heart these lessons. We apply them to our lives. Lord, the Christian life is not easy, but it is so worth it in the end. Lord, we thank you for eternity. We thank you for your love. And we thank you once again that we can meet freely to learn more about you and to grow closer to you. We love you, Father. We thank you for your son, Jesus, and in his name we pray. Amen.