I need hardly tell you that it's a
tremendous joy for me and I consider that
the privilege is entirely on my side to
be allowed to come back here to Prairie.
I cherish many, many very delightful memories of
those earlier occasions in which it's been my
joy to share Christ, as together we recognize
that he's the one of whom, through whom,
and to whom are all things.
What a delightful thing it is to enjoy
that peculiar privilege which is the birthright of
all redeemed sinners whose names are written in
the Lamb's Book of Life.
So it's going to be a real joy
for me to meet you in these morning
sessions as also in all the other occasions
throughout the day in which we will be
meeting together in his DNA.
Asa was a good man.
Maybe you'd like to, if you've got your
Bibles, and it's just a chance that you
have here at Prairie, turn to the second
book of Chronicles and the fourteenth chapter.
Second Chronicles, chapter fourteen, and the first verse,
Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried
him in the city of David.
And Asa, his son, reigned in his stead.
And we're told in verse two that Asa
did that which was good and right in
the eyes of the Lord his God.
In other words, in brief, Asa was a
good man.
It tells us a little bit about him
in these early verses of that chapter.
He took away the altars of the strange
gods in the high places, and he break
down the images, and he cut down the
groves.
In other words, he was eagerly involved in
seeking to abolish all forms of idolatry.
He was a good man.
He offered leadership to his people, and commanded
them, we're told in verse four, to seek
the Lord God of their fathers.
Not some newfangled idea, not jumping on every
new bandwagon, but to seek the Lord God
of their fathers.
He knew that God is the same yesterday,
today, and forever.
That he never changes.
His theology never changes.
Man's does about every seven days.
But this is timeless, eternal, and as immutable
as God himself, truth.
A God in whom there's no shadow of
turning, neither any variableness.
So he commanded Judah to seek the Lord
God of their fathers.
And not just to read the law or
hear the law, but he said, do it.
To do the law and the commandment.
In other words, to see, he said he,
to them, let truth behave.
And when truth behaves, God behaves.
And when God behaves, that's righteousness.
There's no other source of righteousness but God
himself.
And it's only when you and I, understanding
from the amazing revelation that he's given to
us in his word of himself, we allow
him to be who he is, in a
creature whom he so engineered that the presence
of the creator within the creature is indispensable
to his humanity.
So what he was saying to them is,
give God time enough to talk to you
long enough and then you'll know enough and
if you're smart enough, you'll do what you've
come to know and believe.
And when you do that, God will behave.
And he'll give you the incredible privilege of
being that humanity in which he displays his
righteousness.
He commanded them to do the law and
to do everything that God told them.
He took away out of the cities of
Judah the high places and the images, and
the kingdom was quiet before him.
Asa was a good man.
Furthermore, he had learned that God is big
enough, no matter what the situation, it may
be that arises.
He had learned from where to draw his
resources in a crisis, in an emergency.
He was a good man.
We're told in verse 8 that Asa had
an army of men that bared targets and
spears out of Judah three hundred thousand.
Out of Benjamin that bared shields and drew
bows, two hundred and four score thousand, a
little over half a million, men under arms.
And all of these were mighty men of
valor.
But then came the crisis, the sudden emergency.
For there came out against them Zerah the
Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand,
and three hundred chariots, and came to Marashah.
In other words, Asa, this good man, suddenly
found him confronted with a mighty enemy who
outnumbered him two to one.
But it didn't faze him.
No panic.
Because you see, Asa was a good man.
Asa went out against him, and they set
the battle in a ray in the valley
of Zephathah at Marashah, because he knew that
that was his obligation.
But what really mattered was not that he
mustered his resources, mobilized his army, marched against
the foe.
What mattered, as of course it matters supremely
today in your life and mine, what mattered
was not the material resources that he could
muster to meet the emergency, but his state
of heart.
The disposition that he was prepared to adopt
towards his maker.
And you see, Asa was a good man.
So he cried unto the Lord his God.
It was not in a sense of bravado
that he marched against the enemy.
He wasn't sort of laughing it off and
congratulating himself, outnumbered two to one, so what?
We've got it made.
That wasn't Asa.
He was a good man.
He said, Lord, and there's a sort of
hilarious piece about this, it is nothing with
thee.
To help whether with many or with them
that have no power.
Help us, O Lord our God.
And of course, here's his disposition.
It isn't that he's not facing a very
serious situation.
He was.
But he said, we rest.
We rest on thee.
So how did you meet the last emergency
that arose in your life personally or maybe
in your family or your business or maybe
in your ministry or your field where God
has been pleased to put you?
Panic?
Sleepless nights?
Bottles of Alka-Seltzer?
And loads of tongues?
How did you meet the crisis?
Did it send you spinning?
Or not minimizing the emergency, not minimizing the
seriousness of the situation, you simply pause long
enough to know who was big enough.
On the lips of his servant, the psalmist,
God says, be still, stop the panic, just
pause, just a moment, just a moment, I
want you to know something.
What does he want you to know?
Be still, said he, I want you to
know something, I am God.
Now so long as you're prepared to pause
long enough to know that he's God, to
recognize that as God he's big enough for
the job, and that by virtue of your
disposition toward him you're prepared to let him
be God in action, behaving.
What else do you need to know?
Well, nothing.
There's the whole of man's relationship wrapped up
in a nutshell.
Just pause long enough in each situation in
which every new step takes you to recognize
who he is, that he's big enough for
the job, that you're prepared to let him
demonstrate the fact, and then you can do
exactly what Asa then did.
With your eyes on him, you rest.
You rest.
The psalmist puts it another way in the
37th Psalm that'll be very familiar to you.
He says this, commit your way unto the
Lord, trust also in him.
Then in the King James it says, he
will bring it to pass.
He will bring it to pass.
It there in his italic, and of course
it shouldn't be there, somebody popped it in
because they thought it would help.
Doesn't help a bit, because the moment you
put the it in, you begin to have
a preconceived notion as to what it is.
And you see when God's going to take
over, you mustn't have any preconceived notions as
to how he's going to do it, or
not.
Remember when the children of Israel finally came
into the land, amongst those whom they had
to drive out were the Itites.
So make quite sure that you don't put
an it into your theology which is simply
what you think God ought to do, because
the chances are you won't.
And you see, prayer, intercession, isn't a gun
at God's head.
It's your need at his feet.
Then you can rest.
Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also
in him.
In the King James he'll bring it to
pass, forget the it, but also better translated,
he is in action.
I use a German Bible, a whole bunch
in Germany and Switzerland, Austria, as I know
many of you do in this particular area.
And I like the way it's put there
in the Luther Bible.
It says, er handelt.
He's handling it.
Isn't that great?
He's handling it.
Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also
in him, he's handling it.
Anything else you need to know so long
as you're convinced that he's got what it
takes to handle it?
It might be a situation that would, you
know, panic somebody else or blow their top.
And they see you in a deep seated
calm resting, they say, aren't you frightened?
Well you say, no.
Why not?
And you say, well he is handling it.
He's handling it.
That's why two verses later in that 37th
Psalm it says, rest in the Lord.
And do the thing that is hardest of
all to do, wait patiently for him.
Give him time and give him space.
Well, you know, Asa was a good man.
He had learned some of these principles.
And so, not minimizing the threat, he said,
Lord, it's nothing with you.
It's a piece of cake, so far as
you're concerned.
Because you're the God who created the universes
and threw them into space.
You're the God who put the stars into
the far corners of the night.
You're the one who at this very moment
upholds all things by the word of your
power.
Nothing to you.
To help, whether with many or with few.
We rest on thee.
And it is in thy name, invoking all
that you are, in thy name we go
against this multitude.
Oh Lord, thou art our God.
We are humbly prepared to identify ourselves as
your people with who you are.
Let not man prevail against thee.
In other words, said Asa, we're not in
business to fight your battles.
We're here to be those who involved in
the fight will be spectators in your victory.
Let not man prevail against thee.
How did God react?
As he always does in his utter faithfulness
to those who've learned the simple childlike secret
of faith that invokes all that he is.
That's what it means when you speak in
his name.
Expose any situation to his name.
You're invoking all that he is, releasing all
the divine energy, allowing God to get going.
And he's on tiptoe, of course, to step
into every situation if only we'll bow ourselves
out and bow him in and let him
be God.
Well, the Lord immediately responded in his faithfulness,
verse 12, so the Lord smote the Ethiopians
before Asa.
It wasn't his army that defeated them, they
had to march.
But God took care of the consequences and
before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.
And Asa and the people that were with
him pursued them unto Geron.
The Ethiopians were overthrown that they could not
recover themselves, for they were destroyed before the
Lord and before his host.
And they carried away very much spoil.
Now, Asa was a good man.
He had learned to look to God in
the moment of crisis.
In other words, he had learned a principle
to which he could return again and again
and again and again and always find it
true.
Now, where did he learn the principle?
From his dad.
It's a lovely thing when a boy grows
up having learned the truth about man's relationship
to God and God's relationship to man and
he learned it from his dad.
How is it you mums and dads with
your kids?
Have they learned from you the principle to
which they can return again and again and
always timelessly find it true?
Are they going to live in profound gratitude
for the truth that they saw incarnate in
terms of your obedience to a risen living
and indwelling Christ?
Have they learned the source from which all
their resources may be drawn?
Let's just glance at that 13th chapter.
In the 18th year of King Jeroboam began
Abijah to reign over Judah.
And it was then that Jeroboam, king of
Israel, marched against Abijah.
So Abijah, verse 3, set the battle in
array with an army of valiant men of
war.
He just had 400,000 chosen men.
But Jeroboam also set the battle in array
against Abijah with 800,000 chosen men, being
mighty men of valor.
In other words, here Abijah, Asa's dad, found
himself outnumbered 2 to 1.
But Abijah, very wisely, before he went to
battle, tried diplomacy.
Sounds familiar.
So he stood up upon Mount Zimraim and
he addressed himself to Jeroboam and all Israel.
And he said, Ought you not to know
that the Lord God of Israel gave the
kingdom of Israel to David forever?
Forever.
That this is part of the timeless purpose
of a living God who made his covenant
with Abraham, that in his seed should all
the families of the earth be blessed.
The seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, of the
tribe of Judah, and of the house of
David.
So that in David's greater son, a greater
prophet than Moses, a greater priest than Aaron,
and a greater king than David, all the
families of the earth might be blessed.
Reminds Abijah, Jeroboam, you know this.
That God gave the kingdom of Israel to
David forever.
Even to him and to his sons by
what's here beautifully described and elsewhere in the
Bible, a covenant of salt.
And you'll discover in the Bible that a
covenant of salt is a covenant forever.
Because salt in the Bible always speaks of
God the Holy Spirit.
The one by whom, no matter who it
may be out of any nation, kindred, tribe,
or tongue, or race, or creed, or class,
or color, self, confessed as a guilty sinner
in true repentance toward God, the moment you
put your trust in David's greater son, the
Lord Jesus, and claim cleansing through the precious
blood he shed, and that transaction redemptively is
sealed by the gift you of God the
Holy Spirit regeneratively, immediately by the presence of
the Holy Spirit who bears witness with your
spirit, you're God's child, you're sealed forever with
a covenant of salt.
Sealed by the presence of God the Holy
Spirit through whom you share the life of
your risen Lord, and by which you are
thereby added as an individual member in particular
to the new body corporate the Father gave
the Son on the day of Pentecost when
the church was born.
But Jeroboam, verse 6, the son of Nebat,
the servant of Solomon, the son of David,
is risen up, said Abijah, and hath rebelled
against his Lord.
Said he to him, kindly, now you think
to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in
the hand of the sons of David.
Have you not cast out the priests of
the Lord, verse 9?
The sons of Aaron and the Levites, and
so you and your people remain abysmally ignorant
now of what God had to say.
You've made you priests after the manner of
the nations of other lands, you've allowed liberalism
to invade the truth and negate it.
As for us, verse 10, the Lord is
our God, and we haven't forsaken him.
End of verse 11, we keep the charge
of the Lord our God, but you forsaken
him, and so verse 12, behold God himself
is with us for our captain.
Oh, children of Israel.
And there's almost sorrow in his heart, isn't
there?
Oh, children of Israel, he says, fight ye
not against the Lord God of your fathers.
You cannot, you will not prosper.
But Jeroboam took no heed to that solemn
and kindly warning.
He caused an ambushment to come about behind
him.
So they were before Judah and the ambushment
was behind them, and when Judah looked back,
behold the battle was before and the battle
was behind, not only outnumbered two to one,
surrounded by the enemy.
But then they cried unto the Lord.
The priests sounded with the trumpets, and the
men of Judah gave a shout, and as
the men of Judah shouted, it came to
pass that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel
before Abijah and Judah.
The children of Israel fled before Judah, and
God delivered them into their hand.
And you see, there was somebody watching all
this, hearing what was going on.
His name was Asa.
And he learned the principle from his dad.
He said, Dad didn't panic.
He simply looked to God.
And they shouted in celebration of a victory
already won, instead of trying to fight a
battle already lost.
And so you see, when he was faced
with a similar crisis, outnumbered two to one,
he remembered the principle he had learned from
his dad.
All I've got to do is look in
the same direction, and know that God is
big enough for this, as he was big
enough for that.
Now turn to chapter 15.
For it says in verse 1, the Spirit
of God came upon Azariah, the son of
Oded.
Of course, as God, by his gracious Holy
Spirit, speaks to you and to me now
from within and through his words, so then
outwardly God spoke in particular upon the lips
of his servants, the prophets.
And God had something to say to Asa.
And again, it was a kindly word of
warning, that we need as much now and
as urgently as he did then.
He went out to meet Asa and said,
Hear ye me, Asa and all Judah and
Benjamin, the Lord is with you.
But he said, I want you to remember
that your relationship to God isn't just some
climactic emotional experience in the past.
It isn't just a crisis.
It isn't a theological school to which you
have yielded your allegiance.
It isn't a format.
It isn't a procedure.
It isn't a formula.
It's a relationship.
One moment at a time, one day at
a time, one breath at a time, one
situation at a time.
You must be aware, Asa, of looking back
to some past experience and imagining that that
will be adequate for the present or the
future.
The Lord is with you.
While one step at a time, ye be
with him.
If you seek him, he'll be found of
you.
He's always there.
But if you forsake him, you're on your
own.
Because you see, man's relationship to God, Asa,
and God's relationship to man is dependent upon
the moral option that he built into man,
which alone lifts man out of the animal
kingdom and makes man, man.
Because God gave to man the most incredible
liberty, a privilege that wasn't given to any
other creature on this planet.
The right to exercise the disposition of his
choice towards his maker.
He can say yes or no.
And you see, on the lips of his
servant Azariah, God is telling Asa that's a
moment-by-moment option.
In the New Testament, we put it this
way.
You walk by faith.
You walk in the Spirit and not after
the flesh.
For a long season, he reminded Asa, Israel
hath been without the true God and without
a teaching priest and without law.
In other words, they've developed a pagan-like
form of religion that is destitute of spiritual
and scriptural content.
And we are plagued with that today in
our evangelical constituencies.
And that's why there's so little true consistency
and stability on the part of countless who
would call themselves evangelical believers.
There are very few teaching priests.
Even then, said Azariah to Asa, when they
in their trouble did turn to the Lord
God of Israel, when they re-found the
principle and sought him, he was found of
them.
Be strong therefore, verse 7, and let not
your hands be weak, for your work shall
be rewarded.
Maintain your relationship above everything else.
Allow nothing to disturb it.
Allow there to be no possible substitute.
For a walk with God, one step at
a time.
When Asa heard these words, verse 8, the
prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage,
put away the abominable idols out of all
the land of Judah, Benjamin, out of the
cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim.
He renewed the altar of the Lord that
was before the porch of the Lord, and
it tells us of his people, under his
leadership, verse 12, they entered into a covenant
to seek the Lord God of their fathers
with all their heart, and with all their
soul.
And verse 5, all Judah rejoiced at the
oath, for they had sworn with all their
heart.
And they sought him with their whole desire,
and he was found of them.
And the Lord gave them rest round about.
We're told in verse 18 that Asa brought
into the house of God the things that
his father had dedicated, and that he himself
had dedicated of silver and gold and vessels,
and there was no more war under the
five and thirtieth year of the reign of
Asa.
Asa was a good man, but
Asa was a fool.
Chapter 16.
In the sixth and thirtieth year of the
reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came
up against Judah, built Ramah to the intent
that he might let none go out or
come into Asa king of Judah.
In other words, Baasha king of Israel also
waged war now again with Asa, and he
built a seed city that he might prevent
any departing or entering the city.
And you'll hardly believe this.
Knowing as he did the principle that he
had learned from his dad, that he himself
had practiced and seen God vindicate the truth,
Asa brought out silver and gold out of
the treasures of the house of the Lord.
He robbed God's house and the king's house,
and he sent to Ben-Hadad king of
Syria, a man whom God had sentenced to
death, who always in the word of God
is a picture of the flesh, that carnal
mind that is hostile to God, not subject
to his law, isn't going to be bossed
around by a God in heaven.
He makes an unholy pact with that man
under sentence of death, who dwelt at Damascus,
saying, said he to him, Asa to Ben
-Hadad, there's a league between me and thee
as there was between my father and thy
father, behold I've sent thee silver gold, go
break thy league with the Asha king of
Israel that he may depart from me.
Enter into an alliance, let's deal with this
situation, give me a help, I need you.
Ben-Hadad, as the flesh always will if
you seek its help, hearkened unto King Asa.
He sent the captains in his armies against
the city of Israel, the strategy was outstandingly
successful.
Basha king of Israel panicked, left behind all
the materials that he'd accumulated to build the
siege city, and out of that Asa was
able, we're told at the end of verse
6, to build therewith Geba and Mizpah.
He was two cities in hand.
As a result of this masterstroke of human
genius, that he should enter into this unholy
alliance with Ben-Hadad, God's enemy, sentenced to
death.
And everybody immediately swarmed around Asa, thumped him
on the back and said, man, if ever
there was anybody who's got what it takes,
you're that man.
Congratulations, out of this world.
He enjoyed the praise of men, that he
earned the judgment of God.
There's nothing more dangerous than success in the
energy of the flesh.
When you enter into that unholy alliance with
what God has sentenced to death.
And at that time, verse 7, Hanani the
seer, another of God's servants, upon whose lips
he could articulate his word.
At that time Hanani the seer came to
Asa, king of Judah, and he said to
him, because thou hast relied on the king
of Syria, and not relied on the Lord
thy God, therefore is the host of the
king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.
You've entered into an unholy alliance with one
who is your enemy and God's enemy, and
for that reason he's escaped.
The judgment that he deserves.
Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubyans a
huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen?
You were outnumbered two to one like your
dad.
Yet because you did then what he did
earlier, because thou didst rely on the Lord,
he, God, delivered them into your hand.
For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth to show
himself strong in the behalf of them whose
heart is perfect toward him.
That's all God's looking for, any boy, any
girl, man or woman, anywhere, out of any
nation, kindred, tribe, tongue, race, creed, class or
color, any, anybody, anywhere, who'll let God be
God.
That state of heart in the Bible called
a perfect heart, not a perfect individual, for
none is such save the one who two
thousand years ago walked this earth to his
father's total satisfaction, of whom alone God could
say of him, of all men born since
Adam fell, good, very good, not a sinless
man, just a perfect heart.
That state of heart that knows true repentance,
that we're going to talk about in these
days, that recognizes that you and I do
not have what it takes, only God does.
We can't, but he can.
And if you can't and he can, what's
the smartest thing to do?
Let him, let him.
Because thou didst rely on the Lord, he
delivered them into thine hand.
The eyes of the Lord run to and
fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself
strong in the behalf of them whose heart
is perfect toward him.
In this situation, Asa, as in the last,
God was on tiptoe to move in, at
your behest, you looking into his face, invoking
his activity in his name.
Herein thou hast done foolishly.
Asa, you're a good man.
But Asa, you're a fool.
Therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
You're going to fight your own battles.
You're on your own.
Then Asa, verse 10, was mad, angry with
the seer, put him in a prison house,
because he was in a rage with him
because of this thing, misguidedly imagining if only
he could silence him, he could silence the
voice of God.
And Asa oppressed some of the people the
same time.
Who would you think the people whom Asa
oppressed, when he threw Hanani, God's servant, into
jail, to silence him?
Well those faithful friends of King Asa, who
quietly said, you know, King Asa, Hanani's right.
Don't be too proud to be reminded.
You see, there's nothing more wonderful than to
learn from your dad or from anybody else
a principle that you never knew, but there's
nothing, nothing, nothing quite so tragic as to
forget a principle that once you've known.
And there's nothing more calculated to cause you
to forget the principle that once you've known,
than to be successful.
In the energy of the flesh, having adopted
some new technique that you've learned from others
to put you in business, and puts God
out of business.
Behold the acts of Asa, verse 11, first
and last, so lo they are written in
the book of the kings of Judah and
Israel.
And Asa, in the thirty and ninth year
of his reign, four years later, was diseased
in his feet.
He became a cripple.
His walk was marred.
Until his disease was exceeding great.
A man, such a good man, but one
of those of whom we read again and
again in the Bible, one of those who
forgot to remember.
Hobbled, disabled, crippled to his death.
Until his disease was exceeding great, yet in
his disease he sought not to the Lord.
He was too proud to be reminded.
But to the physicians.
And Asa slept with his fathers, and died
in the one and fortieth year of his
reign, at the end of those last miserable
six years, in which he failed to practice
a principle that once he knew.
And they buried him.
They buried him.
And this is the saddest part of the
story.
In his own sepulchre, which he made for
himself, they buried him in a grave he
dug for himself.
Isn't that sad?
Well I thought that at the outset of
these few meetings that we're going to spend
together, it would be nice to make you
really miserable.
But I've got good news, because you see
it doesn't have to end that way.
What does James tell us about the Bible?
When you look into it, you're looking into
a mirror.
And he says, a fool looks into the
mirror and immediately forgets what kind of a
man he is.
So maybe as you've looked into God's word
this morning, you have been looking into a
mirror.
And it may be that God graciously, through
his word, is reminding you of some of
those things that once you knew, but alas,
and how easy it is, you have forgotten.
But you don't have to hobble, crippled to
your death, nor be buried in your own
tomb.
So long as you're not too proud.
To be reminded.
And all of us need that reminder again,
and again, and again.
And in his infinite compassion, God is there
to do it.
Now let's pray.
Loving Lord, we just want to thank you
for your faithfulness.
Thank you for all the good things you
had to say about Asa.
You didn't ignore nor despise them, but thank
you too for the warning that you give
us, that you gave him, that we trust
that we may heed it as he didn't.
Grant for us, dear Lord, that this record
that you have given may end happily.
Good news.
Because you're a God of infinite compassion, amazing
mercy, and even when we're hurt, you're there
to heal.
Thank you, in your own dear and precious
name.
Amen.
You've been listening to a sermon by Major
Ian Thomas.
If you've been blessed by this sermon, you
can find more sermons by him and additional
resources on this subject at PathToPrayer.com.
Again, if you've been blessed by this sermon,
you can find more sermons by Major Ian
Thomas at PathToPrayer.com, as well as other
resources.