Well, some of you have a lot of
endurance, here for hours today, and you've listened
attentively and you've been very kind in your
expressions of gratitude, and I thank you.
People say to me it must be terribly
difficult to speak six, eight, ten, twelve hours
a day.
Well, it is, but it's not near as
difficult as listening to that length of time.
So I always know that I've got the
easiest life, and I know that my eyesight
is not perfect, but I haven't noticed anybody
sleeping, and I'm grateful that you've listened.
Now, there are things that I feel that
I really can't do anything about.
For instance, I opened up the book of
Hebrews this morning for just a few minutes,
and then I felt I wished I had
a week every day to finish what I
started.
But of course, that's not in the providence
of God, leastwise not now.
In the gathering of leaders following the afternoon
session, I acknowledged that I know that more
questions are raised than are answered.
There was a time when I was apprehensive
about that, but as I was studying my
Bible, I realized that Jesus made it a
practice of not answering questions.
Have you ever noticed that?
People would ask him a question, and he
would turn it around and ask a question
of them, and never, in many instances, never
answer their question at all, but provoke them
to a consideration of some great issue.
I think that we have found too many
easy answers, and have contended ourselves with surface
information.
And we would do well to work our
way biblically through the great issues, spend days,
even weeks, contemplating them, and then come to
solid, meaningful answers.
In speaking of Hebrews this morning, many of
you could not be here, but I took,
as I said, a few moments to introduce
Hebrews, because I wanted to state something very
important out of Hebrews chapter 6, that when
the writer of Hebrews was dealing with foundation
doctrines, he named the doctrine of repentance from
dead works, but made no mention of repentance
from sin.
Now, some very careless people have said that
the author was a little confused, and he
meant to say sins, but said dead works,
and after all, they most certainly are not
the same.
But a question was given to me before
the service, I
have been hoping for an opportunity to ask
you about the portion in Hebrews 6, 4
to 6, that says it's impossible for those
to be brought back to repentance.
Would that fit into the evening's message?
Well as I've already acknowledged, yes it does,
and while I'm not going to answer adequately
that important question, because the question was raised
almost as a side issue, I've pointed out
the real reason for consulting Hebrews 6 this
morning was to pinpoint repentance from sin.
For any who might not be familiar with
the Hebrews 6, it
consists of two separate streams of truth.
The great theme of Hebrews is lifting up
and exalting, that is a theme I would
love to preach day after day here in
the Northwest, but running along with this theme
of the exalting of Christ is a series
of warnings, and the two are intermingled, there's
no clear delineation even when the exaltation of
Christ ends.
But the passage out of Hebrews 6 that
we're now in, verse
4 of Hebrews 6, in the case of
those who have once been lightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been
made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have
tasted the good word of God, and the
powers of the age to come, and then
have fallen away, it is impossible to renew
them again to repentance, since they again crucify
to themselves the Son of God and put
him to an open shame.
Now, it is not really a difficult question
at all, though many have been perplexed over
it, but that's because of a failure to
realize, as I've stated to you already this
evening, that there is this series of warning
passages.
Take time to mark out in some fashion
the warning passages.
I don't suppose that you can see what
I have done.
I have done that throughout the book of
Hebrews.
What I have put within these dark lines
are the warning passages.
Now in some fashion, during a period of
serious Bible study, read Hebrews carefully and mark
out, and then
do as I urge.
Read all of the doctrinal passages consecutively, all
the way through, leaving out the warning passages.
Then come back and read the warning passages,
leaving out the doctrinal passages.
If we have a lot of time tonight,
if you folk were as used to listening
as I am to, because
all of the warnings are saying essentially the
same thing I said it this morning, but
it bears repeating, it does not matter what
matters is how you finish.
True Christianity is not a good beginning, but
a glorious ending.
And what it says in the three verses
I just read is, if you make a
good beginning and abandon that good beginning, if
you move from that which is nothing to
that which is everything, and then leave that
which is everything and go back to that
which is salvation, there is salvation in none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we are not saved because we
are in the process of being saved as
day in, day out we repent and believe.
You see, many have clung to one-time
repentance and one-time faith, but that's utter
nonsense.
We are of Christ's household if we hold
fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end.
Now, the tie between this warning and the
evening message is a very simple one.
I'll tell you in advance what I hope
to bring to your attention tonight.
There are certain things that God wants.
The first meeting of this series was over
in Kingston, where I asked the question, What
does God want?
And we read from Mark chapter 12, where
the scribe said to Jesus, What is the
first and greatest commandment?
And Jesus said to love the Lord thy
God with all of thy heart, with all
of thy soul, with all of thy mind,
and with all of thy strength.
That's what God wants.
He wants the people who are in love
with him.
Now, would he be pleased if I loved
him today?
Is this love that is demanded something once
rendered and therefore forever complete?
Why no.
I must love him as he commanded all
of my days.
Some of you began loving God when you
were but young children.
Some of you began much later in life.
But the commandment is that whenever we begin,
we must persevere clear to the end.
Now listen.
Some of us, if we were more honest
than we are, would avoid singing certain hymns.
For instance, the hymn, My Jesus, I Love
Thee.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus tis
now.
Why, sheer honesty would force some people to
clamp their mouths shut, because they know there
was a time when their love for Jesus
Christ was greater than it is now.
But the commandment is that I love him
always.
I have mentioned today already that the faith
that saves is not one-time faith.
And the repentance that is demanded is not
one-time repentance.
It is ongoing repentance.
Some testimony meetings are frightening to me.
I was convicted of my sin, and I
repented, and I'm...
I don't care if you repented 37 years
ago.
I'm wondering about right now.
It's never enough to say, I repented.
It's mandatory that I live a repentant lifestyle.
Day in, day out, month after month, year
after year.
I live as a repentant person, which is
of no value.
In all of the Christian life, the focus
is not upon something that happened.
Now, the theme this evening is along the
very same line.
I said on Sunday morning, I asked the
question, well,
obviously not.
Those who love their Bibles find numerous things
that God wants.
And included in these many things that God
wants, is this.
God wants a people who seek his face.
That's our theme this evening, seeking the face
of God.
I've been places and talked about seeking God,
and some smart aleck has come up to
me and says, well, I didn't know God
was lost.
Why should I have to seek him?
Well, I pity such reprobate hearts as that.
I hope you understand.
There is sound reason why God must be
perpetually sought.
He doesn't live here.
God has two places of habitation.
Listen carefully.
Two places of habitation.
God dwells in the high and the lofty
place.
For instance, Isaiah 57, 15.
Thus says the high and the lofty one
who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.
I dwell in the high and in the
lofty place.
You don't dwell in a high and lofty
place.
You dwell in a miserable hovel.
I don't mean the physical house where your
furniture sits.
I mean this being in which we walk
around.
It is a low place indeed.
No, a grievous mistake is made.
Many who think they've come to Christ have
been falsely induced and totally misled.
They think that Christ inhabits this earth.
They stumble over him as they're walking on
the broad road that leads to destruction, and
they tip their hat and say, good morning,
Lord, and some idiot pronounces them as having
been saved because they salute the Lord.
But this is not his dwelling place.
This sanctuary is not his dwelling place.
Anyway, this world is not his dwelling place.
He inhabits eternity.
He dwells in the high and in the
lofty place.
But, and this is a very important but,
he makes one single exception.
Again, Isaiah 57, 15.
Let me start from the beginning.
Thus saith the high and the lofty one
who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I
dwell in the high and lofty place with
him also.
Who is broken and contrite to revive the
heart of the broken one, to revive the
spirit of the contrite.
God has two places of habitation, the high
and the lofty place, and the heart and
the spirit of the broken and contrite.
You love lost souls.
You pray for the lost.
You seek to witness to the lost.
And you understand what a grievous disservice you
do to people when you induce them to
pray some prayer they're not able to really
pray.
And when you give them some proof text
to assure
it's Old Testament.
And it's identical with the New Testament when
Christ says, Blessed are the poor in spirit,
theirs is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are they that mourn, they shall be
comforted.
Blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the
earth.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for
righteousness.
Nowhere does it say some sin loving, careless,
slothful.
No, Christ refuses to inhabit any proud in
heart.
We need to take the warning to heart
that God holds the proud in heart at
arm's length.
And brothers and sisters, have you ever sought
to perceive the length of God's arm?
When God holds the arrogant at arm's length,
he holds them infinitely far from himself.
Do you understand the principle of which I
speak?
God never ever dwells anywhere other than the
high and the lofty place and the heart
and the spirit of the broken and contract.
Now some of you who think you've made
a lot of converts need to repent.
Because they've been your converts, not Christ's.
You've led many people who are full of
themselves, whose arrogancy oozes out of every opening
in their lives.
And you've led them to think they've been
saved.
What a pathetic, tragic, wicked thing to do.
If you love souls, you'll so elevate the
Lord God omnipotent, that people learn to fear
God and humble themselves before him.
Now you get the drift of what I'm
saying.
Christianity doesn't consist of paltry decisions we make
along the line.
Christianity consists of a great re-making of
our hearts and lives, where instead of being
proud and full of ourselves and loving our
sins, we are reduced to brokenness and contrition.
We weep and we grieve and we mourn
and we learn to despise ourselves and what
we've been.
As Lord, as Savior, as Master, as...
If you've never personally come to great brokenness,
brokenness, the word contrition from Isaiah 57 means
ground to powder, ground to nothingness.
If you've never been reduced to nothingness, if
you've never felt the horror of your sin
and your shame and your selfishness, you know
nothing of saving grace.
And again, what is called for is not
some great experience where you wallow in the
dust and then later lift your head again
and walk into arrogancy.
What is required is a perpetual, a continuous
state of brokenness and contrition.
And as we walk brokenly and in contrition
before our God, he then deems it desirable
to make that exception concerning his dwelling place,
and he chooses to inhabit mere creatures like
us who live in brokenness and contrition.
Now, if you understand what I'm laying in
front of you, then you will understand, as
we draw to the subject of the evening,
why I make the same basic emphasis.
Let's look first at a very well-known
passage in 2nd Chronicles, chapter 7.
Some of you can recite this as well
as I can, and you hardly need to
look at the passage.
Verse 26 of 2nd Chronicles 7, When the
heavens, have I given you time to find
your place?
Take a moment and turn to this passage.
2nd Chronicles 7, at verse 26, When the
heavens are shut up, and there is no
rain, because they have sinned against thee, and
they pray toward this place, and confess thy
name, and turn from their sin, when thou
dost afflict them.
I'm in chapter 6.
I'm sorry I directed you to chapter 7,
but I meant to say initially chapter 6.
You wondered why you couldn't find what I
was reading.
Forgive me.
When the heavens are shut up, and there
is no rain, because they have sinned against
thee, and they pray toward this place, and
confess thy name, and turn from their sin,
when thou dost afflict them.
Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the
sin of thy servants, and thy people Israel.
Indeed, teach them the good way in which
they should walk, and send rains on thy
land, which thou hast given to thy people
for an inheritance.
Now that's just bursting into the middle of
the mark.
But you get the essential elements of the
two verses that we've read.
When heavens are shut, and there is no
rain.
Now let's
keep that particular.
And notice these words in verse 12.
Chapter 7 at verse 12.
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night,
and he said to him, I have heard
your prayer, and have chosen this place for
myself as a house of sacrifice, if I
shut up the heavens, so that there is
no rain.
Or if I command the locusts to devour
the land, or if I send pestilence among
my people, and my people, who are called
by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray,
and seek my face, and turn from their
wicked ways.
Then will I hear from heaven, will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.
Now my eyes shall be open, and my
ears attentive to the prayer offered in this
place.
I will not read the rest of this
wonderful passage, but you know the passage, and
the words are familiar to most of us,
if not all.
I said in the smaller gathering this afternoon,
that we must never mix up the order
in which the words appear in verse 14.
We must first humble ourselves.
During the day I stressed the road to
humility.
I will say to you tonight, that pride
is always in relationship.
If I'm proud, it's proud in relationship to
somebody, or something.
What the proud in heart do, is they
select someone who looks worse than they do,
in a given area.
For instance, a woman.
It's a strange thing, but you observe, especially
among younger women, you observe two pals.
In a wholesome sense, I'm not speaking of
lesbianism or some grievous evil, you just find
two young girls, and one of them will
be beautiful, and the other quite.
You rarely see two beautiful girls together, because
the beautiful one appears more beautiful in the
light of her homely friend.
Just one of those things.
Pride stems from comparison.
I've got a big voice.
I could out shout most of you.
I could out talk most of you.
I don't.
I'm a very quiet person.
People who are around me are amazed that
I can be in the midst of a
crowd all day long, and not say a
single word.
But I could glory in the fact that
I have a big voice.
It's not as big as it used to
be, but still there's something there.
But does it make sense for a man
with a big voice to compare himself with
a man with a feeble voice, and then
to take pride in his voice?
I'm saying to you that pride develops out
of comparison of ourselves with others.
The cure to pride is in the same
realm.
When I quit comparing myself with other men,
and I begin comparing myself with God, my
pride takes wings.
Who could possibly stand next to the Lord
Jesus Christ and feel proud?
In fact, who could stand next to the
Lord Jesus Christ?
If Christ came into the room and stepped
on the platform, you wouldn't see me standing
next to him.
You'd see me on my face before him.
If there is any remnant of pride in
you at all, it is because if
you really want to see pride dealt with
in your own life, follow the suggestion of
the afternoon in using the Bible aright to
discover.
But I'm only saying at this juncture that
in this 14th verse of 2nd Chronicles 7,
there is proper order.
If my people, who are called by my
name, shall humble themselves.
Now I want to give you a warning.
Don't you dare be so foolish as to
ask God to humble you.
That is both wicked and foolish.
It is wicked because God says, humble yourself.
And it is always wicked to ask God
to do what he commands us to do.
But it is also very foolish, because if
you leave it to God, he'll bring you
a whole lot lower than you ever wish
to go.
You'll have to look up to find the
bottom, and then you'll not be sure it's
there.
Humble yourself.
Prayer.
Now if I were here for two or
three days in this particular church, I would
delight to devote one day to the subject
of prayer.
But I haven't felt any special leading in
that direction.
It seemed to me appropriate to pick up
the third of these matters tonight and to
open it up somewhat, so that all of
us could move more significantly into the realm
of seeking God's face.
If my people call by my name, shall
one, humble themselves.
Two, pray.
Three, seek my face.
Four, turn from their wicked ways.
Some of the tapes I know that Reuben
has been promoting deal with the subject of
turning from our wicked ways.
But let's focus on these simple words.
Seek my face.
Why are we commanded to seek God's face?
And why, as I have suggested already, is
it mandatory that we seek God's face, protect
it?
Why should I seek him?
I know where he is.
Do you?
Do you really know where he is?
Do you really know who he is?
Do you know about the limitation of his
habitation to the high and lofty place, and
the heart and the spirit of the broken
and contrite?
Now turn over in the same book of
2nd Chronicles, please, to chapter 12.
And I want to read just a few
words here that, in my mind, are deeply
troubling words.
Chapter 12 and verse 14.
Now this passage, in fact chapters 10, 11,
and 12, are dealing with King Rehoboam, under
whom the kingdom was divided into Israel and
Judah.
But listen to these words now concerning this
king.
And he did evil, because he
did not set his heart to seek the
Lord.
Now that provokes me to put a question
to you personally.
Did you ever set your heart to seek
the Lord?
I didn't ask, did you seek the Lord
at one time?
I ask, did you ever set your heart
to seek the Lord?
King Rehoboam did not.
It would be quite unwise to conclude that
what is said in those words is that
he never sought God.
For if you read chapters 10, 11, and
12, you will see that there were points
in his life when he did seek God.
But his failure was in the fact that
he didn't set his heart to seek God.
And because he did not set his heart
to seek God, he did evil.
Now that must be understood in at least
two ways.
Because he didn't set his heart to seek
God, he fell into all kinds of evil.
You read those three chapters and you'll see
some of the grievous evil into which he
fell.
But there's another meaning there.
Because he did not set his heart to
seek God, his whole life was evil.
He was evil.
He did evil.
He thought evil.
He breathed evil.
He lived evil.
Everyone by their nature who does not set
their heart to seek God does evil.
And here is a tragic illustration of a
king who fails to set his heart to
seek God.
Now as I pointed out from Isaiah 57,
15, the very nature of God demands that
we set our heart to seek him, because
this is not his dwelling place.
He is not drifting about on earth.
He dwells in the high and lofty places,
I said.
We dwell in miserable habitations.
We never meet in the natural course of
things.
The high and the lofty never crosses the
path of the low and the miserable.
If ever we're going to meet God, we've
got to set our hearts to seek him.
Those of you who preach and those of
you who witness, may I ask you very,
very directly, have you been calling people to
set their hearts to seek God?
Or have you just been inviting them to
accept Christ?
It's a huge difference.
The very nature of God, I repeat, demands
that we set our hearts to seek God.
He himself commands it.
I cannot take the time this evening to
read to you the abundance of scriptures that
absolutely demand that we seek God, but they
are there in great plenty.
It might benefit you to take some kind
of a colored...
But I need to tell you that our
nature necessitates our setting our hearts to seek
God.
Will you hold your place in 2nd Chronicles,
but turn for a moment to Matthew, where
I want to read a few words from
the 6th chapter.
The gospel of Matthew, please, at chapter 6.
Notice these words beginning in verse 31.
Matthew 6, verse 31.
Do not be anxious then, saying, what shall
we eat?
Or what shall we drink?
Or with what shall we clothe ourselves?
Do you ever take those words to heart?
I mean, those are pretty direct words, aren't
they?
Don't be anxious about what you eat, about
what you wear.
And notice now the reason why our Lord
makes that plain statement.
Verse 32.
For all these things the Gentiles easily seek.
That's talking about us.
By our nature, we easily seek what we
shall eat, what we shall drink, with what
we shall clothe ourselves, on what we will
sit, upon what we will lie, what we
will have around us in our surroundings.
Our natures are such that we seek without
even trying creature comfort and the necessities of
life.
Now follow carefully our Lord here.
Let me read again, starting at the beginning
of the passage.
Do not be anxious then, saying, what shall
we eat?
Or what shall we drink?
Or with what shall we clothe ourselves?
For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek.
For your Father, you can say that, can't
you?
For my Father knows that I have need
of all these things.
Why should I waste my time, my energy,
my opportunity, in seeking things my Father already
knows I have need of?
Let the pagan even more than he cares
for a burden, let the Gentiles devote their
energy and strength and opportunity, as I said,
to seeking all these things.
Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need
of these things.
But, get these important words, but seek first
his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, for
tomorrow will care for itself.
Each day has trouble enough for its own.
Have you ever caught the message here?
Don't be like the Gentiles, don't be like
the unbelieving pagans, don't devote your life to
the pursuit of these things that your Father
is already aware of.
Rather, set your heart to seek first his
kingdom, his righteousness, knowing that these necessities will
be added to you by your understanding Father.
Now, friends, I said to you that the
very nature of God demands that we seek
him, because he is high and lofty and
far removed from us and totally unlike us,
and if ever we are to know and
learn of him, and even if our minds
did not provide us that excellent reason for
seeking him, he has commanded us to do
so, and we ought to do so whether
we understand why or not.
But here is this added truth.
If we don't set our hearts to seek
God, his kingdom, his righteousness, then what we're
going to do is to descend to the
level of the pagans.
Our very nature is such that we are
certain to seek something or someone.
There isn't anybody who doesn't seek something, and
if we follow our nature, we will seek
the inconsequential.
We've got to set our hearts to seek
the Lord.
Now, if you're one of those people whom
I mentioned last night who keeps a time
watch in their pocket and you delight to
see how long the preacher takes, I have
just offered you the introduction to the subject
of the evening, and now we're going to
turn to the text.
Thank you for your encouraging words.
Turn to the fourteenth chapter of 2 Chronicles.
Here is the story of a king, and
this story focuses upon the great issue of
2 Chronicles 7.14, of seeking God.
I'm going to read a lengthy account.
I'm going to read it in the old
-fashioned method of what was called a bible,
and offer comment as we read.
But let's begin at verse 1 of 2
Chronicles 14.
So, Obijah slept with his father, and they
buried him in the city of David, and
his son Asa became king in his place.
The land was undisturbed for ten years during
his days.
Now, I'm going to do something else.
I'm going to interrupt myself while I'm interrupting
myself.
I just read these words, Obijah
slept with his father, and that put me
in mind of a glorious truth that is
in one sense unrelated to what I'm preaching
about tonight, but I don't want to miss
the opportunity to present the truth to you.
Do you know that in the New Testament,
believers are said to sleep, like Lazarus?
Lazarus slept.
But when our Lord Jesus Christ is described
in his crucifixion, in his agony, and in
his death, it does not say that Christ
slept, because he did not.
He was dead.
Believers do not die.
They sleep.
What a beautiful truth there is there.
I'm not going to preach upon it tonight,
but I didn't want to pass up the
opportunity of mentioning that glorious truth to you.
But come along now.
Let me try to stick with my text.
And Asa did good and right in the
sight of the Lord his God.
For he removed the foreign altar and the
high places.
He tore down the sacred pillars, and he
cut down the Asherim, and commanded Judah
to seek the Lord God of their fathers,
and to observe the law and the commandments.
Now, many of you may be aware of
the significance of the words that I've just
read.
He removed the foreign altars.
He removed the high places.
He tore down the sacred pillars.
Let me explain the matter to a handful
of you who haven't come to an understanding
of it before.
In the early days of the Old Testament,
men like Abraham, who wished to worship God,
were at liberty to erect altars in high
places.
It was just a natural tendency to find
a high place that brought you closer to
heaven, and to worship and sacrifice there.
But the time came when God forbid the
erection of altars in high places.
For he ordered the place where worship was
to occur.
And from then on, men were not at
liberty to worship God where they chose, but
were required to worship God where he chose.
And if you follow this concept throughout the
Old Testament, what you'll discover is, every time
Israel and or Judah backflipped, they returned to
sacrifice in the high places.
And every time they came to genuine repentance,
among the first things that were destroyed were
these altars or temples in the high places.
High places have come to symbolize, even in
our day, will worship.
Worshiping when, where, and how you please.
For instance, people in our day, people say,
well I'm, or I'm going to worship God
on the ski slope, or I'm going to
worship God from my fishing boat.
Always a mark of a backslidden condition.
Only backsliders in heart think it is their
right to determine where, when, how God should
be worshipped.
So in this passage, which is speaking to
us about a glorious reformation revival, these foreign
altars, these high places, these sacred pillars are
torn down.
Let me ask you if all the high
places of your life have been eliminated?
Pretty sober question.
Do you realize that if God is big
enough to be worshipped, he's big enough to
be worshipped when, where, how, and by whom
he commands worship?
Nobody has the right to worship God as
they please.
We must worship God as he pleases.
One of the brethren reminded me yesterday of
having heard me preach from 2 Samuel 6,
upon the moving of the ark of the
covenant from that place where it had rested
in Philistine territory back to Jerusalem, and how
they moved it on a new cart in
violation of God's will, which said the ark
must only be carried on the shoulders of
the Kohai.
A grievous wickedness to seek to serve God
by Philistine methods.
And much of what the church is doing
in our day is looking at the world
and asking, how does the world go about
doing this successfully?
And then the church apes the world.
Any church to become serious about serving God
has got to destroy all of its high
places.
It's got to eliminate everything they're doing that
God himself has not ordained.
And some of you would have a mighty,
sparse-looking calendar if you got serious about
doing things God's way.
But come along in this text.
I read already verse 4, he commanded Judah
to seek the Lord God of their fathers
and to observe the law and the commandment.
Now get those words, he commanded Judah.
What pastor here is able to command his
congregation?
Well, pastors make timid little suggestions, and they
give wee encouragement.
But how many of them say, in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ I command?
It's a pitiful day when men have such
low view of God that they treat their
pastors like themselves.
I would never say this in order for
a pastor to take advantage of his situation,
but I don't hesitate to say to you
when the people fear God, they'll be grateful
to have a pastor standing between themselves and
God.
But as long as they do not fear
the Lord, and one of the tremendous reasons
why revival is so critically needed, is because
pastors—I don't
think that way about pastors.
I don't believe it is possible to put
a pastor alongside a layman and to say
they are one and the same.
I believe that God himself calls men into
ministry, and their positions in the church of
Christ are—and
woe unto the pastor who has such a
low view of himself and of his ministry,
that he allows the congregation— Verse 6, he
built fortified cities in Judah, since the land
was undisturbed, and there was no one at
war with him during those years, because the
Lord had given him rest.
For he said to Judah, Let us build
these cities, and surround them with walls and
towers, gates and bars.
Now listen to these words.
The land is still ours, because we have
sought the Lord our God.
We have sought him, and he has given
us rest on every side.
So they built and prospered.
Now let me bring that passage into our
day.
We have lost the land.
It is no longer ours, because we have
not set our hearts to seek the Lord.
This was once a Christian nation.
Oh, I've heard all the balerne that says
to the contrary.
But there are more stupid men that speak
than wise men.
Did you ever take the time to read
what men like Patrick Henry and
Samuel Adams and Benjamin Rush and dozens of
others of the founding fathers of the nation
said?
They declared, This nation is God's nation.
And the land belonged to the believers, and
God kept it in the believer's hand until
this century, when we abandoned seeking God, and
we lost the land.
But Asa lived at a time when, although
they had fallen frequently into deep and grievous
sin, time after time after time, and he
declares the land is still ours, because we
have sought him, and he has given us
rest on every side.
Dear friends, if you can't think of any
reason to seek the face of God, there's
a profoundly important one.
Seek the Lord, so that this land might
be his land.
I've mentioned twice today my concern for the
little ones, the children that'll be hanging on
my knee when I get home on Saturday.
For the sake of the little ones, I
have set my heart to seek God, so
that they can grow up in a land
that God has given rest.
But come along and read verse 8.
Now Asa had an army of 300,000
from Judah, bearing large, large shields and spears,
and 280,000 from Benjamin, bearing shields and
wielding bows.
All of them valious warriors.
Now it doesn't take a mathematician to put
those two figures together.
300,000, 280,000.
Even a poor fellow like me can figure
out that that's a total of 580,000.
Now Zerah, the Ethiopian, came out against them
with an army of a million men and
300 chariots.
And he came to Merashah.
Pretty plain, isn't it?
An army of 580,000 facing an army
of a million plus.
Our Lord told a special little parable.
It refreshes my heart every time I think
of it.
He told about two kings going to war.
Do you remember the parable?
And one king looked over the army of
his opponent, and he said, quick, send up
the white flag of surrender.
For he could see that he had no
hope of winning a battle against an army
of such magnitude and strength.
Now I love that parable because it speaks
to me of what happens when a person
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit comes
face to face with the fact that their
opponent all through life has been the Lord
God Almighty.
And they come to realize this is perfectly
ridiculous.
Here I am in opposition to the Almighty.
So quick, he sends up the white flag
of surrender.
Now when someone sends up the white flag
of surrender, who dictates the terms of peace?
Quite obvious, isn't it?
The victor.
And isn't it pathetic that we have so
many millions who think they've surrendered to God,
who are still dictating the terms of surrender?
Well, in this passage Asa is aware of
the magnitude of the Ethiopian army that he's
come up against.
And notice now in this wonderful passage what
this says.
Pastor Geer, did you ever fall into this
hole?
Pretty close, yeah.
That's quite dangerous.
Verse 10, Asa went out to meet him.
And they drew up in battle formation in
the valley of Zephthah at Marishah.
Then Asa called to the Lord his God.
And he said, Lord, there is no one
besides thee to help in the battle between
the powerful and those who have no strength.
So help us, O Lord our God.
For we trust in thee, and in thy
name we have come against this multitude, O
Lord.
Thou art our God, let not man prevail
against us.
So the Lord routed the Ethiopians before Asa
and before Judah.
And the Ethiopians fled.
And Asa and the peoples who were with
him pursued them as far as Jerar.
And so many Ethiopians fell that they could
not recover, for they were shattered before the
Lord and before his army.
And they carried away very much splendor.
And they destroyed all the cities, and
they despoiled all the cities, for there was
much plunder in them.
They struck down those who owned livestock.
They carried away large numbers of sheep and
camels.
Then they returned to Jerusalem.
Well, I don't need to overly spiritualize this
passage, but dear friends, we are faced with
an opposition that is so vastly greater than
ourselves that we don't have any hope of
victory.
There is no way the little army of
righteous ones is going to prevail against the
great host of wickedness that occupies.
And our only hope is to seek the
face of God.
But we haven't done this with any degree
of seriousness yet.
And I wonder what it will take to
provoke us to begin to pray with a
sense of urgency and with the spirit of
Asa on this occasion when he besought the
Lord to help those who are without strength.
But let us read on.
Chapter 15.
Now, the Spirit of God came upon Azariah,
the son of Oded, and he went out
to meet Asa.
And he said to him, Listen to me,
Asa, and all Judah, and Benjamin.
The Lord is with you when you are
with him.
If you seek him, he will let you
find him.
But if you forsake him, he will forsake
you.
Do you see why I answered the question
concerning Hebrews 6?
It's the same principle.
You can say, Well, I once sought the
Lord.
Well, so what?
If we go on seeking him, he will
go on letting us find him.
But if we cease to seek him, we
will discover that he is not with us.
Or you say, I don't really believe that.
If you love to believe a lie, that's
your choice.
But the God of the Bible demands that
his people go on seeking his face.
Now look what's happened to the American Church.
There was a time in America when the
prayer meeting was called the Hour of Power.
It was the great meeting of the Church.
It was the urgent hour in the life
of the Church.
Now many of our large churches have discontinued
the prayer meeting altogether, and thousands of other
churches treat the prayer meeting with contempt.
I'm not going to ask for a show
of hands, but I wonder how many of
you lovely-looking people are always in the
prayer meeting of your church.
I dare to guess that many of you
don't go to prayer meetings.
And frankly, if I were a member of
your church, maybe I wouldn't go either, because
some of you are members of churches that
just toy around on prayer meeting night.
You say it's a prayer meeting, but you
have a Bible study, and you have a
song service, and you take in a lot
of requests, and you devote a moment or
two to prayer, and the moment or two
of prayer, oh please.
And all around us are multitudes who are
lost and dying and rushing pell-mell to
hell, and here is the Church withering and
dying.
Or if it's strong numerically, it is ridiculously
weak spiritually, and we waste the precious moments
of a prayer meeting asking for silly little
things that are of no great eternal consequence.
No, I'm not.
There's something mighty wrong with your heart.
We had a disturbing situation in our own
church recently.
I was away at the time that it
happened, but the pastor reported it to me
with tears.
We had a family in the church whose
son, a young teenager, ran away from home,
and the father had to pursue him all
the way to Southern California to find him
and bring him back.
But on the weekend, the father was out
searching for the lost child.
Now I have to explain something to make
it meaningful.
Our church has discontinued all adult and old
age children's Sunday school classes, and we have
an all-church prayer meeting in that hour.
I'm not urging you to do it, I'm
just explaining our situation.
There were so many of our people who
could not get to a midweek meeting because
they work in the city of Chicago, and
for many of them they don't get home
until 8.30 or 9 at night.
And so our leadership said, we've got to
have an urgent time of prayer every week.
Let's turn the Sunday school hour into the
prayer meeting.
Now, friends, listen to me when I tell
you what happened.
On the Sunday, this dear father was out
searching for the lost in the life of
our church in modern times.
But the next Sunday, the prayer meeting was
nearly dead.
Now the problems were still the same.
The father brought the son home, but the
son was still unrepentant.
The tens of thousands all around the neighborhoods
of our church were still rushing to hell.
All the churches of our region were still
shriveling and dying.
But the urgent prayer meeting had to do
with the physical well-being of a boy.
I'm glad our church had an outpouring of
compassion on that occasion, but I grieve that
something physical can provoke prayer, and the great
eternal issues don't seem to touch us.
There is something grievously wrong with a church
that can be stirred about physical things and
is indifferent to the spirit.
So now let me read again.
This prophet, Oded, confronted Asa, and he said
to me, Listen, Asa, all Judah, Benjamin, the
Lord is with you when you are with
him.
And if you seek him, he will let
you find him.
But if you forsake him, he will forsake
you.
Then he introduces a specific incident, verse 3.
For many days Israel was without the true
God, and without a teaching priest, and without
law.
But in their distress they turned to the
Lord God of Israel, and they sought him,
and he let them find him.
Dear friends, people have said to me since
being in this very church, I don't know
that there is any hope.
Don't talk that way to me.
I worship and serve a God who when
his people seek him, he lets them find
him.
The thing that concerns me is not will
God let us find him, but will we
seek him?
The failure is not on God's part, obviously,
it's on our part.
We can live in the hour of greatest
emergency of our entire lives, and we can
act as casually and indifferently as if we
were living.
If we will seek him, he will let
us find him.
In those times, verse 5, there was no
peace to him who went out, or to
him who came in.
For many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of
the land, and nation was crushed.
And do not lose courage.
May I speak those words to every Christian
here.
You, be strong.
Do not lose courage.
There is reward for your work.
Isn't that beautiful?
There is reward for your work.
It's cost you something to be here tonight.
There is reward for your work.
It's cost me something, too.
But there's reward for our work.
If you will set your heart to seek
the Lord, he will let you find him.
And it won't be purely personal.
If this church, if all the churches represented
here tonight will set their hearts to seek
God, God will let all of us find
him.
Verse 8, When Asa heard these words, and
the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded
the prophet spoke, he took courage.
Will you?
Will you take courage tonight?
He took courage and he removed the abominable
idols from all the land of Judah and
Benjamin.
From the cities which he had captured in
the hill country of Ephraim, he then restored
the altar of the Lord which was in
front of the porch of the Lord.
And what did he do?
Where's your horn?
Go ahead and blow it, brother.
And when
they heard the sound of the trumpet, they
gathered for all Judah, all Benjamin, those from
Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who resided with them.
For many had defected from Israel when they
saw the Lord as God was with him.
So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third
month of the 15th year of Asa's reign,
and they sacrificed to the Lord that day
700 sheep from the spoils that they had
brought.
And, now get this, and they entered into
a covenant, they entered into a covenant to
seek the Lord God of their fathers with
all of their heart and with all of
their soul.
Every church here should enter into a covenant
to seek the Lord God of our fathers
with all of our heart and with all
of our soul.
And whoever would not seek the Lord God
of Israel, now be a little cautious here,
pastor, whoever would not seek the Lord God
of Israel should be put to death.
I wouldn't go quite that far, whether small
or great, man or woman.
But believe me, if I were in the
pastor's shoes today, I would call the church
to enter into a covenant, and I would
make it clear anyone who would not enter
into that covenant, we're
talking about serious business.
We're talking about a God who inhabits eternity,
whose dwelling place is high and lofty, who
never violates that dwelling place with any exception
other than the...
And if that seems extreme to you, shame
on you for your shallow view of the
seriousness of Christianity.
Moreover, verse 14, they made an oath to
the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting,
with trumpets and with horns.
And all Judah rejoiced concerning the oath, for
they had sworn with their whole heart, and
had sought him earnestly, and he let them
find him.
So the Lord gave them rest on every
side.
Oh, I wonder if those words stir you
as they ought.
We don't have rest on any side.
We have enemies without and enemies within.
The church is troubled and in turmoil and
under attack.
There are men and women right here in
America who are being arrested for their faith.
I remember when
he was released from jail, he received notice
from the I.R. And
another brother sitting there with the two of
us spoke up and said, we had some
friends visiting with us from out of the
area, and we took them to the White
House, or excuse me, to the Capitol, to
give them a tour of the Capitol.
And while we were there, we decided to
bow together.
Now, that happened very recently.
I am telling you, we need the rest
that God can give on every hand when
we enter into covenant to seek his face.
Verse 16, he removed, may I, the mother
of King Asa from the position of Queen
Mother, because she had made a horrid image
as an Asherah.
And Asa cut down her whoring, burned it
in the brook Kidron.
But the high places were not removed from
Israel.
Now, you must understand, he didn't control Israel.
He wasn't king over Israel.
Therefore, he had no authority to remove the
high places.
Asa's heart was blameless all his days.
You won't think so in a moment.
He brought into the house of God the
dedicated things of his father, his own dedicated
things, silver and gold and utensils, and there
was no more war on the fifth year
of Asa's reign.
In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign,
Baal, the king of Israel, came up against
Judah and fortified Ramah.
Asa brought out silver and gold from the
treasuries of the house of the Lord, and
he sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of
Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, Let there
be a treaty between you and me as
between me and
Judah.
And it came about when the Asher heard
of it that he ceased fortifying Ramah, and
he stopped his work.
Then King Asa brought all Judah, which had
been building, and with them he fortified Geba
and Mizpah.
And then Hanani the seer came to Asa,
king of Judah, and he said to him,
Because you have relied on the king of
Syria and have not relied on the Lord
your God, therefore the army of the king
of Syria has escaped out of your hands.
Were not the Ethiopians and the Lumum an
immense army with many chariots and horsemen, yet
because you relied on the Lord he delivered
them into your hands?
You get the picture?
With all that glorious record that we read
in 14 and 15, now this same king
robs the treasury of God and takes the
precious things out of his own house.
And instead of seeking God, he enters into
a treaty with an alien king.
I've been talking to you today about Christianity
not being a good beginning, but a glorious
ending.
Faith, repentance, seeking God's face.
It doesn't matter how you start it, it's
how you end that counts.
And listen to this tragic tale concerning Asa.
Asa.
Look at these words in verse 9.
For the eyes of the Lord move to
and fro throughout the earth that he may
strongly support those whose heart is completely his.
You have acted foolishly in this.
Indeed, from now on you will surely have
war.
And so Asa fell down on his face
to the ground, and he wept.
And he said, Oh God, forgive me for
this great wickedness.
I started out well, and then I failed
miserably.
Oh God, forgive me.
I made that up.
That's not what the text says, is it?
Many of you have the text open in
front of you.
That's what we might hope he would have
said.
But instead this is what happened.
Verse 10.
Asa was angry with the seer, and he
put him in prison, for he was enraged
at him for this.
And Asa oppressed some of the people at
the same time.
I suppose that the some of the people
he oppressed were those who said, Asa, you
better listen to this here.
Now get the picture.
Here is a man who does beautifully for
years, and then he fails miserably.
Maybe there are some right here tonight who
can recall great days in which you sought
the face of God.
Some of you leaders even can recall times
when you led your people to seek the
face of God.
It's been a long time ago.
And now you've compromised.
Now you've arranged treaties with the world.
And now when an old prophet comes and
rebukes you, you're enraged at him.
Oh, maybe outwardly you're polite and nice, but
inwardly you're indignant.
Now the acts of Asa from first to
last, behold, they are written in the book
of Kings of Judah and Israel.
And in the thirty-ninth year of his
reign, Asa became diseased in his feet.
His disease was severe, yet even in his
disease he did not seek the Lord but
the physician.
So Asa slept with his fathers, having died
in the forty-first year of his reign,
and they buried him in his own tomb,
which he'd cut out for himself in the
city of David.
And they laid him in the resting place,
which he had filled with spices of various
kinds, blended by the perfumer's art.
And they made a very great fire for
him.
Everywhere I go, I meet people who know
they had a good beginning, and they're living
in the past.
But like Asa, they have failed to go
on seeking the Lord.
Some of you, if you described yourself with
honesty, would admit that it's been months and
months and months since you sought the face
of God.
You've taken for granted his nearness and his
kindness and his manifest presence, for the eyes
of the Lord tonight search to and fro
throughout the whole earth, seeking those whose hearts
are totally his, seeking churches whose hearts are
totally his, seeking churches that will enter into
covenant to seek the face of God from
now on.
You may say, well, that's all interesting, I
never thought of the passage that way.
Well, so what, whether it's interesting or not.
That's not the point.
The point is, God limits his dwelling place
to the high and the lofty and the
heart and the spirit of the broken and
contrite.
You can pretend that you know the Lord
and that the Lord is with you, but
look out that it is nothing other than
pretense.
He has held the same line from the
beginning, and he's not going to start wavering
now because of you.
If you seek him, he will let you
find him.
And if you cease to seek him, you
will discover, maybe when it's too late, that
he is no longer with you.