Commitment was sorely lacking in the life of King Joash. Many people label him as an apostate. You say, what's an apostate? Well, apostasy is a word coming both from the Hebrew and the Greek, but the Hebrew word for turning back is shub. It's an interesting word, it can be used negatively of a 180 away from God or a 180 away from sin and idols to God. It's the major word in the Old Testament for repentance. But the Bible talks about a word called metanoeo in the Greek that says a repentance not to be repented of. You can make a 180 toward God and a 180 back. This whole thing of Shub being used negatively, listen about Saul in 1 Samuel 15, 11 where we see the word Shub being used. The word of the Lord came to Samuel, I regret that I have made Saul king for he has Shub. He has turned back from following me. He has not performed my commandments and Samuel was angry and cried to the Lord all night. I want you to know apostasy in the life of someone that we dearly love is especially tragic. It's something that makes us angry, but it's something that makes us sob. Yet, labeling apostates is not something God wants us to be good at doing. You say, well, I can spot an apostate. That's not a gift from God. Matthew 7, 1-2 says, judge not. that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. The Greek word for apostasy is apostasia. It means defection, departure, revolt, rebellion It means a willful turning back from the Lord in the Old Testament, a willful falling away from Christ and his gospel in the New Testament. Surprisingly, in the Scriptures, there are many times it appears that there's no hope for an apostate. Let me give you one. Hosea 11.7, we read, My people are bent on turning away, and turning away is not Shub, but a form of Shub called Meshubot. My people are bent on Meshuvah, turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them up at all. And yet, three chapters later, in Hosea 14.4, remarkably we read these words, I will heal their Meshuvah. I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely for my anger has turned away from them. As I studied the life of Joash, I realized that labeling really doesn't do us very much good. If you're good at labeling someone as an apostate or a probable apostate, what have you accomplished? What have we accomplished today to be able to tell you Joash apparently was an apostate? As an under-shepherd warning us, however, of what Joash did and how we can fall away is extremely important. I want us to look at some lessons we can learn about apostasy, five lessons that can turn our lives around if we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit today. First of all, apostates may live for years among strong believers and appear to be one in heart with God's people. In other words, they can be a part of a local church. They can be a part of a family, a godly family apparently. If you study verses 4 through 16 of 2 Kings 12, Joash is put in a fairly good light. He's being mentored by Jehoiada, a follower of God. It appears that he's doing great. We speak in verses 4 to 8 about a plan he had, a very ineffective plan. Twenty-three years from the time he was 7 to the time he was 30, he turned over the repair of the breaches in the house of the Lord to the priests. They didn't do a blessed thing. They didn't get anything done. Twenty-three years. He began to rebuild the broken down temple. What was the problem? In a flashback in 2 Chronicles 24 7, Ezra records that the sons of Queen Athaliah That's Ahaziah who was killed by Jehu and his elder brothers before they're captured by the Arabs and the Philistines. The whole bunch of all of these sons of Athaliah carried out the Queen Mother's design against the temple and they devastated it and they put breaches in the temple. We read in 2 Chronicles 24 7, for the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God and had also used all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord for the bales. Why was the temple in such disrepair? It wasn't normal wear and tear. It was a deliberate campaign against the temple and the worship of the true God prompted by Athaliah and her sons. But what a wonderful, zealous idea King Joash had as a young boy king. Wow. He must have heard about it. He must have heard about it growing up and seen it. He had a hidden chamber in that temple and there are breaches in it. There are probably holes where the wind blew in. There's probably leaks maybe even in his own little bedroom. There are problems, things that had to be fixed. Six times in verses five to eight, if you have certain translations, you'll find the word breach. But most of the translations just say repairing, repairing the problems in the temple. But the word breaches is bedeck. It means an open gap, a hole, a leak in a building that needs repaired and caught. And those sons of Athaliah, before they were captured, were Hylians. They wreaked havoc on God's house. You'll notice the repair needed masons, stone cutters, quarried stones, timbers, carpenters, builders, iron and bronze workers. Wow. They messed up a lot. Don't in any way ever put down the repairing of the house of the Lord that Joash did. Every revival in the Old Testament followed the repairing of the house of the Lord. God honors us as a church. I believe our church has done a pretty good job of keeping up the house of the Lord. I believe it's a good thing. You say, well, he lives in our bodies. Yes, he does, in our bodies of the temple of the Holy Spirit. But he also, I believe, has given us a house. We've dedicated to him. We burnt the mortgage, Mike. You were up there when we did. This is something that God, by his grace, gave to us we didn't deserve. Keeping up the house of the Lord is very important and it is a picture of how we feel about God if we don't keep up his house, but we keep up our own house. Read the book of Haggai. As a boy, Joe Ash, as a child hidden in the temple, he heard about the breaches, he saw them perhaps. The temple in which he spent his early days, he gave a lot of credit to that, his very life and his throne being that hidden chamber that he was hidden away for six years. Who wants to keep a treasured house with a gaping hole or a leaky roof? This sacred house had been plundered by people that worship Baal. The treasure of the temple had been robbed to enrich the house of the Baals and breaches, gapes in the outer walls and the workers had to come and do it. The very foundation of the temple apparently was insecure and it was compromised. Now this boy king asked for the work to be done by the priests. I want you to know I'm willing to do just about anything for God, but if you want me to do the major repairs on this building or any other building, you've picked the wrong person. I'll be involved in every way I can. I'll be a helper, but I'm not gifted in those areas. There are some of you that are. And by the 23rd year, he gave up on that project. He rebuked the priests for their negligence, but don't blame Joash for this. And this project that had gone on for 23 years and nothing had been done, finally he got Jehoiada to take a chest, make a hole in the top of it, and put it in the right side of the altar as you enter the house of the Lord. Now Joash is on a roll. I tell you, if you ever was a man that looked like he loved God, here he is. Probably you could call it repairing the temple fund. Now this caught on. This is a wonderful thing. The money began to come in. He had the idea now, no longer will you mix it with the other funds of the priest. You take what you want because all the priest got was what they needed apparently. Now it's a separate fund. It's a separate building fund. And it's a build as the money comes in philosophy. That's a good way to build. The priests were on board. They bagged and counted the money. That's all they had to do. They counted the money. They did it without an audit. They did it honestly. Now they contracted out the work to bronze and iron workers, to builders, carpenters, masons, stone cutters, men to buy timber to secure queried stone, and the task was completed. Who would have ever dreamed such a king would abandon this repaired house of the Lord and worship idols? Wow, he started out good. I want you to know that even zeal in building the house of the Lord, in a building program, I don't care if you were on board and built this house, this very church house here. It doesn't secure you being a true follower of God. You may be interested to know that that brick in the back and all the rock all around this whole church was built by a man I witnessed too many times from Craig, Colorado. And that man, every night of the week that he was working, was dead drunk at night and stone sober in the morning. Witness to him and witness to him. I had people around town say, I've never seen a job done any better for the Lord. He was zealous. He was zealous for this house. And yet he didn't know Jesus. He was no apostate. He just lived for the devil all his life and was going to continue. I prayed for that man that he's come to Christ. But I want you to know that when even unbelievers or people that say they are believers are not rallied to help in a church building program. It doesn't mean they're secure as a follower of Jesus Christ. God sees the heart. He knows if we're real or if we're a charlatan. He knows if we're living a charade or if we are an apostate. So first of all, I want to tell you, apostates can live among us and appear to be one at heart with God's people. Number two, the second lesson, apostates sooner or later show their true colors in a test facing them to choose between God and idols. In verses 17 and 18 is the beginning of this as we look at Kings. It was at that time that Hazael, the king of Syria, he went up and fought against Gath. Gath is where Goliath came from and they were paying tribute, the Philistines were, to Judah. And when they got Gath, they headed towards Jerusalem and what in the world? did the king that restored the temple do? To keep from having them come against him because he was afraid of being defeated, he took all of his gold vessels, he took all the sacred gifts, the Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, and then his own sacred gifts. He took them all together, sacred, dedicated vessels of honor, and he bribed Haziel as if he were using pocket change, and with a dramatic suddenness. were taken from the restoration of the temple by Joash to the plundering of the temple by Joash and robbing the temple, the hallowed vessels, to buy off that heathen invader, Haziel. Now flashback to what Pastor Larry read if you want to turn over to 2 Chronicles 24. You'll notice that Jehoiada the high priest died He was buried among the kings because he had done good in Israel and toward God in his house, and now Joash's true colors were instantly challenged by the young princess of Judah that flattered him. They paid homage and obeisance to him, and without a fight, he abandoned God. He listened to the princess. In 2 Chronicles 24, 18 tells us that the princes, they all abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers. They served the Baals, the Asherim, the idols. This is no small abandonment. Joash was not serious about God and his word. He was complacent as if God meant nothing to him. Now that's more than backsliding. Let me tell you about backsliding. A backslider is a believer who falls into sin and out of fellowship with God, but he later repents in tears before the Lord. An apostate may, may, now listen, I'm going to underline the word may, circle it, may have never been a true believer. You get that picture in 1 John 2, 18 and 19. John wrote about such apostates. He says, children, it's the last hour, as you have heard, that antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it's the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain, they are all not of us. So some apostates are truly people that were never believers at all. However, we have other passages like Hosea chapter 14 verse 4 that says, I will forgive their apostasy, and also Hebrews that give us some questions and we have to look seriously at the Word of God. It's not as cut and dry as we look at Hebrews chapter 6, 4 to 6. It's not a straw man. He's not suggesting a person here that isn't a possibility. He's not suggesting here, apparently, an unsaved man, because he talks about the people he's warning as those who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift of salvation. I want you to listen to the verses. For it's impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and have come and have fallen away to restore them again to repentance. Now I want to underline the word sense. Sense in the ESV, if you have that King James, it says seeing. If you have the NESB, it is since. If you happen to have some of the others, like the NLT, it's because since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt. Some people deny it's a true warning and they say this is a hypothetical argument. I want to say to you today, Don't ever ignore a warning that would give you peace to crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. That's a true warning. Now, I want to tell you as we study this for a moment, I want to share some things with you. Listen carefully. We do not interpret Scripture through our theological grid. We use Scripture to find our theological grid. and we need to see what scripture says. Scripture will never deny itself, never. The scripture teaches the security of the believer in Christ. If you know Jesus Christ this morning and you know that you're saved and his spirit is born witness in your spirit, you are truly secure in Christ. The Bible says no one can snatch you out of his hands, John 10. 27 to 30. And yet John 10, 27 to 30 doesn't trump Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 to 6. So I have to say, Lord, help me understand Hebrews. And so I begin to study it as I did this week. And the first thing that I noted is the word is the words crucifying and holding him up to open shame or contempt. Those are present participles. That's something that's going on at the moment, a present participle. People can crucify the Son of God afresh, put him to an open shame. Now I want you to know that There is a word that I told you was seen or since or because, and if you go to the Greek to find that word, you won't find the word because it's not in the Greek. It's a filler. It's a preposition that's a filler to understand the passage. The amplified is the one that really helps us out because it doesn't use since or seen or because. It uses while or as long as. I believe that's exactly what the text means. There is no repentance as long as you are while you are crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame. What about the man after his own heart? This man apparently for almost a year's time was putting God and His name to an open shame. What did he do? He committed adultery. What did he do? He murdered Bathsheba's husband. What else did he do for a whole year as he wept finally? And God brought him to full repentance. But he had apostatized during that period of time. He had turned away. He had turned back from following the Lord. Yet he was a man after God's own heart. And God sent Nathan to him. And let me tell you what happened. He instantly admitted his sin. And God said he had forgiven him. What about a man that the word for apostasy is used in the New Testament? He departed, he defected on that missionary journey, the first missionary journey in Pamphylia, John Mark. Paul wouldn't take him with him. God used Barnabas to arrest John Mark and bring him to repentance. The writer of Hebrews 6 and verse 9 adds a clincher, not denying the warning, but adding he believes his readers will repent of nailing Jesus to the cross, attempting to re-crucify him and shame him by their actions. He says, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. What I want to tell you is that warning in Hebrews is real. It means that you and I as Christians, though we're Christians, can act totally like un-Christians. We can walk away from the Lord and for a period of time we can crucify the Son of God afresh, put Him to an open shame, and in the middle of that we will not find any other way of restoring us until we come to full, full repentance and confession of our sins. we can continue to live for God. Apostates, show their true colors in a test, facing them to choose between God or idols. If a person will not repent, that's again a sign they're an apostate. Now, this next one is very important, so hear me out. Apostates will not confess their sins, but will justify themselves in the face of repeated warnings from God. I want to just tell you today, beloved, don't let the devil tell you maybe you're an A student for God. and you're an A student and you're walking with God, but maybe just this past week, you did something you know you shouldn't have done, and now you walk away from this message and say, I must be an apostate. If you're weeping over your sin like David finally did, if you're weeping over your sin like Peter did, you're no apostate. Joash did not weep over his sin. Second Kings 1219 says, the rest of the acts, are they not written in the books of the Chronicles? And we come to Second Chronicles 2419. Pastor Larry read it. God sent prophets among them, that's Joash and the princess of Judah, to bring them back to the Lord. They testified against them, but they would not pay attention. I want you to know one of the most terrible sins that you can commit is the sin of ignoring the truth when you sin and justifying yourself no matter how many times God corners you by His Spirit, no matter how many Nathans or Barnabas's He sends to you. 1 John 1.8 and 1 John 1.10 are verses to take seriously. If we say we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we're justifying ourselves, I'm warning you this morning, if we say we've not sinned, we make him, that's God, a liar, and his word is not in us. It's dangerous to say I know full well what the Bible says about what I've done and what I'm doing, but though I believe the Bible from cover to cover, I believe in the sufficiency of scripture, and yet, and yet, For me, this is an exception. In my case, this is an exception. Don't go there because you're playing with fire. You're playing with fire when you hear the word of the Lord speaking to you, but ignore it. You know what the word says, but in your case, you deny it is God the Holy Spirit speaking to you. When we're sinning and we know it and we justify ourselves, that is putting God and his word to an open or a public shame. Today, God doesn't always do to us what He did to Ananias and Sapphira. That day, that one day, they were crucifying the Son of God afresh. They were putting Him to an open shame by lying to the Holy Spirit, lying to the apostles, and God said, that's it. Within three hours, three hours, two people were dead. Now, if God did that in the church today, our churches would be deprived. many sweet people. So God gives us a time when we come to the Lord's table and there before the Lord at His table we are to give up and confess and repent of our pride and our justifying spirits, our unforgiveness, our bitterness, our open moral sins, or our inner hidden sins. We're on dangerous ground if we take the Lord's Supper and don't repent. Because the scripture says, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11, 28 to 30, let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the Lord's body. eats and drinks judgment on himself. That's why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. He's not talking of apostates. He's speaking of backslidden believers who will not repent. He says you can become weak, you can become sickly, and God can even take you home early. Don't ignore God's warnings. Apostates will not confess their sins, they'll justify themselves in the face of repeated warnings from God. Number four, apostates grow bold in opposing God's authority He has set up, and as they do, they risk Joash's treachery. Look at what King Joash did in 2 Chronicles 24, 20-23. It's an incredible thing. I read it and I weep. Here is the succeeding high priest, Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, and God clothed him. The word is labesh for clothed or came upon. The word means to wrap around, to put on, to clothe, to arm, to come upon someone. in a mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit. Zechariah walked in because God sent him to the king. He sent him to give Joash one more chance, this little boy king. He sent him to one more time through the mentor's son. He sent him to say, even as in the New Testament, so he sent his own son. He sent the mentor's son and he got up and And he said, why do you break the commandment of the Lord under the anointing of God, the clothing of God, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have apostatized, you've forsaken the Lord. He has forsaken you. Wow. These priests and the people with their king, Joash, were doing what God hates. They were opposing authority. They were opposing the authority of God. Korah opposed Moses. We read about the fact that he and Dathan and Abiram were swallowed alive with their wives and children, except some of the sons of Korah wrote the Psalms, so they departed from their dad. 2 Timothy 3, 5-9 speaks of those who have the appearance of godliness, but deny its power, such as Jans and Jambres. They oppose Moses. These men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. Now, when God labels somebody, you can go with that label. Forget my labels or anyone else's labels. But when God labels you like he labels in Jude 11 to 13, Cain and Balaam and Korah, who opposed God's anointed Moses. What did he say about them? This is what he said. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts. They come to the church and have communion with you. They feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame and wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. If you're an apostate and truly are an apostate, that's a terrible place to be. You oppose authority. Now watch what happens. Zechariah, with the anointing of the Lord upon him, has told them, you've forsaken the Lord. This is your last chance. You've forsaken God. Come back. What did they do? They would not confess their sins. They opposed authority. They conspired against him. And by the command of King Joash, they stoned him with stones in the house of the Lord. Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him. But he killed his own son. And when Zechariah was dying, he said, may the Lord see and avenge. What a capstone to hell. Apostates hate God's appointed authority. Nobody's going to tell me anything. I'm in control. And when you're in control, you're in danger. You're in danger. You're in deep danger. Number five, and this is the last. Apostates finally come to a place where they quit listening to God's spirit and God's wrath falls on them. Verses 23 to 27. But first go back to verse 18. It says, And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. Now I want to tell you something that's very important to me as I read scripture. We are not children of wrath. Whatever eschatologically you believe, whatever soteriologically you believe, whatever you believe, God says His children are those He disciplines, but we're not children of His wrath. Paul says clearly in Romans 5, 9, we're justified by His blood, much more now we're saved by Him from the wrath of God. The New Testament is clear. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 says, Wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. In 1 Thessalonians 5.9 we read, For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're one of the children of God, you will not fall under the wrath of God. You'll fall under His discipline because whom the Lord loves, He disciplines and scourges every son whom He receives. Now we go back to verse 24 and see what happens. See what happens when finally apostates come to the place, no more listening. God's spirit won't always strive with Joash or anyone. God's wrath falls. We read verse 24. Though the army of the Syrians had come with just a few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army because Judah had apostatized. They had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they, that's the Syrians, executed God's judgment on Joash. Wow. There comes a time when that protecting hand is not there. God's no longer protecting Joash's life. He's wounded in battle, and he's finally conspired against and killed on his deathbed. Let's just look at it. Verse 25, when they departed from him, When Syria departed, they left Joash severely wounded. His servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and they killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. Those who conspired against him were Zabab, the son of Shimeath the Ammonite, and Jehazabad, the son of Shemrith the Moabite, accounts of his sons, and the many oracles against him. That's all of the warnings against him. And the rebuilding of the house of God are written in the story of the book of Kings. And Amaziah's son reigned in this place. What's the last word for this little boy king? Think of this little boy king who once stood by the temple pillar at age seven amid the shouts and the trumpets, amid all of the palm branches. This was a glorious day. That was the day Athaliah was deposed. What a life filled with promise and hope. He had a godly mentor that was with him for most of the 40 years of his kingship. Who would have anticipated that this young king, on whom his head had been touched with sacred anointed oil, he had had a crown placed on his head. He had been overshadowed with the testimony of Moses and the Shekinah glory of God had fallen upon him. Who would have thought this young king who made a covenant with the Lord of Hosts and who initiated the restoration of the ruined temple and brought it back to its pristine glory? Who would ever dream that his life would end in an earthquake of judgment and his achievements would be eclipsed by his ingratitude, his murderous spirit, and his apostasy? How sad that when they left him wounded, he couldn't at least die on his deathbed. But on his deathbed, an Ammonite, half Ammonite, half Moabite, two men, because of what he did to Zechariah, came in and stabbed him. Assassins stabbed him on his own bed and finished it off. God required of Joash the blood of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. May this warning about apostasy wake us up to follow Jesus all the way. E. W. Blandy, in the 19th century, a hymn writer, wrote, where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him through the judgment. I'll go with him through the garden. I'll go with him, with him all the way. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him. all the way. And what I have to ask you this morning, and it's the difference in whether you're an apostate or a true follower of God, will you go with Him all the way? All the way home? All the way in the situation you're facing right now, will you go with Him all the way? Or will you break off the mentoring? Or not allow the mentoring? Will you break off the work of God's Spirit? Will you break off what God's trying to do in your life? The question I leave with you is, will you go with Him all the way? Let's bow our heads for a moment. I just want to open the altar just very shortly. I'm not talking to apostates this morning in any primary way. I'm warning against apostasy. But I'm talking about us who are believers, true believers. If there's something God is speaking to our hearts and we know He's speaking to us and we haven't been letting Him arrest us, if God is calling you to the altar, I'm asking you to get up where you are and come to the altar right now and get right with the Lord this morning while He's speaking, while He's striving with you. Won't wait long. Any of us, God says, come to the altar this morning. I'm asking you, would you get up from where you are? I'm giving you that opportunity. Won't wait long. God's saying, get up. Go to the altar. Praise the Lord. I'll go with him. I'll go with him all the way. Would you get up? Any others? Come right now. I'll go with him all the way. I've decided to follow Jesus. Come on down. Come on down, right now. I'm asking you, would you go with him all the way? Oh, Heavenly Father, I thank you with all my heart that we can kneel together here at this altar, and we can thank you, Lord, that you are the God who forgives, and you're the God who sanctifies. And you're the God who glorifies. And you're the God who restores the years the locusts have eaten. You're the God who makes those who are men and women after your own heart, after your will. You use us greatly. Thank you, Lord, for all the times you have forgiven me. Pastor Larry, would you come down and just pray over our body and pray over us right now? The word of God that quickens us, the word of God that guides us, that enlightens us, the word of God that directs us, and also the word of God that warns us. Father, even as parents, we know how often we have to warn our children, don't do this, don't say that, don't go there. And sometimes, Father, they heed us and sometimes they don't. And then when they don't, there's discipline and there is Details that have to be worked out sometimes beyond normal consequences. Thank you for this message this morning. Lord, don't let us presume upon the mercy of God even while we pray for mercy. Don't let us walk in known disobedience and expect everything to be all right. We will surely come under your judgment. under your discipline if we play both ends against the middle. So search our hearts, O God, even as we do that this morning carefully and prayerfully. Father, we would not play church. We would come to worship you and to heed these warnings that are so very explicit and so very necessary. Apply them to my heart. Apply them to all of our hearts. We pray in the matchless name of Jesus, our loving Lord. Amen. Amen. Then the Spirit of God clothed or anointed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, thus says God, why do you break the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you. But they conspired against him, and by command of the king, they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus, Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, his mentor, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when Zechariah was dying, he said, may the Lord see and avenge. Would you bow with me for prayer? And now, Father, by your anointing and yours alone, would you Secure the truth of this passage and lodge it carefully in the hearts and minds and spirits and souls of every one of us here. Don't let us get away from here and miss the awful consequences of turning back. Teach us, for Jesus' sake.