Well, it's good to be back with you, to see friends again that I haven't seen since being back here in December last year probably, and then new faces as well. It's always really encouraging for me to come here. And so I'm grateful for the work of the Lord here and for the way that you've been receptive to Anthony and the way God has blessed that ministry. And I want to talk to you this weekend, tonight, and then both times tomorrow, we're going to be looking at a consecutive series of passages, 2 Kings 16, 18, 19, or the parallel passages that Anthony read from this morning, this just now, 2 Chronicles 28 through 32. So we're going to be kind of bouncing around and taking, getting the big picture using both. But what we're going to be looking at tonight and tomorrow really is the theme of how can a people of God, how can they maintain a closeness to Him? How can a people who are entrusted with God's name and His honor in a place like this? How can a parent over a family? How can leaders in a church? How can a Christian witness in a university? How can you walk in such a way that you will maintain a nearness to the Lord and be able to be used by God to continue to honor Him? And to look at that theme we're going to look at two different men. Tonight we're going to look at Ahaz and tomorrow we're going to look at his son Hezekiah. And while these men had a lot of similar things, they both were entrusted with leading the same group of people, they both faced the same problems, they both worked Or lived in the same home dad and son and yet there is a very distinct difference between the impact of their lives Because there was a very different response to God in the midst of all these other similar situations Now I'm really glad to be talking to you tonight about at age 50 and not talking to you at age 20 because the Lord saved me in the midst of studying for the ministry at age 20. And if I were to have talked to you about these passages in the early days of my Christianity, I probably would have talked in a different way. And if I would've talked to you 20 years ago, when we were first planning the church in New Albany, and everything was new, I probably would've talked a different way. But I'm talking to you as a person who has known the kindness of the Lord for 30 years, but I wake up every morning and see in the mirror a John Snyder that there's too much of John still there, and too little of Christ. I mean, it bothers me. And that youthful zeal that is so sure that with a few years of hard work, I'll probably be fully sanctified has long gone. And I cannot live on that any longer. I have to find a different fuel. And if I were to talk to you 20 years ago, when the church was first starting in New Albany, especially after the first few years, which were a little bumpy, and then God began to bring so many people to himself, that the church really shifted. And by the kindness of the Lord, we've not gone back. But if I'd have talked to you then, I would have talked to you from the fuel of the newness of the church plant, and I would have been so very confident. But after 20 years, I have been there long enough now that the newness has worn off, and I cannot live on that fuel. I can't pastor on that. I face a different set of temptations than really I feel like I've ever faced before in my life. I've never had a shortage of temptation, but at this age and at this stage in life, I face the temptation every morning. It's like you hear the whisper in your ear. Life is nice. The church is good. They treat you kindly. John, this is a nice place to just stop. And I have to ask myself, is this a good place to stop? I mean, have I slackened the pace? In my mind, do I expect to really press on this year? Or am I just quietly accepting the half measures that creep in as we become comfortable? So I want us to look at these two men, and Ahaz really, of course, is going to be a very negative example. So in light of what Ahaz does, we're going to have to kind of look at what he does. Three really bad things about Ahaz tonight, decisions he makes. And then we're gonna have to kind of flip them for us. If we want to maintain a walk with the Lord. I mean, God has been kind to you here. I do not think that you are an Ahaz kind of church. But there will always be that temptation. And it will not get easier as the church ages. And as the Lord continues to bless you, it will get harder not to become an Ahaz. So let's look at some things with Ahaz. Anthony read 2 Chronicles 28, which just quickly summarizes his life. If you want to see more about Ahaz, you have to look at 2 Kings 16, but for the sake of time, let me just kind of give you, let me pull them both together and give you kind of a bird's eye view of this man. Ahaz was the grandson of a very godly man, Uzziah, and then of a godly father, Jotham, and then we have Ahaz. Now Ahaz becomes king at 20 years old, When he is king, the political scene is pretty grim for Judah to the south. Israel to the north has embraced idolatry, and they're about to be judged by God. And God has raised up an empire, the Assyrians at this time. And these are the people that will exile the northern tribes. They are at the peak of their power. They're going from kingdom to kingdom as they spread. Their desire for land seems insatiable. They will soon take Israel captive because God disciplining them for their idolatry and they're heading toward Judah. Ahaz is king and sadly he immediately sets his heart towards idols. The Baals it mentions, the fertility idols that promise big and give you nothing. The high places, it says he began to build high places everywhere, that is, every scenic, beautiful place throughout Judah. He said, you know, this looks like a great place to kind of make an alternative church. He even goes so far as to outpace the paganism of the north and begins to offer child sacrifices, his own children he burns alive. And here really is the greater danger. It's not the Assyrian empire that Ahaz needs to be afraid of. It's the fact that he is constantly offending the one person he cannot afford to offend, God. And God's response is that he will allow the regional powers, not just Assyria, the big power, but even the small powers that in Israel's recent, in Judah's recent history, the kings have pushed these powers back, Philistines, Arameans, others. But now these regional powers are gaining strength and the Bible says that God himself hands Judah and Ahaz over to them. And we read in 2nd Kings 16 that Judah begins to lose territories that under godly kings they had won. And I think it's just a good time to stop and say what a heartbreaking sight it is to watch a church that by the grace of God has taken ground, but because of a carelessness, when you visit them again in five years, 10 years, you love the people still, but you have to say deep within, they're not where they used to be. Areas that once were taken for the glory of Christ have been relinquished again. Or what about an individual? You see them come to Christ. So much changes in their life. But as the years go along, perhaps they become careless. And then you go and visit them and you see that they've taken steps backward in sanctification. They've become careless again. Well, this is the state of Judah. And it may appear, of course, that it's a primarily political problem, that these other areas, their armies have grown and Judah hasn't, but really, really, the Bible's very clear. Look at 2 Chronicles 28, verse 19, that this is a moral problem. Verse 19 says, for the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz, king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah. and was very unfaithful to the Lord." Now, if we take the king's account, we learn that this is more than just a political problem for Ahaz, alright? It is a very personal problem. Here's what's happening. Israel to the north and the Arameans, which we could also call them the Syrians, alright? Israel and the Arameans get together. And they're looking at the scene, and they're watching Assyria sweep across nation after nation, and we're gonna talk about this tomorrow. They can legitimately say no nation has stood against our armies, and no God has ever delivered any people out of our hands. I mean, that's one of the arguments they lay before Hezekiah. Of course, the problem is that their theology's bad. They have never actually met a God until they come to Judah. Well, Ahaz, he's bothered by this and so are the other powers. And Israel and the Arameans, they get together and the two kings decide that if the regional smaller powers will only band together, then this confederacy could stand against, or at least be a deterrent against the Assyrian armies. So they come and they have a meeting with Ahaz, Judah. And Ahaz just doesn't have any confidence in this plan. He thinks it's sure to fail. So he doesn't want anything to do with any alliance against the Assyrians. Now when he refuses to join the alliance of the Israelites and the Arameans, then the Israelites and the Arameans decide that the first thing they need to do for their political stability is to go conquer Judah to the south and to personally kill Ahaz and his family and put one of their men on the throne. They don't really want to rule Judah, they just want a man on the throne of Judah that will be cooperative. So that's where we find Ahaz in 2 Kings 16, We find Israel and the Arameans coming to attack him. Now, does Ahaz repent? Because that really is what it's all about. The reason that Israel and the Arameans are there is not primarily because they're afraid of the Assyrians, it's primarily because God is going to humble Judah for her idolatry. So when things get really bad, as Ahaz embraces idolatry and spreads it through the land, does he stop and say, as has happened in the past, what have I done? I've abandoned the living God for these empty idols? No. He hopes in a more practical solution. He goes to the treasury of the temple, and then he goes to the treasury of the palace, and he buys off, he sends a bribe to the Assyrian king. And he says to him, look, I'm with you. I'm not with these guys. I mean, you know what they're trying to do, and I've refused, and that's why I'm in trouble. So if I were to give you this money, perhaps you would come and rescue me from Israel and the Arameans. And for a time it appears that this works. The bribe is accepted and the Assyrian armies come and Israel is conquered and the Arameans are conquered. But having done that, having gotten so close to Judah, the king of Assyria decides that there's no use not bringing them fully on board. And so he really subjects them to his nation. And so while he doesn't conquer them with his armies, he lets it be known that they're under his thumb. And they then, from that point forward, will have to pay a tribute each year. And we read in these passages that Ahaz goes to the temple And he begins to disassemble parts of the temple and take the semi-precious metals from there and from the palace. He has to kind of deconstruct a lot of that and he sends the bronze off to Assyria. So the scriptural scene closes on the life of Ahaz. Judah has run after idols. Their old enemies are once again powerful. They have lost territory that they gained before. They are under the Assyrian rule, and God himself has become the adversary of his people. Well, that's the picture. Now, the rest of the time tonight, we're just gonna look at these three big lessons, okay? So, lesson number one. It is easy to read this kind of a thing. in a church building and to say, wow, what a dumb guy Ahaz is, you know? I mean, it's a no-brainer. And it's easy to read this and say, we would never do that. But listen, the pragmatism of Ahaz is natural to every one of us. It's like our ingrained religion. And if you are not careful, as a church, you will make Ahaz-like decisions without ever recognizing that you look like Ahaz. And as families, you will make Ahaz-like decisions that you would never think were Ahaz-like, and as an individual. When things really get hard in church, when you look at your family and your children are breaking your heart, they're not the four and five-year-olds that you're chasing in circles and telling them to quit stealing toys from each other, but now they're in their late teens or their early 20s, and they're making decisions that could destroy their life, and they don't love the Lord that you love. and you don't know what to do, and there's so many temptations. We need to add something to Christ. Jesus plus this will fix my kids. Jesus plus this will fix our church. Jesus plus will satisfy my own soul. Countless enemies, drifting friends, distracted heart, paralyzed by a disillusioned and despairing soul and you don't know what to do. It's so very easy to be Ahaz-like and to begin to search about for something to add to God. Well, let's look at these three things that I hope when we see what Ahaz does we can avoid those and not become that. The first is Ahaz failed in part because of his enormous ignorance of God and God's ways. In spite of the fact that his grandfather and father were godly, Ahaz has rejected the God of his parents. And in spite of the fact that he has the scriptures, Ahaz has rejected the account of God's ways. And I wonder, have you ever considered how ignorance, alright, Well-meaning ignorance. People that say, well, I love Jesus and we're so glad we have the elders here and they make careful decisions. And well, why does your church do things like that? Well, Pastor Anthony says it's the right way. You know, do you say that? And you're ignorant of the ways that God responds to his people. Have you ever considered that ignorance of God's ways, the big picture of how God deals with his people, can paralyze any hope of really seeking him or repenting? One of the things I think really that we rarely read about in Christian books, in modern Christian books, good modern Christian books, is how to back up and look at the big picture of God's ways. Now we think about God's character, and that is fundamental, but there's also the issue of God's ways. How does God act? What does God do? There are plenty of books on understanding our present culture and how our present culture responds to our claims about Christ, but I find there are very few books written on how to understand the heavenly culture. How does God act in response to our lives? Understanding how God responds to his people in different situations is so critical for a church. It's so critical for parents. It's so critical for the individual Christian. If we don't understand the activity of God, then we often misunderstand. We have a complete, we have a wrong interpretation, wrong diagnosis of our present situation. And then we can spend a lot of time in a well-meaning attempt to correct things, but having gotten a wrong diagnosis, our prognosis, our cure is wrong. Now if you look back in church history you can see this happening particularly in times of God's disciplining of people and we find a lot of negative but a lot of positive examples. Let me give you an example from church history, 18th century America. In the 18th century America, so we kind of think of the George Washington time and the colonies and before and after the Revolutionary War. Maybe you have in your mind this idea, and you could be forgiven for having this because of so many of the things that have been said about that era, that everyone was godly, and that everyone went around and, you know, they dressed weird, but they loved Jesus. But in fact, it was a time of pretty serious moral decline, and God intervened there. But other than the intervention of God, things were not so bright. It was a day in which the official view of many churches and denominations was this, that your pastor did not need to be born again in order to be a good pastor. Now, he needed to be moral, and he needed to understand the Bible, and he needed to work hard and do the marriages and do the funerals and show up on Sundays, but he did not have to have the new birth to be a pastor. Now, that seems to us quite crazy. I know that we have unregenerate men who think they're born again. I mentioned to you that two years into studying for the ministry, I was aware that I was a fake, I was a fraud. But I wouldn't have said to you, well, you don't need to be born again. But they did think that. There was a drift toward liberalism and Arminianism. Jonathan Edwards mentioned that whole towns would have days of fasting and prayer because ministers in the town were starting to depart from what they had always believed was a right biblical view. There was a dead orthodoxy that set in so that when men like Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield preached the gospel, with real fervor and people were converted and it wasn't like a cemetery where everything was in its right place and things were alive. More like a nursery and they could get messy and these preachers said, well, we want nothing to do with that. And while they claimed to be Orthodox, they were dead. And even in the latter part of the century, after the Great Awakening, we read that in Yale and the other schools that men studying for the ministry started reading the French writers because of the French helping us out in the Revolutionary War. So, being college kids, they thought that was cool to be counter-cultural, so they read the French guys. And the French guys are atheists, and they start becoming atheists. Now, the difference between our day and that day, because we look around and say, oh, things are bad. Well, things are bad today, but the 18th century guys looked around and said, oh, things are bad, and things were bad that day. But the difference between us and them is this. that there was a biblical literacy in place in the churches at that time, that they knew what to do when things were bad. And for the most part, the American evangelical does not know what to do when things are bad because they do not have a right diagnosis. And like Ahaz, being ignorant of the way that God deals with a drifting people, they completely misread the situation to the point that their response is wasted. Now Ahaz doesn't understand God. He offends God and then God responds with a gracious judgment. And in that situation, you know, he withdraws his wonderful presence and his protection and his activity, and he hands them over to old enemies. And not understanding the ways of God, Ahaz is left to two conclusions. God doesn't care about us anymore. I mean, here we are, we're the people of God, and we're under the thumb of everyone else. I don't think God cares. Or, God is no longer capable. So, an uncaring God and an incapable God. God can't do what He used to do. I mean, we read about God in the days of Abraham, or Moses, or David, but when I look around, I don't see God able to do that anymore. So, the only option left to this idolatrous man is just to add more idols. I have Jehovah. I mean, He's our official God, but now we'll need these guys here, and the more gods, the better. I think that is a wonderful explanation, even though it's bitter. of the modern evangelical movement in our country. We have been drifting from the God of the Bible. We have offended him in many ways. And God has lovingly disciplined us. He has just kind of done with the American church what he did with Ahaz. He has, in many areas, he has just kind of left us to ourselves. And then the old enemies rise up. And we become a weightless voice again. and under the discipline of God, American evangelicals not really having studied, particularly the Old Testament, but it's throughout the New Testament as well, not understanding what's happening. When things get worse, because God is disciplining us from love, we come to the same two conclusions that Ahaz did, God might not care about us anymore. God might not be capable of handling this situation. And so, like Ahaz, we're left with this conclusion. We need Jesus plus. Jesus plus will fix the dwindling church. Jesus plus will fix my marriage. Jesus plus will fix my teenage kids. Jesus plus will fix me. Have you ever been there? Are you clear about the way God acts toward his people? Now you don't have to read revival history, really it would be better to go to the scripture. Let me get you to look at a couple passages with me. Hosea chapter five is one of the clearest, in verse 13. Hosea five in verse 13. The prophet explains to Israel what's happening. Why are things so bad? And of course the reason is that they have offended God, like an adulterous wife. We're familiar with the whole picture there. But that's Israel's behavior, but what about God's behavior? And he describes God's behavior. And this might be somewhat of a shock to some of us if we've not taken these passages seriously. Hosea 5, verse 13, when Ephraim saw his wickedness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jerob. But he is unable to heal you or to cure you of your wound. You see the picture. My people look at their lives. Their lives are hard, but instead of going to God, they go to Assyria. All right. Then he goes on to say this, for I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I even I will tear to pieces and go away. I will carry away and there will be none to deliver. I will go away and return to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their affliction, they will earnestly seek me. This is quite a shocking picture. God is like a lion, not to the enemy of Israel, but to the Israelite, who because of their sin, they are under judgment. And because of their ignorance, they go somewhere else rather than going to God. And so God says, I will come and tear. And I will then leave you until you look around and shake yourself and say, where is he? and then seek me. Isaiah 63, turn there, we'll look at another example of a passage that describes this kind of loving behavior of God. Isaiah chapter 63, verse 11. Again, Israel is drifting and we jump right into passage in verse 11. Then his people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Now, when things are bad, because they're sinning and God is judging them, they pick up their Bibles and they read the story of Moses like you would. And they think, wait, what I see today doesn't look like the God of Moses. So they start to ask some questions. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them? Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name? Who led them through the depths like the horse in the wilderness? They did not stumble. As the cattle which go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. You, so you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see from your holy and glorious habitation. Where are your zeal and your mighty deeds? The stirrings of your heart and your compassion are restrained toward me. For you are our father, though Abraham does not recognize us and Israel does not recognize us. And you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer, from of old is your name. Why, O Lord, do you cause us to stray from your ways and harden our heart from fearing you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Your holy people possessed your sanctuary for a little while. Our adversaries have trodden it down. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who were not called by your name." You see the questions there? We look around, we compare the life under the discipline of God, and we read our Bibles, and then we say, where did he go? Where is his zeal? Doesn't he even care? Does he not have the normal fatherly feelings toward his church any longer? Where is his strength, his great deeds? Has he grown weak? Why did he let us go so far into sin? Why is it we don't even look like we were a people that were ever ruled by him? You think it's only Old Testament. We look at Revelation 3. You don't have to turn there. You know the account. Laodicean church has become lukewarm toward God. Christ is outside the church. He is judging his church. He has withdrawn that sweet awareness of his presence and his pleasure with his people, and his activity seems withdrawn. And though he is omnipresent, that intimacy is lost, and he's on the outside of the church telling them if they will repent, he will return, and the sweet friendship will be restored. Now this is important for every church. Think of how you can misinterpret what's happening and come up with the wrong solution. So let me just give you a couple common ones. Evangelism. We look around and we say, well, evangelism in our churches are ineffective. It's ineffective. So obviously we need a new gimmick. We need a new method. But do you? Now ask yourself. Do we have God at work in our midst? Is He near us? Are we walking with Him? If you are walking with God, and you are enjoying that intimacy with your Savior, and your evangelism is ineffective, then I think it's a good time to stop and say, are we doing what the Lord told us to do? I mean, maybe we need to rethink that. But if you are a part of a drifting people and your evangelism is ineffective, then I don't think that the place to start is with revamping our methods, but rather asking God, God, why are you so distant? I mean, without God in our midst, our evangelism isn't effective. I know that we can fill a building, but the people that we're filling it with aren't being transformed. Think about a worship service. People come to church and they say, well, I don't really like this worship service. It's kind of boring. And they look for somewhere more exciting. Or they come to the preacher with a list of options that he might improve it. They say, well, you could do this or this. Or actually, at our old church, we preferred it this way. Now, if you are walking with the Lord, In that constant, that sweet interchange of communion where there's repentance and faith constantly flowing out of our life and God is giving himself to us and we are giving ourselves to him. And your worship is genuinely a boring place, then I think that you probably should stop and ask yourself, are we doing this right? But if God has been offended and has withdrawn himself, then church without God is always a drag. I cannot tell you how many books in seminary I was told to read that explained how to make church exciting, but the church that we had to make exciting was a church that God had quit attending. It's important for personal application too. What about you? Have you drifted? You belong to a careful church. That doesn't mean you're not drifting. I'm a pastor of a church that God has been very careful with, but I have drifted at times. And just because God is being kind to you as a group doesn't mean that your life is pleasing to him. Are you drifting? Has the pace slackened? Are you distracted? Is the scripture, not when someone preaches it so much, but when it's just you and God, because that's really where it starts to show up first, is your meeting with God in the word dry? Is your prayer time, personal prayer time, non-existent? I don't mean that you don't still attend the corporate prayer time, and maybe even lead out in prayer. And people say things, wonderful things about your prayer, and people think that you're really walking with the Lord, but if you were honest, you would say, when I get alone with God, I'm slow to approach the mercy seat and quick to get out of there. Well, you might say, well, I don't know, I need to go to a new church. Well, is that what you need to do? I need a new Bible. I tell you, I have so many Bibles on my bookshelf from that stupid answer. I think, I need a new Bible. I need a new translation. That would probably really, that would, you know, fall on my heart. What if it's the distance of the Lord because I've unknowingly offended Him and I've drifted and He's been judging me? And if I'm not careful, I will respond wrongly. I'll think, well, God doesn't care about me. God doesn't care about my kids. God doesn't care about my marriage. God doesn't care about our church. And I don't think God can do what He used to do. And that's what Ahaz did. So he just added to God, other gods. And you'll be tempted to add to Jesus. Church is nice, Christianity is nice, but I have Jesus plus now and that's better. But if we want to be a church that continues to honor the Lord and stays on the track that God has given you so graciously, really so almost uniquely, then one thing you'll have to do is determine that you will get to know the ways of God so that when God allows your life to be difficult, you won't think it's because he doesn't love you. The truth is what? The truth for Ahaz was this. Ahaz, God loves his people, and God is very active. That's why you're so miserable. And sometimes that's the truth for us. Second big thing about Ahaz that he got wrong, and it really follows on the first, and that is this. When things got difficult because of his sin and God judging him, he chooses to add idols to God, but the idols he chooses, astonishingly, are the failed gods of the culture around him, not the successful gods. We're not saying this, Ahaz was unfaithful to God because he had a wicked, unbelieving heart, and he grabbed hold of some other really good things, and they pretty much worked for him. We're saying this, Ahaz was a wicked man who did not love God and did not believe God, and so he went to idols, and the ones he picked were the worst. I mean, they'd already failed. Let me read you again from 2 Chronicles 28, verse 22. Now in the time of his distress, this same King Ahaz became yet more unfaithful to the Lord, for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which had defeated him. And he said, because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they will help me. but they became the downfall of him and of all Israel. Now this is, if you read the second king's account, this is really quite shocking. I told you that he bribed the Assyrians and so the Assyrians come and they conquer the Arameans and the Israelites. Now he goes to the capital of the Arameans, which is Damascus, which is far north. So he travels all the way north And he meets the king of Assyria, who has now kind of set up temporary court in Damascus, at the capital city of the Arameans, who he has just conquered. And so he goes there, and he meets the Assyrian king. And they have their political talks, now that he's kind of under their thumb. And while he's in Damascus, which is not the Assyrian capital, but the loser's capital, the Aramean capital, he sees an ornate, giant, beautiful altar at their temple. And he says to himself, wow, that's great. Second Chronicles tells us that he's thinking this way. Now the Arameans whooped me because their God helped them. So if I were to add their god to my list of idols that I've already got, well, he'll help me. Apparently, his thinking doesn't go very far because he doesn't say to himself this, but the Aramean god got whooped by the Assyrians. So I don't think I really want the loser. I mean, if you're going to be a pagan, ask the Assyrians which church they go to, not the Arameans. So he takes the Aramean altar and he sends a blueprint. down to Judah, where the high priest is told, make me an altar just like this, and I will worship the Aramean God on an altar just like this. And so before he gets back home, the priests sadly cooperate, and there's this beautiful Aramean altar, And the altar that was the altar to the Lord that God designed and put there has been moved around the back of the building because Ahaz says, now don't throw that one away, keep it around the back of the building, I may want to inquire of Jehovah, so I'll need that altar. But put the Aramean altar right in the front. It's amazing that he chose the ruined gods, the defeated gods that failed their own worshipers to replace Jehovah. It does remind us of Jeremiah 2, doesn't it? Be appalled, O heavens, and shudder, and be desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Now, do you recognize that approach in the American evangelical scene? Do you recognize that approach in your family or in you? The church embraces the discarded, failed schemes of the culture, whether it's self-help or what else, baptizes it, puts a lot of Christian language around it, brings it into the church, publishes it, promises it will now help us even though we willfully close our eyes to the fact that it didn't help the world and the world has gotten rid of it. If you want to know, I mean, barring a great work of Mercy of the Lord, if you want to know what the American evangelical scene will look like in five years, just look at what the world looks like now. What are they really excited about now? Well, in five years, they'll be done with it, and the American evangelicals will pick it up. Now we criticize the world for its empty schemes and its false fillers, and we rant and rave at them, and they really don't have any time for us, and I don't blame them in some ways because we do the same thing. I don't mean as churches, I mean as individuals. Now, I know that we clean it up a little, but how many times would I look in the mirror and say, John Snyder, you are chasing after the same thing that the lost man chases after, and that your shame is so infinitely greater because you have Christ, and you don't need their empty cisterns. You're living near a fountain of water that just keeps pouring out, and instead you walk over to the mud puddle with them. I know you're being careful as a church, but what about as families? I have long ago found out that it's easy to be careful for a few hours a week. You know what I mean? I mean, we show up at church on Sunday, and I do try to be very careful. The things we sing, the things we pray, the things that are taught, the books that we read. I mean, we are very careful that these are the best things we can do, the most God-honoring that I can understand. But that only takes a few hours a week. It is much different for John Snyder to guide his family in a way that honors the Lord because that's all week long. What about you? It's hard for a parent to hold a course and not to add something to Jesus when your children are breaking your heart or your marriage is on the rocks. Do you use the cleaned up versions of the world's idols to satisfy you? As an individual, do you go to the same failed gods of the culture? In 2 Kings, when it describes Ahaz, it says this right off. So he gives himself to idols, the very idols of the nations that God drove out. I mean, we hear that phrase, that description is used throughout the Old Testament. These people once had the land. You remember under the time of Joshua, they were driven out of the land because they worshiped these idols. And why would you go back to those idols? But the shocking thing is that he does meet in Damascus, right at the capital of the loser, and he chooses their God. Well, this leads us to a third grievous sin of Ahaz, and I think that this is worse than the other two, but it is the unavoidable consequence of them. There is an unbreakable link. If you don't understand the ways of God, and you offend him, and he begins to judge you, And you think it's because he doesn't care, or he's not capable, then you will have to find some way to fill the gap with idols. And you will choose the idols of your culture. I mean, none of us are going to be tempted with Babylonian idols, or Iranian idols, or Russian idols. But you'll be tempted with American idols, and they will have already failed their worshipper. But the third thing is this. Ahaz refused the hope of these Christocentric promises that came his way. Now, you can't see it in 2 Kings, and you can't see it in 2 Chronicles, but if you go to the book of Isaiah, so turn to Isaiah chapter 7, I want to take you to a Christmas passage, all right? But I want to put it in its proper context. God sends Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 7. Isaiah is the prophet who's alive during the time of Ahaz and then Hezekiah. God sends Isaiah over to Ahaz. Now do you see the extraordinary mercy here. It's not just that God would talk to a man. It's that God would send his man to such a pagan man who has refused God, refused to pay attention to the judgments, has constantly embraced idol after idol, and the worse things got, the worse his idolatry gets. But God still sends him a message. And Isaiah shows up, and the other astonishing thing is that he doesn't show up to tell him, you're in hot water with God. I mean, he doesn't give them the message of Jonah, repent or God will destroy you. But he gives them a message of hope. Now, this is a message that's pretty hard to believe when you're surrounded by enemies. And so he even goes further and God says, tell wicked, unbelieving Ahaz that he can ask for any sign. Make it as high as the heavens or as low as Sheol, as the grave. You don't often find God talking this way. I can't remember another place. Oftentimes people will say to God, well, how do I know you're telling me the truth? And it offends God. And sometimes God is merciful, like with Gideon. God, how do I, is it really you saying this? Will you please let me put out the fleece? But here God says this. Tell this wicked man, ask anything. I'll move heaven and earth to prove to him that it's me talking. Let's look at the passage. Says this, then the Lord spoke, in verse, I think it's verse 10. Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, this is through Isaiah, saying, ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God. He's already told him he's gonna deliver him from his enemies. Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God. Make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, now look at this, look at this religious man. I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. Sounds really holy, doesn't he? Then he said, Isaiah said, listen now, O house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you will try the patience of my God as well? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Here's the sign, guys. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. Now, This is one of the brightest expressions of mercy that I know in all of the Bible, because it's in such a dark spot. Ask any sign. I'm going to rescue you. I know you don't believe me. Ask any sign. Oh, I don't need a sign. Why doesn't he need a sign? Because he's so faithful? Because he believes? No, because he doesn't believe at all. Why bother ask a sign from a God that you don't think can do anything? No, no, thanks preacher. It's kind of like when your marriage is on the rocks and someone comes to you and says, look, this is the path for the believer. Now you've embraced Christ. Here's the way. And you say, now that's really nice. All that Bible talk, but you don't understand. My wife and I are about to break up. You know, the family's about to be destroyed. I need more than that. Your church is shrinking. Someone comes to you and points you through scripture back to God and you say, you know, preacher, thanks. I mean, I know you're supposed to talk that way. You're paid to be religious. And on Sunday mornings, that's pretty appropriate. But Monday morning, we need something more than that. How many times have you been in a really difficult place because of your own sin and God has so mercifully come to you? and just shot a gospel arrow to you again, and there's Christ again, and you say really quietly so no one hears you, you know, thanks, but no thanks, God. This is too big for Jesus. I mean, I know that religion's good, but I need something practical. Are you tempted to that? Let me ask you just a couple questions, because that would be a hard question to answer, honestly. Let me ask you this, which grips you more, the problems in your family, your church, your workplace, spiritual problems, your own soul? I'm talking to the Christian. Which grips you more, these heartbreaking problems and struggles or the extraordinary promises to you attached to the new covenant work of Christ? Well, that's kind of hard to answer. Let me give you another question. What do you spend more time thinking about? The problems that are in your life and how you're going to fix them. Do you ever write speeches in your mind? Do you know what I mean? Like, there's a problem you have to deal with. Like, I do this all the time as a pastor. I remember living in Wales. Vernon Hyam, the pastor of the church where I attended, told me, he said, I write speeches. I thought, what are you talking about, you write speeches? Now I know what he's talking about. I'm not able, you know, I need to have a talk with so-and-so, I won't be able to have it for a few days, and man, I'm just like ground up under this horrible thought that we're gonna have to have this talk, and it's a hard talk, and I write my little speeches. Guys, I do not find it an effortless thing to be more in the grip of the promises connected to Christ than I am in the grip of the problems that are around me. I rarely I'm sad to say, but I rarely wake up and find myself just naturally in the grip of those promises. I have to say to myself, John, stop. Look at these realities that don't change, and go and look at the gospel again. It doesn't get easy, as I said, it doesn't get easier for a church as you get older, the newness wears off, the problems seem to mount up, and you ask, is Christ enough? And there's all this wonderful stuff that your pastors are telling you, but are you going to live on it? It doesn't get easier as a family. You have kids when they're little, you got it all together, you've been to the family conferences, you've read the books, you're sure that in 18 years they're all gonna be missionaries, and they're not. It doesn't get easier as an individual when the enemy points out to you, you know, and there's enough truth in there for it to stick that there's still so much of you that's not like Christ? Now, we could ask this question. Okay, so what's the big deal? And you say, well, I know what the big deal is. I mean, Israel's destroyed and Judah's, you know, in trouble. Well, think about this. How do they fund plan B? Okay, Jesus plus, or God plus these idols. And in our day, Jesus plus these things for family, for church, for me. How do you fund it? I mean, you can do it, so how are you gonna fund it? Well, it's always the same thing. In those passages, it's very clear. He goes over to the temple, and he starts tearing it apart, and he sends money off to pay off his schemes. Plan B is always funded by robbing God. It's pretty clear in the church scene that we're in. Church is not growing. We need a plan B. We go to some modern fertility idol that promises it'll grow our church, and serious preaching is sold off, and short, uplifting psychological talks are embraced, and God is robbed, and the prayer meeting is stripped to make room for fellowships, pottery classes, weight loss groups, community. As a family, you feel the strain, you make the wrong choice, you start to add something to Jesus for you, and you notice that you have to rob God to do it, and so you're not here as consistently as you were. I mean, you can look around. I know you're here. You can look around and say, well, I thought so-and-so would be here. They're not here, and they're not here. And there are families that are hurting, but instead of turning back to the Lord, they rob the Lord, they fill their lives up with other things to kind of sedate themselves, and they're not here. As an individual, you back off the pace, scripture, prayer, fellowship, because you're filling up on the world. One of the saddest things about the whole passage is found in 2 Kings 16, verse seven, where God's Chosen King Ahaz turns to the Assyrian king and says, I am your servant, your son. But how much sadder for the Christian, the parent with a broken heart, to despair and instead of crying out to God again, you turn to the world and you say, I'm your servant, your son. or the church that's shrinking to turn to the world and to say, I'm your servant, your son, rescue me. But it happens all the time. How can you not be like this and then we're finished? Well, really it's simple. If you don't want to be a pragmatist like Ahaz, if you don't want to make these decisions that look very practical but really are very ungodly and destructive, You need to understand that pragmatism grows out of a certain soil, all right? Pragmatism can grow in a good church, in a good family, in a Christian soul, by just having these elements. You need a lot of care. I mean, you do really care. You care about souls, you care about your kids, you care about your marriage, you care about your own soul and how it's doing. And then you have problems. Well, we all have that. and then add one more element and you have pragmatism, you have a little view of your God. And you wouldn't ever say it, but you just don't think he's gonna be enough. So I think that the way to avoid that is not to go get a book on 10 steps not to be an Ahaz, but that you determine that tomorrow morning or tonight when you get home that you're going to throw the Bible open and shut yourself in a room after you get the kids to bed or whatever and to say to God, God, I have Embraced such low views of you that I feel the temptations that we were talking about tonight And I see too too often that I've done that Jesus plus so I'm asking you to enlarge my scanty thought of you Until I'm in such in the grip of who you are that I just can't imagine Making the choices a has made not because I'm such a great person but because who would do it with a God like you but specifically I would get myself acquainted with God in the person and work of Christ. The Ahaz rejected. Ahaz, ask any sign. Oh, I don't need signs, I'm fine. Well, you wicked man, here's the sign, even though you don't want it. I am sending one who will rescue, Emmanuel. What if you go home and you determine that in the rest of this year and into the next year you make it a special study for your own soul to become well acquainted with the small print of the new covenant. Every aspect, every one of those strange religious words that you may not even know what they mean. Here's propitiation, here's justification, sanctification, glorification, regeneration. What is all of this? What is a covenant of grace? And you just, like a little child, come to the Father, and you put your hand in His, and you say to Him, teach me. I want to know every aspect of the person and work of my Savior, so that my soul will not be tempted with the empty idols that Ahaz's soul was tempted with. Well, the Lord will help us, and He will be kind, and His mercies are new today. And tomorrow we'll look at Hezekiah, who did just that. Let's pray. Our gracious King, we need you. We are grateful that we are able to call you the I Am. You are the timeless God. You are everywhere. We are grateful to read what you did in the past, but that is not enough. We are grateful to read what you will one day do. But God, we cannot live on that alone. It is today that we need you. Forgive us for our proud, drifting hearts. Forgive us if we have fallen in love with the world's failed gods. Be merciful to us, God. Remember the honor of Jesus Christ. Do not let us choose the path of Ahaz. Conquer us again and captivate our hearts with the altogether lovely one. We ask it in his name and for his honor, amen.