And our last psalm Luke will be Psalm 1, 1-4. After the preaching of the Word of God, Brother Alan Binney will lead us in prayer. We turn in the Word of God to 2 Chronicles 36. John Owen wrote, Sin always aims at the utmost. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could. Every covetous desire would be oppression. Every thought of unbelief would be atheism. The verses that we read here in 2 Chronicles 36, 1-14 illustrates that aim for you, how sin aims At the utmost, it is a solemn demonstration of the ruin that sin brings. It always brings trouble, but it always aims for the worst possible outcome. Paul, in one of his epistles, warns of holding faith, which some, having put away, have made shipwrecked, to make shipwreck of our lives. And he then names Hymenaeus and Alexander, two examples of those who have made shipwreck. So we look then at this section under the heading spiritual shipwreck. Spiritual shipwreck. We know first of all in verses one to four, sin and slaves. Jehoahaz has made king without any ceremony. It's a matter of fact account. You know, things have deteriorated so far that The writer in Chronicles no longer even describes any ceremony of any took place. He's there. Three months later, he's gone. He's replaced. Significantly, it is Egypt who is in view. Now, it doesn't matter why or how this comes about. You know, the writer doesn't say, well, all the international political scene was like this and like that, and this is how it came about that Egypt is in a position to dominate and so on. Because none of that matters. It's enough to simply tell you Egypt is running things. And that's the significant point. Notice, first of all, Egypt's presence in verse three. The king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem. And secondly, Egypt's power and condemned the land and 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. So here is Judah. Where is Judah? Judah is in the land of Canaan. And yet, they are enslaved to Egypt. In other words, things have gotten so bad that Egypt, from whom they were delivered, is now in Canaan, enslaving the Lord's people. And no one in this section rises up expressing alarm. So that's alarming, isn't it? Where are the priests and the prophets? Where are the Levites? And there's a complete silence. Their great absence, we might say. That's significant. Have they all suddenly disappeared? They've all just gone missing. What you see is the direction of travel that sin is on. That's what's described to you. And it's illustrated all for you also in Numbers 11. And often we've had to turn to Numbers, Numbers 11. Verse four, and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a last thing, and the children of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. See what they've done. They have reinterpreted the past. Suddenly the past is so wonderful. Now why anyone would want to be eating garlic and onions and leeks and cucumbers, well that's beyond me anyway, but there it is, but you see what is happening. They're reinterpreting the past. There's no mention of the slavery. No mention of all that has been going on as slaves. But now Egypt is a land of plenty. And further, they vilify God's provision. There is nothing at all beside this manna before us. And of course, Dathan and the barren did the same when you go to number 16 and verse 13. Is it a small thing that thou has brought us up out of the land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Egypt, the land of milk and honey? Now that's where they're actually going to, but you see again what is happening. They have reinterpreted the past and they are vilifying the promise. The path of their own is to the promise to kill us in the wilderness. 2 Chronicles 36, we read that Egypt condemned the Lamb. The word condemned is also translated punished. So here is Egypt has extended its power to govern Judah. It enslaves Judah in the land of Canaan. And Egypt, of course, replaced and renamed They made Eliakim his brother king and turned his name to Jehoiakim. So Egypt can do what it likes, as it pleases. And not a voice is raised in opposition. Sin enslaves. Secondly, verses 5 to 8, bondage illustrated. Egypt is bad, that is true, but worse comes in the form of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar arrives. In Providence we say this, an evil kingdom replaces an evil kingdom. That's Providence. Egypt was evil. The Lord raised up Babylon, raised up Nebuchadnezzar, directed him to where he came, and he threw us out of Egypt. And we read that Jehoiakim reigns 11 years. But one sentence defines that reign for you. Verse five, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord as God. And what is the result? The result is verses 6 and 7. Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon. If paying Egypt was bad, this is, in fact, worse. Here is a glimpse of Judah's future. And that's a mercy in a sense, isn't it? That's a kindness. Because even at this late stage, there is time to seek the Lord. It's bad, it's getting worse, but we're not quite at the end. Though given the construction of this chapter, you know, there's, it just seems to be like a mad dash to get to judgment. A rush to ruin I think one commentator calls it. And so what is illustrated? Bondage in Babylon and pillaging the temple in verse 7. Carried off the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his temple at Babylon. I suppose we might say let's listen to Nebuchadnezzar singing. What's he singing? Praise Marduk, from whom all blessings flow. Jehovah lost and I can glow. You know, that's the kind of, that's the message. That's why he puts him in his temple. What's he saying? He's saying Jehovah has lost. I'm in charge and my gods are in charge. But why is it all happening? Is there hope in Jehoiachin? Verse 9. Well, we read in verse 8, the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the abominations which he did and that which was found in him, behold they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and so on. Is there any cry to God? You know, whenever this present providence began, there was pressure or lobbying, asking for a day of humiliation, a day of prayer across the nation. And of course, all those who ruled, all dismissed it as an irrelevance. Well, here's an illustration. set before these people of what the future can be like. Is there a call to prayer? Is there a cry to God? No, life carries on. We might put it this way. The Egyptian variant did nothing. The Babylonian variant does nothing either. And the present variant, of course, using the letters, the Greek letters of the alphabet, is O. And that's why it's called what it's called. But, you know, there's the V and the B, we might say, here's these two variants, and it's doing absolutely nothing. But the message of both is judgment has begun. That's the message. And Judah carries on. Business as usual. Life goes on. What can happen next? Well, thirdly, verses nine to 10, ruin arrives. Here we come to Jehoiakim, eight years old when he began to live. Is this a new Josiah? Is there hope with this man? The answer is no. He lasts three months and 10 days. I love that extra 10 days that he got. You know, it's as if God is saying to these people, are you really so blind? Not even an extra 10 days can make any difference to you. And in a single swift move, he is deported and replaced. And once again, the temple is robbed and plundered. But what is significant here is the speed and the ease by which Babylon works. Who is there to stop Babylon? Is there anyone, is there any power can stop Babylon? Judah, you see, has no one and nothing. You know, when God abandons, shall we say, a people, there is no one and nothing to defend them. When God takes away his protection, then Babylon shall do as it pleases. And in the construction of this section, as I said a moment ago, it's just a series of hammer blows. You know, three months, bang, he's gone. 11 years, gone. Three months, 10 days, gone. And that pattern, that historical sequence of months and years and months, The message is being hammered home to them. You're almost on the verge of complete judgment. You're getting there, yet still they do not stop, still they do not cry, still they do not listen. Ruin arrives. Fourthly, verses 11 to 14, without excuse. Without excuse. Here is God's verdict, an explanation for it all. Zedekiah encapsulates everything that is wrong. First, he neglected or rejected the Word. humbled not himself before Jeremiah, the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. Jeremiah. You know, there's been no mention of any prophet the last three reels. Here is Jeremiah, the most remarkable preacher of his day. The most remarkable preacher of his generation. Now Jeremiah's ministry, as you know, covers the end of Josiah's reign right through to Zedekiah. So Zedekiah had Jeremiah in particular and he did not listen. He rejected the word. Secondly, he broke his promise. Verse 13, he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. Now, Nebuchadnezzar, he knew enough to make Zedekiah swear, to take an oath using the name of Jehovah. He knew enough. And this is where you know that atheists are actually smarter than we often give them credit for. Because what they say is, if you believe what you teach, then we know what the outcome is. But Senecaia didn't believe, even though he took the oath. Does Zedekiah believe the promises he makes before God? No. So he rebelled. And thirdly, he hardened his heart. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning on to the Lord God of Israel. So the very last king they had hardens his heart. He deliberately set himself against Jehovah. In other words, here is another Pharaoh. There's not one bit of difference between Zedekiah and Pharaoh. And at this point, verse 14, you get a theological explanation. The theological explanation is twofold. One, morally. They lost their distinctiveness. All the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen. In other words, they had reached a point where they were no different from anybody else. They embraced and they practiced abomination. You know, when we heard David Cameron and others after him boasting of how they would become world champions for sodomy across the world and so on, what were they saying? We're no different than all the godless wretches of the planet. morally bankrupt, spiritually apostate, and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. They were utterly, spiritually bankrupt. Well, let's come to some points of application and you can, of course, immediately acknowledge there are many, many points of application, but I'll stick to some. One, stubbornness to the word of God is a thing to be feared. Stubbornness towards the word of God is a thing to be feared. The Lord Jesus Christ warned, take heed, ha, ye hear. In other words, the need to be teachable, to receive instruction, to receive correction, to be teachable. And when we read of these men who simply hardened our heart, they rejected the word of God. That's a stance to be feared. Some thought, when our current prime minister fell ill and was in hospital and was getting looked after, many, many thought, maybe this will be used to soften his heart. But it didn't. Stubbornness to the word, a thing to be feared. Secondly, faithful judgment. We tend to think of God's faithfulness to his promises. And that is true. He is faithful to his promises. God always keeps his word. But how often we neglect God's faithfulness He has warnings. Now this is surely a comfort to believers when they see wickedness spread like a green bay tree. When we see the wicked, you know, rising to great heights of power, we can easily get despondent. Let us not forget God is just. His judgment shall come. And that's why you need all this history. As Calvin says, God is not in any hurry. But we're the ones who are always in a hurry. God is in no hurry. You think of the Amorites, the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full, but it will be in 400 years time. God's not in a hurry. He is faithful to his judgment. Thirdly, providence provides hope. On the dark side, shall we say, Nebuchadnezzar robs the temple, not once, but twice, and in fact he will do it finally again. On the bright side, You know, when you read through the sermons by the Puritans at the time of the ejection in 1662, one of the Puritan ministers says, look on the bright side, and then explains what he means. Well, let's look on the bright side. The dark side, here's a temple being plundered and pillaged and all the goodly vessels carted off. But the bright side is the vessels will be preserved. So when we get to the return, what happens? Levites and the priests, they count every knife, plate, and bowl. So there's the glimmer. The vessels shall be preserved. The promise will be kept. It's absolutely thrilling. You know, when you read through that list, as you have it on scripture at the return, and they start to count all the vessels. You know, I'm sure those people must have cried, as they counted every single one. The Lord kept it all, and he brought it all back, and he put it in the new temple. They must have said, isn't it astonishing? And with all the sin and all the wreckage and all the ruin, even these little knives and bowls have been kept. So even in the midst of gloom, there's a bright side that we might overlook. Fourthly, dread apostasy. Dread apostasy. Judah is an historic example of that apostasy. But we might ask, why is apostasy no longer such a big issue? You know, when some of us were teenagers, we were hearing sermons on apostasy practically every week. And everybody was an apostate, but that's the way that the line was. But that voice has gone silent. Apostasy is not a big issue anymore. So why is it no longer a topic for discussion? What sort of culture makes it Irrelevant. You know, the biggest defection in all of history we have around you, it's called Roman Catholicism. Rome is apostate. So we made that point. And then everyone thinks, well, we've made that point. Now that shows we are staunch Protestants. Well, we are staunch Protestants. Rome is apostate. There's never going to be reform. And there's no point in praying for apostates. It is forbidden in scripture. But the most prevalent contemporary expression of apostasy is also all right. And that is all the substitutes for the true gospel. You see, multitudes want back into Egypt while retaining the name Israelite. That's what we see all around us, you know, in evangelical ecclesiastical circles. We're all busy rewriting the gospel. Making this a gospel issue, not a gospel issue. Everything's not a gospel issue, as if by attaching the word gospel to it, that gives up credibility. What is the best preservative against apostasy? Well, exactly the opposite of everything we get here. It is love of the truth and obedience to it. That's the best preservative against apostasy. If you have a love for the truth, if you obey the truth, that will keep you from apostasy. But what are the hallmarks of apostasy? Well, in the lecture that Ian Murray gave years ago, he set out the following. some of the hallmarks of apostasy, which are all illustrated, you see, by 2 Chronicles 36, self-seeking and self-confidence. Now, we trust that in Providence, all that self-confidence has been destroyed. The church has been far too self-centered, self-confident. Second mark, worldliness in the church. Worldliness in the church. Here is Judah, and they are doing the same abominations as the heathen. They transgress very much after all the abominations of the heathen. We were the heathen. Heathen, of course, in its narrowest sense, were the Canaanites. In its broadest sense, we're simply the Gentiles. So worldliness amongst the Lord's people, where we become indistinguishable from the world around us. You know, singing the same songs, copying the same lifestyle, having the same pursuits and the same aspirations, and just generally hanging out with the world as though the world and ourselves were the same. Third mark, which surprised me, but it shouldn't have, indifference to church history. And this is a serious issue. amongst conservative evangelicals, which is that our knowledge and understanding of how we got to where we are is a complete mystery to them. And because they're ignorant of church history. That's why ecumenism seems popular. All kinds of things seem OK. In the middle of the 1800s, there was an organization arose, and its point was sport and recreation. The church thought we could harness that, you see? We could bring it into the church, and of course, we will then attract all these young people. And so they started building halls and recreational facilities. And then they said, now, of course, we won't be like the world. We'll be spiritual. So they'll come along, and we'll have a nice fancy gym. And then we'll have a nice little epilogue at the end. And this is how the church will grow. Fascinating study, seeing what happened to a whole load of congregations. Eventually, the church itself got smaller and the recreation got bigger. The recreation carried on and the congregation ceased. And some of the biggest congregations in England, that's exactly what happened. They thought we could harness. Now, if you want to know the name of that organization, it's still with us, by the way, but there is a little digging you might want to do, what happened to church in relation to all of that. But they thought they could harness their accretion. And there was a very famous sermon priest, a contemporary CH virgin, warning about it. And the whole pile of evangelicals criticized him, you know, scaremongering, you know, all this stuff that they say. When you read the sermon, say, why didn't people listen? And he not only takes them to scripture, he takes them to history, and shows them. Only people will learn, but every generation is more clever. And the last one is, church focuses on the visual and sensual. The visual, what you see, the sensual, what you experience. So the church emphasizes the visual. Now we can see what that has become in our age, you know, the visual. If we put everything on a big screen in front of us, you know, preacher can move over to the side and leave all of the wall for a nice screen. And that will be so attractive to people. Because it won't seem like Listening to a sermon, you're watching a screen. And then if we can project on a big screen everything that we sing, then they wouldn't even need to bother with getting books printed, song books printed. We don't even have to have any slots at the seats. They don't need to carry anything. And then if we put the Bible on the screen, they wouldn't even need to carry a Bible. So by default, you lose the scripture. because you haven't got it in your hand. And the sensual. You know, let's get rid of all those hard seats and let's bring in a nice comfortable seat. So you can lie back and relax. And let's have that nice smell of coffee wafting over everyone. You can even go to the corner and get your coffee and come and sit down. You know, and make a really sensual experience. But is the church any bigger? It's a consequence. Is it more solid? Is it more effective in the community? We need to dread apostasy. And it can happen so easily, so simply. And of course, every suggestion sounds fantastic. Now some of you are old enough to recall whenever in youth groups a guitar was first brought in. And one can remember the uproar that there was because they brought a guitar in and then there was a suggestion that not only have an organ but have a piano and then maybe a few guitars. who had already lost the plot because it had broken the principle anyway, and he didn't seem to realize, well, it wouldn't matter if you had 40 guitars. But even when he listened to the argument then, it seemed a great idea. And now we see where it has ultimately gone to. The church focusing on the visual and the sensual. Let us get back to basics. Why do we come to church? Why do we gather as a church? We worship God. That's always the basic rule, isn't it? We come to worship God. What pleases God? Our gathering together. What do we do when we gather? What does God tell us to do? We want to please Him. We want to forget about ourselves. And then we pray that the Lord, who we seek to please and worship and honor, might, in his mercy, bless our souls. Bless it with the word. So we gather around the word. We want to hear what the Lord has to say. That's what we need to keep getting back to. But we must dread apostasy. Well, there are other points that I could make, but I'll finish there on that note, indicating to you that next time, God willing, we shall examine verses 15 to 21. May the Lord bless these words in your heart.