2 Kings 16. Tumultuous times in Israel. Tumultuous times in Israel. Tumultuous times in the United States of America. So here's an appropriate message for us today. And you can see the title of it is not a pleasant one, insidious, idolatrous, insolent worship. And we take our texts from 2 Kings 16, verse 12, actually from the whole of the 20 verses approximately. But verse 12 says this, and when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar and the king approached to the altar and offered thereon. Let us pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you, Lord, for the truth that is before us. And though it looks like sad things that are going on in Israel, and sad times, which reflect as many sad times for us here in the United States of America, and even for Israel across the seas, we pray that maybe this is an indication that you would be coming soon. We love you, Lord, and thank you, and ask that you'll minister unto us, minister unto our eyes that we may see Christ, our ears that we may hear Christ, our minds that they may be renewed by your word, and our hearts that we may embrace the truth of who you are and what you have done through your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Forgive us our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and as we worship you from the word, be exalted, O God, above the heavens. In Jesus' name and for his sake we do pray, amen. Well, for Ahaz, we could call him King Nasty. King Nasty. He is just not a pleasant fellow. His father, Yotam, Jotham was a righteous man who reigned 16 years. And then his grandfather, Uzziah, was basically righteous all the way up until the end when pride took a hold of him. And, you know, as we recognize, pride takes a hold of many of us at many times, does it not? And so we can kind of, you know, we can kind of, you know, sympathize with Uzziah or Azariah in Second Kings, but also called Uzziah in Second Chronicles. But, you know, he became a leper towards the end of his days because he was lifted up in pride and attempted to do what the priest's job was. And then Jotham, he reigned for 16 years, the son of, he only reigned for a short period of time because Uzziah reigned for so long. He reigned for 52 years. But Jotham was a righteous king. He loved the Lord God. But the people, for the people's sake, the Lord took him away. and allowed, because the people were following corrupt practices. They were following corrupt practices during the days of Uzziah. They were following corrupt practices during the days of Jotham. And now the son of Jotham, who's 20 years old as we read here, takes on the kingdom, Ahaz. Yeah, he has. Excuse my snort, but he's worth snorting over. Informative passages from 2 Chronicles, if you have a parallel, there's the idolatry of the people from 2 Chronicles 27 and verse 2. And we looked at that last week, but the people still followed corrupt practices, it says. in 2 Chronicles 27 verse 2. And the idolatry of the king is more detailed, if you will, in 2 Chronicles chapter 28 verses 1 through 27. And we're not going to turn there really at all today. And so, but the insights from our chapter here in 2 Kings 16, we first see the insidious worship of Ahaz. The insidious worship of Ahaz, and particularly, it's in verses one through three, but particularly in verse three, and I'm gonna read that again, it says, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, he even, He, excuse me, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, not of the kings of Judah, notice. And he even burned his son as an offering according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. See, as if the, The goats and the bulls and the sheep were not enough. Let's, well, you know what? Let me offer one of my children, which has never been done in Israel before. Let's offer him up a sinful, sinful son, as if that were something. It should remind us of the complete counter opposite as Father God has offered his son. And it was pictured all the way back in the Genesis chapter 22, Abraham is told to kill his son, his only son, offer his son, Isaac, whom he loves. The first, chapter 22, verse 2 of Genesis. First time that the word love in Hebrew is used in the Bible. Take your son, Isaac, whom you love, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering in the place that I will tell you of, it says in Genesis chapter 22 and verse 2. But that was to show a picture, because Isaac wasn't sacrificed. God brought him all the way to that point to show the exchange that would be done when a ram was, take this ram that's caught in a thicket, because your son is a sinner. I'm going to offer my son as a perfect lamb, as an offering, as a sacrifice. Whereas Ahaz offers his son as if bulls, and it does tell us from Hebrews that the blood of bulls and goats is not sufficient to cover our sins and to place our sins away from us. It's not sufficient. We need a perfect sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. So even the sacrifice from scripture, as abominable as it is, shows us the love of the Father who has given us the perfect sacrifice as God became a man. But it's an insidious act of worship from Ahaz in verses one through three, which only presents the abundance of his idolatry in verse four, because verse four says, and he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree, and possibly sacrificed more of his children. because it says children in 2 Chronicles chapter 28, he offers his children by fire, not just a son, but here he gets a taste for this blood lust of sacrificing a child. 2 Chronicles tells us that he sacrificed children. So in these high places, he may be sacrificing even more children along with bulls and goats and lambs and so forth. In verses 5-9, now we have an idiotic battle strategy of Ahaz. In verses 5-9, he takes, here's his battle strategy. Well, here's these guys that are fighting against me. Israel's fighting against me. Syria's fighting against me. Let me get Tiglath-Pileser, who's the king of Assyria. He's from Nineveh. These guys are brutal. They take their prisoners and create stakes. This is possibly the earliest form of, say, crucifixion. He would take the prisoners and take straight up and down stakes and impale the prisoners in the land where he is so it'd be a warning to everybody else. Don't mess with Tiglat-Pileser, the king of Assyria. Don't mess with him. So he tries to enlist his help. He takes all the treasures of the house of the Lord and cuts them up and gives them as money. We find out more of the details in 2 Chronicles 28. And he gives him the money and says, come and help me out with the people that are fighting against me. But for the land's sake and for David's sake, actually the Lord stops Pekah of Israel and stops Syria. But here's an interesting thing. You don't have to turn there. I'm gonna open up in this second Chronicles and just read you this verse. This is why his strategy is idiotic. In verse 20 of 2 Chronicles 28, it says, so Tiglat-Pileser, king of Assyria, came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. He pays him off and then the king that he pays off goes and afflicts him. Idiotic. He is just beside himself. He's insane. He's king nasty. And then he does more idolatrous worship, which is, and I do want to read this from 2 Chronicles 28 verses 22 to 23. In the time of his distress, he became yet more faithless to the Lord, this same King Ahaz. Verse 23, for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me. but they were the ruin of him and all Israel." Here he thinks, well, because they're winning, maybe I should sacrifice to their God so that he'll turn away from them. Oh, stupid Ahaz. But honestly, sometimes we do the same things. And I'll kind of get to that in a moment. Then his worship is insolent. In verses 10 through 16 of 2 Kings, insolent worship. In other words, young people, insolent, it means bad and proud, arrogant and idiotic. It's taking all those things, insidious, which means evil, it's taking all those words that I just said, insidious, idolatrous, and insolent, and piling them all together, and this is what he did. He increases his idolatry right after he does this thing in verses 10 through 16. When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglat-Pileser, king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus, and King Ahaz sent to Uriah, or Uriah, the priest, a model of the altar and its pattern. It says Uriah in your old King James version, verse 11. And Uriah, the priest built the altar in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So Uriah, the priest made it before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. And in verse 12, it says, and when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it and verse 13 and burned his burnt offerings and his grain offerings and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of the peace offerings on the altar and the bronze altar that was before the lord he removed from the front of the house from the place between his altar and the house of the Lord and put it on the north side of his altar. So as you come in to the temple area, where the temple of the Lord is, Solomon's temple, right in front of the entrance, where there's the two pillars that are named Boaz on the right and Yachin on the left. And as you enter in, there are pillars that stand up without holding anything up. And then you would go into the place Where is the holy place and then the holy of holies behind beyond the curtain that's about a hand-breadth thick Well, that big brazen altar was where the sacrifices are brought. So it's three cubits high, five cubits wide, five cubits deep. And he pushes it to the side and takes this altar that was patterned after the one in Damascus and offers all the offerings. He makes it secondary. That which God has prescribed, the Lord God has prescribed, he makes secondary and pushes it to the side. In verse 15, and King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest saying, On the great altar, burn the morning burnt offering and evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their drink offerings and their grain offerings and their drink offerings and throw on it all the blood of the burnt offerings and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by." The bronze altar, the one that he put up in the north. pointing towards Damascus. Well, that would be a place of divination that he could ask of the gods of Damascus by that which was made by and commanded by the Lord. And in verse 16, Uriah the priest did all this as King Ahaz commanded. Now Uriah's name, Uriah in Hebrew, or Uriah in Hebrew. It can mean Uriah, Uriah means light, Uriah means flame. So depending on how you pronounce his name, which is probably pronounced both ways, the flame of the burnt offering, Uriah is the shortened name of Yehovah, God. Uriah, the flame. the light of God or Uriah, the flame of God. And here is this priest, the priest of Ahaz is as corrupt because he makes this thing for him. And so there's increased idolatry in verses 17 to 18. He takes all the things that are of use for worship, and he cuts off the frames of the stands. This he uses as precious metals, possibly to send to the king of Assyria as payment, for more payment for protection, because obviously the Lord isn't protecting him, because he's evil. And then by that increased idolatry, he meets his ignoble end, that he dies in verses 19 to 20. And that's the history of what is going on here. All this false worship, worship that is displaced and misplaced, It's going on. For Israel, at this particular point, it is a national calamity. It is as bad as it's ever been. It's the worst that Judah has ever seen, the southern kingdom. And it is, by what has been done, it's actually worse than the northern kingdom who never worshiped God since Jeroboam. which if you're reading the Robert Murray McShane reading plan, you've been reading from 1 Kings and you see how the kingdom is already split after Solomon to Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom never worshiped Jehovah God. But the Southern Kingdom of Judah, he has done worse because God has preserved it for the sake of his servant David and given a king upon the throne. And now he has turned those things of good and great worship unto God and to something that is secondary or less worse than useless. Even it says in verse 18 that he took what is called a covert. It was a passageway for the kings so that he would have the honor to be able to go into the temple under a under a particular pathway that is given specifically for Him. And it illustrates the truth of those whom God, who is sovereign, a sovereign Lord, who is given unto those whom He has ordained to be leaders in an environment, whether small or great, great in this case as far as for Judah, and he displaces it. He covers it, and in fact, he reroutes it so that it would please the Assyrian king, to please, appease the Assyrian king on whom he is hoping to get help from. This is how wicked and vile he has become, a national calamity. And we can certainly see, as we look at the implications for us and its helpful applications, we can see how There seems to be a parallel drawn here. I can easily see a parallel between what's going on in the United States of America today and our depravity. We have a leader who says that he is a Catholic who should be, who takes communion in the little church in Delaware, where he's from. But the Catholic church stands against abortion, but he proudly and openly says, believes in the murder of the unborn. He is just, there's so many things that are going on that is just ridiculous. You know, here, let's spend $3.5 trillion and it won't cost you anything. Thank goodness. I wonder if he's at home and he writes checks for stuff just because he has blank checks in his checkbook with no money in the bank. It's just ridiculous. If Lisa ran our checkbook like the way that this Joe Biden wants to run this country, we would be in the poorhouse. We'd be arrested for being in debt. Crazy. But see, the perspectives that are going on as far as, you know what, like vaccinations, for example, the calamity that's going on behind this, they change from just what they call the BCD, a bad conduct discharge for the military. If they're not going to be vaccinated, they change it to a dishonorable discharge. That's gonna be rough for anybody that's coming out of the military without a vaccination to get another job. But that's what it has come to because the commander-in-chief has deemed that if they won't be vaccinated, that they will have a dishonorable discharge. And here's the interesting thing about that. When I was, I received a, you know, a medical discharge in 1993 after 15 years of service because I could have fought staying in, but I decided that the Lord's coming soon. And the thing that's happening now, what, 28, 29, almost 30 years later, the thing that I thought was going to happen then is happening now. This is the reason why I said, well, I'm not going to fight it. We're just gonna go on out. And I got an invitation to go minister in the Philippines. So we're gonna serve the Lord. And it's been nearly 30 years now and it's coming to fruition. But the thing about our country is, and many countries around the world, they might just be taken out of the picture because there is actually something that's going on that is a little bit more biblical. Because if you wanna understand the end times, you need to look at Israel, because that's where the cataclysm's gonna take place. And although this isn't the truth of it, Now it's leading to it. And then when that's going to take place, I don't know. See Revelation chapter 13 and verses 16 and 17 says, also it causes, that's the antichrist to come, both small and great, both rich and poor, free and slave to be marked on the right hand or in the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has a mark that is the name of the beast or the number of his name. Now that's not here yet. And I received a letter hearing from somebody in Oklahoma or someplace saying, hey, the vaccination is just the precursor to the mark of the beast. We may never get it over here in America, but it doesn't matter. What matters is, is for the Lord Jesus Christ to come. He's coming back to Jerusalem. He's coming back to Israel. That's where it matters. And there was a headline on October 4th, just, you know, not too long ago, just less than a week ago. It says many Israelis are about to find the vaccine passport revoked unless they get a booster. They're the most vaccinated country in the world, Israel is, because they're not allowed to buy or sell certain goods and services unless they're vaccinated. And I provided a link in your handout to the article that was written by Ken, Ken McCone, I guess is the way you say his name. from that headline. The story says that the criteria for Israel's proof of vaccination permit app, known as the Green Pass, will change with new regulations deciding who is eligible for the pass and the old ones to be expired. For many Israelis, fully vaccinated now includes a booster shot, and so many of those who've had only two vaccine shots will be denied access to many services until they get a third. Those who got vaccinated simply to get access to some goods and services have now found themselves blocked from accessing those goods and services until they get another shot. However, due to technical difficulties on the health ministry's website, many people were unable to register for the new pass. The previous passes will be valid for the next few days, according to the ministry. And there's one more paragraph, but that's what's going on over there for goods and services. But people here, even here in the United States, are losing their jobs because they won't get vaccinated. Without a job, how are you going to pay for food and services? But like I said, You don't take the temperature of the end times through the United States. We're inconsequential. It doesn't matter what happens here. What happens in Israel is what matters. What happens in Jerusalem is really what matters. But I wanted to bring you that parallel, the calamity. We know that from the scriptures, the son after Ahaz is Hezekiah, who's a righteous king. who does foolish things. And we'll see that as it comes up. And the end of the Northern Kingdom, Israel is coming up pretty soon. Hosea is the last king of the Northern Kingdom. But what does this passage tell us? How could we apply this to our lives? What does it say for us? Because despite that in Israel, and am I pointing, I'm pointing the wrong way. Israel's that way. Or that way, if you go this, it might be quicker to go across the Pacific. It's that way. I keep on pointing behind me. Israel, really, even though that's happening in Israel, we're still the people of God. And every local church really should be excited that we may be on the verge of the Lord Jesus returning. And so there's a necessary call to repentance and revival, even on behalf of what we see in second Kings, but what's going on on behalf of our country, on behalf of our nation that is by and large evil and wicked. That's evident by whom is our president. It's a judgment upon us because, or upon this nation, I should say. But there are lights just as there were, we saw in Sunday school in the Dark Ages from about 500 AD to 1500 AD. That though it was dark and though it was wicked and men were doing as they will, there were still lights like Patrick of Ireland. There were still lights of the gospel as in John Wycliffe and Peter Waldo and many others that God had placed here and there. around the world being lights and light in a place of darkness. And that's what we should be. When as we read of darkness in the scriptures, as we read in 2 Kings 16, we should see that we are the light of the world as Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount. And it brings us a call to repent on behalf of those who may be saved even during these dark and tumultuous times. We should recognize insidious worship as in verse three, whereas Ahaz offered his son that abortion has run rampant in this country. The willing, willful, insidious murder of the unborn. And it's not just that, that just that whole culture of an abortion mentality just tells us how human life, life that is given by the Creator and we're created in the image and after the likeness of Yehovah God, that it is given such little value. And that a sovereign God who has created and has allowed for every single life in the womb, to start because He is the origin of life, not my decision or your decision, where we say, well, just when it has a heartbeat or when it has blood formed or something like that, well, then we can stop abortion, as some of the pro-lifers would say. No, it starts with God. God gave initial life and He gives all life. He is the origin of life. And so as sovereign God, we should say that that should end. So we pray that people would have their eyes open. We recognize what this insidious worship is, that we worship and smile at God on Sunday, but we allow for that to go on. Many churches are doing that. We think of the idolatrous worship of verse four. that the idolatry that goes on, that Jesus is just something and not everything, that we could worship even with, say, hands raised, as some churches do, and we should repent on behalf of them that are raising hands to worship God, but Jesus is just something that you put on on Sunday, and then they can live like the world for the rest of the week. That's what idolatry is. There are things that are as important or more important than Jesus and the exaltation of Christ and the glory of God the Father. When not in this congregation, not in this congregation, because we want to pray that we would not be like that, but what we should be praying for is also that they would not be like that. Since we're the light and we know who Christ is, that we should be praying even that much more fervently, Lord, open up their eyes. As you opened by your graces, you opened up my eyes. As you've opened up my heart, break forth and break open their hearts that they may fall in love with the Christ who has given his life upon that cross, who is the Lord of light and the Lord of life. Otherwise, we have nothing but idolatry. We're lifted up in pride, which is self-idolatry, or we pervert what God has given for good and make it adultery. We make it impure. It's adulterated. Verse 4, And He sacrificed and made offerings on high places and on hills and under every green tree. You know, the cross is an offense to some people, and so let's take that away. That's sacrificing in the high places. In fact, worse, it's actually what we have in verse 12, that our key verse there was, Ahaz took the brazen altar and pushed it to the side. See, Christ and Him crucified means nothing to many churches in America today. It means nothing to a lot of places that would call themselves churches of the living God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the brazen altar, which is three cubits high, it's, if you take an 18 inch cubit, it's probably, or a 20 inch cubit, the cubit of a temple, the temple wall shows a 20 inches, but just 18 to make the math easier. We're looking as far as it's four and a half feet tall, which would have been about where Christ's feet would have been when they were nailed to the cross at Calvary. Also, if he is the high priest, because he is the great high priest, that when every high, every priest that stood upon the altar, their feet their bare feet that were on the brazen altar, they glowed with the glow of the bronze that was under their feet as the fire that was kindled from the fire from above that burned it from the days of that same fire that was carried on and carried on from that altar when it was first built in the days of Moses to the days of Solomon's to the days of Solomon's temple. That fire was the fire of God, which represented the wrath of God that was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself, where Jesus Christ was both sacrifice and high priest. And it's five cubits wide and five cubits deep, but Ahaz pushed it off to the side. The cross of Christ in many churches today is just something. Yeah, we see it there, but it's not so important. We've moved on because we really wanna fill our best lives now. or find how our purpose is driven, instead of seeing the glories of that altar smack in the middle of where we enter in to the holy place and the holy of holies where the Lord does dwell. We've taken it away. Our only access to the presence of God is through the cross of Jesus Christ, but we push it off to the side like Ahaz in many churches today. We don't hear. Because one of the great themes of this church, and has been for years, has been Christ and Him crucified. Even my predecessor, Pastor Blau, has this placard right here on this pulpit that says, no man can bear witness to Christ and Himself at the same time. No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save. Christ is mighty to save. That cross is so important. And so we see the insolent worship of Ahaz. It should spark us that there are many people that are doing the same as Ahaz and calling themselves the church in America. And we should repent on their behalf. Lord, we repent. that that is going on, that we haven't been submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ enough that our light so shines here in Ninochik, Alaska, that it brings a glow through the whole Kenai Peninsula, and such a glow that it is visible not just to heaven, but to outer, to those, if there were satellites in outer space, they could see the light of our, of the brilliance of Christ in us. And that through that, that you would hear our prayer so that those outside, those in the lower 48 states would know that, oh, Christ in them crucified is the truth. And therefore we repent with godly sorrow. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10, for godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Or in the old King James Version, not to be repented of. See, we're not sorry that we've repented and that we've had godly sorrow. God sparks in us, Lord, how have I failed? that we may repent, that it leads to salvation, not for myself now because I'm saved, you're saved, but that we pray so that those might be saved that have just given lip service to the truth of the gospel. There's a song that we'll be singing, nearer still nearer, at the end of the sermon, at the end of the worship service here, that says, nearer still nearer, nothing I bring, not as an offering to Jesus my King. Only my sinful, now contrite heart, grant me the cleansing, thy blood doth impart. that there is repentance right there. It's nothing in my, or as Augustus' top lady back in the 1700s is saying, nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling. and revival in godly fear, that we pray even for ourselves that I might revive, you might revive, we might revive as individuals, a personal revival, because only God can bring true revival. When there is a revival like in the great awakenings that we'll look at in Sunday school next week, where we look at the revivals of great awakenings, of the Welsh revival even in Wales, around approximately the same time. that only God can bring those, but what we pray for is personal revival, that we may be revived by the truth of God's word. As we see that the scriptures tells us in Proverbs 9 and verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, that we recognize he is a sovereign God, but he's a just God, and his judgment is due. And may judgment begin in the house of the Lord, and may we see the judgment with godly fear. Reverence. for God because He is sovereign and holy. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the holy is insight or understanding. Knowledge of the Holy. Yesterday we read in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10, it says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings that I may be made conformable to his death. That I may know him. Paul the Apostle is writing from prison, his fourth missionary journey, if you will. He's writing to the Christians at Philippi saying that I may know him. Someone who has known Christ personally, he's an apostle called of Christ. He's known him for over 30 years, some 35 years at this particular point. And he says that I may know him because he is infinite God. We can't come to the end of the infinite. There will be things even after the Lord returns that that will continue to learn of him and grow nearer to him. that I may know Him. And that's what the fear of the Lord is. It's the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy that our knowledge will increase of who Christ is. We'll know more, as the hymn says, more about Jesus. More will I learn. Even in that hymn that we'll sing today, Nearer Still Nearer, it says, Lord to be thine, nearer still nearer, Lord to be thine, still with its follies I gladly resign. All of its pleasures, pomp and its pride, give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. May we grasp on to the seriousness of what's going on around us. And I know that we have times of joy, great joy in the truth of our fellowship with one another, that we're grateful to see one another, we see Christ in one another, we see Christ in Scripture. We see the potential of Christ in the Nilchik and in the Kenai Peninsula, but let's go further. Let's see how our prayers will be borne along by the truth of the Holy Spirit ministering unto those even outside, even those around the world. We pray for our missionaries and there's a work going on through them. And may, when we give unto the missionaries, Karen Daniels, just down in Southern California. Now there's a mission field that's rough. Southern California, I grew up in Southern California. It's not a place where I'd like to minister or be. Or Mike Peterson and Becky in Poland and also administering to the pastors in the stand countries that when we pray for them, let's lift up prayers that go beyond where they are. and that the light that is in them, and because we're connected to them, that there is an effective, efficacious grace that goes forth in the power of God. Wayne and Elena, with Wycliffe Bible Translators and the work that they're bringing to all around the world. Wayne's translating things and looking over stuff. It's a wonderful thing that they're doing. So we see that as we pray for them and are connected to them, that we are lights, whereas we see the light of God ministering and ministering and ministering all around the world. And may we be encouraged this week to really see the darkness from this text in chapter 16 and carry it on to see a light unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you, Lord, for the... the despairing truth of chapter 16, but the light that is in it because Christ, crucified, risen and ascended into heaven, is coming again. And because of that, Lord, you allow us by our prayers, by our faithful walk, that we may take part in the kingdom until our Lord Jesus comes. And in his name and for his sake, we do pray. Amen.