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Peeling Back the Dangers of Backsliding (2 Chronicles 16)
13 Plays2 months ago
Despite the poor examples left to him by his grandfather and his father, King Asa was a model king in the southern kingdom of Judah. If one only were to read 2 Chronicles chapters 14-15, then there would be great admiration for this godly king. But unfortunately, King Asa didn’t end well. His great-grandfather, Solomon, also had veered off according to 1 Kings chapter 11.
The 16th chapter of 2 Chronicles is a warning lest any who have lived for the Lord for several years in a row assume that they can let up and cease to be vigilant in their walk with Christ. Asa was zealous for the Lord for 35 years, but something happened in the 36th year of his reign, most likely around 875 BC. As a result, the last five years of his administration were characterized by spiritual decline not spiritual advance.
We are going to probe this chapter and peel back the layers of Asa’s backsliding. We are going to attempt to learn from his mistakes. We will see that moving in reverse in one area of Asa’s life caused him to retract in multiple areas. It is not a pretty picture to admire, but it is a realistic picture of what can happen if we are not careful in our daily Christian walk.
Backsliding can begin with unhealthy fear and dread, 16:1
Backsliding can digress through doubt and turning to the flesh, 16:2-3
Backsliding will lead to disobedience and even defiance, 16:4-5
Backsliding worsens through misery and despair, 16:7-9
Backsliding often morphs into becoming dangerous and destructive, 16:10
Backsliding will eventually be confronted with discipline and possibly disease, 16:11-12
Backsliding ends in the disgusting and the detestable, 16:13-14
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Church Details
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace. I'm Pastor Victor Morrison. I have the joy and the privilege of serving as the senior pastor at First Baptist Church here in Columbus, Texas.
Personal Connection to Asa
00:00:54
Speaker
Hey, I want to talk to you about a man named Asa. ah Asa took on a whole new meaning for me whenever I discovered in some genealogical research that one of my maternal great grandfathers, his name was Asa.
00:01:11
Speaker
And I was like, whoa, that's pretty cool. And then I'm just kind of trucking along in 2 Chronicles over in the Old Testament, and there's his name, Asa. And so I thought, man, this is great. I want to be just like Asa. So anyway, for the most part, that would be a good thing. But I want to tell you the rest of the story, as old Paul Harvey used to say.
Asa's Reign and Spiritual Decline
00:01:33
Speaker
You know, despite the poor examples left to Asa by his grandfather, ah Rehoboam, and his father, Abijah, King Asa was a model, a model king in the southern kingdom of Judah. He was the third king after the divided kingdom. He led many powerful reforms in the kingdom. If one only were to read 2 Chronicles chapters 14 and 15,
00:02:00
Speaker
then there would be great admiration for this godly king. But unfortunately, King Asa didn't end well. His great-grandfather Solomon also had veered off, if you remember, according to 1 Kings 11. But the 16th chapter of 2 Chronicles is a warning. It's a warning lest any who have lived for the Lord for several years in a row would assume that they can let up and cease to be vigilant in their walk with Christ. You see, Asa was zealous for the Lord for 35 years. That would account for something, but something happened in the 36th year of his reign, most likely somewhere around 875 BC. And as a result, the last five years of his administration were characterized by spiritual decline.
00:02:59
Speaker
not spiritual advance. Just a reminder, we call this growing in grace. We want to be moving forward in Christ and not s slipping backwards. You see complacly complacency destroyed this good and godly man.
Lessons from Asa's Mistakes
00:03:17
Speaker
We're going to probe this chapter and peel back the layers of Asa's backsliding. We're going to attempt to learn from his mistakes so that we don't repeat them.
00:03:28
Speaker
We will see that moving in reverse in one of area one of the areas of Asa's life caused him to retract in multiple areas. It's not a pretty picture to admire, but it is a realistic picture of what can happen if we are not careful in our daily Christian walk. Let me read the chapter. It's not that long.
00:03:52
Speaker
And then I'll share with you just a few observations from this chapter. This is the 2 Chronicles 16. In the 36th year of the reign of Asa, Basha, king of Israel, went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might permit no one to go out or come into Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord,
00:04:22
Speaker
and the king's house, and sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, there is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Basha, king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.
00:04:47
Speaker
and Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered Ijan, Dan, Abel, Ma'am, and all the store store cities of Naftali. And when Basha heard of it,
00:05:05
Speaker
He stopped building Ramah and let his work cease. And then King Esa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and his timber with which Veshah had been building, and with them he built Gebah and Mizpah. At that time, Hanani, the seer, came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord
00:05:56
Speaker
run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars." And then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this.
00:06:21
Speaker
and Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time. The acts of Asa from first to last are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. In the 39th year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet.
Reflection and Personal Application
00:06:40
Speaker
And his disease became severe, yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the 41st year of his reign.
00:06:57
Speaker
They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a beer that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art. And they made a very great fire in his honor. Wow. Let's just talk about this guy, Asa. I don't want you to think about this just as a study of someone else's life. I want you to think, could something like that happened to my life. That's what I've been thinking. That's what sort of prompted me to write down just a few notes in my own personal journal, just for my own application. So I wanted to pass it along to others so that we could all learn from this man's mistakes together. Let me share the first principle with you. The first thing that I noticed was that backsliding
00:07:50
Speaker
can begin with unhealthy fear and dread. That's what we see in verse 1. You see, whenever he it says, Basha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramad that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. What they're saying is this is a serious situation because what they did was they cut off any kind of aid coming in. They cut off any kind of trade coming in or going out. And so just imagine what that would be like for all of your economic resources, all of your trade, to suddenly be cut off five miles north of Jerusalem at this place called Ramah. Man, this would be serious. Something about it really rattled Asa. Asa became afraid.
00:08:43
Speaker
And so he thought, what can I do to help? There was another man in the New Testament that became afraid. Do you remember when Jesus invited Peter to come to him on top of the water? You know, he said, come to me. Jesus went to them walking on the water and Peter was fascinated. He couldn't believe it. And so when Jesus said, come to me on the water, Peter got up and he began to walk, but suddenly began to sink. Why was that?
00:09:13
Speaker
Well, I think what happened was fear displaced his faith. Something similar, I believe, happened to Asa. He allowed his fear of a problem to obscure his faith in a promise. It's really easy for all of us to do the same thing. So let's move to the second observation that stood out to me about backsliding from Asa's life.
00:09:40
Speaker
backsliding can secondly digress through doubt and turning to the flesh. You see, Asa is so driven by panic that he grasps for a quick, worldly solution to his dilemma. What he turns to is money and man. He put his trust in mankind. And so he went into the treasure that belonged to God because he had to pay man off. Where will he find the money? Well, that's no problem for Asa. He knows where there's lots of silver and gold just stacked up. It's all in the temple. But the problem is, it all belonged to God. But now, Asa goes in there and takes all of that, cleans it out, and sends it to Damascus to pay off a pagan king to the north named Benhadad. And what he said was, look
00:10:39
Speaker
I want you to take this and in return what I want you to do is I want you to stop that blockade that the king of Israel has built up against me. And so that's exactly what he did. But the problem is he's trusting not in God, he's trusting in human answers, in fleshly answers. You ever struggle with that? It's like suddenly something's in your life and it really rattles you. So rather than taking that situation that's really causing you to panic and feel fearful, taking it in just humble dependence upon the Lord,
00:11:17
Speaker
You sort of take it in the other direction. You start thinking, how can I solve this myself? And so in the flesh, you begin to come up with a worldly way of making all those problems go away. Well, that's where his backsliding began, but that's not where it led to. Thirdly, his backsliding led to disobedience and even what I would call defiance. As we look at verses four and five,
00:11:46
Speaker
You see, the rebellion against God's Word can on the surface look—well, it can look successful but because He gives a bribe to these Assyrians. They take it. They were able to ah cause Israel to abandon their blockade and retreat to the north. Yay! We won! It worked! Hmm.
00:12:11
Speaker
Sometimes that's what it looks like in our lives when we do things the worldly way, when we do things in the flesh. For the moment it looks like it's all working out just fine.
00:12:24
Speaker
So inviting the Assyrians to occupy a part of the Promised Land, though, he didn't count on this. It violated God's law. As a matter of fact, it's going to lead to a really bad place. But it all starts with a little bit of disobedience, just a little bit here and a little bit there, a little bit of defiance to the God, a little bit of rebellion to him. And suddenly, we've got major problems happening.
00:12:51
Speaker
It won't be much longer to to that northern kingdom that he just had Assyria go over and attack and stop that blockade. It won't be long till they're going to be taking those guys off into exile. Oh my goodness. I hope Asa didn't start that. We don't know where our disobedience will take us. And so all I'm saying is don't get started in backsliding. It can come out from underneath you.
00:13:20
Speaker
I think backsliding also worsens through misery and despair. You see, something happened to Asa whenever he did this. I think he lost his peace. I think he began to feel miserable. Do you know many people who used to walk with the Lord, who used to be close with them, and now they've gone after the world in one way or another, or gotten into sin? Are they usually happy people?
00:13:49
Speaker
or are they miserable people? Well, that's what happened to Asa. You see, God had just protected him from a superior army that was invading from Ethiopia. As a matter of fact, that army was over a million men. They had 300 chariots and all these different things. It didn't matter because Asa humbled himself. In 2 Chronicles 14, especially if you were to read verse 11,
00:14:18
Speaker
where he says to the Lord, of oh Lord, there's none like you to help between the mighty and the weak. Help us, oh Lord our God, for we rely on you. And in your name we've come against this multitude. Oh Lord, you are our God. Let not man prevail against you.
00:14:37
Speaker
So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. That's what Scripture records. Isn't that wonderful? But what's happening in chapter 16 is so miserable for this wonderful king named Asa.
00:14:55
Speaker
because God sends him a prophet, a man of God named Hanani. He goes and stands before Asa and says, because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord at that time, Asa,
00:15:23
Speaker
He gave them into your hand and He reminds Him, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars." Wow.
00:15:45
Speaker
Can you imagine? It says next that Asa just became so angry. He became so angry that this man would even tell him the truth about this. You know, there's something about compromise that I found in my own life, through my own experience,
00:16:01
Speaker
that compromise has a way of blinding us. And so God can send into our lives, say a Sunday school teacher, a preacher, maybe you're listening to a podcast or whatever is happening in your life, but suddenly it's like you realize, oh no, I just made a terrible mistake. And so we need to come back to the Lord. We need to go back to relying on Him. Just like it says in Proverbs 3, 5,
00:16:29
Speaker
that we should not lean on our own understanding. When we lean upon the Lord, we have peace, but when we lean upon our own understanding, we feel uneasy. So let me tell you what happens once Asa becomes so angry. You see, backsliding often morphs into becoming dangerous and destructive. Have you ever known anybody who gets off the the beaten path of following the Lord and they're not they're no longer thinking straight?
00:16:59
Speaker
And they began to either harm themselves or they just become such mean-spirited people. Listen to Asa. This guy was a good king, a godly king. Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And it says, Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time. Oh my goodness.
00:17:29
Speaker
You see, this guy once had a tender heart and God used him to be a blessing to so many other people. But now, what's he doing? Well, he's imprisoning the prophet and he's oppressing some of the Jews that are within ju Judah. So what is going on here? You see, partial obedience always leads to spiritual decline. And so what it meant for this man was he totally changed. He became a different man.
00:17:59
Speaker
Sin darkens the understanding as it hardens the heart. That's why it's so important that we examine ourselves for any unconfessed, unrepentant of sin that may be in our lives, because it's going to develop into something that could be very Very dangerous, very destructive for yourself or for someone else. Well, let's move to the sixth principle or observation from this passage. I think also I've learned that backsliding will eventually be confronted with discipline from the Lord and possibly disease. That's exactly what happened to Asa. You know, Asa refuses to repent.
00:18:43
Speaker
So God slows him down with a problem in his feet. Have you ever thought about how men that actually slowed him down? I don't know if it was gout. I don't know if it was a vascular disease or whatever it was. But was God just trying to be mean? Was God trying to be harsh to Asa? No, I don't think so.
00:19:05
Speaker
I think what he was trying to do was to get Asa to slow down, examine his life. He needs to repent. He's going in the wrong direction. you know The Bible says over and over again that we reap what we sow. And so since Asa refuses to repent,
00:19:23
Speaker
then God's saying, okay, you're going to have to slow down. And so he gave him some kind of disease in his feet. We don't even know what what kind of disease this was, but it says that the doctors couldn't cure him because he would not pray. He would not go to the Lord. It stated quite clearly there that Asa did not seek the Lord about the the disease. He wanted to only seek the help of physicians in verse 12.
00:19:51
Speaker
And so it's so important that we turn to God whenever he ah begins to come down and begins to discipline us and
Repentance and Faith
00:20:00
Speaker
help us to realize, wait a minute, God's trying to call me to turn back to him. And so ah his great grandfather could not see it in his own life. It's when Solomon was messing up and getting off track through all of his wives and all of the false gods that they brought into his life.
00:20:21
Speaker
even in the New Testament. It's kind of a sobering thing, but whenever we get ready to observe the Lord's Supper, it's very important that we take time to to kind of examine our lives. And here's why. This is what Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 27. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
00:20:50
Speaker
Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. In other words, God's trying to get our attention. He's not trying to be mean to us. He's just simply saying, that's not the way. And so the way out is the way of repentance and confession of sin.
00:21:34
Speaker
No wonder 1 John 1.9 says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what God wants whenever a discipline comes upon our lives. But I just don't want that to happen to anybody that I know. So that's why I'm saying, please do not continue to resist the Lord. Don't get like ah the Lord sometimes would call people out through the Old Testament prophets.
00:22:04
Speaker
and talk to them and say, you have a stiff neck. Don't become stiff-necked whenever the Lord is trying to correct you. When you're backsliding, going in reverse, when the go when the Lord says, I want you growing in grace. I want you moving forward. I want you to become more like my son, not more like the world. So let's go with the last thing. If you look at the last verses here, you can see that backsliding can end in the disgusting and the detestable in verses 13 and 14. It says, and Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the 41st year of his reign. They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David that laid him on a beer that he had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art. And they made a very great fire in his honor. So I'm just thinking about how normally a king would be buried
00:23:03
Speaker
But he couldn't be buried, and the reason he couldn't be buried was because of his feet. I don't know if there was a terrible ah odor whenever he was burned, but all I know is they had to have these ah spices that they also burned.
00:23:19
Speaker
And so it led to something very odious and something disgusting and detestable right there at the end. It could have been so different. I'm glad that they still tried to honor him because he had really lived for God and lived for the Lord for such a long a stretch in his life. But it's just shocking when you see the conclusion to a life that had been a life of victory and all of a sudden now it It just ended in such defeat. So if on the dashboard of your life, you you see that God's trying to get your attention and you're saying, wait a minute, it looks like I'm in reverse. I'm not moving forward. I'm not in gear here. I'm actually going backwards from what God wants me to do. Don't keep going in that direction.
00:24:13
Speaker
Take time to to say I must address the lights, the indicator lights that are on the dashboard of discipleship that are in my life. Don't forget that backsliding can begin with simply an unhealthy fear or dread. Don't forget that backsliding can digress through doubt and turning to the flesh. Backsliding will lead to disobedience.
00:24:43
Speaker
and can even lead to defiance. Backsliding worsens through misery and despair. You don't want that, my friend. Backsliding often morphs into becoming something dangerous and destructive. And the something that becomes dangerous
Conclusion and Prayer
00:25:00
Speaker
and destructive can be our own lives. We can lose it and become an angry person with a critical, harsh, mean spirit.
00:25:11
Speaker
backsliding will eventually be confronted with discipline and possibly disease because the father's trying to say, stop, stop, don't keep going backwards.
00:25:22
Speaker
Go forward. Keep growing in grace. If we don't listen to him, then unfortunately we can have an end like this once-godly king named Asa after 36 years totally changes and goes now to this terrible direction and ends with disgusting and detestable things in his life and even in his death.
00:25:48
Speaker
But I just want you to know that even though we're all under grace in Christ, it doesn't mean that we can live any old way we want to live, that we can just follow the world any way we want to to to live in our lifestyle. We've got to say, what is God pleased with? How can I honor Christ? He laid down His life for me. He saved me by grace through mercy as I put my faith and trust in Him.
00:26:16
Speaker
Listen today, friend, if somehow this touches something very deeply in your life and you realize, you know what? Asa was placed in the Bible for me because I'm going backwards. I'm not going forwards. Then I just encourage you right now who's who is one that's been placed in your life as a man who loves you enough to bring to you the truth from God's word. I encourage you. Will you turn back to God?
00:26:46
Speaker
in repentance from sin and place your faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Why don't we close in prayer? Let me pray for us. Lord, I thank you so much. There's been so many times in my life that I've been like Asa. And yet you turned me around, you warned me, and I saw the indicator lights flashing on the dashboard of my life. And I was able to stop and turn to you. And that's what I pray for any that are listening to me today.
00:27:15
Speaker
who may be going backwards, but they don't have to keep going backwards. They can stop turning repentance and faith, putting their faith and trust in Christ and trusting that you will give them strength to once again move forward in their lives and not backwards. So bless each one and help them to turn to you, Lord, to turn to you, asking you for cleansing,
00:27:40
Speaker
for a fresh feeling of your Holy Spirit, for power so that they will not yield to temptation. But thank you so much for placing men like Asa in the word of God so that we can learn from their lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Hey, thank you so much for listening again to Growing in Grace. I pray you'll keep growing in grace. All right, you have a great day. God bless you, bye.
00:28:12
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milan Street, Columbus, Texas.