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all right second Kings chapter number 15 so hopefully everybody's got one of these charts if not if you need something to write with just raise your hand we'll get you a pen you get you something to write with get you some paper we are definitely going to be covering a lot of Kings this evening so we're gonna start off in chapter 15 talking about a king in the southern kingdom of Judah which on your chart if you look on that chart there it goes by the name of Azariah in second Kings 15 but you'll find his name as Uzziah in second Chronicles and other places in the Bible so after we go from Judah I'm just gonna give you an overview first before we start this off so we're gonna go from studying a king from Judah to looking at five Kings real quickly on the northern kingdom of Israel side and that's gonna bring us from Zechariah all the way down to the last King which is Hoshea and if you remember last week we primarily talked about in chapter 14 we talked about Amaziah who was a king in the southern kingdom of Judah and we talked about Jeroboam the second who was king in the northern kingdom of Israel and so today chapter 15 is really just gonna blast through a lot of these northern kings you're gonna see a common thread on that side but just to be honest basically everything is just bad right now at this state in Israel's history and I'm talking southern kingdom northern kingdom it is just bad all around pretty much okay a lot of trouble but primarily in the northern kingdom so we're gonna do five Kings real quickly in the northern kingdom and then we're gonna go back to Judah and we're gonna take a look at two kings and then that'll complete tonight's study but we're gonna spill into chapter number 16 just a little bit a little bit of flipping not a whole lot we're gonna go to first Chronicles we're gonna go to second Chronicles maybe Isaiah real quickly and then that will be it so let's start off here in the second Kings chapter number 15 so remember like I just said we're gonna start off in chapter 15 we're looking now at the southern kingdom of Judah so if you got your chart here maybe you can you know write something down here Uzziah Azariah they are the same person because remember these things can get kind of confusing it's like who's this guy what's going on here so maybe write something down chapter 15 second Chronicles chapter 26 just a reference for your studies later on so again when you start reading through the Bible systematically you start on your own time going through these things it's gonna start to click more and more okay more more this is intense you know it's a lot of study some sermons that we preach here or sermons for a lot of application and then others like tonight this is just straight-up history like information for you okay them to make you a better student of the Bible so get your mind over to the southern kingdom now as we read about Uzziah King who is a king in the southern kingdom and let's look at verse number one so the Bible says in the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign now look at this here sixteen years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Jeckeliah of Jerusalem so again another mention of the mother we talked about this last week how sometimes that's included in the Bible because their fathers had multiple wives so the the the Bible wants to make sure that we're crystal clear on who came from where we don't have time to get into a genealogy so Uzziah okay he starts his reign when he's 16 years old okay now today and in this country a lot of states 16 is the age where we can actually get your license I think here in Idaho it's 15 right is it 15 was it 15 something like that yeah 15 but I mean think about it you know you see these young teens going down to get their license and they okay you know they're starting to advance in life and get closer to adulthood and here you have a this this teenagers taking over an entire country okay and he has a responsibility of all of these people at this moment in his life so the Bible says he reigns for 52 years look at verse 3 and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done save that the high places were not removed the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places we've been seeing that a lot as we've been studying the Kings okay the Bible say well this King did good but this King did good however okay and what usually follows is that they just neglected to get rid of the high places okay it's something that God definitely wanted them to get rid of verse 4 I'm sorry verse 5 it says and the Lord smote the king so that he was a leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a several house and Jotham the king's son was over the house judging the people of the land and the rest of the acts of a as I am and all that he did are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah so what I want you to do is go over to 2nd Chronicles chapter number 26 because if you read this here it seems like he was like God gave him leprosy just because he didn't take away the high places okay but something else happened here and we want to understand exactly what that is so let's take a look here 2nd Chronicles chapter number 26 so again this will be the parallel passage for Uzziah also known as Azariah and 2nd Kings and we're gonna look at verse number 6 remember this guy is alive for a long time and what this is gonna highlight for us here is that he has a lot of victories in his life he had a lot of battles had a lot of victories he did do primarily what was right in the side of the Lord but something happened along the way to this king that caused God to smite him with leprosy but before we get there let's take a look here look at verse 6 says and he went forth and warred against the Philistines and break down the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabeneth and the wall of Ashdod and built cities about Ashdod and among the Philistines okay so he's doing what a good king is doing and he is saying hey we are on the Lord's side we're gonna go out we're gonna attack these heathen nations and the Philistines were notorious for coming after Israel and we've talked about that extensively in the past here you have a king that's saying okay look I need to deal with this once and for all so he does a good job here at taking care of business now look at what verse 7 says and God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gerbeil and the Mahunians verse 8 and the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt for he strengthened himself exceedingly so he's on a roll here okay God is helping him he's doing very well in fact he's got these other nations now the Ammonites specifically saying hey we're gonna send gifts and so he's just doing really good here and then it just goes on to describe a lot of the other victories how he's building his army look down at let's see let's look at verse number 14 it says an Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields and spears and helmets and haber guns and bows and slings to cast stones and he made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows and great stones with all and his name was spread far abroad for he was marvelously helped till he was strong so this guy here is definitely somebody who had some talent who was resourceful who could inspire people he's got all the categories of leadership here definitely a saved guy on the Lord's side just doing great things okay and he takes these men that are cutting that are able to design these engineers and they make these engines right these things are able to just really launch out arrows and just to shoot them apparently rapidly and it's just something that was so significant that a lot of people heard about it okay but there's a problem and you can kind of see it at the end there of verse 15 look at what it says there for he was marvelously helped till he was strong look at verse 16 but when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense so what you're gonna see here okay is this guy here this King Uzziah he literally without knowingly he thinks he's gonna fast forward to the New Testament and become king and priests okay so obviously the Old Testament you have during the divided Kingdom here you have your Kings and then you have your religious system you have the priests and they're the ones that are supposed to take care of the incense and doing stuff in the temple sacrifices offerings a lot of that stuff and here this King says wow you know things have been going so well for me so I mean like I'm just really somebody I'm gonna go and burn some incense this should be a light thing but look what it says here verse 17 and Azariah the priest went in after him and with him four score priests of the Lord that were valiant men okay so you're starting to see a problem here okay these people are not gonna take this lightly here so you've got four score priests here you've got these 80 priests in the Bible says they are valiant men and they're gonna withstand the king and rightfully so verse 18 and they withstood Uzziah the king and said unto him it pertaineth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the priests the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense go out of the sanctuary for thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God okay now what is the response does he take this rebuke is he just like okay well maybe I just messed up here or does he get prideful the verse 19 the news I was wroth and had a censer in his hand to burn incense and while he was wroth with the priests the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priest in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar now where do you think that came from that came from the Lord God day his pride hath caused his physical destruction here verse 20 in Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked upon him behold he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out thence yay himself hasted also to go out because the Lord had smitten him so he understands what has happened okay and the priests are like you need to get out of here and he's like yeah okay this is humbling so he actually leaves verse 21 in Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a several house being a leper for he was cut off from the house of the Lord and Jotham his son was over the king's house judging the people of the land and then it ends there it says in verse 22 now the rest of the acts of Uzziah first and the last did Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz right and then it says in verse 23 that he slept with his father's so go back to 2nd Kings chapter number 15 so again you know it's this is something I think is very valuable for us that we should all take heed to the Bible says these things that were written a fourth time were written for our learning for admonition and I would say this you know it's not just about how you start the Christian walk in your path to discipleship but it's how you finish I mean think about it Uzziah was doing good he's doing right in the sight of the Lord everything's going well God's helping him he's defeating the enemies he's doing right and then his heart gets lifted up okay and why do you think his heart got lifted up was it just because of the victories is it you know we just get too many victories all of a sudden it goes to our head a lot of times yes but the answer goes back to Deuteronomy right remember we mention this all the time almost every single King it's because they neglected to copy down the law for themselves you write down the words of this book here you're you come to church and you hear the Bible preached or you're reading this thing on your own it will humble you it will step on your toes there's just no way around it because God wrote it God preserved it okay that is a fact you're not gonna crack open this book and not be smitten in the heart be like man that's me okay but apparently Uzziah neglected to do that and so those victories got to his head and thus wound up causing him to die as leopard okay so again I would say in that the lesson for us and that is definitely it's not how you start necessarily but it is how you finish and of course the Apostle Paul definitely alludes to that so we started off here you looking at your chart Uzziah or Azariah over here in the southern kingdom now get your mind back over to the northern kingdom because we're gonna be here for five quick Kings okay five quick Kings jump down to verse number eight second Kings chapter number 15 you're gonna see a common thread okay through these the the Kings from Zechariah all the way down to the end it's just atrocious it's horrible but we got to look at verse 8 it says in the thirty and eighth year of Azariah sorry Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months so you've got the southern king in the kingdom of Judah he's got a 52 year reign and he's a leper this dude he's getting six months six months look at verse 9 and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and his fathers had done or as his fathers had done he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin and so of course that is what is getting the Lord upset God has sent them prophet after prophet after prophet last week we mentioned the fact that Jonah was around preaching and in fact during this time here Isaiah the prophet is active if you go open up the book of Isaiah and you look under the list of Kings Isaiah is a prophet from Uzziah all the way down through Hezekiah who we're not even there yet okay so Isaiah is active he's prophesying you've got some of the minor prophets they've been on the scene they've been active they've been preaching but the northern kingdom again they don't want to depart from that new evangelical just wrong system of doing church and God's had it he's fed up he's had enough verse 11 and the rest of the acts I'm sorry verse 10 is the most important part here verse 10 and Shalom the son of Jabesh conspired against him and smote him before the people and slew him and reigned in his stead and says in verse 11 and the rest of the acts of Zechariah behold they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel verse 12 this was the word of the Lord that which he spake unto Jehu saying thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation and so it came to pass okay so God remember he told Jehu said because you did a good job and you executed that judgment by killing all the Baal worshippers and just cleaning house right destroying the house of Ahab because you did all that I'm gonna make sure that the next four generations get to sit on the throne but God never promised him how much or how long they would reign that was up to each individual person you see Zechariah did not have to go down like this he could have made the choice in his heart to follow God but he did not he neglected to do that and so God apparently here you can see according to this passage he's just fed up with these guys and so there's no protection okay and so you have this guy named Shalom comes up and kills him before the people and he assumes command and guess how long he reigns a month hey so you go from six months this guy's like oh I don't like Zechariah I'm gonna kill him and I'm gonna take the throne okay I'm gonna conspire against him and I'm gonna take the throne and he gets a month look at verse 13 Shalom the son of Jabash began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah and he reigned a full month in Samaria so he gets a full month right congratulations way to go pal by the way the title of the sermon is the beginning of the end and what I mean by that is this is literally the beginning of the end for the northern kingdom of Israel we're about to head into their final days into their captivity into which they're really never gonna come back from physically let's see you look at verse 14 here's that thread look at this so you look at your chart okay we got Zechariah who's after that Shalom okay six months for Zechariah one month for Shalom now look at this next King his name is Menahem and it says in verse 14 for let's see yeah verse 14 says for Menahem the son of Gadai went up from Tizra and came to Samaria and smote Shalom the son of Jabash and Samaria and slew him and reigned in his stead and of course the the rest of the acts of Shalom and his conspiracy which he made behold are they written in the book of the Chronicles Kings of Israel and so now we have this king here named Menahem and he reigns ten years and this guy is absolutely wicked look at verse 16 it says then Menahem smote Tifsah and all that were therein and the coast thereof from Tizra because they opened not to him therefore he smote it and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up notice how the Bible describes a pregnant woman with child not with tissue not with fetus not with anything like that with child things breed forth after their own kind so all of these pigs and these dogs running around here advocating against for abortion the Bible is crystal clear okay a woman is with child not with just tissue or anything like that and this is definitely mentioning that verse 17 says in the 9th and 30th year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadai to reign over Israel and he reigned ten years in Samaria and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin so he gets a decade he gets a full ten year period but again God is fed up with these people they are not listening they do not want anything to do with God and so God is just basically starting to dwindle their numbers down send them trouble and their government is just unstable hey does that sound familiar to you guys sound like our government in the United States of America nobody knows who's gonna be able to run next and this guy paid this person off and there's just all this confusion and chaos even in our own government today well that's a judgment from God okay that is what God is doing here he's destabilizing the political and the military organization in the northern kingdom of Israel because they are about to be completely wiped away and you're gonna start to see that here next look at verse 19 it says and pull the king of Assyria came against the land and Menahem gave pull a thousand talents of silver that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand I cannot stress to you how wrong this is talk about paying a bully to take care of your problems okay what should this guy have done should have listened to the prophets he should have listened to God he should have done that but of course he doesn't want anything to do with God his mind is solely in the world and he thinks okay I'm just gonna put my faith and trust on pole king of Assyria and he's gonna help me out now just a quick mention about who this guy is here pull the king of Assyria look over at 1st Chronicles so keep your place here but go to 1st Chronicles chapter 5 1st Chronicles chapter number 5 and let's take a look here because here's another person that has two names in the Bible and you'll see why here in a second 1st Chronicles chapter number 5 let's look at verse 26 and the Bible will tell you who this individual is look at verse 26 okay it says and the God of Israel so 1st Chronicles 5 26 and the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of pull king of Assyria see that and it says this and the spirit of tilgath-pilnezer king of Assyria sounds like there's two kings there doesn't it but it's not it's the same person so pull was a general who was a mighty general and he strengthened the army of the Assyrian Empire and did a lot and eventually wound up assuming control so when he ascended when pull ascended to the throne to be king over Assyria he became tiglath-pilnezer the third basically is what you're gonna get so it says and he carried them away even the Rubenites and the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh and brought them to Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river Gozan on to this day so that's just a little bit of information for you about who pull is go back to 2nd Kings 15 so if you're wondering why this guy's coming into the picture now it's because of that okay and if you read 2nd Chronicles I think it's chapter 28 somewhere in that range there this individual here gets a warning but we don't have time to go there let's just keep reading here look at verse 20 says a man in Menahem exacted the money of Israel even all the mighty men of wealth of each man 50 shekels of silver to give to the king of Assyria so the king of Assyria turned back and stayed not there in the land and the rest of the acts of Menahem and all that he did are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Manahem slept with his fathers and Pekiah his son reigned in his stead and so you could see already like it could be very easy to get these kings messed up or mixed up I mean even as I'm reading through this stuff and I'm thinking about it like I'm kind of getting a little jumbled up here but we are on our one two three we're now on our fourth king fourth king in the northern kingdom of Israel okay so if you're following along on your chart Pekiah is next up look at verse 23 says in the 50th year of Azariah remember Azariah is who? Uzziah okay in the 50th year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria and reigned two years and you know if you get in your years down here okay Uzziah is just about done because remember his reign was 52 years so Pekiah his reign is two years so you're gonna have a complete change in power in both nations okay in the southern kingdom and in the northern kingdom here very quickly verse 24 and he did that which was what evil in the sight of the Lord and he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat who made Israel to sin you starting to see how much God hates the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat the golden calf worship God hates it when we take his program and put our spin on it and say this is the way it can be done and try to endorse it and that's what most of Christianity today is doing Oh women pastors no problem queer pastors no problem it's all good to go God loves everyone wrong the things in this book are here for a reason God hates that style of leadership and it's not even leadership it's deception let's see here verse 25 but okay there's your but again okay so this guy he reigns for two years but Pekah the son of Ramaliah a captain of his conspired against him and smote him in Samaria in the place of the king's house with Argob and Aria and with him 50 men of the Gileadites and he killed him and reign in his room so I mean look at this seriously from Jeroboam the second right you get Zechariah who's the last of the Jehu dynasty and from him all the way to the end of the northern kingdom of Israel's being as a nation all their kings go down by conspiracy every single one of them so I would say I mean if you study history out I mean you study the Babylonians you study the Persians Greeks you know you're gonna find a lot of that towards the end of their reigns as world powers that this type of thing was going on on a large scale so it was no difference here let's see here verse 26 yeah verse 26 and the rest of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did behold they are written in the book of the Chronicles Kings of Israel verse 27 says this and the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Ramallah began to reign over Israel and Samaria and reigned twenty years so this guy here gets twice the amount of time that Mahanaim got and he's gonna reign 20 years and what does he do does he do right does he do okay let's see verse 28 and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin God hates it with a passion okay I mean look there's a reason why this is in the Bible so many times it's almost countless like I have lost track of how many times we have seen that phrase since we started our study in the book of the Kings verse 29 in the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath Pilsar king of Assyria and I apologize I butcher these guys names all the time okay you if you ever wonder like why does pastor always nickname everybody it's because I can pronounce it in my head and it just makes sense to me I read these names I'm just like Pillsbury Doughboy that's what I think of what I see this dude's name yeah but at least now you know who he is okay he was pull as the general of the Assyrian Empire and then he gets promoted okay and then a lot of that's according to secular history but you can see that the Bible does validate that promotion here especially when you compare this chapter to first Chronicles 5 so 29 in the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath Pilsar king of Assyria and he took I John and Abel Beth Makkah and Genoa and Kadesh and Hazor Gilead and Galilee all the land of Naphtali and carried them captive to Assyria so you're starting to see now the nation of Israel the northern kingdom of Israel starting to have trouble they're starting to be carried away captive okay so again this king prior you know just a few verses prior who was paying them off was it Mahonaham or Monaham yeah Monaham was paying them off okay and it worked for a season okay a couple kings later you're down here to Pekah what's he doing the Kings just like oh I'm just gonna take what you have okay but you know now that that is actually from God so again that that you know what that is that's a message to us to just just never back down to bullies never never try to get them to help you never try to side with him never try to compromise okay if you're gonna go down go down swinging it's just much better that way hey because this is cowardice because this nation here in their history now they have many blemishes and one of them is thinking that they could trust in the king or at the time the general of the Assyrian Empire hey now that same guy who they paid off to help them is coming to attack them okay again it just goes to show you so many organizations today so many Christian people today think that they can give an inch to the world that they could give an inch to the enemy you know we got to love these freaks we got to be helpful to them we should just be kind and this and that and let them come in here let them lead Sunday school and just really just love them to pieces they will turn around and rend you okay that's exactly what you're seeing here and that's exactly what God's gonna allow to happen to this king and to this entire nation they're already losing entire areas they're losing entire tribes at this point verse 30 yeah verse 30 it says this and Hosea the son of Elah made a what conspiracy made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and smote him and slew him and reign in his stead and the 20th year of Jotham the son of Uzziah verse 31 and the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did behold they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel okay so again you look at your chart we went from Zechariah to Shalom to Menahem Pekiah Pekah and now we are on to the last king of the northern kingdom of Israel and his name is Hosea so we're gonna get a good introduction to him today look at verse number 32 it says oh I'm sorry so okay let's back up here I'm getting ahead of myself here okay get your get your chart out you're going back now to the left side so now you're going back to the southern kingdom of Judah okay verse 32 in the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign so again that's why I gave you this chart here because you notice how the Bible is going back and forth Uzziah and then it calls them Azariah okay it's not doing that to confuse you it's doing that to teach you that this is one in the same person okay for us to follow along so back to your chart okay we are past Uzziah and we are now on to the next king in the southern kingdom of Judah which is Jotham and you're gonna see that he reigns 16 years so verse 32 again in the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign so we're kind of going back in time a little bit we're going back from Hosea to Pekah okay verse 33 five and 20 years old was he when he began to reign and he reigns 16 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok okay verse 34 and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord that's kind of nice to see isn't it so in order to get that phrase unless you're talking about Jehu in the northern kingdom you got to go down to the southern kingdom they're the only ones that are basically described as ever having kings that did anything right in the sight of the Lord verse 34 and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done but guess what's next guess what's next verse 35 how be it what the high places the high places were not removed the people sacrificed and burnt incense still in the high places he built the higher gate of the house of the Lord and then it just goes on to basically make reference to the Chronicles so let's take a look real quick 2nd Chronicles chapter 27 so keep your place there but go to 2nd Chronicles 27 so man get your mind back to southern kingdom now we're on King Jotham he reigns 16 years he does that which is right in the sight of the Lord and so we're gonna look at 2nd Chronicles 27 let's read one verse about him here real quickly so why did he do right what was it that made this King right in the eyes of the Lord this is a great statement here 2nd Chronicles 27 verse 6 so Jotham became mighty now why why so Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God you see that what the Bible is telling you and I and you can go back to 2nd Kings 15 is that this King was prudent this King was wise he actually looked well to his going so what that means is that he thought about his actions so he before he was going to make a decision and yeah he failed on the high places you know what that means we all have that failure and every single one of our lives we have our high places and we have our altered we have our things that we know darn well we need to stop doing okay but that you know is it just what it is we all have to work through those things again it's not about how you start but how you finish and part of that is is this wisdom right here developing this type of mindset in thinking if I do this is this gonna please the Lord is this what the Lord would do is this what the Lord would say in the Bible describes Jotham as having that mentality and that's why he was mighty and that's why he was successful and that's why he didn't go down like his father did with with leprosy and remember he got a lot of practice too he got a lot of practice he saw what happened to his dad he saw the pride that got to his dad and the result of that so it makes sense that he would actually say you know what I'm gonna go to the Lord before I start getting too puffed up so he was able to handle the success he was able to handle the victories all because of that statement there in Chronicles which says that he prepared his ways before the Lord his God that's what we need to do we need to prepare our ways before the Lord God we have a way we have something we're about to get into a decision we need to make what needs to come to your mind what does God think about this and if you don't know that's fine call somebody here you call me let me know and we'll figure it out together okay but that's the point here is that we want to be prudent we want to look well to her going and we want to implement wisdom on the things that we have to do and face in this life all right it's a quick recap we're gonna go into chapter 16 we're not gonna go through the whole chapter okay I just want to cover something because it's gonna be very important for next week okay so we started off in Judah talking about Uzziah who's also named Azariah and then we blasted through five kings in the northern kingdom okay and we're gonna finish off here on the last one next week but we are back in Judah we just talked about Jotham he prepared his ways before the Lord he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord now we're gonna look at another king in the southern kingdom of Judah on your chart there Ahaz okay and Ahaz is not a good king so let's finish off here back at verse 37 for second Kings 15 verse 37 says in those days the Lord began to send against Judah resin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Ramaliah verse 38 and Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead so again we are now back at the southern kingdom of Judah let's take a look at something here this is actually the king I was thinking of when I mentioned God giving him a chance and sending the prophet to him it was Ahaz look at verse 16 I'm verse 16 chapter 16 verse number 1 it says this in the 17th year of Pekah the son of Ramaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign 20 years old was Ahaz when he began to reign and reign 16 years in Jerusalem and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God like David his father verse 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel yay and made his son to pass through the fire according to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel what a sad downward spiral that is okay I understand Uzziah game pride got him pride gets us sometimes okay but you go from Uzziah to Jotham his 16 year reign he prepares his ways before the Lord and his son it's like you know what I'm gonna go ahead and bring back in this Molech worship here and just start sacrificing my children and promote this throughout the land here it sounds like a great idea like that's never been tried before verse 4 and he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree now you know I read that and I'm thinking about this up until this point you know when you see the Kings it's like they did good in the sight of the Lord they did right in the sight of the Lord but the high places weren't removed you know we read that and we think man it'd be nice to see that they actually did that and there is coming a king that will do that but it's like man that tells us something right God hates that doesn't want that he wants us to get all that type of stuff out work learn what your high places are and work on getting rid of them it's a constant fight it's a battle we get it we understand okay but when you get down here to Ahaz like his sins are so grievous that it just makes that look like you know what I mean you know I'm saying it's like in today's day and age this country just pushes I mean literally we are ambassadors for just every piece of filth and vile thing you could imagine okay I saw a tweet the other day from Joe sniffy Biden and it was basically something along the lines of we're gonna impose sanctions on Uganda if they don't change their stance on the LGBT community what what does that have to do with anything that's disgusting in fact that guy needs to come over here and take office that guy needs to replace Joe Biden is what I think okay for a while but I mean that's where we're at where we have people having to make laws even in this state and thank God they're making them but it's sad at the same time that men cannot compete in women's sports okay and so we've got these major things like that where people are claiming to not even you know you can't even tell what a woman is you can't tell what a man is you know what a trans person is so you have a train you know that this transvestite that goes and shoots three adults and three children in a Christian school and the president's like we need to protect trans rights and the left-wing you know Jewish ran media is doing the same thing and basically you know just just trying to cover for these people and you've got politicians tweeting and saying things like you know what you go girl and what she did I mean think about there are politicians in this country endorsing what that freak did right and so what do you have as a result of that you have people who can't even see the small details of the things that God hates like modern Bible versions right like having your church look like the world like the fact that preaching a false probationary gospel is a horrifying thing to God people think oh that's nothing you know that's all that's all just stuff to be sorted out later no those are still major issues going around teaching people that they have to turn from their sins to be saved is a horrifying thing yes I understand we've got all this other garbage to deal with as well but I mean when that is at the forefront of the media and people's minds it makes our job of exposing the high places and burning in since we ought not to ten times harder doesn't it and so that's what I see here when I read this look at verse five it says then resin king of Syria and Pekah son of remeliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war and they besieged a has but could not overcome him now I'm gonna stop right here for a second okay so what you have going on here is you have the northern kingdom of Israel siding with the Syrians not to be confused with the Assyrians okay you have Syria and you have the northern kingdom of Israel and they're upset now at the Jews okay you've got this king of the southern kingdom of Judah named a has and he's literally causing his children to pass through the fire endorsing wickedness and God's gonna help him talk about how God's mercies are abundant I mean this story doesn't teach you that you probably just cannot be top that okay but anyways back to this year we're getting close to being done here okay verse six look at this here this is interesting you've got Israel in Syria coming against the southern kingdom of Judah and look what the Bible says at that time resin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and drave the Jews from Elath and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day okay how many times have you guys heard we've all heard this where if anybody goes after the Jews you know if anybody goes after Israel right God's gonna gonna smoke them God's gonna just tear them apart because they're the apple of God's eye okay this verse here exposes the first time in the Bible that you see the word Jews look at it again at that time resin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and drave the who the Jews who are the Jews are they the northern kingdom of Israel are the Jews those who are under Pekah's reign are Jews the Syrians who are the Jews those under a has his reign Jews are those in the southern kingdom of Judah so let me ask you a question look at your chart here get your mind over to the right side to the northern kingdom of Israel look at Zechariah is he a Jew no is Shalom a Jew is Menahem a Jew is Pekiah a Jew is Pekah a Jew no they're Hebrews they're part of Israel but they're not Jews okay and that's gonna be so important for you to understand as a Christian and as we proceed through this chapter okay there are those that are from the southern kingdom of Judah was Abraham a Jew was Noah a Jew Abraham was a Gentile who became a Hebrew remember that the first Hebrew was a Gentile okay you know the next time you get cornered by one of these Zionist just Jew worshipping type people you need to let them know the first Hebrew was a Gentile God is not a respecter of persons and God is though he's helping the Jews because obviously Hezekiah is gonna come on the scene Manasseh is gonna repent you know there's gonna be some some some great victories you know they have the oracles God is protecting what is left of those who hold the Word of God those who hold the truth and so that's why God is doing this so just just a little good tidbit there verse 7 so a has sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria saying I am thy servant and thy son come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel which rise up against me now who here thinks this is the right move nobody this is wrong okay a has should have gone to God and again we don't have time to go there but when you read this account in second Chronicles 28 this is what I was referring to earlier you know God had Isaiah's involved in this okay and Isaiah is telling him like hey this is not okay this is not right in fact there's a conversation that God has through the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz and says Ahaz I want you to ask me something any question in death and Ahaz gets righteous for a second and says I will not tempt the Lord thy God and then the conversations over and then you get this prophecy so that conversation is recorded in Isaiah chapter 7 okay you have to read it on your own time Isaiah chapter 7 but after that conversation between Ahaz and the prophet Isaiah okay he just goes back and trusts the king of Assyria absolutely preposterous but that's what you get for somebody who's bringing all this Baal worship back into the fold verse 8 and Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria absolutely crazy you remember Solomon's prayer with this whole temple you know I mean Solomon was crystal clear and God agreed and said hey you know if we ever get in trouble and turn our backs on you and we just pray and ask for you to help us will you please help us and please restore us okay you see Ahaz respect absolutely zero of that none of that he wants nothing to do with it he's got he's got a plan here and he's gonna trust in this king and it's gonna work for a season but as you all know what happens when you side with the Assyrians what happens when you side with Egypt what happens when you pay them to do your dirty work well they're gonna want a little more than that money you gave them okay and when they have something that they want they're gonna come at you it's a sign of weakness so already this king's like guy he's already got it marked he's already got them marked in his mind he knows that his goal is to take over the world and to be the reigning world empire and he knows all he has to do is to later on go down there and start messing with them and it's gonna be bad look at verse 9 and the king of Assyria hearkened unto him for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it and carried the people of it captive to cure and slew resin so look at this I mean this works for a season he has like help me out Tiglath mr. Pillsbury help me out I'll pay you in fact I'll turn the Lord's temple into an ATM and I'll just withdraw all these funds and pay you off okay no problem cool I'll do it he does it quickly doesn't he he does it very quickly he destroys this King takes their people captive okay so this guy is obviously not somebody to be messed with verse 10 and King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pillsbury king of Assyria and saw an altar that was at Damascus and King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it according to all the workmanship there of Uriah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent him were sent from Damascus so Uriah the priest made it against King Ahaz came from Damascus verse 12 and when the king was come from Damascus the king saw the altar and the king approached to the altar and offered there on and of course we're gonna stop right here but this is just obviously wrong obviously an extreme gross violation of scripture okay now first of all the altar in the temple was made to be a certain way okay it was made to be a certain way and they weren't supposed to do this if you were gonna make an altar yourself to have an offering and we've talked about this before you would go back to Exodus 19 to get your instructions you're not supposed to lift up a tool on it you could heap up just just earth and rocks and that would be your altar okay you're not supposed to make it pretty or not supposed to make it fancy or anything like that which is why we're against the altar call inside of church today okay this is not an altar here this is simply a podium that I set stuff on with a microphone and this is just carpet okay the altar is between you and God okay the altar is you hearing the Word of God you reading the Word of God you saying you know Lord I need help applying this in my life okay we don't have people come down here to make some kind of commitment to stop doing X Y & Z that is not the way we do business but it sure looks religious it sure looks emotionally appealing if you see other churches do that doesn't it you know because the world always has things that are appealing to what to the flesh to the mind you know you go and you look at sculptures in Greece or in Rome and you look at their history they have some just just some fantastic statues and things of that nature it really displays a lot of creativity that people had okay but God said hey I don't want you to be like that you're supposed to be strong enough mature enough spiritually to look past that and to understand that we are separate we are different which is why we don't pattern our services to accommodate the world okay there are a lot of pastors nowadays that do that there's YouTube channels dedicated to that for Christian churches and a lot of them will send us emails from time to time say hey you can sign up for this course and grow your church 50 60 70 people by summertime guess what I say not interested not interested because in order to do that we would have to literally change everything about the way we do church I would not be able to preach most of this stuff to you the way that I do okay because guess what that drives people away you know what I mean that doesn't bring in the beauty that doesn't bring in the fleshly satisfaction and the sensationalism that comes along with that and you guys know the drill from there so anyways we are going to stop right here and we'll pick it up around this neighborhood next week and we're gonna look at the fall of the northern kingdom so we will basically be going back to the right side for the last time right side of this you you won't really need the list too much from here on out I mean maybe a little bit but you're gonna see the destruction of Hoshea and you're gonna see the Assyrians come in and take over the northern kingdom of Israel so hopefully that was help again if anybody is listening and you want this chart just email the church send a text and I will send it to your email no problem we've gotten a lot of them out so far it's nothing fancy it's just something very basic to kind of help your understanding and it just to kind of keep you on track because it is confusing going this King that King where we at what's going on okay but look I'm telling you if you can get this stuff down look you are so far ahead of most Christian people today I'm not saying like I'm better than you okay but we ought to be above this kindergarten just lovey-dovey Christianity that's out there today right we want to learn our history this is our history we're safe this is our history don't ever look at this stuff all that's just the history of the Jews you know just the history of the Hebrews know that is your history you're the kingdom of God you're the save one you're the real Jews according to Romans chapter 2 this applies to you so let's stop here and have a word of prayer thank you so much Lord for these great truths and for preserving these things for us and I just pray that you bless a week Lord and bring us back safely on Wednesday in Jesus name I pray amen