“Until Now”!

II Kings 13:23 describes God’s treatment of the people of Israel who had rebelled against Him for years. It says that “YHWH was gracious to them … and would not destroy them or cast them from His presence until now.” There is an important lesson in those last two words, “until now.”

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What Is Your Legacy?

In II Kings 13, the Bible tells of two of the kings of Israel, Jehoahaz and Jehoash. Neither of these kings was godly. It is of note that they are both described in their relationship to Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the first ruler of the northern kingdom. Verse 2 says that Jehoahaz “followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat”, and verse 11 says that Jehoash “did not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.”

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“Eschatou”, not “Eschatology”

Many of God’s people are fond of dwelling on the “end times”, otherwise known as “eschatology”, from the Greek word “eschatos”, which means “end.” But this obsession is unhealthy and was rebuked by Jesus when He addressed His disciples in Acts 1. He gave them — and us — another focus instead:

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Do They See You Trust God?

Jehoash, the king of Judah, had been used by God to bring reform & revival to the land. But it did not appear that he finished well. II Kings 13:17 says that the King of Aram set his face to invade Jerusalem, and verse 18 says: “Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred things and all the gold that was found among the treasures of the house of YHWH and of the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then he went away from Jerusalem.”

One is left wondering about the actions that Jehoash took. Continue reading

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The “High Places” Are Alive & Well

II Kings 11-12 describe a revival that took place in Judah under Jehoiada the priest, and Jehoram the young king who was under his influence. But the scriptures relate that the revival was not complete. Verse 3 of Chapter 12 says: “only the high places were not taken away”. This is a common statement regarding the state of religion in Israel. Even in times of revival, the “high places” were not taken away. What were these “high places”?

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And The City Was Quiet

II Kings 11 describes the tumult which happened in the land of Judah, as Athaliah, the wicked queen, was deposed, and Jehoiada the priest led a “revival” in the land which saw young Joash made king. The people renewed their covenant with God and the king (:17), and then in verse 20 it says: “So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet.”

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Honoring the Godly

Psalm 15:4 says that those who may fellowship with God will despise the reprobate, “but honors those who fear the LORD.” There are “two sides” to this “coin”: we are indeed to despise those who live perverse lifestyles, which we explored in the devotion on this Psalm yesterday. But the positive side of this is that we should HONOR those who fear God.

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Admiring Wicked Men

Psalm 15 speaks of those who are able to stand in the fellowship of God, and verse 4 includes an interesting quality: “In whose eyes a reprobate is despised”. Here we find one of the symptoms of the compromised Christianity of our century: even the people of God today do not despise the reprobate in our midst. Continue reading

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All You Have To Do To Get To Heaven

Psalm 15 opens by asking the question everybody wants answered: “O Lord, who may abide in Your tent; who may dwell on Your holy hill?” In other words, how can we get to heaven, to be where God is — the ultimate goal of mankind? But the answer is more than daunting!

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“Four Surprising Signs of Wickedness” (Psalm 10:3-11 sermon)

(Preached at First Baptist, Pauls Valley, OK on Sunday evening, July 20, 2014)

When most of us think of “wickedness”, we tend to think of certain specific “evil deeds.” Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who was in the news recently for having murdered numerous babies who were accidentally born during botched abortions, may come to mind. They reported that just before he killed one baby, he joked to his assistants that the child was “big enough to walk to the bus.” Thankfully, he was indeed convicted of murder. What he did was absolute wickedness, make no mistake about it!

But that kind of picture of wickedness also misses the point somewhat, because in many of our minds it serves to excuse US from any kind of responsibility for wickedness — surely none of US have been involved in that kind of evil, right? But in fact, if the truth be known, each of us does indeed manifest wickedness every day.
I want us to turn to Psalm 10, where it speaks of “the wicked” in :3. Following that verse, we see a description of some of the qualities of the wicked person. Some of them are what we might expect. But others may be more surprising — and some of us would have to admit, after studying this scripture, that we are much more wicked than we realized. Let’s look together for a few minutes at “Four Surprising Signs of Wickedness.”

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