Episode Transcript
Good morning. What time is it? It's 10 o'clock, isn't it?
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Yes, we are in 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 7.
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We finished verse 6 last week. 2 Kings chapter 18 verse 7.
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With the advent of the smartphone, the daylight savings should never overtake you, right?
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But sometimes it still does with people who don't have those or don't rely on them.
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Last week we ended with a beautiful truth about King Hezekiah.
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That is that he kept the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses.
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And Hezekiah, in doing that, drew from the original source which was God's Word.
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He didn't draw from the religion of revision.
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Passed to him by his father and those weak-kneed priests of Ahaz's day and of his day too.
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And in a moment we're going to look at the result of Hezekiah keeping or guarding those commandments.
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And I should have done this probably a week or two ago, but if you're taking notes,
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I'd like you to write down 2 Chronicles chapter 28 through 30.
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2 Chronicles chapter 28 through 30.
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I don't usually give homework, but that is your homework reading.
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In fact, make it through chapter 32.
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Turn that zero into a 2.
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Now that's 4 chapters of reading.
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And the reason I'm pointing you to that is there are a lot of details about the reign of Hezekiah
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that happen between verses 1 and 4 in our text.
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So when you read chapter 18 verses 1 through 4 in 2 Kings,
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it doesn't give the detail about some of the things that happened during that time.
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And those details are filled in for you in the 2 Chronicles chapters that I asked you to write down and read later.
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But I'm going to give you a little bit of a summary there.
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Hezekiah's father Ahaz was a terrible king, and he committed all sorts of abominations.
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And so God's judgment was not just upon Israel, but upon Judah as well.
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And it's what we're reading about in the book of Hosea in our 11 o'clock studies with the pastor.
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And when Hezekiah took the throne, one of the things he did was to gather up the priests, the Levites,
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and charge them and tell them to sanctify themselves and to sanctify the temple,
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because the temple doors had been shut.
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King Ahaz had taken furniture out of the temple in gold and made altars in high places all over the country.
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And Hezekiah said, "I want you to sanctify yourselves, and I want you to clean out the Lord's house.
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Go in there and get all that stuff out and do what needs to be done, do what God commanded under the Old Testament law,
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for the cleansing of all of these things."
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So they repaired the furniture, they made the table of showbread presentable, sanctified with blood.
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And then there were offerings, burnt offerings, peace offerings, all of those things that were made in Hezekiah's day
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between verses 1 and 4 in our text.
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And the 2 Chronicles chapters give you great detail about that.
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So I suggest you read those, but for now we are in verse 7, and let's read that.
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It says this about Hezekiah, "And the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth,
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and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not."
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It says, "And the Lord was with him."
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What does this mean?
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Here the word "Lord" or the name "Lord" is the self-existing one, or Jehovah.
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And it speaks of God's attribute that He exists all by Himself without anyone helping Him.
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He has always existed therefore, no one created God, and He will always exist.
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That's what Jehovah is, the self-existing one.
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And the phrase "with him," it says, "and the Lord was with him,"
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that phrase "with him" means He accompanied him.
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God accompanied Hezekiah.
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Now although God, who is a spirit, is not physically seen with Hezekiah,
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He was with him in the sense that He accompanied Hezekiah.
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Now the opposite of being with him was being against him.
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So if I'm walking down the street with my wife,
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you could say we are with each other in the sense that we're both in the same location,
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walking the same direction, and we're close enough to each other where it's pretty obvious that we're together.
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Whether we're in agreement about something or not, we're physically together.
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But when God is with Hezekiah, He is in agreement with Hezekiah,
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and why is that? Because Hezekiah is in agreement with him.
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Hezekiah is keeping God's commandments. That's what the previous verses taught us.
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I'll give you a couple of passages here to help you understand this phrase,
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"and the Lord was with him."
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And we'll do it by learning what it means when the Lord is against you.
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Deuteronomy 31, verses 16 through 17.
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"And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
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and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land,
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whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant,
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which I had made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day,
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and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them.
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And they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them,
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so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us,
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because our God is not among us? In other words, our God is not with us."
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Now, because God is omnipresent, that is, He is everywhere all the time,
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it's not possible that He can be removed from a place,
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that He has no access to, that He can't see and hear. That's not possible.
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So that's not what it means when that passage in Deuteronomy says,
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"Our God is not among us." And it's clear that God accompanies,
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is among, is with those who do His commandments,
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and He is against those who rebel against Him.
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That's what He told Moses, "What happened when you die,
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these people are going to rise up, and they're going to do all these things,
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and I'm going to be against them. They're going to say I am against them,
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that I am not among them." And in the sense of accompanying,
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or being with those who rebel against God's commandments, He's there,
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but He's not walking in agreement with them,
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because His anger is kindled against them. He's not walking in accord with those who rebel.
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In fact, only in the power of the Holy Spirit through the person of Jesus Christ
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can a person ever walk with the Lord and have the Lord walk with Him.
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And the Lord was with Hezekiah. Hezekiah walked with the Lord,
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and the Lord was not against him. Now it says in verse 7 about Hezekiah,
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"And he prospered whithersoever he went forth."
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From time to time we talk about the word "prosper" and "prosperity"
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because, well, one, it's in the Bible, and two, it's so misunderstood in the world,
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particularly in certain segments of the religious world,
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certain charismatic denominations, or people who think like that.
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Have a narrow view, a fact that's usually a very worldly view of prosperity.
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So what does it mean that Hezekiah prospered whithersoever he went forth?
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Well, the Hebrew word for "prosper" when it's translated into English,
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it's normally translated as the word "understanding" and also the word "wise."
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In fact, it's translated as "understanding" and "wise" more than it is the word "prosper."
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When the average churchgoer prays for prosperity,
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he has no idea that biblical prosperity is actually wisdom and understanding.
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That's a whole different definition than what you may have been accustomed to hearing.
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Psalm 53, verses 2-4, and in this passage there is a translation of that Hebrew word
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that is translated as "prosper" in our text. Listen for it.
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Listen for the word "understand." Psalm 53, verses 2-4,
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"God looked down from heaven upon the children of men
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to see if there were any that did understand."
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He could have written that to see if there were any that did prosper.
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Any that did understand, that did seek God.
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Every one of them has gone back. They are altogether become filthy.
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There is none that doeth good, no, not one.
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Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?
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Who eat up my people as they eat bread? They have not called upon God."
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So among the many things the psalmist teaches us in those verses,
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one thing he teaches us is that those who prosper are those who seek God.
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I'll read that part again.
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"To see if there were any that did understand or prosper that did seek God."
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And in that same passage, the workers of iniquity, as they are called,
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have eaten up God's people and have not called upon God.
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That means they've devoured God's people, not by cannibalism,
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though some of that did happen in the Bible,
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but by devouring the fruits of their labor,
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by devouring them spiritually by teaching contrary to God's Word.
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I think it's quite an appropriate image of a preacher, a soaker,
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it's not really a pastor, but he calls himself one,
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who is over the flock of God and yet is a wolf.
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What does a wolf do to sheep? He eats them, doesn't, devours them.
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And spiritually devouring God's people by giving them false doctrine,
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by preaching another gospel. That's what is going on here in the passage
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we're reading about in Psalm 53, that God's people have been devoured
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by these workers of iniquity.
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And it's pretty clear that these workers of iniquity and their prosperity
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are contrasted with those who prosper by seeking God.
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Two different kinds of prosperity.
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Jesus taught on this principle of biblical prosperity
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in Matthew 6, verses 31 through 33.
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Matthew 6, verses 31 through 33.
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And as I read this, I want you to think about people
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who have been misled about what prosperity is
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and have prayed for that check to show up in their mailbox
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that they would get that new car or that they would have these,
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the first line of fancy clothing that comes out
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or whatever silly things people pray for.
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Jesus said, "Therefore take no thought," meaning don't worry,
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"saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?'
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or 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed?'
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For after all these things do the Gentiles seek."
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So what Jesus is teaching there is that the Gentiles' definition
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of prosperity has to do with material things.
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And you could go on from food and drink and clothing
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and name all of the other things after which the Gentiles seek.
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Now, every one of us in here, thank the Lord,
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put some clothes on before we came here, covered up our bodies.
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But I wouldn't say I prospered by putting these clothes on
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or by buying them or having somebody gave them to me for Christmas.
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If you want to know where I got any of this, ask my wife.
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I have no idea where my clothes come from.
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I just know they show up in a box or they show up in the closet.
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And that is, I'm thankful for my clothing, I am.
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But I don't consider having clothes as prosperity,
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at least not in a spiritual sense.
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And so Jesus continues, "For your heavenly Father knoweth
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that ye have need of all these things.
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But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
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and all these things shall be added unto you."
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All right, now let's apply that to what Hezekiah did.
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The testimony about Hezekiah was that he kept the commandments
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that the Lord commanded Moses.
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He kept God's Word, He guarded it.
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That was what was most important to him.
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And just like when Solomon prayed that the Lord would give him
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a wise and understanding heart to judge those people, to judge Israel,
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what did God do on top of that?
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He gave him that and then he prospered him in an earthly sense.
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He gave him much so that there was never a king before or after him
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who had those kinds of riches, even more than Abraham,
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at least in an earthly sense.
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So what we read about Hezekiah and his prosperity
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is right down the line with what Jesus taught.
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Jesus taught what the psalmist taught
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because the psalmist was teaching what Jesus put into his heart to teach,
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to write, "To prosper you must first seek the Lord."
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And Hezekiah first sought the Lord, guarded his commandments,
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and the Lord was with him, prospering him,
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causing him to understand and to be wise.
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That's how he prospered him.
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And our Wednesday night series in Proverbs is all about wisdom, isn't it?
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Which is understanding, which is prosperity.
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And to understand and be wise in the Scriptures is to prosper.
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So take that one and nail it on the doors of your heart
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because that is prosperity.
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And when that is your definition of prosperity,
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you won't worry about all these other things.
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You'll do as Jesus said, "Don't take thought for all those things."
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God already knows that you need clothes and something to drink and something to eat.
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He provided for all that when He created this earth.
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He provided for all the things that you already need.
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We're our greatest enemy 99.9% of the time
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when it comes to our own financial condition.
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We really are.
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There are catastrophes that happen that wipe out things that people have,
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a tornado that just takes everything off the ground
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and a person has nothing left, their bank has been blown away,
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and yes, that happens.
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But most of the time we're our own worst enemy when it comes to
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why we don't have the things that we need.
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If we seek first God's kingdom,
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in other words, if we live our lives according to the wisdom of God,
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start in the Proverbs if you're looking for a place to go,
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look at all the wonderful truths we've learned about how to live our lives,
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the things to avoid, what's wise, what's not wise,
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what happens to the one who's not wise,
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what happens to the one who is wise.
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Then everything else will fall into place,
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and you'll be content with the things that you have.
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It says he prospered whithersoever he went forth.
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We don't say whithersoever too much.
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That was the vernacular of the 18th century, 1700s.
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But whithersoever means in everything,
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not just everywhere, but in everything.
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So everywhere in every endeavor Hezekiah prospered,
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he understood in all wisdom.
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And as he walked in that wisdom, he prospered in everything.
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Now the opposite of that is not prospering in anything,
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which is what happens when the Lord is not with you,
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when he does not accompany you.
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Not that he can't see you, not that he can't hear you,
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not that he's written you off, but you've walked away from him.
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God doesn't change.
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So when man goes over here, then God's not going to go,
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"Well, just this one time I'm going to go over there with Him
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and walk with Him down that loathsome path."
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No, He calls us back by His Spirit.
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He reminds us of what His Word says.
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He reminds us of what He did at the cross for us,
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and His people come back.
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Some a little slower than others, but they come back.
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And when you don't walk in the wisdom of the Lord,
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this is what happens.
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You will not prosper in anything, not in a biblical sense.
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It does not mean that you lose your salvation.
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It means that you do not prosper.
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2 Samuel 12, I'll give you the verse in just a moment.
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But David had committed adultery with Bathsheba,
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and to try to cover things up,
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he caused her husband Uri the Hittite
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to be slain on the battlefield.
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And here is God's admonition to David in verses 9 through 11.
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That's 2 Samuel 12, verses 9 through 11.
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,000
He said, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord,
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:28,000
to do evil in His sight?"
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,000
Now, what do we know about Hezekiah,
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,000
and what do we know about David before this event?
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:36,000
They kept the commandments of the Lord.
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,000
And God said to David, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord,
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:43,000
to do evil in His sight?
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,000
Thou hast killed Uri the Hittite with the sword,
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,000
and hast taken his wife to be thy wife,
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,000
and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,000
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house,
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,000
because thou hast despised me,
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,000
and hast taken the wife of Uri the Hittite to be thy wife."
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:04,000
Now, listen to this.
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:05,000
"Thus saith the Lord,
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000
Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:13,000
and I will take thy wives before thine eyes,
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,000
and give them unto thy neighbor,
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:17,000
and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this Son."
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:21,000
Now, there's no doubt that David was a Christian.
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,000
The Bible bears that out very plainly.
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,000
But because he despised God's wisdom by committing adultery and murder,
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:35,000
God's hand was against him, not with him.
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:39,000
David thought of an earthly way to prosper,
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:44,000
and that is, that beautiful woman who I see out of my window,
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,000
I'll forget that she's not my wife.
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,000
I'll forget that she is the wife of one of my faithful soldiers who is off at war.
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:57,000
And I'll just go for the pleasure of having her come lie with me.
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:02,000
And that's how the flesh thinks you prosper.
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:07,000
And God said, "You despise my commandment."
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,000
So, one who seeks for earthly prosperity first,
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:15,000
despises God's commandment.
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,000
And that's what he did.
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,000
Now, there's no doubt he was a Christian.
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,000
And David later confessed his sin,
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,000
and when he did, the prophet Nathan told him,
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,000
"The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die."
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:36,000
In other words, that sin of adultery and then conspiracy to commit murder
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,000
and cause the murder to be committed would not cause David to suffer the death penalty.
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:46,000
God had something different for him later on.
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,000
He'd let him gather up all the lumber and the gold
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:54,000
and everything that needed to build the temple,
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,000
but he wouldn't let him build it.
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,000
And David had to die knowing he would not get to take part in building that temple.
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:02,000
God had plenty for him. That blessed baby, that poor little baby, died.
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:09,000
And so, he had a lot to deal with.
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:14,000
He probably wished God would have just given him the death penalty
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:17,000
as opposed to all of that.
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:21,000
Now, how can we prosper with or so ever we go forth?
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:26,000
Because that's what Hezekiah did.
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,000
And that's a good thing, so we want to learn from him.
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000
How can we prosper in everything that we do?
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,000
We first learn that prosperity is wisdom.
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:38,000
It's understanding gained through God's Word.
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,000
That's the key.
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:45,000
And when we have a proper understanding, for example, of money,
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:50,000
then we acknowledge several things.
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,000
First of all, all riches come from God.
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:58,000
All riches come from God.
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,000
Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 19.
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,000
Ecclesiastes 5 verse 19.
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:08,000
"Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth,
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:13,000
and hath given him power to eat thereof,
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,000
and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor,
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,000
this is the gift of God."
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:24,000
That's pretty plain, isn't it?
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:26,000
It's a gift of God.
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,000
Now, how many in this world who have riches and wealth
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:34,000
would realize that all of that comes from God?
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:39,000
Not many.
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:41,000
They'd say, "I made that. I did that."
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,000
A second truth we learned here.
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:49,000
Let's talk about money, because we're talking about prosperity
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,000
and people getting money on their minds.
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,000
We have a proper view of that,
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,000
and that is that righteousness plus little
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:02,000
is greater than iniquity in riches.
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,000
Righteousness plus little, or you could say,
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,000
is better than unrighteousness plus much.
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:14,000
Psalm chapter 37 verse 16.
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,000
Psalm 37, 16.
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,000
"A little that a righteous man hath
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,000
is better than the riches of many wicked."
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:28,000
So that's a second truth.
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,000
A third truth about prosperity when it comes to money
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:35,000
is that riches are not to be trusted.
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,000
Riches are not to be trusted.
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,000
And that's found in Proverbs 11, 28,
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,000
which we will soon come upon Wednesday night.
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,000
Proverbs 11 verse 28.
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,000
"He that trusteth in his riches shall fall,
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,000
but the righteous shall flourish as a branch."
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:58,000
Why is that?
00:25:58,000 --> 00:25:59,000
The righteous don't trust in their riches.
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,000
They trust in God.
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,000
And if God gives them wealth and riches,
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,000
they say this is a gift from God.
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,000
And if God doesn't give them wealth and riches,
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,000
they say God doesn't want me to have wealth and riches
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,000
if that's the case.
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,000
But they didn't trust in that anyway.
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,000
They trusted in righteousness.
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,000
They trusted in the Lord.
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,000
So many people have increased their wealth
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,000
through investments and buying precious metals,
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,000
real estate and so on, and those are worthy endeavors.
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,000
That's a sign of somebody who has a little self-discipline
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,000
and who doesn't want everything right now.
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,000
Somebody who's wise like the ant and puts up for the winter.
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:49,000
"And although those who are worthy endeavors
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,000
do not put your trust in them."
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,000
If the stock market crashes,
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:58,000
then your investments may become worthless.
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:03,000
Proverbs 23 verse 5 goes right along with this
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:08,000
not trusting riches. Proverbs 23 verse 5.
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:13,000
"Will thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,000
For riches certainly make themselves wings."
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:21,000
They fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,000
So Rebecca, if you want to draw a dollar bill with wings on it,
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,000
that would be the correct interpretation of this verse.
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:31,000
That's what they do. They fly away.
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,000
What happens whenever the stock market falls?
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,000
Well, a particular stock that was held in great value
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:41,000
and worth a lot of money,
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,000
suddenly without anything actually happening
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,000
to the piece of paper it's on,
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,000
it is worthless in someone's eyes.
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:53,000
And so all of the trust and the hope you had
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,000
and the money that you could get from it is gone.
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,000
Now, nobody likes for that to happen.
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,000
My grandparents lived through the Depression,
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:06,000
and while some of the stories they told me were disheartening,
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,000
some of them were very encouraging
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,000
about how resourceful they were
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,000
and how they learned to appreciate little things,
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:19,000
so-called little things,
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,000
and to get along with not too much
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,000
except their families and their faith.
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,000
They didn't put their trust in riches,
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,000
but it certainly was difficult for them to live.
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,000
But people who put their trust in riches,
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,000
I don't know if some of you all are old enough, obviously,
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,000
to remember the day trading when that became a big deal.
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:43,000
It was just another form of gambling
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,000
because people who had no idea how to handle stock markets
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:50,000
and investments and all that would get online
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,000
and they'd try to buy this particular stock
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000
and then they'd try to sell it and make a bunch of money.
00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,000
Well, guess what happened?
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,000
There was nothing that happens at the casino.
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,000
Most people lost,
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,000
and there were people who would go up to the top
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,000
of a high-rise building and take a swan dive
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,000
and end their lives because they trusted in their riches.
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:16,000
So God teaches us in many verses,
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:25,000
but at least those three I read you,
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,000
that all of these riches come from Him.
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,000
And we're not to trust in those riches,
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,000
we're to trust in Him and that those riches fly away.
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,000
Now, on the other hand,
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:38,000
the carnal man who trusts in riches
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,000
also believes he made himself prosperous
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,000
by trusting in those riches.
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,000
He's not sought God.
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:49,000
He doesn't seek after righteousness or the kingdom of God,
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,000
and rather than believing that those riches come from God,
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:58,000
He calls Himself a self-made man.
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,000
Nobody is a self-made man.
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:05,000
In fact, this rich man despises wisdom.
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:10,000
If you asked a carnal rich man,
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,000
"Sir, are you a Christian?"
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:16,000
I wonder how many would say they are
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,000
or would give a truthful answer on that,
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,000
but do you tithe?
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,000
What?
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:24,000
Do you tithe?
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,000
Give 10% or more to the work of the Lord
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:31,000
as the Bible teaches.
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:33,000
Well, no, I don't do that.
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:34,000
If I gave 10% away,
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,000
I wouldn't be able to have that 10% to make more money.
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,000
That's the attitude of that person who doesn't.
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:43,000
Sadly enough, some of God's people,
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,000
they'll say, "I don't trust in riches,"
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,000
but if you look at their income and you look at their tithe,
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,000
it's not a tithe.
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:53,000
It's something less than that.
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,000
If it's there at all, it's inconsistent.
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:59,000
That's a good place to check yourselves right there,
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,000
by the way.
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:02,000
I don't want to know what's in your pocketbook
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,000
or what you put in there,
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,000
but God does and He does know,
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,000
and you know if you've put something before Him
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,000
and before the tithe.
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:16,000
But the carnal man believes the dollar,
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:22,000
that little worthless piece of paper,
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,000
is worth far more than the words written on the pages of this book.
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:32,000
And in all this,
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:34,000
He trusts in his riches believing they will never fly away,
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:39,000
when in fact true prosperity evades Him.
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:45,000
And God's not with Him, but against Him.
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,000
Don't walk away saying, "Brother Andy, are you saying God's against rich people?"
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,000
I never said that, and neither does the Bible.
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,000
God made Solomon and Abraham rich,
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,000
far above measure in many ways, spiritually but also financially.
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,000
He prospered Jacob greatly in the raising of the cattle for his uncle.
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:09,000
No, God doesn't despise riches, He gives riches.
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,000
He's the giver of them.
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,000
But He's not with those who put their trust in the riches.
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:22,000
Now Hezekiah did not do as these wicked kings before him,
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:26,000
because those kings sought after the prosperity of this world.
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:30,000
And as I briefly introduced you to what's in 2 Chronicles 28,
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:36,000
King Ahaz did that.
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,000
He wrecked the temple, He wrecked the people's spiritual condition.
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:44,000
The priests were no good.
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,000
And although Solomon ended poorly, he began wonderfully
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:52,000
by seeking of all things, wisdom and understanding,
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:57,000
which is the true prosperity taught by God's Word.
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:02,000
Now what about you? Will you have it?
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000
Will you have that true prosperity?
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,000
That's a decision you have to make for yourself.
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,000
And the prosperity of God's Word causes you to not be so prosperous
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:14,000
in an earthly sense, here or there, will you take it?
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:19,000
You know, a person could say, well I want to prosper,
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,000
and I want to go to Columbia and become part of the cartel
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:27,000
and be a millionaire selling those illegal drugs to people, fentanyl.
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:33,000
I don't care what the fallout is because I'll be rich.
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,000
Well, then you won't be trusting in God to do that.
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,000
But if I say, Lord, I don't know what things You're going to give me in my life,
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:46,000
I don't know how much money I'm going to make,
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,000
I have an idea what my next paycheck will be because it's about the same every two weeks,
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:54,000
but I don't know if I'll be here then, I don't know if my house will catch on fire,
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:58,000
I don't know a lot of things.
00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,000
But I do know I'm going to trust in You.
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,000
And I'm going to trust in Your prosperity that I understand Your Word,
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,000
that I abide in the wisdom of Your Word,
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,000
so that when these other things befall me, if they do, I'm not anchored in them.
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:13,000
I'm anchored, I'm still going to be prosperous.
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,000
If my bank account is drained down, my house is burned down,
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:20,000
and my family and I are standing out on the street in clothes with soot on them,
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:25,000
and that's all we have.
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:26,000
I am prospering in God's Word.
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:30,000
And it's easy preaching and tough living.
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:35,000
Now in our text there in 2 Kings 18 and verse 7,
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:42,000
I want you to look real closely at the very middle,
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:46,000
where it says, "He prospered whithersoever he went forth."
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:50,000
And the punctuation mark after that is a full colon.
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:54,000
You have a semicolon, that's the one with the period on top and the comma on the bottom.
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,000
Well this is a full colon.
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,000
"And it's after the phrase, 'He prospered whithersoever he went forth.'
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:05,000
Then it reads, 'And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not.'"
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:12,000
So what the full colon tells us is that the words after it are examples,
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:18,000
are descriptive of the words before the full colon.
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:23,000
It means to wit.
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,000
So he prospered whithersoever he went forth to wit, or as an example, or in this way,
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:32,000
he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not.
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:38,000
So are we saying Hezekiah prospered in rebellion and service?
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:43,000
Absolutely, that's what the Bible teaches us right here.
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,000
"By having wisdom Hezekiah saw the king of Assyria as an enemy rather than a friend."
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:56,000
Now rebelling against God is foolish, but rebelling against God's enemies is wise.
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:04,000
In Acts chapter 26, I'm going to show you how it's wise.
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:10,000
In Acts chapter 26, the Apostle Paul was making his defense of the gospel to King Agrippa.
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:18,000
And speaking of the message, Jesus sent Paul to tell in verse 18 here in Acts 26,
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:26,000
Paul said, "To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light,
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:34,000
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:40,000
and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:46,000
Now to turn from darkness to light is to rebel against darkness.
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:53,000
And through Jesus, we have rebelled against darkness and turned to light.
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:59,000
That verse says that we have turned from the power of Satan.
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:06,000
Now that's what rebellion is.
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,000
Every one of us are born into this world under the power of the prince of this world, Satan,
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:13,000
the God of this world with a little g.
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:17,000
He's the one who has power over you.
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Jesus told those Pharisees, He said, "You're of your father the devil,
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and the works of your father you will do."
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So when we turn from that power, when we say, "Oh no, I'm under the power of Satan.
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I'm a sinner. I know what my doom is. I stand condemned already.
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I'm turning and putting my faith in Jesus."
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Then we are rebelling against the power of Satan.
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That's wisdom. That's prosperity.
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And so when Hezekiah did that, he was prosperous.
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It was wise of him to serve the Lord, and you can't serve two masters.
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And it was wise of him not to serve the king of Assyria.
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Look back in the text, it said, "He rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not."
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Now Israel was serving the king of Assyria, and they were in bondage to the king of Assyria.
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Their king was in prison, Hoshiah.
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But Hezekiah prospered in not only rebelling against this Assyrian king,
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but also in not serving him as well.
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And this was prosperity. It didn't involve money. It involved service.
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It didn't involve money. It involved rebellion against darkness.
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Now look in verse 8 about Hezekiah. It says,
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"He smote the Philistines even unto Giza, and the borders thereof,
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from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
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He smote the Philistines."
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Yes, He prospered in smiting, which can mean to kill, or to wound, or to beat, to defeat.
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Those are all proper translations of the Hebrew word translated "smoked."
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When God is with you, as He was with Hezekiah, then your enemies have no chance.
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When your enemies are God's enemies, then God will fight your battles for you.
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In our text, those were earthly battles against the Assyrians in this case.
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But they represent greater enemies that we have, and those are spiritual enemies.
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Ephesians chapter 6 teaches us about the spiritual enemies.
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It uses the image of the armor of God.
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This armor is for the spiritual man, the inner man who's been born again, not the flesh.
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That's why we don't defeat the devil's crowd with a sword, or a shield, or a bomb, or a tank, or anything else.
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Listen to chapter 6 verses 10 through 12.
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"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
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Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
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for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
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against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
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Now, in our text, Hezekiah was wrestling against flesh and blood, consisting of the Philistines and the Assyrians.
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In the power of God's might, he defeated the Philistines, as we just read.
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Now, some might take this to mean, well, then God will defeat all of the enemies of the United States, as long as we walk with God.
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That's not the enemy that Ephesians is talking about here.
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And in fact, if that's what you came away with, that would be, in my opinion, a shallow interpretation of the text.
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In defeating the Philistines, what God was showing Hezekiah and us is that God's enemies are the enemies of His people as well.
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And God was teaching us in those battles and in those victories that those battles and victories represented the battle and victory against the principalities, the powers,
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the rulers of the darkness of this world and the spiritual wickedness in high places.
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And as we close, we know, if you've been here long, you've learned Satan, the sin and death and the grave are our greatest enemies.
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And Jesus has already prevailed over them in truth, and by His might, we shall completely prevail over them as well in time.
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We have been saved from the penalty of sin already by His finished work on the cross.
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We are being saved from the power of sin as our lives are conformed to His image.
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However, we have this flesh we live in.
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So we can't be completely saved from the power of sin until we're out of this flesh, at which time we will be saved not only from the power of sin, but from the very presence of sin.
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When God judges all things through His Son Jesus and puts away all the evil, death and hell are cast into the lake of fire, the second death.
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But until then, Satan tempts our flesh, which brings about sin, which brings about death of this corrupt flesh.
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And when Jesus gathers us together to be with Him and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,
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then we're going to see the true meaning behind what God showed Hezekiah in the defeat of the Philistines.
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And next week we'll look at that phrase unto Giza and see what that means.
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Let's pray.
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Father, you're so good to teach us from your word and to encourage us with the promises and the types that we learn.
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And Father, thank you for showing us that through the earthly battles that you have victoriously prevailed in on behalf of man, that we have hope and great confidence that all of our spiritual battles are under the blood.
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And by the power of your might, we already have victory over them.
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And when time shall be no more, we'll be removed from the very presence of sin, which means all of our enemies will have been defeated.
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And we thank you for this amazing truth.
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And may we be encouraged in it as we continue this morning.
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Give our pastor the liberty to preach your word, to communicate what you taught him in his study,
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and give us the good attention to listen, to not be distracted by the things around us or the things outside the doors.
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The Lord to take advantage of this precious little time we have to gather together and assemble with the saints.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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