Episode Transcript
Good morning, it's 10 o'clock.
Yeah, we sprung forward last night, so We'll have some people to show up at 11 looking for me to teach Sunday school Second Kings chapter 21 second Kings chapter 21 Now the other time of year when we fall backward an hour we have unintentional Sunday school students They didn't realize oh, no, I'm gonna go to church twice That's a good habit start isn't it Doug Second Kings chapter 21 in verse 11 is where we stopped last week, so we will pick up there today We learned that God would bring evil upon Judah The Southern Kingdom and upon Jerusalem, which was its capital city We also learned That when God brings evil upon Judah It's simply God bringing them evil consequences for their evil choices and It does not make God evil to bring evil it's man who chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and So the evil God brought upon Jerusalem And Judah would be such look in your text in verse 11 that whosoever heareth of it Both his ears shall tingle So let's look at the plain wording there and don't miss the fact That others will hear of this judgment, whatever it's going to be and we read about it He said that whosoever heareth of it Now that means there would be others who wouldn't necessarily Experience this evil, but they would hear about it when God punishes evil He's not only getting the attention of the ones whom he punishes But he's also getting the attention of those who hear about it Now I'll tell you if I had a choice, I would much rather learn about the evil Brought on others than to have it brought on me It's a lot.
I wouldn't say it's more fun to read about it than it is to experience it, but it's less There's less affliction it's less troubling and That's why it's so important to study the Bible because we get the benefit of reading about the evil that men do and the consequences that that evil brings upon them and What's the purpose of us reading about it so we don't have to go through it as well Now, what do we usually do we read about it?
We go through it anyway, don't we because we're hard-hearted sometimes or stiff-necked just like the children of Israel were Now God brings evil upon people to punish them for a purpose And it's to cause us to turn from our evil ways But God also punishes people for the benefit of others First that others may hear as our text suggests here and when others hear of the judgment of God then they also hear What should cause them to fear the judgment of God?
so if I hear the judgment of God and that judgment is Soar affliction on a country on a people then that ought to cause me to fear the judgment of God First Timothy chapter 5 in verse 20 First Timothy 5 in verse 20, you know, one of the jobs of a pastor is to rebuke sin to rebuke the sinner and Paul wrote to Timothy Them that sin Rebuke before all that others also may fear now.
There is the exact principle We've learned in our text when God warns us through his word he's not only warning us, but he's warning everyone else who hears his word and Whosoever heard of the evil that God would bring Against Judah and Jerusalem.
It says both of his ears shall tingle Now the word tingle means to quiver.
So it's not what you might think when you hear the word tingle if you look at the three times that the Hebrew word for tingle is used in the Old Testament and The one time the word quiver is used.
It's the same Hebrew word Then you come away with the idea that this tingling God is talking about is not a pleasant sensation at all it's not a ticklish feeling and The ears here are addressed Because of what the people heard the two go together Now there are other Sensations other body parts we have that are addressed in the Bible here.
We have the ears Tingling or quivering, but let's look at some equivalent reactions in some of the other senses and their body parts We're studying about the ears tingling.
But what about the eyes?
What about the eyes?
judges chapter 20 verses 40 through 41 judges 20 40 through 41 But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke the Benjamites looked behind them and behold the flame of the city ascended up to heaven and When the men of Israel turned again the men of Benjamin were amazed for they saw That evil was come upon them What the Benjamites saw with their eyes Amaze them the scripture said it amazed them and that word amazed means troubled in fact That's how it's normally translated.
So when you see the word amazed in the Old Testament Know that it very often is the same as the word troubled Now we think of the word amazed a little differently, don't we?
We say wow, I was amazed at the beautiful sunset tonight.
Well a beautiful sunset doesn't trouble me.
It's a wonderful sight I like to see that and So it's not exactly the same as how you might think about it.
Well, how about the hands and knees?
There's another set of body parts Ezekiel describes the hands and the knees as they will be during the punishment of the wicked and Ezekiel 7 verses 15 through 17 Ezekiel 7 verses 15 through 17 It says the sword is without and the pestilence and the famine within He that is in the field shall die with a sword and he that is in the city Famine and pestilence shall devour him But they that escape of them shall escape and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys All of them mourning everyone for his iniquity All hands shall be feeble and all knees shall be weak as water Now that will be the response of the hands and the knees to the judgment of God Now when you consider the ears tingling You should understand that this quivering or this tingling comes from fear just like the eyes in amazement are troubled and The hands and their feebleness and the knees and their weakness And this is what the hearing or the seeing the experiencing of the judgment of God brings to the human body Now the problem with most people's response to God's Word is not that they don't hear But that their ears don't tingle at the judgment of God.
Now, that's pretty foolish, isn't it?
They mock the preaching of God's Word by the So called hellfire and brimstone preachers, you know, that's that said Like it's some kind of a bad thing or an insult Listen to preach Only hellfire and brimstone is to ignore the other part of the gospel message But to leave it out is to also ignore a part of the gospel message And yes, a person has to know about the judgment of God upon sinners That's sure that that it is fierce And only then will they see their need to be saved But if a person hears that and says well, I don't I don't think that's going to happen or that won't be me I'm too good a person their ears don't tingle at the preaching of God's Word about the judgment upon sinners But when it does Then and that now listen don't come away thinking well, my ears have to tingle before I'll want to be saved No, that's that's not what is being said here but that is the difference between someone who hears God's Word and their ears tingle and someone who hears it and mocks and rejects it and Contrary to many what many people believe I could preach the hellfire brimstone the wrath of God the condemnation of the unbelievers the love of God the salvation by grace through faith in his son all without hollering or stomping my feet or Pounding my fist on the pulpit to preach every bit of it without all of those histrionics It's not the volume of my voice that ought to make someone's ears tingle Now I've I've been under that kind of preaching before and maybe you have to Where the preacher gets up there and about half the message.
We're just nervous Thinking he's gonna blow those speakers at any moment and you can't hear what he said.
You can't understand what he said And I don't like that I like passionate preaching, but I don't like people just screaming and hollering for the sake of putting on a show Well, it's not the volume of my voice that ought to make your ears tingle or quiver in the first place It's the truth about God's judgment Upon sin the reality of his wrath ought to make our ears tingle and the narrow way of the gospel for salvation How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
So when people hear about God's judgment From a preacher but their ears don't tingle Then you can be sure that they will tingle when God's judgment comes upon them their hands will be Feeble and their knees will be weak as water and their eyes will be troubled with amazement All of those things will happen.
They may not be troubled about the judgment they read or hear about in God's Word, but they will if they refuse to repent and So let's look now in verse 13 back in our text.
If you've just joined us online.
We are in 2nd Kings chapter 21 in verse 13 God continues with this promise of the judgment on Judah and Jerusalem He said and I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish Wiping it and turning it upside down.
Okay, there are a few things to look at in this verse He said first and I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria now a line is a cord that's used to measure the height or length or breadth of something and Samaria if you remember was the capital city of the northern kingdom the ten tribes the northern tribes Excluding the tribes of Judah and Benjamin which made up the southern kingdom I remind you that from time to time you may already know it But others may not or or you may have forgotten so it's good to go back and be reminded of that now here's another translation of of This phrase and I will stretch a lot.
I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria here's another translation and I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria because that's what this line is.
It's a We would call it a tape measure wouldn't we that's what we use Isaiah chapter 44 Describes the foolish role of the metalsmith and the carpenter in making idols and in verse 13 the English word rule that we read in our text is the same as the word line and so you get an idea that this is a This is like a ruler except it's a cord.
It's more like a tape measure Here is what Isaiah said in?
44 13 the carpenter stretcheth out his rule you could say he stretch it out his line or his measuring line He markets it out with a line He fitted it with planes and he markets it out with the compass and make it that after the figure of a man According to the beauty of a man that it may remain in the house Now he was describing what these carpenters and metalsmiths who make idols are doing So we have a carpentry analogy applied to The how God is going to handle the judgment and the pouring out of evil the upon Jerusalem and Judah who have been disobedient Under King Manasseh and the carpentry analogy is used in the Bible more than you might imagine So let's look at the principle of the measuring line in the Bible And I'll use a few verses for that First one is Exodus chapter 26 in verse 2 Exodus 26 in verse 2 It says the length of one curtain Shall be 8 and 20 cubits.
Now.
This is talking about the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness the curtains and the breadth of one curtain four cubits and Every one of the curtains shall have one measure All right So the measure that God gave for the length of the tabernacle curtains was 28 cubits That's about 42 feet two cubits roughly a foot and a half So every curtain every curtain was to be exactly the same length not shorter not longer and The same was true for the breadth of the curtains.
They were to be four cubits not three and not five and although the Hebrew word for measure in Exodus 26 - is different than the one in our text The principle is still the same the measure for one curtain applies to the next curtain as well and When God stretched out the line or the measuring line over Samaria concerning Samaria's judgment Then we can be sure that that same measuring cord that same line would be applied to Judah in Jerusalem Remember, we've we've already studied about how the Assyrians took over Samaria the northern kingdom They captured it and went down to Jerusalem and said we're going to do the same thing here now another Passage that teaches us about the principle here of this measuring line of it being One measure and applying to all the curtains or in this case to both Judah and Samaria It's found in Jeremiah chapter 4 verses 1 through 4 and Nelda.
This is just for you I got a quote out of Jeremiah if you're watching Jeremiah 4 verses 1 through 4 If thou wilt return O Israel saith the Lord return unto me and If thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight then thou shalt not remove and thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth in Judgment and in righteousness and the nation shall bless themselves in him and in him shall they glory For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem Break up your fallow ground and so not among thorns Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem Lest my fear fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings now in Jeremiah's day God was using the same line against Judah as he did against Israel.
No difference and whether these abominations were done in Israel or in Judah or Samaria and Judah if you will the judgment was the same The requirement to repent was the same The measuring line was the same Now let's look at a New Testament application of the principle of the measuring line It's found in Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 5 Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 5 Jesus said Judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge you shall be judged and with what Measure, there's a word it's in the Greek measure you meet.
It shall be measured to you again and Why behold is thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider it's not the beam that is in thine own eye Or how wilt thou say to thy brother?
Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold a beam is in nigh on I Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye Now in that passage we see the principle of the measuring line Jesus taught us that the judgment you meet out on others Is going to be the judgment meted out on you the measure that you use on others is going to be the measure that's used on you and People who violate these principles are called hypocrites That's what the passage says the hypocrite will see a minor flaw in you He'll see the minor flaw in his brother's eye, which is what this moat is he'll see the minor flaw in you But he will not acknowledge the major flaw in himself That's what a hypocrite is In other words, he stretched out a different measuring line on his actions than the one he uses on you And this principle extends to other things as well like the false balance I'm going to read you a familiar passage From Revelation chapter 20 and I want you to listen for the purpose or excuse me the principle of God's measuring line in these verses It's Revelation 20 verses 13 through 15 Very familiar passage for you.
I believe if you've been in church for long Revelation 20 verses 13 through 15, but if it's the first time you've read it, well, you'll learn something from it And This is about the future events.
In fact, this is a chapter that's known as the chapter of the white throne judgment and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and They were judged every man according to their works and Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life Was cast into the lake of fire So the measuring lines in that passage were number one Every man will be judged according to his works Now we saw that principle back in the in the making of the curtains of the tabernacle that every curtain Was to be 28 cubits in length.
Every curtain was to be four cubits in breadth So there's one principle not not one man Was judged according to the works of anyone else at this white throne judgment.
It says Every man is judged according to their works or to his own work by the way That's how we know that this white throne judgment is only for lost people That's who it's for Because the Christian is not going to be judged For his works in order to escape the second death.
He'll be judged by Jesus works everyone who believes on Jesus for salvation Everyone just like every curtain every person will be judged according to Jesus Works every one of us who believe on him, but if we reject him Then we only have to fall back on our own works and I wouldn't give a plug-nickel from my best five minutes of my life At the white throne judgment.
I don't have to the second place we see the measuring line in that passage in Revelation was that the judgment of everyone was According to his works now the key there is everyone whether it was a king or carpenter or a police officer or a teacher farmer the criteria for their judgment will be their works every one of them and thirdly Because the works of every person who is judged at this white throne judgment will be acceptable to God then every one of them will be cast into the lake of fire along with death and hell and This is the second death.
There's no alternate punishment The measuring line is the same Now that we've looked a little more deeply into the principle of the measuring line Let's go back to our text in 2nd Kings 21 in verse 13 And let's look at another use of a measuring device That God's it explains God's judgment on Judah He said And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria look next and the plummet of the house of Ahab Now the plummet was a plumb line and it was used to make sure something was level and Today we have other tools We use like the bubble level and you've you've done any kind of building you've probably used a level that has a little bubble in the middle and I've used it for building fences and for hanging up pictures and all sorts of things where I wanted it the top of it to be level and we Have laser levels, but as you know, I'm too cheap to buy a laser level.
I'm not gonna do it Nothing needs to be that straight in my life.
I Got my salvation through Jesus and nothing else has to be that perfect in my life.
I Guyball it just as good but the plummet Would be used in a little different way than a level Which we'd put on top of something we take a level and put it on top of something and move it until the bubble is Right in the middle but the plummet or what I've grown up calling a plumb bob is made of a string With a weight at the end and that weight has a point on the very end of it like a maybe a big old diamond if you will, but it's usually made of a heavy metal and So what you do is you tie that to the bottom of something and that plumb Bob To where it touches the ground you can be sure that is a straight line from where you tie it off to the ground That is a straight line.
It's not a one-bit crooked if that plumb Bob is made, right?
And if you do it, right when I was in college, I worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers I was a college student And so that was my part-time job to be a park ranger out at Lake Georgetown beautiful Lake down in Central, Texas and one of the things that we monitored was the the level of the water in the lake and Also the flow and the level of all the creeks in the river that ran into it Because it was a canyon sided lake so it it flooded in a hurry It went into extremes and that affected life Upstream for people above the dam and life downstream from people when we released water out of that lake And after a particularly heavy rain one day my supervisor Sent me to check the water level at the South San Gabriel River on Highway 183 There was a big bridge that went over that and in the middle of that bridge There was a metal box right on the edge of the bridge Little scary looking down at it with all that rushing water down there kind of made me dizzy but obviously I didn't fall in and that in that metal box there was a winch with a cable and a plumb bob at the end of that cable and so The the purpose of it was or what I would do with it is I would let it down Until that plumb bob just touched the top of the water and as soon as it hit the top of the water I'd stop and get that reading and that told me how far the water level was from the measuring device on the bridge That's pretty important because the higher the water gets the more likely it is to overflow and to wash that bridge away And that would be a bad thing.
So that was my job that day and If I didn't use that plumb bob the way it was supposed to be used In other words if I didn't let it all the way down to the river Then I would go back and report a distance that was too high.
I would be telling my boss Hey that rivers almost the top of the bridge but it wasn't if I let the plum but plumb bob down too far then the current would sweep it and If I just kept letting it go and then I finally gave a reading I gave a reading of an improperly used plumb bob not the same one that we always used It would be a wrong measurement and that could have ultimately caused a problem Because my wrong measurement could have caused a wrong response by the Corps of Engineers When it came to that water now the use of the plummet in our text was the same every time Because it was God's plummet.
He didn't allow it to be changed not then not now And what was level to God then is level to him today, isn't that something you know, I bet you Some of you may have levels that perhaps your dad or your mom used and they may be 50 75 years old and they still are the same today You put them on top of something and it works just as good as it did 50 75 years ago And there's a reason for that because that level never changes does it what's level then is level now?
And that's the way it was with God's Word and it still is today So just as the bubble in a level never changes based on the preference of the carpenter God's plumb line or his plummet is always the same Now the false churches and their pastors Seek a line and a plummet that the Bible knows nothing about When they allow sin to go unchecked in the church they're using a different plummet a different measuring line than what God's using When they embrace unbiblical practices They are rejecting God's plummet they're ignoring God's measuring line and yet even so Even though Samaria did this even though Judah did this God will stretch over Judah the line and the plummet of Samaria and He said in the plummet of the house of Ahab It's the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab.
So we studied the plummet now Let's look at the house of Ahab what that means What was the measure of the judgment of God Against the house of Ahab what was the plummet first Kings chapter 21?
Verses 21 through 26 First King 21 verses 21 through 26 God said behold, I will bring evil upon thee and take away will take away that posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pissed us against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and Will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat you remember what an evil fellow he was And like the house of Baasha the son of a hija for the provocation Wherewith thou has provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin and of Jezebel also spake the Lord saying the dogs Shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat But there was none like unto Ahab which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord Whom Jezebel his wife stirred up and he did very abominably in following idols According to all things as did the Amorites whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel Now this was the plummet of God stretched out upon the house of Ahab so Judah Better take heed they surely read about the plight of Ahab and how God judged that king and his Progeny his the people who came after him.
What else would God do to Judah look back in your text?
He said and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish Wiping it and turning it upside down So we've had a carpentry analogy now.
We've got a dish washing analogy.
Imagine that God didn't leave anything out Lord God explains his word to us in so many ways Using so many kinds of illustrations.
You're bound to catch on to one of them if maybe not all of them and Here we have a simile Because it uses the word as he said as a man wipeth a dish at Jerusalem is the dish and God is the man who wipes the dish That's how he's portrayed here and that Hebrew word for wipe in this passage Has is found several places and it has a range a wide range of severity and The in the Bible as it's used there in the Old Testament Now the most severe type the most severe translation of this Hebrew word Means that if something is wiped it is absolutely destroyed now, that's the most severe that's the cleanest you can get a dish in is to completely wipe everything off and That's why we have dishwashers or teenagers one of the two to do that for us So destroying it is the absolute worst that you can do As far as this word is concerned in fact the first use of the Hebrew word this translated wipe here is found in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 7 Genesis 6 verse 7 where it says and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and It grieved him at his heart and the Lord said I will destroy now.
That's the same word is wipe I will destroy man Whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it Repenteth me that I have made them So to destroy is to wipe something completely away to rub it out but thankfully the word in our text is Less severe than that.
It's the same Hebrew word, but because it has a broad application It's less severe than completely destroying look at the text God said he would wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish and turns it upside down The dish is still there, isn't it?
It hasn't been destroyed But everything the dish has Has been wiped away Every single thing on the dish has been wiped away Now God would not completely destroy Jerusalem or Judah the dish Because the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah But God could take away everything Judah has their freedom their possessions and their land And now look at verse 14 where he says and I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance and Deliver them into the hand of their enemies and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies Now this may be a hard pill for you to swallow Brother Andy, I thought God would never leave us nor forsake us All right.
Well, I like what the pastor said the other day when come across one of these difficult scriptures instead of getting Scared I get excited now lean heavy on the Lord to show me what it means But I get excited.
I think hey, there's something here.
We're going to learn that's not evident when you first read it and So we that means we need to slow down and study this so we have a correct understanding of the text You know one of the reasons people get twisted up in their understanding of the Bible is that they'll read a scripture and They'll try to impose their own vocabulary on the words that are contained in the scriptures Now we speak today modern English and even our modern English in this part of Texas sounds a little different Than it would in New Mexico or California a lot different than California and New York But it's a more of a modern English We could go anywhere in the United States and at some point we could understand what the other one said if we slowed down long Enough and cut out some of the drawl that is That is evident among us here today, but we speak modern English.
Now.
The Bible was written in mostly Hebrew and Greek and It was translated into an older form of English that We would have a hard time understanding or reading So let's slow down and go back to the original languages here and let's see where that leads us in our understanding of This statement from God where he said and I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance first of all the Hebrew word translated forsake means to leave Either now here's this is key either in a physical sense or in a spiritual sense 15 times in the Old Testament, it's translated as the word forsake 12 times as the word leave and Then there are other uses of the word or translations of the word such as spread or spread abroad loosed and a few others like that So if you simply look at these other English words that are used Then you'll understand that a people who are forsaken could simply have been spread abroad Or they could have been dispersed to go into another land And God brought the children of Israel into the promised land when he brought them out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness and He's now threatening to spread them abroad into another land.
That's what he's doing when he forsakes them here He's threatening to spread them abroad into another land.
God is not completely writing off his people Just like he did not say he would completely destroy Judah only that he would wipe Judah as a dish Like a man who wipes it and turns it upside down That means the dish is preserved even though it's been wiped now That's a good principle to take away from there.
The dish is preserved even though it's been wiped and wiped clean and That means Judah is preserved even though God will forsake her in this Time in fact if we look back at our text, we're going to see that this forsaking was Physical rather than spiritual and the words Teach us that he look back in your text He said and I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance and do what with them send them to hell No, he said and deliver them into the hand of their enemies That's a physically going to happen here And he defines what he means when he said he would forsake them.
He would simply deliver them from Judah Into the hand of their enemies.
He was still their God They were still his people and in delivering Judah into the hand of their enemies there would be a purpose and that purpose would be looking back in your text and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies Not that God would completely wipe them off the face of the earth But he would cause them to live in captivity on the earth and allow their enemies to take everything that they had and let's Well, we'll have to wait till next week, but we'll look at some proof That even though God forsook Judah to their enemies.
He did not completely abandon them It was for a season and we'll pick up with that next week Lord willing.
Let's pray Father thank you for those who were faithful to come to the house of God today and to study your word Thank you for those who've tuned in online They're precious to us as though they were here and we thank you for your faithfulness as your spirit Teaches us your word and today I pray we've learned something we can take away from here and That will edify us in the faith and I pray that during the next hour What we sing and pray How we exhort one another the preaching of your word by the pastor will all be pleasing to you in Jesus name Amen.
