Episode Transcript
Good morning.
It is a little past 10 o'clock and we're in 2 Kings chapter 21.
2 Kings chapter 21.
And what I'd like for you to do also is to mark Romans chapter 1 in your Bible or on your device.
Romans chapter 1.
It will go there in just a few moments.
But we'll start off in 2 Kings chapter 21.
Last week we were introduced to the next king of Judah, whose name was Ammon, and he was the son of the late king Manasseh.
We were immediately greeted with verses 20 and 21 which told us the evil that Amon did and how he copied the evil things his father did.
And just as we learn from the good kings, we now have to learn from the bad kings because we learn truths about each one.
So let's reread verses 20 and 21 and then we'll look at verse 22 which is the new part of our study.
Second Kings chapter 21 and I'll begin reading in verse 20.
Speaking of Amon, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasseh did. he walked in all the way that his father walked in and served the idols that his father served and worshipped them.
And now the new part, and he forsook the Lord God of his fathers and walked not in the way of the Lord.
Let's take a look at that first phrase of verse 22, and he forsook the Lord God of his fathers."
"Forsook" is just the past tense of the word "forsake" and that means that Amon left God.
He refused God.
It's one thing not to know God at all, to never have been taught about him, But Amon and all the other Jewish kings had at their disposal the written words of God.
Now people may say, "Well, they didn't have the Gospels, they didn't have this or that.
They had the written word of God."
Let me tell you, if you know your Bible, you can preach the salvation message in the first few chapters of Genesis.
So you don't have to have the Gospels in order to understand God, in order to know God.
How else were the Old Testament Jews saved?
Because those books had not yet been written by man.
God still taught them in the Old Testament.
And that's one of the wonderful things that comes out of a systematic study such as the Genesis to Jesus class as you begin to understand that.
But Amon and all these Jewish kings had in front of them if they wanted it the written Word of God.
They had the law of Moses that had already been compiled then they had the prophets both the writings of the prophets and then the prophets who lived among them certain prophets like Isaiah and if you noticed when we were studying the last couple of Kings we would turn back to Isaiah and read almost verbatim that he said what was said in second Kings chapter 20 chapter 21.
So it told us that he was living at the time of those kings.
So to forsake God, Amon had to literally turn away from all that Moses wrote and all that the prophets wrote and all that the prophets spoke during his life.
He had to turn from all the holy words that had been passed down in whatever form they took.
In fact there are people like Ammon and the Jews in that day, they're without excuse.
Let me show you something about this in God's Word and if you turned to Romans chapter 1 a few moments ago then you're already there.
But if If not, go ahead and go there.
Romans chapter 1.
Let's see what excuse people have for turning away from God.
See how God views that.
And I'll begin reading in Romans chapter 1, verse 18, where Paul wrote, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Because that when they knew God and they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened."
Now there is a lot to unpack in that verse or in that passage, but we're going to take the time to at least do some of it because it is going to help us understand how egregious Amon's sin was when he forsook the Lord because that's what the Bible tells us he did.
He forsook the Lord God of his fathers.
Now verse 18 in that Romans passage tells us that God's wrath is going to be revealed against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
And what these men, which means both men and women, what they have in common is that they hold the truth in unrighteousness.
That's what the passage said. word hold means to hold down or to suppress.
And by way of deduction then we may conclude that those who hold the truth in righteousness are godly and righteous.
The godly and the righteous hold the truth in righteousness.
The So both of them possess it but one of them keeps it down and one of them holds it, possesses it in righteousness.
The unrighteous not only don't believe what they have in front of them but they don't want others to believe it either.
So they suppress it.
They hold it down.
Now if you think about an ungodly pastor who gets up in his pulpit every Lord's Day and he knows that he is not qualified to be a pastor because of certain sin in his life.
Sin that is named in Titus, in the letters to Timothy about what a pastor is and is not to be or is not to do and he knows that then he doesn't want to go over to Titus and preach out of that chapter.
He wants to suppress that truth.
If that pastor or priest has taught people that salvation comes all kinds of ways you have to find own way to God then he doesn't want to preach from the book of Acts and say neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved because then the people would look at him and say oh well then you've been a liar because you told us that we could be saved by being sincere by doing good works and the Bible says that's not true.
So such a preacher or a priest will hold the truth down, they'll suppress it.
Now we look at the 19th verse there in Romans 1, says "because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath showed it unto them.
Now the truth in that passage, the truth that's being talked about is that which is known of God.
That which may be known of God and what's known of God is manifest in these people.
Or more literally, what they know about God is what God showed them.
God showed it to them.
Now what did he show them?
Verse 20 says God showed them invisible things.
It says, "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen."
Now that's in verse 20.
Only God can take that which is invisible and show it to men.
And when he shows it to men, then it's clearly seen.
It's not vague or hard to attain when God shows the invisible things to men.
It's thoroughly seen.
And that truth is seen thoroughly by look back in verse 20, the things that are made, whatever and whomever God created clearly sees this truth that he revealed or that he made manifest to them.
And what are those invisible things?
Looking back in the text you see that they are His eternal power and Godhead.
God's eternal power and the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are things or are persons whom God showed us when He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world.
And about these people who hold the truth in unrighteousness, God said back in that text, "So they are without excuse."
There at the end of verse 20.
They're without excuse.
Now we see the Greek word translated excuse here in this passage one other time in the New Testament and it's found in the next chapter of Romans chapter two, verse one, where he wrote, therefore thou art inexcusable, old man, whosoever thou art that judges for wherein thou judges to another, thou condemn us thyself for thou that judges do us the same things.
And finally, in the Romans one passage, where we are, before we go back to our text, God clearly states that the people who hold the truth in unrighteousness, the ones against whom his wrath will be revealed, knew him.
They knew him.
That means they perceived him.
They understood.
And because that when they knew God, they glorified him, not as God.
Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
And if you go on later in that passage, you'll see that they made the corruptible things.
And that's what idolatry is all about.
That's what Amon was involved in.
That's what his father was involved in before he repented and put his trust in the Lord.
Now let's go back to our text in 2 Kings 21.
We're through with the Romans passage for right now.
In my estimation, Amon had even more truth about God's Word and about God than the ones who are addressed by Paul in Romans chapter 1.
Amen had God's word available to him.
Amen had God's prophets living around him and speaking specifically to Judah and also to Israel for they were still a divided nation at this point.
It's not like Amon was the king of a Syria, a Syria, and some messenger came to him and said, Hey, there's a prophet named Isaiah over here in Judah or Israel, and he's saying these things and we ought to take heed to them.
No, they, those prophets spoke to Judah and to Israel on God's behalf.
He had all of that.
And yet the truth that he had, the truth that he knew about God, he held it in unrighteousness, just like the people Paul wrote about in Romans chapter one.
And so he was without excuse.
You can't say, well, he was raised by an ungodly daddy.
Yes, he was.
And during those formative years, he was taught idolatry and bail worship.
Yes, he was.
That's exactly, that's absolutely true, but he still had the truth in front of him.
This was a 22 year old king who had the truth in front of him.
Just like a lot of people today in any part of the world.
If they have the truth in front of them they are either going to hold it in unrighteousness or they're going to hold it in righteousness and believe it.
Not only did Amon forsake the Lord God of his fathers but look back in your text now in 2 Kings 21 verse 22, it says, "And walked not in the way of the Lord."
And the word "way" is a road, and we've come across that in the Proverbs too, haven't we?
Several times.
The "way" is a road.
It's also-- the Hebrew word translated "way" is also translated as the word "toward."
T-O-W-A-R-D, 31 times in the Old Testament in the King James translation.
And that tells us even more about this word, "way."
To walk toward something, you have to have the end in mind.
Airplane pilots plot their courses, their flight paths, to arrive at a certain destination safely and expeditiously.
They want to get there as fast as they can, but as safely as they can.
And sometimes you wonder if they understand that principle when you have to fly from San Antonio to Dallas, but you have to go to Houston first, and then up to Dallas.
That's a different issue.
But to fly from one place to another, an airplane pilot has to have a destination.
And in fact, once they file their flight plan with the FAA, then they're bound to stick to that flight plan.
It tells all the vectors and all the altitudes they're supposed to climb to and stay at and descend to and when they're supposed to do that.
They have to do all that in order to avoid colliding with other aircraft who are also wanting to get somewhere at that same time.
So the pilot is flying his aircraft toward his destination.
He's on the way.
Now perhaps you've been expecting somebody to come visit you or maybe your friend said, "Hey, I'm on the way."
What do you expect that person to be doing?
Driving to your house right now.
On the way doesn't mean I'm going to stop off here at Walmart and do some shopping and go do this here and do that and then finally get around to coming to your house.
They're not on the way when they're doing that.
They're out of the way.
A disciple of the Lord also has a way.
It said, "Amon walked not in the way of the Lord."
A disciple of the Lord also has a way.
Now he's not a disciple of the Lord.
But we have to learn from the bad kings too, don't we?
A disciple of the Lord has a spiritual destination.
Now we don't become Christians by walking a certain way, but by believing a certain truth.
That's how we become Christians.
That truth, however, the gospel, our faith in the gospel, will lead us a certain way.
That's how we live.
We walk as the Holy Spirit works in us.
We have Christ in us, we are in Christ.
Very basic truths.
But that truth leads us in a certain way.
It leads us towards something.
Just like a pilot has a certain destination toward which he flies, we have a destination also.
Listen to the Apostle Paul as he describes that way.
Philippians chapter 3 verses 13 through 14.
Philippians 3 verses 13 through 14.
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Now you notice he told us about this path.
He's already a Christian.
And what he says about his way or the destination toward which he's walking is that he does not reach back for the things in the past.
Now consider that.
A person becomes a Christian and they realize in their spiritual growth, "You know what?
I need to lay that whiskey down.
That's not doing what God wants me to do.
I can't keep staying drunk.
Or I need to cut that pornography out.
That's not godly.
Or I need to quit flirting with these other women.
That's not right.
Whatever it may be that a person has to lay down in order to please God with their Christian walk.
And once they leave those things behind, they forget about them.
That's not an option anymore.
And he said, "Reaching forth unto those things which are before or which are ahead, I pressed toward the mark."
Paul said he pressed, that means he followed.
Toward, that means according to.
The mark, that's the distant goal that one looks at.
It's what a base runner does when he's stealing second base.
And the best base runners, the best base stealers in all of baseball have certain things that they do, but one of them is they run in a straight line toward that base.
Any deviation from that slows it down and they have a certain amount of time to get there to arrive safely to beat the throw from the catcher or the pitcher or one of the other players on the field.
Now a base runner doesn't just take off from first base and run toward the outfield, he has a destination.
Now he might get to second base if he runs into the outfield, but he's going to be out of the baseline and he's going to be called out.
He also doesn't look straight down at his feet the whole time because he can't see where he's running.
He looks toward second base.
He presses toward the mark and he doesn't take his eyes off of that mark or quit running toward that mark until he reaches it.
Now when Christians look away from the mark then we get off track don't we?
We get out of the way.
We're no longer pressing toward the mark, but rather we're walking not in the way of the mark.
Now Amon never pressed toward the mark at all because he walked not in the way of the Lord.
He was an unbeliever.
And now let's look at verse 23, what happened to him.
"And the servants of Amon conspired against him and slew the king in his own house.
That didn't last long.
Did it four years of evil and his servants conspired against him at some point, let's look at that in the servants of Amon conspired against him.
That word conspired means bind.
It means they bound themselves together to do harm to Amon.
And a conspiracy is a binding of two or more people to commit some sort of act.
And we usually associate a conspiracy with something bad, don't we?
Yeah.
We may kid around with each other, see a couple friends talking and say, "What are you two conspiring to do?"
It's kind of a joke.
But we hope they're not conspiring to do anything evil.
In fact, that Hebrew word translated conspired is also translated as the word bind B I N D which makes sense.
Doesn't it?
Who is it that conspired against Amon?
His servants.
Now a servant ought to be the most loyal person in the house.
You read a lot about servants in the Bible and how they ought to be.
And the Apostle Paul tells us how a servant ought to be.
You know, I'm a servant.
I'm a public servant.
I not only have a job, a duty, a calling to protect and serve the public.
That's my number one calling at work, but I also serve my supervisor.
My supervisor says, I need you to go out today and take care of this for me.
Then that is my obligation to do that. if it is within law and policy, then I am obligated to do it and to do it right and to do it in a timely fashion and report back to him what I did and what my successes and failures were and how I'm going to do it better next time.
That's a lot, isn't it?
But my supervisor should never have to worry about me not doing what I'm supposed to do.
I ought to be reliable.
I ought to be loyal to that cause.
And the last thing my supervisor ought to have to worry about is that I'm conspiring against him to get his job.
But it brings up the question, then why would servants conspire against their king.
Well, let's look at the character of the king for a moment.
He's a bad seed.
There's just not anything good said about him at all in God's Word here and he's a bad seed.
He's an unbeliever.
He's an idol worshiper.
He has refused God's Word.
He's a follower of the bad things his father did earlier in his life.
And he's not a follower of the good things his father did later in his life.
Can you imagine talking to Amon and saying, "Amon, why are you like you are?
Why do you do what you do?"
He might very well say, "Well, my old man...
I'm just a chip off the old block.
My old man taught me to do that."
Okay.
Well, if that's the case, have you become a Christian?
Well, so you're not really a chip off the old block, are you?
You're a chip off the old, old block.
But your father put his trust in the Lord God.
He got rid of the idols and all of those things in his life, threw them out of the city.
So you're not really like your father.
You just like doing the the old bad stuff that your father did.
So it's not a good excuse, is it?
And such a person like Amon will attract people who are like-minded in order to serve him.
And we see this sort of betrayal among politicians too.
The political leaders who count on or who value votes over convictions.
The ones who prefer darkness over light have servants as well.
One of the things I love is when a political person, regardless of who they are, what their party affiliation is, when they make a statement and somebody goes back, some journalist or researcher goes back and finds out what that person said six ago about that very same thing and it is the exact opposite.
And they held that conviction then and they held that conviction now.
The truth is they don't have any convictions.
Or they would have said I said it before and I'm going to say it again.
That's wrong.
Whether I lose votes over it or not, that's wrong.
Well, Amon didn't attract, he wasn't that kind of person and he didn't attract those kind of people.
And so that's why he, at least one reason, I believe, he has the servants that he has.
And so, for those politicians, those servants are in their cabinet, not the one at home, their presidential cabinet.
They're on their councils and their committees and advisory boards and all of that.
They hold positions of power.
And when everything's going well, the rising tide of the political waters floats all boats, doesn't it?
Everybody benefits.
Everyone's making corrupt money, so they're quite satisfied.
But then adversity comes.
Perhaps a scandal comes out.
Or they You lose an election.
Boy you watch what happens if we ever do get to see the Epstein files.
I just don't know if we ever are.
But if we ever get to see the whole thing, you watch people distance themselves from each other.
Well I mean I never really trusted him.
Oh yeah you did, you had your arm around him in all these photos.
You were seen with him here and here and here and here.
You worked together on this project.
You didn't trust him.
You just got a bad seed because you're a bad seed.
And when adversity comes, they lose an election or maybe some other branch of government goes against them or there's a scandal, the long knives come out, as we would say.
Those who were once servants, those who seem to be loyal, turn on their leaders and they conspire against them, just like Amon's servants did.
Now in law enforcement, we actually take advantage of that.
We love it when that happens.
Because there is that tendency in man, as an example, my agency unfortunately investigates domestic violence calls way too frequently.
And we know that when we go to a call like that the emotions are running high.
People who've been married for years and years or who've been in some sort of relationship suddenly will turn on each other during those heated moments and they'll say things.
And it's at that time And when their emotions are high and their reasoning is low, that we can get incriminating information from one or both parties.
So the girlfriend who has been hit or choked begins to tell every bad thing she knows about her boyfriend.
Not just what he did that night, but all the bad things that he's ever done. or the man whose wife slapped him and scratched his face will tell all sorts of illegal things that his wife has done.
Now these same people would usually not tell on each other during moments of calm, cool reflection.
So we have to strike when the iron's hot and we do it and we do it pretty well.
Amon's conspirators were against him. had been warned by the prophets that God's wrath was coming upon them.
Amon's father converted from Baal worship to Christianity, and so there was no doubt turmoil in the palace during Amon's time.
And these conspirators, look back in your text, slew the king in his own house.
They slew the king in his own house.
What a terrible epitaph that is on your gravestone.
Here lies Amon, slain by his own servants in his own house. could learn many lessons from this.
One, you are the company you keep.
Maybe you've heard that in some leadership seminar before.
You are who you attract or you attract who you are.
Another might be wickedness begets wickedness.
Even Jesus said that there would come a time when Christians would be affected by this very evil perpetrated by those closest to us.
Let's see why this happens and maybe we'll learn why it happened to Amon.
Write down Matthew chapter 10 verses 34 through 37.
Can y'all tell I had a good night's sleep last night?
I was off yesterday so I'm well rested.
Usually I'm about dragging this time.
Thank God for that.
Matthew 10 34 through 37 Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes or enemies shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
So in that passage Jesus teaches us that even a Christian's mother or father or daughter or mother-in-law may be a foe to them.
Now what would make them a foe to us?
The gospel.
Because the gospel is a saving message for those who believe it and a condemning message for those who reject it.
And that sword cuts right down the middle.
"And because a man's foes shall be they of his own household, then he ought not to love anyone in his household more than he loves Jesus.
That's why he said in verse 37, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
How then might we apply this truth to what happened to King Amon?
Well the servants in Amon's house were most likely chosen by him.
Now some of them may have been chosen by his father but the text says and the servants of Amon.
So they were his servants and when he took the throne he could have fired all of them or fired some of them or even killed them if he was displeased with him but he did not.
So he has to own these servants.
They're his.
They're the ones he either chose or who remained and whom he accepted.
Now we also know that Amon did not love the Lord his God.
He forsook him and walked not in his way as we've studied.
If he loved his servants more than he loved God, then it is very easy to understand why they conspired against him and slew him.
Because had Ammon rid himself of all the unbelievers in his household and demanded that his family and his servants follow the Lord, if that were the standard, then those wicked servants would not have been in the household and been given the opportunity to conspire against him and slay him.
They would have been outside the household or maybe even dead.
And had Amon loved the Lord his God more than those of his own household, then he could have taught his household love God first.
Don't worship the king here, worship the king there.
To love God first and to love people second.
So what Jesus taught us back in that Matthew passage is that you love me first.
You love me more than you do your mother, more than you do your father.
And listen, if you love Jesus first, you will love your parents like you're supposed to.
You will love your spouse, your children, your neighbor, and the stranger in the land like you're supposed to.
But if you love people first and you put God second, first of all you won't love people like you're supposed to.
Really yourself is first in that case.
But those family members and servants had aim and set the standard that they be Christians, that they live lives that were pleasing to the Lord, then perhaps they would have been loyal to that godly King.
Do you know why your mother, your father, your son, whoever it may be that Jesus was talking about is not loyal, not loyal to you because they're not loyal to God. first.
They don't love God.
And that's a hard pill to swallow because every one of us, if you look far enough in your family or among your friends, you've got somebody who's an unbeliever who you've been longing that they'd be saved.
You love them, but you love God first because it'd be a lot easier just to go, you know what?
I'm just not even going to worry about it.
I'm not going to bother talking to him or praying for him or any of that.
I'll just let them be.
You don't really feel that way because you love them, but you love God first and his truth is going to be the sword that will one day bring about that division that Jesus talked about in the family.
So if you want to love your family, your servants, amen, the right way, then love God first and foremost.
And let's look at verse 24 now.
So now the king's dead and the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against King Amon and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against King Amon and this is exactly what ought to happen to a criminal.
We don't assassinate our leaders.
Let me tell you something as much as I disagreed with our last president and his stance on just about everything.
If somebody were to have assassinated him, I would have expected them to be arrested, tried, and sentenced to death or life in prison, whatever the court says.
I would have expected that.
That's not our job.
That's murder.
We don't assassinate our leaders.
God sets up kings and God God removes them.
We have the power of voice and vote in this country.
Thankfully we do.
Even the Declaration of Independence, one of the founding documents for this country, reserves a revolution for only the most serious cases.
I'll quote from it.
It says, "Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes."
Now this was what these conspirators who slew Amon had, a light and transient cause.
"And accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable."
It's okay to be inconvenienced a little bit by your government.
That doesn't give you the reason to revolt than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security.
I memorized it in eighth grade.
I haven't retained it since then.
But do you know what?
This didn't just come out of thin air.
This is a biblical stance that the founding fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence.
And let's be reminded of what God told his people.
You may think, "Boy, Andy, I'm just having a hard time.
I think these servants did a good thing by slaying the king.
I don't think they should have been killed by the people of the country of the nation for doing that.
Well, let me give you some more scripture about what God told His people, but let me do it next Sunday because we're out of time.
Is that alright?
I love when that happens.
It just keeps you hungry, okay?
Father, thank You for Your Word.
And Lord, I thank You that we can see people enjoying Your Word and being fed by it and benefiting from it.
And I pray during our next hour as we sing and as we preach and pray, that all would be done to glorify you, that it would be a sweet savor, a sweet smell to you, Lord, and that the sound would be pleasing to you.
And we ask all of this in Jesus' name, amen.
