Display of Human Sin

Introduction: The Bible's Realistic Display of Human Sin

0:03 I would encourage you to turn in your own Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 3, 2 Kings chapter 3.

0:16 As most of you are now well aware, this third chapter of 2 Kings contains the record of a marvelous deliverance given to the people of God who at this particular time were in league with the king of Edom and his army. It was a deliverance in which Elisha the prophet played no little part by his presence, by his prophetic utterances, and no doubt also by his prayers. In our two previous studies, we have sought, first of all, to come to grips with the facts of the narrative as they are given to us in this particular portion of the word of God.

1:00 And we have tried to view those facts. Those facts as a segment of that much greater warfare that is constantly going on throughout Old Testament history between the seed of the woman, the promised Messiah, and the seed of the serpent, the devil, and all of his hosts. And then in our study last Lord's Day, we sought to discover what the chapter contains with respect to the faithfulness. Faithfulness of God, for he is indeed the great hero, not only in the larger conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent,

1:44 but in every individual triumph of his people. It is Jehovah, the great warrior, the great covenant God of his people, who takes the field and manifests his faithfulness in preserving and delivering his people. Then we sought to discover something of the fascinating display of divine sovereignty, that is contained in this chapter, and finally, something of God's strategy in his dealings with men. Now we go back to the chapter again tonight, and it's my concern to underscore from various parts of this chapter what I am calling its index of human sin.

2:28 This chapter sets before us a very realistic display of human sin. Now you may ask, why should we spend the entire time allotted for a Sunday evening meditation to take up the ugly subject of sin?

2:48 Well, the answer to that question is really quite simple. When all is said, there is really but one fundamental human problem, and that's the problem of human sin. And because the Bible addresses it separately, to the real world in which you and I live, it is a book that bristles with a realism with respect to the subject of sin. There is hardly a page in which there is not a realistic setting forth of some dimension of human sin and wickedness.

3:33 For instance, no sooner is the account of creation given than, The intrusion of human sin or sin into the human race is recorded for us in Genesis chapter 3. The frightening results of that sin are also recorded in that chapter. And all the way through from Genesis 3 onward, we find again and again this realistic display of human sin. It is accurate to say that the Bible is a book full of bloodshed, full of murder.

4:10 It is a book that does not gloss over such ugly sins as incest, drunkenness, rape, idolatry, intrigue. All forms of human sin are here. In that sense, the Bible is an R and an X rated book. But the great difference is, its realistic view and treatment of sin is never titillating so as to excite sinful passions.

4:45 It is never romantic so as to make sin desirable or attractive.

4:51 It is always realistic. Realistic not only in describing the fact of sin, but realistic in describing the fruits and the result of sin. And that's...

5:06 That's where the so-called realism of our day, in literature, in the theater, in the arts, is humbug. It's a bunch of baloney. It's not realism. When you read a modern novel, your own sinful passions are stirred to imitate the bawdy activity of the characters in the novel.

5:29 Because sin is made desirable. You read the adulterous act of David. And sin is made ugly. And you want to run from it.

5:42 You want to abhor it. You want to be protected from it. Now, if that is true, all that I've asserted, and it is to anyone who simply takes the Bible as it comes to us, we should not be surprised in coming to the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha to find that a real prophet, ministering in the midst of a real prophet, in a real situation with the real problems of the people of God, would be a prophet whose ministry is surrounded with both ugly and at times almost frightening manifestations of human sin.

6:27 And so, if we're to do justice to that which the Spirit of God has deposited in His Word, we must not only behold in the passages we have already sought to do, the amazing faithfulness of God, the marvelous sovereignty of God, the inscrutable wisdom in the method and strategy of God in humbling human pride and manifesting His glory in the context of human weakness. We must come again to the chapter and honestly reckon with its teaching concerning human sin. And in the time allotted tonight, I want to trace out with you, from this chapter,

The Objective Reality of Sin

7:10 three lines of thought. First of all, consider what this passage gives us concerning the objective reality of sin. The objective reality of sin is asserted in the opening words of the chapter. 2 Kings 3.1

7:31 Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like his father and like his mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. He departed not therefrom.

8:07 Now will you notice this particular passage? This particular phrase in verse two. Concerning Jehoram it is said, He did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. And in that phrase we have the objective reality of sin clearly asserted.

8:32 What is sin? Is it simply a notion that religiously inclined people have conjured up and then forced upon others? Is it simply something that people in a given area, bound by a common culture of greed, would be a helpful notion to introduce into their relationships one with another in order to function efficiently? What is sin?

9:01 Where does the notion and idea of sin come from? Is it just a concept with which it is helpful to live, but there is in reality, something objective behind it and surrounding it? Well you see, this little segment of the Word of God addresses itself to those questions. Concerning this man Jehoram, it is said that he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.

9:29 Now notice the ingredients. You have Jehoram, a man. A man who is greatly privileged as a king of Israel. Who stands in that nation that still is blessed with the presence of God.

9:39 A man who is greatly privileged as a king of Israel. Who stands in that nation that still is blessed with the presence of God. A man who is greatly privileged as a king of Israel. Who stands in that nation that still is blessed with the presence of God.

9:43 A man who is greatly privileged as a king of Israel. A man who is greatly privileged as a king of Israel. A man who is greatly privileged as a king of Israel. What is the great blessing of Jehoram, having the presence of prophets and an unusual prophet in the person of Elisha?

9:48 It is said that in his creation there were ten northern, which along with the two southern tribes constitute the nation of Israel. To whom God gave his law, to whom God gave the revelation of the way of worship that was pleasing to him. To whom he sent the prophets. Here is a man named Jehoram surrounded with all of those privileges, And yet in a sense cursed from his womb because he was born into the home of that wicked man Ahab and of that wicked woman Jezebel.

10:20 But he is a real individual in space and time. Now the text says that Jehoram, this individual, did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. So the second great ingredient that makes up the reality of sin is the presence of the living and the true God. This God whose name is Jehovah.

10:46 This God who created heaven and earth. This God who revealed himself to this ancient people as the God who is. I am that I am. And Jehovah is the name by which he attests to his livingness, to his own self-existence.

11:06 It is the name. Which he reveals in the context of his covenant commitments to his people. Now our text says that he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. So you have Jehoram and you have Jehovah, the living God, who sees and observes the conduct of his creatures.

11:31 He is no distant deity. He is no vacated God who has gone on a journey. He is. He is the God who is there in the real situation of Israel at that particular point in its history.

11:45 And now the text says he did that which was evil. In other words, in the eye of God, evil is not an abstract notion. Evil is a real moral commodity.

12:06 But you say, what was his evil? Well, in the context, it seems to be quite clear. His evil was constituted of at least two things. It was constituted of an open breaking and violation of the first and second commandments.

12:26 God's own law had said, Thou shalt have no other gods before me or besides me. And yet this man was perpetually addicted to the worship of the idols set up by Jeroboam. He was living in open violation of the first commandment. Furthermore, he was living in open violation of the second commandment in that God had said, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, nor bow down, nor serve them, nor worship them.

12:58 He was living in blatant violation of at least two of those words of Moses. And the text says that when a man who is, who is answerable to the living God, violates the law of that God, the result is this commodity, evil. It is an objective moral reality. It is, in the language of the old catechism, any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.

13:33 You will remember that the first incident of this commodity in the human experience, came when Adam exchanged his own I will for the thou shalt not of God.

13:49 God had commanded him that he should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And when Adam said, I will eat of the tree, the I will of Adam, negating, as it were, the thou shalt not of God, brought this ugly reality into the human experience. And this is why John can define, define sin in that very simple language in 1 John 3, 4. Sin is lawlessness.

14:17 The old author I say, sin is the transgression of the law. Literally, sin is lawlessness. Sin, that real moral commodity, is saying, I will, when God says, you shall not. It is saying, I won't, when God says, thou shalt.

14:34 Now I realize that to speak this kind of language is to talk almost, almost like a margin to the mindset of this generation. We've lost our moorings of anything that has to do with objective, moral, and ethical realities. We've been the victims of the so-called experts who've told us that sin and guilt in these things are not objective realities. There are such things as guilt feelings, but that's just a wrong set of electrical impulses passing through.

15:12 Your purely physical constitution. We have no such thing as a soul. It's all mechanical and electrical impulses. And you've got a few short circuits somewhere, and so you have guilt feelings.

15:25 But if you can just reprogram yourself so that no longer you feel the guilt feelings, all is well. Real guilt based upon real evil, in the sight of a real God, non-existent. My friend, I've got news for you. Sin is an objective reality.

15:43 It is doing that which is evil in the sight of the living God.

15:53 I speak particularly to you, dear young people, who have been bombarded, inundated, immersed, if I may use the term, with the philosophy of this day that says there is no such thing as real sin. There is no such thing as an absolute standard of morality. There is no such thing as morality and conduct. But again, I have news for you, my friend.

16:20 The living God who made you and the living God who sustains you by His own sovereign power and will is the God who has revealed His will for His creatures in His law. And He says any lack of conformity to or transgression of that law is the very essence of sin. Ah, but you object and say, but no, I don't feel. It's that way.

16:46 I don't have any great pangs of conscience when I break the law of God, when I serve my own gods, when I substitute God's thou shalt nots with my own I shall, and His thou shalts with my own I will not. I don't feel any great pangs. I don't fear hell. I don't have any restless nights.

17:11 My friend, don't brag about it.

17:15 Do you know what leprosy is? Yes. that frightening disease that kills both nerve tissue and flesh and even causes bones to rot. I've been told by missionaries who've worked amongst lepers, sad stories of lepers in very primitive conditions where they're dependent upon little wood fires to cook their food and to keep warm.

17:39 They've told the stories of lepers who, because the nerve endings are all dead, will get engrossed in some activity and without knowing it, their hand is in the fire. And because the nerves are dead, the fire is consuming their flesh and they don't even know it.

17:58 You see, it's real fire oxidizing real flesh.

18:04 And the fact that the nerve system is dead does not negate the reality of the fire nor the reality of the process of oxidation that is consuming their members. And if you sit here tonight with a seared conscience, with dead morals, with little nerve endings, don't brag about it, my friend, because our God is a consuming fire and the wages of sin is death.

18:36 Sin is an objective reality. If it were not, there is no bigger sham, no more disgusting, empty, hollow religious ceremony than that which will follow this service tonight. When we come to this table, though we...

18:58 Though we are conscious of one another's presence, though we are conscious of those who lead us, above all else, we are conscious, if we come aright, of our unseen but very real guest. And we take that bread in remembrance of a body that was assumed and then given up in death for sinners. We take a cup that is the visible emblem and representation of blood, the blood of the Holy Spirit, the blood of the Son of God that was poured forth in a violent death, a death in which the heavens were shrouded,

19:36 a death in which the living God himself turned his back upon his own beloved Son, a death that caused him to cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? My friend, sin is an objective reality.

19:54 And it's because you and I have done that which is evil, a real moral commodity. We have done that which is evil in the sight of God. It was because of the reality of our sin that there was the implantation of life in a virgin's womb. There was a real incarnation, a real birth, a real humanity.

20:18 There was a real death. Why? Because the sin problem is real. It is no phantom.

20:25 It is no mere notion. It isn't a religious or philosophical idea. And this passage graphically sets it before us in this simple language. Jehoram did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.

20:42 And not only is sin an objective reality in the unbeliever and in the unconverted and in the unjustified, it's nonetheless an objective reality in your life and mine as Christians, dear child of God. The fact that we are not condemned for our sin does not mean sin. Sin disappears. Our sin after we are justified is just as real as the sin committed before we were justified.

21:10 Our relationship to it is changed. We will not come under the judicial condemnation of God. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But the sin is still an objective reality.

21:26 That's why David as a believer says, Against thee and thee only. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil. What? In thys.

21:40 And that's why the promise assumes that the believer accepts the reality of his sin when that very promise that was read to us, if we confess our sins, not just some notions, not just our guilt feelings and groan about them before. No. As an objective reality in a believer, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

22:11 You see, if we would just be foolish enough to humble ourselves and take the testimony of Holy Scripture mixed in with a very simple historical narrative as one of the most profound theological concepts, the objective reality of our sin. I didn't say physical reality. I said it's an objective moral reality. There's a real law.

Manifestation 1: The Sin of Impartial Repentance and Reformation

22:36 And when we break that law, there is real guilt because of the real sin that we've committed. Well then, follow with me as we trace out a second line of thought. Not only does the passage assert the objective reality of sin, but then the various manifestations of sin are described. First of all, notice the sin of impartial repentance and reformation in the first three verses.

23:05 Here is this man, Jehoram, whose reign is marked out in relationship to the reign of Jehoshaphat. The text says that he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Then we are informed that his evil was not as intense or as profuse as that of his father and his mother, but not like his father and like his mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. Now when we read on into chapter 10 and that amazing scene in which Jehu deceives all the prophets of Baal and gets them together and all the worshippers of Baal and wipes the whole bunch out,

23:49 we must not construe from this that there was any widespread destruction of Baal worship under Jehoram. He made a half-hearted attempt to at least put a few, what we would say, a few worship centers of Baal out of the way. But then the text is very quick to add, nevertheless, he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. He departed not therefrom.

24:22 So the text is very careful to tell us whatever repentance and reformation was undertaken by Jehoram, at best it was an impartial, an incomplete, and probably a total insincere repentance and reformation. Though it is recorded that he put away this pillar of Baal, there is no record that there was no widespread holy zeal directed against the establishment of Baal worship. And the very fact that he continues to worship the golden calf at Bethel or at Dan

25:05 manifests that he has no root, nor does he have the principle of God-given hatred for idolatry in all its forms, or he would have cut himself off from that form of idolatry as well. Now what's the result of this sin of a partial reformation and a partial repentance? Well, the passage tells us he reaped two sad fruits from this partial repentance. Number one, he had a bad conscience in the time of crisis.

25:39 Look at verse 10. Having already studied the nature of the crisis, I'll not go back over that ground with you tonight, but when things get desperate and he and his army are about to die of thirst in the wilderness, verse 10, and the king of Israel, that is Jehoram, said, alas, there's that word of despair, alas, for the Lord hath called these three kings together, that is, himself, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom, the Lord hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. You see, he was the one that was the hotshot leader in the beginning. He says, Moab is rebelling.

26:20 Eh, Jehoshaphat, come and help me, and on the way we'll pick up the others. And he seemed to be exuding all kinds of confidence, but now his back is to the wall. There are no water supplies. He and his army are beginning to feel the pangs of real thirst and looking at this desperate situation immediately with a conscience that has no rest in the thought of the living God, that Jehovah against whom he had sinned.

26:47 He is quickly plunged into absolute despair. He says, God has got us in a corner, and he's going to nail us. He's gathered these three kings together, and remember, he attributes it to Jehovah. He said, that living God, whom I know in my heart of hearts is the true God, that God is out to get us.

27:09 And I want to pause to expand on that principle for a moment. Thorough repentance, intense reformation of life by the law of God, close walking with God, careful guarding of the heart may be mocked in times of ease, but oh, what a wonderful, wonderful companion a good conscience is in a time of crisis. And this man, guilty of a partial reformation, of a partial repentance, has nothing for his companion in the crunch,

27:51 but a conscience that screams out at him that indeed he is an evil doer in the sight of Jehovah. I tell you my friend, the worst companion in time of trouble is a bad conscience. You may be able to tolerate that companion when everything's going well, but you get your back to the wall, and there is no miserable, no more miserable a companion than an evil conscience. A conscience that accuses not of the common failings that are the experience of all the people of God, not a conscience that smites us that we've not loved him and served him as we ought,

28:35 and that would cause the holiest of men as is recorded in Christian biography to go out of this life saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. There's nothing inconsistent with a painful sense of sinfulness and a wonderful confidence of the mercy of God in Christ. But here is a man, you see, who knew nothing of true repentance, who knew nothing of true repose in the mercy of Jehovah. He was someone who, for whatever reasons, moved him, and there is no clear indication of what they were.

29:09 We can only suggest what they may have been. There was no principle of hatred for sin as sin. There was no desire to have the heart cleansed and made the fit dwelling place of Jehovah. And all he had for it was a bad conscience in the time of crisis.

29:31 And then the second thing he had as a result of this was a scathing rebuke from the living God. Verse 13, When he, along with Jehoshaphat, calls Elisha to him, and the king of Edom is with them as well, Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother. And the king of Israel said, Nay, for the Lord hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.

30:04 And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts liveth before whom I stand, surely if it were not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee nor see thee. You see what he is saying? Jehoram, do you think you can play games with God? You go through the charades.

30:26 You go through the motions of having a little repentance and a little reformation. You think you can play games with God? Throw a little sop of putting away one or two images of Baal so when you get in a pinch you can snap your fingers and God will be your bellboy? Who do you think you're kidding, Jehoram?

30:44 My friend, you won't let God say that to you when the crunch is on you. When you go whimpering and crying to God, to get you out of your mess, and God says, What have I to do with thee? You had no time for me. When I called you through my word in times of prosperity, when I sent forth the overtures of mercy, when I pleaded with you to turn from your sin and to embrace my mercy and to come into the bonds of covenant love and obedience to me, you wanted nothing to do with me.

31:20 All you did was scratch around and change a few externals so you had a little more respectable life. But you were bound in heart to your idols. What are you doing coming to me now? You say, God never does that to anyone.

31:34 He doesn't. You read the latter part of Proverbs 1. I tell you, it scares the liver out of me every time I read it. God says, Because I called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand and ye did not regard.

31:49 Behold, I will mock when your fear comes. And when you call upon me, I will not hear. Now, do some of you precious young people know why I don't take lightly the rebellion and the rejection of the gospel that you manifest in your teenage years? I have people tell me all the time, Don't get so upset, Pastor Martin.

32:19 Just going through a stage. My friend, Proverbs 1 describes people who went through a stage and never came out of it. God called and refused. God called again and they refused.

32:39 And God called again and they refused. And God says, I've had it. And now the time comes when they call and God is to them a death. Are you trying to scare me?

32:57 You bet your boots I am. But I'm not scaring you with phantoms or Halloween masks. These are the realities of the word of God. Because of his partial repentance and partial reformation, all he had was a bad conscience in a crisis and a scathing rebuke from the living God.

33:33 Am I speaking to people tonight who are in that category? Not the dear sensitive ones of whom I spoke this morning who with all their hearts long to be a thousand times more holy than they are. Who would literally give even the physical members of their body if they could only be delivered from some of the sins that plague them. I'm not speaking of those who have a heart that longs for universal holiness and obedience but who have to say the will is present with me but how to perform I know not.

34:11 No, no, don't you put yourself in that category and undo all the good that was done this morning. No, I'm speaking to those of you who sit here tonight who've gone just far enough in your repentance and reformation to be respectable and comfortable in times of ease. But not so far as to bear any reproach for your religious scruples. You see Baal worship was still rife there in Israel but there were seven thousand who hadn't bowed the knee to Baal.

34:45 So if Jehoram's to be acceptable to all of his subjects he's got to be a little more acceptable. Not so religious but not so religious as to stir up the enmity in the heart of the inveterate Baal worshipers. Am I speaking to some who've got just enough of the Christian faith to make you respectable but there is nothing of heart repudiation of sin and a heart hunger for holiness. Well you better see yourself here and by the grace of God do something about it.

Manifestation 2: The Sin of Rebellion to Constituted Authority

35:28 While you still can. But then I hurry on very quickly to touch a second specific manifestation of sin that's in this passage. It's the sin of rebellion to constituted authority. It begins in verse four.

35:44 Again you see this is a realistic book this Bible and it doesn't gloss over instances of rebellion. Now Misha the king of Moab was a sheep master and he rendered unto the king of Israel of a hundred thousand lambs and of a hundred thousand rams. But it came to pass when Ahab was dead that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. Now think for a moment.

36:15 Here is Moab one of those Canaanitish nations that God had told his people to dispossess. You say was that fair? Of course it was. It was God's land in the first place and he can give it to whomever he chooses.

36:31 Every square inch of real estate on the face of the earth is God's. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and all things therein. And so if God wants to give a hunk of real estate to his people that's his business.

36:47 But there were also moral and ethical issues involved. You remember the very timing of the invasion had moral implications. God said the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it was when the sin of those Canaanitish nations had reached that ripe stage where judgment had to fall that Israel became the scourge in God's hand to bring that judgment from the Lord.

37:11 But how merciful God was. In the outworking of his purposes the Moabites were not exterminated as were some of the others. And here they were brought into this close proximity to the people of God who had the law of God and the prophets of God. And though the offer of mercy and its freeness to the Gentiles is a matter that awaits gospel days, the Old Testament is full of the indications of the largeness of God's heart.

37:39 We'll see it in the life of Elisha. These Gentile people who are brought under the saving and providing mercy of Jehovah, the God of Israel. So it was a great privilege for them to be in this position. And it was right for Israel to demand of Moab this yearly revenue that is indicated in the opening verses.

38:04 But now after Ahab is dead, Misha says we don't like this arrangement. We want to be our own people. And we want to turn all of our produce and all of our assets back upon ourselves. And so he rebels.

38:19 Now how does God regard that rebellion? Well he regards it as rebellion against himself. So God himself takes the field against him. And we read in verse 18 the prophecy of Elisha.

38:32 And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand, and he shall smite every fortified city and every choice city, and fell every good tree, and stop up all fountains of waters. God here prescribes a form of devastation and destruction that was even forbidden in the general directions given in the book of Deuteronomy. And God did it righteously and justly.

39:05 Now what does this tell us? Well it tells us, you see, something about God's attitude to the sin of rebellion against constituted authority. He regards it as opposition to himself and in response to it he brings death and destruction. And the details of that begin in verse 21.

39:31 And it is an ugly account. It is one that is full of brutality. It is one that seems to be utterly heartless. And it was done at the instigation of Jehovah.

39:45 You say, well a book like that, I don't like it. Well my friend, that's the realism of sin and its consequences. As then so now. The human heart manifests its indisposition to obey God most clearly and most pervasively the moment it gets into a God-ordained structure of authority.

40:16 When it gets in a situation where God says, you shall submit to this one or to this thing. And the human heart says, I'll not submit to anyone or anything. Romans 8, 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God.

40:33 It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed, neither indeed can it be. And is not this the very thing we see in a manner that is absolutely frightening in our generation? If there is anything that is marked what I have seen in my own brief lifetime and in particular since the end of World War II, beginning with the late fifties and on to this very hour, it's as though there is a concerted effort to make every single pattern and framework of God-ordained authority structures.

41:15 It began with the rebellion of children to parents. And then the rebellion of wild-eyed, half-stoned college kids who thought they could run international affairs better than well-trained generals. It's only the grace of God that kept me off the streets in the sixties. And there was all the student athletes, all the student agitation about the situation in Southeast Asia that resulted along with other factors in the bloodshed of so many for nothing.

41:52 Marching to Washington, knowing better how to administer international politics. Rebellion against every law that recognized that a nation that lives half-stoned can't live responsibly and thumbed its nose at every law that would make the use of narcotics illegal. Instead we all care about the laws and by the thousands they gather in the open fields and smoke themselves high.

42:32 Then at the same time there was the rebellion of the establishment against the law of God and legislators who are telling us in our highest seats of government when God says, Thou shalt do no murder, if that means we have to put restraints on sexual activities so little babies don't get started that aren't wanted, we'd rather take God's law and defy it and come up with a specious argument that what's in a mother's womb

43:16 is not really a human being but just a thing. Go ahead and kill them. And from our Supreme Court the rebellion went forth in its pronouncements. It made abortion legal upon demand and said there's no such thing as pornography.

43:40 So you young people will say, Oh, he's just knocking the young people. No, I'm not. This spirit of rebellion to constituted authority, the law of God, the law of the state, the law of the home. And now it's come around to its most frightening expression.

43:58 There's one area where you can't argue with what God's done. He's made you a man or a woman. He didn't make anybody an it. Ain't no its been born.

44:08 Man or woman. And our generation is saying that's the last place where God is putting the screws on me and I'm going to nail God there. And so we're told there's really no difference. And if we can just adjust this little bit of problem that the women bear the babies and can nurse them, we'll have it all fixed up.

44:32 You look upon this as just an innocent sort of social experiment. No, no, my friends. This is Psalm 2. The kings and the rulers gathering together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds.

44:48 We're going to If we get an itch and want to cohabit and the baby gets started, so what? We'll go to a clinic and have it killed. It's my body. It's my mind.

45:10 If I want to blow it on drugs and alcohol, it's my mind. It is. Who said it is? It is He that hath made us and not we ours.

45:22 And you can see and you can prove to me that you made that amazing organism that constitutes you, you. And you go talking about doing what you want with your body. It's not yours. Do I need to draw it out in other dimensions?

45:42 I think you see what I'm driving at. When Misha decides we've had enough of Israel's hand upon us, it's just that spirit of human sin rising up against every structure of God-ordained authority. And what was the result? My friend, the result is tragic.

46:06 The result in this passage was death. And that's exactly what the result is in our own generation. We've just about seen the death of the family. We've seen just about the death of the nobility of young men and women growing up, entering life with unsullied consciences who look upon virginity as a virtue and the sanity and full use of the mind as a noble thing.

Manifestation 3: The Sin of Idolatry

46:38 We've just about seen the death of noble youth. We've just about seen the death of any statesmanship. We've just about seen the death of anything that has to do with God-given frameworks or a God-given framework of authority. And then, of course, there is, in the third place, the manifestation, not only the sin of a partial repentance, the sin of rebellion to constituted authority, but the sin of idolatry.

47:16 And here I'm wrestling with time. I think we'll just pass over that for now. If you can study it out on your own. Two very graphic pictures of idolatry.

47:30 The idolatry of Jehoram, which was, now I will draw this out, it was the idolatry of a sort of half-baked Jehovah worship. It was that Jeroboam instituted idolatry. And if you'll read the record, and time will not allow us to do so tonight, it's found in 1 Kings 12, 25 and following. When those calves were first made, Jeroboam said, we shall go to this place where the calf is set up and we will say in the presence of the calf, these are thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee out of Egypt.

48:08 You see, he was trying to hook together the worship of Jehovah, which should have been going on down at Jerusalem, with this idolatrous worship. And then he set up a pseudo-priesthood, and he had appointed feast times, all of which had parallels in the real thing down at Jerusalem. So it was an idolatry that was overlaid with the language and forms of Jehovah worship. And that's why it was so hard to root it out of Israel.

48:41 And do you know that? That's exactly what's happening in our day. You want to hear what this kind of idolatry is? A form, a semblance of Jehovah worship, but that's all?

48:55 It's idolatry to the core? I read this article to which I referred very briefly last week, in which the so-called Chaplain of Bourbon Street is interviewed in a recent Sunday newspaper. And the reporter says, I've always figured that so-and-so is a preacher, a born-again Christian minister, whose single aim in the world was to lead lost souls to salvation. This was the impression I received when I met him seven years ago.

49:27 However, however, he says, there's a different feeling when I met him today and he brought along his lovely wife so-and-so. The reporter asked him, just what is this entertainment bit, this idea of being a performer? You're a preacher, yet you're probably the wealthiest man I've talked to all week. How do you reconcile this with saving souls?

49:49 I asked him. To which the preacher replied, there's nothing wrong with having money. The Lord never said anyone had to be poor. This is a ministry, a very strong one.

49:59 And the key to this ministry is fulfilling the command of the Lord to spread the good news. Good news, happiness, prosperity, that's the good news. That's the real message of Christianity. It's not that people are bad and going to hell.

50:15 I'm getting away from this idea of telling people what to stop doing. I'm telling them what to start doing. To get into the minds of the people of the 1970s, you've got to come up with the approach that God is in your corner. Ministers have got to become salesmen and they've got to sell the idea of being saved to the people they're preaching to.

50:35 And in order to sell it, you have to offer something better than they have. And that man will hold 187 conferences on evangelism in evangelical circles this year. That's the calf worship at Bethel and Dan. Idolatry over it with the semblance of Jehovah worship.

51:02 That's all it is. Pure and simple. If you become a Christian, it will cost you your sins. And if you come to Christ in reality, you'll come saying, Lord, if it is your will, that I shall live and die a pauper.

51:23 I shall live and die a pauper to your glory and be content therein. Amen. Human heart hasn't changed, has it? Jeroboam doesn't want to become a blatant idolater.

51:49 Oh, no. We've got to have enough of Jehovah and priesthood and feasts to give it the semblance of respectability. Mr. Harrington doesn't want to become a blatant heathenist and worship Bacchus.

52:05 He doesn't want to worship Aphrodite. Oh, no. It's worshiping Jesus. But Jesus made over into the God of fun and prosperity and money.

52:29 And then there is that sad picture of idolatry with which the passage closes. The raw pagan idolatry, which is nothing but personified demon worship. Look at it. What a sad picture.

52:44 You see, the Bible is a realistic book, folks. You won't be comfortable with it if you don't like that realism. The king of Moab took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. You see, what happened is this.

53:03 The god Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, was considered to be the god who went before them in battle. And if he was pleased, he would give them victory. But if he was in a bad mood that day, things might not go too well. So when they come to this point of desperation, the king figuring that Chemosh might have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning and had an ugly fit, maybe the way he could placate this angry, ugly god was to give the fruit of his own loins as a human sacrifice.

53:34 Now that's raw pagan idolatry, personified demon worship. And the only point I'll pause to make is this. You see, the end of this demon worship was the destruction of human life. Didn't Jesus say it beautifully?

53:52 Not beautifully. Didn't he say it accurately when he said, The thief cometh not but for to do what? To steal, to kill, and to destroy. You see, the ultimate end of all idolatry is self-destruction.

54:08 Man made in the image of God can only preserve his humanity as he worships the god in whose image he was made. And when he worships the personification of a demon, when he worships an idol, it is self-destructing. And I'm not surprised with this generation worshiping the idol of hedonism, sensual pleasure. It's bringing self-destruction and death.

54:42 The god of drugs. Hardly a week passes but what some notable rock star doesn't blow his brains out or kill himself with an oldie. The great heroes of ten years ago, they're dead before they reach thirty. Why?

55:08 You worship an idol, its end is destruction. It was here. Timosh demanded the blood of the son of the king named Misha. Well, go through the passage now for the note of encouragement.

The Mercy and Forbearance of God Towards Sinners

55:31 And behold not only what it says of the objective reality of sin, the varying manifestations of sin, but oh how wonderfully the mercy and forbearance of God towards sinners is displayed in this passage. Well, you say, Pastor, you must be reading a different Bible. No, no. Mercy and forbearance are woven through this whole chapter.

55:53 Mercy and forbearance to this half-baked idolater called Jehoram who should have been put to death for his idolatry. But what does God do? God spares him and gives him victory in battle, gives him a display of his love and his power, puts him in close proximity to the prophet of God. You see, God is still stretching out his hand to Jehoram.

56:17 He hasn't washed his hands of him yet. Though he's a cursed son of Ahab, God comes to him in a way of mercy. Jehoshaphat, who went forth presumptuously and joined himself in this unholy alliance with Jehoram, what does God do? God displays his mercy and forbearance.

56:35 He publicly commends him. And then he, with the other kings, is delivered and is given this assurance of God's presence. And even that King Misha, this man, who because of the sin of rebellion and the sin of murder deserves to die, God caused his wrath to break forth upon his own people so they returned. King Misha is still alive, but he's alive having seen a demonstration of the power of Jehovah.

57:03 And as you read Old Testament narratives, those demonstrations of Jehovah's power were evangelistic in nature. Do you remember Rahab? How did she come to faith? She said, We heard the news of what your God did when he brought you over that sea.

57:18 And I've put my faith in that God. Tremendous manifestation of loving kindness and tenderness. And then the nation itself. There's Baal worship still back there in Samaria.

57:30 Prophets of Baal still running around doing their ugly thing. And yet God delivers them. I say the chapter's full of the display of the mercy and forbearance of God. And my friends, isn't that our hope tonight?

57:45 That though sin in all of its ugly reality is present with us, this God of mercy and forbearance seen in 2 Kings 3 is the God who came to us in the person of his Son. That's the God who died. The God who was raised from the dead. The God who lives even now.

58:10 Our sin is real. But Christ's death was real. And as we hold real bread and the real fruit of the vine in our hands tonight, oh that our hearts may rejoice that there was real satisfaction made to divine justice. Real blood was shed to make real payment for real sin.

58:30 That we might have a real pardon. Thank God we're not grabbing at wispy phantoms. And that's why the Lord has condescended among other reasons to give us this table. As real and tangible is the bread and the wine, so is the forgiveness sealed in the blood of the Savior.

58:52 And if you're here and you're out of Christ, my friend, we've spoken plainly to you tonight. Why? Not because we wish you ill. We long to see you come to the fountain open for sin and uncleanliness.

59:06 Find that deliverance in Christ. Lay hold of the mercy of God in the Savior. My friend, blinking, wishing, hoping, ignoring doesn't make sin go away. It's there.

59:23 What a wonderful thing for you to go home tonight with a conscience at rest. A conscience purged by the blood of the Savior. That's the only reason we've spoken plainly to you tonight. To try to give you such a display of the ugliness of sin that if you have any rationality, whatever, you'll say from your heart, Oh God, if there's any way to escape that mess, I want it.

59:50 My friend, there is a way. And that way is a person. And you've got to have dealings with him. Seek him while he may be found.

59:58 Call upon him while he is near. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you that you've given us your word. We thank you for its stark realism.

60:25 We bless you that in it we not only see our melody, but we are told of our remedy. And we thank you that in wrath you do remember mercy. We thank you that even in this chapter so full of the ugly displays of sin, there is such a glorious display of grace and mercy. Receive our thanks.

60:50 Bless those of us who remain to remember the dying love of our Savior and to feed upon him by faith as our only Redeemer. Hear our prayers and seal your word to our hearts, we pray, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.