WWUTT 644 Seek Him With Your Whole Desire?

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King Asa of Judah was told that if he sought the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength,

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God would be with him. And so that is true of you as well. If you love Jesus Christ with all your heart,

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He is with you when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text studying

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God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt

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.com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of 2 Chronicles today in chapters 14 and 15.

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So last week, we read about how Rehoboam and all of Judah with him were unfaithful to the

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Lord. That's the word that's used in 2 Chronicles 12 to unfaithful, and it's a word that appears periodically over the course of 2

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Chronicles. And because they did not obey God and His statutes, the

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Lord allowed Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, Sheshonq I, as he's written about in antiquity, but we read his name as Shishak in 2

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Chronicles 12. He came up against Jerusalem and all of Judah cried out to God and asked for forgiveness.

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And so the Lord did not give them over to their enemies, but he did allow

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Shishak to come in and raid the armory and steal all of the wealth from the king's house in Jerusalem.

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Furthermore, Shishak would have reign over Judah, so they would be under the thumb of the

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Egyptians, still being able to worship in the temple that they had built to God, still being able to inhabit their own lands.

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But now they were answering to another dictator. And this was particularly relevant to a post -exilic people at the time that they would have been reading this, at the time that 2

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Chronicles was written, because they likewise had been allowed to come back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and worship there, but they were still under the thumb of the

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Persians. So they're looking back at another period in which they had been disobedient and God allowed their enemies to have partial rule over them, but they could still live in their own land and worship in their own temple.

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And we're going to see the Egyptians come against Judah again today in the story, as we read in chapter 14.

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So Abijah is the previous king that we read about in chapter 13. And we begin chapter 14 with his death.

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He slept with his fathers, it says, and they buried him in the city of David and Asa, his son, reigned in his place.

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So now we have the reign of Asa taking over in chapters 14 and 15.

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And it says here of Asa in the first verse that in his days, the land had rest for 10 years and Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the

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Lord, his God. Now, that's quite a contrast to the previous two kings, Rehoboam, of whom we read that he did what was evil in the eyes of the

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Lord, that he did not obey God and walk in his statutes, as it talks about in chapter 12.

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And then likewise, Abijah, Rehoboam's son, did what was evil in the eyes of God.

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Now, we don't read about that in Second Chronicles. We actually read about that in First Kings. The chronicler takes kind of a neutral stance on Abijah, whereas in First Kings, where he's listed as Abijah, he worships false gods and he's got the high places that are built to false gods.

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This is exactly what Asa tore down. So in verse three, he took away the foreign altars in the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the

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Asherim and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment.

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He also took out all of the cities of Judah, took out of all the cities of Judah, the high places and the incense altars, and the kingdom had rest under him.

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He's the first righteous king since Solomon and Solomon for a while was a very righteous king.

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But then because he had so many pagan wives who worshiped false gods, his heart went after his wives, gods, and he built high places to those gods.

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So God punished this rebellion by splitting the kingdom into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.

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And all throughout Second Chronicles, we're focusing primarily on that southern kingdom, Judah, except where Israel comes into the story.

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So Asa becomes the first righteous king. After Rehoboam and Abijah were wicked, Asa tore down all the high places to false gods and commanded

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Judah to worship the Lord God and him only. As I've said before,

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I think it was when we were studying through First and Second Kings. But the the difference between a righteous king and a wicked king is that a righteous king worships the

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Lord God with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength. And a wicked king, he might kind of worship

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God sometimes, but then he also worships these false gods. You know, with the wicked kings that we have listed in First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles, it's not necessarily that they did not worship

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God at all. Many of those kings did, but they also worship the false gods. They believe that God was not sufficient for my every need.

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I also need to worship the thunder God over here in order to have rain for my crops. And and I need to worship the fertility

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God in order to get many children, in order for God to bless me and my posterity.

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And this is wicked. It is the most serious of sins. As depraved as we talk about our world being right now, there is nothing, nothing more evil than rejecting the

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Lord God. Ultimately, it is that that will condemn a person to hell.

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The sin that you do reveals in your heart your rebellion against God. But the righteous man, he who has a heart that has been transformed by the

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Holy Spirit to not be reprobate, but instead to love the Lord God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, he will show by his actions that he does love the

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Lord God and only the Lord God and will have no other gods before him. There is nothing in his life, nothing at all that takes precedence before God, nor is there anything that he needs in addition to God.

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God is sufficient for our every need. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these other things will be added to you as well.

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Food, shelter, clothing, the daily provisions that you need in order to live and survive.

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God will supply those things for you. But we are supposed to seek first God's kingdom, having our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, and we are to desire his righteousness, that we would live in a godly way according to the statutes of God.

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Jesus himself said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. Obedience is the fruit of righteousness.

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And so this was in the heart of Asa, who loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength.

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And he commanded Israel or Judah. I'm sorry. See, that's that's part of the confusing.

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Judah is Israel, but we have the split kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Anyway, so he commanded all of Judah to likewise worship the

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Lord God. And the Lord gave him peace. Verse six. He built fortified cities in Judah for the land had rest.

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And there was no war in those years for the Lord gave him peace. And he said to Judah, let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars.

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The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God. We have sought him and he has given us peace on every side.

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So they built and prospered. And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah, armed with large shields and spears and two hundred and eighty thousand men from Benjamin that carried shields and drew bows.

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All these were mighty men of valor. Now you'll notice that total is even greater than the army that Abijah had when he went out into war against Jeroboam.

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His army was listed at four hundred thousand in chapter 13. So we have an army of five hundred and eighty thousand now that belongs to Asa in Second Chronicles chapter 14.

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This is just showing how God is blessing Asa. But even though he has an army of this magnitude, there's an enemy that's going to come into this picture even larger than that.

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So let's continue on with the story here. Zerah, the Ethiopian, came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots and came as far as Marisha.

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Now, in the Hebrew, this literally translates as a thousand thousands.

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And in English, we've just translated it out to be a million. Basically, it was an army that was so large it could not be counted.

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It was more than double the size of the army that Asa had, just like when

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Abijah went up against Jeroboam. Jeroboam came out with an army twice the size of the one that Abijah had.

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Yet the Lord was with Judah and they were successful in that conflict with Jeroboam.

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Here, Asa has an army that's half the size of Zerah. And the Lord, likewise, is going to be with Asa.

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Asa went out to meet him, verse 10, and they drew up their lines of battle in the valley of Zephatha at Marisha and Asa cried to the

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Lord, his God. Oh, Lord, there is none like you to help between the mighty and the weak.

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Help us, oh Lord, our God, for we rely on you and in your name we have come against this multitude.

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Oh, Lord, you are our God. Let not man prevail against you. So the

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Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah and the Ethiopians fled.

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Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar and the

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Ethiopians fell until none remained alive, for they were broken before the Lord and his army.

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The men of Judah carried away very much spoil and they attacked all the cities around Gerar for the fear of the

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Lord was upon them. They plundered all the cities for there was much plunder in them and they struck down the tents of those who had livestock and carried away sheep in abundance and camels.

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And then they returned to Jerusalem. Now, we don't know exactly who Zerah was, but he was likely the general of Pharaoh, a

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Sorkin the first, who was the son of Shawshank or the one that we had written about in Second Chronicles 12 as Shishak.

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So this was still when Egypt was reigning there in the promised land. And when this massive army came up against Judah, the

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Lord God blessed Asa so that he was able to be successful against the armies of the

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Egyptians. And and not only that, but they replenish the wealth that had previously been taken from Judah when

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Jeroboam or I'm sorry, Rehoboam was king and Shishak came up against Jerusalem.

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So here you have the Lord God blessing Asa because of the reforms that had taken place in Jerusalem because he was faithful to God.

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And notice that when he came up against this army, he appealed to the

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Lord. This is in contrast to the way that Abijah came up against Jeroboam, where Abijah did not appeal to the

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Lord. All he did was say, hey, we're great and we're mighty because we are of the house of David and you're nothing.

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You are from one of the servants of Solomon. So so who are you to come up against us?

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God is going to show us favor and we're going to be successful against you. And so they were.

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But because God meant to punish Israel and he was preserving Judah since his covenant was with the house of David.

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But Abijah does not call to the Lord and say, Lord, show your mercy to us.

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Be be favorable toward us. Instead, he just boasts in himself. That's pretty much the the battle cry that he gave to Jeroboam in Second Chronicles 13, whereas in chapter 14, we read that Asa called to the

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Lord. He spoke to the Lord. He humbled himself before God. He asked that the

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Lord would show mercy. And so not only did God give Asa's enemies into his hands, but also gave him much more.

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Abijah didn't come away with that kind of plunder when he was successful against Jeroboam. He merely survived.

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Asa, on the other hand, was successful against an enemy more than twice the size of Judah and also received much wealth from them.

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So this is the way that the Lord had blessed Asa for his faithfulness. And in chapter 15, we read about the reforms that were done from Asa.

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Now, he talked about making reforms. We read about that in chapter 14, but we didn't see the specificity of those reforms.

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And that's what we get in chapter 15. The spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded, and he went out to meet with Asa and said to him, hear me,

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Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you.

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But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time, Israel was without the true

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God and without a teaching priest and without law. But when in their distress, they turned to the

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Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. In those times, there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in.

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For great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. They were broken in pieces.

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Nation was crushed, crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.

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But you take courage. Do not let your hands be weak for your work.

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You shall be rewarded. And just as we have in this conversation between Azariah and Asa, Azariah shares with him good news and says to him, once you were not a people, but now you are

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God's people. And so you must seek the Lord and you will find him. So Peter says the same thing to us, the church, the believers of Christ.

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In first Peter chapter two, he says, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation.

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If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for it stands in scripture.

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Behold, I am laying in Zion, a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

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So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

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They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

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But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

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Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak, they speak against you as evildoers.

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They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

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And so likewise, as Ariah is saying here to Asa to seek God and obey him and the

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Lord will be with you for you are a people chosen and precious. He has chosen you out of all other nations on earth to put his name with you.

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And so we as the church, we as Christians, God's name is with us and his Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.

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Once we were not a people, but now in Christ Jesus, we are God's people.

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Let us go on verse eight. As soon as Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah, the son of Oded, he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim.

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And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the Lord. And he gathered all

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Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim Manasseh and Simeon who were residing with them for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the

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Lord, his God was with him. And they were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the 15th year of the reign of Asa.

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They sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen and 7 ,000 sheep.

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And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul, but that whoever would not seek the

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Lord, the God of Israel, they should be put to death, whether young or old man or woman.

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And that is likewise the case with us. Remember that the wages of sin is death.

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Romans 6, 23, whoever does not seek the Lord will die. They will perish in the final judgment.

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But the free gift of God that verse goes on to say is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. So this was the case with Israel under the theocracy. If they sought the Lord, they would live.

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But if they rebelled against God, they would be put to death. They swore an oath to the

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Lord with a loud voice and with shouting, with trumpets and with horns. And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire.

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And he was found by them. And the Lord gave them rest all around.

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Amen. Even Mayaka, his mother, King Asa removed from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah.

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Asa cut down her image, crushed it and burned it at the Brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken out of Israel.

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Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true in all his days. And he brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver and gold and vessels.

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And there was no more war until the 35th year of the reign of Asa.

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And that that's brief mention that we have there that the high places were not taken out of Israel. That's foreshadowing because Israel is going to go right back to repeating the sins that they were doing before the

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Lord blessed them in this way under the reign of King Asa. Let us conclude today with prayer.

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Our Lord God, I pray that we would have a heart that would seek you with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength, that you would grow us in our faith, that we would come to know all the more fully that you are sufficient for our every need.

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You save us from death. We have nothing else that we need except Jesus Christ, our

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King, King of Kings and Lord of Lords forever, who reigns forever, who we will honor forever around the throne with all the saints when we come into your eternal kingdom.

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And so, Lord, as we walk in this earth, as sojourners and exiles help to keep us unstained from the temptations of this world, but instead devote our whole heart to worshiping the

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Lord God and living for you every day, pursuing holiness, growing in godliness, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

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And we know that you will take care of every other need that we have. Thank you for being our

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God, for rescuing us out of this world of darkness into your kingdom of light.

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May we live as kingdom people in this world in Jesus name.

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Amen. This has been, When We Understand The Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word, when we understand the text.