“They’re All the Same!” – FBC Morning Light (7/16/2024)

Really good Tuesday morning to you. Hope your week got off to a great start.

Yesterday. Let me begin by just a reminder of what that little box on the left-hand corner of your screen is all about, if you missed yesterday's broadcast. I started four years ago doing these morning light devotionals, and initially it was during COVID, so I was just doing them primarily for the benefit of our church family.

But as COVID, you know, the COVID lockdowns and so forth led up, I realized that many people were getting some benefit and value out of these devotionals, so I just kept doing it, and have been doing it for the last four years.

But the whole time, that ministry, which has now become a part of the ministry of the church I pastor, Faith Baptist in Sterling, it's become a ministry to a whole bunch of people beyond our local congregation.

In those four years, our church has basically funded everything, all of the equipment and the technology and the streaming service and so on and so forth necessary to make these devotionals possible. I've never asked for those who are listening to make any contribution toward that ministry, but I think it would be prudent for the stewardship of our local church resources, as well as for the stewardship of those who benefit from this ministry that are not part of Faith Baptist Church, to offer the opportunity of giving and helping to support these ongoing devotionals.

Now, I don't have any incentives to give. You can give, and I'm not going to send you a book or a keychain or holy water from the Jordan River or anything like that whatsoever. It's just, you know, if you can give and you would like to do that and be supportive of this, then wonderful, thank you, praise the Lord for it, but just know that whatever is offered, whatever is given, is just going to help fund this ministry.

The Therapeutic View of Religion Versus the God Who Reigns

So, all right, with that being said, today in our Bible reading, we're reading in 2 Kings chapters 18 and 19, and then 2 Chronicles 32, and then jumping to the prophecy of Isaiah chapters 36 and 7. I want to zero in on a very common thought that's brought out in chapter 18, and I see parallels to what's expressed in these verses, even in our contemporary society.

Let me explain. Not long ago, I was listening to an audiobook entitled The Anxious Generation, and it's about, really, it's about young people who have grown up in the smartphone era, and how that technology has just, it's just caused anxiety and depression to mushroom among that generation.

And the author of that book is an atheist. He doesn't have, there's no profession of belief in God whatsoever, but in his book he touts the benefit of religion to deal with the potentiality of anxiety and depression, and it doesn't matter what religion he mentions.

It could be anything, just practicing any religion. Okay, and then I was listening to a guy who's really kind of a business motivational speaker guy, not long ago, and again, he expressed the same idea.

He said, you know, whatever your God is, whoever your God is, you know, your religion, your faith, you know, that's important, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And basically, both of these guys, one an atheist, and one, I don't think, claims to be an atheist.

I think he would have some kind of religion. We're touting the idea that religion is beneficial. Doesn't matter which one, they're all basically equal, they all have beneficial aspects to them, and they're thinking of religion strictly from the therapeutic value that that religion might have on an individual.

All right, now, with that in mind, we come to 2 Kings 18, where there's this same idea expressed in ancient terms, where the Assyrians come against Israel, come against Judah, and Hezekiah, and the leader of the Assyrians basically says, do you think your God is any better than any of the other gods?

Listen to how he puts it in chapter 18, verse 32. He says, do not listen to Hezekiah lest he persuade you, saying, the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel, will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hannah and Iva? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? But, and who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord, Yahweh, should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

So you see what he's saying? He's saying that your God is no different from any other God, that all religions are basically equal, all gods are basically equal, and of course the leader of the Assyrian army was basically saying they're powerless to do anything against me.

But the point is, this fundamental error of claiming that all gods are equal, all religions are the same, none is the answer, none holds the truth, you can't count on any of them to be the definitive final answer.

The Lord Defends Jerusalem and Defeats Assyria

Well, the reality is, our God reigns, and he shows that in chapter 19 and verses 32 through 37, when this is what the Lord says regarding the king of Assyria, he shall not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it by the way he came, the same way he's going to return, and he shall not come into the city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.

And it came to pass, the next verse, on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185 ,000, and when the people arose in the morning, there were the corpses, all dead.

Oh, I guess the Assyrians found out that no, not all religions are equal, and may we find that out too. Oh, how we long for our God to make clear his power and his authority, even in our day. He may not do so in such a dramatic way, but he does so every time the dead are made to live.

That is, those who are dead in trespasses and sins are brought to life through the work of Jesus Christ. Our God reigns. Thank you, Father, for this encouraging truth today, that indeed, you do reign.

Spiritual Death and New Life in Christ

I pray that you would bless these thoughts to our hearts today, and we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday, and may our God who reigns bless you in it.

Good day.