WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 So we're going to look today at the ongoing story of the Old Testament and this is the first and second Kings. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:16.000 It's not where you naturally go if you want an uplift. It's not where you naturally go if you want just a quick word from the Lord to speak into your life. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:23.000 Is it? Because it's difficult, it's difficult. History, it seems weirdly strange in many ways. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:37.000 And I want to address that a little bit today because, you know, we talk a lot, as Christians, we talk a lot about God's love, about God's promises and about God's purposes in our lives. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:48.000 And maybe we even do that, and I know we do that even through the misery of a pandemic and divination, well, God's sovereign, God's in charge, you'll work out good things from it. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:01:03.000 But I think that's, we believe that's true, but I think, especially for people who are not Christians, if we say that to people who are not Christians, I think it's very difficult for them to understand that and accept what we're saying. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:14.000 It seems like fatalism, maybe, to them. You know, we're just saying, oh, there's nothing we can do. We're just puppets. God's got his sovereign will and he's going to do it, whatever. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:24.000 And, you know, people, maybe you're just puppets. Or maybe people think, God doesn't care about suffering. You know, how often have you heard that argument? 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:38.000 If he's all powerful and if he's all loving, why does he allow bad things to happen to people? If he could rescue us from them, such as some of the events that we look at in Kings? 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:54.000 Or they may be just accusers of being people who are a bit mentally weak and who engage in wishful thinking and who are naive, naive with hope in the midst of all kinds of contradictory evidence. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:03.000 People who are Christians aren't thinkers. They're not realists and they just have this pie in the sky idea of God and His love. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:16.000 And what I think what's important for us to do is to wrestle with some of these things as believers and also to show to other people who are not Christians that we wrestle with them. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:31.000 And that when maybe people who are not Christians read some of the Old Testament, as we've been looking at, they may think they find it very difficult and they find it problematic and they find some of the events that are recorded very difficult. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:41.000 And we need to confess that as Christians, unless you're a genius and you find it all easy, we need to confess that there are tough realities that we find in the Old Testament. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:46.000 And there's a mystery there. We don't know everything. We don't have all the answers to the Old Testament. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:55.000 And we don't want to give out as Christians to one another cheap doctrinal statements about everything in the Bible. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:13.000 I think we need to show that we wrestle too. I wrestle greatly with many things and I've wrestled hard with this to understand the story of the kings and their place in the Old Testament and their place in God's plan and God's purposes. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:20.000 We wrestle too. And so I think it's helpful at a broad level. I'm just giving a broad brushstroke here at the moment. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.000 It's helpful to remember two things. One, we are like God. Okay? 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:30.000 We started a series in the evening, talks about us being image bearers. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:42.000 Now that means, among other things, that we have moral responsibility. We are not puppets. Whatever mystery is involved in that, we're not puppets. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:50.000 And in a rebellion against God as a humanity, we have chosen, humanity has chosen independence from God. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:04:03.000 And therefore, there's responsibility for that. We bear the consequences of that responsibility, of being image bearers who are morally responsible. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:19.000 You can't blame God for everything. We can't keep blaming God for all the bad things that happen, because part of it within that mystery is a recognition that we've rebelled against God, and we are bearing the consequences for that. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:25.000 So we are like God. But on the other side, we are not like God. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:41.000 Or rather, should I say, God is not like us. He is God. And the danger very often with this, where we start our arguments, is that we are trying to recreate God in our image and make Him think the way we think. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:59.000 We want Him to be like us. We want Him to suit us. We want Him to do what we want. And He doesn't. And He's not like us at that level, because there is mystery in His infinite, eternal and unchangeable nature. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:15.000 There's uniqueness in His love and in His justice. And even at best, if God is God, and you know, wrestle with that today. Stick that right in front of your nose and wrestle with it. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:33.000 If God is God, then we need to recognize that even as He reveals Himself, we are only grasping a grain of sand on the seashore of His infinity, of His glorious character. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:47.000 Yet, yet we have Christ. Yet we have Jesus Christ, God made flesh. And that's not easy. And it's not easy to understand, but it's real. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:58.000 So I want you this morning, I need you to cooperate with me, because this is not easy stuff. And I don't want you just to switch off and go to sleep, because it's not the gospel. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:08.000 Or it's not about Jesus dying on the cross. Specifically, the stuff we like hearing about, although obviously that is integral to it all. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:21.000 So go with me, use your brains and your hearts and your souls today, and wrestle with this. Remember, it's His living word. Yes, it's God's history, God's story, but it's also His living word. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:31.000 And so we come to the book of kings, the book, well, the books of kings, first and second king, in the original Hebrew Bible there were one book. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:44.000 And we recognize it's not easy, but it's not easy because it's real. You know, if it was made up, whoever would make it up, you think would make it up to be easy, wouldn't you? 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:54.000 But it's not easy because it's real and because it's God dealing with His people before the coming of Christ. Now, we're only going to skim the surface for a few moments this morning. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:02.000 And I have to presume a certain amount of knowledge with you. But if you want to know more that you don't know or you don't know the back story, then please speak to me. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:09.000 Come and speak to me, or speak to a Christian beside you later on, or speak to someone who's been a Christian for a long time. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:18.000 Because this book, the book of the kings, it was written much later than when it happened, okay? 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:27.000 So it was written when the Old Testament people of God were in exile so they weren't in the promised land anymore. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:31.000 They're rebellion and their sin that led them into exile around 550 BC. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:42.000 And this book, this book records the history of the kings, was written to a people who were devoid of hope. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.000 They had been flung out of the promised land because of their own disobedience. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:53.000 The temple that was representing God's presence with them had been destroyed and they felt that God had abandoned them. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:08:00.000 And the people, and we'll go on to see this in the story, the people were divided, completely divided. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:03.000 They were enslaved again, can you imagine it? 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:08.000 After everything that happened in Egypt, they were enslaved again, they were weak. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:15.000 And the reality of life was extinguishing all their dreams, all their trust in God. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.000 They'd lost sight of who they were and who God was. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.000 Is that familiar? 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:25.000 Is that familiar with you today, in your life and your thinking? 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.000 Is it that far away from our experience? 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:42.000 But the purpose of this book, which is written to a people many years later, was to expose the destructiveness of rejecting God's love, which is what they did. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:52.000 And also, the determination of God in His love to rescue them and to outwork His purposes. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:09:02.000 So the destructiveness of rejecting God, remember they were supposed to be different because they were loved by God and chosen and saved and redeemed. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.000 They were supposed to be different, and that's no different from us. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:12.000 We too are supposed to be different because we've been touched by the grace and the goodness and the love of God. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:13.000 Anyway, we'll go on. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:16.000 The story of Kings. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:20.000 I'm just going to say two things primarily about this. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.000 The first is with one or two sub points. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:28.000 The first thing is hideous for the most part. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.000 If you read through 1st and 2nd Kings, it's hideous. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.000 It doesn't make nice reading at all. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:34.000 It's hideous. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.000 We've seen this story so far. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.000 Very often they've rejected God's love. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.000 They've betrayed God's purposes. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:47.000 They didn't want Him as their leader, so they wanted a king just like all the other nations around them. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.000 We saw that for the wrong reasons. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:53.000 They wanted to be like everyone rather than different from everyone. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:01.000 And yet God in His glory, He wove His eternal purposes into their wrong motives. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:04.000 And He established, He saw last week in Thomas Preach, 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.000 established an everlasting kingdom through who? 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:10.000 King David. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:13.000 You know, we all know about King David, a man after God's own heart. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:19.000 And He promised from King David a king and a descendant who would reign forever. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:22.000 Thomas went on to say that that was Jesus. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.000 Remember the genealogy of Jesus is a son of David from the house of David. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:28.000 So it was Jesus. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.000 It all links in with Jesus. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:34.000 And so we've come to this point. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.000 David is reigning. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:36.000 Solomon is reigning. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:41.000 And from then on, the majority of the kings with all their difficult names, 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.000 there's no Scottish names there or European names. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.000 They're all Jewish names, difficult to pronounce. 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:51.000 The majority of them utterly rejected God's model of leadership. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:56.000 The model He had set down about the kind of kings they were to be. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:57.000 They made their wrong choices. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:01.000 They wanted to have power and they wanted to have wealth 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.000 and they wanted self-glory and they oppressed the people 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:07.000 and the people were badly treated. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:09.000 They didn't do what God wanted. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:13.000 So you can read about Solomon's pride or the brutality of Rehoboam, 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:19.000 which we didn't really go into, or King Nadab, or Omri, or Ahab, 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.000 many of you have heard of, or Manasseh. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:29.000 And you know, it's like if kings was written as a poem or as a song, 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:34.000 the chorus would be, all did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:38.000 That would be the chorus because it's repeated all through the book. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:40.000 This king and that king and this king and that king. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.000 They all did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.000 They didn't do, they didn't follow the way God wanted to them. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.000 Most of them. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.000 And what happens is they are led into exile, out of the promised land, 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:56.000 away from the temple. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:00.000 And I just want to highlight two main consequences of them rejecting God's way, 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:06.000 because that's also the hindsight that this book was written for, 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.000 for the exiles who were in many years later. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:12.000 But it's also for us, because it's a living word as well. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.000 The consequences of rejecting God's way are twofold. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.000 One is division. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.000 Look at verse 16, we read that. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:26.000 Maybe not that easy, maybe sometimes to just plonk yourself into that passage 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.000 without reading what's around about it. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:30.000 When all of us saw the king did not listen to them, 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.000 the people answered the king and said, 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.000 what portion do we have with David and the kingdom of David? 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.000 We have no inheritance with you. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Go home to your own house, Israel. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.000 And they left the cities of Judah. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:47.000 So what happened was unimaginable division. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:51.000 Israel, God's people were divided into two kingdoms, 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:54.000 the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.000 The northern kingdom had ten of the tribes, 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.000 and Jeroboam became their king. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:05.000 And the southern kingdom, which had Jerusalem, had two tribes, 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:06.000 Bendiman and Judah. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:13.000 That was King Rehoboam, Jeroboam, remember the booms. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:20.000 He was the remained king just over that rump of the nation Israel. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.000 Imagine the dynasty of David, two generations later. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:29.000 All this is a couple of small insignificant clans around Jerusalem. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.000 There was civil war. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:34.000 It was division weakness. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:35.000 They lost division. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.000 They became obsessed with survival. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:40.000 They were surrounded by enemy nations. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:41.000 They ignore God. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.000 They were fearful and they were poverty stricken. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:44.000 It's pathetic. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.000 It's a dreadful story of division. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:51.000 But it's also a story of idolatry. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:57.000 In verses 28 to 30, we read that as well. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:07.000 That the king of Judah, of David's rump kingdom that was left Jeroboam, 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:09.000 he said in verse 28, 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.000 So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.000 That rings a bell. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:18.000 And he said, look, just worship them. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.000 Just worship them instead. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:23.000 I don't want you going up to Jerusalem to where the temple is, 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.000 because you might go back to that. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.000 Just worship idols. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:32.000 So idolatry became something that was very real in that nation. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:37.000 Now in 2 Kings 17 verses 7 to 8, that may come up on the screen. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 That's really the key verses for the whole of Kings. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.000 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.000 who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:51.000 the king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:54.000 whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:58.000 So instead of being different, they became the same as the other nations. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:00.000 They were power crazy. They were divided. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.000 They worshiped idols, division and idolatry. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.000 And I think God used that. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:14.000 Remember, this was written much later to a people who by that time 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:18.000 were all in exile out of the promised land, 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.000 to remind them of their own, to give them hindsight, 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:28.000 to remind them of their own history, and to remind them of why they ended up where they ended up. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:33.000 To expose the consequences of leaving God out of their life, out of their hearts, 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:36.000 out of their church, out of society. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:41.000 Do you not think that's still really relevant? 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.000 That we look back not only to the Scripture because it's living word, 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.000 but you look back to your own life and you look back to your own family 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:54.000 and to your own behaviour and see, well, what are the consequences when I leave God out of the picture? 00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:01.000 And when I reject His love and when I reject His guidance and His grace and His goodness. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.000 Because we find these two same things happen, don't they? 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:07.000 There's division and there's idolatry. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:12.000 Today, in our lives, not the same kind of division, not the same kind of idolatry, 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.000 but they are still consequences of leaving God out. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:20.000 Satan's ploy has always been divide and conquer, isn't it? 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:23.000 It's always the same way. You think about it. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:28.000 Think about it in your family, think about it in your marriage, think about it in the church, 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:32.000 especially the church, think about it in society. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:38.000 How do people reveal and expose their power and their significance? 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:45.000 Divide and conquer. Hatred, mistrust, abuse, suffering, personal relationships. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:51.000 Satan divides us from one another because he's managed to divide us from God. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:58.000 It's hugely significant to remember the importance of unity. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:03.000 And I'm just going to talk for a moment about the church. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:07.000 Division is God's way. It is Satan's way, isn't it? 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:12.000 And over this last year, we've been forced to be separated. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:16.000 I hope not divided, but definitely separated. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:19.000 And we've had virtual church. Now, virtual church has been great, 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:24.000 but it's a really poor substitute for actual community and for gathering together. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.000 And this is a sidebar, okay? 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:34.000 But I would encourage, as we return, that you grasp and remind yourself of the value of being there, 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:39.000 of not being separated and divided, but being together physically, 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:43.000 because it represents something more than just gathering together. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:45.000 We're united in worship. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:50.000 Can I encourage you, if you've maybe never thought about evening worship, 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.000 and over this last year, we've been separated, 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:57.000 maybe think of the opportunity of coming together in the morning 00:17:57.000 --> 00:17:59.000 and maybe the evening as well, 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:09.000 and to benefit from that extra hour, just of being together, building relationships and worshiping in God's name. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:17.000 So there's unity, but also we recognize when we divide and separate and ignore God, 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:23.000 that we become idolatrous as well, just as the Old Testament people did here in Kings. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:26.000 Our hearts are idle factories, aren't they, without God? 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:34.000 We make idols of our dreams, we make up our own objects of worship, we worship ourselves, 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:40.000 we worship our own misplaced hopes, our pleasures, we make good things, which God has given us, 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:45.000 we make them ultimate things, and we make them the only reason for living, 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:51.000 and we can even do that with religion, so that it can be a Christless religion, 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:58.000 and we think we are somehow, we make an idol of our outward legalistic ideas. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:06.000 Anything, anything that keeps His holy light exposing the darkness that's in our hearts, 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:14.000 we deny Him and we deny His presence, we shut out His love and His closeness. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:20.000 And I think that might be challenging for us today, that we can shut out God, 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:25.000 because of the responsibility of what it means to know His love and to know His, 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:28.000 the exclusivity of His love. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:31.000 So, that's the first of two. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:36.000 The story of Kings is hideous for the most part, and that's the Bible, isn't it? 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:42.000 We don't like that, because it actually really exposes what we're like, exposes our sin, 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:47.000 and exposes what we're like in choosing to reject God and go our own way. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:50.000 And that's really what Kings is about. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:56.000 However, it's also an inspiration towards hope and towards faith. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.000 I really want you to remember that as well. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.000 It's not all bad news, and we mustn't forget that, 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:06.000 because there's jewels of light in the darkness of the story of the Kings, 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:12.000 because there were some kings who trusted only actually from the line of Judah, 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:19.000 from the small rump of two tribes that were left. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:25.000 But some of them did follow, and that of course, if you remember what we've learned so far, 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:28.000 that's also the line of the Messiah. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:31.000 Now, we don't have time to look at them, any of them really, 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:37.000 but you remember Hezekiah's prayer, or think of, read if you can, Hezekiah's prayer, 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:45.000 when their small rump nation was about to be destroyed by the massive power of the Assyrian army, 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:51.000 and He prayed in 2 Kings 19, and the angel of the Lord came and destroyed that army. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:58.000 Or think about 2 Kings 22, verses 1 and 2, which I think come up on the screen as well, 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.000 which tells us about the life of Josiah. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:04.000 Oh, no, that's wrong, that's 1 Kings 22, doesn't matter. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:10.000 2 Kings 22 speaks about Josiah, that he was someone who followed God, 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:15.000 he was a good king, he trusted in God's love and God's mercy, 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:23.000 and he believed and lived by faith, and the nation under them was blessed during that time as well. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:28.000 So we have the kings who trusted, but we also had the provision of the prophets. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:34.000 So amongst all the difficult stories of kings, you've got the fantastic stories of Elisha, 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:37.000 or Elijah and Elisha, tremendous. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:46.000 Or think of Elisha in 2 Kings 6, verses 16 to 18, when his servant was, again, 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:50.000 they were surrounded by powerful armies who were going to destroy them, 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:56.000 and Elisha said to his servant, don't be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:58.000 It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:02.000 Then Elisha prayed and said, oh Lord, please open the eyes of his servant so he may see, 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.000 so the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw and behold, 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:11.000 the mountain was full of horses and chariots, chariots of fire, all around Elisha. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:19.000 It's a great story of the invisible protection and power and might and will of God, 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:24.000 rescuing them and redeeming them and bringing them back to himself. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:31.000 And the provision of the prophets are there to remind us what it means to be in God's side, 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:37.000 to understand what it means to know his blessing and to know answered prayer and to know miracles 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:43.000 in a day and generation that doesn't believe, because it was no different, it didn't believe. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:47.000 And also that inspiration towards faith. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:53.000 That was encouraging, remember, to those to whom it was originally written, who were in exile, 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:56.000 because it reminded them that God still was promising. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.000 He'd promised to take them out of exile. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:03.000 He still promised a Messiah to come, so there was hope for them. 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:07.000 And you know, I think that better was still to come. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:14.000 The promise given to David about an everlasting kingdom to a people whose hope was about to be extinguished 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:17.000 was huge, that God was faithful. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:24.000 He hadn't abandoned them, he hadn't just written them off and started with someone else. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:29.000 He would preserve Judah's line, he would preserve the genealogy of Jesus. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:34.000 He would preserve the promise that this Messiah would come from the seed of David. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:39.000 And he promised, he preserved that all the way through the Old Testament. 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:44.000 And in God's time, Christ the King of Kings came. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.000 And he inaugurated his spiritual kingdom. 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:57.000 And the cost of his divine love, the cost of opening up new hearts and new lives towards God, 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:02.000 was his death, the death of God the Son on the cross, which we know about, 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:06.000 which we'll remember very shortly at the Lord's table. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:11.000 And we have seen that, so we've seen the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus. 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:15.000 So that should encourage you in your faith that God is faithful. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:18.000 And also warn us about just trying to turn our backs on God. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:22.000 But also, we still have a hope to be realized. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:28.000 So we may sometimes feel a little bit in exile, or that God has maybe abandoned us in our lives. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.000 Maybe you feel like that today, maybe you've come today thinking, 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:35.000 this is the last time I'm going to come here, or this is the last time I'm going to watch online. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:37.000 Because God's abandoned me. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:41.000 And I just say, I hope that from God's living word, you realize He hasn't. 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:46.000 And that His future kingdom is still to come. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:49.000 And we recognize that the best is still to come. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:56.000 Hebrews 11 is all about that, using the Old Testament to remind us as believers that the best is yet to come. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:02.000 So, in a moment, we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper, the third of four times. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:10.000 It's great, maybe nearly all the congregation will have been separated, but together, celebrating the Lord's Supper over four weeks. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:15.000 It's the best we can do just now, but we would love to do it when everyone is together, obviously. 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:20.000 And as you sit at the Lord's table and think about that, or participate, 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:25.000 remember the promise that comes through the Old Testament. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:32.000 And remember the presence that is symbolized in God being with His people, 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:38.000 and as it was in the Old Testament, the temple that He had that was built by Solomon in Jerusalem. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:46.000 So remember the promise that we are to trust in Him, and we're to fight division, 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.000 two big consequences being divided. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:57.000 And if you're not struggling with division in your heart, I think you're either an angel, or you're a liar. 00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:59.000 I think it's one or the other. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:04.000 We're all struggling with division in our hearts, and with my will and not someone else's will, 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:10.000 and God just being out of the picture, maybe we do have some angels in our midst. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:15.000 But I think we need to work out what it looks like to have Jesus in terms of division in your marriage, 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:20.000 in your family, in your church life, work life, and how you deal with that as a Christian, 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.000 how you show a different way, and also how you deal with idolatry. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:31.000 What we put before our relationship with God, are we rejecting His rescue? 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:33.000 Are we rejecting His promises? 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:36.000 Are we giving up because of bad circumstances? 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:39.000 Which is what this people had done. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:42.000 And remember His presence. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:48.000 The Old Testament, His presence was symbolized in His being in the temple that was built for Him. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:56.000 In the New Covenant, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and He dwells not just with us, 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:58.000 but in us, in the person of His Spirit. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:03.000 And may you meditate and think about that for a moment at the Lord's Supper. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:06.000 It's something we do physically. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:13.000 It sharpens our senses because we taste and we eat and we feel. 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:21.000 And as we do it rightfully, then also our spiritual senses should be sharpened as we confess our sins, 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:24.000 and as we stop running. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:30.000 You come into the Lord's tables about stop running away from God, stop avoiding Him, 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:35.000 face Him head on in fellowship and friendship, and in His great love. 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:41.000 So maybe today you and I need to fess up and just say sorry to God for running away 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:44.000 and turn back to Him for His promises and for His presence. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:51.000 And for all He teaches us from the difficult, hard passages of the Old Testament 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:53.000 which we've been looking at and continue to look at. 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:56.000 So let's pray briefly together. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:59.000 Lord God, help us to understand You better. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:01.000 Help us to love You more. 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Teach us from Your Word what it means. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:10.000 And help us to wrestle with the difficult passages and the difficult sections of Your Word. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.000 But You've given us them. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:17.000 They were there for Your people as they read them many years later. 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:23.000 They're also there as a living word for us to learn about God and to learn about ourselves 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:28.000 and to learn about salvation in Jesus Christ and all the promises that came true in Him. 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:31.000 May You be our King of Kings and our Lord of Lords, we ask. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:35.000 And bless us now as we participate in the Lord's Supper. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:40.000 Together we pray that it would be refreshing and renewing and reviving for us 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.000 and that we would just have a moment or two just to think about You. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:29:02.000 We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.