(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hi, how are you? Good. Hi, babe. Oh, you finally caught that hand. Hello. Oh, I love it. How are you? I love that pattern. Yeah. And I love that. Thank you. Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. I'm going to be in DC right now. I'm going to be in DC. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Would you mind if we look on this guy's back? That's Nick. Are you happy? Thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our services here at Faith Award Baptist Church. It's very nice to see you all here on this Wednesday night. Let's all find your seats now, grab a hymn, we'll begin with hymn number 232 this evening. Hymn 232, tell me the story of Jesus, hymn number 232, we'll begin on that first verse together. Tell me the story of Jesus, right on my heart, every word, hymn number 232, let's lift up our voices, together, march with us, hymn 232, sing it out together now. Tell me the story of Jesus, right on my heart, every word, tell me the story most precious, sweetest ever what's heard. Tell of the angels and chorus, sing as they welcome his word, glory to God in the highest, tell me the story of Jesus, right on my heart, every word, tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Asking alone in the desert, tell of the days that are past, how for since he was standing, yet was triumphant to pass. Tell of the years of his labor, shell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted, hopeless, rejected and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus, right on my heart, every word, tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the foster they nailed him, rising in anguish and pain. Tell of his brave word they laid him, tell how he liveth again. Love in their story so tender, clearer than ever I see. He stayed, let him leave, but he whispered, love paid the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, right on my heart, every word, tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Help us to be edified and encouraged as we sing out these hymns unto you and that you would also prepare our hearts for the preaching, help us to have open hearts and ears to receive the message tonight and that you would also fill pastor with your Holy Spirit and that he may preach with power and unction and that you would help the message be clear and that we will receive it and apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Hymn 237, 237, the cleansing wave. Hymn 237, we'll sing it out together on that verse. So now I see the crimson wave, the fountain deep and wide. Hymn 237, look it up on that verse now. Oh, now I see the crimson wave, the fountain deep and wide. Jesus, my Lord, my deed to save, points to his bloom inside. The cleansing stream I see, I see, I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me, it cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. I see the new creation rise. I hear the speaking blood. It speaks the lutein, it sure does. It speaks the cleansing blood. The cleansing stream I see, I see, I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me, it cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. I rise to walk in half the light above the world and sin. With our faith, pure and garment spot and Christ enthroned within. The cleansing stream I see, I see, I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me, it cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. Amazing grace is kept below to fill the bottom line. And Jesus, holy Jesus, go, high Jesus, crucify. The cleansing stream I see, I see, I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me, it cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. This time, we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bullet, then slip your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in chapter 17 of 2 Chronicles. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page are the birth announcements for the Brock family with baby Melody, the Anderson family with baby Dietrich, and the Fide family with baby Liam, all born on August 17th. And so congratulations to all those families. Myself included, of course, is my first grandchild. And so if you want to help out with any of these meal trains, you can speak to Mrs. Amanda Wright or Mrs. Sarah Ventura. On the back, we've got the note about the baby shower that is coming up this Sunday at 2 o'clock right here. All ladies and teenage girls are invited to attend. A catered lunch will be served. Please RSVP with Mrs. Jenny Akinosho. Thank you to those who participated in the small town soul-winning over the weekend. Six soul winners went up to Bryce, knocked every door, and had four saved. There's a Navajo trip coming up this Friday and Saturday, leaving in the morning on Friday, coming back Saturday evening. Speak to Brother Raymond Cooper for details. Also, speaking of this Friday, I'm going to be preaching out in Houston, Texas, this Friday at Pure Words Baptist Church. So if you know anybody in that area, spread the word on that. This Friday night, August 23rd, at Pure Words Baptist at 7 o'clock. Okay, so with that, that's it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul-winning from the past few days, going back to Monday. Anything from Monday? Okay. Okay. Alright, how about Tuesday? Okay. Okay. Anything else from Tuesday? Got it. Okay. Alright. And then today, I know we had four for the church van. How about anything outside of the van today? Anything besides the van? Alright, very good. Keep up the great work on soul-winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. Alright, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with Psalm 67. If you don't have it in this area, you can raise your hand and we'll get one to you. And we'll sing it on that verse together. God, be merciful unto us and bless you. God, be merciful unto us and bless us. And cause the space to shine upon us. And we may be known upon earth By saving up among all nations. And when people praise the old God Let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad And sing for joy For thou shalt judge the people Righteously and other The nations of honor The nations of utter freedom Let the people praise thee O God Let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad And sing for joy For thou shalt judge the people Righteously and other And by you, God shall bless us God shall bless us in all he hands On the earth shall fear him Let the people praise thee, O God Let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad And sing for joy Let's go on your hymnals now to hymn 456. 456. Hymn number 456, all your anxiety. Hymn number 456, lift it up together. Starting on that verse, Is there a heart bound by a star? 456. Lift up your voice on that verse. Lift up a heart, Lord, bound by sorrow. Lift up a life right down by the air. Come to the cross, each burden bearing. All your anxiety, leave it there. all your anxiety, all your fear. Pray to the mercy seen deep in there. Never a burden he cannot bear. Never a friend like Jesus. No other friend so keen to help you. No other friend so quick to hear. No other place to leave your burden. No other one to hear your prayer. All your anxiety, all your fear. Pray to the mercy seen deep in there. Never a burden he cannot bear. Never a friend like Jesus. Come and at once delay no longer. He is extremely kind and sweet. You need not fear a disappointment. You shall like peace and the mercy seen. All your anxiety, all your fear. Pray to the mercy seen deep in there. Never a burden he cannot bear. Never a friend like Jesus. That's a good thing tonight. Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 17. 2 Chronicles chapter number 17. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with Brother Hester as he reads. 2 Chronicles 17, starting in verse number 1. 2 Chronicles chapter 17, the Bible reads. And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his stead and strengthened himself against Israel. And he placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim which Asa, his father, had taken. And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David and sought not unto Balaam, but sought to the Lord God of his father and walked in his commandments and not after the doings of Israel. Therefore, the Lord established the kingdom in his hand and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presence. And he had riches and honor in abundance. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Moreover, he took away the high places and groves out of Judah. Also, in the third year of his reign, he sent to his princes even to Benhale and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathanael and to Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah. And with them he sent Levites, even Shemaiah and Netheniah and Zebediah and Asahel and Shemirmoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tobadonijah, Levites. And with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests. And they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them and went all about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat. And some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presence and tribute silver. And the Arabians brought him flocks, 7,700 rams and 7,700 he goats. And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly. And he built in Judah castles and cities of store. And he had much business in the cities of Judah. And the men of war, mighty men of valor, were in Jerusalem. And these are the numbers of them according to the house of their fathers. Of Judah, the captains of thousands, Adna the chief, and with him mighty men of valor 300,000. And next to him was Jehoannan the captain and with him 200 and four score thousand. And next to him was Amisiah the son of Zikri who willingly offered himself unto the Lord. And with him 200,000 mighty men of valor. And Benjamin Elieta a mighty man of valor and with him armed men with a bow and shield 200,000. And next to him was Jehoshaphat and with him 100 and four score thousand ready prepared for the war. These waited on the king beside those whom the king put in the fenced cities throughout all Judah. Father in heaven, thank you for your word which is eternal life, which is Jesus Christ. And thank you also for the earnest of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of your children. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson as he preaches your word with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit so that your word would sink into our ears, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. In chapter 17 here of 2 Chronicles we have the beginning of the reign of Jehoshaphat. And if you remember from last week we wrapped up with Asa. Several chapters were devoted to Asa. He was a great man. He was godly. He served the Lord. But if you remember at the end of his life he made this mistake of relying upon Syria when he had a problem with the northern kingdom of Israel. Remember the northern kingdom of Israel was threatening the southern kingdom of Judah. And so instead of trusting in the Lord, relying on God like he had done earlier with the horde of the Ethiopians that had come up, he instead makes a league with the king of Syria. The prophet comes and rebukes Asa for that. And instead of listening to the word of God and just making things right, he ends up throwing the guy in prison for preaching against him and oppressing the people. And then he gets diseased in his feet and dies. So even though he was a great man who reigned for about 40 years and did a lot of good things he ends up ending his life poorly unfortunately. Well now his son Jehoshaphat takes over and his son is an even better king than he is. He's even more godly and more righteous than Asa. Later on he's going to make some mistakes as well. But this is the beginning of his reign and it's all good here in chapter 17. Now the first thing I want to show you here is in verse number 1 the Bible reads And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead and strengthened himself against Israel. Now this is a good thing that he is strengthening himself against Israel. The first thing I want to point out is that he is strengthening himself against Israel as opposed to Asa who had relied upon the Syrians. God did not want the Israelites teamed up with Syria. Syria is a wicked nation that he did not want them united with and so Jehoshaphat is doing the right thing by just him and God fortifying the nation of Judah against Israel. Now the northern kingdom of Israel is his enemy. Now today people have this idea that God is always for Israel. We always need to support Israel. Israel is our best ally but here Israel is not the best ally. And Jehoshaphat as a godly righteous man is strengthening himself against Israel and the Bible is putting this in a good light. This is the right thing for him to do. In fact in a couple of chapters in chapter 19 verse 2 he gets rebuked for teaming up with Israel, for supporting Israel, for being allied with Israel. And so this garbage that just says well we are always supposed to be allied with Israel no matter what and they are God's chosen people no matter what and they can do no wrong. It's garbage. Even in the Old Testament the nation of Israel here is an enmity with God's people. How much more in the New Testament when the kingdom of God has been taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. It's funny this pastor Greg Locke who used to be, believe it or not, a King James independent fundamental Baptist kind of a guy. He was obviously, he went out from us because he was not of us. Right? If they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now he's a charismatic calling himself an apostle and teaching all these crazy wild things and I've watched this man's ministry over the last couple of decades because even when I was younger and Pastor Jimenez was younger 20 years ago in California we actually heard this guy preach when he used to be a fundamental Baptist. We didn't like him then and we don't like him now. The point is that this guy started out as a fundamental Baptist but this guy just does whatever it takes to be popular and I guess he's just now trying to be like these kind of tele-evangelists name it, claim it, you know, fly around in your own private jet type of preachers. And so this rotten heretic who committed adultery and ran off with the secretary, left his wife for the secretary keeps on pastoring, right? Explain that to me please. But this guy is now just on this rampage of just supporting Israel and just Israel's so wonderful and I saw this clip, Pastor Shelley played this clip for me where he's just saying, you know, the Bible just so many times it's just all through the Bible tells us that we've got to support the Jewish nation. We've got to support the Jewish nation. I'm thinking to myself like those words are never even found in the Bible once. First of all, if you just do a search on the word Jewish in the Bible you'll get one result. Avoid Jewish fables. It's literally the only result. But there's no Jewish nation or whatever. You know, you have in the New Testament constantly the Jews being contrasted with the Christians and the Jews are stirring up persecution against the Christians and, you know, you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen even as they have of the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and they persecuted us. And then it's funny how you have these preachers now saying that the end times is all about the Jews but then you go to the book of Revelation and you look for the word Jews in Revelation and you only find it in chapters 2 and 3 where it says they say they're Jews but they're not. They're the synagogue of Satan. And so people today, they're more emotional about their doctrine or maybe they're just getting their doctrine from talk radio or from the Republican party or something like that. We need to get our doctrine from the Bible. And you're never going to find in the Bible this idea of unconditional support for Israel, the Jewish nation, and we've got to support the Jews and everything like that. You know, the Apostle Paul said, you know, I profited in the Jews religion above many my own equals and my own nation and he said I counted all but dung. It's all garbage so I could win Christ. It's all about Jesus Christ and if the Jews don't have Jesus, the Jews have nothing. And so here we see that Jehoshaphat strengthened himself against Israel. Yet, he's right with God. Yet, God's blessing him. Yet, he's doing exactly what God wants him to do. Okay? So it's not about supporting Israel or not supporting Israel. It's about being on the Lord's side. And if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father. And so it's all about following Christ and supporting God's people which are Christians and anyone who does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be an anathema maranatha. That's what the Bible says. Sorry to confuse you with the Bible, but today a lot of Christians are more into talk radio than they're into listening to the Bible on audio. And you know, we need more Bible and less talk radio if we want to actually get our heads screwed on straight about these issues. And so the Bible says that Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead and strengthened himself against Israel. The two key points here are that he's not teaming up with Syria, but rather he's strengthening himself, relying on the Lord to defend him. Number two, he's against Israel because Israel's a wicked nation at this time, just like right now it's a wicked nation that we shouldn't support. You know, what about Israel's right to exist? But you know what, at the end of the day though, every tree that God the Father hasn't planted is just going to get plucked up anyway. So you just got to believe in Jesus. Yeah, but what about the politics? Well, you know, I'm not here to talk about politics. I don't care about politics. Certainly I don't care about politics of what's happening on the other side of the world. It doesn't concern me. But the Bible says in verse number two, he placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. So you notice that Jehoshaphat has a lot of strength. He is not only able to fortify his own territory with garrisons of troops, right? Garrisons are places where troops are permanently established. He's not only able to garrison throughout the land of Judah, but also Asa had actually invaded and taken over some of the cities of Ephraim. He's actually taken a little chunk out of that northern kingdom of Israel and he is able to fortify those as well. It says in verse three that the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David and sought not unto Balaam. What's interesting is that when you look at these Old Testament kings of Judah, God's not really looking for a whole lot from them. It's not like God's setting the bar super high and just expecting them to be sinlessly perfect. I mean, he just wants them to do some basic things like don't worship Satan. Can you do that? You know, he just wants them to worship the Lord, to follow the Bible, and you know, what does the Bible say? He has showed thee, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of thee? You know, it's like God's not asking that much but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly before God, right? The Bible says this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. His commandments aren't grievous. Folks, it isn't that hard to just do the basics of the Christian life. Now obviously there are things that are difficult and we want to strive to be the best we can possibly be and really live, you know, a really clean life and really win souls to Christ and really push ourselves to do the best we can for Christ and that's hard work. But you know what? Is it really that hard to just do the minimum though, at least to just not go all the way off the cliff? I mean, how hard is it to just drag yourself down to church and just fill a pew once a week, right? At least just a minimum of just dragging yourself down here, at least just not doing anything atrocious or heinous or despicable, but yet human beings are just sinful creatures and so it's just hard enough to get the kings of Judah to just do these basic things. But Jehoshaphat is doing it. He's walking in the first ways of his father David and he's not worshipping Satan. He's not seeking out Baelim. Now Baelim, we're familiar with Baal, of course, as being a false god, right? Well the I-M ending there is the Hebrew plural ending. So this is basically what we would say is Baels with an S on the end or something, right? Like one Baal, two Baels, three Baels. But the way it is in Hebrew is Ba'alim would be basically multiple Baels. So all surrounding Israel you have these various Baels, Baal Ekron and Baal Zebub where we get the word Beelzebub, right? Because it's Satan. The Bible says the things which the Gentiles offer and sacrifice unto idols, they sacrifice unto devils and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. And so these Beelzebub are literally demons or devils and all polytheistic religions are worshipping demons. Whether it's Hinduism, whether it's the Scandinavian gods or the Greek gods or whatever, pantheistic, pagan, polytheistic religions, the things that they're offering and sacrifice unto idols, they sacrifice to devils. And you know, don't be fooled by the lies of Buddhism because Buddhism will try to act like, oh we're, you know, we're for people who just want to be spiritual but they don't necessarily believe in God and there's no faith required and all this stuff. And Buddhism tries to suck in the agnostics of this world and tries to get them to think that it's not about worshipping a deity. And so, you know, the self-centered, polytheistic Americans who kind of think they're God, they're kind of like, ooh no God, no creator God, this is my kind of religion. And they get sucked into this, but you know, isn't it funny that if we go to a let's say Chinese restaurant or a Thai restaurant or Japanese restaurant or whatever and it's a Buddhist type establishment, isn't it funny there are going to be little idols and they're serving those idols, they're feeding them, I mean you know, I'm not going to name the name of a certain restaurant, but everybody knows what I'm talking about. And there's an idol there and there's always this like decaying food because the idol can't eat. And they have mouths but they eat not. You know, they have eyes and they see not. And the food is there. So, you know, funny, if you're not worshipping false gods, why are you giving food to a piece of metal? And guess what, as you get into Buddhism and you get deeper into it, you start communicating with these ascended masters and these bodhisattvas and these other Buddhas and things and you start praying to them and communicating with them and in essence worshipping them. And guess what that is, is worshipping devils, is what it is. So, you know, Buddhism might try to brand itself in America as something other than what it is, but what it actually ends up being is worship of idols and worship of demons, you know. And sometimes, oh, we're praying to our ancestors and you know what, that's called necromancy. Communicating with the dead and praying to dead people and this is not biblical, it isn't right, there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And so Buddhism is satanic, Hinduism is satanic, you know, down the list of all these false religions. Balaam is referring to devils. He didn't seek them but he sought to, verse 4, the Lord God of his father and walked in his commandments and not after the doings of Israel. So notice it says, look, this guy's following God's commandments, he's not being like Israel. He's strengthened himself against Israel and he's not acting like Israel and Israel is his enemy. He even took a little chunk out of Israel's territory, their little land that, you know, well, but that's because he's Judah or whatever. But at the end of the day, my friend, just because you call a country Israel, just because it has the name Israel does not mean that they are the people of God or that they're right with God. That's the moral of the story here, my friend. And of course, yeah, well, I don't want to spend too much time on that. But it says that he walked in God's commandments, not after the doings of Israel. Therefore, the Lord established the kingdom in his hand and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presence and he had riches and honor and abundance. So why is this guy being blessed by God? Because he's walking in the first ways of his father David. He's not seeking after demons, Balaam, right? And because of the fact that he's walking in the commandments of God and he's not following Israel. Now, look, we can do the same thing in our lives, right? If we want to be blessed by God, the reason these Old Testament scriptures are here is not just so that we can read history about the past and think it's interesting. The Book of Second Chronicles is designed for devotional use. It's for us to read it and be admonished by it, right? And to be instructed in righteousness, how to live the life of our lives. And so as we read this, we should be thinking about ourselves and saying, okay, you know, we think about maybe Christian heroes in our lives or maybe parents or grandparents or people in our lives that were godly people. For Jehoshaphat, this is David, right? His great-great-grandpa David is this godly role model and he's following in those footsteps of David. Now, notice it says the first ways to love his father David because, of course, toward the end of his life, David made some serious mistakes and committed some big sins and everything like that. And here's the thing, sometimes some of our role models and people that we look to, maybe they might, toward the end of their life, change or do something foolish or mess up. It doesn't change the fact that what they did earlier in life was right, okay? People are going to let you down in life. Okay? Your role models will let you down. And a lot of people will use this as an excuse not to serve God because, oh, I had this pastor, I had this church, and then, you know, he ended up going off the deep end and so that's why I'm not in church, that's why I'm not serving God. That's a lame excuse because we're supposed to be looking unto Jesus. Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. He's the beginning and the end. He's the first and the last. And so he never changes. God forbid that I would ever let you down. God forbid that I will become a bad role model for you or something like that. But here's the thing, even if I were to somehow change or get backslidden or quit or do something bad, you know what? At the end of the day, though, everything that I preach from the Bible is still true. Now, with the help of God, I want to be preaching ten years from now, twenty years from now, I want to be preaching the truth in my nineties, I want to finish my course and keep the faith and be someone who does not let you down. I don't plan to let you down. I want to stay faithful unto Christ until the bitter end. That's what I believe with God's help that I'm going to do. But at the end of the day, though, if anybody lets you down, whether it's your parents or a pastor, grandparents, some other preacher that you look to or listen to online or something like that, realize that that does not necessarily negate whatever they did or taught before in the past. It's not like, oh, well, this pastor turned into a bozo. That means everything that he preached wasn't right. Well, no, because actually there are a lot of great men of God who've preached a lot of good things that were correct and then they ended up stumbling or failing later in life. I mean, that's a story that we see a lot in 2 Chronicles, in fact, of guys like Asa who are doing it right, and then they make mistakes later in life. And so just because David commits adultery with Bathsheba and murders Uriah, I mean, those are horrible sins, but it doesn't change the fact that David had done right, preached right, and been a godly example. You know, he's human, he messed up, he ruined his life at the end, but that doesn't change the past truth that he stood for. So just because you were part of some Baptist church that went sideways, don't ever let that be an excuse for why you're not serving God now. Because that is not an excuse. You should have already realized that people are fallible, people are weak and made of flesh, and they're going to make mistakes, they're going to screw up, but God never changes, and we need to continue serving God. And look, I grew up in fundamental Baptist churches, and you know what? We were constantly being let down by the pastors and the churches that we went to. And we were part of churches that failed. But you know what? Our family kept serving God. Even though the churches around us failed, we didn't quit. We didn't stop going to church. We didn't stop serving God. You know, for example, we went to one church that was running several hundred people, King James, the whole thing, and it was a great church, and they ended up just running the thing into the ground, and the church got to the point where it literally moved from like a giant building where they were running several hundred. They moved to like a tiny little storefront, took Baptist off the name. I mean, they went from running like 300 to 30, and they're not Baptist anymore. I mean, just ran it into the ground, just absolutely ran the thing into the ground. Okay? So that's why I'm not serving God. You know, because of that. No. And you know what? I still learned great things at that church. I'm still thankful for the role that that church played in my life, because just because human beings made stupid decisions and failed, that doesn't change the truth of God's word that is preached by pastors that are human and that are not perfect. At the end of the day, though, it's the word of God that is the basis for our faith. I mean, you don't believe things just because you heard it from a pastor anyway. You believe it because it's in the Bible. I learned good stuff at that church that was run into the ground. But yet, why do I still believe those things? Because they're in the Bible. You know, and at the end of the day, truth is truth. It doesn't matter who's saying it. And so we don't want to let people's later in life failures mean that we can't continue in the precepts and the things that they taught us. And you know, it's really disappointing when you'll learn something from someone and then you stand on that truth and then that person forsakes the truth that they taught you and you're like, wait a minute, you taught me this. You know, you're the one who taught me that drinking is wrong and now you're drinking. You know, what's going on? You know, you got me on the King James. Now you're not King James. Like, what is that? Right? It can be really disappointing. But that's life. You keep going, you keep serving God. And you know, the Bible is still invoking David as a great role model. But it's the first ways of David. You know, because obviously he messed up at the end, yet today people are constantly naming their kid David. You know, because even though he did screw up at the end, he was repentant about it and you know, he still loved God and so forth all the way to the end. So the Bible says that he's being blessed by God because he walked in the first ways of his father David. He didn't seek after Balaam and he's keeping the commandments of God. This is how you're going to be blessed in life, right? Follow the godly Christian role models that God has given you. Follow God's commandments. The path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience. That's what the Bible teaches. And it says in verse number six, his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. Moreover, he took away the places and groves out of Judah. This is something that very few kings ever do. Usually the Bible is constantly telling us, hey, this guy was a really good king. He did what was right on the side of the Lord, but he didn't get rid of the groves and the high places, but nevertheless his heart was perfect before the Lord is God. Usually the Bible is kind of giving this as the one thing that they got wrong, even though it was a good guy he got this one thing wrong. You know, Jehoshaphat is taking it up a notch. He's even getting rid of the groves and the high places. I mean, he's strictly following the word of God and really doing things right. And so he's being supremely blessed by God as a result. It says in verse seven, also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, even to Benhail and to Obadiah and to Zechariah and to Nethaneel and to Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah. And with them he sent Levites, even Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebediah and Asahel and Shemeremoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tobadonijah, Levites, and with them Elishama and Jehoram priests. Now why do we care about these people's names? Why do we have these kind of lists of names? One of the reasons why is because the Bible is not a fairy tale. You know, so part of this is just to show the historicity of the Bible. You know, lest you be tempted to think this is all figurative. It's all metaphor. It's fiction. You know, it's religious fiction to teach us lessons about morality, right? That's what some people think. They think the Bible is just this, you know, wonderful book of myths to tell us how to live our lives, right? But is that what the Bible is? No. This is a historical book. This is talking about things that really happen. And so listing the names of different government officials and leaders and Levites and priests at that time is showing the genre of the book here that this is a historical book. And this is not a parable. This isn't Jesus just telling a story about a certain man who had two sons and just giving a fictional story to give a moral lesson. Of course, there are fictional stories like that in the Bible where Jesus just tells a parable about a man who has two sons, you know, and it's just a parable, right? But that's not what this is. This is history. And so we need to make sure that we rightly divide the word of truth and understand that. And by giving us the names of these people, it actually shows us what we're reading here is real life history that actually happened. And so the Bible lists these different Levites that he sent. And look what it says in verse number nine. They taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them and went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. Now we typically think of the Levites as being people who work in the house of God and there's a sacrificial system that's going on. And so they're doing things like taking care of the facilities when they have the tabernacle. They're taking care of the tabernacle, later the temple. They're doing things like animal sacrifices and dealing with animals and dealing with all the food and the supplies and just kind of menial, everyday stuff about running the temple or the tabernacle or the sacrificial system and things like that. But also, according to the Bible, they have a teaching role to also teach the Bible. And so it says that Jehoshaphat is basically sending these Levites to teach the Bible. And it says in verse nine, they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them and went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. So they make a bunch of copies of the Bible, right? The Bible that they had back then, the book of the law, whatever exactly that entailed, exactly which portion of the Bible or what that included. It's impossible to say how much or how little of the Bible that was, but it doesn't matter. They had the word of God, the law of the Lord, and they're going throughout all the cities of Judah teaching the people, right? And this is one of the roles that the Levites have. Now flip over to Malachi chapter two. Keep your finger there in 2 Chronicles. Let's look at Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. It's right before Matthew. Look at Malachi chapter two, and we'll see a little bit more about this because the Bible doesn't necessarily always talk a lot about this or emphasize this, that the Levites had this role of teaching and preaching the Bible, but it is part of what they did and part of their role. The Bible says in Malachi chapter number two in verse number four, ye shall know that I've sent this commandment unto you that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way, you've caused many to stumble at the law, you've corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. So here we see that the priests and the Levites are supposed to preach the Bible. People are supposed to seek the law at his mouth, basically going to him and saying, what does the Bible say? They're supposed to explain to me what the Bible says about this, or the other, and that he is supposed to be the messenger of the Lord of hosts, bringing God's message to the people. Now obviously this is very similar to today what we have with pastors, teachers, evangelists in the local church, bringing God's message, being the messenger of the Lord of hosts. We seek God's word, or God's law, or the Bible at the mouth of preachers, and it's their job to teach the people. These people of course are being rebuked in verse number 8 because it says you've departed out of the way, you've caused many to stumble at the law, you've corrupted the covenant of Levi, and so forth. You should be teaching the Bible, you should be the messenger of the Lord of hosts, but you're actually being a stumbling block and you're not being helpful. And so we see here in 2 Chronicles chapter 17 that the Levites are being sent out throughout all the towns and villages to teach the people the word of God, right? Because Jehoshaphat knows that if his kingdom is going to succeed the people need to be worshipping God. And it's not just enough for just the leader to be worshipping God, we've got to get the people on board. You know it's great when you have a church that has a pastor that loves God and is serving God and following the Bible, but you know what? It doesn't really do a lot of good if he's not teaching that and if the people are on a totally different program. And I remember there were some times when we were growing up where we would go to a church where the pastor was really cool and the pastor was right with God but then, you know, the church was not on board. The church was on a totally different program. People in the pew had totally different beliefs. You know it's one thing for the church to be King James, but I remember sometimes visiting churches when I was a kid when we were looking for a new church and we'd go to a church that was supposedly King James and then you'd just walk in and you'd kind of just be looking around at people's Bibles and this was like one of the things that my parents said was like, what Bibles are people using? Because, yeah, the church is King James but when you just see just NIV, New America Standard, ESV, then it makes you wonder, is this being taught? Right? And I've walked into churches that were supposedly King James and you just it's just the new King James everywhere and the ESV and NIV and you ask the pastor like, hey, what's going on? Oh, well, you know, I've only been here a couple years I'm kind of working with the people and whatever, but it's like, you know, if you walked around Faithful Word, you're not going to find the NIV. You know, I mean, maybe there's one visitor here right now with an NIV or something but the bottom line is, if somebody's got an NIV, they're probably a visitor. Somebody's got the ESV, it's their first time here. And if you walked around and looked at the Bible, it's going to be 99% King James maybe even 100% King James. Why is that? It's not because we have some guy at the door like a bouncer. Instead of checking IDs, he's checking your Bible and making sure you don't have the NIV or something. He's like, I could spot a fake one of these a mile away, man. You know, he says, spot fake IDs, he spot fake Bibles. No, it's because of the fact that people here not only have a King James, if you walked around and just started asking people, they could tell you why they're King James. They could explain to you why it's important to have the King James, why they don't want to read the NIV, why they don't want the ESV. They understand because they've been taught. There are churches where you can go around talking to people about the Gospel and you get all different answers. What does that tell you? The Gospel is not being clearly taught from the pulpit. When you're getting a whole bunch of different answers from the pew, doctrine's not being clearly taught. Okay. Obviously, we're not all going to agree on everything. Obviously, we're all at different stages of learning the Bible, but when it comes to key things and essentials, we need to all be on the same page in order for us to have unity as the body of Christ here. Okay. And that's what Jehoshaphat understood that the whole nation needed to be on the same page, not just worshipping the Lord and having the right name that they're worshipping, but also to actually know what the Bible says. And so he's sending preachers to actually teach people the specifics of what the Bible says. And this is what we're trying to do in church every week, getting up Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night in all our churches across America as Christians. What are we trying to do? We're trying to teach people the Bible so we can have unity rallying around truth, right? The fundamental truths of the Bible are something that we should all understand, be aware of. First of all, make sure we even have the right Bible and not one of these counterfeit Bibles, but also knowing what the Bible says, what salvation is, doctrines about the Trinity, doctrines about eternal security, the believer. You know, we need to know where we stand on things, okay? And be on the same page. And this is why I don't preach salvation sermons every Sunday. Some churches, you go every Sunday morning is just salvation every Sunday morning. It's almost the same sermon every Sunday morning, you know? I've been to a church where the first like 10 or 15 minutes of the sermon would be different every week, but then it would always turn into just a gospel sermon, and so like 75 to 80 percent of the sermon every Sunday morning was identical. And it was super boring hearing the same sermon, and then people would leave the church and say they're not being fed, because they're not being fed, right? And so we need to teach the entire Bible so that we can all be thoroughly furnished unto all good works, so that we can all be equipped for the battle that lays before us. And so Jehoshaphat, he gets that. He's sending people out throughout all the cities of Judah, teaching the people. We as Christians need to teach God's people the Bible. And here's the thing. Soul winning is important. We all know that. Okay? But you know what else is important? Teaching the Bible to people that are already saved. And so that's another ministry right there. Now obviously in our church we want to make sure that there's actually some meat on the bone when it comes to the Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night sermon. That actually something is being taught from Scripture that's substantial. And that people are learning a well-rounded view of what the Scripture teaches. But you know what? Even in your personal life, you may know Christians that are in churches where they're not being fed spiritually, where they're not being taught much Bible. You know, there's nothing wrong with you teaching those people some fundamentals of the faith, even if they're already saved, not just like, oh, you're saved, my work here is done. There's something to be said for confirming the souls of the saints. And you know, there are a lot of times I run into people that are already saved, but they're not super solid on the Gospel. They're a little shaky on it. They're not good at articulating it. And you know, if you can take somebody who's already saved and really shore them up on the Gospel and really strengthen them and firm them up on it and make it really clear and firm and solid in their mind, you've accomplished something of value. You know, if I'm out soul-winning and somebody's already saved, but they're shaky or sketchy on it, and I go through and really firm them up on it, I feel like I've accomplished something good. I'm thinking like, you know what, now this person is equipped to share their faith with someone else. Now that they're more solid on it and better at articulating it, because I taught them the doctrine. There are lots of other things that you can teach. And you know, I remember just when I had a secular job, my co-workers sometimes would be Christians that were already saved, and so I would try to get them on reading the Bible cover to cover, because they weren't reading the Bible cover to cover. And I would try to encourage them. I'd be giving them a little chart and saying, hey man, you're a Christian, you're saved, have you ever thought about reading the Bible cover to cover? Here's a little chart. You know, it's a great experience and it's something that most Christians don't do. And we might take that for granted at Faith Forward Baptist Church, but to a lot of people, this is kind of a revelation. You know, it's like, what a concept, reading the whole thing cover to cover. And it's not really, but it's true that Christians go decades without reading it cover to cover. Because they just do a little devotion, they do a little, you know, verse here, verse there, but the concept of reading it cover to cover is missing today in a lot of churches. And so if you can take your co-worker, or your classmate at school, or your neighbor, or whatever that's already saved, and get them reading the Bible cover to cover, you've accomplished something good. You know, or teach them about soul winning, or teach them about, you know, maybe they're messed up on another version of the Bible, get them on the King James, or whatever. Whatever you can do to teach them anything about the Bible, to confirm them, to disciple them, to help them grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, do it! That's part of the Great Commission. Because the Great Commission is obviously go preach the gospel to every creature, right? But it's also to baptize them, and it's also to teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. So the Great Commission is getting people saved, baptized, and teaching them the entire Bible. So you are fulfilling the Great Commission by teaching people the Bible, even if they're already saved. And obviously, we never want to stop getting people saved. We always want to be getting people saved. We don't want to just be like, well, I don't get people saved, you know, I just do the discipleship part. I let other people do the soul winning, and then I'll just kind of, I just kind of finish people off. I'm like, I'm like that, that cattle ranch where they just finish them off, or whatever. What's it called? The feedlot, or whatever, you know, where we just kind of finish off the steers, or whatever. No, my friend, we need to all be doing the whole job, because the Bible says, he that planteth and he that watereth are one. You know, we're all planting seeds, we're all watering, we're all soul winning, and we should all be discipling. We should all be teaching people that are already saved as well. It's not an either or. We should all be doing all of the Great Commission, right? We just go out into the world, and we run into people, and whatever their needs are, that's what we fill. So, you know, if they're unsaved, we give them the gospel. If they're saved, we teach them more. We be a good influence on them. We teach them the next thing. And that's part of the process. That's part of the program. So, don't feel like, well, it's just only about getting people saved. Like, oh, you're saved? Well, I'm done. No, you know, my work here is done, because you're saved. Well, you know, maybe you do have some work to do in that person's life anyway. So, the Bible says they taught in Judah, verse 9, and had the book of the law of the Lord with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people. Notice, they're not just vaguely teaching them, you know, to worship the Lord. They got the Bible with them so that they can actually open the Bible and give it to them verbatim, word for word, and teach them directly out of the Bible. It says in verse 10, the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat. So, Jehoshaphat is being blessed in every way. He has wealth and power and abundance, he has his territory secure, he has a very strong military, he's strengthened against Israel, he doesn't have to worry about that threat, and all the other surrounding nations are afraid to mess with him. Why are they afraid to mess with him? Because God has put the fear of God upon them, and it's the Lord who has done that. And by the way, the Bible says that when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Look what the Bible says in verse 11, also some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents and tribute silver. I mean, these are people that are usually not buddies with Israel. Philistines are their traditional enemies, and yet even some of the Philistines are bringing Jehoshaphat presents and tribute silver and the Arabians brought him flocks, 7,700 rams, 7,700 he goats, Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly and he built in Judah castles and cities of store and he had much business in the cities of Judah, and the men of war, mighty men of valor, were in Jerusalem. And then it just goes into this great big catalog of all the hundreds of thousands of troops and soldiers that he has at his disposal. I mean, this man is being mightily blessed by God. Okay? Look, you can also be mightily blessed by God. It doesn't mean you're not going to have any problems. Everybody's going to go through trials, tribulations, hard times, but if you want the blessing of God in your life, you've got to be like Jehoshaphat, right? This story is an example for us to follow so that we can understand what it means to live right and what it means to be blessed by God. Okay? What is it? It comes down to walking in the ways of godly Christians that have gone before us. Okay? It has to do with not seeking after that which is satanic. Not getting into the transcendental meditation and the new age satanic weirdo stuff, right? It has to do with just following Christ, following the Lord, following the Bible, keeping God's commandments. It's not complicated, right? Keep God's commandments and then teach other people. And when God sees you teaching other people, he sees you winning souls to Christ, he sees you teaching people that are already saved to be better Christians, turning many people to righteousness, well then he blesses you abundantly and he can even make your enemies be at peace with you and give you prosperity and safety. Again, not saying nothing bad's ever going to happen, but you're going to be mightily blessed by God. That's what we all want. We all want to be blessed. We all want to prosper. We all want to succeed in life. It's not a mystery how to get there. You get there by obeying and serving God. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for the example of Jehoshaphat. Help us to follow his godly example both by doing the right things ourselves and also by teaching other people and guiding other people in the way of righteousness. Getting the lost saved and getting people that are saved closer and being a positive influence, a godly influence, bringing them closer to you as opposed to being a stumbling block and pushing them away from a godly life. Lord, help us to be the best Christians that we can possibly be and I pray that you would bless us as we serve you and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. If you did the psalm, look for Isn't He Wonderful? It's 468. We'll sing it twice and be dismissed. Isn't He Wonderful? 468. Isn't He Wonderful? Isn't Jesus, my Lord, Wonderful! Christ at sea is a bird It's recorded in the Word Isn't Jesus, my Lord, Wonderful! Isn't He Wonderful?