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Amen. Second Chronicles chapter number 16, we're going to look at this story this morning and see what we can take from it. In Second Chronicles chapter 16, we see a story of Asa, who is one of the first kings of Judah. Now you have to remember that at this point in the Bible, the kingdoms have already split. So you've had Jeroboam take the northern kingdom of Israel a couple of kings ago, and then you had the lower kingdom of Judah split off with Rehoboam, who was Solomon's son. And from the very beginning, just to give you some context before we get into this story this morning, from the very beginning, Israel went bad, went evil right away. The northern kingdom, Jeroboam set up idols in two cities so the people would worship idols and not go to Jerusalem. He was paranoid about that. So the kings of Israel are generally evil kings. But there's many kings of Judah who you'll see in the Bible that do right in the sight of the Lord, that do the right thing. And of course, all the kings of Judah, remember, are always sons of sons and sons. There's only one dynasty that rules Judah. That's to fulfill the messianic promise that God gave to David. So all that to say this, Judah generally had some good kings. Israel basically had no good kings. And these two nations, as they split, were at war from the very beginning of the split. So we're seeing here a war between Israel and the lower kingdom of Judah. But even back in Abijah's day, which was the son of Rehoboam, the king of Judah, even from the very first kings of Judah and Israel, Abijah was at war with Jeroboam, the first king of Israel. So Abijah was the king of Judah and Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, of course. And remember, there was this very famous battle where literally 500,000 people were killed. I mean, if you think about that, half a million people in one battle, you know, with hand-to-hand combat, that just shows you, you know, the strife that exists between these two nations. And we see that continuing here in 2 Chronicles chapter 16. So we're looking at King Asa this morning. King Asa, we don't talk a lot about King Asa, but maybe we should talk about him. He was a king that reigned for 41 years. That is a long time for a king to reign. Saul reigned 40, David reigned 40, Solomon reigned 40, but King Asa reigned 41 years. And he was a good king. He was generally considered a very good king. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter number 16, and let's look at this story here in the Bible. But Asa was a good king. He did very good things. He was considered a good thing. But in the 30th and 6th year, meaning towards the very end of his reign, something significant happens here in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 that I'm going to show you this morning. This event echoes for generations in Asa's family, and that's what I want to show you this morning. Look at verse number 1 of 2 Chronicles chapter 16. In the 6th and 30th year of the reign of Asa, Basha, now it would be nice if there was a, you have to understand that sentence right there. So it's talking about in the reign of Asa, and this is kind of something you need to slow down when you read the history books if you want to know who's ruling at what time. You know, it's telling you who's ruling Judah here in what year, and then it's telling you who's also ruling Israel. So you see here, the reign of Asa, Basha, king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. So this Ramah was this encampment, this siege against Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus. So he's under siege in Judah by Basha, king of Israel, and he hires, he goes and he sends money to the king of Syria to help him out. Look at verse number three. He said, saying, there is a league between me and thee, and there was between my father and thy father. Behold, I have sent thee silver and gold. Go break thy league with Basha, king of Israel, that he may depart from me. So Syria was already in league with Israel at this time, and Asa basically pays him off to break his league. So I mean, it just goes to show you like what kind of person is this king of Syria where he can literally be bought. So that's what Asa is doing is he's buying the loyalty of one of the allies of the person of the nation that is conducting a siege against him at this time. Look at verse number four. And Ben-Hadad, this is the king of Syria, hearkened unto Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. So he just flips on money there. He's like, oh, he paid me more. We'll just turn against our allies. And they smote Ijon and Dan and Abemalayim, the store cities of Neftali. So basically what he does is he turns on Israel and he goes and he attacks the northern cities in Israel. So Basha at this point has to be like, he's attacking the south. He's attacking Judah and building this major encampment to basically what is he doing? He's cutting off the supply lines to Judah to try to starve them out, so to speak. It's a major siege that's lasting a long time. And then what happens is Asa buys off his allies and has his allies attack the northern part of Israel. So then Basha is sitting there going, he's got to go and defend his cities in the north and he has to abandon Rama. So look, it works from a military strategy perspective, but that's not the problem that Asa runs into. And it came to pass when Basha heard it that he left off building of Rama and let his work cease. So he quits and he has to go and defend his own country at that point. Then Asa took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Rama and the timber thereof wherewith Basha was building and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah. So he takes all these materials that this siege was using and he builds these defensive cities. Look at verse number seven. So I mean from a military tactic perspective and even from a political perspective, you can kind of look at Asa here and you're like, this seems to make a lot of sense what he did here. He went and he pulled a nice little chess move against Basha here and he saved himself. But look at verse number seven. And that's many times, that's what I want to show you this morning. Many times that's how we think. We think, and I use this word a lot, we think pragmatically. We think pragmatically. We think, okay, this makes sense if I would do this. But again, for the Christian, the rules are different. For the Christian, the rules are different. Look at verse number seven. Now the prophet comes in, now the man of God comes in to basically ruin everyone's day. Look at verse number seven. And at that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said unto him, because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and have not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore as the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen? These are wars that he had earlier. Because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand. So Hanani the seer is basically telling Asa, look, God has delivered you from a major army before, why didn't you go to the Lord instead of to the king of Syria? Look at verse number nine. It says, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. He's saying, there's nothing that happens that God does not see. To show himself strong in the behalf of them, whose heart is perfect towards him. Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. So Hanani the seer basically comes and he says, and look, Asa doesn't like that, he doesn't respond well to that, and he goes after, you know, the prophet that told them the truth, but basically this prophet is saying, you should have relied on the Lord and not the godless to save you. The Lord has saved you before, and he would have saved you this time if only you were relied on him instead of this worldly army that you went and hired to save you from Basha. Now turn to Joshua chapter 11, turn to Joshua chapter 11. So the rules are different for God's people, is what the Bible is showing us here. It doesn't matter if it was pragmatic. It's Asa should have relied on the Lord, and that is the mistake that Asa made at the very end of his reign. I mean, he's in the 36th year of a 41-year reign, and he relies, he makes this mistake. But now look, enemies of the Lord, enemies of God's people, our enemies as Christians, they have different rules. They do not have this rule that we have, and you say, well, it's not fair. You're right it's not fair, it's not fair for them. Look at verse number one of Joshua chapter number 11, but there are times when we will think it's not fair, everybody's against me because I'm a Christian. Well, yes, everyone is against you because the rules are different for the enemies of the Lord. The rules are different for you as a Christian. You are not to go into league with the world. We are to be separate. Look at Joshua chapter 11 and verse number one. So this is a story of, Joshua, of course, is a story of the conquest of the promised land. God is just winning these great victories as they go in and they clear out all these people out of the land that God has given them. Look at verse number one of Joshua chapter 11. Well, all these kings and all these nations, they hear about these battles that are being won by the children of Israel, and they go and they make an alliance together. Look at verse number one. The Bible says, and it came to pass, Joshua 11 one, it came to pass when Jabin, king of Hazor, had heard those things. What did he hear? He hears that the children of Israel have taken down Jericho, have taken down all these places, and he sent to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Ashraf, and to the kings that were in the north of the mountains, the plains south of Chittoroth, and in the valley, in the borders of Dor on the west. They are going out and they are sending out all these emissaries and bringing these kings together. And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and to the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. All of these pagan nations, by the way, they're all different types of pagan nations. They are all coming together against the children of Israel as they invade the Promised Land, as they cross the Jordan River. Look at verse number four. And they went out, and all their hosts with them, all their armies with them, that's what a host means, much people, even as the sand that is upon the seashore and multitude, with horses and chariots, very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Meram, what, to fight against Israel. This is a really great end times analogy right here, is all these kings and all these heathens are getting together throughout all this land to fight against God's people. The very same thing is going to happen on a global scale in the end times. I don't want to give away everything from tonight. But the point is this, turn to Isaiah chapter 31. Turn to Isaiah chapter 31. Isaiah chapter 31, look at verse number one. The point is this, the rules are different for God's people. Isaiah chapter 31, look at verse number one. The Bible says this, it says, woe unto them that go down to Egypt for help. Egypt is an analogy here of going to the world and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong. But they look not unto the holy one of Israel, neither seek the Lord. So the Bible here is very clearly saying, do not go to the world for help. Do not ally with the world. You need us as Christians, we need to seek the Lord and we need to stay with the Lord. So that's the first lesson this morning is go not to the world. Go not to the world. So look, as our culture today, I mean, forget end times prophecy, we'll apply this to that tonight, but even today, even today as our culture and the world gets crazier and crazier and crazier out there, we need to remember that we are to go not to the world. You say, well, of course I'm not going to go to the world, pastor, I'm not going to go out because they're all nuts out there. But here's the thing, you will see people out there in the world fighting battles or fighting against things and they, you know, you may see people that you partially agree with fighting battles that you agree with what they're fighting in that area. But the point is, we are not to ally with the world. Even when we see people that we may agree with, I mean, there's plenty of examples of this just today. I mean, if you look at just like the anti-war protests going on at the colleges, for example, there's things that I agree with there. Look, I agree. I mean, I even said this, we were many weeks ago, somebody when the war in Gaza first broke out, many weeks ago at work, somebody brought this up and I never do this type of thing at work, but we're in a room full of people and somebody thought, whoa, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? I said, basically what I said was, I think that we all should be able to agree that, you know, dropping bombs on women and children is not correct. Can we start there? But you know, the point is, I agree that just slaughtering civilians to, you know, slaughtering 3,000 civilians to get one guy or whatever is not morally right. I agree with that. We should all be able to agree on that. We all don't agree on that. But the point is there are things there that are sparking some of these protests that, you know, that I would agree with, that are biblical. But the point is this, there's a lot of radical ideologies that go along with some of those crowds in those universities. There's a lot of radical, wicked ideologies that come with that group. We would never want to ally with that group because we agree on one premise of why they are there. I mean, there's radical ideologies like just, you know, radical, radical communist and, you know, horrible ideologies that come along with groups of people like that. We would never want to ally with that, even though there may be one aspect of a certain group of people that we agree with. And there's tons of these. I mean, you can just go off on all these, I mean, you can just go look at people that are anti-wokeism and all this stuff and, yeah, we disagree with all the perversion and all the different things that are being pushed today. But we would never ally with those things because none of those specific groups are coming to the proper conclusions on everything, on anything, really. I mean, you look at all these people, I mean, look, Christians in general don't even understand Christianity today is the problem. People that think they're Christians today, they're not even saved, they have no idea what the Bible says, they're completely lost. This is one of the reasons that I would never want a violent civil war in this country. I know you get a, you know, they say there's a lot of people talking about this and whatever. I would never want that because who in the world would end up in charge? Like, there's nobody that's right. That's why, you know, the Christians, even since the foundation of this country, the Bible-believing Baptists were like, we don't want anything to do with whatever you're doing in politics there. We'll be over here just, you know, preaching the gospel. That's what we'll be doing. Please don't put us in jail. That's basically the Bible-believing Christian in America since the foundation. So look, you're going to see, crazier the world gets, the more clowny clown world gets, you're going to see people pointing out obvious logical inconsistencies with that. But that doesn't mean that we should ally with those groups of people. Definitely not. I mean, you say, well, pastor, you know, isn't the enemy of my enemy my friend? But here's the problem. Well, that might be a logical thing to say, and it's a pragmatic thing to say. And it's exactly what Asa did. Asa is like, you know what? I'm going to make this enemy, I'm going to make this enemy an enemy of my enemy. And I can do that through money, and then he will become my friend. But the problem with the enemy of my enemy is my friend philosophy is Sun Tzu said that, it's not Jesus Christ. It's not biblical. It is not biblical for the Christian. It's worldly. It's a worldly philosophy. It does not apply, and the Bible is specifically teaching against that. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7. You say, but doesn't it make sense though? Didn't what Asa do work? Wasn't it pragmatic? Didn't it work? Wasn't it correct? I mean, if there's people fighting evil, why wouldn't you help them? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 and look at verse number 1. The Bible tells us why. The Bible tells us why. God tells us why. He doesn't want to have God's people, Christians, allying with, yoking up with anyone that is in the world that is a worldly person. Look at verse number 1 of Deuteronomy chapter 7. It says, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land where thou goest to possess it and cast out many nations before thee. Look at these. These are the same people that are all yoking up against the Israelites. The Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. It says when you go and you fight these people and you take their land, it says when the Lord God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. You shall not make any deals with them, even though they did make deals with them. You shall make no deals with them at all, neither shall thou make marriages with them. I love verse number 2 and verse number 3 because it shows how God always just gives us plan B, plan C, plan D, plan E, plan F, all the way to the end and just continues saying, why, if they utterly destroyed them, would he have to tell them to not make marriages with them? Think about that for a second. They're all utterly destroyed. It's almost like God knew they would not utterly destroy them. So he's giving them, hey, plan B, hey, here's why. You know, the Bible isn't this book where God just says, hey, do this. And we're like, why? And he's like, just do it. I'm not telling you why. No, he tells us why. He tells us why. He gives us examples. That's why we see the history of the kings, the history of the prophets, the histories in the Bible. And so we know, like, here's what happens when you don't listen to what God says. Here's what happens when men go against the word of God. They're not in the land anymore. They get kicked out of the land. Everything goes wrong, just as God said it would. Look at verse number 3. Neither shall thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter shall thou not give unto his son, nor his daughter shall thou take unto thy son. Why? Here's the why. So he's already given you, here's what you're going to do when you don't listen to me in the first place. And then he gives them plan B, and then he says, here's why. Look at verse number 4. He says, for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods, so the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. Sound familiar with what Hanani said to Asa? He said, now God's mad at you because you didn't rely on him. Why, why in the world was God against Asa for just doing something pragmatic to protect God's own people? Because God knows if you yoke up at the world, you will compromise. He knows that if you yoke up with worldly people and worldly organizations and worldly politics or whatever it is, that you will go to them and not the other way around. You become like them. Ah, you know, these people aren't so bad. Ah, you know, as we work together fighting this one evil, these different things that they do, it gets normalized to you and to your children. This is why we are not political. This is why the Christian, look, I know we talk about things here, that's not what I'm talking about. But we are not political. We are not a political action committee. The Bible believing Christian and this church will never be a political action committee. I'm to the point now where I can't stand Republicans more than Democrats at this point. Because at least the Democrats are just like, hey, we worship Satan straight up. They don't lie to your face. I mean, some of these groups, and look, yoking up with some of these groups, even especially on the conservative side of things, I mean, it could destroy you. It could destroy you. You get into some of these groups that are like, hey, don't pay income taxes and tax evasion. They walk around with their, they drive around and they don't get license plates and they don't do these things and they got a pocket constitution and then this and then they get shot and killed or whatever. I'm not saying it's right that they should be shot and killed, but I'm just saying yoking up with some of these things can get you into all kinds of trouble. I think about groups like the Proud Boys and some of these other, you know, freedom movements and things, and I think about some of the people that got tied up with them and then went to a protest on the January 6th. They're all in jail now. I'm not saying they should be in jail, but they're in jail. And talk about a waste for a Christian to get caught up in such a political thing like that and then end up in jail. Look, it's not right that they're in jail. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying to just waste your Christian life on that and die on that hill. Die on the hill of taxes. Jesus literally said that's not a hill to die on. I don't like taxes. I don't think there should be an income tax. I don't think that it's constitutional, whatever, but take it all for all I care. It's not a hill that we're supposed to die on. Give them their money if they want their money. It's all these things, look, getting tied up with some of these political groups and political movements could literally get you thrown in jail or dead. And I mean, look, you're going to heaven, but what a waste. What a waste as a Christian. Because none of these people are correct, even though they may have one issue right. None of these people are coming to the proper conclusions. So that's what the Bible says when it says do not become unequally yoked with people. Don't get in entangling alliances with these worldly people. I mean, we need to teach our kids to look to the Lord. If you entangle yourself with these worldly alliances as Asa did, you're going to teach your children to look to the world. When it's practical, look to the world is what you're going to teach the next generation. And we need to be teaching our kids to look to the Lord always. Not to Egypt, not to Syria. Just preach the truth. That's our call. Look, some of this stuff, if you get involved in it, it's very complicated. But our call is very simple. Preach the truth. That's it. Look to the Lord. And look, if it's going to fall apart, we're to just watch it fall apart. Preach the truth, though. That's what we're to do. At least we see it coming. At least we see it coming. I mean, it's like these groups that are trying to get prayer back in schools. You know there's a lot of groups that are trying to get prayer back in schools? Like the Alliance for Religious Freedom, and there's all kinds of Facebook groups and all kinds of Reddit groups and all these things trying to get prayer back in the public school system. Like talk about a misguided goal. I mean, look, my kids aren't in the public school system, obviously, and yours aren't either. And they shouldn't be. But can you imagine, like if prayer all of a sudden was just put back in the public schools, who are they going to be praying to? You want a public school teacher at this point teaching your child about God? What? What God will it be? I guarantee you it won't be this one. Let's go back to the story. Let me show you the consequences of this. You had a good king that ruled for 36 years of 41 years. The vast majority of his kingdom, he was just like solid. Then he makes this one mistake. You're like, man, what's the big deal? God chastised him. Asa was a good king in 1 Kings 15. Go to 1 Kings 15. Just go to 1 Kings 15. I'm going to take my word for it. Let's look at what the Bible says. 1 Kings 15, look at verse number 11. 1 Kings 15, look at verse number 11. The Bible says this about Asa. The Bible says, And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. He's compared to David here. And he took away the Sodomites out of the land. He removed the idols that his father had made. Look, this guy is cleaning house here. He's doing good things. And also, Makah, his mother, he even removed her from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove. And Asa destroyed her idol and burnt it by the brook Kidron. Look, that's rare that he ruled 41 years and he was a good king. He had one shortfall though, not relying 100% on the Lord towards the end of his reign. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter number 17. Now let's look at his son, also a good king. Look at his son Jehoshaphat in the Bible. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 17, 2 Chronicles chapter number 17. Look at verse number 1. 2 Chronicles 17, look at verse number 1. Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa. The Bible says, In Jehoshaphat, his son reigned in his stead, as is after Asa died, 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 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. Sounds pretty good. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought Jehoshaphat presence, and he had riches and honor in abundance. Now turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 18. You're like, this sounds pretty good. He's blessed, he's doing what God wants him to do, his nation is strong, the nation is strengthening itself, God is with him, he's getting all these blessings and presence, he's getting more powerful and stronger against this terrible enemy of Israel. But now look at 2 Chronicles chapter 18 and verse number 1. Now Jehoshaphat, it's the verse of the week in your bulletin as well. Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance, yes we just saw that, but look at this, and joined affinity with Ahab. You're like, what in the world? Who is Ahab? In 1 Kings chapter 16 it says Ahab is described like this, Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord above all those that were before him. This is the king of Israel, and he was at the point where Ahab became king of Israel after Asa had died, he's the most wicked king at this point that Israel has ever seen, which is saying something. And Jehoshaphat joins affinity with him. What does that mean? It means that he joins friendship with him, he takes him in as an ally, this wicked evil king. Look at verse number 2. After certain years he went down to Ahab, to Samaria, he went down to Ahab to Samaria, remember when it says down he's going north but it's talking elevation here, okay? So he goes down to Ahab to Samaria, he visits the king of Israel in the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance and for the people that he had with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, wilt thou go with me to Ramoth Gilead? He's asking him to go to war with him, and he answered him, this is Jehoshaphat speaking, Jehoshaphat answering, he says, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people. That proves to you right there that compromise only goes one way. Compromise only goes from the Christian to the world, never the other way. He became as Ahab, Ahab did not become as Jehoshaphat, and he brought all his people and his whole kingdom with him. Now just analyze this as your family, as you compromise your family. You bring your family with you just as Jehoshaphat when he compromised brought the kingdom with him. My people as thy people, he said. Then the story continues, if you just flip over to 2 Chronicles chapter 19, I'll just kind of paraphrase the story for you. He goes out, and Ahab actually does die in battle, Jehoshaphat almost dies in battle, and then the prophet of God comes to Jehoshaphat to chastise him for what he's done. Look at verse number 2, 2 Chronicles chapter, actually go to 2 Chronicles 19, look at verse number 1. And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. He barely makes it out of the battle. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him. So this is the son of the same prophet, okay? It's kind of like, you know, God's trying to tell us something here, all right? There's kind of like your dad did something and now you went and did it way worse. Look at verse number 2, you went out to see him and said to King Jehoshaphat, should us thou help thee ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. So should you love people that hate the Lord? No is the answer. God loves everybody, the Christian is supposed to love everybody, even wicked reprobates that hate God. Wrong. It's proved right here. The Bible says to Jehoshaphat, the prophet is telling him, God is wrathful against you, because you help them that hate God. You're in trouble now. Now go to 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse number 31. 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse number 31. And now I kind of got to paraphrase the whole ending of this story for you, but you think, you think Jehoshaphat learned his lesson. He went to battle with this wicked man, the wicked man dies, the wicked king dies and then he almost dies and then on top of that the prophet of God comes and basically smacks him upside the head and says, what are you doing helping people that hate the Lord? The wrath of God is upon you for that. God's mad at you for that. But look at 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse number 31. And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah and he was thirty and five years old when he began to reign and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi and he walked in the way of Asa his father and departed not from it, good king, doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Howbeit the high places were not taken away, so he wasn't perfect and as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Jehu the son of Anani who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel. That's who we just talked about. And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel. You know who that is? That is Ahab's son. He goes to war with Ahab, gets chastised by the prophet and then later on makes an affinity, he allies himself, joins himself as the Bible said with the son of Ahab who did very wickedly and he joined himself with him to make ships as a business agreement. This went into business together and they made ships in Isi and Gaber. So here's one, should a Christian who's saved go into a business partnership with someone who's not saved? No. I mean that's pretty much answered right here, that very specific question. Then Eliezer the son of Dodova and Marisha prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying because thou has joined thyself with Ahaziah the Lord have broken thy works and the ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish. So he goes into this ship building business with Ahaziah and all the ships, God just destroys all the ships. But the point is he didn't learn his lesson and he went after Ahab died. He was clearly still close to that family, close to the dynasty of Ahab. Now here's a funny story, you say well what's the big deal? God broke up the ships and you know yeah this is a tragic story between Asa and his son Jehoshaphat. Well you know I don't have time to read you the entire Bible but go ahead and go to 2 Chronicles chapter 21. It gets, I mean it's like a, it's like a, it's like a family disaster at this point between these two nations. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter number 21, 2 Chronicles chapter 21, look at verse number one, Jehoshaphat has a son, his name is Joram. And Joram, look at verse number 20, verse number one of 2 Chronicles 21, it says now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David and Joram his son reigned in his stead. And he had brethren, the sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, Shephatiah and these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. So he had a bunch of brothers, okay? And their father gave them great gifts of silver and of gold and of precious things with fence cities and Judah but the kingdom gave he to Joram because he was the firstborn. So Joram was the firstborn of all these boys that we see up here in verse number two. It says now when Joram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and slew all his brethren with the sword and diverse also the princes of Israel. Joram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem and he walked in the ways, don't miss this in verse number six, he is a king of Judah. He's a king of Judah and he goes and he comes, his father is Asa who is a good king or his father is Jehoshaphat who is a good king, his grandfather was Asa. These are two of the best kings in Israel throughout the history of Israel and Joram goes and he kills his whole family and he kills all the princes of Israel and then he walks in the ways of the kings of Israel. Who is his influence at this point? Which family is he influenced by at this point? He is not a king of Israel, he's a king of Judah and he walked in the ways of the king of Israel like as did the house of Ahab for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife. He married Ahab's daughter. He married into Ahab's family and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. So here we see the consequences generationally for what Asa did, what he passed on to Jehoshaphat and finally in Jehoshaphat's children's generation, that whole thing, it just, it manifests itself completely and his son goes completely evil and destroys his whole family. And then he marries into, so this shows you what happened, Asa and then finally Jehoshaphat was exposing his family to this wicked dynasty in the northern kingdom of Israel and it's literally who his son married. You think that he married her because they didn't even know each other? Because they never even met that family before? No, they married each other because they had affinity together between these two families. This is why you don't go to the world. It will have generational consequences. Then this wonderful wife of Joram, she dies, her name was Athaliah, you know her mom was, her mom was this nice lady called Jezebel in the Bible and you're like just when you think you're reading about Jezebel, you're like no one can get more wicked than this person Jezebel, comes her daughter Athaliah. And she goes and to take power over Judah for herself, she goes and literally kills all her grandchildren. She kills all of her grandchildren, this is the story where except you're like well does that just erase the messianic you know prophecy that God gave to David if all the grandchildren were killed? Well Joash was saved. Joash was saved by the priest and Joash ends up restoring Judah. But the point is this, joining affinity, this strategic partnership of Asa, rippled through Asa's family for an additional four generations. It destroyed his family for four generations, turn to Exodus chapter 20. This is just a thought, this is just a thought and this just gets you thinking this morning but I don't know if this you could apply this directly but I kind of apply this. I think that this is a philosophy of God. I think that this is a philosophy that God has. Look at verse number 5 of Exodus chapter number 20, when God is talking about worshiping idols and people that would go and worship idols and you know just basically bow down and serve idols, God says this interesting thing in verse number 5, he says, thou shalt not bow thyself down to them, talking about other gods, nor serve them for I the Lord God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me. Coincidence? I don't think so. I don't think Asa hated the Lord, I don't think Jehoshaphat hated the Lord but I think that the Exodus 20 verse number 5 is showing us a philosophy of God that what we do can echo through generations of our family and then God is kind of telling us here, I don't look at this as necessarily something where it's like oh you know four generations that's bad, kind of like letting us know that he kind of is going to reset things after four generations. If somebody messes something up and it gets worse and worse and worse, God will kind of reset things after four generations. That's kind of how I apply this to this story but you think about how this started. It started pragmatically and simply. It went from strategic alliance, pragmatic alliance to the next generation affinity showing that even down to sins, even down to sins of a father that can be echoed to the next generation but it's always worse with the next generation. Look don't get me wrong. Everyone is not held responsible for what their father did. But you have to kind of think complex here. You pass things on to your children. Jehoshaphat learned this alliance and to make entangling alliances, he learned that from his father and then what he did, he was responsible for what he did personally. It's just like the sins of Jeroboam. Jeroboam led the nation into sins but every single generation that went into the sins of Jeroboam, yes, they learned that from their leader generations ago but they're responsible for what they did in that generation. So both things are true if you think about it. But the point is we need to be careful who we ally with because even if we ally with someone on just a shallow level in this life, our children will take that further and their children will take that further and pretty soon in three generations, they're married to the world. They're literally married to evil at this point. So I just started with I just have to strike a deal with these people and save my nation pragmatically. It's pragmatic but guess what? This could be ecumenicalism today. You could apply the same thing to ecumenicalism today. Hey, let's get together with a bunch of other churches. What we'll do is we'll get together with all the churches in Fresno. I've been asked to do this. I've been asked to do this. I've had other pastors call me and say, hey, let's get together and let's have a rally against this cause or whatever. Let's have a rally against, you know, whatever. I mean abortion or whatever it is. Things that we could agree on with different Christian churches. But you say why, when would we do something like that? The answer is never. You say why? Because compromise only goes one way. It will always be the fundamental Bible believing Christian that goes ecumenical where those people and those children start to look around at all the children in liberal churches that don't even read the Bible and maybe have false gospels and all these different things and just like, yeah, well, these people don't seem so bad. This doesn't seem like such a big deal and maybe they meet people. Maybe they stay in touch with people. Maybe they get on Facebook groups with people. Maybe they start, you know, just creating all these different friendships and all these different connections with all of these worldly people that probably don't even believe the gospel correctly. I mean this is how organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous, these ecumenical organizations, they end up with or even, I hate to say it, but I was involved in Cub Scouts many, many years ago, way before I was saved. And it was just this, I quit the organization because of this and I wasn't even saved. I quit the organization because they did acknowledge God. They did acknowledge God. But pretty soon you start bringing in so many people, so many different people, so many different groups of Christians and then you just bring in other people where you can't even, we just have to, we can't even use the word Jesus anymore. Pretty soon now we just have to say God. I literally met a Baptist yesterday at the door that would not acknowledge that God had a name and the name was Jesus. A Baptist. You say how does that happen? Ecumenicalism, that's how it happens. Just watered down to the point where Jesus is watered right out of the room. Where doctrine, just one at a time, doctrines are just watered out of the room. Well, that doctrine, because you know what doctrine does? Doctrine divides. Doctrine sets people against one another. But that's why Jesus said I came to divide. God wants us divided. That's what Hanani was telling Asa and his son was telling Jehoshaphat and they didn't listen and tragedy struck for generations. Four, four ruined generations. We must stay separate. We must stay fundamental. Which means, fundamental simply means, and look you'll see people just make fun of fundamentalists and just put all kinds of bad things about fundamentalists out there. Fundamentalists just means that we hang on every verse and every word of the Bible. That's what it means. There's no page, there's no chapter, there's no verse that I don't believe is the word of God in this book. That's what fundamental means. And the more wicked the world gets, the more alone you will feel as a fundamental Christian. But that's the way it's supposed to be. God wants the Christian just with him. He wants us to rely only on him. Not rely on God and then rely on all these different groups for all these different problems that we have. No, he wants us only with him. And we are never to compromise because look, the consequences of compromise are generational. And you will not see four generations into your family but the consequences of what you do today will echo that far. They will echo that far. We'll talk about more of this application tonight. But just remember that what we do today echoes out four generations. That's what the Bible is trying to teach us here. So as fathers, as parents, as mothers teaching our children at home, you understand the responsibility that you have to hold the line of every single doctrine that we hold dear in the Bible because the consequences are very real. And this is why God puts these stories in the Bible for us. This is why God puts the man of God there to correct when these men are doing things wrong. It is serious and we must hold the line always. No pressure. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.