2 Chronicles 15:1-17

[0:00] 2 Chronicles chapter 15 starting in verse 1 says, In the spirit of God came upon Isaiah the son of Odin, And he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, The Lord is with you, while ye be with him.

[0:19] And if ye seek him, he will be found of you. But if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel had been without the true God, And without a teaching priest, and without law.

[0:33] But when they in their trouble, They turned unto the Lord God of Israel, And sought him, he was found of them. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, Nor to him that came in, But great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries, And nation was destroyed of nation and city of city, For God did vex them with all adversity.

[0:57] Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak, For your work shall be rewarded. We'll stop our reading right there. Back to the first couple of verses of the 2 Chronicles chapter 15 Says, The spirit of God came upon this man, Asa, we know very little about, Asa, we know very little about Odin here.

[1:20] They're not the point of the scripture at all. Going into the second verse, It says, And he went out to meet Asa, And said unto him, Here ye meet Asa, And all Judah and Benjamin, The Lord is with you while ye be with him, And if ye seek him, he will be found of you.

[1:37] But if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now once again, chapter 14, If you go back and you read that scripture, We didn't read it tonight for time's sake, But you'll see that Asa, everything is going good, And going fine and well in the kingship, And in the kingdom that Asa was over, And all of a sudden there's a king from Ethiopia that came, And the Bible says that he had with him a host of a thousand times a thousand, Which would be one million.

[2:07] And you read that Asa had about five hundred and eighty thousand men, In the same chapter, five hundred and eighty thousand, Against one million. I'd say that the odds were pretty low, And Asa's favor there.

[2:20] Although he had just a little over half as many as these Ethiopians have. But Asa prayed unto the Lord. He prayed unto God. And he said, God, wear your people.

[2:31] God, you need to deliver us out of this. Asa's showing that he wasn't depending upon his own power. He wasn't depending on his own might.

[2:41] He wasn't depending on his own sword. He wasn't depending on the men that were underneath him. But he was depending upon all money God. And it goes through in this battle.

[2:53] And the Bible teaches that the Ethiopians were smoked, And they chased them down into Gerar, And they smote them there. And they wiped these Ethiopians all over the map.

[3:04] And here in chapter fifteen of Second Chronicles, We see Asa and his army returning from that battle. And all of a sudden this prophet, this man of God comes out, And he says, the Lord is with you, Asa.

[3:19] And as long as you're with the Lord, he will be with you. This man comes out with a warning under Asa, Telling him, don't you start depending upon yourself.

[3:30] Yes, you won this battle. And yes, the odds were stacked against you. But don't you dare start depending upon your own actions, And upon your own thoughts, And upon your own self, Or the thoughts, or anything else, Of any other living man under you.

[3:47] You continue to defend with God. You continue to walk with God, to talk with God. You continue to pray under God, The way that you did out there on the battlefield.

[3:59] And God has given his promise that he will be with you. Asa! Amen! Hope we got that same promise. In the scripture as New Testament Christians, We had the same promise of God.

[4:13] We, and we bank on those promises. Almost every time we meet, Almost every time you turn on the gospel station, We hear the words that he'll never leave us, And he'll never forsake us.

[4:24] We hear the words that he will go with us all the way, Even to the end of the world. And I praise God that we have those scriptures. I praise God that we have those promises.

[4:36] I praise God for the scripture in Hebrews that says, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, And forever if he made that promise to me, The day that I got saved, It has not changed one thing up till now.

[4:52] Hallelujah! Praise God! This prophet comes on Asa, And he says, The Lord is with you while you be with him, And if you seek him he will be found of you, But if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

[5:06] Now for a long season Israel has been without the true God, And without a teaching priest, and without law. There's some people that say that this prophet's going all the way back to the time of the judges, And he very well may be.

[5:21] There's some people that say he was just talking about the present time, And there's some people that say he was talking way off into the future. Either way, hey folks the promise still remains the same.

[5:32] If we walk with the Lord, he will walk with us. If we abide in the things of the Lord, he will abide with us. If we do what the Lord requires us to do, And what the Lord asks of us to do, He will abide with us and within us.

[5:48] But folks the second we start to let cry get in the way, The second that we start to let self get in the way, And we start to not depend on the living God, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, The God that delivered Asa in this army, Out of the hands of a million Ethiopians, As soon as we start to not depend on him, God may punish us, He may show us just how much we need to depend upon him.

[6:19] God help us, God help us to not let pride get in the way. But when they were in their trouble, They turned unto the Lord, God of Israel, sought him, And he was found of them.

[6:33] Folks this is repetitious all throughout the Old Testament. It is repetitious. I know you all heard me talk about the book of Judges, And that cycle that takes place in Judges about how the children of Israel, They'd be right with the Lord.

[6:47] They would fall into idolatry. They would fall into sin. And that God would give them over into bondage. He'd give them over another kings. He'd give them over into slavery. They would cry out to God and God would deliver.

[6:59] And it was an endless cycle throughout the book of Judges. But folks that cycle began on before that. It is all throughout the scriptures that Israel, That they would fall back into idolatry.

[7:11] They never truly got rid of their idolatry. Joshua, before he died, he was giving them warning. He said, choose you this day whom you will serve.

[7:22] He said, hey, you go with God and he will go with you. But if you don't go with God, if you stray with God, you will be punished. Folks, it's no different with us. We've got to be careful.

[7:35] God will give in our ways. God will get in the way of a Christian. God will get in the way of a safe individual. And when that happens, God will allow things to come our way.

[7:49] God will allow things to come in our lives that will push us back to him. That's why he would deliver the Israelites over into slavery and over into bondage. He would deliver them over to sin. He would let them be punished for a little while to drive them back to him.

[8:04] And it worked when he done it that sooner or later, hey, one page, they'd be found with God. One chapter, another chapter, they'd be fallen into idolatry. The next chapter, they'd be crying unto God.

[8:16] And the next chapter would be God delivering his people and God. Allows these things to come in your life. And in my life, it might be because our prayer of life is suffering.

[8:27] It might be because our walk with him isn't what it should be. And it might just be all money. God trying to drive his people. That was he owns. That was claimed his name.

[8:39] And he claims them back to him. God trying to drive his children back to him. And his children are just as susceptible to strain as anyone else is.

[8:54] And in those times, there was no peace stand to win out. Nor to have to came in. The great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed.

[9:06] And nation and city of city for God did vex them with all adversity. Be strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak. For your work shall be rewarded.

[9:18] One encouragement even over here in the Old Testament. I've heard people say that we need to disband from the Old Testament. I've heard people say that the Christian church needs to divorce itself from the Old Testament.

[9:30] If that's the case, I don't ever want to hear anybody quote song 23 again. I don't want anybody to say that God has cast their sins as far as the East is from the West. Because all of these things are Old Testament.

[9:43] I don't want to hear how God told Joshua, just as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee and how that's a promise unto us as well. That's Old Testament, the Old Testament is just as pertinent now as it was back then.

[9:56] The Old Testament, it shows Jesus Christ. It shows the image of Jesus Christ. The writer Paul said that it was a schoolmaster unto us.

[10:09] The law was a schoolmaster to drive us under cross. It shows us our state and it shows us that we needed salvation and a Savior that we can only have in cross Jesus.

[10:22] The law is the Old Testament. So don't say we need to disband from it. Don't say we need to ignore it. The Old Testament is very pertinent.

[10:33] If it wasn't God, it wouldn't have another can of Scripture. Be strong therefore and let natural hands be strong, dear brothers and sisters. Be strong in Christ, be strong in the Lord, not in yourselves.

[10:46] Don't be strong in yourselves. You be strong in Almighty God. You be strong in the God that saved you. You be strong in the God that called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

[10:58] Be strong in the One that saved you. Don't be strong in yourself. Don't be strong in any pastor or any teacher or anybody else. You be strong in Almighty God for the pastor or the teacher or not the ones that saved your soul from a hell that you deserve.

[11:16] But Almighty God did this thing and only He was the one that was strong enough to do so. Only the blood of Jesus Christ was powerful enough to do so.

[11:27] Be strong in the Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. Be strong in yourself. That's right. Be strong therefore and let natural hands be weak. Your work shall be rewarded.

[11:38] Yes. Our work in the Lord is never in vain. You read the last verse, the first Corinthians chapter 15. And Paul says that very thing.

[11:49] He says to be steadfast, unmovable, knowing that our work in the Lord is not in vain. Knowing that our work in the Lord is not in vain.

[12:00] And people will say, well, I don't have any gifts of the Holy Spirit. I don't have those gifts that are mentioned in Scripture. That's not an exhaustive list. What do you have a gift for? What can you do for God? Maybe you wouldn't call to preach or teach.

[12:12] Maybe you wouldn't call to sing. Maybe you wouldn't call to do many of the things that we sing. But what is your talent? What are you able to do? What are you capable of doing? Are you able to pick up a phone and call a brother or sister in Christ and let them know that somebody's thinking about them and somebody's praying for them and somebody's taking them to the very throne of God and supplication to God.

[12:37] Are you able to do that? Do that. And that works not in vain. Exhaught you, brethren. Admonish you, brethren. Admonish those fellow believers that have like faith such as you.

[12:49] And your work will not be in vain. Jesus had just come out of battle here. He had just come out of battle with this army.

[13:00] And this prophet is telling him these things. He said, continue in the Lord. Continue in Him. And He will be with you, folks. We need to continue in God.

[13:11] We can continue with God and end in ourselves, folks. When I stand before God, I don't want it to just be me. And the blood and the holiness of Jesus Christ, the one that was able to save me, the one that did save me, the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, is the same one that is able to present me spotless and blameless before God the Father.

[13:36] That's how I want to stand before God. Hallelujah. That's the only way we can stand before God. Amen. And not be judged. And not fall under condemnation.

[13:47] Be strong, therefore. But not your hands get weak. Don't let them be weak. Folks, I know it's a weary walk. Most of y'all in here have been saved longer than I have. I thought all of y'all were sure to have been saved longer than I had been.

[14:00] I'm weary from the walk. I'm not weary of the walk. I'm weary from the walk. It is a weary time. And I understand these times, and you have to agree with me, these times you just feel like God ain't with you.

[14:14] These times that you feel like you're all alone out there. These times that you feel like every demon and every nymph that knows the hell is home is coming against you. There's times that the storms that crush so hard against you.

[14:27] There's times that they seem to wreck your life. But folks, Paul, he had that same God that I'm talking about here. And he had faith in the same God that I'm talking about here. Brother Byrne taught about it just a couple of weeks ago.

[14:40] They were out there on the sea, and this wind drove up. This wind, this storm that was called Heraclodon, it came up, and the winds became tempestuous. And it starts beating the ship all around.

[14:53] And everybody on the ship was going mad. They were all thinking they were going to die. But Paul, the same Paul that was stoned and left for dead. The same Paul that was beaten.

[15:05] The same Paul that was jailed and dropped before. The ones that were in office. This Paul said, fear not for this night, the angel of the Lord stood beside me.

[15:16] And he said, I'll not be brought before Caesar. We will survive this. And if Paul can go through what he did, that Paul can go through all that.

[15:28] And still have faith in the God of Scripture. Why can't we? I've never been struck like that. I've never been imprisoned. I've never been stoned and left for dead outside of the city.

[15:40] None of those things have ever happened to me. Why can't I have the same faith that that man did? Because I'm the same God. I'm the same God. Paul had faith in that God.

[15:52] What has God done for us? He saved our souls. He not only saved us, but He made a way unto him that after we're saved, we can go to him anytime we want to.

[16:03] Anytime, night or day, we can go to the Father. When that bell was ringing in the temple, that made a way for two in Gentile alack. Yes, but it made a way that regardless of Jew, regardless of Gentile, regardless of social status, regardless of how high up you were, or how down low in the dirt you were, everyone had equal access unto God at that point.

[16:28] This is what Jesus Christ has done for a fallen world. Amen. And for those reasons, and so many more, we shouldn't let our hands be weak.

[16:40] We should continue on in the work of Almighty God. How do we continue on? Let's continue reading here. In the second chronicle, chapter 15, verse 8, When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of those of the prophet, he took courage and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin and out of the cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord that was before the port of the Lord.

[17:10] And gathered all of Judah and Benjamin and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon, for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that the Lord, his God, was with him.

[17:23] What did Asa do at the advice of this prophet? He continued on with what he began in chapter 14. He continued on with casting the idols and the idolatry out of the kingdom.

[17:36] He continued on with these things. Why? Because that's what God wanted of His people. We don't do the things that God wants us to do to be saved. We don't work for God to be saved.

[17:48] I don't preach to be saved, I preach because I am saved, and that's the call that Almighty God put in my life. You might teach because you are saved, and that's the call that you have.

[17:59] Maybe you're a singer, maybe you're a prayer, maybe you're any of these things, but either way, we don't do those things to be saved. We do it because we are saved.

[18:10] God had delivered Asa and his army out of the hands of the Ethiopians and had been proved on the Asa that it was indeed God. And Asa says, I will continue with this Lord that I worship.

[18:26] And he continues by what? By doing what God says to do. By casting out the idols, casting out the idolatry. He says he also gathered all Jews in the Benjamin and the strangers with them out of East Rim and Manasseh.

[18:43] These are the ones that trickled down to the southern kingdom from the northern kingdom. Why was that? Because Rehoboam was up north, causing havoc, persecuting people.

[18:55] All kinds of bad wicked things was going on up north. These people said God is with Asa. God is in the southern kingdom. God is with these people. I'm going to say it was a testimony to people that were to the north of them and those that believed, those that wanted to worship God along with Asa and along with the others in the southern kingdom.

[19:15] Those that wanted the true things of God, those that wanted to practice the law of God. Hey, Christ hadn't stepped in on the same just yet when all this was going on. All these people knew was law and obedience to the law.

[19:28] And they said these people are going by the law. These people are practicing the things of God. I want to go where they're at. Hey folks, if people look at your life and they don't see any change in you or any difference from you or in you from the world, then I'd be questioning if I had anything to begin with.

[19:50] They should see a difference. They saw a difference in the southern kingdom here. When they saw the Lord, His God was with them, so they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the 15th year of the reign of Asa.

[20:03] And they offered unto the Lord the same time of the spoil which they had brought, 700 oxen and 7000 sheep. And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.

[20:19] They entered into a covenant. But folks, this wasn't a new covenant. It was the same old covenant that God had made with Abraham. It was the same covenant that God had made with all the fathers of Asa.

[20:32] It was the same covenant that had been in place from the beginning. What was that covenant that God made unto Abraham? God told Abraham, He said, of your seed, I'm going to multiply your seed and it's going to be innumerable.

[20:45] It'll be like the stars of the heaven and it will be as the sand of the sea. It's the same covenant that God made with Abraham. What we're talking about, there was no new covenant. Yes, there was a mosaic covenant that was made.

[20:58] Yes, there are several covenants that go throughout the Old Testament that God made with His people. With this covenant stretches all the way back to the beginning.

[21:09] The God who says they made a covenant with God. They were renewing a covenant with God. In other words, maybe we have slipped up just a little bit. Maybe we're not as close to God as we once was.

[21:22] Let us impose. I am going to get into depth whether or not somebody we say has been lost or lost or anything along those lines. But the Bible does teach backslash. It does teach backslash.

[21:33] If you aren't as close to God today as you were yesterday, that means you're backslash. That means God's right here. And yesterday was the same covenant that God made with Abraham.

[21:46] That means God's right here. Yesterday you were right here, but today you're here. That's backslash. We should strive to be as in close relationship with God as we can possibly be.

[21:59] We should strive for that daily. We should strive for that earnestly. We should strive for that because this is the God that saves us. This is the God that keeps us safe. This is the God that's going to take us home one of these days after a while.

[22:12] We should strive to be close to Him. We should strive to be close to Him because He's not only our Savior, but He's our protector, He's our provider, He's our rock, He's our porpoise, our shield, and our Son, and everything else that you can possibly think of.

[22:28] God is all in all. I'm proud. I'm proud. And made covenant. Made covenant. To seek the Lord. How do we seek the Lord?

[22:39] Once again, we should do it daily. We should do it daily. Who seeks the Lord? Those that are already saved. Those that are already saved. The Bible says there's none in the righteous, none in the one.

[22:52] There's none that seeketh after God. No, not one. Not one seeks after God. That's what God had to come to where you were to save your soul. Because you wasn't seeking after Him. That's what God had to come to me where I was to save my soul because I was not seeking it.

[23:07] So who seeks after God? Those which are already His. Those who are already belong to Him. Seek after God. And they entered into covenant with the Lord to seek the Lord. They said, God, we're going to seek you out from this day forward.

[23:20] Every day of our lives, we're going to seek you out with our whole heart and with our whole soul. Because you are the one that delivered our fathers up out of Egypt. You're the one that gave us this land.

[23:31] You're the one that has promised to supply us and to keep us and to take us home one of these days. Praise God. Hallelujah. We have a promise like that in the New Testament as well.

[23:43] They entered into covenant to seek the Lord of their fathers with all their heart, with all their soul. The whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death. Whether small or green, whether man or woman.

[23:56] My goodness, that sounds harsh. And do you think God accepted that? Well, of course God accepted that. You flip over to Deuteronomy 17. God's the very one that gave that order to His people.

[24:08] Deuteronomy 17, the first few verses of it. It says, God, give the command that there be anybody that works unrighteousness, that works wickedness within Israel, there to be brought before the gates.

[24:23] There to be brought before the gates, whether it be man or whether it be woman, just as the scripture in 2 Chronicles says, that we just read. And there to be stoned until they die. There to be stoned to death.

[24:34] And it says, it's to be done at the mouth of two witnesses, or of three first shall not be done. At the mouth of one witness. This was something that God had ordained Himself. These people were entering in to covenant with God to say, we will practice what you told us to do.

[24:49] We will do everything that you told us to do because you are the Father, because you are God. And beside you, there is no other. This is why they entered into this covenant with God.

[25:01] Because He is the one that made it to begin with. Amen. Thank you Lord. And they swear at the Lord with the loud voice that was shouting, with trumpets, with cord heads, and all due to rejoice that the other day swarmed with all their heart, and I sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found with them, and the Lord gave them rest round the bound.

[25:27] What did they do? They entered into the covenant with God. Why? Because they understood that He was God, that He was the one that delivered them, He's the one that would continue to be with them.

[25:38] If they would be with Him, if they would walk with Him, if they would abide by His statute, abide by His law, abide by everything that He told them to do, and says that they shouted.

[25:50] What did they do? They worshiped God. They shouted, they used trumpets, they used cord heads, and all these things, they rejoiced at the youth. It says, Judah rejoiced at the youth, they rejoiced at this promise, at this covenant that they have made with God, they rejoiced at this thing.

[26:08] My goodness, Christians, we have every reason in the world to rejoice in the New Testament covenant that we have in Jesus Christ, but most of us walk around with the very most, a straight face sometimes, a frown on our face, most of the time we should be the most joyful people that are walking around on planet Earth at this time, for we have a Savior that planned and died, and took our place on the cross that we deserve.

[26:38] He deserves our praise, and He deserves our worship. We should rejoice in this covenant that we have, the New Testament covenant that we have in Jesus Christ, they rejoiced at the youth, that they had swarmed all their heart, and also concerning Naca, the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove, and Asa cut down her idol and stamped it, and burnt it at the broken kid's room.

[27:07] Now the Bible here says that this woman was his mother, it was actually his grandmother, if you flip back, you'll see that. We don't know if maybe his mother died, when he was a young child, and his grandmother raised him, but either way this was actually his mother, but she was queen, she was queen of the kingdom, and she was in blood relation to Asa, and he took her out of her seat.

[27:32] Why? Because she had made an idol. Now listen, what did we just read a couple of verses ago? Anybody that want this wickedness in this room should be put to death.

[27:43] All of them, this woman was dead. I would assume she was dead, but that would have still, someone in that high of a position, that high of a position, that would still bled back out to the people, that would have gotten out to the people somehow, hey, the queen, she had an idol, she was worse being these days, if she can do it, why can't we do it?

[28:03] So Asa took her out of her seat, Asa took her out of her seat, and it says they cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the broken kid's room. So I'm looking at idols, you got me alive.

[28:14] You don't know what kind of idols I'm not having in my life. But we all get them once in a while. Everyone else is a big guilty of having a God before they want to true God. At some point in our Christian walk, everyone else has done it.

[28:27] It could have been spouse, it could have been children, it could have been job, it could have been any number of things that we have put in a place before God, if you want to truly walk with God, and you want to truly worship God, and you want to truly shout and worship God, the trumpets and the carnets, if you want to worship God the way that the scripture commands us, that we worship God in spirit and in truth.

[28:51] If you want to do these things, you will have to do the same thing with your idols that Asa did here with his mother's idol. You will have to cut it down, you will have to stamp it, you'll have to burn it, you have got to get rid of whatever idols you may have in your life.

[29:08] If you want to truly worship the God of this universe, because it won't happen otherwise. We've got to be rid of our idols, but the high places were not taken away out of Israel, nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect in all his days.

[29:25] The high places weren't taken out, but it says the heart of Asa was perfect. Ocean. It don't matter if every person you talk to gets saved or doesn't get saved.

[29:38] It's the work. Don't worry in the work. Go back a few verses and reread that. Don't let your hands get weary in the work. Don't let your hands get tired. You continue on in the work.

[29:50] You continue on in the work that God has given you to do, and God will bless you for that. God, and it may not be in a material blessing. I've ten times rather had the spiritual blessings as I have material blessings any day of the week, the spiritual blessings that amount to more wealth.

[30:06] Do you think that Jesus Christ said, lay down for yourself treasures here on this earth, but left for yourself treasures up in heaven, up on high where moth, where rust of corrupt, and our thieves can't break through and steal it?

[30:18] Hey, I want my treasures to be spiritual. I want my treasures to be in heaven, because what is in heaven is eternal. It won't last forever. These material things here on earth are all temporal, and according to the Bible, they will burn up one day with a firm and heath, but that which is eternal cannot be shaken.

[30:39] It cannot be moved that which God has promised forever will remain and last forever. Amen. Oh, look at how beautiful. Thank you. The high places of work are taken down.

[30:51] They are taken away out of nature. Never in the land of the heart of Asia, were perfect in all these days. Does that mean that everybody in Israel was saved? Does that mean that everybody did exactly as they were supposed to do?

[31:05] No more than it means everybody I've ever handled a battle track to, or everybody I've ever told about Jesus Christ has gotten saved. I'd like to think that I would love to think that, but I know better.

[31:16] I know better because this book teaches better. This book says that I should be hated of all men. Jesus said, you should be hated of all men for my name is saved.

[31:27] But what's the very next line after that? He that endures them to be saved shall be saved. So what if I'm hated? So what if the world hates me?

[31:38] I'm going to endure to the end. God's going to get me through this. I have confidence and I have faith that He will get me through this. But what is Asia doing here in this after the man of God, after the prophet of God has come, and he's basically given a warning unto Asia, said, walk with God, and He will walk with you.

[31:59] He's given this warning out, but Asia done these things. Asia went into covenant with God. Asia was casting out the idols. Asia was doing everything that he knew they were supposed to do.

[32:10] My next thing, think of a parable that Jesus Christ spoke over in Luke chapter 11, and in Matthew chapter 12, He spoke this parable of a demon that went out of a man of an unclean spirit, that went out of a man.

[32:24] It says that he went out to the dry places looking for rest, and he found none. And when he came back to the house, he said, before he came back, he said, I will go back to my house.

[32:35] I will go back to where I left from. And when he came back, he found his sweat and he found his garnish. But hey, it was empty. Asia here, he done some things to show that his house wasn't empty.

[32:48] He done some things to prove it not only unto God, but to prove to the rest of Israel that he indeed believed in the Lord is God.

[33:01] Hallelujah. When that demon came back and found that house in that kind of condition, found a man's body in that kind of condition, sweat and garnish. But it was empty. What does the Bible say?

[33:13] It says that he took up his abode there. He went back out, he was coming and going at his own leisure. So he went out and got seven other demons. Each one more wicked than he was. And the end state of that man was worse than the beginning.

[33:27] It was worse than the beginning. All of us that now listen and understand that parable would mainly, was specifically talking about Israel and Israel's state. What was Israel's problem back then?

[33:40] Israel's problem, well leading up to here, and we see it right here in the 15 chapters of the Chronicles. It was idolatry. And they had had a problem with idolatry the entire time. But hey, maybe that idolatrous demon, that idolatrous unclean spirit, had lived Israel for a little while.

[33:56] But when it came back, it not only brought itself, but it also brought the demon, the unclean spirit of unbelief. It brought the unclean spirit of religion along with it.

[34:07] These Israelites, they had started trusting in what they were doing, trusting in the burning of the incense, trusting in the blood of the sacrifice, trusting in everything as far as the ordinances and as far as the religious aspect go.

[34:20] But they were not trusting in the God that gave them those ordinances. And I believe that parable was specifically talking about Israel, but there is a practical application for the church.

[34:31] Folks, people can lay down their stand all day long. I'm talking about lost people. They can lay down their stand. A drunkard can quit drinking.

[34:42] A billhead can quit popping pills. A prostitute can quit being a prostitute. All they want to, you don't believe me, you turn to Mark chapter 5, I'll show you a man named Legion that was able to break his own chains.

[34:55] And he was able to break his own fetters. But he still needed a touch from Jesus Christ in order to be healed completely. People lay down their stand all day long.

[35:06] The Reformation without regeneration is useless. We can reform ourselves. And we can quit sinning. That's one of the biggest problems that I've seen in all the churches that Missy and I have visited.

[35:18] And all the churches over the past 13 plus years that I've been to, one of the biggest problems I see, this grandmother coming in and saying, y'all pray for little Bobby and little Susie. They're shacking up. They're living together.

[35:30] Y'all pray for them. And they'll come in there and they'll make that prayer request. And a few months later down the road, Grandma comes in shouting and she's singing and she prays to God, well, pray to God. They got married. Hey, they're still lost.

[35:43] What's the celebration for? Why are they celebrating if they're still lost? Why? Because that don't look so bad on Grandma. It makes you look like Grandma raised them right.

[35:55] Raise little Bobby, raise little Susie right. They don't look bad on her. That's a huge problem in churches. Y'all pray for this one. Pray that he quits drinking.

[36:06] Hey, pray that he gets saved and he will quit drinking. Don't do any good to quit drinking. Don't do any good to quit pornography. Don't do any good to quit exploitation or twin.

[36:17] Any of these other sins that we think about. It doesn't look good to just up and quit then. We still need salvation. We still need a saver. Asa, Asa was showing that he believed.

[36:30] Asa was repenting. Even in the life of the Christian, the believer of born-again, blood-bought Christian, repentance is still necessary.

[36:41] Repentance is still needed in the life of the Christian. If it wasn't, the Holy Ghost wouldn't show us that we need to repent. What did Jesus tell Peter? Peter, Jesus told Peter that if a brother comes to you and offends you, what are you supposed to do?

[37:01] Rebuke him. Oh my goodness, we all love that. He gives us a chance to rebuke our brother. That didn't that same verse. He said, but if he repents, forgive him. If he repents, forgive him.

[37:13] Hey, we're to forgive. We're to repent. We're to do all these things. And the true, born-again child of God knows that they are supposed to do these things. Asa knew what he was supposed to do. Asa knew what was going on in Israel.

[37:25] He knew what was going on in the southern kingdom. He knew what was going on in the southern kingdom that he was over. And he did something about it. Hey, with repentance comes restitution. I ain't saying that you can pay God to save your soul or to accept your repentance.

[37:39] But if you truly repent to God, it will show. Amen. Praise God. Thank you Lord. I have a pleasure in not taking away out of Israel.

[37:50] Nevertheless, the hard evasion, the purpose of his name, even though he didn't completely finish the work, he continued in the work. I believe all my heart he continued in the work. Even though all the high places weren't taken away, the Bible's business was perfect in his heart.

[38:05] All his days perfect with what? Learn his attitude with God. Of course, trust in God. And why was that? What did we talk about over in the 14th chapter?

[38:16] God delivered. God delivered Asa and his army of 580,000 men from an army of a million ebillies.

[38:27] God delivered him. And that's what began this revival in Israel. That's what began this. People say all the time, I'd do this, I'd like to see a big revival. I would too, I'd love to see it.

[38:39] Do I think I will? Not for me. I don't. The people say all the time, I want to see a big revival. I want to see a revival of God's people.

[38:50] Get ready to eat out of them, and you might see it, amen. Maybe not in every church house, maybe not across the country, but you might have a revival in your own life. We get rid of our battles. If we take off whatever it is, off of whatever pedestal, we have a love God, and we put it down in its proper place, and put God in his proper place.

[39:11] We can experience revival. That's exactly what Asa and his kingdom experienced. When they showed the faith that they had in God, and one day, when they had that faith, God acted on the prayer.

[39:24] How many prayers does God act on the prayer? And yet we still have the black faith. God help us.