Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19951126.htm

THRU THE BIBLE SYNTHESIS
"Part XI: 1 & 2 Chronicles - Gaining DIRECTION In Life Out Of The AIMLESSNESS Of Secular and Religious Apostasy"

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) Worldwide, institutions are falling ever deeper into sin's decay:

(a) Ireland voted this week on legalizing divorce, a shock to a nation that is 90 % Roman Catholic where those guilty of divorce cannot be served communion!

(b) France's huge Aerobus aircraft manufacturer is under investigation for bribes to win international contracts. Our CIA says $35 billion in contracts are landed internationally by bribery each year!

(c) Remember the fairyland wedding of Britain's Prince Charles and Diana? In a nationally televised show this week, Diana admitted to adultery and claimed that her marriage to Prince Charles was a "marriage of three," for it included his mistress in a triangle!

If such institutions that benchmark WORLD decency give way to decay, how can we expect "commoners" to live uprightly?!

(2) In this month's Moody Monthly, there is the disheartening news of spiritual failure in the lives of influential Christians:

(a) Sandi Patti, a gifted soprano is reported as having had an affair while she was married with four children. She has since divorced her husband and married the lover. Now her former husband wants to remarry, so he and Patti are battling for custody of the four children!

(b) On the same page is news about Charles Stanley, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta and nationally renowned Bible teacher. His wife has filed for divorce, so he has ceased his administrative duties to work at being reconciled with his wife. What is happening?! How many who have been directed to live godly lives by the ministries of these people will now be disillusioned?!

(3) Then this week the unthinkable happened in Illinois, America's heartland. A couple that wanted a baby but couldn't have one hired two men to kill a lone, pregnant woman, cut into her body, and remove her still living infant for themselves ! To cover up their identities as her 8 year old son witnessed the atrocity, the killers tortured him to death! The murdered woman's funeral was held in her Bible church! When the American government makes abortion of FULL TERM infants an acceptable norm, releasing men from a sense of accountability so that they kill a woman and steal her unborn child from her body, all for HIRE, why HOPE for this world's institutions?!

(We turn to the sermon's "Need" section . . . )

Need: "When I witness what sin in secular AND religious leaders and institutions around me do to wreck their good dreams, leaving individuals like me in a vacuum for meaningful direction, I get nervous and wonder WHERE I should be HEADED! Any ideas?!"
  1. When Israel's priests and kings led her into apostasy and resulting divine discipline by Babylonian Captivity, the individual Jew was left suspended, not knowing what good and strong leader to follow!
    1. Though God created the world and set man up as His deputy, sin deposed him, so Satan became ruler on earth, Gn. 1-5; 2 Cor. 4:4.
    2. The Lord renewed history through the Noahic flood, Gen. 6:1-9:7.
    3. Yet, Noah's descendant, Nimrod, began an apostasy, witchcraft, opposing God's rule on the earth, Gn. 10:8-10; 11:1-9; Rev. 12:1-3.
    4. God thus chose Abraham to start a nation to check this sin, Gn. 12:1-3
    5. After many challenges en route, that nation, Israel failed to curb Nimrodian apostasy, itself becoming so seduced by it in Palestin e that God sent her into national captivity, Gn. 12:4-1 & 2 Kings.
    6. So, with his apostate leaders and institutions crushed by captivity, the individual Jew dangled without godly direction for his life !
  2. However, 1 & 2 Chronicles summarizes history from Adam to Israel's captivity with meaningful direction for the individual Jew!
    1. The author of Chronicles arranged his account to display that Israel's kings and priests reached their peak under David's administration!
      1. Unlike other Old Testament books, the Chronicles start history with Adam and trace eras through time into Israel's captivity!
      2. Its record cuts through eras via a genealogical format until it turns into a biographical one starting with David, B.K.C., O.T., p. 590.
      3. Though there are some references to the Northern Kingdom, Israel, the Chronicles feature the Southern Kingdom's Davidic reign, Ibid.
      4. A noted theme in the Chronicles is its preoccupation with David's THEOCRATIC (political and priestly) ORGANIZATION, Ibid.
        1. David divided the priests into 24 groups to serve the temple 2 weeks for each group per Jewish year (48 wks.), 1 Ch. 24:4-5.
        2. He COMBINED temple musicians with military commanders for exercises in theocratic holy war, 1 Ch. 25:1, Ibid., p. 613.
        3. As supreme commander in the theocracy, king David divided his national guard into 12 divisions of 24,000 men each where each division was on active duty 1 month a year, 1 Ch. 27:1-15.
        4. David assigned others to his bureaucracy (1 Ch. 27:16ff), AND made posthumous plans on the building of the temple (28:1-10).
      5. After mentioning Israel's rebellion and captivity, Chronicles ends optimistically: though ISRAEL'S kings had failed to lead her into godliness, GOD graciously, sovereignly used PAGAN king Cyrus to restore Israel to Palestine and keep the Abrahamic and DAVIDIC covenants on track, 2 Chr. 36:14-23! (Ibid., p. 649)
    2. Thus, the INDIVIDUAL exiles of Israel were to see that God's program was surely headed toward the DAVIDIC, MESSIANIC KINGDOM, SO they were to follow DAVID'S exemplary, written order in Scripture (under her Scripture teachers) until MESSIAH came to fill Israel's religious and political leadership vacuums!
  3. God's "thread of redemption" in Chronicles demonstrates how God permits WORLD religious and political leadership decay to exist as a MEANS of directing man to find fulfillment in CHRIST!
    1. Since Adam, the Gentiles have turned their backs on God, Gn. 11:1-9
    2. Israel repeatedly turned its back on God as God declared when she requested a king in place of direct divine rule, 1 Samuel 8:7-8. Finally, God sent Israel into Babylonian Captivity as even her human priests and kings led the nation into apostasy, 2 Chr. 36:13-17!
    3. However, 1 & 2 Chronicles address the royal and priestly leadership vacuums THUS CREATED, showing individual Jews their need to heed Davidic, king-priest order, and this set the stage for Israel to follow the perfect priest and king, JESUS CHRIST! (Ibid., p. 590)
    4. When Christ rules as Israel's Messiah, the Gentiles will enjoy divine world order, direction and fullness through Israel, cf. Amos 9:11-15.
Application: To respond well to the aimless futility that leaders and institutions of THIS life provide us by their sinful failures, (1) become a citizen of God's kingdom by faith in Christ as Savior from sin, Jn. 3: 16; Col. 1:13! (2) Then, to quote Dr. Cook, "walk with the King today and be a blessing," confessing our sins (1 Jn. 1:9), depending on the Spirit's power (Ga. 5:16-23) to obey Scripture (1 Jn. 3:1-6) and serve our God in His assignments for us to "recruit" others for Him!

Lesson: God STRATEGICALLY permits these life's institutions and leaders to decay with sin, producing a vacuum for meaning so as to create a thirst for CHRIST, world history's ANSWER, that they might be saved through personal faith in His substitutionary atonement! (Rev. 22:17)

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Nancy Kennedy was a woman who grew up desperately looking for someone to love her. After going through numerous immoral capers in search of love, she dated a man named Barry who asked her to go ice skating with him. Since her foot size was a hard one to fit, he drove all over northern Maine until he found a pair for her. Nancy was so impressed by his thoughtfulness that she asked him to marry her!

However, the marriage didn't go well! Her husband was a nice man, but he wasn't "the one." She began flirting around the office, looking for someone really to love her. Finally, a co-worker named Bill said, "I know someone who loves you. Jesus loves yo u. He loves you so much that He took all of your sins as if they were His and died in your place." Nancy was shocked. That was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard! Buy ice skates, yes, but die for a woman? Never!

But as things continued to decline in her marriage with Barry, Nancy cried out to the Lord alone in her bed one night when he had gone shopping, saying, "Jesus, save me!" As she wept, she picked up her Bible and read, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jes us is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved . . . Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom. 10:9,13). Nancy prayed to God for this salvation and forgiveness for years of sin, and then tu rned over and went to sleep.

When she woke up, she saw her husband had returned from the store and was asleep beside her, and Nancy realized for the first time that she really loved him! God had filled her emptiness with His love, and she had love to spare for her husband, Barry!

That was in 1978. Barry and Nancy have now been married for 20 years though he has yet to come to Christ. Nancy's testimony is on page 80 of this month's Moody Monthly. She writes: "I am happier. I've found the love I always longed for, both in my Savior, Jesus Christ--and in the husband God has given me. Because I no longer have to look for love, I'm free to be a channel of God's love to others."

Nancy Kennedy's story is just one of millions of stories of people who have been saved through facing the utter spiritual bankruptcy of this life. God is using the futility of man's earthly quest to create a thirst for Christ that they might come and drink of His waters of salvation! (Rev. 22:17)