Glory be to God! Welcome to the God of wonders radio program. In tonight’s message Part 1 of A Perfect Heart with Pastor Kiruba Stephen, we will learn, what are the characteristics of one whose heart is loyal to the Lord God Almighty? Let’s listen.
2 Chronicles Chapter 25 [King James Version] 1. Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2. And he did that which was right in the sight of theLord, but not with a perfect heart.
Now, please make a note of this, verse 2 And he did that which was right in the sight of theLord, but not with a perfect heart. 3. Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father.
Now, it goes on to say that he did not kill the children but he killed only the ones who he was supposed to have killed. So, just as God says in His word, the children shall not bare the iniquity of the fathers (Ezekiel 18:20). It says over here that Amaziah spared the children. But, in what way he actually missed? We are going to see from verse 5 onwards. 5. Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. 6. He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver. 7. But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. 8. But if thou wilt go, do it; be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down. 9. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.
Now, we need to make a note of verse 9 that if we make league with the enemies of God, we are bound to fail. Verse 10: 10. Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger.
Now verse 11 onwards says what happened. Because he obeyed the Lord, God gave him victory and he came with much spoil and he defeated his enemy and he is coming back home. Let’s see verse 14. 14. Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. 15.Wherefore the anger of theLordwas kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? 16. And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Art thou made of the king's counsel? forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel.
So we also see, when this king he did what he was not supposed to do, means when he sinned against the living God; what happens here is, his heart gets hardened against the prophet. The prophet that God has in his life, to come and warn him, his heart hardens, and he is not listening actually which is actually becoming a snare to him. And we see in verse 16 very clearly, because God has determined to destroy him, he is not listening to the counsel, the good counsel that would have saved him and given him his life. Rather he chose to rebel.
No. 17 onwards says that Amaziah king of Judah took advice, that is ungodly advice. The advice that came from the prophet was, that you have sought after the other gods, so God is going to deliver you into the hands of the enemy. But he is not listening to that, he is not repenting. So what’s happening is, he is getting another counsel which is not of the Lord and what he is doing is; he is listening to that because his heart is hardened. And what is happening here is, Joash king of Israel, now he is going to war. Amaziah is going to the king of Israel and he is starting a fight. He is not just sitting by himself where he should be, just sitting being thankful that, “Ok, I am spared. I did something wrong. God gave me victory, but I gave the glory to the idols of that land, heathen land.” And he should have been in sackcloth and ashes before the Lord and repented. But, instead what he did was, he actually went against the prophet that the Lord sent to warn him. So, that didn’t help. So, on top of that, because God was determined to destroy him. What happened here was, he went to the battle where he should not have gone and he ends up getting defeated.
And you can read that, the rest of the chapter will tell you that he got defeated.
We are not here to completely go over the story and everything; we can go through the entire chapter by ourselves which is very important. I would really encourage you to go home and read the entire chapter very slowly and see. Anytime we see, a downfall, we have to look very carefully and see what we can learn from that. And this king, when you look at the outset, looks like he started well. But if you really look closer, you can see there is something wrong. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord but there is an important sentence there, but not with a perfect heart. You can see also in other chapters where other kings like King Hezekiah, they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and also with a perfect heart. So, they ended well.
So, we have to make that distinction. God makes that distinction actually in the Bible to show that sometimes our actions may be right, but our heart may not fully be with our actions. So our actions alone will not determine who we are but our motives along with the actions. So, for example if we have to do something for the Lord, we can do it. But there will be another area where the Lord will say, “Ok, offer this as a sacrifice to Me.” And that’s the area we’ll say, “No, I don’t what to do that.” Or there will be something, we will give up some obvious sins and there will be other areas, where we should change, and we will say, “This is not that bad. This is not as bad as that. You know, I know believers who are also doing that. Why should I give up on this one?” And when the Spirit of the Lord is convicting us personally in our hearts, what happens to that person is, the person who is not perfect before the Lord, who is just doing all the things, right actions in front of people and even in front of God; he actually has many doors open, where the very thing that he disobeys will become a snare.
So, we also see in the lives of many kings where they destroy the idols but they left the high places. And, we can very clearly see in their lives also what happened. So, we have to take this as a warning and we have to ask the Lord, “Lord, what are my high places. Have I left any high places in my life? Or did I clear everything and is my heart perfect before You. Are my actions and my heart perfect before You?” I think in New King James Version it says, “But not with a loyal heart.” So loyalty means like you really, really, really are devoted to that person a hundred percent. When the loyalty is not there, you can have all the actions you want, but your heart may be loyal to something else. So we have to question our loyalty. “Am I a hundred percent loyal to my God who has called me? Am I a hundred percent loyal toward God who chose me? And are my actions reflecting my heart? Is my heart completely surrendered to God? And am I going after other things which I should not?”
The reason why Amaziah actually went to Israel for help was, his heart was not really fully committed to God. If his heart were committed to God, he would know, he would know who to go to. He would have gone to the Lord first and he would have said, “Lord.” Just like how David used to do, “Shall I go? Shall I go up for battle or should I not? Should I stay?” He never consulted the Lord. Instead, he is going to the person, the very person who is rebelling against God, who God is against. And he is going and seeking for help. But, God is very gracious. What the Lord does is, He is offering help. He is saying, “Ok, I don’t want Amaziah to get killed, I don’t want him to be destroyed. Let Me give him an opportunity where I will send My prophet to him to let him know that, Don’t go to battle. Don’t go get troops from him. Don’t get help from him. I will help.” So, Amaziah listened to the Lord.
How many times when we are in trouble or we do our own thing, and when the Lord speaks to us, through a person or through a scripture or through a message, how many times do we really listen? When we listen to what the Lord says, what happens is, we escape the snare of the enemy. But, when we don’t listen, when we say, “I know everything. God speaks to me. And you don’t have to tell me anything. I know when God speaks to me.” And just go in your own course, that’s where it becomes very dangerous. So, we need to be very careful. Just as God’s Word says, “There is safety in the multitude of counselors.” (Proverbs 11:14). So, we have to make sure that our counsel is coming from the Lord.
We saw in the verses in 2 Chronicles 25, we read how this king listened. In verse 17, how he took advice from ungodly people. So just taking advice is not important. Where are we getting our advice from? Is our counsel from the Lord? Is it from God’s people? Is it from the Lord God who cares about us? Is it from people who really listen to the Lord or are we just looking for some wisdom, some worldly wisdom or from so called people who say, “I know what is happening, I can help you.” So, we have to look to the Lord for direction. That’s where Amaziah missed. Because his heart was not loyal to the Lord, it was not his priority to consult whether to go the battle or where to get help, he did not consult the Lord. So, that’s our first lesson that we learned from Chapter 25 that anytime we do anything, check our hearts. Am I a hundred percent loyal to the Lord?
Blessed Heavenly Father, take this word straight into the hearts of the listeners. Strengthen them greatly that they may live a life that’s loyal to You with a perfect heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
