Know That the Lord Is God!
General • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 81 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Do you KNOW God?
What does it mean to truly KNOW God?
How does one come to KNOW God?
It was AW Tozer who said that what a person thought about when they thought about God was the most important thing about them.
Sometimes we think that we KNOW someone, but really all we have is knowledge ABOUT that person.
One of my sons just started taking an interest in baseball cards, which I was also interested in as a youth.
If you aren’t familiar with baseball cards, the photo of the player is one the front, but on the back you find all kinds of information about that player - height, weight, right or left handed, birthplace, and then a whole table of statistics: Runs, HR, RBI, ERA, etc...
By reading the back of a ball card, one can learn a lot about a player and even begin to think that they know that player, but they have never even met them.
And then there are those that do get introduced to their favorite player, at a fundraiser, contest, or autograph event, and they get their signature, and a handshake and maybe a photo with them…but then they walk away and they can say that they met that player…but they still cannot claim to KNOW them in the true sense of the word KNOW.
So what about God?…We don’t have a trading card for Him…He has given us something much, much better - His Word.
Yet many have read the Word, studied the Word, and memorized the Word…yet they still don’t KNOW God.
Do you KNOW God?
What does it mean to truly KNOW God?
How does one come to KNOW God?
And if we do know God, what difference has that made in our lives?
At what point does our knowledge of God move from the theoretical to the experiential? When does it become a personal, intimate relationship?
In one sense, God is beyond our capacity to understand fully...He is infinite and we are finite.
In fact, the Bible seems to say that, at some level, we CANNOT know God:
26 “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered.
Isaiah 40:14–18 (NKJV)
14 With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding? ....18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
We learn by comparison…we can understand one thing because we already know of another thing that it is like..but not so with God - there is nothing to compare Him to - God alone is PEERLESS!
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
Yet there is also a sense in which the Bible calls us to KNOW Him:
Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Do you KNOW God?
Do you know that the Lord is God?
That’s the question that this passage is asking us.
Today, we will study the life of a king of Judah, named Manasseh.
And we will observe a man that began his reign in wickedness but because he experienced the power of redemption, he came to know that the Lord is God.
I. The King’s Disobedience
II. The King’s Discipline
III. The King’s Deliverance
I want to invite you to set aside distractions and your busyness for a few moments and let’s walk together through this passage.
Allow the Spirit to have His way and to do His work, and let’s pause and drink deeply from the well…let us KNOW that the Lord is God.
May we all leave changed - different from when we walked in.
<PRAY>
I. The King’s Disobedience
I. The King’s Disobedience
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
Notice two things about Manasseh’s actions:
1- that Manasseh’s actions were “evil in the sight of the Lord”.
God alone has the authority to define what is evil, not us.
Absolute truth vs. relativism
2- Manasseh’s evil actions were the same abominations as the Canaanites that God had driven out of the land during the campaigns of Joshua and the Israelites.
“anti-God”
3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
“high places” is a phrase we read often in the OT
It is almost always associated with pagan, cultish practices, idolatry, and even child sacrifice.
High places were condemned as illegitimate worship locations and sinful by God:
Deuteronomy 12:2–4 (NKJV)
2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.
2 Chronicles 33:6–9 (NKJV)
6 Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; 8 and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers—only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.” 9 So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
When we read verses 7-8, we are reading excerpts from 2 Samuel and from Psalms where God is making a conditional promise to Israel.
God is saying I will dwell with you at the temple as long as you are “careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.”
And did Manasseh obey this and keep his end of the conditional promise?…let’s see:
Child sacrifice
Soothsaying (prediction of the future using sorcery or witchcraft)
witchcraft & sorcery (demonic activity)
mediums and spiritists (attempting to speak to the dead/demons)
Pagan idols in the temple (abomination)
16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.
Besides all the idolatry and witchcraft and killing his own sons, Manasseh was bloodthirsty - he slaughtered his own people without cause and made Jerusalem a blood bath.
Manasseh was a murderer - the Jewish historian Josephus stated that daily executions were ordered by him. Tradition says that Manasseh was the king who murdered Isaiah the prophet by having him sawn in half.
2 Chronicles 33:9 (NKJV)
9 So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
Everything rises and falls on leadership - Manasseh seduced (to wander, go astray, stagger, deceive oneself) the people of his kingdom to turn away from God and do even MORE evil than the Canaanites which God had destroyed....
and in doing so he deceived himself.
Know That the Lord is God!
I. The King’s Disobedience
II. The King’s Discipline
II. The King’s Discipline
10 And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen.
I am in awe of God’s response - He could have brought immediate judgement (and I think we would have been rooting for that)…but God’s grace is truly amazing!
Even after all of these horribly bloody acts, God still calls out to Manasseh and the people of Judah to turn to Him. Instead of fire and brimstone, they receive an outpouring of God’s mercy!
We look at our world today, we see many modern-day Manasseh’s...with all the blood-thirst and wickedness and child sacrifice and idolatry and yet God still calls out to them…to America, to Russia, to China…to the Middle East…God calls out to these world leaders. How do we know this?…they are imprisoning and killing Christians! Those are God’s martyrs (which is the word many Bibles translate “witnesses”) and in order to know that they are doing criminal activity in those nations, the national leaders have to know what Christianity is so they can stop it!
We pray for the persecuted church, we want that to stop, but God is using that oppression to call out to those that are doing the oppressing…The Lord is speaking to the modern-day Manasseh’s just as he spoke to the original Manasseh- what a merciful and gracious God!
God is also calling out to you. Have you made the personal choice to believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for your eternal life? God is calling out to you right now…it’s a lot easier to talk about the world leaders and the those from 650 BC…but what about you? Here you sit at UGBC in 2023…having never yet placed your faith in Jesus…yet God still calls out to you to do so.
You might say, “Well, I’m no Manasseh…I’m not a blood thirsty, maniacal killer!”
That may be true, but that’s not what God sees when He looks at you. When God looks upon those that have not believed, He sees a sinner in need of a Savior. God loves you! (did you know that?)…God loves you right now and He is calling out to you. Are you listening? (we would have liked to see Manasseh listen, but what about us?)
Do you know that you are a sinner? (you have broken God’s law, just like the rest of us) Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Do you know that the penalty for your sin is eternal death in hell, but God has a way for you to avoid that? Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How do you get a gift?..It has to be offered (God has done that…He is doing that right now)…but it also has to be received! (that’s your choice) John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Will you believe in Jesus right now to receive eternal life?
Sadly, Manasseh and Judah refuse God’s call:
11 Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.
Now comes the consequences - the discipline of the Lord:
Invasion of an enemy army (Assyria)
Note: Manasseh’s grandfather, Ahaz, was a vassal king to the Sargon II, the king of Assyria - this meant that Ahaz could stay in power as king of Judah but had to pay tribute to Assyria. (this was known as a “suzerain-vassal relationship”) When Sargon II died, Sennacherib became the king of Assyria, but had some trouble keeping his tributaries in line. Manasseh’s father, Hezekiah, saw this as an opportunity to revolt, which he did with God’s help. Now Assyria comes in to retake Jerusalem.
Nose hooks: Manasseh, the one who bloodied his people, was bloodied and humiliated with a literal ring pierced through his nose with a chain or rope attached to be led by, like an ox or other cattle.
Bronze fetters or chains: Manasseh was further humiliated with heavy, bronze chains.
Captivity: The mighty, proud king was now lowered to the status of a slave - made a captive of his enemies.
I. The King’s Disobedience
II. The King’s Discipline
III. The King’s Deliverance
III. The King’s Deliverance
III. The King’s Deliverance
A. Manasseh’s Prayer
2 Chronicles 33:12–13 (NKJV)
12 Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
13 and prayed to Him...
Notice, first of all, that Manasseh realizes that he is in affliction.
I know that this might seem too obvious, but there are some that choose to disobey, receive God’s discipline, but refuse to acknowledge that they are in affliction from God and refuse change the direction of their lives!
8 Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.
Manasseh, wicked and bloody though he was, stands in judgement of the generation spoken of here. These men were in exceedingly great affliction (much more than Manasseh was in), yet they do not see this affliction as an opportunity to turn to God.
Manasseh understood two things:
He was in affliction from God,
and…that he deserved it!
Chronicles 33:12–13 (NKJV)
12 Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
13 and prayed to Him...
Notice that because he acknowledged that he was in affliction, Manasseh made three choices:
Manasseh’s three choices:
1. Implored the LORD his God
2. Humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers
3. Prayed to God
This is exactly what God was waiting for!
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
NOTE: this does not mean that every affliction is because of sin in your life!
But whether affliction comes from our own sin, someone else’s, or just because of a sin-sick world we live in, God is looking for humble hearts, for it is only with humble hearts that He can work.
III. The King’s Deliverance
A. Manasseh’s Prayer
B. God’s Provision
2 Chronicles 33:13 (NKJV)
13 ... and He [God] received his [Manasseh’s] entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
Now we come to the grand conclusion - the blessing, the climax of this passage!
Manasseh finally KNEW God!
He knew ABOUT God, but now he KNEW God through the power of redemption.
Manasseh, like many people today, had grown up in a home and a nation where God was worshipped and feared.
His father, Hezekiah, is called the most godly king of Judah’s history.
2 Kings 18:5–6 (NKJV)
5 He [Hezekiah] trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
Manasseh grew up knowing all ABOUT God - he saw the temple being used by the priests to worship Yahweh, the high places were torn down, the sacrificial system was in full use, and the celebrations, festivals, and feasts were held just as the Law prescribed.
Manasseh saw his father standing steadfast and true to the God of Israel, yet he still chose to turn his back and completely walk away, in opposition to the God of his father. Manasseh was a prodigal son!
This is not only an ancient world problem, it is a modern day malady in our churches right here in America in 2023.
Young people by the thousands are leaving church, walking away from faith and from God…why?
For many reasons, but I believe one of the most prevalent is that while they know all ABOUT God, they have never really KNOWN God personally.
What about you, teens, junior higher’s, even our elementary kids listening…do you know only ABOUT God, or do you KNOW God?
Adults, parents, leaders, teachers…we have such a critical role to play in this arena - when you teach your class today, you are responsible to not only teach our children and teens ABOUT God, but to help them know God on a personal level…parents, we have a critical mandate to help our children rise above a knowledge, verse reciting level…and to learn to KNOW the God of the Bible.
How many young Manasseh’s are sitting here in these seats today?
Yes, they have their own choice to make, but let’s make sure that we have done everything we can, exhausted every resource possible to help our young people to KNOW our great God.
I. The King’s Disobedience
II. The King’s Discipline
III. The King’s Deliverance
A. Manasseh’s Prayer
B. God’s Provision
C. Judah’s Protection
*Skip to end if time is gone*
Physical Protection
14 After this he built a wall outside the City of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate; and it enclosed Ophel, and he raised it to a very great height. Then he put military captains in all the fortified cities of Judah.
Now that he has been restored, Manasseh assumes his kingly duties
Government’s job is to protect the citizens, and Manasseh obediently follows this God-given mandate.
III. The King’s Deliverance
A. Manasseh’s Prayer
B. God’s Provision
C. Judah’s Protection
Physical Protection
Spiritual Protection
2 Chronicles 33:15–17 (NKJV)
15 He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city. 16 He also repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. 17 Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
CONCLUSION:
The evidence of Manasseh’s dedication to God could not have been more clear - He was completely sold out for God!
He not only knew ABOUT God…he KNEW God!…he EXPERIENCED God and it completely and radically transformed his life!
If we have truly KNOW God…if we have truly EXPERIENCED God, it should also radically transform our lives - and our children should see it!
Final Thoughts/Questions:
Remember that football stadium filled with players and coaches and people, all kneeling down on the field to pray for their fallen teammate?
There were doubtless several, if not many, Christians present that night…but there were most likely several unbelievers in the group of kneeled men.
Which one are you?…do you know the Lord?…do you know that the Lord is God?
To the unsaved: If you have never believed in Jesus for salvation, never placed your faith in Jesus alone - in His death and burial (paid the penalty for your sin) and His resurrection (the proof that He can be trusted), you do not know God. You might know a lot about God, but you do not know Him. Will you believe on Jesus today?
To the saved: If you have believed in Jesus, you have BEGUN to know Him. But knowing God is a life-long pursuit…a life-long experience. Do you know Him better today than you did before?
Remember what Manasseh did after he experienced the power of redemption, and knew that the Lord was God?…He cleaned house! All the idols and pagan altars were “cast out of the city”! Christian, what do you need to cast out of the city? What is in your life right now that needs to go? Will you cast it out? Will you ask the Lord to expose the uncleanness, the idolatry that lurks in our hearts? Cast it out of the city!
Know That the Lord Is God!
Know That the Lord Is God!
<quiet moment of stillness and reflection - closing prayer>