Series:
Questions
Title:
Why Seek Gods That Cannot Deliver
Text: 2
Chronicles 25: 15
Date:
11-12-2017
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
2
Chronicles 25: 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.
After
King Amaziah defeated the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, he brought their
idol gods to Judah and set them up to be his gods. He bowed down before them
and burned incense to them.
2
Chronicles 25: 15: Wherefore the anger of the LORD was 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?
How
absurd! To seek after gods that cannot
deliver their own people out of the hand of their enemy?
Proposition: Every sinner who must contribute a work to his salvation
is seeking after gods that cannot deliver their own people out of the hand
their enemies.
“Why hast thou sought after the gods of the
people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?” Let’s ask and answer this question in case there are any
here seeking after such gods of men.
WHY SEEK THE GODS?
2 Chronicles 25: 15: Why hast thou sought
after the gods…?
Amaziah
is like those who have heard the gospel of the true and living God yet go
looking into the many gods around the world.
Amaziah was in the one land where the one true and living God
revealed himself to his people. The nations of outside that one
nation had many gods. Yet,
Amaziah was willing to worship gods that could not deliver their own people out
of his hand rather than the God who made him conquer that people.
Due to
the depraved heart, sinners are willing to consider any of this worlds gods, no
matter how absurd. But if the word of God is quoted, they are immediately ready
to doubt and argue and make objections.
I
remember in college, I had lots of young friends who were out of the house
now. Now, they wanted to learn about all
the different religions, with all their different idol gods with all their
different ways of salvation. Would God
create thousands of different religions and thousands of images of himself and
thousands of ways to worship him? Do you
make yourself known to men in thousands of ways that are nothing like you?
The One LORD
Jehovah who saves one way—through his Son Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit is
the one and only God.
Isaiah 44:6: Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and
his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside
me there is no God.
Isaiah 45: 6…I am the LORD, and there is none else. 7: I
form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD
do all these things…21:…There is no God else beside me; a just God and a
Saviour; there is none beside me. 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
1 Corinthians 8: 4:
[Those in whom God has revealed himself] we know that an idol is nothing
in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5: For though there be that are called
gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6: But to us there is but one
God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
There are
many religions with many idol gods yet there is but one true God who is a just
God and a Savior—“Why seek ye after the
gods?”
WHY SEEK THE GODS OF THE PEOPLE?
2 Chronnicles 25: 15: Why hast thou sought
after the gods of the people…?
Man’s gods
all come from man.
Isaiah 40: 19:
The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with
gold, and casteth silver chains. 20:
He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that
will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that
shall not be moved.
They may
or may not be carved into a trinket by man’s hand—a man’s idol may be false
doctrine. But whether carved in the mind
or the hand all man’s gods come from man.
If someone came along in Judah a hundred years later and worshipped
Amaziah’s gods, where did his gods come from?—verse 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. They came from the children of Seir then
from Amaziah bringing them to Judah—they came from man.
God is
the solitary eternal God.
Genesis 1: 1: In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
God made
man, man did not make God. God is the
Creator, we are the creature. God does
not need us, we need God. This is only
true concerning the one true and living God revealed in this book.
Acts 17: 28: For in him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Hosea 13:4: Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of
Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
Why seek
“after the gods” (plural), which are all “of the people.”
WHY SEEK THE GODS OF THE PEOPLE WHICH CANNOT
DELIVER?
2 Chronicles 25: 15: Why hast thou sought
after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of
thine hand?
This is
the most absurd of all! Why seek a God
that cannot deliver their own people out of the hand of the enemy?
How can
you tell a god is an idol of man’s making? If
they cannot deliver their own people out of the hand of the enemy then they are
not the true God. Every god that
requires even one work of a man’s hand to save is an idol created by the work
of a man own hand. And every god that man creates requires
man to do something to help him because he cannot deliver without the help of
man’s hand.
They say
of their god, “god has no hands but your
hands and no feet but your feet.”
They say this about their god, “god
wants to save you. But he cannot unless you help him by your hand.” The man
of god’s imagination is a dumb idol—exactly opposite to the true God. Listen to
God’s description of the idol:
Isaiah 46:7: They
bear him upon the shoulder—Christ bears his
people upon his shoulder—
Isaiah 46: 7:…they
carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth—God carries his people, sets them in his holy
habitation, and they stand.
Isaiah 46: 7:…from
his place shall he not remove—God does as he will
in heaven and earth, he sets the bounds of men, not the other way around
Isaiah 46: 7:…yea,
one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his
trouble.—God hears his people in Christ and saves each
one and none shall be lost.
Psalm 115: 3: But our God is in the heavens: he hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased. 4: Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5: They have mouths, but they speak
not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6:
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7: They have hands, but they handle
not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their
throat. 8: They that make them
are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
Isaiah 41: 23:
Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are
gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it
together. 24: Behold, ye are
of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth
you.
Understand
this, salvation apart from man’s works is so despised by fallen man that his
own depraved heart will not allow him to even create a God that does all the
saving. Man makes his god to be like
himself—that is why every idol god man creates cannot deliver their own people out of thine hand unless they help him. Man makes all his gods to be just like him:
their gods can do no more than they can do.
Psalm 135:18: They that make them are like unto them: so
is every one that trusteth in them.
But the
true and living God is not like those he saves.
Psalm 50: 21…thou thoughtest that I was altogether such
an one as thyself:
The true
and living God does all the delivering of his people out of the hand of our
enemies. He saves his people, his people do not save him or even help him save.
The true
God chose his people before as yet there were any false gods—
Isaiah 43: 10:
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen:
that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me
there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11: I, even I, am the
LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12: I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there
was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses,
saith the LORD, that I am God. 13:
Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that
can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
The true
God saves his people according to his own covenant promise—
1 Kings 8:23: And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is
no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant
and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:
God makes
his people alive and delivers us—we do not make our god alive and deliver him--
Deuteronomy 32:39: See now that I, even I, am he, and
there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither
is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
Here is
the key: God is known by the judgment he executes in the earth. No man-made god
ever solved the dilemma of being just and a Savior--
Isaiah 45: 21:…there is no God else beside me; a just God
and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
There is
but one God who sent his Son and gave himself to justify his people from our
sins—while at the same time upholding his justice; one God who quickens his
people to rest entirely in him without adding one work of their own; one God who
saves beginning to end by his grace and power alone and his people contribute
nothing; one God who brings his people to give him all the glory and to cease
glorying in themselves.
Understand,
no man ever thought of a god who could do these things because fallen man never
could do these things. The very fact God
does not depend upon a single work of man’s hand to save declares he is the
only the true and living God. Sinful man hates the God that does not allow them
to glory in at least one work of their own hand. That is the answer to this question, “Why hast thou sought after the gods of the
people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?” It is
because sinful man hates God to have all the glory for saving his people. But why do so? It is absurd. There is one God who says,
Isaiah 45: 22:
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God,
and there is none else. 23:
I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in
righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall swear. 24: Surely,
shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even
to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be
ashamed. 25: In the LORD shall
all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
Amen!