From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: When we don't call on the Lord, especially when we're in trouble, especially when we're hurting, God turns up the heat to get us to come down to our knees. When we keep saying no, there are some things that we learn about that. God notices when we fail to call upon Him.

Larry Noble: Welcome to day two from His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, who's in the middle of a dynamic lesson from his Holy Boldness series, explaining how many people treat God with a slap in the face instead of a surrendered heart on our knees. Today, we're going to learn about Ahaziah, King of Judah and Ahab's son, who greatly provoked the Lord to anger after the slap in the face he gave to the Lord.

Today, we'll see how things went for the king when he did that in a message called, "A Slap in God's Face," from part two today. It's from Pastor Jeff's series that we're offering this month for your gift of any amount to From His Heart, called Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, the Prophet of Fire. If you missed part one from last time, be sure to go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Listen" link. First, though, open your Bible now to the book of Second Kings as Pastor Jeff reminds us to avoid the mistake of slapping God in the face.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: This is such an interesting story in the Word of God. It shows forth the disrespect and the insolence of this king, King Ahaziah, toward the God of Israel, toward the one true God, toward Jehovah God. The question is, what do we learn from this? I want to share with you three insights from the insolence of King Ahaziah. First insight: God uses problems to get our attention.

The Lord is over all things, and He uses problems and difficulties and trials and troubles in our lives for one reason: to get our attention. Now, you’ve got to remember, as we read, Ahaziah is a wicked king. He's provoking the Lord to anger with his Baal worship and with his idols that he had set up in Israel for the people to worship so they didn't have to go down to Jerusalem. God causes a problem to come into his life. He's upstairs in his bedroom at his house, and he falls through the lattice work and he falls probably from the second floor to the first floor. He's got some internal injuries, some severe injuries, and he sends his servants 40 miles to go to Ekron to inquire of Baal-zebub to see whether or not he's going to get well.

So the first insight: God uses problems to get our attention. Insight number two: God notices when we fail to call upon Him. Look at verse two again. Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber, which was in Samaria, and became ill. So he sent messengers and said to them, "Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness."

Ekron is a land in Philistia, and Ahaziah is sending his messengers to Ekron to inquire of Baal-zebub if he's going to get well or not. Had he forgotten what happened on Mount Carmel? Had he forgotten that Elijah had shown them that the Lord, He is God? The Lord, He is God. Baal is not God. The Lord is God. But Ahaziah, although he knew that, although he had lived and experienced that, he blew that off. He said, "No, I'm not going to call upon Jehovah God. I'm going to call upon Baal-zebub."

First of all, if we don't call upon Him, it reveals a wicked, rebellious heart. That's what Ahaziah had. He had a wicked, rebellious heart. Why don't you call upon Jehovah God? Because I don't like Jehovah God. I don't want to hear from Jehovah God. I don't want to talk to Elijah, the preacher and the prophet of Jehovah God. Why? Because you know what he's going to say. Why did Micaiah never prophesy good concerning Ahab? Because the scripture says Ahab sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. So the first thing that we see in there, when you fail to call, it reveals a wicked, rebellious heart. You don't want to call on God because you don't want to hear what God has to say.

Secondly, it's a slap in God's face when we refuse to call upon Him. Now, I want you to see because the Lord is very clear. He says at the end of this chapter in verse 17, the reason why Ahaziah died is because he called on Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, and not Jehovah God. Who is Baal-zebub? That word Baal means lord. Zebub means flies. Baal-zebub was the Lord of the Flies. Now, that's what we read in the Old Testament: Baal-zebub. In the New Testament, the Jews had changed that a little bit. They called him Baal-zebul or Beelzebub.

Zebul means dung, and they said your god is the lord of the dung pile. You put those together and that's exactly what you have because the flies are on the dung. This was such a slap in God's face. You're not going to call upon me, the Lord of all, the Lord of Hosts, but you're going to go inquire of the lord of the flies, of the lord of the dung pile? That kind of refusing to believe God, refusing to call upon the Lord, that provokes the Lord to anger. Elijah, go intercept the servants that are going to Ekron. Tell them they don't need to make the trip. You go back and tell Ahaziah because he called on the god of Ekron, Baal-zebub, and not on me, he's going to die. That is the end of the story.

God notices when we don't call upon Him. And third insight: God reminds us that judgment is coming unless we repent. I love how this chapter ends. It says in verse nine, "Then the king sent to him a captain of 50 with his 50. And he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on top of the hill." Elijah's on top of the hill, and Ahaziah has said to his captain, "Take your 50 men and go up and get that guy." He hated Elijah just like his dad hated Elijah. So he said to him in verse nine, "O man of God, the king says, come down." And Elijah answered and said to the captain of 50, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50." Then the fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50.

So he again sent to him another captain of 50 with his 50. And he answered and said to him, a little tougher this time, "O man of God, thus says the king, come down quickly. You're dealing with a king here." And Elijah answered and said to him, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50." Then the fire came down from heaven from God and consumed him and his 50.

So again, Ahaziah sent the captain of the third 50 with his 50. When the third captain of the 50 went up, he came and bowed down on his knees before Elijah and begged him and said to him, "O man of God, please let my life and the lives of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the first two captains of 50 with their 50s. But now let my life be precious in your sight." He had a soft and tender heart. He learned that it doesn't work very well when you start ordering God's man around.

Verse 15: "And the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, 'Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him.' So he arose and went down with him to the king. Then he said to him, 'Thus says the Lord, because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His Word?—therefore, you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die.'" So Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken.

Some people read that and they say, "Wait a minute. Why is God torching these poor soldiers? I mean, what's the deal there?" This is a picture for us. It's a picture of when we deal with God, you don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off Old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with God because our God is a consuming fire. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We don't have the fear of God in our land anymore. Transgression, the Bible says, speaks to the ungodly within his heart: there's no fear of God before his eyes.

Larry Noble: Wow. Now, that is a sobering example of a slap in God's face that God cannot and will not ignore. That's also the title of today's message from Pastor Jeff's series, Holy Boldness. There's much more to be said coming up here in just a moment, so please stay with us for more from Pastor Jeff on the Holy Boldness series. You see, Elijah was a prophet of fire because he was a man of prayer. His prayers were answered because of his faith and his obedience. God gives us the privilege to call upon Him and connect our nothingness with His almighty power. The only way to stand by Him is to spend quality time with Him in prayer and reading His Word.

Pastor Jeff wants to help you better connect your hearts with God through prayer by sending you his booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer. You'll learn seven important insights from the life of Nehemiah to encourage you in your prayer life. And when you give a gift of any amount this month to From His Heart, we'll send you that booklet along with the eight-message series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, the Prophet of Fire. Just call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-402-4253, or go to fromhisheart.org. We pray they will help you soak up the power and the presence of God in your life so you can boldly stand for Him. Let's learn more about why that's so important as we conclude the lesson, "A Slap in God's Face."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Ahaziah didn't fear God. His captains, the first two, they didn't fear God. They thought the king was more powerful than God. "Thus the king says you need to come down here." Elijah was letting them know God is God. God is the King. And the fire of judgment came, and I think the Lord is trying to tell us, listen. Listen. The fire of judgment is going to fall. It fell on the ancient world in Noah's day. It fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. It is going to fall.

The millions of babies that we butcher every year, God is going to judge America for that. Our leaders won't even vote against partial-birth abortion, aborting a baby after 20 weeks. They say, "No, we've got to leave that open because that's a constitutional right." That is murder. That's what that is. It's murder. And God sees. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good, and God sees all that that's going on. And God is saying, listen. I don't want people to get fried. I don't want fire to come down and consume folks. But if they don't get right, fire is going to come because God is holy, holy, holy. God hates sin. And God will judge sin.

So we ask the question, why do people not repent? Why are there so many people who refuse to get right with God? First of all, it's because of pride. People have so much pride that they won't humble themselves before the Lord. The Bible says, humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time. If you have pride in your heart, you're not going to humble yourself before the Lord. The only way that you can ever be saved is when you humble yourself and you cry out and you say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." You're like the person in Luke chapter 18. You're beating your breast and you say, "God be merciful to me, the sinner." You're not like the Pharisee who says, "Oh Lord, you're so lucky to have me. I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on all that I have. What a good boy am I." God has nothing to do with that kind of person. He has everything to do with a person who is humble and broken. As the Lord says, "But to this one shall I look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word."

People refuse to repent because of their pride. They're like Pharaoh and they say, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?" That was the thing about Pharaoh. He thought he was a god. So when Moses came to him and says, "Thus says Yahweh, let my people go," he's like, "I'm the big guy around here, not your Yahweh. Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?" And the Lord is saying, "Oh, you want to know who I am? Let me introduce myself to you, Mr. Pharaoh." And plague after plague after plague after plague, and God took Pharaoh, the man who thought he was God, who was so stuffed full of himself, and God turned him into fish food because the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. Listen, it's because of pride that people refuse to repent.

It's because of unbelief that people refuse to repent. Pride and unbelief are linked together. They go together. The Pharisees are a good example. The chief priests and Pharisees, the religious leaders who called for Jesus' crucifixion. They had so much pride, and their pride led to their unbelief. They refused to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Even when Jesus did miracles in their midst, what did they say? They had to explain the miracles, so they said, "Well, this man casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince, the ruler of the demons." Jesus said, "That doesn't even make sense. You have gouged out your own eyes. You refuse to see." There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. Even when the soldiers came on Easter Sunday morning and told the religious leaders, "Hey, an angel rolled away the stone. He's not there. We shook for fear, we're like dead men. There's something going on there," they said, "Here's some money. You just say the disciples stole his body away." They would not believe. Their pride and unbelief were melded together.

Then people refuse to repent because of their love for sin. They just love their sin. Jesus said men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds are evil. And they won't come to the light lest their deeds should be exposed. Why do people not respond to the good news of Jesus? That He loves them, died for them on the cross, rose again on the third day, and if you'll come and give your life to Him, He'll save you, He'll change you from the inside out. Why do people not just flock to that message? Well, because of pride, because of unbelief, and those things go together. And then the third one is because they love their sin. And they don't want to come to the light. Why? Because they want to live in darkness.

In Second Thessalonians chapter two, the scripture talks about the coming of the Lord, and it talks about the revealing of the Antichrist. It says this: that he's going to come, the Antichrist, with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. They had a choice: God's Son or my sin. "I'll choose my sin."

Joe Henry Hankins, I've told you this story before, but it bears repeating. Joe Henry Hankins was a preacher and evangelist in Little Rock back in the '40s. He shared a story about preaching and giving the invitation. He said there was a person up in the balcony, a teenager up in the balcony. When they gave the invitation, he said he watched that kid. He could tell that the Holy Spirit of God was working on his heart. He said that boy had a hymnal and he would be singing and then he'd close the hymnal like he was getting ready to go down front. Hankins was saying, "Come to Jesus, now's the time to come to Jesus." And the boy would start out and then he would stop and he would go back and pick up his hymnal and read it. Then he'd close it and go. Hankins could tell there was a spiritual battle going on. He's praying for this kid.

Then all of a sudden, the kid takes the hymnal and he closes it and he puts it up and he comes down the steps. Hankins says he's going to come. But he didn't come. He walked out of the church, and he never came back. Some months later, Hankins was called in because they said this young boy has contracted a terminal disease. Can you come see him? He didn't know who he was. So he came there, and when he saw the kid, he recognized, "Hey, that's the kid from the balcony."

So he said to him, "Son, you were in church a few months ago, weren't you?" He said, "Yeah, I was there." He said, "Son, I feel like I can understand people pretty well. It seemed like you were having a battle inside. Were you having a battle?" He said, "Yes." He said, "It seemed like the Holy Spirit was working on you. Is that true?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Well, when I gave the invitation, I wanted you to come." He said, "Preacher, when you gave the invitation, I wanted to come so bad I almost jumped off the balcony rail to get down there where you were." He said, "But you didn't come." He said, "No, I didn't come because at the same time that I thought about giving my life to Jesus, I thought about my favorite sin." It was a sexual immorality type of sin. He said, "I thought about my favorite sin and I knew if I became a Christian, I couldn't continue to have that sin." And so he said, "I just made a decision that day that I was going to choose my sin, and I left the church."

Hankins said, "Son, do you understand your physical condition?" He said, "Yeah, I understand. I'm going to die." And he said, "Well, since you're going to die, you can't keep your sin. Why don't you give your heart to Jesus?" He said, "Preacher, there's something you don't understand. When I made that decision that day and said I'd rather have my sin than God's Son, something died within me. And now I can't come to Jesus." The scripture is clear: that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. God says, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." And if God is drawing you to Himself and you say, "No, no, no, no, no," eventually God is going to say, "All right. Then I'm done." Don't let that happen to you.

The fire of God's judgment is going to fall. Listen, we have the captain of the third army of 50, and he responded in humility and he responded and called out for mercy from God's man, and God gave him mercy. God will do that for you too. He did that for me. He'll do that for anybody. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Listen, do you know when the fire falls, do you know where you're going to be? Because the fire is going to fall. 2,000 years ago, the fire fell on Jesus, and He took all the wrath. And if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, then the wrath of God has been paid for on your account through the Lord Jesus. But if you say no to Jesus and you'd rather have your sin than God's Son, you'd rather have your pride than the Prince of Peace, then the fire is one day going to fall on you. Now is the time. Today is the day of salvation.

Larry Noble: If you know that you know that you've been favoring your sin rather than God's Son, perhaps you'd like to turn from your sin and back to God today. Maybe you need to just pray and say to God, "God, here is my life. Take it back and help me to be the Christian you want me to be. I know that you want me to be, but I'm having trouble doing that. I want to have holy conduct and godliness and to be a witness for you. Help me, O Lord."

Maybe you know right now that you're not saved. You've never turned your life over to Him in repentance and faith. Then you can do that now. God brought you here to listen to this broadcast, to hear me say this: Turn to God through your genuine repentance and faith in Jesus alone to save you, and He will do that. Sincerely come to Him and allow Him to enter your heart and make you new. To learn more about what that means, how to do that, and the implications for now and for eternity, go to fromhisheart.org, click the "Why Jesus" link. There you'll discover more of the truth God wants you to know. Again, fromhisheart.org, the "Why Jesus" link. There are also many free materials there for you to download and listen to. God bless you.

Well, today's message, "A Slap in the Face of God," was part two, but the entire lesson is one of eight in Pastor Jeff's series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, the Prophet of Fire, and it's our special gift to you to say thanks for your support this month of any amount. You can do that when you go online to fromhisheart.org. This month we'd like to pray for you and your needs when you visit our special prayer page at fromhisheart.org. There you can also request other people around the world to pray for you. And when you do that, you can allow them to send you an email alert saying that they joined you in prayer, although it'll be completely anonymous. Just go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Prayer" link. We also hope when you visit our website you'll sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly Real Hope email encouragement letter. You'll get that in your inbox every Friday morning. Plus, you can join Pastor Jeff on his social media channels. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.

I'm Larry Noble, hoping you'll be here tomorrow as Pastor Jeff begins the final message in his Holy Boldness series. Here's a sample of what's to come.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, as I was studying this passage, I started to think about, what is it that God can't wait for? That He is longing for? To long to do in our lives, to long to see us respond to Him. I found four areas that we see in this passage where the Lord has a strong desire, where He kind of can't wait, if we could put it in those terms.

Larry Noble: That's on Friday for a message that will give you a real lift. It's entitled "Heaven Can't Wait." That's next time here on From His Heart.