Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Teachings
This sermon was preached on July 28th, 2024. This is my first sermon at Christ
Community as a part of their residency program. It was in the summer. This sermon
was preached about, oh, 27 days after I arrived, and we were going through a
sermon series on the Kings. So a sermon series through 1st and 2nd Kings, and I
was given the task on my first ever sermon at this brand new church to
preach through the King of Evil, Manasseh. So this sermon is probably one of the
shortest sermons I did. It's only about 22 minutes, and I think that's because I
was pretty nervous my first time around. And so I actually went outside of Kings
to preach the sermon, so my main text was 2nd Chronicles 33, 1 through 20, and this
whole series was titled "Longing for a Better King." So I hope you enjoy my first
and probably shortest sermon ever.
In this sermon, I'd like to read a book by David Whitehouse in Division, consultant mediums and spiritualist. He did huge
amount of evil in the Lord's sight, angering him. Manasseh set up the carved
images of the Eshera, which he had made in the temple that the Lord had spoken
about, to David and his son, Solomon. "I will establish my name forever in this
temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen up all the tribes of Israel. I
will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from this land I
gave to their ancestors, if only they would be careful to do all that I had
commanded them, the whole law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they
did not listen. Manasseh caused them to stray, so that they did worse evil than
the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites." This is the word
of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Well, good morning, church. Have you ever encountered a tool that was meant for
one purpose and ended up being used for a different purpose? As I was studying
for this sermon, I found a story of a tool that was designed for safety, but
actually became an instrument for destruction. This story is from an
article titled "The Lighthouse That Wrecked More Ships Than It Saved." For 40
years, a lighthouse stood in Jervis Bay in southern Australia, where cliffs were
notorious for causing many shipwrecks. And so, because of all these shipwrecks, they
said, "Let's build a lighthouse." And in 1857, the colonial architect Alexander
Dawson was commissioned with building this lighthouse. He began looking for a
suitable site, but he had his own agenda in mind. He was more interested in the
ease of construction, rather than providing an efficient navigation aid.
And people were suspecting that he was doing this, but nonetheless, the
lighthouse was built. And for the next four decades, this lighthouse, that was
neither visible from the north or the south, caused more than two dozen
shipwrecks. Even after its decommissioning, it continued to cause
shipwrecks because the sandstone would glow under a full moon. And so finally, it
was destroyed. In this article, the architect of the lighthouse had his own
agenda. He forgot his purpose and his responsibilities as an architect, as
someone who was supposed to make something to help these ships. Today,
we're looking at the story of King Manasseh, who forgot his purpose, he
forgot his responsibility as king, and he forgot the Lord. And as we look at
Manasseh's reign and his forgetfulness, we'll see how his forgetfulness led to
consequences for himself and also all of Israel. Yet we see in the Chronicles
account that he repents and God is merciful to him, illustrating this very
important point. If you don't remember anything from the sermon, remember this
one sentence. No one is ever a lost cause for God. God is faithful even when we are
not. No one's ever a lost cause for God. God is faithful even when we are not.
And the account of Manasseh's reign in 2 Kings and in 2 Chronicles demonstrates
this by showing how God was faithful to Manasseh by being patient during his
rebellion, by disciplining him during his waywardness, and by having mercy on him
in his repentance. So as you heard Phil read, you can see from the scriptures
that Manasseh was exceedingly evil. Thanks, Paul, for giving the newbie an evil king
to preach on. In the ESV, 2 Chronicles puts it this way, in such a way you can
feel the weight and dread of what Manasseh is doing. This is in the ESV. "And he did
what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the
nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he built the
high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to
the Baals and made Ashroth and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and
served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had
said, 'In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.' And he built altars for all the
hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he
burned his sons as an offering in the valley of the Son of Anom. And he used
fortune-telling and omens and sorcery and dealt with mediums and with
necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
And the carved image of the idol that he had made, he sat in the house of God."
That's about 13 "ands" within five verses. He did this and this and this and this.
Manasseh was an exceedingly evil king. And you have to remember how evil he was
compared to his father Hezekiah. He was probably in a co-reign with Hezekiah.
Hezekiah was a great king, we learn about from Curtis last week in Curtis's sermon,
who was compared to even David. Hezekiah did all the things opposite of Manasseh.
He tore down the high places, right? He led, he purged Israel of their idols. But
this is not how Manasseh was. Hezekiah was like David. Manasseh was like Ahab, an
evil king. Manasseh was the most evil king, though. And you might be thinking, "I
thought Ahab was the most evil king." We learned that in this series. And Ahab was
the most evil king of Israel, but Manasseh is the most evil king of Judah.
And rather than modeling his reign after men like David or Hezekiah, Manasseh
modeled his reign after men like Ahaz and Ahab. David and Hezekiah did what was
right in the sight of the Lord. Ahaz, Ahab, and Manasseh did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord. 2nd Chronicles 33 9 says, "Manasseh led Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more evil, more evil than the nations
whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel." It's as if Manasseh
turned away from God to pagan worship and did pagan worship better than the
pagans did. He out-pagined the pagans. And this is not what the king of Israel was
supposed to do. The king of Israel is meant to lead God's people to God away
from the nations. But Manasseh had forgotten his purpose and his
responsibilities. He did the opposite of what a true king is supposed to do. He
forgot his responsibilities, his purpose, and the Lord. In fact, ironically, Manasseh's
name means to forget, to cause to forget, or to be forgotten. And one of the first
times we see this Hebrew word and the name Manasseh is in Genesis 41 51. There
Joseph calls his firstborn Manasseh, "Because God has made me forget all my
hardships." Sometimes forgetfulness can be a useful tool, but oftentimes in
Scripture, we are warned against forgetfulness. Like in Deuteronomy 8 19,
which reads, "And if you forget the Lord your God, if you forget the Lord your God,
and go after idols and other gods and serve and worship them, I solemnly warn
you today that you shall surely perish." Or in 2 Samuel 2 19, "But they forgot the
Lord their God, and he sold them into the hands of Sisera, commander of the army of
Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the
king of Moab." Scripture reminds us not to forget the Lord and the covenant He has
made with us, and if we do, we will fall into all sorts of trouble like King
Manasseh did. King Manasseh was exceedingly evil because he forgot the
Lord, but most of us, if we're honest, we don't think we're that evil. And I'm not
claiming that you're sitting here today as evil as Manasseh. We don't think we're
gonna be that evil. We don't think we can be that evil. Or to give more modern
examples, there's no way we can be as bad as Hitler or Stalin or Mao, these evil,
evil dictators. And that's probably true. You're probably not that evil. But you
have to realize why that is. That is because the hand of God is being
merciful to you. It's on your life withholding you from such evil. And if we
forget the Lord, we become numb to His hand withdrawing from our lives. If we
forget, if we say, "I'm not that evil. I'm not gonna worry about it," you become numb
to God moving away from you, and you begin a slow, unrecognizable descent into
sin like Manasseh. Forgetting the Lord, your purpose, and your responsibilities,
and modeling yourself after anyone but the true King Jesus, will lead to you
suffering. It will not lead to a prosperous life. But Manasseh's vile evil
demonstrates that God is faithfully patient even when we are exceedingly
rebellious. Now if you compare the story of Manasseh in 2 Kings to 2 Chronicles,
you'll notice some very, very major, major differences. I think it's wise to stop
here and point some things out. First, this is a series that is going through
1st and 2nd Kings, but we're also incorporating 1st and 2nd Chronicles.
What we're aiming at more specifically is to preach through a selection of
Kings rather than a book strictly of 1st and 2nd Kings. Second, as I was
preparing for this morning's message, I had to wrestle with the major
differences. I'm very thankful that we're not sticking strictly to 1st and 2nd
Kings because that would be a very hard and depressing sermon. So these major
differences with 2 Chronicles. In this account, we see that Manasseh was evil.
That's all there. We also see that he was repentant and restored. The conclusion I
came to of why this is, why they're so different, is this. The Kings account and
the Chronicles account are aiming at two different things. In 1st and 2nd
Kings, this writer is trying to show you an overview of Israel and why Israel was
being led into captivity. Whereas 2nd Chronicles and 1st Chronicles is kind
of zooming in on a picture of different kings and looking more intimately at
their lives. One commentator says that the chronicler is looking back at
Israel's history, showing the pattern of sin, punishment, conversion, and
restoration. So the Kings account is zoomed out, looking at how each king
impacted Israel's destiny. The Chronicles account is zoomed in, looking at each
king. And this is why we see in the Chronicles account Manasseh's repentance
and restoration. When the chronicler zooms in on Manasseh's life, we see he
was very, very evil, but we also see that God was merciful to him. And how is God
merciful to him? Bear with me here. By leading him into captivity. 2nd
Chronicles 33, 10, and 11 says, "The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but
they didn't listen." They didn't listen to the Lord speaking to them. "And so he
brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria. They
captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to
Babylon." I don't know what Manasseh's heart or intentions or thoughts were as
he was rebelling against God in these very vile ways. One commentator talked
about maybe he was turning to these specific pagan rituals and practices to
kind of see into his future, forgetting that only God holds that kind of power,
authority, and sight. But whatever Manasseh's heart was, he had gotten to
such a place where he had to be humbled. He needed to be humbled by God, and
sometimes God does that. God humbles you. And so those of us who might not be
familiar with the Bible, might not be familiar with how God works, that might
seem relevant or mean or nasty even, but you have to remember what God does when
he humbles Manasseh, or even when he humbles you and I. He's giving us the full
weight of sin. Now, I like to lift weights. By no stretch of the imagination am I
good at lifting weights, but I have a lot of fun doing it. And I've been around
them for a long time, and more than once have I found myself in this situation
where I am struggling to lift, you know, 50, 60 pounds even. And I'm shaking, but in
my pride and arrogance, I tell this bother, "Don't touch the bar." I give them this
evil look, "Don't touch it. I've got it. I can do it." And so they respect my wishes,
and they step back, and what happens? That bar staples me. I fail miserably. No one
in that situation was pressing down on the bar. No one was adding more weight to
get me to crush myself. No one concocted a situation that doomed me to failure.
They simply stepped back and let me be the weak man I am with that weight. In my
pride and arrogance, I was allowed to feel the full weight of, in this case, a
barbell. Manasseh turned to all sorts of pagan practices and rituals, and God let
him feel the full weight of that sin. Up until this point, it was God's faithful
hand that kept and sustained him for so long. He has a long reign, over 50-year
reign. It's the merciful hand of God that kept and sustained him in his rebellion.
But they refused to listen to Manasseh and Israel, and so God was standing there
with arms outstretched, ready to take the weight of sin and death off of their
backs. It's almost like you can hear the whisper of God saying, "If my people, who
are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek and turn from their
wicked ways, I will forgive." But they didn't listen. So God gave Manasseh, again,
the full weight. And sometimes God's discipline comes to us in the form of
him withdrawing our hand, his hand from our lives. And Manasseh's subjugation
demonstrates that God faithfully disciplines us in our waywardness. I feel
compelled at this point to give a warning. Don't delay in recognizing God's
hand pulling away from your life, unless he humbles you. The Apostle Paul makes a
comment on this in Romans 2-4. He says, "Do you presume on the riches of his
kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to
lead you to repentance?" And the Church Father Augustine puts it in this very,
very sobering way. "Don't despair. Forgiveness has been promised to you.
Give thanks to God because it is promised. Hold on to God's promise. So
live well now." To which the reply might be, "I'll live well tomorrow." But remember,
God has promised forgiveness. No one has promised you tomorrow. Oftentimes we
neglect the duty of repenting of sin. And God will be patient with you. God will be
patient in your rebellion forever, but no one promised you tomorrow. So rather than
following after the model of King Manasseh, who forgot the Lord, follow the
message of King Jesus, who started his ministry immediately with the words,
"Repent and believe." And according to 2 Chronicles 33, 12, and 13, Manasseh did. He
did repent and he did believe. 2 Chronicles 33, 12, and 13 says,
"When he was in distress," because he's been held captive now, "When he was in
distress, he sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself
before the God of his ancestors. He prayed to him and the Lord was receptive
to his prayer. He granted his request and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his
kingdom. So Manasseh came to know that the Lord is God." We have a God who listens.
Think back to how evil Manasseh was. He went very, very far into sin. But when he
was humble and he prayed, didn't matter how far into sin he went, God listened to
him. And maybe you're sitting here today and you're deep in your sin. Maybe, maybe
you're deep into drug addiction. Maybe you're deep into alcoholism. Maybe you're
deep into sexual sin. Maybe you've committed heinous crimes that you've
told no one about. I can go on this list forever and ever and ever that the end
of that list is this biblical truth. No one is a lost cause for God. God is
faithful even when you are not. Manasseh was an evil king. He was humbled, humbled
by God and prayed, which calls again to our attention to 2 Chronicles 7 14. "If my
people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn, repent from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will
forgive their sin and heal their land." Manasseh, living up to his name, forgot
the Lord. And maybe you and I sometimes forget the Lord. But God doesn't forget.
He doesn't forget the promise he has made throughout his word to offer
salvation when you repent of your sin. No one is ever a lost cause for God. It
doesn't matter how far you've strayed, how deeply you've sinned, sincere repentance
and faith will always bring salvation. And the beauty of this message is that God
doesn't just stop at salvation. Manasseh surrendered his life, he came to Christ,
came to God and was repentant and forgiven, but God also led him back to
his home to clean up the evil deeds that he, some of the evil deeds that he had
done. We see this in 2 Chronicles 33 14 and 16. After this, he built the outer
wall of the city of David, he removed the foreign gods and idols from the Lord's
Temple, along with all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the Lord's
Temple, and he threw them outside of the city. He built the altar of the Lord and
offered fellowship and thanksgiving sacrifices on it. And then he told Judah,
his people, to serve the Lord the God of Israel.
Surrendering your life to Christ doesn't just mean you get a nice shiny prize of
heaven one day. It means that God gets to lead you through repentance and
sanctification where you can root out all idolatry from your life. Surrendering
your life means surrendering all ungodliness that is in it. Too often do I
encounter people who tell me, "I've surrendered my life to Christ, I'm a
Christian, I go to church on Sundays," and a surface look at their life shows me
that not only have they not renovated their hearts, they
celebrate culturally acceptable ungodly sins.
They celebrate culturally acceptable ungodliness. This is not surrender. God
doesn't want just little parts of you. He doesn't want your Sunday morning. He
wants all of you. And surrendering your life to Christ means surrendering every
part of it to Christ. It means you take an honest look at what's in your heart
and you root out sin and idolatry. The Puritan John Owen has a famous book
called "The Mortification of Sin," "The Killing of Sin." In that book is a very
famous line, very famous sentence where he says this, "Do you mortify," that is, do you
kill the sin in your life? "Do you make it your daily work? You must always be at it
while you live. Do not take a day off from this work." Here's where the
punch comes in. Always be killing sin or it will be killing you. Sin in your life,
even small remnants of it, will start to eat away at you. You can't tame sin. You
have to get rid of it. What does killing sin look like? It looks like constantly
and consistently identifying your sin and turning your eyes to Christ. My wife,
she kind of makes fun of me for my ability to identify actors in the most
obscure roles in movies. Last night we were watching a movie, actually. I was
reminded of this. And there's this one guy in like three scenes, maybe a total
of thirty seconds in this movie, and towards the end I'm like, "That guy is a
counselor in this one episode of Modern Family." She's like, "What?" I'm like, "Yeah,
I look it up, found the episode, this is him." I just have a thing for faces, I
guess. You have to be that good at identifying sin in your life. The
smallest, most covert ones, that's sin, surrender it to Christ. The big ones are
easy, easy to identify. The small ones are the ones that will get you, and you have
to be vigilant about identifying them. And the beauty of this is that God has
promised He will do it with and for us, by His Spirit. Philippians 1 says, "And I
am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion
at the day of Christ." Manasseh's surrender demonstrates that God faithfully redeems
us when we repent. No one is ever a lost cause for God. God is faithful even when
we are not. Have you forgotten God and fallen deep into sin? Manasseh's story
reminds us that God is patient during your rebellion. Have you forgotten God
and wandered away from His plan and path for your life? Manasseh's story shows us
that He will lovingly discipline you in your waywardness. Have you and are you
willing now to turn to God with a humble and sincere heart in repentance? Manasseh's
story reminds us that God will faithfully redeem you when you are
humble and repentant. No one has ever lost cause for God. God is faithful when
you are not. Right now, I want to prepare us to come to the Lord's table, and as we
do so, we have a slide that shows you how we do communion here at Christ Community
Shani. I want you to take the time to familiarize yourself with this slide.
God's faithful even when you're not, and the climax of God's faithfulness is in
the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, as we come to the
Lord's table and hear the words of institution, I want you, I want us, to take
this time to remember. Remember that God is faithful when you're not. Remember
that God will bring you back from your waywardness. Remember that God will
redeem you when you come to Him in repentance. Remember that
Christ has died for your sins. He was buried. He rose again and is coming back.
If you haven't accepted Christ, then I invite you during this time to remember
the image of God in which you are made. Remember the story of Manasseh and that
salvation is ready for you if you repent and believe. Hear now the words of
institution. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and
we had given thanks, broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do
this in remembrance of me." In the same way, also, He took the cup after supper and
said, "This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it,
in remembrance, remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink
the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." I'd like to invite the
communion service to their tables, and hear now the words of invitation from
Matthew 11, 28, and 30. "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light."