Amazing Grace Bible Class Program #1055
March 15, 1992
Today I want us to take a look at a very sad, but true story. A story that has implications potentially for our life. Today's lesson is going to be about a man by the name of Manasseh. Have you ever heard of Manasseh? Have you ever heard a sermon about his life? If you've not, turn with me to 11 Chronicles, Chapter 33. In a moment we're going to read about this man's reign.
About the year 597, two hundred years or so into the divided kingdom, Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, became king over the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah. You know he was only 12 years old when he took the reign. Can you imagine? Just a boy. And he reigned for 55 years over the kingdom of Judah. Now what happened during those 55 years? Well, it must not have been all that good. Because a moment ago, the scripture reading that you saw on the screen was Jeremiah 15:4 written a hundred years after Manasseh took the throne and at least four decades after he died. But it said about him, because of him, the nation of Judah would be abhorrent to all the nations of the earth.
What did he do? What brought about that kind of epitaph to his life? Read with me verses one through nine from II Chronicles 33. "Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished. He also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord of which the Lord had said, 'My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.' In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his sons in the fm in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. He took the carved image he had made and put it in God's temple, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, 'In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. I will not again make the feet of the Israelites leave the land I assigned to your forefathers, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them concerning all the laws, decrees and ordinances given through Moses."' Look at the summary verse, verse 9: "But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites." What a sad story. We're talking about a man, who after he became king, just went into so far away from God that it's hard to imagine. He built idols wherever he could build idols, even in the temple of the Almighty God. The Bible says he sacrificed his own sons in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, a valley just outside the walls of old Jerusalem, and a place that would later be used as a reference symbolically for hell because of what Manasseh did there. What a sad story.
But I want you to see some things there you may not have noticed at first glance that make it sadder still. For example, I think this is one of the saddest stories in the Bible because Manasseh came from such a good family. You may have noticed in verse one I told that he was the son of Hezekiah. Well if you're like most folks, you've not heard of Manasseh much and you've probably not heard of Hezekiah very often either. But Hezekiah was one of the greatest kings Judah ever had. I want you in your private study to take that book of II Chronicles and read the twenty-ninth through the thirty-second chapter and you'll find out what a great man this king Hezekiah was. He took the throne when he was 25 years old. In Chapter 29, verse 2 says, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. And following a series of evil and wicked kings, he repaired the temple and he purified it. Hezekiah had destroyed the altars and the high places where idol worship had occurred. He restored the observance of the Passover just as God wanted.
In Chapter 32, verse 9, there's the story of Sennacherib, the Icing of Assyria, who had the most powerful army on the face of the earth and he was going to come down and wipe out little Judah. And one thing stopped it, Hezekiah's prayer. Hezekiah's prayer stopped that massacre. Chapter 32, verse 27, said he had riches and honor. And that chapter closed by saying Hezekiah did many good deeds. There's really only about one thing I can tell you that's not good about Hezekiah, he died too early. He died while his boy was only 12 years old. And so Manasseh took the throne not spiritually mature. But sadly as he continued to grow older instead of becoming more spiritually mature, the older he got, the more he wandered from God and the more he did what Hezekiah would have been ashamed of him doing.
You see I think this story is sad because he came from such a good family. I know good and well I am talking to all sorts of people in this audience and watching on television right now who were reared by Christian folks, and I want to say this as clearly as I can. I hope you never take for granted the righteous heritage that many of us have been handed in our laps. I hope you never underestimate the jewel that has been put in your hand and don't you ever lose it or see it famished. One of the things we preachers deal with all the time are folks who come to the Lord, but they weren't raised by righteous people and instead they've been allowed from the time they were children to wander into sin and they get hooked on drugs and hooked on sex and they serve prison time and they get their lives in all kinds of messes and they come to the Lord and they find him, they obey the gospel, but I tell you what, they've got a mess of a life that God's going to have to untangle now. And yet it's amazing how many of them little by little see it untangled by the power of God and His Holy Spirit. But I think about all the folks who had that righteous heritage in their lap and they threw it away. They rebelled. It agonizes me sometimes to think about Christian parents who beat themselves over the head because they've had rebellious children who have wandered away. I don't blame them nearly so much as I blame the child. This is a sad story because Hezekiah had righteous parents.
And then the story gets even sadder. Because you see he was also warned. We read through verse 9 a moment ago all the wicked things he did. Look at verse 10 with me from Chapter 33. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. You see the good news is, God doesn't give up on Manasseh, God doesn't give up on any of us. He keeps warning, he keeps sending things to get our attention, but Manasseh wouldn't pay any attention. I tell you what, it makes the story doubly pathetic when warning is ignored. I read something in the newspaper the other day that just startled me and shocked me and made me want to cry. I read that every day in America, four thousand teenagers begin the addictive habit of smoking ... four thousand a day. You know I realize that's there's some older folks, middle aged and beyond, who started smoking in the army way back in days gone by before scientists had discovered all the things that nicotine and cancer or the tar and tobacco do to you, but I have for the life of me the hardest time understanding how a young man or woman in their teenage years could begin that habit knowing the warnings! Knowing that every time they smoke a cigarette, they're taking minutes off their life. Knowing that they're lighting a time bomb, I just have a hard time with that. But then again, that's not atypical of human behavior. It goes far beyond the physical consequences. People ignore spiritual warnings all the time. Think about how Gods warned the millions who have wander away. Romans 1:18, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." There's warning after warning in God's Word: Don't go that way, turn to the Lord. And if you don't even accept the Words you've got your conscience, you've got the sorrow that you can see that sin brings. You've got the restlessness of your heart. It's always sad when people go the wrong way despite warnings. But then I see in this story of Manasseh, an even greater sadness because his sin affected so many. It's regretful that Manasseh rejected godly instruction from his parents, that's a shame. And if s an equal shame that God kept warning him and the children of Judah. He ignored that too. But maybe worst still, is the fact that when Manasseh sinned, he took a whole nation of people with him.
Look at verse 9 again, we read it a moment ago. But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. That's almost unbelievable. When he took Jerusalem, he took the nation of Judah so far that they were worse than all those pagan people that they had been conquering for centuries. 'Mat's how hideous it got. His father Hezekiah had been a righteous king and had literally saved his nation from destruction, but Manasseh succeeded him and just led Judah into ruin. He built altars to Baal. He desecrated the temple. He even murdered children in the name of religion. And the text says, Manasseh not only fell he took a whole kingdom with him. Let me tell you what, the lesson of Manasseh here illustrates a basic truth for all of us. No one of us ever sins alone. Don't ever think you do. Don't ever think whatever sin you commit, whether you tell a lie, a sexual sin, little bit of gossip, thievery, whatever it is, anything you can name, don't ever think you sin alone, you bring other people with you. You see one of the basic axioms of life is that anything I do whether positive or negative, is going to influence other people. Oh I may never be a king like Manasseh, I may never drag a whole nation into ruin, but I'll take somebody with me.
One of the things that we're discovering in our generation is this idea of codependents. Every time you turn around, there are co-dependency groups that are springing up here and there in an effort to help individuals who have been affected by the problems of other people, usually their own family members. How many of you listening to me right now have been affected by the sin of an alcoholic? I won't ask you to raise your hand, there are scores of you. You see nobody sins alone, your sin always involves other people. Time is going to run out on us and I only have one other part of this sad story I want to share with you and it may be the most tragic part.
The story of Manasseh also teaches us that there is consequence for sin. Mark that down and remember it well, there is consequence for sin. Look at the next verse, verse 1 from our 33rd chapter. Here was the first consequence for sin: His kingdom fell and he was taken prisoner. The Bible said, "So the. Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon." He was treated like an animal. He was chained and dragged off to Babylon. Isn't it interesting that his daddy, the righteous man Hezekiah, offered a prayer and was protected from the Assyrians, but now Manasseh is conquered by them and he's dragged away. That's the first consequence for his sin. Mark this well whenever anyone of us sins, the retribution may not be so swift, it may not be so dramatic, but there will always be consequence for sin. For every action, there is an equal reaction. That s not just a physical law, if s a spiritual one. Oh, but there's still some good news here. Look at verse 12 with me, I don't want you to think Manasseh's story ended totally negatively. Verse 12 says, "In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers." And when he prayed to him the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea, so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom, then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God. I want to tell you here is some great news in the middle of our sad story. You never go so far away from God that he won't have you back. Nobody was anymore wicked than Manasseh. Nobody was anymore infiltrated with idolatry. Nobody was any worse for sacrificing little children to a false God. How far away can you get? But you know when he got in that prison and when he was shackled, he had time to think. That's a great moment when a man in sin stops to think, kind of like that prodigal son in the far country. And when he thought, he realized how wrong he'd been. And he repented and God had him back. God brought him back. He forgave him. Isn't that good news? Good news is if you've wandered away, God will forgive you. You can come back. I wish I could stop there, but there's still this issue about consequence. How did he do when he came back? Let's keep reading. Look at verses 14 and 15. When Manasseh came back it said, "Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling the hill of Ophel; he also made it much higher. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah. He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city." Isn't that great? He is trying to undo what he had done? And the problem is, he couldn't undo it all. And if we had time to keep reading, the Bible said the people still continued to worship in the high places.
And if you look down at verses 21 and 22, see what happens when Manasseh dies and his son Amon takes over. "Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years." Look at the next verse, "He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshipped and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made."
And then there's that terrible epitaph that we read earlier from Jeremiah 15:4, half a century later, God destroyed Jerusalem for the sin that Manasseh had committed.
One of the things I want to get across to everybody here, but particularly the young people. When you hear us preachers up here saying, "Don't sin," don't sin. It's not because we don't believe our God is strong enough and big enough and powerful enough to forgive sin, He is. It is first and foremost because our God would not have us live that way if we live in the light that he's given us through Jesus. But number two, we're warning you because every time you sin, though there is forgiveness at the offering, there is always consequence that doesn't go away. Ask Esau when he made that terrible bargain for his birthright, he never could get it back, that's consequence for sin. Ask David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and he was confronted by the prophet Nathan and he was sorry and he repented, but she still lost that baby. And he ended up losing four children because of his infidelity. Ask Judas, we'll never see another male child named Judas again, consequence for sin. If you were to go out and commit murder today, you can be forgiven of that but rest assured you'll spend the rest of your life in jail. If you tell a lie to another individual, yes you can be forgiven, but listen your good name and reputation will be questioned by that individual as long as you walk here. I wish it weren't so, but there's consequence for sin. Manasseh's story reminds us of that If s a sad story, but let's don't let it be ours.
Would you bow with me and pray please. Almighty God, we're grateful that in your Word, you do not just tell us the rosy and the good, but you share with us all. And you tell us about men like Manasseh. Men who were so wicked in your sight, that the consequence of their sin was severe. But Father we're so grateful to know that even he was able to turn and though he was not able to erase the consequence, he was able to receive forgiveness Father. And Father we ask you right now for forgiveness of our sin.
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Copyright 1992