Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWhy Seek gods That Cannot Deliver?
Bible Text2 Chronicles 25:15
Synopsis 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. Listen.
Date12-Nov-2017
Series Sincere Questions
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Why Seek gods That Cannot Deliver? (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Why Seek gods That Cannot Deliver? (128 kbps)
Length 36 min.
 

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 removeGod 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!