2 Chronicles 19

2 Chronicles 19:1

JEHOSHAPHAT REBUKED FOR HIS ALLIANCEAs Jehoshaphat returns home, he is met by a prophet with a message from God. “Shouldest thou help the ungodly?” is a very good question. It is something our generation, which has gone lovey-dovey on everything, should think about. My friend, God never asks you to love one who is an enemy of God. It is one thing to love a sinner. It is another thing to love his sin. We need to distinguish between the two.

We are to hate the sinner’s sin. If the sinner will not change, but persists and insists on sticking with his sin, there is no alternative, my beloved. There are people who are actually God’s enemies, they are enemies of the Word of God, and they are inveterate enemies of Christianity. Years ago a very pious fellow said to me, “I pray for Joe Stalin.” Well, I didn’t, and I make no apology for it. Stalin was brought up in a school in which he was given some Bible teaching. He had an opportunity to know God.

Yet he turned into an avowed enemy of God. I do not believe God expected us to pray for him. I don’t feel that this lovey-dovey hypocrisy is honoring to God. I have had folk tell me how much they love me. Several have been very extravagant in their statements, and they were the ones I found out who were not even my friends. God cannot honor this hypocritical position of running around mouthing that we love everybody when really there are only a very few people whom we do love.

We are to love God’s people; this is His command. And we are to love the sinner in the sense that we should try to bring him to Christ. However, this does not mean that we are to compromise with sin! There is another tremendous lesson here that I don’t want us to miss. God did not send Jehu to Jehoshaphat before he went up to join himself with Ahab and Jezebel. At that time He did not send him to give him a little message on separation. Jehoshaphat was a man of God. He made his mistakes. God allowed him to go through this experience with Ahab because God was going to teach him a lesson from this. We have a great many people today who have made themselves to be like God’s spiritual policemen. They like to tell everybody else how they should be separated and with whom they should associate and with whom they should not associate. God makes it very clear that we are not to judge others in questionable matters. Remember that people are not coming before us in judgment anyway. “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand” (Rom_14:4). We fall into the error of criticizing others because they are not as separated as we think they should be.

You see, God is able to make him stand. If he has a personal faith in Jesus Christ, God will hold him. I would like to put it like this. I must give an account some day for my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Master. You are not.

In the same way, I am not your master. The Lord Jesus Christ is your Master. You will give your account to Him. The fact that I will some day give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ keeps me plenty busy. I don’t have time to sit in judgment on you, and I trust that you do not have the time to sit in judgment on me. It is not our business; it is His business.

God will rebuke me if I do the wrong thing. That’s what he did for Jehoshaphat. He taught him through this experience and Jehoshaphat learned his lesson.

2 Chronicles 19:3

Jehoshaphat was a remarkable man, but the marriage of his son into the family of Ahab brought judgment from God upon him and his nation, as we shall see.

2 Chronicles 19:4

Now we will see some of the reforms that Jehoshaphat engaged in here. He was a wonderful man.

2 Chronicles 19:5

In my judgment, this is the entire difficulty with our legal system today. When a godless man sits on the judge’s bench, he does not feel a responsibility to God. He is a dangerous judge, regardless of who he is. He is a dangerous judge because he is subject to all these vices. To begin with, he is apt to make a wrong judgment. Also he is apt to show respect of persons, and may be led to take a bribe.

2 Chronicles 19:8

You see how Jehoshaphat organized everything in his kingdom around God.