A Lesson from the Life of King Asa

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Herein you have done foolishly: therefore from henceforth you shall
have wars." 2 Chronicles 16:9.

OUR text leads us to speak upon historical matters, and for this I
shall by no means apologize, although I have sometimes heard very
foolish professors speak slightingly of the historical part of
Scripture. Remember that the historical books were almost the only
Scripture possessed by the early saints and from those they learned the
mind of God. David sang the blessedness of the man who delighted in the
Law of the Lord, yet he only had the first five books and, perhaps,
Joshua, Judges and Ruth–all books of history in which to meditate day
and night. The Psalmist, himself, spoke most lovingly of these books,
which were the only statutes and testimonies of the Lord to him, with,
perhaps, the addition of the Book of Job.

Other saints delighted in the histories of the Word before the more
spiritual books came in their way at all. If rightly viewed, the
histories of the Old Testament are full of instruction. They supply us
both with warnings and examples in the realm of practical morals. And
hidden within their letter, like pearls in oyster shells, lie grand
spiritual Truths of God couched in allegory and metaphor. I may say of
the least important of all the books what our Lord said of children,
"Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones." To take away
from Holy Writ involves a curse upon the daring deed–may we never
incur the penalty!

I feel Scripture is given by Inspiration and is profitable–be it ours
to gain the profit. Let us see whether we cannot get a lesson from the
life of King Asa. We will commence by noticing who he was and what he
had done in his better days, for this will help to understand more
clearly the fault into which he fell. He was a man of whom it is said
that his heart was perfect before God all his days. It is a great thing
to have said of anyone–indeed, it is the greatest commendation which
can be pronounced on mortal man! When the heart, the intention, the
master affection is right–the man is reckoned a good man before the
Lord, notwithstanding that there may be a thousand things which are not
commendable–yes, and some things which are censurable in the man's
outward career.

Asa is noticeable, in the early part of his life, for the fact that he
set up the worship of God and carried it out with great diligence,
though his mother was an idolater and his father, Abijah, was little
better. He had enjoyed no training as a youth that could lead him
aright, but quite the contrary. Yet he was very decided, even in the
first days of his reign, for the Lord, his God, and acted in all things
with an earnest desire to glorify Jehovah and to lead his people away
from all idols to the worship of the true God.

Now, a life may begin well, and yet may be clouded before its close.
The verdure of earnestness may fade into the sere and yellow leaf of
backsliding. We may have the Grace of God in our earliest days, but
unless we have, day by day, fresh help from on high, dead flies may
pollute the ointment and spoil the sweet odor of our lives. We shall
need to watch against temptation so long as we are in this wilderness
of sin. Only in Heaven are we out of gunshot of the devil. Though we
may have been kept in the ways of the Lord, as Asa was, for 50 or 60
years, yet if left by the Master for a single moment we shall bring
discredit upon His holy name.

In the middle of his reign Asa was put to the test by a very serious
trial. He was attacked by the Ethiopians and they came against him in
mighty swarms. What a host to be arrayed against poor little Judah–an
army of a million footmen and 300,000 chariots! All the host that Asa
could muster–and he did his best–was but small compared to this
mighty band. And it appeared as if the whole land would be eaten up,
for the people seemed sufficient to carry away Judea by handfuls. But
Asa believed in God and, therefore, when he had mustered his little
band, he committed the battle to the Lord his God. Read attentively
that earnest believing prayer which he offered. "And Asa cried unto the
Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing with You to help, whether
with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord

our God; for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this
multitude. O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail against You."

How grandly he threw all his burden upon God! He declared that he
rested in the Most High and believed that God could just as well
achieve the victory by a few and feeble folk as by a vast army. After
this prayer he marched to the battle with holy confidence–and God gave
him the victory. The power of Ethiopia was broken before him and
Judah's armies returned laden with spoil. You would not have thought
that a man who could perform that grand action would become, a little
after, full of unbelief! But the greatest faith of yesterday will not
give us confidence for today unless the fresh springs which are in God
shall overflow again. Even Abraham, who at one time staggered not at
the promise through unbelief, yet did stagger some time afterwards
about a far less difficult matter. The greatest of God's servants, if
their Lord hides His face, soon sink even below the least. All the
strength of the strongest lies in Him.

After Asa had thus, by Divine strength, won a great victory, he did
not, as some do, grow proud of it, but he set to work, in obedience to
a prophetic warning, to purge his country by a thorough reformation. He
did it, and did it well. He did not show any partiality towards the
rich and great in his country who were guilty of the worship of false
gods. His own mother was a great fosterer of idolatry and she had a
grove of her own with a temple in it–in which was her own peculiar
idol. But the king put her away from her eminent position, took her
idol and not merely broke it, but stamped upon it and burned it, with
every sign of contempt, at the brook Kidron, into which ran the sewage
of the temple–to let the people know that, whether in high places or
among the poor–there should be nothing left to provoke the Lord
throughout the land.

This was well done. Oh that such a reformation might happen in this
land, for the country is beginning to be covered with idols and mass
houses! Everywhere they are setting up the altars of their broaden
deity, shrines to the queen of heaven, the crucifix and the saints,
while the spiritual worship of God is put aside to make room for vain
shows and spiritual masquerades. The God of the Reformation–how much
is He forgotten nowadays! Oh for a return of the days of Knox and his
covenanting brethren! Asa was for a root and branch reform and he went
through with it bravely. You would not have thought that a man so
thorough–a man who, like Levi of old, knew not his own mother when it
came to the matter of serving God, but made "through stitch" with it,
as the old writers used to say–you would not have supposed that he
would be the man who, when he came to another trial, would be running
after an idolater and cringing before him and praying him to help him!

Alas, the best of men are men at the best! God, alone, is unchangeable!
He, alone, is always good, or, indeed, at all! "There is none good save
one, that is God." We are only good as He makes us good. And if His
hand is withdrawn, even for a moment, we start aside like a deceitful
bow, or a broken bone which has been badly set. Alas, how soon are the
mighty fallen and the weapons of war broken if the Lord upholds not!
Asa, who could do marvels, and who walked so well and thoroughly before
his God, yet, nevertheless, came to do foolishly and bring upon himself
lifelong chastisement. I have thus brought before you his character
because it was most fitting to start with this. It was due to his
memory and due to ourselves, for we must remember that whatever we
shall have to say against him, he was assuredly a child of God.

His heart was right. He was a sincere, genuine, gracious Believer. If
any object that he had grievous faults and, therefore, could not be a
child of God, I shall be obliged to answer that they must, first of
all, produce a faultless child of God this side Heaven before they will
have sufficient ground for such an objection. I find that the holiest
of men in Scripture had their imperfections, with the sole exception of
our Master, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, in whom was
no sin. His garments were whiter than any fuller could make them, but
all His servants had their spots. He is Light and in Him is no darkness
at all. But we, with all the brightness His Grace has given us, are
poor dim lamps at best.

I make no exceptions, even of those who claim perfection, for I have no
more faith in their perfection than in the Pope's infallibility! There
is enough of the earthen vessel left about the best of the Lord's
servants to show that they are earthen–and that the excellency of the
heavenly treasure of Divine Grace which is put within them may be
clearly seen to be of God and not of them.

I. Now, we shall turn to notice the GRAVE ERROR INTO WHICH ASA
FELL–the foolishness for which the Prophet rebuked him. He was
threatened by Baasha, the king of the neighboring territory of Israel.
He was not directly assailed by war, but Baasha began to build a
fortress which would command the passages between the two countries–

and prevent the people of Israel from coming to settle in the land of
Judah, or make their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Now, one would
naturally have expected, from Asa's former conduct, that he would
either have thought very little of Baasha, or else that he would have
taken the case to God, as he did, before, in the matter of the
Ethiopians.

And this was a smaller trouble, altogether, and somehow, I fancy, it
was because it was a smaller trouble, Asa thought that he could manage
it very well himself by the help of an arm of flesh. In the case of the
invasion by countless hordes of Ethiopians, Asa must have felt that it
was of no use calling in Benhadad, the king of Syria, or asking any of
the nations to help him, for with all their help he would not have been
equal to the tremendous struggle. Therefore he was driven to God. But
this, being a smaller trial, he does not seem to have been so
thoroughly divorced from confidence in man. He looked about him and
thought that Benhadad, the heathen king of Syria, might be led to
attack the king of Israel and so draw him away from building the new
fort. It would also divide his attention, cripple his resources and
give Judah a fine opportunity of attacking him.

Believers frequently behave worse in little trials than in great ones.
I have known some children of God who have borne with equanimity the
loss of almost everything they had, who have been disturbed and
distracted and led into all sorts of doubt and mistrust by troubles
that were scarcely worth the mentioning. How is it that vessels which
bear a hurricane may, nevertheless, be driven upon a sandbank when
there is but a capful of wind–that ships which have navigated the
broad ocean have yet foundered in a narrow stream? It only proves this,
that it is not the severity of the trial, it is the having or not
having of God's Presence that is the main thing! In the great trial
with the Ethiopians, God's Grace gave Asa faith, but in the little
trial with Baasha, king of Israel, Asa had no faith and began to look
about him for help from men.

Observe that Asa went off to Benhadad, the king of Syria, who was a
worshipper of a false God–with whom he ought to have had no connection
or alliance whatever! And, what was worse, he induced Benhadad to break
his league with Baasha. Here was a child of God teaching the ungodly to
be untrue–a man of God becoming an instructor for Satan, teaching a
heathen to be false to his promise! This was policy. This is the kind
of thing which the kings of the earth practice towards one
another–they are always ready to break treaties, though bound by the
most solemn pledges. They make but light of covenants. The great matter
with ambassadors even nowadays is to see which can entangle the other,
for, as a statesman once said, "An ambassador is a person who is sent
abroad to lie for the good of his country."

Oh, the tricks, plots, deceptions, equivocations and intrigues of
diplomacy! No chapter in human history shows up our fallen nature in
more mournful colors. Asa, I have no doubt, thought that all was fair
in war. He took the common rule, the common standard of mankind, and
went upon that. Whereas, as a child of God, he ought to have scorned
anything that was dishonorable or untrue. And as to saying to a heathen
king, "Break your league with Baasha and make a league with me"–why,
if he had been in a right state of heart, he would sooner have lost his
tongue than have uttered such disgraceful words! But, child of God as
he was, when he once got off the plain simple way of believing in God
and taking his trouble to God, there was no telling what he would do.

When you set the helm of your vessel towards the point to which you
mean to steer, and steer right on, whatever comes in your way, your
course will be well enough if you have a motive power within
independent of wind and tide. But when you take to tacking this way,
then you will have, in due time, to tack the other way–and when policy
makes you do this wrong thing, policy will lead you to do another wrong
thing–and so on, to a most lamentable degree. When our walk is with
the Lord, it is a safe, holy, honorable walk. But the way of the flesh
is evil and ends in shame. If you follow the way of the world, though
always a crowded way, it will turn out, before long, to be a miserable,
pettifogging, cringing, humiliating, dishonorable and wretched way to
the true-born heir of Heaven!

Dust shall be the serpent's meat and if we practice the crawling,
twisting, slimy arts of the serpent, we shall have to eat the dust,
too. Should a child of God degrade himself in that fashion? If he acts
as he should act, he acts like a nobleman, no, like a prince of the
blood imperial of Heaven, for is he not a son of God, one of Heaven's
true aristocracy? But when he degenerates to acting as worldlings do,
then, alas, he stains his garments in the mire! I charge you, my dear
Brothers and Sisters, to look well to this. Perhaps I may be speaking
as God's mouth to some of you who are now entering upon a testing time,
a trouble in the family, a trial in business, or a difficulty in
reference to a contemplated marriage, and you are asking, "What course
shall I take?"

You know what a man of the world would do and it has been suggested to
you that such a course is the right one for you to follow. My dear
Brother, remember you are not of the world, even as Christ is not of
the world! Mind you act accordingly. If you are a worldly man and do as
worldly men do, why, I must leave you–for them that are without God He
judges. But if you are a man of God and an heir of Heaven, I beseech
you, do not follow custom or do a wrong thing because others would do
it! Do not do a little evil for the sake of a great good, but in your
confidence possess your soul and abide faithful to conscience and to
the eternal law of rectitude. Let others do as they please, but as for
you, set the Lord always before you and let integrity and uprightness
preserve you.

Ask the Lord to help you. Is it not written that He will, with the
temptation, make a way of escape? "Cast your burden upon the Lord: He
will sustain you. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved." Do
not put forth your hand to iniquity. You may, in order to help
yourself, do in five minutes what you cannot undo in 50 years! And you
may bring upon yourself a lifelong of trial by one single unbelieving
action. Beware of staying yourself on Egypt and sending for help to
Assyria, for these will distress you and help you not! Cry, "Lord,
increase our faith!" That is what you greatly need in the trying hour,
lest you should, like Asa, first of all, turn from confidence in God
and, then, looking to an arm of flesh, should be tempted to use
illegitimate means in order to induce the creature to let you rely upon
it.

Asa, having advanced so far in the wrong path, did worse, still, if
worse could be, for he took of the gold and silver which belonged to
the House of the Lord, in order to purchase the alliance of the Syrian
monarch! I will say nothing about what belonged to his own house. He
might do as he liked with that, so long as he did not spend it upon
sin. But he took of the treasure that belonged to the House of the Lord
and gave it to Benhadad–to bribe him to break his league with
Baasha–and be in league with himself! Thus God was robbed, that the
unbelieving king might find help in an arm of flesh. And, "Will a man
rob God?"

A Christian never doubts God and looks to the creature without robbing
Him. If you rob Him of nothing else, you rob Him of His honor. Shall a
father find his child trusting a stranger rather than his own father?
Shall the husband see his wife putting confidence in his enemy? Will
not that rob him of that which is far more precious than gold? Is it
not a breach of that undivided affection, and that complete confidence
which ought to exist in the conjugal relationship? And shall I mistrust
my heavenly Father, my almighty Helper, and put confidence in a poor,
broken reed? Shall I cast my burden upon a poor fellow sinner and
forget to rest in my Savior? Shall the Well-Beloved of my soul be only
trusted in fair weather? And shall I have such a sorry opinion of Him
that when it comes to a little storm, I run to someone else and ask him
to be my refuge?

Beloved, let it not be so with us, or we shall surely grieve the Lord
and bring ourselves into much perplexity! Have we not already been
guilty enough of this? Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we
bent upon grieving His Holy Spirit? Can we not take warning from Asa?
Need we run upon this rock when we can see the wrecks of others all
around? The Lord grant we may take heed according to His Word! So this
good man, by his lack of faith, fell into many sins. I am compelled to
add that he had to bear the blame of the consequences of his conduct,
for when Benhadad, the king of Syria, came up and attacked Israel, he
did not content himself with a battle or two, but he fell to plundering
the Israelites and murdering them wholesale, so that great sorrows were
brought upon the people of Israel. And who was to blame for these
sorrows but the king of Judah, who had hired the Syrians for that very
purpose?

He who ought to have been a brother to the Israelites became their
destroyer! Every time the cruel sword of the Syrians slew the women and
children of Israel, the poor afflicted people had Asa to thank for it.
The beginning of sin is like the letting out of waters–none can
foresee what devastation the floods may cause. Brethren, we can never
tell what may be the consequences of one wrong action! We may kindle a
fire in the forest merely to warm our hands, but where the sparks may
fly–and how many leagues the conflagration may spread–an angel cannot
prophesy! Let us jealously keep away from every doubtful deed lest we
bring evil consequences upon others as well as ourselves. If we carry
no matches, we shall cause no explosions.

Oh, for a holy jealousy, a deep conscientiousness and, above all, a
solemn conscientiousness on the point of faith! To rest in the
Lord–that is our business! To stay ourselves only upon Him–that is
our sole concern! "My Soul, wait you only upon God, for my expectation
is from Him." Unbelief is, in itself, idolatry! Unbelief leads us to
look to the creature, which is folly. To look to the creature is, in
effect, to worship the creature, to put it into God's place and so to
grieve God and set up a rival in the holy place.

I want you to listen yet a little while longer to this story of Asa. It
came to pass that Asa's hiring Benhadad turned out to be a fine thing
for him and, in the judgment of everybody who looked on, I dare say it
was said that it was a fortunate stroke of business. According to God's
mind, the king's course was evil, but it did not turn out badly for him
politically. Now, many people in the world judge actions by their
immediate results. If a Christian does a wrong thing and it prospers,
then at once they conclude he was justified in doing it, but, ah,
Brothers and Sisters, this is a poor, blind way of judging the actions
of men and the Providence of God! Do you not know that there are
devil's providences as well as God's Providences?

I mean this. Jonah wanted to go to Tarshish to flee from God and he
went down to Joppa–and what? Why, he found a ship just going to
Tarshish. What a providence! What a providence! Are you so foolish as
to view it in that light? I do not think Jonah was of that mind when he
cried unto God out of the deeps! When the chief priests and Pharisees
would take Jesus, they found Judas ready to betray Him. Was this also a
providence? May not Satan have some hand in the arrangement which lays
a weapon so near a murderer's hand, or renders robbery and fraud so
easy? Do you think it an instance of Divine goodness that the tares
often grow plentifully when the wheat suffers from drought? Often have
we observed people who wanted to do wrong and things have just happened
rightly to help them–and they have, therefore, said, "What a
providence!"

Ah, but a Providence that was meant to test and try, not a providence
that was intended to aid and abet in the doing of a wrong thing–a
Providence not to rejoice in, but concerning which we are taught to
pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." A wrong
is a wrong, whatever comes of it! If by uttering one falsehood you
could become a rich man forever, it would not change the nature of the
falsehood. If by doing one wrong transaction you could rid yourself
from all liabilities in business and be, from now on, in competent
circumstances, that would not, before God, take off the edge of the
evil! No, not a single jot! God was pleased, for wise reasons, to allow
the policy of His erring servant Asa to prosper, but now you will see
that Asa was put in a worse place than ever because of it.

The trial of Asa's spirit, the testing of his unswerving
faithfulness–whether he would walk before God or not– became more
severe than before, for God sent His servant the Prophet to him, and he
said to him, "When you came to God, and trusted Him about the
Ethiopians, did not God prosper you? Though there were so many of them,
did not the Lord give you the victory? And now you have gone away from
your faith, you have lost a great blessing by it; for if you had
trusted in God, you would have gone to war against Baasha and Benhadad,
and you would have beaten them both, and your own kingdom would have
grown strong by the putting down of these rival kingdoms. But you have
lost that; you have acted very foolishly, and God means to chasten you
for it, for from this very day you will have no more peace, but you
will have war so long as you are a king."

Now, observe, if king Asa had met with a trouble when he acted
unjustifiably, he would have been humble, I have no doubt. Then he
would have seen how wrong he was and he would have repented. But
inasmuch as what he had done did not bring disaster with it–and God
did not chasten him–the king's heart grew proud and he said, "Who is
this fellow that he should come to tell his king his duty? Does he
think I do not know, as well as he can tell me, what is right and what
is wrong? Put the arrogant intruder in prison." When a Prophet came to
Rehoboam, who was a bad king, Rehoboam did not put him in prison–he
respected and reverenced the Word of the Lord. A bad man may do better
than a good man on some one particular occasion–and so Rehoboam did
better in that matter than Asa did.

But Asa was now all wrong, he was in a high bullying spirit–and this
was but what we might have expected, for whenever a man will cringe
before his fellow men, you may be sure he is beginning to walk proudly
before God. In his haughtiness of heart he put the Prophet in prison!
Instead of weeping and humbling himself for what he had done, he
imprisoned his reprover! And then, being in an irritable temper and a
domineering humor, he began to oppress certain of his people. I do not
know who they may have been, but probably they were godly persons who
sympathized with the Prophet, and said, "We shall surely meet with a
terrible judgment for dealing thus with God's servant." Perhaps they
spoke freely about it and so Asa put them in prison, too.

Thus God's own child had become the persecutor of God's servant and of
other faithful ones. Oh, it was very sad, very sad! Well might God,
then, resolve that the angry should smart for his faults very severely,
that the rod should come home to his bone and his flesh, and render his
remaining days exceedingly sorrowful. O beloved Friends, among your
most earnest prayers pray God never to let your sins prosper, for if
they do, they will breed a gangrene in your spirit

which will lead on to yet more dangerous diseases of your soul! And
they will inevitably entail upon you a dreary inheritance of
affliction. God does not always whip His children the next minute after
they do wrong. Sometimes He tells them that the rod will come and so
makes them smart in apprehension before they smart in actual
experience, for they are thinking of what it will be and that may be
even a worse trial to them than the trial itself.

But as surely as they are His own peculiar people, they must and shall
be taught that sin is an exceedingly great evil, and they shall have no
joy of their dalliance with it. Thus I have shown you who Asa was, and
what faults he fell into, and how this led to other faults.

II. And now we have to show you what God did with him when he came to a
close reckoning. "Now," He seemed to say, "I will take you in hand
Myself," and He sent him a disease in his feet–a very painful disease,
too. He had to suffer night and day. He was tormented with it and found
no rest. God's own hand was heavy upon him and some of us know to our
regret that disease in the feet can become a very grievous affliction,
second, indeed, to none, unless it be a malady of the brain. Now did
the king learn that embroidered slippers give no ease to gouty feet and
that sleep flies when disease bears rule.

This should have driven Asa to repentance, but, to show that
afflictions of themselves will not set a man right, Asa had fallen into
such an unbelieving spirit that, instead of sending to God for help,
and crying for relief to Him who sent the disease, he sent for the
physicians! It is not wrong to send for physicians, it is quite
right–but it is very wrong to send for physicians in place of crying
to God–thus putting the human agency before the Divine. Besides, it is
very probable that these physicians were only heathen magicians,
sorcerers and pretenders to magical arts, and could not be consulted
without implicating the patient in their evil practices. Though Asa
would not approve of their heathenism, yet he might think, "Well, they
are famous for their cures, and who they may be is not so much my
concern. I will put up with that–if they can cure me, they may come."

So his unbelief deprived him of the cure which God could readily enough
have given him and he had his physicians and their medicine, but they
were miserable comforters to him, giving him no relief, and probably
causing him to suffer more than he would have suffered without them.
They were physicians of no value, and their medicines were a delusion.
How often is it so when we persist in looking away from God? He who has
God has all, but he who has all besides God has really nothing at all!
Asa's life, after that period, was a life of war and pain. His evening
was clouded and his sun set in tempest. Have you ever noticed the
career of David? What a happy life David's was up to one point! In his
youth he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains, but he was
very merry. What joyful Psalms he used to sing when he was a humble
shepherd boy!

And when, afterwards, he was an exile in the caves of Engedi, how
gloriously he poured out notes of gratitude and joy! He was at that
period, and for years after, one of the happiest of men. But that hour
when he walked on the roof of his house and saw Bathsheba–and gave way
to his unholy desires–that hour, I say, put an end to the happy days
of David. And though he was still a child of God and God never cast him
away, yet his heavenly Father never ceased to chasten him. From that
day his life teemed with trouble–troubles from his own children one
after another, ingratitude from his subjects–and annoyance from his
enemies. Afflictions sprang up for him as plenteously as hemlock in the
furrows. He became a weeping monarch instead of a rejoicing one. The
whole tenor of his life changed–a somber shade was cast over his
entire image. You recognize him as the same man, but his voice is
broken. His music is deep bass, he cannot reach one high note of the
scale. From the hour in which he sinned he began to sorrow more and
more.

So will it be with us if we are not watchful. We may have led very
happy lives in Christ up to this moment–and we know the Lord will not
cast us away–for He does not cast away His people whom He did
foreknow. But if we begin to walk distrustfully and adopt wrong
actions, and dishonor His name, He may from that moment, say, "You only
have I known of all the people of the earth, therefore I will punish
you for your iniquities. Because I love you I will chasten you, for I
chasten every son whom I love. And now, because you have thus gone
astray, you shall be filled with your own backslidings. Your own
vanities shall become your vexation throughout the rest of your days."

Asa does not appear to have had any peace until at last he fell asleep,
and then, I trust, his dying bed was as sweetly perfumed with penitence
and pardon as his funeral couch was odoriferous with fragrant spices.
The sweet spices of forgiving love and reviving faith were there and he
died rejoicing in his God through the great Sacrifice. Brought back
after a time of wandering, the cloudy day, at last, ended in a calm,
bright evening. But who wishes to go so far astray,

even if he is, at length, restored? O Brothers and Sisters, we do not
merely want to go to Heaven, but we desire to enjoy a Heaven on the
road to Heaven! We would like not only to come up from the wilderness,
but to come up from the wilderness leaning on our Beloved! We would not
wish to be saved, "so as by fire," but to have an abundant entrance
administered to us into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.

Asa's character was well known among the people and they loved and
respected him. The mistake he had made grieved many of the godly, I do
not doubt, but for all that, they felt that one fault must not blot out
the recollection of nearly 40 years of devoted service to God. So they
loved him and they honored him with a funeral worthy of a king–a
funeral by which they expressed both their sorrow and their esteem. But
may it never be said of you and of me, "He led a good life. He was
eminent in the service of God and did much, but there was an unhappy
day in which the weakness of the flesh mastered the inner life."

dear Sister, if you have brought up your children and have seen your
family about you–and they have been proofs to all the world of the way
in which you have walked with God and of your care to discharge your
duties–do not let your old age be given up to petulance and murmuring
and complaining so that your friends will have to say of you, "At the
last she was not the happy Christian woman that she used to be." My
dear Brother, you have been a merchant and you have resisted a great
many temptations. You have been noted for your honorable character–do
not now, in a moment of extreme trial, begin to doubt your God! May the
Holy Spirit preserve you from so great an ill. In the time of your need
you will find the Lord to be Jehovah-Jireh. He is no fair weather
Friend, but He is a shelter from the storm, a covert from the tempest.

Stand fast in your faith in Him! Do not question your God and do
questionable things in consequence, for, if you do, it will be said by
those who come after you, and perhaps even while you live by those who
love you. "He was a good man, but there was a sad period of weakness
and inconsistency. And though he was deeply penitent, yet from that
unhappy day he went limping to his tomb." What a precious Christ we
have, who saves such sinners as we are! What a dear and blessed Lord we
have, who does not cast us away, notwithstanding all our slips and
falls and shameful wanderings! Beloved, let us not be so base as
wantonly to grieve Him–

"We ha ve no fear that You should lose

One whom eternal love could choose.

But we would never this Grace abuse.

Let us not fall. Let us not fall."

With such a warning as this of Asa before us, now, do not let us relax
our watchfulness and insensibly turn aside. "The path of the just is as
the shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day."

That is your model–that is the promise which Scripture sets before
you. Plead it and try to realize it. Let us go from strength to
strength. Let us ask to grow in Divine Grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we have wanted props up to
now–outward and visible props–and have not been altogether able to
rely upon God, may the Lord help us to grow stronger so that we may
have done with Ready-to-Halt's crutches! May we walk uprightly before
the Lord because we rely upon Him, trusting always in His sure
faithfulness, and in the power which guarantees that His promise shall
be fulfilled.

1 do not know to whom I may be speaking a necessary word, except that I
know it is necessary for myself. Perhaps there are some here to whom it
may be just the word that is needed. Dear Brother, the life of faith is
a blessed one! A Believer's course is a tried one–it is a
warfare–but, for all that, all the sorrows of faith put together do
not equal in bitterness one drop of the sorrow of sin, or one grain of
the misery of unbelief. The king's highway may be rough, but By-Path
Meadow, in the long run, is the rougher way of the two! It looks very
pleasant to walk on the green turf, but remember, it is only in
appearance that By-Path Meadow is smooth. The ways of Christ are ways
of pleasantness and all His paths are peace as compared with any other
paths in the world. And if they were not–if to serve the Lord led us
only into sorrow and trouble–I trust the loyal hearts here, the virgin
souls whom Christ has chosen, would resolve through floods or flames,
if Jesus led the way, to follow still!

O Beloved, may you cleave to the Lord by a simple faith! May you cleave
to Him when the many turn aside! May you witness that He has the Living
Word and none upon earth beside! Because your hearts are frail and
feeble, ask Him, now, to cast the bands of His love about you and the
cords of a man to bind you fast to His altar that you may not go away
from it. For except He holds you fast, you must, you will decline and
prove apostates after all. But He will hold you! He

will keep the feet of His saints! Only trust not in yourselves. "He
that trusts in his own heart is a fool." If any man says, "I stand,"
let him take heed lest he fall!

Beware of that self-confidence and spiritual boasting which is becoming
common among Christians! Some even brag of their attainments–when, if
they did but know themselves, they would confess that they are nothing
better, even at the best, than poor, naked, miserable sinners! We all
have need to look to Jesus, for we are nothing but empty boasters apart
from Him! Only in Christ are we anything. "When I am weak, then am I
strong," but at no other time. When I think I have a reason to glory,
then am I, indeed, despicable! I know not myself and have become nearly
blind, so as only to see what my own pride makes me think I see.

May the Holy Spirit keep us humble–keep us at the foot of the
Cross–keep us flat on the promise, resting on the eternal Rock and
crying, "I am nothing Lord–nothing! You are All in All. I am all
emptiness–come and fill me. I am all nakedness–come and clothe me. I
am all weakness–come and glorify Your power, by making use of me!" God
bless you, dear Friends, and if there are any among you who have not a
God to trust in, or a Savior to love, may you seek Jesus now! If you
seek Him, He will be found of you, for whoever believes in Him is
saved! Whoever trusts Christ is saved! Pardon and salvation belong to
every soul that hangs its hope upon the Cross! May God bless you
richly, for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Parts of 2 Chronicles
14,15.16. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–668, 667.
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