Worship service 6/22/25

Psalm 25 Devotional [15]:

1 The Prophet touched with the consideration of his sins, and also grieved with the cruel malice of his enemies, 6 Prayeth to God most fervently to have his sins forgiven. 7 Especially such as he had committed in his youth. He beginneth every verse according to the Hebrew letters, two or three except.

A Psalm of David.

1 Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.

5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

6 Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.

8 Gracious and righteous is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11 For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

12 What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

15 Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I trust in thee.

21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

• The relation to the previous Psalm. Psalm 24, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”

Psalm 25 demonstrates the character of those who having not lifted up their soul to vanity, pray to the Lord in fear and reverence, knowing that He will deliver us from all our troubles.

• The meekness and passivity of Christians not to act in defiance against God or take vengeance into our hands, but to wait on Him and trust in Him to deliver.

• The necessity of integrity in our cause, and the seeking after God’s guidance to keep us from sin.

• That it is by the grace of God alone that we seek Him and His counsel.

• David calls upon the God of His salvation denoting true belief in the promises.

• The necessity of forgiveness in prayer. We cannot be heard unless we are forgiven and cleansed from sin.

• When God teaches sinners, He teaches them to Glory in the LORD alone.

• God subdues our passions and makes our way pleasant, and joyful.

• Christians are known and characterized by the fear of God.

• This Psalm and all the others are chiefly Messianic and deal of Christ, His true affection to God.

• Sound doctrine is taught to us in secret, away from the world.

• Our feet are often caught in the net of temptation, but the Lord delivers us out of them all.

• God delivers His people by redemption and purchase, and not one shall slip out of His hand.

David Dickson,

He closeth his exercise with a Prayer for the Church. Whence learne, 1. It is the common lot of all the Saints to be exercised with plurality of troubles; and as the troubles of each particular member should not swallow up the sense of the troubles of the Church; but rather private trouble should make every one sensible of the like or greater troubles of the rest of the body; So should the delivery of the whole Church be sought after, as our own, yea and more then our own; and as our last petition: and how ever the matter shall goe with our selves, let us pray, Redeem Israel O Lord, out of all his troubles.

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Opening Prayer.

Our great God and Father, who dwellest in the highest heavens—

Our Lord and Saviour, the Redeemer of thy people—

Thou hast formed the earth and all things therein by thy great and awesome power;

The heavens declare thy glory, and the firmament showeth thy handiwork.

Thou didst fashion man in thine own image,

hast made him a little lower than the angels,

And crowned him with glory and honour.

Thou gavest him a rational soul, and understanding above the beasts of the field.

But man, in his fallen estate, hath turned it all into madness.

He saith in his heart, “There is no God,”

He reasons against the truth and exalteth himself above all that is called God.

His hands are swift to do mischief;

His mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;

And The way of peace he hath not known.

He cannot see, neither can he understand,

For thou hast left him to blindness of heart,

And the holy and excellent gifts of creation are defaced and marred in him.

Therefore do we call upon thee in humility, O Lord our God:

Enlighten our eyes, lest we sleep the sleep of death.

Be thou our wisdom, that we may see.

Be thou our righteousness, that we may live.

Work in us that which is well-pleasing in thy sight.

Teach us to do thy commandments, for in thee do we delight.

Order our steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over us.

Give us grace and glory for thy name’s sake,

For thou, O Lord, art a sun and shield, and no good thing wilt thou withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Lead us, O Shepherd of Israel,

And carry us as a flock into thy heavenly abode,

That we might worship thee in righteousness and peace,

World without end.

Amen.

Lesson 37. [1.2.14.] The Contents of Holy Scripture. Pt. 14. The Histories: 2 Kings

Westminster Confession of Faith 1.2

Under the name of holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments,

All which are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life.

Intro.

I. Biblical Theology as a Cloak for Unbelief

Biblical theology—originally meant to trace the progress of divine revelation—has, in modern institutions, become a sanctuary for unbelief. It permits a form of academic interest in Scripture—without any demand to submit to its truth. It is to use the scriptures without the truth of scripture. Communion is impossible with a dead body.

• They map the journeys of Paul, but deny the import of Paul’s words.

• They chart the conquest of Canaan, but question whether God truly commanded it, or would today.

• They analyze typology, yet reject Christ, the substance and fulfillment of them.

• They do not tremble at the Word (Isa. 66:2), but dissect it, as if its power were merely literary, sociological, or mythic.

In short: Biblical theology, divorced from faith and confessional boundaries, becomes a scholarly veil for rebellion.

II. Systematic Theology Requires Submission to Christ and Confession

Unlike the historical observer, the Christian is not merely a spectator. He is a witness. “martyr”

• Systematic theology calls the student to believe what the Scriptures declare, not merely to catalogue what the Scriptures describe.

• It brings one into direct contact with divine categories—God, man, sin, Christ, grace, judgment, glory—and permits no neutrality.

It is not possible to affirm systematic truth without falling on one’s face.

Consider this passage of scripture:

“If we confess our sins…” — Original Sin, Total Depravity

“He is faithful and just…” — Justice of God satisfied in Christ

“To forgive us…” — Justification

“And cleanse us…” — Sanctification and Perseverance

(1 John 1:9)

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chron. 7:14

The principles set down in the Confession are not merely topics to aid the reader. They are divine truths, and to reject or dilute them is to make war against the One who gave them.

III. Scriptural Condemnation of Ecclesiastical Pride – to add to the word.

2 Peter 3:16

“As also in all his epistles… in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”

The “wresting” of Scripture here is the deliberate twisting of God’s Word to make it say what man prefers, whether through ignorance or malice. “But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited to his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men”

1 Peter 2:7–8

“Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner,

And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.”

• The disobedient are characterized as those who stumble at the word, and vice versa.

• The word is equated with Christ. Christ is only known by the doctrine contained in His word.

• False opinions are the prelude to stumbling.

• The “stumbling” over Scripture is not accidental—it is judicial.

• Their end is not a lesser reward but death and hell.

Summary: God permits the proud (even church ministers and theologians) to stumble over the Word to which he has appointed them, as a display of His justice.

Biblical Theology, when severed from the Spirit and the Confession of Faith, is not a doorway to humility and truth but a shrine to man’s intellect. It allows scholars to master the history of the Bible while avoiding its authority. It is, in essence, a structure of learned disobedience. But Orthodox Systematic Theology—rooted in the whole counsel of God and governed by the Reformed confessions—admits no neutrality. It demands not only understanding, but worship. It brings the soul face to face with the God who speaks—and requires that we believe, confess, and obey.

Let every theologian ask himself, not whether he has outlined the movements of Paul or mapped the kingdoms of Israel, but whether he has submitted to the God who wrote the Scriptures, and whether he confesses with his mouth and believes in his heart the sacred truths that those Scriptures reveal.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Rom. 10:9

Lesson.

I. Survey of 2 Kings

i. Overview

2 Kings continues the historical narrative from 1 Kings, beginning with the final acts of Elijah and the ascension of Elisha to the prophetic office. It chronicles the decline and eventual fall of both the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah), revealing the consequences of idolatry, covenant-breaking, and rejection of God’s prophets.

The book opens with miracles and prophetic authority, but descends into deepening apostasy, political instability, foreign invasion, and eventually exile. Despite national judgment, Israel is preserved from total destruction through the covenantal promise of God.

“Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.

For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

For thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.

All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.”

Jeremiah 30:10-14

ii. Authorship and Historical Setting

Though the human author is not named, Jewish tradition attributes the composition of Kings to the prophet Jeremiah, likely compiled and finalized during or shortly after the Babylonian exile.

• The events span from roughly 850 BC (Ahaziah’s reign) to 561 BC (release of Jehoiachin in Babylon), covering:

• The reigns of successive kings in both Israel and Judah

• The fall of Samaria (722 BC) to Assyria

• The fall of Jerusalem (586 BC) to Babylon

The growing influence of the prophetic office amidst national apostasy.

See major and minor prophets.

The Witness of the Prophets against Israel and Judah.

I. Political Rebellion – Kings who feared not God

“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees… to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor” (Isa. 10:1–2).

• From Jeroboam’s golden calves to Ahab’s Baal worship, from Uzziah’s presumption to Manasseh’s sorceries, the kings did not rule in righteousness. They forgot the command in Deuteronomy 17—to write out God’s law and rule in the fear of the Lord.

“They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not” (Hos. 8:4).

“Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves” (Isa. 1:23).

• The kings trusted in foreign alliances and in the arm of flesh, not in the name of the Lord their God.

“Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help… but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 31:1).

“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death… when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us” (Isa. 28:15).

• Their governments became machines of oppression, their courts dens of bribery, and their policies crafted to fatten themselves.

II. Ecclesiastical Rebellion – Priests profaned the sanctuary

“Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane” (Ezek. 22:26).

• From the house of Eli to the corruption under Manasseh and the apostasy under Ahaz, the priesthood turned traitor. They offered strange fire, polluted the altar, silenced the law, and served the idols of the kings.

“The law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients” (Ezek. 7:26).

“The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew me not” (Jer. 2:8).

• The temple itself became a token of pride rather than a place of holy worship.

“Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord… are these” (Jer. 7:4).

“I hate, I despise your feast days… take thou away from me the noise of thy songs” (Amos 5:21, 23).

• False prophets multiplied and were loved by the people. They prophesied smooth things and healed the wound of the nation slightly.

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so” (Jer. 5:31).

“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied” (Jer. 23:21).

• They refused all correction, until God left the temple desolate.

“See what I did to Shiloh” (Jer. 7:12).

III. Personal Rebellion – A people laden with iniquity

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters” (Isa. 1:4).

• The people walked every one in the imagination of his own heart, turning aside after Baalim and the works of the nations.

“Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number” (Jer. 2:32).

“They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return” (Jer. 8:5).

• They loved to wander, and they stopped their ears against the voice of the prophets. Their sins were many: bloodshed, injustice, theft, false witness, and harlotry.

“She decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord” (Hos. 2:13).

“They say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things” (Isa. 30:10).

• When confronted with the law, they cast it behind their backs.

“They made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law” (Zech. 7:12).

“Ye have snuffed at it… and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand?” (Mal. 1:13).

IV. The Divine Verdict – Judgment upon a rebellious house

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet… lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:5–6).

“Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field… and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley” (Mic. 1:6).

• The Lord rose early, sending His servants, the prophets—but they would not listen.

“The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion… but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words” (2 Chr. 36:15–16).

• He gave them over. First Israel fell to Assyria; then Judah to Babylon. Ichabod was written across their gates—the glory had departed.

“How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers” (Isa. 1:21).

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (Jer. 8:20).

V. A remnant shall return

“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom” (Isa. 1:9).

“In wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2).

• The prophets do not end in despair. Though judgment falls, a remnant shall be saved. God will purify the sons of Levi, build a new temple, and bring forth a greater King.

“Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness” (Isa. 32:1).

“The desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory” (Hag. 2:7).

• A Shepherd will gather the scattered sheep. A fountain will be opened for sin and uncleanness. The promise of restoration belongs not to man’s strength, but to God’s mercy.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6).

“And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10).

iii. Place in the Canon

2 Kings is the seventh book in the historical section of the Old Testament (Joshua–Esther). It forms the conclusion to the unified narrative that began in 1 Samuel and continues the Deuteronomic history, emphasizing covenant faithfulness and divine judgment.

The emphasis is national obedience.

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deut. 30:19

Though divided in our English Bibles, 1 and 2 Kings are a single literary unit. Together with 1 and 2 Samuel, they trace the rise and fall of Israel’s monarchy, culminating in the loss of the land. These books set the stage for the prophetic literature (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, etc.), which arose amidst these very events and sought to recall the people to covenant faithfulness. But these historical narratives are more than political chronicles—they are a theological indictment, a living witness of God’s justice and mercy, and a condemnation of all self-reliance in matters of salvation. For this we have 7 points, culminating to one divine conclusion.

1. The Strict Command of Obedience.

“In the beginning was the word.”

“From the beginning was the law”. Since her very conception, redeemed from Egyptian bondage, Israel was bound by the covenant to obey God’s voice with fear and love. Obedience was never optional—it was the condition of life in the land:

“Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee… that it may be well with thee” (Deut. 6:17–18).

“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil… in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God” (Deut. 30:15–16).

God’s moral law was perpetual, and binding, personal, political and ecclesiastical— it was not ceremonial suggestion. Disobedience was not only disloyalty, but spiritual adultery and high treason.

2. This Obedience was Clearly Communicated by Moses and the Prophets

No generation lacked warning. Moses rehearsed the covenant repeatedly (Deut. 4–11), spelling out in radiant characters the covenant blessings and curses (Deut. 28). And the people swore to uphold it:

“Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen” (Deut. 27:26).

“All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exod. 24:7).

Later prophets—Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and others—were raised up to exposit and enforce that very same law, not replace it:

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20).

“I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” (Hos. 8:12)

3. Whatever Judgment Fell Upon Them Came Through the Breaking of the Law.

Sin, not suffering, is the ultimate evil. Misery is the natural issue of moral corruption. The curses of the covenant—famine, sword, pestilence, and exile—were the fruit of rebellion, the seed that the people themselves produced: It is as if a man—let us call him Adam—was given liberty to choose from a hundred women, each lovely, beautiful, and fair. Yet the one woman he chooses is the only one of all these- expressly forbidden to him. She is pledged by covenant to another, heir to a rival kingdom, and has sworn openly by oath to her father that she will one day deliver her husband’s dominion into his hands.

Adam, against all counsel, takes her. He marries her in defiance of counsel and commandment, and together they bear a son. But she names the child after her father, and raises him—not in loyalty to Adam—but in devotion to the rival throne. From the time the boy takes his first breath, to the hour he learns to walk, he is instructed in one lesson only: that he must one day rise up, kill his father, and reign in his place.

And so, when the child reaches maturity, and does the very thing he was raised to do—strikes down Adam and yields the kingdom to his mother—should Adam be surprised? Can he protest? Was it not foretold from the beginning? That which was conceived in rebellion, born of treachery, and nurtured in malice, must at last yield destruction.

So it was with Israel. The land they lost was not stolen; it was surrendered- willingly. The kingdom that fell was not overthrown; it collapsed under the weight of its own iniquity. Sin always begets sorrow—personal and national—and the people were not without warning.

“Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).

“Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness… therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies” (Deut. 28:47–48).

The Judgment that came upon them then, was not some arbitrary decree—it was the harvest of the very seed they themselves had sown and carefully nurtured. The prophets rose early and cried aloud aiming to uproot these unnatural tares, but the people refused. They persecuted and killed the prophets, the seed became a tree and the tree brought forth its fruit.

“when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Jam. 1:15

“Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

Serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

The covenant had expressly stated and strict terms.

“Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?” (Job 31:3)

“Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee” (Jer. 2:19).

They did not suffer unjustly—every stroke was earned by their willing and repeated covenant-breaking. “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Prov. 29:1).

4. Prophets Were Sent for Their Restoration

God, being rich in mercy, rose early and sent His prophets—not merely to foretell judgment, but to urge repentance:

“Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets… saying, Turn ye from your evil ways” (2 Kings 17:13).

“I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them” (Jer. 25:4).

“But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” (Zech. 7:11).

Their reproofs were not vague or mystical; they were plain, passionate, public, and powerful. Yet Israel’s heart remained cold and hard as stone.

5. Sin Was Condemned Openly, Publicly, and Sufficiently

The prophets were not timid moralists or babbling sophists—they thundered from heaven. Their denunciations were specific, naming kings, priests, and cities, and their particular sins:

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression” (Isa. 58:1).

“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly” (Amos 5:10).

Israel’s sins were manifold: false worship, oppression of the poor, Sabbath profanation, sexual immorality, murder, and priestly corruption. “They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah” (Hos. 9:9).

6. Even the Northern Tribes Were Not Forgotten

Though the northern kingdom (Israel) had rebelled early and fallen into idolatry, God sent prophets to them as well—Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea:

“And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel… yet the Lord testified against Israel… by all the seers” (2 Kings 17:12–14).

The presence of prophets in Samaria, where golden calves were worshipped, reveals God’s plea to apostate sinners and their utter inability to repent and turn. Despite the whole council of God against them they refused to return.

Jeremiah 7:26

“Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.”

Jeremiah 16:12

“for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me.”

7. Their failure to obey and maintain the land was full proof and evidence that the promises of God are not earthly.

God had given them a good land, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod. 3:8), and had warned them that the land itself was holy—His land—not theirs (Lev. 25:23). Yet they defiled it through bloodshed, idolatry, and covenant-breaking. The Lord said, “Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel” (Num. 35:34). But they polluted it nonetheless, and as He warned in Leviticus 18:28, “that the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it.” “Defile not therefore the land… for blood it defileth the land” (Num. 35:34).

“The Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem” (2 Kings 23:27).

Thus, their expulsion testified to this: the inheritance of God’s people is not of this world because the promises fail not. They lost the earthly promise to prepare us for the true and heavenly one. “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:14). The Promised Land was always a shadow of a greater reality: the heavenly country (Heb. 11:16).

8. And therefore man cannot, under any circumstance—kingdom or captive—deliver himself.

The whole history of Israel is a solemn condemnation of human ability. When they had judges, they did what was right in their own eyes. When they had kings, they forsook God. When they were free, they rebelled. When they were captive, they murmured. At every turn, they failed to keep God’s covenant.

The Law was given—but not kept. The prophets were sent—but not heeded. The covenant was made—but broken. And so the Lord declared, “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath” (Hos. 13:11). The entire record of Kings and Chronicles stands as divine testimony that salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9), and that “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23).

What then is free will? A broken reed. “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11). Their ruin came not from the lack of opportunity, but the lack of spiritual power. “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider” (Isa. 1:3). Man’s will left to itself cannot choose righteousness.

Thus the entire history of Israel under the monarchy becomes a public trial and conviction of human free will. Left to themselves, with every advantage—laws, prophets, miracles, kings, temple—they still fell. What then?

“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help” (Hos. 13:9).

In summary, 2 Kings bears relentless witness that salvation is of the Lord, and no structure—be it kingdom, priesthood, temple, or even a prophet’s presence—can deliver man unless God Himself gives repentance and new life. “The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him” (Ps. 103:17).

But where sin reigns, even His gifts become means of judgment. “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Rom. 2:5

Concluding analogy against Enlightenment humanism:

There is a popular television series in which mankind is placed upon trial, accused of being a savage and warlike species. Yet, through a display of purblind emotion, self-serving loyalty, and sentimental rhetoric, mankind is acquitted—not because he is judged by a just and morally upright standard and found to be truly righteous, but because he is judged by a manipulated sequence of events, and by a sadistic, fickle and morally capricious entity. Their conclusion is this: although mankind has throughout human history always been judged to be savage, yet now, in the year 2364, he has advanced to some new enlightenment and has cast off old hostility to his neighbour—on account of a few acts now deemed morally acceptable, acts which, notably, cannot be denied to the very eras for which he was condemned.

Thus, the basis of this supposed moral progress is a distorted view of human history—not a full and faithful record, but a selective reading, focused on bloodshed, conquest, and public violence, while wholly ignoring or romanticising the motives behind it. For if man is condemned for the wars of old, then why is he vindicated for the shallow mercies of the present? If he is to be judged by his savagery, must he not also be judged by the very same acts of ‘compassion’ that appear in earlier ages?

Consider: if humankind is acquitted of savagery because one captain and his crew rescue a lower life form from servitude—supposedly showing compassion—what of the so-called compassion owed to the higher life forms nourished and kept alive by that very station? Is it truly compassion, or is it merely situational sentiment? So the standard he is judged by is hostility in the past, and the standard he hopes to be judged by is progress in the present—yet neither are tethered to truth. We are presented not with a moral standard but with moral confusion.

In truth, mankind has always made laws—not because he is righteous, but because he loves himself. Laws are made not to glorify God, but to preserve personal peace, property, and pride. “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father” (1 John 2:16). What the world calls virtue is often nothing more than self-interest enshrined in policy. From Hammurabi’s Code to the Greek philosophers, from Cicero to the Islamic jurists, from medieval kings to modern states—history testifies not of progress, but of blind repetition. The testimony is this: superficial civility, inward depravity. For “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be… and there is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Humanity repeats its rebellion generation after generation. The pattern is not linear ascension, but cyclical ruin. Just as we see in the Book of Kings—defiance, idolatry, apostasy, and judgment.

This then is the lie of modern humanism: that man, though flawed, is essentially good, and that time and opportunity will prove his nobility. But what of this tripe?

Holy Scripture presents the true trial—not before morally vague and fictional entities, but before the God of heaven who created all things and gave His law to man. And the testimony found in Kings is damning. Mankind is not merely prone to sin; he is enslaved to it. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

We do not need the chronicles of every nation or the philosophies of every age to prove this. We only need the Law of God and the Book of the Kings. For there, written in living history, we see a chosen people—given every advantage: law, land, prophets, kings, and the visible glory of God Himself. Yet they fell—defiantly, repeatedly, and finally. And so great was their fall that they crucified their Lord and Redeemer.

So much for the doctrine of human progress. So much for free will. So much for sentimental vindications of mankind. The only progress that exists then is the progress of redemption—not of man, but of God’s mercy toward man. We are not a species evolving toward light, but a race descending further into darkness, as is so evident in our modern culture, given over to lust, confusion, villainy and rebellion. “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint” (Isaiah 1:5). “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom” (Isaiah 1:9).

Let the record of the Kings stand as divine witness in the courtroom of heaven. The verdict is in. Man stands guilty—with no hope of redemption arising from himself or from any other creature. Salvation is of the Lord.

And is it not a marvel—yea, a fearful marvel—how the world slips its lies through the media like a fatal drop of poison into a golden chalice? What they offer as wine is not the cup of truth, but a draft of death. It dazzles with sentiment, but is void of substance. It sings of man’s ascent to godhood while hiding the bones beneath the devil’s feet. It preaches knowledge without the fear of God, progress without holiness, and salvation without a Saviour.

We will not drink.

Let the whole world sip from Babylon’s cup and call it enlightenment—we will cling to the simple truth of the Word of God. Let others trade righteousness for relevance—we will not bow. Let the multitudes stagger under the intoxication of this age—we will not be moved.

But “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly… his delight is in the law of the Lord” (Psalm 1:1–2).

Conclusion.

Closing Prayer.

Our great and glorious Father, who dwellest in the highest heaven,

Our strong Rock and Redeemer,

The God of strength, and the God of life:

We lift up our voices unto thee in joyful adoration and triumph.

For thou hast crushed the heathen beneath our feet,

And delivered unto us a kingdom that cannot be moved.

Lord, though we do not yet see the full accomplishment of these things in this life,

Yet we behold their beginning.

The doctrine of the world—its liberty and lust—

Thou hast shown to be error and vanity.

The idols of the heathen—pride and humanism—

Thou hast broken as vessels of clay.

We believe thy word, O Lord,

Which is like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.

It hath dashed to fragments the vain philosophy of the world.

There it lies, strewn like the carcasses of them that bowed to it—

Men who fell, not by sword, but by falsehood.

But thou hast saved us from being destroyed with the wicked.

Thou hast delivered us from their counsels and from their paths.

Thou hast made us partakers of thy grace,

Through the light of thy Son, Jesus Christ.

Therefore do we give thee praise, and unto thee only:

For we could not deliver ourselves,

Neither hath our own arm saved us—

But thy right hand, and thine holy arm,

And the light of thy countenance,

Because thou hadst a favour unto us.

Thy truth and thy mercy,

Thy covenant faithfulness,

Have surely delivered us from the net of the enemy.

And we are persuaded that thou wilt yet deliver us,

Even as we call upon thee in truth.

Therefore, although we see not yet the idols of this world utterly abolished,

As we shall on that last and dreadful day,

Yet we behold their ruin begun.

We know the promise.

We know the time is coming.

And therefore do we wait on thee, O LORD,

Our Redeemer and our Saviour.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Amen.”

Youtube Audio: https://youtu.be/kYnhbCdOpIs