In his sermon, Chuck Smith discusses the disobedience and eventual death of King Asa, emphasizing how Asa's reliance on human strategy rather than faith in God led to his downfall. Despite his initial reforms and victories, Asa's later years were marked by a lack of trust in God, culminating in a disease that he sought to heal through physicians instead of turning to the Lord. Smith highlights the importance of maintaining faith and reliance on God throughout our lives, warning against the dangers of disobedience and self-reliance. The sermon serves as a reminder of God's patience and mercy, as He continues to reach out to those who stray from His path.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit and His love Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse by verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be focusing on the disobedience and death of Asa As we pick up in 1 Kings, chapter 15, verse 21 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith Basically what's happened here Is that Asa is having war with the king of Israel, Baasha Who built this fortified city So he sent money to the Syrian king, Ben-Hadad That he might hire the mercenaries to attack Baasha's kingdom from the north, from the area of Syria Coming down the Golan Heights into the area of Dan and Ion And the upper areas, the area of Galilee on down to the Sea of Galilee And it had its desired effect When Baasha heard that he was being attacked from the north He withdrew the building of the city of Ramah In order to defend his northern border against Ben-Hadad And it seems like it was a clever strategy that worked And it is interesting that here in the book of Kings It doesn't really deal completely with this But when we move into the book of Chronicles We find that King Asa is rebuked by Hananiah the prophet of the Lord For this bit of strategy Though it worked, it showed a deterioration in Asa's trust in God Now, we read of the ascension of Asa His reformations and this bit of strategy in hiring Ben-Hadad And it came to pass, verse 21 When Baasha heard that the northern part was being attacked That he left the building of Ramah And King Asa made a proclamation throughout all of Judah No one was exempted, all the men were to come and to take apart this city To take the stones and all that they had cut for the walls And they made a couple of cities, fortified them The city of Mizpah and Geba were fortified With the supplies that they had bought to build this city So the rest of the acts of Asa All of his strength and might, all that he did The cities which he built Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? Yes, they are, and we will read them when we get there Nevertheless, in the time of his old age He was diseased in his feet And he slept with his fathers Now, in Chronicles it tells us that he had this disease of the feet And then it said, and he sought the aid of physicians And did not seek the Lord, and he died So the implication in Chronicles is Had he sought the Lord, God could have healed him And God would have healed him, and he could have had an extended reign But in seeking the help of man And that became the pattern in the later years And there are fabulous lessons to learn from it And we will learn them when we get to Chronicles And so, we're going to learn a lot from this guy So his son Jehoshaphat Reigned in his stead Jehoshaphat, as we will find later, had a successful reign Now, back up in Israel, going north again The northern kingdom, Nadab, the son of Jeroboam Began to reign over Israel In the second year that Asa was the king of Judah And he reigned for two years But he did evil in the sight of the Lord his father In the sin wherein he made Israel to sin And he followed the pattern of his father, Jeroboam And Baasha, the son of Ahijah Of the house of Ishkar, conspired against him And Baasha smote him at Gibethon Which belongs to the Philistines For Nadab and all of Israel had laid siege to Gibethon Even in the third year of Asa the king of Judah Did Baasha slay him and began to reign in his stead And it came to pass when he reigned That he smote all of the house of Jeroboam He left not to Jeroboam anyone that breathed Until he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord Which he spoke by his servant Ahijah The Shilonite Now, we just studied that When Jeroboam's wife came in the disguise He said, hey, God's gonna cut off all of the descendants of Jeroboam This happened just five years after the prophecy All of the descendants of Jeroboam were wiped out By this Baasha Who conspired against the son of Jeroboam, Nadab And destroyed him and then wiped out all the house And there was war between Asa and Baasha The king of Israel all of their days And so the northern and the southern kingdoms are fighting each other In the third year of Asa the king of Judah Baasha began to reign over all of Israel And he reigned for 24 years So Asa saw his death And he did evil in the sight of the Lord He walked in the way of Jeroboam In the sin wherewith he made Israel to sin So the word of the Lord came to Jehu The son of Hanani Against Baasha saying For as much as I exalted thee out of the dust And made thee prince over my people Israel And you have walked in the way of Jeroboam You've made my people to sin And you've provoked me to anger with their sins Behold I will take away the posterity of Baasha In other words it's not going to be a continuing dynasty They're going to be wiped out even as Jeroboam And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam And he that dies of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat He that dies in the fields shall the vultures eat So the same prophecy that was given to Jeroboam Is now given to Baasha Now the interesting thing to me is that God is still speaking And that shows really the patience of God The compassion of God The mercy of God That even as long as God is speaking There's a chance to turn There's a chance to change I'm amazed with the patience of God Continuing to speak to a person Long after they've gone downhill God doesn't forsake them He continues to speak And thus God is continuing to speak to this corrupted king So the rest of the acts that he did They're written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel He slept with his fathers, was buried in Tirzah And Elah, his son reigned in his stead And also by the hand of the prophet Jehu The son of Hanani Came the word of the Lord against Baasha Even against his house Even for all of the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord In provoking him to anger The work of his hands in being like the house of Jeroboam Because he killed him Now, this prophet Jehu Was the son of the prophet Hanani Who prophesied to Asa In the southern kingdom And we'll get that when we get to chronicles Now, in the 26th year of Asa The good king in Judah Began Elah, who was the son of Baasha To reign in Israel And he reigned for two years And his servant Zimri The captain of his chariots Conspired against him as he was in Tirzah And he was drinking until he was drunk In the house of Arzah, the steward of the house in Tirzah And so while he was in this drunken stupor This military officer, military coup He went in and smote him and killed him In the 27th year of Asa, the king of Judah And he reigned in his stead And it came to pass when he began to reign As soon as he sat on the throne That he killed all of the house of Baasha And thus the prophecy was fulfilled He didn't leave a single one of the kinfolks Nor of his friends And thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha According to the word of the Lord And this was because of the sins of Baasha And the sins of Elah, his son By which they sinned And by which they made Israel to sin Provoking Jehovah, God of Israel To anger with their vanities Now the rest of the acts of Elah And all that he did They're written in the chronicles of the kings of Israel And in the 27th year of Asa, the king of Judah Did Zimri reign And he only reigned for seven days Did a lot of damage He wiped out all of the household of Baasha But he had a very short-lived reign It's interesting, this is probably a conspiracy It was an ambition of his life You know, my, if we can just take over the throne You know, what we'll be able to do, etc. And seven days of glory And the people were encamped against Gibethon Which belongs to the Philistines And the people that were there heard That Zimri had conspired and had killed the king Wherefore Israel made Amri The captain of the host, the king over Israel That day in the camp So here was the general And the people said, hey, we want you to be the king So Amri went up from this battle against the Philistines at Gibethon And all of Israel with him And they besieged Tirza And it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was being taken That he went into the palace of the king's house And he set the thing on fire and cremated himself in the house So that he died For all of the sins which he sinned In doing the evil in the sight of the Lord Walking in the way of Jeroboam And his sin which he did to make Israel to sin Now the rest of his acts are in the chronicles of the kings of Israel Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts Half the people were following Timni, the son of Gennath To make him the king and half-fathered Amri So man, now you've got a real problem You've got two divisions in the northern kingdom But don't worry, it doesn't last long The thirty-first year of Asa, the king of Judah Amri began to reign over Israel for twelve years Six years he reigned in Tirza And then he changed the capital from Tirza to Samaria He bought the hill of Samaria And that became the capital of the northern kingdom After that So Amri did evil in the eyes of the Lord He did worse than all that were That's hard to, you know They were bad This guy's worse But hey, the next guy is even worse yet So things are going from bad to worse He walked in the way of Jeroboam The sin wherewith he made Israel to sin To provoke God to anger with all of their vanities And the rest of the acts of Amri which he did His might that he showed They're written in the chronicles of the kings of Israel So Amri slept with his fathers Was buried in Samaria And Ahab his son, one of the most wicked of all Reigned in his stead And in the thirty-eighth year of Asa the king of Judah Began Ahab the son of Amri to reign over Israel And Ahab the son of Amri reigned over Israel From the capital of Samaria for twenty-two years And Ahab the son of Amri did evil in the sight of the Lord Above all that were before him So his dad was the worst And he outdid his dad And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing For him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam That he took as his wife this gal Jezebel Who was the daughter of Ethbaal The king of the Sidonians And he went and served Baal And worshipped him So it was through Ahab that the worship of Baal Was introduced to the northern kingdom And he raised up an altar for Baal In the house of Baal which he had built in Samaria And Ahab made a grove and Ahab did more to provoke Jehovah God of Israel to anger Than all of the kings of Israel that were before him And in his days did Hael the Bethelite Build Jericho He laid the foundation thereof In Abiram his firstborn And set up the gates thereof in the youngest son Sigub According to the word of the Lord Which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun So here the last verse Is an interesting little insight To the fulfillment of a prophecy That was made Some 500 years earlier In Joshua chapter 6 When they took the city of Jericho The walls of course were thrown down by the hand of the Lord As they destroyed the city of Jericho Joshua uttered a prophecy Cursing the man that would rebuild the city And told actually How he would begin to build the walls in his firstborn And how they would be finished in the latter Joshua adjured them at that time saying Cursed be the man before the Lord That riseth up and builds this city Jericho He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn And in his youngest son Shall he set up the gates of it And so just as was predicted By Joshua Some 500 years earlier So now the prophecy is being fulfilled But interesting God's sure word of prophecy And this is one of the Strong apologetics for the scriptures One of the proofs that the Bible is divinely inspired And one of the proofs of the eternal Character and nature of God God being eternal And God being omniscient Can speak of things before they ever take place With tremendous accuracy Here are all of these prophecies that were literally fulfilled And as we go through the Bible we are Bound to notice How much of the Bible is devoted to prophecy The foretelling of events before they ever take place And we are bound to be amazed At the absolute accuracy of prophecy So that it can be said not one good word Has failed of all that God said That is God has completely kept his word All the way along not once has there been One word of God that has failed Prophecies up to this point Have all been fulfilled And that is what makes of course the Bible such an interesting book In the days in which we live Because the Bible speaks so implicitly Of our days And as Daniel is prophesying of things that we see now Shaping up in the world Daniel said and these words are true And we can see some 2500 years after Daniel The words that he spoke that relate to the day in which we live We can see them coming to pass So as we move through now And we get into the area of prophecy where it really begins to Actually become a ministry in the nation of Israel In the next chapter we are introduced to The man Elijah This tremendous prophet of God And we begin to see now How that God is going to begin to speak through his prophets At this time of Israel's decline and failure God will continue to speak to the people Raising up prophets to deal with the national issues And the first of them and one of the most powerful of all of them Is this prophet Elijah So now the lessons are going to shift gears a bit Where we had to go through this Shuffling of the kingdoms and Back and forth with the north and the south A little hard to handle But you did well you came through it Now we are going to get into some pretty exciting areas As we get into the prophecies of Elijah And then the subsequent prophecies of Elisha Which of course will take us through the rest of the book of Kings And on into 2nd Kings As we deal with these fascinating prophets of God Who are raised up for this important ministry To speak to the nation of Israel During their period of spiritual decline Again God's faithfulness in continuing to warn the people Though they were not faithful God remains faithful That is always true We may not be faithful To do all the things that we should do for the Lord But thank God he remains faithful And God will be faithful to keep his word And his promise to us As we trust in him We'll return with more of our verse by verse study Through the book of 1st Kings in our next lesson As we continue with the prophecy of the drought And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you With the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again our toll 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Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters Of this station with your correspondence And now on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you who share In supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse-by-verse study Through the book of 1 Kings That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today And now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith With today's closing prayer Father help us we pray to learn the lessons The lessons of human failure Especially when man turns his back upon you How we are just courting disaster for our life Lord we pray that we would not be guilty Of forsaking your ways That we would not be guilty of worshipping And serving other gods That we would not allow Lord anything To come between our relationship with you Lord help we pray that you might ever be First and foremost in our hearts In Jesus' name we pray Amen As your pastor It's my responsibility to witness The truth of Jesus Christ to you So as we're about to talk about This year's prophecy update It's necessary to be faithful In giving these warnings To declare what God has said So that you may be alert to the things That are about to happen Listen and watch Pastor Chuck's Prophecy Alert for 2012 With special guest Pastor Steve Apple of Calvary Chapel Tel Aviv And Arieh Eldad from the Israeli Defense Force You know we've been saying Last times last days for a long time obviously But that event in 1948 changed everything To order Prophecy Alert 2012 Please contact The Word for Today At 1-800-272-WORD Or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org Be alert We are in a constant battle facing an enemy Live in that sense of urgency For these are desperate days This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California