Recordings:

There are Christians known as nominal Christians. They invoke the name of Jesus, yet do not act in accordance with God's will and requirements. What will be their end? In fact, there are quite a few such people in the Bible, and here is one.

Questions for Reflection:

With what attitude should one believe in the Lord? How can this be practiced in daily life?

It Is Dangerous for People to Act According to Their Own Desires

There is a sentence in this chapter that everyone should pay attention to: But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by. (2 Kings 16:15) Does it sound strange? Ahaz actually knew to inquire of the Lord. Whether Ahaz was truly inquiring of the Lord is questionable; the king himself, and the people, were likely confused. He thought he was inquiring of the Lord and that what he was doing was for God. Perhaps when Ahaz sacrificed his son and made him pass through the fire, he thought he was offering this to God. In the land of Israel, whether in the Northern or Southern Kingdom, the golden calves were inscribed with: This is the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Aaron said similarly when he led the Israelites to cast the golden calf: These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt! (Exodus 32:4). Indeed, such are the schemes of the devil. This is a reality we face today, with many people invoking the name of Jesus, Jesus Christ, my Lord! But in practice, they are merely using the name of Jesus as a facade, a sheep's skin covering a wolf's intent. The devil deceives people, preventing them from truly believing in the Lord, which is very dangerous.

This reminds me of the church. I have said in sermons, something like: Do not assume that a building bearing the name 'Christian Church' is necessarily a Christian church! Because a Christian church must be built according to the instructions of Jesus Christ! We must understand that if people do not act according to the revelation from God, but according to their own desires, it is very dangerous. Even if you do it for God, it is in vain and may even incur God's wrath. When David built the temple, did he design it himself? No, God revealed it to him in a vision, and he drew it stroke by stroke. In other words, the entire design of the temple was from God Himself. The church of God is also designed by God; there is no need for you to redesign it.

When we did not understand, we used many methods to build the church, such as attracting people with food, which failed miserably. Because God did not design food into the church, nor did He use popular songs or other things to establish the church. The problem is that people act according to their own desires, thinking they are serving God, thinking they are inquiring of the Lord God, yet not realizing that such service is utterly corrupt.

Act According to God's Revelation

Why are we building a prayerful church today? It is to allow God to lead us. Why do we say, Lord Jesus, come into me, be my Lord, and control my life? Because we must let Him be the Lord, let Him lead us! It is not for us to design a temple for God and then invite Him to dwell in it. God does not dwell in temples made by human hands. God Himself knows what He wants, so He tells you what to do, and you simply build according to the pattern. Thus, in the days of Moses and David, they did as God revealed. In the days of Jesus, Jesus said, The Father tells me what to do, and I do it; He does, and I do likewise. This means that whatever you do, you must return to the Word of God. But King Ahaz acted entirely according to his own desires, without seeking God. Upon arriving in Damascus, he saw an altar he liked, copied its design, and told the priest to build one for God. He even moved Solomon's porch, completely altering the appearance of the temple, while still thinking he was doing it for God.

So today, we must learn a lesson: Whether it is your personal life or building a church of God, in any case, it must be built upon God's revelation! If it is not built upon God's revelation, even if it bears the name of the Lord God, the name of Jesus Christ's church, it is still an idol.

Scripture

2Ki 16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.
2Ki 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done,
2Ki 16:3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.
2Ki 16:4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
2Ki 16:5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war and besieged Ahaz, but could not conquer him.
2Ki 16:6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Syrians (or Edomites) came to Elath, where they dwell to this day.
2Ki 16:7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel who are attacking me.”
2Ki 16:8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria.
2Ki 16:9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and captured it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin.
2Ki 16:10 When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw an altar there. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, its design and its pattern, exact in all details.
2Ki 16:11 And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus.
2Ki 16:12 And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it
2Ki 16:13 and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.
2Ki 16:14 And the bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed from the front of the house, from the place between the altar and the house of the Lord, and put it to the north of the altar.
2Ki 16:15 And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.”
2Ki 16:16 Uriah the priest did all that King Ahaz commanded.
2Ki 16:17 And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement.
2Ki 16:18 And the covered way for the Sabbath that had been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he removed from the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria.
2Ki 16:19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 16:20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.