“Shields of Brass for Shields of Gold”

(Sunday Morning June 7th, 2009)

 

Passage: 2 Chronicles 12:1-12

 

O.S.  In 2 Timothy 4:1-3, the Apostle Paul Said This to His Young Protégé Timothy;  He Said,  “1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:  2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke,  exhort, with great patience and instruction.   3 For the time will come when  they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled,  they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires”

 

The Word That Really Intrigues Me in Those Verses is the Word “They” That  Appears in Verse 3 and Again in Verse 4

 

Q.n =  Who Does That Word Refer to?

 

Q.n =   Does It Refer to the World or to the Church?

 

It Certainly Includes the World, Because Unregenerate People are Not Likely to Tolerate Sound Doctrine

 

But Based on the Context, I Have to Believe That Paul Was Referring to the People That Timothy Was Preaching to in the Church

 

This Means That Paul Could Foresee the Day When the Professing Christians Who Were in Ephesus Would no Longer Tolerate Sound Preaching

 

And This is Why He Encouraged Timothy to Live and Work in Light of the Impending Judgment of God

 

In Other Words, Paul Wanted Timothy to Concern Himself With What God Thought of His Ministry Not With What People Thought of His Ministry

 

Moreover, Paul Told Timothy in Verse 5 of That Same Passage That He Would Have to “Endure Hardship” as a Result of This

 

And What Was True Then is Certainly True Today

 

 

St =    For You See, We Live in a Day and Time and in a Culture Where Pastors and Church Leaders Have Become Obsessed With Church Growth

 

So Much So, That the Church Has Become Consumer Driven, and the Church Customer, Not God, Has Become the Primary Concern

 

As Pastors, We are Encouraged to Address “Felt Needs,”  to Encourage People,  to Entertain People, to Give People the Kind of Environment and the Kind of Music That Will Make Them Feel Comfortable

 

Because if We Will Give Them What They Want They Will Come Back

 

But if We Don’t Give Them What They Want, They Probably Won’t Come Back, and Then, the Pastor and the Church Members Will All
be Viewed as Failures by Their Peers

 

Dr. John MacArthur, in His Book Entitled “Ashamed of the Gospel” Described This Modern Trend This Way; He Said,  “The audience is regarded as ‘sovereign’, and the wise preacher will ‘shape his communications according to their needs in order to receive the response he seeks”

 

The Effects of This Kind of Philosophy on Our Modern Churches is Not Very Difficult to Discern

 

 

This is Why Os Guinness, When Referring to These New Church Trends Said This; He Said, “The One Who Dines With the Devil Had Better Use a Very Long Spoon”

 

St =   Now, Before We Examine Our Text Today, I Want Us to Consider How These Trends Could Ultimately Effect Our Culture and Our Families

 

   a.  Our Culture

 

And All We Have to do is Cross the Ocean to Find the Answer

 

Because in the Late 1800’s, the Churches in England Became Involved in What Came to be Known as “The Downgrade Controversy”

 

There Were Two Prominent Pastors Involved

 

 

 Most of the Pastor’s and Churches Viewed John Clifford’s Approach  as Being Contemporary and Beneficial

 

And Initially, Listen to Me Now, Initially It Was (Elaborate)

 

But Today, One Hundred Years After Spurgeon Sounded the Alarm, the Church in England is Almost Completely Dead, and the Culture  is Filled With a Lot of Liberal Ideologies and Moral Depravity

 

b. Our Families

Well, as I Have Stated Before, if We Set You Standards Up Here, We Can Expect Our Children to Come Here

But if We Set Our Standards Down Here, We Can Expect Our Children to Come Here

 

If We Sow to the Flesh, the Bible Say in Galatians 6:8, That We Will  Reap From the Flesh Corruption

 

And What Comes to My Mind, After 29 Years of Vocational Ministry are Things Like: Drug Abuse, and Teenage Pregnancy, and Juvenile Delinquency and Rebellion

 

T. S.  That is Why I Believe That It is Much Wiser for All of Us to go for the Gold  in Terms of Our Spiritual Growth, and Our Church Involvement, and Our  Standards of Morality, and That is What This  Passage of Scripture is All About

 

I. God’s Standard of Excellence Was Revealed

 

Our Text Unfolds at Time When the Nation of Israel Had Become Divided

 

Up to Now, the Nation Had Known Only Three Kings: King Saul, and King David,  and King Solomon

 

Solomon’s Son Rehoboam Succeed Him, and He Began His Reign by Making One of the Worst Decisions in All of History

 

He Listened to the Wrong Counselors, and I Can Tell You From Experience That Bad Things Happen When People Listen to the Wrong Counselors

 

The Common People Wanted Some Relief Both From Being Heavily Taxed and From Being Overworked

 

The Older Men in Rehoboam’s Cabinet Encouraged Him to Make Some Concessions,  But His Peers Told Him That This Would Cause Him to Look Weak

 

Well, Unfortunately, Rehoboam Listened to His Peers, and as a Result, the King  Was Divided

 

But Then, He Seemed to Get His Act Together, and the Southern Kingdom That  He Presided Over Began to Enjoy a Certain Amount of Success

 

After This Had Happened, We are Told, However, That King Rehoboam Forgot  That He Was Dependent on the Lord, and He Began to Forsake the Law of God

 

Moreover, His Bad Example Caused Others to do the Same

 

Therefore, God Decided to Chastise Him by Allowing Shishak the King of Egypt to Attack the Southern Kingdom

 

Q.n = Now, Was Shishak the Problem?

Ans = No – Look at Verse 5

 

It Was Because of Their Sin That God Allowed This to Happen

 

St = Now, When Shishak Invaded Judah, He Took the Treasures Out of the House of the Lord and the King’s Palace

 

And He Took With Him 300 Gold Plated Shields That Solomon Had Made

 

Now, Each of These Shields Contained About Three Pounds of Pure Gold

 

They Were Not Made for Warfare; God Had Instructed Solomon to Make Them and to Use Them When He Came to the House of the Lord to Worship

 

And His Guards Would Stand Opposite Each Other in a Line About a Football Field in Length and Stand There With These Gold Plated Shields in Place as the King Would Make His Way to the Temple of God on the Sabbath Day

 

It Must Have Been and Awesome Sight

 

And More Importantly, These Gold Shields Represented a Standard of Excellence That God Wanted His Kingdom to Have so That the People of Other Nations Would be Attracted to Him

 

They Were Symbols, Listen Now, They Were Symbols of Holiness and of Purity and of God’s Presence and Blessings Upon His People

 

For You See, Evangelism, in Those Days Was Centripetal Rather Than Centrifugal (Elaborate)

 

Of Course, What Rehoboam Should Have Done Was This
 

He Should Have Rallied His Troops, Pursued Shishak the King of Egypt, and He Should Have Taken Back These Gold Shields

 

But Instead, He Did an Interesting Thing

 

He Had 300 Brass Shields Manufactured so That These Could be Used Instead; and in This Way, He Could Keep Up Appearances

 

For You See, if You Work at It Hard Enough, Brass Can be Polished and Made to Look Like Gold

 

But the King Really Wasn’t Fooling Anyone But Himself, Because Everyone in His Kingdom Knew the Truth, They All Knew That They Had Settled for a Cheap Substitute

 

Q.n = Now, Listen to Me, are You Listening?

 

This is My Assessment of What Has Been Happening in Numerous Churches All Across America in Our Day and Time

 

The Church Leaders and the Church Members Have Been Trading Shields of Brass for Shields of Gold

 

In Other Words, Instead of Reclaiming a Biblical Standard of Excellence, They Have Been Pursuing an Easier But a Dishonorable Alternative

 

The Standard of Excellence for the Church Has Been Revealed to Us in the Book of Acts

 

For You See, the Book of Acts Describes God’s Plan for Church Growth and Evangelism

 

In Fact, Over and Over Again, We Read About How God Added to Their  Numbers

 

And They Experienced Phenomenal Growth for All of the Right Reasons

 

 In Acts 2:42, for Example, the Bible Says ; “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”

 

And Then in Acts 2:46-47, Luke Goes on to Say “46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved”

 

I Want You to Notice That a Great Deal of Emphasis Was Placed Upon Listening to and Applying the Truths of God’s Word

 

They Were Also Enjoying True and Meaningful Fellowship With One Another

 

And the End Result of This Was That They Had a Fellowship That Was Contagious and Attractive and Very Effective

 

It Wasn’t Rocket Science; It Was Simply a Spiritual Movement of God

 

St =   Now, I am Sure That a Lot of People Might be Wondering Why I Have Felt Led by the Lord to Start a New Church in Pearland

 

Well, First of All, I Can Promise You That It Was Not Out of Spitefulness

 

Nor Was It Primarily Because I Have Lifelong Friends Here, or Because I Deeply Love and Care About All the People I Have Served Over These Past 12 Years

 

It Was Primarily Because I Have Learned That, in Order to Maintain a Standard of Spiritual Excellence in a Church in Our Day and Time, That Church Must be Built on the Right Foundation

 

And So, I Began to Entertain That Idea, Then, I Began to Think About Pearland; and Then, God Just Started Opening Up Doors

 

You See, I Have Come to Realize That When a Church in Our Day Decides That It Will Settle for Brass Instead of Gold in Its Worship, and Its Bible Study, and Its Standards of Morality, if That Church Has Not Been Built on a Solid Foundation, I am Convinced That No One Will be Able to Reverse Such a Trend

 

Q.n =  And What do You Think the End Result of That is Going to Be?

Ans =  Spoiled and Unregenerated Children, Rebellious Teenagers, Worldliness and Carnality

 

Hypocritical People Who Merely Have a Form of Godliness

 

This is Why I Like What James Said About the Church in James 1:27

 

If You Want to See Excellence in the Church, Here It is, Listen, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world”

 

Q.n = That’s an Interesting Marketing Strategy, Isn’t It?

 

He is Saying, in Essence, That We Should Find Some People Who Has Some Real Needs and Reach Out to Them

 

And Let’s Not Overlook the Emphasis on Holy Living

 

By the Way, if You Want to See a Seeker Friendly Church in Action Why Don’t You Study Acts Chapter 5 (Elaborate)

 

II. God’s Standard of Excellence Was Removed

 

Well, Something Happened

 

Q.n = What Was it?

 

You Say, Shishak the King of Egypt Invaded the Land; That’s What Happened

 

No

 

Let Me Draw Your Attention  Again to Verse 5 (Read)

 

We are Told in That Verse That God Allowed This to Happen, Because the People of Judah Had Begun to Disobey the Law of God

 

And This is a Pattern That We Find Repeated Over and Over in Scripture

 

In the Book of Judges,  for Example, We Read About How the People Began to Rebel Against God, and so, He Would Send an Oppressor to Torment Them

 

Then, the People Would Repent, and So, God Would Raise Up a Judge to Deliver Them

 

You See, This All Happened, Because the People Had Sinned Against God

 

  a. God May Allow This to Happen Because of Pride

 

Moses Warned About This in Deuteronomy 6:10-12 When He Said This to His People; He Said,  “10 Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,  11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,  12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”

 

He Was Saying, in Essence, be Careful

Don’t Start Calling Yourself a Self-Made Man or a Self-Made Woman
 

Remember That It is God Who Has Given You the Ability to Gain Weatlh

 

b. God May Allow This to Happen Because of Idolatry

 

In Jeremiah 1:16, for Example, the Prophet Said,  "I will pronounce My judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands”

 

Our God is a Jealous God; and Therefore, He Won’t Accept Any Rivals

 

And When a Church Becomes Focused, Listen to Me Now, When a Church Becomes Focused on Pleasing Men Rather Than Pleasing God, This is a Form  of Idolatry

 

And I Believe This is Exactly What Has Happened in Many Churches

 

The Goal, in Fact, for Many Churches Today is to be “Seeker Sensitive”

 

By the Way, the Bible Tells Us in Romans Chapter 3 and Verse 11 That There is None Who Seeks for God

 

So, There are no True Seekers in a Human Sense, But There is One Seeker  in a Divine Sense

 

Therefore, I am All for Having a Seeker Sensitive Worship Service if You Are Talking About the Seeker With a Capital “S”

 

In Luke 19:10, We are Told That This is Why Jesus Came Into the World; That Verse Says "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost”

 

Our Worship Should be Centered on Him, and It Should All be Designed to Exalt Him

 

Because He is Sovereign and We are Told in John 6:44 That True Evangelism Takes Place Only When People are Drawn to Him by the Father

 

And Since God is the Audience, All We Have to do is Our Best for Him,  and He Will be Pleased

 

Our Worship Service is Obviously Not as Large or as Polished as Some, But I Believe That God is Pleased and That’s All That Really Matters

 

O.S. Hawkins, in His Book Entitled “Shields of Brass for Shields of Gold” Describes an Advertisement He Received About a Church

 

And He Used It to Point Out How Flawed Their Reasoning About Worship Had Become

 

Across the Top It Said TOP TEN REASONS TO AVOID CHURCH

 

 

Q.n = Can You Imagine Jesus Christ Saying That?

 

Jesus, by Way of Contrast Said,  "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily.”

 

And on Another Occasion, He Encouraged All of Those Who Were Wanting  to Follow Him to Count the Cost (Luke 14:28)

 

By the Way, This Sermon is Going to be Longer Than Most of the Sermons I Preach

 

So, I Just Want to Encourage You to Make Yourself Comfortable, Because We Might be Here for More Than an Hour

 

(Say It With Me) SHIELDS OF BRASS FOR SHIELDS OF GOLD

 

 

That’s Strange Since the Bible Actually Says in Psalms 150:4 That We Should Praise Him With Stringed Instruments and Organs

 

Excuse Me, That Happens Every Time I Say the Word “Dancing”

 

By the Way, I Just Have to Say Something About Hymns; It’s Not That I Want Us to Sing Hymns Exclusively, But I Don’t Want the Great Hymns of Our Faith to be Forgotten Either (Ex. Amazing Grace, Blessed Assurance)

 

And I Know That We Have to be Able to Relate to Our Culture

 

Q.n = Could You Imagine a Store in Our Day Trying to Sell Polyester Leisure Suits?

 

(Say It With Me)  SHIELDS OF BRASS FOR SHIELDS OF GOLD

 

 

Q.n = Can You Imagine Jesus Saying That?

 

In Matthew 6:20-21, Jesus Said Essentially the Opposite; He Said, “20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth            nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”

 

(Say It With Me) SHIELDS OF BRASS FOR SHIELDS OF GOLD

 

 

This is Strange Since Those in the Early Church Were Known for Going Everywhere in the Market Place Sharing the Gospel

 

And Jesus Himself Said in Luke 14:23 That We Should “…’Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my (God’s) house may be filled”

 

(Say It With Me) SHIELDS OF BRASS FOR SHIELDS OF GOLD

 

 

Q.n = Can You Imagine the Apostle Paul Saying That?

 

Saying That You Can Blend Right in and No One Will Ever Know if You are a Believer or Not

 

No, Because in 2 Corinthians 6:17, He Quoted the Lord as Saying, “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,’

 

(Say It With Me) SHIELDS OF BRASS FOR SHIELDS OF GOLD
 

O.S. Hawkins Closed His Comments by Saying This; He Said, “There is little in many suburban churches today that even needs the death of Christ, and it is seldom mentioned”
 

III. God’s Standard of Excellence Was Replaced

 

This Was the Saddest Thing of All

 

Because as I Stated Earlier, They Weren’t Really Fooling Anyone But Themselves And We Can Become Guilty of the Same Thing
 

Q.n = What do You Mean Pastor?

 

Q.n = Well, We Call It a Worship Service, But is It?

 

The Bible Say That When Isaiah Went to Worship the Lord He Saw the Lord High and Lifted Up, and He Became Convicted of His Sin

 

He Said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!  Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen     the King, the LORD of hosts."  (Isaiah 6:5)

 

This Led of Course to Him Being Cleansed and Then Commissioned

 

And When the Apostle John Saw the Lord, the Bible Tells Us in Revelation 1:17 That He Fell at His Feet Like a Dead Man

 

These Men Were Not Entertained; They Experienced a True Worship Service; and as a Result of This, Their Lives Were Changed

 

Q.n = How Does God Feel About Our Worship?

 

I Can’t Help But Think of What the Lord Said in Isaiah 29:13 When He Said, “…(these) people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me”

 

When It Comes to How We Worship Him

Q.n = Are We Giving Him Shields of Brass or Shields of Gold?

 

Ex. We Call It Stewardship, But is It?

 

In Malachi 3:10, the Bible Says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows”

 

Listen, We Need the Windows of Heaven Opened Right Now for Our Church, and It’s Not Going to Happen if We Don’t Tithe     (Let Me Qualify That)

 

Q.n = Are You Giving Him a Token or a Tithe?

 

Q.n = Are You Giving Him Shields of Brass or Shields of Gold?

 

I Could go on and on, But I Trust That You Have Gotten the Idea

 

Ex.  We Call It Evangelism, But is It?

 

Ex.  We Call It Fellowship, But is It?

 

Ex.  We Call It Prayer Meeting, But is It?

 

Ex.  We Call It Christians Service, But is It?

 

Or is It All Just Shields of Brass for Shields of Gold

 

Q.n = And What About in Your Personal Life?

 

Most of Us Have Begun Many Endeavors in Life With High Ideals; But Somewhere Along the Way, Our Enthusiasm Just Began to Wane

 

Ex.    Your Marriage

 

Ex.    Your Parenting

 

Ex.     Your Work

 

Now, I Don’t Want You to Leave This Service Feeling Overwhelmed With What Seems to be an Insurmountable Task; I Just Want You to Remember This
 

If You Set the Standard Up Here and Try to Reach It, You’re Going to be a Lot Better Off Than if You Set the Standard Down Here

Invitation

 

Now, in Closing, I Just Want You to See One More Thing, and That is God’s Standard of Excellence Restored

 

Verse 12 (Read)

 

He Humbled Himself, and That is Not an Easy Thing for a King to Do

 

He Admitted That He Had Substituted Shields of Brass for Shields of Gold

 

And as Soon as He Did That, God Began to Bless Him Once Again

 

 a. I Believe That There are Some Christians Here Today Who Might Have to Admit That They Have Abandoned God’s Standard of Excellence

 

You Might be That Person, and You Might Need to Recommit Your Life to Christ This Morning
 

b. And There Might be Someone Here Today Who Would Have to Admit That They Don’t Even Know the Lord

 

And Therefore, You Don’t Even Have a Standard of Excellence

 

Well, if This is You, I Need to Tell You That God’s Standard of Excellence Doesn’t Start With Reformation; It Starts With Regeneration

 

The Bible Says That You Must First Become a New Creature in Christ and a Partaker of the Divine Nature

 

And That Will Happen Just as Soon as You Have Placed Your Faith and Trust in Jesus Christ  

 

That’s Why the Apostle Paul Said This in 2 Corinthians 5:17; He Said, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”

 

This Means That You Can Have All of Your Sins Forgiven, and You Can Become a New Person Who Has Been Empowered by the Holy Spirit to Serve God, by Simply Placing Your Faith and Trust in Jesus Christ Believing in His Death, Burial and Resurrection