We've been working our way through first kings and low and behold, maybe depending on your Bible, you see we're pretty close to the end here. First kings chapter 22 beginning in verse 41, this is God's word, eternally true. Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 25 years. His mother's name was Azuba, daughter of Shilhe. In everything he walked, in everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa, and did not stray from them. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. Jehoshaphat was also at peace with the kings of Israel. As for the other events of Jehoshaphat's reign, the things he achieved in his military exploits, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? He read the land of the rest of the male shrine prostitutes who remained there even after the reign of his father Asa. There was then no king in the edam, a deputy ruled. Hereins are reading, there's a response of thankfulness, it's printed for you and your bolts in there are up here. The word of the Lord. Thanks indeed, let's pray. When my family moved to Orlando, we moved into a house there, and the woman who lived there before us, took care of the grounds around us. So we had some cool plants around us, some rhododendrons, I think, which I can say, but can't spell maybe. But it was cool moving to Florida from Indiana, we had a big huge grapefruit tree that we would just grab grapefruit from and eat. I'd take what's that. And we had an orange tree, there's a little small tree there. We had a fig tree, that was cool and some comquats, which we didn't know what they were until we were there beforehand. But that was all cool. But also in the midst of this garden area, there was a little Buddha statue like this. You know, one of those concrete things that you can buy at Home Depot. And, you know, I'd read my Bible before going to seminary. And so I took that thing and I took my hammer and I smashed that thing. And little shards of concrete started crying out and I thought I'm in trouble here. So I smashed that as much as I could without injuring myself. I had something come out at me and cut me a little bit. But you see here in this passage, and back in Deuteronomy 12, this passage refers to, that one thing very important for us as we're experiencing or want to experience the blessing of God, is that we get our worship right. And in getting our worship right, God puts over His people and the Old Testament and lo and behold, surprise, surprise in the new. A king. And so we look at that. We look at Jehoshaphat and how we did with that among His people this morning and we look at that so we can see how we are to live what we are to prioritize. And why Jesus is so important for us. If you like to fill out blanks in an outline, you're welcome to you're welcome to do that. Here in our introduction here, you can just listen if you want to if that's easier for you or you learn better that way. If you like to fill out blanks, here we go or introduction. God is just. God is just. Now we don't mean from that like Christians do when they pray and they have those just prayers as we call them. God just changed the whole world. Can't be too literal when someone says that, right? And just before everything, you know, the Lord and just prayers, Lord just, Lord just, Lord just. No, we mean God is just, he's a God of justice. God is just. And apart from Jesus, that is bad for you and me because God is just. He's fair. And so we can look at the Old Testament for instance. And when God institutes government for His people in the promised land, he gives the government the state of Israel and the Old Testament laws. And he says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, right? If someone knocks out your tooth, they get their tooth knocked out too. Why? Because that's fair. Now that's not an instruction to the individual. That's an instruction to the government. And so and that's an important thing to see and something that the nonbelievers around you will take out of context and challenge you on. But those are instructions to the government of Israel. Here's how you as God gives all these penalties for certain crimes through the law of Moses. He tells how to punish these certain crimes. If your neighbor borrows your ox and the ox falls into a ditch and breaks its leg and becomes no longer vocationally able to serve you, the plow and so forth. Here's how you compensate that. There's laws like that and in the laws of Moses. And that's an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth. But it's all designed at having there be equal payment for the suffering that was caused. And God is just and so we as people, if we're honest with ourselves, we say, uh-oh, apart from Jesus. So number one, number one, what is just and fair, what is just and fair is that those who obey God all the time, those who obey God all the time, earn eternal safety and blessing.
There's a term that's used throughout scripture, righteousness and for the most part that term means being faithful to the covenant. Doing what God has said is people to do in the covenant. So if you were an Old Testament Israelite, it didn't mean being right. David calls himself righteous even after his sin with Bathsheba. So even if we would say David had never sinned before the sin with Bathsheba, which David would disagree with you with, look at Psalm 139, but we would, David calls himself righteous. So we know that term is not utter complete sinlessness. Those are not synonyms, righteousness and sinlessness. Okay, all kinds of people are called righteous and the scripture is yet scripture declares that all are sinful, but righteous is being faithful to the covenant. So if you're an Old Testament Israelite, being righteous meant that you brought your sacrifices in the right kind of sacrifices to the right place at the right time and needs festivals throughout the year. And if you aim yourselves at all the moral wall that God gave to Moses and that you only worshiped the God who brought God's people out of Egypt, the one true God who created the heavens and the earth, this was being righteous. And again, it's not 100% sinlessness, but it's being righteous. And so as Christians, we want to be righteous and we're not saying that we're sinless, we're saying I only worshiped the one true God revealed in Jesus. And I aim my life at walking in his ways, loving my neighbor and loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. This is righteous. And so as we look at scripture, means you see that term almost all the time, that's what that's referring to. God's saying, I know you're a sinner, but here's how you should behave in the midst of your sinning and your failing and you're doing what's right with mixed motives. Here's how you should behave. And as you behave that way, as you worship him, as you honor your mother and father and so forth. God says, that's righteousness there. Okay, doing the works that I've told you to do. But there's also, and maybe it's 5% of the time where God talks in scripture where righteousness is that 100% sinlessness. And God never speaks of a person like this, of their actual life being sinless except for Jesus. And so as we speak of Jesus being righteous, we're also saying that Jesus not only is he covenantally faithful, you know, even with his parents circumcising him on the right day and him attending all the festivals and offering the right sacrifices, those kind of things during his incarnation, that Jesus also was without sin. All the things he did were not only right actions, but rightly motivated and that Jesus loved his father with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. And Jesus loved his neighbor as himself without without error, without failing, without without without a 90% correct, but 100% correct. But number one, what's just and fair is that those who obey God all the time, eternal, eternal safety and blessing. So you can see right there, Jesus earns eternal life. He's the only man ever to earn eternal life. Now don't worry, Jesus was also fully God, but he's a fully man. He's the only one to have feet and toenails, okay, who earns eternal life, like we talked about, covenant of works, perfect and personal obedience all the time. And what's promised, if you do that, eternal life. So Jesus earned it. And Jesus, when he's talking in John 16 verses 9 through 11, he talks about his own righteousness and he says, and you will know of righteousness because I go to the father. The father accepts me because I'm righteous. I'm going to the father not because the father's gracious, not because the father's merciful, but because I've earned it. Like Dean Witter, right? Is that right, Dean Witter? No, you old people help me out there. E.F. Hutton. E.F. Hutton, there we go. Jesus earns it. But so that's just and that's fair. Jesus lives as Adam should have lived, but Adam didn't live that way. So he excluded from the garden, so he can't take the tree of life, eat of it and live forever. And neither are we able to do that because the gate to the garden is guarded by cherubim and a flaming sword. But Jesus is the second Adam and he does not sin and he earns eternal life. He is righteous and goes on to eternal life. But Jesus describes as well those who in the first and the 95% sense are righteous. Those who love God, not perfectly, those who love God and love neighbor and are trying to do that better and better in their lives. People who have loved God so much that they love his son and understand that God the father sent his son to die for them, who love his son Jesus because Jesus bore their sins in his body on the cross and took the wrath that they deserved upon himself on the cross. So those people are righteous too. In other words, Christians are righteous as we love God and love neighbor understanding that all our status before God is because of Jesus. So Jesus puts it this way. He says when I come back when the king returns in his glory, when I come with all my angels with me, last verse of Matthew 25, he says when he returns, the righteous will go to eternal life. Okay, that's fair. Number two, number two. But here's the problem and we've referred to it. You know it. If you're honest, I think all of you are. You are a center. That's your blank. You are a center and deserve eternal exile. That is if it were up to 100% sinlessness. That kind of righteousness. You deserve punishment and exile from the presence of God forever. Like Jesus when he says, cast him away. Throw him out where they'll be weeping in the nation of teeth. Like he says in Matthew 22 at the wedding banquet, the guy who's not there dressed in wedding clothes, but is treated being in the presence of the king as any old, extraordinary thing. So we are centers. We deserve eternal exile. And here's the standard. Deuteronomy 65. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Jesus didn't invent that while he did, but he gave it to Moses. The eternal word gave that to Moses. And Moses printed that out and declared it to the people in Deuteronomy 65. And Jesus just repeated it. And on at least one occasion, Jesus asked the question of someone else and they repeated it too. They answered right. And Jesus said, you're not far from the kingdom of God because you understand what's the center. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. So it's easy to see that we're centers. Right. Even someone who lives kind of a moral life. We say, well, here's the standard, not a moral life. Loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And nobody's going to answer that question. Yes. But that's the standard. It's the standard Jesus achieved, but not a standard that any of us has achieved. That's the standard. Jesus repeats it in Mark 1230. This Romans 323 Paul says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 323. Proverbs 29, Solomon puts it this way. Who can say, I have kept my heart pure? Who can say, I am clean and without sin? What Solomon said, nobody, and that's rhetorical. Nobody can say that. So a there, your two a there. It was also just that those who rebel, those who rebel against him and any and all sins. And that's what sin is. It's our rebellion against living in his ways. All it's just that all those who rebel against him and any and all sins get exiled, exiled from his presence in heaven and beyond after he returns and brings the new heavens and newer. So Genesis 2.17 God says, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat of it, you will surely die. And so there when Adam eats of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 3, he begins death. That is his body begins to decay, which was not the case before. He begins to get old. Some of us know what that's like. Things are not happening as they should, but also he spiritually dies as well. But God physically marks this and bans Adam and Eve from his presence. We read in the Garden of Eden that God walked there among them. So place where God was present among man. And now Adam is banished. He's exiled from the Garden of Eden and there's no return because the gate is guarded. Paul repeats in Romans 6.23 and says the wages of sin is death. This is just repeating what we know from what God said in Genesis 2.17 to Adam. And this is true for those who are reading first kings. Those who are reading first kings and second kings again is all one book when it was written. We just divided it up because it's so huge. But all those reading the book of kings, they were in exile and Babylon. Daniel read the book of kings. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. They read the book of kings. These were people who were in exile. And the book of kings, main purpose of the book is to show God's people in exile. Why they were in exile? God is just incending them away to exile. So second king's 17 is the exile of the northern tribes, the 10 northern tribes. They get exiled in 722 by the Assyrians and scattered all over the place. That's why Paul can go to about any city and find a synagogue because they're left over from that 722 exile, scattering by the Assyrians of the northern 10 tribes. And then in 605, 597, 587, the southern tribe, Judah and Benjamin, those two tribes are exiled to Babylon. And that's Daniel and his friends, and then everybody, a few years later with them, and they're with Nebuchadnezzar over there and Belta Shazzar, all that stuff or Belches are there with them over there in exile. And we're learning here in first kings, why they're there? We see that there wasn't complete compliance with things. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 2546, the other half of the verse. He had said the righteous good eternal life, but then he says the unrighteous, they will go away to eternal punishment, cast out of the presence of God. Matthew 723, Jesus says, then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evil doers. So this had happened to the people of God as they were cast off to Babylon, those who were reading first kings. They were exiles, cast out of the presence, and as you look at the Old Testament, realize that the promised land is the re-upping of the Garden of Eden. Not in perfection, but Edenic language is used of the Garden of Eden, a land of milk and honey, a land of vineyards that they didn't plant that were abundant, a land where you could tie your donkey to the grapevine. And you know what a donkey did when he was tied to the grapevine? He ate the grapes. Why would you tie your donkey to the grapevine? Because things were so abundant, you couldn't possibly eat all the grapes and drink all the wine that were coming from these grapevines. That's how abundant the promised land was, as God's people walked in faithfulness, but they were cast out from this. They were exiled again. The people of God Israel were like Adam and Eve, shut out from the Garden, cast away. Now this is called, this idea that those who rebel against him are exiled or cast off is called Be the Covenant of Works. If that covenant with Adam, where upon condition a perfect and personal obedience, eternal life is granted. Adam didn't take hold of this, but Jesus did himself. Now number three, number three. The good news, the good news through Jesus is that there is a second covenant, a covenant of grace. That's what we call it. A covenant of grace through Jesus, accomplished by Jesus. The good news is that God doesn't leave us to the consequence of our sin, eternal being eternally being eternal castoffness. How about that for a word? Been cast off eternally, there we go. But God is gracious and merciful and He looks down on us His creation in our rebellion and He looked down on you in your life apart from faith and Christ and He had mercy and grace upon you. He looked at us in all persons in our state of sinning and being sinners and provided this second covenant, the covenant of grace and a there near outline. In the covenant of grace God provided that a sinner can experience eternal safety and blessing, not exile, life in the promised land so to speak, not often bad one. But a sinner today can experience eternal safety and blessing and no exile from God's presence through having a faithful king, through having a faithful king. And this just little side note here, as we look at scripture, Jesus is spoken of as king 87 times and spoken of as Savior 24. So get that in your heads. The subset of king is Savior. King is the main category. This is why Jesus comes on the scene and says, hear the good news, the kingdom of God is at hand. He doesn't say hear the good news, the Savior is here. Now that was true. But Jesus says the kingdom of God is at hand. And the issue before Pilate is not if he were Savior of the people, but the issue is, are you a king? And Jesus says, I am. Why was this good news? Because the covenant of grace, the king saves his people. David wasn't known as a Savior but he was. David was a king who saved his people. He went out and fought all the foreign armies who came into the land to do them harm. And Jesus is the same. He's the one who goes out and fights death or Goliath for us so that we're safe. David saves the people, but this is the king saving the people, anointed in chapter 16 of 1 Samuel and slaying Goliath in chapter 17. The king saves his people just a little aside. Again, it's 87 times Jesus was referred to as a king 24 as a Savior. So just reorient your mind and your heart in that. The good news is that we have a king. So next line there for you, the king led the people. This was the king's job in Israel and it's what Jesus does for us. But the king led the people in the right worship and sacrifices being offered. And this especially brought safety and blessing. God, when he talks to David through Nathan the prophet, when David says, you know, the here I am living in this palace that Hiram King of Tyre has built for me. But the Lord is living in a tent. He's dwelling among us in a tent. Is that right? David asks himself. So I'll build him a temple. You know, I realized this past week as I was studying this. God never commands the building of a temple. The commands of building of the tabernacle. That's just an interesting little fact there. And this is why God responds to David through Nathan the prophet and says, when have I ever asked anyone to build me a house? Because the tabernacle was already there and amongst God's, amidst God's people there. But God says, since you've been in the promised land, you've been beaten about and you've been oppressed. And that's the book of judges. When God's people didn't have a king. Okay. And yeah, if you read the book of judges, you see that refrain. And in those days there was no king in Israel. And everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And so the king, God brings to the people to keep them faithful, to lead them in worship, to lead them in faithfulness. And this is why David has seen it's such a good king. And even when he sends with past sheba, he repents well. And he's an example of how you repent when you've even really blown it. So the king, God gives to the people to lead them in right worship and right sacrifices. And this is the stuff really David cares about. This is why when the the Ark of the Covenant has been stolen during the days of King Saul, David can't wait to get the ark back into the possession of God's people because God we learn from the scriptures is enthroned above the ark, above the cherubim there on the ark. And he knows that proper worship, the tabernacle needs to be all together in the ark belongs with the the tabernacle and people need to be offering their sacrifices at the altar at the tabernacle, which is what Deuteronomy 12 speaks of. And so when David does recover, finally the ark, second attempt there, he comes into Jerusalem and he's rejoicing, rejoicing so much that he embarrasses his wife, my cow, right? And she looks down and she sees David jumping around and celebrating and rejoicing. And David's response is like, I don't care what people think of me. The Ark of the Covenant is here and we get to worship the Lord and have him in our presence here and that's what matters. See, that's what the King does. The King gets the people in right worship and having the sacrifices that are the right kind of sacrifices offered in the right place. We saw there in Deuteronomy 12, we also can look at Leviticus 17 that the sacrifices were to be offered at the altar that God provided before the Lord at his tabernacle. So B, we see here, but we see from the good king, Jehoshaphat, he gets the rating of being a good king. There aren't many of those, only eight out of the 38 in Israel and due to all combined before the exile. Jehoshaphat is one of those good kings. Even from a good king, Jehoshaphat, we see that God's people didn't, that these even good faithful kings were not completely faithful. They weren't completely faithful, that's your blank there. And thus couldn't keep God's people from exile. And so if you're a Daniel, if you're a Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego or any of those friends in your reading kings, you're like, here's why we're in exile. Even our good kings blew it in big ways. You find out that the male shrine prostitutes were still there during the reign of Asah who was also given a good ranking. There's also said to be one of the good faithful kings, this was Jehoshaphat's father, Asah. But then with Jehoshaphat, you know, we read in Deuteronomy 12, Joshua, when you come into the land wipe out, you know, in Canaan, the people worshipped on mountains because they thought they would be heard better by their weak gods, their weak gods if they were higher up in the air. And so all the worship sites around Canaan were on mountains or as they're called in scripture, high places. And so God says wipe out these high places, don't worship me there, wipe out all the stuff on those high places. But we learn here with Jehoshaphat that worship still goes on in these high places and that people were offering sacrifices on these high places. And so the sacrifices worship was still kind of messed up under Jehoshaphat. So verse 33 or 43, look at 43 in your Bibles, there in 1 Kings 22, despite being given the great as a good king, verse 43. In everything he walked in the ways of his father, Asa, and did not stray from them, stray from them, and a little asterisk is coming up here. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, other events of Jehoshaphat's reign, the things he achieved and military exploits all good. Those were all great, verse 45, ways that God was blessing him, verse 47. He was a result of having a good king, Adam had no king, Adam was a land that neighboured the promised land on the southeast. It was Esau's descendants, so they're cousins, but they weren't part of Israel, and they were frequent botherers of Israel, and they would come to war against God's people. But under Jehoshaphat they were subdued, and we find out later in 2 Kings chapter 8 that they were under the control of the Israelite kings, and that's why there's no king here. Jehoshaphat as the Edomites under control, but verse 43, again the high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. They're supposed to offer incense at the altar of incense, at the tabernacle. They're supposed to offer their sacrifices at the tabernacle, but they're not doing this. And again, Leviticus 17, Deuteronomy 12 says this was off, and so the worship and sacrifices were off, even here under King Jehoshaphat, and eventually this brought upon the people their exile as his descendants followed after him. And mostly the descendants of Jehoshaphat got this, as wrong as he did and worse. Now let's see, no for you yourself, other human leaders, whether they be some kind of philosopher, and that doesn't have to be academic philosophy, that can be just kind of way of life stuff, something you hear on TV or a TED talk. Okay, those are philosophers. It's not that all that they're saying is bad, but that's philosophy that you're getting. How to live your life, and we need to check all those things, and anyone saying to us about how to live our lives, we need to check that against the scriptures. Whether it's philosophers or life coaches or politicians or education itself, these fail, that's your blank. Fail to deliver eternal safety and blessing to you. Jesus says, of course, John 146, I am the way, the truth of my life, no one comes to the Father, but through me. All these other things fail. And so those things are like kind of, you know, maybe you're a Christian, but you're following this other life philosophy or following a life coach or thinking that education's the key for you to have a good life. It's kind of like worshiping on a high place. We have our safety, our blessing that's guaranteed to us through God Himself through Jesus. So that brings us to Jesus, D, in your outline there, for your eternal safety and blessing, God the Father and His grace and love provided for you and all his people a king, Jesus. And so there's John 187, not 1837, not the only place, but that's pilot saying, so are you a king? And Jesus says, I am, and that does him, does him in before pilot there. But number one there in your outline, Jesus announced the kingdom of God. That's, that's how Jesus defines the gospel. Jesus is going around. I mean, read the four gospel books. Jesus doesn't say except me into your life and I'll forgive your sins. Now he is granting forgiveness to certain people, but when he announces the gospel, he says the kingdom of God is at hand. The good news is that there's a king. The good news is that you can believe in me, you can have me as your king and you will be safe and eternally blessed. Just like when the people of old had David at their king, no one messed with David, no one defeated him. He won all his battles because he trusted in the Lord and looked to his Father in heaven and the Lord gave him victory. And that's why the people of Israel were safe because they had faithful David as their king. And Jesus is that faithful king for us. So number one, Jesus announced the kingdom. He announced that he was king and he was completely faithful and without sin. That's first Peter 222. He himself committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. And so, you know, from if you've been in the church here a while when we went through second Samuel, that David once he has to sing with that Shiva, things start to go awry in the kingdom. He gets ousted from his throne and Jerusalem a couple of times and his sons start going crazy and there's murder within the family and that kind of thing. And so while David is the pinnacle or perhaps Solomon in the first part of his life while those guys are the pinnacle of being under a faithful king in Israel, still they were sinful and God's people suffered for it. Solomon's sin brings on the split of the kingdom into north and south. David's sin brings chaos within the land. But Jesus has no such sin and that's good news. We have a king without sin. That guarantees are blessing. That guarantees are safety. So number two, then Jesus rightly offered as king, as completely faithful king, he rightly offered the final sacrifice that God the father ordered. And what sacrifices God the father order, he orders the sacrifice of Jesus' own body. So Jehoshaphat gets us wrong. He allows sacrifices to be done wrongly. So those are wrong sacrifices that are occurring during Jehoshaphat's reign. But the sacrifice, we read it in Hebrews 12, I know that passage is a little bit confusing. This is God the father talking to God the son. And he says, I don't want those sacrifices and offerings that everyone's giving right now. And that everyone's been giving in the Old Testament. What I've given you my son is a body. That sounds funny in Hebrews 12. And then Jesus turns to the father and says, I've come to do your willow, God. And he offers up his body as the sacrifice. Because God didn't require sacrifices and offerings for Jesus to make, just to go pigeons and goats and bowls and that kind of thing, the sacrifice that God required from Jesus was his body. To give up himself so that that one act of right worship, which Jehoshaphat doesn't accomplish, that one act of right worship, which is what Jesus is doing, he's offering worship to his father. With one right pure sacrifice, he gives that one act of right worship that sacrifice on the cross for us. That means no exile for you and me, brother and sister. Faithful King, right worship, right sacrifice and that right worship and right sacrifice, we see in one instance, one event on the cross. Bull and a goat was just a marker, just a looking forward, just a shadow. And God says, I don't want to shadow anymore. I don't want a bull. I don't want to go. I don't want a pigeon. I don't want to lamb. I want the lamb of God. I want you. I want your body, sacrifice for your people. And just as in the Old Testament before sacrifice was offered for sin, the bringer of the sacrifice would place his hands on the head of the offering and transfer symbolically his sin upon that animal. So that animal could be killed in his place, because that's what his sins deserve. The wages of sin is death. So sins were transferred to the animal and the animal was killed. So happens to any of us, to any person who believes in Jesus, their sins are transferred onto the lamb of God. The one pure right sacrifice offered in the right place Jerusalem where God would put his name and not just some crazy place often can and somewhere up on the high hill. Does that make sense? So Jesus offers this right final sacrifice, the sacrifice that God ordered Hebrews 10. And so Jesus says in Luke 22 for father, if it's possible, take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done. And so Jesus says in essence, I've come to do your will, oh God, to be the sacrifice, to be the right worship for my people, the people you've given to me. So number four, number four, to obtain, to obtain OBE, to obtain eternal safety and blessing. A, believe, believe, believe that Jesus is and was the completely faithful king God provided. Believe that Jesus is and was the completely faithful king God provided whose sacrifice, whose sacrifice of himself was what God ordered both to provide for your eternal safety and blessing. So his being faithful as king, not sending ever and his offering appropriate and proper worship, the sacrifice of himself, both of those things come together to provide for you eternal safety and blessing if you believe. So John 3, 14 and 15, Jesus puts it this way to Nicodemus. Just as Moses lifted up a snake in the desert, Moses did that once when the people would send a snake, he had Moses lift up a snake on top of a pole, and anyone who looked to the snake in faith was saved. Jesus says the Nicodemus, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the son of man must be lifted up, speaking of himself being lifted up on a pole on a cross. So the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. So believe, believe that Jesus is this righteous king, this perfect sacrifice, be, believe, believe, believe that your eternal safety and blessing is not by your own doing but by the doing of Jesus as your king. The covenant of grace is not made with you or with me. The covenant of grace is made with Jesus. Jesus goes into a covenant of works with the Father, and for perfect and personal obedience he has given eternal life a return to heaven which Jesus longed for, going back to heaven. For us the covenant of grace is good news because we who believe in the king tag along on his coattails. The condition and the covenant of grace is not perfect in personal obedience, the condition is belief in Jesus, belief in the king. So Ephesians 28 and 9, it's not by works that no one should boast is our salvation but it's by grace or our declaration of the gospel. Look there, Jesus speaks there of our eternal life being based on our belief in him. And then see, see, those who believe taking Jesus as their king become, you know, a scripture calls us in Philippians 320, citizens of heaven. This is king and kingship language. Whoever believes becomes a citizen of heaven gets David or his son, the son of David Jesus as their king. And now, not only are they safe in their homes like they were under David, but our lives and our souls and our eternities are safe. And it's not Philistines or Edamites that we have to be protected against but Satan himself and Jesus protects us from him. So those who believe taking Jesus as their king become citizens of heaven. So the gospel in one way is our appeal to people become a citizen of heaven. Everyone in the kingdom is safe. How do I become a citizen of heaven? Believe in Jesus. Take him as your king. He's seated on his throne at the right hand of God and he rules and reigns over all his people and protects them now and through eternity and at death and when he comes back. So number five, number five. We're not going to rejoice at this that we can have eternal safety and blessing because God has granted that to us through our faith and Jesus and that Jesus is our king and that he takes care of all that for us. But in your life now, number five in your life now, follow your king, Jesus and being faithful. What do we mean by aiming at walking in the ways, being faithful and walking in the ways of Jesus in your daily life? We read there in verse 43, look there again. In everything, Jehovah's fett walked in the ways of his father, Asa. We see that as an approximate thing because there's, you know, a little here a couple of ways he didn't right below there. But that's the design. That's the design. And one of the things the king was to do in Israel and one of the things Jesus says our king does for us is he not only serves as our king who provides for his eternal safety, but he also provides for his example of how to live. And we walk in his ways. David would not have been pleased if nobody was worshipping God and walking in the ways of the Lord loving their neighbors themselves. David would not have been pleased if everybody were just doing what was right in their own eyes. And not what was God's command written in the law of Moses. And so we love our king like his relates love David and we desire to be with him. We desire to walk in his ways. We desire to walk in a way that's pleasing to him and recognize that his job was to make us faithful to like he is. And it's the same way with Jesus. Jesus not only saves us, but he leads us in life gives us an example of how to live, how to forgive people, how to be on the cross with people mocking you and saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So we follow our king. Jesus and being faithful, aiming at walking in the ways of Jesus in our daily lives. Jesus said this John 14 21 Jesus said this whoever has my commands and obeys him. He is the one who loves me. So Jesus says hey take your oh I love you Jesus songs where you repeat that over 50 times in a row. Okay let's see if that's true. Here's how it's true. He has my commands and obeys him. He is the one who loves me. He loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love him and show myself to him. And so whereas we trust for our eternal safety and blessing in Jesus being in our king, we want to honor our king and please him in our lives. So I can look down upon us and say have you considered my servant Joe. See how he honors me regardless of what happens to him and we want lives that are like that too. We want lives that reflect him. We want unbelievers around us to say wow you're really humble. That's that's weird. And that's different but that's beautiful. Where's that come? Why are you like that? We say well that's Jesus is like that. He deserved more honor and praise than anybody but he let himself be put on a cross for the sake of others. And so as much as I can be like that I want to be like that. See that honors Jesus when we're like him in this life. And so we not only are glad that our king has walked in the ways of the father but we desire to walk in the ways of our king. Jesus as Jehoshaphat walked in the ways of his father asa. Now be be also follow your king Jesus in paying attention to worship specifically out of you know walking in the ways of Jesus that's your daily life but also pay attention to worship and in being a person who's devoted to giving worship to God above. Jehoshaphat kept the high places as a big no no leads the later pain for God's people. He did in verse 46 there's a good thing got rid of the male shrine prostitutes part of Canaanite religion part some of Canaanite religions of the the pagans who were there before was prostitutes who were men in the temples and that's how and that's how they worship to God committing these sinful acts with male prostitutes in the in these pagan shrines. So it gets rid of that but Jesus nothing is more important to him than offering proper worship to his father. Then getting to the cross and so when he's before the Jewish council when he's before pilot he says the very things he knows that will get him there they want to judge him. The Sanhedrin does and he says I am the son of man and you'll see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven and they knew with that man he would judge them and this is why they're furious and they rip their clothes how dare you say you'll judge us so Jesus gets the mad on purpose saying the truth. And he says the pilot who's wanting to release him I'm the king you can try me for treason if you want to I'm admitting it I'm the king of the Jews so that's what Jesus cares about worshipping God father I don't want to drink this cup but if that's your will for me I'll do it. And so we want to be like Jesus caring about worship being a person who cares about worship who's devoted to that Jesus was devoted to worship with his wife with all that he had with the body that the father had given him he's devoted to worship and so we want to be those kind of people to in our lives walking in his ways and devoted to worship those two things that A and B in our lives now so summary for you putting this all together today this morning. Get that's your that's your word there you want to be old Western you can put G.I.T. Get in Christ kingdom. Get in Christ kingdom not your host of that's yours was pretty good it was pretty good for you if you're in Joseph kingdom God did bless him but for us today the messages get in Christ kingdom for Jesus as completely faithful king. Enables enables all his citizens to be safe and blessed through eternity. You know God's people under Joe's fat data data good time there that was a good reign for them if you're in Judah all during Joe's fat reign things are pretty good for you and the message today in the church their message today in the world is get under Jesus and while physically things may not work out for you. Relationally people may get matched and go away in your soul you will be whole and and and and satisfied within and in eternity you'll be completely whole completely satisfied and all things will be right. So you'll be safe and blessed through eternity if you're in Christ kingdom so last sentence there you're to aim at following him in both and here's that a and b in both worship and conduct that's your life the Christian life. How can I be devoted in worship and conduct to the Lord whose kingship has guaranteed me safety and blessing for all my eternity let's pray.