1 Kings chapter 15, verse 33, this is God's Word, eternally true. In the third year of Ace, the King of Judah, Basha, son of the Haysha, became king over of all Israel in Tearsah, and he reigned for 24 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, walking in the ways of Jeroboam, and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit. When the Word of the Lord came to Jehu's son of Hanani against Basha, I lifted you up from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you walked in the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin, and to revoke me to anger by their sins. So I am about to consume Basha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nevada, dogs will eat those belonging to Basha who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. As for the other events of Basha's reign, what he did and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Basha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tearsah, and Allah, his son, succeeded in his king. Moreover, the Word of the Lord came through the prophet Jehu's son of Hanani to Basha and his house, because of all the evil he had done in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger by the things he did, and becoming like the house of Jeroboam, and also because he destroyed it. In the 26th year of Asa, King of Judah, Allah, son of Basha, became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tearsah for two years. Zimri, one of his officials, who a command of half his chariots, plotted against him. Allah was in Tearsah at the time, getting drunk in the home of Arzah, the man in charge of the palace in Tearsah. Zimri came in, struck him down, and killed him in the 27th year of Asa, King of Judah. Then he succeeded in his king. As soon as he began to grain and was seated on the throne, he killed off the Asha's whole family. He did not spare a single male, whether relative or friend. So Zimri destroyed the whole family of Basha, and according to the Word of the Lord, spoken against the Asha through the prophet Jehu. Because of all the sins, Basha and his son, Allah, had committed, and it caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols. As for the other events of Allah's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. In the 27th year of Asa, King of Judah, Zimri reigned in Tearsah for seven days. The army was in camp near Dibbathon, a Philistine town. When the Israelites in the camp heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and murdered him, they proclaimed Omri. The commander of the army, King, over Israel, that very day there in the camp. Then Omri and all the Israelites with him withdrew from Dibbathon and laid siege to Tearsah. When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace, and set the palace on fire around him. So he died because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, and walking in the ways of Jeroboam, and in the sin he had committed, and had caused Israel to commit. As for the other events of Zimri's reign in the rebellion he carried out, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Then the people of Israel were split. The two factions, half-supported Tidni, son of Gennath, for King, and the other half-supported Omri. But Omri's followers proved stronger than those of Tidni, son of Gennath, so Tidni died and Omri became King. In the 31st year of Asah, King of Judah, Omri became King of Israel, and he ranged for twelve years, six of them in Tearsah. He brought the hill of Samaria, from Shemur, for two towns of Silver, and built a city on the hill calling it Samaria, after Shemur, the name of the former owner of the hill. But Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and sinned more than all those before him. He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam, son of Nibat, and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols. As for the other events of Omri's reign, what he did, and the things he achieved, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. Omni rested with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab, his son, succeeded him as King. Here ends our reading. You have a response of thankfulness, a printed for you in your bulletin, or up here, the word of the Lord. Thanks indeed. Thanks indeed. Let's pray. I have a friend who I won't name who it is, because what I'm about to say, I saw his kids on Facebook last week, not this past week, but a week before, and so I said to him, I'll call him Bill. I said, yeah, Bill, I saw your kids on, picture your kids on Facebook last week, they're really good looking, how that happened. And his answer was to me, even more funny, he said, good living, John, good living. When we look at this passage here, we see not a lot of example of good living, or clean living. In fact, it's the opposite. And God prints this for us so that we can see how this affects us, and how it can spur us on to better things. If you'd like to fill blanks in an outline, you're welcome to do that this morning, if you're on just listen, that's fine too. But number one, sorry what, yes I am, yep. God's of degeneration is real, degeneration is real, and brings significant chaos and the lack of peace. So what am I talking about by degeneration, it's this number one, degeneration is becoming more greatly sinful. Now degeneration can be talking about a lot of things, it can be talking about an engine in your car. But here, the way I'm using it here, and what I'm talking about is a degeneration in sin, getting greater and greater as it gets more accepted, and it gets practiced more and more. So degeneration is becoming more greatly sinful. And with this, be in your outline there, there's a decrease in peace when there is an increase in sin. My friend Bill knows this as well, when we were in high school, we did the musical guys and dolls. And the pit orchestra playing clarinet for this, it's a springtime musical, we did each year in guys and dolls, there's a line that says no peace unto the wicked. And there's a conversation between Skye Masterson and I forget the lead woman's character's name, I know her real name, about where that was from. There is from Isaiah or someplace else, but it is from Isaiah, Isaiah 59.8, it's repeated in another place in Isaiah and it says no peace unto the wicked. And we're to understand that and we see a demonstration of that here in this passage. When there's wickedness, when there's sin, peace leaves. Isaiah communicated that to the people in his own day because he lived during the time of wickedness in part, part of his life and ministry was during the time of wickedness. And he said this, Isaiah 59, the way of peace they do not know, Paul quotes that in Romans 3. The way of peace they do not know, there's no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads, no one who walks in them will know peace. So as we walk in crooked roads, so to speak, we don't experience peace in life. And as I said, this entire text is a demonstration of this, recording the history of these years. And so see, in your outline there, we see the kings of Israel and here are their years all these kings that we've looked at this morning, 908 to 874 BC. They get more and more sinful. That's the progression we see here. The kings of Israel from 908 to 784 BC get more and more sinful and life in Israel becomes more and more chaotic. There are coups, there are assassinations. Even when there's that battle between the two rival kings and says, and the other king, the omri, his people were more powerful and the other guy died, I wonder how that happened. So omri became king. Civil war is going on at that time, even within northern Israel, half of the people wanted omri and half wanted that other guy. Civil war, battles, coups, kings are out fighting the Philistines down in Givethon and then someone killed some wilders there and then people find out, oh, someone's been killed while he's getting drunk, you know, as a chaos and then they come back from battle, they surround their capital city and they succeed in surrounding and defeating their own capital city. And the king commits suicide, goes up into a certain place in his palace and sets the palace on fire. So you're supposed to see this as chaos and a lack of peace, imagine if you're a person in this, you know, a reign of seven days, we thought two years was bad and then we hear seven days, you know, it's turnover, the turmoil that happens with a change over in power. And so there's chaos and that's what this passage is showing us that as sin increases, chaos increases. And that was true in Israel and it's true in your life and it's true in my life, it's true in the life of a non-Christian, it's true in the life of a Christian. So D, almost didn't include these but I thought you'd appreciate these because they're going to name them and I know some of you want to write down everything and there's a lot to write down and so here you go, we'll go through these quickly, notice I spaced these clothes for just to emphasize, don't get hung up on this stuff but there are seven descriptions of sin and these, and these accounts of these kings, seven ways sin is described. Number one, the sins he, the king committed and those are the verses there, by the way we have two chapters but there are no verses that double, you know, the first chapter starts in verse 33 and the second chapter we ended in 28 so I didn't put chapter references in there. So the first is the sins that king committed, the second is he, the king, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, that's the second we have named him sin. So first is sins he committed, second is evil in the eyes of the Lord, third is he walked in the ways of Jeroboam, walked in the ways of Jeroboam and so those four places, all four kings are doing that, four, sorry, three of them are named as doing that, four places, number four and the sin Jeroboam committed, that is people are accused of walking in the same way Jeroboam did, walking in Jeroboam sin. So and the sin Jeroboam committed, that's your number four. Your number five, the king caused Israel to commit sin, that's another accusation that the king would cause the people to commit sin. Another sin description, number six, so that they Israel provoked the Lord to anger. So the idea of provoking the Lord to anger, number seven, seventh way, is the tack on in two cases with two kings with worthless idols, so that specific sin is named in two places. And then an observation about these seven kinds of sins, in the order of kings as we go down them, from Basha to Allah, to Zimri to Amri, Basha has five of these things mentioned for him, of the seven, five, Allah has four of the things mentioned, named to him, Zimri has five, named to him, and then Amri has all seven, all seven descriptions of sin are named on Amri, and beyond this, Amri next blank there for you, sinned more, sinned more than all before him, verse 25, Amri sinned more than any before him, and so there's this progression that we're shown of sin that goes on, where Amri is king of sin, he outdoes everyone before him, even Jeroboam, who is the first king of northern Israel, who set up the calf idols down in Bethel, and then up in Dan as well, and encouraged his people not to worship the way God had said by going down to Jerusalem and worshipping in the temple, but instead worshipping at these calf idol sites, Jeroboam who qualified anybody to be a priest instead of God saying no, you must be a Levite descended from Aaron, and those only are to handle the holy things of me, and so even greater than Jeroboam's sin is the sin of Amri, so things have progressed or gotten worse, and that's true in life, F, for you to know in life, for your life, for your family, generationally, the natural, that's your blank, the natural flow is from lesser to greater sin, from generation to generation, that's the natural thing, the thing that naturally happens, the natural flows from lesser to greater sin, from generation to degeneration, that is, degeneration is real and has significant effects, degeneration is real and has significant effects, so just think about this book so far, First Kings. First Kings 1, David still alive, he's righteous, he established Solomon as King, and Solomon reigns righteously for 9-10 chapters doesn't he, and things God blesses the nation because of Solomon's righteousness, and Solomon's spewing out all kinds of wisdom, the stuff we read in Proverbs, the nation is celebrating over Solomon's marriage and the song of songs, and so things are good, the temples built, the palaces built, people are coming from foreign nations to just look at it and gawk, at the blessing God has given to his people, his nation, because of the wise son of David, that God is placed on the throne, and now we're here to a divided kingdom and a king over the rebel 10 tribes who is doing more evil than all kings before him, and by what's described here, even far, far beyond Saul, Saul ruled over all the nations before David, so gee, gee, with this, I didn't mind that the natural flow is degeneration, sin gets greater, in greater, so gee, the church, parents, it's your second blank, the church, parents, and you in any role of authority, and with your own life, with your own life, need to be aware of this, degeneration happens, and I think there's a bumper sticker or t-shirt that says that, degeneration happens,
but if you're in a position of authority, that's something God wants you to be aware of, this is why in the law, most of the people's teacher, children, trained them, talk about the Lord when you're sitting down, when you rise up, when you're eating, your food, when you go out, when you return, when you lie down at night, teacher, children, the law of the Lord, and when your kids ask you, what's this pile of stones here for? And why are we here and who are those people? Know these answers and speak of how I brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and brought you into this land, an abundant land flowing with milk and honey, teacher, children, that the blessings you have now are because of him, and that these blessings were hard fought for by me, the Lord. You need to teach them this, or there will be degeneration generationally, and that's why I say to your parents, realize this with your kids. That's something we drive hard with our kids, with kindness and love, and the church, both as a session, us as session, but also a denomination. You need to realize that degeneration happens, and we need to be aware of that. To stay faithful and talk about the things of the Lord, the things that are in this book and growing in faithfulness to the Lord and the things that are in this book, instead of saying, that's good enough, because degeneration happens. You know, Chris Rock, I found out recently, I'm listening to a podcast by Dana Carvey and David Spade, and they interview all these Saturday Night Live people, writers and people who were on the cast, and various folks, and they interviewed Chris Rock. It's interesting, it's before he got slapped by Will Smith, and the things he said go right to that is fascinating. But Chris Rock comes from, he's a comedian, he was a cast member for Saturday Night Live, he does the voice of the mosquito on B movie, but really, really funny, and as moral as he is, as a comedian, he makes a lot of moral points, actually, but if you listen to his full stuff, he's not a moral person, particularly, but he comes from a line of pastors, generationally, pastor, grandfather, pastor, pastor, so what happened there? I don't know specifically, but you know, I'm guessing it's this, this principle, that there's degeneration. Something just degenerated is the family lines came down to the point where, you know, that was just not really a part of Chris's growing up, that he wanted to follow in the family line to be a pastor. So that's something we're watching for. Now H, so H, you need a solution, I need a solution, you need a solution against your own and your loved ones' degeneration, lest you and they get increasingly worse. Experience the chaos, the lack of peace that comes in life through an increased amount of sins, we need a solution. So number two, which is a practical aside associated with this, when chaos happens in your life, that's a sign, or to put in the words of your blank, your outline point, their number two, chaos should beat you a red flag. Chaos should beat you a red flag. When chaos is happening in your life, you should say, oh, you know, the red flag is, it's like, watch out, something's going on. If you're in a race and a red flag comes out, you know, that means you got to slow down or even go, you know, into the pit for a while before the race resumes. But chaos is a red flag. If there's chaos happening around you or in your life or in your soul, that's a red flag. It should make you pit tension. Now, qualification, a, a qualification, it is not, it is not always the case that chaos and a lack of peace is a result of significant sin in your life. It's not the case that's, that's always the case. Because number one, Jesus, the Apostles, Job, and many faithful New Testament believers and Old Testament believers, experienced chaos because they were being faithful. Okay, so we recognize that. Jesus told us to walk in his ways and he said, hey, I'm faithful to the Father and the world hates me. You think the world's not going to hate you who follow me? It will. So he talks to him about the 94, he's crucified in John chapter 16. If you think, you think you're not going to be hated by the world, guess what? You will be. If the master's hated, the student will be hated. The teacher's hated, the student will be hated. So, you know, there, you see all the book of Acts is testifying to this. That the faithful are persecuted. And in the circumstance around us, Paul's always finding himself in the midst of these riots. And one of the points of Luke as he writes Acts to the office, who's a Roman governor, is the riots around Paul, who's now in Roman prison. The riots were not caused by Paul. Paul's a man of peace. Paul's a man who's actually preaching peace. Paul's a person who's out for the well-being of others. But Jews and silversmiths and various people with ulterior motives have come against Paul and they have an instigated riots that Paul wanted nothing to do with. So you should let Paul free. That's the book of Acts in two senses.
So there's chaos certainly if you're faithful. Jesus said in Matthew 5 verses 10 through 12.
Comes around the corner and finishes the Beatitudes. You know, that blessed are you when you're persecuted, when men insult you for my name, for so they prosecute it. Thank you. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Those who are faithful to Jesus are persecuted. Or second Timothy 312 is also solicited for you. Anyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So you may have chaos in your life because you're being faithful. But when chaos happens, that's a red flag and you need to. Here's your next thing. Not quite your next thing. Number two is your next thing. I may experience chaos for believing in following Jesus. That's why I've just been talking about. You may experience chaos for believing in following Jesus. You may have friends leave you. You may lose a job because you're being faithful to Jesus. You may, you know, see, I'm talking to her coach. You know, we've had others in the congregation. They do this and say, I can't play on Sunday. I can't practice on Sunday. And that's a big threat. You know, she's spent a whole, you know, young time and now she's going off the college and now the coach could just say, well, then you're off the team, right? We've had others do that too from our congregation. But we're faithful to that. And sometimes that leads to chaos and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it leads to great respect. Unfortunately, her coach is one that is treated her with respect on that. But it may, you may experience chaos for believing in following Jesus. Now you're be. But chaos in your life can also simply be the result of your heading into sin. So whenever chaos happens, whenever chaos happens, it's time to, you know, just check. It's a red flag. Is this happening to me because I'm being faithful? Or is this happening to me because I've headed into sin? If I've done something that I knew was unfaithful. And now I'm experiencing consequences for it. Okay. So see, when peace leaves and chaos enters into your life, check. Check for sin in your own life. And when you check, you may say, no, you know, I'm doing pretty well. You know, I've been faithful. And this is just chaos in the world that Jesus talked about. You know, John 1633. And the world you'll have tribulation, but take courage, I've overcome the world. Even if you die here because of your faith, I got you. You know, that's our assurance as believers. No matter what happens to us and no matter how bad the world would say that is, those circumstances are for us. They're not bad. Those things don't matter. The things that we lose here in life, you know, Paul talked about this in four minutes three. I lost everything. And I don't care. Right? Because I've gained Christ. And I don't care if I live or die because I've gained Christ. If I live, it's game. If I die, it's game because I give then I get to be with the Lord. Okay, so, but we check. We check when chaos or a lack of peace comes around us. And that's what, that's what this passage was communicating to those who received this book first and second things. They were in chaos. They were in exile in Babylon. And they were to see, oh man, our forefather should have seen civil war, assassinations, coups, divided kingdom, no peace, capital city being seized, and King burning himself, committing suicide. They should have said, come, wonder if there's something we should be attending to. And they should have been attending to God was allowing the national consequences of their sins to happen to those kings and to the people who were following those kings and sin. And when those things happen that we read about in chapter 15 and chapter 16, here, we're happening to people in that day should have said, huh, maybe there's something we've gotten wrong. Is there something we need to check? Do we need to get back on course in some way? Ah, yes. We should go back and unite with the Southern Kingdom. We should be under a son of David. We should be following the law of the Lord. We should be worshipping in Jerusalem because in the law, it says, that's the way to bless him. So number three, so that's your practical side. When chaos happens, it's a red flag. And so check, check with yourself to see if there's sin that's causing that or if it's just normal, I'm in the world. We're in the last days, which Peter said they were in Pentecost, that normal crazy stuff that's happening in the world. Number three, so the question is, what might lead you into sin and the chaos that ensues? That's answered here in this passage. But many things might lead you into sin, including as Paul talks about, but it's not talked about here in this passage, your sin nature, that's certainly a cause for sin. But this passage gets into something that's different and it's this and it's your first two blanks in number three. Bad example. Bad example. Bad example can come into your life from a leader, from a friend that could cause you to go into sin and to experience the departing of peace and the coming of chaos. So bad example is often a key cause that's your next blank. Bad example is often a key cause of your going into sin and experiencing the departing of peace in your life. Bad example is often a key cause of things and lives getting worse. We see this going on in verse 34, 2, 13, 19, and 26. This phrase, this king walked in the ways of Jeroboam. Who's the example? Who sets the tone for northern Israel? It's northern Israel's first king, Jeroboam, who was a first matter of business we saw on a couple of chapters ago, which was like three years ago, that he immediately delutes worship and creates evil worship and evil priests and evil system of government over 10 of the tribes of Israel. And so these verses talk about these kings, these new kings now walking in the ways of Jeroboam and Jeroboam being at that example for the kings after him in Israel. As it says, these kings he caused Israel to commit. So someone by their example can cause others to commit sins. So you've got that kind of in a double way here as we go through this big large passage here. Jeroboam causes the sin of succeeding kings, but then each king causes their people to sin. And those were just that's a distinction in those seven sin terms that we that we went through. So example, know this, and you're like example can be strong influence to you. When you see someone acting in a certain way that can be a strong influence on you. A strong influence can be a for you there. Others examples on you. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 1533, bad company corrupts good character. And that almost sounds like something you hear like that's not actually in the Bible. I was watching Rocky and Rocky 2 with Mallory this week and Mickey tells Rocky you know it's like the good book says and then I forget what he says it's not something in the Bible. You know it's like like the good book says you got to get your exercise. Like the Bible says you got to be true to yourself. No Bible doesn't say that. It almost sounds like this, but it actually says that's in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 1533, bad company corrupts good character. The church in Corinth a lot of believers had bad company. People in all kinds of sin and it was corrupting their character, the believer's character. So others examples can be a strong influence on you and then be your example. You can write in there my example can be strong strong influence on others. And 1 Corinthians 1533 with an explanation point. In other words you can be the bad company that corrupts somebody else. And you and I need to be aware of that. We have an example, especially as Christians we have an example to each other and to the world of what a Christian is and we have the name Christian on the name of Christ on our backs. Christian right contains the word Christ. And so we are to be reflecting the image of God and the image of Christ to the world. But we can also reflect the wrong things. We can be the bad company that corrupts others character. Either other believers who are around us or non-believers by the bad example we set. Now, number four, what can you do? What can you do? What are you to do? Number four, since sin, since sin brings chaos, since sin brings chaos, you need to aim at, guess what, less sin.
Since sin brings chaos, you need to aim at less sin. Now of course if you've been around this church more than a single week, which is true for all of you this morning, you know this is not the way to salvation, less sin. This is the message to God's people. You even as believers, as you sin more, will experience more chaos. You as a believer, as you sin more, will experience a lack of peace and a departing of peace from your lives. This is why God, you know, think big picture. He saves his people and baptizes them. This is 1 Corinthians 10. He baptizes them in the Red Sea. He saves them and then as saved people, he gives them his law on Mount Sinai. The law, instructions on how to live life are for saved people. Not for how to be saved, they already were saved and we're going to get that point, we're going to understand that point. God commands are for saved people because God doesn't want chaos for our lives. He wants us to have this peace. Jesus saves us and gets what one of his titles is, Prince of Peace. And the Prince of Peace, our King, gives us the law. Jesus is commanding things all through the ghastles. Do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this and then he tells us disciples, and John 16, you can't handle all that I'm going to say to you. And so I'm going to sin my spirit and he'll reveal to you all things. And so then the the disciples, the apostles, then they inscrutuate the rest of the New Testament, full of all kinds of commands because God wants his people to experience peace through walking in his ways. So what did you do since sin brings chaos? You need to aim at less sin and then your parentheses there for peace in your life. You need to aim at less sin. Not for salvation, but for peace in your life. What God wants for you wants for you to have a life of peace. He wants for you to have a life of chaos that wasn't created by your sin. The chaos your experience should be created by other people's sins, by the chaos that's in the world that doesn't believe, that's the chaos you should experience. But God doesn't want you to have to experience the chaos, to experience chaos because you've been insane. So first Peter 2, 20, Bob read this for us. Peter says, what credit is there for you if you do evil and receive a beating for it? You know if you do evil and you receive a beating, that's what happens. Beating is not peaceful. It's a little bit chaotic. Probably in the United States you won't get beaten for doing evil. In some other countries in the world you still would get beaten for doing evil. But you see that peace leaves when sin increases. Again Isaiah 48, 22 and 57, 20, 21, there is no peace for the wicked. Hebrews 12, 11, no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. God trains us in right living. And that right living has a harvest of peace in our lives. Philippians 4 and 9, Paul says to the Philippian church, whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, my example, put into practice and the God of peace will be with you. How do you get peace? Follow Paul's example. How do you get peace? Follow what Paul has said to do. How do you get peace? Believe what Paul has said is true. And this of course gets expanded to all of scripture. Not just what Paul said. Let me read that again for you. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice and the God of peace will be with you. So some practical things that we see here in this passage specifically in chapter 15 and 16 of 1 Kings that are things we should attend to, things we should not be guilty of sin in. That is these three things. I need to focus. That's your next little line there. I need to focus and this is what God's people receiving things were to see. They hadn't focused on well and they should start focusing on well but you and I need to focus to one, worship the Lord verses 13 and 26 talk about worshiping idols instead. Exodus 23, 20 verses 24 and 25 says, worship me and you'll have peace, worship idols and there will be trouble in the land. B. Second, so worship, focus to worship the Lord, focus to walking God's ways. Now you see how this works. Sometimes when you see disaster happening in scripture, you see what brought the disaster and that's verses 34, verse 2, verse 19, verse 26. What brought the disaster for God's people is they were walking in Jeroboam's ways. In Jeroboam's ways were evil. Instead we walk in God's ways. Bob read for us and we read along with him this morning Psalm 1. Blessed is the one who walks in the waves of the Lord and doesn't walk in the ways of scoffers. We're blessed when we walk in the Lord's ways. So we need to focus on walking God's ways, not in quote unquote Jeroboam's ways, so to speak, the ways of scoffers and that brings peace. See, third thing mentioned in this passage, verse 2, 13, and 26, you need to, kind of a little just a reversal, things, provoke the Lord to bless you. God's people here provoked the Lord by their wickedness to be angry with them. They provoked the Lord to anger, but our lives should be we should see this and say, let's provoke the Lord to bless us. That's the Lord's disposition to us, to bless us. Even in our imperfect obedience, he sees our effort and our trial and how we tried to do this, and we'll get better in our obedience as time goes on, but we want to provoke the Lord to bless us. We want to put ourselves in a position where we're walking in his ways, where we're worshiping him and not other things, where he blesses us. So five, number five. So we sinless, for chaos to leave, and peace to residing you, and from number three, know that example is a huge factor in what you do. Now, number five, since example, since example, as a key factor in sinning less and having peace, you need the good example of, guess who? Jesus. Yeah. Examples of big deal for you and me, it affects us, and that's what this passage shows us, that the kings had a bad example, and the people had bad examples in their current present kings, and they went into sin, and they went into chaos. And so we need a solution back up to number one, your last point there, age, or whatever it was. We need a solution to this, and the solution to this, beyond the spirit of God, and that's which is something, but what this passage points us to is we need a good example, and that example is in Jesus. We need to look at him and to see him. He's the good king, not like Jeroboam, not like Amri, not like Zimri. I like Zimri. That's a cool name, isn't it? Could be reigned for seven days, so I guess not. But not a king like those guys, bad examples. We need the king, the son of David, who is the perfect example in that's Jesus. So A, there Jesus was without sin, he was without sin, and it's the one here to be more like. So 1 Peter 2, 22, Bob read that for us this morning, he committed no sin, nor was anything to see found in his mouth, and then we saw in our declaration of the gospel this morning that it's God's will that we be conformed to the image of Jesus. Romans 8, 29, there, on your declaration of the gospel. So Jesus was without sin, and he's our example. He's the one where to be more like, the one where to be more like, and then B, note that his life and example, his life and example are recorded for us in the gospel, so it's a capital G, when you talk another book, use a capital G, when you talk enough the message to use a lowercase G. But in the gospel's capital G, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we've got Jesus life and example recorded for us, and then, second part of your sentence there, his life and example are explained to us, explained to us in the rest of the New Testament. So Jesus comes, does all these things, he says all these things, and then from Acts to Revelation, we have an explanation why Jesus died on the cross. What did his death accomplish? How is that an example for us? You see Paul uses that very obviously in Philippians 2. How is Jesus going to the cross not only our salvation, but also our example? Well, in going to the cross, he left all the dignity and the glory of heaven, and he humbled himself as a servant, even to the point of death on a cross for the sake of others. So, you Philippians do the same thing, humble yourselves before each other, do things for each other, be servants for each other, and that was the problem in the Philippian churches we read about Eodian centipede. They were arguing, there's a pride problem, they were entrenched, fighting against each other, not worried about serving each other, but in pride. And so Jesus's life is an example, and the rest of the New Testament shows us how things Jesus did, not only saved us, that served for us, that served for us as an example of how we are to live. Don't worry about justifying yourself before other men. Why? Jesus didn't. He knew his judge was God, God knew he'd won, so he didn't have to win in front of anyone else. He was content with being mocked and judged by men to be worthy of discard, and so it's okay for us. If there are people out there in the world that are saying bad things about us, that aren't true, it's okay. And we get to experience what I was on a hearing board in college, the truth comes out, and someone asks you about, you say, yeah, ask anyone. Ask anyone who's there. You know, watch the videotape. It'll show that, but even if you're not justified in this life, you will be justified at the last day and rewarded for your deeds and what you've done. So his life is an example. It's recorded for us in the gospel. His life in examples explain to us in the rest of the New Testament, and 1 Peter 221 says, you know what is the example there? Suffering for doing what's right. Leaving us an example for us to follow in his steps. Doing what's right and suffering for it. That's what Peter's talking about. But Jesus is our example. Do what's right, and if you suffer for it, so be it. Jesus is your example. Okay. So that's part of the path to greater peace in your life, right? If you're all worried about what people think of you, and that there are people out there saying, oh, John's this and that, and you know, then there's no peace. You're not free, but you're free, and at peace, if you know that the judge who matters is the one who saw all things. And so that example helps us have peace in a lack of chaos and our lives. And then see, in addition to the example of Jesus, who we can read about, see, Jesus also gives us, gives his people in the church elders, elders, to be in person examples of living lives in ways that bring God's blessing, not anger. Okay, so elders, we got a tough one, honest here, because people look at us more than others, and you should first, first Peter, five, three, Peter's charge is a fellow elder, you know, apostles were elders who were also apostles, because they saw Jesus and Jesus said, I want you to be an elder. Every now, Susan elder is not an apostle because Jesus didn't appoint them to be that. But Peter says, if you're fellow elder, I say to you elders in the church and he says, the examples to the flock, the examples to the flock. And so God gives, and this is you know, argument for why people are in a church, they need living examples in front of them of how to walk not in the ways of Jeroboam, but how to walk in the ways of Christ. And it's not just, nothing is just elders, so be spiritually mature people, you know, Paul talks about Titus two, you know, younger women look to older women who are mature in the Lord as to how, you know, how you can be a mature Christian woman, loving your husband and just and other things as Paul mentions there in Titus two. But certainly in the church, elders are an example for the flock, living in a way that brings God's blessing and not his anger. So this is why being part of a church and being in a church with elders is so important. So the church doesn't have elders and that's a big deficit there. But also elders are very important for you just to have that example. God did some good examples in the elders, living human beings in front of you to follow so that you can experience peace. Those who are by definition elder means mature. We don't mean they're just old, you can be a younger elder in the church, what it means is that you're mature in the faith. Paul won the churches early elders in an apostle appointed to the task by Jesus, writes in 1 Corinthians 111, follow my example, Paul says to the church in court, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. So Paul says, you know I'm not perfect, I've got sin, he said that, I'm the chief of sinners. But follow my example as I follow Christ. Philippians 4 and 9, what have you learned to receive for heard from me or seen in me put into practice? What you've seen from me, he tells the Philippians, it was the same verse we looked at before, Philippians 4 and 9, what you've seen from me put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Peter writes that each church has to have these examples to follow in the elders of each church. Elders be examples to the flock, 1 Peter 5, 3. This is why when Paul establishes churches in his first missionary journey in Acts chapter 13, the thing he does before he heads back as he goes back, he revisits all the cities where he establishes churches to a point elders in each church, see end of chapter 13 in the book of Acts, each church needs elders. And so even those young churches, most of them coming out of synagogues had people who were maturing the faith and now believed in Jesus and he appointed those people maturing the faith, believing in Jesus to be elders in the young churches. So realize this, being an example for you is one of the jobs elders are given. Elders know that, that's part of their job description to be an example to the flock. There to be for you the opposite of the king's Basha, Ella, Zimri, and Omri. So you're summary this morning. From sin, from sin comes degeneration and chaos. Learn that from this passage and a lot of first and second things, but from sin comes degeneration and chaos. Second way, second sentence, as you sin less, you will not bring chaos on yourself, but more peace. So in the reasons we enthusiastically head into obedience to Christ, it brings us more peace. And even if there's chaos outside and there's more peace in our souls, but sometimes we actually create peace. You know, if you honor your mother and father, which is a command, you probably will have more peace in your home or more peace if you're older when you talk to them on the phone. So as you sin less, you'll not bring chaos on yourself, but more peace. And then third sentence to help you sin less. God has given you the accounts of Jesus in the Bible. He's given you the accounts of Jesus in the Bible, and he's given you elders in the church as examples for you to follow. Jesus in the Bible elders in the church as examples for you to follow that you will sin less and establish less chaos in more peace in your lives. Let's pray.