 Amen. So keep your place there in Jeremiah 52. We're going to come back and forth through that story and all over some other places in Jeremiah as well. But tonight we're going to talk about this idea of accepting punishment. Accepting punishment for things that we've done wrong as a nation, as individuals. We're going to look at these two kings in Jeremiah 52 and compare and contrast what happens to these two kings and what their attitudes were towards the judgment of God coming down upon them. Now just to give you some context, Josiah was, this is kind of a, with these two kings that we see Zedekiah and Jehoiachin, it can be a little confusing on who they are and who they're related to. The Bible many times will call them sons of Josiah, but they're not actually, you know, but the Bible would just refer to, you know, sons and grandsons and even nephews in some cases as sons of. But basically the last king of Judah, we're reading about the captivity of Babylon here happening in Jeremiah chapter 52. The last good king of Judah before the captivity, before the invasion of Babylon was a man, a king named Josiah. And Josiah was a good king and then Josiah had three sons. Okay, Josiah had three sons. One that we don't hear about, or two of them actually that we don't hear about in Jeremiah chapter 52, he had sons Jehoiachim, he had Jehoiachaz and then he had Zedekiah. Those were Josiah's three sons. Zedekiah is talked about mainly in Jeremiah chapter 52 and then Jehoiachim had a son Jehoiachin. So Jehoiachin is also talked about at the end of Jeremiah chapter 52. He is, you know, a son of Josiah, but he's actually Josiah's grandson. Okay, so these were two men, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, who were kings in Judah. Alright, so basically if you looked at Zedekiah to Jehoiachin, Zedekiah would be Jehoiachin's uncle. Alright, he would be his uncle, he was his grandfather's, you know, son. So what we're looking at this evening is the contrast between these two kings and what we can take away from these two kings as far as accepting God's punishment on our lives. Turn to second Kings chapter 24. Keep your place in Jeremiah chapter 52. Let's look at Jehoiachin first because we see Jehoiachin mentioned in Jeremiah chapter 52 at the end that his head was lifted up again after he had been in captivity for some time. So let's look at the story of Jehoiachin. This is Josiah's grandson. He's ruling, he is the king that rules before Zedekiah. So Zedekiah was ruling in Jeremiah chapter 52, but before his reign was Jehoiachin. Let's look at what happened to Jehoiachin. I like, I really love the stories of the kings. There's just so many different things that you can look at from the kings and another nice thing and you're going to see from the sermon tonight, another nice thing about the kings and learning about them and studying about them is there's many different, what do you want to call it? There's many different accounts given in the Bible about many of the kings meaning you'll see that tonight. We're going to be looking at second Kings. We're going to be looking in Jeremiah. You'll see the kings talked about in the prophets. A lot of times you'll see the kings come up in the prophets because who are the prophets talking to? Who are the prophets sent to get the attention of? We're going to see that tonight. They were talking to the kings. They were trying to change the mind of the kings. The prophets, they weren't necessarily out there like shouting at the people all the time. They're actually trying to get the attention of the leader and hopefully that comes across to you why that is tonight. Go to second Kings chapter 24. Second Chronicles has another account of a lot of the kings. There's a lot of good different accounts of the kings where you get just different details of each of these things. Again, none of these accounts contradicting each other which is just amazing in itself. You can have so many different accounts, so many different books and chapters of the Bible written by different human authors that all fit together perfectly and none of them contradict each other. It's proof that the Holy Spirit was behind the Bible. Look at second Kings chapter 24, keeping your place in Jeremiah because we're going to go back there. But Josiah had these three sons. Josiah had three sons. Jehoiah has, we're not going to talk about him. Jehoiah Kim, he was taken away in the first captivity. That's another thing you kind of need to understand that I'll mention tonight. There was three waves of captivity of the Babylonian invasion. So Daniel, if you remember Daniel, he was taken away in the first captivity. Basically what Nebuchadnezzar tried to do was he tried to come in and yes he overtook Judah and he conquered Judah but he tried to set up leadership in Judah. He didn't want to destroy the whole place. You know, obviously we see in Jeremiah chapter 52 that it comes to that but he was not trying to do that at the beginning. He just wanted to put someone in place. They were to be a servant to him. He was to be a king over that king and that was a common methodology to an invading empire coming into a nation. Look at Jehoiah Kim, the king before Zedekiah. Second Kings chapter 24, look at verse number 8. And look, all the kings below Josiah, all these three sons and this grandson, they were all wicked kings. None of them were good. So Josiah was a very good king. He did right in the sight of the Lord. None of these four, especially these two that we'll talk about tonight, were good kings. But they did exhibit one difference that I want to point out this evening. In verse number 8 the Bible says, Jehoiah Kim was 18 years old when he began to reign. This is the grandson of Josiah, the second king underneath Josiah during the invasion. And he reigned in Jerusalem three months and his mother's name was Nehustah, the daughter of El Nathan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father had done. At the time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city and his servants did besiege it. And Jehoiah Kim, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon. He and his mother and his servants and his princes and his officers and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. So Jehoiah Kim goes out and submits to the siege. Okay, he gives into Babylon and verse 13 says, And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord as the Lord said. Now look, I doubt, turn to second Chronicles chapter 12. I'm going to side note the sermon here for a second. I doubt this was, there's so many books and you know myths and all this about you know King Solomon's treasure and you know the Knights Templar, you know the Knights Templar had it and they took it as then when the Knights Templar got kicked out of Europe and they buried it in Oak Island and all this kind of you know there's all kinds of different theories on what happened to Solomon's treasure. But let me just kind of give you like a solution. Let me solve that for you tonight. Alright, look at second Chronicles chapter 12. Just decide note things just for a couple minutes. Look at verse number one. So when the kingdom split you had Jeroboam went to the northern kingdom of Israel and then of course Solomon's son Rehoboam took over the lower kingdom of Judah. So this is right after Solomon dies immediately this next king is Solomon's son Rehoboam. Remember the lower kingdom is always a son of a son of a son of a son whereas the northern kingdom was just dynasty treachery after treachery, families destroying families. You can't even keep track of it all unless you write it down. There were so many different families that ruled over the northern kingdom. They went bad right away. So Rehoboam takes over the lower kingdom immediately. Look at verse number one of Rehoboam's rule. And it came to pass when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself. He forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him. And it came to pass that in the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem because they had transgressed against the Lord with twelve hundred chariots, three score thousand horsemen. Look, are you kidding me? Sixty thousand horsemen come up against him and the people were without number. So it doesn't even number the foot soldiers. It just says sixty thousand Calvary came out of Egypt, the Lubim's, the Sukims, and the Ethiopians. And he took defense cities which pertained to Judah and came to Jerusalem. Then came Shamiah the prophet to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak and said unto them, Thus sayeth the Lord, You have forsaken me and therefore I have also left you in the hand of Shishak. Look at verse number nine of that same chapter. So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord. And the treasures of the king's house he took all and he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. All that to say this, the treasure was lost right away. You know, have you ever heard the saying, you ever heard the saying it takes one generation to make it and one generation to lose it? That was Solomon and Rehoboam right here. He got invaded right away and he lost everything right away. That's why in Jeremiah chapter 52 you see, what is everything? Do you see the word gold in Jeremiah chapter 52? I don't think the word gold is even in the chapter. What do you see? Brass. Everything was made of brass because all the gold had been taken away already. And even the brass that they had in Jeremiah chapter 52, if you remember reading through the chapter that we just read through, it was hollow. They couldn't even, they didn't even have solid brass. They had like plated brass. So all the treasure was gone. So you're going to go looking for, you know, the Ark of the Covenant or, you know, King Solomon's treasure, not that we would ever do that. Probably Egypt is the first place. But look, the bottom line is that stuff is long gone. That stuff is long cut up, melted down, put into different things. It was taken right away. Right away at the beginning of the reign of Rehoboam. Way before, hundreds of years before the story that we're looking at right now. Go back to 2 Kings chapter 24. That shows you why in Ecclesiastes that Solomon, if you hear Solomon speaking in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, Ecclesiastes chapter 3, he's talking about a main theme in Ecclesiastes as Solomon is just lamenting his life. He's lamenting. It's funny because Solomon obviously didn't live to see Shishat come and take away everything from, you know, his son Rehoboam. Solomon was dead by the time Rehoboam took over the kingdom. But it's interesting because you look at Ecclesiastes, which Solomon, through the, you know, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, penned down. And you look at what he wrote. And one of the main themes, especially in chapter 1 and chapter 3, this isn't the point of the sermon, is that don't just store up stuff for the next generation because you don't even know who they are. That's what he says. He's like, you just build up all this wealth and you just give it to who knows who. He says in Ecclesiastes chapter 1. So I mean, that's just a side note in itself. You know, look, I want to give my kids a good start. I want to give my kids a goodly heritage. But look, the goodly heritage that we should give our children is wisdom, is Bible knowledge, is a spiritual life, you know, not necessarily just like storing up a bunch of riches and just handing it to them because one generation to make it, one generation to lose it. All right, go back to 2nd Kings chapter 24. We're talking about Jehoiachin here. Jehoiachin. Look at verse 14. The Bible says, And he carried away all Jerusalem and the princes and the mighty men of valor, even 10,000 captives, and the craftsmen and smiths, none remained. Saved the poorest sort of the people in the land. What do we see here? There was poor people there. There's always going to be poor people everywhere all the time, no matter what. All right, just a point from the sermon this morning. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon and the king's mother and the king's wives and his officers and the mighty of the land, those he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. So he takes away, this is what we would call the second wave of captivity. Daniel is already gone at this point where he just took away, he came in the first time and he just took away basically the smartest advisors, the smartest people, Daniel being part of that first wave. This one, he takes away mighty men, he takes away, he basically, he takes away all the people except the poorest in the land this time. All right, including this king, Jehoiachin. But Jehoiachin did not rebel against him, Jehoiachin just gave into the siege. All right, so this is the second wave of captivity. Look at verse number 12. Actually, yeah, that's that's turned back to Jeremiah chapter 52. Sorry. So basically he comes in, and he takes away all the riches, he takes away the treasures. And look, if you remember in Second Kings chapter 20, Hezekiah, you know, invited after Hezekiah got well, Hezekiah invited all these ambassadors from Babylon to show him all his treasures. So you know, just an idea of maybe you shouldn't brag, maybe if you do have a couple nickels to rub together, you shouldn't be just bragging about it to everybody, because these are the people that ended up coming in and taking all his treasure that he boasted about back in Second Kings chapter 20. Hezekiah was a good king, by the way, let me put that in there. He gets a bad rap for that silly movie he did towards the end of his life. But you know, he was all around a good king as well. Go back to Jeremiah chapter 52. So you see Jehoiakin, he gets taken captive, he gets taken away with his mother and his family and all these mighty people and all these princes. All right, look at verse number 31 of Jeremiah chapter 52, because Jehoiakin is mentioned in Jeremiah chapter 52 that we just read. Now we're not even getting to Zedekiah yet. All right, we're talking about Jehoiakin, the king that ruled during the reign of Babylon underneath before Zedekiah. Look at verse 31, because the Bible does mention him again. It says, and it came to pass, all we know so far from kings and the chronicles is that he was taken captive that we've read so far. In verse 31 of Jeremiah 52, the Bible says, and it came to pass in the seventh and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiakin king of Judah. So he is in prison for 37 years. Okay, so this wasn't like, hey, you know, he was in prison for five minutes here. He was in prison for 37 years. And in the 12th month, in the five and 20th day of the month, evil Maradak, king of Babylon, that's quite a name there. Think he was a nice guy? What's your first name? Well, we call him evil for short. Anyway, the king of Babylon the first year reign lifted up the head of Jehoiakin king of Judah and brought him forth out of the prison and spake kindly unto him and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon and changed his prison garments. And he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. And for his diet, there was a continual diet given to him of the king of Babylon every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life. So ultimately, Jehoiakin, this king that went away in the second wave of Babylonian captivity, ultimately, he was freed for prison after 37 years. And he was given a kingship back again. And he was, you know, fed at the king's table. He lived a free man, you know, for the rest of his life. He lived in prison for 37 years. But eventually he was granted mercy. Okay, now let's look at Jeremiah chapter 52 and verse number 7. Now let's contrast that with Zedekiah. So Zedekiah was put in place as a king after Jehoiakin was taken to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar needs somebody to rule Jerusalem. He needs somebody to govern this city. He needs, you know, it's kind of like Herod and the people that the Romans put in place to govern, you know, Galilee in these different places in their empire. It's not like one ruler could stand in Rome and just rule the whole empire. They needed kings and other, you know, legislators and rulers other places to help manage the empire. So he uplifts Zedekiah to be in place of Jehoiakin after he was taken into captivity. Look at verse 7. Look at verse 7. Zedekiah rebels. Zedekiah rebels against Nebuchadnezzar. All right, and we're going to look at that in detail, but first I want to read you verse 7 through 11 of Jeremiah chapter 52. So he rebels against Nebuchadnezzar's leadership and Nebuchadnezzar comes in to invade Jerusalem again, which would become the third wave of captivity. All right, look at verse 7. It says, then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden. Now the Chaldeans were by the city roundabout, and they went by the way of the plane. So they had the place surrounded, they're trying to escape. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook Zedekiah in the planes of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king and carried him up onto the king of Babylon to Riblah, and in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. And then look at verse number 11. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. So think about this for a second. Think about the judgment that this man received. The last thing that he saw on this earth was his whole family, all his sons being killed. So the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, he killed all this man's, his king's sons in front of him for his rebellion. And then he put out his eyes, meaning I want that to be the last thing that you remember seeing. And then he puts him in prison. He doesn't kill me, puts him in prison, where he ends up dying in prison. Now look, a lot of us are looking at this and we're like Zedekiah, you're like, but an invading army shouldn't you fight? Sounds like a patriot to me. But the difference is what Jeremiah had already told Zedekiah. Go back to Jeremiah chapter 38. Shouldn't you defend yourself? You know, but here's the difference, folks. Look at Jeremiah chapter 38 and look at verse number 14. The difference is what the man of God was already had already been sent to Zedekiah to tell him very specific things to do and not to do. Look at verse 14 of Jeremiah chapter 38. Look at verse 14. The Bible says then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him in the third entry that is in the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing from me. Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, if I declare it unto thee, will thou not surely put me to death? Jeremiah is like, I know you, you're not going to take this well. You know, and if I give thee counsel, will thou not harken unto me? So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah saying, as the Lord liveth that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death. Neither will I give thee unto the hand of these men that seek thy life. Zedekiah is like, everybody wants to kill you. He's like, I won't give you to them either. Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, thus saith the Lord the God of hosts, the God of Israel. Now look, this is a very specific direction right here. He says, if thou will surely go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live. And this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shall live and thine house. But if thou will not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shall not escape out of their hands. Jeremiah told, see Jeremiah is telling Zedekiah right now, he is saying, look, this Babylonian invasion is judgment from God. He is specifically telling him this. This is what Jeremiah has been preaching for 30 years to this point. He's like, this is judgment from God. He is saying, take it. Take the punishment. Do not rebel against the judgment from God. He's like, because it's akin to rebelling against God. Look at verse 19. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand and they mock me. You know what he says? Look at how prideful and self-centered and arrogant this man is. Look, at this point that Jeremiah is talking to him, there's already been Jews that have been taken away to Babylon in the first two waves. And this king is saying, I'm afraid that if I give up, then those Jews that have already been taken away in Babylon are going to make fun of me. That's what he said, that they're going to mock me. His pride is leading him down to this road. But then Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee. They're not going to give you to those Jews. He says, obey. I beseech thee. Jeremiah is like, I beg you, just do it. The voice of the Lord which I speak unto thee, so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. I can't imagine what Jeremiah is like at this point. He's like literally begging this man to spare his own life. He obviously doesn't care about the lives of anybody else. We'll get to that in a few minutes. He says, but if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord has showed me. He's like, if you don't listen to me, this is what's going to happen. And behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes. He's like, I mean, Zedekai clearly only cared about himself. He didn't care about anybody else. He's saying, look, all the women that remain in your house, all the women that remain everywhere, he's like, they're going to be taken and given to Babylonians to marry them and be their wives. They're going to take all your women. And those women shall say, thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee, thy feet are sunk in the mire and they are turned away back. So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. Then Zedekai said unto Jeremiah, let no man know of these words and thou shalt not die. He's like, don't tell anybody. So Zedekai is like, I'm not going to listen to you. Just don't go tell anybody that you told me this. I'm not going to listen though. He doesn't care about his wives. He doesn't care about anybody, any of the women. He doesn't care about any of the children. He doesn't care about the city itself, the property. The man of God literally told him what to do and what not to do. Jeremiah 52 is not some patriot rebellion. It is a rebellion against God's word itself. It's what Jeremiah chapter 52 is all about. Turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 36. Turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 36. Jeremiah is telling Zedekai, this is your punishment. Take it. He's like, just take it. He's like, he doesn't say things are going to be great for you. He says, you'll live. You will live. Turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 36. 2nd Chronicles chapter 36. Look at verse number 11. The Bible says Zedekai was one and 20 years old when he began to reign and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. And this is what Zedekai actually does. This is why I just love all these different angles of the stories that we get here. So, Jeremiah, we see what Zedekai, you know, we see the punishment Zedekai receives in Jeremiah chapter 52. In Jeremiah chapter 38, we see the actual word of the Lord that was given to Zedekai that he betrayed, that he went against. In 2nd Chronicles chapter 36, we see what Zedekai actually did after he sent away Jeremiah. Look at what it says in verse 11. He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, verse 12, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord as God and humbled not himself. That's an important point right there. Before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord, and he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who made him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord, God of Israel. Notice that, notice that, who did he stiffen his neck against? He stiffened, the Bible here is comparing, is comparing stiffening his neck against Nebuchadnezzar to stiffening his neck against the Lord, God of Israel. They're the same thing. Many times, God used, you know, evil nations to put his judgment on his people. And that's what was happening here, but Zedekai said, no, I'm not taking this punishment. Moreover all the chief priests, remember in Jeremiah chapter 52, all the people that were killed, all those people that were killed, all the priests were killed, everybody was taken and put to death. The chief priests, the people transgressed very much after the abominations of the heathen. They all deserved it and polluted the house of the Lord which he hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord, God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up be times, meaning again and again and sending, because he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. The Bible says here that, that God, even though he was doing this, just kept sending this message to Zedekai, just kept sending this message again and again to them and look at verse 16, how did they receive that message? We already saw an example of it in verse, in chapter 38 of Jeremiah, but look at what it says here. It says, but they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. That means there was just no other way. God's just like, total and complete annihilation. Burn everything. You know, destroy everything. Therefore, he brought upon them the king of the Caldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had, look at this, look at this, look at the consequences of who, who, who dealt, I mean, who saw the sorrow, not just Zedekai. It said they had no compassion upon young man or maiden, that means young lady or old man or him that stooped for age, he gave them all into his hand. Everybody felt the sorrow. Everybody suffered. So, all that to say this about these two kings, both bad kings, both did evil in the sight of the Lord, but one accepted God's punishment, Jehoiakin, and one did not. And you can see the contrast between who received mercy and who did not. Look, one despised God's word and he received no mercy, nor anyone that was connected to him did they receive mercy. So, all that to say this, the two points of the sermon tonight are, it's better to accept, you know, God's punishment. Obviously, obviously it's better to be in a place, I mean, plan A is to be in a place where you don't deserve any punishment, but if you do find yourself in a place where you deserve punishment of some kind, accept it fully and own it, because the second point is others will pay if you don't, you know, and that sorrow, as we talked about this morning, that extreme sorrow will be shared by many other people. You know who was really good at this? Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 16. There's somebody in the Bible that was really good at accepting punishment. Somebody that didn't necessarily, like people wonder, like, oh, why is King David, you know, so celebrated when he makes such huge mistakes in his life? I mean, he made some pretty big mistakes, like the biggest mistakes, like murder, like adultery, he made some massive mistakes that hopefully, you know, many of us in our lives will never make those grave of sins in our lives, but David was considered a man after God's own heart. He was highly exalted by God. This is one of the reasons why. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 16. David was really good at fully accepting punishment for what he did. It's not that he didn't, it's not that he didn't do anything wrong, it's that he was good at accepting punishment. Look at verse 5 of 2 Samuel chapter 16. This is after his son, Absalom, has taken over the kingdom and David's on the run and he's being kicked out. The Bible says in verse 5, it says, when David came to Bahram, behold, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, he came forth and cursed still as he came. And he cast stones at David and at all the servants of King David and the people and all the mighty men that were on his right hand and on his left. Here's David walking away, you know, after this terrible thing has happened. David's at a low point here. He's got his mighty man on his right and on his left and he's got this guy that was friends with King Saul just throwing rocks at him and just cursing his name. Look at verse 7. And thus said Shimei when he cursed. He says, come out, come out thou bloody man, thou man of Belial. Basically calls him a son of Satan here. The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul and whose stead thou has reigned. And we know that God chose David and God rejected Saul. So what this guy is saying is a bunch of garbage and David knows this and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son and behold thou art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man. Here what you have here is just an enemy of David that's just happy that he's down. You know he sees that you know David's down and he's like you know what I'm going to kick him while he's down because David was up and David was king and I couldn't do anything and I hate David because of you know Saul was my king and I hate David so he sees David down he just gets up and he just kicks him a few times is what you see happen here. He's throwing rocks at him cursing his name. Look at verse 9. Then said Abishai the son of Zariah to the king why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king? Let me go over I pray thee and take off his head you gotta love this guy all right I mean this is one of the mighty men here you know this is you know I'm Joe Ab's brother here I mean you know these are you know as far as tough guys go and as far as you know loyal guys to the king it just doesn't get any better than look these guys had a lot of problems but they were some tough loyal individuals. So here he's walking next to David one of his mighty men go read about the mighty men one of his mighty men is walking next to David he sees this punk you know cursing David you know thinking David's down and kicking him and he's like he's one of the mighty he's like let me just go just chop his head off we just go cut his head off like right now I mean these guys were warriors like cutting somebody's head off was like you wouldn't even think about it twice he's like let me just go take care of this problem for you king David had the power to do this all David would have had to do is probably say nothing and Abishai would have gone and just ended this guy's life but look what David says and the king said what about to do with you you sons of Zariah so let him curse why just because the lord has said unto him curse David who shall then say wherefore has thou done so he's saying look he's like this this and if you know the the bible from 2 Samuel chapter 12 this is one of the judgments that was put on David after he killed Uriah one of the judgments was he said I will rise up evil out of thine own house against you that was just a judgment that was put on David David knows this David knows that's what's happening to him right now look David wasn't emotional and and just like you know flying off the handle on emotion he's like no I know this is judgment from God let him curse he's like don't take away my punishment from me he's like this is my punishment I deserve it let him curse David was really good at that he was really good at just following what the Lord put on him no matter what this is why he wouldn't even lay a finger on Saul he would never lay a finger on Saul because he's like no who am I to touch the Lord's anointed who am I to put my hands on who God has put in as king even though he's wicked and he's evil David never flew off the handle in situations like that especially when it was in his own detriment he's like no I accept the punishment that Nathan put upon me I accept it let him curse he had the power to end this man's life just like that he could have done it he wouldn't even have done it he just accepted it why why did David do that you know why he did it because he was humble and you know what it does it's the same thing when David had the three judgments put in front of him is for when he numbered the people and God gave him these three choices and what did David do he picked the quickest choice he's like just give me the quickest fastest choice because accepting punishment you know what it will end it sooner and David knew this David knew that it was judgment upon him and by accepting it and not shirking it he wouldn't just increase that sorrow that valve would not you know David was like you know what the valve's open enough he's like I got it I'm good accept it I deserve it let's just get it over with let me move on with the zeal part of my life so look it's all about look folks it's all about approving yourself to be clear is what this is about Zedekiah didn't do it Jehoiakin did turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 and then Psalm 51 and then we'll be done this evening look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 and look at verse number 10 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 is talking about how to clear yourself of a fault how to truly clear yourself how to truly you know it's more look folks it's more than just like sorry about that you know how would you like it if somebody did something wrong did something cause damage you know somebody came and damaged something of yours or whatever and it was just they were like yeah sorry bro but they don't want to accept any any responsibilities they don't want to accept you know replacing something I mean this is a small materialistic example but you see the point they're not really repentant you know they're not really accepting the punishment but look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 and verse number 10 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 and verse number 10 gives us kind of a guide on how to do this look at what the bible says in verse 10 it says for godly sorrow you see that it says godly sorrow so look maybe sorrow is a good thing there can be godly sorrow godly sorrow worketh repentance you know that that valve opens up and that work works repentance on your heart repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death for behold this self same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort look it's talking about you know really truly being sorry really truly being you know sorrowful that's where the word sorry comes from by the way you know sorrow you know you're feeling sorrow you sorrow after a godly sort not just like lip service like the world is what this is trying to say here all right this is what it will produce this is what verse number 11 is saying a godly sorrow will produce these things what carefulness it brought in you it'll produce carefulness yeh what clearing of yourselves yeh what indignation yeh what fear yeh what vehement desire yeh what zeal what revenge and all of these things have you approved yourself to be clear in this matter if you have done something wrong you have transgressed you have sinned against somebody against yourself whatever it is you should feel these things and then you will have that will that proves that's what paul is saying paul is saying you're clear in this matter because you have felt these things you know because look accepting the punishment is crucial in this by the way because if you accept the full punishment of something that you deserve you will be careful next time because you don't want to go through that again you know you will feel you will feel indignation you will be angry after you go through that full punishment and accept it you will be angry that you did that thing you will be upset at yourself you will feel indignation and guess what you will be fearful you will be fearful that it that if you do it again the punishment is going to come again and be worse because you accepted the punishment but if you're this person that's like oh yeah yeah I know I did that wrong but then the punishment or the consequences come and you're like I don't deserve that that is not godly sorrow and that will not produce these things and what do we see was that a kaya he could not humble himself being proud will just stop you in your tracks from getting right maybe delay it all together turn to psalm chapter 51 but this was david this was david psalm chapter 51 is such a great set of verses in the bible talking about david and how he felt towards you know his transgression he felt that carefulness that indignation that fear but then david shows us in psalm chapter 51 that after all of that came the zeal again and look don't you want to get back to the zeal you know look you can bury yourself in sin and you can you can crush your spiritual life and you can do all these things but look getting completely right and going through this carefulness this indignation this fearful by accepting that punishment that you deserve you know what that will do it's those things that you must go through to get back to the zeal look it's this godly sorrow and getting right is a long road it's a long road when you think about all these steps it's a long road that takes the correct heart this is why you know a lot of people if they go down bad roads you know sometimes you don't see them come all the way back because it's just it's a long road look at psalm 51 verse 10 creating me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within me it all starts with the heart it all starts with the heart cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me restore unto me the joy of thy salvation he doesn't say restore my salvation he says restore unto me the joy the zeal of my salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit he's saying give me that joy that zeal back that 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 says that I can get back if I accept punishment with the right heart and then he says then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee he's like I'll get back to work for you is what he says so look this morning we looked at you know a godly sorrow and how that is actually a good thing and it helps us in our lives look a godly sorrow though it starts as psalm 51 says it starts from a humble heart and a proud heart as we saw with zedekiah god will continue to punish take the be like davin just take the punishment and get it over with that that's my theory that's the bible's theory get clear it's best for yourself look it's best for yourself and it's best for those around you and look our lives will be much more profitable if we recognize these methods that god lays out to manage us you think about you know the sorrow that god implemented after the fall of man and then you think about this lesson we see with these two kings about just don't shirk your punishment that you deserve especially he had men of god just telling him straight to his face he's like hey this is the punishment of god just take it just take it he couldn't do it but look this it shows you that this this christian life is not some free ride you know this christian life isn't like oh get saved and and then everything's going to be great as a matter of fact if you it it should show you the more that you learn it should show you that after you get saved if you don't learn these things sorrow will increase for you in your life and look if you don't know what the bible says you will have no idea why you'll just you'll have no clue and that valve will just keep opening and opening and opening so look the choice for the the choice for the person that gets saved at the door that gets that gets saved and started at square one in this christian life the choice is either this life of extreme profit I mean just think of the profit just think of the profit that you could have in just a christian life I don't care when you start it just think of the profit that you could have towards other but look it could be a life of extreme profit or it could be a life of extreme cost think about that I mean there's two sides to that point look you're never going to go to hell you know you're never going to go to hell I mean I don't know if you know Zedekiah or you know any of these guys that we look at it's very hard to decide if some of these kings were saved or not but the point is it's like if you're saved you're not going to go to hell but why would you not want to go down the profit road instead of just the cost road because you see with Zedekiah it cost everybody around him everything it cost everything to those people to the city and look the cost if you lay the cost out to people what that actual cost will be for a life of sin for a life of selfishness for a life of pride for a life of just shunning God after he saved you if you laid that cost out to people nobody would buy it it would be a cost that nobody would want to pay yet people think or they just don't have the knowledge to know that if they don't learn these things and start being a profit that the other side of that coin is actual cost look i mean these kings it was it was it's obviously better to listen but you know one of them didn't it's better to it's better to listen to the Lord and be a good king but if you don't it's better just accept the punishment all right that's that's the lesson here but like we do this all the time right this is like this is like a child this is like a child that never gets spanked a child that never gets spanked and then their parent you know one day out of the year decides they're going to spank their child and then they spank their child and the kid gets mad at them like look you got a kid that gets mad at you after you spank them you got a problem because you know what they're not doing they're not accepting punishment that's a major issue that means that they don't get spanked enough that means that that valve needs to be turned up and that's exactly how it is with us if we look we deserve something godly sorrow is just like just just just put it on me let's just let's just get it over with you know no excuses be king david a far from perfect man but he accepted everything that came his way and he took it you know what the people around him while they did suffer for you know his sins they would have suffered a lot more had he been like setakaya all right so accepting punishment it's it's a valuable you know lesson for the christian life let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer