334 He spoke kindly to him 335 The Prayer of Jabez

Sermon adapted from, Discovering Christ Day by Day, David Fortner

1. “He spoke kindly to him.” Sermon adapted from, Discovering Christ Day by Day, David Fortner May 1 Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 25 -1 Chronicles 2

2. 2 Kings 25:27 NIV In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. He did this on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. 28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

3. God’s quarrel with His people because of their determined perseverance in rebellion brought Jerusalem to utter ruin. Israel and Judah were made desolate and carried away into captivity by the judgment of God and brought into total ruin.

4. How sin reduces men to vanity! How sin reduces nations to vanity! Zedekiah rejected the counsel of God by His prophet Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 37-39 ) to his and the nation’s destruction. Be warned. All who reject the counsel of God reject it to the everlasting destruction of their souls!

5. In wrath God remembers mercy; and even in this picture of divine judgment and ruin, we have in Jehoiachin a picture of God’s great mercy in Christ. After thirty-seven years of imprisonment, the king of Babylon brought him into liberty and “ he spoke kindly to him ,” changed his prison garments, gave him bread, and supplied all his life’s needs to the end of his days. Mercy Portrayed

6. Here is a picture of the wonderful changes the grace of God makes, when from the prison of death and sin, the soul is brought forth to the light and liberty of the gospel. The Lord Jesus, by the omnipotent power of His Holy Spirit, opens the prison door in conversion and calls forth His captives from the pit of condemnation, corruption, and death.

7. Zechariah 9:11 NIV As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.

8. What everlasting freedom that will be when death itself shall, at the trump of God, give up its dead and all the children of God shall sit down at His banqueting table to go out no more! Precious thought!

9. Let it cheer our hearts amid all the changeable events in the providence of our God and Savior throughout the remaining days appointed for us on this earth. In this world everything is changing; but we live upon the unchangeable God in Christ Jesus. He is our life and peace here and will be our life and peace forever.

10. The genealogies of Chronicles and elsewhere in the book of God are read with boredom, if they are read at all, until we are made to see the purpose for which they are given. In these genealogies we are given the earthly line of our Savior’s family, the line of the human race in which God preserved a people through whom the Seed (KJV) of woman must come into the world at His appointed time. The Genealogies

11. The Lord God said concerning the fallen race, “Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. There is life in the root. There is salvation in the stock. The woman’s Seed, the Lord Jesus, is in these people. In this seed is He in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”

12. Isaiah 65:8 NIV This is what the LORD says: "As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, 'Don't destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,' so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all. 9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live.

13. The very first line of 1st Chronicles reads, “ Adam, Seth, Enosh .” No mention is made of Cain or Abel, the first two sons of Adam, because neither of them is in the genealogy of Christ. Abel was one of Christ’s seed, one of His elect; but there is no record of him having children.

14. So Christ was not of Abel’s seed. Cain, the reprobate son of Adam, was not in the Savior’s family tree. The woman’s Seed (KJV) promised in the very first gospel message is traced back to Adam and Eve through Seth. Genesis 3:15 NIV And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

15. Of all the objections raised by the Jews against our Savior’s claims as the Messiah, they never once raised a question about His genealogy, because they knew His genealogical records were meticulously preserved and precisely accurate.

16. What mercy, wisdom, and goodness! We have before us in these genealogical records a marvelous display of God’s great wisdom and His minute providence, using ancient Jewish family records to point to Jesus of Nazareth, His only Son, the incarnate God, and declare with irrefutable authority, “Jesus is the Christ!”

17. The Prayer of Jabez Sermon adapted from, Discovering Christ Day by Day, David Fortner May 2 Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 3-5

18. The story of Jabez is sandwiched between fragments of a genealogical listing of the descendants of Judah. Apparently Jabez’s mother experienced greater pain than normal during the birth of her son. Following the delivery she named her son Jabez, which is a play on the Hebrew word for “pain.” We know nothing about Jabez’s life except what we read in 1 Chronicles 4:9,10

19. 1 Chronicles 4:9 NIV Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, "I gave birth to him in pain." 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.

20. We are told that “ Jabez was more honorable than his brothers .” (v. 9 ) Then God the Holy Spirit gives us the brief prayer (v. 10 ) of this honorable man for our learning.

21. David’s family tree was meticulously preserved with an eye to our Lord Jesus. Still, it is difficult to read the genealogy of David’s family without connecting with it the great sorrow his children brought upon this man after God’s own heart. Surely, even this is for our comfort and edification. 1 Chronicles 3

22. Where do brokenhearted mothers and fathers, who trust and worship God, find relief and strength and comfort when they think of their rebel sons and daughters who hate the God they love? They find it exactly where David found it, and only there, in God’s covenant love and covenant faithfulness.

23. 2 Samuel 23:5 NIV "If my house were not right with God, surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part; surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire. Troubled saint, brokenhearted mother, heavy-laden father, set your heart on Christ and have peace. God our Savior does all things well. He is too good to do wrong, too wise to make a mistake, and too strong to fail.

24. Judah was the most illustrious and the most numerous of all the tribes of Israel. It formed a separate kingdom, including Levi, Simeon, and Benjamin. When the other tribes were scattered and almost lost by the Assyrian conquests, Judah became conspicuously great and flourishing. 1 Chronicles 4

25. Why was Judah preserved? Why was Judah so exalted? It was God’s purpose to bring our Savior into the world through the tribe of Judah. He who is God our Savior is “ the Lion of the tribe of Judah .” Revelation 5:5 NIV Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."

26. The genealogies of Israel in the tribe of Reuben, and also in the tribe of Gad form the principal subjects of this chapter. Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, forfeited the birthright by incest. Genesis 49:3 NIV "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. 4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it. 1 Chronicles 5

27. Therefore Joseph was given both his own portion and Ruben’s. Looking to Christ, the promised Seed in faith, the dying patriarch gave Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh their portion. Hebrews 11:21 NIV By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

28. But Jacob declared by the spirit of prophecy that the scepter would not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until He (Christ) to whom it belongs shall come. Genesis 49:10 NIV The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

29. How precise the prophecies and promises of the Book of God in the Old Testament were! Rejoice, O my soul, for truly the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yea and amen. Not one shall ever fall to the ground! Go back in your mind to Jabez and his prayer. Jabez

30. 1 Chronicles 4:9 NIV Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, "I gave birth to him in pain." 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.

31. Surely Jabez is set before us here as one remarkably typical of the Lord Jesus. Our blessed Savior, like Jabez, was more honorable than His brethren. He was and is “greatest in the kingdom of God,” who became least when He was made sin for us. This He did for the enlargement of His territory that the heathen by His Father’s decree might be given to Him for an inheritance and the utmost part of the earth for His possession.

32. Jabez also represents every believing sinner seeking the mercy and grace of God in Christ. What is it to be blessed of God, but to have my sins forgiven through the precious blood of Christ? Truly, our territory is enlarged if Christ has made us free! And we are assured by God’s own word that He will keep us from all evil, keep us from the evil one, and keep us forever in the arms of His omnipotent mercy, love, and grace in Christ!

33. Oh Lord God, as you heard and answered the prayer of Jabez, hear me and grant my request for all these spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus! Bless me, my God, and make me truly happy indeed, by making me all that You would have me to be in Christ. Make Him and Him alone my Portion, my Hope, my Joy, my Life, my Salvation, my All, all the days of my life and to all eternity!

34. HAVE YOU HEARD THE GOOD NEWS?

35. Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

36. He was buried and rose on the third day.

37. When He did this He solved 2 problems we all have. He solved our sin problem because He nailed our sins to the cross; & He solved our grave problem when He rose from the dead because it proved we could also rise from the dead.

38. Jesus said, if we want to get in on of all this we must . . . BE BORN AGAIN. FOLLOW HIM; &

39. ISN’T THAT GREAT NEWS? WHO ARE YOU GOING TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS WITH TODAY?

40. Mark 16:15 NIV  He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Numbers 6:24 NIV '"The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.“’