30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 14 1-6 The evil of hypocrisy 09 Getting rid of the evil of previous generations
📖 Luke 14:1-6
20Nov19 - *Getting rid of the evil of previous generations* - _Luke 14:1-6_ - Bible reading: _II Chronicles 34_
_Luke 14:2-6 And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. (3) And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" (4) But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. (5) Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" (6) And they could not answer Him regarding these things._
We understood that the problem of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, was the problem of hypocrisy. The Lord made it clear that hypocrites will go to hell. We therefore began to look into the problem of hypocrisy and its symptoms in our own lives. The symptoms that we have seen thus far are,
1. Our heart is seeking after its own gain.
2. Giving importance to outward rituals, traditions, rules and formats and not giving importance to love God, be loved by Him and to love people.
3. Seeking glory from men.
4a. Appearances before men.
4b. Outwardly appearing righteous before people.
5. Seeking for signs and wonders.
6. Testing God
7. Carrying forward the evil of the previous generations
Yesterday, we began looking at the symptom of *carrying forward the evil of the previous generations*. We will look at this same symptom some more today. The passage we looked to understand this symptom was _Matthew 23:29-33_
We said yesterday that when we come to Jesus, all the curses of previous generations are taken away. This is true if we acknowledge, (1) the particular evil committed by our previous generations. (2) Repent and ask God’s forgiveness for the evil that they had done and (3) Very importantly, repenting of the evil done by our previous generations, we live out the victorious life of Christ in that particular aspect of life. This is how the guilt and the curses of the previous generations, will not come on our generation.
We see an example of this action in the life of King Josiah in _II Chronicles 34_ He became king when he was eight years old. _II Chronicles 34:2 And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left._ This is the first step. We must ensure that our personal life is rightly related with God and this is the message that we bring to people around us.
_II Chronicles 34:3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images._ As a young man, he began to purge Judah of the evil of the previous generations.
_II Chronicles 34:8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God._ He then focused on repairing the temple and that is when the book of the law was found and it was brought to the king.
_II Chronicles 34:18-19 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. (19) Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes._ The book of the law was read to Josiah and he could not hold himself back. He broke down before God. Today we are so immunized and insulated that God’s word does not penetrate our hearts to cause us to break down and repent before God.
_II Chronicles 34:21 "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book."_ He not only repented but started taking action.
_II Chronicles 34:31-33 Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. (32) And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. (33) Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not depart from following the LORD God of their fathers._ King Josiah caused the whole nation to walk before God.
*Thought to ponder*
```Not only have we to change from the evil of previous generations but we must cause people in our circles of influence to also change.```