Episode Transcript
Good morning. It's 10 o'clock. Time to begin.
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[inaudible]
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This morning we're in 2 Kings chapter 18, ready to study verse 20.
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So once you find your place there, I want you also to find 2 Chronicles chapter 30.
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So you have 2 places to mark, 2 Kings chapter 18, 2 Chronicles chapter 30.
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And when you've got those 2 places marked, we will continue.
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2 Kings 18, 2 Chronicles 30. We're thankful for those who came and those who watch online.
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Happy Resurrection Day. It's the day of the empty tomb, isn't it?
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When Jesus defeated the enemy of death and rose again after 3 days in the grave.
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Now, you know, we're not very traditional around here. In fact, we tend to buck tradition fairly often.
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And many people call today Easter Sunday. Did you know that? They do.
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I want to show you something about Hezekiah. He knew more about Easter than most people do today.
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That's right. So if you found 2 Chronicles chapter 30, look down there with me and I'm just going to read verse 1.
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Now you remember the reading assignment I gave you 2 or 3 weeks ago, chapters 29 through 32.
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Well, I'm going to read verse 1.
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"And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel."
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Now you're probably saying, "Well, Brother Andy, it doesn't say anything about Easter in that verse."
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Are you sure about that? Did you know that the English word Easter is found one time in the whole Bible?
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So we ought to go look at that, shouldn't we? One time in the whole Bible.
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In fact, if you'll write this down, it's in Acts chapter 12, verses 1 through 4.
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Acts chapter 12, verses 1 through 4, where it says, "Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
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And he killed James the brother of John with the sword, and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread.
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And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him," here it is, "intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."
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That's the only time in the Bible the English word Easter is found.
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So let's see what it means. Hezekiah knew what it meant, and you're going to see that it might mean something different than you thought.
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The word Easter is from the Greek word "paska," P-A-S-C-H-A, if you were writing it in English letters.
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Now how many of you in the last week or so have seen a sign in front of someone's yard in Spanish, and it says, "Pasqua," P-A-S-C-U-A.
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The Spanish-speaking people understand this day in their language at least better than the English-speaking people, because Pasqua is the same as the Greek word "paska,"
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and that word is used 29 times in the New Testament. 28 of those times it is translated as the word "passover."
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Easter is Passover. Today is Resurrection Day.
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Now that's going to take a minute to sink in, because we've all been raised calling this Easter Sunday,
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and we've also been raised with the bunny and the eggs, and now the Biden administration has decided this is going to be called Transgender Visibility Day.
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None of it is scriptural. We want to be scriptural.
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The Passover, as you remember, if you've been in this church long, was given to the Jews in the Old Testament the night before their exodus from Egypt,
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wherein each family would be represented by a slain lamb or goat,
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and the blood would be put on the doors and the lentils of their house, the doorpost and the lentil of the house.
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The Passover was a bloody event, and it involved the killing of an animal,
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so its blood could be put on the proper place in the house, outside the house,
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so that those inside the house would be passed over when the angel of death came to smite all the first born in the land of Egypt.
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Now the blood of Jesus Christ, which He shed, is applied to us by faith,
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and in the Gospel, that blood guarantees us that we will be spared, not from a physical death like the first born in Egypt,
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but from the second death, which is the penalty of sin.
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And now, hopefully you understand that Hezekiah understood more about Easter, actual Easter, than most people do today,
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because Easter means Passover.
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And what did he tell the children of Israel? He said, "We're going to keep the Passover. We're going to do it like God said to do it."
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You see, our Passover lamb was actually crucified sometime during the middle of the week,
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whether it was Wednesday night or Thursday, it depends on whether you're looking at the Jewish calendar or our calendar,
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but it wasn't on the Lord's day. That was the day He resurrected.
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He rose again on a day like this, early, early in the morning, so we're not being stubborn when we say, "Happy Resurrection Day."
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Two of my family members texted me this morning and said, "Happy Easter," and I said, "Happy Resurrection Day. He is risen."
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We're not being stubborn when we do that. We're being scriptural.
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So meditate on that a little bit if you haven't done that before, and as always, let the Bible guide you unto all truth.
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And when you do, you'll see how nefarious and how sneaky the traditions of the world are.
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They get right in the middle of the church sometimes, and then they distract us from what our real purpose is here.
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Now, we stepped out of our text just a little bit there in 2 Kings 18,
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but the events detailed here in 2 Chronicles chapter 30 are important to understand
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because like the chapters before and after it in 2 Chronicles, they give us more details.
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They give us a very detailed look at Hezekiah's devotion to the Lord.
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And by the way, you can read about the reign of Hezekiah, part of it, at least from the 14th year on,
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in Isaiah chapter 36 through 39. It almost reads the same.
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You say, "Wow, this looks like 2 Chronicles. Isn't it wonderful how the Bible bears witness with itself?"
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And so Isaiah was a contemporary of Hezekiah.
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Can you imagine living in the days of a prophet like Isaiah, living in the days of a king like Hezekiah?
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So let's return to where we left off last week going back to 2 Kings chapter 18.
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And by the way, all that was free. There's no extra charge for that lesson about Passover and Easter.
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Now last week in verse 19,
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Rab Sheikah, the Assyrian military leader, asked Judah's representatives this question.
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He said, "What confidence is this wherein thou? Trust us.
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What hope are you leaning on to keep Assyria from overtaking you and conquering your people?"
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And now let's continue listening to the enemy's attempt to show Judah how helpless she was in the face of the great enemy,
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which in this case was Assyria. Now in verse 20, and here's what Rab Sheikah said to these Jewish representatives,
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"Thou sayest, but they are but vain words, I have counsel and strength for the war.
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Now on whom does thou trust that thou rebelest against me?"
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Now let's take what's in the parentheses and we'll study it a little out of order where it says, "but they are but vain words."
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We'll study that after we look at what the vain words are.
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This answer, "I have counsel and strength for war," is an answer Judah gave to Rab Sheikah, or which he at least imagined they might give.
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It doesn't say they said that to him. But if you think about Rab Sheikah, he's threatened many nations.
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We've already read about some of the nations, and we will read about some of the nations that Assyria conquered, several of them.
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So he knows how to go up to the walls of the city, or in this case the upper pool, the conduit in the Fuller's Field,
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and threaten the nation he's about to overtake. He knows how to do that. He's a specialist at it.
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And so his sales pitch was well honed by now, and he knows how other nations have answered his threats against them.
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And very likely some of those nations have said to Rab Sheikah when he threatened them, "We have counsel and strength for war."
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Well, what do they mean by this? Well, let's look at that.
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Here are two other translations of this verse, or this part of the verse, that may help you understand it better.
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So our verse says, "Thou sayest, but they are but vain words, I have counsel and strength for war."
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Now here's another translation. "Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war?"
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And then another translation. "You speak of having plans in power for war, but they are mere words."
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And that's the whole point of this verse right here.
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If you look at those other two translations, and then what we have in front of us if you have a King James translation,
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it's clear that the emphasis is on the words being said rather than the actual power being displayed.
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Rab Sheikah told them their counsel and their might were nothing more than words, just something to talk about.
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On the other hand, the counsel and might of the Assyrians had been proven many times.
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After all, they'd conquered lots of countries, lots of nations, had fallen at their feet.
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They'd proven themselves. They'd won battles over enemies.
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So no one could accuse Assyria of simply using words.
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Now let's look back at what's in the parentheses there.
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"Before I have counsel and strength for war, it said," Rab Sheikah said, "but they are but vain words."
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The words you use to describe your counsel and might for war are vain words.
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They're empty. They're not going to bring you victory in battle.
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They're useless. And in saying this, Rab Sheikah is actually correct.
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In the face of the enemy of death, if we say, "I have counsel and strength for war," then those are vain words too, aren't they?
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"It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment."
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You have, and I have, an appointment with death. Don't know when it is. Not in a hurry to get to it.
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But we'll have one, and God knows exactly when it is.
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And all of the things I can do to my body to try to keep it in shape and to eat well and to do this and avoid that,
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to lengthen my life or at least improve the quality, cannot cause me to miss that appointment that I have with death.
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I can't do it. That doesn't mean I'm going to give up trying to be as healthy as I can, but that appointment is there.
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And I don't know when it is. And all of the words that I speak, all of the might and the counsel that I have cannot put that date off.
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That day may be sooner. It may be later.
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But they're empty words.
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Now we have a worse enemy, don't we? It's not just the physical death. It's that spiritual death.
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That's really man's worst enemy. Everyone's going to die.
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So if you say, "Well, what about the rapture?" Well, we've talked about that before.
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The body itself, the one you're living in now, that is a type of death. It's not going to go to be with the Lord.
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It's corrupt. It's rotten. It's aging, and it hurts. And we're not taking that one with us. Thank God for that.
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But in either case, this old body is done for on that day.
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So are you counting on your own strength and counsel, you who are here, or you who are listening, or will listen later?
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Are you counting on your own strength, your own counsel, your own words to make yourself acceptable to God,
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to overcome this enemy of death, the second death?
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Do you add to the gospel? If you do, you make the cross vain to you. You make it useless.
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Do you subtract from the gospel, from the merits of Christ? Then your words are vain. They're useless.
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There's only one confidence on which we may rely in the face of earthly enemies and in the face of spiritual enemies.
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And that confidence is that Jesus died for me. And He rose again on the third day, as He said.
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And He's coming back to gather His people unto Himself. He's going to pour out His wrath upon the earth.
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And then we are going to reign with Him forever and ever because He shall reign forever and ever.
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And if your confidence is in anything less than the gospel, or anything more than the gospel, then you're leaning on a false hope.
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You're leaning on something that's vain.
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You know, people may, Christians, may try to figure out, well, what do I do about all these holidays?
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How do I explain this thing about Christmas? I don't see that word in the Bible.
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And how do I explain Easter? Because what I see in the Bible is not actually what we're doing today.
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And what about, you know, Thanksgiving and all these different holidays and traditions that people have?
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I'm going to give you a clue.
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What you need to know is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 4.
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It's everywhere. But there it is. How that Jesus died and was buried and rose again after the third day.
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That's what you need to know. That's how you need to explain anything spiritual to anyone.
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If they say, well, what does Christmas mean Jesus was born?
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And if you're celebrating that Jesus was born, you don't have to wait until the 25th of December to do it.
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I suggest you do it all the other 364 days a year and 365 on leap year.
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What about today? I mean, is it Easter? Is it the resurrection?
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Jesus died, was buried and he rose again.
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If you wait till today to celebrate that Jesus rose again, you have missed 364 365 on leap year days of joy.
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Jesus was born. He lived, he died and he rose again. That's what you need to know.
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And anything that doesn't fit into that is a vain tradition of man.
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Just push it to the side. Let people have their fun and dress up and do their this and their that and whatever they want to do.
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Do not confuse it with the gospel.
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When it gets confused with the gospel, that's where people go astray.
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That's where churches start doing silly stuff that doesn't edify.
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In fact, it harms people and they're doing it today.
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I can promise you they're doing it today in many places, but by God's grace, we're not going to do it.
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And we're going to have more fun than they are because we're talking about a truth that saves.
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We're talking about one that to the Christian is precious to us.
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And it's not over with after today.
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People will sell their Easter dresses or put them up or get a new one for next year.
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But the gospel is to be celebrated every day.
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It doesn't get old. It doesn't go out of style. Not for the Christian. It doesn't.
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It does for the world. Oh, you know what? It's fashionable today.
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The resurrection is fashionable today.
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But will it be next week?
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Will it be a week from now? Two weeks from now?
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Not to the world. It won't be.
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He said, on whom does thou trust that thou rebelest against me?
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Now, if you look back at verse seven in the same chapter,
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it says about Hezekiah that he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not.
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And so now, Rabshaykah, the military leader, is asking, well, who are you trusting in since you rebelled against me?
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In his first point, Rabshaykah has already told Judah that their words of counsel in might for war are vain.
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So all of that that you say is vain. That's not going to help you.
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Don't lean on that confidence against Assyria.
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And now he demands to know, in whom do you trust Judah that you would rebel against Assyria?
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It's apparent that Assyria's leaders see Judah as no stronger than Israel.
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They've already overtaken Israel during the reign of Hoshiah. We read that.
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And they did it easily.
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So in the eyes of Rabshaykah, Judah would surely look at her sister nation and not be foolish enough
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to rebel without having a big brother somewhere standing beside her.
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And that's why he said, who are you trusting in?
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Now, let's look at who those big brothers are in the eyes of Rabshaykah.
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Verse 21, "Now behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt,
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on which if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it.
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So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, unto all that trust on him."
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So the first confidence in which Judah may have trusted was their words of counsel in might.
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Now that's been pushed to the side.
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Their second confidence is Egypt.
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And Rabshaykah called Egypt a bruised reed.
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We call them a staff of a bruised reed and goes on to describe what it means for them to lean on such a staff.
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Now let's look at this metaphor because that's what the staff of the bruised reed is.
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It's a metaphor.
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First, Egypt and Judah have a long history, don't they?
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Because before Solomon, Judah and Israel were one.
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They were called the children of Israel or the Hebrew children before that.
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And going back to the days of Jacob, where did he send his sons to find food in the famine?
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To Egypt.
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That's right.
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And where was Jacob's favorite son Joseph sold as a servant?
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To Egypt, the Potiphar's house.
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And where was the nation of Israel, which included Judah, in bondage for over 400 years?
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In Egypt.
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And where did the murmuring people want to return after God delivered them from the bondage of Pharaoh?
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They wanted to go back to Egypt, didn't they?
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So Israel and Judah had a history of trusting in Egypt,
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both before the Exodus, during the bondage, and after the Exodus.
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Isn't that amazing?
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And this verse tells us Egypt is the staff of this bruised reed.
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Now a staff is a stick or a pole, and it's used to support someone.
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We've read about people in the Bible leaning on their staff, and the staff has a lot of applications.
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And the Hebrew word translated reed is also translated as the word branch or cane or even bone,
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and one time as the word spearmen.
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So the reed isn't always a thin leaf, although in some places in the Bible it is.
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Those reeds are the ones among which Moses was hidden as a baby in the ark, in the bulrushes.
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And so they can be found in the waters of a lake or river, but a reed can also be a sturdy branch.
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Like those that proceeded from each side of the golden candlestick in the tabernacle, it's the same Hebrew word.
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But the staff of this bruised reed is not one to be leaned upon, and in this Rabshekah was correct about Egypt.
00:23:53,000 --> 00:24:05,000
Now the word bruised also means oppressed.
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,000
It's translated as oppressed or crushed or broken.
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:14,000
Now would you ever lean on the healthy thin blade of a leaf that grows in the water?
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,000
No. But you would lean on a solid staff, a healthy branch.
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:29,000
Now imagine if I took that healthy staff and I beat it with a hammer so hard that it just crushed it and made splinters fall off of it.
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:43,000
And I handed it back to you. Would you lean on that? Of course not.
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:48,000
Why not? Well, two things would happen.
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:52,000
One, the staff would no longer support the weight of your burden like it did before.
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:59,000
And two, the splinters of that staff would go right through your hand.
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:05,000
The staff was formerly able to bear the burden of your weight, and its sturdy constitution protected it from splintering your hand, from being pierced.
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:21,000
And now it's weak. It's no longer sturdy. It's harmful. It's not helpful.
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:26,000
And I cannot put my confidence in it, nor can you.
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:30,000
Now this is the picture Rab Sheikah was painting with his description of Egypt.
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:36,000
He said, "That's what they are right now." It's a bruised reed.
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:41,000
Egypt was like any other mighty kingdom. They rose and they fell. Rose and they fell.
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:48,000
Just like ours is falling now. We're not rising. The United States is not rising if you're under the impression it is.
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:54,000
You probably need to go back and reevaluate. We're falling.
00:25:54,000 --> 00:26:00,000
You don't have to do anything but look at what the White House did today, calling this Transgender Visibility Day.
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:07,000
I'd just assume they left it alone.
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,000
God's looking at all that. And I promise you, He's not pleased because it flies in the face of His Word.
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:17,000
It's an abomination to Him and it ought to be to us too. It is to us who are His.
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:27,000
And although Pharaoh is likened to the staff of a bruised reed,
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,000
he's not harmful to the ones who don't put their trust in him. That's the key.
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:37,000
If I hammered that solid staff and handed it back to you and you just threw it to the side and said,
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:44,000
"I'm not going to lean on that. That won't support me. In fact, it's going to hurt my hand."
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:49,000
Then it can't hurt you, can it? Because you've not leaned on it.
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:54,000
If you don't lean on the crushed splintered staff, it won't pierce your hand.
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,000
In the Bible, Egypt represented the kingdom of darkness, as many nations did,
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:04,000
such as Assyria, such as Moab, and so forth.
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:09,000
And Pharaoh represented Satan. And both Egypt and Pharaoh were against God and His people.
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:17,000
And any time Israel leaned upon Egypt, you go back and study that.
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:21,000
If you're looking for something, a target to study in your Bible,
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,000
go back and look at all the times that Israel leaned upon Egypt.
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:30,000
And what you're going to see is that every time they suffered great loss,
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:34,000
because they didn't lean on God. Can you imagine what would have happened
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:39,000
if Jacob had told his sons, "Do not go to Egypt."
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:44,000
I know there's a famine. "Sanctify yourselves. Come not against your wives. Wash your clothes."
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:50,000
We're going to worship the Lord. We're going to make an offering to the Lord.
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:56,000
We're going to have Him. We're going to take our burden to Him and say,
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,000
"Lord, you know the food is running out and the earth is dry.
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:04,000
And whether we die or live is in your hand." He didn't do that.
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:08,000
He said, "Go to Egypt and get corn." He trusted in Egypt.
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,000
And what was the result of that? Oh, there were some good times, weren't they?
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,000
Why, Joseph was able to get all his brothers to come to Egypt,
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,000
and they raised their families in the plains of Goshen,
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,000
and they were prosperous until a Pharaoh came who knew not Joseph.
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:30,000
And he died, and his brothers died, and all who came after them served in rigor and bondage.
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:38,000
Initially leaning upon that staff of a bruised reed, they said, "Well, it's okay. It's okay."
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:47,000
And then the damage came, and it lasted for a long time.
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:52,000
And that's what happens when Israel leans on Egypt rather than leaning on God.
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:58,000
And that's what happens when we lean on Egypt rather than leaning on God.
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:03,000
Psalm 115, verse 11. Psalm 115, verse 11, write that down.
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:12,000
While you're doing that, as we go to verse 22,
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:17,000
Egypt was the first, or the second confidence in which Judah may put their trust.
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:23,000
Their words of might and counsel were first, then Egypt.
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,000
Rabbi Sheikah said, "Don't trust either one of them."
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,000
Now the third one is the Lord God.
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,000
Let's read verse 22.
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,000
"But if you say unto me, we trust in the Lord our God,
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,000
is not that he whose high place is in whose altars has a chai had taken away,
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:43,000
and has said to Judah in Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem.'"
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:48,000
Man, this verse is packed.
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,000
Write also down Proverbs 3.5. Proverbs 3, verse 5.
00:29:52,000 --> 00:30:03,000
All right.
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:04,000
And I'll read those two in just a moment because they go right along with this verse.
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,000
I want you to look in verse 22 at the phrase, "We trust in the Lord our God."
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:15,000
Rabbi Sheikah said, "If you say that to me, he's going to tell us later,
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:21,000
that's not going to do any good.
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,000
You can't lean on that confidence either, and in that he was wrong."
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:29,000
But that's what he said.
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:33,000
Those are powerful words.
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:34,000
They're mighty words. We trust in the Lord our God.
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:39,000
Psalm 115.11 said, "You that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord.
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:46,000
He is their help and their shield."
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,000
So the Word of God teaches us that it is good to trust in the Lord.
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:56,000
And the results of doing so are wonderful.
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:00,000
You don't need your own counsel and strength for war,
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,000
because the Lord is your help and your shield.
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:07,000
As wonderful as those words are, we trust in the Lord.
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:11,000
We're going to see that Rabbi Sheikah skillfully uses those words against Judah.
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:15,000
And in Proverbs 3.5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:19,000
and lean not unto thine own understanding."
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,000
What is your own understanding?
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,000
It is the staff of a bruised reed.
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,000
If you lean on it, it will not support you, and your hand will be pierced.
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:37,000
Now listen to how Rabbi Sheikah uses these words against Judah.
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:44,000
He says, look back in verse 22, "We trust in the Lord our God.
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:49,000
Is not that he..." and let's stop right there.
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:54,000
Based on those very words, "Is not that he..." or "Isn't that he..."
00:31:54,000 --> 00:32:01,000
Rabbi Sheikah knew very well who the Lord was.
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:06,000
And we'll also see that in verse 25 of this chapter,
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,000
where he says, "I didn't come up here on my own.
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,000
God sent me to destroy this country."
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,000
But let's look at this two-fold indictment Rabbi Sheikah makes against Hezekiah.
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:21,000
He is condemning Hezekiah for doing two things.
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,000
It's amazing to me, but then it's not.
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,000
First thing he said that described the religion of the Lord God,
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:33,000
he said, "Whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah had taken away."
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:39,000
Whose high places did Rabbi Sheikah call those high places?
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:43,000
That was God's.
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:44,000
He said, "Those are God's high places."
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Rabbi Sheikah also said, "Those are God's altars."
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:51,000
Since Solomon built high places,
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:55,000
no king had ever taken them down until Hezekiah finally did.
00:32:55,000 --> 00:33:01,000
Did you know that?
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:02,000
Now we've studied that.
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:03,000
That may not stick out in your memory.
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,000
But since Solomon there have been good kings, there have been bad kings.
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,000
Mostly bad, but there have been a few good ones.
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,000
But the testimony that the good ones all shared,
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,000
even though they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,000
it would say after that, "But the high places were not taken away."
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:19,000
But the high places were left standing.
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,000
The high places were not taken away over and over.
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:26,000
That means under good kings and bad kings,
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:30,000
Judah always had high places in the land.
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:35,000
And therefore, the religion of the Lord,
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,000
as expressed by the people of Judah,
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:41,000
was known by the world for its high places.
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:46,000
Isn't that pitiful?
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,000
Rather than being known as the house of truth,
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:53,000
the children of Israel and Judah were known for worshipping the Lord God
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:59,000
in the high places, which was a practice God never commanded.
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:04,000
In fact, He was against it.
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,000
Israel and Judah should have been as the church is supposed to be right now.
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:11,000
Paul puts this very well.
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,000
You want to know what the church is supposed to be?
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,000
Write this down.
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,000
Rather than being filled with the traditions of men,
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,000
this is what the church is supposed to be.
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,000
1 Timothy 3, verse 15.
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,000
1 Timothy 3, verse 15.
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:30,000
The Apostle Paul wrote,
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,000
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:38,000
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,000
the pillar and ground of truth."
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,000
Did you hear that?
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:46,000
That's what the Apostle Paul, under God's inspiration, called the church.
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:52,000
It's the church of the living God,
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,000
not the church of all these images in high places and altars
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:58,000
that Judah had made and that Israel made,
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,000
but the church of the living God.
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:04,000
And that church of the living God is the pillar and ground of truth.
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:12,000
Israel, Judah, and we should be pillars and ground of truth.
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:20,000
We ought to be the pillar and the ground of truth at Central Baptist Church.
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:26,000
That is, we are founded on the truth.
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,000
That's the ground.
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,000
And we're supported by the truth. That's the pillar.
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:35,000
Now, Judah had lots of ground,
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,000
lots of ground on which these high places were built,
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,000
but they weren't founded on truth, but tradition.
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:46,000
And Judah had lots of pillars.
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,000
They had pillars that were used to build the high places of worship,
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:55,000
but those pillars were not pillars of truth.
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,000
They're not supported by the truth.
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,000
So you have a bad foundation and a bad pillar in a place like that.
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:07,000
And God's truth had declared to the children of Israel
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:11,000
that there was one tabernacle.
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:15,000
In Hezekiah's time, there was a temple,
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,000
the temple that Solomon built there in Jerusalem.
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,000
And that tabernacle, or that temple, was the house of the Lord,
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,000
and there was no other.
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,000
And in his accusation against Judah and King Hezekiah,
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:32,000
Rabbi Shackels wondered how Judah could trust in the Lord God
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000
when Hezekiah had taken away God's high places.
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,000
Well, how confounding is that?
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,000
The truth was that God never had any high places to begin with.
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:51,000
These high places were inventions of men
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:55,000
claiming they were still worshiping God,
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,000
but they were just trying to do it like these other religions,
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,000
the pagan religions of the world did.
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:06,000
If you ever wonder, and some of you have been around a few seasons,
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:12,000
like me and more,
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:15,000
whatever church you went to as a little child,
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:20,000
you remember how things were.
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,000
Things were very conservative,
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,000
and not saying everything was always done right.
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:28,000
Error has been preached through the centuries.
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,000
Things have been done wrong in the church through the centuries.
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,000
But you compare the way the average church was
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:38,000
when you were a child,
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,000
and the way the average so-called church is now,
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:45,000
you wonder how did it get there?
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,000
People say, well, the world has moved into the church.
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:54,000
Actually, the world never has moved.
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,000
The church has invited the world,
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:58,000
and the church has moved closer to the world.
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,000
You ought to have the church here and the world here,
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,000
and there ought to be a world of difference between the two.
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:05,000
So what happened over time?
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,000
The world, in fact, kept going this way,
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,000
and the church, in a gut sprint after it,
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:13,000
was trying to catch up.
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,000
Now, the Lord's church ought not do that
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,000
and won't want to do that.
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,000
Now, if 70 years ago you didn't have the most comfortable pews
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,000
and you say, well, is it worldly to have comfortable pews?
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,000
No, it's not.
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:28,000
We'd like to have your full attention
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,000
for the time that we're in here,
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:31,000
and we'd like you to be in a comfortable pew
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,000
instead of squirming around on some hard bench.
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,000
But that's how our forefathers sat in church,
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:40,000
for the most part.
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:43,000
But what happened in Judah is the same thing
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,000
that happens in the United States
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:47,000
and across the world,
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,000
and that is people are trying to worship God
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:55,000
like other religions do, like other churches do.
00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:01,000
Well, you know, Brother Andy, that church down the road,
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,000
man, they've got this and that and all this entertainment,
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,000
and they have so-and-so clubs and teams and so forth,
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,000
not interested in that.
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,000
I'm interested in the same thing Hezekiah was interested in.
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,000
He said, if you read those four chapters in 2 Chronicles,
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:20,000
He said, "You preach, you go sanctify yourselves.
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:23,000
Get in there and clean out the house of the Lord.
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:25,000
Bring back the things that are supposed to be in there,
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,000
and we're going to start keeping the Passover.
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,000
We're going to start doing it the way God originally told us to do it."
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:36,000
Let's say a secular person, an unsaved person,
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:40,000
read the Bible,
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,000
particularly the parts that dealt specifically with
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000
what the church is supposed to teach and do.
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:50,000
And let's say we let that person come into this church
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000
for about a year just to observe what we teach,
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:57,000
what we do, how we do it.
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:00,000
What would that person's accusation against us be?
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,000
Would that person see the people who are called Christians
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:09,000
doing the things the Bible condemns?
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,000
Would that person say that we preach some truth and some error?
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:18,000
Would he think that what we do aligns with what the Bible says we ought to do,
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:23,000
or would he say that we've departed from it?
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:26,000
Our prayer ought to be, as church,
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:29,000
that we would be found carrying out our worship and service
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:34,000
just like the apostles did in the book of Acts.
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:38,000
Those apostles knew nothing of the extracurricular activities
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,000
in which most churches have occupied themselves.
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:46,000
Those apostles would think that it was a strange thing
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:50,000
for a churchgoer to miss Bible study
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:54,000
but not miss a soccer game or a piano recital.
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:59,000
Those apostles would strongly condemn what modern churches practice for the most part,
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:06,000
not because the apostles were snobby or self-righteous,
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:11,000
but because what most churches pass off as worship today
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,000
doesn't look anything like what the Lord Jesus Christ commanded in His Word.
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:21,000
One of the reasons it's so unpopular for a preacher to bear witness to the truth
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:26,000
like Hezekiah did in his day,
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:29,000
and to reject men's traditions is that those traditions
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:33,000
have long been seen by people like Rabshikah
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:36,000
as the way things are supposed to be done in the church.
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:41,000
And when a king like Hezekiah, or a preacher of the truth today,
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,000
tears down high places, sanctifies the temple,
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000
gets rid of all the worldly practices in the church,
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,000
then people like Rabshikah in this world mock.
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:57,000
They say, "Oh, look at him.
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,000
He's tearing down all the Christian institutions."
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,000
No, he's not.
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:04,000
You know when somebody attacks a Catholic church
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:07,000
and somebody else says, "Well, they're tearing down the institutions of Christianity."
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:12,000
Most of those in there are not institutions of Christianity.
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:15,000
About the only thing they have in there, this Christian,
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,000
is that they do have a Bible somewhere in there in the building.
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:22,000
That's the only Christian thing about most churches,
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,000
is that they have a Bible, but they don't teach it.
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:29,000
Don't explain it to people.
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:35,000
And the way churches and their members, their teachers,
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,000
their pastors conduct themselves,
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,000
shape the world's view of the church.
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:46,000
And while we don't style our worship and Christian conduct
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:50,000
to please the world,
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:52,000
we should always be careful not to fall into reproach.
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:56,000
The Apostle Paul described that to Timothy,
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:00,000
and we're going to describe it next week because we're out of time.
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:04,000
Sorry, Brother Doug. He was ready to take some notes. I love it.
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,000
That's great.
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,000
All right, well, let's pray.
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,000
Father, thank you for the time that you give us to meet here
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:14,000
and for the good attention of the people,
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,000
for the dedication of those who tune in online
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:19,000
when they could probably be doing other things.
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,000
But, Father, you've commanded us to study,
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,000
to show ourselves approved unto you,
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,000
workmen that need not to be ashamed,
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:29,000
rightly dividing the word of truth.
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,000
And Lord, I pray we've done that today.
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:33,000
And help us throughout the remainder of the morning
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:36,000
to glorify your name, to lift up praises to your Son, Jesus Christ,
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:42,000
and to hold your word high and lifted up in our lives.
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:47,000
Let us learn from it, apply it, believe it,
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:50,000
and be built up in the holy faith.
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:52,000
In Jesus' name, amen.
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:54,000
Amen.
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:55,000
