Episode Transcript
Good morning. It's 10 o'clock and not a minute later. So let's turn to 2 Kings chapter 18.
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2 Kings chapter 18 where we made it last week to verse 4 and had to leave off because of time.
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2 Kings 18.4. Before we landed in chapter 18, we spent many Sundays together in chapter 17.
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You probably thought we'd never get out of there.
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And
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in chapter 17, the greater part of it was devoted to
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the inspired rider
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stepping back and showing us the overall poor spiritual health of
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Israel and Judah, but mostly Israel there.
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And if you stopped reading at the end of that chapter,
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you might have thought Israel and Judah were without hope.
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Israel's king was in prison.
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But when we met Hezekiah in chapter 18,
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you can't argue against the truth that he was a product of God's grace.
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He wasn't brought up in a wonderful home. His dad did evil in the sight of the Lord.
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And
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we made it to verse 4
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where we read that Hezekiah
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removed the high places and he broke down the images and
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he broke in pieces the serpent that Moses had made
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because unto those days the children of Israel had burnt incense to that serpent, that brazen serpent.
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And the last part of our lesson took us back to Exodus chapter 20
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where we were reminded of God's
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prohibition
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against the making of a graven image unto themselves.
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That brazen serpent on the pole
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had gone from being an object lesson and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ
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being lifted up
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to now being an image
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to which the children of Israel
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burned incense.
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God never told them to burn incense in Moses' day
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when that pole was lifted up with the serpent on it.
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But they were to look upon it
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to be saved from those fiery serpents.
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And we finally noted last week that in John chapter 3 verses 14 through 15
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Jesus clearly taught that the purpose of that serpent being lifted up in Moses' day
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was
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that he would be lifted up.
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So let's make a few more
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observations about this brazen serpent on the pole.
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So we will be able to understand the
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significance of what Hezekiah did when he broke it into pieces.
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And remembering what we learned last week,
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we know that the people of Judah who had burned incense to the serpent
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sinned
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by serving a graven image.
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They were told not to make unto themselves any graven image nor to bow down to them or serve them.
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And that's what they were doing with this graven image.
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And in doing so, in burning incense to the graven image,
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they were tossing aside the lesson
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about the lifted up serpent.
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And also they were burning incense in a way God had not commanded them to do.
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Incense was to be burned on the altar of incense in the tabernacle.
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So if you don't remember that, we'll refresh your memory just a little.
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And when you approach the tabernacle from the eastern side,
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you first encountered
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the brazen altar and then the laver or labor of brass where there was water.
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And then you entered into the holy place and as you look straight ahead
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to your left, there was a golden candlestick and to the right a table of showbread.
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And straight ahead
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was the altar of incense.
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And then after that was the veil that was over the Holy of Holies.
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And behind that was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat.
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And so the altar of incense and the brazen altar had different purposes.
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And incense was to be burned on the altar of incense in the tabernacle.
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You wouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out, would you?
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If it's called the altar of incense, then you burn incense there.
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And incense represented the prayers of the saints.
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We'll look at a couple of passages that teach us that.
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Revelation, chapter eight, verses three through four.
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Revelation eight verses three through four.
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And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer.
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And there was given unto him much incense
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that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints
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upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.
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And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints,
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ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
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We also see the association between incense and prayer
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in Luke, chapter one, verses nine through 13.
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Luke, chapter one, verses nine through 13.
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And speaking of Zacharias, the priest, not the high priest, he was a Levite.
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He was a priest.
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That passage says, according to the custom of the priest's office,
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his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
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And the whole multitude of the people were praying without
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at the time of incense.
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And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side
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of the altar of incense.
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And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.
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But the angel said unto him, fear not Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard
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and thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear the son and thou shalt call his name John.
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That would be John the Baptist, not the apostle John.
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So again, in that passage, just like the one in revelation,
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you see that incense represents the prayers of the saints.
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That's what it's for.
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When you hear when you think of incense, think of prayer,
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think of a sweet smelling savor to the Lord, which the prayer of his saints is, by the way.
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Now, while the use of incense in the Old Testament priesthood was commanded,
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it was very specific.
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And in fact, the brazen serpent was never found in the tabernacle anywhere.
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It wasn't to be constructed as a part of the tabernacle, as an instrument or as anything else.
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And the place for it was the place where God put it and not somewhere else.
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The use of that brazen serpent was the use God ordained and not something else.
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And the mixture of these religious practices using images,
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misusing incense is just what people do today in some religious assemblies.
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In fact, it's similar to what we observed when we were in Chapter 16 of 2 Kings
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a few months ago, when King Ahaz had gone to Damascus and he beheld a great altar there.
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He thought, man, that's what we need right there.
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That's what will liven up the worshiper.
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That's what will get people's attention.
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And so he had Urijah the priest, who was a milk toast priest, by the way,
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or he would have said, no way, King, don't you dare bring that.
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We'll all die.
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But he built a great altar, so-called great altar, and put it next to the brazen altar, put it near it.
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And in doing that, he was trying to both satisfy a holy God and a sinful king, and you can't do both.
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You can't do both with two altars,
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and you can't do both by burning incense to a brazen serpent,
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because in both of those, God is displeased.
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Now, let's look back in verse 4 again.
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At the very end of the verse,
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and he called it Nehushtan, that is,
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Hezekiah called this brazen serpent.
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"Braisin" just means it's made out of brass.
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Called this brazen serpent on a pole, Nehushtan.
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And Nehushtan means a thing of brass.
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What was something made of brass in the tabernacle?
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Well, one thing was the altar that stood to the east of the laver that we call the brazen altar,
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that the Bible calls the brazen altar, before you entered into the holy place.
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And upon that altar, the brazen altar, upon that altar, burnt offerings were made.
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The sin offering, the burn offering, the whole burn offering, and so forth.
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I could not find a place in the Old Testament,
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nor the New Testament either,
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where incense was burned on the brazen altar.
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Now, the altar of incense, which was in the holy place,
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just before the veil to the most holy place, was not made of brass.
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It was made of shetimwood, and it was overlaid with gold.
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If you remember the verse I read you out of Revelation 8,
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it said that that was a golden altar that was in view when the incense was lifted up there,
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the prayers of the saints.
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So this incense altar was shetimwood overlaid with gold.
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And God specifically told the children of Israel that you will make no burnt offering
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or sacrifice on that incense altar.
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It was for one thing to burn incense on.
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And knowing these things about the two altars in the tabernacle,
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the brazen altar and the altar of incense,
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and knowing that brass represents judgment and gold represents deity,
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that is the attributes and character of God.
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And that each of these altars is made with something different,
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one of gold and one of brass, which is an alloy.
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They had their own purposes, and their purposes were not to be confused.
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If God had wanted the children of Israel, particularly the priests,
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to just do everything on one altar, He wouldn't have given them all these different furnishings
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in the tabernacle.
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He would have said, "Well, we'll just put the brazen altar out there, and that'll be good enough.
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You all can do sacrifices on it, burn incense on it, and you store showbread on it.
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You can keep a candle burning on one side of it there if you want.
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And in fact, you can just put a mercy seat over it.
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It wouldn't work out too well, would it?
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Because that thing was used to burn, to receive that blood.
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It was a... if you look at it visually, it was a messy place.
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It was a bloody altar.
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That's what it needed to be, because it represented a bloody altar on which Jesus would die.
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And because of the differences in those two altars, then we learn further,
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prayer did not replace sacrifice.
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And sacrifice did not replace prayer.
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Burning incense to a brass serpent would be like offering a burnt offering upon the gold-covered
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incense altar.
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Neither was incense to be offered on the brazen altar, because it was a place of sacrifice.
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And that teaches us that a prayer cannot save you.
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Imagine if, rather than bringing a sin offering, an Israelite would have brought his prayer
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to be offered on that brazen altar.
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Well, a prayer would not have been accepted where a sacrifice was demanded.
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I'll say that again.
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A prayer is not accepted where a sacrifice is demanded.
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And the sin offering on that altar represented the sin offering Jesus made by his own death
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on the cross.
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And to bring a prayer, rather than a live, clean animal to that altar, that brazen altar,
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was to deny the requirement of blood to atone for sins.
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If the sinners' prayer crowd understood this, they'd never tell a lost person to bring his
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prayer to the cross to be saved.
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They'd say, "You better believe in the sacrifice that was made on that cross, that that was for
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you."
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Where Jesus made himself the only acceptable offering for sin.
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And that's an offering that has to be accepted by the one who wants to be saved.
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So we might sum up Judah's and Israel's folly with this simple observation.
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Man's flesh just refuses to obey God and do things his way.
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When left to his own devices, man wants to do things his way.
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So Hezekiah put an end to the worship of the serpent on the pole when he broke it into pieces.
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But he did so much more than just break an object into pieces.
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And after all, as the translation of the word Nahushtan tells us, it was just a thing of brass.
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Let's look back in our text now in verse 5, 2 Kings 18 and verse 5.
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Speaking of Hezekiah, he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like
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him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.
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He trusted in the Lord God of Israel.
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After all, that's what the Christian life is all about.
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Trusting the Lord for salvation, for sanctification, for all of our daily needs, for everything.
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And we have confidence that we may trust him and we don't have to trust in any other.
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I want you to listen to some of the benefits of trusting the Lord.
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Now, if you want to write these Psalms down, you can. I took these phrases from several different Psalms.
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Benefits of trusting the Lord.
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One, we will not be forsaken. That's in Psalm 910. Psalm 910.
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We are redeemed and shall never be left desolate.
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Psalm 3422. Psalm 3422.
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We shall dwell in the land and be fed. Psalm 37.3.
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God will be our help and our shield. Psalm 115.10.
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We shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but shall abide forever.
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Psalm 125 verse 1. 125 verse 1.
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And the benefits and promises for those who trust in the Lord go on and on,
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but those are some of them. That's enough to get you excited, isn't it?
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And Hezekiah, by trusting in the Lord, enjoyed those benefits.
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And he's still enjoying them today. Did you know that?
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And back in the text, it says, "So that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah,
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nor any that were before him." This is amazing. In fact, it is astounding.
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Even David, his father, his forefather, was not like Hezekiah.
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It was already said in verse three that Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,
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according to all that his father David did. But you read it yourself. No king before or after Hezekiah
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was like Hezekiah. It's what God's word says, so it's true. If you ask somebody who was the
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greatest king in the Bible, in the Old Testament, why they might say David, they might say Solomon,
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they might say Aysa or Josiah, and certainly those were great kings. But God Himself said here,
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through this inspired writer, that there was nobody like Hezekiah before or after him.
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So we want to pay attention. Now in what way was that true? Well, let's look at verse six.
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"For he claved to the Lord and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which
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the Lord commanded Moses. For he claved to the Lord," the word "clave" we don't use now,
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but it means to follow hard, to stick together, to be joined. And in fact, we first see that Hebrew
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word used in Genesis chapter two and verse 24. Genesis two verse 24, where it says, "Therefore
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shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be
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one flesh." Now that gives you a really good picture of Hezekiah cleaving to the Lord.
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He was one with the Lord. And as we read in the Genesis text, this is the truth about marriage,
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that one husband and one wife marry and they become one flesh. Now that's not literal. There
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are still two people there, but they're one flesh spiritually in every way. They're one flesh.
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"A man who cleaves to his wife is one flesh with her. A man who trusts in the Lord is one spirit
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with him." 1 Corinthians 6 verse 17 says, "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit."
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So that's someone who cleaves unto the Lord. He's one spirit. So by the way, cleaving unto the Lord
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doesn't mean trying to do some things that Jesus did, trying to emulate Him, be kind of like Him.
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It means being joined to Him in one spirit. So this description of someone who cleaves to the Lord,
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it's not just a nice thing to say about someone who seems to be spiritually minded.
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It was the basis on which Hezekiah reigned over Judah. Who he was in his inner man
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dictated how he reigned by his outer man. That's all we get to see is the outer man
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and the influence that the inner man has on the outer man.
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Now this does not mean Hezekiah was flawless. We know that. Clearly nobody is flawless. He was a
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sinner who needed to be saved by the grace of God, by believing in the Savior who would come,
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the one about whom the law and the prophets and the ordinances taught him. And he believed that
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because he cleave unto the Lord. He was one spirit with him.
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Now it says that Hezekiah departed not from following him, that is from following the Lord.
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You follow the one to whom you cleave and you don't turn aside.
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:25,720
Now the image this phrase gives us or one that came to mind for me was of a soldier
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:35,240
who is not only loyal to his leader but also who knows his place in that relationship.
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:42,200
Let's pay a little closer attention to the word "following" here.
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:47,080
It is normally translated as the word "after."
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:51,080
You could follow someone in two ways. Perhaps there are others but two that came to mind.
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:58,760
One is by simply following them wherever they go as long as you like the direction they're going.
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:06,840
If you're following someone this way and then you will stop following them if the path they
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:15,720
take you down is not to your liking. You really haven't given that leader any authority over you.
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:24,920
You're not loyal so you can stop following anytime.
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:30,120
Perhaps you've heard people describe themselves as Christ followers.
00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:36,520
Now that can be misleading sometimes. That can mean more than one thing.
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:43,560
As a Christian, as one who is joined to Jesus by his Spirit,
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:52,120
my spiritual nature, that is my inner man, my spiritual nature is to follow Christ,
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:58,520
to follow hard after him.
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:01,800
However, that term Christ follower can also mean a person who has decided to try to conform their
00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:13,400
actions to those of Jesus Christ. The unbeliever who examines the works of Jesus and the great
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:20,520
mercy he had and the love he had toward his fellow man, admire him.
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:25,320
Many religions admire Jesus. They do. They have nothing bad to say about him
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:32,280
until it comes time for the talk about salvation.
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:37,960
They'll say, "Well, no, he's not the only way. There are many ways." But in general,
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:43,720
if somebody told you, "Well, I would like for my actions to reflect the actions of this man,
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:49,880
Jesus, about whom history says was a wonderful person," then they may be a Christ follower,
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:58,840
at least by their own definition. But such a group of Christ followers have not accepted the
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:06,280
substitutionary atonement Jesus made for them on the cross. They have not been joined to him in
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:12,520
one Spirit. They've simply decided to try Jesus. You've heard that phrase, "Try Jesus." I think that
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:21,080
is an insult to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I certainly don't think everybody who says,
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:29,160
"Try Jesus" means it that way, but when you examine it, it's not trying Jesus, it's trusting Jesus.
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:36,200
That's what we need to tell people. But when they try Jesus, they become self-described Christ
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:44,360
followers, it makes them feel better. It makes them feel religious and so on. But those Christ
00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:54,200
followers will fall away because they're not following Jesus as their Savior, but more so as
00:26:54,200 --> 00:27:02,440
their mentor. You can change mentors, but you can't change Saviors and you wouldn't want to.
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:10,040
A second way you can follow someone is to accept that person as your head. Now, this happens when
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:20,760
you are joined with Christ by his Spirit, when you've put your faith in his finished work.
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:28,440
And so you accept that person as your head so that no matter where that person leads you,
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:35,480
you follow. You're not just behind that person in order like the line leader and then this guy is
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:44,440
behind him and this person is back here. You're not just following in that way.
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:49,000
Like children are in a lunch line, that term "line leader" came to mind. But instead,
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:57,400
you have recognized that leader as your head. That he's not just in front of you, but he ranks
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:07,800
above you in such a way that you belong to him. Your life belongs to him. And if your leader
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:18,360
takes you down an uncomfortable path, maybe even a dangerous path, you follow him not because the
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:28,760
path is to your liking or not, but because your life belongs to that leader. He is your head.
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:36,760
You don't run ahead of him because that's not your position in this relationship.
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:44,280
I want to show you a passage where Jesus teaches a lesson about following.
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:51,000
It's found in Matthew chapter 16 verses 21 through 24. Matthew 16 verses 21 through 24,
00:28:51,000 --> 00:29:00,840
where it says, "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:09,880
unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:16,680
and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, 'Be it far
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:25,400
from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee.'" Now, I'll stop right there. Jesus had just shown
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:33,320
them the gospel. He had just explained to them how when he would suffer and die and be raised up to
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:39,640
the third day. That's the gospel. That's exactly the gospel. It says this about Peter after he
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:47,080
rebuked him, "Jesus, but he turned and said unto Peter, 'Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:57,960
offense to me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.' Then
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:04,440
said Jesus unto his disciples, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:10,200
his cross and follow me.'" Now, there's no doubt that Peter was a Christian at this time.
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:19,640
So he was joined to the Lord by that one spirit. And when he rebuked the Lord, he did it in the
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:29,640
flesh, didn't he? And that's a work of Satan. Peter's inner man, the one that is joined to Jesus by his
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:38,760
spirit, was following Christ, but his flesh was not at that time. Peter yielded his flesh to Satan
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:47,640
in that moment. And notice Jesus did not say, "Get thee behind me, Peter," because he knew that
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:55,640
wasn't the born again Peter who was rebuking his own Lord. He knew that was Satan working through
00:30:55,640 --> 00:31:01,960
Peter's flesh. And Jesus put Satan in his place. And where did he tell him to get him? He said,
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:11,480
"Get behind me." Jesus outranked Satan. Satan was not the lion leader when Jesus was around,
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:22,360
and he certainly was not the head over Jesus. You might say Satan followed Jesus around,
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:32,840
in a sense, as he tried to tempt him in the wilderness, as he tried to get his disciples
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:40,600
to deny him and all of that. But he didn't follow Jesus around because Jesus was his
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:47,800
Savior. He wasn't joined to him in one spirit. Peter's inner man at that time was in its proper
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:56,520
place following Jesus, but his flesh was not. There's no hope for our flesh. We cannot pretend
00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:05,560
to make it holy. We can't make it follow Jesus all the time. We've got that sin nature.
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:12,280
That flesh is rotting, it's corrupting, it's destined for the grave, and therefore we have
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:20,520
no confidence in it. And though we are commanded to yield our members, hands, feet, so forth,
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:28,040
as instruments of righteousness unto God, Satan will fight to steer our flesh away from following
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:35,400
God. But nevertheless, at the end of the passage we just read, Jesus said, "If any man will come
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:42,600
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Notice these were Jesus'
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:50,520
disciples, so they were already following him, at least outwardly. But inwardly they followed him
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:57,960
as their head. And in the end, many lost their lives for doing that. Now hopefully these
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:05,320
words, these observations will give us a better understanding of what it means to say, "Hezekiah
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:13,400
departed not from following the Lord." Look back in the text there in 2 Kings 18.5, and it says,
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:22,040
"but kept his commandments," I'm sorry, verse 6, "but kept his commandments. He departed not from
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:31,320
following the Lord, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses." Now we've studied
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:38,120
the word "kept" many times, and we understand now that it means to guard as a watchman would guard
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:47,400
a city. In fact, the Hebrew word was first used in Genesis 2, verse 15, where it says, "and the
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:56,840
Lord took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." So he guarded it.
00:33:56,840 --> 00:34:03,480
I want to instead focus on a wonderful truth found in the words which the Lord commanded Moses,
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:12,120
since we've studied the word "kept" or "keep" at length before. There were roughly 750 years between
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:21,800
Israel's exodus from Egypt and Hezekiah's reign. In other words, Hezekiah lived about 750 years after
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:31,720
Moses. And since the time Moses presented the law to the children of Israel, there had been prophets,
00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:41,080
some good, some bad. There had been kings, some good, and some bad, and many man-made religions,
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:51,000
which we've looked at on our way to this chapter. There had been new altars built,
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:57,080
as well as images and groves and high places and so on. And what is very instructive to me here is
00:34:57,080 --> 00:35:06,040
that Hezekiah kept the commandments the Lord commanded Moses. He didn't do after the manner
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:13,000
of his fathers. He didn't adopt the new modernized religion of the Assyrians. And what we may learn
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:23,160
from this is crucial. Since the last inspired writer put down the last of God's words given to us,
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:31,640
which was likely around 96 AD, there have been many priests, false prophets, preachers, teachers,
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:43,880
religious writings, and books. In fact, more religions than we could hope to count in one day.
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:49,640
And religious leaders have during that time characterized the Bible as
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:55,960
outdated, irrelevant, cruel, racist, narrow, and many other negative descriptions to minimize it.
00:35:55,960 --> 00:36:06,040
Mark chapter 8 verses 36 through 38.
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:11,400
Mark 36 through 38, where Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:19,960
world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever,
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:27,000
therefore, shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation.
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:35,080
Of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:40,600
with his holy angels." I underscored my words in that passage. And regardless of the age in which
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:50,760
man hears God's words, it's that word, those words, which he must believe. Because it is in that word
00:36:50,760 --> 00:37:01,000
that he gave the record of his Son. And to be ashamed of that word is to believe some other word,
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:11,240
another gospel, which means you who do so are an adulterous generation.
00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:20,600
You've been unfaithful to God's word by believing there is some other word that will save you.
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:27,400
God didn't point us to commentaries written by man, although some of them are sometimes helpful.
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:35,480
But you know there are preachers who are too lazy to study the Bible. And I'm telling you,
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:43,320
Brother Doug, you know it. It's not something you just do in 20 minutes and say, "All right,
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:48,200
well, I'm ready to preach." You don't study it for 30 minutes saying, "Well, my lesson will be about
00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:55,000
30 minutes long, so I'm going to study the Bible 30 minutes." It's a long process if you do it right.
00:37:55,000 --> 00:38:00,840
And you pray, God, to guide you to all truth and to help you understand those difficult passages,
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:07,560
because here where we teach verse by verse, you can't skip around them or the people will know.
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:12,680
And you will be an unfaithful Bible teacher. And some of those lazy preachers will substitute,
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:19,400
they will use the commentaries written about passages in order to preach. And at the end of
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:25,720
the day, those commentaries may be wrong, rather than simply going to God's word. He did not point
00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:35,400
us to the commentaries of man. He did not tell us to just believe what this denomination over here
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:44,040
is teaching. After all, it's the largest denomination in the United States. It's the
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:48,520
largest Baptist convention in the United States, or maybe even in the world. It's his word. Yes,
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:56,680
that completed writing almost 2000 years ago when it was completed. From that time until now,
00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:05,480
it's always been back there that we have been pointed. So when the commandments Hezekiah kept
00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:12,280
were the ones the Lord commanded Moses around 750 years before, it taught us that the standard
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:20,600
never changes and it never moves. Now, if by keeping those commandments, the Lord commanded
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:27,800
Moses, Hezekiah also obeyed what Samuel taught the people and what Hoshiah taught the people, which
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:33,720
I believe Hoshiah was active in this day that we're reading about.
00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:38,200
If by obeying God's commandments to Moses, He also obeyed what Samuel and Hoshiah and the other
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:47,560
prophets taught, well then praise the Lord because that means Samuel and Hoshiah were teaching what
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:52,600
God commanded Moses. If you obey what Brother Fulton or I teach you from God's word, then praise
00:39:52,600 --> 00:40:02,120
God. But all you're doing is obeying the same thing that the Apostle John wrote, the same thing
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:08,840
that the writers of the Bible wrote because we've taught you to go back to God's words and believe
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:15,000
them yourself, to examine what is taught and preached in here, to take notes, mental or otherwise.
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:24,120
And I'll share with you an example of how Satan tries to keep this from happening.
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:29,480
When Brother Fulton, Pastor Willow Springs Baptist Church,
00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:34,840
it's a long time ago, my wife and I attended a missions conference there and one of the
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:41,720
prison missionaries spoke and he told about how he was raised in a Catholic church.
00:40:41,720 --> 00:40:47,400
And he said he began having some questions, so he asked his mother those questions and she said,
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:56,840
"Go to the priest." Well there's a problem, but that's what she told him. And at some point this
00:40:56,840 --> 00:41:03,800
missionary, when he was a child, asked the priest for a Bible. Now you know what he was,
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:12,280
the Spirit of God led him to ask for a Bible because that had the original word in it,
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:18,760
that had what he needed to know. And that priest told him, "You don't need a Bible,
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:25,560
we'll tell you what's in there." That's not what we need, that's not what Hezekiah did. Hezekiah
00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:32,040
didn't go to these weak-kneed priests in his day who were a great part of why Israel was in the
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:37,320
bad shape it was in. He kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. He went back 750 years,
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:45,880
just like we go back 2000, 3000, 4000 years almost to get truth. Hezekiah's day those priests were
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:56,760
apostate, they were teaching error, they were not being faithful to their office. And instead of
00:41:56,760 --> 00:42:02,360
keeping the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses, what if Hezekiah had said to the priest in
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:08,200
his day, "Hey just tell me what you think I need to know, I'm a busy king, I have a lot of king stuff
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:13,480
I have to do and I don't have time for all that. You just tell me what I need to know." That would
00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:18,520
have been a mess. Hezekiah went to the original source recognizing that the commandments that God
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:26,360
commanded Moses were the wellspring of all truth, not what some priests said about it. And this is
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:33,320
the very reason we ask you to bring your Bibles to church. We don't want you to trust us to tell you
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:39,880
what you need to know. We want to show you the original source, explain it to you so you'll know
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:46,840
what it means and then let you search the scriptures daily to see if the things we teach are so.
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:52,360
That's exactly what the Bereans did in Acts chapter 17 verses 10 through 12.
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:57,160
Acts 17 10 through 12 and I'll read this and we'll close here in a moment.
00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:02,280
"And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming there went
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:09,960
into the synagogues of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:17,000
received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:23,160
were so. Therefore many of them believed also of honorable women which were Greeks and of men not
00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:29,640
a few." So these Bereans did not just say amen to whatever Paul and Barnabas taught as highly
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:37,320
qualified as they were and rather than rebuking those Bereans, Luke who wrote the book of Acts
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:44,120
wrote that the Bereans were more noble. They received the word with readiness of mind,
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:51,400
they searched the scriptures, they wanted confirmation of what the apostles taught,
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:57,000
so they went to the original source and that's why it's important that Hezekiah kept the commandments
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:03,800
that the Lord commanded Moses 750 years before. And let's pray we are about to be dismissed. Lord
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:10,760
we're so thankful for those who have come, for those who have tuned in, for the people who may
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:15,480
watch later on. Thank you for your truth, thanking you for helping us to explain it and to understand
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:21,640
it and as we leave this place may we take it with us meditate upon it and may it make a difference
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:27,720
in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.
00:44:27,720 --> 00:44:30,440
