Did you enjoy reading that with
me? Some of you have read that many
times. My granddaughters still ask me
to read a story to them at night. And I never tire of doing that,
although I'm tired of reading some of those stories. But our
Lord said, except you receive the word Little children. God's little children, they never
tire of reading the same stuff. Because we hear so much we don't
know. So much we have not yet seen
and heard. It just gives us great joy. That's why it's called Good News.
If I had a text and a title, it would be verses 25 and 26.
Read it with me. He says, all the congregation of Judah with
the priests and Levites, all the congregation of Judah,
that's remnant in it, with the priests and Levites and all the
congregation that came out of Israel, the strangers that came out of
the land of Israel and that dwelt in Judah, rejoiced. So there was great joy in Jerusalem. That should be the title. So, there was great joy in Jerusalem. Why? Why so? Because of these
letters that were written. Because of these posts that went
out and they heard. My prayer, my hope, is that the
Lord will bless us this day as He did these people in that town. I hope my prayer is that we've
come here according to the Lord's command, as they did. Come to the house of the Lord
with hearts prepared, as they were told, to keep the Passover. To worship the Lord our God,
confess our sins unto Him, and to sing His praises for sins
forgiven. And that we'll find great joy
and gladness in Him in Christ, in here, this day. So much so,
that we'll want to stay here seven more days. Now Christ is all. Colossians
3.11 says Christ is all. And He's in all. That means so
much. He's all the fullness of God.
In Him dwelleth all the fullness. Please God, that in Him should
all fullness dwell. fullness of God, all that God
is, all the attributes, all the power of God He has. All the
counsel of God, all the promises of God are in Him. All the wisdom
of God, all the righteousness of God, all the sanctification,
all the redemption, all salvation. Christ is all. He's all and in
all. He's in all of this Word. You know, when the Lord, when
that sun arises, the day dawns in your heart. The light of the
knowledge of the glory of God, and the person, the work of Christ.
You know what you see? You see Christ everywhere. From
Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Don't you? You see Christ. Christ is all and in all His
Word. To Him give all the prophets
with Him. Christ said, they are they. which
testified man. Christ is all and in all His
Word. He's in all His people. He's
in all His people. He's all their salvation. He's all their wisdom, righteousness. All their hope. He's in all His
people. They all know Him. They know
the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. And they know that whatever story
in Scripture, whatever it is about, the hidden meaning is
all about Christ. Every single prominent person,
godly man, and even some women, from Adam to Zerubbabel, and
nobody's asked me to preach on that yet, it's been years, Zerubbabel. From Adam to Zerubbabel is a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hezekiah here is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God raised him up.
That's what this story is all about. Every prominent man of
God represents the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only man who
is all three of these things, prophet, priest, and king. To
him, give all the prophets witness. Moses said, the Lord God, your
God, is going to raise up a prophet like unto me. And he called him
That Prophet. Capital T. Capital P. That Prophet. The woman at the well says, when
Messiah has come, He'll tell us all things. He said, I am. I am That Prophet. He's a prophet
like unto Moses, Elijah. He's that priest, like Aaron.
One man was to go into the Holy of Holies with blood of a lamb,
offered up for God's people, like Melchizedek. Christ is that
priest. Christ is the King. He's prophet,
priest, and King. He's a King like David, only better forever. Like Solomon,
like Hezekiah. Alright, now the king, verse
1 in our story, Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote
letters to Ephraim and Manasseh. Who is he writing to? Who is he writing to? Egypt,
Moab, Syria, and Nasser. Israel. Word of God. Malachi says there was a book
written for them that feared God, and thought of Him, and
spoke of Him, a book of remembrance. You know, this book is a letter,
a whole book, a 66 book, right? 49, the old, 27, and 11. You
know, it all tells the same story. It's all written by God. God's
finger wrote this, and it's all, it's a love story is what it
is. It's about God's love for His people in Jesus Christ. He's
the husband, and they're the bride. He's the altogether lovely,
the beloved one, and they're the forlorn woman that He came
to save. This is a love story unlike any that is ever written.
They're all pale compared to this. He came for His own to
save them from their sin. I'm getting way ahead of myself
here. But these are letters, like you
write letters The people, the epistles are addressed to whom
you are writing them. And this was to Israel. And he
is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but inwardly. And Judah, the
remnant, he wrote letters. What was in the letters? One thing. That they should come,
verse 1, to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. It was in
one place. Are you with me? These letters
to a particular people chosen by God that they were to come
to one place to do one thing. What's that? Keep the Passover
unto the Lord God of Israel. You know what this whole book
says? Come to God's people. Come to the house of the Lord.
Come to do what? To hear the message of Christ
and Him crucified. And if you do, you'll end up
at the end of this message singing praise I hope we sing louder
than when we did before this message. It says they played
loudly. And they sang loudly. Why? Because
they heard the good news. The king had taken counsel, verse
2. He planned this. He purposed it. And a counsel
before this. Are you with me? No one under God at all. He's
worked from the beginning of the world in His eternal counsel.
Thus the eternal counsel ran. The counsel, the covenant of
God before the world began. He purposed this thing of salvation. It was all written down, all
recorded, all in exact detail of what was to happen, and who
it was to happen to, and who's going to come. And they're going
to come. To do what? Verse 2. The Passover. Do you see that? He keeps saying
that. To keep the Passover. Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory, that I should do anything but
preach Christ and Him crucified. God demands it. Sinners need
it. It's a letter from the king.
This is the decree. This is the proclamation of the
king. Come! And this was for the Levites
and the priests to do one thing. Kill the sacrifice. Shed the
blood. Passover. Passover. Passover. What's the
Passover? Well, the first Passover had
ordinances and ceremonies and symbols and things and the blood
of bulls and goats and lambs and brethren. It's not possible. that the blood of bulls and goats
and lambs should take away sin. But, in the volume of the book,
it's written of Him. Lo, I come to put away sin by
the sacrifice of myself. That's Christ. You see, all those
bullocks, all those lambs, all those turtledoves, all those
sheep that were killed are pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's what this
is all about. It's not possible for animals
to put away sin, but the Lamb of God did. They're all types
and symbols and shadows of Christ, our Passover, the Passover, the
Lamb of God, who by His own precious blood offered up Himself to God,
not man. Christ offered Himself once to
God, not man. No sacrifice was ever offered
to the people. Ever. That's blasphemy. His blood was shed and offered
to God. Do you know what God accepted? Look at verse 4. The thing pleased
the king. If anybody else is enjoying this,
I'm enjoying it immensely. It pleased the king. Paul one
time said to, was it Agrippa? Agrippa said, Paul, tell us again
your story. He said, I'd just be happy to.
This is my story. This is my salvation. It pleased
the king and all the congregation. You know what? It pleased God
to make some people His people. That's amazing. He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. It pleased God to make anybody
His people is amazing, but to make so many is just more amazing. Please God to make you His people.
And buddy, what pleases the King, pleases His people. All the congregation,
please. It's very pleasing. Yes, we'll
come. Yes, we'll come. What time? Early. We'll come. His voice, my voice, He'll hear
in the morning. I'll be there. So they established the decree
and the proclamation throughout the land. It went everywhere,
didn't it? Doesn't the scripture say, have they not heard? Barely,
the sound's gone throughout the world, even to the ends of the
world. It went everywhere. Verse 6, they went throughout
all Israel and Judah according to the command of the king. What
was it? What did the king say? You children of Israel, turn
again. unto the Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, he will return to the remnant of you that are
escaped." I emphasize turn again, because
if he doesn't turn, his will won't be turned. Only those that
turn to the Lord, the Lord turns them, right? Who turned the prodigal? Who brought him to himself? It
was the Lord that did that. Who turned that one out of the
ten blind men that was healed? He turned back to give glory
to God. The other nine went their way. Who turned them? The Lord
didn't. Well, we need to be turned again
and again and again. Turn away mine eyes from beholding
vanity. Turn us from the world. Turn
us from self. Turn us from sin. Oh, Lord God of hosts, turn us
again. Again and again and again. turn
and be brought back to the house. The remnant. He said, don't be
like your fathers. Many of our fathers and mothers
and grandparents and your brethren and brothers and sisters are
in false religion, aren't they? Why aren't you? Because God turned you from them.
Don't be stiff-necked. He went on to say, Verse 9, if
you turn again unto the Lord your brethren, turn again unto
the Lord. Isn't He merciful? Isn't He merciful? It's amazing mercy that He turned
me the first time. Amazing mercy. Like a wild ass's coat. Who needs
a wild ass's coat? Huh? Who needs a donkey that
nobody can ride? Who needs that? Nobody needs
it. It's not good for nothing. Except
that the Lord will show His power, and show His mercy, and show
His grace. Well, do those animals that you break, do they ever
kick up their heels again? Do they ever act up again? Do
they ever buck again? Do they ever need broken again,
and again, and again? Of course they do. How about
you? I'm so glad the Lord's merciful.
Aren't you? Look at it. Verse 9. That's what
he says. The Lord your God is gracious and merciful. He'll
not turn away His face from you. You turn away your face from
Him, and He in mercy and grace turns you back to Him. And what
does He do? Smiles at you. Like the prodigal
father. The prodigal son's father. Can
you imagine? He ran and fell on the neck of
that good-for-nothing son. And threw a party. John. Who would do such a thing? God. He says there is joy in heaven
over one sinner. He will not turn away His face
from you if you return unto Him. So the post-past went out from
city to city. Isn't this good news? It only said one thing. Did they
say one thing in that? If you keep the law, if you quit
this and quit that, and if you sell everything you've got, not
one thing. They said, just come, keep the
Passover. And what did they do? They went
everywhere. What did they do? Laugh. You know what people do that
won't come hear this message? They're laughing at God. They're
mocking mercy. You know that? I don't ever beg anybody to come
to church. And don't you do it either. It's
not a great privilege for people to come to church, for them to
come here. It's their privilege to come
worship God. It's a high honor and a great
privilege for anybody to come worship God. Everybody ought
to. It's a reasonable service of every single son of Adam. God is clothed, and God is fed,
and God has been his tender mercies over all his work. Everybody
ought to fill these buildings full and thank God. and call on Him for mercy and
forgiveness of sins. Everybody ought to. It's a high
honor and a glorious calling, a holy calling, a heavenly calling,
and a privilege, an undeserved privilege and a favor to be brought
into the house of God to hear about His great mercy and grace. I don't beg people to come worship
God. I beg God to bring them to come
and worship Him. Every day I do, I beg. Is people
in this room? Is people not in this room? I
call their name daily and beg God, Lord, bring them. And they laugh. They laugh. They mocked. They said, I don't
need that old bloody religion. I'm above that. I don't need that. We're just fine.
We're good people. We go to church. We don't need
all that. Nevertheless, verse 11, you know
that's like but God. Nevertheless, Anybody remember
the message from Tom 106? Nevertheless, sin abounded, but
grace is nevertheless. Nevertheless, divers, different
ones. humbled themselves. Why? God did. Verse 12, the hand
of God was to give them one heart. You see that? The hand of God
humbled them and broke them. The hand of God gave them a need,
gave them a thirst, gave them a hunger, made them willing in
the day of His power. The hand of God by the Word of
the Lord. See that? By the Word of the
Lord. It's the Word of the Lord, the commandment. You see, the
Word of God, it's not as though the Word of God has no effect.
Is it? But they're not all Israel. They're
not all Israel. Romans 9, aren't it? He has a remnant, buddy,
they're coming. Tell them I'm here. And I'm loving it. So I have to conclude, and I'm
not here by my will, I'm not here to talk about anything I've done,
I'm here to hear about what Jesus Christ has done for them. Helen,
is that you? Helen, you and me must be one
of His legs. Isn't that wonderful? Can you
believe that? Anybody else? The command went out and some
of them laughed, but some didn't. Some of them cried. Really? Is that true? We've forgotten
God all these years? Hadn't given it a thought, never
done it, never been to church. Would that place take a person
like me? Some of them said, would you
reckon God would receive me in that holy place? Oh yeah, the
king said it. He said, come, He'll receive
every one of you. Really? You driving? I'm riding with you. Huh? What do you reckon God's going
to do to those that laugh? I'll tell you what he's going
to do. Proverbs 1 says, because all the day long I stretched
out my hands to you and you refused. He said, I'm going to laugh when
your calamity comes. I'm going to mock when your fear
comes. And he said, and when you call,
I'm not going to answer you. Now's the time to call him. This
is not funny. This is serious. Come to Christ. We're not coming
to church, people. We're coming to Christ. Come
to hear about the Passover lamb. So, they're assembled, verse
13, at Jerusalem, much people to keep the feast. Who wants
to feast? Who would want to go to a feast?
Hungry! Well, who came? Poor, hungry,
needy, thirsty? You know, just a morsel would
be to a hungry person. Buddy, I remember when the Lord
first began to deal with me, this prodigal son. I was out
in the world, in the hog pen, feeding on husks. Just exactly,
exactly wasted my substance. Joined myself to the people of
this world. Joined to them but God. Brought me to myself. Brought me back to hear the gospel. Literally brought me back. to
my father to hear the gospel. And I heard his gospel of mercy.
You know what? I couldn't get enough of it.
I read voraciously. I listened voraciously to the
message. If I would just hear, tell me
if I just hear somebody say mercy. Not the greatest message. You
got to hear this. He said, mercy! A morsel to a hungry person.
Isn't that wonderful? That you become rich and increase
in ability. Fooled me. Heard that before. God said, spill you out of my mouth. That'll help him. We're talking about Christ's
body that he shed, that he broke. was broken for the remissions
of his blood. We're talking about the Son of
God, the unspeakable gift. He said, my body is bread indeed,
my blood is drink indeed. He that hungers and thirsts after
Christ. religion, not to make a show
of the flesh, not to appear to be righteous, not all that thing,
but hungry and thirsty, poor and contrite, needy sinners who
need mercy at the hands of a holy God to come to hear this message
of Christ and Him crucified. And, buddy, they're so happy.
They're so glad. This gives them joy and gladness
and fills their soul with satisfying food, Christ's That's who will
want to hear this. Nobody else. Nobody else. And
they'll come. They're a symbol of great, much
people. You know, they're much people
right now. A great congregation. The assembly of the saints. There
aren't so many on earth, but there sure are a lot in heaven,
aren't there? It's called the church in earth and heaven. You
see, all united. We're all doing the same thing.
We're all doing the same thing. Uh-huh. Henry's doing right now,
Sister Roberta, he's doing right now what we're trying to do right
now. What's that? Keep the pests open. Worship
the Lamb. Think about it, Roberta. I'm trying to show him to us.
He's looking at him. That's what the disciples said
about Lazarus. Let's go die with him. Oh man, he and Joe are standing
right beside each other. Working up in the land, this
land. They said, they both say, we heard of you with a hearing
in the ear, but now we see you. And I'm just hoping the Lord
will give eyes now, ears to hear and eyes to see now. So, verse
14, you know what they did? They heard about this from the
letters from the Word of God. And you know what the first thing
they did is they threw away all old religion. They threw it away. They threw it in a creek! If
you read the previous chapter, that's why I told you to read
chapter 29. Hezekiah, he was a great king. And the first thing he did in
Kings 17, I believe it is, Hezekiah, the first thing he did was go
in and clean house. He cleaned the house out of all
that idolatry. Who else did that? Who else did
that? Jesus Christ, the King of kings,
came into Jerusalem that day, and the first thing He did was
cast everything, everything that was sold, everything that was for making
money, Everything like that was an abomination
to Him. There was one thing to be done
in the house of God. And they'd made it a den of thieves,
stealing God's glory, stealing the Word from God, making it
fun and games, family religion for sale, Jesus for sale, buying
and selling sports, One thing, Brother Stephen, one thing is
to be done in the house of the Lord. And I'm not mad at anybody,
I'm just declaring this with absolute certainty. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be preached in the house of God,
in the church of God. The church of God is the pillar
and the ground of the truth. Paul said, what will be done
to me if I preach not the gospel? It's the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. The Old Testament, there was
three things that were to be done. Salvation of the Jews.
The Old Testament, there was a high priest, there was a sacrifier,
and there was a holy of holies, a mercy seeker. And all of that's
Jesus Christ. He's all those things. Okay?
Without that, you can't worship God. Alright? In the Church of
God today, the same thing. Christ is all. He's the high
priest. He's the Sacrifice, the Lamb, we got to hear about it.
He's the Mercy Seeker, the Guilty Sinner. In the house of God,
there's to be the preaching of the Word, the singing of praises,
and prayer unto God. Nothing else! Nothing else! Everything else is an abomination
to God. Cast it in the brook. Cast it
out. Get rid of it. If you can't,
get out of there and come to a place where there's three things.
A man standing up with the Bible. That people sing in praises and
call it on God. That's it. That's it. Everything else is an abomination
to God. Well, they did. Where am I? Look at verse, let
me hurry. So, verse 15, they killed the
passive. And look at this. The priest
and the Levites were ashamed. Priest and the Levites were ashamed.
Every true child of God is ashamed of themselves. There's no pride, should be no
pride in the house of God, among the people of God. The preacher, the true preacher, He is ashamed
of himself. He says, like Paul the Apostle,
I am not fit to be called an apostle, a preacher. He says,
I am less than the least of all the saints. I am the chief of
sinners. I am ashamed of myself. I am
ashamed of myself. Aren't you? Aren't you ashamed? But I am not ashamed of the gospel. I am not ashamed of the gospel.
And brethren, I hope you're not ashamed of me. I've got one thing to do. Is
that all your preacher does? Yes, he does. Isn't that wonderful?
He does exactly. He stands in his place. Verse
16, they stood in their place after the manner of Moses, just
like God said to do. This is what you do, preacher.
This is what you do, Levi. This is what you do, priest.
One thing. OK. Is this what? Yes, this is what you say. This
is effectual. This is what? Yes! Do it! And stand back and watch the
power of God. Okay. Sounds good to me. That pleases me. Paul said, Brethren,
I give to you what I first received. That's what I first received.
Ever since the Lord came to old Saul of Tarsus and saved him,
and he heard the gospel, the glad tidings of mercy to a chief
of sinners, that's all he wanted to tell them. That's it. Not the law. Not to reform the
world. Not to straighten out social
evils. No, not that at all. But that
sinners might be saved. That's it. Well, let me quit. It says that Hezekiah prayed. It says there were many unsanctified,
there were many not clean. Oh my brethren, I literally call
names of people in this congregation. Your parents, your spouses, your
children, I call their names before God. Do you? We need to do that. You know
that? What would God do maybe if we said, I'm so tempted to
call a name. If all of us collectively begged
God, Lord, would you please have mercy upon. There's some not
sanctified. There's some sitting in this
room right now. Some in here have not heard this gospel. They
haven't come to Christ. They haven't confessed Christ.
They don't know the God of the Bible. They don't know Christ.
They're not clean. They're unclean. They're sinners.
They haven't rejoiced in the good news of Christ's cleansing
for sin. Oh God, help us. Save us. He says, He prayed. Verse 18, wasn't that wonderful?
The good Lord pardoned everyone. One of you men, one of these
days, okay, just stand up and let that be your prayer, okay?
Nothing else. Oh, good Lord, pardon everyone. Amen. Isn't that a good prayer? You know what? It says that everyone
that prepared his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his Father,
though he be not cleansed, it says the Lord heard him. Verse
20, the Lord hearkened to his account and healed the people.
No matter what it was. Down in verse 20, and he spake
comfortably to them. Verse 22, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. He spake to the Levites that
taught the good knowledge of the Lord. And I need comforting
constantly, but I get so discouraged because some people aren't coming. They're not here, and I get discouraged.
But the Lord, like Hezekiah, has spoken comfortably to me,
saying, Don't return, boy. He always causes me to try, I
think, right? Somebody's rejoicing. You're
rejoicing, aren't you? I'm talking about me. You're
rejoicing, aren't you, Levi? I sure am. That's good. And they did each, they offered
peace offering and confession to the Lord our God. You know
what the Scripture said? If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. And the whole assembly, verse
23, the whole assembly took counsel. They got together after this
was over. They got together and said, do you reckon we could
have another seven day meeting? Let's ask him. Let's ask him
if we can have another seven days, because this sure was good.
They went to him and said, King, old King, would you Give us seven
more days of this gladness, and Hezekiah said, sure will. And
look at this, brother. He provided it all. They didn't
bring a thing. He brought it all. Come, everything's
ready. Verse 24, the king did give.
You see, there were some poor people. They didn't have a land.
They didn't have anything. They couldn't bring anything.
No, in your hands, no price should you bring, but just come. You'll
hear about a salvation completely provided, completely given, completely
bestowed, all you have to bring is hunger. And I do that. And the congregation of Judah,
verse 25, and the priests that came out of Israel came out.
It said strangers, pilgrims that came out of the land of Israel.
Israel was idolatrous. Israel was worshiping Baal. And
they dwelt in Judah. That's where Jerusalem was. And
they rejoiced. And there was great joy in Jerusalem. And verse 27 says, down there
it says they sang and played loudly on instruments and that
they rejoiced with great joy. And it says that their voice
was heard, their prayer came all the way up, took God's holy
dwelling place, even heaven. God heard it. And you know what
God was doing? Smiling. Pleased. Well pleased. They're offering the sacrifice
of their lips of praise and thanksgiving. And that greatly pleases God. And they were satisfied and they
were thankful for and they were worshiping God because of the
Passover lamb. And that greatly pleases God. And if you come in the name of
Jesus Christ, worshiping His Son, if you love His Son, that
greatly pleases God. And He hears everything you say. Alright, let's all stand and
turn to number 125. Sing the first, second, and the
fourth. First, second, and the fourth.