Thank you Sherry and John. I didn't
realize how much, how well that song, that hymn went with this
passage until we sang it. 2 Chronicles 15. You read with me the story of
how this man's sermon, the Lord through that brought a great
revival in the land. How desperately we need a revival
in the midst of our year. I need one. In these last days,
perilous times, a time for a long season now. The true God is not
known. A long season. Now, verse 1 says,
The Spirit of God came upon Ezra as the son of Odin. That's where a revival begins.
We sang that, didn't we? Oh, send thy Spirit, Lord. The
Spirit of God came upon this man to preach, and without Him,
we can do nothing. All is vain, we sing, unless
the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, we've met the
worship, but it's in vain if the Lord doesn't send His Holy
Spirit. God is Spirit, and worship in
Spirit, and He must give us of His Spirit. is a fairly unknown man. I venture
to say some of you, if not most, have never heard of him before.
Or at least you may have read of him and forgotten him. I have. Not much is said about him. He's
a forgotten man, but he was sent by God to preach this one short
sermon. Oh, to be used of God. Not only
me, but you. When you go out to speak to people,
wouldn't it be wonderful if the Lord would use you? for just one person. The Lord
sent this unknown, forgotten man with one message, and the
Lord brought a great revival. His name means Jehovah has helped. Azariah. Jehovah has helped.
All right, Azariah was the son of Odah. I don't know if he was
a prophet. It seems that he was the son
of a prophet. What a blessing to be born in
the house of a prophet. What a blessing. Not only to
be one, but to be born of one. My, my. He was unknown. He was sent with this message.
And his name is not important. As I said, we've forgotten him
mostly. Most people have. Don't mention him when they mention
the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Malachi. They don't
mention him, do they? You don't mention him. I don't
mention him. But that's not important anyway. The man's name is not
important anyway, but the message is. You remember last week, I think
it was, an article in our bulletin. John said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a great voice. And
if we're going to hear this, the Lord's going to have to give
us the same spirit. If I'm going to preach it, If
the Word is going to go out with any liberty, liberty is not dependent
on the man. Liberty is not in his ability
to convey the message. Liberty, freedom, that is for
the Word to run well, have free course in the hearts and the
minds of the hearers, is not dependent on the man's abilities.
Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit. It's the Spirit
of God who must take the things of Christ and show them unto
us. It's the Spirit of God that must arrest our hearts and our
minds, the Spirit of God that must blot out everything that
would hinder us. So we all need to pray. Lord,
send Thy Spirit. Grant, O great God, grant us
Thy Holy Spirit. All right, verse 2. So he went
out to meet Asa, the king. He's preaching this message in
front of kings and rulers. He was unashamed. unafraid. The Lord said that
to the prophets and to the apostles and all. He said, Be not afraid
of their faces. Go. I'm going to send you before
kings and rulers. Whoever it is, they need to hear
this one message, whether it be a king or whether it be a
pauper, whether it be a doctor or a dishwasher. They all need
to hear this one message. What? You sinned against God. God is holy, but God is mercy.
Let's go on. So they all need to hear it.
And he went out in front of this king Asa. And he said, Hear ye
Asa and all Judah. See that? And Benjamin. These
two tribes chosen of the Lord to hear this message. God has a people, a remnant.
We just looked at that, didn't we? A remnant. Judah was a remnant. one tribe out of twelve, and
the Lord chose Judah, didn't He? As a picture, as a type of
His electing, sovereign, electing grace, His arraignment according
to election. They were chosen to hear this
message. Israel didn't hear it. All Israel didn't hear that message.
Judah did. Oh, how blessed they were. They
wouldn't have heard it if God hadn't chosen them to hear it.
And didn't our Lord say that? Blessed are your ears, they hear.
Why? Because our children hear, He
said. to hear this. Most people having ears, they
don't hear. But the hearing ear is everywhere. So he says this,
and here's how faith cometh, and here's how it begins. The
hearing, hearing of the truth. Hear ye, Asa and all Judah and
Benjamin, hear ye. The Lord, here's the message,
the Lord is with you while you be with him. And if you seek
him, he will be found of you. But if you forsake him, he will
forsake you. The Lord is with you. The Lord. Didn't he say in his sign in
Isaiah 7, I give you a sign. Behold. A virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel, which
being interpreted, God with us." The Lord is with you. The Lord
is here. The Lord Jesus Christ. Lord over
heaven and earth. And He's with you while you be
with Him. He's with you. Boy, what good
news this is. The Lord is for you. If God be
for us, What can be against us? Nothing
is against us. It's all for us. It's all for
our good if God be for us, if God loves us. And preachers go
out, you know, telling this message to everyone. It doesn't apply
to everyone. God loves you. If God does, if God is for you,
oh my, if He's for you, if He accepts you, how do we accept
it? If God is with you, that means
He is for you. He accepts you. He watches over
you. He smiles upon you. He loves
you. The Lord, who is love, loves
you and will always love you if He is with you. If He is with
you, He has mercy upon you and His mercy endures forever. If
He is with you, He will be gracious unto you. The God of all grace
will give you all grace. His love is upon you. His mercy
is upon you. His grace is with you. If God
be with us, Who or what is against Him? Nothing.
But he says this, the Lord is with you while you be with Him. And the Word is for Him while
you be for Him. Moses said it. Moses at one time
drew a line in the sand. And this is how you know. He
drew a line in the sand and said, who is on the Lord's side? He'll come unto me. He'll come
unto me. What does that mean? If you be
with Him. If you be for Him. Well, it means
this. It means if you be for His glory. He said, I have created a people,
in Isaiah 43, for My glory they are and were created. They shall
show forth My glory. That's how you know them. If
you're for Him, for His glory, God is with you. If you're for
the glory of His Son, for His name's sake. Isn't that what
Scripture always says? For His name's sake. Not your
own name. Not your own glory. Not trying
to build a church in anyone's name, but Christ's sake. For
Him. For His glory. For His name's
sake. If you're for Him, He's with
you. He's for you. He's with you. If you're with
Him in worship, These people were going to see they came to
Him. Him, Him, Him. They sought Him.
They worshipped Him. It was all about Him. They sang
unto Him. They worshipped Him. They sought
Him. They were looking for Him. They were praising Him. Not one
another, not the temple, but Him. That's how you know they
were with Him. They were for Him. If we be with Him, with His people
in worship, in fellowship, truly our fellowship, John says, with
the Father and with His Son. Some went out, he said, because
they're not of us. If they'd been of us, they'd
no doubt remained with us doing what? Praising Him. That's what
it's all about. God has a people that worship
God in spirit. I mean, it's not an outward show.
It's not with the lips. No, when the hearts are far from.
No, they really do worship God. They're thankful to God. They
give all glory to God for who He is, for His sovereign election,
for His sovereign mercy, for His sovereign grace in sending
Christ. They give all glory to Christ
for coming down here and doing this work for them. They worship
God in spirit. That is, from the inward man,
they rejoice in Christ Jesus. They're ashamed of themselves
and they rejoice in Christ Jesus. And they put no confidence in
the flesh. They don't use the flesh. They don't look to the
flesh. They don't use the means of the flesh. No, sir, they're
worshiping him in spirit and in truth. God is spirit and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. That's what it means to be with
him for his glory and the true worship of him and his son. God
sent His Son and said, all the angels of God, let His ministers,
let everything that hath breath, worship the Son. And God knows. He's the searcher of the hearts.
He's the searcher of the heart. Let the heart men believe. He
knows who's worshiping Him. And people say it and all this,
but God looks on the heart. He knows. Alright? Now, he said, if you
be with Him. That's what that means. Be for Him. For His glory. God is with you. Oh, and if God
be with us, who can be against us? Read on. Now, he says in
verse 2, it says, The Lord, if you seek Him, He will be found
of you. If you seek Him, He will be found
of you. Him in whom all blessings flow. Him. who is the source, the spring
of all our comfort and all grace. Him who is the Lord our salvation. Him who is everything, who is
all in it all. If you seek Him, you'll find
Him. How? How Jeremiah said. When you search for Him with
all your heart. With all your heart. But you
know, for God's glory, he said in Isaiah 65, didn't he? He said,
I am found of them that insult me not. When I said, seek ye
my face, that's when they said, like David. See, he gets the
glory if anybody seeks it. he gets the glory for first seeking
them. If anybody loves him, he gets
the glory because he first loved them. But the fact is, he says,
if you are with him, he's with you if you're with him. And if
you seek him, he will be found of you. You know, recently I told you
a good question to ask people that you run into I want to witness
to would be this. Nearly everybody goes somewhere,
don't they? They go to a church, so-called,
somewhere. And I was confronted recently
by a lady, and I wish I'd have asked her this. When you find out they go wherever
they go, ask them, why do you go there? Why do you go there? And you know, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Whatever is really in the heart
of a person will come out in their speech first thing. Won't
it? Huh? Yeah, like you ask a person
if they're saved. Are you saved? Why? If they're
a free will, you know, if they've made some kind of decision, they're
going to say, because I... Every time. I made my decision
here. I accepted Jesus. That's what
people say. All of God's people, without
exception, will say this, because the Lord had mercy on me. Because
the Lord revealed Himself to me. People don't know what that
means. The Lord revealed Himself to
you. Many came in a vision. They don't know what that means.
God's people do. But ask them, why do you go there?
And what comes out of their mouth is because, oh, I just get a
good feeling. You can get that at a ball game.
Because the music, you go there for the music. That's what you'll
find. If that's what you're looking for, you can find it. Good music,
a lot better than ours. A lot better than ours, a lot
more of it. Because of the programs for our children. Because they
have good programs. That's good. The YMCA has real good programs. Because there's such a warm community
of fellowship. They have all these groups that
we can make. That's what you find. That's
what you're looking for. That's what you find. But if you seek
Him. If you're looking for the message
of Christ, if you're looking to know God, the true and living
God. If you want to know Christ, tell
me where I can go that I might know God. Can you tell me where
I can go that I might hear about God and all this foolishness?
Can you tell me where a sinner can go and hear the true gospel
and not all this stuff, all this rubbish in the way? A man standing
up with the Word of God saying, Thus saith the Lord, this is
the message. Can you find where I can find
that? Then you'll find Him. You'll find Him. And once you've
found Him, Like Hosea said, once you found him, the last, nearly
last verse in Hosea, he said, I don't want anything more to
do with idols. I've heard him. Him. That's who you're looking
for. The Lord one time asked some
men that came to him and said, what seek you? What are you looking
for? Whatever you're looking for,
you can find it. And here it says, if you seek Him, He'll
be found at the end. Oh, my. Oh, my. My, my. What a glorious promise. Christ said, My sheep will hear
my voice. Lost sheep lead in the shepherd.
And they'll cry, and the shepherd will find them. But, verse 2,
if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. If you forsake Him. Oh boy. Hebrews 10 says, for
Satan, not the assembly of yourself together. And so much more. Let us exhort one another, he
said, so much more as we see the day approaching Christ's
return is very soon. Our crowd is down here, down
a little bit this morning. He said to a church over in the
revelation, he said, you strengthen the things that remain. This is a sign that contrary
to what many say, a great revival, I see where it says in the scripture
there will be a falling away. He tells us, don't forsake the
assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Tragically,
you forsake him, he'll forsake you. But exhorting
one another so much more as you see the day approaching. For
if we sin willfully, what's that mean? It means if we leave the
gospel. People don't leave the gospel
by accident. People don't just, you know, miss Christ. They used
to use that term, well, he missed Christ. No, people go after something
else. They willingly do that. And you know and I know that
if God doesn't make us willing, we will forsake him. We are kept
by the power of God. This is why and how Paul said
this, keep yourselves in the love of God. That's what he meant
by that. Keep yourselves under the sound
of the gospel, which is the love of God. Outside, out from under
it, you won't feel loved by God. You'll feel forsaken of him.
If you forsake the assembling of yourselves, if you forsake
the gospel, we only have one hope. And if we leave this gospel,
He'll forsake us. Oh, man. We need to hear that,
don't we? Lord, renew my first love. Put within me, shed abroad in
my heart the love of God. That is a love for His Son, love
for His Word, love for His fellowship, love for His people. Shed abroad. Give us that, Barnard, you say,
sweetheart love. Don't let me lose my first love. Don't let me become lukewarm
lest thou spewest me out of thy mouth. Oh, Lord, let me not forsake
You because I don't want to be forsaken of You. And he said, look at verse 3,
he said, for a long season Israel's been without the true God. Professing
Christianity has been a long time without the sovereign God
preached with any frequency, hasn't it? God who's to be feared, true
God, living God, in whose hands our breath is. You know. that men, false preachers, are
preaching how God is in our hands. You know that. That's not the
true Godism. For a long time now in America
and throughout the land, the true God has been without the
true God preached. Oh, God has not left Himself
without a witness. Here's here a little, there a little. Without
a teaching preacher. That is, a man who takes the
Word of God and teaches it line upon line. Men who preach and
teach the Word of God, line upon line, the whole Council of God.
Like Samuel. It said of Samuel, he didn't
let one word of God fall to the ground. Not one word of God fell
to the ground. Whatever God told him, if the
people liked it or not, he's going to tell them. But no, religion
today, like Jehoiakim, is taking a penknife and cutting it out.
Cut it all out. They don't like the King James
Translation. It's too plain. It talks about a sovereign too
much. And they cut all the fence out
of it. And they cut all the things that they don't like out of it.
Until it's not God's Word at all. It's a perversion. But Paul
said, I've kept back nothing profitable unto you. He said,
I have preached, fully preached in Israel and everywhere I've
said repentance toward God. and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's the message. Repentance toward God against
him and him only. Have we sinned? Sin? Do you ever
hear the word today in modern preaching? Do you? Do you even
hear the word sin? Did you read that little quote
by Augustus Strong, the man who put together our concordance?
That those that lightly speak of sin, preachers and punishment,
it's not even mentioned today. Because if they'd be without
the Word of God, you see, there is no sin. Sin is not imputed
where there's no law. So they're not preaching that
this is wrong, that's wrong. They're not preaching that. And
that article there, Augustus Strong said, he that preaches
lightly of sin and punishment does what Satan does, who said,
you're not going to die. I don't know. So we've been a
long time without it, haven't we? But when they turn, whoever
turns to God, verse 4, when they are in their trouble, they turn
unto the Lord. What trouble? Sin trouble. And the goodness
of God leads us to repent of it. What is the goodness of God? In showing us we're sinners.
The Gospel is good news. To who? Sinners. If God shows
us we're sinners, Against Him and Him only. Hell deserves Him
as center. There's no other kind. Mercy beggar. If God shows us
we're centered, it will turn us to Him. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy is
understanding. The goodness of God leads us to repentance by
putting us in trouble. Trouble with God. Everybody gets
in trouble. But he's talking about trouble
with God. Like the children of Israel. They got in trouble four
times there Psalm 106, what, four times, said they got in
trouble and they all cried out unto God and they're troubled
and he heard them. Fools, he said, because of their foolishness,
got in trouble and they cried, oh, we've been fools and God
heard them. It's a good thing to feel your
trouble, troubled over sin. Read on. Verse, he was sought
of them, he was found of them, verse 5. In those times without
the true God and without a teaching period, there was no peace to
him that went out and those who came in. Kind of like a revolving
door in church houses. People going looking for this
and looking for that. Because there's no peace, the Lord said
to the wicked. No rest. You're not going to find it.
They're going to look here, going to look there, going to go out,
going to come in. If someone's looking for Christ,
if someone's looking for the truth, they'll find peace. You'll
know the truth and it'll set you free. The Son sets you free. You're free indeed. You'll find
peace. But they'll go in, come out. Great vexations, verse 5,
upon all the inhabitants of the country, our country, the world,
people in general, are under great vexation, aren't they?
are full of all kinds of turmoil and trouble, and they don't know
what it is. And they're looking here and looking there, trying
to find some peace within. And they're going to places with
false gods, and they don't get any peace there. There's only one source of peace.
And I will keep him in perfect peace, to remind the state on
that Christ is our peace. Hear Him speak peace. The message
of reconciliation with God. The message of the blood before
the Lord that gives peace to a guilty conscience. Only that.
That's the peace that we need. But without it, vexation. Verse
6. Nation destroyed of nation, city
of city. Our Lord said you'll hear wars
and rumors of war even amongst those who claim to believe the
same God. Like Israel. Man, I think both
Israel and Judah claim to believe the same God. Well, what's wrong?
They all must not be believers. Believers don't war. What's wrong with you? God's
angry. That's what's wrong. Look at
it. Look at this. Verse 6, God did
vex them. God did vex them. God did this. What modern preacher would dare
stand up and say all this trouble and turmoil and all this fighting
and everything is God doing it? Here's one. There are a few others. God did vex them. Why? Why did God pour out all this
trouble on them? Why? All these plagues and all
these wars and all this. Why did God vex them? Because
of idolatry. That's why. They turn from the
living God to idols. That's why. Idols. Read on. Look at verse 5. Verse 7. So he says to Asa, here's the
trouble with our whole nation. All this vexation. No peace and
all that. turn from the living God, the
idols, and God has vexed them. But whenever the people of God
turned to the God of Israel and sought him, he was found of them. So he says in verse 7, to Asa,
Be ye strong therefore, let not your hands be weak, for your
work shall be rewarded. You know, this is a wonderful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ here. Asa was a good king. Asa
went out in the previous chapter and defeated the enemies of the
Lord and brought all the spoil to his people, divided amongst
them. Asa, here is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who by his hands, who is the right hand,
the right arm of the Lord, performed this great work. And his work
is rewarded. But here in the context, he is
talking to a man and his people, He says strengthen your hand. Let your hands, not your hands
be weak, but your work will be rewarded. Strengthen your hands. Our Lord said strengthen the
weak hands and the feeble knees. What is our work? What are we
doing here? That's right, worshiping the
Lord. What are we doing here? We do one thing. This church
does one thing. The church everywhere does one
thing. The work of the Lord is to preach
the gospel. That's it. One thing. That's
the Lord's work. This is the work of the Lord
that you believe in Him whom He has sent. This is the work
of the Lord. He said that in 1 Thessalonians to the church
there. He says, know that your labor
in the Lord is not in vain. In Hebrews, he said, God is not
unrighteous to forgive your labor, your work. The work of the Lord
is the preaching of the gospel, is to the praise of the glory
of His grace, to glorify Him, to preach Him that sinners might
be converted by that gospel. That's the work. That's the work
of the Lord. Strengthen the weak hands. Strengthen
the feeble knees, that is, in prayer. Because your work is
not in vain. Worshipping, preaching the gospel,
witnessing of His glory, supporting His gospel, being a witness to
those, not in vain. Not in vain. It will be rewarded. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. Simple sermon, wasn't it? Very
simple. The Lord is with you. You are
with Him. Seek the Lord and be found in Him. Him. If you forsake
Him, there's no hope. He'll forsake you. He'll leave
you to yourself. Turn, and He'll be merciful to you. He'll be
found of you. Be strong in the Lord and the
power of His might. What is the power of His might?
The gospel is the power of God and salvation. Lift up your weak
hands, the feeble knees. Lift it up, feeble voice. I say,
lift it up with strength. And that's what Paul did in Barnabas.
They went out to all the churches, said, confirming and exhorting
the disciples to continue in the faith and that we must, through
much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. He confirmed them. That means strengthen them. Well,
look at old Asa here. He heard this message. Short,
simple message. He heard it. Look at it. It says,
Asa heard this, heard these words, prophecy of old Ed. He took courage. You know, I'll just be honest
with you, and I shouldn't be this way, but I am. I am more
discouraged than I am encouraged. That's just the way I am. I don't
know why. Unbelief, that's why. But I look
around. And look inside, especially. Look at myself. I'm just often
discouraged. I'm discouraged by people. Mostly
discouraged by myself. And I'm ready to quit. I was
talking to someone recently. They were talking about a preacher
quitting. And I said, oh, I understand.
You don't understand. This person wasn't a preacher.
I said, I understand. Don't you, Dad? I understand completely. It's more discouragement. It's
more discouraging than it is encouraging. Ready to halt. Ready
to quit. Do you know where I get courage? The same place. Keep going back. Get encouragement. Like old Elijah. Elijah was discouraged saying,
I'm the only one. I'm it. No, Elijah. No, no, no,
no, no. I have 7,000. 7,000. I hear a message. I read
God's Word like this. I hear words like this. This
is what encourages me. Like in 1 Corinthians 15, it
says this. Here's the message. Thanks be
to God which giveth us the victory, victory over sin, over hell and
death, through our Lord Jesus Christ. This thing, don't have
a defeated attitude. Oh, my beloved brethren, he says,
so be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. The gospel. He has a sheet. You know your
labor is not in vain. And messages like this. He says
in 2 Corinthians 2, we're unto God. Thanks be unto God. It always causes us to triumph
in Christ. I stand up and preach, somebody's
going to be blessed by it. God's going to be honored by
it. He's promised that. Always causes us. There's going
to be two or three gathered in His name. And He makes manifest
the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. Paul said,
nobody's going to stop me from boasting. I preach Christ, and
I do too. I don't preach myself. You won't
find my name anywhere. Well, because I preach Christ.
And God said He's going to bless that. And He has, and He does,
and He will, and He'll continue to do so until the last sheep
is brought in. He says we're a savor unto God,
a sweet savor of Christ and them that are saved. Beautiful feet. Who is sufficient? That's why
Paul said, who is sufficient for this? To the one we're a
saver of death, the other a saver of life. And he says, we're not
as many that corrupt the Word of God. I don't corrupt the Word
of God. You don't either. You don't either. We're sincere,
sincerely in this for the glory of God, as of God. We wouldn't
be doing this if it wasn't of God. I wouldn't be here. You
wouldn't be here if it wasn't of God. We don't have any entertainment.
You wouldn't be here if you were here for entertainment. You wouldn't
stay here if it wasn't of God. And he said in that last line
of that one verse that I love so much, he said, we preach Christ. We preach Christ. Yes, we do. We worship Christ here, Lord. And if it dwindles down to two
or three, That's fine. My heart will break, but it will
still rejoice if I'm in that number. If He lets me go, I'll
go, too. And then He gives these, and
I won't quote. And what happened? After they heard this, He said,
Put away the abominable idols, verse 8. Put away the idols and
all the land of Judah. I was going to have you turn
to 1 Kings, I believe it is, 15. It's this story. I think it's that. No, 2 Kings
15. But that's the story as told
in 2 Kings. Same story. And it said that
Asa put sodomites out of the land. Put it out. Hezekiah did the
same thing. Isn't that appropriate? We've got to tell it like it
is, don't we? Now more than ever, in a day
when anything and everything goes, we've got to say what is
an abomination to God. God calls that abomination. He
put away the abominations. See that? Abominable idols out
of the land. And he said that to the Thessalonians.
He said, you turn to God from your idols. That's how you know
God is with you. That revival has come. You turn
to God from idols. You go to hear the true God,
the living God from this God who is not God. You can't bear
that anymore. It's just an idol. Read on. They
renewed the altar. Verse 8. They renewed the altar. What's the altar? Well, it's
not some mourner's bench, you know. The altar, where you consecrate
and desecrate. The first thing you did back
in false religion days was take away that mourner's bench, didn't
you? Take that altar, that mourner's bench, out of there. We have
an altar. It's a person. The altar he's
speaking of here is where the blood is sacrificed. Apparently,
they hadn't been offering lambs. Apparently, that altar had been
broken down and dust all over it because they hadn't made any
sacrifices. Nobody had heard about the blood for a long time.
And he said, this is the first thing we want to do. Put down,
put away all these abominations, all these idols and everything,
and worship God by the blood of the lamb. Renew the altar. Renew the preaching of the gospel,
which is one thing. The church is about one thing,
holding up Christ and Him crucified. Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you, not to do anything, but Christ and Him
crucified. I knew the altar. Dad preached
a message years ago, one of the greatest I've ever heard on recovery
of the gospel. Look it up. Recovery of the gospel. Renew the altar. In verse 9,
He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, strangers. That's what the Lord
Jesus Christ does. He gathers His people together.
He's made known His will unto us, John, in that He will gather
all His people together. To do what? To worship Him around
the blood, around the altar of the Lamb. And they fell to Him,
in verse 9, of Israel in abundance that fell to Christ, fell on
their face before Him when they saw what? The Lord's with them. God's people will go wherever
they hear the Lord is, where they hear the Lord preach, and
that's where Christ is. And they'll see that if God's
in Him, God was in Christ reconciling us unto Himself, that's who they'll
go to. they'll fall to him. Verse 10, So they gathered themselves
together at Jerusalem in the third month and the fifteenth
year of the reign. They offered unto the Lord seven
hundred oxen, seven thousand sheep, seven, seven, seven. What's
that? A perfect offering, a perfect
sacrifice. We offer unto God One thing is
worship of Christ. We plead to God the perfect sacrifice,
the perfect work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Nothing
else. Not 666. That's the number of man. Man was created on. And
if you want a clue, that's what that's talking about. Man was
created on the sixth day, 666 has something to do with the
religion of man. OK. All right. Seven is God. Perfect. 700, 7,000. And they
entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers
with all their hearts, with all their soul. Oh, my. And then they said, whoever would
not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether
small or great, whether man or woman. That's the sense in which
our Lord said, except you forsake all that you have, your father,
your mother, your son or your daughter or anybody, their false
religion. What's going to happen here,
when a person comes to know the true and living God, they're
going to forsake their idols, they're going to come out from
among them, even if you were born in that place where your
father and your mother and your grandparents went there, you're
going to come out of that place and renounce it as an abomination
and an idolatry to God. And you're going to come out
of there and worship the living and true God. And like Walter, when he went
to the mission field to preach the gospel, they said, you must
hate your family taking him down there. No, he didn't hate his
family. He just loved God. Loved the truth. Willing to forsake
all. And that's the same thing. And
we're going to tell them. We're going to tell them too,
even if they hate us. Dad, Mom, that's an idol. So they swear
unto the Lord. They sang unto the Lord. shouted
unto the Lord with a loud voice, and shouting, and trumpets, and
cornets, and all Judah rejoiced. Rejoiced in what? The oath, His
covenant, His blood. They swung with all their heart.
They saw Him with their whole desire. And He was found of them.
Look what happened. He was found of them. He was
found. God was in their midst. And God gave them rest round
about. While the whole world was full of vexation and trouble
and turmoil, They had peace. They had rest.
Asa was on the throne. Peace. Peace. And you tell me, do you not find
more peace when you're under the sound of the gospel than
any other time? Give you rest from round about.
Now, you've got to see this. The next verse is also concerning
Maika, the mother of Asa. That's his grandmother. Absalom's daughter. Absalom's daughter. That Adonijah,
I think his name is, married Asa's grandfather. Married Ismaicah,
the daughter of Absalom. And she was a wicked woman. She
was a wicked woman. You'll read the story. I have.
She's a wicked woman. And she set up idols. And she
made herself a queen. She made herself a queen equal
to the king at her throne. And she was reigning for a while.
Do you know that? She made an idol and a grove.
Do you know what Asa did? Granny, you're coming down off your throne. And your religion is idolatrous. And Granny, if the Lord doesn't
grant you repentance, You're going to perish. You've got to
worship the true and living God. And he cut down her idol. And
he snatched at the powder and took her down off her high horse
and said, You ain't nothing. You ain't no queen. You're just
a sinner like the rest of us. And apparently, she, the Lord
saved her too. Because it said they were put
to death. You know, as some sweet old grannies
at the Lord has said, they've got to be convicted too. Like
Virgie. I love the story of Virgie. I
love to tell it. Now, how old was Virgie? In her seventies?
She was in her seventies when the Lord... Your grandmother
was in her... 75 years old, like Abraham, wasn't she? That's how
old she was? Yes, she was. Martha Lou. Steeped in idolatry. Steeped in religion. Thinking
she was something, queen. But yeah, came with a message,
with a true preacher. And preached this God who reigns. And that we're all a bunch of
sinners in need of mercy and grace. And convict an old granny,
a good, sweet kind. Anybody's granny is not in heaven.
To hear them, you wouldn't think so. If they don't bow to God, they
don't turn from their idols to serve the living and true God.
They don't come down from being queen and bow their knee to the
only King. They'll perish. They'll be killed in that day. So they all rejoiced. They all
sang. And they all found the Lord and
found great peace and rest round about, all about. Just from a
man preaching a little short message. See, please God, by the foolishness
of preaching, save them that believe. It's not programs. It's
not gimmicks and tricks and tactics and all of that. That's of the
devil. That's making proselytes, and they're twofold more the
child of hell. Please God, by the foolishness of preaching.
Preaching what? Christ. To save them that believe. He said, you go, now you preach
this message, and I'll call them out. Here a little, there a little,
but they're my sheep, and nothing can drive them away. Nothing
and no one, and they'll have peace. They will have peace when
all the world is full of turmoil. They'll have peace right on their
backs, waiting on the Lord. All right, we're going to sing
that hymn that goes so well with this, Revive Us Again. Revive Us Again. I forgot the number, John. 485? 485. Let's stand and sing a few verses.