Thank you. Thank you, John. That last line
is scriptural. sacrifice of love. The Lord says,
offer unto me the sacrifice of your lips. That is, praise, but
not just lips. From the heart, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth will speak. We'll offer unto Him praise
and worship. I go back to 2 Chronicles chapter 15. 2 Chronicles 15. Read verse 8 with me again. 2 Chronicles 15.
When Asa heard these words, heard the preacher, the prophecy of
Oded the prophet, he took courage and encouraged him. And he put
away the abominable idols. out of all the land of Judah
and Benjamin, out of the cities which he had taken, and he renewed
the altar of the Lord. That was before the porch of
the Lord. Now, this word, this message
from God is a word, a message to show us that there is one
God. One God. The Lord God of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God, He said that. Jehovah
said that. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac. Not Israel. Isaac. Jacob. Not Esau. Jacob. Not the God of the Muslims. the
God of Israel. Salvations of the Jews, Jesus
Christ said. All right, this is to show us,
God is telling us there is one God. All others are idols. And the blessing of God, the
true God, His blessing is upon His true people who worship Him,
the true God, renounce all other gods and rejoice in the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus alone. That's what this message is about.
That's what this whole book is about. One God, all others are
idols, one way, the blood of Jesus Christ. They destroyed the idols Worship
the true and living God, destroy the idols and renew the altar. That's the message. All right,
verse 1. The Spirit of God came upon Azariah,
son of Odin. Holy Spirit, capital S. I understand
that some today, the Pentecostalists and all say that the Spirit of
God was not given in the Old Testament. They actually say
that. That's not true, is it? You see,
he's right there. Right there he is. David said,
take not thy Holy Spirit from them. If any man hath not the
Spirit of God, he's none of his. The Spirit of God was with all
of God's people. This man named Azariah, this
son of a prophet Oded, he's just a man. He's just a man. In other words, you haven't heard
of him until now. And he won't hear his name again.
He's never mentioned again. Because he's not important. He's
just a man. But buddy, what he said was,
God spoke through this man, this unknown man who came and went,
like Philip, the eunuch. What's your name? It doesn't
say that Philip ever introduced him to him. Not important. And then he was gone. Boy, the
message he brought. The message he brought. Truth.
It caused a great revival. Great revival, what he said.
Great rejoicing. Verse 2, he went out to meet
Asa, the king. This unknown man stands before
the king. With boldness, he said, Now you
hear me, Asa? Who is this? He's a voice crying
in the wilderness, but oh, God sent him. The king better listen.
And the pauper, all need to listen to what he has to say. And he
said it with boldness, and so it is with the... The Lord said,
if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. Meaning,
thus saith the Lord. This is what God said. Need to
be careful to say it in a way so as not to appear to be arrogant
or proud or mean or above people or mad at people. You know, the
flesh really gets in the way. But nevertheless, when you stand
up and read God's Word and preach God's Word, what you're supposed
to say and not do it with timidity, with embarrassment, with apology,
with compromise, but say it with all
boldness, now this is what God said. I didn't say it, this is
what God said. And from everybody better hear. Not mine. I'm not telling you
what I think. Asa said, here's what God said.
Hear me. And he said this to the king.
He said, all Judah and Benjamin. God's word, Mac, is so precise. He's speaking to Judah. You see, it's not a person, Judah. It's a tribe. sent Solomon. When Solomon's
wives, when his wives took away him and brought him their goddesses,
asterith and female gods, and he set up some idols and so forth
to appease his wives and all, God says, okay, I'm going to
divide the land. I'm going to divide the kingdom.
And from Solomon, Israel. God's people was divided. There
were 12 tribes, okay? One tribe, a remnant, God says,
is my people. Who? Judah. The tribe of Judah. Why? Why Judah? That's who the
lion is coming from. That's the tribe of Jesus Christ.
And it gives that lineage in Matthew, and I've got to go on
from there. But anyway, the history was divided,
and Judah had the truth. Judah had Jerusalem. Judah had the tabernacle, the
altar, the priests. Israel didn't. There was an evil
family, and this started, and he divided it, he divided it.
And there was Israel, and there was a majority. Israel had the
majority. Israel had eleven tribes. Millions
of people. Judah had one. One tribe. The majority didn't know God. Israel had been without God. Israel, but not Judah. Are you
with me? You've got to lay this groundwork. This is the theme of all the
Scripture. Even now, they remain a remnant according to the election
of grace, according to God's purpose, that hath the truth,
according to God's purpose. In Israel, the nation of Israel,
there were 19 kings, starting with a fellow named Jeroboam. Jeroboam was not a son of David. He was a servant of Solomon's.
He had no business being a king, but they made him one. God made it this way. Jeroboam was his name. He was
not even in the line. And from Jeroboam on, all the
way through, wicked kings. They had 19 kings. Every one
of them was wicked. Every one of them was bad to
the bone. Wicked. And they all served idols. All of them. all idols, calves,
and so forth. It started with this fellow named
Jeroboam. And the Scriptures talk a great
deal about the sins of Jeroboam, the sins of Jeroboam. And I was
going to have you turn, but I'm not going to have time. Jeroboam,
what he did, and I'll tell you what he did. And you can read
it for yourself in 1 Kings 12 and 2 Kings 17 on and on. Read it
for yourself. 1 Kings 12, Jeroboam, what he did
was, he said, now here's a guy who doesn't belong as king. And he knew that Jerusalem, God
chose Jerusalem and the altar, the lamb, the sacrifice, the
high priest, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Levi, man, that's
the priest. Nobody else could be a priest
except Levites. God said that. Chosen of God. Jeroboam said, you know, if everybody
goes there, they're going to turn to that king. If everybody
goes to Jerusalem, they're going to turn to that king. The son
of Solomon's name was Rehoboam. He was king of Judah. Solomon
David's tribe. Are you with me? I'm trying to
make it simple. Jeroboam, that evil king of Israel,
said if they go there, they're all going to see that's the truth,
that's what God said, that's what God's Word said. But to
draw them to me, to draw away disciples, People after me, he
said, what I'm going to do is I'm going to make two calves,
I'm going to put one over here, and Dan, and put one over here,
and so that people can conveniently. And he said this, it's too far
to go to Jerusalem. That's not the only place you
have to worship. Here's a place, here's a place,
here's a place. They say that that's the only
way. Not so. Here's a place, here's a place,
we have it here. And he set up idols, all kinds of idols, and
that's where it started. And it said he made the lowest,
not Levites, he made anybody that wanted to be a priest, anybody
that paid him. Anybody that paid him. Pay me
money, I'll make you a priest. It says he made the lowest of
the people priests. Worthless people. Probably a
bunch of homosexuals. Can I say that? I just did. Just one note here. The good kings, like Asa, doesn't
tell us this. We read it, but it doesn't tell
us. Over in 1 Kings, it says Asa took all the sodomites out
of the land. Took them out. Along with the
idols. Sodomites were not allowed. Get them out. He didn't condone that at all. Okay, that's where it started.
And from then on, the vast majority of those who said they believed
the God of Abraham, Israel. The vast majority of them. Did
not. It says they feared the Lord
and worshipped their idols. You remember that? That's in
2 Kings chapter 17. It says that. Alec, it says they feared the
Lord, or said they did, and worshipped idols. You can't do both. You can't do both. Alright, you
read with me. And you know, nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. God hasn't
changed. God has not changed. There's
one God. One way to worship God. The way to worship God is through
a sacrifice. Lamb. Blood. You can't come before
God without blood. No, no, no. God's holy. Holy. Holy. You've got to have
a high priest. There's only one. There's only
one. He has some priests that are
Levites. His son. And you've got to have
an altar. You've got to have a tabernacle
where all things are done in order, the way God said it. God hasn't changed. Man hasn't
changed. There's a way that seems right
to me. God says it's wrong. Man hasn't changed. Things haven't
changed. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and
said, straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth
to life. And few there be that find it.
That's what our Lord Jesus Christ said. He said, broad is the way, wide
is the gate, and broad is the way that leads
to destruction, Jesus Christ said, and many there be that
go therein. Many? Few. He said, many are
called. Jesus Christ said that. Many
are called, few are chosen. He said, you got goats? He said,
my sheep. My sheep. Shall hear my voice. The chosen
of God. And today, throughout professing
Christianity, like Israel of old, that claims to believe in
Jehovah, even have witnesses that go house to house that claim
to believe and witness for Jehovah, but they don't believe Jesus
Christ is God. So you tell me. Christ said, if you believe not
that I am, who? God. Jehovah. You'll die in your
sins. You can go door to door. And
he said that. They cut the sea of land. He
said that to some Pharisees. He said you cut the sea of land
to establish a proselyte, a member of your idol club. They said, when you've made them,
they're two-fold more the child of hell than they are, because
they don't know me. I'm God. That's what Jesus Christ
said. I didn't say that. Well, and
I've got to lay this groundwork. Isaiah said in prophecy a hundred
years before it took place, Isaiah said this in prophecy. The Lord
used him to prophesy of the captivity of Israel for idolatry. It's all about idolatry. Isaiah said there will be a great
forsaking in the land. In other words, all over, the
vast majority of people will forsake the living and true God
for idols. The ways of the world. Isaiah
said that. Alright, it happened. It happened. Then Paul, the apostle, later
in 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy 4, 2 Thessalonians
2 and 1 Timothy 4, Paul said there's going to be a falling
away. Paul said, "...the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the
latter days it shall depart from thee faith." Paul said in Ephesians
4, there's one Lord, one faith, one hope, one calling. It's one, not many. And he said, the Spirit speaketh
expressly that there will be a departure from Enfite. Alright? So it's all in the name of God
and in the name of Jesus. Now you tell me if that hadn't
happened. If we're not in the midst of
that. Alright, look at it. Read on. Verse 2, he said, Now
the Lord, Asa said, the Lord is with you while you be with
Him. What does it mean to be with
the Lord? Notice what Asa says, it's all
about Him. Read it with me. The Lord is
with you while you be with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found
in you. If you forsake Him, Him, Him,
Him, this is all about Him. It's all about Him. What does it mean to be with
the Lord? The Lord is with you while you be with Him. Can two
walk together except they be agreed? Our Lord said. No, can't. Who's on the Lord's side? Not
man's side, the Lord's side. Who's with Him? Who's for Him? Who follows Him? Who listens
to Him? Who says, let God be true and
everybody else a liar? Who says, who walks like Enoch,
though the whole world doesn't? Who walks with Him? Who believes
Him? Him. This is what they say. What does he say? Who is with
him? Whoever is, he's with you. That's why you're with him. It
says, if you seek him, he will be found of you. If you seek
him, he will be found of you. You seek Him, not things from
Him. Some men came to Christ one time
and He said, what are you looking for? Whom seek you? Why have you come
here? What are you after? That's what
he said to them. They said, Master, where you
live, we want to be with you. We want to hear you. He said,
come on in. Those that seek Him, that's Him. Him. God. Christ. Look to Him. Look to
Him. Who need Him? Not things. Everybody needs things from God.
If they get anything, it will be from God. But oh my, those
that seek Him, true worshipers, worship God. True worshipers worship God,
not the church, not the preacher, not their denomination. They worship God. True worshipers
come to church, not to come to church, but to worship God because
they're thankful to God. They come to hear from God. They
come to seek God. Our Lord said, And now is when
true worshipers worship the Father in spirit. They worship the Father
in spirit and truth. He said the Father seeketh such
to worship Him. He said those that look for Him
will find Him. How do you know when you've found
Him? If He is what you've found. If He is when you're not looking
for anything else. Where's your choir? Well, I thought
we were singing pretty good. Oh, but I'd like to see a choir.
Well, fine. Turn on TV, the Mormon Tabernacle,
great choir scene. We come here to hear him. Where's this? Where's your program
for kids? What are you doing? We're hoping,
praying, wishing, so we're preaching Him. Hoping that we'll all get
a glimpse of Him. Whom to know is to have life
eternal. And once you see Him, you don't
need anything else. What the preacher looks like
or does, for you've got a choir and it won't amount to a hill
of beans. But if you're holding up Christ,
a sinner needs Him. A guilty person needs Him, their
advocate. That prodigal was coming home,
he needed He needed to hear from the Father
forgiveness, didn't he? He said, if you'll just give
me a little house on the side like a servant and feed me a
few beans, I'll be fine because I'm home with Dad. But that ain't going to happen. Once
you've found Him, you've found everything. And this is not my
verse. But it's a good one, isn't it? You found Him. How do you
know you're looking for Him when you find Him and He's all you
need? It's all you need. What are you going to preach
today? What are you going to do today? We're going to preach
Him. Good! That's what I'm looking for. That's what I've come for. Those that are with Him, those
that seek Him, they'll be found of Him. You know what you'll
find when you find Him? You'll find mercy. You'll find pardon. You'll find forgiveness of sin.
You'll find a covenant God. You'll find peace. You'll find
joy. You'll be found in Him. Your
life will be hid in Christ with God. You'll find everything. You'll find all you need if you
look for Him and seek Him. Read on, it says, but if you
forsake Him, Mesa said, you forsake Him for anything or anyone. You forsake Him, His Word, His
ways, His worship, and to forsake the assembly of the saints. That's
where He is. That's where He promised to be.
If you forsake the assembly of the saints, you're forsaking
God. And it says, He'll forsake you. And then you won't have any peace.
At all. That's what it says here. Read
on. Verses 3 and following. He says,
a long time, a long season, Israel's been without the true God. They've been without a teaching
priest. These fellows going through the motion, but they weren't
taking God's Word. Remember the priest Nehemiah? Ezra? Remember Ezra the priest?
Do you remember the book of Ezra? Where they got up on a pulpit
of wood? That's why when a pulpit was
made, it was in the book of Ezra. So a man could get up and open
the Word of God. His name was Ezra. He was a priest.
And what he did was taught the Word of God. And it says all
the other priests taught the Word of God. And the people understood
the Word of God. They understood what God said. And they both cried and laughed
at the same time. They were both smitten and happy.
They were both sad and glad. They were both broken and healed.
They were both dead and both alive. It says the strangers
out there couldn't tell the difference between laughing and crying.
And what this was all about was they all understood the Word.
God sent teaching priests to preach the Word of God. And the
people understood. They understood. But a long time it says they
were without, didn't have any. And I ask you, it says they were
without the true God. And I want to say this, we're
not better than anybody. And who maketh us to differ?
And we're not saying we're right and everybody else is wrong.
He's trying to say there's one God. There's one truth. There's one way. There's one
true and living God. And anything that varies from
the God of the Bible is an idol. And if anybody prays to a God
that cannot save, they're praying to an idol. If anybody makes
pictures and statues and this and that and the other, which
God expressly forbids in His Word, it's an idol. And men say things like this
in religion today, in America today, that God has no hands
but your hands. Look, that's not what the book
says. The book says we are in God's hands. The book says God
created everything with His hand. The book says, God says, the
God in whose hands our death is. But religion is so perverse because
of these false preachers who've gotten up and told everybody,
God has no hands but your hands, no feet but your feet. God can't
do anything unless you let Him. That's not good! And I'm not
mad at anybody in here. But you've got millions of people
believing that, like Israel of old. Yes, we worship Jehovah. Yes, we worship God. Tell me
about Him. Well, He has no hands but your
hands. That's not Jehovah! David wrote about that, didn't
he, in Psalm 115. He said they're just like their
God. Dead. He has no hands, no feet,
no mouth, no nothing. There's an idol. You've made
Him up. He's not God at all. He only does what you let Him
do. That's not God! God does. We do what He lets
us do. This creates the fear of the
Lord. The fear of which there is no
fear of God in Israel today. No fear. You see that, don't
you? What does God's Word say? Who cares? Who fears the Lord? Who cares? Women get nothing. God says, don't do it. Who cares? It doesn't matter what God's
Word says. And God calls it all an abomination. It's an abomination to him. This
statue is idle. Let's robe ourselves. Let's make
ourselves into little priests. Let's make ourselves... Where
does it say do that? It says he put away that. That
there's one high priest. And this mystery of iniquity?
That there will be a man sitting in the temple, ask God for giving
sin. People will confess their sins
to a man. That's what God says, Catherine. That's what God plainly says.
This will happen. It's happening. There's millions
of people doing that. Just like Israel of old. And
this one lone man, this fell out of nowhere, came and said,
it's all wrong. He said they've been without
the living and true God for a long time. Long time. And God's angry. This one fellow
didn't come and say, you know, God loves them all. You need
to tell them how much God loves them and needs them. A church
can't be a church without you. No, sir. He said, God's angry. Read on. Read on. It says in
verse 5, well, verse 4, Oh, bless God, when they turn in their
trouble unto the Lord, whosoever calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved. Whoever seeks Him. Him. People get in trouble. And I think, Lord, if you'll
get me out of this trouble, I'll quit this. I'll quit that. I'll
do this now. I'm trying to bargain with God. You don't bargain with
God. We've sinned against God. What
we do is we repent to God. Lord God, you don't have to forgive
me. Lord God, I've sinned against
you. Lord God, if you give me what I deserve, you send me to
hell today. Me. Everybody. Me. Lord God, I'd
sure like to have mercy. Seek Him. get in trouble, and
realize it's all my doing, and I've done it against God, and
Lord, would you forgive me? I've sinned against you." And
you know what they'll find? He'll say, I will. I'll forgive you. You say, Him? Him. I'll forgive you. Every time. Every time. Oh my. He was found of them. Everybody, whoever got in trouble,
and it turned to the Lord God of Israel. The Lord God of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Electing
God. Sovereign God. One God. Turned to Him. He was found of
them. And you remember what you find
when you find God. And those times there was no
peace. No peace to him that went out
or came in. No peace. God said there won't
be. There won't be any peace to the wicked. Who's the wicked?
Well, it's obvious people that commit murder and robbery and
rape and things like that. They're wicked. That's obvious
then. Jesus Christ said. Many will come unto me in that
day and say unto me, Lord, Lord, we preached in your name, we
prophesied in your name, we cast out devils in your name, we did
many wonderful works in the name of Jesus. And the Lord will say,
part from me, you workers of iniquity. It's wicked. Why do you say that? They were doing it in the name
of Jesus. No. Whose name? Whose name is everywhere? Whose name do you find all over
religious places? That's Susan. He knows. He sees.
See right through it. Who's lowering it? Are you hoping souls will be
saved or bringing how many members you can have to build up the
coffers, bring in the money? Because you've got a $2 million
budget, so you have to have so many people in. And your treasurer
and so forth has told you, you've got to have so many people in
to meet this $2 million budget, so you better start. We've got
to get some people in. God sees right through that.
Right through that. I've got to go on. All right,
so here's what happened. There's vexation, it says. Nation
destroyed of nation. God vexed them. Verse 6, God
did vex them. But Azariah said to Asa and all
Judah, Be strong, let not your hands be weak. Verse 7, Your
work shall be rewarded. What work? What are we doing here? One thing. What's the work of the church?
What's it called? The pillar and ground. Can you finish it? This is foundation. The pillar and ground of the
truth. In other words, the church is
like pillars that hold up something. That's all it's for. That's what
it's for. The truth. That's all it's for. The work
of the church, the work of the preacher, the work of the disciple,
the work of believers is to show forth His glory. That's it. His glory. His name. His salvation. His work. His glory. His honor. Him. Him. Him. Him. The pillar
and the ground of the truth. Truth? Jesus Christ. If I be
lifted up, Christ said, I will draw all men to Me. And here
it says they came to Him from all over. Judah. All Judah. All Judah came to Him. All of
them. And strangers. Gentiles came
to Him. They all came to Him. when they
heard that God was with him. What a picture of Christ Asa
is right here. Look at what he did. Verse 8.
Your work will be rewarded. The work for God's glory and
his honor. When Asa heard these words, the
prophecy of Oded, he took courage. He was encouraged. He was encouraged. I have to
admit that sometimes I feel convicted. I should be convicted. Not completely. I feel convicted
thinking, am I being too narrow? I don't want to be more narrow
than God is, God's Word is. Christ said narrow is the way,
didn't He? So I don't want to make it broader
than what He said. I sometimes am convicted thinking,
am I too hard? Well, yes, I am. My personality.
Yes, but Buddy, you read God's Word, you're talking about hard. You know, that's why most people
don't read the Old Testament. It sounds hard to them. One fellow told Ralph Barnard,
he said, your God's a monster. And Barnard didn't apologize. He just said, then you prepare
to meet a monster. Our God, Paul said, is a consuming
fire. Who's ever heard that even quoted
today? Dan, you hear anybody quoting
that? Hebrews 12.29? Well, our God is. We know He is. We
know Him. Asa heard, he took courage. Be
strong, hold fast. Hold fast, the former sound words.
Hold fast your confidence, steadfast on the end. Don't let your hands
be weak. Strengthen the weak hands, the
feeble knees. He heard this. He took courage.
What's the first thing he did? You've got to get rid of these
idols. Zerubbabel came to build the
temple. He said, we can't build it. Too
much garbage around here. That's what he said. First thing
you've got to do is clear everything out. The Lord came to his temple.
Zechariah told us that Malachi said the Lord shall suddenly
come to his temple. When Jesus Christ walked into
Jerusalem the first time, thirty years old, the first thing he
did was went into the temple and he plaited a whip. Talk about
hard. This is Jesus, gentle Jesus making
mine. Our Lord said, do you think I've
come to send peace on earth? Jesus Christ said it. He said,
nay, but a fire. He said, I've come, this sword,
I'm going to separate a man from his son, a woman from her daughter. I'm going to separate. I've come
to bring a fire. I'm going to burn this dross
up. And he took a whip and plaited it and went into that temple. Clean house. Get out of here. He said, you've made God's house
a house of prayer, a house of worship, into a den of thieves.
Merchandise. What you're doing is selling,
selling, selling. He said, get out of my house.
My house shall be called a house of worship. And my people will
worship. That's what this house is for.
That's what Jesus Christ did. Idols. It's all idols. Anything
that doesn't have to do with me is an idol. And don't make
anything that resembles me. That's an idol. You worship it. Like they did the brazen serpent. Hezekiah, who was a good king,
later on he found the brazen serpent that God told Moses to
make and hold it up and whoever looked, they're not looking to
a serpent, they're looking to Christ. Well, they found that later on
in Hezekiah's day, later on, after Asa. Many years later. Hezekiah found the brazen serpent. People were worshiping that.
They were burning incense to that, like they do things all
over the land today. And Hezekiah, he called it nehushtim. He said, that's nehushtim. What
does that mean? A worthless piece of brass. And
that dirt over in Israel is not holy land, it's dirt. And that
tomb where Jesus Christ was supposed to have been is a dark place
and it's dirt. Don't seek the living among the
dead. And that land over there is not the holy land. I'll tell
you where it is. It's in heaven. And the church is not in St.
Peter's in Rome. The church is right here. And there are no priests except
one. He said, we're getting rid of
all these idols. Asa said, I've heard the word
of the Lord. We're getting rid of all these
idols. No more idols here. We're not going to have any idols
around here. Get rid of it. Go through the land. And he had
his mother. I had you read that. His mother.
His mother had an idol. His dear, sweet mama. And she
was sincere. She loved this idol. She'd been
worshiping this idol all her life. She's a dear, sweet woman. And
somehow or another, she was queen. Where is it saying in God's Word,
let there be a queen? Nowhere. But it degenerated so
bad. Asa's dad was a bad man. His dad was a bad king. And his
grandfather was a bad king. Asa's son was Jehoshaphat. He
was a good one. Good and bad, even in Judah.
But his mother had this idol to grow. And she just cherished
it. She'd worshiped this way all
her life. And Asa came in and said, Get off the throne. You're not queen. God reigns. She said, but no buts about it.
Get down. Mama, come down. Mama, I know
you think you're righteous, but you're not. Mama, I know you
think you're right, but you're not. Mama, I know you've got
this idol that you've loved all these years. It's not God. It's
not the true and living God. Come down, Mama. And we're going
to take that idol, and we're going to take it out here and
stomp on it. That cross, we're taking it down,
Mama. That cross, we're taking it off
the wall, because it's a Nehestic. God reigns. Christ is all. What do you think, Mama? I don't
know how she reacted to that. I don't know. I hope the Lord
was merciful to her. And our Lord said that. That's
the test. Asa, a true man, it says back in chapter 13, he did
that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. Chapter
14, look at it. Verse 2, he did that which was
good and right in the eyes of the Lord God, for he took away
the altar. of the strange God, high places,
broke down the images of statues, cut the groves, commanded Judah,
seek the Lord. He listened to His Word. Nobody
else. This is what we're going to do. And I'll make this all short.
It says all of them. Here's what happened. They all
entered into a covenant. They all agreed, yes, this is
true. This is true. What the prophet
said, this is true. God's word is true. Let God be
true in every man alive. This is what we're all going
to do. You all agree? You agree? You agree, Stan? This is what
we're going to do. We're going to put away idols. We're going to worship
God around here. This was the covenant they made. I'm not trying
to bargain with God. This is with one another. They
said, Kevin, are you with me? Asa said, are you with me? We're going to worship God. We're
going to put away these idols. We're going to worship God and God
alone around here. This is the work we're about,
to hold forth the gospel of Jesus Christ. Stand fast. Though we
all don't, we will by God's grace. Are you with me? Mike, are you
with me? Kelly, Patrick? That's what Asa said. That's
what they all said. And they were all so happy about that.
They were all so glad. It says they renewed the altar. They renewed the altar. There was a good king later on
named Josiah. Oh, I love these stories. Josiah
came. He found the book. They hadn't
even consulted the book for years. They found the book. Josiah was
just pricked. He said, we haven't been worshiping
God like we're supposed to. He said, the first thing we've
got to do is kill a lamb. We've had all these idols all
this time. John, you were in that, weren't
you, Brother John? It wasn't about him. And they
said, we've got to renew the altar. Not this. That's not the
altar. Southern Baptist religion. Come
down to the altar. I was born under that one. Come
down to the altar. I want you to come down to the
altar and sacrifice. That's not the altar. That's not a physical
altar. Christ is the altar. This altar
that they renewed is a picture of Christ. The altar that was
broken down was where the lamb was sacrificed. It's where the
blood was shed. They all knew. They found out
from the Word. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. You can't come into the presence.
You can't worship. God won't hear you. God won't
have anything to do with you. God won't pardon. God won't give
mercy. God won't speak to you. God won't have anything. It's
all an abomination except for the blood. And so they said,
we've got to get the altar back. And they brought 700 bullets
and 7,000 lambs. Perfect number. Seven. Ramblers of blood to show that
Christ, that great work that He did, perfect work, the Lamb
of God that taketh away our sin and the worship of God apart
from the Lamb. You have all the fire you want, all the wood and
hay and stubble, but without the blood, it's an abomination
to God. It's an abomination. And Barbara,
when they all started doing this, they were all gathered and they
all started doing it and they were all so happy. They had peace. They had rest. They had rest.
There was no rest in Israel. Nobody coming or going had any
rest or any peace. Wars and rumors of wars and terrors
and trouble, but God's people had rest. A long time. A long time. That's all I've got to say. OK. John? All right. So I'll turn to number
291. Number 291.