Let's look back here in 2nd Kings
and read about King Hezekiah and some of the things he'd done
when he first became king over Judah. You know there was a split,
the Israelites And the tribe of Judah and Benjamin stayed
in one place and ten other tribes went somewhere else. So they
had two kings. The king over Israel and the
king over Judah. And that's when the Israel nations had a split
that you can read about that. But he was 25 years old when
he began to reign over Judah. He reigned 29 years. And compared to his father Ahab's
and all the others before him, his was a very, very, very good
reign. God blessed him abundantly. First
of all, it says there in verse 3, He did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord. He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord. According to all that his father
David had done. David was a king after God's
own heart. But Hezekiah, when God raised
him up, only one thing he was interested in. One thing he was
interested in. He said he wanted to do right
in the sight of the Lord. Because he knew God was watching.
God knew him. God knew everything about him.
And he was interested in honoring God and glorifying God and doing
that which is right in the sight of the Lord. And that's the place,
you know, where even in the New Testament it talks about God
seeing, God knowing. And you know what he says, being
accepted in the Beloved. And talking about justification
in God's sight. That's where only thing counts
is what's in God's sight. Now we can never do what's right
in the eyes of the Lord. We can't. We'd love to. We desire to. But we have one
who did. The Lord Jesus Christ. He did everything right in the
eyes of the Lord. All, even from eternity to eternity,
when he is on this earth, the only man that God ever sent,
he does always those things that please me, is his beloved son.
And then here's the fifth, here's the second thing he did. Look
what it says in verse 5. Not only did he do that which
is right in the sight of the Lord, like David did, but he
trusted in the Lord God of Israel. He not only did what was right,
but he trusted Him. He trusted Him. You know, everybody
wants to talk about how they trust the Lord and how they know
God and how they'd love to, you know, and they want to honor
Him and glorify Him. But I tell you, when you trust
the Lord God, and He says, the Lord God of Israel, And you know
that's one thing to trust God. I mean to trust Him. Trust Him,
seek or swim, live or die, in or out, whatever is going on
in your life, trust Him. And then it says this, that you
know, so that after Him was none like Him. Nobody like it was
nobody like him among all the kings of Judah and none that
were before him So I tell you what we're talking about Judah
now the tribe of Judah none had been before him and none had
been after him like him He was so blessed of the Lord and he
reigned. Oh my goodness God blessed him
to reign and then look in verse 6 and after it for he claimed
Here's the third thing. He claimed to the Lord and kept
his commandments and the Lord was with him. And he prospered
with us wherever he went. So he claimed to the Lord, kept
his commandments, and the Lord prospered him wherever he went. You know when you see that word
claim, it's the same word as cleave. That means let hold on. I mean just being like glue.
And you know the first time it's mentioned is about marriage. A man shall leave his father
and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife. Cleave unto his
wife. Paul told the Romans, he said,
cleave to that which is good. And in Acts chapter 11, when
Barnabas went down to see what God had been doing for the saints
down there in Antioch, he saw the grace of God and exhorted
them to cleave to the Lord. cleave to him. I mean just stay,
and he cleaved to the Lord. You know, the closest thing we'd
have to that was I need thee, oh I need thee, every hour I
need thee. In fact, every moment we need you. That's what we're
talking about here. And then this account of the
good reign of Hezekiah, there's one verse that really stands
out here. and of all the rest and we need to pay attention
to it and verse 4 declares this Hezekiah, he removed the high
places, break the images, cut down the groves, break in pieces
the brazen serpent that Moses had made. For unto those days
the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called
it nehushtan, that is, a piece of brass, worthless piece of
brass, what it says in the march. And what he did, he removed all
the high places, break all the statues down, cut down the groves,
took Moses' serpent, that serpent that Moses made and hung up on
that pole. He took that and ground it to
powder, just destroyed it. And I tell you, scattered it
out, scattered it out. But I want you to look over here
in Judges, I want you to see one verse of Scripture in Judges,
back to your left, until you come to Judges judges is read
before the book of Ruth Read before the book of Ruth read
after Joshua. That's where judges is at Look
here in judges chapter 3 in verse 7 This is where Israel was at. This is what they were doing In those days in those days And the children of Israel dwelt
among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites,
and Jebusites. And they took their daughters
to be wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their
gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
LORD, and forgot the LORD, and served Balaam and the groves. Balaam and the groves and so
that's where they was at and when he talked about taking down
the high places The high places what the high places was and
we find that a lot of times in the Old Testament what the high
places was where they had temples and they had shrines and it's
built up on hills or built up on mountains and And they set
them up there for idol worship. It's like Mars Hill. When you
go to Greece, they had Mars Hill. It's that way up there. That's
where all the idols were. That's where all the gods were.
That's where all the altars were. And remember Paul standing up
there preaching about that. And that's where they had these
places they'd go up there and worship. They had temples, shrines. And the statues, you know when
I was in Vietnam they had Buddhist temples everywhere. They called
them pagodas. And you go in there and there's
little old Buddhas everywhere. Idol worship. You go to Mexico
and they've got little old statues and little idol pagodas there
set up with some statues of Mary in that and saints in it and
crosses all over it. And they've got them set up everywhere. Especially wherever there's a
bad curve or something. So that's what they were doing
here. And I tell you, the statues, they had statues in those days.
Just like they have statues today. I mean, listen, do you know how
many Baptist churches got statues in front of them? Church of God's have got statues
in front of them and people think, well, you know, there's nothing
wrong with getting a statue of an angel and setting it up. It's
a statue! And I tell you, like the golden
calf, and they had their idol gods made out of wood, made out
of gold, made out of silver. And he tore all them statues
down, just destroyed all them statues. And then the groves,
the groves where there's a whole bunch of trees gathered together.
Oh, they'd find a bunch of trees gathered together. And they'd
dedicate that to idolatry. And they'd erect altars there
to their gods. In fact, Manasseh, Manasseh burned
his own children to gods. And he was a king of Israel. And burned his own children on
altars. And I tell you what, the altars
were erected to their gods. They had all kinds of altars.
And you remember when Paul and Silas, yeah, Paul and Silas,
they had done some miracles and oh my goodness, them fellas started
saying, Mercury and Jupiter's come down. And they were running,
got some sacrifices and a bunch of guards and run out to them
and was going to do sacrifices to them. And Paul stopped them
and said, no, no, no. They said, the gods has come
down. He says, no, don't do that. I'm a man like you and he preached
the gospel to them. So people are used to looking
for something to worship other than Jesus Christ. That's what
we're talking about here. And like Jupiter, he's a heathen
God they worshipped him in the grove of oaks if there's a bunch
of oaks around that's where we worshipped him and Apollo the
Greek God they worshipped him in a grove of laurels and so
what Hezekiah did he went and destroyed all these high places
tore down the shrines tore down the altars tore down the idols
tore down the statues cut the groves took saws and things cut
the groves down where they would have no place to go And his father didn't do that
and no other kings of Judah didn't do it. But then it also sold
that he took that brazen, break in pieces, that verse four, break
in pieces, that's what we'll talk about. Nahashtan, a piece
of brass. And he break in pieces the brazen
serpent that Moses had made, for to those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it. Y'all remember the story,
remember the, it's a wonderful message. Wonderful message God
sent fiery serpents among Israel for their murmuring for the complaining
for their sin And he said lift that thing up
make a brass serpent Lift it up and everybody looks to it'll
be healed of their disease be healed of that brazen serpent
that bite of those serpents well these Jews these Israelites they
got that thing down off that pole and they carried it around
with them and They carried it around with them. It has some kind of superstition
to it because Moses had made it. Moses had made it. And they imagine it to be some
kind of, you know, it's going to have some spiritual significance
to them some way in their religious activities. and Hezekiah seen
this brass serpent and these people burning incense to it
and worshiping in it and making an idol out of it and not only
did he tear everything else down but he took that brass serpent
and he break it in pieces and the Jew said he ground it to
powder and stoned it to the four winds and he called it a worthless
piece of brass now you know I can understand. I really can. I've
seen folks, oh my goodness, people who worship anything. I can understand
a person's interest in the brazen serpent. I can. What was his
shape like? Did it have curves in it? Did
he wrap it around the pole? What was his head like? Did he
have eyes in it? Did he have a tongue sticking
out of it? So you know, you can have some interest in it. It
would be interesting to see it, that serpent that Moses lifted
up. And our Lord Jesus Christ, it was a type, it was just a
type of our Lord Jesus. Our Savior himself told Nicodemus
when he preached that he had to be born again, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. And as they were healed by looking
at that brazen serpent, the only place a sin sick soul can be
healed is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? And oh my! And I tell you what,
it'd be interesting. Now it would. I'm going to name
a few things. It'd be interesting to see. You
know that rod that Moses had? And how he'd smite things with
it and he'd turn it down and it'd be a snake and then pick
it back up and he'd smite water and it'd turn to blood and he'd
smite the earth and flies would come and lice would come. I mean
that rod had power in it. had power in it. God used that. There would be something to see
that. And then those tables of law. Those tables of law written with
the hand of God himself. Written with the hand and the
finger of God. Boy, that would be something to see. That would
be something to see. Now, you know, I don't think
there's going to be great big old things of stone. They was
probably You know, probably about the size of that. Two of them. And I tell you, that'd be something
to see the table. And what about the tabernacle?
Boy, you describe that tabernacle. All them gold boards. All them
hangings and veils. And outside, you know, it just
looked like a tent. But when you went in, there's
all this white linen all embroidered with all this blue and purple
and scarlet and fine linen. And oh, it's beautiful on the
inside. on the outside, on the walls, gold on the inside. Oh, that would have been something
to see. And then there's that Ark of
the Covenant. You know that Ark made covered with gold and they
lifted it up and they put Moses right in there, they put a pot
of manna in there, and they put the Ten Commandments in there,
the tablets of stone in there, and then they put the top on
it. when they put the top on it. Oh, that'd been something
to see. Huh? And I'll tell you, what
about that rock that was smitten? Wonder where that rock's at. That rock is smitten, you know.
That'd been something to see. And a bit of it would have been
interesting. But listen, I'm going to tell
you something. If you know God and know Christ it would not
inspire you. It would not edify you. And it
wouldn't have any spiritual value at all. And it would have no
consequences in our relationship with God and in our Lord Jesus
Christ. None whatsoever. And all these
things I was telling Shirley tonight, if people thought they
found a piece of the cross, and it was just a little old bitty
tiny piece, people, Baptists and Catholics and Presbyterians
and Pentecostals would line up from here, from California to
New York City to see it. And all the preachers would get
up and say, they found evidence that Christ was on a cross! And
if they found that ark, Oh my goodness, they'd build a shrine
to it and people would be coming from all over the world and they'd
pay big money and say, oh listen, I'm going up on that mountain
up there and they'd get you something to get you up there easy, you
know. Like these ski lifts, they'd get you up on that mountain easy
so you could see that. When people are stupid enough
to look at a piece of toast and see the face of Jesus in it,
they'll do anything. There was a door in some hospital
several years ago. And somebody happened to walk
up on it and they saw Jesus in that door. Well that hospital
got so busy that everybody wanted to come in there and look at
that door. They finally took the door down and took it outside
and set it outside so people could see it outside. They couldn't
handle the people in the hospital. You know what the scripture says? So what if you had the Ark of
the Covenant? Would it save you? Would it add anything to Christ?
Anything to God? No. No, no. In the Scriptures,
Christ is all. Christ is all. No man can come
unto me except by me. Come to the Father except by
me. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's our sanctification. We're
complete in Him who's the head of all principalities and powers.
And God's people, those who have faith, believe, worship, and
love, and worship God in the Spirit, not in any form, not
in any form, not in any candles, not in any uniform that you have
to put on, a robe you have to put on, or a collar you have
to have, a little white collar on, a black jacket. Not in rituals,
not in burning candles, not in walking down an aisle with a
cross. No, no, no. Don't have to have
any visual aids. This here will help us to believe.
We got this chart over here. We got these pictures over here.
And this will help us understand things better. We don't have
to have any visual aids. This Bible, you know, I've told
you this before there's no pictures in this book except of maps in
the back but there's when they people used to go around in college
kids and high school kids used to go around selling Bibles and
people always bought them great old big Bibles and set them on
their coffee table and they opened them up to the prettiest pictures
in them that's what they bought them for for the pictures they
ain't has visual aids Oh my. We only rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We don't have any confidence
in this flesh. And believers have no superstition
regarding any one day of the year. One day is the same day
to us. We don't have any holy days.
I remember a black preacher, he's dead and gone now. And he
used to come around a lot and he says, you know, said, we got
Holy Week this week at the church. I said, what in the world is
that? He's talking about Easter. Holy Week. Holy Week. We don't have any
holy places. We don't have nothing hallowed.
You know the only thing that's hallowed to us? Hallowed be thy
name. Hallowed be thy name. This church is not holy. This
pulpit is not holy. The only thing God gave us this
for is to give us a place where we can meet together to worship
Him. A good, comfortable place. And I'm thankful for it. But
this has nothing to do with our relationship with God. We have
a relationship. Before we get here, we'll have
one when we leave. And we'll get up and have one
before we get back here next Sunday. Is that not right? And I tell you, we don't need
no religious relics. I've seen somebody said the other
day, they said, they found, proved the existence of God. You know God don't even prove
His own existence? Do you know that? All He said
was God in the beginning. Gave Himself certain names, certain
descriptions, certain attributes, But oh, we don't need no religious
relics. No, no. We don't need a band
playing for us. We don't need no symbols. We
don't need no signs. We don't need no ancestors. Paul, he said in Philippians,
he said this. He said, I'm an Israelite. My mother's a Hebrew, my father's
a Hebrew, I was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. After the
strictest sort of religious sect, I was a Pharisee. But you know
what he said? He said, I counted all but done. He didn't look back to his ancestry,
he looked to Christ. And I tell you, you know, when
we talk about days and all these things and all the things that
people want, people go on and on about the Sabbath. Christ
is our Sabbath. He's our rest. People say, well,
we need to bring an offering of some kind of a sin offering.
Christ is our sin offering. They got these priests and all
that and they decide what's going to happen in the church and all
that. Christ is our high priest. And you gotta have a place to
worship. Christ is where we worship at. He's our altar. We got to
have somebody go between us and God. That's Christ, our mediator. We gotta have somebody come and
tell us about God. Christ is our prophet. We got
to have a priest go between us and God with a sacrifice. And
he offered the sacrifice of himself. and we have to have a king like
Judah had this king we got the greatest king in the universe
the king of kings and lord of lords and he reigns gloriously
and majesty and power and it's by his blessed blood
that God himself washed us from our sins made us kings and priests
to our God we bow to him and him alone We don't make no pilgrimages
to no place on this earth. You know why? Because God is
everywhere. Wherever you're at, that's where
God's at. You can't go no place where He's not. You say, well,
we need to make a pilgrimage to such and such a place. God's
over there. God's everywhere. I tell you,
We ain't going to carry no religious symbols. I've seen people go
across the country carrying crosses on their back. Of course they got a wheel on
it that makes it easier to do. Put you a good rubber wheel on
it. Oh my. And I tell you we don't
have no religious symbols. And listen, I'm going to say
something right here. We don't place any merit in any
religious holidays and everybody wants a religious holiday Christmas
that's a religious holiday everybody wants to keep Christ in Christmas
Christ was never in Christmas the very name is what is Christ
Mass that's what that means Now I like it, I like those holidays
because it makes people, they get into good humor and a lot
of good food and people start treating one another a little
better. But we ain't going to put no religious significance
on it whatsoever. None. No, no, no, no, no, not
for us. And then Easter rolls around.
That's the resurrection of Christ. You ever seen these folks, you
know, on Ash Friday or West Wednesday or something you know they put
a bunch of ashes on their forehead listen we serve a risen Christ
every day of our lives we don't set aside a day and say this
is going to be the day we're going to worship Christ because
he rose from the dead and then they bring in a bunch of bunnies Oh, dear.