Thank you, Brother Walter. Thank
you for inviting me. Thank you for allowing me to
come and be with you to do this thing of worship. If you will,
turn with me to the book of 2 Kings and find chapter 18. This is
something that happened years ago, but how does it affect us
today? When we read the scriptures,
and Old Testament scriptures especially, we see the types
and shadows and pictures. We ask ourselves, what's this
teaching me? If it's only a historical event,
then it will do us very little. But if it's an event that points
us to Christ, and tells us to look unto Him, and to Him alone,
then it will greatly enhance us and profit us. We're going
to be looking at the first eight verses in 2 Kings chapter 18. Now it came to pass in the third
year of Hosea, the king of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah,
the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Twenty and five
years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned for
29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abide
and the daughter, Zechariah. Hezekiah was a goodly king, a
king that sought after God's will. He sought for the people
to serve God and to come to God and to worship God. Several kings
had reigned over Israel. Israel was split into two kingdoms. Colonies or two tribes or whatever
you want to call it Israel and Judah and Hezekiah was king over
Judah and Hezekiah Did that which is right in the sight of the
Lord in verse 3 According to all that David his father did
He was a king that desired to follow follow the Lord and And
as we'll read down through here, he began to do things that no
other king had done. No other king had done for, if
I can understand history right, for 750 years. They carried this serpent on
a pole that Moses made, and they burned incense to it. They worshipped
it. They said, this be our God. And
for 750 years, they did this. And now here Hezekiah comes.
led by the Spirit of the Lord, no doubt. No doubt. Men just
don't do this on their own. They must be led. They must be
taught. They must be given an understanding of what are we
doing? What kind of idolatry have we
fallen into? And he removed the high places
in verse 4. He broke down the images and
cut down the groves and break in pieces the brazen servant
that Moses had made. For under those days, for under
those days, from that time that Moses made it to this time today,
they did burn incense to it. And he called it Nateshtetain.
This is a verse we want to look at for just a little while. Hezekiah
removed the high places. The Israelites had fell into
idolatry. Now these are God's people, and
what's this telling me? It's telling me, watch out, watch
out. We're simple, sinful creatures. We're apt to fail, sure to fall. And the Israelites, God's chosen
people, fell into idolatry. They worshiped all manner of
gods. The high places were temples and shrines on top of mountains
where they went to worship idols. Whatever they made with their
hands or whatever they thought within their minds, they went
and worshipped these idols. And oh, is this not common today? The pictures on the wall, crosses
hanging here. But that's who we are. That's
who we are by nature. Except by the grace of God, you
and I would still be doing the same thing. And Hezekiah went
in and destroyed these places, these high places. Can you imagine
the look on the Israelites' faces when Hezekiah began to tear down
these temples? You're destroying our God. This
is the God that brought us out of Egypt. This is the God that
supplied us all these years. You can't do that. I made it
mention to Brother Paul while we were talking
this week. Several years ago at Dingus, we was in a Free World
Baptist Church. Most of us was religious to the
hilt. Had no idea who God was. Had
no idea who the Lord Jesus Christ was. And we had a They called
it an altar. It was, the pulpit goes, some
of you have been there, you go up two steps of the pulpit and
below it there was a half-moon circle. It was put there for
structural, but it was used as an altar. And as we replaced
the floor, we tore the floor out, and we attempted to take
part of, or take it out, and it caused an uproar. It caused
an uproar. You can't take our altar out.
Who are we going to worship God at? So, some of us still are. Because of the structural part
of it, we couldn't take all that we wanted to out of it, but we
did take some of it out. We know better now. By the grace
of God, Our altar is Christ. That's where we worship Him at. It don't make any difference
if it's here in this building, although this is a place where
God has ordained for His people together, or if it's outside,
we worship God in spirit and in truth. We worship God and
have no confidence in the flesh. We worship Him for who He is. We fail. Oh my, do we fail. But by the grace of God, we do
worship. We do come to Him in prayer.
We have nothing in our hands. We have nothing to cling to except
Christ and Christ alone. And He removed these high places.
And He broke down the images. Oh my! Hezekiah must have been
a very courageous man. I mean, he was going against
the whole nation of Israel here, or Judah, in doing this. But
yet, led by the Spirit of the Lord, led by the help of God,
he went in and destroyed these places, broke down these images. These groves were wooden areas,
dedicated to where the altars would be erected to their gods,
their gods. Not the god, their gods. It was
said that Jupiter, one of the gods they worshipped, was worshipped
in a grove of oaks, and Apollo in a grove of laurel. In Judges
chapter 3 and verse 7. The children did evil in the
sight of the Lord, and they forgot their gods and served Baal in
the groves. You can read several places throughout
the Word of God where God instructed His people. He told them in Exodus
when they were getting ready to come into the land of Canaan.
He said, I've given this land to you. I've drove out before
you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Pervisites,
the Hivites, and the Jebusites. You go in and you take it. You
destroy everything That is idolatry. You destroy every temple. You
destroy every imagination that men had when they erected these
different statues. You go in and destroy them so
that you will not be able to worship them. Because He knew.
God knows our frame. He knows that we are but dust.
And He knows how little we are within ourselves. Let thou not make a covenant
with the children of the land. Don't be fellowshipping with
them. Destroy them. I've drove them out, now you
take possession of the land and you destroy everything in it
that looks idolatry. And he said, thus shall you destroy
their altars and break down their images, cut down their groves
and burn their graven images with fire. Do away with them.
Do away with them. to the point that they have nothing
to do except look to Christ. We have nothing to worship except
Christ and Christ alone. And when we do this, led by the
Spirit of God, led by God's instruction, led both through the teaching
and the preaching of the Word of God, we worship Him with a
right spirit, a right mind, and a right heart. Because the Lord loved you, And
because he would keep the oath which he sworn unto your fathers,
has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand." Why did
God choose his people? Simply because he would. He had
the power, he has the right, he has the authority to choose
whomsoever he will, and he goes through, this is mine, that one's
mine, that one's mine, come out. Most of us and most of the people
of God that you talk to came out of a religion. And that's
what he said. You come out from among them
and be a separated people. Because I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. Because I chose you before the
foundation of the world. Because I sent my son to die
for you. You come out. You're mine. I
will not share my glory with another. You are mine. and I will not let you go astray."
Oh, the children of Israel did. They was a type and a picture
of the true children of Israel. Because they was chosen of God,
they was redeemed by God, by the blood of Christ, and through
these Old Testament sacrifices. But many of them sinned against
God, just as you and I do. We forget. We forget. We don't worship Him as we should.
We don't worship Him and serve Him as often as we could. We
have this thing on the side of recliners called a remote, and
that takes most of our time. That's just as simple as I can
put it. But these things, no doubt, would
have been interesting to see. Wouldn't you imagine what the
cross of Christ looked like? But if you found it, if you found
it, it would be nothing but a piece of wood. It would have no advantage
to you in order to worship our God. You imagine, I heard a while
back that someone with a sonar had found where the ark was.
It's way up in the, maybe Alaska or Canada, somewhere. It's frozen,
they say, under so many layers of ice. But if they could retrieve
that, They would worship it. And you and I would too, except
by the grace of God. So this piece of brass that Moses
made, or God instructed him to make them, the children of Israel
had sinned against God. And God, the scriptures tell
us that he sinned among them fiery serpents. And when the
person was bit by this serpent, there was no help, which this
is a picture of sin now. When you and I sin, it's a death
sentence. It's a death sentence. I meant
the wages of sin is death. And when these people were bitten,
there was no cure for it at that time. So the people murmured,
or the people came to Moses, and Moses went to the Lord. And
the Lord instructed Moses, He said, You make a brazen serpent
like unto these fiery serpents, and you put it upon a pole. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Make the fiery serpents, this is in
Numbers chapter 21 verse 8, and set it upon a pole. And it shall
come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon
it, he shall live. Now this forest serpent had deadly
poison within their veins. And when they bit, it was sure
death. So it is with sin. So it is with
sin. God used this forest serpent
as a type of our crucified Redeemer. When we look to Him, when we,
by the grace of God, through the faith that God gives us,
when we look to Him, we live. We live. So did the children
of Israel. When they looked towards that
forest serpent, or when they looked at that brazen serpent
on a pole, they lived. They lived. And Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. Oh yes, there may be an interest
in this serpent, but according to history and according to what
I've read, Hezekiah took this serpent, this brazen serpent,
and ground it up into powder and cast it into the wind. You
think of all that the tabernacle had in it. Oh, wouldn't it be
interesting to walk into the very tabernacle where Moses served
and Aaron served? But if we could see it, if we
could lay our hands on it, it wouldn't be long. This is our
God. This is our God. This is what
we want to worship. This is the thing we want to do. In the worship
of God, Christ must be all. Put away these sacrifices. Put away these idols. Put away
these pictures, crosses, types, whatever it is. Put them away
and worship Christ and Christ alone. Our Lord said in the book
of John, chapter 14, He says, I am the way, not a way, the
way. I am the truth, not a truth,
but the truth. I am the life, not a life, the
life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. If any man, woman, young or old,
makes no difference what nationality they are, if they are to come
to God, it must be through the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be
through the righteousness of His works, the righteous deeds
that He did, and the blood that He shed, in order for any man,
woman, young or old, to come and worship God. You say, well,
I can worship God. No, you can't. There's only one
way. There's only one prescribed way
for men and women to come to God, and that is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. To Him, to Him, gave all the
witness prophet. All prophets witness. And through
His name, whosoever believeth in Him, shall receive remission
of sins." What a blessing. Oh my. To know that my sins are
gone. Not because of what I done, or
what I could do, or what I will do, but because He has taken
them away. He came lived in this flesh,
made of woman, made under the law, to redeem. And that's what
He did. That's what He did. He accomplished
what He came to do. He is not a defeated Jesus. He
is a conquering Savior. There's a whole world of difference
between here. The difference is life and death.
Those that say, oh Jesus wants to save you. It's prevalent in
our area and probably yours also. Jesus has done all he can do.
Now it's up to you to take the first step, to walk down to the
front, to shake the preacher's hand. That's foolishness. That
is foolishness. But I was in it. I was in it
and I believed it. And I was sincere about it. But
I was sincerely wrong. Until God opens our hearts and
opens our eyes and opens our understanding, we will still
do it. I get upset with my family and
close acquaintance, but they're blind. They're dead. And the only thing, the only
person can do anything for them is for God to open their eyes. But they love darkness rather
than light. They want to stay where they're
at, listen to what the preacher is telling them, and push aside
the gospel. They push aside the truth. If we are to come to God, it
must be through Him. If we are to worship Him, if
we are to worship God, it must be in, through, and by Him. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom to know God. How do we know? What made us come out from among
these people? What made us separate ourselves
from Him? the wisdom of God. God told us,
look unto me and be ye saved. He is our righteousness. I stand
before God this very moment, righteous in the sight of God.
And you preach that to people, you shouldn't say that. That's
blasphemy. I know who you are. I know who I am too, but I can
still say this with certainty because who I look to Because
who has done this work for me? He is my righteousness. He has
sanctified me. I, in the very presence of God,
God declares me sanctified. You're holy. You're holy. Because
I have redeemed you. That according to His written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. What do we have
to glory in in this flesh? We go out of this building, but
probably before we get home, we'll forget what we heard. And
if we keep it tonight, it will be gone in the morning for sure. If men could find things of the
tabernacle, they would fall down and worship it. But Paul sums
it up in Colossians chapter one, verse 12. He said, giving thanks
unto the Father, which has made us meet, fit, to be partakers,
we're partakers, of the inheritance of the saints of light, who had
delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us,
translated us, into the kingdom of His dear Son. You and I, that
look to Christ by faith right now, we are the sons of God. We are heirs of God. And we worship
God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. What a statement. What
a statement. That my sin have been forgiven. for the simple reason that Christ
paid for them. He paid for them. Sin must be
dealt with. This thing of sin must be dealt
with. God is too holy. He's too just. He's too righteous
to sweep sin under the rug. It must be dealt with, and it
must be paid for. Therefore, because my sins were
laid on Him, When he went to the tree, Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth
in me, and the life that I now live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. He has delivered
me from the condemnation. He has brought me to an understanding
that I have paid it all. I paid every sin debt that my
people owe, and they are in the sight of God declared to be holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable. He says, and having made peace
through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself, by Him, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometimes aliens and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled. He
takes those that curse God to His face. He takes those that
worship idols instead of God, and He brings them to Himself
and pays their sin debt to the point that they are one with
God. I don't understand that, but that's what the book says.
You mean that Jesus did it all? Exactly. That's exactly what
we attempt to tell men and women every time we stand before Him.
Jesus paid it all. For in Him dwell all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete. Nothing
can be added to you. Nothing can be taken away from
you. You are complete in Him. When by faith you look to Christ,
when you believe, then are you sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise. You say, well there it is, I gotta believe. You can't
believe except God gives you faith, the gift of God. The gospel we preach, or attempt
to preach, strips man naked, leaves him with nothing to hold
to, and then, They see their shame. They see their nakedness. They see their inability. They
see that they are dead to the things of God. And until God
comes and gives life to you, you will remain there. But thanks
be unto God who has given us the victory. He has given us
life and life to look to Christ. Believers love God. Oh, the song
that we sung. We do love Him, but not the way
we should love Him, as Walter said. But the only reason we
love Him is because He first loved us. My love is up and down. It's a selfish love to start
with. It's up and down. It's hot and
cold, but not so with God. I'm getting into my second message.
I better get off there. Believers believe, believers
love, and believers worship. Not in form, not in rituals,
not in this visible aid. We need no visible aid. We need
nothing to lay our hands on. We have Christ in the heart and
in the spirit and in the soul of men. And there we lay our
faith on Him. They rejoice only in Christ Jesus.
True believers have no superstitious regarding days. Today is just
another day. It's the day that we set aside
according to the work area, according to the working of the nation. It's the day that we set aside.
Sunday is to worship God. Truly, from what I've read, Saturday
is the Sabbath, according to Scripture. Sunday is the first
day of the week. But we set this day aside. But
it's not a holy day. It's nothing. It's just another
day of the week. We gather together at home and
worship on Wednesday night. It's no different. That's just
the day that we set aside to do these things. There's no hollow
places. We don't go to the eastern country
to worship God. We worship Him here. There's
no holy places over there. Just because Christ walked on
the sand of the seashore, that don't make it holy as far as
pertaining to worshiping God. Although Christ is holy and everything
that he touched is holy. But we don't go over there looking
for a holy place to find comfort and find rest. We find it in
Christ and Christ alone. Who is everywhere. He's our Sabbath. He's our sin offering. He's our
high priest. He's our altar that we come to
offer sacrifice of praise and honor and glory unto Him. And we dare not bow to any man. Oh, it sticks a spear in me when
I see them bowing before this man with a little white cap on. call him Holy Father. It's blasphemy. And they will be held responsible. Our Lord has given his church
two different ordinances that I can find in scripture. The
first one is baptism. He that believe and is baptized
shall be saved. The second one is the Lord's
table. As often as you do this, you do show the Lord's death
until He's come. As far as I can find in the New Testament Scriptures,
that's the only two ordinances that the Church has. I may have
overlooked one, but as far as I can understand, that's the
two that He gave us. In observing the Lord's table, we simply use
the simple elements of bread and wine. And we show forth the
Lord's death. This is take, eat. This is my
body which is broken for you. This is my blood that was shed
for you. And as often as you do this, you do show the Lord's
death to come. And this thing of baptism, it
don't make us holy when we come out of the water. It makes us
wet. If we're not sanctified before
we go into the water, we'll come out the same way we went in.
Except we'll be wet. We'll be wet. But knowing something about outward
religion, it would be safe to say that the religious Jews were
shocked when they seen Hezekiah destroy these temples. Let me move on. We trust, rest
in and believe our Lord Jesus Christ. And we abhor any effort,
any effort, to rob him of his preeminence. Brother Henry said,
let us be done with crosses, religious pictures of our Lord,
shrines, uniforms, and religion. Let us simply worship God in
spirit and in truth, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh.