Second Kings chapter 18, there were a succession of kings,
both in the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom
of Judah. As you know, we've talked about
that after Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was split into two,
actually two different nations, you could say. 10 tribes to the
north called Israel, and two tribes, Judah and Benjamin to
the south called Judah. And you see the providence of
God even in that because that tribe of Judah especially was
kept intact through all the problems and all of the sins of the people. In spite of the people, that
tribe of Judah had to be kept intact. because that's the tribe
through which Christ would come, according to the flesh, the kings
of Judah. But there were a succession of
kings in the northern kingdom of Israel and in the southern
kingdom, and it was said of all the kings of the northern kingdom,
every one of them in their history, and that lasted from after Solomon
to the time that the Assyrian army conquered the northern kingdom,
and took them away, spread them out. And all the kings of the
northern kingdom, it was said of this, and this is the way
the scripture puts it, it says, they all did evil in the sight
of the Lord. Concerning the northern kingdom.
Not one king led them in the ways of the Lord. Now, the same
was said of most of the kings of the southern kingdom, most
of them. But there were a few of whom
it was said this, and look here in chapter 18. Let's read the
first three verses. Now it came to pass in the third
year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah,
now here's king Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began
to reign. Now we're talking about a king
in Judah. You know, when we talked about Elijah and Elisha, we're
talking about mostly kings in the Northern Kingdom, but here's
a king of Judah, Hezekiah. And it says in verse two, 20
and five years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned
20 and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abbi
and the daughter of Zechariah. Now that's not the prophet Zechariah,
That's another one and it says in verse 3 now notice this and
he did Hezekiah did that which was right in The sight of the
Lord according to all that David his father did he was a descendant
of David He was of the Judah line And he did that which was
right in the sight of the Lord now one thing it's important
when we and Hezekiah his name means God is my strength And
so, and that's why I entitled this lesson, Christ is our Strength.
And we're gonna see that as we go down through. But one of the
things we need to understand in reading the Old Testament,
especially the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah in the
Old Testament, is what does it mean that this one did evil in
the sight of the Lord and this one did right in the sight of
the Lord? What does that mean? Well, we understand pretty much
what it means they did evil because we know that the Bible teaches
us that we're all sinners. We're all evil by nature in the
sense of our relationship with God and our right standing with
God. And we understand evil, but basically what it's talking
about, you know, the old covenant, the law of Moses, which was a
conditional covenant towards the people of Israel. in which
God forbid them to have any idols. God told them to keep up the
temple and the priesthood and the sacrifices, to worship him
in those earthly elements so that they could be, as the book
of Hebrews said, sanctified as to the purifying of the flesh,
which was a temporal situation. It didn't mean eternal salvation
and eternal purifying or anything like that. the priesthood, the temple, the
Ark of the Covenant, the blood of animals, it all typified the
way of eternal salvation in Christ. And that's the ultimate purpose
of all of it, to show them the impossibility of salvation by
their works. by righteousness by their keeping
of the law, and to show them that God was going to send a
Messiah, a Redeemer, a Savior, whom he promised years before,
and gave that promise to Abraham. And so they were to look to the
future for the Messiah to come for salvation eternally, for
the forgiveness of sins. But all of those elements of
the old covenant that they were to be meticulous to keep and
to make sure that it was a pure worship not contaminated by the
works and the wills of men, not contaminated by idolatry. They
were to keep that up. So when it says that a king did
evil on the side of the Lord, it means that the king neglected
all of that. It means he didn't care about
all that. It means that he allowed idolatry to prevail in Israel. And he did not lead the people. You know, the king, the throne
of Israel, was to be a type of Christ, the king of kings. And
the king was to recognize that, that he was a type of Christ.
David recognized that. Solomon, for a while, recognized
it, and he went awry. I believe he came back, God brought
him back in his old age, but we don't need to talk about that
today. But that's what the king was
to do. He was to recognize that he himself was a type, a picture
of the coming king of kings, and he was to lead the people
in the pure worship of God and in obedience to the covenant.
That's what he was to do. And whenever they didn't do that,
whenever they failed to do that, it was said they did evil in
the sight of the Lord. But now when it says that a king
did right in the sight of the Lord, that's just the opposite. It wasn't talking about that
this, Hezekiah here, verse three, he did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord. This is not saying that Hezekiah
was a perfect man or that Hezekiah was accepted with God based upon
his own righteousness by his works. It's simply saying that
Hezekiah was a man who did not, according to the king's authority,
did not allow idolatry in the land of Judah, the land of Israel. And it says, look at verse four,
it says, he removed the high places. These were high places
of idolatry. It says he broke the images and
cut down the groves. These were all idolatrous places. He break in pieces the brazen
serpent. Now hold on to that thought,
because that's where we're going to go for the, that's going to
be the mainstay of this lesson today. But my point is, is whenever
those few kings of the Southern kingdom did that which is right
in the sight of the Lord, that's what it means. It means the king
led them in the worship. And we could, we could, given
equivalent today, it's like a pastor, and I'm not saying a pastor's
a king or anything like that, but it's like the leadership
of the church leading the church in the gospel without any contamination
of works, of false doctrine, false idols or anything like
that. Leading the church in the ways
of faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and perseverance
in the faith. And so Hezekiah was not a perfect
man. He was a sinner saved by grace,
just like David. And it says here, he did that
which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all
that David his father did. Now we know David was not a perfect
man. We know that he was a sinner
saved by grace. We know that David, as recorded
in scripture, committed some of the most heinous sins, but
he knew that his hope was in his surety, which is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember, it was David who said,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, whose
sins are forgiven. who blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputes righteousness without work. So understand that,
first of all, that anytime you read about any of these kings
that they were, who did right in the sight of the Lord, this
is not saying in any shape, form or fashion that these were perfect
men. They were sinners saved by grace. Now let's look at verse
four here. It says, Hezekiah removed the
high places He broke the images and cut down the groves. And
then it says here, and this is important. It says that he broke
in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. Now you
remember that brazen serpent? Back in the book of Numbers chapter
25, how the people were complaining and God sent fiery serpents,
poisoned serpents, and they bit the people and Moses interceded
for him. And God told him to make a serpent
out of brass and put it up on a pole and set it up there and
tell the people that all who look to that serpent of brass
shall live. And they did live physically.
Now, remember we dealt with that. That's a beautiful picture of
Christ, isn't it? Christ, our brazen serpent. Now, you know, you say, well,
I don't like the idea of Christ being typified by a serpent.
Well, It was Satan who brought in sin into the world through
Adam. And that Christ, when he took
our sins upon himself, he became cursed for us. He was made a
curse for us. And that's what that typifies.
Christ is not a devil. He's not a serpent. He was not
made a sinner. But he took our debt upon himself
and was made a curse. And that's picturing Christ.
in our place as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. And
so that serpent of brass, it was still around in Hezekiah's
day, years after it, that it was actually made. And so Hezekiah,
he took that brazen serpent that Moses had made, and it says in
verse four, for unto those days, the children of Israel did burn
incense to it. Now, why were they burning incense
to it? Well, they were worshiping. Somebody said, well, they were
worshiping the serpent of brass. I don't know that they were worshiping
the serpent of brass itself, but here's the point. They thought
there was some spiritual power there, some spiritual issue there
that caused them to look to that serpent, that piece of brass.
And so Hezekiah, he took that And he called it Nahushtin. Nahushtin. Now you know what
Nahushtin means? Nahushtin simply means a piece
of brass. And what it was, Hezekiah was
showing these people there's no spiritual power or significance
in that piece of brass. It's just a worthless piece of
brass. And Hezekiah, he took it and
he had it ground into powder and done away with. Now think
about that. See, you know, Hezekiah, I believe
the Lord laid this on his mind and his heart. His father Ahaz,
you remember King Ahaz? He was an evil king. He walked in the, the Bible says
in over in first Kings, I believe it is, or second Kings, even
prior to this, it talks about how Ahaz, Hezekiah's father,
how he walked in the ways of the kings of the north. He was
an idolater and he allowed this idolatry. But then Hezekiah,
when he took over and when he was 25 years old, it says, he
had such a sense of the evilness and the wickedness of this idolatry,
all these high places and all these shrines and all these statues. Oh, just like the golden calf,
you remember that the Hebrew children made at the foot of
Mount Sinai? Idol gods. And he destroyed them. He was determined to purge the
land of idolatry. And this was one of the most
significant acts that he performed. He took this brazen serpent that
the people were burning incense to and indicating they were praying
there. And it was a significant piece
of brass now, because it was a picture of Christ, and such
a beautiful picture of Christ and his power to heal us from
the poison of sin and depravity. You remember Christ himself,
when speaking to Nicodemus, he referred to this, he said, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son
of Man be lifted up. John three and verses 14 and
15. But like all of us by nature, if left to ourselves, what do
we do with these things, you see? If left to our sin, our
spiritual death, our depravity, they took, and we'll do this
too if God leaves us to ourselves, they took something which God
had ordained and had made for his glory and they turned it
into idolatry. And that's the way it is with
us by nature. That's what Romans 1 talks about.
Think about this. You know, the heavens declare
the glory of God, the Bible says. The creation is a testimony to
God's glory. This beautiful creation, the
sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, the earth. But what do
we do? We'll look at Romans 1 20. It
says, it says that for the invisible things of God from the creation
of the word are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse, because that when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of
the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. And
so that's us by nature. So here they took this beautiful
piece of brass that beautifully described Christ and they turned
it into a piece of idolatry. And so Hezekiah said, now look,
There's no spiritual power in this. There's no saving significance
in this, in this piece of brass that you're worshiping or worshiping
with. It's just a worthless piece of
brass. Now, what that brazen serpent
pictured, or who that brazen serpent pictured certainly isn't
worthless, that's Christ. And what I say by this is that
Hezekiah saw something in that piece of brass that these other
people did. He saw Christ in that. He went beyond the type
to the anti-type, which is Christ. And what it shows us that There's
no healing power in these things that men and women worship and
go to. You think about all the religious
relics and statues and so-called holy places that people think
about today. And what's this teaching us? Salvation is by God's grace and
all the blessings and all the benefits of salvation All the
work of the Spirit that brings us to eternal life, they're all
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ and all based upon His blood,
His righteousness alone. There's no saving power, there's
no strength in these relics. You know, believers believe,
love, and worship God in spirit and in truth. That's what the
scripture says. Not in form, not in rituals,
not in visual aids. They reject only in Jesus Christ,
or they rejoice only in Jesus Christ and have no confidence
in the flesh. And we're not, Christianity is
not a religion of superstition. I guess that's what I'm trying
to say. You know, people have a lot of superstitions connected
with their so-called, quote, Christianity, unquote. Talk about
religious days, hallowed places. Oh, if I could just visit the
Holy Land. Oh, if I could just get baptized in the Jordan River.
Things like that. Religious relics, symbols and
signs, even their ancestors. You know what Paul said that
even when he had confidence in his heritage, All of that, and
he said, I reject that all for the knowledge of God in Christ
Jesus, for whom I've suffered all loss and do count them but
done that I may win Christ and be found in him. Sabbath days,
Sabbath weeks, all of that. Christ is our Sabbath. He's our
rest. We rest in him, he's our mediator. He's our prophet, our priest,
our king. It's by his blood that we ourselves are made kings and
priests under God. Our right standing before God
is based upon his righteousness imputed to us. Our life that
he's given us, spiritual life, comes from him, and we don't
bow before men, and we make no pilgrimage to any earthly place
for spiritual, I mean, if you wanna go visit Israel, that's
up to you, that's okay, take a vacation, but don't do it for
any, somebody says, well, I'm gonna go to Israel, it'll get
me closer to God. Closer to God? Well, in Isaiah's
day in Israel, did that bring them closer to God? He said,
if it weren't for a remnant, a small remnant, we'd be like
Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd be as far away from God
as Sodom and Gomorrah. So think about that. And I thought
about this in line with this, what Hezekiah did. And I've got
this in your lesson, how the Lord gave us two ordinances.
Believer's baptism and the Lord's table. And both of those ordinances
are beautiful pictures of a believer's relationship with Christ and
how we're saved by the grace of God in Christ. Believer's
baptism, we go down into the water and we come up out of the
water testifying our union with Christ who died, was buried,
and arose again the third day for our justification. There's
no spiritual power or strength in the waters of baptism, but
you know there are churches who preach that it is, who call themselves
Christian. The idolatrous practice of baptizing
infants, the Catholic church, the false Catholic church, taught
and still teaches that that cleanses those babies of original sin. It does no such thing. All that
is, I'll tell you what it does for those babies, it gets them
wet. That's all it does. And there are churches who teach
that in the water, in the literal, physical water of baptism, that
God actually applies the blood of Christ there. Therefore, if
you don't get baptized, that blood's not applied. There's
no application of the blood of Christ in those waters. The application
of the blood of Christ came legally, legally as Christ died on that
cross in our place as our surety, substitute and redeemer, his
righteousness imputed to us, and it comes to us spiritually
when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and brings us to Christ
by God-given faith. And so taking something like
that, and then think about the Lord's Supper. We take unleavened
bread and wine because it doesn't spoil. And that picture's the
beautiful body of Christ, the body that he sacrificed on the
cross. to put away our sins, and his
death in the blood, which satisfied the justice of God. Now that's
another one. You know, the Catholic Church
teaches transubstantiation, if I can get it out, talking about
how that wafer actually turns into the body of Christ, and
that wine turns into the blood of Christ. Well, that's idolatry. There is no spiritual strength
or power or significance in just the wafer and the wine. It's
all in Christ and his blood, you see. And that's, you know,
I thought about this too. You know, people will make pilgrimages
to the Holy Land, they call it. The Holy Land. And they want
to find the tomb of Christ. Well, you know what? It's an
empty tomb. There's nothing there. He's not
there, he's risen. And if you can go, if you could
find the tomb, I doubt that you can find it, but if you could
find it, there's no spiritual strength or significance there.
They used to come back in the old days, they talk about how
they got a piece of the cross. Well, if you could actually find
the whole cross, you know what you have there? A worthless piece
of wood. And you know, there are some
people who would cringe for me even saying something like that. That's how duped they are. First
of all, you can't find any of that wood. It's all gone. It's like Hezekiah had this ground
into powder I think he cast it into the waters or something
like that. But you know, Paul said this, he said in Galatians
6, 14, he said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he didn't have a piece of
the cross. The cross wasn't a piece of wood to him. It wasn't a superstition
to him. It was the power and the strength
of God in the person and work of Christ to put away his sins
and to establish the only righteousness upon which God could justify
the ungodly and from which God gives life to dead sinners. That's
what we're about. It's not about religious relics
and pictures of Jesus. You know, people talk about,
we've got a picture of Jesus and they think, there are no
pictures of Jesus. You know what I'm talking about,
photographs or paintings. There are pictures and types
in the Old Testament, but nobody knows what he looked like. And
God would have it that way. God knows the frame of sinful
men and women. He knows our tendency to take
things like that, just like they're trying to find the cup of Christ.
You know the, what do they call that? The Holy Grail. And if they found it, People
would worship it. You know how they do. They'd
flock to it. They'd bring the sick and the ill to it and touch
it, touch it. And they'll go back and they'll
use passages of scripture like the woman with the issue of blood
who said, oh, if I could just touch the hem of his garment.
There was no power in the hem of his garment. There was power
in the God man who wore that garment. That's not teaching that we,
the shroud of Turin, that's what I was trying to think of earlier.
If you could find the shroud that Christ was wrapped in, you
know what you have? A worthless piece of cloth. He's
not in it anymore. He's in glory. He's the risen
Christ who stands as our mediator and keeps us. Now, look at verse
five. Let's read these last verses. What we have here, these verses
speak of Hezekiah, as a sinner saved by grace, who ruled Judah
in the grace and power of God, and God preserved him and prospered
him in the kingdom. Look at verse five, he trusted
in the Lord God of Israel. Now that's God given faith, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, so that after him
was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that
were before him." God says he was the greatest king of Judah.
Now, why was he great? Because he was such a good guy?
No, it's because he trusted in the Lord God of Israel. He says
in verse six, for he claimed to the Lord. He clung to the
Lord. departed not from following him."
This is the power of God. This is the strength of Christ
in this man. This is not a man who all of
his own personality or his own work rose above everybody else. This is a man whom God blessed
by his grace. He says he kept his commandments.
That doesn't mean he kept the Ten Commandments perfectly. He
didn't. But he kept the covenant, which the relief from the sin
of not keeping the Ten Commandments came through the types and the
pictures of the sacrifices and the priesthood, which picture
Christ. And it said, which the Lord commanded Moses. Verse seven
says, and the Lord was with him. There you go, there's his strength.
Christ is our strength. Not ourselves, not our numbers,
not our bank accounts. The Lord was with him, and he
prospered whithersoever he went forth, and he rebelled against
the king of Assyria and served him." Now, the Assyrian empire
was the biggest empire of that day, and Hezekiah didn't give
in to him, even though he might've been outnumbered and all that,
and there are other stories you can read about that. Verse eight,
he smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof,
from the tower of the watchman to the fence. He didn't give
in to the Philistines. In other words, all that came
against him, he trusted in the Lord and he walked in the ways
of God. Why? Because God was his strength. Christ was and is our strength. Okay.