Be with you all, and I bring
greetings from San Leandro, California to you. As Pastor Don said, we
go way back. I'm pleased to know that some
of you remember me, even though I don't remember you. And I'm
impressed with that. The older you get, the fewer
things we do remember. And I thank God that He has allowed
our acquaintance to be so long lived. Don is a special friend,
a special friend of mine. And we love him in California,
and I love him personally. And I thank God for your pastor.
I thank God for your church. I want you to turn in your Bibles
to 2 Chronicles chapter 23. 2 Chronicles chapter 23. Let me say as you are going there
that I happen to agree with everything that has been preached today.
I happen to agree with everything that has been preached since
the beginning of this conference. I agree in the mystery of the
God-man, Jesus Christ. I agree that it is a great, great
mystery how he could so love me that I am as dear to God the
Father as his own darling son. I agree with the doctrine we
call the union of the believer with Christ. What a great mystery.
It's the comfort of the believer, isn't it? Everything that Christ
is, I am in him. This is a mystery. It's the comfort
of the believer, too, because Christ can't fail. And therefore,
I can't fail either. I also agree with what Brother
Crabtree preached, in that the gospel is a very, very narrow
way. A very narrow way. And it's a
way that is so narrow that the only way a sinner will ever come
to God is if he's drawn by God the Father, saved by Christ the
Son, and quickened by God the Holy Ghost. Amen. I also agree with Brother Burr,
Jim Burr, when he preached the simplicity of the gospel out
of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 through 3, how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Rose was buried
according to the scriptures, and rose again the third day
according to the scriptures. I agree with everything that
says and everything that means. I agree that from Genesis 1 to
Revelation 22 and 21, that this whole book is about Jesus Christ. I also agree with Brother Donnie
Bell that until God reveals Christ to your heart, you are lost. God must reveal Jesus Christ
to his people in order for them to know him and have a saving
relationship with him. And God's going to do just that.
He's going to do just that. For you to know the true and
the living God, you must know Jesus Christ. I also agree with
my brother. Cody, as he was preaching tonight,
I'm thinking about the essence of his message towards the end,
how that Christ must increase and we must decrease. That's
absolutely true. That's absolutely true. In our
text of 2 Chronicles chapter 23, there's a very unusual and
peculiar event transpiring. The high priest, Jehoiada, A
faithful man, faithful to God, faithful to the purpose of God,
faithful to the gospel of God, is doing something by which we
are taught the nature and work of the Spirit of God in the redemption
of sinners through Jesus Christ. Chapter 23 of Chronicles will
show us how it is the job of the Spirit of God to raise Christ
up in a generation of absolute apostasy and religious farce. You and I are living in a day
where religion is rampant and false religion is rampant. Idolatry is rampant and apostasy
in the church is absolutely rampant, and the only remedy for such
a rampant, pervasive, all-encompassing apostasy is the revelation of
Jesus Christ. The previous verses, subsequent
to chapter 23, describe a woman named Athaliah. She was the daughter
of Jezebel and Ahab. She was married, unfortunately,
to one of the sons of David. She was married to Jehoshaphat's
son, Joram. What a strange combination. In
the Old Testament, during the monarchical period, what we have
is a picture of religion as we have it today. The 10 northern
tribes were called Israel. And the two southern tribes were
called Judah and Benjamin, or Jewry. If you follow the history
carefully, you'll find that the ten northern tribes were in constant
rebellion and disobedience to the true and the living God.
I don't believe any of them as a whole ever knew the true and
the living God. Their era began in the days of
Solomon and reached the peak under Jeroboam when he built
two golden calves, put one in Dan and the other in Bethel,
and the whole religious world went to Dan and Bethel to worship. This corresponds with the religion
of our day. Our present day worship is a
Baal worship of the golden calf of the flesh, just like Cody
said. What we are seeing in our larger evangelical church today
is nothing but flesh worship, nothing but worship of the flesh,
nothing but carnal self-gratification. That's all. Now, the two southern
tribes, Benjamin and Judah, for a season, and only by the mercy
of God, because God had made a covenant with David, would
preserve a seed to sit on his throne until our master, the
Lord Jesus Christ, would come. So as you go through the Old
Testament, you will see a period of time where Judah appears to
remain faithful to the gospel. But something horrible occurs
for which there is a great lesson for the church today. And that
is the marriage of the son of David to the daughter of Ahab. Athaliah marries Joram, which
is the son of Jehoshaphat. And what God said in 2 Chronicles
chapter 19, verse 2, is remarkable. Listen to what God says to Jehoshaphat. Now, he's a child of God. He's
an object of God's mercy. But he did something horribly
wrong worthy of our attention. If you go there, notice what
it says. We're only a couple of chapters back. And please
let this burn in your ears as you think about the necessity
of the faithfulness of the preaching of the gospel in this generation.
I'm in chapter 19, verse 2. And Jehu, the son of Hanani,
the seer, went out to meet him, that is, Jehoshaphat. And he
said unto King Jehoshaphat, listen to these words, shouldest thou
help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord. Therefore
is wrath upon thee from before the Lord." Do you see that? See,
if you don't understand, the question is, can there be any
correspondence between false religion and the true gospel?
Can there be any affinity between Arminian free will works religion,
flesh worship, bear worship, and the worship of the true and
the living God. Can there be any affinity? God
says to do so is to love them that hate me. Amen. That's what it said. Can there
be any affinity between apostate Christianity and the truth of
the sovereign grace of God as it is in Christ? And the answer
is no. Amen. God says that. He says they hate me. And you
know what else? He says I hate them. And where we are in chapter 23 describes for us the consequence
of this foolish behavior on the part of Jehoshaphat to allow
his son, Joram, to marry Jezebel and Ahab's daughter in the name,
watch this now, that we're brother. We're brother. And I want you
to see the consequences of an affinity between false religion
and the compromise of the gospel. I'm in chapter 22, verses 10
through 12. This will set the context, and
then I'll make sure I run through this. I'll be done by 8, so Pastor
Don can have me back. But when Athaliah, the mother
of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, her son being Ahaziah
was killed by God. God killed the seed of Ahab. Killed the seed. Now, think about
this for a moment. If you've been told by God that
he's going to kill all the children of Ahab, why would you have anything
to do with it? God kills the children of Ahab,
and the text tells us when Apollos saw that, she arose and destroyed
all the seed royal of the house of Judah. Do you see that? She
pursued every one of David's sons to put him to death. Her
goal was to exterminate the objects of God's mercy. That typical
seed that would bring us to Jesus Christ in the line of David so
that she could usurp the throne for herself. Now this is how
you understand false religion. Watch this now. False religion
will always seek to destroy the gospel. False religion will always
seek to destroy the truth of the gospel. False religion, if
it could get its hands on Jesus Christ today, would kill Jesus
Christ today. And false religion will kill
every one of God's elect if they could. This is Athaliah. Now Athaliah represents for us
in our present generation what I call an effeminate society. We live in a society of feminism,
absolute feminism. Do you know what feminism is?
Feminism is the result of men abrogating their authority in
the things of God. Feminism is a consequence of
men setting aside that God-ordained call to be the head of the church,
to be the head of the home, as a representative of Christ, and
to stand in his stead to preach the truth of the gospel. It is
a setting aside of their authority as men to represent the true
and the living God. That's what feminism is all about.
Feminism, by definition, is equality without distinction. You can
write that down. Feminism, by definition, is equality
without distinction. You know what that is? That's
a redundancy. You know what a redundancy is?
Confusion. Your confusion is? It's of the
devil. Why would God make two of the
same thing when the first thing worked just fine? Why would God
make a man like a woman and a woman like a man? Why would he do that? He wouldn't. He wouldn't. Will you hear me, ladies and
gentlemen? We live in an effeminized age, an age of feminism, the
age of Aquarius we live in. Weak men and manly women out
of their place, and men out of their place. This is a perverse
society we live in. And here, I'm telling you, the
precursor to the larger abomination of the world and the church in
terms of homosexuality and lesbianism is the effeminate society that's
been going on for 40 years, 50 years in our present country.
How important is this to you? Listen carefully to me. God not
only ordains the source by which men and women are saved, he ordains
the means by which they are saved. We can no more despise or reject
or set aside the means by which God saves men and women than
we can the source from whom all blessings flow. They may not
be equal in terms of their essence, but they're just as equal in
terms of their purpose because God is known by the judgments
which he executes. If you're going to know the truth
of the living God, you're going to know Him by the way He works. And
here's the way that God Almighty works. He works by raising up
men to preach the truth of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ to save hell-bound sinners who were chosen in Him from before
the foundation of the world. That's how He saves them. That's
how He has always saved them. That's how he had been saving
them. And that's how he will save them in the future. When
you therefore walk into a tabernacle, a church, a congregation, a synagogue,
ask yourself the question, do they obey the gospel? Do they
obey every tenet of the gospel? Do they obey every standard of
the gospel? What I'm crying out to you folks
about is this myth of things being new. I think I heard it
from Brother Jim. I'm not looking for a new thing.
Are you? Ain't nothing new under the sun, Solomon said. And if
it's new, in all likelihood, Brother Rupert is wrong. In all
likelihood, it's wrong. Athaliah has pursued the seed
because she wants to usurp the throne and be queen over Israel.
The text tells us in chapter 23, verse 1, for six years she
reigned over Israel with a strong hand and an iron fist, seeking
to destroy all of God's elect and to extirpate the gospel from
the land. For six years. Can you imagine
that? Six years. No worship of the true and the
living God. Six years. But do you know the
true and the living God cannot fail? Do you know that? Not only
can he not fail, he can't lie. And not only can he not lie,
he can't change. You know what God does when the
enemy moves and he only moves according to God's will and sovereign
purpose. You know that, right? God made
all things for himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. This was nothing but a pretext
for God to give glory to himself. Are you ready? God's going to
exalt his son in this text through this darkness. The text goes
on to tell us in chapter 22 verse 11, but Jehoshabit, the daughter
of the king, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him
from among the king's sons. Do you see that? That were slain. He put him in a nurse, in a bedchamber,
so Jehoshabit, the daughter of the king, Joram, the wife of
Jehoiada, the priest, She was his wife. She hid him in the
temple with the Lord. Listen to this. And she hid him
from Athaliah so that she slew him not. The first thing I want
you to understand with that as we move on into our message is
this. God protects and hides his elect. God protects and hides his elect. Like many of the other children
that God had destined to be brought into this world as a great type
of the Lord, Jesus Christ finds himself in danger. Much like
we heard this morning with Joseph. Remember his brothers wanted
to kill him. He didn't only get sold into Egypt. If it was left
up to them, they would have run his neck and killed him. That's
the kind of animosity and hatred and vitriol that's in the natural
man. It's in you and it's in me too. But God protected Joseph,
didn't he? It happened again in the days
of the judges under Gideon. You remember Gideon? Gideon had
70 sons and he had a young son named Jotham. And if Abimelech,
one of his sons, could have, he would have destroyed all of
Gideon's sons. But Jotham was hid. God hid Jotham. Can I tell you something else,
children of God? From before the foundation of the world,
when God the Father drew up the covenant of grace and mercy and
chose us in Christ Jesus, our head, the one with whom we are
brought into union, he hid us in Christ before the world began.
That's what the Bible teaches us. The Bible says you are dead
and your life is hid with Christ. who when Christ comes, who be
in your glory, you also will be revealed with him. The believer
in this world presently is hidden in God. Am I telling the truth?
I thought about that after developing this over a few months, and I
found out, Pastor Don, that it's a good thing to be hidden in
Christ. It's a good thing to be hidden. Hold on now. It's
because if the enemy could actually know who you are, He would kill
you on the spot. Let me develop that a little
bit. The Bible tells us in 1 John 3, verses 1-3, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God, right now, but it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. It's so hard to tell who a true
believer is today. If you don't know the true and
the living God, you can't tell a saint from an ape. If you don't
know the truth of the gospel, you can't tell one of God's elect
from one of God's not elected. Am I telling the truth? And I
think it's a mercy of God that he allows us to walk in this
flesh, in the weakness of our fallen nature, and even, yes,
in our sinful propensity, so that we might keep our faith
toward the true and the living God. And God would keep us here
in Christ until Christ comes. I think it's God's mercy that
we don't appear to be what we have been in Jesus Christ. Why?
Because when they saw Jesus, they sought to kill Him. If they
could, they'd kill you too. But the reason they don't is
because you appear to be just like they are, a group of sinners. By the mercy of God, am I telling
the truth? By the mercy of God, you and
I have been hid. The boy Joash was hid in the
temple for six years, hid in the temple for six years and
no one knew but his sister and his spiritual father Jehoiada,
the high priest. No one knew. He was hid in the
temple for six years. Jesus Christ, the Bible says,
was hid in God from before the foundation of the world. He remained
a mystery throughout the aeons of time. And he was only revealed
when he came forth, born of a woman, made under the law, that he might
redeem us from the curse of the law. Listen to the text now.
I want to show you several things as we make our way through this.
Verse 1 of chapter 23. And so in the seventh year, Jehoiada
strengthened himself and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah
the son of Joram, and Ishmael the son of Jehoman, and Azariah
the son of Obed, and Mahasi the son of Adalah, and Elishaphat
the son of Zichri into covenant with him. Do you see verse 1?
It says that Jehoiada strengthened himself. Now let me remind you
Jehoiada is the highest priest. Jehoiada is the spiritual leader
of Israel and Jehoiada represents for us in this context the Holy
Spirit. The job of the Holy Spirit is
to take the things of Christ and to reveal them to us. The
goal of the Spirit of God is to make known to his people the
glory of God in Jesus Christ. Is that not so? And the text
tells us that he strengthened himself, listen to it now, in
the seventh year. Do you see that? And then he
took these men. These men were the rulers in
Israel. They were the priests in Israel.
They were the princes in Israel. And he brought them together
with him in covenant. What did he do? I'll tell you
exactly what he did. He took the men, and he revealed to them the son,
the king of Israel. Keep your hand here and go with
me to 2 Kings chapter 11, the alternative interpretation and
writing of this text, and I want you to see it for yourself. Jehoiada,
as a type of the Spirit of God, has a chief duty in revealing
Christ to his people. He has a chief duty in revealing
Christ to all of his elect. In fact, that is the specific
call and purpose of the Spirit of God. When He, the Spirit of
Truth, is come, He will take the things of mine, and He will
show them to you. I'm in chapter 11. Listen to
the alternate rendition of the same account. I'm reading verse
4. Are we there? Listen to it. Listen to it. And in the seventh
year, Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds with
captains and guards and brought them to him into the house of
the Lord. Do you see this? And he made a covenant with them,
didn't he? Now watch this. And he took an oak of them in
the house of the Lord and showed them the king's son. What did Jehoiada do? He kept
the boy hid for seven years. while Athaliah's feminism reigned
prominent over all Israel. And in the seventh year, in the
fullness of time, he revealed the king's son to the leadership. Now watch this now. He revealed
him to the leadership. He revealed him to the leadership. He didn't reveal him to all the
people. He didn't reveal the Son to all
the people at one time. He began to reveal the Son to
the leadership. Now what this underscores is
that which the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 1, that
you and I who are believers in Christ, chosen of God, have received
redemption through Jesus by His blood, that is the forgiveness
of sin according to the riches of His grace wherein He has made
known unto us and all wisdom and prudence, the purpose of
his will, wisdom and prudence. You see what the text teaches
us, go back with me to our text now so that we can move forward.
What the text teaches us is that God has a way in which he reveals
his gospel. He does not reveal his gospel
to anyone and everyone at any time. He does not reveal his
gospel to those he haven't purposed for the cause of revealing his
gospel. What are you saying? I'm saying
that when God reveals his gospel, when the work of the Spirit of
God takes place, what he does first and foremost is reveal
Jesus Christ to the leadership of the church. He reveals Jesus
to the preachers, he is called to reveal the gospel to those
who are meant to see Christ. He first brings them into covenant. He begins to reveal Christ to
them, and he prepares them to reveal Christ to the people.
You see, that's exactly what Jesus did when he came. When
he went about his ministry, After being baptized in the Spirit
of God, having been driven into the wilderness, what Jesus Christ
did was began to call 12 disciples, didn't he? He called 12 disciples
and he began to talk to them about the things that he would
accomplish at Jerusalem. In doing so, what he did was
reveal to them himself, over time, here a little, there a
little, manifesting his glory to the disciples. Then when he
died and ascended on high and sent the Spirit of God, he would
tell them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. I want you to see this in our
text here in 2 Chronicles chapter 23, a couple more things. Notice
what it goes on to say over in verse 2. And they went about
in Judah, chapter 23 verse 2, and they went about in Judah
and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah and
the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. Notice
what's happening, saints. Jehoiada has brought the leadership
in and he has shown them the son The leadership knows that
there's a son of David alive They know that there's a legitimate
king to sit on the throne. Nobody else knows this but the
leadership Isn't this what brother bill was talking about this morning
when he said Joseph must be revealed to his brethren and And so what's
taking place is the work of the Spirit of God in revealing Christ
to the leadership so that the leadership can do its rightful
job of revealing Christ to the people. Listen to what it goes
on to say. I want you to see this. This
is the wisdom and prudence of the gospel way. Over in verse
3, And all the congregation made a covenant with the King in the
house of God. Now, don't, don't, don't Don't
be, don't misunderstand what's taking place here. When it says
in all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the
house of God. It's not talking about all the people. It's talking
about the people that he gathered. The leaders that he gathered.
The men that he gathered. Jehoiada type of the Holy Ghost
brought his leadership in. He revealed Christ to them and
they made a covenant with him. They agreed with everything that
scripture says concerning who Christ is. They bowed the knee
to Christ and they entered into covenant with Christ. This must
be the case with the leadership in the church. The leadership
in the local gospel church must be persuaded that Christ is everything.
The leadership in the church of Christ must believe that Christ
is the Alpha and the Omega and the Amen of God's will and purpose.
The leadership in the church must believe that all the promises
of God are yes and Amen to the glory of God through Christ by
the church. We must be convinced that Christ
is sovereign Lord. You cannot preach the gospel
in this generation without being convinced that Christ is sovereign
Lord. You'll compromise the gospel.
If the Holy Spirit doesn't reveal Christ to you in all of his sovereign
glory, you cannot handle the tide of opposition and temptation
that comes against your flesh. From this world, you can't do
it. God has to convince you that Jesus Christ is all. And so they
entered into covenant. I'll show you something else
that's going on here. Look at what it goes on to say. And he began
to give them instructions over in verse 4. This is the thing
that you shall do. A third part of you entering
in on the Sabbath of the priest and of the Levite shall be porters
at the door. A third part shall be at the king's house. A third
part shall be at the gate of the foundation. And all the people
shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord. You know what's
getting ready to happen? they are getting ready to publicly
exalt the king. In preparation for the public
exaltation of the king, Jehoiada has instructed the leadership
to take their positions. As they take their positions,
he tells them to get weapons. You know why? And we know that
we are dealing with typology in the Old Testament. We know
that Old Testament typology points to New Testament reality. Isn't
that true? So we understand that spears
and shields and bucklers typify spiritual warfare. They typify
the garments and the weaponry that believers have to possess
in this particular age. We understand, therefore, that
we're in a warfare. Isn't that true? We're in a spiritual
warfare. Now listen to what it goes on
to say. I'm reading over at verse 8. So the Levites and all of
Judah did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest had
commanded, I say so. and took every man his men and
that were to come in on the Sabbath with them that were to go out
on the Sabbath for Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the course.
In other words, they couldn't go out. They all had to stay
there. They all had to keep their positions in the temple because
they're about to anoint the king. Moreover, Jehoiada the priest
delivered to the captains of hundreds spears and bucklers
and shields that had been King David's, which were in the house
of God. Now watch this. And he said,
all the people, every man having his weapon in his hand from the
right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along
by the altar of the temple and by the king's roundabout, then
they brought out the king's son. Do you see it? Then they brought
out the king's son. This is the public display of
the king's son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the
testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed
him and said, God save the king. Amen. Do you understand what's
going on here? What's going on here is what
has been preached all weekend long Christ is everything Christ
is sovereign Lord. We exalt him and make him Lord
I think it was David who said in Psalm 34 around verse 8. Oh Magnify the Lord with me. Oh Magnify the Lord with me and
let us exalt his name together. Isn't that good? Oh, that's what
we do when we preach the gospel When we preach the gospel of
the grace of God in Jesus Christ, we magnify the Lord. Am I telling
the truth? I know in some churches they think magnifying the Lord
is saying it, but I'm here to tell you, magnifying the Lord
is to preach Jesus as he is in the truth. To magnify Christ
is to declare Him in the whole of the Word of God to be everything
that He was meant to be for His people to the glory of His Father.
To magnify the Lord is to reflect what God the Father and God the
Holy Ghost did before the world began in the Council Halls of
Eternity when the Father said to the Spirit, Oh, magnify the
Lord with me. Did you get that? Oh, magnify
the Lord with me. You mean it was God the Father's
purpose to magnify Christ? Yes, indeed. Before the world
began, God had determined to make Christ the preeminent one.
Before the world began, the Father said to the Spirit, and the Spirit
said to the Father, oh, magnify the Lord with me. And then he
made the world. And then he made the world. You see, what is required in
this age of false religion and apostasy is not compromise, but
the preaching of Jesus Christ. What's required in this present
age is not some type of, let's see if we can all get along.
What we must do in this age is preach Christ, exalt Him, lift
Him up, make Him known so that God might draw His elect from
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Listen to me as I
close. Listen carefully to me. Without a revelation of the King's
Son, no one's saved. Without a revelation of Christ,
no one's saved. You will never enter into glory
except by God revealing Christ to your heart. Didn't you hear
it this morning? John chapter 6 verse 40. And
this is the will of Him that sent me that everyone which what? Seeth the Son. That doesn't mean
seeing what your physical eyes. That means to comprehend Him
in the truth of the Gospel. That means to understand Him
according to the revelation of the Spirit of God in the truth
of the Word. That means to see Christ just like the Father sees
Christ. And everyone that sees the Son
and believeth on Him has everlasting life. That's the will of God.
That's the will of God. You know what our job is, brethren,
ladies and gentlemen? It's to preach and to exalt Christ
in the message of the Scriptures. Do you believe that? Sinners
won't be saved, and God's elect won't be comforted without it.
Sinners won't be saved if we don't preach Christ, and God's
elect won't be comforted without it. More than that, like Donnie
Bell said, if we don't preach Christ, we're wrong. There's
no two ways about it. Either preach Christ, I'd go
to hell! Oh, right now I'm desirous that
some of you see the sun. Right now. Some of you who have
never seen Christ in His glory. Right now. I'm hoping the Spirit
of God right now is causing the light to shine out of darkness. To cause the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ to be manifested in your heart. Only
He can do it! Only he can do it, and he must
do it. Can I tell you one more thing
as I close this out? When the gospel is preached,
and when Christ is exalted, and when he is given his rightful
place as sovereign Lord over all things to the church, and
by the church, and by the ministry of preaching, God's people are
happy. Am I telling the truth? God's people are happy. Let me
see if I can help you see this. Look at the latter part of chapter
23. I'm going to start down at verse 17. Verse 17, verse 16 rather, listen
to this. And Jehoiada made a covenant
between him, that is the king, and between all the people, and
between the king that they should be the Lord's people, then all
the people, now watch this, then all the people went to the house
of Baal and broke it down. Do you see that? This is how
you know you've come to Christ. When you demolish all of the
false idols and false notions of the truth that you've been
taught in false religion. Am I telling the truth? You can't
have Christ in false religion too. And this is how you know
that Christ has effectually entered into your heart. When you say
as Hosea said, what have I to do anymore with idols? You're
going to let them go. You know why? Because Christ
becomes glorious to you. He becomes glorious to you. Not
only that, not only that, you're going to be zealous to put down
false religion. Because packing the new nature,
you cannot stand, listen to me, you cannot stand for anything
to rival with the Son of God. Nothing. Listen, not even your
own nature. Don't you despise yourself? I
do. Don't you despise that old sinful
fallen nature that would stand up to oppose the very God that
loves you and gave himself for you? Don't you? The scripture
says when we're born again, he will cause us, after having given
us the Spirit of God, to loathe our iniquities and loathe our
transgression. How dare any of us worms seek
to stand over against the glory of God in Christ? The consequence
of preaching the gospel then is that all of us will bow the
knee to the true and the living God. We will put away our idols. Love for Christ will help us
to do that. Am I telling the truth? Love for Christ will help
us to do that. And more than that, the preaching and exaltation
of Jesus Christ makes for a happy condition. The preaching of Christ
makes God's people happy. Am I telling you the truth? I'll
show you one more thing. This is beautiful. I think it's
Solomon who said this in the Proverbs. He says, when the wicked
rule, the people mourn. But when the righteous are in
authority, the people what? Rejoice. Listen to it for yourself. It says in verse 19 and following,
he set the porters at the gate of the house of the Lord, that
none which was unclean in anything should enter in. See, there you
go. There you go. You can't come in unless you've
been washed in the blood, quickened by the Spirit of God, made clean
by the blood of Sprinkly, and clothed in Christ's righteousness.
But today, in this religious age, everything goes. Everything
goes. We have even trod underfoot the
precious blood of the Son of God and made it an unclean thing
just to make people happy. Am I telling the truth? Jehoiada the Holy Ghost worked
mightily in the hearts of the Levites and the priests to bring
them to a proper order and right relationship with Jesus Christ
so that the worship of God might be acceptable. Now watch this
now. And he took the captains of hundreds
and the nobles and the governors of the people and all the people
of the land and brought down the king from the house of the
Lord. Watch this. They brought him from the house
of the Lord and they came through the high gate into the king's
house and set the king upon the throne of his kingdom. Do you
see that? Isn't that good? First he was here by Jehoiada. Then he was made known to the
leadership. The leadership then made him
known to the people. And then in God's own sovereign
time, he'll be made known to the world in the preaching of
the gospel as sovereign lord. We don't make him lord, God already
made him lord. And I tell you what, if you look
at the next verse, it tells us that everybody was happy. Listen
to it. Listen to it. And all the people
of the land rejoiced. And the city was quiet. After that, they had slain Athaliah
with the sword. Isn't that good? I think I just
did some of that right now, don't you? Slain Athaliah with the
sword. slain at the lie with the sword
of the spirit, slain at the lie through the preaching of the
gospel, slain at the lie by the word of the Lord, as a prophet
takes the ax and hews down trees that will not submit to the true
and the living God. That's what we do when we preach
the gospel. On the one hand, we exalt Christ. On the other
hand, we demolish everything that exalts itself against the
knowledge of Christ. And God's people love it that
way. Amen.