Okay, now we're looking and doing
a series through 2 Kings chapter 18, but there's an interlude
here that's given in 2 Chronicles 29. So if you'll turn to 2 Chronicles
29, I'm entitling the message about the reign and rule of Hezekiah,
I'm entitling the message, God Sent Revival. God sent revival
and truly He did. The Lord did so, truly He did. You see the Lord is good and
the Lord is merciful. After all the rebellion and idolatry
that went on in Jerusalem in the days of Ahaz, the Lord is
so long-suffering and merciful He raised up a Hezekiah. to establish
the order of worship. Hezekiah reigned 29 years and
the Lord blessed him and blessed the people through him. And he
healed the people and made Israel to prosper. Now let me show you
just a few verses about that one point. If you'll find 2 Chronicles
29 verse 36. Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the
people that God had prepared, that people that God had prepared,
for the thing was done suddenly. Back in, even in 2nd Kings chapter
18, don't turn there, the Lord was with him, and he prospered,
whithersoever he went. The Lord blessed, blessed his
ministry. Again, if you will turn to 2nd
Chronicles 2 Chronicles chapter 30, 2 Chronicles chapter 30, look at verse 18, 2 Chronicles 30, 18. For a multitude
of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and Issachar, and
Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they did eat the Passover,
and otherwise than it was written, but Hezekiah prayed for them,
saying, and this is the only time this phrase is given in
Scripture, the good Lord pardon everyone, that prepared his heart
to seek God, the Lord God, his fathers, though he be not cleansed
according to the purification of the sanctuary. And the Lord
hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people. The people were blessed. the good Lord pardon everyone."
Now, a lot of times I would rebuke people when they would say, well,
the good Lord blessed me to do this, or the good Lord, because
I thought it was a demeaning term. In other words, it was
like someone saying, well, the man upstairs, or the good Lord. Well, you know it is a scriptural
term. The good Lord pardoned everyone and He did. The Lord
hearkened to Hezekiah. He heard. The Lord heard Hezekiah
and healed the people. Healed the people. Someone down
the street in the hardware store said to me the other day, said,
Well, if the good Lord enables me to do this or that. And I
told him, I said, you know, if you would have said that to me
a week or two ago, I probably would have rebuked you. But I
told him, I said, you know that, it's okay to say that because
that Hezekiah used that language. The good Lord pardon everyone. So, and he did. The Lord blessed
the people and healed the people and made Israel to prosper through
him. Now I want you to turn to one
other reference I have written down, 2 Chronicles 31 verse 20. 2 Chronicles 31 verse 20. Thus did Hezekiah throughout
all Judah and wrought that which was good and right and truth
before the Lord is God, and every work that he began in the service
of the house of the Lord, in the law and in the commandments,
to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered."
The Lord prospered him and prospered the people, prepared the people,
to worship and honor God. Now look back in chapter 30,
2 Chronicles chapter 30, look at verse 26. Here's another verse
that jumped out the page at me. So there was great joy in Jerusalem. Just imagine the joy that was
going on in Jerusalem. The Lord had prepared the hearts
of the people. Well, there was great joy in
Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David,
king of Israel, there was not like that time in Jerusalem."
Remember that high day of Solomon. I mean the Lord blessed the people
abundantly, abundantly so. Now turn back to 2 Chronicles
29. This revival and reformation
came to pass We know it came to pass by the will of the Lord. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. But I want us to notice this.
This revival and this reformation and revival came to pass around
that which pictured the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did
you notice that? There was so much blood shed
of a substitute, and the blood was put upon the altar, and the
burnt offerings unto the Lord, and all of that is a picture
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood sacrifice
for sin. Yes, there was reformation. Yes,
there was worship. Yes, there was rejoicing. But
it came around the gospel, didn't it? It came around the substitutionary
sacrifice pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ and His ultimate
sacrifice. They did some other things as
well. They cast out all the idols.
They cast out and cast away their idolatry. They restored temple
worship, they repaired the temple of the Lord, and they offered
blood sacrifice unto the Lord. And all the congregation worshiped
the Lord around the burnt offerings unto the Lord, as it says there
in that chapter 29, 2 Chronicles 29. Verse 30, Moreover, Hezekiah
the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto
the Lord with the words of David, and of Asap the seer. And they sang praises with gladness,
and they bowed their heads in worship. One of the Psalms that
came to my mind was that Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me. Bless His holy name, who taketh
away all our sin, who heals all our iniquities. These people
were rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Understand that. A spiritual revival and a great
awakening from God in this day will only come to us in this
day around the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you can whip up and have
a big song fest and you can have a big jubilee and you can have
all these other things, but there's no revival there without the
gospel. You gotta have the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, it's the power
of God unto salvation. This spiritual revival and this
great awakening must come by the will of God and will only
be blessed to the people of God around the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember from John chapter
one where it says, of his fullness, of his fullness, have we all
received grace for grace. The Lord will not use a false
gospel and a false message to bring about revival or to bring
about the salvation of a sinner. It is the true gospel, the only
message of Christ and Him crucified. You look back through church
history, what they call back in the early 1700s in this country,
up in the New England states, 1730, 1740 in the days of George Whitefield,
when he came preaching those great revival meetings, it was
around the gospel of God's grace, sovereign grace, sovereign mercy,
particular redemption, effectual call, total depravity, those
doctrines of grace. And something else, there must
be casting out of that which is false, that's what they did,
they cast out all those, they cleaned out the temple and cleansed
the altar. There must be casting out of
that which is false, all idols must be destroyed and considered
as that brazen serpent was, Nahushtin. a worthless piece of brass. Can't we say with the apostle
we count all but dung and the hushed that we might win Christ
and be found in him? who is our righteousness. The
Lord Jesus Christ must be lifted up in the preaching of the gospel.
That's the only way true revival is gonna come. He said, if I
be lifted up, I'll draw all unto me, all his elect. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life. Now think about this, each week,
When we come together around the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the Lord is pleased to bless his word to our heart,
there is a mini revival that goes on within our heart. Aren't
we revived each week when we come and sit under the gospel
and hear His Word and hear His truth and hear Christ lifted
up? Our heart is revived, isn't it?
There is that, I call it a mini revival if you want, a mini revival
that goes on within our own heart. When we are instructed in the
way of grace, when we are encouraged In the Gospel, through the Word,
when we are strengthened in Christ, who is our strength, and when
we are established in the faith, there is a revival that goes
on within our heart. I trust it's going on right now. I thought about the two men on
the road to Emmaus, when the Lord Jesus Christ opened the
Scripture up to them. You remember what they said one
to another? Didn't our heart burn within us? When he opened
to us the word of the Lord, what was going on? There was a mini
revival going on in their heart. They were revived. They were
established. They were strengthened. They
were encouraged. Now I want us to look at this
chapter. Look at it, study it, and read
it, and I would encourage you to personally look at it carefully,
and the preceding chapters, and see how the Lord brought about
reformation and revival in the 29 years that Hezekiah was blessed
to reign over Israel, reign over Judah in Jerusalem, 29 years. You know, I've been here 23 years. 29 years is a pretty short time,
isn't it? But it was a blessed 29 years.
But I thought about this. Thank God that our king, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is an everlasting king and his reign and his kingdom
is not a mere 29 years or 29,000 years, but his reign and his
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His priesthood is an everlasting
priesthood. His burnt offering is an eternal
and effectual burnt offering forever and forever. He ever
lives to intercede for us right now. The Lord Jesus Christ is
interceding for us as we worship Him. He's cleansing our worship
to make it presentable unto the Father. Now, several things I
want us to look at back in our text here, 2 Chronicles 29. Hezekiah, notice in verse 3,
he opened the temple doors. He, in the first year of his
reign, in the first month, first things first, right? First things
first. In the first month, he opened
the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them, and he
brought the priest and the Levites together in the east street. Now that's particular because
he brought them before the temple, before the front of the temple,
and instructed them, hear me, you Levites, Sanctify now yourself,
sanctify the house of the Lord God of your father, and carry
forth the filthiness out of this holy place. Hezekiah's wicked
father Ahaz brought Judah very low. For he introduced, you remember,
another altar from the king of Assyria to sacrifice upon that
foreign altar and cast away the brazen altar of the Lord that
God gave that instruction to Solomon. Ahaz shut the doors
of the temple. What a contrast between Ahaz
in Hezekiah. The first order of business in
Hezekiah's first year, his first day on the job as God's king,
anointed as God's king, was to open the temple, to reestablish
the order of the priesthood, to clean out all the filthiness
out of the temple of the Lord. And he reminds the priest that
idolatry and sin has brought the wrath of God upon Judah and
Jerusalem. Notice verse 8, Wherefore, the
wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and hath delivered
them to trouble, to astonishment, to hissing, as you see with our
He reminds the priest that the idolatry and sin that had gone
on for so long brought the judgment of God upon them, brought the
wrath of God upon them. And we know that sin, what does
it deserve? Sin, which is the transgression
of the law. Sin deserves death, doesn't it?
Every transgression deserves Just recompense of reward these
folks were guilty Notice it says in verse 6 our fathers have trespassed
And we can say, we have sinned against God. We have done that
which is evil in the eyes of the Lord. We have forsaken Him. We have turned away our faces
from the habitation of the Lord, from the temple of the Lord.
And we, all like sheep, have gone astray. We've every one
turned to his own way. So he reminds them of their past
and reminds them of what had gone on and instructs them in
the way of proper worship. Then I noticed this, the second
thing he said, it was in my heart. You see that in verse 10? It
was in my heart. Now how did it get in his heart?
How did it get in there? It wasn't there naturally. He
didn't get this from his father. Now it was in my heart to make
a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath
may turn away from us. My sons, do not be deceived,
do not be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand
before Him, to serve Him, that you should minister unto Him
and burn incense and sacrifice to the Lord. Hezekiah was a man
after God's own heart. It was in my heart. God did a
work of grace in his heart and we know that salvation is a heart
work, don't we? It's a heart work. Christ in
you is a hope of glory. The fierce wrath of the Lord
our God had turned away from us only because of that covenant
Notice he mentions that. Covenant with the Lord our God. Now, whenever you see that word
in Scripture, and it's used over 300 times, that word covenant,
always think of that eternal covenant of grace made within
the blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, wherein
the Lord Jesus Christ became our surety taking away our sin
by the sacrifice of himself, took our sin and took our wrath,
that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. That's the only
way the wrath of God is going to turn away. By the wrath of
God falling on our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle
Paul put it this way, the God of peace that brought again from
the dead the Lord Jesus Christ through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And David said of that covenant,
it's ordered in all things and is sure. And I like what Isaiah
says about that. Those mercies in Christ, they're
the sure mercies of David. Those are covenant mercies, covenant
mercies. Now I love verse 11. He said,
my sons, Be not negligent. Don't be deceived. Now, notice he says several things
here. The Lord has chosen you to stand before Him. The Lord
has chosen you to serve Him, that you should minister unto
Him, that you should burn incense and offer sacrifice. You see,
he's addressing here those who've been made priests unto our God. And by this covenant of grace,
we read in the Revelation, He loved us and washed us from our
sin in His own blood and has made us kings and priests unto
our God. And He's done this that we might
stand before Him. You see that? He says there,
He has chosen us. Who made the choice? He has... It doesn't say here, you chose
Him. The Lord has chosen you. Remember
John 15, the Lord said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. There's
that electing love, electing grace. You see it everywhere
in scripture. Lord, I've chosen you to serve
him. The Lord made a choice among you to make you a priest under
our God. And then said, the Lord has chosen
you to stand before him. Who shall stand before the hill
of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who has never lifted up his soul to vanity, Psalm
24. How can we stand before the Lord? Only in Christ. You see,
He's able to keep us from falling because we stand in Christ. We're
kept by His grace. And then He's made us to serve
Him. He's made us minister unto the Lord. Servant of the Lord,
David called himself, and Paul said, I'm a servant of the Lord,
to burn incense. And that's a picture of prayer,
to pray unto Him. And the sacrifice, as the marginal
reference has there, on burnt incense, verse 11, to offer sacrifices
of praise and thanksgiving unto the Lord. Now, you read all them different
names down to there. And then in verse 15 down to
verse 19, the priest gathered their brethren and sanctified
themselves, that is according to the law of the Lord, That
includes washing and ceremonial cleansing. And came according
to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, a notice
says, a marginal reference there says, in the business of the
Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord. And the priest went
into the inner part, to the Holy of Holies, to cleanse it. and brought out
all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord
and the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took
it, carried it out abroad into the brook which is a sewer ditch
that ran out of Jerusalem. And they took all the uncleanness,
all the idolatry that had gone in that house that was neglected
for so many years and put it in the sewer ditch that it might
be carried away. The priest and the Levite set
themselves about cleansing of the temple. by consecrating themselves
and setting themselves apart for the work, rolling up their
sleeves, and doing the necessary labor. It was a labor, wasn't
it? It was a labor of love, though.
It's what they wanted to do. They took all the garbage and
filth that accumulated over the years and neglect, and this was
a large building. Remember our study about Solomon's
temple. They took all the idols, the
pagan altars that Ahazath introduced and threw it all in the sewer
ditch, threw it away. And that's what we do with all
of our former idolatry. We take it all away by the grace
of God and we count it but done and throw it in the sewer ditch
and the Lord takes it away. Verse 17, they finished their
work. This is interesting. They began,
verse 17, they began on the first day of the first month, New Year's
Day. Good way to start the new year,
isn't it? To sanctify, and on the eighth
day of the month, they came to the porch of the Lord. So they
sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days, and the 16th day
of the first month, they made an end. 16 days, they were busy. There were a lot of them. Cleaning
the house, the temple of the Lord. 16 days they came back,
16 days later they reported to Hezekiah. All things were ready
to begin the proper worship. Verse 18, they went to Hezekiah
the king and said, We have cleansed the house of the Lord. and the altar of burnt offerings,
with all the vessels thereof, and the showbread table, and
all the vessels thereof." Watch this, now verse 19, "...moreover
all the vessels which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in
his transgression." We've prepared, we've prepared them and sanctified,
set them apart. "...Behold, they are before the
altar of the Lord." They came back to Ezekiah and they said,
all things are ready. What a blessing to be in the
service of the Lord, to serve Him out of love, not duty, out
of thanksgiving, not out of obligation. Like the willing bondservant
of the Lord, I love my Master, I want to serve Him in whatever
way, in whatever capacity. David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the
wicked. Every believer, I've said this for years, and it's
true. Every believer is in the ministry. Every believer is in
the body of Christ, and we serve Him. We serve His purpose, and
we delight to do so, don't we? I think of Isaiah. You know,
Isaiah was a prophet in this day. Isaiah, we're going to see
when Hezekiah was sick, Nigh unto death, he called for Isaiah,
the prophet of God, and told Isaiah, pray for me. But you
remember what Isaiah and Paul said about serving the Lord?
In Isaiah chapter six, let me just read it to you. The Lord
said, who will go for us? Who will go for us, you remember?
Remember what he said? Here am I, send me, send me. What a willingness. to serve
the Lord. And then in Acts chapter nine,
when old Saul of Tarsus was whittled down, put in the dust, and the
Lord revealed himself to him as the Lord. You remember what
he said? Lord, what would you have me
do? You don't need to do anything
for salvation, but Lord, I'm ready to serve you. What a blessing to be brought
to that place to serve the Lord. Now, here's the key though. Verse
20 down through verse 24. Hezekiah, when he received the
report that day, the next morning, man, he rose up early. Daylight. gathered the rulers of the city,
and they went to the house of the Lord. Remember what David
said in Psalm 122, I was glad when they said to me, let us
go to the house of the Lord. They were just, oh, they're so
anxious. The house is all cleaned up,
everything's ready, the sacrifices are ready, the altar is clean. Let's worship the Lord. That
was his desire. But we see here in verse 20 down
through verse 24, that was only done around the atonement. Atonement was made. Revival will
only come around and through the atonement that the Lord Jesus
Christ made for us. Hezekiah rose up early. and was
ready and willing to worship the Lord. Look at verse 21. They
brought seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs, seven he goats
for the sin offering, for particular redemption, death and atonement,
for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah, for the temple,
for the kingdom, for the people of God. And he commanded the
priests, the sons of Aaron, to put them on, to offer them upon
the altar of the Lord. So, they killed the bullocks,
and the priests received the blood, sprinkled it upon the
altar. Likewise, they killed the rams,
and sprinkled the blood upon the altar. They killed also the
lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. Lot of
shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission for sin. Verse 23, "...they brought forth
the he-goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation,
and they laid their hands upon them, identifying with the scapegoat."
laying their hand and confessing their sin upon the scapegoat,
verse 24. And the priests killed them,
and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar
to make atonement for Israel. Not for the Philistines, not
for the Hittites, not for the Jebusites, but Israel. For the
king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering
should be made for all Israel. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save his people from their sin. We by faith as they laid hold
of that scapegoat, The representative laid their hands upon that scapegoat,
confessing their sin, identifying with the sacrifice, saying they
were worthy of death because they've sinned against the Lord.
And we by faith lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our
atonement. And we identify with Him. Now, watch this. When all this
was going on, verse 25 down through verse 30, he set the Levites
in the house of the Lord. The Levites were the Levitical
tribe, sons of Aaron, who were over the priesthood. And he set
them there with the cymbals, with the psalteries, with the
harp, according to the commandment of David. and of Gad the king's
prophet, Seir is the prophet, and Nathan the prophet." Nathan
must be well over 100 years old. Nathan here is the same man,
notice the reference there is to 2 Samuel 12 verse 1, when
David had committed sin, and Nathan was sent to him, and he
said, David, thou art the man. What a faithful old prophet Nathan
was. For so was the commandment of
the Lord by his prophets. And the Levites stood with the
instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets, and
Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offerings upon the altar.
And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also
with the trumpets." When they started sacrificing the bullock,
When they started sacrificing the lambs, and the rams, and
the goats, and all these different things, and the blood was flowing,
sprinkled upon the altar, they began to sing praises unto the
Lord. Isn't that precious? And we sing
praises unto the Lord around the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
Christ. When the burnt offering began,
the songs The song of the Lord began, worthy as a lamb that
was slain to receive all honor and glory, with the trumpets,
with the instruments ordained by David, king of Israel, and
all the congregation worshiped. And the singers sang, and the
trumpets sounded, and this continued until the burnt offering was
finished. I think it lasted all day long. They started early
in the morning. And when they had made an end of an offering,
the king and all that were present bowed themselves, and they worshipped
the Lord. They worshipped the Lord around
the atonement that was made for their sin, picturing and pointing
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, Hezekiah the king and
the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises unto the Lord
with the words of David and of Asaph, the seer, the prophet,
and they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and
worshipped. Then Hezekiah said, Now, now,
he said, now watch this, verse 31, Hezekiah instructed all the
people to come near and bring their own sacrifices to the Lord. And they did so abundantly. Look
at verse 31 carefully. Then Hezekiah answered and said,
Now you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord." How did they do
that? Through the blood of a substitute. Through the blood of a sacrifice.
Atonement was made. Now, come near. Come near now. Atonement's been made. Remember
our Lord said, all you that are laboring and heavy laden, come
near now. Come. Come unto me all you laborers. I'll give you rest. And bring
sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord. And
the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings and as many
as were of a free heart. burnt offerings. They were set
free. And the Chi instructed the people
to come near and bring their sacrifices, their blood sacrifices,
unto the Lord according to the law of the Lord. And they did
so abundantly out of a free heart. A free heart set at liberty to
worship a true and living God. For we read in Galatians chapter
5, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free. So many brought the offering
to the Lord that they did not have enough priests. Did you
notice that? verse 32, verse 33, and verse 34. And the number
of the burnt offerings which the congregation brought was
three score and ten bullocks, that's 70, 100 rams, 200 lambs,
all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. And the consecrated
things were 600 oxen and 3,000 sheep. I mean, they were just so willing
to give sacrificially to the Lord. But the priests were too
few. They couldn't handle all this. So that they could not flay or
slay the burnt offerings. Wherefore their brethren, the
Levite, did help them, strengthened them, the marginal referent,
till the work was ended. until the other priests had sanctified
themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify
themselves than the priests were. And also the burnt offerings
were in abundance with fat of the peace offerings, the drink
offerings, you read about that in the book of Leviticus, the
drink offering for every burnt offering. I love this here. So the service of the house of
the Lord was set in order." God is a God of order prescribed
by the Word of the Lord. He's not the God of confusion.
He's a God of order. There is a proper order how to
worship God, and we are to worship God only in Christ. Verse 36, Hezekiah rejoiced And we rejoice
in our King, don't we? We rejoice in Christ. And all
the people, they rejoiced. All the people that God had prepared,
the people. For the thing was done suddenly. The thing was done without difficulty. You know why? because salvation
is of the Lord. This is the Lord's doing. You
remember Psalm 118? This is the Lord's doing, and
it's marvelous in our eyes. Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the
people that God had prepared, the people for the thing was
done, suddenly proper worship was restored and put in order
quickly. around that blood sacrifice.
Now you take that blood atonement out of there and you've got no
worship. God prepared the people by the secret powerful influence
of his grace. God who has begun a good work
in you will finish it. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of God's power. Thus the Lord sent a true revival
in the 29 years that Hezekiah did reign. May the Lord be pleased
to do that right now in our midst and in our hearts. This is the
Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Psalm 118 verse
23. And I say to that, Amen.