We'll teach in here. All
right. Good morning, everybody.
Go ahead and turn in your Bibles 2 places, Second Kings 18 and
then put a finger in Second Chronicles 29 and we are going
to kind of skip forward Last week we talked about King Good.
I'm glad I'm talking to myself. King you Uzziah good.
Thank you. Trey's paying attention.
Thank you. At least I got one guy
appreciate that. So King Uzziah and what happens
to King Uzziah at the end of his life?
He is struck with leprosy because he decided he was going
to be a priest instead of being a king and became very puffed up
and proud and thought that he, the king, was the king and he
could do everything whether he was appointed by God to do such.
But he found out the hard way that that wasn't the fact.
So we Fast forward to go through his son and the next son and we
get to King you Hezekiah and Hezekiah gets go ahead, you're
we're going to start in second Kings 18 verse one.
Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshiya, son of Elah,
king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the king of a the son of a has
king of Judah began to reign 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 was also name also was Abby and the the
daughter of Zechariah in verse 3 and he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his
father did. And then it goes on and it lists
the things that he did about removing the high places and
breaking down the images all the way to, we know the bronze
serpent that Moses makes in the wilderness for the children to
when they're dealing with the, the fiery serpents.
And they, it had gotten to the point that they started to
actually worship that Brazen's brazen serpent.
And Hezekiah destroys it and says this, this is not what
we're here for. We're not here to worship an
idol, which is what you're making this out to be.
And he cleans out, he cleans house really.
And, and we see Hezekiah in both Second Kings, Second Chronicles
and in Isaiah, and he has probably the most recorded about
his reign other than David and Solomon.
He is the next king in the quantity of how much the Bible
gives about his reign. And because of that, I think
there's a reason God wanted to show over and over like Uzziah.
We we read about Uzziah that he did and he did that which was
right in the sight of the Lord according to all his father and
Messiah did and he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had
understanding in the visions of God.
And as long as he sought the Lord God made him to prosper.
And Hezekiah knows this, watches his grandfather, great
grandfather Uzziah, reads about Uzziah, what he did early on in
his life, how he fails and falls into leprosy.
Then his father or his great, that would be his grandfather
Jotham takes over. And Jotham is not against what
God does. In fact it says in the Bible
that Joseph or Joseph verse 2 of 20 chapter 27.
And he did that which was right in the side of the Lord
according to all that his father Uzziah did.
Howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord and the
people did yet corruptly he he he didn't go against what God
wanted. He didn't shut the House of the
Lord. He didn't go sacrifice under
idols, but he watched and saw what happened to his dad and
said, I don't want anything to do with this.
That's fine with you. You can go ahead and have your
religion thing, but I'm I'm good.
I I don't want anything to do with what my dad had to deal
with. And and you kind of look at it
and kind of don't want to give him a pass, but you could
understand the wow, my dad doing well, doing, doing what God
wants. And and from a kids perspective
and a worldly perspective, you kind of look at Uzziah and go,
he was doing great. He was doing great.
And then God gave him leprosy. How is that a good thanks for
following me? And and you, you do one wrong
thing and now you're cursed for eternity and and you're you
basically die a horrible death. And now Jotham gets on the
throne and he kind of has that. I don't want anything to do with
this. I don't look at what God God did
to my dad. And so he takes a very cold
stance on on on following the Lord.
He he again, it says that he does everything that was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father
Uzziah did, but he entered not into the temple of the Lord.
He he didn't want anything to do with it.
So you have Uzziah, who started out well, got puffed up and
thought he was going to be the priest as well as the king And
God said Nope, strikes him with leprosy.
Jotham comes on the scene and says fine keep doing your whole
God thing but I'm out of here I don't want anything to do with
it. Then his son A has comes on the
scene and you can imagine from a father that turns away from God
to a son that doesn't want anything to do with God to the
next son A has who jumps total ship.
Your look, you're there in Second Chronicles 29 turn back
to 28 verse one and a has was 20 years old when he began to reign
and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem.
But he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord
like David his father, for he walked in the ways of the kings
of Israel and made also molten image images of Balaam.
Moreover, not just that he he worshipped and he he had images
made. Moreover, he burnt incense in
the valley of the son of hymnal and burnt his children in the
fire after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord has
cast out before the children of Israel.
He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, on
the hills and under every green tree.
Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of
the king of Syria, and they smote him and carried away a
great multitude of them captives, and brought them to
Damascus. And he also was also delivered
into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a
great slaughter. A has jumps, I mean, headlong
into idol worship to the point that he's sacrificing his own
children in worshipping these gods.
And and you can kind of think, all right, well, we, we went
from Uzziah, who started out great ended horribly.
His son doesn't really want to see anything about God, but just
allows it to continue to we're we're we're not even talking
about God. We're jumping into the other pit
and, and now come Hezekiah and you can almost wonder that the
the children are in those that are living in Judah are going,
what are we going to get into next?
I mean, we were we were up on the mountaintop.
Uzziah had our Kingdom was set up so much that it was almost
like Solomon. It was that prosperous and we
were up on the mountain. And then he kind of takes a
downhill turn and then Jotham, his son comes and we we level
off on the little plateau. It's not as great as it used to
be, but we're we're not in captivity.
And then his son Ahaz and we just plummet to the bottoms of
the depths and we're sacrificing children to our God and the gods
of those heathens. And and and then his son comes
who, who has watched his dad do this now, you know, as as a
child or as a once he starts getting older, you're like, how
many brothers of mine and sisters of mine have you
sacrificed? Luckily I didn't get sacrificed
because obviously I'm here as a king, but you've watched all
that happen and you go, all right, what's next?
Are we going further into the depths?
Are we going into worst case? But Hezekiah, if you look there
verse two, and he did that which was right in the side of the
Lord according to all that who David his father had done.
Now Hezekiah is known. If you're still, if you still
have a finger in second Kings, look at verse 5, Second Kings
18, verse 5. He talking about Hezekiah
trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was
none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that
were before him. Now that's a high praise.
God says that Hezekiah was such a great king that there was
nobody better than him before or after him.
That's including David and Solomon and Hezekiah looks and
we're going to get into some of his characteristics, I guess is
a way what we'll talk about and he's probably going to turn into
two weeks, but that's all right. He follows after God so closely
because he's seen what has happened.
He's a, he's a 25 year old man who decides that I'm not just
going to follow after what my dad did.
I'm going to look back in history and I'm going to read
about those kings that came before me.
And just like every king that has ever taken the throne, I
don't think even Ahaz or Ahab or any of them said I would like
this country, this Kingdom to be captured and destroyed and
plummeted into wickedness. I want this Kingdom to be
desolate. Every king that is in the Bible
and every king that ever sits on the throne wants best, the best
for the Kingdom They because if the Kingdom does well, I get
more money, I get better puffed up and everything.
So the kings even Ahab and a has want what's best for the
Kingdom. But just like Uzziah, God only
blessed when they sought after him and we'll see in Hezekiah's
life the characteristics that he had to look at the history of
all the kings. Yes to to learn about them to
see who did they align themselves with who who because
think of I mean, you're a kid growing up in the palace, just
like Moses learned all the things that needed to happen.
So you when you become king, when you become Pharaoh, like
Moses was trained to be, he would know what to do.
Hezekiah was trained the same way of what here's here's the
book about David, here's a book about Solomon, here's a book
about all the kings before you so you can learn what to do when
your turn comes to be king. That was just the normal thing.
And and the sad thing is a lot of them that grew up decided, I
like some of this. And I know he kind of fell into
idol worship, but he was all right.
I mean, the Kingdom still survived.
And, and so they, they do what a lot of Christians do where
they'll stick 1 foot into religion and 1 foot into the
world. They're miserable.
They would never tell you they're miserable, but they're
just happy just getting right by.
I can say I'm good enough to be called a Christian, but don't
put me into that, that category of sold out and crazy and and
and Bible thumping and I ain't that crazy.
I I'd like to have a little bit of fun.
So a lot of the kings balance that and Jotham is a good
example of that. You go ahead, have your religion
that go, go ahead and worship God the way you want to do.
And, and I'll even do what I can to not go against that, but
you'll never find me in that temple.
You'll never find me at church. I'm just a good person.
I'm morally right. But Hezekiah looks at everything
and looks at back through the ages and goes, I don't want to
follow after what my dad did. I don't want to follow after
what my grandfather, what my great grandfather, what all the
generations before me of the kings that did somewhat right.
I'm going to look back and it's talks about that all that David,
his father had done. I'm going to go back to the man
who was the king who loved God, who loved God's word and try to
follow humans still, but try to follow as close that he could to
what God wanted that Kingdom to be.
And Hezekiah looks back and goes, that's what I want to
model after. When, when you look at your life
and you as a Christian, look at examples, we, we have all these
autobiographies and, and different people in, in our
bookstore about, you know, praying hide and, and you've got
a bunch of different men and, and ladies that have came
through the history and we can look at their lives and go, OK,
I'm going to model this. I'm going to model that, but the
problem is, is we, we always model it after someone down the
line, someone that still isn't as as close as they can be when
we need to be following after what Christ did when, when you
look and try to model your life, you need to model it after
Christ, not not after praying hide.
He had a great a lot of good things to add into your life and
to follow after. But your bar needs to be set a
lot higher. It needs to be set higher.
Just like Isaiah, Hezekiah looked at, OK, he did well.
He did well, but he failed here. He did well, but he failed here.
He's going to look as far back as who was the closest to what
God wanted him to be, and that was David.
Now he didn't have Christ. He didn't have the New Testament
to model his life after Christ. He didn't have the the no
account of God ruling. He ruled through Moses and those
and he he looked after those. But there wasn't a God sitting
on a throne like we see in Revelations.
So the model that that Hezekiah had to look at the best and the
the the the closest to the word of God would have been David.
And he said, I want to have that as my Kingdom.
I want to have that as my life. I want to model after the best
possible, not the kind of good, not the horrible, but I'm not
fine with just being in the middle.
I want to find what who the best one was and follow after that.
And that's what we see him do through his life.
Let's pray and we'll get into this lesson.
Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for being in your house
this morning, for the rain and for the, the safety that you've
given us. I thank you for your word, God,
those that you've given us as examples and, and people to
model after and to model, not to do.
And God, I, I pray that you help us as we look at Hezekiah's
life, that you showed him through your word how to live.
And I've just pray that you help us to, to see the, the things to
gain and the things to shun as we look at these kings.
God, I just pray that most importantly that we look at your
life that you lived here on earth and we model our life
after yours and we get as close as we can to you and and get as
close as we can so that those around us can see you and not
us. God, I thank you for everything
that you do in Jesus name I pray Amen.
First thing I want to see is his stability.
We we've talked about a lot of kings about they started out
well and then they failed. They they were turned to and fro
from this wind of doctrine is what in the New Testament talks
about as in the later days. But Hezekiah was, was stable in
his his faith and stable in what he was going to do for this
Kingdom. And it was all dealt with, how
he looked at history, how we looked at those around him and
how he looked upwards. And the first thing as we see is
he looked backwards, like I said there.
And in Second Chronicles it says that he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David, his
father did. David was the, the like I said,
the best example of a king that would follow after God.
And that's the example that Hezekiah looked at.
He he could have looked at his great, great grandfather,
Uzziah, who who did well, started out great, and he could
have modeled his life after that.
But then there was the ending. I don't want that.
I don't want leprosy. All right, well, let's look at
we can look at a man who was not too bad.
We we can go, we can go further back to ASA or Jehoshaphat, or
we can look at, but those kind of had the same where they did
some good things, they did some bad things.
And, and he looks back at David because while, while his
father's before him didn't do horribly, he didn't want just to
meet the minimum standard. And that's what so many
Christians do is we meet the minimum standard.
What is the minimum I have to do to still be called a Christian?
What's the minimum I can get by with and not look so weird to
the world? And, and, and as a king, you got
to think that you're you're, you're the, you're the Kingdom
of Judah. Only Israel's up here.
And we'll look at this when we look later, but I don't want to
stick out to where people are like, that's a weird king.
That is it. Look at what he's doing.
I mean, we could look at his father Ahaz and go, you
sacrificed your sons, you sacrificed your children.
We look at that as weird, but it talks about that's what the
heathens around him were doing. So he was just trying to blend
in with everybody else. But Hezekiah wanted to be
different. He wanted Judah to be like
Israel was back When David was there, he looked back and he
looked to a man who loved God and loved God's word.
But he didn't just look back, he looked around them.
Look at if you're still there, Second Kings 18 and look in
verse 10/9 and it came to pass in the fourth year of king
Hezekiah, which was the 7th year of Ho Hoisha, son of Elah, king
of Israel, that shall met shall I practice these shamanizer king
of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
And at the end of three years, they took it.
Even the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the 9th year of Hoisha,
king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
Now this is during Hezekiah's reign, very early in his reign.
But Hezekiah saw what happened to Israel and goes, I don't want
that. I'd rather stay in my place.
I don't want another country to come and destroy my my people,
my city, everything that I'm building.
And then he kind of looks and goes, Why did that happen?
Because all accounts, they were fortified.
Ahab had had fortified the cities.
Samaria was well protected. But what was it that destroyed
Samaria? It was their sin.
And Hezekiah saw what the sin of a nation did for them.
So he knew. He looked back and said, David,
that's the one I want to follow after.
That's the one that I want to try to become and and have the
same nation like looked at Israel and said, I, I don't want
that taken captive, my city destroyed, besieged the people
murdered and and taken into captivity.
I don't want that either. So follow after David, get rid
of the sin, and most importantly, as he looks upward,
Isaiah 11 talks about who Isaiah was.
And Isaiah was the prophet in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He was the prophet at that point
in time and and being Hezekiah being the end of that.
Isaiah's older Isaiah has a lot of wisdom, a lot of
understanding of going on of what has happened in the prat in
the past. And Hezekiah looks to him and
and tries to glean as much off of the man of God that he can to
get things right. And we see there in Second
Chronicles 29 verse three, what he does.
He talking about Hezekiah in the first year of his reign, in the
first month opened the doors of the House of the Lord and
repaired them. Now if you look back, Second
Kings opened the doors. Why?
Why are we talking about opening doors?
Well, the his father had shut them not not Second Kings.
I wrote it down. Second Chronicles 28 verse we
read talking about who A has what 2 through 4.
But look at verse 22 of Second Chronicles 2822.
And at the time of his distress, talking about A has, did he
trespass yet more against the Lord?
This is that King A has, for he sacrificed unto the gods of
Damascus, which smote him. And he said, Because the gods of
the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to
them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him
and of all Israel. 24 And A has gathered together the vessels of
the House of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the House
of God, and shut up the doors of the House of the Lord.
And he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
A has doesn't just go against what God says to do and goes and
it talks about he goes yet more against the Lord.
Ahaz closes the doors of the temple says nobody's going in
here not not just that I'm going to go follow after idols, but
nobody's worshiping God. We're we're destroying
everything. We're getting rid of this one
God and and getting rid of following the the God of Abraham
Isaac that led us out of Egypt and all the history of
everything. But he looks at those gods,
little G of those around him and said that's who we're going to
follow after and and shuts the the doors.
And that's that's why it talks about in verse 3 of Hezekiah's
reign that he opens the doors of the House of the Lord and
repaired them. And he brought in the priests
and the Levites and gathered them together in the East St.
and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves
and sanctify the House of the Lord God your Father's and carry
forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
Now, now, remember the a has a shut the doors basically said no
more worship in here. What are the point?
What is the job of the Levites to take care of the House of God
to to that's where the priestly lying through Aaron basically
all you have no jobs anymore. Yeah, I'm I'm shutting down the
factory. So now you have no job.
And so these Levites were obviously had to do something
during a has light his reign. So they start working and doing
other things and and that is why Hezekiah says we're opening the
doors. But before you get going in
there, you got to sanctify yourself.
You've been in this world and and getting muddy and getting
dirty. You're not stepping foot in this
place that way. Sanctify yourselves and sanctify
this house. Hezekiah spirituality again
going from his father to him is like going from darkness to
turning on the lights. It was a total 180 in between
his father and him and And as we consider the life of Hezekiah
from the Bible of the record, it seems that the most important
place Hezekiah had was the House of God.
He cared about the House of God. Second Chronicles 29 three
specifically says that in the first year of his reign, the
first thing it does in the first month open the doors of the
House of the Lord and repaired them.
He made this his priority. When I take office, these are
the first things I'm going to do is what he would have, you know,
when trying to run for, I guess you don't run for kingship.
But you know, if they were running for it and he had his
slogan or, or the first things he was going to do, he would
have talked about the first thing I'm going to do is open
these doors and we're fixing this.
And he does that not just after everything's hunky Dory and
things are running smoothly. He does it in the first month as
he starts because he realizes where he needs to start with
this country. Where do I and how do I get this
country from the depths of depravity of murdering and
sacrificing children to being pleasing to the Lord.
It starts in the House of God and and he first takes care of
that. He wanted the place to be
accessible and he wanted to to be attractive, which is why he
repairs it. And he tells them to carry forth
the filthiness out of this whole out of the holy place.
In, in if you continue reading, he, it's almost like these
Levites had forgotten what they were supposed to do.
And and he knowing he's not a priest, so he's not trying to
step like his great grandfather did and step over and get
struck, but he tries to instruct them.
You've got to get yourself clean to the point that there the
amount of priests to be clean, to be able to do the sacrificing
weren't enough. So he tells the Levites because
they are already more sanctified than they then the priests were,
which kind of, I don't know that reading through this, that that
was one thing that stuck out the most to me.
The Levites. Now remember some, sometimes you
think the Levites, well, they were all priests.
No, only Aaron's lineage was the priests.
They were a part of the Levites. But only Aaron's line were
priests. The rest of the Levites were
those that helped in the sanctuary, help clean, help take
care of the grounds, help do the duties of taking care of the
temple. But they were not priests.
So you could almost think of pastors and you have the layman
and Hezekiah gets to the point where there's not enough pastors
or the pastors aren't sanctified enough, but the laymen were.
Look down at verse. I think it's actually in Second
Kings. I'm in Seneca.
Yes, thank you. Verse 342934 But the priests
were too few, so they that they could not flay all the burnt
offerings. Wherefore their brother in the
Levites did help them till the work was ended, and until there
the other priests had sanctified themselves.
For the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify
themselves than the priests. If that doesn't explain where we
are in Christianity Today that that more of those that are
sitting in the pews in churches are more right with God than
those standing behind the pulpit to the point that that the king
says I need, I got to fill this. I've, I've got to have people
that are sanctified to be allowed to do this job.
Johnny, you're more qualified and closer to walking with God
than the person standing or the next pastor in line.
So you fill the spot until he gets clean.
How sad that was that the priests had not kept themselves
clean enough to be able to just go.
All right, time to go. Let's get working on this.
But it just shows that how quickly and how easy it is to
just fall out of doing what is right.
We can get as Christians get so far away from God that we feel
comfortable. Yeah, I've got a lot of sin.
But you know, when I need to, I'll just get clean it up.
I'll when I, when I need to pray, I'll, I'll clean up my
life. What does the Bible say about
those that have iniquity in their heart?
The Lord will not hear them. God wouldn't use priests that
weren't sanctified, and the the priests had to sanctify more
than the Levites had to because the Levites were closer to doing
what was right than the priests were.
That's scary in my opinion, that that those that were set apart
that were in the errands line of lineage of life of being priests
had dirtied themselves so much that it took so much longer for
them to get clean than just the normal Levites.
Make sure you're clean, Pastor says a lot of times when when
somebody comes and has a problem and they say pray for me.
Are you able to just drop on your knees and pray and talk to
God about what's going on, or do you have a whole host of stuff
that you've got to clean out before you can even talk to God?
I'm sorry, I'll get to your problem, but I've got a closet
full of sin that I need to get rid of.
Be like the Levites, whether you're a pastor in a position or
you're sitting in the Pew, make sure your count short because
there's there's times when God will call upon you to do
something. And if your account is short,
he's going to be able to use that vessel.
If you're a dirty vessel, it's hard to use until after you
clean it. Pastor talked about, you know
it, if you, if you get a speck on this vessel, a cup, it's
still dirty. But if it's a speck, I can clean
that off quick versus a glass full of mud.
And that's, that's the difference between the Levites
and the priests here. And we're off on a tangent, but
that's all right. Make sure your vessel is clean
enough to be able to be used. Don't have so much dirt in your
life that you've got to clean that up before you can ever be
used by God. The Levites knew their job new
we made the temple may be shut and we may not have a job, but
we're still going to follow after what we're supposed to do.
You may see the world running every which way except for the
foot of the cross. Doesn't mean that you get to
just put it in coast and coast through this life thinking,
well, I'm not as bad as that person.
God wants a clean vessel. Make sure we're clean.
So so yeah, we're going to go into next week.
So let's pray and we'll get into the next morning message.
Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your word for for what
it shows us in history of what the lives that you used in the
lives that you couldn't use. God, I just pray that you help
us to to focus on being as close to you as we can and and to get
out the sin to get out all the iniquity that we we can have a
fellowship and to have a relationship with you and be
able to be used by you. God, I just pray that you help
us to clean our lives out that we are a fit vessels to be used
whenever you need us. I pray that you be with Pastor
Phil and with your spirit as we get ready for what you've given
him for us. I pray that we open our eyes and
our ears and our hearts to what Your Word has for each and
everyone of us today. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. Dismissed.