2 Kings Chapter 18
When God Brings Revival
RD V.1-8
Hezekiah is one of FOUR outstanding kings of
Asa, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, and Hezekiah
Well God brought revival to
Note: He was 25 yrs old –
when God used him to bring Revival to the nation
A) Now this should be
encouraging to every young person in this Sanctuary tonight
B) God can use you to do
great things – even though you might feel - - I AM YOUNG
C) Young people have energy:
Old people might
have great ideas – not the
energy to carry them out
D) Young people have a Zeal: Dream
1) Passion
2) Also can be idealistic – good
and bad
E) Good: Because not going to settle for the Status
Quo – Want to see Change
Bad – It can
make you Judgmental and Critical of others – Me with Pastor Chuck – no clue {leading a church
E) That can cause them to try
things – or seek to make something better.
Young Person I want to
encourage you to make yourselves available to God
A) I want you to know – something you shouldn’t hear
here at CCV – We don’t do that!
B) Dream – Pray – Seek out – Ideas
1) Promise - take them to the Lord
C) So God uses Hezekiah in a big time way.
1) Revival was the result
Now
A) Sort of gives us the end
result of the revival and the actions that resulted
B)
1) Starting point and steps
C) So turn to
2 Chron 29:1-3
Hezekiah became king when he was
twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in
In the first year of his reign, in the
first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.
#1 He placed a Priority on
worship!
A) He repaired the doors to the house of God
Aa) Remember
that Ahaz had nailed shut the doors of the temple. Nobody was using it. See V.6-8
1) As soon as Hezekiah began to reign, he opened the
doors of the temple.
B) The house of God was opened once again to worship
the Lord
C) Let's get back to seeking
God!
#2 He challenged the
Leaders:
4 Then he brought in the priests and the
Levites, and gathered them in the
He challenged them in 3
ways
1) Sanctify themselves – Set apart – others words get
the compromise out of their own lives.
There had to be a return to holy living, to honesty,
and to integrity. There had to be a setting-apart for God.
Leaders need to be set apart – they should be
different especially spiritual leaders
Has to be something about
them I think that motivates others to follow their example
Contagious affect -
So first he called the Leaders to be set apart unto
the Lord
2) He called them to
clean up God’s house
carry out the rubbish from the holy
place.
A) Rubbish is the uncleanness Impurity
B) Everything that didn’t belong – everything that was
not of the Lord –
1) Remove it
1) He called the Leaders to be set apart
unto the Lord
2) He called them to clean up God’s house.
3) He challenged them to not be negligent
to their calling.
10 "Now it is in my heart to make a
covenant with the LORD God of
Their calling consisted of 4
things
Here we have the 4 Fold Role
of the Elder
1) They were called to stand before God.
A) We stand before God as his representative
B) We represent God to the people and the people to
God
2) They were called to serve God.
A) We serve the Lord by serving his people
B) By ministering to them and caring for them.
3) They were called to
minister to Him: This speaks of our devotional life and our worship to
the Lord
A)Two crucial things – Mary
4) They were called to burn incense – This
speaks of the ministry of intercessory prayer.
Now all of this is happening
before they pulled down one altar or idol.
A) What Hezekiah is doing is he is surrounding himself
with likeminded – like hearted men
B) This wasn’t going to be a one man show {Team effort
– Like minded men – seeking God
C) This is always a starting place – Revival
1) Group committed to pray
D) A group ready to step
in and do what is needed –
1) Set an example / set the pace / for others to run
One more thing: RD V.25-30
He stationed them in the
house of the Lord
A) He appointed them places in the temple and they led
the people in worship
B) The assembly followed
1) Leaders lead – most by example
C) Here is the result: 2
Chron 29:35-36
So the service of the house of the LORD
was set in order. 36 Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had
prepared the people, since the events took place so suddenly.
1) So he set a priority on worship
2) He challenged the leaders
3) He reinstituted the Passover Ch.31
Passover is the OT
equivalent to communion
A) Remembrance of deliverance from
B) Passover Lamb
C) I think in any true revival there is going to be a
focus on the Cross –
1) Coming back to giving
worth to the Lord’s Table
D) Paul said in
E) Need to regularly sit at the foot of the Cross
So Hezekiah reinstituted the Passover
Again this was all before
A) After his team is assembled – after the Leaders
were on the right tract
Turn back to
4 He removed the high places and broke
the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze
serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned
incense to it, and called it Nehushtan (Neh oosh tan )
#1 He instituted a house
cleaning in
Notice the verbs in v.4 Removed / Broke/ cutdown
A) We are talking a violent aggressive house cleaning
going on here in
B) Removed the high places – Started as convenient
places of worship
1) Ended up idolatry
C) Broke the (Neh oosh tan )
1) Bronze serpent – Curse – look to
D) But over the yrs it had
become what it was never intended to be. {
It was an instrument that was intended
at that time to be a pt of faith – believe and look to the pole
A) Believe and look to the cross
B) The instrument that was intended to spark faith
1) Became the focal point instead of God
C) Hezekiah called it what it was – Brass things
D) Focus in the wrong Place – Man – Just a Man
1) Guitar Just a guitar
2) Building just a building
E) If the man or the guitar or the building can be
used to get people to focus on God – great
So Hezekiah instituted a
house cleaning in Judah
#2 He trusted in the
Lord. V.5
A) His confidence was going to be in the Lord
B) Trust = Dependency – cling to rely upon
#3 He held fast to the word. V.6
God’s instruction to Joshua
7 Only be strong and very courageous,
that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant
commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you
may prosper wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your
mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do
according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way
prosperous, and then you will have good success.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in
you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
Psalm 1:1-3
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the
ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the
LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and
night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its
season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
Result of Hezekiah’s actions?
V.7 He Prospered –
V.8 He had victory over his
enemies
Now is it any different for us today than Hezekiah?
Joshua? David? The Lord’s Disciples
Hey you want to Prosper – follow this pattern
So God used Hezekiah to bring Revival to the nation
All happened in his first year as King
Unfortunately it didn’t last - RD V. 9-16
Hezekiah does NOT know what
to do. In his panic he errs
A)NOTE: Isn’t that when we most often err.... When we
panic.
B) The place of trusting in the Lord is when we are
LEAST likely to err.
C) SO Hezekiah gives in to the Pressure of the enemy
tries to satisfy him with payment from God’s house
1) Note the enemy is never satisfied
D) One drink / one toke /
one look – one fling
1) Never says ok that is enough Keeps coming and so does Sennacherib - RD V. 17-35
Now note this v.29-35 he
makes 3 arguments for the people to give in.
1.) PROMISES PROSPERITY
If you come over we’ll prosper you. We’ll give you
your own vine and well. Our land is a good land.
Interesting: “The Jews KNEW
that the Assyrians did NOT treat ANYONE like that when they were taken captive.
Yet, this man appeals to them on this basis.
2.) DENIES DEATH
You will live and NOT die if
you come over to my side
3.) CAUSED QUESTIONING
Where are the gods of
NOTE: These are the same
three things that Satan did in the Garden
A)The PROMISE OF PROSPERITY, the DENIAL OF DEATH and
the CREATING OF QUESTIONS
B) Hath God said?
You shall not die The day that
you eat your eyes will be opened.
C) When you study the Bible
you find out that Satan’s repertoire is very limited.... His play book is
really small.
1) He only has a couple of
plays that he runs over and over again. Da Vinci Code
D) IF a team only had three
plays you would think that the opposing team would be able to stop them.
E) Satan only has THREE basic
plays that we should KNOW and DEFEND against.
PROMISES PROSPERITY
A) “You can cheat a little
here and there and prosper”
DENIES DEATH
“You’re not going to die and
go to hell”
CAUSES QUESTIONS
“What about those aborigines
that never heard the Gospel?”
“If God’s a God of love how
come there is so much suffering?”
NOTE: Here is how we should deal with the Devil
V.36
36 But the people held their peace and answered him not a word;
for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him." 37 Then Eliakim
the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the
son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told
him the words of the Rabshakeh.
V.36 This is very practical: ANSWER HIM NOT
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil
and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
We start yelling at Satan and making demands on Satan
Just Submit to
God – Devil will flee –
Ch.19 We looked at
earlier – Sunday
Letter into the house of the Lord –
Cast all your cares –
Hezekiah is back on track – the result
God causes one angel to come and blow away 185,000 Assyrian
in one shot