The Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament calls the books of Chronicles the books of fragments. Fragments gathered up. So we have here fragments of Hezekiah's Reformation gathered up, not shown to us in 2 Kings 18 and following. Hear now the word of Almighty God inspired by his spirit and profitable for us. 2 Chronicles 29 starting at verse 1. Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him. and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense, nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem. And he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord, God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. My sons, be not now negligent, for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him and burn incense.' Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites, and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehaleliel, and of the Gershonites, Joah, the son of Zimah, and Eden, the son of Joah, and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri, and Jeiel, and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah, and Mataniah, and of the sons of Heman, Jehiel, and Shimei, and of the sons of Jedethon, Shemaiah, and Uziel. And they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord. And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took it to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron. Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord. So they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days, and in the 16th day of the first month they made an end." Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, we have cleansed all the house of the Lord and the altar of burnt offering with all the vessels thereof and the showbread table with all the vessels thereof. Moreover, all the vessels which King Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord. Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord. And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord. So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar. Likewise, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. They killed also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation. And they laid their hands upon them, and the priests killed them. And they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel. And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols. with psalteries and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet. For so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. And the Levites stood with instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by David, King of Israel. And all the congregation worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. And all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness and they bowed their heads and worshiped. Then Hezekiah answered and said, now you have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, as many as were of a free heart, burnt offerings. And the number of the burnt offerings which the congregation brought was three score and 10 bullocks. and 100 rams, and 200 lambs, all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. And the consecrated things were 600 oxen and 3,000 sheep. But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings. Wherefore, their brethren, the Levites, did help them, till the work was ended, and until the other priests had sanctified themselves. For the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. And also the burnt offerings were in abundance with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order and Hezekiah rejoiced and all the people that God had prepared the people for the thing was done suddenly. Thus far the reading of God's inspired word from the book of Second Chronicles, chapter 29. May the Lord bless us in the reading and hearing of his word and now in consideration of its teaching. Verses one through 11, Hezekiah's exhortation to the priests and Levites upon his opening the house of God. Verses 1 and 2 are considered previously in 2 Kings 18, 1-3. His mother here is called Abijah. She's called Avi in 2 Kings 18, 2. The rest of the chapter, verses 3-36, as I mentioned, is a fragment gathered up. We're taught that the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of God. Remember, Ahaz had closed the doors of the house of God, chapter 28, verse 24 of the same book. This shows his diligence and his zeal for the Lord. The Geneva Bible notes state this. They say this is a notable example for all princes. First, to establish the pure religion of God and to procure that the Lord may be honored and served correctly. This is the primary duty of magistrates. In fact, this is the primary duty of all men. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the first and great commandment. So then we think, well, once you become a civil magistrate, you can just forget about that. You don't have to love God anymore. All you have to do is love your neighbor now. That's what we say as Americans. Forget religion. That's not a civil matter. That just belongs in the church. Partially true, partially false, as we see here. He brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them together. This is an ecclesiastical assembly, that is a church assembly. This is church business. Who calls for this assembly? The civil magistrate. In fact, this is what we confess in our Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 23 on the civil magistrate, paragraph three, we say this. The civil magistrate hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed. For the better affecting whereof he, that is the civil magistrate, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God. Oh, Pastor Adam, you're violating the holy law of America, of the separation of church and state. Yes, God violates that law. That's exactly correct. In fact, we violate His law as well. Which one's more important? God's law requires that magistrates wield the sword to punish them, Paul says, that do evil. Is it evil to worship idols, to publicly establish false religions, to preach doctrines that lead men to hell and murder their souls? Is that not evil? Yes, it is. So then, should they punish it with the sword? Yes, they should. Absolutely, they should. And so Hezekiah, recognizing that God's wrath was against Judah for what? Idolatry. Neglect of God's ordinances. Not following the word of God in their worship, but the notions and traditions of men. This stands as a rebuke To those who would accuse Hezekiah as an evil king. Look what he's doing. Oh, how dare he. He's telling those churchmen what to do. What a sinner. No, not at all. He's a good king. He's one of the best kings. He's one of the few kings who's compared to David and said he did all the good that David did. This is a rebuke to those who would rip the first table of the law out of the hands of magistrates. You know, even in our monuments in America, we still have magistrates with two tables of the law. They want to go down there and rip it off, take out the first table. No. The primary duty of all men in all offices, civil and ecclesiastical, personal or public, is to love God. To pretend that in the civil office, the only duty a magistrate has is to love his neighbor is blasphemy. In fact, the second table of the law is contingent on the first table of the law. If God has no rights, what does his image have? No rights. Get rid of the first table, get rid of the second table. The two come together, and they fall together. Let us pray and instruct others regarding this most important matter for this high place is very high in American thought. Verse 5, "...Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers." Notice, Hezekiah binds them to no new duty. He creates no new laws for the conscience. What does he do? He tells them to do what their job is, what God requires of them in His Holy Word. He brings them back to the Lord's original institution. And remember, this was the goal of our Protestant magistrates. If you've studied the history of the Reformation, you know this. What did they want to do? Draw us back to the original institution using the civil sword to enforce it. That's not wrong. This is exactly what they sought to do. Bring back the word of God in the church. Bring back the lawful worship of God and the true preaching of his word. Let us pray for a new generation of such reforming magistrates, for our nation is rotten to the core with idolatry. He tells them to carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. You know, not all of life is worship. Did you know that? Not every act you do is sacred. That's not true. Some people think that. It's not the case. You have these filthy things that don't belong here. Take them out. We must distinguish between what is sacred and what is profane, what is common and what is holy. If you can't do that, can you keep one day in seven holy unto the Lord? No, because you don't know the difference between holy and profane. You think everything's the same. There is no Sabbath. In fact, there is no God if everything is the same. If there's no distinction between holy and not holy, God is holiness Himself. Is He not different from everything else? Of course He is. Carry out this filthiness out of the holy place. Don't profane God's holy place. Hezekiah confesses the sins of their fathers, and implicitly he's accusing them of the same sins. Verse 6. He says that they turned away their faces, their fathers did, from the habitation of the Lord. Now, this is very interesting. When they would go into the temple of God, they would be faced toward the west. The heathens, when they would worship their gods, would face toward the east, where the sun rises. And they would often worship Baal as the sun rising up in the sky. And when his father Ahaz made his new little idol temple, or his new little Damascene altar, what did he do? He had the people turn their backs on God's place of worship and face toward the east. That's what he's saying. They literally turned their backs on God. Turned their faces from His habitation. They directed their worship toward the east after the manner of the heathens. Not to worship God as he has commanded is to forsake him. It's to turn your back on him. Also, he says, they have shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps. They have left undone those things they ought to have done. To neglect the true worship of God is likewise to forsake and turn away from the Lord. God says, do this. We say, no, thank you. We've got a better idea. Hot dogs and pony rides for the kids. Baseball worship. We'll have all these little circus events and all this busyness to keep everybody in motion and forget about the fact that we're neglecting what? The very things God told us to do. Neglecting the ordinances established by the head of the church is to turn our back on God. And because of this, verse 8, the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem. This is no small matter. The Geneva Bible again, they say, he shows that the contempt of religion is the cause of all God's plagues. He says that people would hiss at them. This word can mean to whistle or to hiss. Whoa, something like that. What happened to them? They're all destroyed, taken away as captives, hissing. We have death and captivity, the results of such judgments, verse nine. Hezekiah then states his resolution to make a covenant with God to remove the wrath of God. And this covenant is not formally shown to us in this passage. Rather, it's implied by the actions he does. What does God's covenant require? Obedience to his revealed will. What is his revealed will? Get the filthiness out of the temple. Stop with the images, destroy them, burn them to powder, take them out to the brook Kidron, reinstitute the lawful worship of God, bring back the ordinances of the prophets through David and Asaph, sing the Psalms of God, use the instruments he appointed. That is the covenant. My sons, verse 11, be not now negligent. Time out. How old does a priest have to be to start his office? Anybody know? Close. For counting at some points it was 25. 30 years old. How old is Hezekiah? He's 25. This is the first year of his reign. 25 years of age. Talking to men at least five years older than him. What are they? His sons. My sons, he says. Why? What is a magistrate to the people over whom he rules? He is a father in the Commonwealth. So he calls them his sons. The fifth commandment applies here. Remember my superiority over you, in other words, my sons. They had a duty to imitate the diligence of their father Hezekiah. They had a duty to obey His commandments, not just because they were the Word of God, but because He was their Father in the Commonwealth. You see, ecclesiastical persons are not exempted from civil obedience. My sons, be not now negligent. You have been. Your fathers have been. Stop being negligent. No more. Why? For the Lord hath chosen you to stand before Him. You are the elect of God in this matter. That is your shame if you do not do your duty. This is the point. The apostles make the same point. You are the elect of God, therefore you must do your duty. And it is an aggravation of your sin if God chose you and you don't do your duty. That's why he mentions it. To spur them on to love and good works. God chose you, therefore you must be holy. Verses 12 through 19. The priests and Levites take care and pains to cleanse the temple and to put all things in order there. Note the role call in verses 12 through 14, valiant sons of Kohath, Merari, and Gershom, and a note with regard to the musicians. It mentions Elisaphan, called Elzaphan in Exodus 6, 18 through 22, a prince of the family of the Kohathites. These valiant men gather their brethren to cleanse the house. Notice again, Hezekiah, as a civil magistrate, commands them in the name of God and by his royal authority, but he does none of the work. You see, magistrates are like bishops, as Constantine said, of the external matters of the church, and the pastors are the bishops of the internal matters of the church. I can command you what to do, but I cannot do it. It's not my job. So yes, there is a separation of church and state. There are two separate spheres, but they must cooperate in God's economy. These valiant men cleansed the house of God according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord. Here is the proper relationship of human to divine authority. Hezekiah is a human authority, is a civil magistrate. He comes to the ecclesiastical rulers and says, you must submit yourselves to God, so I command you to do it. And they do it. It's according to God's word, and it's according to the commandment of the king. We must use our authority as Hezekiah did. We are to yield our own rule to the rule greater than our own, the rule of God. and our authority as humans is bound up with the word of the Lord." They bring out all the uncleanness they found in the temple of the Lord, do you remember? The Damascene altar, Ahaz sees it in Damascus, he has a temple, in the temple he has it made and he pushes aside the altar of the Lord, that's uncleanness, it's brought out. The Levites took all of this uncleanness, in verse 16, and they put it in the brook Kidron. They burned these things with fire. They ground them to dust and ashes. Remember Moses with the golden calf? What did he do? Burned it with fire, turned it into powder, and put it in the water. And then he made the people go and drink it. Asa did the same thing, 2 Chronicles 15, 16. Josiah will later do the same, 2 Kings 23, 4-6. The timing of the cleansing is mentioned, this is very important, because as we'll see, they cannot observe the Passover, and we'll see it observed a month later in chapter 30, God willing. Then verses 20 through 36, a solemn revival of the public means of grace, with atonement made for their sins. Verse 20, notice King Hezekiah rose early. This means he was diligent. He got it done as soon as he could, just like he told them, be no more negligent, so he himself will not be negligent in these things. He gathers the rulers of the city. He goes up to the house of the Lord, requiring his lesser magistrates to do the same. They bring seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he goats for a sin offering. Now Pastor Black has been teaching us about the days of creation. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then what? When does it get filled up? 7th. 7 is a number of fullness. Why? Well in the law it doesn't say to bring 7. It might bring 1 or 2. It might bring a different type for a ruler than for an average person. What is Hezekiah saying? We are a people full of sin. We are people full of transgression. We are people who need a full atonement for our massive sins. Let us be aware of the multitude of our sins. If you think your debt is small, you need a small atonement. If you think your debt is medium, well, you might need a medium-sized atonement. If you think your debt is massive, you need a God-in-the-flesh kind of atonement, which is what is represented here. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the fullness of all sacrifices. The sacrifices are for the kingdom, that is, the king and his nobles. For the sanctuary, that is, for the priests and the things that had happened there that were profaning. And for Judah, the whole commonwealth of Judah. All were filled with sin. The sin offerings have their blood sprinkled. The scapegoat is confessed over and slain, verses 22 through 24. Then the Levites, after the atonement is made for sins, the Levites are set in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, those musical instruments commanded by God through the holy prophets. They did not say, this seems good to us, this sounds good to me, let's do this because after all we sing the Psalms, why don't we have some instruments to go along and help the people who can't read music? No. at the instigation at the commandment of God through His holy prophets. For so was the commandment of the Lord, verse 25, by His prophets. Do you remember our study of positive law? There's one. The instruments. God commanded. They were not from the beginning of the Mosaic economy, by the way. Hundreds of years between the institution of Moses and the institutions of David. Why? Because musical instruments are not moral. They are positive. God has the right to command them or He has the right not to. He has the right to revoke them. He has the right to change them. At His will alone. God appointed them for that time, for that place, and for that people. In fact, He tied the instruments to the Levitical priesthood. You couldn't just go off and do your own Levitical priesthood on the high places with your own instruments or the same instruments. No, you could not do that. And when the Levitical priesthood fell, guess what happened to that institution of musical instrumentation? It fell with the priesthood. It was taken away and abolished and abrogated together with it. Now in the New Testament you will find no commandment after the abrogation of the Levitical priesthood that we ought to build again those things that God attached to it. In other words, you will find no command to use a psaltery or a harp or anything of that sort subsequent to the abrogation of the Levitical priesthood. What will you find? Sing the Psalms. Sing the hymns. Sing those songs inspired by the Spirit of God. You will find that. Yes, you will. You will find God command you to sing the Psalms. You will find nothing of musical instrumentation. But you will find this. Make melody where? With a psaltery? With a harp? With a piano? With a lyre? With the cymbals? No! With your heart. with the inner man. The instrument, beloved, is you. You are the instruments for the singing of God's praise. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by David the king. You see this? Not only are the singing of the Psalms attached to the sacrifices, so are the instruments, and they're all attached to the Levites. The whole thing. The song of the Lord is a reference to our book of Psalms. Yet, God has commanded us as a holy priesthood not to use the instruments, but to sing the Psalms, the hymns, and the songs. All the congregation, verse 28 tells us, worshipped. And the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. You see, the confession of their sins did not dampen the praise that belongs to God, it heightened it. By means of acknowledging their own sinfulness and atoning for the greatness of their sins, they were not put off from singing God's praise. They were encouraged to sing God's praise. Our sins are forgiven through the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb. my friends, brings joy. They worshiped, they sang, they sounded with the trumpets. The ministers of church and state then joined joyfully in the worship of the Lord in the manner He has prescribed, verses 29 and 30. The sanctified and consecrated nation of Judah then offers freely to the Lord, verses 31 through 33. The Levites then consecrate themselves, and they help with the priests. The priests can't even keep up with all the sacrifices. They need extra help, and the Levites join in. Verse 34. So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order, verse 35. It was stabilized. It was set upon a solid rock and foundation, the word of the living God. Now this took effort, diligence, no more negligence, choice, conscience. All this had to happen. They had to work hard to get this done. And may we likewise imitate their diligence, their choice, their effort, their conscience. Let us worship upon a solid foundation the words of Christ Himself. And notice verse 36, Hezekiah rejoiced in all the people, that they themselves had prepared themselves. Is that what it says in your Bible? Because if it does, it's the wrong version. Hezekiah rejoiced in all the people that God had prepared the people. Did they have to be diligent? Yes. Were they commended for their diligence? Yes. Were they commended for making conscience? Yes. Were they commanded to stop being negligent? Yes. Who made it happen? Who gets the credit? Who gets the glory? God does. God prepared the people. Though they boiled up with zeal for God and His house, God gets the glory, God gets the credit, since all of man's goodness, all of man's merit is merely the mercy of God, what God has wrought in him. Or as Augustine said, our merits are His mercies. And thus far the exposition of 2 Chronicles 29,