Second Chronicles, Chapter 29. I'm going to begin my reading with verse 1. It reads, 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 and in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. And he brought in the priest 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 transgressed. They 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. Therefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem. And he hath delivered them to trouble, and to astonishment, and 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 furious wrath may turn away from us. My sons, be not thou negligent, for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense." Look at verse 15. 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 of 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 and carried 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 sixteenth day of the first month they made an end." Then they went into Hezekiah the king and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, and the altar of the burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof. Moreover, all the vessels which King Ahaz in his reign did cast away in the transgression, as 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 sheep, and he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests and the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord. So they killed the bullocks, and the priests delivered 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 a sin offering before the king of 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 sent the Levites in the house of the Lord, with symbols, and psalters, and harps, among all the commandments of David, and of Ged the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet, for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophet. And the Levites stood with the 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 worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded, and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished." We'll conclude our reading with verse 28. We're talking about revival. Revival as it was experienced by the Israelites under the leadership of Hezekiah the king. I think that it is important for us to understand that there is a sense in which revival resides in rest with God. I do not believe that it is possible for any people to whip up a revival. I don't think that you can get yourself emotionally stirred and make a lot of promises to God and go through a lot of activity and by so doing attain the level of revival. There is a sense in which it rests with God, God must grant it, and God must work it in our hearts and in our lives if we are to really be revived. On the other hand, there is the human side of revival, and we cannot afford to overlook that. The human side is that God's people must always meet God's conditions. Until we are willing to meet his conditions, we will never experience You have often heard people say that people will follow the example that goes before them. Generally this is true, but not always. I am aware of the fact that the Bible says train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it, but that does not mean that there will not be any straying on the part of the individual. I think it can be interpreted that in time that person will come back to those precepts that have been instilled within the heart and the mind or the soul of that individual. But I want to call your attention to the fact that Hezekiah, a godly man, was the son of one who was most ungodly, who followed him as a key. Ahaz was a terrible key for the kingdom. He corrupted the people, he had groves built everywhere, and worshipped idols, and did everything that he possibly could in closing the house of God. The offerings had ceased, the porches had been boarded up, the sacrifices had ceased, the lamps had been put out at the altars, and there were corruptible things inside the temple. When this godly king, Hezekiah, came to the throne, he reversed everything that his father did that was evil. On the other hand, Hezekiah, who is a godly man, had also a son that followed him, and he followed the pattern of his grandfather instead of the pattern of his father. So Hezekiah had an ungodly father and an ungodly son. Here is a righteous man sandwiched between two evil leaders. One of them was his own father, the other was his own son. And so we can see it doesn't always hold true that people will follow exactly the pattern that has been set before them. It is important to realize that Hezekiah reigned from the year 727 B.C. until 695 B.C., or some total of 32 years, he was king of the nation. He also had some real strength and support to him. During this period he had Isaiah the prophet, and all you need to do is read the prophecy of Isaiah to see what kind of man he was. He had Hosea the prophet, and if you have ever read the book of Hosea, it is mentioned in there how that Hosea is a type of Israel. Hosea took a wife who became an adulterer and then was restored, and he received her back as his wife, and that's the way it was as far as the nation was concerned. The nation had turned its back upon God and forsaken God, was living in spiritual adultery and idolatry, and therefore God used King Hezekiah to return them to divine favor. And then there was Micah the prophet, and you can read his prophecy and also see the condition of the nation at the time that this young man came to the throne as a very young man, 25 years of age, and did a great work that produced revival for the nation. In the message that I shared with you this morning, I want to first of all share some things that Hezekiah did to bring this revival. In verse 3 of the passage of scripture that we read, chapter 29, he opened the temple. The doors had been bolted up to the temple. All of the religious services had ceased. And Hezekiah, when he became king, in spite of all the rubbish and all the turmoil that they faced politically, he did not say the most important thing for this kingdom now is that I make it strong politically and make it strong militarily. No, he did not say that. He said there's a problem in Israel that far exceeds all of these, and that is it's a spiritual problem. The first thing we need to do is clean up ourselves, clean up the nation, clean up the house of God, and if we can have the favor of God, the other things will take care of themselves. So he started by opening the house of God. In verse 5, we see that he cleansed it. In other words, he gave orders for everything in the temple that was not supposed to be there to be removed. He also gave orders for everything that was there to be put in its proper place and for it to be functioning for the glory of God. In verse 19, we see that he made it a useful temple. His father had done just the opposite, but he delighted in making it a place where God could meet with his people. God had withdrawn from the temple. God had withdrawn from the nation. That's the reason that the King Hezekiah said, see what has happened to us? Our brave men have fallen by the swords. And our wives and our daughters are in captivity. They were under the judgment of God. So Hezekiah demanded that the temple be restored to order so the glory of God would return and the people give up their religious practices and return unto the God of their fathers. So he made it a useful temple. May I also share with you that he made it a joy-filled temple. It became a joyous place. They sang praises unto God, and they worshipped him according to verse 28. And God met with his people, and they could feel his presence, and they could sense his power. And therefore the nation was returning to the God that had blessed it many years before ungodly Hezekiah plunged them into idolatry. I'd like to also share with you this morning what we must do if we are to meet God's conditions and experience the spiritual blessings that he has in store for his people. We must first of all open the temple. I mean by that, we must open our hearts unto the Lord. You know, in the book of Corinthians, Paul makes it known that our bodies belong to the Lord, and that we are the temple of God. This is seen in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 16-17. through 17. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Now if any man defile the temple, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple we are." Now what is he talking about? He's talking about the people of God collectively, just like this body of Christians sitting here this morning. We, the Church of Jesus Christ, We are the temple of God, and therefore we are to open the door, the door of our hearts, in order that God might come in and might bless us spiritually. You know, one of the most detrimental things to the work of God is that too many people come into a service such as this with their minds already made up. Their minds are closed and their hearts are closed. They're not going to be influenced too greatly by what is said. They've said something that they like and something that... If you are going to have God's blessing, we must open our minds. We must open our hearts. We must recognize that this is the Word of God, and the person who ministers it is the servant of God. And that it is not necessarily some individual saying, this is the way of the preacher, walk ye in it. But rather, thus saith the Lord, this is the way of the Lord, walk ye in it. So we're going to have to open our hearts. Secondly, we're going to have to do something else. That is, we're going to have to cleanse the Temple. In 2 Corinthians 7, in verse 1, listen to what Paul says, "...having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now, I believe if you would be perfectly honest with me, and which is hard to get people to do, just as hard to get you to be perfectly honest with me as it is to get me to be perfectly honest with you. We don't like to just come out and tell the real truth. all the time about all things. But if you would be honest, reasonably honest, and I would be reasonably honest with you, we'll have to admit that there's time when cobwebs gets in this heart of ours, and in this mind of ours, and it gets awfully dirty at times, and it isn't garnished the way it ought to be garnished, and we're not thinking upon things as wholesome as we ought to think of, but rather, all attention has been directed inwardly. We are now concerned about what we want in life, And how we might attain it or get it for ourselves. We need to cleanse the temple. Bring our hearts before the Lord and say, Lord, create in me a clean heart. David had to do that as a king. I have to do it at times, and no doubt you will have to do it too if you ever have the blessings of the Lord. You know, Paul's exhortation to the church in Thessalonica was the same thing, but it takes a cleansing on the part of God's people to have his blessings. In 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 1-4, it says, Then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received the verse, now you ought to walk and to please God, so that you will abound more and more. You ought to walk, please God, so that you will abound more and more. For you know that commandment which we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification unto honor." So he's talking about cleaning our lives up to the glory of God. And then, of course, we must make it a useful temple. If we are to ever have God's blessings, we must We must fulfill the exhortation that is found in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, where Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may know what is the good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. Don't be conformed or pattering after the ways of the world, but be ye transformed. Be just the opposite. Be ye transformed, pattering your life after the ways of Christ, surrendering your bodies completely unto the Lord, because this is a reasonable sacrifice. In other words, it's not God asking too much when he calls upon us for our very best. You know, in making ourselves a useful temple, we need to recognize what Jesus said to the disciples in Matthew 5, verses 14 and 16. He said, Ye are the light of the world. The light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be healed. And a candle that is set out in the open is an effective one, but one that is put under a basket and is disguised is of no use whatsoever. And he said, let men see your good deeds. Let your light so shine that men may see your good deeds that they might glorify your Father which is in heaven. So we are to recognize that we are the light of the world. Lost people can only see Christ as he is manifested in us In Philippians 4, we have Paul's exhortation to the Church at Philippi along this line. Notice what he says, And again I say rejoice. So if we become a useful temple, then we'll be a joyful temple. We'll be able to rejoice just as these people came and met together under Hezekiah's leadership and the blessings of God fell upon them and they rejoiced. Now, the instructions that I read to you back here in 2 Chronicles chapter 29, involved three groups of people. I want us to return to the chapter because I want to share with you some things that they did and how the blessings of God came upon them as a result of it. First of all, there was definite instructions to the worshipers, how God was to be worshiped. Verse 11, Noah says, My sons, be not now negligent. For the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense." Ezekiel is saying to the worshipers, quit this foolishness. This business of neglecting and ignoring God in our lives has gone far too long. Quit it. Quit being negligent. Recognize that God has a purpose in our lives. that it is God who has called us, chosen us, in order that we might stand before him, in order that we might serve him, and that we might minister unto him and burn the incense. May I say that we have gone far too long taking the things of God seriously, the services of our church, and the opportunities that are ours in revival meaning. Quit this foolishness of ignoring our opportunities to have the blessings of God. Let us resolve in our hearts and in our minds that we're going to be here, that we're going to worship God, that we're going to recognize that we have been chosen of the Lord, and we're going to stand in the place that God has given us, and we're going to serve the Lord in the opportunities that are ours, and we're going to do things in a way that will bring glory and honor to the God of heaven and earth who loved us. and purchased us through his own Son." Notice not only were they called upon to cease their negligence, but also in verses 15-19 they were called upon to prepare themselves through sanctification. This was to the priests and to the Levites. Notice what it says in verse 15, "...and they gathered their brethren and sanctified them. And came, according to the commandment of the king, by the word of the Lord, to cleanse the house of God. Verse 16, And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord. He was the only one supposed to go back there. And cleansed it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord, and to the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it, and carried it out abroad into the brook Kidron, and threw it in the brook, and destroyed it. verse 17, and they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day they completed the work. Brother, they got busy. In eight days, or in seven days, they cleansed the house of God and made it worshipable again, a place where you could worship the Lord. How you and I need to recognize speedily the opportunities that are ours. Not floundering around, not going through life aimlessly, but recognizing that now is the opportunity for us to be busy and to do those things that God has called us to do. Sanctify ourselves unto the Lord. Then, of course, there was the song, their occasion of rejoicing when they offered up the burnt offering, verses 27-29. It says, "...and Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering on the altar." You know, the burnt offering is a symbol of fellowship. fellowship between the person and God. And so he offers the burnt offering. And when the burnt offering began, then they started to sing. The song was struck up. The temple choirs began to sing. And the trumpeters started sounding the trumpets, the instruments that David had sanctified to the glory of God. Then they worshipped the Lord. I want to say this. Worshipping God is far more than coming to a few services in church during the week. You can go through the services and never worship God. Worshipping God is an offering up of yourself unto the Lord. Worshipping God is a recognition that my mind belongs to God, and I'll dedicate it to him to think through. Worshipping the Lord is a recognition that my heart belongs to God, and I'll dedicate it to him to love through. My hands and my feet and my body belongs to the Lord, and I'll dedicate it to him to serve through. to live in and serve through. And so they consecrated themselves unto the Lord, and the blessings of God came upon them. You notice in this chapter that they offered up seven sin offerings. seven rams, the lambs and so forth. You go back up here to verse 21. And they brought seven bullock, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and offered them as a sin offering unto the Lord. That was first. Before there could be a burnt offering, a symbol of fellowship, there had to be a sin offering, a picture of sin being removed. Now, all that was necessary to be offered was one sacrifice. There had to be a sacrifice offered for the priest, and secondly, a sacrifice offered for the people. Two sacrifices, one for the priest and one for the people. What's wrong with Hezekiah? Hezekiah has seven sacrifices of a number of animals offered up as sin offerings unto God. What is he saying? He's saying the sins of our fathers and our own sins are as high as heaven. We're going to prove to God that we mean business. Instead of offering one sin offering, we're going to offer the perfect number, which is seven, showing to God that we mean business, and we're going to humble ourselves and dedicate ourselves to him. Seven sacrifices as a sin offering. Now, we have a picture of the worshiper. The second thing that I call your attention to is a picture of the worker. In 2nd Chronicles, chapter 30, verse 8, we see that the worker was not to be stiff-necked. Listen to what he says. Now be ye not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into the sanctuary which he hath sanctified for ever. And serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may be turned away from you. Don't be stiffened at. Don't rebel any further against God. Let us all come now and completely and willingly submit ourselves unto the Lord. In chapter 31, time will not permit us to go through it, but in this chapter we have the observance of the Passover. It is set up, and they observe it. And their brethren from the North are called down, Ephraim and Nahum are called down to celebrate with this. The whole kingdom is asked to come and celebrate and have a part in this Passover feast. Then we come, thirdly, this morning, to the warriors, those who had to fight the battles. Before we look at that, let me pause just long enough to say that we are to be workmen. We are workers together with God. What a joy, what a privilege it is that God would so favor you and so favor me that we could have a part in his work. You know, when we think of the greatness of God and who he is, that he would condescend to the level that he would invite us to work with him. What an honor, what a privilege, and let us be like these were called to be upon, to do it willingly, to do it with our hearts, unreservedly, unto the Lord. Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed, for the King of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with them." You see, Assyria was threatened. But the King says, if we are right with God, we don't have to worry about Assyria. We don't have to worry about our enemies. Be strong, be courageous, and if we must fight, God will give us the victory. There is more with us than there is with them. You know, every church has some warriors. Some people in the church are in a greater conflict with the enemy than others. They are out there on the front lines. You can depend on them. They are good soldiers. There are others who are back here on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines, but I am glad they are there. With the God that they get the picture and move up to the front line, get on the front line, but it is better to have them on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th than not to have them at all. On the other hand, there are some that have deserted the post. They have turned altogether away from the fight that we have in this line. May I just caution you once again, we are not on a picnic. We're not saved to be on a picnic. We're on a battlefield. We're in the midst of a battle. Paul said we are to fight a good fight. And we are to be warriors to win. We have an archenemy, Satan himself and all of his emissaries that he is going to muster against us and focus their attention upon us. Therefore, we as the people of God must stand. Paul said, having done all to stand, stand therefore. One thing you can rest assured of, if we are pleasing to God, he will stand with us, or we will be standing with him. And that will be the majority. And so the people did that, and as they did that, God returned to the nation, and the blessings of the Lord returned to the people. I want to close this morning by asking you a very simple question. There is nothing magic about revival. And Henry Mahan or your pastor or any other preacher coming to this pulpit can't bring you revival. You can't put your Bible under your arm and some sermons and go trotting off to an old church and say, well, here comes me and my suitcase and we're going to have revival. It doesn't work that way. It works when God's people meet God's conditions, and here they are laid out for us. We need to open our hearts and our minds to God. We need to cleanse our hearts and our lives before the Lord. We need to make our bodies a useful place where God can take over and use to his glory. And then we will receive the blessing and we'll become joyful, and that's the result of revival. We'll become joyful in the things of God. Now what would you do about the opportunities that are yours tonight, next week, every night? Would you feel the responsibility of your life to this church and the need of your own soul that you have come faithfully, come giving yourself unreservedly to God? Seven days they cleansed the temple. Seven days they had the work done. Several nights we will have the opportunity to be here under the servant of God and listen to him. Will we do as well as they did under King Hezekiah? Only you can answer that for yourself. But may it be that God will give the grace that we will become responsible and measure up to that responsibility and receive the blessing of revival.