The Church of Jesus Christ was formed at pentecost. It was formed, formed by the Holy Spirit and you often hear me, you've heard me say many times that there is only one church. There are people today in Ulster who get all hung up about denominations, labels, names over doors, and signs of churches, such and such, a denomination. Well, I want to say there's going to be no denominations in heaven. And there's only one church, and that church was formed at pentecost when 3,000 were converted, born again. By the way, that's a good definition of a Protestant. Somebody who's born again. Oh, you thought it was somebody who voted for the DUP or the Ulster Unionist Party, did you? No. No, a true Protestant is someone who has been born again, saved by God's grace. A lot of people take the title out there, talk about being Protestant or prod. It's the term they use. They're proud to be a prod. They don't know the first meaning of it. They don't have the beliefs of a Protestant, and they certainly don't have the behavior of a Protestant. So there's a definition for you today, free of charge. I'll not charge you anything for it. Protestant, somebody who's born again. But oh, the church formed at Pentecost when thousands were born again. Of course, for the next thousand years, or in fact more, the church was deformed by the papacy. And the Bible, of course, was locked away during those dark ages, kept back from the people. And of course, it doesn't matter whether it's in the first millennium, the second millennium, or the third millennium that we're in, whenever the Bible is kept back from people, there's going to be darkness, isn't there? The church was deformed for those many years. But then, praise God, the glorious Protestant Reformation took place. As some people say, it started on the 15th of October, or sorry, 31st of October, 1517. I personally don't believe that. I believe that it started with men like John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation in the 1400s. And Wycliffe, of course, he sent out the Law Lords, The preachers, two by two, they went out with handwritten copies of this book, disseminated them around the country. Of course, they were greatly persecuted, the law lords, for doing that. The Bible was hated in those days. Persecution. There's persecution today still, isn't there? We prayed for the young teacher in Dalriada on Thursday night at the prayer meeting. You maybe didn't hear about that, a young teacher who put up a darkest day poster on the SU notice board. I mean, it wasn't even on the school notice board. The main notice board's an SU notice board, Scripture Union. And yet someone has created a rumpus about this. And persecution for that young teacher. My sister sent me a WhatsApp today. Some of you don't know, you haven't heard of WhatsApp. The younger ones know what that is. But the message from the young teacher, I'm so thankful for the support, prayers, and messages from so many across the country. There is no formal disciplinary to be issued, and the investigation is over. Pray that God will give strength and grace to us Christians in school, both students and teachers, as we navigate the days ahead. So that's an answer to prayer, isn't it? You were praying on Thursday night and God answered your prayers. Persecution in Wycliffe's day, persecution 2019. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer what? Persecution. Reformation reformed the church. Church that had been formed and then deformed was now reformed. Mighty work of the Spirit of God, a mighty revival through Wycliffe and Huss and Luther and Cranmer and the other reformers, John Knox, Patrick Hamilton, the list goes on. Brave, courageous reformers who took their stand in their day. But you know, long before any of these reformers, you had King Hezekiah. We've read of him today. And you know, he was a great reformer. His reform can be divided into four parts. There were four stages in Hezekiah's reform. First stage tells us in our text there, 2 Kings 18 verse four, he removed the high places. What were the high places? Those places were places where people worshipped the Lord or claimed to worship the Lord. But you see, Solomon's temple had been built and the Lord said, there's one place that I will be worshipped and that is in, you've guessed it, Solomon's temple. But there were people who said, no thanks Lord, we'll just worship in the high places. We just worship in these localized centers of worship. You know, like sort of small groups here and there scattered around the nation of Israel. High places. Now, sometimes they were in a high place, literally on a mountain top, but not always. There was other times that these places of so-called worship were in a valley. So not necessarily up high on a mountain. But these high places were places where people who refused to go to the temple said that they worshipped Jehovah. But Hezekiah removes these high places. He gets rid of them, he knocks them down, takes the sledgehammer to them. You see, this was part of his reformation. Getting rid of these high places. Some people maybe said, you're a bit severe, Hezekiah. No need to go overboard. You're a bit OTT. Knocking down all these high places around the country. Well, I want to tell you that Hezekiah wasn't too severe, too harsh or OTT. He wasn't over the top. He was doing exactly what the Lord wanted him to do. You see, Hezekiah wanted the people to meet in the place of worship that God had ordained. Do you know there are people today who don't meet in the place of worship that God has ordained? I'm speaking now about people who say, I don't bother going to church, I just worship at home. You ever heard that? You ever heard people say, I just worship at home on a Sunday, just me by myself, or me and my wife, or me and my husband and family. We just worship in our home. Worshiping at a high place. God hasn't ordained it. God says, you're not to worship me in your high place, in your home. No, you're to come to the house of God. You're to come to the church. Hebrews 10, 25 comes to mind, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. There are, sad to say, a lot of people in 2019 who have forsaken the assembling together. They have forsaken the assembly, the church on a Sunday morning and a Sunday evening. And their attitude is, oh, well, I can worship God in my home, or I can worship God in wherever, and we have a small group, and we can meet together. Of course, the reality is that their attitude is, oh, there's no church who's good enough for us. No church really, you know, dots all our I's and crosses all our T's, so we couldn't possibly worship in any church. You know, it's almost spiritual snobbery. We can't meet with other believers because we're in a higher plane. So what scripture talks about in 2 Kings 18 is not old and dusty. It's not outdated, old-fashioned. No, this is up-to-date. because sadly today there are people who still worship in the high places. The message of God today from this pulpit is they need to get back to the temple, need to get back to the house of God. if they've been there before. If they've never been, they need to start going to the house of God. It's the place where God has placed his name there. It's the place where God says that he will meet with his people. Hezekiah removed the high places. So, if I can put it like this, there's no room for lone ranger Christians. Never watched the Lone Ranger? Christians who think, I don't need the independent Methodist church or whatever denomination. I can just worship in my home, my own home. God's everywhere. I can worship him at home. Well, yes, God is everywhere. Of course he is. He fills heaven and earth. He lives within his people. but he still says not to forsake the assembling together. The psalmist speaks of the Lord, Psalm 50, the Lord says, gather my saints together unto me, them that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. So thank God for Hezekiah, the reformer who removed the high places from Israel. Second part of his reformation, he break the images, break the images. Of course, this brings us to the second commandment, doesn't it? Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. But that's not the end of it. Do you remember the rest of it? Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor worship them. Images. There were images in Hezekiah's day, and he break them. There are images in our day as well. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't like any talk of images. And you know I'm sure that the Roman Catholic Church have removed the second commandment from their list. They've actually deleted it. So that leaves nine commandments. Well, that's a bit embarrassing. How do they get around that? Divide the 10th commandment into two. Split the 10th commandment in two. That gives you your 10 commandments back again. See, the papacy doesn't like the word of God exposing its idolatry. We spoke about idolatry on Thursday night at the Bible study. The apostle John warns us to keep ourselves from idols. But oh, the Church of Rome is filled with idols, filled with images to this very day. May God remove the images. Even more importantly, may God save Roman Catholics and bring them out of that system of idolatry. Hundreds of thousands, by the way, going to hell because of the Church of Rome in our country, our little country. You're not talking about a handful of people. And sometimes you hear Christians say, oh, don't talk about the Roman Catholic Church. Don't say that in case you offend somebody. Well, I don't care if I offend somebody today. I'm going to speak the truth because while there are hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholic feet trampling on the road to hell, I'm going to speak about it and warn them of it. And my prayer is that the Lord Jesus will save them by his grace and bring them out of that cursed system. We love our Roman Catholic people. We love our Roman Catholic neighbour. And that's why we speak out on these matters. Breaking the images. Yes, Hezekiah. He broke the images. Got rid of the images. That was the second part of his reform. Let's move on to the third part. He cut down the groves. He cut down the groves. These were places of pagan worship, outdoor places of pagan worship. They were near trees. Obviously the word groves refers to an area of trees, forest, a wooded area. And this is where many of the pagan worship sites were located in Hezekiah's day. But he cuts down these groves. So in other words, he cuts down the trees where these places of worship are. Pagan worship. Hezekiah's reformation brought about the destruction of pagan worship. Oh, that the Lord in 2019 would bring about the destruction of pagan worship. You're gonna see a lot of it this incoming week, I'm just warning you. Do you ever hear of Derry Halloween? Nothing wrong, of course, with ducking for apples. I've done it myself. We're not hitting out at these innocent customs and fun that children have. We're not spoilsports, but we're speaking today about the pagan side of it, the pagan elements of it. Be careful. Be careful yourself. Be careful for the sake of your children. This paganism that was found in Hezekiah's day is alive and well in our day. There'll be a lot of talk about Halloween this week, of course the big night. On Thursday night, what is it, 30,000 people congregating in the city, and the parade last year, as referred to in the prayer meeting lately, the darkness of it all. We were out last year doing outreach, giving out the gospel, but you could almost feel the darkness, you could almost smell the darkness, as the floats paraded up and down the Quayside and down the Strand Road. Can't go out this year, obviously, Thursday night, we're in the place of prayer, but we'll be there to pray for those who are out with the gospel. But oh, the paganism of it all, awakening the walls. I mean, is there anything more pagan than that? Gotta be so careful. I think we would need Hezekiah back, wouldn't we? to cut down the groves. But there's somebody greater than Hezekiah who's able to cut down the groves, the pagan groves, the pagan trees, as it were. It's the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. He can do the work. So away with these pagan trees. There's only one tree that I'm interested in today. It's the tree where my Lord and Savior bled and died. For he bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin might live on to righteousness. Thank God for the tree of Calvary. Is that what you're trusting in today? Are you trusting in the finished Word of Christ? I tell you, an old wretch like this preacher, he's certainly trusting in that finished Word. Oh, the depravity, the wretchedness of my heart today. I need him, I need the one who hung in the middle tree. You need him too. Are you trusting in him and in him alone? That was the great word of the Reformation. If you could sum the Reformation up in one word, it would be that word alone, alone. Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. It's good to be trusting in Christ alone. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Well, what about the other aspect of Hezekiah's reform? It says that he break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan. He break the serpent, the brazen serpent in pieces. It was a relic. The people were worshiping this relic. Do you know at the time of Luther, there were relics, in fact, there were many relics. Someone has estimated that in Wittenberg, where the 95 theses were nailed to the church, if I can get my teeth in, where the 95 theses were nailed to the door of the castle church, in Wittenberg, it's estimated there were over 5,000 relics in that city alone. Clay from which Adam was made Ashes from the burning bush. Hmm, work that one out. The burning bush burned but didn't burn up. How can you have ashes? See the nonsense of it? This is what they claim to have, ashes from the burning bush. Straw from the manger of Bethlehem. Wine from the wedding feast at Cana. A whisper from the beard. of Christ, a thorn from the crown of thorns. These were the kind of relics that were about in Luther's day. No wonder he reformed and raged against it. Of course, there are relics around today. Have you ever been in Dracota? St. Peter's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Drogheda, you've got the head of St. Oliver Plunkett. It's on display behind a glass case, or in a glass case. A relic, and people, of course, go there and they'll venerate it. Relics can do no one any good, relics cannot save. Relics are not to be venerated, they're not to be worshipped. And Hezekiah certainly believed that, and that is why he destroyed that bronze serpent. Here's a wee question for you as we finish. A wee teaser. Where was Martin Luther converted? Don't shout out, just think about it. Where was he converted? Walking on a relic. You think about it. Martin Luther was in Rome and he was climbing up the stairs, what's called the Scala Sancta, the holy stairs. It was believed that they were the very stairs, the very steps that Christ walked down as he left Pilate's judgment hall. And there was Luther on his hands and knees climbing up those what were called holy stairs, and he thinks that this is how he can earn salvation. But as he's on his hands and knees on the stairs, going up the relic, the word of God comes to him. Holy Spirit takes the sword of the Spirit. The just shall live by faith. And Luther, as he's on that relic and trusting in that relic to save his sinful soul, the word of God comes and he realizes, I've got it all wrong. I'm justified by faith alone in Christ alone. And the light shines in and it's a eureka moment for the reformer. And the rest is history. Tell me this, have you ever had your eureka moment? It's not easy to say that, your eureka moment. Has the light ever dawned on you? How many years have you come to this church, but yet you're still not justified by faith alone? It'd be a good day to be justified, wouldn't it? Reformation Sunday. I can't save you. Martin Luther can't save you. King Hezekiah can't save you. But I know of one who can, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to him today, put your faith in Hezekiah's saviour, in Luther's saviour, and in the saviour of so many people gathered here today. Well, let's have the final hymn, 364, 364, 364. Grace is a charming sound, harmonious to the ear. Heaven with the echo shall resound, and all the earth shall hear. Saved by grace alone, this is all my plea. Jesus died for all mankind, and Jesus died for me. We'll have the first and last verses, please. 364.