Congregation in a minute. We'll be in the back of our Psalter hymnals continuing in the Heidelberg Catechism. I Generally say that at this time to intercept you as you're putting your hymnal back away so that you keep it out not as a Thing to Lord it over you but just to help as we'll be studying there in the Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 35 page 49 in a minute and But first, beloved, to 2 Kings chapter 18 tonight, 2 Kings chapter 18, 1 Kings this morning, 2 Kings tonight. The particular situation that faces God's people in this particular place is that the two divided kingdoms have been dealing in lesser and greater ways with the sin of false worship. Israel the northern kingdom in its greater ways has now already been taken captivity into a Syria because of their unrepentant sins particularly unrepentant worship sins But God has preserved Judah and we come to see tonight His mercy and one of the ways that he has been doing that So second Kings chapter 18 and we'll take up the first eight verses beloved. I In the third year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years. His mother's name was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. It was called Nahushtan. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him. He kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him. He was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory. My beloved, then, so far, God's glorious and perfect word, but let's turn our attention now to the summary of the teaching of that, the word of God, as we find it, and helpfully so, in the Heidelberg Catechism tonight, Lord's Day 35. We're thinking in Acts 17, we're thinking here in 2 Kings about worship, and of course, the catechism helps us. So these three questions tonight. What is God's will for us in the second commandment? That we in no way make any image of God, nor worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his word. May we then not make any image at all? God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Although creatures may be portrayed, yet God forbids making or having such images if one's intention is to worship them or to serve God through them. But may not images be permitted in the churches as teaching aids for the unlearned? No, we shouldn't try to be wiser than God. He wants his people instructed by the living preaching of his word, not by idols that cannot even talk. These things, beloved, we believe and confess, for they are taught to us in the word of God. Let's ask his help as we continue then this evening in these important matters. Let's ask that help by prayer. And Heavenly Father, we do submit ourselves in prayer to you. Because Lord, even in spiritual matters, perhaps ones that we have had some exposure to, we still need the work of the Holy Spirit so that we might come to greater clarity. And Lord, not just understanding and knowledge, but conviction of the application of these truths in our own circumstances. Lord, we pray tonight by the Spirit's work that we would have both knowledge and growing conviction of the truth Lord, work that in us, we ask tonight in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, if I might put things this way, in immediately having us apply what we've just heard from 2 Kings and from the Heidelberg Catechism, I would want to set before us that the Lord has given a certain structure to the way of health for his churches. He has given a certain structure to the way of health for his churches. And that structure is seen in various offices to be found in the church. Those offices have certain functions which point to those functions do how Christ cares for his church. I set this before the profession of faith class this morning as we were going through what it is that our church believes and holds to. And I said to those in the profession of faith class that we have three offices in our experience in reformed churches, which three offices reflect the three offices of Christ. We understand him to be king. We know that he is our prophet. We know that he is our great high priest. And it is in the administration of and the exercising of those offices that we see the care of Christ for his church. What does that have to do with 2 Kings, you might be considering and asking? Well, beloved, everything truly Because what was being wrestled with and the issue being dealt with and confronted with in 2 Kings 18, here now by Hezekiah, were matters of protection and well-being and safety and security for the people of God, but especially spiritually. We think of those three offices of Christ. We think of the prophet who proclaimed God's word. We think of the priest who provided cleansing. And then we think of the king. The king who was called by God to ensure the safety of the nation, whose task it was to keep them well-ordered and in safety and health. Beloved. There were very few of the Old Testament kings who went the whole distance to ensure the safety of the people, particularly to be good and healthy in spiritual ways. And we find Hezekiah to be one who did that by grace well. So people of God, people of God, since our God is a consuming fire, These kings, Hezekiah chief among them, knew that protecting his people from false worship was a primary task. We see something of the new covenant elder in this protecting work. For proper worship, beloved, requires continual word-driven reform. Proper worship requires continual word-driven reform. I wanna lead us through two things tonight, and each of these two things from the text have two subpoints. We're going to notice the kingly office of Christ is still exercised, and then secondly, exercising this office requires unbroken commitment. Because beloved, the catechism now is wanting us to understand, what does it take to uphold the second commandment? Now I could go tonight and talk to us about the TV series The Chosen or some other kind of unhelpful presentations of visual explanation of who God is and say, we shouldn't be engaged in those things. I hope we already are convinced about that. We need rather to dig into the word, to see what it means to uphold the second commandment and to find rich blessing in that. So again, notice, proper worship requires continual word-driven reform. And the kingly office of Christ is still exercised, first and foremost, first and foremost, over corporate worship. But I want us to notice something a minute. I want us to notice that what is of concern in these verses is a summary description of the reign of King Hezekiah. That's what we notice. Chapter 18 kind of looks back a little bit into the situation of Israel, who has by now been taken away in Assyria's captivity. But looking back, it says while Israel was still there in a certain year, Hezekiah comes on the scene as the king of Judah. Gives an age. 25. What were you doing when you were 25? Ruling a nation probably isn't on the bucket list of many of us at the age 25. He reigns in Jerusalem 29 years. And so goes the list, a sort of a summary of the doings of the activities of Hezekiah the king. Now, normally when we think of the work of the king, especially in terms of protecting the people, what we are looking for in such a summary are his military exploits. Do you notice in this text, that what military exploits are mentioned about him, and it's very brief, come at the end. It's sort of as a prologue, sort of as almost a footnote. It is not considered to be the most important thing. What rather is first and foremost about Hezekiah's kingly reign is that he followed his, quote, Father David in reforming worship. He is not a priest. He is not a prophet. But he takes his responsibility to ensure their spiritual safety, the care of them spiritually. He takes that responsibility very seriously. The primary way that is seen, their spiritual health and well-being and protection, is to be found in worship. And Hezekiah is committed to having his people worship God safely. We should find it a very easy thing to consider this evening, based on where we were this morning in 1 Kings, to evaluate the potential danger of false worship. It shouldn't be hard for us to go there. Remember what happens on Mount Carmel to those engaged in false worship. And so we ought to be considering Hezekiah was glorifying God and working in his kingly office well and properly to be concerned about preserving people by enacting safe worship. Well, what is safe worship? By what standard? Notice verse 6. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him. He kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him. Verse 7. Hezekiah was committed to doing all things, having his people engage in worship in every matter, only according to the commands of the Lord. And it specifies here, notice it again, the commands the Lord had given Moses. So at the very least, we could add more, but at the very least, what we have to consider here are the 10 commandments. And the second commandment prescribes that we shall worship God as he says, that God regulates our worship of him. Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, here is the first calling of the elder. This is their first responsibility. Are we worshiping God rightly, correctly, This isn't something we see only in scripture or also just in our confessions. Our church order gets at this. Church order articles 14 and 38 place a very heavy responsibility and expectation upon the office of the elder in the life of the congregation together with the minister in the work of the consistory, but especially upon the elders to rule the church according to the scriptures. Firstly, in the context of corporate worship, the worship service which is to be according to the word of God. Do you notice this about the catechism and how it draws us into an understanding of the second commandment? What is God's will for us, question 96, in the second commandment? That we make no image of God and in no way make an image of God, but then it goes on in the second line to say this, nor worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his word. It's not enough to simply say we don't have images of God in our, worship practice or in our particular way we carry out corporate worship. But the catechism wants from the second commandment to help us understand it's deeper than that. It's more comprehensive than that. Everything that goes on in the context of corporate worship is to be directed from, derived from, arrived out of the word of God. Again to the church order, the consistory shall regulate the worship services which shall be conducted according to the principles taught in God's word. That has the height of significance for us in terms of why we do what we do. So people of God, look again, look again at the Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer 96. This is what God requires. This is what God requires, that we not worship in any other way than he has commanded in his word. The consistory shall regulate the worship service. In practice, then, it goes something like this, if I can be so crass about it. The elders look down at the Bible, and they look up at our worship practice. They look down at the Bible, they look up at our worship practice. And there's a process of evaluation going on. And they're asking on our behalf, for our protection, they're asking, are we doing what God calls us to do? The word used in the church order is the right word, regulate. to shape, to conform, to direct what it is we do such that it is in agreement with the patterns set forth in the Scriptures. This is what Hezekiah was doing. Verse 3, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. And then he goes on, says the text in verse 4, to say what that meant. Doing right. He removed the high places. He smashed the sacred stones, which were pillars of stone, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, and so forth. It's very clear, beloved, that those kings in the church, elders being in that office of Christ and his kingly responsibilities, are called to guard, preserve, and protect. So then the kingly office of Christ is still exercised by the easy targets because they will be identified and excised, they will be removed. Now as this oversight is exercised, certain patterns and practices used by others will be easily and quickly identified as sinful and they will be eliminated. I mention to us again and bring our attention back to verse four, where three such no-brainers were taken on by Hezekiah and removed. We see place, and we see pillar, and we see pole. He removed the high places because worship by this time, again, is supposed to only take place in the geographic region of Jerusalem. That is the place God had called his people to worship him. We see the significance, brothers and sisters, of that calling of the elders in terms of having for us a particular place well-suited for worship. And that place, particularly, if we can stretch ourselves this way, is to be found inside of Jesus Christ. Now, we may not immediately go there and think, well, place means Christ, but if we understand that place Temple, temple, presented Christ, then place is gonna be that we find ourselves worshiping in Jesus Christ and not worshiping in any other ways than those ways which extol and find our comfort and our peace in Jesus Christ. Now actually, the other two help us to understand that. Because those other two that were going on, the stone pillars, the Asherah poles, were implements to draw people away from the centrality of temple worship. Like we dealt with this morning, they were offering to the people, quote, easier, more comfortable ways to worship God. And we can even go beyond that, because as we said this morning, it wasn't just ease and comfort, but it was illicit sensuality that was going on in those places. And the ancient world is no different than the modern world. Those things are appealing. Those things draw people. And so Hezekiah goes in and he tears down, he destroys, he eliminates those temptations and those opportunities that were before the people to worship God in an illegitimate and unbiblical and ungodly way. He acts as the king to protect the people. Dearly beloved, Hezekiah Hezekiah is cleansing God's people of the obvious and offensive pagan poison that had infiltrated their worship practices. Now, here's the easy thing. The easy thing is to say, well, that was true then. Those pagan poisons infiltrated the worship practices of God's people. It was easy then. It happened then. We can see it. It's obvious, but it won't be so easy to happen in our day. Now beloved, I said that's the easy thing to say, and I trust that you don't believe that. That is, you don't believe that these kinds of pagan poisons can't possibly today infiltrate the church and infiltrate corporate worship. We know we know better, don't we? So as we look around us today and to the world, if we can think of it of broad evangelicalism and beyond, it's actually pretty easy to spot these obvious offenses which have been allowed into so-called Christian godly worship practices. But is it enough to say, well, we see them out there? Or shouldn't we be constantly saying, do we find them in here? Now, I'm not suggesting that we could right now or must right now say that they are here, but we must be aware. We must be alert. Well, can I ask the question again, who must be firstly? The elders. The elders are called and the consistory is called to a responsibility Beloved, listen, to know the pillars and poles and places, so to speak, of our own day, so that such things find no entry into the worship of Almighty God in our midst that takes place in our worship space. The high places, because of what went on there in the sensuality of that which was interesting to mankind, must be in every way eliminated, pushed off, rejected, Sacred pillars and Asherah poles were obvious worship defects. There's no tussling in the text within Hezekiah's heart. It's not as if he says, well, I wonder if these Asherah poles are benefiting God's people or not. He doesn't wonder at all. It's very clear. He removed. He smashed, he cut down. People of God, our worship, people of God, our worship must always be centered on the triune God, focused on Jesus Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, and guided by the Word of God. Well now, so far, seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? I said that a minute ago. Our point B under number one has in there the easy targets. Well, let's go on. Secondly, exercising this office requires unbroken commitment. First of all, to the whole council of God. What is remarkable about Hezekiah is where his allegiance was. Notice it in verse 5. He trusted in the Lord. What does the text say to us there? Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. Notice it in verse 6. So in verse 5, he trusted. Verse 6, he held fast. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him. To explain that, we're told, what holding fast to the Lord means. He kept the commandments the Lord had given to Moses. And the result comes in verse 7, because the Lord was with him. He was successful. That means to us, beloved, that Hezekiah was word-centered. His drive and his interest in protecting his people was found in what does the Word of God say about how we should be worshiping? And that's what he went to again and again. The questions in our catechism have us considering a couple of different issues. You notice this already. The one issue seems pretty obvious. Can we make an image of God? Can we worship God through that image? Can a picture, a visual presentation of any of the persons of the deity be made? No, the answer is very clear. Not in any way. But then comes this other more broad and comprehensive and troubling consideration. Can God's people worship Him in any other way than He has commanded us in His Word? And again, the answer comes, no. That's expanded in 97. Can we make any image of God? Well, God cannot be imaged. You can't make a visual presentation of Him. That's why I mentioned this series The Chosen a minute ago, not to minimize that. It's a very serious problem and error. And there's many other TV and movie series like that in our day. But how do we worship God? That's the pressing question. We shouldn't use images. to be of some sort of aid and help, as if people can't read. That's where the catechism goes in 98. And in these ways, beloved, what we are being directed back to is, what does the Scripture say about worship? What are God's commandments in regards to worship? We must never forget that God has given commands. The first command we dealt with. Now here's the second command. Is God allowed to command our worship practice? I wonder what we think about that. Yes, is exactly the right answer. He is able in all ways. To command our worship practices, dearly beloved. Dearly beloved, we are to be a word centered. Word directed. Word teaching and preaching congregation. Now let me bring to us a little bit of peace about this because I don't want you to think that this is some argument against our consistory's work or some argument of thinking that there's some default or some huge problem in our worship practice. That is the furthest thing from what I am saying because rather on the other side of it, this actually is the focus and attention represented by the life of your consistory. This is what we strive for. This is what we are aiming at. This is what we are utterly committed to doing. That together as a consistory we consider and think through and evaluate and assess what is going on in the life of our congregation, particularly on the issue of worship. It's a living matter for us. So that what we are thinking are things like this. Our congregation will be spiritually healthy. Our congregation will be spiritually healthy if we as a consistory strive to ensure that our congregation worships the Lord as he has told us in his word. I just said what we have been saying the whole sermon so far. But I want you to know, beloved, that this is not on the back burner for your consistory. This is very much in the forefront of how we consider our life together as congregation. And that should be encouraging. means that we are always in the process of assessment and analysis. What are we doing? Why are we doing it? What else could we be doing? Are only old things good, as we're going to see in a moment on the matter of the significance of this bronze snake? These things, beloved, you should be encouraged, should be In the forefront, in the front of the mind of your elders, of your consistory's work. And I trust that these things are. People of God, God requires, God requires that this congregation not worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his word. But also, let it be known that God richly blesses faithful worship. I don't think we really need to go into all of the errors and weaknesses and deficits that we see in many other congregations because we don't want to think, well, we're up here and better than them and they're down there lower than us. We don't want to get into that kind of thinking. But we do want to say. that as a people together we ought to assess from the word of God what we are doing, why we are doing it, what we hope to be accomplishing by what we are doing. And that means, again, exercising this office requires unbroken commitment, B, to confronting all sinful practices. And so maybe you've been noticing that we've left off until now this matter that fills the rest of verse four. So we've dealt with the high places, the sacred stone pillars, we've cut down the Asherah poles, but then it says something that should surprise us, or at least give us questions. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time, the Israelites had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan. Probably sounds like the Hebrew word for bronze snake or unclean thing. This was a practice greatly troubling the worship of the people of God. And Hezekiah dealt with it. This is hugely significant, beloved. Let me pause here and say something, which I hope doesn't trouble you, but it's something we need to be thinking about. There's this practice in both the Roman Catholic Church and in Orthodox churches, Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, of trying to have something of what Jesus Christ himself actually had or used or was on in his earthly ministry. You perhaps remember long ago about the discussion about the so-called Shroud of Turin. If you're an older person, you heard that language before, the face covering that supposedly was over Jesus when he was laying in the tomb those days. And supposedly, well, it's been discovered and somebody has it. Or there's this interest to have a little sliver of wood from the cross, or to have something of his crown of thorns, or in some way to have something which is connected directly and physically to Jesus Christ himself. And if they can get these things and hold them, so they think. It becomes something highly significant to them spiritually. We would call it idolatrous. And this is exactly the problem that was facing God's people in Hezekiah's day. And he dealt with it. It needed to be confronted. But you see, if we know our Bible, If we're thinking biblically now and our scriptural knowledge is kicking in, we're thinking, well, wasn't that bronze serpent something important? Yes, indeed it was. Hugely important. When those snakes were in the desert, if somebody was bitten by one, all they had to do was look at that bronze snake, that serpent that God had given to his people to see. And seeing that image of the snake, of course, as we're told in the scripture in John 3, verse 14, was the portrait of the saving work of Christ. Hugely significant. What does this mean to us, beloved? means to us that we need to understand why Hezekiah did this and what was accomplished by it. So dearly beloved, dearly beloved, learning that what we see here was a courageous action of the kingly office of Jesus Christ to protect and purify his church. Learning that will only happen if we understand five things about the bronze serpent. It's age, it's success, it's source, it's symbolism, and it's preservation. Now, don't get too concerned. We're not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this, but we need to at least begin to understand something about that bronze serpent in each of these five ways. I mentioned a moment ago people trying to get a little sliver of the cross or something of the crown of thorns or a bit of the shroud of Turin. And one of the reasons is because of the antiquity of these things. I'm not suggesting those things are real at all. They aren't. But that's what these people think. But think about the age of this bronze serpent. Just in terms of it being old, and so because it's old, it should be easy and faithful to use in a worship practice. Moses is around 1500. Hezekiah is around 700 BC. So the bronze serpent is somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 years old. Should we do something in worship just because it's old? Is age itself the determining factor whether or not God allows or encourages us to partake in a particular practice of worship? The answer is obviously no. Age in and of itself is not the matter. Well, if not age, what about its success? Think about what success was accomplished by this bronze serpent. It's huge. Those who would have otherwise surely, certainly died, looking at the bronze serpent, they were saved alive. Now we need to press ourselves here, beloved, not only with this one, but the next one even more so perhaps. It was an effective implement. So is that the measure of our worship practice? Is it such that just because it seems to work, therefore we should use it? Is that what God says to us? Are we to worship pragmatically? Oh, this works, let's do it. No. No, it's not just a matter of success. Well, what about source? People who deal with antiquities want to know the provenance of something. It's the validity of where it came from and how it got created or made is extremely important in valuing an antique. Well, there's no doubt about the source of this bronze serpent, is there? It was of God. It's 100% authentic. There's no questioning that. It's clear and obvious that this was given by God. So now we're in trouble, aren't we? Because we begin to think that God gave something in the past and it was valuable and useful, therefore it will always remain so, is something we need to think very carefully about. You have to, given what the text says. I'm not assigning to us, beloved, to say, well, there's this practice of ours which surely has come from God, which now is of no value and we should throw it out. I'm not suggesting that. The point that we're needing to make from the text is, Even if it has come from the hand of the Almighty, it can become something very seriously problematic in the life of God's people. That needs a lot of wisdom. But it gets even more serious when we look at the symbolism. What is the symbolism of the serpent, the bronze serpent? I mentioned John chapter 3. If you read there later in verse 14, you will see very clearly that Jesus Christ himself says that this item points to his work. There's no mistake to be made there. Symbolism is 100% clear. It pointed to Jesus Christ. It was representative of his healing ministry. And then lastly, we think about its preservation. through all of the wanderings of God's people, through all of their battles with all of the nations and all of the strife and struggle that they had, somehow this bronze serpent was preserved for more than 800 years. Can you see the value that the people placed in that, even with that one factor alone? And so then do we say, If we assess that value to be very high because it was preserved that therefore. Therefore, it shouldn't be destroyed. What does the text tell us? He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense. To it. had been burning incense to it. Hezekiah is praised for destroying the bronze serpent. Why? Because it had become a source of idolatry. All of those things about his value didn't weigh in the balance in comparison to the reality of God speaking to us about worship in his word. If I can put it this way to us, beloved, as elders, and indeed as congregation, we need to be constantly submitting our corporate and individual worship practices to the touchstone of Holy Scripture. What does the Bible say about our personal Bible reading, our private prayers, our biblical meditation, our family devotions, our Christian schooling practices, our corporate worship together? What does the word of God say? If we're going to highly value worship as we should, and especially now, this destruction of the bronze serpent only raises our calling and our evaluation of what worship is. Beloved, we need to be in the Word. Can I say it to us one more way in regards to the bronze serpent? None of those five things are more valuable than Scripture None of those five things were more valuable than what God says in his word. We may be and are the recipients of some very old practices from the days of the Reformation, and we cherish those. But in a proper evaluation of those practices, If we find any of those practices to not line up with the word of God, we do not hold on to them simply because we have received them as old practices. Now having just said that, how much more does that apply to the new and novel worship practices going on all around us? You cannot say I'm going to stay home and watch a TV program and equate that with what God calls His people to in regards to worship. There is no comparison. We are the recipients of His Word. And we hold on to it. Because our God is jealous for our worship. He is a consuming fire. He requires that our worship be in accord with His Word. People of God, as we assess ourselves, Our worship. His word. His word. Is our rule. Amen. Now our father in heaven once again you have given to us from your scripture much to meditate on. Think about process evaluate. What a blessing. What a blessing Lord that right now your people are doing that very thing. They're pondering what you have given to us from your word. We're asking the questions, and we should be asking the questions. Lord, we're assessing our worship, and we should be. Not that we're expecting to find defects, but rather, Lord, that we want to see that our worship is in agreement with what you have said in the scriptures. Oh, Lord, bless us in that continual pursuit and that regular need for renewal. To be the church not only reformed but continually reforming May that be true of us lord. We ask again now tonight in jesus name amen Well, let's think about him again tonight shall we dear church 326 savior Again to thy dear name. We raise we'll stand to sing if we're able to stand 326