Well, our confessional lesson this evening comes from chapter 30 of the Westminster. I'm going to read paragraph one. You can find that in the back of your hymnal on page 937. 937. Chapter 30, the first paragraph. The Lord Jesus, as king and head of his church, has therein appointed a government in the hand of church officers distinct from the civil magistrate. Back in 2006, when the Young, Restless, and Reform movement was the big thing, One of the most popular men in that movement wrote a book entitled Confessions of a Reformation Rev. He was not a Reformation Rev, but that's another matter. In it he wrote that churches that have an organized structure, a formal church government that's led by elders are, these are his words, they're patterned after various kinds of secular organizations and they actually have no gospel or theological convictions behind them. And there you have it. What he was saying is that any real structure to church government is made up. It's a copy of something that the world is doing. There are no gospel or theological convictions behind, say, a Presbyterian form of church government. I should say he tried to walk that back a bit, but I believe that's precisely how many evangelicals view our system of church government. It's not only uninteresting, it's irrelevant. And as an aside and a postscript to that quote, that particular man ended up having to resign from ministry for, among other things, being a pastoral bully. He would have done well to at least make an effort to seriously interact with some of the Reformed confessions on this matter of church government. To that end, listen again to that first paragraph. The Lord Jesus, as king and head of his church, has therein appointed a government in the hand of church officers distinct from the civil magistrate. Now, the first part of that really ought to be incontrovertible for believers. That is, there's one king and one head of the church, even the Lord Jesus. But while it might sound like a no-brainer, it's not as apparent to all of our evangelical friends as you might think. Hardly a week passes when I don't get several emails in my inbox that's advertising some group or another that offers ministries to help God's people Do church better. And it's not at all uncommon for those advertisements to state something like this. We've tapped into the best sales, marketing, and management experts in the world, and we'll help you learn from them. For a small fee, of course. But you see, our confession would say, before you pick the brain of Bill Gates or consider just what Jeff Bezos is doing, we should probably ask the question, has our king, has the king of the church given us any instruction on the way the church ought to function and how it ought to be organized? And the answer, of course he has. And it's clear from the earliest history of the church that believers were convinced there was an appropriate structure for church government. And when I say the earliest history of the church, I mean in the very beginning of the church as it unfolds in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost. Peter preached, and we're told about 3,000 souls were brought into the church. Here's a question for you. How did Luke, who wrote Acts, know that number? How did he know it was 3,000? Because from the very moment the church was keeping records, it was organized. And almost immediately, you see the church setting up an organizational structure that includes elders and deacons, as well as working out particular roles for those church officers. And that is even before you get to the epistles, where you get detailed descriptions of office bearers and their respective qualification. I mean, 1 and 2 Timothy, as well as Titus, really stresses to us just how essential church government is for the life of God's people. That's why Paul left Titus in Crete, so that he could establish order in the church by appointing elders. Now, if you glance back at the confession, you'll notice that it's careful to make the distinction that the authority that the church has is not like that of the civil magistrate. And this was over and against the Roman Catholic understanding. The Reformed believed that the authority the church has is ministerial, not magisterial. See, our Roman Catholic friends believed the church magisterium, the officials of their church, particularly the Pope and then the bishops. They're endued with authority by virtue of being the church. Whereas Protestants would say that church officers have ministerial authority. That is, it's an authority derived as they minister God's true word. That's the source of authority that our elders have. It's ministerial. It's based on the word because the word does have authority. over our lives. And what I really want you to get is this. The church has one king. He's the ultimate authority over his church. And our king teaches us in his word the kind of administration that he ordains for the governance of his church to be a blessing for his people. And something we're going to see this evening is that one of the marks of a genuine reformation or revival will involve a reformation of the government of the church. We live in an evangelical context where people are desperate, I think, for revival. When we survey the state of morality in our culture and the way things like cultural Marxism and tacit approval of the LGBTQIA agenda, the way those things have infiltrated the church, it's not hard to understand why faithful believers long for God to revive us. But in that great eagerness for revival, discernment often gets thrown out the window. And when movements emerge that have the title of revival, assigned to them. Folks rarely pause to ask, is this really a great work of God? Is this really an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Or is it emotionalism run amok? A good way to evaluate revivals is to ask a few questions. Is the gospel preached? Are people actually repenting and broken? because of their sins? Does it produce a longing for godly worship? Are lives dramatically changed and are people pursuing greater degrees of holiness? And what happens after the mountaintop experience of revival? Does it bear fruit and impact the community? These are the kinds of questions that should have been asked about the so-called Asbury revival from February of 2023. The problem is soon after it began, it garnered national media attention. It was reported on CNN and Fox and Tucker Carlson. And they all said uniformly, it's a mighty work of God. And no one really wanted to question that. It was just accepted as such. But was there great repentance over sin? Was there a renewed commitment to godly worship among those young men and women? Was holiness pursued by them in new and profound ways? And what happened after the experience of that revival? Did the people embrace the ordinary piety of believers? Did they plug themselves into church and start walking with the Lord Jesus in ordinary ways? Some commentators say some of those things did happen, but most say There was no lasting effect. One Christian journalist, Samuel Say, took the time a year after the revival to call all the churches in the surrounding area to ask if they experienced new members joining the church, or if there were some in the church who were gripped with a new zeal. Was there some evidence that some great work of God had transpired? And every one of the churches he talked to said there's no evidence of anything. You might hear me say that and think, well, Pastor Byrd, it sounds like you're just against revivals. That's not exactly true. Many Lord's Days, I pray for a great reforming and reviving work of God in our community as I did this evening. What I'm against are counterfeit revivals. Because if we learned anything in our study through Revelation 12 through 14, it's that counterfeit religion or counterfeit religious experience is ominous and profoundly dangerous. If you want to know what a genuine revival looks like, there are two of them in the Old Testament. One is under King Hezekiah, which we've spent a few weeks looking at. A second one is under Josiah, which we'll be looking at in a couple months. And one of the telltales of genuine reformation and revival are the lasting impact. So that after, after the mountaintop revival experience, the people get to the work of establishing and supporting the basic ministry of a church, really by making sure the means of grace are available and they're partook of. And that's just what we're gonna see this evening in this old covenant church revival under the leadership of Hezekiah. Let's seek the Lord's face once more and then we'll get to work. Pray with me again. Our great God in heaven, as we open up your word, we pray that you open up our hearts. We pray that the words that are on a page of scripture will be written upon our hearts. And we pray, oh God, that the true word of God in the hearts of your people will ignite a true zeal, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me ask you to open up your copy of Scripture to 2 Chronicles 31. 2 Chronicles 31. This will be our last week in 2 Chronicles. When we come back, we'll be going to 2 Kings. I think I mentioned before, 2 Chronicles 29, 30, 31 aren't, are giving us certain events and histories that simply don't exist in Kings. In fact, these events all took place at the very beginning of Hezekiah's reign. 2 Chronicles 31, beginning in verse 1. Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the high places and the altars from all Judah Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned to their own cities, every man to his possession. And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites according to the divisions, each man according to his service, the priests and Levites, for burnt offerings and pieced offerings, to serve, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord. The king also appointed a portion of his possession for the burnt offerings, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and the new moons and the set feasts as it's written in the law of the Lord. Moreover, he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites that they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord. As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field, and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. And the children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Judah brought the tithe of oxen and sheep, also the tithe of holy things which are consecrated to the Lord their God. They laid in heaps In the third month, they began laying them in heaps and they finished in the seventh month. And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and they saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel. Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And Azariah, the chief priest from the house of Zadok, answered him and said, since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we've had enough to eat and have plenty left, for the Lord has blessed his people, and what is left is this great abundance. Now Hezekiah commanded them to prepare rooms in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. Then they faithfully brought in the offerings, the tithes, and the dedicated things. Conaniah the Levite had charge of them, and Shammai his brother was the next. Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jeremath, Jehozabod, Eliel, Esmakiah, Mahath, and Benaniah were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shammai his brother at the commandment of Hezekiah the king. and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. Kor, the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the east gate, was over the freewill offerings to God to distribute the offerings of the Lord and the most holy things. And under him were Eden, Menahem, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shekiniah, his faithful assistants, and the cities of the priests to distribute allotments to their brethren by division to the great as well as the small. Besides those males from three years old and up who were written in the genealogy, they distributed to everyone who entered the house of the Lord his daily portion for the work of his service by his division. And to the priests who were written in the genealogy according to the father's house and to the Levites from 20 years old and up according to their work by their divisions. And all who were written in the genealogy, their little ones and their wives, their sons and daughters, the whole company of them, for in their faithfulness, they sanctified themselves in holiness. Also, for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of the common lands of the cities, in every single city, there were men who were designated by name to distribute portions to all the males among the priests and to all who were listed by genealogies among the Levites. Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Here's congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Judah has experienced a great reformation and revival. The idols were removed out of the temple. We learned that back in chapter 29. The temple was consecrated and it was reopened and sacrifices began to be made on behalf of the people. Last week, we saw that Hezekiah led the people in celebrating the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was a centerpiece of Israel's devotion and worship. And who knows how long it had been since the last time the people enjoyed this old covenant sacrament. And Hezekiah not only reintroduced the sacrament, you'll remember he invited the folks from up north to come down and participate. And surprisingly, some did. So it proved to be something like a reunification celebration. So what we've observed so far in this reformation is a reformation of worship at the temple, a reformation of the doctrine of salvation in the sacrifices, and a reformation of the sacraments in the Passover and the feast. And there's a fourth aspect to Hezekiah's reformation that we come to this evening, the reformation of church government. He's gonna reinstitute the regular and ordinary ministry under godly men and priests. As I said in the introduction, one of the ways you can evaluate a great work of God and a genuine move of the Spirit is to look for an increasing longing for holiness. And has this work produced lasting fruit? And after that initial enthusiasm and blessing of the mountaintop experience, is attention turned to the day-to-day ministry? And is the day-to-day ministry appreciated? Because listen, if the day-to-day ministry is not appreciated by those who participated in a revival, they didn't participate in a spirit revival. But these are exactly the things we see in chapter 31. You'll remember back in chapter 29, they gathered up all the blasphemous and idolatrous debris that was in the temple and they tossed those things down into the brook Kidron. Then in chapter 30, verse 14, they went throughout all of Jerusalem and they tore down the idolatrous altars. and having celebrated the Passover, and that was a mountaintop spiritual experience, and having had a glorious and true encounter with the living God, these are men and women of God who now have a desire to see Israel purified, to see holiness expand in their land. Look there at verse one. Now, when all this was finished, again, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah. They broke down the sacred pillars in pieces. They cut down the wooden images. They threw down the high places and the altars. And look, from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. And all the children of Israel were turned to their own cities, every man to his possession. So these are saints who have a renewed zeal for the honor of God. And it involves smashing and destroying idols. It wasn't enough to cleanse the temple and then to clear out Jerusalem a little bit. They carried on this reformation effort throughout the regions of Judah and even back up into the Northern kingdom. And don't miss, don't gloss over just how remarkable this was, especially in the North. They had been in full on idolatry mode for over two centuries, worshiping everything from golden calves to Baal worship. They couldn't get enough bull and Baal in their system. And now they're committed to eradicating idolatry. That's not gonna change the fortunes of the Northern Kingdom. They've already been, by and large, carted off, but it demonstrates what happens when people have truly tasted that the Lord is good. Then glorifying Him becomes their passion. And this must have been a sight. This is what you expect to see when there's been a real reformation, when there's been real revival. men and women who are consumed with the glory of God and act on it. Well, beginning in verse two, having had this wonderful mountaintop experience, beginning in verse two, the less exciting and more mundane parts of the Reformation began to unfold. I doubt no Reformation ever began with the desire, we need to write a new book of church order. We need a new directory of public worship. But all true revival will get to this point. That's what we see. So in verse two, Hezekiah, he recognizes the need to reorganize the priests and the Levites. And it really was a matter of distributing labor as it was needed for various function in the temple. And of course, as you know, we've learned this over and over about Hezekiah and according to God's law. The Levites, they were the tribe ordained to care for the temple, the priests, they're also Levites, They're the ones who could trace their family line back to Aaron. And they're the ones who have the privilege of manipulating the sacrifices at the altar. So Hezekiah knows that these various positions need to be filled by Levites and priests. And once he knows that all the posts are filled so that the worship will unfold in an orderly way, the temple is set. Now, remember what we learned just a couple weeks back. Ahaz had not only defiled the temple with his idolatry, he had actually closed the temple doors. So now, simply making sure you have the right men serving at the right post and you have a schedule for their service, this is a reviving and reforming work of God. Of course, now that you've got all these priests back to work, You're gonna need some money. You gotta raise some funds. Many years ago, I was listening to the White Horse Inn on the radio and Mike Horton came on and he said, grace is free, the airways are not. And he asked for a donation. I actually appreciate the forthright appeal because that's exactly true. And Hezekiah, he's gonna make an appeal for support from the people. But if you glance there at verse three, You see, this is a king who leads by example. As he's got the priests in place and his ordinary worship resumes, he kicks in the initial funding from his own resources to make sure these priests are provided for. He provided for the burnt offerings, and this is important, which were the daily offerings. He provided for the Sabbath offerings, which were the weekly offerings. Then he provided for the new moon offerings, which were the monthly offerings. And then finally, he provided for the set feasts, which are the annual or yearly pilgrim feasts. To us, this would all sound very humdrum, I imagine, but it was a way of telling us that now in Jerusalem, God's people are consecrating their days, their weeks, their months, and their years to the Lord. Yahweh is Lord of their time. And Hezekiah has ponied up to make sure this will happen. So resources are needed. Also, to make sure that the priests and Levites can not only man their posts, but can spend time diligently studying God's word so that they can teach God's word. And this is when Hezekiah decides to make this need known to the people. Look there at verse four. Moreover, he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and Levites that they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord. And when he made this appeal, boy, oh boy, People respond. Offerings begin to pour in. They tithe their grain, their wine, their oil, their honey, their oxen, their sheep. They were tithing everything. And they continued tithing. The people were giving so much, it's stacked up in heaps. And verse seven tells us, when Hezekiah and the other leaders saw the generous spirit of God's people, all that was left for them to do was to bless Yahweh and to bless Israel. And again, listen, this is what you expect. If there's been a great work of God, people settle in to a routine and they give of their time and they give of their resources for the ordinary ministry of the church. That's what Israel's doing. They've already demonstrated that they're willing to give of their time. Remember after Passover and celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, do you remember what they did? As an assembly, they said, let's do this seven more days, right? They understood their time was the Lord's. And as I mentioned before, the sacrifices that are mentioned here in verse three shows us that these were people who consecrated their days, their weeks, their months, and their years to the Lord. So their willingness here to give their time to the Lord. And when they heard the priest had needs, they opened their hands wide to provide financial resources. This is what you expect to see. in a reformation and a revival. And look what the priest tells Hezekiah in verse 10. Azariah, the chief priest from the house of Zadok answered him and said, since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we've had enough to eat and have plenty left for the Lord's blessed his people. And what's left is this great abundance. So the people started giving. The priests working immediately there in the house of the Lord, they're provided for, their families are provided for, and there's a bunch left over. There was an outpouring of the Spirit on the people and it resulted in an outpouring of generosity by the people. Again, that's what follows a revival. That's a great work of God. And the provisions, they're so plentiful. Hezekiah has to create a diaconate among the Levites, what we would think of as a diaconate. He says, look, you're gonna have to set aside rooms. You're gonna have to prepare the rooms. You're gonna have to put a bookkeeping system in place. The people are so generous. We've got records to keep, and we're gonna have to store this stuff up. Konaniah, the Levite, and his brother Shimei, they're given charge over 10 other Levites who are simply responsible to manage the incoming tithes. And then you have Kor, the son of Imnah. He's got six assistants to distribute allotments to the various temple workers. Again, this is very much what we would think of as the work of the diaconate. And it was necessary to manage the resources and finances of this whole covenant church. Now the language of verses 16 through 19, it's a bit awkward, but here's what these verses are getting at. When Ahaz closed the temple, many of the Levites and priests had to come, had to find rather other occupations. In fact, some of the sons of Aaron had to resort to working in the fields to support their families. It was Israel's responsibility to care for them But Ahaz didn't care that he made these priests destitute. They had to find other jobs. So now, the priests who had gone out and were trying to find other means They're given allotments so they can be brought back into the rotation to serve at the temple. Again, that's gonna be needed. You've got a lot of activity that's going to be going on there now because the people are renewed. And these priests, they sanctified themselves for service. And again, we see something wonderful. There's plentiful resources so that their wives, their families are provided for. So here's what we have. After a reviving work of God, ordinary temple worship is resumed. And basically what you have is a reformation of church government in the Old Testament. Under the leadership of King Hezekiah, the priests and the Levites, they're serving where they're supposed to serve. They're doing the task God's ordained them to do. They're able to immerse themselves in the study of the law, to make sure they're competent in biblical doctrine. And the temple has special men appointed to distribute the gifts. And the priests and the people are blessed by this. And listen, this foreshadows the church government in the New Testament, doesn't it? We learned in our confessional lesson, Christ our King has established a government of the church and he's assigned in the church the offices of elders and deacons. And we get plentiful resources in the New Testament that tell us what their roles are. For example, in 1 Timothy 3, verses one through seven, Paul lays out what the qualifications for and what the noble task is of church elders. In 1 Timothy 3, verses 8 through 13, Paul lays out the qualifications for and the noble task of serving as a church deacon. In 1 Timothy 5, 17, the apostle Paul taught, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of a double honor, especially those who labor in word and doctrine. You see, that's just like the priests who were to give themselves to the law of God. They were to be provided for. That's why we provide for ministers. And when the church functions according to this plan, it is a blessing to God's people. There's a wonderful passage in Acts 6 where you see the apostles struggling because they didn't have the time resources to care for widows in the church. And they decided in that moment that they should establish the office of deacon, right? Because they were called to give their efforts to word and prayer, again, just like the priests. And what happens is that the church was blessed by this arrangement. And we're told something remarkable there at the end of that section. that the church expanded and that even the priests obeyed the gospel, even the priests that served at the temple. I've always wondered about that passage, and I suspect those priests saw how the church was functioning and saw that it had a similar order to the way the temple was to function, and the Lord used that to bless them and bring them to salvation. Hezekiah has led an amazing reformation and God's used it to create a revival among his people. Worship has been improved. The doctrine of salvation has been restored. Sacraments are being administered and a proper church government exists. And one of the things that we might wonder is just what motivated Hezekiah to do this work. Why did he do these things? Well, look at verse 20 and 21. Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord, his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandments to seek his God. He did it with all his heart. So he prospered. We should pray for these kind of men in our midst. These kind of men to lead in churches and to be national leaders. Men who do everything that is true and right and good, and men who do things with all their heart for the glory of God. If you'll allow me to say it this way, and you know I use this language tongue in cheek often, Hezekiah proves himself to be a worthy Presbyterian. His chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And with that as a base, his life, his ministry prospered. This is a man who honored his God. May the Lord raise up such godly men. Amen. Well, I'll give you a moment if you have questions or comments. One of the impressions that I get from the passage is that there are enough offerings for the priests to give themselves full time to their ministry. And I'm wondering that if they were hindered before this revival because they had to rely on other means. I certainly think that's alluded to, although it's not explicitly stated. But that's the idea. I mean, some of them were out in the field working. And that's not where the sons of Aaron should have been working in Israel. Because part of the provision that goes back to numbers is they weren't allotted land in Israel, and Israel was to care for them as they cared for the souls of the people. They shouldn't have been in the field working, you know? And they were able to be brought back. Yeah, again, interestingly enough, I'm not totally sure what this means. I'll just say that up front. I went back and I looked at First Chronicles 23, when David was setting up the structures, then I went back to Numbers and Leviticus. I couldn't find anything that was definitive on this. But I do know, based on Jewish commentaries, the idea here was all men were given a particular stipend if you were in the Aaronic line at the age of three and above, because that's when you'd been suckered. You were old enough. to be considered an adolescent, I guess, in Jewish terms. So at that point, they would get a special stipend as being a man preparing for the priesthood. It was distinct from the care that would go to your regular, to your wives, your daughters, that part of your family. So, but I couldn't find, I thought of that too, but I couldn't find anything more definitive than that, so. They would be preparing for the priesthood, for sure. Well, think of Samuel. He was brought to the temple when he was a tot. Well, we would think of as a tot, at least. The problem is you have 20 here, but generally the rule to serve as a priest was 30. By and large, the prohibition was you could serve from the age of 30 to the age of 50, then you were retired. So that was generally the rule. So again, the way I would take this is they're given, again, a special kind of stipend because they're at a unique place transitioning, probably because they would start to have families even if they weren't fully recorded as priests at that point. I'm going to read one more thing. Verse 18, it says, Does that mean that as a whole family they're trying to raise up these Levites? Why, I've looked at the word wives and daughters and their role in raising these Levites. Yes, again, I'll step back. If you're a priest, it was incumbent upon Israel to provide for you and your family, wives, sons, and daughters. Once that son hit three years of age, a small stipend was given to him because he would be preparing. Does that make sense? And then I think, again, at 20, that that would be a different kind of stipend, probably because he'd be starting a family. So that's the way I've taken this. It's not easy to work this out, so. If there was something that required Levi's to marry again, politically, what would it be? Do you think that would happen? I'm thinking, I know some didn't for sure. Anything else? You mean later in New Testament times? I can't recall that I've ever read that they're, right? By New Testament times, that lineage had been so broken with the exodus, with, excuse me, the exile and so on. I doubt it. Primarily the priestly class in, if you're talking about like during first century Judaism, primarily the priestly class were the Sadducees, right? So, And then you had the Pharisees, which were their own group. And then the scribes were somewhat different. But I don't recall ever reading anything that says the scribes were from the Levitical tribe. Huh? The scribes were the ones that kept the scriptures or wrote the scriptures? Yeah. Again, I don't know. Do you know, Chris? I've never connected Levites with scribes before. Again, that's never, yeah. That's never been something I've read, at least that I can recall. Pharisees are definitely not, no question about it. Although some Pharisees did try to claim that they were from the lineage of Zadok, but there's no evidence of that. I'll look that up, I'll look into that, but I don't recall ever No, it's a good question, so I just, it's not one that I've ever thought of. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you and bless you for this record that does put on display a great work of God. It was a great work of God in the Old Testament. And all this marvelous reviving and reforming was done by those who were anticipating the Son of Man coming into the world. As those who live on the other side and have the substance of Christ, we plead with you, O God, for another great reforming and reviving work among your people, a work that's right and true and good and committed to your law and to seek God-glorifying worship. Do something great in our generation, not for our sake, but for the majesty of your name. We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen.