FBC Morning Light (7/13/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

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Good Saturday morning people of faith. This morning and for this weekend we're looking at 2nd

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Kings chapter 18, 2nd Chronicles chapters 29 through 31, and Isaiah 15 through 17.

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And before we turn to 2nd Kings chapter 18, I want to ask you a question.

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What could stained -glass windows, your favorite hymn, and your favorite preacher or ministry all have in common?

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So let's read starting in verse 1 of chapter 18 of 2nd

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Kings. It says, Now it came to pass in the third year of Hosea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

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He was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

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His mother's name was Abbi, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the sight of the

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Lord according to all that his father David had done. And I just want to mention that this is a welcome, refreshing statement to hear that he did what was right in the sight of the

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Lord. The last several Saturdays I feel like I have been coming to you and talking about the judgments that were going to happen because of the disobedience of the people.

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So Hezekiah is one who does right in the sight of the

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Lord, but he goes even further than previous kings and further than most of the rest of the kings with the possible exception of Josiah.

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He removed the high places and broke the sacred sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image, and broken pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made.

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For until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it

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Nehushtan. He trusted the Lord in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor who were before him.

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All right, so key phrase there that he trusted in the Lord. And why?

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Because he tore down those places of idolatry and no king before him was willing to do that.

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And it could have been that the people rose up against him when he did that, but they did not.

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So what does my question at the beginning of this have to do with this passage?

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Well let me talk to you about stained -glass windows for a second. And stained -glass windows were originally put in a lot of churches.

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We don't happen to have any in this particular building, but there's churches all over town that have stained -glass windows.

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And they were oftentimes made to depict biblical stories for people or biblical narratives for people who could not read the

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Bible for themselves and to help them understand the gospel. That was their original intent.

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But that's not what they're typically used for today. Today they're typically used for just things of beauty to admire, to in a sense give worship to.

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Perhaps the song, your favorite hymn, has come to a place now where when you hear it or when you sing it and you don't think about what the words are saying anymore, it just takes you back to that time.

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Maybe it's a song that you heard while you were saved or shortly thereafter and had deep meaning to you at one point in time, but now you just hear it and it takes you back to those wonderful memories and is no longer taking you to a place of worship, but taking you to a place where you are idolizing a past time.

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Well what about your favorite pastor or preacher or ministry? Maybe, maybe that pastor or preacher or teacher or ministry has gone astray in an area or two and you're unwilling to see those things because of how much that pastor, teacher, preacher, ministry has meant to you in the past.

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And the illustrations of these sorts of things are numerous. So how does that relate back to 2nd

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Kings chapter 18? Well it says that Hezekiah broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made.

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Moses made that bronze serpent at the direction of God himself.

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Why? He made that bronze serpent so that when people were stung by the fiery serpents that they would look to the bronze serpent and be healed, right?

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But now what has that bronze serpent become? That bronze serpent has become a source of idolatry to the

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Israelites and they were burning incense to that bronze serpent. Could it be that stained glass windows or various things in the church building or a favorite hymn or Christian song has lost its worshipful intent for you and has become a source of idolatry?

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Could it be that your favorite pastor, preacher, teacher has been elevated to a place in your mind that only the

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Lord himself deserves? The sources of idolatry are many.

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Even here as we see in 2nd Kings chapter 18, something that God himself ordained to be made.

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We as sinful human beings are very good at taking the good things that God gives and turning them into idols.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, if there is anything in our lives that we are using as an object of worship other than you, whether that be a building, a relationship, anything, looking back to even how you worked in the past and not looking forward to you and what you have done for us.

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May we repent of that, that you might be the one true object of our worship.

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It's in your name Jesus we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.