We are the Temple of God | 2 Chronicles 29:1-19 | Dr. Brian Lee

I hope you're excited to be here tonight. It's always exciting to be together to see God's word, to hear God's word. And I'm excited and also humbled to have an opportunity again to be, serving the Lord by bringing the preaching and teaching of the word. I'd like to start with a question tonight, and the question is this. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word temple?

Now we are here at Friday Friday night bible study, so perhaps your thought first went to the Old Testament when the temple is mentioned on on more than one occasion. There's two temples that are built. Or perhaps your thoughts went to a venue. Typically, a temple is used to describe a location of a place of worship for other religions. You may have heard, the temple being used for Buddhist temple, Hindu temple, maybe even a Mormon temple.

I want to make the case tonight that as born again Christians, as new covenant believers, the word temple should cause us not only to think of the New Testament or the Old Testament, but to think of the New Testament, not just as a place of worship for other religions, but it should cause us to think about the church, about us. In Ephesians two, where it reminds us that we are no longer strangers and aliens, but members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. It says in the very next verse in verse 21, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? First Corinthians six verse 19.

Whom you have from God, you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body or in your temple. We are a holy temple in the Lord, a temple of the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, we are the temple of God. And anytime you see and read, the temple being mentioned in the Old Testament, whether it's the building of it, the construction of it, the measurements, the materials, the vessels, the utensils, all of it, Anytime we see that in the Old Testament, it gives us instruction and warning as new covenant believers on how to honor the Lord as, as new covenant believers, as the temple of God, to honor and worship him, not just when we gather like this on Fridays and Sundays, but to honor him with our day to day lives.

And so we will be looking at an Old Testament passage tonight that reminds us of just that. And we all know we ended our study of first and second Kings last week, but we're gonna take a look at one particular king one more time. But it it's in an account that's not mentioned in the Kings. It's mentioned in the chronicles. And so we're gonna look at King Hezekiah.

Our passage tonight is second Chronicles 29. So let's turn there now together. Second Chronicles 29. We won't be looking at the entire chapter. It's a lengthy chapter.

But our focus will be verse one through verse 19 as we highlight different portions different portions of it together. I'm giving being given instruction to move the mic a little bit, so I'm gonna do that now. Alright. So tonight, I wanna give three main principles from second Chronicles 29 that I pray will be a blessing to you, that I hope will instruct us, teach us, and even warn us about what it means to be the temple of God, for we are the temple of God. Here are the three principles that we will draw from this chapter.

Number one, we are the temple of God. As the temple of God, we must first have eyes to see and ears to hear. And we will frame that under the heading revelation. To receive true revelation, we must have eyes to see and ears to hear as the temple of God. Principle number two tonight, As the temple of God, we must live lives of repentance.

We'll put this under the heading of consecration. So revelation and consecration. And then the last point, the third, as the temple of God, we must be committed to complete surrender to the Lord. Submission. So we'll look at revelation, consecration, and submission as the temple of God.

In the first two verses of chapter 29 of second Chronicles, we've already studied it. We see it here that Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 years old, a young man in the prime of his life, and that he reigned for twenty nine years. Remember, Hezekiah famously prayed when he was ill, and God granted him fifteen more years of life so that he reigned for that period of time until the age of 54. And although he did not necessarily end well, remember, his pride got the best of him, He was still a righteous king. We are told in these first two verses of second Chronicles 29 that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that David, his father, had done.

Now let's look at verse three. Verse three of second Chronicles 29. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. So our first point tonight is as the temple of God, we must first have eyes to see and ears to hear, to receive revelation of the things of God. And verse three tells us that Hezekiah, his first order of business, his first priority as king, as a leader, in fact, his first month, not just his first year, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, the temple.

I wanna start this portion by pointing us to an embedded warning in this verse. This obviously means that if the temple doors had to be opened, it is quite possible for us as the temple of God to have our doors shut, closed to the things of God, to the voice of God, to the word of God. And we only have to go back a few verses from chapter 29 to see why the doors were closed. Scroll back to second Chronicles in chapter 28 in verse 24. It says the following.

And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God. And he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. Ahaz, we looked at his life. Right? He was Hezekiah's father.

We saw the level of evil and idolatry and sin under his leadership, which included him burning his own sons, Hezekiah's brothers. This Ahaz, he shut the doors of the temple. And we saw the progression of sin during his life as we did in many other evil kings. But look even in this verse, we see a progression of sin that led to the shutting of the doors. It says, Ahaz gathered together the vessels, plural, of the house of God, which quite likely took time to gather different vessels, and he cut in pieces piece by piece, he cut the vessels of the temple.

We see this progression of sin that led to the shutting of the doors. It is quite possible that this verse tells us and throughout the scriptures that it's possible for us as the people of God, as the temple of God, for compromise little by little, piece by piece to set in, for sin to set in in our lives to the point where we are closed to the things of God, to the voice of God. And we see it here. It did not happen overnight. I can think of a number of times in our studies and on Sundays where we were warned from this pulpit that these kinds of sins don't happen just all of a sudden.

God lovingly warns us over a period of time, and we are to take heed of those warnings and to repent from those ways. Jesus himself lovingly warns us. In Matthew 13 verse 13, when the disciples asked Jesus why he speaks in parables, Jesus says the following. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand. And a few verses later, Jesus actually encourages his disciples because he tells his disciples, but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.

We are blessed when the doors of our temple, if you will, our eyes and ears are open to the voice of God, and we seek Jesus for who he truly is. I mean, we saw that at the beginning of our study of Revelation. I think it's verse three, Revelation one three. Blessed are those who hear these words aloud and who read these words aloud. There's a blessing that comes when we hear and see the word of God and see and hear Christ for who he truly is.

We are blessed. And that is why we strive to be here as often as we can on Friday nights, Wednesdays, and Sundays here in the house of the Lord, to hear his word being taught and preached, to be close to the people, his people, so that we hear, testimonies of how god is moving in people's lives. One simple way we sharpen our eyes and ears to receive God's word is simply also by paying attention to the word of God, which I hope you're doing tonight. I hope we do every night or every time we gather together. We pay attention to the word of God being preached or sung.

Paying attention is a biblical principle. And in Nehemiah eight, in this beautiful chapter where we see Ezra the priest reading from the scriptures and the people of God receiving it and weeping, in fact, because they are broken by hearing the truth of God's word. It says in verse three of Nehemiah eight, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And later, we are told the people received understanding because they were attentive to the word. So eyes to see, ears to hear, being attentive to God's voice.

But then we go from a warning perhaps of that to a message of strengthening. Notice in our passage tonight, second Chronicles 29 in verse three, of how Hezekiah not only opened the doors of the temple, but we are told that he repaired them. Repaired the doors, built them, maybe rebuilt them, strengthened them, fortified them, maybe even power wash the doors, put a layer of lacquer and paint, strengthened it. And just like he repaired the doors of the temple, we too must always build and fortify and strengthen what we see, what we hear through these doors of our temple, what we consume, how we spend our energy and time to let what's what comes in through these doors of our of our heads. These things on the sides of our heads are called temples after all.

Speaking of Nehemiah and Ezra, it's interesting to see. We don't have to turn there. But in Nehemiah chapter three, when Nehemiah is repairing the wall around Jerusalem, which is meant to to fortify and strengthen the temple and protect the temple. The word repair is mentioned over 20 times over and over again. And we see that here in Hezekiah's testimony that he repaired the doors.

In the past two weeks from this pulpit, we have heard pastor Daniel exhort us, right, about being careful of what we allow into our minds through our ears and through what we see, to be careful of what we allow and what we consume, not to be gullible Christians, but to filter everything through the bible, through his word, that we are to have eyes to see, ears to hear, strong eyes, strong ears. So we go from a warning to a message of strengthening, and I believe we also go to a message of deepening. It goes beyond just what we see and what we hear. There is a a song that we I believe I've sung here a number of times that goes like this, and I think many of you will recognize it. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.

Open the eyes of my heart that I may see you. It goes beyond just what we see and what we hear. It is internal, the eyes of our hearts being enlightened. Paul prays this in Ephesians one seventeen that the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. That our eyes would be enlightened and open just as our eyes, our physical eyes, and our ears are open to the things of God.

Revelation, true revelation from the inside out. And the Old Testament, with all of its rules and regulations about how god's people ought to worship and sacrifice and all those things. It's still filled with this truth about the importance of our hearts. It's all over the place. Catch it if you can whenever you read the old testament.

Ezra set his heart to study the book of the law, it says. It was on David's heart to build the temple, which upon his son, Solomon, built it. Over and over again, we are reminded that it is our hearts that God sees. And as open and as important as knowledge is, let us always be reminded that God desires our hearts to be open doors to him, the holy of holies of our temples, our bodies, that his glory would be manifested in how we live our lives. So Revelation, eyes to see and ears to hear, But now we go to from Revelation to consecration.

So we're gonna go to our second point now. Let's look at second Chronicles 29. Now we're gonna read together from verses four through 11. Let's read together. He, being Hezekiah, brought in the priest and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, hear me, Levites.

Now consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the holy place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him have and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore, the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing as you see with your own eyes.

For behold, 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 my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, and to be his ministers and make offerings to him. So our second point here tonight is to be consecrated as the temple of God. And it's pretty obvious here as we began this portion of our passage.

In verse five, it says, now consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the holy place. Notice how Hezekiah says, consecrate yourselves to the Levites first before he says and consecrate the temple. Even here in the old covenant, we have a picture of a new covenant truth that we, the people, are the temple of God and that we are to consecrate ourselves in our service to the Lord as his people. And consecrate, I believe we all know the meaning of that word, to be set apart, to be holy. And one of the ways we are to set be set apart from the world and to be holy in our lives, in our churches as the temple of God is to intentionally remove things from our lives, from our practices that do not belong.

Notice the language here. It says, carry out. You can imagine the intentional physical removal of things in the temple at this time. Things and objects that defiled the temple during Ahaz's reign. And, yes, for us now, this primarily means removing things from our heart, that are invisible perhaps, things in our hearts and minds that are dishonoring to the lord like lust or pride, anger, bitterness, all these things that are displeasing to god.

But we must also remember that we are to be intentional in removing and distancing ourselves from physical things even to this day in the new covenant. Possessions, people, barriers to us being fully consecrated unto him. And, I mean, we can go a number of directions with these examples of this. Perhaps it means, addictions or dependence on foreign substances, whether it be alcohol or drugs, things we need to be delivered from. Perhaps it means distancing or removal of material possessions that have a hold of us that we take pride in or even positions that we are in in our jobs.

Or people distancing ourselves, separating ourselves from voices, from influences of other people, even those perhaps within the church that are not righteous, that are yoked with unbelief, that are, a twisting of God's word, influences that are not honoring to the Lord in our lives. Second Corinthians six communicates this powerfully in a in a way. Second Corinthians six verse 14 says this, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

I know this passage, especially the first verse there, is often used to talk about marriage, that as believers, we are not to marry someone outside of the faith, and that's still true, of course. That's a truth here. But this goes much deeper than that. It's a warning to believers, to the church about not partnering with unrighteousness, that we are to be discerning and careful of who we partner with in ministry, in our lives as the temple of God. For we are the temple of the living God, it says in this passage.

And we sometimes like to water down the language in describing sin or anything that is displeasing to God by calling it a variety of things. But notice going back to our passage, second Chronicles twenty twenty nine, notice what the Bible calls sin. Filth. Filth. And it's the same word in the Hebrew that's used in other places like Leviticus and Ezekiel to describe uncleanliness or abominations to the Lord.

So there was a carrying out of this filth from the temple. I still remember when I first read this chapter, it was maybe several years ago, but I read it for the first time. And I read the word filth, and it jarred me a bit. And I and it still jars me a little bit to this day. And I think that's by design.

It's meant to make us uncomfortable. Sin should make us uncomfortable. It should jar us. We should not be comfortable with sin. And I hope you didn't come here tonight merely to be comfortable or come here Fridays and Sundays out of comfort.

Yes. We can receive comfort when we gather. Of course. Yes. We can receive encouragement and peace.

There is that in the house of God. But when we gather to hear the word of God, to sing the word of God, it's meant to sharpen. It's meant to cut. In fact, that passage that pastor Bena read as we opened from, from the book of Acts, how Peter, his words, it cut to the heart of those who heard it. It's meant to equip.

It's meant to warn. God's word is meant to train up. And I don't know. I think of some exercise class where people are, you know, training their bodies. They're supposed to be pain.

No pain, no gain. Or the military where there's training and there's there's, discomfort, but that's to our benefit. And the word of God is meant to, to do that. It's meant to scrub clean even our consciences and our hearts. This word filth is meant to make us uncomfortable and lead us to acknowledge that we are to view sin in all its forms in the same way as filth, impure, undesirable.

And may we hate sin and learn to hate sin and see it the way God does in that way. And I think when if our eyes are open, truly open, our ears are open to the things of God, we will inevitably view sin in that light. And and here's the bad news. Here's the bad news. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans three twenty three.

And not just in our past, chances are today we have fallen short of the glory of God in in our in our day to day walk. We have sinned in our thoughts, fallen short of his glory in some way during the course of this day. That's the bad news. But we all know the good news. We have a merciful savior.

We have one who loves, who forgives, who extends grace to us, and who has the power to remove any filth in us as we ask him, as we are open to him. We have a powerful picture of this in the New Testament in Mark chapter 11. I mean, it's interesting. In this passage, Jesus' his first order of business, like Hezekiah's was, was to cleanse the temple. Mark 11 in verse 15, this is the week, upon Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

We are told in verses before that that night, he looked into the temple to observe what was going on. And then the very next day, we are told this in verse 15, and they came to Jerusalem, and he, Jesus, entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. We have I mean, you can feel it. Right?

Anytime we read this passage, there's some discomfort here. He would not allow. He overturned the tables. There's there's a shaking going on here in the temple. It is not always easy for us to be honest with God in repentance or consecration.

It is not always easy. It is uncomfortable sometimes to be honest with other people as we confess our sins to one another, or sometimes it's not honest or sometimes it's not comfortable. It's painful sometimes to be honest with ourselves, actually. Revisiting past traumas, revisiting past sins, it's not easy. But we must be honest before God, before one another, to ourselves, no matter how discomfort how much discomfort it might bring us, in the hopes that we receive revelation, in the hopes that we are consecrated unto the Lord.

And even in this picture in Mark 11, we see God's mercy, Christ's graciousness. Because in verse 17, it says, then he taught them. He was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. Even in this rebuke, even in this discomfort, the lord graciously is teaching his people. And the lord can do the same for us as we are honest before him, before one another, to ourselves.

He can teach us, reveal himself to us. But from this command and call to consecration in this passage and in our lives, we go to another warning, I believe. So So let's go back to our passage, second Chronicles 29. Look at the progression of what Hezekiah outlines has happened in the years leading up to this point to the temple doors being shut. Here's verse six of our passage tonight.

He says, for our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. So here's Hezekiah acknowledging that our fathers were unfaithful. They did evil in the sight of the Lord. But look at what he says first. What made them unfaithful?

Here's the first step. They have forsaken him. That's listed first. So what does it mean to forsake him? I think it simply means they forgot God.

They forgot him. They didn't think about him. They were distracted. They didn't meditate on his word. They didn't think about God.

And this is a great reminder for us today that and a warning, love warns, the first step to backsliding in our lives is that we just don't think about God in our day to day. How often did you think about God today in the busyness of your life? Do you think about him from place to place? Does he dwell in your thoughts as you drive in the in the traffic of Chicago land? Do you think about him?

And then look at what it says after that. And by the way, on on a side note here, I'm reminded of this now. I think that truth is all over the place in the Old Testament. So when you when you read the Pentateuch and the wilderness journey, we're reminded over and over again that what led to God's people in the wilderness in their idolatry and sin, the first step always seems to be they forsook God. They forsook him.

They forgot him. They didn't think about him. Well, look at, what happens after that. They have forsaken him, and then it says they have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord. And so I don't know if I mean, we can picture this.

Right? Like, I can face you, look at you even, but not really think about you. I could be thinking about something else, and we can be the same way with God. We can be going to every Sunday service. We can be in church in these meetings, be around the people of God, but we could be distracted.

We could not be thinking about God. But then it says, turned away their faces. So I could still be facing you, but turn my face to the side like this. So it goes from not thinking about God to still being connected to God and the people of God, but not looking, not acknowledging where God dwells, the habitation of the Lord, to the point where it eventually turns to turning their backs. So I'm actually gonna turn my back now.

And facing the opposite direction, inevitably walking away from God, from the things of God. And it goes even further. This passage is amazing. In verse seven, they also shut the doors of the vestibule, closed it, and put out the lamps, so darkness, sin, and have not burned incense, which is a representation of prayer, I believe, here. So one of the signs of us turning our backs to the Lord is not having a prayer life.

I mean, there's a warning here that we are to constantly pray unto the Lord and and seek him, think of him, face him. And then it goes on. They did not offer burnt offerings, so no worship in the holy place to the God of Israel. So, again, there's an embedded warning here for us that we are to not just face and seek God, but to think of him, to meditate on his word. One way to guard against falling away from the Lord is fixing our gaze on him.

We sing this song here once in a while, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Second Corinthians four verse 18. We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. And I think even in the list of names you see in the in the following verses, you see in in that chapter verse 12 through 15 of second Chronicles 29, we're given a list of names and the heritage of which line of Levites they're from.

You see the mention of the three main branches. Right? The Kohathites, Merari, Gershonites. Even the mention of the praise leaders under King David's reign, Asaph, Haman, and Jeduthun. I think one of the reasons we're given these names here is that it reminds us that as we pursue consecration, one of the ways we can stay close to the Lord is to remember his faithfulness.

Remember what he has done in the past. Think. Remember of how he has saved you and me. Think about what he's delivered us from. And to constantly think of that, to share that with one another, I think is one great way to be consecrated, set apart unto the Lord, and, guard against turning our faces away from him and eventually turning our backs to him.

And so there's this call for consecration, but then there's a further call for complete and continual consecration. Let's take a look at the next verse here. Look at what the priests the Levites did here. Second Chronicles 29 verse 16. The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out all 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 to the Brook Kidron. And this progression of taking it out from the inner part of the house of the Lord to the courts of the temple. And that wasn't good enough. It wasn't good enough that they took it out completely from the inner part. They didn't wanna even entertain it.

They had to take it out of the temple courts to the Brook Kidron, which is a picture for us today that true consecration is from the inside out, and we're to remove these things far away from our lives. That it is not just changing our behavior externally, outward appearance, but it's something from within our hearts. Our desires change. Our affections change. Our priorities change.

We kill sin. And that's the picture here with Kidron. In the Bible, it's referenced as a place of darkness, even a picture of hell where things went to die or burn, especially in times of idolatry, complete consecration. But look at verse 17. There's continual consecration.

Verse 17. They began to consecrate on the first day of the first month. And on the eighth day of the month, they came to the vestibule of the Lord. Then for eight days, they consecrated the house of the Lord. And on the sixteenth day of the first month, they finished.

So this is clear. Right? They consecrated the inner part of the temple for the first eight days, then they came to the vestibule or the outer entryway of the temple courts and took another eight days to finish. So consecration in our lives is not a onetime deal. It should be continual.

In fact, to our final breath, I think one of the ways we can fight the good fight, to run the race until our dying breath is to remind ourselves to continually be consecrated unto the Lord, and we see a picture of that here. It was con it was it wasn't just a call. It was consistent, constant, and costly. Sixteen days, a sacrifice of time, a process. And the Lord is so patient with us.

He's so gracious. If he sees our hearts desiring to be consecrated and, lord, remove anything in us that is filth or anything that is not honoring to you, he may take his time to do that. But he sees our hearts. And, as long as we're consistent and constant in abiding with him and willing to pay a cost in doing so and to surrender to him, He's so gracious. He can do that.

He will do that. And we even see that in the next chapter, second Chronicles 30, but we won't turn there. But they continually consecrated themselves even in chapters after this. Let's go to our final point of tonight's study. From revelation to consecration to submission.

Point three. As a temple of God, we must be committed to complete surrender to the Lord. Submission. Complete submission. Let's look at the last two verses of our study, verse eighteen and nineteen.

Then they went into Hezekiah the king and said, we have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. All the utensils that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless, We have made ready and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord. I love that at the end. They say, behold, we're ready to worship the Lord rightly. Complete surrender, every part of our lives, of our body, of our temple, every part of our lives.

And if you recall, I hope you do. It was only last week. But if you recall last Friday, when we finished second Kings, one of the main principles, one of the main lessons we saw was the importance of surrender. We saw that it was Jehoiachin was the one out of the three kings who surrendered, and there was a blessing that came upon him when he was invited to the king's table. And here in second Chronicles twenty twenty nine, not too far removed from the Babylonian deportations, complete surrender is still a lesson.

We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. And that's actually also the lesson of the burnt offering that's mentioned here. Did you catch it? The altar of burnt offering? And a number of months ago, our brother Christian, he was up here.

He gave a message on the law of the burnt offering from Leviticus. And there were principles for the burnt offering. It was the whole animal, not part of it. The entire animal was to be offered and burned completely, not in part. And that's a picture for us to offer our whole bodies, every part of our lives in complete surrender.

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship, Romans twelve one. But if you remember from the lessons of the burnt offering, it was also well, couple there I mean, there's so many things, but I'll just mention two real quickly. One was that the fire of the burnt offering was to burn perpetually. It was supposed to burn perpetually. Again, a sign for us our constant perpetual devotion to the Lord and surrender to the Lord.

But it was also supposed to be cut into pieces, the burnt offering, which is a picture of many things, but one of them is that we are to be clean from the inside out, inside and outside. But also every piece of our lives, every compartment of our lives. If we were to divide up every part of our lives, is it surrendered to the Lord? Is it on the altar of the Lord in our lives as a living sacrifice. Every piece, complete surrender.

And the burnt offering, of course, was supposed to be without blemish. Perfect. And, of course, all of this and this is how we're closing. We're gonna close by acknowledging that all of this points to our savior, to Jesus Christ. He was the single offering, the perfect one who completely surrendered to the will of his father.

Hebrews ten four, it says, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. But later on in verse 12, it says, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And I wish we had time or another week where we go to the second half of second Chronicles 29. We won't do that here.

But for the rest of the chapter, from verse 20 to the end, burnt offering is actually mentioned a total of eight times. I mean, it's mentioned in our in our passage here, but eight more times in the midst of other offerings. And even if you scan the following verses in second Chronicles 29 where we left off, the word slaughtered appears three times. It even mentions blood, atonement, and this picture of our savior, of Christ, the lamb that was slain, is so vivid in the second half of this chapter. Imagine the sight and sound of hundreds of animals being slaughtered for the for different offerings.

We are told there are hundreds, if not thousands, in this chapter. The sight of blood, the aroma of the burning of the animals as they're being consumed, the sweet aroma that was in worship to the lord at this time, it was vivid. It was alive. Dare I say it was experiential. And perhaps there is a lesson here when you look at the large structure of second Chronicles 29 that if we receive true revelation, having eyes to see, ears to hear, having the eyes of our hearts open to the things of God, if we live lies of consecration, saying set being set apart from the things of this world, When we live like this and, again, we don't earn anything, of course.

It's all grace. But when we live like this, we posture our lives to receive God, receive Christ, receive his blessing and mercy where he is alive in us. Vivid, real, experiential. We we we know him intimately every part of our lives. And even in worship so look at second Chronicles twenty nine twenty five.

I mean, we're not gonna read it. Actually, just scan it. But there's a mention of cymbals, harps, lyres, instruments of David, trumpets, singing, singers, trumpets, more trumpets. And there's a clear tie here to the burnt offering and in the singing and praises of God's people. I've and I find it fascinating that, when Hezekiah he didn't open the temple doors and say, okay.

It's it's let's sing. Now it's time to worship. He didn't do that. No. It was first what Hezekiah did.

He opened the doors, repaired them, and he says, now let's get right with the Lord. We need him. We need to repent. We need to consecrate ourselves. We need to surrender all.

And now then, let's sing. Let's worship. When the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord also began. And all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. We don't have time to get into it because I wanna close here.

But in the next chapter in second Chronicles 30, we're shown the character of God. It said that people were not consecrated yet, but because their hearts wanted to honor God and serve God, they did so. I think it was during the time of Passover, and it said Hezekiah prayed for God's mercy, and God healed the people and blessed them. And I wish we had time to go into it, but it's such a beautiful picture here that even while we are, being revealed the things of God, even while we are being consecrated, the process of it, God still uses us and and wants to use us as long as our hearts are opened to him. What a gracious God that we have.

Alright. Let me close with one story, if you would permit me. So, this happened not too long ago. A few weeks ago, as as some of you know, I'm a college professor. And at the end of one of my classes it's it's a large class, over a 120 students.

At the end of the class, a student came up to me, and I think the lecture was upon on about singing. How do we honor the Lord in our singing in the local church? And we talked about how our hearts have to be right, our motives have to be right. And this student, she came up at the very end and said and asked a question to me. She said, how do we know our motives and our hearts are right?

How do we know? And she had a very genuine look on her face. And, good question. I didn't quite know how to answer it, but, I try to encourage her in the moment by god's grace and said something like this. By virtue of you asking that question, you are honoring the lord because your heart says you want to honor him by examining yourself and to see, am I right before the Lord?

And I said, keep praying, keep asking the Lord. He will show you, and he will lead you. He will show you if there's anything in you that is not right. And so I think of that now as we close to say that, as Hezekiah prayed, Jesus also prayed for us on the night he was betrayed, that he consecrated himself and he would be sanct that we would be sanctified in the truth. That that high priestly prayer that he intercedes for us even to this day.

And so may we rest in that, brothers and sisters. Revelation, consecration, and complete surrender to him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We delight in your word.

And, father, we wanna grow in that pursuit and delight. Thank you how your your word instructs us. It warns us. It it it shows us it lights the path, Lord, for how we ought to live our lives. And we thank you for every verse, every chapter.

We have the privilege of studying here on Fridays and Sundays. Lord, I pray that you would teach us how to truly have eyes to see and ears to hear. Teach us what it means to live continual lives of consecration until you take us home. And Lord, we ask that you would teach us in these days to completely surrender all to you. We love you, oh Lord.

Thank you for the joy and honor it is to come here on Friday nights to look at your word and to to study your word and to hear your voice. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.