By Bro. Booker

Text: II Chronicles 30:1-5, 10-15, 17-20, 25-27

I. A totally amazing thing took place in the days of King Hezekiah. It was utterly amazing because God’s Word is not to be trifled with. God has said what He means and He means everything He has said.

A. Hezekiah was King of Judah. It had been many years (possibly 100) since Israel had kept the Passover. The Northern Kingdom had not kept Passover in hundreds of years. Hezekiah was a righteous man and wanted to reinstitute the feast — and when he did so, it was “not according to the Word of the Lord.”

1. They were a month late. The Levites and priests were not sanctified and the majority of the
congregation was not cleansed according to the manner of the law.

II. The Bible gives us many examples of how seriously God takes His Word:

A. Pharaoh’s daughter knew Moses to be a Hebrew infant when she found him because he was circumcised (according to God’s covenant with His people). Moses was taught his peoples’s beliefs before he went to live in the palace with Pharaoh. He lived with his family until he was about 7 or 8 years old.

1. Exodus 4:24-26
Moses had a call of God — a commission — and on his way down to Egypt to do God’s will, God sought
to kill him. One minute he was called of God and the next minute God was seeking to kill him. Moses’s
wife, Zipporah, knew nothing about the covenant or of the one God Jehovah.

2. Moses knew immediately what the problem was when God sought to kill him. He knew he had not obeyed God’s Word (covenant) to circumcise his first-born son. Moses called out to Zipporah, instructing her to circumcise their son, and when she had done so, God let Moses go. His very life was being choked out of him but he had presence of mind to give some last- minute instructions to his wife.

3. God said what He meant and meant what He said, and He said, “Moses, if you are going to do My will, you’re going to keep my law.” It wasn’t enough for him to have been circumcised. He had to believe the message applied not only to himself but also to his family.

4. The covenant of circumcision is no longer in effect for us today. We are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands. It is a God-given covenant.

a. Colossians 2:11-12
“In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, …….”

5. Some people today do not have the covenant of baptism in Jesus’ Name, of repentance, or the infilling of
the Holy Ghost but it seems they have seen miracles and have a call on their lives.

6. Moses had a call, miracles, a commission, and was on his way to do it. God told him he must obey the whole thing. It was not enough for Moses to believe it, he had to believe it was meant for others also.

III. Other examples of God’s response to disobedience to His Word:

A. Leviticus 10:1-2
Nadab and Abihu.

B. Numbers 16:1-33
Korah.

c. Numbers 15:32-36
Man gathering sticks on the Sabbath.

D. I Chronicles 13:9-10
God killed Uzza for putting his hand to the ark.

E. I Samuel 6:19
God smote 50,070 men because they looked into the ark.

IV. In light of examples of disobedience to God’s Word, a Passover was held which was so far off from the Word of God that it boggles the mind — things were a mess — done not according to the Word of the Lord.

A. But — Hezekiah prayed — and made a sincere effort to obey God’s Word, to go forward.

1. God hearkened and healed the people.

2. The people rejoiced. There was not such great joy in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon.

B. How could God be in this? Do you think God let them slip by the next year? Consider their end.

V. Now today people get healed, receive the Holy Ghost, God manifests Himself in services where, according to the Word of God, it is a mess — not living according to modesty, no standards, no holiness, and no doctrine. They do not believe there is one God and His Name one — do not baptize in His Name and do not care if you are baptized in any name. They do not believe the Holy Ghost is essential even though they may have received.

A. Yet God comes on the scene and blesses. There is rejoicing. You ask what is going on? God is blessing their sincerity as long as they are going forward.

VI. Now, when a year rolled around and it came time for the next Passover celebration and if they were still indifferent and did it not according to the Word of God, what then?

A. If we want to stay in the blessings of God, we have to follow on to know Him — to keep up and line up with His Word and live up to the Word.

VII. Acts 10
Cornelius was devout, feared God, gave alms, prayed to God always. His prayers and alms came up for a memorial before God — he was sincere but was not saved. We know he was not saved because:

A. A time came for Cornelius to go on with God. The angel told him, “Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.” Acts 11:14.

VIII. We will be judged out of the things written in the Book and we cannot look at others and wonder why God is blessing them. We have to keep the Book. They may have a memorial in heaven but it doesn’t mean
they are saved. Moses had a call but God was going to kill him.

A. Hebrews 10:38-39
God will bless us as long as we are going forward (like Hezekiah and Cornelius). We should not draw back. We must believe to the saving of the soul. We must follow after Him. It’s not so much where I am right now — as the direction I am heading. Never turn around. Never draw back. Never stop. Do not change directions. God blesses us according to the direction we are heading. God means what He says in His Word.