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There are a lot of misconceptions today about

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who God is.

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Godless religious society refers to him as the

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man upstairs, but sadly, many in the church

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view God this way as well.

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Many have shrunken God down to man's size.

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They put God on man's level, like the

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Baptist pastor I heard one day tell his

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congregation.

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I can't wait to get to heaven, and

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the first thing I'm going to do when

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I get there is walk up to Jesus

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and grab his hand and shake it for

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all he's done for me.

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That's what the old boy said.

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I guess that seminary-trained pastor never read

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the passage in Revelation, where the apostle John

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has an encounter with the risen Christ, and

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he falls down as dead.

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No, he's just going to walk up to

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Jesus like he would a deacon in the

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hallway of church and glad hand him.

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We tend to put God on our level

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today because we think God is tolerant towards

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sin.

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We think God won't punish sin, but Jesus

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never taught a sin in religion.

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Rather, he said, go and sin no more,

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lest a worse thing happen to you.

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The title of my message today, friends, is

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Burning Your Idols, and we will be in

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the book of 2 Chronicles, in chapter 29.

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You can turn in your Bibles there now,

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friends.

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In chapter 29 of 2 Chronicles, we find

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the religious reforms made by King Hezekiah and

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the ensuing revival which followed among God's people.

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We will begin in reading verse 5, which

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states, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves,

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and sanctify the house of the Lord God

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of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness

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out of the holy place.

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I will pause here, friends.

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Here, in this striking passage of scripture, we

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see King Hezekiah, as he gathered his religious

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leaders together to instruct them to do two

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things.

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Number one, clean the temple of its idols,

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and number two, clean the altar of their

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hearts in repentance.

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We get a sense of this in verses

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15 through 16.

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And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves,

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and came, according to the commandment of the

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king, by the words of the Lord, to

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cleanse the house of the Lord.

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And the priests went into the inner part

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of the house of the Lord to cleanse

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it, and brought out all the uncleanness that

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they found in the temple of the Lord

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into the court of the house of the

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Lord.

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And the Levites took it to carry it

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abroad into the brook Kidron.

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I will stop there.

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This is what the people of God did.

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They searched the temple to find unclean idols,

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and then brought them out, took them to

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the brook Kidron, and burned them there.

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They sanctified themselves, and God brought a mighty

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revival under King Hezekiah, because he did that

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which was right in the sight of the

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Lord.

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We need to do the same, to search

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our hearts under the bright spotlight of the

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Holy Spirit, to see if there is anything

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grievous to God in our lives, and then

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turn from it, and break from it, in

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repentance.

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We must hunt out our idols, and through

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heartfelt repentance, forsake them entirely, take them down

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to our brook Kidron, so to speak, to

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our meeting place with God, and burn them

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there.

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Hezekiah did this willingly, but sometimes we are

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so hardened in our sin that God has

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to step in and take drastic measures to

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get the job done His way, because we

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are unwilling to part with our idols.

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Sometimes you have to burn something out of

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a man.

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God had to burn idolatry out of the

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Jews in the days of their captivity.

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They never touched an idol again after that.

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There is a story about the monkey and

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the nut.

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It seems the best way to catch a

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monkey in the jungle is to set a

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heavy glass jar on the ground that is

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wide at the bottom and narrow at the

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top, like a big glass jug.

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In that jar you drop a nut, not

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just any nut, but a nut that monkeys

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like to eat.

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Trappers do this all the time.

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They set the trap with that nut and

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the jug, and along comes a monkey.

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He will see and smell that nut and

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go to investigating, and then his desire will

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make him squeeze his paw into the top

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of that jar and grab the nut in

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his palm, but he can't extricate himself from

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the jar because he won't let go of

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the nut, and the only way to get

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his paw free again is to let go

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of the nut and pull himself free, but

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he gets caught by the trappers as he

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cannot drag around that heavy jug around the

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jungle, and he won't let go of that

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nut.

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Some of us are like that monkey.

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Because of our self-will and self-rule

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in rebellion and sin, God will have to

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lock us up in such a prison of

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affliction that the only way we're going to

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squeeze out of there is to let go

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of the nut, so to speak, but we

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won't do it.

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We are more stubborn than that monkey.

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We want to hang on to our idols,

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even if it means great hardship and trial.

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God cannot tolerate sin and rebellion in a

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follower of his.

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You will either burn your idols willingly, like

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King Hezekiah did, or God will have to

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burn them out of you.

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If you're a child of God, friend, he

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will employ the means necessary to make you

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break with your idols.

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You will either burn them willingly, or he

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will have to take drastic measures to burn

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them out of you.

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He will get the job done one way

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or another.

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You can't fight against God and win.

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You will be broken on both sides, and

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get rid of those idols, or there will

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be hell to pay.