Gooding, David: 2 - Joash's Revival in Judah

Now, when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehoshaphat the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king's sons that were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bed chamber. And they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her, hid in the house of the Lord six years, and Athaliah reigned over the land. Let's pass on to, uh, uh, to, uh, the next paragraph now to see how the story developed, and I shall read verses here and there and elsewhere. Verse four, and in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Karites and of the guard, and brought them into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord, and showed them the king's son. And after some detailed arrangements in verse ten, the priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been King David's, which were in the house of the Lord. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king, round about. Then he brought out the king's son and put the crown upon him and gave him the testimony, and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, God save the king. And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people in the house of the Lord, and she looked, and behold, the king stood by the pillar as the manna was. And the captains and the trumpets by the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced and blew with trumpets. Then Athaliah rent her clothes and cried, Treason, treason. Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth between the ranks, and him that followeth her, slay with the sword. For the priest said, Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord. So they made way for her, and she went by the way of the horse's entry to the king's house, and there she was slain. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's people. Between the king also and the people. Then on into chapter twelve, if you will. In the seventh year of Jehu began Joash to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Howbeit the high places were not taken away, the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. And Jehoash said to the priests, all the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of the Lord, the census money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the Lord, let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance, and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so that in the three and twentieth year of King Joash, the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Then King Joash called for Jehoiada the priest and for the other priests and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? Now therefore, take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house, but Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side as one cometh into the house of the Lord. And the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put it up in bags and told the money that was found in the house of the Lord. They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders that wrought upon the house of the Lord, and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all that was laid out for the house, to repair it. Thus far, we've been reading about Joash, king of Judah. It so happens that a little while later there was another king Joash, only he was king Joash of, uh, Israel, and I want us just to read a little thing about him, and you'll find that in chapter thirteen, beginning in verse fourteen. King Two Kings thirteen, verse fourteen. This is now Joash, but the other Joash bad. Bad as the Smiths, aren't they? Or the Magredes or the O'Boyles, these Joashes. You never know which one is which. Well, this one is Joash of Israel this time. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash, the king of Israel, came down unto him and wept over him and said, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. He said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it. And Elisha laid his hands upon the king's hands, and he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot, and he shot. And he said, the Lord's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria. For thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou shalt have consumed them. And he said, take the arrows, and he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, smite upon the ground, and he smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it. Whereas now, thou shalt smite Syria, but thrice. God give us good understanding of his word and speak to us therefrom. In this short series of meetings, we are studying together some of the revivals that took place in the histories of the kings of Judah. And tonight we come, therefore, to study the revival that was led in Judah by Jehoiada the priest and Joash the king. So from the beginning, let us ask ourselves again tonight, what was the crucial issue in this particular revival? We noticed, did we not, last evening that when revivals come, they very often have a lot of, a lot in common. And yet, even in our own Christian centuries, revivals haven't all been the same. There has generally been a distinctive issue in each of the different revivals, and so, of course, it was in the ancient world. We noticed last night that the issue in the revival that was led by Elijah, the issue at stake was, who is the true God? Was it Baal or was it Jehovah? And the revival reached its crucial point and stemmed from the challenge of Elijah, if Jehovah be God, follow him. If Baal be God, follow Baal. Now we come to another revival. Of course, it will have a lot of things in common, and yet the crucial issue is a slightly different issue. It's no longer who is the true God. It is... who is... the true king. So let's spend some time, for I gather we have time to spare. Millionaires of time we are this evening. Let's spend some time thinking about the background to this particular revival and the big crucial issue that lay at its heart. The times both before Joash and after Joash, the times had been very difficult and very disturbed. Starting with Joash's father, the king of Judah, we notice that for four generations running, four generations running, no king of Judah had died peacefully in his palace in his own bed. That's a long while, isn't it? Four generations of kings, as some of us here can just about remember four generations of kings in the British Isles, but if you can, you're going like me, rather gray. Four generations of kings in Judah, and none of them had died peacefully in his own bed, in his palace. King Ahaziah, violently executed by Jehu. Joash himself, who led the revival, eventually murdered by his own servants. Joash. Joash's son, King Amaziah, eventually assassinated by a bunch of conspirators. And his son, King Aziah, though he lived a long while, very early on, because of his inordinate pride and defiance of God, was smitten with leprosy, spent all his days in an isolation leper hospital, and died there in seclusion. For four generations, no king of Judah had died peacefully in his own bed in the palace. And that would have been a serious state of affairs for any monarchy, wouldn't it? It was a very serious state of affairs for the monarchs descended from David. For you see, there was something special about the kings that came of the line of David. God had promised David, you remember, that David should have a son. And God had spoken in such glowing terms of David's son, that is, uh, Judah had come to realize that one of these days, a son should be born to the throne of Judah, who should be God's own beloved Messiah. They didn't know which one he would be. Any one of them might eventually prove to be God's own Messiah and savior of the world. And it depended on the day the dynasty of David being continued. It was a very worrying state of affairs, therefore, when for several generations, one after the other, the throne of the kings of Judah came to seem exceedingly insecure. One assassinated, the other executed, the other murdered, and the other for the most part of his life not on the throne, but in an isolation hospital. There must have been many people wondering whatever was going to come of the line of David, and whatever would happen to God's promises to David's son. Was against the background of that tremendous uncertainty, of course, that the prophet Isaiah was called to his famous ministry, wasn't it? And he tells us in his chapter six, in the year that King Azariah died, and the fortunes of the royal house of David had sunk to the lowest they'd ever been at. It was in the year that King Azariah died, says Isaiah, that I saw the king, high and lifted up. His train filled the temple, and the doorpost of the temple shook. The voice of them that cried, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And Isaiah drew tremendous comfort, as did the people to whom he ministered from that vision, that though Judah's kings were tottering, the purpose of God was going on. The king was already in reserve. His earthly representatives might fail and fall. The thrones of earth seem insecure. But the great king that one day should come of Judah's line was already in reserve. The blessed Son of God. Almighty. In that very message itself is a word for revival, isn't it? And if not for revival, then for continuance in times that are difficult. Have you ever felt that you've preached your heart out and got very little result? Have you ever preached till the congregations, uh, dwindled away to nothing? You say, yes, I have, sir, but that's because I'm a very bad preacher. I understand your feeling. When I, uh, God commissioned Isaiah to preach, God told Isaiah bluntly, Isaiah, you will find that when you've done your preaching over your long years, there will be less believers than there were before. I want you to go and preach, he said to Isaiah, until the peop- the land be emptied of its people. Scarce any left. Now, if I were going to choose to be a, a preacher, I think I should choose to be a famous evangelist, wouldn't you? Anybody with his sense would. Great crowds coming, vast success. Want to be an Isaiah, would you? Or preaching to diminishing congregations. I tell you what, that same Isaiah wrote a gospel tract. Do you know it's led millions to Christ? But he wrote, so we are told, Isaiah fifty three, and all the myriads that have been brought to faith in God by that faithful prophet. He wrote Isaiah chapter forty, and countless thousands of believers, wearied with the journey, have been lifted to the very skies by the lovely words that Isaiah wrote. Here then the secret of keeping going when times are difficult. The vision that Isaiah had looking behind the scenes to the great purposes of God that shall be fulfilled, and no power on earth or hell shall prevent them. So much then for the kings that were the background, so to speak, and the circumstances of this time in Judah, the time when the revival under Joash took place. But I must trouble you to consider the background just a little bit more, because we have been dealing with the men. And that's left the more important half of the world out, hasn't it? So now let's think about the background of the women just for a moment. And I regret to have to tell you that as far as the women are concerned, the backgrounds of this revival were two of the wickedest women that the Old Testament knows about. We better consider them. First of all, this colorful Jezebel, and you will not need me to relate all the details about Jezebel's inglorious career. Jezebel, very name is a synonym for sin, isn't it? It was Jezebel, if you please, that having married Ahab, introduced the worship of Baal to Israel and took them into apostasy from God. Jezebel. It was Jezebel, you may remember, that used the power of the throne in order to get Nabal foully murdered. You may remember the story. Ahab went in for gardening. Well, you've got to do something if you're a king and have got a lot of spare time, haven't you? So at one stage, having been much interested in horses, now he turned to do a little bit of gardening, and he wanted a bit of extra land to put his, uh, his, uh, greenhouse on or something, you see. And, uh, it so happened that by the palace there was this man Naboth who had a bit of ground, and Ahab went along to see if he could buy the ground off Naboth, you see. And Naboth, to his surprise, said no. It was his family inheritance, and he wasn't going to sell it. And, uh, Ahab said, oh, but come man, I mean, I'll give you any price you like to ask for it. And to Ahab's amazement, uh, the man wasn't interested in money. Ahab couldn't make head and a tail of him. He wasn't just interested in money. Something about being the inheritance, his God-given inheritance, and that was worth more to him than money. And Ahab was so upset, he went home, and that put him off his lunch, and he lay down on his bed and began to drivel just a little bit and sob, you know, when in came Jezebel. What's wrong with you? Hm, that man Naboth won't sell me his. Oh, come off it, you said, you weakling, you Ahab. Leave him to me, I'll settle him. Settle him she did. She got the leading judges of the land. She paid a few false witnesses. She stayed a mock, staged a mock trial. And innocent Naboth went to his death through Jezebel for the sake of a little bit of gardening. And you perceive, don't you, who wore the trousers, if you will allow me that vulgar phrase, who wore the trousers in Ahab's house? Ahab might have been king. He might have worn a crown, but the beha- power behind that throne was Jezebel. Jezebel it was that didn't like the look of Elijah and less still the sound of his gospel preaching and vowed to have his head off. It was from Jezebel that Elijah, if you please, ran away. Some woman from whom an Elijah would run away. Hmm. And I tell you about her because the great King Jehoshaphat of Judah, good man though he was, unfortunately got muddled up with Ahab and Jezebel. Was too often to be found at their dinner table. And as you might expect, his son went and married a relative of Ahab. Married, in fact, a woman by the name of Athaliah. She was a granddaughter of Ahab's father, granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel. Well, of course, then she married, uh, Josaphat's son, so she became, if you please, queen in Judah, married to the king of Judah. And you may feel a sort of an uneasy feeling in your stomach when you hear that, uh, observing the stable out of which Athaliah came. Well, things went not so badly so long as her husband was king, then he died and her son became king. I dare say she had him tied to her apron strings, I don't know. Then her son, getting mixed up with the aforesaid wicked house of Ahab, himself got executed, and when Athaliah saw that her son was executed, Athaliah rose up and she killed all the royal princes to a man. The royal princes, that is, of Of Judah. Judah. So whatever did she do that for? What do you think she did it for? Simply... so she could be queen herself. Here too, you see, she had been wife of the king and queen in that sense. While her son lasted, though she was the queen mother, I suspect she did, uh, he did most what she said. But now her son was dead, the danger was that another king coming, you know what the young folks are, don't you? Well, perhaps you don't, uh, but you know what the old folks think the young folks are like. And perhaps the grandson that became king wouldn't do altogether what uh Athaliah might necessarily ask. She knew a way of stopping that. And when her own son, the king was dead, she rose up and slaughtered every royal prince she could lay her hands on, and Athaliah ruled over the land. And tonight we have to think about a queen who wasn't content to be queen, but insisted on being king. Oh, she wasn't like our gracious majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She's queen in her own right, isn't she? Through descent from the House of Windsor. Athalia had no right to the throne. She wasn't a descendant of David. She had simply married into the family. And when her husband died, hers by right to retire gracefully as queen mother, so that the line of the king might go on through the male descendants of the House of David. But she wasn't in any mood to retire. Queen, she wasn't content to be queen. She insisted on being king in her own right. That was what eventually raised the issue over which this revival turned. Who is the rightful king? Two women then, Jezebel and Athaliah, form the background scene of this particular revival. You say, Mr. Preacher, you're laying it on thick and heavy on the women folks tonight. I mean, they're not all like that, are they? No, I should hope not. And I am delighted to be able to remind you that after many years, when all this trouble had been going on in the house of Judah, Isaiah again was eventually inspired to utter another of his delightful prophecies. Said he to Ahaz, descendant of this crowd, ah, the virgin, said he, shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. Oh, what a delightful contrast. The two queens, one of Israel, one of Judah. And what would they have done to the infant Christ could they have got their hands on him? They'd have murdered him in cold blood. Women who determined to be king. And like Herod, when he heard that there was born in the city of David a savior, which is Jesus the Christ, born to be king, tried to find out where he was born for the sole reason of intending to slaughter him so that he himself might remain king. Here's Athaliah murdering all the seed royal, and had she succeeded in murdering every one of them, would have brought to an end the line that God had determined should eventually bring in the Lord Jesus into our world. Wicked woman. And with what relief do we turn to consider the Virgin? We rightly call her Blessed, don't we? The Blessed Virgin Mary. The woman that God used to bring in the king. Oh, what a delightful, humble soul. You women folks will know exactly, perhaps, how she felt when the angel appeared to her and first told her of the mission that God was going to give to her to bring in Jesus the Savior, God's king. Glorious the office, and yet what a difficult one to bear it was. How shall I do it, she said. I have no husband. Called upon to be the Virgin Mother of our Lord, she instinctively perceived the years of misunderstanding, the years of slander and whisperings that the whole thing would involve. You know what Joseph felt, don't you, when he first heard the story from Mary, just point blank refused to believe her anyway, and was going to put her away. It took an angel to convince Joseph that Mary's story was true. And while, of course, Joseph have believed, there were precious others who believed, not in our Lord's lifetime. We remember, for instance, that our Lord was talking in Jerusalem, if you please, at one stage to the Pharisees, and when the conversation got a little bit heated, they turned round on him, and very nastily they said, you know, we weren't born of fornication, implying he was. Mary, the Blessed Virgin, perceived it as soon as the angel told her what her duty was. This meant years of misunderstanding and public reproach. Until her son was vindicated by rising from the dead. And yet, and yet, asked to be the virgin mother of the king, humbly she replied, be it done unto me according to thy word. When she came at last to the wedding of Cana of Galilee, and the people told her that the wine had run out, she said to them, didn't she? Whatsoever he says, you do that. Come, my dear sisters, think for a moment of these three women. There's Jezebel and Athaliah on the one side, determined to rule and be king and have their own way. And there's a blessed virgin on the other. Who do you admire better? Do you admire those brazen types? Forceful women's lib? Jezebel and Athaliah? Or do you admire in your heart the gracious, blessed, meek, pure, holy Virgin, Mary, mother of our Lord? I know surely which one you admire and would like to be like. But I talk to the men as well, you know, we've got to look at our own hearts, haven't we? Not so sure, but what there's a little bit of the Athaliah in every man, you know. In every one of us. We do like to be king, don't we? If not of other folks, yet of our own life. That was our trouble before we got converted, wasn't it? Rebels against God. Determined in polite ways if possible, but if not, nevertheless determined to have our own way and be king of our own lives. Now, by God's grace, we've seen differently, have we not? Have bowed our rebel hearts and knees to accept God's king, to make Christ king. But I guarantee there's not a believer here, but what has found that even since those days, every now and again, something very much like, uh, Athaliah raises her head and voice in our hearts. Hey, what? And we find a command of scripture that we don't particularly like, and oh! We know where we are. The old Athalia inside us is for murdering that and getting rid of that and having our own own way. way. And so it came about that the issue at this particular revival was who was the true king. If we are to know God's blessing and his reviving power, we shall, of course, have to face that issue practically in our own lives, shall we not? Who is going to be king? How did it all happen? I can tell you the story briefly. I must rely upon your imagination and God's spirit to make it real to you. Did I say that Athaliah murdered all the royal princes? Then I was wrong. She murdered them all, except one. There was one little chap by the name of Joash, and his aunt, good soul, managed to steal him away at great personal risk of herself and his nurse, and for six long years, the little fellow was hid in a room in the house of the Lord. While Athaliah, that imposter, reigned, came the day when the high priest, who was in the know, decided to let others into his confidence. I'd love to imagine that scene. Quietly, old Jehoiada, the high priest, got along the captains of the army that he could trust. And first of all, he put them on oath because it was a very dangerous thing. He wasn't going to show them the king until he was absolutely sure they they were on oath, and they wouldn't betray him, nor the young king. And when he had got them on oath that they wouldn't betray the secret, then he opened the doors, and to their astonished eyes, he showed them the king. Oh, I wish I could do it. I pray God by his spirit will do it for you just now. This world murdered Jesus Christ, our Lord, the virgin son. In derision, they nailed the title to his cross. This is Jesus the king, and they laughed at him. They thought they saw the end of him when he was laid in the tomb. Ah, but on that day of Pentecost, Peter, inspired of the Spirit, drew the door open, didn't he, a little bit? And he showed them the king. In vain, said he on that subsequent occasion. In vain did the kings of the earth set themselves with the high priests against thine anointed, saying, let us cast their bands from us. God hath made this same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Have you seen the king recently, my brother, my sister? Not dead, you know. World may think he's dead and done for, and they who are in the know see him at the right hand of God. I'll tell you something more wonderful. That same Jesus will one day come to his coronation. Oh, what a day it shall be when the king, the only potentate, king of kings and lord of lords, the Father himself, shall draw heaven aside, and he shall show this world the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It was embarrassing for Athaliah, wasn't it? Well, it was more than embarrassing. She came down to see what all the fuss is about. Nobody'd ever rejoiced quite like this before. She couldn't understand people's hearts being so full of joy. She came down to see they were having a special meeting, revival meeting or something, sounded perilously like a revival meeting or something going on in the temple. I don't think Athaliah was too keen on revival meetings, but she, a palace was nearby, and she came down to see it all, and to her amazement, there stood the king by the pillar, and not the innocent infant she thought, but with the serried ranks of the captains of the guard, all with their swords guarding the king. And it spelled death to the imposter. Must have been a bit embarrassing for the men that were Athaliah's ministers, wasn't it? They'd have a lot of explaining to do. I tell me, if God staged the appearing of our blessed Lord tonight, where would you be standing? Fairly and squarely on the side of the king? Or would you be found compromised with the athaliers of this world. How stands my heart? How stands yours, brother and sister? Absolutely loyal to the coming king. Or toying with the suggestions of disobedience that sometimes play in our minds and hearts. Athaliah was executed. Then the high priest brought king and people together, and before God they made a couple of covenants. They made a covenant between God on the one side, the king and the people on the other, that they would be the Lord's people. And then they made a covenant between the people and the king, that the people should be loyal to the true king. Tomorrow, if we live to see tomorrow, there shall some people be gathered in this hall. And what they will be doing is to celebrate a covenant between them and the king. That's what it will mean. They'll do a lot of other things. They'll sing hymns, they'll pray, they'll thank- give thanks. At the heart of what they do is a covenant ceremony. They shall take bread, they shall take a cup of wine. This is not the first time they've done it. What they are doing is to remember the great covenant that our blessed Lord has made with his people. This is the blood of the new covenant, says he. In my blood, which is shed for many, they shall be renewing their loyalty to the king mean? It's all right for you, Mr. Preacher, you say, to get excited standing up on that platform and, uh, waxing a bit emotional, but when it comes down to brass tacks, what does loyalty to the king mean? At first sight, that meant a very curious thing. The first thing that Jehoash did when he had got old enough to have any plans in his head was this. Call for the high priest. He said, my good man, I have observed, now that I'm grown up, that the Lord's house, you know, I was hidden in it upstairs there for a long while in one of the rooms. I know this place. I've observed, Jehoiada, old chap, he said. There's a lot of breaches round this house of the Lord here. Oh no, it's knocked out. Hole in the wall there. And what's happened to this bit of timber here, you know, it's been broken and been mended for years and years. Now, Jehoiada, he says, I want you to do this. And it was the king speaking now. So I want you to take money of the people. And I want you, Jehoiada, to make yourself responsible, you and your fellow priests. I want all the breaches in the house of the Lord repaired. That's number one. You say that was a funny thing. Why didn't he start revising the army or something, and order a few, uh, nuclear missiles and other such things, submachine guns. Ha. But then he was a sensible king. He knew right well that the people would obey him as long as they first obeyed God. And if they were loyal to God, then he was God's king, and if the people were loyal to God, they would be loyal to him if they lost that sense of loyalty to God, well, any day they liked, they would kick the king out of the window. But when he became king, he set about getting the people loyal to God and rebuilding and repairing the breaches in the house of the Lord. God has a house today, has he not? Only unlike the house in Joash's day, it ain't made of wood and cement or gold or silver. The house of the living God, the church of the living God is made up of people, isn't it? And all believers are members of the house of God, wherever they are, and at any time of day or night. It's a spiritual house. As you'll become more conscious of it when Christian folks meet together publicly in church. There too you'll find an expression of a house of God. Tell me, you've been around the house of God now, you believer, some years, haven't you, here and there, and around the various nooks and crannies of the house of the Lord. Noticed any breaches in the house of the Lord recently? Because if you have, then loyalty to the king will demand repairing the breaches in the house of the Lord. You better collect some money, said Joash. It's going to cost, said Jehoiada. All right, said Joash, it's going to cost. How's it going to cost. Who gets money then? Where from? Well, he said, to start with, joy, old chap, you can take the census money, can't you? What, what, what's that? Well, do you know Exodus thirty, my good man, where God commanded that everybody that is, uh, listed in the census, when the census of the nation is taken, everybody must give a ransom for his soul. And long since we who live in this age have been accustomed to seeing, haven't we, in that ancient rite, the silver cost of Of redemption. redemption. We are told that we're not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, and frankly, you are not your own, you have been bought with a price. If there's work and devotion, zeal and obedience needed? It's been paid for, my brother, hasn't it? Hasn't Christ bought it? Let's come a moment, shall we, to that letter in the New Testament. That tells us about this covenant arrangement between Christ and his people. You know the letter I speak of, don't you? It's one Corinthians, anybody would know that. Where in its chapter eleven, it reminds us of our Christian duty to come to take bread and wine and celebrate the new covenant, sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's think of that. Why, you'll remember now, won't you, that Paul tells us in that letter and in chapter three that when it comes to the church of God, Paul has laid the foundation, but we are required to, to build thereon. We can build properly with, uh, gold, silver, and precious stone, or we can put in shoddy work. The day shall declare it. When the Lord Jesus will come and personally e- e- inspect every little bit of work that I have done for him. Oh, what about those breaches before he comes? Well, there was one very big breach in Corinth, wasn't there? They had started calling themselves by curious names. And one lot was saying, I am of Paul, and another lot was saying, I am of Apollos, and a third lot saying, I am of Cephas. What's wrong with that, you say? What's wrong with it? Come, come, says Paul, what do you think you at, you are at? Tell me, you who say I am of Paul, I'm of Apollos. Was Paul crucified for you? This is a serious matter, isn't it? It is a question of who is the king? Who is it that has a right to your loyalty? You'd think, uh, I was someone special, wouldn't you, if I were invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Well, I haven't been, and I'm not likely to be. But suppose the day came, and I was invited to this garden party. And suppose, just you suppose the impossibility, that I was presented to the Queen. He says, hello, my man. Who are you? I say, I'm Gooding. I say, you know, it is most interesting to meet you, Your Majesty. So you're Queen Elizabeth, really? You know, you look what like what you look on the newspapers, yes. And who are you? Well, actually, myself, I'm a follower of Margaret Thatcher. Excuse me. Who is Margaret Thatcher? You don't mention Margaret Thatcher in the same breath as the Queen. Margaret Thatcher, good soul, anybody knows, but uh, all she is is Prime Minister, that's all. You don't own any loyalty to the, to the Margaret Thatcher. Not the Queen, you know. Ah, it'd be funny, wouldn't it, if I happened to be fiddling with a half crown or two in my pocket and drew it out, and instead of on the half crown, Queen Elizabeth's head, that was Margaret Thatcher's head. He might whisk me off to jail, you know, the Queen might. Treason is an exceedingly serious thing. Okay, yes, because Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister. If Parliament passes the law she likes, I shall have to keep them. I must ever retain in my head the difference between Margaret Thatcher, Jim Callaghan, and all that crowd, and the Queen. And the great king is coming. Won't do when we meet him to find that we've taken somebody else's name, however good that person is. And 'tis a breach in the house of the Lord, isn't it? When we start calling ourselves by other names than that of our blessed Lord. Do you know, when Paul comes to describe that covenant ceremony, which is the Lord's Supper, he reminds us it was on the night when the Lord Jesus was betrayed That he took bread. Why remind them of that, you say? For they're all believers in Corinth. You're not suggesting, are you, that any one of those believers was a traitor like Judas? Of course I'm not. No believer is a Judas. But I remind you that this good king Joash, who set about repairing the house of the Lord, was one day assassinated by his own servants. Look, says Paul, when you come to the Lord's Supper, you'll examine yourself, won't you? And you'll get right with the Lord if you have to, you'll confess your sin. And you'll ask the Lord to show you anything wrong in your life so that it could be put right. Because if we drink that cup of the Lord unworthily, you know, living any old how higgledy piggledy, allowing sin in our life, unrepented of, and I come to the Lord's Supper, that's to be guilty of the body and blood of Christ. To be carrying on with the sin that brought him to his death at Calvary and not repent of it. That is to be guilty of the death of Christ.