God Can Reverse It! | Jentezen Franklin

0:25 Let's go right into the service. Record it at Free Chapel. I believe it's going to bless you today. Look with me in 2 Kings chapter 20. And in those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. then he turned his face toward the wall and he prayed to the lord saying remember me oh lord i tell you it matters how you live your life because there may come a moment where you need to be able to say lord just remember i loved your house i loved you i wasn't a perfect person but my heart my heart was after you watch what he prays his life's on the line he's been given a death sentence. And he says, remember now, Lord, I pray how I walk before you in truth with a loyal heart and have done what was good in your sight. And Hezekiah went bitterly and it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying, return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, that says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days 15 years, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant, David. Then Isaiah said, and this is so important.

2:14 Then Isaiah said, take a lump of figs. So they took it and put it on the bowl and he recovered. Infection had broken out. We would call it septic. And he, his whole body, he was dying. There's no question. It was very severe. I love this. This is so, this is, this is a faith builder for somebody who may be facing something and you're going through treatment right now. God could have done the miracle that he was going to do without any medicine. But God said, I'm going to use medicine. He told the prophet. That's pretty spiritual when God tells a prophet, use figs on that bowl and I'll heal it. So don't think that you're not using faith if you use doctors. Thank God for doctors and people who can help us.

3:09 God can do it all by himself, but he chooses to use ways and means. And whatever you do, mix it with faith and know that ultimately the great physician is Jesus. And he can do it anyway. We sing a song in the church. You can bless me any way you want to. I just want to be blessed. Amen. And so he laid that on him. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, what is the sign that the Lord will heal me? that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day. And Isaiah said, this shall be a sign to you from the Lord. The Lord would do this thing which he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward 10 degrees or backward 10 degrees? And Hezekiah answered, it's easy thing for the shadow to go down 10 degrees. It's easier for it to go forward is what he's saying, but let the shadow go backward 10 degrees.

4:04 And you understand in order for that to happen, God had to stop the whole universe and reverse it. 10 degrees. And I love that he let Isaiah or Hezekiah decide, I can do it forward or I can speed time up or I can take time back. That's how bad our God is right there. Telling you, all powerful.

4:31 And he said, the harder one would be for him to turn the shadow backward 10 degrees. So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord and brought the shadow 10 degrees backward by which it had gone down, notice this, on the sundial of Ahaz, on the sundial. They knew that God had turned the sundial was how the ancient way of how they would tell the time and God turned it back 10 degrees. Hezekiah said, how will I know? how will I know give me a sign and God said I can reverse it I want to preach today on God can reverse it let it go backward 10 degrees I'll reverse time I'll go back in time and I'll do a healing for you, Hezekiah. Hezekiah was sick unto death. That means he was going to die.

5:33 And he was in the house in his bed. He was not doing well. And it was in that moment after the prophet told him, set your house in order. You're going to die, which means get everything ready. Make sure your heir is ready to take over. And the problem was he had no sons. he was childless he had no sons to take the throne and hezekiah when he walked out began to weep he was broken he was desperate and the scripture said in the middle of the courtyard the spirit of god spoke to isaiah the prophet and said turn around and go back and tell the king to put figs on the wound and I will heal them. I will get the infection, this disease that has taken over his body completely and infected every part of him.

6:35 And I'll turn the sundial of Ahaz. Ahaz was Hezekiah's father. This is very important. it. I'll turn the sundial back 10 degrees and I'll give him the only time in the Bible God ever tells someone how long they'll live. This is it. He said, I'll give him 15 more years. it's interesting that the sundial was used by God was Ahaz's sundial.

7:09 The sundial out in the garden that he had brought home, many of the commentaries believe that it would have come from Assyria, from a campaign that he had led the army of Israel on to attack the Assyrians and they would bring home trophies. And one time they did not have this according to the commentaries. They did not have these sundials in Israel. It was not a part of their culture, or maybe they just didn't know about it. They didn't have the, you know, ways of communicate inventions and things. But when he was so amazed by it, this man named Ahaz, who was Hezekiah's father was so amazed that he could tell time by the shadow that he brought one back and put it in the garden of his palace. And now the son is dying and God says, I want you to look out the window because I'm going to use the symbol that Ahaz brought from the world back into this place.

8:11 I'm going to use it as a testimony to you and this family for the rest of your life that I can reverse time and I can do things that no one can do. You see, I want you to understand that as critical and as bad, he was in the last hours of his life when that man came back and said, you're going to live. God can still turn the clock back. I want to preach real bold that where there is life, there is hope that God can turn your health around. God can turn your marriage around. God can turn your family around. God can turn your addiction around. God can turn your finances around. It's interesting that God would use this. Ahaz was a very, very wicked king.

9:13 I don't have time to show you every verse. They can follow me, but I'm going to tell you about him for just a moment. The father of this man that would receive this healing was as wicked as they come. The scripture said he was very wicked. He worshiped false idols in every green field. He sacrificed the babies on altars to demon gods. He made his own sons to pass through the fire in human sacrifice. This King of Israel became so vile and so wicked. The Bible said he consulted with witches and he dealt in witchcraft and the occult. It says all of this when you read of Ahaz. Ahaz was very interested in the occult. He was very interested in the religions that of the areas that he would conquer, he would bring back all of their idols and all of their forms of worship, including human sacrifice. He picked it up in the Assyrian culture of offering children, and he brought it back to his nation. It's really astounding that Ahaz would fall so far and take the nation so far. And the Bible said when he went to Assyria to capture that he noticed in one of their pagan temples that they had this beautiful altar. It was spectacular. It was made of brass and gold and he loved it. It didn't look like the old altar that had been passed down from generation to generation from Moses' tabernacle to where it was in Israel. And he compared it and he said, I don't want that old altar. It's old fashioned. It's outdated. This thing is beautiful. This altar is a great altar. Maybe they can throw that verse up. He said,

11:23 it's a great new altar and I'm going to take the old altar out of the temple and I'm going to put a beautiful, big, showy, gorgeous, big, flashy altar for all the people to see. And we will offer blood of animals to their gods and all gods that we want to worship. Can you understand how how backwards this was. He put in the church, he took the old altar out. He took it away. He wanted to replace the old altar. I just want to preach for a moment that there's nothing bigger and there's nothing better. There's nothing cuter that can replace the altar. I don't care about how new modern church says we don't need that anymore, that we can just sit on a stool and talk a little bit and then everybody leave. I still believe, and as long as I'm pastor of this church, we're going to have an altar. And I still believe in altar calls.

12:37 I said I still believe in altar calls. I still believe that you need to call people forward. I still believe that after you hear a message you ought to get out of that seat if it's speaking to you and God is really dealing with you and humble yourself and come to the altar. I still believe that at the altar, I believe in altar calls. I believe in old-fashioned conviction. Hallelujah. I believe in seeing men break down in wheat, big old muscle tattooed men get in the presence of God and it melts their pride and they get up and they step out in an aisle and they say, I'm not the man I want to be. God, would you change me? I tell you, we don't need a new flashy church to present to people to make it sensitive for them.

13:37 We need an old-fashioned altar of repentance where we can come, and if you messed up, come in tears. Come in the mourner's bench, they used to call it, weeping and repenting, and God will not turn you away. I don't want anything cuter than repentance. Amen. I want godly sorrow and tears. I want old-fashioned conviction. We must not replace the altar. I tell you, I'm glad in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, as a teenager, something got a hold of me in that little bitty church in North Rocky Mount. I tell you I was sitting back And I was running with my friends And I was doing things my parents didn't know nothing about But I tell you that Sunday night Something got a hold of me And I heard a voice inside of my head say Get up right now I said Lord It's not the preacher's altar call God said this is it If you don't get up and walk down that aisle I'm going to pass you by And I felt myself trembling and I stood up, my friends looked at me and I walked down that aisle in the middle of that song.

15:00 Oh, hallelujah. I walked down to the altar and I gave my heart to Jesus and I've never looked back. Oh, somebody shout with me about an altar of repentance. Repent. If you've been, if you've been, we need that repentance. Repentance washes you. It cleanses you. It makes you new again.

15:24 Things have been going on in this congregation. At all of our campuses, things have been going on. But if you'll come to the altar, he'll cleanse your mind. He'll cleanse your eyes. He'll cleanse your ears. He'll cleanse your tongue. He'll cleanse your wicked heart. He'll save you. It's not too late. He can keep you from falling. You don't have to go back to drugs or alcohol, but you will have to have an altar of repentance. and you need to keep coming back to it. I believe in altar calls. I believe in laying hands. We need more than one Palm Sunday a year. Here's a Palm Sunday. Come down here and let me lay hands on you and we can get that attitude straightened out. Oh, come on. You know I'm preaching the truth. We need, we need the altar. The altar can stop the fussing and fighting.

16:19 The altar can cause people to hug necks again and say, I love you, forgive me. We need the altar. But oh, he wanted to modernize their worship and he did away with the altar. Did away with the altar calls and then he did something that's unbelievable. Ahaz, this wicked man. The Bible said the next thing, once you went past the altar, now he's got a big flashy thing that's nothing.

16:48 And then you would come to the brazen laver and the brazen laver was a long pool of water and it was highly exalted and raised up. And the Bible said in second Kings 16 that he wanted to lower. He said, I want you to, I want you to lower, take the panels off of the lavers. And he took down the sea from the bronze. That's this big, it's where the priest would wash. And the sea is a type of water baptism under the new covenant in the new Testament. And he put it on the pavement. It was way up here, but he lowered the baptism tank. It's not that big of a deal. It's not that important. Just kind of pick it like an option on the car.

17:42 You're saved through the blood of Jesus. And don't worry. Let's take that water baptism thing down. I'm sorry. There is no sprinkling of anybody in the Bible. None. John the Baptist baptized in water. Jesus Christ baptized in water. All the apostles baptized in water. And if your pride is saying just take that down, I don't think that's that important. That's your opinion. You're going to go with your opinion or God's opinion. Because God said, once you get saved, I command you to get in that tank in front of the same world. You used to back it up. You used to shout. You used to party. I want you to get up and not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus. Tell your friends. Tell your ex. Tell your haters.

18:35 Tell everybody who monks and makes fun. I have died. The old man is buried and I am a new creation in Christ. Somebody shout if you believe there's power in water baptism. Hallelujah. Sins are washed away. Jesus said you must be born again by the Spirit and the water.

19:07 So if you're too big and too smart to be baptized in water, I'm just going to call my friend over and we'll do it in my swimming pool. Well, I'm not saying you can't if that's all you got. that'll do. But it's not something that's not reverenced and it's not something that's not holy. And it's not something that's just some kind of stupid ritual. This is a commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we live in a generation that has lowered the baptism tank and hundreds and hundreds of people sit in a congregation and they have never obeyed the commandment of Jesus Christ and the example. He was the lamb of God. And he said to John, I want you to baptize me. Hallelujah.

20:03 what can wash away my sins nothing but the blood of jesus what can wash wash wash wash wash you know what is beautiful about coming to a church service like this because why i'm preaching the word the bible said that ye are cleansed by the washing of the word so i don't care what kind of filth you got in this week while i'm preaching the water's hitting you and washing you and cleansing you. Something in you is turning away from evil and turning away from that which is ungodly and turning it away. The idea of the world says minimize that tank and obedience to God and minimize that old altar. You don't need it anymore. You're too educated for that altar. You can figure out your own way. But God says, come back to the altar and come back and be baptized in obedience. Yes.

20:58 Hallelujah. And you came in. That's why you feel better when you come to church. You come to church and you take a shower. Don't you feel if you've been out in the yard or been out and, you know, now you've been out riding around in the farm or something. And you just feel your dirt's all over you. And you get a shower. Oh, it feels so good. That's what church does for you. They're singing the word. I'm preaching the word. We're praying the word. And if you'll let it, it'll clean you up. I'm so glad I'm clean. I'm so glad I'm clean. I'm so glad I don't have a guilty conscience. I'm so glad I still love this book. I'm so glad at 63, I love him just as much as I did at 23. I'm so glad I've been washed.

21:53 I've been cleansed. And I have to do it over and over and over. And sometimes I get weak. and I fail, but I go back to the altar and I pick up this old book and I say, wash me. Wash my mind. Wash my heart. Wash me. Woo, this feels good to be clean.

22:16 And then he did one more thing. The scripture said, and this is a strange thing unless you understand its meaning, that Ahaz removed the covering. Also, he covered the Sabbath pavilion. No, somebody didn't put up the right translation. That's correct. I don't know who did that, but that was wrong. He removed the Sabbath pavilion. he removed the Sabbath. One translation said covering, covering. What is that? I mean, he goes and he sees other temples and he says, we have this covering. It's called the Sabbath covering. Sabbath means rest. What is that in reference to? I believe he changed the altar.

23:17 He changed the importance of baptism and cleansing, the washing of the water, of the word. And then he wanted to remove the covering of peace and rest. I believe that speaks of the Holy Ghost. The baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Bible said that Jesus said go tarry in the upper room until you're endued with power from on high. And Jesus himself was filled with the Holy Spirit. And all the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were in the upper room and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Mary the mother of Jesus, your Bible said, was in that upper room.

24:10 She was there and she was filled with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave them the utterance. And it became a Sabbath. It became a rest. How do you know that the Holy Spirit is associated with rest and peace? Because the Scripture said, Jesus said in John 16 and in John 14, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He shall lead you and guide you and show you all things. And then He says, and I will pray to the Father and He will send you another comforter. And this spake he of the Holy Spirit, the baptism, the living water. Hallelujah. He was talking about the Holy Spirit, but maybe the most telling scripture is found hundreds of years before the day of Pentecost in Isaiah chapter 28. And it says this.

25:02 It says, and this shall be, Isaiah 28, this shall be a refreshing. Isaiah 28, this shall be a refreshing unto you. with stammering lips. Thank you, Holy Ghost. With stammering lips and an unknown tongue, saith God, will I speak to my people? Isn't that amazing? With stammering lips and an unknown tongue, will I speak to my people? And the next part says, and this shall be a rest, which you may, What was the Sabbath covering? A rest. This shall be a rest for them that are weary to rest. This is the refreshing. I just want to preach to you this morning that there is a place in God that if you have not experienced, the enemy wants to do away with it.

25:56 But there is nothing like the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the joy that he brings, the rest that he brings, the peace that he brings. with stammering. Listen to the graphic description. You'll know it's hit you with stammering lips and an unknown tongue. I will speak unto my people, fulfilling that prophecy in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost. And it's available to us on this day. But the enemy wants to minimize that. I just want to say that the Holy Spirit is the comforter. I just want to say that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. I just want to say the Holy Ghost is the baptism of fire. I just want to say the Holy Ghost is the mighty rushing wind. Let me tell you something. He uses wind and fire to describe the Holy Spirit. Wind and fire. Wind, man, write this down. This is good. Thank you, Lord. Wind rearranges things.

27:02 Fire changes things. Some things in your life need to be completely changed. They don't need to be like they are. They need to be melted down. Fire changes things. Wind, if it gets a hold of your deck chairs out there, it'll rearrange things. And sometimes you need the wind to rearrange things. And sometimes you need the fire to change things. But oh, I tell you, when he comes, he'll come like wind and he'll come like fire. Woo, hallelujah. And I'm hungry for it on this Sunday morning. Somebody, a hundred people who've been filled with the Holy Ghost, get up on your feet and say, change me and rearrange anything in me that you want to rearrange.

27:49 Come on, clap your hands and say, we need it. We need the altar. We need the obedience of the washing of the word and we need the Holy Ghost. All right, sit down. I'm almost done. I just get into the best part now and I'm gonna be done in two minutes, but this is the meat of the message right here. when Ahaz died that was the condition of the church but here comes Hezekiah his son he should have fallen in the steps of a wicked wicked wicked father he had watched his dad consult with witches and the cult and set it all up he had watched his dead, praying to demons as he sacrificed his own sons, his own brothers, Hezekiah's own brothers. and hezekiah comes and he turns fully himself to god that's why he could say remember what i did for your house remember how the doors were closed and i opened it up remember how i took that gaudy ungodly showy altar out and i put the old altar of sacrifice and i instituted the sacrifices again. And we lifted back up the water tank again. And hey, we put the covering back in place of the Sabbath. He said, I'm going to break down every idol.

29:29 He tore that nation's idols down, every one of them. And what is amazing, what is amazing. is he said, God, what will be the sign? that you're going to heal me and give me 15 more years. And God said, I want you to go get one of those trophies from the world that your wicked, evil father calls it the, calls it the. the table of Ahaz, the sundial of Ahaz. It's important that you put his name on it because I know what he did in his time devastated your family, But I'm the God who can turn time back.

30:35 I'm the God who can go back and I will, Joel 2 said, I will restore the years. The locust and the canker worm and the palmer worm have eaten up. addiction in your family has eaten up years of a happy home years some of you have never known anything but the curse of generation after generation of addiction and pain and absentee and abandonment and divorce and brokenness but God said hey every time you look at Ahaz your wicked wicked wicked father's sundial in the backyard i wanted to testify that i can reverse the curse that i can start a blessing Some of us, all of us, have family history.

31:43 That is embarrassing. God can make that testimony your family's miracle. I just want to preach it like the Lord gave it to me. He said, I can turn back the time that the enemy has stolen alcohol, drugs, hatred, dysfunction, violence, anger, financial curses, generational curses, divorce curse. the testimony for the family will be God turned it back you'll become and you'll have a family miracle.

32:33 God's able to break every curse, every bondage, every addiction. Your dad's sundown will testify of what I did to restore the years. I gave you 15 more years. And I love what the text said that I read. in the book of Isaiah, it says this. It says in verse 18 of Isaiah 38,

33:05 hell cannot praise you. Death cannot praise you. This is Hezekiah's response after he got healed. The dead cannot praise you. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your truth. Watch this. The living, the living, he says it twice. The living man, he shall praise you as I do this day. You don't understand. Y'all don't, y'all don't, y'all don't, y'all act me like that's no big deal. This is a guy who was given a death sentence. And after he got his miracle, he changed his clothes and went straight to the temple. Three days later, he was completely healed, no infection, put on the best clothes he had, went to the temple, threw up his hands, and he said, the living, we know you're dead if you don't praise the Lord. The living, the living, they can praise you.

34:08 I don't know what the enemy's done to you, but God can reverse it. If you'll find the altar and you'll obey him in obedience to the washing of his word, and you'll be filled with the Holy Ghost and fire, the covering of peace and rest. you can walk out of this place like you've taken a spiritual shower and say I'm clean I'm free I'm healed I'm helped I'm blessed I'm done with the world and what it has to offer I really want to say thank you for joining us this week if you haven't already make sure you click on the subscription button and leave us a review it helps this podcast reach even more people when you comment, when you give us your feedback.

35:07 For more messages and inspirational materials, download the Jensen Franklin app. Or you can head over to jensenfranklin.org. I want to thank all of you who give generously to help us produce weekly content like this to reach the world with the message of Jesus. God bless you, and we'll see you next time.