Lord's drying up the preaching
of his word in this nation. What will I do? What will you do? He commanded us to pray, didn't
he? Let's ask him. Let's ask him. All right. If you will turn to 2 Kings 23,
2 Kings 22. If you have trouble finding it,
it's just to the right of 1 Kings. 2 Kings 22. I preach a whole
lot about Jaylee's middle name. I preach a whole lot about Johanna's
middle name. Josiah ain't got to you yet.
These people don't know why you were named Josiah. I'm gonna
tell them, okay? I knew some young men in this nation, when
they were born, their fathers prayed to the Lord that they
knew that God would use them. They didn't know what they asked. He did. He will. 2 Kings 22 verse
1, Josiah was eight years old. Josiah, do you know what that
word means? Make sure to get a whole bunch
of ups and downs. You don't know, good. I'll tell you. Founded
of the Lord. Josiah means founded of the Lord.
What's that? The foundation that the Lord
sent. Foundation of the Lord. That's what his name means. Josiah
was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 31 years
in Jerusalem. Made it till he's 39 years old.
I got him beat by a few of you. And his mother's name was Jededah,
the daughter of Adi, of Boschath. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David
his father. David wasn't his immediate father,
but he was of the household of David. He walked just like David
did. And turn not aside to the right hand or to the left. He turned not a side, he didn't
go to the right, and he didn't go to the left. What a thought. What a thought. What'd the foundation
of the Lord do? He said, for the Lord God will
help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. I ain't confused
in what I'm doing. What'd he say? Therefore have
I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
He didn't turn to the right hand or to the left hand. Boy, what
I'd give for eight-year-olds that sought the truth of God,
sought Christ, and didn't turn away and didn't get distracted
by junk on the right and junk on the left. This fella's a real
fella, buddy. King Josiah. He was eight years
old and began to reign. A lot of people discount that,
don't they? Well, I mean, he had handlers. Our Lord told us
in Matthew 19. He said, suffer little children
and forbid them not to come unto me for such is the kingdom of
heaven. Don't you discount those children. If you're 80, what's that in
eternity? You ain't that old, are you?
No. There's been 80 and infinite. There's no difference. It's a
vapor. And our Lord said, barely. He said, truly of the truth,
you pay attention to what he's saying. He said, I say unto you,
except you be converted. You've been converted. Have you
been baptized with the Holy ghost? Except you be converted and become
as little children. You shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. This thing of children may be
important, huh? It's a good thing. It's good to encourage them.
Our Lord told us that in Ecclesiastes 12. He said, remember now thy
creator, know who God is in the days of thy youth, when you're
young. What's our responsibility in
that? Our responsibility is to put them under the sound of the
gospel. not buy the right curriculum,
not get the right coloring books, not have our broke uncles come
in and crazy aunts come teach them something. No, it's to put
them ready to sound the gospel. That's where, have I told you
that before? You'd be amazed what them children learn, didn't
I? We quote this, don't we? But we stop short. Oh, how often
we do that. Out of the mouth of babes. That
was on a TV show we saw. Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings hast thou ordained strength. For what? Why did he ordain strength in
the mouth of babes and sucklings? Because of thine enemies. He
made little children say things boldly and plainly that they've
been taught of God to their enemies. Old John Newton said, you want
to know a man? You go talk to his wife and she'll
tell you how he is. That's what a man says. What
did God say? The foes will be those of his
own household. Is that what God said? Who cares what John Newton
said? What God say? He said, out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength,
because of thine enemies, that thou mightest steal, that you
might shut up the enemy. Children, I ask you some things.
Why do you pray every time you eat dinner and say, bless this
to our bodies? You don't pray when you eat ice cream. Oh, boy,
that'll get you. They'll call you out, won't they?
A small child. If God gives a word, if God's
teaching children something, if he teaches an eight-year-old
something, they'll say one minute of truth and 59 minutes of muddying
it up and explaining it away won't undo it. Man can stick
to his doctrine and he can stick to his theology as hard as he
wants, but if God teaches an eight-year-old something, you
can't undo it. His enemies can't undo it. God will sustain them. God's word's been spoken and
it won't return unto him void. It won't do it. Has this happened
other times? Is this just a one-off, this
King Josiah, this one that's the foundation of the Lord? What
about Samuel? Hannah took him to the temple,
didn't she? She said, Lord, I turn him over
to you. He's yours. Do with him as you
will. That sounds churchy until they're on the other side of
the world. That sounds churchy until you're on your deathbed
and that one you love so much is working on the other side
of the continent. Is that right? If they know the Lord, they're
okay with it. It still hurts. They still weep, but they're
all right with it. Samuel was took down there to
the temple. God used him modestly as a prophet. David was a teenager.
Jesse didn't even fetch him. He's out there tending sheep.
He's 16 and a half years old or whatever. Just learn how to
drive. He don't know nothing. Ain't
gonna be no king. Was he king? He was God's king. That's important stuff. What
did our Lord do when he was 12? He said, I must be about my father's
business. Well, not discount these things.
If someone is founded of the Lord, Josiah's name, then as
Paul said, there's no other foundation that man can lay, which is laid.
And it's a person, buddy. You got it right. Jesus Christ. Don't listen to nobody. Don't
turn to the right. Don't turn to the left. The Lord
said you forsake your mother and father and your brother and
sister and you listen to what he says. Somebody heard me this
week. A couple people did. And I'm
thankful. God might still be using me.
I'm thankful. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he asked
a question to a bunch of religious people. He asked a question to
a bunch of people who went to church for a long time. You been
going to church for a long time? Let's ask you that question.
He said, did you never read the scripture, the stone which the
builders rejected, that foundation, that cornerstone? The same has
become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. He's
done that. And it is marvelous in our eyes,
question mark. That same stone, is it marvelous?
Is that foundation that you can't lay, he must lay through the
preaching of the gospel. Is that marvelous to you? Or
we're going to undo it. Young or old, he's the person
of our salvation, and he's marvelous. He's marvelous. That's a good
question to ask him. Is that stone marvelous to you? Are you going to just say, ah,
and go back to church? We're bound to a person, person,
our doctrine of Christ, person of our salvation, salvation of
the Lord. Josiah was prophesied. He's a picture of Christ, just
as Christ was. It says in first Kings 13, and
behold, there came a man of God out of Judah. God sent his prophet
out of Judah by the word of the Lord under Bethel and Jeroboam
stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar
and the word of the Lord. He said, Oh, altar, altar. Thus
saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born in the house of
David. Josiah by name founded of the Lord. And upon thee shall
he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon
thee. He's talking to the altar, you get that? There's a thing
they burn stuff on, it's a barbecue grill. And he said, hey altar,
altar, Josiah's coming and he's gonna burn them preachers over
there on you. And you're gonna be ash. 40 days. Go there. He's gonna burn it
down. And men's bones shall be burnt
upon thee. That's what the prophet came
to say. God gave him that word. That's what he said. Was there
somebody else that the birth was foretold? To burn some bones
up? To crush some skulls? Crush a
skull. Our Lord's birth was given, wasn't
it? It's so wonderful. He was given a name, too. A child
is born, son's given, right? And his name, his name was given.
Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. In Matthew 1, you go bring forth
a son, you shall call his name Jesus. For he shall save his
people from something. From what they are. Sin. Save
them from their sins. He has a name. And he's gonna
do something. You get that? He's gonna accomplish
something. Just like Josiah, just like men
and women sent up God in this day. God calls them, God equips
them, and they're going to do something. He's going to use
them. If he's got servants, they don't sit idly by. He uses them,
don't they? Servants chosen by God for his
glory, and he makes them profitable. He's a good master. He's a good
master. We love him. Pour my ear through. I'm yours. I ain't going nowhere.
I love my wife, love my children. I love you first. I'm a willing
bond slave. He makes us profitable. A key,
that prophet that came, and talked to the altar. The king there was standing by
listening. He tried to swoon that prophet. Said Josiah's coming,
they're gonna burn up all this wood. We don't want this to come
to an end. We got a good thing going. Oh, remember the good
old days? Oh, remember how much fun we
used to have? Remember how you used to sit
around and talk for hours? Oh, and we talked about the reformers
and we talked about the pure, remember those good old days?
We don't want that to go away. So he took that prophet and he
said, you come by my house. I'm gonna give you a gift. I'm
gonna feed you, and I'm gonna give you, and that just, you
can't swoon a man of God. You met Josiah, you ain't gonna
be able to handle him. Nothing's changed. Go down to
southeast Kentucky, way out in the hills, you're gonna find
a fella down there from Utah named Tom Harding. Swoon him. Can't
be done. Can't be done. He's solid. That king said to the man, he
said, come home with me and refresh yourself. I'll give you a reward.
And that man of God said to the king, if that will give me half
of thine house, you give me half of everything you own, I will
not go with thee. Neither will I eat bread nor
drink water this day. I don't even want a glass of water from
you. Beat it. Well, that ain't like all them smooth talking
preachers I'm used to come by and sip coffee with little old
ladies. We've heard Don say it a thousand times, ain't we? Have
you heard him say that a lot? Is it soaked in once? A preacher's
job ain't meant to go sip tea with little old ladies, is it?
That sounds right, don't it? Now, when you're the little old
lady, we'll get our feelings hurt, because we think we're
somebody, and we ought to, right? Not those. He was on a mission.
That prophet was. Josiah was on a mission. And
this is a true story, just like all the kings made faithful throughout
time, it's a picture of our Lord. That's what it, look over in
chapter 23, verse 35, just a page over. 2 Kings 23, 25. And like
unto him, was there no king before him? that turned to the Lord with
all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might,
according to all the law of Moses, neither after him there arose
there any like him." This is speaking of a man, but it's speaking
of the God-man. Ain't nothing like Christ. He
turned his whole heart, and soul, and might, and everything, and
every jot, and every tittle was fulfilled in the whole law, the
whole word of God. And ain't nothing like him. Not
before, not after. It's a person. He's marvelous. Ain't nothing like him. Ain't
nothing like him. He's mentioned here in 2 Kings.
His story's mentioned over in 2 Chronicles. And it said that
Jeremiah wrote lamentations about him whenever he died. The place
mourned. They had a king God gave, and
they loved him. Those that loved the Lord loved
him. Them other ones, buddy, they hit the ground running.
They tried fighting him. Didn't work out. Well, here in
chapter 22, 2 Kings 22, Josiah's come. In verse 3 through 7, Josiah
was 26 years old. And he sent word to the high
priest to get a financial report. He said, we're going to remodel
and we're going to spruce up the Lord's temple. And there's a
lot to be learned in those verses. There was no accounting of the
money that gave to the tradesmen. They were faithful and men was
working as unto the Lord, but we'll handle that another day.
This is a true story. You put yourself in a story that
that's what we don't want to be spectators. We don't wanna
be spectators to the gospel. We don't want somebody else singing
for us, somebody else praying for us, somebody else reading
for us, and listening for someone else to hear it. We don't wanna
be spectators. You'll die and go to hell doing
that. We want to be engaged in it. We want the Lord to bring
us in and teach us something, don't we? Put ourselves in this. What
would you do? A 26-year-old king says, we're
gonna put new floors and we're gonna paint. Let's just do it the way we've
always been doing it, okay? I want a different accounting.
Can we live through that? I want the books done right.
Well, no, we've always done it this way. He's just a kid. He can't know as much as we know.
He's 26 years old. Lord's gonna use him. Don't matter
what people think. They ain't gonna like him, and
he ain't gonna care. He found old Hilkiah. And he said, you
go do this. And while Hilkiah, they're dusting
out stuff and finding a bunch of junk and shelves and things
stuck way in the back, he comes across something he had never
seen. He'd been a high priest for a long time, and he's never
seen this thing. And he had no interest in it,
and he had no interest in learning from it, so he gave it away.
Look here in verse eight. And Hilkiah, the high priest said
unto Saphon, the scribe, I found a book of the law in the house
of the Lord. Well, that's the books of Moses.
It shares the writing of the Lord. It's got the Psalms with
it. I found this book and it's here in the house of the Lord.
Who knew? Has anything changed? What'd you grow up with? You
grew up in a church where they didn't adhere to the gospel.
They might've had a book. They sure didn't read it. And
they sure didn't learn nothing from it. And they haven't been
taught from it because they don't know God. And here's this high
priest, and he's like, here's some book, what do you do with
it? And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. Hilkiah
didn't even read it, didn't even crack it open. Well, I got a
Bible in my hand. Well, good, read it. Maybe you
ought to open the thing every now and then. And Shaphan, he
goes back to Josiah to report, and he tells him all the important
stuff. How the building's coming along, how the money's doing,
look here in verse nine. And Shaph and the scribe came to
the king and brought the king word again and said, thy servants,
they've gathered the money that was found in the house. They've
delivered to the hand of them that do the work and everything's
going good. And the oversight of the house
of the Lord, construction's going well, paint looks good, concrete's
drying. Oh, by the way, I got a side
note. Now that we got the, we found some old book, verse 10. And Shaph and the scribe showed
the king saying, hell, kind of the priest have to deliver me
a book. And Chaffin read it before the king, because he had read
it. Something happened when he heard. Something happened when
this king heard. What was the verb I said? Heard. Look here in verse 11. And it
came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of
the law, he rent his clothes. He read that and as a sign of
remorse and repentance, he tore his clothes off and cried out
to God. This is real. You get that? We're in a mess. We've offended
a holy God. He was convicted of sin. It's
not just we done bad things. I know people have been convicted
of sin. They don't know God. It's just guilt. That's only
one of the three, isn't it? That's two thirds. Good news
to a new believer. Who we sin against? The righteous
one. Christ is righteousness. It's all he ever is. He's holy.
That's a holy God we offended. And judgment settled, he's finished
the work of salvation. And then once the Lord makes
that sure in your hearts and gives you a foundation, all three
of them are good news. I'm glad I'm a sinner. I know
what I am because God made me so. Holy ghost come to me. Show
me what I am. You ever done that? You ever
just seen your sin that you sinned against the holy God and you
just want to rip your hair out and you couldn't sleep? You watered
your pillow. The bed's too short. The blanket's
too narrow. When we look at ourself and our
piety and our great educated eyes, how horrible we are. You
see him. That's what does it. He ran his
mantle and then he did something. God gave him the faith of Christ
to see what he was, to see who Christ was, to see what Christ
accomplished. He fulfilled the law and it did something. That
faith of Christ did something. Look at verse 12. And the king
commanded, he'll call the priest. and Achaim the son of Saphon,
and Achbor the son of Machiah, and Saphon the scribe, and Ashiah
the servant of the king, saying, Go ye, inquire the Lord for me,
and for the people, and for all of Judah. You get the whole outfit,
and you go pray right now. That's your job, do it. We give
you, that's why you make a big buck. You're on salary, you get
110% Hokai, now get to it. You ain't been praying to the
holy God we offended. You and the whole outfit, go. and you
do it for me, you go pray for me, and you pray for all the
people, and you pray for this whole country. What? Well, what did we pray for this
morning, or earlier? Lord, send somebody to preach
your word. Raise up laborers in this harvest, raise up somebody
to take care of them, if you're pleased. Forgive us, be merciful
to us, show us your promises. Same thing as we always, do you
think he asked for anything different? You go pray, take a whole outfit,
For great is the wrath of the Lord that's kindled against us.
Why? Because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words
of this book. Oh, here's a good fella. They know God. Sure didn't
act like it. Sure didn't know anything about
him. Didn't know nothing about mercy and grace and love and
long-suffering and the blood of Christ towards us while we
were sinners, while we were enemies. Why? I never hated God. You still
do. They've sold us a bill of goods. I bought the bill of goods of
the fathers and I had a faithful father." You get that? I bought
the bill of goods from this old man that's in me. He said, because we sin for our
fathers and not hearken to the words of this book to do according
to all that's written concerning us. Concerning us. Oh boy. What'd they do? The king come
to him. He said, you go pray to God.
Go inquire of him. He gave, is that good instruction?
Cling to the feet of Christ, go to his throne of grace. Is
that good instruction? That's good instruction. What, did they
heed it? No. Look at verse 14. And Hilkiah
the priest, and Achaim, and Abekor, and Shaphan, and Ashi, went unto
hold of the prophetess. Is that the Lord? That's not
the Lord, is it? They didn't do what the king
said. Well, the Lord's faithful. They went to hold of the prophecy
of the wife of Shalem, the son of Tevach, the sons of Haras,
keeper of the wardrobe. Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in
the college. God had, in diverse manners in times past, he spoke
to us by the prophets. He had a prophetess and she's
in the college. That ought to sort things out about women going
to college, ain't it? Ought to be there. Might do them
some good. And they communed with her. And
she said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, tell
the man that sent you to me, tell him this, thus saith the
Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the
inhabitants thereof and all the words of the book which the king
of Judah hath read. because they have forsaken me. What did he say the Holy Spirit's
going to do? Of sin, because they didn't believe on me. They've
forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods that they might
provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore,
my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched.
But to the king of Judah, which sent you to inquire of the Lord,
Thus shall ye say unto him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Josiah, as touching the words that thou have heard, those things
that you've read and you can't keep and we're all going to die
forever because we deserved it. Here's what God says to him.
Because thine heart was tender and because thou has humbled
thyself before the Lord. How'd he get humble? God humbled
him because he heard the word preached no other way. And so. "'cause your heart was tender,
"'you hunted yourself before the Lord. "'When thou heardest
what I spake against this place "'and against the inhabitants
thereof, "'that they should become a desolation and a curse "'and
has rent thy clothes and wept before me, "'I also have heard
thee, saith the Lord.'" That's it. We could end right there. The word was preached. God made
it effectual. We were just, Cry out to him
and get everybody you can find. Let's ask him right now. And
what's his word to those he put a new heart in and he humbled.
He said, I hear you. I heard you. Oh, if I don't give
you goosebumps, nothing will, because you're dead. Your graveyard
dead. He's heard us. Say it for the
Lord. I also have heard thee. Behold,
therefore, I will gather thee into thy fathers. and thou shalt
be gathered in thy grave in peace. You're gonna have some boys,
Josiah, and they're gonna be evil. God said, I'm gonna take
you home and you ain't gonna have to see this evil. I know
some of God's servants that God took home before a bunch of evil
come out the last couple years and before some evil that's coming
down the pike right now. He spared them. They labored
hard, they cut their teeth out there fighting and scrapping
and burning down idols. And the Lord said, you don't
have to do that no more. I'm gonna take you home to your fathers in peace. What's
going to happen? He's raised up other men. My
turn to cut my teeth. Start chopping some stuff down,
rebuke them sharply with all authority, right? Is that what
the word says? If we love them, we will. He
said, I'll gather you and the fathers in the grave into peace,
and I shall not see the evil which I will bring upon this
place. And they brought word, they brought the king word again.
This time they wouldn't come with the finance reports and
how the progress on the building was, was it? God heard you. You told us to go ask him. Well,
we didn't, but he answered anyway. He wanted to. I'll try to go quick. I know
it's too long. 2 Kings 23 verse one. And the king
sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and
of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the
house of the Lord. He got everybody together. We have a church service.
And all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people,
both small and great. This here is the king of the
children, bringing youngins with him. Well, now this is just something
for the grownups. No, it ain't. Well, this is just something
for the men. No, it ain't. Hogwash. Get that out of your
head. The king. Didn't he gather? Didn't our Lord gather a bunch
of people? He called them to himself when he was up on a mountain.
And he's sitting up on that hill, and he gathered everybody, and
he said, blessed is the poor in spirit. And know what he did? He gave some beatitudes. He preached
from those things, didn't he? Look what he says, both small
and great. And he read in their ears in case there was any confusion. That's plain. He read in their
ears all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found
in the house of the Lord. He read every bit of it. We're going to be here for a
minute. In the beginning, God. And go all the way through all
the books of Moses. That was there for a hot minute, wasn't it, buddy? In
the beginning, God. Do what? Oh, the herd. Now, don't stop there. You tell
me a little bit more. Keep going, I wanna see what happened. Then
he heard about Jacob. That's what he was. He stood and he read to him,
didn't he? Verse three, and the king stood by a pillar and made
a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep
his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their
heart and all their soul to perform the words of this covenant that
were written in this book. Lord, the best we understand
this, this is what we're doing. We're gonna do it the way you
say. I will stand by as best I can." And all the people stood
to the covenant. Everybody around him said, us
too. There was a public confession and there was a public commitment.
That's what that was. What? Well. Josiah then cleans the Lord's
house, verse four. And the king commanded Hilkiah
the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers
of the door to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all
the vessels that were made for Baal and for the grove, the groves
of the Phoenician goddess. And for all the host of heaven
and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried
the ashes of them unto Bethel. He said, he'd only been like
50 some years since Hezekiah went through and did all this.
50 years is all it took. There's a Phoenician goddess,
a statue inside the temple. There's stuff for Baal hanging
inside of that temple. What would we do if the Lord
took his hand off of us? Would we run to our works if
he wasn't faithful? Or are we faithful? He's faithful,
he's faithful. Then, so the building's cleaned
up. Now we're going to go to them
fellows at work in it, verse five. And he put down the idolatrous priests
whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places
in the city of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem.
Them that burn incense unto Baal, unto the sun, to the moon, the
plants, the host of heaven. They burn incense to everything.
They had prayer lists this long. It took them 30 minutes to tell
everybody it was in a hospital. And he brought out the grove
from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, to the book of Kidron,
and burned it at the book of Kidron, and stamped it to small
powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children
of the people." He did what? Is this serious? He took the
idolatrous priests and the groves, and killed them, and burned them,
and stamped it into powder, and sprinkled them on their children's
graves. What? But now, Kevin, I ain't
never heard us. What in the world are you talking about? The Lord
is a man of war. The Lord's his name. That's the
holy God we offended. This ain't some white bearded
grandpa that just sweeps up underneath the rug. We're in a mess of trouble. We ought to wake up and start
acting like it. And if we don't, we'll start
tearing junk off these walls. A church building is just something
to keep rain off our heads when we sing and pray and preach the
gospel. That's all that is. Verse seven,
he went after those reprobates and he break down the houses
of the sodomites. That was wrong then, it's wrong
now. that were by the house of the Lord where the women wove
hangings of the groves. Did he go around and break down
all the houses of all the sodomites? No, he didn't. That wasn't his
job. It was the ones by the house
of the Lord, the ones that come in right next door and where
the women wove hangings to that Phoenician goddess. What's that
mean? A bunch of sodomites, those that
can't produce life. That's what false religion is.
It ain't just the people that's running up down these streets
in May or whatever, and the people all around this county, all around
this nation, everything else. It's that. But it's a religion
that can't produce life. And they was weaving blankets
for Jesus. You want to get your needle out?
Are we going to weave blankets for Jesus? Are we going to draw
cartoons for Jesus? Are we going to carve statues for Jesus? Are we going to dig wells? I
know people dig wells for Jesus. Hey, burn it down. destroyed
it. No, that ain't worshiping God.
We're going to do it according to this book. Josiah didn't burn
down the drug dens. He didn't burn down the bars
and the strip clubs. He was not sent to address those presently
experiencing homelessness. He wasn't sent to open up a food
kitchen. You get that? He was purging
the Lord's land and his house. That's what he was doing. God
sent him to do this. Over in 2 Chronicles, it says,
in the 18th year of his reign, when he had purged the land and
the house, he purged the land and the house. Does that remind
you of a text? Is there something that's brought
into remembrance when you hear that he purged the land and the
house? What'd our Lord do? Who being in the brightness of
his glory, the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself,
purged our sins. Everything in us we're clinging
to, God's gonna burn it to the ground, if where he is. Or he'll burn you to the ground. He sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high. Just as Jacob had put his brides,
had his brides put away their idols, didn't he? They buried
underneath the oak tree in Shechem. The Lord puts away our idols.
He does it. He's the one that does it. He
separates us from those dead works. And he sends us somebody
that seems like a brute and says, knock it off. Stop saying that.
Don't do that. Quit that. Here's what we're
going to do. And I said, well, he's not very personable. Yeah,
but he'll be profitable. That's what I love that in that
book I gave y'all. That's my favorite. I tell Shelby at the
end of the night. That's my favorite line. Lord's servants may not
be personable, but they will be profitable. You may not like
them, but it don't matter if you like them. God's going to
use them. It sure is. For they themselves show us what
manner of entering in we had unto you, Paul said to Thessalonica,
how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true
God, and you wait for him to come. The Lord did that. He turned you from those idols,
clinging to those things and all your Puritans and your daily
readings and these schedules of study that's absolutely ridiculous
and people tell you not to do. And you're looking for hope in
those dead people, quit it. Look to God, hope his word, read
a little bit of it. I've told you a hundred times,
get you a Werther's original, chewed around your mouth and
then go out in the street and walk in this community. Not like you're
hiding underneath your basket and act like people believe God
out in the world. That's a whole lot nicer than
Josiah said. He just set it on fire. He had a big lighter and
some lighter. We'll burn this place to the
ground. He got them sodomites, didn't he? Some didn't pay attention, verse
9. Some slept through it. Look here, verse 9, what happened?
Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not to the
altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. They didn't even show up. Well,
I got some other stuff to do than go to church today. But
they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. Oh,
we're just going to have the Lord's table here at the house.
We can have church service. I'm going to have a Bible study
here in the living room. It'll be fine. And Josiah defiled top theft,
which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man
might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire of Molech.
You don't want to come here and bow to God. We'll just surround
you and burn from the outside in. Wouldn't that be something if
God sent one of his people in our day to light this world on
fire? You talk about a revival. What's
it take for a revival? Every time the Lord's done it,
he killed half a nation. I'm serious. When did they start
praying to him in this nation? Back in the 1860s. Antietam,
I bet they had some prayers to God, wouldn't they? They called
out to him. We've offended somebody. We're
going to meet him. That's what brings a revival, a mass kill-off.
And what if somebody had come and told you who you were and
who God is, and we ought to bow to him, we ought to serve him,
and we're going to do it according to this book? We'd say, that's right.
All right, man. Yeah. Does that pump you up?
Do you get motivated? Maybe God's raising up somebody
right now. They're going to set this place,
just, oh, they're going to rip through it. I hope so. That sounds
wonderful until it hits us at home, don't it? You like horses? Let's read the next verse. Verse
11, and he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given
to the son. Well now, they were my horses. Now hold on now, it's
all fun and games till it hits us in our living room. You see
what I have, point it to us. I got that, I'm from thoroughbred
country. I saw a horse one time on TV.
Might know something about it. It sounds good till it hits us.
It sounds good to strip them idols till our idols start getting
stripped. And that's what people say, well, no, I'm not holding
on to that. Good, burn it. Well, now, I've had it a long
time. God'll burn it. He will, his word will, if you're
his. Took away the horses of the kings of Judah, given a son.
He gave the horses to a son, the S-U-N. That's nonsense. Had
to enter into the house of the Lord by the chambers of Nathan
Melech and the Chamberlain. which was in the suburbs, and
he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. He tore down all
of Sodomites' houses. He tore down those guys that
didn't even come to church and act like they was playing church
at home. He burned every bit of it, didn't he? Was he a respecter
of persons? Look at verse 13. And the high places that were
before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount
of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel, have built
a fresh Torah. The abominations of Zion. In Solomon's later years, he
started running around with some women he shouldn't have, and
he started building them a little something off to the side, didn't
he? And the king defiled. That's what it says at the end
of the verse. He defiled. Josiah went in and burned every one
of them. And he break in pieces the images and cut down the groves
and filled their places with the bones of men. Whatever hole
was left, there's some potholes out there. Good, grind their
bones up. We'll fill it in. That's brutal, isn't it? And
verse 16, and Josiah turned himself and he spied sepulchres. that
were there in the mount, these burial places. And he sent, he
took the bones out of the sepulchers and he burned them upon the altar
and polluted it according to the words that the Lord, which
the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. That
prophet that came back in 1 Kings 13, when he talked to the altar,
this is what he's talking about. It come to pass. Josiah said,
we've killed all the living ones. There's the bones of them ancestors
that lied to us. We're going to get them bones
too. Pull them out of the ground. We'll grind them up, burn them.
right here on the altar, and he fulfilled the word of God,
didn't he? Verse 17, and he said, what
titles that I see on that one? There's a grave over there, what's
the headstone say? And the men of the city told
him, it's a sepulcher of the man of God, which came from Judah,
and proclaim these things that thou hast done against the altar
of Bethel. That's the guy that talked about you doing this,
that's him. He said he had to be buried there,
that prophet did later on in Kings, 1 Kings. And he said,
let him alone. Let no man move his bones. That
man believes God just like I do. Don't you touch him. Don't break
a bone. Don't you move him. So there's bones alone. The bones
of the prophet that came out of Samaria. He was cleaning that
house. Our Lord did that twice. You
know that? And John too. Jews Passover was a hand that's
gonna be real important. I've emphasized that one was
in John too, but I'll tell you in a minute Jews Passover because
it's just ceremony It's just doing stuff. Well, that's what
old people did. That's what our fathers did.
And our Lord went in there and there was this, you can just
have drive-thru service. You don't have to make a sacrifice.
Give me $20. I'll go cut up a little bit of a sheet. How many kids
you got? Okay, well you get the five pack.
We got combos running this weekend. And he went in there and he flipped
that place upside down. And he said, take these things
hence and make not my father's house a house of merchandise.
We ain't in here to have bake sales and plays and everything
else. You knock it off right now, it's
the Lord's house. I know pastors that said, you sit down, you'll
be all right. Or you take that off, or you
wake up, or whatever. I got told to wake up a few times.
Woo! Hurts when it hits us, don't
it? Our Lord did that twice in Matthew 21. He threw those table
of the money changers, and he cut that scourge out, and he
scourged the temple. That's 30,000, 45,000 people
there. He said, it is written, my house shall be called the
house of prayer. but you made it a den of thieves. Does that
mean we just come in here and hum? No, we pray through our
songs, right? Our psalms that we sing, our
prayer. Somebody leads us in public prayer.
We pray together unto the Lord and ask Him, and reading His
word, and most importantly, the preaching, the promise of preaching. If the Lord uses the preaching,
then we'll thank Him in song, and we'll thank Him, we'll understand
what we read, and we'll have a God and a heart that prays
to Him, and we'll have a mediator, right? That's what this house
is for, nothing else. What's the outcome of that? Of
the Lord purging this temple. He said the blind and the lame
came into him and the temple and he healed them. He kicked
everybody out. Blind folks came. Were they offended? They didn't care. He asked them Pharisees, or they
asked him, they said, well, you're saying we're blind? He said,
no, if you're blind, use thy sin. You ever been blind? God, if the Lord gave you eyes,
you see, don't you? Verse 19, in all the houses of
also the high places that were in the city of Samaria, which
the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger,
Josiah took away. He took it away. You're taking
everything away from us. Yeah, you're welcome. I mean
it. I've been told that. Kevin, you're
taking stuff away. You're welcome. It's according
to this word, I ain't wrong, you're welcome. I don't shoot
from a hip, you're welcome. He took all those things away,
Josiah did, and did to them according to all the acts he'd done in
Bethel. He burned every bit of it. Because it ain't worth it,
it's done. It's done. And he slew all the priests of
the high places that were upon the altars, and he burned men's
bones upon them, and he returned to Jerusalem. He got done, he
went home. Every one of our enemies, every one of our false accusers,
everything that troubles us, that's against us in this world,
and there's plenty of it. If you can't see that Satan's
motley at work in this place, you're blind. He's strongly at
work. The Lord's gonna handle every
bit of it, and then he's gonna go sit on his throne. He's already
done that, hasn't he? Where's he seated now? It's finished. He's crushed the serpent's head.
It's done. Now we gotta go through it. We have to go through these
fiery trials. We have to go through this valley
of the shadow of death. He's with us. It's done. This is sure,
and I can't mess it up, Matt. I'll mess me up, and I'll get
bumped on the head a little bit, but I can't undo what God did. That's good news. Well. With everything done, what'd
he do? Verse 21. The king commanded
all the people, young and old, saying, keep the Passover under
the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
That Passover, that feast, you're gonna keep it. Just as God says
so. Surely, there was not holding such a Passover from the days
of judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings
of Israel, nor of all the kings of Judah. They ain't never had
a Passover like this. Why? We're going to get it now. In the 18th year of Josiah, when
the Passover is holding, to the Lord in Jerusalem. Amen. Worship Thee, man. That's it. It wasn't a Jew's Passover. It
wasn't grandma and grandpa's Passover. It was a Lord's Passover. It was unto the Lord, wasn't
it? That feast he gave them. He said, we're going to do the
Passover. And this ain't a sacrament. It's not something they did to
receive grace. That's a lie. Heretics say that. It's a token. It's a token. The
Lord said, he said, when I pass over you in Exodus, he said,
you put the blood on the post and on the doorframe. And he
said, and you're going to see it. You're going to see it as
a token. When I see it, I'll pass over you. That blood didn't
do nothing. That's the blood of bulls and goats. It's the
blood of his son. That's what the Passover is.
The Passover is not a thing, it's a person. Christ is our
Passover, you get that? Christ is our Passover. He's
the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Tim, you get that? Just like circumcision, the Lord
said, circumcision your flesh, for it's gonna be a token of
the covenant. It's just something to remind
you. That's all that is. And he said
in Exodus 12, the blood shall be for a token upon the houses
where you are. And when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. The plagues shall not destroy
you. Plagues are coming. Earwigs all over the place. Plagues
are coming. They ain't gonna bother you.
You'll be all right. You're going to hear them frogs
chirping. Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit. It's like raining frogs. It's
going to keep you up too. It ain't going to bother you.
You're mine. You're under the blood. I'll
smite the land of Egypt, but I ain't going to smite you. That's
Passover. He said, you do this in the first
month of the 14th day of the month of an even month, and you'll
eat unleavened bread until the end of that month. What'd Josiah
do on the 14th day they had to Passover? What's Passover now? Preaching the lamb slain before
the world was. Telling about Christ and him
crucified. The Lord gave that physical feast. Why? Mommy and daddy's got to
learn. Who's going to teach them? He's
going to set a man up for his own heart. Teach them right.
You can't practice, I'm gonna quote Bobby Knott, practice does
not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.
You preach all you want. If you're preaching lies, ain't
gonna do nobody no good. If you're wrong, if you ain't got a good
handle on the gospel, it ain't gonna do nobody no good. Now
stop it. He said, when it shall come to pass, when your children
shall say to you, what do you mean by this service? Why are
we doing this Passover, daddy? Why we gotta burn the land? Why
we gotta gird up our loins? Why we gotta put this blood everywhere?
You tell them. God brought us out of Egypt.
Well, that means we got to memorize Egypt and go make a pilgrimage.
No, he brought us out of sin and death and all that religious
paganism we were just steeped in and we didn't think we was
doing nothing wrong. He sent his son to die for us while we
were fighting him. And that's why he saved us. And
now we're going to thank him and we're going to do what he
says on the 14th day. And so he told us, he said, go
in all the world and preach the gospel. And so whenever we do
it, I'm gonna stand up on my hind legs and I'm gonna tell
people, man ain't nothing, Christ is all, bow to him. Bow to him. That's Passover, I'll keep you
from turning. Passover was, talked a little
bit more about the second chronicle. The second chronicle's 35, you
can read that when you get home. That'll be something good for
you to do if you want something to do. And it said Josiah kept the Passover
and he, Encouraged the high priest to the service of the house of
the Lord. He said now we're gonna serve God Here's how you gonna
do it gonna be according to this thus saith the Lord is what he
did And he said you're gonna put that Holy Ark back in there
in the Holy of Holies that mercy seat that propitiation, right?
That's what you're gonna do that bloody sacrifice and you'll prepare
this house and he said you will go kill that Passover and and
get your brethren ready. And we're going to do this according
to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses. How are they going
to do that? That was a lot of people, wasn't it? That was left.
All you that's alive, come over here. Here's what the king did, that
cornerstone, Josiah. He gave to the people. He said,
we're going to worship the Passover. We're going to perform the Passover.
And he gave the people of the flocks and lambs, the kids for
all that were present, the number of 30,000 and 3000 bullocks. And all that all were the King's
substance. That's what our cornerstone does. The Lord said, you're going
to have to keep these things. I can't. And he said, I'll provide
the land. You see that what that chief
cornerstone do. He was the lamb and he provided
himself the lamb. That's what he did. There in
our text, verse 24. Moreover, the workers with familiar
spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and
all the abominations that were spotted in the land of Judah
and Jerusalem did Josiah put away, that he might perform the
words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the
priest found in the house of the Lord. And like unto him,
there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with
all of his heart, and with all of his soul, and with all of
his might, according to all the law of Moses. Neither after him
arose there any like him. Notwithstanding, the Lord still
killed everybody else. Where does that leave us? Christ
has performed this for us. Our great King Josiah, our great
cornerstone, the work's done. Now we still got to live through
it, don't we? So what are we asking? Lord, send men after
your own heart that don't care what people think, and they don't
fear their faces, and let your head just bounce off your forehead,
as he told him. and declare Christ to people,
no matter, oh, no matter the cost. You start seeing what the cost
is, and Lord say, you sure? Will you be saved? Will you? I will, Lord. Send people, let's
ask him. Father, forgive us for what we
are and our weakness and our selfishness and our looking at
ourselves and our putting ourself first, Lord, and make us faithful.
Raise men up for this harvest and those to support them and make us ask more often. Forgive
us for what we are, Lord, and glorify your name greatly on
this earth as you promised you will and keep us and take us
home to our fathers in peace. keep us. It's in Christ's name
because he's accomplished this already we ask this Lord. Amen.