And I couldn't find a place to
start or stop, so I'm going to read the whole chapter. One thing for sure, you can never
go wrong just reading the Word of God. You can't do it. And it is the one thing that
we need to make much of, the reading of God's Word. So let's look at this. Josiah
was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned in Jerusalem
one and thirty years. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord. And walked in the ways of David
his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the
left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet
young, He began to seek after the God of David, his father. And in the twelfth year, he began
to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the
groves and the carved images and the molten images. And they
break down the altars of Balaam in his presence and the images
that were on high above them, he cut down in the groves Let
me read this again. And they break down the altars
of Balaam in his presence, and the images that were on the high
places above them he cut down, and the groves and the carved
images and the molten images he break in pieces and made dust
of them and strode it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed
unto them. And he burnt the bones of the
priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon,
even unto Naphtali, with their maddocks round about. And when
he had broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten
the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols throughout
all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. Now in the eighteenth
year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house,
he sent the son of Azaliah the Messiah,
the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joaz the recorder
to repair the house of the Lord his God. And when they came to
Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was
brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the
doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and
of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin,
and they returned to Jerusalem. And they put it in the hand of
the workman that had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and
they gave it to the workman that wrought in the house of the Lord
to repair and amend the house. Even to the artificers and builders
gave they it, to buy hewn stone and timber for couplings and
to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
And the men did the work faithfully. And the overseers of them were
Jahath, Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Moriah, Zechariah,
Meshulam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward,
and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments
of music. Also they were over the bearers
of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work
in any manner of service. And the Levites there were scribes
and officers and porters. And when they brought out the
money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the
priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said
to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book. That's the title
of the message. I have found the book, the word of God. I
have found the word of God. I have found the book of the
law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book
to Shaphan, and Shaphan carried, he carried the book to the king,
and he brought the king's word back again saying, all that was
committed to thy servants, they do it. And they have gathered
together the money that was found in the house of the Lord and
have delivered it into the hand of the overseers. And to the
hand of the workman, then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying,
Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it
before the king. And it came to pass, when the
king had heard the words of the law, when he heard the word of
God, he rent his clothes. I wrote out from that, Repentance. Repentance. You cannot have it
apart from the word of God. What are you repenting of? You
don't know anything. And apart from his words, you
don't. You don't. And the king commanded Hilkiah
and Ahiakim, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah,
and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, a servant of the king, saying,
Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for them that are left in
Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that is
found. For great is the wrath of the
Lord that is poured out upon us." Now he has an understanding
of what's going on. Now he understands why Israel
is going through what they're going through, and why they have
been dealt with. Apart from the Word of God, he
has no understanding. We have no understanding apart
from it. We don't know why all this, apart from God's Word.
We wouldn't understand death apart from God's Word, would
we? We wouldn't understand that. We wouldn't understand the reason
for it. Sin. The soul of the sinner shall
surely die. Where did you learn that from? The Word of God. Because
our fathers have not kept the Word of the Lord to do after
all that is written in this book. And Hilkiah and David The king
had appointed, went to Halda, the prophetess, the wife of Shalem,
the son of Tichbath, the son of Hasherah, keeper of the wardrobe. Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in
the college, and they spake to her to that effect. And she answered
them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that
sent you to me. Thus saith the Lord, Behold,
I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof.
Even all the curses that are written in the book, which they
have read before the King of Judah, because they have forsaken
me and they have burned incense. And this is what happens when
you leave the Word of God, when you start taking the Word of
God away from the service, when you start leaving the Word of
God out. I tell you this, when you leave the Word of God, anything
goes. Anything goes when you leave it. Because they have 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 poured out upon this place, and shall not be
quenched. And as for the king of Judah,
who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall you say unto him,
Thus sent the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou
hast heard out of this book, because thine heart was tender.
That's the effect it had on him. That's the effect the Word
of God had on Josiah when he heard it, the first time he heard
it. And thou didst humble thyself
before God, when thou heardest his words against this place
and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me,
and didst rend thy clothes, and you went before me. I have even
heard thee also, saith the Lord. Behold, I'll gather thee to thy
father's." Well, here's the end of a believer right here. "'And
thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace. Neither shall
thine eye see all the evil thou wilt bring upon this place and
upon the inhabitants of the same.' So they brought the king's word
again. Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders
of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the
house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and the priests of the Levites, and all the people,
great and small. And he read in their ears all
the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the
house of the Lord. He read to them what they had
not heard for a long, long time, the word of God. And the king stood in his place
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 his heart and with all his soul to perform the words
of the covenant which are written in this book. And he caused all
that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it.
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant
of God. the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the
abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children
of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve,
even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed
not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers." Now
I want you to listen. Here's what was restored when
they found the book. When they found the book, here's
what was restored. Moreover, Josiah kept the Passover
unto the Lord in Jerusalem. They killed the Passover on the
fourteenth day of the first month, and he sent the priest in their
charges and encouraged them to the service of the house of the
Lord. What did he restore? The gospel of substitution. That's what he restored. When
he found the book, and the book was read, and he restored the
gospel. Without this book, We have no
gospel. The gospel we preach is according
to the word of God. So the title of the message,
if I turn this on or not, the title of the message is they
found the book. They found the word of God. And
in doing so, in doing so, they restored the gospel of substitution. And in doing so, they restored
true worship. True worship was restored. And
they did it according to the Word of God. This book right
here. The first five books. They had the first five books
of the Bible. The first five books that Moses wrote. That's
what they found. They found in Exodus, was it
Exodus 12? The Passover. The deliverance
of Israel out of Egypt. And the reason for that Passover.
For the first time, Josiah heard that. For the first time, he
heard that read. And for the first time, he heard
the law read. Moses had written down. He read that. And he said,
we're in trouble. But he also read that Passover. And boy, did he get that established.
Because that's the only hope we have. Christ, our Passover. The only hope we have now. I'm
not going to go over much of this, but in the previous chapter,
Ammon, who was Josiah's father, was a very wicked king. Manasseh
was his father, but Manasseh was a wicked one, but he repented.
And he started tearing down these groves and stuff that he had
established and all these altars. Well, Ammon came along and he
just resurrected them. And then Josiah comes along.
And here is sovereign mercy. He's raised by a father that's
as wicked as can be. Josiah's father is wicked as
can be. Amen. But God has mercy on Josiah.
He has mercy on him. That's sovereign mercy. We don't
inherit salvation. We do not inherit salvation.
We do not pass it on to our children. We bring him here to hear the
gospel, pray for them, leave them before the Lord. And we
know this, it's according to his sovereign mercy. And we can leave it there, can't
we? We can leave it there. So Josiah, after his father died,
he reigned in his stead and he did that which was right in the
sight of the Lord. And he was 16 years old when
he began to seek after the God of David. He walked in the light
that he had. He'd been given some light along
the way. And he was 16 years old. This is young. Any 16-year-olds
in here? Young. Remember, now thy Creator
in the days of thy youth before the evil days come nigh. I don't
care how young you are, seek the Lord. Seek Him. Josiah did. He was 16 years old. And he did. 16 years old. And he began to seek
after the God of David, his father, the right one, the only one. And when he was 20 years old,
he began to purge Judah. He knew something was not right. He knew that this was not right,
all that was going on. He knew it was wrong and it needed
to be dealt with. And he, a 20 year old now, this
is amazing. This is a 20 year old. And so he starts having all these
altars and all these groves and all these things destroyed. He's
a 20 year old. And he begins to purge Judah,
Jerusalem from all these high places. And then when he was
26 years of age, he begins to have the house of the Lord repaired.
The temple had become in bad need of repair because they had
neglected it. It did not mean anything to them
anymore. They left the Word of God. They
left through worship. They had just left it all, and
the temple meant nothing to them anymore. And they let it just
go down, down, down. Do you ever see a house where
no one lives in? It just falls apart, doesn't
it? It just falls apart. So Josiah, he has the house of
the Lord repaired. And Hilkiah the priest, in repairing this house of the
Lord, he finds a book. He finds not a book, he finds
the book. He finds the book. The law of
the Lord given by Moses, the first five books of the Bible.
He found the word of God is what he found. I have found the book. I have found
the word of God. And so Shaphan reads the book. He takes the book and goes to
the king and he reads the book to the king. And I want you to
know what happens. I'm sure you picked up on it
as I was reading it. What happens when the word of
God is preached, when the word of God is read that he's standing
there and he's reading to the king. And this king is smitten. This king is brought to repentance,
he brought to establish. Restore the gospel. So let's
notice what happens here when the Word of God comes in power.
Paul said that to the Thessalonians. The Word of God didn't come to
you in word only, but in power and in demonstration of the Spirit.
The king, it says, rent his clothes. The Word of God, the scripture
teaches us, is powerful. It's like a two-edged sword dividing
asunder. It's piercing. No other word
can do this. No other book can do this. No other. Don't ever replace
this word with something else. This is it. This is God's Word.
This is what He blesses. God will bless His Word. My Word
shall not return to me void, He said. And this was the first
time Josiah had heard the Word of God read. I cannot tell you,
I cannot put an estimate on the blessing that you and I have
right now, having this book. But the greatest blessing is
having this book, this Word, in our hearts, not just our hands. We have the Word of God. That's what we have, the Word
of God. What a blessing. There have been
millions of people who have lived and never, have never read this
book. They've never seen this book. We have it. We have it. Many have read it
out of curiosity and just tossed it aside. To their own destruction,
not realizing what's going on. But now some of us have read
it, and some of us have heard it preached to our salvation. And we know, we can understand
what Josiah was going through when he heard the Word of God.
When he heard the book read, he just, oh, he rent his clothes,
he said, we've sinned, our fathers have sinned, we've not done according
to the book, we've ignored it. Everything we've been doing is
wrong. He said, we've completely missed it. I remember this one
time, years ago, before I'd heard the gospel, the place I was going,
I remember telling a person there, there's something missing. There's
just something missing. I can't put my finger on it. And I remember telling this person
this two or three times. There's something missing. It
was Christ. It was the gospel. The person
who had this book was twisting the scriptures and saying things
it wasn't even saying. Even though we had the book,
he was turning it completely upside down, twisting it. The
thing that was missing was Christ. It is through the word of God
that Christ is revealed through this book. His Word. When God is pleased to save, when He's pleased to save a sinner,
if He's pleased to save a sinner here this morning, it's going
to be through hearing His Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. In James 1.18, of His own will
begat He us with the Word of Truth. Word of Truth. And this Word of God here is
a living Word. Look over in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Let me find the verse here. Look in verse 23. being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. In verse 13, or chapter 2, 1
Thessalonians 2, 13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of
God, you received it, when you received the word of God which
you heard of us, you received it, not as the word of men. What I'm saying to you this morning,
what I read to you this morning is not of the word of men, it's
the word of God. But as it is in truth, the Word
of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe, is
not dormant. It's a living Word, and it works. It works in you. That's why it's
so important to just read the Word of God and pray to the Lord,
make it effectual to you. It works in you. Now, these men,
when they found the book, I believe they were excited.
He said, I found the book. I found the book of the law of
the Lord that Moses gave. I found it. And they ran to the
king and they read it. And they read it without doubt.
They read it with hunger. They read it like they were thirsty. They read it with open hearts.
They read it with a hungry hearts. They read it with willing hearts.
They read the word of God and they wanted to hear what God
had to say. You want to hear what God has to say? You'd think
we'd know this, and I thought about this not too long ago. Sorry, me. I thought, I'm 57
years old. I heard the gospel when I was
around 23 years of age. I ought to know this book like
the back of my hand. I was thinking about this myself. This thought
was my thought. I thought, when I was looking
at it, I thought, I ought to know this book. I'm from 23 to 57. How many years is that? Thirty-some
years. I ought to know this book like
the back of my hand. Do we? This is God's Word. I know this concerning me. I
know this. I know I ought to be up every
morning eager to see what God has to say. I ought to be. Well, Josiah, he heard the book. He heard the Word of God read
to him, and it convicted him. He said, we have sinned. Has
it had that effect on me? Is that the effect? When I heard
the gospel, when I read the Word of God and I heard the gospel,
has it had that effect on me? I have sinned. God says we all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's me. I fit that. I fit that description. He said, we've sinned, we've
not done as the Lord has commanded. What was it that young rich man said?
The Lord said, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? He said, well, keep the law. And he quoted something,
he said, all these I have done from my youth up. You haven't heard the word of
God, have you? All these have I done from my youth. I've kept
all these things. I'm a good fella. I'm a good
boy. I was a good boy at home. I've done all these things. You
haven't done any of them. What are you talking about? Not any of
them. And here's the first thing he
did when he realized, when he realized that we have sinned
and our fathers have sinned and we've not done as the Lord has
commanded. We've missed it. We have not
done it. First thing he did, he inquired
of the Lord. He inquired of the Lord. Sued for mercy is what
he did. He got on his face. This is the
king now. He got on his face. He took his
place as a sinner before the Lord. And he said, we sin. Our
fathers have sinned. I'm not just rotten. My family
tree is rotten. People like to brag about their ancestry. It goes all the way back to Adam.
I don't care which branch you start with. Whatever branch you
start with, it goes all the way back to Adam. All the way back
to rebellion. All the way back to sin. It's amazing when they go looking
at the family trees, they never talk about the ones that got
hung in it. They never talk about that one. They always talk about
the ones that did something. Did something notable. They find
one in the family tree. You know how many millions are
in your family tree? You know how many millions are in there
since the fall? And they go back and they find
one or two that might have done something that they thought was notable.
That's pretty bad, isn't it? That's pretty bad. But they don't
mention all those others. It's just, you're not going to
mention that. They're not going to do that. He got on his face and he sued
for mercy. He realized that God had every
right to kill every one of them, and be a just God in doing so.
If God killed every one of us, he'd be a just God in doing so.
That's what Josiah realized. He's a just God, and we've sinned
against him, and we've not kept any of his commandments, and
if he kills us, he's a just God. But he also knew that God was
merciful. That's why he fell on his face before him. What
does the Word of God here reveal? What does it reveal? Well, first
of all, it reveals the fall, doesn't it? You know, the natural
man out there, for the most part, is confused as to why all this
is as it is. You're not confused, are you?
I know exactly why the world is as it is. I know exactly why.
Adam. Adam's rebellion. By one man's
disobedience, sin entered the world. Death by sin. So now there's
death on every hand. This whole earth is a graveyard.
Every inch of it, something has died on it. I don't care if it's
a fishworm or a person or an animal or a plant. Something's
died on a germ. It's a big graveyard. This whole
earth is a big graveyard. That's what it is. And the reason we have wars and
rumors of wars is because of the fall. I don't care how educated you
get, I tell you, the more educated we get, the more sophisticated
we become with our weaponry. Isn't it? That's what happens
with education. We just become more sophisticated
on how to shoot somebody. Where did you learn that from?
Where did you learn what you are by nature from? The Word
of God. The Word of God is the only book
that does not paint us as a rosy picture. It doesn't portray us
to be something we're not. It tells us the truth. It tells
us the truth. The Lord told those Pharisees,
you're of your father, the devil. Well, that's the truth. So they
got mad about it. But it's the truth. There's no good, no, not
one that make anybody mad. What's the truth? Make make make
someone mad. It doesn't matter. It's the truth. It's the truth. The Word of God reveals our sins
and disobedience. He said, Josiah said, We have
not kept the commandments of the Lord. We've not done it,
none of them. It also reveals our punishment.
The soul that sinneth shall surely die. Why do we die? It's important
that the man wants to die. My son asked me one time when
he was just a little fella, I mean a little fella, probably six
years old maybe. Probably about six. He had a
little parakeet, and it died. And he was torn all to pieces. And he asked me, he says, why
do we have to die? How am I going to answer that?
Am I going to try to find some scientific answer? Am I going
to say, well, because we grow old, and because there are diseases
in this world, and because... No, I'll tell you why we die.
It's sin. Sin brought him death. I know
why we die. I know why we have to die. And
where did I learn that? Where did you learn that? If
you learned it, and if I've learned it properly, from the Word of
God. I understand. When I preach a funeral, I understand
what's going on. I have some understanding of
what's going on. That person just died and went
to meet God. This poor man wants to die, and
after this, judgment. If you die outside of Christ,
judgment. If you die in Christ, you enter
into His presence. Glory. The Word of God reveals God's
wrath against sin. For the first time, Josiah heard
and read about the flood. God looked down from heaven and
saw the wickedness of men, and it was evil and that continued.
For the first time, Josiah read about the flood. He read about
the thaw. He read about Cain and Abel. And when he heard these things,
well, he read about the Passover too. Don't leave that out. Reading about the flood and all
these disastrous things, that would be very depressing if we
didn't have the Passover. And when he heard these things,
when he heard the Word of God, he was pricked in his heart. And he fell down before the Lord.
And he found mercy. I want you to notice in verse
27. Because thine heart was tender.
Who gave him that tender heart? Where does that come from? Did
he get that from Ammon? You can go read about Ammon.
He sure did not get that from his father. There was nothing
tender about that man. This kind of heart comes from
God. This tender heart over sin. It's a broken heart. It's a broken
heart. It's broken over sin, his heart
was broken over sin. And his heart was broken over
the sin against God, we sinned against him. It's not, you know,
there's a difference between my heart being broken over something
that I did, I should have done. You know, we have a conscience.
The law is written on our hearts. We know right from wrong. You know what they're saying
you should not do. You know that. The law is written
on the heart. But I tell you, when the gospel
comes in power, it's that I sinned against God. They shall mourn
when they look on Him whom they've pierced. That's when true repentance
happens. But his heart was tender. And
then he humbled himself. When he heard the word of God,
it brought true humility. True humility. True humility. I want you to
listen to this. True humility is having a right estimation
of yourself before God. A right estimation of yourself
before God. And he wept. It says, Thou didst
weep. He wept. When he heard, he just fell down,
and he realized that he had sinned, and they had sinned, and his
people, and Israel, and he realized that it was a mess, and he was
a mess, and he just fell down, and he wept. And God said, I've heard thee. I've heard thee. And then, note what he did, and I'll close. Kept the Passover. Kept the Passover. Killed the
Lamb. Unto the Lord. Unto the Lord. He purged out false religion.
He ran it out. He restored the gospel of substitution. We cannot have any worship without
the gospel of substitution. Don't even think you can. You
can't have it. God's not in it and is not worship. But he restored the gospel. God will not bless where the
gospel of Christ is not preached. Don't think because somebody
has a large crowd that God is blessing. Don't think that. It's these small flocks here
and there where God has a faithful pastor preaching Christ and Him
crucified. He restored the gospel of substitution,
Christ crucified. I want you to turn over to 2
Kings, and I want to read something here, then I'll close. In 2 Kings
23. Look at verse, let me see if
I got this right, 2 Kings 23, 21. Yeah, look at verse 21. And the king commanded all the
people saying, keep the Passover unto the Lord your God as it
is written, exactly as it is written. Don't change a thing. We are not at liberty to change
the gospel, add to or take away from. We're not at liberty to
do that. Keep the Passover unto the Lord
your God as it is written in the book of this covenant. Surely
there was not holding such a Passover from the days of the judges that
judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel,
nor the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of
King Josiah wherein this Passover was holding to the Lord in Jerusalem." When did that happen? when they found the Word of God. When they found the Word of God,
they found the Gospel. When God sent that Word and power
to that king's heart, Josiah, he fell on his face before God. He acknowledged not only his
sinfulness, he acknowledged the sinfulness of his ancestry. They're not a good one in the
bunch. He acknowledged it, and he sought for mercy, and he went
before God, and he restored the gospel. All because of this book. Just like this morning, or just
a few minutes ago, all I did was read it to you. That's all
I did. I said, I've read the whole chapter
there to you. When they read that to the king,
they didn't expound on it, did they? We don't read them expounding
on it. He's opened it. Because all I
have to say and everything I have to say, really, that's not what's
effectual. What's effectual is what God
says. It's His Word. His Word. And all Shaphin did
was just read the Word of God to the king. sent that Word to his heart in
power. And that's my hope. When I stand here and preach,
when I stand and preach here or anywhere else, it's that God
will take His Word and send it in power to the heart of His
people. I cannot make the Word of God
effectual. He does that. That's in His hands. All I can do is just like All
I can do is what they did, just read it to you. All right.