Well, when we arrive down here
at verse 31, Josiah has been mortally wounded in battle. I'll
remind you, though I've just read it, I'll remind you of the
words of verse 25. Our God had the inspired writer
record these words concerning Josiah. And like unto him, like
unto Josiah, was there no king before him that turned to the
Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might,
according to all of the word of God, the word of God which
was discovered in the temple and then read to the king Neither after him arose any like
him. Only three more kings will reign
in Judah." And really, even though the scripture says they reigned,
they were vassal kings. In other words, they had the
title of king, but they were manipulated by and controlled
by, first of all, Pharaoh of Egypt, and then by Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon. These three men who followed
Josiah, two of them were sons, one was an uncle, they did evil
in the sight of God, as did so many of the kings before them
in Judah. Josiah was the last king of Judah
who loved the gospel of Christ, who sought to turn the people
from their idolatry to the true worship of God. And throughout
his reign of some 31 years, his sole purpose in reigning was
to direct the kingdom of Judah and all of the people who were
under his reign to direct them back to the true worship of God. Now the people had just, they
had just celebrated the Passover. And that Passover, though it
was a few years before Josiah died in battle, That Passover
was a very significant event, and there hadn't been as many
people observing the Passover since the times of the judges. And Josiah was instrumental in
insisting that the people observed the Passover. And you remember
the Passover. We've studied it. You've heard
many sermons preached on it. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed
for us. And the Passover in Egypt, there
was to be a yearly observance. That Passover was a time that
the firstling of a flock A male of the first year without blemish, without spot. That Passover lamb was smitten,
killed, roasted, blood caught, and blood put outside the doors
because God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the firstborn of every Jewish
family lived. They lived. because a suitable
substitute, a God-appointed substitute died in their stead. And of course,
we see a beautiful picture there of the gospel of the Lord Jesus,
our Savior. He took our place. The reason
that we will live forever is because of the the blood of the
Passover lamb, that is God's lamb, the lamb of God. And he's
the one that John the Baptist directed all of his heroes to.
Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And
he took away the sins of the world of all of his people by
suffering the wrath of God in our stead. So that first Passover
back there in Exodus chapter 12 is so significant because
it pictured the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and indeed
the shedding of his blood. Here in 2 Kings 23, all the people,
all the people observed the Passover. However, this was the last event in which the people of God are
said to have observed the Passover or worshiped God. Now, my suspicion
is that Josiah continued to lead them to worship and praise the
Lord at the Passover. But this is the last one recorded
before his death. And after his death, It was a
time of mourning, of course. But after his death, his son
Jehoahaz became king. And watch it. He only reigned
three months. His daddy reigned 31 years. And for nearly all of those 31
years, Josiah sought to bring the people of Judah back to God,
back to true worship, back to offering the sacrifices, back
to offering or remembering the Passover. And then he died, and
it didn't even take three months for them to fall right back into
the abyss of idolatry. All that his father had done His son, his firstborn son sought
to undo. And he was very successful. Because you see, though the people
of Judah observed the Passover, their hearts weren't in it. If
their hearts were in it, If they had seen Christ the true Passover
through the observance of the Passover feast, they would have
no doubt continued in the things of God. If God had done a work
of grace in their hearts, that which God does, nobody can add
to it and nobody can take anything away from it. But it took only
three months before Judah wholeheartedly fell back into idolatry. You see, even when they observed
the Passover, they were just going through the motions. That's all. It was like a religious
mask that they wore. There was no true love for God,
no true worship of Jehovah. They weren't looking down through
the years to the time when Messiah, the seed of the woman, was coming,
who would, by his own death, put away the sins of his people.
They observed the Passover, they offered sacrifices to God, all
which pointed to our Lord Jesus Christ, but their religion was
just a shell. It was just a garment, a hypocritical
garment that they wore. They had no spiritual life. They
had no spiritual desire to honor God. They had no real faith looking
forward to that one God promised would come into the world. And as soon as Josiah died, and
he was a powerful ruler now, he had a strong will, but his willingness for the people
of Judah to worship and honor God couldn't get the job done
because he was only a man. He can only teach them. He can
only show them what was right. But he couldn't save them. And I know this, Satan is ever
vigilant. The enemy of our souls is always
slithering around to introduce error. where truth is held. I ask you, how long, and I've
already told you, but how long did it take this great church
of Judah to revert back to the religion of the world? Less than
three months. You want to know what man's made
out of? You want to know how sinful we
are? If God doesn't keep us, if He doesn't keep us focused
on the Lord Jesus Christ and His bloody sacrifice upon the
cross of Calvary, it won't even take three months for us to go
backwards. Oh God, keep us true to the message
of salvation by grace, the message of the bloody redemption of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which was successful. I'm acquainted with some churches
where the gospel used to be preached. And then the pastor passed away,
moved away, And then there stepped behind
the pulpit a man who compromised the message. Many years ago, I worked in a
church, and our pastor was a Sovereign Grace preacher. And he moved
on. He felt led to depart. And I
was just a part-time assistant pastor. And I was out of town
all during the week and only came in, was there on Sundays. But while I was gone, they proceeded
to call in a man who was a freewill Armenian. And he preached the very opposite
of what the former pastor had preached. And people, people
swallowed it. And you fishermen are acquainted
with this. They swallowed it hook, line,
and sinker. And that church where the truth
had been preached before long, there's no truth there at all. It doesn't take long unless God
Unless God keeps a church focused on the gospel, it doesn't take
long for them to resort back to free willism. And while many
churches have forsaken the truth, so have many professing believers. People who were among us, people
who were members of other sovereign grace churches, People to whom
the message of pure grace of the crucified, buried, risen,
ascended, exalted Savior one time seemed to be loved and appreciated. And people say, where's Brother
so-and-so? Well, he's not here anymore.
Where's he gone? I don't know. I don't know. fell for some religious lie,
I suppose. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Now, there are two things that need to be said here. Our Lord
will keep his true people. There's no question about that.
There's no possibility that the work that God has done within
us would cease to be done. He who hath begun a good work
in you, he'll finish it to the day of Jesus Christ. So we know
the Lord is going to keep His people. But you know, the promises
of God also direct us, or the Word of God not only gives us
promises, but directs us to make our calling and election sure.
In, what is it, 3 John, it says, keep yourself in the love of
God. We have a responsibility. Keep
following Christ. Keep coming to Him. Keep looking
to the Savior. Look here in 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy
3. Verse 1, this know also that
in the last days perilous, dangerous times shall come. For men shall
be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
truth-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasure, more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness. See, that's what the people of
Judah had when they observed that Passover. It was just a
form of godliness. But denying the very power of
God, denying the power of the word of the gospel, denying the
power of the Holy Spirit, and he says, from such turn away. Ever heard of John Owen? Some
of you, I know some of you have. He was a theologian of 400 years
or so or something like that. He wrote this. He said that the
time will come when a faithful minister of the gospel will be
more scarce and more precious than a bar of gold. That's a tremendous statement.
That's 400 years ago. The time will come when a faithful
minister of the gospel will be more scarce and precious than
a bar of gold. And to those who have sense enough
to see what's going on in religion today, you know that's true.
True preachers of the gospel are scarce. These are perilous
times. Amos speaks about the days that
were gonna come, he said, when there'd be a famine of bread.
Not a bread like wheat, or barley, or oats, or whatever like that. But a famine for the word of
God. A famine for the word of the gospel. I know this, the Lord has to
keep us true to his word. Oh God, keep me. Oh God, keep
us. And look what it said. Turn back
to chapter one. And my Bible is just across the
page, but look back in 2 Timothy 1 verse 13. And see, here's our
responsibility. Hold fast to the form, to the
form of, to the pattern. The form of sound words, healthy
words. Gospel words, wholesome words,
which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. Hold fast. You cling to the gospel and purpose in your own heart,
oh God, Please keep me looking by faith to Christ Jesus, whose
bloody death and whose righteousness availed to satisfy justice on
my behalf. Keep me ever loving this message. And keep me from leaving it. You see, a lot of people in perilous
times will have a show of religion, and they do. One of the biggest businesses
in this whole country is religion. Religion is big business. But man's religion, though full
of man's self and man's will and man's works, man's religion
is a religion of bondage. It's a religion that's deadly. They profess to be religious
and they make a big show of it. But they deny the very heart
and soul of the power of God that takes to save sinners. Oh God, keep us ever clinging
to the truth. You see, the people of Judah
went quickly, quickly back to idolatry. Have you ever noticed
that before? It's like they wasted no time.
Their hearts weren't in that Passover observance. Of course, to observe them, or
to look at them rather, and remembering that they were observing the
Passover, To all intents and purposes, it seemed to be a consecrated
people. Isn't the Lord blessing? Oh,
what a blessing. Look at all these thousands of
people partaking of the Passover, eating the lamb, the roasted
lamb, and worshiping God by means of the blood. And then Josiah
dies, and that ends it. That ends it. I tell you what, it's been many
a person lost that true religion that they professed to have when
something happened to the pastor. And that's a sad truth. Because
true preachers of the gospel, we don't want people to follow
us. We say follow Christ. I remember
when I left one church and I prayed, Lord, keep them. And there were some people that
were going apparently because they loved me. Hey, I appreciate
people loving me, but I'm not your savior. I'm not your salvation. I'm only God's mouthpiece, that's
all I am. I'm just a voice crying in the
wilderness. But some people, they follow
the preacher. And then when he leaves, then
they're open to just about anything. And in Judah's case, That which
took 31 years to seemingly establish, it all comes crashing down in
three months. Isn't that amazing? In three
months. The apparent good that Josiah
did for all those years meant nothing. So as you go back
here, and I'll wind this up, go back here to 2 Kings 23. So here's what happened in verse
32. Jehoahaz took over for his dad,
and he reigned three months. And he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done,
And then Pharaoh, he begins to gobble up the nation of Judah and then
insists upon destruction if they disobey, that they pay tribute
to him. This has come full circle. Hadn't
it? It's come full circle. The Jews
were dominated by, held in captivity by the Egyptians. The Lord freed
them by means of the Passover lamb. They go out, go across
the Red Sea, receive the law of God. Forty years, they're
finally in the land of promise. A few hundred years go by, and
here they are. paying to the Egyptians again. For you see, they forsook the
Lord. And that'll cost you. That'll
cost you. It costs them their freedom and
their liberty. You see, Pharaoh said, you gonna
pay me tribute. And every person, every person
in Judah is gonna pay taxes to Egypt. Why'd all that happen? Idolatry's
a horrible thing. They wind up back in bondage. So the Egyptians took Jehoahaz
captive, put him in chains in Egypt, and then Pharaoh appointed
the brother of Jehoahaz as king of Judah. But he changed his
name. Pharaoh, he's showing his might. Hey, I can do anything I want
to with you. I'll even change the name of your king. And change
the name of the king from Eliakim to Jehoiakim. This showed that Judah was no
longer a free nation. The Egyptians held him in captivity. And of course, this king also
did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He reigned
11 years in Jerusalem. But he paid homage to, and allegiance
to, and taxes to Egypt. Many people do leave the gospel. When the preachers were here
for our Bible conference, one of them said, he said, you know,
from time to time, I'll see somebody slipping away ever so slowly. And he said, there's nothing
I can do about it. Nothing I can do about it. The only one who can keep us
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, is
our God. Oh Lord, keep me. See, others,
more eloquent than I am, better preachers than I am, other preachers
have fallen by the wayside. Oh Lord, keep me as the apple
of thine eye. And other church members, As
faithful as y'all once were very faithful, and
then they fall by the wayside. And sometimes, in fact, I just
heard from somebody yesterday, told me about somebody went right
into a free will church. That kind of stuff makes preachers'
hair turn gray. It's a horrible thing. Only one who can keep us is the
Lord. I pray that he will. We have
a great responsibility. We have this treasure of the
gospel of the grace of God to sinners through the doing of
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellence The excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us. Well, let's sing a closing song.