Let's go to the book of 2 Chronicles,
chapter 36. The book of 2 Chronicles, chapter
36. As most of you know, the last
two Lord's Days, we've been looking a little bit into the book of
Zechariah. And I'm actually going to use
his name and the message title, though we're not going to go
to the book of Zechariah this morning. We will this evening. I want to talk to you this morning
about the Lord Remembers. That is what the name Zachariah
means, the Lord Remembers. You know, as we have said, the
prophet Zachariah was sent back by King Cyrus of the Persians
He was sent back with the first wave of the Jews that the king
had, he made a law that said the Jews can go back to their
homeland. And one of the people who went
back was in the first wave, which was about a little over 43,000
Jews went back. And one of them was Zechariah.
The Scripture says, and we'll look at this tonight, he was
just a young man, we don't know exactly how old, but his name
means the Lord remembers. And here's the reason, I believe,
that the Lord raised up this particular man and gave him this
name is because the Lord wants all of his people to know that
he never forgets his own. He never forgets his people.
Whatever may be our situation, whatever may be the difficulties
that we are encountering, he always remembers his people. He never writes us off. He never
forgets us. And this is very well illustrated
in the history of Israel. Especially when they went into
captivity in Babylon. They stayed there 70 years. And I'm sure many people thought
the Lord has forgotten us. He doesn't think about us anymore.
Has the Lord erased us from His memory? And the answer is no.
No. And of course he raised up a
mighty preacher, actually two mighty preachers. One was Haggai
and the second was Zechariah. And they were contemporaries
of each other. And both of them went back from
the captivity in Babylon into Judah, into Jerusalem and preached
the truth of God. Well, here's what I want to talk
to you about this morning is the reason that Israel was in
captivity. They were in Babylon because
they had rebelled against God over and over again. There's
an old saying that goes, we learn from our mistakes. Not always. Not always. You see, the children
of Israel, and specifically the nation of Judah, the southern
kingdom, over and over they disobeyed
the Lord, they fell into idolatry, and then the Lord would send
some chastisement to them, some punishment, and then they would
be sorry for their sins, they would repent, and then the Lord
would forgive them. But it kind of ran in a cycle. They did this over and over again. They were rebellious as well,
and of course, we saw that through their wilderness journeys. As
Israel, time and time again, would face some difficulty, and
they would be very upset with the providence of God, and angry
with the Lord, and then he would send some punishment to them,
and then they'd say, we're sorry. And the Lord would forgive. Well, as we get toward the end
of the to the end, really, of all the good kings of Judah.
Judah had a few good kings. The northern kingdom, and I've
told you this, and I hope that you remember this. The northern
kingdom, you know the kingdom of Israel divided after the death
of Solomon. Ten tribes in the north, two
in the south. The southern kingdom called Judah,
had a few good kings. The Northern Kingdom had zero
good kings. They were taken into captivity,
the Northern Kingdom, and really the nation of Israel, that is
the Northern Kingdom, was virtually dissolved at that point. But
the Lord in mercy, He remembered Judah. He doesn't forget His
people. You see, our Lord Jesus, that
Messiah promised throughout the Old Testament, His sacrifice
was pictured over and over again, He would come forth out of Judah. God's not going to forget them. Now, they had one last good king. They had a king called Manasseh,
and he was vile. He was ungodly. He did more damage
to Judah, to Israel, than any other king before him. But God
at last saved him by His grace. But he did so much damage. And
after him, his son Ammon reigned, and he was just about as bad
as his daddy. Both of them evil in the sight
of God. Both of them introduced idolatry
into Judah. But then God killed Ammon, and
he had a son. His name was Josiah. When he was eight years old,
he began to reign. Can you imagine that? Having
a king who's eight years old. And the Scripture says he did
that which was right in the sight of God. Now, he had sons who were ungodly. And I'll go into the life of
Josiah in just a little bit, but after Josiah died, he had
a son who reigned a very brief period of time, and he was ungodly. And then another one of his sons
reigned, and he was ungodly. And then that second son who
had reigned, and God killed him, then his son, he became king
of Judah, and he was ungodly. And then lastly, lastly, there
was a man by the name of Zedekiah, and he was a son of Josiah, and
he was ungodly. Now, Josiah himself sought the
Lord. He became, by the grace of God,
one who was interested in the gospel of the grace of God. And he walked in the ways of
King David. And in the ways of the beginning
of the reign of King Solomon. And Josiah had great respect
for the things of God. He loved redeeming grace. In fact, he reinstituted the
Passover during his reign, which had not been observed since the
days of Samuel. And if you go back and do a little
bit of research, the Passover had not been observed since the
days of the judges. For years and years and years,
they didn't observe the Passover. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And He said, now you remember
this day, the rest of the existence of your nation. And of course,
that pictured the death of the Lord Jesus. God's Lamb. How were the Israelites redeemed
from Egyptian bondage? By the blood of the Passover
Lamb. The blood, the blood, the blood.
But since the days of the judges, no Passover. Why not? Ungodly kings ruled. You say, so they were irreligious. No, you're wrong. They were religious. But it was a religion without
grace. It was a religion without Christ. It was a religion that magnified
the duties and the ways and the works of men and not the way
of God which is a way of grace and salvation by substitution. And left that out. Along comes
Josiah of the grace of God. And he said, We hadn't been observing
the Passover. He said, shame on us. And he said, we're going to observe
the Passover. And he said, and I'm going to
provide all the lands, all the sacrifices for everybody in the
nation. They'll come from my farms. He reinstituted the Passover.
And he brought down idolatry. However, after he died, his sons, three of his sons and
one of his grandsons, they abandoned the very truth of God. They would not walk in the ways
of Josiah. Which leads me to say this. You may, as a mom, as a dad,
as a grandmother, as a grandfather, you may yourself worship the
Lord by means of the bloody sacrifice of Christ Jesus. I hope you're
a believer. I pray that you're a believer.
But just because you believe the gospel of grace does not
mean your children will. Grace does not run in the bloodline. You don't inherit a knowledge
of God. In the book of John, and you're
well familiar with John chapter 1, The Scripture says our Lord
Jesus, verse 10 and 11, He came unto His own and His own received
Him not. That's John 1.11. He came to
His own world. He came to His own nation. He
came to His own family. His own received Him not. But
as many as received Him. Received Him as who? As the only
Savior. Received Him as the Son of God. Received Him as that Spokesman
for God, the Word of God. Received Him as the Son of God.
Received Him as the Prophet of God. Received Him as the Priest
of God, who offered to God the acceptable sacrifice to put away
the sins of His people. As many as received Him as Prophet
and Priest and King, Lord, To them gave He the authority, the
right, to say, I'm a child of God. But it goes on. That's not the
end of the sentence. It says, which were born. What does that mean? Which were
born again. Which were regenerated. He's
talking now about the new birth. The Scripture now. John 1.13. Which were born? Born from above.
Born by grace. Born by the power of the Spirit
of God. Born again. We're spiritually dead. We have
to be regenerated. Which were born? And here's the
very first one. Not of blood. Not of blood. I'm thankful if you're a believer
and I give God the glory for that. But just because you're
a believer, that does not automatically mean your children and your grandchildren
will be. We say, well, surely because
I'm a believer and their mom is a believer, surely that gives
them a leg up with God. Oh my! You're way off base now. There's no advantage. You see, no spiritual blessing,
no spiritual life can be inherited from mom and dad by the children. The children, the grandchildren,
they have to be the objects of God's saving, sovereign, free
grace, just like you had to be. Don't you know that Abraham,
he desired, he wanted Ishmael to be a child of God? It's his own flesh! His own blood! Not a blood. David, he prayed
for Absalom. Oh, that Absalom would live before
God. It wasn't to be. And I'm sure it was Josiah's
prayer. Oh God, save my sons. Oh God,
show grace to my heirs. It wasn't to be. It's not of
blood. And it's not of the will of the
flesh either. The new birth doesn't come to
you because you willed it. Your will isn't free, it's in
bondage. One of the most ridiculous things
in this world is the idea that man has a free will. You're in
captivity, you're in bondage. The Scripture teaches that. Those
who believe in the absolute freedom of man's will to do as they want
to do spiritually, that they have the freedom to choose or
not to choose the Lord, are ignorant of man's true spiritual condition. Bondage, imprisonment, dead in
trespasses and sin. It's not of your will. Romans
9 says, it's not of him that willeth. nor of him that runneth,
not of him that wills, and not of him that makes the effort,
but of God who shows the mercy. It's God who manifests mercy.
Don't you try to steal God's glory and give your pitiful will
credit for doing something good for yourself. If you're saved
by the grace of God, it is solely by grace. And that's why in John
1.13 it says, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man. You can't will somebody else
in the kingdom of God, but of God. Josiah was a believer. His sons weren't. His sons weren't. The new birth has nothing to
do with who our parents may or may not be. It doesn't come by
family descent. Having Abraham for your father, that doesn't help you. Josiah, he was a man who was
faithful to the Lord. I said He started His reign when
He was 8 years old. When He was 16 years old, the
Scriptures says He began to seek the Lord. Young people, young people hear me. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. You call upon Him while He's
near. Listen to the Word of God. Listen
to the Gospel. May your heart's cry be that
of every adult in here, and I hope it's the cry of every adult who's
in here and who's out there. Oh God, be merciful to me, the
sinner. When he was 16 years old, he
began to seek the Lord. And Josiah, when he was 20 years
old, he said it in his mind and in his heart, I'm going to do
away with idolatry throughout the land. And he was on a mission. He was on a mission. Why, he
even dug up the bones of the false preachers and burned them. He burned them to powder. He
went around, he tore down all the physical idols, where they
had like the groves, that's a grove of trees, kind of like a rest
stop. People traveling around, traveling from town to town or
whatever, and they had little rest stops, little oases, they
called it the groves. They had idols there. Stop by
and pray to your idol. He destroyed them all. The Scripture
says He purged the land of idolatry. Oh boy, God gave him backbone. He wasn't but 20 years old. And when he was 26 years old, He went to one of the men who
was a scribe. A scribe's the one who copied
the Scripture. I don't know what they'd been
doing for years. But he went to this fellow and he said, you
know, I want you to... We've got some money that's been
gathered from all these people. A lot of silver. And I want you
to go over to the temple that's in shambles. And I want you to
give this money to the high priest." And so he went to the high priest. The scribe's name was Shaphan.
He went to the high priest whose name was Hilkiah. And he said,
the king said, let's get this place back in order. We need to start worshiping the
Lord here. So they did. This man Hilkiah,
he went in, he started, he said, let's clean out the rubble out
of the temple. It had really fallen into disrepair. And they're going through cleaning
this, cleaning that, going through various compartments in the temple.
And then Hilkiah, he came across a book. And he dusted it off. Boy, this
sure is a scrum. And he gave it to that scribe,
Shaphan. He said, take this to the king. I have found the Word of God. I have found God's Word. Shaphan went real quick to the
king Josiah. He said, we found a book. Josiah
said, what is it? He said, it's the Word of God. The Word of God. The king rent
his clothes. If you read the account of it,
you'll find the king read the contents of the book to all the
people. Oh, for a rediscovery of the
Word of God. May God forgive those houses
of worship where the Word of God is, in essence, just gathering
dust. Just gathering dust. And other
books are studied. Let's all study a Bible commentary
together. No, that's studying the writings
of a man. Well, here's a novel idea. What
about studying the Word of God? Josiah said, we're going to reestablish
the worship of God. We're going to resume the sacrifices. And we're going to give due diligence
to the Scriptures. Oh, to the Scriptures. That present to us this grace
of God in Christ. You say, preacher, I don't understand
why people believe this nonsense about working your way to heaven
and live by the golden rule you'll get in. Here's the reason. They
ignore the teaching of the Word of God. Josiah said, we have found a
treasure. I'm going to tell you something.
You have a treasure. Right there in your hands. Rediscover it. Rediscover it. Read the book
of God. Always looking for that one who
is the life of God, Christ Jesus. Well, they read the book of God. And the king sent some people
and said, I want you to go and talk to a woman. Her name is Hulda. She is herself a prophetess. Ask her what's going to happen. So, Shaphan went to Hulda I said,
what's going to happen? What's going to happen? The king
wants to know. I mean, we have neglected the
book of God. What's going to happen? She said, you tell the king,
I'm going to bring evil upon this place and on the people because they
have forsaken the Lord. Now listen to me. The sins of
one generation, the wages of those sins are often paid to
generations in the future. That's what Scripture says. She said, you go back and tell
the king, the Lord said, my wrath is kindled against this place. But you tell the king. He's not
going to live to see what's going to happen. I'm going to do all
this after he's dead and gone. He said, Shaphan told the king,
said, Behold, I will gather thee together. Well, I'll tell you
what, you read the verse here. Look at chapter 34 and verse 23. chapter 34 here of 2 Chronicles,
verse 23. And she answered, they came and
asked Huldah, what's going to happen? And verse 23, she answered
them, thus said the Lord God of Israel, tell ye the man that
sent you to me, tell the king, 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 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. As for the king of Judah, Josiah,
who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall you say unto him,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou
hast heard, because thine heart was tender, 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 weep before me.
I even have heard thee also sayeth the Lord, Behold, I will gather
thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave
in peace. Neither shall thine eyes see
all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the
inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word
again." King? Some awful things are going to
happen around here. I'm going to take you home before
that happens. I'm going to take you home before
they happen. And the Lord did. Josiah, actually, Pharaoh had come against a group
of people to war against them. And Pharaoh said to the king
of Judah, now you stay out of this. This is not your fight. Joe Side disguised himself. He
said, I'm going to fight with this group of people over here.
He got shot with an arrow. They got him down off his chariot.
He said, take me home. They took him home, and he died
at home. And then an evil sun took over. He reigned three months. and
another evil son took over. He reigned 11 years. Things just
kept on getting worse and worse. You see, yes, Josiah removed all the statutes,
all the idols, all the religious paraphernalia. He stamped those
things out. But you can't take idolatry out
of the heart. See, that's where it comes from. And his sons, they knew what
his dad had done. Tear down all the statutes and
all the idols. They just built them again. And so, God said, I've had enough. I've had enough. Look at chapter 36. Look at verse 14. Moreover, all the chief of the
priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations
of the heathen. Just went right back to it. You know what keeps you from
going back to the abominations of the heathen? Those of you
who are believers. So I'm strong in the faith. No. That's a preservation of the
Lord keeps you. If He doesn't keep us, we'll
go back. We'll go back like hogs to their
wallowing in the mire That's right. It's got to keep us. And if you go back after professing
grace, grace, that's what I believe. Christ only for me. He's my Savior. He's my Lord. He's the approved
sacrifice of God. You say, I believe that with
all my heart, and then you forsake that. That doesn't mean you lose
your salvation. It just means you didn't have
it to begin with. Oh yeah, you did away with all
those visible idols. But it's still in here. It says here, verse 14, They
polluted the house of the Lord, which He had hallowed in Jerusalem.
And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers,
rising up beat times and sending. God sent them preacher after
preacher after preacher. because he had compassion on
his people and on his dwelling place. He just kept sending one
faithful servant after another, one prophet after another, one
preacher after another. Look at verse 16, but they mocked
the messengers of God. Too much grace for us. That's too much blood for us.
That's too much Christ for us. They despised His words and misused
His prophets. And I want you to look, underline
this last statement of verse 16. Until the wrath of the Lord
rose against His people till there was no remedy. What a powerful statement. till there was no remedy. And the word remedy means healing.
It reminds me of a statement found
in Proverbs 29. He that being often reproved
and hardeneth his heart shall suddenly be cut off and that
without remedy. There's such a finality to that. I don't know too much about spiritual
deadlines, but there certainly seems to
be one. God sent these people one faithful
preacher after another. He wouldn't believe any of them. A few believed the record that
God gave of His Son. They saw the importance of blood
redemption. They saw the justice of God satisfied
in the sacrifice of the coming Messiah. But by and large, most
of them didn't believe. They mocked the preachers that
the Lord sent. They absolutely despised His
Word until it's as though they crossed a line and there was
no going back. You've gone too far. Till there was no remedy. That's a frightening statement.
It ought to be frightening to you. Till there was no remedy. What did those preachers say?
It's like Moses who put up that brazen serpent in the wilderness.
Look and live! Look and live! And all of God's
preachers say that. Look to Christ and live! Behold
the Lamb of God! Will you behold Him? How many
times have you been admonished to behold the Lamb of God? You
heard that time and time and time again. from different preachers
that the Lord has sent. I don't know if there may come
a time when God says of you, you've crossed the line. That's
one time too many, you've despised my gospel. And if that happens, you're as
good for hell as if you was already there. Hey, we ain't playing games here.
This is as serious as it gets right now. God sent you somebody
to be honest with you. Somebody who preaches the Gospel
of Christ to you. Who says you believe on the Son
of God. Look to Him! The storm clouds
are gathering. The wrath of God is coming. There's
one place of refuge for your poor soul. Christ is the refuge. Come to the Savior. And you go out the doors, it
has no effect upon you. It may be a time when you cross
that line and say there's no remedy. You say, Jim, I can't
square that with sovereign grace. Who said you had to square things
in your mind? You can't understand the ways
of God. I'm just telling you what your
responsibility is. Believe God's Word. Believe on
the Son of God. Well, what does God say He's
going to do? Look at verse 17. Uh oh, here it comes. Therefore he brought upon them
the king of the Chaldees. The Babylonians are coming. Who? killed their young men with
a sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion
upon the young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for
age. He gave them all into His hand.
God gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. And all the vessels
of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the
house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princess,
all these he brought to Babylon, and they burnt the house of God."
Just like Holden says it's going to happen. They break down the
wall of Jerusalem. They burnt all the palaces thereof
with fire. And they destroyed all the goodly
vessels therein. And them that had escaped from
the sword carried he away to Babylon. For they were servants
to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia.
to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until
the land had enjoyed her sabbaths for as long as she lay desolate,
she kept sabbath to fulfill three score and ten years." In other
words, for 70 years, the land of Judah lay like a sabbath untouched. But you know what? God didn't
forget His people. He remembers His true people.
Not those who give lip service to the truth, but those in whose
heart the Lord has put the throne of Christ. Those who've been
brought by quickening grace to be alive to God and believe the
gospel of grace. So here's what happened. In the
first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, see the Babylonians,
they fell. In the last couple of verses,
Ron read to us there in Isaiah chapter 43, talked about what
he was going to do to the Babylonians. He was going to follow them.
The Lord said, you're going through the fire, I'm with you. I tell
you, the people of God, the true believers in Babylon, they were
going through the floodwaters, but they weren't drowned. They
went through the fiery trials, the cruelties of the Babylonians,
but they weren't consumed. The first year of Cyrus, king
of Persia, the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be accomplished. The Lord stirred up the spirit
of Cyrus, king of Persia." See, the heart of the king is in the
Lord's hand. He turned it that whithersoever
he will. That he made a proclamation throughout
all of his kingdom. He put it in writing, saying,
Thus said Cyrus, king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth
hath the Lord God of heaven given me. And he had charged me to
build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there
among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him,
and let him go up. And one of the ones that went
up was Zechariah. Because you see, the Lord doesn't
forget his people. He doesn't forget his people.
You may go through some tough times. He might even put you
in a Babylon. And times are tough. But He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And the people who loved the
Gospel of Grace were brought back to Jerusalem. And the worship
of Jehovah was reinstituted. After just several months, the
altar was repaired. Sacrifices were once again offered. Oh God of grace and God of mercy,
work in all of our hearts. Give us the desire, give us the
will to come to Christ only. Just as we are. I'm just a poor sinner and nothing
at all. But I'll tell you this, Jesus
Christ is my all and all. He's my hope. He's my hope. Let's sing a closing song. Get
your songbooks and we'll turn to 59, The Great Physician.