Second Chronicles 34. I have a message this morning is. I feel such vital importance
is just been burning in my heart since I first read this chapter
earlier this week. In Second Chronicles 34, Israel
has fallen into idolatry. They had a series of some good
kings and some bad kings and They just had gone through the
reign of an evil king, a man named Ammon, and the worship
of the Lord had become non-existent. But now in chapter 34, the Lord
gives Israel a new king. He gives them a good king, a
king named Josiah. We read about him beginning in
verse one. Josiah was eight years old when
he began to reign and he reigned in Jerusalem one and 30 years.
And he did that, which was right in the sight of the Lord. 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. In the 12th year, he began to
purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves
and the carved images and the molten images. They break down
the altars of Balaam in his presence. and the images that were on high
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 them upon the graves of them that had sacrificed
under them. And he burned 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 under Naphtali with their maddox 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, he returned to Jerusalem. Now Josiah was only
eight years old when he became king, but already even at eight
years old, his heart was soft toward the Lord. And when he
was 16 years old, scripture tells us Josiah began to seek the Lord. You know, it's never too young
to be taught about who the Lord is to be. That's what we've got
going in our classes this morning. It's not never too young to be
taught who the Lord is. A person is never too young to
seek the Lord. Josiah is 16 years old. He, his
heart was soft toward the Lord. He began to seek the Lord. He
tore down every idol. He ground them to powder. The
priests of those idols, he killed them, burned their bones upon
the altars of those idols. He rid Israel of idolatry. And when he is about 26 years
old, he began to repair the temple. The temple had fallen into a
horrible state of irrepair because it had been neglected for so
long. We see that in verse eight. Now in the 18th year of his reign,
when he purged the land and the house, he sent this man named
Shaphan, the son of Azaliah and Maziah, the governor of the city,
and Joah, the son of Johaz, the recorder to repair the house
of the Lord, his God. And then verses nine through
13, for time's sake, we won't read them, but they tell us about
the work that went on repairing the temple. And you know why
the temple had fallen into such a state of irrepair? You know
why idolatry had spread throughout the land? All of Israel, idolatry
just infiltrated everywhere. You know why that happened? Somewhere
along the line, they had lost the word of God. They had it
on scrolls. Somewhere along the line, God's
Word became so unimportant, they forgot where they put it. One
day they put it down and they forgot where they put it. That's
how unimportant the Word of God was to them. They lost it. And
during the time that they were repairing the temple and sweeping
up and cleaning up and things, you know, scrubbing everything
down, one of the priests found a scroll. What's this? He picked it up and he looked.
He said, I've heard about this. This is the Word of God. This
is the Word God gave to Moses. He found it. This is the first
five books of the Bible written by Moses. Now look in verse 14
of 2 Chronicles 34. And when they brought out the
money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the
priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And
Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I found the
book. I found the book of law in the
house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book
to Shaphan. The title of our lesson this
morning is when the Bible is found. When the Bible is found. Shaphan, he found, or Hilkiah
found it. He found the book. He found this
scroll and he took it to the king. The way it talks here about
him delivering the book and taking it to the king, he carried it
to the king like it was the crown jewels. He knew what he'd found. He found a treasure. Now you want me to tell you why
our day is the way that it is? You want me to tell you why religion
is in the state that it's in, in our day? This is, you don't
need me to tell you, this is a clear picture of religion in
our day. The reason for it is we've lost the Word of God. The
worship of the Lord is practically non-existent in our day. Idolatry
is spread throughout this land. The temple, which is a picture
of Christ, that has fallen, the preaching of Christ has fallen
into such horrible state of repair. The preaching of Christ is completely
broken down in our day. And the reason for it is this.
We've lost the word of God. I know plenty of people have
Bibles and in our day, I would say it's worse than in Josiah's
day. In Josiah's day, they lost the
scroll. They physically lost the book.
We've got the book. Most homes in America have at
least one Bible. People sitting in so-called churches
today are holding the Bible in their lap and they lost it. They've
lost it. They lost the meaning of it.
They don't know what it means. Nobody bothered to tell them
what it means. Religious people, they either ignore the word of
Lord altogether or they change the meaning of it so that it
becomes palatable to men so it fits their system of doctrine.
But either way, they've lost the word of God. In our day,
modern religion has set the Bible aside, so they've got more time
for singing, more time for sharing, more time for people to give
their testimony. They've set the Bible aside,
so they have time to give motivational speeches to people, to tell them
how to live, to tell them how to get rich. The bottom line
is so they can tell them how to give more, because it's all
about the money, you know. Today's religion, because they've
lost the word of God, they've turned the gospel into begging
men to do something for God instead of commanding men to beg God
for mercy, to beg God to do something for them. Today's religion, they've
got everything upside down. They've turned God into the beggar
instead of the creature into the beggar. They preach a dunghill
God. No wonder they got to constantly
give motivational speeches to get people to worship this dunghill
God. He's not worth worshiping. They
preach a dunghill God rather than the sovereign God. The question
that we ought to be asking men and women is not, what will you
do with Jesus? That's their question. The question
is, what's God going to do with you? What's he going to do with
you? And they asked the wrong question
because they lost the word of God. Today's religion tries to
get men to give their heart to Jesus. You know, I read in the
newspaper by this woman, she said, three years ago, I gave
my heart to Jesus. I told Janet, he didn't want
it. I mean, he just didn't want it. He don't want that old heart. If God teaches us anything, what
we'll be praying is God take that heart out of me and give
me a new one. Rather than begging God to give us a new heart and
a new birth, we try to convince men and women, give your heart
to Jesus. Today's religion Now you see if this is not so, you
listen to them on the television. They talk about earthly riches,
do they not? Rather than talk about our spiritual
poverty and the riches of God's mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. It's so sad, they talk about
the physical rather than the spiritual because they've lost
the Bible. Today's religion is interested
in numbers rather than interested in growth and grace in God's
people. Today's religion is interested in getting people to walk an
aisle. And they're not interested at all in getting a sinner to
come to Christ. Modern religion ignores the problem
of sin. And the reason they ignore the
fall of man is they're ignoring the Word of God. They've lost
it. And because they ignore the problem of sin, they make religion
a matter of missing hell and going to heaven. rather than
an issue of being saved from our sin. Their question is, you
don't want to go to hell, do you? Somebody's going to get
saved. Well, the way we're going to get them saved is if I ask
you, you don't want to go to hell, do you? Well, what kind of question
is that? I mean, only a fool's going to
answer, yeah, I want to go to hell. Of course you don't want
to go to hell. But that's not the issue. The issue is not whether
or not I want to go to hell. The issue is my guilt of sin
before God. That's the issue. How can my
sin be taken away? That's the issue. A better question
is, do you need mercy? Do you need forgiveness of your
sin? Do you need to be washed from your sin? Do you need to
be given a new birth? Do you need to be cleansed? Modern
religion never asks, how can a man be just with God? They
never ask, how can he be clean as born of a woman? Just, do
you want to go to heaven or hell? and they asked the wrong question
because they lost the book. Today's religion is a message
that's to the head, not to the heart. And they don't speak to
the heart because they don't know about it. They don't know
about a new heart being born in a new birth. They just make
logical statements and they tell you if you agree with my logical
statements, then you're saved. They've replaced faith with debating. They've replaced faith in God
with debating. They've replaced a heart work
with head activity. They've replaced the work of
the Holy Spirit in the new birth with knowledge that the carnal
mind can gain. They've replaced faith in God
with a decision that the carnal mind can make. In essence, the
problem with modern day religion, because they've lost the book,
is they ignore character. They ignore the character of
man and the character of God. They ignore the character of
man, which is sinful. They ignore the character of
man is a sin nature. Brother Scott said, it's plum
ruined. Plum ruined because of the fall
of Adam. And they ignore the character
of God. He's holy and righteous. And because they don't understand
that, They don't deal with the truth that in order for a man
to be saved, the law must be kept, not in part, fully, before
God can accept anyone. They don't deal with the truth
that God must be both just and justifier. We can't justify ourselves. God's got to do it. We're totally
ruined. We can't do it. God's got to
do it, but he's got to be our justifier in a way that's just
because God's holy and righteous. There can be no mercy and no
grace from God unless God's justice is satisfied first. And the problem
in our society from the lowest, poorest house clear to
the White House, the problem comes from the errors in the
pulpit. The error is in the pulpit. So-called preachers have lost
the word of God. They can't tell you what the
Bible means any more than they can read you Egyptian hieroglyphics. They don't know what it means.
How I pray, how I pray every day, God would make somebody
find this book, that God would show somebody what this book
means. And they'd come to God's people
and say, I found a book. I found the book and they treat
it like the crown jewel that it is. And no matter what. Preach what it says. God's Word
means exactly what it says. I wish somebody preaching. Look
at 2nd Timothy chapter 4. I've spent. Been able to. It's
such a blessing to spend some time with some of God's preachers
in the past week or four or five days. And we talk about preaching. We talk about, I always try to
glean some information, you know, from these fellas. And as you
talk about preaching, you know, a name that invariably comes
up in every conversation, Henry Mahan. Now, There's things about
Brother Henry I can't copy. I can't copy his way. I can't
copy his just. You know there's gifts that the
Lord gives. You can't copy those things. But there's something I can copy. I know this is so. Brother Henry. I can't look. It's not made the
secret to his ministry. The Lord blessed it, Something,
it's not a secret, it's obvious. What did he preach? The word
of God. Verse by verse, line by line,
week after week, day after day, year after year, he preached
the word of God. This word is the seed. It's not,
that's what God's word said, this is the seed. Well, if we'd
like to see God give people life, it'd be a good idea if we preach
it, wouldn't it? This is the word. The word is the green grass. This is how God's sheep are fed.
Well, if we'd like to see God's sheep grow in grace and knowledge
and be fed and be prepared for those times Dale prayed about,
God brings us into the valley, darkness, and we think, what's
happened? If we want our brethren to, I love you. When God brings you
to that point, I'd like for you to think my pastor prepared for
this. He taught me what God said. The
only way that's going to happen is if somebody dares preach the
word. Look at what Paul tells Timothy.
This is not just Paul and his wisdom. This is God, the Holy
Spirit moving Paul to write this. He says, Timothy verse one, I
charge thee therefore. Before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who so judged the quick and the dead in his appearing,
in his kingdom, Timothy, you preach the word. You be instant. In season, you preach the word. Out of season, you preach the
word. You reprove and you rebuke by
preaching the word. You exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine by preaching the word. For the time will come,
they'll not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust, they
shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and they'll be turned
unto fables. Why are they turned unto fables?
Because they turned away, they lost the book. By God's grace,
I intend to follow the example of my pastor, Brother Henry,
and to always and only preach to you the word of God. God will
enable us to find the word, to find his word. There are some
things that will happen. First of all, if men ever find
the book of God, men will seek the Lord, just like Josiah did.
Now our text here, I know it's just a picture. Josiah did begin
to seek the Lord before he found the book, didn't he? But you
know what? Josiah never found God. until
somebody found the book and read it to him. He sought the Lord,
but he never found it. He never found the Lord until
somebody read him the book of God. And if men would dare preach
who God is, not who we think God is or who we think God should
be, but if we would dare preach who God says he is in his word,
sinners will seek him. You know what? Sinners will find
him. They'll find him. God said, if
you seek me, in the day you seek me, with all your heart, you'll
find me. Brother Fred Evans, a pastor, a redeemer, Louisville,
Kentucky, told me, he said, a couple months ago, these two fellas,
he'd never seen him before in their mid to upper 60s, two brothers,
came into the service. He doesn't know why. They just
came one, just here they showed up. Been in religion their whole
life. Fred preached the message that
God laid on his heart. And one of those men came to
him and told him, I didn't know it when I walked in here tonight,
but I was lost. God saved me tonight. God saved me. How'd he know that? Somebody dared. preached the
word, they found the book and preached it. And there's one
God's sheep, Fred said, he's not missed a surface since. If
we find the book, men will seek the Lord. Second, if we find
the book of God, all the idols are gonna go. Just like Josiah
got rid of all that idolatry. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter
one. If a sinner ever finds out who God is, Then and only then
will he turn from his idols. 2 Thessalonians 1, I'm sorry, 1 Thessalonians 1
verse 9. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait
for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even
Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Now, why did
the Thessalonians turn to God from their idols? Because they
found the word. Somebody preached it to them.
Look up at verse six. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received what? The word. in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost. They found the word of God and
when they did, their idols had to go. Third, if we ever find
the book of God, all those false prophets are going to have to
go. It's not that they mean well, it's not that they're pretty
nice fellows that say some good things, no. If we ever find the
book of God, those false prophets are going to have to go. The
only message we'll ever hear is the clear message of Christ. You know, we say we find the
word. This is what I mean by that. We find Christ who's the
message of the word. And if God ever gives you an
ear to hear and love the message of Christ, you'll never accept
another one. Look in Isaiah chapter eight. God ever gives you an ear to
hear the message of this book, which is Christ. You're not gonna
be able to stomach those false prophets preaching a lie anymore. Isaiah 8 verse 19. And when they shall say unto
you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizards
that peep and mutter. Brother Clay Curtis and I were
talking about this very verse, and he says, you know what that
peep and mutter is? He says it's like the fellow
that writes the horoscope in the newspaper. He peeps and mutters. It can
mean something to everyone. It's so generic. It can mean
anything to anybody. That's the message of the false
prophet. They peep and mutter just, well, that's what it means
to me. That's what it means to you.
We'll all do right in our own eyes. What's right in our own eyes.
You won't accept that anymore. If you ever hear from God, Isaiah
said, should not a people seek under their God for the living,
to the dead, to the law and to the testimony. If they speak
not according to this word, it's because there's no light in them.
No wonder they don't speak according to this word. They don't have
it. They've lost it. But if they ever find this book,
they'll start speaking according to it. Fourth, if we ever find
the book of God, the right worship of God will
be restored. Now, Josiah, he was restoring
the temple, and that's when they found the book. They're sweeping
and cleaning, and they found the scroll. And it's good he
was restoring that building. That's where the place God was
to be worshiped. But no matter what they did with
that building, the true worship of the Lord could never be restored
until they found the book, until they found the word of God. And
when they found the building, I mean, I'm glad we have a nice
and comfortable building, but the building is not nearly as
important as is the Bible preached there or not? After they read
the book, they found the book of the law. When they read it,
you know what they did? They restored the Passover. Look at
2 Chronicles 35 verse 1. Moreover, Josiah kept a Passover
under the Lord in Jerusalem, and they killed the Passover
on the 14th day of the first month. After they read the book
of God, they restored the worship of God through the blood of a
substitute. And if God ever lets us find
his book, we'll restore the gospel of substitution. What's the gospel
of substitution? The lamb died, so the firstborn
lived. That's the gospel of substitution.
And that lamb must be a perfect lamb because it's a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the perfect lamb of God. The
lamb must be perfect. And if we're going to preach
the gospel of substitution, we've got to say this. That blood of
the perfect lamb's got to be shed. The lamb must die and shed
his blood because without the shedding of blood, there's no
remission. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect lamb of God with
perfect blood. I tell you, behold the lamb of
God with perfect blood who takes away the sin of the world. The
blood of God's lamb cleanses us from all sin because his blood
is perfect. He had to die on the cursed tree,
Calvary's cross, because his blood has got to be shed. Perfect
blood. But now listen, the gospel of
substitution doesn't stop there. The blood's got to be shed. The
lamb's got to be perfect. His blood's got to be shed. But
the blood's got to be applied to the doorpost. If the blood's
not applied, the firstborn's going to die. The blood of Christ. That perfect blood must be applied
to our hearts in the new birth, or there's no forgiveness of
sin. There's no life until the blood is applied. But the gospel
of substitution doesn't even stop there. The lamb must be
eaten. In obedience to God's command,
the lamb must be eaten. Christ, the lamb of God, must
be eaten. His flesh must be eaten. His
flesh must be drunk by every believer. There must be union. There must be vital union with
Christ. And if we ever find the book
of God, that's the gospel of substitution we'll preach. That's
the gospel of substitution we'll believe. Fifth, if we ever find
the book of God, you know what there'll be? There'll be repentance. Look at verse 19 of our text,
2 Chronicles 34. And it came to this shape and
the scribe, he came, he read the book before the king and
it came to pass when the king and heard the words of the law,
he ran his clothes and the king commanded Hill Kion, the Kion,
the son of safe and Abdon, the son of Micah and shape and describe
and as I, a servant of the king saying, you go inquire the Lord
for me and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah concerning
the words of the book that's found. for great is the wrath
of the Lord that's poured out upon us because our fathers have
not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that's written
in this book. Josiah knew we're in trouble
because of our sin. You know how he knew that? Somebody
read him the book. Somebody found it and they dared
read it. Look over at Romans chapter seven. Josiah, when he heard, Who He
is. He heard of His sin. He repented,
didn't He? Well, if we ever truly hear the
Word of God, we'll repent too. Just like Him. Because we realize
we're dead in sin. And you can't know that until
you hear the Word of God. That's the only place this is
revealed to us. Romans 7 verse 9. Now you reckon old Saul of
Tarsus, he had possession of the scroll, didn't he? He lost
the book. He didn't know what it meant.
till one day God sent him somebody to tell him. He says in Romans
7 verse 9, for I was alive without the law once. I thought I was
alive without the law once. But when the commandment came,
when I found the book, sin revived and I died. I realized I was
dead in sin when I found the book, when God showed me the
meaning of the book. And Josiah knew the problem was
in the pulpit. When he talked there about our
fathers in verse 21, they've not done, they've not kept the
word of the Lord. He knew where the problem was. The problem's
in the pulpit, our fathers who should have told us better. So
he did the sixth thing. If we ever find the book of God,
you know what we'll do? We'll seek to God's prophet.
Verse 22, the Hilkiah and they that the king had appointed went
to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikva,
the son of Hasra, keeper of the wardrobe. Now she dwelt in Jerusalem
in the college and they spake to her to that effect. If we
ever find the book of God, We'll seek to God's prophet and ask
him, can you tell me what this means? Can you tell me what this
means? Can you tell me who Christ is? Can you tell me who the lamb
is? Can you tell me, is there a way a sinner can be justified?
Here's a question I want to know. Can you tell me, is there mercy
for a sinner like me? I read in this book, God's merciful.
Can you tell me if he'll be merciful to me? I'll tell you what God's
prophet will tell us. Now today, I know they sought
to a prophetess in that day. I don't know anything about that,
but this is what I do know. Today, if you're going to find
God's prophet, he's going to be a man, but his message will
be the same as this prophetess. First, he's going to tell you
this, God's holy. God is holy. God's angry with
sin, God's gonna punish every sin. Look what she says in verse
23. And she answered them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
tell you the man that sent you to me, thus saith the Lord. See, this is what God's servant
always says, not here's what I think, not here's what our
church have always taught, 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've
read before the King of Judah. because they've forsaken me and
they've burned incense unto other gods that they might provoke
me to anger with all the works of their hands. Wherefore, my
rash be poured out upon this place and shall not be quenched. Now, God is holy. God will punish
every sin without exception. Then there's only one place the
fiery wrath of God against sin can be extinguished. Just one
place. And that's in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, in his sacrifice. Christ our substitute suffered
for the sins of his people. Now he's the perfect lamb of
God. He could endure all of God's wrath against the sin of his
people because Christ was, is, and always has been, always will
be holy. So he could suffer for the wrath
of God and he suffered until the fire of God's wrath went
out. And the fire of God's wrath against the sin of his elect
only went out when sin was gone. Sin was purged and paid for by
the suffering and by the blood of Christ our substitute. God's
holy. God will punish every sin, either
in you or in your substitute. Here's the second thing. God's
prophet will always preach. God's holy. He's just. And God's
merciful. and gracious to sinners. Verse
26. And as for the King of Judah
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 tremble
thyself before God when thou heardest his words against this
place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself
before me, didst rend thy clothes and weep before me. I have even
heard thee also, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to
thy fathers. Thou shalt be gathered to thy
grave in peace. Neither shall I 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. God wasn't merciful
to Josiah because Josiah had a tender and humble heart. No,
Josiah had a tender and a humble heart because God was merciful
to him. His heart was tender because
God gave him a new heart. Our natural heart is so hard,
it'll never bow. It'll never be molded in anything.
It's too hard. Our natural heart is too full
of pride. It can't be humble. There's not
a humble bone in our body. Our heart is desperately wicked,
deceitful above all things. Who can know it? That heart will
never seek the Lord. So God gives his people a new
heart, a heart of faith, a heart of love, a heart of humility
that does seek him. And when that heart hears the
word of God, that heart will be a faithful follower of Christ.
Go to verse 29. And the king sent and gathered
together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went
up into the house of the Lord, all the men of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priest and Levi's 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. 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 his 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 the countries that pertain to the children
of Israel and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even
to serve the Lord their God. In all his days, they departed
not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. When
they heard the word of God, they followed him. Maybe God will
be pleased to bless us that way, cause us to follow him if we
preach his word. How I pray we would find this
book, that we find the savior of this book, the incarnate word,
never lose it. All right, I hope the Lord will
bless that too.