Good morning, would you turn
to 2 Kings chapter 23. 2 Kings chapter 23. I'd like to begin reading verse
25 of 2 Kings chapter 23. And this is speaking of Josiah. And like unto him was there no
king before him. This is including David and Hezekiah
and Jehoshaphat and Ahaz and all these good kings. Like unto
him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord.
With all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might,
according to all the law of Moses, neither after him rose there
any like him. Notwithstanding, the Lord turned
not from the fierceness of his great wrath, where with his anger
was kindled against Judah, because of all their provocations that
Manasseh had provoked him with all. Manasseh was Josiah's grandfather. And the Lord said, I will remove
Judah also out of my sight, as I've removed Israel, and will
cast off this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the
house of which I've said my name shall be there. Now the rest
of the Acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written
in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his
days, Pharaoh Nicok, king of Egypt, went up against the king
of Assyria to the river Euphrates, and King Josiah went against
him. And he, the king of Egypt, slew
him, Josiah, at Megiddo. when he had seen him, and his
servants carried him in a chariot, dead from Megiddo, and brought
him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulcher. And
the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and anointed
him, and made him king in his father's stead. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy son, And we ask in his name that you would
be pleased to meet with us. That you would speak. That you
would give us what we need. Lord, we pray that we might be
found in Christ. We pray that his name might be
exalted and glorified. And we'd be privileged to see
something of his beauty and his glory and the completeness of
the salvation that's in him. We confess our sins. We pray
for forgiveness and cleansing for Christ's sake. I bless this
Lord for his sake and be with all your people wherever they
meet together. In Christ's name, that name that's above every
name we pray, amen. Now, Josiah was the greatest
of all the kings. That gets my attention better
than David, better than Hezekiah, Better than Joash, he was the
greatest of the kings, and that is pointed out in scripture. But that didn't get Israel off
the hook, did it? Actually, he was killed when
he was 39 years old. Somebody says that seems like
an untimely death. There are no untimely deaths.
The Lord took him out at this time. and still brought his wrath
upon Judah to where Judah was carried off into Babylon. Now, 2 Chronicles gives us more
detail, so would you turn with me to 2 Chronicles, chapter 35. Verse 20. After all this, after this Passover
was kept, after all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple,
he had restored the temple. And remember, the temple is not
just some kind of religious, it's Christ. That's the purpose
of the temple. It's to reveal Christ and how
God can be approached and His approach through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The temple had the altar. It had the laver to wash in. You come into God's presence
through the blood of Christ. You're washed continually in
the blood of Christ. Aren't you thankful for that?
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. You had the candlesticks, Christ
our light. You had the altar of incense,
Christ our intercessor. You had the table of showbread.
The only thing we live off is Christ and him crucified. You
have the Ark of the Covenant, how God can be approached through
Christ and the blood sprinkled on Him. This is what this temple
is about. It's to teach us of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, after
all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho, the king of
Egypt, came up to fight against Kerkemish by Euphrates, and Josiah
went out against him. Now, he didn't have any business
going out against him, as we're gonna read. He shouldn't have
done that. He shouldn't have tried to help
the king of Assyria, but that's what he did. He went out against
him, and this was all according to God's sovereign purpose. Now,
let's keep reading, verse 21. Now, the king of Egypt sends
out ambassadors to Josiah. But he, the king of Egypt, sent
ambassadors to him, saying, what have I to do with thee, thou
king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the
house wherewith I have war. For God commanded me to make
haste. Forbear thee from meddling with
God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not." Now, how did
God communicate to the king of Egypt? I have no idea, but he
did. Now, one of the things that I find so exciting about this
is that no matter what the event is, God is in control of it.
Whatever's happening in any part of the world, God is in absolute
control of it. Here we have this heathen king
of Egypt that God directed to go destroy these people. And
this man says, don't meddle with me. God told me to do this. I'm
doing what he would have me do. Now, how that took place, I don't
know, but it did take place. God is in sovereign control of
every event at all times. Now listen to me real carefully.
Listen to this statement. If God is not completely sovereign
over everything, he's not sovereign at all. Let me repeat that. If God is not completely sovereign
over everything, even the thoughts going through your mind right
now, if he's not completely sovereign over everything, He's not sovereign
at all. But thank God He is God. He's sovereign over all, and
He's directing this king of Egypt to do what He would have him
to do. God reigns. Now let's go on reading. Verse 22. Nevertheless, Josiah
would not turn his face from Him, but disguised himself, even
after he was given this information that God was directing this and
don't meddle with this, this is none of your business. Nevertheless,
Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself
that he might fight with him and hearken not unto the words
of Necho from the mouth of God. Don't miss that, from the mouth
of God. And he came to fight in the valley
of Megiddo. Now, Josiah at this time disobeys
the voice of God. It said, this is the voice of
God. Josiah was wrong in doing this. It was sin for him to do this. He could not blame God for his
sin, yet all of this was directed by the sovereign purpose of God. God is completely sovereign over
the actions, every action, the free and uncoerced actions of
men. Now, Josiah is a man, like me
and you. He might have been the greatest
man, but he's a man, he's a sinful man. And he says, I'm going to
disobey God. I'm going to go ahead and do
this. And the fact that he disguised himself, let you know, he knew
what he was doing was wrong. He knew what he was doing was
wrong. Do you know what you're doing was wrong when it's wrong?
Sure you do. Sure you do. It's my fault. My sin is my fault. Your sin is your fault. Josiah's
sin was his fault, but yet this was all a part of God's providence
because God was going to have him killed. so he could perform
what he said he was going to do because of Manasseh's sinfulness
to Judah. So here Josiah is in complete
freely acting, doing what he shouldn't do. And God was completely
sovereign over it. And God was going to have Josiah
killed through this action of his that was wrong. And Josiah
is the last king. And after this, Nebuchadnezzar
is going to take over. You can read about it in the
next chapter. This is when Judah is carried into Babylon for 70
years. and God actually moves the last king, Cyrus, to let
him go. You can read, as a matter of
fact, turn to Isaiah 45. I want you to see this. This
is after the 70 years that, this was written 200 years before
it took place. Isaiah 45, thus saith the Lord
to his anointed, to Cyrus, who would not be born for 200 years.
whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him.
And I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the
two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go
before thee and make the crooked places straight. I will break
in pieces the gates of brass and cut and sunder the bars of
iron." All these things that would prevent you from conquering,
I'm going to take care of. I'll give thee the treasures
of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest
knowest that I, the Lord which call thee by thy name, am the
God of Israel, for Jacob my servant's sake. And Israel, mine elect,
I've called thee by thy name, I've surnamed thee, though thou
hast not known me. I am the Lord, and there's none
else. There's no God beside me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known me." Cyrus didn't know that God
was directing every thought and every step he took. But this
is who God is. He really is God. that they may
know, verse six, from the rising of the sun and from the west,
that there's none beside me. I'm the Lord and there's none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create
evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. You know, I love that. I'm so
thankful the Lord is the way he is, that he is in absolute
control. And here's Josiah. He's disobeying
God. It was sin on his part. It was
wrong on his part, but here he is doing it. Now, let's go on
reading. Verse 22, the king of Egypt said, Don't meddle with
me. You're meddling with God if you do that. God has told
me to do this. Nevertheless, verse 22, Josiah would not turn
his face from him. but disguised himself that he
might fight with him and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from
the mouth of God. And he came to fight in the valley
of Megiddo. And the archers shot at King
Josiah. And the king said to his servants,
have me away for I'm sore wounded. Now he dies the same way Ahab
died. You remember how Ahab died? The archers shot at a venture
and it came and killed Ahab. Same thing happens with Josiah.
God directs that arrow into him to kill him according to his
sovereign purpose. And I also like ... Well, let's
go on reading. Verse 23, and the archer shot
at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, have me
away, for I'm sore wounded. His servants therefore took him
out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he
had, and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died and was
buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah
and Jerusalem mourned over him. What I love to think about is
death. We might look at it as an untimely death. He was such
a good king, the best king of all, and yet this happened to
him. But that very moment that he
died, he woke up in the presence of Christ. He woke up sinless. He woke up perfectly conformed
to the image of Jesus Christ. This was the best day of his
life. And if you're a believer, listen to me. The best day of
your life is the day of your death. Now, I can't say that
if you're not a believer, but if you're a believer, the best
thing that'll ever happen to you is when you die and wake
up in the very presence of God himself, perfectly conformed
to the image of Christ. And that's what happened with
Josiah. And look at the way people mourned. All of Judah and Jerusalem mourned
for Josiah. And Jeremiah the prophet lamented
for Josiah. And all the singing men and the
singing women spake of Josiah and their lamentations to this
day, and made them an ordinance in Israel. And behold, they are
written in the lamentations." Now, we don't read of any of
the other kings where people mourn like they did for the death
of Josiah. Now, I'm not real understanding
of this because as soon as Josiah died, they went back to idolatry.
And they went back to all these terrible things that were going
to take place that would end up bringing them into Babylonian
captivity. This was the last good king.
But at any rate, everybody mourned over the death of this king. Now, I don't believe anybody
in this room is famous. As a matter of fact, I would
say that after our death, within a few generations, our names
will not be known by anybody. Maybe if the world's still around,
we'll come up in ancestor.com and somebody's trying to figure
out their genealogy. But other than that, as far as
influence, our names, my name, won't be remembered by anybody. I love what Joe McSherry said. He said, we have about as much
influence as somebody putting their thumb in water and pulling
it back out. There's a little indention for a time, but it
doesn't last very long. What did James say? What is your
life? It's even a vapor. It's a vapor that appears for
a little while and passes away. Now, I look at people mourning
over Josiah, and I've got to think this way, and I hope you'll
think this way too. I'm not interested in a legacy. Lord knows whether I'm telling
the truth, but I'm not. I'm not interested in leaving a legacy
because I know that my life is nothing but a vapor, that it's
nothing but vanity, that in and of myself, anything that you
could say about me, you put a bad mark by it. My preaching, my
praying, my everything else, in and of myself, I am nothing
but sin. And talking about leaving a legacy,
what legacy? Vanity. That's the only legacy
any man leaves. I believe that. I'm not interested
in a legacy, but I still look at Josiah and look at the way
people mourned over his death. And it makes me ask myself and
you this question. What effect will your death have
upon the people that know you? That's a good question, isn't
it? What effect will your death have on the people that know
you? Well, it certainly had an effect on
the people who knew Josiah. Now what is brought out about
this man that they mourned the way they did? Verse 26. Now,
the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to
that which was written in the law of the Lord and his deeds.
First and last, behold, they are written in the book of the
kings of Israel and Judah. Now, what is pointed out about
Josiah? His goodness. Now, you and I
know that by nature, no man is good. Remember when the rich
young ruler came to Christ and said, good master, what good
thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord said, why
call Thou me good? Now, why did the Lord ask that
question? Because he knew that that man didn't know who he was.
And he was just coming to him as what he would have considered
a good man, good master. What good thing can I do to reach
the level of your goodness? And that's why the Lord corrected
him. He said, why are you calling me good? No man's good. Isn't
that so? No man's good. I'm not good.
You're not good. He's a good man. No, he's not.
Not before God. So what is the Lord talking about
when he's talking about Josiah's goodness being remembered? Well,
it's the same word that's translated merciful. He was a merciful man. He was a man who showed favor. He was a man who showed kindness.
As a matter of fact, in a lot of the different translations,
we read of them thinking of the kindness of Josiah. The kindness. Blessed are the merciful. for they shall obtain mercy. Those are the Lord's words. This
is a description of his elect. Blessed are the merciful. Now,
do you remember the Good Samaritan? The man in a ditch. The Levites,
the priests walked by. Religion can't do anything good
for man, half dead in a ditch. Somebody says, does that mean
we're half dead? No, we're plumb dead. Dead in sins. But you can't take
a parable and try to, well, see, you're not totally dead. Yeah,
you are. Yeah, you are. But that man was left half dead.
And the priests and the Levites couldn't do anything for him. Who did? The good Samaritan,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says he came to him
where he was. And that's what I need. I need
the Lord to come to me, not where I ought to be, but where I am. He came to him where he was.
And you know the story. He put him on his beast. He poured in oil and wine into
his wounds. He took him to the inn. And he
said, whatever you have to spend, put it on my account. I want
this man taken care of. Now, who is it that would appreciate
the good Samaritan? the man who experienced his mercy.
Now that's why Josiah, the type of Christ obviously, is so appreciated. It's why people mourned his death
because he was a merciful man, his kindness and so on, his gentleness. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, kindness. Now, going back to
this thing of Josiah dying and all this mourning going on, people
being troubled, people lamenting, and it was just general. Why
was it? Because of the kindness, because
of the goodness, because of the merciful attitude that this man
had. Like I said, he was the best
of the kings and there wasn't anyone that could compare to
him, including David, the man after God's own heart. Now, he
died, great mourning. And I would like us all to ask
ourselves this question, when I die, will there be mourning? like this, like Josiah did. And the reason there was that
attitude toward him is because of his merciful attitude, his
kindness. Love is kind. Now verse 27, And
his deeds, first and last, behold, they're written in the book of
the kings of Israel and Judah. Now his Deeds came out of this
new heart that God gave him, this merciful heart, this kind
heart. And I think it's interesting
if you look, what were his deeds? What were his deeds that came
from this kind heart? Well, first of all, the destruction
of all the images and idols and groves. I'm sure some people considered
him harsh for doing this and no respect for people's religion.
But man, he destroyed everything. And this is what is given as
an example of this good king. Second, the restoration of the
temple. Thirdly, the restoration of scriptural
worship. And fourth, a Passover like no
other Passover. Now this is what took place during
this man's reign. And they mourned at his death.
I want to show you a passage to close in Isaiah 57, if you'll
turn there. The greatest of all the kings
died at 39. Verse one, Isaiah 57, verse one,
the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart. And merciful
men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away
from the evil to come." The Lord directed that arrow
to kill him. But what a blessing it was, he
didn't have to see the evil that was to come, and the evil that
was to come upon Judah when they're going to be carried away into
Babylon. And everybody made eunuchs, the richest,
the most wealthy, the most educated, being made to use for Babylonian
purposes. And they were going to be tormented
in so many ways. And Josiah didn't have to see
any of this. What a blessing it was when the
Lord took him away. But Josiah, we admire him, but
we remember he's just like me and you, altogether vanity. That's us. Josiah proved that
when he disobeyed the voice of God and disguised himself. in order to do whatever it was
he wanted to do. He shouldn't have been joining
in league with the king of Assyria. There's so many warnings against
that. Don't go in league with the king of this nation or that
nation. Depend on me. He did it, but what a blessing
he was to Israel. May the Lord make me and you
Josias.