Add to the prayer list Mr. Kevin
Plymouth's family. He lost his dad to cancer. I
also remember the Cunningham family, the loss of Tommy. Fred
Cochran is doing really well. He came home yesterday or last
night. They had six bypasses and they
all went real well. The doctor really encouraged.
He was up and at them and feeling good when I went to see him Friday.
So we're thankful for that. Continue to remember them in
your prayers and also D Cunningham, D, D Cunningham, D, D Parks as
well. So, okay, let's begin our worship
service this morning with this sheet. We got complete in thee. No, is that right? Oh, I'm sorry. That's the second song. Well, let's get this party started.
Okay. Hymn number 466, Christ Liveth
in Me. What's far from God and it's
in the light my heart could see. But in God's word, the light
I found. ? Now Christ liveth in me ? Christ
liveth in me ? Christ liveth in me ? Oh what a salvation this
? That Christ liveth in me ? As rays of light from yonder
sun ? The flowers of earth set free ? So life and light and
love came forth ? From Christ living in me ? Christ liveth
in me Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. As lives the flower within the
seed, as in the cone the tree. ? So praise the God of truth
and grace ? His spirit dwelleth in me ? Christ liveth in me ?
Christ liveth in me ? Oh, what a salvation this is With longing all my heart is
filled That like Him I may be As on the wondrous salt I dwell
That Christ liveth in me Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. After Scripture and Prayer, we'll
sing Complete in Thee. You have the paper there in your
profuse. If you have your Bibles, a couple
of announcements. Happy birthday to Wayne. Next Sunday is the last Sunday
of the month, so we'll be having the Lord's Table after the morning
service and no afternoon service. That'll be next Sunday. October
is already gone. Can you believe that? My goodness. 2 Kings chapter 23. begin reading the verse 21 and
read through the end of the chapter. This is about King Josiah instituting
the greatest Passover ever known to Israel. Verse 21, And the
king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover unto
the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant,
Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the
judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings
of Israel, nor in the kings of Judah, but in the eighteenth
year of the king Uzziah, wherein his Passover was holden to the
Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, the workers with the
familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols,
and all the abominations were spied in, in the land of Judah,
and in Jerusalem did Josiah put away, that he might perform the
words of the law which were written in the books that Hilkiah the
priest found in the house of the Lord. And 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 the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like
him. Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not the fierceness of
his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah,
because of all the provocations of Manasseh had provoked him
with, The Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as
I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city, Jerusalem,
which I have chosen, and the house of which I 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 Nicac, king
of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river
Euphrates and king Josiah went against him and he slew him at
Megiddo when he had seen him and his servants carried him
in his chariot dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem
and buried him in his own sepulchre and the people of the land took
Jehoias the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king
in his father's stead. Jehoahaz was twenty and three
years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in
Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutel, the daughter of
Jeremiah of Limnah. He did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
Pharaoh Nechoc put him in the hands of Rehoboam in the land
of Hamath. that he might not reign in Jerusalem,
and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver
and a talent of gold. Pharaoh Nechoc, Elikiam, the
son of Josiah the king, in the room of Josiah's father, and
turned his name to Jehoiachim, and took Jehoiaz away, and he
came to Egypt and died there. And Jehoiachim gave silver and
gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according
to the commandment of Pharaoh, He exacted the silver and gold
of the people of the land and of everyone according to his
taxation to give unto Pharaoh Nechah. Jehoiachin was twenty
and five years old when he began to reign. He reigned eleven years
in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Jebuda, the daughter
of Padiah of Rumah. He did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. Let us pray. We thank you for your word with
the honest and clear representation of humanity in it. We are thankful,
Father, that we have examples of great men who served you,
loved you, and did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord. We also are thankful that we see the clear picture of those
who rebelled against thee and did that which was evil in the
sight of the Lord. And we know that in our case, as we are born
into this world, the second would apply to us. We did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord. We cared not for the things
of God. We hated God. And yet you and
your grace sought us out, bought us with the price of Christ's
blood, gave us a new heart and a new mind, and brought us to
the feet of Christ. We stand in awe and wonder of
that fact. But we know that it was nothing we did or could do.
There was nothing in us that made us want it. Not until you
affected us by your grace and ended our career in sin. We thank
you. From the bottom of our hearts,
we thank you for your goodness, your kindness and tender heartedness
toward us. Father, we pray for those who
are sick. We're thankful for the good report on Fred that
he's doing well. We pray you continue to minister
to him and bring him to a good measure of health. Prepare him
for the chemotherapy he's gonna have to take in months to come.
Pray for this Plemons family that lost a loved one. Pray for
the Cunningham family that lost Tommy. Father, we ask in these
cases that you would be a tender presence in their lives. Comfort
them in Jesus Christ. Continue to pray for Dee. As
he has continued the chemotherapy, I ask the Lord to be with him
and his family. Be with us as a congregation
that we might seek your face in all things, that we may stand
as a lighthouse in this dark world, a hospital for sinners. Help us, Lord, to remember each
other in prayer. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. ? Complete in thee, O work of mine
? May take, dear Lord, the place of thine ? Thy blood hath pardoned,
bought for me ? And I am now complete in thee ? Yea, justified,
O blessed thou art And sanctified salvation wrought, Thy blood
hath pardoned for me, And glorified I too shall be complete in Thee. No more shall sin thy grace hath
conquered reign within, thy voice shall bid the tempter flee, and
I shall stand complete in thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought,
and sanctified, salvation wrought, ? Blood hath pardon bought for
me ? And glorified I too shall be ? Complete in thee each want
supplied ? And no good thing to me denied ? Since thou my
portion o'er shall be ? I ask no more complete in thee ? ?
Yea, justified, O blessed God ? ? And sanctified, salvation
wrought ? ? Thy blood hath bought, bought for me ? ? And glorified
I too shall be ? ? Let your Savior win before thy bar ? All tribes
and tongues assembled are ? Among thy chosen will I be ? At thy
right hand complete in thee ? Yea, justified, O blessed law ? Thy salvation wrought ? Thy blood
was poured ? And fought for me ? And glorified I too shall be
Stephen, stand if you'll receive the office this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Christ, our blessed Savior. Indeed, in
the one in whom we are complete. For your word is said, in him
dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in him. Having need of nothing, having
all things supplied, having all the requirements meant for salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. What a thing, what a blessing.
and we know that all spiritual blessings are already given to
your children, and we know that what they have, they have because
of your goodness and mercy. Let us return to that which you
have graciously given to us with a thankful heart. We pray in
Christ's name, amen. In this account, we have the
record of Josiah's death. Josiah was eight years old when
he was made King of Judah. He reigned 32 years, and then
he died, and he died because of the mercy of God. He died
because he had found out in the Book of the Law Israel was going
to be destroyed and Judah was going to be destroyed. And God
promised him that he wouldn't live to see it. And so he was
killed in a battle and brought home and the prophecy was fulfilled. He was a great leader. We just
read in chapter 23 that there was like unto him there was not
one. Like unto him there was not one, no king before him that
turned to the Lord with all his heart. with all his soul, and
with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, neither
after him there rose any like him." That's quite a statement
to make. You have some great kings. You have Solomon. You
have David. You have Hezekiah. Great kings.
But it says, "...none before him or after him was like Josiah."
There's a reason for that. Josiah was going to help start
rebuilding part of the temple, Solomon. And so he sent Hilkiah
to gather the money in the temple to give to the carpenters and
the men and the masons to do the work and he didn't require
a record being kept he said just give them the money and let them
do the work and while Hilkiah was in there it is said that
he found the book of the law had it been lost? No, it just
hadn't been read. It hadn't been looked upon. Because
this time in that Temple of Solomon there was an idol to Ashtoreth
and Asherah and to Baal. These were idols that were standing
in the Temple of the Lord God by this time. And those false
worships were going on. Wizardry was going on. Sorcery
was going on. Okay, I said, I found this book.
He brought the book to the priest and the priest read it. And after
the priest read it, he took it and read it to the king. And
when the king found out what the book said, he knew that Judah
was doomed. And what he did, he tore up everything.
He led into the false teachers and the false preachers. He took
the idols that were in the temple out and destroyed them. He cast
them down by the brook Kidron and ground them to dust and scattered
them to the wind. He put to death all the wizards
and the sorcerers that he could find. He even dug up the graves
of the false priests that had worshipped Baal and Ashtoreth
and ground them to powder and then burned them in a fire. wasn't messing around, and he
instituted what was to be the greatest Passover that had ever
been known in Israel. Now the Passover, as we know,
as we begin our studies in Exodus, we know the Passover was a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ who was the Paschal Lamb, our Passover
slain for us, that represented the salvation of God's people
that delivered them from the sin and the bondage of Egypt. This was instituted by this great
young king. His death was an accomplishment
of the promised mercy of God and he was taken to glory so
that he would not have to see the wrath of God poured out on
Judah. and he was poured out, we know, because of their idolatry
and wholesale worship of false gods. God did not suffer his
beloved servant to see the shameful state of the people of the kingdom.
He loved, and this was mercy, as there are things worse than
death, and I'm sure if Josiah had to look at on any more, it
would have been worse than death. We have the record that he, as
king, he did what was right. in the eyes of the Lord. That
is not said of very many kings of Israel and Judah. It is kind
of a rare thing to find it said of any king that they did right
in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord accounted Joseph as
one of the greatest kings that had ever been in Israel. And after the record of this
Passover, we find it referred to in the remainder of Scripture,
oddly, only two more times. I wondered if they were holding
the Passover up to this point because he re-instituted it.
The book was covered with dust when they found it. They were
worshipping all kinds of idols. They were even offering up their
children to Molech in the fires. They were doing all these things.
What about the Passover? The Passover had been instituted
to be observed every year after they left Egypt. Had it been
observed? I don't know. But there's only
two more mentions of the Passover in all of Scripture after this
mention here in this book of 2 Kings. It's mentioned once
in Ezra when the temple was finished and Cyrus the king of Persia
as a tool in the hands of the Lord in the restoration of Israel.
Cyrus, though mightily tenderized toward Israel and honored God,
died as a pagan, but the Passover referred to also in Ezekiel. But you think about this, this
was a big deal. It's a picture of Christ, our
Passover, slain for us, and yet we don't have mention of it anywhere
hardly in Scripture. though not specifically named,
some of the elements of the Passover are mentioned in Malachi. And
we know when you get to Malachi, you see that this religion, this
Judaism that was handed down at Sinai to the sons of Jacob
has gone on hard times. They would offer a lamb that
was set up for 14 days to watch him, make sure he didn't have
spot or blemish. Then they would offer that lamb
They were to eat that lamb inside their house. And they were not
to eat the innards. They were not to boil the meat.
And then they were to take the blood and strike it on the doorposts
and lintels and remember that God had passed over them in Egypt.
This was a solemn feast. An important feast. And yet there
is no record from Exodus chapter 12 until we get to 2 Kings or
in Ezra. Then 2 Kings. Then Ezekiel once, and then in
Malachi, we don't have a spotless lamb, we have blind lambs being
offered, polluted bread being offered. And the Lord said, Would
you offer this to your governor? Would you give this to your boss
man? And you offer this to the Lord. He said, I'm sick of your
feasts and your oblations and your services. I wonder how much
of what had been set forth in Exodus had been observed by Israel
and Judah because here it says they found the book. They found
the book. They didn't know nobody was missing
it. Nobody was asking for it. There was no prophet talking
about it. And they found the book and it revealed what was
going on. then four hundred years pass
after Malachi four hundred years of silence
the Passover is again spoken of by the very one who is our
Passover slain for us when he said I have waited to observe
this Passover with you because though only mentioned a few times
in the Old Testament except for in Exodus when it was set forth
perfectly now we understand what the Passover
is about for the Lord that night took the bread the unleavened
bread and break it and gave it to his disciples and said take
eat this is my body broken for you and he took the wine and
said this wine is the new covenant in my blood as often as you do
this do it in remembrance of me he explained what the Passover
meant and I think As far as any Jew was concerned, it was reinstituted
that night, but as the Lord's Table. That moment in the Old Covenant
passed away, and behold, all things were made new. The Passover
recalled the blood of the natural lamb by which natural Israel
was delivered from natural Egypt. The Passover, which the Lord
had desired to eat with His chosen, delivered His people from their
sins, redeemed, saved, justified, and sanctified His spiritual
people. As the church observes the Lord's table, they worshipfully
commemorate His blessed death. Our Passover is slain for us.
That accomplished. It finished our salvation. And
as great as Josiah's Passover was, it was an exercise in natural
religion. It was an exercise in natural
religion observed by a natural population that never reached
any edge of the spiritual realm. This is clearly seen as the next
king we find, the son of Josiah, immediately returns to the reinstituted
pagan worship of the Temple of the Lord. We just read it. As
soon as Josiah is gone, the next king did evil inside the Lord
and began to reinstitute the paganism that was going on. And
though his reign was only about three months, he ended up in
Egypt and died there. His brother that reigned in his
stead did evil in the sight of the Lord in the manner of Manasseh
and Ammon, which were enemies of God. And so it must be for
any and every religion that is practiced under a system of laws
and conditions, its blessings or cursings dependent upon the
obedience or disobedience of its adherents. There's no hope
for it. It is natural religion. It is
our religion that we are born with. It's the one we know until
or unless God intervenes in our case. We will practice natural
religion. It is the religion of works for
righteousness. It is a religion of acceptance
before God about what you do or what you merit. And it's not
only doomed to fail, but possesses no allegiance to the true and
living God whatsoever. Now this was all done. All this
paganism. Now we'd say we don't worship
Ashtoreth and we don't worship Baha. We don't put our children
into fires of Molech, but I might make some comparison to the clinics
in some towns today, offering our children to the fires of
Molech. We don't do that. and yet we are doing the same
thing they were doing. Because the God we say we worship naturally
until God shows us grace is no more than an idol. In fact, He's like an idol. David
said that in Psalm 115. He said, You have your gods. They have eyes that see not,
hands that handle not, a nose that smells not, tongues that
taste not, feet that don't walk, He said, You're just like your
gods. And what do men say about God today? The only feet He has is your
feet. The only hands He has is your hands. His hands are tied.
He can't do anything unless you let Him. That's the gods that
men make, and it's natural to them. Why do they want to worship
a God like that? Because they're not really worshiping
that God, they're worshiping themselves. Because they have
the power over that God. They must loose Him in order
for Him to do anything. They must walk if He is to move.
They must talk if He is to speak. They must use their hands if
He is to handle anything. They're the gods and He's not.
But that's the way it was with all false gods. They made with
man's hands. They stood them up. They put
them on their shoulders. They carried them to places. And yet they worshiped
Him. God compared how stupid, how
foolish. He says, don't you see the lie
that's in your hand in Isaiah 43 or 44? He says, you're worshiping
a stump. Don't you see the lie that's
in your hand? But they don't see. That's natural, so-called
Christianity today. The God of today's Christianity
bears no resemblance whatsoever to the God of Scripture. No resemblance
at all. That puny, sad deity's attributes
are conducive to pity. A God whose hands are tied, who
waits on the permission of the creature to act. A poor, feckless,
solicitous beggar, waiting with bated breath for a favorable
inclination of the will of wretched man. What kind of God is that?
No God at all. But it's the God we grew up worshiping
until God changed our hearts. Man will worship. That is what
he's made for. Man wasn't made to just be a
free creature and have a ball. Man was made with a mind, a will,
emotions, and a conscience to worship. And he will. He will. He's been doing it since
Eve. You don't think she didn't worship
that serpent when she agreed with him? When she bowed to what
he said? When she listened to him and followed his instructions?
You don't think Adam was worshiping Eve when he took that apple? They'll worship anything but
the true and living God. It matters not who or what he
worships as long as the God is subject to him, as he exercises
voluntary humility and will worship before God. Thus we see Judah
immediately after the death of this great powerful and substantial
king careening headlong into the abyss of idolatry and at
last before entering into captivity to Babylon because the next king
mentioned is this guy named Nebuchadnezzar. It is ironic having just observed
the greatest Passover celebrating their deliverance from the bondage
of Egypt. We find the people once again in the bondage of
Egypt because soon as Josiah dies, Pharaoh Necho takes over. And they go back under the bondage
of Egypt and go back into paying taxes for them. This is what the Israelites wanted
in the wilderness. You remember what they said.
Why did God bring us out here to make us suffer like this?
We could go back to Egypt. We could have the garlics and
the leeks. We were doing okay. They were in abject slavery.
They were crying out to God to be saved, to be delivered. And they said, Let's go back
there. It's better than what God's given us. It's better than
this wilderness. But in that wilderness, every
day they had manna on the ground. Six days a week, they had manna
on the ground. white, round, tastes like coriander
seed and honey. And when they asked for flesh,
God gave them flesh but sent leanness to their soul. But they
had bread every day and they had this rock that followed them
in the wilderness is what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter
10. It followed them, this rock. They wake up in the morning and
there their rock was. They had clouds that covered them like
a shade of a tree during the day when it was hot. And at night
they had this column of fire to light the way. They had everything. Morning get up and there's that
rock. Moses said, we need some water. Water came gushing out,
fresh, green, cool water in the desert. And they said, we want
to go back into slavery, because that's what it'd be to go back
to Egypt. We prefer slavery rather than freedom. Anybody like that
today? Yeah, they're called legalists.
They're called legalists. They prefer the law to grace.
They prefer to be in bondage to the law rather than the free
men that Christ has made. And here we find after Josiah
sets forth Christ in that Passover, as clear as a bell, they go right
back to Egypt, to Pharaoh Nico. God gave them their desire and
sent leanness to their souls. They are that are of the flesh,
Scripture says, do mind the things of the flesh. A natural escape
from Egypt is but a precursor to a natural return to Egypt.
If you escape naturally, if you escape by your own will, if you
escape by your own power, if you escape by your own decision
and your own choice, you'll go back. You'll go back. Legalism fears freedom as much
as nature despises a vacuum. Religious works, religion fears
freedom as much as a free man fears bondage. I've been in bondage.
I don't want to go back. And I'm not going to walk around
in religions with my handcuffs still on me and the fetters still
on me. I'm not going to bend over broken like I'm still in
chains. I'm a free man. But I didn't
used to be. We need to continually in our
hearts remember that the only thing that separates us from
going back to Egypt is the grace of God. That's it. If He lifts
that grace, we're back in Egypt. Thank God for grace, free and
sovereign, effectual grace that takes the prisoner and looses
his bonds and sets him free. Thank God for Christ who shattered
the shackles of sin that overcome the powers that held us in slavery
and set us at liberty. The liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free is what Paul said in Galatians chapter 5.
Praise him that he did not leave us to our own devices to follow
the dictates of our carnal hell-bent nature. But he butted in, intruded,
interrupted our woeful career. reached down into the mire and
jerked us out and set our feet on the solid rock, Christ Jesus,
and showed us our Passover slain for us, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank Him heartily that He put
you in a place to hear the Gospel. I remember when I heard it. Now I'd been listening to a fellow
who'd been preaching the Gospel for a long time, but then I heard
it God opened my ears and I heard it for the first time. I'm thankful. Old W.R. Crews showed up in that
little chapel in the back side of Winston-Salem. The poor end
of town, the other side of the tracks. Wasn't about ten people
there. Me and Daniel Parks were there
that night. A couple of local preachers were there. W.R. Crews preached and the Lord touched
my heart. Touched Moose Parks' heart too. Sent me to Cherokee. Sent him to the mission field.
I remember that night. I thank God for that. You know
what? If God hadn't sent that man,
I'd be in trouble. He didn't save me, but he had
the message. The message meant for me. Thank
him heartily every day that you have a place where you can go
and hear the gospel. You don't think it's precious?
Talk to those people who want to be in a place where they could
hear the gospel but there's not one anywhere near them. I hear
them all the time. They call me on the phone. They
send me emails. They're a sad group, bless their
hearts. All they got is the internet and I'm thankful they got that. They said, oh boy, if I could
just be among the people of God. Be thankful. The old hymn writer
wrote, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin in Egypt's
night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed
with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose and
went forth and followed thee. Scripture says this about your
conversion, about how it took place, about you and about the
Lord who saved you, and you hath he quickened who were dead. in trespasses and sins. Wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. There
is that button in. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, He loved these people,
dead people, Satan-following people, world-following people,
lusting people, but with the great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sin. have quickened us together
with Christ. By grace ye are saved. What do we do when we gather
together? We do rehearse that Passover. We'll do it again next
Sunday morning, but we really rehearse it every day that we
trust the Lord Jesus Christ. We rehearse it every time we
gather together to hear the Gospel. We take the Passover, the Paschal
Lamb slain for us. We feed on Him. This is what
this world is all about. It becomes more and more important
and more and more precious every day that we live. Father, bless
us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.