One of the things that I have always wrestled with and grieved over as a Christian and in the ministry is a lot of people that you start out with at a particular point in your spiritual journey, you don't end up with them. As I said this morning, when I was just talking a little bit about King Joash, is that he did not finish well. And there's a lot of kings like that. Even Solomon, whom God appeared to twice, did not finish well. And I grieve over those that at one time we walked together in fellowship and service to Christ, and for whatever reason, they are no longer by our side. Some move to other congregations, and that's something we can understand that may very well be God's will for them, but some just fall by the wayside. And I grieve over those that fall by the wayside. And throughout my spiritual journey, one of the things that I have noticed is that there are times that there are people that you are so close to and so convinced of their with a spiritual life and their spiritual strength that you would never ever believe that there would be a time that they would fall by the wayside. But then several years down the road you look around you and they're no longer there. And that's one of the most heartbreaking things that to me personally as a pastor, to me personally as just a fellow believer, I grieve over that. I grieve over brothers and sisters that we walk together and we worship together and we serve together and, you know, something happens along the way. And I don't say that with any sense of pride because that's a warning to every one of us. The Bible says, let the person who thinks they stand take heed lest they fall. It's not that we can sit back and say, well, that would never happen to my family or that would never happen to me. We have no right to say that and we should be careful in saying or thinking such things But it's a heartbreaking thing to see people that at one time you thought were so stable and so solid in their walk with Christ, to see them drift away and spiritually fall by the wayside. And I couldn't help but thinking about that as I think about the life of this King Joash who reigned 40 years. As I said this morning, he began to reign when he was 7 years old, and he reigned until he was 47 years old when he died. And 40 years is a long time. A lot of stuff can happen in 40 years. And as you read through this chapter with me, I want you to realize that we're reading about a 40-year period. We're not reading about a year. We're not reading about two years. We're reading about a 40-year period, a man's life. And we're reading about a period of time when he seemed to have a heart for God. But all that comes apart. All that falls apart. All of that goes by the wayside. And he dies in ruin. So let's begin at chapter 24, verse 1. Joash was 7 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters. After this, Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord. And he gathered the priest and the Levites, and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you act quickly. But the Levites did not act quickly, so the king summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him, Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the congregation of Israel for the testimony? For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, had also used all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord for the bales. So the king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord. And proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses, the servant of God, laid on Israel in the wilderness. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. And whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the Levites, when they saw that there was much money in it, the king's secretary and the officer of the chief priests would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. Thus they did day after day and collected money in abundance. And the king in Jehoiada gave it to those who had charge of the work of the house of the Lord, and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord. So those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward in their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it. And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king in Jehoiada. And with it were made utensils for the house of the Lord, both for the service and for the burnt offerings, and dishes for incense and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord regularly all the days of Jehoiada. But Jehoiada grew old and full of days and died. He was 130 years old at his death. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings because he had done good in Israel and toward God and his house. And after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord. These testified against them, but they would not pay attention. Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, Thus says God, Why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you. But they conspired against him, and by command of the king, They stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus, Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, May the Lord see and avenge. At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers, thus they executed judgment on Joash. And when they had departed from him, leaving him severely wounded, His servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David. But they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. Those who conspired against him were Zabad the son of Shemaoth the Ammonite, and Jehozabad the son of Shemroth the Moabite. The accounts of his sons and of the many oracles against him and of the rebuilding of the house of God are written in the story of the book of the kings. The name of Zion, his son, reigned in his place. Let's pray. Father, we come before you again today and we thank you for this day, a day that is a gift from you to your people, a day of rest, a day of reflection, a day of worship, Thank you for meeting with us this morning. And we pray that you would meet with us tonight. Lord, the lives that are before us in the text of Scripture are often great encouragements to us, but often they are also great warnings to us. I pray that, Lord, this would be a warning to us. There are two lives before us, the life of Jehoiada Let His life be a great encouragement to us and then the life of Joash and let His life be a great warning to us. May you speak to your people. May you feed us with your Holy Word. May your truth be food for our soul and may it instruct us and challenge us and convict us. May it bless us and sustain us and strengthen us. And may in it all you be glorified. Help us through this historical narrative in your word help us to receive spiritual help and instruction. And may the Spirit of God come tonight and sit with us and be our teacher. Help me, I pray, give me anointing and guidance and fill me with your Spirit and fill me with the right frame of heart and mind to preach such a text. And we'll be careful to give you the praise for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen. Well, in case any of you have not been here and you wonder what a seven-year-old boy is doing being made king, I want us to go back for just a few moments and kind of pick up some of the story that has led us to this point. One of the great kings that we studied in the southern kingdom of Judah was Jehoshaphat. For the most part, he was a godly man. He was a man who loved God, sought God, but he had one glaring weakness, and that weakness would have a tragic effect upon his descendants. His glaring weakness was his willingness to make alliances with the northern kingdom of Israel who were much more deeply involved in idolatry than the southern kingdom of Judah had yet become. So the Bible tells us that during the reign of Jehoshaphat, he made a marriage alliance with King Ahab, and he married his son off to the daughter of Ahab. And of course, in that deal was that there would be peace between the two kingdoms, but in that deal also was the introduction of the corrupt idolatry that was so prevalent in the northern kingdom, it was brought down by the daughter of Ahab into the southern kingdom and it had a terrible effect for many years to come and for generations to come upon the ruling family in the southern kingdom of Judah. Her husband, the son of Jehoshaphat, was Jehoram. We've done a whole week looking at his life and his reign, and it's a sad, sad story. And the Bible makes it very plain that because of the influence of his wife, Athaliah, and her family, the house of Ahab, from the northern kingdom, his reign was a spiritual disaster. It was so bad that when he died, they wouldn't even bury him with the kings. And when he died, the Bible said, he departed with no one's regret. In other words, when he died, they said, good riddance, good to see you go. You have brought ruin upon our land because of your sin and because of your idolatry. And unlike when David died and the whole nation mourned, when he died, nobody mourned. Nobody cared. The Bible makes it very plain that it was through the influence, the spiritual influence of this corrupt family of Ahab and Jezebel that King Jehoram's reign became such a disaster. After his death, his son Ahaziah becomes king in Judah. He only reigned one year, and even though he only reigned one year, his reign also was a disaster. And we looked at his reign the last time we were here on Sunday night, and we are told that the house of Ahab was his counselors in evil to his undoing. They were his unraveling. Instead of following the godly example of his grandfather Jehoshaphat, he followed the ungodly example of his mother Athaliah, and the whole family of Ahab was his counselors after the death of his father, and the Bible said that was his undoing. So he only reigned one year. And because he was in an alliance with Joram, the king of the northern kingdom, they go out to battle against Ramoth Gilead. Joram is wounded and King Ahaziah goes up to visit him as he is convalescing and recovering from his wounds. The Bible tells us that this was ordained of God because at the particular time that he goes up to see Joram, God has raised up Jehu to bring judgment upon the house of Ahab. So when Jehu is sent by God to bring judgment upon the house of Ahab, not only does he kill Joram, but he also kills the king of Judah, Ahaziah. And the Bible tells us that at that time there's no one, I think it's in chapter 22, was it verse 9, it said that the house of Ahaziah had no one able to rule the kingdom. So what happens is Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, this wicked daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, seizes the opportunity to rule. So she attempts to murder all of the royal descendants of the house of Judah. And she succeeds except for one child, Joash, who is a baby at this time. Her own daughter. the sister of King Ahaziah, a lady by the name of Jehoshabath she takes this child and she hides him and she saves his life and her husband who is Jehoiada the priest for six years They hide this child in the house of God, hidden away from Athaliah, who would have surely murdered him had she had the opportunity. And for six years, Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, rules in the southern kingdom of Jude. It's a time of great, great confusion. It's a time of great political chaos. And it's a time of great evil and spiritual darkness. During that six-year period, while Joash as a child is growing from a baby to seven years old, or growing from one year old to seven years old, Jehoiada the priest is planning and preparing. And he, after six years, basically does a coup in reverse. She tries to destroy all the descendants of the royal family in Judah so that she can reign. He gets together all the Levites and they come up with a plan, and they take Joash as a seven-year-old child, because that's what he is, and they anoint him as king, and when Athaliah sees it, of course she yells, treason, treason, and they take her outside the house of God and they execute her. And this is where chapter 24 begins, with a seven-year-old boy beginning to reign, and we're told that he reigns for 40 years over the house of Judah. Now let's consider some of the things that are in this chapter. The first thing I want you to see is that this chapter teaches us the blessing of a godly counselor. Notice how the chapter begins. Joash was 7 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. And Joash, verse 2, did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. Now, if that's not clear enough, go over to 2 Kings chapter 12. 2 Kings chapter 12 makes it even clearer that the reason that this young boy, the beginning of his reign was a period of blessing and a period of godliness, it was because of the godly influence of Jehoiada. 2 Kings chapter 12, and over here, Joash is called Jehoash. Go back to chapter 11 verse 21. Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign. Chapter 12, verse 1. In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebia of Beersheba, and Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days. He doesn't tell the whole story. We'll see the whole story in Chronicles. Because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Instructed him. So the first thing I want you to see in this chapter is the blessing of a godly counselor. Now we've already seen in our studies up to this point in the story of the kings of Judah the curse of ungodly counselors, haven't we? I mean, we've been told that Ahaziah, his reign was a disaster because of the ungodly counsel of the family of Ahab. And we've been told about Jehoram, his reign was a disaster because of the ungodly influence and the ungodly counsel of the northern kingdom of the family of Ahab. Well, here we're told of a man, Jehoiada, who was instrumental in a period of blessing. Even though he wasn't the king, his godly influence upon this king brought great blessing to the people of God. It just teaches us the blessing of a godly counselor. And understand, what seven-year-old boy is prepared to rule a nation? Well, no seven-year-old boy. is prepared to rule a nation. But you've got to understand what has taken place. He would have been murdered by Athaliah were it not for Jehoiada and were it not for Jehoiada's wife Jehoshabat. They picked him up, they saved him, they secured him, they hid him in the house of God, and it was through the planning and through the desire and through the labor of Jehoiada that this young boy ascended to the throne. So basically, for a period of time, even though Joash was king, he was basically just a figurehead for a period of time, he was under the influence of this godly priest, Jehoiada. and the Bible could not be plainer, this early period of blessing, it was the result of this relationship that Joash had to Jehoiada. This godly man exerted a godly influence upon this boy king. Now we're not told how many years this lasted, but it apparently went many years into his reign, because we're even told that Jehoiada is the one that found his wives for him, and chose his wives for him. So it's not just that he, at seven years old, was under the influence of Jehoiada, but for many years, probably maybe even for decades, he was under the influence of this godly man's life. Now the Bible has a lot to say about godly counsel, doesn't it? I looked at several of the references in the book of Proverbs before I came over here tonight. But I'm going to tell you what, we need godly counsel. Young people need to submit to godly counsel. Young people, young men and young women and young married couples, they need godly counsel. They need to know that they don't know a lot. They need to know that there are godly people that God will put in their lives, who will give them counsel, who will give them guidance, and they need to fall under the influence of such godly lives. We live in a world where there are evil influences everywhere, even in the churches. We live in a world where there are people everywhere that says, follow me, follow my example, follow my life, live the way I live, act the way I act, think the way I think. And I want to tell you, there is a blessing in placing yourself under the tutelage and under the counsel of godly men and godly women who can point you in the right direction. so that you walk with and you serve God. And we can't overemphasize the importance of that. This attitude, well, I don't need anybody but the Lord, that is true, but it's only true in a sense. Because the Lord uses teachers and the Lord uses other believers who are wiser and farther along in the faith, who can be an example to us and who can counsel us and who can give us guidance. And there are times, it doesn't matter, you don't get far enough down the road that there won't be times in your life that you're going to need to call somebody up and say, this is what I'm wrestling with. What do you think? Or would you pray with me about this? Or do you have a word of counsel for me on this? There would have been nothing more foolish than for a seven-year-old boy to set himself on the throne that he had just ascended to and then looked out and said, I don't need anybody to tell me anything. A seven-year-old kid ruling a nation? No, he needed a lot of people to tell him a lot of things. And thankfully there was a godly man who had saved his life. who had made sure that he ascended to his proper place on the throne of Judah. And he submitted himself to the godly counsel of this man. Thank God. I thank God for the people who have given me godly counsel. I thank God for the people who have lived a life of godliness before me. I thank God for the people whose lives have cast a shadow over my life. and have had an effect upon my life for the good. So the first thing, this story teaches us the blessing of a godly counselor. Another thing, this story teaches us something about the marks of this man's early attitude toward God. And we see it basically in the early part of the chapter, and we see it in his attitude toward the house of God. Is it possible to love God without loving his house? Is it possible to love God without having a zeal and a concern for God's house? And this is what we see in the early days of the reign of Joash in verse 4. After this, Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord. After the early days of his reign, apparently he grew to a point, he attained some maturity, and he developed a love and a zeal and a desire for God's house that had been desecrated during the days of Athaliah. Go down to verse 7. The sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God and had also used all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord for the bales. There had been a time of great desecration. These sons of this evil woman Athaliah had broken into God's house. The temple of God had taken the vessels that should have been only used in service and worship of the true and the living God, and they had taken these things and desecrated them and used them in the worship of Baal. It was a time of great darkness. The house of God had fallen into disrepair. But this man, his heart is stirred to restore the house of God, but not only to restore the house of God, but to restore the house of God so that the worship of God would be restored. It tells us something about his heart. Now undoubtedly, this was under the influence of Jehoiada, who was a priest, a Levite, a godly man. As this young man grew up under the influence of this older godly man, he looked at the house of God and he said, this is not right. We must do something about the condition of the house of God. So he initiated a campaign to raise money so that the house of God could be restored to its proper condition and so that the worship of God would once again be what it ought to be. This pleased the people, in verse 10, we're told that it pleased the people. All the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. There's another great principle here, I won't spend much time on it, but when people's hearts are right with God, giving is a joy to them, right? It's not a chore, it's a joy. These people gladly gave. This was a period of time after Athaliah and after the desecration and the sin that occurred during the time that Athaliah was ruling the nation. After this, there was a time of spiritual renewal, a time of spiritual revival. And the people's hearts became engaged, and they became stirred. So when they put this chest out there and said, you'll give to the Lord that which is rightfully His, there was no... I mean, there was no... People just gladly came, and they gave. And when they came to worship, they would fill the box up, and the priest would take it out, and they would count the money, and they would give it into the hands of the laborers. And they did this until the house The Bible said, was restored in verse 13, to its proper condition. And offerings and sacrifices and the worship was restored. Those who have a heart for God, they love God's house. They love God's house. I mean, that's just something... Listen, in my spiritual life, which, take it for what it's worth, what, 25 years, I've never known a strong, stable, spiritual Christian that didn't love the Scriptures, and that didn't love the Lord's house. I know that this building is not the Old Testament temple, and I know there's all kinds of symbolism and significance in the Old Testament temple, but there is still a principle that God's people love to assemble with God's people and worship the living God. And this young man, the mark of his early attitude toward God is seen in the fact that he loved God's house and he wanted it restored and he wanted it right. Now number three, another thing that this story of Joash teaches us is the honor that's due to a godly life. I love this. In verse 15, Jehoiada grew old and full of days, and he died. He died at 130 years old. And when he died, they buried him among the kings. He wasn't a king, but he lived like a king. He was honorable like a king. He was godly like a king ought to be. In reality, in the darkest days of the recent history of the nation of Judah, when Athaliah in her wickedness was ruling and murdering, it was this godly man that stood in the gap. He's the one that kept Joash alive. He's the one that saw to it that Joash was placed on the throne. He's the one that influenced Joash to lead the people in revival and to lead the people in reform. And when this man died, everybody recognized that this was not just a normal man that died. He was a godly man. And because he was a godly man, they honored him when he died. And they buried him among the kings. And we're told why? Because he had done good in Israel and toward God and toward his house. Because he had lived his life serving and honoring God. Because he had loved and honored and served the house of God. And because he had loved and honored and served the people of God. And when this man died, they said, no, we're not going to bury him in a back alley. We're going to bury this man like a king because spiritually he was a king. I was watching a travel show recently. in England, I don't know if it was Scotland or something, I think it was Scotland. And it was talked about, you know, it's full of historical stuff of great spiritual men and women and reformers. And this Rick Steves, the one that does the travel shows on PBS, he was talking about one of these great reformers during the time of the Reformation and they were out there looking And they said he's buried here somewhere, and when they found out that his tomb, the plaque where he's buried, that there's a parking spot over it and a car was parked over it. They say that you could walk by Spurgeon's tomb, and if you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't realize where you were at. And that may be what we do, to great and godly men and women, but that's not what the Jews did when this godly man died. There is honor due to a godly life. There is honor due to a godly life. And that godly life may not receive the honor due to it in this world, among the people of this world, although that godly life will receive the honor due to it in the heavens. But surely we as the people of God should honor those who have done well for Christ among us and loved us and served us. We should understand that when they die, great people have left the earth. Listen. If when the President leaves the room, everybody stands up. When great saints die, we all ought to take notice. John Stock died this last summer. And I couldn't help but think when I heard the news of his death, what his life had meant to so many people. I was in prison Monday night. As I was going out the door, a young man stopped me. He said, I want to ask you a question. And he said, it's a controversial question, but I'm not trying to be controversial. I said, well, yeah, go ahead. He said, do you believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs when we're born again, or is it something subsequent to and separate from the original work of salvation. I said, I believe that what happened on the day of Pentecost was a one-time event and now every believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit when they are born again and the Spirit comes to live within them, but every believer needs to seek to continually be being filled with the Holy Spirit. And I said, the best book you'll ever read on it is by John Stott. It's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So here's this man, he's dead, yet he's still speaking. We ought to honor godly people when they pass on from this life. And this man, they honored him as a godly man. Now number four. Another thing in this story, and this is sad. We see the weakness of man's character. is this story. Look at verse 17. After the death of Jehoiada, the princess of Judah came and paid homage to the king. And the king listened to them. Now that seems like a harmless verse until you keep reading. But notice some things in the verse. They could not flatter him and deceive him until after Jehoiada was gone. As soon as Jehoiada was gone, evil men saw their opportunity to come to this king and to flatter him and to induce him to turn away from God. And he did. Verse 18, And they abandoned the house of God, and their fathers, and served the Asherah and the idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs." How weak is man? How easily turned aside? How easily manipulated? How easily deceived? It seems like he ought to know better though, after being taught. Well, that's a lesson. is that we should know better. And here's a man that under the influence of a godly man, he led a period of reform and revival, but he's so weak in character that he fell under the influence of evil men, he forgot the influence of Jehoiada, and he turned away from God. There are several things that we need to consider there. Number one, we need to be careful who we allow to have influence over us. We need to be careful to understand that not everyone that comes to us to speak to us comes for our good. But we also need to ask ourselves, is what I believe rooted deep inside of me? Or can I be easily swayed? Now I hope that we're all, I hope that we all are easily corrected when we're wrong. But I'll try to illustrate this for you. I asked Kim recently, I said, do I believe what I believe? She looked at me and I said, here's what I mean by that. Is what I believe, is it evident by the way I live that I really believe it? I said, because so many people say they believe things about God, but it never affects the way they live life. So they must not really believe what they say they believe. Let me give you an example. How many people sit in our churches week after week And if we preach what the Bible says about family and about divorce and all these different issues, they will shake their head in agreement. But then at some point, if what God has revealed to be His will violates what they want to do personally, who wins? Their own personal desire over the will of God. Do they really believe what they believe? Or what they say they believe? The problem is, if you would have looked at Joash at one point in his life, you would have said, man, this man is solid as a rock. This man is a godly man. This man loves the house of God. This man has led us in revival and reform. But it was all on tenuous and shaky ground because to a large degree it was all under the influence of an older godlier man. But then when the older, godlier man was taken out of his life, and he should have stood up and said, this man has blessed me and taught me well. Now it's time for me to stand on my own feet and do what God wants me to do. He fell apart. And these other men came to him and influenced him, and just quickly, suddenly, he turns away from God. It shows us how weak and evil the character of man is. We can't trust ourselves. Years ago, up in northern Kentucky, I preached a week and I started on Sunday morning by preaching on that verse out of Jeremiah. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Afterwards, a man came to me. He said, my son is up here in the jail. And he said, my intent was to come to you after the service and ask you to pray for him and to tell you that he had a good heart. But he said, none of us have one of those, do we? I said, no sir, we don't. We don't. It teaches us the weakness of man's character. Number five, this story tells us of the warnings of God's servants. When this man turns his back on God, in verse 18, wrath comes upon the land because of their sin, And what is God's response? Does He immediately send judgment? He does soon, but He doesn't immediately send it. What does He send first? Prophets, messengers to warn them and to call them back and to tell them to repent. How merciful is God? How gracious is God? God, the Bible said, He sent prophets, in verse 19, among them to bring them back to the Lord. These testified against them, but they would not pay attention. That's the story, by the way. That verse right there is Jeremiah, the whole book of Jeremiah. If you want to know what the book of Jeremiah is, read that verse right there. God sent Jeremiah and warned them and warned them and warned them and warned them, and the Bible makes it plain, they would pay no attention. They would have none of it. And the Bible said that when the people led by this king turned their back on God, that he sent prophets to them to warn them, and one of the prophets that he sent, was a man by the name of Zechariah who just happened to be the son of Jehoiada, the man that had been such a blessing to Joash. The Bible tells us in verse 20 that the Spirit of God clothed him. In other words, the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah and He preached to them and warned them in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. He was not speaking His own words to them to warn them. He was speaking the words of the living God to them to warn them. But who likes to be rebuked? So when this man of God rebukes them, they conspire against him. And this is the terrible thing. They murder him. And they do it by the command of the king. Can you imagine if someone had saved your life and you murdered their child? Can you imagine if you owed everything to someone who had showed you unbelievable kindness, and after they were dead, you conspired against their son and had him murdered? That's exactly what Joash did. It's unbelievable. I wouldn't even believe it if it wasn't in the Bible. That's evil, isn't it? In gratitude. And that was the sin that brought him to ruin. He ordered the murder of Zechariah. And when Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, died, he died calling upon God for vengeance and justice. After all that Jehoiada had done to him, He murdered his own son. And the Bible makes it very plain. Notice what it says. Verse 22, Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada Zechariah's father had shown him, but killed his son. And that was it. From the time that he did this, from the time that Zechariah breathed his last breath, and he sang, May the Lord see and avenge. it's over for Joash because at the end of the year we're not told whether that was 365 days or three more months or six months but at the end of that very year the Syrian army comes with a small army And God gives a much greater army into their hand. The Bible says, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. The princes of the people were destroyed. And when they left Jerusalem, after sacking it, They left Joe Ash severely wounded and two men conspired against him and killed him in his own bed. And when they buried him, guess where they didn't bury him? A man that was king for 40 years. Isn't it interesting? They took Jehoiada, who was never a king, and they buried him with the kings. And they took a man that was king for 40 years, and they said, no, he's not fit to be buried with Jehoiada, with David. What a sad story. What a terrible story. It's a story of preachers, pastors, missionaries, Christians of all types and stripes, people who start out sometimes under the influence of godly counselors. But there comes a point in their life when they've got to obey God because they love Him. And they're easily turned aside and fall to ruin. Sad story. Sad story. There are few sadder. There are some sadder. But this is a sad, sad, sad story. You ever looked at a person's life and said, how did they get there? Or how did they get from there to there? Well, let those last be a warning to us. signpost on the road that there's danger ahead. It ought to drive us to our knees to say, Lord, keep me, protect me, watch over my heart, chasten me, discipline me, break me, crush me, Don't let me make shipwreck of my life and help me to finish in a way that will please you. Last week we went out to supper one night. Some folks wanted to go out to supper. The first thing out of the man's mouth when we sat down at the table, as he looked across the table at me, the first words out of his mouth were, the whole world's gone crazy, hasn't it? I said, it seems that way to me. The things that people, that are happening to people and their families and their home lives, it just seems like they're such, dissolution and chaos, confusion. But I'm going to tell you, when Jehoiada dies, we still got to go on. We still got to obey Christ because He's Christ. Because we love Him. And when we're put in the crucible of testing, we have to obey because of Him, not just because of external influences from others. This is, I think, the great warning and the great lesson of this man's life. Well, anybody got a word, a question?