Kings chapter 22, second Kings chapter 22, where we will be this morning. So Andrew, I don't know what time I started talking, but I'm starting preaching now. Okay. Second Kings chapter 22. It begins in verse one with Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. He reigned 31 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adiah of Bozkath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. I would encourage you, I'm not gonna tell you what to do with your Bible, but if you like to mark your Bible, one of the things that was helpful to me, anytime it talks about a king and tells me whether they did right or whether they did wrong, and it does that just about every time, that helps me to understand what's coming next. And so I have that underlined in my Bible that he did right in the side of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. And it came to pass in the 18th year of King Josiah that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have gathered, of the people and let them deliver it to the hand of the doers of the work that have the oversight of the house of the lord and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the lord to repair the breaches of the house under carpenters and builders and masons to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. How be it there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand because they dealt faithfully. And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought the king word again and said, thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. And Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king and it came to pass when the king heard the words of the book of the law And he rents his clothes And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and Hicham the son of Shaphan and Ackbar the son of Melchiah And Shaphan the scribe and Asahiah the servant of the king saying go ye inquire of the lord for me for the people And for all judah concerning the words of this book that is found. Can you imagine? Can you imagine forgetting the Bible? Not knowing that you had a Bible, that a Bible existed, that God had communicated to man. It's gone. Now add to the fact that these are Israelites. These are people that God has given the book specifically to, to communicate to them not only who he is, but who they are. Their national identity. These people were Spoken by God to Abraham, look, Abraham, I'm going to make you a father of many nations, but specifically one. Specifically, through your seed, the entire world will be blessed. And that is true, because we are all blessed because of Christ, the seed of Abraham. So these people, descendants of Abraham, who they are supposed to be is wrapped up in the book. How they are supposed to live is wrapped up in the book. How they are supposed to associate with the entire world is in this book. This is their deed to the land in which they live. They lost it. More accurately, they forgot about it. How does that happen? How do you forget that? I think we have to go backwards to find that out. things that are forgotten that are valuable, like your notes. Sometimes, it's a statue. I read about a statue that was built in the 13th century. It's a statue of Buddha, 10 feet tall and 12 feet wide, which I find that's humorous, that it's wider than it is tall. It's Buddha. So that's your God. That's who you want to be like. But this statue of Buddha, being that wide and that tall, was also 11,000 pounds. That's pretty heavy. Why would you build a statue 11,000 pounds? It's not why, it was what it was made out of. It was made out of solid gold. Yeah, that's pretty heavy, five and a half tons. So in the 13th century, they've got this statue of Buddha, very revered to them, very something that they would honor. Well, in the 17th century, 400 years, long time, 400 years later, the Thai people are going to be invaded by the Burmese people. And so the Thai king says, look, we have to take our valuables and we have to hide them away. So what they did with this statue, because it was valuable, was they decided they were going to cover it in plaster and hide it away in a non-important temple, some inauspicious place off in the Burmese, nobody would even think about it. So that's what they did, covered in plaster, hid it away. Well, a year after they were conquered by the Burmese, the Thai revolted, gained control of their nation again, but very few people had even known about the statue, nothing was done about it. In the 1900s, 20th century maybe, people are saying, we need to move this thing. Yeah, 1950s. So we need to move this thing. The building is rusting. The roof is falling in. It's a statue of Buddha. We have to honor it. So we've got to get it out of this. And so they're trying to move it from place to place. And in the process of that and not being very good at engineering and moving things that are 11 tons, they drop it in the mud. So the next morning, one of the monks comes out that's trying to move it and he's poking around on this thing and he notices that there's a crack. Through that crack, he can see something shining. So for 600 years, a $300 million statue was lost because it was forgotten. We can look at that and we can say, man, how did you do that? We need to make sure that we keep the word of God as a priority or we're going to end up like these people in this passage. But we go backwards, let's look at chapter 21 in verse number 19. Ammon was 22 years old when he began to reign, so he was still pretty young, and he reigned only two years in Jerusalem. Okay verse number 20 and he did that which was evil in the sight of the lord as his father Manasseh did He walked in all the way that his father walked and served idols and his father served and worshiped them and he forsook the lord god of his fathers and walked not in the way in verse 23 and the servants of ammon conspired against him and slew the king in his own house So he was a wicked guy, and I don't know if that's why the servants conspired against him or they had a different plan, but he only served for two years. He's 24 years old when he died. That is why Josiah was so young when he began to reign. But we know that he is not a godly person, that he forsook the law of God, he forsook God himself, but he was doing what his father had done, his father Manasseh. So let's go back and look at Manasseh. in verse number one of chapter 21. Manasseh was 12 years old, so he was young when he began to reign, and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. That's a long time. Go backwards 55 years and just say we had a US president that was still president today that was president 54 years ago, and that's before I was alive. So I have a hard time telling you that is. Don't look at me like you can't either. But Manasseh was known as one of, if not the most wicked king that Israel ever had. In fact, if you look at some of the things that it says about him in chapter 21, it says that God had sent messengers and he completely ignored them. It says that he led Israel to do sins that were worse even than the people of Canaan that God had eradicated for them to come live in this land. So God had judged the Canaanites because of their wickedness, correct? Yes, he did. And they were becoming more wicked than them. And that Manasseh was leading those people to do that. How did Manasseh get to this point? How did Israel get here? Well, leadership was failing. So let's go back and find out what happened before that. Well, I'm in, yes, in chapter 20, verse number 21. Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh, his son, reigned in his stead. Oh, Hezekiah. Hezekiah was Manasseh's dad, Ammon's grandfather, and Josiah's great grandfather. Well, what do we know about Hezekiah? Hezekiah was a godly king. Hezekiah was a good king. Hezekiah followed God. God says great things about Hezekiah. At one point in Hezekiah's life, though, he got sick. And as he is sick, he's laying in his bed and the prophet Isaiah comes to him and says, I have a message from God to you. And he says, this is the message. You are sick to death. You will not recover from this illness. And so as he's leaving, Hezekiah turns over and he begins to cry and pray to God and tells him, I am 39 years old. I have served you and I've lived for you as best as I could. Can you please remember that and spare my life? Isaiah is walking out of the palace. He's in the courtyard and God says, look, I want you to go back to Hezekiah. I have a message again. So he goes back and he speaks to Hezekiah and he says, Hezekiah, God has heard your prayer. Well, that's amazing. And not only are you not going to die because of this, because God has heard your prayer, but God is going to extend your life 15 years. Isn't that amazing? That God didn't just say, you're going to live longer, but you're going to live 15 years. You'd think in that 15 years that you would say, okay, I've got 15. Let's make it count. Let's make sure that we do everything we can in that 15 years to serve God, because God is giving, God gives us life. But God is giving me bonus time. He's given me extra time that I didn't have. So let's live for God. You remember how old Manasseh was when he began to reign? He was 12. What does that mean? That means he was born in that 15-year period. It also tells me that Hezekiah did not make sure that Manasseh lived for God. Because 12 years old and immediately he's living for self. Immediately he's turning away from all those things. He's turning away from God. Did not, obviously did not teach his son Ammon how to live for God. So what's the point? Hezekiah's indifference to the things of God led to Manasseh's disobedience. If Hezekiah had placed a high priority on the word of God, as kings were supposed to do, kings were supposed to copy out by their own hand, an entire copy of the law. And he had not done that. Or if he had done that, he left off the priority of the word of God. He did not raise his son to follow God. Manasseh's disobedience eventually led to Josiah's ignorance, which tells me this. that when we are indifferent towards the word of God, we lead others around us to be disobedient to the word of God. And our disobedience to the word of God will lead others to be ignorant of the word of God. I don't even have to look to scripture to see that. We can look around at our country. We can look around at our churches. I'm in churches all over America. This year, I preached in 16 states, all the way from California to New Hampshire to Mississippi. And there are churches that are buildings twice this size with congregations a quarter of this size. Well, they didn't build a 600 seat auditorium for 30 people. They didn't do that. At one day, those churches were at least half full, if not three quarters full. But what has happened? Families have become indifferent to the Word of God. Children have become disobedient to the Word of God. And therefore, generations have become ignorant of the Word of God. I live in the Bible Belt. Some would say the buckle of the Bible Belt. And it is not hard to find people who don't know who Jesus is. Ignorance of that. But I'm going to go even more specifically. Who was responsible to lead Manasseh? Oh, yes, Hezekiah, true. Dad. Dad was. Who was responsible for Ammon? Dad. Who was responsible for Josiah? Dad. Dads, it is your responsibility not just to prioritize the Word of God in your life, but in the relationships of those that God has placed underneath you. That is not a popular message in the world today because men do not want the responsibility that God has put on their shoulders. But it is our responsibility to influence those around us, not for a good education, but for godliness. Who cares if your kids are smart? They don't know God. They don't follow God. It's our responsibility as men to lead our families, to lead ourselves, to lead our relationships in the word of God, to influence others for Christ. Not to make them smarter, not to make them better athletes, not to make them good people, but to help them to know Jesus Christ and to help them to walk with him. And if you fail in that, you failed at the thing that you will stand before Christ about. It led to ignorance. so much so that the prophet Jeremiah, by the way, there's a link here, Hilkiah, one of the men, the high priest that was going into the temple to help find the money and distribute it to the people that would repair the temple, one of the ones that found the book of the law, Hilkiah was the father of Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah the prophet is preaching during this timeframe, and in his first message in Jeremiah chapter two, he says, can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Now, that just does not happen. You know weddings, right? She's not going to show up without her dress, right? And a girl that's trying to attract a guy, she's going to make sure. That's why, look, one of the reasons my hair is short, well, number one, it was a haircut mishap. And secondly, because I don't want to mess with it. I don't want to mess with it. I spend 30 seconds or less in front of the mirror in the morning. You're like, yeah, I can tell. I don't want to mess around. I'm ready to get to life, and that's not life. Where girls, be honest, it's more than 30 seconds. It's more than 30 seconds. Why? Because there's importance there. There's an importance placed upon that. It's a priority. A bride wants to be the most beautiful person at the wedding. And typically, that's the case. Okay, all the time that's the case. Wink, wink, nod, nod, right? So Jeremiah says, can a maid, I'm not, okay. Can we focus on scripture for a second? Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet, yet, he says, my people, have forgotten me days without end. He is saying Israel would be nothing without the God that made them, without the God that gave Isaac to Abraham, without the God that delivered them out of Egypt, without the God that provided for them in Egypt, without the God that fought for them and protected them. Hello, make some application. We would be nothing. We would be without hope in this world. We would be on our way to hell and many of us would be dead without Christ. Have you forgotten Him? I haven't forgotten Him. Is He a priority? Is the Word of God the vehicle for our relationship with Him? Is it the number one priority in our lives? and a maid forget her ornaments or bride her attire, yet my people have forgotten me days without end. It was forgotten, but it was found. How was it found? Back to chapter 22. And I think it's always good, and this can be tricky, it's always good to read the parallel passages in 2 Chronicles or 1 Chronicles, whatever may be the case. So I'm going to read some of those verses. If you'd like to go, it's 2 Chronicles chapter 34, and also that's another thing I'll try to do is I'll try to put a note by the chapters, hey, this corresponds with this other chapter. And often there's information that you're not going to get in one passage or the other, and that is specifically the case here. We basically hear that in the 18th year, verse number three of, Second Kings 22 that he said hey, let's go. Let's go clean out the temple. Let's go repair the temple All right. Now if we're in 2nd Chronicles 34 in Verse 3 it says for in the eighth year of his reign while he was yet young so he's 16 years old 8th year is 10 years before the 18th year and He began to seek after the God of David, his father, and in the 12th year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem. So he begins in his eighth year, 16 years old, to seek the Lord. This brings up a principle that is true throughout all of scripture and is true throughout all of the world, that if you seek for God, you're going to find him. If you seek for God, you're going to find him. Jeremiah 29, 13. If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. Seek the Lord. I go on mission trips, and often they are in remote places. But one of the beliefs is that there's people like the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8 all over the world that are seeking for God, that are searching for God. People like Cornelius, who was praying to God and giving alms, but he didn't know Christ. People like the Ethiopian, who was reading the book, and he's like, who is this? And how do I know unless some man tells me? Look, how do they know unless somebody tells them? So we want to go be the ones to tell them. But we pray, Lord, take us to these people. Went to South America, and we knocked on hundreds of doors, we invited people, and nobody came out. But... The lady that we were renting a little cabin from behind her house, she would fix us meals. One day she said, look, because I fix meals for other people that stay in my house, she said, I can't come to your service, but I would like you to tell me. So we set up a time and we told her why we were there. We told her the gospel. So I think we waited another night. She wanted to talk to us again the next night. She wanted to think about what we told her. So we came back the next night and began to tell her these things. And she told us, she said, it's been the dream of my heart, my whole life, to know who Jesus Christ is. We've been there to tell her. There are seekers, but because she sought, God found her. God only knew where she was. And if you seek for God, no matter what area you are in life, no matter what issue you have going on in your life, you can find God. Because God came to seek and to save that which was lost. It's a principle. It's true. You'll find God when you seek for him. God wants to reveal himself to us. Solomon was told, the Lord searches the hearts and knoweth the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found to be. It's the truth. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. God says, look, call me, call unto me and I will show you myself. I will reveal myself. He is a revealing God. He's given us his word, he's revealed himself in creation, and he's revealed himself in his son, Jesus Christ. And he wants to reveal himself to the world through you. That's why we're called little Christ's Christians. That's why he indwells us, so that he can reveal himself to the world through you. He wants to reveal himself to your coworkers, to your neighbors, to your schoolmates, through you. How's your influence on them? Are they ignorant of Christ? Is the word of God so much a priority that, man, it just comes through you. It just comes through you. Look, this is where the rubber meets the road on this. Our lives will influence others for one way or another. Are they influencing others for Christ? They will if the word of God is a priority because God will change us. And this is another thing about this. A desire for God will drive you to his word. So what happened? He seeks the Lord. He says, look, we need to get some of this wickedness. We know it's wicked. We know it's wicked. We need to get it out. And we need to go back to what we had been doing. And the temple is here. It's obviously here for the worship of God. So let's go in there and repair it. And he found the word. And what happens when they found the word? They read the word. A desire for God will drive you to his word, but vice versa is true. If you do not desire God, you will not be in his word. And if you are not in his word, you are not desiring God. A desire for God will drive you to his word. And once that happens, you'll begin to follow the Lord. And go back to 2 Kings 22 is where I am. Hilkiah the high priest verse 8 said unto Shaphan I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord And he gave the book of the law to Shaphan, and he read it. So we have Hilkiah, Shaphan communicating the word of God to Hilkiah. Hilkiah goes to the king, and they've communicated to the king. And the king says, look, we need to find out more about this. And then eventually we find out in chapter 24, I think it's 24, maybe it's chapter 23, that Josiah and them, they communicate the word of God to the people. Why? Because they're finding out about God, and they're saying, hey, look, we're in trouble. We are not doing what God wants us to do and judgment begins first at the house of God judgment begins first with his people We are under God's condemnation because of the way that we are living and this needs to change Because when the word of God is communicated It brings conviction Brings conviction. We see there in chapter 22 when he heard the words that he tore his clothes. Now, sure, this is a sign that they would do of great emotion and distress that bad things are happening. Oh, yeah, he is showing it, but it's a reality. We are not living for God like we ought to. It brings conviction. I am thankful for conviction. I know that when I'm convicted, God is communicating to me. Amen. He's not saying, well, you're in sin, forget you. you're in sin, come back. You notice how in scripture you have Adam and Eve sinned, and what does God do? Adam, where are you? And that's another point again, who is he communicating to? Adam, the man. The leadership falls on him. Adam, where are you? Did he know? Yes, he knew. But what's he saying? Adam, I want you to tell me where you are in your life. I want you to tell me why there's this distance. I want you to come back to me. Then when Cain killed his brother Abel, Hey, why are you? Why are you upset? This is before the kill. This is after the sacrifice. Why are you upset? He knew. He knew why he was upset. But he's saying, Cain, I want you to communicate with me. And then Cain gets upset. Because of that, he's jealous against his brother. He's envious. And he goes and he kills his brother. And then he says, hey, where's your brother? Did God know all this? Yes. that God is calling us back when we're off in sin. And God is saying, would you come back? I want you to come to me about this in your life. It brings conviction. The word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that God can make us the people that he wants us to be. God brings conviction not to browbeat us and tell us how wrong we are, but for restoration. He wants to restore that relationship. He wants to bring that back so that he has this relationship for which he created us that now we can have because of Christ. But the word of God must be a priority so that it can bring that conviction, so they can bring that correction, so that it can bring that cleansing. I'm so glad, and I know that you are too, that when I'm convicted, not just an identification of sin in my life but i know that sin can be cleansed wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth i can be clean by the washing of the water by the word that the word of god can cleanse me i know that when i'm in sin Look, we all get grumpy from time to time, do we not? We all have these days where, I don't know if this thing's going on, it's just, I don't know. But you know you're snappy, you know you're short with people. And so I have found that I need to discipline myself and say, you know, I just need to get in God's Word and He'll cleanse me. He can give me a better outlook. He can indwell me and he can use scripture to change me. Not just cleanse me, but to change me. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, but we all with open face, looking at the word of God with an open heart and clearly I'm identifying sin, I'm allowing God to identify sin, I'm letting it cleanse out of my life. With open face, beholding as in a glass, as in a reflection, a mirror, we can see ourselves, but we also see God. Changed into the same image that we saw of God from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of God I don't know. It's cooperation. Yes It's something that I have to put off things in my life be renewed in the spirit of my mind and put on things in my life But at the same time as I see the things of God with an open heart before God God takes those things and he changes me Through my obedience, my openness, my willingness to the Word of God, God changes me to be like the Lord Jesus Christ that I see in the Word of God. That will not happen without a priority in the Word of God. And I'm talking a daily priority, a daily priority. Things that are priorities are things we do every day. They just are. We stick with them. We make sure that they don't fall off our schedule. I started, I hated running most of my life, unless it was chasing a ball. I just didn't do that. But I find less and less places to chase a ball anymore, okay? So I had to find something to do, so I started running. And I had to learn how to run, but at the same time, I know that it's really easy, especially when I travel, to get two or three days out of the way where, man, I haven't run. I gotta get on it. Sometimes when you try to read your Bible every day, you have three or four days where, oh man, get back on that. Get back on that. Stay in God's Word. It is our imperative that we keep a priority on the Word of God in our daily lives, in our church lives, in our family lives, and branch that out. With your heads bowed and eyes closed.