All right, let's open up our Bibles tonight to 2 Kings. And we're gonna be in 2 Kings 23 this evening. We're almost done with Kings. I was like, whoa! It doesn't seem fast to you maybe, but it seemed pretty fast to me. 2 Kings 23 is where we're gonna be at this evening. Let me get there. All right. My subtitle in my Bible says, Josiah Restores True Worship. And I've entitled, I don't normally title Thursday night's Bible studies, but tonight I did. And I called it, The Steps to Spiritual Revival. Or The Root and Fruit of Revival. And so this evening, Fortunately, we are going to be blessed to be looking at one of the great heroes of the Old Testament, one of the great heroes of the faith, Josiah. He is one, as we've talked about, one of a small handful of very godly committed kings in the Old Testament. So he would be considered an Old Testament hero. And I think we surely need heroes, particularly in the day and age when heroes, especially spiritual heroes nowadays are... How does the saying go? Far and few and in between? Is that how the saying goes? How does it go? I meant to ask my wife, I knew I said it wrong, but I knew one of you would help me out. So anyway, that. So it's a blessing to be able to look at, for me at least, at great and godly men like Josiah, because we can glean from him and learn so much from him and see how God worked in his life and how he sought to obey and to follow the Lord with all of his heart. And I do believe examples are invaluable for us as we study these biblical characters. And also, you know, there are examples around us. I have said it many times that one of my heroes of the faith went on to be with the Lord, and that was Mr. C. And every time that I was around him, all the years that I knew him, he was always such a godly example. And so calm, and so filled with peace. It was just neat to see the fruit of the Spirit working in his life, and now he's with the Lord. And also, I don't know if I mentioned this last week, or this week, it just happened this week, but Wanda Hendrickson, who was part of our fellowship since the very beginning, she went to be with the Lord, and we're going to have a memorial service for her on December the 21st, I think at 10 in the morning. Is that right, Tamara? 10 in the morning, December 21st, Saturday? I think, here at the church. And so we're going to be praying for that. Her testimony was a wonderful testimony of faithfulness. And in the midst of lots of trials and difficulties, being married to a Jehovah's Witness for all the years she was, And that was a lot of spiritual battles that she went through. So she was a real testimony of faithfulness and staying married and being faithful to her commitment to the Lord all those years. So we do have around us examples of godliness. And I think for all of us, hopefully we can, by our own godly living or our own examples, and have in our sphere of influences that we can be salt, that we can be light in our families, that we can be salt and light amongst our friends, our workers, our co-workers at work, our neighborhoods, our community. But we look at Josiah, and Josiah, his reign brought about the last spiritual awakening before the southern kingdom of Judah was given over to their enemies by God because of their blatant idolatry and their rebellion and their sin. and they eventually get taken captive to the Babylonians. But what we're going to look at before all that happens, we're going to see what steps that Josiah took in bringing about that revival. You know, when I look at what happened with Israel and how many chances God gave to Israel, it does give me hope for the United States of America. I do hope and pray that that we as Americans or we as a nation or we as a community can experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the mercy and the grace of God. And we see many people turn to the Lord and I hope that that happens. There's always choices that we have to make. There are pretty much two of them now in the place that we're at. as far as the church and as far as the United States of America, number one choice is revival and number two choice is judgment. And so revival or judgment, and we still have to make those good choices. And I think that we as the United States of America, I think that we're a little bit, Americans, I think, are a little bit naive if we think that somehow we're exempt or immune from God bringing judgment on this nation. And the only reason I do believe it, there's probably reasons that God hasn't done it yet. There's probably a few reasons. Number one, I think, is that God has not judged America because God, obviously looking at Israel and their history, God has very long suffering. God is very patient, God is not willing, God is not wanting anyone to perish. We would ask the question, do you think the United States of America is deserving of judgment? I would say yes, of course we're deserving of judgment. But what we're receiving, obviously up to this point still, is mercy. And no one is deserving of mercy. What is mercy? What mercy is all about is not getting what you deserved. And so God by nature is merciful. And that's our first saving grace. That's probably why we haven't come under the judgment of God, because God is long-suffering and God is merciful. Number two, in the words of Abraham, when Abraham, remember, was interceding for Lot and for Sodom and Gomorrah, and the three visitors showed up at his place and he began to communicate with them. Some believe that was the Christophany, a pre-incarnate Jesus. And Abraham said to him, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? And then he said, what if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will you sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of 50 righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you, will you not judge Will not the judge of the earth do right? And then of course, he kept bringing the number down. Remember, he kept bringing it down, bringing it down. But the whole idea was, if there's some righteous people in there, obviously, Lord, you're not gonna judge it. But based upon America, maybe that's another reason why God hasn't judged the United States because I do believe there is a godly remnant of believers in the United States. That might be another reason that the judgment has not really fallen or it's been stayed or held back. America still is a big missions sender. There are missionaries in the United States all over the world bringing the message of the gospel. There's still a large number of godly churches in the United States that are proclaiming the gospel. And so we do live in a nation where there is a remnant of believers. Number three, maybe big reason why the United States has not been wiped out yet or judged yet, is our support of Israel. And that's probably likely saved us from being cursed or judged because we've been an ally of Israel. And God forbid that we turn against Israel because that would probably be our downfall. So when you look at the pattern here though, and looking at Kings, and we look at how God in his mercy gives all these chances, and we've learned for Israel, it's been many chances. I'm going to talk about Manasseh. Mike reminded me of Manasseh last time, whenever we were here. And he reminded me, and I'll talk about him in a second, because he was so wicked. But we see that God gives people the opportunity to respond to him. And God gives people the opportunity to change. God gives people the opportunity, even nations, the nation of Israel, the southern kingdom, many opportunities to repent. And so what ends up happening, and we saw this in our text the last couple of weeks, that the downfall happens when God speaks and speaks and speaks and people won't pay attention and people don't listen and we don't respond when God is speaking to us. That's a dangerous place and that's probably where America's at a lot right now. You know, I think there's been a few times when God really shook us up as a country or a nation. Some of you were alive and you remember this very well. 9-11 was probably one of those. I know it shook the country up pretty good because the next few weeks, according to statistics, churches were packed. churches were filled up after 9-11 around the country. And much more, you know, people got serious for a little while about seeking the Lord, but of course that began to fade away, like it does often from people's memory. And so as a nation, sadly, it seems like we've gone into drifting again into spiritual dissipation and apathy and indifference, or worse yet, turning our backs on God and closing our ears to his voice, to his word, his commands. And more and more it seems as a nation we're embracing sin and evil or calling good evil and evil good. That's kind of where we're at now in 2024 going into 2025. And so this is kind of a reality, you know, when we look at how God dealt with the nation of Israel and looking, kind of paralleling that with how turning away from God actually poisons and it's sort of a spiritual cancer, a disease that causes decay in a country. And that's what happened with the nation of Israel. There was a time, according to some historians, that the United States of America was ruled by the philosophy of Christian thinking, of the Bible was once in the classrooms. Were any of you alive back then when the Bible was in the classroom? Wow. When did you guys live? Like in the 1800s? Just kidding. I know. But there was a time when the Bible was in the classroom. Prayer was in the classroom. And that was happening in this nation. And now it's outlawed, right? But there was morals, there were ethics. But now many people have succumbed to secular humanism. to evolution. I saw a debate this week and these people were talking about the Bible and how important the Bible is and this one guy gets on there and he goes, don't you know the Bible's fairy tales? Look at science. Evolution is what's true, you know. And just crazy stuff where people have fallen into that and millions of people in our country all the way down from pre-k to graduate school have bought into that idea of atheism and evolution and all of the stuff, secular humanism that's being pumped into the hearts and the minds of people. And it's very deceptive. And so we wonder, well, what's wrong with the kids these days? Well, garbage in, garbage out, right? And then you think about the education system. I was looking at a while back, I was watching this special on Islam. And man, it was scary. You know why it was scary? Because of what they teach their kids in school, in their whatever they call them. Of course, they have the Quran and they're teaching the kids the Quran, but also in Pakistan and Saudi and Iran and a myriad of other nations, they are indoctrinating the kids with Islam and they are teaching them that infidels, Jews and Christians deserve to die. And that's the fruit of brain poisoning in the next generation, right? And so that's kind of what's happening, indoctrination here in atheism and agnosticism around the world. In the Muslim countries, many of them are being indoctrinated to get rid of Israel and get rid of the United States. It's kind of prophetic because Daniel chapter 9, speaking of the last days, says the end will come like a flood and war will continue to the end. Desolations have been decreed. And so the word desolations, I looked it up in the Hebrew, it means horrors and devastation has been decreed to the end. And Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars and nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And so it's not going to get better. You know, that's for sure. Now before I bleak us into bummer oblivion, let's look at this bright side of this study tonight, because there's a really neat kind of hopeful side. And we might say, well, when times get the darkest, well, that's when turning on the light shines the brightest. I remember when we were in Hawaii, Dee and I went to Waiouam and we were there and we did this little trip, kind of side trip, and there on the big island of Hawaii there's that massive volcano. Well, what it's done is over the years when the lava flows real fast, it creates these caves. and there are these big long caves and you go inside the cave and and we went in there and our tour guide was showing us what what like and i think he even well it was a christian tour guide he says imagine what the bible says utter darkness and he turned the light off in the cave and i am not lying you could not see your hand it was black black And then you turn the light on and it's like, whoa! Well, that's kind of what it's like right now in the culture. We're living in the days of so dark, but as we shine the light, hopefully we can see the Lord working and we'll start to see. I still hope and pray for the United States that we can have a spiritual awakening, a spiritual revival. You know, I've heard some good news around the country that many college campuses are experiencing these outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the campuses and lots and lots of young people are coming to faith in Christ. Their Bible studies are growing and they're getting baptized. And so God's not done with the United States and we need to hope and pray that it's not too late for us. But even as God raised up Josiah, And he sent a revival. Let's hope and pray the same kind of thing happens for us and that we'll see a fulfillment of Joel chapter 2 and Acts chapter 2 in our day. That God would pour out his spirit upon all flesh in the last days and we'd see that happen in Silver City in the United States and that we'd see many people come to faith in Christ. So there's still hope, I believe. Now let's go ahead and look at the steps to revival that did bring about a massive turnaround, at least for a few years in the southern kingdom of Israel or Judah. And we'll look at those steps and what those steps to revival are. Let's go ahead and read just a few verses just to start off with in 2 Kings 23. It says, Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which had been found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant." Let's stop there for a little bit. What we start to see right off the bat in the steps to revival is that godly leadership came back. In chapter 22, we read Josiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He did not compromise by turning to the right or to the left, we were told. So he was steadfast in his resolve to live for God and to honor God. And so we need to be praying for that. that kind of thing, pray hard for that, for the United States of America, for churches, for pastors, for spiritual leaders, that God would raise up leaders who fear Him, who honor Him, both in the spiritual and in the political realm, that men and women of God who would not be afraid to speak up and enact spiritual change Like I said, both in our pulpits and in our politics. And maybe we'll see some neat things happen, be praying for that in the next four years. Number two, we need to have a heart for the things of God. If there's gonna be a spiritual revival, we have to have a heart for the things of God and the desire to see God honored and his house, his name, his reputation rebuilt and restored. And so Josiah, he rebuilt what the godless had destroyed and he assigned, we saw last time, he assigned money He assigned workers to restore and bring back to what it should have been, the place of worship, the temple of God, that God would have a place to be worshiped. Number three, and this one's a biggie, there must be a rediscovery or a turning back to obedience to the word of God. And that is foundational to a spiritual revival. And we saw in chapter 22 that the word, the Bible, was rediscovered after years and years of it being completely set aside or neglected. Who knows where they found it? In the temple somewhere. And they found it and they brought it out. And it had been buried under hedonism and under idolatry. Shefan brought the Bible or the law. into the king's presence, the first five books of Moses, the Torah, and it was read before the king. And as it was read before the king, it touched his heart and he was convicted. So the number four step to a spiritual revival is we must respond to it with a broken and contrite heart. And we're told that when the king heard the words that the light went on, and he realized where they were at in relation to the word of God and how far from obedience to God and his word they really had drifted. And when he realized that, we're told in the previous chapter that he tore his royal robes and he began to weep. So the fifth step to a revival or awakening, the next one, is he sought the Lord. When he heard and got convicted, he sought the Lord. He responded to what God wanted, and he wanted to get things right with God. And so he sent to find out and to inquire of the Lord what needed to be done. His question was a beautiful one. Lord, what should we do? Lord, we've messed up, we've blown it, we've turned away from you, now what should we do? Number six, step to revival. He listened and then he responds and he puts into action a plan for change. This is where we pick up our story in chapter 23. And so let's read again, just the first three verses, just to get it in our heads again. It says, now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah and with them all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And notice, he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep the commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. So we notice Josiah first, he gathers the leadership, the elders, the priests, the prophets. These are the people of influence. These are the people that had influence over many others. And they go up to the house of the Lord. And so it was a call, the revival is a call for everyone to get right with God. And we're told also all the people are gathered, both small and great. So there were none that were too great or none that were too insignificant. Everyone was involved in this. And so he, Josiah, not a scribe or not a priest or not an elder, but he the king, He read in their hearing the words of the Book of the Covenant I saw this ad or something the other day with President Trump holding a Bible that was like his Bible and that they were, I don't know, you could get it or something and there was another spiritual leader and I was like, well I hope he does more than holds it I hope he reads what's in it. We need to be praying for him that he'll read what it says and do what it says, right? And so we see here that Josiah, he read the book. He was the leader, but he read the book to the people. And what he basically did is he let God's word loose to do its work. to penetrate their ears, their minds, their hearts, their spirits, their souls. And I believe that Josiah understood the innate, the inherent power of the Word of God to grab a hold of people and to convict and prick their consciences. It did it to him, and then he in turn starts to read it to the people. So we see that there's a return in a large scale to God's Word as their rule and their measure and their guidance for life, for living, for governing, and he brings the Word of God to the leaders and to the people and then the next step we see number three excuse me in verse three look at verse three then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the lord to follow the lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with notice all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book, and all the people took a stand for the covenant. So step number seven to a revival is a recommitment or a vow, a promise to God to live godly, to obey his word, to obey his commands, And so he stands by a pillar before all the people and he makes this vow, this covenant, to follow the Lord and to keep the commandments of God and his testimonies, his statutes, and it says, with all of his heart and with all of his soul, to perform the words that were written in the book. In other words, he says, we all need to become doers, not hearers only, but doers of the word. And so this is a confession of consecration or recommitment to God. And that's still today really the call for all of us to perform and to live outdating the words written in this book, right? This book right here is to be our rule of living, our guide for life. And so that's what he says. We're going to make a commitment, all of us, to do that. It's never changed. And I do believe if revival is going to come, we have to follow these steps as well. personally in our own lives, and as the church, and corporately, and as the United States, as a nation. The question is, will we do that? So this is really, to me, when you look into the story, this is a powerful moment that's taking place here, especially in light of the king, excuse me, the kind of wickedness that they had experienced for the 57 years prior when Jerusalem, we're told that Jerusalem for 57 years was filled with blood from one end to the other because of Manasseh, this wicked evil king that was before Josiah. And Manasseh, he in essence poisoned the country, the whole nation with Rebellion against God, idolatry, and all kinds of gross evil sin. I mentioned a while ago Manasseh in 2 Chronicles. Was it 1 Chronicles? 2 Chronicles. He ended up being captive. He got taken captive and while he was in captivity he repented before God and amazingly God forgave him. And you'd be like, I was joking around, Lord. I kind of wasn't joking. I said, we probably won't see Manasseh in heaven. Maybe we will. Because he repented before the Lord. And this goes to show you, even though he did all that evil, God still forgave him. And so anyway, back to Josiah. Talk about a breath of fresh air. And Josiah, what we learn about this king here, is he led by example. He's like, do what I do, not just what I say. And all the people took a stand for the covenant with Josiah. It was like they made a confession. Maybe we need to make this confession in the United States again. In God we trust, right? That's what they were saying. And naturally we need to have that same mindset to be recommitted to God. Step number eight in the revival, he next takes action. He wasn't just a man who made great speeches. or spoke fine sounding words, but he was a man who took great action. Look at verse four. Notice what happens next. And the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, or Baal, and for Asherah, So we see that Josiah, he evaluates what needs to be done He evaluates what is versus what should be. And he sees action needs to be taken to get from what is currently to what should be. and I think that's a good thing when you think about revival to evaluate our own lives about right now what is going on in our lives and what should be versus what should be is there something that needs to be made some changes that need to be made and so for us to get where we should be from where what is so he sends the priest into the temple to clean out anything that exalted itself or was an offense or a dishonor or a contradiction to God. And he begins a spiritual housecleaning. And so they brought out, we're told, they brought out all the articles that were made for Baal, the articles that were there of worship for him and for Asherah. and all of the hosts of heaven. Remember, the previous king had brought in all this, his dad, had brought in all this junk into the temple and poisoned the temple. And so now all this stuff's in there that should have never been in there in the first place. So he says, clean it out, let's get rid of it. And we see what Israel had come to at this point. They had embraced pluralism. which is, or religious relativism. They worshiped everything and anything. They embraced the false wholesale. In other words, at the time when he comes into power, for 57 years, anything went. It didn't matter what it was. Let's worship anything and everything. But Josiah realizes that that kind of mindset, that kind of worship was just plain wrong. Now remember, he had just read the words of God. Probably he read these very words, Exodus 20, chapter 20, verses 2 through 4, which clearly states, as God spoke to Moses on the nation of Israel, he said this, Out of the land of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or the earth beneath or the waters below, and you shall not bow down to them or worship them. So Josiah says, you know what? All of these things that are in the house of the Lord that are not of God, they need to be taken out, cleaned out. And so they were articles of worship that violated the command and the covenant that God had made with the nation of Israel. And so they were a violation of God's holy law, his holy word. And so they're taken out and they are burned, rightly burned, outside of Jerusalem. I think a lot of spiritual stuff that people are embracing is just junk for the fire. Even today, they were doing that back then and even today. I think some things are good just for that. All they're good for is just to be burned. A good New Testament example, I love this story where the Lord brings this spiritual reawakening in the city of Ephesus. Turn with me over there, it's a neat story. Ephesus, excuse me, Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19, so if you'll turn over there with me. And we'll take a look at this cool story in Acts chapter 19 as the gospel spread and began to bring changes in these communities as the gospel came. But Acts chapter 19 is where we're gonna look. This new Bible, it's supposed to make it faster, but it doesn't for me because, I don't know. Okay, Acts chapter 19, beginning at verse 11. This is a neat story, it says, now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs, is that how you say it? I always say handkerchiefs, is that wrong? Anyways, or aprons were brought from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. So God was moving mightily. Paul's there in the city, all these amazing miracles are happening. It says, then some of the itinerant, this is a funny story. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits saying, we exorcise you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches. Now this is funny because these guys didn't have obviously a real relationship with Jesus themselves, but they looked at what Paul was doing, or as the name of Jesus in all this was like some kind of formula for exercising demons. So they decided to try it. We exercise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest who did this. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. So this demon is like not having it. It's like, who are you clowns? I know Jesus. I know Paul. Who are you guys? And then the demon just beats the tar out of all seven of them. People that are demon possessed are often super duper strong. right and so he was strong and he just beats him up well anyway let's go on this that's not the cool part of the best part of the story this became known both to to all jews and greeks dwelling in ephesus and fear fell on them all and the name of the lord jesus was magnified and many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds also many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all and they counted up the value of them and it totaled 50 000 pieces of silver so the word of the lord grew mightily and prevailed so They burned the junk. They burned all their stuff that they were using in their false worship just like what Josiah is doing here and bringing spiritual awakening or revival to the nation or the southern kingdom of Judah. So kind of a neat parallel. So Josiah recognizes that in order to be right with God Some things had to be left behind, or removed, or done away with, or destroyed. They had to be parted with. So step number nine, the next step in a spiritual revival, he cleans house and removes from Israel their idols, and he destroys them. Literally, he burns them. I'm thinking about this in the sense of Josiah becoming the king now, and literally going all over to the high places and all the places where they had built places of idol worship, and literally burns them and destroys them. That probably was not popular with some people, because people get mad when you mess with their idols, right? Now, personally, I believe we are all called to be a Josiah in our own sphere of influence, in our own lives, first of all, in our own homes. amongst our families our churches and he removes everything that is an offense or a dishonor to God anything that would exalt itself against the knowledge of God and so there's an evaluation and then there's a removal and these things were spiritual pollutants and they needed to be removed. Think about what's allowed maybe sometimes in our own lives or our own homes and what kind of maybe books that we have or what kind of magazines we might have or what kind of music that we might have or what kind of shows or movies that we might be watching or the kind of internet or maybe even the kinds of friends or the kinds of people that we hang around with. You know, the kinds of influences that you surround yourself with is gonna make an impact on your life whether we care to admit it or not. What kind of places that we go to. Ask ourselves, do these things honor or dishonor God? Do they belong in my life? And that's a good thing to do, you know. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit and sometimes we need to clean house or examine ourselves and tonight's a good night to do that. We come to communion, it's a good time to examine ourselves before the Lord and say, Lord, Like David prayed, see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting. Is there something in my life or anything in my life that needs to be done away with that's not honoring you or not pleasing to you? And so that's what Josiah does. He evaluates and then he removes or gets rid of things. And so that's a good thing to do. And remember, a lot of this stuff was just fit for the fire. It was perfect for the fire. And so if you want a personal revival in your own life, sometimes we have to take action and get rid of some of the junk that's in our lives or in our homes and get them, throw them away, take them away, throw them into the fire. I remember when I came to Christ as a brand new Christian, I've told this story before, but I had a big house cleaning to do as a brand new Christian. I had close to probably a hundred albums. In case you don't know what an album is, it's like these big discs and you used to put them on a record player and then they would spin around and you put this thing with a needle and the music would come out somehow. Anyway, I had about a hundred of those and then I had lots of 8-tracks. Again, some of you might not know what that is. but they were these big bulky things and you pop them into your 8-track player I had an 8-track player in the car and so I had all kinds of stuff that the Holy Spirit convicted me about that had been ruling my life and influencing my life and it wasn't a good thing and so I had to get rid of a lot of stuff and I had bongs I had booze, I had pipes, I had pills, I had all kinds of drugs that I had been taking and I had to take them and I burned, I remember I burned them in the trash barrel. Now, in case you don't know what a trash barrel is, back then we had these 50-gallon trash barrels, these old 50-gallon drums that we would put our trash in before burning trash was outlawed, and we would burn stuff in them. And so I remember burning all my albums and burning all my bongs and burning all these things. And another thing I added to the collection of things that I felt needed to be burned is I went through my grandma's house, who I was living there with her, and I took all of her idols, all of her statues and I burned them in the fire. I remember I got in big trouble for that one. But anyway, my family was pretty mad. So I literally took all that and I burned that stuff in the fire just like Josiah does here, right? And so there were things in my life that I knew would not be compatible with my new confession and my commitment to Jesus, so I got rid of them. And now notice Josiah, I love what he does, he burns them. He doesn't put them in some drawer, or storage shed, or have a yard sale, and say, hey, I think I'll sell all my idols. He doesn't do that. I remember when I got saved, and then right after that, my cousin got saved, and he had way more albums than I did. He had way more 8-Tracks than I did. He gets saved after I did, and I said, hey, Pat, what are you gonna do with all your stuff, all your albums and stuff? He goes, I think I'll sell them or give them away. I'm like, what? Why would you do that? I'm like, no, just burn them. If they're not good for you, they're not good for anybody else either. And so anyways, Josiah forever removes this stuff. And I think that's what real repentance and revival really does. It's a resolve forever to remove sin to the best of our ability from our lives. Now maybe someday, I thought about this, maybe someday we should do a bonfire here at the church. Wouldn't that be kind of neat? Do a bonfire here at the church and of course we'll have to get permission from the fire marshal and all that. And we can bring all of our idols and we can burn them in the fire, right? And so they burned the idols of Baal. Baal stood for the worship of creation. Now think about the subtlety of this. Baal stood for the worship of creation itself. But they had placed Baal in the place of God who was a true creator So it's an offense to God You make something that you're worshiping something God made and giving credit to Baal for it That's what they were doing And so, you know, they were worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, the true Creator. They were worshipping the philosophies and the ideologies that contradicted the Word of God. Asherah stood for the deification of immorality or sex. and war. And so we know that sex is a blessing from God in the right context, right? They had taken something that was given by God to be a blessing for procreation, for enjoyment between a husband and a wife, and they made it into something immoral and wicked and evil. And so they had temple prostitutes, and you could go to the temple and sleep there as an act of worship with the prostitutes, male and female, homosexuals as well. And so all of these are the kinds of things that they had distorted and polluted, and they were being embraced, but sadly they're still being embraced today, aren't they? And it's what really the entertainment industry in the United States is all about. It's pretty much sex and violence. It's pretty much what it's all about. And so the flesh enjoys feasting on and exalting and glorifying in the philosophies of men. It loves feasting on sex, it loves feasting on violence. And so the flesh is like... Have you ever seen these shows where... I saw this show one time where they were showing piranhas. And a piranha, if you throw something into where there's a bunch of piranhas or there's blood, they will in an instant devour it. Sharks are the same way. Sharks can smell blood in the water, I don't know how, how they do it, but they can smell blood in the water a long ways away. And when they smell blood, what do they do? They come and they devour. Well, our flesh is like that. It loves feasting on things that are forbidden, and it's drawn to that. We have to resist that in our lives as believers. I remember one time, and my brother John probably won't like this story, but we went snorkeling one time. in Cancun, and my brother John was deathly afraid of the water. I didn't realize that. I didn't know he was afraid of the water, but we get into the water, and he doesn't want to get in. I'm talking him into it. We have life vests on and everything. I'm like, John, it's okay. You're not going to drown. And I'm trying to tell him, and then the guy's telling him, yeah, you'll be fine. I'll go with you and blah, blah, blah. And so, anyway, to make a long story short, my brother finally gets in, and we're getting out to go move to a new spot, and my brother gets in the boat, and as he's getting in the boat, the boat's moving, and he scrapes his shin, and his shin starts to bleed. So we're gonna go to a new spot, and my brother John's gonna get in again, and I say to him, hey, just don't swim by me, because your blood's probably gonna attract sharks. Well, anyway, he didn't get in. So, just messing with him. I'm a mean big brother sometimes, I guess. But anyway, our flesh is like that. It gets attracted to things. And Josiah, what does he do? He takes all of that junk and he burns it and it represents the false, it represents the flesh. And he takes it to Bethel, which is kind of interesting because Bethel was where all of this junk began. You remember early on when we read about Jeroboam? He started all this idolatry in Israel with the calf worship. And so not even the ashes were worthy to be around, so they take the ashes up to Bethel and they dump it there. Let's scoot along here. Look at verse five. It says, then he removed the idolatrous priests from the kings of Judah, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem. So remember the previous idolatrous kings, they had all these false priests that were worshiping on these places. You could go there and the priests would do stuff on your behalf. They all get fired now, right? And so, They get removed. And those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the hosts of heaven. Remember, Baal was the god of creation supposedly, but he was a fake. And so they get rid of all those priests. He removed the idolatrous priests. We're seeing all the things that he does here. And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Lord to the brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the brook Kidron and ground it to ashes and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. Interesting. I don't know. Maybe somebody else can figure out what that was all about, but that's what he did. Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons Interesting, the perverted persons was another way in Israel of saying the homosexuals. Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord. So they were doing perverted things, sexual things in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. And this was Asherah, all the sexual perversion. And he began, I mean, he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense from Geba to Beersheba. Also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. So there was idolatry everywhere. Nevertheless, the priests The priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren. And it says, and he defiled Topheth. which is the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech. That had become a practice that God had forbidden. Sadly, they had worshipped Molech and they would offer their children to the God of Molech. There was this image and they would heat it up so it was super, super hot and its arms would turn red and then they would put their children and burn their children in the fire. It was sick and horrible. It says, then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. So even, I mean, they had stuff dedicated all over the place to all these different idols and to the creation itself to the sun. At the entrance to the house of the Lord by the chamber of Nathan Melech, the officer who was in the court, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And so even the stuff that they had used in going to battle for their false gods, they burned all that. The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh, remember Ahaz and Manasseh were the two big wicked guys, right? They had made all these altars, altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord. The king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the brook Kidron. Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Asherah. Remember, Solomon backslid too, and he embraced idolatry. The abomination of the Sidonians for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. So these high places have been there for a while now. And remember God told the nation of Israel and the kings of Israel not to intermarry with the nations around them. Well Solomon disobeyed and he married all these other foreign women. and then he caved and gave in to their idolatry just to be a wife pleaser I guess and built all these altars and these places for his wives and then that idolatry defiled the nation of Israel verse 14 and he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images and filled their places with the bones of men There was a lot of work to be done, right? There's a lot of stuff that had to happen to clean out the wickedness that was going on in the country. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel Now remember, The northern kingdom of Israel, he was the king of that, Jeroboam was. He introduced idolatry to the northern kingdom, and the northern kingdom ended up falling way before to the Assyrians, and then the southern kingdom later on falls to the Babylonians. But it was all because of this kind of stuff, this idolatry. And so he took the powder, I mean the altar, he crushes it and burned the wooden image. Verse 16, as Josiah turned he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain and he sent and he took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed who proclaimed these words. Then he said, what gravestone is this that I see? So the man of the city told him, it is a tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar at Bethel. He had prophesied that this was going to happen. So he was buried up there. And it says, verse 18, and he said, let him alone. let no one move his bones so they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came from samaria so they honored those men that were truly of god and that preached against all the idolatry verse 19 now josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger. And he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel." So it's sad because look how far they drifted from God. They just totally backslid, totally went into wickedness. And all of this angered the Lord, right? That's what we're told here. It provoked the Lord to anger. Are there things that provoke the Lord to anger? Yes, there are. And so verse 20, oh yeah, by the way, I had a conversation with somebody, I don't know who they were, today, and they said basically, well, you Christians, you need to leave everybody alone because everybody has their own beliefs. And I said, well, sorry, our Great Commission tells us we're to bring the gospel to every person. So I'm sorry you don't like that, but that's what we're doing. And then they said, this person said, another person said that was in that conversation said, well, people should be able to live however they want to. I said, well, they can, but if they don't repent, they're going to perish. So anyway, I think they call me some names after that. Anyway, but he executed all the priests of the high places who were there. Now it gets pretty heavy here, doesn't it? Now he starts to execute. He executes all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars and burned men's bones on them. And he returned to Jerusalem. Now remember, dead bodies defiled. And so by burning these bodies on these altars, it was a defiling of that altar. Then, verse 21, then the king commanded all the people. This is a long chapter, isn't it? We're gonna make it. And he commanded all the people, keep the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in the book of the covenant. So he gets rid of all the bad and starts to introduce and bring in the good. Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. So there were so many corrupt kings that they had neglected the Passover, but he reads it in the law, he says, now we are going to begin to keep the Passover again. But in the 18th year of King Josiah, the Passover was held before the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists and the household gods and idols. See, it is biblical to take them and burn them, right? So he got rid of the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. So he takes God's word at face value and serious and he says we're going to get rid of all the stuff that dishonors him. Verse 25, now before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart This is so beautiful, what a testimony he has in verse 25. Now with no king that was like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him." So it was a done deal already. God said, you know what, I'm going to bring judgment on you guys. because of what you've done and what Manasseh has done. And then it says in verse 27, And the Lord said, I will also remove Judah from my sight, as I have removed Israel, and 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, in all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went to the aid of the king of Assyria and to the river Euphrates, and king Josiah went against him, and Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. Then the servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb." Now, you know, I might look at that, we might look at that and go, man, This guy was godly, he was righteous. Why didn't God protect him there? Well, you know what? Everyone has to die somehow, some way. It was his time. And the Lord said, you know what? I'm going to bring you home. And there's this cool verse in the book of Isaiah, I think, and I'm paraphrasing it badly, but it says, why do the righteous perish? And it says, God removes them to spare them from evil. so you know there was a lot of judgment that was going to be coming upon Judah and he didn't have to experience that the Lord took him home instead and so he died and the people of the land took Jehoaz the son of Josiah anointed him and made him king in his father's place Jehoaz was 23 years old when he became king and he reigned three months that's a short reign three months in Jerusalem his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna. And notice, sadly, after seeing all that his father did, all the good that he did, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done, all the previous wicked kings. Now Pharaoh Nico put him in prison at Ribna in the land of Hamath that he might not reign in Jerusalem and he imposed on the land a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. Then Pharaoh Nico made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoaz and went to Egypt, and he died there. So Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh. exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land from everyone according to his assessment to give it to Pharaoh Neko. I don't know how you say it. So Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He's kind of a vassal king, he gets put in there by Pharaoh and then they just have to give him money and stuff. So his mother's name was Buddha, the daughter of... and Rūma. I've got to do it at least once. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. So, back to, right away, back to this evil that happens. And so, you know, Josiah, stand out king. made major changes and brought spiritual revival. It didn't last that long, but it was there for a little while. And so, you know, those that are in power, those that are in leadership make a big difference in the influencing of others. And that's why, man, be praying for our leaders because Bad leaders can destroy a nation. Godly leaders, people that fear the Lord and honor the Lord, can change things in a nation at least temporarily. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time in your Word and the things that we learn. Lord, history sometimes is so relevant and it often just repeats itself over and over again. And Lord, we pray for this country, the United States of America. Lord, we need a spiritual awakening. Lord, we need a spiritual revival that would begin in our own hearts personally. Tonight, Lord, as we partake of communion, I just pray that we would examine our hearts before you, that you would examine our hearts. And Lord, and if there's things in our lives that need to be taken outside and burned in the fire, that Lord you would give us the grace and the strength to let go of those things, to do away with those things, that those things would not be chains on us, that would rule over us, but that you would rule over us. And I pray, Father, that as we partake of communion tonight, Lord, we want to honor you and glorify you and thank you that you came into the world to save us sinners. And Lord, you died for us while we were yet sinners. And Lord, your grace and your mercy and your goodness and your spirit keeps us and helps us to live for you. And that's what we need, Lord. Every one of us in this room needs you. We need your help. We need your strength. Lord, we need a victory over the world and all of its lusts and its temptations. We need victory over our flesh, which is drawn to sin like piranhas and sharks are to blood. We don't want to be drawn. We pray that the Spirit of God living in us would give us self-control. And we also pray, Lord, that you would give us victory over our big enemy, the devil. who is always prowling around, trying to deceive, trying to tempt, trying to destroy, trying to devour, trying to kill. I pray you'd protect us and our families from him. So Lord, we come before you and we acknowledge you, Jesus, as our Lord and our Savior, our King tonight. And we want to honor you in partaking of communion, remembering what you did for us on the cross. And we pray that your blood would freshly be applied to us in a spiritual sense tonight, that you'd wash us, cleanse us, and renew our faith. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's stand and sing. And while we're singing, you guys can come up and get your communion. And then we'll partake together.