Well, our confessional lesson tonight comes from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 13 of Sanctification. You can find that in the back of your hymnal on page 927. 927. I'm gonna go ahead and read all three paragraphs. It's not a particularly long chapter. Chapter 13 of Sanctification. They who are once effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified really and personally through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by his word and spirit dwelling in them. The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they are more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man, Yet imperfect in this life, there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part, once ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. In which war, although the remaining corruption, for a time may much prevail, yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying spirit of Christ, The regenerate part doth overcome and so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. What is sanctification? That's an important question and one we need to think carefully about. Sometimes people will want to know. What is God's will for their life? And here's the answer the Apostle Paul gives us in 1 Thessalonians 4.3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. And we're told in Hebrews 12.14 to pursue peace with all people and sanctification. without which no one will see the Lord. So sanctification is God's will for you, and without sanctification, no one will see the Lord. That makes it important, but what is it? Well, here's the short answer. Sanctification is the work of God's grace through the Word and Spirit to increasingly make you more like Jesus. And here's an even shorter answer. Sanctification is God's divine process to make you holy. Now, of course, we need to say that that process does not in any way contribute to our justification. Our justification is God's legal pardon. It's the judge of heaven and earth saying, on account of the merits of Christ, justice has been satisfied on your behalf. You're acquitted. You're pardoned. And that is a one-time, irreversible, legal declaration. But the catechism, the larger catechism rightly reminds us that if there's justification, there will be sanctification in the life of a believer because that's what new life does in a person. And sanctification then is that ongoing work of the Holy Spirit whereby He uses the means of grace to grow us in holiness. And while it will be a work in progress till we get to glory, and it will certainly be an imperfect work in this life because of the pervasive corruption, we know for certain that if God has begun a good work in us, he'll carry it on to completion. Now I chose this section of our confession because I wanted to hone in on some specific language. In paragraph one, we read this about the person who's legitimately born again. The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed. And then we're told that the corruption of sin that remains in us is more and more weakened and mortified. And mortified simply means put to death. In paragraph two, we learn that in the process of our sanctification, there will arise a continual and irreconcilable war in the flesh, lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. In other words, on this side of glory, there'll be no peace treaty between the spirit and the flesh. The sides are irreconcilable. And then again in paragraph three, this war is once more mentioned before it tells us the inner and renewed man will surely grow in grace and holiness. Now I want to ask you to get that language fixed in your mind. Sin, destroyed. Remaining corruption, mortified. The old man and new man in a continual and irreconcilable war. This paints a picture of the Christian life and the way Christians should think of sin that'll never be portrayed in a Hallmark movie. But this is the language of the Bible and specifically the New Testament. And I wonder when we think of the remaining sin in our lives, if this is how we think about it, do we see the sin that still resides in us as something God hates? Do we see it as a mortal enemy that must be destroyed? Do we know that we're engaged in an out-and-out spiritual battle and we have to deal fiercely and violently with lingering sin? Do we know that? This is something that the great Puritans emphasized wonderfully. I want you to listen to a few sentences from Stephen Charnock's treaty on mortification of sin. I actually shared this last year or the year before in our study of The Canons of Dort, I think this is really helpful language. Listen to what Brother Sharnock writes, nothing but the death of sin must content a renewed soul. The sentence is irreversible, die at must. No indulgence is to be shown to sin, no lighter punishment than death. The axe must be laid to the root and the knife must be held to the throat. And sin must have no pardon. It must have no reprieve. No mercy must be extended to it as to give it a moment breathing. Dangerous enemies must be handled with quick severity. If we do not presently kill sin, it may suddenly suck out the blood of our soul. Dealing with sin. must be quick and of an uninterrupted severity. The knife must remain in the throat of sin till it fall down dead." Dear brother, Sharnock understood that the Christian battle against sin is warfare and it's a violent affair at that. This is what it looks like for God's people to be violently attacking the sin in their life in God's power. It is combat. Of course, we have the glorious comfort of knowing the war is ultimately won, and in our ongoing fights, we're dependent on, again, using the language of the confession, the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ. But the battle wages on, and we're called to fight against it. This evening when we return to our study in 2 Kings and looking at the reign of Josiah, we're going to see that this king is zealous for his kingdom to be sanctified. And he goes about it in a way that would have resonated with Stephen Sharnock. Josiah goes after idolatry and sin in a way that's quick and of an uninterrupted severity. And in that way, what we're gonna see tonight as we look at Josiah is a picture of how we ought to deal with sin in the covenant community, in our families, and most importantly, the residual sin in our own lives. But for now, let's continue praising the Lord. We'll stand to sing a number 540, number 540, Soldiers of Christ Arise. Let me ask you to open up your copy of Scripture to 2 Kings 23. We're going to begin reading in verse 3 and read down through verse 20. Second Kings 23, beginning of verse three, this is God's word. 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 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. And the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, the priest of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. Then he removed the idolatrous priests 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. And those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 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. Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. And 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. Nevertheless, 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 he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might take his son or his, excuse me, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated 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. The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the 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 Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars, and he cut down the wooden images and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, had made both that altar and the high place, he broke down and he burned the high place and he crushed it to powder and burned the wooden image. As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were on the mountain, and he set and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and he defiled it according to the words of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed to proclaim these words. Then he said, what gravestone is this that I see? So the men of the city told him, it's the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you've done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, let him alone. Let no one move his bones. So he let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. Now Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the king 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. He executed all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars. and he burned men's bones on them, and he returned to Jerusalem. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Well, dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, over the past several lessons, we've been following along with Josiah's unparalleled reformation. And you recall that early in his reign, he had made a start of removing some of the idolatry in Judah. But his reformation began in earnest in response to hearing God's law for the first time and learning what covenant obligations God's people have. I mean, when he heard the book of the covenant read, and it's probably the book of Deuteronomy, maybe some more of the Torah, but certainly the book of Deuteronomy, it had a dramatic impact on Josiah's soul. So he assembled the people of Judah to the house of the Lord, and he read God's word to them. And we're told there in verses two and three, 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, to keep his 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 the book, and all the people took a stand. for the covenant. That's a summary of what we learned last week in 2 Chronicles and where we pick up this evening. Remember, we're kind of toggling back and forth between Kings and Chronicles to get the most information we can about these various But this is where we are this evening. And we don't want to gloss over this important fact that the Reformation and the sanctification of Josiah's kingdom is the result of the king and the king's people hearing God's Word. In other words, as in the case of all true revivals and Reformation, it's Word-centered. You know, there's a wonderful section in John 17 in Jesus' high priestly prayer where he asks the Father, sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth. And that seems to be the principle unfolding now in 2 Kings 23. God's word is living, it's active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints In other words, it's a word that exposes sin, that calls for a radical change. In Josiah's case, it precipitates a radical reformation. Well, the king's about to go on a seek and destroy mission in Judah, and the mission is to destroy idols and all the wicked practices associated with them. And for a few centuries, it's pretty clear, having just read this chapter, it's pretty clear that Judah's religious life resembled a Chinese buffet. The number of choices of false gods and idols in Judah was dizzying. But like the food at one of those all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets, the idols certainly appeared appealing. even though in reality, they were deadly. I mean, that's what's before us in verses 4 through 20, an all-you-can-consume idolatry bar. And if I can say this reverently, Josiah intends to close down. And to that end, I think it might be helpful to consider the disposition God's people. Those who had taken possession of the promised land, the disposition they were supposed to have concerning idolatry and false worship. Turning your Bibles back to Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 13. I want to read Deuteronomy 13, verses six through 11. Deuteronomy 13, beginning at verse six. If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, secretly entices you saying, let us go and serve other gods, which you've not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, You shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him, but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you. away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. So all Israel shall hear and fear and not again do such wickedness as this among you. It's interesting that in the paragraph just before this one, it gives similar instruction only about false prophets. It says if there are false prophets who lead people toward false gods, they're to be put to death. No exceptions. And then the paragraph after the one we just read says, if entire cities succumb to false gods, then the entire city is to be destroyed. But certainly, the paragraph we read is the most poignant because it says, look at your most intimate relationships, and if there's an unrepentant idolater encouraging others to worship false gods, there has to be a zero-tolerance policy. There's no pity to be shown. Your hand should be first in their execution. This is important for us because we need to know the idol problem in Judah wasn't simply on account of wicked kings and compromising priests and ear-tickling prophets. The problem was no one in Judah, no average Joe in Judah, had the fortitude to stand up for Yahweh's honor by saying, this idolatry is evil, we have to stop it or it's going to incur God's wrath. There was no one who was apparently willing to say that. But Josiah is. to now turn back to 2 Kings 23, and we're going to see Josiah's commitment to covenant faithfulness on full display. First thing we want to notice is that there were idols right there at and in the temple. In fact, the bulk of the idols in verses 4 through 7 were in the temple precincts. And so in verse 4, the first thing Josiah does is assemble the full cadre of priests to go through the temple rooms and bring out all the idols associated with three false forms of worship, the instruments that were made to be used in Baal worship, the things that were made to be used in Asherah worship, and the things that were used to worship the host of heaven. Now, the host of heaven, it has to do with astral worship, venerating stars, constellations, and pretty much everything you see in the sky, calling it a kind of God. One of the things that's shocking, and this is a shock that will reverberate through this entire section, is that the priests and the people of Judah must have passed these demonic monstrosities hundreds and hundreds of times as they went in and out of the temple precincts. They must have seen them, and one has to assume they simply got used to them. They probably at some point just failed to see why they were even a problem at all. But it would seem that Josiah is actually carefully consulting his copy of Deuteronomy and he's telling them, all this stuff has to go. So he has Yahweh's priests pile up those things that were initially pulled out and he burns them in the fields of Kidron. Verse 4 also tells us he intends to take those ashes, some of those ashes to Bethel, and it'll become clear in a few minutes what he intends to do with these ashes. Here's another surprise in the text. Not only were there idols in the temple, verse 5 tells us there's a troop of idolatrous priests spread throughout Judah, whose task was in part to facilitate the worship of those idols in the temple of the Lord. And the bigger surprise is that these pseudo-priests had been installed by the kings of Judah. I know this is a lot of detail, but try to stick with me. It's a very unflattering picture of Judah. Of course, it might not be all that big of a surprise to think and remember that they're installed by the kings of Judah when we remember that Josiah's grandfather and father were Manasseh and Ammon. Be that as it may, the priests, they bring out an actual Asherah pole, we're told. and they burn it in the Brook Kidron. The Asherah Pole was a female Canaanite deity, typically the consort of Baal, Baal and Asherah. They had like a fling, you know, that's the way it was understood in the Canaanite religion. They bring out the Asherah Pole, they burn it, spread the ashes on the graves of the common people. These would be the people who sacrificed to Baal and Asherah. The act was likely meant to be a symbol that these people who died worshiping a dead idol, the best they have to hope for is the dust of a dead idol spread over them. Things are going from bad to worse. Lance here at verse seven. Then he tore down the ritual booze of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. So there were cult homosexual prostitutes who not only functioned right there by the temple of the Lord, but they had their own perverted barracks on site. Think about that, at the temple. And the hangings that are described are likely tributes, perhaps pornographic tributes for the false goddess Asherah. It was sexual insanity at the temple of the Lord. You know, there's a close connection between idolatry and sexual immorality, and especially homosexuality. In fact, what we're reading here in 2 Kings 23 serves as a kind of case study for what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1, verses 18 through 32. That's the section where we're told that God is giving the people over to judgment, and that that giving over will be characterized by three diabolical exchanges. The people who are being given over will be those who exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for idols, they'll exchange the truth of God for the lie, and third, they'll exchange heterosexuality for homosexuality. And all three of those exchanges are grounded in idolatry and false worship. And listen, there's nothing new under the sun. This happens in the New Testament temple, the church, even today. There is a website, gaychurch.org, where you can find gay-affirming, sodomite-promoting churches. And there are at least four of them in Holland. I mentioned one recently, Hope RCA. And what's interesting is they not only celebrate sodomy, they also celebrate the fellowship they have, this is from their website, with progressive Muslims. It's not incidental that where there's idolatrous worship, you know, like Christians thinking they have fellowship with Muslims, there will be sexual perversion. And it's right there inside the door of the church. In Josiah's day, it was right there at the temple. The difference is, Josiah actually loves the Lord, and so he has a holy intolerance of gross immorality. Well, that's the idolatry right there at the temple. Then in verses 8 through 14, Josiah expands the scope of his reformation. There's still more idolatry and wickedness that he'll have to deal with at the temple, but he's also going to bring his seek and destroy mission out into the broader regions. of Judah. In verses 8 and 9, we're told he deposed the priests who served at the high places and he destroyed the high places and he defiled them. The defiling, according to verse 14, was piling up the bones of dead men at their sacred sites or using the ground up dust of the bones or the burnt up idols to spread over the various false religious sites. And what Josiah was doing by defiling them was really all he could do to make sure these places could never again be used. He was trying to make sure idolatry won't come back as soon as he's off the scene. And this comprehensive effort was extended from Geba to Beersheba, pretty much the northernmost region of the northern kingdom to the southernmost region of the southern kingdom. It was tantamount to saying from Alaska to Texas. And the priests that served at these high places, they're no longer going to be eligible to serve at the temple. Interestingly, though, It seems that provision is made for them in allowing them to eat from the unleavened bread. Well, in verse 10, we move back to Jerusalem, and we find that just outside of Jerusalem proper, just to the south and west, there's a grotesque abortion mill. Glantz there at verse 10. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Moloch. We can't be absolutely certain what Topheth means. Many scholars believe it comes from the root Toph, which means drum. And so the idea here is that Topheth, the idea with the word Topheth is that the drums had to be played so loudly in order to drown out the cries of children being sacrificed to Molech. Some scholars think it means burning place because the children were burned alive. But Topheth is always associated with child sacrifice. Jeremiah uses this reference six or seven times in Jeremiah 7, Jeremiah 19. What's noteworthy is that the son of Hanan, is literally been Gehanna, Gehanna, right? That's the fiery trash heap outside of Jerusalem that Jesus used as a picture of hell. And listen, wherever there's child sacrifice, that is a place that smells of hell's sulfur. I hope she doesn't mind me saying this, but Anne sent me a picture of an exhibit at the Holland Arts Council down on 8th Street. There's a picture of this goth-looking young lady wearing a blasphemous t-shirt that says, God Bless Abortion. And that's nothing less, really, than an acceptance of hell. Once more, there's nothing new under the sun. Again, to Josiah's credit, he seeks to abolish this gross practice by defiling it. Well, in verse 11, we're told he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had sort of put in place to be able to worship the sun. He burned up their chariots. Apparently, there were altars on a part of the roof of the royal palace where, again, the host of heaven was worshiped. And in verse 13, we're reminded that Judah's idolatry problem goes all the way back to Solomon. That's some 350 years. Glance there at verse 13, then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption. By the way, that's the Mount of Olives. the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the abomination of the people of Ammon. You'll remember that Solomon built these as a tribute to his many pagan wives. But it's not only tragic. that Solomon sowed the seeds of idolatry into Judah's DNA when he created these. But apparently these idols and places of false worship had become like historical sites for Judah. I mean, from Solomon to Josiah, there were at least 15 generations of people. And there had been some good kings in that span, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Ammon, even Hezekiah. But none of them were willing to touch the idols that Solomon put up. One writer put it this way, this is what makes Josiah so outstanding and not only loves the Lord and wants to worship him in truth, he has a backbone of steel and courage that's unwavering and he's willing to stand up against even the highly regarded forefathers. Oh, how the church needs men like that. Well, so far Josiah has been impressive in rooting out and seeking to rid Judah of her idolatry. It's a mission of iconoclastism. And he's been methodical and he's been deliberate. When we move into verse 15, we see that he now turns his attention north. to Samaria. Apparently, he wanted to unite the kingdom that had been divided ever since the death of Solomon. So he took his reformation to Bethel, which was right on the border between Benjamin and Ephraim. And this, of course, is where Jeroboam I created a golden calf for the northern kingdom to worship. Josiah made quick work of decimating the entire worship center at Bethel, not just the cap, but the high places, the altars, it all had to go. And he goes through Samaria and he's tearing down the high places and ridding Samaria of the idols. He's doing something remarkable. Josiah is seeking to cleanse the land. Right? There hasn't been a king that's done this. He's seeking to cleanse the land and even unite the kingdom. When we get to verse 17, we see an important discovery. He said, what gravestone is this that I see? So the men of the city said, it's the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you've done against the altar of Bethel. The Bible refers here to the unnamed man of God who had confronted King Jeroboam when he first began to make unauthorized sacrifices at Bethel. You'll remember the man of God cried out against Jeroboam's abomination with a prophetic word. He's cried out, oh, altar, altar, thus says the Lord, behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice you, excuse me, sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offering on you and human bones shall be burned on you. verse, that's 1 Kings 13.2, then the prophet goes on, this is the sign that the Lord has spoken, behold, the altar shall be torn down and the ashes shall be poured out. Phil Reichen, I think, helpfully comments, if the man of God in Judah was like most other people in ministry, he probably wondered whether his words would ever accomplish anything. And more than 300 years later, his prophecy came true. The Word of God never returns void. Well, Josiah really doesn't want this idolatry to reemerge even in the northern kingdom. And to fulfill that prophecy, he executes the priests at those high places. That's Josiah's radical reformation. And when he felt he had accomplished his task, he went back to Jerusalem. Well, I want to make a couple applications. First, I hope you won't mind, but this is an application I mentioned last week, but I do think it bears repeating. Josiah knows what's coming to Judah. He knows God's judgment will befall the nation over which he reigns. He had got that information directly from the prophetess Huldah. And instead of resting on his laurels and saying, well, you know what? Que sera, sera. That's not going to affect me. I'm going to be in heaven. No worries. No. It was his desire to walk faithfully every day of his life and to advance the kingdom Every moment he had opportunity. That's a picture of faithfulness we need to get in our minds. Sometimes people say America is under God's judgment. It is. The wrath of God is being revealed all around us. And there are some believers who think, well, then we should just cease trying, we should cease do evangelism. Let's not try to press Christ right in the public square. Let's just relax. We're going to heaven. That's all that really matters. Maybe we can snatch a few out of the fire as we go. That's not what Josiah does. He is eager to advance the kingdom, even knowing what is coming. And there's a grace in this too. Judah will be extended through his life. In other words, his faithfulness bought some precious time for Judah. Well, second, when you read 2 Kings 23, you think this whole chapter is just going from place to place to place. And Josiah is a man on a mission to tear down, destroy idols, grinding them into powder, And it's a glorious picture of what the mortification of sin ought to look like in the life of a believer. Just as Josiah is relentless in tearing down idols, pushing back immorality, we should be relentless in seeking to mortify sin in our lives. It could be some of you. that have had besetting sins for decades, a bitter tongue, laziness, gossip, pornography, and you just kind of walk right past those sins just like the people did in Jerusalem every day when they walked past those idols and places of prostitution and high places right at the city gate. At some point, those people became hardened and jaded, and if we don't kill the sin in our lives, we'll become hardened and jaded. That's why I read our confessional lesson on sanctification. The task of the Christian is to go to war against the residual sin that's in our lives. And you know who was the greatest teacher of mortification? The Lord Jesus. Think about what he taught in Matthew 5, verses 29 and 30. This is mortification. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it's more profitable for you than one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it's more profitable for you than one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Hell again to Ben-Gahana. According to Jesus, mortification of sins mean the tireless work of killing, sin, and Josiah provides us a pattern. The Apostle Paul actually provides us this doctrine very specifically in Romans 8.13 where he writes, if you live according to the flesh, you'll die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, You'll live. This is one of the verses that caused John Owen to write some of his most famous words. Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live. Cease not a day from this work. Be killing sin or it will be killing you. Mortification is the task of a believer. We can only do it in the power of the Spirit, which means we ground our lives in the means of grace that God has provided us. But we have to be intentional about this. One of the things the Puritans were awesome at is the basic teaching that it's incumbent upon God's people to learn to hate sin while not hating themselves. Hate sin. while not hating themselves. And you know how you do that? You keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. You see, when you look at the cross and you understand what Jesus did, that he bore the infinite wrath of God for your sin, you don't want to continue in the sin for which he died. You come to hate sin, but you won't hate yourself because when you look at the cross, you'll see the love of Christ for you. So mortify your sin and look to Jesus, amen. Well, let me move through my notes here and then I'll give you a moment to ask any questions or if you have any comments. I was a little confused with verse 20. It says he executed the priest. Verse 9, it says the priest of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord, but they ate unleavened bread among them. Brethren, that sounds like grace. So I'm a little confused with that. Okay, there are two different sets of priests. The first priest that you're addressing back in verse 9 were the priests that existed in the Southern Kingdom. They were heterodox priests in their doctrine. And again, there is a kindness there. They're no longer allowed to come to the altar. That ability is completely cut off to them. but they can still basically have some participation by the ability to be able to eat the unleavened bread. Again, that was part of the temple festival. When you get down to this latter part, he's in Samaria and he's actually fulfilling the prophecies that the man of God had given way back in 1 Kings 13. Yeah, brother. Yeah, I just find it very interesting in regard to the Confession of Faith's teaching on sanctification, that the language forcefully impresses on me that it is God who is subject of the work of sanctification. There's a sense in which it's work done on us. And I've been thinking about this lately. I'm not really comfortable with the language of cooperation. You know, I mean, in some traditions, they speak of cooperating with God's grace. And when I reflect on these paragraphs here in this chapter, it's not a notion that comes to mind. What page is that? This is 927, chapter 13 of Sanctification. You know what? First off, here's the thing. Again, in terms of justification and sanctification, it's by faith through grace in Christ, right? Justification is faith that lays hold of Christ. It's the empty hand of faith that says, I have nothing to offer, Jesus is my all in all. Pardon me? There's nothing we can do to contribute to it. However, you know, one of the pieces of, one of the things that, if you look at the first part, I couldn't find it, I'm sure it's here, but one of the first things it says in that first paragraph is it's emphasizing that we're new creatures, we've been regenerate. The Reformers really wanted to say that matters for something, we're gonna live differently. So everything we do out of that is because of God's gracious work in us and for us. I don't mind the language of cooperation. on a certain level, right? I mean, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I don't think that's a hypothetical. Again, I think this is where it's really helpful to be able to distinguish between justification and sanctification. What I like about how it's formulated there is that it really presses on us that it's from grace that we work this out, our sanctification. And the power is Christ, ministered to us by the Holy Spirit. And then that last paragraph that says there's a continuing supply that helps us in this fight. I'm not pushing back to what you said. what I'm pushing back against is there is a mindset, and it's in the reform community, that basically thinks there's a doctrine of justification and there's a doctrine of sanctification. They articulate the doctrine of justification just as I did, but their doctrine of sanctification is tantamount to, well, if you want to be sanctified, simply always be looking at your justification. And so that's a much more prominent view in the Reformed community. That's definitely not. That's what I kind of want to, what I'm bumping up against. Because we're new creatures, because we see sin as God sees it, because we see righteousness as God sees it, with new hearts, new eyes, new minds, we ought to come to hate the things he hates and love the things he loves. It's definitely that language of warfare. Yeah. So to Chris's point, there's an article from the Westminster Seminary Journal. Because this is an issue that some evangelicals talk about synergistic sanctification, this kind of thing. And I'll try, maybe I'll find it or whatever. I don't want to go through it all. Where it deals with how to rightly talk about the issue or the understanding of sanctification and us participating in sanctification, but not in not being a synergistic work for him. Yeah, synergistic is another word for cooperation. Yeah. And again, I think the way a lot of evangelicals tend to use the term is, God has saved me. He's done his part. Now I do my part. That's the kind of synergism that we would definitely want to push back against. Any other? I can't find what I'm looking for, so it's God's will that I don't burden you with this, I guess. Any other questions or comments? I just had a comment going back to the scripture text in my time in Israel. And we look at the way Israel is right now. The Muslims have taken over, man. They're standing right on top of the temple right now. Jews are rejecting Christ. And then you look at this story today and you think, God is patient, man. He's patient. He's patient with me. He's patient with all of us because we really, what we deserve is The Valley of the Sun of Hinnom now is a garden. It's no longer that trash heap that was constantly burning. It's actually a lush, beautiful garden. Which is a whitewashed tomb. They have a big Coliseum and they have concerts at in the valley. And it is, it's beautiful, it's nice. And then you go along the other side where you talk about the Mount of Olives. And again, I really think that's where Christ is going to come. He's going to come right down through that valley, right into the city. I believe that. It's amazing to go and to see the geography and to know that these were places that represented something significant. And in many ways, they've just been flowered over. And it's really kind of tragic. made into a powder and burned. You could smell that. I know you could because everything is so close together there. It's like when he did all this, everyone knew what was going on. In fact, the Valley of Henan, they say that just in general, the stench there was a perpetual nightmare because they not only burned their garbage, they burned like dead animals. That's where they would often throw carcasses. pretty gross, you know. And again, that's why Jesus used it as an imagery for hell. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you and bless you for your mercy to us. We thank you for the Lord Jesus. Again, we look at Josiah and he was a great king, but a greater king was needed, one who could work salvation for your people. and you sent him, your only begotten son, the Lord Jesus, the promised heir of David. He's our king, he's our savior. Help us to bow before him, to follow him, and we ask in his precious name, amen. Let me ask you to stand, brothers and sisters, to receive the Lord's benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And all of God's people said, amen.