Shall we once again turn to 2 Kings chapter 11, 2 Kings chapter 11 and we shall read verse 12. Once again to remind you, you'll find it on page 1199, sorry 426, 426, sorry 2 Kings chapter 11 verse 12. He that is Joida, the high priest, brought forth the king's son and put the crown upon him and gave him the testimony and they made him king and anointed him and they clapped their hands and said, God save the king. The title this evening is God Save the King. There came a time when the people of Israel began to demand for a king. They told Samuel, the judge, that they want to have a king like all the other nations. So appoint for us a king. Until then, the people of Israel had accepted God to be their king. God saved the people of Israel from the hands of Pharaoh in Egypt. Pharaoh, as you know, troubled them much and made slaves of them. God told Pharaoh, let my people go that they may serve me and worship me. This means God was telling Pharaoh that these are my people. I will be their God and King. I will deliver them from you and they will serve me and worship me. And God did exactly that. And God gave the commands and rules to run the people's lives. God gave judges and prophets and priests to teach them the law of the Lord. God gave them a land and he became their king. Now Samuel reminded them that the Lord God who delivered them from the hands of Pharaoh in Egypt, He is their Lord. He is their king, but the people demanded that they have a king. Ah, we want a king, just like all the other nations have a king. So God told Samuel, give them a king. And God appointed a man to be their king according to their liking, just as they wanted. The first king appointed to be the king of Israel was Saul. 1 Samuel 10 24 And Samuel said to all the people, See in him whom the Lord has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted and said, God save the king. Now by and by, Israel had many kings. About King Solomon, it is written in 1 Kings 1, verse 39, And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet and all the people said, God save King Solomon. When Joash was made the king, as we read, by Jehoiada the high priest, he brought forth the king's son and put the crown upon him and gave him the testimony and they made him king and anointed him and they clapped their hands and said, God save the king. Now fast forward, we come to the monarchy of the United Kingdom. And the national anthem of the United Kingdom expresses the same sentiments as of the people of Israel, asking God to save their king. or the Queen. Actually, the meaning of this phrase, God save the King, is well expressed in the National Anthem of Great Britain. It brings out the meaning of what God save the King means. Listen to this. God save our gracious King, long live our noble King, God save the King. Send him victorious, happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the King. Thy choicest gifts in store on him be pleased to pour, Long may he reign, may he defend our laws, And ever give us cause. to sing with heart and voice, God save the king. It is commonly believed among the rulers in England in this day and age that they don't do God. However, the people of Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries invoke upon the King and Queen the blessings of God. God save our King, God save our Queen. And this goes to show that the throne of Great Britain is rooted in the word of God, the Bible. The throne cannot do without the word of God. When Solomon became king, his father David said this to him in 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 3, and keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways to keep his statutes and his commandments and his judgments and his testimonies as it is written in the law of Moses that thou may prosper in all that thou doest, whithersoever thou turnest thyself. God told King Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 3 verse 14, And if thou will walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then will I lengthen thy days. So it was very important for the kings to obey and walk according to God's laws and the directions that God would give them. Now, you must have noticed when I read to you about King Joash, that beside putting the crown upon him, the high priest Jehoiada gave him the testimony. He put the testimony, the book in his hand. 2 Kings chapter 11 verse 12, he brought forth the king's son and put the crown upon him and gave him the testimony and they made him king. What is this testimony? This testimony is a book of the law of God. The book of the law of God was also called testimony. In Exodus chapter 31 verse 18, And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger of God. In Exodus chapter 20 verse 20 we are told, and he took and put the testimony into the ark. That's why the ark is called the ark of testimony. What was there in the ark? The word of God, the commands of God. And testimony means witness, witness. The testimonies or the command of the Lord is also called witness. In Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 26 onward, it is written, take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God that it may be there for a witness, for a witness against thee. Every man and woman, boy and girl, kings and queens on the day of judgment will be judged according to the law of the Lord. The law will stand as a witness to all the things that we have broken or gone against God. So we have two witnesses. One is the Old Testament and the other is the New Testament. The Lord God had told Moses that the king, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, so when a king is appointed over Israel, and this you find in Deuteronomy 17, verse 18 onward, that he shall write him a copy of this law in the book out of that which is before the priests and Levites. So what is the king supposed to do? That he should write for himself. Of course he need not write but he could write. The Levites can write for him the whole law. He must write it for himself, and it shall be with him. He shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren, What would teach him? Not to lift his heart above the brethren, the word of God, which he would read, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left, to the end, that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel. In other words, O King, you want to be blessed? Read the Word of God. Obey the Word of God. and remain faithful to the word of God. So the book of the law of God, the word of God, was specifically given to the king that was crowned. This book of God became a witness to the fact whether the king walked or not, the king obeyed or not, the king worshipped and served the one true and living God or not. The crown king was to rule the country according to the commands of the Lord. And this is now about 4,000 years ago. Now concerning, now coming to Great Britain. 70 years ago, Queen Elizabeth II, on the day of her coronation, on 2nd June 1953, was presented with the Bible. She was presented with the Bible. On her coronation day, the Archbishop of Canterbury said to her, Our gracious Queen, to keep your majesty ever mindful of the law and the gospel of God as the rule for the whole life and government of Christian princes, we present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom. This is the royal law. These are the lively, the living oracles of God. The Queen then, with her hand on the open Bible, promised to maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel, and a Protestant reformed religion established by law. Her Majesty was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if she would do these things to the utmost of your power. I'm quoting this, to the utmost of your power. Well, how do we know if a king or a queen did what God has commanded to the utmost of their power. How do we know that? What is the yardstick to judge a king or a queen if they have been accountable to God? Well, one way of finding out is by looking at the kings of Israel themselves. Did the kings of Israel do what the law of God commanded them to do? By placing the law of God in the hands of the kings, the king was made aware that he or his ministers are not above God, but that he and his ministers and all the people of his kingdom come under God's power, under God's authority and reign. It brought to the notice of the king and made him aware that God is the sovereign ruler and he is God and that you king are God's servant, his minister. It made them aware that they are not above the law. As we can see from the history of Israel, all the kings of the northern kingdom, the ten tribes, The kings of these ten tribes were evil. They were evil. Half of the southern kingdom, that is Judah and Benjamin, half of them, the kings were good. All the bad kings worshipped idols. They built altars. In the temple of God, they disobeyed God. Some even closed the door of the temple. The bad kings sacrificed their children to the demons. They did injustice. And during their reigns, homosexuality was practiced. People practiced witchcraft during the reigns of evil kings. They almost became like the kings of the pagan nations. There was no difference. between the kings of Israel and the pagan nation, and I'm talking about the bad kings, the evil kings. It is terrible to think that even the book containing the law of God was lost from the temple. It was lost, but it was found during the good kings. During King Ahab, his wife Zizabel killed the prophets of God and appointed priests and prophets of Baal. The Passover was not celebrated for years together. And this tells us that the Sabbath was not kept by the bad kings. It must be brought to our notice that Britain is not the only nation that has a functioning monarchy. As of 2022, as of this year, there are 43 sovereign states in the world with a monarch as a head of the state, 43 sovereign states. There are 13 in Asia, 12 in Europe, 9 in America, 6 in Oceania, and 3 in Africa. Even Vatican is totally run by a monarch. The Pope is a king in the Vatican. Now, what we got to look at is Are the monarchs, the kings and queens who claim to be Christians and take the oath of the word of God on the Bible, do they fit the description of the bad kings in the Bible or the good kings in the Bible? The outstanding characteristic of the good kings who loved God and obeyed his commands was that they openly showed their zeal for the Lord. They encouraged the Levites and the priests to teach the people the way of the Lord. They openly condemned evil ways. They took reforms to draw themselves and the people closer to God. Let us look at some of the things or some of the kings of Judah and see how they lived for God. How? The worship of Yahweh had become corrupt during the bad kings. And by and large, by and large, the king and the people did what they wanted to do. So let us take one king, Josiah. Let us take one king and see and compare how he lived and how our monarchs, kings or queens of this different nation, especially the Christian nation I'm talking about, how they conduct themselves as chosen and taken the oath on the word of God. So, Josiah. When King Josiah was crowned King of Judah, the first notable thing he did was that he gathered all of Israel. He gathered the priests, the prophets, people both small and great, and he read to all of them the words of the book of the Lord." He read them the words of God. We find his reforms in 2 Kings chapter 23, the whole of that chapter. This book of the law of God was lost. It was found during his time, during his reign, and immediately the first thing he did was, as I mentioned, he gathered all his people, the priests, the prophets, everyone, and he read the word of God. This king took upon himself to gather people around the book of the Lord. He made a covenant with the Lord that they would walk to the Lord and told the people to keep his commandments with all their heart, soul, and to do what is written in the book. And all the people stood to the covenant. All means all those who love the Lord. So here we ask the question, those that are crowned and take an oath on the Bible, do these kings and queens tell their people to read the Bible and keep the commands of God and learn the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you heard them say that let all of us take the word of God seriously? Let us read it for ourselves. Do they make it a law? Pass a decree that in the schools and colleges that reading for the children and teaching them the word of God should be made the priority. Second reform. Before Josiah became king, the priests, evil priests, bad priests, worshipped, sorry, before Josiah became king, there were priests, there were bad priests who worshipped idols. The priests of the temple of God worshipped many gods. They burned incense to the sun, to the moon, and to the planets. But when Josiah became king, he put these priests down. He sacked them. He sacked them. He appointed faithful priests of God. He appointed priests that loved the Lord and did not compromise. Now this takes courage. Josiah the king loved the Lord. He was not afraid of the consequences that he would suffer. He had to voice his disgust. He had to voice his love for the Lord. He had to confess the truth in the open and make changes. Now in many countries, the king or the queen is the head of the state church. here in Europe, in the West. Have any of them made news so far by shutting down the mouths of the priests and the bishops, archbishops that compromise with the word of God? Has anyone of the monarchs The guardians of the faith raised objection to the fact that they cannot mix the pure religion of the Bible with other religion and with ecumenism or participating in inter-religious ceremonies. Third reform. He spoke against sodomy. When he came to know that there were sodomites, homosexuals, that built houses next to the house of the Lord, he broke down their houses. Now why would homosexuals or sodomites build houses next to the house of the Lord? Well, I tend to believe that they were using themselves as male prostitutes. Homosexuality operated in pagan temples. There were male prostitutes in pagan temples and female prostitutes. You can imagine how corrupt The nation of Israel had become idolaters. The homosexuals had become so powerful that they had the courage to build their houses next to the house of the Lord. You find it in, as I said, in 23, 2 Kings 23. Josiah had the courage to come against these and drive them away from the surrounding of the house of the Lord, the temple. What have the present Christian monarchs done in keeping LGBTQ practices away from the house of the Lord and from corrupting our little children? They have allowed to penetrate every sphere of society and are flying the flag of abomination in the houses of worship, in the houses of rules, house of law and order, on the streets and so on. They are making people to bow down and lick their feet Am I saying that they should be crushed and destroyed? No, no. Jesus loves all sinners and want them to be converted and be saved from their sins. Just as Jesus forgave the adulterous woman and told her, sin no more, sin no more. He has saved us who have been sinners. The Lord is forgiving, he is merciful. Fourth reform, he brought an end to sacrificing children. There was this demonic practice carried out by the pagans, by every ungodly nation, of sacrificing children on the altars of their gods. Israel, as they moved away from God, the kings of Israel and Judah also fell into this most hideous practice. 2 Kings chapter 23 verse 10, we are told about Josiah, he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. This was indeed a very worthy act, a brave act, a courageous act, a righteous act carried out by King Josiah, protecting the vulnerable, innocent babies. Today in sight of the kings and the queens that have taken an oath on the word of God, the Bible, thousands of tophets, tophets means place of fire, thousands of tophets, Fetes are running where vulnerable babies, innocent babies are butchered and their blood spilled on the place of fire. Artofetes, the place of fire or the altars are the abortion clinics. Now with the posting of abortion pills to women's home, our very homes will be made the altars of fire where blood of the innocent is shed. King Josiah defiled his altars. He brought an end to this practice in Judah. All our kings and queens have children and grandchildren or even maybe great-grandchildren. These kings and queens all over the Christendom took an oath. They took an oath to run their nation by the most glorious book of wisdom, the Bible. How many monarchs have we heard cry out against abortion law? Have they guarded their faith? Have they been accountable to God and to his commands? Thou shall not kill. Did they gladly sanction The fifth reform, many kings had given up to hold the Passover. But Josiah, we are told, held the Passover like it was never held before. the Passover feast. 2 Kings chapter 23 verse 21 onward, and the king commanded all the people saying, keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the judges that judge Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor the kings of Judah. He loved the Lord so much that he went all out to worship him. The Passover pointed to the Lord's table. At the Lord's Supper, we remember Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God that was sacrificed for our sins. If the evil kings before Josiah were not keeping the Passover, then surely they were not keeping the Sabbath day either. No Passover, no Sabbath day. The command of God in regard to Passover feast was that they celebrate this feast for seven days. They were not to do any work on the first day and on the seventh day. Leviticus chapter 23 verse 5 to 8. But the evil kings did not care to keep the Passover and rest on the days commanded by the Lord. This means they would neither care to keep the Sabbath day holy. But King Josiah called the people to rest on the Passover feast. So would he ask the people to keep the Sabbath day holy. Look at the state of all the Christian nations where the monarchs, kings, or queens have taken an oath to keep the Lord's command. Hardly any business or workplace is shut down on this day. Hardly anyone refrain from entertaining themselves on this day. Almost everything is done on the Lord's day. People are everywhere on the Lord's day, but in the churches to worship the Lord and hear his word. Actually, it is almost a law to work on the Lord's day. Many Christians are threatened to be sacked if they do not agree to work on the Lord's day or are not given the job. Is there any king or queen who has stood up for this command of God to keep the Sabbath day holy? Josiah commanded all the people to keep the Passover unto the Lord their God and so he would do the same to keep the Sabbath rest as God has commanded to be done. Lastly, this is on in verse 24 of chapter 23 of 2 Kings. The land of Canaan was given to the children of Abraham according to the promise made by God to him. And here in this land, the Lord Yahweh would be their God and they would be his people. This land was supposed to be kept holy. There was to be no allegiance to the power of darkness. There was to be no fellowship with the forces of evil. There was to be no serving and teaching and worship of Satan in any form in this land. Only God and his word was to be obeyed. Only God was to be served and worshipped. Only the word of God was to be taught to the children, to the adults, to everyone. However, evil kings practiced and encouraged people to turn away from their true, holy and righteous God and they served familiar spirits. They made idols. They served idols. They evoked the dead. There was found wizards that served Satan and they worshipped demons and made idols of them. These men and women practiced witchcraft. King Josiah returned to the Lord and loved God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. In 2 Kings 24 we are told, moreover, the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abomination that was spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem did Josiah put away. that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. Everything changed with the word of God. our Western world in which the monarchs have taken an oath to rule their nations according to the word of God and serve him and uphold the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have they not failed to keep their nations free from occult practices? Today we find people openly practicing witchcraft, contacting or evoking the dead spirits which are actually demons. Today we find entertainment and games invented to introduce little children and adults to get in touch with the demons, the realm of Satan. The effect of this on the present generation is devastating. As a result of widespread of witchcraft, children involved in this are disturbed and are disoriented and mentally unbalanced. Books are churned out by the occultist and new ages teaching people to worship spirits found in trees, in stones, in stars and in the dead. Businessmen and entertainers in order to be successful travel to the East or in Africa to find shamans and gurus that deal with the occult world. There are businessmen and celebrities that worship the devil to become successful and become rich. Our society, especially our children, young people are destroyed because they have no knowledge of God. No knowledge of God. Rebellion and violence is on the increase. How many of our monarchs that have taken an oath to be defenders of the biblical faith raise their voice and cause such entertainment and games to come to an end? How many of them object openly and say, I will not sign any of such laws that goes against the word of God? Recently the Commonwealth Games clearly demonstrated that we should be bowing down and worshipping the demonic bull in order to calm him down. He's angry. Yes, of course, we know Satan is very angry. He's always angry. He's a murderer. He's a liar. And if you don't obey him, he will finish you. So this was demonstrated and it was openly shown that when they began to bow down to him, he became calm. Because such is the desire of devil that we all worship him and not Jesus Christ. God save the king. May he live long. not to follow after his own will and desires, we must pray for our King that he may live long in and in good health to worship the Lord God Yahweh and his son Jesus Christ, like Josiah and the faithful kings of Judah, to bring in biblical reform so that he does what Josiah did for the good of his nation and to be the light of the world. God save the king. Let us pray. O Lord our God, Thy people, O Lord, in pray unto Thee, Thou hast commanded us that we should pray for our rulers, for our kings. O Lord our God, we continue to do so. They are in Thy hands, and Thou, O Lord, have a time for everything. We pray, Father, that Thy will be done in this land and in all the lands, O Lord, where the kings or the queens have been crowned and they have taken an oath on Thy holy word to proclaim the gospel and to keep the faith Lord our God, do a wonderful work in our days. But even if all the kings and all the queens turn against Thee, Lord our God, give us the grace to love Thee and to honour Thee. All the days of our life, even as we heard from 1 Timothy 6, as Apostle Paul advised and wrote to him, how he should give himself to the work of the Lord to follow Christ Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We make this prayer in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.