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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Well, let's see here. With that being said, we're gonna sing the next song, the next song, which is not in your hymnal. It is actually this handout here. It's going to be Psalm, Psalm 19. So if you didn't get one, just raise your hand. I will come by and pass one out for you. All right. Well, it seems like everyone got a chart. So, uh, like pastor said, we're singing the law. The Lord is perfect. Also known as Psalm 19, verses 7-10. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. And he read it. All right. All right. All right. All right. Listen to the preaching and apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right. Amen. Second Kings, chapter number 22. Well, we're getting closer to the end of our study through the kings. So that is definitely, um, exciting. It's been a long time coming. But tonight we're going to study, uh, the life of Josiah. And we're basically going to go through chapter 22 and 23. And so what's different about these, um, studies that we do on Sunday night is the primary focus is for your familiarization with the Old Testament, with our history. Okay. Again, don't let people tell you that this is not your history. This only applies to Jews. No, this is your history. These are all stories about kings, priests, the children of God. That is exactly what we are. And so we need to remember those things. Now, Josiah, uh, again, definitely a unique king out of all the kings. You're going to see that tonight. The title of the sermon is going to be called the King's Stomping Ground. The King's Stomping Ground. And you're going to see why once we get to chapter number 23, because he basically goes on a rampage. Okay. Josiah is going to, you're going to see him just go around and just completely demolish idolatry, false worship, and much more. And so I'm definitely excited about that. You're also going to see tonight how Josiah is a type of Christ. There's a lot of the way that, um, the Bible's written about him. You're going to see a lot of types and similarities between him and Christ. So definitely something to pay attention for. And again, I'll go over that here at the end of the sermon. So let's just jump right into this here in chapter 22. And, uh, of course, Josiah is the great-grandson of Hezekiah, who also followed the Lord, also did great works for God. Uh, he is the grandson of Manasseh, who was horrible, did just, I mean, abomination after abomination after abomination. However, he wasn't the worst of the worst. And we talked about that a couple weeks ago. He wound up getting saved later on in his life, and God gave him a prolonged life. God allowed him to reign for, what was it, 50-something years. And then at the end of chapter 21, we just kind of briefly went over Ammon. He just reigns for two years, does evil on the side of the Lord, and he's just done. And so now we're left with an eight-year-old Josiah, who is going to take the throne. And he has his work cut out for him. So let's just get started right now. Verse number one of chapter 22 says, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Jedediah, the daughter of Adiah of Boscath. Verse two, and he did that which was right in the side of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. And so what's interesting about that is, as we've been studying these kings, a lot of the good ones that we've gone over, it'll say like, oh, he walked in the ways of David, but he didn't get rid of the high places, or but this happened. With Josiah, it's just very cut and dry. He didn't turn to the right or the left, meaning he stuck with the Lord for his entire life. And of course his death, we're going to go over, and there's some interesting things about that. But nonetheless, he never turned from following God. So take a look at verse number three, it says, And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, and then he says this in verse four, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door hath gathered of the people, and let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the doers of the work, which is in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the house. So what is he doing here? Later on in his life, he is trying to repair the damage that was done by his father, and his grandfather, and a lot of the kings that were before him, you know, his very own family. Now, keep your place right here. We're going to come right back to this, but go to 2 Chronicles chapter 34. 2 Chronicles chapter 34. So this is the parallel passage, the parallel story about king Josiah. We're not going to have time to go through all of it, but I want to point some things out. The first thing that we talked about was how old Josiah was when he began to reign. He was eight years old. Could you imagine, again, being eight years old and being given this great responsibility? Well, look what happens here as time goes on, which this part's not quite recorded in Kings, but look at where he's at when he's 16 years old. So look at verse 2 of 2 Chronicles 34. The Bible says, And he did, again, Josiah, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. Verse 3, For in the eighth year of his reign while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. So 16 years old, he's already been ruling and reigning for eight years. So at 16, he begins of his own will, of his own volition, to seek God. And it says, And in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. So from 16 years old to 20, he goes on a stomping path. He goes on a purge to get rid of all of these things out of Judah and Jerusalem. Now Manasseh, his grandfather, did try to get rid of a lot of that stuff that he established, but he wasn't successful at getting it all. What you're going to see tonight is that Josiah goes on the war path, and he does get rid of all of it, but he goes beyond just Jerusalem. He's actually going to go throughout all the land of Israel, and literally beat down things. And so go back to 2 Kings 22, and we'll continue, we'll just continue reading there. So again, from 8 years old, takes the throne. 16 years old, he begins to seek the Lord. And then what happens? Action follows, okay? He starts making things happen by the time he's 20. Look at verse number 5 says, And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work that have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the doers of the work, which is in the house of the Lord to repair the breaches of the house. So remember, he's seeking the Lord. He's purging the land. He's doing all these things. Verse 6, So he knows at this point, remember we talked about reckoning and what that means this morning. There was no audit rather. So he could trust these people to get the work done. He could trust the builders. He could trust the masons. He could trust these people to actually go and use the money faithfully. There was no audit necessary. There was nothing like that. Why is that? Because when he was 16, he decided that he was going to wholeheartedly follow the Lord. By the time he's 20, he's just taking action, okay? And so he and his leadership at this young of an age has already influenced the people in the nation of Judah to do right and to seek the Lord as well. Let's see here. Verse number 8. The Bible says this, and this is going to get very interesting here. It says, I mean, you know, when I read this, I remember the very first time I read this, I'm like, wait a second. This guy's already a high priest. Josiah is already following the Lord and they don't have the book of the law? That's crazy. What's going on? If they've already done this good without the book of the law, what's about to happen? Look at verse 9. Okay? Now, why is it that the king has this experience here? This inward reflection from the word of God? Well, here's why. Because in 2 Chronicles, it tells you that he already had a mind to seek the Lord. Okay? The Bible's very clear. You draw nigh to him, he draws nigh to you. So he's already in the process of following God and wanting to do what's right and doing what's right. And so God is now bringing him and his leadership into the next phase of truth, which is what? The word of God, the Bible. So verse 12. And here's another interesting point. Look at this. Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book to do according to all that which is written concerning us. So they dig up, they find a copy of the law. Okay? The Old Testament. They've probably got Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus. Well, they definitely have that. They definitely have Leviticus and Deuteronomy. You'll see that here in just a moment. Okay? And you have the scribe, you have the high priest and the king here. They found the law, they found the word of God, and yet they don't know what these things mean. They know what's bad, but they need somebody to teach them. They need somebody to explain these things. That should show you how bad this nation was. Okay? Because look, before this, like, you don't read anything of the high priest saying, hey, King, you know, we ought to find the word of God. We ought to find the Bible. Okay? They don't even really, it's not even really even in the forefront of anyone's mind. Okay? Until it's discovered, like, what's this? Dust it off, open it up, and like, uh-oh, this is why we're in some trouble. They go take it to the king, and he's, of course, upset, rents his clothes. He tears his garments. And he wants to know exposition. He wants to know further detail about these things. And so they need to go find somebody that can talk to God and explain this. Look at verse 14. So Hukiah the priest, and Ahiaakim, and Akbar, and Shaphan, and Azahiah went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shulam, the son of Tikva, the son of Haraz, keeper of the wardrobe. Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college, and they communed with her. And people have taken this word college here, and they're like, see, this is why you need to go to Bible college. This is why you, this is why your church is a hate church, because you didn't go to Bible college. You know, but any one of us can roast any of these people any day of the week, because we simply stick to the word of God. All it says is she was there in the college. It says the same thing in 2 Chronicles, and that's it. So that's all I'm going to say about it. What is interesting here, though, is that it is a woman prophetess, okay? Now you don't really see, God doesn't typically use a woman prophetess to address the nation. You do see that in Exodus 15 with Miriam. You do see that in Judges 5 with Deborah. Okay, and here it is again in 2 Kings chapter 22. God uses this woman to reveal the word of God to the king, the high priest, and his men. So they go and they talk with her, and they're like, hey, we found this book. What do these things mean? What can we expect? Verse 15, and she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, tell the man that sent you to me. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read. Now you can kind of see, and I'm not knocking women. I'm just saying that this is a little bit backwards here, okay? She was a legit prophetess. The narrator puts that in there. She loves God. She's obviously communicating truth with these guys, but her husband's the keeper of the wardrobe. I mean, it's just what it says. It should be, you would think it'd be the other way around, right? But it's not. It's just what it is. It's in there. She's giving them truth, and she's letting them know, hey, this nation is going to be destroyed, okay? And you're going to see that come up a few times tonight, where God is going to tell them, hey, this nation is doomed, okay? But the great thing is, even though God is saying that to them, and God is letting them know that, hey, it's too late. It doesn't slow Josiah down at all. He still has a heart for the people, and he still has a heart for God, and he keeps that until the day of his death. So verse 16, Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read. Verse 17, because they have forsaken me. So this isn't just about the kings. This is about the people, okay? Yes, the kings have influence. Yes, the leadership has influence, but it also goes down to the individual people of this nation that rejected God, which forsook God, and God has not forgotten about that. So again, verse 17, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore, my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched. So there you have it, okay? God is like, hey, these things were written in the law for a reason. This land was conditional based on your obedience to the law. God is saying that has been violated to a point of no return. You're going down. But look at verse 18. But, but to the king of Judah, which sent you to inquire of the Lord. Thus shall you say to him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and has rent thy clothes. Okay? You see how closely God pays attention to each and every individual and how they respond to the word of God? It is bringing this back up to the king's attention, okay? So a desolation and a curse and has rent thy clothes and wept before me. I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Verse 20, behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers and thou shall be gathered into thy grave in peace. And then eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place and they brought the king word again. Now go over to chapter number 23 and we're just going to sail right on through this. What's interesting, remember when Hezekiah, Josiah's great-grandfather was told that your sons would be made eunuchs and they're going to get carried away into captivity. He's like, well, good is the word of the Lord in my day. Right? That was his attitude. Josiah is going to have a much different attitude, okay? And let's start taking a look at this. Chapter 23, look at verse number one. And the king sent and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. So again, the king doesn't just take this word and hide it. He wants the leadership. He wants everyone to know and understand the Bible. The king went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord. I'll bet that was one long session of reading, okay? And these people mean business, okay? And they're not going to take kindly to people falling asleep and, you know, things like that. But I mean, you know, sometimes people be like, oh, I can't believe that was like an hour and 10 minutes. Is it always like that? And it's like, no, but there's worse things. There's worse things, you know? Don't pull a Eutychus on me and fall out the window. Look at verse three again. And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies, okay? And his statutes with all their heart and all their soul to perform the words of this covenant, that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. You could almost say that that pillar there pictures Christ, the pillar, the rock of our salvation. He stands there by this pillar. You never wonder why is that word in there, okay? Well, I think that it's just a metaphorical reference to Christ, how he has the word of God now. Jesus is the word and he's making a covenant. And he's literally telling like everybody, you guys all need to get on board with this covenant. And they do. They get on board, they're excited. Look at verse four. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the door to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord, all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the grove and for all the hosts of heaven. And he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried the ashes of them onto Bethel. Bethel located in what is the Northern Kingdom of Israel or what was the Northern Kingdom of Israel, now just referred to as Samaria. But do you see what's going on here? Eight years old, he takes the reins, loves God. 16 years old, he sets his heart to seek after God. 20 years old, he begins his own purge. And then shortly thereafter, he gets a revelation of the word of God. He gets the Bible, okay? And that is what makes all the difference in Josiah's life. That is what separated him from the other kings. That is what pile drives everything else that you're about to read here into the ground. All of this stuff, all of this idolatry and stuff that he is about to completely smash, it's a direct result of him wanting the foundations, wanting to be fundamental, wanting the hard truths of the word of God. That is what takes him to the next level. And so we need to understand that. That's what takes us to the next level. It's the word of God. Because there are people out there that are saved and they're just kind of floating through life and they think in their hearts, you know, I'm doing a pretty good job. I'm trying to do this, I'm trying to do that. I know I'm saved, but you know, I don't go to church and read the Bible. If you could get those people and get them the same attitude that Josiah has, a recognition for the word of God and get them inspired, get them on board, they would turn out like this, okay? That is what this is teaching. That's what I'm seeing here. Look at verse five. And he put down the idolatrous priest. What does that mean? What does it mean when you put a dog down? Know how to put him down, okay? Removed him from the earth. He put down the idolatrous priest. Now look, let me back up for a second. The Bible's clear. Josiah did right in the eyes of the Lord. He did not turn from the right or the left, okay? Because we're about to read something here that gets a lot of people upset, but it's here and I'm gonna read it anyways. And it is right. It is correct. Understand your chain of command at this point in time in history. It is God in his word and the king. He's in direct control of this nation. He decides whether it stands or whether it falls. He decides how long that king reigns in his position. He decides everything, okay? It's not like that with the United States. The United States is under control of the devil, the demonic works. The Bible says that the devil is basically in charge of the course of this world, meaning the way that this world runs. We're here, but we're outside of that. We're here as ambassadors, trying to pull people out of that and preach truth. So our times are different, but understand when God is in charge of a nation, what makes him happy? What pleases him? Keep that in mind as we keep reading. We already seen him putting down these idolatrous priests. That's a good thing. God says, hey, that is what makes me happy. That is my heart. So verse five again, and he put down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense. Notice that word there, that plural word, kings, okay? These kings had ordained, they had appointed people to do this abomination. To burn incense in what? The high places. In the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem, them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the planets and to all the host of heaven. So the whole time we've been reading through the kings, I mean, start back with Ammon, Josiah's father, Manasseh and his repentance, okay? You go back to Hezekiah or Ahaz, Hezekiah, all these guys, okay? They didn't get rid of evil and wickedness to the degree that Josiah did, okay? Which tells you what? The word of God was not the priority. The word of God was not at the forefront of their minds. They weren't reading it. They weren't copying it down like they should have been. Verse six, and he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord without Jerusalem, okay? That means the way that's worded there, without Jerusalem, meaning outside. So he took it away from Jerusalem, took it outside of the city limits there unto the brook Kidron and burned it at the brook Kidron and stamped it to small powder and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. Look, I'm telling you, this guy is not playing games. This guy is dead serious. He's making a statement that he wants every soul in his reach to get and to understand, okay? The book Kidron, let's see here. If you're with us during the Samuel study, okay, David went through the brook Kidron and was betrayed by his son Absalom. John chapter 18, okay? The brook Kidron spelled differently, C-E-D-R-O-N. Jesus is betrayed by Judas at the brook Kidron. So there's significance there with this, okay? It's often referred to by people as the brook of betrayal. Verse number seven, and here it is. And he break down the houses of the Sodomites that were by the house of the Lord where the women wove hangings for the grove. Keep your place here and go to 1 Kings chapter number 14, just real quickly, 1 Kings chapter number 14. Keep in mind, Josiah did not turn from the right hand or the left. He did that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. So when Josiah is reading through the Bible and he's like, okay, Deuteronomy chapter five, Deuteronomy chapter seven, I need to smash these things down. He, wait a minute, didn't I read something in Leviticus chapter 20? Yeah, verse 13, that's right. We got houses of all these Sodomites by the house of the Lord. We need to get this out of here. We need to kill these people and just remove this entire house. That's what he does. And God says, amen, that is right in my eyes. That's what he says, okay? Similar thing back here under Rehoboam's reign. Let's see here, 1 Kings 14, look at verse 24. Actually, look at verse 23. It says this, for they also built them high places, okay, so this is after the split here. So for they also built them high places and images and grows on every high hill and under every green tree, verse 24, and there were also Sodomites in the land and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. And of course, verse 22, cues you in that Judah is doing evil at this time, okay? And it's not till King Asa comes on the scene and makes the first purge regarding the Sodomites. Now go back to 2 Kings chapter number 23. The reason why I brought you there is because I want you to see that Sodomites, okay, which includes a whole host of people, okay, I don't believe in this homosexual versus heterosexual thing. You're either normal or you're a Sodomite, okay? And the reason why I bring that up is because like these people out here this morning, you know, they'll be yelling and be, you know, most pedophiles are heterosexual. That's not true. All pedophiles are Sodomites. I don't care what you say. It's perversion. It's no conscience. It's reprobate. They are Sodomites. But this whole Sodomite agenda is a religion. It is a deep, wicked religion. That's what it is. It is merged with Satanism. And every time that a nation bows down to it and caters to it, what happens? They try to get near the house of the Lord and destroy it and alter it and change it. That's what they do. Study through the books of the Kings and the Chronicles and you'll see it every single time. How many times does God have to tell you that? So we step up in 2023 and say, hey, you know, I can answer how God feels about what's going on. He hates it. You bigot. You Baptist bigot. I can't believe you'd say something like that. I get an email every single day, multiple times a day or a phone call every single day with that very statement. You don't know Jesus. He would never speak like, go look at our Google maps page and just read through the comments. My Jesus wouldn't do that. Go look at the chalk out here. Jesus was all about love. He wouldn't do that. Jesus is right here in this chapter. The day Josiah came and broke down these houses of the Sodomites, Jesus was there. The son of God was there endorsing it because he is the word of God. God hates it. And so when Josiah does this and he breaks down their houses, guess what? That is the heart of God. God says, I consider that not turning from the right or the left. That is walking the straight path of sanctification. God doesn't want that filth near his children at all. Not even for a second, but most churches in America today and throughout the world, and especially on this street here, they hate our guts because we read and stand for what this says and we endorse this. And hey, we're not doing what Josiah did. We don't live in Israel. We live in America. We have to follow the laws, but we follow it in a different way. How do we apply this today? We'll go look at our saying out there. We have a warning. We don't let these types of people in. It's that simple. That's, you see, that's how this thing works. So verse seven, and he break down the houses of the Sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove, loud and proud. You see that? You know what that screams? Pride. How are you going to build a house with your wickedness right next to the house of God and then have this operation where women are weaving things for the grove, which is also an abomination. Starting to see how all of this stuff connects. It is a religion. It is satanic and it's what's being pushed against the house of God today. Verse eight, and he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense. From Geba to Beersheba and break down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. So he is, like I told you, this guy is, he's basically considered everything his stomping grounds at this point. Everything in the old nation of Israel. Look at verse nine. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among the brethren. So that might sound a little bit confusing, but basically Josiah saying, even though they had the high places set up, there's a difference between people going up to the high places to actually worship God, which God still didn't want, versus people going up to the high places to worship Baal and to blaspheme God. So these high priests had just simply said, okay, well, Manasseh, even after he repented, didn't bother us. Those priests that continued in that tradition. Josiah said, I'm not going to harm you. I understand that what you did is wrong. So you've already tainted, you've already tarnished your office, we're still going to take care of you. We're still going to feed you and we're still going to provide for you, but you're not going to do your Levitical duties. So that's basically, that takes care of that. Verse 10, and he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hanom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. So he stops child sacrifice. He stops this evil wickedness. I mean, wouldn't that be great? Somebody did that today. Verse 11, and he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the son at the entering end of the house of the Lord by the chamber of Nathan Melech, the Chamberlain, which was in the suburbs and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. I mean, up until this point, I didn't know they were doing this, right? I mean, obviously I've read this several times, but I'm just simply saying here that, you know, these kings prior to Josiah, they never dealt with this. Here you have a clear passage that one of the things these kings did was they donated horses to the sun. You know, again, they're worshiping planets and just astrology, all this garbage. Look at verse 12. And the altars that were on top of 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, did the king beat down and break them down from thence and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. So again, he wasn't like, all right, we're just gonna stop with this. I was wrong for putting these, you know, altars here. We're just not gonna regard them. Josiah's like, no, we're taking them out physically and we're gonna beat them down into powder so that you don't even have the remembrance of those things. Verse 13, in the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon, so look at this, this is interesting. Now he's going back and he's like, I'm gonna even take care of the mistakes that Solomon made. So he goes to the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the abominations of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. Like Josiah, again, just look at this war path here. Who here thinks he would have been able to do all of this to this great of detail without the Bible? Wouldn't have happened. Absolutely not gonna happen. Verse 14, and he break in pieces the images and cut down the groves and filled their places with the bones of men. Think about that. Why does he do that? He's thinking ahead. He's making these places unclean so that the Jews later on would know, hey, this is unclean and we are not to come back here. That's why he's doing it. He's making these things unclean. Where did he get the bones of men? Well, he's been slaying people and, you know, breaking down the houses of the Sodomites and all this stuff. Take your pick. Verse 15, moreover, the altar that was made at Bethel. So here it is. He thinks, again, this whole nation is his stomping ground. And right now where he's at is under Assyrian control. And he's going up to Bethel. Remember the golden calf situation? One in Dan, one in Bethel. Look at this. Moreover, the altar that was made at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel the sin and made both that altar and the high place, he break down and burned the high place and stamped it small to powder and burned the grove. You want to talk about being thorough? Look no further than Josiah because he does a thorough, diligent job at everything so far. And by the way, this was all prophesied. This was all talked about in 1 Kings. He was actually mentioned by name, but look at verse 16. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres. Just simply means he's just looking around. He sees two sepulchres and he's like, it gets his attention. He's like, what's going on over here? So he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount and sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres and burned them upon the altar and polluted it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed who proclaimed these words. So we're not going to take the time to turn there because we have had a lot of verses to go through. But back when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had taken control of the northern kingdom of Israel, there was a prophet from Judah that was sent to cry out against the altar itself that Jeroboam had made. Remember that? And during that time, it was mentioned that Josiah would come and eventually do this. And this is the fulfillment of that. Verse 17, then he said, What title is that I see? And the men of the city told him, it is the sepulcher of the man of God, which came from Judah and proclaimed these things that thou has done against the altar of Bethel. So again, he is fulfilling prophecy that was written about him many, many years ago. And just to kind of bring the story up again, remember this prophet that came up to Jeroboam and cried against the altar? He did a good thing, did a great thing, did exactly what God told him to do. And Jeroboam said, Okay, I get it. Okay, he gets the message finally. And he invites this guy to have bread and refreshments and to come back with him. And the prophet's like, I can't go back with you. I was commanded not to do that. Eventually he gets tricked by an old prophet and then a lion eats this prophet. Okay, and then that prophet that tricked him felt guilty. And so he desired to be buried next to this man. And that's where Josiah is at at this point. Verse 18, and he said, So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. And of course that was the one that tricked the prophet that cried out against the altar. Okay, wish I had time to go back and rehash that, but we don't. But what's interesting here is that even Jehu, well, I love Jehu, even with his just crazy, just crushing of people. Okay, he didn't do his throw of a job. This dude literally put an end to that golden calf stuff. He even made that altar polluted. Okay, and think about it. By the time you get to the woman at the well in John chapter four, right, Jesus is like, you don't even know what you worship. They don't even recall any of this stuff here. But look at verse 19. And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria. So he's not even in his own land. He's like, I don't care if the Assyrians are up here. I'm going back and I'm cleaning house. And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger. Josiah took away and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. So again, he's just not gonna be stopped. God is with him and no one's messing with him at this point. Verse 20, and here's his favorite technique. And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars and burned men's bones upon them and returned to Jerusalem. So he's like, I'm gonna make sure that these areas are unclean and sealed so that no one's gonna come back. You're not gonna have to worry about golden calf worship and the altar, none of that. He's like, it's done, it's gone. I've got the solution here. I'm just gonna burn people's bones on them and fill it up. And it worked. Now look at verse 21. 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. Okay, so this king now after just going on this major purge, this major cleanse is gonna lead one of the best Passovers of all time since the days of the judges. How is he able to do that? Because of his attention to detail in that which was written, the written living word of God. That is how he was able to do this. Verse 22, surely there was not holding such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor the kings of Judah, but in the 18th year of King Josiah, wherein this Passover was holding to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, the workers with the familiar spirits and the wizards and the images and the idols and all the abominations that were 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. So again, this entire chapter, the main thing that we have to understand is what made Josiah the successful king that he was, what's gonna make us the successful king and priest that we are is the word of God. Paying attention to every jot and tittle, every line, being a fundamentalist, that is what separates us from the others. And by the way, that is the heart of God. That is what he wants. Verse 25. And like unto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him. And what's sad about this is Josiah is literally going to be the last king that does not have to rely on Gentile support or oppression. Verse 26. Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. So again, that just goes back to the greatness of Josiah. He knew what was coming for the nation. They were gonna get destroyed. But he says, I don't care. I'm still going to follow the Bible. I'm gonna clean this thing up so it's nice and fresh for when that happens. And I'm gonna turn as many hearts as I can to the Lord God because eternity is what matters. And he understood that. Verse 27, and the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight because I have removed Israel and will cast off the 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 and all that he did are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and then it's gonna get into his death here. And this is the sad part about Josiah's life. He makes a mistake and I'm gonna go through this and just tell you how this mistake applies to us. Look at verse 29. In his days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates and king Josiah went against him and he slew him at Megiddo when he had seen him and his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehovah as the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in his father's stead. Now just one more time very quickly, go to 2 Chronicles 35. 2 Chronicles chapter 35. And let's just kind of get the other details that Chronicles mentions that Kings doesn't because what you're gonna see here is that Josiah was wrong in this. Okay, God wanted Josiah to stay out of Pharaoh Necho's business, okay? And Pharaoh Necho was nice. Pharaoh Necho warned King Josiah to just stay out of it but he didn't listen. And so what's the lesson in this for us? So verse 20 of 2 Chronicles 35 says this. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war, for God commanded me to make haste. So interesting here that you see God involved in these other nations, okay? God is in the world. A lot of times we get this picture painted for us that God only cared about Israel during these times and never anyone else in the world. That's wrong, okay? We don't have all the details here but somehow God is working in this battle here. He's working through this king of Egypt. And he's very clear, for God commanded me to make haste, forbear thee from meddling with God. Who is with me that he destroy thee not? Verse 22, nevertheless, and here it is, Josiah would not turn his face from him but disguised himself that he might fight with him and hearken not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And verse 23, and the archers shot at King Josiah and the king said to his servants, have me away for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of the chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem and he died and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah and rightfully so. He was a great king but the problem is he made a mistake. Now first of all, I wanna say that Josiah's life is proof that you can serve God from the day that you're saved through the rest of your life. It is possible. Again, another picture that people say is, well, there's gonna become a point where you probably fall away and you get out of church and just remember to come back. That's kind of just a negative mindset to just put out there because not everyone does that. There are people that decide they're gonna serve God for their entire life and also think about this, despite who your parents are, despite what you've been through and despite the amount of work that you have and despite what's coming, okay? Like we know that this world is trash and that things are not getting better, right? But do we let that slow us down? No, because we understand the greater picture. We understand what's coming after this and we can focus on that. What this also teaches us here is this is proof that vigilance is not, it's not like one time you're vigilant and then you're just good to go forever. Vigilance is something that you need to apply on a daily basis until your last day. That's the area that unfortunately Josiah failed in. And last, think about this, okay? So Pharaoh Nico, you've got Josiah, just a powerhouse, just stomping through everything, just doing everything right for God. He's got the word of God, he's doing great. Then he runs into a situation where this foreign king says, hey, I'm serving God, just leave me alone. And he thinks he knows God so well that there's no way those words could be true. And he winds up losing his life. So the lesson in that is that learning about God is infinite, okay? You have, we have not arrived. We need to remember that and maintain that teaching because it could save us from a situation like this or even similar to this. And last but not least, I just wanna leave you with a few facts here, a few things that I wrote down or typed up, how Josiah is a type of Christ, okay? So I'm not gonna have you turn anywhere, I just want you to listen to this. So number one, Josiah was prophesied about before his birth. Okay, obviously we know that about Christ, several prophecies. Josiah was godly from his youth, obviously Christ. Number three, he purged the land in the temple two times, just like Jesus cleansed the temple two times. He traveled all over Israel to turn the hearts of the people toward God. That was the whole point of Josiah going up to the Northern territory and doing those things. It was to make a statement to those people, hey, I know you guys are here from another land but you need to worship the true God and here's what it looks like. Well, let's see, one, two, three, number four, number five, he built the house of God. He literally rebuilt the house of God and revealed the word of God, just like Christ, okay? Clearly explained, hey, this physical temple that is here now and these pretty buildings are all gonna mean nothing after my death. And then he revealed the New Testament, the word of God and the truth to the apostles and of course we have that now. Number six, he preached, so Josiah preached, even knowing the judgments of God were coming to him, obviously just like Jesus preached, hey, we have a mission even though the end of the world is coming and it's soon. And number seven, he brought people into the covenant with God, that's what we do, that's what obviously Jesus did and what he taught us to do. Number eight, he prepared a great Passover and provided the lambs for sacrifice. We know that Jesus himself is the Passover, that he is the lamb, the ultimate sacrifice. And last but not least, Josiah died an untimely death at the hand of Gentiles and so did Christ but obviously we understand that in greater detail what that really means. So we're gonna stop there at chapter 23 and we'll pick it up again in a week. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for preserving these great truths for us. Just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service and bring us again safely on Wednesday, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, everyone. For our final song this evening, we will be turning to song number 63. What a day that will be. Song number 63. On the first there is coming a day when no heartaches shall come. No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see and I look upon his face the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day that will be. On the last, there'll be no sorrow there, no more burdens to bear, no more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there. And forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see and I look upon his face the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day that will be. All right, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for this time we had to hear your word be preached. Please bless the fellowship and everyone's travels home. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you. Amen.