I invite you to come to 2nd Kings chapter 22, and I hope
that you brought a copy of God's Word with you tonight.
This will make your experience here every week more meaningful
as you see these verses and these truths with your own eyes,
in your own hands. And before we begin reading this
new chapter, I'd like to ask you to pause and think about the
types of attitudes, convictions, perhaps interests that the
average 16 year old might have. I'll give you a few seconds to
allow your imagination to capture the possibilities.
The average 16 year old, what does their day-to-day look like?
Now let's Fast forward a few years and let's think about a 20
year old. I'm aware that some of you are
that age. Around that age, a 20 year old,
what does a 20 year old preoccupy himself with or
herself with? Now let's Fast forward yet again
and think about someone at the peak age of 26.
What kind of behaviors? What?
What kind of things does a 26 year old busy himself with?
Kind of outlook? What kind of inlook, What fills
their calendar? More importantly, what occupies
their hearts, The common 26 year old.
Now, if you have those time stamps still in your head, I
want to explain to you why I bring it up to you.
Because the subject of our study today is of an exceptional king
by the name of Josiah. And the Bible provides us in
great detail what Josiah was like at those key moments of his
young life. And it's important to mention
that as we get closer to the end of the Book of Second Kings,
there will be no other king after Josiah who will receive
the level of attention that he does.
And that is because this is technically the final monarch
who will bring widespread reformation to the Kingdom of
Judah before the people will be taken away by the Babylonians.
This is a significant individual and his importance should not be
a surprise to us for a couple of reasons.
The main reason is because he has been prophesied about in
great detail in former times. Does anyone remember where
Josiah was mentioned by a prophet in the Bible?
Why I told you to turn to 2nd Kings 22, but now go to 1st
Kings chapter 13. We've obviously studied this
passage few months ago, but let's refresh our memories and
consider a prophecy that was made by a man of God who came
out of Judah to confront Jeroboam.
This was fresh after the Kingdom of Israel was divided into two,
the northern Kingdom of Israel represented by the 10 tribes,
and then the southern Kingdom of Judah represented by Judah and
Benjamin. And here's what we read in First
Kings 13123. And behold, the man of God came
out of Judah, by the word of the Lord to Bethel.
Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings, And the
man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said,
O altar, altar. Thus says the Lord, Behold, a
son shall be born to the House of David, Josiah by name, and he
shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who
make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.
Oh, there is no doubt that we have here yet another autograph
of divine authorship concerning the Bible.
If you take into account the historical gap between this
incredible prediction of Josiah's birth and rain and its
fulfillment, you are talking about a span of likely and
roughly 300 to 350 years. This is glorious.
We shall also keep in mind that very few individuals had been
prophesied by name before they came into existence, which only
adds to how remarkable this person is.
And so he's been foretold. We've been anticipating Him and
here's the fruition of it. And I'll be honest, earlier this
week as I was reviewing this chapter, I was initially
thinking that we're going to cover this chapter in its
entirety in one setting. But then after I studied it,
I've come to the conclusion that this evening we're only going to
look at the 1st 2 verses, the 1st 2 verses, and you'll see at
the end of the study. Why?
Now if we're going to only cover the 1st 2 verses of chapter 22,
then we already know something. We're going to be visiting a lot
of different other passages that will complement the introduction
to King Josiah and rightly so. There is much given to us that
will make this a meaty Bible study.
If you and I are willing to do our part and traverse through
the Bible and look at the different passages and see the
fullness of the mind of God pertaining this man, shall we
begin? We're not going to be reading
much, at least in the beginning of the study.
Let's look at the first 2 verses and take into account with our
minds engage and our hearts open this wonderful biography.
Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Judaida,
the daughter of Adiah of Boskath.
And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in
all the way of David, his father.
And he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
So before we explore what Josiah did at 16, what he accomplished
at 20, how he lived at 26, we are informed that he occupied
the throne at the ripe age of 8. How is it someone so young is
given such prerogative? And the simple answer is because
his father was assassinated early in his administration.
Look back at chapter 21, verse 19.
Amon was 22 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 2
years in Jerusalem. That's brief.
Why only two years? Because the same context tells
us that he was assassinated by his servants.
And because he was killed, now the throne is vacant, the
Kingdom is vulnerable, so there needed to be immediate
replacement. So Josiah takes his place.
Fortunately, Eamon did not have great influence over his son
Josiah, and that is proven to us because of what we read in verse
two of our text. Look back at Second Kings 22,
verse 2. And he did what was right in the
eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David, his
father. And he did not turn aside to the
right or to the left. The first part of that verse.
The language is very familiar to us, right?
It's the latter part, the latter comment in that verse that is
quite unique. What does it say?
And he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
That phrase appears quite a few times in the Old Testament, but
there's one instance where it is mentioned that helps us
understand how special Josiah is in light of and in comparison to
the other kings. We've turned to this passage
many, many times in our study of first and second kings.
It's worth looking at it again. It's that place in Deuteronomy
where God gave instructions to the future kings of Israel,
specifically how they were to have a copy of the law in their
own hands and they were to read it and they were to obey it.
And he follows it up with the promises and the rewards of
doing so. So in Deuteronomy 17, again,
let's turn there and look here, beginning in verse 19.
This is before the people even enter into the promised land.
And the Lord, anticipating that they would request kings, gives
some parameters, some precepts. What is he saying?
Deuteronomy 1719 And it shall be with him.
That is a copy of the law with the king, and it shall be with
him, and he shall read it in all the days of his life.
By the way, pause. That's where I get my cue to
read my Bible every day, among other places.
And he shall read it in all the days of his life.
That he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the
words of this law and these statutes and doing them.
That his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that
he may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right
hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his
Kingdom, he and his children in Israel.
The connection is clear, isn't it?
Second Kings chapter 22 echoes this expression from these
instructions to tell us what that King Josiah embodied the
kind of king that God desired. So what you find here is that he
was unwavering in his commitment to the will of God, that he
never deviated from it in any way.
This is a man with a general summary of his life who was
consistent. He was absolutely faithful to
the Lord all of his days. This is a wonderful reminder to
us that it's possible to live for the cause of Christ from the
moment you said yes to him to the moment that you will see
him. It's possible it happened with
Josiah and it was not entirely clear how much of the Word of
God Josiah was exposed to. Especially when you consider in
this chapter how he will make the discovery of the book of the
Law in the abandoned temple. There is no doubt that there
were righteous influences in his life and just how remarkable his
faith is is demonstrated by parallel account where we see
those time stamps that I mentioned early on and how he
utilized that time well. So in Second Kings 22 we go from
8 year old Josiah in verse 3 to the 18th year of his reign,
which would make him 26. But there's another passage that
fills the gap. Second Chronicles 34.
Let's go there. If we do, the work will be
rewarded. Second Chronicles 34 one to
three. It was at this point when I went
to visit this passage where I realized we're not getting past
verse 2. The 1st 2 verses will be
familiar. Second Chronicles 34 beginning
in verse one. Josiah was 8 years old when he
began to reign and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem.
And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in
the ways of David his father. And he did not turn aside to the
right hand or to the left. OK, we we read that already.
Look at verse 3 now. For in the eighth year of his
reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of
David his father. And in a 12th year, he began to
purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ashram and the
carved and the metal images. Read verse 3 very carefully,
We're told in the eighth year of his reign, not when he was 8
years old. So if he began as an 8 year old
boy and now we're talking about the 8th year, he's how old?
Very good. We do math at this Bible study.
16 years old. More importantly, what does he
do as a 16 year old? Here's how to understand this
verse. Josiah made the personal
decision to seek after God and to know him for himself at 16.
I'm afraid that in modern Christianity we've made a lot of
excuses for the apathy that young men generally have towards
the Lord, as the hormones, temptations, distractions
somehow make it impossible to cultivate an all consuming love
for Christ. Josiah proves otherwise, and
it's to our encouragement. Remember, Josiah is not a 16
year old in a nice suburb in Illinois.
Josiah is a 16 year old king who is surrounded by unspeakable
pollution, compromise, filth, perversion that has been made
normal and culturally acceptable in a time Listen as a context
suggests where the Bible was not widely recognized, so much so
that when people who are working in the temple found it, they
didn't even recognize the book. And yet at 16 and the Bible
underlines while he was yet a boy, the ESV renders it.
I'm going to seek after God. Here's what this means for us.
You and I should never hesitate to challenge and inspire youth
to joyfully dedicate the peak of their strength and energy to
know God and to make Him known. And those efforts will only be a
possibility if we start by believing that it's possible for
this demographic to actually view and experience Christ as
their surpassing treasure. All satisfying good.
And if you are here listening in person or online, and you are
under the age of 20, if you've never heard this before, hear it
now. Remember your Creator in the
days of your youth. All the trinkets and all the
persuasions and all the opportunities that this world
has to offer, as much as it may seem like it's purposeful and
it's pleasurable, are cheap and deceiving.
You were made to walk with God and not to put that off once
you've experimented with the world, but to give what you have
to give, even as a young man or as a young woman, because that
is a window of time in your life that will present unique
opportunities that cannot be regained in later years.
Those who are older can attest to that.
So we should see this as an encouragement, not just for
those who find themselves in a similar stage of life, but for
those who are older and look upon a generation and think
they're doomed. No, they're not doomed.
Actually. Have you considered Josiah, his
environment? Oh, yeah.
But you know, there's a lot of broken.
Oh, so having a father who was assassinated and he did, he left
a terrible legacy that that's not traumatic.
It's pretty traumatic to me. Anything is possible with
Christ, and you and I have to believe that, not just for
ourselves, but for those who seem unlikely candidates.
But that's not all that we learn about Josiah in this verse.
Look again at verse 3. And in the 12th year he began to
purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ashram and the
carved and the metal images. So all this means is four years
after he made a decision to nurture a personal relationship
with the Lord, he launched the nation's cleansing from
idolatry. 20 a 20 year old. What a thought.
It's almost hard to imagine that you had a man so young, so green
in life leading the charge of reformation unlike any other.
But there should be no doubt that this man is the initiator
and the supervisor of this effort.
Look at again at verse 4. Now Second Chronicles 34, verse
four. And they chopped down the altars
of the bales in his presence. I love those 3 words in his
presence. And he cut down the incense
altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the
ashram and the carved the metal images, and he made dust of them
and scattered over the Grays of those who had sacrificed to them
in his presence. Why is that mentioned there?
I believe it's mentioned because Josiah 20 held his subjects
accountable to carry out God's commands and listen.
He personally oversaw this campaign.
He showed up at the sight of these evil and wicked shrines
and altars to make sure that they were done properly, that
they were destroyed effectively in his presence.
This took courage. You got to imagine again,
righteousness is not popular at this time.
Believing in one God, the true God, the God of Israel was that
widely accepted at this time. And you have a 20 year old who
had his father assassinated. You can imagine the things that
he was possibly worried about, but there's no sense of that.
Fearless. And he made sure that God was
honored. So Josiah was no surrogate.
He was not a puppet trying to fulfill somebody else's
righteous cause. No, he was doing this.
He owned it. Notice how much the word he
appears in this one verse. And it continues in this
section. He, he, he, he.
This was his desire at 20 years old.
But as always, this is not just for inspiration.
We're not just looking back in history saying, oh, it's
wonderful that Israel had a guy named Josiah at one point.
No, no, no, this is for our instruction.
And let me offer a cup a couple of observations #1 the
fearlessness and drive for Josiah to do what we see here.
This external impact for the Lord can only come from the
overflow of 1's devotion in secret to the Lord.
What he did for the Lord, right? This courage, this incredible
zeal came from what we read earlier, a nurturing and a
cultivating of a personal experience of God in private,
and that happened between the ages of 16 and 20.
I am absolutely persuaded, and nobody has convinced me
otherwise up to this point in my own pilgrimage, that the key to
stimulation and steadfast motivation and service to God is
spending uninterrupted time with Him.
And to do so long enough until you catch glimpses of His glory
and are marked by them. I'm reminded of Peter and John
in Acts chapter 4. Some of you know where I'm going
with this. Where they were commanded to no
longer teach or preach in the name of Jesus.
And what was the rebuttal? We cannot help but speak for
what we have seen and heard. You understand what the apostles
were saying there, that the reason why they were, they were
willing to risk their lives as no name disciples to tell other
people about this Jesus was because they were recipients of
life giving revelation that compelled them to.
We have seen things and we have heard things, and this is the
means, this is the energy. This is what propels us to
embrace even persecution, because Jesus is worth it and we
have tasted of Him and we are calling all men to repent and to
turn to Him. The times of refreshing may come
from the presence of the Lord. Josiah is flowing in that same
equation. At 16.
He sought God in a short amount of time.
His heart was stirred now to actually introduce Him to an
apostate nation. If you are waning in your desire
to serve God, perhaps it's been some time where you have seen
something or heard something concerning him.
A second thing to note is how Josiah's ministry began at home.
What I mean by that, look at verse 3 again.
And in the 12th year he began. Where do you begin, Josiah?
He began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places.
Now verse 6, eventually he's going to go to the cities of
Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon and even as far as NAFTA Lee the
the the tribe that is furthest N, he's going to cover even what
was known as the Kingdom of Israel.
He wants to purge every corner of the promised land, but I find
it encouraging that he started nearby.
You know why I find that encouraging?
Because I think there's a principle there for believers
who are eager to serve God. There are many believers who are
under this impression that unless they abandoned everything
that they've ever known and pack their bags and travel to some
uncharted territory, some foreign nation, and start fresh,
they can't really do anything impactful or meaningful for God.
And I believe that God does call some to relinquish everything,
to stop where they are right now and to go to these places.
But that's not the Commission of every man.
And if that is unclear to you and you have no such Commission
from Christ, I adjure you through Josiah's example.
Be passionate and zealous where you are, exactly where you are.
Where was Josiah in Jerusalem? Where did he start?
In Jerusalem? And he worked his way out.
I think that's helpful for you and I to consider.
Now we look at this and we might think, OK, we're ready now to
return to 2nd Kings 22 and skip over to the 18th year of his
reign. But we can't do that.
Do you know why? Because there's more than Second
Kings and Second Chronicles relating to Josiah.
So let's recap. 8 years old he takes the throne. 16 years old,
he begins to own his faith. 20 years old, he actually starts a
purging in the land. When did the purging in the land
take place? In the 12th year of his reign.
Good, we're all on the same page.
Excellent. Something happens in the 13th
year of Josiah's reign, and it's a detail not found in Second
Kings. You won't find it in Second
Chronicles. Does anybody know where we can
find a very instrumental part of Josiah's reign, specifically a
year into his reformation, and what book it's found in?
I'll give you 5 seconds to think about it.
Say it loud. What book?
What book would you believe if I told you that it is in the 1st
chapter of the book of Jeremiah? Jeremiah chapter 1.
Let's look at the first 2 verses together.
And this is where I really knew we're not going past verse two
and second Kings. 22, Jeremiah 1, one to two.
I'll wait for those pages to stop turning.
Let's read it together. The words of Jeremiah the son of
Helkaya, one of the priests who are in Anathoth in the land of
Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of
Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his
reign. When I found this, I got so
excited, I was thrilled, and then I calmed down.
And then once I calmed down, a very deep question emerged, and
it is this why? That's my question.
Why did God summon Jeremiah a year into Josiah cleansing the
land of idolatry? That's a good question, right?
I would say so, and upon meditation, I believe there are
at least three observations that we can make from this wonderful
insight. So here's number one.
God called Jeremiah the prophet in order to support and
encourage King Josiah, especially after Josiah made the
decision to bring reformation. How can we conclude that?
By looking at different parts of Jeremiah's writings and to see
how highly he respected Josiah and how he praised his piety.
Can I show you one example? It's worth seeing it so that we
can dispel any doubt. Scroll to Jeremiah 22 and look
at verse 11. Now why I'm reading verse 11 so
that we can confirm when this prophecy was made.
For thus says the Lord concerning Shalom the son of
Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his
father. So this is a prophecy made to 1
of Josiah's son, which implies that Josiah is dead at this
point. And who went away from this
place? He shall return here no more.
But we have to skip over to verse 15.
Now remember he's speaking to Josiah's son.
And what does he say in part? Do you think you are a king in
verse 15 because you compete in cedar?
In other words, you think you're really a king because you sit in
a palace. Did not your father eat and
drink and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor
and needy. Then it was well.
Is not this to know me? Declares the Lord.
What is Jeremiah implying by reminding his son, Josiah's son,
of his father? 1 main point.
At least here you don't know God, your dad.
Did you think you're a true king?
No, let me tell you who a real king is.
Your father. He model what it means to be a
true servant of God. And I love to hear how Jeremiah
makes a connection between knowing the Lord and acting in a
certain way. Because your behavior of mine,
especially in our treatment of others, is a massive indicator
of the authenticity of our relationship to God, right?
Josiah, what did he do? He judged the cause of the poor
and the needy. He did justice and
righteousness. And, and he says, isn't that
what it means to know God? In other words, your knowledge
of God will produce such fruit. And so we find here because
that's not the main point of how Jeremiah thought of Josiah.
And if this is how he spoke about the king after he died,
what kind of words did he offer him while he was alive?
In fact, you can turn there if you'd like, but you don't have
to. Just write it down as a
reference and visit it later in Second Chronicles 3525.
In the context there is Josiah's death.
We read Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah.
Jeremiah loved this man. Jeremiah understood, I'm sure in
part that God raised him up at that specific time to come
alongside this king. And we don't have the record of
conversations necessarily, or what Jeremiah did to help
Josiah, but I'm sure Jeremiah's ministry gave extra fuel to this
king. And that's precisely the point
here. How does this relate to us?
Well, I think in this, when you and I, like Josiah, decide to
give ourselves fully over to knowing God and serving God, one
of the blessings that we will receive.
One of the things that God will do for us is bring into our
lives like minded people who are who will encourage us on that
path. That's a pattern that you see
throughout the the Bible, both an old and in the New Testament
and and sometimes in ways that we don't even notice.
So we're studying second Kings in my own reading.
I just finished Judges and I'm now revisiting First Samuel.
But there was a detail in Judges in the life of Gideon that makes
us more true Gideon. He was always fearful from the
moment we met him. He was not like Josiah, right
when he was when he was called to tear down the altars of Baal.
He didn't even want to do it during the day.
You want to do it at night. He wanted his friends to come
with him. And the Lord was like, OK, fine,
I'll be merciful to you. And after the Lord brings down
the number of his army down to how many people?
300 this, this man can't imagine that he's going to go up against
hundreds of thousands of enemies.
And so the Lord says, listen, get in.
I want you to go down to the camp of the enemy and I want you
to experience something. I have a treat for you.
I have something that will give you the confidence for this war.
And then he says this, this is in Judges 7 verse 10.
I'm paraphrasing, but he says, And if you are afraid to go
down, behold your servant poor, I will go down with you.
Now you read down, just you might be tempted to just read
on, but no, no, there's something massive there.
How was the Lord going to alleviate the fear of his
servant? Not by performing a miracle, he
says. I'm highlighting your servant.
Let him accompany you. Let him walk down there with
you. And I think that's just an Old
Testament glimpse of the wisdom of Jesus when he sends out his
disciples. And what in pairs?
Go 2 by 2. I don't know about you, but I'm
much more bold to preach the gospel when a fellow believer is
with me in a restaurant or an Uber ride.
And so we see here that God raises up a prophet to help the
king. That's wonderful.
Remember, there are three observations about Jeremiah's
inclusion in the story #2 I believe realizing Jeremiah being
called at this point says something about how God enjoys
raising up young people to do great things for God.
We've all determined that Josiah was very green when he became
king, right? What about Jeremiah when he was
called as a prophet? Was he an adult?
No Famously, we know the passage in Jeremiah 1/6.
What was his protest? The prophet?
I can't. There's no way that I can fill
the office of a seer because I'm what I'm unskilled in speech and
I'm I'm a youth and the Lord responded in the the following
verse. Do not say I am only a youth.
Now famously, Jeremiah 1 is often preached to young people
to inspire them that God is willing to recruit them and and
send them out despite their inexperience.
But that point becomes even more powerful when you connect
Jeremiah to Josiah. You know why?
Because he didn't just raise up a young prophet, he partnered
him with a young king. Think about that.
The two spiritual giants that were leading the Kingdom of
Judah were young adults. You and I generally and
naturally are skeptical of young people who claim to be
determined to serve God. You know who isn't God?
God. He takes delight in it,
actually. And so he raises up a young
prophet and he puts them in the same ministry as a young king,
and he says, take over the Kingdom of Judah for my glory.
Go. And they did.
So that's an encouragement to you and I hope and we have a
final thought to consider, and this is the most important one.
Why did God raise up Jeremiah a year into Josiah's reform?
As much as he was introduced to the king to hearten Josiah, he
was also raised to confront the people of Judah.
What do I mean by that? A year into Josiah's reforms,
the Lord summoned the prophet to expose the insincerity of the
repentance. Come with me to Jeremiah 3 to
see what I'm talking about again in Jeremiah 3 verse 6.
This is to set the context, the timing of this prophecy.
The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah highlight that in
the days of King Josiah, have you seen what she did, that
faithless one Israel, how she went up on every high hill and
under every green tree and there played the whore.
So he's talking about the northern Kingdom of Israel.
Have you seen it? Obviously we have, but notice
how he continues in verse 7. And I thought, after she has
done all this, she will return to me.
But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah
saw it again. Pause.
When is this prophecy be made? In the days of king Josiah.
And he calls Judah treacherous. Verse 8.
She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one
Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce.
Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she went to
went. But she too rather went and
played the whore, because she took her whoredom lightly.
She polluted the land, committing adultery with stone
and tree. Verse 10 is the main verse.
If for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to
me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord
again, for you to feel the weight of this, you have to
remember that this pronouncement was made in the days of Judah,
in the days of Josiah, while Judah was being reformed.
And we see here that during that time Judah truly did not learn
from Israel's mistakes. Even after they were exiled,
even after the Assyrians took them from their land, they
didn't take it to heart. Judah didn't They did not heed.
They didn't see the warning. They did not fear.
God says. In fact, they were so curious
and they were so intrigued by the ways of their northern
neighbors that they adopted their practices, dismissing the
judgement that fell upon them. And we're willing to take the
risk to explore on a path that they thought would be better
than trusting the Lord and living for God.
And while Josiah is trying to motivate the nation to truly
give their hearts to God, they failed.
It was all in pretense. Yeah, they crushed their idols,
but they didn't really renounce their sins.
They did so reluctantly. Perhaps he did so out of fear.
Josiah is the king will obey him, but we're not going to put
up a fight. So what does the Lord do a year
into Remember the 13th year Josiah started the 12th year he
raises up a man with X-ray vision to expose the hearts of
the people for their hypocrisy. You're not wholehearted.
This is all in pretense and here's something very important
to take from this. I'm looking at this from
Jeremiah's perspective. A true messenger of God will
never be satisfied with superficial religiosity, surface
level spirituality. Not a true servant of God,
especially one who proclaims God's word will understand what
God really demands of his people and he will call such people to
the standard of the Bible prescribes relating to
righteousness and relationship with God.
I mean think about how many people would be happy with the
sight of one tribe after the next destroying all their idols
success and then God raised a prophet says you're all a bunch
of fakes. This is all pretend.
This is all shallow. And so I see in great part why,
after giving them a year to really repent, he raises up a
man to speak the word of the Lord and to wake them up.
And that's what we exactly are in need of today in America.
I'm persuaded of that, especially in a country where
Christianity is accepted as a cultural norm, not really as a
personal conviction. We need more Jeremiahs who are
able to see through all the baloney and all the
Churchianity. Say where?
Where's your heart really at? Well, what is all this facade?
Repent of your external consecration and really give
yourself over to God. That's what Jeremiah's ministry
was. And as we heard earlier, he is
going to outlive Josiah. And that message that began in
the days of Josiah will continue.
He's going to continue to call the same people to repentance
until they eventually are exiled for the lack of repentance.
And now this brings us to our final point of the study
tonight. As important as righteous
legislation might be, as crucial as removing corrupt ideology and
practices from our culture may be demanded, that will never
provide long term and lasting solution.
Never. Josiah being the king for this
people was a good thing. But you know what was more
important? The people determining that God
will sit on the Thrones of our hearts.
And when they fail to take advantage of Josiah's influence,
he raises up a prophet to remind them of it.
And I'm not here advocating that we should not engage in
community service or that we shouldn't try to infuse virtue
into our politics. What I am saying, though, is
that if we're not careful as Christians, we might be putting
band aids on a disease that reaches far deeper than the
symptoms that we're trying to subdue.
The gospel alone offers true heart transformation.
And no matter what we do in our efforts, what we do in our
posts, what we do in our protests or our prayers,
whatever the case may be, we must always point people to the
gospel. Always.
And that is precisely why Jeremiah came into the scene, to
deal with the heart. Everything outside looked
wonderful. But that would that would last
as long as Josiah was alive. So what does Jeremiah do?
He preaches God's word. And here's really a summary of
it. If you're there still in
Jeremiah, look at chapter 4. Look what he says to Jerusalem
in verse 14. O Jerusalem, wash your heart
from evil, that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?
Can you imagine saying that to a nation?
We're on the the news every night.
You're learning now the tribe of Naftali is destroying the ashram
and the Baal. You would think, what are you
talking about, Jeremiah? Wash your heart.
That's what God is after. Our hearts, our hearts, not just
mere behavioral modification, not just attendance, not even
your wallet being put into that plate every week.
Your heart and my heart being washed.
And there's nothing in the old covenant that is potent enough,
that is real enough to be able to deliver what Jeremiah was
asking for. That washing force would only
come through someone that Jeremiah would prophecy about
later in his book, Jesus Christ. After a Bible study like this,
you have to be willing to accept that it's possible that in a
Bible study like this, there might be some whose hearts are
not really right with God. I I I'm not of those who find
every opportunity to challenge people to examine themselves.
There's an appropriate time for such a message.
And when you touch on a text like this, it presents an
opportunity. I wonder if perhaps there's
someone here who from the outside you look good, In fact,
you look even impressive. Your heart, has it really
experienced change? Can you really testify that
Christ reached into my bosom and he removed that heart of stone,
and he put in it a heart that longs for his ways, that yearns
for his presence? You know, Christianity is not
about instantaneous perfection, but it is about radical new
direction. Not immediate perfection, but
definite new direction. What I mean by that?
Your values, your affections, your longings, your convictions,
your standards shift and you recognize that in yourself.
You say, I know that this is not me.
I know that this is a miracle of God.
And you may stumble along that path, but you can say with
confidence that the direction of my heart is different.
That's what the Lord is after. And He can offer you that
tonight. If you were here and you're
thinking, that's me, I know that's me.
I have nothing to offer you myself, but you can call upon
the name of the Lord and in a very real way, He can.
He can change that heart of yours.
Can we thank Him for it? Let's do that as we come to a
close tonight. Father, indeed.
It is truly fascinating how in 2 verses you can steer us into so
many different directions. Thank you again for showcasing
to us the harmony of your word, how bountiful it is, how
profound it is. We pray for the believer that
this study would provide fresh inspiration to read every part
of this book. And we ask for for the person
who's here, who under compulsion might be here, who under
compulsion or wrong fears might perform their faith, but it does
not come from a place of true heart change.
We asked, Lord, that you would use tonight's study as the means
to catapult them to the foot of the cross, and that they would
allow that precious blood to wash their hearts and to redeem
them. We thank you for how you've
spoken to us, and Lord, we know that this is just the beginning
of a testimony that you have clearly preserved for our
benefit. So, Lord, continue to guide us
as we study this man, Josiah. It may only bring us closer to
Jesus. We ask these things in the
precious name of your Son, the one whom we love and adore,
Jesus Christ, Amen and Amen. Let's stand and worship Him as
we stand in awe of His Word.