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It has been nothing but a pleasure to be with you for these few brief. It is an open secret, of course, that all preachers... The reason for that is that you make it so easy for them to speak by your patient attendance and your courageous endurance of the hardness of the seats when the preachers go on. From the second book of Kings. Chapter twenty two and verse one.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Abijah. And he did that which was right in the eyes 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 it came to pass in the eighteenth year of King Josiah that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people.
And let them deliver it unto the hand of the workman that have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen which are in the house of the Lord to repair the breaches of the house, unto the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house. Howbeit, there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, for they dealt faithfully. And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.
And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king, and it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam the son of Shaphan and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Aziah the king's servant, saying, Go you, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that he's 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 unto all according unto all which is written concerning us. So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Akbor, and Shaphan, and Asir went unto Hulda the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvar, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter, and they communed with her, and she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, tell ye the man that sent you unto 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, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands.
Therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched. But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, How saith the Lord, the God of Israel, as touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble 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 and wept before me. I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.
Neither shall thine eyes see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again. And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up to 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 that was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in the book.
And all the people stood to the covenant. God give us that same reverence for his holy word and a holy determination to obey it. In this brief series of studies, we have been considering together some of the revivals that took place in the history of the kings of Israel and of Judah. And we have noticed that while all revivals, both ancient and modern, have certain things in common, yet there generally happens to be some special and crucial issue at stake that is different in each revival.
With the revival led by Elijah, prophet in Israel, we found the issue was, who was the true God? Was Jehovah the true God? Or was Baal? Said Elijah, if Jehovah be God, follow him. If Baal be God, follow him. But stop trying to do the splits. Stop dithering between the two. Follow one or the other.
Demonstrating to them that Jehovah was indeed the true God. He led his people back to the wholehearted serving of Jehovah. With the revival that was led by Jehoiada, high priest in Judah, and subsequently by Joash, king of Judah, we found the issue was slightly different. No longer who is the true God, but rather who is the true king? Was Edath a liar? Or was it Joash, son and seed of Of David.
In that revival, Jo- Athaliah's treason and impostorhood were exposed. The true king revealed, and Judah rallied in loyalty to their true king, and subsequently discovered what, in practical terms, loyalty to the true king would mean, and in particular, by way of repairing the breaches in the house of the Lord. This morning we looked very briefly at the revival that was led by Hezekiah, king of Judah.
In the days when Assyria came up with all her mass battalions and military might and mocked at their faith in the living God. The great truths of redemption and the election of Israel and the purposes of God to bring in Messiah through Israel and Jerusalem and the house of the Lord therein. Assyria, the great world power, mocked what they thought was this stupid and primitive belief on the part of this tiny little market town up in the hills of Judea. And they bade Hezekiah and all his people abandon these old-fashioned biblical myths in favor of the political theories and ideologies of the great Gentile empire of Assyria.
And at first, old Hezekiah, shaking at his knees, like anybody was prone to do when they first had a look at the Assyrians and their armies and their cannon and all their silicon chips. First of all, Hezekiah thought he could do a kind of a compromise by hacking off a bit of the gold out of the house of the Lord here, and trimming down a little bit, uh, of the gold of the house of the Lord there, and giving it to the Assyrians in the hope that if you trimmed, uh, your faith just a little bit, uh, the modern man might find it more acceptable- acceptable and let you go on.
I soon found that was a terrible mistake. Alas, that Christendom hasn't found it so yet. Alas for those theologians that one by one abandoned this fundamental and that fundamental of the Christian faith, under the plea that if you still stand for the fundamentals of the Christian faith and supernaturalism in all its glory, the modern man can't, uh, believe it. So to get the modern man inside your church, you, you carve off a bit of the faith here and trim down supernaturalism there and hope somehow to convince him.
And he concludes that you must be soft in the head, that you don't really believe what you say you believe, and he scorns both you and your faith, and goes further from your church than ever. Hezekiah and his people had to face the issue. When were they going to stop whittling down their faith? When were they going to learn to stand for the objective truth of God's revelation. And they stood through their trust in God, rooted and grounded in the faith, like those marvelous pillars in the house of the Lord, Jakin and Boaz.
Tonight we move on to the last revival mentioned in the Book of Kings, the revival led by Josiah, grandson or more, great-grandson of Hezekiah. Would you say, what was the issue in the revival led by Josiah? Well, to cut a long story short to begin with, and then make it long again, I fear. Uh, the situation was this, that when Josiah came to the throne, he succeeded Manasseh of years ago, who had been one of the wickedest old kings that ever lived in Judah.
And Ammon hadn't done much to improve things in the meanwhile. So there were obviously things wrong with the house of the Lord when Josiah came to the throne. Anybody with any might of spiritual sense in his head could see that. So Josiah early set about, uh, having another kind of revival. And of course, he had a tradition to go upon. I dare say he'd read about it in the books that were then current about revivals and how to lead them. He had read surely the ancient history about Joash, how Joash had led a revival, and pray what had Joash done?
Well, he collected the high priests and said, look at the house of the Lord, it's disgraceful. Look at all those holes in the wall. Mend them, can't you? Repair the breaches in the house of the Lord. Get the people giving the cash and getting the workmen and the carpenters and the masons busy and repair the house of the Lord too. And yes, that had worked in Joash's day. So Josiah, excellent young man that he was, and having read his history books about revival, he did the same thing. He got hold of the priests, he told them to collect the money like they should, give it to the masons and the carpenters, and repair the breaches once more in the house of the Lord.
It is uncommonly interesting to see how often breaches occur in the house of the Lord. They do from generation to generation. And always is there room for repair in the house of the Lord. However, in the course of their repair work of the house of the Lord, they suddenly, in some obscure, musty, fusty cupboard somewhere, I know not exactly where, in some fusty corner that nobody had ever looked into for years, they found a book.
And being curious and opening the book, they found, if you please, it was a part of the Word of God. Well, I never knew it existed before. Didn't know it was in the Word of God, this book. I fancy they were rather like, uh, some friends of mine. Uh, occasionally I do get involved in Bible studies with groups of people. God bless them, keen to learn about God and the Bible.
But such is their ignorance of Holy Scripture that, should you happen to say that such and such a thing is in Chronicles, they can't know for the moment whether- whether Chronicles is the name of a newspaper in Dublin or in England. And should you happen to talk about Corinthians, I can't decide whether it's the name of a football club or a racehorse. Keen folks, God be praised, would we had some of their keenness. But ignorance of Holy Scripture. Amazing. Well, these people were like that.
They suddenly found, ah, there was a book in the Word of God that they had known nothing about at all, and they began to read it. And their first reaction was utter consternation. I had not known such things were in the Word of God. That now showed that there were a thousand and one things that they were doing, even in the house of the Lord, let alone at home, clean contrary to the word of God. Things, in fact, that even in the times of the earlier revivals, under Joash and Hezekiah, things that had still been allowed to go on.
That were, well, you can see it for yourself. Contrary to the word of God. And that posed a real issue. What are you going to say, well, that's very interesting, of course, you know, that's what Moses wrote. That's rather old-fashioned stuff. Couldn't do that nowadays, could you? Or were they going to say, now this is the word of God.
And if it hasn't been done, too bad, but we're now going to start and do it, just like it's written. So that, in a nutshell, was the issue in that revival. You say, please, Mr. Preacher, I don't see much difference between that particular issue and the one that you said was the issue under Hezekiah. You said that was a question of standing for God's truth. What on earth is this if it isn't exactly the self same thing? Well, I suppose it is in a way. But there is a difference, and an important difference. So first of all, let me attempt a very learned explanation of the difference.
Hmm. The theologians, God bless them. If they were trying to sum up the difference between these two revivals, they would say that the revival under Hithikiah was concerned for God's objective truths. And the revival under Josiah was concerned much more about God's subjective truth. And you say, what on earth do those words mean? Well, God's objective truth, that's a term that people sometimes use for the great facts of our faith.
The great historical realities. The existence of God and the evidence for it. The fact that Israel were his chosen people. The great fact of the virgin birth. The deity of the Lord Jesus, his sinless humanity, the reality of his miracles. The fact of his atoning death. The historical reality of his literal resurrection. The certainty of his coming again.
These great objective truths of the gospel. And we must stand for them. Like veritable pillars in the house of the Lord, whose function was to uphold those beautiful capitals to the eyes of mankind, that men might be attracted to the house of the Lord by the beauty of those capitals upheld by the pillars. So the church, pillar and ground of the truth, is responsible to hold up before men the objective truths of God's self-revelation and to stand by them and guard them in all their beauty and their potential for fruitfulness, and not compromise on the great truths, the objective truths of the faith.
Ah yes, but as well as what you might call those great objective truths of the faith, the Bible has a lot of other truths that you might, uh, quite reasonably call subjective truths. These are the truths that tell me that not only did God become incarnate and visit our planet and die upon a cross and rise again for our salvation, but they say to me directly, and now, my good man, you need to apply that truth to yourself. You need to be born again, to be reconciled to God.
You need that word applied to your rebel heart to end your rebellion and to bring you to obey God's holy word. And born again into the family of God, you will constantly need to let that word of God examine you, constantly need to let the Holy Spirit apply that word to you, that thereafter you might progress in holiness, and thus adorn the gospel that you profess to preach to men. Pray. How shall I help God's cause?
If on Sundays I stand preaching the objective truth of God to men, and on Mondays in my work I'm as bad tempered and mean and selfish as I could possibly be. What use shall I be standing before God's people, telling them how God loved them, that he gave his son for them. If on Tuesday evenings I make my own house a very unpleasant place by my lovelessness, carping criticisms, and impurities of spirit.
Pray, what good shall I do if I stand and preach the gospel and have never been converted and born again by that same gospel myself? A little word, that latter, particularly in the ears of the theologians. That's, did I say that was the short answer? That's the comparatively short explanation. There is a slightly longer one. But it isn't so difficult. For now, for a moment, if you will, let's forget Josiah and his doings, and come with me to the house of the Lord.
This very house that Josiah set about, uh, repairing. We went on a visit there in our imagination this morning, and as we came through the courts, up the stairs into the courts, we saw facing us those two, those two stately pillars, Jakin and Boaz, with those delightful capitals of lily work and chains and pomegranates on top. Beautiful things. And as I have already indicated, we saw this morning in those pillars holding up those lovely capitals, a helpful and vivid picture of our duty as members of the house of God to be for the truth, a pillar and ground to hold it up to the eyes of men.
Ah yes, but in the court of that very same house of the Lord, you would have found some other things. There would have been an altar, of course, with sacrifices and the shedding of blood, that men might find thereat forgiveness of sins. But very noticeable and prominent above all else in the court of Solomon's temple, there would have been an object called a sea, SEA, nothing to do with the bishoprics. SEA. It was in fact an enormous bowl of water, only rather an ornamental one.
And it stood, this vast bowl of water so big that it was called a sea. It stood on the backs of a dozen oxen. Some people there are who think that there must have been a system of pipes or something, so that the water in this great bowl could be drawn down through these pipes that may possibly even have come out through the mouth of the, um, oxen whose backs carried the laver. However that may be, there it was, this enormous laver full of water called the sea.
And not content with that, had you, uh, looked around, you would have found ten more lavers, smaller ones this time, but, uh, each of them arranged on top of a, of a kind of a stand that had wheels on. So you could wheel these ten other labors anywhere you liked around the place. Obviously, in this house of the Lord, water was somehow going to be important. You apparently were going to need water all over the place at any time. You never knew when you might need some water, so you better have it readily available.
An enormous supply in this great labor called the sea, and ten subsidiary labors on wheels that could be wheeled at a moment's notice anywhere to supply the need. You say, what was all that about? Well, it was for the simple practical purpose of cleansing. It taught those ancient Israelites that if you would serve acceptably in the house of the Lord, you would need to be cleansed. There was, of course, in that house of the Lord at the altar, cleansing by blood.
And now at the laver there was cleansing by water. Of course, you will remember, being good Christians who have read your New Testament, that God through Christ, has provided us likewise in our day and generation with cleansing. And us too with two types of cleansing. There is likewise for us, is there not? There is cleansing by blood. There is also cleansing by water.
We rightly sing, what can wash away my stain? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. It's a biblical idea. It's a biblical idea. One John chapter one and verse seven informs us that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin. There is for us cleansing by blood through Calvary. Ah, but another scripture reminds us, and this time it's Ephesians chapter five.
Christ loved the church, gave himself for her, that he might cleanse her, sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water through the word. So for us too, cleansing by blood, but also cleansing by water. You say, what is the difference, my good man? Well, simply put, it is this. The blood of Christ cleanses our consciences from the guilt of sin.
So Hebrews chapter nine informs us, happy is the person that has discovered for himself personally that marvelous cleansing. Cleansing from the guilt of sin. Oh, if I talk to somebody here tonight and you've never let God cleanse you from the guilt of sin, you carry with you still the burden and chain of the past. You have no certainty of forgiveness in your heart. The prospect of eternity strikes fear within you.
Oh friend, listen. There is cleansing for you. There is release from the guilt that burdens your conscience. That cleansing is found in the precious blood of Christ. You say, how does the blood of Christ actually do its job of cleansing us? Well, it works like this, you see. If I have sinned, and my conscience is still working, and I haven't bashed it out of operation.
If I have sinned, my conscience begins to witness that I have done wrong. I have broken God's law. And then my conscience begins to get worried because there is a penalty attached to breaking God's law. The wages of sin is dead. death. And friend, I shall never get rid of the burden of guilt by trying just to brush it under the carpet and trying to forget it and promising I shall turn over a new leaf tomorrow. Still my conscience will agree with God's word that to have broken his law is to observe, to have deserved its penalty.
How shall I ever be free? Oh, listen, friend. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from sin in this sense. That when the Savior died and shed that blood, he was dying to pay the penalty that God's law demanded because of our sin. The penalty was death under the wrath of God.
Christ died in love for our souls, that he might pay that penalty and shed his blood that all might see. But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripe we are healed. Oh, blessed moment, when I discover it, the blood of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice for sin, has so satisfied God's holy law, it can cleanse my conscience from all its guilt and set me free.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses from all sin. Well, then why do I need this further cleansing of water, you say? And what is this cleansing by water? Well, I need it. Because, you know, forgiveness of sins is not by itself enough, is it? What would be the use of God's forgiving me? My sin. If he then left me to go on sinning.
I may be forgiven sin, but how should I ever be admitted into the holy presence of God? If I were merely forgiven, but still the ugly, unclean, impure character that I always was. I need more than forgiveness of my guilt. I need more than the cleansing of my conscience. I need cleansing of my character. How can that be done?
Paul tells us, does he not, in his letter to Titus in chapter three, We also one time, said he, were foolish, disobedient, hateful, hating one another, living in malice and envy. And with stark realism, he paints his character as once it was, in all its gnarled nastiness. Of course, Saul of Tarsus, before he got converted, wouldn't have s- thought of himself in any way like that. And when he got converted to Christ and then had another look at himself, he then saw himself as really he was, and God saw him.
A twisted, malicious, envious, hating, hated, perverted man, desperately in need of being cleansed in his character and personality. But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared towards men, says Paul, he saved us, and we're all agog to hear how, aren't we? How did he save him? How did he transform that persecuting blasphemer, Saul of Tarsus, into the saint of God and apostle of love, Paul the servant of Christ.
Well, here it comes. He saved us, you say, yes, by the blood of Jesus. However, that's not what he says there, is he? He's not now thinking of deliverance from guilt, but deliverance from the power of sin. He saved us, he says, by the washing of regeneration. And the renewing performed by the Holy Spirit, whom God poured out on us abundantly. Do you get the metaphor? The Holy Spirit is like that holy water poured out on the believer to effect the cleansing of a new birth.
God ways of cleansing are nothing if they're not thorough. God is not content just to polish up our old lives a little bit. God demands a cleansing that is utterly radical. The cleansing of a new birth and a new life. So that when a man comes to God's word and by God's spirit is convicted of his sinership, of his evil ways and his impure character, he is brought first of all to repentance, to see himself as God sees him, and that's the beginning.
The Holy Spirit then leads him to put his faith in Christ, and when the man does that, Christ works in that man a new life and a new start, a veritable new birth, the washing of regeneration, the renewing performed by the Holy Spirit. I trust we have all known that experience, know ourselves cleansed by the blood of Christ from the guilt of sin. Ah, yes, but born again through the word of God that liveth and abideth forever by the power of God's Holy Spirit.
But of course, once a man is born again and cleansed in that fundamental sense, bathed all over, as the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it. He'll not be needing to be bathed a second time to be born again once, that's enough. But as life goes on, the believer will need that other kind of cleansing, that constant rinsing of hands and feet at the labor of God's word. As our Lord Jesus said to Peter, when he gave him that illustration and washed the disciples' feet.
You don't need to be bathed all over again, Peter, once you've been bathed, but you will need me to let me rinse your feet, for if I rinse you not, you cannot have practical fellowship with me. What's the good of me? S- standing preaching the gospel on Sundays. And so out of touch with the Lord on Monday, that some member of the congregation who bumps his car into my car, I proceed to savage him.
With my tongue and my uncontrollable temper. I think I said that before, didn't I? But that is the point. Standing for God's objective truth, yes, it is our plain duty and privilege. But if we're going to have fellowship with Christ in standing for his objective truth, and we shall need to allow his Holy Spirit through the labor of his word to cleanse our personalities. Christ loved the church, he said, gave himself for her that he might cleanse her from all spots and wrinkles and any such thing.
Hm. You know, I suppose, I don't know, but I- I suppose it's a... If a good wife were to burn her husband's potatoes, I could conceive it should happen that the husband would say, but my dear, I forgive you for this lamentable mistake. If the dear good lady were to develop a pimple or two, of course we don't normally talk about such things, do we? A sore or something upon the face, you would think he was a stupid husband that said, I forgive you for having that pimple.
Pimples aren't things you forgive. You say, that horrible pimple. Oh, he still loved the woman just the same, because he would. But by that same token, simply because he loved the woman, he would want her to look her best, and he'd say, that pimple, they've got to go. You got any pimples? I don't mean literal, literal pimples, nor yet little wrinkles. But as you look in the mirror of God's word, as you retire to rest tonight, Christian, fellow Christian, will you be saying, ah, I wasn't as pretty today as I ought to have been.
My old town ran away with me. I was selfish. I was cowardly. I was slovenly in the Lord's work. I don't know what your pimples and wrinkles are. I know a good many more about myself, and my friends know even more too about me. This I know, that if we're going to have revival in the church, we shall have to stand not only for God's objective truth.
We shall have to make use of the labor, the subjective truth, to allow God's spirit to cleanse us by the washing of water through the word, that the wrinkles, spots, and blemishes may be removed from our behavior. You say, what on earth has that all got to do with Josiah? Oh yes, we began by talking about Josiah. We better come back. Only I'll tell you about his great, great, great grandfather.
I don't know if I've got the right number of greats in, but just allow me to tell you a little bit about a king in Judah called Ahaz. Ahaz was called away at one stage on a diplomatic mission up to Damascus, there to meet the, uh, king of Assyria. And staying up in the Hilton in Damascus, Ahaz, in between the times of sessions of the debate and the conference, you know, he was, uh, uh, went around looking at the sites, and of course he did the local cathedral. And in the temple of the Syrians up in Damascus, he saw an altar.
He said, wow, that's a smashing altar. Cool. And he presently got back to his hotel, and he got a postcard, and he wrote it back to his chief minister and the high priest down in Jerusalem. Here with a sketch of a new altar I have seen in in Damascus. I'd like you please to put aside that altar we've got down in our our temple at Jerusalem. You know, we've had that years. He's got old fashioned. Now put that one aside and put this new model altar. It changed, didn't it?
Will you imagine the man's fantastic cheek? To put aside what God himself had commanded and put his own innovations into the house of the Lord, if you please. Oh, but not content with that. Ahaz wasn't content with that. When he came home, his eye alighted on that vast labor on the backs of the oxen. He said, you know, that all seemed an ugly, beautiful thing to me, standing up there on those oxen. Think it would improve it a bit, don't you, if we cut it down off the oxen. So he proceeded to do just that.
He had the workman cut it down, and he put it on the ground. And he didn't seem to have the slightest pang of conscience in doing it. He mumbled through his beard something about the thing was old fashioned, and you have to move with the times or something. Ah, that sacred labor, symbol of the washing of water through the word, and old Ahaz reducing its power and force of that water by putting it down on the ground. We've got to watch that, haven't we?
Lest we get infected with the spirit of the world and start telling ourselves, ah yes, that's what Paul said, but you know, he was only Paul. Who does the New Testament say that? Well, fancy that now. Oh, but yeah, you know, that was written a long time ago. So the fact that it was inspired of God a long time ago means it's gone out of fashion and is no longer relevant or something. There are some who would tell us that, of course, nowadays you don't go to the Bible for an authoritative answer. Bible, perhaps, is one of those things that you might possibly think of consulting if you had a problem, one among many things, but of course you wouldn't necessarily do what it said.
How is that relevant to Josiah? Well, with the poor old laver now demoted and standing on the ground, the symbol, so to speak, had been robbed a lot of a lot of its meaning and power. But let's leave the symbols. Washing of water through the word? Ha. God's more interested in realities and symbols. And so it came to pass. When Josiah started out in his good intention to lead a revival and repair the breaches in the house of the Lord, God directed his servants to a cupboard where there was a book.
If you please, it was part of the word of God. I hadn't known it existed before. So long had it been forgotten. When they read it, well, at first they were appalled. So different from what they were doing. Whatever should happen, they went to consult Huldah the prophetess. God had to send back a very stern message to them. He said, now you'll understand, won't you, the seriousness of people disobeying my word.
Over centuries, my word has been saying that you are to do this, and if you disobey my word, it will bring upon you calamitous results. Generations of kings in Judah have forgotten my word, years without number, and not done it, and done quite contrary to it. And what we sow, we reap. And Christendom that has neglected and oftentimes forgotten God's word and disobeyed it over centuries, and put in its place all sorts of things that are but the inventions of men, Christendom will reap the inevitable harvest.
Christendom, formal and outward, will end in Babylon, as sure as the disobedient kings of Judah ended in Babylon. But that's no reason why the true believing people of God, wherever they find themselves, should lose heart. For if we are prepared to discover God's word and to do it, however late the day, God will bless those who make honest attempt to do God's word. So Josiah set about it, and round the temple they went, and you know when you went round the temple with the word of God in your hand, you never saw such a motley collection of things that they discovered.
There were chariots to the sun, and there were pillars to Ashtaroth. You never saw such nonsense and bunkum and medieval superstitions as they found in the temple when they went round it with the word of the Lord. And thanks be to God, they determined to obey Holy Scripture, and out the old nonsense went. And then they discovered the joy of the positive side. They found you ought to keep a Passover. Well, they said, let's keep it. Well, our fathers always did it this way, said somebody. Yes, it said somebody else, but that's not what the Bible says, is it? Oh. Well, what should we do?
And they had to decide. Were they or were they not going to obey scripture and carry it out as it is said. What about us? Scripture says that we ought to be born again. You born again? Personally now, I mean. Scripture says that if we're born again, then we ought to be baptized.
Are you baptized? You say, I don't need it. Well, God wasn't asking you whether you needed it. His word says he. The question is, are we going to obey his word or not? You're born again and baptized, the Bible says you ought to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Do you do it? The Bible says a hundred and one things that we Christians ought to do in church, in the home, and at our work. God give us the grace to do those things, and daily and yearly give ourselves to read his word in a spirit that says, Lord, teach me what your word says so that I may run to do your commandments.
If that be our attitude of heart, God will bring us his blessing, however late the times in which we live. Shall we pray? Our Father, bless thy holy word now to us all we beseech thee, that we may learn to live, eh, in the light thereof. Give us grace to stand firm for thy objective truth. But Lord, give us the grace likewise to search thy word and to apply it to our hearts, that we may in all practical senses obey it, that we may prove what is thy good and acceptable will, and sowing thus to thy spirit, reap of the spirit eternal life through that same Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. And it is half past nine, and you were promised out by half past nine, so we shall not sing another hymn, and I will let you go.
