in your copies of God's Word to 2 Chronicles 24 this morning. If you're using a Pew Bible, I believe it is page 441. Our text today comes from the life of King Joash of Judah. And since this isn't really part of a series or anything, before we even read our passage, I'm going to tell you so far what's happened in his life. We'll mainly be focusing on these events, though, in our text. Joash's father's name was Ahaziah, Ahaziah, the king of Judah. And when he dies, Joash's grandmother hears of it, and her name was Athaliah. Athaliah was the daughter of the wicked king Ahab of Israel and his Baal-worshipping wife, Queen Jezebel. And she was the mother of Ahaziah, king of Judah. But when her own son dies, this woman, Nathalia, does not grieve. She instead decides to seize power. She plots to destroy the whole royal family of Judah, to put to death all the king's sons, her own grandchildren, the line of David, and to rule Judah unopposed as queen. But she was thwarted by Jehoshua, the sister of the dead king, and the aunt of Joash, who we'll be focusing on today. And also, she was the wife of the priest Jehoiada, who we'll see in our text. But this faithful woman stole away baby Joash from among the other children before they were killed, and hid him and his nurse in a room in the temple of the Lord. And for six years, Joash's wicked grandmother, this daughter of Jezebel the Baal worshiper, ruled in Judah as queen, and Joash lived in the house of the Lord. But when Joash turned seven, Jehoiada, the priest, led a military uprising. The throne was taken back from this wicked queen who had stolen it from the line of David. And they crowned the seven-year-old boy, Joash, king of Judah. And this evil, wicked queen, Athaliah, was executed outside of the temple grounds. In that day, Jehoiada, the priest, made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people. that they should be the Lord's people, and also between the king and the people. And all the people of the land tore down the house of Baal. They broke Baal's altars, they smashed his images to pieces, and they even put to death Matan, the priest of Baal. This all leads up to our text today in 2 Chronicles 24. As we read this, please pay close attention to the actions of Joash, King of Judah. Hear now the word of the Lord this morning. Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada got for him two wives and he had sons and daughters. After this, Joash decided to return to the house of the Lord. And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, go out to the cities of Judah and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year and see that you act quickly. But the Levites did not act quickly. So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief, summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him, why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the Lord and the congregation of Israel from the tent of testimony? For the sons of Ithalia, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God and had also used all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord for the bales. So the king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord. and proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses, the servant of God, laid on Israel in the wilderness. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. And whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the Levites, when they saw that there was much money in it, the king's secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. Thus they did day after day and collected money in abundance. And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who had charge of the work of the house of the Lord. And they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord. So those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward in their hands. And they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it. And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king in Jehoiada, and with it were made utensils for the house of the Lord, both for the service and for the burnt offerings, and dishes for incense and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord regularly all the days of Jehoiada. But Jehoiada grew old and full of days and died. He was 130 years old at his death. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings because he had done good in Israel and toward God and his house. Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord. These testified against them, but they would not pay attention. Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, thus says God, why do you break the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you. But they conspired against him, and by command of the king, They stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus, Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, may the Lord see an avenge. At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes from among the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army, because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash. When they had departed from him, leaving him severely wounded, his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. Those who conspired against him were Zabad, the son of Shimeath, the Ammonite, and Jehozabad, the son of Shimerith, the Moabite. Accounts of his sons and of the many oracles against him and of the rebuilding of the house of God are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah, his son, reigned in his place. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. As we've seen, this is a tragic life. King Joash had such a promising start. His life was spared by God himself through his providence. He was raised in the temple of God. He was instructed by a chief priest, Jehoiada, and was even restored to the throne of his father, David. During his reign, he was concerned about the state of God's house of the temple. And he worked hard to have it repaired, and these temple repairs were finished. And there was even money left over, as we've seen, to make these utensils for service, for burnt offerings, and these dishes for incense, and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada, the chief priest. And they were many days, for he lived to be 130 years old. And because Jehoiada himself had done so much, he was given the honor of being buried with the kings of Judah, even though he himself had not been a king. And we wish that the account of the reign and life of Joash wrapped up somewhere right there. That would be a very pleasant end to his reign. And yet it doesn't. Joash began, once Jehoiada, his instructor, was dead, Joash began to listen to someone else. He began to listen to these officials, these princes of Judah, and they together abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers. They started to worship false gods and idols, just as the wicked queen Athaliah had done, the same queen who had been executed for Joash to return to the throne. God sent many prophets to them. There were many oracles against Joash. They were meant to bring him back to God. But these prophets testified to him and to the people, to these princes, and yet they would not listen. And so God sends his spirit to clothe Zechariah, this cousin of Joash, this son of Jehoiada, the priest, his mentor and instructor. And he comes to prophesy before the people saying, thus says God, why do you break the commandments of the Lord so you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you. And in response to this man, this man who was close to Joash, his new mentors conspired against Zechariah. And by the order of the king, King Joash himself, this man of God was stoned to death. in the temple grounds, something they would not even do to Athaliah. They removed her from the temple grounds to execute her, but instead they stoned the prophet of God in God's own house. Joash, as the Bible tells us, did not remember the kindness of his mentor Jehoiada, Zechariah's own father, instead killed his son. But it's just as bad, if not worse, that he did not remember the kindness of God in sparing his life when he was an infant, a powerless child, and instead kills God's own prophet in his house. And as Zechariah laid there dying, he said, may the Lord see and avenge. And the Lord did see, and the Lord did avenge. As we see, at the end of the year, the Syrians came. And they only had a few men and yet God gave them victory over this greater army of Judah because Judah had turned from God. Notice how different this is from many accounts we would read in Joshua or in even Judges where God blesses the small army of the people of God against those Canaanites and those sinful, idolatrous people. Here, God is blessing these Syrians against Judah, not because the Syrians were godly people, but because Judah had turned from him. And they destroyed all these princes of Judah, these wicked men who had led Joash in sin, because they had forsaken the Lord their God and the God of their fathers. We know from 2 Kings 12 that Joash, in addition to all of this, when King Haziel, the king of Syria, attacks the royal city of Jerusalem, Joash does not bend his knees and pray to God for forgiveness, to spare him. Instead, he goes to the temple and he loots it. He takes all the treasures out of the royal palace and all the treasure out of the temple and he tries to pay off the Syrian king to leave him alone, to turn back and go home. Instead of trusting in the God of the temple, he put his trust in the gold of the temple. All these sacred elements, all these things dedicated to the Lord, he had profaned. And he did not escape even though he tried to with this gold. The Lord still saw and avenged Zechariah. And the servants of Joash conspired against him and they put him to death. They assassinated him in his bed. We're shocked and we're sad to read of this life and how wonderfully it started out, how tragically it came to its end. But, people of God, though this is a large text, I believe that the main point this morning comes to us in verse two, which is such a summary of this tragic life. It says, and Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. Joash was doing good things. He was living a life that was right in the eyes of the Lord God. But it was not his faith he was living out. He was living out the faith of his instructor Jehoiada. And as soon as Jehoiada dies, Joash stops doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord. His obedience dies with his instructor. He was tested in many ways and yet proved to not have a real personal faith in God. Because he did not have a personal faith, his obedience dies out with his instructor. Because he did not have a personal faith, he just joins in with these wicked officials of Judah, who he had power over, who should have answered to him, and instead begins to worship false gods and idols when Jehoiada passes away. He did not listen to God's prophets, and he had Zechariah stoned to death in the temple of God. And God, when he sends Haziel, this king of Syria, against him, he does not humble himself, confess, and turn to God for salvation from the Syrians, but he profanes God's holy temple, robbing it and trying to pay off this instrument of God's vengeance. He could have pay off the Syrian king, but he could not escape God's judgment. So what do we make of such a tragic, tragic life? What do we make of his lack of a personal faith and despite that, how for so many years he seemingly walked rightly in the eyes of God? Well, this morning we must ask ourselves, are we, are you like Joash? Children, do you, boys and girls, do you try to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord? Why do you do this? Why do you do things like come to church, try not to lie, try to be kind to your brothers and sisters or listen to your parents? Why do we do these things, boys and girls? Is it just because mom and dad told you to or wanted you to? Maybe someone here tonight or this morning, are you here because your husband or wife or a friend dragged you here today and you came reluctantly? My point is that maybe some of us are here this morning and do many other things as an effort to please someone else in our lives? Are we doing what we're doing? Are we trying to live what is doing what is right in the eyes of God to make someone happy? Do we do it to honor someone else's request? Do we do it out of love for someone in our life? that what will happen when that person dies, when that person moves away. For many, this effort to do what is right in God's eyes will vanish as well. Boys and girls, it's important that you understand this morning that we worship even when we don't feel like it. We honor what our mom and our dad say, even when we don't feel like it. So it is not the measure of whether we feel like doing something that tells us if our faith is personal. The reason that we try to live and do it is right in the eyes of the Lord. If we have a personal faith, is because we love, believe in, and wish to honor God himself for the salvation that he has given to us in Jesus Christ. But many stop trying to live by the Bible when their instructor dies because it was never their own faith, but only the faith of their instructor. However, even Even those who keep on doing what their instructor says, who do better than Joash in this, even after their instructor has gone, may still not have a personal faith. It's not as clear as a test, where as long as you continue after whoever taught you about the Lord has gone, that you must have a personal faith. Because there is so much cultural Christianity still in this world. Cultural Christians don't only obey God or seek to live a godly life just because somebody told them to do so, or because that person is still alive or present in their lives. We have to ask ourselves this morning if we treat our faith as something that was passed down to us, like a cultural artifact. There are people who go to church who live for God for the same reason that I and maybe some of you eat the dish called Stumput. This is a Dutch dish that I eat from time to time, but it's not because I am from the Netherlands, because I'm not. It's because my grandparents were Dutch, and it was in the family cookbook, and I grew up eating it. If you call yourself a Christian today because you come from a Christian family, because you may go to church occasionally or even twice a week because your grandparents did and it was a family tradition and you grew up doing it, in reality, if that is all that lies behind your faith, behind your life, your Christian life, then I would say to you this morning that you are even less Christian than I am Dutch. Even if you try to do all that is right in the eyes of the Lord, in obedience to his word as a sort of moral compass in your life, if that is all that it is, even if you go to church every Sunday as you ought to, even if you say grace before every meal, even if you read the Bible daily, if you are living out someone else's faith until the day that you die, no matter how morally good your life was, it won't be enough to get you into heaven. and no one else's love for Jesus Christ as their savior and trust in him will ever be enough to save your soul from hell. The faith that you live must be your own. Maybe you have a testimony like me this morning, that you are a covenant child raised by faithful Christian parents in a biblical church, taught the way, the truth, and the life that you have no real moment that you can recognize in which you gave yourself to Christ, that your faith has always seemingly been your own. Well, covenant children here today do not need to worry because they don't have a conversion story. Just like everyone else, covenant children can be taught the gospel. They can be taught that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. but it is only by the Father's will and the Spirit's power that they, like anyone, will ever believe it, that they will ever walk in it, that they will ever trust in it and love Jesus Christ as Savior. It must be God who makes it personal for you. And a godly life has to be deeply rooted in this personal faith in the triune God. And if it is, if it was planted by God, if it is rooted in God, then it will continue in God and persevere to the very end. Faith leads us to obedience as Christians. This is the natural progression of things because the Holy Spirit of God dwells in the heart of a Christian and leads the Christian to faith in Jesus Christ And the Holy Spirit leads us in obedience out of gratitude, inwardly turning us from sin and turning us to God, which shows forth an outward obedience and acts of faith and gratitude. True faith, personal true faith, rests and relies in Jesus Christ and in his work for our salvation. And that true faith cannot help but show gratitude through acts of loving obedience and good works. This change is as visible as seeing a bare tree. In winter, other than evergreen trees, we see many skeletal-looking limbs of trees without any leaves. And at wintertime, it can be so hard to tell the dead trees from the living ones until spring comes. When a tree that was dead is somehow brought back to life, it cannot help but show signs of life. This change is so visible, it brings forth fruit in our lives. The personal faith bears fruit. But our hope, people of God, is not in meeting a fruit quota, not in bearing enough bushels of good fruit in our lives to really prove that it's authentic, but in Jesus Christ who makes us alive in him, though we were once dead in our sins. Good deeds and improved behavior alone, as we've seen in the life of Joash, are not enough to indicate if a person has true and personal faith. Just as faith without works is dead, works without faith is dead as well. There are many people in this world who don't even claim to be Christians and yet do what the world would call wonderful good things for others. And yet, they are dead if they do not have faith, personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If your outward obedience, if you look into your heart this morning, and if you can say that your outward obedience to God's word is rooted in gratitude, out of a personal love for and wholehearted trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, and if that is true, then it will endure. It will outlive your instructors. It will not be easily influenced by the wicked to turn from the Lord your God and from the God of your fathers. And it will endure in the face of the greatest threats of danger. This endurance is not due to a personal strength of the believer. It is not due to the power and potency of our faith, but the power of the God who is at work within us. I focused a lot on Joash so far, and yet Jehoiada, the chief priest, did not only have one pupil, but he had two, two young men that he trained in the ways of the Lord. He instructed Joash, his nephew, in the ways of the Lord, but he also taught his son, Zechariah. When Jehoiada passes away, did Zechariah turn from the Lord? No, he did not. Zechariah did not turn from God, the God of his father, to serve the ashram and the idols. And when Zechariah heard the words of God's prophets, he did not ignore them. When Zechariah faced opposition and his life was threatened, he did not rely on human strength. He did not plunder the temple looking for a bribe to pay off the king who wanted to kill him, but was steadfast in his faith in God. He declared God's word openly and was stoned for it. His actions show that his faith was true. It was personal and it endured to the very end. Why do you live the way that you live? Why do you call yourself a Christian? Why do you come to church today? Why do you care what the Bible says concerning the way that you live? It is not enough to say this is what people like us do. It is not enough to say I was born in America and so I am a Christian. It is not enough to say my grandmother was a Christian and would want me to live like this. It is not enough to say that the Bible teaches many good lessons about how we can live a moral life. Instead, may your answer, may all our answers be this one only acceptable answer for how we live as Christians, because I belong to Him. Christ by His Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. May this be our answer. May our faith be deeply personal in the wonderful love of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for all those who have turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. Though they may have wandered, though they may have never known him, though they may have hated him, we thank you, God, that you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, do not reserve Christianity for those born into Christian homes, for those born into the family of the believers, the body of Christ, but that you call out of darkness even those who do not know you, those who hate you, those who have turned from you. Lord God, we thank you as well. for the way that you bless and continually call many, many covenant children, those born into families within the body of Christ to have a true personal faith. We ask that you would do so for those children gathered here today, that they would turn to you and that their lives would bear witness to a very personal faith in Jesus Christ. Give us all the strength, Lord, to walk in your ways. Teach us the ways in which we should live out of not fear, out of not seeing a way to preserve or save ourselves, but out of love for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and gratitude for your salvation for sinners like us. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.