Well, dear friends, now I'd like to turn your very prayerful attention to that passage of God's precious Word that I read to you in your hearing there in the book of 2 Kings, the chapter 22. We continue to make our way through this book of 2 Kings, having gone through 1 Kings and prior books of the Bible, and we're making our way through the Bible over the many years of my ministry. on the Lord's Day mornings, arrived up into this chapter, going through, beginning at Genesis, and it takes a long time, doesn't it, to go just through the Old Testament, let alone the New. In the midweek, we're going through 1 Corinthians, and trusting that we'll know the Lord's help there once again. But here we arrive in this 22nd chapter of 2 Kings, and we thought last week of the ungodly King Manasseh, certainly for much of his reign. He reigned 55 years in Judah and in Jerusalem, the longest reigning king in all of Judah and Jerusalem. And so wicked was he for so many years. He sinned like no other king had ever sinned before. He was worse than Ahab, worse than even Jeroboam, he brought idols, false idols into the temple of God. Furthermore, he had a godly father. How could he do such a thing? How could he do such a thing? Well, he began to reign at age 12. Remember, his father's life was extended 15 years. And during those 15 years, he had a son. The Lord said to his father, put thine house in order. Zechariah was going to die, and then the Lord turned, as it were, back the sun and the sundial and gave him an extra 15 years. And this son was born. One would have thought that he had been thankful, but he wasn't. Well, the Lord, in his mercy, saved this man amazingly. He took him away to the land of the Babylonians by the Assyrians. And well, during his time of reigning, We're told that Manasseh sent his children into the fire. How many children he had, we don't know. But Manasseh died at just age 67. And he had a son. Obviously a son that must have survived the fires. Perhaps one, we don't know exactly how, but he was spared. And the means by which Manasseh returned back from Babylon to Jerusalem, we don't know. But we know this, he cried out unto the Lord whilst he was in prison. We're told that the Lord heard his voice and brought him back. And he got rid of all the false worship, all the idle worship. Well, soon he died. And his son reigned in his stead. Remember him, Amnon. And well, he wasn't a good king. One would have thought that after all that had happened to his father, and it seems the conversion of his father, that he would have been a God-fearer. And one would have thought Judah would have repented of all of her sins. But that had no effect. And we're reminded there again that salvation is of the Lord, and not a single person's can change another man's heart. It's the work of sovereign grace. A man has to be born again, otherwise he will not see the kingdom of heaven. Man has to be changed. God does that supernatural work, doesn't he? God didn't do it in the son of Hezekiah's son, Amnon. He was a man who didn't seek the Lord. And we thought last week Just concerning Manasseh, we made the observation that 2 Kings doesn't record his conversion experience, doesn't record his repentance toward God and faith. And it says there that he knew that the Lord was God. And the turn of his life shows that it seems in all likelihood this was a truly saved man. But 2 Kings didn't record his conversion. Second Chronicles 33 does, and that's primarily because the book of Chronicles deals more with the lives of men than the nation. But here, Second Kings, God is dealing more and teaching us about the nation. And here we observe that the nation still doesn't change. One would have thought, as we remarked, that the people might have changed. No, they carried on in their wickedness, despite this dramatic change in Manasseh. And then, as I said, his son began to reign in his stead. Notice verse 20 there of that chapter. So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And Anon his son reigned in his stead. Now his son didn't reign very long, just two years. We're told in 2 Kings 21.19, Amnon was 20 and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And when he was murdered, we're told that his servants conspired against him and slew him in his own house. Well, of course, that was of the Lord, wasn't it? And any protection that we ever have is from the Lord, and just as well that the Lord took Amnon. because it would have got worse. He was evil. Well, the nation hasn't changed. Hezekiah's son wasn't changed. Salvation, we're being reminded here, when you compare, you put second Kings alongside, Chronicles, God is saying to us that salvation, my friends, is personal. That's how I would put it to you today. God deals with individuals. And the question is, has God dealt with you? You come under God's word, you hear it, but are you receptive to it? A man is still accountable for his sin, although salvation is a sovereign thing and it's personal, men are still accountable for their sin. A saved father, children, doesn't mean you will be saved. The Bible tells you and it tells me to seek the Lord Salvation is not automatic because you're born into a Christian home. But seek the Lord while he may be found. Why? Because there's a day of reckoning. It's appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. So we're told, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And the many will come and they will repent just like Manasseh and believe upon him no matter how great the sin is. All that come unto God through Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus said, he will not cast out. He died for his sinners. He died for his people. And they can trust in him. How wicked was Manasseh, the wickedest of all kings. And for so long, and yet the Lord mercifully dealt with him. What a lesson that is. What an encouragement that is to us, isn't it? The violence of sinners, who truly believes, my friend, can trust in Christ that those sins were dealt with at the cross. He bore the sins of his sheep and his sheep will come and they will hear and they will believe. It's not about works, but it is about God's grace. Now it seems as we come to this chapter that Judah has passed the Rubicon. Now you know that little phrase, the Rubicon, what it means. the crossing of the Rubicon. It's an idiom or a phrase that really means people have passed a point of no return. When Julius Caesar crossed the river, it was as it were a point of no return. He started that war, that civil war in Rome, and there was a point of no return. And so it is now. Judah is headed on a course of God's judgment. We read, do you remember last week, look at chapter 21, verse 11. The word that came to Manasseh, and despite Manasseh's sin and despite the fact that he was forgiven, the nation was still culpable for their sins, weren't they? They could have stood up to Manasseh and said, Manasseh, this is wrong, because this is a sin against God. But they failed to do that. And the word of the Lord came, verse Chapter 21, because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, and were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, behold, I am bringing such an evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, because Samaria now, Israel and the north have been judged. And they have been dispersed into foreign lands, sent into foreign cities. And the plummet of the house of Ahab. This is language to convey God's judgment. Remember how Ahab's house was completely destroyed. Samaria now cast into the nations of the world. and the Assyrians inhabiting Israel in the north. Now, it's no longer Israel. The tribes have been lost. And I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So God has said, these things will come now. Not only because of Manasseh's sins, and of course Manasseh's forgiven, but Judah persists in her sin. And yet God is preserving Judah until, of course, Christ is to come. Christ must come. That's the whole lesson. And he now will, after Manasseh's son, Amnon, God will raise up another king. And yet, Judah yet is still to be judged, and she will be sent for 70 years into Babylon, into exile. As we come to this passage here, there are several things that I want us to notice. We notice in verse one, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 31 years old, years in Jerusalem. So eight and 31 is 39 years. So not long, but a short reign, short life, but he was a godly king. can say many things about him. Now, if you turn to 1 Kings chapter 13, what's very interesting is that there in 1 Kings 13, 300 years, and this is the amazing thing, God's word is nothing like it in all the world. Nothing like God's word in all the world. Between 250, say, 270 years, some suggest a little bit longer, this very young man is named by name. And the work that he's going to do is named. And this is during the days of King Jeroboam. The split of the two kingdoms, Israel in the north, Judah in the south. And then now you've got Jeroboam in the north, the king of Israel, offering up sacrifices on an altar that he has constructed at Bethel. And there was calf worship and all kinds of things going on. And a prophet was sent to Bethel from Judah. and to pronounce something that would happen centuries to come, almost 300 years into the future. Now notice 1 Kings 13, 1, and behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense, and he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord. And said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name. And upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burnt incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day. This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent. and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. And that happened that day. Here's this prophet, he comes and he pronounces that one day the priests that offered up offering on this altar of Jeroboam, these shall be burnt. And men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. And there would be this judgment of the Lord that would come And it'll be in time, and God here names this king, Josiah by name. And we have it in, it'll be in the next chapters that we read on about this occasion. And God gave a sign this day. We know from that chapter, remember how God, as Jeroboam was speaking, God rent the altar, it was broken. And the ashes came out. And then Jeroboam went to try to rebuke the prophet, and his arm was frozen midair. Then he had to pray. The prophet prayed for him so that he could move his hand again. And yet he was so stiff-necked, so hardened in his spirit, that he persisted in that sin, the sin of Jeroboam, which perpetuated through the centuries. And now this young king has arrived on the scene, nearly 300 years, down the line. And you will see in the subsequent chapters the answer that God predicts the future, my friend. He determines the future. And here we have a godly life. In contrast to Amnon, his father, what a difference. And it shows, you see, somebody can come from a most ungodly family and the Lord can save. But also somebody can come from a godly family. and be utterly lost. It's a solemn thing. You, as I must, search the heart today and see if we be right with the Lord. Don't trust in family line. Grace doesn't run through the family. But it's the gift of God. It's the gift of God. Now, we're going to be taken up with this little theme. We have a description of Josiah here. If you look at verse 25 of chapter 23, it says, chapter 23, and like unto him, there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses. Neither after him arose there any like him. He stands out there in chapter 23 verse 25 as one who we ought to stop and take notice of very much this morning. We have many lessons to learn. Now, one of the themes, you look at chapter 22 here in verse 19, the Lord says to young Josiah here, and he's just a young man when he says this, because thine heart was tender, And thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou hearest what I spake against this place, that's Jerusalem and Judah, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and as rent thy clothes. That's what he did. When he heard the word of God, he tore his clothes and wept before me. I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. And we're told, that he will not see these things with his own eyes. And because of this, the Lord will spare him from the evil that is yet to come. Because of his sincerity, the Lord will spare him. So that's the, we could say, the overarching lesson of this chapter. And we must ask ourselves today, are we like Josiah? Are we Are our hearts tender before God? His word. When God's word comes to us, is our heart hard to God's word or is it tender? Josiah's heart was tender to the word of God. The Lord has said in his word, on this one will I look, he that is of a broken heart and a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word. We're sensitive to it, and we feel it, and we feel our sin, and we feel the sin of our nation, and even of the church. And we do not despise the Word of God, but we are humbled by it. Now, again, despite the tenderheartedness of Josiah, and the zeal that he has, as we will think here this morning, for the Lord, the nation Judah, was so wicked and so corrupt that God's judgment was still sure to come. Why? Because they had passed, as it were, the Rubicon, as I said. And it's a lesson that not even godly King Josiah Not even that. Not even a godly king from his youth, as we will think this morning, from the age of eight years old. And we will read this morning a few things about him, when he began to really seek the Lord. We'll have to look at 2 Chronicles. Despite that, not even Josiah could turn the nation. Josiah couldn't turn the nation. He brought reforms. And we might have a great influence, but you can't change men's hearts. Now that's not to say we should be zealous for good works, but it's a humbling thing, isn't it? And it ought to remind us that while we are to do good and to serve our generation, it's only the Lord that can change men's hearts. I bring you with these solemn truths before these things this morning. Firstly, in verses one to seven, we have Josiah's zeal for the Lord. Look at verse one. Josiah, it says, was eight years old when he began to reign. His father died very young. He was just 24 years of age, and I've worked that out through looking at the previous passage and the various things. His father was 22 years old. Look at chapter 21, verse 19. Amnon was 20 and 2 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 2 years. So he died at 24. His father was young. And well, he must have had him very young, indeed. And you notice verse 1b here concerning Josiah. And he reigned 30 and 1 years in Jerusalem. That is, starting at the age of eight. And his mother's name was Jedidiah, the daughter of Adiai, of Buscath, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Now if you turn to 2 Chronicles 34, you notice there in 2 Chronicles 34, an important thing. In what year did he seek the Lord? He was eight years old. And verse one, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and 30 years, and did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. Now notice verse three and four, in the eighth year of his reign, so how old would he be then? He'd be 16 years old, still young. While he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David, his father. Some young people here, how old are you? I don't know. You don't need to tell me. This young man was 16 years old and he began to seek the Lord. You may not live to 16. You may not even live to six. All have sinned. All have come short of the glory of God. But Josiah, 16 years old. Now notice, at 20 years old, what he does, and he began to seek after God, David his father, and in the 12th year, that would be when he is 20 years old, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places. Can you see the zeal of this young man, just 20 years old? My, he puts some of us to shame, who are double his age. Where is our zeal? The Lord Jesus, his heart was filled with zeal for the house of God. There's the ultimate example. My father's house is to be a house of prayer. And we are to be men and women and children who seek the Lord. This young man, he's amazing really. After even having a wicked father, he doesn't blame his, father or his family or anything, but he seeks the Lord. He began to seek the Lord and to serve the Lord. And it says he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved images and the molten images. His father brought all these things back. His grandfather got rid of them. He was a man determined to serve the Lord. And in verse 3 to 7, I won't read those verses, but if you look at those verses, we read them earlier, we see he restores the temple, the house of God. He sends carpenters and silversmiths and workers of gold and makes all these reparations. It seems that it was in such a dilapidated state and it was a mess. And we find that even here, the book of the law was somehow lost in the temple. It's a strange thing. You can imagine the dust everywhere and things are not being done right. Now, the book of the law was meant to be put, there was the tables of the law that were inside the ark, the second making of that, remember? But then there was also to be a copy of the law to be put aside inside the temple. And that had gone missing. for many a year, and it's found. We'll come to that in just a moment. But all these things are done faithfully. The money is collected here, but in recent times the temple tax wasn't collected. But here the workers, they're working hard and there's no requiting of their work at their hands because it says they dealt faithfully. And so there was a zeal, and he inspired others. We can inspire others to be faithful. And there were others that were being inspired by him. So the workers were faithful. There was no need to double check. Everything was done right, repairing of the house. As I said, if you look at verse eight, the law is found in God's house. I just wish to make a comment here. The book of the law would not have been found had he not have issued the reparation work. You see, he's seeking, as it were, to put the house in order. He's taking care of the business. He's looking after the temple, and what is found is that which is most precious, the word of God. It was lost, but now it's found, and it will come, and it will bring a blessing. Notice in verse eight, Hilka, the priest, said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And this, by the way, is when they're making all the reparations. There's things everywhere, and now things are being tidied up, and things are being put in order. And Hilka gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought the king word again and said, thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it unto the hand of them that do the work, that have oversight of the house of the Lord. See, because it's all in order, and the book is found. As a result of all this work and reparation that has been undertaken, God's Word's been found, the most precious thing. Well, Chafan the scribe, look at verse 10, he shows the king, he shows Josiah saying, Hilkar the priest had delivered me a book. It's not just a book, it is the law. And Shaphan read it before the king. How wonderful that must have been. How long must it have been lost for? Sad, isn't it, to think? Oh, my friend, what about you? Has your Bible been hidden in your home this last week? Have you been reading it? Is it gathering dust? Is it being neglected? It had been neglected here for so long. This is tragic. But look at the result of the reading of the word, verse 11. And it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes. Now again, this is because Josiah has been concerned about the Lord's house. The book's been found, now the book is read to him, and his heart, as it were, this is an expression of the heart, his heart is broken. And there's a lament over sin. And my friends, that will always be the case when we read God's word. Because the law, the Bible says, for by the law cometh the knowledge of sin. When we read the Bible, we see exactly that we're sinners. You know, we forget so quickly, don't we? We think we're relatively good. until we start to read into the perfect law of liberty, until we come to God's Word, and we see the book of God's Word is like a mirror, and it exposes our hearts, and exposed to Josiah was the state and the condition of Judah, and he was grieved. Well, I wonder if he had read that place. You know, this afternoon, if you have time, do go and read Deuteronomy chapter 28. How God had said he would bring woe upon woe upon the people if they forsook his law. How he would bring in the enemies, how he would bring sicknesses, how he would cast them into foreign lands. And now he's thinking, what is God going to do to us? We're doomed. Well, the law was meant to be read to the people, at least at the three main feasts. It was there, as I said, to be kept alongside the ark. There was not only the tables of stone, but there was a copy of the law. When I say the law, we mean Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch. That was to be read. know that in the days of Nehemiah the law was read. There in Deuteronomy 31 we read, And it came to pass when Moses had made an end of the writing of the words of the law in a book, in a book, you see, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, Deuteronomy 31, 24, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. that it may be there for a witness against thee. And the priests were to read the law to the people. It was to be kept there in the holy place, and whenever the reading was to be given, it was to be taken out and to be brought and to be read before the people. But how long had this been neglected, misplaced? Our friends, the Bible ought to always be before us. because God reveals to us truth. He shows us the state of this world, the state of our hearts, and our need for Christ. Well, it was the repairs, wasn't it, that led to the rediscovery of it? And you know, we find in our lives as Christians, when we start to do things right, the Lord brings other things. I don't know, maybe, let me use an illustration. Sometimes you lose something, you lose your keys, and you think, well, hold on a minute, how am I going to find it all with this mess? And you start tidying up. Eventually you find it, don't you? You start tidying up. You put things in order. And this is what you've got to do in your life. You've got to put the first things first. The house of God. The Bible tells us, my friends, Hebrews 10, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves. Why? Because this is where the Word of God is preached. but exhort one another all the more as you see the day appearing, the Lord's day. It's not the day of judgment because nobody knows when it's going to appear. It's the Lord's day. And every time we have an opportunity to gather together, let us meet. Because this is where we'll find the treasures of God. We'll find precious truths. And here, Josiah, the word is read, and his heart is rent and he rends his garments. Well, the judgments God had said were going to be severe to those who didn't obey. Well, he does this and this is so different to kings who would be in the future. Just before, if you just turn to Jeremiah 36, we have King Jehoiakim just before the siege of Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day. We read what the king did then when the law came to him. It says there in Jeremiah 36, 22, now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife. and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words. So they heard the word of God, and what did he do as a response? He took a penknife and cut it and put it in the fire. But if you look at verse 28, God says again to the prophet, take thee again another role. God's word is being sent out again to him. Write it all in the form of words which were in the first role. In other words, the same message, which Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, hath burned. And thou shalt say unto Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord. Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy his land. Now you read on, God says, You might have thrown my word in the fire, but it'll come to pass. Don't despise God's word. You might not like to hear it, But my friend, God's word will be fulfilled. Every word. Not one jot nor one tittle, we are told, will pass from the law until Christ comes. And that's a solemn thing. That's why it's so important for you and I to pay attention to God's word. Old and New Testament, it's one word, it's God's word. So different to the response, wasn't it, to the king Jehoakim later on. Now, notice the king's concern, verse 12 to 16, over the judgment. What can be done? So what does the king do? He sends for a prophetess. And we read her name here, this prophetess. Verse 12, and the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and Ahikim, the son of Jehoam, and Jackbor, the son of Mirchiah, and Shapam, the scribe, and Asher, the servant of the kings, saying, Go ye and inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book, which is found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us. And of course, of the ongoing sin of idolatry in the land and the people. He was grieved at the prospect And notice, what does he do? He sends for this prophetess. Verse 14, So Hilka, the priest, and so on, and Ahakam, the Akbor, and Shafan went unto Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of Shalom, and so on. And her father here, the keeper of the wardrobe. This is perhaps suggested that her father kept the garments, keeper of the wardrobe. And it says now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college. In the margin there you'll see in the TBS, perhaps means the suburbs of Jerusalem. She lived on the outskirts. And so they go to her. Now, this needs to be said. The prophetesses, whether in the Old or even New Testament, when they gave the word it was never never in the temple. It's an important lesson. The prophetess mentioned here, you notice, had no part in worship whatsoever. She was a woman like Deborah. We're told that Deborah dwelt under the palm tree, Judges 4-4. These women, as is the teaching in the New Testament, are to be silent in the public worship. This is a private encounter with this prophetess and that needs to be said today. You know, there's this false teaching that the prophetess is taught and did things public. No, you won't find that. Read the context. Study the passages carefully. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, 34, that your woman keeps silence in the churches. It's not that women are less. But there is a, as we've been thinking in 1 Corinthians, there's a proper order. And things are to be conducted in the right way. And so you find here that the messengers are sent to hold her. They don't invite her into the temple. It's the same in the New Testament. We have Philip's daughters. Some suggest that they were prophetesses in the sense not of, when it says they prophesied, not praising their, because of those words of Joel, that was private. It wasn't public. It wasn't in the temple, even in the New Testament. Well, notice what the message from the Lord is. And the message is very clear. She speaks and tells them that this spells trouble. What does this mean? His heart is grieved. He's heard the law. And she said unto them, verse 15, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense. unto their gods, other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore, my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched." In other words, God is threatening now this judgment. It is surely going to come to pass. It's too late. Now, one of the lessons we derive is it was not in the power of Josiah to save Judah. He could do nothing. and he has to leave it to the Lord. The Lord has determined it. And God will use the time, even when Judah are sent into Babylon, as a sifting between those who are the Lord's and not, because many people will go into Babylon and not want to come out, because they're basically worldlings. Those who love the Lord were the remnant, and they went back, and they took precious seed with them. And they were going back to fields that had been burnt. They'd be going back to Jerusalem where their houses were set alight and burnt to dust to the ground. But they were going back in hope because God said that he would build a city again. And God did. Because the King must come. Jesus Christ must come. Now, notice fifthly, the Lord's favor toward Josiah. to the king, and this is the message from the prophetess, to the king of Judah, which sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, that's Josiah, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words which thou hast heard, this is where I want us to pick up, because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest while I spake against this place, and so on, and the inhabitants thereof. Notice that they should become a desolation and a curse, and as rent thy clothes, and are wet before me, I also have heard thee saith the Lord. Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers." In other words, you're going to be buried with your fathers. and shall be gathered unto thy grave in peace. So it's not going to be a time of war, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again. Now it's interesting. Josiah is spared in seeing this destruction in Jerusalem and Judah. But if you just turn just a couple of chapters ahead, this is very striking. to Zedekiah, who would be the last king of Judah. What would happen to him? 2 Kings 25.6. So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon, to Riblah. And they gave judgment upon him. This is the king of Judah now, the last king. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon." Isn't that striking? This last king of Judah saw the destruction, and he saw his very own sons slain before his eyes. And then, what did they do? They pulled out his eyes. They cut his eyes out, so the last thing that he saw were his dead sons. Is that not solemn? Now who did this? Men did it. But you see, God allowed men to do it because of their sin. It's the wickedness of men's hearts that did this. What is God doing? He's saying, well, I'll leave you in the hands of your enemies then. We'll see what the world thinks of you, and we'll see how the world treats you. You don't trust in me, you don't trust in my law, I'll leave you to the world. And that's exactly what happened. God ordained it. He didn't just permit it, but he ordained it. This is the wickedness of men's hearts, but it's the judgment of God at the same time. It's a very solemn thing, isn't it? Now you think of the mercy shown here to Josiah. This would not be for Josiah. because his heart was tender toward the Lord and the Lord's word. You know what God says in his word, Proverbs 8, I love them that love me. And those that seek me early shall find me. Christ is wisdom. And he loves them that love him. Do you love Christ? And he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And if you keep his commandments, good will come to you. He'll protect you. He protected Josiah. He'll protect you. And God's children will always heed that warning. We asked this morning, are you tender toward the Lord's word? When God's word comes, do you have one of these hearts that's always wrestling against God's word? That's not a good spirit, my friend. When God's word comes, We should be smitten in our hearts and we should feel our guilt and we should repent from our ways and do what God has said for the glory of his name and for the good of our souls. How good is God? There is Josiah repairing the temple and putting everything in order, but God gives him something far better than all those things. He gives the word. And the word comes and it smites Josiah. And the Lord comes and he says, because you trembled, because you were humbled at my word, I'll keep you. I'll keep you and I'll bless you. It's the same for us today. You keep God's word. We sang there, didn't we? The psalmist, how sweet the word is to the psalmist, how sweet it ought to be to us, especially Jesus Christ. My friend, is Christ not sweet to you? He ought to be, because he is the word made flesh. and who lived for us, the one who spoke the heavens and the earth into its very existence and then he came, the word that was made flesh, lived for us and then died for us and went to the cross and bore our sins. Should we not give him our life? Should we not give him everything? We should do. God says, on this one will I look, he that is of a broken heart. and a contrite spirit, and that trembles at my word." Josiah's heart was tender toward the word of God, and therefore he was spared from seeing Jerusalem's destruction. And I'll tell you this, if our hearts are tender toward the word of God, we will be spared, my friends, from the world's destruction. we will be spared from many sins in our life. Will we not, it is by the word as we sang in that Psalm 119, thy word is a lamp to my feet. My friend, it's not a word that we debate. It's not a word, you know, when we come to the pulpit here, I don't need to debate the veracity of God's word. I don't need to debate whether it's right or wrong. I just need to declare it as As Schaffan came, and as the others came, they declared the word of... You don't find Josiah, despite all the bad news, you don't find him saying what he can't be. You don't hear him saying, well, maybe God's got it wrong. God's always right. God is always right. And you know, He'll do us good, friends. He'll do us good. We need to just submit ourselves to the Word of God. Trust not in your understanding or your heart because thy heart was tender and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord when thou hearest what I spake against this place. The Lord will bless the humble soul. The Lord says, blessed are the pure in heart. for they shall see God. God says, break up your fellow ground, and sow not amongst thorns. Break up the fellow heart, have a tender heart, like Josiah. Well, we'll see in the subsequent chapters that even despite hearing this news, that prophecy as we read there from 1 Kings, how He did this tremendous work, even knowing the judgment that would come. It seemed to spur him on all the more to do it for God's glory. And he did. Despite the judgment that was coming, you'll see in the next chapter, he still went about the work of reformation. And thank God for that. That's what we need. We need a mighty revival, friends. God is coming to judge, the world is going to be destroyed, but the Lord still has people to save. And you know, we're not all doom and gloom. The fact is, not one of the elect will be lost. The Lamb is all the glory. He said, all that the Father's given me shall come to me. It is a wicked world, but God has his word. And he has said to his preachers, preach the word. Nowhere do we find in the New Testament, ask for signs, ask for miracles, cast out demons, all this rubbish you've got today. Preach the word. In season, out of season. And God will be glorified. Amen.