The sermon by Paul Carrington focuses on King Josiah, an exemplary figure in resisting paganism and apostasy in his time. Josiah became king of Judah at eight years old, during a period of spiritual decline following the reigns of his predecessors, Manasseh and Ammon, who had led the nation into significant moral decay. Despite his young age and the challenging environment, Josiah was influenced positively by his godly mother, which led him to pursue a path of righteousness. He initiated reforms to restore true worship by repairing the temple and eradicating idolatry. A pivotal moment in his reign was the discovery of the Book of the Law, which had been neglected for decades. Upon hearing its words, Josiah's heart was moved to further spiritual reform, emphasizing the importance of the Word of God. He exemplified a heart that was tender and humble before God, striving to align his reign with divine principles. The sermon draws parallels between the societal issues of Josiah's time and those faced today, urging believers to uphold the Word of God and pursue personal and communal reformation. It concludes with a reflection on how Christ, as the ultimate Passover, fulfills what Josiah's reforms could not, highlighting the enduring need for heart transformation and God's grace.

Second Kings, chapter 22, and we're going to be spending our time looking at the life of great King Josiah. And if you recall, we've been spending time going through this series on keeping the heart. We've spent time looking at King Solomon. We've looked at others like Lot, and we've spent some time with good as well as with bad examples that are found in the Word. Well, today we have a good example of a man who kept a heart, but specifically, the question is, how do you keep your heart when there's apostasy and falling away all around you, and when you're opposed on every side?

How do you keep your heart when paganism is on the incline? And what you'll find today is Josiah, King Josiah, lived in a day not altogether unlike our own. And so we're gonna read in 2 Kings 22, the first 10 verses. Second Kings, chapter 22. It's a bit of an angle.

It says, Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedideh, the daughter of Adiah of Boscaf. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Now it came to pass in the 18th year of King Josiah that the king sent Shafon the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, to the house of the Lord saying, go up to Hilkiah the high priest that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the Lord which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people and let them deliver it into the hand of those who do the work doing the work who are the overseers in the house of the Lord.

Let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work to repair the damages of the house, to carpenters and builders and masons, and to buy timber and Hewn stone to repair the house. However, there need be no accounting made with them of the money delivered into their hand because they deal faithfully. Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shafon the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shiphon and he read it. So Shiphon the scribe went to the king bringing the king word saying, your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work who oversee the house of the Lord. Then Shefon the scribe, show the king saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book and Shefon read it before the king.

Well let's pray. Father we do ask you now to open up your word Lord we do so ask you to please give us instruction and help from your word Lord it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And so, Lord, we thank you for providing it. We ask you to open our hearts and our minds, help us to learn of your ways that we might walk more truly before you and to keep our hearts with all diligence. But oh Lord our prayer is may you keep us, may you uphold us and protect us oh Lord.

We need your help now in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Well just by way of a little history you see in that in that first verse that we're looking at a very young man that came to the throne of Judah. He was only eight years old. And if you recall the history of what was going on at that time, the worship of God had really been at its lowest ebb for about 60 years.

His grandfather was a man by the name of King Manasseh. And if you've read the history of the kings of Judah, he reigned for about 55 years. And the things that he did are nearly unspeakable. He spent his almost entire reign reversing the good that his father, King Hezekiah, had put into play. And Second Kings, the chapter previous, has a lot of things to say about Manasseh.

It says that Manasseh shed very much innocent blood till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other. Think of that kind of king. It goes on to say how he even caused his own son to pass through the fire. In other words, child sacrifice. He did that with his own son, obviously a terrible man.

Some say that he was the one that was responsible for the death of the prophet Isaiah, and Isaiah, by history we can we can learn that he was sawn in two. It wasn't just that he was killed quickly, but he was tortured by this king. Well, of course, in his twilight years, he turned to the Lord with his heart, and the Lord forgave him, but there was a lot of damage that was done and after that his son Ammon came to the throne and it says that Ammon did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had humbled himself but Ammon trespassed more and more And you see this downward cascade and one day, one day news spread through the court that little Josiah's father had been murdered. Ammon was killed by his own servants. This was the kind of environment that was around at that time.

And so if ever there was a rain that was doomed from the beginning, you could say it was Josiah's reign. If there was ever such little hope for renewal, it would have been in the time of this little eight-year-old boy coming to the throne. Because almost no one living after 60 years of debauchery had even seen what a godly ruler looked like. It was almost unknown. But the one bright spot, it seems, is that Josiah had a godly mother.

A godly mother. Her name was Judida. We learned that from verse one. And praise the Lord for serious-minded, godly mothers. You know, I was just reflecting on Charles Spurgeon, and toward the very end of his ministry in his 50s an old Charles Spurgeon He reflects on the impact that his mother had on him and you know, he didn't grow up in a Baptist home He had grown up in a non-conformist home, which means they were not Anglican And he says this as he was writing.

He says, I am sure that in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother. How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee and with her arms about my neck prayed, Oh, that my son may live before thee? Nor can her frown be effaced from my memory, that solemn loving frown when she rebuked my budding iniquities. And her smiles have never faded from my recollection, the beaming of her countenance when she rejoiced to see some good thing in me towards the Lord God of Israel. My mother said to me one day, ah Charles, I often pray to the Lord to make you a Christian, but I never asked that you might become a Baptist.

I could not resist the temptation to reply, ah mother, the Lord has answered your prayer with his unusual bounty and given you exceedingly abundantly what you asked or thought. But the lesson here is you young men and young women honor your mother. Honor your mother. Show her love. Say thank you for this quiet work that she's doing in the home day after day, laboring.

In verse two, we find here that this young man he did right what was right in the sight of the Lord and it was 60 years of wickedness and an eight-year-old boy coming to the throne and what happens is this young man, he plants a garden in the ashes of apostasy. He was an outstanding reformer and the very definition of keeping the heart is found in this boy king in this verse right here. Look what it says, He did what was right, number one, in the sight of the Lord. He walked in all the ways of his father, David, number two. And thirdly, he did not turn aside from the right hand or to the left with every temptation to go this way or that he walked straight on.

And that's really the call for each one of us today is to walk in the way of the Lord, to not divert from the left or to the right, but to follow along this path. And then second Chronicles, if you go to second Chronicles, you don't have to go there now, but as you look, it's a parallel account of what happened in the life of Josiah. And it says that when he was 16 years old, look what it says about him. For in the eighth year of his reign, so eight plus eight, while he was still young, he began to seek the Lord. And it doesn't just mean seek casually, but it means to seek with care, to inquire of the God of the father of his father David.

And by the time he was 20 years old, he embarks on this journey. He even goes beyond his jurisdiction, beyond Judah. He goes up to the northern regions to destroy all the idols of the land. He's so zealous for the Lord. He waged war against the paganism that had run amok for decades and decades, spreading like cancer through the whole land.

And something of the same thing you can find in the book of Acts, that when people turn to the Lord with all of their heart, when there's true reformation taking place, you can read about what happened in Ephesus when the Apostle Paul had preached the gospel and the Word of God spread and one of the most amazing accounts is that it says in Acts 19 that many of those who practice magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. Could you imagine this sight in this pagan city, all these people that have come to know the Lord have this massive bonfire and to make it even more impactful the value of all of these books if they were to have a garage sale or post it online, 50, 000 pieces of silver is what it was worth. But they wanted to part with the darkness and this is what happens when people turn to the Lord, even at great expense to themselves. And the testimony of the Book of Acts says as a result of what these people did, so the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. And we should be looking to see how does this relate to my life, these accounts that are lodged in the Word of God, how can I in the same way part with the things that are destructive and embrace the things that are good, that are from God?

Well, in verse 3 in our text, he's now 26 years old, Time is flying and it says, "'Now it came to pass in the 18th year of King Josiah "'that the king sent Shephan the scribe, "'the son of Azaliah, the son of Mesulam "'to the house of the Lord.'" And this is what's happening. He sends this man to the temple after years and years of neglect. And what's happening is they begin, hewn stone gets put up, they begin carpentry, they got masons, all these different men are working to restore what had been lost through all of this neglect. And lo and behold, in the midst of the tidying up and the fixing and the cleaning and all of this stuff, in the midst of all of that, they make the most astounding discovery that among all the ruins maybe strewn aside carelessly or maybe probably more likely intentionally hidden they found the book of the law of the Lord. And in verse 8 it says, then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphon the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.

And he gives it to the scribe and after giving a report of the faithful work that went into repairing the building we read in verse 10 it says then Shafon the scribe sowed the king saying Hilkiah the priest has given me a book if there was ever an understatement it's right here he's given me a book This is the book of the law. This was the only authentic copy of the scriptures at that time, the copy of the Torah, and it was preserved by God. And it says, and Shafon read it before the king. And when we talk about keeping the heart, this is what I want us to see here. Note Josiah's response.

He hears the word of God being read to him for the first time. He had done his best from what he knew, kind of the vague recollections of maybe what he had been able to gather from his mother and other godly people, but the Word of God had been absent for decades. And the first lesson we learn from this heart-keeping King is in verse 11. It says, now it happened when the king heard the words of the book of the law that he tore his clothes. And you notice this tender heartedness that's before God.

And this is something to consider as we hear the word of God week after week. What is our disposition to the Word of God? You know, it's hard to find a man that's more affected by the Word of God in the whole Bible than what you see here. Just let the implications wash over you as you think about this, as you kind of look through Josiah's eyes hearing the Word of God for the very first time he recognized that there's a direct line between the way things were in his culture in his surroundings and the absence of the Word of God. And you can look around in our day as well because apostasy on the one hand and neglect of the Word of God will always go together.

They will always go together. And you can imagine him saying all this time, I've undertaken these great reforms, but how short of God's deserved glory have I fallen? And my people, they know the creeds of Ashtaroth, they know Malak and Kimosh, but they don't know the Word of God. And every man had become a law to himself. Well this is the problem in this day.

And so that's my prayer is that I would be a man, a person more impacted. That's my prayer for all of us, that we would be people more impacted by the Word of God, willing to change, desirous to conform, and seeing God as most worthy and as word, as most holy. Well, you can imagine as he's hearing the book read for the first time, he was struck. You go to Deuteronomy 28 and you see the curses and the blessings. We heard about that from Gerizim and Ebal.

And the people, these are the people calling curses on themselves if they reject the ways of God. And for decades that's exactly what his people have been doing, begging for the judgment of God. You could imagine when the scribe read from Deuteronomy 17 where it was instructed that the king was to write himself a copy of the Word of God, the Word of the Law, which he should read all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord and he had never done it. He had never had a copy of the word of God to do so. Well another lesson from this heart-keeping king that we can learn is that he who trembles before God will not tremble before men.

Josiah's reformation had begun in earnest But now you see a man who doubles all of his efforts here. And it did not go smoothly. And no reformation will ever go smoothly in the sense that it's easy. And to get a sense of the intense religious opposition that Josiah must have faced, not all of it is recorded here, but to get a sense of it, all you need to do is flip open your Bible to the book of Jeremiah, because Jeremiah was a contemporary of Josiah, and if ever a man faced opposition by the religious leaders of his day, it was Jeremiah, whose ministry started in the 13th year of Josiah's reign. And so reformers, whether they're national reformers or church reformers, even family reformers, they're always, always standing in great need of having a high view of the Word of God.

And it was Martin Luther who said, after years of being involved in preaching the Word and the Reformation, he says, I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's Word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And while I slept, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing I let the word do its work For it is almighty and takes captive the hearts. And when the hearts are captured, the work will fall of itself.

Isn't that an amazing perspective? Well, what are we seeing in Josiah but a man who has been captured by the word of God. But he didn't leave it there. He didn't just write a nice, neat, doctrinal statement or something like that, but what the king wanted to do is submit his jurisdiction beneath the true worship of God. And all of us have a jurisdiction, Whether you're a father or you could be a pal, whatever it is, we all have a jurisdiction and that is really one of the main things that we ought to be doing is subduing our jurisdictions beneath the rule of God.

But to do that it meant war in his day. And in verse 13, after hearing God's word for the first time, it says this, go inquire of the Lord for me, says Josiah, for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us." And so he sends word in the next verse to the prophetess and he's asking her what must we do and so Huldah who's the prophetess she confirms that judgment is coming it's just around the corner but the answers it's mixed on the one side this unquenchable judgment that has been aroused because God has seen all that's happened in the reign of Manasseh and Ammon. Sin's been piling up for too, too long. In fact, of the 20 kings that Judah had, only six of them were actually men that upheld the Word of God. And of the kings of Israel, there's not one since the time of the division of the kingdom not one of them followed after God and so this is the the climate that this man was was in and you know I just was I was reflecting even on this past week We just had elections this past week and as one observer recently, he recently shared, he says elections can serve as a barometer of a nation.

And what a commendable thing that many here put forth a valiant effort. But if you look more broadly, you know, where is the heart of America? If you were to look at it honestly, not romantically. Well, one moral issue towers above all the others that are out there right now, and that's the matter of abortion. And the most powerful force in last week's election, many are saying on both sides, was probably abortion.

You know what happened in June, that Roe v. Wade was overturned and handed the decision of abortion back to the states. And one commentator said this at the fall of Roe, awakened people to where the fight for reproductive justice will mainly happen now in the state legislatures. And we don't expect much from states like California or New York, but everywhere that enshrining abortion in the state constitution was on the ballot in the past. Did you know that in Montana, this in a red state or a conservative state, it was a referendum, was rejected to protect the lives of infants that are born alive.

No, we don't think they should be protected, is the state of Montana. Even in conservative Kentucky, they failed to uphold life. And this is what happened here, the left side rejoicing. It's yet another signal that voters in conservative states, who are certainly not necessarily open to voting for Democratic candidates are open to voting for access to abortion when the question is presented to them directly. This is what happened in these states and you know this is the state of the nation.

Look at the state of the nation in Josiah's day. Just two months ago in September, a South Carolina senator thought he had found safe ground by putting forward a 15-week national ban on abortion taking it down from 20 weeks. Let's get it down to 15 but unfortunately 57 percent of Republicans not Democrats 57 percent of Republicans thought this was a step too far, it's a little bit too extreme, we don't want to move too quickly. Let's just stay where we're at, let's stay safe, let's not bring our head up, I think we've got the advantage. This chess playing is not God-honouring.

But this is the state of the nation, The Democrats spent $391 million on abortion-focused ads. Not just on ads, but abortion-focused ads. Almost half a billion dollars. Think of the heart of so many millions that to protect the most important pagan sacrifice think about that that we will overlook devastatingly incompetent leadership people that can barely render a sentence but it doesn't matter we'll overlook that We'll overlook corrupt financial and resource mismanagement. We'll overlook rocketing inflation.

We'll overlook embarrassing scandals. Just don't touch abortion. The age-old sacrifice of every pagan people. You know, I was reading of an old, old commentator. He was writing in 500 AD, not even a believer.

His name is Salvian, but he was able to observe the state of the collapse of Rome, and he said, 1500 years ago, chronicling Rome's end, he said, it is dying, but continues to laugh. That was the state of Rome. So brothers and sisters, may we not be deceived into thinking that righteousness of a bygone era is ours today. We live in a pagan nation. Someone said that elections don't defeat decaying culture.

And that's kind of the state of things today. Unrestrained paganism, It's increasingly the religion of this day. Forget Josiah's day. And so how can a nation stumbling down the path in pitch darkness expect the smile of God? How?

How could we expect God to be happy? Well Josiah didn't. He was someone who recognized that God is a holy and righteous God and that there is a penalty for continued sin. In verse 18 and 20, it says, but this is Holda now speaking to prophetess, but as for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord in this manner you shall speak to him listen to what she says thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they would become a desolation and a curse and you tore your clothes and wept before me. I also have heard you, says the Lord.

Surely therefore I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I shall bring on this place." And so God sees the heart. Isn't that beautiful? And what he sees in Josiah, he sees that it was a heart that was tender. He sees that it was a heart that was humbled. He sees a man that he tore his clothes and he actually wept.

Not because of his own sin, but because he saw the degradation of the glory of God among the people he was living with. In 80 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah, he had wrote, But on this one I will look, on him who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word." Well, that describes Josiah. Would to God it would describe us more and more. Owen, John Owen, he had this to say. He said, a heart full of love of God in Christ is the greatest preservative against the power of temptation in the world.

A heart that is full of love in Christ, it's a great preservative. It doesn't matter what's happening around you, view of Christ within you. And so do you really want to see what's inside this man's heart? All you have to do is you look at the next chapter and we won't go through the whole thing but but what you find in II Kings chapter 23 is this that unlike Hezekiah, he doesn't say well at least judgment is not coming in my day. That wasn't Josiah.

And even though judgment was looming over the people, he just wants God to be worshipped as is God's do. What a heart. He gathers all the leaders of the people and he takes them to the temple. And that's what happens. That's how chapter 23 starts off.

And he himself, he takes the word of God and he reads it. It says he takes the book and reads the book of the covenant. And then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord. He had already gone through the land, he had done a lot already. Now he completely renovates the temple And the catalyst is the word of God.

Look what happens. In verse four, he burns all the idols in the temple. In verse five, he gets rid of all of the idolatrous priests. In verse seven, he destroys the sodomite tents that were in the house of the Lord. Could you imagine a form of worship that involved that kind of, you can't think of a gross or evil, but that's what was happening.

In verse eight, he breaks down all the high places and then finally in verse 10, he completely eradicates child sacrifice from the land. And so if we're going to be a people of repentance, it will require tearing down some of the idols that we have let take up residence in the temple of God, which is our hearts. This is what we're called to do. But equally important, notice it's not only about tearing down. It's not only about that.

It's not only about what you uproot, but also what you plant. It's not only what you tear down, but what you build up. It's not only the negative, but the positive. And in verse 21, it says this, that Josiah calls to the people and the Passover hadn't been kept in decades. The very thing that signaled the identity of the nation, that they had been saved, that they had been called out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

They hadn't done it for decades. And now he says, keep the Passover, in verse 21, to the Lord your God as it is written in the book of the covenant. And it goes on to say that it was a Passover unlike any other that had taken place in history. And so how does God's word describe this God-fearing, God-honoring King? Such a beautiful testimony in verse 25.

It says, now before him, that is before Josiah, there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him. This man with heart religion was acceptable, was pleasing before God. He started well and he ended well. He kept his heart with all diligence. Above all things that he kept, He kept his heart and notice what happens that out of his heart flowed one of the greatest reformations that has ever taken place in history and even when it comes to the time of his death we read in second Chronicles 35 that even Jeremiah lamented this man's death because he had done what God had called him to do.

But it doesn't matter. As God-honouring and as beautiful as this Passover was, the very next verse says that it was insufficient. Verse 26, Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath with which his anger was aroused against Judah because all of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. And it will only be a few short years from this point that Judah and Jerusalem will be entirely overrun under the judgment of God using Nebuchadnezzar as his instrument. He will come and knock on the doors and destroy everything.

Take captive, take all the implements of worship and carry people off to Babylon. One of the saddest accounts or scriptures I've ever found in the Bible is in 2nd Chronicles chapter, I think it's the last, it's 36, and look what it says in verse 15, and the Lord God of their fathers sent warning to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place, but they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and then this, till there was no remedy." And so the best of kings, even after all he had done, even after the most formidable heart effort, was not able to blot out the sins of the people and quench the wrath of God. He was the repairer of the breach and he was the restorer of streets to dwell in, but only for a short time. And so, though he obtained Scripture's highest praise, he did right in the sight of the Lord. It was not enough.

Even he couldn't placate the wrath of God. But fast forward 620 years. We have the testimony of 2 Chronicles saying there was no remedy. But 620 years later, the remedy comes. And this should encourage all of us, not as Americans, but as Christians, not as citizens of national Israel, but those that are of the Israel of God.

And so what this Passover, the greatest Passover in history, what this King, the greatest among the Kings, was not able to do, God did in the sending of his Son, our Passover himself. Think about that for a second. And so this story of good King Josiah, it points to the perfect king, of which he's only just a shadow, and he is Christ, the true repairer of the breach. He is the one who's the true restorer of streets to dwell in, not just a or the reformer but the author and the finisher Josiah presided over the history's greatest Passover but Christ was the Passover himself the sacrifice himself And so here we met with a king who had his heart turned toward God. He waged war against the encroaching paganism of his day and above all things that he kept, he kept his heart and from it flowed one of history's greatest reformations.

And 1st Corinthians 5, I'll just end with this, it says this and it really fits in well with Josiah, it says, therefore because of all that God has done for us, because of all that Christ has accomplished for us. Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord, We call to you here this afternoon, O Lord, we stand as those in great need ourselves of renewal, of hearts inclined towards you. Lord, we pray that you would teach us to keep our hearts and even as the darkness encroaches, Lord, that we would be those who stand upon our watch and are faithful. Lord, we want to please you. We're so weak, Lord. We're sinful.

We falter. We stumble. We get drawn away. We get lured. But Father, we pray that you would draw us back and give us such a sense of the warfare around us that like this good King, Lord, you would look down from your heights and see those that are amidst the darkness willing and desire us of standing for you.

Oh Lord, bless this church. Bless my fellow brothers and sisters. Lord, thank you so much for the work you are doing may you continue it Lord save now we ask in Jesus name amen amen. God bless you I think we're dismissed.