The Not In Time King

Dear Father, God, there are times when you raise up

leaders who look like failures in their generation, but who

without them we wouldn't be here. Father, May we learn

to follow the right kind of example in our lives.

And I speak to the men of this church especially today.

May they be men of courage, strong masculine in the

Holy Spirit, to uphold this church, to advance its cause

and mission it. May there be a generation of men

for God and Lord. I care about the young girls too, Yes,

but today we're talking about Josiah, who was a boy

at the age of eight, who used his manhood for you.

Help us to gain all the lessons we need more

profoundly in Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the message

this morning is the not in Time King. There are

leaders who come into a time to make a difference

in their time, but who come too late to realize

their true potential. Josiah was the not in time king

who arrived too late to save the nation of Judah.

He came too late to turn the tide of a

nation that was in rebellion. Leaders are not men who

live unto themselves. Leaders lead men and women who themselves

make decisions for good or evil leaders are people highly

dependent upon the integrity of the good people they lead

to fulfill their mission, whether.

It be good or bad.

The outcome is not just depend upon the leader. It

has a lot to do with the people that are led.

King Josiah was a tragic figure in the history of

the kings of Judah. He came to the throne after

his wicked father Amon wrecked the kingdom, but doing what

his fathers did over and over again, they just kept

the standard low. They did not do what was right,

and they wrecked the kingdom. Ammin was twenty two years

old when he became king. Ammon's name in Hebrew means

master workmen. In fact, it's a name given for Jesus

in Proverbs eight thirty the amone, the master workman, the

carpenter who built the universe.

It's a word that means you can build up the

things of God. Amen.

Paradoxically, his name means master workmen. But he tore down

the Church, he tore down the nation of Israel. The

Bible says that I'man walked in all the ways of

his evil father. Manassa Aman only reigned two years before

he died. He acted wickedly. He worshiped idols because the

people hated him. Finally, a coup took him out and

he died. He was murdered. Most often, children repeat the

mistakes of their parents, but not always. For some reason

we don't fully understand it. Josiah turned his back on

his bad background, his father's failed legacy, to become a

different kind of man. He looked into the mirror of

his mind, and he made a choice for himself and

for others to be a good man in the future.

Even as a boy, he made that decision, I'm going

to be different.

Than my dad.

No sooner had they buried his evil father, Ammon in

the garden of King Uzza, who had profaned the temple

by usurping the role of a priest by bringing the

censer into the sanctuary by saying, Hey, I'm a king,

but I'm going to be priest too, And God said no,

struck him with leprosy. That's where they buried this man.

But little eight year old Josiah became king, and something

clicked in his little childlike mind that was profoundly beautiful.

He figured out that I can live for God right now,

and I can keep on living for God. You know

if you do the math. His father, Ammon, was just

sixteen when Josiah was. His father had barely become a

man when he was murdered in his house. Perhaps Josiah

was there when he saw his father taken out, And

what would that do to a child? We call it

deep childhood trauma. He was wrecked as a child emotionally.

His father died in his own house. Josiah was only

a boy when he became a king, but he was

a different kind of boy. Look at second King's twenty

one Verses one and two. Josiah was eight years old

and begin to reign. He reigned thirty one years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Jedidah Jedidah, the daughter of Adiah

of bos cath And he did what was right in

the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the

way of David, his father. And he did not turn

aside to the right hand or to the left. Josiah's

father died young, at the age of twenty four. Josiah

would live to be thirty nine years of age. And

even though he lived longer than Aim and Josiah died

at the prime of his life, full of energy, full

of promise. He never entered the golden years. Josiah's mother's

name was Jedidah, which means beloved or just plain love.

In Hebrew, it could be translated. Her mother's name was Adaiah,

which means the ornament of the Lord. Instead of focusing

on the ornaments you wear. She became an ornament for

the Lord, and she was born in Bosscat, which means

stony ground. Adiah's proof that people can come from stony

ground kind of places that are bad and be beautiful

for the Lord by the choices they make. Love in

choosing to make oneself an ornament of the Lord as

a way of overcoming evil in child's life, Josiah became

the legacy of his mother's love and his grandmother's godlike character.

Do women matter in the church? Do godly mother's matter? Absolutely?

The woman named Love was married to the evil king

named Emmon, and somehow love overcame evil and just Siah's life.

Love had the greater impact on the boy Josiah, who

had become king after the hateful men. Those hateful men

killed his father in his house. Josiah's name in Hebrew

literally means the despair of the Lord. I've done etymological

work on that. I went to Abraham Dash Publications. They

have an excellent article on that. Commentators have tried to

smooth it out, but that's what it means, the despair

of the Lord. Why the evil king Am and his

father named Josiah as if he were he was a

sad mistake of an irritated and frustrated Lord.

That he was ashamed of. His name was a put.

Down for God that he didn't want to have, and

proof that Am and his father despised the Lord. Yeahweh

the despair of the Lord. He named him the most

negative thing he could. Bible commentators and others have tried

to make his you know, think about why he was

born when he was sixteen. It could be that he

was frustrated that he had to be a father at

that such a young age. Whatever it is, he tried

to tag his son with that negative name, the despair

of the Lord. Bible commentators and others have tried to

make his name mean something more positive.

It simply means the despair of the Lord.

The truth of the meaning of his name speaks volumes

here in this unusual narrative. Josiah had a name kind

of like the name Abel. Abel's name means vanity or

missed in Hebrew. Josiah's evil father named him the despair

of the Lord because Ammine had tagged him as God's mistake,

God's mistake the boy with a bad name. Early on

demonstrated that bad father and a bad name cannot make

you a bad person, because you can make a choice

to follow the Lord when all the things are stacked

against you, when your background is bad, when your personal

feelings are off the mark, when your father is a

failed father figure, when you have no one to look

to as a role model, you can look to God

Almighty as your role model and the one who will

give you a future. Josiah drew a line in the

stand and says, I'm going to be different than my father.

Verse two says this of Josiah, as soon as I

turned my page verse two second King seventeen two, and

he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,

and walked in all the way of David's father.

And he did not turn aside.

What does the Bible say to the right or to

the left?

Did you get that with it? All of us, in every.

Generation was smitten with Josiah's good attitude toward God. I mean,

to do what is right in the eyes of the

Lord means you must understand that God is watching over

you and that you must live responsibly in light of

His presence in your life. Friend, when we sin, when

we fail, when we drift from the Lord, it's when

we feel He's not looking at us, He's not there

in the room. Josiah, like Joseph, God had sensed that

God's presence is in his life, that God us everywhere.

What is life eternal? That that we might know God and

his only son, Jesus Christ. When God is present in

our lives and we don't have the blinders on, it

is easy.

Err In fact, yeah, it is joyful to do the

will of the Lord.

To do what is right in the eyes of the

Lord means you must understand that God is watching over you,

that you must live responsibly, that you are His child.

The eyes of the Lord are identified as the Holy

Spirit eyes in many places in the Bible. The eyes

of the Lord, the seven Eyes, roam throughout the earth.

Why are there.

Seven eyes in Zachari in Revelation seven spirits of God?

Because God sees north south east.

West for directions right up, down, five six, What is

direction number seven? Inside the eyes of the Lord see everything.

Josiah walked in the ways of King David because Josiah

reached way back.

Into time for a role model in his life.

When he couldn't find a good one in his father,

when he couldn't find one that was really great in

his time, he went back and he idolized his great

great grandfather David. Josiah was not a liberal or a conservative.

Some people say, well, I'm a conservative, as if somehow

that makes you a Christian. Others will say, well, I'm liberal,

that makes you a Christian.

Now.

He didn't turn to the right or the left. He

turned to God in his life.

You hear me.

He didn't find who he is not by the groups,

but by God's word, by God's calling, by the Holy

Spirit in him. The Bible says he did not turn

either way. And Josiah as he turned to God wide

because he felt the God were tug in his life

to come into relationship with God. Josiah landed in the

right place in his life at the age of eight,

and his life was propelled into a crisis because he

was God's man for the time. When Josiah turned eighteen,

dramatic changes begin to happen for both Josiah and the kingdom.

Let's look at them. Turn to Second Kings eight verse three.

Let's go down to versay in our Bibles in the

eighteenth year of King Josiah. The king sin Chaffon the

son of Azaleah, the son of Mashulam, the secretary to

the House of the Lord, saying, go up to Holkiah,

the high priest, that he may reckon the amount of

the money which has been brought into the house of

the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected

from the people, And let it be given into the

hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the

house of the Lord. And let them give it for

the workmen who are at the house of the Lord

preparing repairing the house, that is, to the carpenters, to

the builders, to the masons, as well as for buying

timber and quarried.

Stone to repair the house.

But no accounting shoauld be asked from them for the

money which is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.

Amazing statement here Josiah stimulated the economy by inspiring and

renovation of the House of the Lord. Now Josiah was

not accepting to come to church and to see that

there weren't enough deacons running around, that no one had

shoveled the snow, that somehow the lights were falling out

because no one was taking care of him. He looked

at the cracks in the wall and he says, I

am going to fix the house of the Lords. If

it's God's house, we better take care of God's house.

He pumps some money into honest men to beautify the

house of God. The House of God had fallen in

disrepair because of the laziness, unbelief, in ignorance of Manassa,

his grandfather and Aim and his father. As a rule,

evil men do not advance the work of God because

evil men do not care about the House of God.

They don't care about the church. They have their own agendas.

Good men care about God's House, God's Church. They're there

to make a difference. They're there to pitch in and

make it happen. Josiah chose leaders and workmen he could trust,

and he empowered them do a great work in their

time for God and verse eight. The high priest Tikiah

made a discovery and reported it to Chaffon the Secretary

verse eight. And Helkiah the high priest said the Chiffon

the Secretary, I have found the Book of the Law

in the house of the Lord. And Helkia gave the

book to Chaffon and he read it. What's that doing

in the story? Why is that a significant line here?

I'll tell you why it is. Friends, no major movement

happens for God's will unless the Bible his word is

interacting with human lives. We are not to be the

people of who follow philosopher kings, who come up with

all these new theories on how the church should grow

or not. Sometimes it's better to grow down and get

right with God and to grow up and look like

you are right, but you aren't.

We need the Bible.

And here is this seminal moment in their history when

they find the Book of the Law of God in

the house of the Lord. Hebrew means the portion of

the Lord. Yeahweh Chaffon's name, and Hebrew means to hide.

It's a paradox.

Kiah gave to the man named to hide the Book

of the Law that had just been hidden for fifty

seven years, but now found was hid since the time

of Hezekiah. And whenever the Bible is discovered and treasured

in any age, friends, there is a revolution and a

renovation in the lives of men and women who seek

God through prayer and study of the Bible. You cannot

hide forever the Bible's power from future generations. We've had

a generation in the Seventh Aventist Church that hid the

Bible from the children of the next generation. It's a

fact that watered down its truths, that did not articulate

its prophetic impact to this generation. And we have a

good generation that followed them, but they must rediscover like

Josiah did, the message that gave rise to this movement.

Why we are here, I'll tell you right now.

I would not be a Seventh day Adventist minister today

if this movement was not the people of the Bible.

Our only creed is the Bible. We stand or fall in.

The Bible is God's revelation of Jesus to us.

The Bible.

I am not ashamed of the Bible, because I'm not

ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God

and the salvation everyone to believe, and we learn about

it through our Bible.

Cannot hide the Bible forever.

There are always people who appear in bad times who

think they are smarter than the Bible. I've seen them there,

philosopher kings, they come along. I heard one person say,

not too long ago, you know, we finally figured out

the Gospel. We have it now figured out. No one

else has before we did. I go, my goodness, you're arrogant.

Well haven't you ever heard of the term the everlasting Gospel?

It was the first Angel's message. It's not new with you, heclaimed. Well,

you know, but we have a model now of the

Gospel that's based on the love of God and the

revelation the love of God. And there's no place for

Jesus dying for our sins. That's pagan, that's no gospel

at all. Paul says, I give you a first importance

of one Corinthians fifteen, that Christ died for our sins

in accordance with the scripture. He says that that Christ

died for us in other places.

Peter says the same.

We don't need philosopher kings coming along and telling us

that Jesus didn't need to die for us. Somehow he

didn't reconcile us to a broken law and a broken

heart of God. See philosopher kings always arise meddling with

the word of God. I was enambored not long ago

someone I heard by the grape vines as Pastor Mike

is teaching new theology.

Well, I'm not teaching new theology.

I'm teaching theology goes all the way back to the

Apostolic era. That's in our Bible. It was taught by

the Reformation. It was a firm of the early Avedist pioneers.

Sister White in our last one hundred to two hundred years,

is the great champion of righteous by faith as she

lifts up the Law of God, a standard which cannot

be set aside, and a savior who got it done

at the cross. I'm not ashamed of deep Bible truth

that makes it clear. There are always people who think

they're smart in the Bible, and they do a lot

of damage in the Church and in the world.

So Fan the.

Secretary who was named Hyde, he was mister Hyde, came

to King Josiah and his leadership corps, and he told

them that when they were looking when they were looking

for the money in the house of the Lord. In

other words, treasure, isn't money treasure? You can say, Amen,

that's true. Isn't it treasure? Yeah, they found the real treasure,

which is the Bible in the house of the Lord.

The Hebrew, it would it be a shameful thing if

people come to you and they couldn't get the Bible

in church?

The guy everything else.

The Hebrew text simply says it was the Book of

the Law. And verse nine, Chiffon, named mister Hyde, did

anything but hide the book from Josiah. Look at verse ten.

Then Chiffon the secretary told the king.

Helkaiah, the priest.

Has given me a book, and should Chaffon read it

before the king.

There's a power in reading the.

Book of God out loud before the peeping people and

the hearing of all.

I for one love it.

When the children read the Bible in the church, the

Bible changes lives. It changes people by simply being read

to them. Look what happened in verse eleven. And when

the king heard the words of the Book of the Law,

he rent his clothes. You ever ripped your t shirt off,

sh okay or your suit now, I don't want to

do that with this now he didn't take it. Didn't

take Josiah long to figure out out that they were

all in big trouble because of the book.

The book had caused trouble.

Some people think, well, the Bible, you know, the religion

should be easy.

The book caused trouble.

They had all broken the law so bad that the

curses outlining the book of the Law of Moses were

all but certain to fall upon the nation, the king

and his people, and he got it by simply hearing

the Bible read. Bad leaders over a long period of

time had messed up the nation so bad that the

sword of God, which is the Holy Spirit, the rod

and sword of God in scriptures, the Holy Spirit was

hanging high and ready to fall upon them all, and

they didn't even know it. At this point, the king

tore his clothes. He rented in horror. That's what we

ought to feel like doing. We discover abominations in the

church that go on and dress for many years on end,

and they become institutionalized sins in our midst We need

to rent our clothes, get on our knees, and repent

from us all the way up the whole nation.

Second king is twenty two twelve.

And the king commanded Hakaiah the priest, and he come,

the son of Chaffon, and Akbar the son of Makiah,

and Chaffon the secretary, and Asiah the king's servant, saying

here's what they said, verse thirteen. And I like how

it says this, go inquire of the Lord. Isn't that

a good idea? So when we read our bibles, what

does it do? It drives us to our knees, So

we pray. He says, go in quiet of the Lord.

But notice the key phrase for me. He doesn't say

for you or them, for me. And then he says

that and for the people and for all Judah. Notice

it's him first concerning the words of this book that

has been found.

For great is the wrath of the Lord.

That is kindled against us because our fathers have not

obeyed the words of this book to do according to

all that is written concerning us. Notice what Josiah says

after the book was found. He says, go inquire of

the Lord from me. Before Josiah tries to set the

nation straight, Josiah asks God to set him straight. So

he said well, you know the problem is this person,

that person. This Josiah says, I am the problem. I

need the Lord in my life help me. Lord Josiah

is the first person in the mind. In his mind,

here the me in the request. And then he knows

he needs the Lord after himself. He says, the people

in all Judah, josiahd mints it outright that a we,

including me, have not obeyed the Lord in all that

he has commanded us. And both me and we are

the us in a heap of trouble because of this book.

That's how a revival on reformation starts. So people think

it starts just because people get emotional. People jump up

and down. I can jump up and down, did I?

Because I have one foot that's not that good the

other I can't high gone or my basketball days.

But that doesn't make it a revival.

A revival starts when people realize they've broken God's heart,

they've broken his word. They're at odds with God and

they didn't know it. And they turned to God because

they get a sense of God's love because he put

it in his word to waken us. At this point

in verse fourteen, they all went to Halda, the prophetest,

the wife of Shalam, the son of Tikva, the son

of Harhas, who was keeper of the wardrobe. The details

matter here, and they understanding the story that's not moved

too fast, They went to a prophetess who could help

them illumine the words of the book and inquire the

Lord for Josiah. Now there are all kinds of people

out there who claim to be prophets. The real ones

have the right credentials. The prophet's name was Hulda. Why

don't you say that with me, Hulda, that.

He holds here? Anyone named Hulda good? Okay. Holda's name

means mole, weasel or okay. Again.

God calls people to do a great work when others

would just call them a malla, weasel or rat. If

you're a prophet, everybody thinks you're fine. Like someone I've

seen on TV. I got this rayma from God. That's

a Greek word for word, so.

Trying and impress you that they know something you don't know.

I got this word rayma from God, and I go,

so what I'd rather just read God's word.

That's good enough for me.

And when they say I did this, I got this,

I had this revelation. I and by the way, send

me some money. You know, they're not the real thing.

But when a person's treated like a mala, weasel or

rat because they're telling people the truth, because they give

them the testimony of.

Jesus, they they lift up the law of God. When

the whole.

Christian world is wrecking the law of God, and they

stand alone for the Lord, that is possible that person's

a true prophet. Again, God calls people to a great

work when others would just call them to be a mole,

a weasel or rat. A mole digs deep into the earth,

and that is what a prophet does with God and

relationship in his word, they go deep. A prophet digs

deep into things of God for others, and weeze on.

A rat are lonely animals, and true prophets of God

are often treated like the weasels and the rats by

evil men. They live lonely lives. They suffer to give

us the truth. The Bible predicted that the in the

Book of Elation, that the remnant Church in the eighteen

hundreds would possess the testament of Jesus, the spirit of

prophecy and that gift has been maligned, has been put

down by men and women who teach people throughout the

Christian world that we can set aside the law of God.

The greatest voice in modern times for righteousness by faith

has been L and G.

White.

And I know this because I had a when I

went septic a number of years ago and almost died,

lost thirty five five pounds in the hospital, and took

two weeks off from preaching. Some of you just thought

I was taking a vacation. I took that time, and

I went through her writings from eighteen eighty eight the

Minnielapis Conference to the time she returned and shortly after

and the church was reorganized in the early nineteen hundreds.

And I discovered something that she was well versed in

John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volume three, the

Great Treatise and Righteous by Faith. She echoes the language

of Calvin, but surpasses it without his slight error on

predestination and a couple of other things. And she places

all of humanity in Christ, so that matches Isaiah fifty

three and so many other places of the Bible. It

is the shed in her manuscripts that were written are

the greatest statements on christ our righteousness. One that comes

to my mind. She says, the justice of God required

that he forgive the sinner, whereas everyone says the mercy.

That's true.

God could not be just unless he forgave the human race.

I mean, that's good stuff. You don't treat people like

weasels and rats who lift up the Lord Jesus like

she did. My dad's dying experience. He was in a

hospital dying at the age of forty four of thereabouts.

If I got it right, the last thing he ever

asked was for the book Desire of Ages to my

father and yours, the last chapter be read to him.

He left this world hearing that beautiful chapter and how

we are one and accepted in the person of Jesus Christ.

So don't tell me all on White it's a legalist.

Don't tell me she'd know what she was talking about.

People who say that don't read her well and don't

study deeply. Hulda's husband name was Shallom, and his name

and he remains retribution. Shallom was the keeper of the wardrobe.

That's a great job, isn't it. You know you have

watched the wardrobe. Who knows maybe the kings, the lion,

the witch and the wardrobe. The wardrobe not exactly a

lofty role in Israel. His father's name was Tikva. That

meant hope. Sometimes God brings retributions so we can have

a return to hope in our lives. The names in

the family line is telling us what's going on here

in the story. We are being led to know the

truth as it is in God. In any case, the

prophet named Huda, which means the mole, weaseled about like

a rat after some cheese to get to the bottom

of God's will for all the people until she heard.

The voice of God in your life.

Didn't take long for the message to come from God

right back to Hulda, and through the prophet of Hulda,

straight to the King. Look at verse fifteen. Actually it's

Second Kings twenty two to fifteen. It might have given

you the wrong chapter in the previous place. Do you

ever have a typo in your reading?

Here? I said second King seventeen little earlier.

And she said to them, thus says the Lord, the

God of Israel. Tell the man who sent you to me,

Thus says the Lord behold, I will bring evil upon

this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of

the book which the King of Judah has read, because

they had to look at the reasons here, because they

have forsaken me. They've burned incense to other gods that

they might provoke me to anger with all the work

of their hands. Therefore, my wrath will be kindled against

this place, and it will not be quenched. Does it

matter how we live in the church.

Does it matter utterly? It matters looking for saighteen.

But as to the King of Judah, who sent you

to inquire the Lord, see, Josiah was different than the people.

Thus you shall say to him. Thus says the Lord,

the God of israelgarding the words which you have heard.

From the Bible.

Because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before

the Lord when you heard how I spoke against this

place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a

desolation that curs, and you have rent your clothes and

wept before me. I have also heard you, says the Lord. Therefore, behold,

I will gather you to your father's and you should

be gathered to your grave and peace, and your eyes

shall not see all the evil which I will bring

up on this place. And they brought back the word

to the king. Now that's a heavy dose to get

when you say, what does the Lord have to say

to me? You're gonna die so you don't have to

see the holocaust that's coming. King Josiah asked God through

Hulda for an answer concerning himself and the people. He

got the answer he needed to know for his personal

future and fate.

His life was scripted. Now.

Josiah learned from the prophetess Hulda that he had arrived

too late as king to avert the judgment of God.

King joscot Siah discovered from the prophetess that he was

the not end time king, not in time to save

the nation, not in time.

To turn the tide. That's heavy.

What do you do when you learn something like they

just give up. God told him that he was not

in time to prevent the doom that was coming because

of the covenant in the Law of Moses. God, he says,

because you repent and rent your clothes, I'm going to

lay you to rest before I bring this kingdom down.

But when you die, all the evil predicting the book

is going to fall on this people and on this

place that's heavy. Josiah didn't just sit down and do

nothing because he was going to die. Sometimes people get

a depressing message, say, oh, I just can't do anything.

I'm feeling so down. Josiah, who was named the Despair

of the Lord by his evil father Ammon, decided to

do something to bring joy to the heart of the

Lord by making his life count every day until God

took him down.

He would live for the Lord.

He would make his life meaningful, no matter what the

future was. Josiah went immediately up to the House of

the Lord. He was moving now because his life was scripted.

He had chosen to renovate the House of the Lord.

And now he must revive the House of the Lord.

And with all the people and all the leaders were

small and great standing around him, Josiah got that dusty

old parchment called the book the Bible out of the treasury.

He opened it up so that people could hear the

word of God for the first time in their lives.

And he had it read to.

All the people standing all around, so everyone could hear

and know the word of God for themselves and then

King Josiah did something precious and honorable for a leader

to do. King Josiah personally recommitted his life to God

in front of all the people, small and great. He

started with his own life, and he could have said

something like this, I have sinned. I am an imperfect person.

I have a flawed family history. There's no reason why

God should use me. My name means the despair of

the Lord. But I am making a decision to follow

the Lord, no matter what my name is, no matter

who my father was, no matter what I have done

to mess up in the past. This day I will

live for the Lord. A leader leads in that way.

Second Kings twenty three, verse three. And the King stood

by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord

to walk after the Lord, to keep his commandments and

his testimonies and statutes with all his heart and all

his soul. The great commandment of Deuteronomy's six shamah ye Israel,

and deni.

Elhinu, and deny a god here o Israel. The Lord,

our God is one.

With all his heart and all his soul, to perform

the words of this covenant that were written in this book.

And all the people joined in the Covenant. You see,

it's contagious. When a leader gets real with God, the

people get real with God. Would that we had more

people today, he would do the same thing that Josiah

did that day. We need a generation of Josiah's in

our church, a generation strong in faith and commitment, a

generation willing and able to bring us the remnant church

back to the Bible, back to the prophecies. Prophetesss that

the prophetess that is often called a rat by the

ignorant and evil multitudes, back to God, who is our

only hope, so that we have the full power of

God to enter the conflict of the last days. We

need a fearless generation stand up for God in the

Bible and be true to His word no matter what.

There are too many compromisers in the land today. He

wanted to be philosopher kings instead of Bible preachers and teachers,

elders and deacons deaconesses who.

Live the Bible in their lives.

There are too many bell worshipers running around trying to

transform the truth that doesn't need any change. God's truth

doesn't need you to fix it or me to fix it.

It doesn't need us to explain it away so we

can dance around a golden calf in our time. That

is not what's needed. Josiah stood at the pillar of

the temple, and he.

Took his stand for God. And now look at the

imagery here.

Josiah himself became a pillar in the house of God

because he would standing at the pillar with the Bible,

the pillar of truth.

In this way, Josiah is a type.

Or pattern of the Church of Philadelphia in the Book

Revelation that will see Jesus return believers who are in

the Bible. The Church of Philadelphia and the Book Revelation

represents an unc compromised advant people who will not embrace

the latest sea and lie that you can have one

foot in the world one foot in the church and

be okay and say I'm rich and increased with goods,

have need of nothing. You know what's wrong with a

boast like that, because you don't get the square one

and the sermon of the mout blessed are the poor

in spirit. If you have the atstitute of the latest

see in church, you don't even get to square one

and the be attitudes that leads us to a relationship

of God. Because we start out by being poor in spirit.

Revelation three eleven. I am coming soon. Hold fast what

you have so that no one may seize your crown.

He's talking to the Philadelphians, the Church of Brotherly Love.

He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in

the temple of my God. Never shall you go out

of it. Write on him the name of my God.

You see, God makes us pillars when we stand for

God's truth. Pillars in the church are Bible believing, committed

Christians who will not compromise the truth. He says, now

I will write on them the name of my God.

The name of the city of my God. God's name

is God's Law on the Bible. The name of the

city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down

from my God. What is that name. It's in the

book of Ezekiel, it says the Lord is there. That's

the name of the city. God will be in the

lives of men and women who take positions like this

that comes out of Heaven in my own new name.

The people at the end who will have God's name,

which is His Law as character written on their forehead

instead of the mark of the beast, will be pillars

in the Temple of God, just like Josiah. When Josiah

stood beside the pillar to uphold the Bible. This point

the king got busy cleaning up the whole nation before.

He would die.

Knowing that his time on earth was short, King Josiah

went straight to the temple. He commanded the high priest

and the second class priest and the doorkeepers. It says,

to take all the filth and all the garbage out

of the House of the Lord.

Is that a good thing? Oh? Look, there's no place

for garbage in the church.

Garbage, theology and misuse of the Bible, immoral activities, things

that corrupt our kids have no place.

In the church nor in their lives.

He had them empty the House of God of all

the vessels made for the evil God, bail, the Astrah,

polls made to honor the Goddess of Astra that marry

in their religion of their time, the false God and

Queen of Heaven. He took them all out, and anything

else used for the worship with the host of Heaven

instead of God.

He got rid of it.

They threw it all out of the temple and had

it burned outside of Jerusalem, the fields of the Kidron,

and they carried the ashes of these profane things to

Bethel Bethel and Heepele means house of God, and he

buried them there to show that the House of God

takes the place of these pagan corrupt things. Josea also

deposed all the false priests who corupt the nation of Judah.

And what are false priests who corupt the nation of Judah?

Those are ministers who teach the people do whatever.

They want to do. It's okay, you know you do this.

You're saved.

You hear that you don't have to worry about having

a righteous life with the Lord.

You're under the blood.

Well, you're not under any kind of blood if you

willfully set aside the decalogue. So he got rid of

those false priests that led the people to worship the Sun,

the moon, the constellations of heaven, and the host of Heaven.

He got rid of the pornography in the church. Yes

there's pornography in the church. By destroying the male prostitutes

and sin houses with everything in them that have been

institutionalized as religion in the church. Some people say, well,

is it appropriate to marry a people of the same

sex in the church.

Absolutely not.

Where does someone's thinking go in the Aventist church when

they can go in some little chapel on the west

coast or around here and act like that's okay. It

is an abomination to God to do that. He flattened

them all to the grounds. He destroyed their paganized artwork.

He dragged the priests out of their houses who corrupted

the nation. He broke down to high places where they'd

directed their altars to other gods that are really demons.

He stopped the equivalent of the abortion industry in his day.

Deadis tracks. And some people say, Pastor Mike, why do

you mention abortion? Because in the Bible it's evil. There

is nothing in the Word of God that says a

child is not a child just because it takes its

first breath. The Bible speaks of unborn children's children in

the Bible, and thou shalt not murder applies to every

single child. Now, if that rubs your sensitivities, you need

to be converted. Because you can't see the worth of

a human child, you have missed it. Seventy million children

have been killed in this country because of warp thinking

Einstein's people who contributed, could have contributed greatly in music

and culture, could have been great preachers in our times.

Murdered because we made it easy for this to happen. Now, Look,

when a mother falls into sin and has a baby.

In our family, there was an abortion, not in my

direct family, but my extended family. I had a sister

who had an abortion. She spent her entire life trying

to make up for that. She adopted children who wouldn't

make it any other way. She could come to know Christ.

She once gave me a palm and I read it

from the pulp of the Sligo seventh Adventist Church when

I was senior pastor there years ago at Christmas time,

and I had doctors and lawyers and pastors who never

read their Bible come up to me and tell me

that we shouldn't be saying that in the pulpit. Oh,

yes we should. Her life was wrecked by that. There

should have been support in the church to protect those children,

to help her financially, not to stigmatize, but to embrace

and to give people who have aired in this way

God's grace. And you know, elder Family preached a sermon

that I heard on Wava here was an evangelistic meeting,

and a lady walked up to him who had fallen

into this error, and she was devastated. She'd carried this

all her life. And he rightly lifted up the Cross

of Christ to this woman, shared with her that the

blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, and that

you can have forgiveness for this in your life. And

maybe one day that baby back in the plan of God.

We don't know, but I think so. King Josiah did

the right thing. Look at Second King's twenty three ten.

He got rid of the abortion industry of his day

because it killed be babies just as soon as they

came out of the womb, like they're talking about now.

He defiled Tofu, which is in the valley.

The sons of him them that no one might burn

his son or his daughter as an offering to Molich.

King Josiah.

Also, by the way, in Psalms one hundred and six,

it says when they did this, they offered their children

to demons. You cannot tell me that when you rip

a child apart in its mother's womb, the demons are

not rejoicing. It is an evil thing, and Psalms one

hundred and six says that was evil what they did

in ancient Israel. King Josiah also removed the horses dedicated

to the worship of the Sun. He burned the chariots

of the Sun for the same reason. He broke down

all the pagan altars throughout the land. He broke them

in pieces and ground them to pawader He and he

cast their dirty and disgusting dust into the brook Kidron

that flowed all the way down to the Dead Sea,

the lowest spot on earth and the deadest waters on earth.

Josiah filed all the high places everywhere, all the way

back to Solomon's shrines, and he left no stone unturned

to bring the whole nation back to God. Though that's

repentance and revival. Josiah also went into Samaria, and he

did the same thing there, so that there would not

be an evil influence another nation near at hand. And

finally Josiah did what Elijah did at Mount Carmel. He

stood in the gap between the people and God. He

built an altar, and he brought him back to God.

And then he took care of those priests. Look at

Verse twenty second, kings twenty three and twenty Actually is

that twenty three?

It is thank you.

He slew all the priests of the high places who

were there upon the altars and burned the bones of

men upon them. He says, you want to offer and

corrupt the nation, die on your own altar. Then he

returned to Jerusalem, and the Kimmi king commanded all the

people keep the passover to the Lord your God, as

it is written in the Book of the Covenant. For

no such passover been kept since the days of the

judges who judged Israel. Hazekiah had a passover was on

the wrong month, but the Lord said, do it anyway

because the people needed help or during it says all

the days of the kings of Israel or the kings

of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah,

the passer was kept to the Lord. In Jerusalem. The

passover was their version of Holy Communian service. The passover

pointed the cross of Christ in the future. Josiah had

led the people to Jesus Christ, the Lamb, who would

die on the cross for them. He was not a legalist,

He wasn't virtue signaling. He knew the only way he

could face death was to have Christ in his life.

And he brought the people back to God.

Into Jesus.

And after all this, Josiah got rid of the mediums,

the witches, the Harry Potter books, the Game of Throne

television series, the latest Marvel flicks, the terifum, and the idols,

and all the abominations of the land. Did you know

that he did everything he could to say to obey

God and to bring the people back to God. But

a last it was too late. His work reform was

to it come too late, too late. Josiah's name means

the despised of the Lord. But he loved the Lord,

and he covened for all the people to correct their

evil ways that bring them back to God. He fought

against the fact that it was coming. It was really

too late. Josiah was the not end time king who

came too late to save the nation from a collision

course with God's justice and God's wrath. Satan King's twenty

two twenty five. I think it's twenty three twenty five.

See I wrote it wrong in the manuscript. Thank you

Lucian for correcting that. Before him, there was no king

like him who 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, nor did any

like him arise after him.

Still the Lord did not.

Turned from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which

his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the

provocations with which Manassah had provoked him. And the Lord said,

I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as

I removed Israel. And I will cast off this city

which I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which

I said my name shall be there. Nico, King of Egypt,

came out to fight with the King of Assyria, and

Josiah went out to fight with him. Nico, King of

Egypt killed josiaht Megiddo. It moves me to think about

this man fighting for God's people when they wouldn't fight

for them what was right themselves. And Josiah's servant carried

him away in a chariot to Jerusalem, and they buried,

it says in the Bible. They buried Josiah's tomb, and

the not in time king died before the wrath of

God came down heavy upon the whole nation of Judah.

Josiah's son was not like Josiah at all. He did

evil in the sigh of the Lord. It's a good

thing that his father died young, did not see his

son reject all his reforms, all his values, his personal

commitment to the Lord to see it just go away,

dear heart. May we be like Josiah, every one of

us here today. We're sinners, aren't we. We're sinners by nature.

How many of you have sin and fallen short of

the glory of God in your life.

Let's admit it.

You know, it's not so much the other person that

needs correct in our lives.

It's us, isn't it.

When change starts with me in my life, when it

starts in my family, then and so let us covenant

like Josiah did that. We'll start with me before we

move to all the people. May we be like Josiah,

every one of us here today, no matter what happens

in the future to us our nation, or to our

church or to our building. Why Because God's presence in

our lives is worth far more.

Than a good future.

Having God right now is so precious that even if

we face judgment in the future. There's joy in the journey.

Josiah's name means the despair of the Lord. But Josiah

knew that God is worth serving, no matter what the

outcome is in life, and no matter how bleak your

future is. If a prophet says you're doomed, serve the

Lord anyway.

And why did he do this?

He did it because God is our future. He loved

God with all his heart and all his might. He

is the greatest king to ever arise in Judah. And

that's why Josiah served him anyway, in spite of the

sad fact that he was the not in time king,

but not in time king. Dear Father, thank you for precious,

precious Josiah, a man who never saw the outcome of

his commitment his own time, who became a pattern of

the final church that will make it the Church of Philadelphia,

a pillar in the temple of God. And Lord, I

pray today that you'll raise up men and women in

this generation who'll.

Be people the Bible.

Who will not worry about what the latest cultural fat is,

but they'll be true to God's word, and they'll love

people to see them saved in God's kingdom and Father,

thank you that there will come a day when the

third Angel's message will have its great, have a loud voice,

followed by a catastrophe that leads to the fourth Angel's

message with a great and mighty voice that will lighten

the whole world. And so, Father, help us to be

true in our time things are going good or not.

Help us to not be with the flow of compromise

and evil. It's easy, and Lord, help us to be

about the things that matter in the church soul any

living for others, bringing friends to church, studying the Bible

with them, helping them come to Christ, and finding that's

where we land. Also, I in this prayer, Lord, to

ask you to bless your people. You have told us

that when we turn to you with the whole heart,

that we are accepted as if we had never sinned.

That is the moment in which we experience the sweet,

beautiful grace of justification by faith, when the heart is

awakened and we are set right with you. Lord, may

be so for all of us here, including the pastor

and the pulpit. We all need you. And who knows

what's going to happen this year. You know if you're

coming soon, when you are, we don't know when exactly.

Help us to be right in the journey all the

way to the end. Bless your people in Jesus' name.

Amen,