Address—G.H. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Ellis was intended to be for young people, and I was thinking of the life of Josiah because God gives us the record of this man from the time he was 8 years old. And so I was thinking how there's a message for each one. I expect there are some in this room who might be 8. Then we read about this man when he was 16. We read about him again when he was 20. We read about him when he was 26.
And then we read about.
Him when he was just about 40 years of age. So there's quite a bit told about this man who began to be king when he was eight years of age. You turn to Second Chronicles chapter 34. You'll find about this man the 34th chapter. I'll just read the first 2 verses because this is how it begins. Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign and he reigned in Jerusalem.
One and 30 years.
And he 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.
Well, this boy, just eight years old, had a crown placed upon his head. And you know, I don't suppose anyone here would expect such a thing to happen, that you should occupy the place of king. Perhaps in time, if the Lord leaves us here, Prince Charles might be king in England, but he's a lot older than 8 years old. But you know, at 8 years old, you can be a king because it tells us in Revelation chapter 1.
Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sin.
And his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory. And so at 8 years of age, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you're already a king. You may not be reigning, but you know this. But if you truly know the Lord Jesus as Savior, the Bible tells us that we're going to reign with Christ.
Another day, all redeemed are going to be up there in the glory poison.
There is that perhaps they're only 8 years old tonight. They know the Lord Jesus as their savior. And another day they'll be reigning. They'll be up there in heaven with the Lord Jesus and we'll be reigning over this earth, won't be on earth like it is now, full of sin and full of trouble, full of suffering and full of sorrow. Because when a king comes to his throne, if Prince Charles does come to be king of England, he's going to reign over a country where a lot of people.
Having sickness and problems and troubles beyond number, and it'll be hard for him to occupy that place. But you know, when we reign with the Lord Jesus, we're going to reign over this world when it has been set in order, when God has wiped away tears from faces, and when there's a wonderful time of blessing upon this world.
Well, it's very nice what we read about this boy and it wasn't because.
It wasn't because he had a good father, because when you read about his father, it tells us that he was one of the most wicked kings that ever reigned over the Kingdom of Judah. It says there wasn't any hardly like him that did so many wrong things. But one thing very wonderful about his father, and I always like to read it, was at the very end of his life, he humbled himself.
And came to the Lord at the very end of his life.
It seems sad that he should have wasted the most part of his life. And the reason I'm talking so earnestly to you, dear young people, I don't want you to be like Manasseh and waste your life. It seems a very sad thing to think that a man who had a believing father for Manasseh did. He was the son of Hezekiah, who was a very godly man, but he turned out to be such a wicked man and went on in his wicked way most of his life, and at the end the Lord.
Him, I sometimes put it this way, he had a saved soul, but a lost light. And you know, as I look into the faces of boys and girls and young people, I always hope that when they listen to the word of God, they will not only be saved, but that they would live useful, fruitful lives for the Lord Jesus. It seems very sad to think of a man like Manasseh going on.
All those years in his wicked ways, and then at the very end turning to the Lord.
And so wonderful as the Bible says, Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and ears draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. I remember reading about a girl who was in a Sunday school class and her teacher said to her, why would she not come to the Lord Jesus and receive him as her Savior while she was young?
00:05:18
And she said, but I want to have some fun first. I want to have a good time and later on I do intend to turn to the Lord.
When this girl came to her birthday, her mother, her Sunday school teacher, sent her a present of a box of flowers. And when she opened the box of flowers, the flowers were all wilted and half dead. And when Sunday came and the little girl was in the Sunday school class, the teacher said, Did you get the flowers that I sent?
And she said yes. And she said, did you like them? Well, she kind of stuttered.
Bet you didn't know what to say because the flowers were pretty welded and she said, well, they weren't. They weren't in very good condition when I got them. Perhaps it was the florist that didn't send nice ones, but they weren't in very good condition. All the teachers said, I thought you liked those kind of flowers.
What made you think that I would like flowers that were all wasted? Well, she said that's what you said about your life. You thought you'd like to give the best of your life to the service of the devil. And then at the very end of your life you'd like to give a little bit of time to the Lord Jesus. And so that's what you do when you decide that you're going to have a good time, as you call it, in your sins. And then later on in life you intend to be saved. Later on in life you intend to live.
For the Lord Jesus, I know about a boy, and he was.
Somebody asked him, he was, he had professed to be a Christian, but he was walking very, very carelessly. And somebody asked him about the way he was living. Well, he said, I intend to turn around later, but I want to have my flame. But he didn't have the opportunity. He was killed very suddenly, ushered into eternity. I hope he was saved, but he didn't think that he was going to lose his life so young. But tonight, while I talk to you, he's in eternity.
All that stands in contrast with this dear boy. He wasn't going to follow the example of his father and waste his life. But it says here he was 8 years old when he began to reign and he did. That was right in the sight of the Lord. And I think this is very, very nice to read about a boy 8 years old because it says in the book of Proverbs.
Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure or whether it be right. And you know, very often you can see the Lord working in the hearts of even boys and girls. We as parents, some of us who have watched our children, there's no greater joy than when we see something that shows us that they do love and want to please the Lord Jesus.
Because we were a Christian parents.
Very highest desire for our children is that they would walk like Desiah did, in the right ways of the Lord. And you don't have to wait until you're old to start right at 8 years old. You can do little things. It's surprising what a child of eight years old. I met a man, he was 77 years old and you know, he was saved by his little grandson. And I think he was, I've just forgotten he was either 7.
Nine years old and this old grandfather took pneumonia and he was very sick and they were afraid he wasn't going to get better. And this little boy who had put his trust in the Lord Jesus, he said to his grandpa, Grandpa, is it true that you're going to die? Are you going to be in heaven?
You know, that really spoke to the heart of that grandfather and that grandpa turned to the Lord when he was 77 years old and he told me himself it was by what that little boy said to him. So it shows how even an old boy of perhaps seven or nine years old can do something for the Lord Jesus. You never know how a little word that you might speak or something that you might do.
Might be used of the Lord and blessing. It's all I want to say to those who are just in this group. Perhaps between we might say between 8 and 16. You're just young and I want to say to you, can it be said of you as it was of Josiah here, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Is that what you try to do?
00:10:05
One of the things you can do as a child, it says children obey your parents.
For this is right. That's the right thing you can do. And so there's just so many little things that a boy or a girl of eight years old can do, and the Lord records them all in his book of remembrance. He has a book above. When we're out for supper, sometimes people ask us to put our name down in their guest book because we have visited their home. But I've never had anybody ask me to put down my name every time I thought about them.
But you know the Lord does. He puts your name down when you just think about him. How often do you and I think about him? Well, I hope we think of him quite often when we open His word, when we kneel beside our bed at night and pray why we're thinking about him, we're talking to him. So I just want to say to those who are young is your life, is your life one that is like this? Josiah, how are you trying to please the Lord?
Trying to do that which was right. You read God's word. Do you pray? Well, this is the way Josiah started out. And then it says in the third verse.
You'll read the third verse, this part of it, it says for in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David, his father. The next part is when he was when he was older, but in the eighth year he was 16 because he was 8 when he started to reign 8 years later. Now he was 16.
Well, you know, and we think of 16 year olds we quite often think about.
Boys and girls that are saying, well, now I'm old enough, I can do as I like and I know my parents don't have to tell me what to do. And but isn't it nice here? When this boy came to be 16 years of age, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David, his father. And you know, I just love to see.
Boys and girls when they come to that age of 16, even though the.
Talks about it as a very important age, and so many big important decisions are made when you get to 16, when you get to the age when you're starting to make decisions. Though I can remember even in my life when I was 8, I don't suppose that I realized a lot of things, even though I believe I did love the Lord. When I became to be 16, that was a quite important age in my life. Probably I thought I was pretty important too.
And you know, it's very wonderful what you read here about this boy. When he was 16 years old, he began to seek after the God of David, his father. And what does it mean to seek the Lord? I don't believe that it means that this was the time that he got saved. I think it was probably when he was younger than this. But sometimes boys and girls say they love the Lord Jesus When?
They're eight years old.
And when they're 16, you'd almost wonder if they did, because they're doing what a lot of other boys and girls in school are doing, and boys and girls in school are doing a lot of things and saying bad words and into bad habits and that sort of thing, and through the tendency to copy them and do the things that they're doing. But isn't that very nice here that we find that when this boy got to be 16 years old, he began to seek after the Lord?
And I hope that each one in this room who is coming to your teens and into this important part of your life, I hope you will seek after the Lord too. I hope that you will make him the object of your heart and life. Because I know when I was 16, I made quite a few important decisions. Usually when you get to be about that age, you're you're getting along towards planning what you intend.
Do what your job is going to be. You might even be thinking about where you would like to live, not even be thinking about who you would like to have to be your partner. There's a lot of things coming to your mind when you're 16 years old, and they have a lot to do with molding your life. But here I think it's so very beautiful to see this king at 16 years of age, he began to seek after the God of David, his father.
Had a, shall I say, a great grandfather, it was a little way back named David, who had been desirous to please the Lord. And that example had been impressed upon the mind of this boy, not the example of his father, because his father gave him a bad example sometimes. Maybe it might be that there might be some here come from a home, and your parents are not even saved. But this boy looked back farther and he.
00:15:23
One in the family who had been a real example and he desired to please him.
Now in the rest of the verse it says.
And in the 12TH year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the Groves and the carved images and the molten images, and they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence. And the images that were on high above them he cut down. And the Groves and the carved images and the molten images he break in pieces and made dust of them.
And sprouted upon the graves of them, that sacrifice.
Unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali with their Maddox roundabout. And when he had broken down the altars and the Groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols, threw it all the land of Israel.
He returned to Jerusalem.
Well, now he is 20 years of age, 12 years. He's been reigning. And he started when he was 8. So now he's 20 years of age. You know, that was also a very important age. You're considered an adult, you're considered full grown and you're 21. So he had really come to manhood, we might say. And what is he doing now when he comes to manhood? Well, you know, sometimes when we come to that age, why we're making idols. Oh, you say, I didn't know.
We made idols today. Well, you know, there are other kind of idols than the ones that the heathen used to worship. You might perhaps see places where they have some replicas or pictures of these old idols that they used to worship made of silver and gold. But we may not build idols just the same as they did. But we can make idols of a lot of things in our lives. We can make idols out of pleasures at least.
Live for and that we think make life to us. I know people who make idols out of sport, people who make idols out of their job, people who make idols out of all kinds of different things. And you know, your job is fine and exercise is very good and important. But we have to be careful if these things don't become idols, that we live for them instead of living for the Lord Jesus.
That's the important thing. And when you come.
To the time when you begin to have some money of your own and you are free to spend it, how do you want to spend it? I remember reading about a boy and when he started out in his first job he loved the Lord Jesus and the first thing he did when he got his first pay was to take some of the money that he had and go and buy a Bible for a friend.
Or a person that he knew who didn't have a Bible.
Well, you know, I thought that was ever so nice that his first play, instead of saying I waited long for something, when I get my first pay, I'm going to get something for myself. I'm going to show what I really want and what I'm going to live for. But he when he got his first pay, he thought, now I want to recognize that the Lord is my master and that my first pay, I want to use part of it to show that I love him.
Well, it seems to me that this represents 20 years of age. It's usually a time when we begin to get out on our own. That is, perhaps you go to another place to school and so you have to get an apartment or something like this. What do you do? Have you said, well, now I'm free from my home and you're going to have a few idols. I don't mean those kind of idols like the heathen had put up in your room, but I mean other things.
That are really what you're living for or and dear young people at 20 years of age, how lovely it is to see those who when they come to this age.
They show that the Lord is the one who is going to have first place in their hearts and in their lives.
These years are so important. Perhaps as he looked back, he had learned some lessons from his father. I'm sure that he had seen what happened in the life of his father, and he decided that he was not going to do these sad things that his father had done. For his father was all taken up with idolatry. That's what his father was living for, was idols.
00:20:23
And sinful ways. But what a difference to see this boy.
How was he doing it? I believe we can say who was doing it to please the Lord. And does the Lord have a claim upon you? I'm sure that if you're really saved, you know that He does. It says ye are not your own. Ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
Men too, at this age, we make a lot of friends and companions. He turned with me to the first Psalm. I. I just like to notice here in Psalm 1.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth.
Shall prosper.
And if you'll turn over to the 119th Psalm.
Psalm 119.
And you read the ninth verse.
For withal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto, according to thy word. Then the 11TH, 1St thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. And then the 63rd verse.
I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
Now often the friends that we choose at this time of life have so much to do with our afterlife. And it says in that first Psalm it says blessed is the man that walketh not, sitteth not, sendeth not, and sitteth not seems to bring before us a different position.
You walk, that is, you make these people your friends, you walk along with them and then when they stop, you stand with them. Then when they sit down, you sit down with them. Well, what kind of companions do you have? The companions that you choose, and it usually is between 16 and 20 that you choose companions. The companions that you choose are going to have a great deal of influence on your afterlife.
So it says.
In the 119th Psalm and the ninth verse, it says, Who would all shall a young man cleanse his way, but by taking heed thereto, according to thy word. Now I know that some people may laugh at you because you want to please the Lord, and because you tell them that you don't want to do some of the things that they do, but how much better that you should live to please the Lord?
I've often said we all like to be accepted.
That's one of our biggest problems is that we like to be accepted by the wrong people. You know, it's a good thing to want to be accepted by the Lord and by those who want to please the Lord.
Says the Apostle Paul said that he labored that whether present or absent, he might be acceptable to the Lord. He has won his life to be acceptable to the Lord. Now I ask you, perhaps only in your teens, do you want your life?
To be acceptable to all others, whether they're seeking to please the Lord or not. Are you saying, well, I don't like people to laugh at me and call me foolish and everything. And so people allow me to do some of the things they do. You know, they're not just what you should do, but you want to be accepted. Or is it in your heart that you want to be like the apostle Paul, acceptable to the Lord? That's what Paul desired. And so he was often despised and persecuted.
But the great thing in his heart was that he wanted to be acceptable to the Lord.
And then that other verse, the last one I read, I am a companion of all, and the fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts. Time may come when you're between 16 and 20. You begin to think about a boyfriend or girlfriend. Is that friend that you think about? And does that friend really fear the Lord and want to obey His word? Is that the kind of a friend you're choosing?
00:25:18
Because, you know, we're very impressionable by our.
Friends who Peter, I think he was quite a strong person in many ways, but when a little girl, a young maid laughed at him because he was one of Jesus disciples, he didn't even have the courage to stand up and say I truly am one of Jesus disciples and I want to please him. And another person came along and said you're 1 of Jesus disciples and he just didn't want that.
And so he denied his Lord.
And sometimes the laugh of a person of the opposite sex can ruin your life just because you don't. You don't want to, shall I say, appear foolish before them. And so you would rather please them than please the Lord. But I think this is so nice that we read here about this dear man, Josiah, that when he came to 12 years of age, he wasn't thinking about whether people liked him or not. Because I'm sure a lot of people didn't like him as they.
Him with that matter, as he went and walked down those images and broke down those Groves and all those things that had to do with idolatry, he said they're going to have no place at all in this land of which I am king. He wanted to give the Lord his rightful place. And you know, it's not easy to whack down some of the things that seem important to us.
But all how much better in those important years to choose the right?
Kind of companions and not to allow idols of this world to get the controlling place in our lives.
Sometimes I've thought like this, that usually when the time comes that you choose a partner, you choose it according to your state of soul at the time. And maybe afterwards you realize that when you chose that partner, you weren't really desiring to go on for the Lord, but your partners now for life. You have entered into an agreement.
That before God you ought to remain in because it says whatever God joins together, you're not to put asunder. And while you're away from the Lord, I remember talking to a boy, he's just married an ice Christian girl and he had been away from the Lord for quite a number of years. And he came back and was restored in his soul. And I said to him, oh, isn't it wonderful? The Lord didn't let you get married to somebody while you're away from the Lord.
And he said I owe me still.
I almost didn't. It would have ruined his life. I know because he told me a little bit about the friendship and it would have this ruined his whole life, that the Lord and his mercy preserved him. And then when he came back to the Lord, he married a girl who wanted to please the Lord Jesus. And so it's so important decisions are made. This was when Josiah was 20.
Now it tells us in the eighth verse.
Now in the 18th year of his reign, that's when he was 26 years old.
When he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azalea, the governor of the city, and Joiah, the son of Jehoiah, as the recorder to repair the House of the Lord his God.
And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the House of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered, of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin. And they returned to Jerusalem, and they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the House of the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the House of the Lord, to repair and amend the house.
Well then, we go on.
In the 14th verse. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the House of the Lord, Hilda the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law of the House of the law in the House of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying.
All that was committed to thy servant.
They do it.
The 18th verse then shape of the shape. And the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah, the priest hath given me a book, and Shaphan read it before the king came to pass. That when the king had heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah and to hike him. The son of Shaphan and Abdun the son of Micah and Shaphan the scribe and Assiah a servant of the king saying.
00:30:18
Go inquire of the Lord for me and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found. The great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book.
Well, here he's 26 years old now. And you know, most of us, because we look back on our lives, most of us when we begin, we get 26 years of old of age, We think about building our own house. We're thinking now and perhaps to get married and we're thinking about getting a nice house. And sometimes we get working so hard at our job. Sometimes we get so involved.
Not in something that's wrong. We get so involved that somehow we do just exactly.
But we see it happen here. The Word of God had been neglected there. It was lying in the House of God, but it was neglected because the King before had been far more occupied with other things and the book of the law, the Lord had been neglected. But it's nice to see here, as I said, that this year, man at 26 years of age, far more concerned about the House of the Lord than even about his home house.
Perhaps you remember reading about King Solomon, and he was quite a wonderful king, but he took longer to build his own house than he did to build a House of the Lord.
He took longer because he's far more concerned about his own interests. And it's a lovely thing that always gives me great joy when I see young people entering into middle life who really want to be a help to the people of God.
That is they they set out their hearts and their lives that they want to be a help in the assembly. It's one thing to just come and fill a seat. It's another thing to want to be a help. And you know, this was.
What seems to speak to me here about this Josiah, that he decided at six years of age that this House of the Lord was lying ruins and nobody seemed to care much about it. But he didn't say, oh, it's no use, nobody cares. Perhaps you feel that way, You say Now they come to the meeting and it doesn't seem that a lot of people have very much interest, and I kind of lose interest myself.
Well, Josiah had every reason to lose interest at this point because.
Because everything had been neglected, nothing had been repaired in the House of the Lord, and there didn't seem to be very much interest in repairing it. But it's very nice to see this man. He is concerned to set things in order in the House of the Lord, and he gets a lot of others to help with him. As I look back in my life, I can think of young people who influence my life because they have a heart for the Lord and their influence meant a lot to me.
And I think Messiah here is an example of that. He stirred up a lot of others and got them, and he put money together and they came and worked and they sought to repair the House of God. And as you grow older, that's what I desire for you, that you would seek to be a help. You can say, well, nobody's very concerned or interested, or you can point the finger at yourself and say, what am I doing?
Am I really being a help?
Am I, as the Bible speaks of, a repairer of the breaches, because lots of breaches come in, breaches between people, breaches between things that happen and so on. The Nickelodeon of breaches, bad feelings perhaps, and everything. Are you and I trying to repair them? Well, I think this is what we learn about this Josiah at this age, he is trying to repair the House of God.
And the thing that he finds that.
Was neglected was the word of God. It had been neglected, and when they were working on these repairs in the House of the Lord, they discovered this book.
And you know, I'm a little bit older than the ones I'm talking to because I'm particularly talking to young people. And if there's any verses that I'm able to quote to you and that I remember tonight, I want to tell you I didn't learn them yesterday. You have the time to learn them is when you're young. That's the time when you can memorize. You can memorize verses, you can memorize him, you can memorize things when you're young, but when you get older, you just can't do it as well.
00:35:01
And so here in this very important.
Age, perhaps the most.
The most learning part of your life at 26 years of age, What was this young man doing?
Why is repairing the House of the Lord, but he's also very he becomes very interested in this wonderful book that's been found and it's read and he doesn't just say, well, we're going to see that it's red constantly. He is concerned about whether they obey what he finds. It isn't just enough to read it.
You know, you can kind of make a ritual out of reading the Bible, and it's a very good habit. And I'm not going to say anything against anybody reading a chapter of the Bible each day. But I believe that when we read the Bible, we should point a finger at ourselves and ask ourselves, what does that chapter I read mean to me? It may be the history of Josiah or Manasseh or Hezekiah.
But when I read a story in the Bible, I like to point it and say.
What does God have in this chapter for me? Because it says whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfortable scriptures, might have hope.
And you know.
I read these stories in the Old Testament, and I'll tell you a little habit that I have in my life. When I find myself in a difficult spot in my life and I don't know what to do. I try to think of some story in the Bible where somebody else was in the same situation that I find myself in. And then as I think of that story, I think, did that person do what they should when they got into that problem, or did they do?
Own thing and God records all these stories faithfully. He records the story of Manasseh to show that a man who was king did the wrong thing and filled Jerusalem with sin because he was an ungodly king. But here's a man who did the right thing. And when you find yourself in a position, you'll find that there's a story in the Bible that corresponds to almost anything that you can find yourself in.
Whether it's a story for Young.
Or old, whether it has to do with the assembly or your business life or your private life. You'll find a story where somebody was in a situation just like your own. And you'll see that God recorded that story, not just to tell you about that person, but for our learning so that we might profit. That we, through comfort, patience, and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.
Now in the 22nd verse here it says here.
And Hilkiah And they that the king had appointed, went to hold of the prophetess the life of Shalom, the son of Tigbath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. Now she dwelled in Jerusalem in the college. And they spake to her to that effect. And she answered them. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell thee, the man that sent you to me.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place.
Upon all the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book to which they had read before the King, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not quench, not be quenched. And As for the King of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, And thou did stumble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me. I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.
Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace. Neither shall thine eye see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king for it again. So we find here that Josiah sends to find out what he should do about this book. And you know, the only person that seemed to be close to the Lord was a woman. Her name was Hoda.
You know, sometimes I feel that way. I I feel sad to think that I see boys who are going after things of the world and sometimes girls are more spiritual than some of the boys. And you know, it's written down here to show that this girl hold of the prophetess. It doesn't tell that she was like Elijah. He didn't occupy a public place at all. She just was the keeper of the wardrobe. But she lived in Jerusalem, which.
00:40:21
Is a place where God has put His name. And she just was a quiet person, but she was close to the Lord. She was something like the person that you read of in the 2nd chapter of Luke when all the rulers were forgetful about the Lord and about His claims. There was a woman named Anna and she was just quietly talking to people about the Lord. So she spoke about Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
And I don't believe that it's the mind of God for sisters to take a public place, but I have to say that very often they're more spiritual than some of us who are men. And it's nice to see that in days when things are at a pretty low ebb among the people of God, that even girls can go on faithfully for the Lord. And maybe you can be a help to somebody else, perhaps even a help to some boy.
Sometimes a boy has been helped by some girl speaking to him.
Just in a quiet way, not standing on a platform. We find afterwards the king Josiah stood up in a platform and read the book to the people. But Fulda didn't do that, but she encouraged him to do it and he did it. And who can tell the blessing that a girl can be? You know, there's one Psalm in the Bible, the 46th Psalm. And if you read it, I don't take time to read it tonight, but that Psalm has a little heading over that's called.
It's called.
A. Well, perhaps I better turn to it because I've just forgotten what the heading says.
46 Psalm and says here a Psalm upon Alamo.
And those who are acquainted with the Hebrew tell us that that means that that song was sung by soprano singers. And most of the writers believe that that was a little song that was sung by the women singers in the temple. And because the Bible tells us about men singers and women singers, just like in the meeting their man Hussein, there were women who sang. And so I think that little Psalms very beautiful.
It says God is our refuge and strength.
It says, therefore not we fear, though the earth be dissolved and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. It just shows how a girl can say something to someone who's discouraged that can be for real blessing to him. And that old song that sung after we read in the 44 Psalm about sad things that were happening among God's people.
Here were a group of women singers.
This beautiful song which was real and encouragement to anybody that was discouraged, I think any of us would say, well, I've often read that some I never knew it was girls singing that it's a God is our refuge and strength. Haven't you found that a wonderful Psalm sometime when you felt discouraged and the mountains are carried in the midst of the sea, the earth dissolved. Everything you seem to lean on just seems to go to pieces. And here we have this chorus of voices. Here we have hold up and she's helping.
He's helping Josiah.
So it shows, you know, that there's a place for boys and girls, a place for young people, there's a place for men and women, and this is all in connection with the House of God. Well, as I said, dear Josiah takes all this to heart. Now, the 35th chapter it tells us.
Over Josiah kept the Passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem, and they killed the Passover in the 14th day of the first month. And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the House of the Lord, and said unto the Levites, that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the Lord, put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, did build. It shall not be a burden upon.
Your shoulders serve now the Lord your God and his people Israel, and prepare yourselves by the House of your Father's after your forces. According to the writing of David, king of Israel, according to the writing of Solomon.
His Son, and stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren people, and after the division of the families of the Levites. So kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
00:45:09
And so it goes on here.
And it tells us here.
In the 15th verse. And the singers, the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandments of David. And Asaph, and Heman, and Jedusum. The king, Seer and the Porter waited at every gate. They did not depart from their service for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. And the 18th verse.
And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet. Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept. And the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the 18th year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept.
Well, you know, up to this point there's certainly wonderful things taking place here.
In God's lamb. And this Passover was a very important thing in the nation of Israel. It was so important that when the Lord Jesus was about to go to the cross of Calvary, he said to his disciples, go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. That Passover was a remembrance of their deliverance out of the land of Egypt.
And many years it was forgotten in Israel's history.
But from time to time, godly kings rose up and desired again to keep the Passover. They didn't want to forget the remembrance of what the Lord had done for them as a nation.
And as I say, when the Lord was here 1500 years after the night of their deliverance out of Egypt, it was still precious to the Lord.
1900 years from the time that our precious Savior was crucified, I wonder, is it precious to us that we still have this privilege? I wonder, does it really mean something to us, really meant something to this king? And he saw, he didn't just say, well, we'll keep the Passover without giving some kind of instructions about how it was to be done.
You know, here are people in the city of Regina, I'm sure, who in the Lord's Day are going to.
Remember the Lord? But it's nice about Josiah that he not only wanted to keep the Passover, but he wanted it to be done according to the word of God.
You know, it's very blessed that we have this privilege, but I believe it's also a great privilege that we have that we can do it in a way that is according to the Word of God. And we find that as they searched it out and found what is written in the book of the law of Moses, that this Passover is all arranged to be kept according to the mind of God.
And more than that, they didn't just pattern it the way Hezekiah. Now Hezekiah was a very.
King that if you read the account of how Hezekiah kept the Passover, it says he kept it in the second month. The reason it tells you that was that was a gracious provision that God made when his people had departed from him. But Josiah says we want to keep it exactly the way the Lord found it in the beginning. We might say, well, but Christian is in ruins today and there's so many failures in everything that we just can't go back to that.
God set up in the very beginning, but Josiah did. He went right back and searched it out and it kept the Passover in the first month and then the 14th day of the month. If you go back to Exodus 12 when God set it up, you'll find that that's what it was. And more than that, that they they were to be sanctified. Sanctified means set apart. They were to be a separated people. People don't like separation, but they were to be a separated people.
And here in the 1880s.
Chapter, I'll read it again. And there was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet. Just imagine that was a long while back. But he didn't just say, well, we'll just go back and we'll do things the way they were done a little while ago. Now he goes back to how God had instituted it, and the Spirit of God is careful to tell us.
That this was something that really showed.
His earnest desire to please the Lord, Well, we're living in days of weakness too. Josiah was living in very, very sad days in Israel's history. And I might even say to you that in the prophet Jeremiah, we find that there were a lot of things that were going on in this land when Josiah was arranging this beast. That must have been most distressing to his heart, because it says that a lot of people were pretending, it says.
00:50:18
They turn to the Lord faintly. Can't you say, But I don't think that some, I don't think some people do it really from their hearts, but you can. You can because some others don't really do it from their heart. You can. Isn't it nice just to follow the pattern of the Word of God and not look at other people, but do what we do in a way that's pleasing to the Lord?
So the Scripture says, every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Now this was up to this point we see a wonderful progress in the life of Josiah, but there is a sad note that comes at the end of his life. And you know that makes one think of that verse that we all know very well in the 16th Psalm that says preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. We can go on well for the Lord Jesus for many years.
But you know, testings come in our lives. Times come.
When we are liable to get into something that will spoil the end of our life and this is what we find. I think these words in the 20th verse are so sad.
After all this, After all this.
Doesn't that seem sad to you? Up to this point, all that we've had to say about Josiah was so lovely. At 8, at 16, at 20, at 26, everything was so nice.
And now 13 years Passover, because it tells you he reigned 31 years. So that means at this point he was 39 years because this was the time he was killed. So at this point that I'm reading to you it was 39 years old.
13 years passed by in his life and you know we can never rest on our oars, we can never say. I heard a man say one time in the meeting, he said.
I'll never miss a meeting in my since I've been gathered to the Lord's name, I never missed a meeting unless I had some good reason to miss it, and I don't intend to say. And before the year was out, he was away from the Lord's table.
Yes, we can't keep ourselves, we can't live on past experiences, we can't live because we've done everything so nicely up till now. We need constant dependence on the Lord and listen what it says here 20th verse after all, is when Josiah had prepared the temple Nekal king of Egypt. Egypt typifies the world came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates and Josiah went out.
Against him, But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What am I to do with thee, thou King of Judah? Why come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I may have war? But God commanded me to make haste for bear thee, for meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroyed thee not.
Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him. Now listen what it says, and that hearken not unto the words of Neca from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the Archer shot at King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to.
Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in one of the sample curves of his father. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, Jeremiah, or Amanda before Josiah. And all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentation to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel. And behold, they are written in the lamentations.
It was not a sad end to this man. How did it come about? Got meddling into something that was none of his business. He had no reason to get involved in this situation at all. It was nothing to do with him. It tells us here that this was this man, king of Egypt, and he came out to fight against Carchemish. And Josiah really had no business at all. He wasn't attacking his land. He wasn't trying to do anything to him.
Got into something that was outside of his own affair altogether and God sent a warning to him. Isn't it remarkable that he even used an unbelievable to tell him stay out of this, Josiah, one of your affair, but he wouldn't listen. And instead of this, he gets involved in this. And after all those 26 years, in fact, I might say 39 years, that there was everything so admirable, so nice, so worthy.
00:55:22
The praise of God in his life, He ends his life in the sad Rd. Well, I think it's a lesson to us dear young people and to all of us. We need to keep close to the Lord. It doesn't matter whether we're young world. Satan will set a trap for us. He he may set a trap for you in a different way that he sets it for me.
But Satan knew that this was a very godly king. I would say that apart from what we read in the connection with the life.
He was probably the most godly king that ever reigned in Judah. Wonderful man that he was. There is no recorded failure in his whole life except this one thing that at the end he started to get involved in something that wasn't his affair.
And the Lord had to allow him to be slain, and there in the battle he was wounded, and he said, take me away. He realized that he had made a mistake at that point, but he couldn't reverse it.
Sometimes you and I do something and we can't reverse it. We can't, we can't go back and straighten the thing out. There are things that we can straighten out, but there are things that we can do that we can't straighten out. And I can think of quite a few people that I know and they've done things in their lives and now they would like to, but they can't straighten them out. They've put themselves in a position, perhaps through some unscriptural marriage or something, they put themselves in a position where they can't get.
Straightened out and it's sad. It's a loss at the end of their life. Well, this is all a warning to us. I know I'm talking to young people, but as I look into your faces, your young people, life is ahead of you. If the Lord doesn't come. And God warns us, not after we've made the mistakes, but he tells us before so we wouldn't make them. He tells us these things.
So that we wouldn't make them. It's not much use for a person to come after you've made a mistake and say you should not have done that.
When you know that you can't straighten out the menace. But it's nice to be warned ahead of time. And God gives us this warning and lets us see what happened to this man. And it says the singing man and the singing women, they mourn. Oh, Josiah, you and I mourn as we read.
Only the Lord can keep us. It doesn't matter whether you're 8 years old or whether you're 80 years old, only the Lord can keep you. We need him at all times. And so I trust that all of us, and I speak especially to your dear young people, I hope for the eight years of the age of start out for the Lord. I hope if you're 16 years old.
That instead of thinking, well, I'm free now, that you'll do what Josiah did.
You'll start to live to please him when you get a little older, that you'll recognize his rights and claims over you and that you'll become interested in the Lord's interest and his people and the blessing of his people. And then you'll have a fruitful life, life that will remain to the glory and praise of God. Because in that day of manifestation everything's going to come out. And it says then shall every man a praise of God.
That is everything that's been done for.
Him will reward. So may the Lord speak to us all and encourage us, especially those who are young, as you start out in in life. Your decisions in life in you are so important that the Lord needs to keep us as we get older too.