Behold the altar shall be rent:
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And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Beth-el: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
Intro: The prophecy concerning King Josiah’s name and the work that God would use him for took place about 300 years prior to his birth. His name is given in connection with his prophecy, meaning; a fire offering of God. Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign as king over Israel. He took the throne at the end of the kingdom of Judah, and within a year of his death, the kingdom is carried away into Babylon. Josiah reign marks the ending of 400 years of the nations apostacy which started with Solomon the son of David. This doesn’t mean that there were no godly kings, but that the kingdom had been on a decline. Under King David, the nation was at war but David lead the nation to their peak spiritually. Under King Solomon, the nation saw its greatest prosperity but… it also saw the beginning of its spiritual decline. Josiah’s reign started at a time of great turmoil, his father was assassinated by his own servants, and his grandfather was the most wicked king the nation had ever seen.
Josiah, now king over Judah has some decisions to make concerning his life and how he is going to rule it.
Option 1 - Follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather because that is all he has ever known...
Option 2 - Follow in the footsteps of his father David the man after God’s own heart and served as king at the time of the nations spiritual peak.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty 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. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.
READ: 2 Kings 22:1-7
The breaches… These breaches were made into the physical building but they also speak of the spiritual breach against God’s law...
Read: 2 Kings 21:1-9
There is a great spiritual truth in all of this for us…
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
This temple which has been breached is the Temple which the built through Solomon…
And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.
Seven years...
Seventh month…
Seventh Feast… Feast of the Tabernacles, which is by the way the only feast that will be held each year during Christ’s millenium reign!
Seven days of Feasting…
Read: 1 Kings 8:5-6, 10-11…
Here is the lesson… That cloud is the Spirit of God… Get out of the temple… Crucify your flesh outside the camp and let God get a hold of your life, and watch what God will do! I have lived the life of doing… Do this, and do that, always doing… It was a life of constant and miserable failure… Always falling short of your own goal, and most certainly falling short of Gods… Crucify your doing,your control, your power and let God... Then watch the greatest work of God you have ever witnessed in your life. The best part… It isn’t your work…
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
1. Return… Josiah began first to seek God! Steadfastly set upon serving the God of his father David…
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.
2. Remove… Josiah began to purge from the high places, and the groves, and carved images, and the molten images…
If we are serious about loving God in this life which is nothing more than but a vapour… We have to purge…
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
3. Repair the breaches…
Read: 2 Kings 22:3-7
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost… The temple that Josiah is repairing is the house of the Lord… What good is purging if we have no intention of repairing the breaches...
All of this was in preparation for God to do His greatest work… An unwilling vessel, is not a usable vessel, a filthy vessel is not a usable vessel, and a vessel with holes in it is not a usable vessel…
How exactly do we go about repairing… Something incredible happens here...
Read: 2 Kings 22:8-10
Our understanding will never perfect us… We need God’s word!
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
4. Respond correctly!
Read: 2 Kings 22:11-13
At this point nothing else mattered… It didn’t matter what Josiah thought, or what he had been taught, or any of the works that he had already wrought…
They had found God’s word, and the only thing left to do what His word said to do… It wasn’t about their works, their knowledge, their understanding… They had fallen down before their God and they sought Him, with their whole heart...
5. Receive that blessed restoration!
Read: 2 Kings 22:18-20
6. Refresh those around you through the working power of God!
Read: 2 Kings 23:1-3
Closing:
Revival starts with just one… Then it spreads like wild fire!
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
At the Judgement seat of Christ… Do you know what Josiah’s testimony will be?
And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.