A Startling Message To A Nation In Revival Zephaniah - Part 1

Zephaniah chapter 1. The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah. Did anyone know that? I mean, I doubt that many people here, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt that many people here are really acquainted with Zephaniah. Before coming to this, if I would have asked you, say a month ago, three months ago, hey, do you know when Zephaniah was written? Probably the vast majority of you would not have known enough about Zephaniah to know that actually he prophesied during the reign of King Josiah. Now, perhaps you don't know very much about Josiah. You might know more about Josiah than you know about Zephaniah, but the very fact that Zephaniah gave this prophetic utterance in the days of Josiah, I find that incredibly surprising and very significant. And so what I want to do right here today is I actually want to give a bit more time to Josiah. We're definitely going to look at Josiah with regards to Zephaniah. Next week, perhaps we'll more fully dive into Zephaniah itself and look at certain things. But what I want us to do is get a feel for the climate in Judah at the very time God thought it appropriate to speak the words that he spoke through Zephaniah. He did it during the reign of Josiah. So what do we know about Josiah? Well, let's go back to 2 Kings because there's really 2 Kings 2 Chronicles are the two places where you have some extensive information about Josiah. So I want us to look at 2 Kings chapter 22. Now, the thing that you need to capture right off is this, that 2 Kings chapter 22 is what was happening at the time that Zephaniah was spoken to by God to pen this revelation that we have in the prophet Zephaniah, these three chapters. So these two men are contemporary, Josiah and Zephaniah. They lived at the same time. So here we are, 2 Kings 22. Before we focus on Zephaniah, let's focus on Josiah. And here it is, 2 Kings 22 verse 1, Josiah was 8 years old. Well, that's interesting right off because not everybody became king at such a young age. In fact, there were only two that we know of in Judah that became king at such a young age. And Josiah was one of them. Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign. So he was king at 8 years of age. And he reigned 31 years. So you just do the math, he died at 39. We're not going to get so much get into his death, but he was actually killed by Necho, Pharaoh, Egypt. They went to battle. And you know, I'm not so certain that it wasn't more of a judgment on Judah in the death of Josiah as much as anything. But notice what we have here. He reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adiah of Bozkath. Now notice this, 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 or to the left. Did you know something? Did you know this? There were only four out of the 40 kings and one queen that reigned in the Northern kingdom, Israel, Southern kingdom, Judah, all those 40 kings and one queen out of all of them. Four. Four. That's it. Four it was said that they did right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in the ways of David. Now, when you read through the Kings and the Chronicles, you find another four guys that were like halfway good. Things were said of them like this. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like David, his father. Or he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart. Or he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest, but then after that he went foul. The four guys that it was said they did right like David did. Name them. Name them. Hezekiah, Asa, Manasseh. Brother, he was the worst. Of course, Josiah, you all should get that one right, right? Not Solomon, sad to say. Jehoshaphat, exactly. They were the four. And even with that, the Chronicles give us some dirt on Asa. He sought out help from the arm of the flesh when he should have been seeking God. When he even got diseased in his feet, he didn't seek the Lord. What can be said about Jehoshaphat? He buddied up with Ahab. God didn't like that. What can be said of Hezekiah? Second Chronicles, it tells us he was lifted up with pride. You know, Josiah, only of Josiah. Listen to these words. Look at 2 Kings 23, 25. You've got your Bibles open right there. Look at verse 25. Before him there was no king like him. Now that's an amazing statement. Who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. I just ask you this question. If I got up here today and I said, do you think it's possible to live before God with a heart that serves God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? If I would have asked you, is that within the realm of possibility? I suspect you would have said no. Can I tell you something of Josiah? These are amazing words. Would you all agree? That's amazing. And there was no king like this guy. See, this is the backdrop to Zephaniah and all of his judgments. Something doesn't seem like it exactly squares, but let's keep going. Let's just keep going. I want you to consider the reformation and the revival that took place in these days. So 2 Kings 22, that's where you're at. That's not where I'm at. I need to get there so that I'm where you are. 2 Kings 22. So I just want you to see, we're just going to do a very quick running survey. Look at verse 5. So what he did was, you just look at the last words in verse 5. He repaired the house. He repaired the house of the Lord. So he gave himself to that. Now go to verse 11. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Okay, let me tell you about Josiah. Josiah was concerned that the house of God had fallen into disrepair. So he goes about repairing it. In the midst of repairing it, they discovered the book of the law of Moses. He tore his clothing. That's how he responded to the word of God. Look at 23, chapter 23, verse 3. The king stood by the pillar and he made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul to perform the words of this covenant. And by the way, what we saw just a few moments ago was the fact that he actually did it. He actually did with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, at least according to the law of Moses, he gave himself to this. So he repairs the house. He tears his clothing at hearing the word of God, humbles himself before the Lord. He makes this covenant to keep his integrity before the Lord. We keep going. Look at verse 4 here, chapter 23, verse 4. It says that the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal. So you see what he's doing. He's cleansing this thing. He's getting rid of all the idolatry for Baal, for Asherah, for all the hosts of heaven. He burned them. He doesn't just throw them out. He burns them in the fields. He carries their ashes to Bethel. He deposed, when he gets to Bethel, look at verse 5, he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places. He did that. Verse 6, he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem and burned it at the brook Kidron, beat it to dust, cast the dust of it upon the graves. You see, he's just desecrating all the worship, all the idols, all the altars of the false gods. He's not just getting rid of them. He's not just cleansing it. He is like saying to the devil, I contempt on you. You see what he's doing. You keep going here. Verse 7, he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes. Verse 8, it says that he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings from Geba to Beersheba and he broke down the high places of the gates. You see what he's doing. Verse 10, he defiled Topheth, which is the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no one might burn son or daughter as an offering to Molech. Verse 11, he removed the horses of the kings of Judah that they had dedicated to the sun. Right there at the end of 11, he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. Verse 12, right towards the end, he pulled down and broke in pieces what? The altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He pulled them down. He cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. Verse 13, the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon, the king of Israel, had built. You see, this is where Solomon went wrong. His wives led him into all this idolatry. He built for Ashtoreth and the abomination of the Sidonians. For Chemosh, the abomination of Moabit. Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Josiah, verse 14, broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the ashram, filled their places with the bones of men. Verse 15, halfway through the verse, he pulled down and burned, reducing the dust. He also burned the ashram. He's just desecrating these high places. Verse 16, Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. He sent and took the bones out of the tombs, burned them on these altars of these false gods he defiled it. You see what he's doing? Verse 19, Josiah removed all the shrines, also the high places that were in the cities of Samaria. See, now he's in the north kingdom. He's up there in Samaria and he's desecrating everything there. All these things that provoked the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. Verse 20, he sacrificed all the priests. I mean, these guys are living. He takes them and he slaughters them right on the high places, on the altars, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem and look what he did. Verse 21, he kept the Passover. Look at verse 22, no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges. In other words, no other king had ever had a Passover like this. Not since the days of the judges. Verse 24, Josiah put away the mediums, the necromancers, the household gods, and the idols, and all the abominations. And then you have verse 25, before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. So you have it. I mean, certainly in all the days that kings ruled in either Israel, the northern kingdom, or Judah, the southern kingdom, if you had a heart for righteousness, there was no better time to live than in the days of Josiah. You can't get around that. There was none like him. So, here's the thing. Imagine this, if you didn't know anything about Zephaniah, if I just said to you, what do you think God would say to Judah and Jerusalem in a day like that? What do you think God would have to say? I don't think you would imagine it would be the content of Zephaniah, just threatening judgment over and over and over again. And yet that's exactly what we have. With everything that was going on with Josiah. I mean, you might think that God would say, well done. This is really good. All this revival. Congratulations. What is Zephaniah? Zephaniah is what God has to say to the southern kingdom of Judah at just such a time as Josiah is king. Now, we already read this, but just listen again. Just listen to the tone of Zephaniah. I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I will sweep away man and beast. I will sweep away the birds, the fish, the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth. I'm going to stretch out my hand against Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Those who have turned back from following the Lord who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him. At that time, I will search out Jerusalem with lamps. I will punish the men who are complacent. The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast. The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter. The mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day. A day of distress and anguish. A day of ruin and devastation. A day of darkness and gloom. A day of clouds and thick darkness. A day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind so that they shall walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. And let me tell you something. Not long after Josiah was king, his son ruled and then another one of his sons ruled and then his grandson ruled and then another one of his sons ruled and then Judah's day was over. Nebuchadnezzar took them away into Babylonian captivity. You can't help but feel that that impending judgment is being spoken about by the prophet. But the thing is, we just simply can't escape the fact that the language of Zephaniah, it seems to go way beyond a mere reference to Nebuchadnezzar in Babylonian captivity. I mean, listen to this. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. Now you might say, well, maybe it's hyperbole. Maybe it's a hyperbolic way of talking about what was going to happen by Nebuchadnezzar. You know what I find? I find that throughout the prophets, they had a tendency to speak judgment to the people of their own day. But you always get the feeling they had their eyes looking over the shoulder of their contemporaries to something that was going to happen at the end. And that's the same feel you get here. The prophet, he is threatening a greater final judgment. But here's the question of the hour. I mean, doesn't it feel strange? Again, I come back to this. Doesn't it feel strange that of all the times for God to give this kind of impending doom, message of doom, that it would be in the days of Josiah? I mean, you would just feel like everything seems so good. I mean, there's revival in the land. Everything seems to be doing so well spiritually. And yet it's precisely then that what happened. God brings such a scathing warning of judgment. And you know, I just thought, okay, before we dive too deeply into Zephaniah, I think we need to think about this. Why this is. Because what I'm always trying to figure out is, okay, what application does this have for us? Is there any application? What does this say? And I think what it says to us is this. The point of it is this, that though someone is on fire for God, their fire is not necessarily my fire. Now, follow me here. Do you know one of the things that is abundantly clear in scripture is my life in the end is not going to be evaluated by the life of another. God sees me for who I am. And you know what? Josiah may be doing good and may be doing right. And you know what? There may be a lot of people that were helping Josiah do what Josiah did. And he was king and they may not have been outwardly rebelling or outwardly resisting. But you know as well as I do where God looks. You see, folks, I don't think this is any small matter. Have you ever noticed how prone we are to strive to find our identity outside of ourself? See, what do you mean? I mean just this. Have you ever noticed how Jesus said this? He said, when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, this is going to be a picture of a whole lot of people on judgment day. You begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us. Then he will answer you. I do not know you, where you come from. Then you will begin to say, you remember what the people said? They say, Lord, we ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets. And he's going to say, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity. Isn't that interesting? You know what? He specifically had to say to Chorazin and Capernaum and Bethsaida, do you think you're going to be exalted to heaven? Why would they think that? You know what? Again, we can often try to find our identity outside of ourselves. You see, you can try to find your identity in Israel in the days of Jesus. What could you say? Lord, we were there when you came. We sat under your teaching. He says, you think you're going to be exalted to heaven? You see, you can think that. Well, we rubbed shoulders with him. He healed my cousin. You see, we find our identity in that. Christ came into our proximity and we take that as, hey, it's okay with us. We find our identity there. You see, some guy could say, hey, we helped Josiah. We were there. We helped with those bones on the altar. You did a mighty work in our streets in those days, Lord. But you know what? You know what the issue always is? God looks at the heart and you remember what was said of Josiah with his heart. You see, God's looking at Judah as a whole. And just because the king goes after the Lord, seeking him, doesn't mean that that automatically sweeps everybody else right into the same category. It's the heart level. You know what happens? Think about this. Who's a Manchester United fan? You want to show your carnality? How about Manchester City? If you're really carnal, right? What happens when your team beats Liverpool, the Liverpudlians, or whatever you call them? What do they call them? What do you say? We beat the Scousers. We beat them? Those 11 guys out on the field beat them. You know what happens? We love to identify. God, we lived in the days of Josiah. God came. The times were good. You see, God looks at the heart. What do you say in this country? I remember back when the one time I seemed to get a bit thrilled about football in your country. England was playing, I forget who, Sweden maybe? It was at your house. And they got beat. And what do you say? We lost. And if you would have won, you beat Germany. We beat Germany. We did? You see, that's how we talk. We're so prone. They just put the James Webb telescope out in outer space. And I was thinking about that. Northrop Grumman was a company that helped design that coordination with NASA. But can you imagine if you worked for NASA, you worked for Northrop, and now all the accolades are coming out about it. Can you imagine if you worked on the team that put it out there? But you were the guy on the team that was most responsible for the delays and the mistakes. But you know what happens? All the applause comes, and you're right there to take it. You see, you blend in with the crowd. And sometimes people don't like to do that in the church. People that find, sometimes especially, they like big churches. Why? You can kind of get lost in the crowd. But I'll tell you this. If this tells us anything in Josiah's day, you did not get lost in the crowd. In fact, you know what? God seems to single Josiah out. And he said, you know what, Josiah? You're right to tear your clothes in fear before me because I'm bringing judgment on this country. And because you humbled yourself, I'm going to spare you. But you know what? He wasn't going to spare the rest. Why? God, we have a God who looks at the heart. People love to identify with the church. They love to identify with a nation. They love to identify with sports teams or with companies or with political parties. People do that all the time. You know, somebody from this country after World War II could have said, we won the war. But you know, what'd you do? Well, I didn't do anything. I didn't fight in it. I didn't make any sacrifice, but we won. You see, that's how, that's oftentimes how, and you know what can happen with revival too. Revival came. You know something? I have read about a lot of revivals and the statistics are very interesting. That even in the most wonderful times of awakening, even in the times of the greatest revivals that have happened in history, do you realize that never more than 5% of the people were converted? Never. Now, when the spirit of God comes in the land like that, it'll radically change the country. But you know what that means? I mean, basically statistically, when you look at times of revival, 95 to 99% of the people perished. Now you can say, well, we had a revival. Just like if you lived in the days of Josiah, you could say that. I'll tell you this, God can breathe on this church. God can open wonderful doors for us. God can give us opportunities to take the gospel to far away places and near places and see souls saved, see people added to the church. And you know what? You can identify yourself with the church and you can say, God brought revival among us. God used us. God did this with us. And all the time, perhaps you weren't involved in those things. You didn't contribute. I mean, that happens in churches. And you can imagine a man living in the days of Josiah and he might say, we destroyed the idols. We cleansed the land. We observed a Passover that didn't equal like anything since the days of the judges. We had revival. We restored the worship. We cleansed the temple. We went back to the worship of the true and living God. But I'll tell you all of this was because of Josiah's zeal. And there's Zephaniah threatening judgment. And I'll tell you what that tells us. It tells us that God is no respecter of persons. You know what? You know what the Lord doesn't do? He doesn't just lump everybody together. He doesn't lump every, we don't stand or fall together here, folks. You know, it's always interesting. I can remember preaching through, and I preached through this when I was here, but you know, preaching Revelation chapter two and three and the seven churches of Asia minor. And you know what really stands out to me is that the fact is that when Jesus is saying through all these churches, I know your works, he distinguishes. You remember how it was with Thyatira? You've got Jezebel. And you've got those who were seduced by her. And you've got my servants. And you've got the rest who didn't embrace this doctrine. Or you think of Sardis. They had a reputation of being alive, but they were dead. But he said, there are a few who are worthy to walk with me in white. It's very interesting how there is this distinguishing. You know what happens when we walk into the church? We see each other. We kind of, I can see you all. You know, I can see differences in gender, differences in color of hair, differences in the clothing you're wearing. We see the outward. But you remember what scripture said. Remember what God said to Samuel when he was going thinking that David's eldest brother ought to be king? What did God say to him? He said, Samuel, you know what men do? They look on the outward. I look on the heart. What's going on in Josiah's day? I'll tell you what's going on. God looks at the heart. Josiah, very much to be commended, he sought the Lord. You know what this tells you about the condition as a whole? And brethren, I come back to this. When we can get around fiery Christians, we can get around the influence where God is working and we can feel, we can almost feel like by osmosis we're included. But I tell you at the end of the day, you know what David said to his son Solomon? He said, know the God of your father, serve him with a whole heart, with a willing mind for the Lord searches all hearts, understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. If you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. See, God singles us out. God sees every one of us separately. And his eyes singled out Josiah. Very commendable. What is this? This is nothing else than omniscience. This is God's theme. And you realize, brethren, you realize at this very moment, our heart, our mind, our thoughts, all we are is an open book before the Lord. Every one of us. And we can't get lost in the crowd. We can say, you know, we evangelize Manchester all the time. You can be telling somebody about everything that the church here does. And then, but do you do it? And not just do you do it, but where's the heart at in this? Do you do not have a love for the Lord Jesus? Do you do not have a love for the glory of God? This is the real issue. Josiah tore his clothing. That was an outward act, but what was it coming from? It was coming, his weeping, his tearing his clothes. It was coming from a reality in his heart. And God didn't just impute that to the rest of the nation. We're not all in the same category. Listen, God searches my heart, your heart, my mind, your mind. If I'm involved in sin, it's not lost in the crowd. It never is. If I'm walking upright and with integrity, that isn't lost in the crowd either. I mean, the fact is, if this church gives itself, say to special prayer and fasting, you can say, well, we gave ourselves to prayer and fasting. But the fact is, did you? You see, we can identify with the crowd, but the real issue is, where are you at? Well, I attended a church that had a passion for the souls of people, making disciples in faraway places, but you never contributed to it. You didn't pray for it. You didn't attend the prayer meetings when we did pray for it. You weren't involved in it. The church I attended, they evangelized Manchester all the time. You can fill in the blank. We visited old people in nursing homes, or we visited prisoners in prison, or we visited the college campus. We sought to take the truth there. We sought to take meals to people that were in need, or we did this. And you see, but did we? You see, that's the real issue here. I mean, that's what I see with this Zephaniah thing. It's like people who associated very closely with the people of God, in the end, he's going to say, I didn't know you. Yeah, but you taught in our streets. Your servants were in our midst. I mean, we saw the works of God in our midst. And he would say what he said to Bethsaida and Chorus in Capernaum. You think you're going to be exalted to heaven? Because what the real issue is, did you repent? Where were you at? I mean, that's the kind of thing. Listen, when we pray and fast, we call it seasons of prayer and fasting. The issue is going to be, did you? Sacrifice. Did you sacrifice? It's very easy. I've seen this through the years. Very easy when we talk collectively about giving to things and somebody will raise their hand and say, yeah, I think we should get this. When perhaps they don't really give or give a whole lot. You see that the issue is this. Did you encourage unity or did you use your mouth in a way that wasn't? Were you sacrificial or more self-absorbed and selfish? Did you encourage one another to love and good works or did you just not care? You see, we can just get this identity. Now, I want to end with this. Young men, who do we have here today? Your boys aren't here, are they? Anyway, little guy here. Enzel's not here today. All those young guys aren't here. What time is it? How long have I been preaching? I'm not going to say what I'm going to say because there's something. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he was 16 years old, eight years into his reign when he began to purify the nation, the house of God. He was 16 years old. It calls him still a boy. So I got a lot to say on that. I'll say it next week. Brother, really, just the admonition from this. When you've got somebody so glowing, like a personality like Josiah, he's in glory. This was a man after God's own heart. This was a man who, according to the law of Moses, just such things are said about him as to blow your mind. There was such... I would have loved to have walked with him and talked with him and lived in those days and just seeing who he was. I would have loved to have walked with him when he was cleansing all this. And I mean, you think about a fearful sight. Imagine him slaughtering the priests and throwing their bones on the altars and just desecrate it. It'd be pretty traumatic. But I'll tell you this. Then you have Zephaniah basically saying, this is God looking at all this happen and say, but for all that Josiah did, it was only just a generation later, they were gone. God came and destroyed this temple, wiped his people right off the land. And I'll tell you, it's a picture of the coming judgment. What you don't want to do is get lost in the crowd. We all need to be honest. Scripture says that God searches our heart. You want to, you just remember Psalm 139. Where can you go? You just get, you can't get away. The most important thing is this. You don't get lost in the crowd. God knows. God knows. And listen, every one of us, he knows, he knows, he knows the sin. He knows the failures. He knows the falls, but he also knows. See, here's the thing. He knows when we humble ourselves because that's what Josiah did. He humbled himself. In humility, what do we do? In humility, we confess. One of the things to do is be honest with the Lord. Confess. If there's anything, if you saw here as we were going through, you know who God is going to weed out of Israel? The exultant ones. Did you catch that when we were reading Zephaniah? It's the people that are proud. It's the people that basically think, I don't need a savior. I can do this in my own strength. But being honest, confessing our weakness, confessing our sin, coming, and I'll tell you this, striving, striving to do what he did. When Christ talked about loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, you can tell by the life of Josiah, this is not some pie in the sky. This is not just some theoretical standard. Brethren, do you ever think that way? I can actually strive to love God and serve God with all my heart and my mind, my strength. I can seek to do that just like Josiah did. What an example. We have these things preserved for us to be an example to us. It's just like we saw last time in Hebrews 11. All these things are a cloud of witnesses. If Josiah is a witness to us about anything, it is this. It is you can live like that. He is made of the same stuff we are. If he can live a life like that, so can you. And we can strive towards it. Brethren, one of the starting points is just to realize, you know what? That's within the realm of possibility. I'm afraid too many people, especially in the reformed camp, they don't like to take God's word serious when it talks like that. They just kind of relegate all of this to, oh, wretched man that I am, and they walk around very content to be wretched. You better be careful with that philosophy, because without holiness, none of us are going to see the Lord. Let me tell you something. Josiah went to glory, and what we know is he had a lot of people running around, and undoubtedly they lived right down the street from Josiah. But where are they now? Just look at the threats of Zephaniah. Where are they now? I'll tell you where they are. God wiped them away, and they're suffering right now, and they rejected. You see, it says the people who didn't seek Him, the people who didn't inquire after Him. And so, brethren, in humility, humble yourself like Josiah did. Inquire of the Lord. Seek after the Lord. Give Him no rest. Seek Him. Listen, if you have failures in your life, take them to Him. And then think about what God's word says. What does God's word tell you to do? And strive to live in that, in the power of the cross, in the power of resurrection. And that's where we're at. Josiah is a tremendous example for us. Don't just write this off, because there is a judgment coming. The words of Zephaniah are absolutely fearful, folks. If God takes you in His indignation, it's not going to really matter if you called yourself a Christian or if you called yourself any other thing. Listen, there is real righteousness found in somebody like Josiah or somebody like David. There's real righteousness found in Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah and Asa. Real righteousness. Brethren, that real righteousness needs to be found in us. It needs to be something that by faith, there is an obedience of faith, something that we need to be striving after. Brethren, faith. This is a life of faith. I'm not talking works here. Obviously, Scripture's not talking that way. But God said, because you humbled yourself, because you tore your clothes, because you wept before me. You see, God sees the heart. He sees that. And you know what? If you feel your eye is dry and your prayers are cold and you feel that your heart is hard and you feel that, well, take it to Him. Take it to Him. Confess those things. He's faithful and just to forgive. There is grace to help in time of need. When is there a greater time of need than when you feel the temptations of the devil? You feel the power of the flesh. When do you more need help? Don't you think he needed that help? Yes, he might have been 16 years old when he sought the Lord, but I'll tell you, that happens by the grace of God. Aside from the grace of God, we're dead in the water. And there's a throne of grace. Go to the throne of grace. Ask Him to help you. Brethren, I said this last week, and I'm going to close with this. You cannot hope to keep your faith. And one of the things to believe is this. I can live with all my might. I can live with my mind. I can live with my strength to the glory of God, like Josiah did. You see, faith grabs a hold of that, but you've got to be in this Word. I have found, you know what, God has given me a hunger for the Word of God. Ever since the first day that I was saved, and even in the days leading up to it, I've had a hunger. And I think God, if He's going to raise up somebody to be a preacher, they have an extraordinary appetite for the Word of God. But I'll tell you this, if there's ever been a point in my life where my faith, I have felt like may have been in decline, it's always been the seasons when I've been furthest away from this book. And I try to be in this book every single day, but there can be a big difference between being in this book in a meager, minor way, or just simply trying to knock out some pages of the Bible, and when you're really in it, and you're making it a priority in your life, and you're soaking this Word up. Brethren, this book will do wonders for your faith. And even things like you read Josiah, and something like that jumps out, and it's like, wow, a life like that is actually incapable. I mean, an Old Testament saint actually lived that way. And your faith grabs hold of it and says, why can't you live that way? I mean, didn't he live in the same strength and same power of the God who is your God? And you look at that and you say, do I want to be like all the people that Zephaniah is bringing all these curses on? No, I want to be like Josiah. And you know what? The way he purged the temple, the land, the altars, the false religions, the idols, you can seek to purge your own life in the same radical way. Get the garbage out. Chop the movies out. Chop the use of your phone out. Get rid of the things in your house that ought not to be there, the books, or the magazines, or the fill in the blank, the stuff you had, stuff from your lost life, stuff that might have to do with the occult, stuff that you might have stolen. I mean, you know what? He basically did inventory, and he thoroughly did it. You know one of the things you find out all through these kings? Amazing. None of them touched the high places. They left them, all of them, even the good kings. Even when Hezekiah came along and got rid of a few of them, he left a whole bunch of them. Not Josiah. Thorough. He eradicated them entirely. Brethren, be thorough. Be thorough. Listen, we're running a race of life here. Don't let there be things that snag you. Remember last week? Get rid of the weight. Get rid of the sin that besets. Purge. Cleanse. It's really good to revisit this on a regular basis. Do inventory of your life and be as radical as Josiah was. Brethren, we live in the power of the cross. Any of you doubt the power of the cross? I mean, you recognize the power of the cross was looking backwards before it even happened. The power of it enveloped Josiah's life. Now we're post-cross. Power is the same. Produce that kind of righteousness in our lives. Brethren, next week, I have a word for the young people. I hope they'll all be here, because Josiah is a prime example for young men, given the fact that he began to reign at eight years of age, and he did all of this purging when he was 16 years old. Might sound like he was a 35-year-old guy that did all this. No, he was 16 when he did all that. Father, I pray that you'd help grip us with the life of Josiah, who lived in the days of those profound words of Zephaniah, a bright shining light in the midst of an ocean of mankind being threatened with destruction. Just amazing. Lord, we want to be those shining lights. We don't want to be swept away with this ocean of the tossing, foaming waves of lost humanity. We want to be among the redeemed. We want to be among the little flock of Christ. We want to be among those who are like Josiah. Lord, give us grace to help in our time of need. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.