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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. and reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now look in chapter 22, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. 8. One was 12. One was 22. This one is only 8 years old. Now listen, 8 years old, and he reign for 31 years in Jerusalem. And look in verse 2, something different. And he did that which was what? Right in the sight of the Lord. Walked in all the ways of David his father. Now David wasn’t his father, but on down the line, see, before he was ever born, he was in the line, so they called the Son of David.

And then notice this, you know whenever you read the book of Joshua, it says, don’t move to the right hand or to the left hand, but study thy word, meditate if the night word day and night, the dalmeous prosper, and whether so ever thou goeth and so on. For some reason, they had not had the word of God. Things had gotten totally out of hand. The priests could not be trusted. They became evil. They no longer read the word or taught the people the word.

The king didn’t know the word and it was the prophets job to keep the king on track. So look what it says in verse 3. And it came to pass in the 18th year of king, you’ll say, so in the 18th year he heard some things. So he contacts Hylkiah, which is the high priest. See there in verse 4? Go up to Hylkiah, the high priest that he may son the total which is brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people.

So evidently they were collecting their temple tax. So now find out how much. Go up there and tell the hybrid. I want them to add it up. See what we got. And then I want to take that money and we’re going to rebuild the temple. We’re not rebuild the temple but remodel it or you know keep it up and maintain it because things were in disarray. So in verse 5 and let them deliver it unto the hand of the doers of the work that have the oversight of the house of the Lord.

Let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the Lord to repair the breaches of the house. Carpenters and builders and masons and all that and they bought ten were and they got the work done. In verse 7, how be it there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered unto their hand because they dealt faithfully. They had some good men, godly men, they could trust who got it done.

So while this was going on, He’ll kia in verse 8, the high priest. Said unto Chef Anne, the scribe, I have found the book of the law and the house of the Lord. So maybe it was under something, hid somewhere, things piled on top of it, dusted all over the place, but he found it. And he delivered it to the hands of them that do the work. They have the oversight of the house of the Lord. So in verse 10, and chef and described, showed the kings and hill-kiah the priest have delivered me a book.

And he read it before the king. This must be a good book, an interesting book. This book changed everything. Remember, the people had gotten away from the Lord, a number of kings had come, and a number of kings were bad, and the people were gone astray, and doing all kind of wicked things throughout the whole nation. And they found a book. I wonder what was in this book. Maybe it was comic book. It was a book on how to improve your life, you know, 10 EU ways.

Look what he says in verse 11, and came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law that he ran his clothes. And the king commanded hill-kai the priest and he told him he says, this is what I want you to do in verse 13, go ye inquire of the Lord for me, go and inquire of the Lord for me. For the people, for all Judah, concern the words of this book that is found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us.

And I’ll get the reason, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. We messed up. Our fathers before us. They didn’t do right. They didn’t read the word. They didn’t know the word. They didn’t obey the word. They had lost the word. But now they found the word. And this is probably, you know, like the first five books, maybe Joshua and a few others and lo and behold they found the book.

So they decided that they’re going to read this thing to all the people. So look at verse 15 and there was a prophetess, a woman. She said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the Lord, behold I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read, because they have forsaken me, 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 kindled against this place and shall not be quenched.”

But now notice what he says about the king of Judah, But to the king of Judah, which sit you to inquire of the Lord, Thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hath heard, And see how God is going to do something with this man, Because thine heart was tender, And thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord. When thou heard us what I speak against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hath rent thy clothes and wet before me, I also have heard the saith the Lord.”

Now, look at this verse 20. Now, you need to understand sometimes you can always figure out why God does certain things. I have something I’m going to read that I had written some time back about Dr. Curtis Hudson. Now he was eight years older than I was, but I had a lot of love and respect for this man because he took the gospel-driven man to a new level as far as with the independent Baptist. He really wanted them to see and understand the clarity of the gospel.

And so because of this, I don’t know why God took him home. I’m also wondering why Lord, if there’s anybody I would take home with all those other nuts, it won’t do what he’s doing. But why you take the good man’s doing a good job. I mean here’s Hank doing a good job, he’s clear on the gospel and one of the greatest soul owners and you take him home and you leave some of those other nuts around. Sometimes I just have trouble figuring out why God does things.

But God knows down the road, doesn’t he? You want to know why sometimes he allows certain things to happen in your life? Well look what he says here. Verse 20 is verse you need to underline in your Bible. Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers. Now what do you think that means? I’m going to gather you to your fathers. What do you think that means? You’re going to die. I’m going to take you out of here. and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in what?

In peace. Thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. You’re not going to have to see all of the evil that I’m going to bring upon this place. So I’m going to be generous to you. I’m going to take you home first. Now, is it possible that God knows what’s coming down the road for various people? And because of God’s mercy and grace, He could take you home ahead of time to spare you something that’s coming.

You say, well, no, I don’t know if I like this idea. What do you mean? You are not God. You don’t know how bad it can be. Isn’t there times in your life when you question some of those things that happens to you and you wish it had never happened? Man, I wish I could just get out of here. Well, God knows what’s coming down the road. And so He may take this one and may take that one and may take that one.

If God is in charge, isn’t that His call? Can you trust Him? Can you trust Him? If God is perfect and can do no wrong. Now, is He still going to judge the nation? As a nation, they’re still going to be judged. As a nation, they’re still going to be chasteened and taken out of the land. But there’s timing, even like Solomon, even though God told him he was not to have all those wives. He did it anyway. And even though in the end of his life, he strayed.

But he still says some mighty good things as warnings. The conclusion of the whole matter in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 was, serve the Lord with all I heart.” Now that’s some good advice, but after him the kingdom was divided because of his sons, because of what Solomon had done. So there’s still a price to pay as a nation and it still cost you probably as a child of God certain length of life or it could cost you in rewards when you get to heaven, positions that you could have had.

So you can’t just sin and think there’s no consequences to it. There’s consequences to everything. Now look in chapter 23, chapter 23, the kings sent and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him and the priests and prophets and all the people, both small and great, and look what happened. He read in their ears all the words of the book, of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.

So he wanted all the people to hear the Word of God. Now when they came back from Babylon after seven years of captivity, you’ll find in Nehemiah, also parts of Ezra, where they had the same thing they had and they stood and they read the law to all the people. Now how long would you like to stand? Well I read at least just the five books of Moses. How long do you think it would take? And you complain when you have to sit there for 45 minutes.

I got an idea. I know that Hank really had this thing nailed down. He sat down while he talked. So I think I ought to sit down and y’all stand while I’m preaching. That way you won’t fall asleep. But if you do, you’ll fall on somebody and maybe they’ll wake you up. I mean, think I ought to do that. No takers. I don’t know what I’m going to do with y’all. Hey, I’m the guy just getting older. I’m going to have to sit up here in my walker so I can, you know, follow one side of the other side.

But anyway, at the meeting they had up there, there’s this one guy Tom Wallace, he used to be a pastor at the Franklin Road Baptist Church. And he was 85 years old, and he didn’t look like he was 60 years old. 85 years old, he didn’t run up here and preach this sermon. And I thought, man, that’s still 13 years older than me. I can barely get upstairs now and down there. And then the pastor of Gospelite, and his name was Robertson, and he’s about 86 or something like that, anybody?

86, 87. His wife just passed away about two weeks ago. So he’s standing up there, and he made this statement. He says, well, I guess I would just like to go ahead and be the pastor here until I’m 100. And then I’d like to go into evangelistic work. He’s 86 years old, and says, I guess I’d just like to go ahead and read that, because he said, some people asked me what I was going to do since my wife passed away.

He said, well, I thought I’d just go ahead and preach to them 100 and then go into evangelistic work. I loved it. I loved it. And a man has a vision. And anyway, after he said that, then I could barely get up off the seat. Second Kings chapter 23, as we’re moving right along. And verse 4, you’ll notice that after he read all these things to him, he learned what the words said and what they were supposed to do.

So there is like a revival under Josiah. Josiah was a good man. He got into the Word and he changed some things. he began to make some things in verse four, middle part of the verse there, he says, and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields and so forth. So he decided unclean in the house. He’s got rid of a lot of things. And verse five, he put down the idolatrous priest, he got rid of them, took them down.

And then you notice in verse seven, look what else He did. They had prostitute houses next to the house of the Lord. Who did? Sodomites. Look in verse 7, He braked down the houses of the sodomites. They weren’t even supposed to allow them in the land. True? Now they had not only come out of the closet, they were permeating everywhere and getting in key positions. Kind of like where we are today, wouldn’t you say?

So they won’t be satisfied until they put us in the closet. And once they get us in the closet, they’re going to lock the door and set it on fire. They don’t want any Christian influence in America. But until then, we fight, we stand for what is truth and don’t move. So in verse 7, he break down the houses of the side of my that were by the house of the Lord, where the women will hang for the grove.

So he did all of these things down through here. Look down in verse 10, where it says, and he defiled toa-feth, he says, which is in the valley of the children of Hennem that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire and moly. Walking on hot coals, proving your faith to the false gods, all the kind of stuff. That wasn’t even supposed to be in Israel. And yet now you have kings that have set all the stuff up, but Josiah, he led a revival.

You know when he comes to the Lord, it’s either a revival or a revolt. like with the Apostle Paul everywhere he went, revival or revolt. And you don’t win them all, but there is a war that needs to be done and people are supposed to take a stand. But anyways, you go down through here, you can see a lot of good things. And not only did he do that, but he did something else. Look there in 2 Kings chapter 23, look in verse 21, and the king commanded all the people saying, keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.

See, things had gotten out of hand. They hadn’t done what they’re supposed to do, and as a nation. But now, hey, he found the Word of God, and he took a stand upon what the Word of God says. So in verse 22, surely there was not holding such a Passover from the days of the judges, that judge Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor in the kings of Judah. But in the 18th year of King Josiah, wherein this Passover was holed to the Lord in Jerusalem.

And then he also, in verse 24, moral of the workers with familiar spirits and the wizards and the images and the idols, all they’ve been on the ish-en that were spied in the land of Judah. And in Jerusalem, John Josiah put away that he might perform the words of the Lord which was written in the book that He’ll Kiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. See when you start getting away from the Word of God you can’t stay strong.

I’ve had people say well I don’t need church to do what? stay strong, then you won’t stay strong. Yes, I can. I know enough. The word that you’re supposed to believe is for Satan not the assembly of yourselves together. So you going to disobey that verse. Faithfulness is what is required. Whatever God requires, you’re to be faithful to do it. So you’re not going to meet with God’s people. That’s disobedient. So you’re already weak. You’re not getting stronger because you do it.

You’re getting weaker and don’t even see it. God’s word is truth. Look what he says in verse 25. Now this is a great thing to have written about you 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 rose there any like him. God must have thought he was doing a pretty good job.

He says, and you’re gonna die in peace, and you’re not gonna see all the evil that I’m gonna bring up on the nation. Remember, Isaiah was the prophet at this time. So when you read the book of Isaiah, Isaiah is talking about what’s going to take place. So we’re looking at verse 27, and the Lord says, I will remove Judah also out of my sight as I have removed Israel and will cast off this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be called, and we have the death of Josiah.

He dies. And so that’s mentioned here in the following verses. And the last part says, and the people of the land took Jehovah has the son of Josiah, and anointed him and made him king in his father’s dead. And his son, after him, first three of them, Joe has was 20 and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem, three months. That was a long time, wasn’t it? Verse 32, and he did that which was evil in the side of the Lord.

Sometimes you can do a great job, but you can’t make your children serve God. You can set the right tone, the way to go, and teach them all that you can, but you can’t make anyone else love God or serve God. There’s got to be something inside of you that says, that’s what I want and God will bless if you will serve him. Now, I just want to read this to you before we close.

I had wrote this years ago, 20 years ago, about Dr. Hudson. I says, what went you out to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Not this man from Tennessee? To the spirit only would he bend? Oh, my friend, what went you out to hear? The gospel of grace made crystal clear. Salvation by grace is the gift of God. Rewards are earned, but rebellion the rod. The eyes of God run to and fro, through a man with a heart of fire.

A burning passion to reach the lost, make this blaze the Saints desire. The flame has died down, the spark shot up to descend, blown upon by the breath of God to produce more flames in the wind. The sword of the Lord was the power of the pen, but Dr. Curtis Hudson was the flame in the wind. A living sacrifice on the altar was laid. Hot colds from the altar and revivals were made. O Lord, this offering was burn up for thee.

His reward shall be great, but his salvation was free. I wrote that 20 years ago. And I still feel the same way today. We’re running out of time. Life is short. Remember that verse? I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your regional service. Be not conformed to this world, but be a transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove or discover what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Do you want it? It’ll cost you. It’ll cost you. It’ll cost you everything. It’ll cost you everything. You can’t play around with the will of God. Look up here, this hand represents your name. If you’re here and you’re not positive where you’re going to go today, this is for you and this is for you. This hand, you and me, this wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. God says that He loves us. He hates what we do wrong.

And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. But he loves us once, just to go to heaven. To go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteousness. He is none of us are perfect, none of us. We’ve all done things wrong. So the Bible says that this hand representing Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, He came into this world. Why? Because He loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die.

He took all of our sins, paid for them on the cross. Came back from the dead. You see what people need to understand is this and it’s so simple. You see, Christ took all of our sins. He willingly, willingly took our sins, paid for them on the cross. And He wants you and I to willingly accept His righteousness. You see, this is what you need to go to heaven on. The righteousness of God and it’s free. He will give it to you freely.

if you’ll believe that he took this willingly. It’s the best news in all the world. There’s no tricks to it. That’s why we have sometimes people that just faithfully keep going on. And there’s always the desire for some time to slow down and be like the world and not do anything. We get weary as we work, But we’re not weary of the work, but we get weary in the work and people get tired. And sometimes it would be so helpful if, as Jesus says, the harvest truly is plentyous, but there’s something that’s few.

What was that? The labors. The labors are what? That means a few people are doing the work of the Lord. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every eye closed, There’s no one looking around. If you hear this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you just talk to the Lord right now and say, Lord, I don’t understand at all. But friend, I want you to know that God does love you and that He paid for your sins.

And if you will believe that and trust Him as your Savior, He will give you the free gift of everlasting life. Where the heads bowed nice and close, is there anyone else that says, yes, preach that. That made sense to me and I’ll trust Christ right now as my Savior. would you slip you in a very quick link, put it right back down? I just want to have prayer for you. Now I’ve got to embarrass you. I’m not going to trap you or anything like that.

Anyone at all. You that no Christ is your Savior. You’ve already trusted the Lord. Because you visually picture an altar with these hot burning coals. Can you picture your body being sacrificed? And that angel bringing that hot burning coal to you. You wanted that burning desire, more than you wanted anything in this world. And God says, if you will do this, you can know the perfect will of God for your life. By the renewing of your mind, would you do it?

Would you just talk to the Lord right now and say, the Lord, contemplates your child? I know that I’m going to heaven. Lord, I want Your will for my life more than anything else in the world. I don’t know what all that entails. Let’s pray, shout it. Father, once again we thank You so much for giving us all this insight. Not only into what happened then, but what’s going on now in our nation. Help us to be wise to know Your Word, stand upon it, and to trust Your in Christ and in We pray.

Hello, this is Peter Amato with Bibleline, and we hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We’re so thankful your support of Bibleline, and we would like to offer you a free gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr. Arnold’s teaching series on the Book of Colossians. Paul writes to a concerned pastor about false teachings that are entering his church. Some were teaching that one could find additional and greater knowledge outside of Jesus Christ, which is not true.

Paul teaches that Christ is the head and we are complete in him. This teaching series is certain to help you in your spiritual growth. So email, call or write to us today to receive your CD series on the book of Colossians. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Leaving that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.