Experiencing God’s Revival
Text: 2 Chronicles 34:1-7, 2 Kings 23:1-24
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Introduction: Joke, Farmer and his wore out mule.
A farmer called the vet to care for his broken-down mule.
"He just ain't got any pep, Doc."
The doctor came and gave the mule a shot. The farmer watched as the
mule's ears stood up, then the mule reared up on its back legs and then took
off like a booster rocket. Watching the
disappearing cloud of dust left by the mule the farmer asked the veterinarian,
"Just how much of that stuff did you give to 'em, Doc?"
"Oh, about a dollars’ worth,"
"Well, then you better give me about 3 dollars’ worth."
"Now why in the world would you want to take horse medicine?"
"Well, Doc, somebody's got to catch that crazy mule."
How often in my own life could I have used a shot in the
arm? Something to get me up and going
again. In our spiritual life we call it
revival.
Preaching about revival is not something I am good at. I don’t like feel confident doing it because I
don’t really understand revivals, at least not in the way they I read about
them in the Bible and in the history of our nation. I’ve not experienced
revivals like that. I once attended a seminar taught by Bro. Hugh Atkinson, the
pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Fort Worth. A man I really admired. He
preached on revival and what he told us from his 50 plus years in the ministry
was that revival was God’s business and not ours. We must get ourselves ready
for revival, but it only comes in the time and to the place that God chooses.
The Last Good King II Chronicles 34:1-7, 14-21
1-7 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. And
they brake down the altars of Baalim 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 brake in pieces, and made dust [of them], and strowed it upon
the graves of them that had sacrificed 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
mattocks round about. 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
throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
14-21 And when they brought out the money that was brought
into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah 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 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 servants, they do it. And they have gathered together
the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into
the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen. Then Shaphan the
scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan
read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words
of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and
Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe,
and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying, Go, enquire 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: for 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.
Last King of Judah God Would Bless
Josiah was the last "good" king of Judah.
Review the list of Good and bad Kings
The Kings of Judah, (good kings in red, mixed in orange)
Rehoboam 928-911
Abijah/Abijam
911-908
Asa 908-867
Jehoshaphat 867-851
Jehoram/Joram 851-843
Ahaziah/Jehoahz 843-842
Athaliah 842-836
Joash/Jehoash 836-799
Amaziah 799-786
Uzziah 786-758
Jotham 758-742
Ahaz 742-726
Hezekiah 726-697
Manasseh 697-642
Amon 642-640
Josiah 640-609
Jehoahaz 609-608
Jehoiakim/Eliakim 608-597
Jehoiachin 597
Zedekiah 597-587
Josiah was Judah's last good king, it was his reformation of
621 B.C. that did more than all else to restore Israel's commitment to God's
Book of the Law; and it was loyalty to that written revelation that provided
the hope for Judaism during the Exile. - The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.
2 Chronicles, relates that in his 8th year when he was 16
years old, he "began to seek after the God of David his father," and
that in the 12th year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the idolatry
that had become common and accepted to the people of his kingdom.
As King he led a revival in the nation of Israel which was spurred
by the discovery of God's Book of Law, which had been hidden away in the
temple.
In the 18th year of his reign, Josiah sent Shaphan the
scribe to the temple to arrange with Hilkiah the high priest for the repairs to
be made in the temple. On giving a report back to the King, Hilkiah also gave
to Shaphan a book which he had found in the "house of Yahweh."
Shaphan read from the book to the king Josiah and what he heard caused him rend
his robe in distress and fear. The king then sent a deputation to Huldah the
prophetess for her opinion of the on the book; and she told him that the curses
were valid, and worse, all the consequences of disobeying and disregarding God
for all these many years was now coming due.
The Bible says, he sought God and walked in the ways of
David. He removed the symbols of idolatry. He purged Judah of wickedness, he
reinstituted the Passover and other religious feasts and observances and that
he turned himself and his people to God's Word.
A Leader that God will bless
Based on the example of Josiah, we can draw applications and
marks of distinction that point out a leader that God can bless.
First, and foremost, they are people who turn to God's Word.
The Bible is central in their lives, their actions, their decisions
and their plans.
They understand that the Bible is the very word of God, it
is the revelation of who God is and what God has proclaimed for our guidance
and walk with Him.
Secondly, they will seek God.
The Bible is important to one of God’s leaders not because
it is a beautiful, ancient and majestic collection of poems, history and
philosophy, but because it is a book that and points the way to those who would
seek Him.
Thirdly, Leaders blessed by God, remove the symbols of
idolatry.
In our day that is not a carved statue in a grove of trees
set upon a mountain but other more abstract symbols of idolatry. Things like materialism
(worship of almighty buck)
Sexual Impurity (indulgence of sexual images and actions)
Human pride (the upholding of man and his accomplishments
over his need and dependence of God)
Amorality (the lack of definite right and wrong
choices)
Anything that would take our devotion and worship from God
and direct it to anything or anyone else would be a symbol of idolatry that God
blessed leaders would strive to remove.
Who then could be a leader, that God can bless.
We think of Josiah and relate our leaders to Presidents, politicians
and those in our government. Yes they are leaders but I don’t think they will
have much of an impact on any revivals that touch our lives.
The leaders that will affect revival in our lives and in our
family’s lives are pastors, church leaders, and brothers and sisters in the
Lord. Leaders that impact us are especially, fathers and mothers. Sometimes God
can use friends and co-workers to lead us to spiritual revival. And we should
never be so foolish as to think that God cannot use us, as insignificant as we
might be, to lead others and be a channel for God’s blessing in their life.
Whoever the leader might be they, in some or many ways, will
follow the pattern of works established by Josiah, emphasizing the Word of God
and removing the idols that distract and rob us of finding God in our life.
The Last Hope 2 Kings 23:7-24
Israel's need of Revival
Josiah came at a time when Israel truly needed a revival, a
great awakening of their need for God. As we read about the reforms of Josiah,
we can see what had happened in the many years of so many bad and indifferent
Kings of Judah.
II Kings 23:7 Prostitution and Homosexuality, And he brake
down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the
women wove hangings for the grove.
II Kings 23:10 Murder of children, And he defiled Topheth,
which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his
son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. (The valley of Topheth,
after this time was turned into a garbage dump and during the time of Christ
was know as the valley of Hinnom or Gahenna, with Jesus likened to the never
ending burning of Hell.)
II Kings 23:21-23 The worship of God had been forsaken, 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. Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of
the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor
of the kings of Judah; But in the
eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in
Jerusalem. (Josiah led a great national Passover, such as had not been seen
since the times of Moses, and King David and Solomon)
II Kings 23:24 Occultism was being practiced, “Moreover the
workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols,
and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem,
did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were
written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.” (Josiah
rid the land of necromancers, mediums, fortune tellers, those who sought to
speak with the dead or raise and communicate with demons.)
Our Need for Revival
When you read what Josiah did in Israel you can’t help but
see a parallel in our own nation today.
Sexual sin. Today, prostitution, homosexuality and the LGBTQ
lifestyle is regarded as just another kind of normal, instead of the deadly
form of perversion and moral cesspit that it actually is.
Murder of the Innocent. You read in the Old Testament about
the the murder of children in the worship of Moloch and think surely no people,
no one who can be called a human being would do such a thing to their own child
and yet in America or own worship of Moloch sees the sacrifice of thousands of
babies each day.
Abortion is the number one killer in the US, around 5000 die
each year from cigarettes, 25,000 from drunk drivers, but in the 1st 10 years
after abortion was legalized over 15 million lives have been lost by the so
called “choice” of a parent. All the
wars in the 200 year history of or country have taken less than 1 1/2 million,
yet in the years between 1980 and 2012, our nation legally has allowed that
many babies to be terminated by abortion every single year. Right now between
600, 000 and 900,000 babies are being sacrificed every year for the convenience
and pleasure of their parents.
The Occult. Is there a belief in the occult in our nation as
their was in Israel?
From horoscopes (Melinda's Horoscope), to crystal therapy, to
reincarnation, to Satanic worship, and witchcraft. This year witches have got
held coven with the express purpose of cursing the President of the United
States and statues worshipping Satan have been erected at several prominent
cities in our nation.
Families at Risk. How are our families doing in America
today?
The majority of families in our country today are not
traditional families with a Mom, Dad and children from the marriage.
30% of all children under 21 are being raised in single
parent homes, with no Dad or no Mom, most times it is the father that is gone. In
2012 only about 46% of children grow up with their family intact and their
parents not divorced or absent. In 1950 that number was 85%
Also as of 2012 40% of all births were to unmarried mothers.
2/3 or all young people live with a partner and 3/4 of all first marriages
lived together before they got married.
In many cities, youth Gangs have filled the void left by
absent or uncaring Moms and Dads. Drug use has become a replacement for the
lack of love from parents. Children become rebel against parents who obviously don't
care or love them. Today the family is no longer defined as parents and
children but as any group of people from friends to coworkers to drug addicts.
Unfaithful Churches. What about the state of our churches?
Is it any better, is there a bastion of hope a foundation from which we can
rebuild our lives, our families and our nation?
Not just in the churches at large across our land. In too many
fundamentalist churches, legalism is regarded as godliness. In more affluent
churches and denominations, materialism is worshipped as a sign of God's love
and promises. While love is used as an excuse not to call out sin and even
encourage those who are caught in its trap to hold it up as a blessing from
God. After all God made me this way and He doesn’t make any mistakes, they
blindly and fatally repeat.
Too often disunity with a local body is viewed as standing
for the truth, while pride is understood as duty to God. In so many so-called
churches, slick, professional entertainment of the members is now believed somehow
to be the working of the Holy Spirit.
Illustration: The Laodicea Complex
In a sharp parallel our families, our churches and our
nation is a model of the church that Jesus warned in Revelation 3:14. We suffer
from the Laodicean Complex, a belief that we are doing alright, when in truth
we are a total wreck.
Rev 3:14-17 And unto the angel of the church of the
Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God; I
know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or
hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue
thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Transition;
To every church in the letters to the Seven Churches Jesus
said, “He that hath an ear let him hear.” It was an invitation not to the
corporate body but to the individual to hear and respond, and that invitation
brings us to our last point.
The Last Revival II Chronicles 34:26-28
And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire 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 didst
humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and
against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst 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
eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the
inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.
A Godly Man Hold Back God's Wrath
Josiah consults with Huldah the prophetess and she tells him
that what is written in the book of the Law cannot but undone and the
consequences of their sin and the judgment of God was on its way, but Josiah as
an individual had made a difference.
She said because of the tenderness of his heart and his humility,
God would show mercy in his lifetime.
Josiah, began a revival in Judah, but first he had a revival
in his own heart.
The Bible records that he did what was right 2 Chr 34:2, he
repented before God 2 Chr 34:19 and he gave true worship, the right worship to
God 2 Chr 34:30-33.
Because of these things, while Josiah was King, Huldah told
him, God would keep his wrath, his judgment from Judah.
Holding Back The Judment of God
Do you ever wonder, what it keeping God’s judgment from our
nation, from our family or from us as individuals?
Do you remember the story of Abraham when the Lord came and
told him that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you remember what
Abraham did?
Genesis 18:20-33 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom
and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have
done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not,
I will know. And the men turned their
faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the
LORD. And Abraham drew near, and said,
Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within
the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty
righteous that are therein? That be far
from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and
that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not
the Judge of all the earth do right? And
the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will
spare all the place for their sakes. And
Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the
Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou
destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and
five, I will not destroy it. And he
spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found
there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he
said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord:
Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy
it for twenty's sake. And he said, Oh
let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten
shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had
left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.
Is there a principle here?
Does God hold back his judgment on a nation, a family or on an
individual person because there is a remnant of godly people praying and
working for good. God’s people who are interceding for all those around them
who do not know God. And they are praying for mercy and for the forbearance and
patience of God before judgment falls.
I think this is true. I think we see it in other places in
scripture where we are told to prayer for sins of others and in the passage
that talks about the Holy Spirit leaving this world when the rapture takes
place and God’s full judgment is poured down as recorded in the book of
Revelation.
Do you realize then if this is the principle we see at work
in Josiah, and in Sodom and Gomorrah, how important you are right now? You and
others like you may be the remnant of God that God is using to turn people
toward him and to hold back his wrath.
God in talking to the prophet Ezekiel says this in Ezekiel
22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and
stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I
found none.
Sometimes what is needed more than a great national revival,
or a great national leader is just a personal revival and a determination that
in my own God given sphere of influence I will be the leader God wants me to
be.
I will commit myself to be the one who stands against sin
and stands with God. I will in my own life and home removes the symbols of
idolatry, in whatever form that takes in my life. I will purge wickedness from
my life and most importantly, I will turns to God's Word and seek God in its
supernatural messages of forgiveness and hope.
Perhaps today I will let the revival begin with me.
R. G. Lee said this about Revival
If all the sleeping folk will wake up,
If all the lukewarm folk will fire up,
If all the dishonest folk will confess up,
If all the disgruntled folk will cheer up,
If all the depressed folk will cheer up,
If all the estranged folk will make up,
If all the gossipers will shut up,
If all true soldiers will stand up,
If all the dry bones will shake up,
If all the church members will pray up...
Then we can have a revival!
Isaiah 57:15 For thus
saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I
dwell in the high and holy [place], with him also [that is] of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of
the contrite ones.
Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken
and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Illustration: Gypsy Smith, How to start a revival?
Rodney “Gypsy” Smith was an evangelist that preached around
WWII, he awa a Roma gypsy born in wagon outside London. He was friends with
Fanny Crosby, G. Campbell Morgan and H. A. Ironsides. His campaigns saw tens of
thousands of conversion with crowds as large as 1 to 2 thousand people. Once Gypsy
Smith was asked how do you start a revival?
He thought for a moment and then replied, "Go home, lock yourself
in your room, kneel down in the middle of your floor, draw a chalk mark all
around yourself and ask God to start a revival inside that chalk mark. When He has answered your prayer, the revival
will be on."
Conclusion: Have We Seen The Last Revival
I wonder if the people of Josiah time knew that they were
experiencing the last revival before their nation ceased to exist?
I seriously doubt that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
understood that if there had only been 10 righteous people in their midst that
God would have withheld His wrath for a while longer.
I also wonder sometime when God will look down on our nation
and say, “Time’s up, there number of righteous people is so low and no one is
willing to stand in the gap, my judgment will now begin.”
We cannot know where we stand in God’s plan of the ages and
his plan for our nation or world. That is not our responsibility. But let me
tell you what is.
For God’s faithful children here today our responsibility is
to be ready, by realizing that we can have an impact on eternity and the world
around you. That God may be counting you as one of the righteous standing in
the gap. So draw your circle, pray for your own revival, pray as one standing
in the gap for others and then try and pull those around into that revival
circle as well.
Oh, we need a revival, right here in our church, right here
in our homes, right here in our nation, but we won't have revival there until
we have it right here in our heart and much more than just our own lives and
eternity may be at stake.
That last thing I want you to consider this morning is if
you are here and you’re not saved. Do you ever think that the only thing
standing between you and the final judgment of God may be the prayers of those
Christians around you? Do you ever stop and think of what may happen one day
when they are gone? When it is just you standing before a holy and righteous
God who then asks you, “why did you reject my son, who died for you? Why did
you reject my love? Why did you reject my Word of warning?”
Spot on brother Minefee!!
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