"Have You Found the Book of the Law?" Sermon: II Kings 22:1-23:3

“Have You Found the Book of the Law?”

[II Kings 22:1-23:3]   

February 26, 2012 Second Reformed Church

            For the five Sundays in Lent, if the Lord wills, we will look at five biblical principles – or foci – of Church growth.  We need to understand from the beginning that when we talk of biblical Church growth, we are not talking about mere numbers:  the pews being filled and the offering plate being filled.  That is not a guarantee that the Church has grown.  When we talk about the mere numbers, we are talking about the work that God does as He is pleased.  We read, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47, ESV).

Numerical growth of believers is from the Lord, not by some crass methodology.  As was explained in the Newsletter, it is easy to fill a room – just provide something people want and tell them that they must sit in a room to receive it. That is not what we will be looking at.  And it can’t be what we are looking at because no one – naturally – wants to hear the Gospel or worship  God, as Paul writes, “as it is written:  ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.  Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.  The venom of asps is under their lips.  Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.  There is no fear of God before their eyes’” (Romans 3:10-18, ESV).

As we look at Church growth, we understand it to mean the major ways in which we as individuals and as the corporate Church become mature through growth in faith and obedience to God and His Word.

It is not surprising then, that the first principle of Church growth is this:  God’s Word must be central to our lives and worship for us to grow as individuals and as the Church.  God’s Word must be central – of primary importance and honor – to our lives and worship for us to grow as individuals and as the Church.

We have heard the beginning of the history of the good king, Josiah, this morning.  The wicked king, Amon, was assassinated by his servants, and the people of Judah put his eight-year-old son, Josiah, on the throne.  Of course we understand, the country was run by advisors to begin with, yet, we are told that Josiah “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.”

In the midst of living under a wicked father, Josiah learned what was right and good in the sight of God, and he followed after God, even at a young age.  It may be that his mother, Jedidah, instructed him.  We’re not told, but someone told him about God and what God requires, and Josiah believed and obeyed.

When Josiah was twenty-six years old, he observed that Solomon’s Temple was in great disrepair.  After years of following false gods and neglecting the Temple of the One God, the Temple was falling apart.  So Josiah instructed the high priest to gather all the money that had been collected from the offerings of the people in the Temple, and to give all of it to the workmen of the Temple – whom Josiah knew to be honest men – and to instruct them to repair the Temple.

The high priest followed Josiah’s instructions and brought the money to the workmen and instructed them to repair the Temple.  And as they began their work – we’re not told how long a period elapsed between the beginning of the work and the discovery – “Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.’”

The Book of the Law was at least Deuteronomy and may have been the first five books of the Old Testament – it was the Bible of the time.  And they had lost it.  No one knew where the Book of the Law was, and no one was looking for it.

Let us understand, first, then, that it is possible to lose the Book of the Law.  It is possible to lose the Word of God.  It is possible to lose the Bible.  And let us understand that it is possible to lose the Word of God in a number of ways:

First, it is possible to physically lose the Word of God.  We may put it aside or in some place or pile things on it and not have any idea where the Word of God is.  That is what happened in Judah – in the Temple of Solomon – they had physically lost the Word of God.

I hope each of you has a Bible.  Do you know where it is?  Do you physically know exactly where it is right now?  Or, have you lost the Word of God?

Second, it is possible to lose the Word of God by no longer believing it is the Word of God.  Although the Bible was written down by humans, it is the Word of God, which is why we can believe it.  These books were inspired by God, so they have been written down without error – God teaching us everything we need to know about life and salvation.  As Peter wrote, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21, ESV).

If the Bible were anything less than the Word of God, it could have errors in it – and we would not be obliged to believe and obey everything that is written in it.  If the Bible was simply the ideas of people like you and me and not the very Word of God, we would have no reason to believe it.  But if it is the Very Word of God, then it is without error and timeless, so we must believe and obey all that is written in it.

If you doubt that everything that is written here is the Very Word of God – that God oversaw the writing of these books – that they would be exactly what God wanted them to say and that they would be wholly accurate, you have lost the Bible.  Understand, I am not say that God dictated what the authors should write, but that God made sure that what the authors wrote was what God wanted us to know and that it was accurate.

Since it did not apparently concern the people of God in Josiah’s day that the Word of God was lost physically, it would not seem that they were concerned about it actually being the Word of God.  If they really believed that God had spoken to them, they would want to know what God said – don’t you?

Do you believe the Bible is the Very Word of God – true and without error because it is the Word of God – the One God Who is Holy and cannot make a mistake or lie?  Or have you lost the Word of God?

A third way we can lose the Word of God is by accepting preaching – so-called – that has little or nothing to do with the Word of God.  A sermon is supposed to take a text of Scripture, explain it, and apply it.  If a sermon does not do that, the Word of God has been lost – and it is not a sermon.  If the pastor reads a Scripture and then tells a very interesting and well-told story about his vacation, that is not a sermon – and the Word of God has been lost.

If I do that, you should go to the elders and ask them to talk with me.  A sermon explains and applies the Word of God.  It is not about the minister or about telling meaningful stories or trying to make us all feel good.  If you hear a minster preach, and he doesn’t explain and apply the text, the Word of God has been lost.

And if you are in a church where the Word of God is not explained and applied, you are not actually in a church – you may be with a group of nice people that do good things, but it is not a church.

One wonders what the priests were preaching on in the Temple of Solomon.  There was no reading of the Word of God.  Perhaps some of them remembered texts, but with the idolatry that was rampant in Judah, one wonders if they heard so-called sermons – more pep-talks – on how to have your best life now or the power of positive thinking and the like.  They had lost the Word of God.

They had lost the Word of God physically, they were not concerned to find it, and the priests were preaching from something other than the Bible.  And we may wonder how that is possible:   How could the Church of Josiah’s day not have Bibles, not care about what God had said – perhaps not even believe that it was the Word of God, and listened to people tell stories about themselves, and call it worship?

Is it really all that different from today when many people don’t know where there Bible is, and if they do, most people don’t read it, and if they do read it, most people don’t believe that it is all God’s Word – Holy, without error, from God for us, for life and salvation – and most people are glad to hear stories and pep talks and ignore the text of Scripture.  Are we really that different?

If you have lost your Bible – get one.  If you can’t understand the language of the Bible, let me know and we’ll find one you can understand.  If you have doubted whether the Word of God is truly all God’s Word, challenge God!  Read your Bible and call on God, asking Him to prove to you that it is without error, His Holy Word.  God has given us His Word, and He wants us to know it and believe it, so if you have doubts, God will be glad to prove Himself to you!  And if you ever hear a minister speak, but ignore the text of Scripture, ask him about it, go to the elders, and if nothing changes, leave that church.  

If we want to grow as individuals and as the Church, we cannot accept the Word of God being lost.  We must know where our Bibles are, we must believe that what is in them actually comes from God, and we must sit under preaching that explains and applies the text.

As the workers began to repair Solomon’s Temple, they found the Book of the Law.  And the high priest gave the Book of the Law to the secretary, and he read it.  And he ran back to the king and told him that while they were beginning the work, they found the Book of the Law.  “And Shaphan read it before the king.”

And here we have the second thing we ought to understand this morning:  Hearing and reading the Word of God ought to cause a response in us.  When you hear the Word of God rightly preached or read it under the guidance of God the Holy Spirit, you ought to respond to it – it ought to provoke us to respond in some way.

We see in our text several ways in which we might respond to the Word of God:

One way in which we might respond to the Word of God is to recognize our sin and repent of it.  We may hear the Word of God or read it and realize that we have been sinning.  God may convict us through the hearing or reading of His Word of a sin that we have been in, and then we ought to respond by repenting – by confessing our sin to God, asking forgiveness, and promising not to sin that sin again.

When Josiah heard the Word of God read – when he heard God’s Law read – what is right and what is wrong in the Eyes of God – he tore his clothes and wept, because he knew that neither he nor the people of Judah had kept the Law of God.  And those who break the Law are under the curse of God – there is punishment for sin.  So, Josiah tore his clothes and wept in repentance.

Jeremiah rightly said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV).  We are masters at hiding our sin from ourselves and from excusing our sins.  But when we hear the Word of God come clearly and with conviction, our deceit is exposed, even to ourselves, and we must repent and turn away from our sin.

Have you ever been convicted of sin by the Word of God?  Did you respond with repentance?  Did you weep for the evil you had done against God and promise not to do it again?

Second, when we hear the Word of God or read it we may respond by seeking God through prayer and reading of our Bible to learn about how we are to live and what we are to believe about God and humanity.

Josiah understood that the nation and he were under the curse of God for their sin, and Josiah wanted to know what could be done about it, so he sent Asiah to inquire of the Lord:  “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

Paul complimented the Berean Christians saying, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11, ESV).  The Bereans did not simply receive what Paul said was true, but they checked what he said – they opened their Bibles to learn if what Paul said about life and salvation was really what God had said.

Do we ever think about what was said during the sermon after we hit the door of the sanctuary?  Do we ever open our Bibles to check to see if the pastor has understood the text?  Have we ever looked at the text again to see if God would continue to speak to us through it after hearing the sermon?

Third, when we hear God’s Word or read it, we might find ourselves being humbled in thanksgiving or in the just Justice of God for our sin. 

As we hear and read God’s Word – as we hear God Himself speak off of the page, we may find ourselves being humbled in thanksgiving for God’s Mercy and salvation given to people such as you and me.  Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV).

It ought to humble us to know that we deserve eternal death, but God freely chose to save us by taking on the punishment for our sins on Himself.  Shall we not bow and wait to hear a word from our Lord when He has taken on Himself the eternal punishment due us?

We may also hear God’s Word and read it and know that we may have to suffer some of the effects of our sin on earth, even if we have received salvation in Jesus Alone.  The criminal in jail who professes fail in Jesus Alone still has to serve his term.  The recovering alcoholic may still have to suffer from the way he ravaged his body in the past.

Does the Word of God shut your mouth?  Are you left speechless by the beauty and the justice of God’s Word?  Do you find yourself on your knees, weeping, giving thanks for God’s Mercy?  Do you find yourself repenting of your sins, yet having to face their consequences, while humbly acknowledging that God is Just?

Josiah’s court went to Huldah the prophetess to inquire of her what the Lord had to say to Josiah.  The answer humbled Josiah in both ways:  “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’”

God told Josiah that since he had truly repented, humbling himself before God, God would allow him to die in peace and not suffer the consequences of the decades of sin in Judah.  Surely, Josiah was thankful and filled with joy!  But, Judah, herself, would suffer God’s Wrath – after Josiah’s death.  That must have humbled Josiah in awe and sadness, because He knew that God was Just, but he would mourn for his people and what they would suffer for their sin.

Have you ever found yourself surprised by joy?  Humbled with great thanksgiving because of God’s unmerited mercy towards you?  Have you ever been overwhelmed in knowing what God has done for you through Jesus?

Have you ever found yourself believing God, but mourning for those who have sinned and especially for those who refuse to believe?  Have you ever felt the pull to tell people of their fate for sin and tell them that there is yet hope beyond this life through Jesus Alone?

Finally, we may hear or read God’s Word and find ourselves compelled to believe and obey.  If we have understood God’s Word as God’s Word, we ought to find ourselves compelled to believe and obey.

Josiah’s response was to gather all the people of Judah together and read the Book of the Law to them – that they would hear the Word of God and respond to it.  Josiah read every word found in the Law, “[a]nd the king stood by the pillar and 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 that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.”

After having his sin exposed and repenting of it, after listening to hear what God has said and commanded, after being humbled in thanksgiving and in recognizing God’s just Justice, Josiah pledged to obey everything that was written in the Law, and the people joined with him.

That makes sense, doesn’t it?  If we hear or read God’s Word, and we believe that it is God’s Word, and God says that we are to do this and not do that, and to believe this and to not believe something else – how ought we respond to the Almighty God Who created us and gave us life and being, Who chooses us for salvation, Who gives us His Only Son that we might be saved?  Shall we not believe Him and obey Him?

God’s Word must be central to our lives and worship for us as individuals and as the Church if we are to grow.

Don’t lose the Word of God.  But respond to the Word of God.  Know where your Bible is, read it, believe it is God’s Word, and obey God.

Let us pray:

           Almighty God, in Your Mercy, You have allowed us to live in a country where we can freely own and read Your Word in our own language.  Stir up the fire of the Holy Spirit in us.  Cause us to long for Your Word as for water and air.  Help us to understand and remember Your Word, as You promised the Holy Spirit would for us, and lead us to believe what You have said and to follow after You in humble obedience.   Lord, grow your Church.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.