2 kings 23:1-7 Renewing the Covenant

2 kings 23:1-7 Renewing the Covenant

Josiah starts reform as soon as they found the book of the
law. How did they lose it?

The reform starts with the public reading of the Book of the
Law. Then all the articles set up to
worship other gods were removed from the temple.

Not only did they lose the Book of the Law, they had erected
alters and Asherah pole right in the temple. They brought every type of false worship right into the temple. It can all be traced back to the loss of the
Book of the Law.

As the years went by in 100 – 200 AD the church becomes
divided into east and west. People had
copies of the New Testament Books, but through wars and persacutions the
originals were lost. When the Romans
church gained power and dark ages come reading the Bible was forbidden by the
church.

1. Being people of the Book

a. Joshua 1:7-8

b. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

c. The king reads the book to everyone

d. Nehemiah 8:1-3 Ezra reads the book to all the
people

e. They renew the covenant with God

2. Being a holy temple

a. 2 chronicles 3:7 the doorframes are covered in gold, not the law.

b. The temple was filled with alters to worship all
the false Gods

Asherah, Baal, Molek, sun, moon and stars, temple prostitutes

c. Josiah tore it all out both in the temple and
the country

d. Matthew 22:29 you do not know the scriptures or the power of God

3. Is the Bible found in your temple.

a. 1 Corinthians 3:7 your body is the temple of God

b. 1 Peter 2:9 you are a royal priesthood

c. James 1:22-25 do not just listen to it

d. Luke 6:46-49 a foundation for life

e. Matthew 24:35 My words will never pass away

Conclusion: Who or what is worshiped in our temple? What is written on the doorframe of our mind
and heart?

²²Do not merely listen to the word,
and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone
who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks
at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and,
after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.²⁵ But whoever looks intently into
the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what
they have heard, but doing it—they will
be blessed in what they do.

James 1:22-25 (NIV2011)
²² Do not merely listen to the
word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
²³ Anyone who listens to the word
but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror
²⁴ and, after looking at himself,
goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
²⁵ But whoever looks intently into
the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what
they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Matthew
24:35 (NIV2011)
³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will never pass away.

Mark
8:34-38 (NIV2011)
³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him
along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
³⁵ For whoever wants to save their
life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will
save it.
³⁶ What good is it for someone to
gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
³⁷ Or what can anyone give in
exchange for their soul?
³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and
my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be
ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Luke
6:46-49 (NIV2011)
⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
⁴⁷ As for everyone who comes to me
and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are
like.
⁴⁸ They are like a man building a
house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came,
the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well
built.
⁴⁹ But the one who hears my words
and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the
ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it
collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

John
15:7 (NIV2011)
⁷ If you remain in me and my words
remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Matthew
22:29-32 (NIV2011)
²⁹ Jesus replied, “You are in error
because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
³⁰ At the resurrection people will
neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
³¹ But about the resurrection of
the dead—have you not read what God said to you,
³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the
living.”

1
Peter 2:9 (NIV2011)
⁹ But you are a chosen people, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare
the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

1
Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV2011)
¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies
are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own;
²⁰ you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your bodies.

2
Chronicles 3:7 (NIV2011)
⁷ He overlaid the ceiling beams,
doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on
the walls.

Nehemiah
8:1-3 (NIV2011)
¹ all the people came together as
one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law
to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for
Israel.
² So on the first day of the
seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was
made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.
³ He read it aloud from daybreak
till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the
men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened
attentively to the Book of the Law.

Joshua
1:7-8 (NIV2011)
⁷ “Be strong and very courageous.
Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it
to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always
on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

2 Kings 20

2 Kings 20:1-6 “The
Grace of God”

INTRODUCTION: (read) 18:3-8 No other King who followed the Lord like
Hezekiah.

During his illness He is told he is going to die. He prays
for more time. God tells him he will be
healed in answer to his prayer. Hezekiah
ask for some kind of proof. Today we are going to see some things about
our relationship to God through the life of this great King.

1. God’s perfect will VS God’s permissive will

A. God had determined the time of Hezekiah’s death

B. Psalm 139:16 Every day is written

C. Jer 29:11 God has a plan for our life

D. 1 Cor 2:9 This plan is wonderful

E. Eph 2:10 prepared in advance for you to do

2. Though Hezekiah knew God he still feared death

A. He could not see eternity

B. John 20:31 these thing are written that you may
know

C. John 14:1-3 God has a place for us beyond this life

D. Phil 1:21-23 better off dead

3. Hezekiah wanted proof

A. The shadow to go back ten steps (Just turn the
earth backwards)

B. Judges 6:37 Gideon wanted proof

C. Prov 3:5&6 God wants trust

D. Rom 5:1-5 The Holy Spirit is our proof

E. Rom 8:38-39 Nothing can stop the promise of God.

Conclusion: We do not need to fear death, we need only to
trust. We can know that God has a plan
for us and that He hears our prayers and answers them. We need to not fear death. But we need to fear never living the amazing
life God has for us.

1 Kings 21:1-10

1 Kings 21:1-10

Weakness and Evil

INTRODUCTION: Ahab was the most evil king Israel would
have. While some kings allowed Ball
worship, Ahab promoted it. His wife
Jezebel was a vicious killer. She is
behind the killing of the prophets of God; she is behind the attempt on Elijah’s
life after the defeat of the prophets of Baal.
And here she is behind the killing of Naboth to get Ahab what he wanted. Ahab is so evil that when Herman Melville was
looking for inspiration for Moby Dick, he chose Ahab for the Villon.

1.
The evil of Ahab
1 Kings 16:31-33

A.
Baal Worship
Isaiah 57:5

a.
Spreading trees and high places

b.
Ravines and over hanging crags Ezekiel 16:20-22

B.
Married Jezebel a Baal worshiping zealot

C.
Jezebel tried to kill all the prophets of God

D.
Jezebel tried to kill Elijah 1 Kings 18:17-19

E.
Ordered Naboth’s death to get the vineyard

2.
Our American culture

A.
Our false God’s

a.
Sex and the sacrifice of children

b.
Wealth, a little more than the rest

c.
Power, no one will tell us what to do

B.
Our Jezebels

a.
False Bible teachers Mark
13:20-22 2 Timothy 4:3-4

b.
Secular thinkers

c.
Political leaders

d.
Supposed scholars

3.
A culture of Christ

A.
Called to be different Romans
12:1-2

B.
Empowered by God to be different

C.
You are the light in someone’s darkness

Conclusion: God has not called us to be little better than
the rest of the world but to stand in contrast to it. We have a hope that will not fail, love they
can not understand, and Jesus shining through us may be the light that leads
them home to Jesus.

Ahab was the most evil king of Israel 21:25&26

He lust after Naboth’s vineyard

He sulks and fumes because he does not get his way

But Ahab’s wife Jezebel was a killer who would get him
anything he wanted at any cost.

This section of 1 Kings is the inspiration for Moby Dick.

In Moby Dick, Captain Ahab wants the Great White whale, (God)
dead.

Are people still trying to kill God off so they can feel
good about themselves?

Some fail because they are weak

Others fail because they are evil

What their itching ears want to hear

False teachers will come who would deceive even the elect

Romans 1 they teach others to do evil

Isaiah
57:5 (NIV2011)

⁵ You burn with lust among the oaks
and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and
under the overhanging crags.

Leviticus
18:21 (NIV2011)

²¹ “ ‘Do not give any of your
children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your
God. I am the LORD.

Deuteronomy
18:10-11 (NIV2011)

¹⁰ Let no one be found among you
who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or
sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,

¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a
medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

Psalm
106:37-38 (NIV2011)

³⁷ They sacrificed their sons and
their daughters to false gods.

³⁸ They shed innocent blood, the
blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was desecrated by their blood.

Ezekiel
16:20-22 (NIV2011)

²⁰ “ ‘And you took your sons and
daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was
your prostitution not enough?

²¹ You slaughtered my children and
sacrificed them to the idols.

²² In all your detestable practices
and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you
were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.

Deuteronomy
12:2-3 (NIV2011)

² Destroy completely all the places
on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the
nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.

³ Break down their altars, smash
their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the
idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.

1
Kings 16:31-33 (NIV2011)

³¹ He not only considered it
trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married
Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and
worship him.

³² He set up an altar for Baal in
the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.

³³ Ahab also made an Asherah pole
and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all
the kings of Israel before him.

Mark
13:20-22 (NIV2011)

²⁰ “If the Lord had not cut short
those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has
chosen, he has shortened them.

²¹ At that time if anyone says to
you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.

²² For false messiahs and false
prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible,
even the elect.

2
Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV2011)

³ For the time will come when
people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires,
they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their
itching ears want to hear.

⁴ They will turn their ears away
from the truth and turn aside to myths.

1
Kings 18:17-19 (NIV2011)

¹⁷ When he saw Elijah, he said to
him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

¹⁸ “I have not made trouble for
Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have
abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals.

¹⁹ Now summon the people from all
over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty
prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s
table.”

Romans
12:1-2 (NIV2011)

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers
and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

² Do not conform to the pattern of
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect
will.