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Alright, so my sermon for this morning is going to be a little political and I don't go there very often But sometimes it's just you know when there's things going on that captures everybody's attention. I figure hey, why not? It's a good It's actually When it's on everyone's mind let's get a biblical perspective on things because it's easy to get caught up and wrapped up in the media and all this other Stuff and and there's a lot of fear-mongering that goes on around this time of year or every four years you know, we've had a presidential election and I like to remind people of What the Bible says? During these times because it's funny how every four years This is the most important election of our lives if we don't vote for whoever Everything's gonna be life as you know, it is not going to be the same There's gonna be dooming loom and both sides of the fence say this, right? It doesn't matter who? You're you're you're interested in if you're red or blue if you're D or R if you're on this team or that team It's this is just this is the most pivotal and the most important in the existence of our country You cannot you know get out there and vote in this and that And I'm trying to bring a little bit of reason and sense to all the fear-mongering and all the nonsense and garbage That's going on out there. Now. You don't have to agree with me on my philosophy my mindset on Voting and things like that because I personally don't think it matters one bit Who you vote for? In the end, I don't think the outcome matters. I think there's corruption that's gone so deep now That it really doesn't matter at all and I think that's just being evidence this week I don't believe the results for a second and look I'm not saying that because oh you're just a Trump supporter And you're upset that he didn't get No, have you been listening to the sermons lately because you'll see that I am NOT a Trump supporter Okay, I just look at things and I like to know what the truth is and when I see obvious problems I could put two and two together and It's rigged. Okay, it's been rigged. It's been rigged for a long time there's people in power that don't want to lose power and Whatever, so but I'm not gonna get into all of that right all the reasons why I don't even I don't think voting makes a Difference one way or the other or even why I don't choose to vote for evil that whole Philosophy of the lesser of two evils Why would I vote for evil? And You know people go what do you expect a Baptist pastor to run for president or says like look no I don't I'm not looking for you know It's funny because when you look at standards, right? I think we ought to have standards in a candidate who you're gonna choose to be a ruler in a country The Bible gives us lots of standards of people that were ended up being rulers. We could go back to that I'm not we're not gonna do that this morning and and how Moses selected and ordained rulers over the people and They weren't all priests Right. They were just people men of renown people that were known people had integrity people who were honest and good And that's who the you choose to be in charge and ruling people. I mean, is it really that hard? But when you've got people who are our pro abominations I Mean we're talking about like we're all sinners. We're all guilty of things. No one's gonna be perfect But there's a huge difference between people who are yeah, I've got some problems but overall can just live with integrity and live by a set of morals and and have like the Bible be their guide of truth Versus people who are just going to Yeah Sodomy no problem with it. Actually. I'm gonna pander to perverts Because I want them to vote for me or Abortion death murder just legalized murder. No problem at all And when you don't even have anybody that can get that can satisfy just two of some of the most basic most basic morality You know passes Don't tell me my standards are too high. I Mean, is it too much to say I don't want an adulterer? I don't want a Pedophile I don't want people who support either one of those Okay, I don't want someone like that someone that is in such moral rot and decay To be the leader of the country So no if one is a little bit better than another on some issues here or there. Look, I don't want either of them Okay, but I'm not gonna go into all that this morning. That's pretty obvious I want to what I want to do is remind people who may be caught up in the nonsense Going oh man, what are we gonna do? This is crazy or whatever And remind first of all the first point is that God Will lift up and God will abase rulers in this world Okay, so that's another one of the reasons why I think elections don't really matter They don't really matter Because God will put in place who he wants to be there Anyways, I mean you think you have all this power and all this voice, but at the end of the day you know, there's someone higher than you and there's someone higher than the Democrat and Republicans and there's someone higher than even the the forces of darkness that That are in positions of power in this world. There's someone more powerful than them and It's the Lord Almighty And What we see here we started in Daniel chapter 4 and actually there was a part of here Let me see if I could find it really quickly That I wasn't gonna gonna Cover it wasn't the main point but then what during the reading I was like yeah, I should probably just bring that up real quickly because Daniel 4 we see, you know, obviously it's the story of Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar was was, you know, basically a ruler of a kingdom that that spanned there's like a world kingdom essentially He's a ruler of Babylon right when Babylon and conquered everyone and he gets lifted up with pride and he thinks that He's the reason For being in charge and being in the position and everything else, but God has to remind them No, there it is verse 17 look at verse number 17 real quick But reads this matter is by the decree of the Watchers and in demand by the word of the Holy Ones to the intent That the living may know that the Most High Ruleth in the kingdom of men and Giveth it to whomsoever he will so who is it that rules God and what does he do? He gives it to whoever he wants to give it to He sets up people to be able to rule and reign right and then look at this I love this this last phrase in that verse and set it up over it the basest of men So, you know what if God's gonna have a base person in charge I'll let God you know do that obviously What am I going to do against it? It doesn't matter even if I vote against it if God wants to set up a base per base just means low a Vile person someone who I was just describing a moment ago, right and those are our options You know what? Apparently God has decided to put up a base person to rule our country Because those are the only choices choices that we had anyways Right, they're base people They're vile people. So This is what God decides to do but Let's jump down real quick to verse number 30 because so, you know in this story Nebuchadnezzar is his dream He doesn't understand the dream and Daniel comes and explains it to him and says hey look here's what the dream means it's against you and It's gonna explain God just wants people to know that he is in charge and From time to time he needs to do this when man gets to Lift it up with pride Nebuchadnezzar is to lift it up with pride now God put him in charge for purpose for a reason because he brought judgment upon people that God wanted judgment to be brought against and Just because God lifted him up. That doesn't mean that Nebuchadnezzar is a good guy Just because God put him in that position doesn't mean oh what a godly person it just means God's using him for his own purpose Verse number 30, let's jump down to verse number 30 here We'll see this in a little bit more detail and context than just verse 17 The king spake and said is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom By the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty Right. So here what is it me me me? Look how great I am There's never been there's never been a greater king than me This is for the might of my majesty. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Look, I know I keep being a dead horse here when or a dead elephant, but um what And don't take this the wrong way because I you know, I've been slamming Trump a lot in my preaching the reason why I don't even go after the the pedophile is because I Shouldn't I don't even think I should have to in a house of God people have any knowledge of the Bible should know that like What what that group stands for is so far removed from anything even close to to Bible that Hopefully I shouldn't even have to get into into all of that because yeah, it is bad. But you know what? The Reds not any better Or you could say slightly better in different areas. And here's the thing. What what area you say? Oh, but the economy the economy Well, would you rather have a lot of money and just suit and just corrupt morals and wickedness running and abounding Or do you rather not care about the economy and have somebody that can actually have the integrity and honesty to say You know what morals actually matter Because if you just go after the money You know how the Bible teaches from front to back that it's not about money and If you want someone to lead you and guide you who cares about the stupid money Don't go sell out and support someone just to have more money more stinking money And that's what people do, you know, that's that's one of the root of the problems Anyways of this of this evil choices. It says you got people on one side of the aisle Got people come promising Oh, man you don't have to work that much and we'll give you this and we got to support all these people that don't want to Work and and you know We're gonna expand all these benefits and we're gonna make everything socialize and we're gonna give you everything and it's a greedy people It's all about what can I get? What can I have? What a gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme and don't want to work for their own stuff Right and and choosing people off of money. What's gonna benefit me financially if I if I vote for this person to this person And then on the other side, it's oh but this person understands the economy and they're gonna get everything It's money money money money money I Don't care about either one of those Look, I don't support just just giving money away for no, you know to people who aren't gonna work And I also don't support just we'll forget all the morals because we're just gonna make a bunch of money Because you know what if you're wicked God's just gonna take it all away anyways Who cares it's gonna be gone. The judgment will come so Let's get I'm sorry. Let's keep reading. I forgot what verse did we leave off on verse third? Did I read verse 30? He's talking about his own Might his own power verse 31 while the word was in the king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven saying Oh King Nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee See just like that in one moment. God's able to say you know what you don't got the kingdom anymore And people who are freaking out. Oh, but it's gonna be present. You know if God wants to That could be done in a moment It doesn't matter But I think we're getting America is getting what they deserve There's a reason why the rulers are put up and The things happen the way they do now the sermon to just so you understand I'm gonna preach a two-part sermon essentially they're gonna be different from each other, but this morning I'm just going over the how the president is not the answer okay Politics is not the answer. This is not what's gonna save our country It's not what's gonna save us save our people it is does not lie in the office of the presidency Okay, and we're gonna go through all the reasons why the first one is just well God's gonna lift up the rulers anyways okay, so don't be looking to them to be your Savior and Then this evening. I want to preach more on what is going to work. What is the answer? What do we look to how can the country be turn around if it's even possible? What would be the right way to go so this morning? I'm just exposing the wrong Way, which is any faith in the presidency and mind you we're gonna be looking at things this morning that talk Mostly just deal with the Kings, and we don't have a king And people also tend to forget when you're talking about the importance of election. There's a Congress Okay that passes the laws Our King so-called a president is very lit is somewhat I mean increasingly more gets more power But overall stills it's not like everything hinges on one person you in our form of government either, so Don't forget that but when we look at verses that talk about Kings. We don't have a king So we're gonna be looking at it under the lens of how does this apply to just rulers in general? Right because there's some verses that are gonna be more specific for kings in the Bible because a king is is like almighty in the land and That doesn't apply when you don't have a king in some cases so we're gonna just be looking at it the what can we learn from the verses that talk about Kings as Just rulers in general and the ones that I that we're gonna be looking at should all apply in that manner Well, let's keep reading here now verse number 32 and they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the Field they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall pass over thee Until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will So he basically is making Nebuchadnezzar like an animal like a beast of the field and what says seven times at seven years So because of his pride God smites Nebuchadnezzar and Abases him he brings him down So, I mean how much lower can you be brought down than just behaving and acting and looking like an animal? Right. There's a that's a pretty low state to be in There's there's a big distinction between human beings and animals and God makes Nebuchadnezzar Just like he's eating grass out in the field I mean we were driving to the church this morning and there's there's a property that has horses on it and we always see these Horses out and what they do and they're out eating grass Oh, it doesn't matter if it's raining or this morning a little drizzle, whatever and they're just out there and they're eating grass And you know what? That's great for horses to do But can you imagine what it'd be like if we were for driving by and we see horses and then we see a person out there Chomping down on the grass right next to the horses, right? That would look ridiculous would be kind of funny and What a what a shame that would be to just see somebody just out there in That condition and in how low someone who was so high and mighty and respected and everyone yes, sir, you know and and and talk to you with the utmost respect now you're seeing I'm eating grass and Rolling around in the dirt and his hair literally becomes like like Eagles feathers Just from being out you like that maddie hair. Just just being out there. His nails are just grown He's not keeping up with himself like a normal person would So he's got like these claws and he just starts to look more and more like an animal because he's been outside for seven years That's what God did to Nebuchadnezzar and you know, what God's hand is not any shortened Today than it ever has been We need to remember that Because if God chooses to any of these people who think they're so powerful Things can change in an instant in a moment overnight Verse Number 33 the same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as Oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven Till his hairs were grown like Eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws and at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the Most High Which is good. This is this is the response that God wanted, right? When he finally his his mind his sanity comes back to him God gives that back to him The first thing he does he's gonna recognize God He says I bless the Most High and I praise and honored him that liveth forever whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as Nothing and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his Hand or say unto him what doest thou? At the same time I reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me And my counselors and my Lord sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added unto me Now this is also interesting too because after seven years of acting like an animal and acting like a beast God was still able to take that same person then and lift him back up to have the same status that he had before Because you might think well after that, how could anyone come back from that? I mean his opponents his adversaries are gonna have a field day with that Oh, what are we gonna have this animal this beast come back and and and you know He's already blown it and we can't trust this guy or whatever. Well, God's able to bring him back And give him his position back if he wants to God can lift people up out of the lowest place and he could bring people down from the highest place. I Do think it's important to understand what's going on around us and not to be ignorant of what's going on around us It's important what's going on? but let's keep a biblical perspective of just understanding who's in charge and Follow the path that God would have us to follow Fret over the things that God would have us fret about and don't fret over the things that he wouldn't have us fret about And here's the thing even when wicked people are in charge like the Pharaohs or Nebuchadnezzars and they're bringing oppression on people Well, you know what if you're living right guess who can deliver you from that guess who's gonna save you from that Guess who's gonna hear your prayers and hear your cry The Lord will and then do you think it's gonna matter at all? How powerful that that wicked person is? No Because God could bring deliverance and he will bring deliverance and he has brought deliverance He's proven himself over and over and over again, you know We're going through the whole book of Psalms and you can you can listen in if you haven't been on the Wednesday night Bible studies We'll see over and over and over and over again that the theme in the vast majority of them is God's deliverance And it says verse 37 there now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways Judgement and those that walk in pride he is able to a base Now just because a king is established I mentioned this already it does not make him a good king It doesn't mean oh, yeah great God, you know people are just like, oh, yeah, God gave us Trump and God bless You know all this stuff. It's like You don't realize He's not blessing us like People get deceived into thinking that it is and I and see what God may have done they Bob did do that He set up the ruler But it's probably not for the purpose you think so In in Exodus chapter 9 Verse 16 we see example of God raising up Pharaoh and you have to turn there turn if you would to 2nd Kings 2nd Kings 22 we're gonna go through a lot on there In Exodus 9 verse 16 Bible says and in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up For to show and this is this is the word of the Lord speaking to Pharaoh Okay Just in context of Exodus 9 16 and in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to show in thee my power And that my name may be declared throughout all the earth So he's telling Pharaoh I raised you up to be in this position right now For my own benefit for my own glory so that the whole world is gonna know that there's a Lord in heaven That's why you're in the position you're in right now because Pharaoh is full of pride to who is the Lord He thinks he's there because he's so great and he can abuse whoever he wants and there's gonna be no Repercussions because who is the Lord anyways and God said you know what the only reason reposition is because I wanted you to be in that position so that everyone can see how mighty and powerful I really am and that there is a God of the earth and there is a God of heaven and It's the Lord now So that doesn't just because God establishes the rulers doesn't make those rulers good people In fact, he often will bring the basis of men to be the ruler So what is it that marks a good ruler because again if you're gonna look at different rulers Well, who's gonna be a good ruler and why do I keep bagging on the the the so-called choices that we have? well, a good ruler is marked by wisdom and You see this in the book of Proverbs. I'm gonna read a couple to you Proverbs that you could stay in second Kings Proverbs 8 verse 12 the Bible reads I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty invention. So in Proverbs 8 Wisdom is being personified just as we keep reading here wisdom is profound personified says I wisdom so now all the things we're gonna see here is With that context in mind about wisdom being the narrator the fear of the Lord is to hate evil Pride and arrogance see an evil way in the froward mouth. Do I hate? Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am Understanding I have strength. This is wisdom speaking right? I am understanding I have strength by me King's reign and Prince's decree justice by wisdom King's reign by wisdom Prince's decree Justice true justice right by you have to have wisdom in order to bring justice right Otherwise you have wicked people in charge. You're not gonna have Justice because they're warped they're twisted. They don't care about what's right and what's just but if they have wisdom Then they can bring justice by me Prince's rule and nobles even all the judges of The earth and it's talking about ruling. It's my ruling. Well, it's all about ruling the way that God would have them rule you need wisdom So if wisdom is so important for judges to rule for kings to rule for princes to rule and to bring justice What is the beginning of wisdom Fear of the Lord It's so simple If we read our Bibles the Bibles telling us man, you know If you're gonna have a ruler that's gonna have justice if you're gonna rule us could be a good ruler they need to be wise they need to have wisdom and If they don't have the beginning of wisdom the very first step the fear of the Lord Why am I gonna think they're gonna be a good ruler and they're gonna bring justice and they're gonna do anything right that's gonna be good for a godly nation and Let me tell you Biden and Trump. They don't have the fear of the Lord neither one does neither one does Okay Occasionally they'll give lip service to the Bible or to a Christian base of people But you can see by their lives by their actions by their choices by what they do They are not God fearing people at all God fearing people don't praise weirdos and perverts Right Proverbs 20 26 as a wise king scattereth the wicked and Bringeth the wheel over them Have we seen the wicked have the wheel brought over them in the past four years I haven't seen it Where is the destruction of the wicked that a so-called righteous wise ruler is going to bring in The Bible says that a wise king scatter at the wicked. I Don't think the ruler has been very wise because I don't think he has a fear of the Lord And I don't see that in the next ruler either So if you're wondering pass the person why didn't you go out and vote but one it doesn't matter and Two I just want to at least have someone who has the beginning of wisdom. Is that too much to ask? Even the beginning like we just had that is the standard the beginning of wisdom like just start down here at the lowest level Let's just start giving why getting wise Did you fear the Lord? Because then there's might be hope for you to increase in your wisdom and your knowledge It's just start with the fear of the Lord. Oh, you don't even have that I'm not gonna waste my time. I Had he turned to second or second Kings 22 I We're gonna see a great story here of actually a really good ruler a really good King by the name of Josiah And how even with an ideal Candidate even with an ideal ruler Oftentimes Even that's not enough to save a country Josiah is a ruler that is like Man, if there wasn't a Josiah around I'd be excited about that and We'll see why he exhibited wisdom. He exhibited fear of the Lord He exhibited all the traits that we see here and it would be like Man, can can we just have someone like and you know, what was Josiah a pastor? No Was he a priest? No He was just a king he was in he was in a kingly line by heredity Became King. He was a layman if you will But someone that feared the Lord You know people always want to take things to extreme and say oh you have such high standards Why don't you but you know people get all sort of Fox News Baptist to get all upset that you're not voting for Trump Like what do you expect you ought to have just you know, the most godly person? Well, yeah I would like to have that but you know what that's not where my standard is either How about a Josiah is that asking too much? I mean it seems to be now these days, you know, but Josiah wasn't a priest. He wasn't a pastor. He wasn't anything like that. But you know what he feared the Lord and It showed in his actions And it lines up that he was wise with the rest of Scripture of us. So let's let's look through this We're gonna spend a little bit time here in 2nd Kings 22 and 23 verse number 1 of 2nd Kings 22 the Bible reads Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign and He reigned 30 and 1 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Jeddah Jeddah the daughter of Adiah of Boscath and He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father and turned Not aside to the right hand or to the left So he's being reputed here as being a good king and as you read through Kings and Chronicles You'll see there's some good king some bad kings and the Bible kind of tells you who's good Who's not good who's following in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and who's following in the way of David, right? Those are kind of the two standard bearers of right and wrong when it comes to comparison and of these kings So Josiah did that which was right. He's just like David, right? He's got a heart for God and he's not turning aside to the right hand or left He's he's walking that straight and narrow and keeping things with integrity jump down to verse number 16 Bible reads 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 Judath read so in between these verses Basically what you have is is Josiah just has his heart. He wants to serve the Lord He wants to rebuild the the house of God He has good intentions and then they come across this Bible Right, they come across the book of the law and someone dusts it off and brings it to him and say hey look what we found when we were repairing the house and we were getting things up because you know He's like wow cool. Look at that. They read it and he's like, oh man, we're in deep trouble Because he actually just has an honest heart when he hears the Word of God going I believe what that says I Believe the Lord and Now we now we've got a serious issue so he goes and and goes to consult and seek the Word of God and What he needs to do because of the trouble that they're in right now so God says he's gonna bring evil upon this place upon the inhabitants thereof even all the words of the book which the king of Judath read verse 17 Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense on other gods that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands therefore my rash shall be kindled against this place and Shall not be quenched God saying judgments coming you guys have abandoned me You you made me angry So judgment is coming and I'm gonna go into this a little bit more tonight But that's the situation that the United States of America is in America's making God angry every day and Increasingly more and more angry and it's the people it's not just oh, well, that's Obama's fault That's why God's angry. No Where did the people are getting what they deserve with someone like that? It's the it's the people who are making God angry Verse 18 says but to the king of Judah which sent you to inquire of the Lord Thus shall you say to him thus saith the Lord God of Israel as touching the words, which thou hast heard Because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord When thou hurtest what I spake against this place and against the inhabitants thereof that they should become a Desolation and a curse and as rent thy clothes and wet before me I also have heard thee saith the Lord behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace and Thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place and they brought the king word again so God hears this righteous King And he's gonna he's gonna stay off judgment for that doesn't doesn't just get rid of it There's no way of getting rid of the judgment at this point They've already gone they've already gone reprobate when it comes to God's judgment coming on the country That even the best king that you could possibly ask for Isn't good enough to undo all of the wickedness that's already been done And I'm going to show you a little bit more tonight why I think that's the state that we're in today that even if we had the best choice possible in a President or in a rulers of our of our country that we've we've already we've already tipped the scales That judgment is going to come But we don't have that in charge anyway, so we'll never we'll never know unless we actually would have a Josiah step up Let's go to chapter 23 Because now we're gonna see God tells Josiah there's doom and gloom ahead So Does Josiah just throw up his hands and say okay. Well then forget it then I just quit No He still lives right and In acts according to what he's supposed to do So we look at this world and say oh well forget it all just nuts to it No, we still do what we're supposed to do Regardless of even if you know a short-term outcome, even if you know the long-term outcome you still do what you're supposed to do And you don't just throw up your hands God grants him a respite which is a great blessing Because of his stand and you know what we would probably see the same David Josiah rose up We could at least probably enjoy a little bit prolonged peace and prosperity for a short time until the judgment came But you know the judgments ultimately going to come look at verse 20 or chapter 23 verse 1 now we're gonna see the actions of a righteous King a Righteous ruler verse number 1 and the king 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 them in the priests and The prophets and all the people both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. So what's the first thing he does? Bring honor and glory to God. So, you know what we need to go by this book right here Like I said, he wasn't a priest he wasn't a prophet he was a king he's a political leader, but you know what he does he says we need to give reverence to the Lord and Here's the law and here's the book and here's our guidance and here's our wisdom This is going to be the law of the land. This is what we're going to do from here on out and The people have strayed you say oh, but they already had those you know what those laws had changed because different kings come in and wicked kings allow for different things and and They and you know when they especially when they're setting up all these altars of false gods and everything else That wasn't part of God's law that wasn't allowable or acceptable or tolerable But it had become that way. So Josiah comes in and radically changes things Verse number three says and the king stood by a 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 their heart and all their soul To perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book and all the people stood to the Covenant Yeah, a political leader saying we are going to follow this book Amen because that's where wisdom lies Verse 4 and the King commanded Okay the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the door to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the Grove and for all the hosts of heaven he Burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of kydron and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel So the first thing he does he's stamping out the wicked false gods out of the land It's what a righteous King does a righteous ruler Verse 5 and he put down the idolatrous priests Whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in here So we see previous kings had set up these wicked false prophets into places of prominence I said, oh, yeah, we need you burning incense here. Josiah comes along. He says no I don't care that that was the law We're making we're changing things up here. We're going after the law of the Lord right now Obviously kings have more authority to do this thing than in our You know system of governance that that we're under right now But we're just looking at what is it that even a good ruler would stand for? Right, even if they didn't have the power to do all these things like Like someone who at least gave the lip service, but no he's a one that does it and the Bible says here he put down that idolatrous priest whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem them also that burned incense on the bale to the Sun and to the moon to the planets and tall hosts of heaven and He brought out the grove from the house of the Lord without Jerusalem unto the Brook Caidron and burned it at the Brook Caidron and Stamped it small to powder and cast the powder of their oven upon the graves of the children of the people and He break down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord where the women wove Hangings for the grove. So now he's going and driving out the sodomites It's what a righteous king does They're right by the house always like get out of here you have no business being here he drives them out breaks down their houses Right comes in with a battering ram Going you're evicted, you know get out In verse 8 says and he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense from Geba to Beersheba and break down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem But they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren and he defiled Topheth which is the valley of the children of Hinnom that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech child sacrifices child murder Near the beginning of the sermon, you know, I brought up two points about wicked rulers and how we have people who are supporting filth abomination sodomy homosexuality, right and abortion which is child murder It's child sacrifice to self instead of the idol being Moloch It's the individual being Moloch because I can't deal with this. Oh, I'm not ready to have this in my life right now Oh, how am I gonna feel? What am I gonna do? So you're just gonna sacrifice that child for you For your betterment and tell me that's not why people have abortions No concern for the child, I'm just gonna offer this up on the sacrifice and altar of me Because I don't want this wicked as hell What does the righteous ruler do we're stopping that practice right now What does the righteous ruler do sodomites? You're evicted Get out of here Drive the sodomites out of the land stop the child sacrifice. This is what righteous rulers do You're gonna tell me we have a right. We've had a righteous ruler in the past lifetime No, not in my lifetime Any of the elder people in here have had that in their lifetime No didn't think so You Verse 11 he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the Sun at the entering in of the house of the Lord by the chamber of Nathan me like the Chamberlain which was in the suburbs and burned the chariots of the Sun with fire and the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of a has which the kings of Judah had made and the altars which Manasseh had made in two courts of the house of the Lord did the king beat down and break them down from then And cast the dust of them into the brook Caidron and the high places that were before Jerusalem Which were on the right hand of the Mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians And for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon did the king defile Look, it doesn't matter how old these things were because at this point they were very old relics going back to Solomon Solomon was a great king except in the end He did a lot of wicked things when he reared up these altars and look at how long that influence lasted over the children of Israel All the way until basically the end of the reign of the kings There's only a couple more a few more kings that come after Josiah But not for very long time periods and that's already when they're going captive into Babylon So this is like the end of their of their You know golden era if you will of the kings of Israel ruling and reigning and having prosperity before judgment comes and Solomon is what the third king? I Mean you've got Saul and David and Solomon So these are these are Monuments and altars have lasted for a long time You know what? It doesn't matter to the righteous king It doesn't matter how long it's been in place Because what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong and we're gonna get rid of the things that are wrong No matter how entrenched they are in our system and how historic they are. Oh, but these have been around You know what? It's wicked. We're gonna get rid of it Idolatry is wicked. I don't care how long it's been standing It's not gonna be in our land because God said not to have idolatry So I don't care about the historical significance of things you might as well just just tear it all down That's why I don't care when you know, these monuments are getting destroyed either when these braids these graven images of man and graven and brazen images That are just erected up in this country and people are tearing them down I go good tear them down and don't replace them with anything We have books for history I'm not saying get rid of history But let's get rid of idolatry I'm gonna idolize people. We're not gonna erect statues of people when God said not to do that Get rid of it But get rid of it for the right right we get rid of it anyways But I wish people could just see this is idolatry and that's why we're getting rid of it Not just well, I don't I don't like what this stands, you know, whatever that's So this is what the righteous King Josiah which had already said I started off saying He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and all these things that we're seeing Are all right in the eyes of the Lord driving out the sodomites stopping the the children being offered to Molech Tearing down the idolatry all of this is right in the eyes of the Lord verse 14 He break in pieces the images and cut down the groves and filled their places with the bones of men Moreover the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam son of Nebat who made Israel to sin had made both that altar and the high place he break down and burned the high place and Stamped it small to powder and burned the grove jump down to verse number 20 the Bible says And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars and burned men's bones upon them and returned Jerusalem and the king commanded all the people saying keep the Passover of the Lord your God as it is written in the book of this Covenant Surely there was not holding 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 18th year of King Josiah where in this Passover was holding to the Lord in Jerusalem So basically saying there was not an event like this I mean people were keeping the Passover right, but it was never Exalted like this it was never on the scale that King Josiah was why because there's excitement Among the people of God when you've got a righteous King just getting everything right and going like man Yeah, we're changing this we're changing this and you know what we're gonna hold a Passover this year unto the Lord And we're gonna give honor and glory unto the Lord And we've already been doing that with all of this stuff that we've been doing and they're like Yeah, and and it becomes a main focus of serving the Lord and honoring the Lord instead of just a side thing that oh Yeah, we also do this No, we're putting this front and center Verse 24 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 Jerusalem did Josiah put away That he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that he'll kind of priest found in the house of The Lord so he's honestly looking to the law of the Lord as his source as his truth as his guide He's a wise king going hey, this is what the law said so we're not gonna have these familiar spirits and wizards and You know images and idols and all this junk. It's got to go And A righteous ruler is gonna do that and yes, you say but United States America isn't a theocracy well You know if we had a righteous ruler. This is what they would stand for they would say we need to get rid of the the the wizards and the enchantments and the in the you know all of This junk and magic and you know whatever the the familiar spirits the mediums like that just needs to go The psychics they need to go It shouldn't be allowed it should be against the law it was against God's law we're gonna make it against the law Sodomy should be against the law it's against God's law it should be against the law Adultery should be against the laws against God's law It's against the law and that's what a righteous ruler is gonna stand on that's their platform You say we're gonna make America righteous Even if it was never righteous we're gonna make it righteous that's what a righteous ruler would do It Sounds radical You know what what Josiah was doing was radical too because look at all the things that were accepted in his time All these things that were accepted which is why God's bringing the judgment which even after getting rid of this stuff God just saying well, it's already too late So I'll give you this time to clean things up so that you can have peace Josiah because I respect that and I will Give you some peace in your time But the judgments still coming because you've you know the people have just gone too far anyways So even looking for a Josiah, that's still not the answer We're not waiting around for Josiah to pop up and run for president He'll be waiting a long time If you expect that and even if he did it still isn't the solution I Verse 25 and like unto him there was 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 arose there any like him Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah Because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him with all There was none like Josiah and Even that wasn't enough right? And again, I'm gonna get into that a little bit more this evening And here's the thing. We need to remember though because again, I could already hear the objections going. Whoa, that was just Israel That's just the Lord judges the nations of the whole world And he uses the the rulers of the nations of the whole world Nebuchadnezzar wasn't Israel. He didn't come from Israel Pharaoh was you know, king of Egypt Okay in Egypt got judged the Canaanites got judged the Canaanites the Hittites the Prizites the Hivites the Jebusites Right when we go back and read Leviticus, what does it say? Oh, yeah God brought their judgment on them and wiped them all out because they did all the things that were contrary to God's law But they weren't Israel I know but God still judges wickedness because it's wicked You don't have to be his people for him to judge you because you're all his people at the end of the day you're all his creation and God sets the rules for the whole world And right is right and wrong is wrong for everybody Regardless of where you were born regardless of what skin color you are regardless of any of that. There is one law for everybody According to the Creator according to he that rules on high and sets up and brings down rulers as he will It doesn't matter last place returns Isaiah chapter 3 Isaiah 3 kind of ending on a downer. I was gonna start with Isaiah 3, but I decided to end with Isaiah 3 instead Because I think Isaiah 3 does a good job of describing the condition we're in today And as we read it you'll see why I think that way We're gonna get it in context. It's gonna be the last passage that we look at This evening. I'm gonna go more in depth on the solution. I don't want to just leave it just everything's doom and gloom But I just want to make sure it's very clear that we're not looking to politics We're not looking to political leaders to be our Savior That is not the answer and I'm not gonna get all upset and fret Over who the ruler of our country is even a little bit even a little bit Because the individual God's able to take care of you I'm gonna keep focusing on what's right But even on a macro scale we're gonna go into that more tonight on how could a whole group How could a people Be blessed of God and What does it take and what does it take from where we're at now? Look at Isaiah 3 verse number 1 the Bible reads for behold the Lord the Lord of hosts Doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay in the staff the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water the mighty man and the man of war the judge and the prophet and the prudent and the ancient the Captain of 50 and the honorable man and the counselor and the cunning artificer and the eloquent order So he's saying God's taking away all these are all good things, right? You've got the mighty man Judge prophet prudent people, you know all these great things. Hey, you know what? I'm taking that away Taking all these things away from you and I will give children to be their princes and babes shall rule over them Now I shouldn't even have to explain why this is a bad idea But it goes back to you know wisdom being what's going to rule what's gonna be give us good rulers babes Don't have wisdom children Don't have wisdom Their babes their children they need to learn they need to grow they need to understand more You know and and I don't want to get into all that but you know There's reasons why there's age limits set for the political offices and stuff in the country and why it was established that way It's because once upon a time You know, there was some level of integrity and wanting to have people who had wisdom become rulers and not just some kid Who thinks they have all the answers? Just coming in and being real charismatic and just destroying things because they're fools and they don't really know anything Unfortunately, we have a lot of old fools, too But you're gonna have a lot more likelihood of having someone who's wise when they're older than when they're young and According to scripture here, you know, this is this is basically occurs when God's taking away the good things And now he's saying here's what I'm gonna give you This is a curse. So as we continue to read here realize that these are curses that are coming upon we're reading about the you know, Jude and Jerusalem, but is Applicable for the same reasons to any nation. Okay, you could do this any nation Verse five and the people shall be oppressed everyone by another and Everyone by his neighbor. So the oppressions coming not just from the rulers, but among the people That's interesting The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable And I'm starting to see this happening a lot more frequently with the younger generation just being completely disrespectful to the older crowd and thinking that they have all the answers and They're really really ignorant because they have no education They're coming out of the the public fool system. That's just been teaching them propaganda Instead of teaching them facts and reality by and large So you've got you've got children who think they know everything because they're children don't realize that they have no wisdom Now have gotten to the point because there's no respect between children and adults anymore because that value has just gone out the window and I think it's very soon that we're gonna start seeing Age restrictions being taken away in children becoming the rulers, but let's keep reading here because we already have Other curses Verse number six when a man shall take hold of his brother and of the house of his father saying thou has clothing be thou Our ruler and let this ruin be under thy hand in that day Shall he swear saying I will not be in healer for in my house is neither bread nor clothing Make me not a ruler of the people is a day where no one wants to be ruler because things are so bad verse number eight for Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are Against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory. So that tells you exactly why they're in ruins. Why are things going so bad? Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord They're not even giving lip service to them their tongue and their doings It's all against the Lord verse number nine the show of their countenance doth witness against them and they declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not woe unto their soul for they have rewarded evil unto themselves The Tolerant society that we're living in today is allowing for the wicked to just declare their sin and just be like What are you gonna do about it? Accept us embrace us. We're here. We're wicked We're declaring our sin and Sodom and there's nothing you can do about it and you need to accept it They're not even ashamed they're not even hiding it You know not that long ago. The the queers were in the closet Because society deemed it a shame You know parents always a shame if a child of a son or a daughter became a sodomite man Well, I wouldn't want anyone to know that I don't want anyone to know that this that that a child of mine became a pervert and a sodomite It used to be a shame in our culture. Now. It's just hey everybody. Look at me. Hey, let's have a big parade Hey everybody, look at us. We're filthy We're declaring our sin There's no shame This is why this is what brings countries to ruin This is what we see here. This is what the Bible says people declaring their sin is Sodom They hide it not woe unto their soul woe unto them Verse 10 say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hand shall be given him There's a silver lining. Hey It's gonna be well with the righteous Even though there's all that wickedness around it still doesn't change what you need to do from being righteous So, you know what God will still bless you He could bring judgment upon everybody but still bless you individually Woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hand shall be given him verse 12 as For my people look at his children are their oppressors and women rule over them And here's what I didn't you know, I was gonna go a little bit more in depth on this But we see you know, the vice president now the Kamala Harris It's a woman in charge. We've got judges. We've got senators and Congress people and everything else and look It's not that I think women are stupid or Couldn't even do a job. I go to what the Bible says God has created men and women different. He didn't create women to be in those roles bottom line and Bottom line is just as children are not meant to be rulers and when you do it's a curse When women rule over you, it's a curse It's not the position you want to be in It's not right you're putting things on their head Just as much as a child ruling. It's like man, that's backwards They don't know enough to rule Well a woman for different reasons Not just not because they don't know anything because women can be just as smart as man or something You know that that's not the point. It's not intelligence. It's what did God design you for? God designed men to be rulers and and and to be in charge and to be in positions of authority And not women that's a bottom line and I'm not gonna go any further on that because we could go all day in the scriptures Behind that but we see clearly here in Isaiah 3 that this is not a good thing to have women ruling over you oh my people they which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths So the leaders now and look who's sending these people up God is And they're causing you to err But why did God even do this to begin with Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord That's why Because the people brought it on themselves saying okay you want to forget me you want to ignore me you I ignore my laws Here you go. Here's your rulers now Women and children are ruling over you and oppressing you there you go. That's what you wanted The Lord Verse 13 the Lord standeth up to plead and standeth to judge the people the Lord will enter into Judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof for you have eaten up the vineyard the spoil of the poor is in your houses What mean ye that you beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor said the Lord God of hosts So again the the wicked ancients here and these wicked rulers they're oppressing the poor and you know what God's gonna judge them We have that going on now. God's setting them up. We have we have poor people today being oppressed Being beaten down being you know God is going to judge God rights the wrongs But it's a problem all of this is a problem Not with the political leadership But with the state of the people in their hearts and in their attitudes toward the Lord That's where the problem lies So just a sneak peek into tonight guess where the solution lies It's not in rallying behind some man to change government Because that will do Nothing nothing if people's hearts and minds are still just Rejecting the Lord and rejecting his word. It doesn't matter. What laws are in place You're still gonna go into bondage Because sin brings people into bondage When people set up their idols and set up their golden calves and set up the shrines to themselves God's gonna bring you low God's gonna abase Every time As far as I've ordered prayer do Heavenly Father Lord We thank you so much for the wisdom that your word provides to us a light unto our paths God I pray that you would please help us to have the right perspective on things in this world and not to get caught up in the fear-mongering of the world and That you would help us to just walk in faith and not by sight that we walk in the faith and the light of your word and that You will watch over us you'll protect us you'll defend us Lord help us to fight the good fight help us to do our part and to do what we're supposed to do and to live righteously Lord and you know I pray at least for your people that you'd you'd give us some relief and some respite here and then and that we Could continue to do your work Without without facing the problems that that wicked people want to bring our way Lord And that you would just help us to get the work done Jesus name we pray. Amen