Our generation has rejected God. We’ve set ourselves up as our own sovereigns. We’ve made our own laws. We’ve decided to recreate man in our likeness – not God’s. So we face a host of consequences: families are being splintered, nations are in disarray, and the church does not lag very far.
King Josiah would fit today’s landscape well. And while everyone is busy drawing plans, discussing solutions, and holding meetings, King Josiah stands out in how he dealt with these problems.
JOSIAH’S REFORMATION
King Josiah was 8 years old when he became king. At 18 years old, he ordered the renovation of the temple. During the renovation, Hilkiah – the High Priest – discovered the Book of the Law. Imagine that: God’s people literally lost God’s Word. Upon learning of God’s commands and its corresponding consequences, Josiah humbled himself before God, gathered the elders of the land, and set himself to pursue the Lord and His commands.
What did King Josiah do to save Israel from the brink of destruction and restore its prosperity? He led a Reformation.
OUR REFORMATION
Written in 1669, Richard Sibbes put Josiah in the spotlight. He put forward this dilemma as the heart of all problems: “The greatest number [of Christians] are so far from mourning for the abominations of the land, that they rather set themselves against God in a most disobedient manner, and press others to sin against him”. Our hearts are not broken towards sin and how it offends our God and Savior.
Sibbes’ thesis then is this: True reformation doesn’t begin with councils and flashy movements but in the contrite heart that is sorrowful over sin. The prayer of the reformer is: “Lord, I have kept court in mine own conscience already, I have humbled and judged myself, therefore do not thou judge me; I am ready to do whatsoever thou wilt, and to suffer what thou wilt have me. I have deserved worse a thousand times, but, Lord, remember I am but dust and ashes.” First, we are to humble ourselves. Then, we are to do whatsoever God wilt.
In light of this, Sibbes exhorts Christians to have (1) tenderness, (2) humility, and (3) mourning in our hearts. Only when these three are present will the saints see true reformation and experience times of refreshing.
TENDER HEART
Sibbers asserts: “One thing is the cause of another, but all come from the first cause. So tenderness of heart may be some cause of removal of judgment; but God is the cause of both, for they all come from the first cause, which is God.” The judgments of God on a sinful people can only be appeased if our hearts become tender.
What is a tender heart?
- “A tender heart is sensible of any grievance; for tenderness doth presuppose life, because nothing that hath not life is tender.”
- “A tender heart, so soon as the word is spoken, yields to it. It quakes at threatenings, obeys precepts, melts at promises, and the promises sweeten the heart.”
- “A melting and tender heart is sensible, yielding, and fit for any service both to God and man.”
In short, a tender heart is one that knows that it has grieved God, seeks to re-align itself with God, and rejoices in the pursuit of having its fellowship with God restored. While “a soft heart is made soft by the blood of Christ”, there are certain things we are commanded by God to do to maintain it such as being under the means of grace, praying for sins (personal and corporate), sharing the gospel to self and others, and keeping with company with genuine believers.
HUMBLE HEART
Once a heart is tender, it is humble. Sibbes says, “Tenderness of heart and humbling a man’s self go both together; for things that are hard will not yield nor bow.” Here, Sibbes advocates the Puritan practice of self-humbling. We have a role to play in our humility. After all, “humiliation is a reflected action: Josiah humbled himself.”
First, we must convince ourselves of the judgment we’re supposed to receive. Then, we are to look to Christ for justification – full and free. Afterwards, we are to join people who see us as ‘simul iustus et peccator’ – simultaneously saints and sinners. If we see ourselves as sinners only, we will condemn ourselves beyond hope and repair. If we see ourselves as saints only, we will exalt ourselves beyond who we really are. Finally, we are to always bring ourselves into God’s presence. Sibbes exhorts: “Thus let us come into the presence of God, under the means of his word, and then we shall see our own vileness, which will work humiliation.”
Practically, this makes the believer able to root out sin and imperfection when brough to light. When someone points out our flaws, we do not hold grudges. Sibbes issues a warning: “Let us take notice, I say, of our proneness to this sin of pride; for the best are prone to it. Consider, it is a wonderful hateful sin, a sin of sins, that God most hates.”
In fact, God may even cure us of this sin with a painful treatment: “Indeed, it is profitable for some men to fall, that so by their humiliation for infirmities, they may be cured of this great, this sacrilegious sin. And why is it called a sacrilegious sin? Because it robs God of his glory.”
In short, we must examine ourselves rightly then, let Christ cleanse us with the power of the Holy Spirit – “for according to the measure of humiliation is the measure of other grace, because a humble heart hath in it a spiritual emptiness. Humility emptieth the heart for God to fill it.”
MOURNING HEART
Humility and tenderness, however, are seen in the degree that it mourns over sin. Two things to think about for us today who fast so little:
- “What joy can a true heart have, now the church of God is in affliction? We are all of one house. When one part of the house is a-fire, the other part had need to look to itself.”
- “We have matter enough of lamentation and weepings at this day, if we look abroad; and at home, if we look to judgments felt and feared, we have cause to weep, before the decree come out against us. Therefore we should meet God beforehand.”
- “Let us shame ourselves for our own deadness, dryness, and spiritual barrenness this way, that we can yield no sighs, no tears for God, for his church and glory.”
In this narcissistic generation, it is the Christian who is supposed to be well-positioned to weep for others, to rejoice in their good, and to intercede for these lands.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the Christian has no joy. Quite the contrary! Sibbes reminds: “A Christian hath cause of mourning within him when he looks upon his sinful nature and the sins which he doth daily commit, yet notwithstanding, at the same time, there is cause of joy, and great reason to bless God, when he considers that God hath pardoned his sins in Christ.”
PERSONAL IMPACT
Reading this, I have been convicted of the coldness of my own heart. I am easily sidetracked. My heart breaks for temporal problems – but not for eternal problems. I need Christ to always re-align my heart. If I take these things to heart, I will be more in the prayer closet, more in the Word, more in conversation with other believers, and more in the house of mourning than in the house of feasting.
Jimmy Needham’s “Clear the Stage” accurately captures Sibbes’ heart:
Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze
If that’s the measure you must take to crush the idols
Jerk the pews and all the decorations too
Until the congregations few then have revival
Tell your friends that this is where the party ends
Until you’re broken for your sins you can’t be social
Then seek the Lord and wait for what He has in store
And know that great is your reward so just be hopeful
Take a break from all the plans that you have made
And sit at home alone and wait for God to whisper
Beg Him please to open up His mouth and speak
And pray for real upon your knees until they blister
Shine the light on every corner of your life
Until the pride and lust and lies are in the open
Then read the Word and put to test the things you’ve heard
Until your heart and soul are stirred and rocked and broken
REFORMATION TODAY
Do you want a reformation today? Get down on your knees. Weep for your own sins. Weep for the sins of the church. Weep for the sins of the land. Bask in the Bible. Then, do whatsoever God wilt have you to do. But never neglect personal reformation. The reformation of the church is only as good as individual reformation.
SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Yes, absolutely! Download it here: https://www.monergism.com/josiah’s-reformation
Kyle Lucido Reads 