Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to 2 Kings. 2 Kings. And this evening, we'll
be looking at several passages in chapter 18 and chapter 19.
The title of the message this evening is, God's Remedy for
the Enemy's Assault. God's Remedy for the Enemy's
Assault. Scripture says in verse 1 of
chapter 18 of 2 Kings, Now it came to pass in the third year
of Hoshea son of Eli, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son
of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Here we have a passage
of Scripture that's given to us of the Holy Spirit with many
great and precious promises by way of types, by way of shadows
and pictures. especially these characters here,
the king of Judah, Hezekiah. And we're going to see here in
just a few moments that the king of Assyria comes and assaults
Israel, the ten northern tribes, and takes them away. And then
he begins his assault on Judah. Now we have before us the history
of this man, Hezekiah. who ascended to the throne of
Judah. He was a king that did that which was right in the sight
of the Lord. Despite his father Ahaz, who
was a wicked king, this man Hezekiah was raised up, and the Spirit
of God blessed him and saved him, and he became a great king
like his father David. He tore down all the groves and
idols of false gods and established the worship of the true God.
Now Hezekiah in obedience to God, trusting Him for protection,
the Scripture tells us that he rebelled against the king of
Assyria. Verse 7, And the Lord was with
him, with Hezekiah, and he prospered him whithersoever he went forth,
and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not."
In other words, he stopped doing what his father did. His father
paid tribute to this man, the king of Assyria, but now Hezekiah
says, no, I will trust the Lord and will not pay tribute to this
heathen king. But after that, the king of Assyria
comes and destroys the ten tribes of Israel. We read here, this
is a previous chapter, in chapter 17, you read of the destruction
of Israel. Remember the two distinct divisions
of Israel was the northern tribes and Judah, the two southern tribes.
Well, Assyria comes and destroys the ten northern tribes. carries
them away into captivity, and they're never heard of again.
And so this emboldens the king of Assyria to come down now and
attack the two tribes of Judah, to attack Jerusalem. And so he
comes down and he destroys the defensive cities around Jerusalem. Jerusalem had set up, Hezekiah
had set up these defensive cities, the outer defenses. And the king
of Assyria comes in and destroys all their defenses. And now then,
the king of Assyria has come to the walls of Jerusalem. They've come to destroy this
city. The king Hezekiah, before this,
he makes a compromise. When he hears of the destruction
of the tribes of Israel, he begins to fear and he gives tribute. He gives tribute to this king
of Assyria. Matter of fact, the scripture
tells us he scraped the gold off of the doors of the temple
of God in order to pay tribute to the king of Assyria. But this
was not enough. This wicked king, he sent his
messengers down to destroy Jerusalem, which brings us to the text in
2 Kings 18, verse 17. Now then, after he had paid the
tribute, that wasn't enough, they still come and they send
this man, Rabshakeh. Rabshakeh, he comes down and
he begins to blaspheme God. He begins to Discomfort, Hezekiah, begins
to mock his trust in God. And he says, don't trust in Egypt.
Don't trust in Pharaoh. He won't help you and your God
won't help you. He begins to make his boast that
the other gods of the other nations didn't help them. How then will
your God deliver you? Now, a believer in Christ, Is
this scene not familiar in your own experience? Does not the
words of Rabshakeh, this man that blasphemed God, does these
words not remind you of the devil's words to your own heart when
you have failed to trust God? when you have leaned on your
arm of flesh or sinful reasoning to get out of your troubles.
Hasn't that always been the case when the enemy comes in and we
are serving God and the enemy comes in and we fail? We fail
like Hezekiah did and we begin to neglect God's worship. God's
praise, God's service. And the enemy comes in and he
says to us, use your own reasoning, use your own understanding to
get out of trouble. And now friends, that's never
enough. Hezekiah is a picture of every believer in Jesus Christ.
When the sinner is converted by the Holy Spirit and given
life and faith, we are given a new nature, a new heart, and
the old man is put down, the old reign of sin is put down. And whereas we only had one nature
and walked after the lust of our flesh, we are now given a
new heart. And this is pictured by the coming
reign of Hezekiah when he came in. Remember, his father was
wicked and he came in and reigned. Now the kingdom was under the
service of God. And that's the way it is with
us. The Scripture tells us we were dead in sins. We followed
after our own lusts and our own passions, walked according to
the course of this world, after the prince of the power of darkness. But God in mercy came and gave
us life. And what happened when he gave
us life is we refused. We refused to give tribute to
the enemy. We refused to serve him any longer. The Apostle says in 1 Corinthians
6, 9, he said, ìKnow you not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God?î And he lists all of these sins
and he says, ìSuch were some of you, but you are washed, but
you are sanctified, but you are justified. Whereas sin once reigned
supreme, now we like Judah.î We like Judah. that paid our
tributes to Satan and the flesh and submitted to our lusts, we
now say within our own hearts, we will not serve him any longer. But when you were converted,
was that the end of the battle or was that the beginning? That
was the beginning. And so as Hezekiah rebelled against
the king of Assyria, even so we rebel against that flesh,
against Satan and all the hosts of hell. But that's not the end
of the assault, that's just the beginning. Will He leave us alone
now that we've converted to Christ? Will He leave us alone? No. In
fact, in conversion is the beginning of the warfare. The beginning.
And because we still live in this flesh, because we still
have this old man, we must always be aware of sin's influence. Now, sin's guilt is gone. We died when Christ died, and
so our sin's guilt is forever removed. The power of sin, the
strength of the sin was law, and the law has been taken out.
We are no longer under the law but under grace, but we are not
free from the presence of sin, are we? We're not free from the
attacks of the enemy. Believer, how many times have
we succumbed to the temptations of Satan to pay tribute to our
lusts? Just like Hezekiah, when he feared,
when he saw that the ten tribes were taken, he began to scrape
gold off of the doorhouse of God in order to pay tribute to
the king he once rebelled. He was once strong, and all of
a sudden now, he's fearful. Is that not our experience? Our
experience is like that. We're emboldened when we first
believe, but then all of a sudden, fear comes on us, and what do
we do? We rob God. We pay tribute to this flesh. Believers, when we served ourselves
in our flesh, instead of trusting God, we were robbing God of the
service that belongs to Him. And yet, how often do we as believers
neglect to trust God? Instead, we trust our flesh,
our reasoning to get out of some trouble. How often do we scrape
off the doors of God's worship to satisfy our carnal lusts? How often believers neglect the
worship of God in prayer and seeking His counsel? And how
often do we pay tribute by neglecting to read God's Word? How often
do we look within to find comfort and assurance instead of looking
to Christ? And what is our reason for such
neglect? Are we neglecting the worship
of God to make peace in our home or among our friends? Is it because
we think God will understand if we neglect His worship? Do we say within our hearts,
ìWell, it doesnít matter. Iím saved. It doesnít matter.î
We know that it does. And to do such things, to neglect
Godís worship, is truly to rob God of what belongs to Him. We
belong to Him. Body, soul, and spirit. And we should never use our grace
as an occasion to the flesh to give tribute to our flesh. And just like Hezekiah's tribute
failed to satisfy the king of Assyria, this man gave all that
he had. He gave all the treasure of his
house. He gave all the gold in the house of God to appease this
king of Assyria. But did it appease him? No. When we neglect the worship of
God, we neglect the service of God, we neglect the witness of
God, we neglect the Word of God, do we suppose that our tribute
will end there? No, because the flesh is never
satisfied. The flesh is never satisfied. Believers, remember that our
sinful flesh is never satisfied with one token, one look, one
seemingly harmless indiscretion, but will soon be assaulted. Even our faith in God will be
pressed and tested. Old believer is the enemy within
your gates. Are you... Are all your supposed
defenses destroyed and all your supposed strengths now burning
heat before your eyes? Does the enemy now tempt you
to doubt God's ability or willingness to deliver your soul? Satan, by the messenger of our
conscience, says, you've gone too far. When we've failed to
worship God, failed and neglected the things of God, That's the
first thing our enemy comes in and says. You've gone too far. Surely God will not be able to
deliver you now. Surely. You've gone too far. You've robbed God. You've scraped
the door of His worship. He says to our soul, How many
have you seen stronger than you fall under the weight of sin,
never to return? Do you think God will save you
now that you've given tribute to your flesh? What shall we
do in such cases? What shall we do when our conscience
convicts us, when the enemy assaults us because of our sin? And it's
true, Hezekiah did do these things and we do these things. We must
confess this. But here in this passage of Scripture,
I want to give us three things. that Hezekiah did, that every
one of us, when we come into this assault, when the enemy
assaults our soul, there are three things here that Hezekiah
does that every one of us should remember. First of all, look
in chapter 19. After all of this assault, Rabshakeh,
he comes in, you could read this yourself, but it's a long speech,
and he is really pressing him. And look what Hezekiah, the first
thing he did. He said, and it came to pass
when King Hezekiah heard, he heard all of the blasphemy, he
heard all of the accusations, he ran his clothes and covered
himself with sackcloth, and notice this, he went into the house
of the Lord. How must The Word of God speak to us. How often does the Word of God
speak to us of the necessity of this thing we call public
worship? How often does God speak to us
of that in the Scriptures? If you remember, these northern
tribes, this is their sin. This is why they were taken away.
They refused to worship God where He presented Himself, where His
presence was made known. In that time, it was only made
known in Jerusalem. And Jeroboam, their father, told
them, he said, you don't need to go there. You don't need to
put yourself out. Just worship God where you are.
You don't have to go to Jerusalem. This was the reason those northern
tribes were taken away. They refused to worship God in
where He was present. Oh, poor deceived souls! How
many know the truths of the doctrines of God's grace and yet willfully
neglect the assembling of their selves with the saints of God? I tell you, private worship is
profitable. It's profitable. You should read
your scriptures at home. You should study at home. And
you should pray. You should see God's face in
private. But the place where God has promised
the richest blessings is right where you're at tonight. God
has promised that where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there I am in the midst of them. Now I'll tell you this,
God is with every one of His people. He indwells every one
of them the same. You who believe, you have the
Holy Spirit, and I have the Holy Spirit. And when you go home
tonight, you'll have the Holy Spirit where you are, and I'll
have the Holy Spirit where I'm at at home. But I know this,
that there's a special thing that happens when believers assemble. And Hezekiah knew this. He knew
where to find the presence of God. It was in the house of God.
It was in the house of God. And as the Word of God is preached
by the man of God that's called, the sound goes forth from his
heart, from the message that God has given him. It goes out
of his mouth and it goes into your ears. But praise God, it
doesn't stop there. It goes and the Spirit of God
makes the Word living, effectual to our hearts. And He applies
it to our hearts. And so there's a special place
for public worship. Oh believer, let us not rob God
of His worship. Let us not forsake the sanctity
of ourselves together. And those who do, I tell you,
they cause themselves great trouble. They really cause themselves
great harm. Let us be faithful to worship
God. Is that why you're here? To worship
God. That's why I come. I come to
worship God. And we should not forsake. We
should forsake all of our family and friends and our own life
or lust or whatever it is that would hinder us. I'll tell you
tonight, it was a great hindrance. For me, there was many hindrances
that happened. And I know it happens to you.
Every time we go... Isn't that so? Every time you
get ready to worship, you go and then the world falls in.
That's what happens. And we were so surprised. I'm
so surprised tonight that everything didn't go like I planned it to. And I know that that's not the
case. It never does. We're always attacked from every
side. If we neglect the worship of God, what should we do? We
should return. That's what you should do. This
man, he scraped the gold off of God's doors, but yet, when
he found out, when he was found out, and he had no strength,
no defense, where did Hezekiah go? He went back. And that's
where believers go. They go back. They come back
to worship God in the house of God. If your heart is broken
because of sin, where should you go? Should you shell up in
your own corner and trust in your own private word? No! Go
where the saints of God are. That's where the encouragement
is. That's where the strength is. And that's where God's presence
is. And so we should learn from Hezekiah.
He repented in sackcloth and ashes and he turned He turned
back and he went to God's house. Second of all, Hezekiah heard
the word from God's man. Notice this in verse 5 of chapter
19. It says, And so the servants
of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. Isaiah was the man of God. He
was the man that God had appointed this time. And Isaiah said unto
them, Thus shall you say to your master, thus saith the Lord,
be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, which the servant
of the king of Assyria hath blasphemed me. Oh, you troubled and fearful
saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread
shall soon break in blessings on your head. Oh, you troubled
and fearful child of God, draw near and hear the Word of God.
You that are attacked with doubts and fears, hear the Word of God.
Fear not! Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. God's people, we're often full
of doubts. We're often full of fears. And
it doesn't take much to trouble us. It just doesn't take much. A slight breeze and we're troubled. You who have sinned against God
and you who are sieged by Satan and sin and guilt of conscience
because of your willful neglect and robbery of the glory of God
and unbelief and God says something totally against what we would
say. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Don't be troubled,
you weak and weary saint. How gracious is the Word of God
our Savior that as soon as His people hear, as soon as His people
call on Him, He answers them. And what an answer. What an answer. Fear not. Someone had once said
that there are over 365 fear nots or do not be afraid in Scripture. One for every day. One for every
day. Fear not. God willing to show
His grace and power to His people will allow us to go only so far. He'll allow us to go just as
far as we need to feel our need of Him. That's how far he allowed
Hezekiah to go. He allowed Hezekiah to go so
far until he was backed into the corner, his defenses were
destroyed, and he had nowhere else to turn. Isn't that what
God does for us? He destroys all of our pride,
all of our self-sufficiency. To do what? To bring us to Himself. And when He brings us to Himself,
He does not bring us to Himself with law. He brings us to Himself
with grace. Grace. My grace, the Apostle
Paul, when he heard the Lord Jesus, when he was suffering
those infirmities, and he prayed, Lord, deliver me, Lord, deliver
me, three times, and the Lord wouldn't. And what was the Lord's
word to him? My grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
when? When is Christ's strength known
to be perfectly strong when we are perfectly weak? That's when
we know it to be perfectly strong. Oh, how the Lord must bring us
these troubles in order to destroy our pride and force us to turn
to Him for grace. We are forced back to our knees.
to seek His strength and forgiveness of our sins. And believer, what
have you found? What have you found when you
returned unto God? Have you not found always forgiveness? I have always found forgiveness. Forgiveness. I've always found
His grace. I've not found God's face to
be frowning or hard. I did not find His word to be
harsh or bitter. But what pierces the heart of
the child of God who has neglected God's service is not law, but
love. Isn't it the love of God that
pierces our hearts? It's the love of God that constrains
us. Is it not His love and grace
that seems to heap coals of fire upon our hearts? It is! The self-righteous man comes
seeking God's merit, expecting God's acceptance, but will in
the end only find God's wrath. But the sinner comes seeking
God's mercy, expecting God's wrath, but finds God's grace. Haven't you found that to be
so? I have found that to be so every time. Every time. So we can learn from this. We
can learn from Hezekiah. When we have sinned against God,
we should return to His house. We should return to His worship.
We should hear His Word. And here is His Word. Fear not.
You that are in Christ Jesus, fear not. For, listen to this,
sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under the
law, but under grace. And third, we can learn from
Hezekiah this matter of prayer. Hezekiah prayed. If you'll notice
that in verse 14 of chapter 19. And Hezekiah received the letter
at the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went
up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And
Hezekiah prayed before the Lord. Hezekiah sinned and robbed God
of His glory. He came back and worshiped God
in His house. He heard His Word. He was cheerful. He took fresh courage. But as
soon as he got home, what was waiting for him? Life. When you leave here tonight,
What you left when you get home will still be there. It will. As soon as he returned
home, he received the same letter with the same words of blasphemy
that he had before he went and heard God's Word. Is this not
true of us? We come to the house of God,
we worship, we hear of Jesus Christ, and it says to our souls,
it refreshes our souls, in Christ you are complete. Christ has
finished the work of our salvation and we rejoice, but as soon as
we come back home, what is left for us? The trouble. We still
are encountering the trouble. The moment we are alone and with
ourselves, again the devil and unbelief come into our minds
and assault us again. And we say in our unbelief, like
Asaph said, I know that God is good to Israel, but ask for me. Has that thought not come to
your mind? Now I heard God's Word, I know that Christ is good
to Israel, but I don't know about me. I don't know. I know God saves sinners, but
have I kept any glory for myself? Am I trusting in myself? I know
that those believers who believe on Jesus Christ are saved by
faith, but my faith is so small. I'm sure to fail. I'm sure to
be lost. What should we do when you come
to despair again? Do what Hezekiah did. Spread
it out before the Lord. Get alone with God. Get alone with God and spread
it out in prayer. If you have doubts and fears,
God said not to be afraid. Well, spread it out before the
Lord. Take your case directly to the
throne of grace. Be, as the Apostle said, instant
in prayer. Instant in prayer. Let us get
along with the throne of God, before the throne of God, because
God alone can save you. It's God alone who can give us
faith and grace, and it's God alone who can give us full assurance
of hope. Do you need assurance? I'll tell
you what, assurance is fleeting, isn't it? It's fleeting. But
do you want full assurance? Well, you need to get along with
God. You need to spread it out before the Lord and bow down
before the Lord Jesus Christ and sue God for mercy based solely
on His blood and righteousness. And what will you find? You'll
find grace. You'll find mercy. Look at verse 20. Then Isaiah, the son of Amos,
sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king
of Assyria, I have heard. Isn't that assuring? When you
cry to God, He hears. He hears you. The Lord hears
our prayers. God is gracious to hear our prayers
when we come to Him in the name of His Son. O troubled believer,
doubtful saint of God, are you assaulted by the enemy? Are you
found paying tribute to the flesh? Then lay it out before God and
sue for mercy, not based on your merit. not based on anything
you see in you, but based on the work and person of Christ. And God says He will show mercy. He will show mercy. Come to the
house of God. Hear God's Word and pray. And what is the result of all
this? The result of the turning of God's children. If you look
in 2 Kings 19.21, this is God's answer to the praying, returning
king, Hezekiah. He said, this is the word that
the Lord has spoken concerning the, look what he calls his people,
the virgin daughter of Zion. The virgin daughter of Zion. What a name given to us who by
nature were nothing but adulteresses. Worshipping other gods and yet
by Jesus Christ we have been made righteous. Righteous. Even the righteousness of God
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
in that belief. This means that our precious
Savior has accomplished righteousness by His faith. Is your faith small? Well, don't trust in your faith.
Your faith is nothing to trust in. It's not your faith that
obtained righteousness. It's His faith that obtained
righteousness. And because He's imputed that
to you and imparted that to you, you are righteous. You are righteous. Made the righteousness
of God in Him. And notice that all this event,
this assault, was not only to bring us back, but notice
that this was completely of God. God tells this man Rabshakeh,
He said, you know, you trusted in all your might to destroy
Israel and to come and threaten My people. Look at verse 25,
He says, Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it?
of the ancient times that I formed it, now I have brought it to
pass. Do you realize that your assault,
believer, your assault was purposed of God? This whole assault that
they thought was their idea was truly God's purpose. He said, Rabbi Shecka, didn't
you know that I purposed this? I purposed this. God purposes
this. For what? To show us His grace. To show us His grace. Behold, believer, the grace of
God in the destruction of our finished city and our confidence
in ourselves that we should look upon the rock of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, upon this rock I
will build my church. He's talking about Himself. I like this in Isaiah 32, it
says, A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a culvert
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as a shadow
of a great rock in a weary land. Who is the man that's as a culvert? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is upon this rock He has built your soul and my soul. And the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So all of this assault
was purposed of God to show His power. Do you realize, believer, that
the only way your salvation can fail is if Jesus Christ fail? Is that possible that God should
fail? It is not possible that God should
fail. He will not fail and your soul
shall not be lost. Your soul shall not be lost.
How then can we be so sure? Well, look what God says in the
end here. Look at verse 32. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield,
nor cast up a bank against it. By the way that He came, by the
same shall He return, and shall not come into this city, saith
the Lord, for I will defend this city to save it." Notice why. For mine own namesake. and for my servant David's sake. Why is it that God will defend
you for His own name's sake? Why is it that Satan shall not
prevail against you? Why is it that not one accusation,
one arrow of accusation shall scale the wall of Christ? Because God purposed that you
should be righteous in His Son. The Scripture says, Who is He
that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again. Where's your hope? Your hope
is in Christ. And so no matter how the gates
of hell assault our souls, no matter how they seem to triumph,
in this life. They will not. Because God purposed to save
us. Have we robbed God? Have we neglected
Him? Go to His house. Hear His word. Pray. Trust in Christ. And you will find rest. You'll
find rest.