Alright brethren, let's go back
now to Isaiah chapter 37. Our text is a question that the
Lord asked King Sennacherib, who is the king of Assyria. This man is He was the mightiest
king of the mightiest nation in the world. And he had sent
his messengers to Jerusalem, to the walls of Jerusalem. And they're relaying the message
from King Sennacherib to King Hezekiah in Judah. And he was
boasting and bragging about all of these cities that he had wiped
out. So God asks this question to this king. He says in verse
23, Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? And against whom
hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high,
even against the Holy One of Israel? Now how did Sennacherib
reproach and blaspheme God? How did he reproach and blaspheme
the Lord? The Lord gives a summary here.
In your own time, I encourage you to read Isaiah 36 and 37. You can find this also in 2 Kings
and 2 Chronicles. But Isaiah 36 and 37, you can
hear everything King Sennacherib said. But the Lord tells us right
here in a brief summary, He tells us exactly how he reproached
Him and how he blasphemed God. Verse 24, God said to him, By
thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the
multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains
and to the sides of Lebanon. and I will cut down the tall
cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof, and I will
enter into the height of his border, the forest of his caramel. I have digged in drunk water,
and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers
of the besieged places." See, Sennacherib reproached God and
he blasphemed God by lifting up his voice against God, by
speaking of himself, of his will and of his works which he had
done. This is how he blasphemed God.
This is how you and I have blasphemed God. This is how we reproached
God. We've all done this. Whenever
Adam sinned in the garden, you and I all sinned in Adam. And when he sinned, we reproached
God. We blasphemed God in that rebellion. And when we came forth from our
mother's womb, dead in trespasses and in sins, all the years that
we didn't know God, all those years we were walking spiritually
dead, we were thinking of ourselves as good. We were boasting in
ourselves and trusting in our will and trusting in our works
and by that we were reproaching the true and living God. We were
blaspheming the true and living God, exalting ourselves against
God. Now if there's anybody here tonight
that's trusting in anything you've done to save you, Maybe you say
you trust Christ, but you feel there's something you have to
add to Christ. If there's anything you're trusting
in to save yourself, you're bringing reproach on God. You're blaspheming
God. If trusting in your works under
the law, if we trust in our morality, if we trust in some pretended
goodness that's in us, If we trust in our religious works,
in our attendance to come to hear the gospel, if we trust
in that, if we trust in our baptism, if we trust in, even if we trust
in our faith, we reproach the living God. We
exalt our voices against God. The Lord says this in 1 Corinthians
1.29, He says through Paul, no flesh shall glory in His presence. No flesh shall glory in God's
presence whatsoever. So let's answer this question.
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? Against whom hast
thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against
the Holy One of Israel. Here's what we're going to see.
This one that you and I reproached while we were dead in our sins,
this one that some are still reproaching today because they're
trying to come to God by their will and by their works, this
one that we've reproached, This one is the one true and living
God of His elect people. This is the Holy One. That means
He's separate and unlike any of the gods of man's imagination. He's totally in a league of His
own. He's totally different from any
of the gods of man's imagination. First of all, He's the God of
purpose. That's the first thing that distinguishes
our God from all other gods. He's the God of purpose. Sennacherib
boasted that He had destroyed all these cities. So the Lord
asked another question. Look down at verse 26. Has thou
not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times
that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass,
God said, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defense cities
into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were
of small power. They were dismayed and confounded.
They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb,
as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it
be grown up. God says, have you not heard
that I determined this before? I'm the one that purposed all
this. From eternity, from before the world was made, God purposed
that Sennacherib would be exalted to be this mighty king. He determined
that he would use Sennacherib to chasten His people in Judah,
in Jerusalem. God purposed this. He purposed
that He would use Sennacherib to destroy all those other cities
that Sennacherib had destroyed as He came up against Judah.
And so, because God purposed this, God also purposed that
the inhabitants of those cities would have very little power.
so that Sennacherib could overcome them. God purposed all this before
the world was made. Brethren, this is God's eternal
purpose that He brings to pass in all the earth. upon all nations
over all time. Go back with me to Isaiah 14
and let's see this. He's using Assyria, the king
of Assyria, to show us this is what God does in all the earth
with all the nations over all time. Look here, Isaiah 14 verse
24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn... Now this is His immutable counsel. This is His immutable purpose.
It cannot be changed. The Lord hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon
my mountains tread him underfoot, Then shall his yoke depart from
off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. Now
listen. Is God saying, I'm just doing
this, I've just purposed this with the Assyrian? No. He's using the Assyrian to show
us this is what he does in all the earth with all nations over
all time. Look at verse 26. This is the
purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth. And this is
the hand that's stretched out upon all the nations. For the
Lord of hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it? Who's
going to disannul God's purpose? And His hand is stretched out,
and who shall turn it back? God's telling us, brethren, that
everything that comes to pass in this world, God purposed it
before He made this world. Everything that comes to pass,
God purposed it. Go to Isaiah 46 and look at verse
9. This is a familiar passage of
Scripture. Isaiah 46 verse 9. This is what distinguishes God
from all other gods of man's imagination, all his idols. Look,
verse 9. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me. declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure, calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel
from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. Well, what about man's will?
Men always want to come to the defense of man. What about man's
will? Listen to Proverbs 19.21. There
are many devices in a man's heart. Man's got many things he purposes
in his heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. It's the purpose of God that
shall stand. Even if He has to cross your
will and my will, God's purpose will stand. Not our purpose,
not our will, God's will. Does God work all things according
to His purpose? Everything according to His purpose?
Yes, including salvation. Including salvation. Go to Romans
8 and look at verse 28. Romans 8 verse 28. We know that all things, there
it is, all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did
foreknow, whom He did elect, whom He did choose, them He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. This whole thing
is about exalting Christ Jesus His Son. He said, Moreover whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? God's people are saved because
God purposed to save us. Christ redeemed the elect on
purpose. He did it on purpose. He knew
He was redeeming when He went to the cross. He did it on purpose.
And in Christ also, Paul said in Ephesians 1.11, in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of God who works all things after the counsel
of His own will. Yes, God works salvation on purpose. Now sinner, let me tell you something.
It's useless to fight against this God. It's useless to fight
against Him. Listen to Gamaliel. Gamaliel
was a Pharisee and he was not a believer. But he had this right. Listen to what he said. If it
be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily you be found
even to fight against God. But what does His people do?
We don't fight against God. We used to blaspheme God. We
used to reproach Him. We used to exalt ourselves. But
He came to us according to His sovereign purpose. And now what
do we do? Now we bow and we praise Him
for His sovereign purpose. Listen to this. Isaiah said,
O Lord, Thou art my God. I will exalt Thee. I will praise
Thy name, for Thou has done wonderful things. Thy counsels, Thy purpose
of old are faithfulness and truth. That's where He brings His people.
We serve the God of purpose. Everything He does is according
to His eternal purpose. Now secondly, whom hast thou
reproached in blaspheme? Against whom hast thou lifted
up thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? He's the sovereign
God. He's not only the God of purpose,
He's the God who brings that purpose to pass. He's sovereign
to do whatever He purposed. God not only purposed that Sennacherib
would lay waste these cities, He not only purposed it, God
brought it to pass. He said there in Isaiah 37, He
says there in verse 26, He said, Now have I brought it to pass,
that thou should be to lay waste defense cities into ruinous heaps. He determined it, He purposed
it long ago, God said, Now I've brought it to pass. That's sovereignty. That's power. To purpose something
beforehand and declare what you're going to do beforehand and then
do it exactly like you said you would do it. Just exactly like
you purposed it. That's sovereignty. That's God.
Go over to Isaiah 10 and look at verse 5. Now look, this is
the mightiest man on earth. At this time, The Assyrian Empire
covered the entire Middle East. You can go online and look up
the Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib and you can see a map and it
will show you how big this empire was. At this time, this was the
mightiest king in the mightiest nation. It covered the entire
Middle East. It covered most of Egypt, all
of North Africa, and little bitty Judah, right there in the middle
of it. He's got it besieged. He's got them surrounded. And
yet, they're not giving up. This one little people. This one little people. But this
mighty king, he's an instrument in God's hand. That's all he
is. He's just an instrument in God's
hand. You mothers and fathers, when
you get ready to chase your children, You take something, you take
a belt or whatever it is you're going to chase them with, that's
an instrument in your hand. That's all that King Sennacherib
and the whole nation of Israel, that's all they were in God's
hand. Look here, Isaiah 10 verse 5, O Assyrian, the rod of mine
anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. You get that? He's saying the
staff that they're carrying and that the rod that they're using
to chasten the people, that's my indignation, God said. I'm
doing that, God said. I will send him against a hypocritical
nation and against the people of my wrath. Will I give him
a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread
them down like the mire of the streets? Howbeit he meaneth not
so, neither doth his heart think so, but it is in his heart to
destroy and cut off nations, not a few." Oh, Sennacherib,
in his heart, he thought he was doing all this himself. He thought
he was so wise and so powerful and so mighty, and when he got
done attacking all these other cities, he was going to go attack
and destroy Judah. But look down at verse 12. Wherefore
it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed His whole
work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the
stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and
by my wisdom, for I am prudent. God said, I'm going to destroy,
I'm going to punish that. Look down at verse 15. Shall
the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Or shall the saw magnify itself
against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself
against them that lift it up. Or as if the staff should lift
up itself as if it were no wood. So when the Lord had finished
His work, He purposed this work, and when He sovereignly had used
the king of Assyria and brought this whole work to pass, and
chastened His people, corrected His people, just like you correct
your children, God used a whole nation, a king, and corrected
His children. And when He had finished this
work, the Lord sent Him home. He sent Sennacherib home to be
killed. And God caused him to be killed. Go back to Isaiah 37 and look
at verse 29. He says, ìBecause thy rage against
me and thy tumult has come up into mine ears, therefore will
I put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and Iíll
turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.î Now go look
back to Isaiah 36 and look at verse 7. Behold, the Lord said,
I will send a blast upon him. That means I'm going to put a
spirit of terror in his heart. I'm going to strike terror in
his heart, God said. I'll send a blast upon him, and
he said, and he shall hear a rumor, and he'll return to his own land.
And watch this, God says, I will cause him to fall by the sword
in his own land. God said, I'm going to cause
him to be slain, to be killed by the sword in his own land.
We see how the Lord put this terror in his heart. We hear
what this rumor was that he heard. Go back to Isaiah 37, look at
verse 36. What we're seeing, don't forget
now, we're seeing how God is sovereign. Not only to purpose
what He'll do, but then how to bring it to pass. Now watch. He said he would put terror in
this king's heart because he's going to hear a rumor. Here's
what he heard. Verse 36. Then the angel of the
Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred
and four score and five thousand. And when they arose early in
the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. The Lord killed
a hundred and forty-five thousand of his army. of Sennacherib's
army, including, it says this over in Kings, including all
his chief captains, all his generals, the Lord killed every one of
them. He killed every one of them. And the Lord said, when
I've done this, it's going to strike, he's going to hear about
it, it's going to strike fear in his heart, and then he's going
to return home and I'm going to cause him to fall by the sword
in his own land. Now look at verse 37. So Sennacherib
king of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at
Nineveh. He went home. And it came to
pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god,
that Adramelech and Cherezer his sons, his own children, smote
him with the sword. And they escaped into the land
of Armenia and Esherdon his son reigned in his stead. You see,
God purposed it, God said beforehand what He was going to do, and
then God did it. That's what we mean when we talk
about God being sovereign. Now listen, Sennacherib and all
his army is a picture of the devil and his seed. He's a picture
of the devil and his seed. Here you have God raises up Sennacherib. He's the mightiest man under
God. Under God, he's the mightiest
in the whole earth. He's a picture of the devil.
And he's a picture of the devil's seed, the devil's children. The
devil has a seed. That's Genesis 3.15. The Lord
said that he has a seed. The devil has children. This
is a picture of the devil and his children. You see, God is
sovereign over the devil. He was a created angel. And he
raised himself up in heaven, exalted himself against God,
and was cast out of heaven. But that was according to God's
purpose. That was to fulfill God's purpose.
And when he entered into the garden, that was God sovereignly
fulfilling His purpose. When He caused Adam to fall in
the garden, The devil was guilty. The devil did the evil. He did
the wickedness. But God was sovereignly ruling
the whole thing. It was bringing God's purpose
to pass so that God could send forth His Son and redeem His
people, save His people from our sins and glorify His Son
to the highest. God was in control when the devil
used his men to nail Christ to the cross. God was in control. That man, Christ Jesus, He's
the God we're talking about. He's Sovereign God. He's the
Son of God. He said, I, my Father, am One.
That man is the God-man. He's Sovereign God. He said,
no man takes my life. I lay it down of myself. When
they came to arrest Him, they said, we're looking for Jesus.
He said, I am. And only God can use that name.
I am. And when He said that, they fell
backwards on the ground. Because He is Sovereign God.
He gave them permission to nail Him to the cross. No man took
His life. He laid it down of Himself. The
wicked hands were guilty for doing it. But they only did what
God determined before to be done. That's Sovereign God. That's
Sovereign God. And by that, brethren, He saved
His people from our sins. Now, if the most evil deed in
the world's history If God was in sovereign control over that
most evil deed that ever took place in the world, the crucifixion
of the Lord of glory, and that was done to save us, then brethren,
you and I can be comforted and we can rest knowing God's in
control of everything else. Everything else that comes to
pass is God sovereignly bringing to pass His eternal purpose and
He's in full control of it. And we don't have to worry about
it. Scripture says, shall there be evil in a city and the Lord
hath not done it? This is God. This is a little
different God than that little helpless Jesus that wants to
save you if you'll just let Him. This God doesn't ask permission.
The true and living God doesn't ask permission. He saves. He
does His will in heaven and in earth and none can stay His hand
or say unto Him, what doest thou? This is the true and living God.
What makes God, God? What makes Him God? He can do
whatever He's pleased to do. That's what makes Him God. And
whatever God does is holy and just because God is holy and
just. He only does what's right. It's
right because God does it. That's all He does is what's
right. Ben and I were talking this afternoon about how men
will say, well, I don't believe God's just because how can He
allow this evil to happen and how can a just God allow that
to happen? That's a little grasshopper of a man exalting his voice against
the true and living, just and holy God and saying, I wouldn't
do it that way. I'd do it a better way. Who is
it you've reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you lifted
up your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? This is sovereign
God. This is God who does what He
will. That's who He is. Our sovereign King Jesus has
His hook in the devil's nose and when He's done, when He's
finished accomplishing His whole work and calling each and every
one of those He redeemed into faith in Him, when He's done
calling the last one, He's going to cast the devil and his seed
into hell just like He did Sennacherib. And no harm is going to be done
by the devil and his seed, not to any of God's people. Now thirdly,
lastly, Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? Against whom
hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high?
He is the God of our salvation, who alone we give all the glory. He is the God who saved us, to
whom we give all the glory and all the praise. Two reasons the
Lord gives here for doing all of this. He gives two reasons
that He did everything He did here. One, He did it to save
His people. Now look here in Isaiah 37, the
Lord made this promise to Hezekiah. He said in verse 30, And this
shall be a sign unto thee. He's speaking to Hezekiah. Now
do you remember back when the Lord was talking to Hezekiah's
father, King Ahaz? And he said, ìThe Lordís going
to give you a sign.î And King Ahaz was pretending to be pious
and he said, ìOh, I wonít tempt the Lord by asking a sign.î And
God said, ìIím going to give it to you anyway.î And he said,
ìA virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Immanuel, God with us.î Christ said, ìNo other sign
will be given.î Heís the sign. Now when you see here, God said,
I'm going to give you a sign. This is pointing us to Christ.
Now watch it. He says, this shall be a sign
unto thee. You shall eat this year, such
as groweth of itself. And the second year, that which
springeth of the same. Meaning is, God's people would
not save themselves by their hand. The Lord would do all the
work to save them. The Lord, just like He produced
that produce that came out of the ground, God said, I'm going
to produce life for you. I'm going to do the work. You're
not going to do the work. And then, when the Lord had saved
them, they would reap the harvest. So that's what he says next.
He says, And in the third year sow ye and reap, and plant vineyards,
and eat the fruit thereof. Now here's what God was picturing.
Look at verse 31. He said, And the remnant that
is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward
and bear fruit upward. That's what he was showing. For
out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape
out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
shall do this. You see that? The Lord said He
would do this. 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 shields,
nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the
same shall he return, and he shall not come into this city,
saith the Lord. Now from eternity, God had an
elect remnant. He says here, the remnant is
going to be saved. That's a very small number. It's
not the multitudes God is saving. It's a remnant. It's a small
number in every generation. God has an elect people who He
chose in Christ before the world was made. He chose them. They're
from among Jew and Gentile. We saw in Romans 9, not everybody
in Israel was His elect. It was those He chose. And He
didn't choose us based on any good or evil in us. It had nothing
to do with us. It was simply according to God's
free and sovereign grace. He said, go read Romans 9, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand not of
him that willeth, but of God that calleth. And so God gets
all the glory. And God the Father chose this
people. And as God, just like He made
the children of Israel to eat this produce, God produced it. Two years they didn't sow. And
God made fruits and vegetables to grow up so that they could
eat and live. And just like they did that,
brethren, just like they lived off of that ground, we have life
by Christ the seed. Remember what Christ said in
John 12, 24? He said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. And he was talking about himself.
That's what God was picturing here. I'm going to show you a
sign, God said. You're not going to do any work.
And yet life's going to come up out of the earth and you're
going to have life because of it. The zeal of the Lord our
host is going to do this. Christ the seed came down to
this earth and He willingly gave Himself and was broken just like
a seed goes into the earth and is broken. And when did God say
they were going to reap the harvest? He said on the third year you
are going to reap the harvest. Well, the third day after Christ
was buried in the earth, Christ is the seed and after He was
buried in the earth on that third day, He sprung forth out of the
earth and He brought forth much fruit. He came forth with all
His children in Him to eternal life. What had he done? He went
under the justice of God for his people. He went in answer
to the justice of God and he paid all our sin debt to the
law. The law said the soul that sinneth
must die and Christ took the place of his people and died
the death we owe to justice. And He came out of that ground
and all of His people now, God says, you all died already. You died in My Son. When He was
broken, you were broken. When justice was poured out on
Him, justice was poured out on you. And now Christ is seated
at God's right hand and all His people are seated in Him at God's
right hand. We're saved by Him. He made us
the righteousness of God. And that's what God was picturing
here. He was picturing how all this produce, all this life that
we have came from God's hand. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
shall do this. Let me see if I can put it a
little more plainly to you. Salvation is entirely of the
Lord. Go to 1 Corinthians 1.30 and
I'm going to show you this and I'm just about done. It's by God the Father. Salvation
is by the triune God. We worship one God in three persons. It's by God the Father. Look
here, verse 30. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ, it's because
God chose you in Christ before the world was made. God the Father.
Salvation is by God the Holy Spirit, who of God is made unto
us. He regenerates us and He makes
us to know Christ. And salvation is by God the Son. Christ has made everything we
need. He has made unto us everything
we need to be saved. Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. And why is salvation all of the
Lord? Look at verse 31. That according
as it's written, he that glories, he that boasts, let him glory
in the Lord. Now go back to Isaiah 37. That
was the second reason God did all this. He said there in Isaiah
37, 35, He said, I will defend this city
to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake. When he says for my own sake,
he means for my own glory, for my own praise. That's why I'm
going to save them. He said in Isaiah 48, 11, For
mine own sake, even for mine own sake will I do it, for how
shall my name be polluted? I will not give my glory to another. See, that's what Sennacherib
was doing. He was taking God's glory and giving it to himself. That's how he reproached God.
God said, I'm not going to share my glory with anybody. I'm not
going to share the praise that's due to my name with anybody.
God said in Isaiah 43, 7, everyone that's called by my name, I created
him for my glory. I formed Him. Yea, I made Him. I made Him so that I get all
the glory and I get all the praise, God said. I am He that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake. so that I get the glory
and the praise God said, and I'll not remember your sins.
So when we are saved now, we don't boast in our will anymore,
we don't boast in our works anymore. Who do we boast in? To the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. We glory in God. And when He
says here, for My servant David's sake, He's saying, for My servant
Christ Jesus, My Son. Listen to this. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, I will raise unto David a righteous
branch. A king shall reign and prosper
and execute judgment and justice in the earth. And in his days
Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this
is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. God said, I'll raise him up.
And then He said in Jeremiah 30 verse 9, They shall serve
the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise
up unto them. David had already been dead when
God said that. Who's He talking about? I'm going
to raise up David unto them. Same one He's talking about when
He called him the righteous branch, the Lord our righteousness. They're
going to serve that king and they're going to worship Him.
What He's saying here is that since God's Son came, His righteous
servant came and fulfilled all the law and fulfilled all the
covenant, that everlasting covenant of redemption. Because He fulfilled
His end of the covenant and redeemed all His people, God the Father
says, for His sake, I'm going to fulfill My end of the covenant
and I'm going to quicken and call every one of them and not
lose one. That's why He's doing everything
He's doing in this earth, brethren. Who is this one that we once
blasphemed? He's the God who saves on purpose. He's the God who saves by His
sovereign hand. He's the God of our salvation,
the one in whom we glory in Him alone. Now listen sinner, don't
fight against God. Don't fight against God. Don't
think you're going to come to God some other way. You will
lose. You're going to end up like Sennacherib.
You don't want to end up like him. You come bow down to God,
asking God for mercy, and He promises you'll find mercy. You'll
find mercy. He delights to show mercy. Now
believer, be comforted knowing this, everything God's doing
in this earth right now, He's doing it, everything, for you,
His people. He's doing everything for His
glory. And He's doing everything for
the sake of His Son. His righteous servant. He's going
to have Him praised and honored and have His name exalted. That's
why He's doing everything. So look back now at Isaiah 37.22. Because this is so, on behalf
of all His elect, on our behalf brethren, this is what God says
to all our enemies right here. He speaks. He speaks our words
on our behalf to our enemies. And here's what He said, verse
22. This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning all
our enemies. The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
that's me and you, God's elect, His people, hath despised thee
and laughed thee to scorn. We can say this of all our enemies.
Laugh at them. The daughter of Jerusalem has
shaken her head at thee. Why are you imagining a vain
thing? When that king was sitting there
shaking his fist and making his boast about what he was going
to do to them, God said, My people are laughing at you. They are
just shaking their heads saying, That fool King Sennacherib. We worship a God that is way
more powerful than he is. So see brethren, we have no enemy
to worry about. This is God. This is who the
true and living God is. Don't blaspheme Him. Don't reproach
Him by bragging about your will and your works. You see what
He did to King Sennacherib. Bow to Him and cast your care
on Him. You'll find mercy. Amen.