Okay, we'll begin Isaiah chapter
33, 2 Kings 18, and 2 Chronicles 32. I'm going to begin reading Isaiah 33. I want to read to
you one verse, and then go back up to the beginning of our text.
Verse 10, he says, will I rise, saith the Lord." Something has
taken place before this for a long time. And the Lord says, now
will I rise. And He says, now will I be exalted.
Now will I lift up myself. Every sinner has a refuge. And every sinner that God saves
is saved from a refuge, a false refuge. Unequivocally, everyone
has a refuge. And everyone has to be saved
from a false refuge. And when He does this, He brings
us into the sanctuary, the Lord Himself, Christ Jesus, the Lord
and Savior. And we have many, many things
that we look to throughout our lives as believers that are nothing
more than false refuge. But the faithful Lord of glory,
just as He does in the beginning, will strip His children of their
vanities. He'll strip His children of the
false refuge. And He will reveal unto us that
His salvation is by His grace. It's not based on us before He
called us. And it won't be changed by us
after He calls us. He makes us to see that. And
He makes us to cry out to Him. And He answers. And in all of
this, He makes us to see. that there is only one Lord of
salvation. All they want. And this is how
He saves, how He continues to save, and how He shall confirm
His children unto the end, blameless. All right, let's see this now. Isaiah 33, 7. We're going to
read a lot of Scripture because I just think that The history
of this will bear everything I just said out to you, and then
I'll go over those three points again at the end. He's going
to strip. He's going to make us see it's
by grace. He's going to make us call on Him, and He'll answer,
and He makes us this way to know salvations of the Lord. Now,
we begin here at Isaiah 33, 7. Isaiah declares, Behold, their
valiant one shall cry without. the ambassadors of peace shall
weep bitterly." Now, their valiant ones are the messengers that
were sent to the wall of Jerusalem by King Sennacherib of Assyria. And they came making a boast
of the king of Assyria to King Hezekiah and to those princes
that Hezekiah had sent out there, his ambassadors of peace, that
he had sent out there to hear them. This word of boasting came
from the valiant ones, the messengers of the king of Assyria, and caused
much weeping to Hezekiah's children. Hezekiah, on one hand, is a picture
of Christ, the righteous king, the righteous king. and His children,
His ambassadors of peace, His witnesses, pictures of every
child that is saved by Him. A king shall reign in righteousness
and princes shall rule in judgment. But we are often brought to weeping
by the valiant ones of the enemy, the messengers of Satan that
are sent to buffet us. And those ones who cry without
often cause us bitter weeping, bitter weeping. But that's needful. That's very needful. Very, very
needful. Well, let's look at 2 Kings 18,
verse 1, and let's see what had happened up to this point. 2
Kings 18, verse 1. Now, Hezekiah was a good king
over Judah. And we're going to see here as
we look at Hezekiah, he's a picture also of a believer. We're one
with Christ. Christ is our king and he's our
priest and he makes his children to be kings and priests unto
our God. Paul, Peter described it as a
royal priesthood, a kingly priesthood of Christ the king priest. So
Hezekiah here is someone whom God has called by the Spirit.
The Father has drawn Him to behold Christ Jesus, the Messiah to
come. And in everything He did here,
He manifests. He turned from the evil way to
trust His Lord. Now look. Now it came to pass
in the third year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that
Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Twenty
and five years old, was He when He began to reign. And He reigned
29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abbi,
the daughter of Zechariah. And He did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David His father
did. Now here is a beautiful picture
of the believer. What he's saying here is Hezekiah
did everything that was right in the sight of the Lord according
to David, what his father did. David is a picture of Christ,
the everlasting Father, the King and the High Priest. And the
believer can be said to have done everything that is right
in the sight of the Lord according to what Christ did, what He performed. That's how God says they've done
all that that's right. That's right. All right? Here's
what he did. He removed the high places, and
he broke the images, and he cut down the groves, and he broke
in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto
those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it. He called
it Neshetim. He said, it's just a piece of
brass, people. That's all this is. You think
that there was anybody that took this personally when Hezekiah
did this? They were sincerely worshiping
these gods. And Hezekiah came and said, that's
not God at all. And broke them down and said,
you're worshipping a worthless piece of brass. Well, verse 5
says, he trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after
him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that
were before him. For he claimed to the Lord, and
departed not from following him. You get that, he didn't depart
from following him, the Lord said. but kept his commandments,
which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him, and
he prospered whithersoever he went forth. And he rebelled against
the king of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the Philistines,
even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the
watchman to the fenced city." Now this is God's account of
King Hezekiah. God says he's done everything
perfectly, like David did. Get the picture there? God says
to the believer, He's done everything perfectly, just like Christ my
Son has done, my King has done. He's done it in Him, in His Son. Well, now, hold your place here,
where you are, and turn to 2 Chronicles 32. We're going to come back to II
Kings 18. Turn to II Chronicles 32.1. Have you ever noticed when you
read through, say, Hebrews chapter 11, and it shows you that roll
call of faith, as we sometimes call it, shows you the believers
of old, and it says things like, Abraham staggered not at the
promises of God. He was strong in faith. Her faith never failed. She never
doubted the Lord. And then you go back and you
read the account in the Old Testament. And you find out that Abraham
went into Hagar because Sarah laughed and said, I can't have
a child. And they did all these things to try to bring forth
the seed of promise by their own hand. But then when God records
it, He said, they never waver. They never waver. How can that
be said of a believer? Only in Christ, the Son of God. Perfectly righteous. Perfectly
holy. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Let's
see what happened. 2 Chronicles 32. After these things, after all
those things that King Hezekiah had done, this is a picture of
a man that has been converted, a man that has broken down all
those idols and all those things. After these things, and the establishment
thereof, he reopened up the temple of the Lord, and reestablished
true worship, and even sent a letter to Manasseh down in Israel, and
had them come and said, now come to Jerusalem, don't go to those
Places that the false king built and come now back to Jerusalem
and worship where God said he'll meet with his people. That's
what he had instituted. Now after that, Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, came and entered into Judah, this is the enemy
king, and encamped against the fenced cities and thought to
win them for himself. Now you remember when we looked
at Isaiah 10. King of Assyria is a rod in the
hand of God. Just like I would take a belt
or anything else to correct my son. That's what the king and
that whole nation of Assyria was in the hand of God. We get
to thinking, these proud, obstinate hearts God can't make me understand,
can't make me understand truth. You fix to see what God did with
whole nations. You're no match for Him. I'm
no match for Him. He can make me understand truth.
Watch what He did here now. He came up and He had camped
against these fenced cities and thought to win them for Himself.
He thinks He's just serving Himself. He thinks He's doing all this
Himself. He don't know He's riding God's hand. And when Hezekiah
saw that Sennacherib was come and that he was purposed to fight
against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty
men. That's these men that we started
out reading about, his ambassadors of peace who now are weeping
bitterly for some reason. They're weeping bitterly in our
text. Now we're finding out what led up to that. He talked to
them, said, what should I do? And when he did this, They said
that he should fight. They said he took counsel and
it says that they told him to stop the waters of the fountains
which were without the city, and they did help him. Verse
4, So there was gathered much people together who stopped all
the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the
land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find
much water? So they cut off water flowing
out so those kings couldn't get the water. Good thing to do.
Also he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that
was broken and raised it up to the towers and another wall without
and he repaired Milo in the city of David and made darts and shields
in abundance. And he sent captains of war over
the people, and gathered them together to him in the street
of the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them." Now
this is Hezekiah, this is what he said. He built all these defenses,
very wise king, very smart king. The people were doing these,
helping him do these things. And this is what he said to them,
this was his gospel to them, be strong and courageous. Be
not afraid, nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for
all the multitude that is with him, for there be more with us
than with him. With him is an arm of flesh."
That's all. But with us is the Lord our God
to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. Turn to Isaiah chapter
22. Isaiah chapter 22. We looked at this before, and
I encourage you to go back and listen to it again, study it
again. The Lord sent the king of Assyria to try his people,
the believers in Jerusalem. That's why He sent them up there.
He sent them for a two-fold purpose. He sent them to separate the
chaff to expose those who were not approved of God, who were
not truly trusting God, and He sent them to try those who were
trusting God to prove their faith. Now you know when God proves
our faith. It's not, as the world will say,
to prove how strong our faith is and how bold it is. When He
sends a trial to prove our faith, it's to prove to us that if He's
not faithful to keep us, It's of no avail. There's nothing
we can do to keep ourselves. He's got to keep us. And this
is the strengthening of our faith. This is what causes us to really
be strong in faith, to know that we can't save ourselves. When
we think we can, and we think it's because our faith is so
strong that we can do something, we're going to fail. We're going
to fall. Pride's going to go before a fall. But when true
faith, true strengthening of faith, the faith that is victorious
is when that faith is laying completely hold on our faithful
God to fight our battles for us. That's what true faith is. And that's what makes faith active. That's what made Hezekiah build
up these walls and build up these defenses and not just sit around
and cross his hands and go, well, God's going to save me. No, he
trusted God and he used everything God put in his hands to build
up the defenses and told the people, now trust Him, trust
God to save us. All right? Verse 11, something
happened. Now, in verses 8, Isaiah 22,
Isaiah 22, 8 through 11, tells us about how that they built
up these breaches and they made all these fortifications, but
verse 11, You made also a ditch between the two walls for the
water of the old pool. This is the end of saying what
all they did. But here's what took place in the midst of all
this. But ye have not looked unto the maker thereof. Yet look
to the Lord. Neither had respect unto him
that fashioned it long ago." They looked to the stones of
the walls, they looked to the towers of the walls, they looked
to all these thick clay, these things that were all made of
earth, the darts and the shields and all these things that were
made of earthy elements. They looked at those and he said,
but you hadn't looked to the Lord God who made that, who made
all those things. You're looking at those things
and not Him. Now watch this. And in that day, when the king
of Sennacherib came up, he said, in that day the Lord God of hosts
called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding
with sackcloth. That's why he sent him. He sent
him so that his people would see we can't save ourselves,
and they would turn and cast their care on the Lord to save
them. That's what King Hezekiah told them to do. But what happened
as they begin to build and fortify and the economy flourished because
people got to be paid to do these things and they've started paying
each other and working together and this took place over a long
period of time and they're building and things began to flourish.
And instead of mourning they began to get more fortified in
their hearts and more bold in their own confidence and more
bold in their own strength. And behold, joy and gladness,
slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine.
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. Let us just enjoy
everything. If He comes, He comes. But look
at everything we've got now. And it was revealed in mine ears
by the Lord of hosts. Surely, this is what Isaiah said,
I heard the Lord say, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged
from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts. You and I
have got to be brought, our old man's got to be mortified, he's
got to be made dead. Everything we trust in has got
to be brought to death, burned up like chaff, before we're going
to behold him who's true and never perishing. You know that,
I want to point this out to you because we're going to look at
this another time, but in the midst of this was a man named
Shebna. He was like what you would call the Secretary of Defense.
He was the treasurer of all things military and the one who was
behind building these walls and counting these towers. He's called
a scribe. He's called a treasurer. He's
called a mighty man. He's called a prince. Remember
the Lord says, where's the wise man? Where's the scribe? He said,
you're not going to find him in my city, the counter of towers,
the one who's trusting in those outward bulwarks of the flesh
and those earthy things and thinks he's trusting in the might and
the power and the wisdom of his hand. He said, you're not going
to find him. Apparently, Shebna, in all of
this, one of those counselors who counseled as a guy, had said,
let's build these things. And he was turning the people
to these things and turning them to look at these things and was
one of the main ones in the midst of all this. Verse 15, Thus saith
the Lord God of hosts, Go get thee unto this treasurer, even
unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say, What hast thou
here? whom hast thou here? that thou
hast hewed thee out a sepulcher here, as he that heweth him out
a sepulcher on high, and that graveth inhabitation for himself
in a rock. He was so confident that he was
going to be right where God had put him, he went and made him
a big sepulcher. He went and planned for how he
was going to die and everything and made all these provisions
as if he had any power in himself to do anything. God said, go
ask him, why have you hewed you out a sepulcher here? And in
all that he'd done, all his trusting in himself, truly what he had
done was make himself a grave. grave It truly is what he'd now
make trusting in the in his flesh in his mind. He made himself
a grave a sepulcher well So they look to these natural defenses
And here's a cow Does something now? He's in the midst of them. There's a picture of a believer
a king and a prince and a god We make foolish mistakes as believers
We turn and we start looking at things that won't save us. Things that we think are precious
things that are not precious things. Things that we think
are valuable and lasting that are not valuable and lasting.
And we began to try to make covenants using the very things of God. Have you ever done that? Is it
ever in your mind that, well, God has told me to ask Him and
He'll give it to me. So the problem in this trial
is I just haven't been praying enough. There's a big difference between
asking God and thinking, if I pray more, God's going to bless me.
Big difference. That's taking the things of God,
what God has said, and trusting in the letter, not in the spirit
and understanding of it, to know that He's not saying go through
the mechanics, that's what's going to save you. He said God's
going to save you. Ask Him. Ask Him. Well, let's
see what Hezekiah did in here. Picture of a believer now that's
going to have to be stripped of all false refuge. 2 Kings
18. 2 Kings 18. Did you hold your place there?
We're back there now. 2 Kings 18, now back to verse
13. Not only did they build up all
these fortifications when the kings started coming up, but
now look what happened. In the 14th year, a lot of times
gone by, but in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, the Sennacherib
king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah
and he took them. In spite of the walls, in spite
of the defenses, in spite of what had began to happen. And
he got to Lachish, one of the outlying cities. And listen to
what happens next. This is part of that council
of Shebna, I'm sure. And it was Hezekiah's own doing,
though. He did this. Look at verse 14.
And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria to
Lachish, saying, I have offended. Now this is the man whom God
said, rebelled against the king of Assyria and never did submit
to him. This is the man whom God said held on to the Lord
with all his might and never wavered." Remember that now. Alright? Here's what he did.
Here's what he really did. He sent to him and said, I've
offended. Return from me that which thou puttest on me will
I bear. He's talking to the king of Assyria. He says, please go
back, whatever you ask me to pay, I'll pay it to you. What
did he do? And the king of Assyria appointed
unto Hezekiah king of Judah 300 talents of silver and 30 talents
of gold. He said, that's what you got
to pay me. And Hezekiah gave him, listen
to this now, all the silver that was found in the house of the
Lord. and in the treasures of the king's
house. And at that time did Hezekiah
cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and
from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid,
and gave it to the king of Assyria." This is the man who never wavered.
This is the man who only did that which pleased God. This
is the man who never did turn from the Lord, who never came
before Him or after Him. That was like him. because he
did everything according to what his father did. How can such
a thing be said of me and you who are just like King Hezekiah?
Who will take the things of God and try to make a covenant with
death and hell to get ourselves out of a little bit of suffering
on this earth. How can it be said that we've
never wavered, we've never changed, we've never turned whatsoever?
Only in Christ Alone. Only in Christ alone. Period. Now that's the case here. Now
go over to Isaiah 36 verse 2. We're working our way back to our text.
Now, when this happened, do you think that that covenant that
King Hezekiah tried to make with the king of Assyria, do you think
it worked? Do you think that got him out of this trial and
preserved him and saved him? If God allowed that to save him,
Hezekiah is going to pat himself on the back and he is going to
be praising all along the king of Assyria and not God. That
can't save him. What he did can't save him. God is going to take all that
out of his hand. all of that completely away from
him and make him to behold who it is that really saves. So what
happened? Verse 2. And the king of Assyria,
Isaiah 36.2. And the king of Assyria sent
to Rabshika from Lachish to Jerusalem, sent Rabshika from Lachish to
Jerusalem unto King Hezekiah with a great army. And He stood
by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the foolish
field." You know, that's exactly where Isaiah stood when he preached
to Hezekiah's father and said, the remnant is going to return.
Don't be fearful of Syria and Israel. The remnant is going
to return. My people are going to be saved. He's going to attack
the prey and bring the spoils back. God is. Here's the sign. Immanuel, God with us is going
to do this. Christ the Lord will do this. That's what he told
Ahaz. We're standing right at this same spot. And Ahaz, Hezekiah's
father rejected him. And now here stands the princes
of Hezekiah. And they've gone out to meet
the king of Assyria. It's a different king of Assyria,
but it's the same office, same king, same enemy. And here he
stands at the same place with his messenger, his valiant ones.
These are the ones spoken of where we began in our text. His
valiant ones stood without and they cried. They cried out. Here's
what they said. Then came forth unto him Eliakim,
Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe,
and Joah, and Asaph's son, the recorder." These were the princes
of Hezekiah, those that would end up weeping bitterly. Verse
4, here's what was said, "...and Rabshicah, the valiant ones of
king Assyria, the messengers of falsehood, they said unto
them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the
king of Assyria. What confidence is this wherein
thou trustest? I say, sayest thou, but they
are but vain words. He said, This is what you say,
and these are your vain words. I have counsel and strength for
war. Now on whom dost thou trust that thou rebellest against me?
Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt.
Now apparently they had gone down and made some alliances
with Egypt too. This is what Isaiah had been
warning them not to do. Now the king of Assyria, the enemy, throws
all this in their face. Throws all this up at them and
says, is that what you trusted in, Egypt? The Lord is using the king, He
often does it, He uses our enemies to speak that which rebukes us. And He says this to him, Lo,
thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed on Egypt, whereon
if a man lean, it'll go into his hand and pierce it. So is
Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him. That was one
defense that people were trusting in, Egypt, Pharaoh. But, he said,
if thou say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, I ain't gonna
speak a word against him. He's trying to put doubt in the
mind of God's people, doubt in the princes of God, doubt in
Hezekiah's mind, and keep it there. If you say you trust in
the Lord our God, is it not He whose high places and whose altars
Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem,
You shall worship before this altar? Look how much inconvenience
Hezekiah has caused you by telling you there's one God and one Savior
and one place to worship Him. That's not so! It's just caused
you inconvenience. He's appealing to the flesh of
the people. That's what He's doing here. So that they are
corrupted in the singleness for the Lord God. And he says, verse
8, Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the
king of Assyria, and I'll give thee two thousand horses, if
thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. And they had
already took all this from them, and now he's come back and said,
Now, you need to make a covenant with us. You see, if you try
to make a covenant to save yourself, The taker will take and take
and take and take, and you'll never make a covenant. Never. He says in verse 9, How then
wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of
my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots
and for horsemen? How are you going to turn away
one of the least of my master's servants? And am I now come up without
the Lord against this land? Oh, now he's saying he's God's
messenger. Now he's saying that he's making
himself out to be a believer too. And saying, I'm sent here
by the Lord. I'm the Lord's messenger to you.
He said, I've come up against this land to destroy it. I'm
not without the Lord. The Lord said unto me, go up
against this land and destroy it. And the Lord did say that. The Lord did say that. But the
Lord was using him, using him, just as a rod in his hand. Look
at verse 11. Then said Eliakim, and Shebna,
and Joah unto Rapshica. These are the ambassadors of
peace, of Hezekiah. They said, Speak, I pray thee,
unto thy servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it.
And speak not to us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people
that are on the wall. This is what a faithful ambassador
of Christ is going to say. Don't trouble the people with
your lies. Do not trouble the brethren with
your lies. Speak to us. We can understand
your hard speeches. We can understand your language.
Talk to me. Don't talk to the people. But,
verse 13, Then Rabbi Sheikah stood and cried with a loud voice
in the Jews' language. And so that everybody on that
wall could hear him. And he said, Hear ye the words of the great
king, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the king, Let not
Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver
you. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying,
The Lord will surely deliver us. This city shall not be delivered
into the hand of the king of Assyria. That's what he says.
Don't you believe that now. Harken not to Hezekiah, for thus
saith the king of Israel, Make an agreement with me by a present,
and come out to me. Now here's what he promises you. And eat every one of his vine. I tell you the vine we're going
to have to eat of is Christ's vine. But he tells you, this
is his message. You make a covenant agreement
with me, and you eat of your own vine. Your own vine. You don't have to eat of this
other vine. Your own vine. That appeals to the flesh. And
every one of his fig tree. And drink ye every one of the
waters of his own cistern. Our cisterns are broken. They
won't hold any water. We need Christ the water. Christ
the water. He says, until I come and take
you away to a land just like your own land. A land of corn
and wine. A land of bread and vineyards. religion that promises you that
God's going to give you all the evil lusts of your flesh, a mansion
in glory, and corn and wine to the full, all the things that
you're lusting after in this life, that health and wealth,
prosperity, religion, that you're going to get all those things,
that's what you're going to get. That'll be what you get. exactly
like what you have here. The difference will be all the
restraint of God will be taken off of you, off of everybody
so that what comes into your mind to gnash and beat on somebody,
you'll be able to do it. You'll be able to do it. And
at the same time, you'll hear this sovereign word of God's
grace constantly, constantly, constantly. And you'll say, oh,
just touch the tip of my tongue that this heat may be I quenched
just a little bit. Oh, please send back somebody
from the dead to speak to one of my brothers, one of my sisters,
and tell them I lied to them all along. I thought I showed
them mercy, but I showed them no mercy. I just lied to them.
I've claimed I love them more than I love Christ. And by that,
I just watered down the Word and I wouldn't say anything to
them. And God said if they have the prophets, if they won't hear
Him, they won't hear if a man was raised from the dead. Oh, He says, Beware lest Hezekiah
persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Now He asks
for reason. Reason now from man up to God. You start doing that, you're
going to build yourself a refuge of lies, and I will too. This
is where He turns you though. Now reason from man up. He'll
take all the husks that men said, faithful men said throughout
the years and use that to build bulwarks around that thick covering
of clay and to protect it so that you turn yourself from God
and reason down to a puny man and start reasoning from man
up to God. And that is turning things upside
down and you'll set yourself above God and put God down below
you and say, because things don't line up with how I see it, that
ain't how God is. Well, it's not God said it and
I believe it and that makes it so, it's God said it and that
makes it so. Whether you believe it or not,
God said it and that makes it so. All right, look here. He
says this now, reasoning from man up, now you just look around,
hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his hand out of the
hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath
and Arfit? Where are the gods of Seraphim? Have they delivered
Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods
of these lands that they've delivered their land out of my hand, that
the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? You know, If you compare the
true God to false religion, it don't change the true God. It
don't change what the true God does. You can use false religion
all you want to. Men that claim to believe Christ,
just like the Pharisees claimed to believe, they were calling
on Jehovah, the coming Messiah, when they were standing in the
synagogue, just like men today are calling on God, Jehovah,
Christ, as they stand in churches today. The one was looking for
Christ to come, the other's looking for Christ to come. But if it's
not truth, it's not truth. Period. And you can use all the
false religion you want to, to try to justify a lie, it don't
change the truth of God one bit. And that's what they were doing
here. They were looking at all the idols around them. You say,
oh, but no, those are idols. Those are idols out there. Is
that what you think? You know better than that. We
know better than that. An idol brethren is anything that turns
us from the true and living God, even if it's the silver and gold
of the Ark of the Covenant. But they held their peace, verse
21, and didn't answer him a word. This is the ambassadors of peace.
They didn't answer those men. For the king's commandment was
saying, answer him not. Don't say a word to him. You
don't even have to answer the valiant ones of Satan's princes. You don't even have to answer
them. The king says, don't. Don't say anything to them. Learning
to hold our peace. But look what happened by all
this. Verse 22, Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was
over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son
of Asaph, and the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent,
and told him the words of Rapshika. Now, back to our text, Isaiah
22, 10. Isaiah 33, 10. 7. And so here they are. Behold,
their valiant ones shall cry without the ambassadors of peace.
Here they are weeping bitterly now. Verse 10. Now. Now. Now that they're brought
to absolutely nothing, now, the Lord says, will I rise? Now will
I be exalted? Now will I lift up myself? Here's
the first thing. The Lord will graciously strip
his children of all vain confidence. Look at verse 8. They said the
highways lie waste. A wayfaring man ceaseth. There's
only one highway. That's Christ the Lord. Have
you been brought to behold Him that He is the way? He is the
highway. Do you see He is the way to God
into the city of Jerusalem? The wayfaring man travels unto
Him, into God. Verse 8, He's broken the covenant.
He's despised the cities. He's regarded no man. And speaking
of that covenant that they tried to make with the king of Assyria,
the only covenant wherein the child of God shall be saved is
the everlasting covenant of God. And He don't make that covenant
on a condition based in you. He comes to you and says, here's
what I've done. Here's my everlasting promise.
Here's what I shall do. It can't be broken. And that's
the covenant wherein a believer is going to be saved. Verse 9,
it says, The earth mourneth and languisheth, Lebanon's ashamed
and hewn down, Sharon's like a wilderness, bastion and caramel
shake off their fruits. The Lord's going to teach us
not to look to earthly things, earthly cities, but to look to
Christ seated at God's right hand alone, and He will lift
our eyes up to see Him alone. All our fertile fields and all
our fertile valleys have got to be be brought to nothing.
All our mighty cedars of Lebanon, which was what we become mighty
and lifted up and proud, has got to be chopped down. And everything
that we thought was a fertile, fruitful valley has got to be
made into a desolate wilderness. He's going to strip us. In the
beginning, in every hour of our lives, if He could do all this
with these kings, and these enemies and these whole nations and turning
their hearts with us, whoever they will, you be sure He can
do this in the hearts of everyone that He's everlastingly loved.
And He don't stop doing it. He'll keep doing it. He's going
to strip us and make us see Him. There's going to be some bitter
weeping by that. Remember back in Isaiah 30, when He does that,
He said, you said we're going to flee on horse. And He said,
I'm going to let you flee. but you're going to be brought
down to like a beacon on a hill, a tree, all its branches broken
off like a mast, the sailsmen just ripped down off of it, all
your tackling's been loosed from off of it. He says, and then,
he says, the Lord awake that he may be gracious. And he says,
then I'll be exalted, that I might be merciful. And then you're
going to behold me. And he says then, you're going
to see that this is all by grace. Here's the second thing. When
he does all this, he's going to do it to exalt the fact that
he's saved by grace alone. Grace exalted right here. I'm
going to point this out to you quickly. We're down on time. Are you with me? Is everybody
with me on this? All right. We're almost done,
but I'm going to give you this. Remember how King Hezekiah broke
off the stuff off the walls and he broke off all that stuff and
took the gold out of the tabernacle and all that and gave it to the
king of Assyria? Listen to this word about his father, King Ahaz. King Ahaz took the silver and
gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures
of the king's house and sent it for a present to the king
of Assyria. And King Ahaz was called a wicked, ungodly rebel
against God from day one. And yet Hezekiah did the exact
same thing. And God said he trusted in the
Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all
the kings of Judah nor any that were before him. You know what
made the difference? Grace. Grace. Grace. Oh boy, if God didn't choose
me because of anything in me, He's not going to turn me loose
because of anything in me. He's not going to reject me because
of anything in me. He wouldn't reject Hezekiah because
of anything in him. Salvation is all of grace. He's
God and He changes not and therefore us fickle sons of Jacob are consumed
when we start trying to make covenants and look to our strength
of our hand and our defenses and all that. It's grace by grace
are you saying. And here's the third thing. And
in all this, we see that God is faithful to take everything
out of our hands that we would trust in and to bring us with
nothing. You see, salvation is not a choice. God takes all the choices away.
Until then, we'll make choices. He takes all the choices away
and brings us to one. the Lord God, God Almighty, Christ
Jesus, the power and wisdom of God. And then He makes us to
say, Lord, save me. Now we've prayed. Now we've cast
our care on Him. Now we've stopped trying to make
bargains and strike bills. And we've called Him. And He
always hears. He always answers. And He says,
now will I rise. Now will I be exalted. Now will
I set him in safety. Because he's done what he meant
to do by the whole thing. What psalm was that we read back
in the back? Psalm 90? Go read Psalm 90. He turns men
to destruction. He does. When we get haughty,
he says, okay, you want it? Have at it. Now return to me. Return to me. And he blasts every
gourd, and he takes away every false refuge, till at last we
see, Lord, I can't save myself. And in all, he says, we hadn't
sinned, we hadn't committed iniquity, we hadn't done one thing, because
we never changed in Christ. Same yesterday, today, and forever.
But now, he says, now, do you see you need me? Do you see?
Why I've done all this. Do you see why this trial came
about? Do you see that I'm going to
take that out of your hand which would come between me and you?
Think of that illustration of the sun and the moon. The sun
is the light. The moon is just a reflection
of the light. That's me and you. Christ is the son of righteousness. We're just one who receives light
from Him. Do you know what happens when
that light gets dim? When you look up in the sky and
that light gets dim, do you know what causes that light to grow
dim? The world's passed between the sun and the moon. And do
you know what causes our light to grow dim and our rejoicing
to grow dim and we become bold in our flesh and all this striving
and fighting and evil and obstinacy and all this rebellion comes
about? Do you know what causes that? Me and you, this world
comes between us and God. But thankfully, this earth is
set where it is by God and He'll just take it right out of the
way and let the light shine and fill you up with light so that
you behold Him. And behold, He is the light.
He is the salvation of His people. I want to show you one thing.
This is where Isaiah was brought to, back in Isaiah 37. I'm just
going to cut down what I was going to read to you. But Isaiah
got this message from them. The prince has brought this message
to him, weeping bitterly about it. And when they did, verse
1 says, and it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard, he
rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went
into the house of the Lord. What did the Lord say that all
this had come about for? He said, I've called you to rent
your clothes and to repent. This is repentance, to trust
me. Well now, that's what Hezekiah
does. That's what he does now, at last.
And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna
the scribe, and he sent them unto Isaiah the prophet, the
son of Amos. Now Isaiah had been preaching
this gospel to them the whole time. And he sent now to Isaiah. And they said unto him, Thus
saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble. It's a day of rebuke. It's a day of blasphemy, for
the children are come to the birth, and there's not strength
to bring forth. We can't do this. It may be the Lord thy God will
hear the words of Rapshika. And it says, and he sent these servants, he sent them
back to Hezekiah. And he said this, verse 10, that
not like God, oh I'm sorry, he sent them back and he told them
this. Verse 6, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words
that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria
have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon
him. He shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I
will cause him to fall by the sword of his own hand. Well,
again, Reb Sheikah came up. And they again started railing
on the wall and railing on and trying to turn them from God.
And they sent a letter this time. And again, verse 14, Hezekiah
received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read
it. And Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord and spread
it before the Lord. And I'm going to get you to read
that when you go home tonight. That's a good, good gospel. We'll come to that eventually.
But here's what I want you to see. Look over at verse 35. This
is the message of the whole thing. This is the message of the day.
Here's why God did everything He did. And here's the message,
the gospel. I will defend this city. That's His city. God's city. God's Jerusalem. God's Zion.
His elect people. His church. His people. I will
defend this city for my own sake. That's what God said to him.
and I'll do it for my servant David's sake. I'm going to do
it for my glory and the glory of King Jesus. That's why I'm
going to save this city. Now, what he's telling me and
you is this. Trust him. Don't turn back to
those false refuges. Trust him. But know this, when
the trial comes, don't try to enter in. Lord, I want to trust
you. I know somehow, somehow you're
bringing me to see there's no refuge anywhere else and I just
want to trust you. He's going to make you see these
things all by grace. He's going to make us see. He's
going to do it for his glory and for his son's sake. And then
he's going to make us cry on him. And he always answers us. And he did that. He sent the
king of Assyria to put a hook in his nose, he said, and turned
him back. He was done with him. Turned
him back. He said, when I've completed my whole work on Mount
Zion, I'm going to hew him down, and the remnants are going to
return, and they're going to not stay on him anymore that smote
him. They're going to stay on the
Holy One of Israel, the Lord God Almighty. And that's where
He's always going to bring His people. You see, salvation is
of the Lord. It really is. It really is. This
is the God of truth. He said, I'll avenge me of mine
enemies myself, and I'll redeem in righteousness and convert
in truth. He does, doesn't he? Amen.