Isaiah 31. The believer is surrounded by a number
of enemies, especially in our day right now. The idolatry of Rome is flourishing. not only amongst the papists,
but in denominations that claim to preach the doctrine of free
grace. Islam and Judaism and hosts of
man-made religions are abounding. I heard the president say this
about two weeks ago, that we're all worshiping the same God,
we just call him by a different name. The world's more religious
than it ever has been, more tolerant than it ever has been, it's more
godless than it ever has been. But we don't have any reason
to despair. Our enemies are many, but they'll
be put down. And the day that Isaiah was sent
with the gospel to the remnant in Judah, things looked bad around
them too. They were surrounded by a religious
people in Judah, in Jerusalem, who drew near to the Lord with
their mouth, but they had withdrawn their heart far from the Lord. And Isaiah came and he said,
he said the gospel, his gospel is our gospel, our strength is
to sit still, to wait on the Lord. The people hearkened not to the
gospel that Isaiah preached. The majority would not listen
to what Isaiah preached. They went on looking to Egypt
for help. And God promised the children
through His prophet that their enemy would be defeated. He promised
them that. And He told them how it would
be. Through His voice. Through His voice. He said, I'll
give you a song and it will be through your voice that the enemy
is going to be defeated. By faith in the Lord, holding
on to the Lord, by the truth of this gospel, that's how the
enemy is going to be defeated. How is the victory won? That's
what I want to look at today. Now the gospel we preach is this.
Trust Christ alone and thou shalt be saved. Trust Christ alone
and thou shalt be saved. The God of heaven and earth reigneth.
He does reign. The Savior I preach to you is
Jesus. His name's Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins. Now the backdrop of this message
here, the context is, is Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had come
up against Jerusalem with his army, and when he did, the Jews
began to go down to Egypt for help. Now in Isaiah 31, the Lord
tells us, He calls for His people there to trust Him alone. He
sends Isaiah with a gospel telling them to trust Him alone. Is there
anybody here, any of His people here this morning? Do you feel
like You don't have strength. Do you feel like the enemy is
too much for you? Do you feel like all about you,
you don't have any strength to save yourself? Well, God promises
protection and He promises deliverance to those who trust Him. I want
to show you three simple statements. These are going to be our points.
Three simple statements. First of all, the believer's
help is not below. Secondly, the believer's help
is God above. And thirdly, we obtain this help
by believing God. Simple statements. Simple statements. Let's see it. The believer's
help is not of this world. It's not here in this earth. Look at verse 1. Woe to them
that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses and trust
in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because
they are very strong. But they look not unto the Holy
One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." Whenever I was still living
at home, when I was in high school, A fella showed up at my back
door one day and knocked on the door, and I knew him. He was
a neighbor. And he was down behind our house, behind my parents'
house, way, way back in the woods back in there. And he got his
truck stuck in a big hole back in there. of mud. I mean, he
got it buried. And he was asking for help to
go down there and help pull it out. I knew this fellow real
well. Children, his children went to school with me. So we,
we got my dad had a big truck, big four wheel drive, we got
in it and took off down there to get him out. He had gotten
himself stuck by running into this road that was just They
had been skidding logs out of there with these big skidders,
you know, that have the big foot tires on them and all. And he
just ran into one of those and his truck just sunk. And so we go down there, and
I'm going down there to help pull him out of that. And I had
to stop and get out of my vehicle for a minute to try to get something
moved out of the road there. Well, when I did, he scooted
over and got in the driver's seat of my truck. And he drove
my dad's truck into one of those same holes. The truck that was
going to get him out of that hole, he drove it into one of
those holes and just buried it up. It too. Well, Judah had been stuck in
Egypt. And God went, the Holy One of
Israel went into Egypt and He delivered them out of that place,
that hole where they were stuck. Now how wise is it that now that
they've been delivered by the Holy One and have heard His gospel
preached to them all this time, how is it now that they're going
to turn around, instead of looking to the Holy One, turn around
and go right back into that hole that He pulled them out of? That's
what they did. They turned around and they went
down to Egypt for help rather than seeking the Holy One of
Israel. If you've been called by God, if you've been delivered,
if you've been redeemed out of the bondage of this world, what
an insult to God to turn around then and run right back into
it and seek security in the world. It may appear like the world's
security is strong, like it has some security to it. It may appear
like that. But when you look with just this
carnal eye, with this natural eye, rather than the eye of faith,
you're going to be fooled. You're going to be fooled. Judah
thought Isaiah was foolish. Those that heard him pray said,
this man is foolish. They were more wise than he,
they thought. And they thought it would be more wise to go down
to this wise pharaoh in Egypt who had all these resources to
help him. But listen to what the Holy One
says, verse 2. Yet he also is wise. Now who
do you think is more wise? The Holy One of Israel is also
wise and will bring evil and will not call back His words,
but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against
the help of them that work iniquity." Who do you think is going to
win this battle? They looked to the horses and
they looked to the chariots because they were many, because they
were very strong. Listen to the Lord in Isaiah
3. Now the Egyptians are men. and not God, and their horses
are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out
his hand, both he that helps you shall fall, and he that's
helped shall fall down, and they shall all fall together." God's
servants, His church, His preachers don't need anything from the
King of Sodom. Nothing. You know, Abraham went
down there and he waged war and the king of Sodom said unto Abraham,
give me the persons that you won in this battle, give me the
persons and you take all the goods to yourself. And you know
what Abraham told him? Abraham said to the king of Sodom,
I lift up my hand to the Lord, the most high God, the possessor
of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even
to a shoe latchet, that I will not take anything that is thine,
lest thou should say, I made Abraham rich. I made him rich. David said, I've been young and
now I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken, never
seen his seed begging bread. God provides for his children,
but he did say this, as for such as turn aside unto their crooked
ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. Didn't that scripture I read
to you in Isaiah 30, he said, there'll be a bridle in the jaws
of the people causing them to err. You know who holds that
bridle? God does. And he said, they want
to perform iniquity. They want to look to those crooked
ways. They want to look to somebody else. The Lord shall lead them
forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel. That's right. Christ Jesus was
crystal clear, just so plain. We cannot serve God and mammon,
the impossibility. James said, the friendship of
the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's simple. Simple. Those who put confidence
in the flesh, those who glory in what they constrain men to
do. Look at Philippians 3. We don't need any help from those
fellows. You remember when they came back
after this, after they were taken into captivity here, they came
back and they started building the temple. And you remember
some of those came out and they said, we want to build with you.
And Zerubbabel and the others said, you know, they said, we
worship the same God as you. And Zerubbabel said, you don't
worship our God. You're not, you're not a part of our nation.
What do you have to do with, what do you have to do with us?
You can't build with us. Look at what Paul said, Philippians
3.18. Many walk, of whom I have told
you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies
of the cross of Christ. Now he's talking in context in
the Scripture about the concision. He's talking about those who
would have you, that put confidence in the flesh, who don't walk
after the Spirit, who don't rejoice in Christ Jesus alone, who want
to mix works and grace, who want to mix something with it. That's
what he's talking about. And he says, they're the enemies
of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. That's where
they're headed and that's where they're going to lead all that
follow them, is destruction. Whose God is their belly. That's
why they're serving, for their belly. Whose glory is in their
shame. The glory in what they constrain
you to do, Paul said to the Galatians. Who mind earthly things. When you listen to a sermon preached
and all the preacher talks about is you and something you're doing
in the earth, what's he telling you to do? What's his mind on
and what's he trying to get your mind on? earthly things. Listen to what Paul says. Our
conversation, our citizenship, our government, our constitution,
our governor, our ruler, everything about us, he said, is in heaven. For whence we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the
working whereby he is able even right now, right now, he is able
to subdue all things unto himself. He is. He is. So that's who we're
trusting. The believer's help is not below,
not in this world, not in this world's riches, not in this world's
religion. Our help is God our Savior, the
Holy One of Israel, above. That's our help. Well, the believer's
help, God above. Now look here, I want you to
see this. How is He going to protect us? He's going to protect
us with the fierceness of a lion. Look at verse 4. For thus hath
the Lord spoken unto me." We just saw that message in our
Bible class. This is the prophet speaking.
Where did he get this word? The Lord said this to me. The
Lord said this to me. If I'm sin of God, what I'm telling
you right now, I'm not making this up. I'm getting it right
here from where it's written. This is what the Lord God says
to His people. Listen. Thus hath the Lord God
spoken unto me, like as the lion and the young lion roaring on
his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against
him, he won't be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for
the noise of them. So shall the Lord of hosts come
down to fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof. You
know, we used to have some hound, some hound dogs. And they
were sizable dogs. And they stayed in kennels, you
know, outside. And those dogs would get hungry. And when you fed those dogs,
and you didn't want to get any, if you got anywhere around them,
they would just about eat you up. Those were just dogs. Can you imagine a lion? that's
pounced on His prey and He's sitting there protecting that
that He sought and that He's found and that He's taken to
Himself. Can you imagine what it would
be like to try to take that away from that line? The Lord Jesus
Christ is the line of the tribe of Judah. He came. He came to where His people are
and He sought those God gave Him like the lion seeks his prey. He came to where we are. He laid
down His life for them. And He has bought them with His
blood. He has justified them by His
work at Calvary. He has perfectly made them clean
before God Almighty. And He will have that which He's
bought for Himself. He will guard it. He will protect
it. He will, like a lion does over
his prey. Multitudes of shepherds came
out against Him when He was here. Satan came out against Him. The
princes of this world came out against Him. Established religion
came out against Him. The philosophers, the wise and
the prudent came out against Him. Men who enjoyed the spectacle
of the cross came out against Him. Did it stop Him? Did He
withdraw? Was He afraid of men and the
multitude of their noise? He wasn't. He fulfilled all righteousness. He set His face like a flint.
And he went to the cross, he bore the reproach of men, he
bore the shame of the cross, the wrath of God, and he accomplished
that which God gave him to do. He finished the work of making
his people whole. That's what he did. And our Savior
will protect his children just like a lion. And he's stronger
than the lion. He's stronger than the lion.
Well, here's the next thing. He's going to protect His children
as a mother bird protects her little chicks. Look at verse
5. These are just simple illustrations we can understand, aren't they?
As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending also He will deliver. Passing over, He will preserve
it. Now, I don't think I have to tell you that we're talking
about heavenly Jerusalem. We're talking about the new Jerusalem.
We're talking about His church, the assembly of the saints. We're
talking about the general assembly and church of the firstborn written
in heaven. Those that He's called and made perfect in Him. This
is who we're talking about. He's going to defend them. Well,
you say, a bird. Is a bird all that defensive? Is it? Have you ever seen crows
getting around a robin's nest with her young. Have you ever
seen what she'll do? It could be a whole, a whole, I don't
know, you call them a flock of crows? I don't know, a whole
flock of crows. There's a name for that, it's
not flock, I can't remember what it is. Anyway, you can see all
these crows around and she'll go out and do battle with them.
And she's fast, she'll do it fast, she'll fly out quickly. That's what he said, a bird flies
quickly. and will defend and will deliver. And He'll pass over and He'll
preserve. She'll lead them away. She'll lead them completely away
from where her nest is so they go after her and they don't bother
her little ones. Deuteronomy 32.11 says,
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, and fluttereth over her young,
and spreadeth abroad her wings, she taketh them and beareth them
on her wings. That's how the Lord protects
His people. Now, we start talking about an eagle. Now, that sounds
a little bit more, a little bit more protective, doesn't it?
An eagle. An eagle. He shall cover thee
with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His
truth shall be thy shield and thy buckler. That's what he does. Now, this is him. This is our
God. This is how he protects his little
ones. Now, how are we going to have this protection? How are
we going to enter into this and know He's protecting us? Look
at verse 3. I'm sorry, verse 6. We obtain
this help by believing on Christ alone. Look at verse 6. Turn
ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day, every man shall
cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which
your own hands have made unto you for sin. You know, our problem
is a deep revolt. That's our problem. It's a deep
revolt. It's a heart problem. Look back
at Isaiah 29 and look at verse 15. Here's our problem. Woe unto them that seek deep
to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in
the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? Who knoweth this? Surely
your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the
potter's clay. For shall the work say of him
that made it, He made me not? Or shall the thing framed say
of him that framed it, He had no understanding? Man looks on
the outward appearance. And we think we got a pretty
good disguise, we got a pretty good cloak. We get in with others
that kind of have the same disguise and we can sort of talk the talk
and walk the walk and everything's okay. And we start thinking,
who sees us? Who knows us? God looks on the
heart. God looks on the heart. Is God
speaking to your heart right now? Right now. Does this mean
anything to you? Does it have any bearing on you
whatsoever? Is He speaking to your heart
right now? Have you asked Him to cleanse
you throughly? Have you asked Him to create
in you a clean heart? If we're going to be cleansed
and we're going to have a clean heart, it's going to be by His
grace. It's going to be by His grace.
If we can even ask Him, brethren, it's because He's already begun
to draw us by His grace, made us to hear this Word in the heart,
made us to know we need Him to turn us. Turn me, Lord, and I'll
be turned. What will you do if He speaks
in your heart? What are you going to do then? Look at verse 7.
In that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and
his idols of gold, which your own hands have made into you
for sin. Listen to me. We have many idols. We have idols of gold, we have
idols of silver, we have idols that our own hands have made.
We have many idols. The worst of the worst are the
idols of our imagination. That's where they start. Before
they ever come out into the form of a statue or a cross or anything
like that, they start in here, in this head, in this deceitful
heart of ours. That's where it starts. Look
back over there at Isaiah 30 and look at verse 21. This is
how it's going to happen. Thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee, saying, This is the way. Walk ye in it when you
turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. He's talking
about the Word of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the Spirit
of the Lord that's going to turn us and say, This is the way.
When He says that, I guarantee you he'll turn. When he says
it, we'll turn. Every time. And this is what
we'll do. You shall defile also the covering of thy graven images
of silver and the ornament of thy molten images of gold. Thou
shalt cast them away as a mistress cloth. Thou shalt say unto it,
get thee hence. I made this point to you before,
but I'll make it to you again. Do you remember? Do you remember? what the Ark of the Covenant
was covered over in. Covered over in gold. You know
who made it? The children of Israel made it. God told them to. And they did
it. They made it. But you know what
they worshipped instead of God? That gold box. That gold box. And he said in Jeremiah 3.15,
the day is coming. when I'm going to give you pastors
according to my heart, and they shall teach you with knowledge
and understanding. And when you're brought into
the land I'm going to bring you into, into this heavenly Jerusalem,
into this Mount Zion. When you're brought in and brought
out of that captivity, He said, you're not going to say anymore
the Ark of the Covenant. That's not even going to come
into your mind anymore. Because now you're going to meet
our art, Christ Jesus, our mercy seed, whose mercy and grace,
the propitiation of God, satisfied the justice of God over that
broken law like that blood that was sprinkled before the mercy
seed of that holiest of holies. When he cried, it's finished,
and that veil split from top to bottom, that's what he declared.
It's finished! I've worked the work of grace."
And when He comes and speaks this grace in our hearts, brethren,
that's when we take every idol of silver and gold, and those
idols, brethren, those idols, just like He gave those idols
to Israel, or He gave those commandments to Israel and said, this do,
this do, and they made those things, there's so many in our
day, so many in our day. Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is. I can't press
upon you here enough how important it is to gather and hear the
word of this gospel preached. But at the same time, brethren,
don't make an idol out of it. Don't think that just because
you've come to the house of the Lord, God's going to do something
for you. There's a bunch of folks that come to the house of the
Lord and spend all their days in the house of the Lord and
wake up and find they never knew Him. And thought coming to the
house of the Lord would grant them something with God. There's a forgiveness. We talked about forgiveness earlier
in the Scripture reading. The Lord teaches us to forgive
one another. He teaches us to forgive the
trespassers. The discipline of the believer
is forgiveness. When you read Matthew 18, there's
a message brewing on this. I know it'll be here sometime
soon. But in Matthew 18, when you read
about that instruction the Lord gives about if a brother has
offended you, you go to him once and you take... If he doesn't
hear you, you take two more with you, and if he doesn't hear you,
you bring it before the church. If you'll look at the bookends
that's in front of that instruction and the back of that instruction,
it's this. My children are just like these little innocent...
He put a little child to him, and he said, you see this child?
He said, Unless you be converted and be like this child, be made
pure in heart, be made... That little child was just a
baby, just an infant. Not that it was without sin,
not that it... but it was just harmless, like a little child. And He said, unless you become
harmless, you can't enter the Kingdom of God. And He says,
And anybody that offends one of these, my little ones, one
of those redeemed children, whether they're 4 or 40, whether they're
9 or 90, it doesn't matter, they're His little children. Anybody
that offends one of them, it's better that a millstone be hung
about his neck and he be dropped in the ocean. And when Peter
said, how many times should I forgive? Seven times? He said seventy
times seven. Infinitely you forgive. And he
gave him that parable and he talked about that master who
had a servant that owed him and the servant couldn't pay and
he came and begged him for mercy and he said and he forgave him.
And then that servant went out to his fellow servant and took
him around the neck and began to grab him and yoke him and
bind him because he couldn't pay. And the master found out
about it and he cast him out. Now, what's the discipline that
the believer's under? The discipline of forgiveness.
It's forgiveness. Forgiveness. Praying for one
another. Entreating one another. Directing
one another to the Lord. But once we've done those things,
brethren, once we've done that, don't start thinking. that we've
merited something extra because we've done something like that.
You see, either we're complete in Christ with nothing to be
added, nothing to be taken away, or we're not. Either we're going
to be accepted in the Beloved or we're not. And we have all
these various things that will turn into idols. And men will
make whole theologies out of them and get whole movements
based out on them. And people will start yoking
and binding folks and trying to in total error against disciplined
people and think, oh, I'm righteous for this. You know what they're
doing? Casting out devils. Casting out devils. That's not the, that's not the
spirit that we're talking about. It's the spirit of forgiveness,
knowing he keeps forgiving me and keeps forgiving me and keeps,
I keep offending and offending and offending and he keeps forgiving,
forgiving, forgiving. What I'm saying, brethren, is
we have these idols. We can make idols out of everything. Be sure. He says, when I've spoken
into your heart, he says, that one that's sitting there, like
Paul. Paul had all his idols, the will
of his flesh. He put confidence in his blood
relations, and he put confidence in the will of man, what his
mom and daddy had done for him when he was a baby. But he said,
when God called me, I all my idols became as mistress clause
to me. And I said, I don't want anything
else to do with that anymore. You see, it was his religion.
It was his it was those thing. Don't just think that we're talking
about somebody out here in a in a jungle somewhere that's got
a stump carved out and they're bound down to a stump. We're
talking about people in 2010, right up here in Rocky Hill,
New Jersey. But we're talking about You're talking about us. Well,
turn over to 2 Kings 19. How was it? You know, I'm trying
to show you here. What I'm trying to show you is
the victory is going to be won. 2 Kings 19. The victory is going
to be won through faith in Christ, through this Gospel, through
whom the Lord speaks. Now, let me show you something.
What did He say there? He said, you turn to the Lord.
Turn to the Lord. 2 Kings 19, verse 14. Are you holding your
place there in Isaiah? Let me read this verse of Scripture
to you. Isaiah 31, 8 and 9. Read this with me. What's going
to happen when you turn to the Lord and cast all your care on
Him? This is what He says. Not only
are those idols of silver and gold going to be gone, and you're
going to be worshipping the true and living God, but now He says,
Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, This was literally
happening in their day. But this Assyrian is a picture
of all our enemies, brethren. Every one of our enemies. Here's
what he says. Then shall the Assyrian fall
with the sword, not of a mighty man. They look into might, carnal
might. He said that's not how it's going
to happen. And the sword, not of a mean man, not of a... low man, lowly man shall devour
him, but he shall flee from the sword and his young men shall
be discomfited and he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear,
because he's scared to death. and his princes shall be afraid
of the ensign, the banner, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion
and his furnace in Jerusalem." Now let's see how this happened. 2 Kings 19. I'm going to read
a little scripture here, but you can bear with me. Verse 14.
Hezekiah had been breaking off pieces of gold out of the tabernacle
he'd been doing and getting every piece of gold and silver he could
get and sending them to the king of Assyria and trying to buy
him off and trying to get him to come and help him. And not
to come up against him, but he came on up against him anyway.
And he sent his messengers with a letter telling Hezekiah, he
said, I'm coming. With full force, with my raging
army, I'm coming. And look what Hezekiah did. And
Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers
and read it. And Hezekiah went up into the
house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah
prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwelleth
between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone. Of all the kingdoms of the earth
thou hast made heaven and earth. You know what the Lord said you're
going to have? You're going to have a song. You know what Hezekiah
is doing right here? He's singing. He's singing the
praises of his God. Watch him now. Lord, bow down
thy ear and hear. Open, Lord, thine eyes and see.
Hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach
the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of
Assyria have destroyed the nations in their lands. They have cast
their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work
of men's hands, wood and stone, and therefore they have destroyed
them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, thy beseech thee, save thou
us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only." And look what
the Lord did. Then Isaiah, the prophet, he's
going to use that prophet to come. He's going to use his messengers
to come with his word because he's going to honor Christ the
prophet. He sent Isaiah, the son of Amos, to Hezekiah, and
this is what he said. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king
of Assyria, I have heard. This is the word that the Lord
has spoken concerning him. I love this. The virgin daughter
of Zion. You know how corrupt, you know
how sinful Hezekiah had acted? You know how sinful that elect
remnant had been? You know how unbelieving they
had been in the midst? But he calls them here spotless
virgins. How can that be? Because of him,
look. He says, the virgin, the daughter
of Zion, hath despised thee. He's talking to the king of Assyria.
He said, this is my word for them. and laugh thee to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem hath
shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and
blasphemed? Against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted
up thine eyes on high?" Now, they weren't doing that. They
were shaking like leaves on a tree. They were scared to death. And
he says, he said, my people's laughed at you. They've been
shaking, they've been laughing at you and just giggling up to
high heaven over this. They weren't, but he was. He
was. He was laughing the whole time.
He had them in derision. He says, who have you lifted
up your eyes on high against? Even against the Holy One of
Israel. Look at verse 27. You see, when
you do something to God's people, you do something to God. That's
what he's saying. You thought you was doing this
against Jerusalem, against Judah, but you're doing it against me,
the Lord said. Now, what's he going to do? Verse 27. But I
know thy abode. I know thy going out, thy coming
in, and thy rage against me. Because thy rage against me,
and thy tumult is come up into mine ears. Therefore I will put
my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I'll turn thee
back by the way by which thou camest. Look down at verse 31. 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. 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 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. Here's why. For I will defend
this city to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's
sake. That servant, who's that King
David a picture of? Christ the King. He said, I'm
going to do it for my own sake and for Christ my King's sake. And it came to pass that night,
here's what happened, that the angel of the Lord went out. He
said it wasn't going to be done by power and by might, not by
the power and might of men. The angel of the Lord went out
that night and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred, fourscore,
and five thousand. And when they arose early in
the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. And so Sennacherib
king of Israel departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass as he was
worshiping in the house of his little impotent God that Adrimelech
and Cherezer, his own sons, smote him with a sword and killed him. And they escaped into the land
of Armenia and Esherdan, his son, reigned in his stead. For God's own sake, for the sake
of his son Christ our King, he won't allow one of his elect
children to perish. He's going to send forth his
angels round about. Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of
salvation? That's what we're talking about
here. Listen to this. You remember
whenever the host of enemies surrounded Elisha and that young
man? And the young man was fearful. He was looking around. He saw
all this big host of enemies around him. And Elisha prayed. And he told him, he said, fear
not, there's more with us than there are with him. And Elisha
prayed, and he asked that this boy's eyes would be open, and
his eyes were open. And the scripture says, and behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha. That's real, brethren. That's more real than what you
think you can see. That's the reality. What we see
with these eyes is soon going to be shaken and pass away. And
what's going to remain is what can't be shaken, what's been
established by our God through the blood and righteousness of
Christ Jesus the Lord. And that's the reality. That's
the reality. Our victory is won this way,
faith in Christ through the word of this gospel. Now go back with
me, and I want to read that one scripture there in Isaiah 30,
29 through 32. We saw it here with Hezekiah.
We heard him say it through Isaiah the prophet. This is the Lord.
This is what he did. This is what he said he would
do. This is what he did. Isaiah 30 verse 29. Wherefore thus saith the Holy
One... Let me see where I'm at here. Ye shall have a song. As
in the night when a holy solemnity is kept and gladness of heart
is when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of
the Lord to the Mighty One of Israel. That's what Hezekiah
did. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard.
That's what he did. Through his gospel, through his
messenger, Isaiah, he caused that gospel to be heard. And
what did he do through that gospel? He showed the lighting down of
his arm with the indignation of his anger, with the flame
of a devouring fire, with scattering intemptus and hailstones. And
he turned that enemy away the other way. Why? For through the
voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down with smoke with
his little carnal rod. That's how we're going to be
saved. Our enemies are afraid of the ensign, the banner of
Christ, of the gospel we preach, the gospel we trust, the victories
won by him. They're afraid of that. I can't
wait to get over there where Brother Joe preached on where
he says, they're going to know it's my voice. My people, they've
been oppressed long enough and they're going to know it's my
voice. And he says, they're going to say, how precious are the
feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that declares peace,
publishes peace, that says, thy God reigneth. Well, but Paul,
when he was speaking to the Romans, he said, how precious are the
feet of them who bring glad tidings. He said, Thy watchman together
with Thee voice shall sing and lift up a song together. It's
Christ the voice speaking through His messengers the voice lifted
up together. And that's where the ensign is
lifted up. That's how the banner is lifted up. That's how we're
grown in faith and knowledge of Him. That's what He did here.
He sent Isaiah with that word. strengthened Hezekiah and those
folks. And Hezekiah went in and bowed before the Lord. And the
Lord said, Now go forth with this gospel, Isaiah. And as he
did, he conquered all their enemies, every one of them. See our text
here, Romans 31, 9. He shall pass over to his stronghold
for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ends, and saith
the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem.
He is a fire to protect his children. What do we say to that then?
This is how Peter put it. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober,
be vigilant, Just be steadfast looking to Christ because your
adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom
he may devour and there's only one way you can resist him. Didn't
we see it here? Steadfast in the faith. Trust
in God. Trust in God. Now, you who have
never confessed Christ, let me ask you something. Can you find
me If you've looked at what we just looked at today, can you
find me any place in the Word of God where God was ever unfaithful
to fulfill the Word He said He would fulfill? No. Nowhere in this book. Can you find me any place in
this book where the enemy was too strong for Him to prevail? Nowhere. Has He changed? Has God changed? Never. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Here's my next question. Why
then don't you believe Him? Why then don't you believe on
Him? Now, believer, let me ask you
a question. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God select? The answer is, Nobody. Nobody. We are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. The only thing, you know, that
we really should be even concerned about and really thinking about
in this life is how we can better serve him. You know, I mean,
really, we got nothing else to worry about. Nothing else to
worry about. Believe Him and you'll find quietness
and assurance for your soul. I pray you'll bless Him.