I'd like us to turn to that section
of Isaiah that I read earlier. It's such a wonderful passage
and of course you can read on. We will look at it further on
in chapter 37. And of course Hezekiah was such a wonderful
king. There had been many of the kings
of Judah whom it said was that they were those who followed
and served God. Hezekiah's father was Ahaz, and
that was not said of him. It was one of whom it was said
he did not do the things of God. He was an idolatrous man, an
evil man. Though he was allowed to reign
for 16 years, but he was succeeded by his son Hezekiah. would own
him as one of the greatest of the kings of Judah he was a great
and godly man a great reformer of Judah and did many fine things
although he wasn't perfect we know later in life he was perhaps
unwise when the Babylonians came to visit him and he showed them
all his treasures I suspect they made a note of all the things
that they saw but we have much in him that we can admire He's
often remembered as a great king. He built up the city. And if
you go to Jerusalem today, you will still find the conduits
of water supply into Jerusalem that were built in the reign
of Hezekiah and many fine things. And so he's looked upon as a
great nation builder and so on. But what we want to remember,
I think, about Hezekiah was he was a great spiritual man. And that's what we learn from
him in this chapter. And the great thing about this
chapter, although it's history and it's wonderful, I mean I
love the Word of God. The Word of God has got so much
in it. It's not literature, is it? But
when we read it, it covers so many different things. And it's
certainly not meant to be a storybook, but I would suggest to you that
what we've read this evening, that narrative, that account
is a fantastic account. It must rival anything anybody
has ever written as fiction. It's a wonderful story, it's
gripping, just to read it, the story, to read the drama as it
unfolds, and you can see, can't you, as it were in your mind,
the character of this arrogant Rabshakeh, this officer of Sennacherib,
and there was another one called Batatan, you'll read about him
in other accounts, standing and bellowing in Hebrew, and frightening
all the people on the city wall it's a dramatic and saying we've
put down all the kings you know why are you trusting God? we've
put down every king we've put down all their idols we've burnt
them all we've attacked and destroyed all cities so what are you trusting
in? and the drama here is intense
isn't it? it's wonderful we have the privilege
of knowing the end of that drama but it's a wonderful thing, now
you have to put yourself in the place of Hezekiah and his followers
in the midst of that it would have seemed we've lost We're
overwhelmed. We haven't got a hope. That's
what they were saying in today's terminology. You have not got
a hope against us. Oh, and he was very deceitful
in his language, you know. He said, oh, you come out. Come
out to me. You know, it's going to be wonderful
if you come out. I'm going to take you away to
my land. Oh, it's a wonderful land, he says, like your own,
full of corn and wine and bread and vineyards. Oh, no, it wasn't.
You know, it's going to be wonderful if you surrender to me, he says. Or, you know, come out to your
own vineyard and your olive grove and the rest. Oh, no, they weren't.
They were going to come out to slavery and to bondage and possibly
to death, which is what happened to the others. But he's so persuasive. He knew that in there they were
thirsty. They were hungry. They were in trouble. And he
said, oh, you're going to be, every one of you, at your own
vine, your own fig tree, the waters of your own system. Don't
let Hezekiah persuade you, saying the Lord will deliver us. And
so it is that our enemies, each of us today, would say to us,
oh, we don't believe in God. You can't believe in that information. That's going to do you no good.
You've got a problem. God's not going to help you.
and so there are many voices like that today so we thank God
for such scriptures in fact this is such a wonderful piece but
there are parallel accounts if you read in I think it's in 2
Kings in chapter 18. I did try and read it all. It's virtually word for word
the same. Which is wonderful. And you can also read an extended
account in 2 Chronicles in chapter 22. So in the word of God we've
got this kind of narrative repeated three times. I've chosen to take
it from Isaiah because I was reading in Isaiah and Isaiah
The Prophet is a very important part of our consideration this
evening. I think it merits us looking
at this particular scripture but there are these other passages
that are pretty much the same and it's good to read them all.
Now you might think if you read the history of the kings, well
Hezekiah being a really good king And he restored true worship,
he'd thrown out all the high places, he'd knocked them down,
all the false idolatry, he'd driven it all out of the land.
Judah, once again, was restored as it should be to a God-fearing
country. The temple of the Lord, true
worship was then restated, reinstated there. And that's a wonderful
thing. And yet, suddenly, his land is
bought to nothing. That's what we read here. It's
so awful to read this. But they came, it says, against
all the different cities of Judah, and he took them. The whole place
was reduced. So it would seem, if you read
the narrative, that certainly in the northern part of the kingdom
anyway, only Jerusalem was left. They reduced the rest of the
land. He's virtually lost all of the
land. They were held up. in Jerusalem and you might think
well but he's a godly king he's done all the things that are
right he's worshipped God why has this happened? why has God
allowed such a thing to happen? we might think and in our own
lives we've tried to do those things that are right before
God and yet perhaps some severe trial has come to us why should
this be? Sometimes we don't know. We are
in God's hands. God is sovereign. He doesn't
keep his people from trial or difficulty. On the contrary,
so often the people of God know trial and trouble. And faith
so often is proved in it. And our enemies so often are
confounded by the way the law brings us out of trial and difficulty. So we see it here. And I like
the the response of the followers too who were with the king how
they are so loyal to him so willing to participate in his approach
to dealing with all this terrible situation so I repeat again the
scriptures so wonderful weren't they there's no other, Cliff
was holding it up this morning it's a bit big to hold up but
there's no other book like this is there? is that what we all
believe? And it contains so much. It's
a treasury. You'll never end reading and
learning and knowing this book. Things always to discuss. We're
discussing things this afternoon that we find hard and then we
read the commentators and they find hard. There's always a challenge
in the Word of God. But it's always, it's there before
us because it brings the Gospel in all its fullness. The mind
of God to man. God's love for man in Christ. It's there before us right through
the whole of the scripture. So we do thank God for this. I call it an amazing narrative. But God was there. So Necherib
invaded. It's about the year 701 BC and
he captured most of Judah. In fact in the British Museum
there is the Lachish room and Lachish is mentioned in the account
and you can go and see some of the damage that was done by the
Assyrians to Lachish. You can also find, I think I've
forgotten the name of the round piece of stone, but there it's
got King Hoshea of Israel, the last king of Israel, bowing down
to the king of Assyria. And so we're talking here not
of fables, we're talking of history. There was a time when people
said, oh, we don't go to the Bible, we'll go to archaeology. But
they found that everything's in the Bible, is in archaeology,
this is a much better source for them to do their archaeology
now than before, so they need to do their archaeology accurately,
you come to the Bible and then you'll find out where to find
things because it's the word of truth, it's accurate in everything
it says and it seems that the enemies have complete control
and we might reflect today that we have enemies around, we often
talk about the opposition and that's all the things that people
do we think about the way our country is run and the evil people
who seem to have so much influence in our land and we think all
the enemies seem to have so much success and you find it this
is in some of the Psalms as well don't you find other parts of
scripture our enemies seem to have so much success and here
they seem to be overwhelming they've overwhelmed so many nations
we know that actually Assyria's days were numbered they were
going to be brought by the next coming kingdom Babylon Babylon
would be an even bigger kingdom and yet it didn't last too long
really and that was overthrown by the Medes and the Persians
overthrown by the Greeks who were overthrown by the Romans
God raises up nations and he brings them down and we might
feel we're surrounded by nations who are enemies we might feel
somewhat like Hezekiah we might feel hemmed in as if we're trapped
in our own Jerusalem This would not be an unusual experience. When I was a younger Christian,
we used to sing choruses, and one of them we used to sing was,
On the Victory Side, On the Victory Side, that Cliff, I think, knows
this one. And we might read this account
and think, well, Victory Side? When we're being overwhelmed
by armies and arrogant people shouting at us? And that's what
the church in this country, the true church in this country today,
is surrounded on people with arrogant voices shouting at them.
I know somebody in the community who shouts at me because of what
I believe. He's very angry because of what
I believe. Perhaps you meet people like
that. And they seem to be in complete control. And the Assyrians,
they have fierce denouncers of religion. And there's the Rabshakers. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce
that. You look up the pronunciation. I think it should be Rab-shah-kay.
It's a bit of a mouthful, so I'm going to call him Rod Shaker.
He's a propagandist, isn't he? He's an announcer, he's arrogant,
he's boastful. Oh, we see these people whenever
we have them. Put the television on, there they are, aren't they?
Listen to the radio, you read your papers. We have a nation
full of boastful and arrogant people. We have scientists and
people say, oh, we have proved evolution and they haven't proven
anything. So we shouldn't be frightened.
The Word of God is presenting to us the reality of life as
it is. It's not, people think it's all
this escapism, it's a book for children. It's not. This is how
things are. This is the world that God has
placed you and me in. These are the difficulties and
problems that we will face. And there are ways, we thank
God, of dealing with them. Now we may all know some rab
shakers. There are people around. That's
who they are. I know them. Cliff has met people like that.
People who oppose what we believe. We've had people come to the
door of his church and verbally abuse us. We should not be surprised
if we stand for the truth is what our Lord told us would happen
and they are in the world today They're not a thing of the past.
There are people who say we approve religion is wrong. There's no
such thing as a God They put it, you know, they put posters
up inside of London buses and the rest of it people are so
arrogant and the media listen so they seem to dominate the
media don't they? and all its forms, they have
complete control over the agenda in our schools these rabshakers
and what our children read, what they're taught, they're not allowed
to be taught creation not allowed to be taught the truth about
God it's all very controlled these days in a way it didn't
used to be quite so much so we shouldn't be surprised and they're
very boastful in chapter 37 he says thou hast heard what the
kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them
utterly and shalt thou be delivered have the gods of the nations
delivered them which my fathers have destroyed as Gozan and Haran
and Rezeph and the children of Eden which were in Telassin that's
what people think of us I'm sure think of what you and I if we
love Christ believe they think it's nothing you've been overthrown
silence has Just proved it. You know, Darwin has destroyed
religion. And so on. That's what they believe,
in error. Do you know someone like that?
They have said they had these tremendous controls and pointed
out the lies they said about what was going to happen if they
surrendered. Nothing of the sort was going to happen. So what
I want to present to you, this is a Christian's normal experience.
We're up against the mind of the world here. Perhaps you haven't
come across it forcefully, but you will. You will. If you want
to live a Christian life, you'll come across this. If you're in
a job, or you're in a position of responsibility, and they want
you to sign up for their code of practice, or conduct, or they
say, what's that you're wearing? Is that a religious symbol? And
the rest of it. And, or we want you to come in
on Sunday, if you have extra work, we want you to work on
Sunday, and you say, well I don't work Sundays. and other such
pressures, they are there. And this is what happens in our
day. No one else really is made for people with the Christian
faith. But what is God's will for us? For the Christian? Is it to take
the Christian out of trouble? You can go to some churches,
I'm sure, the Christian life is wonderful. God solves all
your problems, it's all happy, and we're all going to sing,
and it's all going to be wonderful, and miracles will be performed
regularly. Oh, there are! I've heard it!
We don't do that here. People say, well, we don't like
your sort of church, it can be a bit dull, a bit miserable and
heavy. Sometimes people think, well,
it's because we're the truth. We tell you the truth from this
point of view. Our pastor's very faithful. We
present the world, the Gospel, as it is. and we're surrounded
by lies so will we face no troubles no Jesus did not tell us that
he said in this world we should know tribulation and you might
think well it's a funny gospel we want to encourage people to
believe in Jesus and we say in the world you shall know tribulation
that's the message that we're preaching to you but it is the
truth and Jesus was quite clear about this and he knew tremendous
tribulation in John and chapter 16 and verse 33 he told them
about all the things that were going to happen difficult things
he says the hour's coming you're all going to be scattered every
man till his own you're going to leave me he says yet I'm not
alone because the Father is with me he said these things have
I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace in the world
you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. Jesus is greater than the world.
God is greater than Sennacherib, a night seeker, and anybody who
might come to us. There are people who seem very
big and powerful, but our Saviour says I have overcome the world,
be of good cheer. Isn't that strange? You will
know tribulation but be of good cheer, there is nothing else
it's only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ there's no other
philosophy, religion, creed in this world that will say that
to you, guarantee it only in Christ can this be held to be
the truth and he knew his disciples would be scattered, it was a
great grief to him that it was prophesied, he knew it would
happen now, can I put this to you, if we live good lives and
godly lives will all be well with us, for God will smile upon
us, that's what God wants us to do. Just discussing in the
estuary there, you know, he has shown me, I know what is good
and what doth the Lord require of thee. Lord has shown us how
it is we should live and how we should conduct ourselves.
It's chastened us through much of the scriptures and so we should
live that way. Does that sort of guarantee that we should be
well? and all is well with us and that
no trouble will come to us. No, that's not what God tells
us at all. In fact, if we try to live godly, people will hate
it. And sometimes it can be people in families, it can be close
people, it can be people who were formerly perhaps friendly
to you will not like this and will take objections. Perhaps
some of us in our younger days when we first became Christians
knew this somewhat from family members who found it very difficult
to see how we had changed so much and they thought you were
trying to be very holy and pious and better than them and they
got very offended. The Gospel does work a real change
in us, but God is for us, our trust is in God. We have no weapons
of our own. Hezekiah didn't have the weapons
to take on Yaseerah and the Empire. There was no way at all, he hardly
had an army, people were weak and starving. So how is it? How are we going to stand? What
is God's provision for us? Well, our religion is a spiritual
religion. Jesus says, my kingdom isn't
of this world. If it was, he could call down
legions of angels. But it wasn't. It's a spiritual
kingdom. Where is that kingdom? It's in the hearts of men. It
rules in our hearts. Again, we look at Paul 2 Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse 4. Well, in verse 3 he says, we
walk in the flesh. We do not war after the flesh,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds. Our weapons have to be spiritual,
it has to be based on prayer, it has to be based on our knowledge
of God, our walk with God. If we are faced with strongholds
that need bringing down, we have to, as Paul says, cast down false
imaginations, every high thing that has sorted itself against
the knowledge of God. bring into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. So we don't look to the things
of this world, we look to the things of Christ. Which brings
us really to prayer. How is it that we should pray? What is our prayers? What are
the contents of our prayers? And again, we will be mocked
for praying. People will say, well, why do
you do that? Can you see anything? Is there anything there? How
do you know that God hears you? Here's the thing, our God is
infinite. How is it if he wasn't infinite
and all-knowing? How could he hear your prayer
and my prayer, all our prayers at once, but God can't? Because
he's God. If he couldn't do that, he wouldn't
be God. Our God is so vast we cannot possibly begin to conceive
or imagine who he is or what his powers are, the powers that
instant can bring this world into being. Our God has such
tremendous power and yet he says come and pray. And then we might
say well how do I pray? What do I pray? And the other
scripture teaches us. We learn to pray. Our Lord taught
a model prayer didn't he? It's called the Lord's Prayer,
Matthew 5. But there are many other prayers that we can learn
from. And we cast ourselves upon Him. We can certainly learn here
from Hezekiah. He came and he put the matter
before God. And really my heading for what
I wanted to say today was Hezekiah praise. This is the central point
of everything. This represents his faith, his
trust in God. the one thing he needed to do
was to pray and put the matter before God because he saw that
this was God's battle he saw the vain words that they were
speaking they said don't trust in the Lord He says, hasn't Hezekiah
taken away the high places of God? Well, that's a mistake.
Hezekiah put down all the idols and the false gods, but they
were the things that people liked. So he was being clever, Sheikah.
He's saying, oh, he's put away all your favorite gods, this
man. He's put them down. You can't trust him. You can't
trust him in what he is saying. and he also says beware lest
he persuade you saying the Lord will deliver us have any of the
gods of the nations deliver their lands as it were out of out of
our hands no they haven't so do not be deceived by Hezekiah
but Hezekiah sees that it's not an attack on Hezekiah this is
an attack on God when they come against us and they object to
the truths that we hold the person and work of Christ they're really
objecting the word of God, in a sense it's not to us personally,
they're objecting to the truths of scripture and therefore it's
as a blasphemy this is what Isaiah says when he spoke to these servants,
he says that's how you say unto your master, this is verse 6
of chapter 37 thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words
which thou hast heard wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria
have blasphemed me So he was very clear. This is what you're
dealing with here. This is a blasphemy against God. The hand of God, the works of
God, and the people of God. This is where the battle was
to be. And we are his servants. Isaiah was very clear. He was,
if you read Isaiah, he was God's servant. He did those things
that God had laid up for him to do he sought to be faithful
in all those things does only speak the word of God which God
brought to him and this is what we read from Paul at the end
of Romans and chapter 6 verse 20 he speaks of that period when
we were outside of Christ we were servants of sin that's who
we serve we serve the sin in our own hearts what through had
ye then in those things whereof you are now ashamed for the end
of those things is death but now being made free from sin
and becoming servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness
and the end everlasting life for the wages of sin is death
But the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. They were servants of sin, but
now we're servants of God, in newness of life. And that's who
we seek to serve. We are not our own. And again, Paul points that out
in 1 Corinthians 6, we've been redeemed, we've been purchased
of God. When Christ comes and calls the
people to Himself, He makes them His own. He has a purpose in
that. We read in 1 Corinthians 6, verses
19 and 20, What know ye not that your body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye
are not your own? For ye are bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which
are Gods. People become Christians not
because they decided they were going to be a Christian rather
than being a Muslim or something. They're Christian because they've
been purchased by Christ. Their blood was shed for them.
God has come, called for them. Christ came not with a random
mission that some would think is the gospel faith and I've
come to seek and to save that which was lost. We believe in
particular redemption because that's what the Bible teaches.
God has a people he loves. If you come to know God it's
because he loves you. That's the wonderful thing. It's
not because you made a decision and you had on a whim in the
morning you felt you were going to be a Christian. You know God
because he loves you. He's loved you from eternity
in Christ. That's the gospel we preach.
There is no other gospel. Any love the true people who
were held up in Jerusalem in all that difficulty. God hadn't
abandoned them, but God wanted to show His hand. Sometimes you
just need to stand back, you have to let God show His hand,
prove Himself to us. Sometimes we find that hard,
I do. I'm the person who wants to be doing things, I want to
be getting on with things. Sometimes God says, no, you're not doing
that. You've got to rest, you've got to wait. And I will show
you, because I'm God. And I love, I love Casey Carr,
he was a godly man and is a great account to read. Well, he had
this problem and he rent his clothes, we read chapter 37.
Went into the house of the Lord, he went into the temple to seek
God and to pray. And he called his scribe, Eliakim,
over and he called the elders and he sent them unto Isaiah
the prophet. set them unto a proven man. And these days in our history
we know there were two great prophets at this time. The other
one was Micah. And if you read Micah you'll
see many overtones of the things that are in Isaiah. They were
contemporary with many of the kings then. Isaiah prophesied
for a long period of time, I think through the reigns of about five
kings. And they said unto him, thus
says Hezekiah. This is what Hezekiah said to
him. It's a day of trouble and rebuke. and it may be the Lord will hear
these words of this wicked man and he will
reprove him and therefore he says to Hezekiah pray lift up
thy prayer for the remnant that is left so the servants of King
Hezekiah came to Isaiah they laid the matter before him No,
we don't have Isaiah today. Thank God we have a pastor. And
when we have a matter that we find difficult and vexing, do
we take that opportunity, I know some do, to go to the pastor
with all his experience and lay the matter before him and seek
his guidance and his leading? It would be a good thing to do.
That he might pray, that he might give you advice. We thank God
that he has his is certainly faithful service. We know we
live in a day we wish there were more people that we could turn
to. But you see Isaiah, not only
Isaiah prayed, but we know that this godly king also prayed. We see that as we read on in
chapter 37 then, things have changed actually. And while all
this bragging and boasting is going on and our army has turned
up, the Ethiopians, and they're a bit worried, the Assyrians
about this, so they want things to move on a bit quicker in Jerusalem,
don't they? So they wanted to hurry Hezekiah
up, so they scribbled this threatening letter to send to him. So it wasn't necessarily all
going their way. We know that Hezekiah had done some sort of
deal of rebellion with Egypt. He had rebelled against Sennacherib,
having previously given him 300 talents of gold and gifts for
him to go away, but he didn't. So then this letter comes and
again says the same sort of things, don't let God deceive you, don't
trust Hezekiah, see what we've done to all the lands by destroying
them and so on. And Hezekiah received this letter
from the Hand of the Messengers and he read it, read this terrible
letter. So occasionally we get letters
that we don't like. a pretty awful, well we should
learn all problems come before us we should be like Hezekiah
he went up into the house of the Lord he spread it before
the Lord I think that's just so symbolic of our approach to
problems isn't it? we want to bottle them all up
and we want to worry about them ourselves but no he spread it
before the Lord he laid it before God when he'd done that he prayed
unto the Lord Isn't that a wonderful model, a wonderful pattern for
every one of us? And then he prayed to God, it's
a wonderful prayer, the way he addresses God, Lord of hosts,
God of Israel. Dwellest between the cherubim,
thou art the God, even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth.
Thou hast made heaven and earth, incline thy ear, O Lord, and
hear. Open thy eyes, O Lord, and see and hear all the words
of Sennacherib. which have sent to reproach the
living God he says he's not reproaching me as it were he's come to reproach
you oh God this is a great blasphemy and it's of a truth that they
have done all these things and they've brought down all these
other nations but he says to them save us from his hand why? why should we be saved? that
we should feel comfortable that we may indeed go out to our vineyards
and to our crops and relax and enjoy ourselves? No, it doesn't
say that. It says, save us that all the kingdoms of the earth
may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only. And so should
be our prayers. Yes, we want to seek God in prayer,
let matters be fine, but should not our prayers be thus? That
we seek the glory of God? That whatever we seek to do,
however poor or humble it might be, It is to the glory of God
that we should be to His glory. We should be to His praise. And
our worship, the simple worship we offer on a Sunday, we don't
want it to be elaborate. We just want it to be to the
glory of God. However simple or humble it is,
that it might be that which pleases God. So we learn here about prayer. And it's God's name. And then
there's a wonderful answer that came. it's sort of breathtaking
in a sense that there should be an answer to this prayer and
we read this and this is what Isaiah said
thus saith this is verse 33 of chapter 37 therefore thus saith
the Lord concerning the king of Assyria he shall not come
into the city nor shoot an arrow nor come again there nor come
again before it with shields nor cast a bank against it by
the way that he came by the same shall he return I shall not come
into this city saith the Lord for I will defend the city to
save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake 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 those who were left in the morning They were
all dead corpses. And we don't know what caused
this. We read it's the angel of the Lord. They were struck.
We could speculate. I'm not going to. Just believe
what I read here. Something happened. Some people
say it was a mighty storm. Some said some sort of virus
hit them. But we're told they were struck
by God. We don't know. A huge army, massive
army, were brought down. God said I will defend this city.
It's God's name. and so that's how when God looks
upon you and me if we're God's people we have to believe He
is defending us do you believe that? He is protecting us He's
looking upon us with love and favour all the time especially
when against us come difficulties and problems and oppositions
which they will God is there He hasn't abandoned us and at
times like this it may not be in the same way God will amaze
us He will show us His hand He will spare us He will deliver
us and I trust that when we see that we will worship Him What
of Sennacherib? Well history tells us and we
read it verses 37 and 38 that he departed and went back to
dwell in Nineveh and he dwelt there apparently a number of
years in parent safety but then it came to pass that as he was
worshipping in the house of his God that two of his sons rose
up and smote him with a sword and they fled. So he was brought
to nothing. This mighty man of all his swaggering
and bellowing and his servant was slain by his own sons at
home. His army was brought to nothing
and soon afterwards that kingdom was brought low. Later on of
course that kingdom that replaced him, Babylon, also came up against
Jerusalem. That's another day We learn here
also that God keeps us in the storms of life. That great man,
fantastic man, if you've not read The Life of Martin Luther,
wonderful man, was dragged really before the Holy Roman Emperor,
before a mighty court of the Church of Rome, the Diet Advent,
and there he was asked to account for the things he was publishing
and saying, and he said, well if you can prove that anything
I say or publish is not in agreement with the word of God, tell me
and I'll be the first to burn it and he was granted a free
pardon and he withstood all those people but on his way out he
was taken into custody by his prince who was Frederick of Saxony,
the Elector of Saxony and he was smuggled away to a big castle
called the Wartburg, it's a great story this He was held up there
for 10 months. He didn't waste his time. He
used that time to translate the Bible from Latin into the lower
common German, that it could be read. And that book was one
of the most revolutionary and dynamic books ever produced in
the history. It changed Germany. But he was surrounded by so many
enemies. There are wonderful accounts
of his appearance at that Diet. The way the Lord upheld him,
he was very frightened at first. He had to take an extra day to
recover himself before he could face them. It's where, of course,
he is supposed to say, here I stand, I can do no other. He was faced
with the imperial right of Europe in Charles V, the Emperor. He
was faced with all the might of one of the leading scholars,
Dr. Ecker, a man who was supposed
to be able to bring any argument down they put everything they
could up against him and he withstood them by the power of the gospel
and we trust that God will uphold us in our time of need now we're
not necessarily going to win in the way the world counts the
world wants to win doesn't it always wants to win and sometimes
it might seem well is the church losing how many churches are
there how many have got pastors are we weak are we miserable
that's what the world thinks of us We just have to rest and
trust in God. There are things that we cannot
ourselves affect. And we have to accept how they
are. We don't know what God is doing, but we must trust Him.
The enemy seems to triumph. All these empires came along
and they all seem to be triumphant. There are many loud and arrogant
voices in the world today. History teaches us that empires
are brought down. The British Empire was brought
down. Who knows what will happen to
China or the United States? They seem to be so grand. God
can bring them down. We look to God. And National
Israel did cease. Judah survived. A bit longer. I've got the date here somewhere.
586 BC it was brought down. They had a foolish king, Zedekiah.
And he was in the days of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah told
him exactly what he should do and he ignored it. And so the
city was taken and broken down and they were taken into captivity
into Babylon under that great king Nebuchadnezzar. The nation
then ceased. But our Saviour says His kingdom
is not of this world. That's what we truly believe.
He has a greater kingdom. a spiritual kingdom that rules
in the hearts of men. Do we know that kingdom? That's the thing that we must
know. How do we know this? We've been reading of deliverance,
of salvation. Well, the name Jesus is Joshua,
of course, in the Hebrew, which means deliverer, which means
saviour. I think in the New Testament
we keep Jesus so we don't get the confusion. But He's the Deliverer. He's the Saviour. That's His
name. Has He made Himself known as
such to you? It's through the foolishness
of preaching this revelation comes. We can't make people Christians. They might think that's what
we're trying to do, but it comes. We believe in free and sovereign
grace. It comes by sovereign revelation
of God. God comes and makes Himself known
to you. We cannot ourselves do that.
It's not a human work. Those who say if we press this
too much are we not speaking free will? Of course we're not.
We're speaking the words of scripture. We have to set forth Christ. And when that comes we know it's
come. Because suddenly we fear God.
Before we might not have thought much of God. Suddenly we do fear
God. We may not have thought of sin. Suddenly our consciences
become alive and aware. They prick us. we've become aware
that we're doing things that we should not do that God is
not pleased with us and suddenly find that listening to the words
of God suddenly has life in it before it might have been boring
or just waiting for the service to end suddenly there's life
and there's interest and it's a wonderful thing that we're
listening to when God comes to us it's his work well we should
encourage people who truly seek, Isaiah did Again, we quote these
words very often, I have no doubts, but we must quote the words continuously. However you are not thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy
and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money, without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which
satisfyeth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat that ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul
shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you
even the sure mercies of David I remember our dear brother Andrew
Randalls preaching on this passage and he just focused on this he
that firsteth he says you can't naturally you don't have that
The man in the world, the woman in the world is lost in sin.
There's no spiritual interest whatsoever. I can assure you,
I try talking to people and it just bounces off me. I'm not
interested at all. But suddenly a thirst comes to
people. That's God at work. He makes
you thirsty. See the call here is everyone
not thirsty. If you're not thirsty you don't drink. You're not interested
are you? You're not thirsty but somebody
says one drink of water, you say well I'm not interested just
now. And when you're spiritually thirsty,
oh, you come to those spiritual waters, you don't want anything
else, do you? Well, I'm spiritually thirsty, I want to come to Christ,
I want to come to the truth. Nothing else will do. That's
what Jesus said to the woman at the well. The waters that
I give you, they're going to well up in you until everlasting
life. And she said, oh, give me of
these waters. She didn't really understand. All these living
waters, that's what we want. That's what Christ brings to
us when we receive faith, it's a gift of God. If I give you
a gift and you open the package and look inside, there's nothing
there. It's not much of a gift. When God gives a gift of faith,
faith's a something. It's a substance, as Paul says
in Hebrews. It's a tangible thing. When he
gives you faith, then with that faith comes a thirst. and that
desire for the things of God we thank God for that for what
we call free and sovereign grace so we should always encourage
people and we should always see as we see in this passage that
we'll be looking at the hand of God God worked God wrought
a mighty deliverance or may he come and so work in our hearts
May he, when we need it, when we're in trouble, may he bring
that deliverance. May we learn to lay the matters
of life before and be faithful, like Hezekiah. He was a good
king in all the practical things, but under pressure, he laid,
he said it's the name of God. When people come against you,
it's the name of God. And in the flesh, we will have
no answer. the Rav Sheikahs, the Sennacheribs,
you may know some, like that, they'll come to you with their
great arguments and in the flesh in a sense we can't defeat them,
they seem to win, we have to bring the word of God, we have
to live it, we have to speak it, we have to stand on it and
that will upset people, get quite angry with us in the day we live,
we should not be surprised, but our trust is in the Lord. And we often look to the Psalms
for encouragement. Why? Because so often they're
written by David. In the life of David he knew so many trials
and temptations and oppositions. Even his own son wanted to kill
him. He had Saul throwing javelins at him. And as a young man looking
after sheep, he'd had the wild animals to contend with. in Psalm
31 he says this in thee O LORD do I put my trust let me never
be ashamed deliver me in thy righteousness bow down thine
ear to me deliver me speedily be thou my strong rock for an
house of defense to save me for thou art my rock and my fortress
therefore for thy name's sake lead me and guide me, or that
God would help us to see the truth of that, to see that's
how we should be conducting our lives. And as we close, we just
remind ourselves of Hezekiah and this terrible, terrible letter,
terrible situation placed before him. He's the king, he's accountable
for these people, they're surrounded, they're starving. We see Hezekiah
receive the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it.
And Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before
the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed unto the
LORD. May the LORD bless His glorious
word. Amen. The same is now concluding hymn
number 346 in the tune of Common Blessing 737. A sovereign protector I have,
unseen yet forever at hand, unchangeably faithful to save, almighty to
rule and command. He smiles as my comforts abound,
his grace as the dew shall descend, and walls of salvation surround
the souls He delights to defend. Hit number 346. The sovereign
protector I have Don't yield a rebel at hand And
gently be faithful to say Almighty, true and command If this not
a man comforts above His praises the Jews all extend, And walls
of salvation surround, The souls He delights to defend. Kind author and ground of my
hope, Living for my God I abound, My head beneath the citadel,
My anoma has held me till now. I muse on the years that are
past. No one now will inquish at last,
As still the stars they glorily light. Grace us God, we thank Thee for
Thy Word, we thank Thee for this lovely hymn we've sung. That
there is a... there is a Sovereign Protector. As we have seen in the passage,
even as we studied this not. And that Thou didst deliver Thy
people then, we do believe. today thou dost deliver thy people
grant us faith grant us faith Lord come to us,
reveal thyself, give us that faith that Hezekiah had, that
Isaiah had that they trusted in thee O open our hearts, O
gracious God, and now we pray, grant us with Thy blessing, keep
us each one in the week ahead, help us in all that is set before
us, we do pray. Have mercy on us each one as
sinners, forgive our sins, we do pray. May we now be parted
with that blessing that's from high, from Father, from Son,
and from Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen.