Alright brethren, we're going
to be in Romans chapter 9 And we're going to pick up in
verse 4 and make our way down to verse 8. Romans 9, verses
4 through 8. Now this is the chapter which
is well known to many of us here, where Paul begins to enlarge
upon the doctrine of election. Election being that God sovereignly
chose whom he would unto salvation. And He chose the elect. He chose those whom He chose. He provided for them. He provided
salvation for them through His Son, Jesus Christ. And if you
remember, we touched on this last week that this election
comes not by man's observation. And what I mean by that is it's
not something that we as men and women can do for ourselves. put ourselves into the election
of God. We don't make ourselves elect
by our choice or our doing in any way. The election is the
sovereign choosing, the sovereign choice of God himself. But the Lord does reveal whom
he's chosen. He does make it known to us whom
he has chosen in eternity past. That is, he reveals it. He reveals
it by faith. He reveals it in the faith which
He forms in the heart. He reveals those whom He's chosen
by giving them faith. He reveals faith to them which
is fixed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this revelation of faith
is according to promise. It's according to promise. Now to show this, Paul is going
to first deal with the children of Abraham according to the flesh,
those who came of Abraham's natural seed. And so he says that he's
going to show us the election by God through Abraham's seed
there in Israel. And then as we go through the
chapter, as we progress through this chapter, we'll see how Paul
wraps it up showing the election of the Gentiles, how that God
has these people scattered throughout the nations around the world,
both Jew and Gentile. Now, we naturally, in ourselves,
we live behind a veil of darkness, a veil of blindness, blinding
our hearts, blinding our minds, blinding our thoughts to the
knowledge of the true living God. Now, we know that there
are many people in this world that appear or claim to be spiritual,
that claim to worship God, that claim to know God and be pleasing
to the living God, and yet they live in darkness. Because the
only way to the Father we know is through the Son. There's no
other name other than Heaven given among men, whereby he must
be saved. It's the name of Jesus Christ.
And it's only by the grace of God shown to his people in his
Son, Jesus Christ, that we know the truth of the Father. how
to approach unto the true way of God, which the scripture says,
the way. And we only know the way through
Christ, because Christ himself is the way, and that's how he
reveals the way. He reveals himself to his people
and shows us the way unto the Father. It's through the blood
of Jesus Christ. And so it's the spirit of Christ,
it's the spirit of God that breaks down this wall of blindness. that smashes through the darkness
that we all have by nature, according to our birth in Adam, from our
parents. And so the spirit takes down
this mineral partition, which naturally separates us from the
true living God. So that, with that separation
of God, man is reconciled to his God. And men are reconciled
to other men, right? The Lord takes that wall, that
partition away so that we are reconciled in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now like how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 10 verses
3 through 5, he says, for though we walk in the flesh, each one
of us here is walking in the flesh, we do not mourn after
the flesh. What we see going on, captured
in the news, a little bit of a show of it, when you see what's
really going on in the streets and in major cities, That's warring
after the flesh. Turning down things, pillaging
things, breaking into things, shouting at one another, hurting
one another, saying things about one another. And some of it's
on both sides. But what you see out there on
the news is warring in the flesh. It's warring after the flesh.
That's not what we do. We don't get out there and call
people names and riot and things like that. We declare the gospel. And so that's through the gospel.
As Paul said, for the weapons in our warfare are not carnal. It's the gospel. Right? Almighty through God is the pulling
down of strongholds. Every one of us is locked in
our thoughts and our ways and our means and how we do things
and what we think is right. And it's the gospel of Jesus
Christ that tears down those strongholds. delivered us from
the prison of our darkness and death, and brings us into the
light, the light of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's been
said in verse 5, 2 Corinthians 10, by casting down our imaginations
and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into activity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. So, five papers reveal to us,
brethren, five papers reveal to us that we are the children
of God. Or as our Lord calls it, the
children of promise. Children of promise. And it's
all through the Lord Jesus Christ. I've titled this message, this
is what it will remain as, Children of the Promise. Children of the
Promise. So let's first look at this natural
seed of Abraham. Now Paul, as we saw last week
in the first two verses, he stated his affection for his own kinsmen,
his countrymen, and stated how much that he thought of them
and cared for them. He would have traded places with
them in Christ if he could. It would have been their salvation. And so Paul begins to define
who these kinsmen are according to the flesh. Look with me in
Romans 9. verse 4, who says, it means, who are Israelites,
who pertaineth to the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants,
and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. And so, he's defining those descendants
of Abraham in Isaiah. He's defining those, he's giving
us a description of them But notice that it's all external.
These are all external factors or definitions of who these kinsmen
are, because it's in the flesh. And he describes it as the adoption,
having the glory, the covenants, the law, the service of God,
and the promises. Now, I say that this adoption
that we have, it's not a spiritual adoption. And many of us are
familiar with the spiritual adoption that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ, because it's by the blood of Jesus Christ that we are brought
into the family of God. It's by the blood of Christ that
we are redeemed or purchased, and thereby adopted into the
family of God. So that when Christ shed His
blood for His people, the Scriptures define that as being redeemed.
That was the pain of Christ. Rather than our blood being shed,
and thus perishing in hell forever, Christ's blood was shed. Thereby,
His blood was shed in place of our blood being shed, that we
might know the truth of God who purposed us with His own death,
by His own blood. And so we're adopted into the
family of God that we might receive the adoption of sons. And we
have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, God, and
we cry, Israel. It's accomplished salvation in
us that we know the true living God. Now, Israel's adoption is
a physical adoption. It's an adoption as a nation
out of all the other nations in the world. Right? God separated
this people, this lineage from Abraham. He chose Abraham. He
called him out. And so he separated him out from
all the other idolatrous nations in the earth. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 7
says, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord
thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself.
about all people that are upon the face of the earth. Right? So it's a natural adoption. And the glory spoken up here
refers to God being in their midst. They were, for a part,
that they had the glory of God who dwelt in their midst as the
people of God. And they had the covenants. The
Lord made known to them the covenants. Abraham, the covenant he made
with Abraham, and the covenant he made with David. And so he
revealed to them that there is a covenant of grace, not just
a covenant of works. And then he revealed to them
the law. And the law was given to them that they have to sign
on. The law was given to the other
peoples and other nations of the earth. The law was given
to the Jews that were outside. Then there is the service of
God. and given to them which reveals to them in type, in pictures,
in shadows, in types, the acceptable way to serve the Lord. And I'll
read a bit of that from Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9, 6 says, now when
these things were thus ordained unto their mediator, who Moses,
when these things were thus ordained, a priest went always into the
first tabernacle accomplishing the service of God. See that
there in Hebrews 9, it says, accomplishing the service of
God. But into the second went a high priest alone once every
year, not without blood. He didn't dare enter that second
place without blood, lest the Lord should destroy him. Lest
the Lord should kill him right then and there. And that blood
was he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. Thus signifying, or this signifying,
that the way to the holiest of all was not yet made manifest,
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. And so what
the Lord, what the Apostle was saying to us there is that that
service of God and having those things, having the glory, having
received the covenants, being made aware of them, that was
not their salvation. Those in the Old Testament were
not saved one way, and us in the New Testament were saved
another. All were saved one way, through
the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. So that all that
service did was, it was pointing to us in pipes, in shadows, in
pictures, how we are to approach God. And that is through Christ,
in the whole picture of Jesus Christ. That it's through Him
that we know God and are accepted of him that will receive the
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, their salvation also
is spoken of in the promises. The promise of the Messiah, going
all the way back to the glory, when Adam and Eve sinned against
God, and when the truth of God declares them, that in the meantime,
the Son should come and crush the serpent's head. He would
be the deliverance of his people. He is the deliverer, and God
provided for the people's salvation. So there was never any other
way. And this was all given to the
Jews, but they received it largely as a people, as though these
practices, the law, the services, that this was their salvation. Not at all, but the Lord was
showing us. He was pointing to Christ. The next thing Paul says
to us here is the first thought, Romans 9.5, showing that Israel
descended from the fathers of faith, from Abraham, right? He
calls them the fathers, our fathers, as he says there, who are the
fathers, meaning our fathers in faith, meaning that it's not
by their natural sin, but by the fact that they believe, that
they have faith, as well, shall all who are the children have
faith just like the fathers of the faith." So he says there,
9-5, whose are the fathers? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob's
12 sons, like Joseph, like Judah, like Uriah, right? And of whom, as concerning the
flesh, Christ came to His own for all, God, blessed forever. Amen. So that through the natural
lineage of Abraham, according to the flesh, Christ came. Christ came according to the
flesh. And what Paul's saying there is that this is God. This
is the Son of God, who is the promise of God, that you come
and save His people. And there's no man other than
yourself can save the people. He is the God, and that's how
we accomplish our salvation. And so, the scriptures throughout
declare that Christ himself is God. He said, I and my Father
are one. And then in Hebrews 1-8 we read,
unto the Son, he's saying, God-thrown, O God, is forever and ever a
scepter of righteousness. It's the scepter of God-kingdom. And so Christ came into the world,
being the descendant of David, and came to the lineage of David,
through the lineage of Abraham, and he accomplished their salvation
through the shedding of his blood. It says in Acts 20, verse 28,
take heed, this is Paul speaking to the elders in Ephesus, take
heed therefore unto yourselves, as all the flock of the gifts
of the Holy Ghost hath made through Ophiuchus to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Right? Always declaring to us the redemption
that is through the blood of Christ. And always reminded of
how our salvation was accomplished. That it's not by our works. It's
not by our knowledge. It's not by the things that we
who were known to do. It's all according to the grace
of God. It is son Jesus Christ who willingly
came and laid down his only life. Dying the death of his people. dying in their room instead,
in their place, to put away their sins, to satisfy the justice
of God, to atone and make peace for people before God, with God,
and through God. This He did by paying their debt
of righteousness. You know, in everything that
we do, we owe God perfect righteousness. Everything we say, every action
we do, every thought we think, we owe God perfect, holy righteousness. Not one of us can do it. We're all guilty, guilty vile
souls before God. Even in our best years, right?
When Isaiah said, our righteousnesses are as guilty as blood. Our righteousnesses are as bloody
as blood. And so it's Christ's love that
cleanses his people, cleanses our hearts, and makes us acceptable
unto the Father. We enter through that veil, through
Christ, our Savior. And so Christ accomplished our
salvation and has revealed it to us by His Spirit through faith. Right now, Paul here, he begins
to reveal first this election, this choosing of God, using,
looking at the Jews here. And he begins to reveal to us
the remnant. And he's making known to us that
there is a remnant that God has set his love upon, whom he has
provided salvation for them, and is delivering them, as opposed
to all the rest of the world, which are left to themselves,
according to their own natural life and abilities. All right? So this remnant, we see as Jesus
Christ, accomplished this salvation in and for. Now, the remnant
are the chosen people of God according to the election of
grace. Now, let's see this here in 9th
century Paul does, but he's whittling it down, showing us for whom
God did this work for. Because we're not ignorant of
the fact that there's many in this world that don't believe.
There's many who don't trust Christ. There's many who don't
believe the Savior. Romans 9 says, it's not as though
the Word of God had taken effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. So here we're learning that even
though the Jews, as a people, largely rejected Christ when
he came, they, for the most part, many, did not believe Even after
hearing, even after seeing the apostles and all the works they
did and hearing them preach the gospel, they didn't win. Even after seeing Christ, they
didn't see Jesus in Jesus. They didn't even see the Savior
in the Savior. And so, they all perished in
their sins. But Paul's saying, it's not as
though the Lord promised to have the Savior's people. God has
the power of salvation for His people. He cannot fail. His will
always comes to pass. But for everyone for whom Christ
died, they shall be delivered from darkness. They shall be
brought into the well. Look up over at Romans 9, verse
27. Isaiah also cried concerning
Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as
the sand of the sea. shall be saved. A remnant. A
small portion out of the whole shall be saved. There's a remnant
that ought to be saved. So what the Spirit's revealing
to us is that this salvation is not a portion of flesh. God's not there up in heaven
hoping, critically, I just wish somebody would believe on my
son. I hope his blood doesn't spill for no reason. I hope he
didn't die in the place of sinners and no one believes on him. That's
not what you're talking about. He just didn't speak that way. He provided His Son for people,
and He chose whom He loved in eternity, whom He predestinated
in eternity, and whom therefore He justified in time by His Son,
and calls them with a divine calling, breaking them out of
their darkness, delivering them from their prison of death, that
they might see and know and hear the voice Son of God, we believe
upon Him. And so, there's many Jews, even
to this day, who we speak to, who we know have any Jewish friends,
many of them boast in the fact that they are the sons and daughters
of Abraham. And they gain confidence and
joy looking at other Hollywood actors and stars who have money
and have been very successful. And that's how they attribute
that God loves them, that they are the chosen God. They are
people who look to those things. They have lists of every successful
Jew born. And so, that's what they're hoping
in and trusting in, and boasting that they are Abraham's seed.
But that's not salvation, because they have no hope in Messiah,
in the Christ who came. but reveals who are the children
of the promise. Those whom God set his love and
judgment on, is through faith. We see and know that God has
a people, and that He reveals faith in them, whereby they can
lead God to savior. Right? So God has always revealed
his children through faith, and it's not at works. And I'll show
you this as a diagram. Look at Romans 4-11. Romans 4-11. Abraham wasn't saved because
of circumcision. Abraham wasn't saved because
of works. Abraham was saved because God revealed faith in and of
what he believed in God. Alright, so Romans 4-11. And
Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness
of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised. That he
might be the father of all men that he believed, that they be
not circumcised, that righteousness might be imbued unto them also. And so, due to the fact that
Abraham was saved through this faith which God gave him, it
follows that his children are those who believe just like you. Whether they came from the dwarves
or not, they believe just like Abraham. And there they show
that they are the children of Abraham. They are the children
of the promise that God spoke of. And so if this physical seed
has no faith, it's because they are not a spiritual seed. They
have no part in the spiritual. They're just physical sons and
daughters of Abraham. And so our salvation is never
about the flesh. The Lord's showing us that it's
not about our flesh. It's not about what we've done,
what we're capable of doing, or not capable of doing, or not
doing. He writes in Ephesians 2, if you want to turn there, Ephesians
2 verse 11 Jesus says, wherefore remember
that ye being in time past Gentiles of the flesh who are called uncircumcised
by that which is called the circumcision of the flesh made by hands, that
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope of without God in the world. But now with Christ
Jesus, Even sometimes the far off are made nigh by the blood
of Christ. But He is our peace, who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. And so, even this very day, you
that are far off in your hearts, you that are far off in your
minds, in your thoughts of the true living God, have no hope
of Him. You that fear Christ, and believe
on Him as the hope of pure salvation, that you cease to trust in your
own worst. Don't look to Christ, the one
whom God has prepared for us. He is the Savior. He says, none
of you shall be ashamed, because it's God who has drawn you near
to Himself by His Spirit and revealed this from Him to you
by faith. All right? So our hope, therefore,
it's a thing. It's a price. And believing in
Him, not of our faith, whether we're Jew or Gentile, that has
nothing to do with all sinners, or if any of us are saved, we're
sinners saved by grace. We're sinners saved by grace.
And so we all must be born again, which He does. It is the work
of God and His people, by the Spirit. It is the work of us,
by the spiritual seed. And Paul would say, we are the
circumcision. which worship God in the Spirit,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh. 9. Those that are saved, those
that are called to God, are His Spirit in the chosen seed, and
the Lord Jesus Christ. 5. Now Paul here, in verses 7
and 8, he affirms to us further that the children are children
of God. It's a promise of the verse 7,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children, but in Isaac shall I seed be called. So already in the scripture we
see that the Lord is whittling down for us those who are the
remnant of the seed. He's already beginning to show
us that not everyone with Abraham are children of faith or children
of promise. And so the figure that Paul is
using is the figures of Ishmael and Isaac. And he tells us that
this is a figure, this is an allegory to show us that it's
not according to the flesh. It's not according to who we
are, who our parents are, what we have or have not done. It's according to the promise
and mercy and grace of God and the Son, Jesus Christ. of all
that we have in the Old Testament. Everything that's there in the
Old Testament laid out for us. It's not just dead stories and
about knowing these dead stories. Paul tells us that these things
happen, it understands, for examples. Examples for you and me. They are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come. And so Paul provides
us this example. He traces it out further in Galatians
4. Born is written that Abram had two sons, one by a bondmaid and the other by a
free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was born or it was by promise, which things
are and have the Lord. He used pictures, the Lord used
pictures to represent a truth to us. And what's amazing is
that it's actually Ishmael, the son of the father woman, that
is likened to the children of Israel in the flesh. They are
in bondage. They are in bondage. The third object shows that we
will receive the inheritance of God. He says these two, these
are the two covenants. What covenants? The covenant
of works versus the covenant of grace. Those are the two covenants.
The one from the Mount Sinai was generous with the bondage,
which is Hagar. This Hagar is Mount Sinai in
Arabia. and answer to Jerusalem, that physical city in Israel
there, Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children. She's still trusting in the Lord. She's still trusting in her service
to God. She's still trusting in these
shadows, in these pictures, thinking that these are her salvation.
And this is true of everyone. who have some form of religion
and trust in that religion to save them. It's all the same,
it's all in the picture to show us that's the covenant of works.
These are in bondage and don't know that they're in bondage,
but are in darkness and death and are about to be destroyed
as children of wrath and disobedience, all right? But Jerusalem, which
is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. Now we pray,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. All who hope in Christ,
these are the children of promise. Even in Isaac we know that. And we'll see this later on the
sky, not today, but Jacob, he had two sons, Jacob and Esau. The Lord said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. God passed right by Esau and
blessed Jacob, who healed himself. Jacob, who was the more wicked
one, the more cunning one, the more filthy one, God sent his
love and affection on him because he foreknew him So that's our
election record. Not according to a physical lineage,
but according to promise. And so Paul has shown us two
things here in our text. First, the natural Israel, according
to the flesh, it did not mean that they were chosen of God,
and that somehow or another God fell to them. Nothing has gone
wrong. Everyone who knew Christ God,
they come to this knowledge of what Christ has done for them,
by His grace and power, and they believe. It reveals faith in
them. And second, we'll see that with Gentiles. Because it's not
according to the lineage of Abraham, that means there's a hope for
us. We have no part in the blood of Abraham. We have no lineage,
no attachment to Abraham. That's not our hope. It doesn't
matter about the Gentiles, because it's all according to the promise,
according to the faith of human beings. All right? Now, Romans
2, let me read Romans 2, verse 28-29. But he is not a Jew, which is
one outward. An enemy is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inward. And circumcision is at the heart,
in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of
men, but of God. All right, so Paul states this
conclusion, states the conclusion of what they teach you here in
verse 8, Romans 9, 8. That is, they which are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise of counting for the seed. And this seed is referring
to the spiritual seed, We're born in the spirit of Christ
making us alive to know the true and living God. And we're born
according to promise, not according to God's second-best promise. I'm going to close with John
1. John 1, we'll pick up in verse
11. We'll go down to verse 13. John 1,
11. He came unto his own, and his
own received him. Why? Because they were of the
flesh, then just as the sinners. They heard Him, they saw Him,
they saw the miracles, but they didn't see the Messiah. They
didn't see that He is our salvation. But, first of all, as many as
received Him, it then gave them power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name. There John is reporting
an outward perspective. Right? are trying to satisfy
that question, how do I know if I'm the elected god? How do
I know if I'm going to be elected? If you try to satisfy that question,
if you try to answer that question, you're never going to be able
to. Just looking at it like that, how do I know if I'm going to
be elected? It's impossible to tell if we're
going to be elected by anything by looking at ourselves. How
do we know if we're going to be elected? It's revealed in
faith. It's revealing that, hey, those
who fear Christ and have no other hope, but they leave on the price
for their salvation. They're ventured upon. They don't
know what they're going to lack, but they have no other hope.
And they're hoping in the grace and mercy of God that's been
declared to them through the gospel that Christ said it's
not for sinners, that they're all a filthy, vile, worthless
sinner. My hope is that God provided
His Son for me. And he points me at myself and
says, God, this is life. Lord, have mercy upon me. That's
the thing. I can go home to myself, not
have anything which requires you to believe that anything
is free. And yet, we continue on. We continue to believe. God,
have mercy on me. You said it yourself. Have mercy
on me. We don't always feel it. We don't always see our actions
lining up with our confession. It's very difficult. Because we know what's in our
hearts, and the thoughts we have, and the things we do. But our
hope is that God has provided salvation in the Son of Jesus
Christ. I have no hope but in Him. And so it's revealed in the faith
that He's given us. That's our perspective. And then
He gives us, if we see, if we're all in the race of knowledge,
in what He declares in His Word, which 1 Corinthians says, which
we're born, spiritually born, not of blood, It doesn't have
to be by Abraham's seed. Nor the will of the flesh. It's
not about what we think or what we want to happen. It's what
God has done for us and in us through his Son. Nor the will
of man. I can't determine or confer this
grace on you. All I can do is preach the gospel.
And the Spirit makes it known in his people by fulfilling faith
in them. And that's what we see. We're
born of God. It's a spiritual work. It's a
spiritual work. So, I pray the Lord bless that word in your
hearts. And if anyone is in darkness and doubt and fearful and afraid,
know it, and sin as they are, that God will be gracious to
you. And you will be healed. Faith
in the two things, faith in the next son, and hope in God's Son.
May the Lord bless that word in your heart. Amen. Our gracious Lord, God, we thank
you for your grace which is shown to us in your Son. Lord, you
know what feeble, We creatures, we are. Even my ability is to
collect the glory and the grace of our God, which is worthy of
all exaltation. Lord, that you would take these
words of prayer. Lord, that you would bless them
throughout the hearts of your people. Lord, that you would break your
people out of the prison of bondage, out of the law, the darkness
of the sin, that You would draw them by Your sweetness into the
light of Christ. Lord, settle us in our Savior. Settle us in His love and in
His light. Feed us, Lord, and grow us in
His grace and knowledge and mercy. Lord, we pray. We pray for those
whom we know and love. Lord, we pray for Walter. Lord,
that You would be merciful to him. As he begins his rehabilitation,
the Lord had him serve the Lord that he would be merciful, that
he would give him strength, that he would give him success, that
he would be able to do for himself again. The Lord that he would comfort those who
loved him and care for him. The Lord, you know that there's
many other thoughts and stress, many other cares, many other
problems, many fears and anxieties and stresses. Lord, we ask that
you would comfort your people, that you would reveal
yourself to them, and help us Lord to be mindful of those that
are suffering and weak, that we would be kind and Lord, we pray that you would
bless this work here. Lord, that you would give us
wisdom to direct us to a building where we could meet in public. so so All right, good evening, brethren.
We're gonna begin our service this evening. Our text is in Isaiah 36, and
I'm gonna read the whole chapter now. I'm not gonna go verse by
verse. I'm not gonna cover every verse,
but the meaning of what's recorded here. So Isaiah 36, let's look at all
22 verses. Now it came to pass in the 14th
year, King Hezekiah, that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against
all the defense cities of Judah and took them. And the king of
Assyria sent Rabshakeh 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 Fuller's Field. Then came
forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house,
and Shebna the scribe, and Joab, Asaph's son, the reporter, and
Raphshechim. Sent unto them, Say ye now to
Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What
confidence is this wherein thou trustest? Notice he didn't even
refer to his Achaia as a king. He just spoke of his king, his
great king. He said in verse five, I say,
sayest thou? But they are but 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. whereon if a man lean it will
go to his hand and pierce it. So was Pharaoh king of Egypt
to all that trusted him. But if thou say to me, We 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,
Ye shall worship before this altar? Now therefore give pledges, I will give thee two thousand
horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
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 horses? And am I now come up without
the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said unto
me, Go up against this land and destroy it. Then said Eliakim
and Shefna and Joah unto Raphshechim, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy
servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it, and speak
not to us in the Jewish language, in the ears of the people that
are on the wall. But Raphshechim said, Hath my
master sent me to thy master, and to thee to speak these words?
Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that
they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you?
Then Raphacheca stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews'
language and 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. Harken not to Hezekiah,
for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by
the present day, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of
his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every
one of the waters of his own sister. Until I come and take
you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and
wine, a land of bread and vineyards, Beware lest Hezekiah persuade
you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the
nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Where are the gods of Enn and Arphan? Where are the gods of
Sepharbaim? And have they delivered Samaria
out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods
of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that
the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? But they held
their peace, and answered him not a word. For the king's commandment
was, saying, Answer him not. Then came Eliakim, the son of
Hephaiah, that was over the household, and Shepnath, the scribe, and
Joab, the son of Asaph, the reporter, to Hezekiah with their clothes,
rent, and told him the words of Radshik. Let's pray before we begin. Our
gracious Lord, Father, we thank you for your grace. Lord, that we see that though
we ourselves are full of darkness and sin and folly and would depart
from you, Lord, we thank you for the grace that you show to
your servants, to your children, to those whom you love, and you
turn them away from the flesh. heart for many worlds that we
are in. Lord, that You are pleased to
exalt Your Son in our midst. Father, we ask that You would
bless us now. Lord, that You would give us
of Your Spirit, even as we are gathered together here in one
spirit, in one mind, to worship our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Lord, we ask that You would bless us. Without You, Lord, we need
Lord, we ask that You would pour out Your Spirit upon us and open
our ears, cause us to hear Your Word. Lord, we ask may we see
Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior this night. May we be made to rejoice in
His salvation, be delivered from the bondage of sin and the chains
of darkness. Lord, that we might come into
the light and declare what God has brought for His people. Lord,
we ask that you would be with your people, each where they
are, that you would bless us and enable us to hear the Word
and to receive it, that you would open our hearts and prepare us
to receive the Word of our Savior. Lord, turn us from sorrow. Amen. Lord, fill us with thy
Spirit. Okay, so our text is Isaiah 36 and we'll
be looking at it across all the verses in this chapter roughly. Now, in the next several chapters,
what Isaiah does is he of Israel in their present day. And this should really be relatable
to the Church of Christ, because that's what our God does for
us, right? When He teaches us the truths
of the Gospel, when He reveals His Son Christ to us, and causes
us to hear His precious Word, and He nourishes the new man
which He has formed in His people of His Spirit, After He's taught
them, He sends them out into the world and we begin to experience
the truth of His Word. So that we learn it, not only
in head knowledge, hexaphone knowledge, but we learn it by
experience. So that we know and understand
the power of God, that we learn of Him, that we grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so the Lord will provide
exercises of His own hand, according to His own choosing, which are
always for her good. Her being defined as the Church,
being defined as to them that love God, to them who are He
called according to His purpose. And so the truths of God are
proved through the experience that he brings his people through.
Now, tonight, what we'll see here, the scriptures that we'll
look at tonight together, we'll see that of our natural lean,
what we do naturally, right? The wisdom of our mind, the strength
of ourselves, our thoughts, what we trust in, we find that we
lean towards our own wisdom. and our own strength to help
us and to deliver us out of trouble, even though the Lord has shown
us that He Himself is salvation, that He is our wisdom, that He
is our strength and our deliverer. He's gonna make sure that we
know this too, that we lean all upon Him and not on ourselves,
because the children of God have a Savior who never forsakes them. The children of God have a Savior
who never forsakes them, even though they depart from Him and
forsake Him in unbelief. He is a faithful Father to His
children. And so to you that hear me this
night, understand that we have a great God and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, whom God has sent to save His people. And so to
the hopeless, those who have no strength in themselves, those
who have no wisdom of their own, to those who have been brought
to nothing and are hopeless, He says to us in Proverbs 3,
5 through 7, Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean
not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
And he shall erect thy palace. Be not wise in thine own eyes,
fear the Lord, and depart from evil. And tonight we see that
the people that we're speaking of here is trusting self rather
than the Lord. And trusting ourselves, trusting
our wisdom, and seeking to deliver ourselves rather