As I said a moment ago, this
message requires that you follow along very closely in your Bibles.
I hope you will. I believe it will be a real blessing
for you. It's a comforting, or should
be, if God will bless it, comforting message for for a small group
of believers, for God's little remnant. And that's the title
of the message, God's Remnant. We begin over in 1 Kings. Turn
over to 1 Kings, chapter 11. From the very beginning, when
mankind began to populate The true chosen people of God have
always been outnumbered, it seems. God's people seem to always have
been outnumbered from the very beginning—on earth, anyway, not
in heaven. Man has always thought, by nature,
that the majority rules. That's just a natural way of
thinking. The majority rules, that there's strength in numbers.
And that since so many people agree about something, then the
thing must be right or true. That's just what we think by
nature. When people see a large, overflowing crowd, a large building
and great, impressive displays of money and programs and so
forth, they think God's in it. They think God must be in there.
Look at all the people following after it. And they think God
is big, so he must work in big ways, you know. Well, that's
not necessarily true. God is great, and he is all-powerful,
all-glorious. He reigns and rules over all
things, but his kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. Christ continually
said this. His kingdom was not of this world.
If it was, his servants would fight. If it was, he would have
come down from heaven in a mighty whirlwind. on a white horse to
conquer this earth in a great and glorious way. But that's
not the way he did it. Spiritually speaking, God does
work in vast, great ways. But earthly, in this earthly,
in this world, he moves in small ways. Who hath to despise the
day of small things, the Scripture says? His ways are not our ways. We saw that this morning. He
said this, he said he did not choose Israel because they were
more in number, or that they were the majority, because they
voted, you know, and the majority picked God. No, he said because
they were fewest, fewest in number he chose them. Why? That he might
make his mighty power to be known in that little band of people
there. He saved only eight people out of millions during the time
of the flood, didn't he? Eight people. He saved three
people out of the thousands inside of him, hundreds of thousands,
biblical scholars say. He took Gideon's army, which
started out a big number, and he whittled them down, didn't
he? Whittled them down to about 300 men. He said, Now, now, I'm
not going to let you go in there with a bunch of them, but lest
you should say your own arm got you the victory. He chose the
youngest son out of seven, David. a young little ruddy shepherd
boy, fresh off the mountainside, to rule his people. He doesn't
see as men see, does he? He looks on the heart. During
Elijah's day, he had one prophet, the prophet Elijah, and there
were 850 false prophets against him. And all through the Old
Testament scriptures, he chose a lamb. to represent his son,
his mighty conquering son. He chose a lamb, not a lion,
a lamb, a little weak lamb to represent his salvation. And
when he did come, he chose twelve insignificant working men to
turn this vast world upside down, just twelve little men, fishermen
and so forth. And he chose a little Jewish
maiden as his mother, a carpenter as his daddy, a barn where he
should be born, the most despicable city around as his hometown,
no-name sinful outcasts as his friends, a donkey as his mount,
thorns as his crown, and a cross for his throne." He doesn't do
things like we would have done, does he? You see, the Word says
there's a way that seems right unto man—big ways, numbers, majorities,
you know, money, power, signs, wonders. That's not the way God
moves. God moves in mysterious ways,
the psalm says, his wondrous works to perform. He did say
this, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
him. What do we esteem highly by nature?
Big things, don't we? Big things. Impressive things. Pop and show and splendor. God said that's an abomination
to that. Someone may say, look at a big edifice on the corner
of a city block. They say, is that God's dwelling?
That must be God's dwelling place down there. Look at that steeple.
Look at those stained glass windows. Or look at it. Look at all the
people going. Look at all those buses. That must be God's house. It must be. all the people going
in there. God says that's an abomination.
What that is, and we're going to see in a moment, that is a
high place that man has erected, a high place, and it's an abomination
to God. God has a little remnant here
and there, here and there, a little remnant. And I believe, based
upon His Word, this is one of them, this little remnant right
here. He said in Romans 11, 5, at this present time, At this
present time, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace, even at this present time. Why? Why does he do things this
way, that no flesh should glory in his presence? It's always
that way. He always works that way. Well,
I want you to look with me at a story of a little remnant of
God's people, the troubled times they live in, and that's now.
We're living in troubled times. and God's salvation of this little
remnant. I hope you'll bless this, too.
It starts here in 1 Kings 11 with Solomon, the son of David. Let's read
a few verses here. 1 Kings 11, beginning with verse
1. It says, King Solomon loved many
strange women. together with the daughter of
Pharaoh, his original wife, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites,
Zidonians, Hittites, the nations concerning which the Lord said
unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go into them, neither
shall they come in unto you. For surely they will turn away
your heart after other gods. But Solomon claimed unto these
in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses,
three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.
And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned
away his heart after other gods." Now, this is inconceivable, isn't
it? And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was
the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth,
the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination
of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight
of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord. Seek the Lord,
as did David his father. And Solomon built a high place,
built a big chapel or a temple for Chemosh, the abomination
of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, right in front
of the temple. And for Molech, he built another
high place, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise
did he for all his strange wives, built these little temples, little
chapels, little houses for them to worship in. for all his strange
wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their God. And
the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned
from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice.
And he commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not
go after other gods, but he kept not that which the Lord commanded."
He did not hearken to the word of the Lord. This is done of thee, and thou
hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded
thee. I will surely rend the kingdom from you, and give it
to thy servant. But notwithstanding, in thy days,
in your lifetime, I will not do it for David, for thy father's
sake, because of my covenant with him, but I will rend it
out of your hand, the hand of your son. Howbeit I will not
rend away the kingdom, will give one tribe to thy son, for David
my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen." Well,
from that day forward, for many years to come, there was king
after king after king on the throne in Israel. There were
two kings, really. The kingdom was divided after
Solomon. There were two kings. There was
one king over Israel, the whole nation, and there was one king
over Judah, the little tribe of Judah. He left that little
remnant for himself, and that's the tribe from which our Lord
came, the priestly tribe. And he had one king over Israel,
the nation of Israel, and one king over Judah, more specifically
Jerusalem, where the temple was. He had his king there. Now, the
story begins with Solomon's son, whose name was Rehoboam. Now, he was the rightful king,
but he was evil. Rehoboam did evil in the sight
of the Lord, but he was the rightful king. But people didn't like
him because he was a hard king. So they found a fellow named
Jeroboam. Look at 1 Kings chapter 12. Jeroboam. Jeroboam was in Egypt at the
time because he feared Solomon, but he came back into town after
Solomon died. Verse 20, And it came to pass,
when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, they sent and
called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel.
And there was none that followed the house of David but that one
little tribe of Judah only. Now, Jeroboam came into town. And he was not the rightful king,
and he was fearful. that the people would return
to their rightful king. He had him a new job, and he
was afraid that if the people returned back to Rehoboam, the
rightful king, he'd lose his job. He'd be out of a job. He
was afraid of it. So he took measures to prevent
this. He did all he could to pacify,
to patronize the people. Look here in verse 26 of this
same chapter. It says, "...Jeroboam said in
his heart," this is what he said, Now, the kingdom is going to
return to the house of Satan. If these people go up to do sacrifice
in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, if they go up and worship like
they're supposed to at the temple—worship aright, worship God in spirit—then
the heart of this people will turn again to the Lord, unto
their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, the king of Judah. And they'll
kill me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah, If they go and
start worshiping God aright, I'm going to be out of a job.
You see, whereupon, verse 28, the king took counsel. He got
him some fellows together, and they made a little plan, formed
a little club, and they made two calves of gold, and they
said unto the people, Now it's too much for you all. It's too
much for you to go all the way to Jerusalem to worship. Why
do you have to go all the way down? That's just too much. It's
not convenient to go all the way to Jerusalem. Behold your
gods. I've made you some gods. Behold
your God, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And he set one in Bethel, and he put the other in Dan. In other
words, for convenience sake, he said, don't, don't, you don't
have to go all the way to Jerusalem to worship. Surely there's other
places to worship. Here, I'll put a little place
down here, a little place down here, and y'all can come here,
instead of the rightful place that God chose. Look at verse
29. He said to one, or verse 30,
And this thing became sin, for the people went to worship before
the one, even unto them, and the other. Not worship aright
at the temple in Jerusalem, like God had ordained. And he made
a house of a high place. He made him another little temple
down there. High places. You see that? High
places. Over and over again. So on and
on it went. Year after year after year. King
after king after king. Wickedness increased throughout
the land. Idolatry increased with all these
kings. They started worshiping idols
and so forth. And the supposed chosen people of God, even Judah,
got farther and farther from God, started worshiping idols
and statues and pagan rituals. They made their children walk
through the fires over hot coals, something of that nature. They
made all these different high places, these temples and so
forth. Wickedness was abounding throughout the land. Now look
over chapter 14 with me. Chapter 14, verse 22. You have to follow along closely
in this. I'll get to the heart of the message here in a little
bit. I have to build it up. Here's another fellow. Judah,
chapter 14, verse 22. Judah began to reign. This is speaking of Judah, the
land of Judah. Judah did evil in the sight of
the Lord, and they provoked God to jealousy with their sins which
they had committed. above all that their fathers
had done. And they also built them high
places and images, that is, statues and groves, that's pictures,
on every high hill and under every green tree. And there was
also sodomites in the land, and they did according to all the
abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the
children of Israel. Well, every now and then, though,
Now, all these kings up to this time, they were more and more
evil. They'd become more and more evil. But every now and
then, there'd be a pretty good fellow to reign. Every now and
then. Look at chapter 15, verse 9. Chapter 15, verse 9. In the twentieth year of Jeroboam,
king of Israel, reigned Asa over Judah. And forty and one years
he reigned in Jerusalem. Verse 11. And Asa did that which
was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father.
He sought the Lord. He took away the sodomites out
of the land and removed all the idols that his father had made,
but the high places were not removed. Nevertheless, Asa's
heart, that one man, was perfect with the Lord all his days. He
left the high places standing. Look at verse 25 of this chapter. Here's another fellow, Nadab. Another fellow, verse 25, chapter
15, Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in
the second year. Verse 26, And he did evil in
the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and
in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin. So Asa's son,
he reverted back to evil. Chapter 16, here's another one. Another king came along. Verse
21, chapter 16. Then were the people of Israel
divided into two parts, chapter 16, verse 21. Half the people
followed Tibni, the son of Jonathan, to make him king, and half followed
Omri, in verse 25. But Omri, here's another king,
he wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, did worse than all
that were before him. Then look at verse 30. And Ahab,
the son of Omri, another one came along, He did evil in the
sight of the Lord above all that were before him. King after king
after king, worse and worse, more and more evil. On and on
it went until Elijah came along. Elijah came along on the scene,
and he was the only one, the only true prophet in the land
against 450 false prophets and 400 prophets of the grove. But
then a little bit later, Another prophet came along, Elisha, and
he took the mantle of Elijah, you know, and another prophet
came along, but they weren't very many, just a few, just a
few here and there. What I'm trying to show you is
the abundant wickedness, how that all the people everywhere,
everybody was following after wickedness and idolatry and worshiping
false gods and so forth. Now, get into the heart of this
thing. The second kings, turn over to
the second kings. Chapter 17. This thing continued
year after year after year, king after king after king. Wickedness
prevailed. 2 Kings chapter 17. This is what
the word of the Lord says. 2 Kings chapter 17. In the ninth year of verse 6. 2 Kings 17 verse 6. So in the ninth year of this
Hosea. That is, he's the king of Israel.
The king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into
Assyria. This wicked king of Assyria came
down and captured Israel and Samaria and all the land, and
placed them in Hela and Hebor by the rivers of Gozan and the
cities of the Medes. For so it was that the children
of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had
brought them up out of the land of Egypt. under the hand of Pharaoh
the king, and feared other gods. And they walked in the statutes
of the heathen, the words of the heathen, whom the Lord had
cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of
Israel which they had made. And the children of Israel did
secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their
God. They built them high places. in all their cities, from the
Tyre of the Watchmen to the Fence City. And they set them up images,
statues, busts of different saints and so forth, groves, that is,
pictures, on every high hill and under every green tree. And
they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen
whom the Lord carried away. And they wrought wicked things
to provoke the Lord to anger. They served idols, wherefore
the Lord had said unto them, You shall not do this thing.
Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all
the prophets. He testified unto them by the
word of God by all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways,
and keep my word and my statutes according to all the law which
I commanded your fathers, which I sent to you by my servant the
prophets, notwithstanding they would not hear." They wouldn't
hearken to the word of God, but they hardened their necks like
to the neck of their fathers that did not believe in the Lord
their God. Look at verse 18. Therefore the
Lord was very angry with Israel, and he removed them out of his
sight. And there was none left but the
tribe of Judah only. None left. And look at verse
29. Every nation made gods of their
own, put them in the houses of the high places. Verse 32. Oh,
it looked like they feared the Lord. They were afraid of the
unknown God, but they made unto themselves the lowest of them
priests. They took the worst fellows among
them and made priests out of them. Of the high places. Verse 41. So these nations Supposedly
God's people, they feared the Lord, but they served their graven
images, both their children and their children's children, as
did their fathers, and so do they unto this day. Now here we have a perfect picture
of 1989, a perfect picture. They make the lowest of them
priests, the lowest sort, the most despicable fellows on the
face of the earth now are the priests, are the preachers in
this day and age. And we've got all these high,
high places, all these edifices they call churches, all this
abomination, all these pictures, all these statues, all these
forms and rituals and so forth, all of that, everything with
the Word of God. Nobody's listening to the book.
I keep saying this over and over again, that this is the only
thing we can resort to. This is the only Word of Truth.
This is the only place that we're to look. God's Word is our only
foundation. What is this world? What will
they have? No, they'll have the thoughts
and opinions of men. They'll have their little rituals.
And like Christ said in Mark chapter 7, you reject the commandments
of God for the tradition of man. He said that four times. Full
well did Isaiah the prophet say of you, that you draw nigh unto
me with your lips, ye look pretty religious, but your heart is
far from me." He's not listening to the Word of God, just like
these people. So here it is, here's the whole
story, 2 Kings chapter 18. Here it is, we'll dwell right
here from now. 2 Kings 18, somebody comes on
the scene. Now it came to pass, verse 1.
2 Kings 18, came to pass in the third year of Hosea, son of Elah,
king of Israel, that Hezekiah, now remember this Hosea and Israel,
all of them, they were in captivity to this Assyrian king. But this
son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz,
king of Judah, began to reign. Somebody comes along named Hezekiah.
Hezekiah, you know what his name means? It means strength of God. In the strength of his God, this
man came along. Verse 2, 25 years old he was
when he began to reign. He reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name was Abbie, the daughter of Zechariah. And
Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. And
what is that? According to all that David his father did. He
was a man after God's own heart. The difference between this king
and the rest of them was he sought the Lord with all his heart.
You know, David never went after strange gods. Oh, no. He may
have committed adultery and done many wicked things, but all manner
of evil and sin shall be forgiven. but not the sin against the Holy
Spirit. He didn't go after other gods.
Oh, no. David's heart was right with
the Lord in that respect. He walked with his God, and so
did this Hezekiah. And look at the first thing.
Here he came, this man of God in the strength of the Lord.
Verse 4, the first thing he did was remove the high places. We've
got to tear down these buildings. These things are an abomination
to the Lord. Tear them down. tear down these high places.
And he broke up the statues, he cut down the groves. First
thing he did was tear down these high places and these statues
and these idols, ripped the pictures off the wall. And look at this. He really got to the heart of
this thing then. He found, while he was rummaging through the
temple, he found this pole. And he dusted it off, wiped it
off, and it was brass. And he held it up and said, what's
this? And the people said, oh, oh, that's the serpent lifted
up on a pole. That's that brass serpent that
Moses lifted up to defend. Oh, we got to save that. Hey,
let's put the shroud of Turin, you know. What did he say? What did he do? He found that
serpent, that brazen serpent, and he broke it to pieces. Tore
it up and smashed it and broke it to pieces. And here's what
he said, that this is what the children of Bernie insisted on.
He called it, this is nothing but nothing, nothing but a worthless
piece of brass, a worthless piece of brass. He really got to the
heart of their religion then. And even so, the true man of
God comes and he declares from God's Word, God is a spirit. God is not worshipped with men's
hands. or symbols or anything material,
God is a spirit. And they that worship God must
worship him in spirit and in truth. What truth? The truth
of his word in Christ, who is the truth. Away with these cathedrals. Away with the robes. Away with
all these pictures, all these busts of past saints and so forth,
the choir robes, all this outward form of religion, and especially
away with these crosses. I wonder, you know, they've made
an idol out of that shroud of Turin and different things, and
what is that statue of Mary that's supposed to weep, you know, that
hundreds of thousands of people make their pilgrimage to to see
this weeping statue? That's a piece of ivory. That's all it is. And the cross,
if we found the cross that Christ himself was crucified on, what
should we do with it? Bust it in pieces. Burn it. It's
a worthless piece of wood. That's all it is. A worthless
piece of wood. When Paul said, God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of Christ, he's not talking about
a piece of wood. He's talking about that great
and glorious work that Christ did upon the cross. That great
salvation. So great salvation. That great
deliverance. That great redemption. We don't
have to look to to some thing, some symbol, we're to look to
some one. That's it. Look unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. We worship
him, his person, not even his doctrine. We don't worship doctrine. We worship a person. We trust
him. And Hezekiah did that. Look at
verse 5. Hezekiah did. Look what the God
said about Hezekiah. It says, verse 5, He trusted
in the Lord God of Israel, him alone, so that after him, after
Hezekiah, there was none like him among all the kings of Judah,
nor any that were before him. Verse 6, He claimed to the Lord.
He clung to the Lord and him alone. And he departed not from
following him, but kept his word. which the Lord commanded." That
word, cleave, means to cling to, adhere to, trust in, follow
close after, abide, adhere to, pursue after, hard, press, to
take. He claimed to the Lord, I'll
not let you go unless you bless me. I don't want these other
things. I want you and you alone. And he kept his word. He believed
it and he acted upon it. He kept his commandments which
the Lord God commanded Moses. Verse 7, And the Lord was with
him, and he prospered. The Lord was with him, and he
prospered. Now, this is a perfect picture
of Christ here. Here's the guy here. Look at
verse 3. He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. Oh, the Son, Christ said, I always
do that which pleases my Heavenly Father. Oh, he did that which
was right, all right. He was the holy, spotless Son
of the living God. He did that which was right in
the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father
did. Oh, yeah. You're talking about a man after
God's own heart. He had God's heart in him. He
was God. He is God. Verse 4, he removed
the high places and broke the images. What did Christ do when
he came down to this earth? He went into the temple, first
thing, with a whip. He said, My house will be called
a house of prayer, and he cleared that place out. You've made it
a den of thieves, a worthless place. Get out of here. Away
with all this foolishness, this nonsense. He removed the high
places. Verse 5, He trusted in the Lord.
Christ trusted in and loved the Lord God like no other man before
him, fully, above all else. And it says it that there was
none like him. There was none like the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was the only man, it was ever said of, the man approved of
God. Oh, there's none like him. All
right. God's man, the righteous one, the holy one of Israel,
among all the kings of Judah. You know, it was said about him
that a greater than Solomon is here. Never been a king. Solomon in all his splendor wouldn't
hold a candle. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our great
King. Verse 6, and he claimed to the
Lord. He followed after God. He kept
his commandments. Oh, the Word of God was his delight,
his meat, day and night. God was with him. Verse 7, and
he prospered. What does the Scripture say?
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Well, old Hezekiah here. Hezekiah. The Lord was with him, and he
prospered. Look over at 2 Chronicles, chapter 31, verse 21. Did he
prosper materially? It doesn't say that. It doesn't
say that about Hezekiah. Here's what it does say, verse
21 of 2 Chronicles 31, speaking of Hezekiah, And in every work
that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the
law, the word, and in commandments, to seek his God, He did it with
all his heart, and he prospered, seeking after the Lord. And the
psalm says, They that seek the Lord shall not want any good
thing. Seek after the Lord. So he prospered. And true prosperity, true success,
is to know God, to know Christ, to win Christ and be found in
him. And I've got to hurry into the story here. Turn back to 2 Kings chapter
18. 2 Kings chapter 18. Look at this,
verse 7. The Lord was with Ohazekiah,
and he prospered wherever he went. And this king of Assyria
that had taken everybody captive, all of Israel, everybody following
after him, he rebelled against this king of Assyria. He refused
to serve him. He refused to serve him. He rebelled
against him. Look over at verse 11. The king
of Assyria carried away Israel into Assyria, verse 12, because
they obeyed not the voice of the Lord. They didn't listen
to the word of God. They transgressed his covenant. They refused him.
All that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded them, they
would not hear, nor do them. They became captives of this
evil king because they didn't hearken to the word of the Lord.
And in verse 13, so this king Sennacherib, the king of Assyria,
he came up against, after he'd conquered Israel and all the
land, he came up against Judah now. Now he's coming after Judah,
God's little remnant, he's coming after. He came up against them,
he took the cities of Judah, took all of them, verse 17, all
of them except, and it came right down to the little city of Jerusalem,
right in the midst of Judah. Just, that's all that was left,
the little city of Jerusalem. And a king of Assyria sent two
fellows out, and a great host had a big bunch of people, a
big army, against Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem,
and they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in
the highway of the Fuller's Field. The king sent these messengers,
and they were going to try to slay the people. Now, all the
way down to verse 28, and one of them stood up. Here they are,
here's little Jerusalem surrounded by this great vast host, this
great army, surrounded by them. The only ones left, the only
one of God's people left, everybody else was captive of this evil
king, except Jerusalem. In verse 28, so one of these
messengers stood up, now listen to this, look at it. Then Rabshakeh
stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake,
saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
He's talking to the people here. Thus saith the king, Let not
Hezekiah deceive you. Don't listen to that Hezekiah.
Don't listen to that fellow. What can he do for you? What
can he do for you? This Hezekiah. Why, he doesn't
have any charisma. He doesn't have any talents.
He doesn't have any youth program, no women's missionary society,
no choir. What can Hezekiah do for you
all? He doesn't even have any hair. What can he do for you? That ain't nothing to that fellow. Look at him, just 28. Verse 29,
he's not going to be able to deliver you out of his hands.
Verse 30, and don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying
the Lord will surely deliver us in this city. Don't let him
talk to you about this sovereign grace stuff. Don't be listening
to this sovereign grace. Well, that's, who believes that?
Nobody believes that. Don't listen to him. His message
of so-called sovereign grace, that's all he knows. He needs to preach on prophecy
and abortion and all these programs and marriage and all these things.
Don't listen to him. Look at verse 31. Don't listen
to Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria. Listen now.
Y'all listen up. You make an agreement with me
by a present. You send me your money. And you
come out to me, and you're going to eat every one of his own vine,
every one of his own fig tree, and drink ye every one of the
waters of his cistern. If you'll listen to me and send
me your money, God will bless you with health and wealth. Just listen to us. Come and join
our church. You join the 15,000 club, and
that's how many we've got now, or the 700 club, or you can even
join the 248 ¾ club. Whatever it be, we'll send you
a faith study Bible, and you'll just drink, you'll just have
a big ol' time. Join our club. Come on now, come
with us. Verse 32, And the king, finally, he'll come and take
you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and
wine. We'll all get together in the
sweet by and by, and the circle will be unbroken. Come on with
us. Just don't listen to this fella.
Don't listen to his sovereign grace, duh. Look at this verse
33. Is any of the gods of the nation
delivered at all at the hand of this king of Assyria? Well,
our movement's sweeping the globe. Everybody's following us. Get
on the bandwagon. Turn charismatic. Come with us.
Surely everybody can't be wrong, can they? Come on. Come with
us. Verse 36. But the people held
their peace. They were troubled. They held
their peace. Perhaps they held to their only hope, their peace,
Christ. Held fast to Christ. No, this
means they held their peace. They answered him not a word.
Why? For the king, that is Hezekiah,
commandment was, answer him not. Don't answer him. What did Christ
say? Or what did God say in his word
to us? If there come any unto you and bring not the doctrine
of Christ, receive him not into your house, don't even talk to
him. Don't even tell him goodbye. Don't even tell him goodbye.
Don't listen to him. And God's people, they won't.
Oh no, a stranger they'll not follow. They'll flee from him.
They'll know his voice. But the shepherd's voice they'll
hear. So they came, look at it. They came and they told Hezekiah
in chapter 19. Verse 3, they came and told Hezekiah,
he ripped his clothes off, and Hezekiah said unto them, he said,
verse 3, this is a day of trouble. These are troublesome times,
aren't they? This is a day of rebuke. This is a day of blasphemy. Isn't it? This is the most blasphemous
time that we're living in, isn't it? People are blaspheming the
name of God on every hand, aren't they? This is blasphemous time. The children have come to the
birth and there's not strength to bring forth. Verse 4, But
it may be, it may be that the Lord thy God will hear the words
of this evil king that reproaches the living God and will reprove
the words which he's heard. So the only thing left to do
here, look at the last part of verse 4, it says, is let's lift
up our prayer. for this remnant that's left.
Let's pray. Let's pray." So they started
praying, and then, verse 5, then the servants of King Hezekiah,
they went to Isaiah, the prophet. They resorted to the word of
the Lord. King Hezekiah said, maybe God will shut their mouths.
Let's start praying. And then they consulted the word
of God. Now look down at verse 15. And this is Hezekiah's prayer. This is beautiful. Hezekiah prayed
before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwells between
the cherubims, your God, and you alone, of all the kingdoms
of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down your
ear and hear. Open, Lord, thine eyes and see,
and hear the words of this false prophet. which is sent to reproach
the living God of a truth. Lord, the kings of Assyria, everybody's
gone after this fellow. He's destroyed nations and their
land of a truth. The majority of the people are
following after this movement. They've cast their gods into
the fire, and they're worshiping some kind of God, but it's the
God that works of the men's hands, wood and stone. Verse 19, Thou
therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save us out of his hand. that all the kingdoms of the
earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. Amen. Then Isaiah, the prophet,
the word of God, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, That which you have prayed unto me I have heard. You have prayed And I've heard
it, and this is what the Lord says against this false prophet
and all this false church and so forth. Listen to it. Verse
21. This is what God says. This is the word of the Lord
that he has spoke concerning these false prophets and so forth,
and this applies today to all these fellows out here, this
false church, this great whore. The Virgin, the Daughter of Zion,
the true church hates you and despises you. and is laughing
at your foolishness, laughing you to scorn. The daughter of
Jerusalem, my church, is shaking her head at you. They're not
going to listen to you. Verse 22, Whom have you reproached
in blasphemy? Against whom have you exalted
your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against me. It's not us that they're after. It's God. When people reproach
you for what you believe, whom you believe, it's not you. It's
God that they're fighting against. It's not the church they're taking
on. It's me, God says. Verse 23. By your messengers,
your false prophets, you've reproached the Lord, and you've said with
a multitude of chariots, your prophets are blaspheming me,
your big crowds, they don't impress me, God says. They don't impress
me. Verse 25. Haven't you heard,"
he says to this wicked people, how I've done this? Haven't you
heard what I've done? Remember what we read earlier? Remember the things of old, the
former things, what he's done? And of ancient times, what I've
formed? Haven't you heard that salvation is of the Lord? Have
you never read that? Now, have I brought this to pass,
that thou shouldst be to lay waste cities into ruinous heap? Have I brought this people so
far, just to let them fall into your hands, just to let them
be brought to nothing? Heaven? Oh, no. Surely the Lord
will perfect that which concerns this people. He'll perfect that
which concerns this people. Verse 27. But I know you, he's
talking about the false church and false prophets, I know your
abode. You're going out and you're coming in. I know everything
about you. God looks on the heart. And I know how you hate me. The
carnal mind is in the dignity of God. Verse 28, your rage and
against me and the tumult has come up into my ears. Oh, your
hoopla and your noise. God hears this. We were talking
about this this evening, weren't we? How it seems like the Lord
has just come down. You know how we'd like to pray
fire down from heaven. on this false, these false prophets
and all. God hears them. He hears them.
And there's a scripture that says, because sentence against
an evil work is not speedily executed, in other words, because
God doesn't immediately punish or judge this evil work, therefore
the hearts of the sons of men are fully set to do evil. They
think all things continue like they always have, let's just
go on and do evil. Richard Roberts carries on with his foolishness
like God's talking to him. And God holds his hand back.
Why? Because the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. He's
waiting till his last sheep is brought in, till his last child
is brought in. He's waiting. He's waiting. He's
going to bring his sheep. We're going to hear his voice.
The last one will be brought in, and then he's going to rain
down fire like that, like it's never been seen before. And burn
this place up. He says, verse 29, or verse 30, But the remnant that has escaped
of the house of Judah is going to take root. They're going to
be established. They're going to be settled.
They're going to be firmly grounded. They're not going to follow after
every wind of doctrine. No, they're going to be grounded,
take root, Christ thereby. They're going to take root downward
and barefoot upward. They are going to prosper. And
out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, verse 31, that shall
escape out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
shall do this.