I want to draw your attention
back to two verses in this little speech of Rabshake. And they're
verses 19 and 20, which I've already read to you. And Rabshake
said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, thus saith the great
king. The king of Assyria, that is
a man by the name of Sennacherib. And here's what the king of Assyria
said. He said, what confidence is this
wherein thou trustest? What's your confidence? Thou sayest, and then parentheses,
but they are but vain words. Thou sayest, I have counsel and
strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust that
thou rebellest against me? I woke up this morning and I
was thinking about Hezekiah. Of course, I talked about him
a good bit this past Lord's Day. And then I got to thinking about
this passage of Scripture. I got up early and began preparing
this message, and I thought, this is a good title for the
message, On Whom Dost Thou Trust? And the question, it comes from
the lips of a man who hates God, a man who's an idolater, a man
who worships false gods. And he says, on whom dost thou
trust? And that's a good question for
each of us and for those of you who are watching. On whom do
you trust? In whom is your confidence, really? Are the people of Judah trusting
Hezekiah? Who are we trusting? I hope you're
not putting your trust in the government or in one of the candidates
for president. I hope you're not putting your
confidence and your trust in anybody in this world. On whom
dost thou trust? And I hope that the answer of
your heart is, I trust the God of glory. I trust the Father
who chose me. I trust the Son who redeemed
me. I trust the Holy Spirit of God
who is my comforter, who regenerated me. Now, with that being said,
let me kind of bring you up to speed on some things that's happened
even before the verses that I read to you. First of all, I want
you to see the terrible end of the Northern Kingdom. You're
here in chapter 18. Look at verse 9. And it came
to pass of chapter 18 now. Chapter 18, verse 9. And it came to pass in the fourth
year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea,
a son of Elah, king of Israel,
that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and he was king before Sennacherib
was, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria
and besieged it. Remember, Samaria is the capital
of the northern kingdom, right? We all remember that from our
little history lesson this past Sunday. Okay, look at verse 10. And at the end of three years,
they took it. Even in the sixth year of Hezekiah,
that is the ninth year of Hosea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken. He was the last king of Israel. You just might make a note of
that. Remember they had no godly kings, and this man Hoshea, he
was the very last one. Because now the kingdom is going
to fall, and it's going to fall to pieces. Verse 11 says, And
the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and
put them in Hela. and Habor by the river of Gozan
in the cities of the Medes. And here's the reason. You want
to know why they fell? You want to know why they came
to a terrible end? Do you know why the northern
kingdom of Israel virtually disintegrated? This is the end of it. Here's
the reason. Because they obeyed not the voice
of the Lord. the Lord their God, they transgressed
His covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded,
and they would not hear nor do them." God had sent them prophet after
prophet, preacher after preacher. They wouldn't listen to any of
them. Jehu, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah,
Obed, Amos, Hosea. And what was the message of all
those prophets? Do you remember what is said
in the New Testament? Hold your place here. Look at
Acts chapter 10, just real quick. What did these prophets preach? What was their message? Look
in Acts chapter 10. Here is Peter speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he says this in Acts chapter
10, Look at verse 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, Acts
10, 38, with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing
good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God
was with him. And we're witnesses of all things
which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the
third day and showed him openly, not to all people, but to witnesses
chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with
him. and after He arose from the dead, and He commanded us
to preach to the people and to testify that it is He which was
ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead, to
Him give all the prophets witness. That's what I want you to see.
Those prophets that I just listed to you who preach to the northern
kingdom, all of them preach the coming of Christ. All of them
preached the necessity of His death. They said Messiah's coming,
the Son of God is coming, the seed of the woman is coming,
and He's going to settle the issue of sin forever and die
for His people and put those sins away. He's going to bring
in everlasting righteousness. All the prophets preached that,
but the northern kingdom, they didn't believe. I tell you what, you hear the
gospel of the grace of God descended through the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you don't believe Christ? You don't rest in the Son of
God? Like these Israelites, you don't look forward to the day
when Messiah would come? You will come to no good ending. That is a certainty. And the kingdom fell. Those prophets
directed the people's attention to Christ. They told them to
look to Him, look away from your idols. You see, that's what repentance
is. Repentance is looking away from
everything else and looking to Him, looking to Christ. Know this, Christ is all in salvation. And that's what these preachers,
these Old Testament preachers, that's what these prophets preached.
and to refuse to hear the Word of the Lord, to refuse to come to the Savior
as an old dirty sinner needing righteousness that only He can
give, needing cleansing that only His blood gives, you'll come to no good ending. Hoshea was the last of the kings
of Israel, and no more was ever heard of him again. And if you go out into eternity,
and I know I'm speaking to people who profess to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, and I have no reason to doubt your profession at all,
but let's all be warned and let's make sure of our confidences
in Christ. And I say the same thing to those
of you who are watching. Is Christ your all? Look away
from all idols and look only to Him. The father of Israel. And then this is what I read
to you is a time of trouble for Judah. Look at chapter 19. When King Hezekiah gets word
from his three men that he sent out, this is what happened. When word comes to him, it came
to pass, chapter 19, verse 1, it came to pass when King Hezekiah
heard, he rent his clothes. He covered himself with sackcloth. He went into the house of the
Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna
the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth,
to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they said unto him,
Thus saith Hezekiah. And he was speaking from a broken
heart, and he spoke the truth. This is a day of trouble. And this is a day of rebuke,
that is, correction. This is a day of correction.
And it's a day of blasphemy. For the children are come to
birth and there's not strength to bring forth. What can we do? We're so weak. It's like the
expectant moms, they don't have enough strength to even bear
their young. It's a day of trouble. a day of sadness, a day of distress,
a day of correction, just as it is in our day. And in troublesome times, where
are you going to find any confidence? Where are you going to find any
help? This vast army surrounded the
city of Jerusalem. Rav Sheikah tells, speaking in
Hebrew in a loud voice to let everybody know, can you picture
in your mind the walls of Jerusalem? All these people sitting on the
walls. And they look out upon this vast
army that's just shut them off. They can't get out. And then
here's this rabbi Shekin, he began speaking in the Hebrew
tongue so as to make sure that all of the Jews could understand
exactly what he's saying. Of course, the three men from
King Hezekiah said, please speak in Assyrian, the Assyrian language,
and then they wouldn't be intimidated. No, no, he's brutal. He speaks in such a way that
all the people can hear. And he says to them, if you'll
go back in verse 22 of chapter 18, he says, you know, chapter 20, excuse me, verse
22 of chapter 18, my fault. He says, you know, I understand you're going to say
we trust in the Lord our God. But he said, isn't Hezekiah the
one that tore down all the idols? You folks don't have nearly as
many idols as we got. We got idols all over the place.
We got altars all over the place. In fact, Hezekiah, he said he
did away with all altars and said this is the only altar where
you can worship God. And that's exactly right. See, he puts a question mark
on this. The last question of verse 22,
ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem. He's saying, listen, in Assyria,
we got all kinds of altars. You just got one. And your confidence is in the
God who's worshiped at that one altar? That's exactly right. We have no confidence in any
idol. Our confidence is in the Lord
God of glory, who is worshipped at one altar, and that altar
is the Lord Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and risen again. Our confidence is in Him. And then Rabshakeh, he's a clever
vermin. He really is. Look what he says
in that verse 25. He says, am I now come up without
the Lord against this place to destroy it? He says, do you think
I've come up here without your Lord sending me? He says, your
Lord has sent me. He says, the Lord said to me,
go up against this land and destroy it. So now he tries to bring
the God of Hezekiah and the people of Judah into the picture. But you know what? He's exactly
right. The Lord did send him. because all things are under
the sovereign hand of our God. You see, Rabshake and all the
vast armies of Assyria, they could not have surrounded, encircled
the city of Jerusalem as they did had it not been the divine
sovereign will of God. So really, here's a fellow who
doesn't know God speaking the truth. He didn't aim to. He didn't
aim to tell the truth. But he was exactly right. Because you see, no trouble can
befall the people of God apart from the Lord's sovereign will
and purpose. Amos 3 and verse 6 says, shall
there be evil in a city? That is trouble, turmoil, heartache,
disaster. Shall there be evil in a city?
And the Lord hath not done it. And maybe I'm speaking to somebody
and you feel like you're just surrounded by trouble. Let me tell you something. The
Lord has done it. He uses others. He even uses
people who are unbelievers to carry out His will. But nothing
can happen, nothing can touch the people of God apart from
the sovereign will and purpose of God. And it's like Joseph said to
his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. In fact, when Hezekiah heard
what Rabshakeh said, he knew very well who sent the trouble. He knew God's the one who rules
all things. Look in chapter 19. Now, Hezekiah's going to receive a
letter from the king of Assyria. And it's a threatening letter,
as you might well have guessed. But in chapter 19, verse 14,
and Hezekiah received the letter, the threats of the hand of the
messengers. He read it. And Hezekiah went
up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.
And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of
Israel, which dwelleth between the cherubims, thou art the God."
We do well to remember that. He's the God. Our God is the
God. Even thou alone. And He's the
God of all the kingdoms of the earth, even the kingdom of Assyria. Thou hast made heaven and earth.
Lord, bow down Thine ear and hear. Open, Lord, Thine eyes
and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent
him to reproach the living God." Notice Hezekiah. He doesn't say
that Hezekiah, the words of the enemy of your people, Judah, This man has come and reproached
thy name. That's what Hezekiah said. Oh, that God would give us a
greater concern for his glory rather than our own welfare.
That's what he's saying. And he says this, verse 17, Hezekiah
says, Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria, they have destroyed
the nations and their lands, that's true, and have cast their
gods into the fire. But in reality, they were no
gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they
have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God,
I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even
thou alone. Here's a man, his greatest concerns
for the glory of God. And I thought as I prepared this
message, Lord, I wish I was more concerned about
your glory than I am for our welfare. Hezekiah was an unusual man,
an unusual man indeed. But it says up here in verse
2 of chapter 19, he called for the preachers. He called for
Isaiah. He's not going to avoid God's
servant. He's calling God's servant in. He called for the preacher and
he called for the prophet. He said, pray for us. Well, who is to be trusted in this
day of trouble? And all of us here know this
is a day of trouble, no question about it. It's a day when God is rebuking. Our country is due for great
correction. And the only one who can help
us is our Lord. I don't know what God's gonna
do, but he does. And that's good enough. That's
good enough. So I ask you, on whom dost thou
trust? Since we all agree this is a
day of trouble, who is your confidence? The psalmist said in Psalm 20
and verse 7, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses. Horses
was the fastest mode of transportation. And chariots, with the warriors
in the chariot, very dangerous. But the psalmist said we will
remember the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 118, verses eight
to nine. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in
the Lord than to put confidence in princes. I trust my heavenly Father, don't
you? And I want to trust Him more
fully. If God is my Father, all is well. Soothing words, aren't they?
If God is my father, all is well. When the kids were young, they'd
fall or hurt themselves or whatever and come run into mama or run
into daddy. We find comfort there. We find
safety there. We find a warm embrace there.
Just multiply that times infinity, that's what we find in our God. I trust Him to care for me as
my Father, to provide for me in His providence, to teach me,
to guide me, to feed me, to correct me, to, yes, clothe me in the
righteousness of Christ, to protect me, and bring me safely home
to His house. I'm going to the Father's house
one of these days. And I trust God the Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, very God of very God, the man Christ Jesus. I trust Him with all things because
of who He is, because of what He's done, because of what He's
doing, and because of what He's promised to do. David said, the Lord Jehovah,
God our Savior, is my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall not lack anything. Because
the shepherd looks after his sheep. He's my redeemer. He's my savior,
my intercessor, my preserver, my provider, my protector. My
advocate, my righteousness, He's my all. He's the one I trust,
and I trust God the Holy Spirit. He gave me the life, and He's
my comforter. Well, we know how this turns
out, and if you don't, I'll show you how it turned out. Look at
the end of chapter 19. And this is Isaiah talking to
Hezekiah. He says in verse 31, chapter
19, verse 31, Isaiah says to King Hezekiah, for out of Jerusalem
shall go forth a remnant. There is always a remnant according
to the election of grace. And they that escape out of Mount
Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. You can't
stop what God's purpose to do. Therefore, thus said the Lord
concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor
cast a bank against it. God said, he's not coming in
here to my city. This is where my people are.
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall
not come into this city. The city of God, the church of
our Lord Jesus Christ, bought with his own precious blood,
is an absolutely safe city. The enemy can't get in. Because look at verse 34, the
Lord says, For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine
own sake and for my servant David's sake, for Christ's sake. A lot
of times when you see David's name, you just put Christ's name
right there. And it came to pass, look at
verse 35, it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord
went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred, four
score and five thousand, 185,000 people, one angel, one angel,
the angel of the Lord. Lord, and I believe this to be
Christ our Lord. And when they arose in the morning,
behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria
departed, and went and returned and dwelt in Nineveh. And it
came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god,
that Adrammelech and Cherezer his sons He smote him with a
sword, and they escaped into the land of Armenia. Esarhaddon, his son, reigned
in his stead. God killed his army, and then
God killed him. Our God sits on his throne. So the question is, on whom dost
thou trust? May God give us grace to trust
our Lord and not be afraid and not doubt. Okay, let's get our
songbooks and we'll sing a closing hymn. And now the musician and
Joe and Matt, I gave this information to him. He can understand why
I changed the songs to trust.