The Lord Jesus Christ takes many
names in the Holy Scriptures. It's a study in itself, the many
names which refer to the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible. Each name explains or reveals
in one way or another something of the peculiar aspects of his
character or his work, or something to do with the great salvation
that he has accomplished. And thus, each name of the Lord
Jesus Christ is important to us. And we must never simply
glide over the names of Christ, the names which he takes, because
they are telling us something special, something important
about our Saviour. One name taken by the Lord Jesus
is the title Faithful and True. We may have spoken of this before,
What a name that is. No one else in the world, in
the history of the world, could take such a name as faithful
and true. And what a comfort we have, what
a comfort you have, if you are one of the Lord's people, to
know that He is faithful and true. For you know you're not,
but you rest in Him who is. What a comfort in a devious and
in a corrupt world to know and to trust the Holy Lord God, who
in all His ways and all His words is faithful and true. In Revelation chapter 19 verse
11, we read these words. John is speaking and he says,
and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat
upon him was called faithful and true and in righteousness
he doth judge and make war. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
again. He has said it and he is faithful
and true. He is coming again and he is
going to judge this world in righteousness. You are called
upon to make decisions every day. And if you're anything like
me, you lament the fact that invariably those decisions are
wrong. If you get them right 50%, That
is lucky. He will judge in righteousness. Not one thing in the judgment
of this world will be wrong once he has finished it. Everything
will have found its proper place and he who is faithful and true
will be demonstrably faithful and true to everything that he
has ever said. Now, of course, our Lord Jesus
Christ did not start becoming faithful and true at a point
in time. He has always been thus. And this characteristic, this
description is the same always in his dealings with men. In Revelation 3.14 we read, These
things saith the Amen. That's another name that the
Lord takes. These things saith the Amen. The faithful and true
witness. The beginning of the creation
of God. I.e. that is, he is the creator. Some people would like to say,
oh, he's the beginning of the creation. He was the first thing
that was created. No, the beginning of the creation
is the creator. Because he's the only thing that's
there before the creation. He begins it. He initiates it. He makes all things. And so the
faithful and true one has been there from the very beginning.
Before anything was made. Before the heavens were made.
Before the earth was made. Before the angels were made.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful and true one, he existed in his
own eternal holiness. in the presence of his Father. And this name that the Lord Jesus
Christ takes is one of the reasons why so much of scriptural revelation,
so much that we know of that spiritual dimension is couched
in terms of promises and covenants. Because when God speaks, that
which he says is true. That which he says he is going
to do, he will be faithful to that word. And so the faithful
and true one has given us promises and we are to take those promises
and we are to believe those promises. And the testimony and the revelation
of scripture is invariably bound up together with these prophetic
covenants and promises of God. We are called to have faith in
this world. to believe what He has said, what the faithful and true God
declares He will most surely accomplish. The Lord never talks
about what He hopes to do, or He would do if He could. Such a notion of God is blasphemous
in the extreme. And we have no time for such
an idolatrous God, nor in this place, nor in this fellowship. And interestingly, interestingly,
nor did Sennacherib. Sennacherib, that Assyrian king,
for all of his blasphemy, had a better idea of the true nature
of God than many, many religious people in our own day. He railed, have the gods of the
nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed? A
God who fails to deliver his people deserves to be mocked. And that's exactly what Sennacherib
did. He mocked the gods who didn't
save their people. But Sennacherib's mistake was
his failure to recognise that this was different. Now he was
dealing with the one true God. Now he was dealing with faithful
and true. The God who was faithful to his
people and true to his word. Faithful to his own name. And
there Sennacherib made his big mistake. We have a covenant,
a promise making God and a covenant keeping God. Now I suspect that
we who are Baptists don't sufficiently emphasise God's covenants in
our fellowship together. Perhaps that's because others
have hijacked covenant theology for their own ends. But we have
a love of the covenant promises of our God, though we do not
apply them in the way that others might. Our Saviour's covenant
promises are a delight to believe and a delight to cherish. We
harbour them up in our souls and we rejoice to dwell upon
them, to feed upon them, to be refreshed by them because He
has promised to be with us. He has promised to help us. He
has promised to be with us. He has promised to vindicate
us. He has promised to come and set
all things aright and we love such promises that our Saviour
has made. We call it the covenant of grace
with good cause, that which he has revealed to us of his mercies,
or perhaps better, the covenant of peace, because that's a biblical
phrase. The promises that he has made,
the promises that he has vouchsafed are promises made upon the costliest
substance on this earth, his own precious blood. He himself, listen, it's God's
honour that's at stake if the promises that he has made are
never fulfilled. In Hebrews 13, 20 we read, Now
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting promise, covenant, the blood of the everlasting
covenant, the promise that he has made and that which has been
won and secured by that precious blood. King David, King David,
back in the time of the Jewish nation, he delighted, as we do,
to believe and to cherish God's promises. He knew the Saviour
who was faithful and true. He knew Him. He communed with
Him. And with His dying breath, He
uttered these glorious, victorious words of faith and trust. He said, Although my house be
not so with God, Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
an everlasting promise. David could say that. He has
made with me an everlasting promise, ordered in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. David didn't get to see the end
of all his hope, all his faith. He didn't get to see the fullness
of it at that moment while he lived. He entered into the experience
of it in his death. He saw it unfolding in the times
of this world. But an everlasting covenant was
made with David and to the very day of his death and the last
second of the breath in his body, he held firmly to that promise. that God had made to him. And
Hezekiah too, trusted in the promises of the Lord, faithful
and true. And that's today's message. is
faithful and true and worthy of being trusted. There are two
sections to the passage that we've read together today. Two
sections. If you look at the verses that
we have read from 8 to 19, there's two basic sections there. The first one is this. Sennacherib's
blasphemous letter. The second is Hezekiah's prayerful
response. We're not going to spend any
more time than is absolutely necessary upon the former, because
who wants to think about a blasphemous letter? But in order to maximise
the time that we have, we will look at what Hezekiah's response
to that letter is. Suffice it to say three brief
things with respect to Sennacherib's letter. One, two, three. First
is this. God's providential workings are beyond our comprehension.
We don't understand what God is doing in the world today.
Because we look out there and it seems to be all confusion,
all uncertainty, all a big mess. And then we look inside our own
homes and it just looks like such a big mess as well, very
often, and in our own hearts. And we don't understand the vagaries
of the things that happen to us in our lives. But Sennacherib, had to change
his plans about attacking Jerusalem for this reason. He heard the
rumour that the king of Ethiopia was coming out to fight him and
the world changed. His whole outlook changed. Why?
Because he heard a rumour. I don't even know if it was real.
I don't know if it was right. I don't know whether his spies
told them or an old lady sitting at the side of the street or
how the news got to his ears. But he heard a rumor and suddenly
everything in his mind had to change. God's providences are
beyond our comprehension. And the things that he makes
happen in this world, we basically have to stand back and say, wow,
I didn't see that coming. Friend of mine says, we shouldn't
ask what people are doing when they do the things that they
do. We should ask, what's God doing when people do the things
that they do? Think about that. Second thing
that we notice about Sennacherib here is that he accused God,
remember who we've spoken about this morning already, the one
who is faithful and true, he accused God of deception. Sennacherib would learn that
God doesn't lie. And best of all, thirdly, regarding
Sennacherib and his letter, He acknowledged, and this is lovely
actually, he acknowledged that Hezekiah trusted in God. He said, the God in whom thou
trustest. That's a lovely testimony to
be made of any believer that the world knows we trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is the essence of his spiritual
rebellion and that's why we're making so much of this man and
his attack upon Hezekiah because Sennacherib hated Hezekiah. He despised Jerusalem because
Hezekiah trusted in God and because Jerusalem was called the city
of God. And so it is today, the world
hates believers and despises the church because we trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Better thoughts come from viewing
Hezekiah. So let's move on to him. The king received a vile letter
from Sennacherib. Watch what he does. Here, I think,
is a lesson for us all. Verse 14, 2 Kings 19, verse 14. Hezekiah received the letter
of the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went
up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. See that, that could be the sum
and substance of our sermon today, right there. And that would be
an example worthy of all our following. When things happen
in your life that you don't understand, that you can't manage, that you
can't, what are you going to do with it? I'll tell you what
you do with it. You take it to the house of the
Lord and you spread it before him. That's exactly what Hezekiah
did. He took the letter that he got
and he spread it before the Lord. Now Hezekiah was not afraid of
hard work. He knew how to make plans. He
knew how to get things done. There's a lot of testimony about
Hezekiah and the things that he did. He built cities. and
storehouses, he diverted waterways, he built tunnels, but he knew
when to stop working. He knew when things were beyond
his ability and he knew when to take it to the Lord and lay
it before him. Lord, grant us wisdom to see
our spiritual needs in the way that Hezekiah saw them. Grant
us wisdom to be able to bring them to you, the only one who
can save us and deliver us from trouble. Now, I want you to remember
this morning this picture. I want you to remember it as
much as the words that we have before us. Here is a king, yes,
but he's just a man. Just a man, just like you, just
like me. And he goes to the house of the
Lord. That speaks in the first instance
about God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the foundation
stone of his church. And it speaks of the church which
is built upon him. He went to the house of the Lord.
And there he spread his need before the Lord. I believe there's
gospel here for our souls this morning. Let it be our experience
that we are here in the house of the Lord. No matter what our
troubles are, no matter what our problems are, this is the
best place to bring them, the best place to be. Are you sick? Well, bring it to the Lord at
his house. Are you impoverished? Bring it
to the Lord. Are you mourning? Bring it to
the Lord and spread it before Him. You can do no better. Now I know that we all know stories
and instances of experiences that people have had. But I tell
you this, upon the authority of God's Word, except a sinner
goes to a gospel church, and there humbly lays their need
before the Lord as Hezekiah did here, then they can do whatever
they like to please Him and gain His favor, and it won't happen. This is the place, this is the
place where the Lord meets His people. We see what the man did and we
hear his words. O Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Every phrase in that verse 16,
every phrase in this appellation that he has to God is full of
meaning and significance. The Lord of hosts speaks of power. God of Israel is covenant promise. Dwelling between the cherubims
speaks of mercy and grace. One true God, the creator of
heaven and earth. This is worship. And here Hezekiah
was worshiping the faithful and true. Who is the faithful and
true who rode upon that white horse in the book of Revelation,
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ? Hezekiah was on his knees
before the Lord Jesus Christ in the temple. What a beautiful
picture that is. It is a glorious testimony of
the spiritual understanding that this fine man, Hezekiah, had. in the testimony of God's word. People can say what they like
about Hezekiah. I have grown over the past weeks
and months as I've been thinking about this man, to love him dearly. And I think it's a testimony
to saving faith in his life. Of course, God does not stoop
to hear or open his eyes to see, and yet how graciously he indulges
our frailties when we think about him in that way. He permits his
people to think about him with such a view, him stooping, him
stooping to hear us. him opening his eyes to see the
problems that we've laid before him. What a beautiful, homely
picture that is of such a God as we have, the creator, the
maintainer, the establisher of this whole universe and all of
the power it has. And he stoops, he stoops. Do you remember the child's prayer? We come with childlike trust,
and we say, pity my simplicity. Pity my simplicity. Suffer me to come to thee. But now observe Hezekiah. He
knows how to pray to his God and Savior. Now therefore, O Lord our God,
save us from his hand. He's direct, he tells the Lord
what's on his heart, what he needs. Save us from his hand
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art
the Lord, even thou only. Save us from the hand of Sennacherib. Save us from the hand of Sennacherib
and the world will know that you are God. So unlikely was
it that this little city, Jerusalem, would be able to withstand the
mighty forces of the Assyrian army, that it would literally
take a miracle, a miracle, if this city was to be standing
after Sennacherib's army arrived. But do you see what Hezekiah
has said here? Note this well. The salvation
of Jerusalem. Let's put it another way. The
salvation of God's people is proof to the world of God's power. Now think about that. The world
wants to see a sign, right? The world wants to see a sign.
There are churches designed for that. They get their audience,
they get their attendance by claiming signs and wonders. They
want proof, they want evidence of God's existence. They say,
just show me one thing and I will believe. That's what they say.
Well, I'll show you one thing. You lot. There's the one thing,
the church. The establishment, the maintenance,
the existence, the deliverance, the salvation of the church is
the evidence, the sign that this world has that there is a God. Listen to the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Matthew 12, 39. An evil and adulterous generation. I wonder what age he was speaking
about. An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. And there shall no sign be given
it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. No sign, but the sign of the
prophet Jonas. Now what sign was that? I bet
you're all thinking here this morning, ah, that the Lord Jesus
Christ rose after three days in the same way as Jonah came
out of the whale's belly. after three days. Well, I don't
think that was what the Lord was meaning at all. I think what
the Lord was meaning there was this, there would not be a sign
given of conviction, but of condemnation. And the sign is this, that when
Jonah came out of the whale's belly, and he went in to the
city of Nineveh and preached to that city, the city was saved. Now that was a city full of Gentiles. The Jews must have balked at
that because they knew that in all the Old Testament you could
count in the fingers of one hand the number of Gentiles that were
saved. And there were very, very few.
But here was a whole city, a whole city delivered. Thousands, tens
of thousands. of people delivered by God through
the preaching of one man. The Jews must have hated that,
but what is the Lord saying to them? You adulterous generation,
I'll show you the sign. The sign is the sign of the prophet
Jonas. What was that? That the Gentiles
were saved. That's the sign. that the Gentiles
were saved. And that's what the Lord is doing
still. He is saving his people. He is
saving Gentiles like you and like me. This is the sign. It's
the fact that the church is saved, that there are saved sinners
in this world, and that they are persevering saints. Now friends, hear me on this.
Hezekiah asked God for salvation. He said, save us from Sennacherib's
hand. The Lord has given us this testimony
in Scripture for a good reason. In fact, if you read in 2 Kings
chapter 18 and 19 and then go over to Isaiah chapter 36 and
37, you'll discover that verbatim, pretty much, these chapters are
repeated. Why is the Holy Spirit giving
us the exact same story, not once, but twice? Why did the
Lord Jesus Christ say, verily, verily? Because he liked repeating
himself. No. It was so that you would
listen. If he says, this is important,
this is important, it's because it's important. And if scripture
ever repeats itself, if scripture says it once, that's enough.
If scripture says it twice, you better listen. And the Holy Spirit has given
us this twice. Save us from Sennacherib's hand. Here's the lesson. Needy sinners,
like Sennacherib, may ask the Lord for salvation. Do you hear
me? Do you hear me? Needy sinners can ask the Lord
for salvation. Do you need to be saved? Do you need to be saved from
judgment? Do you need to be saved from Satan? Do you need to be
saved from your sin? Do you need to be saved from
hell? God says you do. I say you do. What do you say? What do you say? Well, here is
your warrant. Here is your example. If Hezekiah
sought deliverance, why can't you? Let me show you the ground
that God has given for to save his people. We read the verse
earlier, 2 Kings 19.34. It's the one across the page
from the passage that we read. The Lord says this, I will defend
this city. to save it for mine own sake
and for my servant David's sake. Now that sounds like a statement
about Jerusalem, granted. It sounds like a statement about
David's promises, granted. But it's much more than that.
Much more than that. It is about that, but it's more
than that. True, God would honour his promise to David. But there
is a spiritual dimension in this, an eternal dimension to these
words that make us look at the promises and apply them to our
own time and to our own souls. These are the covenant promises
of Christ. These are the covenant promises
of faithful and true. And they're relevant to all ages
because Christ is faithful and true in all ages. And he's relevant
for you and he's relevant for me today. I will defend this
city to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's
sake. This city is not just Jerusalem,
but it is the new Jerusalem. and the New Jerusalem is the
church. So the Lord Jesus Christ is saying,
I will defend my church. I will defend this city to save
it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. This is
the body of sinners who come to the city gate, who come to
the gate, which is Christ, who come to the church where Christ
is preached. and they seek admittance into
the church through that gate. Christ the gate, the door by
which we enter into Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, the holy city,
the city of peace. And it is in the church that
we have that city of peace manifested. John 6, 37 says, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. and him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. You come to Christ and he will
not cast you out. The Lord says, I will defend
this city. And the Lord Jesus Christ makes
himself thereby the defense of the city. He makes Himself the
defence of the Church and He has faced every foe on our behalf. He has defeated every enemy.
He has secured against all danger. He is faithful and true to His
promises. And for the sake of love to His
people and for His own glory, He is our Deliverer. And there's something else which
is beautiful here. The Lord Jesus Christ is sometimes called after
David in scripture because he is David's greater son. 2 Samuel, I'm sorry, chapter seven,
verse 12, we read, and when thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt
sleep with thy fathers, David, I will set up thy seed after
thee, the son of David, which shall proceed out of thy bowels
by natural generation, and I will establish his kingdom. That's
messianic. That's a messianic promise. That's
speaking about the coming Messiah. It was a promise made to David
about David's greater son. Our precious Savior is he whom
God spoke to David about. the seed whose kingdom would
be established forever. A number of the hymns in our
hymn books are written by a man called James Montgomery. He is
a poet and a hymn writer. He was born in the same town
as I was born on the same day that I was born. Not the same
year. He wrote this. Hail to the Lord's anointed,
great David's greater son. Hail in the time appointed, his
reign on earth begun. He comes to break oppression,
to set the captive free, to take away transgression and rule in
equity. He comes in succor speedy to
those who suffer wrong, to help the poor and needy and bid the
weak be strong, to give them songs for sighing. Their darkness
turned to light, whose souls, condemned and dying, were precious
in his sight. This is great David's greater
son, our Saviour. And the Savior, of course, was
in Hezekiah's line. So you see, for David's sake,
for the sake of God's promises to David, for the sake of the
elect of God, for the sake of sinners whose souls would yet
be redeemed by the seat who would come, for the cleansing, for
the restoring, for the adorning of his church, the bride of Christ,
for the very sake of Christ himself, God must defend Jerusalem. Sennacherib didn't know what
he was dealing with. He had no idea what he was dealing
with. He thought he would destroy Jerusalem.
If he had done that, he would have destroyed the church. He
would have destroyed Christ. He would have destroyed the coming
of Christ and the whole plan of salvation. He didn't stand
a chance. The faithful and true must be
faithful and true to his promises. And he preserves them still.
The blood-bought people whom he has saved. that he has brought
to repentance and bestowed with faith. These are the New Jerusalem,
the city of God. And so God declares of them and
he declares of us, I will defend this city for mine own sake and
for Christ's sake. He who is faithful and true cannot
deny himself or forgo his promises. What a blessing it is to be secure
in the city of God, to be in the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here indeed is a city of refuge
for needy sinners. Why tarry ye without while the
gate is open wide? Let us pray. Merciful Saviour, how needy we
are helpless as Hezekiah, frail and foolish as the children who
roamed Jerusalem's streets. Yet how blessed to have discovered
that God Almighty, our Lord Jesus Christ, watches over us, provides
all we require, and is our great salvation. Grant us grace to
come to thee, faith to spread our needs before thee, and wisdom
to find thee always to be faithful and true. Amen.