Lord Jesus Christ told Ananias
at the time of Saul's conversion, I will show him how great things
he must suffer for my name's sake. I will show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake. Christian life is
never going to be an easy life. There will be troubles. Here
was a man who had himself been the source of much trouble that
had afflicted the early church. And Ananias was himself anxious
about what it might be to encounter this man Saul of Tarsus. But the Lord said, he is a vessel
in my hand, and he will be put to work for me. You know, we
ought to take stock of that. The evidence in Scripture is
given to us that even those who are the most aggressive the most
opposed, the least likely people ever to give us peace in this
world might just be like a sawl of tarses turned by the Lord,
surprised by grace and brought into that new way of life. And then all the trouble that
they've caused the church will be forgotten and they themselves
will discover what great things they must suffer for the work
of Christ. No one is beyond our Saviour's
reach. And we might get concerned about
people in power or people at work or challenges we face in
our relationships or troubles that we have at home. The Lord
is able to take and to use anyone and everyone according to his
will. If they are set up to be our
troublers, it is so that the Lord might be glorified in the
midst of that situation. Later, Paul would testify of
being in his journeyings, his various missionary activities. He would testify of being in
perils in waters. That means he had trouble when
he was traveling at sea. He was in perils in waters. He was in perils of robbers. in perils by mine own countrymen. When he travelled along the roads
there were people seeking opportunity to rob him of the little that
he had. to do him physical damage. When he got to the towns that
he was going to, he discovered that the Jews that were there
had already heard how bad a man this man, Paul, was. And they rose up against him
almost every time he went into a new region, a new town, a new
city, and caused him as much trouble as they could. He was
in perils of his own countrymen. In perils by the heathen. They
heard him preaching about God and they thought to themselves,
we don't want this man preaching his false doctrine in perils
in the city, says Paul, in perils in the wilderness, in perils
in the sea. And I think perhaps the most
poignant statement of all, in perils amongst false brethren. The Lord would show him how great
things he must suffer for his name's sake. The Apostle Paul
is an example to us. He says in 2 Corinthians 1 and
verse 9, of himself and of his friends, he said, we had the
sentence of death in us. Being constantly in peril, Paul
described himself and his fellow evangelists as being pressed
out of measure. He said, we were so stretched,
we were so weighed upon that I can't even explain to you,
I can't even describe to you some form of measuring the anxieties
that we felt, the fear that we felt, the constant pressure that
there was upon us. We were pressed out of measure. There was no standard by which
we could measure the pressure that was upon us in the midst
of our troubles. It was beyond their strength
to cope to the point where they despaired of their lives. They
had a journey to make and it was stormy at sea. They had a
journey to make and there were robbers on the road. They had
a journey to make and they knew perfectly well that the Jews
in the city up there were already scheming as to how they would
hurt them when they arrived. And they didn't even know but
that the people that they were with might be plotting with them
to do them harm, pressed out of measure. We had the sentence
of death in us, by which he appears to mean that such were the dangerous
threats that were around about them that they were all the time
waiting for that fatal blow. All the time waiting to see where
it would come from and who would be behind it. They felt, to use
a more modern phrase, like dead men walking. However, in that verse that we
quoted, Paul goes on to say this about the sense of foreboding
that he had. He said we had the sentence of
death in us, but he realized that that was designed providentially
by God to teach them not to trust in their own powers. It seemed
as if every strand of their own ability to manage the situation
was plucked away so that they would have nowhere else to look,
no one else to trust. even amongst their own companions,
but the Lord himself. To teach them not to trust in
their own powers and strength, Paul says that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. We had
the sentence of death in us. that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead. It would be a lovely thing
to be in such a situation like that, where we could trust the
Lord like that. But you see what it means? It
comes at a cost. It comes at the cost of being
pressed out of measure, of being confronted with things that we
say to ourselves we can't cope. We don't know what to do anymore.
We're lost as to which road to take, which avenue, what to think,
what to say, what to do, who to turn to. And the Lord will
bring such experiences into the lives of his people in order
that he might bring them to that place where they trust no longer
in themselves but on God which raiseth the dead. Thus by faith
the Lord's people feel both vulnerable and secure. They are stretched
beyond their limits but safe in the arms of Jesus. They say with the psalmist, the
Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man
do unto me? Sometimes you encounter a quote
from a historical character or an individual that grabs your
attention, and I have one for you. This is a quote that was
made by a man whom you will have heard of from your own history,
a man called Stonewall Jackson. He was a general, a commander
in the armies of the South. in the American Civil War. He
was asked on one occasion about the calmness that he had in the
battlefield and in the face of the enemy. And this is what he
said. My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle
as in bed. God has fixed the time for my
death. I do not concern myself about
that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake
me. That is the way all men should
live, and then all would be equally brave. And that resonated with
me. He was as safe on the battlefield
as he was in his bed. because his faith in God taught
him that he had an appointed time that was going to come whatever. And he should not be concerned
about the timing, but be concerned that his heart was prepared for
it, no matter when it might be. And all men, he said, if they
understood this, would be equally brave and bold. We note when
Paul speaks about this sentence of death then, that it was designed
for a gracious purpose. Feeling it in his own soul, he
understood that it was designed by God to do him good, to teach
Paul and Timothy and Luke and their fellow travelers to trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we consider If the Lord's
people in times past designedly faced such challenges, ought
we not to expect them to, and that to the same end and purpose
that we might, through the troubles that we encounter, learn to trust
Christ more? We can see some of these examples
in the life of a man called Hezekiah. And I want you to turn in your
Bibles, please, to 2 Kings, chapter 18. 2 Kings, chapter 18. And
I'm going to read some verses. Last week we were thinking about
Hezekiah as the young king who came to the throne in Judah,
the southern kingdom, and how that he was recognised as being
one of the finest kings that Judah ever had. and that he trusted
in the Lord, so that after him was none like him among all the
kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. Here was a young
man, he came to the throne at only 25 years of age, and yet
he was distinguished as one who claimed to the Lord, who trusted
the Lord, and who sought to rid his country of idolatry, even
to the point of taking that brass serpent, which had become an
idolatrous symbol, and destroying it all those hundreds of years
after it had been used in the wilderness by Moses. We read
in 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 13, Now in the 14th year of King
Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all
the fenced cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah, king
of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria to Lashish, saying, I
have offended, return from me. That which thou puttest on me
will I bear. The king of Assyria appointed
unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30
talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the
silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the
treasuries of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut
off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from
the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave
it to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria sent Tartan
and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with
a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to
Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they
came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in
the highway of the fuller's field. And when they had called to the
king, there came out to them Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah,
which was over the household, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah,
the son of Esau, the recorder. And Rabshakeh said unto them,
Speak ye now to Hezekiah. Thus saith the great king, the
king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? Thou sayest, but they are but
vain words, I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on
whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? Now behold,
thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon
Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and
pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto
all that trust in him. But if ye say unto me, we trust
in the Lord our God, is not that he whose high places and whose
altars Hezekiah hath taken away and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem,
ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? Now therefore
I pray thee, give pledges to my Lord the King of Assyria,
and I will deliver 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 in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Am
I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy
it? The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy
it. Amen. May God bless this reading
to us. Note here, we have an example
of Hezekiah being confronted with a real and serious threat. He faced the prospect of losing
his city, Jerusalem, losing his people, losing his children,
and losing his life. Here was an army camped around
about him. Here was an army come up in order
to destroy him. What was he to do? He was just
a young man faced with almost certain prospect of death of
both himself and his nation. And we see that Hezekiah tried
to buy off Sennacherib's aggression. He gave everything he had. He
was ordered by Sennacherib to give gold and silver. And he emptied the treasuries
in order to supply Sennacherib that which he demanded. He emptied
the royal treasury. He emptied the temple treasury. He even stripped off the gold
from the doors of the temple. As if to say to Sennacherib,
there's nothing here to merit your attention. I've given you
all that I can. And we might say, was not that
a prudent thing to do? After all, all he's doing is
he's giving things away in order to save lives. Perhaps he could
gain some time. Perhaps if he bows down today
in order to save our lives, they can repent tomorrow and everything
will be well. I don't want to pass this dilemma
that Hezekiah faced too quickly, because I think it's a predicament
that many of us face in our lives day by day. Situations arise
which are not good, maybe at work, maybe in the family, maybe
in our finances, maybe troubles that we have to face. And you
have to decide what to do. How are you going to respond
to this situation? What will your reaction be? What
will you say? And it comes to your mind that
there's a right way and there's an easy way. Faced with a choice, do we act
with principle or do we do that which is practical? Do we take
a stand because we know what is right? Or are we to be like
water on a hillside that makes its way by the path of least
resistance? I wondered about trying to bring
some examples that might be suitable to such a situation. But as always, the best examples
are in scripture. The best teacher of all gave
them himself. The Lord Jesus Christ was teaching
his followers about the cost of being a disciple. Look at
Luke chapter 14 with me, please. Just turn, if you will, quickly
to Luke chapter 14. The Lord was teaching his disciples
about what it costs to be a follower of him. And here's what he says
in verse 25. Luke chapter 14 and verse 25. There went great multitudes with
him, great multitudes following after the Lord Jesus. There went
great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them,
if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and
wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. Strong words. and whosoever doth
not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to
build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it? Less happily, after
he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all
that behold it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to
build and was not able to finish. And here's the example that the
Lord quotes, I think taking it straight from the annals of Jewish
history. Or what king, going to war to
make war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth
whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against
him with 20,000? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple. The Lord Jesus Christ used this
example. I think probably it was clear
that Hezekiah was a prime instance of this from the history of the
Jews. And he was speaking, as it were,
of Hezekiah's error, Hezekiah's mistake, because to follow Christ
means giving up all for his service and for his honour. There is
nothing that we can hold out against as far as the Lord is
concerned. Hezekiah took matters into his
own hands when he should have left them with the Lord. This was God's temple. It was
God's gold. It was God's silver. It was God's
people. This is God's holy city, Jerusalem,
and God's honor that is at stake. Let God defend himself. Hezekiah
took too much on himself. The king Sennacherib came up
and said, give me your money or I will destroy you. He should
have taken it to the Lord, but instead he put his hands in his
pocket. And he gave him all that he could. He tried to buy time.
He tried to save the situation. He did that which was within
his ability to do. He took these matters and he
acted upon them according to his own wisdom. And the Lord
says, such a king cannot be my disciple. Of course, Hezekiah knew he had
made a mistake after paying the ransom that Sennacherib required
because the next thing Sennacherib did after pocketing the ransom
was to send an army against Jerusalem anyway. And you see, that's the
thing about the decisions that we make. We don't know what the
eventualities are going to be. We think we're wise in a particular
situation. and yet we don't know how things
are going to fall out. I suspect that the Lord was teaching
Hezekiah a lesson here. like Paul of old, he had to have
that sense, that foreboding of death upon him. He had to give
up all the ways that he could manage the situation. If he had
this money in the treasury, then perhaps that would safeguard
him against the eventualities that he dreaded. And while he
still had something to rely upon, The Lord would not be to him
that comfort that he ultimately would be. We could go down another
path here, which I don't want to do, but we could think what
would have happened if Sennacherib had accepted the money and turned
around and gone back to Assyria? Hezekiah would have felt justified
in what he had done. He had acted wisely. He had done
the right thing. He would take the accolades of
his people. He would be puffed up in his
own heart. But maybe there would have been
another cost. Maybe he would have had to have
accepted an annual tribute. Maybe he would have had to accepted
the gods of the Assyrians coming into Jerusalem like Ahaz his
father had. Maybe he would have had to make
a journey every year with his bags of money and bow down before
Sennacherib and pay him homage. The Lord protected him against
that, but the cost was high. Our families cannot be more important
to us than Christ. Your health cannot be more important
to you than Christ. Wealth and honour, life itself,
must all be forfeit. That's what it is to be a follower
of Christ. It's a high cost, the highest
you will ever be asked. You have to give everything.
We cannot compromise. We cannot compromise with the
kingdom of Satan. We cannot compromise with the
kingdoms of this world. The church must be strong. Individual believers must be
committed to Christ. If we think we can negotiate
with this world, like Hezekiah, the Lord will relieve us of our
negotiating power in order that we might trust him the more. When that opposition comes, as
it will, let us remember what Hezekiah forgot. We have won. who is a strong deliverer. Hezekiah didn't need to empty
the palaces of its money, for he had a strong deliverer to
whom he ought to have turned. He knew better than this. We
have a shield and a defender in whom our victory is both secure
and assured. Secured because Christ has the
victory over the greatest power of this world, death itself.
Assured because he has promised us his grace and his love and
his mercy and his blessings. Let us hold on to that. Let us
take that and let us depend upon it. Let us stand on it as the
foundation of our lives upon which we face every challenge
and task. This man that came to speak to
Hezekiah at the walls of Jerusalem was called Rabshakeh. There were
three of them. Rabshakeh was the spokesman. And he came to taunt Hezekiah. They'd already taken all his
money. It was an empty city, but what did they care? They
came to taunt Hezekiah that they were about to destroy him. Rabshakeh
says, Do you trust in Egypt, that Egypt is going to come to
help you? Flesh is like a bruised reed. Egypt is a dangerous ally to
you. Do you trust in God? But has
not Hezekiah offended God? Has not this man Hezekiah taken
down all the high places, removed all the altars? ripped up all
the groves. You think God, having had all
of these places of worship removed, is going to be good to Hezekiah? Rather, trust in my great King. Trust in Sennacherib. He will
deliver you. And then Rabshaki says something. I don't know whether you noticed
it. Right at the very end of our reading in verse 25, he said,
am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy
it? The Lord said to me, that's the
Lord Jehovah. Rabshaki's speaking. He said,
the Lord Jehovah said to me, go up against this land and destroy
it. This is a sophisticated argument. Rabshakeh was no fool. Today
we would call this black propaganda. The old Jews even speculated
that Rabshakeh might have been a renegade Jew who had defected
to Sennacherib. So subtle was his argument here. So powerful were these things
that he was bringing to the hearing of Hezekiah. He certainly knew
the Jewish language, and he also knew what buttons to press as
far as the Jewish people behind the walls were concerned. The
title, The Running Head on My Bible, says, Rabshakeh's Blasphemous
Speech. And that's right, it was blasphemous. He tried to steal the people
of God from their king, and he made God a liar. He offered short-term
peace if they would turn their back on the one who is their
defender, the one who is himself the way, the truth, and the life. Rab Shacky said, don't expect
help from men. There's no one left to come and
help you. He said, if you're looking for
divine intervention, ha, you don't deserve God's help. He
said, submit to me or I will destroy you. Let me tell you why Rabshaki
was wrong then and why his same argument is wrong now. He said,
don't expect help from men. There's none left to help you. There is a man left who will
help us. And that is the man, Christ Jesus. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, Paul
says, there is one God and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus. Paul said, we have the sentence
of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead. And God raised the dead. God raised the Lord Jesus Christ. And that man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is our help in time of need. He is the one to whom we
are to turn. He is the one when our resources
have gone, when there's nothing left for us to do, when there's
no one else to trust. He is the man that will give
us that help that we require. When we were helpless, when we're
hopeless, when we become as dead men walking, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's Son, came into this world, took our flesh, took a body like
unto our body, became a man and stood in our place. So that Rabshake
and Sennacherib have not come up against Hezekiah, they have
come up against Christ. And Christ's honour is at stake. And Christ is the one who is
receiving these blasphemous accusations and allegations and the taunts
and the threats. This is Christ's work. We are
Christ's people. This is Christ's church. Let
him defend himself. Friend, I'm here to tell you
that there is help for needy sinners, that there is one to
whom you can turn when all seems black, when all seems lost, when
every other hope in this world has been stripped away. Christ
will stand forth as the only way of salvation, the only deliverance,
and he will have the glory. He will destroy this world and
he will preserve his people. You're wrong, Rabshake. I do have someone to help me. In Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5
we read, For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I
will not fear what man shall do unto me. Rabshake said, Are
you looking for divine intervention? Well, here's an allegation that
could readily come from the worldly wise. Are you expecting God to
help you in this situation? Well, you don't deserve God's
help. Oh, and how true that is. True, Rabshakeh. You were wrong
the last time, but you're right this time. Rabshake, we don't
deserve divine intervention. We have done so much. My iniquities have separated
between me and my God. And under right, I have no hope. I am lost. But you see, Rabshake,
God's grace does not look at what I deserve. It looks at Christ's
sacrifice. It looks at the blood that was
shed. It looks at the sacrifice that
was made. And it takes away all my sin. His mercy has found a way to
satisfy justice and to save my soul. Luke says, blessed be the
Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people. Not, says Peter, with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without
blemish and without spot. Yes, this world will allege against
the church that we don't deserve divine intervention. But by his
grace, we go on bended knees, humbly acknowledging our unworthiness,
and he has promised that he will deliver his people. Submit to me, says Rabshake,
or I will destroy you. Well, we cannot submit, Rabshakeh. We cannot submit because we belong
to another. We are not our own. We have been
bought with a price. We cannot, for we follow another. The psalmist says, yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. We cannot bow to you, Sennacherib,
king of Assyria. We cannot bow to you, Satan,
prince of this world. For we love another and he loves
us. We love him because he first
loved us. So hear this, Rabshakeh, as you
rant and as you shout and as you make all your allegations
at the walls of Jerusalem, if after my skin you destroy this
body, yet in my flesh I will see God. Why? Because we follow
the God who can raise the dead. What can you do to me? World,
what can you do to me? Government, what can you do to
me? Satan, what can you do to me? Sennacherib, what can you do
to me? Rabshakeh, what can you do to
me? We love the Lord and he has promised
that he will protect his people and if he leads us through the
valley of the shadow of death, if he takes everything from us,
still we will trust him for we will see him with these eyes
in this flesh for he will raise us from the dead. We says Paul,
had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered
us from so great a death, and doth deliver in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us and cause us to value the examples of these Old Testament
saints, the troubles that they had, the mistakes that they made,
and to see that through it all, the Lord Jesus Christ vindicates
his people and his church, and he will have all the glory. Amen. Let's take our hymn books and
sing hymn number 186. 186. The church is one foundation. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ.