I appreciate this. We've had four
different readings of God's Word today. I read a chapter this
morning, Wayne read, Bill read, and now I'm reading again. That's
so vital to our services. Instead of us taking such opportunity
to speak, we let God speak to us. And that's good. We're going to read chapter 37.
We looked this morning at chapter 36. And this man, this king,
Shinasherib of Assyria, had sent Reb Shaka against the city of
Jerusalem, against Hezekiah citizens to overthrow him. Tried to talk
him into surrendering. Here's the prayer we're going
to look at this afternoon in the 37th chapter. Isaiah writes
this prayer of Hezekiah against the king of Assyria. I want to
read it. It's rather long, but I want
us to take time this morning to read it. Verses 1 and we'll
finish down through verse 38. So let's take the time to read
this. And it came to pass, Isaiah 37,
verse 1. When King Hezekiah heard it,
he heard what Reb Shecha had said. His three servants came
with their clothes rent, crying and wringing their hands. He
covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the
Lord. And he sent Eliakim, who was
over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of
the priests, covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet, the
son of Amos. And they said unto him, Thus
saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and
of blasphemy. For the children are come to
the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the
Lord thy God will hear the words of Reb Shecha, whom the king
of Assyria, his master, hath sent to reproach the living God,
and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard.
Wherefore, lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said
unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith
the Lord, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith
the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I
will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return
to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his
own land. So Rav Shecha returned and found
the king of Assyria warring against Lebanon. For they had heard that
he was departed from Lachish. And he heard say concerning Tarhucca
king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee.
And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not
thy God, in whom thou Trustest, deceive thee, saying Jerusalem
shall not be given unto the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold,
thou hast heard what the king of Assyria hath done to all lands
by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered? Have
the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed,
as Gozan, and Haran, Rephah, and the children of Eden, which
were in Tileser, who is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad,
the king of the cities of Seraphaim, Hena, and Ida? And Hezekiah received
the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah
went up into the house of the Lord and spread the letter before
the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed unto the
Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, Thou that dwelleth
between the cherubim, Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of
all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline Thine ear, O Lord, and
hear. Open Thine eyes, O Lord, and
see, and hear all the words of Shemeshareb which he hath sent
to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of
Assyria have laid waste all the nations in their countries, and
have cast their gods into the fire, for they are no gods, but
the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have
destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God,
save us from His hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that Thou art the Lord, even Thou only. Then Isaiah the
son of Amos said unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib
king of Assyria, this is the word which the Lord hath spoken
concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of
Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee, Whom hast thou reproached
and blasphemed? And against whom hast thou exalted
thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high, even against the
Holy One of Israel? By thy servants hast thou reproached
the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I
come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon,
and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the chorespare
trees thereof, and I will enter into the heights of his border
and the forest of his karma. I have digged and drunk water
with the sole of my feet, have I dried up all the rivers of
the besieged places. Hast thou not heard long ago
how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have farmed it?
Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldst be to lay
waste defense cities and to ruin Therefore thy habitation were
of small power. They were dismayed and confounded.
They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb,
as the grass on the hilltops, and as corn blasted before it
be grown up. But I know thy bold, and thy
going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. Because
thy rage against me, and thy turmoil is coming to mine ears,
Therefore will I put a hook in thy nose, and a bridle in thy
lips, and I will turn thee back by the way which thou comest.
And this shall be a sign unto thee. Ye shall eat this year
such as groweth of itself, and the second year that which springeth
of the same. In the third year sow ye, and
reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. And the
remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take
root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem
shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount
Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts, shall do this. Therefore
thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall
not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come
before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way
he came, by the same he shall return, and shall not come into
this city, saith the For I will defend this city to save it for
my own name's sake and for my servant David's sake. Then the
angel of the Lord went forth and smote the camp of the Assyrians,
a hundred and fourscore and five thousand, a hundred and eighty-five
thousand. And when the rest of them awoke
in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Shennasherab,
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 Naroch his god, that Adrammelech and
Sherezer his son smote him with a sword, and they escaped into
the land of Armenia. And Eshadon his son reigned in
his stead." The beginning of our chapter,
we're told that Hezekiah's men came to him and they were so
troubled. Bless their hearts, I would have
been troubled too. I would have been troubled. If
I loved my own self, and every man loves his own body, if I
loved my family and the city, I'd have been troubled. They
rent their clothes and they came crying and weeping to Hezekiah. He sends to Isaiah, and Isaiah
sends the word back in verse 6 and verse 7, and he says, Be
not afraid of his words. And he says, I will send a blast
upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and he shall return from Jerusalem. He is not going to cast an arrow
in this place. He is not going to raise an embankment
against it. He is not going to come against
this city. And we're made to ask the question,
I think, because we're talking about prayer this afternoon.
Why would Isaac, why would Hezekiah even pray? If this prophet has
already sent word to him and said he's going to depart from
you, this is the word of the Lord, then why even pray? That's
a good question, isn't it? We've been asked that question
so many times in the light of God's eternal purpose. The Bible says in Ephesians 3.11
that God has an eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus
the Lord. What's God doing today? What's
He doing at this present hour? Well, He has a purpose, doesn't
He? And the Bible says He's working all things after the counsel
of His own will. He's working. He's a working
God. He's a God who has purpose things,
and He's bringing those things to pass. Well, some men will
hear that and they'll say, well, what's the use to pray? Why pray
then? Well, we could have asked that
question here, couldn't we? Ezekiel, why even pray? Isaiah
doesn't give the word that He's going to depart. Well, first
of all, when we think of prayer, Why do we pray? Well, we pray
for this reason. God commands it. Doesn't He command it? And whether
we understand all the ins and outs of praying, whether we understand
everything that we do or abstain from doing, we do all things
first and foremost because God commands it. He commands it. Firm but prayer of a righteous
man availeth much." Prayer does prevail. It avails much. Therefore, the Lord Himself tells
us that men should always pray and not to faint. And one of
the most important aspects of prayer is this, seeking the Lord's
will. Seeking God's will. If you knew
His will, would you pray? Well, of course you would. If
we ask anything according to His will, we know that He hears
us. If I knew what God had purposed
for this afternoon, you know what I would do. I would go home
and pray. God, would You be pleased to
do this? One of the reasons this man went
and prayed was because he knew God's will. Isaiah told him. And therefore he goes and pours
his heart out to God to bring it to pass. What if God didn't have a will?
Wouldn't that be awful? What if He didn't have a purpose?
How would we pray? How could we pray? I don't know
God's will. Let's seek it. That's what prayer
is, isn't it? If we know His will, then we
ask according to His will. If we don't know His will, prayer
is the perfect place to seek it. And it's never contrary to
His Word. He reveals His will in His Word. You and I don't always pray because
we know God's will, but we do pray seeking His will. Father,
if it be Your will, Let this cut fast from me. We have that
spirit and that attitude, don't we? And you know what prayer
is? Prayer, the prayer of faith.
Somebody said the prayer of faith is knowing that God's going to
answer you and give you what you ask. But you know, that's
not always the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith is knowing
this. If it's God's will, He's able to do it. Abraham was strong
in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what
God had promised, he was able to perform. And he said to have
a strong faith, because he's able. He's able. Is he going
to do it? I don't know. If it's his will,
he will. And he's able. He's able. Hezekiah knew the will of God,
and that's why he prayed. That's all I can say. He knew
the will of God and he prayed. And you knowing the will of God
doesn't forbid you praying. You knowing that God has a purpose,
an eternal purpose, doesn't forbid you praying. It encourages us
to pray. I'd hate to think Him not having
a will and a purpose. Notice how this affected the
way this man prayed. Can you imagine him going to
the Lord Like he was when he first heard this news. He rent his clothes. He said,
my soul, this is a day of trouble. Everything's out of control.
What are we going to do? And he sends the message to Isaiah. What are we going to do? We're
in trouble here. Can you seek the Lord on our behalf? And Isaiah
sent the message back and said, Here's the Lord's will. He's
going to depart from you. And it changed everything. It just changed the way he prayed.
He got dressed. He calmed himself down. He went
in and took the letter and laid it before the Lord and reverently
And with a calm heart, as if he was on vacation, he sought
the Lord. It changed everything, didn't
it? You know I don't think it's ever
God's will for us to come into His presence as if we think everything
is out of control. You know I think that's sort
of irreverent, don't you? When we come in and we're so
upset and we're so torn up and emotional that not only are we
at the end of our road, but we approach God as if He's at the
end of His road. We can do nothing about the situation,
but we approach Him to think He can't either. I don't think
that's reverent prayer, do you? You know, He rebuked Moses and
Joshua for praying like this. They were at the Red Sea. And
Moses saw the sea in front of him with the waves and Pharaoh's
army coming from behind him. And the people began to cry out
and they were so fearful and despairing. And Moses' heart
got that way. Moses was crying out in his heart.
You can almost hear him. Oh God, what's going to happen
now? What are we going to do now? Everything's out of control.
We're history. And you know what the Lord said
to him. Why are you crying unto me? What's wrong with crying unto
the Lord? All of us cry unto the Lord.
Not despairingly. Not as though everything's out
of His control. And Joshua sent a few men up
to Ai. Achan had sinned. And he said,
you few fellows go up to Ai and you take it. It's just a small
town. Well, they went up there and got whipped. And they came
back down and said, they whipped us, Joshua. They whipped us.
They killed some of us. And boy, Joshua fell on his face.
Fell on his face and began to cry to God. And you know what
the Lord told him? Get up off of your face. That
may sound harsh. But why did he do that? He was
despairing before the Lord. Everything is out of your control
too. You think that honors the sovereign God of heaven. I think the Lord spoke to Isaiah
and said, you be sure and tell Hezekiah that I've decided this
matter. This fellow is not going to shoot
an arrow in you. He's not coming into this city.
He's not going to set a bank against you. I've delivered this
city from him. And He told him that on purpose. That he may
calm himself and come into his presence in a reverent way. Approaching the eternal and the
living God. And notice here in verse 15 how
He prays. Before he asks anything, he first
addresses God in the most appropriate and reverent way. Here in verse
16, and brothers and sisters, I cannot stress this enough. I cannot stress enough how important
it is when you and I approach unto God to pray unto Him that
we address Him appropriately. Before we make any requests,
acknowledge who He is. You see these prayers like this
by the apostles and these prophets. And every time you see them pray
like this, they get an answer to their prayers. It seems like
the Lord says, I'm pleased with your prayers. I long to hear
you pray like this. You tell me who I am. You remind
me of what I am. That may not be correct theology
to talk this way, but he loves to hear it. God who has the worship of angels
that can speak in that heavenly tongue, I am certain he doesn't
get as much glory from them as he does poor sinners upon this
earth who addresses him in the way this great man addressed
him here. And just look at it. Just look
at it. When he prays, he means something. Pray with the Spirit and pray
with the understanding. When these great prophets approached
unto the Lord and they addressed Him in certain ways and by certain
terms, they knew why they were addressing Him that way. When
David said, You are my shepherd, O Shepherd of Israel, He knew
why he was calling him the shepherd. David was a shepherd himself,
and he knew what that meant to be a shepherd. How the Lord had
obligated Himself to the sheep to protect them, to feed them,
and leave them beside still water. So what does He do? Oh, my shepherd. Sometimes He addressed him as
the rock. He often addressed him as the
rock. And why did he do that? Well, David knew something about
sinking, didn't he? He said, I sink in deep mirth
wherein there is no standing. So he knew something about the
value of a rock. So he addressed the Lord as my
rock. When my heart is overwhelmed
within me, lead me to that rock that is higher than I. He's brought
me up out of this horrible pit in Mariclay and set my feet upon
a rock. That's why He addressed the Lord
as His rock. And here Hezekiah, he comes and
he begins this prayer. And oh, how he begins it here
in verse 16. Every word has meaning to it.
How does he begin? Oh, Lord. Oh, shit. You reckon He knew
what that word meant? What Lord entails? You know what
that word means? The Eternal One. The Eternal One. The Self-Sufficient
One. Oh, and here Hezekiah was. He
was in trouble. His enemies had surrounded Him. And what does He do? He goes
to another realm. He lifts Himself out of His present
trouble and His present trials. And He goes up to this realm
of God, the eternal Lord, from everlasting to everlasting. He is God. And it has a tendency,
when you address Him as this way, to take your mind off of
your temporal problems. What does my temporal trouble
have to do with it when I'm addressing the eternal God? Oh, that in
itself sometimes can solve our problems, can't it? Sometimes
we get shut up in our mind and we start thinking about the problems
we have, and the more we try to fix them, the worse they become.
Well, let's sometimes stop trying to fix them. Let's go into His
presence, as this man did, and address Him as He addressed Him.
Oh, eternal God! Boy, what a refuge! That in itself
is a refuge. The eternal God is your refuge. And underneath are His everlasting
arms of love and strength and grace. and mercy. Sometimes one of our children
will come up to us and we'll have made this statement that
God is everlasting, from everlasting to everlasting. And they can't
grasp hold of it. They'll come up and they'll say,
Dad or Mom or Poppy, where did God come from? And how do we
explain the eternal being of God? We cannot, can we? He's
not like us. He's eternally different than
we are. And brothers and sisters, when
we approach Him to Him, this is one of the things that we
acknowledge. He's eternally different than
we are. We're born in a few days. We
inhabit one location at one time between the eternities. But God
is not that way. He's not like us at all. We're
temporal. But the Bible says, He inhabiteth
eternity. He lives in eternity. That's
His house. That's where He dwells. And, oh, you just begin to think
about that and you almost lose the sight of your troubles just
by addressing Him. The Eternal God. And He's the
Eternal Father. And He's the Eternal Son. And
He's the eternal Holy Spirit, the triune God in the Trinity
of His sacred Person is eternal. He's eternal. What a God we have. And the Bible says here He calls
Him Lord because He's self-existent. He doesn't need anything. He
doesn't need anybody. He doesn't save us because He
needs us. Isn't it wonderful that He loves
us? He doesn't need us, but He wants
us. And His purpose is not to spend eternity without us. He's
going to take us up to His house. Did He do that because He was
lonely? No. He needed nothing. That's the wonder of it. He didn't
need us, but He wanted us. And He's going to spend eternity
letting us worship Him, the self-existent God. Oh, you and I have so many needs.
We're needy, needy people. But our Lord has no needs. He's
the Lord. And He addresses Him this way,
not only, O Lord, but Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts. What a comfort this was to this
man. The Lord of Hosts. You know He's
everybody's Lord. He's the Lord of Hosts. Your Jerusalem was surrounded
with these hosts of soldiers. And they had a king. Shemeshareb
was their king. They owned him as their king.
And he said, these are my hosts. But really, whose hosts were
they? They were the Lord of Hosts.
He's the Lord of all hosts. That heavenly host that appeared
on the hills of Judea said, this day is born to you a Savior. Who was their Lord? He's the
Lord of hosts. You look at the starry heavens
and the planets and the moon and the sun. That's the heavenly
host. He created the host of heaven.
He commands them. He is their Lord. And they obey
Him. The sun comes up at His command. The rain comes down from heaven
because He commands it. He brings the snow out of His
treasure. He is the Lord of hosts. He is
the Lord of you. All His saints. What a host! Sometime read, when you get leisure
time to read it, Psalms chapter 24. And most of the Puritans
in the commentaries say this is when the Lord raised from
the dead. And the Bible tells us that a
host, a many, raised from the dead after His resurrection.
Their bodies raised. And He took them back to heaven
with Him. And they say, Psalms 24 gives us the account of that. When the Lord Jesus went back
up to heaven, He tucked this host with Him. And you have it
depicted there that He's standing just outside of the gate of heaven,
and He's knocking on the doors, and He says, Be ye lifted up,
ye doors, be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the Lord
of glory shall come in. Who is this Lord of glory, they
answer Him, that we should open to Him? Oh, the Lord of Hosts. That is His name. That's the
Lord of Glory. He's the Lord of His Church,
isn't He? The Lord of Hosts. Oh, what it meant then. Just
to address Him this way. Oh, Lord of Hosts. Lord of Hosts. But He doesn't
stop there, does He? He goes on. He addresses him
as another way there in verse 16, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel. God of Israel. You remember when
we first found this man, the man whose name was Jacob. Remember
that in the book of Genesis? He was so fearful. He was fearful
too. Remember that? He thought he saw his brother
was going to kill him. He divides his flocks up and
his wives and his little children. And he's left alone. He sends
them over the brook, Jabok, and he's left alone. And there wrestles
with him a man. And Jacob knew who he was. He didn't know his name, but
he knew this is no mere man. And it began to come daylight.
And he tells Jacob, let me go. It's coming daylight. And Jacob
said, I won't let you go except you bless me. And he said, what's
your name? And he said, my name is Jacob.
He said, your name won't be called Jacob anymore. But Israel. That's the first time we found
it. Israel. And he blessed him there. And Jacob named that place Peniel. Why did he name it that? Well,
he tells us the interpretation of that, doesn't he? I have seen
God face to face. Oh, what a blessing. What a blessing. Haven't you seen Him? You and
I have not seen Him physically. None of us have. We will someday. But haven't we saw the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Haven't we saw the redeeming
glory of God in His dear Son? We saw it by the eye of our understanding. We saw Him through the Word.
He's made Himself real to us. We saw God's redeeming face. We're blessed. And what did Jacob
say it meant to see His face? My life is preserved. And here was this man, this great
king, hundreds and hundreds of years later. And he said, I'm
a child of Israel. God is my God. He's a covenant
God. He's the God of Israel. My Father. And so he addresses him. What
does he want? He wants the same thing Jacob
wanted. I want to see your face. I want my life to be preserved,
O God of Jacob, the life giver and the life preserver, God of
Israel. And I love this next way that
he addresses it. This is the most precious thing probably
of all as far as it's touching to our hearts. Thou that dwelleth
between the cherubim. Now what does that mean? Why
would it be so comforting to this great king to address God
as the one who dwells between the cherubims? You remember Exodus
chapter 25? You've read that? He tells us
about these cherubims. The Lord had told Moses to make
him a box. He made it so long, so many cubits
long and so many cubits high. He overlaid it with gold, pure
gold. And in that box, he put the Ten
Commandments, the two plates of the Ten Commandments. And
then on top of that box, he put a pure seat of mercy. He called it the mercy seat.
And then out of pure gold, one of those talented men beat out
these angelic forms. They called them cherubim. out
of gold and they stood over that mercy seat and their wings touched
and they looked down at that mercy seat. And once a year,
the high priest went in and he sprinkled blood upon that mercy
seat. And the first time this is mentioned
is in Exodus chapter 25 and verse 22. And listen to what the Lord
says. And here's the meaning. Here's
why this great man address the Lord as he who dwelleth between
the cherubim. And listen to what the Lord says.
There will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee
from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim. It was a place where God communed
with His people. But here's the wonder of it.
It's called a mercy seat. He communes with us, but how
does He do it? He does it in mercy. He condescends
and comes down to us and humbles Himself in mercy to show us mercy. It's a mercy seat. We still have
it today, don't we? Thank God we still have it today.
Come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy."
Obtain mercy? Isn't that what we want? Do you want justice? Disjustice? Do you want God to give you what
you deserve? What you earned? Doesn't your
heart crave for mercy? Well, here's something to encourage
your poor soul in. He communes with us on this mercy
seat. And He can have mercy upon the
vilest, upon the most unworthy, because this is sovereign mercy.
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. If God says I'm not
going to have mercy upon anybody with all this fire, but when
He says I can have mercy upon whom I please, Then we can all go. Why not me? And I'll go sue for mercy. I'll
seek it for myself because God is merciful. And would He withhold
mercy from anybody who sought it since it's sprinkled with
the blood of His own dear Son? Oh, it comes to us free, doesn't
it? You can't earn mercy. You don't deserve mercy. It comes
to us free. But it was a great cost to the
Son of God. He sprinkled it with His heart's
blood. Mercy. I obtained mercy. Isn't that your testimony? I
obtained mercy. What did you do? I did nothing
but sin and sin. I lived in shame. But I obtained
mercy. Oh, how wonderful. What a wonderful
thought this is. Here He was surrounded by His
hateful enemies, seeking His destruction. What did He need?
He needed something He didn't deserve. Well, here was a God
upon the mercy seat. Go to Him. Go to Him. Let the wicked forsake His way. The unrighteous man is thought,
and let him return unto the Lord. And He'll have mercy upon Him
and to our God, for He will abundantly. And all the ground around this
place is level. You don't bring anything with
you but your misery. And you bring your misery and
it draws out mercy. Mercy. The mercy seat. I love this old song. I've got
it marked. We sang it a lot, but listen to it. From every
stormy wind that blows, from every swelling tide of woe. There is a calm, a sure retreat,
disfound beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads, a place of all besides
most sweet. It is the blood-bought mercy
seat. There is a scene where spirits
blend, where friend holds fellowship with friend. though surrounded
far by faith we meet around one common mercy seat. Oh, whether
could we flee parade when tempted, desolate, and dismayed, or how
the host of hell-defeat had suffering saints no mercy seat? Oh, there on eagles' wings we
soar, and sin and sense no less no more. And heaven comes down
our souls to greet while glory crowns the mercy seat. Oh, how
encouraging in the time of our trouble when we recognize what
awful fallen sinners and weaklings we are, we have a mercy seat. And lastly, he addresses him
like this. Look at it in verse 16 again. Thou art the God, even Thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth." Of all the kingdoms of the earth.
All the kingdoms. This kingdom that is surrounding
us and threatening us, is He God of that kingdom? He is, isn't
He? Listen to how Jehoshaphat said
it in 2 Chronicles 25. Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation
of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the
new court, and he said this, O Lord God of our fathers, art
not thou God in heaven? Of course he is. And listen to
this. Rulest thou not over all the
kingdoms of the heathen? He does? Yes. Luther was so threatened in the
1500's by Israel. We think they threaten us today. He was threatened by them then.
He called them Turks, didn't he? The Turks. And he said, what
can we do? What's our defense against them?
We can't take up swords like they do and cut their heads off
like they do with us. What's our defense? This was
his defense. He said, God is their God. He rules over these kingdoms. They are His. He controls them. He commands them. How confident
that is. In thy hand is there not power
and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art thou not
our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land,
and gave it to thy people, Israel, Abraham thy friend forever? And here was this proud heathen
king. That says, look at the nations
I've destroyed. Look what I've done. And nobody
was able to resist me. And the Lord said, you did it
because I let you. I weakened on myself. They're
mine, and I give them into your hands. And you're mine, and I'm
going to take you down. Oh, He's the Lord, isn't He?
Is everything in His control, brothers and sisters? Is there
anything out of His control? Is a grain of sand flying through
the air out of His control? I shiver to think that it would
be. No, He is the Lord of all the
kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness. He is God over it. And they do
nothing without His permission. And someday He will judge them
all and put them under His feet and cast them into darkness forever. He is their God. And the last one is this, and
I think this is so important. It's sort of controversial in
our day, but not with you and me. And look how he sums it up. He addresses it this way. Thou
hast made heaven and earth. You see him addressing God as
creator in you. That was a source of great strength
to the church in the Old Testament and the New Testament. When the
church in chapter 4 of Acts got into trouble, and the authorities
said, don't you let us hear you preach in the name of Jesus again.
If we hear you, it's going to be war to you. We're going to
shut you down. You've preached up until now,
but your preaching is finished. Don't mention His name again.
They went back to their company, back to the church. And they
said, here's their threatening. Here's what they told us not
to do. Not to be out here preaching in His name anymore. What are
we going to do? And they said, let's pray. And
here's the way they begin their prayer. Oh, Lord, the Creator
of heaven and earth. That's why Satan is trying to
deceive our children and take this wonderful truth that God
has created all things by the word of His mouth and the power
of His hand. Because there's comfort in this.
There's but one Creator. And everything and everybody
else is mere creatures. Who is Shemeshareb with his mighty
army? Mere creatures. Who is God? He's the everlasting Creator
of all things. That settles it, doesn't it?
That takes the fear of our hearts away. We're nothing. And less than nothing, He tells
us. Well, let's finish this like
this. Notice his motives. This is so important. Notice
his motives. He prays for himself in verse
17 in the city. But notice how he does it. Notice
his motives behind it. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and
hear. Open thine eyes, O Lord, and
see, and hear all the words of Shemazureb which he hath sent
to reproach. Who? Look how He's speaking so awful
to us. No, it wasn't about them, was
it? It really wasn't about them. Not first and foremost. He said
He's reproaching you. He's blaspheming you. It's about Him, isn't it? There's
something more important than you and I, brothers and sisters.
And this world is not against us. I don't mean to bust your
bubble. But you're not all that important
to this world. It's not you they're against. Peter said they've not
risen against us. They're not against the church.
But they're against you. It's you they hate. It's you
they despise. It's your truth they're testing
under their feet. It's all about Him. It's not
about us. And when we go to Him in prayer, we don't know what
His will is. Lord, is it Your will to do this
for us or that for us? But don't do it unless it's for
Your glory. Read on. Look in verse 18. Of
a truth the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations
of their countries, have cast out their gods into the fire,
for they were no gods but the works of men's hands. The stone,
therefore, they have destroyed them. Now, therefore, O Lord
our God, Save us from His hand, that all the kingdoms of the
earth may know that Thou art the Lord, even Thou only. See the motives? It's important
that I be saved. It's important that you be saved.
And you feel it, don't you? But there's something more important
than that. Being saved for His glory. That's it. I want to close by reading a
couple of scriptures to you. Look over in Ephesians. Look
in Ephesians chapter 1. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. Oh, these men, these prophets
and these apostles got a hold of this, that everything was
for God's glory in His Son, Jesus Christ. Peter says He's called
us out of darkness. Why? That we should show forth
His praises. His praises. And look how the
Apostle Paul says it here, and he just keeps repeating this. Look in Ephesians chapter 1,
and look in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will." He was just pleased to do it.
Look in verse 6. of the glory of His grace. That's why He did it. That's
why He does everything with us, isn't it? To the praise of the
glory of His grace. Look what He says in chapter
2. Oh, Paul here started in verse 1 that says He's quickened us.
We were dead. In verse 2, He said we're in.
In time past, you walked according to the course of this world.
According to the prince of the power of the hour, the spirit
that now works in the children of disobedience, you were slaves
to Satan. We all had our conversation in
time past. All of us were his slaves, fulfilling
the lust of the flesh, of the mind. We're by nature children
of wrath, even as others. And look at this, but God. Brother
Baker's got a wonderful message by Martin Lloyd-Jones he'll print
out for you if you want it, about God. But God intervened, didn't
He? Who is rich in mercy for His
great love, for with He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you
saved, and raised us up together, and made us set together in heavenly
places in Christ, that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. Why has He done this? He wants
to show off. He's just showing off. That's
all He's doing. He's showing off. We have no
right to do that. It's called pride when we do
it. But it's called glory when He does it. He shows off. He shows us His grace and His
mercy and His love and His kindness. And we praise Him for it, don't
we? We praise Him for it. Let us pray.