Very good to worship together with you this morning. If you'll turn with me again to Second Chronicles chapter 32, that will be our text for this morning's message. And I will pray and ask the Lord for help for this hour. Let's pray. Our Father. All flesh is like grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. We do not deserve the blessing of your word this morning, this eternal word set before us in our language. But we ask you this morning, dear Lord, that you would open our hearts to hear your word once more, and that it would bring courage to your people, hope, and love of this Lord. in whom is our hope, our only hope, and our trust, even in the darkest of days. Come among us and be glorified. We ask this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. I wonder if any of you here can name the seven wonders of the ancient world. I couldn't until my children memorized the song for school. And it's just stuck in all of our heads now for who knows how long. But I wonder if you can actually name those seven wonders. Well, I'm guessing you probably can only name maybe two or three of them, maybe only one of them. Now, I think this would come as a great surprise to the people who constructed those wonders, that you don't remember them. They thought that they're Their ingenuity and their glory would last forever. But we don't even remember them in this room. You probably have heard about the pyramids of Giza. Those are the only wonder that actually still stand today in their entirety. The Great Pyramid was built somewhere between 2700 and 2500 BC. It's lasted about 4,600 years. And though quite worn, you've all seen the pictures. Maybe some of you have been there. They're still remaining to this day. You probably also have heard of the Temple of Artemis, just probably because of the account in the Book of Acts of the Temple of Artemis, Temple of Diana, the same thing. The final form of this temple was constructed in the late 3rd century BC, and it lasted around 700 years, having been destroyed by the end of the 4th century AD. The Statue of Zeus was constructed in 435 BC. It lasted for nearly 800 years before its destruction in the 5th century AD. The mausoleum at Halicarnassus was constructed by Mausolus between 353 and 350 BC. The mausoleum lasted 1,800 years, the longest wonder to last. The Colossus of Rhodes, a statue of the Greek sun god Helios, was constructed in 280 BC in the city of Rhodes. It only stood for 54 years. An earthquake broke this giant statue at its knees, and it fell in the same place. And no one disturbed it for 900 years until it was carried off by Arabs in 653 AD. The Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria was the tallest structure in the world for a very long time. It was, I guess, the Burj Khalifa of its day. It's maybe the tallest building on our planet today. It lasted 1,500 years before being broken down by earthquakes. And finally, there's the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which some people believe to be maybe just a legend. We don't seem to have reliable records as to when it was built or when it was destroyed, but we know it's not in existence today. Now, these great works were undertaken to display the wisdom, power, wealth, and strength of men in subduing the earth and in appeasing their gods. These works impressed generations men for their genius and beauty yet they did not last they did not last because they were but dust of the earth built by flesh which is like the grass that perishes the debt the men who financed and constructed these great works they were feared for their power but they are dead and forgotten Those men who struck fear into the hearts of so many now lay in the same graves of the men that they terrorized. There is no difference between them now. From the vantage point of history, we can study their failed attempts at greatness, and we can realize that all great men of the world, all great men who build great things, they really have the same fate as all the rest of us. They gather They conquer, they rule, they boast, they die, they're forgotten. Yet the Lord is the same, and he continues to build his church in every age, a church which has outlasted the most powerful and ambitious empires, time after time after time. We see this principle at work in the text that's before us this morning, and I think it will come as much of an encouragement to us in these days. So if you're going to follow along with me, I'm going to begin in verse one to unpack this text that we've read this morning. After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win him for himself. The occasion of our text is the invasion of Judah by King Sennacherib of Assyria during the reign of King Hezekiah. But first, let's consider who these characters are in the story this morning. Let's first consider who is Hezekiah, king of Judah. King Hezekiah, upon ascending the throne in Judah, he mounted a dramatic religious and civil revival in Judah. Most of you probably have the events of this in your mind. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He was one of Judah's few good kings that they had in their time. He repaired the temple of the Lord. He reassembled and consecrated the priests and the Levites. He reinstituted the Passover, and he largely purged the land from idolatry, or at least public idolatry. This is what the text refers to when it speaks there in verse one of these acts of faithfulness. that had been done just prior to this invasion. We should also consider who is King Sennacherib and the Assyrians. Maybe you know something about them. King Sennacherib was the second king in succession to King Shalmaneser V. That name may sound familiar to you as well, because he was the king who besieged Samaria, or the northern kingdom of Israel, during King Hoshea's rule. He captured him, King Hoshea, and he removed the people of Israel from their land and carried them into captivity in 722 BC. Roughly two decades later, a new king, King Sennacherib, brings the same people in to invade Jerusalem. ruled by Hezekiah. Now, the Assyrians had a reputation for being a fierce and powerful people. And by this time, according to one source, they were known throughout the ancient world as cruel barbarians. Assyrian kings boasted of their military might and harsh treatment of those they defeated. They were famous for impaling their victims on spiked poles. They burned cities, they carried off much loot, and they would often deport those defeated peoples to be resettled in the lands where they could mix and segregate their cultures and make them basically a non-national entity, no longer a threat to the kingdom. The Old Testament characterized the Assyrians as barbarous heathens, often used by Yahweh as an instrument of discipline for his own people. And you find the prophets, many prophets speaking about this. According to another historian, No pains were spared to make the army both an equipment and discipline, an irresistible engine of war. The terror it excited in Western Asia is therefore easily intelligible. Now these are the Assyrians who've invaded the land of Judah, and now they set their sights on the capital, Jerusalem. The faithful King Hezekiah, the reformer of Judah, faces his greatest test. You look with me in verse 2, and when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him. A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? He set to work resolutely and built up all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it. And outside he built another wall and strengthened the millow in the city of David. He also made weapons and shields in abundance. Now here we should note that although the people of God are to trust in the Lord, as we'll see, and not in the arm of the flesh, yet there are wise and appropriate preparations that must be taken to resist danger posed by God's enemies. This is what's described here in these last few verses. Our Lord often uses means in order to defend his name and to protect his people. And God's people are not simply to roll over and be passive as they face the enemies of God. They can defend themselves. But Hezekiah not only prepares the people militarily, Although he does that, but he also prepares the people spiritually to take courage and believe upon the providence of the Lord. And we see this in verses six to eight. And he set, he Hezekiah set combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them saying, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than there are with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Now the faith and courage in Hezekiah's words is remarkable, and it deserves our close attention. What was the ground of Hezekiah's confidence? I think we should ask the question of this text. Well, the first ground of his confidence seems to be God's past faithfulness to his people. And I think this is demonstrated by the language of his encouragement, because I think the language of his encouragement seems to intentionally bring to mind several word pictures from Israel's history. It brings to mind, for one, the battle cry of Israel to be strong and courageous. When you hear that, you might think of the book of Joshua, as Israel was led to many improbable victories over much larger armies, much more well-equipped armies, God gave them victory in the conquest of Canaan over all of these armies under the command of Joshua. His call to not be afraid or dismayed is also familiar because it's the same instruction, the same encouragement given by King Jehoshaphat to the armies of Judah in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 as they face the vast hordes of Moabites and Ammonites. The very same encouragement. The Lord turned these armies against each other so that Judah had no need to fight the battle. They didn't have to lift the sword to fight the hordes of the Moabites and Ammonites because they turned on themselves, just as God said would happen. The words, there are more with us than with him, remind us of Elisha's words to his servant as they were surrounded by Syrians. You can read about this in 2 Kings 6. Upon Elisha's prayer, his servant's eyes were opened. The same servant who said, what can we do? They wake up and they're surrounded by armies. What can we do? He said, Lord, open his eyes. There's more with us than there are with them. He opens the servant's eyes, and what does he see? He sees the mountains are full of angelic hosts and chariots. And upon Elisha's prayer, the Syrian army which could have easily captured them, was blinded. And he led them blinded right to Samaria, where they could easily be captured by the king of Samaria. But they were let go. And when I hear, with him as an arm of flesh, but with us as the Lord our God, maybe you think of this, I can't help but think of the young David standing before Goliath, saying, in front of all the trembling hosts of trained warriors in Israel, saying, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." Sounds very similar. I think it's likely that Hezekiah intentionally phrases his encouragement to bring these past miraculous victories into the fearful minds and hearts of his people as they face this new and deadly foe. He intends to bring all of these pictures into their minds for their encouragement. Because the reality is, what appears to be insurmountable strength from this Assyrian army We know at least it's 185,000 men, which was, we don't know the numbers of those in Judah, but they were obviously far outnumbered and trapped in the city. Hezekiah calls this army an arm of flesh, an arm of flesh. Now, maybe you know what this means, arm of flesh. I think it's helpful to unpack this a little bit. What does he mean by an arm of flesh? The prophet Isaiah illustrates this well in chapter 40, of his prophecy where he says, a voice says, cry. And I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. And he goes on to say, behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as the dust on the scales. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are counted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. This is what Hezekiah means by an arm of flesh. Fades away. It boasts of great things, but it will become dust again. He describes here the contrast between the arm of the flesh and the God of Israel, whom no king under heaven, on heaven or earth can subdue. No king can subdue the God of Israel. They cannot thwart his plan or say to him, what have you done? Now, by any reasonable human estimate, it's clear that Judah is outmatched by these cruel Assyrians, and they are doomed to suffer a long and torment-filled siege, where they slowly starve to death or have to surrender to the torturers. Sennacherib even threatens in the parallel account in 2 Kings 18, he threatens those upon the wall that they would be doomed to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine. Assyria had already overwhelmingly, they have a great resume that he can list, they've overwhelmingly succeeded in their campaign through Judah's neighbors, including the northern kingdom of Israel. They've left so many other nations in ruins already. And the king spares no words in describing this in the parallel account that's longer in 2 Kings. How could Judah, little Judah, hope to overcome this army? Yet Hezekiah calls this army an arm of flesh. It's an arm of flesh. The greatest army is no match for the Lord of hosts. No match. Hezekiah's confident that no matter the size of the army, no matter that they're surrounded, Yahweh can work a great deliverance for them. Things are not always as they appear. We see this again and again in the page of the scripture. Things are not always what they appear to be. Notwithstanding the large number of soldiers, Hezekiah is confident that there are more with us, Judah, than there are with them. But then that raises the question in my mind. How can he be so confident? Of course, God can do these things, but why will God do these things for Judah? Why is he so confident that God will deliver him in this time? He didn't deliver the king of Israel. Why would he deliver Judah? His courage was his confidence in the specific promise of God to him. Hezekiah was no ordinary king. He was not an ordinary king. Hezekiah's confidence in God stemmed from a very specific promise that Yahweh had made to the descendants of David, that they would not fail to have a man on the throne. The threat that Assyria posed to Judah was a threat to eliminate that offspring of David, and thus bring into jeopardy this promise that God had made to the house of David, and to cut off the kingly line of Jesus Christ. This is what's at stake in this threat of Assyria. Hezekiah believed God's promise, and so he believed that this conquest would certainly not happen. God will deliver us. He has promised to us through his own mouth that he will give us victory and that we will not be defeated. Yet even after this faith-filled speech, the situation worsens as the king of Assyria speaks against Hezekiah, and he even speaks against Yahweh. If you look at verse nine, after this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who is besieging Lachish, which is another city in Judah, with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah, king of Judah, and to all the people of Judah who are in Jerusalem, saying, thus says. Now, when you hear thus says, what do you think of in your mind? Does that sound like something that men say? Well, it often was. God often speaks to his people and says, thus says. When God says, thus says, it's because he's the king over the whole earth. He alone has the authority to say, thus says, and it is. Here we see a mere man. Thus says. Notice what he goes on to say. Thus says Sennacherib, king of Assyria. what are you trusting that you endure the siege is not Hezekiah misleading you that he may give you over to die by famine and by thirst when he tells you the Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria has not the same Hezekiah taken away as high places and as altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem For one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn your sacrifices. Now this idea is preposterous for a pagan nation and a pagan king such as Assyria. One altar? To him, what Hezekiah's reforms look like was apostasy. Here you have this man, he's trying to say you can only worship in one place. It's absurd to a pagan to think that. So here he actually makes fun of Hezekiah on this point. Now, no doubt, Sennacherib is attempting to cause the Judeans to turn against and betray Hezekiah and give up without a fight. He accuses Hezekiah of intentionally misleading the people into bearing under the siege. He accuses him of not having the best interests of the people at heart. Otherwise, why would he destroy all the altars so he can't worship Yahweh? But those other altars were not Yahweh's altars, and we know that, and the people of Judah knew that. But Sennacherib, he doesn't stop at seeking to persuade the people to doubt King Hezekiah. He doesn't stop at that. He tries to persuade them to believe and abandon their God. He says in verse 13, do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand who among all the gods of those nations that my father's devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand he goes on to say in verse 17 the text says and he wrote letters to cast contempt on the Lord the God of Israel to speak against him saying like the gods of all the other nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands so the god of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hands this is a this is a bold and defiant challenge of the king of Assyria to the sovereignty of Yahweh. Notice that Sennacherib makes no mention of speaking on behalf of his gods. This is not, my god will destroy your god, I will have victory. Sennacherib raises himself up. He says, thus says the king of Assyria, I am the godslayer. I will kill your god and your king and your nation. Surrender. This is a direct challenge to Yahweh here. I think maybe the only other more defiant statement in all of scripture that you can find is that of Pharaoh. Who is like Yahweh that I should obey him? And we know what Pharaoh's end is, and Sennacherib will fare like him, and so will all who boast in this fashion. Well, here in the words of God's enemies, I think we learn something critical about the heart of this text. And perhaps the reason why this story is told three times in scripture, in Chronicles, Kings, and also the book of Isaiah as well. Because the scriptures teach that there is something worse than death and defeat at the hands of God's enemies, at the hands of our enemies. There's something much worse than that. The Lord says, do not fear him who can kill the body, but after that, there is nothing he can do. If God's enemies can cause us to doubt and betray our God, they succeed in a much more devastating way than mere physical conquest. The Assyrians were here tempting the Israelites to think of the God of Jerusalem as if he were like the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the works of men's hands. Here's your choices, Judah. You can be slain and defeated and suffer siege, or you can become apostate. And in the parallel account, he says, I'll give you your own vine. I'll give you your own fig tree. I have wares that I can pour upon you, treasures. You can live in peace. You can live in happiness. You can survive the siege. All you have to do is deny your God and say, He's just like the idols that I've killed. That's all you have to do. So the greatest threat here to the people of Judah is not the imminent death at the hand of the king of Assyria, but to be made idolaters and apostate out of fear of man. The choice for all in Judah was whether they believed Sennacherib or not. The question before them all, is Yahweh like the gods of all the nations? Sennacherib asks a very important question. On what are you trusting that you endure the siege? On what are you trusting? This challenge was a direct challenge to the power of Yahweh. Yet, I think this question confronts all of us in this room. On what are you trusting? As we face pressures from an increasingly dark culture, economic and political turmoil, the potential for personal pain, suffering, and perhaps death, We need to ask ourselves the question that Sennacherib asked the Judeans, on what are you trusting? Many things that we've taken for granted in our lives, all of our lives, seem to be being shaken right before our very eyes, and much faster than we ever thought possible. I used to hear romanticized talk of, well, our children may have Persecution in their day, I'm concerned to hear about this, or see these things happening. That romanticized talk of future persecution from a decade or so ago, now seems to be here. Certainly for a lot of our brothers and sisters around the world, they've already experienced it, and already are. Are you afraid? Are you dismayed? What about when trouble comes? What if they tell you we don't allow your type in here? You're a hateful bigot. What will you do? On who will you trust? The hard times should come That hard time should come as no surprise to any of us in this room. God gave abundant encouragement in the New Testament to his church to endure suffering before entering the celestial city. We must walk in the steps of our suffering Lord. But what's important for us to remember is these trials and sufferings don't just happen. They're not random things that happen. God tells us that he allows them and that he planned them. He planned them. But why would he allow such trials like the siege of Jerusalem to come upon his people? Because it is the Lord who appoints such trials and he raises up such enemies for his glory and for the good of his people. He gives abundant testimony to that in the word of God. And what is the purpose of this testing? Well, there's many. There's many we could talk about, but at least one purpose is that we may learn not to trust in the arm of the flesh, but in the Lord, who alone fights our battles. Isaiah's prophecy makes it clear that the Lord had raised up Assyria. for a specific purpose. And he says of the Assyrians' conquest in 2 Kings 19, Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what I now bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins, speaking to the king of Assyria, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field, and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before It is grown so Yahweh rebukes the king of Assyria. I'm the one that raised you up to dismay kingdoms to use you as an instrument of Discipline to my people and you boast you boast before me I'm gonna put my hook in your nose, and I'm gonna take you back from where you came God raised up Assyria to threaten his people and Isaiah reveals that it was Yahweh that raised up Assyria to do this. But why, again, why would God raise up his enemies to threaten the destruction of his own people? Again, we go back to Exodus. He was the one who raised up Pharaoh to enslave the Israelites. And we always think about that generation of Israel that was freed. But what about all the generations of Israel that suffered slavery? Now, why did he do that? Why did he raise up Pharaoh to enslave the Israelites? He says, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Now, Hezekiah knows this. He knows this. And at the heart of his prayer, which we'll see in just a moment, He says that, he asks that God would deliver them, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone. God raises up this wicked nation of Assyria to bring them to the gates of Jerusalem, that he might make his name known in all the earth, that he may show that he is not like the gods of men that are made with human hands. He alone is God, and he alone is to be worshiped. Matthew Henry says in Calamities Like These that God orders it so for the trial of our confidence in Him and the manifestation of His care concerning us. God wants, number one, to test our faith, to test the faith of the people of God, as He did for Job, putting Job in the crucible. When you lose everything, Job, what will you love? God gets glory from that. On the other hand, he wants to show Israel, this is my love for you, and I will show you how I will keep my promises to you. And this is the reason why he raises the king of Assyria. Now, ask yourself, as you sit here and listen to this, put yourself in this situation. If you were faced with such a dilemma, how would you respond if you were the king of Judah? How would you respond? What would be your response to this challenge? Well, may God give us the grace to respond as Hezekiah, and let's now consider his response to the threat in verse 20. Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, he prayed. He prayed because of this, and he cried to heaven. Hezekiah, it says in the parallel account, he spread the words out before the Lord in the temple of God, and he prayed to the Lord. We find this prayer in 2 Kings 19 and verses 15 and following. O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore, they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone." This is the prayer of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah's impulse in his time of trouble is to turn to the Lord in prayer. We need to make note of that. because he knows that no army of human strength will be able to withstand the army that's outside of his gates. He knows he has no choice but to seek the Lord. He must have the Lord to deliver them. But notice the content of his prayer shows that this is not the thoughtless wish of a desperate man. We certainly see prayers like that in the kings. There are some kings of Israel who in their time of desperation lived a wicked life, God help us, think of King Ahab, does that. The Lord says, did you see Ahab's repentance? That was just the thoughtless prayers of a desperate man, and God delivered him as one more display of patience to a wicked man. We don't see that in Hezekiah here. He addresses Yahweh with adoration. He says, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim. We imagine he's sitting below those cherubim as he writes this. God alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, maker of heaven and earth. Hezekiah addresses Yahweh as the king of all the earth, expressing the identity of this God as the foundation of his hope and the very ground of his petition. And we need to make note of that as we make our petitions as well. Notice also that Hezekiah's prayer is informed by the word of God and directed by the will of God. Hezekiah makes it clear how the situation is conflicting with the revealed will of God. And he asked the Lord to intervene according to that will. Notice what is the chief complaint that Hezekiah has in his prayer. Hezekiah argues his petition to the end that it will be that Yahweh is not mocked as a lifeless idol. Do you see them mocking you? Are you gonna let that stand? Will you let them mock you like this? Will you let them cause your promises to fail? Or will you Intervene so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you O Lord are God alone display your glory To these pagans and let it be known throughout the world that you are God alone. I Mean on his mind is certainly the rescue of his people and his own life and the lives of his family, of course He desires to preserve that But just as big of a problem, if not bigger in his mind, is that by the means of the destruction of Jerusalem and the line of Davidic promise, Sennacherib will be able to boast that he has made Yahweh just like the kings of the earth, which he destroyed, which were the works of men's hands, which were wood and stone. If he wins, He'll be able to boast. You can't let that stand. You can't let that stand, God. That's his concern that we find in his prayer. Hezekiah's concerned for the glory of God. Now, I think the question must be pressed upon us in this hour. Do we respond to trouble in the way that Hezekiah did? Do we respond to trouble in the way that Hezekiah did? This is a convicting question. Do our prayer lives demonstrate that we serve a powerful God who, as the catechism says, accomplishes all His holy will? Do we ask great things of God according to His revealed will, the things He told us He certainly will do? Do we ask those things, great as they are of Him, in our, where we are, where we live, in faith that He will give them? Or do we show by our lack of prayer that we agree more with the assessment of Sennacherib, that our God is just like the works of men's hands, just like the imagination of man? What would our prayer lives show as an answer to that question? And what about the content? of our prayers. Are our prayers filled only with petitions concerning our own preservation, prosperity, and comfort? Or do they demonstrate a concern for the manifestation of God's glory and the accomplishing of His will where we live? Well, may God give us grace to humble ourselves and pray as Hezekiah prayed. As good of an intercessor as he was for his people, This is really good news. This is really encouraging to me. As good of an intercessor and as model of an intercessor as Hezekiah is here, we have an even greater intercessor. What Hezekiah shows as a shadow here fills with meaning the idea that Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Hezekiah, sits at the right hand of God, and he lives to make intercession. for us. We have the Hezekiah par excellence in heaven, making even more holy and righteous intercession for his church right now. Right now. That's very encouraging. Well, we're told that the prayer of a righteous person has great power when it's working, and this prayer of Hezekiah is heard in the throne room of heaven. God hears, and Yahweh rises to the defense of his people once more. In verse 21, and the Lord sent an angel who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his God, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and from the hand of all his enemies. And he provided for them on every side. We see so many times in the pages of scripture, don't we? And we see it here. that God works improbable victories for his people, that even they didn't see how it could be done. We see it again and again. He does this for the accomplishment of his purposes and for the glory of his name. He gives victory in a way, as Paul sums up in 2 Corinthians, that no man may boast. He raises up the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He raises up the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, that no man may boast before God. Overnight, Yahweh takes one of the most powerful armies in the ancient world, 185,000 strong, and he slays them, commanders, officers, Soldiers slain overnight. They did not have to lift a finger to defend themselves. The enemy was at the very gates. Judah could do nothing to stop it other than pray to the King of heaven. And Yahweh fought for them. He destroyed the army and King Sennacherib returns with shame to his own country and worshiping his own God. His God wasn't even worthy to invoke at the gates of Judah. He didn't even invoke his God at the gates of Judah. He was so confident in himself. He goes with shame to his own temple, the temple of Nisroch. You can't even, I did not find Nisroch when I looked up Assyria. I don't know if he was a popular God. I didn't see it in my reading. Maybe he had a different name. He goes before to worship Nisroch, and he's put to death by his own children. Here's this arrogant, proud man who would dare to say, I am the godslayer. I am the godslayer of Yahweh. He's put to death in his own temple. It's God's ironic judgment at work. This will happen to all who boast that they are God killers. in this life, and we were all boasting God killers before the Lord subdued our sinful hearts. It may not be in this life, but we will all be killed. All outside of Christ will suffer a similar fate, even before the gods we boasted in, even before the things we chose over God. we will see a similar fate if we do not repent and trust in Christ. This is the end for all who dare to boast against Yahweh. Well, the question I think we should ask in light of these things is what can our God accomplish in our day for his holy name? There's no limit except for his own promises. Should we tremble at the decline of Christianity and the resurgence of paganism in the West? Should we tremble for that? Should we fear the increasingly used authoritarian language from our government officials? Should we fear those who arrogantly boast that they'll convert our children to wickedness? While we should grieve at these things, at the lawlessness around us, we should cry streams of tears for those who do not obey your laws, God's laws. We should not fear, we should not despair. The Lord is accomplishing his purposes and he's fulfilling his promises even in the midst of what appears to be the advance of the enemy. Our Lord is not like the God of the nations. He's not like the works of men's hands. He is the creator and sovereign ruler of all nations and peoples, and His purposes will stand. He will build His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Every one of them will bow the knee and acknowledge that He is Lord. Now, aside from this account, which I'm sure you all have read, In all the children, you've probably heard this as well, most of you. Who would remember the proud King Sennacherib? I think if you ask people on the street, who is King Sennacherib, nine out of 10 people would probably look at you like, I don't know. Maybe even a lot of people in some churches would not know who King Sennacherib is. He struck terror into the hearts of men. He defeated kingdoms. He subdued nations. He was a godslayer. Who remembers him now? We only remember him as a monument to God's power and judgment to those who boast against him. It's almost like a pillar of salt in the Hall of Fame of God's boasting enemies. And we should all take fear unless we become like him. There is no country on earth today called Assyria, at least not a nation state. How many of the seven wonders of the ancient world still stand? Only one. And it doesn't look like it did 4,600 years ago. The others have been broken down and forgotten. Some of them, they don't even know if they're real or not. They might just be legendary. Yet the Church of Jesus Christ still stands. It still stands, outlasting king after king, empire after empire, even those mighty ones that hated it and sought its very destruction. Our Lord has promised, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The image of that is actually not defensive in the case of our text today. It's actually offensive. We're not waiting in siege from a world that hates God. They're in siege from Yahweh, now that the gospel has been proclaimed to all the nations. We are on the offensive. The church is a wonder. It's the wonder of not the ancient world, it's the wonder of the world that God has built. It's only wondrous because God has made it, and it will last forever. If the Lord should tarry, our descendants, this is a humbling thought, think it's unquestionable our descendants will read about the rise and fall of the United States of America I think we'd be arrogant to say otherwise God preserve our nation but Empire after Empire after Empire has come and gone but let us petition our Lord that they that our children might also read our sentence might also read of great things done by the Lord in this generation for his great name, regardless of the danger that faces us, regardless of the boasting of the enemy, this is our hope that descendants would read of the glorious things that Yahweh has done in our time before us. So let us petition the Lord for great things. As many hundreds of thousands of warriors were slain by the Lord, that millions may be brought to the obedience of faith. by the Spirit of God. We look around and we think, how in the world can this, our neighbors, be reached for Christ? Has there been a more obstinate time in the history of our land where people were so hardened to the truths of the gospel? How in the world could this situation reverse? You ever think like that? It certainly can. If it's God's will, it certainly And we should pray as though we know it can. That's what we're commanded to do. And our God can do great things among us. So in conclusion, I want to ask again, on what are you trusting? This question is a very helpful one, unwittingly from the King of Sennacherib. On what are you trusting? On what are you trusting? Are you trusting in things that will be dust and ashes in a few short years that people will wonder in a thousand years whether that was even legendary or real? Is that your trust? Or are you trusting in the Lord and beseeching him according to his promises? Is your hope in this life alone or in that life which is to come? Brethren, we should not fear. though great the boasting of any foe that we face. The worst that can happen to us is not our deaths at the hands of wicked men, but it is that we might despair of salvation in our God and consider him to be nothing more than the works of men's hands. That's the worst thing that can happen to us. And that's the same challenge that every wicked man who has persecuted Christians has tried to get them to do. Sennacherib, he just represents. the spirit of persecution. You don't have to die if you just burn incense to me. Just deny that Yahweh is supreme over me and you can have a nice life. How far are we from something like that? I don't know. The enemies of God may be happy to spare your life if you would but disown and renounce your God. So let us be strong and courageous as Christians in this room and let us neither fear nor be dismayed. Our God is in the heavens and he does all that he pleases. He will keep his promises, he will build his church. So be wise in these evil days, but do not be afraid. It's right to plan, it's right to prepare for hard times. The wise man sees trouble and he hides himself. It's right to understand the times and to act in obedience to the commands of Christ accordingly. But is it not becoming obvious that this is a time where the greatest act that we can do is to fervently and faithfully pray? Things seem to be spiraling in such a way that no mere arm of flesh can correct them. No single politician can correct them. What can you do? You can vote. But we do far better if we pray. Pray that the Lord will have mercy on our country. Pray for revival and many conversions to Christ. We know that the Lord will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So pray, pray that the Lord will fulfill his promise and fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters covers the sea. We have no weapon left that is more powerful than prayer. So let us spread our concerns before the Lord as we saw King Hezekiah do in our text this morning. Let us adore the Lord and approach him as the great king all the earth let us petition him according to his will and ask confidently those things which he's revealed to us that he wants to see accomplished in our in our day in our land who knows what we can see in our day if we abandon all trust in the arm of the flesh and fully seek the Lord as our first and only source of strength can we see overnight the course of the wicked completely thwarted nothing is too hard for God but ultimately We must learn to set our hope fully on the grace that we've brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That has to be our main hope. We petition the Lord for our day, but we also look at a city that is to come. Here we have no lasting city. The Lord raises these difficulties. Another reason he does it is that we might be weaned from this world. And to long to be in his presence alone in the celestial city. And to this hope, we must ultimately cling to, no matter what happens to us. Now, in closing, if you're not in Christ in this place, any words of comfort that have been shared this morning are not for you in your current state. God has made no promises to those outside of his son. And I hope what you see is the fact that those 185,000, they are representative of the fate of every man who's outside of Christ. Every man, every woman who's outside of Christ. They stand as a monument to that coming judgment, which will certainly come. Yet today is still a day of salvation, and as long as the Lord tarries, as long as you still have breath that has been given to you from the Lord, he says again to you this day, come unto me. Come unto me. Whoever comes to me, I will not cast out. You've been a God-slayer? You've been a God-slayer in nice church clothes? You've been baptized a couple times? Are you a God-slayer who boasts? I don't need my parents, God. It's just a bunch of fables. Today is the day of salvation. Don't presume on the kindness of the Lord. Come to the Lord. God's slayers, all sinners, come to him. He will by no means cast you out. Come to Jesus Christ, confess and forsake your sin, and put your faith in Jesus Christ alone, in his substitutionary death, in his righteous life, and you too can have hope in the darkest hour. Well, may the Lord bless the hearing of his word. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this glorious display of your love for your people, your steadfastness to fulfill your promises to us. And we say, come among us, O Lord, come among this land, as only you can, and work wondrous things for your name, that all the people around us, all of our neighbors, would know that you alone are God, Do it for the sake of your holy name, and we ask this in Jesus' precious and holy name, amen.