Can God Be Trusted? (2)

Now I'd like to continue where I was yesterday in Isaiah chapter 36. Isaiah chapter 36, probably most were here but some may not have been. So just a brief recap of where we were at yesterday.

About the subject, can God be trusted? Not just generally but can God be trusted in your life? Can you trust him with the challenges that face you? Can I? So Isaiah 36 and 1, we're going to read about what Hezekiah and Judah were facing from the Assyrians. Verse 1, now it came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. You know it's easy just to read about it but just imagine if you lived in these days and the Assyrians were at your doorstep.

That the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah, Jerusalem. Down to verse 4, now some men come out from Jerusalem, then the Rabshakeh said to them, say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust? I say you speak of having plans and power for war but they're mere words. Now on whom do you trust that you rebel against me? What the Assyrians are waging here are not conventional methods of warfare.

This is psychological warfare and what they're trying to do is get Judah, get Hezekiah to give up so they don't have to fight. But this is exactly what Satan wants to do with you and me psychologically to put thoughts in our mind, to doubt God and give up. How is he doing? Have there been Christians that have given up? Unfortunately, yes.

I wonder if the Lord spares us for another year, how each one of us here that know the Lord, how we'll be doing. Because make no doubt about it, we're in warfare. And this isn't to scare anyone and I'm not being dramatic, it's just a reality.

And if there's time we'll look once again at Ephesians 6 when the Lord tells us, be strong in the Lord, be strengthened in the Lord. Let Him be your strength and in His mighty power put on the whole armor of God. For we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of darkness and evil.

I'm so glad I know the Lord Jesus, aren't you? Now I'm not going to go over again much of chapter 36, but it's one fiery dart after another that this Rabshakeh fires against, first of all, Hezekiah. And then further on the chapter, it's against the people of Judah generally. But it's all to undermine their confidence in God.

Now somehow they know that the only reason that Judah isn't surrendering to them is because they trust in the Lord. Now how they know that, I don't know, but they know that. And Satan knows that if he can get you and me to lose our confidence in God, as unfortunately has happened to some Christians I know, they're not sure God can be trusted, that the Word of God can be trusted.

They think they have to rethink all this and start from scratch. And there's many voices out in the world that basically say the Bible doesn't really mean what it says. So after these fiery darts, eight of them really, these three men that have come out from King Hezekiah, they go to him.

And then we get in chapter 37, verse 1. They tell him what the Rabshakeh has said. And so it was, Isaiah 37 and 1, when King Hezekiah heard it that he tore his clothes, covered herself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. As I mentioned yesterday, here's a man now, although he's king, he's taking a low place.

He knows he doesn't have the strength, his people don't have the strength to face this mighty juggernaut, this vast army, this cruel army, the Assyrians. It's a matter of life and death. So what does he do? He goes to the house of the Lord.

He takes it to the Lord. And then he sends some men to Isaiah, the man of God. And in verse 3, they say to these men that Hezekiah sends to Isaiah, they say to Isaiah, thus says Hezekiah, verse 3, this day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

And I mentioned yesterday, you know, to me, it's amazing. Here's the king, and the king, the buck stops with him, right? He's saying, can't do it. I can't do it.

Isn't this where the Lord had to bring you and me before we are saved to realize no strength? And we preach that in the gospel. Romans chapter 5 and 6, when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We had to come to the point where we realized we can't take our sin away.

We can't get ourselves to heaven. And we put our trust in the Lord. So there's some principles here, even in the Christian life.

And 2 Corinthians 12, Paul writes, God said to him, God says, my strength is made perfect in weakness, in our weakness. God is so gracious. The way he does things is exactly what we need in all our weakness and all our failure.

So Hezekiah asked Isaiah to pray. And this is what Isaiah says. Verse 6, Isaiah said to them, thus you shall say to your master, to Hezekiah, thus says the Lord, do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Surely I will send a spirit 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. Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid, he says. Assyrians are out there and they haven't come to play tiddlywinks. Don't be afraid.

Are you ever afraid by the challenges in your life? I am. I have been. It's interesting the number of times in the Bible the Lord says, be not afraid, fear not.

He knows what we're like. But Isaiah goes on to tell them, don't be afraid because the Lord's going to take care of this. He's going to take Sennacherib, he's going to send him back home, and he's going to be killed there.

Isn't that what it says? I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. Now I wonder if Hezekiah was still afraid when he hears this. Are we still afraid when God gives us a word? And when it comes down to us, am I willing to trust what God says? In spite of how I feel, in spite of my fears, in spite of the challenge, in spite of the battle, am I willing to rest in what God says and let Him fight my battle? Well, the Assyrians now, the Rabshakeh, they fired four darts at Hezekiah, four darts at the people listening on the wall, but he's not done yet.

He's going to come again. Now, so far the Lord hasn't taken them out yet, taken the Assyrians away. And sometimes when in our battles, you know, we keep waiting for the Lord to do something, and it doesn't happen.

The Lord doesn't always do things at the snap of our fingers. I've often said in the major events in my life, I've had to wait on the Lord far longer than I ever expected. I'm going to say that again, because it may be true of you too.

In the major events in my life, I've had to wait on the Lord far longer than I expected, because sometimes the Lord stretches us. He tests us to see, are we really going to trust Him, or are we going to give up? Are we going to turn back? So here comes the third volley in chapter 37. The king sent some messengers to King Hezekiah.

He's back on Hezekiah now, the effort to get leadership to break. And the end of verse 9 of chapter 37 says, so when he had heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Don't let God deceive you.

Now back in chapter 36, verse 14, he said, don't let Hezekiah deceive you. But now he's going right to the root of the matter. Don't let your God deceive you.

Does Satan use that trick? Didn't he do it with Eve? God told her, told them, don't eat from that tree or you're going to die. What did the devil say? You won't die. You eat it, you'll be like God's.

In other words, I'll take care of you if you do it my way. Does God deceive people? That's not the God I know. You know, before I was saved, I started searching in my early 20s in all the wrong places.

My parents weren't Christians. I didn't read the Bible. So I looked in philosophy.

I looked in Eastern religions, read all kinds of stuff. I was searching, but nothing ever worked, whether it's Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism. So when the lady I was working for finally encouraged me to read the Bible, she brought me the gospel, I was very skeptical.

Just one more book that would let me down. That's what I thought, much to my surprise. And I'm so thankful that this lady ever gave me a Bible and encouraged me to read it.

It changed everything. And I found out God can be trusted. His word can be trusted.

Now that was many years ago. I'm an old man now. There would have been lots of opportunity for me to find out that the Bible can't be trusted.

But it's just been just the reverse. God means exactly what he says. My friend, there's a God who loves you.

He cares for you. And he knows there's a tremendous enemy, Satan and his emissaries, these powers of darkness, the demons. And they will do everything that they can to take you down.

Now, they can't take away our souls being saved, but they can make our life miserable. They can cause us to not honor the Lord Jesus, not be used by him in the furtherance of his kingdom. So it's a battle.

So this last volley, the first dart says, don't let God deceive you, saying Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Okay, that's what the Lord said is going to happen, right? We read about that, but they're saying it's not going to happen. Verse 11, now they're going to support that premise.

Verse 11, look, you've heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them. And are you going to be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who are in Telassar? Where's the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sefer Vayim, Hina, and Iva? I hate to think what happened to those kings, maybe tortured, beheaded, and worse, the Assyrians were known for this. So what these messengers are saying, what the king wants Hezekiah to hear is, look at the circumstances.

All these nations, all these cities, all these kings, have their gods helped them? No. And your god's not going to help you. Verse 14, and Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.

Do you ever do things like that? You have an issue, a challenge, you don't know what to do, and you just maybe get down on your knees by your bed and said, Lord, this is what's going on. I mean, he knows, but he wants us to pour out our hearts to him. Just like a father, if his little child is having a problem, tell me about it and I'll help you.

Verse 15, and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. Now this is critical. Hezekiah is basing his prayer on who the Lord is.

Do we know who the Lord is? Do we read the Bible to find out what he's like? It's critical. Verse 17, incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

Do you have a living God? Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, therefore they destroyed him. See, Hezekiah's prayer here is based on truth, the truth of who God is and the truth of who the idols, what they really are, nothing.

And we live in a world where people try to say God is nothing, and all these other things are something. And he finishes up his prayer in verse 20, now therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, you alone. You know, this makes me think, in our challenges, other people have some idea of what we're going through sometimes.

And they're watching us, those in our family, maybe in our assembly, those that we work with or go to school. And how we respond to the attacks of the enemy has an effect upon other people, for good or worse. And it has an has an effect on the Lord, on how people perceive Him.

I mean, if I wash out, people know I'm a Christian, and I give in and just let the devil have his way in my life. People that I've talked to, they know me, they say, well, what kind of God is that? Look what happened to Larry. We represent the Lord Jesus here on earth.

Tremendous privilege, tremendous responsibility. Verse 21, then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah. Now, I don't read that Isaiah knew what Hezekiah had prayed, but I believe God gave him what to say.

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, thus says the Lord God of Israel, because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him. So the Lord is speaking this about the king of Assyria, Sennacherib. Verse 22, the virgin, the daughter of Zion has despised you, that is Sennacherib, laughed you to scorn.

The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back, or has shaken her head as you flee. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the holy one of Israel. See, Sennacherib doesn't know it, but his battle isn't against Hezekiah and Judah, it's against the Lord himself, because Hezekiah and Judah are letting the Lord fight their battles.

They're trusting in him. They're not going at it with their own peashooters like we do often. I'm not going to take time because time is going here to read all of this, but the Lord goes on with regard to Sennacherib saying basically, Sennacherib, you think you've destroyed this country and that country, you've done this and all that, but then he says in verse 26, didn't you hear long ago that I determined this from ancient times, that I planned it, and now I brought it to pass, that you should be for crushing fortified cities and heaps of ruins, and this is why the people couldn't resist you, because I allowed it.

Sennacherib thought he was the big I. I'm going to do this. I've done that. You know, this should encourage us that God is in control of nations.

He's God over all, and he raises up some and brings down others, but what he's looking for is for people to repent and admit their failure and put their trust in him as a nation, as individuals. Verse 28, the Lord finishes off what he's saying about Sennacherib. He says, but I know your dwelling place, you're going out, you're coming in, you rage against me.

Because you rage against me and your tumult, I've come up to my ears. Therefore, I will put my hook in your nose, my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. Gross, but apparently this is exactly what the Assyrians did to their captives.

They put a hook in their nose and led them along like an animal. So starting verse 30 now, the Lord has a word to Hezekiah. He says, this shall be a sign to you.

You shall eat of this year such as grows of itself, and the second year what springs from the same. Also in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. Now, keep in mind, the Assyrians likely are besieging Jerusalem.

They can't go out to their fields. And yet the Lord's saying, okay, this year, this is going to grow. The second year, this is going to happen.

And he's telling them about their crops as if the Assyrians weren't there at all. And in verse 33, therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mount against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return.

And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. The Lord's going to fight the battle for them. You know, years before there was a young man named David who also understood the battle is the Lord's.

Another king, Jehoshaphat, understood this. Words to the same effect that the battle is the Lord's. Brother, sister, your battle, my battle, our battle, the Lord wants to fight it.

Whatever you're challenging, being challenged by, and maybe it looks impossible, the things that are impossible with men are possible with God. You might need to wait on the Lord longer than you expect, but the battle is the Lord's. So what's going to happen now to these people in Judah, likely shaken at the knees? They've heard all these threats and efforts to undermine their trust in the Lord.

Can God really be trusted? Verse 36, then the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. Just like that, in just a few words, the Lord takes care of the whole business that have been terrifying these people. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses, all these dead soldiers.

So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home and remained at Nineveh. Now, some people might say, well, okay, the Lord did what he said. He took Sennacherib home, but the Lord also said he was going to die.

He was going to be killed. And that hasn't happened. It didn't happen for five years, 10 years, 15 years.

But verse 38 is some 20 years later. And it says, now it came to pass as he, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, was worshiping in the house of Nisrach his God, that his sons Adrammelech and Cherezer struck him down with a sword. Isn't that what the Lord had said back in chapter 37, verse 7? The Lord says, I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

They struck him down with a sword and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Ezerhaddon, his son, reigned in his place. All this lead up, and in just three verses, the Lord takes care of it.

This is the greatness of the God to whom you and I belong. Now, let me close where we started yesterday in Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6, please. I'm not going to spend time on this.

Verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong, be strengthened in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles, the strategy, the schemes, the trickery of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, because of this, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, in other words, not be knocked over. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, the importance of knowing the truth of the word of God, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, being committed to doing what was right, doing what is right.

You say, well, I want to do what's right, but I can't. That's what does verse 10 say? Be strong in the Lord. It's the Lord who helps us to do what's right.

Verse 15, having shod your feet with the preparation or the readiness of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is a word of God, praying always, and then verse 18 ends with, for all the saints. Do you pray for God's people? We need one another's prayers. Can God be trusted?