WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.240 Alright, this is the penultimate sermon in our series on Isaiah for now. 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:11.640 We've been working our way through Book One of Isaiah, chapters one to thirty-nine. 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:17.120 And you know that you're getting to the end of a section partly because the entire book 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:22.480 so far has been poetry and at the very end of section one it switches to narrative, the 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:27.080 long narrative that we just read, a couple more chapters to go next week. 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:31.079 And the other reason this is the end of a section is because we have been talking pretty 00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:36.960 much every single week about how Isaiah has been prophesying about this moment. 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:45.679 701 BC, the moment when Assyria, King Sinacharib, would march on the gates of Jerusalem. 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:48.119 And this is exactly what we just read about. 00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:53.000 And you can see in verse one it says that Sinacharib came up against all the fortified 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:54.719 cities of Judah. 00:00:54.719 --> 00:01:01.359 And so to get to Jerusalem, Hezekiah and some of the kings before him had set up all these 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:04.120 cities that were meant to be fortresses. 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:09.319 So there were lots of towns where the civilians would live, but then there were fortified encampments 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:11.000 with big walls. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.879 And to get to Jerusalem, which was its own, the great fortified encampment, you had to 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:16.719 pass all these other ones. 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:22.519 And so we know from extra biblical literature that Sinacharib has defeated, according to 00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:28.759 their own accounts, 46 fortified encampments in the region of Judah so far. 00:01:28.759 --> 00:01:34.359 And Lachish, which is where he's camped just south of Jerusalem now, the archaeologist 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:42.519 found a site there from about this time period that had 1500 dead bodies in it, a mass grave 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:47.039 that many people think is from Sinacharib's invasion of Judah. 00:01:47.039 --> 00:01:50.399 And so we've seen this verified in all sorts of extra biblical literature. 00:01:50.399 --> 00:01:51.399 There are lots of counts. 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:56.120 There are even Babylonian accounts of the Sinacharib invasion of Judah. 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:59.400 And now finally they've come to the gate of Jerusalem. 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:06.080 Hezekiah in chapter 37 verse 4 says, we're the remnant, meaning he's saying we're pretty 00:02:06.080 --> 00:02:07.080 much all that's left. 00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:08.680 It's just Jerusalem. 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:11.960 All the other fortified cities have been taken down. 00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:18.599 Now we as modern people, we think of our lives quite often through the lens of film and TV. 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:23.519 So only 20th and 21st century people have ever been able to say this feels like a scene 00:02:23.519 --> 00:02:25.359 from a movie. 00:02:25.359 --> 00:02:29.319 And when you read a text like this, that's exactly the kind of thing that you can say. 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:33.919 So the Robb Shackay is the cupbearer to the great king of Assyria. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:39.199 And you can imagine the Robb Shackay, he's clothed in unbelievable adornment, wearing 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:44.319 all sorts of pagan paraphernalia probably on his face and around his neck. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:52.079 And he comes to the great gate of Jerusalem and he says, people of Jerusalem, if you will 00:02:52.079 --> 00:02:59.479 bow the knee to the great king, Sinacharib, I will give you peace. 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:01.120 He will deliver you. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:04.319 He will be the king that you've always wanted. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:07.319 And if you don't, you're going to die. 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:13.159 He even takes it all the way to the point of eating their own excrement at the middle 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:17.960 of the passage because he's saying, we're going to siege you until you starve to death. 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:21.199 But if you'll bow the knee to me, I'll give you everything you've ever dreamed of, your 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:25.800 own cistern, your own figs, your own vineyard. 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:31.240 And that means that on the surface of the passage, it's about war and it's about colonization 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:35.400 and it's about Jerusalem under attack and whether or not the people of God are going 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:38.000 to get annihilated at this moment in history. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:42.840 And underneath it, actually, this passage is just one passage that's part of a whole 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:51.520 sequence of stories in the Bible where the people of God face overwhelming temptation 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:55.300 to bow the knee to another king. 00:03:55.300 --> 00:03:58.080 And this is one of many, many moments throughout the Bible that this happens. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:03:59.360 It happens over and over and over again. 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.759 And the rabshake asks exactly the right question. 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:09.039 He says at the beginning, people of God, on what do you rest this trust of yours to stand 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:11.199 against the great king? 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:17.360 What are you trusting in that gives you the confidence that you could stand against the 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:19.759 great king, my king, the king of Assyria? 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:24.639 Another way to ask this question is something like this. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:28.800 Do you really trust that the God that you're chasing after is going to give you what you 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:30.920 want? 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:34.800 And though what you want here is, he says, deliverance or peace. 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:38.879 He's saying, in the face of the great king, do you really think that your God is actually 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:43.560 going to give you the peace that you think he's going to give you? 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:44.560 And that's the question. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:45.560 All right. 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:47.759 So three things to see. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:53.000 The nature of temptation, the way out, and then how to face it. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Okay. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.120 The nature of temptation, the way out, how to face it. 00:04:56.120 --> 00:04:57.759 This is a passage about temptation. 00:04:57.759 --> 00:04:58.759 All right. 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:05.839 So first, the nature of temptation, the rabshah, K is the emissary of the great king of Assyria, 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:06.839 Sinakrim. 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:11.719 He's standing here just outside Jerusalem in the washers field. 00:05:11.719 --> 00:05:17.360 And the presumption is that Hezekiah has closed the gate. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:21.519 So verse five, he says, what gives you the confidence to rebel against the great king? 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:26.819 And what he's saying there is I came with my group and you closed the front gate. 00:05:26.819 --> 00:05:29.240 You didn't let me in. 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:31.399 And what gives you the confidence to do something like that? 00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:37.319 And Hezekiah in other words is saying, we're not going to open our gates to another king. 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:41.360 And it's really important, the title that the rabshah K gives the king of Assyria, the 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:42.360 great king. 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:48.120 And in Hebrew, this is like the New Testament equivalent of the king of kings. 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:50.279 It's basically the same phrase. 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:55.800 And so he says, the king of kings has come and said, I'll give you peace, but you've 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:57.960 shut the gate. 00:05:57.960 --> 00:06:02.240 And Hezekiah is saying, we're not going to open our gates to a man who says he is the 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:03.960 king of kings. 00:06:03.960 --> 00:06:07.800 And you realize very quickly that at the end of the passage when the rabshah K says, what 00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:13.240 gods have ever been able to stop the great king, king of Assyria, that you realize the 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:19.519 king of Assyria takes himself to be not just a king, but a god. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:20.840 He thinks of himself as a god. 00:06:20.840 --> 00:06:23.439 And so he calls himself the king of kings. 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:25.240 And he's saying, I'm the king of kings. 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.040 I'm the one that can actually deliver you. 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:29.280 And the message is very clear. 00:06:29.280 --> 00:06:34.600 If you let the great king, the king of kings into your life, if you open the gate, then 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:37.280 he'll give you peace. 00:06:37.280 --> 00:06:44.480 And in the beginning of history, Adam and Eve were told by God, Genesis 2.15, to guard 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:49.079 the Garden of Eden, the land of the true king, the Lord. 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:52.519 And they let the great king of this world into the garden. 00:06:52.519 --> 00:06:55.519 They opened the gate and they let him right in. 00:06:55.519 --> 00:07:02.560 And then right after that in Genesis chapter four, God said to Cain, sin is crouching at 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:05.879 the gate translated your door. 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:10.159 Sin is standing right outside your gates and want temptations. 00:07:10.159 --> 00:07:13.439 The world, the flesh and the devil is standing right outside your gates and wants to come 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.680 in and all you have to do is open it and it will come for you. 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:18.359 Open the gate and it will come for you. 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:23.879 You start to realize that the gates of Jerusalem here are both a historical reality, but they're 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:25.639 also meant to show us something else. 00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:29.759 They're meant to help us understand that it's really talking underneath about the gate of 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:31.680 the heart. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:36.480 That temptation has always come to the people of God throughout history from the beginning 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:41.400 to the middle all the way to now and knocked at the gate, the gate of your heart and said, 00:07:41.400 --> 00:07:43.639 the great king is here, the king of kings. 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:45.520 Assyria has come. 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:46.520 Open the heart. 00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:48.439 It's a testament. 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:54.639 It says that Judas looked at the money bags and when he looked at the money bags, Satan 00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:56.079 entered into him. 00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:02.359 You see, Satan came right through the gate when Judas was at his weakest. 00:08:02.359 --> 00:08:07.319 And that's what the passage is actually about that in the early church, not long after Jesus 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:14.039 ascended into heaven, Paul and the first couple centuries of Christians, they faced this in 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:20.120 a really acute way, the imperial cult was the name that was given to the fact that in 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:25.760 the Roman Empire, Christianity was tolerated from the beginning actually. 00:08:25.760 --> 00:08:30.200 The Roman Empire was okay with Christianity, except for one thing. 00:08:30.200 --> 00:08:37.840 Once a year at least, you had to come and you had to say Caesar is either Lord, Soter, 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:40.080 Savior or son of God. 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:41.639 It was even printed on the coins. 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:47.000 And they said, look, I know that you say that your Lord is Lord, but if you'll say the great 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:52.720 king is Lord, Caesar, if he's Lord, if you'll just say it. 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:55.799 If you'll just let the great king into your life and into your heart, if you'll give your 00:08:55.799 --> 00:09:00.439 heart to him, then we'll let you worship whatever God you want to worship for free. 00:09:00.439 --> 00:09:06.720 And many Christians were burned alive or given to beast for saying Caesar is not Lord, only 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:08.840 Jesus is Lord. 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:10.679 And you see, that's exactly it. 00:09:10.679 --> 00:09:15.319 The mainstay of the Christian life of the people of God throughout all the centuries 00:09:15.319 --> 00:09:19.279 has been that temptation comes and knocks out the door, the world to flesh and the devil 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:23.519 and says, open the gate of your heart and let me in and I will give you peace. 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:25.959 I'll give you real deliverance. 00:09:25.959 --> 00:09:28.199 And that's exactly what the rabbi Shaquette says here. 00:09:28.199 --> 00:09:32.399 Now, the rabbi Shaquette tells the truth. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:35.000 So if you look at verse four, he says it like this. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:41.120 He says on what do you rest this trust of yours and then down in verses 14 and 15, he 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:45.799 ties trust directly to the word deliverance. 00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:50.279 So he says, do you trust that your God can deliver you? 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:54.840 The king of Assyria, trust in him and he will deliver you. 00:09:54.840 --> 00:10:02.159 That means that in the Bible, trust, the nature of trust is when you give your life, you give 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:09.839 your heart, you give your allegiance over to something, some God, some king, some object 00:10:09.839 --> 00:10:12.360 in order that it might deliver you. 00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:15.759 See trust and deliverance are concepts that are completely well together. 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:20.480 Trust or faith is giving your heart over so that you might find deliverance. 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:24.559 And the deliverance that's being promised in this passage is in verse 16. 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:29.079 He says if you would give your trust, we will deliver you and that deliverance will be peace 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:32.680 and that means you'll have your own sister and your own fig tree, your own vine. 00:10:32.680 --> 00:10:33.680 I'll give you all the things. 00:10:33.680 --> 00:10:35.520 I'll give you good circumstances. 00:10:35.520 --> 00:10:37.040 I'll make you happy. 00:10:37.040 --> 00:10:39.960 I'll give you everything you could have always wanted out of life. 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:45.480 One old Puritan writer talks about this as the bait and hook method, the golden cup and 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:46.480 the poison. 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:50.680 In other words, the world, the flesh and the devil come outside the city gate, the gate 00:10:50.680 --> 00:10:54.120 of your heart and say here, take and drink from the golden cup. 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:56.360 If you'll follow me, I'll give you deliverance. 00:10:56.360 --> 00:10:58.640 I'll give you your own sister and your own figs. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:00.120 Your own vineyards. 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:03.720 And inside you can't see, but in the middle of it is actually poison. 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:06.519 There's bait, but you can't see the hook. 00:11:06.519 --> 00:11:08.799 And that's exactly what the Robchak case says. 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:11.240 He actually tells the truth here. 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:14.720 Let me quickly give you a couple ways the Robchak case tells the truth. 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:21.279 He says in verse five, the first thing he says in verse five, do you think people of 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:27.399 God, people of Jerusalem, Hezekiah and others, do you think that your words and your strategy 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:30.519 are enough to deliver you? 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:35.120 And the Robchak case onto something, he's actually saying, do you think that Hezekiah's 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:40.319 brain, his intelligence is enough to get you out of this? 00:11:40.319 --> 00:11:42.639 And another way of asking it is something like this. 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:45.039 Are you trusting in life? 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:49.559 Are you putting in your trust for deliverance and your intelligence? 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:54.919 Are you putting your trust in the fact that you can distinguish yourself in a room? 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:58.719 Are you putting your trust, are you building your life around being smart and being a person 00:11:58.719 --> 00:12:01.479 that can really make something of himself or herself? 00:12:01.479 --> 00:12:05.799 And Ernest Hemingway, the great 19th century novelist, he put it like this. 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:12.519 He says, happiness and intelligence is the rarest thing I know. 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:16.879 The most brilliant people are always the most in despair. 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:21.240 And the Robchak case says, look, you think that you can trust in your smarts and building 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:24.199 a career around your intelligence and making a name for yourself. 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:25.200 It's not going to work. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:27.520 It's not going to deliver you. 00:12:27.520 --> 00:12:29.280 And then the second thing he says is verse six. 00:12:29.280 --> 00:12:34.280 He says, well, then you went to Egypt to try to find deliverance. 00:12:34.280 --> 00:12:35.960 In other words, he was talking about armament. 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:38.920 He said, you went down to Egypt and you tried to make a treaty. 00:12:38.920 --> 00:12:43.360 You wanted chariots and horses and weapons and men, mercenaries. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:48.560 And what he's saying, you know, you tried to actually look at a Syria, Sinakrib, and 00:12:48.560 --> 00:12:52.440 build the same thing that Sinakrib had built. 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:55.440 You thought, okay, we'll match power with power. 00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:57.200 And so you chased after power. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:02.960 And he's saying, do you think that you can accumulate stuff in your life, enough power, 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:09.160 enough status, enough empire building in your life enough to truly make you happy, to deliver? 00:13:09.160 --> 00:13:13.160 Do you think that accumulation is going to get you out of this mess, that it's really 00:13:13.160 --> 00:13:14.960 going to deliver you? 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:22.400 In some ways, the entire point of this passage is actually subtly Sinakrib. 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.639 Sinakrib had built the greatest empire the world had ever seen up to this point in human 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:28.319 history. 00:13:28.319 --> 00:13:32.840 And at the end of the passage, God gives him just a slight quiet rumor into his ear that 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:36.639 says, Kush is invading your homeland. 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:38.879 It wasn't true. 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:43.799 And Sinakrib packs up, leaves the siege of Jerusalem, goes straight home because he's 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:47.399 scared to death that everything he's ever built is about to fall. 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:51.639 And you see, he had built a great empire, but it was so fragile. 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:56.519 The greatest, the most powerful man in the world had ever seen up to this point was scared 00:13:56.519 --> 00:14:00.559 to death that he would lose one of the lands that he had gained. 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:03.360 And he had taught his sons one thing. 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:08.840 Life is not worth living unless you accumulate land, wealth, and power, unless you colonize, 00:14:08.840 --> 00:14:11.960 unless you build the biggest bank account you can possibly build. 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:17.600 He said, in fact, life is so worth living for that that you should kill for it. 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:21.600 You should kill, you should colonize, you should imprison anybody you need to. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:23.840 And that's exactly what they did. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:30.560 You see, at the end of the passage, the point is that his sons in the middle of the temple 00:14:30.560 --> 00:14:32.560 stand up and stab him in the back. 00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:33.879 They kill him. 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:37.320 They kill him in exactly the way he taught them to do it. 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:41.759 He had taught his sons, live for wealth, live for accumulation, live for stuff, and they 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:44.639 turn around in the end and say, the only way we're really going to get it is to kill our 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:47.960 own father, to stab him right in the back. 00:14:47.960 --> 00:14:51.240 And so the rabshak'ah, without knowing it was right, he said, you know, do you think 00:14:51.240 --> 00:14:55.879 that you're smart, becoming a great person is going to deliver you in this life? 00:14:55.879 --> 00:15:00.440 Do you think that accumulating stuff, wealth, empire building is actually going to deliver 00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:02.440 you? 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:12.440 In 1929 and 2008, we've got the two great stock market crashes over the last century or so. 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:14.080 And you can go read the literature on this. 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:19.519 The data is unbelievably scary and fascinating at the same time. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:25.759 Inside the 1929 crash and the 2008 market crash because of the real estate investments, 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:32.559 there is a nearly uncountable amount of people who committed suicide. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:39.039 And among those were largely millionaires, the millionaires that lived in 1929 and the 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:44.360 millionaires and billionaires that lost so much of their wealth in 2008. 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:48.559 And Alexis de Tocqueville, the century before that, the great political philosopher from 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:53.719 France when he visited America, one of the things he wrote, he said, there's a strange 00:15:53.719 --> 00:15:58.719 melancholy that haunts those with abundance. 00:15:58.719 --> 00:16:02.399 And in this story, this story is saying if you build your life around your name, around 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:07.639 wealth, around power and prestige, if you teach like Sennacherib, your sons and your 00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:14.079 daughters that you can kill to make a great name for yourself, you'll get exactly that. 00:16:14.079 --> 00:16:15.079 You'll lose it. 00:16:15.079 --> 00:16:17.159 You'll get the death that you taught another. 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:19.319 You'll end up in despair. 00:16:19.319 --> 00:16:24.799 Even if your life ends and you build your life around something like that and your life 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:28.159 ends in great circumstances, de Tocqueville was saying something. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:33.480 He was saying even then you'll find that you've been chasing after some it and when you finally 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:37.079 get it, you'll just have melancholy. 00:16:37.079 --> 00:16:40.639 You realize that you chase after something your whole life and you'll finally get there 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:43.279 and you'll say, was that it? 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:47.639 And it won't be the it that you thought it was the it, that you thought was the it. 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:51.639 And the point of the passage is that anytime the king, the world, the flesh and the devil 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:56.720 comes to your door and says, if you just bow down to this great king or this great king 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:00.439 or this great king or this great king, they'll truly deliver you. 00:17:00.439 --> 00:17:03.799 They'll give you the peace you've always been looking for. 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:07.119 Some alternative God will come into your life, your name, your intelligence, your power, your 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:14.000 prestige, your social media following, your publications, your job performance, the classic 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.959 three sex money and power. 00:17:16.959 --> 00:17:20.879 And what will happen at first is verse 16. 00:17:20.879 --> 00:17:25.759 The rabbi'shake, it will say to you, I'll give you a sister, I'll give you your own 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:28.599 victory, I'll give you your own land. 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:30.639 I'll give you good circumstances. 00:17:30.639 --> 00:17:32.479 And then did you catch it in verse 17? 00:17:32.479 --> 00:17:34.479 It's so subtle. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:41.799 Then he says in verse 17, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land. 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:44.960 He's trying to just slide it in there very quietly. 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:49.920 I'm going to give you everything you ever dreamt of and then I'm going to take you away. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:51.279 And it'll be a good land too. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:54.400 But he's talking about enslavement. 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:58.039 And that's exactly the point of the passage that anytime you chase after some object in 00:17:58.039 --> 00:18:04.839 this life and make it your great king, your great God, the sonaker of itself, you will 00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:08.559 chase after it and for a moment maybe your circumstances will be good, but eventually 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:11.200 you're going to lose it and you're going to find a spare. 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:12.399 It won't really deliver you. 00:18:12.399 --> 00:18:13.920 It's actually going to enslave you. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:18.799 Every single thing in this life that you chase after will end up dying, perishing, falling 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:23.279 away or you will fall away before it. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:25.639 And it will actually leave you enslaved. 00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:31.759 Thomas Boston wrote a really good book called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:32.840 which is exactly about this. 00:18:32.840 --> 00:18:34.840 And this is how he puts it. 00:18:34.840 --> 00:18:39.600 He says, the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil have greater influence 00:18:39.600 --> 00:18:43.040 upon us than we think. 00:18:43.040 --> 00:18:49.160 Whatever sin, and here's the subtlety, whatever sin, the heart of a person is most prone towards 00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:55.240 chasing after, that is where temptation will particularly attack. 00:18:55.240 --> 00:19:02.400 So he says, if you are tempted by prosperity, then Satan will tempt you to deny your need 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:04.319 of God. 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:10.400 If you're tempted by your adverse circumstances to leave the faith, then Satan will tell you 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:12.720 to distrust God. 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:17.880 If you're tempted because your conscience is really tender, you feel the weight of guilt 00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:23.720 and shame always in your life, Satan will tell you to be a legalist, that you can never 00:19:23.720 --> 00:19:26.319 do enough to actually get God to love you. 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:31.440 If you're tempted to laxity, you're not so concerned about sin, you're tempted towards 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:36.880 freedom, then Satan will always tempt you with the classic sins of the flesh. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:42.000 If you're tempted to anxiety, Satan will always tell you to despair. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:46.480 You see, the great king, the king of this world always comes and attacks you at exactly 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:49.480 the place where you're prone to be weak. 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:50.960 That's the nature of temptation. 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:58.799 Now let me close this point and we'll very quickly close with the last two by saying this. 00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:02.960 If you're strong, Christian friends, if you're strong tonight and you stand up against all 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:07.279 the temptations of the devil, the world, the flesh and the devil come and you're not tempted 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:12.480 by sex, money, and power, building a name for yourself, chasing after all sorts of gods 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:13.960 that exist in this life. 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:18.600 And maybe you've tried that, you've gone on and on to something else and you've built 00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:21.199 strength in your heart against these things. 00:20:21.199 --> 00:20:24.679 This is the last thing the great king will do. 00:20:24.679 --> 00:20:27.439 Rapsha K, this is what he says in verse seven. 00:20:27.439 --> 00:20:31.119 He says, do you really think the Lord will deliver you? 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:35.759 You see, he had said, do you think that your stuff is going to deliver you or your intelligence 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:38.719 is going to deliver you or you're going to build a great name for yourself? 00:20:38.719 --> 00:20:43.119 And if none of that works, the next and final thing he will do is say, what about the Lord 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:44.119 himself? 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:46.039 Have you really thought about him? 00:20:46.039 --> 00:20:47.599 Have you really thought about the God you follow? 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:52.799 And he says, look, Hezekiah went and took all the altars off the high places. 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:56.839 How is your God going to hear you and respond to you? 00:20:56.839 --> 00:21:02.359 Now what he's saying there is that the Rapsha K thinks that the God of Israel, Yahweh, is 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:05.279 like the pagan deities, like all the other pagan deities. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:10.799 And the pagan deities live on tops of mountains and the more altars you can have, the more 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:16.359 grain you can give, the better chance you have to get them to do what you want. 00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:18.599 It's a tit for tat relationship. 00:21:18.599 --> 00:21:21.519 You give and maybe they'll give back and forth. 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:23.519 He thinks that the God of Israel is like that. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:29.359 What Hezekiah had actually done is cast down all these idolatrous altars and made only one 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:33.879 place for true worship, which is the temple in Jerusalem, as God had commanded in the 00:21:33.879 --> 00:21:35.039 beginning. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:37.399 But you see, here's the subtle thing. 00:21:37.399 --> 00:21:39.639 And this is what the Rapsha K is saying. 00:21:39.639 --> 00:21:46.319 You know, if you're not moved by the traditional idols, sex, money, and power, he comes in 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:54.960 and says, do you really think that the God you say you follow actually hears you? 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:58.200 You haven't built enough altars. 00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:01.399 You haven't put the altars in the right places. 00:22:01.399 --> 00:22:03.359 You haven't done enough. 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:05.079 You haven't done enough good works. 00:22:05.079 --> 00:22:07.599 You haven't put away enough sin in your life. 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:11.639 The reason that your circumstances are actually really bad, you've not gotten the things you 00:22:11.639 --> 00:22:16.200 wanted out of life is because you've never been the person God's demanded you to be. 00:22:16.200 --> 00:22:19.640 And so you can't really know that your God actually hears you. 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:23.160 You can't really know that He actually sees you, and you better know He doesn't care about 00:22:23.160 --> 00:22:24.160 you. 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:28.799 And that's the final way that the Rapsha K, the great king, the king of this world comes 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:32.600 and tries to say, open the gate of your heart to a different God. 00:22:32.600 --> 00:22:36.360 He says, you know, if it's not this, then He'll undermine. 00:22:36.360 --> 00:22:42.039 He'll say, did God really say, is God really good? 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:47.200 Now, here's the way out, secondly, and very quickly. 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:49.119 The way out is found in verse 11. 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:51.039 Here's what you do about it. 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:59.480 And in verse 11, the Rapsha K stands and speaks out to the people on the walls of Jerusalem. 00:22:59.480 --> 00:23:03.279 The advisors of Hezekiah say, please don't speak in Hebrew. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:05.399 We only want you to speak Aramaic. 00:23:05.399 --> 00:23:08.920 And the reason is because Aramaic was the lingua franca of the day. 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:11.000 It was English, like English. 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:15.359 So anytime people were in treaties or diplomacy, they would speak Aramaic. 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:18.559 But the Rapsha K knows Hebrew. 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:24.519 So he shouts in Hebrew to the walls of the people so that everybody can hear exactly 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:26.019 what he has to say. 00:23:26.019 --> 00:23:27.920 And you see, here's the final thing he does. 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.640 He doubles down and he attacks. 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:36.480 He attacks in verse 14, the king of the city of God himself. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:38.440 He says, here's the last thing. 00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:41.080 I want you to hear soldiers on the walls. 00:23:41.080 --> 00:23:44.880 I want you to hear this because it's your life that's at stake. 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:49.080 And he says this, do not listen to the king. 00:23:49.080 --> 00:23:51.120 Do not listen to King Hezekiah. 00:23:51.120 --> 00:23:54.000 King Hezekiah says, trust in the Lord and you'll be delivered. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:56.759 You cannot trust this king. 00:23:56.759 --> 00:23:57.920 You see, he doubles down. 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:02.559 He doesn't just say, can you really trust that the Lord hears you and that the Lord 00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:04.400 sees you in your life? 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:15.080 He says, no, the Lord's anointed man, this son of David, he's the one that doesn't know 00:24:15.080 --> 00:24:17.440 what he's doing. 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:24.560 You can't really believe that the son of David, the king of the city of God, the city of peace, 00:24:24.560 --> 00:24:26.840 is really the one that can deliver you. 00:24:26.840 --> 00:24:27.840 You can't believe that. 00:24:27.840 --> 00:24:29.519 Don't believe that. 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:30.840 He doesn't really have the power. 00:24:30.840 --> 00:24:33.080 And you see it, Christian friends, you see what it's saying? 00:24:33.079 --> 00:24:39.399 The great king of this world comes to the gate and says about another king, the son of 00:24:39.399 --> 00:24:41.399 David. 00:24:41.399 --> 00:24:46.399 He talks about him and he says, is your king really who he says he is? 00:24:46.399 --> 00:24:50.799 Is your king not just a first century lunatic? 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:55.799 Is your king not just completely self-centered, going around creating a following? 00:24:55.799 --> 00:24:59.399 Is he not just some revolutionary from the first century? 00:24:59.399 --> 00:25:01.799 Is it not the case? 00:25:01.799 --> 00:25:07.559 Is it not the case that the gospel writers were just trying to consolidate power around 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:11.720 this narrative that they created? 00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:17.079 Is it not the case that there are over 300 contradictions just in the gospels alone? 00:25:17.079 --> 00:25:20.799 Is it not the case that Jesus was just thought of himself as actually a moral man that never 00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:22.839 considered himself to actually be God? 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:26.639 Can you actually trust in a Jesus that you never saw, a king you never saw? 00:25:26.639 --> 00:25:31.559 You see, the Rav Shachay says, don't listen to the son of David, the king of the city 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:35.319 of God, and that's exactly what the world, the flesh, and the devil finally come and 00:25:35.319 --> 00:25:37.759 say to you. 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:44.240 And maybe tonight, today, you've listened to that. 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:52.480 And you have, you can think right now of the ways you've chased after kings in this life. 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:59.679 You've chased after money and you've trusted in some political hope, some political party 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:03.120 and creating a name for yourself and your own intelligence and your beauty and your 00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:05.960 health and your longevity. 00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:10.360 Or you've gone after all those things, you found out they were not the it, and then 00:26:10.360 --> 00:26:16.000 you pacified that longing, that melancholy with some other addiction in this life. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:18.000 You said yes. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:22.320 Every time the king of this world came knocking at the gate, you said, yes, come in. 00:26:22.320 --> 00:26:24.000 I want the peace that you're talking about. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:27.759 I want deliverance in some way that you're preaching to me about. 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:30.039 I want good circumstances and I don't have it. 00:26:30.039 --> 00:26:31.680 You've said yes. 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:33.240 Here's the way out. 00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:35.879 And it's in Matthew chapter four. 00:26:35.879 --> 00:26:42.920 At the beginning of the gospel, the great king, the king of this world came to the son 00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:47.279 of David, Jesus Christ. 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:54.720 And he said, if you will bow to me, if you will open the gate of your heart to me, I 00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:57.319 will give you the world. 00:26:57.319 --> 00:26:59.480 I will give you peace. 00:26:59.480 --> 00:27:05.039 The king of this world said to the king, the son of David, you don't have to die. 00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:06.039 I will give you peace. 00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:09.359 I will give you the good circumstances that you've always wanted and all you have to do 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:15.559 is bow to the need to the great king, the king of Assyria, Satan himself. 00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:16.599 Here's the way out. 00:27:16.599 --> 00:27:24.559 At every moment in our lives, in some way, we have said yes to the king of Assyria. 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:28.839 We have let the world to flesh and the devil come right through the gate into our hearts. 00:27:28.839 --> 00:27:31.519 Jesus Christ didn't. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:32.519 He never did. 00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:38.000 Now Satan came right to his door and he never let him in. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:43.079 He never let him through the gates, not through the city, not through the city of his heart. 00:27:43.079 --> 00:27:48.679 Adam and Eve let Satan into the Garden of Eden and he let them destroy, they let him destroy 00:27:48.679 --> 00:27:49.679 the world. 00:27:49.679 --> 00:27:52.279 Jesus Christ is the better Adam. 00:27:52.279 --> 00:27:54.279 He never did that. 00:27:54.279 --> 00:27:59.559 God said to Cain, do not let the sin that's crotching out your door come in and grab you 00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:00.559 in the heart. 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:02.920 You see, Jesus Christ, he is the better brother. 00:28:02.920 --> 00:28:05.119 He never did it. 00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:09.799 At the end of the gospel, you have to ask a question if you read carefully. 00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:11.799 Why would Jesus Christ die? 00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:17.519 If at every level he was tempted, he was tempted like we are, yet he never sinned. 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:19.839 Why is it that he had to die? 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:25.559 There's only one answer and that's because he came to take on every moment from your 00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:31.119 life where you open the gate, where you said yes, where you said I'll follow the King of 00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:33.679 this world every single moment throughout your whole life. 00:28:33.679 --> 00:28:35.799 He took that on in himself. 00:28:35.799 --> 00:28:39.579 He was righteous, but he took on our unrighteousness. 00:28:39.579 --> 00:28:41.119 He took on our idolatry. 00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:43.519 That's why he came and why he had to die. 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:47.439 That means that the only way out tonight is exactly what the rabshak says. 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:50.000 He says, who do you put your trust in? 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:51.080 It's incredibly simple. 00:28:51.080 --> 00:28:56.840 The way out of the problem of idolatry is simply this, put your trust in the only King who 00:28:56.840 --> 00:28:59.200 can actually deliver you. 00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:06.880 That's Jesus Christ, the true Adam and the better brother. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:17.840 Adam will never dismiss anyone who comes looking for deliverance in Jesus Christ. 00:29:17.840 --> 00:29:24.280 No matter what kings you have followed in this life, no matter what idols you've chased 00:29:24.280 --> 00:29:31.480 after in your life, no matter what you have done, the true King will never dismiss you 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:37.960 if you come seeking deliverance through Jesus Christ. 00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:38.960 Let's pray together. 00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:51.519 Father, we ask now that you would help us to find the rest of our hope, our trust in 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:53.519 Jesus Christ, the true King. 00:29:53.519 --> 00:30:00.319 We ask forgiveness for all the ways we have opened the gate to the King of Assyria. 00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:02.319 If it wasn't Assyria, then it was Babylon. 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:04.799 If it wasn't Babylon, then it was Persia. 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:05.799 Then it was Egypt. 00:30:05.799 --> 00:30:06.799 Then it was Rome. 00:30:06.799 --> 00:30:10.359 Every God that we could possibly chase after we've done it, Lord. 00:30:10.359 --> 00:30:13.559 We confess today our idolatry. 00:30:13.559 --> 00:30:18.799 We ask, Father, that you would show us what it means to trust in what we can't see tonight. 00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:25.519 True deliverance, a hope that's not going to leave us, a God who does not change. 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:27.599 We cast our idols before you now. 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:34.639 I pray, Lord, for someone tonight who needs to, longs to lay down their idolatry before 00:30:34.639 --> 00:30:40.639 you, before the cross, and see it crucified in Christ and find deliverance in him. 00:30:40.639 --> 00:30:46.399 We ask now that the Holy Spirit would bring that blessing to people in this room. 00:30:46.399 --> 00:30:50.079 We pray this evening in Christ's name. 00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:59.599 Amen.