Episode Transcript
All right, for you military folks, it's ten hundred. Ten o'clock.
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Second Kings chapter eighteen and verse eight is our text.
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Second Kings eighteen and verse eight.
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And we began it last week and learned about some of the ways King Hezekiah prospered
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as he was reigning over Judah.
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And verse seventeen, or verse seven, excuse me, showed us that the key to his prosperity
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was that the Lord was with him.
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And because the Lord was with him, he prospered even in rebellion against the king of Assyria.
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He prospered in service by not serving the king or the false religion of Assyria,
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but by serving the Lord, keeping his commandments.
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And I mentioned last week briefly that we don't often think of prosperity or rebellion in terms of prosperity.
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But rebelling against the kingdom of darkness is one way of looking at what we did
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when we were drawn to faith in Jesus. We repented.
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We had another mind. We changed directions in our thinking away from the kingdom of darkness.
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So we rebelled against its power through the power of the gospel.
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But I wanted to elaborate on it just a little bit.
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I think it's worth mentioning here that rebellion is prosperous when it's against an illegitimate authority,
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as were the Assyrians, as is the prince of darkness in our day.
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However, rebellion against a righteous authority is not prosperous.
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And in fact, the great sin of rebellion against a righteous authority had its root in Lucifer,
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the anointed cherub, who rejected God's righteous authority over him.
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And if you read in the Old Testament, the several places where he's talked about,
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he exalted himself or he sought to exalt himself.
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First to the sides of the mount, he wanted to be like the Most High God.
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And so that rebellion was not prosperous and we saw what the results of it were.
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Not only was Lucifer and his angelic host, the ones who followed him in rebellion, cast out of heaven,
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but they're also reserved under chains of everlasting darkness under the judgment of the great day,
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which is what the book of Jude tells you in the first part of it.
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Now, in considering prosperity and rebellion, a person might think,
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"Well, then, is it okay to rebel against a ruler whose governing policies I disagree with?"
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When you suspect, for example, that a religion or that a political candidate has gained his or her position by fraud,
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which many of them have, if some of you were around when Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in that back in the '60s or '70s,
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I was obviously playing outdoor sports with my friends and making up the rules as we go when I was that age.
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So I wasn't politically aware of anything, but there was voter fraud then.
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It didn't start in the last 10 years.
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But in any case, when you feel that a political candidate has gained his or her position by that sort of fraud,
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then you may feel entitled to rebel against that leader.
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But I want to show you that there are cases in the Bible where an unrighteous leader was placed in authority by a righteous God.
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God did it for a reason.
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And in fact, I'm going to turn to Jeremiah chapter 25.
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If you want to turn there, go ahead, but you don't have to.
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Nellie, you can do it.
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I know you know where it's at. I know you do.
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Jeremiah chapter 25.
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And I'm going to read verses 1 through 11, and what I'd like you to listen for in here is how God Himself
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commanded His people to be under a Gentile ruler.
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Jeremiah 25, I'll start reading in verse 1.
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"The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
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that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, which is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
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the which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
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'From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, even unto this day,
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that is the three and twentieth year the word of the Lord hath come unto me,
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and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but you have not hearkened.
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And the Lord has sent unto you all His servants the prophets,
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rising early and sending them, but you have not hearkened nor inclined your ear to hear.'
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They," that means these prophets and servants, "said, 'Turn ye again, now everyone from his evil way,
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and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your
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fathers forever and ever, and go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them,
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and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do you no hurt.'
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Yet you have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works
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of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, because ye have not heard my
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words. Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar,
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the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring him against this land, and against the inhabitants
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thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an
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astonishment, and an hissing, and a perpetual desolation. Moreover, I will take from them the
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voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride,
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the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land, he's speaking of Judah
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now, shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon
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for 70 years. Now in that passage, we see that unlike Hezekiah, king of Judah,
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the king of Judah in those days, and the Jews who lived there, refused to hearken to God.
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They refused to listen to the prophets he sent them. So he brought, in his own words,
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my servant. He took a Gentile king. Gentiles were the enemies of the Jews.
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He took a Gentile king, God did, and he brought that Gentile king as his own servant against Judah.
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And there in verse 11, he said Judah will serve Babylon for 70 years. Now it was not God's perfect
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will to ever have his people in subjection to anybody except for him. But you remember,
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when Israel threw off God's government under Samuel, they said we want a king. We're not going
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to have these prophets and judges over us. We want a king. And God said, all right,
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I'm going to give you a king, and here's the bad things that are going to happen when this king
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is put on the throne. But if that's what you want, we'll let you have a king. And it just never got
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right after that. So for it to come to the point where God, as we studied in the book of Jeremiah
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and other places, but where God brought his people under the rule of another king
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and said to them in this case, you're going to serve them for 70 years.
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What does that mean? Don't rebel against this king.
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You're going to serve him. And if they rebel against this king, what they're doing is they're
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actually rebelling against God because God brought that king to judge them. And had they obeyed the
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Lord, well, in fact, had they obeyed the Lord, the Bible would have been a lot shorter, wouldn't it?
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But the Bible is full of story after story, account after account of how God was merciful
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and sent his prophets and his servants to tell the people repent and the people didn't. And then
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there's the long story that follows about the bad things that happened to them. And one of those is
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that God brought Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to rule over his people. So by implication here,
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Judah was to serve Babylon, not to rebel against Babylon. In fact, I'm going to read a passage from
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Jeremiah 27 verses eight through nine. Just write that down in your notes if you want. Jeremiah 27
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verses eight through nine. Now this is after the passage that just read you. "And it shall come to
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pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon,
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and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish,
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saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them
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by his hand. Therefore, hearken not ye to your prophets." Now these are false prophets.
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"Nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers,
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which speak unto you, saying, ye shall not serve the king of Babylon." Now isn't that something
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that all of those sorcerers and diviners and enchanters, what were they saying to the children
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of Israel before in Judah? Don't serve the Lord. You don't need to do what he says. You don't need
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to follow his word. Do after the thoughts of your own heart. And now that God has put Judah under
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the king of Babylon, what are they saying again? These same diviners and sorcerers, enchanters,
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and false prophets, they're saying, "Don't serve Babylon. Rebel against Babylon." So all those
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people were good for is provoking rebellion against legitimate or against righteous authority
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that God put into place. Why could anybody say, "Well, God wasn't right by putting Nebuchadnezzar
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over his people?" No. He can't accuse God of being wrong. He was perfectly just. In fact,
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he could have destroyed them, but he didn't do that. Now what's the point of this part of the lesson?
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Well, the point is this. Some Christians wonder, and perhaps you're one of them, either watching or
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in here, wonder whether they should obey the laws under a corrupt government, whether it's national
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or state or local or the school board, for that matter. Remember, it's God who sets up kings and
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takes them down. Psalm 75, verses 6 through 7 tells us the principle there. Psalm 75, 6 through 7,
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"For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south.
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But God is the judge. He putteth down one and he set up another." Now you take that passage
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and the passages in Jeremiah and you apply them to our country right now.
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And it may well be that God has set up over us a ruler that we deserve,
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just like he did over Judah when he put Nebuchadnezzar over them. And if that's the case,
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then we're to submit ourselves just as the nation of Judah was commanded to do for those 70 years.
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And when it's time for God to destroy our earthly enemies, he's not going to put a Republican or a
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Democrat or an independent, libertarian, or Green Party member on the throne. None of them are going
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to occupy the throne. The king of kings himself will rule from his righteous throne. And that's
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who we're looking for. We're not looking for God to change this king or this president or this
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mayor over here to another so we can be holy again. None of those people are going to make us holy.
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Every time you vote, you vote for the lesser of two evils. Every time.
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And I hate that, but that's what happened when man threw off God's government in the garden
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and ever since then. Revelation chapter 19 verses 11 through 16. Revelation 19 verses 11 through 16.
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John wrote, "And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called
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faithful and true. And in righteousness does he judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of
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fire and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself.
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And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God.
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And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
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and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations.
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And he shall rule them." Who's going to rule over all these nations? The word of God,
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the Son of God, the King of righteousness, the King of kings. "He shall rule them with a rod of iron
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and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God. And he hath on his
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vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of lords." So even though Hezekiah
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prospered by rebelling against the King of Assyria and smiting the Philistines, it was because the
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Lord was with him. That's the difference. The Lord was with him. I have no reason to believe that
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in this respect the Lord is with the United States of America as a whole. Long ago the majority of
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this country and far too many of the churches set themselves against God's word. And God has been
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long suffering to our country. He's blessed our country. He's been so gracious to us. Noah Webster,
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whom you've heard of most likely, was not just the author of the English dictionary,
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but he was also one of the founding fathers of this country. And he lived in the U.S.
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He was born in Connecticut, but he lived in the U.S. both before and after the American
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Revolution took place. So he saw it from both sides. And I want you to listen to some of the
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things he said over 200 years ago. Here's one. "If the citizens neglect their duty in place,
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unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted. If a Republican government
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fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine
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commands and elect bad men to make and administer the laws." What is he saying? When you elect,
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or when you neglect God's commands, those are the divine commands. When you neglect God's commands,
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you will elect bad men and women to administer and to make your laws. And that's what's happened.
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He also said, I love this, he said, "Education is useless without the Bible."
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The Bible was America's basic textbook in all fields. God's Word contained in the Bible has
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furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct. Man, that's hitting the nail on the head.
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Now, compare those statements with the ones you hear from many leaders today. Can you imagine
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going to the school board today and taking a Bible and saying, "I'm going to purchase these
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textbooks for the students in the Rockwall Independent School District or in the Maybake
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Independent School District, wherever. I'm going to purchase these textbooks. I'd like you to take
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a copy for yourself and look at what they do." They said, "Oh, you can't do that. That's why we're
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where we are." The Supreme Court would have a cow, wouldn't they? Political leaders and community
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activists would cry, "Well, foul, you can't do that. Hey, that's what our nation was founded upon."
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And that is the only answer for our nation to return to the former glory that God gave us.
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We weren't glorious people in and of ourselves. But we're not going to get there until the King
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of Kings and Lord of Lords comes. It's just going to get worse and worse. The Bible tells us that.
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The Bible doesn't tell us it's going to get better and better here on the earth,
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but it's going to get worse and worse. "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be
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it coming to the Son of Man." Listen, I don't like paying taxes to a government that redistributes
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my money to people who don't work and could work. But I pay my taxes just as Jesus taught us to
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render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and unto God the things that are God's. But if Caesar
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ever requires the things that belong to God, I'm not paying. That's the difference. I don't
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like having to buy a license just to catch fish out of the creek. But I send my money in every year
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so I don't break the laws of this state.
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You've heard this priest before and the Bible bears it out.
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Don't disobey a law just because you don't like the person who wrote it or who passed it.
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Don't disobey a law unless that law causes you to disobey God's law.
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And that's when you disobey it. All of the laws we have had their foundation in the Bible.
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The laws against stealing, against harming other people, against doing things that are indecent.
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And they all come from not loving our neighbor as ourselves. That's what they spring from.
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But in doing this, even though you're under perhaps leaders with whom you disagree,
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obey the laws that don't cause you to disobey God's law. Be gracious, be polite, be humble,
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but be firm in your reserve to obey God's word at all costs and you will prosper like Hezekiah.
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The rebellion in which we engage is not against one party or the other.
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It's against the prince of the power of darkness. It's against the God of this world.
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And that rebellion has already been won through the gospel. Through the gospel. Jesus Christ has
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said no to the power of darkness on our behalf. Look back in your text.
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If you've lost your place, we're in 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 8.
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He smote the Philistines even unto Giza. Or today it's said Gaza. It's the same place.
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Unto Giza. Now Giza at this time in the Bible was a chief city of the Philistines.
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And by smiting the Philistines unto Giza, God showed us that He will strike at the heart
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of His enemies. And when He does that, this will cause them to fear.
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God's not going to nibble around the edge when it comes to smiting His enemies.
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Joshua chapter 10 verses 1 through 2 tell us that
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God strikes fear in the heart of His enemies. Listen to what the verses say.
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Joshua 10 verses 1 through 2. Now it came to pass when Adonai's king of Jerusalem
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heard how Joshua had taken AI and had utterly destroyed it as he had done to Jericho and
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her king. So he had done to AI and her king and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made
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peace with Israel and were among them. That they feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city
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as one of the royal cities and because it was greater than AI and all the men thereof
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were mighty. So AI was a mighty city with mighty men. But Joshua who had no special talents at all
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other than that the Lord was with him which is all he needed was able to destroy AI
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to the point where the people feared. And back in our text it also says not only under Gaza
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but and the borders thereof from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city.
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And this speaks of a complete victory. Not only did God go to the heart of the enemy there in Gaza
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but to the borders from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city. A complete victory.
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Look back and you shouldn't even have to turn a page. Maybe you have to turn one page in chapter 17
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and verse 9 where it says, "And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not
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right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities from the
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tower of the watchman to the fenced city." So there you go. That reference is back in chapter 17.
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And now what has happened in the study of our chapter? We see that all those high places in
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fenced cities and the tower of the watchman showed the extent to which Israel built these high places.
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In our text, Hezekiah gets a victory over the Philistines.
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Those high places don't mean anything to God. They're not tough for him to overcome.
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He doesn't require a lot of prayer time to overcome them. God destroys them as instantly
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as He destroys anything else. Your fenced cities, your high places, the tower where your watchman is,
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those are all nothing for God.
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Joshua chapter 15 verse 20. Joshua 15 verse 20.
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This is so you know that Gaza didn't always belong to the Philistines.
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This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.
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Now when you skip down to verse 47 in that same chapter, it says what some of those places were.
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"Ashdod with her towns and villages, Gaza with her towns and her villages,
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unto the river of Egypt and the great sea and the border thereof." How about that?
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So all these Yehus over in Gaza and these people who sympathize with Hamas,
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:14,360
who just want a two-state solution, the Bible says that belonged to Israel. God gave it to
00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:20,840
Israel a long time ago all the way to Egypt, to the great river of Egypt. None of that belonged
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to somebody else. It belonged to the children of Israel. And of course they yielded it by sin
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:32,200
and their enemies came in and then God cleared them out again. Their enemies came in and God
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cleared them out again and it still goes on to this day. But Gaza belonged to Judah.
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Judah lost it to the Philistines and now God delivered Gaza into their hands but because of
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sin their enemies had dominion over it again. Now Hezekiah got it back. You know where it is now?
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It's back in the hands of Israel's enemies.
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It's the place Hamas calls home and the place from which they launched their most recent attacks on
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:10,120
October 7th against Israel. And Israel may take it back. They're in the process of doing it but do
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you know what'll happen? They're going to lose it again. That's just the way it goes.
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I'm not a prophet. I'm just reading what God's word says has always happened to it
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and we know the Gentiles will tread down that holy city. The peace of Israel is not going to come
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from taking back all of the land that they've lost since God gave it to Joshua. It's going to come
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by accepting the Messiah whom they have rejected. And as God conquered the Philistines
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through Hezekiah, so He will once and for all conquer the enemies of the true Israel of God.
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That's the church through His Son Jesus Christ. From the borders to the tower of the watchman
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to the fence city, it will be a complete victory. I look back in your text. I'm going to read verses
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9 through 12 without comment because this is simply reminding us of the setting of the events
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in Judah in context with what was happening in Israel at the same time. Remember there are two
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:26,040
divided countries. And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, now this goes backward in
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time, which was the seventh year of Hoshiah, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of
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Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. Now remember we've already read about that.
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And at the end of the three years they took it even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the
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ninth year of Hoshiah, king of Israel. Samaria was taken and the king of Assyria did carry away
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Israel unto Assyria and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozon and in the cities of
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the Medes because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed His covenant.
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And all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded and would not hear them nor do them.
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Okay so this just gives you a reminder that Hezekiah was already on the throne
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while these things were happening in the nation of Israel. And now let's go to verse 13.
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"Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
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come up against all the fence cities of Judah and took them.
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For the first ten years of Hezekiah's reign over Judah, Assyria had been busy conquering Israel,
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conquering Samaria, and taking her people captives and distributing them in their own cities.
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And during that time the Bible tells us Hezekiah had obeyed the Lord and the Lord was with him.
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Now the king of Assyria who is not content with just taking the cities of Samaria
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has decided to turn its eyes on Judah."
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People like that never are satisfied. It was Hitler's aim to conquer the whole world. It was
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Alexander the Great's aim to conquer the whole world. Who wouldn't want the whole world under
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their thumb, right? And just like Satan, Assyria was not content with conquering some of God's
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people. They wanted all of them, all the land, all the power, everything. Our Sunday morning
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memory verse has been 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the
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devil like a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Satan will never be done with
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his mission of devouring people until he and his angels are cast into the lake of fire which burneth
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forever and ever. For Judah, had they obeyed the spirit of 1 Peter 5, 8, they would have been sober
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and vigilant in that they would have kept the Lord's commandments because Assyria was walking
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about seeking whom it may devour. And their next item on the menu was Judah.
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Now the fence cities that we see here in verse 13 and in other places too are contrasted with
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:56,360
places like country villages. I'll give you just an example out of 1 Samuel chapter 6 verse 18 and
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put the letter B, little b as in boy. 1 Samuel 6, 18, b as in boy, where it said, "According to the
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number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fence cities
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and of country villages." So there's a little difference between the fence cities and the country
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:24,680
villages. And for some reason the king of Assyria did not fear taking the fence cities of Judah.
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And it says, and we're going to see the city called Lakish there in verse 14. In fact,
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let me just read that part. "And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lakish."
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We'll stop right there. "Lakish," this is funny, "Lakish means invincible."
00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:57,960
And not the least bit invincible in here. And that's because of man's sin. The Amorites
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:09,880
originally held Lakish and probably thought, well, it's invincible. But no place is invincible when
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God sets His face against it. And although Joshua conquered Lakish, it was still not invincible when
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:28,600
Israel decided to yield herself to the world. Had Israel yielded herself to God, Lakish would have
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:38,120
been invincible. So would all of Judah and Israel. They would have remained one nation under God,
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truly one nation under God. That's another thing that bothers me about the pledge of allegiance,
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:51,640
as people say, one nation under God. And they're not submitted to God in any way, shape, form,
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:57,000
or fashion. That ought to be our pledge. But I don't know if public schools allow them to say
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:04,920
that anymore. I'm not real sure. We certainly did. Look in chapter or in verse 14, we're going to see
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:15,560
a two-fold teaching about how Hezekiah responded to the actions of this enemy king. Verse 14,
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:22,840
"And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lakish, saying, 'I have offended.
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:28,280
Return from me, that which thou putest on me will I bear.' And the king of Assyria appointed
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:34,360
unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold." Now when
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:41,720
you first read that part, you think the king of Assyria sent Hezekiah 300 talents of silver and
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thirty talents of gold. That's not what that means. That means that's what he billed him.
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It was a bill. He taxed him. And right here, Hezekiah should have sought the Lord about this
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matter. He should have gone to the Lord in prayer and said, "Lord, you've seen this wicked king
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of Assyria take the fence cities of Judah, and we're leaving this in your hands." After all,
00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:17,560
the Lord was with him. There was nothing barring him from going to the Lord asking for this,
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just like there's nothing barring us from going to the Lord and asking for the things that we
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:28,200
need when the enemy attacks us. But we don't. What's the first thing? And don't raise your
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:35,160
hand, but what's the first thing a lot of people do when they have a problem?
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:37,880
Go find their influencer on here and, "Well, she says this is what she'd do."
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:44,200
Siri, how do you overcome depression? I have four answers for you.
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:52,520
Can I get on some toes? It's okay.
00:36:52,520 --> 00:37:04,680
But Hezekiah led his spiritual guard down, didn't he?
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And he took on himself that which only God was equipped to handle.
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He said to this king, Hezekiah said to the king of Assyria, "I have offended."
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That word from the Hebrew is normally translated as the word sin.
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:29,400
So Hezekiah essentially said, "I've sinned." In other words, it's my fault that you invaded our
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:36,760
country. Boy, that doesn't make any sense, does it? And it didn't then either.
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:42,760
I have offended. How has Hezekiah offended the king of Assyria?
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The Lord was with Hezekiah. Hezekiah kept the Lord's commandments.
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And so he took that upon himself to say he has offended. Further, he said, "Return from me."
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That is, "Hey, go back home. Don't stay in these cities of mine." And Hezekiah went so far as to
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be willing to take the blame for whatever caused Sennacherib to take Judah's fence cities.
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He said, "Man, whatever the sin is, just put it on me. That which thou putest on me will I bear."
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Hezekiah was completely willing to bear the sin or the offense for Judah, for the entirety of Judah.
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Now, let's put a parenthesis here. In this saying, I cannot help but be reminded of Jesus.
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In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24, Peter wrote this about Jesus, "Who his own self bear our sins in
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:55,240
his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live under righteousness,
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by whose stripes ye were healed." Now, Hezekiah said he was willing to have the sin of Judah
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:08,600
put on him and to bear that sin. The only problem was he wasn't capable or qualified to do so.
00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:16,600
On the other hand, Jesus took the sins of the world and put them on himself,
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:22,760
though he himself knew no sin. He was capable of bearing it, and he was the only one.
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:28,440
Now, close that parenthesis. Let's look at the middle of verse 14 where it says, "And the king
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:36,680
of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents
00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:42,600
of gold." That means, as I said a minute ago, he billed Hezekiah 300 talents of silver and 30
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:50,440
talents of gold to pay for this sin, for this offense. In the Bible, silver speaks of redemption,
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:58,040
and gold speaks of the deity of God. That's one of the attributes of God that He is holy.
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:03,800
And both silver and gold were precious metals, but neither could actually redeem you or actually
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:11,160
make you holy. They simply taught us the lesson. You remember when Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus,
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:21,080
and boy, he wanted that off of him. He wanted that offense off of him, so he went to the priests.
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:26,600
That was the wrong people to go to. And he took about $52.80 worth of change, took those 30 pieces
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:35,320
of silver, threw them down there, and you know what they said? They actually told the truth. They
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:40,120
said, "What is that to us? That's not going to do you any good. See that of that. You can take that
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:44,520
back." And they were correct. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1 verses 18 through 19,
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:55,800
"For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
00:40:57,240 --> 00:41:05,800
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:12,040
and as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." And as we'll see in a few moments,
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:17,000
the price Hezekiah would pay in gold and silver would still not be enough. It wouldn't get the
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:24,280
job done. He said, "Put this offense on me, king of Assyria." And the king of Assyria said, "All right,
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:31,080
300 talents of gold and 30 talents of silver." Or 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:37,800
It doesn't matter. Verse 15, "And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:45,800
the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house." So after 10 years of good judgment, walking with
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:55,880
the Lord and in the power of God rebelling against Assyria and the Philistines, Hezekiah hits a snag.
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:03,480
He drags high center in his spiritual life, doesn't he? He gives into the demands of an earthly enemy,
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:11,240
hoping to accomplish a peaceful outcome for Judah. It's kind of like he said, "Hey God,
00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:17,160
I'm not going to bother you with this one. You've been awfully good to me. I'm going to try and
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:21,000
handle this myself." That's exactly the wrong thing to do. He gives into these demands and on one hand,
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:32,520
you may think, "Well, this is admirable. Hezekiah is willing to take on himself the offense of Judah,
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:38,280
but this was a time for him to trust the Lord and not raid the temple." And just as the great King
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:46,280
Aza, whom we've studied, made a league with Ben-Haidad, the captain of the Syrian host,
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:52,840
so the great King Hezekiah did with Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. Hezekiah raided silver that
00:42:52,840 --> 00:43:01,480
had been dedicated to the Lord's house by Solomon. And now he also gives Sennacherib the treasures
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:09,000
of the king's house. Those treasures don't belong to the king of Assyria. They belong
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:14,520
to the king of Judah. That's why God let them have those. And next week, we'll look back at the
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:23,880
treasures or the gold from the Lord's house and the treasures from the king's house.
00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:29,160
And we'll go back and look at the history of the doors of the temple.
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:35,960
But we're out of time. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the good
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:42,280
attention given by the people who are here, by those who have tuned in online, and we're thankful
00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:47,320
for every single person who put aside that time today to study the Bible with us. And we know that
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we're going to be profited greatly because we've spent time in your word. May the Holy Spirit teach
00:43:55,320 --> 00:44:00,360
us and anchor the truth in our hearts that we would not soon forget it. In Jesus' name, Amen.
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:06,600
