Episode Transcript
Well, good morning.
It's 10 o'clock.
We're in 2 Kings chapter 19.
Same place we were last week.
Verse 22 is our text.
2 Kings 19 and verse 22.
For the last few weeks we have studied in depth the offenses that Sennacher of the Assyrian king committed against the Holy One of Israel.
And we learned how he reproached Israel.
He blasphemed Israel and exalted his voice and lifted up his eyes on high against Israel, which was against the Holy One of Israel.
And now we're going to finish studying the phrase lifted up thine eyes on high.
That was one of the accusations made against Sennacher of about what he had done, how he had offended the Holy One of Israel.
And it said he lifted up his eyes on high.
So 2 Kings 19 22 go with me there and I'll read what Isaiah said about Sennacher of and he's speaking on behalf of God.
He said, whom has thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom has thou exalted thy voice and lifted up by an eyes on high, even against the Holy One of Israel.
And so we will finish up with lifted up thine eyes on high and then study a little more about the Holy One of Israel.
Let me tell you how many people lift up their eyes against the Holy One of Israel.
I'll give you an example.
A man gets cancer, which is a deadly enemy to be sure.
And that man is an unbeliever or perhaps he's just a shallow Christian whose faith is weak.
And so the man endures chemotherapy and radiation and all the pain and suffering that goes with it.
And so the man ends up going into remission and surviving this terrible foe.
And at the end of it all, he says, well, I got lucky this time.
Now that's someone who's lifted his eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel.
God gives life and God takes it away.
God heals and God gives grace.
And every week we pray for people who have various needs and a lot of them have physical needs.
And we've prayed for people who have cancer and heart problems and so on.
And when God heals such a person, we turn that around.
I have a little notation I make in my prayer list when I'm writing down prayer requests on Wednesday night.
And I divide it into prayer requests and then I have the R X for prescription.
That's my medical term.
Those are the medical needs people have.
So I have them in a separate category.
And whenever there's a praise from someone or about someone who's been healed, I put a little arrow that points up at the end of their name.
And when I pray, remember to praise God for what he's done for that person.
And when God heals a person, we rejoice.
But I often wonder how the person who was healed responds to that grace.
Do they thank God or do they assign their favorable outcome to luck or their personal strong will or some other factor?
And I know people throw the term luck around.
They say, well, I was lucky or I got lucky enough to have this friend.
There's no such thing as luck.
That's just a saying.
It's all it is.
And every one of us have said it, but there's no such thing.
Don't depend on luck.
We went to Durant, Oklahoma yesterday and ate at a fine barbecue restaurant.
We're willing to take the hour and a half drive to do that.
Sarah and Becky and I went and the young lady who was our server asked us if we were going to go to the casino up there.
They have a huge casino in Durant.
And I said, no, we're not gamblers.
And she said, but you might win.
Well, I'll tell you what, I'll take a solid 5% interest on an aggressive savings account where I will win.
And I won't lose any of it over something like that.
But she would have said, had we continued that conversation, you might get lucky and there's no such thing.
There are mathematical probabilities.
There are certainties and everything in God's eyes is certain.
He knows the beginning from the end.
He doesn't wait around saying, well, we'll see if this happens.
Maybe luck will be on my side.
That's how silly that notion is.
But do these people who are healed, thank luck or their personal strong will or some other factor?
Or do they humble themselves as the public and did in the story we read, do they acknowledge that they've received mercy and grace and healing for which they were not worthy?
Or do they lift up their eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel as Sennacher did?
Luke chapter 17 verses 12 through 19.
Luke 17, 12 through 19 as we continue to explore how people lift up their eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel.
Speaking of Jesus, and as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off.
And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
Now, they didn't lift their voices up against the Holy One of Israel.
They lifted their voices up to the Holy One of Israel.
And when he saw them, he said unto them, go, show yourselves unto the priests.
And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.
And he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine?
They are not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger.
And he said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
So those other nine who had lifted up their voices, wanting their leprosy healed, when it was healed, they just went on their way.
But rather than lifting up his eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel after he was healed, this leper about whom we read fell on his face in thanksgiving.
Now I wonder what the other nine said when they walked away.
Perhaps one of them said, ha, it's my lucky day.
That leprosy just fell off of me.
I must be living right.
Or maybe another said, I guess I've just got good genes.
That leprosy went away just like that.
Whatever they said, whatever they did, their hearts were just as the Pharisees heart who lifted up his eyes in pride.
And like Sennacherib, who lifted up his eyes in pride.
All the deliverance and salvation from sin was available to him, just like it was the Jews.
He just didn't want any of it.
And we learned that his sin against God the Father was also a sin against God the Son and God the Holy Spirit for the three or one Godhead.
Now let's look specifically at the word holy as it pertains to the Holy One of Israel.
And it is capitalized.
Looking down in your text in verse 22, even against the Holy One of Israel without the italics in there and just for you who may be new to this.
When you see words that are italicized in your Bible, those are words that were not in the original language, but they are supplied by the translators to help you understand the translation from Hebrew to English.
Or from Greek to English or Aramaic to English.
Most of it is going to be Hebrew and Greek.
Old Testament, Hebrew, New Testament, Greek.
So if those words were not supplied, then you would have a hard time understanding in some cases what the original language was saying.
Because any of you who know at least two languages know that you cannot translate directly word for word from one language to another.
You just can't do it.
My second language is Spanish.
Brother Luke speaks Japanese as well.
And some of you may have other languages you know.
But that's why you see the italics there.
So without the italics, we have this phrase against the holy of Israel.
The holy.
And holy is pure and clean.
And because it's capitalized, it is a proper noun.
That means this holy or this holy one is a person.
And that person is the Lord Jesus Christ, God, the son, the son of God.
And if it's the son of God, then it is God against whom Sinacarab, the Assyrian king lifted up his eyes on high.
It's against God, the son whom he blasphemed and reproached and against whom he exalted his voice as we learned last week.
Now don't think for a moment if you're thinking, well, how would Sinacarab know what he's doing here?
How would he know what his offense was?
Don't think for a moment that the devil and his crowd don't know who the holy one of Israel is.
Mark chapter one verses 23 through 24.
Mark chapter one verses 23 through 24.
And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.
And he cried out saying, let us alone.
What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us?
Listen to what they said.
I know thee, who thou art, the holy one of God.
Now the verse says this was an unclean spirit and the plural nouns us might make you think, wait a minute, how many spirits was this?
They were unclean spirits all from the one who is unclean, Satan.
So this was an unclean spirit.
What does that tell us about the spirit?
We know that spirit was not of God.
It was a spirit or spirits sent from the devil because there's nothing unclean about God.
There's nothing unclean or defiled that is allowed to remain in his presence for he judges it.
He destroys it.
And yet these unclean spirits knew that Jesus was the holy one of God.
James two, 19, James chapter two verse 19.
Thou believeth that there is one God thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble.
Satan and his angels, his unclean spirits will never be able to say we did not realize that Jesus was the holy one of God or we would have never spoken against him.
They'll never be able to say that there without excuse.
That would be a lie.
The unclean recognizes the clean.
The unclean recognizes the clean.
He just doesn't want to be like him.
And looking at this in terms of salvation, a lost sinner must not only realize that he's lost, but he must realize he's unclean.
Why is that so important?
Well, if a person realizes he's lost and many religious people do, maybe most, he realizes he's lost it.
But he doesn't think he's unclean, which most religious people think, well, I was nothing.
I'm not that bad.
I've had a few in my lifetime say, well, I've never done anything bad enough to send me to hell.
Well, that's because you don't realize you're unclean.
You know you're lost, but you don't realize you're unclean.
And if a person is realizing he's lost but doesn't think he's unclean, then he'll use the works of his hands to try to bring salvation to himself.
Think about this with me.
The religious man who realizes he's lost wants to be reconciled to God.
Now, that goes for the one who realizes he's unclean and the one who doesn't think he is unclean.
And the religious man will acknowledge that God is clean, but he doesn't see himself as unclean.
Isaiah the prophet saw himself as unclean.
He saw mankind as unclean, every one of them.
Isaiah 64 and verse 6, Isaiah 64 verse 6, where he wrote, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf.
And our iniquities like the wind have taken us away."
The word unclean there means impure, defiled, polluted.
And notice in that passage, in that verse, Isaiah said, "Our righteousnesses," that means our works of righteousness or our works of justice, what we think is right.
"Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."
Now, this is graphic, but this is the Bible.
It often is.
The word filthy is from a word that means menstruation.
And that was a time of physical uncleanness for a woman in the Bible.
There were actually laws about that that God gave the children of Israel.
And rags are garments or clothes.
So, Isaiah, another way of seeing this or another set of words used to describe it is, Isaiah said that our righteous acts are like polluted, bloody clothes.
And yet, the wearer of those polluted, bloody clothes often thinks himself to be clean in the sight of the Holy One.
Now, those of you who've had children, especially little boys, they're the major offenders in this particular class of crimes.
You say, "Go wash your hands before supper."
And they come back, and you say, "Show me your hands."
And they don't look like they've seen a bar of soap in a week.
And you ask them, "Did you wash your hands?"
And they go, "Yeah."
And what they did is they turned the water on and went like that, and then just dried them off on their pants and came into the kitchen.
Now, they don't believe there's anything wrong with their hands.
They don't see their hands as unclean.
But you do, because you know what clean hands look like.
And you also know what little boys do.
Now, I know little girls do that too.
But I remember being that offender and doing it.
So, think of Sennacherib.
He is a wearer of polluted, bloody clothing, spiritually speaking.
And he is standing in front, or standing before God, the Holy One of Israel, blaspheming him, reproaching him, exalting his voice against him, lifting up his eyes on high.
He doesn't see himself as unclean.
In Psalm 51, verse 14, to contrast this attitude, in Psalm 51, 14, David prayed, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness."
You see, David knew that his righteousness was exactly what Isaiah said it was.
It was a filthy rag.
And he didn't come to God, he didn't stand before the Holy One of Israel, as Sennacherib did, saying, "Nothing wrong with me.
You can't save these people any more than these other gods could save their people."
No, David said, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness."
David knew he was wearing polluted garments as a man.
He did not say, "Lord, accept me in my blood-guiltiness."
And many religions say, "Well, just do your best.
God will understand.
Just keep on keeping on, and keep trying, and keep your eyes on the prize," and all of these silly notions.
And those are preachers who are telling people, "You don't need to be forgiven of your blood-guiltiness, you're fine.
Go to God just like you are, and He'll take you just like you are."
No, He won't.
Because at the white throne judgment, there are going to be people who present themselves just as they are.
Sinners, lost, having rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ, standing there in their own excellence.
And what is Jesus going to say?
"Come on, it's okay."
He said, "No, depart from me.
I never knew you."
No, David said, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, not accept me in it."
He knew His blood-guiltiness made Him unclean, so He dare not ask the Lord to accept Him in it, but rather to deliver Him from it.
And that's what every person needs.
And there's only one way to do that, and you in the Genesis to Jesus class and those in here, we learn what that was.
And we reinforce that every week, every message, that it's the gospel of Jesus Christ and your faith in that gospel, the record that God gave of His Son, His death, burial, and resurrection, all those say the same thing.
It's your faith that allows God to see you as clean.
In His text there in Isaiah 64.6, Isaiah also wrote, "We all do fade as a leaf."
Now to fade is to wear away or to wither up, and about this time of year that's what leaves are doing, isn't it?
Especially the further north you go, the quicker that happens, and eventually we'll have those leaves fading, turning loose, dropping to the ground, and then from there they just keep fading and then they turn into almost like rice paper.
And they just begin to crumble when you walk on them and they become a part of the ground again.
They decompose and they don't ever gain life, do they?
Isaiah said, "We're just like that."
So what does a leaf do when it falls from a tree or when it's plucked from a branch even?
It fades away.
And the unclean man who stands before God, who not only believes his filthy clothes are clean, also believes that his leaf will not fade away.
I borrowed this idea from Brother Fulton the first time I ever taught a creation to Christ class, and I may have shared it with you before, but not all of you were here.
And not all of you tuned in to hear it.
And I clipped a small piece, we'd call it a sprig, around here.
I clipped a small sprig of a red tip photinia bush from outside our church building.
And it was a beautiful arrangement.
And I set it down on the communion table at the church where I was teaching.
And I did this when I was teaching about what happened to Adam and Eve after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God had already told them, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."
And so the question arose from the students, and it did from me too until I learned this truth.
If they ate of that tree, why didn't they fall dead right then?
Why didn't they fall immediately upon putting that forbidden fruit in their mouths?
Now had they obeyed God, they would have lived in perfect harmony with him.
But because they sinned, they were cut off from their source of life, just like I cut that red tip photinia sprig off of its source of life.
And when I did that, it was still just as beautiful as it was when it was on that bush.
You couldn't have told the difference.
And because Adam and Eve sinned, they were cut off from their source of life at that very moment.
They began to die.
In fact, they were dead in trespasses in sin.
God gave them a law, one law, and they broke it.
And we know what happened.
They were cast out of the garden and all of that.
Their souls, their mind, will, and emotions, that's what your soul is.
You've got body, soul, and spirit.
And you'll see that taught in the New Testament very clearly.
You have a body, soul, and spirit.
Paul prayed that your whole body, soul, and spirit be sanctified.
And that soul is the mind, the will, and the emotions.
That was corrupted.
And spirits, that is the part of us that knows God or rejects God.
The spirit was lost.
And their bodies would also grow old and die.
But because they sinned, they were dead in sins.
In other words, they were leaves that began to fade.
And they'd wear away because they were cut off from their source of life.
Now over the weeks, as I taught, the sprig I cut from that photinia bush began to fade.
The leaves began to turn brown and wither.
And that once green, very small piece of branch began to dry up.
When I first picked it off, I could have done this with it and it would have been okay.
It would have flexed back into position.
But after a few weeks, if I did this, it would break.
Now the only problem is I didn't get to do that because one of the families who had signed up to clean the church that week threw it away.
And he didn't realize that I still needed it.
He didn't realize what I was going to use it for.
And so I mentioned it during the class.
And so he went outside and he didn't cut another piece off that photinia bush.
He cut one of the vinca flowers that I had planted out there to make the church look pretty.
And he brought it in and said it right up there.
And bless his heart, I never said a word to him.
I didn't say, "Jimmy, those were the flowers I planted to make the church look better."
Because his heart was in the right place and it was more important for me to teach the lesson than it was to say something to him about those $2 flowers.
But the leaves faded because they were dead.
They didn't die because they were faded.
They faded because they were already dead.
They'd been cut off from their source of life.
And that's what Isaiah said, "We are."
We're like a leaf that does fade.
A man is a sinner and his leaf fades.
His sinful body is going to die.
And he can't stop it.
There's no source of life for his corrupt body to keep living forever.
God made sure of that when he did not let man eat of the tree of life after he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He made sure he would not live forever.
And boy, wouldn't that have been terrible to live forever as a sinner.
I'm so glad God didn't allow that.
All are dead in trespasses and sins.
In fact, there's no source of life for the corrupt body, the corrupt spirit, the corrupt soul.
And only when a person is born again.
This doesn't mean that you're just a changed man.
Born again.
Become a new creature in Christ.
And only when a person is born again will he be reunited to the Holy One of Israel.
Who gives life to his soul, to his spirit, and who gives him a glorified body.
He doesn't give life to this corrupt body.
He says, "You're going to trade that in, and you're going to get a better deal on the trade in than you had before.
You're going to get a glorified body that lives forever."
After the resurrection or the rapture.
Which are within just a few moments of each other, by the way.
Okay, you have that fixed in your mind now.
So the unclean man who comes to God must know that he's unclean.
The faded leaf who comes to God must know that he's a faded leaf.
And he's been cut off from his source of life.
Now he doesn't have to come and say, "Lord, I know I'm a faded leaf.
I know I'm an unclean man.
My weaknesses are as filthy rags."
These are simply ways of the Bible describing the plight of a sinner.
And there's so many ways the Bible does that.
And one of those appeals to you.
At some point you say, "I understand that.
That's exactly what I am.
That hits home."
I'm glad God does that for us.
He uses his word to describe things different ways.
He uses those different ways to teach us.
To bring his own works of righteousness to God, which Isaiah called filthy rags.
He called those works filthy rags.
Is to seek to attach an unclean thing to that which is clean.
2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 through 17.
2 Corinthians 6, 14 through 17.
What are we learning what a fool's anacrob was?
Paul wrote, "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And what communion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ with belial?
Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"
That's an unbeliever.
"And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
And what is the temple of God with the living God?
As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you."
God has made it very clear that there is no fellowship between light and darkness.
Between Christ and Belial, between believers and unbelievers, between the temple of God and idols, between the clean and the unclean, there's no fellowship.
And the Holy One of Israel is not to be approached, much less by an acrob, but even by the most religious person who believes he'll be accepted by God in the person's uncleanness.
That fated leaf dare not approach God, believing his fated leaf has life, and must simply just be rejoined to God by sincerity, or perhaps prayer, or some kind of religious act.
Friend, you and I are unclean.
We're fated leaves.
And until we place our faith in the Holy One of Israel, the one who is holy, then we're going to remain in our uncleanness.
You die in your sins.
The unclean sin acrob acknowledged that the God of Israel existed, but he minimized God.
He likened God to that which was unclean, those false gods of the other nations.
And God who is clean, who is pure, who is undefiled, who is not polluted, to the unclean, polluted, defiled, manmade, handmade gods of the other nations, including his own.
He linked God to these unclean idols, and he did not truly acknowledge that God was the Holy One of Israel.
And when he lifted up his eyes against the Holy One of Israel, he knew what he was doing.
Don't feel sorry for him.
In fact, sin acrob was so arrogant that he never claimed that the God of Assyria was the only God.
You'll see later that he has a so-called God in Assyria.
He never even gave his own God the credit for all of these conquests.
In fact, sin acrob shared the credit between himself and the other Assyrian kings.
If you're in 2 Kings 19, just look up at verse 8 with me.
I want to reread verses 8 through 12, and you'll see who he gave credit to.
So, Rab Sheikah returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
And when he heard, say of Tihaka, king of Ethiopia, "Behold, he has come out to fight against thee," he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, "Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, "Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee."
Now that's calling God an unclean thing right there, isn't it?
Saying God's a deceiver.
Saying, "Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria."
"Behold, thou has heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan and Haran and Rezaf and the children of Eden, which were in Thelasar?"
Now you contrast the Assyrians' view of who was responsible for their victories.
With David's view of who was responsible for his victories, we find it in Psalm chapter 18 and verse 17.
Psalm 18 verse 17.
Speaking of God, David wrote, "He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me, for they were too strong for me."
Wow, what an admission!
Now this is David, the mighty warrior, who with a sling and a stone, and Goliath's own sword, slayed Goliath.
Did you remember that?
After he knocked him on the ground by sinking the stone into his forehead, he used Goliath's sword to cut Goliath's head off.
That's this David who said, "My enemies were too strong for me."
And that included Goliath.
If this man-on-man, Goliath, would have whipped him all over the countryside.
But David wasn't alone, was he?
This is the mighty warrior about whom this song was written.
"Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."
That's in 1 Samuel 18.7.
And yet David credited God with deliverance from all his strong enemies.
Sennacherib, on the other hand, not only did not give God to credit, he didn't acknowledge our God, but he also gave his own God no credit for his victories.
If there's any sort of religious writings that pertain to the God of the Assyrians, I doubt there's a psalm in there where Sennacherib said, "My God delivered me from all of my enemies."
He never gave him credit for that.
2 Timothy 3, verses 10-12.
Paul wrote, "But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions."
Now those are all enemies, excuse me, all enemies.
"Which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured.
But out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
Now Paul never took credit for enduring his trials in the flesh by his own strength.
He never ascribed to himself some kind of super power that allowed him to overcome his enemies, whether they were physical or spiritual.
He never said, "I've got a doctor in the law of the Old Testament.
I'll take care of this.
Lord, spend your time on somebody who's not as educated as me."
He never used his education, or never bragged on his education, as that which caused him to prevail over his enemies.
Persecution is the equivalent of the Assyrian army.
The devil's representatives were involved in both of them.
The Assyrian army threatening Judah, having already conquered Samaria, or the northern kingdom.
And persecution threatening Paul.
And even though the devil's representatives are involved in all of those persecutions, and all of those threatenings, it's God who's in control of them.
It's God who allows them and directs them for his own purpose.
So it's never out of control.
In fact, persecution, if you like math, I'll keep it simple in case you quit seventh grade algebra, okay?
In case you transferred to another class.
Persecution is like a mathematical equation.
A plus B equals C.
Now I know those aren't numbers, they're letters, but we do use them in math to help us find the numbers, don't we?
A plus B equals C, where A equals all Christians.
B equals that which will live godly in Christ Jesus.
And C equals shall suffer persecution.
So you have A plus B equals C.
And if the word all, he said, "yea, that all that shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
If the word all is used, then it's not hit or miss, isn't it?
It's not most or a few or some.
It doesn't say all who live will suffer persecution.
It doesn't say all who live godly in Christ Jesus may suffer persecution.
It's just as certain as two plus two equals four.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
A plus B equals C, every time.
And it's no mistake that this follows that, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Now get this now.
All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and the Lord will deliver them all, He will deliver them out of all of those persecutions.
So it's a guarantee that if you live godly in Christ Jesus, you will suffer persecution.
Now it comes in different levels.
Some of it is just people making fun of you, or making fun of Jesus around you, knowing that it irritates you.
I had a man not too long ago, he said, "My Jesus is hanging out with Led Zeppelin and got along here and playing a guitar."
And there's just no use talking to somebody like that.
I just let him, you go ahead.
I'm going to kick the dust off for right now.
When you get humbled, when you get ready to learn about the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll be right there to help you, to tell you, to show you what the Bible says.
But with that attitude, there's just no use trying to talk to somebody like that, because they're trying to make you mad.
And God can take care of himself.
But you're going to suffer persecution as little as that, or as much as being imprisoned for your faith, and possibly killed, and maybe your family killed.
It comes at all levels, but you will suffer persecution.
But what does it say?
How many of those persecutions, out of how many of those persecutions will the Lord deliver you?
All.
Every one of them.
You say, "What if I die?
You'll be delivered.
You'll go be with him."
You won't have to worry about this arthritic body that gets peanut butter stuck in the roof of its mouth and can't get it off, right, sister?
Yeah, that hurts and degenerates.
God will deliver you from all of those persecutions.
And only God can deliver his people from these trials.
And only he gets the credit for doing it, and you should only give him the credit for doing it.
The Sennacherib and the rest of the devil's crowd will not give God the glory for anything, but then again, they will never be persecuted for living godly in Christ Jesus, will they?
Because they don't live godly in Christ Jesus.
So they, while you're being persecuted, Sennacherib is doing the persecuting, and he doesn't get persecuted, and you're living godly in Christ Jesus, and you're on the receiving end of that persecution, it may be easy to say, "Boy, he's got it made."
No, he doesn't.
His time is short, and his time was short, as we'll see in about a chapter from where we are now.
So what are these who don't live godly in Christ Jesus?
These who are lost, these who reproach the Holy One of Israel, what are they waiting on?
One thing, that's the wrath of God.
The wrath of God.
They are not awaiting the deliverance they rejected, they didn't want that.
They rejected the Holy One of Israel, they rejected the deliverance of the Holy One of Israel.
They await the wrath of God.
Look at verse 23.
We can't start it yet, it's time.
We've got to go.
We'll pick up verse 23.
Nice clean break for next week.
Let's pray.
Lord, we're so thankful for those who came to hear Your word, and for those who tuned in, every one of them are precious to us, and they're precious to You.
And I pray, Lord, that Your Spirit would teach them what they've heard today, and that only truth would settle in their hearts, and anything which confuses or blinds would be wiped away.
And Lord, we thank You for the grace You've shown us as a church, and we pray during the next hour that as we worship You, we do so in Spirit and Truth, that You fill our pastor with Your Spirit as He teaches us from the Book of Hosea, and that we would all walk away from here, edified in Your word, and that the lost, those who've heard about You, who are familiar with the record of Your Son, but have rejected it as their own salvation, that they would come to place their trust what you've done for their sin.
In Jesus name, Amen.
