Episode Transcript
Good morning.
It's 10 o'clock.
Ann, I'm sorry to cut into your story about the bathroom sink, but can we pick it up right after we finish Sunday school?
I'm sorry to do.
That was about to be a good story, but I thought, man, I can't miss 10 o'clock.
We're in 2 Kings chapter 19 and verse 29.
2 Kings 19 verse 29.
That's a new verse for us as we finished verse 28 last week.
And God told Sennacherib last week that he would put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips and turn him back by the way which he came.
So if you're there, let's just go right into our text in verse 29.
"And this shall be a sign unto thee, ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves and in the second year that which springeth of the same and in the third year sow ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruits thereof."
Now let's remind ourselves that Isaiah the prophet is the one doing the speaking here.
And he has just addressed Sennacherib.
He has told us the words that God would speak to Sennacherib.
And as we come upon verse 29, we're going to change gears a little bit.
And let's just go ahead and look at some of the words.
It said, "And this shall be a sign unto thee."
Now a sign is a token, or it's even a pledge, as both words are used to translate the original Hebrew word in the Old Testament.
So you could have sign or token or pledge.
And there are several places in the Bible that say, "And this shall be a sign unto thee."
In fact, among the greatest of those written is found in Luke chapter 2 verses 10 through 12.
Luke 2 verses 10 through 12 which says, "And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you.
You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.'"
So Old and New Testament, we see that phrase, "And this shall be a sign."
And in that account of the announcement of Jesus' birth, the angel declared that Christ was born.
And then the angel told them what sign or pledge there would be.
And how will you know what the angel said is true?
Here's how.
"You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger."
And often when God tells us in His Word that something will happen, He also tells us what the sign will be.
He proves it to us.
And God's signs are so exact they cannot be mistaken for some random event or chance encounter or occurrence as some people might think.
Now concerning this passage, I have to admit I had some difficulty determining the person to whom God was speaking through Isaiah in this verse.
And after much study on it, I came to the conclusion that in beginning in verse 29, God is speaking to Hezekiah, not Sennacherib.
And I'll share with you why in just a moment.
And more specifically, I do not believe even if the case is made that He was speaking to Judah as a whole, if He speaks to Hezekiah, He's speaking to Judah.
But I do not believe He was speaking to Sennacherib in verse 29.
And rather than just taking my word for it, I want to give you the evidence that I used to arrive at this conclusion.
And this is how you have to study the Bible.
You come across a passage that doesn't seem to go with the other ones, then you need to look deeper and see why that's the case.
The first piece of evidence that leads me to believe that God is speaking not to Sennacherib but to Hezekiah here in verse 29 is that in the prior verse, God told Sennacherib He would turn him back by the way he came.
That means He's going to stop his movement and send him back another way.
And in fact, let's read the next few words in verse 29.
It said, "And this shall be a sign unto thee, ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves.
And in the second year that which springeth of the same and the third year sow ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruits thereof."
Now the person or persons to whom God is speaking are going to eat from a harvest for three years.
That's very plain right here in the text.
Now skip down to verse 32 just so we can really drive this point home.
Verse 32, "Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria," now he's talking to someone, "He shall not come into this city."
Now right there, "He shall not come into this city," means Sennacherib will not enter Jerusalem.
And if he does not enter Jerusalem, how can he eat of the harvest for three years?
He can't.
So there's one piece of evidence that I believe suggests that verse 29 was directed away from Sennacherib and most likely to Hezekiah.
Now a second proof here that it's not Sennacherib to whom God is speaking is found down in verses 35 and 36.
Now we'll expand those verses later but I'm using them right now so we can get a running start at figuring out who God is speaking to.
Verse 35, "And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred four score and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all as they were all dead corpses.
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh."
If God was going to kill the Assyrians and if Sennacherib was going to return to Nineveh that day, then he could not possibly eat of that harvest in verse 29 for three years.
In fact, he would die very soon after going home.
We'll look at that in more detail in later studies.
And then a third proof I believe that suggests that God is speaking not to Sennacherib but to Hezekiah there in verse 29.
There are two Bible translations that have the name Hezekiah in the translation of this verse and one of those is called the Latin Vulgate, meaning the language that was used to translate the Bible was Latin, and the other is the New International Version or the NIV, both of which show in those translations that God is addressing Hezekiah.
Now I don't put a lot of stock in that just because those two translations elected to put Hezekiah as the person being addressed.
And one reason is the name Hezekiah is not in the original text.
You don't see it in there.
So I needed a little bit more proof than what those two translations suggest, but I think the internal evidence we looked at a moment ago, those two pieces of evidence there in chapter 19, is sufficient for me to conclude that God was speaking to someone besides Sennacherib and it's most logical he was speaking to Hezekiah and Jerusalem and Judah.
Now in our text the sign that God is about to give through Isaiah's words will show that it was God who turns Sennacherib back by the way which he came and God who prospered and delivered Judah.
In fact the sign will prove that it was God who executed His will in this matter.
You know the false prophets of our day will try to predict things that are going to happen to people and they'll say, "Oh God told me this or told me that."
Man you can usually turn the TV off if you even had it on in the first place when they say, "God just told me," you can just shut her down right there because if it's not in His Word then God didn't tell them anything.
They're lying but when they do make these predictions they're normally quite vague about what will happen to someone.
In fact their prophecies are more like what you'd read in a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant.
You will prosper very soon.
Well what does that mean?
And so if you find a penny in the parking lot maybe that is the fulfillment of that prophecy I don't know.
But God's signs are spot on and His predictions always come true exactly like He said they would and they're exact.
They're so exact they could not be mistaken for chance occurrences.
And if these so-called preachers and self-proclaimed prophets wanted to speak prophecy that would always come true then they could just preach the Bible.
If they just do that every prophecy I preach from this Bible will come true.
If it hasn't already it will come true.
Not because I'm preaching it but because of what I'm preaching and who said it, who wrote it.
And I love preaching signs and wonders and events that will one day happen.
I love telling about the ones that have already come to pass in God's Word.
And I'm not afraid that they may not come to pass.
I don't sit around twiddling my thumbs.
I don't sit around wiping my brow saying, "Boy I sure hope God comes through on this."
I know He's going to because He has already.
If someone asks, "Well what do you think God is going to do to the United States?"
Or, "Do you believe the Chinese will invade us one day?"
And my answers to those and many questions like it are, "I don't know and I don't know."
But if you ask me if Jesus will come in the clouds and gather His elect from the earth and pour out His wrath on the unbelievers, I will gladly tell you yes and amen.
I don't say I don't know to those.
Now let's look at the sign that God will give to Judah.
He said back in verse 29, "Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves."
Now this is pretty neat.
First let's look at the phrase, "Ye shall eat."
I like when food comes with a sign, don't you?
That's just a bonus.
But if you could imagine this scene as we've watched it unfold over several months now, you might understand why eating was very important to the people who were inside the walls of Jerusalem because Assyria is outside threatening them.
The Assyrian army, Sennacherib specifically, claimed to have dug and drunk and dried up strange waters wherever he went.
And when his city is surrounded or is under siege, they will eventually starve to death if they cannot have access to water or go in and out of the city to trade and farm and so forth.
That's what happened in Vicksburg in the war between the states.
They were starved out.
And when God told these people, "Ye shall eat," He was letting them know, "I'll provide for you."
God would provide sustenance to these people who were wholly undeserving of it, just like we are, and He'd do it by His grace.
God could have allowed Sennacherib to inflict great damage to Jerusalem and all of Judah like He did in Samaria, the northern kingdom, but He was gracious to them.
Hezekiah and a remnant of Judah trusted in the Lord and so He promised them they would eat.
Matthew chapter 6 verses 31 through 33, Matthew 6 verses 31 through 33, Jesus said, "Therefore take no thought saying, 'What shall we eat?'"
Now that's what the people in Judah were no doubt thinking, especially inside Jerusalem.
"Take no thought saying, 'What shall we eat?'
or 'What shall we drink?'
or 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed?'
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."
Now Hezekiah is putting that in the shoe leather.
He is.
He has trusted the Lord.
He went, remember he went to the temple.
He spread this letter before the Lord, this threatening letter from the Assyrians saying what they were going to do and how they were going to do it.
He laid it out there before God and he said, "Lord this is this is for you.
This mail is not for me.
I can't open and read and handle what is in this letter.
So I'm laying it before you."
You know I love the lesson about the lilies last Sunday morning and if you don't know what I'm talking about go back and listen to the pastor's lesson because he used an earlier part of the passage that we just read from and now what we're looking here is that God told Hezekiah and Judah, "Ye shall eat."
And they didn't have to worry about God letting them starve during all of this conflict and every time God fed his people whether in the wilderness during their exodus from Egypt or in our current study the people were to be reminded of God's gracious provision for them and that's what thanksgiving is anyway isn't it is regardless of the time of year or the fall leaves or the fourth Thursday in in November is to always be reminded of God's gracious provision for you and they were also to be reminded that the bread that He would give them would speak of eternal life which is the bread that would give eternal life the flesh of the Son of God who He gave for the life of the world that was one of our scripture memories there John 6 51 I believe now back in our text let's see when Judah would eat it says this year that means the supply for their food would be immediate and what good would it do if the people in Jerusalem were hungry and without food and God said you shall eat next year of the things that grow of themselves now they'd starve to death before then wouldn't they they didn't need that next year they needed it right now and God said this year you shall eat this year so God knows not only what they need food but he knows when they need it so don't ever forget that truth God knows what you need and he also knows when you need it so when you've labored in prayer for something whatever it may be and you feel like God's putting you off or hasn't answered you he knows when you need what you ask for in fact he knows if you need it and if you need it then he knows when and what and what measure and all of that often in our prayers we may ask God to do things for us in a hurry we want God to be in a hurry like us we might ask God to bless our request according to our timeline and we try to run ahead of God kind of like a child does in the store and they pick out what they want and that may not always be good for them and then we ask God to grant it what we want when we want it but God knows what we need right now this year and he knows what we don't need this year as well you know if a young man here's an example if a young man became a Christian and immediately asked God to find him a church so he could pastor he wanted to pastor he might pray for God to open that door for him maybe find him a church that's without a pastor but God's already given the answer for that hasn't he in first Timothy three verse six first timothy three verse six speaking of what a bishop or pastor should be it says not a novice it means not a beginner not a novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil so he tells him what he can't be and why because he'll be lifted up with pride so God may grant that such a young man may pastor one day but not this year so he knows what we need this year and he knows what we don't there were a couple of times as a young bible teacher that I asked God to open a door for me to pastor a church I'm so glad he didn't I really am brother Doug because I was not nearly mature enough in his word to be a pastor and but when I asked God to help me study his word then I can claim the promise that he gave Judah you shall eat this year he has never failed me when I've asked him to help me right now Lord I'm studying your word getting ready to teach these precious people who come and who tune in the ones who watch later and I don't want to fail them I don't want to starve them to death and so those are the right now prayers and he has always been faithful he's never failed me when I've studied his word and asked him to help me to get it right and I hadn't always gotten it right but that wasn't his fault that was my my own foolheadedness for not studying like I'm supposed to he's always faithful to teach me by his spirit the truth of his word and that's how he does that so we've seen who will eat that's Judah we've seen when they will eat this year now let's look at what they shall eat he said such things as grow of themselves do you know what we would call things that grow of themselves volunteer plants I've had volunteer tomato plants and I've had volunteer squash just come right up the next year I didn't even plant them they came up where I did not sow and they grew of themselves now let's go back to the book of Leviticus if you want to write down Leviticus 25 verse 5 and let's learn something about things that grow of themselves because that's what God said Judah was going to eat this year things that grow of themselves that's Leviticus 25 verse 5 God told Israel that which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed for it is a year of rest unto the land in that passage and in that chapter God was teaching the children of Israel about the Sabbath by having them observe a Sabbath of the land in other words the land would rest and while I won't teach in depth on that today what we will take note of is the latter part of that verse for it is a year of rest unto the land so for six years Israel the children of Israel were to plant and harvest and gather and you notice that the things that grew of their own accord in that year that Sabbath were not to be reaped and the phrase that which growth of its own accord is just one Hebrew word and it's the same one used in our text that says such things as grow of themselves it's the same thing now this gets even better Genesis chapter 1 verse 11 Genesis chapter 1 verse 11 and God said let the earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth and it was so now in our text in second kings and in the text in Leviticus that I read you how is it that such things grow of themselves in Leviticus how could something grow of its own accord well it was possible because in the creation of the earth God put its seed in itself that's how it could spring of its own accord he put its seed in itself man had absolutely nothing to do with putting the seed in the herbs and grass and the herbs represent all the the vegetables the plants that was God's work did you hear that man had nothing to do with putting the seed in the vegetation that was God's work when man sows a seed and then reaps a harvest and then does it again the following year it's easy for that man to be lifted up in pride and to brag about how skillful a farmer he is you know out in west Texas in Lubbock where I did most of my growing up we had cotton and I mean it was it when it was green and then when the bowls came out it was beautiful when it was defoliated it was the ugliest thing you ever saw and when it was plowed up man here came the sandstorms but you'd go for miles and just see cotton on either side and sometimes you'd see a fellow whose plants were three or four feet high before they ever bloomed before the bowls the white cotton came out where you could see it and then someone else might have plants they're about a foot foot and a half tall and so you'd look at this crop over here and say man now that farmer knows how to grow cotton no even though he may have the the best fertilizer and the best soil and he stays on top of it with the plow and does everything right has good water sources God's the one who put that seed in that cotton God's the one who put that seed in that beautiful corn that we see in the the spring and early summer around here before it gets defoliated and ugly also so that you can pluck those ears but man is prideful and so when God has man give the land a rest and things still grow of themselves it reminds man who it was that was responsible for all that growth during those first six years the same one who caused it to grow during the seventh year the year of the Sabbath of the land so the farmer may say look at what I grew instead of remembering that it was God who created the herbs and the grasses whose seed was in itself and in the Sabbath of the land the children of Israel would see that which groweth of its own accord that which springeth of itself is to remind them that it was God who made it possible for them to have a harvest matthew chapter 9 verse 38 matthew chapter 9 verse 38 jesus said pray ye therefore the lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest his harvest and just as we learned about the harvest of the earthly crops we see this truth is also applied to a spiritual harvest one in which the lord of the harvest has given to his labors a seed to sow and that seed is the gospel of jesus christ and when people are saved by receiving this gospel seed then they're saved but they're in the lord's harvest it's god who's the harvester there and we're laborers that's very clear his harvest we're the laborers and we're his laborers by the way and we're co-laborers together aren't we and preachers who brag about how many people they've led to christ need to think really hard about what they're saying and maybe you've even said that i led somebody to christ man i'll tell you what i don't say that anymore i did that a long time ago i'd say i led this person to christ and i had this awful feeling that would come over me like i was bragging and i was and i didn't deserve it it was i was just a laborer who was planting the seed it was god who did the saving and it's god who the sole winner he's the sole winner he's his spirit leads people to christ wife is up to me to lead him to christ man we'd never get there we'd get somewhere else but jesus is the sole winner and yes we teach people about what god's word says yes we teach them about their sin and how they may be saved from it but we don't get them saved and as he spoke about witnessing to a lost person i heard a preacher say well i got her saved before i left that place and that just flew all over me no he didn't get her saved and i'm not sure what kind of gospel he thought he was preaching anyway but he's not the lord of the harvest first corinthians chapter three verses five through seven well we're learning about things that grow of themselves this is so good first corinthians three verses five through seven where paul wrote who then is paul and who is apollos but ministers by whom you believed even as the lord gave to every man i have planted apollos watered but god gave the increase so then neither is he that planteth anything you hear that we're sowing a seed but we're not anything neither he that watereth but god that giveth the increase in other words god is something the one who plants and the one who waters we're not anything we're just ministers we're stewards servants we're handing out bread however you want to put it but it's god who gives the increased who is the lord of the harvest it's the one who gives the increase from the creation of the herb with its seed in itself to the water that nourishes it to the soil in which it grows and the sun that gives it light the entire process of creating and planting and watering and growing and harvesting are of the lord all of it is of the lord we're just laborers but how happy am i to be a laborer in that harvest that's not a better place to sow seed well you might ask now if the gospel is likened unto a seed does it spring forth of its own accord does it grow of itself like the plants that god was referring to in second kings in our text well that's a good question let's examine a few passages that will help us with that question and i'll use some passages from the parable of the sower that jesus taught about in mark chapter 4 first i'll use verse 14 mark 4 verse 14 the sower soweth the word all right that's simple enough isn't it if you're asking yourself well is the gospel really a seed the sower soweth the word that's pretty pretty plain the word of god so the word is sown like a seed now skipping down to verse 20 in mark chapter 4 that's mark 4 20 jesus said and these are they which are sown on good ground such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit some 30 fold some 60 and some 100 so the seed of the word is sown on good ground and it brings forth fruit now that is the believer if you're saved seed was sown forth on good ground you received it and you brought forth fruit and you're bringing forth fruit jesus didn't say some of the seed would bring forth fruit if it came up in that good ground but others wouldn't he didn't say that at all did he he said it brings forth fruit although it's in differing amounts isn't it that was the key some 30 fold some 60 and some 100 fold and here's what's so encouraging about this gospel seed because it's sown in good soil it's just as sure to come up as the seed god put in the herbs and grass he created before sin entered into the world faith in the gospel of jesus christ will produce a christian and that christian will produce fruit so if you're a christian you don't have to wonder hmm have i ever produced fruit you have some 30 fold some 60 and some 100 fold there's no such thing as a non fruit-bearing christian now people may argue and say well i know some who are pretty shallow well are they christians first of all maybe they're not god knows you know preachers have long tried to make the the seed that's sown on the stony ground into a fruit-bearing plant but it's not possible when we witness to someone who is hard-hearted against the gospel but then we say something they say oh now i like that okay i'll believe that what happens on the stony ground they get a little root and then they they die because they don't have any depth of soil it wasn't sown on good ground so that's the kind of person who says yeah i'll come to your church man your pastor's pretty funny he's uh he's pretty cool i like the fact that he was a highway patrolman i was a highway patrolman too i think i'll come to his church and all the wrong reasons to be here he is funny and he is cool and he was a highway patrolman but that's not why i come i know some funny cool highway patrolman a lot closer to my house than maybank texas is but the mistake that so many churches have made so many pastors have made is they can't get people to be interested in the gospel because those people represent the stony ground so instead of the pastors telling those people look that's all we have for you here we we're sowing the gospel seed on stony ground and you're not willing to believe it you're not willing to be that good ground then you might as well go somewhere else because we don't have anything for you but if you come in here and you're wanting to be good ground you want to receive that word come on we'll do this until jesus comes and takes us to be with him but they can't get people to be interested in the gospel so what they do is begin having all sorts of worldly things that will attract stony-hearted people and before you know it they have a bunch of religious acting stony-hearted goats who care nothing about god's word and then those pastors are disappointed when those stony-hearted goats don't bring forth fruit they can't and we're interested in one thing here we want people with good soil that is those who will receive the gospel to come into our assembly to tune into facebook broadcast and to have that gospel seed planted in them so they receive it and that happens by the teaching of sound doctrine it happens by sowing the word that jesus said to sow not by sowing something else what did he say to sow he said to sow the word now let that sink in to sow the word he didn't say to get up here and read funny jokes and to read articles from newspapers and tell what other churches are doing and they're big churches so we have to be like them he said sow the word and that's all that's your assignment as a pastor as a teacher is to sow the word and we preach a seed listen to this we sow a seed that brings forth fruit of its own accord that grows of itself because just like the grass and herbs god created the gospel seed has all that's needed in it for it to grow of itself so let's get busy sowing it you don't have to add anything to the gospel seed we plant we water but everything in the seed in the gospel seed is there to produce a christian you don't add to it you don't take away from it all right now looking back in our text in second kings 19 verse 29 he said in the middle of the verse and in the second year that which springeth of the same so god is teaching them that he will not only supply their need by the design of his creation this year but he will continually do it he'll do it next year too and they can rest in his provision just like the land had rest in its sabbath that god commanded the sabbath is a rest and even though we rest from our labors from our planting from our harvesting god still provides for us and back in your text now it says and in the third year sow ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof notice that after two years of eating from that which springeth forth of itself god tells them to sow and reap to plant and eat and i could not help but notice but god's people here on this in in this passage were commanded to rest first and then to work said don't don't plant and sow the earth will produce those things that grow with themselves and that's what you'll eat of you don't have to do anything but just go out there and get it now that's not typically how we think of rest and work is it we usually work and then we rest spiritually speaking you have to rest first before you can work your rest is in jesus and until you rest in him your work will not produce any fruit that is acceptable to god in the matter of salvation we rest in the truth of the gospel that jesus died and was buried and rose again for our justification and when we have rested in this truth then we may work because of the rest we have in him most religious people try to work so they can rest did you know that they go about doing all manner of rituals and ceremonies and making prayers and holding rosary beads and all the while hoping they've done enough work to please god and enter into eternal rest in acts chapter 16 a great earthquake rattled open the doors of a prison in which the apostles paul and silas were being kept and when that philippian jailer came to paul and silas he was scared to death about what would happen to him because of this great escape and in verse 30 that jailer said to the apostles this is act 16 30 sirs what must i do to be saved now see he wanted to know what earthly work he could do in order to have an earthly rest from his bosses who would probably execute him for letting these prisoners out of their cells and rather than giving him an answer about an earthly question they gave him a spiritual answer to his earthly question he said sirs what must i do to be saved in verse 31 they said to this jailer believe on the lord jesus christ and now shalt be saved in our house that was the first thing he had to do was rest he wanted to do something to be saved and they said you need to rest to be saved that didn't say the word rest but that's what believing is it's resting it's trusting on in what jesus has done and then in verse 32 of act 16 where the apostles sowed this gospel seed well this jailer had good soil and he received the word and believed on it and do you know what that seed did it sprang up into fruit it sprang forth unto itself of its own accord because the seed was in itself the gospel seed was in itself how do we know that it brought forth fruit if you look back at that same passage in act 16 and i'll read you verses 33 and 34 it says this about that newly saved jailer the one who's rested in the gospel and he took them the same hour of the night and washed the stripes and was baptized he and all his straight way and when he had brought them into his house he set meat before them and rejoiced believing in god with all his house here was the fruit the jailer washed the disciples stripes the jailer was baptized the jailer fed the disciples a meal and the jailer rejoiced and because the jailer first observed that which groweth of itself the gospel seed he could now sow and plant and reap and harvest he could work he could do works that were pleasing to the lord of the harvest because he first rested in him now what if this jailer would have said all right these guys have all escaped i'm going to go follow them i'm going to bring them to my house that's what i'll do and i'll wash their stripes and i'll feed them a meal and i'll uh you know i'll baptize them i'll get baptized i'll do all these things then maybe i'll be saved he'd have had it backwards didn't he there was nothing wrong with any of those things except when they were done he was to rest first and then he'd work have we learned something about the significance of what god told judah to do concerning their crops i believe we have and god was so good to me in my study he just kept revealing truth after truth in this text and we're not going to get to it all today but we'll come back next week and we'll go back and look at those first two years and then that third year that we just read about there in jerusalem let's pray father thank you for your truth thank you for the ones who are hungry for it and i pray you bless it to us now that we may remember it that we may meditate upon it and live by it and rest in you that our works may be acceptable in your sight in jesus name amen
