Episode Transcript
We're in 2 Kings 19, verse 29.
Welcome to our Sunday morning Bible study.
2 Kings 19, verse 29, where we left off last week studying things that grow of themselves.
And based upon the Bible evidence we looked at, God was speaking through the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah.
And therefore, he was speaking to Jerusalem, to all of Judah, and to us.
And God told them, if you remember, that they would eat of such things as grow of themselves for the first two years.
And after that, they would sow and plant and reap and harvest.
And this was all in the face of the adversity from the Assyrians who were at their gates.
And we learned that eating things that grow of themselves and harvesting what we plant are both made possible by what God did when He created the herbs and the grass in Genesis.
He put their seeds in them.
And from that truth, we learned that the Gospel is also a seed that is sown.
And just like the herbs and the grass, the Gospel has everything in it that is needed to grow of itself.
Preachers have tried to fertilize the Gospel seed with their own added doctrines, but all those efforts won't yield anything.
Not anything fruitful.
And God was so good to me in my study, that this kept revealing truth after truth in this text.
Now, going back to the first two years, Judah was to eat of that which groweth of itself.
And we learned that this should remind them and us as well, that it was God who created all things.
And that He put its seed within itself so it could grow and grow again.
Because that's what it would have to do for those first two years.
Grow of itself, and then grow again of itself.
And then we read that God told Judah to plant, sow, reap, and harvest.
Now, what do you think Judah sowed and planted?
Well, they sowed and planted the same seeds that had previously grown of themselves.
They sowed the seed God gave them to sow.
Not some other seed.
And if they watched the corn, for example, if they watched the corn come up of itself for two years and ate of it, then they would be foolish in that third year to sow hawthorn seeds and expect for corn to come up.
And here's what happens in many churches, many Baptist churches, in fact, many independent fundamental Baptist churches.
The pastor of such a church will stand behind a pulpit just like this one and read the Word of God, which is wonderful.
Specifically, he'll read the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now that Gospel needs no help.
It needs only to be preached and then believed by the ones who hear it.
But some of those pastors will tell their people - they don't say it in these words, but their doctrine suggests that the Gospel seed they preach does not grow of itself.
It needs some help from them after it's preached.
It needs some help from the sinner.
And those pastors will often have the lost person repeat a prayer in order to apply this truth to their hearts.
I heard that at a funeral.
I heard it several times, but I heard it at a funeral where a Baptist preacher at the end of his message had everyone close their eyes and bow their heads.
And he asked them, does anybody want to be saved?
And of course, some hands went up.
So he told them he was going to say a prayer and they could repeat it after him.
And he said, now the prayer won't save you.
It's just a way of applying salvation to yourself.
And I thought to myself, if the prayer won't save you, why would you have anybody pray it?
The Gospel will save you if you believe it.
Now, the Gospel was good seed.
The prayer was man's fertilizer.
And so was the statement that the prayer would apply the Gospel to the one who repeated that prayer.
I challenge you to look it up in your Bibles and tell me if you ever see a time when Jesus says pray in order to be saved.
He does not.
You know the word believe, believe, believe, believe?
It's all over the place, isn't it?
Because it's a seed that groweth of itself.
And if that pastor would have simply said, believe the Gospel that you've just heard and you will be saved, then he would have been teaching them that the Gospel is a seed that groweth unto itself.
Now if you're new here, or if you've just tuned in for the first time on Facebook, you're not maybe familiar with how we do things, you'll notice that we don't have what many churches call an invitation.
And there's a reason for that.
It's not in the Bible.
There's no reason for us to have such a thing.
The invitation, so called, the way churches have practiced it, has been the downfall of many a lost person.
And maybe you too had done that before.
I certainly was in a church that practiced it for years.
And that invitation is for such a person who wants to be saved to come to the front of the church and they call that an altar call.
And they call this an altar.
Well, there is no altar in the church.
There's no physical altar anywhere in this church.
And it's not because we forgot to build one.
It doesn't belong in here.
The Old Testament altar was fulfilled by the New Testament altar, which is the cross of Calvary where Jesus died.
And that's not in here in this church.
That's something you believe on by faith.
And Jesus in fact fulfilled all the types of the Old Testament tabernacle.
Every furnishing, every piece of material that was used to construct it pointed to Jesus Christ.
But that altar, the cross, is approached by faith in a sacrifice that was made by the Lamb of God.
And besides, even if we were in the Old Testament times, this would not qualify as an altar.
Do you know why?
It's got steps.
And God said there will be no steps at my altar.
And it was for a very simple reason.
He didn't want the people that were down here to get a glimpse of what was under the priest's garments when he walked up the stairs.
This is a very practical reason.
It had to do with modesty and holiness.
And it just had steps.
It was forbidden at the altar.
So you see how the modern church - and boy, we don't have to point at the Catholics or Methodists or anybody else.
We just point right at the Baptists having added that kind of fertilizer to the Gospel seed that grows of itself.
And listen, I'm going to just confess to you, I used to be one of those church workers that'd meet people down here at a place like this and talk to them.
But I had a lot of trouble with that sinner's prayer because I thought, I don't see that in the Bible.
I see the Gospel in the Bible and I can explain that to someone.
Well, I'm thankful that we stripped all that away and by God's grace, we don't have that sort of invitation where church workers hastily explain to the person what he must do to be saved and hope they get saved before the last verse of the invitation.
And they kneel down or they'll take the pastor by the hand and repeat their prayer and they'll tell them, "Now you have to be sincere."
And boy, it just goes off the rails in a hurry.
And then you have to tell the pastor, "You know you're going to heaven."
And all that is part of that manmade religious act that just saves nobody.
Now listen, if you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work at the cross, you're saved whether you were at a place like this or you said some kind of prayer or you were on the highway or you were at the house or at the front of the church.
But what saved you wasn't your location.
It wasn't your repetition of a prayer.
It was the seed that groweth of itself, the gospel.
Now in Genesis, God showed us the gospel when He put those animal skins on Adam and Eve.
And that was an act of substitutionary atonement.
Meaning an innocent animal gave its life for the unrighteous person so the unrighteous person could live.
And Jesus, we know from learning in Genesis to Jesus or creation to Christ, if you took that class, Jesus, the Lamb of God was our innocent substitute who took away the sin of the world.
He gave His life that we might live.
That's what substitutionary atonement is.
And that's what we preach when we preach the gospel.
And that's what you have to believe to be saved.
And to that seed, I don't bring any fertilizer of my own.
Anything I do to touch it other than to preach it would defile it.
It would be another doctrine.
It'd be another gospel as Paul said, which is not another.
Now God preached the gospel when He clothed Adam and Eve.
And here's another point.
In that day, there was no man to preach the gospel.
You had Adam and Eve, you had two sinners and boy, they were in trouble, weren't they?
God was the only one who could preach the gospel to them.
And because that gospel fruit sprang forth of its own accord like we've been studying, because it grew of itself, then God expects us to sow that same seed, just like He expected Judah to sow the seed, the same seed from the same plants they had watched grow of themselves.
God set the pattern, didn't He?
And He did it in two years, which is the number of witness in the Bible.
He has shown them the pattern of the seed that groweth of itself.
And He tells them in the third year, you plant.
You plant and you sow and you'll harvest and reap just like you did when you didn't sow.
It's not you, it's the seed that groweth of itself.
How arrogant is a man who will sow a seed that's never grown of itself, that's a false gospel.
And it's never grown of itself into a fruit that pleases the Lord of the harvest.
And there are many false gospels, but one thing may be said about every one of them.
The fruit that comes from a false gospel is thorns, thistles, and weeds, that's it.
It does not, it cannot grow into a plant that pleases God.
It's not the Lord's harvest.
In fact, it's nothing more than thistles and thorns and weeds.
I look down in verse 30 in our text, 2 Kings 19 verse 30, and God continues speaking about Judah.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
He said, and the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah.
Now a remnant is simply a group of people who remain.
The ones who left.
In the Bible, you'll see the word remnant often associated with a group of believers.
Zephaniah chapter three verse 13, just put Z-E-P-H period if you don't know how to spell it.
Zephaniah three verse 13.
The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid.
And in Romans 9, 27, Romans 9, 27, Esaias, that's also Isaiah, our prophet here that we're reading about.
Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.
Now what will this remnant in our text do once they escape?
Look back again, it says they shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
And we've come across this beautiful truth before.
In fact, when we read about the good soil into which the gospel seed is sown, then that truth was apparent there.
Let me reread a part of the parable of the sower that we read, I believe last week.
And listen for the word root.
Mark chapter four, verses five through six, Mark four, verses five through six.
And some, that seed, fell on stony ground where it had not much earth.
And immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.
But when the sun was up, it was scorched.
And because it had no root, it withered away.
Now what was said about Judah is that they'll take root downward and bear fruit upward.
Notice the order of that.
The root is going downward first and then the fruit is born upward.
But what was sown on stony ground, what happened is it sprang up.
It sprang up first and it had no depth of earth.
It had no root because it had no depth of earth.
So it withered away.
And this was a problem because without having depth of earth the seed cannot have a root that goes downward.
I don't know if you all have read the pastor's book, Leaving Egypt, but in there he talks about the bonsai tree.
Do any of you remember that?
And the roots are shallow.
And when the roots are kept shallow, the bonsai tree doesn't get very big.
And so you can have a bonsai tree for quite some time, stay about this tall and keep the roots shallow and it's not going to grow upward very far.
And so that same principle is seen here in the passage that I just read for you.
So this was a problem.
A seed cannot have a root that goes downward, then it's gonna die.
And Judah would escape and take root downwards.
So that means that was gonna be good.
They weren't going to be stony ground.
And how would they do that?
Well, Judah and Israel are simply put, Israel represent the church.
And this is a command about the church being rooted, which happens when you take root downward.
If you take root downward, you're rooted.
And I know that sounds over simple, but listen to Colossians 2, verses six through eight.
Colossians 2, verses six through eight.
As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him.
Now you see the order there?
Rooted and built up.
Rooted and springs up.
Rooted and bears fruit upward.
It's the same principle.
So rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
Now walking with God happens when you're a Christian and you're abiding in His word.
You're rooted, meaning you've taken root downward.
And Paul was writing to Christians.
The lost person has not taken root downward.
They've either, the seed's either been sown on stony ground and you get this little plant that comes up and everybody thinks, oh wow, he or she is Christian.
And then it just, it dies because it doesn't have any root.
Or it's sown among the thorns and the thistles and it gets choked out.
But when you walk with God, it's because you're a Christian and you're abiding in His word.
It's not this mystical experience.
It's not you being more pious than anyone else.
It's a work of the Spirit.
And you're rooted, meaning you've taken root downward.
So notice to be built up in Him is to be rooted in Him.
To be built up in Jesus is to be rooted in Jesus.
And this explains how we take root downward and bear fruit upward in that order.
And Paul goes on to warn the church of being spoiled through the philosophy and vain deceit of the world.
Now people who follow philosophy and vain deceit rather than Christ are not rooted and built up in Him.
Now Judah will first take root downward that they may bear fruit upward.
And I think we've sufficiently covered this principle for now.
So let's not miss this phrase looking back in your text.
He said, "Shall yet again."
About Judah it says, "Shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward."
So let's look at that phrase, "Shall yet again."
Again, so this must have happened before.
They took root downward and bore fruit upward.
Well, in Exodus chapter 15, Israel and Moses sang a song after God had delivered them from the Pharaoh and the pursuing army there in the Red Sea.
And boy, it was quite a song in fact.
And the Red Sea had closed up and drowned every one of the horses and the horsemen and the men and the chariots and the Pharaoh himself.
Not one of them were spared.
And listen to one of the phrases found in this song that the Israelites sang after God did this great work.
It's found in verse 17.
Exodus 15 verse 17.
They're singing to the Lord.
He said, "Are they saying, 'Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.'"
So long before Hezekiah was born, our king in Judah in our text, and long before David, King David was on his throne, Moses sang a song about the Lord planting his people in the mountain of his inheritance, his sanctuary, which is capitalized.
That's a proper noun.
And that's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what the sanctuary was all about or that's who it was all about, is Jesus pointing to Him in every way.
And in the verse we just read there in Exodus, God did all of that.
He brought them in, He planted them in a place He made for them, which His hands established.
Israel was nothing more than a recipient of God's grace.
They were planted because God planted them.
Now in 2 Samuel 7, verses 10 through 13, 2 Samuel 7, verses 10 through 13, so we had the children of Israel planted in that promised land.
Now listen to what God told Samuel to tell David this prophecy.
So here are Samuel's marching orders from God.
You go to King David and tell him this, "Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel "and will plant them that they may dwell "in a place of their own and move no more.
"Neither shall the children of wickedness "afflict them anymore as before time.
"And as since the time that I commanded judges "to be over my people Israel "and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies, "also the Lord telleth thee "that He will make thee an house.
"And when thy days be fulfilled "and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, "I will set up thy seed after thee, "which shall proceed out of thy bowels "and I will establish His kingdom.
"He shall build an house for my name "and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever."
All right, up to this time in history, up to the day that I'm reading about there that this would be fulfilled what God told Samuel, Israel had been using a portable building, a tabernacle as the place where God met with them and they met with God.
But as you may remember, if you have studied David or if you remember our teaching through 1 and 2 Samuel and first part of 1 Kings there, David wanted so badly to build God a permanent house.
Not a tabernacle, he wanted to build him a building and he appealed him to do that.
But here God told David, God would make David a house.
Now isn't that something?
And that house that God would make David would be a permanent fixture in a certain place and that's Jerusalem.
And the throne over that house would be a permanent throne.
Now catch this, when God planted Israel, He planted them in a place from which they could not and would not be moved.
So you know that He's not limiting that to the nation of Israel.
That has to be a people who are planted and who can never be moved.
That's the church of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
But because Israel had been taken captive several times by their enemies, that place from which they could not be moved would not be the earthly Jerusalem.
That permanent dwelling that God established for David would not be an earthly temple because it was ransacked and built again and ransacked and built again and Jesus said, "There won't be one stone laid upon another in this temple."
The veil was rent and twain and that permanent throne in fact would not be made of gold with a man sitting on it because both the gold and the man would perish.
That throne was the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is called the throne of David.
Luke 1, verses 31 through 33.
Luke 1, verses 31 through 33.
Speaking to Mary, this angel said, "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.
He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father, David.
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
So when God said that he would plant Israel that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more, he was referring to the church.
And when we are not this building but the people who are in Jesus and when we're planted in Jesus, we are planted in a sanctuary that shall never be destroyed.
And our king is on a throne that shall never be overtaken.
And we're planted in a place from which we shall not be moved, a place to which our enemies have no access.
And only from that permanent dwelling in our permanent savior who is on his eternal throne may we take root downward and bear fruit upward.
So we learn a lot more about taking root downward and bearing fruit upward than just the fact that Judah would plant some plants for a few years and eat from them.
There's a whole lot more to it than just that.
Now in our text where God said, "Shall yet again," he meant far more than just bringing Israel and Judah back to that land of promise, the earthly land of promise.
In fact, in their Messiah, God will yet again cause them to take root downward and to bear fruit upward.
When God put man in the garden, it was his perfect will for them to stay there.
When he brought Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the promised land, it was his perfect will for them to stay there.
And he gave man a choice in both places.
And you know what man's choice was and it still is?
Man's choice is to not be planted, but to blow around like a West Texas tumbleweed.
In Jesus, it is God's perfect will for us to stay there.
And that's what's different about being in the Garden of Eden and sin causing you to be kicked out and being in the promised land and sin causing you to be kicked out.
Because when we're in Jesus, he's already born our sin.
He took on himself that which would have gotten us kicked out of him.
Because God planted us in an eternal savior.
Look back in your text now in 2 Kings 19, let's look at verse 31.
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and they that escape out of the Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and they that escape out of Mount Zion.
Now why is Judah having to escape the place where God planted them?
Well, because they failed to weed the garden a long time ago.
You know when God brought Israel out of bondage and into the promised land, he commanded them over and over to drive out their enemies, every one of them.
Deuteronomy chapter nine verses one through three, Deuteronomy nine verses one through three, Moses repeats these words of the Lord to the people.
Hear O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself.
Cities great and fenced up to heaven.
Of people great and tall, the children of the Anakims whom thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say, who can stand before the children of Anak?
Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee as a consuming fire, he shall destroy them and he shall bring them down before thy face.
So thou shall, excuse me, so shalt thou drive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord has said unto thee.
Now what a simple command.
God would go before them, he would deliver them into their hands.
All they had to do is obey him.
Destroy them, drive them out and destroy them quickly.
And yet Israel disobeyed this command over and over again.
And God warned them about giving their sons and their daughters in marriage to the Gentiles and worshiping their false gods.
So Israel was often uprooted by her enemies.
She couldn't keep herself planted.
And now from her own capital of Jerusalem, from Mount Zion, the remnant of Judah would have to flee, would have to be uprooted before they could be free once again from their enemies.
And still today Israel is having to flee from her enemies.
Just since October 7th of last year, many Jews have had to relocate their homes again in the northern parts of Israel because of Hezbollah's attack and it just keeps on happening.
Now look back in your text, it says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
The word zeal means jealousy.
I want to read you the first time the Hebrew word translated zeal is used and you're gonna hear the word jealous and jealousy.
It's the same word.
Numbers chapter five verses 12 through 14.
Numbers chapter five verses 12 through 14.
Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man's wife go aside and commit a trespass against him and a man lie with her carnally and it be hid from the eyes of her husband and be kept close and she be defiled and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner and the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife and she be defiled or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife and she be not defiled and then it goes on to continue what that law says to do.
So you picture here a man who is jealous of his wife who has gone aside to another man.
Now that's plain enough, isn't it?
Now this is the law concerning what a man does when he is jealous of a wife who's cheated on him.
Israel and the church are both referred to in the Bible as the Lord's wife or as the Lord's bride.
And referring to Jerusalem, the prophet Ezekiel said in Ezekiel 16, 28, 16, 28, he's talking to Jerusalem, thou has played the whore also with the Assyrians because thou was unsatiable.
Yea, thou has played the harlot with them and yet couldst not be satisfied.
So it's clear from the passage that the Lord's jealousy or his zeal over Judah has brought him to do the things that are contained in our text.
Now God tells Isaiah what will happen to the king of Assyria that Gentile nation that defiled him and his people.
Look in verse 32.
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria he shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shield nor cast a bank against it.
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria.
Now it's worth listening to when the prophet says thus saith the Lord.
It means it will come to pass every bit of it simply because God said it.
In fact thus saith the Lord is what created all things.
And thus saith the Lord will redeem his creation from sin.
Thus saith the Lord will preserve all of his people and will hold us in his mighty hand for all eternity.
That's what thus saith the Lord does.
Isaiah chapter 55 verse 11.
Isaiah 55 verse 11.
God said so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.
And this word, this thus saith the Lord will accomplish the defeat of Assyria.
But let's also look at this from a spiritual standpoint because these following truths that I'm gonna give you apply to Satan and his crowd as well.
Our text says he shall not come into this city.
Meaning Sennacherib shall not enter Jerusalem.
Yes, he's at the gates, he's by the upper pool.
He's making the threats.
He's got his large army around Jerusalem but God said he's not coming in.
So what God is telling us in Judah is he has drawn a line in the sand.
And that line is the city of Jerusalem.
It's the gates of Jerusalem which represents the new Jerusalem in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 21 verse two says and I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Now skipping down in that chapter in Revelation listen to the one of the characteristics of that new Jerusalem.
It's in verse 27.
And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.
Neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
How about that?
Both the Jerusalem in Judah's day and the new Jerusalem have something in common.
God drew a line in the sand.
He said you're not coming in to the enemy.
Sennacherib you're not coming in.
And nothing that worketh a lie, maketh a lie, worketh abomination, defileth is coming in.
They're just like Sennacherib.
You're not coming in.
You're not welcome in Jerusalem and Satan you're not, you and your crowd are not welcome in the new Jerusalem.
And then back in our text it says, nor shoot an arrow there.
So not only can Sennacherib not enter but he can't even stand without Jerusalem and harm those who are inside the city by shooting an arrow in there.
Having been cast down from heaven, Satan will be cast next into the bottomless pit and then the lake of fire.
And he will not enter that heavenly city but he would sure like to shoot an arrow at those who can, those who will.
But he'll be in the lake of fire with his angels and all who have rejected Jesus Christ.
And he'll not shoot an arrow into that new Jerusalem.
And look back in the text, it says this about Sennacherib, nor come before it with shield.
Now an arrow is used to wound.
A shield is an instrument of defense.
And Sennacherib will neither enter Jerusalem nor wound those who are inside it with his arrow, nor will he even be able to stay where he is and defend himself with a shield.
Remember in verse 28 of our text, where God told Sennacherib, "I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest."
So Sennacherib won't be near Jerusalem long enough to shoot or to defend.
In fact, as we'll read next, he won't even be able to dig in because it says, "Nor cast a bank against it."
Now we don't use those words in this sense, but that simply means to build mounds.
Now you've, perhaps you've seen old war movies, or if you're like me playing in that West Texas dirt, I dug my own trenches with my GI Joe soldiers and I made little mounds and brother Doug did it too.
I know he did.
Yeah, and I'm sure probably most guys in here did.
And that was how we had fun.
It sure was a lot cleaner than some of the stuff you can get into now.
But I know what it meant.
And so when you make a mound, you dig a trench, you've got to put the dirt somewhere and what you do is you put it in front of the trench.
And that gives you a mound or a kind of a shield.
And it's cover is what it is.
It lets you take cover from enemy fire.
So once again, God would turn Sennacher back by the way which he came.
He doesn't get to stay outside of Jerusalem and roar.
And we're going to stop right there because we've run out of time and we'll pick back up and finish that thought Lord willing next week, because this is going to be a good encouragement to you when you hear about it.
Father, thank you for each one who came and for those who've tuned in and Lord we're so thankful for your word and for the truth and for the attention that everybody has for it and for their hunger.
And now we know you fed us because we read from your Word.
We pray you'd remove anything that was confusing or distracting that we may just have solid doctrine to carry away from here.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
