Episode Transcript
Good morning.
It's 10 o'clock and 10 o'clock is the hour of power there used to be a religious broadcast called the hour of power and The hour is powerful not because of who's here, but because of what we're studying God's Word and we're in second Kings chapter 19 and Verse 3 if you would like to turn there or scroll there if you're on an electronic device Second Kings chapter 19 and verse 3 As we left last week King Hezekiah was in the house of the Lord with his clothes rent and He sent three of his trusted men Shebna and Joah and Eliakim to find Isaiah the prophet Now if you're a Bible student and all of you are you wouldn't be here You've probably wondered before When did all these prophets live?
How do we connect when a prophet lived to when?
There was a king on the throne and and all of that Well, this is how you do it by studying the Bible all the way through and what we see is that Isaiah was Used of the Lord at this time during this reign and as we saw last week during the reign of three other kings But Shebna Joah and Eliakim went to Isaiah the prophet and These three faithful men told Isaiah That this day which meant this time Was a day of trouble It was a day of distress for them They told Isaiah this was a day of rebuke and In studying that word rebuke we learned that God's punishment is not light It's not to be taken lightly in fact He had warned Israel Meaning he also warned Judah because when he warned Israel and gave them the commandments through Moses.
They were one nation Since then they've been fractured and now we're looking at Judah the southern kingdom But he had warned Israel once That if they did wickedness and forsook him He would rebuke them in everything they did until he destroyed them So God's punishment is not light when we see that God rebuked or when it was a day of rebuke It wasn't just God wagging his finger and saying now, you know better than that.
Oh, no, it was Not a light punishment at all.
And now we continue in verse 3 Look with me in our text if you've just joined us.
We're in 2nd Kings chapter 19 verse 3 and They said unto him thus saith has a kind of these are the three men speaking to Isaiah probably one at a time this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy So the third word used to describe this day was blasphemy And we hear that in the church.
Sometimes we hear the word blasphemy or blaspheme or blasphemer and What that word means is?
provocation we provoke It's provocation when we do that And in fact in the Old Testament on two occasions, it's translated as the word provocation instead of blasphemy so blasphemy According to this word blasphemy is provoking the Lord and Judah had provoked the Lord in times past But Assyria was also provoking the Lord Because they were provoking Judah and Assyria had no business provoking Judah although the Lord would deliver Judah and Israel into the hands of their enemies from time to time these wicked nations would still be held accountable for what they did to God's people and I want to read to you from Deuteronomy 31 verse 20 and tell you that God predicted this also this provocation Deuteronomy 31 20 he said to Moses and through Moses For when I shall have brought them into the land, which I swear unto their fathers that floweth with milk and honey and They shall have eaten and filled themselves and waxen fat then Will they turn unto other gods and serve them and provoke?
Me now that word provoke comes from the same Hebrew origin as the word blasphemy in our text They'll blaspheme me and break my covenant So blasphemy is not Transgressing the traditions of the elders It's Not Violating the standards that are set by some religious association Blasphemy occurs when you turn to other gods and serve them and break God's covenant now I in my Christian life have attended and even one time been a member of a church that was fairly legalistic and and Thank God that we don't have that here and only by the grace of God will we continue to not have that here But in some of those cases the traditions and Standards or requirements imposed upon the members were not clearly stated in the Bible They were preferences So if you violated one of those standards That was not spelled out in the Bible or the principle wasn't given in the Bible Then you weren't blaspheming even if someone told you that's blasphemy when you do that The Bible tells us what blasphemy is we're looking at it.
We're staring it in the face aren't we?
It's when Israel turned to other gods and serve them and broke God's covenant In other words if it's against God it's blasphemy if it's against God's word if it is blasphemy You know Thomas Jefferson said That in matters, and this was his personal opinion but in matters of style swim with the current but in matters of principle stand like a rock and That's what we ought to do in the church not because he said that But that's what the Bible teaches us is if God's Word says it Then we stand on that like a rock we don't move or compromise from it if it's a preference We have then we may adopt it we may not it may be shared by others, and it may not and either way is okay Whether I wear a tire not up here.
It's not a matter of Blasphemer obedience I choose to wear a tie, but I don't have to wear a tie, and I'm okay if I don't And let me tell you if you've been in a church like that you know exactly what I'm talking about where it seems like every little thing you do everything you say is under a microscope somebody looking to pick a knit and Again, I just thank God that we don't seem to have that problem here at all I really praise God for that it just gives us the freedom to teach the scriptures and you to listen to them and learn them and to love each other and If it's against God is blasphemy now salvation by water baptism is blasphemy Why is that?
Because Jesus shed his blood for our sins and when someone says you've got to be baptized and keep the commandments and all of that In order to stay saved or to be saved that's blasphemy because we learn that by grace you're saved through faith And that not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast the doctrine of Imagination which is a long legal word.
I bet you a lawyer came up with that he had to it's just way too long for us common folks But it means being able to turn something physical into something spiritual and what the Catholics do and perhaps other religions to they take this wafer of bread and they administer the Eucharist or one of their sacraments and they say that when they give you that it's the body of Christ and Then it literally becomes the body of Christ because of this sacrament and it has Salvation properties.
Well, that's just silly.
The Bible doesn't teach that and it is an absolute Misinterpretation of when Jesus said if any man eat of This bread he's talking about his body the bread represented his body He never intended for us to say well, we're gonna turn this into Jesus body so the people can be saved You're not saved by eating a piece of bread.
You're saved by believing the gospel So if someone says well our our priest teaches us that salvation is through the sacraments that's blasphemy and That same church would tell you that if you don't believe it, you're a blasphemer Well, which one's against God which one is against what God's Word says Whichever one is against what God's Word says that's the blasphemy God be the judge and we too because we know his word and Assyria had committed blasphemy by scoffing at God and by Placing his holy name next to all the names of the man-made false gods of the world Remember when the rabbis said why none of these other gods have delivered their lands?
From the king of Assyria and yours isn't going to either.
He's just like them And now that was blasphemy Israel and Judah had committed blasphemy by breaking the covenant with God Even though there was a remnant and always has been a remnant who did not there was a remnant Who were believers in the wilderness and in the Promised Land?
There was a remnant who believed God's Word and there's a remnant today We don't know how many are in it, but we know it's not the many It's the few in this world who are are part of that remnant And there was a remnant who honored the covenant God made with them in these days of King Hezekiah And he was one of them and his three ambassadors were also three of them they were willing to risk their lives and to go against the Assyrians to Proclaim what their king said to go to Isaiah the prophet and seek God's counsel and in fact Hezekiah and his three ambassadors recognized what was wrong with his picture and they went to God to get it fixed That that ought to be the the prescription for your whole life is Whatever the problem is if you'll just recognize that what's wrong with it is something that God can fix Then you'll never be disappointed in what the Bible says Well, let's look a little further into this cause and effect relationship that's going on in our text Although Assyria had blasphemed the Lord and it would be easy to just concentrate on what Assyria is doing to us God help us because Assyria is picking on us Assyria wants war they want to destroy us Well, that's only part of the problem Although Assyria had blasphemed the Lord provoked him They would not have been allowed to get as far as they got unless Israel and Judah had first provoked the Lord What happened in the Old Testament when God's people Kept the Covenant When they had a righteous king and people did righteously God protected them from their enemies Their enemies weren't standing in the door saying we're about to come in there and take over God wouldn't Permit that he would have them destroy their enemies or there would be times of peace like there were in the reign of Solomon those 40 years of peace But it was Israel and Judah Who had committed that blasphemy?
against the Lord and so when the enemies of Israel Which has been called Samaria in our study in second Kings?
When the enemies of Samaria rose up against Samaria, it was because Samaria had already risen up against God So this cause effect runs a little bit deeper listen to what God told the children of Israel All the way back in Exodus 23 31 through 33 Exodus 23 verses 31 through 33 God said to Israel and I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines and from the desert unto the river for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and Thou shalt drive them out before thee thou shalt make no covenant with them Nor with their gods they that's thin their enemies shall not dwell in thy life And lest they make thee sin against me for if thou serve their gods it will surely Be a snare unto thee So how is it that the children of Israel came to blaspheme God?
Well, it started by not doing what God said drive your enemies out Drive them out because if you don't they're gonna make you break your covenant with me or break my covenant with you God doesn't break the covenant man does if you don't drive them out you're gonna serve their gods and That will be a snare unto you so God warned them generations ahead of time What would happen if they did not drive their enemies out?
So here was Israel's recipe for success and peace from the very beginning Drive all the inhabitants out of the land God gave them Don't make a covenant with any of their gods That's all they had to do and in fact had they driven their enemies out Driven all those inhabitants out of the land God gave them those inhabitants wouldn't be around To show the children of Israel what it looks like to worship a false God That was all they had to do And God had already established his covenant with Israel in the days of Moses and even before then But we're looking at what happened in the days of Moses and what did they say when God gave them that law?
He said all that the Lord has said we will do they they agreed it they signed the contract But the Canaanite was still in the land That was a problem and because the Canaanite was still in the land the people made covenants with their enemies and covenants with the gods of their enemies and Then their enemies rose up against them just like they did in Hezekiah's day Hezekiah Could have probably said I Inherited this mess you ever hear presidents say that they do it all the time.
I look what I inherited Well, the problem is four years into their administration.
They'll still blame what's going on then On what they inherited?
Well, if you've had four years to fix it and couldn't why should we give you another four, right?
Well Hezekiah inherited a mess and Because he did it was a day of trouble It was a day of rebuke and it was a day of blasphemy for Judah Now back to our passage in verse 3 we're gonna see a somewhat difficult But a profound statement is made now.
Let's read verse 3 again and They said unto him that is unto Isaiah thus saith Hezekiah This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy For the children are come to the birth and there is not enough strength to bring forth or there is not strength to bring forth That might make you dizzy trying to figure out what that means but if you've been with us long, you know that there is always a spiritual application in a lesson to learn From a statement like that now the image itself for the children have come to birth.
That's a pretty common image why at some point in your life you were born weren't you and Many of you have given birth and many others have been the the fathers of children Who were given birth who to whom the parents gave birth or the mother gave birth?
We don't call them birth parents around here.
We just call them mothers.
Is that all right?
That's what we're gonna keep doing So you look at this phrase in this verse and you think well, that's kind of hard to Discern well, let's look at it.
First of all the word for tells us That the result is connected to the words before it the word for can also be because The day when the children are supposed to come to birth now, let's think about this in human terms That day should be a joyous day and it is it has been for me been a wonderful day I don't shed too many tears, but if you ever want to see me shed one Watch what happens when one of my children was born can't keep them back.
Can you fellas ladies?
Now ladies y'all are trying for a different reason we get that but That was day of joy It's a day of deliverance Because until that baby who was in a perfectly safe place Comes into the world fully.
There's a little bit of a little bit of nervousness and uncertainty because sometimes those births are difficult for the women and for the child and so when the baby finally comes out and we count the fingers and the toes and all of that and It's just a wonderful occasion.
It's a day of deliverance.
It's a day of celebration But it is here a day of trouble rebuke and blasphemy Now this difficult part, what does it mean that the children are come to birth?
Well, it means that they have come to the moment of birth who are the children Let's move to the spiritual part of this who are the children here that are being spoken of the children are the people of Judah Literally But the spiritual application is tremendous.
Let's look for a moment.
What happened to Samaria Now Judah has just heard that Samaria has been completely conquered by the Assyrians and Samaria also called Israel had sinned against the Lord They've been delivered into the hands of the Assyrians and they're now in the bondage of the Assyrians And if you think about that situation for just a moment, they cannot escape and they cannot deliver themselves They're at the mercy of their enemy enemies a day of rebuke Day of blasphemy a day of trouble now Judah the southern kingdom has also sinned against the Lord and the Assyrians are about to take Judah captive just like they did Samaria and place them under the yoke of bondage just like they did Samaria and Judah doesn't have any earthly hope of escaping.
They don't have any earthly hope of deliverance from this enemy Judah's in the same situation Samaria or Israel was sin But the captivity hasn't happened yet There is still time for an intervention.
There's still time For deliverance there's time But what is there not?
There's not strength Judah in other words is about to pay the penalty for her sin by being delivered into the hands of her enemy Assyria and If they're delivered into the hands of the Assyrians Then Judah will face destruction and death and Bondage they will not be delivered and they'll not know freedom again So from an earthly point of view they cannot save themselves from the Assyrians impending conquest Now spiritually speaking this right here is where every believer is every believer We've broken God's commandments and Are in bondage to sin and Satan and death in our unbelief The the sinner cannot escape or Deliver himself from that bondage think of death as the Assyrians Any more than the children of Judah could deliver Themselves or escape from the bondage of Assyria Judah the nation of Judah needed God to deliver them And That is why Hezekiah rent his clothes When to the house of the Lord That's why Hezekiah sent his men to Isaiah the prophet to declare this is a day of trouble rebuke and blasphemy and He said for the children are come to birth and there's not strength to bring forth This This opportunity for deliverance is going to turn into bondage It's going to turn into death You look back at the text in our phrase Let's put this all together says for the children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth It's time for Judah to be delivered, but they have no strength to do it Now the image here is of a child Who's ready to be born?
But neither he nor his mother Have the strength to make that happen If the child dies during the birth, it's a great loss If the woman cannot give birth to the child, it's a great loss if she dies.
It's a great loss There has to be strength For the delivery of the child or there will be certain death for the child and probably the mother and This is where the children of Israel of Judah are as a nation Now what a hopeless situation that would be for a child and for a nation to Where will the strength come from?
Romans chapter 5 verse 6 For when we were yet without strength there we are there is the center just like Judah is without strength to deliver When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly You See the ungodly didn't have the strength to deliver themselves It was time to come forth but there was no strength in our text it says there is not strength to bring forth Now this ought to settle the matter in the mind of a person who believes He has to do something to be saved Perhaps he believes his faithfulness in Bible reading will save him.
No he's without strength Or perhaps he believes his membership at Central Baptist Church will save him Again, he's without strength or brother Andy I come to your Sunday school class or I tune in or we we go to what we used to call big church when brother Fulton's in here we do this or that You're without strength if that's what you're leaning on you're without strength to be born again in the first place And until a person accepts and understands That he is without strength to be saved he'll continue looking at himself and his own efforts and Think I've got to work my way to salvation, but you don't have the strength By the same token if a Christian this is a believer now If a Christian fears that his works may undo his salvation he again misunderstands his own strength He was without strength so Christ had to die to save him and As such a Christian did not have the strength to save himself Then how could he have the strength to condemn himself when Christ has already forgiven him?
He can't you can't do it Now somebody who's a Christian never would want to do it But just what is What if it was possible?
What if a Christian said I don't like this anymore.
I'm gonna I'm gonna condemn myself can't do it Because you'd have to be stronger than Christ and you're not and for that reason Because you don't have the strength Christ would have to be the one to undo your salvation and he will not do it because he's faithful He's faithful.
He's strong and we're weak As we continue with looking at the children not having strength to bring forth Let's consider this each of us was born from his mother's womb there.
There's no doubt about that I don't know who many or even most of your mothers were but I do know you came from your mother's womb That is fact and for most people That is the only birth they will ever know They'll be born from their mother's womb they'll live as a Condemned Center and die as a condemned center because they've rejected God's strength to deliver them to Bring them forth to salvation to bring them forth to the new birth a Person grows up says I don't believe in all that All right.
Well, you just gonna have one birth And if you only have one birth, how many deaths do you have?
Yeah, two of them.
Don't you that's the way God's math works out You die of physical death you die of spiritual death.
You have two births.
How many deaths do you have one this old body?
Right, Miss Glenda.
We're not gonna have to worry about Keeping this thing in shape anymore I'm not gonna have to worry about my little aches and pains when I see somebody like Glenda or brother Larry or brother Jesse who just had that heart attack I think what am I complaining about my little arthritis and my little this hurts and that hurts and this won't stretch like it used To I don't have problems.
None of us are gonna have them who have been born twice We're gonna shed this old corrupt body, but you know most people will just be born once and As Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again He didn't say you have to have the strength to be born again because when we were without strength Christ died for the ungodly He said you must be born again Now hope you're getting this as Judah would need the one who has strength to bring forth the children unto birth deliverance from the Assyrians The sinner needs one Who is with strength to bring forth children unto the new birth?
That's what Jesus does Now you think about the earthly situation of Judah and the spiritual Situation of the sinner as I read Hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 through 15 Hebrews 2 verses 14 through 15 For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also himself that's Jesus Likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil and Deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage Friend the power of death Has left the sinner without strength But Jesus destroyed the one Who had the power of death and he delivered us who were in bondage to it?
What a glorious truth Judah is sinking seeking strength from the Lord Because her king has sent three men to tell Isaiah.
There's no strength in us to bring forth to birth Now let's look back in our text in verse 4 2nd Kings 19 verse 4 if you've lost your place as These men continue speaking to Isaiah They said it may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rab Sheikah Whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God And will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left Long verse so let's take that apart the first part of it.
It may be that the Lord thy God Will hear all the words of Rab Sheikah This is part of the sentence so don't misunderstand and think well Maybe God couldn't otherwise hear Rab Sheikah's words unless I say a prayed That's not the case The text says will hear it may be that the Lord God will hear not can hear but will hear and That Hebrew word translated will hear is widely used in the Old Testament It has to do with the Lord hearing for the purpose of understanding and discerning in Other words when the words are spoken God hears more than just the words.
He knows the full meaning behind them.
He understands he discerns Everything that you mean when you say something Man may know the may know a little bit behind the meaning of a person's words, but God knows the entire matter In fact, he knows what you mean to say before you even think it about that and These men from Judah were wise to depend on God's hearing and understanding of Rab Sheikah's words rather than their own report of what they heard and what they thought about it What Hezekiah and his three ambassadors have done is very wise They're leaning on the Lord to decide what the words of others mean Wouldn't that be wonderful if we could do that lean on the Lord to decide what the words of others?
mean Just trust him with the interpretation of those words trust God to determine what the motive of a person is and Every one of us do this Maybe some more than others, but every one of us have done this We'll hear somebody say something and we'll say I wonder what he's up to now that's what we mean by saying I wonder what his motive is what wonder what he's up to and Sometimes we're right.
In fact, the longer you live the more right you are about that Brother Doug if somebody you hadn't seen in 30 years called you on the phone with a jolly voice They're wanting to sell you something aren't they?
Hey Doug.
We went to high school together.
I know it's been more than 30 years I'm just being kind brother Yes But you can never go wrong By leaving that to the Lord and you can also never go wrong by answering someone with Scripture and that was what these men were seeking from Isaiah.
What does God have to say about the matter?
Oh, yes, it was a heavy matter Judah was about to be overtaken by the Assyrians and nevertheless.
There's nothing too heavy for God And then it says this about Rab Sheikah He's described by these men's as one look at the text Whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God now, this is very important Rab Sheikah said a lot of things to the men of Judah Back in chapter 18.
We saw it.
He made a lot of promises and threats and comparisons He said a lot of words.
He's quite the salesman quite the fear merchant and He talked about fig trees and cisterns a bruised reed pledges Military might but the number one reason sin acrob the king of Assyria sent Rab Sheikah to Judah Was to reproach the living God That's what all of that added up to he was sent to reproach the living God Now let's look at that phrase first.
We see the word reproach which means to Defy in fact in one place it is translated as the word blasphemed Remember the ambassadors of Judah told Isaiah it was a day of blasphemy.
That's what sanaq are absent Grab Sheikah to do the purpose of all the words And all the promises and all the threats was to reproach to blaspheme to defy the living God and this statement shows us That the focus really wasn't on Judah.
It was on the God of Judah The focus isn't on us when people say things it's on God When they say things to us That are about what we believe about who we are in Christ about matters of the church when we are Obedient to handle them scripturally all of that That you hear from people all of that negative talk is Really meant for God.
It's to reproach The living God and yes Judah was being threatened, but that threat Was simply a part of Assyria's reapproach of the living God Here is a scripture for you John chapter 15 verses 18 through 19 John chapter 15 verses 18 Through 19 where Jesus said if the world hate you You know that it hated me before it hated you if you were of the world The world would love his own But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you It's not what the world thinks about us Now we ought to have a solid Christian testimony We ought to live our lives in such a way that when people see our good works and hear our words they glorify God They say pan only God could have done something like that and that feller that lady I knew him when he was a young rascal or I knew her when she was a this or that But nevertheless It's not about what the world thinks of us.
It's what they think of Jesus and for Judah It wasn't about what the Assyrians thought about them But what they thought about the living God because that's why Rabbi Sheikah came to reproach the living God by saying all these things To Judah he reproached he defied the living God Now get this there are many things we could say about why a lot of churches perhaps even most churches Have left the Bible as their sole authority for faith in practice but one of those things one of those reasons is That they don't really understand what Jesus told his disciples right here He said if he said the world hated him first and It hated you because of him Then don't try to change so the world will love you You can't make the world love Jesus and you sure can't make them love you But that's what many churches have done Have tried to get people the world that is the unsaved mass of this earth to like them To not hate them anymore, and that's a mistake We're not to be hateful But when somebody says I hate what you believe in I in fact I hate you for believing that there's only one way to be saved Okay, well that's that's for Jesus You're hating on Jesus.
I've just I'm in him That's who you really hate because I'm not the one who said I am the way the truth in the life No, man cometh unto the father by me.
That was Jesus who said that and Those churches that want people to like them They want more people to come to their assemblies, and so what do they do?
How do you fill?
Jerry Jones Stadium with a hundred and however many thousand people there and get them to pay 15 times the market rate for M&M's and a drink You put a football team in there you put two of them in there in fact and you let them play on Sunday Or Saturday or Friday You give them something to enjoy in the flesh and boy.
They'll flock to it so what some churches have done many have said we want to fill our pews to and So they appeal to the flesh what people want they have movie night instead of Bible study Or they'll have watersides and instead of Bible study.
They'll dive into the water instead of diving into God's Word And you know what?
The world is not just made of the people outside the church But also those who come into the church.
They're not actually members of the Lord's Church.
They're unbelievers But they become comfortable in a church because that church is trying to make them comfortable That church isn't teaching them the truth about who they are and who God is and what has been done for their sin and If you make your church more appealing to the world then the world will come to your church And also you'll have the world inside the church and outside the church and there just won't be any difference at all And that's what happens when you focus on the world hating you And when we get back next week we'll continue that thought explore that a little more deeply Lord willing let's pray father.
We're so thankful for your word We're thankful for the plainness of it and even in the difficult parts father The rest of your word helps us to understand the difficult parts And so I just pray that we would take what we've learned today We'd meditate upon it.
It will become part of our daily thoughts and Then our daily habits and we pray this in Jesus name Amen
