Sermon
#95 Series: Isaiah
Title: Five Lessons From Isaiah 37
Text: Isaiah 37:1-38
Scripture
Reading: Larry Criss, (Ps. 79:9, 13).
Subject:
Hezekiah's Prayer and God's Promise of Deliverance
Date: Sunday Evening - December 1, 1991
Introduction:
What
a tremendous contrast there is between Hezekiah and his father Ahaz. Hezekiah was a man of faith. His father Ahaz was a man of compromise. Hezekiah was a man of prayer. Ahaz was a man of presumption. Hezekiah sought the glory of God. Ahaz provoked the Lord to anger. Hezekiah honored God and was honored by
God. His father Ahaz sought his own
honor and was buried in dishonor.
In
the time of trouble Ahaz connived with Tiglath - pileser and became an
accomplice with the Assyrians. Because
of his unbelief, cowardice and compromise the northern kingdom was forever
destroyed and Samaria was carried away into captivity and slavery.
It
was not so with Hezekiah. In the time
of trouble he believed God. He refused
to compromise. He went into the house
of the Lord in sackcloth, covered with ashes, and spread his case before the
Lord; and in response to his prayer of faith the Lord God delivered his people
from their time of trouble and destroyed their enemies.
These
things "were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (Rom. 15:4).
Proposition:
This
chapter shows us that- God's people are the apple of his eye, always under his
care and protection, and he will both deliver them from all their troubles and
destroy all their enemies.
The
title of my message tonight is Five Lessons From Isaiah 37. I might have called it, "A message for
the Time of Trouble," or "The God who Delivers by Prayer," or
"The Goodness and the Severity of God." All those things are revealed in the chapter; but any one of
those titles could not cover the whole scope of this chapter. So I called the message Five Lessons From
Isaiah 37. I will give you the outline
as we move through the chapter.
I. Our first lesson is a lesson for the time of
trouble (vv. 1-7). In the time of
trouble we should, like Hezekiah, worship the Lord Our God.
When
Ahaz was in trouble, he sought to deliver himself from trouble by his own
cunning, conniving, and craftiness.
When Hezekiah was in trouble, he sought the Lord his God.
A. He went to the house of worship with a
broken heavy heart (vv. 1-3).
He took his troubles to the Lord (Heb.
4:16). Don't take things in your own
hands.
B. Though Hezekiah was in trouble, his concern was not so much for himself as it was for the glory of God and the People of God (vv. 2-5).
1. He sought a Word from God.
2. He sought the glory of God.
3. He sought the welfare of God's people -
"The Remnant."
C. God met Hezekiah with a word of grace in the
house of worship (vv.6-7).
1. An encouragement to faith - "Be not
afraid"- "The Battle is the Lord's!"
No
matter what my battle is, if I am God's child, if I am his servant, if his
cause is my cause, the battle is the Lord's.
I have nothing to fear. Satan's
people are just Hot Wind. The words of
men are just words.
2. A promise of deliverance - (v. 7).
II. Secondly, in verses 8-13, there is a lesson
about faith - true faith will be tried and proved (James 1:1, 2, 12). Rom.
5:1-5; II Cor. 4:17; I Pet. 1:7.
Hezekiah
already had the promise of God.
Deliverance was sure. God, who
cannot lie, promised to destroy Sennacherib.
Yet, the first thing Hezekiah met with when he came out of the house of
the Lord was Rabshakeh, Sennecherib's blaspheming ambassador.
"The
vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not
lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not
tarry" (Heb. 2:3).
A. Usually, God's promises are not immediately
fulfilled.
B. But every promise of God is sure - Just
Wait!
Note: v. 10 Satan's common play - Just look around you!
III. The third lesson is a lesson about prayer (vv. 14-20) - Prayer is the cry of the needy heart to the God of all grace, seeking the glory of God and the will of God, believing the Word of God.
The
knowledge of God's purpose is not a hindrance to prayer, but an
encouragement! Hezekiah knew what God
had promised. He knew God's
purpose. He was not trying to get God
to change his mind! He was simply
asking God to do what he had already sworn he would do - Predestination is the
handmaid of prayer. Now, look at
Hezekiah's prayer. Knowing what God had
promised…
A. He spread his cause before the Lord (vv. 14,
17-19).
B. He praised the name of the Lord (v. 16).
C. He asked God to do what he promised he would
do - "save us" (v. 20). II
Sam 7:27.
D. He offered an argument God could not resist
(v. 20) "That all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the
Lord, even thou only."
All
True Prayer is the Work of Faith.
You
cannot separate the Church of Christ from Christ himself. We are his body, "the fulness of him
that filleth all in all." Christ
rules the world for his church. He
counts our enemies his enemies and our friends his friends, and anything done
to us as done to him (Matt. 25:40-45).
A. God counted Sennacherib's reproach and rage
against Hezekiah and Judah to be against himself (vv. 23, 28).
B. The people Sennacherib opposed were the
objects of God's special care, whom he was determined to bless (vv. 22, 30-35).
C. Sennacherib, the great enemy of Judah, had
no power but what God had given him (vv. 24-29).
He
could do nothing without God's permission; and at God's appointed time he would
be cast down.
V. The last lesson is a lesson about God's
Judgment (vv. 36-38). The judgment of
God is sure.
What
became of Sennacherib, that blaspheming king who shook his fist in God's face
and dared to come against God's people in the rage of persecution? The eye of the Lord followed him back to his
palace at Nineveh. The finger of God
pointed at him every step of the way.
When he thought he was safe in the company of his own sons, in the house
of his own god, the Lord God killed him with the swords of his own sons! "The wheels of justice grind slow; but
they grind to powder. God will slay his
enemies!
Application: "Be not afraid" - In the time of trouble.
1. Worship God.
2. Persevere in Faith.
3. Seek the Lord in Prayer.
4. Trust God's Providential Care.
5. Wait for God's Deliverance.
"The
Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the
unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished" (II Pet. 2:9).