Victory with God

I hope you have a good time. of the Lord, my heart and my flesh cry out for the lilies and the swallow where she may lay, even thine altars, even thine altars, O thy King and my God. Here I would rather be a doorkeeper in the high goat than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

A day quieter than a thousand, I'd ward off host. My soul longeth, yea, fainteth of the Lord and my flesh cry out for the lilies and the swallow where she may lay, even thine altars, even thine altars, O Lord my God. 32 verse 1. After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and invaded Judah.

He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about the blocking off of the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. A large force of men assembled, and they blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land.

Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water, they said. Then he worked hard, repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the supporting terraces of the city of David.

He also made large numbers of weapons and shields. He appointed military officers over the people and assembled them before him in the square of the city gate and encouraged them with these words, Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him.

For there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us fight our battles. And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah, the king of Judah, said.

Later, when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and all his forces were laying seed to Lachish, he sent his officers to Jerusalem with this message for Hezekiah, king of Judah and for all the people of Judah who were there. This is what Sennacherib, king of Assyria, says, On what are you basing your confidence, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege? When Hezekiah says, The Lord our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria, he is misleading you to let you die of hunger and thirst. Did not Hezekiah himself remove this God's high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, You must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it? Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the other lands? Were the gods of those nations ever able to deliver their land from my hand? Who of all the gods of these nations that my father destroyed, has been able to save his people from me? How then can your God deliver you from my hand? Now do not let Hezekiah deceive you and mislead you like this.

Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my father's. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand? Sennacherib's officers spoke further against the Lord God, against his servant Hezekiah. The king also wrote letters insulting the Lord God of Israel and saying this against him.

Just as the gods of the peoples of the other lands did not rescue their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand. Then they called out in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to terrify them and to make them afraid in order to capture the city. They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as they did about the gods of the other peoples of the world, the work of men's hands.

King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, cried out in prayer to heaven about this and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace and when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons cut him down with the sword. So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others.

He took care of them on every side. Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the Lord and valuable gifts for Hezekiah, king of Judah. From then on, he was highly regarded by all the nations.

If you'd have your Bibles open at the reading, which was from 2 Chronicles and chapter 32, we come to what is the last address from these two historical books and I've been so pleased at the response that folk have made as Andrew on occasions has joined with me in trying to share the fact that locked away in what for many, alas, are the dusty, unfamiliar pages of the Old Testament Scriptures are truths that have value for modern people in the 20th century. I'm going to read two verses again and then we shall pray. 2 Chronicles 32 and from the 7th verse.

For there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us fight our battles and the people gain confidence from what Hezekiah, the king of Judah, said. Father, we just ask again for a sense of your presence and for the help of your spirit as we look into this most important holy word which you have allowed us to have in our possession.

May our minds be aided and may our hearts be stimulated and we ask that the net product of our gathering together around this book may be seen in terms of better quality of discipleship and the expansion of the kingdom of our God as people come to place saving faith in the living Christ. And this we ask for His sake. Amen.

I read a little while ago that the prime function of a leader is to keep hope alive. The prime function of a leader is to keep hope alive. If that is so, then one man whose life at least to some degree ran parallel with my own, a man who died some years ago, Winston Churchill was a great leader.

He had that charismatic ability to keep hope alive when our country was faced with the most appalling situation. We have still those who are old enough to recall Churchill immediately on mentioning his name and image in our minds, perhaps of the cigar that he would often smoke and the signal of victory that he would give. And maybe also if you can in your mind recall a voice, you can remember the gravel-like tones of Churchill as he offered us not a bed of primroses but rather blood, sweat and tears in the repulsion of the Nazi invasion of Europe and the potential invasion of this country.

And you recall how in a very stubborn mood Churchill said that even if the Nazi regime came into this island home of ours we would fight on the beaches, we would fight in the hills. One thing we would never do and that was surrender. I believe Churchill was given by God to this nation at a time when it needed such a person to marshal us together.

And it seems to me when you read into the Old Testament and you come across the character of Hezekiah you have, if you please, the Churchill of the Old Testament. For there you discover the children of Israel, to be more precise the children of Judah, the southern kingdom, confronted with an obstacle that was equally as bad as that which challenged us yesteryear in more recent days in our country. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was besieging Jerusalem.

I came across in Time magazine a year or so ago what Henry Kissinger called the domino theory of the Far East. And by the domino theory he had in mind the way that many eastern countries have capitulated to the power of communism. One country after another has gone down and one remembers as a child stacking up dominoes, one in front of the other and with the whole box standing up you then knock down the first and the rest collapse, piled on top of each other.

Now that's what Kissinger said was happening in the Far East. So much for his comments about modern political developments. This certainly was true in the days of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

The whole world was engaged, or so it would seem, being stacked up in a line and the domino theory was working its way out. Sennacherib and all his emissaries, all his armies, seemed to have the world at their feet and as a result when Sennacherib was sniffing at the city walls of Jerusalem there was terror within the heart of the occupants of that holy place. And it was Hezekiah, if you please, this man who had been so well tutored in earlier years of his life, who gave the Churchillian call and over against insurmountable odds he was able to say to his people there is a greater power with us than with Sennacherib.

With him is only the arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us fight our battles. And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah, the king of Judah, said. I don't know what brought you into the tab this evening.

I'm glad you came. Glad for the warmth of welcome that you must have felt already as extended by my two colleagues. But this past week might have left you somewhat bloodied though unbowed.

It may have brought enormous problems and as a Christian you feel just at breaking point and ready to give in. Or maybe as a non-Christian you nonetheless feel tremendous pressures in your life. And if that is your situation then you join with me in the pulpit.

And I'm glad in the name of God to be able to encourage myself and to bring a word from the Lord to you this evening as in the proclamation of Hezekiah I repeat that there is a greater power that is with Christian people or potentially Christian people than all the opposing forces which often cause our lives to be immersed in difficulty and problem. And so as we work out with just some degree of historical evidence brought forward the way that God blessed Hezekiah and routed the Assyrian army and reduced Sennacherib to a beaten foe may it be in the providence of the Lord that you this night will discover that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and those of us who trust the Lord Christ as our Saviour are made more than conquerors whatever problems may present themselves in the midst of our path as we negotiate life's journey. I want you first of all to see within the proclamation of Hezekiah an illustration of positive thinking an illustration of positive thinking there is a greater power with us than with Him.

I know that the book The Power of Positive Thinking might be in the minds of some people as I've just used part of that title to pinpoint some aspect of what's on my heart this evening written by Norman Vincent Peale some years ago but it's not that sort of American philosophy that I'm dangling in front of you right now. I believe that there is justification in the Word of God for me to encourage God's own children to think positively. If only we could have healthy mentalities a healthy attitude to our problems and a significant realization of the power of the living God I'm sure that most of the mountains would be reduced to the plain and most of the giants would be discovered as dwarfs.

Here Hezekiah confronted with the enormous forces of Sennacherib says nonetheless there's a greater power with us than with Him. The power of positive thinking is basic to the message of the Old Testament. I love the story of the ruddy-cheeked David the shepherd boy who from the hills surrounding Bethlehem goes to the scene of the conflict between the Hebrew army and the Philistines.

And you remember the occasion when the giant Goliath is causing the Hebrews to quake in their boots. David goes to the king and he says you want someone who can beat Goliath? I'm your man. And David moves down the valley of Elath.

Some squib from Hebrew from the Hebrew camp over against the banger if you like from the Philistines and Goliath is insulted. But David says don't you get over keen Goliath in thinking that the conflict between us is prejudged. You come with all your power with all your physical prowess and might but I come in the name of the Lord God of Israel.

The power of positive thinking and with one pebble moving with the velocity of a pellet David felled Goliath. And that has been the case down history that the man who has God on his side has always discovered himself to be in the majority. The power of positive thinking.

You know in church history there was a great man by the name of Athanasius. I would love to dare to spend one Sunday evening just speaking to you about Athanasius but somebody would write me a letter and say his name is not in the Bible therefore I ought not to preach on Athanasius. He was a great character.

One of the reasons why we have an accurate theology of Jesus Christ today is because of Athanasius. Time was when the whole Christian church was almost swinging to a Jehovah's Witness position. You thought they're a modern sect? You're fooling yourself.

Almost a Jehovah's Witness position on the doctrine of Christ. And Athanasius on his own was defending the fact that Jesus is truly God and truly man. And on one occasion the dignitaries of the church as it was in that century came to him and they said Athanasius, you've got the whole world who are on the other side.

And Athanasius with his heavy eyebrows and his dark eyes flashed in righteous indignation and he said in that case it is Athanasius contra nundum Athanasius against the world I'll be one with God in this great truth that Jesus Christ is his only son and he is the revelation of the Godhead on planet earth. Thank God for Athanasius. Thank God for the power of positive thinking that enabled him to take on all the ecclesiastics in his day.

You remember turning the historical clock on many centuries you come to the 15th, 16th century to Martin Luther and with the whole of the Roman Catholic church up in arms concentrating its venom on Luther he stands against the world and he says literally here I stand I can do no other as he pins his creedal statement on the door posts of the university where he was a lecturer. I tell you that when a man has God on his side all the hosts of Sennacherib all the forces of Hitler all evil powers brought together and added into one whole are utterly insignificant for it's the Lord God omnipotent who reigns on planet earth and he reigns through men and women boys and girls who name the name of Christ and identify themselves with his purposes. Well here is Hezekiah this great man who's addressing what might well have been fear stricken people in Jerusalem and he's laboring the point with God we're in the majority.

When we moved into the year into the 20th century the China inland mission was going through one of the most horrific experiences in the whole of its history. In the year that took us into the 20th century the Boxer Rebellion came to the fore in China a revolution an upsurge of nationalism and hundreds of people were done to death and amongst their people were something like 50 47 I think to be precise missionaries from the China inland mission and 23 of their children one of the greatest slaughters of missionaries in the whole of contemporary missionary history. But even despite what happened Hudson Taylor and his colleagues still believed God that He would nonetheless use them for the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Republic of China and more and more men and women as a result of that sacrifice and setback a manifestation of the forces of Satan came into the mission and churches were established throughout the whole of that land.

I tell you the principle remains constant when you have God on your side no matter if there is threatening opposition no matter if there is retreat for a moment you are ultimately guaranteed the victory. And so Hezekiah reminds these people as he illustrates the power of positive thinking that there is secondly a limitation on finite resources a limitation on finite resources look what he has to say of Sennacherib with him is only the arm of the flesh the arm of the flesh he feels he's got all authority but really it's an illusion it's like one of those mirages that you see sometimes in the desert you feel that water is at hand you feel comfortable but you don't have justification to feel like that way because it's all an illusion now this is what Hezekiah is saying of Sennacherib this is what God I believe is saying to Christian people in the 20th century confronted with so many hostile forces of materialism and godlessness the power that is represented there is mediocre power belongs to God and He has not abdicated from that position of absolute sovereignty within the heavens when our blessed Lord was confronted by Pilate you remember on that occasion that he went through his mock trial that Roman procurator had the effrontery to say to the Christ do you not know that I have power of life and death in my hands I control your destiny and Jesus cut Pilate right down to size when He said you could have no power apart from that which is invested in you in the sovereignty of God finite power is limited much of it is totally illusion illusionary it's the arm of flesh and what does that little phrase mean well it has wrapped into it all the futility of life that human beings like you and I represent we are not omnipotent we do not last forever Sennacheribs come and Sennacheribs go but the Lord God Almighty He changes never here is Sennacherib with his great forces thousands upon thousands of men pushing their way down further south towards Egypt but first of all having to come into contact with Hezekiah and Jerusalem and over there at the same time those of you who know history will remember this in Italy there is a man by the name of Romulus and he is starting to build the city of Rome and from Rome eventually will explode one of the greatest world powers that we have ever known and by that time that Rome reigns supreme Assyria will be forgotten and Sennacherib just a name a name on the history books known to some people but only a minority you see it's the arm of flesh and if you're trusting this evening my friend in what purports to be the arm of flesh if you have your trust in politicians if you have your trust in some ethical or philosophical or political code then let me disabuse you of the notion that your life is built on any solid foundation whatsoever you are trusting the Sennacheribs and I tell you that all authority has been invested by Almighty God in His Christ and ultimately the destiny of men and women in terms of their spiritual well-being is within the church of Jesus Christ that He has established which let no man go away from this church ever arguing that you were not brought face to face with this fact that finite power is utterly futile utterly limited and the thing on which your life needs to be built is not the arm of flesh of modern Sennacheribs but in the power of the Lord God Almighty I have here something that might look to you very, very common but to me it represents the purposes of God and the authority and infallibility of Scripture it's a stone let me say for those who hear this message by tape that I have in my hand it's a very smooth stone but it's a very hard stone I can't get my fingernail even into just a fraction of it I picked this stone up in the most strange circumstances I was confessing this morning that sometimes I suffer from vertigo sometimes a sensation of loss of balance there are other occasions if I'm in a confined atmosphere I suffer a little from claustrophobia I don't like being in a straightened atmosphere but one day when I was in the Middle East when I was in Jerusalem I spent some time making my way from the Gihon stream and pushing my way up a tunnel which had been miraculously engineered hewn out of the solid stone under Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah and in the darkness with water almost up to my waist I dipped my hand low and I brought out this stone reminding myself of the day when Hezekiah caused all the water around Jerusalem to be dammed up and all the wells to be shut off and with a great piece of engineering he brought water underground from a stream outside Jerusalem thus securing water provision for his people when Sennacherib's army had completely besieged the city and I remind myself now as I pick up this stone which dates from that particular period of history of the great prophetic declaration of Isaiah which you find in the parallel account of this historical incident in the second book of Kings that Sennacherib would never so much as take one of his arrows and shoot it into Jerusalem he would never be successful in the siege that he endeavored to promote of that holy city because God had guaranteed that Hezekiah and his people the people of God would ward off this invasion although the forces of Sennacherib were that much superior to their own I tell you that when Hezekiah put his trust in the living God the Lord established his rule and enabled him to triumph over against insuperable odds and that's exactly the same today the resources of men and powers that are opposed to God are finite and limited and God can bring security spiritually speaking to His people and thus so around the world and so let me try to bring the whole of my message to its conclusion this evening as I speak about the vindication of the purposes of God you remember this stone? and the fact that I told you that it reminds me of the way that Hezekiah was delivered I stood not many months ago just outside the old city of Jebus which is part of the enclave of Jerusalem today where Hezekiah would have been and I looked across the tomb of the prophets and in my mind racing back into scripture trying to bring verses into the forefront of my thinking I tried to work out where Sennacherib's army would have been placed and I thought of Hezekiah this great and courageous man who fortified the city again and secured the water supply and how Sennacherib's men had shouted across to the men of Jerusalem and say your God, He's a manufactured God the gods of the Philistines the gods of the northern federation they've all gone they didn't come to the help of their people at all how will your God come to your aid? and then I remembered from my school days that poem by Byron only two lines will come back into my mind at this moment the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold and their cohorts were girded in silver and gold there's a clash of their armor there is a reflection of the sun on their shields and on their javelins they are ready to take Jerusalem or so they feel and then it happens miraculously marvelously as shown in Chronicles and the parallel scripture in 2 Kings and also incidentally the parallel scripture in Isaiah God pours out His wrath upon this upstart Sennacherib and the angel of death whatever that conveys to you came into the camp of the Assyrians according to Jewish tradition bubonic plague broke out amongst the armies and when the survivors woke up the following day it was to discover that 185,000 of their men were dead and Sennacherib limps back home to Assyria a defeated foe he who had claimed in his own historical annals to have locked Hezekiah up in Jerusalem as a person might lock a bird within a cage is routed by what the ingenuity of Hezekiah not a bit of it Hezekiah at the logical level had got no chance of winning whatsoever as a result of the display of the omnipotence of God and the recognition of the king that with God he and what army he might have been able to muster was in a majority over against the Assyrians now my dear friend when our blessed Lord died on Calvary's cross it might have seemed to many a person who was standing by that the purposes of God were absolutely frustrated he saved others you remember? himself he cannot save this is the end of the carpenter from Nazareth this man who claims to be God and reckons according to certain rumours in the bazaars to have performed miracles of healing and of supernatural intervention in the laws of nature this is the end of this man this feeble man with broken body and bleeding forehead but my friend locked up within that man on the center cross is the power of the living God and death shall not keep him pray Jesus the Saviour he like some Samson though far more capable because he's far more equipped will break the bars of death and three days having descended into hell he shall be raised again in the power of an endless life and this man shall bisect history and radically revolutionize the story of man it's ridiculous it's absurd here is this Christ he dies by the smelly dung hill outside Jerusalem ready for his body to be conveniently put in the incinerator and done away with how shall this man ever revolutionize the world but he shall and Julius Caesar shall go and be forgotten and his power shall evaporate as water under the hot sun that Jesus Christ's power shall remain supreme the armies of Sennacherib so to speak might be around that cross the hostility and abuse of Pilate and Herod the compounded mockery of the Pharisees and the Sadducees the unbelief of mankind down all the ages it might show itself like some sewage on the top of the surface around the cross but one thing stands out historically now as we look back two thousand years that man had power that man had authority and when someone sides with that man and confesses who he is then and only then shall he or she know the repulsion of the armies of evil in their own lives you say you want to be a Christian well you wouldn't have that desire unless the omnipotent God had placed it within your heart let's say this you say you'd like to go to heaven and be assured of that when you die again the concern comes from almighty God how can this be wrought within you? well by aligning yourself with that person whom Martin Luther calls the proper man the second Adam who died on Calvary's cross ridiculous you say? no more ridiculous than Hezekiah saying that he would by God's aid repulse the armies of Sennacherib ridiculous you say? then explain the phenomenon of the church it exists today it's bursting it seems in Latin America and various parts of Africa ridiculous you say? then why has not the message of the cross been brought down to the level of Aesop's fables? why are there millions of people around the globe who acknowledge the omnipotence of God in the form of Jesus Christ ridiculous you say? then how do you explain the lives of men and women who've been revolutionized in this city town in this coastal town of Worthing? I tell you that the essence of wisdom is to come to this God, is to flee from the arm of flesh which is bound to fail because it's finite and it has no eternal properties infested in it and come to this living God, to this living Christ and confess your need of sins forgiven and safety as you move through this world fearing not the modern Sennacheribs and all the evil hostile forces that there may be this was the declaration of a king centuries ago and tied into what he has to say is so much supreme superb theology there is greater power with us than with him with him is only the arm of the flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us fight our battles and the people gained courage confidence from what the king said may you have gained confidence this evening from what this inadequate pastor has said in this pulpit in this church let us pray Father you who give the capacity to know you, to yearn after you grant that desire within the hearts of all in this tabernacle and let not one go from this place unaware of that assurance which only your Holy Spirit can bring of forgiveness of sins and new life in Jesus Father we thank you for the cross and for the resurrection and for the fact that in the glory we have the captain of our salvation and we ask that he might call to himself amongst the number within this congregation this night those whom he wants in his army send us on to serve him we pray and bless every dear brother and sister who has granted me the privilege of being able to preach this message to them for the Saviour's sake Amen