Please take your Bibles and turn with me to the first chapter that we read together in the book of 2 Kings. We come in our exposition of this Old Testament book to the 19th chapter. So 2 Kings chapter 19. And we'll begin with verse 1, reading verse 1. And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. Every Christian who has been taught the fundamentals of what the Bible teaches know that the preservation and promotion of God's glory stands at the center of all of creation. The preservation and promotion of God's glory is central to everything God does. Everything he has done in the past is doing in the present and will do in the future. He is most interested about his own name, about his own glory, and that is, of course, as we've often heard, a necessity in being God. He must be interested chiefly in his own glory. And this is of course a key component to our understanding really history and understanding our own lives, knowing that the promotion of God's glory is the centerpiece. We look back on the annals of history and we see many twists and turns and we see what at times looks confusing. We see the rise of people and nations and the precipitous descent that follows, we see wars and movements and ideologies and so on, and we recognize as we trace with our finger all that is taking place, we trace in it the promotion of God's glory, how it is that He is working through the affairs of men. And what's true in our history books is true in our own personal history, in our own lives. We know the Lord has taken us down the windy path into the valley of humiliation, that he's lifted us up out of it, exalted us, and caused us to at times ride on the high places of the earth to feast with the heritage of Jacob. And in all of that, and much more, We can trace with our finger throughout the lifespan that the God has given to us the way in which he has been bringing glory, gathering glory to himself. And so we come to chapters like 2 Kings 18. And we're set on edge, right? The chapter prior to the one that we're considering this afternoon. We're set on edge because we're seeing all of the bluster and all the fomenting and all of the blasphemy that is taking place. And we know our God is not mocked. that what a man sows, he will also reap, that God will not, cannot share his glory with another. And so we're set on edge, anticipation, what all of this means and where all of this is going. We recognize we have to, we as the Lord's people have to align our thoughts and our pursuits with God's thoughts. and with God's will in this world. So you come to the end of chapter 18 and we're set, as it were, on the edge of a cliff. And it really looks bleak. If you don't fast forward into chapter 19, as we've now done in reading this afternoon, if you just read the passage and allow what is being said to seep into your soul, to take on board how monumentous the events that Judah, Jerusalem, Hezekiah were facing were. It is amazing, it takes our breath away at times. And so we were left, as it were, in what appeared to be a lurch, and the future looked terribly bleak. And then we come to chapter 19, and we open the word of God, and we begin to hear about what he has done in response to all that has preceded this. We're gonna note four things this afternoon. as we seek to unpack chapter 19. First of all, we see a promise in verses 1 to 13. First of all, a promise in verses 1 to 13. Notice, beginning in verse 1, Hezekiah's response to this looming catastrophe. And really, what he did, look at verses 1, 2, and 3, what he did that is, he tore his clothes, rent his clothes, where he went, which was into the house of the Lord, and what he said, all exhibit the same thing. What he did, where he went, and what he said, all exhibit the same thing, namely, humiliation. And more particularly, the humiliation of repentance. He is humbling himself with repentance before the Lord. Notice that he sees the rebuke. He sees the rebuke in all that is taking place here in chapter 19. He recognizes it. He says in verse 3, this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy or provocation. He's recognizing what's going on. He's humbling himself and he's confessing, Lord, we are being dealt with hardly ultimately because of our own sins against you. And he confesses at the end of verse 3, we are devoid of strength. Our tank is empty. We have nothing. He says we've come to birth and there is not strength to bring forth. But notice that he also puts his finger on the heart of the matter, namely that all of this bluster from Rabshakeh is ultimately a reproach against the living and the true God. In verse four he says, it may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, hath sent to reproach the living God. And it's almost as if Hezekiah is coming and he's saying, Lord, we deserve this. I mean, we are not getting worse than we ourselves deserve. To have Assyria outside our gates, to have them breathing down our necks, to have the threat of our own utter destruction would be one thing. We would deserve that. But you, O Lord, You do not deserve the reproach and all that has been hurled at your own honor and glory. That cannot and must not stand. And so the heartthrob of Hezekiah is God-centered, isn't it? He has a God-centered perspective, and he's saying, There's almost, if you will, an element of hope tucked into that. He's saying, Lord, listen to what they've said about you. It's a trembling faith, but it's faith nonetheless. At the beginning of verse four, he says, it may be the Lord thy God will hear. Right? There's this trembling aspect, but he's also conscious. They have lifted their hand against God himself. A line has been crossed as we saw last week, and it is a line that once crossed is beyond any hope of return. And so he's going and saying, tell Isaiah. And notice that Isaiah comes back with dogmatic promises. I mean, Hezekiah is saying, it may be that the Lord will hear this reproach against his own name. Isaiah comes back with no maybes at all. He comes back with dogmatic promises based, again, on the blasphemy that has been hurled at the Lord. Verse six, thus shall you say to your master, thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. So God himself is God-centered, of course. And he is voicing that. And we're told that Rabshakeh, in verse 8 and following, Rabshakeh, there's all of this beating of the shields and there's the distractions of the king of Ethiopia and so on, but Rabshakeh reinforces his psychological warfare. All of the trends that we saw in the last chapter are reinforced here. He uses psychological warfare. He comes and on one hand, you have what Isaiah is saying, and that is God's word. And then you have on the other hand, in opposition to it, Rabshakeh's word. And it reminds us of the garden, right, where the devil comes and says, hath God said? God said one thing, the devil came with the pseudo word. Here we have God saying through his prophet one thing, bringing promise, and we have Rabshakeh coming with the pseudo word. And what does he do? He now stoops to accusing Jehovah of being a deceiver. He says, don't let the God of Israel, don't let Him deceive you into thinking that you are going to be delivered. Now he's taking a high hand. Earlier he had said that Jehovah was on his side. Well, he's abandoned that. As every enemy of God does, he shifts the board. And now he's hurling accusations against Jehovah himself. In verse 11, he basically uses emotional appeal. And he says, you know better. I mean, you citizens of Jerusalem, you know better than all of this. You know the facts of history, he says, in essence. And he goes on and says, you're not special. Let's remember where we've been. Assyria has gone to this country and that country. None of their gods have saved them. You know the facts. Don't allow yourself to be deceived by nonsense. You're not any different than anyone else. No one else has escaped. This is the circumstances really of chapter 18. So at the beginning of the chapter, not much has changed. I mean, the scenery for those that are looking on from the outside is unchanged. Here you have all the same pressure, all the same threats, and all the same arrogance of the enemies. But there is something that's changed, and that is God has brought his word of promise to his people. And so now the people of God are being squeezed in between providence and promise. On the one hand, they have the promise, that is, the Word that God's brought through Isaiah. On the other hand, they're looking out their window at the providence of God, and where they find themselves. Rabshak is still pounding on the gate, and still hurling insults at us, and still threatening to destroy us. They're being squeezed between providence and promise. And so we often find ourselves, the people of God often find themselves in very similar circumstances. Obviously the story is different and the particular details are very different from what we find in chapter 19, but at root They're more the same than they are different. We'll have the promises of God coming to us through his word, and then we look out the window of our own eyes at God's providence in his dealing with us, and we're being squeezed between them. We have the promise of God's presence, and yet the true people of God find themselves at times, and it seems as if the Lord is absent. You know, like Job, we search, can't find him before us or behind us, you know, to the right hand or the left. He doesn't appear to be there. Same thing in the Song of Songs and throughout the Psalms. We have the promise that he'll never leave us and forsake us. And yet there's this sense that the Lord is far off, this distance. We have the promise that God will work all things together for the good of his people, and yet it seems as if there's so much that is working for bad in our current affairs and circumstances. We hear about the coming glory, but we're experiencing the present suffering. And here the Lord's people are left clinging to his promises. Let God be true, though all men are liars." And they're clinging to the Word of God and saying, God will make good on what He has said. And our vision and sight, the sight that we have through the lens of God's Word is clearer. than the sight that we have looking through our spectacles or the eyeballs in our head. We look out and we say, well, it appears as if there is much that is against us, much that contradicts what we have been told is true. And it is safer and wiser and surer for us to view things through His word, to cling to this word of promise that He's given to us. So first of all, we have a promise. Secondly, there is a prayer. And it's not as if these things are unconnected. God brings His Word by way of promise, and that provides, if you will, all of the resources for then going to the Lord in prayer. And so the second thing we have is a prayer in verses 14 through verse 19. Rabshakeh sends his message back, which we've just noted. And what does Hezekiah do? He once again goes to the Lord. Just as we saw at the beginning of the chapter, he's going into the house of the Lord, and he formally lays out this letter, this document, before the Lord. He's coming and he's saying, Lord, this is your business. I mean, this pertains to you. This is what's being said about you. This is what involves your honor and your glory. And he spreads it out before the Lord. It's the picture of what we have in the New Testament where we're told in Philippians 4 that we're to be, in all things, we're to be coming before the Lord with our prayers and our supplications. It's what we see in the writings of Peter, which he's quoting from Proverbs when he speaks about us casting all our cares upon the Lord. We're coming and laying them out as it were, spreading them out before the Lord in assurance that he cares for his people. And so this letter, interestingly, this letter ends up serving in driving Hezekiah closer to the Lord. The letter is intended to shove a wedge between Hezekiah and his God, or between Jerusalem and their God. And it does the exact opposite. It ends up being the wind in their sails that blows Hezekiah toward the Lord, closer to the Lord, seeking the Lord. So there are people that mean us ill. And there's no question about it, no qualms about it. They actually intend ill, evil toward us. Little do they know that the Lord is so pleased to take what is meant for evil and to transform it and turn it into something that's good. This is the language of Genesis 50 where Joseph's looking at his brothers and saying, you meant it for evil. It's true. Your motives and everything else that was driving you was sinful and you're culpable for that. But God meant it for good. And God transforms what looks to be evil into being a vehicle for good. And that's what's happening here. Hezekiah is actually driven to his Lord rather than away from his Lord. And so he comes and he spreads it all out before the Lord. Prayer begins with a sense of our helplessness. It's not just these kind of acute threats. that make prayer that way. All prayer is that way. All prayer begins with a sense of hopelessness. The reason you don't pray more is because you don't have a sense of your need And when you pray, you're not praying more fervently because you are not weighted with a sense of your desperation and helplessness, your dependence upon the Lord. Now, the Lord at times puts you in circumstances where you feel that far more keenly. And you often pray more fervently in those circumstances. But we ought to be praying with this sense of helplessness all the time. And it's a helplessness that's coupled with hope. It's not despair. It's a helplessness in ourselves that's coupled with hope in God himself. So look at this prayer that we have in verses 14 to 19. In verse 15 it opens, as all biblical prayer does, it opens with adoration. So he begins by talking to God about God. He begins with praise. The Assyrians are mocking God, deriding God, dishonoring God, blaspheming God. He begins by praising God, adoring God, extolling and exalting the Lord. And here he is, he's saying, Lord, you are exalted, and you are sovereign, and you are powerful. In other words, as Hezekiah comes to prayer, his mind is being fixed on to whom he is speaking. And this is what we often need. This is certainly what Hezekiah needed most. He needed to be brought consciously before the eye of God himself. Why? Because if his mind is being filled with the glory, the sovereignty, the exaltation, the power of this God, then what's going to happen? His sight of Rabshakeh and all the Assyrian army will be eclipsed by it. All of a sudden, they're going to seem smaller and smaller and less significant and less threatening and less important. The sight of that threat shrinks under the sight of God himself. And so he comes rehearsing God's majesty. Now this is characteristic of all biblical prayer. I mean, you can flip through your Bible, especially the many, many, many prayers that we have recorded in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament as well, they are all heavy on adoration. talking to God about God, extolling and praising Him. And this is, again, it's not a surprise because, you know, eternal life is the knowledge of God, Father and the Son. And the heart's hope of every Christian is to see and know God. The best part about prayer is not bringing our laundry list to Him for all the things we need, it's meeting with Him, seeing Him, beholding Him, adoring Him. That's the main business of prayer. And so, in contemporary prayer, right, the prayers that proliferate in the modern world are devoid of this. There may be the slightest reference of adoration, but they are heavily weighted on, here's our grocery list, and our wish list, and everything else that we have need of, and please, Lord, do it quickly. They're man-centered prayers. They're not God-centered prayers. The prayers we find in the Bible make much of God Himself. This is crucial to prayer. So there's adoration in verse 15. In verses 16, 17, and 18, He expresses his need, his need, as the text says, for God's ear and for God's eye. He's saying, Lord, we need you to hear. We need you to see the reproach that Sennacherib is bringing against the living God. And notice that he puts here two things back to back. He's quite matter-of-fact. He says, Lord, it's true. Assyria has gone on a rampage. And everywhere they've gone, they've left wreckage in their path. It's true. Assyria has destroyed the nations and has destroyed their gods. That's the first thing he says. But then notice the second thing. The second thing eliminates the first thing. The second thing he says is, but they were not real gods. They weren't real gods. And so, no wonder they destroyed them. They've never faced the only, the one and only living and true God. They have never yet come up against the true God. You see here, biblical argument, biblical thinking before the Lord. He's saying, this is our concern. They're making all these threats. It's unnerving your people. But Lord, we acknowledge all the track record that they boast of was against nobodies who had nothing. And now they're standing outside the gates of the city of the only living and true God, the creator of heaven and earth. And that leads him in verse 19 to his petition. And notice there is urgency in the petition. He's beseeching the Lord to save them. I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand. So there's a sense of desperation. They are, after all, outside the walls. But notice that's not all. He also brings with that urgency motivation, motive. And this too is God-centered. He says, Lord, come save us. Why? The word that is giving us the purpose. So that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. He's saying, Lord, save us, not just for the purpose of making us feel better, preserving us, but do it, O Lord, to vindicate your name. Do it to teach the kingdoms and nations. Do it to make clear before the entire watching world that you only that you and you alone are the true God. And so, just as with Moses in dealing with Israel, so now we find Hezekiah doing the same thing. He's saying, Lord, magnify your own name. He's saying, Lord, I'm interested in your reputation, not just the skin off of our own backs. And so he is pleading for the sake of God's glory. And of course, given what we were reminded of in the introduction, since God's glory, the promotion and preservation of his glory is God's main business, our prayers are being aligned dead center with God's own will. when we appeal rightly to his glory. So we see a promise, we see a prayer. Thirdly, we see a prophecy. Again, these things are not disconnected. It opens with a promise, God's word. That is what provides the basis for prayer and petition. Having offered that prayer, God returns his word. He brings prophecy to his people in verses 20 through verse 34. Verses 20 to 34, we see a prophecy. In verse 20, the Lord says, I have heard. I've heard your prayer. Now, people talk about the power of prayer. Prayer is not powerful. Prayer is not powerful. God is powerful. And prayer is calling upon and giving us access to the God who is powerful. And so, here's Rabshakeh's word on one hand, God's word on the other, and the Lord comes and he addresses all of their main points. All of the things that have to be addressed. He addresses, by way of prophecy, first of all, in verses 20 to 28, he addresses the pride and arrogance of Rabshakeh, Sennacherib, and the nation of Assyria. He turns the tables, and Jehovah says, listen clearly to me. Zion, that is the people of God, Zion is scorning you, Assyria. We are deriding you and your arrogance. And we are gonna hold you in contempt as you drag your sorry selves back to your land after you've been decimated. Here's the truth. Here's all of your pontifications and bluster. Here's the real story. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to be humbled. Notice that God identifies the specific sin in verse 21, the beginning of verse 21. The Virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee, whom thou hast reproached and blasphemed, against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high. He's saying, you've been, in verses 22 and 23, you have reproached Jehovah. You have been ridiculing the God of heaven. And he says in verses 23 and 24, you need to beware because God is listening to your words. God has heard your words. all of this nonsense about how unstoppable you are, how undefeatable you are, how no one and no thing and no God can possibly turn you back. God has been listening. Every letter, syllable, word, sentence that's fallen from your mouth, God's recorded it. And you need to know it. And then he exposes his ignorance in verses 25 and 26. Hast thou not heard long ago? He's saying, are you so dumb? Are you so dull? Are you so ignorant? Haven't you heard? This is old, old news. Where have you been? You are dense, spiritually dense. And then he goes on to say, God is the one who sovereignly disposes of everything. God is the one who gives victories to whoever has victory. I mean, you can read about this by way of parallel in Isaiah 41. Speaking of Cyrus the Persian, the Lord says, I am the one. I'm the first and I'm the last. I'm the one who accomplishes all of these things. He's in essence saying to Assyria, God predestinated all of this. Yes, the victories that you have attained over these other nations in the past all came about as God's plan. God's the one who's ordered it. God's the one who's raised you up. God's the one who's defeated the enemies before you. It kind of takes all of the glory of their boasting away. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've had victory here and there. By the way, that was the unfolding of God's plan. You did exactly what he wanted to happen, and he's the one who's made it happen. In verses 27 and 28, he says, and now listen to what I have predestined. Now listen to what I have willed to happen. He says, I'm going to put a hook in your nose, and I'm gonna put a bridle in your mouth, And I am going to drag you off into exile. In other words, you think that you are glorious in your pride. I am reducing you to an ass. I'm reducing you to a dumb mule. And you will be drug back with your tail between your legs. In other words, amidst all of this pontification and bluster, God is saying, let's take a look at reality. Sennacherib, you are a blip on the radar screen. That's what you are. You are a blip on the radar screen of history, and you have only done what I have chosen to have done for my own purposes and my own glory. Now you can take all of this and pause for a moment and think to yourself, well, when you are tempted to bluster, or to use a colloquial expression, when you are tempted to talk smack, You need to remember that God is listening to every one of your words. God's recording it. Whether it's whispered or whether it's shouted, God hears it all. And we are taught to fear him and to walk lowly and humbly before him. But it also gives us perspective to the world at large because there are those who strut back and forth on the stage of history and they can be politicians and military leaders and they can be other superstars and heroes and so on. And there's a lot of chest thumping and there's a lot of boasting. And there's a lot of strutting. And we need, as God's people, to have a clear grasp of reality. Men are men. They are a blip on the radar screen. They are of no consequence. And God is sovereignly ruling and overruling in all the affairs to bring in a pass His will, His way. And he will humble the proud, those who now look to be strongest, those who now look to be so invincible, those who now are so full of themselves, will in due time, they will sow what they've reaped, and God will put a hook in their nose and lead them where he wants them. Let's make sure we are thinking biblically. We are thinking as God would have us. So he addresses the pride. He also addresses the discouragement of his people. In verses 29 to 31, he says, I'm going to give a sign to you, Jerusalem. so that you can see what's going to happen here. I'm making provision for you. You're going to eat. This looks like a siege. That means there's massive amounts of dirt that's going to be piled up, and there's going to be the cutting off of all supplies, and there's going to be famine, and there's going to be the reduction of resources, and you're basically going to be tied up until either your walls cave in or you die from starvation. The Lord says no. you're gonna eat. And there's this first year, second year, third year, really, it's coming at the end of one year, which is counted as the first year, and you have then the spring of the following year, would be then the second year, and so it's not as far off as even it seems, but he's saying, this is going to happen, you're gonna sow, and you're gonna reap, and you're gonna sit, and you're gonna enjoy the fruits that God has given to you. But don't lose sight of what's happening here. Nothing in the world looks more unlikely. You know, this kind of description would sound to most of them like a pipe dream. They can look over the walls of Jerusalem and see this gigantic, massive army like locusts covering the land. And they're running around, recreating and playing and waiting to destroy them. Nothing in the world looks more unlikely than what is taking place here. It sounds rather outrageous. But notice the end of verse 31. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. However outrageous and unlikely it may seem, it is the zeal of the Lord of Hosts that will bring this to pass. He will ensure This is where our consolation lies, my friends. It's in knowing that the Lord of hosts, the God who rides in the armies of heaven and whose name is holy, the one whose no man can question and whose arm no one can stay. This is where our consolation is. that nothing is outside of his hand and that God is powerful in all that he brings to pass with that hand. Notice that he also addresses by prophecy their fear in verses 32 to 34. He says, no arrows are gonna fly into this city. None of the Assyrians are gonna set one foot in the entrance into this city. There's not gonna be cast a bank. That is, there's not gonna be any siege. They will go home. All of your fears are appeased, are pacified, are alleviated by the Lord. The question is, who's surrounding the city? Who's surrounding the city? Well, if you look over the wall, it appears as if Sennacherib and the host of Assyria is. And they're basically being told, no, who is surrounding the city? Jehovah is surrounding the city. The Lord is their shield. The Lord is their defender. That is what quiets their fears. God, after all, is the only Redeemer and Savior of His people. And we look to scientists and medicine, and we look to loved ones and resources and jobs and houses and all sorts of other things for the solution to our dilemmas. And it appears as if everything is surrounding us is against us. And the Lord is saying, my dear Christian, he stoops with love and he says, I am your shield and defender. I'm your savior. The one who saves, Christ saves us from our sins and the Lord delivers us from that which threatens to destroy us. We're not to look elsewhere. for what only God can provide. So we see a prophecy. Fourthly, and lastly, we see the display of power in these last verses. There is a display of power in verses 35, 36, and 37. It's all described rather curtly. It comes in an abbreviated form. It's all a matter of fact. We're told that in one night, one night, A single night, the angel of the Lord comes into the camp of the Assyrians, and 185,000 warriors, seasoned warriors, are slain. They wake up in the morning, and we're told at the end of verse 35, they're all dead corpses. Now, think, if it weren't the angel of the Lord, the ability from sunset to sunrise for anyone to wipe out 185,000 warriors. And yet the Lord comes, the angel of the Lord comes and does that very thing without Jerusalem raising a single sword. This is the power of God himself. And it's really rather breathtaking. The numbers kind of numb our brain. We get lost in them. It's hard to comprehend them. But I mean, you picture a hundred people. stacked up in this room, dead corpses laid out on the pews and in the aisles of the church here. It would look huge. That's a hundred people. Think of a thousand, right? Ten times that. What would that look like? What would it look like in the city of downtown Greenville? You know what it looks like at Fall for Greenville. You know, 10,000 people packed into that city standing upright. Now imagine 10,000 dead people, the kind of crowds that we're accustomed to on that occasion when we do open air preaching and so on. 10,000 people. My friends, we're only at 10,000. 185,000 corpses littering four miles the area around Jerusalem. This is the power of God. The greatest army on the planet at the time. The single greatest world superpower. Military giant is reduced to rubble in an instant. They're basically annihilated nearly instantly. You think of You think of 185,000 trained men. They grow up. They're little children. They get to adolescence. They're being trained to shoot the bow, to fight with the sword. There's physical exercise. There's all the mental development. There's a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of investment that goes into preparing one seasoned soldier. All that's gone. 185,000 taken away. And we're told that Sennacherib slinked home with his tail between his legs. And if that's not bad enough, he arrives at home Notice he's in the act of worship in the house of his false god, which he said was so much better than any other, but indeed was a false god. He goes in to worship this false god and he dies. His two sons, his own flesh and blood, assassinate him. And so here you see God arising in His power, the greatest army in the world at the time, and this great blasphemer, both corporately as a nation and individually as a leader. They are judged. They are weighed in the balance and found wanting and are destroyed. So really, verses 35, 36, and 37 are the theological interpretation of the whole text, right? All of chapter 18 and 19. You have, at the end of chapter 18, Assyria's at its height, Jerusalem's at the bottom, in its depths. You get to the end of chapter 19, Assyria's in the depths, and Jerusalem is in the heights. And it is the Lord that has made all the difference. Those who mock God are destroyed by God. And that's the simple truth. We listen to those who blaspheme and deride and mock God. You don't have to have brilliance. You just have to know the basics of your Bible. That man is marked. That man is marked. And it is only a matter of time before what he is sown will be reaped. and the mouth and mind and military and whatever else of those who raise their high hand against the Lord will have it broken. We need to let this seep down into our souls, this view of the glory of God, the power of God, the matchless splendor of the Lord. His glory is so precious. It's not to be impugned, not to be dishonored, not to be derided, not to be shared by any. God is the one who's being set before us in real history in this text. And the Lord is saying to his people, I am the savior and there is no other. I have the power to deliver and to destroy. The Lord is the one. Yes, we are weak. Yes, we are sinful. Yes, we are broken. Yes, we have much guilt and all the else that comes with it. But the Lord, our savior and redeemer is the one who's invincible and is able to save us with a strong arm. And He is able to come to those who are transgressors, and to those who are rebellion, and is able to subdue and draw them by His sovereign power, and to bring them, and to reconcile them unto Himself, to redeem them from all of the domination of the devil, and of sin, and of the kingdom of darkness, and to liberate them by His grace. And the Lord is able to take those same people in all of their Christian pilgrimage and the corporate people of God as a whole, in the church of God, and to say, yes, you remain weak, but God does remain invincible. And His enemies, who come boasting with all of their bluster, will be cut down at the knees and will be drug away with a ring in their nose, a hook in their nose. This is our God. This is our God. And He is found in this text in the midst of His people. This is our God who is found in the midst of His people to the present hour. We sing in the Psalms, in places like Psalm 48, go about Zion, counter towers. Tell of her bulwarks. Do you see the glory that belongs to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Sennacheribs, the Rabshakas, the Assyrians of the world have long stood out the gates of Zion. But look, the bulwarks are there. And the towers are there. And because God dwells in the midst of his people, Zion is preserved and goes forward. The gates of hell cannot stand against it. You look at the passage that's given to us in First Chronicles chapter 29, and we'll close with this. In verse 11, listen to these words. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Let's stand together for prayer. O Lord, our God, indeed, thine is the glory and thine is the victory, for thine is the kingdom. O Lord, we come rejoicing that you are the God of heaven and earth, the only, the living and the true God, and that you are our God, the God of your people. what comfort there is, and what fear and trembling there is, both coupled in these sublime truths. Teach us, O Lord, to be humbled. Teach us to be raised with a sense of strength from the promise of the divine presence that is with us. O Lord, we do pray, arise and scatter all of thine enemies. and vindicate your own honor, glorify your own name, and humble nations and princes and people, that they would learn that they are dust, and that you alone are God, who is exalted in all the earth. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.