Well, our confessional lesson this evening is really a catechism lesson, and it's coming from the Westminster Larger Catechism. Question and answer 62 and 63, you can find that in the back of your hymnal on page 946. 946. And I'm gonna read question and answer 62 and 63. Question 62, what is the visible church? The visible church is a society made up of all such as in all ages and places of the world who do profess the true religion and of their children. What are the special privileges of the visible church? The visible church hath the privileges of being under God's special care and government, of being protected and preserved in all ages, notwithstanding the opposition of all enemies, and enjoying the communion of saints, the ordinary means of salvation, and offers of grace by Christ to all members in the ministry of the gospel, testifying that whosoever believes in him shall be saved, and excluding none that will come unto him. Since the earliest days of the church, there have been theologians who speak of the invisible and the visible church. The invisible church is made up of the elect of God, those who have been born again and have a genuine saving faith in Christ. The invisible church is made up of true believers, in other words, true believers in all times and from all locations. And the reason it's called invisible is because you and I cannot see a person's heart. Only God can do that. It's invisible to us, not to God. And question 62 teaches us that the visible church is made up of Christians who have made a legitimate profession of faith as well as their children. And what I want to do this evening is consider a bit of this teaching from question 63. It's describing some of the blessings and privileges of belonging to the visible church. And there are four privileges I want to touch on. First, Our catechism instructor tells us the visible church is under the special providence of God. Now certainly God cares for all of His creation. but he cares for his people with a special care. Again, God works all things, all things according to the counsel of his will, but the exercise of his sovereign power will always result not only in his highest glory, but also in the highest good for his people, all those who love him. A second privilege that question 63 teaches us flows right out of the previous one. And it's that God will protect and preserve the visible church in all ages. Of course, the church will sometimes face fierce opposition and powerful enemies, but till the Lord returns, there will be a faithful church on this earth. One of the great promises that Jesus gives his people has to do with the purpose and permanence of his church. It's found in Matthew 16, 18. Many of you probably know, it's one of my favorite verses, where Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against us. And to be sure, even hearing that promise in the back of your mind, you might be thinking, but the church has tarried over the years through many dangers, toils, and snares, and it has. So many different times in the history we can look back and we see that Satan has tried to destroy Christ's church. The Jews tried to snuff out the early church till about 70 AD when God snuffed out Jerusalem. Then the Roman Empire engaged in a campaign of persecution for about 250 years till the Roman Empire eventually declared herself to be Christian. In the Middle Ages, formalism and sacerdotalism nearly choked the life out of the church, but there was always a faithful remnant. And in the 16th century, God raised up the reformers. Through all this, the church continues to march forward and continue to grow. It's faced opposition over the history of the last 500 years from Islam, from secularism, from false teaching, from heresy, from false gospels. But God will always have a faithful remnant till Jesus ushers in the new heaven and the new earth. A third privilege is communion of the saints. And this means that the members of the visible church receive encouragement and spiritual benefit from one another. It's a picture, the communion of the saints is a picture of God's covenant people living together and living their faith out together. One of the ways this is expressed in scripture is in the passages that speak of one anothering. Some of you might remember when we were studying Romans 12 a few years back, I said the apostle calls the church specifically to be a one-anothering kind of people. For example, Paul said we're to be kindly and affectionate to one another. We are members of one another. We're to give honor to one another. We're to be of the same mind with one another. And of course, we're to love one another. And those are just a few from Romans 12. Paul actually used that language over 40 times in his epistles. The benefit and privilege of the communion of saints is that you and I don't live the Christian life in isolation. We don't live the Christian life alone. We live it connected to one another, and we're to be a one-anothering people. And then a fourth privilege is that the visible church has been entrusted with the ministries, the oracles, the ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints. And this includes things like the administration of the sacraments, pastoral oversight, church discipline, and most importantly, the preaching of the holy gospel. To hear God's word and God's gospel proclaimed in corporate worship. It's an incredible privilege. Now I chose this lesson because this evening when we return to our study in 2 Kings, one of the things we're gonna see, one of the things we're gonna find is a very vivid picture of God's special care of his people and the exercise of God's sovereign power used to protect and preserve his people. But for now, let's praise the Lord standing to sing a number 48B, 48B. Let me ask you to open up your copy of Scripture, brothers and sisters, to 2 Kings 19, 2 Kings 19. We'll begin reading at verse 19, and we'll read down through the end of the chapter. 2 Kings 19, beginning in verse 19. This is the infallible word of our great God. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God, you alone. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Because you've prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers you have reproached the Lord. and said, by the multitudes of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the limits of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter the extremity of its borders to its fruitful forest. I have dug and drunk strange water, and with the soles of my feet, I've dried up all the brooks of defense. Did you not hear long ago? how I made it, from ancient times that I formed it. Now I've brought it to pass that you should be for crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruin. Therefore, their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field and the green herb as the grass on the housetops and grain blighted before it's grown. But I know your dwelling place. You're going out, you're coming in, and you're rage against me. Because your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore I'll put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I'll turn you back by the way which you came. This shall be a sign to you. You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from the same. Also in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upwards. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant and those who escaped from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000. And when the people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home and remained at Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch, his god, that his sons, Adramalack and Sherezer, struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place. The grass withers, the flowers fade. The word of our God endures forever. May bless it to our hearts this evening. There's congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ over the past couple Lord's Days togethers. We've seen that Hezekiah and Judah really are in a dire predicament. They're surrounded by Sennacherib and the fierce Assyrian army. You'll remember Hezekiah foolishly tried to buy himself out of these circumstances, but that backfired on him. He paid Sennacherib to leave Judah alone, but after the Assyrian king received the money, received the tribute, being a prototypical tyrant, he still moved his military around Jerusalem and is poised to attack. And this gave Sennacherib's minions the opportunity to taunt and insult and threaten and warn Judah that they were at the mercy of Assyria. And if you can remember, the blasphemous message from Sennacherib's messengers was clear. There's nothing Hezekiah or Hezekiah's God can do to save you. They even sent Hezekiah a letter reiterating that if they thought turning to Yahweh would help, they're simply engaging in a fool's errand. And Assyria boasted in that letter that they had faced many, many nations with many, many gods and they had defeated them all and Judah would be no different. Of course, This was a bit of psychological warfare, right? The goal of Sennacherib and his messengers was to create such a pall of despair and hopelessness over Jerusalem that they would just give in, surrender. And from an earthly perspective, things must have looked desperate and hopeless. But God did something very gracious to Hezekiah. He's brought him low. He's humbled him so he knows he's got to look to God. And while things from an earthly perspective might have looked hopeless, Hezekiah refused to look at the situation from merely an earthly perspective. Instead, He went to the place where he could see things from a heavenly perspective. He went to the house of the Lord. And there he took the letter that they sent him, and he spread that letter out before his great God, and he asked his great God to hear the Assyrian blasphemies and to respond to them. And he concluded his prayer there in verse 19. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God and you alone. That's where we pick up this evening. Hezekiah's prayers consumed with the glory of God. He wanted Yahweh to respond so the whole world would know there's one true living God. It's interesting how this fits with our passage this morning, isn't it? We talked about praying for protection, for the protection of Christ's church. That's just what Hezekiah is praying for. He's asking our covenant God for protection. And we're gonna see that God provides it. No sooner had Hezekiah prayed that message than the prophet Isaiah sends a message back. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, because you've prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard. There are two phrases there in that verse that really ought to motivate the people in God's church to be on their knees regularly. You have prayed, God says, I have heard. That again is from our covenant God. You have prayed, I have heard. We need to hear that. You and I will probably not get confirmation that God hears our prayers of faith. And we have passages like this in Scripture to encourage us that the effective fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. But Isaiah isn't merely telling Hezekiah that God has heard his prayer. He has a song of victory, as well as an important oracle. for Judah's king. And so the rest of this chapter, it unfolds in four scenes. First, in verses 21 through 28, through God's prophets, the Lord has some sharp and stinging words for this blasphemer, Sennacherib. Then in verses 29 through 31, God's prophet has some encouraging words for Hezekiah and Judah. In verses 32 and 34, there are some assuring words for Hezekiah and Judah. And finally, in verses 35 through 37, God will judge those who have reproached Him. So let's look at the Lord's words first directed at Sennacherib. And the first thing we should notice is what Yahweh is doing through His prophet is He basically turning the tables. on this Assyrian king, Yahweh will reproach him. Even before we get to the fact that the Assyrian army, or what's going to be left of the Assyrian army, is going to have to leave with their tail tucked between their legs, Isaiah says, your great army, it's going to be a laughingstock to Jerusalem. And verse 21, Jerusalem is described there as a virgin daughter of Zion. And I believe this was a way of saying, you're gonna be leaving, and guess what? Jerusalem's gonna be unspoiled by you. And the only thing your mighty military is gonna get from Jerusalem is laughter and scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem will simply shake her head at you and laugh at you in disgust. Amazing, the language God is using. And this is a major dig against a king with a major ego. But God's going to humble him even before he judges him. As we walk through these verses, things actually get rougher and rougher for the Assyrian king. Because you see, Sennacherib's real problem It's not that this smaller nation that he came against is going to ridicule him. His real problem is that he came against a nation whose God is Lord. And this Lord is going to hold him accountable. And so in verse 22, you have Yahweh pose a series of rhetorical questions that are all meant to communicate a pretty basic truth. Who did you think you were coming up against when you marched on Jerusalem? Who did you think you were fighting against? Well, let me answer that for you. It was against the Holy One. of Israel. This is language that Isaiah loves, the holy one of Israel, and it really speaks of two aspects of God's character. One, his moral purity, and two, his otherness as the transcendent creator. And Yahweh is saying, through his prophet, that's who you and your messengers have reproached. And then the Lord gives Sennacherib's major ego a major ego check. Verses 23 and 24 tell us how the Assyrian king viewed his successes. And we want to understand this because we want to understand this before we see God's response. I want to read some of verse 23 and 24. And I want you to listen to the first person pronouns, because it gives us a little insight into Sennacherib's character. This is what Sennacherib's messenger said about the king. By the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the heights of the mountains, to the limits of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars. and its choice side for streets. I will enter the extremity of its borders to its fruitful forth. I have dug and drunk strange water, and with the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the brooks of defense." Now, this is basically a summary of what Sennacherib's messengers spoke back up in chapter 18, but it's the I's that ought to catch our attention. I, I, I, I, I. The Assyrians are sure. They're unconquerable. The king thinks he's impervious to this little nation and what he must have thought was a puny mountain god. And for a while, make no mistake, the Assyrians were the biggest bully in the schoolyard. They were a superpower. Their armies, the stretch of their empire, their international influence, it was impressive, very much like America has been in most of our histories. But what they didn't know, what Assyria didn't know, is they were nothing other than a tool in the hands of a sovereign God. Their power, their accomplishments, their conquests, their victories, it was grounded in what God had decreed about them in eternity past. Glantz shared verse 25. Did you not hear long ago how, and this is the Lord speaking now, how I made it from ancient times that I formed it, that I have brought it to pass, that you should be for crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. You see, Sennacherib is being put in his place. He's saying the reason you Assyrians have power, the reason you've been able to go on a rampage and terrorize the region is because it was my plan to use you. And heads up, it was my plan before the foundation of the world. And this is a powerful lesson to us, brothers and sisters, that God is sovereign over the nations. I mean, we've already seen how God used Assyria as a rod to punish the northern kingdom and carry them off into captivity. That's ultimately one of the reasons God raised them up, to punish Syria. But the Assyrians, they're gonna become too brutal. They're gonna be too filled with pride. And you know what God's gonna do? He's gonna raise up the Babylonians to slap down the Assyrians. And then God's gonna use the Babylon as a rod, the Babylonians as a rod to punish the southern kingdom of Judah and carry them off in exile. And guess what? When Babylon becomes too brutal and too filled with pride, God will raise up Persia. Guess what they're gonna do? They're gonna slap down the Babylonians and God will use the Persian king, Cyrus, to send Judah home from exile. And it'll be full circle. In fact, listen to how Isaiah will prophesy about Cyrus. In Isaiah 44 verse 28, the Lord says of Cyrus, this is striking language, he is my shepherd and he should fulfill all my purpose saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built and of the temple your foundation shall be laid. So from Assyria to Babylon to Persia, God is sovereignly moving these kings on a chessboard according to his decreed will. And ultimately, at just the right time, Cyrus is going to fund the rebuilding of Jerusalem. That's how God is sovereign. And by the way, eventually, Alexander the Great will conquer Persia, and then the Greeks, and so on, and so on, and so on. And God is sovereign over it all. See, the king's heart is a stream of water. In the hand of the Lord, he turns it wherever he will, Proverbs 21, 1. And that's a lesson that Sennacherib's learning. He's told in verses 27 and 28, God knew everything that the Assyrians had done. He had heard every word the Assyrian king had ever spoken. Not a single bit of his blasphemous rage escaped the omniscient and omnipresent God. And God intends to hold him accountable. It's interesting, this is kind of a reverse of the end of Psalm 139, where David's going on and on. Where shall I go from your presence? Where can I flee from you? Shall I go here? Shall I go there? No, God's everywhere. That's a blessing if you're in the covenant community. It's a terrifying thought if you're outside of it, that God sees every thought and intent of your heart. He knows every evil motivation that Sennacherib had. And so we hear there in the rest of verse 28, therefore I'll put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips and I'll turn you back the way which you came. Here's an interesting bit of history. But this is just how Sennacherib treated people. He conquered and then put into slavery. In the British Museum, there are reliefs and other collections that depict the Assyrians leading captives with chains through their jaws or hooks through their noses. So this is what they did. This is a graphic picture that what you sow, you will reap. This is what they did to people. This was their brutality toward people. God is going to treat them brutally. When the day of God's judgment comes, the captors are gonna be led captive just the way Isaiah prophesied here. So these are some stinging words for Sennacherib. And that brings us to our second scene. God through his prophet has some encouraging words for Hezekiah and Judah. Now Syria has already sacked other major cities in Judah to include Lachish, which was the second largest city. And while Jerusalem is spared, the Assyrians practiced a kind of warfare that we would describe as a scorched earth policy. If you're at all familiar with the Civil War, think of Sherman's march to the sea. He basically decimated everything in a 280-mile swath from Atlanta to Savannah. burning and destroying people and towns and fields and farms, even livestock. He left nothing in their wake. Sherman would later say it was his intention to make the South feel the hard hand of war. And it left Southerners desolate. But that's how the Assyrians waged war. They wanted the nations to know, to feel the hard hand of war and what it would mean. But God's got an encouraging word. Presumably, there'd been no planting in Judah, no agriculture while the military is moving about the countryside. And again, it's likely that Sennacherib's military had left farms and agriculture and whatever produce they had in smoldering ruins. And so God has a word for them. Actually, God's going to give them a sign. He says, this year, whatever food's left, it will be enough for you. It'll be enough. It will sustain you. Then the second year, that's gonna be enough as well. And then the next year after that, you'll actually be able to sow and reap again and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. And even though Judah has faced losses, God's gonna provide for the remnant that remains because God is zealous for his honor. And he's giving them a sign. This is so important. So that when God's people, after Sennacherib is gone, after his military is decimated, so that when God's people just do something as simple as sit down and have a meal, they'll know God is faithful. That's why we thank God before we have meals, to acknowledge his goodness and kindness to us. Even when we sit down to have a burger, Not if you have like a veggie burger or tofu, those are unholy. But if you have like a real man burger, we're thankful for that because it's just a little picture that God is always faithful. Much more importantly, when we gather on the Lord's day and we see the water of baptism put on a little one, or on a convert, or we come to the table of the Lord. You know what those are? They're signs of God's preeminent faithfulness. And when Judah eats, it'll be a reminder, God is defending you. God is protecting you. Well, that brings us to our third scene. And verses 32 and 34, God has some assuring words for his people. And what the prophet speaks at this point is meant to assuage any fears they might have. Here's the promise God makes. The king of Assyria, he's not going to step foot in this city. Not a single arrow is gonna fly over the wall and land in Jerusalem. There are gonna be no siege mounds built. Instead, here's what's gonna happen. I'm sending them packing. And listen to verse 34, because the Lord has just a powerful word of blessing for them. For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant. David's sake. See, God's going to defend this city because he's always faithful to his covenant promise. And there was no way Sennacherib or Assyria was going to interrupt God's covenant promise to provide a royal heir to sit on the eternal throne. God was not going to let his redemptive plan crumble. Because Sennacherib, as an agent of Satan, tries to frustrate it, right? That's the security we have in God's plan of redemption. He had established a covenant with David, and a puny king like Sennacherib won't stop that plan. In other words, he's telling Jerusalem, you've got nothing to worry about. And then our fourth scene is God's judgment on those who reproach Him in verses 35 through 37. I'm going to read verse 35. And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. I would love to have a book about this verse. There's so many details. Inquiring minds want to know. But one of the things that ought to surprise us is that it's actually presented in a very understated way. Hey, here's what Yahweh did. He sent one angel, not a throng of angels, not a legion of angels, not 10,000s of 10,000s of angels. He sent one angel. And he killed 185,000. It was game over. That's the power of God's hand of protection. As one writer helpfully put it, the same mighty captain who struck down the firstborn of Egypt at the first Passover and who will ultimately return in judgment at the last day, he's the one who executed God's strict justice by killing multitudes of Assyrians. Whatever soldiers were left, they retreated with Sennacherib. A number of years actually passed, nearly 20 years in fact, before Isaiah's prophecy would be fulfilled. You remember his great boast that he offered through his messengers. We have destroyed all kinds of nations and they had all kinds of gods. And don't think because you have a different God, Judah, that you're going to survive my onslaught. That was his reproach. So he goes home, he goes into his pagan temple to worship his dead God, and that's where Yahweh executes him, by the hand of his own sons. It's a humiliating death. If he had died in battle, there would at least been some honor. But he was killed by his sons and replaced by a son. Let me make a couple brief observations and applications, if I can. First, God heard Hezekiah's prayer, and he defended his people. He's defending His old covenant church. And just as God did it in the old covenant, He does it under the new covenant. Christ protects His church. That's not to say that there won't be occasions where some of God's people are severely persecuted or martyred. It's happened over and over in history. But God will not let His church be removed. As I said in the confessional lesson, Until Christ returns, there will be a remnant. Second, this passage is a vivid picture of God's predestinating sovereignty. God decreed Assyria's rise to power. God decreed to use Assyria as He sees fit. And when God was finished with this particular rod, He disposes of it as He sees fit. God is sovereign. He predestines the outcomes of men and nations. And I love the way Dr. Davis captures this in his standard cheeky way. Dr. Davis writes, a little predestination cuts arrogance right down to size. Predestination, of course, makes some Christians nervous. They shudder at the mention of the P word. All I can say is this, if you don't want predestination, well then go ahead and live a comfortless life, bite your nails, swallow your tranquilizers, and eat your guts out as you watch the evening news. Some of us, however, prefer the pillow of predestination, that is of having a God big enough that He's never surprised by the blathering synacorabs of this I love that. I think about what we were praying about in the prayer meeting a few minutes ago, about our nation, about the political structure, about our displeasure with it. They are not functioning outside of God's sovereignty. And they will all give account, whether they're a donkey or an elephant, they will bow before the lion of the tribe of Judah. And finally, for Hezekiah, who prayed for protection and for God to deliver, not only did God answer his prayer, but he gives us a pattern of our own salvation. Because of his zeal for the house of David and the glory of his name. God. Determined. To have his son hang on a cross for our place. On the cross, the Lord Jesus was surrounded by enemies. He cried out to his father. Forgive them. but God didn't deliver Jesus. He poured out His wrath on Jesus so God could deliver us. You see, we stand as the great recipients of God's delivering graces that were accomplished to us, accomplished for us by His only begotten Son. Amen. Well, let me give you a moment if you have any questions or want to make any comment. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you and bless you for your word. Help us to see in passages like this, the grandeur of your attributes and character, your might and your power. The zeal you have to bring your promises to fruition. the promises that you've made for your own people, and help us to rest in our God's character and attributes, and to know that ultimately, oh God, we will be delivered. A day will come when angels will come with the Son of Man, and this creation will be consumed, and then will be restored in that new heaven and that new earth. And what a day that will be. Give us hope and longing for that day that we might glorify you in the here and now. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let me ask you to stand, brothers and sisters, to receive the Lord's benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And all of God's people said, amen.