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[0:00] Let's go to the book of 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 32.! 2 Chronicles chapter 32.! Father, we thank you so much.

[0:42] We thank you for this day. So thankful for the opportunity to gather together. Thankful for your church. Thankful for the members of your body, which are an encouragement to us, a support to us.

[0:53] And we thank you for the opportunity we have to spur one another on to faithfulness and to works and good deeds. And we pray, Lord, as we study your word, that you would speak to our hearts and minds and that it would be an encouragement to us.

[1:05] It would be the moving force of our life. And we thank you for the opportunity of fellowship. We thank you for the privilege of laughter and joy and celebration as we come together. So, Lord, we just praise your name.

[1:16] We praise you for your people. We praise you for this building. And we praise you for this opportunity to open up the word of God with one another. And we pray that you would speak to us. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen.

[1:27] Amen. Let's do a couple of announcements as we go through it. So just so everybody understands, the last week of August, so horse show break week, be no Wednesday night service because we'll be deconstructing our bathrooms and reconstructing, hopefully, by the time we come back together.

[1:46] So just so you understand, that date is the 27th, right? August the 27th is the Wednesday of that week. So there will be no Wednesday night service, August 27th, okay?

[1:56] All right. Let's get right into our text. 2 Chronicles chapter 32, starting in verse 1. This first verse is so telling. After these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities and thought to break into them for himself.

[2:15] Now when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem, he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him.

[2:28] So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the region, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water? And he took courage and rebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and erected towers on it and built another outside wall and strengthened the millow in the city of David and made weapons and shields in great number.

[2:51] He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, Be strong and courageous.

[3:01] Do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria, nor because of all the horde that is with him, for the one with us is greater than the one with him. With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.

[3:18] And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. After this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem while he was besieging Lachish with all his forces with him against Hezekiah, king of Judah, and against all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Sennacherib, king of Assyria, on what are you trusting that you are remaining in Jerusalem under siege?

[3:41] Is not Hezekiah misleading you to give yourselves over to die by hunger and by thirst, saying, The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria? Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before one altar, on it you shall burn incense?

[4:01] Do you not know what I, my fathers, have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able at all to deliver their land from my hand? Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, who could deliver his people out of my hand that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand?

[4:22] Now therefore do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for no God of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers.

[4:34] How much less will your God deliver you from my hand? His servants spoke further against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. He also wrote letters to insult the Lord God of Israel and spoke and speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.

[4:55] They called this out with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten and terrify them so that they might take the city.

[5:06] They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands. But King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed about this and cried out to heaven.

[5:20] And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed every mighty warrior, commander, and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And when he had entered the temple of his God, some of his own children killed him there with the sword.

[5:35] So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennachery king of Assyria and from the hand of all others and guided them on every side. And many were bringing gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem and choice presents to Hezekiah king of Judah so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations thereafter.

[5:55] 2 Chronicles 32 verses 1 through 23. As we've been studying the reign of Hezekiah in the book of Chronicles, we have seen how the chronicler differs very much so from the record we find in the book of 2 Kings.

[6:16] In 2 Kings, we have a verse that is dedicated to the reality that Hezekiah opened again the temple doors and restored temple worship. And then we are transported 13 years later into the 14th year of King Hezekiah's reign when King Sennacherib and the Assyrian army surrounds the city of Jerusalem, this event.

[6:36] We have seen that that event recorded for us in the book of 2 Kings is also recorded verbatim in the book of Isaiah. That Isaiah plays a very instrumental role during that time, during the reign of Hezekiah.

[6:48] So much so that some people believe that Isaiah is actually the author of the original account and the compiler of the book of Kings inserted the writings of Isaiah of that account, that Isaiah was speaking from a first-hand account of what took place during that time.

[7:07] It is our first introduction into the life of Isaiah the prophet, though Isaiah has held the office of prophet many years prior to this. This is our first introduction to Him that we find Him stepping onto the scene.

[7:22] It is one of the few occurrences in the Old Testament in which we see the reality of corporate prayer, that it is not just one individual praying, but rather He goes to another individual and they pray together.

[7:35] And it is telling because it is King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah who are joined together in corporate prayer and going before the throne and crying out on behalf of the nation.

[7:47] But the difference that we have seen in the book of 2 Chronicles is we have three chapters dedicated to the reality that before this event took place, Hezekiah has not only opened the temple doors, he has restored the people spiritually because they have celebrated the Passover feast in great abundance.

[8:06] They have invited the nations around them or the people from outside of Judah, the region of Judah, all of Israel to come celebrate with them. They have restored the Levites and the priests. There have been sacrifices of sin offerings offered for each segment of society.

[8:22] The people themselves, and this is important for our passage tonight, have went and tore down the altars in the high places. So for the first time, since the reign of Solomon, the high places in the region of Judah have been destroyed.

[8:35] All of this has flowed out of a restored and renewed worship. And that they were serving the Lord as they should. We saw this past Wednesday that not only were the people excited during the Passover feast, but also the priests were convicted of their sin and reality, and they were ashamed of themselves, and they recommitted themselves to the work God had called them to do.

[8:58] And the people recommitted to supporting those who labored in the temple so that none were without a supply of abundance. The heaps that were there in the temple courtyard served as a testimony of the faithfulness of God's people to support the priests and the Levites in their daily operations.

[9:18] And so we answered the question, how did we go from a king doing wickedly and aligning with the Assyrians and even mimicking the worship of the Assyrians until 14 years later, the people resisting the Assyrians and standing fast, not just the king, but the people?

[9:36] And the answer to that was, they restored and renewed their worship. They are committed to the Lord like never before. For we are told in the book of 2 Kings, there is no king who clung to the Lord that went before Hezekiah nor came after him like he did.

[9:55] He clung to the Lord and never departed from him. And now we are seeing the fruit of that labor. It is a labor that has called the people to worship as they should.

[10:07] And now we come to this pinnacle moment, the moment that all of scripture, or not all of, but the majority of the scripture of Hezekiah points to. It is when the enemy comes on the doorstep.

[10:19] So I want you to see this evening, how do we face the enemy? The proper way of facing the enemy. Because it's exactly what we see Hezekiah and the nation doing when the king of Assyria is at the door.

[10:35] The first thing that we notice is there has to be a recognition of His presence, a recognition of the enemy's presence. It's okay.

[10:48] We'll make our way through it. It's much cooler in here tonight than it was this morning. So if your pastor would slow down, we'd be okay. The first verse, a love. Because we miss the weight of this when we read 2 Kings.

[11:01] In 2 Kings, we're introduced to this account where it says, In the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came and besieged the city. But the chronicler tells us, After these acts of faithfulness, after these acts of faithfulness, then Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came and besieged the city.

[11:23] Why is that important to note? It's important to note because Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, was the very tool chosen by the Lord God as an instrument of disciplinary action for the kings and the people of the northern tribes.

[11:40] This was the tool of judgment for the sin and failures of the northern tribes. Known during the pages of Kings, you have Israel and Judah.

[11:53] Israel has fallen to the Assyrians because it was the Assyrians that God called to render discipline upon the people of Israel for their disobedience and their idolatrous worship.

[12:08] They were used. We could read the minor prophetic writings that God is calling the Assyrians out to be used. He was leading them as a man would lead a horse and he was putting a hook in their mouth and he was causing them.

[12:20] Now he will render judgment upon them as well, but at this time, this is the disciplinary tool that God so ordains. It is one of the things that we have to reconcile in our mind that God in his providential omniscience is free to use whomever he wants, whenever, however he wants.

[12:43] That he is directly in control. So it's not like the Assyrians all of a sudden just come to power. Rather, the Lord God holds the hearts of the kings in the palm of his hands and he turns them where he wants.

[12:55] So these are the ones he has chosen to use. But the one thing that we understand is that the Assyrians are not on the doorsteps of Jerusalem because of their unfaithfulness.

[13:08] It tells us, now after these acts of faithfulness, which helps us to understand, God is not judging them for their disobedience.

[13:20] The enemy didn't show up because they were disobedient or disobeying. The enemy didn't show up because they were walking in idolatrous worship because for 13 years they have been walking in faithfulness.

[13:31] The enemy doesn't show up because they have been doing something wrong. Much like when we read the book of Judges, it is always really wise of us to understand why the circumstances that are taking place are happening.

[13:44] The enemy is not present because Hezekiah has done wrong. Yet the enemy is still present. And he is present even though Hezekiah has been walking faithfully.

[13:57] And the people of the Lord have been walking faithfully. It is something that we must understand because if the Assyrians are there to be used of the Lord to discipline His people, then there is nothing whatsoever His people could do to stop that discipline.

[14:14] But since we know that He is there even though they have been walking faithfully, now we can look and see how do we face the enemy. So why do we say that?

[14:24] Because if you're facing a battle that is a result of your sinful choices, the discipline comes and we fall prostrate on our face and say, Lord, I deserve it.

[14:37] But if the enemy shows up, though we have been walking faithfully and we have looked in the mirror and say, Search me, O Lord. Help me to know my wicked thoughts and my desperate ways. And we say, Lord, is there a sin I need to cast off?

[14:51] Lord, is there something I must repent of? Is there something that I must submit to? Is there something that I'm not obeying you in? And if we come to the reality, say, No, as far as I know, I am walking obediently before the Lord, yet the enemy is still present.

[15:06] We fight that battle much differently. Spiritual warfare is a reality and we must acknowledge with all honesty that sometimes we fight battles that we bring upon ourselves and sometimes we fight battles that just come because we are the people of the Lord.

[15:21] And we fight them differently. And if we're fighting them just because we are the people of the Lord, we are his people and his time in his place, sometimes the enemy comes.

[15:34] And it says, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities and thought to break into them for himself. Now, when Hezekiah saw that, he recognized that the enemy was there.

[15:49] You say, Well, sure, he would be foolish to not understand the enemy was surrounding him and not understand the reality that Sennacherib is right outside the walls of Jerusalem. But we would also be foolish to think that every Christian understands the presence of the enemy in their life.

[16:06] That too often people fail to recognize the reality that the enemy is present. You say, Well, show me an example. Well, I can show you one in Scripture where our Lord and Savior tells Peter that Satan is coming against him that night and Peter fails to realize because he falls asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane rather than praying and being watchful as he may because the enemy is right at the door.

[16:37] Jesus says he's desiring to sift you and he will sift you. He's given him permission for that. But he doesn't recognize, he doesn't realize the presence of the enemy. So we need to be people with spiritual eyes of understanding, realizing that he is there and understanding the attacks and not living in fear, not living secluded and isolated, but rather living intentionally, knowing the reality that the battle will be fought because the enemy does come even after acts of faithfulness.

[17:09] Sometimes the most dangerous point in history for any church is when the church has been doing wonderful and the church has been exponentially growing and the church has been pushing out and the church has been obeying the great commission and the church has been doing exactly what God has called the church to do.

[17:26] It is then too often that the church fails to realize the presence of the enemy because they are so excited about what they're doing they fail to realize that even after these acts of faithfulness the enemy can still come and desire to take it for themselves.

[17:44] And Hezekiah saw this and He decided with His officers and His warriors to do something. So to face the enemy the first thing we must do is we must recognize the presence of the enemy that He is here.

[17:58] Now that recognition does not give the enemy more authority more power than he ought to but it is a recognition of His presence. We don't live speaking too often if we are just bringing it to our own level.

[18:11] We don't want to speak more of our enemy than we do of our Savior but we also don't want to neglect the reality that we have an enemy prowling around like a roaring lion sinking whom He may devour.

[18:23] We must recognize His presence. Number two we see the reinforced perimeter. I love this application. He decided with His officers and His warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city and they helped Him.

[18:41] He said well that seems pretty basic. Hezekiah just cut off the water. Right. We know that archaeologists many years later discovered what they refer to as Hezekiah's tunnel in which they were bringing water subterraneously into Jerusalem and they were drinking that way but they stopped them up outside the walls of Jerusalem because they didn't want this to happen.

[19:00] Why is it? He says they did this and they stated it the cause. Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water? Here's the first way we reinforce ourselves.

[19:11] Don't feed the enemy. Why should the one camping against us find everything he needs to survive?

[19:24] I want to bring personal application. Sometimes believers allow the streams of provision to continue in the lives around them so the enemy has food and fuel to work on.

[19:35] There are just some things we need to move away from. Friend, listen to me. I was doing pre-marriage counseling this afternoon with a young couple. They're not connected to the church and I was doing it and the groom to be was stating some things and I just looked at him and I said there are some things you just got to walk away from.

[19:53] You may lose friends over it. You may lose popularity over it but it's okay. There are some things you just got to walk away from. We don't let the streams of supply continue to flow so the enemy can be sustained.

[20:08] Sometimes we got to go plug them up. There are things in each one of our lives and we've said it before that aren't necessarily quote unquote bad but maybe they're just the thing that the enemy is feeding on and fueling on. Maybe it's the people we hang out with.

[20:21] Maybe it's the crowds we keep. Maybe it's the places we go. I don't know but there are some things that at times when we read it we just need to stop up the spring and say if this is causing the enemy to have a foothold maybe I need to cut it off.

[20:35] Maybe I just need to cut it off. And so Hezekiah and his officers and his warriors go out and there's a great many people to come out there because of the presence of the enemy because the enemy was real and because he was really there they had to really do something so they stopped up the spring.

[20:51] And not only did they stop up the spring so that the enemy would have to work and labor too often. In our society the enemy doesn't have to really work to be in our doorsteps because he is too many times invited into our doorsteps.

[21:09] I heard a pastor say one time that when the church gathers together Satan is there as well and the reason he knows is because he rides on the back of some of the Christians as they come in. There's a lot of truth in that.

[21:22] We give him a piggyback ride in the door and when we come in with our unguarded and unstucked springs. But not only did he do that it says that they came together he took courage and he rebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and erected towers on it and he built an outside wall and strengthened the millow.

[21:41] The millow is just a fortified area of Jerusalem. So he did everything necessary in his own power to make sure the enemy didn't just walk in the door. Now is he trusting in this?

[21:52] We'll get to that in just a moment. But he also took an active role in personal discipline. I'm going to stop up the springs.

[22:03] I'm going to fortify the walls because the enemy is here. It's not just woe is me. The enemy is here. I love Nehemiah. When we get to Nehemiah, I love when Nehemiah, they have a sword in one hand and a trowel in another, right?

[22:17] Charles Spurgeon's publication that he put out weekly was called The Sword in a Trowel. You have a sword to fight off the enemy and a trowel to keep rebuilding the walls. Just because the enemy comes doesn't mean you stop building.

[22:28] It just means sometimes you've got to fight and sometimes you've got to work. And so we see the same picture here with Hezekiah saying this is what we can do. Friend, listen, when we're fighting an enemy, there's so many things we can't do.

[22:39] We'll get to that in just a moment. But there are some things we can do. And there are some things we ought to do. And hopefully you'll see why before we're done. So there's the recognized presence.

[22:51] There's the reinforced perimeter. We do what we have. Number three, there's the reassured people. There's the reassured people. We've said from the beginning when we started studying the life of Hezekiah, because the chronicler slows us down and gives us a little bit more look into his life, that Hezekiah is a type of Christ.

[23:13] He's not the Savior. He's not the king we're looking for. but He's a type of the king we're looking for. He's a type because He offered a sacrifice, a sin atonement for every segment of society.

[23:26] He's a type because He welcomed them into the presence of the Lord God Almighty in worship. He's a type because He provided from His own resources to continue that worship. He's a type because He stands before the people and He leads them courageously.

[23:41] And we find here that He's a type, He says in verse 6, He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to Him in the square at the city gate and spoke encouragingly to them.

[23:52] The literal wording there is He spoke to their hearts. He spoke to the heart of the people. So they've seen Him stop up the water, reinforce the wall, and now He's going to speak to the heart of the people.

[24:05] Because the reality is the enemy that comes against them, at least from perception, is so much stronger than they. They didn't argue the fact that every other kingdom had fallen before them.

[24:16] They didn't argue the fact that the northern kingdom had already fallen, who by the way numerically greatly outnumbered the people of the southern kingdom. They didn't argue the fact that all the smaller portions of that empire had fallen.

[24:28] Here's Jerusalem right in the middle and this horde of the Assyrians are coming. And so He speaks to their heart. Again, another type of Christ. Christ speaks to the heart of His people. And He speaks to the heart and says be strong and courageous.

[24:40] We've read that before in Scripture, right? Be strong and courageous. This is Moses' final admonition to Joshua. This is Joshua's admonition over and over again. Be strong and courageous.

[24:51] Be strong and courageous. And do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him. So it is an acknowledgement of the size of the enemy and even the strength of the enemy.

[25:05] But it is a charge. It speaks to the heart. It reassures the person. Don't fear this enemy. Why? For the one with us is greater than the one with him.

[25:21] For the one. It says with him is the arm of flesh. And I love this reality. Hezekiah says from the perception of flesh, they're stronger than us. They're greater than us. They're mightier than us.

[25:32] They outnumber us. We'll never defeat him on our own. But that's not what encourages us because we do ourselves a great disfavor if we believe that we ourselves are stronger than the enemy that comes against us.

[25:48] If we were in our flesh stronger than the enemy that comes against us, we would never fail. We would never stumble. We would never have to cry out and say, Lord, forgive me for I have fallen. If we were strong enough to resist on our own, we wouldn't need a savior because we could save ourselves.

[26:03] So the reality is, do not fear nor be dismayed for the one who is with us is greater than all the horde that comes against us. It is a full frontal attack and it is a grand enemy that we're facing.

[26:18] But with him is only the arm of flesh. What did Jesus say? Do not fear him who could destroy the body. But rather fear him who has control over both the body and the soul.

[26:29] The enemy that comes against you has the arm of flesh and can lead you to do things in flesh. But the one with us is the Lord, our God, to help us and to fight our battles. It is the comfort and the reassurance we need that though we have made preparations, we have done all that we can to reinforce the borders and to reinforce everything around us.

[26:50] We don't want to feed or supply the enemy. Yet our dependence is not found in our ability for we're fighting our battles with one other. for the Lord, our God, to help us and to fight our battles.

[27:03] And the people, look at this, relied on the words of Hezekiah. So when we come to this facing our enemies, if we are relying in our fortified walls, we're relying in the wrong thing.

[27:19] If we're relying in our stopped up springs, we're relying in the wrong thing. You say, well, okay, I put all these safeguards in place and I'm not doing this. I'm not going there anymore. I don't have this habit anymore.

[27:29] I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to make sure I make all the right choices and I'm going to put the right people around me and I'm going to have accountability people and I'm going to have people who check on me. There's a lot of I in that, right?

[27:40] So if we're relying on all of our fortified walls, we're relying on the wrong thing, but they relied on the words of the king. Because the king speaks to the heart.

[27:52] It says, you've done what you should. What does it tell us? To put on the full armor of God and having done all, what does it say? To stand firm. Because the standing is where we see the deliverance.

[28:06] There are things that we call our personal responsibility in Christ. There are things we have to do. But the ultimate deliverance does not come from our effort. It comes from the reality that, Lord, I am accountable for my actions and I am accountable for these, but my dependence and my reliance is upon the Lord God Almighty.

[28:27] And it reassures the person. Because sometimes we would say, well, I have fortified it enough and we'll find out that that stone was not put in place as strong as it should have been.

[28:41] And maybe the enemy found a little bit more water out there that we forgot about. So we need to be reassured that it is not our effort that is going to win the battle, but rather it is his promises.

[28:53] It is the word of God, the word of the king of kings that speaks to our hearts these words encouragingly so that we can rely upon his word. That it is not how we fight, but rather who fights for us.

[29:07] There's a reassured person. Fourth, there's a resistance to persuasion. I love this text in case you've missed it. Because the king speaks.

[29:20] And right after the king speaks, the enemy starts talking. And Sennacherib sent his commander there. If you go read in the book of 2 Kings, you will find that some of his commanders and officers stood outside the wall of Jerusalem and began to call out and began to say these things and began to proclaim them.

[29:38] And they said, don't speak to this, speak to us in another language. Oh, we want everybody to hear what we have to say. We'll speak to you in the dialect of Judah. And we want all the people to know. We want everybody to say it. They were saying it loudly.

[29:49] Rest assured in this. If we do not hear the word of the king, the only word we will hear is the word of the enemy. Why do we get into the word of God daily? Because we need to hear a word from the king before the enemy starts speaking.

[30:02] And if you wait too long in your day before you go to the king to hear what he has to say, the enemy will have already filled you with a bunch of lies. The enemy starts talking and he will not be quiet.

[30:15] Senecrib starts talking and his officers start talking and he starts spilling lies. And one of the greatest lies is in verse 12. And the greatest lie is this. It is kind of that half truth, right?

[30:27] Which, by the way, shouldn't surprise you because this is a consistent theme in scripture that Satan loves to walk close to the truth but not really be completely true. Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his, that is God's, high places and his altars and said to Judah and Jerusalem, you shall worship before one altar and on it you shall burn incense.

[30:47] Now you ought to have the answer to that question because we just read about it a chapter ago. Who took the altars and the high places down? All the people that had celebrated the Passover. Hezekiah had led them to celebrate the Passover but it was their response to having worshipped the Lord God Almighty in a proper way.

[31:06] They took it down. This is why, by the way, we ask the question, how could the people remain silent when the enemy was present? Because they had experienced relationship with the Lord God.

[31:18] It wasn't just Hezekiah's experience. They had worshipped. They had been present. They had taken an active role. The people took the altars in the high places down. Was it Hezekiah's leadership?

[31:30] Sure. But it was their doing. So when the king tells these lies, Sennacherib tells these lies, has not Hezekiah, the people knew that was not true.

[31:41] And they didn't have to answer. They didn't have to respond. We understand the enemy continues to speak and continues to berate. It tells us in verse 16, his servant spoke further against the Lord and against his servant.

[31:52] He also wrote letters and he began to proclaim loudly. And he began to say it over and over and over and over and over again because the enemy at times won't be quiet. Why did he do it?

[32:04] They were doing it to frighten and terrify them so that they may take the city. You know why our enemy sits around us so often crying out things that are half true and most lies?

[32:16] It's to frighten and terrify us so that they can take the city. And until we've really heard a word from the king and had our hearts strengthened and relying upon it, then we will be persuaded by the words of the enemy.

[32:28] We are moved by the words of those that we give an audience to. So there has to be a resistance to this persuasion. And how do they resist?

[32:39] They didn't answer. They didn't argue. They said it silently. One thing that we try to instill is that we don't have to argue about things that we know are true.

[32:52] When someone's arguing with me, most of the time they're arguing about something that they're trying to justify to themselves. We don't get into arguments about truths.

[33:05] Because it's simply easy to state the truth, know it's true, and walk away from it. In my own life, when I understand when I'm arguing a reality or what I consider to be a reality, I'm usually trying to justify that in my own mind and I'm entering into an argument with someone because I want to prove my point.

[33:22] I don't have to prove the truth. The truth is the truth. And so we don't have to continue to repeat that refrain, but when the enemy comes and he just continues to repeat and continues to repeat and continues to repeat, they're trying to persuade us, trying to cause us to be afraid and cause us to be terrified.

[33:38] And I love how they resist that persuasion is they don't even engage in the argument because they know the truth. No, I tore down the altar in a high place. And they just sat and they didn't enter into it.

[33:54] Friend, listen to me. At times when the enemy sits on our shoulder and so they say and continues to speak, we don't enter into that argument. We just proclaim the truth. And we let the truth speak for itself.

[34:09] Fifth and finally, how do we face the enemy? There's a recognized presence, there's a reinforced perimeter, there's a reassured people, there's a resistance to persuasion. We see the fifth one, which is so great, there is the reliance upon the protector.

[34:27] The people remain silent, but King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet prayed about this. Isn't that good?

[34:38] They prayed about this. If you read it in the book of Isaiah and you read it also in the book of 2 Kings, you will find that Hezekiah gets the letter and he takes the letter and he lays the letter out before the Lord and he prays over the matter because the temple doors are open, by the way, and he says, Lord, what shall I do?

[34:53] And he lays it there and he's crying out and he's praying and then the enemy keeps talking. So then Hezekiah goes and he meets with Isaiah and says, I've prayed alone, now we need to pray together. What a beautiful picture that is, by the way, right?

[35:04] Let's not quit praying, maybe we just need to add to our prayer meeting. Because he said, I've prayed by myself, I still don't have a clear word, so he goes and finds Isaiah. And he prays with Isaiah. And you say, well, we all need some Isaiahs, those perfect people.

[35:16] Well, don't forget about Isaiah 6. I am a man of unclean lips. I live among the people of unclean lips, right? Isaiah's not perfect. He says himself, I am a man of unclean lips. We don't know exactly what that means, but we just know that he identifies himself the same way he tells the people that he lives among.

[35:31] So he's just like them. So we see this reality. He's not perfect, but he's a pretty good prayer partner. Everybody needs someone like that, right? So Hezekiah goes and gets Isaiah and says, I've prayed over the matter. Now, would you pray with me so that we can know what we ought to do?

[35:44] So Hezekiah, the king and Isaiah, the prophet pray. I told you, this is a beautiful type of Christ, right? Because both king and prophet are praying over the matter. We have one who fulfills the role of king, prophet, and priest who prays over the matter, who daily intercedes for us as we fight our battles with the enemy.

[36:01] That's a beautiful picture. Don't ever forget that. He fulfills all three offices. He is both priest, prophet, and king, and he fulfills every one of them. So when Christ intercedes for you, it is the king, the priest, and the prophet all praying as you face the enemy.

[36:17] But here we have the king and the prophet praying together, and then God moves. That's all that happens. The Lord tells them not to worry about the horde that's coming, that he'll take care of it, and it tells us to conquer.

[36:30] He doesn't spend a lot of time. He just tells us exactly what happens. And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed every mighty warrior, commander, and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. This great confusion fell upon the camp.

[36:40] God has a way of moving. They're camped outside his door. The enemy wakes up, and half the people are dead. They say, what do we do? All the mighty ones are dead. So they go home. Sennacherib dies. He has mocked the Lord God. He has made the Lord God Almighty on the equal field with the lowercase g gods of earth that are handmade, and he has mocked him, and then he went into his own lowercase g gods temple, and his own children came in and killed him.

[37:04] And the Assyrian Empire falls just like that. Their powerhouse is no more. Why? Because they relied upon the protector.

[37:17] They had done all that they knew they should do, they could do, and then they stood and knelt in expectation. The reliance upon the protector does not remove the responsibility to do the things they had done before that, but the things they had done before that also did not remove the need to rely upon the protector.

[37:41] There is this great balance of there are matters that we should do, things that we should put on, things that we should remove and we should cast away, but then there is this great reliance upon the protector to pray over the matter and say, Lord, would you handle this?

[37:58] How do we face the enemy? We face it with reliance upon the protector, knowing that after these acts of faithfulness, he will show up. And we see this reality that the people have been faithful and God is faithful still.

[38:15] He does not fail in his faithfulness. And this is how we face the enemy. We recognize the reality that there is an enemy that is present. We reinforce our perimeter and cut off the provisions from them.

[38:29] We reassure our hearts and the people around us with the words of the king. We resist the temptation to be persuaded by the enemy to believe the lie. And we rely upon the protector of our souls to set us free as he sees fit.

[38:44] What a beautiful picture. 13 years of faithfulness leading up to this 14th year of his reign. And God is faithful to his people.

[38:58] Let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Oh, Father, we thank you so much. We thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for the truths which you proclaim in your word that you are the Lord God Almighty.

[39:12] The enemy is real. And often there are things that we need to do in our lives to guard against and even to cut off supply of the enemy.

[39:24] Lord, there are matters which we can do. So, Lord, help us to have the boldness as Hezekiah to do that which we can do. But, Lord, also help us to have the humbleness of Hezekiah to rely upon you for you alone are the deliverer and the protector of your people.

[39:42] Give us wisdom as we move forward throughout this week. We want to be laborers in your field, but we also know that as we labor, there will be spiritual battles to be fought. So, Lord, help us to fight them in expectation of your movement that you may be glorified and honored.

[40:00] Lord, we read this account and we are amazed at your power, not Hezekiah's power, but your power. And that is how it should be.

[40:13]  May our lives be a testimony to the work of God among us for the glory of the Savior. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen.