"Power for the Worst Crisis"

Bob Yandian

But of course, we've pointed at the New Testament, is that the standard for answered prayer and the standard for the meeting of our needs in the New Testament is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We brought that out when we covered a prayer in Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 20 and 21, and there we are told that the standard for answered prayer again is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What God is simply saying to us is this, is if He could raise Jesus Christ from the dead, He can meet any need you have. What need could you have compared to the power that it took to raise Jesus from the dead?

So tonight we're going to talk about probably one of the fiercest times that Israel faced and how God delivered them and brought them out in the face of seeming impossible situations. Some of you tonight may be going through what looks like in the natural impossible situations. You look at your enemy and it looks so bad. You look at the track record of your enemy. It looks like they've never failed. It looks like Satan is coming after you and he's just going to make mincemeat out of you. He's going, he's just going to make another notch in his gun and that's going to be you. But see, he's not really coming against you. Tonight we're going to find out he's coming against God. Well, thank you for that rousing Amen.

When Satan comes against you, he comes against God. Just make sure that your life is in line with His Word, you're standing on His promises, you're in fellowship with the Lord, you're standing in faith. If that be the case, then the Bible declares, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all."

The Word of God declares again that, you know, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, so again, no matter what Satan comes up against us with, God is going to defeat it. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. He's declared, "No weapon formed against us shall prosper."

We can go down the list of Scriptures that God has provided for us, but again tonight we're going to take up one of the hardest times in Israel's history. I want you to look with me beginning in Isaiah, chapter 36. I want you to look with me beginning in verse 1. Isaiah, chapter 36, and verse 1.

"Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them."

Am I in the right place? You found it? Heard a lot of talking down there. Is that my wife? Are you talking? You're doing the talking? Okay. Well, usually that indicates I'm at the wrong Scripture or I didn't give the right one. Okay.

Isaiah 36 and verse 1.

"Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them."

In other words, the cities in Judah right up to Jerusalem, he kept taking them and he coming right up to them and it says in verse 2, "And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.

"Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder.

"And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

"I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, thou that rebellest against me?

"Lo, you trust in the staff of the broken reed, on Egypt; whereon a man leans, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

"But if you say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?"

Let me give you what he was saying right here. This is nothing more than propaganda, nothing more than psychological warfare before the war actually takes place to demoralize the enemy. What he's done is come in and said this. Rabshakeh stood there and they conquered the other cities of Judah. They'd come right up to Jerusalem now and he stands outside and he says, "I want you to talk to the king."

Now, in the meantime the people of the city are sitting on the wall. They're very quiet. We're going to find out later on the people said nothing, but they're hearing all this is going on. And what he's saying is this. He said, "You people, what are you going to trust in?" He said, "Let's see what you're going to trust in now."

At the time when he said this, remember, he quoted in here, he said, "You're looking to Egypt for help," and that's true. Before now Hezekiah had gone to Egypt for help, but there's been a repentance in his life. In fact, the chapter is coming up, actually Isaiah is not in chronological order. Some of the chapters are a little bit displaced here and there, but that's the way the writers wrote it and oftentimes the Hebrews would write something, then reflect back on something in another verse or another chapter and so we're going to find out later on in the chapters to come, it's actually recorded how that Hezekiah repented, but again it's true. They had asked Egypt for help and because of that, now the king has had to repent, but there's been a revival in the land in the past year. There's been a lot of the study of the Word of God. Isaiah's been one of the great Bible teachers teaching the people about the Word of God and there's a great dependence on the Lord.

But what he's simply saying to the people is this. How can you depend on a king who is so schizophrenic? Your king at one moment turns over to Egypt for help and that was a broken reed. Went right through his hand. He leaned on them for support and the staff broke and the splinter went through his hand. That's the analogy he's making of those who trust in Egypt.

Next of all, he goes on to say, now he's telling you to trust in God, but isn't it the same king that went and tore down the groves of Baal worship? First of all, he's for this and then he's for that and then he tears down this. Now he says we're going to trust in that. You're going to trust in the king that's schizophrenic, that can't make up his mind?

Now he's telling you to trust in the Lord and so we find Rabshakeh here speaking this to the people, and he's trying to demoralize them.

Next of all, he's going to go and further tell them, jump down with me to verse 14, verse 14, and notice what he says here to the people.

"Thus says the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.

"Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord...."

Notice, don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord. Some of you have been through that. We just heard about that church. That pastor makes you trust God. That pastor makes you believe in the Bible.

Folks, all that Hezekiah could do is all that a pastor could do ­ present the Word of God. You choose to believe it.

But he's simply saying in this, you have no choice of your own. Notice all the little innuendos he's bringing out. "You poor duped people. That king's making you believe in God. Don't you have a mind of your own? What are you, blind followers?"

He goes on to say in the verse, "Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

"Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one waters from his own cistern."

What he's saying is, if you'll come out and present me a gift as a down payment or as actually that you're going to keep your word, he said, I promise you if you'll give yourselves up, walk out here and give us a present, we'll excha nge presents. I promise you that you can eat your food. I promise you that you can have your wives. And this term here about drinking waters out of your own cistern is really referring to having relations with your wife. I won't separate your family. You'll have all the things you've ever wanted, and then later on we're going to move you to another place. That's what's going to be brought out later.

He now says in verse 17 - "Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards."

This is also something that they did which has been found to be very popular in war, and that is when you take over a country, take the people and move them to another country where they will no longer have patriotism. What he's going to do again is completely demoralize the people, so he says here again, "We're going to come back and we promise we'll take you to another country just like yours. You will have your family. You will have your possessions, but we're going to mingle you in with other races so that you'll lose your identity and will not have any patriotism."

He then goes on to say in the next verse, verse 18 - "Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?"

And the answer to that question is no, and that's what we're going to take up. Something about the Assyrian nation itself.

Jump down now with me to verse 21. It says, "But they held their peace." This is a product of the Word of God. This is what happened in the people's heart, for what they are hearing is the same report that you hear every single day.

Many of you are trusting in God for healing and it looks like there's no way. It looks like the doctor's report is true. It looks like you're about to die. On the other hand, some of you are going through great financial situations that look like there's no way out of this thing except to declare bankruptcy. Some of you are standing in faith for a marriage and it looks like there is no alternative but to divorce. It looks like some of your kids are on drugs. It looks like they've gone in the wrong ways of life. It looks like your family is about to be torn apart and the world is not offering you any help. In fact, they're telling you, do you still go to that church? Are you still trusting in that God that that Pastor Bob tells you about? Don't you have a mind of your own? What are you, some kind of mindless robot? Why, I know people who have trusted in that same God. In fact, gone to churches just like that one and they're sick, they're dead today, their families are broken apart. Sure didn't help them any.

And what happened in this verse of Scripture is probably one of the best things you can do when you're around that doubt and unbelief of the world. Just shut your mouth.

Now, the thoughts will come to you, but listen to what Jesus said. "Take no thought, saying." You can't stop thoughts from coming, but you can keep from letting them come out of your mouth. You don't have to let those thoughts come out of your mouth. In fact, you can arrest it right there in the thought realm, because that's what the Bible says, is pulling every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. For once it gets out of your mouth, it's destructive then. It's already gone out there. You can change things after that, but I'll tell you what. It's a lot harder. The best thing you can do is, there's nothing wrong with listening to the devil's report. Just keep your mouth shut and then take it back and compare it to the Word of God. You hearing what I'm saying?

When they went into the land of Canaan to conquer the land of Canaan, they came back and brought back a report. Sure they did. They said, "Yes, there's giants in that land." Two came back with a good report, ten came back with an evil report. They all saw the same thing. Came back and reported the same thing, but yet the two with the good report compared the giants to the Word of God.

The ten that came back with the evil report didn't compare except to themselves, and you see, either you're looking at the Word of God or you're looking at yourself. You look at yourself, you're going to be defeated. You look at the Word of God and your enemies will be defeated. So they kept their mouth shut. Let's talk about the time period of this particular passage of Scripture.

Let's talk about what we're speaking of here. This man that came against them, Sennacherib, and his armies that are coming against them right now, Rabshakeh being the man that's speaking for them, this particular nation was the nation of Assyria. Assyria was one of the strongest nations on the face of the earth at that time. The nation of Assyria, Nineveh was the capital. I'm sure you've heard of Nineveh and remember the great revival that took place in Nineveh in the book of Jonah. In fact, Jonah had this great revival there and in fact, the Bible tells us in chapter 3, verses 6 and 7 of Jonah, that the revival was so great that everyone turned to the Lord. How many of you know that would be great when a whole city turns to the Lord? In fact, the nation was about to be destroyed, but the destruction was averted because of the change and repentance in the nation.

Now, Jonah got mad because he wanted this nation to be destroyed. Now, we've often heard the story how that Jonah ran from the call that was on his life. He didn't run from the call that was on his life. Read the book of Jonah. In fact, in the opening chapter, it will tell you, he ran because he didn't want them to be preserved. God said, "You preach to them, and I'll preserve them." He goes, "Well, guess what? If I don't preach then they can't be preserved." So he ran the other way. He didn't want to present, because you know what he told God? He said, "God, I know if I preach to them, I know they'll repent, and I don't want them to repent."

He was so strong for the Jewish people and his own way of life, he so detested Gentiles and so you know, detested the nation of Assyria and the Ninevites that he didn't want them to turn. I mean, think about this. Think about your own worst enemy. Okay. What if that person is unsaved? What if this person has done nothing but, you know, rail on you and done everything evil against you and God comes to you one night and says, "Listen, tomorrow if you'll go to the office and witness to them, I promise you they'll get born again." How many of you would be tempted to sleep in the next day?

See what I'm talking about? Man, you hate their guts. In fact, all the time that they've been doing this, you say, "You know what? I don't think I'll witness to you because I would like for you to fry in hell forever and forever." (LAUGHTER) You know, you just got that feeling about it. You just don't want them to repent. You don't want them to change. You know, they've just been so evil against you. You want them to get there, come up, but you want them to get their just rewards. That's what you want them to get and how many of you know, God is merciful? How many are glad God did n't give up on you? Amen. Well, He doesn't give up on those that are around you.

God didn't give up on the Ninevites. God said, "I'm coming right down to this time." He said, "I'm coming right down to this time that if they don't repent this time, they're going to be destroyed." And so, in essence Jonah said, "Great, I just won't go. In fact, to make sure I won't go, I'll go the opposite direction." But there was a whale waiting for him! Swallowed him, took him back over the right direction, and finally inside the whale after three days and three nights, he repented and the whale spit him up. And so he then went through Nineveh and just to make things harder, he only preached one word, "Repent, repent, repent." And guess what? They did.

"It's like, I'll just make this, you know, what I'll do is I won't preach a big sermon. I won't preach on how to get saved. I'll just say, `Repent.'" You know he did, and the Bible says from the smallest up to the king, they repented. They repented. And so the Bible tells us the king of Assyria is one of them that repented. Again, that's found in Jonah, chapter 3, verses 6 and 7.

Well, the revival took place, but a mere nine years after the revival, there was an overthrow of the king. The king was overthrown by a man named Pul. Pul was a gardener. He worked for the king, but he saw the nation, saw the condition it was in and decided to overthrow the king, so he did that. He overthrew the king and changed his name to Tiglath-pileser is what the Bible pulls out and names him as Pul, but he named himself Tiglath-pileser and this is found in the Word of God in Second Kings, chapter 15, and verse 19 and First Chronicles 5:26. Again, Second Kings 15:19 and First Chronicles 5:26. Again, he called himself Tiglath-pileser.

He then began a series of campaigns and he became a very wicked king and he began to conquer nations around there and actually started a 200-year program. He didn't know it was going to last that long, but he started going against nations around him and the more they began to go, the better they began to be. And the thing that made them such a strong nation was this. They had no natural defenses. Most of the nations have natural defenses. If you ever go with us to Israel, go with us to Jerusalem, you'll find that Jerusalem is located in the mountains. Very important. Very strategic in case armies come against you. Others were protected because they were on islands. Others were protected by the sea. Others were protected by large valleys around them, but the thing about this nation is, it was located in a plain. Assyria was located in a plain, and therefore, it was often thought to be a nation that could be easily destroyed, easily taken advantage of, but again, this didn't happen. This man Pul rose up, Tiglath-pileser, began to put an army together and they were a very, they were a very horrible, fierce nation. They began to attack other nations around them, so again he called himself Tiglath- pileser, and he began a series of invasions and then kings came after him, whic h dominated Assyria and eventually dominated world history.

Assyria is one of those nations that by all proper studies should not have been a world power. It's because of their location, everything that was wrong was against them. There's many different ways of studying world history. There's different, many view of world history, but again, we find from the Word of God that this nation became very strong and Assyria became a very powerful nation.

And so again, later on he had a son and his son's name was Sargon the II. Well, Sargon II later had a son. His name was Sennacherib, and that's the one we find here in this particular passage and by this time they had conquered so many nations and Assyria was now the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, because they conquered and took spoils. They conquered and took spoils. They took the people into slavery. Relocated people so that they actually dissolved the people they were taking into captivity, dispersed them so they would weaken them, so there would be no standing armies to invade against them and come back against them, and they did this to nation after nation after nation.

Their purpose was this. They were even going to go after Egypt and eventually they did conquer Egypt. Egypt rose back up later on, but this is one of the few nations in history that ever took on Egypt and conquered them, so their purpose was to take on every nation up to and including Egypt.

Here's what they decided to do. They decided that the nations they would go against was first of all the Chaldeans in the South, so they went after them and conquered them. The Barbarians to the North and to the East, they conquered them. They conquered the Greeks, which were the Philistines of that day. They conquered the Egyptians and finally they went after Judah in the South, and as they went after Judah in the South, again this is where we come up to this particular story and they had already conquered so many nations up to this time. Literally, they had been conquering for almost 200 years. Listen to this. They were undefeated. No one had ever lost against them.

Think of this. A 200-year track record of winning every battle. Now they're coming against you and you don't even have much of a standing army. This is Jerusalem. They're coming against Jerusalem so they do the usual thing. By 200 years, they had perfected this thing. They know how to do it. They know how to send out the right guy. They know the right type of propaganda. They know the psychological warfare. They know what to say to the people. They can talk about their track record. They can talk about anything. They have figured out every defense of every nation and they know how to come against it. They first of all say, "Well, you probably knew we were coming, so you went and hired some other nation to help you." Did you know we conquered that nation? So how are they going to help you?

Next of all, you say you're trusting your king and then they figured out the king has been schizophrenic. Over on this side he did this, then he changed __, changed it again, changed it again.

Well, next of all you're going to trust in your god. See, they had done this to every city. Well, let me tell you about the gods of the other city, how it didn't help them. We came in and conquered them. Now, we'll give you one other option. Either you fight us and be destroyed and we kill you all, or you walk out here and surrender. We'll let you keep your family. We'll let you keep your food. We'll let you keep your possessions. We'll just simply take you and translocate you to someplace else in a country that looks a lot like your country.

Well, I mean, what kind of choice was it? For most nations, by the time that this 200 years it was coming close, is that most nations have said, "Yes, fine, take us." Many nations were taken without a fight at all as the people voluntarily surrendered to this particular army, the largest army in the world at that time, and the most powerful army in the world at that time.

Well, let's talk about Judah. They had now come up to Judah. They're now ready to take over this particular city, this particular nation, the city of Jerusalem, so right now again, they have come through a very weak time in that the king had gone to Egypt for help. This had failed and actually he almost died because of this King Hezekiah. This is the story whenever Isaiah came to see him, he repented, turned his face to the wall, and now for the past year, this nation has been on the rebound and they have been studying the Word of God.

Let me tell you some of the things the king had been doing. Again, a year before this attack by Sennacherib, the army, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea had been studying the Word of God. Isaiah has been teaching the people and now they were learning to apply the Word of God and they were applying the Word of God in every facet of their life.

We now find it in our passage of Scripture that one of the greatest indicators of their strength was the fact that when the evil report came, they just sat there and didn't say a word. I'm sure that Rabshakeh was used to people on the wall beginning to shake, beginning to cry, begin to clutch their children, husbands and wives begin to clutch each other. I'm sure that's what he'd been used to, but he wasn't used to a nation that just sat there and looked at him. No one had ever done that before. Maybe he thought this was a nation of deaf people or something. He didn't know. He just looked at them. They looked at him and he turned around and walked off, but the people were quiet because they knew something. When Satan gives his report, just shut up and turn to the report of the Lord.

Again, whose report will you believe? Well, let's decide we're going to believe the report of the Lord. Amen.

Militarily at this time, Judah was very weak. It was the weakest it had been in many years and Hezekiah for the past numbers of years, after going to Egypt for help, and before going to Egypt for help, had been in a long process of national disarmament. Basically, if we're real nice and we'll disarm, all the nations around us will look at us and say, "Aren't they a sweet nation? Let's disarm too." Well, they just don't do that until Jesus comes back one of these days.

I was talking to Senator Inhofe the other day on the phone, and he was telling me about the national policy we have right now. He said, "We have disarmed so much in the last six years, we've had so much disarmament in this nation, because our president has the idea that if we'll disarm, it will be a great witness to other nations who also will disarm." How stupid can you be?

David even said, David said in the Psalms, he said, "There are nations who will use peace treaties to buy time to arm to the teeth." They'll lie. Their signature at the bottom of the sheet is a lie. And we're dealing right now with nations around the world who are arming to the teeth. We've seen it in the past few weeks with Pakistan, we've seen it over there in those nations that are arming right now and building nuclear weapons, and again, we have those that are doing that and we have in this passage of Scripture that that's exactly what Hezekiah had been doing for some time. And again, he had gone on a plan for national disarmament because of this. Again, he almost died, but through repentance he was given an extended life.

Again, Assyria was undefeated for almost 200 years and Rabshakeh was sent in to frighten the people into surrender, but the people would not answer. They let the Lord defend them.

Let's take a look at this passage of Scripture. Let's go down now to verse 21. This is the verse we left off with. It said, "But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

"Then said Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh."

So we see the king didn't go out there. He stayed in his throne room and they brought him a report, and in chapter 37, verse 1 - "It came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

"And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz."

Now they went and brought the report to him and now we're going to read the report that Isaiah gave to the people. Turn back with me three chapters to chapter 33. Chapter 33. Chapter 33 is the report that was given by Isaiah to the people. He's now come from the presence of the king and this is what the people are going to hear.

First of all in verse 1, he is going to address Assyria. In verse 2, he's going to address the Lord. In verse 3, he's going to reflect on the enemy and their success up until that time. In verse 4, he's going to prophesy of a serious destruction. In verse 5, he's going to talk about how the Lord is going to deliver Judah. And in verse 6, he's going to bring out the reason why God can work in their lives.

Let's take a look beginning in verse 1, and again, this is a message that Isaiah is giving to the people and he now begins by talking to Assyria.

He says, "Woe to thee that spoilest...." Again, we have in this passage where he says, "Woe to thee that spoilest...." He's referring here to the Assyrians. He says, "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to dealing treacherously, thou shalt be dealt treacherously with you."

He's bringing out here in a short verse of Scripture what's going to happen to this nation. Now, I want you to understand something. He starts out speaking to this nation that up until now for some 200 years has been successful.

How many of you know, 200 years looks like a long time to us, but it's a drop in the bucket for the Lord. God looks at 200 years and says, "Nothing." We often think 200 years is a long time. Why, just a few years ago we celebrated our 200th anniversary as a nation back in 1976. We thought that was something, our nation lasted 200 years. Folks, that's nothing. That's nothing. Two hundred years isn't anything for God.

Now, we're bringing out in this passage of Scripture that Isaiah starts out, and the first thing he says is, "Woe to thee that spoils." He's referring to the Assyrian army. They've spoiled every nation before Judah and he goes on to say in that verse of Scripture, "And thou wast not spoiled." Literally what it meant was, "They've conquered every nation, but they have not been conquered." He's simply saying, "Their track record is 200 years and zero." For 200 years they've won everything. They've lost nothing. So they have a great track record up until now. They've been defeated, or they have defeated every army up until now for 200 years. No army has defeated them.

He goes on to say, "And dealt treacherously." Literally, they stole, they raped, they murdered, they parted families, and this is what happened to the nations who would not surrender and decide to fight against them. Not only would they conquer them, but again, they would greatly spoil them and they would deal treacherously with them.

Yet it goes on to say, "They dealt not treacherously with thee!" What it means is, many of the nations that they attacked were peaceful nations. Nations that there was really no reason to attack, they just simply wanted to conquer territories around them.

We've seen this happen in our own time. I mean, back into World War II, we see it happening. We saw it back in the Gulf War. Whenever that one nation just suddenly wants to take over another nation, a peace-loving nation, a nation they had no quarrel with, a nation they are not against at the time, they simply want to take it over for economic reasons or enslave people, because they have some kind of power lust in them and that's exactly what we're dealing with here.

Again, some of the nations they went against were their enemies. Others were not even enemies at all, but again he said that you have dealt treacherously with people that did not deal treacherously with you.

Then it goes on to say, "When you will cease to spoil, you will be spoiled; and when you shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you."

Literally, eighty-three years after this story, we're talking now in Isaiah the Sythians would be hired by another nation to come from an outside area and fight against them and they completely destroyed them, so much so that Assyria was no longer considered even a nation after that, they were so utterly destroyed. This is brought out in Ezekiel, chapter 31, verses 3-12; Nahum, chapter 3; and Zephaniah, chapter 2, and verse 13. We are told of the destruction of the Assyrian nation.

In verse 2, now Isaiah addresses the Lord. Notice first of all, he's addressing the people in all of this, but the first thing he does is to talk about the nation that's coming against them. Would yo u please, if you have, take a sheet of paper, or you're taking notes tonight, would you write this down. There is nothing wrong with looking at the enemy; just don't be moved by the enemy. I'll say that again: There is nothing wrong with looking at the enemy; just don't be moved by the enemy.

Throughout the Word of God, it was all right to look at symptoms. It was all right to look at the things of Satan. The Bible says we are not ignorant of his devices. How many of you know that's true, except for a lot of people who call themselves faith people, they're not only ignorant of his devices. They don't even know who Satan is. Don't even let the word come out of their mouth. Don't even let the word "devil" come out of their mouth. They won't talk anything about the devil or anything about his tactics when the Bible says we're not supposed to be ignorant of his devices.

How many of you know a good team studies the other team? How many of you know right now, the Bulls are studying whoever they're playing. Who are they playing now? The Jazz. How many know they studied the Jazz up one side and down the other? They've probably watched films so long, they know all the moves they make. Same thing with the NFL. They watch films. They watch films. They watch videos. The y watch games. They see what the other team does. They know how to maneuver against them. They're not ignorant of the other team's devices.

Part of the strategy for any team is to study your opponent. Before we went into battle, we studied Iraq. Before we went into Vietnam, we studied Vietnam. We knew how that the Viet Cong soldiers worked. Again, we know this and the same thing is true of Satan. We need to study the Word of God.

Did you know the Old Testament has very little to say about the devil, but starting with the book of Matthew, right on through the New Testament, there is actually chapters, chapters, chapters, dedicated to Satan, demons, their operation, sickness, disease.... (End of side 1).... ...comes down to Jesus Christ is greater and His healing power is greater. There's some people don't even want to admit they're sick. Folks, it's all right to admit you're sick. Admit you are sick. But on the other hand now admit too, that Jesus Christ took your infirmities, bore your sicknesses, took them to the cross, and with His stripes you were healed. Amen.

Man, you can't ignore these things. Please, above all, don't ignore your checkbook. Next time you write your tithe check to Grace Fellowship, don't ignore the balance in your checkbook. Please. We don't like bouncing checks. So again, it's not wrong to look at the symptoms. It's not wrong to look at the circumstances.

And here we have that Isaiah is rehearsing in the people's ears the track record of the enemy. What we're going to have is he rehearses the track record of the enemy. Then he's going to come back and rehearse the track record of the Lord.

Oh, this nation has been successful for 200 years, but let me tell you about my God that's been successful for two billion years, or since time began, or before time began, and we'll always be successful and He's not a man that He should lie. We can always depend on Him, and He never will lose a battle. Amen.

If God be for us, who can be against us? So again we find here, he says that they would be spoiled.

In verse 2 he now addresses the Lord and says, "O Lord, be gracious unto us...." And I think this is interesting. This is a command. He is commanding the grace of God to be with them. How do you command the grace of God? You command the grace of God when you know that you're in fellowship with God. When you know that you're standing on the Word of God, you can command the grace of God to be with you. You can't command the grace of God to be with you when you're in sin, when you're doubting God's Word, or when you've turned your back on the Lord, or you're out of fellowship with Him, but He now knows, for the past year this nation has been on their knees. This nation has been studying the Word of God. Isaiah has been instructing the people. They've become doers of the Word of God. Their king has repented of going to Egypt for help. This nation has turned back right with God, and in the midst of all this, this nation comes against them, which again comes down to the principle tonight, Satan will attack you greatest when you're in the will of God ­ in the will of God.

Again, some people think the only time he attacks you is when you're out of the will of God. No, many are the afflictions of the righteous. So these people are in the will of God traveling in the right direction and now a Rabshakeh comes along, a Sennacherib comes along, and again, is ready to attack them.

But he says again, "O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for you...." The word "wait" in the Hebrew is the word quawah (q-u-a-w-a-h), and this word means to wait in faith. So what he's saying is, notice this, he's pleading for grace, but he's also defending their own case. "Lord, we are not just waiting on You. We are waiting in faith on You. There's something behind our waiting. It's the power of the Word of God."

So again we have waited for You. "Be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble." So Isaiah is demanding again for the grace of God, and he's asking that this nation depend on the strength, the arm of the Lord, who has delivered them before and will deliver them again.

Notice this again. He says that, "Be thou their arm." That is those who are trusting in the Lord, that's the people that he's speaking to, and next of all, he goes on to say, "Every morning, and our salvation also in the time of trouble."

So right now they are facing impossible odds, but yet he's asking the Lord to defend them. Again tonight, you are facing impossible odds, but the same God that brought them through is the same God that will bring you through.

Look at verse 3. Again, Isaiah reflects on Assyria's victories. He says in verse 3 - "At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered." He's simply saying, "Now that Assyria is so strong, all they have to do is rattle their swords, or yell and everybody scatters." This is what he's saying is, that this Rabshakeh thing has become so successful that the moment that they raise a tumult, the moment that they lift up their vo ice, the moment they do this, nations are scattered. Literally, people will come out and give themselves up, and Assyria will scatter them to the four winds and put them in different nations so that again they will be gone from their homeland.

He now says in verse 4, he prophesies of Assyria's destruction. He says, "And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them." He's saying the destruction of Assyria will one day be like a plague of locusts coming into a field of grain, and in those days when the locusts came through literally, it was so bad that whenever the locust invasions would come through, that oftentimes the locust invasions would last for two weeks, and it was so bad you couldn't see the sun. It was such swarms coming through.

How would you like to get up one morning and see a black cloud coming across the horizon? You think it might be rain, but by the time it gets there, it's locusts and they begin to attack your fields and literally all day long, all night long, all day long, all night long, and it lasts for two weeks. How many of you know, once that's gone, there's not going to be anything left? He says, "That's exactly what's going to happen to you. You're going to be so overrun by a military one day that they're going to come across you in waves like locusts coming across a field and you're going to be destroyed."

How many of you know, that's pretty bold to say to a nation that hasn't been defeated for 200 years? How many of you know, if God be for you, who can be against you? Isaiah was speaking the word of the Lord.

Now, listen to me. Isaiah was speaking as the Lord was speaking to him. Tonight we have this in written form. Tonight we have God's Word in front of us, and I want you to understand something. It's no less powerful because you read it and quote it than if God spoke it directly out of heaven. I'm going to say that again: It's no less powerful in your life tonight, I don't care who's coming against you, I don't care what boss is coming against you, I don't care what thing of the world is coming against you, I don't care what their track record is, I don't care if you're in the midst of a lawsuit right now, and some attorney has never lost a case. If God be for you, He's about to lose His first case.

I'm simply telling you, he's not coming against you. He's coming against God. He can talk about all the defenses you have and try to wear you down and talk all the psychological stuff that he wants to. It still comes back to this. Whether God was speaking directly to Isaiah and he's giving a "thus saith the Lord," or you're reading it tonight out of Isaiah's book, it's no less powerful because it's written and quoted tonight than it was in the day in whic h it was written when God gave it directly by the Holy Spirit from heaven. Are you with me?

So verse 4, or verse 5 says again, or verse 4 says again - "The spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them."

In verse 5, we now have the deliverance of the Lord for Judah. It says, "The Lord is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness."

Now, first of all the Lord is exalted because He lives in heaven, but we're going to find out in the next verse of Scripture, verse 6, He's also exalted when He sits on the throne of our heart and He sits on the throne of our heart when our heart is filled with His Word, when our heart is filled with His promises, when we have studied His promises, we have put them in our heart, we have hidden them in our heart, we form a throne in our heart for the Lord Jesus Christ to sit on and be exalted, and that's why he says in verse 5, "The Lord is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness."

I want you to note that ultimately what's going to happen is, judgment is going to come to your rescue and righteousness is going to come to your rescue. So again God sits on high. The beautiful thing about God sitting on high is something else. If God sits on high, He can see about so high, He can see the future. Glory to God!

See, the future is hidden from us, but not from God. And God is simply letting them know, especially in verse 4 where He prophesies their destruction, God is letting them know what's going to happen in the days ahead. Assyria will be destroyed.

And then it goes on to say in verse 6 - "And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the Lord is his treasure."

Now we come down to something right now. What was Assyria looking for? Assyria was looking for gold, silver, and diamonds, and possessions, and what should we be looking for? The greatest treasure we can have is wisdom and knowledge hidden in our heart. This verse says again, "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times...." The Hebrew says, "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stabilizer of your times."

Now, how many of you know, in a day like that, they needed stability? How many of you know that stability is seen in the fact that they didn't even open their mouth. That is a great indication of stability. One of the greatest indicators of stability is not, sometimes not what you say, it's the lack of saying anything at all.

And here in this passage of Scripture, what was it that caused the people not to speak? What was it that caused the people to sit there and not do anything and turn it over to Hezekiah, turn it over to Isaiah, and put their trust in the ministers? What was that? It was the Word of God they had been taught for the past year. It's the Word of God they were standing on, and now he brings this out. How is God going to deliver Israel? How is God going to bring them through?

Well, the answer is this. God's going to bring them through because wisdom and knowledge in their heart has been their stabilizer. Next of all it says, "In strength of salvation." Strength of salvation.

Now, let me tell you something. Let's apply this verse of Scripture right into our life tonight. How do we know we're born again? What is the strength of our salvation? It is the Word of God. The more of the Word you know, the more sure you are you're saved. How many of you know when you first got saved, it was pretty easy after a few weeks to doubt whether you were saved, because in the very beginning you often lived by feelings. "I sure feel saved. I sure feel happy." Well, how many of you know, feeling saved and feeling happy is the feeling that comes and goes. But what stays with you is the Word of God.

Now, today nobody could argue you out of the fact you're born again. You'll pound them with Scripture. Somebody try to convince you you're not saved, you can quote Scripture from Genesis to maps! You know them all from front to back. That was a joke!

But you know so much of the Word. What does the Bible tell us? At the end of the book of John, it says, "These things have we written unto you. These things have we written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life." How do you know that you have eternal life? By these things which are written. The more of what you have written is in your heart, the more assured you are of salvation. Therefore, this verse says, "Do you want to be stable in life? And do you want to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you're born again? Then let it be filled with wisdom and knowledge. It will be the stabilizer of your life and the strength of your salvation, and the fear of the Lord is your real treasure." You can lose the money, but you can't lose the Lord. You can lose possessions, but you won't lose the Lord.

It's simply saying, "What's the greatest treasure that you have in your life?" It's first of all the new birth and it's every nugget, every exceeding great and precious promise that fills up your heart, the treasure that's in there.

In other words, when you open up the treasure inside of your heart, is it a big empty box, or is it filled with treasures and treasures and treasures, every treasure indicating a promise from the Word of God that you've hidden in your heart. There's the greatest treasure. Guess what? Sennacherib can't steal it. No one can steal it. Man, they can come and take your car. They can take your house, but they can't take the Word of God from your heart. They can't take your salvation from your heart. And if you're really stabilized in the Word of God, you can laugh if they haul something up, because you know something, but God who gave you that can get you that again. But they can't get the real treasure. They can't get the real treasure. The real treasure is the fear of the Lord, and what we have right now in this nation is the fear of the Lord. Great reverence.

They don't have a great military. They can't turn around and say, "Well, bless God, our military will blow them off the map." They don't have much of one. Their king has been disarming them. They can't turn around and say, "Well, you know, we really put our trust in the king because he has been a reed that's been blowing back and forth." Thank God, he's standing up now. They can't look at Isaiah, although he's a prophet. They have to look at what Isaiah's been teaching. Folks, when your time of calamity comes, you can't run to Pastor Bob and say, "Deliver me." It has to be the Word that Pastor Bob teaches that is your deliverer. It's the Word that comes forth. That's your stability. That's your strength of salvation and that is your great treasure.

Turn over with me in closing to chapter 37. Let's find out what happened. After that great night, what happened? Chapter 37. Here is what Isaiah went on to say.

He says in verse 33, Isaiah 37 and verse 33. Here Isaiah is speaking to the people, the same thing he was speaking back in chapter 33. We find it here.

It says, "Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it."

He's literally saying, "There won't even be an arrow fly over the wall. Guys, nothing is going to happen." How many of you know, that would be a miracle? How many of you know that would be a miracle? That's like standing against, that's like the world's worst lawyer standing in front of you. He's got a track record of twenty years, never lost a case, he's prosecuted so many people. He's coming after you for whatever he's coming after you for, and the Lord comes and walks in your room one night and says, "It won't even go to court. Go back to bed." Wouldn't that be a great feeling?

Well, that's exactly what Isaiah is saying. Isaiah is simply saying, is, "Look, not even an arrow is going to come flying over the wall. No one's even going to get to the wall."

He says in the next verse of Scripture, verse 34, "By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

"For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake."

In other words, Assyria does not have one prophecy over it that it will continue forever, but this city does, and I promised it to David. Listen to me. All of the enemies coming against you have no promise from the Word of God they'll exist, but you do. You do. It's prophesied in the Word of God, you'll spend eternity with Jesus in heaven. It's prophesied in the Word of God that the weapon formed against you will not prosper. I'm simply here to tell you, it's not, I don't care what they're saying, I don't care what the world is saying, I don't care what the circumstances look like, I don't care what the symptoms look like, they have no future. I read the end of the book!

Satan will be gone, all demons will be gone, all unbelievers will be removed, and only the righteous will shine forever and forever. He's simply saying, "Assyria, Jerusalem, Assyria, Jerusalem, let's see what God has to say. Yes, but Assyria is saying...." I don't care what Assyria is saying. We've looked at it. We've examined it, but let's see what God has to say. God said, "Huh, I can't find anything in here where Assyria has a promise at all. But I find promises everywhere for Jerusalem, because I promised David he would have a king that would sit on his throne forever, to sit on his throne forever. Jerusalem will have to last forever. Israel will have to last forever. There'll have to be a righteous seed in this earth." Oh, glory to God! You're part of that. Amen.

I'm getting happy preaching all this. He now says in verse 34, "By the way he came in, by that shall he also return, and shall not come into the city.

"I'll defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David.

"Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand...." One hundred and eight-five thousand men were slain by one. Did you catch tha t?

Now listen, the one that fought for Israel is the one that fights for us. The angel of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, but that one night He came down and slew 185,000.

"And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." That means the few that rose up saw all the ___ that were dead.

"So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh." He ran back home. Didn't know what to do, so he decided to go and pray before his evil god.

It says in verse 38, "It came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the < sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead."

So what happened was, the king was killed by his sons. Later on another son rose up, but again, a mere eighty-three years after this, this nation was destroyed and another nation came in and completely destroyed them, but it was prophesied.

I'm here to tell you tonight, that's what's going to happen to those who are coming against you. That's what's going to happen to those forces coming against you. That's what's going to happen to the reports that are coming against you is God has a report for their report. Choose to believe God's report tonight.

And what's going to keep you stable in the midst of it? Listen, while the reports were coming from Rabshakeh, the people didn't say anything. While the reports are coming at you from the devil, don't say anything, but turn to the Word of God. And I'm here to tell you again, if you begin to examine the Word of God, you're here forever, Satan is not. Your kingdom will last forever, Satan's will not. Your kingdom will be here for all of time, and Satan's will not, the world's will not, but you will go on.

And so, listen. If God has a plan for you forever, He certainly has a plan for you right now. If God says you're going to be here forever, then certainly you're going to be here forever, and you're going to be coming through this problem right now.

I like what it says over in chapter 8 of Romans, is that God has already seen us justified, God has already seen us saved, He's already seen us redeemed, but also it goes on to say in that passage of Scripture, He also sees us glorified. Folks, we have not yet been glorified, but God already sees it as happening. God already sees it like it has happened. To be justified is past tense. Redeemed is past tense. He also makes something future past tense. He says He's already seen us glorified. Well, that means if He's already seen me glorified, He's already seen me in heaven at the right hand of the Father, rejoicing in my glorified body forever and forever. That means if Jesus sees me up there, I must be going to make it. If I'm going to make it into heaven in a raptured body, then guess what? This problem isn't going to last forever. I'm going to get through it, because that's my future over there.

It's like turning to the back and finding out what's going to happen to you. Amen. Finding out that God has something written in the Bible about you and He's already seen you glorified. You are going to come through. Amen. Amen.

I want those tonight who are going through impossible situations, stand up. Stand up. Those of you tonight that it looks like there is no way out, just stand up. We're going to agree with you in prayer tonight, stand with you, that the same God that brought Israel through that battle is going to bring you out tonight.

I don't care what people say, doctors say, friends say, relatives say, and I don't care what your own mind is telling you. Tonight God is going to bring you through, and the same God that prophesied Israel would be preserved also prophesied the enemy would be destroyed, and I can say that about you tonight. You will come through and your enemies will be destroyed. Amen.

I want those around to stand up. Lay hands on them. If you could, share with them any information, finances, just say "finances." If it's health, just say "health." If it's family, say "family," but you share with them just a word or two so they'll know what they're agreeing on tonight. And I want you in prayer to see that thing as done. See that need as met, in the name of Jesus.

© 2001 by Bob Yandian Ministries. Reproduction of written text in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.

© 2000 by Bob Yandian Ministries. Reproduction of written text in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.