In 2nd Kings 19, we were reading about
Hezekiah in the past, that's 18, 2nd Kings
18 and we'll start at verse 14.
Let us pray.
We thank you Lord for this opportunity to
meet together again.
We thank you for being kept by you
all these days.
We thank you for your working.
We thank you Lord for the arrival of
your servants from Korea.
And we ask you to be with them.
Help them Lord in the great work which
they are in.
And we thank you for what you have
performed there.
We ask you to continue to work in
a marvellous way.
And also Lord in our midst as well.
Be gracious to us.
You know each and everyone's need.
Lord help us with that which we need.
Amen.
The second chapter of chapter 18, the story
of Hezekiah.
The second book of Kings.
But instead I'm just going to highlight certain
verses here and there.
Let's start with verse 11.
Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away
captive to Assyria and put them in Hala
and by the harbour.
The harbour of Hala.
The harbour of Gaza and in the cities
of the Medes.
Because they did not obey the voice of
the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant
and all that Moses the servant of the
Lord had commanded.
And they would neither hear nor do them.
For they would not hear the word of
the Almighty.
The king of Assyria arrived with a huge
army in Israel.
He arrived with more than 200,000 soldiers.
And he thoroughly destroyed all the towns of
Israel.
Now Hezekiah was king of Judah.
Judah was just a little nation.
And this pagan king of Assyria came and
utterly destroyed and looted the towns of Israel.
It was terrible there.
And he captured the Israelites and took them
into captivity.
To other places as we've read in Hala
and Habor and the river of Gaza in
the cities of the Medes.
What he did was awful.
But it says clearly that all this came
upon them because they had not diligently obeyed
the voice of their Lord.
They believed but they believed in a half
fashion, just not completely.
They were sins in their lives though they
were religious and went to the church with
their sins.
And because they were not entirely, completely devoted
to the Lord their God, God said, I
will hand you over to your enemies.
Satan has no power over the children of
God.
But if you have sin in your life,
Satan obtains power over you.
Do I need to repeat that so that
you understand it properly?
Satan has no power over the child of
God.
For Jesus in us is greater than he
that is in the world.
He conquered sin, he conquered death, he conquered
the devil, he conquered the powers of darkness.
So if you have Jesus, Satan has no
power over you.
But why does Satan rule in so many
lives?
They are not completely in the Lord, devoted
to him.
They condone sin.
And through that they give Satan power over
them.
A certain person from South America, So
if that is from the eastern side of
America, walked right across, he crossed right over
to the opposite western coast.
America is very big.
That is the USA, where Bush is the
president.
South Africa, you need to increase it by
8 times in order to fit into the
USA.
Now this
man
decided he is not going to go by
car, by bicycle, but he will walk on
foot.
From the eastern coast right to the western
coast of the USA.
And he succeeded.
It took a long time.
And he tells of how he met with
many different experiences on the way.
In winter.
It was freezing cold as it snowed in
those areas and he trudged along in the
snow.
And then there was a biting wind where
the cold seemed to cut into him.
He walked trudging along as if he was
in a swamp in this deep snow.
In summer, it was very hot in the
desert.
And the sand was hot.
It burned.
But he says in all these trials there
wasn't a thing that was as dangerous to
him as a certain thing.
One thing.
Almost incapacitated him that he wanted to give
up his journey.
He says it wasn't the heat of the
summer in the desert or the cold
and the driving snow.
But he said what caused him the greatest
difficulty was when he had grains of sand
in his shoe.
In his shoe.
He said just the sand.
He said even the smallest grains and the
fewest grains of sand in his shoes would
cause him such distress that he almost gave
up his journey.
He said rather the heat, rather the snow
than these grains of sand which were so
distressing in his shoes.
Are there any grains of sand in your
shoes?
I'm not speaking about...
I'm not speaking about these physical shoes but
the shoes of your life, of your heart.
If you are sitting with things which are
sinful.
Maybe a grudge.
Maybe stubbornness.
Maybe lack of forgiveness.
Self-seeking.
That was the most difficult thing.
Some sin, as small as it may be,
even though it may appear to be so
minor, so little.
But remember that man who almost failed in
his journey from the east to the west
coast just because of the grains of sand
in his shoes.
It's not small if it stops your journey.
These grains, though they are ever so small,
may become like sand in your eyes.
Even evil
thoughts
and evil eye, you will not complete your
journey.
You will be eaten by the vultures.
They will come down on you.
You will be eaten by the vultures.
Hezekiah, as he saw Israel being taken and
Samaria, he must have been desperate and cried
to the Lord and called upon God to
help him that he would be completely surrendered
to the Lord.
it may be just gossip perhaps you gossip
using the names of other people and say
let's keep quiet let's not tell the preacher
and
then you're gonna win and King
Sennacherib came and wrecked utter havoc upon these
nations of the Lord and destroyed them God
didn't lift a finger to assist them for
they had not heeded his voice la la
la la la la la la la la
la la la la
la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la ever
so small in your life, which you have
not dealt with, have not destroyed, that will
become the source of your destruction.
In verse 13 and 14, And
in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib
king of Assyria came up against all the
fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the
king of Assyria at Lashish, saying, I have
done wrong.
Turn away from me.
Whatever you impose on me, I will pay.
And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king
of Judah 300 talents of silver and 30
talents of gold.
Here we find the king of Judah apologizing
to the king of Assyria.
For when the king of Assyria had made
all of Israel captive, he then returned in
order to destroy Judah.
This, it was said, occurred 701 BC.
And they came in destroying the cities of
Judah.
Hezekiah wondered, how is it that Sennacherib, the
king of Assyria, has authority over us?
And then he realized that they had sinned.
And he sent message to the king of
Assyria saying, forgive us, we have sinned.
And he said, O king, please return to
your homeland and allow me then to pay
our debt.
Now, what had actually happened?
This king, before he died, this old king,
had conquered Israel.
Judah feared that she too would be conquered.
Judah then pleaded saying, please, O king of
Assyria, do not destroy us.
And we are prepared, O king of Assyria,
to pay a levy, a tax, every year.
And so the king did it.
And when the king died, and then another
king came to be king of Assyria, Hezekiah
said, let's go and plead our case with
the new king.
Maybe he'll be more sympathetic regarding this old
case of ours.
And so they stopped paying their dues.
They left it for the first year, and
the second, and the third.
But then the king of Assyria remembered that
Judah had a debt to pay, and they
hadn't been paying their levies.
And so he decided that he would go
up to Jerusalem and utterly rout it, and
make all the citizens there to be his
slaves.
When Hezekiah then saw the enemy upon them,
he remembered their debt.
And he said, O king, we have done
wrong in not paying our yearly interest.
We have not given it to you as
we had agreed to.
Say, give your price, and we will pay.
And then the king said, we want 300
talents of silver and 30 talents of gold,
which was a huge amount.
Hezekiah said, we are determined to pay the
full amount.
Do you hear, brethren?
Are there those in debt among us?
Are there those of you who have forgotten
your debt or the interest?
And you just keep quiet about it.
You don't say a thing.
You just clam up and pretend it's not
there.
But you have sinned.
You are guilty of debt.
Brethren, Jesus said, no one can serve God
and money.
And He said, if you are not faithful
in money, the Father in heaven will not
entrust His Holy Spirit to you.
If you are not faithful in mammon, God
in heaven will not give you the blessings
of the Spirit.
If you want
the
fullness of the Spirit, be diligent in your
financial matters.
Go through it.
Carefully check.
Haven't you perhaps just conveniently forgotten about some
debt, and you just keep quiet about it?
You will end up in spiritual and physical
poverty, and won't be blessed.
And the enemy will obtain authority over you.
Let's learn.
Jesus did say that if you remember that
you have a debt, go and put it
right.
Go and sort out the matter with the
person to whom you are indebted.
Otherwise, he will have you in prison until
the last farthing is paid.
Don't use as an excuse, well, I'm poor,
I don't have the money, and I'm hungry.
No, go and discuss the matter.
Go and at least say, I have a
debt that I owe.
I want to talk to you about it.
This is what I owe you.
In the early years of Billy Graham's ministry,
he got together his team, and they examined
together the successes and failures of the men
of God before them.
What were the stumbling blocks?
What were the things that caused them to
fail?
And as they examined the lives of men
of God before them, they discovered the first
point of stumbling is women.
Where Christians destroy themselves through sexual promiscuity, not
living a pure life.
Secondly, money.
People wanting money.
By hook or by crook, they want money.
And they will purposely go and visit wealthy
people in the hope that they'd catch the
hint and give them some money.
And so he, Billy Graham, and his team
wrote a list of the stumbling blocks to
men of God before them, and putting first,
one, women, secondly, finance, going through the list,
three, four, and they said, let's not make
the same mistakes.
And so they agreed.
Billy Graham said to his co-workers, we
who are the team members, none
of us will travel in a car with
a woman who is not the wife or
the daughter alone.
We will not travel alone with another woman.
And so
I
have the utmost respect for Billy Graham, for
that which he did, I honor him.
And you preach the gospel, or even if
you don't preach the gospel, make sure you
don't stumble in this area.
Even when it came to sleeping in hotels,
they were meticulous with their arrangements.
He wouldn't just sleep alone in a hotel
room.
He would make sure that there was the
first line of defense.
If somebody would come knocking to the door,
there would be a co-worker there to
make sure that they were there.
He would have another man there.
I honor them for that.
And if you don't take meticulous measures in
being victorious, you will be destroyed by your
promiscuity.
South Africa is already being destroyed.
Many have died.
Many will soon die, and more will die
because of sexual looseness.
You say, oh no, we're not under the
law.
We are free.
You are free because you're a sinner.
You're evil.
If you're good, then you welcome the law,
because that's the life you live.
If you don't want the law, it's just
because you are lawless.
Lawless.
And I add, godless.
If you don't want the law, it's just
because you are lawless.
Lawless.
And I add,
godless.
Now if you have gone wrong in the
past, from now on, walk straight.
Stop living a life of filth.
You all know him.
Moody.
He was a big fellow.
Moody, a smoker came to him.
Said, Mr. Moody, is it wrong?
Is it a sin if I smoke?
Moody looked at him.
He says, no.
Carry on.
He says, how can you say just carry
on?
He says, yes, the Bible says you should
carry on.
He says, where does that say in the
Bible?
He says, the Bible says, let the filthy
be filthy still.
So continue with your filth and your smoking.
Continue with your immorality and your flirtatiousness.
Continue in your flirtatiousness.
Continue in your little cliques discussing the opposite
sex.
You're just giving food to the vultures and
they will feed on you.
You know that vultures don't have feathers on
their necks.
Why?
For when vultures feed on
a carcass of a person or an animal,
they put the head in.
They put the head in.
And they eat the soft parts first.
They go for the intestines.
They eat the soft parts and they are
featherless on their necks.
Continue with your sexual looseness.
The vultures are right there waiting.
It's a shame.
It's a disgrace if you, if I continue
preaching the gospel with others, together with those
who are sexually promiscuous.
And you need to confess those sins.
Remembering that confession and then returning to the
sin is being dog-like.
It's like a dog going back to its
vomit.
And a pig going back to its filth.
Billy Graham is now old.
But there is no stench that follows him.
And secondly, they said, regarding money, be straight
and honest.
That you may have God's blessing.
For if you are not faithful in money,
I tell you, you will not be blessed.
You will die badly.
And we too, if we have grains of
sand in our shoes, let's take them out
before the sun sets.
Don't let the sun set on the sand
still being in your shoes.
God said to Moses, take off your shoes,
for this is holy ground.
There might be something that is defiling, something
that makes you dirty on the shoes.
Take them off.
Now Hezekiah realized...
Hezekiah then searched to find the silver and
the gold.
And they had to break down doors for
his father, who had been a bad man.
They had locked up the temple.
They then unlocked the places and got out
the gold.
And Hezekiah paid.
He sent the silver and the gold.
He realized that if we are to have
victory over our enemies, we are to be
without guilt, without debt.
But let me tell you, even though he
paid that debt, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, did
not let him go.
He had to repeatedly pay again and again.
You girl, you may have your boyfriend and
you might decide to get married.
And you've heard and you know that you
need to be pure before marriage and stand
in purity at the marriage altar.
And that your veil should indeed symbolize your
virginity.
And you tell that to the young man
and he might say, but no, look, we're
in love.
Aren't we going to get married anyway?
We're certain to get married.
What's wrong with doing it?
And so little
by
little, a touch here and there, a brush
here and there.
Incrementally, He invades your life.
You women, be careful of men who brush
you and touch you as they talk to
you.
For finally, He no longer just touches you,
but He holds you.
Then He kisses you.
And then you fall into sin, sleeping with
each other.
We had our Korean friends yesterday and I
told them about the frog.
About the frog that if it jumps into
water of a different temperature, it just dies.
But if you put a flame under the
pot with the frog inside it and you
slowly warm up the water, increase the temperature
very slowly.
If the frog had to just, if it
jumps into the warm water, it would die.
If it's at that degree.
But if you put the flame underneath, you
can increase the temperature with the frog remaining
alive, way past that temperature.
And the frog is still alive.
If a boy had to come
and try and rape
you, you would scream if you're not an
immoral girl.
The Bible says if she does not scream,
then she ought to also be put to
death.
You're only excused if you scream in resistance.
You're only excused if you scream
in
resistance.
But Satan warms up the pot slowly.
The man brushes, touches, kisses, and then eventually
fall into sin, and even worse than that
of the pagans.
For the children of Christians can do that
which even the pagans don't do.
That's why I'm telling you, if you're a
woman, if you're a man, if
you're a man, if you're a woman, if
you're a man, if you're a man, if
you're a man, if you're And
then, because you sleep around, you fall pregnant.
Might be after six months, you give birth.
like one girl who it happened like that
after six months she had a child and
she blamed me when I said that there
was something wrong she said oh you of
little faith don't you believe that God can
work powerfully and make that happen to a
girl I said leave me alone with my
little faith but I don't believe you don't
you believe that God can form and make
a child create a child in six months
it's got to be nine months with you
have you got such little faith what he
goes you go to call of working on
a I'll call a good team can I
not darling gunning a young as he's too
big pal it's strange that the Christians who
are not on the right road they've got
great faiths they happy all the time in
the meantime they miserable you see manga so
good tea about that one lava about St.
Helene a do this I oh but no
good color or cool good basing it by
a chabula got to a but Danielle by
Abana in Abana in jabu I'm trying to
get a gum about to be shell on
the coolness is calling who would give a
shot they don't not often that you find
that a fair at school and a fair
at school turns out into a marriage got
on them Sega who could have a be
love at heart they are a shoddy but
I live so bizarre there are the rare
cases where two or three might sleep together
before marriage and then they get married let
me tell you go when you married that
has been of yours will insult you because
of what you've done and you'll never let
you go you'll keep on reminding you of
it and you'll fall into sin with girls
much younger than even your own daughters with
a clear one what's called God who's on
a red white look I'm super I'm super
I'm Landela John and John has a kaya
failed and then yet to pay and pay
his debt again and again scenario scenario scenario
kid would not let him off the hook
he kept on reminding him of his debt
then in verse 29 a basic a guru
a verse got 29 in course Susanna herepy
yeah kulu Maya Timon in Akashi song or
has a key go go back I go
by no man to go no pool is
something some king of Assyria said do not
let his akai deceive you for he shall
not be able to deliver you from his
hand from that's from God from his hand
yes 40 or has a nor
let King Hezekiah make you trust in the
Lord saying this the Lord will surely deliver
us this city shall not be given into
the hand of the king of Assyria
do
not
listen to his akai for that says the
king of Assyria make peace with me by
a present and come out to me and
every one of you eat from his own
vine and every one of you from his
own fig tree and every one of you
drink the waters of his own system when
the king of Assyria realized that hezekiah was
not making his own people to be serious
captives he then confronted the people directly he
went to them one by one to the
people on the ground and he began to
seduce them and to promise them liberty and
that if they listen to him they'll be
truly freed don't listen to hezekiah what he
says more to me that evil man you
get those even amongst the and some are
so stupid and so foolish that they follow
those blind leaders and that's only possible because
they themselves are blind Muslim la la la
who has a gear la la la mena
ungui la la la mena guava mena angus
in the lane back on a lava bazal
on a by a by is important guava
balan dela is important my J singer Peterson
year pointing look cleaner as a corner my
number point got this cuts happy though there
are other points I come now to the
final one they came to hezekiah
and they told him all the blasphemous things
spoken about him he tore his clothing threw
himself in humility upon the ashes and cried
out before the Lord and God heard his
cry and sent us I am saying
I have heard your cry hezekiah from heaven
have I heard and as I have said
to him don't pay attention and do not
fear the talking of the king of Assyria
or his blasphemous talk do not fear it
and notice it for by the power of
my spirit will I conquer your enemy at
night the angel of the Lord came
he
came and he utterly destroyed and killed a
hundred and eighty thousand of the enemy little
number maybe twenty thousand were left and they
ran like rabbits angel of the Lord came
and he slew one hundred and eighty thousand
in the night and
so when the Assyrians woke up they found
that they were surrounded by corpses here corpses
there some of them already swollen and bloated
God
fought
on behalf of God's people God is still
able to defend his people he can defend
me let our enemies
blaspheme and curse let them say what they
will but there is a God in heaven
who hears God says do not avenge yourselves
for there is the revenge in
one
night the angel of the Lord struck them
dead the angel of the Lord in the
Old Testament means Christ Jesus Christ himself he
destroyed and killed a hundred and eighty thousand
the king of Assyria fled to
Nineveh
and
at night two of his own sons came
and assassinated him two of his own sin
sons I tell you if you don't make
business with God and get it right standing
with God he'll get hold of you he
used his own two sons that murdered him
what your end will be I don't know
you hadn't got to do with the head
of sting you've got to a holy God
and get right with him and the things
that are wrong in your life you put
right you confess them expose them bring them
to light bury them you'll be buried with
them my oh my oh my oh my
oh my oh my oh my oh my
oh my oh my oh my oh
my oh my oh my oh my oh
my oh my oh my
oh
my oh
my oh my oh my oh my oh
my oh my amen