This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back for day 3 of week 4 of our look through the book of Isaiah. We're
going to look at Isaiah chapters 36 and 37 today. In these chapters we come to
some unusual part of Isaiah in that we get away from the prophetic part and we
get a few chapters of history.

And in these chapters of history we're going to learn some things from the life
of Hezekiah, King Hezekiah. We're going to learn some things about how to win
the battle, the daily battle that we have for faith. If you're going to change,
if I'm going to change, it's going to involve a battle.

It doesn't come without a battle. There are forces in this world, there are
forces because of Satan, there are forces that are at work within you, your own
selfishness that are fighting against what God wants to do to work His changes
in your life. And these chapters give us an example of the kind of forces we're
going to face, the kind of battle that we have in front of us, but they also
give us an example of the kind of victory that God wants to give us.

In Isaiah chapter 36 verse 1, "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign,
King Sinacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and
conquered them. " So how are they going to win the battle? How are they going to
see God begin to have a victory?

You have a daily battle spiritually, sometimes we wake up, you might even these
days be waking up feeling like you're defeated before you begin. You'd rather
just not face the world at all. How do you exchange that feeling of defeat for
one of hope, of confidence?

How can you begin to live God's victory rather than just hearing somebody talk
about it or even you talking about it? The Bible is clear, God desires for you
to be victorious. But how does that victory begin?

Victory over sinful temptations, victory over your draining emotions, victory
over your anger, victory over your fears. Hezekiah is going to teach us some
things these next few days about how to see this victory. He's going to teach us
first how to recognize the attacks that will come and then he's going to teach
us how to live victoriously in the face of those attacks.

So today we're going to talk about how do you recognize the attacks that will
come, the threats of the enemy. If you know something about the strategy, the
methods of the enemy, then you're ready for those attacks when they come. Paul
taught us that we are not unaware of the schemes of Satan.

The way that the Assyrians attacked Israel, they are pictures of the schemes
that Satan runs against you because Satan doesn't have any new schemes. He's
been running the same ones for thousands of years. So here's the kind of schemes
he's going to run against you to try to get you to live in defeat.

The first is insecurity. In Isaiah 36 verses 4 and 5, the field commander said
to them, "Tell Hezekiah, this is what the great king, the king of Assyria says.
On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

You say you have counsel and might for war, but you speak only empty words. On
whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? What reason," he says, "do
you have to be confident?

" He started to chip away at Hezekiah's, at the people's confidence, and Satan
in your spiritual battle is going to attack your confidence level. He's going to
begin to call into question those things that you base your confidence on, that
your victory is going to build on. He's going to call into question God's word.

Can you really trust it? He wants to chip away at your confidence. He's going to
call into question God's people.

They're going to let you down, you know. You can't really depend on them, you
know. Well, there's no perfect person you're ever going to meet, but God's
people are given into our lives to give God's encouragement.

This is a way that Satan attacks you, and in doing this, he has a favorite ploy,
a favorite strategy to attack your security. We find it in verses 18 to 20 of
Isaiah 36, an example of it. "Do not let Hezekiah mislead you," when he says,
"the Lord will deliver us.

" Have the gods of any nation ever delivered their lands from the hand of the
king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of
Sheferim?

Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries
have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver
Jerusalem from my land?

One of Satan's favorite schemes. Have you ever seen it done before? Have you
ever seen that kind of prayer answered before?

Have you ever seen God give that kind of victory before? It's never happened
before, and if it happened for somebody else before, have you ever seen it
happen before? Has God ever answered a prayer like that for you before?

Have you ever seen a victory like that before? It's never happened before, he
tells you, so it's not going to happen now. Satan wants you to base your
confidence on positive proof of what God's already done in your life before he's
done it.

Just thinking about that helps you to realize how silly that is. How could you
have proof of faith before he's acted? It doesn't take much thinking to see the
danger in this, and if you follow this, you're going to become a person who will
never, you'll never try anything because you've never seen any victories, and so
you keep yourself from the victories that God wants to work in your life.

So he's going to use insecurity in your life. Just realize it's one of Satan's
schemes when it comes your way. A second scheme is accusation.

In fact, one of the names for Satan in the Bible is the accuser. It's one of his
strategies to defeat us. He accuses us regarding our past sins and guilt, and by
that he wants to get us trapped up in them again.

One of his favorite and least understood methods of accusation is shown here in
this chapter, Isaiah 36-7. "But you say to me," this spokesman for the king of
Assyria says, "you say to me, we are depending on the Lord our God. Isn't he the
one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and
Jerusalem, you must worship before this altar?

You make the mistake," he says to these people, "of removing the high places.
And now you're trying to depend on God? " Hezekiah had removed the false places
of worship.

These high places were places where they worshiped false God. And he says you
have to worship before this altar. He's talking about the altar in Jerusalem.

And so here comes this spokesman for the king of Assyria. He says, "You know, if
you'd only made sure you kept those high places of worship, maybe none of this
would be happening. If you'd only not done the right thing, then you wouldn't be
in this problem right now.

If you'd only not told the truth, you wouldn't be in this problem right now. If
you'd only not stood up for your faith, you wouldn't be facing this right now.
If you'd only not had integrity like everybody else at your work or officer
school, then you wouldn't be taking what you're taking right now.

Satan will call you a fool for doing the right thing. He'll accuse you for doing
the right thing. He not only accuses you for your guilt and your past sins, he
accuses you for your faith.

He's the accuser. Look what a mess you've gotten yourself into because you had
faith. Now you don't have that bad habit to rely on.

Now you don't have that bad relationship to rely on. If only you'd not done the
right thing. When Satan accuses you in this way, just remember it's one of his
schemes.

He's just trying to get you caught up in his sinful pattern again. He uses
insecurity, he uses accusation, and a third popular strategy that Satan uses is
the strategy of ridicule. He tries to ridicule your faith.

The enemy used ridicule to try to reduce Hezekiah's resolve and Satan will do
the same thing in your life. So in verses 8 to 11, "Come now, make a bargain
with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you
can put riders on them.

How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even
though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I
come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me
to march against this country and destroyed it.

Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, 'Please speak to
your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in
the hearing of the people on the wall. '" He's ridiculing them and at the end
they say, "Don't speak in the language people everybody understands," but he's
doing it on purpose.

He wants to bring ridicule upon them all. "I'd give you two thousand horses," he
said, "but you don't even have the riders to put on them. " He's bringing public
embarrassment and Satan's tactics have not changed much.

He still ridicules us personally. Who are you to fight against this? He still
ridicules us publicly.

It's not fun to have other people make fun of you for your faith, but it happens
when you have faith. It might happen in a whisper that you hear in the hallway
or it might happen with somebody who doesn't mind publicly saying it to your
face. When you face ridicule for your faith, never forget the example of the
cross.

This was the ultimate place of public ridicule. Jesus being spit upon, words
thrown at Jesus of ridicule, and yet God chose to make that place, the place of
the cross, a place of forgiveness, a place of salvation. So Satan's going to
throw ridicule at you for your faith.

Realize it's just one of his schemes. And then a final scheme of Satan is lies.
He's the father of lies.

And so we heard a lie in the verses we just read. "God told me to do this. " He
was just lying.

God didn't tell him to do that. And then there's more lies in verses 13 to 17.
"Then the commander stood up and called out in Hebrew, 'Hear the words of the
great king, the king of Assyria.

This is what the king says. Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver
you.

Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, 'The Lord
will surely deliver us. This city will not be given over into the hand of the
king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah.

This is what the king of Assyria says. Make peace with me and come out to me.
And then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink
water from your own cistern until I come and take you to a land like your own, a
land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

" He's tempting these people starving with food. He's tempting these people who
have nothing with luxuries. There's a shorter word for temptation and it's the
word we're talking about here, lies.

Temptations are just appealing lies. Satan finds a lie that appeals to me. He
finds a lie that appeals to you and he tells the lie over and over and over
again.

Satan will tell you whatever you want to hear but the promise is never fulfilled
because it's a lie. He promised Eve knowledge and she found shame. He promised
Cain satisfaction.

He found loneliness. He promised Judas hope and he found despair. What's he
promising you right now?

It's a lie. It's a lie. So these schemes of Satan just realize he's been using
the same ones for thousands of years and when they come my way, when they come
your way, realize that God has a way of victory.

We're going to look at that together tomorrow but today as we end this I want to
pray because we're all in the midst of this battle against Satan. So Lord as we
pray we ask you give us a sense of the fact that you are the victor. Yes we face
insecurity.

Yes we face this battle in our lives with the lies of Satan. Yes we face the
battle that comes into our lives because of discouragement but Lord you've not
left us alone in the battle but Lord you will not leave us without an answer in
the battle. You want to lead us out into victory so instead of living with
despair I pray you'd give us hope.

Hope that you understand the battle that we're in and hope that you can give us
strength to fight this battle in your name. Help us to do so today we pray in
Jesus name. Amen.