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I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger Me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations. 'Are not my commanders all kings?' he says. 'Has not Calno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus? As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?'

When the Lord has finished all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, 'I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings. As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as men gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries. Not one flapped a wing or opened its mouth to chirp."'

Does the axe raise itself above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it? As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood! Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers. The splendor of his forest and fertile fields, it will completely destroy, as when a sick man wastes away. And the remaining trees of his forest will be so few that a child could write them down.

Let's come to God and ask for His help as we look at His word more closely together.

Heavenly Father, we ask that You would send the Holy Spirit to us now, so that we would again see that Your word is righteous and trustworthy. And so that we would do what it commands by the power of Your Spirit. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen.

Well, this morning I'm preaching a sermon that I preached previously at Des Moines Baptist. It's actually been nice this week that I haven't had to prepare a fresh sermon, that Josh is able to preach one of his former sermons here that he's preached here at Camden Valley while I come here. And the reason we've done that partly is because we're able to go away and be at a conference together and to hear some excellent teaching on the book of Galatians. And we had that free time in the mornings that we normally devote to sermon writing. So it is, I thought I'd preach on this sermon because I preached it only two weeks ago, so it remains fresh in my memory. But it is helpful for us as we look at the Lord's judgment upon the nation of Assyria.

I've been working my way through the book of Isaiah, preaching through it. And Isaiah is the record of a prophecy from the prophet Isaiah. And primarily a lot of it has to do with the judgment of the people of Israel, the kingdom of Israel, but also the kingdom of Judah. And so it might be helpful for us to—I mean, I'm just coming here today, and you haven't had the context of previous weeks—to review where Isaiah falls into the history of Israel. Isaiah, of course, comes many years after the beginning of the Bible. And how does the Bible begin? Well, it begins with the book of Genesis and the creation of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are the first parents. And from Adam and Eve, you eventually get a man called Abraham. And from Abraham, his descendants end up being the people of Israel. The 12 tribes of Israel are the descendants of Abraham. And those descendants of Israel, they end up in the land of Egypt, and they are persecuted by Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and they're led out of Egypt by a man called Moses. They end up traveling to the promised land and taken into the promised land by a man called Joshua, the assistant of Moses while they were wandering for 40 years in the wilderness.

While they're in the promised land, they then have a series of different judges who rule over them. And the last of those judges is a man called Samuel. And you can read about him in the book of 1 Samuel. From Samuel, you get the first king of Israel. The first king of Israel is King Saul. Saul turns out to be a bit of a dodgy character. So he is replaced by a man called David. David then has a son called Solomon. And Solomon is one of those great kings where Israel prospered immensely under his rule. But sadly, after Solomon, the kingdom of Israel splits into two kingdoms. His son ends up with the kingdom, what was known as the kingdom of Judah in the south, while the rest of the Israelites are known as the kingdom of Israel. And they're in the north under different kings who are not Davidic kings, not descendants of David, but instead of different houses of different rulers from the 12 tribes of Israel.

And so you have this kingdom split. And what ends up happening is there's civil war between Israelites. You have the kingdom of Israel in the north fighting often with the kingdom of Judah in the south. And what also happens is other nations tend to come in and to fight as well. You've got Egypt down in the south that comes up, and you've got kingdoms in the north, other nations that come down and attack Israel and can even come as far as Jerusalem, which is the capital of Judah. And so this is all going on at the period when Isaiah is giving his prophecy. There's this split in the kingdom, and you've got these warring factions that are happening, and then you've got other nations that come down. And Isaiah actually prophesies over a very long period of time. And so he has prophecies against Israel, against the people of Judah even, in the way that they are behaving. They're meant to be still following God. They've got the temple there in Jerusalem, but sadly they have bad kings as well. And so you've got Isaiah prophesying against the Israelites in their wickedness and their turning away from the Lord.

But he also prophesies against other nations. And he also speaks about how these nations are coming down as God's instruments. And Assyria, the nation of Assyria which is in the north, is an instrument in God's hands. And we actually see this in verse five of chapter 10 that is before us. Verse five of chapter 10 of Isaiah says, 'Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of My anger, in whose hand is the club of My wrath.' What is Assyria to God? He is a rod in God's hand that He is bringing down to punish the Israelites because they've turned away from Him. But it's interesting here that He doesn't just talk about the Assyrian as His club. God says woe to the Assyrian. He uses the Assyrian, but He also has a message of judgment for the Assyrians. Yes, God has used them to come down and strike at the sinful Israelites, but God doesn't just prophesy against the Israelites through Isaiah. He now has a prophecy here in chapter 10 against the Assyrians. And why is that? Why would He prophesy against His own rod that He has been using to hit against the Israelites in their wickedness? Well, it's because of the pride of the Assyrian king. And we see that in the passage that before us.

We see in the passage that is before us that it is the pride of the Assyrian king which is the root as to why God is condemning them. And we see that in verse 12. Verse 12 of Isaiah chapter 10, it says, when the Lord has finished all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, 'I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.' Why is He condemning the Assyrian king? Because he is a proud king. Yes, he is a rod in the hand of the Lord, but he is a proud rod in the hand of the Lord. And how is this pride shown of the Assyrian king? Well, the next verses tell us in verse 13 and 14. It says, 'For he says, "By the strength of my hand I have done this." All that he has accomplished he puts to his strength. And how else is he proud? Verse 13, 'And by my wisdom, because I have understanding, I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one, I subdued their kings.'

How do we know that the man is proud? By the way that he says that he does things by his strength and by his wisdom. All that he has accomplished has been purely because of him. He hasn't acknowledged that he is an instrument in God's hand as we saw back in verse five, that he is a rod in the hand of the Lord. And the only reason he's able to conquer these other nations has been because he is being used by God as God's rod. He doesn't acknowledge God. He doesn't glorify God as he should. And so what is he doing? He's exalting himself even over God. And we see that in the way that he describes himself and is condemned in verse 15. Verse 15 of Isaiah chapter 10 says, 'Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it? As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood!' See, in the second half of that verse 15, what it's saying, it's as though the rod is wielding the person who wields the rod. That is the way that the King of Assyria is behaving. And so he is moving God, not God moving him, which is as foolish as a club thinking that it moves the man who swings it. No , it's the man who swings the club, not the club who swings the man. Unless it's maybe one of those sledgehammers that's very heavy at the top. And once you get it moving, it seems to take you with it. But it begins and is maintained by the one who is swinging it. And so what is the King of Assyria like? He's like a tool boasting over the one who uses it. The illustration that is given there for us from God is that he is like a tool who is boasting over the one who uses it, which is absolutely absurd. Why? Because a tool has no wisdom, a tool has no understanding on its own. It has no power without someone to use it.

Doesn't matter how good a tool is that you have in your shed. It's useless unless someone can pick it up and use it. Tradesmen amongst us would testify to this quite clearly. They may have very good tools, but their tools of their trade are absolutely useless unless they pick them up and start to use them. And so it's absolutely absurd for this tool in the hand of God to boast as though it is doing things by its understanding, its wisdom, by its strength.

And so what will God do to the Assyrians? What will He do to the King of Assyria? Well, we read in the next verses in chapter 10 of Isaiah what He will do: He'll burn them. And we read that in verse 16. 'Therefore the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers. The splendor of his forests and fertile fields, it will completely destroy, as when a sick man wastes away. And the remaining trees of his forest will be so few that a child could write them down.'

What would you do with a faulty tool? A tool that is seeking to wield you rather than you wield it, you would destroy it too. And that is what God is going to do to the King of Assyria. Isaiah prophesies that he will be broken down, he will be destroyed along with his nation. Now, did this happen? Yes, it does happen. Isaiah prophesies about it in chapter 10, but we can actually read about the pride of the Assyrian King again later in the book of Isaiah, and God's response and what actually happened in history as a result of what the King of Assyria did in boasting over the Lord.

And so I invite you with you now to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 36. We're actually gonna read a lot of Isaiah; we're gonna read a little bit of Isaiah 36 and then a lot of Isaiah 37. So it'd be helpful if you can turn with me now to Isaiah chapter 36, and we'll read from verse one, and we'll read verse one and two, and then we'll jump over to chapter 37. So open your Bible to Isaiah chapter 36, and we'll see the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 10 here in chapter 36 and then in 37.

Isaiah chapter 36, reading from verse one: 'In the 14th year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib King of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the King of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.' So there's a bit of context for us, that the Assyrian King has come down, his name is Sennacherib, and he has conquered multiple nations. He's even taken over the kingdom of Israel, which is Samaria as their capital, and now he's come back down to the kingdom of Judah and to Jerusalem itself, and he sent his army there.

And so now skip with me over to chapter 37; you can read this afternoon the rest of chapter 36 and see some more of the context of the passage that we're looking at today. But jump with me to chapter 37, verse 9, where things start to really heat up. Chapter 37 of Isaiah, verse 9: 'Now Sennacherib, that's the King of Assyria remember, received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite King of Egypt, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: "Say to Hezekiah King of Judah, do not let the God you depend on deceive you when he says Jerusalem will not be handed over to the King of Assyria. Surely you have heard what the Kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them, the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where is the King of Hamath, the King of Arpad, the King of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?" See his boasting there. We read about his boasting back in chapter 10. He was a boasting man, and here he is boasting. "Don't depend," he's saying to the King of Judah, Hezekiah, "Don't think that you can be deceived by your God that your God's going to save you. Where are the gods of the nations that have already conquered? Where are their kings?" He's a boastful man here.

And then we read in chapter 37, verse 14, Hezekiah's response. Hezekiah, King of Judah, 'Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: "O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God."'

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word the Lord has spoken against him: "The virgin daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord, and you have said, 'With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.'"

See his boasting, the Assyrian king. Everything is by his power, by his wisdom, by his strength. But what does God have to say to him through Isaiah son of Amoz? Verse 26: 'Have you not heard? The Lord says, long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.' See what God is saying? 'I'm the one who ordained what you've done. It's not by your strength but by mine.' And then what does He have to say to the king of Assyria himself? Verse 28: 'But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.'

'This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.'

'Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, he will return; he will not enter this city,' declares the Lord. 'I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.'

And then what do we read? 'Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.'

Here we see the fulfillment of the prophecy that is given back in Isaiah chapter 10. Because of the pride of the Assyrian king, God burned him and his kingdom down. He was cut down by his own sons while in the temple of his god back in Assyria. God reached right over into that temple and cut him down with his own sons. So what is the lesson for us from this and from what we've read in Isaiah chapter 37 as well?

Well, we need to heed the king of Assyria. We need to learn a lesson from the king of Assyria here today. Why? Because we are all proud people too. We are a proud people as well. How is our pride shown? By thinking that what we accomplish, the good that we do, it's by our power and by our wisdom, by our understanding that we did it. We love to say "I did this" and "I did that," just like the king of Assyria boasted; we boast about what we have accomplished as well. And how else are we proud? Well, we don't like to acknowledge that we are simply instruments in the hands of God. And so we do not give glory to God as we should. And how else do we even show our pride? Well, sometimes we glorify ourselves over and above God, like the king of Assyria, in a way that even he did.

How did he boast over God? By starting to think that he could manipulate the God who made all things, that he was the one who wielded God rather than God wielding him. And we can have that attitude as well. I was just recently reading a book by a prosperity preacher, a prosperity gospel preacher. And it's all this formula: if I do and think this, and I pray this particular prayer, God will have to do this, this, and this for me. And what is that starting to do? You're starting to manipulate God as though He is the club in your hand, as though He is the one that you are wielding rather than Him wielding you.

This is the attitude that we can have all too easily. And so what are we then like? We're like a tool that exalts itself over its owner, which is absolutely absurd. Why? Because just like the king of Assyria, we have no power, we have no wisdom, no understanding without God. Every breath we take, every flex of the muscle, every firing of a neuron in our brain is only because of God. If God did not will it, we would not flex a muscle, we would not fire a neuron in our brain, we would not take a single breath.

And so what does that then mean? It doesn't matter how good we are. Without God, we're useless. We are but dust. No matter how good we think we are. And so what should we then heed from the king of Assyria as well? We should heed that God will burn us for our pride. God will burn us for our pride. Like Sennacherib, we will die and burn in hell, never achieve anything again, just like Sennacherib did many years ago, unless something happens. What is our only hope? For people who have been proud all their lives, what is our only hope?

Well, if we humble ourselves now and repent of our pride, God will have mercy on us. But isn't it too late? Won't God punish proud tools? If we exalt ourselves over God, do we not deserve to then be punished without mercy? After all, God didn't have mercy on Assyria. He didn't have mercy on the king of Assyria. Why should we expect mercy? Our only hope is if another instrument of God, who always humbly glorified God as He should, is punished for our pride in our place. Is there such a tool? Yes, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God's rod of righteousness, never exalted Himself over His God, was always faithful and humble and committed to Him.

And yet what did God do? He allowed His Son to take at the cross our pride. If we humble ourselves and trust in Him, take our pride upon His shoulders. And then what did God do? He did what He does to every proud person who does not come to Him in Christ Jesus. He burned Him with the hellfire that we deserve at the cross. Just as we saw in Isaiah chapter 10 that the king of Assyria deserved to be burned by the fire of God, that is what happened to Jesus Christ. Not because of any sin that He had committed, because of any pride on His part, no. He never was proud. He never glorified Himself over and above God.

No, He was always submissive to His God. And therefore, He is that Lamb that is fit to take our pride upon His shoulders and be burned on our behalf. And so I encourage you, if you've never humbled yourself before God today, do it now by the Holy Spirit before it is too late. Do it now. By the Spirit, see your pride clearly. Look at the king of Assyria and see yourself there too. That you have often thought that it is by your strength and your wisdom that you have done what you have done. Not acknowledging that it's only because of the God who made you. Confess your pride to Him today. If you've never done it before, never confess your sins to the living God, confess your sin of pride to Him today. Then ask for forgiveness and trust that Jesus was burned at the cross on your behalf.

Heed Christ's words that we read before in Matthew 18:3-4, where He said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." That is the way for salvation. Jesus tells us very clearly, you need to humble yourself, or otherwise, there's no place for you in the kingdom of heaven. If you're gonna behave like the king of Assyria, there is no place for you in the kingdom of heaven.

But if you have humbled yourself, if we have humbled ourselves, what should we do in response to the king of Assyria and what we see here today? Well, by the power of the Spirit, we need to continue to crucify the pride in our hearts. Why? Because the pride is still there in our hearts. Why? Because God still uses Christians as instruments in His hands. And so He accomplishes things by His power, by His wisdom. And our sinful flesh still likes to think that it's we who do the good things that we do. That we still struggle, even as Christians, to say, we still say "I did this" and "I did that."

And yes, God does use us. And there is a responsibility on our part to do things. We do those things that we see happening in our lives. But we do not acknowledge God as we should. And we start to think it's my work, and it's all been because of me that I've been able to do the good things that I've done. And so how can we do better? How can we learn from the king of Assyria and the judgment that came upon him so many years ago? How can we do better?

Well, one way is by praying about our activities. And we see this in the text that we read from Isaiah chapter 37. How is good King Hezekiah contrasted with the king of Assyria? In his distress, what does good King Hezekiah do? He goes to the Lord in prayer. He goes to God in prayer. And this is what we need to do as Christians as well. If we want to be humble people and not proud, we should be a praying people. Why? Well, what are the different types of prayer that we have? There's an acronym that people commonly use to remember the different types of prayer that we can pray as Christians. It's ACTS, A-C-T-S, ACTS.

And so the first letter A stands for what? Adoration, prayers of adoration, where you're praising the Lord for who He is. Now, how would praying prayers of adoration humble us? Well, if you're there and you're praising God for being God, what are you also acknowledging? I'm not God. You are God; I am not. I'm a human being; I am but dust. And You are God who has made all things. And so as we pray prayers of adoration, we are humbling ourselves before the living God.

What else do we pray? We pray prayers of confession, A-C, confession. How does confession humble us? Well, if you're acknowledging your sin before the living God, you can't be a proud person. You're acknowledging that you're a sinner, that you've rebelled against His holy commands. And therefore, you have come to Him and are asking for forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus. You can't be a proud person as you're coming and confessing your sin to the Lord.

What other type of prayer do we have? We have adoration, confession, thanksgiving, T, thanksgiving. As we come to God, we can thank Him in our prayers. Now, how does thanksgiving humble us? Well, if we're thanking God, what are we acknowledging? That it's Him who has done whatever we have done and not us, that it's because of Him. If we thank Him for things, we're acknowledging that we are weak, and He has been so kind to us in helping us in whatever it is that we are thanking Him for, whether it's something He has given us, whether it's something we have been able to accomplish. We're humbling ourselves by saying thank you. That's why lots of people don't like to say thank you, isn't it? They don't want to acknowledge that they needed somebody to do something for them. It's amazing how some people—I'm talking about interactions between humans—people just don't like saying thank you to others. Why? Because it's a humbling moment.

And then what's the last type of prayer that we pray? Supplication, A-C-T-S. Supplication stands for asking God for things, for help. How's that humbling? Well, of course, if you're asking for help, you're admitting weakness, that you need help, that you can't do what you need to do without someone giving you help. And so as we come to God in prayer and ask Him for help, we are humbling ourselves before Him. We're not being like the king of Assyria; we're being like King Hezekiah of Judah and saying, "I don't know what to do here, but You do, O God; help me, help me, help me."

And so, prayer reveals a lot about a person. Show me a person who doesn't pray much, and what do you show me? A proud person. Show me a person who prays a lot, what do you show me? A humble person. Now, of course, the sinful flesh is so wicked that you can actually be proud of your prayers and proud while you pray. It's just absolutely disgraceful how proud of being we are, that we can be praying to God and proud. It's not always true that you show me a praying person, you show me a humble person. Because the sinful heart is so sinful that you can actually be a proud person as you're thanking God, as you're supplicating God, as you're praising God, as even as you're confessing your sins to God, you can be proud of what you're doing.

But if you truly pray prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication by the Spirit, through the Son, Jesus Christ, you will be humbled. And if you're someone who prays regularly like that, you'll be a humble person and not a proud person like the King of Assyria. So let us heed the warning that God gave us in the book of Isaiah so many years ago by presenting the King of Assyria to us. He didn't have to record this in history, but He did. This man so many years ago, some of you may not have even heard the name Sennacherib before today, but God recorded it in the pages of Scripture for us to learn a lesson about our own pride. So let us heed that lesson and let us be good tools in the hands of God. How? By praying much so that we do much for God's glory, wanting to do good not for our own glory, but for God's glory.

And then let us rejoice. Let us rejoice. Why? Instead of burning us for eternity as we deserve, along with Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, God is actually using us as instruments in His hands. We are but dust, but in His mercy and His kindness, He picks us up and uses us for His glory and our joy. And so let us rejoice in that truth, that God, in all His kindness and all His wisdom, actually takes us and uses us to bring glory to Himself.

Let us pray to Him now. Let us speak to our God.

Heavenly Father, we praise You as the God of all wisdom and all power. We must confess, though, O God, that we have often been proud and boasted in our accomplishments as though we were God. But we thank You for giving us the King of Assyria as a warning so that many of us have humbled ourselves and trusted that Christ was burnt at the cross by Your hellfire instead of us. But Lord, we ask that You would help us to be a prayerful people and so therefore a powerful people because we are a humble people coming to You and acknowledging that we are but dust and You are God.

And Lord, if there is anyone here this morning who is still to be burned in hell for their pride, O Lord, we pray that they would cry out to You in humility now and trust that Christ was burned for them. And we pray this in His name, amen.