(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in Zechariah chapter 10. And Zechariah is kind of famous for being one of the most confusing books in the Bible, and I would agree. It's right up there with Ezekiel and Zephaniah as some of the most confusing books in the Bible. What you have to understand with some of the minor prophets and even some of the major prophets that are kind of prophecy related is they'll use various empires and kingdoms as examples. For example, it's gonna bring up, the name of the sermon is the Pride of Assyria. Now at this point, this is past when the book of Jonah took place and the book of Nahum and the destruction, but you can still learn stuff from that kingdom. And it mentions Assyria here in Zechariah chapter 10. It's using it as an example, okay? So even in the minor prophets, books that are very confusing, you can still learn stuff. And some people have a defeated attitude where they read the Bible and they say, well, I can't understand it, so I'll just give up. And boy, I need a Bible commentary. I need some sort of extra book to help me out. I don't know, if you're saved, you have the spirit of truth, the spirit of God guiding you. You don't need any other man to teach you. Now you can still learn from people that are preaching sermons, but you need to double check all this stuff for yourself anyway. And when you read the Bible, you're always learning. The next time you read the Bible through, you learn a little bit more and you keep adding on to it. Nobody's gonna learn everything overnight. It just takes a lot of time. So in Zechariah chapter 10, it is a very confusing book, but we can learn something in Zechariah 10 here starting at verse number 10 where the Bible reads, I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria. And I'll bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction and shall smite the waves in the sea and all the deeps of the river shall dry up. And the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away. Now in reality, the pride of Assyria had already been brought down in the book of Nahum. But in these prophecy books, they'll use examples, kingdoms like Assyria and Egypt. And you can understand them if you're reading the Bible and it uses those as an example, okay? So we're gonna talk about the pride of Assyria and see exactly what the Bible talks about about this wicked empire, Assyria. Now turn to 2 Kings 18, 2 Kings 18. Now look, I obviously have nothing against the Assyrian empire because this was like 3,000 years ago or 4,000 years ago, but we can still learn from their empire. Now there's no doubt that the Bible says they were prideful and he destroyed Nineveh, okay, their capital city. So there's no question that Assyria had become a wicked kingdom. And they basically ruled the world at one time. Before the Catholic church, before the Roman empire, they ruled the world before Babylon. They had a time period where they were the most powerful empire in the world. And as you'd expect from someone being that powerful, pride comes along with it. And they were extremely prideful. So we're gonna learn four lessons about pride here just from the Assyrian empire. And the first thing I want you to understand is this about pride. Pride is evident, meaning you can see when someone is prideful. You can tell when somebody else is prideful, okay? It's very evident, you can see it, you can hear it. This was evident with the Assyrian empire. Second Kings 18, verse 19, the Bible reads. And Raphshach he said unto them, speaking now to Hezekiah, thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this wherein thou trustest? So notice as he's speaking to Hezekiah, he calls Hezekiah, or not Hezekiah, he calls the king of Assyria the great king. This is basically a slap in the face of all the believers in the world. Say why? Because the great king is our Lord. No man is a great king. You can call Alexander, Alexander the great. You can call Cyrus, Cyrus the great. They're not great kings, nobody's great. We're all just normal people. And if somebody becomes the king, God allows them to become the king, okay? Look, our Lord is the one who's great. And when he makes this statement, the great king, he's basically slapping their religion in their face. That's what he's doing. He says the great king is the king of Assyria. He's like, what are you trusting in? Why do you have confidence? Basically saying, you don't have an ability to beat us. What you're seeing here is his pride is very evident. Isn't it? He said, we've got the great king, you can't beat us. We're more powerful than you. Notice what it says in verse number 26. Then said Eliakim the son of Hociah and Shitha and Joah to Rab Shaki, speak I pray thee to thy sermons in the Syrian language, for we understand it and talk not with us in the Jews language in the ears of the people that are on the wall. So basically Rab Shaki is speaking a language where everybody can hear. Now this is not really a common thing to do. Because you could look at the world today and you have people that are leaders of countries. You have the president of a country will meet with some other president and they basically have a secret meeting. Isn't that true? Everybody thinks North Korea's wicked, but then people freely meet with their leader all the time. It's an agreed upon thing with leaders that you speak privately about a situation and then it gets revealed publicly once you make a decision. But that's not what Rab Shaki is. They're asking, hey let's just talk this out between us. That's the normal standard of what kingdoms would do. But he just wants everybody to hear. You say why? Well because he's very arrogant. You're not gonna make any sort of agreement. He's basically just saying, hey we can kill you if we want to. And he's basically mocking them, mocking their religion. Verse number 27, but Rab Shaki said unto them, hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you? Now look, I'm just reading the Bible. Yeah. Right. I didn't choose to say those words. That's just what the Bible says. This is just the foul mouth that Rab Shaki had. So basically, Rab Shaki's a pretty wicked guy. And he's being sent by the king to mock the believers. He's being sent to basically mock Hezekiah and say you can do nothing about us. We are Assyria. We are the most powerful empire in the world. And if you look throughout history, they were the most powerful empire at that time. It's known as a fact. And in the Bible, you look at Nineveh. Nineveh was that great city, okay? In the book of Nahum, the book of Jonah, Assyria was the empire of the world at the time. Verse 28, then Rab Shaki stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language and spake, saying, hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the king, let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, the Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Imagine somebody coming in today and just standing behind the pulpit and just mocking our religion. That's what Rab Shaki's doing. He's mocking their religion and saying, we're gonna just take over, we're gonna just destroy you. You can't mess with us, we're more powerful. What are you seeing? Pride is very evident. Isn't it obvious that he's prideful? We can see his words, we can see his attitude. It's very evident. When somebody's very prideful, everybody's aware of it, except that person. Everybody's aware of it. You see like an arrogant boxer, and they'll mock their opponent. Look, everyone can tell you're arrogant. Everybody can see this. When people are arrogant, it's very evident. You say, why? Because of the words coming out of their mouths, you can tell they're arrogant. Because of their body language, because of the way they act. And look, if you're a prideful person, people are gonna be aware of it. Look, you don't wanna be a prideful person. Honestly, that's really the root cause of a lot of destruction in lives. And look, if somebody tells you that you're a prideful person, it's not the nicest thing to tell someone, but honestly, you might wanna take that to heart and double check yourself. Because if people start noticing that you're prideful, and they don't like hearing you because you're arrogant, you know what, there's a good chance they might be telling you the truth. And look, I'm not someone who does that. I'm not gonna go up to someone and tell them they're an arrogant person. But I'm just telling you, if somebody does that, then you might wanna take that to heart. Because pride is evidence, and it might just be that your pride is just being in through you, and everybody else can see it, okay? Now turn in the Bible to 2 Kings 19. 2 Kings 19. The Bible says in 2 Kings 19, verse 16, Lord, bow down thine ear and hear. Open, Lord, thine eyes and see, and hear the words of Sennacher, which hath sent him to approach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. And so what's said about the kings of Assyria and the Assyrian empire is that they destroyed nations and they destroyed lands. It's the truth that they just went in and wiped out whatever country that they were fighting. Now quite honestly, that's kind of odd. Say, why is that odd? It's not common to destroy a land when you conquer it. It's a very famous thing in history that Alexander the Great, Persia was the empire that ruled the world, and Alexander the Great basically came in and he took over, and the head city in Persia was Persepolis. You can remember that because the first four letters of Persia and Persepolis are the same. So Persepolis is considered one of the greatest cities that ever existed. He basically came in and he conquered it, and then all of a sudden he was gonna set it ablaze and destroy it. And all of his men are like, what are you doing? They're like, you're the king of Persepolis now. You conquered it. You rule it. He's like, why would you destroy one of the great cities? And Alexander the Great basically kind of thought about it, yeah, you guys made it good for him. And then he just destroyed it. Just really arrogant, just destroyed it. That's not common. Because that's your land now. Yeah. Why would you destroy it? It'd be like if some country came and took over and they just said, now that we got it, we're just gonna burn the whole place down. Why would you do that? That's what Alexander the Great was known for. That's what the Assyrian Empire did though. They came in, they just destroyed the lands. They didn't retain them, they just destroyed. That was a common practice for them. Not all the time, but very often, they would just come in and just destroy it. That's not common. And it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Unless you're just trying to show how powerful you are. But why would you do that, to destroy your own land? But Assyria was known to do that. That's what the Bible teaches. That shows their arrogance. Basically how much more powerful we are than you. Verse 18, and have cast their gods into the fire. For there were no gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, therefore they have destroyed them. So basically, the Assyrian Empire would come into an area and they'd destroy the land and they'd destroy all the gods. What are the gods? Well, I mean, the gods are basically that giant idol of Mary. The giant idol is the idolatry that's out there. Or, you know, whatever the king is. You know, throughout the Bible, there's various, you know, gods and idols people are worshiping. Look, they're not gods. But people worship them as gods. They always have these statues and idolatries. They, I mean, go to Thailand and you're gonna see these one million foot tall Buddha statues. That's what they're worshiping. And Assyria would come in and destroy their idols. Now look, as a Bible believer, I think that's great that you just ran out of Bible truth, right? If I became the king, you know, the first thing I would do or the king or president is destroy all the idols. It's like the first thing, you know? But that's not really common for an empire to do that. Because usually when an empire conquers, they just add those gods onto their own. They say, well, we'd love to have Roman gods and the Greek gods and all these other gods. Let's just add them to our collection. That was the common practice. And so for Assyria to do that, it showed their arrogance. They basically did a good thing, but they didn't really realize they were doing it. They were basically just trying to be arrogant by destroying their idols. That's not really a common thing for an empire to do. Now turn back to 2 Kings 18. And so pride is something that's very evident. It's something that people can see. The Bible speaks about a proud look. You can look at certain people, especially a lot of politicians, and when they speak, you can just see the pride coming out of them. It's like all in their face. They're just arrogant people. And you know, you've never met them, you've never talked to them, but just a few words out of their mouth and that little grin that they do, you can just see they're arrogant. See, the Bible speaks about a proud look. Pride is evident. And with Assyria, the words that were coming out of the mouth is very evident. It's kind of funny because yesterday's we were going, so many in case I'm a moral circle, we had a great example of this. And I thought about it, I remember it was last night or this morning, I was like, man, this would be great for the sermon because this strange little let somebody in the Lord and there's this heretic in the park who basically goes around and says, you gotta live a good life, be saved. I gave my whole life to God, I never sinned, I'm such a great person. And just like the words he's saying, you can just hear he's arrogant. Because he's basically saying, I'm a really good person. I deserve to go to heaven. And he's just openly saying, you know, man, I used to fornicate, I used to be a drunk, I used to do all these wicked things. I was like, why would you admit that? I mean, isn't it bizarre? Now turn to John 3, I'm gonna add this to my notes here. It wasn't in my original notes. But it drives me crazy because people will always, they think their personal testimony is so great. But that's not really what the Bible teaches. Yeah, that's true. And verse number 32, that's what I want. John 3, verse 32. John 3, verse 32. And it says in John 3, verse 32, and what we have seen in the earth, that he testifyeth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath said to his seal that God is true. Now, whose testimony is this referring to? The Lord Jesus Christ. The testimony of Christ. See, the Bible says if you receive his testimony, then you get saved. If you reject his testimony, you don't get saved. Look, my testimony leads nobody to the Lord. Here's my testimony. Before I was saved, I wasn't a drunk. Before I was saved, I wasn't a fornicator. Before I was saved, I wasn't some wicked person. But I was still on my way to hell. And I had to believe on Jesus Christ when I heard the testimony of Christ, that he paid for my sins and died and was crucified and rose again. That's what saves you, the testimony of Jesus. Now if I go around and tell people my personal testimony, that doesn't win anybody to the Lord. That's not so winning. Now it's great when people's lives have changed, but that's not salvation. And here's what doesn't make sense about this. What do you think is better? If a person lives their life and they're not a drunk, they're not a fornicator, they're not some bad person, versus someone who's committing adultery and getting drunk every night, being a drug dealer, which one of those is better? How about not being a drug dealer? How about not being a drunk? How about not being a fornicator? Isn't that better? And you know what people say is, wow, you know what, you have this really bad testimony. Like man, if you were used to being into prostitution and you were a whore monk, God could really use you. I mean, does that make any sense? Because what saves is the testimony of Christ. He didn't have received his testimony yet said to the seal that God is true. But when you're going so winning, you don't need to bring up your past sin in your life. What you need to bring up is that Jesus died on the cross and was buried and rose again. That is what saves people. My testimony doesn't save people. And look, sometimes I'll mention things in my past and sermons like what I was like before I was saved. That's nothing to do with preaching the gospel though. And look, when somebody, that's their method of preaching the gospel, I'll just spend 20 minutes talking to you about all the wicked things I did in my past and then bless God, I just decided to live for God and I'm such a great person. That's what they're saying. What saves is the testimony of Jesus Christ. That is what saves. So when we preach the gospel, what do we do? We explain what Jesus did for us. We explain that everybody is guilty. We don't explain how we changed our life. No, we explain that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that he must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We say, we don't talk about, we used to be a drunk. That's not salvation. But this person, he's a very prideful person. Because when you're trusting in your works to save you, you're a very prideful person. It's prideful to think that you deserve to go to heaven. And when someone's telling you I deserve to go to heaven because I'm a really good person, it's very prideful. And actually all of these points are gonna relate to this person. Because pride is something that all of these points are gonna fit. And the first thing is just that pride is very evident. When somebody's a prideful person, it's obvious that every single person accepts that person. That's the way it works. Now let's look at second Kings chapter 18. Second Kings 18. So not only is pride evident, but pride also compares. Pride also compares. And it says in second Kings 18 verse 20, thou sayest, with their but vain words, I have counsel and strength for the Lord. Now in whom dost thou trust that thou wert valest against me? Now behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised tree, and even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it, so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him. So what is he doing? He's comparing versus Egypt, okay? He mentions Egypt. He compares the Assyrian empire to Egypt, okay? See, pride is something where you compare to other people. Okay? Now look, when you're living your life, you shouldn't compare yourself. The Bible says comparing yourselves among yourselves is unwise. You shouldn't worry about what other people are doing, but someone who's prideful will always compare themselves to other people. And the Assyrian empire says, you're trusting in Egypt? We're better than Egypt. We're gonna defeat Egypt, and also turn to Luke 18. Let's look at one more place here in the Bible. Let me turn to myself. Luke 18, and let's look at the story of the Pharisee and the public. Luke 18, verses 10 through 14. And it says, well, we're starting at verse number 11. We're starting verse 10. Two men went up into the temple to pray, Luke 18, verse 10, who won a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus to themselves. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. What's he doing? Comparing himself to other people. People that believe in a work of salvation, they compare themselves to other people. Because what they're saying is, I am good enough to go to heaven, other people are not good enough. They're comparing themselves. You say, don't we do that? No, we don't. What we teach is, no one's good enough to go to heaven. And so it comes down to believing or receiving the testimony of Jesus Christ. That is what salvation is. Nobody's good enough to earn their way to heaven. Nobody can do enough good works. But this person here says, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Now, what a stupid statement here, because the Pharisee says, I'm not an adulterer. I'm not an extortioner. He doesn't say, I've never lied before. He picks sins that he's not guilty of. This is what people that believe in worst salvation always do. They say, well, you know what? To be saved, you gotta never drink ever again. And the reason why they say that is because they don't drink. But they'll never say you can never lie ever again. Or you can never have a bad thought ever again. You say, why? Because they're guilty of that. So they pick things they're not guilty of. And in Luke 18, this Pharisee says, I'm not as other men are, I'm not as this publican. See, pride is something that compares to other people. See, the Bible spoke about the pride of Assyria. Turn back to Second Kings 18, Second Kings 18. So when we're looking at the pride of Assyria, we're seeing that the pride of Assyria was very evident. People could tell. We're also seeing that a prideful person, this Assyrian empire, they compare themselves to other empires, to other people, okay? Verse number 22, Second Kings 18, verse 22. But if you say unto me, we trust in the Lord our God, it is not that he whose high place is in and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah in Jerusalem, he shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem. Verse 22 is a confusing verse. And the reason why it's a confusing verse is because Raphshak is confused. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He's saying that Hezekiah, if you're gonna trust in Hezekiah, this is the same Hezekiah that destroyed all of your idols. It's like, no, those are false idols. It'd be like if somebody became the president in the Philippines and just destroyed all the idols. And then some other empire came in and said, you're gonna trust in this guy who destroyed all of your Christian idols? Those aren't our Christian idols. So Hezekiah, when he became the king, he destroyed the idols of the land. But that's not who they were trusting. But see, Raphshak doesn't understand that. He's saying you're gonna trust in Hezekiah who destroyed all of your idols. So how is he gonna save you? Those idols weren't the means of salvation. But he doesn't understand that because unsaved people, they don't understand the true Christianity. When you look at the Christian realm, if you look online, what is it? There are like seven million people on this planet. Is everybody all right, seven million people? And over two billion are Christian. Are over two billion people going to heaven that are alive today? No. What do most Christians believe? They don't believe the gospel. Now I wish they did. I wish when it came to a Christian country that was 80% Lutheran, I wish that they were all saved. But unfortunately that's not the case. And so Raphshak, he doesn't understand that because in the realm of two billion, so two billion Christians on this planet will just divide that by like 100 or whatever. Who knows exactly how much you have to divide by. But most people are trusting in their works to get to heaven. So Raphshak, he doesn't understand this, he says, Hezekiah's destroyed the high places and olders. But those were false gods, Hezekiah destroyed them. Verse number 24, how then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master servants and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Once again, he's bringing up Egypt. And he's saying, you can lean on Egypt to help you, we'll still be able to destroy you. And quite honestly, what he's saying is right. Assyria was more powerful than Egypt. Assyria was capable by all logic to destroy Judah, to destroy Israel, to destroy Egypt. They were more powerful than any of them, all of them put together. Because at that time, Assyria was the empire that ruled the world. When you look throughout history, the biggest empires that have ever existed are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and probably the United States of America. There's been some other countries that were powerful, but ones that are actually mentioned in the Bible, and there's debate about whether the U.S. is the one mentioned as mystery Babylon towards the end times. People have different opinions, that's fine. I typically believe it is the U.S. is gonna be that end empire that's really wicked. But throughout history, those have been the big empires, the ones that you see existing throughout history. So Assyria, they were a powerful empire. Turn to verse 33. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Haman and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharban, Hina, and Iba? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of the country that they have delivered their country out of my hand? That the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? So basically, they're saying we're going into every country and we're destroying it. He brings up all of these gods that they have destroyed and all of these countries they have destroyed. What is he doing? He's comparing. That's what he's doing. See, pride is very evident. You can tell when someone's pride. Well, it's very obvious. Rabshaki in the Assyrian empire, and Rabshaki's not the king. He's the messenger. But I promise you, the king had the same attitude. Because he's being directly sent by the king to proclaim certain words and to do certain things. You're not gonna cross the king because you're gonna be killed. So basically, he's doing exactly what the king wants. He's mocking the enemy because that was common in the Assyrian empire. Now you say, I don't know if I believe that's true. You can look at the artwork from the Assyrian empire that survived and you can see how they were very prideful from their artwork alone. And I don't wanna go into great detail because I mentioned that in another sermon. And I don't really care, this was over 3,000 years ago, because the Assyrian empire, their god was a god of war. And so when they destroyed countries, they thought that made them so great. And they thought it made their god more powerful. No, I mean, it's just god gave you that ability. That doesn't make you so great. Now turn to 2 Kings 19. 2 Kings 19. And let me give you an example from the Philippines of someone who was extremely arrogant. Actually, they weren't a Filipina. They're actually an American. But if you remember the famous boxing match, the Thrilla and Manila. Who's heard of that boxing match? The Thrilla, it's funny because when I was growing up, I thought it was a cool name, but I didn't know what Manila was. I was like wow, the Thrilla and Manila, that sounded real good, but I didn't really understand. You know what, that wasn't the time. But you know, Muhammad Ali is basically the most arrogant boxer that's ever lived. And anyone who's seen highlights of him, you would know that's true. Because on his interviews, he basically mocks his opponent. He basically, like with Joe Frazier, he just said, well, Joe Frazier's like a gorilla. And he basically made a lot of comments and he said, in today's world in America, he looked at his very racist comments. And he said, why are you preaching against Muhammad Ali? Look, Muhammad Ali, when he won fights, he mocked Christianity after every fight. Every single fight he won, he said, this proves that Allah is the true God. I've heard the interviews. Anyone who's heard those interviews, he mocked Christianity every time he won. He's a very prideful person. Say, how do you know he's prideful? Well, pride's evidence. Everybody knows he's prideful. Now, he's looked at as a hero because of civil rights things today. I mean, the truth was, he mocked Christianity. How would he be a hero? I don't understand why he's lifted up as a hero in America, but he mocked Christianity after every fight. When he won a fight, he said, this proves Allah is the true God and not Jesus Christ. That's what he said every single time. He was very arrogant. That was in Manila, the thrill in Manila. I'm not sure exactly where the venue was, but it was here in Metro Manila. And he mocked Christianity after every single fight that he won. What he did was comparing versus other people. He's very evident as well. And so when people are prideful, I want you to understand, everyone can tell that you're prideful. And see, honestly, when it comes to pride, it looks real good when you win, but then when you lose or you fall in rough times, you look like you hate people. And here's the truth. People don't like prideful people. And they are happy once those prideful people go down. And once they go down, it's their time to basically mock you. That's just the reality. I'm not saying we should mock people, but that is what happens. Someone's prideful, they fall. Everybody's happy about it. 2 Kings 19. You can look at Goliath in the Bible. Wasn't Goliath a pretty prideful person? He's just mocking them and then he gets killed by David. And it's like, well, everyone's surprised. That's why it's such a famous story. 2 Kings 19, verse 10. Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered? And he says, you know, we've destroyed all lands, okay? See, pride is something that's very evident, and pride compares. One other thing is that pride overrates ability. See, when people are prideful, they think they're a little bit better than they actually are. When people think they're really smart, they think they're a little bit smarter than they actually are. When people think they're so great at something, man, I'm such a great fighter, they think they're a little bit better than they actually are. Now, see, when it comes to the Assyrian empire, boy, they think they're unbelievable. We've destroyed all lands, so we're just gonna easily conquer you. Well, here's the problem. You're overrated your own ability, because God hates the prideful person. That's what the Bible teaches. Verse number 12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed? As Gozen and Haran and Reza and the children of Eden, which were in Thelesar, where is the king of Haman and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sephramel, of Hina and Ida? Notice how they're naming all these kings, and he's basically saying, hey, we've destroyed everybody. We are the most powerful empire that's ever existed. That's what he's saying. That's what he believes. There's a problem with that. The Bible teaches you are not the most powerful empire. Turn back to Nahum chapter three, Nahum chapter three. And I mentioned this in another sermon kind of brief, and I'm gonna go into more detail, but I will prove to you that there's no question Egypt was more powerful than Assyria at their peak. Now, Egypt was very powerful. They slowly lost their power, and then Assyria becomes the most powerful empire capable of destroying Egypt. But at their peak, Egypt was way above Assyria. The Bible teaches that, Nahum chapter three. And so Rabshaki and all the Assyrian kings, they believe they're the most powerful empire that's ever existed. And secular history will sometimes tell you that. That is not what the Bible teaches, though. Nahum chapter three, verse seven. Nahum chapter three, verse seven. Jonah, Micah, Nahum, in your mind of prophets. Jonah, Micah, Nahum. Nahum chapter three, verse seven. And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste. Who will bemoan her? When shall I seek comforters for thee? Now, Nineveh is referring to the capital of the Assyrian empire. Because when you're looking at empires, oftentimes they have one city which is their main area. For example, with Persia, their city is Persepolis. Now, this might surprise you, but Babylon is not the name of the empire. We call it the Babylonian empire because that's the big, cheap city. But the actual name is the Chaldean empire. And the Bible mentions that as well. Babylon is what is the chief city of the Chaldean empire. Because Babylon remained powerful after the Chaldean empire got taken over. It was still a very central point of reign. But it was actually the Chaldean empire. With Assyria, it's Nineveh, that's their capital. Egypt, their capital was known as no or nah. Every empire has a main city that they're kind of based out. Verse number eight, art thou better than populace know? Thou wast situate among the rivers that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea. And so, right here, God is comparing the Assyrian empire and Nineveh to the Egyptian empire and no or nah, okay? Say, well, how do you know that this is referring to the capital of Egypt? Well, keep your place in name chapter three. We'll go back there in a second. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 30, Ezekiel chapter 30. And you know, there's different types of sermons, but sometimes, you know, you need to dig into your Bible and learn these things, and it's helpful, it's information we need to know. The word nah appears in the Bible seven times. In six of those seven verses, the word Egypt also appears. So basically, every time nah appears, you're seeing Egypt six out of the seven times, okay? Now, in name chapter three, it refers to it as no, but what you're gonna see in Ezekiel chapter 30 is no and nah for interchangeably, okay? Ezekiel chapter 30, verse 13. Thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of nah, and there shall be no more prince of the land of Egypt, and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. Now, what you're gonna see, sometimes it seems like nah is different than Egypt, but it's just that it's focusing on the city that basically is where the reign of Egypt is. So it mentions nah in Egypt in verse 13, verse 14. And I will make path for us desolate, and will set fire in zoan, and will execute judgments in no, okay? No and nah are both gonna be mentioned in these verses. No and nah are the same. Verse 15, and I will pour my fury upon sin, the strength of Egypt, and I will cut off the multitude of no. And I will set fire in Egypt, sin shall have great pain, and no shall be rent asunder, and nah shall have distress as daily, okay? So you're seeing both no and nah being used interchangeably. This was basically the main city of Egypt. Now, I also mentioned sin here, which is another one, but if you look at some countries like the US, if you were to say, what is the biggest city in the US, I'm not really sure. Maybe New York City, maybe Los Angeles, maybe San Francisco. With some empires like Assyria, there's no question it's Nineveh. With some empires like Egypt, they might have several powerful cities. Noth is one of those cities. It's their chief city, okay? No or noth, you see those things being used interchangeably. Turn back to Nahum chapter three, Nahum chapter three. And remember the verse eight, it says, art thou better than populace know? So God is saying to Nineveh, are you any better than no? Than populace know? To reword that, he's saying, you are not better than populace know. This is what's called a rhetorical question. He's like, are you better? Well, here's the answer to no, you're not. That's what he said, okay? Now, when it says, populace know, what that means is there's a lot of people, a big population. Populous know, lots of people live in no. Okay, that's what it's saying about populace know. This was a big city in Egypt. Then it says, that was situate among the rivers that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and our wall was from the sea. Verse number eight, if you notice, it mentions the rivers, it mentions the waters, it mentions the sea, it mentions the sea. You say, why does it focus on water so much? Why was Egypt such a powerful empire? The Nile River. Right, right. Everybody knows that, okay? I mean, historically, it's a fact. That is why Egypt became so powerful, because the land was just perfect, because of the Nile River. And so it's making a point to just mention the rivers and the sea, because the water that was around Egypt is what made her so strong as an empire, as a country. Verse number nine, Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite. What does infinite mean? It means it can't be any more powerful than that. Like in that, you know, infinity, it's like the great, it's the best, you can't get above it. When it says the power was infinite, that means it's impossible for another empire to be more powerful. Her power was infinite. And so when he says, are you better than populous snow? Are you better than the Egyptian empire? Are you better than Nile? Are you infinite in power? No, they're not. What does God say? He's saying Assyria was not as powerful as Egypt. That's what the Bible teaches in the name checker. Now look, the book of Nahum's a confusing book for a lot of it, it's not the most confusing book, but you can still learn a lot from the book of Nahum. That is clearly what's being taught here. So when you study the Bible, you still learn. And you have to understand this about pride. Pride over raceability. See, Rabshaki, Sennacherib, Sargon, all the kings of Assyria, they believe they were the most powerful empire that ever existed and that they were never going to fall. Say why? They're very prideful. And pride over rates ability. Look, there's a lot of places you can see in the Bible where it talks about people that are prideful. You can preach a sermon on the pride of Edom. I preached a sermon called the pride of Edom before. I'm just focusing on Assyria because you can learn a lot just from Assyria by itself. But the same pattern is always evident. And pride is very evident. It compares and it also over rates your own ability. Now turn to Zechariah 10. Zechariah 10. Now obviously we know that history is not perfect, okay? See, history is not perfect. And you know, I didn't turn there. You don't have to go back to the name and read the next verse. It talked about Egypt being destroyed. Egypt was being destroyed and able to be destroyed. Basically it's gonna be the same thing to you, Assyria, because they were more powerful than you. Now history is not always perfect. And history might show you that Assyria was the first true empire that existed. Because some people will say that. It's not true though. Because Egypt was more powerful. And see, the Bible's history is always accurate. There's no problems with the North of God. Now the history of the world, a lot of it's false. You say, well how do you know it's false? Look, when it came to the Revolutionary War, the U.S. won that war. And since the U.S. won the war, the stories you hear are good slants on the U.S. If the U.S. lost the war, Samuel Adams would be known as the biggest terrorist who ever existed. What is he known as? The father of the American Revolution. See, the person who wins is the one who writes the story. It's the same reason why history sometimes will tell you Persia was the most evil empire that ever existed. Why do they say that? Well because the writer Herodotus, the Greek historian, as Greek conquers Persepolis and Persia, he writes about it and he says Persia was really arrogant, they were stupid, blah, blah, blah. If they were so stupid, how did they rule the world? He's like, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But see, the winner writes the story. That's the way it works, okay? And so history can sometimes be wrong. And any history that's gonna tell you that Assyria was the most powerful empire, go to Rome. Because the Bible teaches that Egypt was actually more powerful. But what took place in history is Egypt was powerful for thousands of years, okay? Egypt basically had a couple peaks and they get brought down. And then they become powerful again, they get brought down. So sometimes it's confusing in the Bible because there's multiple times Egypt kind of gets brought down. It's not just when they all perish in the Red Sea. That's not the only time Egypt got destroyed, okay? They became the powerful empire as well because of the Nile River and they get brought down again. With Assyria, basically right after the flood, they're kind of a big player, because it mentions Asher right after the flood. So Assyria is kind of powerful at the beginning and they slowly get more powerful. And as Egypt ends up going down, Assyria reaches a peak for a shorter time period than Egypt. But Egypt's peak was not only longer, but it was above Assyria, according to the Bible. And so Assyria reaches a peak and then you have the Book of Nahum that talks about the destruction that takes place in Nineveh. Why? Because the pride of Nineveh brought it down because the last point is this, pride comes before destruction. Amen. Amen. Zachariah chapter 10, verse 11. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction and shall smite the waves in the sea and all the deeps of the river shall dry out. And the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Egypt shall part away. And see, the Bible says that the pride of Assyria is going to bring it down. It doesn't say the pride might bring it down. It says it will bring it down. It says shall be brought down. Turn to 2 Kings 19. Let's see the destruction of Assyria. And in 2 Kings 19, verse number 35, the Bible reads, And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote the camp of the Assyrians in a hundred, four score, and five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Now, how much is a hundred, four score, and five thousand? Score means 20. There's a famous speech by Abraham Lincoln, four score and seven years ago. 87 years, four times 20 plus seven. Here it says a hundred, four score, and five thousand. So a hundred plus four times 20, 100 plus 80, plus five. 185,000 people is what it said. Now look, 185,000 people is a lot to age more than that. It was quite a bit back then. This is a huge population that was just struck down dead immediately. 185,000. In fact, when you look at history, when it came to wars that were being fought, if you had a really strong and powerful army, that was about as many people as you have, like 150 to 200,000. So basically, all of their fighters were dead overnight. That's what took place. You say, why? Well, because as powerful as God allowed you to be Assyria, you're like right here. And God is like as far up as you want to go. And when you're basically shoving it in God's face saying, we have the great king, we have the true religion, we're the true empire, we can't be beat, it's just a matter of time before God destroys you. What's interesting about this is when you look throughout history, whether it's Assyria or Egypt or Babylon, all these empires, they basically reach a point where they're super powerful and they do not believe it's possible to be defeated. And then it's like God immediately defeats them. It's not that they slowly get weaker and then all of a sudden they get destroyed. God usually just allows them to be defeated at their peak. It's a critical point. You say, well, you know, a country like Russia can never be destroyed. It can be destroyed like that. A country like the US can never be destroyed. It can be destroyed like that if God chose to. You say, why? Because it doesn't matter how powerful you are, obviously God is all powerful and he gives a country the ability to have that sort of strength and power. They can become nothing overnight. Right, right. And you can look at it throughout history and countries can be powerful and rich and then they end up falling in prosperity. Our country used to be a lot more powerful than it is. It used to have a lot more money. And then what happens? Well, I mean, I don't know if it was arrogance or what it was but God allowed it to go down. Yeah. Okay? Even if it was a precedent that caused it or whatever, you know, I haven't studied on the topic and not really have a strong opinion but still God's the one who's overseeing everything. He allows it to take place. And look, when it doesn't matter how powerful you are, God's in the story. Now turn to 2 Kings 23, 2 Kings 23. We'll look at a few more places here, we'll close out. 2 Kings 23, verse 29. And it says in 2 Kings 23, verse 29. Now keep in mind, this is only four chapters after 2 Kings 19. This is very close to 2 Kings 19. Now remember, 185,000 people have been killed in 2 Kings 19. Chapter 23, verse 29. In his days, Pharaoh, Nico, king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And king Josiah went against him and he slew him down Megiddo when he had seen him. So what is taking place in this story? Basically, the king of Judah links up with the king of Assyria to fight Pharaoh, Nico, king of Egypt, okay? Because you remember the story where he said, you know, why are you fighting against the Bible to face the Bible? You say, why is it that Assyria has another kingdom to help them? Because they need the help now. It's four chapters later, they can't destroy Egypt by themselves. Now you were just really powerful four chapters ago and now you're enlisting the king of Judah to help you? You say, why? You're not that powerful anymore. See, it doesn't matter how powerful you are, God can bring you down. And it used to be they mocked all of them. Now I don't understand why Judah is linking up with Assyria because just four chapters earlier, Assyria is mocking them and mocking their God and destroying them. But throughout history, the same thing happens today. Two countries are at war together, 20 years later they're on the same side fighting some other country. That's what's taking place. That's what's taking place here. But Assyria, the point is, they're getting help because they need help. They're no longer all powerful anymore. Go back to 2 Kings 19. 2 Kings 19, verse 36. And it says, so Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned in well at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that the Dremelech and Sheherazir, his son smote him with the sword and they escaped into the land of Armenia and Azarhayd and his son reigned in his stead. So how did Sennacherib, who was basically overseeing this battle taking place, as they're mocking Judah, they're mocking Hezekiah, how does he die? His son's killing. Can you think of a worse way to die than your son's killing? I mean, honestly, being tortured's not fun, as we've talked about throughout history, with the dark history of the Roman Catholic Church. But honestly, I'd rather be tortured than have my son kill me one day. I mean, could there be anything worse than your son kills you? Here's this all powerful king. Make no mistake about it, he was the most powerful man in the world. The most powerful man in the world and what ends up happening? He gets killed by his sons. That's a pretty pathetic way to die. That's how he dies. And so it doesn't matter how powerful he is, look, pride comes before destruction. And it came to both the empire and the person overseeing that empire. Turn to Proverbs 16, one last place. Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16. And in Proverbs 16, the famous verse, Proverbs 16, verse 18. The Bible reads in Proverbs 16, verse 18, pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before evolve. And so the Bible says pride basically comes before destruction. And so before someone gets destroyed, they get really prideful and they get brought down. When you get swelled up with pride, it's not a possibility you will go down. It's a guarantee you're gonna go down. So you have to understand that it makes sense that Assyria was arrogant. You're the most powerful empire in the world. It makes sense that you mock your enemy because you look at them and say, man, they can't beat us. But what they need to understand is for one, pride is evident. For two, pride compares. And also, pride comes before destruction. And pride overrates ability. It makes sense that you're that arrogant because it seems like, yeah, no one can destroy you. But pride causes you to overrate your ability. And they end up getting destroyed. And so when we look at our personal lives, what does the Assyrian empire have to do with us? Because I don't anticipate ruling the world one day. And maybe that's a dream for one of you guys, but that's not one of my dreams. I don't think it's gonna happen. And if it did happen, then I'd probably be a pretty wicked person. But look at your bias and think about the things that you're good at. See, the things that you're good at are things that you get swallowed up full of pride at. If you're bad at something, then you're not gonna be really prideful and arrogant about it. Because you have nothing to be prideful about. But there's plenty of things that I'm really bad at. And I don't choose to tell you them because I don't wanna mention them. But there's plenty of things I'm pretty bad at. If I enter the Scrabble tournament, I can promise you I'm not gonna win that tournament. When there's things that we're good at, that's when you get swallowed up full of pride. But what you have to understand is God allows you to be good at that. Look, if you have a really nice job and you make a lot of money, praise the Lord for that. There's nothing sinful wrong about that. But if you get filled up full of pride with that, then that job can be taken away like that. Look, if you get filled up full of pride from whatever it is, let's say you've got great health, you're in tremendous shape, and you look down on others that aren't, look, God can't allow you to lose that health overnight. It doesn't matter what you're good at, it doesn't matter how much money you have. Say, man, I'm really rich, man, nothing can take me down. God, do you think we owe your money like that? And we need to understand this. And look, this is not something we think about for things that we're bad at, but honestly, we should stop and think about the things that we're good at in life. Make sure you're not always telling people how good you are at it. Like, if you're the greatest, I don't know, whatever, you're the greatest chess player in the world. Playing chess or thinking about that. If you go around telling everybody, hey, I'm the greatest. God can destroy your ability overnight. God doesn't make a prideful person, okay? And you know what, pride does come before destruction. And if we allow ourselves to get filled up full of pride, we're gonna be destroyed. As a church, we do lots of soul-witting. We preach hard against sin. Right now, God is blessing our church. You know, our church is growing. It's great, we're excited about it. If we get prideful about that, God can't allow us not to grow at all. God can't allow our church to let it happen or whatever. Why? Because he doesn't want us to be prideful. This is something that we all need to look at. We should not be prideful about our own abilities. Try to stay humble people. And look, if people think that you're a prideful person, it's because you are. Yeah, right. Because obviously it's evident to people if they're mentioning you. So let's go to the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see this sermon. This is a sermon I think applies to all of our lives because we can all get filled up full of pride and the things you're doing well in our lives, God. God help us not to allow it.