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Amen. Okay, so 2 Chronicles 32. Let's just have a look at verse 1 again there. 2 Chronicles 32 and verse 1 reads, After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself. And the title of my sermon today is Surviving the Siege. Surviving the Siege. I'd like to just pray quickly as well before we continue. Father, thank you for this great chapter of the Bible. Thank you for this church. Please help me to preach to them just clearly and accurately and boldly here, and help everyone to take what your words got to say to them on board and be able to apply it to their lives and especially their church life going forward. And in Jesus' name, we pray all of this. Amen. So what's going on here in 2 Chronicles 32? Well, we're going to go back a couple of chapters so that we can set the scene here. So if you go back to 2 Chronicles in chapter 29, we see early on in Hezekiah's reign, he's trying to get things right with God and Judah. So 2 Chronicles 29, and we're going to look at verse 3 where it says, He in the first year of his reign, talking about Hezekiah in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them together in the east street and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. So he's trying to get things right here. He's trying to clean up. Then we see they're singing, the burnt offerings are back on the menu. It's all looking good. And jump forward to chapter 30 now. 2 Chronicles 30 and verse 1, And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel. So he's inviting those from the northern kingdom, the other tribes, basically the remnant of believers to keep the Passover, which of course, the picture of salvation. So it's a picture of believers coming together. OK, then verse 5 there, So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem, for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. So the post went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah. And according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. Now, I believe the kings of Assyria being a picture of the devil, the world, the God of this world. Many mocked after this, but a remnant then came to Judah. Look at verse 13, And they were assembled at Jerusalem, much people to keep the feast of unleavened, bread in the second month a very great congregation. And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took their way, and cast them into the brook Kedron. So they're continuing to clean the place up. They're getting rid of these altars, these kind of, where they had these sort of, you know, places that they shouldn't have had to apparently worship, but it was all a bit dodgy. They then partake in the Passover. It's still looking good. Look at verse 26. So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem. Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even under heaven. Now, look at 2 Chronicles 31, where they continued to get rid of the rest of the junk there. Verse 1, 2 Chronicles 31, verse 1, Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and break the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places. And he altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim, also at Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own city. So, basically, the tithes are then coming in after this, the priests and the Levites are back doing what they should be doing, God's blessing the nation, and then in verse 20, And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the Lord, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered. Sounds like a great king, right? And do we look at that and then just think, so everyone must have lived happily ever after, right? Yeah, they're doing it right, they do it, you know, he's got things right, God's happy, they're being blessed. Is it plain sailing from there, do you think? Of course it's not. No, that's when it's time for the devil to launch a counter-attack, isn't it? That's the time to come in and try and attack. And kind of, you know, and I'm not comparing myself to Hezekiah, but with our church, that's kind of where I see our church right now. We've spent 80 months clearing our own spiritual land up, haven't we? Yeah, and it's taken a while and there are many here that, you know, and I would hope everyone here and including myself here, you know, we've made improvements in our life during that 80 months, having the word of God preached to us and being in a proper church and being part of what God wants us to be part of. There's been that sort of cleaning. And obviously we've had some in-house cleaning as well and we've had, you know, we've got people out, we've got some of the wickedness, some of the filth out of our spiritual land here as well. And we have had believers coming from far and wide as well. We've even had believers from the Northern Kingdom. We've had a few from Scotland coming down here and, you know, things you could say are fairly similar in a way. We're back doing the things of God in this nation, aren't we? And we have a church here which we don't seem to see a comparable church in this nation and, you know, it's not to say they're all rubbish, they're all, you know, not churches, but I don't see another church doing what this church is doing. And we've basically, we've had that good old-fashioned spring clean, haven't we? We're at the tail end of that. We've carried forth that filthiness out of the holy place. And do you know what that tells me? That tells me the siege is coming sooner or later. Yeah, the siege is going to come. The devil's not just going to leave us back-sapping and high-fiving each other forever. And there's been some good back-sapping and high-fiving, right? And it's, you know, you do get those little times to enjoy and to rejoice, but it's not going to be like that forever. But is it all doom and gloom then? Should we all just be sitting here, sort of just thinking, oh, what's going to come next? Well, should we stop the celebrations and start the early morning? Is that what we should all be doing? Just, let's just all kind of knuckle down now and be glum and think about what's going to happen and keep telling each other what's going to happen next. Well, for me, a siege is just an opportunity to win and get stronger. That's how I see it. So when it comes, when it happens, it's just an opportunity for us to all get stronger and stronger, for us to get another victory. And we're on the back of a good victory right now, yeah? That's been a good victory. That's been an internal victory. Well, the title of my sermon today is Surviving the Siege. Judah just won this siege against all the odds. So what lessons do you think we can learn from this? Because we are likely to have a siege coming one way or another. And, you know, maybe it's already started. Maybe it has already started, because look down at 2 Chronicles 32 and verse 1. 2 Chronicles 32, 1 says, After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered into Judah and encamped against the fenced cities and thought to win them for himself. You know what this makes me think of? The believers on the outskirts of church. That's what it makes me think of. The irregulars, the drifters, the discontented ones. These are the fenced cities, the ones on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Now, they're still believers, aren't they? Yeah, they are still fenced, but they're not in the confines of the city walls, the full protection of the church. And there is a protection that comes from being in a church, isn't there? But they're not. These people are described here, or at least Sennacherib king of Assyria, which I think pictures the devil. He came and entered into Judah and encamped against the fenced cities. They're on the outside. And look, when a church is being attacked, when God's people are being attacked, these are the easy targets, aren't they? The ones on the outside, the ones who are just kind of in and out a little bit, come every now and again, you know, have a few, maybe they're here, but they're not really here. They're here, but they're discontented, but they've got issues. They've got an axe to grind and everything else. And they are the obvious attacks, aren't they? And we've seen these obvious attacks, even recently, haven't we? Our recently exposed wolves were testing the water with the sheep that they thought were gettable, weren't they? And look, if you've had the water tested and there were a couple that obviously, you know, made it public that there'd be message straight after, and if that's you, you know that's a bit of an insult, by the way, okay? Is it is, because if you're getting messaged that means in their mind, they're thinking, or even if you're getting called or whatever else by people that have been kicked out of our church, or, and we'll talk about, it's not just them, by the way, that's a bit of an insult because they basically think that you're possibly attackable, that you're maybe you could get pulled out, that you could maybe drift, that maybe you will have your head turned, that maybe you will go and join the gang or something else. So you should be insulted by that. And that should be a time to think, no, I'm going to knuckle down and I'm not going to let them think that I'm part of, you know, one of the sheep on the outside, one of the stragglers, one of the lame ones, one of the unhappy ones or something else. But, because it is an insult, isn't it? Sennacherib thought to win them for himself, okay? But it's not just those. So obviously we've got our high profile for at least us people in our church here, our high profile eight division causing railers, right? But there will be others trying to test your resolve, okay? Please understand that. It's not, and I know it was surprising for many, it was sort of, wow, that many, others it wasn't, others were like, wow, at least someone's, you know, finally they're out, you know? But there will be others trying to test your resolve. There'll be the not yet exposed wolves and some men I'm not saying, oh, quick, they're in here, you know, start questioning everyone, interrogate. But what I am saying is that there'll be some in and out. There'll be people outside that will just, there will be some that you might think are drifters instead of just trying to test the water, trying to put a bit of doubt in your mind, trying to see if maybe you could be pulled out as well. And when I say pulled out, look, it's not just about the church, it's just about the things of God, isn't it? If you could be pulled out of soul winning, if you could be pulled out of really your faith in the things of God, in the Bible, in other things, look, if people are attacking you with that, then for me, the response is get stronger because that means that someone there thinks that you're attackable, right? And look, they don't, you know, they won't, there'll be some of the stronger people here, I doubt they'll be getting contacted. I doubt they'll maybe have those sort of, look, we all got different versions of attacks. Are people trying to think they could pull you out of church? Don't let them, don't let them. People thinking they could pull you out of the things of God get strong. Now, the more blatant attacks are there as well, the media, okay? We're all gonna have the media attacks on the things of God, on the validity of the Bible, and all those things just to put some doubt, just to weaken you a little bit, just to try and see if they could start pushing you to the outside. The media, your workmates, you're gonna get it from as well sometimes, family, friends, et cetera. What's the answer? What's the answer to all that? Well, if you wanna, if you're on the outside, you want to survive the siege, you get into the protection of the city, don't you? And in our case, it's a church, okay? So if you're on the outside, if you're feeling like, no, I am getting a bit, yeah, it might not be from those people, it might be from someone else. I'm getting those whispers, I'm getting that pull. I'm getting people, make sure you're in the protection of the city, make sure you're in the protection of the church, yeah? Because it's the fence cities on the outside that Sennacherib there is going for first, right? They're the easy targets. Get into the protection of the church. So the title is surviving the siege. Number one is get inside the city. Now look down at verse two here. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city, and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together who stopped all the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? So when that siege is in full swing, when it starts to get to that point, we'll have to batten down the spiritual hatches. We'll have to keep that blessed water inside the church. And no, I don't mean stop soul winning. This is a spiritual fortress, not a physical one. So it's not that we're all gonna have to hole up in the church and get the tin beans in and everything else. But what do I mean? I mean that whereas we can usually spend time spiritually supporting those believers who don't come to our church, we might have to start focusing more on the people in the church, right? More than we do already. We can usually fellowship encourage disciple, can't we, those outside the church? Maybe there's the outer family members, maybe it's the old friend and everything else. But when the siege is in full swing, we need to concentrate even more on our church, on our church members, on the fellowshipping, on the love that you should be giving to each other, wanting to make that time because people will be getting it from different angles. Right now, I bet if we really had an honest show of hands around this church or more than show of hands, everyone got up and gave a testimony of just what they put up with maybe this week, maybe in the last fortnight, maybe those little pulls, those little draws, those little temptations, those little times of just feeling a little bit swayed and doubts and everything else. I'm sure everyone will have something to say over the last couple of weeks, maybe some more than others. But those people, all of us, we need the support of each other, don't we? We talk a lot about love, but we should be loving the brethren, yeah? Yeah, loving the brethren. Look, we love the unsaved when we go out and preach the gospel, don't we? We should be loving the brethren, helping each other. And when you're in a siege, when that really kicks in and it will kick in, okay, it's gonna happen. At some point or other, we're gonna feel like we've got it from all angles. It might not be the gangs of sodomites outside the church. It might be more of a spiritual siege, but it is gonna happen. And maybe, like I said, maybe it's starting to build up. How do we do that? Fellowship, support, encouragement. Like I said, loving the brethren first and foremost. But for me, maybe that's when the preaching trips would be less. For another church, when you look at some of the pastors there, maybe when they're battening down those hatches, maybe that's when, right, we need a focus internal here right now, yeah? Maybe we need to focus on that. When the preaching is aimed more at the church, maybe unless I'm approving the darkness outside the church, or maybe just a particular darkness which is attacking them at that point. When we just start to focus more on what we're doing, we focus more on the people in the church. But it's when everyone needs to be in the protection of the city and not being cannon fodder on the outside. And sometimes that's when you just need to focus on those that are in the church, that are regular members and everything else. And that's who you ultimately need to focus on because look, when they start attacking those outer cities, you start to not know who's been compromised, right? You got people that haven't been here for two months or whatever else and then they turn up, sometimes you're like, oh, I wonder, you know, have they been contacted? They now got a problem, an axe to grind, et cetera. So that's when you need to get inside the walls of the city. We need to focus on those in the walls. So title is surviving the siege. Number one is get inside the city. Number two is fortify the walls. Now look down at verse five. Also he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that was broken and raised it up to the towers and another wall without and repaired miller in the city of David and made darts and shields in abundance. So there's no point of seeking refuge in the church if the walls have holes in them, right? Okay, there's no point if the church is just gonna get torn down straight away. Who are the walls? We're the walls, right? We are the walls, not with a V by the way, we are the walls, yeah? The walls of this church. Look at 1 Peter chapter two. Turn to 1 Peter chapter two. We're looking at surviving what's gonna likely come at some point and that's the siege. Okay, we're preparing for what will come at some point. We've said get inside the city, fortify the walls is number two here. And we are those walls. Look at 1 Peter chapter two and verse five. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. This is 1 Peter 2 five. And holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We're the lively stones, okay? We're the building fitly joined together, okay? We are obviously on top of that cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we build up the broken walls, the broken Christians? How do we build the new wall without, the new members? How do we fortify the walls that are still standing? The long time regulars, it's all through the word of God, isn't it? Reading it, memorizing it, preaching it, yeah? Look, if you wanna be a wall, if you're gonna be one of those strong walls of a church, you need to be strong, don't you? Because that's how we get attacked. It will be through the members, it will be through people here, it will be by weakening people, by pulling them out, by getting them away from the things of God, by being a problem, by getting them into sin and everything else. How do we strengthen those walls? It's the word of God. And you'll see as we go through this, oh, pretty much comes back to the word of God. It does so often, yet how many people, and again, if we got statements that we're not gonna do that, and everyone stood up and talked about their Bible reading this week, I bet there'd be some failures here. I bet if everyone talked about their Bible memorization this week, I bet there'd be some failures. I bet if we talked about, have they heard the preaching being, coming forth from their church, the church that they're a member of this week, all three sermons from the last week, I bet there'll be some failures here. Or I bet with some of those, maybe there's a bit of drifting, where you're paying attention, where you turn to the Bible where you're thinking about what you're gonna eat next week, or what shopping you're gonna get in, what you're gonna do, what you're gonna be doing at work this week or something else. We need to be focusing, don't we? That's everyone. That includes the kids as well. And I'll save it for the real young ones, but when you're able to hear, you're able to understand what I'm preaching, you should be listening. You should be focusing. You're a part of this. You're part of the walls of this church, because that's how we're gonna get torn down. That's how we're gonna get weakened. That's how we're gonna get attacked, is through the walls, and that includes children as well. The walls have to be strong, and they have to be built on proper foundations, don't they? They have to be built on the proper foundations. Obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ, they're only walls if they're saved, if they're saved Christians, but also on the word of God, yeah? The proper foundations are the word of God, Jesus Christ's sayings, yeah? What he's told us to do, his commandments, that's what we build those walls on. The title is Surviving the Siege. Number one is get inside the city. Number two is fortify the walls. Number three, prepare the defences. So look at verse five again. It said, also he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that was broken and raised it up to the towers. Then another wall without, and repaired a millow in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance. Now, a millow was some sort of tower or citadel inside Jerusalem. So they repaired the main tower, being this millow, and made the darts and shields. Well, what's our tower? What's our main tower? Well, the Lord's our high tower, isn't he? Turn to Proverbs 18. Proverbs chapter 18. We need to make sure that we're under the shadow of our high tower, even within our high tower. Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 10 says, Proverbs 18, 10. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. Proverbs 18, 10. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. That's where safety comes in the Lord, doesn't it? And now what does that mean? Is that just talking about salvation? Well, salvation's part of it, obviously, but it's also talking about just being in the things of God, listening to the commandments and trying to follow the commandments of the Lord, his preaching, his clear statutes, the clear commandments of God, being in church, being in the word of God, being in prayer, trying to get the sin out of your life, fellowshipping with each other, just going out soul winning. All those things are being in that high tower, that strong tower. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. And when we look at that shield as well, Ephesians 6, 16, remember they're preparing shields. Ephesians 6, 16 says, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts that are wicked. So we prepare our defences by staying in the protection of the Lord with the shield of faith, don't we? Okay, so we want to be in the tower, we want to be in that strong tower of the Lord, and we want to have that protection of the shield of faith. That's faith in his word, faith in his promises, faith in his commandments. And do you have that? Because it's one thing to come to church, it's one thing to go out soul winning, but do you really have faith in, if you do what God tells you to do, things are going to go well? Or do you say, well, that bit, but no, no, that bit definitely won't work. That part of my life definitely won't work if I do that. If I follow that, then I'm going to, then nah, I can't see that working out. No, it's faith in the whole council of God, right? Yeah, because many people have a bit of faith in somebody, everyone here I hope has faith in some of the clear and obvious salvation verses of the Bible, but do you have faith in the rest of it? Do you have faith in what makes for a happy marriage? Do you have faith in what makes for good parenting? Do you have faith in what makes for a good work worker in the workforce? Do you have faith in all those things, which God tells you, or do you just try and do it your own way a little bit? Do you take that and then just change a little bit? Well, I know he says that, you know, that we should just submit to our boss at work, yeah? Even to the froward, but my boss is really froward. He's really froward, so I think with that boss, it's all right for me to just be talking about him behind his back the whole time, to be moaning about him, to only do some of what he says and see what I can get away with. Well, the word of God is clear how we should behave, isn't it? And if we don't like that and we can't deal with that, then get a new job. Get a new job, be a testimony in the workplace, right? Or maybe it's a wife at home. Well, yeah, I know I should submit to my husband in everything, but, you know, God obviously wasn't talking about my husband. No, he was. He was talking about all husbands, yeah? So, well, yeah, but. But maybe not in this thing. Well, in this, he doesn't understand me enough in it. He hasn't been loving enough. And same with the husband. Oh, well, you know, I know God told me to love my wife, but, you know, there are certain things I don't love about her, so I'm not going to do it in this instance. Well, she hasn't been submitting, so I'm not going to love my wife. Love her anyway, right? Did it say if she submits? No, and there's so many other areas of life, aren't there, where we pick and choose. Bits of the word of God. Children pick and choose when to obey their parents. Children, obey your parents for this is right, yeah? Obey your parents in the Lord for that is right. But how many children don't obey their parents? Well, they were wrong about that bit. Well, they didn't know. You know, they got that bit wrong. They got that punishment wrong. Well, actually, I didn't say that, or actually, it doesn't matter. Obey your parents, yeah? Do as you're told, deal with your punishments, move on. And that's how we prepare our defences, because that's how the devil, that's how the enemy is going to attack our church, okay? He's going to attack us through our own sinfulness, through our own trying to rewrite in our mind the word of God, through our own ways of trying to change what the word of God has said and put it into our own version, our own perspective. And it's not much different to just rewrite in the Bible, isn't it, when you just go, I know what that says. I know exactly, the preacher's preaching. I've read it in my Bible reading, but I'm not doing it because I know best. What are you doing? You're just saying, no, I'm going to do it my own way. And we need to prepare our defences. And that comes from being in that strong tower by that faith in his word, in his promise, in his commandments. The title is Surviving the Siege. Number one, we need to get inside the city. Okay, that's be inside church, okay? That's pretty obvious. And sometimes I know, for some, it can feel uncomfortable hearing that sort of, oh, you just want people in the church. Yeah, I do want people in the church. Of course I want people. Why do I want everyone in the church at every service week in, week out? Why? Because the word of God says that. Because the word of God tells people not to forsake coming together, right? And the Bible's so clear about that. And the whole, I was preaching this, I was implying the whole New Testament is just letter after letter after letter buying the gospels to churches, to churches, to churches, to churches. And then Q, you get the kind of the liberal, new age, so-called Christian. Yeah, I don't believe you need to be in church. Yeah, well, I don't have to be. Yeah, you do have to be in church, yeah? Not forsaking, not forsaking. The assembly of ourselves together as a manner of summaries, but exhorting one another and so much the more as the day approaches. So much the more. Is the day not approaching? The day's approaching, right? So much the more as we see that day approaching. And how many, how many just ignore that? How many just pick and choose, well, yeah, but I don't like, I'll do this often or I'll come when I want to. Look, the Bible's clear about that. And again, that's how you'll be picked off on the outside. That's how you'll get picked off by the enemy when you just go, I know what the Bible says, but I ain't doing it, yeah? Okay, so we've got get inside the city. We've got fortify the walls, okay? Fortify the walls. That's why we are the walls. That's why being strong yourself. That's by having that strength. That's by resisting the sin, those holes in your breastplate of righteousness. That's why being that strong wall yourself, preparing the defences, that's the faith. That's by being in the Lord in everything. And number four, strengthen the captains. Strengthen the captains, look at verse six. And he set captains of war over the people and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city and spake comfortably to them, saying, be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with him. Who are the captains here? Everyone here in a leadership position? What do you mean brother Ian? Where are the deacons? Where are the assistants and everything else? Where are the assistants? Where's the youth pastor? Where's the youth pastor? Well, look, we have soul winning captains here for starters. Yeah, they're captains, yeah? So our soul winning captains, they need to be strong and vigilant, right? They need to be vigilant for weirdness. They need to be vigilant for funny people coming along. They need to be vigilant for different behavior. Yeah, they're captains of the people. But it's not just the soul winning captains. The ushers, the ushers are in a leadership position. Yeah, I've made that clear from when we started, when, well, from about halfway through, I was trying to make it very clear that I want the ushers to be on top of some of the rules of the church as well. Okay, ushers here, you are in leadership positions as ushers. And look, we actually, we had to see our ushers jump into action the other week, didn't we? And they were kind of probably a couple of words away from having to drag people out of the church. And look, they need to be ready for that. We need ushers that are ready to deal with that, deal with people on the door, deal with when we do have people trying to come in here that aren't welcome in this church. It's not just the ushers though. What about the money counters? Money counters need to be vigilant, not just for each other, but also for other dodginess, weirdness going on, people trying to, I don't know, there's ways that people can try and nick money out of a church, right? They should be checking that everything's stamped off and signed off and everything else. It's an important job, especially as the church gets bigger. And I know cash is probably on the way out. Maybe the cash offerings aren't so much, but look, sometimes they can be, right? Okay, they need to be as well. We have live stream operators as well, don't we? They need to be vigilant as well. They need to be vigilant for not only sabotage, they need to be vigilant for people online. Look, there are wicked people that they think you've got 20, 30, sometimes we have 30 plus people, 30 plus people tuned in at once, let alone how many people are behind each of those screens. And that could be a lot of people, right? Okay, and that's important to be vigilant for people coming in and trying to poison them. What about the dads here? Every single dad here is a leader, right? Every single dad here is leading. Sometimes it can be up to quite a few people at the least, it's gonna be two, right? Every single dad here is a leader. They need to be strong, they need to be courageous. They need to not be afraid or dismayed because of the devil and his attacks. What about husbands? Husbands are all leaders, aren't they? Husbands, you're leading your wives. Whether you have children or not, you're leading your wives. You're the boss, you're the captain, yeah? You need to be making sure you're doing it properly. You're doing it as God wants you to do it, right? And mums here as well. And the mums here are in leadership positions as well. Mums are leading their children, aren't they? Mums are at home when their husbands aren't there, they're the leader there, right? They're teaching their children, they're training their children, they're in a leadership position as well. They're the ones off the top of my head when I made these notes. How do we strengthen all of those leaders? How do we strengthen all of those captains? Because again, you might be sitting there going, look brother here, come on. Things, we're in a bit of a lull right now. We're in between what was probably a bit of a storm. We've had it, we're moving on now. Everything's rosy, everything's fine. Like I said, this stuff happens, yeah? This will happen. Every church, you know, they're either, this is an old saying, you're either coming out of a storm or you're going into a storm, okay? That's where we're at. We've just come out of a storm and I think we're about to go into a storm. So look, we could be under siege. The siege could have started already. Maybe there are people, I don't think, maybe I'm wrong. I don't think some people are just going to slip away that quietly in the long run. Might take a little while for the counter attacks to start, but things are going to happen. So how do we strengthen all those captains, all those leaders in our church? Well, look at verse eight. With him is an arm of flesh, talking about the Lord here. Sorry, talking about us in Akrib as compared with the Lord. But with us is the Lord, our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rest themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. So is it about the words of the person leading them? Well, guess what the words of Hezekiah were? He said, be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord, our God to help us and to fight our battles. And then we saw and the people rest themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Now turn to Deuteronomy 31, because it sounds a lot like the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 31 and verse six. Now you're going to turn to Deuteronomy 31 and verse six. Hezekiah was saying, be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed. He said, with us is the Lord, our God to help us and to fight our battles. And look at Deuteronomy 31 six, where Moses said, be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them for the Lord thy God, here it is that doth go with thee, he will not fail thee nor forsake thee. And by the way, that's pretty similar to some of the words of Joshua, like in Joshua chapter 10, and probably many others in the Bible, because it's all the words of God, isn't it? That's what strengthens them, it's a word of God. Be strong and courageous by resting yourself on the words of God. And like I said earlier, it so often comes back to the words of God, doesn't it? It all comes back to the word of God. In it, immersed by it, surrounded by the word of God, that's where we all need to be to be strong, to be able to protect this church, to be able to protect against that siege, against those attacks that come, we all need to be just every day, it's a daily thing in the word of God. Those of you that do, that read the word of God every day, and it should be everyone in this church, those of you that do, when you have a day where you haven't read the Bible yet, for some reason, something's happened, some sort of issue, doesn't it feel weird? And you just don't feel right. Everything just feels off. If you're a morning, and you should be a morning Bible reader, and you have a morning where you don't, look, you need to get in that word of God quick, because that day quickly changes, doesn't it? It quickly feels weird. We've all had days like that, right? And you don't want days like that. You want to, look, for me, set an alarm, make it clear, put it on your calendar, make sure those alarms go off, and then you need to make a real concerted effort to not read your Bible. You're ignoring all the hints and everything else telling you to do it. Make sure you read it, because without it, you're going to be one of the weak links in this church. Now, as captains, you really need it, yeah? You're going to lead a family. You're going to lead parts of this church. You're going to lead a soul-winning group. You're going to lead whatever it is. You're going to be the people in charge of the money. You're going to be people in charge of the live stream. You're going to be in charge of your families. Moms, you're going to be in charge of your kids. Look, it's so important that you're in the word of God. It's so important that you're strengthened by the word of God, okay? If you take nothing else from this sermon, you're like, well, all those siege things, yeah, whatever, brother Ian. Look, just take this, read your Bibles. Read your Bibles, yeah? You might be sitting there and you might be in a part of the Bible. You might be going through a genealogy in maybe 1 Chronicles. You're going through something that you're just kind of not really getting your head into. It doesn't matter, read your Bible. Read your Bible, read your Bible. Pray to God to give you something out of your Bible reading and you will get something out of your Bible reading every time, yeah? There's so much in the word of God and you don't know necessarily what it is you need and God knows what you need and he'll give you something out of that. Pay attention, focus, read your Bible. Don't get into it, because we can all get into where you're like, I've got to read it for the how many time this year. I've got to make sure I read it this, you know, I've got to get this amount of chapters in. Look, and then sometimes you might start drifting. You might start, your mind starts wondering, was it worth it? Stop, go back, slap yourself around the face. Wake up, read it again. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Oh, but then I haven't read it, you know, you've got to read it 10 times to be a pastor. Look, it doesn't matter, yeah? Like read, like take it in, yeah? Read the word of God, stop, go back. Because you'll get times like that. I can't even remember a word that I just read out of that chapter. Stop, go back and read that chapter again. Pay attention and listen to what God's got to say to you, right? And something, look, I need to remind myself that as well, because sometimes you're just, well, I've got to get this in, get, you know, if I want to get these chapters in, I want to hit this goal and everything else. That's not as important as hearing the word of God. Yeah, that's not as important as paying attention to what God's got to say to you. And look, all that skim reading stuff and all that, you know, drop it out. Just read the word of God, take it in. And as dads, something that we do at home is after mealtimes, read a chapter of the Bible to your family. And I tell you what, what a difference when you're explaining those chapters. I mean, that beats any Bible reading I'll ever do in the morning when I'm sitting there, that one chapter that I'm explaining those verses to my children, my family, my wife. You got to make sure that you're paying attention, right? You won't skim read some of those verses. You won't kind of drift in and out because you're explaining that. And that's a good way of going through the Bible. You do that every night. You go through the Bible once every three years with paying attention to every single verse, trying to explain every single verse, right? That's a great thing you can do as well. Dad's here and I would say, look, if you're not and you're in a situation where there's not, mums do that as well. Mums go through the Bible with your kids, yeah? If you don't have a, you know, a husband there or someone to lead that, then you're taking that place. Yeah, the kids still need it. Mums go through that. And that's something we should all be doing anyway. Okay, not just skim reading the Bible so we can tick off. Yeah, yeah, 20 times through, but I don't even know what happens in half of it, yeah? But you know what? Oh, it's discipline. I make sure I skim read for however many minutes a day. That's not what it's about, yeah? So it's all on the Word of God. It so often comes back to the Word of God because the enemy will try to either entice or weaken you with his words. Okay, don't forget that. And he'll try and put doubt and he'll change the Word of God. We see that a lot, right? He'll take little bits and change it and try and weaken you. Look at verse nine here because we're going to see some examples of this now, of the sort of attacks that come. After this, sorry, back to where we were though in 2 Chronicles. After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, but he himself laid siege against Lakish and all his power with him unto Hezekiah king of Judah and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem saying. So at this point, basically Sennacherib, he sent his people there. He sent some of his, basically some of his workers, some of the wicked people to come and try and attack them with their words before he brings basically all the siege towers and everything else with him. He still got the bulk of his army in Lakish, which is, you know, a little distance away. So they said, Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria, where on do you trust that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem? Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die by famine and by thirst, saying the Lord our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria? So it's a fear mongering here. You can't trust the man of God. He won't provide what you need, yeah? He's not going to give you what you need. He's not going to provide what you need from the pulpit. You can't trust that man of God is what he's saying here. Verse 12. Have not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying ye shall worship before one altar and burn incense upon it. So basically he's not really doing things the right way. You can even say, oh, well, he's just, you know, trying to discredit other churches by trying to, you know, trying to say that their way is the right way. Well, but he's doing the right thing, isn't he? He is doing the right thing. Hezekiah was in the will of God, but again, they'll try and criticize the leadership. Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands in many ways able to deliver their lands out of mine hand? Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my father's utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand? So it makes me think of the kind of the, that we heard a lot of that, you know, you will never get away with a church like that in this nation. Look, they all get shut down. The government's too strong. The media will go for you, the whatever it is, the police will come round, the sodomites will be there within five minutes, et cetera. We had all of that when we started this, didn't we? I remember a lot of people, and I look back at some of the people that were coming out of this stuff as well, it's quite interesting. And where are we? 18 months later, it doesn't seem to have happened yet, and I don't want to, I don't want to tempt fate there, and I don't read a sad old kooky with that, but you know, but look, I don't want to get prideful with that and puffed up with that, but look, we're still here, aren't we? 18 months later, a lot of people came out, and no way, you couldn't have a church like that in the UK. How many times did we hear that before we had a church like that? Yeah, I heard that many times. No way, no, wouldn't work, no. Guy would get deported. If you try to, if something happened with someone here, they'll end up getting arrested. Well, we're still preaching the word of God here, aren't we? Okay, look at verse 15. Now therefore, let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this man, and neither yet believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my father's, how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand? So again, your leader is deceiving you. Don't believe the leader. Yeah, he's conning you. He's tricky. Again, all the usual stuff. And again, okay, we're early doors here, but how many good churches with good pastors have you heard that sort of stuff come out? You see all the online attacks. You see the videos coming out. They're lying about this. They're conning you about that. They're tricking you about this. And sometimes these people shout it loud, don't they? I can't remember what it, I went on a video recently and it was a mirror. It was on someone else's page. It copied, I think it was on tithing. And it was a pass hymn in their sermon. And then literally just like 50-odd comments, just attacking him, attacking, tithing, attacking, because they just so want to get their voices heard, don't they? Anyway, it amused me. But okay, your leader is deceiving you. You hear that again. And his servants spake yet more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. He wrote also letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel and to speak against him saying, as the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand. But that's a lie, isn't it? It's a lie. That's why they were railing on the Lord God of Israel because it's not true. It's a lie. And they're railing on God. They're saying, you won't get away with it. God won't deliver you, et cetera, et cetera. Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews' speech unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall to affright them and to trouble them that they might take the city. Now, here's another attack you've got to watch out for. They love to speak like us. Okay, they love to sound holy when they're attacking. They love to spout the whole, where's the love, you know, and start to act as if they're Christian, as if they're saved believers. They like to speak in the Jews' speech for us. They like to speak in the Christian speech, don't they? To sound so knowledgeable. Ever heard people try and do that? You probably had it when you were out soul winning, where they try and start quoting verses. Usually get them terribly wrong or completely out of context, but they like to sound so holy, don't they, while they're trying to, a lot of the time, just tear down clear, gracefully, faith, salvation or something else. And you'll get it in all different angles like that. And of course, you know, we've seen it here with the so-called holy people that are trying to sound all holy and use biblical words, but really just full of wickedness, yeah? So again, they try to speak, they try to speak like us. And then verse 19 says, and they spake against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man. And another angle we get is that all religions are comparable, yeah? That's kind of the just, well, you know, when you talk to someone and it's like, well, I'm done with religion or religions are this, and it's just trying to group everything together, but no, there's false religion and false gods with a small G here, the gods of the people of the earth, which are the work of the hands of men, but you can't group the God of Jerusalem in with that, can you, okay? And many people will try that attack as well and just try and just all religion, all religionness, all religion that, yeah, all wicked religion is wicked, but there is a true religion, isn't there? Okay, so you see, there's some interesting little angles there. Now, my title is Surviving the Siege, and here now at this point, we're past the point of preparation. And like I said, a lot of this is just to prepare this church, not just to be back-sapping and high-fiving until we're suddenly like, whoa, what on earth's going on? But here we're past that point. So the preparation was number one, get inside the city, number two, fortify the walls, number three, prepare the defenses, number four, strengthen the captains, and what's there left to do? Number five, pray to God. Pray to God. It sounds simple, does it? Look at verse 20. And for this cause, Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, prayed and cried to heaven. Why? Because the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, doesn't it? Now, when it comes to it, that's what we should all be doing, that's what we're all gonna have to be doing, and we should all be doing that now anyway, but how often do people not? A lot of people will have, they've got their Bible reading down, they've got their soul winning down, they've got their church attendance down, they're trying to get some of that sin out of their life, yeah, I understand that bit, but they forget their prayer life. And it's such an amazing blessing we have to be able to talk to the Lord God, to be able to talk to Him. He hears you, He hears every word you say to Him. It's an amazing gift that we've been given, and how often do we not use it? How many people just, yeah, thanks that gift, ah, keep forgetting to pray? Again, you can make a schedule with that. I was talking before, I think, Pastor Jack Hyles used to have a, I think it was like middle of the day was his give thanks to God time, at this time was his pray to God time. Nothing wrong with that. If that helps you, if you're one of those people that, look, if I don't put it in my schedule, I'm not gonna pray to God. Look, put it in your schedule, pray to God. Pray to God, get on your knees, pray to Him, do some proper praying, but pray to Him throughout your day as well, right? Pray to Him, just whenever you have trouble, whenever anything happens, whenever you need that bit of strength, support, that guidance, pray to the Lord God. Now, it is so important, but it's also so important for a church. Yeah, I know we have our prayer night, and I've been adding in now, praying for our church as well and that, but we should all be praying. Look, honestly, I need you guys, we all need you guys, praying for this church every single day, okay? Every single day, I need prayers, my family needs prayers, everyone in this church needs prayers, okay? We should all be praying for each other, we should be praying for the church, the protection of the church, for the strength of the church, should be able to go and do the things that God, to be helped with all the many challenges and issues and tests and trials that every single one of us is gonna come up against, we should all be praying. Here, Hezekiah, the king and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, prayed and cried or shouted up to heaven. And that's whether it's your own personal siege, pray to God, yeah? Many of you here might be thinking, yeah, well, I don't know about the church, but I feel like I'm surrounded right now. I feel like I'm getting, I don't know, when I go into that workplace, I feel like it's a siege. When I go, when I'm at home with the kids, some of the mums, I feel like I'm in the middle of just a spiritual siege right now. For many others in many different areas of their life, they might feel like that away from the church, and when you're in there, go to prayer, pray to God, He wants to help you. Get in, get right, get in in prayer, get in the spirit, pray to God. But like I said, our church does need that. Psalm 50, you don't have to turn there in verse 15. Psalm 50 and verse 15 says, "'And call upon me in a day of trouble, "'I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.'" Okay, and what happened here when they prayed? Well, look at verse 21. "'And the Lord sent an angel which cut off "'all the mighty men of valor, "'and the leaders and captains "'in the camp of the king of Assyria. "'So he returned with shame of face to his own land, "'and when he was come into the house of his God, "'they that came forth of his own bowels "'slew him there with the sword.'" Now, what does it mean that they got cut off here? It said that he cut off all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and captains. Does this mean they kind of got separated or something else? Well, turn to 2 Kings 19. 2 Kings 19, which also relays these events, along with Isaiah as well, the prophet Isaiah, that is. But here, there is more description in 2 Kings 19. So 2 Kings 19 and verse 35, 2 Kings 19 from verse 35 says, "'And it came to pass that night "'that the angel of the Lord went out "'and smote in the camp of the Assyrians, "'and a hundred fourscore and five thousand, "'and when they arose early in the morning, "'behold, they were all dead corpses.'" So the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 of them. That's how they got cut off. Okay, they got killed. "'So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, "'departed and went and returned unto Elutninova. "'And it came to pass, as he was worshiping "'in the house of Nisroch his God, "'that Adrammelek and Shereza his son, "'smote him with the sword, "'and they escaped into the land of Armenia, "'and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.'" So Hezekiah and Isaiah, men of God, and we got a lot of men of God here, right? And we got a lot of women of God, and we got a lot of children of God here, but these men of God prayed and cried to heaven. And didn't he answer? Look at the answer here. Go back to 2 Chronicles 32. What was the answer? He killed them all. He killed them, even killed the leader there. You know, his sons end up murdering him. Look at verse 22 in 2 Chronicles 32. "'Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah "'and the inhabitants of Jerusalem "'from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, "'and from the hand of all other, "'and guided them on every side.'" And in case you're here thinking, well, I don't like the sound of this. You know, this kind of siege stuff and everything else, you know, you're sitting there thinking, okay, away from like the kind of cool part of it, it sounds a bit scary. Yeah, I don't like the sound of being under siege. You know, what happened to just biscuits and tea and once a week back slaps and, you know, back home and telling everyone I'm a Christian and how good it is that I turn up at a church? Well, if we get prepared, if we get prepared, maybe we might look so impregnable that the enemy doesn't even bother. Who knows? We're still gonna go through stuff. That's the truth. But look, we wanna make sure we're strong, right? We wanna make sure that we're so impregnable that when it does come, we just bat it away. We just swat it away like a fly. And it is gonna come, okay? And just to make that clear, it is. But you know where you're much safer, much better off? In the church within the city, in the city walls, behind the fortified walls, yeah? With your shields, with your darts, we're in that fortress. That's where we're safe. We're safe with the people of God, in the house of God, in a proper church, doing the things of God, getting out soul-winning, living for God. And that's where we're gonna be protected. Or you can just be a straggler on the outside. You can be in the cities on the outside. You could be that sheep on the outside of the flock. Do you know what's gonna happen? You're gonna get ripped apart by wolves, okay? That's the truth. You're gonna get torn apart one way or another. Look, you might be able to keep going for a little while. Maybe those wolves will be too busy with another one, with another sheep somewhere else. But eventually that's gonna happen. We need to be strong. We need to make sure that we're aware we can be strongest in the house of God, with the people of God, doing the things of God. And that goes for your day-to-day life. Like I said, the Bible reading, the prayer, the trying to get right with God, the Bible memorization. Don't forget that memorization. You know, when you're reading verses and you're memorizing verses, the Holy Spirit does put them in your mind. And I hope that the passage that we've just done for Matthew 5 and verse 11, that sometimes those verses are gonna come in your mind. If you've memorized that, great. Because those verses will come in your mind at times when you need it most. And there'll be many other verses that we're gonna keep memorizing. You should go home and memorize things that really speak to you, that help you with struggles, battles, temptations that you have. Memorize those verses. Yeah, and it all comes back to the word of God. But the word of God does tell us to get inside the city. It does tell us to fortify the walls, to prepare the defenses, to strengthen the captains, and to pray to God. And on that, let's pray to God. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the great physical battles, the physical sieges, the physical wars that we can apply to our spiritual lives as New Testament Christians. Thank you for those just clear, just pictures and ways that we can really just put it to life and be able to apply it to our lives as well. I pray that you just help our church, Lord, that you protect our church from the attacks as they come, that you'll strengthen our church, help us all to understand that we are all the church. We need to strengthen ourselves. We need to not be that weak link, to not be that weak part of the wall. We need to be strong. We need to be prepared. But we also need to be happy and joyous as Christians to get that joy from salvation, to get that joy from being your children, to get that joy from the things of God. Help us to remember that as well as we go forward in our day-to-day lives. I pray that you help us to go out this afternoon and go out and get people saved, get people saved and to encourage them to want to do the things of God as well, to get baptized and to want to come along to this church and serve you as well and to be new walls that we can put up in this church as well. And in Jesus' name, we pray all of this, amen.