The Voice of Satan (Part C)

The fundamentals of our faith apply to me always. I have to trust God personally. Sometimes it's very hard. When it's something that is unraveling in your life, it's very hard. But it's doable. To love God deeply and to trust Him completely, is there a better cause? It's easy to say.

And it's doable. If your heart is submitted, that's what I have found. Lord, fine, you're still God. I don't like this. You're God.

I am not. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of 2nd Kings.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now, here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called The Voice of Satan, teaching in 2nd Kings, chapter 18. God is purging the land of the idolaters through these hardships, forcing them to come back to Christ even, opportunities to come back.

But these two will prevail. Verse 17, Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaras and Rabshakeh from Lachish with a great army against Jerusalem to king Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem.

When they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which was on the highway to the fuller's field. Now is the second attack. I think most serious commentators, they come to the same conclusion. You know, as you study, you come to see, you might kick back at them at first. Then you start investigating, and you've got to get to your own thinking.

You have to get to where, okay, what do I think? I know what he said, I know what he said, but what do I think? And, you know, I agree with many of them that this is the separate attack here. And it is presented that way in 2 Chronicles 32.

In fact, I should just read this. We have this saying, you know, no good deed goes unpunished. Well, listen to this in Hezekiah's day. After these deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them over to himself. And so there it is. After these deeds of faithfulness, then comes the enemy. And this time, the enemy gets to speak at the walls of Jerusalem, and it will be the voice of Satan.

And this is where we are. The visit of the Babylonian ambassadors, it looks suspicious to Assyria, Hezekiah has paid them off to appease them for now, but then they're raising their eyebrows over this. They're actually knowing that there's some talking between Egypt and Judah, because he's going to bring that up in his propaganda monologue. So the second visit, and that's how I'm going to approach it, you could say, if you didn't like that approach, you could say, no, the king paid off the king of Assyria, and then he didn't care for it, and he came down anyway.

But I don't think that fits much of the story. He mentions here in verse 18, the great army of Assyria. Well, he comes with enough troops, just in case Egypt wants to get involved, to intervene. So he's ready for that, and the siege. These are titles here, Tartan, Rabsaris, Rabsheka, they're not personal names. The Tartan is the supreme commander.

The Rabsaris is the chief officer, and my favorite, the Rabsheka, is the field commander. So, again, I think this is after his near-fatal illness, that he survived by the hand of God, and God gave him confirmation, I'm going to turn the sundial back, you'll know that I'm giving this to you. This time, it's not a bodily illness, it's the Assyrian war machine.

But God did not deliver him from sickness to let him die by the sword of the Assyrian. Verse 18, and I think he comes to that conclusion. And when they had called to the king, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Devna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. So here comes Rabsheka with his entourage, and these are the representatives of the king, Hezekiah, in the city, and they're coming out to parlay with each other. Verse 19, then Rabsheka said to them, say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust?

Now it's on. Now we get the voice of the devil, because he's making, he's going against Yahweh. What confidence, what confidence is this in which you trust? He's going to attack Yahweh.

He's going to lie. The voice of the devil to the people of God. Well, God's people, or should I say God routinely speaks through his people. The voice of God is routinely heard through his people. When you share the gospel, when you share scripture verses, that is the voice of God. Of course, you have to take in consideration the person's relationship with God. Jehovah Witness is quoting scripture, and it's not the voice of God.

It would be a very unique situation if it were. The voice of Satan is also heard routinely through people in life, people that blaspheme, the antichrist voices. Here we're hearing it from the Rabsheka. Satan is going to speak through this man. You can say in the heart he's under the influence of Satan because it is not Yahweh. And Satan gets to speak through people more than some care to admit. Listen to what he's going to say in verses 29 through 33.

I'll just take excerpts from that. Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. Why? He's our godly king. Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying Yahweh will deliver us. This city shall not be given to the hands of the king of Syria. Do not listen to Hezekiah. Do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you saying Yahweh will deliver us. That's the voice of the devil. Don't listen to Jesus. Don't listen to your king.

I'll come back to that in a moment. He asks here in verse 19, what confidence is this in which you trust? Well, Satan took the same approach with Eve but in a more subtle way. Well, the voice of God does not move us to doubt as this voice is doing. Matthew 11, 12 tells us the story of Matthew 11 verse 22 that is, gives us the answer of the Lord to the disciples.

They were coming to Jerusalem. Jesus sees a fig tree. It's got leaves on it which promises fruit. He gets to it.

No fruit. He curses the tree. He goes into Jerusalem.

The next day they come back the same route to Jerusalem. The tree is completely dead. Trees don't die overnight. I mean you can cut a tree down and a stump with a little stem sticking out of it and that spring it will start turning green because there's still enough sap in there. I mean it's dead but there's still life or evidence is up but that's not the case with this tree.

And so they ask him about it because this was amazing. Mark 11, 22 Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God. It always comes back to that. You can study so much you begin to miss the faith in God and you start having faith into studying and that's a trap. You know, every Christian is a basic Christian. You can never become, well now I'm a pastor.

I'm still a basic Christian and the basics, the fundamentals of our faith apply to me always. I have to trust God personally. Sometimes it's very hard when it's something that is unraveling in your life. It's very hard but it's doable to love God deeply and to trust him completely. Is there a better, a better cause? It's easy to say and it's doable if your heart is submitted.

That's what I have found. Lord, fine, you're still God. I don't like this. You're God.

I am not. Verse 20, you speak of having plans. This is Rabshakah still speaking. You speak of having plans and powerful war but they are mere words and in whom do you trust that you rebel against me? So he's, you know, the devil has great war experience and he's got two armies, fallen angels and fallen men and he knows how to use them. But we should not be, lose heart over that. We know God has an army too of believers and our God is stronger. What he says, but they were mere words. We put that back in context. You speak of having plans and powerful war but they are mere words.

Mark is cheap. 2 Chronicles chapter 32 verses 7 and 8. This is more of what Hezekiah said to his troops.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria nor before all the multitude that is with him. For there are more with us than with him, as I read earlier. Of course, he's going back to the prophet, the great prophet Elijah and so he should. And in whom do you trust that you rebel against me? In other words, he's saying, who's strong enough to save you from me?

This war machine. Pagans in those days had low opinions of Yahweh because the people of Yahweh had low opinions of Yahweh. With all the idolatry. Nowadays, why would men look to go to a church if the church does not look to go to God, does not look to go to the scripture? If the church says they're going to God but they're going against scripture, why would the world admire that?

That's your manual, that's your marching orders. How can you defy it? Verse 21, now look, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans it will go through his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

But if you say to me, we trust in Yahweh our God, is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and said to Judah in Jerusalem, you shall not worship before this altar in Jerusalem? Well, where did he get this information? Well, he got spies there.

He's getting information back. And he thinks he mentions Egypt. Egypt is relatively impotent at this point in history.

They're really not a threat. And they never really recover from the Exodus. And so he says, he's saying to them, those pagan altars that you took away, those were Yahweh's altars. So he's ignorant of the scripture and of the faith of the Jews.

That's a fatal assumption. God, scripture, and the commandments of God, he's got them all mixed up. He doesn't care. Verse 23, now therefore I urge you give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able, on your part, to put riders on them. So now he's attacking the masculinity of the troops. You're not even man enough to ride horses.

Why would I even give them to you? So insults and ultimatums coming from the voice of Satan. Verse 24, how then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants and put your trust in Egypt's chariots and horsemen?

Well, you'll find out in chapter 19, Reb Shachar, when 185,000 overnight are slain. Verse 25, have I now come up without Yahweh? But this guy doesn't stop.

He can get worse, don't worry. Against this place to destroy it? And Yahweh said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. So now he's a bully and he's a liar.

And he enjoys his lies. Yahweh is listening. Because when we get to chapter 19, verse 23, verses 27 and 28, Yahweh's going to bring it up.

Here are their arrogance. Matthew chapter 12, but I say to you that for every idle word men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. Continues in verse 25, the Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. Faint hearts are trembling by this lie about God. Stout hearts consider the source and defy it. Wait a minute, who said that? I don't buy it.

That's how that would have happened. The righteous would have said, who are you believing here? This pagan who's lying, doesn't know our faith, coming to conquer us? Or are you going to believe the prophet Isaiah? Verse 26, then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakah, please speak to your servants in the Aramaic, for we understand it. And do not speak to us in the Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.

So he is a well-educated Rabshakah. He's bilingual at the very least. He speaks the Hebrew. The Hebrew Aramaic and the Assyrian languages were all related, but sufficiently different to be distinct languages. Most of the Judeans at this time spoke Hebrew. By the time Christ comes along, Aramaic is the dominant language in the land of Israel. The Aramaic at this time was the language of treaty and trade. The ambassadors would use this language as they converged on the empires in that region of the world.

But again, gradually it replaced the Hebrew. So what they're saying is, listen, we don't want our people hearing what you're telling us. This is on the ambassador level.

It's a private meeting. They should have said, let's move away from the wall. But they don't see this coming. So he says, do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall. It's a propaganda alert. Rabshakah, he knows he's handing out disinformation.

He wants to weaken the morale. Chronicles adds this. This is Rabshakah saying, picked up in Chronicles 32. Does not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourselves over to die by famine and thirst, saying Yahweh our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria. You're the voice of the devil. Your king is telling you God's going to save you from us. You should quit that God and come over to our side. And continues, verse 27. But the Rabshakah said to them, has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?

This man is disgusting. He says, I'm going to say this as loud as I want to say it. I can broadcast it.

I have the airwaves here, like the media. I'm going to stir them up, cause them to lose heart and even maybe revolt. Will you eat and drink their own? I mean, it's disgusting. It's obscene language to dramatize what's coming. He could have said nicely, listen, you're besieging Jerusalem. You don't want to die of starvation. It is a rough way to go.

That would have been polite. That's not what he does. He goes to the language of the street and the horrors of being under siege.

He's well educated, foul mouthed and a loud mouthed all in one. And he's got this gigantic army with him. This is what Hezekiah is facing. And Hezekiah is saying to his men, we're going to trust God. Verse 29, thus says the king, it's the king of Assyria. Do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand. Well, that's what the devil says about King Jesus. Verse 30, nor let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us.

This city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Well, why can't we trust God instead of listening to you? Why should we listen to you?

Just because you have an army. Well, that's what faith says in its defiant tone. The voice of the devil always says, don't trust God or don't trust him all the way.

Just a little bit. Verse 31, do not listen to Hezekiah. He keeps saying that. Well, thus says the king of Assyria, make peace with me by a present and come out to me. And every one of you eat and drink from his own vine and everyone from his own fig tree. And every one, verse 31, of you drink the waters of his own cistern.

Sounds good. Don't listen to Hezekiah. Listen to me. I'm going to let you have, you're going to just have a good life.

You drink everything you want. This is what Satan says to teens. Don't listen to mom and dad who love you, who raise you, who educate you, provide for you. Don't listen to the preaching of truth that saves your soul and fortifies you for life. Don't listen to reason from the scriptures, but listen to those who are the Bible haters instead.

And that's what we often see our teens do. They sit here, they sit in a sanctuary like this one or this one and then they go out in the world and they turn their back on Jesus Christ and they do it with zest. That is the voice of the devil that gets them to do it.

And they provide the portal for him to come in and speak. It says here in verse 31, for thus says the king of Assyria. Who cares? I have no interest in what Muhammad or Buddha or Charles Smith or Joseph, Charles Russell or Joseph Smith have to say. I can't go around reading every false religions documents to see if I believe it or not. I have to believe the real thing. When I read the Bible, there's a filtering process that says, is this true or is this not true? And if it is true, then nothing can come against it. Otherwise I can't believe totally yet.

I still got some more fake religion stuff to read. And then you go to your grave like that. And this is something that I have my suspicions where it comes from.

There's this mindset that thinks that there has to be due diligence, but to a point after that and that point to me is you don't, it's not very long. You reach it very quickly. When I came to Christ from reading the scripture, I knew he is God Almighty, the Savior. I knew it. And I knew at that instant everybody else against him was wrong. And may I go to my grave like that.

I don't care what the king of Assyria or the king of Persia, the king of Tyre, I don't care what any of them have to say unless it matches the Lord. That's what got Eve in trouble. Well, let's hear him out. You shouldn't have been in the neighborhood.

She was in the wrong neighborhood. Anyway, make peace with me by a present and come out to me. Yeah, well, you know, James, I'm just running out of time. James 4, you can read it. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. He says here, every one of you eat from his own vine. Consider the source and consequences that Satan is being reasonable here.

After all, if somebody is reasonable, they have to be right or decent. Satan is always in search for agreement and worship. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Verse 32, now comes the punchline, the devil's in the details. Until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a grain of bread and vineyards, it makes you think of that barking in the spirit movement. Remember that?

That was supposed to be a new wine. I won't go into that now. Anyway, a land of olive groves and honey that you may live and not die, but do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us, that you may live and not die. Well, I am going to die someday, so I might as well die defying Satan, if it comes to that. And that's where the Jews are going to arrive. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us. Surrender, he says. Paul answers it this way. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ, including my life. Verse 33. Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Well, other nations have followed God.

Look what it got them. What makes all the other religions false and your religion right? See, Satan, you know, he comes and tries to reason with this. I don't think we should debate with the devil.

I think he should be rebuked. The Lord rebuke you. That's what the archangel Michael did in the end. He got power. In the end, God is going to tell his angels, okay, no more restraint.

Grab him and chain him. And I can bet, man, that just before the sentence was completed, the chains were clinging. That's what makes the book of Revelation so, one of the things makes it so exciting. And the angel said with a loud voice, there's a presence of such power to split atoms everywhere. Verse 33, 34. Where are the gods of Hamath, Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaram and Hannah and Ivah? Indeed, they have delivered Samaria. Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Verse 35. Who among all the gods of the land have delivered their countries from my hand that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? He said, so look at the record.

I've been knocking these cities out. Their gods didn't do anything for you. What makes you think your god is any different than their god? Don't we hear that from the world? What gives you the right to say your way is the way, the truth, and the lie? Well, we can answer that.

Well, we've got this unbroken witness that you don't have from the beginning of creation. What do you think? This evolution is a joke. It's a joke. It's a hoax. But it ain't funny because everybody believes it. Well, I mean, you know, not everybody. Anyway, the people held their peace and answered him not a word for the king's commandment was do not answer him.

Don't debate this guy. Discipleship includes loyalty, courage, and obedience, and Judas died without it. Verse 37. Eliakim the son of Hekiah who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabsheka, his expression of, of course, sorrow and trouble and shame and great distress. Interesting, Isaiah in chapter 22 prophesies that Eliakim will take Shebna's position and Shebna will be fired because he's arrogant. It's interesting. Isaiah 22 verses 15 through 25, you can read that. All right, well, that's it.

Hopefully, a lot to consider. Even if you don't listen to what I have to say, in my opinion, which how could you not? You could just read the story yourself and just be blessed. Let's pray. Our Father, may we not listen to the voice of the devil. May we be able to distinguish between your voice and his all the time. And may you get us all home safely tonight.

We ask you in Jesus' name. Thanks for joining us for today's edition on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 2 Kings has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. Once more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. Our time is about up, but we hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue on in the book of 2 Kings. We look forward to that time with you, so make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick as he teaches from the Bible right here on Cross Reference Radio.