Jesus Always Wins – by Pastor Joseph Cortes

Open your Bibles to II Chronicles 32 in the Old Testament. I have preached through these verses in the past, but I want to take a second look at these passages to see what else we can learn from them.

I have been going through some struggles as of late and I am sure many of you have too. If you have not, then be a disciple of Jesus Christ for a while and I am sure it will happen to you too. Life is full of difficulties, problems, and struggles. Some struggles and problems are bigger than others, some are reminders that there are still struggles and tragedies, but the one thing I preach about is that we can overcome them all with faith and trust in God and Jesus Christ. I have been saying it from the first day this ministry began.

In addition, I have also reminded you, and myself daily, that we have an enemy, Satan and his evil forces, who are always seeking opportunities to destroy us, to press us down, to defeat us. We must not ever forget there is a spiritual battle, a spiritual war that we are in daily with the unseen world. Some days are not as intense as others, but daily Satan and his minions use these struggles, these difficulties, these problems and trials in our lives to take us down. He jumps at every opportunity he and his minions can to attack us. This is nothing new to seasoned Christians. God, on the other hand, seeks to develop us with these struggles, these trials, these difficulties, our problems; one tries to develop us and the other, Satan, tries to destroy us. This is nothing new. I preached it during the Spiritual Warfare Series over and over. If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, I have news for you, you cannot avoid the trials, the struggles, and the problems. However, we can face all of them and thwart Satan’s plan to defeat us if we keep our trust and faith in God the Father and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. That is why I want to look at this story in II Chronicles again.

When I am facing struggles, I tend to go back to God’s Word and look at heroes of faith to see their patterns and how they dealt with their problems, struggles, difficulties, and trials and see what got them through. In this story, Sennacherib threatens Jerusalem, and we see how Hezekiah deals with it. It is a wonderful story. If other leaders were faced with what Hezekiah and the people in the city were faced with, they would react with fear, frustration, and anxiety. However, Hezekiah chose to face his dilemma in chapter 32 by putting his faith and trust in God. If you get anything from this message get that because it is the most important thing to remember. There will always be problems if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ and the enemy knows it. The problems that he creates will be bigger than anything we could handle on our own. Yet we try as foolish Christians to handle our struggles and problems all on our own leaving God out. We tell the Lord, I got this one and then we usually fall on our face.

In this story, when we see what Hezekiah and the people faced, it should be our cue to rely on God the way they did. You will see unwavering faith that produced a wonderful victory. You will see over and over in God’s Word that God always honors steadfastness if you trust and faithe in Him, which we see in many stories throughout the Old Testament and even the New with what the disciples went through. God always honors steadfast faith and trust in Him. Now let’s get to the story. Verse 1 begins,

“After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah [the southern part of the land of Israel], and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself [literally thought to break them up for themselves].”

The main point in this verse is:

1. The threat is right outside the walls of your fenced cities. Sennacherib wants to break apart and overtake them.

If you know biblical history, and did not trust in God, you would be shaking in your boots because prior to this event Sennacherib was very successful at going into other places, not just in Israel, and doing just that. The next verses tell us Hezekiah’s reaction,

“And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem [or his face was to war 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?”

Did Hezekiah whimper in some corner asking, “Why me, why this city, why Judah?” Do you know how many times I have been advised to stop and pray and do nothing? Tell me where the Bible states that. That does not mean prayer has no place; it does. In fact, at the end of this message, it will have a place among six things that we can learn from this story about what Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem faced in that time. Many would have told Hezekiah to just gather somewhere inside the city walls, have a prayer meeting, and stay there praying until God brings the deliverance. Again, this does not mean I do not believe in prayer. Instead, I will show the place for it in this story because there is a place for it, just as there is a place for it in our everyday lives for whatever struggles and trials come our way.

If you look closely in these scriptures, it is amazing what Hezekiah did. He did not waste any time. He speedily prepared is how I read it, instead of taking a passive stance. Think about it, he responded to a threat. I am not making this up. Read it for yourself. We just read through those few verses and he responded to the threat by doing what he knew he could logically do. He did not even have to pray about it. Now, it would not be enough to win the victory; the arm of the flesh would not win the victory, but what he could logically do that did not take any faith, just common sense, is what he did. It says here in verse 3,

Because it made sense, Hezekiah decided, “Why should we provide the water outside the city for Sennacherib’s army? Let them stay on the other side. Let our enemy die of thirst if need be. Why should we provide water to those who seek to destroy us who are controlled by the unseen enemy?”

So, what did Hezekiah do?

2. He prepared.

First, there was the threat and after the threat he made the preparations that he could in his own strength. Ultimately, his preparations would not be enough, but he knew their strength could not provide enough. There had to be divine intervention, which we will see as we move through these verses. Too many Christians want to have a prayer meeting as soon as something hits them. Take a hint from this story, first came the threat and then what Hezekiah could do using common sense and logic was to prepare. I think being prepared is what anybody should do when trouble becomes eminent. Even though what we can do in the flesh is not enough, do not be a lump on a log when you know that there are things you can do. The Bible backs up this kind of thinking and not just in this story. Even Proverbs 22:3 tells us, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and makes ready himself [and hideth himself is not a good translation]:”

If you really think about it, Hezekiah became determined not to give the enemy, Sennacherib and his army, any unnecessary advantages. That is why he stopped the water from flowing outside the city. If you remember in the Spiritual Warfare Series, I said several times to be careful not to give Satan, our foe, any unnecessary advantages over us. This is not just an Old Testament idea. We are forewarned in II Corinthians 2:11. The context is about forgiveness, but it can be applied in other topics and categories of our life, not just forgiveness. In verse 11 we are told,

“Lest Satan [Diablo, the accuser, the destroyer.] should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices [literally his evil purposes].”

We might not be ignorant of his evil purposes, but we seem to forget what those tactics and strategies are that he uses to try to bring us down. “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us:” If you really think about it, Hezekiah was doing that in the physical seen world. He did not want the enemy to get any unnecessary advantage, so he stopped the waters flowing outside the city. Believe it or not, an army needs water not just for the human beings that are part of the army but for the livestock. “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his evil purposes.”

Hezekiah knew that Sennacherib wanted to break the fenced cities apart, destroy them, take them into captivity, and kill them. Just the same, Satan wants to keep us in captivity and he will use your struggles, your trials, your problems, your difficulties to try to bring us down. But I say we are not ignorant of his evil purposes, so let’s not give him any unnecessary advantages. Only you know what those unnecessary advantages are that you can give over to Satan. I am not living your life and you are not living mine. Only I know on a personal level the unnecessary advantages I give to him. After the fact, it literally angers me because although I was not ignorant of it, I was blindsided when I should have known better. New Christians might not be at that place yet. Stick around and be a disciple of Jesus Christ for a while, I guarantee Satan will try to get an advantage over you but do not let him. Become knowledgeable of God’s Word so you know what his evil purposes are. That is the only point I want to make as we go back to II Chronicles 32 and continue. Verse 5 goes on to say,

Back to preparation again. They “made darts [or swords or weapons] and shields in abundance.” He was strengthening the walls. Seeing that in the spiritual world, we must strengthen our spiritual walls daily against Satan’s attack by using the whole armor of God as spoken of in Ephesians 6:10 through 18 as part of the strategy for war. I know a lot of Christians do not like to think about it this way, but this is exactly what it is in the unseen world that we battle against every day. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against” all kinds of evil wickedness and it gives a list in this verse of the things we do not see but are as real as the things we can see. What we find here in this story is Hezekiah’s strategy for war, which is still part of the preparation. Verse 6 continues,

Looking at the above verses, you can see it is very apparent what the enemy was trying to do, and we can apply this on a personal level too. The enemy, Sennacherib, was causing the people to doubt Hezekiah and the leadership; not just Hezekiah, but also to doubt God’s ability to deliver them from Sennacherib’s hand. When you really think about it, probably the deadliest weapon Satan has is doubt and I think he uses it very effectively. He knows if he can get anyone, including the people in this story, or you or me to doubt God and to doubt Jesus Christ, then he has won the battle and we have lost. That is why I think doubt is one of Satan’s most effective weapons and is so deadly. I did not read this part of King Hezekiah’s history, but in verse 12 Sennacherib knew that Hezekiah instituted religious reforms in Jerusalem by destroying the false idols of his fathers. As a result, Sennacherib tries to cause descent and have Jews in Jerusalem double think that maybe they should not have destroyed those altars and false idols. They began to wonder that because they went back to worshiping Jehovah, it caused their possible annihilation. I do not believe Sennacherib came up with all of this on his own. I think he was demon possessed to say the things he said to cause descent. Other than doubt, Satan loves to cause division to divide and conquer, which are the deadly weapons he uses as part of his arsenal, his military strategy, and is what Sennacherib did here. If he could accomplish doubt, the city would have been lost just as we are if he can accomplish it in our lives.  He is very effective in his tactics especially among Christians. However, Christians need to unite for battle, not divide. There is too much division now and one of the problems is there are so many doctrines and false teachings that Satan has been successful in that arena; not with all, but with most.

In verse 13, Sennacherib goes on to boast about conquests of other lands,

Resistance is futile in other words; and that is exactly what Satan wants us to believe. He wants us to give up the fight, give up the battle before the battle has even begun. He continues in verse 15,

“Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you [He is still trying to cause doubt to divide the Jews.], nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand [including you too Jerusalem/Judah.], and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?”

He was certainly full of himself.

The only problem with this story about Sennacherib and his big mouth, and his servants’ big mouths, who were trying to convince the people that resistance was not possible, is the gods of those other nations were not God. They were false gods made up by Satan long before this event ever happened. And because they were not real, in a sense Sennacherib was right. “…no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people” because there was no such real god that could deliver them and watch over them. They were believing in a false system and a false god. With that, he tries to minimize the true God, Jehovah these people were worshiping in this time because of religious reforms that Hezekiah put in place. He was saying, “Your God will not stand, just like those other gods.”

Now you might be saying to yourself as you read through the verses in this story, “Well, nobody is really listening to this guy.” No one inside Jerusalem at least. They were not listening to him or believing him. Listen, it becomes easy if you are ignorant of the devil’s devices to listen to the unseen evil during any crisis. Do not think you are immune. What he was doing here was ridiculing God for not caring about His people and that is what the devil tries to do with us. He tells us that God is not listening to us about our problem or difficulty or struggle we are going through. He tells us that we might not make it because God does not care about us. That is why I wanted to read all this before I go back to verse 7, which tells us to:

3. Trust by being strong and courageous.

First, came the threat; second, the preparation; then came more threats, mocking, and ridiculing, but keep that in the category of threats. Now we see trust. Put your trust and faith in God, be strong and not afraid. Let’s read verse 7,

“Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed [or terrified, crushed, or broken] for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:”

They did not have more soldiers in the city to fight the battle in the open if it came to that. No, he is talking about the unseen spiritual world, “for there be more with us than with him:” What a statement of faith and we will see that it turned out to be the right one. Verse 8 continues,

“With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested [leaned and were steadfast is a better translation] themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”

Remember that just as I remind myself of that almost daily these days bout Him and Satan’s seen and unseen tools that are warring in the unseen world.

Claim it as your promise “to help us, and to fight our battles” but then we should rest also. In addition, we should lean and be steadfast on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. Even though he spoke them, I believe he was directed by God and the Holy Spirit to deliver that speech. In these verses, Hezekiah wanted to get his people thinking in the lines of faith that God would go before them in the times of trouble, which they were facing at that moment. He knew things would only get worse because up to that point they only received threats, but then those threats turned into more vicious and verbal communication which if successful would bring doubt, confusion, and so forth. So, Hezekiah comforted his people. Let God’s word in this story comfort you and me also. The only thing that the flesh can rely on in the battle, in this case against the king of Assyria, was human strength, but here in this story Judah relied on divine strength. Unfortunately, it takes much of a Christian’s life to learn that God really can be trusted. I want you to remember that.

Up to this point Hezekiah did the things that he could to prepare.  Weapons were put together for the battle, walls were built, and he even stopped the water from flowing out of the city. Those are all things he could do that logically could be done with his own strength, but he knew it was not enough. He knew, “but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles.” He wants to know He has faithful participants rather than one who just goes in a corner and cries all day saying, “Poor me. Why me?” Instead, tell the Lord, “I will do what I can to make ready for the battle because I know you will fight for us and you will win.” But I am getting ahead of this story that continues in verse 20.

This is because after verse 15 Sennacherib declared that no god of any nation could come against him and be successful and victorious. And not only that, in verse 16 we read,

Then in verse 20 we see that after doing what he could, he went and sought God in prayer.

The fourth point is, when they received the threatening letters they went to pray.

There are the threats, the preparation, the comfort of Hezekiah’s speech saying to have trust in God, be strong and courageous, not afraid and not broken, more threats then come by letter form. It is then that Hezekiah said, “I have done all I can do, let’s pray” and he goes to Isaiah the son of Amoz and they prayed and cried to heaven. Just in case you thought earlier that there was no room for prayer, there really is a place for prayer, and look how this prayer was answered in verse 21,

“And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, 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 [his sons] slew him there with the sword. 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.”

Isaiah 37 gives a little more insight into this story. Prior to Sennacherib’s death by his own murderous sons, his armies here suffered a severe defeat of about 185,000 people. All those that were part of Sennacherib’s army were killed in one night by the death angel that God sent through their camp. Think about it, there was the threat, the preparation, the trust and now factor in prayer followed by victory. It was Sennacherib who boasted here in the scriptures about how powerful he was, that he could have victory over any god including the God of Judah, and how the God of Judah was not powerful enough to protect them, when it turned out that whatever god Sennacherib chose to worship, if he did, was not powerful enough to even protect him against his own murderous sons. It is ironic.

The point is, no matter what our struggle, no matter what our difficulty, no matter what our problem or trial, there is victory in Christ Jesus. He has a track record of never losing. I guess the moral of the story is Jesus always wins. He will win over whatever we face tonight, tomorrow, next week, or next month. I know the outcome is, Jesus wins, Satan loses.

There is one more thing that stuck out when I was reading through these verses. In the story we see the threat that came, and Hezekiah prepared using common sense and logic. That is a pattern that we should implement in our lives when the struggles and attacks come from Satan. When the threat comes, start preparing by doing what you can do knowing it will not be enough. We need divine intervention. I cannot say it enough. Start trusting by being strong and courageous, not afraid nor dismayed. Keep that prayer connection going and do what Hezekiah and Isaiah did; they prayed and cried to heaven.

5. Then, after prayer, expect the victory.

There is one other thing in verse 23,

Yes, the people were miraculously spared and then Hezekiah became magnified. God showed him off. If you really think about it, when we go through our struggles, our difficulties, our trials, our problems, we get the victory because Christ always wins.

6. He magnifies us. Sure, He gets the glory and He is magnified, but He magnifies us also in the sight of all. In the sight of all, you are a walking, living testimony of God’s power and He will magnify you as a servant of God and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ once the victory is obtained, and what He can do when we faithe and trust in Him period.

I will repeat the six points once again to see a pattern that you will go through if you stay connected with Him:

1. The threats will come in your life, whatever those threats are. In God’s Word it says not to go in a corner and just cry your eyes out and say, “Oh no, what is going to happen now?”

2. Start preparing using common sense and logic in the things that you can do knowing you still need divine intervention. How do we get that divine intervention?

3. Trust Him by being strong and courageous, not afraid nor dismayed, not broken or terrified. It is important to stay connected to the vine with faith and prayer.

4. Prayer.

5. Then victory is coming. Jesus always wins.

6. When victory happens, He will magnify us in the sight of all the doubters and naysayers because we are a servant of Him, God the Father and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, and what He can do through us when we faithe and trust in Him.

These are six important elements that I saw in this story, even though I could go in different areas of God’s Word and see the same pattern repeated. I make it a habit of studying these people and how they reacted to the struggles of life struggles that they faced. Obviously, God was pleased in them because He gave them the victory. Hezekiah had some problems after that, but up to that point not only did he reform Judah again by only serving one God, Jehovah, but he was also a living testimony and the people he served under were convinced that all Sennacherib had was the arm of the flesh, but what they had was the Lord their God. We have it too. Nothing has changed to help us and to fight our battles.

Every bone in my body believes that promise.

I want to end with a poem by an unknown author:

The reason why it is the only place of rest is because Jesus always wins. I have news for Satan and his minions, you are the losers. Jesus has already won this battle for my soul and He knows my needs and He will bring the victory in due time. I trust and faithe in that. In case you do not think I believe in prayer, I do, in its right place. That is why I have asked you to pray for me and I want your prayer requests. I want to be praying for you. We do not need to be divided; we need to unite. Satan tries to divide and conquer. He is the master strategy creator of the divide and conquer mentality. Let us unite in faith and trust in God because He is the one that fights our battles and He will help us. We just need to lean on and be steadfast on His words that He will see us through.

I want to repeat it as the last thing I say for this message, so Satan hear this loud and clear, Jesus always wins—Jesus always wins. Remember when you face your life struggles that Jesus always wins.

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