O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the
triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of Thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease, tis music in the sinner's
ears, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of
cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the
foulest clean, His blood availed for me. Hear Him, ye deaf, His
praise ye dumb, Your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind, behold, your Savior
come, And leap, ye lame, for joy. Glory to God and praise
and love be ever, ever given by saints below and saints above
the church in earth and heaven. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. Tell us his vacation week. We'll begin reading in verse
20. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that
in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith
unto her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the
father. You worship, you know not what. We know what we worship,
for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit,
in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in their hearts. Worship
is not something you do with your body. Worship is something
that takes place in the heart. shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, in the truth of the gospel. For the Father seeketh
such to worship him. God is spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And the woman saith unto him,
I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ, and when he
is come, he will tell us all things. I'm going to read verse
26 as it's literally written. Jesus saith unto her, I am speaketh
unto thee. I am speaketh unto thee. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we're confessing our complete dependence
upon you to send your spirit, enabling us to enter into thy
presence in worship and to reveal to us the glorious person of
thy dear son. I am the self existent son of
God who is our life. Lord, we pray that you would
forgive us for our many sins and enable us, Lord, in this
hour to set our affections on things above where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God. We ask it in his name. Amen. Number nine from the gospel hymn
spiral hymn book. number nine from the Gospel Hymn
Spiral hymnbook. Let's all stand together. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
O Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me? Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old Thou hast ordained me
that I should live to Thee. Your love had no beginning, no
cause in me was found, that you should choose to save me, a sinner
strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought
for, Was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought for,
Christ paid the dreadful toll. "'Twas Sovereign Mercy called
me, and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me, to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before Thee,
for Thy rich grace I thirst. This, knowing if I love Thee,
Thou must have loved me first. Please be seated. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 38. Isaiah 38. When the Lord sets my heart to prepare a message. He often brings many things into
my life to reinforce that message. And that happened, I guess it
was yesterday. Maybe it was today. I don't remember.
Tricia was cleaning out one of our closets and she found a recipe
book from a church that we used to go to many, many, many years
ago. It was ladies had compiled all
these different recipes. And the recipes are fine, but
the preacher of the church thought he would be clever and put a
cover on this little recipe book. And he titled the cover, A Recipe
on How to Live. And he very cleverly made a little
acronym out of the word live. And here was his recipe for living. L, let Christ save you. I, invite him in now. V, vitalize your life. and E, engage in worship. That was his recipe for life.
If you let God save you, invite Jesus into your heart, somehow
vitalize your energy for God, and engage yourself in worship,
then you'll discover the secrets of life. How sad. I'm sad that for me to know life,
I've got to do those things. And in doing those things, I'm
not going to discover the truth of life. Hezekiah, in chapter 16 of Isaiah
chapter 38, the very last phrase in verse 16, Make me to live. Make me to live. I've titled this message, Life.
What is it? What is it? Hezekiah was 25 years
old when he became king, and the Lord afflicted him with a
mortal disease at age 38. So, when he's sick, Here in the book of Isaiah, he's
38 years old, the prime of life, and he's not ready to die. And
he cries out to God to save him. And the Lord gives him 15 years
of life. And I want us to consider the
things that he offers up to the Lord in prayer after the prophet
Isaiah came to him and said, the Lord has heard you and he
has extended your life. He has given you life for 15
more years. What are the spiritual... Isaiah,
Hezekiah, by the way, died at 53. And a wicked king took his place. But what is it to have life? The Lord said, take heed. Take
heed and beware of covetousness for your life consisteth not
in the abundance which the things that you possess. Now the world
in which we live talks about the good life. And to them, life
is easy street. Life is having everything the
world has to offer. Life is the American dream. I heard a reporter this week
talking about Carrie Fisher And her assessment was that these
actors and famous people, musicians, live on forever on the silver
screen and in the music that we enjoy. They live on forever
is what she said. I thought, I wonder what Carrie
Fisher thinks about that, living on forever. What about George Michael and
David Bowie and Steve Jobs? What about these men and women
who seem to have life and now they're gone? Do they know anything
about life now? Life, what is it? John chapter 1 verse 4 says, is life and the life is the light
of men. Now normally we think of light
being necessary for life but the Lord here says He is our
life and in Him is life and through His life we get light, we get
understanding, we know God. John chapter 17, herein is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he die, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Life is bound up in Christ. Outside of Christ, there is no
life. He gives life and he is life. He said, because I live, because
I live, you shall live also. And so these 15 years of physical
life that were given to Hezekiah in our text are symbolic of the
spiritual life that God gives to His people in Christ. What
is life? Well, the first point, the first
answer to that question is that one must die before they can
live. And that's a problem. Most folks
don't want to die. But in order for us to have life,
we have to die. The Lord said that a corn of
wheat, if it abides alone, it must die. or it will abide alone and if
it dies then it'll bear forth much fruit. And of course that's
speaking of the life of Christ dying to give us life but it's
also reference to our own spiritual death. We were born dead in our
Trespasses and sins and the scripture says he hath quickened us together
in Christ So in order for us to know anything about life The
Lord's got to kill us first He's got to kill us The only way we're
gonna be made alive is to be made dead first The only way
to be saved is to be lost. Ezekiel chapter 16, when I passed
by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto
thee, when I saw thee in thy blood, I saw you dead, I saw
you helpless, hopeless, dead because of your sin, I said unto
thee, live. live. What does Hezekiah say? Make me live. Oh Lord, make me
to live. Turn back with me to verse 9
in this chapter. Because Hezekiah, well here's what the Lord said
in the book of Colossians chapter 2, for you are dead and your
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life,
shall appear, you shall also appear with Him in glory." So,
in order for us to be made alive, we've got to first be killed. Most folks, you know, the problem
with zombies is they think they're alive when they're not. And that's
the condition that people are in spiritually in this world. They walk around thinking that
they have life, but they have no life. They're dead. They're
dead. And until God kills you and makes
you to be dead because of your sin, look what Hezekiah says
in verse 9. of this chapter, the writing
of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick. Sick with what? Sick with sin. And was recovered
of his sickness, I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall
go to the gates of the grave, I am deprived of the residue
of my years. I'm dead, man. I'm hell deserving. When Hezekiah turned his face
to the wall and prayed, he knew that if God didn't have mercy
upon him, he was going to die. The prophet had already told
him that. Set your house in order. This sickness is unto death.
You're going to die. He had no hope, apart from begging
for mercy. I said, I shall not see the Lord,
even the Lord, in the land of the living. I shall behold man
no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed
and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver
my life. He will cut me off with pining
sickness from day even to night, wilt thou make an end of me?
I'm dead. What did Isaiah say when he saw
the Lord? Woe is me for I am undone. I'm a dead man. My eyes have
seen the king. I've come to one conclusion.
I'm a sinner. Woe is me. Look at verse 13. I reckoned till morning that
as a lion, so will he break all my bones. From day even to night,
wilt thou make an end of me? Like a crane or a swallow, so
did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove. Mine eyes
fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake me Lord you're gonna
have to save me I'm dead Now this word undertake is often
translated surety surety turn with me to Genesis chapter 43
we we tried to quote this passage Sunday morning and Let's just read it together Isaiah
chapter 43, it was Simeon that had been left back in Egypt.
And notice in chapter 42 at verse 37, here's Israel's assessment
of his life at the end of verse 36. He says, Joseph is not and
Simeon is not, and you will take Benjamin away? All these things
are against me. Everything's against me. I've
lost Simeon, I've lost Joseph, and now you're going to lose
Benjamin? What happens Judah steps in notice notice what Reuben
says Reuben speaks to his father saying Slay my two sons if I
bring him not to thee deliver him into my hand and I will bring
him into thee again kill your grandchildren, so Simeon a Reuben
points to his own children and tells Israel tells tells Jacob
go ahead and take your grandchildren kill them if I don't know what
kind of surety is that and But now look what Judah says in verse
8 of the next chapter. And Judah said unto Israel his
father, send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that
we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little
ones. Lord, this is all about life. This is about living. If you
don't send Benjamin with me, we're gonna die. He, and look
what he says in verse nine. I will be surety for him of my
hand, thou shalt require him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now, can you see the Lord Jesus
Christ standing before the father and saying to him, I'll be surety
for them. I'll provide everything necessary
for their life, for their salvation. And if I don't bring them safely
home, I'll bear the blame before God forever. Is that possible? Is it possible? So Hezekiah is
saying, in light of the fact that I'm dying, I need you to
be my surety. I need you to undertake me. The Septuagint is the Greek translation
of the Old Testament. And it's interesting to me that
this word is translated baptizo or baptism in the Septuagint. He's saying, what is baptism? It's a union with Christ. It's a public confession that
Christ's life is my life. His death is my death. His burial
is my burial. His resurrection is my resurrection.
I'm confessing my complete dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ for
life. And so Hezekiah is saying, Baptize
me. Be my surety. Undertake me. Why? Because I'm a dead man. I'm dead. Lord, if you don't
be my life, if you don't undertake me, if you don't become my surety,
I'm going to die. I'm going to go to hell. That's
what I'm deserving of. If you give me justice, that's
what I'm going to experience. Now, in order for us to have
life, We must first die. God has to do a work of grace
slaying us, killing us, causing us to see that we were born dead
in our trespasses and sins. And only when He quickens us
do we have any understanding of our death, do we? We've got
to be made alive before we can have any understanding that we
were dead. Look at verse 15 in our text,
Isaiah 38. What shall I say? He hath both
spoken unto me and he hath done it. What is life? It's to hear the voice of God.
He hath spoken unto me. Now how do I know if I've heard
God? First of all, I believe everything he says. I just believe
it. I'm thoroughly convinced. I don't
debate it, I don't discuss, I just bow to it. God has spoken. Father, I thank thee that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. They shall be all taught of God. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow after me. I just, I believe. I can't not
believe it. And it's my comfort, it's my
hope. It's when all the doubts and
fears of the world and my flesh come in, my surety, my comfort,
my hope is found in the word of God. Here's what he says. Look at verse 16, O Lord, by
these shall men live. By these shall men live. So how
am I going to live? Well, first of all, God's going
to have to kill me. He's going to have to make me to be a sinner.
He's going to have to show me that I have no righteousness
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, no hope of salvation outside
of His mercy. No life outside of Christ being
my life. Why? Because I was born a sinner
and I'm going to die a sinner if God doesn't have mercy on
me. By these shall men live. The second thing is that God's
got to speak to me. God has to speak. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter
1. 2 Peter chapter 1. Verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. If I'm going to have grace, if
I'm going to have peace, it's going to come by the knowledge
of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to have to
know him. I'm going to have to know him. How am I going to know
him? Well, here. as his divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through
the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue,
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that
by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. So, by
the precious promises of God's word. Inspired, this is what
the Lord meant when he said, you must worship me in spirit
and in truth. So the spirit of God has to anoint
the truth of God's word, revealing Christ to me. What did Hezekiah
say? Look back with me. Keep your
finger there a minute. We're going to finish reading that. What
did Hezekiah say? What shall I say? Verse 15, He
hath both spoken unto me. We're partakers of the divine
nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. Everything in this world is corrupt.
The Lord said you've been you've been redeemed not with corruptible
things Not with the works of man's hands not with the opinions
of men's intellect But you've been you've been redeemed with
the incorruptible Word of God Christ being that word And so
Here we have the Hezekiah said, by these men shall live. Lord, speak to me. Speak to me. Reveal yourself to me. Don't
let me just hear the voice of the preacher. Don't let me just
hear my own thoughts when I read the Bible. Speak to my soul. Reveal yourself to me. By these
shall men live. Lord, if you don't speak to me,
I'm not going to have life. If you don't reveal yourself to
me. These are they which testify
of me in the volume of the book it is written to me. And beginning
with Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, he revealed, he spoke
to them of those things concerning himself. And what did they say
when they got back to Emmaus? And in the breaking of bread,
the Lord opened their eyes. And he's still doing that. In
the breaking of bread, he's opening the eyes of his children. By
these shall men live. And they said what? Did not our
hearts burn within us when he spake with us along the way?
That's what I want. I want my heart to burn within
me. I want to hear God speak to me. I want His voice to be louder
and clearer than any other sound, any other voice, any other opinion,
any other problem. By these precious promises, He
has revealed His grace and His glory to us. And Hezekiah said,
by these shall men live. First of all, God, you gotta
kill us. You gotta put us on our deathbed. Second of all,
we've gotta hear the voice of God. We've gotta hear his word. And look what else he says back
in our text. Look at the third thing. Life is the result of what Christ
did all by himself No, life is not letting God save you and
inviting Jesus into your heart and vitalizing your life and
engaging in worship according to your own power. That's not
life. Life is, look what he says, what
shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me and
himself hath done it. Himself hath done it. Oh Death where is your sting? Oh grave? Where is your victory?
The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law The strength of sin is the law
when the law came sin revived and I died I That's all, all
sin does is expose, all the law does is expose sin and aggravate
sin. If you're going to try to live
by the law, you're just going to become a greater sinner. You're going
to add self-righteousness to your already violations of the
law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through
Jesus Christ. What did he do? He satisfied
the law. He fulfilled the law. He made
the law honorable. He's the end of the law for righteousness. Like Boaz reckoning with that
kinsman redeemer that was closer to Ruth than he was. Remember he went to the city
square and got the elders together and they took off their shoes
symbolic of, you know, we're reckoning this thing together.
And what did Boaz say to that kinsman that was nearer to Ruth
than he was? He said, if you're going to redeem
her, redeem her right now. He was talking about Naomi. And
the kinsman said, I'll redeem her. And Boaz said, in the day
in which you redeem Naomi, you also have to redeem the Moabitess,
Ruth. And what did that kinsman say?
Can't do that. Can't do that, if I take a Moabite
into my household, I will mar my inheritance. The law cannot
save a Moabitist. The law can't save you, can't
save me. We need Boaz, our kinsman and
redeemer, to reckon with that law. in order for us to be redeemed. And that's exactly what he did.
The strength of sin is the law. Thanks be to God who got the
victory. He got the victory. He satisfied
the law. He satisfied God's divine justice. He put away our sin. Look at,
he destroyed death. I was looking this week at an
old Classic book John Owens wrote it back in the 17th century. It's called the death of deaths
The death of deaths. It's a good book on the Atonement
He's arguing with religious people don't believe the Atonement and
to that extent I you know, I don't recommend it but but he he It's
the death of deaths. That's a good title the death
of death Look at verse 17 in our text. Behold, for peace I
had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins
behind thy back. buried them in the depths of
the sea separated from them as far as from us as the east is
from the west he remembers them no more hezekiah said oh i was
in bitterness i was afraid i was going to die but you took my
sins and you cast them behind your back that's exactly what
he did look look at look at verse 15 he hath both spoken unto me and himself
hath done it. Once in the end of the world,
Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. reckon
it to be so. It is so. It is so. He conquered Satan. He destroyed
death. He has done it. He's done it. This is the only
life that there is. The only life that there is is
that God would make us dead. in our trespasses and sins, that
He would speak to us in His Word, that He would show us that the
result of life is based on what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished.
And fourth, look at verse 15 again. The last part of verse 15. And
I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. True life is a life filled with
sorrow. I thought life was supposed to
be exciting and happy and full of joy. Oh, we have exceeding
great joy. And at the same time, we have
great sorrow. The more life we have, the more of our sin we
see. The more we see of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the more we long to be with Him. The more He sets our
affections on things above, the more strange we become in this
world, and the more evil this world becomes. It's a life of
walking softly with bitterness of soul. Paul didn't say, oh
wretched man that I was. He said, oh wretched man that
I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I've got my sin with me all the
time. And the more life I have, the
more aggravating my sin becomes. Walk softly. Let your gentleness be known. Moderation. As we grow in grace
and the knowledge of Christ, we become less judgmental because
we come to realize that the problem is here. It's not. With your spouse. It's not with your employer.
It's not with your employees. The biggest problem you have
is not with the governing officials. You know, sometimes you hear people this
every time they speak, they're just talking negatively about
everything and everybody in the world, like everybody's everybody's
against them. And I'm wondering, you know,
has God ever made you to be a sinner? Has he ever made you to be a
sinner? God makes you to be a sinner, you're gonna come to realize
that you're your own worst enemy. You've got the biggest problem
you've got. And that's what happens when you're given life, isn't
it? And so that's why Hezekiah says,
I'm gonna go softly all the rest of the years that God has given
me with bitterness of my soul. That's life. You see, most folks
don't want that kind of life, do they? They think that life
is the absence of conflict, life is the abundance of things, life
is happiness and joy and, you know, just euphoria. That's not what the Lord said
life is. Life in Christ means that you're going to live the
rest of your life as a sinner. And the more life he gives you,
the bigger your sin is going to become. And you're going to
walk softly with bitterness of soul. Verse 17. Now, a better translation for
the first part of verse 17 is, on my peace came great bitterness. On my peace, I mentioned to you
before, sometimes the prepositions in the original language are
hard to translate, and I've got four here, but it's really on
my peace, in the midst of my peace, I have peace with God
through the Lord Jesus Christ, and with that peace comes bitterness
of soul. I hate myself. For thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit of corruption. For thou hast cast
all my sins behind thy back. For the grave cannot praise thee,
neither a death cannot celebrate thee. They that go down into
the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, they
shall praise thee. Now here's my last point. Life
begins with death. Life is God speaking to us by
his word. Life is the result of what Christ
accomplished in satisfying the law and in fulfilling all justice. Life is a life of humility filled
with sorrow. And finally, life is worship. Life is worship. Look what he
says. The living, the living, they shall praise thee. As I
do this day, the father to the children shall make known thy
truth. The Lord was ready to save me. Therefore, we will sing
my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the
house of the Lord. You see, with bitterness of soul
comes peace. And with the conflict of this
world comes worship. It's a dichotomy, isn't it? This
life that we have, it's a conflict. What'd the Lord say to that woman
in John chapter four? The Father seeketh them who worship
Him in spirit and in truth. And in Acts chapter 17, you remember
when the Apostle Paul is walking through Athens and he sees that
they have a statue to the unknown God and he says, Him whom you
ignorantly worship, I declare unto thee, the unknown God. Let me tell you about Him. For
this God is not to be worshiped with the hands of men. Revelation chapter 13 verse 8
all whose names are written in the book of life Worship him
worship him All that are alive worship God
It's just that's the result of being alive That's the that's
our that's our life. We live our whole life in worship
in public worship In private worship, the Spirit of God always
draw in our hearts to bow before Him. That's what worship is,
to bow, to confess our dependence upon Him, to thank Him, to rejoice
in Him. It's what Hezekiah said, I'm
going to do this the rest of my life. I'm going to walk softly
with bitterness of soul. And at the same time, I'm going
to play stringed instruments and I'm going to sing and rejoice
and worship Him. The world can't understand what
we're talking about. It's a contradiction to them. You say, well, no, wait a minute.
Life is supposed to be happy. Life is supposed to be sad. Which
is it? Which is it? Has God given you life? Life. Make me to live. Isn't that what Hezekiah said?
Make me to live. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the revelation
that you've given us in your word of what real life is. We confess to you, Lord, that
we're drawn by the opinions of this world and by the temptations
of our own flesh to think that life has to do with worldly things. Father, we pray that you would
be pleased to give to us true life by giving to us thy dear son. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. Number 125. Let's stand together.
Number 125. StSq2 2.60 I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.