Come with me to 2 Chronicles
chapter 32. 2 Chronicles 32. Our text is
going to be in Isaiah 39, but we're going to start here in
2 Chronicles chapter 32. We're going to look at a question
this morning. We've been going through this
series where we look at questions where God asks a sinner a question. And God doesn't ask a question
for information. He asks it, number one, to reveal
sin to the sinner, or to reveal His glory to the sinner, or both. That's what we've seen in all
of these questions where God asked a question of a sinner.
Now today he's going to ask Hezekiah a question. But before we get
to that, I want you to see a little background. Hezekiah was a believer. He was born of God. He was a
child of God. He was faithful. He was a good
king. He was the king of Judah in Jerusalem. And he was a good king. Last time we saw Hezekiah, a
few weeks ago, we were looking at a question and we saw Hezekiah
on his face praying to God for the king of Assyria, for him
to save Judah out of the hand of the king of Assyria. And God
did that, and he did much more. And we see that here in 2 Chronicles
32 verse 22. It says, Thus the Lord saved
Hezekiah. You see that the Lord saved Hezekiah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib,
the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others. And the
Lord guided them on every side. And many brought gifts unto the
Lord. They brought these gifts unto
the Lord. But Hezekiah was the king in Judah, in Jerusalem,
so they brought them to Hezekiah. But they were gifts to the Lord.
And it says, they came to Jerusalem and they brought presents to
Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that Hezekiah was magnified in the
sight of all nations from thenceforth. Every nation knew of King Hezekiah. He was honored, magnified, the
Lord did that. Down at verse 27, and Hezekiah
had exceeding much riches and honor. exceeding much riches
and honor. He made himself treasuries for
silver and for gold and for precious stones and for spices and for
shields and for all manner of pleasant jewels. Storehouses
also for the increase of corn and wine and oil and stalls for
all manner of beasts and coats for flocks. Moreover, he provided
him cities and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance.
And here's why he had all of this stuff he had, for God had
given him substance very much. Everything Hezekiah had, God
gave it. Everything. Well, then Hezekiah
got sick. And he got sick to the point
of death. And he hid his face again, and he began calling upon
the Lord, and the Lord healed him. And the Lord sent word to
him that he gave him 15 more years to live. 15 more years. He thought he
was fixing to die right then. The Lord healed him. He said,
you're going to live 15 more years. And to prove it, the Lord
did something he had never done before. The Lord made the sun
go back 10 degrees. He never did that for anybody
before or since. The Lord made the sun go back
10 degrees for Hezekiah to show him, prove to him, my word is
true. You're going to live 15 more
years. Well, now go back to, now go over to, hold your place
there in 2 Chronicles 32 and go to Isaiah 39 and then we'll
pick up here where our text begins. Verse 1. At that time, Merodot Baladon,
the son of Baladon, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to
Hezekiah for he had heard that he had been sick and he was recovered. Now, back there in 2 Chronicles
32, we're told the reason the king of Babylon was so interested
in Hezekiah, it says, In 2 Chronicles 32, 31 it says, Howbeit in the
business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent
unto him, listen, to inquire of the wonder that was done in
the land. They wanted to know about this
sun going back ten degrees. That's why they came. Babylonians
were sun worshippers. They worshipped the sun. They
were idolaters. And they were interested in this thing of the
sun going back ten degrees. They wanted to inquire about
that. They come to Hezekiah and it says, but it says God left
them, He left them to try Hezekiah. This was a trial for Hezekiah.
That he might know all that was in his heart. Not that God might
know what was in his heart, God knew what was in his heart. So
that Hezekiah might know what was in his own heart. God sent
this trial to teach Hezekiah something. Now look at verse
2. And Hezekiah was glad of them. He was glad when these Babylonians
came, these idolaters came to his house. And he showed them
the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold and the
spices and the precious ointment and all the house of his armor
and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing
in his house nor in all His dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet
unto King Hezekiah. Now, this is a question where
it doesn't specifically say at the beginning, most of the questions
we've looked at have said, thus saith the Lord God. And it's
obviously God asking a question. But I wanted to look at this
question because it doesn't say that here. But we're going to
see a little later that this is God asking Hezekiah this question. But I'll point this out to you
because Hezekiah did what we often do. He didn't consider
this was God asking him this question. He just saw Isaiah
asking him this question. Isaiah is God's prophet and all
he saw was God's prophet speaking to him. He didn't consider this
was God talking to him. And it was, it was God asking
him this question. But now look here, so God said
unto him, here's the first question, what said these men? What did
they come to inquire of? That's what he's asking. And
from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, they are come
from a far country unto me. Even from Babylon, they came
all the way from Babylon just to see me. And then said he,
What have they seen in thine house? What have they seen in
thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that's
in mine house have they seen. There's nothing among my treasures
that I've not shown them. They've seen everything in my
house. I showed them everything. I showed them all my treasures,
he said. Back there in 2 Chronicles 32
verse 25 we read, but Hezekiah rendered not again according
to the benefit done unto him. He didn't render glory to whom
glory was due. He didn't render glory to God.
God gave him everything he had. He didn't render glory to God.
For his heart was lifted up. His heart was lifted up in pride. And therefore there was wrath
upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Now look there in Isaiah 39.5. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah,
hear the word of the Lord of hosts. You see, it's been the
Lord speaking to him the whole time. He asked the questions.
Now the wrath of the Lord is coming upon Hezekiah. He says,
Behold, the days come that all that is in thy house and that
which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day shall
be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith
the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue
from thee which thou shalt beget shall they take away. And they
shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. They're
not going to have any children, Hezekiah. Your name's going to
stop with these sons. They're not going to carry your
name on. Back there in 2 Chronicles 32, 26, it said, at this point,
Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart. He humbled
himself and both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the wrath
of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. Now
we read here in chapter 39 verse 8, it says, Then said Hezekiah
to Isaiah, this is after his heart's been humbled, he said,
Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he
said moreover, for there shall be peace and truth in my days. The question I want to, of all
these questions and what I've titled this, is what have they
seen in thine house? What have they seen in thine
house? What have they seen in your house, in my house? Everything
we have came from the hand of the Lord. Everything. Everything,
everything spiritual, everything temporal, everything came from
the hand of the Lord. We have nothing that did not
come from God. We have nothing in which to glory
in. We are to glory in God for everything. If anybody comes
to our house, this house right here, or our personal homes,
or anywhere we have any dealings, this house we live in, this body,
this tabernacle we live in, they come to their house, whatever
the question, whatever it is they come to inquire about, we
are to glory only in the Lord. Because we don't have anything
to glory in. Period. Nothing. We forget that in everyday
things, don't we? Just like Hezekiah, he didn't
even consider when Isaiah came there and asked him this question.
He didn't even consider that it was God asking him this. He
just did just what we do. He went saying, oh I showed him
everything I've got. Look at all the stuff I have.
I showed him, I'm so proud of this place and what I've accomplished.
I showed it all to him. And that was God that was trying
him. And he failed that trial miserably
because he didn't render glory to God in any of this. Well first
of all, just like Hezekiah, everything we have is from God. Everything. Child of God, you that believe
God. We've been delivered from the curse and condemnation of
the law. From the guilt of our sin before
God. Everybody comes into this world
guilty. And we came into this world guilty, deserving of hell. And just because of His free
grace, not because of anything about us, but by His free grace,
God sent His own Son into this world. And He was made a curse
for us. He delivered us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us. We can't boast that we
did anything to redeem ourselves or set ourselves free from the
law. He redeemed us by being made a curse for us. Well, consider
the bondage of our sin nature. Just like the Lord delivered
Hezekiah and the children of Judah from all their enemies,
the Lord delivered us from all our enemies. From the curse and
condemnation of the law, He delivered us from our sin nature. We were
going around boasting about our will and how strong our will
is and how nobody can cross our will. Our will was in bondage. We couldn't do anything but what
our sinful nature dictated. And the Lord came and delivered
us from our sin nature. Scripture says, O wretched man
that I am, Paul said, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? Who's going to set me free from it? I thank God. through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's who sets us free. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, you've received the spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry Abba Father. We couldn't cry Abba Father,
we couldn't cry Father Father before. Why? Because all we had was our will
in bondage to our nature. It says You receive the spirit
of bondage whereby we cry, Abba, Father. I mean the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That's how we cry, Father,
Father. He set us free. The Spirit bears
witness with our spirit that we're children of God. Christ
said if the sons will set you free, you'll be free indeed.
That's what it means when it says that He's made unto us redemption. He's our liberator. He's the
one that delivered us. He's the one that redeemed us.
He's the one that set us free. We can't glory in that. The Lord
God at Hisakai and Judah on every side, protected them on every
side. The Lord guides us every day
in every way. Scripture says, Thine ears shall
hear a word behind thee saying, This is the way. Walk ye in it
when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.
Don't you find that to be the case? You'll turn out of the
way and you'll hear that voice in your heart and you'll hear
God speak saying, This is not the way. Turn. Go this way. I told Brother Greg Thursday
he was on his way here and his car broke down. And the thought
just occurred to me. You know, the Lord says in everything
give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you. And I
said maybe the Lord might have saved you from a car crash a
mile down the road. And that's how, you know, We
ought to look at things. If it's something that sets us
back from doing what we wanted to do, well, maybe the Lord's
saving me from something, showing me the way to go. The Lord healed
Hezekiah, gave him 15 more years to live, and turned back the
sun to give him a sign to prove it to him. We've got something
much more miraculous than that. You'd think that's a miracle
that God set the sun back 10 degrees. He made the sun. He did something much more miraculous
for us. He came and gave us the Son of
Righteousness and He arose with healing in His wings upon us
and He gave us eternal life. He set back time for us forever.
He gave us eternal life. That's much more of a miracle
than what He did just in that miracle He did for Hezekiah.
Scripture says of Hezekiah, God had given him substance very
much. He gave him substance very much.
What about us? What about us? Paul said, unto
me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Have you ever had unsearchable
riches? I can tell you all my riches, I can search them out.
I can come to the end of counting them. But not the riches from
Christ. The riches Christ gives are unsearchable. You can't exhaust them. Go with
me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Here's the point right here. 1 Corinthians 4. I want everybody
to see this because some of you sitting here right now don't
believe the Lord. But I'm going to tell you something. If one
day God reveals Himself to you, you're going to find out God's
been blessing you right now where you sit even though you didn't
know Him and even though you didn't want to have anything
to do with Him. Look here, 1 Corinthians 4, 7. This is what He says to
every believer. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Who makes you to be different
from another? What hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou
hast not received it? Everything we have, God alone
makes us to differ from other men. And everything we have,
God gave it to us. Why would we ever glory in ourselves
for anything, for anything? Our natural life is not of us.
When God takes your breath, it's over. Everything's of God. What have they seen in thine
house? Are we going to boast about anything in our hand? We
have to render again to God the glory that's due to Him. Listen
to this from Jeremiah 9.23. Thus saith the Lord, Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that glorieth. You know what glory
means. Never take for granted anything
when you're preaching. I preached a whole message one
time on babes in Christ and I thought I'd done a pretty good job of
showing how believers are babes in Christ and a young person
walked up to me and said, what's a babe? Don't take anything for granted.
Glory means to praise, it means to boast, it means to give all
the honor to. God says, let the man that's
going to boast, let the man that's going to pat somebody on the
back, let him glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
Me. That I'm the Lord which exercises
love and kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth,
for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. If we're going
to glory, we're going to glory in the Lord. Now secondly, God
graciously gives us trials to remind us that we're sinners. So that He keeps us stayed on
Christ for everything. He gives us trials. He sends
us tests. He said, the scripture says here,
He gave this test so that Hezekiah would know what was in his heart.
And He gives us trials so that we know what's in our deceitful,
old, vile, sin nature. So that we don't ever get so
strong and so confident that we think we can do without God.
And He keeps us right where we need to be so that we constantly
depend on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hezekiah was a child of God.
So like you and me, he had an old nature that was from Adam
that was sinful, and he had a new nature that was sinless that
was from Christ. Now believers got two different
natures. There's an old man and a new man in the believer. The old man does nothing but
sin, and the new man cannot sin because the incorruptible seed
of Christ is in him. He's born of incorruptible seed.
And these two make for a miserable, wretched condition if left to
ourselves. Because if God leaves us to ourselves,
we will perish in a heartbeat. Now as soon as Hezekiah was healed
from his sickness, if you look back there at Isaiah 38 verse
20, This is what he was saying in his new man. He was so thankful,
he was humbled, and he was full of gratitude. In Isaiah 38 verse
20, he said, The Lord was ready to save me, therefore we'll sing
my songs to the string instruments all the days of our life in the
house of the Lord. He was ready to praise God for
the rest of his days. Have you ever been there? You
see the Lord, you see what He's done for you, and I'm going to
pray, I'm serving Him, I'm going to praise Him, I'm glorying in
Him all my days. And all it takes is some health,
and some wealth, and some honor, or any one of those. And we get
puffed up, our flesh, our sinful flesh gets puffed up, and we
become proud, and we think we did it all. and act like we did
everything, like we never even heard of God. And that's what
Hezekiah did. The Lord said, what said these
men? He said, what do these men come
to you about? What's the point of these men
coming to your house, Hezekiah? Did you notice Hezekiah didn't
answer that question? He skipped that question. He
answered the second question. He didn't answer that first question.
Why not? because it had something to do
with the fact they came to inquire about that wonder that was done.
They came to inquire about how that sun went back 15 degrees. These men worshipped the S-U-N,
not the S-O-N. They were base idolaters. And apparently Hezekiah didn't
tell them how that sun went back 15 degrees. He just said, I'd
rather not talk about that. He didn't answer that question.
And another reason he didn't answer it is because if he would
have said they came to inquire about the son because they're
idolaters, the Lord said, why did you even let them into your
house in the first place? Why did it go any further? And so he just skipped that question.
He went on to the next question. The Lord said, from whence came
they unto thee? Listen to this pride. They come
from a far country. They came to see me. Oh, they
traveled a long ways just to see me. All the way from Babylon.
You hear the pride in that? He so lifted up in pride. He
didn't say they came from that cursed, wretched land of Babylon. from that land of Bayside Dallister.
No, he was proud these men came to him. We ought never be proud
of impressing this world for anything. And yet we get so proud
that we can impress people. Some people live to impress this
world. He said, what have they seen
in thine house? Have you declared to them that
everything came from God's hand? Hezekiah, have you told them
God's our salvation? Have you declared how God freely
saved us by His grace and how everything they set their eyes
upon came from the hand of the Lord? Have you told them that,
Hezekiah? Brethren, when men see our stuff, our cars, our
houses, the way we dress, Our face, place, race and grace are
all things men get proud of, we get proud of. And when men
see these things, we take on a proud look, just so proud because
of stuff, because of an inanimate object. that somebody looks upon
that you didn't possess yesterday, the day you possess it, and we
just get so proud that men are looking at our stuff. And God
says, I hate pride. First thing of all the things
I hate, I hate a proud look. And we can't stop it, can we?
That's our flesh. That's all our flesh is. That's all the old nature is
in me and you is pride. And it just takes a little bit
of wooing with wealth and pleasure or wealth and honor and health
and compliment or whatever. And there we go. Puffed up. Puffed up. I've showed them all
that's in my This is why the Lord tried him.
This is why the Lord tries us, that he might know all that was
in his heart. Hezekiah was a faithful believer.
He was a faithful man. He was washed of all his sins
in Christ's surety. His sins were washed away, though
Christ hadn't come and shed a drop of blood yet. His sins were washed
away because Christ was his surety. and he was righteous in Christ
and holy in Christ and God only looked at him in Christ. Righteous
and holy. But the Lord left Hezekiah to
himself just enough to show Hezekiah what he was in his flesh. Just
enough so he could see what he was in his flesh. And he did
exactly what you and I will do if God leaves us to ourselves
just a little while. He became puffed up. Pride is
our worst enemy. It's our worst enemy. That's
all our flesh is. When Scripture says the heart
is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? He's
talking about the sinful flesh that's still in you and still
in me. It's desperately wicked. And we don't even recognize it
when it's happened. Until God comes in the trial,
and sets us down and says, you lift it up. That's what it takes. Just like the first hour it took
God coming and humbling you and abasing you and revealing Christ
in you, He has to do it all over again a thousand times. Bringing us down and showing
us you're nothing but a sinner in your flesh. That's all you
are. So then lastly, here's what I
want you to see. That's why He gives us these
trials. He keeps us humbled to look to Christ, not trust ourselves. And so when He gives this trial,
the Lord humbles us by chastening us. He chastens us with His hand.
He keeps us submitting to Christ. In Chronicles it says, therefore
there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. You
notice, why does it say there was wrath upon Hezekiah and Judah
and Jerusalem? Because when Judah, the inhabitants
of Judah and Jerusalem saw Hezekiah become lifted up in pride and
they saw him proud of all these things and showing off all his
house, they followed him. They became proud and lifted
up. I don't ever want to lead those... We're all leading somebody. Everybody's
leading somebody. I try to tell my children, I
know you're looking up to somebody. Well, remember, there's somebody
looking up to you. And as much as you're looking
to that person that you're following, you look to those people that
are following you and set an example for them. I don't want
to lead somebody away from Christ and sadly, I feel like far too
often that's what I do. We want to lead those that follow
us to Christ, not away from Christ. Hezekiah led the whole Judah
and Jerusalem away from him. They were all lifted up. So the
Lord chastened them all. He chastened Hezekiah, Judah,
Jerusalem, all the inhabitants. He had boasted at all that was
in his house. He said, I showed them all that
was in my house. The Lord said, all that's in
your house is going to be carried away to Babylon. Hezekiah said,
there's nothing in my house they hadn't seen. The Lord said, there's
nothing that they're not going to carry away to Babylon. Every
bit of it. Every bit of it. You think that
was chastening to Hezekiah? What if you've been walking around
bragging about what you've got and showing people what you've
got and that afternoon the Lord came to you and said, alright,
I'm taking it all away from you. That'd bring you down a notch
or two. And that brought him down. That
humbled him. That brought him down. He said
he's even going to take his sons to be eunuchs. Christ is born
our curse, brethren. He's paid the debt we owe to
the justice of God. He's not going to judge His people
and He's not going to cast out one for whom Christ died. But
our faithful Father will chasten us and correct us and keep us
looking to Him only. He will do that. Aren't you thankful?
Aren't you thankful? It's good for me that I've been
afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. I might follow
the Lord. And God's chastening always accomplishes
His will in His child. Look at Isaiah 39 verse 8. Then
Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which
thou hast spoken. He said, Moreover, for there
shall be peace and truth in my days. What's happened here? When this chastening came upon
him, Scripture said Hezekiah humbled himself because of the
pride of his heart. That's what he's doing. He heard
all of this and he was like Eli. Eli said, your sons are going
to die. Eli said, the Lord let him do
what seems good. And he said here, I'm taking
everything away from you Hezekiah. He said, the word of the Lord
is good. He bowed. He submitted to the Lord. He
came down and humbled himself in the dust before the Lord.
This is where the Lord is going to keep His people. Trusting
Him. Looking to Him. Partaking of
His holiness. And so they all came down and
that's where He's going to bring His people. When Hezekiah says,
because there'll be peace in my day, he's not being selfish
here. He's not saying this word's good
because I'm going to have peace. My children and the rest of them
are going to have it rough, but I'm going to have peace. He wasn't
being selfish. He was recognizing and acknowledging I'm a sinner
that deserves everything that's coming. And yet God's been gracious
and merciful to me in spite of me. That's what he was saying,
in spite of me. See, God doesn't ever take away
His gifts from His people. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He doesn't take away His gifts
or His grace from His people. But He will chasten His people.
You see, He took that stuff from Hezekiah, but He didn't take
anything from Hezekiah. That's just stuff. He didn't
take away the spiritual gifts, the true gifts that mattered. He didn't take that away. Because
God doesn't take that away. He may take your stuff away to
humble you and turn you back to the Lord, but He won't take
His grace away. That's what He did. So, let me
end with these few reminders. One, let's give God all the glory
all the time before all. All the glory all the time before
all. And number two, be thankful for
the trial. If He left us to ourselves, we
trust ourselves, but He gives you that trial and shows you
what's in your heart so that you never grow confident in yourself. And let's be thankful for His
faithful correction. Scripture says, Hebrews 12, the
Lord chastens us in love to keep us partaking of His holiness. We have no holiness but His holiness.
He keeps us partaking of His holiness. And you know what? After all this had taken place,
did it change Hezekiah's standing before God in Christ at all? Did any of this sin and rebellion
change his standing before God at all? This is what the Lord
said about him. He trusted in the Lord God of
Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings
of Judah, nor any that were before him. God said, there's none like
him. He's faithful. That's grace,
isn't it? All right, brethren, let's stand
together. Father, we thank you for your
word. We pray you bless it now to our hearts. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.