Isaiah chapter 38. Would you like to have days added
to your life? Right now you might not think
that's all that big a deal, but what if you found out today's
the last one? Most everybody wants to live
a long life. In our text, the Lord gives Hezekiah
15 more years to live in this earth. But those 15 years and
the way that Hezekiah had those 15 years added to his life is
an illustration to us of how God gives eternal life. Isaiah
38 verse 4, Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,
Go and say to Hezekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of David
thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. Behold, I will add unto thy days
fifteen years. Let's consider, first of all,
Hezekiah. The verse says, Go and say to
Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a dying man in need
of mercy. That's what a dying man is. He's
in need of mercy. Back in verse 1, we read that
Hezekiah was sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amos, came unto him and said, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine
house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. You know, that's
true of everybody here in this room right now. You set your
house in order because you're going to die and you're not going
to live. And that's true of everybody who is outside of Christ. You
right now are sick unto death. Spiritually dead, sick unto death.
And you're going to die and meet God. And it's true of every believer
here. We get in this body of death
and we're dying every moment in this life. And very soon this
body is going to return to the dust from which it came. And
we're going to stand before God. We're going to meet God. We're
sick unto death. and we need to set our house
in order, we're going to die. No doubt about that. The reason
that we don't take this as seriously as Hezekiah did here is because
we don't think it's today. The wise man said, because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart
of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Well, that's the case with Hezekiah,
and that's the case with every sinner sitting here in this room
today. Thou shalt die and not live.
Here's the second thing to consider. Consider the Word of the Lord.
Verse 5 says, Thus saith the Lord. You know, are you interested
in what the Lord has to say? Does that interest you at all? This is the Lord you will face. This is the Lord I'll face. I
wanna know what he says. I'm interested in what he has
to say. You remember Naaman said, I thought. He thought, and this
is true about Naaman. Somebody said this, Naaman thought
he was a honorable man who just happened
to be a leper. But Naaman was a leper that just
happened to be an honorable man. And that's the case with every
sinner. We're all sinners. There just happen to be some
that are like the flower of the grass. But the flower of the
grass comes up last and it withers first. But the grass and all
of it together withers. It withers. Men and women hear
the Gospel, they read what's preached in God's Word, they
see it in black and white on the page, and they'll say, well,
I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that. When
Isaiah came back into Hezekiah's room, and he came back in here
and he says, Thus saith the Lord, Do you think Hezekiah at that
point, do you think he began to pipe up and say, no, I don't
agree with what the Lord has to say? At that point, Hezekiah
shut his mouth and his ears were wide open and he was eager to
hear what the Lord had to say. What does the Lord have to say?
You see, we're going to have to be brought to the place where
we truly are made to know you're about to die. You're dead spiritually. and you're about to die, and
you won't live. And when He strips us and brings
us down to the place where He makes us dying men in need of
God to show us mercy, then when we hear, thus saith the Lord,
we'll shut our mouths and we'll open up our ears and we'll be
eager to hear what does the Lord have to say? What does He have
to say? I'm not interested in what men
have to say. I want to know what does the
Lord have to say? And then the sinner will stop
spouting off and he'll listen to the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Here's the third thing. Let's
consider the Lord. And we'll spend a little more
time right here. Verse 5. He said, Go say to Hezekiah.
He's just a sinner, a dying man in need of mercy. He said, Thus
saith the Lord. Hezekiah has been made now to
bring himself low to where he can hear now the Word of the
Lord. And here's what the Lord begins
with. of David, thy father." Don't you think that's interesting?
That that's the first thing the Lord began to speak when he sent
Isaiah back in there to speak to Hezekiah. He said, God, the
God of David, thy father. David was indeed Hezekiah's father. He was from the lineage of David. But David, being a man after
God's own heart, the King who was after God's own heart. He's
a picture of Christ. He's a picture of Christ Jesus
the Lord. Christ is the last Adam. He's the ever-living, everlasting
Father of all His children, so that it can truly be said, the
God of David, thy Father. If you're a believer, Christ
is your Father. And as the second person in the
Trinity, Jesus Christ is God. He's the Son of God. But as mediator,
as the prophet, priest, and king of his people, the Lord said
this, when he was risen, he said, go to my brethren, say unto them,
I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. That's the mediator. God is the God of Christ, our
Father. Our Father. And as David was
the man after God's own heart, so Christ was after God's own
heart. He's well-pleasing to God for
His righteousness sake. Turn over to Psalm 16. Psalm
16. The Lord's going to do what He's
doing to Hezekiah for the sake of David. Just as the Lord is
going to save His people out of this world into eternal life
for the sake of His Son Christ Jesus. Now the active fulfillment
of the law, the whole fulfillment of the law of God is faith which
worketh by love. It's love and it works by faith. And by that active fulfillment
of the law, by faith, working, by love, Christ satisfied, fulfilled
the law and satisfied divine justice as a man. Let's consider the faith of Christ
just a minute. Well, I'm gonna have you read
something in Psalm 16, but let me get your attention here. Let
me talk to you about the faith of Christ. when Christ willingly
submitted himself to the Lord to be made sin for his people.
This is where we see his faithfulness magnified. He was faithful all
his life on this earth, but this is where we see it magnified.
When he, this spotless Lamb of God, when he submitted himself
to the Lord to be made sin for his people, he did so knowing
that the judgment of God would follow. He did so knowing that
separation from God would follow. He did so knowing that the wages
of sin is death and he knew he would die and he knew he would
be put into a tomb. But he did still submit himself
to the Father because he trusted the Father to raise him again
from the dead. He believed the Word of God. He believed God the Father. He trusted Him. And that, brethren,
is the faith of our Savior serving and is the active fulfillment
of the Law of God. Now, read Psalm 169 with me.
This is David speaking, but this is, watch this. I've set the
Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall
not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to seek corruption. Let's get a commentary on that.
Turn over to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verse 25. This is that message Peter preached
on the day of Pentecost, and he tells us the meaning of that
psalm we just read. Acts 2.25, For David speaketh
concerning him the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, I foresaw
the Lord always before my face. That's what we just read, isn't
it? I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on
my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my
heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh
shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou
hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full
of joy with thy countenance. Now Peter says, Men and brethren,
let me speak freely unto you of the patriarch David. He is
both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this
day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne,
he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ. That's
what that passage is talking about, that His soul was not
left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption. So in that,
the Lord was going to the cross, and He's entrusting all into
the hands of the Father. Do you see faith in that? Do
you see how He's faithful to the Father, knowing what He's
going to have to suffer? Now, at the same time, He did
what He did not constrained by any law, not motivated by any
law, He did what He did out of love and loves the fulfillment
of the law. That's why He did what He did.
Christ endured the cross out of love for His God, love for
the Father, to declare God just and the justifier. And He did
what He did with unfeigned love, with a pure love for those that
the Father had given Him to redeem. And he went to that cross to
shed his blood for that reason. And at the same time, though,
the penalty of the loss got to be fulfilled. We offended God,
so justice has got to be satisfied. It's not enough that this one,
as our representative, fulfilled the active fulfillment of the
law and the precept of the law, in submitting himself to the
Father, in trusting the Father implicitly, in loving God and
his brethren, something else has got to happen. We've got
to be justified from our sins. We've got to pay everything that
we owe to God. You see, in order for God to
be just and save a sinner, and you hear this right here and
you let this sink in, in order for God to save a sinner, that
sinner has got to suffer everything every other sinner suffers. If you're going to enter into
Heaven's glory, you have got to have suffered everything that
every sinner in hell suffers. You've got to suffer death. The
wages of sin is death. You're going to have to suffer
hell. Separation from God is hell. And you're going to have
to suffer that. When Christ cried out, My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? He was suffering hell. and He was suffering it in the
place of a people given to Him so they wouldn't have to suffer
it. You want to talk about Christ being made sin being a mystery?
What about God forsaken God? We want to set up our intellect
as being the bar of what's believable and not believable? You try to
get that little puny mind around this. We bow to God. We bow to God. And when he was laid in the grave,
when he died, this one being made sin, is there any question
he was made sin? Did he die? Did he really die? Why do you make an issue out
of this, Clay? Because as real as he suffered and died, and
put away the sin of his people, that same proportion of his people
made the righteousness of God in him. And I like that. I love that. That's not just a minor issue.
That's the issue. He did this for a particular
people and he accomplished this work. That's not just a minor
issue. That's the issue. This is the gospel. The gospel. And when he did this, justice
was satisfied, sin was purged, and it is finished. So truly
brethren, we started this point, I started this point showing
you that God started out and he said, what I'm going to do
for you Hezekiah, I'm going to do for you because I'm God and
father of David. God of David, your father. And
what our Lord's going to do for His people, He's going to do
it because Christ highly exalted Him. He fulfilled the law. He
magnified the law. He honored the law. And He did
it in precept and penalty. And we don't see it anywhere
else more clearly, more manifestly than at Calvary's Cross. I tell
you, the closer we stay to Calvary's tree, the quicker all our problems
will be solved. The more we dive into that water,
the more we'll be cleansed of all the impurities that lead
us astray. We just stay right there. We'll
find all we need right there. Everything about God's attributes
are manifest right there. He declared, Christ declared,
God's worthy for us to put all our trust in. And He declared
at the cross that He's worthy for us to completely trust Him.
And He did everything He did out of love for the Father. Out
of total love for the Father. And wherefore God also hath highly
exalted Him. That's what we looked at this
morning. He's given Him a name above every
name. Now, if God saves you or me, He's going to save us for
the sake of Christ Jesus. Just as He said here to Hezekiah,
I will save you for David's sake. Look there with me. Look back
at Isaiah 37, 35. You remember that? He said, I will defend this city
to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake. David's a picture of Christ.
He said, that's what I'm going to do for my own sake and for
my servant David's sake. Look down at Isaiah 38, 6. I'll
deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria
and I'll defend this city. Why? Because I'm God of David,
thy father. I've promised him, and I'm going
to do everything because I've promised him. He promised me,
and he did everything he promised me. Christ did everything he
promised the father, and the father's going to do everything
he promised the son. And he said, for his sake, I'm
going to save you. What do we say to that? What
do we do with this now? Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
and you perish. You come to Him, a dying sinner,
in need of Him to show you mercy. Did Hezekiah do that? Well, let's
consider the fourth thing. Repentance and faith. This is
the order of salvation. This is how it pleased the Father
to carry this out through Christ, the head of the church, through
the Spirit of God. This is how it pleased the Father.
God sent Isaiah to him first. Isaiah is here. He is a picture
of Christ, the prophet. We see him speaking to the heart
of his child by the Holy Spirit. And he does it through this earthen
vessel, Isaiah. And all Isaiah says is, Thus
saith the Lord. He just delivers the message
God's given him to deliver. And then this word, the first
thing it did was it stripped Hezekiah. Thou shalt die and
not live. And then he left Hezekiah to
mull it all over. Isaiah walked away, left him,
to mull it all over and to think about it. And Hezekiah said,
I've cut off my days. Now the Lord's cut me off forever. We saw that last time we looked
at this chapter. You remember Bethel? Well, let
me tell you what happened at Bethel. The Lord came. one of the pre-incarnate manifestations
of the Lord Jesus. He came to Jacob and he wrestled
Jacob. Jacob didn't wrestle the Lord.
You don't wrestle the Lord. The Lord wrestled Jacob and the
Lord pinned Jacob down and he put his thigh out of the joint
and the Lord began to withdraw from Jacob. And when he began
to withdraw from Jacob, just like Isaiah came here, a picture
of Christ coming through his messenger, through his gospel,
he comes and he delivers the Word. You're going to die and
you're not going to live. And Isaiah left. But when Christ
began to draw away from Jacob, Jacob latched on to him and began
to cry out, have mercy on me, bless me, bless me, bless me.
And that's how Jacob prevailed with the Lord. He begged him
for mercy. And that's what happened here.
Isaiah came, he delivered the news, he withdrew. And Ezekiel
began to beg for mercy. When did he beg for mercy? Look
at verse 14. We saw this last time. He said,
like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as
a dove. Mine eyes fell looking upward. Oh Lord, I'm oppressed. Undertake
for me. You know what that is? You know
what we just heard right there in this simple little phrase,
Lord undertake for me? We just heard Hezekiah repent
from all those works of righteousness he was involved in. And he was
involved in a lot of works of righteousness. He was a faithful
man. He was a faithful king. He was serving God. He was doing
much and he was needed badly in that time. But not badly enough
to think it was him alone doing the work. And God had to teach
him. He wasn't doing the work. God
was doing the work. So God brought him to this place
and he repented from all that. He repented from all the works
that were going on in Jerusalem at the time. He repented from
all the things he was doing that were and he thought he was so
vitally important that he couldn't be done without. Guess what?
I'm not that important and ain't nobody in this room that important.
That God cannot remove us and still do his work until we or
brought down to know that, he won't use this. He won't use
this. But he repented from all that
and then he finally said, Lord, I'm oppressed, undertake for
me. You be sure to do it for me.
Lord, whatever you would have done, you do it for me. Reach Your arms underneath me
and gird me and undertake for me. Reach Your arms about and
grab me and pull me into Your breast and whatever You want
to do, whichever way You want to go, whatever Your will is,
I'm satisfied with it, Lord, whether it be to take me to Heaven's
glory right now or leave me here in this earth, whatever You undertake
for me. And then the Word of Grace came.
God sent Isaiah, picture of Christ speaking, through the Holy Spirit,
through his earthen vessel. And he said, Go and say to Hezekiah,
Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, I have
heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears. His prayer here
represents faith, O Lord, undertake for me. That's what he was praying.
And it represents, these tears represent repentance. Hezekiah
turned for himself. He was crying over all that stuff
he had going on. He forsook it. He just turned
to the Lord and said, Lord, undertake for me. That's repentance and
faith. That's a radical change of direction,
a radical change of mind, a radical change of heart. Well, this is
what Galatians 5, 6 says. In Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
When God works grace in our hearts, you know what He does? The believer
is born of the Spirit of Christ, and when that happens, the Spirit
of Christ is imparted unto us, and we're made partakers of the
divine nature, so that we love what Christ loves, and we hate
what He hates. And by this work, He turns us
from ourselves, from our works of righteousness, to faith in
Christ, in whom we have established the whole law of God perfectly.
You see, Christ trusted the Father, and He's going to bring us to
trust Christ. And in Him, we fulfill the whole
law perfectly. And then, having the Spirit of
Christ in us, the love of Christ constrains us. And we do everything
not because we're motivated by the power and rules and regulations
of men, but by love in the heart. Faith works by love. The believer
is as free from the law as a dead man, and he's as alive unto God
as Christ. And even as those saints are
already in glory with Him. You think there's going to be
the Ten Commandments in glory? Why would you need them? Law's
not made for a righteous man. Why would you need them? Well, the Hebrew writer says
to the believer, you've not come to the mountain that might be
touched, that trembled and quaked and was on fire and scared them
all to death. That's Mount Sinai. You've come
to Mount Zion. Come to the lawgiver. Come to
the judge. Come to the mediator. The one
who has the law in his hands. and who says, I'm the satisfaction
to it, I've done all to accomplish it, and we're led of the Spirit
of God. I am. I want to show you something
in Romans chapter 3. This whole chapter, Paul's been
declaring that Christ came to show us what true righteousness
is without the deeds of the law, apart from the works of the law.
And that righteousness is by the faithfulness of Christ Jesus
Himself. That's what I was telling you
before. And when He gives us faith, by faith in Him, look
at verse 31. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. Believing on Christ, we establish
the law. We completely fulfill the law.
It doesn't mean we believe on Christ and then we go about trying
to keep all the law of God so we can fulfill it. We have fulfilled
it by faith in Christ. We establish the law by faith
in Him. Can we show you the contrast?
Turn to Romans 10. Paul says in verse 2, I bear
them record. He's talking about his kinsmen
after the flesh. They have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, that's Christ, and going about to, you see that
word, establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. We're going to either establish
this righteousness by faith, Are we going to go about to establish
it by our doing? Not both. The difference is the
difference between law and grace. Who's this righteousness? Verse
four, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe. You can read on there and you
see Moses described the righteousness which is of the law. The man
which doeth those things shall live by them. You living by the
law? It's all in your hands then.
You got to do it all. Alt word and deed. You started
off a breaker of it. So no matter your best deeds,
you're not going to do it. Not going to do it. But by faith
in Christ, we've established it. It's established. And now
faith works by love, not by law. Well, here's the last thing then.
Let's consider eternal life. When God's work, this work, as
we see illustrated here in Hezekiah, He brings us to behold what He's
done for us by His Son. When He brings us to behold this
through His Spirit and causes us to cry out and say, Lord,
You undertake for me. You know what that's saying?
Salvation is of the Lord. Beginning to end. He's the author
and finisher. Everything I need, He is. Everything that I need in this
life, He will provide it. Everything I need to be kept,
He will keep me. Everything I need he will bring
me to himself salvations of the Lord a disease It's of the Lord
Lord undertake for me. Have you done? Have you cast
all your care into Christ? And I don't mean some of it and
now you're gonna spit shine the rest of yourself. I'm saying
all of it We got to be sanctified from that dirty mop of the flesh
whereby we think we can sanctify ourselves That's what true sanctification
is That's not double talk that's so We got to be separated from
this flesh, from the idea of this flesh, from the vain imagination
of this flesh, that we somehow can do something in our flesh
to make ourselves perfect. We make perfect by God, not by
us. Or else God's going to have to
share His glory with us. And God's not going to share
it. He's not going to share His glory. Well, let's consider this
eternal life. What does He do when He brings
a sinner to say, Lord, undertake for me? Here's what He did for
Hezekiah. Verse 6, Isaiah 38, 6. He said, I'm sorry, end of verse 5. He
said, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. Go down to verse
7. And this shall be a sign unto
thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that
he hath spoken. Behold, I will bring again the
shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz
ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees
by which degrees it was gone down. Do you think that's any
great feat? The Lord turned back time. The
Lord made the sun go back ten degrees. The Lord made time. God Almighty is the Father of
time. He made time. He made the atmosphere
of grace in which He works out the salvation of His people to
show us that all glory and dominion is His. It's nothing for Him
to turn back the Son. He really did this. He really
turned back the Son. There's something very much more
shown here in what He did, turning back the Son like this. He gave Hezekiah 15 years. It's an illustration of God giving
eternal life to His people. He doesn't just add 15 years
to the life of His servant. You know, if we come to know
Him and really know Him and trust Him, when our time comes for
us to leave this life, He'll give us grace. He'll give us
grace to where we won't want to be here anymore. We don't
want to be here now, really. But we still have these fleshly
attachments and these fleshly ties that make us to be torn
on that matter, if we're just honest. But when it's time, He'll
give us grace. Why? Because He's going to make
us to know, I've given you eternal life. You're not dying. You're
not passing away. All this stuff's passing away.
You're coming into the reality which you've been wanting to
see all your life. Look over at Isaiah 53.10. Isaiah
53.10. This is the result of the work
of our Lord. Isaiah 53.10. It pleased the
Lord to bruise him. Propitiation is made. Satisfaction
is made. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong days. and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. Psalm 21. Go home and read that. It says... Let's look at it. Psalm 21. Real quick, we'll close
with this. Psalm 21. This is the Lord speaking, or
this is at least spoken of the Lord after His death, burial,
and resurrection. The King shall joy in Thy strength,
O Lord, and in Thy salvation how greatly shall He rejoice.
Thou hast given Him His heart's desire and hast not withholden
the request of His lips. For Thou preventest him with
the blessings of goodness, Thou settest a crown of pure gold
on his head. He asked life of Thee, and Thou
gavest it him even length of days, for ever and ever. His
glory is great in Thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast Thou laid
upon him. For thou hast made him most blessed
for ever. Thou hast made him exceeding
glad with thy countenance." That's true of Christ. That's what God
did for Christ. And you know what He did when
He did that for His Son? He did it for all His people.
He raised them. And this is what He makes us
to see, what He makes us to behold when He comes and speaks grace
in our hearts. He says, His seed also will I
make to endure for ever. Christ's seed, Christ's children.
And His throne as the days of heaven. No end. of His kingdom
and His dominion, there should be no end. It will grow in peace. Do you behold your sin? Why do
you always talk about sin? Why do you always got to talk
about sin? Don't you talk about something else? Everything in this world is sin.
Everything about this world is sin. Everywhere you look is sin. The thing you love the most in
this world is sin. It's sin. And you gotta be saved
from it. And the only one that's gonna
save us, and that's the Lord of Salvation. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit manifest in the person
of His Son, Jesus Christ. Are you sick unto death? You
know what I hope you'll cry out? You know what I hope you'll bring
you to cry out? Oh, Lord. I am oppressed. Undertake for
me. And you know what He promises
to do for all those that He brings to cry out that cry? He'll undertake for them. He'll
undertake for them. Well, I pray we'll trust Him. Amen.