May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let us turn to the prophecy of
Isaiah chapter 38 and we'll read verse 14. The prophecy of Isaiah
chapter 38 and reading verse 14. 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
for me. We should be very thankful that
we have the Word of God which gives us so many examples of
the life of a true Christian. And these examples prove to us,
under the blessed influence of the work of the Holy Spirit,
that we are amongst those whom the Lord is instructing, whom
the Lord is teaching, and therefore we are as his children. We may sometimes think that we're
Out of the way, sometimes we might think that we don't possess
any true and real religion. Sometimes we might be fearful
we are hypocrites in the things of God. But that's why we have
recorded in the Word of God many remarkable accounts of the saints
of God in their different experiences. And as we read through the Word
of God, There are so many cases. And there are those cases which
come to us and describe to us something of the experience and
the way that the Lord is dealing with us. And therefore such evidences
should be an encouragement to us to realize that although we're
not what we would be, We can say we're not what we were. We
can realize that the holy, gracious God has come to us and directed
us and instructed us and indeed is leading us. Now that pathway
is not always a pathway which we anticipated. It's not always
a pathway to our liking, but it is a pathway that we shall
be able to say, nevertheless, afterward. If you look back in
our little life, we can observe how the good hand of God was
upon us, so that we were instructed in those things which were beneficial
and profitable to our never-dying soul. Well, we are thankful today
that we have a case recorded in some detail of King Hezekiah. He was a godly king. He lived in a time which had
been not so right and not so good, but he'd come to the throne
and God had been with him and God had blessed him. And we may
be tempted to think that when things happen like this it's
all going to be plain sailing it's all going to be easy everything
is going to carry on like this well the Lord God makes us aware
that left to ourselves we are indeed sinners and we're black
sinners and left to ourselves we don't desire the things of
God because as the Apostle Paul said we are calmly minded We
are earthly minded. We go after the poor perishing
things of time. But the Lord in his great love
and mercy deals with his people in a right way which brings them,
as it did Hezekiah, to be able to make this wonderful statement. He says, O Lord, by these things
Men live. And in all these things is the
life of my spirit. You see, he came and he realized
that the position the Lord had brought him into and brought
him out of was to show to him the power of Almighty God. And how wonderful it is that
we still today have that same God. That same gracious God who
does not deal with us as our sins deserve. Now hesychia have
been brought into a time of severe sickness. Severe sickness. And I think we can take that
two ways. We can take that as a natural
sickness of the body. and we can also take it as a
spiritual sickness of our soul and what a blessing it is if
those things lead to the benefit of the health of our soul. Well, in Hezekiah's case, the
Lord came to him and told him, set thine house in order, for
thou shalt die and not live. Well, that was a startling statement,
wasn't it? And he was sick. It wasn't as
though he was well and everything else. No, he was sick. And therefore
the Lord came and told him, set thine house in order, put things
right. You're going to die. You're not going to live. Well,
what did it do to Hezekiah? Did he say, well, I'm going to
enjoy myself for the rest of the days I've got here. That's
what the worldly person does. He says, well, I'm going to enjoy
myself. I'm going to make the most of
my life. I'm going to live my life to the full. Well, what
a great blessing it is if you and I come like Hezekiah. If we're faced with a situation
like this and we should not think that Hezekiah was the only person
that ever had to face this kind of condition. Well, the Lord
showed Hezekiah and therefore Hezekiah turned his face toward
the wall and prayed unto the Lord. What a great blessing it
is for us today if the Lord brings us into difficult situations. And the result is we pray unto
the Lord. Because if that is so, we can
appreciate that it has been used for our soul's good. You know,
we can very easily become in a lukewarm condition as the Bible
speaks to us in that in the revelation in that letter to the seven churches
the church at Laodicea the critical position in their lives was that
they were lukewarm and so today there are many today in the church
of God who are lukewarm well they come to chapel and they
go away and they read the Bible and they They pretend to pray
and yet they're just lukewarm. There's no real burning desire
in their heart that God would bless them indeed. You know, we have that glorious
little prayer in Numbers, the sixth chapter, the last few verses.
Sorry, it's not that, it's in the Chronicles and it's Jabez
that makes that wonderful statement and he says this, O that thou
wouldst bless me indeed. That's what he needed and really
that's what we all need. God to come and bless us indeed. When he came to Hezekiah and
Hezekiah was blessed indeed, the Lord did hear his cry. The Lord did hear his prayer. But the Lord did bring him into
a low state, into a far off condition really, and in a condition where
he had to come by the blessed influence of the Holy Spirit
to pray unto his God. Well, Isaiah the prophet was
sent by God to speak to Hezekiah. Then came the word of the Lord
to Hezekiah, saying, 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, and I will deliver thee
and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria and I
will defend this city. And of course in the case of
Hezekiah he gave him a wonderful sign that this would come to
pass. And as we read he said he would
cause the shadow of the degrees which has gone down on the sundial
at Ahaz to come ten degrees backward. That means there would be a recovering
of time, it would go backwards. The sun was in the sky and instead
of carrying on in the same course, it would go backwards. And that
could only possibly be by the wonderful influence and power
of God. Well, it's good, you know, if
you and I have a recollection of God appearing for us. And
perhaps giving us a sign, it may not be as great and wonderful
as this, but nonetheless it's wonderful if God does encourage
us in our lives to behold the Lord is with us and the Lord
is not dealing with us as our sins deserve. And so we're told. Then the writing of Hezekiah.
We've had here what Isaiah said, and now we come down to what
Hezekiah wrote. He wrote when he had been sick
and was recovered of his sickness. And it's a good example here
for all of us, isn't it? You know, so often, so sadly
it is, We forget to be thankful to our God for deliverances and
how seldom perhaps do we actually sit down and write down what
God has done for us. It's a good thing we have here
an example of that which is good and right. Well, how do we operate? Do we pray? He said, well yeah,
I pray. Do we get answers? The man said,
well yes, sometimes I do. Do we acknowledge it? And do we write it down? Well,
here was Hezekiah writing it down. And the good thing was,
he writes down how he was. How he was. It wasn't all nice
and beautiful and smooth he comes and tells us exactly how he felt,
you know I believe this the work of the Spirit of God makes us
honest we don't pretend to be what we're not we don't pretend
to have had experiences that we haven't but it's good to testify
what God has said and what God has done. And here Hezekiah is
writing. He's been recovered. And he said,
I said, in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates
of the grave. I'm deprived of the residue of
my years. He thought he would die. He thought
there wouldn't be any more years for him. He thought it was fast
hasting on. And that's how he felt. He said,
I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living.
I shall behold man no more with inhabitants of the world. My
age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. Shepherd moves his tent regularly
from one place to another. I've cut off like a weaver my
life, a weaver when he's when he's making a piece of cloth,
when he's come to the end of what he needs to do, he just
cuts the thread. So simple. There it is, the end
of it. He will cut me off with pining
sickness from day even to night. Will it now make an end of me?
And so he says, I reckoned till morning. He worked it out. He reckoned. You and I might
sometimes think and reckon what's going to happen. But as a lion,
So when you break all my bones, from day even to night, will
they make an end of me? We may think we're going to be
utterly destroyed. We may think there's no hope
for us. The devil wants you and me to give up. That's the devil's aim. It always
has been. To make us throw away our religion. to make us consider it's of no
value. It's all of just what we've thought
up. The devil wants us to throw it away, just like he describes
here, and it'll all be broken up. That which perhaps we were
relying on, which we were depending on, will be broken up. Well that's what Hezekiah felt
in this time of trial when this came upon him. He tells us that
as a lion so will he break my bones. From day even to night
would they make an end of me. He saw the end. He saw there
wasn't any hope for him. So he fell. That's why sometimes
the devil brings us to a time when we're ready to give up. To cast away our little hope,
well don't. If you've got a little hope,
don't cast it away. Hold fast. Hold it fast. The devil will tempt you. The
devil will try to overcome you. That's why the next verse describes
a bit more of the detail of this condition with Hezekiah. It tells
us, like as a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn
as a dove. Yes, we might say, well, perhaps
he tried to pray and it just seemed the words didn't come. He didn't have any, we might
term, access to God. He just chattered away. It just
seemed to be just mere words. It wasn't an effectual, fervent
prayer. Just like this, a crane or a
swallow, chattering away. You may think, well, there was
no prayer in that. Again, the devil wants you and
me to conclude that we're not praying. We're not praying. There's no reality. It's just
formality. Just chattering away. And then
he says, I did mourn as a dove. You've no doubt heard the pitiful
mourning of doves. Yes, as they cooed. It's quite
a mourning coo, isn't it? Maybe like we feel sometimes,
we're mourning. Mourning because of our lack
of reality, our lack of feeling, our lack of access. We're mourning
as a Darwin. Our eyes fail. We're looking
upward. We may have stopped raising our
eyes to heaven. We may have looked down. And
all we've seen now is misery. And all we've seen now is failure. That's what the devil wants you
and me to do. He doesn't want us to look up. And
we fail, therefore. And he convinces us there's no
point in looking up. He convinces us it's a waste
of time. He convinces us, well, there's
no real hope. Well, don't forget, the devil
is, always has been, and always will be, a liar. Don't listen
to what the devil says. Listen to what the glorious God
says, and the glorious Gospel, which is encouraging us when
it tells us, Seek and ye shall find, not can it shall be opened
unto you. Yes, we are to press on in this
difficult and dark age in which we live. And then he comes and
he says this, Oh Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake for me. Well, that
was a good expression. He was oppressed, no doubt about
that. But he didn't give up. What was he doing? Praying to
almighty God, desiring that that God would undertake for him safe
ground, my friends, good ground, blessed ground, favoured ground
to come praying to God. Really, it means this casting
all our care upon him, believing he cares for us. undertake for
me." Well, this morning, are we oppressed? You may be oppressed.
You may be oppressed. We don't know. I don't know what
the situation is. You may be sorely oppressed,
and yet you see, you must conclude that Your path is not something
which is unknown. It's a path which is described
in the Word of God to encourage us. And David, obviously we know
he lived before Hezekiah, he had this experience many times
in his life. You can read the Psalms and you'll
trace it out. In 743rd Psalm, He comes and
he prays, Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit fainth. Hide not thy
face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness
in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Well, my friends, what
a blessing it is. although we might feel oppressed. Very much so. To realise that
our hope is in the Lord. It's not in ourselves. It's nowhere
else but in the Lord. And so he comes here and he has
a desire and he's urgent for the blessing of the Lord. Hear
me speedily. Oh Lord, didn't want just to
jog along in this poor old world. He had an urgent desire that
God would look upon him and God would hear him speedily. My spirit
faileth, hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them that
go down into the pit. He had a fear of going down into
the pit and that's what we have sometimes. We may ask ourselves
the question, can ever God dwell here in such a sinful heart as me? Well, thankfully, we have the
testimony here. He wanted, cause me to hear thy
lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk. For I lift up my soul unto
thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do thy will. And then he comes and says, For
thou my God. He couldn't give up the reality
that God was his God. And although he appeared to fear
he was far off, yet his hope was in the Lord, for thou art
my God. What a blessing that is for you
and me today. We realise although we may feel
really oppressed and ready to give up, yet if the Lord comes
and just gives us that encouragement to believe He is our God, he
has been our God look back in your life see how the Lord has been gracious
and the Lord has been mindful of you the devil doesn't want
you to do that but you see sometimes we have to search out sometimes We have to plead that
the Lord will bring back to our remembrance those times of favour,
those times of blessing. And as the Lord is gracious to
it, what does it do? It revives our spirit. Revives
our spirit. Those blessings in time past
forbids me to think He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink. The devil doesn't like us remembering
those things which indeed we have been blessed with in the
past. And sometimes it seems that all our evidences are dark. May the Lord again come and shine
upon them so that as we may say, I am oppressed, may our faith
look up and pray undertake, for me it would be a great blessing
if we are like that. There are some very encouraging
statements in the Word of God which we should remember and
recognise how very wonderful it is and blessed it is that
we have the Word of God to instruct us And we read this in the Acts
of the Apostles, when Peter was preaching and he said in the
10th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, he makes this statement
in verse 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Ghost and with power, remember power belongeth unto God, who
went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the
devil, for God was with him. Well, you should be encouraged
by that. We're told here God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good
and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with
him. And my friends, God today can
still come and heal us if we are oppressed, if we are oppressed. Now, the devil wants us to give
up and to pretend to us that because of our sickness and because
of our illness and our far-offness, as we might feel, there's no
hope and that's why we are indeed oppressed. Well, you see, the
devil often oversteps himself. He makes big mistakes. And he makes big mistakes when
he comes to us trying to sink us, trying to bring us to that
condition. where we are tempted to give
up and think, well, there's no hope for me. No one feels as
bad as me. And in any event, the Lord Jesus
doesn't know and doesn't understand, and I'm out of the way. Well, we should remember the
life of the Savior. Remember the Lord Jesus endured
opposition and hardness so that he is a brother beloved, so that
he does understand your condition and my position. So you might
ask the question this way, well just give me an example of that,
to just encourage me. Well I expect you're familiar,
if you're not, You should be, and if you're not, we'll read
it often, the 53rd chapter in the same prophecy of Isaiah. The 53rd chapter, because it
speaks to us very beautifully about the Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps just reading a few
verses from the fourth verse, we're told that, Surely He hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Never underestimate
the cost of our salvation. All we like sheep, all we, not
just one or two, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have
turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. What a great and glorious God
we have. And then we come to this statement. Be encouraged now. He was oppressed. He was oppressed. Hezekiah says, I am oppressed. You may say this morning, I am
oppressed. Well, here we have the statement
with regard to the glorious Saviour. He was oppressed. What does that mean? What it
means is this. You and I have a companion with
someone who understands the very position that we find ourselves
in. And you may be asking the question,
why? Why am I like this? Why have I been brought down
to this condition and situation? Why is it? Well, what a blessing
if the gracious God opens our eyes, our spiritual eyes, to
appreciate that the Lord brings us into such a condition to grant
us the wonderful privilege of union and communion with the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was oppressed. You're saying, I am oppressed. Hezekiah said, I am oppressed.
The Lord was oppressed. Well, what is the benefit of
it? To know the Lord Jesus Christ
endured all these things in order that he might redeem our souls. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. And what did he do? Did he go
about complaining and cursing God? Not at all. He opened, not
his mouth. He opened, not his mouth. It was the gracious and glorious
dealing of our Heavenly Father with his only begotten Son, so
that he experienced this, so that his church as they walk
upon the earth and suffer such situations, realizing it is for their spiritual good. And as I sometimes say, especially
you young people, to realize that the Word of God, the Bible,
is a spiritual book. And it demonstrates to us the
path of a true Christian. Not a path of a pseudo-Christian. Someone who pretends to be a
Christian, who doesn't enter into a path like this, really
doesn't understand the blessing of union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so, perhaps, as we know that
Hezekiah was a man who was blessed indeed, and as he came, and as
I already said, he tells us, by these things men live. Spiritually, our life is recovered. He tells us, he said, Behold,
for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of
corruption but thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back what
a blessing it is to have the evidence that God is bringing
us to be oppressed because of love to our souls See, natural man would not understand
it. But what a blessing when the
lights of the glorious gospel shines into our hearts that we
realize this is part of the path of the blessed family of God,
so that we are favored to realize here was the Savior. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened
not his mouth. No, we're all receiving in this
pathway instruction from Almighty God. Remember the Word of God
tells us He led them forth by the right way that they might
go to a city of habitation. The Lord leads us in a right way and that right
way is to bring us closer to Christ. That's the right way. The devil would have us in the
wrong way, taking us away from Christ. But blessed be God, the
Holy Spirit works in our hearts to bring us into union and communion
with the Saviour. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth, He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as sheep before a shearer's is dumb. He opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression. of my people was he stricken. Yes, wonderful testimony, wonderful
example of the great and glorious Saviour. So this morning, may
we be able to come and perhaps join with Hezekiah and say, O
Lord, I have oppressed, but let us not despair. Let us be encouraged
to realise this is, strange as it may seem, the pathway the
saints of God and can come in and commit our way unto him and
say Lord undertake for me you see the Lord will because bringing
us into this position brings us to realize the reality of
true religion and to help us to cast all our care upon Him,
believing He cares for us. And so, as I already said, O
Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the
life of my spirit. Hezekiah is telling us here that
without these things, without these oppressions, We don't really
truly understand and benefit the great blessing of union with
Christ. What a mercy it is to know that
it is through these things indeed we have peace. He says, Behold,
for peace I have great bitterness, but there has to be love to my
soul. And that puts things right. Delivered
it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins
behind thy back. For the grave cannot praise thee.
No. If we just die without understanding
these things, it won't be of any honor and glory to God. The grave cannot praise thee.
Death cannot celebrate thee. They that go down to the pit
cannot hope for thy truth. And then he comes, the living.
the living, those that understand the great truths of the gospel,
those that know by blessed personal experience, union with Christ,
the living, the living, he shall praise thee. He tells us, as
I do this day, he sets before us an example. Where may you
and I be able to be found amongst the living, who indeed praise
the Lord for his goodness in bringing us this way, the right
way, which leads to eternal life, the living and living. He shall
praise thee as I do this day. The father to the children shall
make known thy truth. You know, it's very necessary,
isn't it? That we as parents can make known
these great truths to our children. It's not the way that the world
thinks. No, but it is the path that God's
children are led into. Because to be blessed with communion
and union with Christ, to understand something of his amazing love
for such unworthy sinners, is a wonderful blessing which, outside
of Christ, is not known, is not experienced. Well, I hope this
morning, as we just said a few things upon this 38th chapter
in the Book of Isaiah, to realize the work of God in the heart
of Hezekiah. Yes, by these things men live. And may we not therefore be disappointed,
but may we be encouraged to believe that through these things there
is the evidence of the life of God in our soul. And therefore,
through his grace and love and mercy, one day we shall be forever
with the Lord. Amen.