May it please almighty God to
bless us this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 38 and we'll read verse 16. That's the prophecy of Isaiah
chapter 38 and reading verse 16. Oh Lord, by these things
men live. And in all these things is the
life of my spirit. So will thou recover me and make
me to live. Well, Hezekiah was a man of God. And therefore the Lord dealt
with Hezekiah as was needful in his life. And we should recognize
that the Lord graciously deals with us as is needful in our
lives. And the result was that it proved
to be a time of blessing for Hezekiah and the time of instruction
for him. And so it is today in our lives. If we are indeed the children
of God, the Lord graciously comes and deals with us and indeed
blesses us. And so we find in this 38th chapter,
the account of Hezekiah. Hezekiah is spoken of quite a
lot in the Word of God in the Kings and in the Chronicles,
but this is the only place where we read of the Lord's dealings
with him. So we're grateful that it is
an account of what the Lord did and how he appeared for him. So Amos the prophet was sent
by the Lord to tell him to set his house in order for thou shalt
die and not live. Well that was not an easy thing
obviously to assimilate to realize that He must get moving and get
his house ready for the time when he would die. And so such
news brought him into a time of sorrow and a time of prayer
because he came and he prayed to God about it. And the result was that the Lord
came again through the prophet and said that he would add to
him his life 15 years. And so it was a promise from
God and therefore it was a favor of God. And the Lord gave him
a wonderful view and a wonderful physical statement as to how
he would know that emanated from the Lord by telling him that
the sundial, that means the sun itself would go back in the sky
10 degrees. And so it did. And so it was
clear that the Lord had spoken through the prophet to Hezekiah. And then we read the writing
of Hezekiah, King of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered
of his sickness. And it's a good thing when we
are favored to recover that we're able to testify of what God has
done to us and for us in a time of sickness, because it must
bring honor and glory to God. And therefore in the ninth verse,
we have the statement of his spiritual dealings with God. And the king said, I saw 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 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. My age has 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?
And so he tells us, I reckon till morning that as a lion so
will you break all my bones, from day even to night. Wilt
thou make an end of me? He tells us, like a crane or
a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove. Mine eyes
failed me looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake
for me. What shall I say? He hath both
spoken unto me, and himself hath done it. I shall go softly all
my years in the bitterness of my soul. So that's a testimony
that he gives to us. And then he comes to this 16th
verse, and he says, O Lord, by these things men live, and in
all these things is the life of my spirit. will they recover
me and make me to live. So it's quite clear that Hezekiah
understood the reason for the Lord's dealings with him. And
it will be really good for us if we understand the dealings
of the Lord with us, because he says, oh Lord, by these things
men live. It would appear, therefore, that
if these things had not come into Hezekiah's life, he would
have been just carrying on, we might say almost aimlessly, without
any true and real desire about his natural life and about his
spiritual life. And so he tells us, by these
things men live. Without them, it would seem that
he would not have been found in that healthy state spiritually. What a blessing, therefore, if
in our lives we find that God takes us in hand and deals with
us in love to our souls, because that's really what happened to
Hezekiah. He tells us, Behold, for peace
I great bitterness, but Thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption. Thou hast cast all my sins behind
thy back. Well, what a great blessing it
is to know that God is dealing with us in love to our soul. Surely that is a vital consideration. We don't want to be found just
wandering on, as it were, aimlessly in this world content with the
vanities that it can produce. What a mercy if God therefore
deals with us as he dealt with Hezekiah and brought him to these
wonderful conclusions. Oh Lord, by these things men
live and in all these things is the life of my spirit. To think that God therefore dealt
with Hezekiah and it's good if you and I can trace out God's
dealings with us. David man of God in the 22nd
Psalm he tells us this none can keep alive his own soul we might
think that we can the reality is left to ourselves the devil
would crowd in and crowd out the things of God. We need the
Spirit of God. We need the mercy of God. And of course, in David's life,
he had a life of many ups and downs. And probably the worst
situation which occurred to him was when he was tempted by the
devil with that case of adultery with Bathsheba. And then of course,
that led on to him murdering her husband by instructing Jabb,
the chief in the army, to put him right in the front of the
war, so that almost certainly he would die, and of course he
was killed. Well, David, sadly, initially
thought that his sin would be hidden, but of course our sins
are not hidden. God knows all about them. And
that's why God in his providence and mercy enabled David to write
the 51st Psalm. And he indeed could have used
the same words that Hezekiah used, O Lord, by these things
men live. Because what did it do? It brought
David to be able to write the 51st Psalm. We won't go all through
it. But it starts off with these
words, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgression. That tells us he realized he
needed mercy. It tells us he needed the forgiveness
of his sins. And so the Lord dealt very graciously
with David. Oh Lord, by these things men
live. It caused him to truly seek unto
his God, to truly confess his sins unto his God. And what a
good thing it is when the Lord has dealt with us in our lives
in these ways. to have brought us to a similar
situation. And you know, another thing that
it did in David's life, it made him recognize that he wasn't
quite as strong. He wasn't quite as perfect as
he perhaps thought at one time he was. And we can read in the
102nd Psalm and the 23rd verse when he tells us, he weakened
my strength in the way. Yes, he weakened David's strength
and he weakens our strength, the strength that we may be relying
upon, our natural ability, our natural strength to stand firm,
to stand against all the temptations of Satan. And we will have to
recognize and learn that sometimes God weakens our strength to show
us that left to ourselves, we can't keep alive our own soul. We need God to graciously come
and to bless us and to graciously deal with us. So then we come
and are able to confirm with Hezekiah, oh Lord, by these things
men live. And in all these things is the
life of my spirit. It's a great blessing if the
Lord God deals with us in love to our soul. We know, of course, also, there
are many examples in the Word of God, and we can think of the
apostle Peter, who was very confident in his own ability, in his own
strength. When the Lord told him that he
would deny the Saviour three times, He denied it and he said
he would die for the Saviour. He would never do such a thing. And yet, just a few hours later,
you know, he denied the Lord those three times. And with oaths
and curses, he was so vehement in the statement that he did
not know the Lord. But of course, the Lord was very
gracious, very gracious to Peter, because he turned and looked
upon Peter and what a mercy it is when God looks upon us not
in a physical way like he did to Peter but nonetheless he looks
upon us and perhaps touches our heart to show us who we are and
what we are and therefore what happened to Peter didn't it go
over his head oh no had a gracious effect didn't it And we're told
in Matthew 26 and verse 75, the last verse in that chapter, Peter
remembered the word of Jesus. Oh yes, he wouldn't be able to
forget it, would he? He remembered the word of Jesus,
which said unto him, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me
thrice. So did he just carry on? Oh no,
it had a blessed effect. And the blessing effect in Peter's
life was this, he went out and wept bitterly. Surely we can
say in his case, these words were true, oh Lord, by these
things men live. And in all these things is the
life of my spirit. The Lord deals with his people
in different ways, but he does deal with them And he does bring
them to recognize their dependence upon the power of God, the keeping
power of God. That's why Peter in his epistle
tells us, kept by the power of God, through grace, unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. He realized that he could
only be kept by the power of God. by these things men live
and what a good and blessed favour it is for us today if the Lord
deals with us like it did Hezekiah in love to his soul like it did
with David and Peter in love to their soul and may it be so
with us in love to our soul that we can acknowledge that Lord
is and has dealt with us and through these things our life,
our spiritual life is lively and we are not dead and we're
not left to ourselves. We have the case of Job also
and I'm sure these examples are very different and yet they're
all powerful examples of the work of God in the souls of his
people. Job was a very prosperous man. God had blessed him abundantly,
and it would seem that God was not ignorant of God's blessing
and favour toward him, and he was concerned about his children
and how they operated, and therefore prayed for them. And yet, you
see, the Lord saw fit to bring adversity into the life of Job
and indeed very serious adversity. So basically he really lost almost
everything. Initially you see he was blessed
and able to say the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed
be the name of the Lord. Then you see as the days went
on his three friends came and reasoned with him we find then
that there was from time to time bitterness springing up in his
soul but the three friends and life has also we spoke to him
really didn't have any really good effect. And they said many
good things, some bad things, but many good things, but they
did not really lay hold upon Job until we come towards the
end of the account of Job, the Lord speak. You see, when the
Lord speaks, there is power in the word. And there's no room
then to argue. There's no room to disagree because
the Lord speaks very directly and very clearly. And so he spoke
to Job and convinced him of his situation and convinced him of
his sin. And so in the very last chapter,
the 42nd chapter, In the book of Job, in the fifth
and sixth verses, this is what Job says, I have heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. That
was, of course, the eye of faith. Now mine eye seeth thee. And the result, wherefore I abhor
myself and repent in dust and ashes. That's a great blessing,
isn't it? If the Lord brings us to that
position. Oh Lord, by these things men
live. And in all these things is the
life of my spirit. Job was not going to be cast
off. The Lord was dealing with him
in love to his soul, but it brought him right down. And he had to
say in the Previous chapters, behold, I am vile. He didn't have any great opinion
of himself. The Lord had convicted him. The
Lord had condemned him. By these things, men live. And yet, as we know, the last
section of that 42nd chapter tells us how the Lord prospered
Job He was told to pray for his friends, and he did. And God
greatly blessed the latter end of Job. But in his life, there
had been accomplished the gracious working out of this word, O Lord,
by these things men live, and in all these things is the life
of my spirit. surely is a blessing to have
God to deal with us as he did with Hezekiah in love to his
soul. It's a wonderful statement. Surely it just brings such power
to this passage to realize that these things were proved to Job. God loved him and to prove to
Hezekiah that God loved him. and Peter and David. And then
just lastly, perhaps we'll think about Joseph. God dealt with
Joseph. Again, we can imagine Joseph
coming to the Lord and giving him those two remarkable dreams. And then his father told him
to go and find his brethren and find out how they were doing. And we can imagine him traveling
to find them, walking through the fields, probably thinking
about all the natural things and perhaps enjoying the scenes
that he saw. Little did he appreciate, little
did he understand what was before him. And yet you see, the Lord
was dealing with him graciously. The Lord was dealing with him
to show him his power. and to show him what he would
do for him. And we know, you can read in
the Psalms, how he was in prison, how the word of God tried him,
how he was in pain with the chains and irons that he was in. But
nonetheless, the Lord had not forsaken him. And later on, after
his father died and his brethren had come to him fearful of what
would happen to them. He was able to tell them these
words, words of truth in Genesis 50 and verse 20. But as for you,
ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring
to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. God dealt with love to Joseph
and of course God dealt with love to so many in preserving
them and providing food for them. God's purpose for Joseph was
very great and very wonderful and surely this was true of him. O Lord by these things men live
And in all these things is the life of his spirit. It's a gracious thing then to
know that God was dealing with them. Now then, what did it do
really in these cases? What did it do in the case of
Hezekiah? Well, it brought them to prayer. And what would it do to us today? If things appear to be against
us, what will it do? If we are a true believer, it
will bring us in prayer. And that won't be just a mere
form of words. It'll be crying unto God, as
we've already spoken of David's prayer. Have mercy upon me, O
God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies. blot out my transgressions. Indeed, that was the case of
Hezekiah, because he tells us in this 17th verse, 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. Clear it is from this verse that
the Lord had brought before Hezekiah in that illness, the condition
that he was in, brought before him to realise his sins. Not just the odd sin, no, we're
told all sins, all my sins, were to catalogue must have been.
What a catalogue there is in our lives and what a blessing
if God comes as he did to Hezekiah and gave him therefore that wonderful
evidence the Lord had cast all his sins behind his back to be
remembered no more forever. What a mercy, therefore, for
us today to have the same application of God's word to us, to know
that all our sins are cast behind the back of our God. They are
to be seen no more. We are forgiven. We have been
redeemed. And it's through such a condition
and through such a situation that leads us today to look to
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and have some understanding of
the cost to the Saviour it was so that all our sins might be
cast behind His back. It cost the Lord Jesus Christ
His life. It cost Him that suffering throughout
His life. and especially, of course, in
the judgment hall, and especially in the hour of crucifixion, when
his father hid his face from him, and also, of course, in
Gethsemane. Oh, they were dark hours in the
life of the Savior. But the Lord Jesus Christ willingly
suffered so that you and I today might go free. Oh Lord, by these
things men live. It'll be a blessing in our lives
that the Lord brings us into situations, the Lord has a variety
of positions to bring us into, so that we find ourselves crying
unto God, seeking God for mercy, praying to him and then obtaining
by his grace the result of forgiveness. And what will this do? Surely
it will make to us the Lord Jesus Christ valuable. It'll make the Lord Jesus Christ
precious to us. He was indeed precious to Peter
as he tells us. He was redeemed with a precious
blood of Christ. And that's no difference for
us today. It's the only way of redemption. It's the only way
of our sins being taken away through the precious blood of
Christ. Where it will be a mercy if the
Lord leads us in this way and we can say to the honour and
glory of God, oh Lord, by these things men live. Lord by these
things I live and in all these things is the life of my spirit
because God has dealt with me in love to my soul so that I
do find I am indeed spiritually alive and of course Hezekiah
then draws our attention to such a great truth he says for the
grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee. They that go down into the pit
cannot hope for thy truth. That surely is a very obvious
statement, a very solemn statement, a very great statement. But then
he goes on. The living, the living, those
who've been dealt with by God graciously, Those who've been
able to say, oh Lord, by these things men live. The hand of
God has been upon us. We do want to be able to have
the evidence in our lives, like these characters I mentioned,
who knew the hand of God upon them, that we in our day may
also know the hand of God upon us. and to therefore have the
blessed evidence that we are indeed amongst the living, we're
not amongst the dead, and the living he shall praise thee,
as I do this day. True, isn't it? Hezekiah desired
to praise God for his deliverance. The true church of God. desire
to praise God for their deliverance and to testify of how the Lord
has graciously delivered them. The living, the living, he shall
praise thee, as I do this day. The father to the children shall
make known thy truth. Well, if the Lord has dealt graciously
with us, If we can come and say, oh Lord, by these things men
live. The Lord has had mercy upon us. Have we indeed come in with Hezekiah
and praise God, praise God. Hezekiah said, he shall praise
thee as I do this day. He doesn't say, well, I'll think
about praising thee perhaps tomorrow. perhaps in the weeks ahead, perhaps
in the months ahead, if it's suitable and if it's right. But of course, I need some wonderful
revelation to do this. Well, of course we don't, do
we? We have the evidence of God's gracious hand upon us, the wonderful
blessing the Lord has dealt with us. We don't need any great revelation. We have the wonderful evidence
of God's mercy upon us, that we are amongst the living, the
living. And what a blessing, therefore,
if we do praise the Lord, praise the Lord, as I do this day to
the people. He tells us, the father to the
children shall make known thy truth. Good it is if fathers
can make known this truth to the children. And the children
can speak of those things which the Lord has done for them. And
he tells us, 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. It wasn't just a one-off occasion. It wasn't just something which
he desired as it were to get off his chest and then to carry
on and forget about it. No, he wanted to praise his God. He wanted to glorify the name
of his God. He wanted to exalt the Lord. What a mercy for us today. If
we desire to honor and glorify our God, the word of God is very
solemn when it tells us Those that honour me I will honour,
and those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. And God
knows whether we have honoured the Lord or whether by our lack
of praising him we have in essence despised him. Well the word of
God tells us those honour me I will honour and those that
despise me shall be lightly esteemed. I'm sure we don't want to be
lightly esteemed by our God. I'm sure we desire the Lord will
look upon us. The Lord will honour us. The
Lord honoured Hezekiah. The Lord honoured David. The
Lord honoured Peter. The Lord honoured Job and honoured
Joseph. My friends, as you read through
the catalogue of the saints of God, in the word of God, who
were able to testify of what God had done for them. Yes, they
were honoring the name of their God, and God honored them. And so may you and I be continually
concerned, just like Hezekiah was here, all the days of his
life, all the days of his life, in the house of the Lord, to
thank him, to praise him for what he'd done. It was, of course,
a great deliverance in his life, being delivered from death for
those added 15 years. But you see, whatever God's done
for us, however small it may seem to be, it's worthy of praise,
because the Almighty God the ruler of the universe, has looked
down upon us and touched our hearts. And what a mercy if he's
drawn us to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, drawn us to cry
to him for mercy, and drawn us to receive that great and glorious
gift of forgiveness, the great gift of his mercy toward us. Well, says Hezekiah, In all these
things is the life of my spirit. We want to be healthy, I'm sure,
in our souls. We don't want to be dead. We don't want to be those who
dishonor the Lord. But may we, in the day and age
in which we live, which is, of course, a sad day, really, but
what a blessed day it is when those who fear the Lord speak
often one to another. You know, it's our privilege,
isn't it, tomorrow to lay to rest the body of Sylvia Ford. Her concern continually was to
praise and to glorify her God. She always wanted to speak well
of the Savior. At every opportunity she had,
she would testify the Lord's goodness to her, and how she
was looking forward to that day when she would be with Christ,
as the Apostle Paul said, which is far better. She was not ashamed
of her religion, she was not ashamed of her faith, the Lord
had done great things for her whereof she was glad. And so Hezekiah had been one
who benefited from great things that were done for him, whereof
he was glad and desired to show forth the praise of his God. O my friends, in the day and
age in which we live, may it be our great concern to honour
and glorify the Saviour. Indeed, those words are often
so appropriate that we read, let us exalt his name together
and the church of God join together to exalt his name to time when
God's name is honored and glorified and our souls are strengthened,
our souls are blessed. It's the most wonderful times
that you and I can experience in our little life on this earth.
to exalt the name of our God, and to testify indeed in similar
words to that which we read together tonight. O Lord, by these things
men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit, so
would thou recover me and make me to live. He had been recovered,
and he did live, and what a blessing it was, and may it be a blessing
for us today and a blessing for us every day as we ponder the
life of Hezekiah and those that I mentioned this evening to realize
a good example they've left behind to encourage us that we may be
concerned in our little lives to realize what a debt we owe
to our great and glorious Savior for redeeming our souls a debt
that we shall never be able to fully repay. My friends, let
us not be backward in praising our God. Let us not be backward
in thanking our God for his love, for his mercy, for his great
grace, if we have received it, for his honour and glory and
for our soul's eternal good. Amen.