I please God to bless us together
this morning as we consider his word. Let's look at the prophecy
of Isaiah chapter 38 and reading verse 16. 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 wilt thou recover me and make
me to live. As I mentioned, this account
of King Hezekiah gives us the description that he wrote about
how he felt and the outcome of his sickness. and there's some
detail given to us in this account whereas in the accounts in Kings
and Chronicles there is not this detail. Now we know that Hezekiah
was somewhere about 40 odd years of age when he was brought into
this time of sickness and quite clearly it was a very serious
illness because he tells us that he was sick unto death and Isaiah,
the prophet, came to him and didn't mince words and he told
him very clearly, he said, set thine house in order for thou
shalt die and not live. Well, that was a very dramatic
statement to the king, who before that had been well and now he
was suddenly brought into this state and still only in middle
life. And therefore, what was he to
do? Well, what would we expect him
to do? Hezekiah was a good king, a good
king of Judah. There were some good kings in
Judah. Not all were good kings, but
quite a few were, whereas in Israel there were not so many.
In actual fact, probably not any at all. But we're thankful
that we have this account of Hezekiah, and we're told what
he did. Faced with death, told that he
would die, what was he to do? Well, it's a good question for
us, isn't it? If we were ill, And that somebody came, perhaps
a doctor came to us and said, well, you're not going to recover,
you're going to die. And that's a very dramatic statement,
isn't it? So what did Hezekiah do? He turned
his face toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord. He prayed
unto his God. Now that's a wonderful example
for us, isn't it, today. Here was Hezekiah in a time of
need. And what did he do? He prayed
to God. Because religion becomes into
reality when we are faced with a situation like this. You know,
many people can pretend to have a religion, which is not really
a religion. But when they're faced with death, it brings the
situation to a very stark contrast. And it may be, in some cases,
it is a means of bringing life and light into a person's soul. So here, Hezekiah prayed to God
and he said, Lord, remember me now. I beseech Thee how I walk
before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done
that which is good in Thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. But he
was able to come and to speak to God and to tell God of those
things which he had been able to do. And it's good if we are
able to come and speak to God in our prayer, that we're not
praying to the unknown God. We're praying to the God that
we come to, believing He hears and answers prayer. Well, Hezekiah
prayed, but he still wept sore. You know, he was very distressed,
wasn't he? He was distressed at the news
he'd had. And in his wept sore, perhaps he realised he wasn't
ready to die. He wasn't prepared to die and
therefore it created this position where he wept sore. Well, it's
important to notice that sick as he was, Isaiah the prophet
had told him what was going to happen to him, that it didn't
just have no effect, it had a real effect upon him and he prayed
and he wept. Well, God heard that prayer.
and God was to answer that prayer. And we're told that if we pray
in faith, nothing wavering, the Lord will hear and answer our
prayers. And here was King Hezekiah praying to God and God was going
to answer him. Answer him by and through the
prophet Isaiah. So, Isaiah was told to 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, and I will deliver thee and this
city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend
this city." So not only had Hezekiah been blessed with the assurance
that he would be healed, but Judah had been plagued by the
Assyrians often coming to attack them, Sennacherib had only recently
tried to defeat them, but he'd actually been killed by his own
sons. But it was an ever-present enemy and therefore to have this
double blessing really, told that he would recover and also
that the city would be delivered from the king of Assyria and
that God would defend it. Well, that was a wonderful statement,
wasn't it? It was far more than Hezekiah would have expected. And yet there was this double
blessing granted to Hezekiah. And I believe still today, God
does come and do sometimes things far in excess of what we pray
for. God has blessed wonderfully and
abundantly above what we have asked or even think. And so,
he tells him of that deliverance which will come And then he says,
and this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the
Lord will do this thing that he has 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 sundial returned
ten degrees by which degrees it was gone down. And in the
other accounts in Kings, I think it is, or Chronicles, one of
the two, Hezekiah, when he was told by that that the sundial
would go down, he said well that's easy. He said let the sundial
go back and he said that will prove then that God is spoken. So as we read here the sundial
did go back and 10 degrees I think represents 40 minutes. So the day was made longer by
40 minutes and that was the statement that Isaiah was told to go and
speak to Hezekiah and so these things came to pass. And now
we come to the writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been
sick and was recovered of his sickness. Well, we can imagine
now Hezekiah's well again, his prayers have been answered and
he's sat down and he's now going to write down what the king,
what he's received and what he's been blessed with. Now we need
to note this occasion because perhaps we pray to God, perhaps
God has heard and answered our prayers and the question is I
wonder if we've written it down as a record to remind us of the
prayers that God has answered. Many things perhaps in our lives
we just pray for and then They're answered and we may tend to forget
about them. But it's a good thing to just
write them down. It's good to have a book perhaps
that we might keep to have as a record of the things that God
has done in answer to our prayers. And Hezekiah gives the details
and it's good for us to give details of our situation, why
we prayed, and how the prayers were answered. And it's good
if we can do that. And it's a sad thing if we can't
do that. Well, I hope here this morning, all of you will perhaps
be able to say, well, I have prayed and God has answered that
prayer. Well, if he has, I can ask you, have you written it
down? And you'll probably say, well, I haven't. Perhaps you might say, well,
I have. Well, it's good if you have. And it's good to keep an
account of what God has done for us and blessed us with, because
then when we come into another time of perhaps sickness or trial
or temptation, we can perhaps take out the book and read what
God's done and be reminded and be strengthened to think, well,
yes, God has heard prayers in the past and I'm confident that
God will hear my prayer now. So, it's good to understand what
Hezekiah did. So, the writing of Hezekiah,
King of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his
sickness. And he tells us, I said in the
cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave.
I am deprived of the residue of my years. Well, again, we
can imagine his position, can't we? Facing death and realising
that he was sick and naturally unlikely to recover. What does
one do in that situation? Well, like He, Hezekiah did here,
he said in the cutting off of his days, the days were numbered,
he thought that he was going to live, they weren't going to
be very long, they were going to be cut off. He would go to the grave and
he would be deprived of what should remain to him of his life. Remember he was only 40 odd years
old and he could have expected quite a long life and so it was
apparent to him that he wasn't going to be spared, he wasn't
going to enjoy a length of days or years. And so he says, I shall
not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living. He
wouldn't be able to see any more blessings, any more occasions
when God would appear for him, perhaps in delivering him from
the enemy and appearing for him in other ways. And he said, well
I shan't see that, That won't occur because I'm going to die.
And I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world."
Yes, he was quite convinced in his mind that he wouldn't live
very long. My age is departed and is removed
from me as a shepherd's tent. Well, the shepherd's tent, of
course, was only usually made of skins and just held down with
ropes and it was very quickly taken down and very quickly removed. That's why he gives us the illustration,
which would have been familiar, especially in those days, to
many shepherds' tents and how quickly they could be removed.
And he says, just like my life, how quickly it can be removed. And it's true today, our life
can very quickly be removed. And so he says, I have and is
removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver
my life." Again, we're not very familiar today with weavers,
but when a weaver, of course, has made a piece of cloth, and
you're probably aware in making that cloth, he sends a shuttlecock
backwards and forwards and it gradually grows. And when the
piece is finished, then he has to cut the thread and cut it
off, and then it's finished. And it's very quickly done. It's
cut off and it's stopped and that's the end of that piece
of work. And so he says, I have cut off like a weaver my life.
He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even till night. Would thou make an end of me?
And then he says, I reckon till morning. But as a lion, so will
he break all my bones from day even to night. Would thou make
an end of me? It just brings the analogy of
a lion. A lion, of course, is a very powerful and strong animal.
A lion could very quickly break our bones and destroy us. And
that's the picture that we have here. Hezekiah tells us that
it could just be like a lion breaking all his bones. And then
he says, like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter. Well, a crane
makes quite a loud noise and a swallow just a very small noise. He brings the comparison between
the two. No doubt he was like that. He
was perhaps crying out noisily and other times just whispering
the complaint which he had. So did I chatter and he mourned
as a dove. We get the picture, don't we,
of Hezekiah's condition. It was very grim, wasn't it?
He recognised all these things that he thought would come upon
him and the effect it had upon him. And so he says, Fail, we're
looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake
for me." Well, we have the statement here of his prayer. He looks
up to God. Perhaps he looked up to Him very
much and he said, his eyes fail. We're looking up, looking to
the Lord. And then he tells Him, I'm oppressed. Perhaps we've been oppressed.
Perhaps we are oppressed. Perhaps we need God in a very special
way Hezekiah needed God in a very special way. We would not think
that Hezekiah's condition was unique. I'm sure it wasn't, and
I'm sure that we today perhaps, not in exactly the same way,
but no doubt we enter into situations which do make us look up to the
Lord, and it may be that our prayers don't seem to be answered.
That's the inference given here. and therefore his eyes failed,
were looking upward, he was ready to give up and he cried out to
God, I am oppressed and he asked the Lord then to undertake for
him. He asked him to undertake and
that's a good prayer, isn't it? And it would seem that Hezekiah
was really at the end of everything and he couldn't do anything else
and he came and he just prayed to God in this wonderfully simple
way and he said Lord undertake for me now the blessing of that
is God knows everything and God can undertake for us and God
will undertake for us if we come in that right way and with that
right prayer to believe yes we may be oppressed we may have
come to the end of everything and all we can do is to come
and put it in another term casting all our burdens all our cares
upon our God, believing that he will come and he will deliver,
undertake for me, and then we pass on. Remember he's given
the evidence of his experience here. He sat down, he's been
delivered, and now he tells us, what shall I say? He hath both
spoken unto me, and himself has done it, I shall go softly all
my years in the bitterness of my soul." Now then, he tells
us, yes, God has spoken to him. We know he had through Isaiah. Isaiah had come and spoken to
him and he's able to record that it was to him the word of God. In those days, in Old Testament
times, the Lord used his prophets to come and to speak And that
was the word of the Lord. Generally speaking today, the
Lord comes for the preaching of the gospel and speaks to the
hearts and souls of men and women, boys and girls. And so here we
have this statement. He hath both spoken unto me and
himself hath done it. He was very clear that it was
God that had cured him, that it was God who had healed him.
It was God that had done it. And no one else could have cured
him in that way. He was sick under death. He needed
a miracle. He needed a wonderful deliverance.
And he was able to say, and himself have done it. I shall go softly
all my years in the bitterness of my soul. He was going to go
now softly, not ranting and raging. He was going softly. I shall
go softly all my years, those 15 years, which had now been
allotted to him. And so we come down then to this
verse, the 16th verse. It's quite a long introduction,
but it's necessary to give us the picture. And so he then tells
us, O Lord, by these things men live. And in all these things
is the life of my spirit. So will they recover me and make
me to live. What is he really saying here? Well, he's telling us that It
was necessary that he had this experience in order that he might
be not only naturally alive but also spiritually alive. And so he tells us, by these
things men live. The conclusion that we may draw
from that is Hezekiah may have been, prior to this, relatively
happy with the situation He had deliverances, God had been with
him, God had helped him, God had blessed him with a prayer. You can read in the previous
chapter the prayer of Hezekiah. But now he directs us specifically
to this occasion and he tells us, by these things men live. That means he was brought into
a personal requirement, a personal necessity. He doesn't look about
other people, he doesn't speak of other situations, he now has
honed in very clearly on his personal testimony and how he
felt, the condition he was in and how God appeared for him. And so he's now able to tell
us, by these things men live and in all these things is the
life of my spirit. Without such a condition, without
such a deliverance, the inference is clear that he might have been
left in a very lukewarm condition, a situation where he wasn't very
worried about his spiritual state. He wouldn't have been very concerned
about the life of his soul. He would have carried on perhaps
with the daily routine But he's been brought here then into a
real state of need. And the effect has been good
upon him. So, as we look at our own lives,
and we can ask ourselves the question, are we able to confirm
a statement like this, O Lord, by these things men live, and
in all these things is the life of my spirit. Has God brought
us into situations which has caused us to pray very fervently
to God. It is quite clear that Hezekiah
here, it wasn't just a casual, it wasn't a one-off prayer, it
was a continual prayer and we draw the conclusion because he
says mine eyes fail, we're looking upward, looking up to the Lord. Yes, he was exhausted with the
situation, with the prayer which he'd made. Well, it's important
for us to know that there was an occasion when a man like Hezekiah
really had to pray, really had to pray. And again, it's good
if in our lives we have occasions when God brings us into situations
where we really have to pray. And we need answers. And we need
God to appear. We need God to speak to us. Isaiah
came and spoke to Hezekiah. And we may need, it's a good
thing if we do need, times when God must speak to us and encourage
us. Well, Hezekiah had the evidence
of it and Hezekiah was able to write it down. And so we should
not just read this account and think, well that's an amazing
account of Hezekiah. We need always to apply these
things to our own spiritual life and to be able to discern that
as we have this example and this testimony of Hezekiah, whether
in our lives we have a similar experience and have been able
to write a similar testimony of God's favour of God's blessing,
of God's deliverance and of our condition before God, you know,
being in a desperate state. This is really the reality of
religion. As I often say, Christianity
is not easy. True Christians have a continual
battle and it's a continual battle in two ways between, on the one
hand, our flesh, which we can speak of as our old nature, the
nature which we were born in, and on the other side, the new
nature, that new life which God has given to us when we are converted. And those two will never agree,
they're always enmity with each other, there's always a battle,
there's always a struggle, And so, God brings occasions of a
similar nature, like this, into the life of Christians to keep
them spiritually lively in the things of God. The hymn writer
says, the Christian man is seldom long at ease. As soon as one
trouble is over, another doth him seize. That's the experience
of a hymn writer and it's very true. We should not therefore
expect our life to be an easy life in this world. You may say,
well, why do you say that? I'll tell you why I say that.
It's because the children of God are expecting a glorious
life to come. A life which will be eternal
happiness. where there will be no sickness,
and no sorrow, and no sadness, and no sin. We shall be freed
from all those things. But while we're in this earth,
on this earth, the Lord will cause us to realise, as he tells
us in the Hebrews, for here we have no continuing city. but we seek one to come. That really means that our life
on this earth is not a permanent home. The Lord may have given
us homes to live in, but the Lord will produce those situations
in our lives which will make us pray to God to keep ourselves
on the stretch after heaven at last. We won't be allowed to
settle down comfortably in this life and say well here I am,
I'm in this world, I'm going to live here forever. No, we
never will. All of us must die and then what
a blessing it will be if we are brought safe home to glory at
last. Well here was Hezekiah then telling
us this great truth by these things men live And in all these
things is the life of my spirit. It is the evidence of the life
of God in our souls if we have true prayer when we are brought
in the times of need. And true prayer really with respect
to our natural life and also with regard to our spiritual
life. and our spiritual life has a
much greater need than our natural life, because our spiritual life,
our spiritual soul will live forever. And so we might say,
well we have here the sickness of Hezekiah in a physical sense,
yes we do, but the effect of this physical illness upon Hezekiah
was to make him realise his spiritual state because he tells us, and
in all these things is the life of my spirit. Clearly the effect
was to produce in him a liveliness with regards to his spiritual
condition and a concern about where he would spend eternity
and As that question may be put to us, where shall we spend eternity? Because we've all got to spend
eternity somewhere. It can either be in heaven or
it can be in hell. And it's so important, and we
have the evidence, that God is speaking to us, that God is dealing
with us. God was dealing with Hezekiah.
God was dealing with him, as we read, in love to his soul. It goes on. Remember, He says,
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. It's a very clear testimony,
isn't it, of his realising that the effect of this illness had
had upon him. And so he tells us For peace,
I had great bitterness." He hadn't got peace, he was in bitterness,
faced with death. He was in bitterness, he hadn't
got peace. But, he tells us, "...but thou
art in love to my soul." Delivered it from the pit of corruption.
Yes, he wasn't going to be sent to hell, he was going to be delivered.
The pit of corruption, because the Lord loved him. Well what
a wonderful favour for us today if we can see God's dealing with
us and God's dealt with us because of his love toward us. Because
of his love, he loves us so much and following on that theme to
realise the Lord loved us so much that he sent his only begotten
son into the world. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life." And so, to be found then,
looking upward to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our blessing today is that we
know, we have the evidence of the risen Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who died upon Calvary's cross to take away our sins. And so we have this statement
here, Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit
of corruption, for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. Hezekiah was made very aware
of all his sins and the Spirit of God will make us aware of
our sins and especially when we're faced with death, to know
whether we're right for eternity. Here was Hezekiah facing death.
Was he right for eternity? Was he ready for eternity? Well,
he was bitter. And yet, you see, the Lord came
and spoke to him and gave him that peace. And he says, Thou
art in love to my soul. Delivered it from the pit of
corruption, for Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. What a blessing that is, because
we can't enter heaven with any sin, not one sin, not a small
sin, we might term it. We can't enter heaven with any
sin. We need all our sin to be washed
away. What a blessing it is then if
we have the evidence that God has spoken to us and told us
that all our sins are laid upon the Saviour and that they're
all washed away. in the fountain of his most precious
blood. And then he tells us, remember,
first of all, that what he said, by these things men live. He
then says, for the grave cannot praise thee. If he died, he couldn't
praise him in the grave. Death cannot celebrate thee.
They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. And
then he says, the living, the living He shall praise thee as
I do this day." Now remember, he's writing these things down,
he's giving a record, and he's giving a record of God's dealings
with him in bringing him out of his sickness, and he has reason
to praise God, and he does praise God. We may have reason to praise
God, but do we praise God? There's a great difference, isn't
there? And today, there seems to be very often a lack of praising
God. If God has heard prayers, if
God has answered your prayer, have you praised God? Have you
thanked Him for hearing and answering your prayer? Well, Hezekiah tells
us that this is what occurs not only to him, but to all those
who are spiritually alive. He says, the living, the living,
he shall praise thee. He shall praise thee. And then
he confirms, as I do, this day. He wasn't leaving himself out,
and yet he was recognising that all those who are brought to
that condition, who are blessed with this understanding, that
they live by these spiritual experiences, that they will praise
God for what he's done for them. It is a very important evidence
of the life of God in the soul. And we have to question whether
there is any life if there is no praise. Because praise is
comely and praise brings honour and glory to God. There is so
much about praise in the Word of God. You only have to read
the book of Psalms where David on so many occasions praises
God. We know in those Psalms that
gives David's experience, his testimony, the times of his failure,
the times of his concerns, the times of being oppressed, but
there are also many occasions when he praises God. And so I
believe, so the Church of God should praise God. And here we
have this statement, the living, the living, He shall praise thee,
as I do this day." Well, just ponder, just think. Have you
and I got reason to praise God? I hope you have. And I hope you
have. And if you haven't, may you praise
God for what He's done, for the deliverance, for the blessing,
for the living, the living. He shall praise thee, as I do
this day. The Father to the children, Shall
make known thy truth. Well, that follows on, doesn't
it, from what James was preaching on last Sunday evening. Yes,
how there should be that demonstration, that statement, that fulfilling
of what the Lord has done. And here we have a recurrence
of the same theme spoken here. The father to the children shall
make known thy truth. It's an important consideration.
that the parents should make known to their children what
God has done for them, what God has spoken to them. They shouldn't
keep silent. They should acknowledge what
God has done and speak to their children and tell them what he's
done. A sad thing, isn't it, if they've
got nothing to say, nothing to speak of. What a sad situation
that is. But may it not be so. May there
be the wonderful evidence of God hearing their prayers and
answering them, like Hezekiah, and then with the outcome, as
Hezekiah was desiring and concerned that the living should praise
the Lord as he did, and the father to the children shall meet no
nigh truth. He tells us, the Lord was ready
to save me, therefore we will sing my songs to the string instruments
all the days of our life. in the house of the Lord. Yes,
he was very desirous to come into the house of the Lord, which
of course was really the temple in those days, and to praise
God, to sing unto the Lord. We will sing my songs to the
stringed instruments all the days of our life. It wasn't to
be just a one-off occasion. It was to be a continual praising
God. My friends, today God is worthy
of all our praise. Is He not worthy of your praise?
Have you praised God? Have you sung unto the Lord?
Have you thanked Him for His blessings, for His mercies, for
His favours? Have you thanked Him for the
Lord Jesus Christ? Have you thanked Him for His
great and glorious death, for His wonderful sinatonic death? Have you thanked Him for His
shed blood, blood that you Trust and hope were shed for you. Do
you thank God for the glorious resurrection? Do you thank God
for the ascension of the Saviour? Do you thank Him today that He's
ascended into glory, there to intercede for your prayers and
my prayers? Oh, do we thank God? We have
reason to, do we not? We have great reason to. But
so often, you see, there seems to be no thankfulness, no praise. People come and go, shut themselves
up, never mention the things of God. It's as though it's a
closed book, as though it's a closed door. There's no acknowledging
what the Lord has done. Now Hezekiah, he sat down. He wrote of the things that God
had done and he spoke about the things that God has done. He
desired that God's name might be honoured and that God's name
might be glorified well today. May you and I have that great
desire and look in our hearts and see what he wrote. O Lord,
by these things men live and therefore have we lived. Has
our soul been blessed by a situation which has produced praise in
our heart, the evidence of life of God in our souls, for the
praise of our God. O 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. Amen.