Is there enough light in that? Yeah, mine's bad. It has nothing
to do with the lighting. I meant here. Oh, that. Oh, yeah,
it looks good. It's enough? Yeah. Yeah, look. I mean, when you
were standing up there, it looked really clear. Your mom's watching. Oh, it's about 7.15 now. Alright, brethren, we're going
to get started. And our text is Isaiah 38, so I'm going to
read our text, because it's another historical account, and we're
not going to go over every verse this evening. So I'm just going
to read the chapter now. So Isaiah 38 verse 1, in those
days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amos, came unto him and said unto him, thus saith the Lord,
set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face
toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord, and said, Remember
now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee
in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which
is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then
came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go and say to
Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, According to the other passages
that are recording this, Isaiah hadn't even gotten out of the
court of the palace of Hezekiah when the Lord's word came to
him. And so he was sent back to Hezekiah, with 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 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. the writing of Hezekiah
king of Judah when he had been sick and was recovered of his
sickness. So that was the account and now
we have here Hezekiah's words, his understanding and what he
experienced and his summary of what occurred here. Verse 10,
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. 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 is 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 will thou
make an end of me. I reckon till morning that as
a lion so will he break all my bones. From day even to night
will thou make an end of me. 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. 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. O 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. 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. For the grave cannot praise thee,
death cannot celebrate thee, they that go down into the pit
cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall
praise thee, as I do this day, the Father to the children shall
make known thy truth. 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." And then they added
this as a summary to fill in a few gaps Verse 21 and 22, for
Isaiah had said, let them take a lump of figs and lay it for
a plaster upon the boil and he shall recover. Hezekiah also
had said, what is the sign that I shall go up to the house of
the Lord? And that's why the Lord gave
him that sign of the sundial and asked him, do you want it
to go forward 10 degrees or back 10 degrees? And he opted for
it going back 10 degrees. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank You, Father, for Your mercy and Your grace and
kindness to us, Lord. Father, that You do not deal
with us as our sins deserve, but You are very gracious, You
are very kind, and Your goodness is shown to us in Your Son, Jesus
Christ, by whom You have put away our sins. by whom you have
delivered us from the pit of corruption, by whom you have
revealed yourself and made us your children, by whom you receive
us, and in whom is our peace with holy God. Father, we thank
you for your great mercy and your great grace, which is shown to us in your
Son, Father, we pray that you would help us this night to worship
you. Help us, Lord, to have our eyes
and our heart and our mind set upon your salvation. Lord, that you would soften our
hearts, break our hard hearts, Lord, and deliver us from the
coldness and death that is so prevalent in this flesh. even among your people, how foolish
we can be, but how faithful you are in all your ways, how faithful
you are to deliver us again and turn us to yourself, to deliver
us from death and to deliver us into life, the life of our
Savior Jesus Christ. Father, we ask that You bless
this hour, and Lord, we ask that You bless this people, this body
of Christ here. Lord, that You would guide us,
that You would be with us as we seek a place publicly to worship
You, where Your people will come and be gathered and sit under
the Word of Christ to be fed to be healed, to be comforted
and nourished by your gospel, your gospel of complete, full,
accomplished salvation. Lord, we ask that you would do
this thing. For Lord, we've not found the
place where we can yet go, but we trust you, Lord. We know that
you, in wisdom, have ordered and ordained all things. And
you have a purpose, Lord, in this, and Father, we ask that
you would indeed guide us and lead us. Lord, let us not lead
ourselves, let us not go into darkness or to do anything hastily,
but Lord, that we would see your hand in this work. We've seen
how certain opportunities the doors have shut, And Lord, we
can't open it. But Lord, we trust and look to
you and come to you as a body, as a people, asking that you
would open a door, that you would show us the way and where you
would have us to be, and that we would see and know that our
God has done this for us. It's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen. All right, brethren, our text
is Isaiah 38, Isaiah 38, and here is a continuation again
by Isaiah of a historical account, a history of the church during
the time in which Hezekiah was the king of Judah. And this chapter
specifically here gives an account of Hezekiah's sickness and his
recovery. Now, it was such a significant
sickness. It was an illness that was going
to bring about the death of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was going to die. But what we find is that the
Lord grants Hezekiah repentance and miraculously gives him life. He turns Hezekiah and gives him
life so that we see that our Lord's purpose in this was to
deliver Hezekiah from death and to give him life. Now, as we
go through it, I believe you that know the gospel, that know
the Lord and what he's done for you as a sinner, a helpless sinner
who has no ability or means of saving yourself, you'll see that
this is a picture of your salvation. how that the Lord has delivered
you and delivered me and delivered all his people from eternal death. And so we see here that the Lord
in grace and mercy delivers his people from the broad road of
destruction because of the love he has for your soul, child of
God. The Holy God loves your soul,
he says, and so he delivers us from the pit of corruption, and
he does this by putting away, casting behind his back all our
sins. I've titled this message, The
Sentence of Death Overturned. The Sentence of Death Overturned. And we'll first look at this
sickness, which was unto death for Hezekiah, and then we'll
see the repentance which God granted him, and then we'll see
his deliverance and a sign, a sign. All right, so first let's see
the sickness unto death. Now, this is the same year in
which Jerusalem would have been taken by her enemy. Were it not
for the Lord slaying 185,000 of the soldiers, those men in the army of Assyria, were
it not for the Lord slaying them, this army would have taken Jerusalem. They would have conquered the
Lord's people in Jerusalem. And then in this same year, another
trouble comes to Hezekiah. Look at verse one with me, Isaiah
38 verse one. In those days, in those same
days in which the Lord delivered Jerusalem, was Hezekiah sick
unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amos, came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live. So this sickness was a very sudden
sickness. He was taken with a severe fever
and it was unto death. It was a very serious sickness
and they had no means or ability to heal the king, Hezekiah. And it was so severe that the
Lord sent his prophet Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that he's a
dead man. He is a dead man. In a few short
hours, a total of about three days, Hezekiah would be dead. And if you remember that at this
time, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had been defeated by
the Lord and he, in shame, went back to Assyria. But, if at this
time, it was still fresh, it was still early, if Hezekiah
had died at this time, it would have been trouble for Jerusalem
and for Judah. And that's because at this time,
Hezekiah had no son. He had no heir, no seed, no one
to inherit the throne, and so there would have ensued a fight
for the throne there to lead Judah, and so the transition
would have been a problem for the people. And, if there was
a civil war or some kind of infighting going on, it could have opened
the door again for Assyria or some other enemy to muster up
enough strength to go up there and take Jerusalem again. And
so this news, no doubt, was very troubling to Hezekiah on several
different levels. Now, the scriptures tell us in
Ecclesiastes 7, verse 20, that there is not a just man on the
earth. that doeth good and sinneth not."
And the Lord was going to reveal this to Hezekiah about himself. He was going to know that this
word is true about him, that he's not just in himself, that
he's a sinner and he's going to die. And so, as we look at
this, I want you to keep in mind that all this trouble happened
in the same year. The trouble being Sennacherib
had come up to the city, followed by this sickness. And we're told
over in 2 Kings 18, verse two, that I just wanna give you just
a little bit of history, just to understand as to why I'm saying
this was the same year, why I know it was the same year. Because
it was when Hezekiah was 25 years old that he began to reign as
king in Jerusalem, all right? He's 25 years old. And in Kings
they tell us that his reign lasted for a whole 29 years. Alright,
so he would die at the age of 54. And then in Isaiah 36.1,
which we already went through, we saw that it came to pass in
the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Assyria came up to take
Jerusalem. All right, so that means he was
about 39 years old, 39 years old, because he started at 25
plus 14 years. He's 39 years old now when this
happens. All right, and so then we're
told later in this passage that the Lord extends his life 15
years. Well, 14 years plus 15 is 29
years. That's the whole time that Hezekiah
reigned. So in the 14th year, Asiri comes
up and in that same year, he got sick and his life was extended
another 15 years. So this man had a lot of troubles
in this particular year. And I emphasize that point because
I am certain that you, my brethren, can relate to that. where you're
just getting hit with various troubles and thing after thing
is coming up and bringing you down, where we come into many
fiery trials and many afflictions, many sorrows, many sufferings
that show us and reveal to us our infirmity, our weakness,
our inability to save ourselves. You think of what Hezekiah had
experienced that year. I would imagine there was great
mental anguish over the fact that when Rabshakeh was there,
when Assyria, when the king of Assyria sent one of his generals
up there, Rabshakeh, and he's saying to the people, don't listen
to Hezekiah, You're not gonna be delivered from Assyria, so
why don't you come out of the city and go and eat of your vineyards
until I return and take you away to a good place with me. But
don't listen to Hezekiah. So for the people themselves,
yeah, it would be hard, but they were promised safe passage. but
as king Hezekiah wasn't gonna be granted that same safe passage. He was going to either be executed
immediately and that publicly before all the people because
the people, it was important in those days to execute the
rulers so that you knew there wasn't gonna be a return of the
king and so you'd be executed if he took it over because you
betrayed him. No, they executed you publicly or as we've read
in some accounts, sometimes the king's eyes were put out And
they would be like a dog under the table, just hunting around
being blind for scraps of food and treated shamefully like that.
So it wasn't going to be good for Hezekiah. So he had that
mental anguish. We know he had financial troubles
because he emptied all the king's treasuries. and he stripped the
pillars in the temple of the gold that was there, so he took
all the silver and all the gold that he had to give to Assyria,
and that didn't even appease them, so he had financial troubles
and difficulties. Plus, based on the things that
Rabshakeh had said, he had spiritual afflictions and torments, because
even Rabshakeh said, you think I'm here just of my own will? the Lord your God sent me up
here. He's the one that sent us into this land to destroy
it and to take it because you've sinned against him. And so he
had that going, right, just as we have the accuser of the brethren
always bringing up to our minds and our thoughts our sin, our
weakness, our foolishness, our unbelief. He had mental, he had
financial, he had spiritual, and now he has physical, a physical
affliction. That pretty much sums it up.
Have you had years like that where you've been stripped and
hit in every way possible? Mentally strained, financially
strained, spiritually sucked dry, and physically shown just
how weak and impotent and how low we can go in ourselves. We're brought there. And so we
could see and understand what Hezekiah was going through. But
what I want us to see is that this all was for Hezekiah's good. It was for Hezekiah's good. Turn
with me to 2 Chronicles 32. Go to 2 Chronicles 32, that's
gonna be after Kings. So you're gonna see the books
of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and then 1 and 2 Chronicles there
before Psalms. 2 Chronicles 32, and go to verse
23. Now, I'm not gonna read 21 and
22, but that's where we're told that the Assyrian army was defeated. They were destroyed already. And we read in verse 23 that
many, after this happened, after the 185,000 soldiers and mighty
men and captains of the army of Assyria were killed, by the
angel of the Lord. We're told that many brought
gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and watch this, and presents
to Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the
sight of all nations from thenceforth. He was magnified in the sight
of all the nations. They looked at this and said,
you're a rock star. You just took down the superpower. All his army was wiped out when
he came up against Jerusalem. Wow, that's something. They were impressed. All the
nations were impressed with him. And we're told in verse 24 that
in those days, Hezekiah was sick to the death. That's when he
got sick. but Hezekiah rendered not again
according to the benefit done unto him. So that rather than
give God all the glory, he was happy to accept all the praise
and adulations and all the respect that the other nations had to
him, all the admiration of all nations. For we're told his heart
was lifted up Therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah
and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, however, we're
told, verse 26, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his
heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You see that? After Assyria was defeated, Hezekiah
was lifted up in pride because the superpower of that day was
defeated, destroyed in his country. All the other nations had fallen
before Assyria's army, but the Lord delivered his people here
at Jerusalem and they looked at Hezekiah. and they admired
him. Even if they did understand it
was the Lord, they still admired him, that, wow, this is a man
whom the Lord loves. He's special. He's peculiar. He's different. And so he became
lifted up with pride. And yet, the Lord's love for
his soul brought him low, and the Lord, in doing that, granted
him repentance and saved his soul. I'm reminded at the beginning
of Isaiah's ministry, his cousin Uriah was king and he loved his
cousin Uriah dearly. Isaiah was quite taken with Uriah
and how godly a king he was and yet he became leprous and the
Lord didn't deliver him from that leprosy. He died in exile
as a leper but here Hezekiah was brought into bitterness and
we see the grace of our God and the mercy of God in bringing
him low and in giving him repentance and delivering him from the sickness.
And so this trial was very real and very severe, just as you
brethren have trials that are very real, very severe. And they try you, and there are
fiery trials that bring us to great pain and great suffering
and great trouble mentally and spiritually, financially, physically. And so the prophet was sent of
the Lord, he came right in, straightly, and told Hezekiah, Thus saith
the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and
not live. In other words, he came in and
gave Hezekiah the sentence of death. He came in and what he
said gave Hezekiah the sentence of death so that Hezekiah understood
and knew, I have the sentence of death in me. I have the sentence
of death in me. And so I bring this all up to
show us here, to bring us to see how that Hezekiah stands
as an example of every sinner. He's like every man in the world,
guilty and condemned, dead in trespasses and sins, but Different
from everyone in the world, how few have the sentence of death
in themselves. How few understand and know,
I'm a dead man. I'm a sinner. I have to do with
holy God and I'm going to stand before Him one day soon. How few have that sentence of
death so that they are brought low under the hand of God and
being brought low are granted repentance and help of the Lord
to witness and to behold the Lord's power toward them." Over
in 2 Corinthians 1-9, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, but this
word goes to us even to this very day. We that are weak, we
that are weary, we that are suffering, we that are struggling and troubled
and are sick and have these trials and afflictions in ourselves.
He says, for we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble
which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that we, the apostles, the ministers
of the Lord, speaking and declaring the gospel to the people, we
despaired even of life. But we have the sentence of death
in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God
which raiseth the dead. And that's why God gave Hezekiah
the sentence of death in himself, because that's when Hezekiah
ceased to trust in himself, that's when he ceased to be lifted up
in pride, and was humbled greatly before the Lord, and looked to
the Lord God who raiseth the dead. And so, we, like our brethren
before us, who have gone through many trials, and have been pressed
out of measure, sometimes one or two things, sometimes all
four, mental, financial, spiritual, and physical. All these ways
that we are troubled in ourselves, but we're brought to see that
we cannot save ourselves or deliver ourselves so that we are brought
to depend wholly upon the grace of our God. Nothing that Hezekiah
Nothing that Hezekiah could do would deliver him, right? The
Lord had purpose that there was no medicine, no treatment that
he was gonna do that was going to save him and deliver him at
this time. And so his days would be cut
short, right? At the age of 39, maybe he was
40, probably 39, his days would be cut short. He said actually
in Isaiah 38 verse 12, He said it this way, he said, my age
is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver
my life. All right, my foolishness, my
foolishness, my pride, my sin has cut me off. It's done this
to me so that he, the true and living God, will cut me off with
pining sickness. from day even to night will thou
make an end of me." And as we look at Hezekiah, what's really
so profound, what amazes me about Hezekiah is really just how relatable
Hezekiah is to us, if you think about it, to every believer now. not just every man in the world,
but every believer, how we identify with Hezekiah, right? Not just
those sinners that are dead in trespasses and sins, but believers
who've tasted that the Lord is gracious, who know of his salvation
and believe the Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation, the salvation
God's provided in him. And I say this because every
true believer can think back, can recall, as the Lord enables
them, can recall how that there was some time or some times when
we had and experienced such trouble so that we despaired of life,
where we were pressed out of measure and thought, truly, God,
This is the end. My life is cut off. I don't know
how I'm going to escape from this. I'm a dead man. There's nothing I can do. to
write this or to fix this or to correct this. And we had the
feeling, right? We had that sentence of death
in ourselves to where we were sure this is it. I'm going to
be overwhelmed by the enemy. I'm going to be overwhelmed by
this which is coming upon me and there's nothing I can do.
I can't be delivered from it. And we experience this only to
come to know what it is to be delivered by the power and the
glory and the majesty of God, so that when it was all done,
we came through and said, behold, the Lord has done this. I didn't
see how this could ever come out this way, but look, the Lord
has done this. God has done this work. I didn't see it. I didn't have
a hand in it. All I know now is that God has
done this. And like Hezekiah, we soon hear
when Isaiah would return, being sent to the Lord, saying, behold,
I will add unto thy days 15 years. We experience that delivery,
that behold what God has done, what he has done, what I didn't
even know or think possible, God has done it. And now I know
that some of us have had lesser lows and lesser highs than we
see detailed here by Isaiah. Some have had greater lows and
greater highs than others can relate to or express, but every
believer knows, as they're thinking of one or a few of the things
now, as you recount what God has done, for you, in grace and
mercy, where he's shown you what he's done, that it surely was
only God, and you're going, oh yeah, I do remember that now,
I do remember that. And you go back and you think
how the first day, when it was, behold, The Lord has done this,
or behold, God has done that. And how amazed you were on that
first day, that first hour. It was amazing. Your heart and
soul was flooded with joy and wonder and amazement. And the
next day you wake up and your heart is flooded with joy and
amazement, maybe about a third of what it was the day before.
And by the third day you find yourself complaining, bitter
about something and angry and and you've already forgotten
what God has done and you're back to doubting and fears and
wondering what what what happened and and and you're just left
left wondering because we forget just like Hezekiah forgot. Hezekiah saw how that God did
a wondrous thing in slaying that army, and then it was only a
short while where his heart became lifted up in pride all over again,
and he forgot the Lord, and he wasn't humble. He was a proud
man and happy to accept all the praise and the wonder and the
awe that the other nations had for him. And we know, you know,
as we think about that and you remember it, you realize, Lord,
you'd be just to slay me right here. to take away my breath
right here, to cut me down and end my days, because we realize,
wow, I know there were times when I saw the hand of the Lord,
and I was amazed, and then how quickly I was lifted up in pride
and in self-confidence and forgetfulness of what God has done, because
I go right on back to unbelief and walking in the flesh until
the Lord delivers me from that and shows me Christ and puts
me, sets me upon Christ. You think of, those of you who
maybe doubt that, you think of David, David, a man after God's
own heart, David, who committed who committed adultery with Bathsheba
and had her husband, his friend Uriah, a faithful servant, put
to death to cover and hide his sin, and he stayed in that state
for about nine months before the Lord sent Nathanael the prophet
to convict him, to declare to him the truth, to expose his
sin to him and to give him repentance. And so believers can go into
darkness for a long time, right? We don't like to admit it. We
don't want to admit it. We're ashamed to admit it. But
if we're honest, who are we to boast of ourselves and to boast
of our righteousness? Our hope is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we know that our heart and
desire for Him and our turning to Him is only by Him and by
His power and glory. All right, so that's what the
Lord is doing for Hezekiah right here. The Lord's being good to
Hezekiah. The Lord's being very generous
and gracious to Hezekiah so that he was given that sentence of
death. And we're gonna see the repentance
that's granted to Hezekiah now. And so the Lord used this to
set Hezekiah to pray. All right, he sent him to prayer.
He brought the senses of death to turn Hezekiah, who was lifted
up in pride, to start praying. And we read there in Isaiah 38,
verse two and three, then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall
and prayed unto the Lord and said, remember now, O Lord, I
beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with
a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight,
and Hezekiah wept sore." Now, such a prayer could only be said
of us in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You could see how that Hezekiah
here is a type of Christ Only he has a perfect heart and he
walks in truth and by his spirit and life in him are we led in
paths of righteousness and are we cleansed of our sin and iniquity. Our walk in truth, our perfect
heart are the blood wrought work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the effect of the Lord's grace here on Hezekiah was to break
his heart. it was to break his heart so
that he honestly prayed to the Lord. You know, where you that
know the Lord have had those few times, those few times, those
few honest prayers with the Lord, where you could say, probably
count them on one hand, when you've honestly prayed to the
Lord, right? Not that Pharisaical prayer that
we're all very capable and familiar with, praying, even with the
best of intentions. When our prayers are more wrote
or done out of duty rather than in that broken heart where the
gates of our heart are just broken open and we're just shedding
tears and pouring out our heart to the Lord. But there's a time
right when we're broken where the Lord breaks us and brings
us to see that we're nothing before him and we desperately
need his grace we have no hope we have no one to turn to and
we confess that to the Lord and we say Lord I've got nothing. I'm helpless. I can't save myself."
That's the Lord who brings us. When He shows you, you have no
means of saving yourself, and He shows you Himself, turning
you from self to Him and Him alone, that's of the Lord. That's mercy of the Lord. You
know, we hear Paul say, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,
for we know not what we should pray for as we are, but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And I'm thankful to the Lord
for that. How many times I pray, I pray
that it's every time that we pray that the Lord attend those
prayers, and lift them up with the incense of his savor, of
his sacrifice, so that our prayers are heard and received of the
Lord. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the spirit." He's not searching our
corrupt minds. Thankfully, he's not looking
at and searching our corrupt minds, but he knows the mind
of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according
to the will of God. Hezekiah wasn't seeking the Lord.
Hezekiah may have been praying, may have been doing religious
things and giving thanks to the Lord and saying what he should
have been saying at the right time, but in his heart he was
lifted up in pride. And the Lord, who searcheth the
hearts knowing the mind of the spirit, right, prayed for Hezekiah
according to the will of God. And that's why Hezekiah was delivered
from death and given life. So Isaiah 38, four through six
says, 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 15 years, and I will deliver thee in this
city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend
this city." In other words, God had already determined. He had
slain the army. This wasn't gonna be undone.
They weren't now gonna be overtaken by Assyria. He had already determined,
Assyria is done. They're not gonna take you over. I'm not gonna remove you. I'm
gonna let there be stability and peace here in Jerusalem.
I'm gonna extend your reign another 15 years so that there is stability
here and peace for my people in Jerusalem. And so they didn't
have to worry about Assyria anymore. And then the Lord promised to
end the trial for them. And that brings us to our final
point here, the deliverance and a sign. All right, look at verses
seven and eight here. 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, 10 degrees backward, so the sun returned 10 degrees,
by which degrees it was gone down. Now this is a miracle which
the Lord said he would do so that Hezekiah knew of his surety
because he still had the fever, he still had the issue in him. and it would be another I guess
day or two days before the Lord would remove it. But he showed
him this sign to know that the Lord had given his word and he
would indeed be delivered. Now I bring up this sign, I want
you to know this was a miracle. This was a miracle that God did
to show Hezekiah this. And I know that there's many
in the world that look at this and say it's impossible and this
didn't happen and they look for ways to justify it or find a
way that it could happen. But it's a miracle. Why do we
have to find out why it happened? Someone noted if God could bring
Moses and Elijah, who had died a thousand years earlier, up
to speak to the Lord, you know God can do anything, right? Time
is just an invention for him. And our hearts, our lives, our
time is in the hand of the Lord. And he's showing, he's displaying
his great power and glory. But it's interesting that actually
Babylon, who had many magicians at that time coming up in their
craft and whatnot, and they would observe as many cultures and
cities and peoples examine the sky at that time, especially
for planting and whatnot. But we're told over in 2 Chronicles
actually 32 and verse 31, we're told, how be it in the business
of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto Hezekiah
to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left
him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart.
So Babylon had seen something just happened here on the sun.
It's gone back 10 degrees. They saw something. so that they
knew something happened. And actually, I believe that
even in China, where they were very good with charts and calendars
and recording things, going back to all kinds of things they recorded,
they recorded something around that time, that would have been
right around that time, that they had seen and witnessed as
well. But it doesn't matter. This is
a real miracle that God himself did for his child, to show his
child, and for our good and our learning and edification. Now,
I mentioned earlier that all these troubles were for the good
of Hezekiah. And I want us just to look, the
last verse we'll look at here is verse 17. Isaiah 38, 17. This is after
he's been delivered and he's recording what the Lord had done
and why the Lord had done it. And he says, behold, for peace. 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." And so through the repentance which was given to
Hezekiah by the Lord, he recognized, he was made to see, Hezekiah
was made to see that the bitterness of of his sickness, which was
unto death, was given to him to bring him into peace. It was given for the purpose
of establishing him in peace with holy God. And so to you
that hear me now, the Lord's not dealt with us, any of us,
as our sins deserve. The psalmist wrote that he hath
not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
the reason why is because the Lord Jesus Christ bore that wrath
of God for the sins of his people, that we should know and have
peace with holy God. All right, our Savior did that
for us. And every sinner can now say
to God, thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the
pit. of corruption. And so, the reason
why is because the Spirit reveals to us, right, the means of our
salvation by Christ, right? He reveals to us how it is that
God is gracious to us. As Job records, then He is gracious
unto him and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. A ransom. And that ransom is
is the blood payment of Christ, our righteousness, who died our
death to pay our debt of sins. He's our ransom. He's why we
are delivered from the pit of corruption. He's the one in whom
we have peace and reconciliation and joy with the Father. And
so, God may be gracious to us, for thou hast cast all my sins
behind thy back. so that the avenging eye of God
will never look upon us in wrath, because it poured out the wrath
that was our due upon Jesus Christ the righteous, who bore that
sin in his own body as the Lamb of God to sacrifice himself and
to make pain for our sins that we who are lifted up in pride,
who are so forgetful and found to be unbelieving, that we should
know peace and forgiveness. And though God look upon us,
and we are chastened for our sin and reminded and brought
low, it's always done for our good. It's always to, any bitterness
that we taste here in this flesh now, is always for our good,
for our peace, that we might be reminded that this is not
our life, this is not our inheritance, this is not all that there is.
Whatever hardships, whatever trials, whatever afflictions
we go through, this isn't all that there is. We have a more
sure promise, a more sure word of promise in Christ, and we
rejoice in that. It encourages me, and I pray
it encourages you to pray to the Lord, and believe Him, and
trust Him, and thank Him for His goodness, and grace, and
kindness, and how patiently He deals with us. And I pray that
the Lord bless His people here in Missouri, and that He establish
His body here, and that He use us to minister and preach His
word in love. You know, there's such a a coldness
now it seems, if you look at the news even, you see how there
just seems to be a real coldness setting in in the hearts of men
against his fellow man, and I pray that the Lord deliver us from
that and give us a heart, not to focus on those things that
divide, but to be giving and gracious to others to declare
the word of God and to declare his gospel to them in the hopes
that God will call out his people from every race, tongue, tribe,
and nation, all peoples, because it's his body and if he died
for them, then surely we can love them by his grace and his
spirit. So I pray the Lord will bless
that and that he's shown you and comforted your heart to see
the sentence of death overturned. So I pray the Lord bless that,
amen. All right, brethren, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, Lord, you who are so kind, so
generous, so giving, so faithful, so patient, so perfect in everything
you do, Lord, and sending bitterness upon us in perfect measure to
bring peace to us, to deliver us from pride and the pit of
corruption, Lord, for we've no part in that destruction and
your wrath, but we have our inheritance in your Son, Jesus Christ. Oh,
Lord, warm our hearts with your love. Fill us with your Spirit. Lord, let your love and peace
and grace flood our souls, flood our hearts, and let our words
drip with grace and with the exalting your Son, Jesus Christ,
who alone is salvation. We pray that you have mercy on
your people, and Lord, those that are hurting, those that
are suffering, troubled, weary, scared, and afraid, Lord, that
you would look upon them for good, and that you would speak
peace into their hearts by your Son, Jesus Christ. that they
would hear His voice and be delivered from the pit of corruption and
to be established in Your peace. It's in the name of our Savior
Jesus Christ that we pray this. Amen.