This man, Hezekiah, lived his life in the fear of
the Lord ever since the Lord saved him by His grace. He walked in the truth of the
gospel. He maintained a confidence in
Jehovah. looking to the Messiah who would
come to save his people from their sins. And though his walk
was imperfect, as is the walk of all of us, yet he, in sincerity
and in truth, he sought the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. And he sought the glory of God
above everything else. His intentions were right. And his beliefs were according
to the revealed will of God. I was a little uncomfortable,
to be honest with you, when I read what his prayer was. When he says, I have walked,
verse three, he says, remember now how I have walked before
thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which
is good in thy sight. Ordinarily, to hear somebody
speak those words It kind of sounds like self-admiration or
patting yourself on the back. I don't know what Hezekiah was
thinking. I have no way to know what was
going through his mind. But as I looked at it again and
again, he did walk before God in truth. The very truth of God meant everything
to him. For it was in the name of the
truth of God and the glory of God that he destroyed idols,
that he destroyed the brazen serpent, calling it nehushtan,
a worthless piece of brass. It was with the very glory of
God in mind that he with a perfect heart, with a sincere heart,
that's what that means, with a sincere heart, he sought to
do those things that were honoring to God and glorifying to God. And based upon what we have read
of him and his faithfulness to God, I can better come to grips
with what he had to say. I do not believe that he was
speaking of his faithfulness as being meritorious before God. I don't think he was saying,
Lord, in light of all the good that I've done, hear the desire
of my heart. You'll notice he did not ask
for anything specifically. He did not ask for 15 years.
which is why the word behold is attached to what Isaiah said. All he does is present his case
before the Lord, and he said this, look in verse 3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember. Remember. And that puts me in
mind of the believing thief. who when he was hanging beside
the Savior, and he looked over at this bloody man, bloodied
and gory looking, suffering, being crucified, being mocked
by the multitudes. When he looked at Jesus of Nazareth
hanging on the middle cross, he believed him to be the Lord
of glory. And he said, Lord, remember me,
remember me. And here is this man who has
just heard from the lips of the prophet Isaiah that he's going
to die and not live. And his cry is, I beseech thee,
O Lord, O Jehovah, O sovereign of all,
I beseech thee, remember now, remember. Remember whose I am,
I'm yours. Remember, Lord, that I believe
you because you have gifted me with faith. Remember me, O Lord, in this
time of death. Because he believed what Isaiah
said that he was going to die. And he just wept. You know, sometimes as children
of God, we bow our heads before the Lord and maybe we can't even
speak. That which is the desire of our
heart, and we're thankful that according to Romans chapter 8,
the Spirit of God takes our thoughts and our desires and puts them
in form, puts them in a way that is expressed to the Lord Jesus,
to the Father. Here's a man believing that the
Lord remembers him. The Lord cannot forget His children. And here is Hezekiah saying,
I'm one of yours. I'm one who trusts you. I'm one
of your little ones who out of the sincerity of my heart have
sought to glorify thy name. Lord, remember me. Remember me. And the Lord does remember his
children. Hold your place here and go to
Isaiah. Look at Isaiah chapter 49. Isaiah
49. Let me read you three or four
verses here. Isaiah 49. Verse 13, I'll begin.
Isaiah 49, 13. We read, sing, O heavens, and
be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains. For the Lord hath comforted his
people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said,
the Lord hath forsaken me. You ever feel that way? The Lord
hath forsaken me. And my Lord hath forgotten me.
Sometimes it seems like the Lord hides His face from us. And we
wonder where is the Lord? Here I am grieving or hurting
or suffering. Where is the Lord? I need the
Lord and yet He seems so far away from me. The Lord has forgotten
me, the Lord has forsaken me. And the Lord speaks up and says
in verse 15, Can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget,
yet I will not forget thee. Hezekiah says, O Lord, remember,
The thief on the cross said, Lord, remember me. And I'll tell you, when you don't
know what to pray or how to ask for something, this is a good
prayer. Oh, Lord, remember me. Don't
forget me. And he says in verse 16, Behold,
you'd be amazed at this. I have graven thee upon the palms
of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. Thy children shall make haste.
Thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth
of thee. I'm not going to forget you no
matter what seems to happen to you or what you experience. I'll
never forget you. In Hebrews 13 we read the Lord
says, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. And I want to encourage
the Lord's people tonight by reminding you that you are always
on his mind. There's never a moment that he
ever forgets you. You say, but he has so many children. scattered across the world. Oh,
we have no idea of the greatness of our God. And each of His children are
very, very special to Him. He chose us unto salvation. He did that. And He redeemed
us by the blood of His Son. And in due time, He sent somebody
to preach the gospel of God's grace to us through the redeeming
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of God did a miraculous
work within us. And we found ourselves believing,
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and casting our souls upon Him. Lots invested in us. The Son
of God laid down His life to save us. While His own blood
was shed for our redemption. He will not forget us. There's a verse, I tell you,
if you're still in Isaiah, look at this verse, Isaiah 43. And then I'll go back to 2 Kings.
Look at Isaiah 43, 26. Verse 25 says, Isaiah 43, 25. I, even I, am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake. and will not remember thy sins."
There is something he won't remember, but it's not you, it's your sins. And he says in verse 26, this
is an interesting way the Lord phrases, put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. As it
were, let us plead upon the basis of the sacrifice that's been
laid down to justify us before God. Remind me of that, God said. Not that he needs reminding,
but don't forget to always plead the blood of Christ. He says,
declare thou that thou mayest be justified. Well, Hezekiah did what the Lord,
through Isaiah, was told to do. Pour out your heart to the Lord,
knowing that He's mindful of you. And he asked for nothing,
and I want to emphasize this before I go on. He made no specific
request, it's as though The yearning of his heart, the hurting of
his soul, the worry, I suppose, of dying, this is all in his
mind. Remember, these Old Testament
saints, they didn't have New Testament passages that they
could go to and find the promises of God like we do. And they very
much operated, if I may put it this way, sometimes in the dark. And here he is, he's heard the
word from the prophet Isaiah, set your house in order because
you're not going to live, you're going to die. And this is all
weighing heavily on his mind and he just turns his face toward
the wall and weeps. You know, the Lord says in Job
that he He catches our tears like the Egyptians used to do.
The Egyptians, when they were, people were weeping and sad,
they had a mourning rag. And they'd wipe the tears of
a bunch of people to where it would finally, the rag would
be wet with tears. And they'd squeeze it into a
bottle. And the Lord, in the book of
Job, he likens his memory to tears squeezed into a bottle. He knows every tear you've wept
over your children, your grandchildren, over your sorrows. He knows every
tear. He remembers them. He remembers
them. Well, Hezekiah With a broken heart
he came before the Lord and not knowing what to ask for. And
the Lord gave him exceeding abundantly above all that he could ask or
think. Gave him 15 years. Now I don't know what this sickness
was. what this illness was that afflicted
him, but it's obvious that had it been allowed to run its course,
this man would surely have died. Such was the severity of it that
had not the Lord intervened, Hezekiah would have fell victim
to whatever it was he was afflicted with. Why do God's people get
sick and sometimes deathly sick? Well, I can tell you the very
first reason is to drive us to the throne of our sovereign,
to drive us to his feet. When the body grows weak, when
we have fever or cancer or heart disease or whatever it is, There's
something about that that brings a solemnness to the mind and
to the heart. And then we run to our Lord.
Oh, God, help me. And anything that drives us to
our Lord is good for us, even if it's painful to the body. This disease of Hezekiah reminds
us of sin, a horrible Infectious disease which affects every man,
woman, boy and girl born into this world of the seed of man. It is disease which is inward
and revealed outward. And it has destroyed our standing
before God. It is as incurable as was Hezekiah's
illness. And this disease of sin, if it
runs its course, it will result in threefold death. We're born
spiritually dead. We're going to physically die.
And if sin runs its course, we're going to die eternally. In the case of Hezekiah, he was
healed. God gave him 15 more years. It
was a miraculous healing which involved the Lord using something
that was unusual, but something that was common and ordinary,
figs. And in the healing of our souls,
the Lord used that which is common and ordinary, the death of somebody. But the death that He used was
not by any means common and ordinary. It was the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was nothing short of a miracle
that our Savior laid down His life for us. how great the cure was. We were
sinful and we were dying. But our Lord Jesus intervened. Peter says, and with his stripes,
we were healed. The healing took place at Calvary. That's where the price was paid. Well, here is Hezekiah. He's sick. And the Lord says
to him, through Isaiah, in verse five, he says, turn again, the
Lord says to Isaiah, turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain
of my people, thus said the Lord, the God of David, thy father,
I've heard thy prayer, I've seen thy tears, behold, I will heal
thee on the third day. That's when healing would come
to him. On the third day, thou shalt go up unto the house of
the Lord, and I will add unto thy days fifteen years. On the
third day, go up to the house of the Lord. Now, what did he
say on the third day? Well, the third day in Scripture
is very significant. In the book of Genesis chapter
1, At the end of it, God creates man, and it's a picture of the
new creation. But all the verses before the
creation of Adam and Eve, because Eve was in Adam, male and female,
made he them, all that came before that was the Lord making a residence
capable of nourishing and taking care of the people of God. And on the third day we read
that the Lord, well, turn back to Genesis chapter 1, let me
just read this to you. Verse 9, it was a time of separation. God made a location, He made
a place, a place where a man could dwell. You see, Back in
eternity, God ordained salvation. But that's going to have to be
worked out in what we call time. And it's got to be worked out
somewhere. So God ordained the somewhere
in the beginning. God created the heaven and the
earth. And the earth is where the great
drama of redemption is going to take place. The earth is where
the Son of God is going to come. Because the earth is where the
people of God dwell. So He's going to come down here
and dwell among us and then lay down His life. Verse 9, And God
said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into
one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. We've
got to have somewhere to live. And God called the dry land earth,
and the gathering together of the waters He called seas. And
God saw that it was good, and then God said, let the earth
bring forth grass and herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after His kind. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the seed. He's the seed of the woman. And
He brings forth a people after His kind. We're His offspring. whose seed is in itself upon
the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass
and herb-yielding seed after his kind, not its kind, but his
kind. That which is in view here is
Christ the Savior and his people. And the tree-yielding fruit,
he is the tree of life, whose seed was in itself after his
kind. And God saw that it was good.
This is good in the evening and the morning where the third day,
the third day, that's when the earth came into being. There's
dry land and this is where the seed and the fruit came in. And we have a picture of our
Lord Jesus. He's the seed of the woman whose
fruit we are. We are. The third day is significant. In the Bible, the word The number
three you know is very important. It means completeness. It means
perfection. It's used to indicate divine
intervention. In the Hebrew language, it means
literally harmony, new life, completeness. And to begin with, the number
three is the Trinity. And of course, the word Trinity
isn't in the Bible. But there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Spirit. These three are one. And many significant things happen
on the third day. You remember that God told Abraham
to take Isaac to a mountain that God would show him and offer
him up as a burnt offering. and they traveled with two servants. And the scripture says, on the
third day, on the third day, they came to the mountain. God
said, this is the mountain where it's going to happen. And the
Lord said to Abraham, tell the servants, stay here. You see,
when God dealt with our Savior upon the cross of Calvary, there
were two people who were very close to the Savior, location-wise,
hanging beside of Him. But they could not enter into
that transaction between the Father and the Son when redemption
price was paid. So God turned the lights out.
There was darkness over the face of the earth. Even so, on the third day, Abraham
and Isaac went to the mountain. And that was the time for Isaac
to be offered it, so it would appear. And when Abraham raised
the sacrificial knife, the Lord said, stop! This was a test. And he passed
the test. And the Lord said, there's a
ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Kill that animal in
the stead of Isaac. And that's what redemption is,
it's substitution. It's our Lord Jesus Christ dying
in the stead of his people. And of course the third day is
significant in many places through the scriptures, but I just want
to camp on this one for just a little bit. Our Lord Jesus
raised from the dead on the third day. The third day. The third day was, to the Jews,
very significant because if a person had died, if they'd been dead
for a total of three days, death was assured. Death was assured. In the case of Lazarus, he'd
been dead four days. And Martha said, don't open the,
don't roll the stone away, have the stone rolled away from his
tomb because by this time he's stinking. But for the Jews, three days
was proof that life had exited the body. And you remember in
the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, he died. Of course, he had said
that destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. And then
the enemies of our Lord, they went running to Pilate after
the Savior had been buried. And said, well, that deceiver,
he said he was going to come back after three days. Seal the
tomb with your own signet. And he did that. Surely nothing
could break the seal of Pilate, the governor. But on the third day, the seal
was broken. And our Savior came forth in
triumphant glory. And I'll tell you this, because
He came forth from the grave on the third day, our bodies
are sure to be raised. But there's a resurrection that
we experience even in this life, isn't there? It's called regeneration. And our regeneration, that's
connected to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
to 1 Peter chapter 1. Let me give you this and I'll
leave you with it. 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead." Our spiritual resurrection, it's
called the new birth. It's called being born again.
It's called regeneration. Our regeneration, our new birth,
being born again is a direct result of what happened on the
third day when our Lord Jesus Christ conquered death and came
back from the grave having been victorious over all of our enemies. And then in due time, he came
to us who were ruined in sin, but who had been redeemed by
the blood of Christ. He came to us at exactly the
right time and regenerated us. Those are the three R's that
have to always be set forth, ruined, redeemed, and regenerated. The Lord regenerated us because
of what happened on the third day. Christ came forth triumphant
over all of our enemies. We live because he lives. Because he conquered death, we
live spiritually and though these bodies must taste death, yet Our Lord Jesus who rose on
the third day will see to it that our dead bodies are raised
from the grave wherever Abel was buried, if he was buried. All those particles of his dust
long since gone. The Lord knows where every particle
of dust is. And Abel's body will be gathered
together again at the final resurrection, as will all of the Old Testament
saints and all of the New Testament saints, right up to the last
one who has died. And we're going to all have glorified
bodies, and here's the reason, because of what happened on the
third day. Our Christ arose, and he ensured
our spiritual life, our everlasting life, and that this body will
live again on the third day. That's the title of this message,
the third day. Well, let's sing the closing
song. Get your songbooks out