Let's go back to that passage
Ron just read to us and I want to talk about this man Hezekiah
and let you know about his own priorities. There were some things
that were very important to him and we can learn quite a bit
from this King of Judah. For the benefit of those of you
who don't maybe have a, or you can't remember exactly the history
of Israel. After Solomon passed away, the
kingdom in time divided. There's the northern kingdom
and the southern kingdom. and Solomon's son, Rehoboam,
became the king of the southern kingdom, which consisted only
of two tribes, and that would be the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The other ten tribes are spoken
of generally as Israel, that being the northern kingdom, those
ten tribes. And then the southern kingdom,
was called Judah. I mentioned this past Wednesday
that Israel, the northern kingdom, never had a godly king. They never had a king who led
them in the worship of God. Every king that they had was
a disgrace to his office and to the people over which he had
the rule. As far as the southern kingdom,
they had several. They had seven kings who were
godly. The scripture says they did that
which was right in the sight of the Lord. And one of those
men was Hezekiah. And let me say this, blessed
is that nation who has the leadership over that nation and he also
believes God. Wouldn't it be wonderful if God
gave us such a person? I don't see anybody on the horizon
in political things. I don't see anybody who really
believes God, who would exercise his or her authority in matters
of leadership in such a way that God would be honored and our country's in a shameful,
awful condition and anybody who knows right from wrong is very
much aware of that. But this man has, his father,
his father A has, and it's important to differentiate Ahaz was of
the southern kingdom. Another king, Ahab, was of the
northern kingdom. And of course, both of them were
rotten. Both of them were terrible men. But God gave to Judah here
a man who believed God. Now back in those days, moms
and dads named their babies with names that had great significance
and great meaning. They didn't look in a book, names
of babies, and then go through and say, well, you know, I think
this would be a good name. They didn't do it that way. They
chose names that had particular meaning. And this man's name
means one who is strengthened by God. Strengthened by God. Actually, Jehovah is the one
who strengtheneth is the full meaning of Hezekiah's name. The
Lord strengthened him when he was young, when he was middle-aged,
and all through his reign, God strengthened him. God was his
power. God empowered him to do the things
that he did in leading the people of Judah in the right ways of
worship. He detested the things that his
father stood for. Now don't misunderstand, when
I said his father Ahaz, he was a bad king, he did that which
was wrong in the sight of God. That doesn't mean he was not
religious. He was very religious. You say, well, I thought as long
as a person is sincere and means business in their religion, then
that's okay. No, that's not okay. This man
Ahaz, he did not believe God. In fact, after his father passed
away, Jotham, who believed God, who walked in the ways of King
David and Solomon before him, When Ahaz took over, the first
thing he did practically was shut the gates of the temple.
And when he shut the gates of the temple, that meant no more
worship of God. That meant no more sacrificing
the appointed sacrifice unto God, which sacrifice pointed
to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Ahaz said, I'm going
to shut the doors and seal them shut. And when he did that, he
cut off all hope of anybody learning the gospel. You see, it was at
the temple, at the brazen altar, that sacrifices were offered
because God appointed these bloody sacrifices to typify the death
of our Lord Jesus, our Savior. You see, only by satisfied justice
can God show mercy and grace to sinners like ourselves. All
sins got to be punished. No sin will ever go unpunished
in God's sight. He either punished your sins
in the death of His Son, or He's going to punish your sins in
you, and that'll be forever in the flames of hell. And when Ahaz shut off the temple,
when he closed the doors and the hinges rusted, And there
it stood empty, this location where God was to be worshipped,
where God said, this is where I'm going to meet with you and
this is where you can meet with me. When he shut the doors of
the gates, he shut the gates of the temple in Jerusalem, the
house of God, all acceptance with God was rendered impossible. The sacrifices that were offered
at the brazen altar pointed to the Son of God. It pointed to
His death by which He did satisfy God. God punished every one of
the sins of every one of His people in His own Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God poured out His wrath on Him. He bore the burden of our sins
and our guilt and our iniquities. He bore them all way to the cross
of Calvary. And he died under the wrath of
God to satisfy God's justice. Justice demands death. And that's
what Christ rendered to divine justice. But Ahaz, he stopped
all that. That's an awful thing. But he
wasn't irreligious. He was a very religious individual. And when he shut the gates of
the temple, he erected altars in four corners of the city of
Jerusalem. While they were virtually surrounded
by religion, but it was false religion. See, most people today
think as long as you got religion, it doesn't much matter what you
believe. It very much matters, as it did back in these days.
You see, God had ordained that temple, that house of God, he'd
ordained that to be the only location in all the world. Think about this, it's a big
world. In all the world, that's the
only location anybody could draw near to God. and they could never
draw near to God apart from the blood of the sacrifice. And that rule which was made
back in the garden when our Lord killed the animals and then robed
Adam and Eve, and that rule which Abel abode by when he killed
the firstling of his flock, the innocent must die for the guilty,
that goes all the way through the Bible. And you get to the
New Testament and our Lord Jesus is that innocent one who died
for the guilty. And here's what Ahaz did. He
shut off all possibility of drawing near to God, but he maintained
his false religion. You say you don't think it matters
what church you go to, what you believe? Well, I'll tell you
this, it's a matter of life and death. It's a matter of believing God
and his truth or believing errors. Nobody could ever accuse King
Ahaz of not being a worshipper, but he was a worshipper of other
gods. And he himself had gone to great
lengths to make sure nobody got back in the temple. That's the kind of man he was. But though Ahaz was such an ungodly
man and did that which was evil in the sight of God, his son
Hezekiah, though born of a sinful father, God showed mercy to Hezekiah. Now, we're introduced to him
here in chapter 29, and tonight I'm going to be going to 2 Kings
18. We'll find out a few more things about him. He begins here
in chapter 29, verse 1, he begins to reign when he was 25 years
old. but at some point in his life,
under most likely the preaching of Isaiah. See, you've got to
hear a preacher. Isn't that right? You've got
to hear a preacher. The Bible says faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. The Bible says it pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. He
had to hear the gospel. And he heard the gospel from
Isaiah, God prophet. And he learned how the God of
the Bible can save poor sinners in such a way that he doesn't
compromise his justice. And the Spirit of God did a work
of grace in the heart of Hezekiah. You see, it's obvious that grace
does not run in the bloodline. Because Ahaz was an ungodly man. And Hezekiah didn't learn how
God saves sinners from his father. But his father also heard the
preaching of Isaiah. as did Hezekiah's grandfather
and great-grandfather even. And God was pleased to save Uzziah
and Jotham, but God wasn't pleased to save Ahaz. Grace skipped over
that man. Learn this, God doesn't owe you
anything. He didn't save Ahaz. And Ahaz
had the exact same opportunities of hearing the truth as did Uzziah
and Jotham and Hezekiah. But God bypassed Ahaz with his
grace and he showered his grace in the heart of King Hezekiah. God strengthened him. That's
what his name means, one whom the Lord strengtheneth. You see,
Hezekiah, like all of us, we're without spiritual strength. Don't answer out loud, but let
me ask you just a few questions. Is repentance necessary in salvation? Well, sure it is. Is that a spiritual
activity? It is. What about faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ? Is that necessary to salvation?
Well, sure it is. Is that a spiritual activity?
Yes, it is. But you see, here's our problem. We're spiritually dead. We're
dead in trespasses and sins. We have no ability, we have no
inclination to repent, and we have no ability and no strength
and no inclination to believe our Lord Jesus Christ. You see,
we're like Ahaz. We want a little religion. With
most people, it's like, now you're gonna have to be older to remember
this. You remember the Brill Cream commercials? A little dabble,
do ya? Remember that? Several of you
are older. You don't have to raise your
hand. I know you're older to remember that. But that's the
way most people look upon religion. A little dab will do you. No,
a little dab of religion will damn you. There is but one true religion
and it's the gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God to
sinners through the doing and the dying and the rising again
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the truth. And that's
the message God uses to save people. And God saved Hezekiah. God strengthened him. All of us were like Hezekiah
naturally. We were without strength toward
God. We couldn't repent. We couldn't
believe. Couldn't do any, there's no spiritual
activity that we were capable of doing because we were dead
in trespasses and sins. And the Scripture says when we
were yet without strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. When we had no ability to put
our sins away, make ourselves righteous, our Lord Jesus came
down here and He did something. He didn't try to do something.
He accomplished redemption. He accomplished the salvation
of His people by His obedience unto death, even the death of
the cross. And the Spirit of God worked
in the heart of King Hezekiah, and he believed God. Tell you
what, if you believe God this morning, you who are here, you
who are watching by way of the internet, if you truly believe
God resting in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a miracle of grace. Hezekiah came forth from the
loins of a man who hated God. And look what God did for him.
He turned him around. This is a work of God. You may have heard this story.
Samuel Morris, of course, was credited with, and rightfully
so, with the telegraph and sending out messages and having the telegraph
lines put up. He sent his very first telegraph
message was sent from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. to the old
location where the Supreme Court justices used to meet. And the day before he was going
to send his first message, a good dear friend of his, that friend's
daughter, suggested what he ought to send by way of a telegraph
message. She said, I want you to send
the last four words of Numbers chapter 22 and verse 23. And those four words are, what
God hath wrought. That's the first message. Be
nice if somebody would send a message like that to Washington these
days, wouldn't it? what God hath wrought. And when I look at Hezekiah,
thinking of his father, the environment that he grew up in, ungodly,
filled with idolatry, and then what God did for him through
the preaching of the gospel of the prophet Isaiah and perhaps
some other prophets as well. Those four words come to my mind,
what God hath wrought, but wait, wait, when I look at myself.
And I find myself to be a child of God, washed in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, robed in his righteousness, an heir
of God, a joint heir of Jesus Christ. Those four words sure
come to my mind and to my heart then. What God hath wrought. Don't you feel the same way?
What God hath wrought. What he did. Hezekiah's not going
to take any credit for what he did. The Lord strengthened him
to believe the gospel, gave him life. All that he was and all
that he hoped to be is due to the grace of God. So that the
Bible sums up all of his life. His whole life is summed up by
the Spirit of God by saying this. Verse two, he did that which
was right. in the sight of the Lord. He
did that which was right. How can that be said of anybody? And I brought this out Wednesday
night and it bears repeating because the obedience of the
Lord Jesus is imputed to everybody who believes Him. That's why
we'll all hear When we get to glory, all of God's people will
hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You say, Lord,
I ain't been a good and faithful servant. I've been a bad and
unfaithful servant in and of myself. Lord says, you're up
here not because of anything you did, but because of the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is put on your record. When
the books of God are open, All that will be found on the pages
of God, God's book. This one did that which was right
in the sight of God. Because the righteousness of
Christ is credited to them. And a people like King Ahaz,
he did that which was evil, that which was malignant. that which
was filthy in the sight of God. Well, let me show you Hezekiah's
priority. And I was gonna give you two
of them this morning. I'll give you one of them this
morning and I'll give you the other one tonight. Look in verse
three. He, in the first year of his
reign, in the first month, And in verse 17 it says, in the first
day, first year, first month, first day, he opened the doors
of the house of the Lord and repaired them. His father had
closed those doors. As you might remember back up
in verse 24, Ron read this to us in chapter 28, verse 24. And
he has gathered together the vessels of the house of God.
He cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God. He shut
up the doors of the house of the Lord. And he made him altars
in every corner of Jerusalem. He shut the temple. That's like cutting off the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no possibility of it
going out. And Hezekiah, when he becomes
king, first year, first month, first week, first day, first
day, he opened up the house of God. The scripture says, look at verse
three again, he repaired them. rusted hinges. He had them repaired. He said,
open up the temple again. We've got to worship God. Isn't
it time, isn't it time that by the God, by the Lord's ability
and strength that He raises up preachers to open up the gates
to the temple of God again? Open up the means of worship.
Open up to people the way of acceptance with God through the
bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Won't somebody, won't
somebody stand up and open up the gates and say, listen, I'm
repairing the rusted hinges. The gates are open. We gonna
start worshiping God again. It'd be wonderful if God raised
up some more men across the country who had preached the truth. This
is very much a barren land. This is an ungodly land. We were on vacation up in Michigan. One morning, I was up early and
switching through the television channels. I came across, they
had three or four Catholic channels. Came across one of them, this
guy, he started praying. He said, oh, holy mother. I call upon you to speak to your
son, Jesus, that he would speak to his father, that he would
open up the windows of heaven and bless us. Oh, queen of heaven,
let me tell you something, that's pure heresy. Now, you may be
a Catholic, Somebody watching might be a Catholic. There's
nothing good about Catholicism. There's nothing good about it.
It's false religion. But not only Catholicism, lots
of Baptists, lots of Baptists are just as bad. Oh, that God would have somebody,
as it were, to open up the gates of the house
of God again, where the message of substitution would go forth. You see, churches today, and
you know this is true, there's entertainment, excitement, enthusiasm. Everybody's involved. And it's just like Ahaz's idols
in the four corners of the city of Jerusalem. Absolutely useless
and ungodly and evil. Hezekiah said, this is the first
thing I'm gonna do. I'm gonna open up the gates of
the house of God. That's his priority. His priority
was we're gonna worship God. His priority was, we're going
to draw near to God by means of the death, the bloody sacrifice
of an innocent victim dying for the guilty. That was his priority. Now let me ask you a question.
What's your priority? That was his. Oh, that we'd be like, and Bill
spoke to this a couple of weeks ago. oath would be like Joshua's
for me and my house. We're going to worship God. We're
going to serve God. I'll tell you what Hezekiah did,
and you can't legislate godliness now. I understand that. But he said, you're not going
to worship any other God except Jehovah. Now, he couldn't get
into the hearts of people. But he said, all idolatry is
going to get out of here. I'm going to do away with it,
and I'm going to deal with that tonight. But he repaired the temple, repaired the doors, reinstituted
the sacrifices, and worshiped God. Oh, Lord. Lord, enable men across this
country and across this world to, as it were, open up the doors
of the house of God and reintroduce people to the truth. Tell them
about Christ and Him crucified. Tell them about the grace of
God and maybe, maybe God be pleased to do a work of grace in the
hearts of men and women and boys and girls. That'd be wonderful,
wouldn't it? I'll tell you this, it's wonderful
When you look at yourself in the mirror, think of these four
words, what God hath wrought. And Hezekiah could look in the
mirror and see himself and think about his ungodly father. He
was so ungodly, the people said he can't even be buried in the
same area of the cemetery where David was buried and Solomon
was buried and and later where Hezekiah was buried. Now, it
can't even dwell with those guys. The body can't dwell them in
death. What God hath wrought. God could
have left you where he found you, but he didn't. He didn't. What God hath wrought. Let's
sing the closing song. And I'll, have more to say about
King Hezekiah this evening. Let's turn to where the amazing grace.