According to the book of Isaiah
chapter 39, I want to read three words to you, three astounding,
astounding words in Holy Scripture. Three words about a man, good,
great, godly King Hezekiah. These words I have read, I presume,
hundreds of times, and yet I had never read them, I don't believe,
until just in the last month or so. As I read them, they stood
shocking to me, sobering. They got my attention. I hope
they'll get yours. Godly faithful obedient Hezekiah
Stood head and shoulders above all the other kings of Judah
and of Israel And yet we read in 2nd Chronicles 32 and verse
31 God left him God left him What a statement. God left him. No king in Israel had accomplished
more. God left him. No king in Judah
had more honored God, and God left him. when the princes of
Babylon sent ambassadors to the King Hezekiah after the Lord
had healed him, raised him up from his deathbed, we read God
left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his
heart. That is, that Hezekiah, this
great king, might know all that was in his heart. Those Babylonian
princes had heard about the wonder that was done in the land of
Judah. So they sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah. They wanted
to know something about this king. And they wanted to get
on the good side of this king, whose God is Jehovah, who turned
all nations over to him. They wanted on his good side.
They heard about Sennacherib and Rabshakeh and the Assyrian
armies, how the gods scared them off. Just scared them off. Just
scared them off, that's all. They heard about Hezekiah's sickness.
and his miraculous recovery. They heard about his God causing
the sun to go backward on the sundial of Ahaz by 10 degrees. Remarkable thing. The Chaldeans
were idolaters. They were worshipers of the sun,
worshipers of astrological things. And so when they heard about
these things, they were astounded. But when the Babylonian idolaters
sent their ambassadors to Hezekiah, God left him to try him, that
he might know all that was in his heart. When God leaves a
man, when God leaves a woman, if God should leave you, if God
should leave me, even for a moment, Oh, what evil we might perform. What evil we might perform. The
evil that resides deep in our depraved, dark hearts we haven't
yet begun to imagine. God walked with Adam in the garden
in the cool of the day. And sweet communion walked with
Adam and Eve in the garden. And one day, God left him in
the garden. And the whole human race was
ruined. God brought Noah through the flood. Brought he and his
house through the flood in that ark that God designed and God
had no to build for the saving of his household. And then God
left Noah. in his vineyard, and drunkenness
ensued. There's a man by the name of
Lot, a good, godly, righteous man. A good, godly, righteous
man. Good because God made him good.
Godly because God made him godly. Righteous because God made him
righteous. And I know that he's such a man because God calls
him Righteous Lot. But Lot wanted to go to Zohar
and God left him in Zohar. The result is Ammon and Edom. Aaron, Moses' older brother,
God's high priest in Israel. That man who so much led Israel
in the worship of God. That man, things he's been teaching
about his sons and his garments and sacrifices. Such great examples
of faith. Aaron. God left him one day. And Aaron said, give me your
gold. Give me your earrings. Give me
your necklaces. Give me all the gold that came out of Egypt with
you. And he cast it into the fire and made a golden calf and
called for Israel to worship Jehovah, dancing naked around
a golden calf. Moses, Moses, what a great man. What a great man. Oh, what a
remarkable man. I read about some of these men
in scriptures and I think, oh, I'd like to know men like that.
Remarkable men. Moses led Israel out of Egypt.
Moses led Israel across the Red Sea. Moses received the law from
God on the map and gave it to Israel Moses Smoked the rock
when God said smite the rock and water came gushing out of
the rock Christ Jesus the Lord and that rock following them
through the wilderness One day Moses got angry disgusted Disgusted
with God and disgusted with Israel Moses And in his anger, he smoked
the rock when God said, speak to the rock. And because Moses
sanctified not the Lord God before Israel, Moses could not enter
into the land of promise. David, David's a man after God's
own heart. What a man David must have been.
What a man. What a man. A godly man. a believing man, a redeemed man,
a justified man, a man made new in Christ Jesus the Lord, a man
born of God. One day, God left him on his
palace wall. And he spots Bathsheba. And he
steals the wife of a faithful friend, Uriah. And he tries to
cover up his crime, bringing Uriah from the battlefield. But
Uriah would not go in to sleep with his wife. So David arranged
to murder his faithful friend. God left him. The Apostle Peter, Peter gets
a lot of bad talk from folks who don't have any idea how little
they measure up to Peter. Peter was something else. Peter
Peter was a man's man Peter took out his little fishing knife
and took on our Roman garrison Took cut the highest priest service
here off Peter mighty bold courageous man But God left And when God
left him he trembled before a little girl And denied the Savior And
denied him again And a third time, cussed and said, I don't
know that man. I don't know that man. Oh, but
blessed be his name forever. There came a day when God left
another man, his own darling son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He left that man that he might
never leave anyone who trusted that man. Go to dark Gethsemane. Go to Gabbatha. Go to Golgotha. Hear the Savior cry, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He confesses his iniquity,
his guiltiness, his transgression, his sin. Confesses his crimes,
his crimes that were truly his crimes because he made our crimes
to be his crimes when he was made sin for us. And the Lord
God left him. left him upon the cursed tree,
suffering all the horrid wrath of God Almighty in our room and
in our stead, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Because God's own darling son
was made sin for us and punished to the full satisfaction of divine
justice for our sins. The Lord God Almighty now promises,
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. I will never
leave thee, not for any reason, not under any circumstances.
I'll never forsake you, not for any reason, not under any circumstances. God will never abandon one for
whom he abandoned his son. He will never leave one for whom
he left his son. He will never forsake one for
whom he forsook his son. So that though we believe not,
yet he abided faithful. He cannot deny himself. God Almighty
will never forsake me because he forsook his son for me. What a word of grace, what a
marvelous thing. Oh, he does in great wisdom,
goodness and grace appear to abandon us, just like he did
Hezekiah. He gave us the whole Song of
Solomon talking about those abandoning times, those times when he forsakes
us, leads us to ourselves because of our sin, because of our unbelief.
But it is only the appearance of being abandoned, only the
appearance of being forsaken, so that we might know what's
in our hearts and we might be drawn to him. Turn to Isaiah
54 for just a moment before we read our text. Isaiah 54. Verse four Now hear me children of God Especially you who right now
sense that the heavens are brass and when you pray God won't hear
And when you call upon him he won't answer you And you think
God has abandoned you. This is God's word to you who
trust his son. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, Isaiah
54 verse four. For thou shalt not be put to
shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. For thy
maker, he is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. And thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be called. For
the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved
in spirit, and a wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith
thy God. For a small moment, For a small
moment, isn't that wonderful? For a small moment I have forsaken
thee. But with great mercies will I
gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment. But with everlasting kindness
will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this
is as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have
I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For
the mountains shall depart, and the hills shall be removed, but
my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
on thee. Now let's read Isaiah 39 together
you read these eight verses with me And I pray that God the Holy
Ghost will teach us as he taught Hezekiah all That's in our hearts
Isaiah 39 This events in the history of
Israel I this event in the life of this king hezekiah this thing
of the armies coming rapture come mocking them hezekiah is
spreading his case before god spreading the letter before the
lord hezekiah is being stricken with sickness and raised from
sickness to life again promised 15 years of life this is recorded
more fully more often in more detail than any other event in
all of scripture except the sacrifice of our Redeemer. You'll find
it in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and here in Isaiah. Chapter after
chapter is taken up with it. God intends for us to learn from
it. Isaiah 39, verse 1. At that time came Merodach, Baladon,
the son of Baladon, king of Babylon. sent letters and a present to
Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and was recovered. and Hezekiah was glad of them
and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver
and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment and the
house of his armor and all that was found in his treasures. There
was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah
showed them not. Try to get a picture. Here's
Hezekiah. Skip, he's king, but he's king
of a little speck of ground over here that doesn't matter much.
It wasn't near as significant then as it is today. Just that
little speck of ground over there in Judah. And now he has the
king of Babylon? one of the mightiest kingdoms
in the world, arising soon to be the greatest empire in the
world. He comes to send ambassadors to Hezekiah, wanting Hezekiah
to show him all the wondrous things Hezekiah had done. God
did them, but he came to Hezekiah as though Hezekiah did them.
And Hezekiah let him think just that. Yes, this is what we've done.
We built water courses. We built conduit pipes. We've
got a water system like nobody else has got. We've conquered
kingdom after kingdom. We've had nation after nation
bow to us. Yes, yes, yes. Here's our spoils. Here's our
good. Here's our wealth. And Hezekiah, in his great, great,
great, horrible, horrible, horrible pride, showed everything. showed everything as if he had
done something, as if he had accomplished something, as if
he were greater than other men. Verse three, then came Isaiah
the prophet unto King Hezekiah and said unto him, what said
these men? From which came they unto thee?
And Hezekiah said, they are come from a far country unto me, even
from Babylon. Then said he, what have they
seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, everything. All that is in mine house have
they seen. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not
showed them. Nothing among my treasures I
haven't showed them. Verse five. Then said Isaiah
to King Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days
come that all that is in thine house and that which thy fathers
have laid up in store until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith
the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee which thou
shalt beget shall they take away and they shall be eunuchs, slaves
in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto
Isaiah, good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. He said, moreover, for there
shall be peace and truth in my days. Now, lest I fail to give
you this before I'm done, let me give it to you now. Almost
every commentary, almost every comment I've read on Isaiah 39,
verse eight, makes Hezekiah to be some kind of monstrously evil
man he was not. And he's saying, well, it's good
enough for God to judge Israel, and good enough for God to judge
my family, and good enough for God to take my sons into captivity,
long as I don't have to see it, long as I don't have to endure
it. He was not speaking like that at all. Rather, he's simply
acquiescing to God's righteousness, God's justice, and God's truth. He says, what God does is right. Whether it's with me, or my sons,
or my nation. What God does is right, and we'll
bow to it. Now having said that, I want
to make six, maybe seven statements, and I pray God will speak by
his word. Number one, the Lord God did
great things for Hezekiah. Great things. Hezekiah was the
son of Judah's reprobate king Ahaz. There was not a more wicked
king in the history of Israel than Ahaz. Hezekiah was his son. Ahaz was reprobate. Ahaz was
cast off. Ahaz was damned. But God chose
Hezekiah. And God used Hezekiah as he used
no one else. He took Ahaz offspring, took
the offspring of a base idolater, took the offspring of an ungodly
man and said, all right, I will make your son my servant and
he will honor me as no other man does. Oh, how good, how gracious
God is. to take such things as you and
I and make us his own. When Hezekiah was sick unto death,
God sent his prophet to tell him, you're gonna die, you're
not gonna live. And Hezekiah turned his face
to the wall and called upon God in mercy, called upon God in
grace, called upon God for his mercy and grace, committing himself
to the Lord. And God restored his health,
gave him another 15 years. 15 years of prosperity, 15 years
of dominion, 15 more years of blessedness. Oh, what wonders God has performed
for us. How many of you, my brothers
and sisters here, are the only one in your household
who knows God? How many? Most of us. How many here Taken from the
loins of reprobate men. From the wombs of reprobate women.
Godless rebels. God-hating rebels. And God chose
you for his own. Oh, what a wonder. God should
choose us. redeem us, preserve and keep
us, perform all things for us, and make us useful instruments
in his hands. Mark, that's astounding. That's
astounding. That God should take such things
as we are Use us to carry the light of the gospel to this generation
to call out his elect in this generation What great mercy God
bestows upon sinners like us here's the second thing I Won't spend much time here,
but I won't say it with emphasis Saved sinners All saved sinners, saved sinners
are faithful saints. All of them, all of them. You find me a man who knows the
faithful God, I'll show you a man who's faithful to God. You find
me a woman who knows the faithful God, I'll show you a woman who
is faithful to God. Not many folks are faithful. We live in a society, a generation
of people, who are taught to focus everything on themselves
and they know nothing about faithfulness, commitment, anything. They just... That's just the way things are.
You can't depend on anybody for anything anymore. Where is the
person you can depend on for anything? I'll be there at nine
o'clock where you can look for them sometime this month or next
month maybe. Why? Because everybody lives
to themselves. Everybody except folks who are born of God. They
live to the Lord. And you can count on them. They're
dependable. Paul addresses the churches,
Ephesus, Corinth, Colossae, Galatia. He addresses them as saints and
faithful brethren. Faithful, faithful. Faithful means you can depend
on them. Faithful means you can count
on them. Faithful means you can trust them. They're faithful,
men and women, because they're born of God. All believers are
saints, sanctified, made holy by God's grace. And all believers
are righteous, justified in Jesus Christ the Lord. And all believers
are faithful to their faithful God and faithful to one another. Grace makes people faithful.
Well, Brother Don, I know a lot of Christians who aren't very
faithful. No, you don't. No, you don't. You know a lot
of religious folks who aren't very faithful. You know a lot
of folks who brag about their religion who aren't very faithful.
God's people are faithful people. I don't spend a great deal of
time twisting arms and berating folks and dragging folks into
stuff and getting them to do things. I just preach the gospel
to you. Been doing so these 40 years.
Don't spend much time talking to you about giving. Come to
it in Scripture, we deal with it. Don't spend much time talking
about attending church. Come to it in Scripture, we deal
with it. Don't spend much time talking to you about taking care
of things. Come to it in Scripture, we deal with it. But God's people
are faithful. They're faithful. And if I can
persuade you for a little while to act faithful, though you're
not, I haven't done anything for you. If I can persuade you
for a little while to behave as if you really were faithful
and you're not, I haven't done anything for you except help
deceive you. God's people are faithful. Grace
makes them so. Grace makes them so. The whole
world has got Churches all over the world got folks in it who
were talked into profession of faith when they didn't have any
idea what was going on. They were baptized and had no
idea why. They joined the church and had no idea what that involves.
And so they have discipleship classes and faithful classes
and church membership classes. And they spend lots and lots
and lots of time telling you what you ought to do now that
you're a Christian. what you ought to do now that
you're a church member, how you ought to behave now that you're
part of the church, and telling you what your responsibilities
are and persuading you to do it. God's people are faithful
people. Number three, having said that, the most faithful of God's saints
in this world are sinners still, just like Hezekiah. Just like
Hezekiah. The believer is a person with
two diametrically opposing natures, flesh and spirit. The old man
and the new, Adam and Christ. That which is born of flesh is
flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. It'll never
change. And when God gives a man or woman
life and faith in Christ, it is God who is life, putting his
life into your life. It is Christ who is life, putting
his life into your life, making us partakers of the divine nature. so that the old man is just as
vile as ever, that which is born of the devil. All they can do
is sin. Can't do anything else. But there's
a new man in us. A new man created in righteousness
and in true holiness. And that new man is Christ in
you, the hope of glory, and he cannot see it. So that all the
days of our lives on this earth You and I live in this continual
warfare with ourselves, flesh and spirit. The spirit lusting
against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, so that you
cannot do the things that you would. Now this is exactly what
that means. It means Mike, I haven't known
you very long, a little while, a couple years maybe, a child
of God. You can't do what you want to
do. You want to be a perfectly godly man. You want to be a perfectly
good husband. You want to be a perfect father. Am I correct? You can't do it. You can't do it. Because Mike
Ginter gets in the way. And when Mike Ginter gets to
popping out of his chest, he wants to be ungodly and vile
and violent and deceitful and cunning and crafty, bloodthirsty. But you can't do it. Because Christ in you, the hope
of glory, will not allow that old man to rule anymore. You understand what I'm saying?
You can't do what you would, neither the evil nor the good,
while you walk on this earth. Flesh does nothing but sin. Spirit, nothing but righteousness. That new man born of God can
not sin. It's born of God. The old man
can't do anything but sin. It's born of the devil. Here's
a fourth statement. Turn to Psalm 130. The Lord God, our God, the God
of all grace, the God of all peace, has forgiven us all our
sins, just like he did Hezekiah's. Psalm 130. Out of the depths
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou,
Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? O God, if you should mark iniquities,
if you should remember iniquities, if you should put the checkmark
by my iniquities, if you write down my iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? Not me, nobody else. but there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. I, even I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions. I have removed thy sins, as far
as the east is from the west, I have removed thy sins from
thee. Verse five. I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his
word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. You understand this? God's forgiven
us our sins. God will never charge you with
sin. God will never punish you for
sin. God will never treat you any less graciously because of
sin. Past, present, or future. Not
if you're Christ. Not if Christ redeemed you. Not
if you trust the Son of God. God has forgiven you all your
sins. They're gone. Never to be remembered
against you again forever. That's God's word. But understand
this fifth thing. Let no one fail to see this. Our sins, though completely forgiven, are very, very costly still. Our sins, though completely forgiven,
are very costly, just as Hezekiah's were. Don't ever imagine that
grace makes sin less sinful. Don't ever imagine that God's
forgiveness of sin is cheap grace. Don't ever imagine that God's
forgiveness of sin is grace that just ignores sin. No, no, no,
no. Don't imagine such. Sin is costly still. Was Lot a righteous man? Anybody have any question? Lot
was a righteous, he was righteous, wasn't he, Gary? He was a righteous
man. Oh, but his sin, his sin for
which God would never punish him must be identified by God
for the evil it is and shown to be the spectacle of ungodliness
it is that God's justice may shine forth as well as his grace.
And so the Lord God gives Lot his two incestuous daughters,
daughters ruined by his sin. And his progeny is a progeny
of reprobate men, reprobate women, Amnon and Edom. Ask David. God forgave David
his transgressions. He forgave David his sins. He
would never charge David with sin. The thing David did displeased
the Lord, but David would not be punished for it. Oh no. But
the sin will be punished. And God's justice will be exposed,
and the whole world will know God's displeasure with the thing
David had done. Ask Absalom. Ask the nation of Israel. now
abandoned and cast off by God. Ask Hezekiah, this great king,
in his pride, in his pride, I expect he never imagined, he probably
never imagined he had to struggle. In his pride, he said, you want
to see what I've done? Oh, I'm so glad you asked, let
me show you. Let me show you. And God said to Hezekiah, okay,
all right, bud, you showed off now, now I'm gonna show you off. And Judah was destroyed, carried
into Babylonian captivity. Hezekiah's sons, who had not
yet been born, were made eunuchs in Babylon and destroyed in Babylon. My little children, these things
write I unto you that you sin not. Don't play with sin. Don't toy
with sin. Don't look at sin as some light,
trivial, insignificant thing. These things write I unto you
that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous, and
he, he alone is the propitiation for our sins. Sixth, recognizing our sin, the depravity
of our hearts, the corruption of our natures, our assurance
of God's forgiveness, Our assurance of God's grace, our assurance
of God's salvation, like Hezekiah's, is something done outside ourselves
in the past. Hezekiah asked Isaiah for a sign
back in chapter 38. He said, show me a sign. And Isaiah said, all right, we'll
cause the sun to move on their hands. Now, you want it to move
forward or backward? And Hezekiah said, well, moving forward, that
wouldn't be much, but it'll shock the whole world if you move it
backwards. Let's move it backwards 10 degrees. And God moved the
shadow of the sun backward only his dial 10 degrees. Something outside of Ahaz. Something in the past. We're
going back now, 10 degrees to the past. And Isaiah says, this
is the sign that God will give you 15 more years to reign on
this earth. Our assurance of acceptance with
God is not to be found in ourselves. not in our experience, not in
our faith, not in our brotherly love, not in our devotion, not
in our faithfulness. Our assurance is found in the
doing and dying of the Son of God. Our assurance is Jesus Christ
crucified. Our hope before God, our only
hope before God, is the blood and righteousness of God's own
dear son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And looking to him, having a
high priest over the house of God, we draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. In full assurance of faith. And I'll tell you one more thing
about Hezekiah and God's saints. Like Hezekiah, saved sinners,
believing men and women, bow to God. We bow to his word, we bow to
his will, we bow to his work. The Lord God said by his prophet,
your sons will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. And Hezekiah responded to Isaiah,
good is the word of the Lord. I deserve a lot worse than this. Good is the word of the Lord. He will bring judgment. But oh,
how merciful, how merciful. There shall be peace and truth
in my days. God promised it. There'll be
peace and truth in my days. He is gracious, he is good, ever
faithful, ever true. God be pleased to make you His. And God be pleased to make you
and me faithful to Him who is faithful to us in all things. Amen.