2 Kings 20, we're going to read
a little bit about King Hezekiah. 2 Kings 20 and pick up in verse
1. It says, In those days was Hezekiah
sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son
of Amos came to him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.
Then he turned his face to the wall, prayed unto the Lord, saying,
I beseech thee, O Lord, 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. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it
came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court,
that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and
tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, thus saith the Lord,
the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have
seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee. On
the third day thou shalt go unto the house of the Lord, and 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 for my own sake and for my servant David's
sake.' And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took,
and they laid it on the boil, and he recovered. And Hezekiah
said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will
heal me? shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day.
And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the
Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken. Shall the shadow
go forward ten degrees, or back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered,
It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. Nay,
but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet
cried unto the Lord, And he brought the shadow ten degrees backward
by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we
come to you this day in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Lord, we ask that you would walk amongst us today. Lord,
we beg for your presence and for your blessings and your mercies
upon our services. Lord, we ask that you'd forgive
us for our many sins for Christ's sake. And we ask, Lord, that
you would reveal him in this passage of scripture. Lord, remember
our pastor and his wife. And we pray, Lord, that your
healing hand would continue to be on Len. And Lord, be with
all your people, especially those who suffer. Lord, bless their
tribulations. calls them to cling to Christ.
We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. So, a few basic facts about Hezekiah. Hezekiah is the 12th king of
Judah, the 12th. He is also arguably the best
king. So, if you read over in 2 Kings
chapter 18 and verse 5 it says, he trusts in the Lord unlike
any other king before him or like any other king after him.
So, if you think about that commendation who he's up against? David. Solomon. David being the man
after God's own heart. He's up with some very high level
people in the Scripture. But the Scripture says out of
all the kings he's the best. He's the best out of all of them.
None like him before or after. Also interesting he is the son
of the king of Judah who is arguably the worst. That's King Ahaz.
If you know anything about King Ahaz, he gave up the whole country
to idolatry. So in every town, he built these
shrines and these places of worshiping false idols, these groves, and
things of that nature. And there's a particular offense
he commits that you would think the Lord would kill him for,
but he goes and he makes a pact with the Assyrians. I'm sorry,
the Syrians. And he goes to Damascus and he
sees an altar that he likes. And so he goes back to his high
priest and he says, hey, the altar that we sacrificed to right
here at the tabernacle, Take that one out, put this one in. Make one just like the Assyrians
have. He changes the altar, speaking of false religion. Very egregious.
This is a very, very wicked man. And here's where Hezekiah is
coming from when the Lord tells him this, that he's going to
kill him. His country right now is besieged by the Assyrians.
So if you can imagine, his whole country is under fire from another
country. And then in the midst of that
great trial, the Lord then says, oh, and by the way, I'm going
to kill you. Set your house in order. When you think about that, it seems
as if the Lord oftentimes doubles the trials of his people. You'll
be in one trial, the Lord sends another one. Why does he do that?
So that the comfort and the deliverance he provides, when he provides
it, it's all the more sweet. That's the reason for it. What
I want to do this morning is look at Hezekiah in two different
ways. One, he is a type of the believer. And the other one,
he's a very powerful type of Christ. And I don't know how
far we're going to get with it. But let's start with him being a
type of the believer. I want you to look back at verse
two of your text there. This is Hezekiah's prayer to
the Lord. It says, Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed
unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, 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. And Hezekiah wept sore. Now,
think about that prayer for a second. Honest question. Anybody in this
room feel comfortable praying that prayer? Lord, I've walked
before you in truth, and with a perfect heart, and I've always
done that is right, what is right, in your sight. Does anybody here
feel comfortable praying that prayer? I certainly don't. My experience lines up very much
with what David had to say in the Psalms. When I read the Psalms,
I love reading them in the Messianic, I love hearing these as the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I love hearing these as the words
of David, because it reminds me that I'm not alone. There's
somebody out there who feels just like I do. And in reference
to what I've done, I say with David in Psalm 51.3, my sin is
ever before me. That's what I've done. That's
what I did yesterday. That's what I'm doing today. Unfortunately,
that's what I'm gonna do tomorrow. I know that's the case about
me. It's all sin. It's all wickedness. And I'm
not bragging about that. That simply is the case. Every
single day, it's always the same. In reference to my heart, on
David's deathbed, he said, my house, my heart, it's not so
with God. That's my heart. It doesn't believe
the way it's ought. It's full of unbelief. It's not
repentant as it ought. It doesn't love the Lord Jesus
Christ as it ought. It's not so with God. As far
as my walk goes, here's what David says in Psalm 119 verse
176. He goes, I've gone astray like
a lost sheep. Seek thy servant. That's my walk
before the Lord. I'm lost. Come find me where
I'm at. Now, that's my experience. That's the experience of every
believer. That was Hezekiah's experience as well. Make no mistake,
he's not different in all this. That being said, everything Hezekiah
says about himself in that prayer, he speaks as a representative
of every believer, and every bit of it is true. Every believer
is one who has done that which is right in the sight of the
Lord. He is one that has a perfect heart. He's one who's always
walked in the paths of righteousness, every single time. Now the only
way we can understand that, and the only way that's true, and
it is true, is union with Christ. And that is the hope of every
believer, and that was Hezekiah's hope. Turn over to 2 Kings chapter
18. Just a couple chapters back.
The first seven verses here just give a brief history of Hezekiah,
some things about him. look at verse 6 here. In reference
to Hezekiah it says, "'For he claimed to the Lord and departed
not from following Him, but kept His commandments which the Lord
commanded Moses.'" Now that word claim, the first time we ever
see that word is in Genesis 2, and I'll read it to you. Genesis
2.24 says, "'Therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother and shall cleave unto his wife.'" and the two shall
become one flesh. What was Hezekiah's hope? Same
hope every believer has, that I share in eternal union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. That truly, the two have become
one flesh. before the foundations of the
world were ever built I was one in Christ and He's one with me.
And you know what that means? Just like in marriage a man and
a woman come together everything the husband has that becomes
the wife's. Everything the wife has that becomes the husband.
What does Christ have before His Father? He has full acceptance.
He has perfect righteousness and perfect holiness. He can't
get any more love by God than he is right now. And you know
what? Because of that union, because the two have become one
flesh, that's us. Perfect before God. Perfectly
righteous. Perfectly holy. Couldn't possibly
get any more accepted. What Hezekiah's hope was, it
is the hope of every believer that we have a true union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. stop there go back to verse 1.
I'm sorry look up top there 2 Kings 18 verse 1. It says, Now it came
to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel,
that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
and five years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned
20 and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abbey,
the daughter of Zechariah, and he did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father
did." Well, what did he do? What did he do that was right?
Look at verse 4, he removed the high places, and break the images,
and cut down the groves, and pieces the brazen serpent that
Moses had made, for unto those days the children of Israel did
burn incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan." Now, Hezekiah
had absolutely zero tolerance for a worship of any god other
than the true and the living God of Israel. If you think about
this, the country is likely split at this point, right? Ahaz had
given them all up to idol worship. So people were probably worshiping
Baal, different gods from different things of that nature. And then
you probably still had some remnant of the country who thought, thought
they were still worshipping the God of Israel. They were going
through the motions. They were keeping the rituals. They were
offering the sacrifices. They were going through all the
motions. And you figure when He went through there the very
first thing Hezekiah does every one of those groves, every one
of those altars, every one of those places where a false god
was worshipped he burned it to the ground. those people who
thought they were still worshiping the true and living God of Israel,
what were they saying? Get them. Get them. Burn those
things to the ground. And then he went into the Temple
and he got the brazen serpent. You all remember the brazen serpent
from Numbers 21? People of Israel murmured, Lord sent fiery serpents
that bit all the people. Many people died. He said, you
make a serpent of brass, that picture of Christ being made
the sins of his people, put it on a pole on the cross. Everybody
who looks lives. They turned it into an idol.
It was sitting in the temple. And he took that out and he ground
it to powder. What'd they say then? All those
people who thought they were worshiping the true living God
of Israel said, you've gone too far Hezekiah. And he says, no,
I haven't gone far enough. Here's the point. How does this
relate to every believer? He has zero tolerance for any
Christ other than the Christ that comes from this book. That's
it. A Christ who's not sovereign.
A Christ who can fail. A Christ who is a weakling, who
is trying to get something accomplished, trying to save somebody, but
he just can't. He needs your help. He needs
you to accept him. We hate that Christ and we have absolutely
no tolerance for him. And there's two issues that come
up here. Two issues. Number one is an issue of love.
If you don't hate that which is false, you don't love that
which is true. I cannot stand to hear of this
failure Christ. I cannot stand of this one who
is a weakling, who is wringing his hands, who is trying to save
somebody, but he just can't. I can't stand to hear of him
because that's not who he is. That's not my savior. I can't
stand that. The number one issue is love.
The second issue is this, it's necessity. The way he is posed
in this book, this one who is sovereign, This one who chooses,
chooses to save some, chooses to pass by others, and he does
that according to his good purpose and his will. But everybody he
chooses to save, you know what he does? He saves them, and he
does it single-handedly. He does it all by himself to
the tune of his own glory. That's what I need. If there's
nobody else who can save somebody as bad as me, he has to be like
that, or he can't save me. Because if he is that weakling,
and he has to find a reason in me, or he has to rely on me to
do something to make my salvation possible, I'm a goner. But he
is who he says he is, the successful savior of sinners. And that means
he's my savior. Now, look down at verse 5. He trusted in the Lord God of
Israel, so that after Him was none like Him among all the kings
of Judah, nor any that were before Him." Now, I have no doubt that
that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Hezekiah as a
type of Christ. There's nobody like Him, neither
before or after Him. He's the only one, especially
in this thing of faith. He was the only one who trusted
His Father completely, all the way to the cross when the Father's
wrath was coming down on Him for the sins of His people. He
still trusted His Father. Into thy hands I commend my spirit. He's the only man who ever trusted
God perfectly. But he here is a type of the
believer. He trusted in the Lord. What is the hallmark of the believer?
He trusts Christ. He's looking nowhere else but
to the person and the merits of Christ alone to bring Him
into glory, to present Him for the Father without spot. But
we can learn something of how the Hezekiah trusted the Lord.
Turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 32. This story picks up in the middle
of a battle. So the children of Judah now are at war with
the Assyrians. The Assyrians are attacking them.
And Hezekiah is now addressing his troops. Look what he says
in verse 7 of 2 Chronicles 32. Hezekiah says to his troops,
be strong and courageous. Verse 7. Be not afraid nor dismayed
for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is
with him, for there be more with us than with him." You know what
he's saying there? He's saying if God be for us,
who can be against us? Now look down at verse 8. With
him is an arm of flesh. But with us is the Lord our God
to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah." Now this is what true
faith looks like. Number one, there's no confidence
in the flesh. It says, with him as an arm of
flesh, what he does, that's his strength. We have absolutely
no confidence in our strength because we don't have any. We
have nothing we can bring before God. But what was Hezekiah's
hope? It was this. I'm not going to fight next to
him. He's not going to soften up the enemy, and then I'm going
to come behind him and finish him off. I'm trusting that the Lord is
going to fight my battle for me. And that is the hope of every
believer, that in eternity past, it is already done. The Lord
Jesus Christ already fought my battle. He did battle with Satan.
He did battle with my sin. He did business with the perfect
justice of God and he satisfied everything. Put my sin away.
He conquered my enemy. He satisfied the justice of God
perfectly on my behalf and there is absolutely nothing left for
me to do but do the same thing these children of Judah did.
Rest. They rested in the Lord. That's true faith. Just trusting
that it's already done. Go back to 2 Kings 18 and look
at verse 7. It says here, this is the last
thing about Hezekiah, or second to last at least, and the Lord
was with him and he prospered whithersoever he went forth and
he rebelled against the king of Assyria him not." Now what
are all these things that Hezekiah did? He had great confidence
in union with Christ, that was all his hope. He trusted in the
Lord God with all his heart. He had absolutely no tolerance
for the worship of an idol, no tolerance for a false Christ.
But why was he that way? What's the first thing it says
right here in verse 7? And the Lord was with him. does a man
come by faith? Does he muster it on his own?
Does he make a decision to believe? No, the Lord's with him and he's
for him. How do we stand before the Lord
God, that one whose demand is absolute holiness? And he looks
at us and he says, you're spotless, you're perfect, the Lord's with
us and he's for us. does He come to repentance where
He changes His mind about who God is, and who we are, and how
He saves sinners? Because the Lord is with us.
Every aspect of salvation up to and including those things
done in us it's all up to Him. It's because He's for us, He's
with us, and He's in us. Now briefly I want to look at
Hezekiah as a type of Christ. Go back to verse 1 of your text
in 2 Kings 20. says, in those days was Hezekiah
sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah, the son
of Amos, came to him and said unto him, thus saith the Lord,
set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. How did the Lord Jesus Christ
set his house in order? How did he make his house, his
people, orderly and acceptable before God? The father said,
you have to die and not live. This is the covenant of grace.
The father said, these are your people. These are my people.
I'm holding you 100% responsible for them. You're going to set
your house in order. You're going to make them appropriate before
me, but you have to die and not live. But under what circumstances?
Look at verse seven. And Isaiah said, take a lump
of figs. And they took and laid it on the board and he recovered. Now, apparently Hezekiah's illness
here is some sort of a boil, like an ulcer, right? He's got
this protruding ulcer on his torso. And here's what Isaiah
says. He goes, you take a lump of figs, crush them up, make
a paste, and you put those figs on the boil, and healing will
take place. Now, when you think of figs,
what do you think of? think of Mark chapter 11 when the Lord
Jesus Christ saw the fig tree, it was green and leafy and He
was hungry and He went up there and He wanted something to eat.
He was looking for some figs and there were absolutely no fruit
on that tree and He cursed that fig tree. The fig represents
curse, the curse of God. Now, what is the manner by which
every one of God's people was healed? God the Father took the
curse, my sin, your sin, the sins of His elect, just as that
fig paste was placed on Hezekiah our curse, our sin was placed
on Christ, actually made to be His. And He suffered all the
wrath of God for those sins in His body on that cross. Now,
look at the effects of this. Verse 6, Isaiah says, and I will add unto
thy days 15 years. Now what does 15 represent? First
time that number is used standalone in the Scripture is Genesis chapter
7 verse 20 it says, 15 cubits upward did the waters prevail
and the mountains were covered. Now the water from the floods
back in the times of Noah it symbolizes the wrath of God.
What is the effects of the Lord Jesus Christ being made the sins
of His people and suffering and dying under the wrath of God?
removed. The waters receded. The wrath
of God for all God's people was removed. What was the reason
for God's wrath towards His people? Sin. On the cross the Lord Jesus
Christ removed that sin, therefore He removed the wrath. There is
absolutely no anger from the Father towards His people anymore.
It's absolutely gone. You have nothing but peace with
God the Father right now. Now, we know that so? Look at verse 5, "'Turn again
and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people. Thus saith the
Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have
seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee. On
the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord.'"
How do we know that everyone the Lord Jesus Christ died for
is presently without sin before God? What happened on the third
day following our Lord's death? Three days in the tomb, after
the third day, a bunch of faithful women went looking for his body,
and there was an angel standing there, and he said, why seek
ye the living among the dead? He's not here, he's risen. The
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ took place on the third
day, and that is the sign, it is the singular token God the
Father has given us that truly everybody Christ died for, every
sinner in need of mercy, their sins are gone. failed to pay
for one sin of one of the elect he would remain dead because
death speaks of failure. But because he put away every
single sin of everyone he died for God the Father had to raise
him from the dead. It was only justice, only just
that he would be raised from the dead. And that is the singular
token, the singular sign that our sins have been put away and
we truly have peace with God. Where is he right now? Look at
verse 3. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. This is his high priestly prayer as he makes intercession
for his people. Read these as the words of Christ. I beseech
thee, O Lord, 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 and Hezekiah Webster. He acts as our great high priest.
Right now the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of
his father, and this is his prayer for his people. He says, I've
walked before you with a perfect heart. I've done that which is
right. I've done always those things
that are pleasing to you. And when I did them, they did
it too. The same love you have for me,
the same acceptance you have for me, you have it for them
too. Because everything I did, they did too. Now, what about
the sundial? Hezekiah wanted a sign. Isaiah
said, you can have one or two. One or two. Either the Lord will
turn time forward 10 hours on the sundial, or He'll turn it
back 10 hours. Hezekiah, which one do you want?
And he says, it's a light thing for the dial to go forward 10
hours. That's the way it naturally goes. And I lose track of time
all the time. Maybe I passed out, maybe something strange
happens, I don't know. It wouldn't be that miraculous if it went
forward 10 hours, but if it goes back 10 hours, that would be
something amazing. Isaiah says, sure, we'll do that.
What's the point of all that? What's the teaching there? If
a man has a hope of salvation, he is looking to one of two directions.
He's either looking to what's gonna happen in the future, or
he's looking to what's already done in the past. Now this is
what looking to the future looks like. I want to work harder. I'm going to try to lead a life
that is less full of sin. I'm going to try to honor God's
holy law a little more. I'm going to read my Bible more.
I'm going to give more to my church. And as I progress, as
I make these steps, maybe I won't reach the goal tomorrow or maybe
the next day, but I mean a year from now, somewhere along the
way, I'll reach it. Whatever God's demand is, I'll
be able to reach it. I just have to work a little bit harder. Looking
forward, looking to the future, is looking to ourselves, looking
to our works. This is true faith. We look to the past. All our
hope is what Christ has already done. Our hope, folks, is that
it truly is finished. I'm gonna leave you there.