Well, good evening and welcome to our midweek
Bible study. On Thursday nights we're going through the Bible book by book, chapter by
chapter, verse by verse. And tonight we are currently in the book of Isaiah and Lord willing,
we're going to complete chapters 38 39. And we encourage you and invite you at this time
to turn their if you're not there already. And before we get started, I just wanted to
mention real quick that our amazing staff, and they are amazing, are working tirelessly
to keep up with the request for a religious exemption letter. I do need to apologize
because I did not realize that we would received the number of requests that we were on the
receiving end of this last week. So, they're doing everything they can to keep up with
it. We very much appreciate your patience. But here's the thing, on Sunday, Lord willing,
I'm hoping to make an important announcement about how we're going to be able to expedite
this process online. So we're working on that. We would really encourage you to pray for
us and pray for our staff, particularly Lane and Grace Hignight, and of course Gail as
well. They have sent out literally hundreds of these. But the problem is we've received
not hundreds but thousands. And so I had to ask them to forgive me on Monday, and then
again on Tuesday, and then yesterday on Wednesday, and then again today. And so anyway, we're
working on it. We do have a solution for it. And so for those of you online that have not
yet received even a response, let alone the letter, please please, please be patient with
us. And Lord willing on Sunday we'll have a path forward. And by sometime next week we'll
have something in place where it will just streamline everything, online. So, with that,
why don't we pray? And we'll ask God's blessing on our time together in His Word tonight.
Father in Heaven, thank You so much. Lord, this is for us a time that represents a a
respite of sorts from the busyness of our lives, and the cares and the affairs of the
day; and all that's coming against us and all the pressure and the stress. And it just seems
like the world is getting crazier by the moment. But You, O Lord are that Rock and it's upon
that Rock which we stand, on Christ the solid Rock we stand. And everything might be crashing
in around us. But we're on that solid foundation; and You are that solid foundation; and You
steady us and You ready us; and Lord, we cannot thank You enough for that. Lord, we always
look forward to Thursday nights because it's that time where we can just open up our Bibles
and just open up our hearts. And You minister to us as only You can, and You speak into our lives,
and You settle us, and You calm us. And You give us that peace, that peace that surpasses
human understanding. I love that song that we just got done singing: 'Lord We Need You
Now'. Keyword now. Now Lord, we need You now. And Lord, whatever we have need of, Your hand
will provide and has provided, and Lord thank You for that. Lord, thank You for this study
that we have tonight, these two chapters that we have before us tonight. We're looking forward
with great anticipation. And Lord thank You in advance for what You're going to do in
our time together tonight, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. All right. So The two
chapters before us tonight bring to an end the first section of Isaiah. And with it sadly...
And we were doing so well last week with Hezekiah, right? But we're going to see tonight Hezekiah
error in judgment at the end of his life. And actually this is the take away from tonight's
Bible study; such that Hezekiah, though a good king; one of only nine kings of whom it was
said they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord; He was only one of nine.
All the other kings did that, which was evil in this sight of the Lord. And so Hezekiah
was a good king. But though a good king, he did not finish well in the end. And as we're
about to see, God in His grace gives him 15 more years of life. But sadly, again he falls
at the end of his life. And the way that he falls is very interesting. It's one of those
things where you wouldn't think in a million years of all people, this good king, King
Hezekiah would fall in this way. But it reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians
about being very careful if you think you stand, lest you fall. And isn't it true that
we let our guard down in those areas that we think we stand the strongest in. And it's
in those areas that we're the most vulnerable to fall prey to the temptation. Because we
shore up the areas in our life that we know are weaknesses. And we do so at the expense
of those areas in our life that we think, okay, you know what, I'm good here. And so
we don't pay the needed attention in that one particular area. And make no mistake about
it. The enemy waits and takes note of that. And he waits for us to divert all of our attention
to that area in our lives where we know we're vulnerable and weak. And then as soon as he's
got us focused on that, we tend to fall in the areas of our greatest strength. And I
think about Peter, here's a guy that by any stretch of the imagination would be seen as
being very strong in the area of his courage. That was arguably his greatest strength. Right?
I mean, he had the courage to say to the Lord in that storm, in that boat, 'Lord, bid me come.'
And then he had the courage to step out of that boat by faith and walk on water.
That takes faith and courage both. This is a man who had the courage that night, that
fateful night, when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. And here's Peter, like
this isn't going to happen. And he takes out his sword and he cuts off the ear of Malchus.
And Jesus has to, you know, say, Peter, this is a spiritual battle and you're not going
to fight it with carenal weaponry. And He takes that ear and heals Malchus. I'm convinced
that guy got saved that night. We're going to see him in heaven, new ear and all. And,
but he had the courage to take on the entire Roman army. You would never think in a million
years that Peter would fall in the area of courage and boldness. Yet how did he fall?
He denied the Lord three times, because he didn't have the courage to stand up to a girl
who questioned him about his association with Jesus. And he swore he said, I swear to you,
I never knew that man. He fell in the area of his greatest strength. Be careful. If you
think you're standing strong in a particular area, lest that be the very area that you
end up falling, and failing in. So what's going to happen with Hezekiah? Well, as we're going
to see tonight, he falls for the flattery from the King of Babylon. What's interesting
is that Hezekiah falls to the temptation of pride upon receiving a flattering letter from
the King of Babylon. Well, just last week, he remained steadfast, trusting in the Lord,
upon receiving a threatening letter from the King of Assyria. What's up with that? I mean,
he receives this threatening letter from Sinnecharib, lays it out before the Lord, and
prays and cries out to the Lord. And the Lord hears his prayer and delivers him miraculously
out of the hands of the Assyrians. And then he gets another letter. This time not from
the king of Assyria, but from the King of Babylon. And it's a very... it's actually not
even so much a letter as much as it is a get well card. Aaaw, and not only is it a get well
card, he also sends a gift as well. Wow. The King of Babylon, no less. Whoa. He framed that
I'm sure on his wall there in the... Well, this is interesting for a number of reasons, not
the least of which is that oftentimes flattery can be more dangerous than adversity. Let
me say the same thing in a different way. You know, when adversity strikes, I think
we're more prone to just fall on our face before the Lord. Lord, Help. But boy, during
times of adversity, I think of a title of a book I have in my library, it's a very old
book, but it's titled: 'The Agony of Affluence.' That would almost seem like a paradox or an
oxymoron. Right? I don't put agony and affluence in the same sentence. I'm thinking happiness
and affluence would be in the same sentence. No, the the agony of prosperity. You know prosperity
comes packaged with perils, numerous perils. Sometimes I think it is more difficult to
deal with prosperity than it is adversity. Because see, during times of prosperity we
tend to get puffed up, and arrogant, and proud. Thinking, hey, look at me. And that's exactly
what Hezekiah is going to do, by the way, as we're about to see. But there's something
else here. And to me it explains,, not excuses why it is that he fell in such a manner. Conspicuously
absent from the narrative tonight is any mention of prayer when he receives Babylon's
letter. But last week, as we saw, his first response, when he receives Sinnecharib's letter,
prayer. Prayer. Tonight, no, no prayer. Ah, well, I'm going to get ahead of myself. One
more thing before we jump in. Chapters one through 39 is the first part of Isaiah. In
chapters 40 through 66 are the last part of Isaiah. We're going to turn a corner tonight
at the end of Chapter 39. Actually, chapters 36 through 39 are parenthetical in terms of
their chronology. They serve as a bridge of sorts to the last section, and as we segue
into the next section. Now, this is going to be important to our understanding, germane
to our understanding tonight, because we're going to read not chronologically, we're going
to read an account that actually happened prior to the Assyrian account that we read
last week. In other words, that hasn't happened yet. What are you're saying? Pastor, that
happened last week. No, it didn't happen last week. It hasn't happened yet this week. But
it was parenthetically, like a parenthesis. It was inserted in the account, and it will
happen. But tonight we are in these two chapters and it hasn't happened yet. And that's going
to make sense here, I think, as we get into this now. Notice there are 66 chapters in
Isaiah. Isaiah has been affectionately referred to as a mini Bible. Because the first section
has 39 chapters which represents the 39 books of the Old Testament. And then the second
part of Isaiah has 27 chapters, and that represents the 27 books of the New Testament for a total
of 66 books, 66 chapters. So anyway, just... I know some people really enjoy that kind
of thing. And you know who you are. And you don't have to raise your hands. We know you
are, too. So, isn't that cool though? I love stuff like that. Whatever, you know, they
have clinical terms for that. So, all right. You ready? Let's jump in, buckle your seat
belts. We're in for a bumpy ride tonight, 'In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death;
And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the
LORD: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' " ' Have a nice day. Wow. Really?
Okay, wait, what, I'm going to die? Yeah. Thus says the Lord. Get your affairs in order,
you're going to die. Uh, okay, well, to Hezekiah's credit, we're off to actually a good start,
in light of this. He does turn to the Lord in prayer upon hearing this from Isaiah. And
we have that recorded here beginning in verse 2, 'Then Hezekiah turned his face toward
the wall, and prayed to the LORD, and said, (verse 3, Now listen to this prayer.) "Remember
now, O LORD, I pray, how I walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done
what is good in Your sight." ' Now stop right there before your reading you further. Now,
doesn't that at first read kind of seem a little bit like he's trying to approach God
on his own merit. I've been a good boy, God. I've been a good king. I've done that, which
is good in your sight. I've been loyal. I've walked in truth and remember. Not like
God forgets, you know. Remember Lord? Oh yeah, that's that's right. Could you imagine how
scary would that be right? But he's just bringing to the Lord's remembrance that, hey Lord, I've
been a good king. Now the reason I emphasize and highlight the first part of this prayer
is because the next four words, I believe are what moved the mighty hand of God. Not the
prayer that he prayed, but the cry that he cried because we're told, 'and Hezekiah wept
bitterly.' He didn't just weep. He wept bitterly. Kind of imagine in your mind's eye this weeping,
I mean, you're you're weeping so bitterly. I mean, it's like a convulsing, weeping, crying,
moaning. I mean, you're praying from the depths of your soul. And it's the kind
of prayer that there are no words for. These are what one has called liquid prayers. It's
not really a prayer, it's a cry. And I would suggest that it's because of this cry that the Lord
harkened unto the voice of his cry, not based on the merit of him being a good king, which
he was. But I believe that God heard and harkened unto the voice of his cry, because he wept
bitterly. Now here's what we read in verse 4 'And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah,
saying, "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of David, your father: "I have
heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days 15 years.
I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria,' That's what I
mean by It's germane to our understanding to know that chapters 36-39 are parenthetical
not chronological. Because last week we thought we already did this. We already
checked this off of our list. No, it hasn't happened yet. So, 'I will deliver you and this
city from the hand of the king of Assyria. (Sinnecharib) and I will defend this city." ' ' And
now God didn't have to do this. This is the Grace of God. It's God over answering a prayer.
You know what I mean by that? You know how when you've prayed and God not only answers
the prayer, He over answers the prayer, like bonus, that's His grace, that's His mercy,
that's His love, that's His kindness. That's God doing exceedingly abundantly above and
beyond anything we could have ever thought or even ask for in prayer. And He gives him
a sign. 'And this is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing which
he has spoken:' Now keep in mind again, parenthetically, one of these signs is that I'm going to deliver
the Assyrians into your hand. That will be a sign for you, because that's yet to happen.
But I'm also going to do this, 'Behold, (verse 8) I will bring the shadow on the sundial,
which has gone down with the sun on the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward." So
the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.' Wow, God can do that? Come
on. He set back time symbolically saying, I'm going to give you more time. And that's
exactly what He did. Now this is interesting, because according to Second Kings 20 in fact,
I went back into my archives when we were going through Second Kings. Do you realize
that Hezekiah, at this point; when God comes to him and says, get your affairs in order,
you're going to die; He was only 39 years old. Now for some of us who are like, you're
just a kid. Right? 39, that's pretty young. So, God gives him 15 more years, which means
that he would die at the age of 54. That's still pretty young. Now, again, that's going
to be germane to our understanding as we'll see here in a moment. Now, verse 9, 'This
is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from
his sickness: I said, (verse 10) "In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
(This is old covenant, now. This is pre crucifixion and resurrection.) I am deprived of the remainder
of my years." I said, "I shall not see YAH, The LORD in the land of the living; I shall observe
man no more among the inhabitants of the world. My life span is gone, Taken from me like a shepherd's
tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until
night You make an end of me. I have considered (verse 13) until morning - Like a lion, So He
breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow,
so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O LORD, I
am oppressed; Undertake for me! "What shall I say? (verse 15) He has both spoken to me,
And He Himself has done it. (And then he says this.) I shall walk carefully 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 You will restore me and make me live. Indeed (verse 17) it was
from my own peace that I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from
the pit of corruption, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.' Now, here's a thought
and I just want to suggest this. But it seems to indicate that God answered Hezekiah's
prayer, hearkened unto the voice of his cry. Because he wanted him to have peace, because
he was in turmoil. And I mentioned that because oftentimes God will answer our prayers, if
for no other reason other than He wants us to have that peace. For no other reason, I'm
going to do this because you're in such turmoil, and I can't stand to see you in such turmoil.
And he will give us that peace. (Verse 18) 'For Sheol (here again, old covenant) cannot thank
You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
The living, the living man, he shall praise You, As I do this day; The father shall make
known Your truth to the children. "The LORD (verse 20) was ready to save me; Therefore,
we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life, in the house of the
LORD." Now (verse 21) Isaiah had said, "Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultices
on the boil, and he shall recover." And Hezekiah had said, "What is the sign that I shall go
up to the House of the Lord?" ' Now, what's going on here? Well, these last two verses are very
important, and here's why. First, they speak to how it is that God may choose to use medicine
to heal. God can do a miracle and heal. But God may choose to use medicine to heal. You
know, in the gospels, it's very interesting. There's no real template, or formula, or pattern
when Jesus would heal somebody. I mean, and I think by design God, in His sovereignty,
in His wisdom, in His omniscience knew that if He did the healing the same way every
time, we would patent it, and we would sell it, and we would try to replicate it. So He
does it differently. Sometimes the healing is gradual over a process of time. I think
about the guy that was blind and heals him. And it's all blurry for a while, and men look
like trees and trees look like men. I've had mornings waking up feeling like that,
whoa, whoa, so groggy and anyway, enough of my problems. But very interesting. And
then remember that one time the pool of Siloam; I think it was that. I probably
got it wrong. Maybe it was... Anyway, so remember that one time when this blind man. Jesus
heals him right? And the way He does it is He spits on the dirt. Right? Now, germophobe,
this just messes them up. Jesus would not have done this if this guy was a germophobe,
because He spits on the dirt and He makes mud. And He takes the mud and He puts it on
the guy's eyes. Ooh and He heals him. Now could you imagine if every time Jesus healed
a blind man He did it that way. We would have a dirt shortage, because everybody would be
spitting on the dirt, putting it on people's eyes. And then when it didn't work, wow, what are
we doing wrong? Maybe we need to spit more, maybe it's the wrong dirt, I don't know.
Sometimes Jesus, sometimes there's more than one account where Jesus didn't even physically
touch the person. He just spoke the word. Remember the centurion? And Jesus pointed out his faith
and said. 'I have not seen faith like this in all of Israel.' And here's this guy saying you
know a centurion, that's, they were over 100 century centurion, they had 100 under their
command. They were in a position of authority. And he says to Jesus, he says, 'Jesus listen
I'm just so grateful I'm a man of authority too. I say to this guy do this, he does it,
I say to that guy do that, he does it. Just say the word, and Jesus is like whoa. That's another one
of those well watch me now. Just say the word. You mean, you know that all I have to do is say...
I don't have to spit. I don't need mud. I don't need anything. I could just say the
word and that's exactly... In fact it was at the very moment that He said that, by faith,
that he was healed, the servant was healed. Oh, well sometimes God will choose to use whatever
He wants to use to heal. So sometimes, so this was a medicinal healing on the part of Hezekiah.
Apparently he had some kind of a skin disease. I don't want to know, too much information.
But he had a boil, I hate boils. The only time I want to see the word boil is in a
cooking recipe. And he recovered with this lump of figs. Apparently these figs had a medicinal
purpose. Now before we get into Chapter 39, there's something else here I need to
point out, just kind of bear with me. But it has to do with Hezekia's additional 15 years
of life. In that 15 year period Hezekiah would have a son by the name of Manasseh, who we're
told in 2nd Kings chapter 21 was 12 years old when he became King. Now, why is that
important? Again, stay with me. Second Kings chapter 21, verse one, 'Manasseh was 12 years
old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was
Hephzibah. And (verse 2, Here it is. Wait for it.) he did evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children
of Israel.' Actually, it is said of Manasseh, he is one of the most wicked kings in the
history of Judah. Now why do I point this out? Because, let's do the math. He was 12
years old when he reigned as king, when he succeeded his father Hezekiah. Now if he was
12 and God gave Hezekiah 15 more years then that means you don't need to know algebra
or calculus or you know those other math things that I can't even pronounce the names of.
What's that one trigonometry, what's the other one? Ah I don't want to know, just forget, Ah
don't tell me. 15 -12 is three. Right? In other words, three years into the
15 years, he has this son who would become king, and do evil in the sight of the Lord.
Now, here's what I'm thinking. Maybe, just maybe God may have wanted to spare Hezekiah
of this. Think about it. If he wasn't given the 15 years, not only would we not have a
Manasseh who did evil, but we also wouldn't have what we're about to read in chapter 39
concerning Babylon. That would not have happened. And this king would have finished well. Because
all of this happened during that 15 year period when God extended his life. I don't want to
get to crazy on this, and read too much into this, or get dogmatic about this, or build a
whole doctrine on this. But there is merit to this. You know, the Lord holds in His hands
the day of our birth and the day of our death. And maybe it was God's grace. You know, I
think about people that have gone home to be with the Lord; sometimes at a young age,
an untimely death. And God is sovereign, and God is love, and God is just, and God is merciful.
And maybe God's being merciful. And maybe God is taking them, to spare them from that, which
they would have to go through had their life been extended. Again, don't get too crazy on
this. Okay? Because I know we're dealing with a very delicate matter here, a very touchy
topic when you're talking about death. But I wonder about this and I think about this.
And as we're about to read with Hezekiah, I just, even the way that... Well, I'm not going
to Get ahead of myself. Chapter 39, a very short chapter. Verse 1, Isaiah 39, 'At that time,
Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, King of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for
he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And (verse 2).' And oh, how I wish there was
a verse in between verses one and two, like verse 1.5. That says something like, and
Hezekiah laid it out before the Lord, like you did with the letter from Sennacherib and
prayed: 'and O Lord, what do I do with this gift?' You ever heard that expression, 'beware of those who bear gifts.' Hmm, but there's no verse 1.5. There's just a verse 2. And verse 2 says, 'And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures -
the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory - all that was
found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah
did not show them.' Wow. Let's just try to process this, just for a moment, if you don't
mind. Okay? So he's sick. God heals him, gives him 15 more years. The king of Babylon hears
about it, sends an envoy with this letter, get well card. Hey buddy, heard you were sick.
And keep in mind that though Babylon is not yet, the empire that it will become. They're not
small potatoes either. And not only that, but again, beware of those bearing gifts.
This Babylonian king had ulterior motives, malicious and nefarious intentions. Because
he wanted Judah on his side against Assyria. Oh, I see what you're doing. You're buttering
me up. You're trying to, you know, sort of feather my nest to get me on your side.
And he falls for it. Oh, I wonder how different this chapter would read if Hezekiah would
have but said to them, thank you very much. Please send word back to your king, very much
appreciate the thoughtfulness. But my God, my God is the one who healed me. And my God
is the one who will deliver me. I don't need you. I'll take the gift by the way. It's a
very nice gift, but... Right? But he doesn't do that. Let me take it a step further, just
to kind of paint the picture here. Imagine being on the receiving end of a letter from
somebody very important and powerful. And then they send along a very nice, and expensive,
I might add, gift. You're like, oh, did you see who sent me this, wow. And
it got him. He was flattered by it. Oh, beware of flattery. Beware of flattery.
Ah, this is the Holy Spirit. I'm just going to be very open with you. This is what I'll
call the pastor's peril. The peril of popularity, because when people come up to you and say
to you, and of you, and about you, wow, you're amazing. Oh wow, what else have you noticed
about me? I mean our flesh just eats it up. But our spirit is grieved, and the Holy Spirit
is grieved; and it's a trap. And we'll see that in a moment. But the trap is being set, because
now all of a sudden you start dancing to the beat of the drum of popularity. And no longer
are you dancing, so to speak, to the drumbeat from the Lord. Now you're playing to the crowd.
Because it means after all you: "hey, let's just kind of, you know; the spotlights on;
and numbers are going up; and followers are increasing; and the subscribers and the 'likes'
and on and on. And all of a sudden that becomes the driving motivation,. It becomes all about
that. And it's not long, you can write the next chapter in that book, it's not long before
you start tailoring and catering to that. And not only do you tailor and cater to it, you
become so attracted to it, that you can't be without it. And just the thought of doing
anything or saying anything, that you know is going to fall out of favor in terms of
pleasing man, it's off the table. And I don't think we need to look very far to find that
this is really what has happened to many, whom God has blessed. God blessed Hezekiah abundantly.
Did you notice in the narrative, it's his. How it's his treasures? It's going to get
worse as we're going to see here in a moment. But that's what happens. It's my church. It
becomes what I did. And now all of a sudden it's about me. The blessing, and the prosperity,
and the measure of success that I have experienced has something to do with me. And then we start
taking credit for it. And then when that happens, it's just a matter of time. Because pride still
comes before the fall. And this is why flattery, and popularity, and prosperity can be more
dangerous than threatening adversity. You know, I've asked myself the question, and I
know it depends on the person, and the temperament, and the way somebody is wired, as it were; we're all
very different; but for some prosperity is more dangerous for them than adversity. Not
for everybody, but people cannot handle. You know, we always flippantly sometimes, sadly,
say to Christians, well intentioned of course, but you know, God will never give you more
than you can handle. By the way, that's First Corinthians 10:13. You know what First Corinthians
10:12 is? That's the aforementioned verse about be careful if you think you stand, lest
you fall. And then the very next verse is, I'm going to just paraphrase it. There is
no temptation, no trial that will seize you or overcome you. But that God will provide
a way of escape in that trial, so that you'll be able to bear up under it. That's where,
it's from that verse, that we come up with our Christian cliche: 'that God will never
give you more than you can handle.' Now, isn't it true that we always put that in the context
of adversity. Like, God will never give you more adversity than you can handle. Have you
ever thought about it like this? God will never give you more prosperity than you can
handle. See, He knows they can handle that. They can't. Not yet anyway. They're not mature
enough. I can't entrust them with that. Now, I can entrust him or her with that, because
they can handle that. They will not get puffed up. It will not go to their head. Because God
will not be party to our failure, and our faltering, and our sin. Because God cannot tempt us to
evil. So God cannot be party to that. So He knows what we're able to handle, on both sides
of the spectrum, whether it's adversity on this side, or prosperity on this side. Well,
verse 3, 'Then Isaiah the prophet went to (Hezekiah) King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What
did these men say, (He knows) and from where did they come to you?" (He knows where they
came from. He knows they came from Babylon.) So Hezekiah said, (let me tell you what happened
here.) "They came to me from a far country, from Babylon." and he said, (this is Isaiah) "What
have they seen in your house?" So Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in
my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them." ' My my my my my.
Really, my? Reminds me of Moses. You remember that account. He gets so angry with the Israelites.
I mean, they are complaining and murmuring, again. No water. Were there not enough graves
in Egypt, you brought us out here to kill us. And Moses is like, 'that's it, I've had it with
you.' And he says these words, keywords, 'How long are we going to have to deal with you?'
And God says, hey Mo! Get over here, boy. We need to talk. What's this we stuff? We're
on the same level now. Oh, you're up there with Me, because you said 'we'. No, it's not
we, it's Me, not you. Oh you're like Me now. And he got so angry. And he struck
the Rock the second time in his anger. And it cost him the promised land. Why? Because
he ruined the typology. See that Rock is Christ and he was only to strike that Rock one time,
and water came out. Christ was only to be crucified one time. And then after that he
was only to speak to the Rock, and water would come out. And he didn't speak, he struck it
again the second time; and he ruined the typology. That's how serious it was. And it costs him
the promised land, in his anger. Well, be very careful, be very careful when in your prayer
journal there's a lot of 'I's in there or a lot of 'my's in there, because those are
'my' 'my' 'my', 'I' 'I' ' I' problems. And this is nothing shy of the pride of life. And here it is. And I
want to spend just a moment on this. It is the pride of life that fuels the desire to
please and impress man. That's what's happening here. The Proverb says that the fear of man
is a trap. It's a snare. To be a man pleaser, Paul said, if I'm a man pleaser, I'm not a
servant of Christ. It's one or the other, it cannot be both. This is, again, I'm preaching to
myself and this is something that, and the Lord knows my heart. And again I'm being very transparent
with you. I am talking about being on guard. This is an area in my life where I am so,
so, so careful. I'm hypersensitive to this, especially on the heels of a victory, especially when
God does something; I mean just over the top, off the charts, as only He can. And then you're
on the heels of that, and you're like, Wow. You know, when you're the most vulnerable
to the enemy's attack? Right after a victory, right after some miraculous deliverance, some
victories, some huge answered prayer, something that God does. You are a sitting duck, and
satan couldn't be happier. He's been waiting for a long time for this moment. He's got
you right where he wants you. Many years ago, I think it was early 2000s, might have been
2002. In fact, it was 2002. It was right after 2001, which I know is deeply profound. But
No, I went to Russia and it was after 9/11. And it was kind of gnarly because you know,
anyway. So I flew to Russia and I taught at the Bible college there in Moscow. And we were
doing these outreaches with the students. And we would go out, we would rent a place. And
I mean we had this one outreach, this one night. And I would, you know, preach, and the gospel.
And we had an invitation, all these Russians just. In fact the fire marshals came and
we had, you know, over capacity. And people were outside in the cold. It was really cold.
And I mean all these Russian young people were pouring forward to give their lives to
Jesus Christ. And I mean the students, you know, they did worship which was really good.
They were really good and they knew it. And that was the problem. But I mean it was, it was
just a taste of heaven. Just such a, you know, there's no high like the high of seeing people
come to the Lord. And here God used these kids to bring these people to Christ. And so the
next morning when I was doing the devotions I made this comment. And they thought I misspoke.
I said, wow last night, wow right. You know, of course I had a Russian translator. And they're
like yeah, you know, praise the Lord. And I said you know right now satan could not be
happier. They thought, and I made sure the translator translated it, satan, not God, not the Lord. And
when they realized I did not misspeak, they looked at me with that look of astonishment.
What do you mean, satan couldn't be happier? Oh here's why. Because on the heels of what
God did last night, we're just walking on air, man, like praise the Lord. That is when we
are the most vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. Because the enemy is right there saying
things like this, you've heard him say this to you, maybe in a different way. But it goes
something like this: 'Hey not too bad, wow. You prayed with so many people last night
to receive Christ and they got saved. And man those songs, they were jamming man. And that
message, that invitation, I mean, it was flawless. No wonder they came forward. Whoa, you're
the man.' I'll tell you, boom, down you go. I've learned this the hard way in my life, and I've
got the scars to prove it. Without exception, when you start thinking it's you, 'my' 'my' 'my', 'I' 'I' 'I',
that's it. It's game over. Verse 5, 'Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD
of hosts: 'Behold, (verse 6) the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your
fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,'
says the LORD. 'And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom
you will beget; 'And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' " '' By the
way, it's believed that in the Babylonian captivity, these that we're takien captives
would include the likes of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as they were renamed.
Because this is exactly what's going to happen. And, oh by the way, this would be fulfilled
about 100 years later, after Isaiah pronounces this to Hezekiah; which has led many to believe,
one among many reasons, that there must have been two Isaiahs. Because there's no way that
you could have a prophecy and then have it filled 100 years later. There must have been
another Isaiah. And I love the arguments and we'll talk about it ater on in the book.
But Jesus quotes from Isaiah, not Isaiahs. I'll just leave it at that. It's just one
Isaiah. And this is exactly what they did. They took, I mean, everything; all the treasures
that Hezekiah had shown them. Could you imagine this envoy from Babylon as Hezekiah
is going, taking them on the grand tour: 'You know in this room we have all the gold.' They're
going, okay, let's see here. Thank you very much. And here's the key to unlock the door
in case you need it. And verse 7, or pardon me, verse 8, 'So Hezekiah said to Isaiah,
"The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!" (What?) For he said, "At least there
will be peace and truth in my days." ' What? Wait, what? You know what he's saying here.
Oh, I so wish it didn't end like this. I don't want to end the Bible study this way. Again,
I wish there were a verse nine. There's not. I looked, go ahead and check, pretty sure there
is not. But I wish there was a verse nine that said, oh but those that come after me
woe unto them because of my sin. I have sinned greatly against... It's not there. There's
no verse nine, just verse 8, which basically says it's like Hezekiah saying, well, okay,
that's fine. At least I won't be alive to see that happen. That's cool. Go ahead. The
end. I don't want to close the prayer yet because I want to cry first. But how sad is
this? This was a good king. What happened to Hezekiah? He was a good king. Where's the Hezekiah
that laid the letter out before the Lord and cried out to the Lord. And the Lord hearkened
unto the voice of his cry. That's not the same guy. Maybe there's not to Isaiah's, but
certainly there's got to be to Hezekiahs. No, same Hezekiah. You know, again, the take
away, kind of going full circle, you know, we can start. That's an easy do. But finishing
well, like the apostle Paul to Timothy, 'I finished the race.' He finished well. 'I've
finished the race. I've fought the good fight. And now what awaits me is the crown of righteousness.
And not just to me, but all those who long for His appearing.' I don't know if it's possible
to overstate the importance of finishing the race. And if it's of any encouragement and
I hope it is. I know it is for me, but there's not much left in this race with the way things
are going. That finish line, I can see it from here. That's how close we are. I mean, there's
still a race to run and a fight to fight. And we still have to cross that finish line
and finish well. But it's closer than I think any of us can possibly imagine. So, you
be encouraged, you be encouraged. One last thing. Okay, we'll, why don't you stand. We'll have
the worship team come up and I'll just say this one last thing. Wouldn't you rather learn
from somebody else's mistakes than your own? I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, by
the way. In fact, that's why we have much of what we have in the Bible. It's like God's
saying, you know, I think about David. Right? I mean, you want to talk about graphic detail.
I mean, this is a man after God's own heart. Yeah? And I mean, he's the sweet Psalmist
of Israel. This is the David that danced unto the Lord when he brought the Ark of the Covenant
back to Jerusalem. He didn't care what people thought. You talk about not being a man pleaser.
He was just unabashed, unashamed. Just to You, Lord, just dancing to the Lord. No regard
for anyone around him. The only person, he had an audience of one, and he only wanted to
please the Lord. That's my David. That's the David that slew the uncircumcised Philistine,
that's David. There's got to be two Davids. Because there's another David that plotted.
He committed adultery, he lusted, he gets her pregnant, tries to cover it up; brings
the husband home from the battlefield, which is where he should have been in the first
place, by the way; brings him back, Uriah the Hittite. Hey dude, here have another
glass, gets him drunk. Gets him so drunk he passes out in the front of the door, doesn't
even go in. And he's trying to get him to, so he can cover up the, the pregnancy. Oh, it's
just and then he'll look like the hero. He almost pulled it off. And then when he
doesn't sleep with his wife, according to David's plot, he calls over Joab, his military
commander. And I can't even fathom this. But he gives him instructions or he gives
Uriah, pardon me, instructions. And he writes it out, he scrolls it up and he sends it with
Uriah to Joab, his military commander. You know what was on that? It was a command
to Joab to put Uriah on the front line so he gets killed. This Uriah carried his
own death sentence to Joab. And that's exactly what happened. And then when word
comes back to David, you know what his response was? Well, casualty of war. And he tries to
cover it up until Nathan the prophet comes to him. But for one year and we read in the
Psalms that he was dying inside, for one year trying to cover his sin. He committed adultery
and murder, two sins and crimes at that time that were punishable, capital crimes punishable
by death. I don't want to hear about that David. And so the question becomes, why do
we have such details about what David did? Is it to show us how bad David was? No, it
was to show us how good God is, despite how bad David was. And that's why we have accounts
like this. It's God's way of saying, learn from David's mistakes. Learn from David. You
know, he would pay. He was forgiven. But the consequences of what he did, he suffered tremendously
for the rest of his life. First of all, he lost the child. The child died, that in
and of itself. And then his whole house was in chaos. His sons, his daughter, I mean,
it's just horrific. It's just unspeakable. But it's God's way of saying, learn from Hezekiah's
mistake, here. Learn from what David did. Learn from their mistakes. I would rather
learn from... I'm sorry. I mean this in love. I'd rather learn from your sin than
my own. So when you sin, just let me know so I can learn from your sin. I don't want
to learn from my... But anyway, okay, let's pray. You're saying, please. Father in heaven, thank
You so much. This is tough stuff here, but good stuff. And we need to hear this. We need
to heed this, more importantly. Lord may we be numbered amongst those of whom it is
said, they finished well; they fought the good fight; they finished the race. Lord thank
You for this account, as hard as it is to read and hear and know. But Lord who want to
learn from it. And we need the Holy Spirit for that. So, thank You Lord,
in Jesus' name, Amen.
