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The Pride of Hezekiah – Part 1
Isaiah 38:1–39:8 (38:1-16)
January 21, 2024

You know that we are now in that middle section of Isaiah.
• The first 35 chapters of Isaiah looked backward primarily dealing with the issue of Assyria.
• Chapters 40-66 look forward to the reality of the Babylonian captivity.

In the middle we have 4 chapters that contain two narrative stories.
Both of them examine events in the life of Hezekiah.

As we have said, they are out of order chronologically,
That is because Isaiah is using them as a bridge between halves.

When we look back at the Assyrian invasion
• We saw that it was faith in God that led God to turn the Assyrians away and deliver his people.
• Hezekiah was the leader in that.
• It was his faith that prompted God to save the nation.

But when we look forward to the coming Babylonian invasion
• We will learn that pride is what will lead God to hand Judah over to the Babylonians.
• And while there are certainly more sinners than just Hezekiah to blame for the exile, his pride is the root that starts it all.

So we saw the first narrative story and saw the great faith of Hezekiah.
(I do want to make sure you understand that he ended there)

THIS MORNING let’s look at the second narrative
And see the pride he exhibited which is the very type of attitude
That caused God to bring Babylon upon them.

As we look at this, let me go ahead and label the two chapters for you.

Chapter 38 we’ll call: A TRIAL TO HUMBLE
• You’ll see God confront and seek to correct the pride that has been building in Hezekiah’s heart.

Chapter 39 we’ll call: A TEST TO EXPOSE
• After Hezekiah makes a verbal confession regarding his pride we’ll see God send a test to see if his confession is true.

I think if you understand that,
It will make the story in these two chapters become more clear to you.

So let’s just begin what that first point.
#1 A TRIAL TO HUMBLE
Isaiah 38:1-22

Obviously we’re going to break this point down a little more.
Let me give you 5 subheadings to help us walk through this chapter.

1) THE REVELATION (1)

(1) “In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”

First, we begin with the obvious.
“Hezekiah became mortally ill”
• You’ll find out later that whatever was wrong with him, it produced a boil.
• I’m sure he felt terrible, and I’m sure he sought out advice and perhaps even treatment.

But one day, it was ISAIAH who knocked on his door
And gave him SOME BAD NEWS.

“Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”

God tells Hezekiah that he is about to die.

That should be a pretty sobering warning.
And at this point we should just clearly note that
GOD IS GETTING HEZEKIAH’S ATTENTION.

That is the revelation
2) THE RESUME (2-3)

“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.”

I know that at first the term “resume” may not seem correct.
• Shouldn’t this be his prayer?
• Shouldn’t this be his humble supplication?

Perhaps, except that it is very difficult to read what Hezekiah says
And come away in awe of his amazing humility.

• Hezekiah is blindsided by the news that he’s about to die.
• And he is correct in appealing to God for help,
• But his appeal leaves a little to be desired.

The entire basis for why he believes God should restore his life is recounted specifically by him.

• “how I have walked before You in truth”
• “how I have walked before You…with a whole heart”
• “how I have…done what is good in Your sight”

Now first of all, we must acknowledge that there is some real truth to that.

• Certainly if we were to measure Hezekiah according to Christ we’d see that like
all of us he has “fallen short of the glory of God.”
• Surely he hasn’t been perfect, but I don’t think that’s what Hezekiah is
claiming.
• I don’t think he’s saying he has been sinless.

But he is pointing out that his life has been devoted to the things of God.

And look, the book of 2 Chronicles agrees with him.
We won’t go hash back through all of it again, but perhaps I can give you again the highlights of his life:

We said he was:
1. A Reforming King
2. A Gospel Evangelist
3. A Faithful Intercessor
4. An Encouraging Shepherd
5. A Devoted Worshiper

Do you remember how he restored the temple, and restored the priestly order, and how they had the biggest Passover Jerusalem had had since the times of the Judges?

Do you remember how he interceded for the people when God was making them sick, or how he encouraged the priests who were embarrassed that the Passover wasn’t done perfectly?

Do you remember how much of his own private means he dedicated to the LORD for the ongoing worship of the temple?

We studied all of that, he WAS devoted to God.

2 Kings 18:3 “He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.”

2 Kings 18:5-6 “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.”

2 Chronicles 31:20-21 “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, right and true before the LORD his God. Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.”

We are not, in any way, questioning the accuracy of Hezekiah’s statement.
• He did walk in truth.
• He did serve with a whole heart.
• He did do what was right in God’s sight.

We aren’t questioning his actions at all.

NOR are we suggesting that God has somehow overlooked all of that.
Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.”

We genuinely believe that Hezekiah did those things
And that God took note of all the things he did.

SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

The problem is not the accuracy of what Hezekiah’s resume,
It’s the incompleteness of his resume.

Hezekiah tells the story of his life without any acknowledgement
That perhaps God was working through him.

2 Chronicles 30:12 “The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.”

And the simple point to be made is that
The success Hezekiah enjoyed
Was not the result of the devotion of Hezekiah.

There have been plenty of devoted servants of God who have experienced “zero” measurable success in their ministry.

• Would anyone accuse Jeremiah of not being devoted?
• Would anyone say that Ezekiel lacked commitment?
• Was Isaiah half-hearted?

We don’t deny that Hezekiah was devoted,
But it is a little strange to see that
He has difficulty recognizing the grace of God in his life.

Even the good Hezekiah accomplished
Was only because of God’s hand to cause it to occur.

It brings to mind Paul’s question to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 4:7 “For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”

Paul reminded the Corinthians that every success they had achieved
Was only because of the grace of God.

Paul certainly understood that.
Romans 15:17-19 “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

And yet such a perspective seems to be lacking from Hezekiah.

You could even look at his grief and bitterness in receiving this bad news.
• Him turning his face to the wall.
• Him weeping bitterly.

That can lend almost to being a pity-party
And that is a prideful thing as well.

You can again see the difference between his response and responses like PAUL’S:

Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Romans 14:7-8 “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

Or any other of the saints of old
Who faced death with faith and boldness to the glory of God.

I’m not saying that any of us might have done better than him here,
But I am pointing out that his attitude
Doesn’t do much for the glory of God.

It speaks more to
• His pride,
• His accomplishment,
• His feelings of being treated unjustly
Than it does to a man who recognizes the grace of God upon his life.

When faced with a piece of bad news
He does not appeal to God’s mercy,
He appeals to his own resume.

The Revelation, The Resume
3) THE RESPONSE (4-6)

“Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”

Let’s PAUSE here and seek out a little CLARIFICATION.

There have been plenty who have expressed confusion
Regarding this response from God.

Not so much that God healed him,
But because just a moment ago God emphatically stated
That He was about to die.

And it has sparked a number of questions from people.
Did Hezekiah’s prayer change the mind of God?

And look, that is sort of a cheap and easy way to approach this story,
But it brings with it A LOT OF BAGGAGE.

You could just chalk this story up to the “power of prayer”
And point out that prayer changes things.

But this has been the very start of the heresy known as “Open Theism”.
It gets defined in various ways, but it is basically the belief that seeks to reconcile the love of God and the supposed “free will” of man.

It basically states that the future is “open”.
• It will depend on man’s decisions and God’s responses to those decisions.
• Nothing is set, it’s just God and men sort of reacting to one another as the
future unfolds.

Namely that God is just sort of watching the drama unfold, He doesn’t really know how it all ends, He’s just sort of winging it and things like our prayer have drastic influence on the direction everything heads.

People who hold to Open Theism love stories like this,
• Or like the one where God tells Moses He’s doing to kill the Israelites but Moses prays and God changes His mind.

I hope I don’t have to sell you on the error of Open Theism.
The very fact that it totally STRIPS God of His sovereignty is bad enough,
But it also SUPPLANTS God’s sovereignty with man’s or even Satan’s.

How can we look forward to any promise of God if everything God says is up for debate and His mind can be changed about it?

You see the problem, but don’t fear, Open Theism NOT TRUE

Isaiah 40:7-8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

Isaiah 43:13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

You get the idea.
But that is why it is problematic to just see Hezekiah pray and God change direction.

BUT STILL THE QUESTION LINGERS.
WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

• God told Hezekiah he was about to die.
• Isaiah presented it with a “Thus says the LORD” and then it didn’t happen.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

WELL FIRST, MIGHT WE POINT OUT THAT
People die all the time without being warned by God that it is coming.
• In fact, this is the way that 99.9% of the people of all time have died.
• They knew they would die sometime, but very few were ever told by God that there time is now and they are about to die.

So God sending a specific warning like this ahead of time
Is definitely not the norm.
COULD THERE BE A PURPOSE IN IT?

Let us consider a couple of times when God has intervened and told men they were about to die.

Genesis 20:1-3 “Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar. Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.”

• People typically blame Abraham here, but I would remind you that God never rebukes Abraham in this chapter.
• The sole rebuke of God is for Abimelech who we learn later has no fear of God.
• So God tells Abimelech here “you are a dead man”.

However, if you continue reading you find that like Hezekiah,
God did not follow through. Abimelech repents and God spares his life.

Or this one:
Jonah 3:4 “Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

• There again was a message from God to a people and it was that in 40 days they would all be dead.
• And yet again, we read the story and find that Nineveh repented and God did not do it.

But hopefully you are beginning to SEE A PATTERN EMERGING
When God warns a person that their death is coming.

It doesn’t appear to be a resolute sovereign decree of God,
But rather God does this as a warning to someone in their sin
That things need to change or else.

After all, if God desired their death, why warn them?
If there is no chance of changing His mind, why tell them?

God is seen in Scripture as One who warns of coming doom that man might repent of his sin and be spared.

Ezekiel 33:13-16 “When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. “But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. “None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.”

• That is what we saw with Abimelech
• That is what we saw with Nineveh
• That is even what we saw with Moses when he interceded

And it is best to understand that this is what we are seeing here.
God was threatening Hezekiah with death to lead to his repentance.

And I think, after seeing his prayer, we can confidently say that
We know what sin God was confronting: PRIDE.

BUT HERE WE HAVE GOD’S ANSWER to Hezekiah’s prayer.

God tells him, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.”

2 Kings adds the statement, “I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD” (2 Kings 20:5)

And God also promises to deliver him
And the city from the coming assault from Assyria.

So now we see that God, though He warned of death, has responded with mercy.
• He gave mercy to the children of Israel upon Moses’ prayer.
• He gave mercy to Abimelech when Abraham prayed for him.
• He gave mercy to Nineveh when they humbled themselves in repentance.
• And He gives mercy to Hezekiah here.

But with that acknowledgment, don’t buy into backward thinking.

That is to say, DON’T walk away with the assumption
That Hezekiah was right and he did deserve to be healed.

• That would be God operating in justice, not mercy.
• That would also come with the assumption that God had wrongly inflicted
Hezekiah with the sickness.
• That would assume that God, having now been corrected by Hezekiah, was
repenting and removing the sickness.

No, that’s not what is happening.
• God is merely showing mercy here.
• God is not treating Hezekiah as he deserves.

AND GOD HAS THE RIGHT TO BE MERCIFUL TO MEN.

Hezekiah is not going to die.

But then something bizarre happens,
Which causes us to question just how much Hezekiah actually learned from this trial.

In Isaiah the verse is pushed down to verses 21-22
(21-22) “Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

When you read the narrative in 2 Kings
Those verses occur immediately following verse 6.

It becomes apparent to us that Hezekiah was here
Having a little difficulty actually believing that God would heal him.

• He had no problem believing the death part, after all, he could see the boil.
• But when God promised life, Hezekiah is a little doubtful.
• So Hezekiah asked for a sign.

Well, God here is more than just merciful, He is also gracious.
We learn in the N.T. that there is wickedness in seeking for a sign,
But God grants it anyway.

The Revelation, The Resume, The Response
4) THE REASSURANCE (7-8)

“This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken: “Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.”

Also in the Kings narrative you find that
• Isaiah asks Hezekiah if he wanted the sun to move up or down ten steps
• Hezekiah basically says moving down is nothing, make it move up.

And so that is what God does.
He graciously gives Hezekiah a sign
That He will certainly heal him just as He promised.

So now, not only are we questioning Hezekiah’s pride,
But we also have a slight question about where his faith is at the present.

Again, WE’RE NOT questioning the testimony of his life here.
• We know even how he will end up, trusting God in a mighty way.
• We know that he is remembered as a King with great faith.

But here we are in this one trial and we have a difficult time seeing
That his faith is really strong at this point.

But none-the-less you are aware of the scene.
• He got sick
• God told him he would die
• He cried out to God
• God promised to heal him
• God confirmed it with a miraculous sign

And everything we have just said about his attitude and pride and struggling faith is at best JUST OUR ASSESSMENT.

Where it not for what we have next.
Verses 10-20 are NOT included in the book of 2 Kings.

It is a writing from Hezekiah where he explains exactly what was going on in his heart throughout the sickness and the healing he experienced.

5) THE RETELLING (9-20)

Let’s just be as honest as we can about what Hezekiah has to say here.
This writing occurred “after his illness and recovery:”

So the trial is behind him.
He’s just sharing testimony of what was going on in his heart at the time.

Let’s start with: (10-12) “I said, “In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.” I said, “I will not see the LORD, The LORD in the land of the living; I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world. “Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.”

Now let’s be honest in what we read.
You see words like
“deprived” or “pulled up” or “removed” or “rolled up” or “cuts me off”.

You see that Hezekiah assesses that this has been done to him
“in the middle of my life”

WHAT IS HE SAYING THERE?
That when God gave me the announcement that I was about to die, the first thought that occurred to me is that, “I’m too young for this.”

THIS ISN’T FAIR.
God is just plucking me out right in my prime.

If you couple that with the prayer he offered up in verse 3 you understand that there is a certain, “I don’t deserve this” mentality occurring here.

• He laments that he’s not going to see God at work anymore.
• He laments that he’s not going to see the deeds of men anymore.

He then just sort of throws up his hands to the unjustness of it all.

(12) “Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.”

It’s the equivalent of saying, “He’s treating me like an old ratty T-shirt that is just picked up off the floor and tossed in the trash.”

You see the pride here.
He feels as though God is treating him unjustly.

(13) “I composed my soul until morning. Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make an end of me.”

Here you find that he tried to “pull it all together”
“I composed my soul”
• I tried to make peace with it.
• I tried to get over it.
• I tried to come to terms.

But every time I did, it’s like God just hammered me again.
His warning to “get your house in order” just sort of haunted me.

“Like a lion – so He breaks all my bones”

And again that same statement:
“From day until night You make an end of me.”

God, You’re killing me!

He’s suffering
It feels unjust
And God is to blame

(14) “Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.”

There he describes his sobbing.
• He says that he sounds like a twittering crane or a moaning dove.

“wistfully” means “a feeling of vague regretful longing”
The Hebrew word behind it means “to be brought low.”

He’s just telling the Lord that I have bottomed out.
I have sunk deep in despair.

In that frustration he cries out, “O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.”

This isn’t so much a prayer of faith
As it is a complaint that God needs to rise up and do something.

Enough is enough!
Can’t You see!

“be my security”
• Be my guarantee
• Be my pledge
• Be my surety

Do you see now how Hezekiah has a feeling of entitlement here?
• God, You see all that I have done.
• You see how I have served You.
• Don’t You think it’s time to rise up and defend me here?
• (15) “What shall I say?”

AND THEN A STRONG LAMENT
“For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.”

It is God who has afflicted me with this promise of death.
And I’m going to be bitter about this until it happens.

Listen, that’s nothing but pride.

(16) “O Lord, by these things men live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; O restore me to health and let me live!”

Translators will tell you that this is a difficult verse to translate.
It’s hard to grasp exactly what he is saying here.

Most take it to mean something like this:
“O Lord, other men lengthen their life, but I am stuck with this bitter lot.”
Maybe it is, maybe not.

But then he cries out, “O restore me to health and let me live!”

Now we have no difficulty looking back at that prayer in verse 2
And understanding the pride that accompanied it.

Again, we’re NOT SAYING that we are better than him,
But pride is pride no matter where it dwells.

We actually saw the same types of things in the life of Job
• Who was also a righteous man,
• But his bitterness and pride caused him to be greatly humbled before God and
brought low.

This is actually one of the things that gives us
Great confidence that the Scriptures are the word of God.

The Bible does not hide men’s warts.
• If men were writing it there would be great temptation to omit the embarrassing parts,
• But this is God’s word and He includes the less than flattering stories.

Hezekiah started well and Hezekiah will end well,
BUT THIS IS A LOW POINT IN HIS LIFE.

He is a proud man and God has brought that pride to the forefront
With this boil and promise of death.

Hezekiah feels as though God is cheating him and treating him unjustly.

verse 17a, “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;”

We’re running out of time so we’re going to pause here for a moment.

You will see that after that statement God clearly intervened.
• It was there that God determined to heal Hezekiah and He did so.
• And the rest of this statement speaks of God’s goodness and mercy to save
• And we’ll talk about that tonight.

But this morning we just need to make some honest assessments.

PRIDE IS DANGEROUS

Certainly the MOST TERRIFYING aspect of pride is this:
James 4:6 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

• The fact that God is opposed to pride should be enough to cause us to desire it to be rooted out.

We think of that Pharisee in the temple,
• Who like Hezekiah, delighted in giving his resume to God.
• “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get”
• But God said about that man that he was not justified when he went away.

So we know the danger of pride.
It condemns men and it attracts the discipline of God.

But in Hezekiah we also learn that pride
Can very easily grow undetected in even a devout life.

Hezekiah was a faithful man.
Hezekiah was a devout man.
And even in his life this seed of pride has germinated and begun to grow.

Sennacherib’s taunt and Sennacherib’s letter
Were not the only Satanic attacks Hezekiah faced.
• Here Hezekiah is dealing with Satan’s influence.
• Hezekiah has begun to read his own press clippings.
• Hezekiah is pretty proud of all that he has accomplished.
• Hezekiah has started thinking on what he deserves from God.

That’s why he was so upset when God told him he would die.
His pride was offended and bitterness reared its ugly head.

And we think about the warning of Paul:
1 Corinthians 10:12-13 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

We recognize that “let him who thinks he stands” part.

In those times when you think you’ve done the best, Satan is more than willing to push you right into that arena of prideful thinking.

And it shows up when you face a trial
And feel as though you don’t deserve it.

Do you want to know the proper response to trials?
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Do you see the difference?
• A TRIAL COMES and a prideful man grows bitter and complains that God has cheated him.
• A TRIAL COMES and a humble man rejoices that God has seen fit to correct what is still broken in him.

How do you face trials?
How do you face adversity?

• Do you realize that God may be bringing them in your life for the purpose of crushing your pride?
• And when He does that, do you readily receive it, or grow bitter and fight it?

Hezekiah is a good man, but even good men are susceptible to pride.

John Calvin wrote about this story:
“And if a king so eminent in piety needed almost to suffer anguish, that he might be more powerfully excited to seek the favour of God, and, being almost wasted by grief, might groan from hell to God; let us not wonder if he sometimes permits us for a time to be agitated by fears and perplexities, and delays longer to bestow consolation in answer to our prayers.”
(Calvin, John [Calvin’s Commentaries Volume VIII; Baker Books; Grand Rapids, MI; 2005] Pg. 157)

THIS MORNING MAY OUR PRAYER BE
That God would examine our hearts and cleanse us from pride.

Even if bitterness were the only thing Hezekiah experienced as a result of his pride that would be enough to want it gone.

BUT AS WE’LL SEE TONIGHT, his pride was going to bring far more trouble than just his own personal bitterness.

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God’s Response To Genuine Faith
Isaiah 37:21-38
January 14, 2024

Tonight I want to pick back up with the quote we ended with
From Raymond Ortlund as we looked at Hezekiah’s faith.

“Sometimes Christians live a creedal faith rather than a daring faith. And Isaiah is talking bout an audacious faith that the world cannot understand. A creedal faith says, “I believe in God the Father Almighty” and so forth. That’s good. What if we didn’t believe that? We’d really be in trouble. But a creedal faith is a beginning point only. After all, if people who do not believe in God the Father Almighty often live like people who do believe in God the Father Almighty, then living by faith must be more profound than a creed. God is calling us to live by a daring faith because the world is daring us to live by faith in God.”
(Ortlund, Raymond [Preaching The Word Commentary: Isaiah, God Saves Sinners; Crossway; Wheaton, IL, 2005] pg. 206)

He spoke of believers whose faith is only creedal and not daring.

That is to say, their lives are filled with the right theology.
• They know the correct gospel.
• They recite the correct gospel.
• They preach the truth.
• They defend the truth.

But here is the dilemma that Ortlund proposed that struck me.

Ortlund pointed out that in our world often times
The only distinguishing mark between the way believers live
Versus how nonbelievers live IS OUR CREED, NOT OUR FAITH.

That is to say.
• If our creeds were not made manifest.
• If you didn’t know what anyone believed.
• If everyone’s theological beliefs were sealed away and no one knew them.

• If all you had to be able to evaluate a person was their decisions.
• If all you had to evaluate people was how they responded to adversity.
• If all you had to evaluate people was how they handle tragedy or danger.

Would you be able to tell
Who was a believer and who wasn’t in our culture?

Can you not see the problem that often times in our world believers and nonbelievers live such similar lives that it’s really difficult to see the difference?

Now certainly I’m NOT talking about the morality issue.

But we all know unbelievers who live moral lives.
• We all know unbelievers who don’t get divorced, don’t cuss, don’t lie, or cheat.
• They don’t believe in Jesus Christ, but they still live moral.

The mark of their unbelief
Is seen in their dependance on man for deliverance.
• They trust in their own hard work.
• They trust in their government.
• They trust in their doctor.
• They trust in their job.

And Ortlund’s point is that
We have believers who only ever do the same thing.

• Their creed is correct.
• Their theological dissertation is accurate,
• But the world never sees any kind of radical faith out of them at all.

That leaves the world wondering what is so different?

Ortlund said, “God is calling us to live by a daring faith because the world is daring us to live by faith in God.”

To not just say what we believe about God but to actually believe God.

R.C. Sproul used to say that “it is not a profession of faith that saves, but the possession of faith that saves.”

And the reason Isaiah is showing us the life of Hezekiah
Is because he wants you to see the difference.

Isaiah, by his own confession, was “a man of unclean lips”
And he confessed to live “among a people of unclean lips.”

That is to say
• “We are creedal people.”
• “We are a confessional people”.
• “But we are hypocritical”.

Remember his indictment?
Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”

We certainly remember the sermon of chapter 1
• Which addressed all their sacrifices and festivals and faithfulness to pray to
God, but it was all empty.
• They professed faith, but they did not possess it.

And of course their poster child of an example was wicked king Ahaz
• Whom God called to trust Him,
• Even offering him a sign,
• And Ahaz said no.

This was the problem of Isaiah’s day.
It was a creedal faith, but it was not a daring one.

In response to such a fickle faith
God raised up Assyria and commissioned them against Israel and Judah.

• Israel refused to ever trust God and they were defeated and exiled.
• Judah certainly would have suffered the same fate, were it not for one man.

HEZEKIAH TRUSTED GOD.
And the faith of that one man saved the city and the nation.

Hezekiah possessed a faith that God responded to.
• His faith certainly may have been creedal.
• But his faith was also daring.

When Sennacherib sent that letter back
Telling Hezekiah not to let God deceive him,
Hezekiah never panicked and he never approached anyone else.

Hezekiah took that letter directly to God and to God alone.

And Hezekiah prayed.
(15-20) “O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. “Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. “Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. “Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.”

We asked what did Hezekiah believe?
• He believed that God is our God
• He believed that God is sovereign
• He believed that God is living
• He believed that God is jealous

And we know he believed that, not because of what he said,
But because of what he did.

HEZEKIAH TRUSTED GOD.

Tonight we get to see GOD’S RESPONSE.

Certainly Isaiah is screaming at us through this story
About THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUSTING GOD.

There are three main things I want you to see from the text tonight.
#1 THE STATEMENT
Isaiah 37:21-29

And what we have here is the spoken response of God to Hezekiah
In regard to the threat that Hezekiah passed along to Him.

(21) “Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,”

That alone is somewhat fascinating.
• Hezekiah didn’t tell Isaiah about it.
• The only person he consulted with was God.
• And yet here we have Isaiah sent with a message.

This is a tremendous proof
That God both hears and answers prayer.

God responded “Because you have prayed to Me”

God didn’t respond necessarily because of what you prayed,
But because you prayed.
God was responding to Hezekiah’s faith.

People often refer to “The Power of Prayer” (and that is not wrong)
But please know that is not as open as it sounds by that statement.

• A prayer offered to Allah has no power.
• A prayer offered to a tree has no power.

Beyond that Jesus told us that in our praying, it’s not our eloquence or repetition that makes prayer powerful.
Matthew 6:7-8 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Obviously what makes prayer powerful is
The God to whom we pray and the faith He responds to.

We think of that man who persisted at night asking his friend to borrow a loaf of bread.
Or that Canaanite woman who wouldn’t quit asking Jesus to heal her daughter.
Or this woman:
Luke 18:1-8 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

Clearly the point there is NOT the eloquence of the woman.
It is the faith of the woman as evidenced by her persistence.

Jesus says if you take that kind of faith and then offer it to a God who is actually good and powerful, anything is possible.

The problem is
• Will we find that kind of faith on the earth?
• Will we find a daring, persistent, actual faith?
• Or will it be a faith that stops in creed only?

God doesn’t say that He answered Hezekiah
Because of his moving argument, or his emotional brokenness.

God answers simply “Because you have prayed to Me”

Hezekiah took the problem to God and God responded to his faith.
It wasn’t about what he said, it was that he said it to God.

God has been moved by the faith of Hezekiah.

God has a message for the king of Assyria.
(We don’t know if the Assyrian king ever heard it, it was given for Hezekiah’s sake)

But God’s message to Sennacherib is three-fold.
(incidentally, watch God respond specifically to the faith of Hezekiah)
1) YOU ARE A FOOL (22-23)

God starts out by pointing out how Assyria
Has belittled and maligned Jerusalem.

(22)” this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: “She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!”

They called them weak, powerless, and destined for captivity.

But what Assyria was too foolish to realize
Is that an attack on God’s people is an attack on God Himself.

Zechariah 2:8 “For thus says the LORD of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.”

Remember when Jesus confronted Saul on the Damascus road?
Acts 9:3-5 “As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,”

An attack on God’s people is an attack on God.
And this is what Assyria was doing.

DO YOU REMEMBER that when Hezekiah prayed Hezekiah referenced his believe that GOD IS OUR GOD?
• It is a big mistake to go attacking the bride of Christ.
• It is a big mistake to go attacking God’s adopted children.

BUT Sennacherib didn’t just attack God by association.

Sennacherib actually attacked God specifically.
• Sennacherib called God a liar.
• He told Hezekiah that God would deceive him.
• Sennacherib called God weak.
• He told Hezekiah that He would not be able to deliver.

And when Hezekiah prayed
He was also very specific about THE JEALOUSY OF GOD.
• God doesn’t share His glory.
• He certainly doesn’t allow pagan peons to mock it.

Look at how God answers:
(23) “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!”

You have no idea who you are messing with.

(Sennacherib repeatedly called Hezekiah a fool)
But it was Sennacherib who was reckless and foolish.

You are a fool
2) YOU ARE A FRAUD (24-27)

When you read verses 24 and 25 you see the arrogance of Assyria.
He was swelling with pride and confidence.

He knew how powerful he was, and that no one could stand in his way.
Notice how many times the word “my” or “I” is used.

He was confident in his own strength.

Rabshekah asked:
Isaiah 36:18-20 “Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ‘Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ‘Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

It is clear that the king of Assyria saw himself as omnipotent.

Isaiah 10:12-14 “So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.” For he has said, “By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, For I have understanding; And I removed the boundaries of the peoples And plundered their treasures, And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

Sennacherib really thought he was somebody special.
But God reveals that he is a fraud.

(26-27) ““Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. “Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.”

The only reason you gained victories is because I allowed you to.

We know why Assyria has been allowed to have victory.
• God has been using her to punish the sins of Israel and Judah.
• God purposed this.
• God planned this.
• God allowed this.

Remember Hezekiah praying that: GOD IS SOVEREIGN
If Sennacherib had realized that he would have understood why he was so successful in battle.

“Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame.”

God is the one that made it where Assyria could win.
Their strength was not from themselves.

The point is that Assyria was a fraud.
They didn’t do this, God did it.

Isaiah 10:15 “Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood.”

You are a fool You are a fraud
3) YOU ARE FINISHED (28-29)

Remember that Hezekiah also believed that: GOD IS LIVING

And you see that reference here.
• “I know”
• “your arrogance has come up to My ears”

Sennacherib wasn’t taunting a lifeless stone carving
That could not respond.
He had picked a fight with the living God.

God lets him know that his victorious days are over.

(29b) “I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.”

There is no doubt that God is angry,
And He is about to take out His anger on this arrogant Assyrian.

Isaiah had already told us this:
Isaiah 30:27-28, 31-33 “Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place; Burning is His anger and dense is His smoke; His lips are filled with indignation And His tongue is like a consuming fire; His breath is like an overflowing torrent, Which reaches to the neck, To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin…For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be terrified, When He strikes with the rod. And every blow of the rod of punishment, Which the LORD will lay on him, Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres; And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them. For Topheth has long been ready, Indeed, it has been prepared for the king. He has made it deep and large, A pyre of fire with plenty of wood; The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.”

God has seen enough…
God has heard enough…
God has decided that his siege is over.

And there you have the statement from God.
• Hezekiah believed He is OUR GOD and God defended His people.
• Hezekiah believed He was a JEALOUS GOD and He rose up to defend His
glory.
• Hezekiah believed He is the SOVEREIGN GOD and God revealed that
sovereignty.
• Hezekiah believed Him to be the LIVING GOD and God said, “I’ve seen
enough.”

God looked directly at the mocker of Assyria and declared to him:
You are a Fool
You are a Fraud
You are Finished

GOD RESPONDED DIRECTLY TO THE FAITH OF HEZEKIAH.

That is the Statement
#2 THE SIGN
Isaiah 37:30-35

God just made a promise that Assyria was leaving.
Now God determines to pass out a little confirmation to Hezekiah.

God promises to give him a sign.

YOU MAY REMEMBER
That Hezekiah’s father refused to trust God or any sign He would give.

Isaiah 7:10-13 “Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!” Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?”

• Syria was attacking Ahaz and God promised to deliver,
• Even saying ask for a sign so that you will know that I will do it.

Ahaz refused to trust God even upon a sign, instead running to Assyria.

But Hezekiah is not like his Father.
Hezekiah trusts God.

And here God offers Hezekiah a sign.
(VERSES 30-32)

Now I hope you recognized what type of sign this was.
It is one of God’s favorites to give.
IT IS A SIGN OF CONFIRMATION

(30b) “you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.”

You and I know that isn’t much of a sign.
(At least not an immediate one)

BUT HOW SWEET THE WORSHIP WOULD BE IN THAT THIRD YEAR WHEN YOU ARE EATING THE FRUIT OF YOUR VINEYARD.

God is not a God of proof, but a God of confirmation.

When Moses needed a sign from God to prove that God would indeed deliver from Egypt, God said:

Exodus 3:12 “And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

And that is the same type of sign here.

To a man walking by sight, it is of no help at all,
But to a man walking by faith
It is the greatest confirmation possible.

God had just promised 3 more years of absolute security in the land.
Assyria would not be a threat.

(VERSES 33-35)

And please recognize here the power of God.

All that had to happen to prove God wrong, was one displaced soldier had to shoot one stray arrow over the wall and this prophecy is false.

But God was in complete control.

It is commonly difficult to trust God in the present.
• Often times circumstances are so bleak
• And trials are so real and hope is so faded
• That trusting God is a tremendously difficult thing to do.

But for those who trust God in the midst of those difficult moments
THERE IS COMING A DAY of tremendous rejoicing.

For we don’t often see God’s hand at work now,
But someday we will stand on the mountain with Moses
Or we will eat in the vineyard with Hezekiah
And at once fall to our knees and realize that God really did deliver.

AND AT THAT MOMENT all the faith and all the trust
Will seem extremely worth it, and we will worship God
In a way that we never worshiped before.

• How great do you think the worship was for Moses on Mt. Sinai?
• How great do you think the worship for Hezekiah was 3 years later in
the vineyard?
• How great do you think it will be when your faith becomes sight?

If God were to just take the trial away, or never permit it at all,
There is certainly a comfort to enjoy.

But it doesn’t equal THE FUTURE REJOICING
Of those who trusted God through trials and
Eventually stand on the mountain remembering His deliverance.

God was giving Hezekiah a sign.
He would certainly deliver and some day the worship would be amazing!

The Statement The Sign
#3 THE SLAUGHTER
Isaiah 37:36-38

2 Kings adds 5 words to the beginning of this verse:
2 Kings 19:35 “Then it happened that night…”

I Love those first 3 words
“Then it happened”

Everyone who walks by faith
Is waiting for their own personal “Then it happened”

That is what Horatio Spafford meant in his great hymn:
“And Lord haste the day when thy faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul!”

He was waiting for his own personal “Then it happened”

Well Hezekiah got his here.
His faith was about to become sight.

(36) “the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead.”

The angel that broke the power of Egypt
Is now at work to break the power of Assyria.

Isaiah 10:16-19 “Therefore the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick man wastes away. And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number That a child could write them down.”

The Assyrians were wiped out.
And Sennacherib was forced to retreat.

• Apparently His REPORT was incomplete.
• Apparently His REASONING was faulty.
• Apparently His REALITY was a mirage.

He turned out to be the liar, not God.
SHOCKER!

(VERSES 37-38)

What an ironic ending.

For days and days Sennacherib had confidently told Hezekiah
Not to trust in the LORD, for God did not have the power to protect him.

How ironic that Sennacherib would die
In the house of a god who could not protect him.

And all of a sudden the great threat of Hezekiah’s life
Was behind him.

As we said when they looked over the wall to 185,000 dead Assyrians:
Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

And now at the completion of this story
The application is extremely easy to understand.

TRUSTING GOD IS A GOOD IDEA

There is an enemy.
• He is a roaring lion that seeks to destroy.
• He delights in attacking God’s people.

But there is also a Savior
Who can and will deliver if we put our trust in Him.

And this is not just the theme of Hezekiah’s story or the book of Isaiah.
This is the theme of Scripture.

Isaiah 40:27-31 “Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

Psalms 25:1-3 “To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed; Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed.”

Psalms 27:11-14 “Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”

Psalms 34:19-22 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”

Psalms 62:5-8 “My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.”

It is clear what the call of Scripture is.
God desires you and I to trust Him.

And therefore it is NO SURPRISE
That when God became flesh and dwelt among us,
His appeal was still the same.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

In fact this great book ends with that very invitation:
Revelation 22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”

The call is for you and I to trust God and His Son Jesus Christ.

Sinners trust Him for salvation.
Believers continue to trust Him for everything else.

And when we look at Hezekiah the encouragement is to
Have a faith that stands out as different than the world.

Don’t just bring a creedal faith.
Bring a daring faith.
• Actually believe.
• Actually trust.

For when you do that, your God, the sovereign God, the living God,
The jealous God will rise up for the glory of His own name.

I’LL SAY IT AGAIN,
Your faith is given to you as a tool through which God can glorify Himself.

Trust God

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The Proven Faith of Hezekiah – Part 2
Isaiah 37:8-20
January 14, 2024

As you know we are currently in the middle of a narrative section in the book of Isaiah which is being used both as an example and a bridge by the prophet.

There are two main stories that are relayed to us here.
1) The Assyrian Invasion
2) Hezekiah’s sickness, recovery, and visit by Babylon

The stories are relayed to us out of chronological order.

Isaiah’s sickness occurred first and the invasion second, but Isaiah reverses their order because he is using them as a BRIDGE from the first half of his book to the second.

Isaiah tells us the story of the Assyrian invasion first
Because it looks back to the events of the first 35 chapters and it gives us a wonderful example of the type of faith that God is looking for.

Isaiah tells the story of the Babylonian visit second
Because it explains the coming Babylonian captivity which Isaiah will address in the second half of his book.

This segment is a bridge.

But it is also a tremendous EXAMPLE of faith.
We learn in these stories what true faith looks like
And we learn the purpose of true faith.

And just to make sure we build on what we started learning last week.

You need to remember that
Your faith is for the glory of God.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED why God orchestrated salvation that is received BY FAITH ALONE?

Human thinking always seeks to add some form of works to the requirement of salvation.
• Every man-made religion in the world…
• Every corruption of Christianity…
• Has in common some form of works required for sinners to be saved.
• Sinners must “do” something.

But the true gospel is salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

Have you ever wondered why faith is all that God requires?

• Certainly He is free to require more.
• Certainly He is well withing His rights to require some form of religious duty to procure your salvation.
• But He doesn’t. All He requires is faith.

WHY?
Because then there is no room for anyone but Him to receive the glory of your salvation.

If you do anything to earn it, you have a right to boast about it.

Romans 4:1-3 “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Paul was clear,
• If Abraham does anything to earn his salvation then Abraham has the right to
boast.

But there is no way God is going to allow that to happen,
Which is what Paul means when he says, “But not before God”.

So God offers a salvation where faith is the only requirement
So that no man can boast about anything in regard to being saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

AND WE ARE LEARNING THIS ALSO WITH HEZEKIAH.

LAST SUNDAY NIGHT we started looking at this narrative in Isaiah and we saw Sennacherib send his army to start taunting Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem.

We learned all about the way Satan attacks.
1. He Mocks Your Strength
2. He Confirms Your Fears
3. He Appeals To Your Lusts
4. He Encourages Your Doubts

But Hezekiah didn’t waiver.
• He denied himself (that is any plan he had for saving himself or the city)
• He cried out to Isaiah to seek God
• And specifically he prayed that God would rise up for the sake of His own glory.

We were reminded that this was the purpose of faith
And the kind of faith that God responds to.

Your faith, my faith, is a tool for the glory of God.
Our faith is like a spotlight that we shine on God
So that the world will see who He is and what He does.

If our faith is only to earn glory for ourselves…
If our faith is only to secure comforts for ourselves…
If our faith is only to maintain a lifestyle like we desire…
WE ARE MISSING THE POINT OF FAITH.

We trust God, not so that God will do what we want.
We trust God, because this is how God glorifies Himself in our lives.

Hezekiah is a great example of that.
• He trusted God with Sennacherib’s threat and God responded.

Isaiah 37:6-7 “Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. “Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

So that is where we are. WE SAW

#1 THE FIRST ATTACK
Isaiah 36:1-20

• That was Sennacherib’s taunt

#2 THE FIRST ANSWER
Isaiah 36:21 – 37:7

• Don’t answer him and pray to God

Well, let’s move on in this story.

#3 THE SECOND ATTACK
Isaiah 37:8-13

• The first attack was Sennacherib’s taunt.
• This second attack is Sennacherib’s letter.

So let’s continue to play out the scene before us.
• Sennacherib had stopped at Lachish and sent Rabshakeh with an army on to Jerusalem to taunt the city and to demand their surrender.
• Hezekiah ignored him, which was the equivalent of a rejection of Sennacherib’s terms.
• In the process God had promised that He would cause Sennacherib to hear a rumor and depart from his siege of Jerusalem.

So when Rabshakeh returns to Sennacherib with Hezekiah’s answer, Rabshakeh finds that Sennacherib has left.

(8-9) “Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,”

Now, when Sennacherib heard that rumor and left,
At the same time he left a letter for Hezekiah.

And “he sent messengers to Hezekiah”

So now we’re ready for the second leg of the attack.
• God said Assyria wouldn’t topple this city.
• God said Assyria would hear a rumor and depart.
• And so far, God is 2 for 2 at honoring His word.

BUT SATAN ISN’T FINISHED WITH THE BATTLE.
Now we get another strategy of Satan.

HE ATTACKS THE CREDIBILITY OF GOD’S WORD

(10) “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

You’ll notice that Satan has focused his attack.
• Earlier it was an announcement to the people on the wall not to let Hezekiah deceive you.
• Here it is don’t let God deceive you.

(Interesting how the deceiver is always warning everyone else about being deceived)

Boy have we seen this tactic before.
Genesis 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan tried the same with Jesus,
• Actually trying to quote Scripture to Jesus to convince Him to throw Himself off the temple.

It is an all-out attack on the credibility of the word of God.
• God won’t do what He says.
• God can’t do what He says.
• God’s word shouldn’t be taken so literally.
• God’s word is outdated.
• God’s word is no longer relevant.
• God’s word is allegory.

We’ve heard the arguments throughout the years
AND WE STILL HEAR THEM TODAY.

It is one of the main ways Satan seeks to destroy your faith.
If He can shatter your confidence in the character of God revealed in His word, then you are well on your way to no longer believing God.

So first let’s just make it clear that GOD’S WORD IS CREDIBLE.
WHY?

I know for years (and some of you may have heard it) there has been an acronym for remembering why we trust the Bible.

MAPS
Manuscript Evidence, Archaeological Evidence, Prophecy, Statistics

And I don’t have a problem with that as people have worked it out in that fashion.

But let me show you where I hang my hat.

Hebrews 6:18 “so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”

Romans 3:4 “May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”

One thing that is clear is that God always tells the truth.
• He never lies, indeed He can’t lie.
• And therefore His word never needs to be deleted or disregarded.

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

So anything that God says is true.
He cannot lie.

Some would say, But how do you know that the Bible is trustworthy?
How do you know that the Bible is God’s word?

Well, it says it is.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

I realize you may not put much stock in the Bible’s own self-testimony,
• But before you deny what the Bible says about itself
• You’d better ask if anyone has ever been able to prove any part of it false?

Or how about this verse?
John 10:35 “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),”

Jesus calls the Bible there first “the word of God”
And then says it “cannot be broken”.
That’s a pretty good endorsement.

Jesus quoted from or referenced the Old Testament
Some 180 times in His discourses in the gospels.

The point is: Jesus clearly believed the Scriptures were credible and the words of God.

And we could go on and on and on with passages and messages
About the credibility of the word of God,
But just know that you can trust what God says in His word.

And this is a definite place Satan attacks.

This is in fact one of the ways you are able to test the spirits.
• If the spirit you are listening to attacks the credibility of Scripture then run!
• If the Spirit you are listening to clarifies the message of Scripture, then you
are in the right place.

But you have here Satan attacking God’s word.
“Don’t listen to God, He’ll lie to you” – says Satan.

AND HERE IS WHERE SATAN GETS EVEN MORE CRAFTY.

We might ask:
Well, if Satan doesn’t want you to listen to the word of God, what does he want you to listen to?

AND HERE IS SATAN’S LIST.
Here is Satan’s recommendation
Of what should guide your thinking and your decisions.

There’s 3

1) THE REPORT (11a)
“Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely.”

Today we might say it like this.
“Listen to the News”

“It has been well-documented what is happening all over the world
And so you can be certain what is coming into your life.”

“These are facts and you need to let facts like this guide your thinking.”

Now, WE ARE NOT SAYING that a Christian should just bury their head in the sand and be totally uninformed about what is going on in the world.

BUT WE ARE SAYING that you should be very careful basing all their decisions on what is being reported to them by someone from this world.

• Is it possible that men ever embellish?
• Is it possible that men ever exaggerate?
• Is it possible that men ever “spin”?
• Is it possible that men over omit or mislead?

Be careful when man’s report
Becomes the sole basis for why you do anything.

Satan would far rather you listen to man’s report than the word of God.

2) YOUR OWN REASON (11b)
“So will you be spared?”

In one sense, Satan wants you to take the world’s report and then logically apply it to what will also happen in your own life.

“If it happened to them, then it must happen to you.”

Satan loves to hold people in bondage here.

BUT NOT ONLY THAT, what we also see here is Satan appealing for you to apply your own logic for a solution to the situation.

It is as though Satan questions
Whether or not God is really seeing clearly.

“Surely you, who are actually in the middle of this situation,
Can clearly see what should be done. God isn’t paying attention.”

Consider Satan’s temptation of Jesus.
Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

• There is more than just an appeal to Jesus’ hunger there.
• There is also an appeal to His logic and reason.

There is a suggestion
• That perhaps God has not had Jesus’ best interests in mind.
• That Jesus, who is actually hungry and who actually has the power to turn stones into bread, should follow His own thinking.

Satan will do that again when seeking to get Jesus to jump off the temple.
(Insinuating that Jesus has a better plan for making Himself known than God)

Aren’t we tempted to do this any time we forsake God’s word because we think we know a better way?
• Will turning the other cheek really work?
• Will submitting to my husband really fix anything?
• Will confessing my sin actually help?

Satan constantly calls you to sit in judgment
Over the commands of God and to be the final authority
On whether or not God’s commands will actually work or not.

THAT IS WHAT ASSYRIA IS ASKING.
• God told you not to worry because He would handle it.
• Well how did that work out for all those other nations?
• You’re smarter than to listen to God on this aren’t you?

Satan would far rather you listen to your own reason than the word of God.

3) ACCEPTED REALITY (12-13)
“‘Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ‘Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Now we’re just talking about basic facts.
• This isn’t just a report.
• This isn’t your own reason.
• This is reality.

Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, Eden, Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, Ivvah
• They all trusted in their gods.
• They are all dead.

And the basic consensus of all is that
Rebelling against the king of Assyria gets you killed.

Everyone knows this.
This is undeniable law.
This is just the way things are.
This is reality.

And Satan will have you lean on that too.

If you want it spelled out clearly,
Satan’s advice is basically the antithesis of Proverbs 3:5-6

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”

Satan basically tells you that those two verses are absolutely absurd.
• Do not trust what God says.
• Do lean on your own understanding.
• Do not expect God to intervene.
• Do not trust His path.

YOU NEED TO open your eyes, get an informed report,
Trust your heart or your gut or your intuition,
See what everyone else is doing, and follow suit.

“If you try to break from the status quo of worldly logic and thinking you’re going to look like a fool and you’re going to get yourself killed.”

THAT IS HOW SATAN WORKS.

AND THAT BATTLE STILL LOOMS TODAY.

We are constantly in a battle to believe God
Instead of our own logic or wisdom.
THIS IS A BATTLE YOU NEVER STOP FIGHTING.

The very first step of conversion is REPENTANCE.
• You’ve been told that the word for repentance is METANOIA which means “to change one’s mind”.
• The very first thing you have to do to be saved is to abandon your own thinking about sin and God and judgment and start believing what God says.

When Jesus calls you TO FOLLOW Him
• He calls you to “deny yourself” and that includes your own logic and way of thinking.

Certainly when we get into the realm of SANCTIFICATION
• We are called to “be filled with the spirit” or as Paul told the Colossians, to “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.”

• The very process of sanctification is to be “washed with the water of the word”.
• It is to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

• Sanctification is very much the ongoing process of repentance in which God changes your mind from believing your own logic to believing His word.

Spiritual MATURITY is seen
• In being “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”
• It is when one is more than just a “forgetful hearer” of the word, but when one is a “doer”.

Effective MINISTRY is
• To see Scripture as “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”

THIS IS A CONSTANT BATTLE.

Every part of your Christian life is a battle
To stop leaning on your own logic,
Stop basing decisions on the reports and realities of the world
And shift your thinking to believe what God says.

It is what we talked about to the youth at this past Disciple Now.
• This world is filled with voices and pieces of advice and logic and reasons, etc.
• You are being bombarded with counsel.
• But there is only one that comes from God and that is His word.
• “Be careful how you listen”

That is a real battle that you face every day.

And it is the battle that Hezekiah is facing here.

Will he believe God or will he believe the reports, his own reason, and what seems to be the prevailing reality of his day?

Well, if you think Hezekiah did good in the first battle, look at this one.
He knocks this one right out of the park!

#2 THE SECOND ANSWER
Isaiah 37:14-20

That is one of the most amazing scenes of faith in Scripture.

I hope you notice how much Hezekiah’s faith has solidified
Even since that first battle.

That first time he heard the taunt of Rabshakeh we remember how he responded:
Isaiah 37:1 “And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD.”

• We remember that broken, probably scared, helpless man.
• He couldn’t even pray, but he sent word for Isaiah to pray.
• He was a fearful man.

But this time you see a confident man.
(14) “Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.”

I told you before that the final estimation of Hezekiah’s life is that he trusted God.
2 Kings 18:5 “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.”

Something interesting there.
That word for “trusted” is actually (BA-TACK)

And you have seen it before.
Isaiah 32:9-10 “Rise up, you women who are at ease, And hear my voice; Give ear to my word, You complacent daughters. Within a year and a few days You will be troubled, O complacent daughters; For the vintage is ended, And the fruit gathering will not come.”

There it is translated “complacent”
It is a word that means “to feel safe, to be confident, to feel secure, to be careless”.

• Isaiah actually reproached the women of Jerusalem for having such feelings
since they felt safe in the midst of their sin.

But it is interesting that Hezekiah now has that same peace and feeling of safety in the midst of the battle because he is trusting God.

I love him taking that letter to God.
That letter was meant to be hand delivered to the ruler of Jerusalem.
• The people brought it to Hezekiah.
• Hezekiah took it to the real leader.

And he takes it with such quiet confidence.
• It’s almost like he walks in there with golf clubs on his shoulder and says, “Oh, God, by the way, you got a letter from the king of Assyria. See you later.”

And then look at this great prayer.

(15-20) “Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying, “O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. “Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. “Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. “Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.”

Ok, now let’s make sure we understand the point.
• This is NOT a story about prayer.
• This is NOT a story meant to teach you how to pray a prayer that God will answer.

THIS IS A STORY ABOUT FAITH.
So when we read that prayer,
I don’t want you to analyze how Hezekiah prayed.

Here’s what I want you to do.
Read that prayer and tell me this:
WHAT DID HEZEKIAH BELIEVE?

• We want to examine his faith.
• We want to know what it was he believed, and it becomes evident in his prayer.

We want to know what true faith looks like.

We want to see THE OBJECT of his faith.
• Hezekiah is not leaning on his own understanding.
• Hezekiah is not trusting in the circulating reports.
• Hezekiah is not believing Sennacherib’s reality.

Hezekiah believes something different.
In this prayer you see what he believes.

1) GOD IS OUR GOD (16a)
“O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim,”

It begins with a simple conviction that
Yahweh of hosts is in fact “the God of Israel”

Hezekiah is speaking in a covenantal sense here.
“He is our God, He is not their God.”

While in one sense you can say
“That He is the God of all the world and we are all His children”

In a saving sense, He is the God of His people alone.

He is for us, in a way in which He is not for the world.
(Romans 8:28 certainly bears that out)

Take Jesus in His High Priestly prayer.
John 17:9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;”

IT IS THE BELIEF THAT GOD IS FOR US.
• He is our God, by reason of His covenant which He made with us.

Hezekiah is confident that when looking at Assyria
And then looking at Israel that God is for us.

• Not because we deserve it more than they.
• Not because we are somehow more righteous.
• But because He has chosen us to be in a saving relationship with Him.
• We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
• We are His bride, His chosen, His elect.

It is purely by grace, but it is real none the less.
GOD IS FOR US
Hezekiah believes that.

2) GOD IS SOVEREIGN (16b)
“You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.”

While He is the God of Israel in a saving sense.
In a sovereign sense He remains the God of the whole world.

• Every nation rises and falls at His command.
• He determines “the when” and “the where” of every man.
• He appoints every man’s times and the boundaries of their habitation.

Isaiah 40:22-24 “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.”

• All creatures answer to Him.
• All nations answer to Him.
• All rulers answer to Him.

And if God declares that a nation is finished, they are finished.
If God declares Satan can’t have you, he can’t have you.
Hezekiah believes that

3) GOD IS LIVING (17-19)
“Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. “Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.”

It’s called anthropomorphic language.
• Hezekiah speaks of God’s ears, His and His eyes.
• He is the God who sees and the God who hears.
• He is “the living God”

See there’s a reason why Sennacherib was so successful in mocking the gods of all those other nations.
• There’s a reason he got away with it.
• There’s a reason none of those other gods rose up to stop him.

• They weren’t real.
• They couldn’t hear.
• They couldn’t see.
• They weren’t alive.

Psalms 115:4-7 “Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat.”

But Sennacherib has never come against a God like this.

HE IS THE LIVING GOD.
Jeremiah 10:6-10 “There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You. But they are altogether stupid and foolish In their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; Violet and purple are their clothing; They are all the work of skilled men. But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot endure His indignation.”

You can walk into a wax museum and slap a fake gorilla with very little consequence, but if you try the same thing in a zoo you’re liable to find yourself in trouble.

Sennacherib never tangled with a living God before.

See, HIS REALITY IS SKEWED,
And it left out some very important information.

• He did wipe out all those other nations.
The reports and the reality he threw at Hezekiah weren’t false,
They just weren’t totally true.

He omitted the fact that none of those nations had real and living gods.
Hezekiah knows he is in a different category than all the rest.

4) GOD IS JEALOUS (20)
“Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.”

Exodus 34:14 “for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”

GOD IS JEALOUS.
• I know jealousy is considered a sin for us
• And we are told not to demonstrate it.

But that is because our jealousy is rooted in envy and pride.

But when God is jealous it is a righteous jealousy
Because He is jealous for what is rightfully His. GLORY!

Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.”

Isaiah 43:10-13 “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me. “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And I am God. “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

Isaiah 44:6-8 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place. ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’”

Hezekiah knows that
• God is jealous for the glory of His name
• And He is not about to be compared to some false god,
• Nor be mocked by some created lump of dirt.

SO HEZEKIAH CRIES OUT TO GOD.

Now TONIGHT we’ll look at God’s response to this prayer,
But THIS MORNING can you see what Hezekiah believes?

How do you know Hezekiah believes that?
• Because he prays? No
• It is because he doesn’t take his problem to anyone else.

If God is really our God
And if God is really sovereign
And if God is really living
And if God is really jealous
Then why would you need to take this letter anywhere else?

Raymond Ortlund wrote:
“Sometimes Christians live a creedal faith rather than a daring faith. And Isaiah is talking bout an audacious faith that the world cannot understand. A creedal faith says, “I believe in God the Father Almighty” and so forth. That’s good. What if we didn’t believe that? We’d really be in trouble. But a creedal faith is a beginning point only. After all, if people who not believe in God the Father Almighty often live like people who do believe in God the Father Almighty, then living by faith must be more profound than a creed. God is calling us to live by a daring faith because the world is daring us to live by faith in God.”
(Ortlund, Raymond [Preaching The Word Commentary: Isaiah, God Saves Sinners; Crossway; Wheaton, IL, 2005] pg. 206)

Do you see the difference between a creedal faith and a real or daring faith?

We can sit in a pew all day long and AFFIRM THE TRUTHS Hezekiah just revealed about God in his prayer.

THAT IS A CREED.
• We can affirm that He is our God.
• We can affirm that He is Sovereign.
• We can affirm that He is living.
• We can affirm that He is jealous.

But if we never trust Him in the battle, our faith doesn’t amount to much.
HEZEKIAH TOOK HIS LETTER TO GOD.
• Not to Egypt
• Not to Ethiopia
• Not even to Isaiah this time
• Hezekiah approached God and God alone.

God alone was his hope
God alone was his trust
God alone was his salvation
God was not just a creed, God was his savior.

Do you see the difference?
Is it any wonder God responded to save?

Hezekiah, by faith, gave God the opportunity to glorify Himself
And God will seize that opportunity.

That is the purpose of your faith.
It is the glory of God, not so that you or I can boast.

May we all be encouraged to trust God.

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The Proven Faith of Hezekiah
Isaiah 36:1-37:7
January 7, 2024

This morning we went through a character sketch of King Hezekiah.
Not a doubt in our mind that he was A GREAT MAN OF FAITH.

That does NOT MEAN that he was without fault or without hiccup.
He made a mistake with the Babylonian entourage that brought discipline.

But even after that,
• Hezekiah bounced back and put great faith on display again
• And really would be credited for leading the nation to trust God
• And find deliverance against Assyria.

Tonight we want to start looking at this narrative section
To see what his faith looked like.

OBVIOUSLY, Hezekiah had the kind of faith that God responds to.
In the first narrative God will respond to him twice.

Our question is:
• What kind of faith is that?
• What is it about Hezekiah’s faith?
• What is it about what Hezekiah believed?

That is really what Isaiah is doing.
This book of Isaiah is about trusting God who alone is our salvation.

Here Isaiah gives you a living illustration of what that faith looks like.

So let’s begin working through this narrative together.
I want as simple of an outline as possible here.

#1 THE FIRST ATTACK
Isaiah 36:1-20

I do want you to understand that when we are talking about the attack
We are NOT TALKING ABOUT the physical attack
That Assyria is bringing to Jerusalem.

That attack is obvious in the fact that the army has shown up.

The attack we are talking about is the attack on Hezekiah’s faith.
The battle that is fought in these 20 verses
Is NOT a battle fought with swords and shields.

• This is a propaganda war.
• This is psychological warfare.
• This is the message of the enemy meant to crush your hope in God.

Satan knows that he is no match for God.
Satan also knows that without God Hezekiah is no match for him.

So the chief objective of Satan is
To sever the faith that Hezekiah has in God.

If Satan can get Hezekiah to let go of his spiritual Ally
Then Hezekiah will prove to be easy prey for the enemy.

SO THE WAR HERE IS A WAR AGAINST FAITH.

Isaiah wants you to see HOW HEZEKIAH OVERCOMES IT.

(1) “Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.”

This again is
• The 14th year of his independent reign.
• He is 39 years old.
• Assyria started seizing the cities of Judah.

ISAIAH ACTUALLY OMITS A LITTLE HISTORY

I would remind you that WHILE THIS WAS HAPPENING
• We also have Hezekiah getting sick,
• Seeking God,
• Getting promised healing
• And Babylon arriving to see what is going on.

If you need scriptural proof that the sickness happened first you only need to see:
Isaiah 38:4-5 “Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”

Very interesting that while Assyria is invading
There has already been a promise given
That God would spare Jerusalem from the coming threat.

Part of the mistake of Hezekiah there, beyond the boasting,
Hezekiah was obviously also looking for an ally in Merodach-baladan.
• We talked about this back in Isaiah 21
• Where Babylon was referred to as “the wilderness of the sea”
• Or better understood as “the mirage in the desert”

• Merodach-baladan had actually had some success revolting against Assyria
and what is happening is that they are feeling each other out in regard to
an alliance.
• Hezekiah is showing Babylon everything he can bring to the table and what
a good ally he would be.

That is still part of his blunder.
God just promised He would deliver
But Hezekiah is seeking out other options.

BUT ISAIAH DOESN’T MENTION THAT HERE
• Because Hezekiah’s blunder is not the focal point,
• But Isaiah wants you to see where his faith succeeded.

THE OTHER THING ISAIAH OMITS
• Is the mistake of Hezekiah to try and pay off Sennacherib when he does
approach Jerusalem.

The book of 1 Kings includes 3 verses
That fit between Isaiah 36:1 and 36:2

2 Kings 18:14-16 “Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king’s house. At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.”

That is when Hezekiah actually followed the example of his dad
And sought to pay off Assyria instead of trusting God to defeat them.

So it is clear that there were some blunders being made by Hezekiah,
• But again, the point here is what he did right, not what he did wrong
• So Isaiah does not include those instances in this narrative.

But now we fast-forward, at least several months.

We allow Assyria to finish their siege of Judah
When Sennacherib gets to Lachish he sends an army to Jerusalem.
(37 MILES AWAY)

(2-3) “And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh (Chief Cup-bearer) from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field. Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.”

According to 2 Kings he also sent “Tartan” who was his army commander
And “Rab-saris” who was his chief eunuch.

And “Rabshakeh” has a message.
• It is a taunt.
• It is psychological warfare.
• It is a message meant to destroy faith.

Let me break it down into 4 parts.
It drips of Satanic logic and tactic.

1) HE MOCKS THEIR STRENGTH (4-10)

Notice the questions we see.
• (4) “What is this confidence that you have?”
• (5) “Now on whom do you rely..?”

What you have is Assyria here telling Hezekiah 3 things.

FIRST, we both know you’re not strong enough to defeat me on your own.
If you don’t get help, you don’t stand a chance.

AND THAT IS TRUE.
Not everything Satan says is a lie.
If you go toe to toe with me without help I will clean your plow.

SECOND, there’s a pretty good chance you’re relying on Egypt to bail you out and that is a bad mistake.

It must be noted,
• That Egypt WAS a hope of Hezekiah.
• That is why Isaiah spent chapters 30 & 31 telling them not to trust Egypt.

Egypt, as they always do, represents a worldly hope of deliverance.
This was the human help Hezekiah was hoping for.

You might be wondering what about Babylon and Merodach-baladan?
Well, Sennacherib had recently wiped him out.

Egypt is the human help and Assyria says that is a bad idea.

(6) “Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.”

If you try to rely on Egypt he will fail you.

(8-9) “Now therefore, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. “How then can you repulse one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?”

• Remember that whole, “we will ride on horses” argument?
• Well they were planning on getting them from Egypt and Assyria knew it.

Sennacherib said, there are no horses coming from Egypt.
But if it’s horses you want, I’ll give them to you,
But I doubt you even have 2,000 people who can ride them.

DO YOU HEAR THE MOCKERY?
• We both know how weak you are
• We both know there is no human help available.

But that isn’t even the main taunt.
The goal of Satan is not to get Hezekiah to quit trusting in himself
Or to quit trusting in Egypt.
The goal of Satan is to get them to quit trusting God.

And that is the third taunt.
THIRDLY, if you’re counting on God to deliver you I have some bad news. You have offended God and He is on my side.

(7) “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?”

Now Assyria shows his ignorance there,
Not realizing that those high places had been offensive to God.

But, is it true that Hezekiah has recently offended God?
Yes.

And there has to be at least a part of Hezekiah
That has to be wondering if he has angered God
And doesn’t deserve His deliverance.

(10) “Have I now come up without the LORD’S approval against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”

Was that true?
Had God sent Assyria?
• Yes!
• Remember, Assyria was called “the rod of My anger” (10:5)

But it is also true that God had promised to save Jerusalem.

But you can see how effective such a taunt might have been.
• It must have really gotten them thinking about the threat outside the gates.

In one taunt Sennacherib just told Hezekiah that
• You are not as strong as you think you are,
• And that help you are waiting for isn’t coming.

He mocks their strength.

2) HE CONFIRMS THEIR FEARS (11-15)

Here we have A DIPLOMATIC REQUEST
From those whom Hezekiah sent to receive the message.

(11b) “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

You understand why.
• They are concerned that the people on the wall will hear just how bad the odds are and be overcome with fear and turn on Hezekiah.

Do the people on the wall know that Egypt isn’t coming?
Do the people on the wall know that Hezekiah may have offended God?

“You just keep this message between us
And don’t try to intimidate everyone else.”

But Satan isn’t willing to play that game.
Rabshakeh basically answers to say,
• “If I was about to be starved and doomed to eat my own poop I think I’d want to know.”
• “If someone was offering me a way to not have to eat my own poop, I’d want to know that too.”

And then Rabshakeh directly addresses those soldiers.
(13-14) “Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. “Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;”

What a crafty tactic.
And since Hezekiah’s diplomats specifically asked them not to do this, it looks even worse now.

Rabshakeh tells all those soldiers,
• “Hey, Hezekiah is lying to you.
• He knows he can’t deliver you.
• He knows your destined to eat your own poop before you die.
• He knows it, but he’s trying to hide it from you.
• That’s why these guys don’t want us talking to you.”

What a tactic to fracture the entire army.
What a tactic to blow this thing up from the inside.

“If you are afraid then you have every right to be.
Your King is about to get you killed and he won’t even tell you.”

That is a Satanic taunt.
He loves to remind you of your weakness and then he strives to reinforce your fears.
• You have to know that those soldiers were aware of military tactics.
• You have to know that those soldiers knew what could happen in a siege.
• And now the enemy is telling them it will definitely happen.

This is the enemy promising you that the thing you fear the worst
Is an absolute certainty.

He loves to do that.

3) HE APPEALS TO THEIR LUSTS (16-17)

Now you have to understand the soldiers viewpoint here.

If I were to ask:
• Do you want to eat your own poop and then die?

What would your answer be? “No”

And then if I were to ask:
• What do you want to do?

Your answer would be: “I want to go home”

And listen to this crafty liar.
(16-17) “‘Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”

If you’ll just trust me then I’ll let you go home.
• You can sleep in your bed.
• You can eat your snacks.
• You can watch your TV.

Now yes, I will be taking you to a new land,
• But trust me, it’s not that bad.
• In fact, it’s a lot like your land.
• I’ve got grain and wine and bread and vineyards.
• I think you’re going to love it.

Just come on out,
There’s no need for you to deal with discomfort or suffering.

Satan has changed his tactics much.
Genesis 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He offers what your flesh wants.
• That’s why it is so dangerous to walk by the flesh.
• That’s why it is so dangerous to gratify the flesh.

THE FLESH does not set out to honor or seek or trust God.
THE FLESH only cares about itself.

Romans 8:6-8 “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

If you just take the path of least resistance
And follow the impulses of the flesh you will not be trusting God.

And Satan is trying hard to get you to do just that.

One more tactic.
• It’s as though Satan thinks he has them on the ropes.
• He’s got them thinking surely enough.

Now I just need to nudge them over the edge.
4) HE ENCOURAGES THEIR DOUBTS (18-20)

What is the one thing you’re hanging on to in your rebellion?
Hezekiah told you that “The LORD will deliver us.”

DO YOU DOUBT THAT AT ALL?

Well allow Satan to encourage that.
(19) “‘Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand?”

And I hope you caught that third question.
“when have they delivered Samaria from my hand?”

Do you know what “Samaria” was?
• It was the capitol city of the northern kingdom Israel.

Wasn’t God supposed to be their God too?
• But God didn’t deliver them.
• Assyria conquered them.

WHAT IF GOD CAN’T DELIVER?
WHAT IF GOD WON’T DELIVER?

And just like that Satan encourages your doubts.

NOW YOU HAVE SEEN THAT all in your life EVERY TIME you engage in spiritual warfare as well.

His tactics are not new.
• He will mock your strength.
• He will confirm your fear.
• He will appeal to your lust.
• He will encourage your doubt.

He loves to send people across your path that will do all of those things.
It is very dangerous who you listen to.

But his attacks are clearly laid out.
Satan is seeking to sever their faith in God.

That is the first attack.
#2 THE FIRST ANSWER
Isaiah 36:21-37:7

Now first you notice a pretty stoic group of soldiers,
• Who despite the taunt of the enemy manage to keep their wits and obey Hezekiah.
• He told them not to answer and they didn’t.

And might I add at this point that this is A GREAT WAY TO FIGHT SATAN.
Much is made today of rebuking Satan
Or binding Satan or telling Satan to leave.

BUT THAT IS NOT THE COMMAND OF SCRIPTURE.

We see in Jude that even Michael the archangel would not rebuke Satan.
Jude 9 “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

WHAT IS OUR COMMAND REGARDING SATAN?
James 4:7 “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

• Our command is not to rebuke him.
• Our command is to resist him.
• Don’t listen

You don’t want to get into a debate with him.
He is the craftiest of all.
He is shrewd as a serpent.

Resist him.
And to the soldier’s credit, that is what they did.

They took the message of the enemy and relayed it to Hezekiah.

NOW, I WOULD ALSO POINT OUT AT THIS MOMENT
That there was likely much more
Than just a simple relaying of a message here.

You know people and I know people.
• These people were just told that Hezekiah’s plan is not a good one.
• These people were just told that Hezekiah was lying to them.
• These people were just told that Hezekiah had offended God and was in trouble.
• These people were just told that Hezekiah would lead them to eat their own poop but the king of Assyria would give them peace.

Don’t think for one second that they didn’t have some questions for Hezekiah regarding the way he was handling this situation.

So what about it Hezekiah?
What do you plan to do Hezekiah?
Did you know about Egypt not coming Hezekiah?
Is he right what he says about us starving Hezekiah?
Have you offended God Hezekiah?

You can imagine how he was approached.

So how do you answer Hezekiah?

And if you’ll remember back when we studied Isaiah
We noted that Hezekiah at this point returned to his previous faith.

He had made a few recent blunders, but on this day HE GOT IT RIGHT.

(37:1-4) “And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD. Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver. ‘Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

• There is no self-sufficiency there.
• There is no dependance on Egypt there.
• There is no dependance on Babylon there.

This is what you call DENYING SELF.

When Jesus tells us:
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

It’s not just a command to put away sin or self desires, though that is certainly part of it.

Primarily that is a command to forsake yourself as any kind of a savior.
• You’ve got to abandon any of your plans for saving yourself.
• You’ve got to abandon any of your logic for saving yourself.
• You must embrace Christ’s plan for saving you which is the cross.

You see that kind of self-denial here in Hezekiah.

What are you going to do Hezekiah?
“I’m going to pass the burden on to God!”

He petitions for Isaiah to cry out to God on his behalf.

We actually talked about where we think that prayer is recorded in the prophecy of Isaiah.
Isaiah 33:2-4 “O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You. Be their strength every morning, Our salvation also in the time of distress. At the sound of the tumult peoples flee; At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse. Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.”

Isaiah cried out to God to be a savior because
When God enters the battle “peoples flee” and “nations disperse”.

That is the very thing Hezekiah has in mind.
He wants God to come and do what he can’t do on his own.

But THERE IS MORE here to Hezekiah’s faith that is important for us to see.

WE ASKED AT THE BEGINNING:
• What is it about Hezekiah’s faith?
• What is it that caused God to rise up and answer him?
We might say:
• What is it about Hezekiah’s faith that worked?

It is bound up in that request he made to Isaiah.
Look closely again at his request in verses 3 and 4

(3-4) “They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver. ‘Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

FIRST OFF, Hezekiah tells it straight regarding the degree of trouble they are in.
• He says that this day “children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver”
• He calls it a day of “distress, rebuke and rejection”

THE POINT IS THERE IS NO STRENGTH IN US FOR “DELIVERANCE”

So again, don’t miss the humility of his faith.

I hear a lot today that might be almost categorized as prideful faith.

It is people who almost seem proud of their faith.
It is people who almost boast about how well they believe.

That clearly misses the point.
Hezekiah had no such arrogance.

But notice the next part.
(4) “‘Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

• We are not denying that the prayer is for the surviving remnant.
• We are not denying that Hezekiah wants to live and he wants his people to survive.
• We are not denying that Hezekiah does not want to eat his own poop.

“Therefore offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.”

But what is the motive through which Hezekiah appeals to God?
“the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God”

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTANDING HEZEKIAH’S FAITH

Hezekiah does not appeal for God to intervene
To defend the comforts of His people.
Hezekiah appeals for God to intervene for the glory of His name.

• That king has insulted you.
• That king has blasphemed you.
• That king has mocked you.
• That king says you can’t save.
• That king says you won’t save.

And Hezekiah wants God to rise up and defend His own glory.

Psalms 74:22-23 “Arise, O God, and plead Your own cause; Remember how the foolish man reproaches You all day long. Do not forget the voice of Your adversaries, The uproar of those who rise against You which ascends continually.”

That is Hezekiah.

• There is nothing in this prayer about “me” or “how bad I’ve been treated”
• There is nothing in this prayer about deserving a better lot
• There is nothing here about Hezekiah’s comforts and life goals

Hezekiah undoubtedly learned this from that hiccup and rebuke he received when he welcomed the Babylonians.

Hezekiah undoubtedly learned that
When God does deliver He does so for His own glory.

Whether He saves or Judges; He does so for His glory.

This is the secret to Hezekiah’s faith.
This is the important thing we must learn.

Our faith is a tool for the glory of God.
• When we pray, it is for God to be glorified.
• When we trust, it is that God will glorify Himself.

And this changes everything.
What is it that you face in life?
What is your prayer?

Is it that God will jump through a hoop and do what you request?
Is that what you are believing?

Or is it that God will in whatever way He sees fit bring glory to His name through your circumstance?

For I can promise you that this is a prayer He answers every time!

John 12:27-28 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

Hezekiah understands that
• Ultimately the enemy is not mocking him.
• The enemy is mocking God

Hezekiah prays that God will rise up and defend the glory of His name.

SO HOW DOES GOD ANSWER?
(5-7) “So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. “Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

THIS IS QUITE IRONIC.

When Rabshakeh first arrived at Jerusalem with the message of Sennacherib, do you remember his taunt?

Isaiah 36:5 “I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?”

• Sennacherib said that your problem is that you believe “empty words”.
• You listen to reports and counsel that you shouldn’t.
• You’re naïve and stupid to follow bad advice.

Do you think God does not take note of such arrogance?

What is it that God used to put a halt to the Assyrian advance?
“a rumor”

Proverbs 17:4 “An evildoer listens to wicked lips; A liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.”

God simply made him paranoid and afraid
And caused him to withdraw based on a rumor he heard.

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

God rose up to defend the glory of His own name.

Take a peak to the end
Isaiah 37:35 “‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

And thus we learn a little bit about this great faith of Hezekiah.

He was always a man who trusted God.
• But his hiccup in life, where he took credit for what God had done,
• Taught Hezekiah that God operates for the glory of His name.

And when we call upon Him.
And when we trust in Him.
Our faith must be focused on that glory as well.

God saves men by faith apart from works
For the very simple purpose that no man may boast before Him.

What is the aim of your faith?
• Is it comfort?
• Is it your glory?
• Or is it the glory of God?

That is the aim of Hezekiah’s faith
And that is the faith that God responds to.

Now the battle isn’t over.
• There are still more threats on the way, but you see the foundation of it now.

And the encouragement for us is to seek God and trust Him
To glorify Himself in our every circumstance and battle.

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Who is Hezekiah?
Isaiah 36-37 (read Isaiah 37:14-20)
January 7, 2024

I told you a few weeks ago that you can really
Divide the book of Isaiah up into two main parts.

• Chapters 1-35, which deal with the Assyrian Invasion.
• Chapters 40-66, which look to the future and the Babylonian Invasion.

Between those two parts we get two historical narrative stories.
Ch. 36-39 give us two stories about events in the life of King Hezekiah.

• Both stories give a depiction of faith.
• Both stories give a depiction of salvation and deliverance.
• But while one story brings a promise of victory the other brings a promise of exile.

One is positive and one is negative.

The first story revolves around Hezekiah and the Assyrian invasion.
• We see Hezekiah’s faith.
• We see God’s deliverance.
• We see the great victory that God orchestrates for His own glory.

The second story revolves around Hezekiah and his sickness.
• We see Hezekiah’s faith.
• We see God’s deliverance.
• But this time Hezekiah in pride seizes the glory and it brings a punishment from God.

The stories are actually told out of chronological order.
The sickness happened first, and then the invasion.

But Isaiah uses them in the order that works best for his work.
This narrative serves as a bridge.

The first story looks backward to the Assyrian invasion
And reveals the necessity of faith.

The second story looks forward to the Babylonian invasion
And reveals the danger of pride.

But both stories serve to teach us some very important truths.

The necessity of faith
The description of faith
The purpose of faith

What Isaiah has been teaching us through his preaching,
He will NOW ILLUSTRATE in the life of Hezekiah.

In order to begin this 4 chapter study I think it will be helpful to do a little historical and biographical study on the man Hezekiah.

It may help you in this story
• If you know who he is, and what he faced, and how he responded.
• As you seek to identify moments of faith in your life.

So let’s do a biographical and historical walk through the life of Hezekiah.

You may remember when we studied Hezekiah back in 2 Kings
We called him, “The King Who Trusted God”

This is really the only distinction that you can give him for:
2 Kings 18:5 “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.”

It doesn’t mean that he wasn’t without his hiccups,
But this was a great King.

SO LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT HIS LIFE.

• Hezekiah is born in 740BC
• His father is the wicked King Ahaz.

It is important to remind you of his father’s blunders
As you will see how they played an impact in Hezekiah’s life.

• Ahaz was the king when Isaiah’s began his ministry.
(Remember Isaiah received his calling in the year Uzziah died)

The threat in the days of Ahaz
Was the alliance between Israel and Syria
Who wanted to come down into Judah and overthrow Ahaz.

You may remember when Isaiah went out to meet Ahaz
To assure him that this would not happen.

Isaiah 7:3-9 “Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. ‘Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” thus says the Lord GOD: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. “For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.”’”

• I hope you remember that God then told Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz refused.

But take note that Isaiah met him “at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field”

That is significant because we read here in Isaiah 36
(2) “And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field.”

You’re going to see Hezekiah get a chance to succeed
In the exact location where his father failed.

Ahaz wouldn’t trust God,
Instead Ahaz reached out to the King of Assyria and asked him for help.

2 Kings 16:5-9 “Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, and cleared the Judeans out of Elath entirely; and the Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it, and carried the people of it away into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death.”

So take special note again there.
When the threat became really big,
The plan of Ahaz was to pay the King of Assyria.

Now for Ahaz the plan initially worked
Tiglath-pileser did go up and overthrow Syria.

• Ahaz then went to meet Tiglath-pileser.
• He saw his altar and his gods.
• Ahaz gave orders to replace God’s altar with an altar to Assyria’s gods.
• Ahaz led the people away from the Lord.

Ahaz was a wicked King.
He was an apostate King.
And Hezekiah is watching all of that.

Hezekiah would follow
One of the most wicked Kings to ever reign.

Now, if you read about Hezekiah in the Kings
It can be a little confusing regarding THE TIMING OF HIS REIGN.

2 Kings 18:1-2 “Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.”

That of course makes it sound like that at the age of 25 he became king
And then reigned 29 years. And that is not wrong.

The confusing part comes a little later in 2 Kings when we read:
2 Kings 18:9-10 “Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. At the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.”

• That says it was Hezekiah’s 4th year that Assyria invaded Israel
• And Hezekiah’s 6th year that Assyria deported Israel.

And so our normal thought process is that Hezekiah must have been 29 when the invasion occurred and 31 when it was over.

But that is NOT what happened.

When scripture says he became King at the age of 25
• It means at age 25 he became the sole monarch in Judah.
• And from that point he reigned 29 more years
• Even though the last 11 was as a co-regent with his son Manassah.

Hezekiah actually started to reign as a coregent with Ahaz
At the age of 10 and he reigned with Ahaz for 14 years.

• Hezekiah was 13 years old when he saw Israel come under attack.
• Hezekiah was 16 years old when he saw them deported by Assyria.

And during that time he saw his father abandon the Lord
And place all his hope in Assyria as well.

It would leave a mark on Hezekiah.
• He would rightly attribute the fall of Israel to their abandonment of the Lord
• And he would rightly see Assyria as an enemy not to be trusted.

In short, he was in stark disagreement with the policies of his father.

And when Hezekiah is 25 years old, his dad Ahaz dies
And he becomes the sole reigning king in Judah.

• And his heart for the Lord becomes immediately apparent.
• It will be 14 years before Assyria invades Judah.
• And for Hezekiah that is 14 years of genuine reform for the nation.

Hezekiah had the heart of a reformer
Before we ever even conceived of the reformation.

TURN TO: 2 CHRONICLES 29

You get 3 chapters here just chalked full of the reform which Hezekiah brought to the Judah his father had nearly turned fully pagan.

Let me just give you the highlights of his reign here.
It is impressive.

I want to show you 7 realities about Hezekiah.
• It’s really just biographical about him, but I think it will help us as we get into the narrative that Isaiah has preserved for us.

#1 HE IS A REFORMING KING
1 Chronicles 29:1-36

We’re going to kind of skip through some of this because it is quite lengthy,
But start just with the overall commendation of his life.

Just as we read a moment ago in 2 Kings,
Hezekiah is regarded in Scripture as a good King.

(29:2-4) “He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.”

Ahaz had done everything he could to close down the temple,
Hezekiah’s first act in the first month of his sole reign
Was to open the temple back up.

He is going to turn this nation
Back to the worship of Yahweh.

He is determined to clean out all of the pagan filth that his father brought into the temple area.

(29:5) “Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place.”

So all of that pagan paraphernalia that Ahaz introduced,
Hezekiah has it all cleaned out.

Hezekiah saw that as a direct reason for God’s wrath
Upon the nation of Israel and Judah and he set out to correct it.

(29:10) “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us.”

That tells you a great deal about the driving passion of this king.
HE SET OUT TO APPEASE GOD.

By the end of chapter 29 you see that
• Hezekiah has reinstated the sin offering (24)
• And the burnt offering (27)
• And he has reinstituted the order of worship according to the Psalms.

(29:30) “Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with joy, and bowed down and worshiped.”

So Hezekiah has been reading Leviticus and the Psalms
And he is doing everything he can
To reform the nation back to its biblical roots.

That’s reformation stuff if you’ve ever heard it.

God is using Hezekiah to bring about a reformation in Judah.
(29:36) “Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.”

No one can criticize him for jumping in and moving quickly to reform the nation.

BUT HEZEKIAH IS NOT CONTENT with only the nation of Judah worshiping God.
• When he was 16 (9 years ago) he watched as the northern kingdom was totally deported for failing to worship God.

He also believed that despite the Assyrian rule,
• That northern kingdom was still part of God’s promised land
• And the refugees who had managed to escape exile and remain there were still God’s chosen people.

Hezekiah believed that those northern refugees also needed to return to the Lord so he reaches out to them.

And we learn A SECOND THING about him.

A Reforming King
#2 HE IS A GOSPEL EVANGELIST
1 Chronicles 30:1-12

(30:1) “Now Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the LORD God of Israel.”

That’s devotion.
• It’s not just about getting his own house in order,
• Hezekiah demonstrates missionary zeal for all the land of Israel.

He knows that the Passover is for all of God’s people
And it is in his heart to see it reinstated
Even with his brothers from the northern kingdom.

And just look at THE LETTER he wrote, it’s great!
(30:6-9) “The couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the hand of the king and his princes, even according to the command of the king, saying, “O sons of Israel, return to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hand of the kings of Assyria. “Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were unfaithful to the LORD God of their fathers, so that He made them a horror, as you see. “Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the LORD and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you. “For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

That isn’t just political, that’s prophetic.
He has all but filled the pulpit here
• Calling the survivors to learn from the judgment of God
• To repent of their sin
• To seek the mercy and favor of God
• Which Hezekiah says God will surely give you.

He’s not just a steady king, he’s a full-blown gospel preacher.
Hezekiah is leading his own reformation right there in Jerusalem.

A Reforming King, A Gospel Evangelist
#3 HE IS A FAITHFUL INTERCESSOR
2 Chronicles 30:13-20

When you read the chapter you find that
They weren’t able to pull off the Passover by the first month
As it was prescribed in Exodus to do.

They also weren’t able
To purify themselves according to the customs of Moses.

And the chronicler reveals in verse 15 that the “the priests and the Levits were ashamed.”

It was clear that they felt that Hezekiah
Had issued a hasty Passover which was being celebrated at the wrong time and by people who were not fit to partake.

IN FACT, the Scripture indicates (just as we read in 1 Corinthians) that because they had done it wrong God had inflicted the people will illness.

But notice what Hezekiah does:
(30:18-20) “For a multitude of the people, even many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than prescribed. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.” So the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.”

Hezekiah goes before God on behalf of the people.
• He sees their illness,
• He understands the guilt,
• And he goes to God on their behalf.

He is interceding for them in their guilt
And God answers his prayer and heals the people.

Hezekiah emphasized the heart over the ritual
• And prayed that God would heal everyone who prepared their heart,
• Even if their body wasn’t ceremonial clean and God honored that.

This is the kind of King you want on the throne.

A Reforming King, A Gospel Evangelist, A Faithful Intercessor
#4 HE IS AN ENCOURAGING SHEPHERD
2 Chronicles 30:21-22

Hezekiah then addressed those priests and Levites
Who were ashamed of the Passover they were conducting.

They were disillusioned and probably a little upset
That it was being done the way it was.

But look at what Hezekiah does.
(30:22) “Then Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good insight in the things of the LORD. So they ate for the appointed seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the LORD God of their fathers.”

Hezekiah goes to those priests
Who had been asked to operate outside of their comfort zone

He is able to encourage them in regard to their conviction,
But also in regard to their willingness to serve.

Now he’s not operating as a king or an evangelist or a priest,
There is operating in A PASTORAL ROLE.

He’s encouraging, he’s building up, he’s promoting the unity of the body.

A Reforming King, A Gospel Evangelist, A Faithful Intercessor, An Encouraging Shepherd
#5 HE IS A DEVOTED WORSHIPER
2 Chronicles 30:23-27

Once Hezekiah has everyone gratefully participating in the Passover with humble hearts, Hezekiah joins the worship.

(30:24) “For Hezekiah king of Judah had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep, and the princes had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep; and a large number of priests consecrated themselves.”

Now we add “Devoted Worshiper” to his resume.
• He’s not exploiting the people…
• He’s not just sitting back and giving orders…
• Hezekiah is right in the middle of the worship of Yahweh
• And he is giving of himself and inspiring others to do the same.

HEZEKIAH IS LEADING A TRUE REFORMATION.

And look at the effect it has on the nation.
(30:26) “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because there was nothing like this in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.”

They hadn’t had a time of Passover and worship like this
Since Solomon was on the throne. (215 years if you’re curious)

Could you imagine if we got a president in office here who turned back the spiritual dial and convictions of our nation back 215 years?

• If all of a sudden we returned to the spiritual convictions of our forefathers from
1819.
• James Monroe was president in 1819, the last of the founding fathers.
• This is a remarkable reformation that is occurring.

The Reformation is Evident
(31:1) “Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession.”

They didn’t just pull down the idols in Judah,
They went up into the northern kingdom and destroyed those idols too.

This is reformation!
This is revival!

When you get further into chapter 31
• You find that Hezekiah starts allocating provisions for the ongoing of the burnt offering from his own private means
• And he reinstitutes the tithe among all of Judah for the compensation of the priests in their duties.

The people bring so much in that it has to be pilled up in heaps outside
Until Hezekiah commands them to build store rooms to hold it all.

(31:11-12) “Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare rooms in the house of the LORD, and they prepared them. They faithfully brought in the contributions and the tithes and the consecrated things; and Conaniah the Levite was the officer in charge of them and his brother Shimei was second.”

(Now just put an asterisk by this act, it’s going to be of importance later)

But the point here is that Hezekiah is working to turn Judah into a functioning state of worship towards God.

(31:20-21) “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, right and true before the LORD his God. Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.”

You just can’t say enough about all the reforms he has brought about
In a nation that his father nearly turned completely pagan.

• It was 14 years of great reform.
• It was 14 years of revival.
• It was 14 years of turning Judah and Israel back to its spiritual roots.

You just can’t question his heart or his devotion to God.
He is out to satisfy God
And to turn His wrath away from the people of Judah.

And then the biggest year of his life occurs.
701 BC

#6 HE IS A SINFUL HUMAN
Isaiah 38-39

Hezekiah is 39 years old and he faces the crisis of his life.

(I told you the narrative is not in chronological order)

FIRST, he gets a sickness and God tells him to put his house in order because he is going to die.
• It may even be that God is going to spare him from witnessing the Assyrian invasion.
• But he prays and God heals him.

GOD THEN TESTS HIM
• By sending Merodach-baladan from Babylon to him
• And Hezekiah commits a great blunder (as you will see),
• He boasts of all his great treasures and storehouses.

2 Chronicles 32:31
“Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”

That’s why I told you to put an asterisk by that event where he built storehouses.

It is apparent that Hezekiah was proud of himself
And all that he accomplished in Jerusalem
And he determined to show out a little.

His act of pride displeased God
• It brought about a promise from God that his reforms would not last,
• But that his own sons would rebel against his work
• And lead Judah into exile in Babylon…which they did.

But as you’ll see Hezekiah isn’t too bothered.
Isaiah 39:8 “Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”

That didn’t turn out to as Hezekiah had envisioned at all.
He’s about to face the Assyrian invasion.

So we have a blunder from Hezekiah.
• He started out well in tremendous faith and devotion but he has allowed pride
to slip into his heart.

• He has become a man who has started to take credit for what was clearly a
work of God in the nation of Judah.

FOLLOWING THAT EVENT (I’m telling you it’s a big year)
Sennacherib invades Judah and starts sacking villages.

But as we saw as we studied Isaiah,
It was not Hezekiah’s immediate response to seek God.
He has fallen into pride and he’s pretty confident
That he can handle this on his own.

So Hezekiah begins MAKING PLANS for handling the Assyrian invasion.

(READ 32:1-8)
You see all the tactical plans Hezekiah makes.
• He deals with the water supply,
• He rebuilds the wall,
• He stockpiles weapons.
• He is ready for a fight.

And he encourages the people not to worry because God is with us!

It is really a great statement (7-8) “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him. “With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”

From the chronicler it really sounds like all is really good in Judah,
BUT THAT IS NOT EXACTLY THE CASE.

What becomes clear is that
God is bent on testing those words of Hezekiah
To find out if he really believes them or not.

Hezekiah has grown accustomed to relying on God to honor his plans,
But God is about to find out
If Hezekiah is viewing God as an end or as a means.

That is to say, Is Hezekiah only out to defend the glory of God or is he out to use God as a means to secure his own glory?

We were once convinced it was only God’s glory,
But that little visit from Babylon has caused some doubt.

NOT ONLY THAT,
• But even though the chronicler says the people listened to Hezekiah,
• Isaiah revealed that they weren’t all that devoted to what he said.

We actually read about this in Isaiah.
Isaiah 22:7-14 “Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots, And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate. And He removed the defense of Judah. In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest, And you saw that the breaches In the wall of the city of David were many; And you collected the waters of the lower pool. Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem And tore down houses to fortify the wall. And you made a reservoir between the two walls For the waters of the old pool. But you did not depend on Him who made it, Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago. Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.” But the LORD of hosts revealed Himself to me, “Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you Until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.”

Isaiah says that while they did what Hezekiah told them to do
In regard to all the fortifications they never trusted God.
God called them to repentance, and the people refused.

So you can see that the reform of Hezekiah,
Even the faith of Hezekiah is being put to the test.

He started well, but we’re about to find out if he’ll finish well.

And with that we come to ISAIAH’S FIRST NARRATIVE
Where we’ll learn one more thing about him.

#7 HE IS A GENUINE MAN OF FAITH
Isaiah 36-37

It is Isaiah 36-37
We’re going to see Hezekiah respond in great faith and we’ll learn:
• The necessity
• And the power
• And the purpose of faith.
• We’ll also see the kind of faith that God responds to.

Now we don’t have the time to get into that narrative this morning,
WE’LL START IT TONIGHT.

BUT THIS MORNING let’s draw a little encouragement from the life of Hezekiah.

We see Hezekiah clearly as a man who overcome a terrible fatherly influence.
• Maybe you had bad parents, but that is no excuse for you not trusting God.

We see Hezekiah clearly as a man who was devoted to the full ministry of God in his life.
• He was a King
• But he served as a reformer, and evangelist, an intercessor, a pastor, and a worshiper.

What is your title or occupation in life?
How can you fulfill those other roles in your life?

We see Hezekiah clearly as a man who fell to temptation and made some mistakes which brought consequences into his life.

Perhaps you can identify and have been reminded that
Even though we trust God, it is not our faith,
But rather it is His grace that has secured our victory.

Maybe you need to be reminded that
While salvation is through faith alone, it has always been by grace alone
And there is no room for boasting in any Christian life.

We also see (or will see) Hezekiah as a man who even though he had stumbled rose up and started trusting God again and it paid off.

So may you also be encouraged to know that
Even if you’ve had hiccups in your life, faith is still the answer.

You know how this story is going to end.
• You know how Hezekiah will once again turn to God
• How God will intervene and send Assyria away and ultimately annihilate their army and even kill Sennacherib himself.
• We’ve talked a lot about 185,000 dead Assyrians.
• You know how this story is going to end.

And so we are encouraged that
Even if our faith is lest than perfect, God still honors it.

How many times did our Lord reprimand the disciples as “ye of little faith”?

Certainly He longed to see their faith increase.
But did that mean that God refused to honor a little faith?

No, not at all.
Matthew 17:19-20 “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

• That was after the disciples couldn’t cast out a demon.
• Jesus said it was because their faith was too small.
• All they needed was faith the size of a mustard seed.

In other words, it’s not so much the size of your faith
As it is the genuineness of it. They didn’t really believe.

God is looking for people who trust Him fully
• Even when they don’t feel like they have much to give
• And even if they may have failed Him in the past.

Maybe you had times where you did really well and trusted God greatly, but then you had a hiccup in your life.

Maybe pride toppled you like it toppled Hezekiah

And you wonder if you’ve blown it beyond repair.
• Well clearly that answer is “No”.
• Just start today and trust God again.
• Trust Him fully even if all you have is little faith.

Was that not true for Peter?
• Peter did well for a while and then he would have a hiccup.
• Ultimately he denied the Lord 3 times and yet Christ still reinstated him.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT IS CLEAR.
• Even if you’ve had a bad season of failing to trust God.
• Even if pride has caused you some miserable mistakes.
• Even if you have brought discipline into your life.

Start trusting God today for God responds to the faith of His people.
It is certainly true for Hezekiah.

So let me just encourage you this morning
TO DETERMINE TO TRUST GOD WHEREVER YOU ARE.

That starts with your soul.
• Will you hand it to Him?
• Will you entrust your eternity to Christ?
• Will you place it all on His work and ability?

If you are a believer then faith is the currency of your life.
• Trust Him with your finances.
• Trust Him with your health.
• Trust Him with your safety.
• Trust Him with your marriage.
• Trust Him with your kids.

His objective is to glorify Himself in your life
And this occurs as you obey Him through faith.

So this morning just take the simple encouragement to trust God
Tonight we’ll start looking at how that paid off for Hezekiah.