Isaiah

[0:00] I'm speaking to the Lord's help. I'd like to take your attention this evening to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 38, reading verse 16.

[0:12] Prophecy of Isaiah chapter 38, reading verse 16. O Lord, by these things men live, and all these things is the life of my spirit, so they recover me and make me to live.

[0:27] O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit, so they recover me and make me to live.

[0:43] The things that the prophet, the king Hezekiah speaks of here are very solemn things.

[0:56] They regarded his life and eternity, and he was brought to feel the solemnity of it all.

[1:07] The Lord moved in his life, and I believe that the experience that the Lord brought him into was for his profit and for his good.

[1:23] We see that it was a path which resulted in fervent prayer. The Lord, the hand of God touched him in his life.

[1:39] What we have here is the result of sanctification, the sanctifying of the work of God in his soul.

[1:53] This is the prophet that came out of it. In this respect, he manifests understanding, spiritual understanding.

[2:05] He could see that however dark, solemn and awful deep this pathway he had had to walk in had been, which had brought him down to cry to his God out of the depths of his soul, and solemn oppression and weight of his sins, which we see here in the appealing to God for help.

[2:32] There was a prophet in it. It had brought him close to his God. It had brought him into communion with his God.

[2:44] Oh, how we see in these paths, it's not the only place in Scripture we read such things. The end of the 107th Psalm says this, Who saw his wife?

[2:59] I will observe these things, even they. To understand the loving kindness of the Lord. I do say to you tonight, Do you understand it? So as wise, we'll observe these things.

[3:14] What do you understand here in our text? By this word live, by these things men live. Do you understand? Do you understand?

[3:26] By this word in all these things is the life of my spirit. Or what is it? To live before God.

[3:38] What do you think the king meant when he said, The living, the living, he shall praise thee.

[3:48] And also, I would notice this in this pathway that Hezekiah walked in. And that's that whilst there was profit in it for his own soul, there was also in it blessed answers to prayer.

[4:12] Blessed answers to prayer. Not one. Not one. Several. He knew in it a broken and a contrite heart.

[4:25] He wept sore. And the prayer that flowed from that broken and contrite heart, we read of here.

[4:40] It's interesting that what we have in our text is what he wrote down after it. Look back on it.

[4:52] And he wrote his own experience. Blessed confession of what he passed through. He didn't hide the fear that was in his heart.

[5:05] He didn't hide his own felt weakness. He didn't hide his own feeling of guilt and unworthiness and unfitness before his God. He confesses it. He poured it out before his God.

[5:17] That he knew what it was for his prayers to be answered. And what prayers they were.

[5:29] They were divinely indicted by his God. In the midst of the furnace of affliction the Lord brought him into. And they brought him nearer to his God.

[5:42] He could see the prophet of them. I thought with this text upon my mind of the Lord's servant, Apostle Paul, when he was given his thorn in the flesh. Or how he kicked against it.

[6:00] He didn't want it. Cross. It's all in the flesh and affliction. He had tried to escape it. But the Lord didn't respond in answer to his prayers as he wanted.

[6:11] And he brought him down under the weight of the thorn in the flesh that the Lord had given him.

[6:22] And he brought him to this. He might be brought to bow before him. Bow under him. The Lord said to him, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfectly weakly.

[6:35] She said, Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmity. By the power of Christ may rest upon me. And I believe this is what happened here to the Lord's servant, Hezekiah.

[6:50] He came to realize the spiritual benefit and profit and blessing that lay in this pathway that the Lord had brought him into.

[7:02] And as he had passed through it and he could look back over it, that he could see that the Lord's hand had been in it for his good.

[7:15] O Lord, by these things men live. It is, I believe, only as the Lord moves in our lives and brings us to feel a real need of him and brings us down to be honest before our God, to bring us down with a broken and a contrite heart that we live.

[7:46] We know the Lord drawing near to us. When the king spoke of the living, he goes on to speak of it.

[8:00] And after my soul has delivered it from the pit of corruption. Oh, he had to go this way to learn this blessed lesson and to profit in this spiritual manner that cast all my sins behind thy back.

[8:17] Here was the hour in which they were confessed. Here was the weight of them that was laid upon his soul. Here was the way the Lord used to do it. He brought him face to face with eternity.

[8:29] And in that moment, brought him to his knees to wrestle with his God in prayer and to plead with his God.

[8:45] And oh, what a prayer it was. It was supplication. It was a cry. Came out of the depths of his soul. He faced eternity and was unready.

[8:57] He was brought to realize it. And in that solemn knowledge of his unreadiness, he pleaded with the Lord for mercy.

[9:09] And the Lord heard. And to his year, his life, 15 years. And the Lord, when he did this, had a blessed purpose in view in his dear soul.

[9:25] He said, as he wrote this, the writing of Hezekiah, when he had been sick and was recovered, he said, what he found, that he would go to the gates of death.

[9:39] That he would be a lost character. That he would never reach glory. He was brought down to a solemn realization of where he was and what he was.

[9:50] I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age has departed. He shall move from me as a shepherd's tent.

[10:02] I've cut off like a weaver my life. He will cut me off with pining sickness. Even from day to night will they make an end of me. I reckon till morning as a lion, so will he break more my bones.

[10:16] From day even to night will they make an end of me. And then we come to this verse, like a crane or a swallow. So did I chatter. Oh, the way the Lord worked to bring him to that.

[10:32] That prayer. Him writing that lovely little hymn speaks of prayer. The upward glancing of an eye when none but God is near.

[10:46] Oh, what a description of his prayer. He couldn't pray. What he could do was mourn. As the psalmist says, like a dove. And he speaks in this way, I did mourn as a dove.

[11:01] Mine eyes fell with looking upward. Oh Lord, I'm oppressed. Undertake for me. What a verse it is. By these things men live. Oh, there is a taking away, as it were, of the outward profession.

[11:19] The name to live and be dead. And there is a drawing near to a holy God in reality. And blessed reality it is.

[11:30] It is a realization that Hezekiah had here, that he was a mortal man, eternity was fast hastening on, he had to meet the eternal God, then his corruptions and his sins, his heart desperately wicked.

[11:48] And he came to weep and mourn over it. What a work of God it is to live. Why, life of God in the soul is manifested in a broken and contrite heart.

[12:01] It was in the case of the Lord's son David. And the Lord dealt with him. Solemnly dealt with him. He brought him to that.

[12:14] Blessed realization, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, they would not despise. And here he brought Hezekiah to it. What a profitable place it is at the mercy seat when we are brought to seek the holy God and to wrestle with him in prayer and to plead for his great name's sake.

[12:39] That he would have mercy upon us. That he would spare us. Oh how, when we look back on profession, an empty profession of his name, there's no pleading, no wrestling, no nearness, no access, no brokenness, no contrition of heart, no mourning, nothing.

[12:56] But when the sinner is brought down, taught by the Spirit, brought to realize where he is and what he is, brought to feel his fallen condition, brought to his knees before his guard, why have you ever come there?

[13:09] to do business with the Lord in deep waters is a solemn matter, but it is a sacred matter, blessed matter. And you know, out of this affliction, the Lord raised in the heart of his dear servant matter that would bring him to this place, the living, the living he shall praise.

[13:39] In the previous verse to our text, he speaks of the effect upon him, of the work of his God. What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me and he himself hath done it.

[13:57] He was clay in the hands of the heavenly potter. What shall I say? Well, too wise to err, too good to be unkind.

[14:16] Oh, what shall I say? Says Hezekiah. Nothing before a holy God who doeth as he will with his own.

[14:28] Have we ever known ourselves in this place? Have we brought down under his hand and filled in his hands as Hezekiah did and that he's dealing with us and he's bringing us down and he's humbling us in the way?

[14:48] Realization the hand of God hath touched me. Solemn, but oh blessed it is indeed this was sanctified affliction.

[15:09] There's nothing of it. It's profitable. Sanctified affliction speaks like Hezekiah did by these things men live. It gives new life to prayer.

[15:22] it leads His dear people to the mercy sea. It leads into deep waters but in them there is a broken and a contrite heart, there is mourning, there is confession.

[15:40] Oh, it leads to pardon and peace. Why Hezekiah said here I go softly for the days of my life and the bitterness of my soul.

[15:57] What teaching there was in it for him. Go softly all the days of his life. Yes. Oh, how careful it made him.

[16:11] What a solemn realization he had. the Lord has done it. The Lord had put his hand into his life. The Lord had touched him. You see, it had exactly the same effect on the Lord's servant Job when the hand of God touched him.

[16:29] Well, could Job say, the Lord has done it. He had. But all the effect on him, all that I knew he said where I might find him.

[16:42] There was a solemn blessed reality. In that sweet fellowship with his God. So on the Divine says, truly our fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

[16:59] But that fellowship is in paths like this. It is in deep waters, as Rathbath said, which crossed life's pathway. It is there that his dear people are brought into fellowship with the man of sorrow.

[17:16] They're brought down into communion with him. Oh, there is nothing closer than the good physician coming to the dying sinner to raise him up out of his corruption.

[17:32] For he is dead in trespasses and sins when the Lord brings him out of it. What a sight he has of himself and where he is. But the Lord has done that in mercy.

[17:46] And when we come to look at this word, live, what a blessed word it is. It is all that is right before a holy God. It is nearness and access to him.

[17:58] It is to hear his voice. It is to commune with him. Oh, how constantly we walk at a distance from our God. And answer before him tonight, when did you last feel a little sweet communion?

[18:14] When did you last have a little touch when reading his holy word? When did you last have a little access in prayer? When did he last bless you deeply in your soul?

[18:28] Ah, perhaps you say tonight, yes, in such and such an affliction, in such and such a temptation, in such and such a trial, in such deep water, I cried to him and he heard my cry.

[18:46] By these things men live. That is God's dear children. The life of God is kept alive in their souls.

[18:58] There is an urgency, a pressing case. they bring it to the Lord. Otherwise, or how formal are their prayers?

[19:16] How formal their devotions? How formal their attendance at the house of God? How formal their reading of his holy word?

[19:27] What a ritual there can be. when the Lord draws near, when he comes by his spirit, when he takes his holy word, when he speaks and applies it in our hearts, when he touches our souls under the ministry.

[19:48] Have you ever known anything of it? where these things men live? The life of God is love known and felt, his mercy known and felt, the exceeding great and precious promise is given in our souls.

[20:09] Neenest known to him, sweet access at the mercy seat in prayer, liberty, blessed to liberty, deliverance from bondage and what the sweetness there is in what we see in Hezekiah wept sore.

[20:31] He wept sore. Oh, it was a cry of one in deep trouble, wrought upon him by his God with a purpose that he should wept sore.

[20:43] And he prayed. Oh, the power of that prayer. We see it in so many of God's dear children but my mind goes to Jacob that he wrestled with his God in dire need for eternity before him, his brother coming to kill him with armed men.

[21:00] The effect. And remember that the Lord had sent him back, told him to go back and then faced him with the trouble, faced him with it. Oh, the effect on his soul brought him alone, to his knees, commune with his God, and to come to that place that Hezekiah came to.

[21:26] I not let thee go, except they bless me. There are a few prayers more sweet and blessed than this prayer of Hezekiah, Lord, I'm a prayer.

[21:41] Undertake for me. me. Brief prayers sink deep. They do. The brevity of the prayers spoken of here, are their strength.

[21:57] Oh, what a power there was in this prayer. Oh, Lord, I'm a prayer that's done to take for me. And the Lord came in peace, pardoning love and mercy touched his dear soul, answered his prayer, spared his life.

[22:14] But the greatest factor in all this was love to my soul. I was delivered it from the pit of corruption. There was good in it, all the life of God, in the souls of those, the sweet life of God, that is to be known in pardon and peace.

[22:36] in his atoning love and blood, known in the heart, in forgiveness. Ever known it? For these things men live.

[22:49] The soul is brought to dire need to cry to God in the realisation of burden of sin and guilt and filth and corruption. All is in their heart.

[23:01] Why, the Lord can in a moment bring before our eyes a catalogue of sins that are past. He can bring them before us in a moment and convict and convince us of them and bring us down to his mercy seat to plead for pardon.

[23:21] It is not an outward form of words. It is something vastly different. It is a wrestling with our God.

[23:32] Lord said, I believe Peter on the, see if we only save we perish. Or do we know anything of it?

[23:46] Have you ever done business with your God in deep water? Sacred business. Ever in such circumstances received a blessing?

[24:01] Known the pardoning love of God in your heart and his peace? Known something of what Hezekiah knew in love to my soul?

[24:15] Oh, blessed love that the dear man knew. well could he say, by these things man lived. The love of God flowed freely in his heart when his tears flowed freely when pardoning love and blood entered his soul and he knew peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[24:38] When he knew good hope through grace in the midst of all this. Oh, how he could look back over his past life and all its sorrows and sins.

[24:49] have a sweet hope that they were forgiven. That is what he meant by live. It's the life of God in the souls of his dear people when he draws near and reveals himself to them as their God, their Redeemer and grants to them a sweet hope that one day they'll be with him.

[25:16] Read of Jacob, his wrestling prayer and he blessed him there. What the Lord does blesses dear people.

[25:27] You read of Abraham when he was on Mount Moriah and the knife was raised over Isaac and he found the ram caught in the thicket when the Lord stopped him in blessing.

[25:39] Remarkable word. it related to the great trial of his faith in the knife raised over Isaac in blessing.

[25:54] And here it is with Hesikah. In blessing, I'll bless thee. In blessing, I'll bless thee. There was prophet in it.

[26:05] This, as with Abraham, the raising of the knife over Isaac and all the promises that God had given him regarding Isaac, all had to be laid under the knife.

[26:17] That great hour of tribulation for him, the Lord spoke of it as a blessing. To him it was a great furnace. It was indeed a blessing. We read of him that on Mount Moriah he saw Christ.

[26:32] Abraham saw my day and was glad. The Lord does intend that we shall be brought to know him, to commune with him, to know something of his love and mercy, something of our own ruined condition, and to come to do business with our God, and to live spiritually.

[27:00] By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. Oh, what wisdom! All these things.

[27:14] Jacob said on one occasion, all these things are against me. He didn't understand, did he? All these things.

[27:26] Why? When he came to the end of his life, there was Joseph, there was Ephraim and Manasseh. He was to bless the boys he thought he'd never see.

[27:42] It wasn't against him. And when the wagons came from Egypt, and he knew Joseph was alive, all he could say was, it's enough. It's enough. The Lord's hand was in it for its good and its profit.

[27:57] By these things men live. They gain the knowledge of Christ. They know something of him in the solemn paths of experience, sanctified experience.

[28:11] And another factor, facet that lies here is this. They have communion with him in his sufferings, his sorrow.

[28:24] They do indeed. The Lord will bring his dear people to his feet to teach them and reveal himself to them.

[28:37] All these things. He could see that these sanctified afflictions and this sanctified affliction he passed through, there was the life of God in his soul.

[28:48] It was as though the storms had fanned that flame, the work of grace in his heart, into a great fire. And he had proved what it was the Lord to pluck him out of his troubles, to be better to him than all his doubts and fears, to remember him in his affliction.

[29:18] The Lord remembered him. Blessed were us. Here then Hezekiah communed with his God.

[29:30] And yet you see, as we read in the passage in Kings, soon after that, what a solemn path he was walking in.

[29:41] Pride came in, he was showing all these treasures of his house, all the Lord's anger against him. God's dear people have a fallen nature.

[30:01] And when we look at these two paths in Hezekiah's life, one deep water, blessed, profitable, but oh, carnal nature appears again, it does, raises its ugly hair, it was ever there in him.

[30:23] And he needed deep waters to profit and draw near to his God. Left himself and at ease, proud nature appeared again. and so it was with the Lord's dear servant, the Apostle Paul, why, he was given a great blessing, a revelation of Christ to his soul, sacred, view of Christ, lest I should be exhorted above measure, pride, through the abundance of the revelation, that was given me a thorn, how he understood it, he could see the truth of this, by these things men live, the thorn in the flesh was given to him, to keep him from that deadly pride and his fallen nature that would come in and make him grace a snare.

[31:16] Oh, do we see in the Lord's dealings in our own lives, the pathway that is behind us, do we see his mercy, him writer says afflictions make us see what else would escape our sight, how very violent, face that we in God, how pure and bright, as the Lord dealt with you like that.

[31:43] Oh, what a mercy it is, if deep waters have crossed life's pathway, and they've been profitable, and in them you have communed with him, you have walked with him, crosses have been sanctified, taken them up, you've been made as plain in the hands of the heavenly potter, oh look back over the pathway, where has the Lord dealt with you, where have you walked in closest communion with him, surely it has been in deep waters, in the valleys, in the sorrows, in the temptations, blessed mercy, if the Lord has blessed you there, there, we read that in scripture, regarding Jacob, and he blessed him there, and he did Hezekiah, blessed him there, in the midst of the affliction, was a divine blessing, oh how beautifully it illuminates the word live, live eternally, in love to my soul, thou hast delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back, oh that is what it was to live, what profit there was in the

[33:04] Lord's dear servant, brought down to the gates of death, brought to wrestle and cry with his God, and brought to have the pardon of all his sins, indeed such was the sacred nature of it, that he could truly say, I'll go softly all my days, in the bitterness of my spirit, the Lord had brought him down, bitter things he had caused him to walk through, but the effect on him was to go carefully, and yet you see, how solemn, shortly afterwards, after all he said, then he was brought to that blessed place, where he could see that the Lord was his God, he would never leave him nor forsake him, even though he was led, left to fall again, yet the work begun would be carried on to the end, solemn things will be in every one of our lives, they will indeed, but oh the mercy, if there has been begun in our hearts the work of grace, the Lord has dealt with us, as he did with Hezekiah, he's come to him and dealt with him, and out of it, there has been spiritual profit, and he goes on to say for peace,

[34:32] I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back, the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee, they that go down into the pit cannot hope, for thy truth, the living, the living, he shall praise as I do this day, the father to the children, shall make known thy truth, the Lord was ready to save me, blessed truth, ready to deliver him, ready to implant in his heart that mighty knowledge salvation, to deliver him from the pit of corruption, and to cast all his sins behind his back, the king was brought face to face, the eternal God, brought face to face with Christ, to plead that name which is above every name, and to know the fruits of

[35:40] Christ's finished work, in pardon and peace, and well could he say, regarding a sinner caught by grace, brought out of nature's darkness, brought down the foots soul and mercy, to know pardon and peace, well could he say, the living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day, oh have you ever had reason to praise your God, to bow at his mercy seat under a solemn realization of what you are, and yet the scepter of mercy has been extended to you, and you have felt why me, why was I made to hear his voice, and enter while this room, all blessed mercy that brings a sinner to these spots and places in his heart, to commune with his

[36:49] God, and to know those everlasting arms of love and mercy underneath, Amen.