All right, welcome to Pure Words Baptist Church.
It's good to see everybody this evening.
Go ahead and find your seats and pull out your hymnals.
Turn to our first song for the evening.
Be song number 39.
Song number 39, "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be."
Number 39, find your place.
Go ahead and turn your hymnals to song number 161.
161, "Our Great Savior."
161.
Sing this one acapella and we'll start there on the first.
Jesus, what a friend, Jesus.
Go over the announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin from this morning, go and raise your hand and Brother Brandon
will bring it around to you.
On the top left, we have our service times.
Beneath this, we have our soul winning times with the respected people leading those times
and their phone numbers.
We have our stats underneath that with the totals for salvations, which is 246 up to
date.
What we went out today is kind of a rough neighborhood today, but we did get two salvations,
so amen to that.
It was all worth it.
So we'll add two to that total.
And for our Bible memory passage, we are in Romans chapter number eight, and we're in
verse number eight.
I do one verse per week, so it's a little bit longer of a chapter.
We're still at the beginning, so you can still start if you haven't started yet.
If you could quote the entire chapter word perfect to a non-family member, you will receive
a special prize there at the end.
Here on this next page, we do want to ask that you just be in prayer for all the expecting
ladies.
Be in prayer for all of the ladies and all the babies, that everything goes well with
the deliveries.
And there's some upcoming events here right around the corner at the end of this month,
May 20th through the 22nd.
We do have that men's conference.
It's from a Thursday through a Saturday.
It's at River Bend Retreat Center in Glen Rose, Texas.
And we do have a sign-up sheet on that back counter.
So I'll say again, if you do plan on going, make sure and sign up.
Just note all the days that you're going to be attending and write down your email address.
That way if there's any follow-on information, they could get you that information.
So definitely sign up.
Remind me of the day Pastor Jones is preaching at Steadfast...
May 16th.
Pastor Jones from Shield of Faith Baptist Church from Idaho will be preaching at Steadfast
Baptist Church.
So definitely if you can get up there for that, you know, get up there here and preach,
support him.
So that's coming up here soon.
And then we do have the dates for the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
It's in October, remind me brother, October 16th through the 20th.
October 16th through the 20th.
So definitely got those dates out there to you nice and early.
So write that in your calendar.
Definitely a good time of fellowship and preaching.
Okay, 6th through the 10th, okay, correction, October 6th through the 10th.
So write that on your calendars, definitely a good time of fellowship and preaching.
And lastly, if you do have any prayer requests, email those into the church at purewordsbaptist@gmail.com
and you know we can help each other out with all the prayers that we need.
But that is the announcements for the evening.
Go ahead and pull out your hymnals, we'll have Brother Brandon come with us in our next
song.
Number 56, number 56, when we all get to heaven.
Alright on the first, sing the wondrous love of Jesus, sing his mercy and his grace, in
the mansions bright and blessed, he'll prepare for us a place, when we all go to the streets
of gold.
Go ahead and pull your Bibles and turn your Bible to Isaiah chapter 38, but Jeff's gonna
come read for us.
So in Isaiah 38, verse 1 the Bible reads, "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death,
and Isaiah the prophet of Amos came unto him and said, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine
house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.
And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, and said, Remember
now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, perfect heart, have
done that which is good in thy sight.
And Hezekiah wept sore.
Then came the word of the Lord, Taiziah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith
the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears.
Behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee in this city out of
the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city, and this shall be a sign
unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken.
Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial
of Ahaz, ten degrees backward, so the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it
was gone down, the writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered
of his disease.
I said unto cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave.
I am deprived of the residue of my years, of the living.
I shall behold no more man with the inhabitants of the world.
Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent.
I've cut off like a weaver in my life, he will cut me off with pining sickness.
From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
I reckon to mourning that as a lion, so will he break all my bones.
From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
Like a crane or a swallow's sid-eye I chatter.
I did mourn as a dove, mine eyes fell with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me.
What shall I say?
He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it.
I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit.
So wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
Behold, for peace I have great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee, day that go down to the pit
cannot hope for thy truth.
The living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day.
The father to the children shall make known thy truth.
The Lord was ready to save me, therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments
all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
For Isaiah had said, "Let them take a lump of figs and lay for a plaster upon the boil
and he shall recover."
Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?"
Let's all bow our heads real quick for the prayer.
Amen.
All right.
Well, it's good to be back tonight.
Thank you all for the hospitality.
It's been great spending the day here with you guys.
And thank you always to Pastor Shelley for the opportunity to preach.
And we are here in Isaiah chapter 38.
You know, this morning's sermon, we talked a little bit in Isaiah 36 and 37 about the
story with Sennacherib and Rabbi Sheikhi.
And now we're in the story of Hezekiah, and the title of my sermon is Lessons from the
Healing of Hezekiah.
Lessons from the Healing of Hezekiah.
Just to give you some context of what we're going to be talking about, look at verse number
one of Isaiah 38.
It says, "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death, and Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amos, came unto him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order,
for thou shalt die and not live."
So God sends a warning through Isaiah the prophet to warn Hezekiah of his impending
death.
Now that's pretty intense.
Imagine if a man of God just walked up to you and said, "Set your house in order, you're
about to die."
And that sounds really scary, but honestly this is kind of a blessing.
A lot of people die very suddenly.
A lot of people don't know, no one knows the day of their death, I guess, besides Hezekiah
at this point.
And you never know when it's going to happen, and I'm sure a lot of family members have
regrets when loved ones die.
You know, there was maybe some loose ends that weren't tied up with relationships, and
sometimes you die and, hey, when you die, you have no chance to fix those things.
So even though this could be kind of a scary thing for Hezekiah, it kind of is a blessing
that God tells him, "Hey, set your house in order."
I'm sure everyone would have liked to have had that chance, it's already gone on, you
know, to be able to set their house in order.
And when you think about it spiritually, God has done the same thing for us.
God has warned us of our death as well.
I'll read for you a verse we all know, Romans 3.23, "For all of sin and come sure of the
glory of God," Romans 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death."
So God has given us that same warning, that God has told us, look, you're going to die
as well because of your sin.
We know that our death is impending to us.
Look at verse two of Isaiah 38, "Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed
unto the Lord and said, 'Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before
thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.'
And Hezekiah wept sore.
Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, 'Go and say to Hezekiah, 'Thus said
the Lord, the God of David thy father, 'I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears,
behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.'"
And so the first lesson we can learn from the healing of Hezekiah is that God is able
to deliver you.
God is able to deliver you, and you know what, sometimes it's just such a basic and simple
truth that we don't really think about it, and we think about how a lot of the Pentecostal
religion today have kind of made us not want to think about this, about how God still heals
people today, because what they do is so much of a fraud.
Sometimes we go too far of the extreme in the other direction and think that God can't
heal people today, but God is still able to deliver people physically today.
God is still able to heal people from sickness, to heal people from ailments.
He is able to physically deliver us from whatever type of trial or trouble we're going through.
When you think about it, what are some of the most horrible, just anxiety-causing things
in people's life that people go through?
Sickness, disease, having some sort of physical pain, some sort of physical ailment.
This is something that truly bothers us.
It's something that's stuck with us that we want to be delivered from, and you know,
we always need to remember that God is able to deliver us from that pain.
God is able to deliver us from whatever sickness, whatever disease, hey, Hezekiah was going
to die from this sickness, but God delivered him from it.
I'll read for you, actually let's go together, James chapter number 5, some important verses
in James chapter number 5, look at verse 13, it says, "Is there any among you afflicted?
Let him pray.
Is any married?
Let him sing psalms.
Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him
with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up.
And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
So this is just as much the word of God as any other part of the Bible, where if you're
sick, if you're afflicted, pray to God, ask him to deliver you.
And if it's really bad, you could even get the elders of the church to come pray over
you and anoint you with oil.
And I think Pastor Shelley has done this for people before.
And I know that he will continue to do this if they desire it.
Why?
Miracle.
And because God can heal your physical problems, how is it done though?
Through prayer a lot of times.
God can still perform miracles even to this day, but how is it done?
Through prayer.
Go back to Isaiah 38 and keep your place there throughout the sermon.
I love these beautiful words in verse number 5.
Go say to Hezekiah, "Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard
thy prayer."
Those are some beautiful words right there.
To know that God has heard our prayers.
That's exactly what we want, that's what we need.
And so we better never give up on praying to God for our needs.
We better never give up on going to the Lord for our requests of our physical ailments
and sicknesses that we go through.
Let's look at some miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ that He did on this earth, Luke chapter
number 4, just to remind us about the power of our God, Luke chapter number 4.
And look at verse number 38, "And he arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's
house, and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought him
for her.
And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she arose
and ministered unto him."
A lot of times we just read these stories, or just another Bible story, another Bible
story, but you got to think about how amazing this is, that the Lord Jesus Christ can just
rebuke a fever.
I mean, it's amazing, and God didn't just perform these miracles just so that we can
read about them.
No, God can still do these miracles today.
Now, he's not going to do it by Benny Hinn.
He's not going to do it through a fake Pentecostal preacher that's going to come up here and
hit you with his coat and slap you in the face or do some sort of stupid dance.
No, it's done by prayer because God's the one that performs miracles, not man.
God gave that ability for man to do miracles for a very short amount of time while the
Bible was being written to confirm the words of God, but now that the book is sealed, you
know, man doesn't have that power anymore, and man will not have that power.
Let's go to Luke chapter 5, verse number 12, Luke 5-12, and it says, "And it came to pass
when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who, seeing Jesus, fell
on his face and besought him, saying, 'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.'
And he put forth his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will, be thou clean.'
And immediately the leprosy departed from him."
And notice, just like how Hezekiah called out to the Lord and asked God, this person
also inquired of Jesus Christ.
He besought the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a picture of prayer.
This person besought Jesus Christ, and what did he do?
He healed him physically.
Let's look at another great story of someone he healed in Luke chapter 5, verse number
18.
"And behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means
to bring him in."
They're looking, they're seeking for Jesus and to lay him before him.
"And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
they went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the
midst before Jesus.
And when he saw their faith, he said unto them, 'Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.'"
So again, these people are seeking the Lord, they're going to him just like Hezekiah went
to the Lord in prayer and just like how we need to go to the Lord in prayer for our physical
needs and ask God to perform that miracle and to heal us.
Luke chapter number 8, let's look at a few more.
Luke chapter number 8 and look at verse 49, Luke 8, 49, "While he yet spake, there cometh
one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying unto him, 'Thy daughter is dead, trouble
not the master.'
But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, 'Fear not, believe only and she shall
be made whole.'
And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter and James and
John and the father and the mother of the maiden, and all wept and bewailed her.
But he said, 'Weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth.'
And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
And he put them all out and took her by the hand and called, saying, 'Maid, arise.'
And her spirit came again and she arose straightway, and he commanded to give her meat.
And her parents were astonished, but he charged them that they should tell no man what was
done.
So once in a while we got to not just look at the bad example of people lying about healing
and just remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is the guy who walked on water.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the one that was raising people from the dead.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who was healing the blind, who was healing the people with
leprosy.
He was doing all these amazing miracles and he's the same God today in heaven that listens
to our prayers.
God listens to our prayers and he can perform those same miracles on us today even physically.
Now, some people lie and just say that if you pray that God will heal you physically.
And it's not that he will heal you physically, it's that he can heal you physically.
He may never.
It may be the thorn in the flesh.
You may pray to God and your answer could be like the Apostle Paul's answer, "Hey,
my grace is sufficient for thee."
And maybe that's your answer.
But the point is, until you know that's your answer, you might as well just keep praying
because God can perform that miracle.
God can heal you physically.
Let's go to Isaiah chapter 38.
Look at verse number nine.
In verse number nine, we kind of get a glimpse into Hezekiah's heart and his state of mind
when he was sick.
It says, "The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered
of his sickness, I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the
grave.
I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of living.
I shall behold man no more at the inhabitants of the world.
My age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent.
I have cut off like a weaver my life.
He will cut me off with pining sickness.
From day, even tonight, wilt thou make an end of me.
So you see, Hezekiah is in a lot of emotional turmoil from this sickness.
And when someone's going through something like this, they're going to be the same way.
They could just be just despairing of life.
Many people, because of an injury or sickness, lose the desire to even live.
I mean, people who lose limbs sometimes, that's just like so shocking to them that they don't
even want to live anymore.
And so we need to make sure that we're also praying for people that are sick, our brothers
in Christ that are sick, praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ that have physical
ailments because it could be so devastating on their mental health and on their, their
just sanity and continue to just pray that God would perform that miracle in their life.
Now the most important healing that God does though is not physical, it's spiritual.
And really I think that this is a great picture, this story of Hezekiah getting healed.
It's a great picture of salvation.
Go to Romans, book of Romans chapter number seven, Romans seven.
You think about how Hezekiah, what was he given?
He was really given a death sentence.
And we also had the sentence of death in ourselves spiritually.
Romans chapter seven verse nine says, "For I was alive without the law once, but when
the commandment came, sin revived and I died."
So that sin that is in us really is the death sentence for us, that we deserve to go to
hell because that we've sinned.
And so just like Hezekiah physically was told that he's going to die, we can know the same
thing before we're saved, that our sin has given us a death sentence.
And what did Hezekiah do?
How did Hezekiah get healed?
Did he change his life?
Did he start going to church?
Did he repent of all of his sins?
No.
What did he do?
He called upon the name of the Lord.
He just called upon the name of the Lord and God healed him.
Romans 1013, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
And just like we heard in Isaiah chapter 38, God heard his prayer.
And you know that God also hears our prayer when we call out to him and ask him for salvation.
And any person that puts their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ and we go soul winning and
we ask them to call upon the name of the Lord, God hears that prayer and God will heal them.
I was saying how God may heal you physically.
He can heal you physically.
But if you call upon the name of the Lord, the Bible says you shall be saved.
Isn't that good news?
That hey, no matter how sick and how injured we are spiritually, even though we have the
death of the sentence of death in ourselves, when we call upon the name of the Lord in
faith asking him to save us, he shall save us.
It's amazing gift.
Thank God for his gift that he gave us.
And just like when Hezekiah called upon the name of the Lord and he performed a miracle.
When we called upon the name of the Lord for salvation, he performed a miracle through
us.
Romans five one says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
That is a miracle.
That is a miracle that is wicked and sinful as I am.
And with all the mistakes that I make and with all the times I don't do that, which
is right, that I still have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why?
Because I called upon his name.
That's it.
And Hezekiah, he had 15 years added to his life.
He was healed from his sickness.
Not because he did some great thing, not because he just changed his life around.
No, he just called upon the name of the Lord and the Lord gave him those 15 years.
It's a picture of salvation.
And then all you have to do is call upon the name of the Lord.
It's not work salvation.
It's not change your life around and He'll heal you.
It's call upon the name of the Lord.
Go back to Isaiah 39, Isaiah 39.
The second lesson we can learn, number one, God is able to deliver you.
That's very simple.
That's very important, even though it is simple.
But number two, we should pay as much attention to the Lord in the good times as we do in
the bad.
We should pay as much attention to the Lord in the good times as we do in the bad.
Look at Isaiah 39, verse number one, "At that time, Morodak-Baladan, the son of Baladan,
king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had
been sick and was recovered.
And Hezekiah was glad of them and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver
and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment and all the house of his armor and
all that was found in his treasures.
There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not.
So what happened?
You just read how Hezekiah, his soul was in a lot of turmoil.
He was just calling out to the Lord, begging him to heal him, begging him to give him
more life.
He was talking about just what depths he was in in sadness because of the cutting off of
his days because he knew he was going to die and then someone finds out that the Lord healed
him and what is Hezekiah's first response?
Let me just show you all this great stuff in my house.
Let me just show you all this wonderful stuff that I have.
What is it?
The silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment and the house of all of his armor
and all that was found in his treasures and it's like, why is that what he's focusing
on?
Shouldn't he be like talking about the Lord?
Shouldn't he be glorifying God for healing him?
But you know what's funny, often times in church, I've seen this many times, someone
will be asking for something, prayer for something.
I want a wife, please pray that I get married.
Please pray for this job opportunity.
Please pray for this new vehicle.
Please pray for my finances.
Please pray for my health.
And then God will give them that prayer.
And then you know what that person will do?
Forsake church, forsake God, no longer continue in prayer, no longer fellowship with the brethren,
no longer go soul winning, no longer go to church.
As soon as they got what they wanted from God, they're out.
And what is Hezekiah doing?
Once he got what he wanted, once he was healed, is he glorifying the Lord?
Is he continuing just thankfulness to the Lord?
No, he's worried about his stupid stuff.
And this is what happens to many people.
The lust of whatever they want corrupts them and they give up on God because of a stupid
car.
You don't think people have quit on God because of a car?
It happens.
People are praying, "Lord, please give me this land."
God gives them the land, oh, quit on church.
You know, "Please give me this house.
Please give me this job."
"Oh, I'm taking Sunday's overtime now."
And it's like, that is the wrong attitude that we should have.
We should be just as dependent on God in the good times as we are in the bad.
But the reality is most people are only serious about their prayer life when things are going
bad, when their child is in the hospital, when their finances are shot, when they've
lost everything, when they just had the sentence of death about their health.
They get that cancer diagnosis and now they want to start praying to God.
Now they want to start getting serious about the Lord.
Now they want to go out and preach the gospel.
No, why don't you have that same attitude now of being just as dependent as if everything
were falling apart right now.
Then maybe God wouldn't have to make your life fall apart for him to keep your heart.
If you just continued in prayer and supplication and going to church and preaching the gospel
and doing what God wants you to do when things are already good for you, then why would God
have to punish you?
Why would God have to then take away your house?
Why would God then have to take away your spouse?
Why would God have to do all these things to you if you're just willingly serving
Him and willingly doing what He asked you to do anyways?
We'd save ourselves a lot of trouble if we had that type of attitude.
I'll read for you Matthew 6.33, it says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."
And a lot of people, they only want to fulfill this verse until those things are added to
them.
They're like, "Okay, seek God first, I'm going to go to church until I get my truck."
And it's like God gives them whatever they wanted and they're no longer wanting to serve
and to seek God, but that never ends well.
You'll never quit on church and say, "Yeah, that was a great decision in my life."
No, what you're going to face is the fiery indignation of God, is what Hebrews chapter
10 says.
Let's go to Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 7.
In Romans 7 verse 5, it says, "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which
were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
So just like Hezekiah was physically had the sentence of death, and then once God delivered
him from that, he just wanted to go back to the beggarly elements of the world and just
glorify his gold and his silver and all this stuff.
We also were dead wherein we were held, but now we should serve in newness of spirit.
God delivered us just like he delivered Hezekiah.
It's not any less real of a deliverance that God gave us.
It's even better than what God gave Hezekiah, it's spiritual, not only all the physical
times that he delivers us, but spiritually we should now walk in newness of spirit.
Go to Job chapter number two, Job chapter number two, and we know that Job was a person
who was upright, he was righteous, he was the most righteous man around at his time,
and when he was going through all of his trials and tribulations, it wasn't for anything wrong
that he had done.
It was just him being tested by God, but we know that he continued to maintain his integrity.
His wife told him to curse God and die, but he maintained his integrity.
Look at Job chapter two, verse nine, "Then said his wife unto him, 'Dost thou still retain
thine integrity? Curse God and die.' But he said unto her, 'Thou speakest as one of the
foolish women speaketh.' What? Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord? And shall we
not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.'" So Job really is the
perfect example of someone who trusted in the Lord in the good times and in the bad.
In the good times, the Bible talks about how he was praying for his sons and his daughters
every single day, just praying for them, that he was upright, that he eschewed evil. And
then when all of this calamity came upon him, when he lost his children, when he lost his
belongings, when he lost everything, even his wife is telling him to curse God and die,
he's like, "You're speaking like a fool, wife. You're speaking like a fool." He's like,
"Hey, we're going to receive good at the hand of the Lord and evil." But he didn't sin.
He didn't curse God in his heart or with his lips. He continued to depend on God in the
good times, just like he did in the bad. That really is our ultimate example of someone
that handled that perfectly. Go back to Isaiah chapter 39. Isaiah 39. Isaiah 39. And the
third lesson we can learn is that what you glorify above God is in danger of being judged
by God. What you glorify above God is in danger of becoming judged by God. Isaiah 39 verse
three. The Bible says, Then came Isaiah the prophet unto King Hezekiah and said unto him,
What said these men? And from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are
come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. Then said he, What have they seen
in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen. There
is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah,
Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold the days come, that all that is in thine house
and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day shall be carried to Babylon.
Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which
thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the
king of Babylon. So what happens? Hezekiah is healed miraculously. God delivers him.
Then he's bragging about his gold and his silver and he's focused on all of his material
goods. And so what does Isaiah say to him? He's like, look, all of this stuff now, because
you glorify this above God, because this is what your heart's desire was on, all of your
stuff is going to be carried away captive into Babylon. None of it's even going to be
here. You're going to lose that thing that you love so much above God. Not only that,
also your sons and your sons are going to be eunuchs in Babylon. What a horrible punishment
would that be? I mean, good night. And so what do we learn from this is that what we
glorify above God is in danger of being judged by God. And that's scary when you think about
some of the things that people glorify above God today. Because sometimes it's their own
children. Sometimes it's their own spouse. Sometimes it's just their house or whatever
they love. That's in danger of being judged by God. And so if you really did love your
kids and you really did love your wife, you would never put them above God because you're
going to make that person the target of God's wrath oftentimes. It'd be a horrible thing. Exodus
chapter 20, in Exodus chapter 20 verse number four, the Bible reads, "Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth
beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve
them. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. So we learn here that God is a
very jealous God and if you were to make an image, a graven image, an idol and worship that God is
going to judge you and your children and your children's children because he's a jealous God.
And so a lot of people today in America aren't exactly carving idols and serving idols but they've
set up idols in their heart. A lot of people today serve the NFL as their God and you go out
soul winning on the worst day of the year to go soul winning which is Super Bowl Sunday and you
know who wants to talk? No one because they're worshiping their God the NFL and you know what
God is not okay with that. God is not happy when you place anything above him. Hey what you go do
when you skip church that's an idol right there. What you go do instead of going soul winning
that is an idol in your life. What you put before your Bible reading in the morning like we talked
about on Thursday hey some people wake up in the morning and scroll Facebook. That Facebook can be
idle above God and so no matter what it is maybe God God could judge your phone you could lose it
in the river like we were talking about earlier right. I'm just saying like no matter how trivial
you may think it is it's not trivial to God. God is a jealous God and anything you put above him
anything you put above the things that he told you to do that is now become a target of God's
wrath and if he wanted to he can now judge that thing you know people pray like we talked about
god please give me this job and then he gives you the job and then you forsake god he could take
that job away from you you know you pray for a wife and god gives you that wife and then that
wife causes you to forsake church he can take that wife away from you he can take your kids away from
you he could take your possessions away from you he could take your job away from you he could take
your health away from you he could take your life away from you god can take anything from you our
lives are at the mercy of the lord at all times he could take our breath from us at any moment
we could die at any moment we can lose everything we have at any moment like job did and so never
ever put anything above the lord never skip the things of god for whatever your idol in your heart
is because it will be judged that's not what we want here's a good example that people idolize in
america is money go to malachi chapter number three malachi chapter number three this is a big
idol in our country our country worships money this is what people live for is money in the
united states and a lot of people they love their money so much that they're not willing to follow
god's command to tithe which is what giving 10 of your income to your local church and if you
decide not to do that because you love money because you want to use that for anything else
whatever you use that money for is now an idol and is now something you have put above the lord
malachi chapter 3 look at verse 8 will a man rob god yet you have robbed me but you say wherein
have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings and you say oh is it worth it can i rob god of tithes
and offerings and can it be worth it maybe it's worth it if i get to keep my truck maybe it's
worth it if i get to make two car payments maybe it's worth it to rob god if i can have a bigger
house but look at verse nine here's why it's not worth it you are cursed with a curse for you have
robbed me even this whole nation here's why it's never worth it to put something over god no matter
how pretty it might look to your little eyes here's why it's never worth it because you'll be cursed
because god will curse you whatever you put above him god will curse and so don't don't ever take
that lightly no matter how small of something it is you say i'm just gonna skip one church service
come on i'm just gonna go hunting i'm skipping church i'm going hunting i'm i know i'm in the
south there's not as much hunters down here you know up in idaho and up in washington you know
i'm gonna i'm gonna skip church this week and go hunting okay watch out for the bear seriously
watch out for the mountain lion you think it's a joke but it's not because it's an idol above god
and you know god is merciful and gracious and he is long suffering to us but you never know when
that long suffering and grace and mercy is going to end and it did end for hezekiah because all
those stuff that he put above the lord isaiah said it's all getting taken away from you and your sons
as well by the way they're going to be eunuchs as well so his mercy ran out god did heal him
but his mercy ran out first crinthians chapter five the other thing that could be an idol for
people is friendships first crinthians chapter five look at verse 11 it says but now i have written
unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or
an idolater or a railer or drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat
and so pastor shelly's taught on this many times the subject of church discipline in the bible
where if a brother in christ is committing one of these sins in first corinthians five
they've been confronted with it they're not repenting of it they're to be cast out of the
church because a little leaven leaven at the whole lump we can't have just one fornicator in here
because it'll leaven everyone we can't have just one drunkard in here because it'll leaven everyone
but sometimes what happens is someone will get kicked out of church and then people in the church
are still being friends with that person they're still wanting to go you know hang out with them
at a coffee shop or still go soul-wanting with them outside of the churches soul-wanting times
no if someone is kicked out of church if someone is being disciplined by the church that means
that they're being disciplined by God and when you want to go out and hold to that friendship
after pastor Shelley's kicked them out after God has executed his judgment on that person now that's
an idol in your heart because it's something that you're putting above God's commandment say no you
know what I don't care what God says I'm going to be friend with brother so-and-so anyways even
though he's a drunk even though he's a fornicator even though he's an extortioner you know what God
will judge you for that God will judge you for that and the last thing that we can learn from
Hezekiah's healing give you guys a little bit of a shorter sermon tonight Isaiah chapter 39 the last
thing that we can learn in verse number six Isaiah 39 it says behold the days come that all that is
in thine house and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day shall be carried
to Babylon nothing shall be left saith the Lord and of thy sons that shall issue from thee which
thou shalt beget shall they take away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of
Babylon now look at Hezekiah's reaction then said Hezekiah to Isaiah good is the word of the Lord
which thou has spoken he said moreover for there shall be peace and truth in my days and the last
lesson we can learn from the healing of Hezekiah is don't be selfish don't be selfish you see Hezekiah
was healed from all of his sickness God delivered him but guess what when when he went it was
idolatrous when he put things above God and he found out his kids were going to be eunuchs and
taken into Babylon he said you know what good is the word of the Lord as long as there's peace and
truth in my days all I care about is myself I don't care about the next generation all I care about
is myself now Romans I'm gonna read for you a couple verses Romans 4 5 says but to him that
worketh not but believeth on him that justified the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness
this is another reason by the way why this is a good picture of salvation because even though
Hezekiah did something wicked here he wasn't valuing the Lord he was valuing his stuff he
didn't care about his kids being judged he was still healed he didn't he didn't lose his healing
right just like how we can't lose our salvation but to him that worketh not we don't have to do
any works to be saved thank God the salvation is free thank God we can never lose it but that
doesn't mean that we should be selfish and just not care about the next generation just because
we're saved just because we can't lose our our salvation just because we're eternally sealed
does not mean that we should not live godly lives for the next generation here's why because our to
our sons can turn out like hezekiah's sons go to second chronicles second chronicles chapter 33
and we're going to get a peek at what hezekiah's son turned out to be like second chronicles 33
this is what happens when all you care about is the peace and truth in your days and you don't
care about the next generation hezekiah 33 verse 1 it says manasseh was 12 years old when he began
to reign and he reigned 15 five years in jerusalem but he did that which was evil in the sight of the
lord like unto the abominations of the heathen whom the lord had cast out before the children
of israel for he built again the high places which hezekiah his father had broken down
and he reared up altars for baleam and made groves and worshiped all the hosts of heaven
and served them so his son is literally serving devils literally worshipping devils verse 4 also
he built altars in the house of the lord whereof the lord had said in jerusalem shall my name be
forever and he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the lord
and he caused his children to pass through the fire like what we're talking about this morning
sacrificing his children in the valley of the son of hinnom also he observed times and used
enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizards he wrought much
evil in the sight of the lord to provoke him to anger and he set a carved image the idol which he
had made in the house of god of which god had said to david and to solomon his son in this house and
in jerusalem which i have chosen before all the tribes of israel will i put my name forever so
this is king hezekiah who was a good king who was saved this is his son his son is worshiping devils
his son is sacrificing children you know in the valley of the son of hinnom his son is or is
worshiping devils his son is using witchcraft i mean he's playing witches and warlocks whatever
the stupid games are i mean his son is messed up now later on i believe that manasseh actually got
saved and his son actually was saved so that's good but who wants this for their son even if
they're saved no no one wants their son to turn out like this but why did his son turn out like
this because hezekiah didn't care about the next generation because when he heard the curse upon
the next generation he just was like well as long as there's peace and truth in my days and you
know i think the reason why our country is so messed up today why we knock door after door
after door of people that just don't care they don't even care about eternity they don't even
care if they're going to heaven and hell it's because the previous generation didn't care about
them because normal people care about that kind of stuff but they don't care they don't care about
god they don't care about the truth they don't care about working hard they don't care about
anything because the previous generation has failed them i bet you anything if we could hop
in a time machine and go soul winning 50 years ago in houston texas there'd be a lot of people
you knock on their door and they're saved i bet you all across the state and all across this country
there was way way more safe people than there are today but guess what the last generation just
didn't care and so people now i mean baptist churches they're just they're thriving big time
in america right i mean every corner you see you see a mega baptist church don't you no you don't
what you see thriving is false prophets in america what you see thriving is joel osteen in houston
not pastor shelly now obviously spiritually pastor shelly is demolishing all these false prophets
and every church in this area in my opinion but physically is that the case no too bad it's not
it's too bad that pure words baptist church isn't running hundreds if not thousands of people right
now because i tell you what pastor shelly's preaching should be able to do that but guess
what people don't care because of the hezekiahs that have raised this generation the hezekiahs
have raised this generation to think that sodomy is good not just to tolerate it not just to put
up with it but to actually teach that it is good that only comes from a generation that's been
raised by hezekiahs they don't care that's as long as there's peace and truth in their days as long
as their 401k is padded as long as they have their nice cars their nice house what do we need church
for what do we need teaching our kids the bible for what do we need singing praises to god and
extolling the name of the lord for what do we need that in our family for when we have all of our
idols but here's the problem they were cursed with a curse that's the problem and now our whole
country is cursed as a result of the hezekiah generation i'll repeat romans 12 1 says i beseech
you therefore by the mercies of god that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly
acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service you know the bible actually teaches
self-sacrifice and the bible says that to sacrifice our own bodies is completely reasonable
yet today it's hard for people to sacrifice a few hours to go to church it's even harder to get
people to sacrifice a few hours to read their bible throughout the week and it's even harder
than that to get people to sacrifice a few hours to go soul winning every week but the bible says
we should be willing to present our bodies a living sacrifice to the lord what is hezekiah willing to
do for the next generation nothing who cares about the next generation is his mentality you know i'm
thankful that the lord jesus christ wasn't like hezekiah because you know what there there could
have been peace and truth in the lord jesus christ today he never sinned he never messed up go to
philippians chapter number two he didn't have to come down in in the form of in the likeness of
sinful flesh and die for us you know he was rich he was sinless he is god he didn't have to come
down and save us philippians chapter two verse four look not every man on his own things but
every man also on the things of others let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus
who being in the form of god thought it not robbery to be equal with god but made himself
of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men
and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the
death of the cross i like how the bible says let this mind be in you which was also in christ
jesus you know that the the mind that jesus had was that of humility and was that of serving other
people that is what jesus christ cared about not about serving himself jesus christ did not have to
die on the cross for our sins he did that of his own will because he cared about us because he was
not like hezekiah he did not say just let there be truth peace and truth in my days no he died for
us i'll read for you second corinthians 8 9 says for you know the grace of our lord jesus christ
that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might
become rich you think about how amazing that is because most people they pray for riches and once
they get rich they forsake caring about other people they forsake caring about god whereas god
was rich and he forsook his riches to become poor for us and you know what that's the attitude that
we should have for the next generation is not just care about whatever we want to do in this life
not just care about wherever we want to live in this life whatever we want to just do it for our
family no rather we should care what god wants for our family why for the next generation that's
coming so that we don't destroy the next generation so that we don't raise a menace generation which
when we look around us it kind of looks like that sometimes rather actually have the mind that was
in christ jesus where when he was rich he became poor for us so in review here number one god is
able to deliver you god is able to deliver you physically and god is able to deliver you
spiritually number two we should pay as much attention to the lord in the good times as we
do in the bad pray when things are going good to the lord just like you would pray if you had just
gotten a cancer diagnosis always put the lord first number three what you glorify above god
is in danger of becoming the object of his wrath doesn't matter how big or small or or seemingly
trivial it is in your life whatever you put above the lord that could be the object of god's wrath
and number four don't be selfish care about the next generation care about the next generation of
this church keep serving the lord if not for yourself for your children and for the next
generation that's coming in this church because we are the light of the world we are the salt of the
earth and if we don't continue to preserve this nation then it's going to look like a menace
generation everywhere we go and with that let's have a word of prayer lord thank you so much for
this day and thank you for this story of hezekiah being healed and the spiritual and physical lessons
that we can learn from it i pray that above all lord that we would always put you first in everything
lord and that we would just extol your name and in jesus name we pray amen turn to your last song
song number 129 rock of ages song number 129 rock of ages on the first rock of ages clap for me
let me hide myself in thee let the one side which flows