And so let's open up our Bibles and and give the Lord our attention from His Word this evening. Tonight, as we come back to the book of 2 Kings, it's been, and I've said this before already, but it's been like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down. But one of the standout characters of the Old Testament we've been looking at, his name is King Hezekiah. And we've learned much about him in the last couple of chapters. In chapter 18, We were introduced to him as a man whose heart was truly given over to the Lord. And every time you see a person like that, it's just wonderful to learn about them and study about them and find out, well, why was their heart that way, right? And so he had a heart for God. And we were told that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, as David had done. there in chapter 18. We're also told what that looked like. And so, he was a king of more than just words, but he put his faith into action. He lived it out. And God commends him for doing that. Like James tells us in the book of James, that faith without deeds is dead, and faith, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James also adds, show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. So Hezekiah's faith was displayed or seen in the tangible, the very things that he did in his life. He took action against evil. or the spiritual evil or the political corruption also that he saw in the southern kingdom of Judah. He didn't just sit back passively and do nothing. He removed all that he could see that was an offense to God. He removed the high places. He broke down the sacred pillars that were dedicated to idols. He cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses, even that Moses had made, because they had made the bronze serpent which Moses commanded them to make, but they had actually made it into an object of worship. So he made great effort to root out evil and idolatry out of the southern kingdom. And so he cleaned house spiritually, and that's really why God commended him. And he also broke ties, we saw last time, with the Assyrians. And so he cleaned house politically as well. And so there was a spiritual and a political cleansing that took place through Hezekiah. And you know, I do believe that God cares about both. A lot of times people, because of the craziness in our country, oh, separation of church and state. No, God cares about the church, He cares about the spiritual things, but He also cares about what's going on politically in a nation because it can affect so many people. And so Hezekiah was concerned about both and God commends him for that. And so we also learned that his faith and his resolve got tested. He came under spiritual and political fire and attack. And he did his best and the wisest thing possible when he came under spiritual attack. We learned last time he tore his royal robes which was a symbol of repentance or brokenness before God. Not only did he tear his royal robes, he covered himself in sackcloth. He went into the house of the Lord and began to seek the Lord in prayer. And not only that, we saw he gathered other godly men around him. And they prayed together. They sought the Lord together. So there was corporate prayer. We talk a lot about corporate prayer here. We've had a few prayer times. A few weeks ago we prayed for the country. We gathered together on a Thursday night. We prayed for the country. But every Saturday morning we gather here in this prayer room and we pray for the needs of this fellowship, for your needs, for the needs of the community, for the needs of the nation. and for the needs of Israel. We pray for that all of the time, and corporate prayer is an important part of our lives as Christians. And so he poured out his heart to the Lord. As we can learn from him, one thing that he did, and we can see why prayer is so essential for us, we learn that he cast his cares upon the Lord. And God honored that faith with amazing answers to his prayers. And yes, I do believe and still see all of the time God answers prayer. So God miraculously, we saw last time, He intervened for Hezekiah because they were coming under attack from the Assyrians and God diverted his enemy away from Jerusalem. But not only did God divert the enemy, his enemy, away from Jerusalem, God sent an angel and we learn the power of these angels. I mean, I don't think we realize how powerful angels really are. But he sent one angel and in one night that one angel smote dead 185,000 of the Assyrians' army. So God miraculously delivered Hezekiah in answer to his prayer. He delivered Jerusalem from their enemies. And that was really an amazing miracle of God's divine protection over Israel. And so our lesson and our application is this for the believer. And it's such a blessing and a great comfort to realize that the battle, our battles, belong to the Lord. And when trials come, when difficulties come, when we come under attack, and yes, we will come under attack, it's a great comfort to realize that we can take everything to the Lord. We can turn to the Lord. for deliverance, we can turn to the Lord for answers, and we can talk to the Lord 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I'm glad about that, aren't you? Aren't you glad that when you call the Lord and it's eight o'clock at night and he doesn't say, sorry, come back in the morning, I don't open till eight. Thank God, that's not what it's like. God's there for us 24-7. So Hezekiah's role, And as a king was awesome because he modeled what it means to be a man of God. And God honored his faith and God honored his trust. God listened to his prayers, heard his prayers. And so we too serve the same exact God that Hezekiah served. And we know that when we cry out to the Lord, just like when Hezekiah cried out to the Lord, we have a God who cares about us. We have a God who answers our prayers. And it's a blessing that He's there for us in our time of need, whatever that need may be. It's a blessing to know that. And so, I don't know about you guys, but I'm grateful for that over and over and over again. I'm grateful for it this week, I'm grateful for it for these last 32 years of being a pastor, and I'm grateful for it in these last 43 years of being a Christian. And so, what a blessing to see God answering multitudes of prayers over these years. And it's been awesome to experience it and be a part of it. Now, this evening we come to another story of God's mercy. in answering prayer in Hezekiah's life. Now I want to say this, Hezekiah was one of the most faithful kings, one of the most godly kings, and yet that did not exempt him from the trials of life. Hezekiah in this chapter, well at the end of the chapter he will die, but he's about to die in this chapter even though he had lived faithfully for the Lord as he will confess in his prayer. But we look at Hezekiah's life and what we see is that he had this very close intimate relationship with God and God's blessing in answering his prayer was evident. God honors those, let's learn this, God honors those that honor him. When you honor God in your life, God is going to honor you. And so God honors those who honor Him. Jesus said in John chapter 14, He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love Him, and I will show myself to Him. And so what is one way that the Lord shows himself to his children? He shows himself to us in answering our prayers. Then Jesus puts it even more clearly in John 15, 7, he says, If you remain or abide in me, and my words remain or abide in you, and listen to this awesome promise, he says, ask whatever you wish. and it will be given to you. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." So the fruit of prayer, the fruit of answered prayer is the evidence of our abiding in the Lord and the Lord blessing us as we abide in Him. So I'm convinced that God, I believe that God delights in answering our prayers. He delights in doing what is best for us. And that's what we learn is that our Father in heaven knows best. And I'm glad about that because since He knows what's best for your life and my life, that means He filters our prayers. And He tweaks them in the best way possible for our lives. He doesn't just give us everything that we ask. I'm telling you, if God gave me everything that I asked, it would probably not be a good thing. Right? Because He knows sometimes that we ask amiss, or what we ask for would not be best for us. So God filters our prayers. And in 1 John 5.14, this is one of my favorite verses when it comes to prayer, and it keeps everything in perspective. 1 John 5.14 says, this is the assurance that we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, Then whatever we ask, we know that we have what we've asked of Him. But we have to ask according to His will. So we can ask anything, but it's only those things that He filters that are according to His will that He will give us. And so that's awesome, because sometimes, like I said, we would probably ask for all kinds of dumb things, we probably do sometimes, and the Lord's like, no, I'm not giving that to you. And so when we say to God, God, hear my prayer, answer my prayer, and God says no, then we need to realize that God is able to see what we cannot see. He knows that if we were to get maybe what we ask for in certain situations, or on certain occasions, it would not be in our best interest to have that prayer answered. So we should be grateful for that. That's why when we pray, and I don't think this is a lack of faith. If it's a lack of faith, then Jesus had no faith because he prayed this way. He said, yet Father, not my will, but your will be done. I feel comfortable by saying that because I might be asking the Lord for something, but I don't know the whole picture, God does. So I can say, Lord, not my will, I can ask, but yet Lord, not my will, but your will be done. And that's what Jesus did, that's how he prayed. So we can be grateful that we have a good father who cares about us and will answer our prayers that are what's best for us, really. So let's look at chapter 20 and come to our study this evening. After that pretty long intro, You know, I was looking at, I'm working on Sunday sermon already and I have a real long intro on that one too. But anyway, but this is, don't be discouraged, we'll still get out in time so you can go eat, okay? But look at this in chapter 20, let's read the first three verses. In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, son of Amos, went to him and said to him, thus says the Lord, set your house in order. You shall die and not live. Then he turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept. Bitterly, let's stop there for a little bit. One of the most common questions that we humans seem to ask, especially when we or someone that we love gets sick, is why? Why, Lord? You ever ask that question? Now, we don't always know the whys of life. God doesn't always tell us the whys of life. And there are many questions that we don't know the answers to, and God chooses not to give us the answers to. And we'll never know the answers to some questions in this life, and we have to be willing to say, okay, Lord, even though I don't know, I don't understand, I'm going to trust you. Now here we're not given any explanation as to why Hezekiah became sick. There's different times in scripture, like King David says, before I sinned or rebelled against you, he talks about how he got sick as a result of his sin. And David sinned, remember, and then he became ill after that. Well, there's times when God might allow us or may discipline us in our sin, and one of the ways He can discipline us is through physical illnesses. That doesn't happen every time. And you can't say every single time you get ill, God's disciplining you. And we look at this situation and it doesn't tell us that God was disciplining Hezekiah and that's why he became sick. Earlier in this book, we saw one of God's most faithful, powerful, prolific prophets. His name is Elisha. We're told that he suffered an illness that ended up taking his life. And yet Elisha was, I mean, one of the most, like I said, powerfully used prophets. He had a double dose of Elijah's spirit. All kinds of miracles were brought about through Elisha in his faithfulness to God. And yet he ended up dying of an illness. Another example of a righteous person who became ill was Job. You read the whole story of Job and he struggled with it. His friends even said, there's got to be some sin in your life, Job. You must have done something. They were trying to find any reason they could come up with as to why Job was sick. And they didn't understand it from a spiritual perspective or from God's perspective. And so do godly people suffer? Yes, they do sometimes. Why? Well, again, we don't always know the answer to that, but God has his purposes. Now, we do know in the book of Hebrews 9.27 it says this, to die once and after that to face judgment. Romans 8.28 says, we know that in all things God works together for the good. So, sometimes a person might come to a place where they become ill, they get prayed over, they get anointed with oil. We tell everybody, listen, if you get sick, do what James 5 says. Approach us and we'll go in there and we will anoint you with oil, like the Bible says to do when you get sick, and we will pray over you. We'll anoint you with oil. I tell people, look, if you go to the doctor and the doctor says, okay, you've got allergies. Here, I'm going to give you some prescription for allergy medicine. And then you go and you crumble it up and you toss it in between your seat in the car or something. And you never go get it. And then you go back for the follow-up appointment a month later and the doc says, well, how'd the medicine work? And you're like, I don't know, doc. I decided not to. I didn't get it. So I'm really suffering. And he's going to say, well, if I was a doctor, I'd say, you bonehead, why didn't you get it? You know, I mean, that's why I'm not a doctor. I have no good bedside manners, I guess. But in other words, we have to apply what God says. God says, if you get sick, do what his word prescribes. get anointed with oil, pray over the sick person. Now sometimes you can still do that. We've prayed over people and they've gotten healed. We've prayed over people and they still died. I remember one time, this one really freaked me out. I get a phone call and, Pastor, can you come to the, what's it called? The big one when you're dying in the hospital. What's that called? ICU, thank you. You see, I need prayer, okay? So anyway, I get called to go to the ICU, and they said, Pastor Joseph, could you come to the ICU? This person's in a bad way. And the ex-wife was there, and her new boyfriend was there, and they're in the room, and I walk in, and they've got him hooked up to all these machines and stuff, and she said, can you pray for him? Did the Lord heal him? And I'm like, Yeah, I can pray that. And I said, let's pray for him. So I anoint him with oil and I pray for him. And I pray this prayer. I thought it was a good prayer. Like, Lord, have mercy on him. Lord, if he doesn't know you, please don't take him unless he does know you or if he comes, so he can come to know you. And I just prayed a prayer for him. I prayed for him to be healed. And I am not lying, you guys. This is the craziest thing. So I'm praying and praying and praying. It's not a long prayer, but I pray for him. And I said, in Jesus' name, and then it beep, he died right when I said amen. The nurses come running in, and the wife was looking at me, the ex-wife, and I was like, sorry. No, I didn't say sorry, but I was like, I mean, it was kind of crazy, but I was like, thanks Lord. You know, all right. So, but I did pray for his salvation and pray for him to be forgiven. And maybe, maybe as he was listening, he got ready. I don't know, but the Lord took him. And so, you know, sometimes we pray for the sick and it doesn't happen. They don't get healed, but I do believe for a Christian, anytime a Christian dies, they're totally healed. They're totally healed because they're in the presence of the Lord now. And the Bible says there's no more death or mourning or crying or pain in the presence of the Lord. So, yes, it's appointed unto men once to die. Romans 8, 28 says all things are working together for the good in our lives. There's a wonderful saint right now in our church who is dying of cancer. And I love this lady. I'm not going to mention her name. Some of you probably know her. And I love her. She's been part of our fellowship since the very, very beginning. Samantha knows who it is. She was about to whisper it, weren't you? I saw you. Anyway, she's been with us since the very beginning, as Samantha has been as well. But she's got cancer all over the place. We had a good talk the other day about this, and the scripture verse that she's been standing upon was Romans 8.28. Now, I'll mention her a little bit again here in a little bit. So as we look at this, all of us have an appointment. We all have an appointment that we can't avoid. If we're here when the Lord raptures the church, then we won't die. That's really awesome. Some of us will never taste death. We'll never have to experience death. But the other side of it is that Jesus said, whoever lives and believes in me will never die. We're going to be in his presence. We're never going to experience the second death, which is the death that is the worst one, because that's the death when you get cast into the lake of fire. That'll never touch us. But we might go through physical death. We have an appointment. We're appointed unto men once to die, and then after that to meet the Lord. Now, so our days here on earth are numbered. How we're going to go, none of us know that, right? None of us wake up in the morning and go, all right, I know, Lord, today's my last day, right? You told me and whatever. That doesn't usually happen to anybody. So God tells us that our days are numbered by Him. We don't know. That's up to the Lord. So Hezekiah, he becomes ill here. And he's so ill, he's so sick that he's on his deathbed. He's near death. And like I said, over the years I've seen so many people who have come to this place, and we've sat at their bedside, we've held hands with them, we've prayed with them, and then the Lord took them home. One of my favorite stories, and I've probably told this to you, but we had a guy in our church for years, he worked with our kids, and he was awesome, his name was Ray Lopez, and he was an awesome brother in the Lord, but he got brain cancer, and me and Mr. C went to go see him, On the day that he died, we were there in his room at home. He was on hospice and all that. And we walk in there, and he's laying there, and his eyes are closed. And we go, Ray, we're here, me and Mr. C. Mr. C on that side, I'm on this side of his little bed. And Ray, we're here, and we're here to pray with you, man. We love you, you know. You've been a blessing." Just encouraging him, I said, you know, I know you're ready to be with Jesus. And all of a sudden, he's just kind of looking at both of us, and he goes like this. He lifts his hand up like this, and we get closer, and then he goes... We get a little bit closer, and right when we get real near him, he goes, Boo! It was fantastic, because... because that's the kind of person he was the whole time. He was funnier than heck. And he was always joking around. And he did that to us a couple of hours before he died. It was fantastic. I loved it. But anyway, I know he went to be with the Lord, but it's hard when you see someone that you love die. And so in these last 32 years, I've held the hand and been there. to say goodbye to many people. It's been hard. But what's important is to know that they are with Jesus now. That's what's important. So Hezekiah, look what happens to him. In those days, Hezekiah was sick and near death. He's right there. And he's bedridden. And look what God does, God sends his spokesman. And Isaiah the prophet, son of Amos, went to him and said to him, not good news, thus says the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. Now, we know, we've talked about this many times, that in the past God spoke to the prophets in many different ways. Often, the prophets would give words of rebuke, or sometimes the prophets would give words of comfort, or assurance, or affirmation, or a blessing. But this time God sends the prophet with a different message, and he has bad, he has sad news for the king. Now, based upon the relationship that Isaiah had with the king, we know that he had a good relationship with him. The king called upon him when they were coming under attack from the Assyrians, and Isaiah was there to pray with them, and then he ended up prophesying what was going to happen. This must have been hard for Isaiah. Because Isaiah comes to the king and obviously they're friends. And he doesn't come with a message of encouragement. Those are the good visits, the nice visits. But he comes with a message involving bad news. And we find this is probably a difficult thing for him. And I look at this and I think about God's Word. Sometimes God's Word comforts us. Sometimes God's Word rebukes us or disciplines us. It's the same thing when you look at what happens here in this situation. And so he comes with a difficult word, bad news to the king. And his message from the Lord was this, set your house in order because you shall die and not live. Now, I'm not sure, you know, I mean, I am probably pretty sure based on his response. This is not what Hezekiah wanted to hear. And it's probably not what Isaiah wanted to say either. But Isaiah shares what God gives him to say. And you know, I'll tell you this, God tells us what we need to hear, not necessarily what we want to hear or what we like to hear. And I've heard of doctors who have sent patients home with a similar message. Sorry, there's nothing that we can do. Go home and get your affairs, your house in order. You have a month, you have two months to live. This is kind of like this in a way from the Lord because the Lord says to him, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. Now when you hear that kind of news, what would you do? Well, we see what Hezekiah does. He does what he always did. He starts to pray. Verse 2. Then he turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth, and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in your sight. And then it says, and Hezekiah wept bitterly. This tells me that he didn't want to die. He didn't want that news. And so he's pleading with the Lord, basically, Lord, I'm asking you for more time or for another chance. And it says he wept bitterly. That person I was just telling you about that I talked to on the day I talked to her about you know, her circumstances, she said, I spent all day long yesterday just weeping, just crying. Because the news, the diagnosis is that she doesn't have very much time to live. And yet, I know her. I've known her for a long time. She loves the Lord. She's been faithful to the Lord. So it kind of reminded me a lot of what we see here. You know, as Hezekiah gets this word from the Lord, very hard to swallow news, like, listen, you're done. Your life is over. But like I said, I love how he responds. He immediately goes to the Lord in prayer. He does what he always did, because that was his habitual response. And he pours out his heart to the Lord. It isn't a real long prayer either. If you look at verse two and verse three, it's only 28 words long, but it's definitely a very sincere prayer. It's a prayer from the heart. It's definitely a fervent prayer. It's a passion-filled prayer. And we're gonna see that it was a very effective prayer as well. Not many words, but yet effective. James 5, 13 says, if is any among you suffering, I just shared this a while ago, let him pray. Prayer holds the answer. And so down in verse 16, we're told in James, the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The NIV says a prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. So he turned toward the wall, probably to get a little privacy. As a king, I'm sure that he was being well attended and taken care of, right? There were probably a lot of people around him. But he just received this news that you're going to die. Get your house in order. a message directly from God. And so, once more, try to put yourself in His place. What would you do? Well, he does probably what most of us would do also. He prays, right? He wants to get his heart, pour out his heart before the Lord. Now, I don't know about you guys, but if you got this news or I got this news, I know what I'd be doing. I'd be doing this very same thing. I'd be praying. Because when I die, I want to be right and I want to be ready. Right? And so we should be living our lives every single day to that end. Right? Living right so that we can be ready. You guys know I had a heart attack. I think it's been like nine years. Has it been nine years, Dia? I think like nine years ago, you guys remember when I had a heart attack. But I'm telling you, when I was flying in that helicopter, I wasn't looking out the window, enjoying the scenery. I was looking out the window, but I was praying while I was looking out the window. And I prayed, and I said, Lord, make my heart clean before you if this is my time to go. I thought I was going to die. I thought I might die. And I said, Lord, if today is the day, then make me ready before you. But I also prayed, Lord, if it's your will, I'd like to spend more time here. I'd like to spend more time with my wife and my family, my children, my grandchildren. I'd like to continue to be a pastor and proclaim the gospel. That was my prayer. And by the grace of God, I died on the operating table for a few seconds. The doctor said for like 30 seconds, my heart stopped. They got my heart going again. I ended up living. And so what a blessing that that was. The thing is, is that I don't think any of us, we don't want to leave this world. The lady I've been talking to, she would love to stay longer. But if the Lord says it's your time, then there's nothing we can do. What's most important is that we're living, making the most of every opportunity in our lives, that we're using our time wisely, and that we are storing up treasures in heaven. So Hezekiah, he reminds the Lord of how he had lived. how committed he had been and devoted in his life. And I think what a blessing to be able to look back on your life and evaluate your own life the way Hezekiah does here. I don't know if you could do that or if you have that kind of a testimony, but look at his testimony in his prayer. Remember now, Lord, oh Lord, I pray how I have walked before you in truth. Wow, what a great testimony he had. He walked before the Lord in truth and with a loyal heart. Beautiful, isn't it? That his heart was loyal to the Lord and have done what was good in your sight to the best of his ability. That's how he lived his life. It mattered to him that what he did was good in the sight of the Lord. And it says, and Hezekiah wept. So what a blessing to have that kind of a conscience before the Lord and have that kind of a testimony before the Lord that you could say to the Lord, look, Lord, I've tried my best to walk in truth, to be loyal to you. I've tried my best to always do what is right in your eyes. What a great testimony. And I hope that we have that desire to have that testimony as well. But then it says he weeps bitterly. Like I said a while ago, he didn't want to die. Now most believe at this point he's only in his early 40s. So he's pretty young when this happens. And we know from what happens in a few minutes here and afterwards that he didn't even have children yet. And so... I don't know about you guys, but back to life again. I think most of us love life. We love living. I remember there was a time in my life before I was a Christian when my life was so messed up because it was self-inflicted. Satan had me under his control, and I even contemplated committing suicide. But I thank God that the Lord had a plan for me, and as now, as a follower of Jesus, man, It's a joy and a delight to be alive and to live for Him. And the blessing that God brought on my life, thank God I didn't kill myself because now I have a wonderful wife. I have four awesome kids, which I'll talk about Sunday again. Ten beautiful grandchildren, which I'll talk about Sunday. I always talk about my grandchildren. But they're the joy of our lives and God is so good. And so I always pray, Lord, I'd like to stay around a little bit longer, right? I'd like to continue to live for you. And so God sees and hears Hezekiah's heart. He hears his prayer. And we have a promise in God's word in Deuteronomy 5, verses 30 through 33. And it was that if they walked in the ways of the Lord, they would be blessed. And one of the promises was God would prolong their days. Proverbs 10.27 says, the fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short. So look at verse four and five, what happens next. And it happened, okay, he's, the prophet apparently leaves, right? Gives him the message and leaves. Hezekiah begins, turns his face to the wall, begins to pray, and he weeps bitterly. It says, And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. Now I wonder, what Isaiah looked like in the before versus the after. Can you imagine when Isaiah is coming into the presence of the king to tell his good buddy, you're done for. Get your house in order. I'm sure there was sadness. And now he gets a word before he even leaves of good news and the Lord says, turn around. God stops him in his tracks. Isaiah, go back. I've heard Hezekiah's prayer. I'm going to heal him. Can you imagine? When he was coming back in, he must have been high-stepping it, all excited, bouncing his step as he now comes to tell his friend, listen, you're going to live, and you're going to be given 15 more years. And so the question is, we might ask, well, did God change his mind? What's going on here? Well, I'll tell you this. God can do anything he wants to. And so I'm not gonna try to speculate or figure out. I just know that he responds to prayer, and for that reason I'm grateful. So Isaiah brings the message back to the king, a message of good news, and we just read it. Well, we'll read it, look at verse five, verse five, the last part there in verse six, he says, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, verse six, and I will add to your days 15 years I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. So God heals him. And I love this because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I've heard so many testimonies like this where God heals. I talked to one of my good friends today. He's a neat guy. He came to church here for many years, Dr. Jay Bishop. I've told you the story about him because he was raised in a Presbyterian church. His father was a Presbyterian pastor for years and years, I just found out. I know him pretty good. He's 98 years old now. been retired for many, many years, but the Lord still has him here. But he was raised in a church where they didn't believe in miracles. Their doctrine is cessationism, which means that God doesn't do certain things anymore. And so anyway, Dr. Bishop, I told you the story before, but it's just such an amazing story. He sent a lady home one time who had cancer of the bladder. She came in to see him. He did all these tests on her and found out her bladder was covered with cancer. It was eaten up, rotting with cancer. So he basically said, you know, you need to go home and get your house in order because you're gonna die. He basically told her there's nothing we can do about it. But you know what? God had a different plan for that lady. Because she went back to her church, to her family, they began to pray for her. And from what I understand, they anointed her with oil, as it says in the book of James. She comes back for a follow-up appointment a couple of weeks later. We were there on a Wednesday morning at our Wednesday morning men's Bible study the day after she came to visit on Tuesday for a follow-up appointment. And Jay goes, guys, I got to tell you guys something that happened. And his eyes were like big, you know, because he was raised believing God doesn't do this anymore. Well, anyway, what happened is he began to examine her and check, you know, where she was at and, you know, They knew that there was nothing they could do. I think he gave her painkillers and stuff like that. But anyway, he examined her and her bladder, he said, the way he described it is her bladder looked like the bladder of a newborn child. It was completely healed. And he said, I have no explanation other than God healed her. You know, and what a blessing. And so, you know, here she was sent home to die, but God had a different plan, and prayer went up, and God answered her prayer. Modern day miracle, just like we see here, that happens with Hezekiah. And why does that happen? Because of the goodness and the grace and the mercy of God. Does the Lord heal everyone? Well, no, but He heals some. Psalm 103, three says, He forgives all our sins and heals all of our diseases. Now, that's why James says to do what he says to do. If you're sick, if you're suffering, call the elders, get anointed with the oil in the name of the Lord, and he says, and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. That's what God's word says. Now, if God gives us that prescription, then what should we do? Do it, right? You know, one of the greatest hindrances to God's blessing our lives And answering our prayers, as it says in the book of James, we have not because we ask not. Wow. We have not because we ask not. James chapter 4. So God heard his prayer and he says, okay Hezekiah, I'm going to heal you. I'm going to bless you with an extended life. I'm going to protect you. I'm going to deliver you from your enemies. And so he has a brand new 15-year extension in life. Now, the practical part, look at verse 7. And I love this because God says in three days it's going to happen. Could God instantly have healed him that very second and he could have popped right up out of the sickbed? Yes. Jesus did that for many people. But look at this. This is kind of cool. It's practical too. He says he's going to deliver him. Then in verse 7, then Isaiah said, Some instructions from the Lord. So God worked in concert with a medical procedure. And thank God he gives us medicines and at times that's God's method of healing. But ultimately all healing does come from the Lord, because life and death are ultimately in God's hands. And so if you need to go to the doctor, I think it's okay to go to the doctor. God can use doctors even though they're just human. But here he gives them an idea. Put this lump of figs on the boil. Verse 8, And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is the sign that the Lord will heal me? and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day." Hezekiah was so sick at this point. He thinks he's a goner. The Lord tells him he's a goner. Then the Lord says, okay, I'm gonna heal you. And then Hezekiah's like, can you give me some kind of encouragement, some kind of a sign? Then Isaiah said, this is a sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do the thing which he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward 10 degrees or go backward 10 degrees? Well, of course, if you know, right? When the sun is moving, it moves the same every single day or the earth spins and the sun and all that works like amazingly concise, right? That God does. And so he goes, I want a sign. What's a sign? And then he says, shall the shadow go forward 10 degrees or go backward 10 degrees? And Hezekiah answered, it's an easy thing for the shadow to go down 10 degrees because that's what it does every single day. But let the shadow go backward 10 degrees. So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord and he brought the shadow 10 degrees backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. Pretty amazing. So God gives him an assurance and says, okay, I mean, it's a pretty big miracle. I don't know how God did it, but the sun, the sun went backwards or the shadow went backwards, which normally would never have done. So let's finish this chapter off and then we'll partake of communion. And it's not too much further. It says, at that time, Berodach, You know, some people are really awesome when it comes to this kind of stuff. You know, you get sick, something happens, and all of a sudden people are there, they bring you food, they bring you presents, they bring you a car, get well cards, and I just think it's neat when that happens. And this guy, his buddy, the king of Babylon heard about it, and he hears that Hezekiah is sick. And Hezekiah was attentive to them and showed them all the house of his treasures. So he's better by now. By the time they hear he's sick, they come, they're going to bring all these things to him. And then he decides, well, I'm going to show him the house of the treasures, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment and all his army, all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all of his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to the king Hezekiah and said to him, what did these men say and from where did they come to you? So Hezekiah said, they came from a far country, from Babylon. And he said, what have they seen in your house? So Hezekiah answered, they have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. I wonder if Hezekiah is going, uh-oh, that was dumb. I just showed them all my treasures and now they're going to come and take them. Right? Verse 18, and they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you. So remember, he hadn't had sons yet, but he's going to have some. And whom you will beget, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. So he gives a prophecy now that basically there's going to come a time when the southern kingdom of Israel, because eventually they keep messing up, and they're gonna go to Babylon captives. And he says, and your sons whom you will beget, they shall be eunuchs in the palace of Babylon. Do you guys know what a eunuch is? They were gonna be castrated. Ooh, thanks a lot, Dad. Thanks a lot. So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. And I love Hezekiah's heart here. He's like, OK, Lord. You've always been good. I'm going to trust your goodness. Your word is good. For he said, will there not be peace and truth, at least in my days? He's kind of saying, well, at least in my days, it'll be OK. And then he says, now. The rest of the acts of Hezekiah, all his might and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the King of Judah? You know what's crazy about this story? What's amazing about this? This tunnel, the tunnel of Hezekiah, is there in Jerusalem. Some of you guys, if you went to Jerusalem, you probably walked through this. It's a cool tunnel. They built this like it's a marvel of engineering. And they built it to bring water into the city. And so it's pretty amazing. And so that was one of Hezekiah's amazing things that he did. So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place. Now, we're not going to get into all this, but I want to say this. Manasseh and Josiah become his sons, okay, in this extra 15-year period. The irony, and Matthew Henry says this, I didn't make this up, but Matthew Henry did. The irony, Matthew Henry says, is wicked Ahaz was the son of a godly father. The father of a godly son. Okay, so let's follow this along. Wicked Ahaz was the son of a godly father. Ahaz had a godly father, he becomes a wicked son. Then he becomes the father of a godly son. Holy Hezekiah was the son of a wicked father, and then he becomes the father of a wicked son, Manasseh, who in turn becomes the father of a righteous son, Josiah. Go figure, he says. What you become depends on you and your own heart before God. Wow. You know, wouldn't it be neat if all of our kids were godly and they served the Lord? I pray that for my kids all the time. But you know what? They have to decide. Are they going to serve the Lord? Are they going to live for the Lord? We can't force them. They'd have to make that decision. You know, and I've seen that happen where godly, godly parents loving the Lord, raising their children up in the things of the Lord, teaching them about the Lord. They're in church since their whole lives and then they get to an age where they go away from home and they just totally leave the Lord and they go into the world and it seems like they're gone. Doesn't mean that God can't bring them later. But one of my favorite stories, and I'll end with this before we partake of communion, was over in Calvary Chapel, Sierra Vista, this person told me the story about this lady who he met in the store or something, tried to witness to her, and she was very antagonistic. She was an atheist against Christianity, and she was mad. And she said, I don't understand it. I brought my children up to be atheists, and I have three sons, and all three of them are pastors. And I told Dia, that's what we did wrong, you know, kind of thing. So you just never know. God has a good sense of humor. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time in your word. Thank you for the things you teach us and the things you show us, and that we can continue to learn and grow. And I do pray for all of us, Lord, to be like Hezekiah, to have a heart, Lord, that really wants to honor you and serve you in everything that we do. Lord, in the private places of our lives, in the public places of our lives, in everything that we do, that we would honor you. Help us, Father, to live for your glory. And forgive us our sins, Lord, for the things that we've done that aren't honoring to you. And tonight, Lord, we come before you because, Lord, we can all say in this room, probably, I've sinned in some way or another, in word or in deed or in thought, in lack of deeds. Sometimes, Lord, we don't do the good that we ought to do, and thus we sin. So Lord, we're reminded every time we come to communion that we need forgiveness, that we need our sins washed. Thank you that your word tells us that if we confess our sins, that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So Lord, tonight we come, all of us, corporately and individually, back to what you did for us on the cross. Back to our need of being washed, being cleansed, being forgiven. We pray that tonight you would wash us clean again. And thank you that you paid the debt of our sin on the cross. And Lord, that it is finished means that our debt has been paid in full. Thank you for that. Thank you, Lord, that there's no need for a purgatory or anything like that, because if there was, then your death was insufficient. Your sacrifice would have been imperfect. But Lord, we thank you that we can trust in your perfect shed blood to wash us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. That's what we're depending upon, Lord. We know we can't get to heaven unless we've been washed by your blood. So tonight, we remember what you did for us. And we thank you. We praise you tonight. Amen. So we're gonna partake of communion. What you guys can do is come up and get your cups. They're two in one, I think. Is that how it's made? Yeah. Two in one, hold onto them, and we'll partake together. We're gonna sing, and while we're singing, you guys can come up and get your cups. Sit down, and then we'll partake together. Crown of thorns, wounded side Son of God, crucified Heaven's throne, given up All for me Cross of love Nail and spear, wooden beams Bearing sins, agony For my shame, you were crushed All for me, cross of love Ancient wounds that heal me now From your hands and from your brow For all who come, it is enough Your cross of love Your cross of love Sharon Droz, Lamb of God Every stain washed and gone By the stripes, by the blood, offer me the cross of love. Ancient wounds that heal me now from your hands and from your brow. It is enough, your cross of love Ancient wounds that heal me now From your hands and from your brow For all who come It is enough, your cross of love Your cross of love Your cross of love Your cross of love When we come to the cross, when we come back to the cross or remember what Jesus did for us, we find some neat scriptures like in 1 Peter 2 where it says, if you suffer for doing good as a Christian and endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you. leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. And this is so beautiful, it says, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. We just did a baptism this last weekend, and that was one of the emphasis, that when we die, when we're buried, we die to sin. Baptism is a picture of the old person being buried. We were there doing the baptism, and we didn't get permission from the owner. My brothers rented this house, and my brother said, yeah, come on over, you can do the baptism in the hot tub, and there were like 15, 20 people there, and the owner comes out, and I was like, uh-oh, what are we going to say? And I told her, hey, listen, sorry about we didn't ask you, but we did a baptism. I didn't tell her, there's a dead person in your pool, spiritually, in a sense. But he himself bore our sins in his body in the tree, that we might die to sins, And then when we're raised from the water, we're raised to new life, we live for righteousness. And I love this, by his wounds, we have been healed. In the context here, healed of sin, healed of the consequences of sin, healed of what sin would have brought, had not we been forgiven. And that would have been death, that would have been judgment, that would have been ultimately separation from God, which is hell. But he says, for you were like sheep going astray, we can all say that was us, but now you have returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls. So by his stripes, by his wounds, we're healed, we're forgiven. And what a blessing to know that, to understand that. that we stand before the Lord, justified by his blood, declared innocent by his blood. What a blessing. So let's partake tonight of the bread as we remember what our Lord did for us. Tonight, Father, we come once more with gratitude thanking you for dying on the cross, taking our sins upon yourself, taking the judgment that we deserved, the punishment that we deserved, the guilt that we had accumulated, and you died to pay the debt. Thank you for the shed blood of your Son, Father, that you so loved the world, that you gave your only begotten Son for us. Thank you. Tonight we remember what you did and what your blood has done for us. We partake and we give you thanks. Let's partake together. Amen. Hold on to your little cups. There's a trash can on the way out. We're going to sing one last song.