And let us turn in God's word to 2 Kings chapter 20. As we look at the end of Hezekiah's life, and sadly I would argue Hezekiah goes out with a pretty big whimper. And it's pretty sad. So let us read together 2 Kings chapter 20, the whole of the chapter as our text and as our scripture reading this morning. In those days, Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. 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 was good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 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 hear you, heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen 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. Then Isaiah said, take a lump of figs. So they took and laid it on the boil and he recovered. 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? Then Isaiah said, this is the 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? And Hezekiah answered, it is an easy thing for the shadow to go down 10 degrees, but no, no, 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. At that time, Baradak Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah was attentive to them and showed them all the house of his treasures, the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to 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. And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he said, will there not be peace and truth at least in my days? Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, all of 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 kings of Judah? So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place. Thus far, the reading of God's word. May he add his blessing to our consideration of it this morning. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, this is a passage and particularly that statement of Hezekiah at the end that has bothered me since I was a little kid. And it's a statement that I think we have to understand. Hezekiah, when he's faced with his own mortality, weeps bitterly before the Lord. He says, God, see how good I've been? Let me live! But when his sinful pride had caused him to sin before the Lord and to show all the treasuries that he had to the Babylonians when God declares the judgment on him that will extend to his children and to his children's children. He says, the word of the Lord is good. Will there not be peace and truth in my life? And brothers and sisters, What are we working for as Christians? What are we doing on this earth? Are we here to make our lives good and easy? Are we here to seek that the lives of our children and our children's children will be for the glory of our awesome God as servants of our great and awesome Lord. Do we accept the idea, at least there's going to be peace and truth in my time? I'm sorry to say, brothers and sisters, I rebel viscerally at that thought. That my life would just be about good times for me. And not to stand vehemently to seek that the truth of the gospel would be taught to my children and to my grandchildren and Lord willing to my great-grandchildren. That there would not be peace in the land in which I live so that the gospel could go forth. And what Hezekiah does there echoes to us as we read about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The lives of Esther. Where they have to make choices in danger. Because of the kingdom where they were. Because of Hezekiah's unwillingness to bow before God in prayer, to seek safety for their lives. Truth for their lives. And sadly, brothers and sisters, I see this too much in the modern church. The same idea. I entitled this sermon, Gospel Entitlement. We crowd, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, God saved a wretch like me. But God, I want more. I want earthly peace and prosperity. I want it easy. In retrospect, we should have sung one of these songs, should have been, how's that one go? Shall I be born unto the skies? on flowery beds of ease, when others suffered and died to win the prize and fought on storm-tossed seas. How do we respond to God's precious gifts, to God's gracious gifts? Do we live in thanksgiving and praise? Or do we end up entitled, God give me more. I want me. I almost entitled this sermon the me monster. How do we respond to God's gracious gift? God has been so gracious to Hezekiah. He gave him to Saved Jerusalem from the invaders. Sent them back packing Assyria. God did that. And when he's confronted with his own mortality, he cries out to God. And rightly so. How should we respond as we think about our own mortality? But notice this passage begins and ends with Hezekiah's death. Death is the central theme here. We talked about this morning in Adult Sunday School. People don't like to talk about death. Even if God extends our lives, if Christ does not come first, we will all die. Are we prepared? And God says this to Hezekiah, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. Sometimes that's more of a long-term statement, but if we're not ready to die, we're not ready to live. Set your house in order to each one of us. Oh, I'm young. I might be a little kid. Set your house in order. How many young kids die too? Are we prepared to die? And so, Hezekiah, hearing that statement from Isaiah, cries out to God, rightly so. But notice what he says. First of all, verse 2. 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 with a loyal heart and done what was good in your sight. Hezekiah's prayer was based on what he has done. And certainly there's an aspect by which that can be understood. But brothers and sisters, What does God say? Based on what does God say that he's going to extend Hezekiah's life? It's not based on how good he has been. He says, I will defend, verse 6, this city for my own sake. I will deliver you for the sake of my servant David. This is God's grace. Our lives here on this earth are the gift of God. God's grace to us. He prays. It's the right thing to do. But the outcome seems to be that he was not prepared. We're told that God let him make these choices to see whether his heart was right with him. And Hezekiah weeps bitterly before the Lord. As we face life and death issues, how do we respond? Is it all about grasping on to, hanging on to life? We have monuments to this all over the place in our culture with these hospitals. Yes, it's beautiful, it's wonderful what we have, but we have to understand that while we can certainly do some things to help, we do an awful lot of grasping on to staying alive. The old song, Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive, oh, oh, oh, is the theme song of our culture. Because I don't want to face what comes after the judgment that we talked about in the catechism this morning. And Hezekiah prays and God answers. He says, yes, I'm going to let you live. In fact, before Isaiah had gone through the middle court of the house, He's set back and God promises that in three days Hezekiah will go to the house of the Lord. Does that mean he will be completely healed in three days? No! But he had been bedridden and near death. So going to worship in the temple would be a huge change for him. And God promises Hezekiah 15 more years that God would deliver Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the king of Assyria. But as we said, why? For God's own sake. Because of God's love. Because of God's mercy. Again, we come to God in our prayers not saying, look how good I have been. I'm such a good guy. But we come to God saying, I have nothing. by your grace, by your mercy. And God provides the medicine to heal Hezekiah. Yet, he wants a sign from God, as if the word of the prophet was not enough for him. Now, his father had been told you need to ask for a sign, and he got in trouble for that. So it's understandable somewhat. But on the other hand, God says, here, use this, and already, right away here, we read that the boil was going down. The danger, whatever it was, was already going down as soon as the poultice was on the boil. Hezekiah says, I want a sign, and God gives him a sign. He moves the sun backward. Hezekiah says, it's easy for it to go forward. Move it backward. So, the thought process, and I'm not sure exactly, is it was perhaps about noon and the sun would have gone back to about 6 a.m. to the beginning of the day, 10 degrees. Not like we think, 10 degrees on a little protractor. But Hezekiah hadn't asked for signs about the saving of Jerusalem, but now about his health, yeah, he wanted to know. And then, we have the test. Hezekiah receives, we're told, ambassadors of the princes of Babylon. that were sent to him. He received them and was attentive to them, verse 13, and showed them all his house and treasures, silver and gold and spices, precious ointment, all his armory that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them." Now interesting, there's interplay here. The Babylonians worshiped a sun god. The sun had gone backwards in a demonstration of what God was going to do for Hezekiah. And that was certainly something that would have gotten to the Babylonians. And so they come to make a visit to this king for whom their God had bowed, if you will. And Hezekiah shows them off all of his kingdom. But there's one thing missing in this. And it's an argument from silence, don't get me wrong. But there's not a word about him showing them the temple. Pointing them to the God who had brought the sun back. Not their sun god. But the true God of the universe. And Hezekiah has shown them everything, and Isaiah, who had brought to him good news again and again, comes. And he says, what have they seen? What did these men say? From where did they come to you? Hezekiah said they came from a far country, from Babylon. 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. Hezekiah showed them in pride. And notice how he addresses the stuff in his house. My treasures, my house. Not God's treasures that He has given me. How do we have the things that we have as human beings, as Christians in this world? Mine, mine, mine? Are they gifts from God to be used for His glory? Hezekiah, having had his life literally extended by the hand of God, uses that extension of time about me. Mine, mine, mine. Brothers and sisters, what are we doing with our time on this earth? Is it about me? Is it about the glory of the God who has saved me again and again and again? And Isaiah confronts Him And he says, behold, verse 17, the days are coming that when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon, nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. All this stuff that you've gathered together will be taken captive to Babylon. How do we deal with the enemies of God's church, of God's people? We need to have a level of concern about how they're going to treat the things of God. We do not cast our pearls before swine. We do not point before them and say, look how good my stuff is. We say, look what God has given me. Again, we get that opportunity right there in the midst of that to say, God, a witness to who God is and what He does. It's not about me. It's about God. And Hezekiah declares there will be peace and truth in my days. And the next verses are his death. How long does peace and truth last if we're worried about it in my life? It's gone. We're not here to defend peace and truth for my life. Certainly, it is a blessing if there is peace and truth in our lives. But we do not sit back on our laurels and heap up for ourselves treasures on this earth and peace on this earth from an earthly perspective. Hezekiah, when faced, as we've said, with his mortality, cries out to God. But when he's told of the judgment that's coming because of his selfishness, his response is, that's okay, no big deal. The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. And of course, the word of the Lord is good. The judgment of the Lord is good and righteous. But brothers and sisters, should not we, when faced with the lives of our children, of our grandchildren, yes, we can't finally make sure that all of that is going to go the way we would like it to. But insofar as we can, to seek for the truth, for the gospel to go forth from generation to generation to generation. He died. How long is our life here on this earth? How long are we really going to be here? You know, what is it, 80 is the new 40, right? But brothers and sisters, if Christ doesn't return, we will all face death. There is no discharge in that war, the writer of the Hebrews tells us. If we're not ready, go back to that first verse. If we do not have our life set in order now, we're not ready to live here on this earth. Well, I'm going to get that figured out later. Later might not come. And so, brothers and sisters, we need not just to prepare for our own lives, we need to seek, we need to fight for the truth of the Gospel. to be available to our children, to our grandchildren. We need to fight that truth and righteousness will be the rule of our land for the future, insofar as we can. We need to fight, and the best way to fight, first of all, is what? To be on our knees. Praying. And then be ready to labor. Because if we're gonna pray, we ought not just pray and say, okay God, you do it. We need to put our hands and our lives and our bodies to fight for it. And so brothers and sisters, as I said, this is a passage and specifically that statement by Hezekiah just irks me. And I think it should every one of us. as we think about how do we live. This is a whole chapter that's dedicated to the fact and the idea that even if, as our catechism says, God's gifts, God's blessings cannot profit us without his blessing. The provision that God gives us, even extra life on this earth. If it's about me, Rather not have it. What are we living for? What are we doing with the days God gives us on this earth? Are we fighting for the gospel to go forth? Or are we entitled? Saying, life should be easy. That's the question for every one of us. Amen. Let us rise, let us bow before our God in prayer. And we'll close this prayer together with the Lord's Prayer. Almighty, gracious Heavenly Father, I confess that so often I have been desirous of ease on this earth, rather than desiring your gospel to go forward to the ends of the earth. That you would use me, us, for the extension of your kingdom. Forgive us, Lord, when we so easily seek the ease of this world, rather than laying up treasure in heaven. We pray, Lord, that the time that you give us on this earth, we would use for bringing your gospel to this world, for seeking the extension of Christ's kingdom, for truth and righteousness to the next generation and the generation following that and the generation following that. Help us, Lord, not to rest on our laurels in this world. We pray, Lord. in thanksgiving for each and every day that you give us upon this earth, for each and every blessing that you give us upon this earth, that you have been so good to us. But then help us not to treat those blessings, those gifts, as though they are our own, something that we deserve. But help us, Lord, to hold on to them freely, ready to use them for Your glory, for Your honor. We praise You, Lord, for sending Your Son, who for the glory that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame. Help us, Lord, to go to Him outside of the camp, not seeking the things of this world, but seeking the eternity which you have purchased for us in Jesus Christ, which you have given to us. Help us, Lord, to honor our awesome Savior, to honor you, God, for you are worthy of all glory and all honor. And we pray this as Jesus taught us to pray, saying, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.