The sermon 'The Allure of Babylon' by Scott Brown focuses on Isaiah 39:1-8, exploring King Hezekiah's encounter with Babylonian envoys. Hezekiah's pride leads him to show off his wealth, prompting Isaiah to prophesy the future Babylonian captivity. The sermon underscores the dual forces of blessings and chastisements as means of God's preservation of His people. It highlights the recurring gravitational pull of sin, particularly pride, and the consequences of seeking security in worldly alliances. The narrative serves as a reminder of God's sovereignty, His early warnings, and His ultimate plan to sanctify and preserve His people. The sermon calls for vigilance, humility, and a hunger for holiness, encouraging believers to learn from Hezekiah's experiences and to rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance in the face of trials.

Today's preaching will be on Isaiah 39 verses 1 through 8. At that time, Meradak Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters in a present to Hezekiah. For he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah was pleased with them and showed them that the house of his treasures, the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment and all his armory, all 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? And Hezekiah said, They came to me 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 of hosts. 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.

Then had Zacchaeus said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he said, at least there will be peace and truth in my days." Father God, Lord, there's something special that you want us to learn today from Isaiah's words, your word, and from Hisakiah's life. Lord, we pray, Lord, that as you have prepared the preacher, Scott, today to give us this teaching, that our hearts may be ready to receive it and also to not only hear it Lord but also to do things that you are calling us to do, to make changes and also to bring new things into our life. So we pray, Lord, that the words may not only be words, that they may be filled with the Spirit. So we pray, Lord, that every person today is touched and that every person may also do as you will for them to do.

This passage of scripture gives us an example of something that we've all experienced many times in our lives where there's this this external gravitational force that's drawing you in a direction there's this there's this thing outside of you and it pulls you in a direction and typically it's the same thing out there that pulls you in the same direction there may be different manifestations of. But here we find Hezekiah, the great king of Israel, again finding himself under the influence of a great gravitational force that's pulling his life in a direction. And as it turns out, it's a direction that that gravitational force has pulled him many times in the past. This is the third time we will have seen him being influenced by this power. Also in this passage we see that God is continuing to disclose through Isaiah and Hezekiah that he is going to preserve his people and he's going to glorify himself as he deals with his people in their blessings and in their chastisements.

And We've seen this disclosed a couple of times in this section, this historical section in Isaiah. In chapter 37 verse 6, we see that God delivered the children of Judah for his own sake and for the sake of his servant David. God is using these historical moments to tell a story about his intentions, and that is that his intentions are to rescue his people and he gives these remarkable historical moments to describe it and in chapters you know 36 through 39 you find a gigantic army is miraculously destroyed they just die on the battlefield a hundred and eighty five thousand of them And then you have a king who is on his deathbed and God brings him back to life. God is proving here in this section that he, his intention is to preserve his people. And he preserves his people through the blessings and also the chastisements that he brings upon them.

We often like the blessings but don't like the chastisements, but you always have to recognize that both of them are designed for the exact same reason to preserve us, to deliver us, to sanctify us. And so he's using these remarkable historical moments in order to prove this and he'll control armies, he'll control the length of a human life in order to preserve the line of the Messiah. This is the purpose of this section. These great historical moments have one singular design and that is to tell you that God absolutely will save his people. He will send his son, his son will save his people and he will control history, he will control molecules and human beings in order to accomplish it and nothing is going to stop God's eternal plan to save and sanctify His people.

And He will take His people to the end. And so these historical moments are remarkable to look at, And it's all really to say that unto us the child is born, unto us the Son is given, and the government will rest upon his shoulders. That's why this historical section exists. Also In this historical section are visions of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many visions.

I just spoke of one of them that God is preserving the power of the gospel for His people. But in this passage you see the effect of the Gospel on a man, a king, Hezekiah. And what you see in the love of God is his forbearance towards sinners. And while he is working with a very imperfect man, and he's bringing this man to glory, and we see him sometimes acting in faith, sometimes acting in faithlessness, as if there's this external gravitational force working upon him that causes him to do the same thing, to fall into the same sin. And yet God continues to rescue him, because God knows how to rescue his godly ones.

Not that they will find themselves in some kind of perfection, but they'll cry out to him and he will rescue them. And so we find This theme in this section of God's provision for sinners. And this whole, all of these events are meant to build the faith of God's people. That we would recognize who we are. That we are the people of God, that God has set us aside, that God will keep his promises, that we're a distinctive people recognizable in the world and he will preserve his people.

And so all of these themes are running through these three great events. There are three historical moments in this great section from chapters 36 to 39. There's the destruction of Sennacherib's army and then there's Hezekiah's sickness and now in the section that we find ourselves now, the very final chapter of this first large section in Isaiah is the prophecy of the destruction of Babylon. And what we find is that Hezekiah turns to Babylon for help. And this remarkable prophecy of the role of the Babylonian Empire in the people of God is given here.

We learn so much from this. You know, you turn to Babylon for help and Babylon will enslave you. You receive the favors of Babylon. You try to have favor with Babylon and Babylon will come and choke you to death. He will deport you, he will castrate your young people, and he will put you in bondage for 70 years.

And so the dangers and the allurements of Babylon are also implied here. And so, you know, and it all centers around Hezekiah and this great prophecy that takes place. Now, there are three things that have come fast upon Hezekiah and they're mentioned in this passage. I'm pretty confident these things have all happened in a very short window of time. They've happened sometime in the range of the 14th year of Hezekiah.

All of these things happened. There's this great revival that took place over a number of years and then all of a sudden the Assyrian army shows up. All of a sudden Hezekiah falls sick. All of a sudden the envoy from Babylon comes. All of these things are happening in a very short period of time.

It's possible they have some greater length of time than I'm implying, but they do seem to happen quickly. And so in this final chapter, in the final section of Hezekiah's life, we're really confronted with Hezekiah's struggle with pride. And pride is a foundation sin. And so these difficulties that come upon Hezekiah and the people of God come partly because of Hezekiah's pride. And so this passage should help us to think through what kinds of troubles there are in our lives because of our pride, in our relationships, in our business, in anything, in our life in the church.

What of pride is affecting me? And of course this question has been asked and answered many times. You know, I think God is dealing with us on this matter. It must be that He's dealing with our self-sufficiency, our pride, and our lack of trust in the sovereignty of God because it's been put before us week by week, these very same things. You know, God is a repetitive God.

He repeats the things that we need to know. And I believe that God has these things for us because He loves us. And He desires to deliver us. And even to perhaps unhook us from some of those great gravitational forces that have hurt us all our life long and the root of them is pride. Every other sin comes from pride.

And so there are all these themes and sub-themes that are working through this text. The long suffering of God, the dangers of alliances, the hardships that come as a result of pride. And Hesekiah's Achilles heel, Can you say what it is? His desire for security. It seems to me that's what it was.

He wanted to somehow procure safety from this world, and his desire for security caused enormous problems. And I think we should recognize that when our God is safety and security, then we have to recognize there are troubles ahead for us. And I think this chapter is here before us to help us to ask this question, in what ways am I looking to this world for my safety, for my success, for my security? And so let's jump into the text here. The first thing we see in verse 1 is that Meridok Baladan sends a letter to Hezekiah and then he visits him after his sickness.

There's a time marker in the text at that time. At that time indicates at the time of Hezekiah's sickness and his recovery. Now we've talked about the timeline a number of times in this passage of Scripture and My view after looking at it over and over again is that it's most likely that the sequence of events occur in the sequence that both Isaiah speaks of and also that you find in 2 Chronicles and in 2 Kings. They're in a very orderly fashion. There are reasons that we say, well maybe chapters 38 and 39 occur before the sickness and before the fall of the armies of Babylon.

But the reason that we say that is because of Assyrian birth records and war records, most of them came from Sennacherib in his temple in Nineveh. And I would just like to suggest that unless we have some great biblical reason to question the timeline that's in Scripture, at least in this passage, then let's not let an Assyrian record in the Temple of Sennacherib, you know, change our view of the sequence of Scripture. And Isaiah arranges them in the same sequence, of course, that the writer of 2 Chronicles does as well. And so I think that you have this sequence in its proper order in 2 Chronicles and in Isaiah itself. And this incident that we're looking at today is on the heels of Hezekiah's healing.

And he made these promises to God and after this healing his heart was raised up in pride again and the envoy from Babylon shows up at the city gates. And so I'd like for us to track with this, particularly in 2 Chronicles 32. So go ahead and open there. We're going to walk through 2 Chronicles 32 to get the contours. There are things that are happening in the background that Isaiah doesn't mention that really are critical for the interpretation of what Isaiah is speaking of.

Now I think we should recognize Isaiah has a laser beam focus, the Babylonian captivity. That's what Isaiah is emphasizing in this whole matter. That God is going to continue to be faithful to His people and he is going to continue to work with them to bring them back from the brink of their disobedience. He's going to punish them. He's going to continue to try to deliver them from their sickness through his chastisement.

He's going to take them out of out of out of their land deport them to Babylon and while they're in Babylon They're going to begin to grow they're going to return to the Lord God's plan is to continue to cause his people to grow and learn from him to love him And often that only happens through chastisement and difficulty. And God is even going to use Nebuchadnezzar to do that. And that's really the focus of Isaiah's narrative here. We learn that his son, as Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, is going to come out of the gate as a wicked man. And he's going to continue in his wickedness.

He's going to reverse all of his father's policies until something happens. He's attacked, he's taken out of the city, and he's castrated. And then he turns to the Lord. God is willing to do remarkable things for the welfare of His people. And I think that's why Isaiah is focusing in on the Babylonian captivity.

But there's much here in 2 Chronicles chapter 32 that I'd like for us to see here. And you see the order of events, and I'm just going to run through them, and then we'll walk through them in this chapter. First of all you have this time of revival. You know Hezekiah is 25 years old when he becomes king. Within two months is a gigantic revival.

Joy is breaking out everywhere. One of the most remarkable passages of Scripture about the joyful worship of the people of God happens during this season of revival. And then the Assyrian army threatens Judah and they are defeated. Then there's great success and there's tremendous economic wealth that begins to be poured into Judah. Hezekiah is the one who's the executor of it all.

He's deploying all of these remarkable resources that have been brought into the kingdom. And then almost immediately he falls ill and he's going to die. And then God delivers him. And then he's raised to prominence again. And he's at least getting letters from his friends in Babylon, quote unquote friends.

And he's receiving praise. And he has a new prominence. And his prominence has given birth to pridefulness. And as his pride is confronted by a prophet then he repents and he returns to the Lord. And from all we can gather he ends well, he finishes well, but he's not always well all along the way.

And so that's kind of the sequence that you get here in 2 Chronicles. So in verse 22, In 2 Chronicles, you see the destruction of the Assyrian army, how the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib. And then all these gifts, verse 23, begin to pour into Jerusalem. So this is this great wealth that Hezekiah had at his fingertips. And then in verse 24 he falls ill.

He's near death and he prays to God. And then his pride raises up in verse 25. But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up. Therefore, wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem." And this just shows us a scene that has been played in all of our lives as well. Not only are there these gravitational forces outside of us that pull us in a direction, there are also times of blessing.

And when times of blessing come upon us, what do we do? And God rescues you from something, you cry out to God in thankfulness and deliverance and you make commitments and promises and then you forget. And it may take us a long time or a little time to forget. Often it might be five or ten years and we wake up and say, oh I forgot about the commitments I made to the Lord. It might be very quickly.

In this case, it seemed very quick. He forgot so fast. This just shows the vulnerability that we have in even in times of blessing. And but that when God blesses that we have an obligation to repay. But Hezekiah did not repay according to the blessings that he was giving.

And you might just ask yourselves, And we should ask this as a church, you know, how has God blessed us? And we've not acknowledged it, and we've not repaid. We've not turned, not to earn any of our salvation. You cannot gain anything for your salvation by doing any good work. But at the same time, we are called to good works.

And you know, have we not turned in praise toward God, in acts of righteousness, for the goodness that He's done to us? We owe Him something. Christians often act like they don't owe God anything, but we actually owe Him everything. And so this is what we find here. And then in verse 26, after this time of forgetfulness, it says, Then has Micaiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart.

In other words, he didn't end in his pride. He humbled himself and he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them all the days of Hezekiah. So because of his humiliation, his turning to the Lord, the wrath of God didn't fall down on the nation. We see that in Isaiah, where Hezekiah says, oh Lord, I thank you that it won't be falling upon us in our days. This was a kindness of God toward him.

And then in verse 27 we read of his great riches and his honor that he made in all of these treasuries and it lists these remarkable categories of wealth that God had bequeathed upon him. And then it speaks of his projects in verse 30. He was a man of construction, and he loved to build weapons and all kinds of things like that. And then in verse 31, I want us to see this, because we learn what is happening in the background when the envoy from Babylon comes. Would you please look at verse 31?

Because this is what had happened. You know, there are things going on in the world and people's lives that you have no idea are happening to them. And here in verse 31 it says, however, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him in order to test him that he might know all that was in his heart. Here's a man, everything is going well for him. His heart is turned toward the Lord and something happens to him and no one really understands, but God has withdrawn from him in order to test him.

And let's just stop on that for a moment. You know, when people go through the ups and downs of their lives, And I think all of us would recognize we go through ups and downs. There are cycles in our lives. We can often enter into harsh judgments against people, and we don't really know what's going on with them. Here The distance that Hezekiah had was something that God did to him.

We have to recognize the sovereignty of God even in matters of the cycles of life. There will be ups and downs. Hopefully there'll be few of them and the cycles won't be too deep. But here we find Hezekiah as far from God. And this word for test is used in the Bible for God's testing the quality of a person through adversity.

He puts people through tests. And there are many examples of this in Scripture. The Queen of Sheba tested Solomon with questions in 1 Kings 10 verse 1. The chief of the eunuchs were tested in the days of Daniel after they ate vegetables for ten days. God sent trials upon the Egyptians in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 19.

God tested Israel by the Canaanite nations in Judges chapter 2. God tested Abraham in Genesis 22. In Exodus chapter 16, God tested Moses with manna. God says, I will send, I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not." He was testing them as to whether they would trust him in keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, God tested his people with hunger in order to humble them.

Why manna? Why hunger in the wilderness? God was testing them to see what was in their hearts, but he tested them actually so that he would humble them. Maybe it was the same force of humiliation that took place in Manasseh as he was castrated and he turned to God after the trouble in his life. Often, we Don't turn to the Lord until there's a terrible thing that happens.

Don't wait for a terrible thing to happen. But God may cause a terrible thing to happen in order to turn you around. And this is why God gave the children of Israel hunger in the wilderness and also to teach them that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In Deuteronomy 8.15, we also learn that the troubles of the wilderness were designed to test them. He says the great and terrible wilderness, the fiery serpents, the scorpions, the thirsty land, all of these were designed to humble you, that he might test you to do you good in the end." That's Deuteronomy 8, 16.

God was testing his people through all of these things that you might... Those rotten scorpions that are always there, these flying serpents that are harassing us, these were there to humble the people. In Psalm 26 verses 1 through 3, David cries out to God to test him. But here there was this testing. God withdrew from him in order to test his heart.

And so that's what's happening. The envoy shows up And there's a literal withdrawal of God from him. And then in verse 2, we read that Hezekiah was pleased with the Babylonians. And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and he showed them the house of his treasures, the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory, all that was found among his treasures, there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show him. And so he was pleased with them.

Here we find how it was with Hezekiah, how people would influence him whom he wanted to impress. He desired somehow the praises of these people and he received them. How the people we want to impress influence us, is shown to us right here in the life of Hezekiah. John Gill mentioned that it was not his desire for riches before he had those. It wasn't covetousness that was driving him in this situation.

He says this, his sin was vainglory. And because he might hope that such a powerful ally would be a security to him against any other attempt of the king of Assyria, in which he was guilty of another sin, vain confidence, or trusting in the arm of the flesh, and being lifted up with pride, that his name was become so famous abroad, and that he had got so good an ally, and in order to ingratiate himself the more unto his esteem and favor. He quote, showed these things to the ambassadors, the house of his precious things. He wanted to please the pagans. That's always a great danger.

And how flattery can puff you up. You lose your mind, as someone said on Tuesday morning, how success can make your head swell, how deliverance can dampen your zeal, and victory can make you more vulnerable than you ever ever thought. That favor from pagans can so flavor your thinking that you're not even considering what you are doing and that's exactly what happened with Hezekiah and so these deceptive men from a far country Were playing upon a man's pride. They knew what flattery would do to a man and it did it to Hezekiah and also we see has a kind of taking credit for it all. He talks about my treasures, my armory, my house.

He's showing them all these things. He's taking credit for the work. He showed them absolutely everything. You know how different this was from the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. Her focus was not his wealth, but it was wisdom.

Solomon was showing the wisdom of God. And so the Queen of Sheba was impressed by the power of God. She blessed the Lord in 1 Kings 10, 9. She said, Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel, because the Lord has loved Israel forever." She was praising God for the riches. Hezekiah was praising himself for the riches, and he was flaunting them.

And then we see how Isaiah begins to question Hezekiah in verses 3 and 4. 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? And Hezekiah said, they came to me from a far country, from Babylon. And here we find the rebuke of a faithful friend, a prophet, this prophet engages the king with respect and honor, but he asks the question. There are many sort of convicting questions that you find being asked in Scripture.

When God says to Adam, where are you? When God asks Cain a question. There are two chapters in Job where Job is being asked questions. Remember when Elisha asked Gehazi, is this the time for this? Well, there are these questions that Hezekiah is being asked by Isaiah and you know there it's it's often it's often for us all we need is a question you know men you know wise men who hear the question the convicting questions of their wives understand this.

How important it is sometimes to just ask a question. And that's exactly what happens here. Also notice the prophet came uninvited. He came on his own accord. He saw something and he came.

Often we need to do that for our brothers. We need to come uninvited. We need to seek them out. We need to knock on their door and ask them a question. And this is what this is what this faithful man does.

Isaiah had been ministering to Hezekiah's family for many, many years. And now he's coming to this man at age 39 to counsel him. The questions weren't for gathering information. They were for the purpose of bringing conviction. And Isaiah answers, or Hezekiah answers, he says in verse 4, He said, what have they seen in your house?

And Hezekiah answered, they have seen all that is in my house. There's nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. You can just imagine Hezekiah and his pride was showing them everything. Every cabinet, every closet, everything. Nothing was left unshown.

And all of this happened at a time when God had withdrawn from him. God sends in the flatterers and then he withdraws from a man. You know, often, you know, when there's a temptation, we have to ask ourselves what is going on in our hearts. You know, Hezekiah, I'm sure, was aware that he was growing distant, rapidly distant to God and his pride was swelling. And then we find in verses 5 through 7, Isaiah prophesies of the future consequences.

And I think this is probably the central matter of Isaiah's instruction here to us, that he is focusing on the Babylonian captivity. And so Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. 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 so he's prophesying about Babylon now this is the third time that Isaiah has brought a prophecy about Babylon in chapter 13 verse 5 God prophesied that Babylon is going to come in and destroy the whole land And God is going to destroy Babylon as well, as he did Sodom and Gomorrah. And then in chapter 21, that great passage that is quoted in the book of Revelation, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the carved images of her gods, he has broken to the ground. So Hezekiah already understands that Babylon will be destroyed by the Lord.

And now Isaiah comes with another prophecy, that Babylon will come in and destroy Jerusalem. So this isn't going to happen for 115 years when Judah will finally go into exile into Babylon. And in verse 7 there's this chilling prophecy, 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. Can you imagine the conflicted spirit that Hezekiah would have at this moment? First of all, he's told that he will have sons.

At this point, he doesn't have any sons as far as we know. So in one sense, God is telling him a word of encouragement. He's going to have sons because Manasseh has not been born yet at this time. But then he says, whom you will beget, they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." And this was fulfilled. You can read about it in 2 Chronicles 33 verse 1.

And so this is about the Babylonian captivity. And why the Babylonian captivity? Why did it happen? It happened for two reasons. It happened because the people of God refused to be regulated by God in their Sabbaths and For 490 years they refused to keep the Sabbath the way that God prescribed that they would keep it And the 70 years of captivity were from a calculation of those 490 years, and that they did not keep the Sabbath.

And you can read about this in 2 Chronicles 36, 22, and 23. But God had prescribed that the seventh year the fields should lie fallow and the land would rest. And the people would trust God during that year and they would eat of what would just grow naturally out of the ground. But they refused that Sabbath rest every seven years and they did it for 490 years. And so they had been in the promised land now for 70 Sabbath years, 490 years.

And God gave them one year of captivity for every Sabbath cycle, seven-year cycle that they did not keep, God applied a mathematical formulation for their judgment. And we know that, you know, There were three deportations out of Babylon. The first happened in 605 BC. The first group of captives included Daniel. Imagine Daniel and his friends marching into this great city of Babylon, walking into this remarkable place and then being castrated and then being made slaves under Nebuchadnezzar.

And then in 597, 10, 000 more captives were deported along with the prophet Ezekiel. And then finally, Jerusalem fell completely in 586 BC. And the final captives were led away. And so here, Isaiah is prophesying this moment that not only will Isaiah have offspring, but that his offspring will become eunuchs in the court of the king. And here what we find is, you know, God is giving Judah early warning for the captivity in Babylon.

We've run across this matter of early warnings. God is a God who warns early. God gives plenty of time for repentance. He gives an enormous amount of time for repentance. And here, after God giving a number of warnings and deliverances in the interim time, He is now giving them another warning again.

And there are two great issues where they would not be regulated by God in the keeping of their Sabbaths, and they worshiped in the ways that the pagans worshiped. They were worshiping the way that Baal was being worshiped. You get that? They weren't just worshiping Baal. They were worshiping God in the way that Baal was worshiped.

Those were the two primary reasons of the Babylonian captivity. The refusal to keep the Sabbath and idolatry. And God is giving a warning to His people. Now, I think it would be right to pause and just consider this whole matter. God is bringing captivity to His people because they have no hunger for holiness.

Holiness without which no one will see the Lord. That's what we learn in the New Testament. And people should always ask, do I have a hunger for holiness? Do I want the fewer things of the Lord? Or am I still scamming and jamming and trying to find my pleasure in this world?

There really are only two kinds of people in the world. There are those who hunger for holiness, and there are those who hunger for the world. And they want their treasure and their pleasure here, and they're willing to compromise anything for it. And here is this exact same situation. God is warning them that If they court Babylon, Babylon will come and capture them.

Babylon will come and choke them if they play favor to Babylon. And here it's strange that you have this scene where Hezekiah is actually pleasing and being pleased by Babylon. This is how it always works. If you want to be pleased by Babylon and if you want to please Babylon, Babylon will please you for only a very short period of time and then Babylon will come and castrate you and overtake you and destroy your life. And that's the lesson of the Babylonian captivity.

And I think this moment for Hezekiah, while he is pleasing and being pleased by Babylon. Thankfully, God stops him up. He stops him short and he repents. And that's the opportunity that all of us have. If we have been pleased by Babylon and are pleasing Babylon, you can always turn back.

Turn to the Lord. That's the message. And then Hezekiah affirms the message in verse 8. So Hezekiah says to Isaiah, The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good, for he said, at least there will be peace and truth in my days." This is the point of Hezekiah's turning. We read about it in Saint Chronicles 32, where he humbled himself, and he is saying, yes, the Word of God is good.

His life is being recalibrated and he's praising God for the message of Isaiah. He's saying, yes, the Word is good. And it's this whole word of God's prophecy. Here I think Hezekiah finally has himself back where he recognizes that God is sovereign and that God's sovereignty is good. And even though there's judgment coming, he believes that God is good.

And in this he's acknowledging the mercy of God, and that there's even his mercy in his judgment. And so this chapter ends with a note of the sovereignty of God and the justice of God and the integrity of God to do His will. Because God is going to work out His will. And He is going to preserve His people. And He's going to preserve His people through the blessings and the chastisements that He brings.

And he's now prophesying that he is going to bless his people with another chastisement called the Babylonian captivity. And it will work so that they will turn back to him and they will return to the land and they will worship him in spirit and in truth. Because God is dedicated for His own glory, for the sure mercies of David. And He'll control armies, and He'll even pull the strings of a wicked ruler like Nebuchadnezzar to come in and chastise his people. And while this is happening, the power of Babylon is growing stronger and stronger in order to come to fruition at the proper time.

Right now Babylon is not a gigantic military force. Babylon keeps getting beaten back at this time in history. The king of Babylon, Meridot Baladon, overtakes Babylon in 722 BC. He only lasts 11 years and an Assyrian king comes and displaces him. And then he comes back again in 703 BC and then he's replaced again.

So Babylon is not a mighty, mighty force like Assyria. Assyria is still running the show in the ancient Near East. But the power of Babylon is growing stronger. And Isaiah has prophesied of their day of great strength when they will come in. Now, I have lots of application.

First of all, I want us to really meditate on God's tenderness in dealing with sinners, Hezekiah specifically. God is walking with, working with Hezekiah. Here's what I want us to see. God sees Hezekiah to the end. God will see you to the end.

He brings the sinner to the final outcome. He brings many sons to glory. And you might look at your life right now and say, I've just sinned greatly. I cannot make it. That's true.

You can't. But God is the one who brings many sons to glory. You think of the great lapse that Hezekiah just experienced. He was just playing favors to Babylon of all things, of all people. And God continues to have mercy.

I think you see the greatness of the mercy of God in this. So I pray that you wouldn't miss the great mercy of God. Secondly, in the same vein, we should beware of exalting celebrities. Hezekiah was a celebrity in this sense. He was a mighty, godly man.

He really was one of the best kings Israel ever had. I wish we had a Hezekiah in the United States of America in the office of the President. You would want him there. But at the same time, the Bible heroes are always displayed with honesty. This is one way you can tell that the Bible is not a fake book, because it doesn't give fake testimony about real people.

It gives real testimony about real people. And We should not over-exalt those that we think are godly. Godliness is a wonderful thing, and there are examples given to the flock in this church here of godliness. Different people have different expressions of godliness that we should all learn from, but we dare not over exalt one another. Thirdly, Make the most of opportunities to magnify the Lord.

Hezekiah could have testified to the hope that was in him. Hezekiah could have praised God for the abundance that this marvelous sovereign God brought to him, but he didn't. He drew attention to himself. He was impressed with his wealth and he was impressed with those who were impressed by it. But let's make most of the opportunities to magnify the Lord.

Fourthly, don't despise trials and tribulations. I think this is one thing God has been teaching us as a church. I think probably a year ago we had a worse view of trials and chastisement than we do now. But God has a plan for every trial and every chastisement. I think that's one reason why we love to sing that song, Like a River Glorious.

Every joy or trial falleth from above. Every joy or trial, falleth from above. If you don't believe that, you'll never be able to have peace in this world. Godliness and sanctification work through trials. David said in Psalm 1, 1967, Before I was afflicted, I went astray.

But now I keep your word. You are good and do good. Teach me your statutes." David is saying that he went astray and then God afflicted him. That's exactly what happened to Manasseh. He went astray and God brought him into a terrible trial and it turned him around.

You know, I know people are going through different kinds of trials. They can be the very best things that have ever happened to us. And that's why David said, it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. That's Psalm 119, verse 71. Number five, don't despise the rebukes of a faithful friend.

Don't despise the rebukes of a faithful friend. If you're married, most likely those rebukes are your spouse. They come from your spouse. Don't despise them. Learn from them.

You know, has a kya seemed to respond in time? Number six, have you repaid on your vows? Have you repaid on your vows? Just consider, are there things that you've said after a time of mercy, of blessing, that you've just completely forgotten about and they no longer fuel your soul. The mercies of God are, I think, designed to spur us on to love and good deeds.

And then number seven, pride. Pride is the root of all your sins and almost all of your internal and external conflicts. You know, what hurt feelings do you have now that just, they just go back to your pride, That's all it is. What anger do you have? It just goes back to your pride.

What broken relationship do you have? It's all driven by your pride. You may have problems in your business. How many of those are driven by your pride? You know, often we have trouble in our business because of our pride, often.

We just don't want to say what's really true, because we're so prideful. Pride does come before a fall. Thomas Hooker, he said that pride is so embedded into the hearts of men that if you could strip yourself of all of your faults one by one, you would find this very last one impossible to pull out. Number eight, remember the vigilance that's necessary after blessings fall upon us. You know, are things going well for you now?

Are you in a good place right now? You're in a smooth place right now. And Things have never been better. Never been better in your business, in your family. Church life is just so nice.

Have things been going so good for you? Don't forget the vigilance that's necessary after the outpouring of mercies. I think We should recognize what happened to Hezekiah. I mean, he's rescued from an army and wealth flows into the kingdom. He's on his deathbed and then he gets the praises of even Babylon.

And He's flying as high as a kite. Everything is going well. And all of that mercy didn't do much for him. Satan doesn't retreat just because God poured out his blessing. Satan doesn't disappear after the day of grace.

And we shouldn't think that we're incapable of falling back into our former sins. We all have memories of our former sins, and we often think we could never go back to them again. But when we think that, we should remember Hezekiah. He went right back into them almost immediately. The godliest king that Israel ever had beside David.

And he went right back into them. I mean, so quickly it makes your head stand almost to think about it. And here was a man, he was tempted in the same way that he was always tempted and fell before. He was tempted by an alliance with Assyria, he was tempted by an alliance with Egypt, and now he's being tempted by an alliance with Babylon, the three great nations. Hezekiah trips on the same cord all the time.

And that's true of us as well. There are things that are pernicious sins, there are trip cords that we fall over all the time. And let's recognize what those are. I have my own list. I have my own list.

Things that I have fallen to over and over and over and over again. And I don't think you and I are any different compared to Hezekiah. And so vigilance is necessary after the blessings so that we don't find ourselves falling back into the same thing that we've fallen into many times before. I pray that you know what that is and you're going to walk out of here today and you're going to understand what that thing is that always trips you up and make a covenant with God. God has designed the gatherings of His people so that people would make a covenant with Him in worship.

You can go to Ecclesiastes 5 and other places to find an example of that. Worship is really one of its purposes is that the people of God would make covenants with God. So Hezekiah finished well, but all wasn't perfectly well along the way. And then ninth, I'd like us to consider God's withdrawal and the work of the Holy Spirit. What do we think about God withdrawing from us?

And There are a few things that I want to say that may sound contradictory, but I can't really believe that they are. And that is, don't presume on the presence of God. And I want to qualify that. But here what we find is that God sends in the flatterers and then he withdraws from a man. And then his pride swells.

And There are places where God withdraws from people to test them. He does test people in different ways. But what we have in the days of the New Covenant is a power that Hezekiah didn't have. Now I do believe that there are ways that God deals with his people in a way of withdrawing from them in order to test them. God does test his people.

The New Testament makes it very clear that we are tested by trials so that our faith would be built and that Jesus Christ was tested so that we would learn about our own testing. So it's absolutely true that we're going to be tested and there may be forms of withdrawal but in the New Covenant God has poured out a spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ has said I will never leave you or forsake you. There's a difference when you compare the old and the new covenant temptations and withdrawals. And it's a very long discussion, but there are great and precious promises as Peter spoke of in 1 Peter, in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 4. And the promise of the Holy Spirit is one of those great and precious promises.

We have better promises in the midst of a better covenant. And one of those advantages has to do with the outpouring of the Spirit. Luke 24 says, we have power from on high. Galatians 1, 4 says, we have deliverance from this evil world. Romans 3, 22 says we have the righteousness of God.

John 6, 56 says we have the indwelling of God. Ephesians 2, 13 says we have the nearness of God. In John 15, 5 we have fruitfulness. In John 15, 10 we have an abiding in his love. In Philippians 4-19 we have a God who will supply all of our needs.

We have the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the help of the Holy Spirit, the encouragement of the Holy Spirit. This is something that Hezekiah didn't have in the same degree that we have. What a blessing it is to live in the days of the New Covenant, where the Holy Spirit is there in a way that he wasn't with Hezekiah. I don't think that any of us will have the exact same kind of withdrawing that Hezekiah had. There may be ways that God will test us, perhaps in a form of withdrawing, But it's not a withdrawal of the Holy Spirit and his leadership and his comfort and his guidance and his conviction.

The Spirit of God is a real and beautiful force that the New Covenant Christian has that Hezekiah never had. You can turn to the Baptist confession in chapter 17 and read about how this works. But what's the point of it all? The point of it all is this. God preserves his people.

And God preserves his people through his chastisements and his difficulties. And God has a people who are affected by these external gravitational forces that pull on them in a different direction. But God has poured out his spirit and he said, I will never leave you or forsake you. God gives help to those who find themselves in days of temptation. And we see how God did that with Hezekiah.

Hezekiah, I think, was a bruised reed that God did not break. He was weak in that one area, and God didn't break him. But rather, He preserved him, and he blessed him. And even when he sinned, he turned around and withdrew his wrath. This is the beautiful power of the gospel.

That to all those who believe in Jesus Christ, all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, they will be cared for by God. God will sustain His people. He will carry them to the very end. He will put His hand on your head and He will never bring it off. And He will carry you to the end.

And even if you find yourself in a time of weakness now, recognize this, God is strong. Like Hezekiah, He's bringing many sons to glory. And so here in this remarkable story in the Old Testament is a picture of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, how He came to save sinners and He preserves them to the very end. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this history, these real people, you being real, speaking to them with real words and doing things that declare the glory of your power. Lord, I pray that you would give us help here to bring these many applications to bear in our lives. That you would show us our pride, that you would help us to see the things that are weak in us so that we might be made strong by the power of your Holy Spirit. Oh Lord, we thank you. Thank you for keeping us from stumbling and presenting us before the presence of your glory with exceeding joy.

Lord, thank you for your preserving power. Amen.