Good Hard Lessons (Part B)

For us, we have so much information available to us concerning the Bible and its prophecies that we have no reason to doubt what the Bible teaches. There have been saints before us who have died martyrs with less verification.

They had enough to know this is the truth. Nobody else is dealing with my sin except Jesus Christ. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here is Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 38 with this edition of Cross Reference Radio. We have a say-so in our life with God to some degree. Now it doesn't mean that we can manipulate God and move him away from what he wants.

It does say we have free will, and it does say God listens to us. And while Isaiah walked, Hezekiah prayed. So Isaiah is, you know, walking in the courtyard. He's still up there praying. God is multitasking. He couldn't be God if He was infinitely superior. Isaiah walked.

Hezekiah prayed. God intervened. And God does not always do it this way.

It is not a cookie-cut formula. But the doctrine comes out. So there is the perfect will of God, which is never changing.

God, the sun will rise tomorrow. Nothing's going to stop that. God has ordained this, and people can affect that. Then there is the permitted will of God, where it's not ideal, but He's going to let it happen. What this is, is the adjusted will of God. In each case, there's a reason. It's not random. It's not, whoa, gee, you know, He just did it. Here are the biblical examples to back up what I'm saying. Of course, we know the Genesis story of creation and the universe is in its place.

That's perfect. The Jews, they were promised the land known as Israel, everything east of the Jordan. But two and a half tribes wanted to be west of the Jordan.

Well, that wasn't part of the plan. And God granted it. He permitted that. He adjusted His will, and that became promised land also. Balaam. Balaam was a prophet of God, even though he was a Gentile prophet. The Bible says he was a prophet, and he became an apostate prophet.

And he insisted on flirting with the riches of Balak, the king, and the curses. And of course, ultimately, God allowed him. All right, fine, go. I've made my statement to you. A dumb donkey has spoken to you.

If you can't figure that out, you're going to reap what you sow. And in this case, he did. Balaam was killed by the Jews, because he had not only become an apostate, he had become an enemy of God's people, and the Jews killed him with a spear. The Jews, at one point in their history, began whining about, we want a king like the Gentiles have kings. Samuel was devastated by that. He took it personally, and God said, don't take it personally.

This is against me. And God adjusted his will. He said, okay, let him have a king. God had sent Jonah to Nineveh.

Forty days, you're done. But Nineveh did not burn in forty days, because God adjusted his will because the people repented. And now Hezekiah is asking for a reversal, a divine decision that will adjust, and he gets it. God promised, through Jeremiah the prophet, to bless or to judge, depending on the behavior of the people. In Jeremiah 18, 10, he says, if the people, if I have sentenced them to doom, and they repent, I will restrain myself from judgment. So again, we have the perfect will of God, the permitted will of God, and the adjusted will of God. He is sovereign over all of it.

We have our role to play, and we've got to find what that role is. Christ was on the cross, and he was in the perfect will of God, willfully, willfully so. Anyway, Hezekiah asked for a reversal of the divine decision, and we find that prayer defeats fatalism. We don't come to our scriptures and say, it's already written, you can't change it, it's done.

It's not a bureaucracy we're dealing with, it's not VDOT. God is, sometimes He's adamant, and that's why it's so meaningful to have a relationship with God, because in that relationship is the treasure of, okay, is that what you want? That's what we'll do. See, if Stephen didn't protest, you know, I don't want to get stoned to death. He accepted, he went into it ready for that. Well, so it is the prerogative of God to adjust His response however He chooses. He never does it in violation of righteousness, unlike the kings of the Medes and the Persians. Remember when Daniel was sentenced to the lion's den?

He said, you can't reverse that, okay? Well, God says, well, yeah, I can, because He's not going to let Himself get cornered anyway into something that's nefarious. Now, this is different from when Nathan went to David. Well, David went to Nathan. David says to the prophet Nathan, I want to build God a house. The Ark of the Covenant's in a tent. Not right.

I'm in a palace. Nathan said, that's a good idea. Go for it, David.

What could be wrong with that? And then Nathan goes home, he's humming, fixing himself a sandwich. No, I don't know what he was doing.

It would probably be hummus or falafel. Anyway, God says to Nathan, you know, I don't want David to build a house. You have to go back and you have to tell him. And He brings David so much more than just no. He explains it to David and He uses Nathan to do it. Both men, God protects both their integrity. And so it's a little different here. Isaiah, when he goes and says, you're going to die, that was God's word.

And when he comes back and says, okay, God has given you 15 years. That is not a contradiction. That is an amendment. So it works out perfectly.

It's good for our doctrine. Now, Hezekiah lived additional 15 years. The belief is that he had no son at this time. And during those 15 years, he gives birth, his wife does, of course, to Manasseh. You know, we don't go that way. Our pronouns, you know what they are.

He and her and they don't change. Anyway, Manasseh will take the throne. And when Manasseh was 12, well, he gets 15 years to live. So we know he was born after this event. There's some possibility, but not likely.

So that causes a whole other set of problems. Well, what if he just died then? Well, we don't know who would have succeeded to the throne and maintained the line of Messiah for Josiah to come along and then eventually Christ.

God had it under control. Our concern, our lesson, is with the hard lesson of the king and not all the, well, what ifs. Verse 6, I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend this city. Will that tell us a time stamp for us? Tells us that this was before the angel of the Lord came and wiped out the 185,000 Assyrian troops in a night.

So we know he gets sick before them and he goes through this pride issue at the same time. But the impending Jerusalem siege is coming nonetheless. Verse 7, and this is a sign to you from Yahweh that Yahweh will do this thing which he has spoken. Now, of course, when it says Lord, if it's, depending on the translation, how the format they use, they signal that it's the covenant name Yahweh and not Lord Adonai versus Yahweh. So I use the name. You could also use Jehovah because scholars aren't sure which is the most accurate though they lean towards Yahweh.

It's very meaningful. The covenant name of God indicates a relationship, a hands on relationship between God and the faithful. So it's more than just Lord. Anyway, well, Sarah called Abraham Lord, but she did not call him Yahweh. Verse 8, Behold, I will bring the shadow of the sundial which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz ten degrees backward, so the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down. Isaiah leaves out a lot of information and he also fragments it, but we have second Kings and Chronicles and that puts it in order so that we know what's going on.

For example, God gave him a choice. Kings tells us, do you want the sundial to go up ten degrees or back? And Hezekiah says, well, going up is easier because that's the direction we're going in. To go back, that would really be impressive. And so did God actually turn the earth back ten degrees in time, twenty minutes or so? Or did He just do the sundial? It's a miracle. And what makes a miracle a miracle is science can't define it, which irritates them, which delights us. So, does that bother you that God can do miracles and you can't explain it? That's why it's a miracle. Anyway, years ago there was a special on television, Miracles of the Bible, and they had scientists say, well, what he could have done to roll back this.

They're like, shut up, it's a miracle. I don't need your stamp of approval. I mean, you're a pretty smart guy and all, but when it comes to this, you're pretty dumb, aren't you? Well, I mean, you think that. I do. Anyway, coming back to this. Well, let me pause there. It is a fact that people need to understand. Just because they get something right doesn't mean that they're always right.

And we all have to guard against that. If I ask a contractor to come over to my house, I'm not asking him to give me a sermon on Galatians. I can give him one.

What I need him to do is fix my faucet or something else. And so, yeah, there's no loss of pride there. I'm second fiddle in that case. Anyway, I think it was Spurgeon that said, if you're third fiddle in the band, be the best third fiddle they've got.

And it's just knowing what your role is and not letting the pride overturn you. Anyway, back to this. Verse 8, Behold, I will bring the sundial back. The shadow on the sundial, which goes down with the sun, on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. This sundial of Ahaz, Ahaz, God offered him miracles.

He refused. So, I'm thinking how much to comment on this verse 8. Coming back to the miracle and how it occurred, it likely was global. I have no problem with God being able to do something that I can explain.

What's he supposed to do? There are those that don't believe in the miracles. So, is God supposed to re-perform the miracle for every generation and every people of that generation so that they can believe?

Well, he's not going to subject himself to that. He has created another avenue and it is called faith. And faith is established by reason, but it goes beyond reason. And for us, we have so much information available to us concerning the Bible and its prophecies that we have no reason to doubt what the Bible teaches. There have been saints before us who have died martyrs with less verification. They had enough to know this is the truth. Nobody else is dealing with my sin except Jesus Christ.

So, that keeps the standard very high and takes away excuses. Now we come to verse 9. This is the writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness. So, God says, I'm going to give you 15 years.

That ends that episode. Now, Isaiah is going to come back at the end and tell them to put figs on the poultice, on the growth. In kings, it's put right in sequence.

So, you got to know, he's going to jump around a little bit so when we get to it, you have a better chance of following it. Hezekiah is healed and some time probably comes by before he writes this song to the Lord. So, verse 39, this is the writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness.

I say song and it is an ode of gratitude to the Lord on his returning from the gates of death. Verse 10, I said in the prime of my life, I shall go to the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the remainder of my years. And so this, you know, is not fair. The prime of my life, I'm being robbed the best. Now, from the Christian perspective, we know, listen, everything gets deleted when you get to heaven. You know, there's a prime up there waiting for us.

It's matchless, although there are the rewards and the serving factors. But he felt it was unfair. And, you know, again, you look at this from the New Testament and you say, this is the lower road.

The higher road would have been, Lord, you take me whenever you want, I'm good. Stephen was probably in his prime. He's, again, he began to reign when he was 25 years old, this king did.

And the invasion happened in the 14th year, so that tells us he's about 38, 39 years of age. And he's done so much, and he knows this, he's done so much in fortifying Jerusalem against Assyria as well as spiritually letting Isaiah have the reign that he needs to influence the people. But I do believe, I don't think anyone in heaven looks back and says, well, you know, I wish I could have stayed longer.

Maybe there is some, I don't think so. I think that forgetting those things which are behind, this life is all we know, and we're built to hold on to it and not treat it carelessly. Of course, we have a flesh that tries to disregard that, but the spirit knows better. Verse 11, I said, I shall not see Yah, the Lord. It really reads, I shall not see Yah, Yah, Yahweh, Yahweh.

And it's a term of endearment in its shortened form. I said, I shall not see Yah, the Yahweh, in the land of the living. I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

Well, what's wrong with that? Again, from the Christian perspective. I want the Lord to say, today you will be with me in paradise. Well, the Hebrew repetition is when it's something exceptional. So that's what he's doing here, it's part of their literature, how they put together their writings and saying, I shall see Yah, Yah, and it's quite powerful when you look at it that way. But he's still lamenting leaving the land of the living, and that he would see his friends no more. So you see, some of the Jews, their view of afterlife, of Sheol at this time, was not where it's going to be once we get our, again, the New Testament given to us and Christ begins to teach us. Just when the Lord says, today you will be with me in paradise, this doctrine flies all off the page from that one. Imagine if Isaiah said, today you will be in paradise, Hezekiah, why are you asking to stay?

But again, it was limited there. Doctrine evolves, but that does not mean that less doctrine makes you less righteous, because we have more insight about Jesus Christ than Isaiah had. And yet who's willing to say, well I'm more righteous than Isaiah, you'd be nuts to say something like that. Anyway, verse 12, my lifespan is gone, taken from me like a shepherd's tent, I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom, from day until night you make an end of me. So he's setting up the song, he's going to rejoice in the end, but he's setting it up where he was in his thinking, how messed up this was to him.

And incidentally, a person can have multiple primes of their life, especially if you have two professions, you have a prime in that profession, maybe you're doing work that requires youth and strength, and then you get older and you have a different profession, and you have another prime, potentially. Well, he was king, and he said, well I'm doing the best I can do, and this is being stripped from me. Death is taking down my tent. That's a metaphor that both Peter and Paul use in Corinthians and 2 Peter also to describe death. This body is just a tent, and the time's going to come where the tent's going to be taken down. And then I will receive a new body and a Christ-likeness that he has promised.

I will see him and be like him, though not in his divinity. Anyway, he's being cut off before the pattern is complete. That's the metaphor when he talks about the loom. They're working on whatever it is, but before they finish, they cut it off. That's what he's saying.

That's what's happening to me. He's in the shadow of death, but he fears it, unlike David in the psalm. The believer today, what does the Bible teach us about our lifespan?

Because the Old Testament prophets and Moses were taught, you know, God has measured out our time. Well, we have this interesting verse from Revelation 7, and we draw application from these kinds of statements in Scripture. This is how we know about the Trinity and how we know about salvation, just these statements of God. Well, these are the two witnesses that come in the days of the Great Tribulation during Antichrist rule, and they're going to, you know, they have the power to kill people with their word, but Revelation 11 talks about their death. When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.

When they finish their testimony, that applies to all believers. Can we overrule that? We certainly can. Should we worry about that? Not if you're abiding with Christ.

No, absolutely not. When my work is done as a believer, God will call me home. And this is, I think it's glorious, knowing what awaits. Now, we know those two servants, their testimony is expanded because they get up and they ascend to heaven. And that's amazing. We won't be there for that. Verse 13, I have considered until morning like a lion, so he breaks all my bones from the day until night.

You are an end of me. This is Job-esque. Job said things like this because Job was, man, the greatest hurt locker in the Bible. It was Job's. I mean, just add up what he lost.

According to humans, Christ is on another level because of the spiritual element, of course. Anyway, what he's saying is that, you know, I held my place till morning. But he's struggling because he mentions day and night that the pain was violent. And he felt like a lion breaking his bones.

He was helpless and he was hurting physically. Verse 14, like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered. I mourned like a dove. My eyes fell from looking upward.

Oh, Yahweh, I am oppressed. Undertake for me. So he's like David in the Psalms, you know, Lord, I've just spent calling out on you. I've got nothing left.

I've been calling and calling and you're not answering, and yet still calling. And he had hoped that he would get well, but he got worse. That's what he's saying in verse 14. Now I'm going to pick up verse 15, Isaiah 38. What shall I say?

He has both spoken to me and he himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years in bitterness of my soul. So he now is going to talk about his recovery. The relief of pain is a euphoric feeling. When you're in pain and that pain goes, I mean heavy pain, and that pain goes away, I mean you just, it's an amazing time, as most of us learn.

Maybe you suffer from migraines and if they go right away, as if gradually you're like, man, I feel good. Job chapter 9 verse 24, Job said essentially, everything I'm going through had first, it had to first pass the desk of God for approval. And so he says, this is a little statement, he says it in other places too, but he says, if not he, who else could it be?

No one's got this sovereignty like him. And that is doctrinal because Satan is not a alternate God or a lesser God. He is a created being and he is foul through and through. And Job knew that God is, you know, he just took it all to the Lord. He didn't know the spiritual war that he was involved with, that comes later in his life, but we get his determination and his honesty, his integrity, before he really even understands what's happening to his life. And we get it in the first few chapters, but he didn't have Job chapter 1 and 2 to refer to.

He was Job chapter 1 and 2. It says, in my bitterness of soul. Well, that's where he learned the lesson. That's, you know, it says of the Lord, he learned obedience by the things he suffered. Well, that was in our view because Christ couldn't learn God, God the Son, but he did experience in our view.

It was for us. Well, not with Hezekiah. He is learning. These are hard lessons and he learned through this bitter, this bitter experience shaped his outlook in life, without which he never would have grown to this level and he never forgot. It can't be documented on how beneficial this was to people in his life. How he matured as a believer after this experience.

Maybe when Hezekiah got to heaven, he found out how many people were blessed by his righteousness because of this suffering. Well, that's the pattern that the Scripture gives to us. It's quite amazing, the outlooks in Scripture.

You can't keep up with them. In my devotional time as a young, younger believer and pastor, I'd get three chapters, maybe four every morning. Now, if I can get a few verses, not because I don't have time, I've got more time now than ever for this, but I get hold, I stop, I got to write.

This is the insight of life. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

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