Peace & Truth in Your Days (Isaiah 39:8)

Introduction

Indeed, those blessed ancient words. May they guide us all the way to glory. I liked how Ben not only led that song at my request, but as he mentioned the invitation song, he said in just a moment. Possibly wishful thinking on his part. But I do have a niece and nephew that are flying out at 8 o’clock tonight at Intercontinental, so I might need to get them to the airport. And so the hope the preacher doesn’t go too long. We’re going to look tonight at a little bit of a challenge, challenging and perhaps perplexing Old Testament story that relates to King Hezekiah. There is a four-chapter oddity, as I would call it, found in two separate sections of Scripture. Material nearly verbatim.

But also found much like the buffer we talked about Wednesday night, the judgment upon the nations in Ezekiel 25 through 32, sort of a buffer between two sections. We have a similar arrangement in the prophet Isaiah, where in the midst of Isaiah’s prophetic utterances, we have some historical material relating to Isaiah’s day, inserted. It’s also found in 2 Kings. And so this historical material is sort of giving us a flavor of the times as Isaiah the prophet is prophesying. Now, let’s look at Isaiah 39. I chose a different color to emphasize that’s the one we’d be reading. It’s a short chapter, it’s the end of the section in 2 Kings 20. Let’s read some verses and make some applications tonight. At that time, Meredok Baladin, son of Baladin, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah.

Now remember, Assyria is the world power, and Babylon will soon follow.

Now we know that story, right? The 15 years added to the life of Hezekiah, so that he did not die. And so these messengers have heard of that story in Babylon, and they’ve come to Hezekiah, and Hezekiah was pleased. And he showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and spices, precious oil and the whole armory, and all that was found in his treasuries. And there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. All the stuff that the king had. He showed to these Babylon emissaries. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say? From where have they come to you? Sort of interesting. Does Isaiah already know?

He’s about to deliver a prophetic message in relation to this. But Hezekiah says, They’ve come to me from a far country, from Babylon. What have they seen in your house? says Isaiah. So Hezekiah answers, They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them. And then Isaiah says to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. Now this is Hezekiah who has just averted the Assyrian disaster that has hauled off the tribes to the north and threatened his own nation as well, Judah.

And he says, But a day of destruction is coming, and Babylon’s going to have all of this. And that would sort of be a precursor to some of the hopes that Isaiah will talk about in the Messiah, proceeding from this chapter onward in his letter. And some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall beget, shall be taken away, and they shall become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon. Wow. Terrible is the news, but to have your sons taken away into captivity, some of your descendants, he says. Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he thought, for there will be peace and truth in my days. Perplexing response. And it’s Hezekiah’s response in Isaiah 39 and verse 8 that I want to share with you some thoughts about tonight.

This is mentioned only briefly in 2 Chronicles, sort of the spiritual retelling of the kings of Judah. And even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test it, that he might know all that was in his heart. I was doing some research on this week, and I ran across an article in Expository Files that was written by John Quinn, who is a Christian, by the way, and John Quinn and Warren Berkeley are really those who have edited expository files through the years. This was from 2005.

He who dies with the most toys wins. An illustration. How foolish. Realize the value of your faith, John says, and prove that you esteem it highly by your actions in putting first things first. So that was John Quinn’s assessment of this particular incident. But I have a question about this verse and the story. Was the action of Hezekiah sinful? Or was it just unwise? And perhaps we may not be able to draw an affirmative conclusion. It’s certainly debatable as to what Hezekiah does hearing what he says in response. I would feel better about saying that one thing we know for sure is that this is included in the biblical material. It’s included in the narrative because it is foreshadowing the doom that is coming by the hands of the Babylonian.

We’ve been studying that on Wednesday nights. Neither the goodness of Hezekiah, nor his grandson, his great-grandson Josiah, will be able to circumvent the downward spiritual trajectory of the nation. But I want to focus on Hezekiah’s perplexing response. When he says, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he thought there will be peace and truth in my days. This is sort of an enigma of the story. Is Hezekiah just not concerned about the generation? His own kin, his own royal family that’s going to be carried off into Babylon. Is he just totally unconcerned about that? And is he is he just being completely selfish when he says, well, hey, everything’s fine right here. And that’s what matters. My days. And you know, he’s already spent some of the days.

And remember, 15 years was added to his life. Some of those have already been spent. We’re talking about he’s only got a little over a decade left, perhaps, at this point. Well, at least I’m not going to see any of this. But what about the generations that are to follow? But perhaps it is merely a comment about the silver lining in the story. Well, at least this isn’t coming right now. It’s not imminent, it’s down the road of peace. I don’t have a hard time perceiving a righteous king like Hezekiah to be somewhat gleeful about what Isaiah tells him about the future. Oh, okay, well, we’re all going to be destroyed. But hey, why sweat that? Not going to happen to me. I don’t think that’s the idea at all that because it doesn’t affect him directly, he’s not really concerned about it.

I would say this the statement, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good, is helpful in understanding that Hezekiah isn’t being flippant or totally into self and unconcerned about future generations. I think Isaiah had such confidence in the word of God, and this is coming from the prophet. He said, Well, if it’s the word of God, it’s good. The word of the Lord is good. Isaiah can’t say, oh no. It’s not going to be this way. He’s not going to respond, oh no. This really can’t be the word of the Lord. This is not how it’s going to be. Hezekiah was of the mind that anything that came from Isaiah the prophet was good, reliable, and true.

And he just embraced it and accepted it. At least that’s my view of this. So he strongly believed and embraced the message, and he said, Oh, we’re just going to have to make the best of it. And at least the best of it is that this is down the road and not happening right now. But here’s where I want to launch and make some application. What about the future? Isaiah can’t change what’s going to occur. And perhaps he himself has precipitated some of it by showing Babylon what they could take in the future. I wonder if they had their iPads out making notes. The invoice from Babylon. Okay, now really. Wake up here. They don’t really have iPads. But they had out their scrolls and their quills and making notes.

Oh, look what’s in this treasury. Look what’s over here, and what we’re going to be able to take one day. I don’t know if it was like that or not. But Hezekiah certainly has contributed to their knowledge of what could take place. What about us? What about how we need to be looking at the future? And as I say that, I do want to qualify what I’m about to say by James chapter 4. All boasting about tomorrow is evil. Who knows what a day may bring forth. We read about in other places. If the Lord wills, we will do this or that, James says in James chapter 4. And so as we think about the future, please understand that all of that is the hand of God and is beyond our knowing.

Are you going to be here tomorrow? Maybe.

Certainly, we should want to provide a situation and circumstance that if indeed there are future generations that they’ll be able to carry on in faith, like we have in our time, in our generation, because of the foundation that we have laid.

For all that you might say about our president, I just would have to admit that the selection that he has made and that he has in the process of making the selections for the Supreme Court were the reason why I chose him over the other candidate in the last election. It’s the very reason. And at least in that area, he’s trying to fulfill his promises, things that he promised during his campaign. And the reason why I’m excited about that is because I believe a more conservative high court will help the morals of our country. Maybe just suspend it. It may just prolong the disaster that’s ultimately going to come, if the Lord wills that the earth stands. Yeah, it may only delay the total decay of morality in our culture.

I don’t know how big of an impact it’ll have, but it might have some.

And so whether all of that pans out or not, I do think we should have a healthy concern for the future, if the Lord wills that it comes about. But even more important, of course, than what happens politically. What about what we do spiritually and the impact that it could have on future generations? If we didn’t, if we didn’t think about that, if we didn’t believe that’s important, then why would we be having Bible classes? Because we’re teaching our children, just like the Bible says we should, because if the Lord doesn’t end all of this, and if we survive everything, then we might just grow into adulthood. And if we do grow into adulthood, and some of us probably need to work on that. Boy, it’s a tough crowd tonight.

But if we do grow into adulthood, we might need.

But if we do grow into adulthood, we would need to apply or have applied these principles. And so I want to talk about just a few things tonight that affect the spiritual leaders of a future generation. Sometimes when I look at myself, I think, well, I’m not really looking at myself because that’s getting harder to do these days. But I still think of myself as a young man. Florida College, that was just, that was just a few years ago, right? When I was having the time of my life, I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t even know the president was when I was at Florida College. I didn’t know what was going on in the outside world. I was just consumed with my friends.

And going to school, some of that. But mostly my friends. And sometimes I think that wasn’t very long ago, and I still feel very young. And I know you’re looking at me going, man, he needs a wake-up call. But I’m only halfway to 110. I mean, seriously. I am not that old. Halfway, we need to be thinking about the young man who’ll be standing in these pulpits 30 years from now. Again, Lord willing. Who’s going to be serving as elder in the place of our four godly men who serve us now? Our future Bible class teachers. The wives of our male leaders. We need to be thinking about that. And what we’re instilling in them. At least there will be peace and truth in my days.

I want there to be peace and truth in your days. Now, Hezekiah was probably talking about national peace. But I’m talking tonight about spiritual peace. Peace with God. Peace with his people. And may the truth of God reign in your generation, regardless of how long you may live from this point onward. When Tony Mock is in a nursing home, or he is long gone, and hopefully we skip the nursing home, that you are carrying on in truth just as this generation did. And if there is a Decker Prairie Church of Christ still meeting on this property, then it will be even stronger and more vibrant and spiritually alive than it is today. And if that is the case, if there will be peace and truth in your days, young people, there are four things I want to share with you quickly.

1. Bible Authority Matters

Number one, I want you to know that Bible authority matters. And the reason why I make this point is because I hear the concept of Bible authority being belittled all the time. And whenever you talk about Bible authority, oh, those are just man-made rules. Command, example, and necessary inference. Oh, that’s from a generation past. That has no relevance to the pattern? What do you mean talking about following a biblical pattern? Tell you what, once you throw out patterns, you’ve got an absolute freeferal when it comes to biblical instruction. I remember a discussion 30 years ago, actually, where an argument was being made, it was down in the golden triangle, that the only law is the law of love. The only rule in the New Testament is the rule of love.

Now, I would start with James chapter one and answer to that, and it’s the perfect law of liberty. And we’re to be hearers of the word and not merely doers, I mean, not merely hearers, but doers of the word. Hearers of are you awake? Yes. Thank you. Those who are hearers only delude themselves. But the doer of the word will be blessed in what he or she does. And so, whatever you want to say about what the New Testament is telling us in regard to instruction, it’s the doer of the word who is blessed. Hearers only delude themselves. There must be putting into practice, and again, if you don’t bridle your tongue, whatever you might say about the rule of the law of love, if you don’t bridle your tongue, your religion is vain.

So it has to have some relation to that. And so I would argue in relation to that argument, if you mean love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself, and you properly define what that means, I’m okay with that. But let me tell you where all of this rejection of biblical authority goes. You’re just making that stuff up.

I might even go so high as 101%. And that’s pretty high. But I’ll cut a few people some slack, perhaps due to ignorance. But 99.9% of the people who come along and say, I don’t think we should follow biblical authority, or at least the rules that you talk about, they have some kind of an agenda. You write that down. They have some kind of an agenda, and what they want to do is there are certain principles and teachings of the New Testament they don’t want to follow. Whether it be marriage, divorce, and remarriage, or whatever, there is something they are trying to circumvent. Now, here’s tonight’s promise.

Tonight we’ve got five objects. I got little ones so I can put them all in my hands.

You see, that’s well, those labels aren’t in scripture. Well, it’s just describing what’s there. Obviously, God has commanded things that we are to follow, but we talk about things like generic and specific authority. So I haven’t seen that term in the Bible. What are you talking about? Generic and specific authority. All authority, all authority, all communication of authority has generic and specific elements. The more general the authority, the more choices you have. The more specific the authority, the fewer choices that you have. Now, I’ve had some kids in this congregation come up and illustrate this before. I’m not going to have anybody come up tonight because I’m going to be short on time. So I’m just going to do this from here, and the kids can help me out.

This is really a hard exercise. I don’t know if the adults can do it. If I said to you, and I have five items in my hand, I have two packs of cards, a couple of baseballs, and my keys. Take any item. I’m telling you have to comply. I’m an authority here. Take any item in my hand to please me. How many choices you got? I see five. That’s a very generic command. Take any item. I know you’re going to go for the keys. You want Keon say.

Okay, so when I say take a baseball, that’s still somewhat generic because there are two choices. But it is specific in that I didn’t say take any item, and so that rules out the what? The cards. The more specific that I get, take the Astros commemorative signature baseball card. Well, that rules out all the other three choices, including the other baseball. Or take the unopened package of cards, and I don’t know if you can see the cellophane still on these cards. Take the unopened package of cards. You see, the more specific you get, the fewer choices that you have. And so when we talk about generic and specific authority, these things are just the essence of communication. It doesn’t work otherwise. That’s how the doctor writes a prescription.

He doesn’t have to tell the pharmacist. Now, I need to rule out this drug and this drug and this drug to get the one he wants. Think about that. How long would your little paper let me bring the catalog with me to the drugstore, which has all the drugs that he didn’t authorize, and the one he just tells you the one. He gives you an authority for one prescription. May that impress upon you this truth. Nobody’s making up these rules about patterns, about commands and examples and inferences, and all authority has generic and specific elements. That’s an important truth. We need to pass down to future generations. Now, quickly. I want to pass down this thought as well.

2. Tradition Is Not King

A future generation needs to understand that tradition is not king. Tradition doesn’t trump everything. I gotta tell you, after 35 years of preaching, I get a little concerned that we love tradition too much. Some of the things that we do involve generic authority where there are some choices that we can make. And we make choices based upon what is most expedient or what is most helpful within the realm of that authority. So where’s your authority for a church building? Well, it’s wrapped up in the idea that we’re commanded to assemble, and assembling requires a place of assembly. Well, what kind of building should it be? Well, that hasn’t been legislated specifically. We have to use our judgment. We have to apply biblical principles about stewardship and a host of other things to come to a faithful conclusion.

And that perhaps why God hasn’t spelled everything out in absolute detail, because he is challenging us in our faith to choose wisely and spiritually and humbly in some of these areas of judgment. And maybe there is a more expedient way of assembling on the first day of the week. Some have decided that it is best for them not to have a service on Sunday night. And I can debate that at another time. The pros and the cons. And I believe there are pros and cons to that idea. But they can still comply with biblical instruction by having just one three hour service on the Lord’s Day. I’m not going to say, I’m not going to say that’s not right. Because they can comply with God’s instruction in making that choice.

Is it the best choice? Well, they’re going to have to decide that, and we’re going to have to decide that. But we need to be thinking about a bigger picture then what’s comfortable for me. Should we sing four songs or five songs or seven songs? Should the, you know, it’s not a real sermon if it’s not a certain length. Where do you get that in the Bible? Somebody show me where the length of a sermon is determined in the New Testament. The length of a message. Well, somebody decided a long time ago that it’s expedient. You’re going to have two services, have a couple sermons. I’ll tell you in some places, in the messages I’ve heard, maybe I’m guilty. It didn’t seem real expedient. It didn’t seem to be really that helpful.

But again, some people get all hung up on the way we’ve always done it. But it’s the way we’ve always done it. It’s tradition. And I, you know, the Lord’s Supper, again, I can talk about that. The second serving on Sunday night. And there’s a lot of debate about that. And we need to do some serious study about that. I’m perfectly fine with the way we do it. I believe we’re waiting on one another, and it’s consistent with we’ve been talking about that this weekend. With what the Bible says about the Lord’s Supper. But everybody doesn’t see it that way. We can study that and challenge each other and do what we need to do about that. But just because we’ve done it a certain way forever, doesn’t mean it’s expedient.

3. Holiness Is Not Optional

Or best for this generation in this time. We need to be willing to talk about perhaps better ways of doing things. Tradition is not king. And then I wanted to tell you another important fact for the future, if there indeed be a future, is that holiness is not optional. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14. And again, let me tell you what God did in Revelation that’s truly extraordinary. Have you read anywhere in the New Testament? What does God think about marijuana? Has anybody seen the marijuana verse in the book of James? You didn’t know it was there. No, the New Testament doesn’t mention marijuana. Huh. I wonder how we should feel about marijuana. What about going to Las Vegas?

Why didn’t God prohibit specifically, you shall not go to Las Vegas? You will see bad things. You will, you will be tempted to gamble. It could destroy your life. Las Vegas is bad. What does it say? If Paul mentioned Las Vegas, how would that have gone over in Corinth? Corinth is sort of like Las Vegas, actually. But if you’d have mentioned Las Vegas to Corinth, it hadn’t been established yet. It didn’t exist. So God could not, in first century instruction, as he gives us all that pertains to life and godliness and the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, he couldn’t say, now let me tell you about every future thing that you’re going to encounter so that you’ll know to make the right decision.

After all, you silly sheep can’t figure anything out. So let me spell it all out for you. That’s not the way it works. He says things like examine everything. Careful. Hold fast to that which is good. He’s given us the ingredients, the recipe that we need to determine about any kind of behavior in our time and what will confront this future generation when new things happen. I mean, after all, now we have smartphones. If you would have asked me 15 years ago that we would have a phone like we have now, I would have said, You’re crazy. My flip phone works just fine. I think I’d be okay with flip phone, but that’s another story. So now we’re going to have to have this device that, you know, people are have their faces glued to them.

Is that really the best thing for me to do to always continually be glued to this electronic device before my face? How about the content of that particular device? Or social media and my participation in that. You know, can you see Paul saying something about Facebook in the New Testament? Again, Facebook hadn’t been invented. In fact, I lived a lot of my life without Facebook. Don’t know how I survived. I still don’t know how to tweet. Maybe one day I’ll need to learn. Trump picked it up. Maybe I can learn. So what do we do? Examine everything carefully. Abstain from every form of evil. And in different generations, it comes in different packages. But again, holiness is not optional. And I have to figure out in our circumstances what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t.

4. Faith Requires Diligence

And then I want to say this faith requires diligence. I really think that we get into a lot of problems because we’re just not willing to work very hard to get to the right place spiritually. We want it to be easy. We don’t want to do the hard work of taking biblical principles and applying them to certain situations. And because people don’t want to work at faith, they find themselves very vulnerable and unmured from their confidence and begin to question if they even believe at all. People who begin to question if they even believe at all, there’s probably some failure in point number four. If you spend most of your time away from the word and away from the Lord’s people and enthralled with the world, let me tell you’re going to get weak in a hurry.

Most people do not think their way out. And again, there’s percentages to this, but most people do not think their way out of faith. They behave their way out. The thinking comes later. If faith was easy, more people would live it because of the great promises that are afforded those who live by faith. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For the one who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder. What follows? Of those who diligently seek it. There’s a story of a guy who was looking for a job to support himself during the school year. Sound familiar. And on a Friday, he was offered a position as a stenographer. Now that’s an older kind of job, but let me explain that.

He accepted that position and explained to his new employer that he would be able to start the following Wednesday. Five days later.

And so he shows up prompt with enthusiasm for his new job the next Wednesday. And his employer said, you know, I have one question. Why couldn’t you start before today? He said, Well, sir, I had to find a typewriter and figure out how to use it. And so that’s what he did. He had five days, he found a typewriter, figured out how to type so that he could do the job that he had been given as a stenographer, so he set it off five days in the future so he could do it. You know who that guy was? Herbert Hoover, future president of the United States, who later remarked, no difficult or simple job ever gets done until someone decides right now to do what it takes to get the job done.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, too many people stand by ready to carry the stool when it is the piano that needs to be moved. Let us be willing to move the piano. Faith requires diligence. Peace and truth in your days. May I suggest Christians make the ultimate difference in our world? What kind of job are you going to have? It’s going to be big? Gonna have a six-figure salary? Well, maybe some of the brilliance. We might have some seven-figure salaries going on in here. Inflation, nothing else. Maybe you get things.

CEO. Change the world. I’ll tell you can do a lot of good. Help a lot of people. But only temporary. You know what Christians do? We change things for eternity. What we do together, the choices we make, how we live before the world can affect eternity. Christians make the ultimate difference in our world. And so often we focus most of our energies and most of our attention on things that only make, yes, a quality and good difference, but it is only temporary. What we do here makes the ultimate difference. Every Sunday we meet here, we’re passing on a story down the road to a future generation. And so let us not fall into the habit of routine and ritual. This is what we’ve always done, because what we’re doing is instilling truth in this generation and beyond.

As long as our Lord allows this world to stand. Don’t ever forget what I just said. Christians make the ultimate difference in our world. No matter how talented you may be or not be. So as Paul said, I wrap up. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect. That they also may attain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. What a verse. Will you embrace that salvation that leads to eternal glory? Let’s stand.