The Death of the Flesh the Life of the Spirit

Next Part The Death of the Flesh the Life of the Spirit 2

"O Lord, by these things men live—and in all these things is the life of my spirit." Isaiah 38:16

The words I have just read, some of you may remember, are a part of "the writing" that King Hezekiah penned after "he was recovered of that sickness" which Isaiah the prophet was sent to declare was unto death. But when the Lord, in answer to Hezekiah's prayers and tears, reversed the sentence, and raised him up once more to health; and not only so, but enabled him to say, "You have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for you have cast all my sins behind your back"—then, that there might be a lasting record of the Lord's dealings with him, and a standing word of consolation to Gods afflicted people, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he penned this writing. Thus was his triumphal chant; the song of his deliverance which he sang upon the "stringed instruments in the house," and to the honor and praise "of the Lord." (Isa. 38:20.)

Before, then, I enter into the spiritual and experimental meaning of the words of the text, it will be necessary to trace out a little of Hezekiah's experience, that we may know what he intended, when he used this expression, "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." The term, "these things," is clearly the key of the text, and has a reference to certain dealings of God upon his soul; in order, therefore, to know what he meant to convey by it, we must take a glimpse at these dealings of God with him.

Hezekiah, let it be remembered, was a gracious person before God brought on him the heavy trial recorded in this chapter. (Isaiah 38.) But he was where many of God's people are, though he knew it not—he had not been plunged deep enough into a knowledge of his own ruin, helplessness, and hopelessness as a fallen sinner. He wanted what Mr. Deer speaks of in his experience; (he uses a strange word, but a very expressive one;) he says, "After this my, shall I call it reconversion?" Many of God's people need this reconversion. They need a second plunge; and until they have had this second plunge, they do not, for the most part, know gospel mysteries deeply.

I shall endeavor by tracing out the experience of Hezekiah to explain my meaning more fully; and thus show how consistent it is with the teachings and dealings of God the Spirit on the heart. Hezekiah, as I have hinted, was a partaker of grace before the heavy trial came on him recorded in this chapter. And you will perceive most marked traits of his being a spiritual character, if you will read what is said of him in the corresponding passages in the books of Kings and of Chronicles; for there we have many proofs of his being one that feared God. For instance, we find in him a great zeal for the Lord, in breaking down the images, and cutting down the groves. It is also expressly said of him, that "he trusted in the Lord;" that "he cleaved to him, and departed not from following him;" and that "the Lord was with him." (2 Kings 18:4-7.) How earnest he labored that the house of God might be opened, (which had been shut up by his father Ahaz,) every part of the temple purified, its worship and sacrifice restored, and the Passover duly celebrated. (2 Chron. 29.) And we see how his love extended beyond Judah; he sent post, we read, even from Dan to Beersheba to gather together to the solemn feast those that feared the Lord of the tribes of Israel.

He was a man of a tender conscience also; one who knew something of real brokenness and contrition before the Lord; for when the blasphemous letter came from the King of Assyria, we find him rending his garments, clothing himself in sackcloth, and going into the temple to spread out the letter before the Lord; and not merely spreading out the letter, but also pouring out his soul in cries and groans, in prayers and supplications, that God would vindicate his own cause, and deliver him and his people from the hands of Sennacherib. (Isa. 37.) Besides this, on the very eve of the trial came the deliverance. God heard his cries, smote the army of the King of Assyria, and gave Hezekiah this striking testimony that he had heard his prayer, by cutting off a hundred and eighty-five thousand of that mighty army which had threatened him and Jerusalem with total destruction.

Putting all these marks together, we cannot entertain a doubt that Hezekiah was at this time a partaker of grace. We see his zeal, his faith, his love, his humility, and the tenderness of his conscience; that he knew what spiritual prayer was, and answers to prayer; the application of promises, and the fulfillment of them.

But still, though he had the grace of the Spirit in his soul, though he had a new heart and a new nature, and had received tokens of mercy from God, yet there was something deficient, something grievously lacking in him. And this is the case with many of God's people. They have the fear of God in their conscience; they have a zeal for the Lord of hosts; they have a love to his Name, to his people, and to his truth; they have a measure of tenderness of heart and godly sincerity; and at times, when brought into straits and circumstances, the Spirit of grace and of supplications is poured out upon them, by which they cry to the Lord, and which he hears and answers. Yet there is something grievously lacking in them; they are still floating on the surface of truth only; they have still a superficial religion; "the fountains of the great deep," as Deer says of himself, "have not been broken up;" the depth of human depravity, the treachery of the heart, the pride, presumption, and hypocrisy of their fallen nature, and all that fathomless abyss of the Adam-fall which is so covered over by the veil of ignorance and unbelief—this gulf of ruin into which they were precipitated by their forefather's transgression has not been opened up by the Spirit of God in their conscience.

Therefore, they only float upon the surface of truth, without diving deep into that unfathomable sea of man's misery and God's mercy, to pluck up the precious jewels which are only to be found there. So that, for lack of a deeper work upon their conscience; for lack of being more stripped, searched, and exercised; for lack of being more powerfully led into a knowledge of their ruin and misery, their views of Jesus are superficial, and shallow—merely floating in the head than felt in the heart, and consisting rather in the reception of sound doctrine in the judgment, than in a spiritual acquaintance with Jesus as he is, and with all that he has done for his people, in a broken and contrite spirit. Is not this true of the greater part of God's people in town and country? And is not this slight, flimsy religion fostered by the superficial, doctrinal preaching of the day? People have confessed to me, with tears flowing from their eyes, that while they sat under doctrinal ministers, they never knew their own misery, nor ever tasted God's mercy.

Now what is to cure this deficiency? What is to lead them into a more powerful experience of the truth? What is to bring them off this sincere yet shallow religion? What is to deepen the work of grace in their conscience? Why, the things that God brought upon Hezekiah—"In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him, and said unto him, Thus says the Lord, Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live." (v. 1.) That was the way the Lord took to deepen his work in Hezekiah's heart—to bring death before him. And no doubt, as the sentence of death entered into his body, so the sentence of death also entered into his conscience.

And thus, the Lord, by sending home the sentence of death into his very vitals, and bringing it by divine authority into his heart and conscience, broke to pieces that which was hollow, false, and insincere, and showed him his true standing before him. In a word, he felt that he was not fit for eternity, to enter into the presence of God. His faith had not yet fully embraced the Person, love, work, and blood of Jesus; his hope had not yet taken a firm anchorage within the veil; and in fact, his religion stood more "in the wisdom of men" than in "the power of God."

Now, my friends, I know from soul experience, that until the Lord tries his work upon our heart, we shall rest in a superficial religion—we shall be content with shallow evidences, dim hopes, and shadowy expectations—we shall be content with a slight wounding and a slight healing. For lack of clearer and deeper teaching, we shall be ready to think we have attained to far greater things in the divine life than we have attained unto, and so be apt to deceive ourselves partially; mind, I do not say entirely, for I have along been tracing out a true, though shallow experience. But all this superficial religion is for the lack of God's sending home the sentence of death into the conscience; as the Apostle says, "We had the sentence of death in ourselves." (2 Cor. 1:9.) I speak of what I know; for I was here, I believe, myself for some time after the Lord first quickened my soul.

But what I want to draw your attention more particularly to is this—What effect was produced on Hezekiah when the sentence of death entered his conscience? We read, "Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord." What a reality, what a power, what a truthfulness shine through that expression! It is as though he turned away from the creature, from the world, and from all the strength, wisdom, and righteousness of the flesh, to seek God alone as his refuge. No doubt, there were in Hezekiah's time, as in ours, those who would give him false consolation; there were, doubtless, around his death-bed, plasterers, with polished trowels and heaps of untempered mortar. The priests, we may be sure, flocked around him, and sought to administer false comfort to his soul. "Remember," they would say, "O king, your zeal for the Lord; call to mind how you purified the temple; how you kept the passover; broke to pieces the bronze serpent; the many things you have done for God; and how the Lord delivered you from the hand of the king of Assyria." But all these consolations (or that which they meant to be such) administered to him no comfort; for they all fell upon a heart that could not receive them. The sentence of death was in his conscience; guilt, wrath, and condemnation were all burning up his soul; the arrows of the Almighty were drinking up his spirit. It was God's purpose that he should not be thus comforted; for if he could have taken peace from the things that they were trying to plaster him over with, he would have lost the comfort which God had designed through this trial to bring into his soul.

Now, that is the reason why God will not let his people take comfort from the opinions of men—because he means to bring them off the creature; to wean them from leaning on an arm of flesh, and to bring them to that spot where he, and he alone, becomes all their salvation and all their desire. In order, therefore, to bring them off from the creature, he knocks away the rotten props from under them, by which they so often try to shore and buttress up their sinking souls.

But where did Hezekiah turn to? He turned "toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord." His bed was probably near the wall; and by turning to it, he implied that he felt that now he had to deal with God alone, and that no creature should come between the Lord and him. He turned, then, away from friends and from every earthly thing, to seek the Lord only. Now this is the spot to which God will bring all his children. He makes all his people, and that through painful, sharp, cutting convictions in the conscience, turn away from creatures, and from all false comfort; and to come to the Lord as feelingly lost, naked, guilty, and undone, that he may bind up the wounds which his own hands have made. This is close work. Presumption, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness cannot live here. Godly fear and spiritual sincerity alone breathe in this air.

But, we read, that he not only turned his face to the wall, but "prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore." There is no real prayer until we turn our faces to the wall. There is no true pouring out of the heart before the Lord until we are brought into circumstances from which his out-stretched arm alone can deliver us. How many of God's own people go on praying in a formal way, bending their knees night and morning with all due regularity; (I speak not against it); yet how little do they know of heart-felt prayer, or of crying unto the Lord out of distress of mind, and of pouring out their souls into his bosom, because they have no other refuge wherein to hide their guilty heads!

But depend upon it, there is no real prayer until there is this pouring out of the heart before the Lord, nor any real supplication, fervent wrestling, and importunate pleading until the soul, from deep necessity, turns its face to the wall to seek Jesus as its only hope and refuge.

"And he wept sore." He could take no comfort from the things he had done for the Lord. He could not look at his evidences, they were all obscured; he could not review his well-spent life, it was blemished and stained throughout; he could not look at the future, or to what he meant to do for God, for the future was a dreary blank; yes, an eternity into which he was hastening without knowing how he stood before the Lord, whether he was pardoned, accepted, and saved, or whether the wrath of God was to abide on him forever.

Now when he was reduced to this extremity, the Lord appeared for him. The Lord always meant to appear; he never intended to cut him off, as he threatened; he always purposed to lengthen his life fifteen years. But he led him through this trial, not only to teach him his deep guilt and misery, but also to show the super-aboundings of his own grace in pardoning his sins through the blood of the Lamb. Thus Hezekiah had to bless God all the days of his life, as he himself declares, for being led into these deep waters, for having passed through this furnace, and being brought into this trial; because in it he learned what he could not learn anywhere else, and in it pardon and peace were blessedly communicated with divine power and sacred unction to his soul.

In delivering him, then, out of this trial, the Lord lengthened his natural life, smiled upon his soul, and preserved him from going down to the pit, casting all his sins behind his back. Taught, then, and guided by the Spirit, Hezekiah penned this writing as a sweet memorial of the Lord's dealings with him, and that it might be an encouragement to God's people in similar circumstances in time to come.

But the main point to which I wish to call your attention is contained in the words of the text. Let us, then, with God's blessing, see what the meaning and mind of the Holy Spirit is in them. "O Lord, by these things men live; and in all these things is the life of my spirit." What were "these things" he alludes to? The words "these things" have reference to what Hezekiah had been speaking of—the trial into which he had been thrown, and the deliverance which had been given to him out of it; the laying of sin upon his conscience, and the casting of it behind the Lord's back; the furnace into which he had been put, and the Lord having brought him safely and uninjured out of it; the sentence of death sent into his conscience, and the manifestation of light, life, peace, and salvation whereby God removed it, when by it he had been thoroughly emptied, humbled, and stripped. Thus by "these things"—by the trial and the deliverance, by the affliction and the consolation, by the smarting and the healing, by being cast down and being raised up, by being made poor and by being made rich; by these alternating series of God's dealings in the conscience "do men live;" "and in all these things," being brought into them, being carried through them, and being delivered out of them—"in all these things is the life of our spirit."

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