1. Isaiah chapter 38 begins with the words, "In those days…" The prophet is speaking of the days in which he and King Hezekiah lived. The Scofield Study Bible says it was around 710 BC.
2. King Hezekiah, the king of Judah, was "sick unto death" (38:1). He was having trouble with a "boil" (38:21) that was about to kill him.
3. He was also having a lot of trouble with the Assyrians, who were threatening to invade Jerusalem (cf. Isa. 36:1). Job said, "Man that is born of a woman is of a few days, and full of trouble" (Job 14:1).
4. Job’s friend Eliphaz said, "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7). King Hezekiah was under tremendous stress, and he was now "sick unto death" (38:1).
5. This is an interesting story, and it is mentioned three times in the Bible – here, in II Kings 20, and briefly in II Chronicles 32.
6. I would like for us to focus our attention on three important matters found here in Isaiah 38: death, prayer, and salvation.

1. DEATH (ISA.38:1).

1. Isaiah the prophet came unto King Hezekiah and said: "Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live" (38:1).
2. Every day we are reminded of death. Just few months back, one of our members buried his mother. Spurgeon said: "To be familiar with the grave is prudence. To prepare for death, it is well to commune with death. A thoughtful walk in the cemetery is good for our soul’s health."
3. The sentence of death was delivered to Hezekiah by Isaiah. How do you think King Hezekiah felt? He was only 39 years old, in the prime of life, and with no heir to succeed him to the throne.
4. The sentence of death was delivered to Hezekiah and the sentence of death rests upon each one of us. The Bible says, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb.9:27).
5. Let me ask you: How would you react if you were in King Hezekiah’s shoes? If you were told, "Thus saith the LORD" (not, "Thus saith the doctor," for doctors can be wrong.)
6. How would you react if God told you your time was up? Very few of us know the time they are scheduled to leave this world. There are a few inmates on death row who know the time. Unsaved friend, consider this: you are on God’s death row. In fact, you are in worse shape than some of the convicts on death row. Because some of them have made peace with God, but you haven’t.
7. Are you ready to meet God? Years ago I saw a card that said: "You may tie your shoes in the morning, but the undertaker may untie them at night. Prepare to meet God!"
8. In Luke 12, our Lord told the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21).
9. So the first thing we are struck with here in Isaiah 38 is the cold, hard reality of death.

Oh, what is this I cannot see,
With icy hands taking hold of me?
Oh, I am death, none can excel;
I open the doors of Heaven and Hell.
Oh death, Oh death, how can it be;
That I must come and go with thee?
Oh death, Oh death, how can it be;
I’m unprepared for eternity?
Yes, I have come to get your soul,
To leave your body and leave it cold,
To drop the flesh off from your frame;
The earth and worms both have their claim.

10. King Hezekiah describes poetically what happens to the soul the moment it leaves the body (Isaiah 38:10-13).
11. Something happens the moment a man dies. If he is saved, his soul goes to heaven. But if he is lost, his soul goes straight to hell.

2. PRAYER (ISA. 38:2,3).

1. "Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD" (38:2). We can say this about Hezekiah: he was a praying man. He knew how to pray.
2. Most people only pray when they get into trouble. They don’t seem to realize God knows what they are doing. I have prayed with people, and like Hezekiah they have "wept sore" (38:3). But within a few short weeks they were back to their old wicked ways. My heart has been broken many times as I have seen this over and over.
3. I remember years ago, praying with a woman right over here on Linden Boulevard, and we knelt down and she prayed fervently and cried her heart out to the Lord. I was utterly dismayed when I found out later it was apparently not real!
4. How many times have we brought in special speakers, great preachers and evangelists, and at the invitation, the altar will be filled with people weeping and crying and praying. Yes, they promised God they will start coming to church faithfully; they’ll pray more; they’ll go soulwinning; they’ll tithe; they’ll get right with God, etc. But where are they now?
5. But Hezekiah was not insincere. King Hezekiah was not a hypocrite. Hezekiah was a righteous man, and a good king (cf. II Kings 18:1-7).
6. His prayer was not the idle boast of a religious hypocrite. His was not the prayer of a deluded sinner, hoping to deceive God.
7. But God cannot be deceived. God cannot be fooled. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 4:7).
8. Be not deceived; God is not mocked. Lost sinners can weep and wail and beg, but it will all be in vain. God only hears the prayers of those who are truly repentant.
9. King Hezekiah was a saved man and so God heard his prayer – which brings is to my final point.

3. SALVATION

1. King Hezekiah was a saved man (Isa.38:17). His mortal sickness dramatically connects sin with sickness and death (cf. 33:24; Matt. 8:16,17). Start in the book of Genesis and you can trace it all through the Bible – sin brought sickness and death into the world (Rom. 5:12).
2. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "The wages of sin is death."
3. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).
4. It was the love of God that delivered Hezekiah’s soul "from the pit of corruption" (Isa.38:17). This love was demonstrated at the cross (John 3:16).
5. "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).
6. King Hezekiah looked forward to the cross, as we look back to the cross as the basis for our redemption (cf. Isa.53:3-6).
7. King Hezekiah rejoiced that the LORD had cast all his sins behind His back (Isa.38:17). Thank God, the Bible tells us that God "in love" forgives our sins, and pardons our sins, and cleanses us from the very stain of sin.
8. Micah 7:19 says God casts all our sins into the depths of the sea.
9. Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us."
10. Hebrews 10:17 says, "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."
11. King Hezekiah did not have the New Testament. King Hezekiah lived 700 years before the cross. But King Hezekiah understood this much – that when God saves us from sin, He literally goes down "in love" to the very pit of corruption and He delivers our soul, and cleanses our soul, and purifies it.
12. And then He takes all our wicked sins and puts them in a place where no one can ever see them – "for Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back" (Isa. 38:17b).
13. Again, I will quote Spurgeon, "When a man casts his sins behind his back God will put them before his face; but when in penitence a believer sets his sins before his own face to mourn over them, then the Lord in mercy declares that He will cast them behind His back."

CONCLUSION:

1. Recently a friend and I were talking and he told me of some worldly man (Frank Sinatra?) that died with money in his pocket. His friends placed it there "for good luck." It did not do him any good.
2. All the money in the world cannot buy you out of hell.
3. Unsaved friend: you may as well squeeze all the pleasure you can out of this world because soon it will all come to an end. Then what?