2 Chronicles 31

2 Chronicles 31:1

After this, there was a great period of reformation that took place. Hezekiah was the man who led in all of this.

2 Chronicles 31:20

Now let’s look a little more closely at the life of Hezekiah. What kind of man was he? First of all, he was a man of faith. When I say faith, I mean more than what is generally thought of as faith. A member of a certain “ism” told me that there were four things one had to do to be saved. So I asked him, “What do you think you have to do to be saved?” I won’t mention all four things, but one of them was faith. I told him, “I don’t agree with you on any of the four.” He was a little shocked. He said, “Well, certainly you believe in faith, because I know you preach on that.” I said, “But I don’t mean faith in the same way that you mean faith. You are saying that if one believes hard enough he will be saved.” The modern conception of faith reminds me of the county fairs I used to go to when I was a boy. At each fair there was a gadget to test a man’s strength. There was weight on a pair of scales that looked like a giant thermometer. A man would come along and hit the thing with a sledge hammer, which would knock the weight up. A fellow would come along with his girl friend, and they would challenge him to try out his strength. He would take off his coat, spit on his hands, and swing that hammer with all his might to see if he could ring the bell up at the top. He would make the supreme effort. He would really try hard. That’s the way some folk think faith is. They say, “If I could only believe hard enough.” My friend, faith is not a psychological response to anything. Faith is not in the feelings; it is an accomplished fact. Faith is that which is wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit. It is a conviction that is born in the spirit of man. After Peter made his great confession of faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus said, “…Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Mat_16:17). Faith is not self-meritorious. “For by grace are ye saved through faith …” (Eph_2:8). Faith is only the instrument. Christ is the Savior and He is the object of faith. Spurgeon said, “It is not thy hold on Christ that saves thee. It is Christ. It is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee. It is Christ. It is not even thy faith, though that be the instrument; it is Christ’s blood and merit.” There is no merit in faith. It is not a matter of believing enough. You could believe the wrong thing. There are many people who die as martyrs for fanatic beliefs. They can have ever so much faith, but it is in the wrong thing or the wrong person. True faith “brings nothing so that it may take all.” Faith says, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” Faith trusts God. Now in the remainder of chapter 31, we see Hezekiah’s further reforms. Also there will be reformation in your life when the Lord Jesus saves you, my friend. He is going to change your life. Remember that when the man sick of the palsy was brought to Christ, Jesus told him his sins were forgiven. The crowd of scribes and Pharisees began to murmur, and call this a case of blasphemy. Jesus said, “…What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?” They had no answer for Jesus. Obviously, it is just as easy to do the one as to do the other. It is also just as difficult to do the one as to do the other. Only God can do either one of them. Only God can forgive sin. Only God can make a person get up and walk. “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house” (Luk_5:22-24). My friend, if Christ has forgiven your sin, you have taken up your bed and you have walked. You have walked away from your old life. You have walked away from your old sin. You have been changed. If you have not walked away, you are still paralyzed with sin. Hezekiah is a man of real faith in God, and it changed his life. And now he is changing the kingdom. Hezekiah is not only a man of faith, he is a man of prayer. In chapter 32 it looks as if the Lord allowed Judah to pass from the sunlight of God’s blessing to the darkness of disaster. Sennacherib came down from Assyria again, and he was ready to make an attack upon the city of Jerusalem. He began by terrifying the inhabitants.