WHAT WE LIVE BY

ISAIAH 38:1

A. "BY THESE THINGS WE LIVE"
  1. Setting of the words of our text:
    1. The illness of Hezekiah
    2. Isaiah's admonition to Hezekiah - "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die and not live"
  2. Hezekiah's supplication to God:
    1. Hezekiah stresses the uncertainty of life
    2. He besought the Lord for an extension of life B. WHAT WE LIVE BY
  3. We all live by something
    1. Some people think that they find life in the material things they possess - Luke 12:16-20
    2. Others seek life in the pleasures this world has to offer - Luke 17:26-28
    3. Still others seem to thrive on their past experiences as is the case of Hezekiah's prayer - Is. 38:10-16
  4. What the child of God lives by:
    1. Paul's testimony - "I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me" - Gal. 2:20
    2. Said Jesus, "Man doeth not live by bread alone, but by very word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" - Matt. 4:4
    3. Wrote the prophet Jeremiah, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart for I am called by thy name" - Jer. 15:16
  5. The things we live by shape both our destiny and our destination:
    1. Man's thoughts and actions are indicative of what goes on in his life
    2. "By their fruit shall ye know them" - Matt. 8:20
    3. A man that enters by the wide gate has chosen the broad road for the path of his life - Matt. 7:13-14
    4. But as we choose a way of life we must realize that that way leads to a certain destination and determines our destiny. These facts speak for themselves. C. WHAT WE LIVE BY
  6. Our moral life is made up of:
    1. The thoughts we think - Prov. 23:7
    2. The words we speak
    3. The seeds we sow
    4. The association we keep
  7. To state life in other terms:
    1. Our life is sustained by the food we eat
    2. By the air we breath
    3. By the exercise we indulge in
    4. By the company we keep
  8. Think, dear reader, of the great difference of the life of a sinner and that of the child of God:
    1. The sinner and what he lives by - His thoughts reach no higher than the material things of this world - God is not inn his thoughts - Ps. 10:4; Luke 12:17-19; his life is controlled by the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life - I John 2:15-16; he sows upon the flesh and will reap of the flesh corruption - Gal. 6:7-8
    2. How different is the life of the child of God; his thoughts are after God - Paul states that the child of God feeds on things that are lovely, pure and honest - Phil 4:8; to the child of God - Christ is the center of its affections - "For to me to live is Christ" - Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20
    3. The child of God is motivated by the love of God and not by the love of the flesh - 2 Cor. 5:14
  9. What we live by:
    1. Negatively - "Man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" - Luke 12:15; "Man shall not live by bread alone" - Luke 4:4
    2. Positively - "But by every word of God" -- Matt. 4:4; "The just shall live by faith" Rom. 1:17; "I live by the faith of the Son of God" - Gal. 2:20


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