Turn with me if you would now
to 2 Kings chapter 7. 2 Kings chapter 7. Our message this morning is going
to come from a very precious story in the scripture. This
is just such a blessing. Precious story, I was reminded
of this because I was talking to a fellow pastor. About the
fact that. True gospel preaching. True gospel preachers and true
gospel preaching. All it is really. All it is really. Is one beggar. Telling another
beggar. Where he found bread. That's
what it is. A man stated it that way many
years ago, and it's so true. It is so true. The true preacher. And true preaching is not Entertaining. Which honestly, many people believe
that's what they're supposed to do up here. Entertain. It is not entertaining. It is
not educating, although we do learn from God's spirit. True
gospel preaching is not educating. That's not it at all. It's one beggar telling another
beggar where he found bread. That's what it is. It's saying, if you're hungry,
you can eat here. You can eat right here. This
story is the perfect picture of that. Spiritually, it's going
to tell us what it is to stand before God outside of Christ,
what it is to stand before God in Christ, and what it is to
go tell everybody you know about the glory and the fullness and
the redemption of having Christ and being in Him. What it is
to go tell everybody. And we're going to see all of
that through four beggars. Four beggars, and how they just
had to go tell everybody they could the fact that they found
bread. Just a precious story. I love
this story. I pray the Lord will bless it.
I pray He'll bless it to me again today. Now to give some history
and some background to the story, if you look back at chapter 6,
2 Kings 6, verse 24, it says, And it came to pass after this
that Benedad, king of Syria, gathered all his host and went
up and besieged Samaria. This king of Syria gathered his
army and went to war against Samaria and overtook them. They
besieged them. And they closed them in, shut
off the borders, nothing coming in, nothing going out. Y'all
are just sitting right here. Verse 25. And there was a great
famine in Samaria and behold, they besieged it. until an ass's
head was sold for four score pieces of silver." Eighty pieces
of silver. You know how you talk about how
many head of cattle do you have? That kind of means the whole
animal. This is talking about a head. And John Gill pointed out just
how little meat there is there. Eighty pieces of silver for a
donkey's head. And it goes on to say, The fourth
part of a cab of dove's dung sold for five pieces of silver. I don't know how much a fourth
of a cab is, but that's irrelevant to me. Let's realize that that's
talking about dove's dung. Awful. I mean, they were in a
bad, bad condition. And the next few verses here
tell us that it got so bad they had to resort to cannibalism. It was awful. It was just, I
don't even want to read them. It was sad, just awful. That
is the fallen state of man before God. That is man's bankrupt,
ruined, poverty stricken condition before God. That's the condition
man is in. Every resource that he thought
he had is gone. We're going to realize that the
moment we leave this world and we cannot take any of this with
us, none of it, everything that we think we have, the moment
we leave this world, we will have none of it with us. It'll
all be gone. We will have nothing. I'm telling
you, we will have nothing. Naked, we came into this world.
Naked, we're going back out. We will have nothing. Everything
that man thinks he has accumulated before God, it's all gone. It's
all going to be gone. And all that will be left is
the vileness and the indescribable loathing, wretchedness that we
have before God and that we are before God. It's all that's going
to be left. Man is in an awful condition because of his sin. This famine came because of Israel's
sin against God. That's why this came. And that's
where all of our problems have come from. Our sin against God. In all capital letters with a
whole bunch of exclamation points, but Israel, alright, Samaria is in
the heart of Israel. If you look at a map, I mean
right in the heart of Israel is Samaria. And Israel represents
the fact that God has a chosen people. I'm telling you the greatest
news any sinner could ever hear is election. That's the sweetest,
most loving, most glorious. That's the good news. God has
a particular people that he chose to save from their ruined vile
condition. And the announcement of that
is called the gospel. If somebody really wants to know
what is the gospel? It is the announcement of what
God has done for wretched, ruined, vile sinners. in spite of them,
everything that God has done for them to secure redemption
from everything that they are, everything that they're in. And
for our story and our picture here, that glorious good news
announcement came to Israel in chapter seven. If you look with
me at chapter seven, verse one says, Then Elisha said, Hear ye the
word of the Lord. God is going to put his people
in a position where all they can do is hear the word of the
Lord. God is going to bring his people
to a place and a state and a condition where all they can do is hear
the word of the Lord. Verse one, then Elijah said,
Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. That means this is God speaking. It's what it means. A declaration
is going out. And that's the God that we serve
and the God that we worship, the God who declares what is
going to happen before it happens. Not the God who hopes to make
something happen or tries to make something happen. We're
talking about the all powerful, almighty God who says something
and it's done. He says, and I pray he'll say
this today. Pray he'll say it to me today.
But this is what he does. And I look forward to watching
him say this to his sheep and his people, however long, however
many years he lets us declare the announcement. Through the
announcement, he says, bow. And we bow. That's what happens. We go about our business, we
go about our way, we go about our life, we don't care this
and that, and all of a sudden he says, bow. And we bow. He says, hear. We listen to the
gospel preach and listen to the gospel preach and listen to the
gospel preach and listen to the, and one day he says, hear. And we hear. He says, live. And we live. He says, believe. And we believe. He says, come. We come to church, we come to
church, we come to church, we come to church, we come to church.
One day he says, come to me. And we come. We're talking about
the God who is God. The God who is God. When somebody says, somebody
asks you, what do y'all preach down there? What do y'all believe
down there? You'll have it happen. And when it happens, somebody
says, what do y'all believe and what do y'all preach? You tell
them we preach the God who is God. We believe the God who is God. We don't waste our time worshiping
a little g God who is not really God. And a savior, a little s savior
who can't really save. We worship the Lord, the sovereign,
all controlling, almighty, all powerful, all declaring, not
asking. I love that part of our message.
We don't ask anything. It's all a declaration. It's
all a declaration. And he declares whatever he wants
to declare. That's who we hear. That's who
we bow down to. That's who we worship. That's
who we serve. So verse one, Elisha said, hear ye the word of the
Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Tomorrow
about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel. And two measures of barley for
a shekel. In the gate of Samaria, he said,
good news, good news. They were in this awful condition.
And he said, deliverance is coming to you. Deliverance, that's the
gospel. He said, you have been buying
dung. That which is not bread. And
that's false religion, not the gospel. That's man's works, and
Paul said, I count all of that dung. And the last year said,
you've been buying dung for $100. And he said, this time tomorrow,
it's going to be food. Glorious food is going to be
so plentiful. It's going to cost you pennies, just pennies. So much of it. All right. Verse
one. Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith
the Lord. Tomorrow, about this time, shall a measure of fine
flour be sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a
shekel in the gate of Samaria. Then a lord, lowercase l, that
just means an officer. A Lord on whose hand the king
leaned answered the man of God and said, Behold, if the Lord
would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? What he
said was, Yeah, right. I don't believe that. And he said, Elisha said, verse
two goes on to say, behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes,
but shall not eat thereof. Elisha said, because of your
unbelief, you're not going to take part in it. And he didn't. If you look quickly at verse
17. And the king appointed the lowercase
l Lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate
And the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died. As
the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down
to him, And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken
to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a
measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this
time in the gate of Samaria. And that Lord answered the man
of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows
in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou
shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. And
so it fell out unto him. For the people trod upon him
in the gate, and he died. I want to warn every person here
about the dangers of unbelief. The dangers of unbelief. I'm
telling you, young and old, old and young, believe the word of
the Lord. It may be popular, unpopular,
in season, out of season, cool, uncool. I'm telling us all, believe
the word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord shall stand. Elisha was speaking the Word
of the Lord, not his own. True gospel preachers are not
bringing their own words. He brought the Word of the Lord,
and the Word of the Lord shall stand. And this is what his message
was. Deliverance is coming to you. Deliverance. And this is how it happened.
If you look with me at verse 3, There were four leprous men at
the entering end of the gate, and they said one to another,
why sit we here until we die? Four leprous men. Leprosy was
a disease unto death. Leprosy always represents sin
in the scripture. These men were outside the gate
of the city because they were not allowed in the city. They
were lepers. They were lepers, and therefore
they were outcast. And that's what all men and women
are naturally. In their sinful condition before
God outcast. Because of our loathsome disease. of sin. And if we're left alone
in that natural condition, we're going to die eternally. No life
eternally. In this story, we're going to
see a saving of physical life, and it represents a saving of
spiritual life, eternal life. Well, verse 3 says, there were
four leprous men at the entering in of the gate, and they said
one to another, why sit we here until we die? They said, if we
stay right here, we're going to die. And they said in verse
4, if we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is
in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit here, We
will die also. Now, therefore, come and let
us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive,
we shall live. But if they kill us, we shall
not die. We were dead men anyway. They realized no matter where
we go or what we do, we're in a hopeless condition. If we go
into the city, there's no food there. There's no life there.
If we sit right here, there's no food here. There's no life
here. This whole place has been conquered
by a more powerful king than us. And we have no choice but
to admit that he is reigning over us. Everything that we need for life
is in that man's hand. He's holding all of it. So they
said, this is the only option we have. We're going to go to
him and we are going to cast ourselves on his mercy. We're going to beg him to have
mercy on us. And if he chooses to save us
alive, we'll live. And if he chooses to kill us,
we're going to die anyway. We have nothing to lose and potentially
everything to gain. We're going to go beg him for
mercy. That's what we're going to do.
We're going to go beg him for mercy. And this is what they
said within themselves. That's what we read here. They
said, we know the outcome is in his hands. It's not our decision. They didn't
go to him and say, we've decided to let you feed us. We've decided
to let you give us bread. They didn't go to him and say
that. They realize this is his decision. It's going to go according to
his will. We are at his mercy. But this is the only hope we
have. All we have. Years ago. A woman called me
on. The phone on a Sunday afternoon. And I learned immediately not
to call people back on Sunday, because sometimes the conversation
doesn't go well, and it ruins me, and I have to preach again.
So I call people on Monday now. But somebody, if I get a voicemail, I know
it. It flags me, and I know it. And
so this person left a message that they had seen the TV broadcast
and needed me to call. And I thought, well, I'll call
back on Monday. And I was studying. And all of a sudden, I got flagged
again, 15, 20 minutes later, another voicemail. So I listened
to it. And this woman said, I need somebody to call me. I need somebody
to call me. So I thought, OK, I'm going to
call her. So I called her. It's possibly the greatest conversation
I've ever had with a person. We talked for about an hour and
a half and she told me that the TV was already on and she was
standing in her kitchen and it caught her attention and she
started listening and she said absolute fear came over her and
she said, I couldn't move. I stood in my kitchen for 30
minutes. And she said, I need to talk
to somebody, because if I understand you right, you said God is holy. And he must punish sin. And she said, I'm a sinner. And she said, I'm the worst sinner
I've ever known. And. I tried to talk to her, you know,
and I said, well, we're all sinners, you know, and she said, no, no,
no, you don't understand. She said, I'm horrible. I'm a
liar. I've lied to my mother, I've
stolen from my mother to support my illegal lifestyle. I'm just
I'm a wretched, wretched sinner. I said, well, Christ came to
save sinners. She said, no, no, no, no. You
don't understand. Not this sinner. I'm the worst. And I tried to
reason some good news with her and she could not hear it. And
so I finally said, listen, do this. If you find yourself all of the
sudden standing before the judgment throne of God, if you're going
about your life here in Kingsport and all of a sudden you realize
you're standing at God's throne. Whatever he says to you, only
say, I beg for mercy in the blood of Jesus Christ. And then I said,
don't say anything else. Don't say you've felt sorry. Don't say you've tried. Don't
say anything else. Whatever question is asked, only
respond with, I beg you for mercy in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And she said, OK, I'm going to
say that. I said, you say that. She said,
OK, I'll say that. And I said, now, can you get
to our services? She said, yes, I can walk. And
I said, you come and listen to the Word of God with us. And
she did. For a short while. Some of you
remember her. She wasn't doing well. She wasn't
doing well at all. And I don't know if that woman
is still walking on this earth or not. But if the Lord has already
called her to His judgment throne, or when He does, if she will
say that, She'll have it. And if we will say that, we'll
have it. I'm begging for mercy in the
blood of Jesus Christ. That's all I have. That's all
I have. That's all I plead alone. Mercy in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is a sinner's only hope. And that is a sure hope. Thus saith the Lord. That's the
only way I can even stand here and say that right now. Thus
saith the Lord. In the blood of Jesus Christ,
there is mercy, there is forgiveness, there's life. These men were going to beg for
mercy. They were going to beg for mercy.
And they said, we'll just go see if He gives it to us. They
couldn't. And you think about this. They
could not bring an offering to Him. They could not offer this
King anything from the works of their hands because they had
leprosy. If you touch something, you pass
leprosy on. They couldn't bring anything.
In our hands, no price can we bring. We're just bringing our leprous
selves before you and we'll see if you have mercy on us. Look
at verse 5. And they rose up in the twilight. That means in the evening of
the day. They rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp
of the Syrians. And when they were come to the
uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man
there. They came up to the camp of the
Syrians and it was wide open. Verse 6 says, for the LORD had
made." God did this. What they're about to see, God
did this. Verse 6 says, For the LORD had
made the host of the Syrians, to hear a noise of chariots,
and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they
said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against
us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians,
to come upon us. Wherefore, they arose and fled
in the twilight and left their tents and their horses and their
asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. Now, if God purposes to save
a sinful soul, He'll fight every battle. You talk about a prepared
way. He'll fight every battle. He'll
open every door. He will fully provide the way. The wide open way that leads
to life. That's what He did when Christ
fought the battle of sin and death on the cross of Calvary
for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm
the door. I'm the way. And when he finished that conflict,
pay him for our sins. The moment that he cried, it
is finished, God the Father ripped the veil that stood in the way
and separated God's people from the holy of holies. God the Father
ripped it and said, come on in. Wide open. His people can come
in now with boldness and they can freely lay hold of everything
that they need for eternal life. Christ is the source of all of
it. Now watch this, verse eight, I'm almost done. And when these lepers came to
the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent and did
eat and drink, and carried thence silver and gold and raiment,
and went and hid it, and came again, and entered into another
tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. when they
entered into what God provided for them. Now, read between the
lines with me on this. When, at His good time, when
they entered into what God had provided for them. You know, all of our blind days
is what I'm going to provide for God. But when God reveals
the truth of the gospel, men and women see what God has provided
for them. And when they entered into what
God provided for them, they found living bread, living water, pearls
of great price, raiments of righteousness. That's what we find in Christ.
Spiritually speaking, every sinful soul who comes begging God for
mercy is going to lay hold of Christ and enter into Christ.
And all who laid hold of Christ will realize there is more life
here than can be contained. They went into two tents, all
right? There was a whole camp there. Two tents. This is the moment God called
them to be preachers, called these beggars to be preachers.
He put this heart in them, this realization in them. They thought,
should we just keep all this for ourselves? Should we just hide all this
and try to keep all these unsearchable riches for ourselves? They realized there's more here
than can be contained. Verse 9, Then they said one to
another, We do not will. This day is a day of the gospel. Good tidings. And we hold our
peace. If we tarry till the morning
light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that
we may go and tell the king's household." What they said was,
woe be unto us if we preach not the gospel. Let's go tell these
glad tidings to everybody. Verse 10, So they came and called
unto the porter of the city, and they told them, saying, We
came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no man
there, neither voice of man, but horses tied and asses tied
in the tents as they were. And he called the porters, and
they told it to the king's house within. And the king arose in
the night and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the
Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry,
therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in
the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall
catch them alive and get into the city. And one of his servants
answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses
that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, they are as
all the multitude of Israel that are left in it. Behold, I say,
they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed.
And let us send and seek." The king of Israel didn't believe.
That messenger came and he said, they're going to ambush us. And
one of the men said, let's take some horses that are just as
consumed as we are, just barely walking, and let's send and see. Let's see. Verse 14, they took
therefore two chariot horses, and the king sent after the host
of the Syrians, saying, go and see. And they went after them
unto Jordan, and lo, all the way was full of garments and
vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And
the messengers returned and told the king. And the people went
out and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of
fine flour was sold for a shekel. And two measures of barley for
a shekel." Now watch this last line. According to the word of
the Lord. According to the word of the
Lord. Where the word of the Lord is. There's power, there's victory,
there's life, there's good news for sinners. Good news for sinners. Let's all believe His Word and
let's cast ourselves on His mercy. Believe His Word, cast yourself
on His mercy. There is abundant life there. Abundant life there. In the mercy
and the blood of Christ. Our brother read just a moment
ago for us. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that has no money, come, buy
and eat.