Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 2 Kings chapter 7 and verse
9. Verse 9. This is what the four
lepers were saying one to another. Then they said one to another,
We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings. then 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. 2 Kings chapter 7
and verse 9. And thinking especially that
the day of a good tidings is not a time to hold our peace,
but to speak. Before coming to some main points,
I just want to glean several things from this account. If we were to read the end of
the previous chapter, then we can see what a severe trial this
famine was, in the city, brought to be surrounded so they could
not get any food and were really starving. They hadn't got the
food for themselves or their horses or anything. We read in
verse 25 of the previous chapter, 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, and the fourth part of a cab
of dove's dung for five pieces of silver." And a very severe
trial indeed. And you know, when we have the
current news from other nations, Ukraine, and get a picture of
a land like ours, streets like ours, houses like ours, and then
the enemy comes and reduces our houses to rubble, our land to
be just devastated, and then we see that gradually they're
cutting off fuel and touching the electrics, and a place that
we might think, well, that could never happen to our land. We
cannot come to such trials without food or without water or electricity. And yet these things that happened
in the days of the scriptures, they can and they have happened
in many lands today and still are happening. And fallen man
will still do to one another the same things. And so it is
good for us to be reminded, our Lord has said, that we shall
hear wars and rumours of wars. And yet here is a time that really
impacted upon the lives of all of them in that city. And yet
God had a way of deliverance and of help for them. And so
May we always say, whatever comes and the Lord appoints all things
that come into our lives and in nations, that nothing is too
hard for the Lord to help in and to deliver from. We have a most solemn account
here of unbelief. When there was told an expectation
of what the Lord would do, he said that 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
there was a Lord on whose hand the king leaned, and he really
was mocking. He said, Behold, if the Lord
would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And there
is a most solemn word that Elisha said, Behold, thou shalt see
with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. And the Holy Inspired
Word of God, the latter part, the latter four verses of this
account, a large proportion really of this account, is given to
show how that came to pass. And that Lord was put in charge
of the gate, and the people rushed out to get the food. They trod
upon Him, and He died. The most solemn judgment of unbelief,
of mocking or limiting the Holy One of Israel. And when we think
of the children of Israel, why they were turned back for 40
years in the wilderness, was because they looked upon all
the giants of Canaan and did not believe that the Lord was
able to deliver them. Unbelief is what is mentioned
in Hebrews, the lessons of unbelief, why the children of Israel perished
in the wilderness was because of unbelief. It is a chief sin,
a great sin, we should never nourish it, We should always
remember these passages that speak of the solemn judgment
on those that in effect say God is not able to deliver. He can't
do what he says he will do. He may testify of what he will
do, but he won't do it, or he can't do it. And we're especially
to remember that when it comes to the gospel, when it comes
to The word of the Lord to us as sinners, when it comes to
us, we're in a worse position than what the Samaria was in
these days. Spiritually, we are so fallen,
we are lost, we are dying sinners. And in the gospel, there is the
hope that is raised up and the precious promises of God. An
unbelief in Satan will say, God does not mean what he says. He
will not do what he says. He will not perform what he says.
And it disannuls the word of God. Be very, very careful that
we do not walk in the way that this Lord did. That when the
Lord says one thing, then something says within us, or we may even
utter it, that we don't believe that Lord really is saying what
He is saying, and He will not do it. The other thing that I bring from
this, how often when the Lord appears, we cannot anticipate
how He will appear. How could they ever have thought
the Lord would deliver them in this way? It is a unique way
in the Scriptures, only once do we read of such a thing. And we might say, naturally,
why didn't they get on their horses? They would have run a
lot quicker like that than running on feet. But the way the Lord
ordered it, they left their horses. He made it so that the provision
was all there for his people. And when we think back, we think
of how the Lord, in Noah's day, destroyed the world. Could that
have been anticipated? how he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
with fire from heaven. Could that have been thought?
Well, God would destroy them in that way, no? When the children
of Israel were to go out of Egypt, after nine signs and wonders,
they still were as much prisoners as in the beginning. But who
would then have thought that, well, the shedding of blood of
the Passover with the Lamb, that would do it immediately. That
was God's way, and it always is God's way, and the way of
salvation. It is only through the shedding
of the true Paschal Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ, His blood,
that there's ever any deliverance from this world, from sin, from
death, from hell. But then when the children of
Israel came to the Red Sea, And they'd got the Egyptians behind,
the mountains each side, the Red Sea in the beginning. Who
would have thought that the Lord would have dried up the Red Sea
and made a way for them to pass over on dry land? And then 40
years later stopped up Jordan so they could again walk over
on dry land. When they got the other side
and there was Jericho shut up, who would have thought that God
was going to design to lay those great thick walls of Jericho
flat. All the time we have things that
the Lord has done in the Word of God that are unique. The only things that God could
do and advised to do are reminded again and again that with God
nothing shall be called impossible. that we have not looked for in
some of us in our lives. We can see how the Lord has done
that in our lives as well. And it's a good thing to watch
for this handiwork of the Lord. Watch for almost His signature
way of doing the thing that did not come into our mind. That
is what the Lord has done and has accomplished. You would imagine
how the Lord would have turned Jonah back from running away
to go and to preach at Nineveh, being thrown into the sea and
a large fish prepared to swallow him up. All of these things,
they are the Lord's doing. We might say with the words of
Scripture, and it's marvellous in our eyes, Another thing to gather from
this account is the people that he will use in it. He doesn't choose the Lord on
whose hand the king leaned. Well, he was put in front of
the gate, but there he was slain. But to bring the tidings, we
have these four leprous men. They're the ones that God chose.
outcast from society because of their condition and their
illness, and they're the ones that are to find this great provision,
be the tidings of the wonderful deliverance the Lord has brought
for them. The Lord uses means and uses
those that men perhaps have just cast off as We think of, our Lord is not
this Jesus, the carpenter's son, Jesus of Nazareth, how many despised
him, how many derided him. Another thing to note, there
were these four lepers, they were in a situation together,
they were afflicted together, and They're in the same predicament
and they speak one to another. And really they were saying,
well, we can't do any worse falling out to the Syrians because we're
going to die in the city of famine if we go out to them. They might
keep us alive, but if they kill us, we'll just be the same as
in the city. And they're speaking one to another
and in our text we find them speaking one to another again
saying one to another we do not well this day is a day of good
tidings there's a good thing where there are those that walk
together as iron sharpens iron that are able to edify and speak
one to another then they that fear the lord speak often one
to another we read in malachi And those two on the way to Emmaus
were doing just that. And the Lord drew near to them
and asked them what manner of communications they had and why
they were sad. He drew out from them all what
had happened, the crucifixion, and how they trusted that it
should have been He, the Lord Jesus, that had redeemed Israel. Their eyes were holden, they
could not know who it was, that are joined with them, and He
who knew all things would draw out from them what their sorrow
was and what their perplexity was. And then He reproves them,
no fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken, and He opens up in all the scriptures concerning
Himself. Very often we have not just one
alone, but two together that are communing or speaking together. We think of Philip, Nathanael. Philip, he has tidings, he is
found, he says to Nathanael, him of whom Moses and the prophets
did write, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, can there any good thing
come out of Nazareth? And Philip's answer was, come
and see. and he goes to him and in that
way he's brought to personally know the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have these things that
are set before us in this account, a very real account, an account
of history that actually happened in Israel, how the Lord appeared
to them, how he delivered them from the enemies, and provided
for them, the individuals that were involved in it, how the
Lord spake and how the Lord performed it, and that solemn judgment
on the one that derided and did not believe that the Lord would
do this. In fact, in one sense, he is
saying the only way that the Lord could do it was for a miracle
directly from heaven, a bit like the manna, perhaps, from heaven. Instead of using things on earth,
instead of using means on earth, the lesson for us that the Lord
doesn't need to work those things that are, you might say, extraordinary,
but can use means on earth, use men, use women, use like here,
those that were fearing, hearing something that really wasn't
there. The Lord is able to do that.
And may we not stumble at the Lord's work by saying, well,
how is that the Lord's work? Because men's hands, were in
it, why we could then go to Calvary and say, how was that the redemption
of the souls of his people? How was that the sacrifice that
our Lord offered when he said that no man taketh my life from
me, I lay it down in myself? How was that? Because the Jews
captured him. They arrayed him before their
council, then brought him to the Romans. The Romans, they
condemned him to death, and they crucified him. How is this God's
salvation? How is this God's work? Because
men are doing this. He didn't lay down his life.
His life was taken through crucifixion. But then when we compare, the
time they sought to throw him down from the brow of the hill,
and he walked through the minster dam. Compare with what he said
in the garden, thinkest thou not that I could pray, my father,
ye presently give me twelve legion of angels? But then how should
the scripture be fulfilled? And we see that what our Lord
said to Pilate, thou couldst have no power against me at all,
except it were given thee from above. And Peter then says, he
who was delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of
God, ye have taken them by wicked hands, crucified and slain. And we can see from Calvary,
we are not to think just because man has been used, wicked men
have been used, that it is not the miracle or wonder working
of God that has brought it to pass. The Lord in many parts
of scripture uses men, wicked brothers of Joseph, with the
means of putting him in the pit, selling him, bringing him to
Egypt. God always determined Joseph
would go there, Israel would go into Egypt. That's how he
brought it about. We're not to think, well, because
it was wicked men, it was not God's work. Joseph could see
it, clearly see later on. And he says, you meant it for
evil, but God meant it for good. And able to look past men and
to see the Lord's work. And we're to do that in our lives.
Look past men, though it might be Painful. Sometimes it is very
hard to look past men, especially when we think, well, we've been
wounded, we've been mistreated, we've been unfairly dealt. It's
hard to look past the man and to see that this is God's hand. When David was fleeing from Absalom,
he had Shimei cursing, casting stones as he went. And Abishai
said to David, let me go over and take off his hat. But David
said, let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him, it may
be he requite me good for his cursing this day. And David could
look past Shimei and see the Lord's hand, the Lord's chastening,
correcting hand, and he humbled and he bowed down before the
Lord's hand. There are many lessons, even
from the literal accounts, the historical accounts of these
things that have happened to the people of God, because we
also, we live real lives, not imagined ones, and we deal with
men and women, and with kings and rulers, and the Lord is over
all these things. And those come under, they're
working together for good, to the people of God. The Lord controlling
men, though men seem to act, and they do on their own free
will, yet the Lord is over it all. We shall give an account
of what we have done and how we have acted, and it is a blessed
thing if we can trace the Lord has graciously granted us that
faith and trust in Him to say this is the Lord's work
and it is marvellous in our eyes. Well I want to bring this portion
to more spiritual instruction to us and upon my spirit has
been specifically the tidings, the word tidings or bringing
tidings. So I want to think firstly of
to consider tidings brought to men. If you look up in the dictionary,
though tidings we might think, well, usually it can be bad tidings
as well as good, generally the idea is that it is good tidings,
it is good news. The second thing is consider
the bearer of tidings. In this case, It is these four
lepers, and then of course they pass it on to the porter of the
city, and then the porters go and tell it to the king's household. And then thirdly, the receiver
of tidings. Wherever there's tidings that
is given, there's someone receiving them. And so in this case, it
was the king and his household and how they receive them. But firstly, the tidings brought
to men. When we think of the things of
God, then the most blessed tidings that we could have or given us
from God is the truth, and to have the word of God and Through
that word there is tidings or news and good news because right
from Genesis to Revelation is God's plan of salvation and way
of escape from the wrath to come. Right from the fall of man it
traces back before that to God's purpose of grace and mercy. And we should always remember
that what a blessed thing it is to actually have the truth
of God, to have the Word of God, to have the Bible, to have that
which we may read. Many times with the tidings in
Scripture, the bearers of that tiding were people. We come to look at that in a
moment. But in one sense, especially with the ministers of the Gospel,
they are preaching the Word, and so the tidings that are actually
brought, we're not bringing anything more or anything different than
the Word of God. The command is to preach the
Word, and that is to then preach the truth and to have the truth
set before us. Then divided into that is the
Law of God. The Law was given that all the
world might be brought in guilty before God. It's really the sentence
of death. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. The message that as Adam sinned
so we also are sinners and each of us in our lives we then sin
and add sin to sin. And we know that that sentence
is over us and not just a literal death but spiritual death, we
are dead in trespasses and sins, and must stand before God's judgment
day at last. And it is a most solemn tidings,
most solemn verdict of the reason for sin and suffering that is
in the world. Before ever there can be tidings
of a remedy There must be that also of the malady. We wouldn't
think of someone saying, well, we've been cured from a very
bad disease. And you say, well, when did you
hear you had it? And I say, well, we didn't. We're just cured of
it. And just in a natural sense,
generally the order of things is that before someone is cured
of anything, they know they've got it. And they're told that
they've got it. Usually there's an investigation,
a scan or something, and then it is the doctor, the physician,
he comes with tidings and he tells what the investigation
has shown and what the verdict is. That comes first. So the law comes first. By the
law is the knowledge of sin. But then there's the tidings
of the gospel. Really that began with the first
promise of the seed of the woman that should bruise the servant's
head. That was the promise of what the Lord Jesus Christ would
do. Then in Genesis 22, 15, 18, We have the promise to Abraham,
in thee and in thy sea, that is Christ, shall all nations
be blessed. So the extent of that, Jew and
Gentile, the extent of that. Then we have in Genesis 49, that
when Shiloh comes, unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
It specifies the time. when our Lord would come, a time
when there was still a lawgiver in Israel, though they were under
the Roman rule, yet they still had some semblance of law. That's
why a Lord was brought before their council first, and that
they had some weight with the Roman governors, thy own people
hath delivered thee unto me. And the Lord Jesus Christ then
was delivered up And that time, very shortly afterwards, the
Jews lost all semblance of law at all. And the Jews in their
Talmud, they recognized that Shiloh is the Messiah. And who can deny, when we read
the accounts in the Gospels, unto him shall the gathering
of the people be, the thousands that went after him. The Jews
themselves, they said the whole world has gone after him. And
not only while our Lord was on earth, but when he ascended up
into heaven, the Spirit was given to the disciples, then at Pentecost,
3,000 believed. And thousands were converted,
thousands followed the apostles, and were blessed. A very significant
time. in the history of the Jews that
really pointed to the fulfilling of those promises that when the
Messiah, when Christ should come, that that effect would be. Men,
women, they would be drawn after Him. They would be gathered to
Him like sheep to a shepherd. They'd be gathered unto Him as
drawn by the Father. And so those tidings that when
the Lord came were given from Heaven by the angels, on earth
peace, goodwill toward men. Those tidings then were given
to the people through first John the Baptist and then the Lord
Jesus himself. The gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. In John 3, as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so, Must the Son of Man
be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but should have eternal life? And the Son of Man came not to
destroy men's lives, but to save them, a way of escape from the
wrath to come. Lord Jesus Christ came not to
destroy the law, but to fulfil it, to lay down His life, a ransom
for His sheep. And the tidings, the gospel tidings,
the good news of salvation, is what is proclaimed and set forth
throughout the Word of God, not just New Testament, right through
in all the types and the shadows. You think of the law, you think
of Mount Sinai, when the tables of the law were broken, then
they were replaced. and the completed, unbroken law,
put in the Ark of the Covenant, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have broken the law, He has
fulfilled it. We have incurred the debt, He
has paid that debt. That which the Lord has done,
finished and accomplished, is the tidings of the Gospel. And
that is what is proclaimed and set forth. So that is the tidings
themselves. And may we always bear that in
mind. The Bible has one message from
beginning to end. Now, Lord highlighted that with
the two on the way to Emmaus. Beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, He expounded unto them. in all the scriptures, the things
concerning himself. Those were the tidings, that
was the message, that is the message from God that he gives
to his servants and gives to men. So I want to look then secondly
at the bearer of tidings. Coming back to the account here,
the bearer of these tidings was these leprous men. They had not heard about it,
but they became partakers of it. They actually saw. They saw
the goods, they started to hide them, they ate of the food that
they found, And so when they consider what they are doing,
they have food they don't have in the city, they have all of
this treasure and all of this, and speaking one to another,
they say that they do not well. They have a blessing that others
do not have, that others needed, and so that is what made them
to be bearers of these tidings. How vital it is that, especially
in the Gospel, that they that preach the Gospel are also partakers
of it. When the Gospel was to be preached
first to the Gentiles, to Cornelius and his household, God chose
not the angel to preach it, but Peter. Peter, who had denied
Him three times. Peter, who also was the minister
that preached at Pentecost ten years before, and had seen the
effect of the Spirit fall upon the Jews. He was to be the one
seeing the effect fall upon the Gentiles. But it must be one
that had partaken of that salvation. Sinners that are saved, sinners
that know the worth of the Saviour, sinners that have tasted the
Lord is gracious, those that know what they have handled and
tasted and felt, they are the ones that in Scripture are the
ones qualified to be the bearer of those tidings. Now we know
officially to be a preacher it is to be called with an inward
call, an outward call, the people of God, viewing that that minister
has the gifts and that the Lord is pleased to bless the word
through him and laying him in their hearts and a minister then
is a very distinct calling. But that does not mean that individual
believers who have truly known the things of God, who have been
blessed in those things, are not also to be bearers of those
tidings. The Lord said that ye are witnesses
unto me, and that we are to testify of those things that we have
been witnesses of and experienced. When the Lord healed those in
the scriptures, many of them, they wanted to be with Him. The
man Gadarene did. The Lord said to him, go, go
home to thy friends and tell what great things God has done
for thee and had mercy on thee. That was his commission. It wasn't
to be an apostle or a minister, but those that knew him, those
that were his friends, those that knew him what he was once
before, now could see the change. Same as the apostle Paul, They
could know and see the change that was brought in him, and
they were to be the bearer of these tidings. The man that was
born blind, he could say one thing, I know, whereas I was
blind, now I see. There were some that even questioned
whether it was the same man, whether he really was born blind,
but he said, I am, I am the same one. And they tried hard to take
it from him. They tried hard to take from
him the Lord Jesus Christ and his belief in him. He did not
know who he was. He conveyed himself into another
place. He did not know. Later on, the
Lord revealed himself to him. But because this had been something
he had experienced and he knew, they could not take that from
him. And it's a blessed thing to have
even one thing, like him, that no one can take from us because
we have experienced it ourselves. And not just anything, but experience
the truth, and experience what the Word of God testifies. And especially with the tidings
that are given, my mind goes to the well-known account of
when David and his men were fighting with Absalom, and Absalom was
slain. And then tidings were to be brought
back to the city. And there was two men that brought
those tidings. One was Ahimaaz, and the other
one was Kushai. Ahimaaz, he wanted, he was very
eager to bring tidings. He'd done that before. He was
a... a runner, a messenger that brought the tidings from what
was happening at Jerusalem as well. And so you can understand
it. But Joab says to him that he
should not bring tidings today. This day you shall bear tidings
another day, but this day shalt thou bear no tidings, because
the king's son is dead. This is 2 Samuel chapter 18. And so Ahimehaz knew very clearly
from Joab's mouth that the king's son was dead. And yet when he
comes to David, who was waiting for tidings, then he gives a
message that is not clear. Heimer has called and said unto
the king, All is well. He fell down to the earth upon
his face before the king and said, Blessed be the Lord thy
God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their
hand against my lord the king. And then the king, he is only
really concerned with one man, and that is his son. And so the
king answers, is the young man Absalom saved? Now, if Ahimehas
had thought, he would have thought, well, Joab has told me the king's
son is dead. That's why I could not run first. And why Cushai was sent, but
Ahimehas overran Cushai and got there first. But he didn't. The fear of man, as it were,
brought a snare. He couldn't bring himself to
say clearly what the truth was. So he's asked to stand aside. We might wonder, what was David
expecting? How could David expect a deliverance
and his son not be killed? How could he expect there to
be Was this to be good tidings? Which way would it be good tidings?
Which way would it be evil tidings? Was it good tidings that Israel,
that David's men had won, or that Absalom's men had won? And you wonder really, or David
was almost in an impossible situation. But then comes Cushi, and he
says very clearly, When the king asked him the same question,
is the young man absent slave? And Cush I answered, the enemies
of my lord, the king, and all that rise against thee to do
thee hurt, be as that young man is. The most sad and solemn tidings
for Taven. He is very, very distressed. But how vital it is that when
the tidings are brought that they are faithful that they are
clear tidings. And we see that though Haimahaz
was a good man, yet his tidings were really of no use because
they weren't specific enough and clear enough. And that is the most solemn responsibility
to all of us that preach the Word. It's very, very easy to
be afraid of man, or to set forth something that's not really the
gospel, and especially the tidings about our own stay. One of our
hymns says, Nor are men willing to have the truth told, the sight
is too killing for pride to behold. And it is very hard for man to
receive that. We can hide under many things
that will disguise our true state. We spoke this morning of Ezekiel's
dry bones and how those bones were at first, they were clothed,
they were brought together as a people, but there was no breath
in them. And then there was to be a prophesying
more, that there be breath in them. And one of the things that
we said this morning, we can, especially if we've been brought
up under the sand of the truth, we can look like God's people,
we can act like God's people, but we don't have breath, we
don't have life, spiritual life in us. And we need to be delivered
from that, delivered from outwardly appearing, or thinking, perhaps
subconsciously, that because we have been brought up under
the sound of the truth, because we attend a chapel, because we
hold to the truths of the Bible and actually may know them very
well, then we're not in as much danger as the man down the street,
the man at the pub, the man that never comes to the house of God,
those that are openly walking in sin. And there's this thought,
we are more safe than him. But scriptures are very clear
that that is not a substitute for the new birth. We are not
safer than him. In fact, there's more required
of those that know more or hear more. And it applies to us all,
those that preach the gospel. We're not to think, well, because
we are a minister, then it doesn't matter if we are not so careful
about our own walk, our conduct, or our heart's sins, because,
well, that shall be covered of it by, well, maybe people have
been blessed under our ministry. No. We each must give an account
of ourselves before God, and we each must be cleansed in the
precious blood of Christ, and have a personal faith before
the Lord. The Apostle Paul says, I keep
under my body, lest after I preach to others, I myself am a cast
away. And we know the Lord's people
can't be lost, they can't be cast away, but it can appear
that way. And when we think of Judas, who
must have preached and was very much like all the others, And
yet it came a time that it proved that actually he was never one
of the Lords at all. The Apostle says, let us therefore
fear lest a promise be left to us of entering into his rest
any of you should seem to come short of him. The safest thing
is that we make our calling and our election short. So the bearer
of tidings. If those tidings are to be useful,
then there will be times that it is searching, that it is hard
to bring, as the Heimer has found, but also it then comes to the
hearing of it. I briefly want to just note as
the receiver of tidings. In our account here, When the
king received the tidings, he had an explanation for it. And he says, I will now show
you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we'd be
hungry, therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves
in the field, saying when they come out of the city, we shall
catch them alive, get into the city. Now the king needed the
food just the same as any other, no doubt really hoping it was
true. But there's that suspicion, perhaps it is not, perhaps it
is a trap, perhaps it's not really a deliverance. How easy it is
to have those doubts, have those fears, especially regarding our
own soul salvation. But one of the servants gave
that good advice to investigate, to go and see. And we spoke before of the advice
that Philip gave to Nathanael when Nathanael was questioning
the same. Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? Come and see. And you think of
the woman at the well of Samaria. when she says, and again she's
the bearer of tidings to the Samaritans, right in this same
place where this famine was, come see a man that told me all
things that never I did, is not this the Christ? And let them
decide, for they went out of the city, and when they had heard
the Lord, then they said, now we believe, not because of thy
saying, but we have heard him ourselves, and we know, and sure,
that this is the Christ, the Saviour that shall come into
the world. And so receiving the tidings,
how vital it is that every time we hear the Gospel, every time
we hear the Word, that we think, what kind of a hearer are we? It's one of the marks of the
people of God that they are given a hearing ear. In every letter,
the revelation at the end, He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Well nearly all those
letters, apart from two of them, or five of them, they were things
against those churches, hard things for them to hear, reproving
things. And yet they are set before us
as well. Another thing is to be ready
for such tidings. I always remember what happened
to me, and I suppose I would have been probably nine or ten,
could have been twelve, and I had a dog, Laddie. He was a mixture
of a collie and a beagle, but he had collie in him, and there
were some times that dog got off and he'd be away for three
days, once caught him running over the fields with other pack
of dogs and where there was livestock. But one day he slipped the lead
and a little while after we heard a gunshot and then we didn't
know for a week what happened to the dog. And then my father
came home and said, oh, I think Mr. Wilson shot him dead. Well,
I just, a little boy, as it were, I went round to this farmer,
and I remember standing in front of him and looking up at him,
and I gave him a piece of my mind. I really had a go at him.
He denied each one, shot it, he had one, done it. He could
have quite rightly said, he was in my sheep, I shot him, and
he would have been perfectly right, and he should have done.
But, you know, I was really, really cross with him. And a
week later, I was playing some band music on a record player,
and my mother burst into the room. She said, turn that off,
turn that off. Mr. Wilson's dead. He's dropped dead
of a heart attack. How do you know? I've never forgotten
that. I thought, was I part of the reason why he had a heart
attack? Just a week after, I really had
a go at him. And it came as such a shock.
It really, really upset me. And going from one moment with
playing the music and next moment suddenly these tidings was a
sudden shock. The scriptures they warn us to
be sober and to be ready that when we should hear such tidings
that we should not be shaken, we should not be troubled in
mind. Sometimes we can be caught in
all manner of light talking and attitude and ways and things
and suddenly things come upon us that are so different than
that and we should be prepared for that time the Lord should
return or when we should hear sad tidings and ready when those
should come to us, sometimes with their ministry We may be
going about our daily lives and suddenly there's a knock on the
door and one of our flocks come to tell us something. And if
we're not careful, what will we be found doing at such a time? And so the receiver of tidings
is a very searching message. Whoever we are, wherever we are,
are we ready to hear the word of God? Is our mind a spiritual
mind or is it a carnal mind? Is it full of the things of the
world? Or is a heart tuned to the things
of God and ready to hear those things? And so there's these
things to consider. The tidings, they're brought
to men, the bearer of the tidings and the receiver of the tidings. And may we be of those that receive
the tidings of the Gospel, embrace them and believe them, and have
joy and peace in believing.