So in the first two verses of
chapter seven, what came to pass where we just
read was foretold there when the King of Israel sent to Elisha
saying, this is all God's fault. And he wanted Elisha's head.
Think about that. People don't just hate the Lord and ignore Him. They do, they
ignore Him in their daily lives. But people hate the Lord and
wanna kill Him. That's the thing about it. We're
that evil by nature. It's not just something that
they opt out of, you see. They despise God so bad that
they want Him dead. They want his head on a platter.
What good was that going to do the King of Israel? What good
was that going to do? It was just sheer spite and anger
and hatred for God. He said it's God's fault and
he couldn't get to heaven to cut God's head off. So he was
going to settle for Elisha's. And that man said, Elisha said
to that man, there's going to be mercy, but none for you, none
for you. So these lepers were outside
the camp during this horrible famine. You remember how bad
it was? They were eating their own family. And they were where they were
because of what they were. I want us to notice that first
as we settle into this story. These lepers were where they
were because of what they were. Listen to Leviticus, or turn
to Leviticus 13 with me, please. Leviticus chapter 13. They were outside the camp. What
were they doing outside the camp? They were huddled up in probably
some kind of makeshift tents of some kind. Outside of the camp. And here's
why, Leviticus 13, 44. He is a leprous man. This little
passage here is given to us after the signs of leprosy are given
and how the priest is to tell and determine whether somebody
is leprous or not. And then when they do determine
that, it says this, he's a leprous man, he is unclean. the priest
shall pronounce him utterly unclean, his plague is in his head, and
the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent
and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper
lip and shall cry, unclean, unclean, all the days wherein the plague
shall be in him, he shall be defiled, he is unclean, he shall
dwell alone without the camp shall his habitation He can't
be near anybody else. Now, in the Garden of Eden, the
Lord asked Adam, where are you? Where are you? And Adam also
was where he was because of what he was. He wasn't asking what
part of the garden are you in? He was saying the Lord's asking
him not to get information. He asked him, where are you?
To cause Adam to realize what he had done. and where he was
now in spiritual death and separation from God. And he was where he
was because of what he was. He was dead spiritually, dying
now physically, separated from God and ultimately banned from
the very gate of paradise. Outside the gate, outside the
camp, no access, no fellowship, no communion, no society. That's us by nature, and this
picture's us by nature. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the scripture says, died without the camp. He went there because of who
his people are. Turn with me to Hebrews 13. Please, Hebrews 13, 10. Hebrews 13 and verse 10. We, the people of God, have an
altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle
for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary of the high priest for sin are burned without the
camp. as a picture of the Lord Jesus.
They were burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. So you see what
these picture, these lepers picture, outside the gate, sinful leprosy
all through the scripture is a picture of sin. It starts within,
it doesn't ever get better. Humanly speaking, there's no
cure for it. With men it's impossible. And so that's the picture here,
but being outside the gate and realizing their situation, the
Lord caused them to realize rather than just letting them go on
in their delusion and sitting there thinking a miracle was
going to hit them on the head, they realized their situation.
And then being outside the gate was an advantage. If the Lord
reveals to you where you are, what you are, That's a good thing. That's a good thing. Being outside
the gate. They were desperate, they were
hopeless, they saw their hopeless condition. They came to the place
where they were shut up. With no choice, no choice. And our Lord suffered without
the gate, not to bring us back into where we came from, but
so that he himself would be our habitation. We have no continuing
city here, and we don't want to go back to where we were,
fallible in Adam, perfect But better than that is the very
righteousness of Christ. Better than that is to live in
Christ for him to be our home, for him to be our habitation.
We seek one to come. He suffered without the gate
to bear our reproach because of what we were. And we are crucified
under this world and this world under us because of his reproach.
That's what he's saying there. We bear his reproach because
remember what Paul said, I'm crucified in this world. How?
By Christ crucified. By whom? God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom? This
world is crucified unto me and I unto this world. So we are
leprous sinners taken from starvation and misery and hopelessness to
an embarrassment of riches." Because of who he is. Because of who he is. Notice
it says, let's go without the camp bearing his reproach. Why
did he go outside the camp? To bear our reproach. And now
that he's borne my reproach, I go out with him. I'm separated
with him. I have no use for this world
and it doesn't have any use for me. Spiritually speaking, we're
separated from this world. We're outside the camp. We're
the off scouring of the earth. Anyway, the world doesn't want
anything to do with us. It's mutual. What use have you
got for this world? The Lord gives you what you need
out of this world, not them. He said, you seek me first, I'll
add these things to you. Don't go to the world and get
your 30 pieces of silver, they don't have anything for you. What good did that do for Judas?
So to an absolute embarrassment of riches, because Christ was
and is the spotless, sinless, perfect, holy Lamb of God, we
now are spiritually alive. What condition were these lepers
in? Goners, goners without any hope. without any prospect of anything
but death and misery. But because of who Christ is,
that's us because of who we are, because of who Christ is, and
Him taking our place, Him coming outside the gate to bear our
reproach. We're spiritually alive. That's the, Adam's condition
was immediately, he was spiritually dead. The Lord said, in the day
you eat, you'll die, and he did. And he began, whether he knew
it yet or not, he began to die physically. We're spiritually alive, and
one of these days, we're gonna really be alive. This is called
the body of this death. What was the other problem with
Adam? Separated from God. But because Christ suffered without
the gate, and as he's described here, burned without the camp, that
he might sanctify, make holy the people with his own blood,
he suffered without the gate. That's why he did that. And now
we're reconciled to God. And we were banished from the
garden to be vagabonds in the earth, no home. But now Christ
is our home. Because it is Christ that died, I'm more than a conqueror through
him that loves me. Because he died, yea rather,
is risen again. It's because of who he is, see?
And notice again, these lepers reasoning in verses three and
four, let's look at it again together. 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? If the leprosy doesn't kill us
first, we're gonna starve to death. If we say we will enter
into the city, it ain't that much better in the city. The
city ain't all it's cracked up to be. This world is no help,
is it? The society of the citizens of
this earth are no help. They're in the same condition
we're in. They're dying too. They're hopeless too. They have
no way of doing anything about it either, or they would have
done it. Famine is in the city. Indeed
it is. And we shall die there. And if
we sit still here, we die also. Whichever comes first, the horrible
disease of leprosy or the starvation of famine, now therefore come. What's the remedy to our sin
problem? Come, that's what the Lord says,
come. the spirit and the bride say
come and let him that hear it say come. And let him that's
thirsty, hungry, desperate, leprous, hopeless, helpless, come. And let us fall. Let us fall
unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall
live. Now it's interesting that it's
the Syrians. But think about their earthly situation and what
this pictures. What we need is mercy, mercy. We need somebody to take pity
on us. If they save us alive, we shall
live. And if they kill us, we shall but die. How bad is that
if you're going to die anyway? If they put us up against the
firing squad, that'd be a lot more merciful than wasting away
as a leper starving to death. And so they rose up. So we have
a choice. That's what this world's religion
would say. We have a choice. You know what
your choice is? Death, death, or mercy. That's your choice. Not much
of a choice, is it? That's why those who preach the
gospel say it's not a choice. Salvation is not my choice. Those
who say that salvation is a decision that we need to make, they do
not understand the situation. You haven't been made aware of
your situation like these lepers did. They realize, look, look
where we are. Because of what we are, this
is where we are. And this is where we need to
come to and where God will bring us to when and if he saves us,
we will come to this place where we are hopeless and helpless,
miserable. What did the Lord say? You don't
know that you're naked and miserable and blind and wretched. You need
to know that. Without mercy, I'm a dead man. And there's no neutral ground.
There's no neutral ground. Where I am now, if I stay where
I am, well, I'm just going to be noncommittal when it comes
to religion. I'm just going to float through
that. There's no neutral ground. You're a dead man walking. Those that live in pleasure are
dead while they live. Starving, spiritually condemned,
a child of God's wrath by nature, even as others. If I stay where I am, I perish
forever. If I go to man for help, if I
go into the city, I go into the world, man's in the same situation
I am, there are no help. Don't trust in man whose breath
is in his nostrils. My only hope is mercy. That's
where we must come spiritually. We've got to have mercy. These lepers said, in effect,
we've got nothing to lose. And I'm not saying that's necessarily
the right attitude. It was more desperate than that,
wasn't it, really, than just we've got nothing to lose. But
they said, no matter what we do, there's only one thing to
do. Listen to this poem. I think
this would be a blessing to your heart. I've quoted parts of it
before. It's a song, I believe, or should be. Come wretched sinner
in whose breast a thousand thoughts revolve. Come with your guilt
and fear oppressed and make this last resolve. I'll go to Jesus,
though my sin hath like a mountain rose. I know his courts, I'll
enter in whatever may oppose. Prostrate I'll lie before his
throne, and there my guilt confess. I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone
without his sovereign grace. Perhaps he will admit my plea,
perhaps will hear my prayer. But if I perish, I will pray,
and perish only there. I can but perish if I go, I am
resolved to try, for if I stay away, I know I must forever die. But if I die with mercy sought,
when I the king have tried, this were to die, delightful thought,
as sinner never died. Nobody ever came to the king
of glory for mercy, and died there at his feet. Nobody, nobody
ever has. And this is the place we come.
If I stay where I am, I die. If I go to the world, I die.
If I look for what I need in the things of this earth or the
the. The. Resources of this earth
I die. I need mercy, I need mercy. I need mercy from the ones that
have something to eat. And this is a strange picture,
but I want you to see it. There's more to this picture
now. This is what we call, though, this situation that they were
in, it's called being shut up to Christ, the spiritual version
of it. The spiritual application of
this is called being shut up to Christ. I've got nowhere else
to go, no decision to make. No choice. The whole point of their conversation
was not that they had a choice to make. The point of it was
they didn't have a choice, right? Shut up to Christ. Listen carefully. When God commands you to repent, when God says, if any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him go to hell. When the Lord says, except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. That is not a good time
to say, well, I guess I have a decision to make. Not a good
thing. That's what religion is telling
you, that you have a decision to make. God didn't give you
that. He didn't say that. That's not
what he said. It's time to bow and to sue for
mercy. from the King of all grace. Many
freewill false preachers have used this text to show the opposite. They say, well, you see there,
if they hadn't decided what they did, they would have done. First
of all, what they decided was that they didn't have any choice. And I'd say they realized that
more than they decided that, wouldn't you? They didn't decide
that, they just realized. This is the way it is because
God opened their eyes. God causes you to realize your
untenable position. The prodigal son realized where
he was, was stupid. My father's servants eat better
than me. I'm starving to death. I'm eating
the husks that the swine eat. And that's what happened here. May the Lord bring us to that
place. May he shut us up to his son.
Mercy, we must have mercy. You say, well, they look for
mercy in the wrong place. No, in their earthly situation,
the only ones that had food were the Syrians. That's a picture of God. And here's the thing about that.
Secondly about that is their action is not what saved them. Let's think about that now. What
they did now, what they did, what they realized and acted
upon is a picture of casting yourself on the mercy of God.
Why did the Syrians have something to eat? Because God had put them
in that situation. Everybody in this story is exactly
where they are because of God, right? He told him what was going
to happen. It's what happened. The Syrians
were pawns on the board. And what these lepers did is
not what saved them. It's a picture of the mercy of
God, but notice in the story that it wasn't what they did
that saved them. What did they do? They got up
and went to the Syrians to see if the Syrians would show them
mercy. Do you reckon they would have? Do you think the Syrians would
have given up some of their military supplies for four Israelite lepers? But what saved them is something
that God did. Look at verse five. This is the
gospel. They rose up in the twilight. to go into 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. Why not? For the Lord,
the Lord, salvation is of the Lord. 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, their horses,
their asses, even the camp as it was, food laying everywhere,
breakfast was on the stove, but not for them. Fled for their life. Salvation of these lepers was
of the Lord. So it will be or is with you. Salvation is not something you
do. Is something God did. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Not the Syrians mercies. There's
no such thing. They wouldn't have got mercy
from the Syrians, and if they had, what would that do? Just
prolong the inevitable. Listen, there are no Syrians
when it comes to the salvation of the Lord. They're gone. They don't exist. It's not like
you think it is. Salvation doesn't happen like
you think it does by nature. It's an act of God's free, sovereign
grace. Is his sovereignty not seen in
this story? And his mercy is tender mercy. To lepers like us. God doesn't need your cooperation. Or anyone else is in order to
save you. It looks like he does. It looks
like you look at the look at the circumstances. Only the Syrians
have food. I need the Syrians know you need
Christ. You need Christ. This world has what I need, no
it don't. You need the Savior. You need the Savior. He purposed it. Did he not? He told them, chapter,
we read in Deuteronomy what was gonna happen. Last time. The Lord purposed
it. He promised it. He performed it. And he perpetuates it. Salvations
of the Lord. Now you might think about this
story and think about something kind of depressing. I'm sure
it's crossed your mind. These lepers are rich now. You
know that. They were starving, they're not
starving anymore, are they? They're not ever gonna be hungry
again, I don't reckon. You know, they ended up telling
the king about the fact that the Syrians were gone and all
that food and money and everything was out there, but I don't think
they told him about their little hidey places where they had hidden
all that money and clothing and all that. I don't think I would
have. Pretty sure they didn't. I don't
think they were ever going to be hungry again. But they were still lepers. They were still lepers, weren't
they? Yeah. So are we. So are we. So are we. We sit at the king's
table. And we dine on the finest fare
of heaven itself, the bread of life and the water of life, meat
and drink indeed. Because of what God did for us,
whatever years or months we have left in this world will be as
good as they can be for lepers. And that's pretty good. And one day the body of this
death will decay beyond earthly repair. And we may feel some pain associated
with that. We may feel some great sorrow
associated with that. And we have that to look forward
to. We're still lepers in this flesh. We're gonna die. We're
goners. Filthy rich. Blessed of God, richly. Well,
we're gonna die, but we know something now that very few people in this
world know. Because of what happened that
day when the Lord dropped life in our lap, that's what happened. He dropped
it in our lap. When the Lord opened the windows
of heaven, And His mercy rained down on us of all the wretched
lepers in this world, of all the wretched famine dying sinners in this world. When we saw by faith, the Son
of God, give himself for our sins and knew that if God spared
not his own son, but how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things? When he gave us everything there
is, to lepers, to worthless, never gonna be productive, never
gonna be worth it. Never. And but now we know this, because
of what happened that day, we know this, God is for us. God's
for me. I'm a goner, I'm still gonna
be, I'm still gonna suffer, I'm still
diseased in my blood, but God is for me, and that's eternal. When all of this has passed away,
God's still gonna be for me. I'm still going to be in Christ.
He's still going to love me just like he loves his son. The mercy
that found me where I was in my misery and shame and hopelessness. And bestowed upon me every blessing
that can be bestowed. It's mine forever throughout
endless ages. I know that I'm decaying, I'm
dying, I'm still a wrench. but I know God's for me. And that never goes away. He
who saved us from the penalty of sin and from the power and
preeminence of sin will one day deliver us from the body even
of this death. And we will be saved even from
the very presence of sin. Hebrews 13, 14, for here we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his
will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight. While we walk through this world
in this leprous flesh, this body of death that we still dwell
in, May God make us perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. To whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen.