The men of the city said unto
Elisha, behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is
pleasant. And what he means like that is
clear because he says, as my Lord seeth. As far as you could
see with the eye, with the human eye, it was a great place to
be. Wonderful, beautiful, pleasant. But the water is not in the ground
barren. I'd say that's a deal breaker
Beautiful or not if the water is evil, and that's the word
there the water the word not there is evil Then I'm not building a house
there, I don't know about you, but that's kind of a deal breaker
you It wouldn't produce life at all. It wouldn't water the
livestock. It wouldn't produce crops. It was barren, dead and couldn't
bring forth any life. Now, this city is you and I.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. As far as the human eye
can see, There's some loveliness about mankind. The Lord knit us together in
our mother's womb. And mankind even yet has the
capacity to be beautiful on the outside. And I don't mean just
looks, physically, but also mentally, emotionally. Think of the guy that invented
air conditioning, for example. That's a beautiful man. Mentally beautiful. But think of your little children.
We talk often about how they're sinners. They're infected, as
all mankind is, with sin. But aren't they beautiful, too? pleasant, agreeable, from the
human perspective, lovely, but, and that which is
essential. You don't have to live somewhere
beautiful, but you have to live somewhere where you can get a
drink of water. in that which is essential, in
that element that produces life, in that vital aspect of man which
is most essential to who he is, he's evil. He's the opposite of what he
is on the outside, because the language tells us that in the
verse. The definition of pleasant here is good, agreeable, pleasant. And the definition of not is
bad, disagreeable, malignant. Just exactly the opposite. The word not in our text is the
same word translated wickedness and evil in the same verse, Genesis
6-5, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. That's the word not in our text.
So it's clear what's being taught. We can't live here. It's uninhabitable, this flesh. Flesh and blood can't inherit
the kingdom of God. We may pitch a tent on the way
somewhere else, but we've got to have life. You have to have
eternal life. Whatever aspect of the image
of God in which we were made in the beginning is still detectable. Whatever of that is still detectable
in our physical makeup or our mental ability, we're the opposite
of that in our hearts and spirits. As the Bible clearly teaches,
we're utterly depraved. No good thing dwelleth in our
flesh. And we're completely incapable
of doing anything about it. And notice that I said that there
is value in our mental ability. There's value in our mental capacity,
because God uses it for good things for his people in this
world. That's a wonderful feature of man. But because of the evil
of our nature, our thoughts, our ideas, our motives, our conclusions
are evil. They're selfish, they're godless,
and they're evil. When it comes to that, which
is vital. And though physically we are
wondrous creatures, we get amazed sometimes when we think about
just one little aspect, the human eye or the heart or the vascular
system, the way that we're made. And for somebody to think that
that just happened from an explosion in outer space is a little bit
ridiculous. But though physically we're wondrous
creatures, because of our evil nature, our feet are swift to
shed blood. We're engaged in iniquity with
both hands earnestly, the scripture says. And notice the result of
our evil nature, the consequence of being evil in that which is
vital, is that we're barren. Think of the meaning of that
word. And it's what you think it is.
Childless and bereaved. Everything that we produce, everything
that we bring forth is a miscarriage. It's not what it's supposed to
be. It's not, there's no life in it. Do you remember the very first
thing that God said to man? What's the very first thing that
God ever said to man? You remember what it is? Let's
read it in Genesis 127. Let me read it to you. So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him. Male and female created he them. God blessed them and
said unto them Be fruitful Was our text say We're incapable of that We're
barren This is a picture. This is a picture of the spiritual
truth that God He doesn't just require rote obedience to his
law. He requires our life. He requires
living devotion. What did Paul say? Make your
bodies a living sacrifice unto God. We're barren. We're barren in that. multiply, be fruitful and multiply
and replenish the earth and have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing
that moves upon the earth. Be fruitful. That's the first
thing he said to us. This is our spiritual purpose.
To be fruitful unto God, as our Lord said in John 15 8. Herein
is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples.
That's how vital it is. That's how integral to salvation
that is. As our Lord taught in that context,
that only happens as we abide in Him. apart from Christ were dead,
lifeless, fruitless, barren, fit to be burned only. So this is the tragedy of man. Pleasant to the perception of each other,
certainly beautiful. I count those that I love and
those who, God has blessed me to be my friends and my family
in Christ as beautiful. I love being with you. I love
talking to you. I love getting to know you better.
I love spending time with you. In God's people, in this wretched
world, there's scripture that talks about how we can see the
grace of God in one another. Beautiful But Evil and dead and unable
to produce life But people in In the grace of God We all know
people that we would call good people, knowing that there's
none good in spiritual terms. And as far as merit goes, as
far as our standing before God, there's none good, we know that.
But you can see, we can witness the fact that there are some
people relatively good and some relatively bad. in their behavior, in their minds
and hearts, in their nature, though all is depraved. It's hard to talk about because
the image of God is defaced. And we don't have anything to
measure that by. But you know what I'm saying.
In those that the Lord has saved and we love, fellowship with,
there's beauty. There's people that are responsible
people, thoughtful people, valuable to others, fun to be with. By God's providence, they're upstanding in society and kind. There are those that would give
their life for this country, and that's commendable. smart
Friendly There are some that display all of these qualities
and there are a whole lot who don't But all are evil in that which
is vital by nature dead inside and can only produce that which
is dead dead works and So let me ask you this, seeing what we do in those whom the
Lord has been gracious to, seeing the fruit of the Spirit,
the love of God, kindness and joy, the joy of
the Lord, all of the fruit of His Spirit, But at the same time,
the tragedy of 3 Romans 7, and the word tragedy comes to mind,
doesn't it? I love the law of God after the
inward man. How can you not? It's an expression
of the character of God, of who God is, his holiness. But how
to perform that, how to keep God's law, how to measure up, I don't find that in me. It's
tragic. But what could be more beautiful?
What could be more wonderful in this world than for somebody
like that to be saved? Wretched and vile. marred, you can see, you can
get a glimpse of maybe what we were here and there. But lost and lost forever without
hope, without Christ in this world, what could be more beautiful
than for a lost, wretched, dead sinner? be restored, regenerated, restored
under favor with God, given a spiritual life, given the spiritual ability
to love and serve and worship and bear fruit for God. To have
in their very soul a well of water springing up. And not,
not water, living water. The water of life. God made a universe in order
to make that happen God gave his only begotten son
in order to make that happen If you could have been there
to see God create the heavens and the earth What a glorious
thing that would be and yet that can't compare to God making sons of rebels. Look at the manner in which God
brings this miracle of miracles to pass. Notice this phrase in
verse 19. Behold, I pray thee. There's a need. I pray thee. There's a problem. It's a matter of life and death.
It concerns evil and good. It concerns life and death. There's
a problem. And we can't do anything about
it. I pray thee. They went to the woman who represented
God. And said, we have no power in
such matters. And what a tragedy it is, what
a horrible thing, that this beautiful land is so barren. I pray thee, as long as salvation to you or to those in religion,
to anyone who doesn't know the Lord, as long as salvation to
you is about you doing something or having done something, you'll
never be saved. Because when and if you are saved,
it won't be like that. You won't think that. You won't
believe that. You'll never say that. Well,
there's evil and death, but I'm deciding to do something about
it. That's not in our text. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. I pray thee, I pray thee. And look what verse 20 says.
And he said, bring me a new cruise, a new cruise. and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. Now, this word new, it's from
a root word that means to renew or repair. But it had come to
mean new. But to renew or repair, that's
what's about to happen. God's gonna fix it. And I know we may get the wrong
connotation about that. God doesn't fix the old nature,
he gives a new nature. But he's fixing to fix this situation,
to renew or repair. David cried unto the Lord in
Psalm 51 10, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right
spirit within me. That's the word we're talking
about, new. Make me new. And Elisha said, bring me a vessel
that man has never used. It's got to be brand spanking
new. Man hasn't defiled it. The means of this restoration
and renewal must not come from man. Paul said in Galatians 111, I
certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of
me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And look at verse 21, and he
went forth unto the spring of the waters and cast the salt
in there. And said, thus saith the Lord,
I have healed these waters. There shall not be from thence
any more death or barren land. And notice where he applied the
healing power. The source of the problem, the
spring of the waters, where they came from. They might have said, well, all
these tomato plants are dead. Let's just plant some new ones.
That wouldn't have helped. That would be worse than worthless,
because not only would they not get any tomatoes, but after two
months of waiting on them, they'd just be hungrier. That's worse than a waste of
time. Not only are they going to die, but you're going to be
worse off. That's religion In these pictures and types there's
always This consideration The Lord Jesus always fixes the
problem He didn't make wheelchairs for
people that were laying on He made him able to walk. He didn't give medicine to people
that were sick. He is the medicine. And he takes
away the problem. Religion deals with the symptoms.
That's what our Lord said. They clean the outside of the
cup, but inwardly, it's full of corruption and death. Salvation's a new heart. The
problem is our heart. The public can beat upon his
chest and say, God, have mercy on me. The blood must be applied
to the source of the problem, not what you've done and do,
not reform, outward reform, but what you are. The question is asked in Job
25.4, how then can man be justified with God? Or another way of asking
that is this, how can he be clean that is born of a woman? How can you get clean water from
a dirty fountain? If the fountain is corrupt, the
water's corrupt. So he went to the spring of it and poured in salt. We're all
born in sin. We're born with an evil nature.
So the Lord doesn't just give us a second shot. He didn't just
give us another opportunity to do the right thing. Well, you
know, nobody, you know, the Lord looked down to see if there were
any and there were none, but he's gonna give us a second chance.
He's going to give us a gospel that gives us another shot to
choose rightly. What good is that going to do
a sinner? He's not going to give us a second
shot at the old covenant that depends upon our obedience. He
brings forth salvation in the vessel of a new covenant. a new
vessel that hasn't been ruined by man. And he goes right to the source of
the problem with that covenant. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter
36. Verse 26, Ezekiel 36, 26. A new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of
flesh. and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statues. And you shall, I will and you
shall keep my judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in
the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people
and I'll be your God. I will also save you. You see
how many times it says, I will, I will. I will also save you from all
your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn, and will increase
it, and lay no famine upon you. The land's not barren anymore. And I will multiply the fruit
of the tree and the increase of the field, that you shall
receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall
you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not
good. That means bad. That means not. And shall loathe yourselves in
your own sight. for your iniquities and for your
abominations. And not for your sakes do I this,
saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Be ashamed and confounded
for your own ways. He's not saying there that he's
not doing it to benefit them. Clearly, it benefits us when
he gives life. But he's saying it's not because
of you. It's not because you deserve it. It's not because
you've done anything to merit consideration from me or acceptance
with me or any favor from me. Not for your sakes, saith the
Lord God. We're to be ashamed and confounded,
not say, well, the Lord saved me. A lot of people just haven't
made that all-important decision, but I have, and that's just the
way it goes. No, it's the way it don't go. Be ashamed, loathe yourself,
and look to Him alone. Thus saith the Lord God, verse
33, In the day that I shall have
cleansed you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell
in the cities, and the wastes shall be built, and the desolate
land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight
of all that passed by. You see, this is, the Lord did
physically bless the Israelites, but this is spiritual land. There's
gonna be life. The barren land is gonna be tilled. God is gonna make good ground
and he's gonna put good seed in that ground and there's gonna
be life. And they shall say, this land
that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden. and the waste and desolate and
ruined cities are become fenced and are inhabited, then the heathen
that are left round about you shall know." See, before they
were mocking them, weren't they? It's clear in the language there
that the heathen, when they saw how desolate you are, they're
like, you're God, we're talking about your God all the time,
look at you. But they're gonna know that I,
the Lord, build the ruined places. Who's gonna do the tilling? Who's
gonna make the good ground? Whose seed is it? I, the Lord,
build the ruined places and plant that that was desolate. I, the
Lord, have spoken it and I will do it. You reckon anybody in our text
was thinking, how is salt gonna make this water better? If anybody
knows anything about water, it's that you don't wanna drink salt
water. It's not gonna help you. And this is a picture of how
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom, knew not God,
what men call foolishness, God, has by that means wrought salvation. The world calls the preaching
of the gospel foolishness, but God said, it pleases me to save
sinners like that. How did the Lord Jesus Christ
defeat death? By dying. What sense does that make? It makes a lot of sense, doesn't
it? If you know him, if you know who he is and why he died, what
he accomplished by his death, that's how the Lord does things.
It's not after man, it's not the way man. The way man, very
logically, well, if we're gonna be good, if we're not gonna be
evil anymore, we're gonna have to do good. That makes sense,
doesn't it? Not a lick. When you realize
you're dead in trespasses, and sins, and when you realize that
you have no capacity to do good, what you're calling good is evil,
so the more you do of it, the more evil you are. God don't do things like that.
The reasoning of man, the logic of man is anathema. That's why it gets scary now
when you read the scriptures and you kind of go beyond them
a little bit. You say, well, that says that, so it just stands
to reason. Well, whose reason? This is God's
reason. How did he give his people life?
By his sin atoning death and calvary. Let's notice something
else. The end of what we read in Ezekiel
36 was this. Remember verse 36. Then the heathen
that are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord,
build the ruined places and plant that that was desolate. I, the
Lord, have spoken it. I'll do it. Now look at our text
again in verse 21. I have heals. The people of the city cried
out. The prophet said, bring me a
new cruise. And they did, and put salt in it, and they did.
And he put the salt at the spring of the waters. And then he said this, thus saith
the Lord, look what I did. It's like we've talked about
following the Lord means to imitate him. If you were just going by human
reasoning, knowing what we are, you think the Lord could do something
better with you or without you? The Lord using us is him doing
something for us. Have healed When the Lord saves you there's
not going to be any controversy about that Let's to the language of 2nd
Samuel 23 10 And he arose and smoked the Philistines
until his hand was was weary. This fella here got hold of a
sword and started swinging. He smoked the philistines until
his hand was weary and his hand clave unto the sword. He couldn't
even open his hand anymore. He had closed it so tight and
for so long. What's the next verse? Well, surely we're gonna congratulate
this man for the note, and the Lord wrought a great victory
that day. When the Lord saves you, there's
no question, there's no controversy about who saved who, who did
what, whose will was done. I love this part of that verse.
The Lord wrought a great victory that day and the people returned
after him only to spoil. In other words, the people's
part in it was just to benefit from it. To benefit from the
victory that the Lord wrought. That's the gospel. The people reaped the reward
of what the Lord wrought. That's salvation by grace, the
only kind there is. In verse 22, so the waters were
healed unto this day according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake. I have healed. Sure enough, that's
what he did. He said, I came to seek and to
save. Sure enough, that's what he did. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes, We are healed. Is that what we
talked about this morning? We weren't given a shot by Christ
dying on Calvary. We were healed. He healed somebody
with his precious blood. Salvation is of the Lord. And notice lastly there in closing,
it's according to the word spoken. The last part of verse 22. It happened according to the
word which was spoken, the gospel
preached. That's the way the Lord heals. According to his word, according
to the gospel. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. The scriptures that Paul said,
we preach unto you. It pleased God to do it like
that. And may the Lord tune our ears to the message of Christ
and Him crucified, and make our barren hearts like the Garden
of Eden. Amen. Let's pray.