Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 6. We were here not long ago
when we saw the Lord open the young man's eyes. And I want
to read the rest of this chapter and into the next. I'm going
to read quite a bit of Scripture, but I think it's important to
get our message. And as I read this, and we're
looking at a physical famine, think of this world and how it
is spiritually because it's a good illustration of how it is spiritually
and truly how helpless we are in this world, in this dire situation. Verse 24, it came to pass after
this that Benidad, king of Syria, gathered all his hosts and went
up and besieged Samaria. They totally surrounded them
and made it so no medical supplies, no food, no anything could get
into the city. And it says, 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. This was an unclean animal under
the law. They wouldn't normally eat it
and it didn't have much meat on it and it usually didn't sell
for much and now it's selling for a high price and only the
wealthy could afford it. It says, and the fourth part
of a cab of doves dung for five pieces of silver. Now if that
doesn't reveal how severe this famine was, these next verses
do. And as the king of Israel was
passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying,
Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the lord do not
help thee, whence shall I help thee? What a statement that is. If the lord doesn't help you,
how can I help you? Out of the barn floor, or out
of the winepress. And the king said unto her, What
aileth thee? And she answered, This woman
said unto me, Give thy son, so that we may eat him today. and
we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son and did eat
him. And I said unto her, on the next
day give thy son that we may eat him. And she hid her son."
Now that's a severe famine. A severe famine. This is feeding
on dung, sinners, devouring sinners. And this is a really good picture
of the world spiritually. It's a good illustration of how
helpless we are at times as God's children, where He brings us
into a situation where you have to just cast yourself on His
mercy. Verse 30, And it came to pass, when the king heard
the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes, and he passed
by upon the wall. And the people looked, and behold,
he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God
do so and more also to me if the head of Elisha, the son of
Shaphat, shall stand on him this day. And rather than casting
himself on the mercy of God, he hated God and he hated his
word, hated his prophet. Verse 32, But Elisha sat in his
house, and the elders sat with him. And the king sent a man
from before him. But ere the messenger came to
him, Elisha said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer
has sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messengers cometh,
shut the door, and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound
of his master's feet behind him? And while Elisha yet talked with
him, behold, the messenger came down unto him. And he said, Behold,
this evil is of the Lord. What, or why should I wait for
the Lord any longer? They weren't waiting, they weren't
casting their care on the mercy of God. He blamed God. This evil is of the Lord. Why
should I wait for the Lord any longer? And then God gave some
good news, a word of promise through His prophet, verse 1.
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. He's saying food's going to be
in great supply. Now you imagine if you're in
this famine and you're eating dove's dung and ass's head and
seeing people eat their own flesh And somebody tells you tomorrow
there's going to be abundance in this land? Well, listen to
the answer. And he said, this was the answer of unbelief. Then a Lord, verse 2, then 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? And then Elisha answered. And
he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes. but shall
not eat thereof. Now could it get worse than that? To be in a land like that with
that kind of famine, could it get worse? What if you were a
leper living in a land of famine? Well, look here in verse three.
And 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? 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 still here, we die also. Now therefore come,
let us fall unto the host of the Syrians, that's the enemy.
If they save us alive, we shall live. If they kill us, we shall
but die. So they decided they'd cast themselves
upon the mercy of the enemy. Now verse 5 says, And they rose
up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrian. And when
they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold,
there was no man there. 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 has 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 the life. And when these lepers came to
the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent and did
eat and drink and carried out silver and gold and raiment and
they went and hid it. And they came again and entered
into another tent and carried this also and went and hid it.
And then the lepers decided, we need to go tell the king about
this. So they did, and the king thought this was a trick. They
thought the Syrians were just trying to trick them to come
in there and then they were going to kill them. Well, they found out that
wasn't the case. Verse 16, so the people went
out and they 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, according to the word of the Lord. And the king appointed
the Lord, on whose hand he leaned, to have the charge of the gate.
This was that man who doubted, who said it won't ever happen.
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 shall make windows
in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou
shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof.
And so it fell out unto him, for the people trod upon him
in the gate, and he died. Now, we see in these lepers wisdom. We see in these lepers wisdom.
Wisdom of helpless sinners, wisdom of sinners that cannot do anything
to save ourselves. We see here wisdom of men who
cast themselves entirely upon the mercy of one they deem to
be their enemy. And in that we see the mercy
of God. Now, first of all, we see the
world we live in today pictured here. This is the world we live
in. This famine portrays the condition
of this whole world under the curse of God due to sin. The
whole world is under the curse of God due to sin. All these
four lepers here illustrate every sinner that comes into this world.
Every sinner that comes into this world. And the sin nature
that believers still have. It's just this helpless. By nature
we're leprous sinners. We're diseased and we're dying
and we're living in the midst of a land of just total famine,
a spiritual thing. Spending money on that which
will not nourish just like they're buying a dove's dung and they're
buying a calf's head and spending great sums on that which will
not nourish, will not save spiritually. Sinners devouring sinners. Just
biting and devouring one another to get as much as we can get. From the least to the greatest,
this was the case. The king wasn't immune to this.
The king didn't have on his royal apparel and walking around in
his fine garments. He had on sackcloth. This was
the case from the greatest to the least. He was starving like
the rest. In the king now and in his servant, we see the enmity
of the carnal mind. They blamed God for this. They
didn't believe God's word. They wanted to kill God's prophet. Now, this is every sinner outside
of Christ. This is the whole world outside
of Christ. This was the state of every elect child that God
saves. Our Lord Jesus said over in Revelation
3.17, Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and
have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. That's our
state in our flesh in sin without Christ. We all as an unclean
thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. If it wasn't
for Christ making our to be our righteousness, everything that
you and I do as believers would be just filthy rag. It's him
alone that that is our righteousness. We all do fade as a leaf, our
iniquities like the wind have taken us away. There's none that
call upon thy name that stirs up himself to take hold of thee,
for thou hast hid thy face from us and has consumed us because
of our iniquities. Now, that would be our case if
it wasn't for the grace of God. If it wasn't for God's grace,
for His mercy. We just sing about His mercies
being new every morning. But the gospel is a good news.
We see here in chapter 7 in verse 1, Elisha said, Hear ye the word
of the Lord. Hear ye the word of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of
fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, two measures of barley
for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Salvation is God's work which
no man can comprehend. We would have never been able
to comprehend this by any kind of natural reason other than
God-given faith that God could do this in the midst of this
famine. And we would have never imagined
in our mind or believed but for God's grace that Christ would
come down and would be the abundant salvation of his people. We wouldn't
believe these things. The bread that satisfies. But
it's even better than that. He said this is going to be sold. It's better than that. The gospel
is better than that. Our gospel is free. It's free. Remember
Isaiah 55. Everyone that thirsts us, come
ye to the waters. He that hath no money. No money. This thing is free. He said come
and buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. God saves by free grace. He chooses
whom He will by His free grace, and He regenerates His people
that He chose, and He keeps us, and He teaches us, and every
day His mercies are new to us. Mercy is God withholding from
us what we deserve. Mercy is God, by His grace, bestowing
on us what we don't deserve. Did you receive mercy today?
We received mercy this hour. God's mercies are new continually.
Salvation is by Christ's free redemption. He paid the ransom
with His precious blood so that it's free to us. It cost Him
His blood, it cost Him His life, but it's free to us. Christ paid
it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. White as snow. How can I have
this free salvation? How can I have it? Elisha said,
hear the word of the Lord. Hear. How is he going to save
me? How is he going to? When I'm
in this dire situation and it's helpless and it's hopeless and
there's nothing I can do to save myself, how is he going to make
me hear and make me believe that he's going to work wonders that
I can't comprehend? How is he going to make me believe
that? He says, hear the word of the Lord. Hear it. He said in Isaiah 55.3, incline
your ear and come unto me. Here in your soul shall live.
I'll make an everlasting covenant with you, even as your mercies
of David. what I hope that the Lord will
do. I hope He'll speak to one of His chosen sinners who doesn't
know Him and make them hear, make them really hear and make
them come to Him and make them cast all their care on Him, just
cast it all on His mercy. And for you and I who believe, When we can't even muster up
hope against hope, I pray the Lord will speak and show us He
can do abundantly above anything that we can even imagine. Anything
we can think, He can do it. He can. He can. David said, I've
never seen the righteous forsaken. I've never seen His seed begging
bread. And Christ promises all who come
to Him, They're never going to hunger, they're never going to
thirst. That means one, he's going to be our righteousness,
and he's going to continually feed us the bread from heaven,
and also it means that whatever he's doing for us in this life,
it's going to turn out for our good. He's not going to let you
hunger, he's not going to let you thirst. Whatever he's working,
it may look like a famine, it may look like it's terrible,
he's not going to let his child hunger. Not spiritually. But
let none be like the Lord on whose hand the king leaned. This
king, he was so decrepit and so famished, he's leaning on
the hand of one of his lords. And he comes down there in verse
2, he answered the man of God sarcastically. When he heard
this, the Lord's gospel, he heard about what the Lord would do
and he answered sarcastically. And he said, Behold, if the Lord
would make windows in heaven, might this thing be If God just
opened up heaven and poured down, this is not going to happen.
And he said, because this man refused to believe, he said,
behold, thou shalt see it with your eyes. You're going to see
this happen, but you won't eat thereof. You're not going to
eat of it. He said, ìYouíll see it with
your eyes, but you shall not eat thereof.î And so it was.
Down in verse 18 it says, ìIt came to pass as the man of God
had spoken to the king. God provided an abundance.î Verse
20 says, ìSo it fell out unto him. He saw it with his eyes,
but the people tread upon him in the gate, and he died.î Remember
what the Lord told Ahaz? He came to Ahaz and he said,
ìAhaz, Ahaz wanted a sign. He wanted to see something. Give
me a sign.î And he said, ìA virgin shall conceive. and be with child,
his name will be Emmanuel, God with us. And he said, if you
will not believe, surely you shall not be established. If
you will not believe, you shall not be established. He told Martha, remember, at
Lazarus' tomb. We wouldn't have thought that.
We read this in the Word, we see it in the Word, we see he
did it in hindsight, and we know he raised a dead man. But if
we'd have been there that day, there's only one way that we'd
have seen the glory in that, and that's to believe him. He
said, if you believe me, you'll see my glory. And that's what
he's saying to us. Believe him. We're going to see
him do amazing, something amazing. We are. I believe that. I believe
that. Believe him. For every poor sinner,
I pray God, make us like these lepers. Look here, listen to
these lepers now. Knowing their helpless state,
knowing where they are, they're helpless. They said, if we stay
here, we'll die. If we just stay in this state
right here, we're going to die. And if we refuse to believe Christ,
refuse to cast our care on Him, we're going to die in our sin.
That's so. If we go into the city, we'll
die, for they don't have any food there. This world, we are
not going to find any spiritual life here. We are not going to
be able to go into established religion, vain religion. You
are not going to find life in it. We are not going to find
life in our works. We are not going to find life
in a reformation of outwardly. We are not going to find life
there. There is no eternal life in these things. If we leave
Christ, we will perish. The apostles said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. But they cast
themselves on the mercy of one that they regarded as an enemy,
the Syrians, who had besieged them. They see them as an enemy.
And if the Syrians show us mercy, they said, we'll live. If we
cast it all on them, we go there, just cast ourselves on their
mercy. If they show us mercy, we'll live. And if they don't,
we're going to die anyway. We're going to die anyway. That's
wise reasoning, isn't it? That's wise reasoning. They entered
the camp. They didn't find an enemy though.
Don't you know those fellows was amazed? They enter this camp
and they don't find an enemy anywhere in sight. Instead they find abundance of
food and drink and clothes and silver and gold. Oh, we by nature consider God
our enemy. Consider God our enemy. We come
to Christ confessing our need. We come to Christ confessing
our sins. We come to Christ confessing
our inability. We come to Christ and it never
ends. unto whom coming. We don't stop
coming confessing our sins and our inability because we constantly
have need for mercy. But we don't find an enemy. You
come a mercy beggar, you don't find an enemy. You don't find
an enemy. You come to holy God through
Christ begging mercy. I mean, I don't have any, I don't
deserve it. I can't earn it. I'm guilty. I can't do anything to make holy
God receive me. Lord, I need mercy. If you don't
show me mercy, I'm going to die. I'm just going to die. And I'm
casting myself on your mercy. If you just show me mercy, I'll
live. You know what you find? Micah 7.18 says, Who is a God
like unto thee? that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage."
What kind of transgression? Hating God. Hating holy God. Have you ever hated God? Have
you ever hated God? Every thought that's not perfectly
pure is sin. Every deed that we do that's
sinful is hating God. Everything that we do that's
not perfectly as righteous as Christ is, is hating God. We need to know we are haters
of God, brethren, by nature. That's what our flesh is. It's
enmity against God. Why is it that we don't pick
this word up and just delight to read it and just never want
to put it down? Why is it we'd rather do some
vain thing, watch some fictional movie that is not going to benefit
us whatsoever and can keep our eyes wide open when we're watching
that and we read this book and you just start slumbering and
you can't hold your eyes open. Because we have a nature in us
that opposes everything God is. And yet when you come to God
casting all your care on Him, you find a God who pardons iniquity
and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage,
His chosen people. He retaineth not His anger forever. Why? Because He delighteth in
mercy. He delighteth in mercy. Holy
God delighteth in mercy. ETH means He don't ever stop
delighting in mercy. He chose us in mercy. He sent
His Son in mercy. He sent His Gospel to us in mercy.
He called us in mercy. He withheld from us all the wrath
that we deserved in mercy. He poured it out on His Son in
our stead in mercy. And He keeps giving us mercy,
mercy, mercy, mercy. He delights in mercy. And He'll turn again. He'll have
compassion upon us. Compassion. Who can imagine what
the compassion... All we have to compare compassion
to is men. But think of the compassion of
God. You'll have compassion upon us.
He'll subdue our iniquities. Thou will cast all their sins
into the depths of the sea. Whether it's a sinner, when He
calls you and He gives you repentance and faith to cast yourself on
His mercy, or if it's a believer who is chasing for our sins and
He's brought us to see our sins on Christ. Not just a hand on
us, but our sins on Christ, that our sins put Christ on the cross.
Behold, my sins nailed into the cross and just break you. break you and bring you to see you don't
deserve anything from God. Nothing. If He just snuffed you
out, He'd be just to do it. Lord,
have mercy on me. I need mercy. And He gives it for the sake
of His Son. for the sake of His Son. If we
think we deserve it or we've done something to make God give
us mercy, we think there's a certain level of contrition or sorrow or whatever,
that's not it. Why does He give it? Because
He delights to show mercy. Mercies for sinners, mercies
for true mercy beggars. To them God delights to show
mercy for Christ's sake. Why would we believe He'll have
mercy on us? We've sinned against Holy God.
Why should I believe He's going to have mercy on me and keep
having mercy on me? Well, one, it's God's glory.
He said when Moses asked to see His glory, He said, I'll make
all my goodness pass before Thee. Where do we see His goodness?
We see it in light of our badness. We see it as opposed to all the
sin we are and the corruption we are and the vile puddle of
puke that we are, that's where we see His goodness saving us
in spite of us. And He says, and I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and here's His glory. I'll be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and whom I will, I'll show mercy.
Here's another reason I'm going to trust His mercy. I believe
He'll show us mercy because God sent His Son to lay down His
life so God could show us mercy and do it justly. He's the only one that can make
mercy and truth meet in perfect harmony. The only one. But because He has, because He
has, He's just to be merciful to us
and we're just to be merciful toward His people. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That includes all of us. Just think of what that means.
We've come short of the glory of God. At any time have we not come
short of the glory of God. Never. but were justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, who God
set forth to be a propitiation, a seat of mercy through faith
in His blood. And He did it to declare that
He's righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of
him that believeth in Jesus, that He might be a just God,
fully satisfied His holy law, and He can be merciful because
He's our justifier, a just God and a Savior. That's how I know
He'll be merciful. He sent His Son so He could be
merciful and do it justly. Three, Christ said He came to
have mercy only on sinners. And I fit that bill. I really
fit that bill. They that behold need not a physician. You ever heard of a hospital
for well people? Did they build hospitals for
well people? Those that are whole don't need a physician. The place
that Christ establishes is a hospital for people that can't find a
cure anywhere else. He said, go learn what this means. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. I'll have mercy. Nothing you're
going to do is going to earn it. Nothing you're going to do
is going to make it cease. I'm going to have mercy. I'm
going to have mercy. For I'm not come to call the
righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. Thank God He never stops calling
His sinful people to repentance. By His grace, He constrains His
backsliding Ephraims. To know this, in thee the fatherless
findeth mercy. The orphan, the most helpless
you can think of, finds mercy in him. God says, I'll heal their
backsliding, I'll love them freely. Why? My anger is turned away
from him. How can that be? Because he poured
out his fierce anger on his son. Here's another reason I know
he's going to be merciful. He's not like sinful men. He's
not like me and you. That's how I know He'll be merciful.
He said in Isaiah 55.7, let the wicked forsake His way. Let the
unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. That's His elect before He calls
them. That's His elect after He has
called us and we are in sin. We are wicked. We are unrighteous
except for Him. He says, let them forsake their
way. Let them forsake their thoughts. Let them return unto the Lord.
Let them return to the Lord. Let them come back to the Lord.
And He will have mercy upon them. Come to our God for He will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, sayeth the Lord. I don't
do it the way man does it. I have mercy. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. He has mercy. He never stops. When you go and
want that, when you need mercy, when you need mercy, And five,
here's the reason I know He's going to keep showing mercy,
because He commands us to come to Him. And with that command,
He gives the power, and He gives the grace, and He gives the heart
to come to Him, because this is how He's going to be glorified.
Look over at Isaiah 45 and verse 21. I'll close with this, Isaiah
45, 21. He says in verse 21, Tell ye,
bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath
declared this from ancient time? Who did this from eternity? Who
told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? There is
no God else beside me. Here it is again, a just God
and a Savior. a just God who shows mercy and
saves. There's none beside me. He's
the only one. You think about it. There is
not a God amongst all the idols of this world. There's not another
God who knew how to be just and merciful and do both 100% just
and 100% merciful. None other. Now look what he
says, In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory just in Him. You know what he's saying? He's
saying, everybody that I chose to save, I've declared this from
eternity, everybody I've chose to save, I'm going to bring them
to the position where they say, I'm a leper with nothing good
in me. I'm diseased and I can't bring
forth any, I can't make myself clean. And I'm in a land of famine,
there ain't nobody that can help me. And I'm going to bring them
to see, if I sit here, I'm going to die. I'm going to perish. Anybody that hasn't called on
the Lord, or if you have called on Him, do you know that if you
sit where you are, and don't call on Christ, don't seek mercy
from Him, you're going to die. And if I go in the city, if I
try to go the way of this world and try to seek it in some kind
of organized religion or some works or some man-made city,
they are starving too. What are you going to do? This
one, he has been an enemy in my mind because of my wicked
works. And He doesn't stop saving us from that. He doesn't stop
saving us from that. Because it's our so-called righteousness,
our so-called thinking we're not all that bad that keeps us
from coming to Him. But when He makes you see, no,
this is sin. Everything you're doing is sin.
Your best deeds, your worst deeds, and every deed in between, and
every thought, and everything you are is sin. Then He makes
you say, I'm going to cast my mercy on him. If he don't receive
me, I'm dead anyway. But if he shows me mercy, I'm
going to live. And he says, and everybody I
work that in, they're going to receive mercy. And they're going
to glorify me for what I did for them. We're going to sing
with the psalmist. Give thanks to the Lord of Lords
for His mercy endureth forever. To Him who alone doeth great
wonders. Never would have thought that
this famine that I am, and this famine that we live in, that
we'd have abundance of bread, and abundance of riches, and
yet we have it all in Christ. He does wonders. For His mercy
endureth forever. Amen. Father, thank you for this word.
Thank you for such a harsh picture that shows us what we are and
where we live. Thank You, Lord, for showing
us Your ability and Your power to save. Lord, make us lepers. Make us just have no other option
but to cast our care on You and seek mercy. Lord, make us wait
on You. Don't let us be like the one
who doubted and mocked God and perished in His
sins. Make us truly believe Your Word
and really come to You for mercy for everything. Lord, we ask
You now for mercy. We ask You for each of our brethren.
We ask You for mercy on our enemies. We ask mercy on our loved ones. We ask mercy on Your people everywhere. or be gracious to whom you'll
be gracious. We thank you for your tender,
tender mercies. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.