in 2 Kings chapter 6. And when
Scott read this chapter last week, I had the message then, and I
just had to go home and look into it some. And the Lord gave
me the message, I believe, that I hope will be edifying to you.
And as we look at these things, I want you to remember that what
our Lord does here And what we'll be looking at that our Lord does
here in the conversion of a sinner is something our Lord continues
to do throughout the life of faith. And every hardship, every
trial, everything we encounter is for this purpose. And our
Lord's doing this right now. And I want you to see this with
me. Now for context, and I'll go ahead and tell you as well,
go ahead and mark Psalm 68, because I'm going to have you turn there
in just a moment. I think it'll help us before we start this
message, but there are outlines there in the
back, and I left a little space in the outline in case you want
to take some notes. In 2 Kings chapter 6, in verse 8. Hold your place there
in Psalm 68. I'm going to read some of the passages up to our
text just for some context here. 2 Kings 6, verse 8. Then the
king of Syria warred against Israel. The king of Syria warred
against Israel. He's an enemy king. He hates
God's Israel. And he took counsel with his
servants. This king has servants. Before
we were called by his grace, you who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, Scripture says you were under the power of the prince
of the air. And here we have an enemy king
and he has servants doing his bidding, saying, in such and
such a place shall be my camp. and the man of God." Now, the
man of God is Elisha here, and he is a type of Christ. Elisha. The man of God sent unto the
king of Israel. The Lord's people, we read in
Revelation, are made kings and priests unto God. Those that
know Him, believe Him, trust Him. They are made kings and
priests unto God. And the man of God here sent
word to one of His kings and said, Beware that thou pass not
such a place, for thither the Syrians are come down. And the
king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him,
and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice."
Saved himself there many times because the man of God, Elisha,
picture of Christ Jesus, protected one of his saints. Therefore,
the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing.
that one that wars against Christ and against his people, he's
troubled. He's got good reason to be troubled. And he called
his servants and he said unto them, will you not show me which
of us is for the King of Israel? Somebody is spying me out here. And one of his servants said,
none, my Lord, O King. We're not spying you out. We're
not spying you out. This was our heart before. We
served Him. But Elisha, the prophet that
is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou
speakest in thy bedchamber. How did Elisha know the words
that the king of Syria spoke in his bedchamber? Because he's
a prophet in Israel. He was told by Christ. But the
type here is that Christ Jesus the Lord, He knows the innermost
thoughts and intents of the heart, even in your bedchamber. He said
go and spy where he is the king of Syria said this go and spy
where he is that I may send and fetch Him and it was told him
saying behold. He's in Dothan the spies came
back therefore sent he thither horses and chariots and a great
host and And they came by night. Seems like his workers always
come by night. They do their best work at night.
And they compassed the city about. The Lord said it wouldn't be
by might, not by man's might, not by man's strength. But he
also told us we wrestle against powers of the prince of the darkness.
We wrestle against powers in spiritual places. And that's
what they represent here, these horses and these chariots and
this great host. And when the servant of the man of God, now
who's that? Your marginal translation might
say minister. That's who he is. He's the minister
of the man of God. Christ Jesus has some ministers.
He has some people he sent forth to preach his word. And he was
risen early, and going forth, behold, and host accomplished
the city, both with horses and chariots. And the servant of
the man of God, servant of Christ, typified here, said unto him,
Alas, my master, how shall we do? And I can tell you, that's
a common prayer. Lord, how shall we do? How are we going to overcome
this great army that's against us? And he answered, this is
what the man of God, Elisha, answered. Fear not, for they
that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha
prayed. Now how thankful I am that our
Lord Jesus Christ intercedes on behalf of his people. He prayed
and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw.
And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire, spirit round about Elisha. Hold your place here at 2 Kings
17 and turn with me to Psalm 68. Psalm 68. Now that I just read is not my
text, but I wanted to read that to you to get to my text. Now,
let me read this. This is going to help us as we
go into our text. Psalm 68. We read in verse 17. The chariots of God are 20,000. Now that doesn't mean there's
just 20,000, even thousands of angels. That's what it means.
An innumerable company of angels. The Lord is among them as in
Sinai in the holy place. Now listen. Thou hast ascended
on high. Speaking of Christ Jesus the
Lord. I read to you just a moment ago, Ephesians 4. This is where
it comes from. Christ ascended on high. And
it says, Thou hast led captivity captive. He did two things. Those who were the captors of
his people, he led them captive. He took away their power. And
those who were captive, held captive by our enemies who were
his elect children, he led his elect children captive. He owns
them now. There he is. They're captured
out of the hand of the enemy. Thou hast received gifts for
men. He poured out the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and Peter
said, Christ did this. He's received this from God to
be able to do this and he's done this that you see. Ephesians
4 said, and he gave gifts, men, pastors, teachers, evangelists. And so that was that minister
of the Son of Man that stood there with Elisha. He was an
example of one of those. Yes, for the rebellious also
that the Lord God might dwell form himself a habitable habitation
and dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. Think about that. He that is
our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. Now turn back with me. What you
just heard in Psalm 68 says this, The Lord, the Son of Man, the
Son of God, both God and man, has ascended up to heaven, and
He's seated at God's right hand in the throne of His Majesty,
and He has led captivity captive. He has made His people more than
conquerors, more than conquerors over their enemies. Scripture
tells you and I that while as yet we were doing the bidding
of the king of Syria We were under the power of the prince
of the air We were reconciled captivity was led captive Romans
5 says when as yet we were enemies We were enemies Colossians 1
21 says we were enemies in our minds in wicked works We hated
Christ. We hated God. We hated everything
about him So how in the world? Is a sinner in that condition
going to be brought to know what Christ has done? That's what
we're going to see today. Verse 18. Back in 2 Kings 6,
verse 18. The title of my message is Capturing
the Captives. They're already captives. They
just don't know it. They've got to be captured. Capturing the
captives. Verse 18. And when they, this
is the servants of the king of Syria, this band, particular
band that came down to Elisha. Elisha prayed unto the Lord.
He interceded on their behalf. Now listen to what he said. And
he said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he
smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Now here's
the first thing I want you to see. The Lord Jesus Christ blinds
those that he's led captive. If you have physical sight, if
you can hear, or if you're in what we call being in your right
mind, though none of us are until God gives us a new heart and
a new mind, but if we have sight, physical sight, physical hearing,
physical sound mind, or we don't have it, God did it. He told
Moses, who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf,
or the seeing, or the blind, have not I the Lord? He said,
I did it. Now, likewise, if you have spiritual
sight, spiritual hearing, spiritual understanding, it's because the
Lord did it. He said in Isaiah 43, 7, even
everyone that is called by my name. I've created him for my
glory. I formed him. Yea, I made him.
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that
have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together. Let the
people be assembled. Who among them can declare this
and show things Former things let them bring forth their witnesses
the blind people that they've made to see or the death that
they've made to hear That they may be justified or let them
hear what I'm declaring and say it's truth Lord only you can
give a man spiritual sight and spiritual hearing Well, if all
sinners are born spiritually blind, why would the Lord blind
us? Why would he blind us? A man
born blind from birth has no idea what sight is. He has no
idea what sight is. He's never seen before. So until
Christ the light reveals himself, the natural man thinks darkness
is light. Until God reveals the difference,
we will fight tooth and nail. We'll brag and we'll boast and
we'll call our blindness and our ignorance sight and wisdom. We'd listen to a gospel message,
you who believe. You would listen to a gospel
message and then arrogantly, conceitedly boast that you're
far too wise to be duped into such foolishness and such nonsense.
You would hear what was being spoken, and it would be of truth,
the Word of the Lord. And you would hear it with your
natural ear that God gave you. And you would read it in the
Word of God with your natural eye that God gave you. And then
you would take the breath, the very breath that God gave you,
and you would say, No, God, no. That's God's definition. And
you called that, when you were doing that, you called that wisdom
and sight, keen sight, critical eye. And God says that's not
the definition of a wise man. That's not the definition of
a man who can see. That's the definition of a fool.
Look at Psalm 14. Psalm 14. In Psalm 14.1, We read, the fool hath said in
his heart, and those two words, there is, is added by the translators. The fool hath said in his heart,
no, God, no. Now that's a fool. That's a fool. Take the life God's given him
and the breath God's given him and hear what God said and say,
no, God, no. Now read on. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. None, none that do with good. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are together. The whole
lot become filthy. There is none that do with good,
no, Not one. Have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they
eat bread, and call not upon the Lord? This is the lot. A wise man feareth, the proverb
says, and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth, and he's
confident. Now, you remember when that blind
man over in John 6, you remember John 9, you remember when that
blind man was sitting there completely blind, no sight whatsoever, and
the Lord Jesus Christ came to him. You know what the first
thing the Lord Jesus Christ did to that man? He covered his eyes. He's blind. The man's blind.
He's never been able to see a day in his life. But the Lord made
a, he made, he took some clay and he spit with that clay and
he made this, this, this little, what do you call it, mask. Like you ladies would go to a
place and they put that. He made that and he put it on
his eyes. He's blind. He can't see. Why did he do that?
Because that was the ointment that was gonna make him, get
him to the place where he could see. So like these Syrians, we
who now see were enemies in our minds by wicked works. We considered
the prince of life our worst enemy. So the Lord began to make
what we naturally deemed as sight and wisdom to be darkness and
ignorance. That's what's got to happen first
before we can ever behold something about the truth of God. Now look,
when he did this, then look what he did, verse 19. And Elisha
said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, I will bring you to
the man whom you seek." Now, he says first there in 2 Kings
6.19, he says, this is not the way. You see, Proverbs says,
there is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. He that laboreth, laboreth for
himself, for his mouth craves it of him. The Syrians were seeking
to kill the man of God. They came there doing the bidding
of their king and their master. And that way was to come there
and to kill him. You know why they wanted to kill
him? You know why they wanted to kill him? Because, boil it
right down to it, what we read there is the Son of Man wouldn't
let them have their way. There was a way they wanted to
go, and where they were going to encamp, and the man of God
kept warning his children, don't go there, don't go there, so
he wouldn't let them have their way, and they were upset about
that. And they came there with one purpose, and that one purpose
was, we're going to kill Elisha. We're going to kill the man of
God. And we'll kill His servants if we have to. We'll kill His
ministers if we have to. We'll kill the king of Israel
if we have to. We'll kill whoever we have to kill to get to Him. And Elisha blinded them. And he said, this is not the
way. This is not the way. And then
what happened? He said, neither is this the
city. Neither is this the city. You know, for some of us, Our
city of refuge was rejecting everything that had anything
at all to do with religion, period. That was our city of refuge.
Out of sight, out of mind. A man will go and he will work
his whole life. He will pour himself into his
job, into his family, into this world and be a good provider,
be a good father. And all the while, what he's
doing and seeking his promotions and seeking to save his money
and seeking to do these things is, he just does not want any
downtime so that he has to think about eternal matters. Just don't
want to have to think about that. And then one day God makes him
to see that all of his striving and all of his working, and He
brings him to a place where he's seated in a house, a nice home,
with everything around him that he's worked hard for, and everything
that he struggled and labored and labored and labored to have,
that he thought somehow, when I get there I'll have peace.
When I get there I'll have peace. And he's brought there and now
he sits there with all those things he's acquired, and he's
at the end of his life, and he's thinking. He's sitting down looking
out over the lake, and he's thinking, this hasn't brought me any peace.
I've sat here, and I've given myself to these things, and this
has brought me no peace. I pray God his heart's not hardened,
and his conscience not seared, that he might hear the word of
the Lord, and the Lord might have mercy And then for some
of us, our city of refuge was the outward motions of religion.
We kept laboring and laboring for ourselves. We put one fig
leaf upon another fig leaf, one fig leaf upon another fig leaf.
We tried to hide ourselves behind the trees of great ceremony and
religion. Boy, we love feel-good religion. Nothing could keep us from thinking
about eternity and thinking about our sin and thinking about our
depravity and thinking about a holy and just God like feel-good
religion. It just feels good. And therefore,
I don't have to think about God. I don't have to think about Him.
come sometime and we don't know how, we don't know when, we don't
know when He does it, but through His Word, through His Gospel,
through those that He's brought out to see Him, we begin to hear
Him speak in our heart and say to us, this is not the city. This is not the city. And then
what does He do? He takes us out of our way and
He takes us a strange way. He takes us a strange way. Look,
verse 19. And Elisha said unto them, This
is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will
bring you to the man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria."
What's the man of God doing here? What's he doing? Over in Ezekiel
chapter 20 and verse 33, We read, as I live, saith the Lord God,
surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and
with fury poured out, will I rule over you, and I will bring you
out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries
wherein you're scattered, and with a mighty hand, and with
a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, and I'll bring
you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead
with you face to face. The Lord said, I'll plead with
you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers
in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I'll plead with
you, saith the Lord God, and I'll cause you to pass under
the rod, the rod of the gospel, the rod of correction, the rod
of his power, and I'll bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will seal you with an everlasting
covenant. You remember over in Mark 7.
You turn there with me. We'll look at this. Mark 7. This
is a few things you can see here that help us understand this.
In Mark 7, verse 32 says, And they bring unto Christ the
Lord one that was deaf. Mark 7 verse 32. They bring unto
Christ the Lord one that was deaf and had an impediment in
his speech. And they beseeched the Lord to
put his hand upon him. Now look at the first thing the
Lord did. Verse 33. And he took him aside from the
multitude. First thing I'm going to have
to do is get you out from around these religious hucksters that
just want to see something happen. Now look over at Mark 8. Mark
8, look in verse 22. And he cometh to Bethsaida, and
they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him, Touch him,
touch him. What's the first thing he did?
Verse 23, and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out
of the town. We got to get you away from these
folks first thing. That's what we got to do first to get you
out of your way and the way you're going and to focus you around
and take you out of the way. And then I'm going to plead with
you in the wilderness now. We were running madly, ignorantly,
insisting upon having hell as our eternal habitation. And it
seemed bitter at the time. It seemed bitter to us at the
time, but the best thing for us was for Christ to stop us.
He had to stop us. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. It hates God. It's not subject
to God and it can't be subject to God. And the best thing that
ever happened to us was that Christ stopped us. He turned
us and took us a different direction. I remember, this made me think
of this, it's been years since I've thought of this, but when
I was about two or three, I don't remember this happening, I just
remember seeing photographs and hearing it told and what have
you. But when I was about two or three, I remember, I've been
told, my parents had a Doberman-Pencer dog. And our house had a driveway
that goes down about a quarter mile, and there's a big pond
in the front. And my parents would be out there with me. They
wouldn't let me do this by myself. But I would take off running.
I picture Will when he was two or three. I'd take off running,
and I would try to run to that pond. And they wouldn't let me
out of harm's way. I mean, wouldn't let me go into
harm's way. But they would do it just for this. That dog would
run between me and that pond. and start trying to turn me the
other way, turn me a different direction. And if I, I was insistent
though, I wanted to have that pond, I wanted to get to that
water and that pond. I had no idea that it could mean
death for a two year old, for a three year old. I was insistent
though, I would have it. That dog said, you're not having
that pond. That dog would, when he had to, and I kept on and
kept on insisting on having it, he would finally just run up
to me and knock me down. knocked me down. I'd cry and
cry and cry and cry because I didn't get to have my way. What's the
best thing for me? For me not to have my way, wasn't
it? Well, that's what Christ said
He would do. He'll turn us out of the way, take us out in the
wilderness, and then He'll plead with us. So let's see here the
second thing. Let's see Him pleading with His enemies. 2 Kings 6 verse
20. The next thing Christ does is
He opens our eyes. First He blinds us, then He opens
our eyes. Now, 2 Kings 6.20, And it came
to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said,
Lord... He interceded for them again.
The Lord opened the eyes of these that they may see. And the Lord
opened their eyes, and they saw, and behold, they were in the
midst of Samaria. You know what that means? Their
eyes opened up and they beheld, we are captured. Their eyes opened
up and they beheld, we've been brought into the camp of those
we considered our enemy and we're captured. We're surrounded. We're
captured. When the Lord opens our eyes,
He opens our eyes to experience mercy first. To experience mercy
first. Let me show you that. Verse 21.
And the king of Israel said unto Elisha when he saw them. Now
that king, you know, is typical of one of those that Christ has
redeemed. One He's brought out already
who He's made a king and a priest unto God. And the king of Israel
said unto Elisha, the son of man, picture of Christ, when
he saw them, these enemies that had come in and were surrounding
now, he said, My father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them?
And Elisha answered, Thou shalt not smite them. Wouldst thou
smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with
thy bow? Now that's critical to understanding
this. Would you take, would you smite those whom you had taken
captive with your sword and with your bow? We've got a lot of
talk going on lately or some last time I looked in the news
about Guantanamo Bay and whether or not the prisoners there have
been mistreated. If they've been mistreated, regardless
of what you might think of those that were taken captive and how
bad you might feel towards them, even if they are guilty, if they
are the captives and they're taking prisoners, justice says
when they're out there on the battlefield fighting, Do whatever
you want to them. Kill them if you want to. But
when they're taken captive now, justice says, don't you do anything
to them. Don't you touch them. They're
not in the battle anymore. They're taken off the battlefield.
They're out of the war now. Don't touch them anymore. And
that's a gospel issue. Because when Christ Jesus takes
us off the battlefield and He reveals to us that we've been
captured and we're His lawful captives, we behold we're surrounded. We behold that God's law says
we're guilty. We behold that these ones whom
we've been warring against, this one Christ Jesus, the Son of
Man, God Almighty, I've been warring against Him and now He's
taken me. He's taken me. And here I am.
And I'm guilty before Him. And He says to me, you're guilty,
but because I've come to where you are and because I was made
to be sin for you, And because I cried to God and said of your
sins and your iniquities, God, my iniquities are more than I
can bear. Because I stepped into your place
and I took your sin upon myself and I was made sin for you, God
poured out His wrath upon me, His justice upon me. And now
therefore, everything that you deserve, everything that you
deserve is withheld from you. Would you smite the lawful captive,
those that you've taken with carnal weapons? Christ said,
how much more? You shall not smite them who've
been taken by the might and power of the Holy Spirit of God. You
can't touch them because Christ has taken that away so that now
all they'll receive is mercy. You know what mercy is? It's
God withholding from us what we deserve. And he said, no,
you can't smite them. You cannot smite them. But then
look at this, don't you? When you're against God, when
you're in that unregenerate state and you're religious and you
keep hearing somebody like me say that the reason that it's
critical that Christ paid the sin debt of all His people and
that He regenerates every one of them and every one of them
shall be saved is because if you take it away and you make
it so that it's up to men to do it, then you fly in the face
of the holiness of God, of the justice of God, that it's God
who's just and justifier. But when you behold Christ and
you understand the truth, and you're standing in the place
that these men stood, and you see that justice has every right
to be poured out on you, and it's all withheld from you because
of God's holiness, then you say, how thankful I am that God is
holy. I'm so thankful He's holy. I'm
so thankful He's just. Because He poured out His wrath
on His Son, He won't pour it out on me. He can't demand payment
twice. Then what else did they do? Then
the Lord teaches us by experience what grace is. Grace is God giving
us everything we don't deserve. Now look, verse 23, And He answered,
Thou shalt not smite them. Wouldst thou smite those whom
thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? But
now look what He tells them to do. set bread and water before
them, that they may eat and drink and go to their Master." Not
only do we behold that in Christ God's withheld the justice we
deserve and His great mercy toward us, but He also reveals that
He's freely given us everything we don't deserve. He's made us
the very righteousness of God and His Son. Look at some scriptures
with me. We read, look at Isaiah 40. We read that mercy and grace
have met together. Righteousness, because mercy
and truth have met together now. There's a double reward. There's
a double reward. And listen to this double reward.
Not only has He taken away our guilt, not only has He removed
the guilt of every single person He died for. It's gone. They've
got to be saved now. Not only did He do that, though,
and restored to them the innocence they had in the garden before
there was ever any sin entered in, He brought us back to there.
But He did something even better than that. That was great mercy
to do that, but He did something even more than that. Verse 2. Isaiah 40, verse 2. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. Who accomplished it? Christ Jesus,
the Captain of our warfare, the Captain of our salvation, the
author and finisher. He accomplished it. Tell her that her iniquity is
pardoned. It's gone. For she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Double reward in
the place of all her sins. Look over at Isaiah 61 verse
7. Isaiah 61.7 says, For your shame
ye shall have double. In the place of that which was
just utter shame before God Almighty, ye shall have double. And for
confusion they shall rejoice in their portion, a double portion. Therefore in their land they
shall possess the double. Everlasting joy shall be unto
them. Now there we go. You see that
word everlasting? He not only took away our sin
and restored to us where we were in Adam, But he gives us something
better, everlasting. Adam could fall. Adam fell because
he wasn't born of one who laid down his life through the eternal
spirit and accomplished eternal salvation for him. But he says,
now, I've made you the righteousness of God and made you eternally
perfect in the beloved. I've given you everlasting life.
You can't ever fall. You can't ever be lost. You can't
ever perish, he said. Remember Job? The Lord turned
the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Also,
the Lord God gave Job twice as much as he had before. twice
as much. I don't want to come in Adam.
I don't want to come in Adam if Adam didn't even fall. I don't
want to come in Adam. Because there's always a possibility
that he could fall. I don't want him being my representative.
I want my representative being the second Adam. Because he's
put away sin forever. God said, I remember him no more.
And because he's the eternal son of God, my salvation's everlasting. It's eternal. It's sure. And
it'll never fade away. Ever. Ever. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Doesn't that give that some more
meaning? Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Oh
boy. Now, look here in verse 23. And
He prepared great provision for them. Great provision for them. When Christ became life to you,
sinner, when He became life to you by God's grace, Bread from
heaven was set before you. Christ Jesus the Lord. The water
of life was given to you. Christ Jesus the Lord. And He's
made it manifest to you from that hour on that He's just set
nothing before you but a A great provision. You're provided for.
You're provided for. You won't lack anything. You
won't want for anything. Oh, you might want some things
you just won't. He didn't say that. He said you
want those things you need, you won't do without. You can be
assured you won't do that in this life and in the life to
come. Everything that we need, everything
that we must have, everything that God requires, everything
that God says, everything that God is, is manifest in Christ
Jesus the Lord and He is all, all to the believer, all. It
please God that in Him should all fullness dwell. And it dwells
there. Are you in Him? Do you know Him?
Do you trust Him? Have you been smitten so that
you're blinded, and then brought out to be behold that He truly
has led captivity captive, and now you are the lawful captive
of Christ Jesus the Lord, God Almighty, that you can't be lost?
Have you been made to see that? I'll tell you what happens when
you're made to see that. The psalmist said, dear, he said,
when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like
them that dreamed. Yeah, yeah, he said it's like
we thought we were dreaming Yeah, have you ever? Have you ever
just just dawn on you? I? Have eternal life. I Have
eternal life Not might have it not gonna have I got it. I have
Christ do his life eternal and I have eternal life Hey, Emma
Somebody slapped me in my dream. I got eternal love. I Oh, what
a blessing. And you know what the effectual
result is of that when Christ reveals that? Here's the third
thing. Here's the effectual, irresistible
result of God's grace. Look at verse 23. And when they
had eaten and drunk, He sent them away and they went to their
Master. What does that mean? It means
He freed them. It means He arrested them and
He freed them. And they went away to their master. Did they go away to the same
master? Did they go away to the same master? Verse 23 says, So
the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. That
band didn't come back anymore. Why? They had peace with that
band. We're not going to go back and
do battle with that band. The king of Assyria could say to
them, go back in there and fight with him. And they said, you
go fight with him? We're not fighting with him.
We're at peace with him. He set a mighty provision for
us and saved us and showed us nothing but mercy and grace.
We're not going back to do battle with him. And in that, they revealed that
the king of Assyria is not their master anymore. Christ is their
master. That's what happens in the heart
of a believer. I wrote a song a long time ago,
and let me read these words to you. It just came to me as I
saw this. Made to see my sin, I was arrested. His righteousness
He manifested. On my behalf, He fulfilled the
law. Justified me on the cross. In prison, sin Death and hell
had a chain on me. Now, I'm free. I'm free because Christ Jesus,
the Son of Man, the Son of God, arrested me. That's backwards
to this world, isn't it? Well, He said, my ways are not
your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. Aren't you
thankful? He arrests those that He's led
captive to make them behold that they're set free. They're free. They're free. Now, let me read
Psalm 68 to you one more time. Psalm 68, 18. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou
hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also. Aren't you glad? Aren't
you glad he received gifts for the rebellious? I wouldn't have
received a gift any other way. He received gifts for the rebellious. He came to save sinners. Are
you a sinner? Are you a sinner? That's who
he received gifts for, rebellious, hell-deserving sinner. That the
Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Now
you just pause right there and think long and hard on that.
How long till he comes back or you go to him? That's how long. Just keep thinking about it.
He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the
Lord belong the issues from death. That's how the captives are captured.