I suppose you can confirm things
are working with your phone. It takes me too long to figure
it out on mine. We'll be in 2 Kings chapter 1.
For those that are watching the live stream, 2 Kings chapter
1. We've been doing a series on
the life of Elijah and we're coming near to the end of the
natural life of Elijah though Elijah did not die but was taken
up in a chariot I only know of two something like that happened
that was Enoch and wasn't a chariot it just says he was not because
God took him you know and so he didn't see death and then
Elijah but Last week, here in 2nd Kings
chapter 1, we saw that Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice
or the window of his upper room and had been severely injured.
So he sent some messengers to Ekron to inquire of Baal-zebub
whether he would recover. Now, Baal-zebub means Lord of
the Flies. In the scriptures you'll often
hear of instead of just bail or ball they'll talk about the
balls and the reason is there was a lot of them but this was
a particular one and I don't know why he wanted to inquire
of that one maybe it was the closest one around but he wanted
to know if he was going to survive and so he sent these messengers
to inquire of a foreign God Now these messengers were met by
Elijah, who asked, and we see this in verse 6. He says, go
back to the king who sent you and tell him, this is what the
Lord says, is it because there is no God in Israel that you
are sending men to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you
will not leave the bed you are lying on, you will certainly
die. and the messengers went back and relayed that message
to the king the king asked them what the man looked like they
described him he said Oh that's Elijah and remember he'd grown
up in the house of Ahab and so he knew Elijah and he knew what
trouble had come to his father not really by Elijah Elijah just
announced the trouble they have caused it But the apple didn't
fall far from the tree. And Ahaziah had the same attitude
towards Elijah that his father Ahab did. So he sent a captain
with a contingent of 50 men to arrest him. And when they got
there, they said, man of God, come with us. And he said, well,
if I'm a man of God, then may fire fall from heaven and consume
you all. And it did. 51 men burnt to a
crisp. Of course news of that got back
to the king and we have another example here of the stubbornness
of the natural human heart he sent a captain and fifty more
and they were even more insistent because they said come with us
now man of God you know come with us at once and he said if
I'm a man of God may fire come from heaven and consume you all
and it did so now we've got one hundred and two dead men. This did not have any effect
on Ahasuerus at all. He sent a third contingent. Can you imagine being in that
third contingent? Yeah, or the big burnt spot,
you know. But at any rate, the third contingent
went, and we're going to pick up and read the chapter from
there. We'll find this in verse 13. So the king sent a third
captain with his 50 men. This third captain went up and
fell on his knees before Elijah. Man of God, he begged, please
have respect for my life and the lives of these 50 men, your
servants. See, fire has fallen from heaven
and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have
respect for my life. The angel of the Lord said to
Elijah. Now the angel of the Lord is
the Lord Jesus Christ before he was born in Bethlehem. This is the Son of God. And the angel of the Lord said
to Elijah, go down with him, do not be afraid of him. So Elijah
got up and went down with him to the king. He told the king,
this is what the Lord says. Is it because there is no God
in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers
to consult Beelzebub, the God of Ekron? Because you have done
this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will
certainly die. So he died according to the word
of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram
and that was his brother. Succeeded him as king in the
second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. Now the interesting thing is,
Joram and Jehoram are essentially the same name. One just a little
bit shortened. And as we go farther into the
history here in 2 Kings, it gets really confusing because there's
two Jehoshaphats, two Jorams, and two Ahazias. and trying to
keep track of which one is which because it doesn't necessarily
say you have to you know just study it out to find out which
ones being spoken of. But anyway. It says Ozzie I had
no son Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Joram
son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah as for all the other events of
Ozzie as rain and what he did. Are they not written in the book
of the annals of the kings of Israel? Now, the annals of the kings of Israel,
I don't know that we have any access to them. The annals of
the kings of Judah are essentially 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd
Kings, and 1st and 2nd Chronicles. Because that's most of what those
books are occupied with. But I suppose this is a reference
to the official records of the palace. Because, you know, kings
particularly like to write down the things they did that were
successful. To leave a record of how good they were. But the
interesting thing is, we don't know of anything Ahasuerus did
that was worth recording. He was a rebel from the beginning,
remained a rebel throughout his life, and died a rebel against
God. Foolishly, withstanding, well,
watching the problems that his father encountered because of
his rejection of God through the prophet Elijah. And then,
what a stubborn business here. You know, three, well, first
of all, he didn't care anything about the lives of his men, ready
that 153 of them die, or however many it took to get Elijah to
come. But he died a rebel against God and received the just recompense
of his reward. Now, once this third contingent came
to Elijah, and then of course this third captain acted very
differently from the others and so the spirit of the Lord or
the angel of the Lord told Elijah you can go down it's safe to
go down and so he went down and he told Ahaziah the same message
he at the beginning and then Ahaziah died. Now from this portion
of the story I just want to make a few observations for our comfort
and these things were comforting to me as I considered them. First of all the word of the
Lord is faithful and unchanging. Now the word of the Lord through
the Prophet Elijah in this particular circumstances circumstance was
is there no God in Israel that you would go to the all is above
of Ekron to ask this question you're not going to recover you're
going to die now the first group of messengers who were on their
way to Ekron that's what Elijah told them and then we go through
three contingents of fifty one men. Confronting Elijah well
the last one not a confrontation but a pleading nonetheless when
Elijah gets there and we don't know how long this took but when
Elijah gets there what does he say exactly what he said at the
beginning. He didn't say anything different
because God hadn't changed his mind. And. It is good to know you know
we have people call the Bible God's word. And it certainly
is because in the sense that it's made up of words and it
comes from God but that's generally not what the Bible is talking
about when it mentions the word of the Lord or the word of God
in one way or another it was the word of God always has reference
to Christ and the gospel. But. We have this book. which is a record of God's dealings
with humanity in revealing the Word of God. And we can count
on it. Now, over the years, there have
been denominations that rise up, you know, and they've got
something new. and they justify adding something new because
they say well Moses added stuff and then the other prophets added
things and you know Christ added things and the apostles added
some things that have been revealed what they don't realize what
they're not taking into account is that Jesus Christ was God's
final word and really all that the apostles did was write down
what the Lord had said and and apply it to some circumstances
as the church was set up so the reason we accept no more revelation
from God is that there is nothing more to say he finished the book
and when an author is done with the book it is really presumptuous
to go in there so I'm going to add some more chapters and so
we have in Christ the full revelation that God intends to give this
world until such time as Christ is revealed in glory it is in
his return because he fulfilled everything that was spoken of
in type shadow and picture prophecy in the Old Testament and then
he brought as a prophet he taught specific things Those were recorded
and is done. And you and I, I mean, even though
we live in some stressful times, as humans would count it, we
live in the absolute best of times. When you think about it,
you and I have everything that God's going to say until he's
ready to wrap up the world. I remember Scott Richardson making
the point One time from the example of Noah. God came and spoke to
Noah. And then he didn't say anything
else for 120 years. And he said, but the next time
he spoke, it was the end of everything. Except Noah and his family. And
Scott went on to say, our Lord has spoken. And now it's been
a long time since he's said anything. People keep saying, I want to
hear from God. Do you? the next time he speaks in that
fashion it's over it's done so we live in the best of times
when God has fully revealed his grace we know everything there
is to know about it in our present circumstances there's nothing
more that could be said that would enlighten us more about
how God saves sinners and we've got the book and God has been
pleased to preserve it. Such that. We have a reliable
record of what it is God has said. I know that you know there's
a lot of argument goes on about translations and I've done some
investigating on it and then they'll argue about the various
ancient manuscripts and I've looked into that and here's what
I've learned. In the ancient manuscripts, there's
hardly any difference among them. And nearly all the differences
are obviously a scribal mistake. The scribe just made a little
mistake. It's so obvious you know which
one was right. Or it's an insignificant change
that was possibly made for clarification. An example of that is where it
says, It's in one of the epistles to Timothy, I can't remember.
But it says, in King James, it says, great is the mystery of
God, and this God was manifest in the flesh. Well, and it goes
on and mentions other things about Christ, who is God manifest
in flesh. Now, the older manuscripts, the
oldest ones I can find, say he was manifest in the flesh. and
therefore groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses witness will say see
what God they were talking about well Jehovah's Witnesses weren't
the first one to deny that Jesus is God Paul was quoting a hymn
of the early church or a statement of faith or something it's obvious
from the structure that this is a quotation he's making He
didn't create that saying. He was quoting. And in the context
in which he was quoting it to these people, everybody would
have known it, and everybody would have known probably, you
know, let alone obviously who the word he was in reference
to. And anybody who's being honest about the scriptures would know
that also. But I would imagine somewhere along the line, Somebody
said, we're having a problem with this doctrine, and I know
obviously that God is what's meant here. And so they wrote
in God. So we have adequate textual support for what we read in our
own language, in the Hebrew and the Greek. And I've looked at
a lot of translations. Now, there's sometimes, I mean,
you can find some weaknesses in every translation. I may have
pointed out to you in the past, you know, most people are, if
they're really rabidly devoted to a translation, it'll be the
King James. And they act like, you know,
they even say, believe it or not, that you should correct
the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts so that they match what's in
the King James. you know and some of them do I mean that you
know it's not like there's only the two ends of the spectrum
it's all but anyway when that translation was made there were
rules given to the translators and one of them says all the
old ecclesiastical terms will be preserved and those were words
baptism bishop and church and there was a reason that King
James did not want that changed They could use a word like baptism
and make it mean anything they wanted which included the infant
sprinkling that they did in the Anglican Church. They could talk
about the church but if they had translated as what the word
means the assembly it would have taken away the power of the Anglican
Church because in most of these churches the Catholic Church
the Anglican Church and the Orthodox churches of other nations the
church is the superstructure the hierarchy And the people
come to the church, you know, they aren't really seen as the
church. Actually, our English word, church,
comes from a Greek word, kriakos, which means Lord's house. Eventually
it became kirk over in Scotland, and then church. But anyway,
they didn't want a translated assembly. Because then they couldn't
have kept up the whole charade. And then the word bishop. If
they had translated that as to what it means it would have eliminated
this high office within the Catholic Church. So you see even the King
James has got its problems. Ours but one of the problems
I have is that in the New Testament they'll translate the word flesh
as sin nature. Well our flesh is sinful there's
no question about that but it will not remain sinful. And so it's not just a nature
it's talking about it's talking about anyway. I digress. We have in our day a reliable
record of what God has said and it doesn't change. It was written
down so that it could not be changed. and in the few translations
that really are bad it's obvious that somebody's got an agenda.
I mean you know but you look among King James a new international
version English Standard Version New American Standard Version
you know you look at all these they've got their distinctives
but it's exactly the same message and that's a blessing God's Word
never changes. Ahaziah's unbelief did not change
God's Word. Two contingents of men did not
change it. One believing man did not change
it. Ahaziah received from Elijah
exactly the same message that had been sent to him via the
original messengers. Now for this reason we never
change what we preach. I'm not looking for something
new I'm looking for maybe better understanding you know that's
why I keep studying better understanding than I had before but I'm not
looking for anything new as the years go by and Spurgeon put
it this way he said there may have been some of the rough edges
of our thought theology got knocked off you know and and essentially
he was liking it to polishing something you know and that's
what they do they just keep working on it the rough edges get knocked
off and you have something pretty he said but the essential message
is never changed and that message if you want to turn to it first
John five eleven and this is the message which John says was
from the beginning and and I think by that he means from the beginning
you know when the Lord first started teaching us but it's
also the first message it's the message that has been from the
very beginning and first John 5 verse 11 and this is the testimony
what testimony testimony that God has given concerning his
son God has given us eternal life And this life is in his
son. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son
of God does not have life. Now, I haven't a word to say
against doctrine. I mean, anything that's written
in the scripture is worth looking into, trying to understand. But
here is the core truth that was declared at the beginning when
man sinned. in a rather shadowy vague form
but this is what he was saying and it has been the message that
God has declared throughout history it's never changed and everything
we preach and every time we testify to our neighbors or our family
or whatever here is the message we should be delivering one way
or another God has given his people eternal life and this
life is in his son Lord Jesus if you have the sun you have
life if you don't have the sun you don't have life and what
I like about the simplicity that God inspired John to use and
to compact everything in that phrase how are you going to argue
with that you can either believe it or not that's the only two
choices you have but it just brings everything down truly
to black and white and one thing the devil does in blinding people's
eyes to the truth is bring up confusing details that people
like to argue about and you know you've seen you've heard the
phrase you can't see the forest for the trees and that's we do
get that way sometimes we start looking at detail so much we're
missing the whole point and so people look at the details of
Scripture and they'll pick up one verse and all at once they're
going off in another direction because that one verse said something
that that they did not test or in interpret that's right word
interpret by this principle you know that everything God ever
said fits into that statement and everything we say should
fit into that statement and sometimes You know if you are talking with
people. And you know that. Understand that one on one talking
is more difficult than preaching. I'd much rather preach to a thousand
people than talk to one. It's for one thing it becomes
a dialogue and you got to answer their questions and some you
know it becomes a bit of a battle because often they'll they'll
bring up questions that are irrelevant. But when you are talking and
it's a dialogue. And they bring up something that
just. Clouds up the water. Clarify. Say. Listen. I don't know about
that but I do know this. God has given me eternal life
in this life is in the sun. And he who has the sun has life.
And he who does not have the sun does not have life. And just leave it there. The
Word of God never changes. We can rely on it. We can rely
on it when we're young, and it will last our entire lives. I
made a profession of faith at seven years old. My doctrine
was very primitive. That is, my understanding of
things didn't matter. What I did understand, was that
I was a sinner in need of a Savior, and Jesus Christ was the Savior
I needed. And in the years, so that's almost 60 years ago, in
the years that have passed, I've learned a lot more about what
this book says, the ways it says it. I've learned doctrines. I've
gotten the systematic theology and the organization of it all,
and I've learned more about how it is that Jesus Christ is our
Savior. But that original, essential truth has never changed, not
one bit. Now, first thing to comfort us,
the Word of God never changes. Secondly, the mercy of God to
those who submit. The captain of the third contingent
was spared. Now we don't know a whole lot
about it but we I think we can make some reasonable conclusions
number one he was no better than the first two captains by nature
he was just another captain in the army same army I don't suppose we have no indication
that he was a worshipper of Jehovah before this point You know, we do do remember there
was that one guy in Ahab's court, Obadiah, and how he could worship
the Lord and get away with it. I don't know, but he did. But
this fellow, we have no indication that he was a faithful man. He
was from the same country, the rebel ten tribes of the north,
same country. as the people, the two captains
before him. And he was a captain in Ahaziah's
army, just like the other two. He served Ahaziah. So when this
third man shows up, there is nothing about him different than
the two previous captains. That is nothing natural. But
what he had witnessed. Happening to the two previous
captains. Work to change in his mind. In
all likelihood. Looking at it from a human strictly
human perspective if he had been one of the first two he got burned
up. You know the first one. You know
he acted just the same. After the first one gets burned
up they say OK that was a one off thing we'll go over this
but after two you know with two points you can draw a line and
he got two point his mind was changed God had intended mercy for this
man how do you know because he got the Lord's mercy and no one
ever gets it without God intending it God did not intend any mercy
for the first two men. If he'd intended it, they would
have gotten it. But God intended mercy for this
man, so he arranged everything to bring him to the point of,
shall we call it repentance? He certainly was different than
the others by the time he got there before Elijah. And at this
point I think Elijah is a good picture of Christ. You know because
he is the messenger of the Lord and that's Christ is the epitome
of the messenger for the Lord. But notice these things that
God did in order to bring this man to this point. First of all
he put him in a house his army and made him captain. Now we
believe that God, you know, everything that happens, God ordained it.
Now this man, I'm sure, joined the army because he thought he
wanted to and he was a little bit ambitious and had some talent
and so he rose to the rank of captain. But God arranged all
that. And you say, well, but being
part of Ahasuerus' army was not a good thing. Would God arrange
it? Being a thief and a murderer
was not a good thing, but God arranged it in the life of one
man to put him on a cross right next to the Lord Jesus Christ
that he might be brought to faith. You know, our children probably grip our
hearts more than anyone else with regard to their souls. I
mean, there is nothing that a parent would count that as a believing
parent would count more blessed with regard to their children
that they would be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and
there's nothing that would grieve them more than the reverse and
we have our ideas about how God is going to do this and so when
our kids go wayward we get all upset now I realize there's some
upset just in the waywardness because that generally brings
trouble even in this life But we should never lose hope. When our children rebel, even
if they rebel to the point of declaring themselves an atheist,
or just being irreligious, or whatever, they throw off the
instruction you gave them. Don't fret. Pray. The Lord very well may be putting
them on that path precisely to make them cross his path and
such was done for this man the Lord also put him third in order
to get his attention the Lord quite willingly sacrificed the
lives of a hundred and one men 102 men to get this man's attention
and I can't remember where it is in the Old Testament but I
read there's one place and I can hear Brother Don Fortner saying
that in his very booming voice but it's a Lord saying I will
give and he begins to list nations he's I will give these nations
for you if they get in your way saying is I will destroy them
if that what it takes to preserve you and look what this man of
course he had no idea God was doing all this behind the scenes But he sent this man a strong
message that cost the lives of 102 men. And then he softened his heart.
Now, we realize that God changing the heart requires a sovereign
act of God. I mean, he just does something.
There's a work of new birth and all of that. And yet we also
realize the agency of that. the preaching of the word and
even providential circumstances that God may use to get their
attention and so God by his sovereign grace and by organizing the circumstances
around this event softened no broke this man's heart all the
captain went out of all the I'm in charge lefty that's what happened to Saul
of Tarsus in one moment all of his pride and his stubborn will
was broken and that's what happened to this man here is an example
of Romans 828 because everything was worked together for the good
of this man and notice he's one of the most insignificant man
in the story that is as the world looks he did nothing for a Hosea
he did nothing for the messengers that were first sent did nothing
for two contingents of fifty one men the whole thing was pulled
off for this man this man And the simplicity, here's the
third thing, the simplicity of the required approach to God
to obtain His mercy. This man's plea. He did not plead
any superiority on his part. over the previous captains he
did not come up there on his horse and say boy man I'm caught
the last two guys well they got what was coming to him but I'm
going to be nice and now I'd sure like you to come along we're
going to do this different you know so that I don't know you
don't see he doesn't claim that he was better than them he did
not approach Elijah flippantly proudly or presumptuously you'll
notice in his manner of speech he didn't know whether he's going
to get burned up or not He was pleading for his life.
He wasn't going to do what those guys did but that did not guarantee
him in his own heart that he wouldn't get burned up. And you know in the free willism
on which I was raised people are given a person often given
a presumptuous attitude because they think that they are making
a difference which God is obligated to take note of. They're making
their decision for Jesus. And the fellow next door didn't.
That's why he's going to hell. That's why I'm going to heaven. This man did not approach Elijah,
picturing Christ, as though there was a guarantee that his plea
for mercy would be heard. He called him, well he pleaded
for his life. Life was the issue. He wasn't looking for a promotion
in a Haas years army. He wasn't looking for a better
version of the life he already had. He wanted life. And he said man of God he called
Elijah the same thing that the others did but he meant it. Everybody else called him man
of God and he's well if I'm a man of God a fire come down. And
I don't think for the first instant they were worried about fire
coming down. But by the time they discovered that he was indeed
a man of God it was too late. This man knew Elijah is the man
of God and our Lord Jesus Christ truly is the man of God. He is God the man. He begged
for the prophet to respect his life. and he simply rehearsed his trouble
I think that he just you know he talked about what happened
to the previous one coming he just laid it out there the last
two guys came to you got burned up along with the others you
know we don't always have to know exactly what to ask for
sometimes the best prayer is just tell the Lord what's wrong
I'm sick you know believers are I'm hungry or whatever you know
the Lord knows what to do about that so prayer does not always
mean that you're making a well thought out request sometimes
the best prayer is just telling God what's wrong like a little
child who doesn't come up to his parents you know and we scrubbed
his knee and said would you go get well of course you can't
get them to violate anymore that's banned but that's what we had
in our day you know You know, we don't tell them, get this
medicine and do this, but you know, would you do this? Would
you do that? We just come came up and you're crying and showed
him our knee. They knew what to do. And that's
what this man did. And then lastly, the faithfulness
and boldness of Elijah. As he pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ, he spoke and did what the spirit of God, the angel
of the Lord told him. and our Lord Jesus Christ time
and again said I speak only what I've heard from my father they
would find fault with it I'm just telling you what my father
said I would tell you only what he said and everything he said
and then he only did what his father told him He said, I've
not come to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
Elijah didn't go to Ahaziah to perform Elijah's will. He went
to perform the will of the Lord and to deliver His message. And he went without hesitation
or fear. to speak to the king the one
who humanly speaking could have him kill why would he go without
fear to the king because he went under the direction of the Lord
and there is no way that anyone in this world can end the life
of a child of God without God's one of the hymns in our book
based on all in fact I think it's all things together work
for good is the name of it and one of the lines I love and mortals
are immortal here until their work is done and then God vindicated Elijah
he said you're going to die and the next words are many died and the Lord Jesus his words
are vindicated And if we declare. The Lord's words. We too. Shall be vindicated. This isn't
the greatest blessing of heaven. But I'm sure that it's going
to be count we'll count among our blessings. In this world
we declare the truth of God the best we know it. And at times
we're ridiculed. Mocked. Or just ignored. The time will come. When we will
stand with our Lord. And he will be vindicated before
all men. And when he is vindicated. That
will vindicate us. You know it says in the book
of Revelation. The Lord speaking to one of the
churches. And he said and they will be forced to acknowledge.
That I have loved you. Can you imagine how hard that's
going to be. And I don't know. Well at that
time our minds will have been changed that it will be appropriate
that we can take satisfaction in the judgment of the unrighteous.
Now right now we don't. We would much rather see them
saved because we are one with them in nature aren't we. also
in the book of Revelation when it talks about the beasts and
the false prophet and the great prostitute and the dragon are
all thrown into the abyss and it says from heaven came a great
hallelujah but we will be vindicated when it's done whatever we may
have suffered for the cause of Christ will certainly have proven
worth it all right we're done