Well, if I'm the bookends, thank
God for the library in between the bookends we've heard this
week. It's been great. Jim and I were talking last night,
and we met in Sunday school at Rosemont Baptist Church. He came
in as choir director and assistant pastor. And when he saw me sitting
in the Sunday school room with my wife,
Debbie, and I hadn't All this was red, and I had a full red
beard. Told his wife, he said, I don't
know whether we should come to this liberal church. Look at
that hippie over there. But he was responsible for my
training in the ministry, if there is such a thing, when he
was at Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, Virginia. He used to have me up every,
once a month on Sunday nights. And I'd go up there and preach. Sort of cut my eye teeth up there.
He said, last night we brought you up and he pretty much did.
I'm thankful for him and for Nancy and for the friendship
we've shared all these years. Thankful for this church. I can't
begin to tell you how thankful I am for this church. Y'all have
been so kind to me over the years. I remember the first time I preached
here. preached from Galatians 511 on the offense of the cross.
And that night, I went back in to study, and Dick Pennington
and Gerald Kuhn was there. When I left, I had a whole set
of Spurgeons in my trunk. Y'all have supported me in a
thousand ways, with letters, emails, kind words, and monetarily
for many years and I thank you very, very much. We have been blessed this week
to hear the gospel set forth in wondrous and glorious terms. Now the only problem is that
last night Drew preached the message I was going to preach
this morning And then Lance preached three
messages that I brought with me last night. So I think I'll preach from the
table of signs in the front of the book on how to pronounce
these letters when certain dots and dashes are over them. 2 Kings chapter 7. Our Lord said, In Matthew chapter
11, he said, And from the days of John the Baptist until now,
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take
it by force. Now what we have just heard our
brother Lance read is the record and the response of the King
of Israel to good tidings that the four lepers could not keep
to themselves. There was a siege in Samaria. And if you know anything about
a siege, it simply is surrounding the kingdom and cutting off all
means of transportation and all means of getting supplies in
so people would starve to death. That's what a siege is. And the
people were starving to death. The message of the four lepers
was simple. The siege is over. The enemy
has fled, left all they owned, save for the clothes on their
back. And all that Israel had to do was go out and gather the
spoils, and not only end their starvation, but gain much more
than they had lost in the months of the siege. This is the theme of the gospel
that we preach. What we lost in Adam, when sin
sieged our souls and reigned over us, we gain much more in
Jesus Christ. The lepers gave a true report
of the great bounty and all of it was free for the taking. There was no foreign message.
This was no foreign message to the people of God. It was the
promise that God gave them concerning the promised land in Deuteronomy.
When he says, you're going to go and you're going to live in
houses that you didn't build. Land that you didn't till. Crops that you didn't plant.
And not because you're righteous. Because I am. And I'm going to
give you all these things free. Likewise, this is a declaration
of the gospel. God has freely given his people
all things in Jesus Christ. Everything. As our brother prayed,
no good thing is withheld from them. The declaration that the
war is over and the victory is ours through Christ is the consolation
of true Israel. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them their warfare is over.
Their warfare is over. The concept of free grace, absolutely
free grace, does not sit well with the carnal mind and nature
of the flesh. The old man cannot grasp the
concept of grace, much less the principle of gaining something
without personally meriting it. A free thing has no strings attached,
no condition to be met, no mitigating circumstance to negate the free
offer or the free gift and no reason for it save in God who
alone exercises grace. The carnal mind reasons that
there must be something that caused it, that caused this bounty. And since the carnal mind cannot
perceive spiritual truth, it immediately looks inward to find
reason for the abundance. The natural man, because of love
of self and love of his will, ventures into the minefield of
his delusions of goodness, the power of his will and the value
of his person to reach the conclusion that somehow, if it's freely
given, I must somehow deserve it. I
must have done something good to get all of this. The fact
that men refuse the concept of free grace under the preaching
of the gospel is simply a reminder that the religion of men is that
of works for reward. Free grace is conditioned upon
obedience, but not that of the recipient. It is the obedience
of the sovereign substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, by which
we receive the grace of God. There's also another response
to the truth of free grace. The carnal mind becomes suspicious.
Something for nothing simply doesn't wash with the carnal
mind. This is the case with the king
of Israel. He knows something about himself. He knows that
he's followed in the idolatrous footsteps of his fathers. He
knows that he's disowned, discounted the worship of the true and living
God. brought false idols into the temple. He knows that he's
dishonored God and now such a report of free and abundant blessing
causes the carnal mind to think that something sinister is afoot. Shakespeare said conscience makes
cowards of us all. The king knew that the siege
was a result of the people's idolatry. And for the life of
him could not see the abundance as anything less than a conspiracy.
And that's why he said in verse 12, the king arose in the night
and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians
have done to us. They know that we're hungry.
Therefore they've gone out of the camp to hide themselves in
the field saying, when they come out of the city, we shall catch
them alive and get in the city. That's what he thought of the
free abundance that was out there for folks to have. Think of the many who hear the
gospel, the good news of the finished work of salvation, and
all the manifold mercies and gifts that attend it, and yet
say in their heart, that can't be so. The driving force of free
religion is the belief that there must be reasonable worthiness
to receive the blessing of God. This notion gives the power to
men and makes God obliged to his creatures. And grace falls
in the realm of carnal reasoning. It boils down to the fact that
the unbeliever cannot believe it's that simple. The unbeliever
cannot believe, cannot believe the promise of God, even when
it's fulfilled in their ears and before their eyes. The prophet
had informed the king's servant of what God had promised. He
said, I know you're under siege. I know you don't have any food
to eat, but tomorrow you're going to be able to buy food for practically
nothing. This time tomorrow. Well, that
don't make any sense. I know you're surrounded by the
army. I know you're starving to death, but tomorrow you'll
get it. It won't be any problem. The
king didn't believe. He did not believe, but will
soon find that the prophet was true and his unbelief will be
revealed to all. But unbelief never turns to belief.
If you're an unbeliever today, God won't change your unbelief
to belief. He'll give you belief and subdue your unbelief. The
king's servant who had heard the good tidings and had not
been able to persuade the king, but because of their aching bellies
and the plight that they continued in, they didn't give up. They
pressed the king, let's send some horses out, let's see if
this thing is true. There was only five horses evidently
remaining in the city, the rest of them had been eaten I expect.
Those were probably part of the king's table. The king was persuaded
to hook up two of his best horses and chariots and go out and see
if this thing that the lepers told was true. He sent men out
to search and they went all the way to Jordan. Finding along
the way spoils of the enemy defeated by God who sent fear in the hearts
of the enemy to the degree that they carried nothing with them,
they just ran. Ran for their lives. And when the people went
out to gather the goods, they realized the promise of God.
Whether they knew it or not, they realized it. What they did
know was that before them was a bounty that they did not earn,
but yet was freely theirs for the taking. Their bellies and
their coffers would be filled, and what just hours before had
been a priceless commodity, now was worth considerably less due
to supply and demand. However, the king and the servant
that he had sent to Elijah knew the promise of God had been fulfilled.
The servant who had heard the promise was appointed to watch
the gate to keep order and saw the fulfillment of the promise
of vengeance. Elijah had told him that he would see the bounty,
but he wouldn't eat it. And he was tread underfoot. He
was trampled by the hungry horde seeking to fill their needs. How plain and pure this account
is. If men need Christ, Do not seek to measure their response
or control their behavior, stand at the gates, just get out of
their way or be trampled upon. Perhaps the king and his servant
fancied themselves as keepers of the promise. I've heard people
talk about such things and sought to devise a simple plan to disperse
the blessings according to whom they felt was deserving of the
blessings. But you see want and need and
necessity rule the day of salvation. And it is the only warrant needed
for the desperate. Can the wildest imagination come
up with an idea of an invitation in this scenario? The invitation is designed to
appeal to the will of man, the ersatz power of man to accept
or reject some notion of an offer. Would any hungry man need to
make a decision whether to fill his belly or not? The notion that there was some
kind of choice involved is ludicrous and would only stand if there
was no need involved, just a choice between options. Let me see. I'm starving to death. Should
I eat or should I exercise my will to die when the bounty is
right in front of me? That's how stupid the invitation
is. The gospel is not an offer. It's
not a proffer. It's not an invitation, all of
which can be disregarded. If there is no need, necessity
involved. Christ did not come to call the
righteous but bring sinners to repentance and the righteous
have no needs but ruined, helpless, starving, belly-aching sinners
have nothing but need and by any and all means, they
will come with all speed to where the food is. The servant of the king lay dead,
summarily squashed as promised. The people are fed as promised,
and the king has witnessed it all. And what he learned was
that the word of God is pure. the word of God is truth. The
prophet assured the king of this immutable fact what God says
will most assuredly absolutely and without a doubt come to pass. The prophet repeated what the
king had heard and ignored. First he said you'll be able
to buy in verse two He says, Then the Lord, on whose hand
the king leaned, answered and said to the man, Behold, if the
Lord would make witness of heaven, because Elijah said in verse
one, 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. And he preached the same words
to the king after the promise had been fulfilled. The people
are fed. The people are fed. Time will
show. that though the king saw and
heard and even rehearsed again the promise, he remained an unbeliever. Why? The answer is not overtly
stated in this passage, but if you will think of the estate
of the king during the siege, the reason for his unbelief will
become clear. He was the king. And when we
first find him, he's walking along the wall, looking down
at the starving multitudes. He ain't starving. He did not
run out of the spoil, as did the hungry. He did not run out
to the spoil, as did the hungry. Rather, he appointed someone
to manage the impoverished. His belly was full during the
siege, even to the point of depleting the stables, save for five steeds.
How could he disregard the promise? How can you? He wasn't hungry. That simple. He wasn't hungry. He had no need. While the destitute paid gold
for dinners of doves dung feasted on boiled carcasses of their
children in the previous chapter, the king's belly remained full.
He had no need. But the Word of God is sure to
the hungry it is sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb, even
when pathetic pariahs, leprous, outcast preachers are the only
source of the Word of God. The plain truth is this, that
when all is said and done, Men and women will stand before the
judgment of God and they will see that the gospel they disdain
will shine as the morning sun in truth and righteousness. When
they see the multitudes enrobed in pristine robes of Christ's
righteousness, kings and priests, all heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ, possessors of the universe and all entirely
by grace, they will rue the fact that when they heard the truth
of where the bread was, They weren't hungry. And at the word that they discounted,
they will be trampled underfoot by the lion of the tribe of Judah
as he plants his foot on their throat. The word of God is true,
discounted at your peril. Pray God to lay siege on your
soul and make you hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Brother Drew and Brother Lance
and Brother Jim, Brother Allen and me, we preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ, of his sovereign grace. And you know who we preach
to or what we preach to? We preach to life. We don't preach
to death. Our language is not the language
for dead people. You thirsty? Dead people don't thirst. Are
you hungry? Dead people don't hunger. That's our gospel. That's the
way it's presented in the Word of God. Our Lord, on the feast
of Pentecost, in that eight days that preceded it, some close
to 900 animals were slain. A veritable river of blood flowed
down from that altar in the temple. Eight days of ritual. Eight days
of religion. They were going home, folding
up their tents and going home empty. This man from Nazareth
stood up. They said that when the feast
was empty, the priest would take buckets of water and pour over
the altar and wash the blood down. Maybe as they were pouring that
water, this man from Nazareth stood up and said, anybody out
there thirsty? You had a bunch of religion this
week. Eight days of it. You've seen lambs slain like
crazy and not one sin was washed away. You thirsty? Come unto me and drink. And out
of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. I think of the
gospel as it begins to be set forth in earnest in Isaiah chapter
52 and verse 7. that Paul quotes in Romans chapter
10, how beautiful upon the mountains the feet of them that bring good
tidings, that publishes peace, that publishes salvation, saying,
thy God reigneth, thy God reigneth, that's the beginning and the
heart of the gospel, thy God reigneth. And then in chapter
53, that glorious representation of the victorious, vicarious,
violent death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That offering up of his soul
is pictured as the pains of birth, travail. He shall see of, that means the
product of, the result of, what happens from the fact that that
took place. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. That work on Calvary never knew
a miscarriage. Every child, was born of that
travail and born alive and will live forevermore then in chapter fifty four he
begins to set forth all the things that we do that he's done for
us ending with no weapon formed against thee shall prosper you
will judge them in your day and your righteousness is of thee
and as if to say does this interest you Are you interested in this? The next thing he says is, ho! You know what that means? A little word that means you're
at the point. You've heard the gospel. You're
at the point. Ho! Everyone that thirsteth,
come and drink. Don't bring no money. Don't bring
your works. Don't bring your will. Come and
drink. Are you hungry? Come and dine
on the feast of fat things. Wine on the leaves and well refined. Come and dine. I got a question
for you and I'll quit. Anybody out here hungry? Anybody
out here thirsty? God bless you.