saying, In such and such a place
shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto
the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place,
for there 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. Therefore, the
heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing,
and he called his servants and said unto them, Will you not
show me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his
servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet
that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that
thou speakest in thy bedchamber. And he said, Go and spy where
he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying,
Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he there the horses
and chariots and a great host, and they came by night and compassed
the city about. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host accompanied
the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said
unto him, Alas, master, how shall we do? And he answered, Fear
not, for they that be with us are more than they which be with
him. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes
that he may see. And the Lord opened the young
man's eyes, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. It was wonderful. Now look back
with me here and let's see if we can bring out some things
here that would be a blessing to us. You know, Elisha prayed that the Lord would
open this young man's eyes that he may see. The king of Syria
made war against Israel. Got his council together and
said, now listen, I want to camp over here. This is where I'm
going to camp. And he set up this camp here. He's going to ambush the king
of Israel. Going to ambush him. But Elisha said to the king,
said, don't go by that place. You go some other way because
the king of Syria is over there and he got an ambush laid for
you. Well, he said he found out that he told the truth, so he
went another way. And he saved him not once nor
twice, but more than that, saved him. And the king of Syria was
convinced that he had a traitor. And one place he said, you know,
I forget where it's at over here in Kings, but one of the prophets
was telling something and said, is there a bird taking what's
being said and carrying it somewhere? But here he says, tell me who
it is, that's the traitor for the king of Israel. And they
said, there's nobody in our camp for the king of Israel. But there's
a prophet, Elisha over there, And he knows what's going on.
He knows what you say in your bedroom. He goes tell the king
of Israel about it. He knows what you think. And
I tell you what, if Elisha knows what's going on and what this
man is saying, imagine what the Lord knows about us. And I love
the fact that Christ knows us. I love that fact. That Christ
knows me better than I know myself. And He knows you better than
you know yourself. And that's why we get up every
day and give ourselves away to the Lord Jesus again. And say,
Lord, we need you today. We need you today. And oh my. And so he tells the king of Israel
everything that's going on. And that king said, well, where
is this prophet at? Where does he live? He said,
oh, he lives over in a little old town called Dothan. But I'll
tell you what, he's going after one man now, but he got him a
bunch of horses, a bunch of chariots, and a big army, and he went around,
surrounded that whole little old town to get one man. That's
the way it was with our Lord. They sent over 500 men after
a man that never did anything, not one sin in his life. Perfect,
sinless, and holy. Sent 500 men to take the Lamb
of God. That opened not his mouth, but
was led out. Well, they come around. They're
going to say, I'm going to get this fellow. I'm going to shut
his mouth once and for all. Well, the servant of Elisha got
up and went out real, real early. And he looked up and he looked
around. There's an army here. Where'd this army come from?
They're surrounded. Horses snorting, men sitting
there on the ready. And he run back and said, oh
master, master, what are we going to do? He said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. They that are
with us are more than they are them. That's what he told them. And I tell you, don't be afraid.
They that are with us are more than they that are with him.
And King Hezekiah said exactly the same thing. You don't have
to look at it. I'll read it to you. King Assyria, he come and
done the same thing to Hezekiah. and Hezekiah told his people
this he said be strong and courageous be not afraid nor dismayed for
the king of Assyria nor for all the multitudes that's with him
for there be more with us than with him for with him is an arm
of flesh that's all he's got but with us with us is the Lord
our God to help us fight our battles and listen to this and
the people rested Themself upon them words. Yeah, I tell you
what and that's the thing God God is good Paul said for whom
he did foreknow Them he also did predestinate. Them he did
predestinate, them he also called. Them he called, he also justified.
Them he justified, he also glorified. What shall we say to these things
if God be for us? Who can be against us? If God
be for us, who will be against us? That's what they're saying
right here. And men who truly know the scriptures and know
the power of God, there's no reason fearing what man can do.
No, you know these Sadducees, they got together and they didn't
believe, they don't believe in a resurrection. They said a man
married a woman, he died and his brother married him, he died
and he buried his brother and went on to have seven wives,
seven husbands. Who's she going to be in the
resurrection? You know what the Savior said to them? Ye do err,
not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. And I tell
you, when you know what God says, that's all that matters is knowing
what God says. We know the scriptures. And there's
no reason when you understand God and what He is and how He
does things. And I tell you what, now I don't
underestimate, and I know you don't underestimate the power
of Satan. I don't underestimate His power. He's had 6,000 years
of dealing with people like us. And I don't underestimate the
power of sin. Sin's a powerful force. It's
called having dominion. It's called reigning. Sin reigns. And I don't underestimate the
power of the world and the influence of the world. But God's greater
than all of them put together times 10,000 times 10,000 thousands
And I tell you what and he'll save us and he'll deliver us
no matter what I Pray for America. I'm very very troubled over America
right now. I'm very burdened about it I
haven't felt this way in years, but I'm very troubled about it,
but I do know this I That God raises up whom he will raise
up and set down who he'll set down. But I also know this, that
Daniel said he has an everlasting dominion. That means that his
dominion reaches over this universe. Not just America, not just the
world, but over the universe. And his will is going to be done
and we as God's people, we're going to say, blessed be the
Lord. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But I tell you
what, Our God's greater than all of them and He will deliver
us. He will deliver us. And I tell you what, there's
some things that men don't understand and don't get. I tell you what,
there's a curse of the law. Sin and Satan's very, very powerful. Hell and judgment's waiting on
men and women. But when you understand the power
and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, how He came and saved
us, delivered us from the curse of that law. Delivered us from
the power of Satan. Saved us from our sin. Conquered
death for us. Bore our judgment and bore our
hell. The only people that can see
that's people's got eyes of faith. Open thou my eyes, Lord, that
they may see. Huh? Oh my. Elisha prayed when that young
man went out there and saw all that great army. He was just
as calm as he could be. And he said, Lord open his eyes
that he may see. That he may see. And let me tell
you, let me give you a few things. The natural eye. Man's natural
eye. Man's natural ear. does not see
and does not hear and the natural heart does not understand the
things of God he can't do it he can't do it and I know that
for a fact for myself for myself you know the scriptures tells
us that I have not seen or hear heard what God hath prepared
for them that love him but yea he hath revealed them unto us
yea even the deep things of God And we take the hidden wisdom
of God. Who's it hidden from? Hidden from the world. Hidden
from the natural man. And that's why it goes on to
say, for the natural man, he won't receive the things of the
Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. And
he says this, our righteousness are as filthy rags. And so, listen. All men can read the Word of
God. Men can get up and read a Bible. Read the same words
we read. And they have a veil over their
eyes. They have a veil over their minds.
And a sinner will be sitting there and the message will be
passed and they are blindfolded. What are they blindfolded with?
Sin. And you can testify of redeeming grace. You can testify of the
love of Christ. You can testify about God's great
love for sinners. But they don't see it. They don't
hear it. That happens here every Sunday
morning. That happens with my family.
Oh, they can't see, they can't hear
no matter what you say. God's everywhere. The heavens
declare His glory. The firmament shows His handiwork.
And you can't look at creation. And creation itself leaves men
without excuse. It leaves men without excuse. The creation leaves men without
excuse. You know these astronomers, they
study the stars and tell how many million, they sent a thing
out to space the other day, 200 million miles from earth and
sent it down on a rock. Being smart. But when it comes
to the things of God, they can look at the stars, but they don't
see God. They look at the stars, they
see how smart they are to figure it out, how far away they are,
how big they are, how they die. And they think they're really
something. They'll talk to you in all this language and you
don't understand nothing they say. We talk to them in our language,
they don't understand nothing we say. Ain't that right? And oh my! And then God's blessed
law, God's great law. His holy law. It touches the
thoughts of a man's heart. It touches the intents of a man's
heart. Our Lord said, and you go through the Beatitudes, the
Sermon on the Mount, He said, you've heard it said, but I say
unto you, He went to the heart, He went to the thoughts, He went
to the intents of what people... You know, you can intend to do
something and never do it, but God counts the intent as if you've
already done it. Now that's right. He said don't
even be angry with a man without cause. But they don't see that. They
don't see it. They just see words. They see laws. I was preaching
one night along this line about laws and I asked anybody here
ever kept God's ten commandments? And God's my witness, and I just
about fell out. A woman in the back raised her
hand and said, I have. And I said, nobody has. And she put her hand down. She
ain't been back since. But what kind of fool would raise
their hand and say, I've kept... When you look at just words on
black and white, you can't even look in black and white and say,
listen, I've done that. But you know why they can't see? They're blind. They're blind.
They're like this young man. He's blind. And oh my, men are
guilty, fallen. And God said far from God, so
far from God that they can't come back and God's got to go
where they are and bring them back. Oh my. And they're full of wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. But they can't see them. They
don't smell them. But I see the wounds. I see the
sores. I see it all. I see the wounds,
the bruises, the putrefying sores in men and women when they come.
But they don't see it. You can tell them about it. They
don't see it. They don't see it. And I tell you, I looked
up some verses today about hell. And you know, because I've said
this, hell ain't half full. And the scriptures tells in Proverbs,
it says, hell and destruction are never full. And then Isaiah
said, I think it's in Isaiah 42, he said, hell comes from
below, moves up to meet you. And I tell you what, death, judgment,
and hell come up to meet men at their coming, but they don't
see it. They're right on the precipice
of hell and dancing, and dancing, like this ain't nothing. And
this is the one thing they really, really don't see, the natural
men don't. The blessed Lord Jesus Christ
left heaven itself, left glory and came down to this world full
of sin, full of degradation, full of hatred, full of malice,
full of everything that's against God. He came down here and came
into this world and lived a sinless, perfect, holy life. to do one
thing to honor God and obey Him and satisfy Him and save sinners
from their sin. And one person will sit there
and weep over that and tears will come to their eyes over
what Christ did for them and another person sits there and
pops their blow gum and says, I wish this service would hurry
up and get over. Those are things to pray about.
Oh my. And natural blindness. Oh man
in his natural state. Keeps a man content in filth.
In filth. Keeps a man content in his false
refuge. And keeps a man content to be
spiritually poor all of his life. But he thinks he's got the world
by the tail on a downhill drag. I want you to look with me over
here in John chapter 9. I want you to see something here.
You know, natural blindness, and this is what's so strange
about man. Natural blindness makes a man
proud. Makes him proud. Because they
don't see their ignorance. They don't see Christ's glory.
Don't see Christ's glory. Y'all know the story here in
John 9 where the Lord Jesus opened this man who was born blind,
opened his eyes. And he believed on Christ and
worshipped him. And then in verse 39, look what
our Lord said here, now talking about blindness. And the Lord said, For judgment
I am come into this world, that they which see not might see. and that they which see might
be made blind. He said I'm the one who makes
the judgment about that. It's the same thing as saying
I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion
on whom I will. What he's saying is people that
don't see They don't, they, you know, they say, he said, I'm
going to give them sight so they can see. And then, you know,
the people that are blind, he said, I'm going to give them
sight that they can see. And then those people that say, I can
see, I'm going to close their eyes where they can't see. And
some of the Pharisees, which were with him, heard these words
and said unto him, are we blind also? that they which see might be
made blind and Jesus said unto him if you were blind if you
were like this man here could not see if you were like him
and say I'm blind and you got to do some miracle for me you
got to perform a miracle I'm blind if you said you were blind
he said you wouldn't even have any sin But now you say, wow,
listen, we're not blind, we see. And you're going to stay a sinner
and go live one, dies one. And Christ is the one that makes
those decisions. And I tell you this, we know
this as well as we know our name. Only God, only God can open a
sinner's eyes. And that's a miracle. It's a
miracle. There's a fella that comes over
here and tunes up our piano. every year. Him and his wife,
both are blind. Somebody asked, drive him up
here. Well, I'm stupid in knowing I've sent him a text. He called me and I said, well,
I sent you a text. He said, Donnie, I can't read
text. That's how stupid I am. But I thought I assumed if somebody's
living with him, you know, they could see. But he says, me and
my wife, either one's blind. Both of us are blind. And you
know what it'd take for him to be able to see? A miracle. The light's in here, he can't
see Him. Because he's blind. But the light
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is just as dark
to the natural man as life is to the blind man and it takes
a miracle just the same miracle for opening a natural man's blind
eyes it takes a miracle for God to give us spiritual eyes and
give us a spiritual hearer and then give us a heart to believe
it that's something only God himself can do and we're shut
up to that We'll shut up to that, huh? You know, the seeing eye
and the hearing ear are of the Lord. Cody preached on that here
one time. The seeing eye and the hearing ear both are of the
Lord. We put truth before men, but only God can make them see. And you know what? Y'all remember
in the garden, Satan told him, said, listen, if you'll eat that
fruit that God told you not to, he said, you know what's going
to happen to you? Your eyes is going to be opened. And you're
going to see. You're going to be like God.
You know what happened when their eyes was opened? They said, oh
my, I'm naked. And fear gripped their heart
and shame covered them. And they tried to cover their
nakedness with a fig leaf? So, you know, that's... Man saw
shame, not glory. And I tell you, let me hurry
on here. I hope I'm not taking too long.
But the Lord does. Bless His holy name. He opens
men's eyes. And by His blessed grace, He
gives men spiritual sight and understanding. Look here in verse
17 what it said. And Elijah prayed and said, Lord,
I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. He could see that
other army. Open his eyes that he may see.
And listen to this now. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man. And what happened? He saw. He saw, when the Lord opened
your eyes, you see. You know, people say, well I
don't see it your way, I don't see it that way. And they'll
tell you the truth, they can't see it. Huh? They can't see it. Somebody just
Sunday or something is telling us about they showed somebody
predestination. He said predestination ain't
in the Bible. Well he took him and showed him a place where
predestination was in the Bible. He said well I see it but I don't
think it means what you think it means. Didn't even notice they said
oh it ain't in there. Why ain't it in there? Because he ain't
got eyes to see. He got eyes to see. And the Lord
opened his eyes and the young man saw. And I'll tell you something
about the eyes of faith. When God gives us eyes, the eyes
of faith, we see what others don't see. Noah, he saw a flood
coming. Nobody else saw it. Noah said,
oh there's a flood coming. Nobody saw it. He prepared an
ark, but nobody saw it. He prepared a place for God. God prepared a place for him
to be saved and nobody saw it. Only Noah saw that flood. Noah
was the only one that saw a flood coming. Other people didn't. The disciples saw the deity,
the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ. Two to men say that I
the Son of man am. Simon Peter said, without the
Christ You're the son of the living God. And he said, Oh,
Simon, you're blessed. Flesh and blood didn't do that
for you. My Father which is in heaven, He gave you that. He
let you see that. You're the only way you know
I'm the son of God is my Father made you know I'm the son of
God. And I tell you Isaiah, he complained. He said, Oh, who
has believed our report? to whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed. And then Philip drew near to
an Ethiopian eunuch reading in the same place in Isaiah 53. And when Philip preached to him,
you know what happened? The Lord opened his eyes. He said, here's water. What's
to keep me from being baptized? And I'll tell you something else
about the eyes of faith. When God gives you eyes of faith,
He gives you a calm spirit of assurance. The servant in this thing that
I read, he was afraid. He cried, Oh Master, what are
we going to do? What are we going to do? We can't
escape. We're surrounded. But Elisha
just calmly said to him, Oh, he said there in verse 16,
fear not, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, for they that be with
us are more than they that be with him. Oh my God. if God be for you
and I tell you O Elisha wasn't afraid he saw the army of the
Lord and he was confident and you know what when the young
man's eyes was open look what he saw there in verse 17 he saw
and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots A fire,
all they had was old flesh horses and a fire round about Elisha.
So I tell you, these people, they wasn't going to hurt anybody.
Elisha knew. Ain't a hair on my head falling
today. Huh? Oh my. And Job was confident
of God's care in the most trying thing that could ever happen
to a man in this world. He lost everything. everything
but the scripture said he shaved his head and he bowed before the Lord and he said naked came out from my
mother's womb naked shall I return the Lord has given and the Lord
has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord And Job sinned
not against God. That's what our faith will do. Henry Mahan, you said all times,
don't drive your tent stakes down very deep. Don't drive them
down, just keep them real, real loose. Keep them loose, keep
your hands loose. If God gets ready to take something,
He said, don't drive them down too tight. He said, he'll jerk
them up. And oh my. And even when God's care in the
deepest trials that we go through, He's never ever let us go. And
then the eyes of faith, oh you're going, some of you folks getting
old like me. The eyes of faith, let me tell
you something. Do not grow dim with the passing
of years. Has your faith grown dimmer as
you got older? No. You know what? She's just a little better. She's
a little clearer. She's God in a greater light.
You've done with her a few things. The young man saw the army, but
he didn't see Christ. The young man saw danger, but
he didn't see deliverance. That old prophet, just as calm
as he could be, has seen God's glory and God's grace and he
has seen it often. And he is like Abraham and said
he knew the Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. And I
tell you, with age and maturity, we get a little better sight
and a little better understanding. You go through a few things and
you learn to take care of it. Well, the Lord will take care
of it. The Lord will take care of it. And we really believe
that, don't we? That's reality to us. That's
reality to us. And let me close with this. The
eye of faith desires to see more. Oh Lord let us see more. More
about Jesus would I know. More of His saving grace see. More of His saving fullness see.
More of His love who died for me. Oh to see more of Christ. More wonders in His word. Oh,
David said, Lord, let me behold wonders, things out of your law.
More about the Lord Jesus Christ, like Paul said, Oh, I want to
know Christ, I want to win Christ, I want to be found in Christ.
And all my learning, one thing I want to do, I want to learn
Christ. More of Him, more of Him. And
more of His righteousness that's revealed in the gospel. We didn't
know nothing about righteousness until God came and revealed it
to us. And gave it to us. And revealed
it to us. You can't preach to me enough
about the righteousness of Christ being mine. I'll tell you, you
just preach it every service, it'll suit me. And oh my, more
of His redemptive glory. The fact that He, He's the one
that has the mercy and has the compassion. And He'll give it
to whom He will. And He said, I cause the name
of the Lord to go before you and the goodness of God to go
before you. The fact that He is good enough to show mercy.
Good enough to show compassion. Good enough to be gracious. That
ought to be enough for anybody. And the last thing, thy faith
says this, I'll be satisfied when I wake in His likeness. I long to see the King in His
beauty. Huh? And Lord, what Christ has for
sinners has always been there. And so all the people that we
know, you know, when unconverted people come here, and we have
them every Sunday, you know, we have people that come, and
I'm thankful. I'd rather them be here hearing
the Gospels being somewhere else. But pray, Lord, open their eyes.
Open their eyes. And if He opens their eyes, they'll
say, I see. I see. I hope, I probably told you this
story. I'm going to tell it and then
I'm going to quit. Years and years ago, until James had his
conference over in Cherokee. This is how simple people, this
is how bad people can be. He asked Doris, he said, Doris,
honey, would you go get me a cup of coffee? Had a big coffee pot
there. We got him a cup of coffee and
brought him. Well, there's a woman standing there and she's a member
of this church. Tibbs Church. That upset her
so bad. Why didn't he go get his own
coffee? Why does he have to be waited on? And she got mad. And she left the service. Well, about halfway through that
service, maybe Henry was preaching, Don
was preaching, I don't know who was preaching that night, but
about halfway through that service, she came back in. She stood right
in the aisle, right in the middle of the aisle. And she told what
she did and how angry she was. And she came back and she said,
you know, since I left the Lord's opened my eyes and now I see
things I ain't never seen. And she just broke down the wall
right there. That's what I'm talking about.
The law deals with the thoughts and intents of the heart. Her
animosity and her hatred for women, in her mind, being subjection
to a man. But God saved that woman that
night over that simple thing. Over a man getting his wife getting
a man a cup of coffee. Now what if he'd of went and
got her one? She wouldn't have been converted. She said, well
he ought to do that.