The name of the message tonight
is Resting Before Christ. Resting Before Christ. 2 Kings chapter 6, we're starting
verse 24, and we'll read into chapter 7 in verse 2. And the
narrative continues all the way through the next chapter, which
we will be studying next week. We'll study from verse 3 to the
end of chapter 7 for next week's message. But tonight we'll be
looking at the first portion of this narrative. And then again
next week we'll look at the second section of this portion which
will bring before us, tonight's text will bring before us a great
famine. A great famine which is occurring in the land of Samaria
and it's brought upon Samaria. We're not told the circumstances
of the famine but during that famine there's a siege by Ben-Hadad,
the king of Syria upon Samaria. And let us keep in mind the fact
that our great God is in control of all things. This is not catching
God by surprise that his people are surrounded by the king of
Syria. Our God is sovereign over all
things, and we know scripture declares the heart of the king
is in the Lord's hands, and as rivers of water, he turns it.
What? To do his will, doesn't he? To
do his almighty will. You know, we humans, we've blocked
off rivers and rerouted rivers, right? To fulfill our purpose,
the Lord uses the hearts of kings, rulers. Just like that. Turning it whatever way He wants.
Isn't that amazing? So let us remember, all the rulers
in this world, they're just like water in the hands of the Lord.
And He does with them whatever He wants. That's comforting for
us. That's comforting for us. No
matter what we're seeing going on, our Lord's in full control. He's in full control. Oh my.
So let's read this. 2 Kings chapter 6. We're gonna
see here, the utter depravity of man on display. And then,
in contrast to man freaking out over the situation in the text, we will see Elijah resting with the elders. He's
in the city with them. And people in the city, they're
resorting to all kinds of things we're going to see. All kinds
of to things that just bring out the depravity of man. And
here's Elijah the prophet, sitting in his house with the elders,
just waiting on the Lord. Isn't that amazing? See, that's
what we're to do, aren't we? And the contrast here, I believe
the contrast here shows the world and then shows Christ's church,
the elect. Look at this. See if you don't
see the same thing here. And I pray again God the Holy
Spirit would illuminate this for us. And it came to pass after
this that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his hosts
and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine
in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head,
a donkey's head, was sold for four square pieces of silver,
and the fourth part of a calf of a dove's dung for five pieces
of silver. And as the king of Israel was
passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying,
Help my lord, O king. And he said, If the lord do not
help thee, whence shall I help thee? And out of the barn floor,
out of the wine press, and the king said unto her, what aileth
thee? And she answered, this woman said unto me, give thy
son that we may eat him today, and we'll eat my son tomorrow.
So we see here, we see how drastic people have come. They've reverted to cannibalism,
some of them. And this woman boiled her own
son. Oh my goodness. Look at this. So we boiled my son and did eat
him. And I said unto her on the next
day, give thy son that we may eat him. And she had hit her
son. She hit her son. And it came
to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that
he rent his clothes, and he passed by upon the wall, and the people
looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, Go, do so, and
more also to me, if the head of Elijah, the son of Shephed,
shall stand on him this day. But Elijah, now here's Elijah,
So we see what's going on in the city, right? Terrible things
going on in the city. Terrible things. Money's worthless.
There's a lack of food. But Elijah, he's trusting the
Lord. Those other folks are freaking
out. All kinds of works of poverty going on. And look where we find
Elijah. And he's He's right in the midst
of all this again. But Elijah sat in his house.
He just sat in his house. And the elders sat with him and
the king sent a man from before him. But here the messenger came
to him and he said to the elders, now note this is even before
the messenger has spoken. He said to the elders, see how
this son of a murderer, that's the king, has sent to take away
my head. Look, when the messenger cometh,
shut the door and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound
of his master's feet behind him? So he's saying the king can be
right behind this executioner that's coming for me. And while
he had talked with him, behold, the messenger came down unto
him. And he said, behold, this evil is of the Lord. Wow, they're
blaming the Lord. Is that not what natural man
does? How can I love God, they say? How can I love God when
he lets these things happen? You heard that? I've heard that
many times. And they use all kinds of different things they
put in there. I was talking to a fellow this week, and he said,
well, how can God be real in all the suffering in the world?
He said, I'm an agnostic. I don't believe in God. And I
said, well, you're going to meet him one day, whether you believe
it or not. He said, no, that's just a fairy
tale. And I said, you know what? God
laughs at you. He laughs at you. He laughs at
what you're saying. See, all this guy's heard, God
loves you, God loves you, God loves you. I said, God's laughing
at you right now. Puny little human being shaking
your fist at God. I said, you're gonna be like
a, I told Zayn this today, I said, you're gonna be like a candle
put in front of a blast furnace in a steel factory. You know
what happens when those blast furnace go off? And I said, you're
going to be like that candle that's going to melt right before
the Lord. And I said, you say you don't believe Him now, you're
going to see Him and you're going to fear Him. And we got to warn
the wicked. When people are so brash like
that, we got to warn the wicked, beloved. Oh my. And here's Elijah, though. The
whole city's going to chaos. What do we say about this world?
People say, oh, this whole world is going to chaos. Where are
we? What are we doing right now? We're sitting at the feet of
the master, aren't we? We're just sitting here. We're sitting
at the feet of the master, resting in Christ, trusting in Christ. Remember, Elijah's savior is
the Messiah. Just like he's our, the savior
is our Messiah too. He's looking to Christ, the Messiah. We look back to what he's done
on Calvary's cross, but we still look to him, don't we? And it
don't matter what we said, this and that back there. People make
professions. Like you were saying today, you
say, what about right now? Who are you trusting right now?
Right now, right this second, who are you trusting? Oh, Christ
is my all in all. He's my all in all. I got no
hope outside of Christ. My. But you know, pray for that
man that I talked to. His name's William. Keep him
in your prayers. Because I told him this. I said, if he says,
well, something about God. And I said, you know what? If
God doesn't reveal himself to you, you'll never know him. You're
never going to know him. And I said, I pray, I pray, William,
that God will reveal himself to you. Because that's what he
did to you and I, right, brother? That's what he did to us. That's
what he did to us, sister, brother, sister. That's what he did. He
revealed himself to us. We wouldn't have known who he
was. And God, the Holy Spirit, revealed Christ to us. And now
we love him. We adore him. He's the fairest
of 10,000, as Solomon wrote. To our hearts, isn't he? So this
fellow here, he's blaming the Lord. Well, this evil is of the
Lord. What should I wait for? The Lord
any longer. Then Elijah said, Hear ye the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow,
about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel.
Now see, inflation has hit Israel really bad. because they were
paying, we're going to find out how much it was, they were paying
for a quarter of an ounce, four half shells of eggs of dove's
dung. Now several commentators say,
some commentators say they were eating it, other people say they
were using it for fire, to cook whatever they had. We don't know. But we know they were buying
it for five pieces of silver. Silver right now is about $25
an ounce. So that's $100 of our money. Could you imagine what
that was back then? Oh my. It says here, a measure of flour
be sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel
in the gate of Samaria. That's nothing. That's nothing.
A shekel's nothing, hardly. like pennies for us. Then the
Lord, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God
and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven,
might this thing be? Look what Elijah says to him.
We're going to see this next week. If you want to look ahead,
it's at the very last of the chapter, of chapter 7. Look at
this. And he said, Behold, thou shalt
see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. Let's look quick.
Let's look quick there. 2nd Kings chapter 7. Let's look quick at the very
end. We'll read from verse 19. And that Lord answered the man
of God, and said, Now behold, if the Lord should make windows
in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou
shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof.
So he saw the lepers came back and said, There's all kinds of
food. And the Syrians camp, they left everything. He saw that,
but look what happened to him in the next verse. And so it
fell out upon him, for the people trod upon him in the gate, and
he died. He saw it, just like Elijah said,
but he didn't need of it. He didn't partake of it. My oh
my. It's a fearful thing to mock
God. When that guy started popping off about God before me, that's
a fearful thing to do. You know, God could take our
breath away just like that. My oh my. Now this portion of
scripture is packed with natural man's human condition of total
depravity. It's just packed full of it.
And remember, we were there. We were there. But for by the
grace of God, now we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
Now we're trusting Christ by God-given faith. But we were
there, beloved. That's why I say what preachers
of old used to say, John Brown, who was a famous preacher in
London, they were leading a man to the gallows for murder. You
know what he said? There goes John Brown, but for
the grace of God. That could be said of all of
us, couldn't it? It could be said of all of us. It's only
the grace of God that made us to differ. So here we see this
utter depravity and despair, despondency. And then we see
Elijah. You see the world freaking out.
Is that not what happens even now? Freaking out. And you see
the people of God just resting. It's wonderful, isn't it? Just
resting. Resting in the freedom that we
have in Christ. Rejoicing in the King, the Savior
who saved us. Knowing, now I'm not saying we
don't get a little edgy sometimes, because we do. But ultimately,
we go back to doing what Elijah's doing, don't we? Just rest. God's in control. There's not
a flick of dust in the sunlight when you see it coming. That's
not floating according to God's divine providence. If He can
order that, can He take care of you and I? If He can hold all the stars
and everything by Him consists, can He not take care of you and
I? What Christ say to us? It's at us too. Oh, you have
little faith. Peter says, Lord, help my unbelief.
I feel like Peter. Help my unbelief, Lord. Oh, my
goodness. Isn't it incredible? Oh, my goodness. In verse 31 too, we just see
the depths of despair. The depths of despair here. Oh,
my goodness. Second Kings chapter 6 verse
31 there, then he said, Go and do it, and more also to me, if
the head of Elijah, the son of Shepheth, shall stand on him
this day. This is a man, this is supposed
to be a king who worships God, but he don't worship God. He
worships Baal, just like Jezebel, his mom, and Ahab, his dad. And that sackcloth and ashes
he puts on, that's just false religion. That's all that is.
How do we know that? Look what he said in verse 31.
He wants to kill Elijah. He wants to kill the man of God.
Elijah didn't do anything, did he? He's in the city with him. But he just proclaims the truth,
doesn't he? Right? So this king, by the way, I'm
on his head. He didn't have nothing to do
with it. My see again. They can't get at God can they?
But they can get out of servants you and I How this brings forth
that scripture when the Lord said fear not him who can destroy
your body But fear him who can destroy both body and soul in
hell That's who were to fear and we see Elijah, but I just
not afraid of the king is he He's not afraid God, the Holy
Spirit's told him what's gonna happen. Told him why that messenger's
coming. How else did he know? God told
him. John Gill bought forth, that's the spirit of prophecy.
The Lord told him that. And yet what he's doing, is he
fretting? He's just sitting talking with
the elders. He's just sitting there talking
with them, just like you and I talk after church when we get
together, we all sit and talk. Same thing, just fellowshipping
with each other. No, sure, nice day today. Right? Probably not that matter-of-fact
because of what was going on, but still, just sitting and talking
about the Lord, talking about His sovereignty, talking about
who He is. He's the prophet of God. He's not going to be talking
about the chariot races last week. He wants to talk about
the Lord. Right? My, oh my. And we see here the major players
in this display of depravity are Jehoram, the king of Israel,
and Ben-Hadad, the king in Syria. These are the main major players
on the scene, other than Elijah. And Ben-Hadad, look in verse
24, he lays siege against Israel. Now a siege is a kind of warfare
where It's designed to starve out whoever's under siege. It's
designed to, they close off all areas of supplies coming in,
all routes, and they surround, the Romans used to do it all
the time, they would surround a fort or something that people went
into, or a city, and they'd totally surround it, and then they'd
build fortifications all around that, close them right in. There
ain't no one getting out, and there ain't no one getting in. And this is what's happened here.
And the whole thing is to wait for the attrition to start happening,
to wait for the hunger to start to set in, to wait for the supplies
to dwindle down to nothing. It's awful, but it's effective. It's very effective. And then they hope that eventually,
The city, or whoever they're surrounding, are starving so
much that they'll just surrender. That they'll just surrender.
Because they have no ability to continue without food and
water, right? Look at this, and it came to pass, verse 24, 2
Kings 6, 24, and it came to pass after this that Ben-Hadad, king
of Syria, gathered all his host, got all his army there, and went
up and besieged Samaria. He got them under siege. And we see that there's a famine
occurring too at that time. There's a famine occurring at
that time. Again, we're not told how it came about, but look what
it says in verse 25. And there was a great famine
in Samaria. So he came at probably the worst possible time for the
folks there. And behold, they besieged it
until an ass's head was sold for four pieces of silver. in the fourth part of a cab of
dove's dung for five pieces of silver." Again, what bought about
this famine, we don't know. We don't know. We don't have
any clue. But we will see as we look at this portion of scripture,
the dark background of human depravity on full display. They've
reverted to cannibalism of children. Of children. We can't even imagine
that, can we? But that's human. That's human
nature when they're starving. There was a soccer team that
crashed in the Andes in, I think it was the 70s or the 80s. Do
you remember hearing about that? Yeah. And they ate the guys that
were dead. They froze to death or froze.
They died and they put them out in the snow and they froze. And
then they started getting hungry and they dug them up and started
eating on them. My, oh my. It's what people would do in
that situation. And we can't say, oh, I'd never
do that. We don't know what we'd do. We
know we're just, in our natural state, we're just as depraved
as anyone else. So actually, we do know what
we would have done. So that's right. Oh my, my, oh my. Oh, it is true. So we see here
the dark depravity of mankind and then we see the bright display
of the prophet's faith. He's just sitting amidst all
this. He's just sitting there trusting
the Lord, resting in the Lord. He's in the same situation as
everybody else, isn't he? But see, he has the peace that
passes all understanding, that keeps his heart and mind focused
upon Christ, focused upon God, focused upon his sovereignty.
Zane and I were talking today, and tell me if it's true for
you now, that since the Lord saved us, we look at the world
in a different way. We see it through the lens of
providence now. We see history in the lens of
providence. We see what's occurring now in the lens of providence.
We see what's going to occur. We will see if the Lord, if the
Lord, you know, we'll see till the day we die, if the Lord tarries,
we'll see providence at work. And even the day we die and breathe
our last breath, that's providence at work too. Taking us home to
glory, to be with the Lord forever. But see, we look at the world
with different glasses now, don't we? Yeah, I can see now. I can see
His mighty hand at work. You hear a bird laying on a branch
and He's singing a song to you. That's of the Lord. The Lord
let that bird do that. Isn't that wonderful? Next time
you hear a beautiful song by a bird, just be thankful. What
a gift from God. He, by his divine providence,
had that bird land on that branch. We got cardinals that sit on
the wires and sing songs. We'll be sitting out in the back
porch, and these things, all of them will take your breath
away just listening to these things. And I always say, thank you, Lord.
Thank you for allowing me to hear that. These are your birds.
You say, oh, that's carrying it too far. Oh, I don't think
so, because he's in control of everything, isn't he? Right? And why should I not bless the
Lord? Why should I not say, praise ye the Lord for all these wondrous
things? Right? Hallelujah. Amen. Right? Why not? Look what he's done. And here we see the prophet.
He's just sitting. He's just sitting with the elders
talking. Oh my. And part of the reason
why this had fallen upon Israel was they went back to Baal worship.
They forgot. the wondrous deliverance of God
from that whole Syrian army when Elijah led them back, led them
back. They forgot about all that. They
went back to bail worship, beloved. And so we see an exercise of
God's justice and judgment on display here upon a rebellious and wayward
people. We'll see, and then we'll see
next week, we'll see a manifestation of His grace and mercy. He didn't
have to have mercy on them, but we'll see He will. Because there's
going to be something happening in that Syrian camp, and all
them Syrians are going to take off, and they're going to leave everything
behind. Like, I mean everything. So much food, so much provision,
that again, they say, barley will be worth a shekel, pennies.
Right now they're charging exorbitant prices, aren't they? My oh my. See, God overrules
all things, doesn't he? That wicked Syrian king, he thought,
I got him, I got him, I got him! God says, no you don't. There's
some of my people in there. Remember, not all Israel is Israel.
But he got Elijah in there. He's got those elders in there.
He got some other folks in there, too. My, oh, my. And everybody else just gets
the residual effects, don't they? Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing. And we'll see here how the king's
wrath was made to praise the Lord. The oath of a wicked king was
made to recoil on his head. We saw that at the end of the
chapter, didn't we? Recoil. Watch in these two studies how
the wicked are taken in their own craftiness. Or to use the
language of Samson's parable, how the eater was made to yield
meat. And how poor outcast lepers become
the heralds of good news. We're going to see that next
week. Lepers become the heralds of good news. What's the preacher? He's a sinful leper. Preaching
to other sinful lepers about the one who can make us whiter
than snow, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All by the shedding of
his precious, precious, precious blood. It's so good. It's so good. Oh, it's so good.
My goodness. And how great our God is. He's
the one true living God. He's the omnipotent God. He's
in control of everything. He persuades over all the affairs
of this world, even today. And tomorrow and however long
he tarries, he persuades over all things. He is God over all. We see that here. Oh my. He didn't have to have mercy
on these folks. He could have let them all perish and kept
Elijah alive. But my oh my. God's merciful
too. He's a just God though and we
see that. Look what happened to that little baby. My oh my. My oh my. Now some people might look at
this narrative and go, that's pretty far-fetched. I don't think
that really happened. It happened. It happened. Every word in the scripture happened.
It's true. It's truth. But the world say,
well, that's kind of far-fetched. No, it's not. No, it's not. Just read how wicked
the Romans were when they went into cities after they besieged
them and murdered everybody and did unspeakable things to people. It's in us. It's in our nature
when we're born into this world, dead in trespasses and sins.
People just, you know, people don't want to believe this because
it shows just how wicked we are. Totally depraved, amen brother,
totally. Wicked from the top of our heads to the bottom of
our feet. But see, natural man, I don't wanna see that. I don't
wanna see that. And then the fact that Elijah's
at rest, waiting upon God, it's wonderful for we who are his
people because no matter what happens in this world, we can
just rest in our King. We can just rest in him, rest
in his providence. It's wondrous, it's absolutely
wondrous. And we can know with loving adoration
that he's working all things out for our good and for his
glory. My oh my. So we see so far that Samaria
was besieged by a powerful enemy, an enemy that they could not
defeat. And it's so much, the enemy's
so large that they've surrounded the inhabitants of Samaria. And this situation has become
desperate. Look at verse 25 again. And there
was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it
until an ass's head was sold for four square pieces of silver,
and the fourth part of a cab of doves dung for five pieces
of silver. So inflation has hit. You know,
whenever some calamity happens like this, those who have the
stuff always exhort those who don't have the stuff. We know
that from hurricanes, when gas prices, what do they do? And
thankfully, the government tries to regulate that a little bit,
but we know the government, so, right? But they try, but people
still do it. People still do it. It's awful. And it appears here too that
Jehoram, he didn't make any preparations for a siege. Usually a city would
have storehouses of food in case of an attack from an enemy. It
doesn't appear like there was a whole lot done. He didn't have food preparation
and to prepare for the possibility of an attack. And then again,
when that inflation hit, right? Cause that's what happened, right?
All of a sudden something that's, that's worthless and asses had
a donkey's head worthless. Jews can't eat it. It's an unclean
animal. Suddenly all of a sudden it's
worth it's worth what four score pieces of silver. And note, there's lots of silver. There's lots of silver. And there
was gold, but there's no food. So much so that a donkey's head's
worth its weight in gold. Again, this was a forbidden fruit.
It was an unclean beast. But what happens? Starvation
often rules the mind. It blows the mind. And then six
eggshells full, that's a quarter of a cab. Six eggshells, Tim
James bought this egg. Six eggshells, a quarter, six
eggshells full, a quarter of a cab of Dove's dung was of premium
value. Look at that. It was worth $125,
our currency today. My, oh my. for five pieces of silver. Five
ounces of silver. Let's read verse 26 to 31. And as the king of Israel was
passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying,
Help, my lord, O king! And he said, If the Lord do not
help thee, whence shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor,
or out of the winepress? What arrogance! What arrogance! And the king said unto her, What
health thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give
thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son
to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did
eat him. And I said unto her the next
day, Give thy son, that we may eat him. And she hath hid her
son. All the horrendous things that
people do when they're starving. And it came to pass, when the
king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes, and
he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and beheld,
he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. That's just for show.
That's just for show, beloved. You know how we know that? Look
at verse 31. Then he said, God do so, and more also to me, if
the head of Elijah, the son of Shepherd, shall stand on him
this day. He called for Elijah's head to be chopped off. Now to open the gates to the
Syrians meant certain death, or captivity, slavery. And the
longer they remained within the walls of the city, the more certain
death and starvation stared them in the face. And we see here the evil result
of forsaking the Lord. They turned to Baal worship.
They'd forsaken the God, the one true God of the universe.
They'd forsaken him. And note that there's no repentance. Their hearts are hardened even
more. We see that in the king. What he says, his heart's hardened.
There's no repentance. Sackcloth and ashes were supposed
to mean you were in repentance before God. Just a show. Just religious garments. And this is, this is the state
of natural man. Forsaken God. care not about
the only savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. Natural man,
and we were like this in our natural state. We don't want
nothing to do with God. Nothing to do with him. Nothing
to do with him at all. These folks went after Baal. What were we worshiping before
the Lord saved us? There was something we were worshiping.
I can say it was self for me. My oh my. And Jesus Christ is
the only hope for sinners. We know that now. We who believe
have been taught by God that He is the only hope for sinners.
There is no hope in anything we do. There is no hope outside
of Christ at all. But in Christ, what a hope. What a hope. As we saw in that
study in Judges, a strong tower. We've got a strong tower. That's
Christ. He's the only hope for sinners.
And these people, what were they doing? They had forsaken the
one true living God, and they're worshiping Baal. What's Baal
doing for them? Can't do nothing. He's a false
god, isn't he? Can't do nothing. They've resorted
to cannibalism. Their hearts are so hardened.
They're in the depths of their depravity. Oh my. But we know help comes
from above, doesn't it? Help comes from above. Help comes from Christ and Christ
alone. And we sinners, we need desperate help, don't we? We
even need help to flee to Christ. Because it's something we won't
do by nature. Scripture says there's none that seek it after
God. By nature, we don't want to even go to God. But praise
God, He makes us well in the day of His power. By the irresistible
grace of God the Holy Spirit, draw on us have drawn us to our
wonderful, merciful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his
precious, precious blood to redeem our eternal souls. Man, we can
rest just like Elijah, can't we now? We can sit amongst each
other and just rest with what's going on. Oh my, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. And he can save Christ can save
to the other most all all who come to him. He not turned one
away We're proof of that aren't we brothers ain't right brother
Brian. We're proof of that. He didn't turn us away My there's
so much there's so much in me that that would give him cause
to turn turn me away But Christ said come on to me all ye that
are weary and heavily and I'll give you rest That rests like
Elijah Well, everything going on, that rest, that peace that
passes all understanding, keeps our hearts and minds upon Christ
Jesus our Lord. Now there's one man in their
midst. There's one man in their midst who could help them. But
he's the last one. He's the last one they want to
go to. As a matter of fact, the king wants to take his head right
off. My, oh my. And he'd proven to
be a wise counselor, hadn't he, in the past? He'd proven to be
a wise counselor. He'd proven to be a friend to
Israel. And his name was Elijah, the
man of God, the prophet of God. And remember, he was the one
who, by the power of God, had counseled them to make a valley
full of ditches. Oh, that was wonderful, wasn't
it? Make a whole valley full of ditches. And they're going
to fill up with water. Not only do you get to drink
it, but them old Moabites are going to go right into that water.
And they're going to think there's this huge army. Oh, my. He'd proven that he's a wise
counselor. And God had delivered the Moabites
right into their hands, hadn't he? Oh, he did. And this same man had revealed
Ben-Hadad's secrets. Secrets by the word of God. God
had told him the secrets that Ben-Hadad had thought, so much
so that he thought he had a spy in the midst. And they said,
you were in your bedchamber, sir. Oh my. And God had smitten, because
of Elijah, God had smitten that whole Syrian army. Didn't kill
them either, though, did he? God could have taken breath away
right there, couldn't he? He could have slayed them all. But
he caused them, he smote them with blindness. And Elijah led
them all the way back. And he even fed them. Remember
the Israelites, they wanted to kill them. Can we kill them?
He said, no, feed them. Beat him. Oh my. Do you think some of those
guys were in this army? They didn't want to come back. They didn't want to come back,
those fellas. Oh my. And they'd forgotten all about
Elijah. They forgot about looking to God for help. How do we know
that? Look at verse 31 again. Here's
the king. Jezebel's son and Ahab's son.
Look what he says. Then he said, God do so and more
also to me if the head of Elijah the son of Japheth shall stand
on him this day. He just condemned himself, didn't
he? My. How often does this happen? That when people get into difficulties,
they blame God right away. And they can't get at God, so
they're going to get at God's people. Right? And they get together,
like that fellow over there, well, how can God be? And all
this stuff happened in the well. It's called sin. It's called sin. That lady who
boiled her baby, She did that in her sinfulness. All she was thinking about was
herself. That's what she was thinking
about. Do you know, Vicki and I have talked, and I'm sure you
guys are the same way. I'm pretty sure you're all the same, that
if famine ever happened, we'd want to feed our kids before
we ever fed ourselves. And I got, you know, I'm 59 now. I don't know how long I got still,
but as long as I got, I'm going to keep preaching Christ. But
if my kids were starving, I'd give them food. I know you would
too, Dave. My, it's just how it is. You ever notice sometimes in
holidays and stuff, when, did this ever happen when maybe you
were short of money? You said, let's buy for the kids.
We won't have to get anything for ourselves. Yep, that's right. Same way with
food and the famine, right? Let's feed the kids. We can do
without. My oh my. May God give us the
grace to do that, if that ever happens. So here troubles will come and
this king, he's just blaming God right away. He's just blaming
God. But the king was a partaker of
the wickedness of the worship of Baal. As a matter of fact,
he promoted it. He promoted it. And now he shares in the suffering
of the people who have went after Baal as well. You notice he never thinks of
looking to God? He's got the sackcloth and the ashes on. He's
not saying, Lord, please forgive me and please forgive the people.
We've left you and went following Baal, who's a false god. You
don't see that at all, do you? You don't see that at all. He
doesn't humble himself before God. He doesn't confess his sins
before God. And in verse 31, on the contrary,
he shows his willingness to blame Elijah. Look at verses 26 and 27. Look
at the arrogance brought forth here. And as the king of Israel
was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him,
saying, help me, help my lord, O king, help me. He's a king.
He's got food. He ain't starving. He's got food. Help me, O lord,
my king. And he said, if the lord do not
help you, when shall I help thee? Look at that. What arrogance. Out of the barn floor? Out of
the wine press? So is it any wonder then in verse
31 he says this, then he said, God do so and more also to me
if the head of Elijah the son of Shepheth shall stand on him
this day. He's just speaking out of the
depravity of his heart, beloved. That's sackcloth and ashes just
for show. He hates God. So much so that
he's going to take the head off the prophet if he can. See, that was our state. That
was me before the Lord saved me. Right there. That was us
as believers before the Lord saved us. What did you say today, Zane,
that we don't want to admit just how sinful we are? until God
saves us. And then we say, like Paul, I
am the chief of sinners. I'm the chief of sinners. It's
me. Yeah, see? Grace is the only
place where there's a bunch of chiefs, the chiefs of sinners. Right? That's what we are. We're
all chiefs of sinners. My oh my. This poor woman in
her hunger and distress called to the king to help her. And
he answered in arrogance, if the Lord do not help thee, whence
shall I help thee? And he didn't say that kindly. Out of the barn floor, out of
the wine press, how am I supposed to help you? You're the king.
People will look to you. Praise God, our King's not like
this. Our King supplies all he needs through himself, through
the sacrifice of himself, through the offering of his life, through
the shedding of his blood. The Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, provides all that his people need. And take note of something else
in verse 30. Look at this. And it came to pass, when the
king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes, and
he passed upon the wall, and the people looked, and behold,
he sat cloth within his flesh. Again, he wore sackcloth, the
outward sign of mourning or repentance, but there was no repentance.
He's a false professor. He's a sham. He's a sham. There's no outward sign of inward
repentance or humility in his heart. Verse 31 brings that clearly
again. He's so blind with his rage,
so infuriated with his rage, he wants to take the head off
the prophet Elijah. And he threatens to take away
the prophet's life. And Elijah, again, he was innocent
of any charge that would be brought up against him. He didn't cause
it. But you know what caused this
judgment to fall upon them? The worship of Baal. The very
thing this king promoted. My, oh my. Elijah, but note Elijah, he's
not in dismay. He's not even worried, is he?
He's just sitting in the house. Yeah, he's chilling out. Yeah,
chilling out, brother. Just sitting there. just relaxing
with the elders, talking like we're due after service, talking
to each other. He's not even worried. Let us always remember too that
man proposes and God disposes. This king proposed to take the
head off of Elijah. God would not let that happen.
And Elijah's never in dismay. How true this is for all the
born again blood washed saints of God. Let's read verses 32
and 33 now. But Elijah sat in his house and
the elders sat with him. They're just chillin' out like
Satan said. And the king sent a man from
before him. But here the messenger came to him and he said to the
elders, see he how the son of a murderer has sent to take away
mine head. Look, when the messenger cometh,
shut the door and hold him fast at the door, is not the sound
of his master's feet behind him? And while yet talk with them,
behold, the messenger came down and he said, behold, this evil
is of the Lord. What shall I wait for the Lord
any longer? So we see in contrast to what's
happening in the city out of despair, depravity, here's Elijah. picture of the church in the
world, just sitting, sitting and resting. That's what we do in Christ,
isn't it? We sit and rest in Christ. We don't have to be worried
about what's going on. We're aware of it, but it ought
not to trouble us. God's in control. God's in control. He's waiting on the Lord. And
take note that Elijah already knows why the messenger is coming.
Look at this. But here the messenger came to him, and he said to the
elders, see how this son of a murderer is sent to take away my head. He knows, John Gill said, he
knows this by the spirit of prophecy. The Lord had already informed
him what's going to happen. And he says, what's he doing?
Is he freaking out, going, oh my goodness, oh my goodness.
He's just sitting with the elders. God told the king to send a messenger,
king gonna be behind him, and he wants to take your head off.
See, he trusts in the Lord, isn't he? Do you see now where I bought
forth that verse that the Lord said, and fear not them which
kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Elijah's
living that right there, isn't he? He's living that right there. And Elijah calls Joab the son
of a murderer. This is because his mother was
Jezebel, who killed Naboth and the prophets of the Lord. And
his father also consented to that, Ahab. He allowed it all
to happen. Well, the apple didn't fall far
from the tree, did it? Didn't fall far from the tree. He's
a Baal worshipper. Joab is a Baal worshipper just
like his father Ahab and just like his mother Jezebel. And we see he's got the same
temper and disposition. He desires to kill Elijah. He's
got the same temper as his mom and his dad. Well, Jezebel. He's got the same temper as her.
Same disposition. Take his head off. No mercy. But what state's he in? He's
in a wretched, helpless, hopeless state, beloved. Just as his father
was. Just as his mother was. See,
because we're born dead in trespasses and sins, aren't we? And unless
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, we stay in that
situation. We stay in that state. I'm a sinner. I can only begat
sinners. Right? My dad was a sinner. My mom was
a sinner. They could only begot sinners. Me and my two brothers,
we're a bunch of sinners. See? Oh my. You must be born again. Now let's
read verse 32 again. But Eliza sat in his house, and
the elders sat with him. And the king sent a man from
before him, just like God told him. But here the messenger came
to him, and he said to the elders, See how this son of a murderer
is sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messengers cometh,
shut the door, hold him fast. At the door is not the sound
of his master's feet behind him. So the king's messengers come
to take Elijah's head off. Elijah told, what's he tell the
elders to do? He says, shut the door. Don't let him in. Shut
the door, don't let him in. Hold that door fast till the
king himself comes, who is close behind and should arrive. Aren't
we reminded about, yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. We see this happening right there,
don't we? He's not fearing the king, because he fears THE king. He worships THE king, God Jehovah. Elijah had peace from God amidst
this whole situation. Let's read verses 32 to 2nd Kings
7-2. But Elijah sat in his house,
and the elders sat with him. And the king sent a man from
before him, but here the messenger came to him. He said to the elders,
see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away mine head?
Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door and hold him fast
at the door. Is not the sound of his master's
feet behind him? And will he yet talk with them?
Behold, the messenger came down unto him and he said, behold,
this evil's of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord
any longer? Then Elijah said, hear ye the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, tomorrow
about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel,
and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.
Then a Lord on whose hands the king leaned answered the man
of God and said, behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven,
might this thing be? And he said, behold, thou shalt
see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. In verse 1 of chapter 7, under
extreme circumstances, Elijah announced that within 24 hours
there'd be so much food that it'd cost you pennies to buy
it. Pennies! Now remember, these
armies You gotta remember something too with these armies. They came
with tremendous amounts of cattle, livestock, wheats, barley, so
much stuff. Because the whole army had to
be kept, they had to eat. The Romans traveled with huge
amounts of cattle. And so here we go. Somebody said,
well, where'd all that food come? Come from the quartermaster's
house. Because the quartermaster was the one who kept the armies
alive. And all this food was there. Them Syrians were eating
good. But not for long. Not for long. And we see in verse 2 that his
message was received with scorn. Scorn. Then the Lord, on whose hand
the king leaned, answered the man of God and said, Behold,
if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?
And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt
not eat thereof. You can't mock God. Oh, no. I think Brother Tim Jane
said the message of the title of this message for this first
section could be the wages of sin is death. It's true, isn't
it? Oh, yeah. See, when punishment is delayed,
the minds of man are set to continue in their evil. This world, because it's not
seeing the Lord's return, has convinced itself that it's just
a myth. That it's never going to happen.
But they have no knowledge of the patience of the Lord, do
they? Christ won't come back until
the last sheep is saved. for whom he shed his precious
blood for. Because he said, I won't lose one. See, the world don't
know that. They scoff. Oh, you keep telling
us he's coming back. Yeah, he's coming back already.
And every eye shall see him. How that's possible, I don't
know. But everybody in the world is
going to see him that's left alive at that time. Can you imagine
that? The Word of God says it. I believe
it. Do you? Yeah. Yep. It's going to happen
now. I don't understand that because
half the world's in darkness and half the world's in light.
But everybody's going to see. My. But they have no, the world has
no, no, no, no idea of the patience of the Lord, of his will to endure
the vessels of destruction. until every vessel he's ordained
to eternal life is saved. And this King of Syria, he's
doomed. He's doomed. His appointed day
of death is set and sure. Sentenced just like everybody
else. And he will receive the sentence at precisely the moment
that God's ordained. He's gonna breathe his last breath.
In Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, his heart is in the Lord's hands. In this turn, whatsoever way
the Lord has pleased. And then we see the hatred of
natural man towards God as king. Because the king's reaction is
really anger towards God. But he can't get at him. But
he can get at Elijah. And the king felt that God was
unjustly punishing him. that he did not deserve this,
although it was precisely what he bought upon himself. Do you
see how we don't get what we deserve? We receive mercy and grace from
the Lord. Oh, it's wonderful. Again, he couldn't get to God,
but he's gonna go and lop off the head of Elijah if he can.
He planned to have his head on a pike. He hated God, and he
thought as a man, now think of this, He thought as a man, just
as that William fellow, he thought as a man that he could work God.
That fellow said, well, if I do face God, he just told me he
didn't believe in God, but if I do face God, I'm going to tell
him what I think. And I said, he's going to laugh at you. And
you won't be telling him what you think. You'd be shaking and
trembling. Yeah. And then my buddy said,
you're going to bow your knee just like everybody else. Every
knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. Praise God. We're going to bow
our knee to him as Savior, not as judge. Praise God for his mercy. Praise
God for his mercy. So raging against God, it's laughable
vanity. It achieves nothing. And yet,
man, Men rage against God. And he, this king, this king,
king of Israel, he hated God. He thought as men do, right?
He thought he could thwart God. He thought he could frustrate
God. But the pot sheds of the earth ought to keep the battles
with their fellow pot sheds, aren't they? They should do that,
shouldn't they? Because we're nothing before
God. Praise God, he has mercy on us. In Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And men praise or accuse God and blame Him. And let us remember
this. If men praise God, it's all by
grace. It's all by grace. But if men hate God, it's our
nature. If you praise God right now,
it's all because of God's grace and mercy. And we who believe, we see God's
sovereign hand at work, don't we? Oh, we see His sovereign
hand at work, working all things out according to His will and
purpose, saving His people. We who are the redeemed, we wonder
in awe at His saving power, the wonder-working power of God the
Holy Spirit. You ever heard people say this?
If God is like that, I want nothing to do with them. How could a
loving God do that? You ever hear people say that?
Oh yeah. You know what Ralph Bernard said? He said, if you
think God is a monster, get ready to meet a monster. Get ready to meet him. Because everybody will. And I'll
tell you why. These folks that laugh and scoff,
they will laugh and scoff no more when they see the Lord.
And we will praise His mighty name forever, all because of
God's distinguishing, amazing mercy and grace in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we say, it is the Lord Let
him do what seemeth good in his sight. Brother Dave, can you close us
in prayer?