I believe I'll try to do that
this morning. Tell the story, saved by grace. If you would,
open your Bibles back with me to 2 Kings 6. I've titled the
message this morning, How Shall I Save You? Israel was under siege and things
had gotten so bad that they sold an ass's head for today's money
was worth over $400. Now, from what I read, an ass's
head doesn't have very much meat on it, and what there is there
tastes real bad. And people were paying $400 for
that. That's how hungry that they were.
And this quarter cab of dove's dung was a very small amount
of dung. Apparently, they used it for
fuel or something. People were spending $80 on that. And the point of all that is
this. Things were so bad, people were paying a whole lot. to get
nothing in return. Isn't that a picture of false
religion? That's where this story here starts, is a picture of
false religion. In verse 26 of 2 Kings 6, 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, out of the winepress, Now that word help, the king
says, how shall I help thee? Almost always in the Old Testament,
that word is translated save. Almost always. I don't know why
they translated the word help here, but save would have been
a better translation. What the king is asking, this
is the question I want to look at this morning. How shall I
save you? How shall I save myself? How
shall you save yourself? Huh? You and I are in a load
of trouble because of our sin. Our sin demands our eternal death
in hell. We're surrounded, just waiting
to die because of our sin. And we're empty. We can't help
ourselves out of the wine press or out of the barn. It's empty.
We're empty of anything good. We're empty of any spiritual
good. So how shall we be saved? Now somebody's got to do the
saving, don't they? Either we got to save ourselves or God
has to save us. So I'm going to start here. If I've got to
save myself, if you've got to save yourself, how are we going
to do it? How are we going to do it? And
men have been trying that from the time of Adam's fall, trying
to save themselves. I want to show you four things
that will always happen if we try to save ourselves. Number
one is this. If we try to save ourselves,
our sacrifice will be in vain. Verse 28, the king said unto
her, what aileth thee? She answered, this woman said
unto me, give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we'll
eat my son tomorrow. The people were so hungry that
mothers were boiling their children and eating them. That's just too awful to think
about, isn't it? What an awful, what a barbaric sacrifice that
they were making. And you know what? It didn't
work. They were still hungry the next
day. They were hungry again. That's what happens when we try
to save ourselves. By nature, we know we're sinners. We know
we're sinners. We know our sin somehow has got
to be paid for. Now, we don't know how, but we
just know there's got to be a reckoning. Our sin's got to be paid for.
God must be satisfied somehow. Now we don't know how he could
be satisfied, we just know he needs to be. Well human logic
tells us to sacrifice the most precious thing that there is
to us. Which is why throughout history
people have sacrificed their children. Nothing more precious
to you than your children is. Now you think about that. That's
man's way to try to save himself. Sacrifice your children. If that
doesn't prove we have a reprobate mind, I don't know what does. Now I know most false religionists
don't kill their own children today. At least in our country
they don't. It's a sacrifice for sin. But
they do still try to come up with some sacrifice, something
they can do to put away their sin or at least make them less
sinful. There's too many examples of
all the stuff they try to do to put their sin away. It's not
really my goal to point out all those things to you. You know
what they are. But I do, this bears repeating. No matter what religious work
a man does, trying to make God happy with us, it won't work. Those efforts will be in vain.
We'll do them, we'll give up some pleasure of the flesh, we'll
give up doing something, you know, And we're still gonna find
ourselves empty of righteousness. We're still gonna find ourselves
needing to be cleansed from our sin. Man's sacrifice, whatever
it is he sacrifices, whatever it is he tries to do, it cannot
save. It cannot fill us with righteousness. People of false religion are
going through all this religious activity. trying to save themselves,
trying to make themselves more savable, trying to do something
to please God. And you know what? You parents,
and this is just a true statement, especially you mothers, can you begin to imagine, can
you begin to imagine boiling your own children? taking
one of your children and killing him. And boy, can you imagine? Can you imagine what you'd think
about a woman who did that? A mother now who did that. Can
you imagine what you'd think of? Let me tell you what. Thinking our works of righteousness
can make God happy with us is just as reprehensible. It is. More so, really. because we're
dealing with God, not human beings. That's the first thing. If we
try to save ourselves, I promise you this, your sacrifice will
be in vain. Second of all, if we're trying
to save ourselves, we're doing so because we've been deceived.
Verse 29, she says, 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 hath hid her son. Now this poor mother was deceived
into eating her son. and now she's broken hearted.
He's gone and she's still hungry. I mean, again, I just keep saying
that it's just too horrible to think about. I just can't let
my mind dwell there very long. But here's the spiritual application.
If we're trying to save ourselves, you know why we're trying to
save ourselves? We've been deceived into thinking we can do it. I
mean, you're not trying to do something you know you can't
do. We've been deceived into thinking that we can do this. I know man
is blind. Man is dead by nature. I know
that, I believe that, but this is also true. Man is willingly
deceived into thinking he can save himself. Our Lord said in
Matthew 24, verse 11, many false prophets shall arise and they
shall deceive many. And you know why they'll deceive
many? They want to be deceived. All that false prophet has to
do to deceive them is tell them what they want to hear. and they'll
fall for it hook, line, and sinker. The Apostle Paul told Titus that
people who preach the law as a way to make themselves righteous,
they'll say, oh, no, I know you've got to trust Christ, I know the
sacrifice of Jesus, I know, but you've got to do this, that,
and the other too. Paul says those men are deceivers. That's what he called them, deceivers.
In 1 John 1 verse 8, John says, if we say we have no sin, if
we say we have no sin nature, we deceive ourselves. Now, if
we're just saying, oh, I don't have a sin nature, we're just
deceiving ourselves, willingly. People in false religion, a man
was telling me about this out in California, he said, I grew
up in false religion, And I saw all these people, I thought,
oh yeah, they're so much better than me, and I know I'm not,
and I just gotta try to act like it, to act like I'm as good as
them. And then I finally realized, they're no better than I am.
They're just, everybody's just trying to trick everybody. We're
deceiving, we're trying to, we think we can pull the wool over
one another's eyes and deceive one another into thinking, you
know, I'm pretty good, you know. Maybe we fooled each other, and
maybe we're just too polite to point it out. But either way,
thinking we can fool one another makes us think we can deceive
God, that we're righteous. This king was so deceived, he
got this bad news and he hated the prophet for the bad news.
The prophet's the one pointing him to God. The prophet's the
one telling him, thus saith the Lord, and he hated the prophet
for the bad news. And in the end, because of all
this deception, There's just more sorrow than you and I can
imagine. Here's the third thing. Be sure
to get this. The reason that we're trying
to save ourselves is we don't believe the word of God. That's
right. There's one of the articles I
told you about Brother Maurice Montgomery. Well, I can't find it now, but
he says in here, if you want to believe God, you would. If
you want to believe God, you would. The reason we're trying
to save ourselves, we don't want to believe the word of God. This
is the root of Israel's problem. This siege has been going on
so long. They're so hungry. I mean, it
had to have been going on a good long while, right? They wouldn't
be in this mess if they believed God. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter
20. In all this time that they were
under this siege, all their their resources dwindling and the wine
press being empty, the barn floor being empty. There is not one
record of them ever calling on God and asking him for mercy.
There's not one record of them calling on God and asking God
to deliver them. And God in his word told them to do it. When
this trouble comes up, you call on me and I'll deliver you. Here's
an example of it. Second Chronicles chapter 20,
Israel was in trouble Surrounded again, 2 Chronicles 20 verse
5. And Jehoshaphat stood in the
congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before
the new court and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou
the God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all
the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not
power and might so that none is able to withstand thee? Art
not thou our God? who didst drive out the inhabitants
of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the
seed of Abraham thy friend forever. And they dwelt therein, and have
built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If an evil
come upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, and
we stand before this house and in thy presence, for thy name
is in this house, and we cry unto thee in our affliction,
then thou wilt hear and help. Now the reason that the people
say that is because when Solomon first built the temple and he
dedicated it, that was God's promise to Israel. Now these things aren't coming
to you by accident. Whenever I send you pestilence and the sword
and famine and I send these people to surround you and besiege you,
here's what you do. You cry unto me for mercy and
I'll deliver you. God promised to save his people
by begging for mercy. And you know why they didn't?
They didn't believe God. They didn't believe God would
deliver them. Everybody here has heard the
gospel preached many times. Are you here this morning and
don't trust Christ and don't know Him? Are you? I have a question for you and
I want you to answer it honestly in your heart. Why haven't you
begged God for mercy? Every single time I preach, I
try to tell you, look to Christ. How come you haven't? Want me
to tell you why? Because you don't believe God. You don't believe he'll be merciful
to you if you beg. Either that, or you don't believe
God's word says that yours is totally depraved and helpless,
lost in your sins, God said. But one of the two reasons is
why you don't beg God for mercy, is you don't believe the word
of God. Now remember that, I'm gonna
come back to that here in a little bit. All right, here's the fourth thing.
If we try to save ourselves, we will die in our sins. We won't
bother reading the passages, we read it earlier, but remember
that Lord on whose hand the king leaned? When Elisha said, we're
gonna have all this food tomorrow, it's gonna be practically free.
He said, well, if Lord opened up the windows of heaven, would
this thing be? He's saying, that's impossible. And Elisha told him,
you're gonna see it, but you're not gonna eat thereof. Sure enough,
he saw it happen, didn't he? And the people were so hungry,
they were so just striving for that food, that just stampede
ran over him and killed him. He saw it, but he didn't get
to eat thereof. If you and I don't believe the
word of God, if we don't believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ that God sends to us, now we're gonna see it. At least
with these eyes and these ears and this mental capacity that
God has given you, you've seen it. You've seen the gospel. You understand it. You understand
the gospel. It's so simple a child can understand. You understand the gospel. You've
heard the gospel often enough to understand how it is that
God saves sinners. But if we don't believe Christ,
if I don't believe Christ myself, I'm gonna see it. But not either. I'm gonna see it. but not have
salvation in Christ. And I'll die in my sin, in my
rebellion. Now I pointed all that out to
try to show us one more time, salvation and righteousness cannot
come by our works of the law. all our works of the law, all
of our works of morality, all those things that we're trying
to do to make God pleased with us, all they do is add to our
condemnation. A dead sin nature can only produce
dead works, never works that please God. Well, so far I've had a depressing
message haven't I? But that's the result of trying
to save ourselves. But did you notice what the king
said when he responded to this woman? Before he said, how can
I save you? He said, if the Lord doesn't
help you. If the Lord doesn't save you.
If the Lord doesn't save you, I can't. If the Lord doesn't
save me, I can't save myself. But the Lord's gonna save somebody.
He's gonna save somebody. Well, what happens when God saves
his people? I got six things from our text.
Number one is this, if the Lord helps us, we're gonna be a spiritual
leper. Verse three of 2 Kings chapter
seven. And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the
gate, and they said one to another, why sit we here until we die?
Now throughout scripture, leprosy is a picture of sin. Leprosy
was a horrible, horrible, horrible, slow death disease. And people
think of leprosy as a disease of the skin, because that's the
way we see it. We see it rotting off people's extremities, and
they're falling off and just rotted away. We think of it as
a disease of the skin, but it's not. We think it's a disease
of the skin, because that's all we see. That's what we see it
manifested. Leprosy is a disease of the blood. It rots the flesh from the inside
out, and it just keeps rotting and rotting and rotting away
until the victim dies a horrible, painful death. Leprosy is a picture of sin. People think of sin as an outward
thing, because that's what we see, right? We see people do
something wrong. It's an outward thing. But sin
is not an outward thing. Sin is a disease of the heart. It's the disease of the soul.
It's a disease of the nature that rots us from the inside
out until we ultimately die. Sin, when it's finished, brings
forth death. Here's another way that leprosy
is a good picture of sin. Leprosy was considered to be
a curse. It was a curse from God that
was always fatal. There was no cure for leprosy.
Well, because of our sin, you and I are under a curse. We're
under the curse of the law that demands our death. The law demands
there must be death for sin. That's the curse of the law.
So really, these lepers are twice dead. The people then called
lepers the walking dead. Physically, they're alive, but
they're dying right soon, aren't they? Well, these lepers are
twice dead. Their disease is killing them,
and the famine's killing them. That's you and me. We're twice
dead. We're spiritually dead in Adam,
and we're dead in our own trespasses. Unless God intervenes in his
grace very soon, We're going to die because of our sin and
then face the judgment. That's the situation that these
lepers were in. They were absolutely helpless. There's not one thing
that they could do to improve their situation. That's you and
me spiritually. Now, I know it feels horrible
to be helpless. I mean, is there just any worse
feeling than being hopeless and helpless? It's horrible. Spiritually speaking, it's mighty
good if you know that. Because the only people that
the Lord saves are people who are so helpless, they can't help
themselves. See, before God saves you, you've
got to be a leper. God saves people who are lepers,
dead and dying, without any cure in themselves. All right, number
two, if Lord saves us, this is what he's gonna do. He's gonna
draw us to Christ, and he's gonna make us beg for mercy. And at
the end of verse three, these lepers said, why sit we here
until we die? If we say we'll enter into the city, then the
famine's in the city and we shall die there. If we sit still here,
we die also. Now therefore come and let us
fall under the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall
live. And if they kill us, we shall
but die. Now, the way these lepers sought,
they had three choices. First, they could enter into
the city. You know, at first glance, the city looks pretty
good. They've got walls, they've got houses, they've got streets,
they've got barns, they've got a wine press. They've got all
the form of civilization. But Isaac, there's one problem
with the city. There's no life there. There's no food there. There's nothing to give you life
there. The obvious conclusion is, if we go there, We're gonna
die. Well, we got some idea we're in trouble.
You and I could go to religion, couldn't we? Oh, they got all
the form. Well, they got the form of religion.
They got so-called preachers. They got the buildings and organizations. They got some rules for you to
follow to make you feel pretty good about yourself. They got
all the form, all the things of religion that impress the
flesh. But there's one problem. There's no life there. There's
no truth there. They don't have anything there
that gives life. They don't have anything there
that saves because they don't know. They don't know Christ.
They don't preach Christ alone because they don't know him.
The obvious conclusion is if we go there, we're going to die
in our sin. So the second choice, these lepers,
as they saw it, they said, well, we could sit here and do nothing.
Maybe, you know, Maybe God will open up windows from heaven or
something. We could just sit here and do nothing. But if we
do that, we're gonna surely die. Well, you and I are in trouble,
aren't we? Trouble because of our sin. We could sit here and
do nothing. We could sit here and say, well,
people say, you know, if you're good outweighs your bad, you
know, it'll turn all right in the end. Now God says it won't,
but maybe it will. You know, maybe it will. As a
matter of fact, if we do nothing, you know what scripture says
of our sin? It'll just wax worse and worse.
So the obvious conclusion is, if we do nothing, we're gonna
die in our sin. Well, the way these lepers saw
it, they had a third choice. They could go to the host of
the Syrians and beg them for mercy. And the worst thing that
could happen, well, the Syrians will kill us. but we're gonna
die anyway. Now the Syrians, they're pictures
of God's justice. The justice of God that is just
waiting the appointed time to condemn us. And justly so because
of our sin. Well, here's our third choice.
Yeah, we could go to God and begging for mercy for Christ's
sake. We could go to God and beg him
for mercy. Lord, would you show mercy to
me? And you know what? That's what
God tells us to do. He said, come to me. This one
that we should go to, beg him for mercy. You know what he said
about himself? I delight to show mercy. You know, it would be just like
God, his character. to show mercy to a sinner like
me. It'd be just like me. It'd be
just like me. And I tell you this, if we go
to Christ, the worst that could happen is God damn us. But we're
condemned already. We're condemned already. Now
if I was that leper, if I was that sinner, and I am, I am,
I believe, I choose door number three and go to Christ. Wouldn't
you? Now listen to me. I know we can't do anything to
get God to save us. We can't do anything to make
God have to save us. There's nothing we can do to
obligate God to save us. I know that. There's nothing
you and I can do to put away our sin. There's nothing we can
do to make our sin that less, where God might be more inclined
to show mercy to me as opposed to somebody else. There's nothing
we can do to save ourselves. But don't you ever think there's
nothing you can do. No, sir. Don't you ever think
there's nothing you can do. We can beg for mercy, can't we?
We can call out to God and beg him to be merciful to us. I'll tell you a story. I grew up, you all know, hearing
the gospel. And I believed it was so. I believe
that's true. God's God. This is so. This is gospel. I mean, it's
so. Didn't believe it, but it's so. I knew that. And I knew I
didn't believe it. I knew I was lost. I knew it. Jay and I were dating. at a Bible
conference. And it struck me, I might want
to tell her she might just want to run for the hills. Maybe she don't want to be married
to an unbeliever like me. And I told her, I just, you know,
I don't know the Lord. She looked at me like I had worms
crawling out my ears. And she said the most obvious
thing in this world, Frank, have you ever asked for mercy? No, duh. I ask you the same thing. Have you ever begged for mercy?
There's something we can do. I can ask God to save me. I surely
can. There's one option for us. Go
to God. Go to Christ. and see if he might
be pleased to save us. All right, here's the third thing.
I tell you, come to Christ. I'm gonna tell you what you'll
find if you come to him. You're gonna find plenteous grace, heaping
grace. Verse five, they rose up in the
twilight to come unto the camp of the Syrians. And when they
were come to their most part of the camp of Syria, behold,
there was no man there. For the Lord hath made the host
of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses,
even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another,
Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites
and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they
arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents and their
horses and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled
for their life. And when these lepers came to the othermost
part of the camp, They went into one tent and had eaten and drank
and carried then silver and gold and raiment and went and hid
it and came again and entered into another tent and carried
then also and went and hid it. Now here's the first thing these
lepers found out when they came to the camp of Assyrians. Nobody
was stopping them from coming. All the guards had run away.
Well, that's the first thing a sinner finds out when we come
to Christ. Nobody's stopping you. You know why nobody's stopping
you from coming to Christ? Because Christ the King said,
come. He said, are you weary? Come to me. I'll give you rest. Are you thirsty? Come to me.
Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. The King
said, come. Then nobody's going to stop you
from coming, are they? No. Nobody's going to stop you from
coming to Christ because you might not know it just yet, but
you know why you're coming to Christ? He's drawing you. He's the one drawing you. Nobody's
going to stop you. And my friends, you know this.
We preach here the truth of God's electing love. God chose a people
to save. He gave them to his son to save
them. Christ came and he suffered and he died for those people
and only those people And Holy Spirit's gonna come by the preaching
of the gospel and give those people faith and give them life.
He's gonna give it to God's elect and only to God's elect. I know this. We preach the gospel
and I know who's gonna believe it. The elect. They're gonna
believe. Sooner or later they're gonna
believe it. Now that's the truth. But now listen to me. We also
preach this. Christ came to save sinners. That's who he saved. See, those sinners in God's elect,
they're one and the same. They're the same people. Now,
you can't figure out if you're one of the elect or not. God
never gave you any indication of that. You can't figure out
if you're one of the elect or not. But pretty easily, you can
figure out if you're a sinner. Can't you? Now, are you a sinner? Are you? Then come to Christ
for mercy. Because this is why Christ came. To save sinners. And when you
come to Christ because you're a sinner, that needs to be saved,
that needs to be forgiven, you know what you're gonna find out
real quick? Oh, I'm one of the elect. I came because God was
drawing me. The only evidence we'll ever
have, this side of heaven, that we're one of God's elect, is
faith. God-given faith. It's the only evidence of being
the one elect that we have, that we've been drawn to Christ. Nobody
yet ever came to Christ because they knew that they're one of
God's elect. People come to Christ because
they're sinners. And here's what they find out.
God has overflowing grace for sinners. When these lepers came
to that camp, you know what they found? They found the loot of
a host left behind. I mean, they had horses and mules
for all those soldiers. They had wagons for all of them.
They had enough food to feed that entire host and feed them
for a long time. An army travels on its stomach.
Boy, there was food there for all that army. And the lepers
had it all for free. Just take as much as you want.
The Lord's provided for you freely. And every single time a sinner
ever comes to Christ, you know what they find out? They find
a feast. Feast. Everything they need,
God has provided for them freely. They find forgiveness for all
their sin. They find mercy that's greater
than all their sin. They find redemption that's paid
in full. I know it's paid in full because
it's paid by the blood of God's Son. They find eternal life. They find peace with God. They
find all that freedom. It's all yours to take. It's
all yours to have because the Lord Jesus Christ has defeated
every enemy by his one sacrifice for sin. God is so gracious to
his people. He's got more grace than we could
ever use up. Now come and die. Come and die. Here's the fourth thing. If the
Lord saves you, you'll want to tell others. Verse nine, they
said one to another, we do not well. This day is a day of good
tidings and we hold our peace. If we tarry to the morning light,
some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that we
may go and tell the king's household. So they came and called unto
the porter of the city and they told him saying, we came to the
camp of the Syrians and behold, there was no man there, neither
voice of man, horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as
they were. And they called to the porters,
and they told it to the king's house within. And 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 be hungry,
therefore are they 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 into the city. And one of his servants
answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses
that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, there is all
the multitude of Israel that are left in it. Behold, I say,
there even is the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed.
And let us send and see. Let's find a help. And they took,
therefore, two of the chariot horses, and the king sent after
the host of the Assyrians, saying, go and see. They thought they
had five horses. By the time they got down to the stable,
three of them were dead. They only had two left. That's what they sent. Now if God reveals Christ to
you, you're just gonna have to tell
somebody. You're gonna have to tell others. You'll be shocked
and disappointed to find out that those that you know the
best and love you the best are not gonna believe you. But you've
just got to tell somebody. Because the good news in Christ
is the best news that anybody has ever heard. And on first hearing, somebody
will probably tell you, that's too good. You mean to tell me
that I don't have to pay any of my sin debt? You mean I don't
even have to help out just a little bit? You mean to tell me that
I don't have to take the first step? You mean that salvation
in Christ is completely free to any sinner that needs it?
Is that what you're telling me? Now that's just too goofy. Why
would God do something like that for somebody like me? It's for his glory, that's why.
Salvation is free to you and me. You know why? Because Christ took the place
of his people and paid the debt himself by his own sacrifice. They came and told the king,
didn't they? And it's real interesting, whether you're a king or a leper,
whether you're rich or poor, whether you're ignorant or whether
you're educated, no matter who you are, no matter what you think
of yourself, it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from.
We all have the same three choices these lepers had. The king had
the same choices the lepers did. They can stay in the city. They
can stay in man's empty religion. They can do nothing. Or we could
go to Christ and beg for mercy. So the king said, well, let's
go see. And here's the fifth thing, you'll find out if God
saves you. If the Lord's the one doing the saving, you'll
find out that Christ is even better than what you heard. Verse
15, and they went after them unto Jordan, and lo, all the
way was full of garments and vessels which the Syrians had
cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned and
told the king. Now these spies who came to the
camp, you know what they found out? It's even better than what
these lepers told us. Not only was the camp full of
all this bounty that the leopards had told them about, but the
escape route, it was full, too. You know, what the Syrians did
is they thought they heard this big army coming, and they gathered
the two or three most valuable, most precious possessions that
they had, and they took off running with them. They just thought,
I can't live without this. And as they started running,
they got more scared and they threw it down in the escape route
to lighten their load so they could run faster. And the escape
route had even more wealth in it than the camp did. It was
even better than what they heard. That's what a sinner finds out
when it comes to Christ. It's even better than we were
told. Coming to Christ and believing
Him. seeing Him, resting in Him, feeding
on Christ, experiencing, not just hearing about, but experiencing
His love, experiencing His grace, having His life. It's so much
better than the preacher told you. It's so much better. If one of you comes to Christ,
you're going to find that so. And you might come to me and
say, Frank, how come you didn't tell me? Well, I tried. But I tell you,
I'm like the Queen of Sheba. The half hadn't been told. I
mean, the human tongue can't tell how wonderful the Lord Jesus
Christ is. You've just got to experience
it for yourself. You've just got to experience
it. Years and years and years ago, when people still called
me Young Frank, I was sitting in the front row of a Bible conference.
Brother Donnie Bell was preaching. He said, now, salvation is not
an experience. Salvation is knowing Christ. Salvation is believing
Christ. Salvation is a relationship with
Christ. It's a union with Christ. I was
sitting right there with Rebecca, and he said, but Young Frank,
he said, sure, it's an experience, isn't it? You just got to experience
it. I promise you, it's gonna be
better than what you've heard. And here's the last thing. If
Lord saves us, we'll see the word of God fulfilled. Everything
happened just like Elisha said it would happen. All the food
was there for practically free. The unbeliever was trodden down
and killed in the gate. Every single one of us will see
the word of God fulfilled. Every one of us will. If we refuse
to believe on Christ, we'll be damned. We'll hear the Savior
say, depart from me, I never knew you. Just like God's word
says. But if you come to Christ, and you beg him for mercy, and
you trust your soul to him, you will be saved. You will be. You'll be forgiven. You'll be
made righteous. You'll be accepted. And here's
good news for a weary pilgrim. You're going to be kept. And
you're going to be preserved. Not by your strength and your
power, but by God's grace and God's power because of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. In one day real soon. You're going to be glorified
together with Christ. And we're going to see him face
to face like Isaac sung about, and we're gonna worship Him forever.
Just exactly like God promised. And we're gonna spend eternity
saying, the half hadn't been told. The half hadn't been told. I don't know about you, but I'll
speak for myself. I'm gonna come to Christ. I'm
gonna cast myself at his feet and cast myself on his mercy.
I hope you do too. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this picture of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ that
you've given to us. Oh, and how we thank you for
the real thing. How we thank you for our Savior. How we thank
you for your mercy and your grace. We could be saved. We could be
given life in no other way. Father, how we thank you. Father,
I pray that you'd be pleased to be merciful this morning.
That you'd be pleased to reach down and lay hold upon the hearts
of your people. Those who've believed you, loved
you, trusted you for a long time. Father, reach down and lay hold
on the hearts of your people. Comfort us. Strengthen us, encourage
us, keep us looking to Christ alone. Father, I pray that you would
reach down that mighty hand, lay hold on one who as of right
now hasn't come to you. You lay hold on them, that you
draw them to Christ, that you give them life and faith in Christ
through the preaching of your gospel. Father, we ask great
things. because of what a Savior, what
a great Savior we have. Lord, be merciful to us, we pray.
It's in Christ's name, for his sake, amen. All right, Sean.