If you would now open your Bibles
back to second Kings. Chapter 6. I titled the. Message this morning,
how shall we do? What shall we do? I pray there's someone here this
morning thinking in your heart, what am I going to do? What am
I going to do? I hope so. because God hasn't
answered for us in his word. Let me summarize the story that
we read to open the service this morning. We come to the question
that we're going to look at. The king of Syria went to war with
Israel. Every time he made a battle plan,
every time he tried to set a trap for the armies of Israel, Elisha
told the king of Israel what the plan was, where the trap
was, so he could avoid it. And the king of Israel escaped
more than twice. So the king of Syria just naturally
assumed he's got a leak in his cabinet. He's got a traitor somewhere
in his inner circle. And one of his servants told
the king, you don't have a traitor, you don't have a leak. He said,
the prophet Elisha, he's the one telling the king of Israel
everything you're planning on doing. He knows what you're saying
in your bedchamber. He knows what you're dreaming.
He knows what you say in your sleep. Have you ever dreamed
and woke up in the morning and forgot your dream? Well, the
king of Syria forgot his dream, but Elisha knew it. He talked
in his sleep, didn't even know he talked in his sleep, but Elisha
knew what he said. Elisha knew everything was going
on in there. And someone told the king of Syria, now Elisha
is down there in Dothan. So the king sent his army down
there to Dothan to capture Elisha so he could get rid of this problem
and attack and capture Israel. So that army comes by night,
and they surround that city, and Elisha's servant gets up
early in the morning. He's probably going to get some
water, start some coffee brewing, and he sees the Syrian army has
surrounded that city. Now verse 15, 2 Kings chapter
six. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host compassed
the city, both with horses and chariots, and a servant said
unto him, alas, my master, how shall we do? What shall we do?
And he answered, Elisha answered, fear not, for they that be with
us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed
and said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. And
the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha. And the Lord miraculously delivered
Israel that day. He showed this servant the whole
mountain all around there is full of angels. And you remember
the story we read, Elisha led that Syrian army to the king
of Israel and the king of Israel fed him and sent him back to
Syria. And that Syrian army was so impressed, they never dared
attack Israel again. Now here's what I want, that's
a good story, isn't it? But here's what I want us to
see this morning. That believers today are just as protected as
Elisha was. that day that the mountains were
full of angels round about. Just as safe, just as protected.
That's true of our physical, natural enemies, just as it was
in Elisha on this day. Those enemies cannot touch you
without God's permission. He is surrounding and protecting
his people. And that's especially true of
our spiritual enemies. much greater, much more important,
much more problematic enemy, our spiritual enemies. God protects
his people from those enemies. And that's what I want us to
focus our attention on this morning. Now the point is, the point of
all this story is this. If Christ is for us, there's
always more for us than there is for them. Always. If Christ
be for us, who can be against us? He has more power than any
enemy that we have. And I'm not saying the power
of our enemies is not considerable. And you know, apart from Christ
protecting us, they wouldn't just destroy us just easily. What I'm saying is, is that the
power of our Savior is greater than all the power of our enemies
put together. Now that ought to give our hearts
rest. Our God is protecting us. Our God is taking care of every
enemy for us. Now, Elisha's servant didn't
know this yet. He sees this army surrounding the city, and he
says, alas, what are we gonna do? Elisha, we're in big trouble. What are we gonna do? Well, I
tell you, if the Lord ever gets you and me in trouble, that's
the same question we'll ask. Alas, what am I gonna do? Well, if the Lord ever gives
us a glimpse of our sin, if He ever gives us a glimpse of His
holiness, if He ever gives us a glimpse of His greatness and
who He really is, if the Lord ever gives us a glimpse of His
justice and what it is that we deserve by our works that we've
been trusted in all these years, I tell you what we'll say, alas.
Alas, what am I going to do? I'm in trouble. Well, the answer
to that question, and this is what I want you to get out of
this whole message, the answer to that question, what am I going
to do, is trust Christ. That's what we're to do. Look
to Christ and trust Him. That's the whole answer. It's
not any more complicated than that. Trust Christ. I'm going
to show you that truth by looking at four of our enemies. The first
enemy is our spiritual blindness. And that's the first problem
we've got is our spiritual blindness. And when scripture talks about
blindness, it's talking about ignorance. I don't know because
I can't see. You know, we can't say, oh, I
see. I can't say I see or I understand
any spiritual truth because we're spiritually blind. And here's
the big problem. We're blind and we don't know
we're blind. Your Lord said He came to give those that are blind,
that know they're blind, He came to give them sight. But those
that think they see and don't, they're gonna stay in their blindness.
Our big problem is, we're blind and we don't know it. We think
we know everything, when in fact we don't know anything. We know
nothing. We don't know any spiritual truth. And we've been blind a
long time. Man became blind in the garden. Not long after God created Adam
and put him in the garden, Adam fell and we became blind. And
you know, it's interesting, we became blind, but Satan promised,
I can make you see. That's what Satan promised, I
can make you see. And when Adam took that fruit
and ate it, you know what he saw? The same thing that we see
by nature. All he could see now was sin
and shame and death. That's all he could see. He couldn't
see God anymore. He couldn't see the way to God
anymore. He couldn't see anymore because
he's spiritually blind and he passed that nature on to you
and me. We can't see. Somebody preaches the gospel
to us and we can't see. I don't get it. I don't get why
these people are saying that was such a blessing. I don't
get it. You know why we don't get it? We're blind. We're spiritually blind. Look
at 2 Corinthians 2. See, this is the nature that
Adam had to pass on onto us. Here's why men by nature just
don't get the gospel. Why they don't flock to hear
it, why they don't believe it, why they keep trusting their
works instead of trusting Christ, it's because we're spiritually
blind. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, For their foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they're spiritually
discerned. He can't understand these things.
A natural man can't believe any spiritual truth because he's
dead. He's blind, he cannot see. And
I'll tell you, it's a bad situation when we're so blind we don't
know we're blind. I mean, you think what a mess
that we're in when we're so ignorant that we don't know we're ignorant. Have you ever tried to teach
a know-it-all? I mean, you can't do it. It's impossible. You can't
teach a know-it-all. Maybe some of you teachers have
tried to teach a child, and by golly, they just can't get it.
I mean, they just can't get it. They don't get it. Well, someone
could liken that to preaching the gospel. We preach the gospel
to people that by nature, they can't get it. They just can't
see. They cannot believe. And someone
might ask, well, why bother preaching Christ to a person that cannot
believe? Why bother preaching Christ to
somebody that can't see, that can't believe, that no matter
how hard they try, they cannot trust Christ, the Christ that
you preach. Why bother preaching to them
if they cannot believe? It's because of the very same
thing Elisha said. They that be with us, are more than they
that be within. Now, our spiritual blindness
is powerful. I mean, it's got such a hold
on us, I don't care what we do, I don't care how hard we try,
we cannot make ourselves see. We cannot. I tell you that from
experience. You can memorize the doctrine,
but you can't make yourself see. You can't make yourself believe
and love Christ. But we preach Christ to the spiritually
blind. We preach Christ to the ignorant.
We preach Christ to the dead for this reason. God's more powerful
than our blindness. Our savior is more powerful than
our spiritual death. Our God is pleased to make his
people see. That's why we do what Elisha
did. It's why we begin every service in this way with prayer. His servant couldn't see. And
Elisha asked, Lord, let him see. That's why we begin every service
with prayer. Lord, make your people see. Oh,
give us a blessing from the storehouses of your grace. Enable us to see
and believe Christ. We pray because we're not able,
but God is. He's able to make the blind see. And the way that God makes his
people see, the way he gives them eyes to see, is by making
them see Christ the light. When Christ the light appears,
all darkness goes away. When Christ the light appears,
all that ignorance goes away. When Christ appears, so we see
Christ, then we say, oh, now I see. Now I see how God can
save sinners and still be just. It's in the person of Christ.
It's in his righteousness. It's in his obedience, not mine.
It's in his sacrifice. Now I see. Now I see how his
blood can cleanse me from all my sin because of who he is.
Now I see. God gives his, when you turn
the light on in a dark room, the darkness instantly goes away,
doesn't it? When Christ appears, the darkness
instantly goes away. Because I see him, he's the answer,
now I see. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
four. God is pleased to give his people
light by the preaching of Christ, the light of the world. 2 Corinthians
4 verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost, it's hid to the blind, in whom the
God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe
not. Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. Now here's our answer to
that, the people who are blind, they cannot see, here's our answer
to that. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. In
ourselves, us, we're your servants for Jesus' sake. And here's why
we continue to preach Christ Jesus the Lord. For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As the Lord enables us, we preach
Christ. We lay the gospel out there in as clear and simple
terms as we can. We lay the gospel out there for
sinners to hear. And when God moves in creative
power and says, let there be light, just like he did on that
first day of creation, he said, let there be light. And there
was light. You may have heard the gospel many, many, many times
and just thought, I don't get it. I don't see him. God moves and says, let there
be light. You see, on that first day of creation, when God said,
let there be light, what was he talking about? He wasn't talking
about the sun, the moon and the stars. He's talking about his
son. Let Christ, the light of the
world appear. As we preach Christ and God says
to in your heart, let there be light. You know what he's saying?
Let Christ appear in your heart. And now you see. Now God creates
a new man in the hearts of the hearts of his people and they
see because Christ has been formed in them, in them. Just light's
been turned on in your dark heart and the darkness went away. There's
light. It's God that does that by his
creative power. Solomon said in Proverbs 20 verse
12, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, if you hear the gospel and
believe it, and you see Christ in the message, you see Christ
in his word, why do you see? Why do you hear? The Lord made
even both of them. The Lord made that and gave you
eyes to see, gave you ears to hear. It's the Lord that makes
His people see, isn't it? Now here's a good question. I
would love it if somebody's asking this question in their heart.
Do I see or am I blind? Now do I really see? Do I really
see Christ? Do I really see the truth? Do
I really believe Him? Or do I just know a set of doctrines?
Which is it? Well, I can help you find out
by asking you this question. Do you see any reason in yourself
that God would be merciful to you? Can you see anything about
yourself that would make God say, I'm going to save this person? If you say, Yes, I see some,
you know, I try to be more moral than, you know, than the average
Joe. I try to do good. I try not to do evil. Well, I
keep supporting this place where, you know, I know the right doctrine.
I come here and support this because I know this is the right
doctrine. If you see that in yourself, you're blind. But if the answer to that question,
can you see any reason in yourself that God saved you? Can you see
any reason at all in yourself that God will be merciful to
you, that God will bless you? Can you see any reason at all in
yourself? And you say, no preacher, I can't see a single thing. The
only thing I can see about myself is why God sent me to hell. Then
you see. Then you see. If you see that
the only hope I have is Christ, He's got to do it all because
I can't do any of it. If you see the only hope of salvation,
the only hope of acceptance with God that you have is the Lord
Jesus Christ, then brother, you see, and you see, because God
made you see. See, that's how he takes care
of our first problem, the problem of our spiritual blindness. He
gives us eyes, so we see Christ. Now remember, I told you the
answer to that. Alas, what shall I do? The answer is, look to
Christ. The first thing God does for
his people It gives them light, so they look to Christ. Now they
see. Now they see how it is God saves
sinners. Now I see, more importantly,
how God could save a sinner like me. It's all in Christ. All right,
number two, there's the enemy of our sin. That's a big problem. And the problem of our sin is
twofold. First, there's the sin that we
commit, our sins. Now the sins that we commit,
they demand our eternal death. They demand eternity in hell. Now that's a big problem for
you and me because we can't do anything but sin. We can't stop sinning. It'd be good if we quit, you
know, all this, this outward sin and meanness that we do.
But you know, sin is a whole lot more than an outward act.
Sin is just wanting to commit sin. Even if you don't do it
outwardly, sin is just wanting to commit it. And now our Lord
said about adultery, he said, whosoever looketh on a woman
to lust after her in his heart, he's committed adultery already
with her in his heart. The problem is in the heart.
It's a sinful heart that can't stop, can't do anything but sin.
And we can try to stop sinning all we want, We'll do a little
experiment. Here for just a second, I want
you to try not to sin. See what I'm saying? As soon
as we said, I'm going to try not to sin, what happened? Sin
immediately flew through your mind. It's our thoughts. It's our nature.
So our first big problem is the sins that we commit because it's
the only thing our nature can do. But the second problem we
have with sin is our sin nature. And this is where all comes from,
the root of it is in our heart. Our very nature is defiled with
sins, polluted with sins, so that all it is is sin. And that's offensive to a holy
God. I mean, here we all are on our
Sunday best and what we all get with each other and we just act
as good as we can act, don't we, you know? But God doesn't see like we see.
God looks on the heart and what he sees is offensive to him.
Our nature, what we are, what we can't help but be is offensive
to God. It's offensive to God's sight,
It's offensive to smell and it's offensive to his ears. And the
only thing God can do with that nature, since God's holy, the
only thing you can do with that nature is send it to hell out
of his sight. That sin must be punished with
death. Now, alas, alas, what is a sinner
to do? How shall we do? Is there any
hope of forgiveness? Is there any hope that God could
have any mercy on me? Is there any hope I could be
made righteous? Well, not by anything we do.
There's no hope in anything that we do. If we're depending on
something we do to improve our situation, make ourselves better
for God, there's no hope for us. There's no hope. Someone could say, I just want
to be a better person. I want to be taught how to Not
to be so mean, not to be so selfish, not to be so, I want to be taught
to be a better person, to be nicer, to be more giving. I want
to be taught to be a better person. Buddy, have at it. I mean, that's
a good thing for the world if we can all be taught to be a
better person. But don't ever think you can be made better
so that you're good enough for God. See, that's the issue. I'm all for us being better people.
I mean, the world would be a whole lot better place, wouldn't it?
but that can't make us right before God. We can't be good
enough that we'd be perfect before God, and God demands perfection. Now, alas, what should we do? We're in trouble, what are we
gonna do? Can I tell you the answer one more time? Depend
on Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Him,
because they that be with us are more than they that be with
them. See, we can't do anything to put our sin away. We can't
do anything to give ourselves a righteous nature, but Christ
has. He's already done that for his
people. And I'll tell you this, as big a problem as our sin is,
he's mightier than our sin. First, the sin that we commit.
Christ came to put away the sin that his people commit, the sins. He came to pay for those sins.
We've committed them. We racked up the debt and Christ
came to pay for those sins. He came to pay for those sins
with the precious blood of His sacrifice. I hope we don't ever talk about
the blood so often. We become casual about it. This is the greatest story that
can ever be imagined. The son of God took on him flesh
so that he could suffer and die and shed his life's blood. Offer
that blood on the altar before the father to pay for the sins
of his people. And that blood is so precious.
It's so powerful because he is so precious His blood, John said,
cleanses us from all sin. All of it. He paid for it all. The debt is paid. The sins that
we have committed are more than the hairs of our head. They're
more than can be numbered. Those sins are so powerful, they
demand our eternal damnation. But they that be with us, more
than they would be with him. The blood of Christ is stronger
than all of those sins. His blood made those sins to
not exist. It's not like the father says,
well, there was a debt, I see that debt over there, but it
was paid for. You know what the father says? I don't see nor remember their
sins and their iniquities. Why not? The blood of Christ
made him to not exist. He put away the sins of his people.
Well, the second problem is our sin nature. A nature that the
holy God will never accept. Even if our sins are paid for,
he can't accept our sin nature. Well, alas, what should we do? How can we ever be accepted of
God? Is there no hope? If all I've got's a sin nature
and I can't clean it up, is there no hope? Yeah, there's hope. Oh, there's a good hope. There's
a good hope. Trust Christ. To depend on Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ comes to
his people in the person of his Holy Spirit and he gives his
people a brand new nature in the new birth. Now that nature
is holy. That nature is righteous. That
nature can never sin. because it's born from the holy
seed of the word of God. You know, the reason we have
a sin nature is that's the only seed our father had to conceive
us with, a sinful seed. God's people are conceived with
the word of God, a sinless seed. So they've got a nature they
can never sin. That nature God will accept. See, he has to create
in us what he'll accept, doesn't he? And that nature, that new
person is gonna go directly from this body, when this body dies,
it's gonna go directly from this clay prison to be with the Lord. Directly. And when that new man
gets to glory, and we open our eyes in glory, we're like our
brother David, now I'm satisfied, I've awoken his likeness. We're gonna look into the face
of the Savior. the Savior that we've longed
to see, the Savior that we've looked to in faith for so long,
and we're going to look into His face, and He's going to say,
well, I remember all the sin that you committed. I sent you
to serve my people, and you did a mighty poor job of it. You
muddied the waters a whole lot. You served yourself instead of
serving me, but I'm going to bring you into heaven anyway
because of my blood. He's not going to say that. In spite of all of our sin, in
spite of all our fumbling and bumbling and how many times we
fumbled the ball, you know what the Savior's gonna say? Well
done, my good and faithful servant. He's not gonna say that because
of something we did. He's not gonna say that because of our
nature. He's gonna say that because of what he did and his nature
that he caused people to witness. That's why I tell you, look to
Christ and trust Christ. He's able. He's able to save. He's able to take care of and
put away our sin. Well, our third big enemy is
the law. Here's why the law is against us, because God demands
perfect obedience. Outwardly, in thought, in word,
in heart, He demands perfect obedience. Now, if you can obey
God's law perfectly, you will be accepted. You'll be righteous.
I mean, God said if you can keep his law perfectly, he'll accept
you. He didn't lie. But our problem
is this. If we disobey God's law on even one point, we're
guilty of all and we'll be damned in justice. That's a pretty big
problem for somebody who can do only sin. We can't keep God's
law. Well, alas. What shall we do? What shall we do? Well, I tell
you again, depend on Christ. Look to Christ. They that be
with us are more than they that be within. Our enemy of the law
is a whole lot stronger than we can ever handle. But Christ
came in his might, in his perfection. You know what he did? He took
the law out of the way. Colossians 2 verse 14 says, the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ had blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us.
He took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. When Christ
was crucified as a substitute for his elect, when he suffered,
he died, he gave up the ghost. You know what the law said? I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied
with that. with his perfect obedience. I'm
satisfied with his death. There has been death for sin
and I'm satisfied. The law is taken out of the way
because Christ satisfied it. He satisfied it. The law is not
even hunting God's elect anymore because of what Christ accomplished
for us. Now the curse of the law is death. That's the curse
of the law. I mean, it's a powerful curse.
You can't escape it. You cannot escape death. But
look at Galatians chapter 3. I quote this often, but maybe
it would be good for us to see it in black and white one more
time. What are we going to do about
this curse of the law? Well, let's look to Christ. Verse 13, Galatians 3, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. When the Lord Jesus Christ took
the sin of his body, the sin of his people and his own body
on the tree, he was made a curse for sin. You and I could never
bear that curse. We could never put it away, even
eternity in hell. Wouldn't even begin to put away
that curse. But the Lord Jesus Christ bore
the curse of the law for his people. He was made a curse for
them and His blood put that curse away forever. So now God's justice,
God's holy just law, you know what it demands? It doesn't demand
your death anymore. It demands your eternal life
if Christ died for you. Not only did He take the law
out of the way, He made God's law and God's justice your friend
if He died for you. Now God's justice demands that
everyone for whom Christ died be given eternal life. Now depend on Christ. Quit trying
to keep them all. Depend on Christ. Look to Christ.
And then last, there's our enemy, Satan. Well, religious folks talk a
lot about Satan. And Satan is a mighty, mighty enemy. He's a real enemy. And I will
pass along to you Brother Mahan's advice to us. Don't go looking
for him. If you go looking for him, you
just might find him. Don't go looking for him. Don't go picking
a fight with Satan. These people that get on TV and
say, oh, I've rebuked Satan. I told Satan to do this. I told
Satan where to go and what to do. No, they didn't. No, they
didn't. Michael the archangel. I mean,
he was... You know, how many times more
powerful than you and me? Michael the archangel. He wouldn't
even take Satan on one on one. He told Satan the Lord would
be king. I'm not even gonna do it. And this I promise you, if
Satan desires to sift you and me like we, we're gonna be sifted
into little teeny tiny pieces. I mean, we don't stand a better
chance against Satan than Peter did. Satan is the accuser of
the brethren. And he's not making any accusations
up. We give him plenty of ammunition. Every accusation he makes is
true. We did it. That's a problem. I mean, that's a problem. Alas,
what should we do? What shall we do? I think this is the last time in
this message I'm going to tell you this. Here's the answer. Look
to Christ. Depend on Christ. They that be
with us are more than that be with Satan. At Calvary, Christ
came, and He willingly went to the tree, so that by His sacrifice,
He's crushed Satan's head forever. Way back there when Adam fell,
God promised Adam and Eve, the seed of woman's coming, He's
going to crush Satan's head. Here He came. And by His sacrifice,
He crushed Satan's head. Now somebody's head is crushed.
They're out of business. If their head's crushed, the
seat of power is crushed, they're unable to do anything anymore. Christ crushed Satan's head by
making his accusations against God's elect to never be able
to stand. Satan accuses God's elect and
the father says, what sin? I already said there's sins and
iniquities so I remember no more. I already said there's sins cast
by my back. I don't see it. And you know why the father doesn't
see it? Because the Lord Jesus Christ by his sacrifice made
his people not guilty. Satan's out of business. If Christ
made you not guilty. I lied to you one more time. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. If I could reach in your heart,
I can grab you and wake you up,
I would. Look to Christ. I tell you, as I studied through
Scripture this week, you know what I found? We've got a whole
lot more than four enemies. That's just all I had time to
deal with for lunchtime. But whatever enemy you think
of, whatever spiritual enemy, physically, whatever enemy it
is you come up against, You apply this same rule that we looked
at in these four enemies. You apply this same rule to each
of those enemies, and your heart will be comforted. You just remember,
no matter how great the enemy is, they that be with us are
more than that be with you. And you're not going to find
much comfort for your heart and for your soul thinking, well,
I'm going to roll up my sleeves and take on this enemy. We'll
get whooped. But if we depend on Christ, he'll
protect us. He'll save us and he'll keep
us. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. Oh, how we thank you, Father,
that you've opened the eyes of your people in this dark, dark
world and the dark, dark, Egyptian night darkness hearts of ours
That you've given light that we can see That we see Christ
Father I beg of you that you cause each of us here this morning
Father open our eyes Open our eyes that we might see that we
might see Christ that we might trust him that we might rest
on him that we might run to him and cling to him Father in light
of who he is enable us to see How you can be just and still
justify the ungodly like us is not by what we do. It's all in
Christ. Father, I pray you'd cause him
to be our all and in all. For it's in his precious name,
for the glory of his name, we pray, amen. All right, Sean,
come lead us in a closing hymn, if you would. Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number 205. Song number 205, and stand as
we sing Once For All.