If you would open your Bibles
with me to 2 Kings 3, and as you're turning, I'll make
an observation. You may recall this weekend,
Brother David made a comment that so many of us preachers
make, that the best commentary on Scripture is Scripture. If
you want to know what one verse of Scripture says, compare it
to other Scriptures, that's the best commentary. Yesterday, I
asked Brother Wayne if he'd pick out something to read and lead
us in prayer this morning. I brought that lesson this morning
from Ephesians chapter 5. And as Wayne read that Romans
6, I thought, that's the best commentary there is on those
verses in Ephesians chapter 5. You might want to go home and
read those two things together today. I think that's such a
blessing. And so glad the Lord laid down
on Wayne's heart to read to us. Just a real blessing. All right,
I've titled the message this morning, Is There a Prophet to
Ask? I didn't read my text to open
the service, it's rather lengthy. We'll read through it as we go.
But I took my title from 2 Kings 3, verse 11. But Jehoshaphat
said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire
of the Lord by him? Now I don't wanna just ask anyone
who calls himself a prophet about the Lord. Notice the way that
Jehoshaphat poses this question. Is there a prophet of the Lord
that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And what he's asking,
this is just no offhand comment, offhand question that he wants
to go ask the prophet. I was flipping around the channels
last night like I do, and I came across this fellow saying, well,
the Bible can't be the Bible, because the age-old thing here,
people say, well, who did Cain marry? You know, that means he
had to marry his sister. Well, that means the whole Bible is not. That's just an offhand question.
Of course Cain married his sister. I mean, duh, of course he did.
Move on. This word that Jehoshaphat uses,
inquire, I want to inquire of the prophet of the Lord. That
means to seek out with care. It's a diligent search. Diligently. I want to know the Lord and to
hear from God. I want to diligently seek it.
This is a word that you use that the word translated inquire. When you are seeking something
desperately because you must have it, you must have it. It's
a matter of life and death. The same word is used twice in
Deuteronomy 4 verse 29. But if from thence thou shalt
seek, the same word translated inquire, you seek the Lord, the
Lord thy God, you'll find him if you seek him. If you inquire,
diligently seek him with all your heart and with all your
soul. I'll tell you when you'll diligently
seek Christ. When God shows you, you must
have him. If you say from the heart, give me Christ or else
I die. That's inquiring of the Lord.
That's diligently seeking Him. And oh, how we need to hear from
God. We don't know anything about
life, about righteousness, about how God saves sinners, about
how, you know, we don't know anything unless we hear from
God. And you know a good place to
hear from God? It would be, don't you think, from one of God's
preachers. That's why Jehoshaphat here says,
is there a prophet of the Lord that we can inquire of? You ought
to be able to inquire of God's preacher. He's supposed to be
the man that spent a week seeking a message for you. I mean, I'm
not just, you know, I'm in the study. I mean, I'm seeking God's
message, but seeking the truth, seeking God's message, but I'm
seeking a message for you, for you. I pray for you when I'm
in study and going, give me a message for this hour. for your people,
I seek a message for you. You know, Elisha here, he's gonna
give an answer that gives us a picture of how you can identify
God's preachers. And it's by his message. It's
by his message. Now I wanna go back to the beginning
of the chapter. Let's look at quickly, as quickly as I can,
what led Jehoshaphat up to asking this question. Verse one. Now
Jehoram, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel and Samaria,
the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned 12
years. And he wrought evil in the sight
of the Lord, but not like his father and like his mother, for
he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless,
he cleaved under the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which
made Israel to sin. He departed not therefrom. Now,
Jerome, he was one of the wicked kings of Israel. He's the son
of Ahab, the son of Jezebel. You know how wicked they were.
But Jeroam, he's more dangerous than Ahab in Jezebel. I'll tell you why he's more dangerous.
It's because he's deceptive. I mean, Ahab was just out there
with it. Everybody knew he was an idolater, you know, worshiping
Baal. But Jeroam, he's more dangerous
because he's more deceptive. Jeroam saw Baal is just a useless
idol. And he got rid of all those idols
in the land of Israel. But here's how Jeroam is more
dangerous than his father and mother. Jeroam compromised the
truth for his own gain. Jeroam knew, now if the people
worship, he knew that they should worship Jehovah the way that
God had instructed them to do it, but there was a problem for
Jeroam if he did that. See, the kingdom was divided
at this time between Israel and Judah, the 10 tribes and the
two tribes, and Jeroam knew Now, he's king of Israel. If Israel
worships the Lord the way the Lord had commanded them to do
in the scriptures, you know what they do? Why, they just unite
with Judah. Could Judah's worshiping the
Lord the way he's instructed them to? Well, if Israel starts
worshiping the Lord the way the Lord instructed them to, why,
Israel and Judah, they're just gonna join together and be one
again. Well, if there's one nation, you just need one king, and Jerome's
gonna be out. See, he'd lose his place. So here's what he did. He made
gold statues and said, these be the gods that brought you
up out of Egypt. These statues, these are the
Lord. You don't have to go down there to Judah. We'll worship
these. These are the Lord. These is
Jehovah. And he had feast days and holy
days and ceremonies very, very similar to what they had in the
Law of Moses, very similar. Those things were given as pictures
of Christ, and he didn't have Christ in it, he just had these
idols in it, and he did it for his own gain, for his own purpose.
That's why Jerome was more dangerous. Everybody could see what Ahab
and Jezebel did, it's just open idolatry, right? But Jerome,
oh, he made his religion as close to the true thing as possible.
As close as he could. People thought, well, he uses
all the right words, so his message must be okay. That's more dangerous,
isn't it? Because somebody could be fooled
and deceived into believing that. So that's what's going on at
verse four. And Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep master and
rendered unto the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams
with the wool. But it came to pass when Ahab
was dead that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of
Israel. And King Jerome went out of Samaria the same time
and numbered all Israel. And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat.
king of Judah, saying, the king of Moab hath rebelled against
me. Will thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said,
I'll go up. I am as thou art, and my people
as thy people, and my horses as thy horses. Now sometime in
the past, the king of Moab had agreed to pay some sort of annual
tax or tribute to Ahab, but now Ahab's dead, his son's ruling
in his place, and the king of Moab says, I'm not paying this
anymore. He probably figured the son is
not as powerful as the father, and he'd get away with not having
to pay this tribute. So Jerome, he's coming to attack
Moab, and he gets Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, to go along
with him in this battle, per se. And he said, which way should
we go up? And he answered, the way through
the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went, and
the king of Judah, and the king of Edom, and they fetched a compass
of seven days journey and there was no water for the host and
for the cattle that followed them. And not only was Jerome
a wicked king, he's a bad general too. He didn't plan this military
campaign at all. He just, he took them on this
long roundabout way where there wasn't any water. There's no
water for the army. There's no water for the animals.
They're all gonna die of thirst before they have a chance to
attack the enemy. He went this place with no water
and didn't bring any water with him, you know. And you know what
they did? They blamed their failure on
God. Look at verse 10. And the king of Israel said,
alas, the Lord had called these three kings together to deliver
them into the hand of Moab. Jerome said, oh, God's brought
us here to die. We were trying to do this and
God just brought us here to die. He blamed their situation on
the sovereignty of God. Now, You won't find anybody stronger
that believes this more strongly than I do. God is sovereign in
everything. I mean everything. There's not
a speck of dust flies through this room, God didn't direct
it. He's sovereign in everything. Everything that happens is because
God willed for it to happen and purposed for it to happen just
exactly the way it happened, just exactly the time that it
happened. God purposed that before he created anything. God's sovereign,
everything that happens, is simply God's purpose being unfolded
before us. That's true. But let's not blame
our failures and our sin on God's providence. You know, we do something,
I do something stupid. Can't say, well, you know, it's
God's fault. God willed that to happen. I
think the best way to say it is this. That was God's providence. No question about it. That was
God's providence, but it's my fault. It's my fault. Here's a good illustration of
that. God purposed for Adam to fall, didn't he? That was God's
purpose. He purposed that so we could
have redemption in his son, so that his son would be glorified.
God's not the author of evil, but God purposed for Adam to
fall. That's just so. But it's Adam's fault, wasn't
it? It's Adam's fault, and he paid the price for it. I just
liken that to not looking both ways before you cross the street.
Now, if I don't look both ways before I cross the street and
get hit by a bus, It was God's purpose and providence that I
die by getting hit by a bus, but it's my fault. You see what
I'm saying? I don't think you have to overcomplicate
that. We just can't blame God for our
faults and our sins and our failures. And that's what Jerome was doing.
Look at Luke chapter 14. You know, a wise general, he
makes battle plans. Before he goes into the battle,
see now, you know, can I whip the enemy? Can I do this or not?
That's just only wise to do. You know, I think about in World
War II, D-Day, you know, why did they wait so long to storm
Normandy? You know, they planned it for
years. I mean, it took years to plan
this thing. That's a wise general. Look what
our Lord says in Luke 14, verse 27. Now, whosoever doth not bear
his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Now, what
he's getting ready to tell us here, you cannot be my disciple,
but you count the cost. You follow me, but you count
the cost. This is what he's teaching. Verse
28, for which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not
down first and counteth the cost, whether he has sufficient to
finish it. Lest happily after he hath laid the foundation and
is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock
him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth
not down first and consulteth, whether he be able, with 10,000,
to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000? Or else, while
the other is yet a great way off, he send an ambassage that
desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple. Now Jerome, he just didn't make
a plan here. He didn't count the cost and
prepare for this battle. That's why he's in such a mess.
But I read all that to say this. Let's pray that the Lord give
us some wisdom. Now the Lord tells us, you come to me. You
follow me. There's no life without it. There's
no salvation without it. But when you come and you follow
Christ, now you count the cost in doing it. Count the cost in
doing it. Tell you what you're going to
have to give up to follow Christ. All. You're going to have to
give up all your credit. You're going to have to give
up all of your glory. You're going to have to give
up all of your rags of righteousness. You've got to give up all and
follow Him. For Him to be your all. Now count
the cost because it's going to cost the flesh. It's going to
cost the flesh your glory. Now you count that cost. and
then you follow Christ. Don't count the cost. The Lord's
not telling us here, count the cost and then don't follow me
because you see the cost is too high. He's saying count the cost. Count the value of your works. Count the value of your so-called
righteousness. Count the value of your glory. Compare that to Christ and then
follow Christ because you see he's worthy. That's what he's
teaching there. I might go off on a little bit
of tangent there, but I was studying that this week, I saw that about
the king, you know, counting the cost for battle. That's important
for us to remember. Count the cost. Count the value
of all your works and all your flesh and compare that to Christ
and follow him because he's worthy. All right, back to our text,
verse 11. 2 Kings chapter three. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there
not here a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire of the Lord
by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and
said, here's Elisha, the son of Shaphat, which poured water
on the hands of Elijah. Here's Elisha, he had been Elijah's
servant. And Jehoshaphat said, the word
of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat
and the king of Edom went down to him. Now these kings, I want
us to notice this, because I want to apply this situation to us.
They don't inquire of the Lord until they're in a jam that they
can't get out of. Until they're in such a mess
that they know we're gonna die right here in the wilderness,
if we left our own devices, I need to seek the Lord. I think it
would have been a good idea to inquire of the Lord before they
ever left, don't you reckon? I hope maybe we can learn that
lesson and start inquiring of the Lord. See, now they're in
a fix. Now they need to hear from the
Lord. They're gonna perish. See, they
know now, I need the Lord to deliver me. If he doesn't, I'm
gonna die. And only then do they go inquire
of the Lord. Now, this is what I want for
us, to inquire of the Lord. I mean diligently seeking him.
Because whether we know it or not, you and I are in a fix.
I mean, we're in a mess that we can't get out of. Our sin
is damning us. Our sin has separated us from
God and we can't come back to Him. And we're going to perish
if we can't stop it. And we can't. We're going to
perish because we can't stop it. But I'll tell you what we
can do. We can inquire of the Lord. We
can seek the Lord because we're desperate to have Him. We can
seek the Lord with all our heart. And I tell you when we'll seek
the Lord with all our heart, when the Lord shows us a fix
for him. I can't get out of it, that if I don't have him, I'm
gonna perish. Isaiah said, seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. Call on him, inquire of him. Diligently seek him while he's
near. The Lord's near. Now seek him,
diligently inquire of him. And that's what I want us to
do in every service that we have. I don't want us to just come
here on Sundays and Wednesdays out of a religious habit. I don't
want us to come here and just have a religious service. Our
flesh kind of feels better about ourselves because we had a religious
service. We said some religious things.
I gave up my time to go do something religious. I don't want that
for us. I want us to come here seeking, inquiring, seeking a
word from the Lord. I want us to come here because
I need to hear. I need to hear from God. I need
to hear of Christ. I want all of us to come here
praying, asking that Lord bless us. Lord, give us a word from
you. You know, if we're all praying
that way, we might be surprised how often the Lord answers that
prayer and gives us a word from him. Just might be surprised.
I want us to come here inquiring of the Lord, and I don't mind
if you come inquiring of the pastor. Frank, you got a message
for me this morning? Did Lord give you a message for
me? Have you found a message of God? Come inquire. Can you tell me about the issues
of life? I'm dead, can you tell me how
I can be made alive? Can you tell me how God saves
sinners? How is it I'm guilty and vile
and defiled in my sin? Can you tell me how I can be
forgiven? Could you tell me how I can be washed white as snow?
I mean, I'm in a mess. My sin has put me in a mess. And I can't get out of it. It's
just like I'm in a pit with slimy walls. I can't get out. Can you
tell me? Will God deliver me? I would
just love for somebody to come inquire of me and say, I know,
I know God saves sinners. I hear that. I hear what you're
saying. God saves sinners. He saves sinners
in Christ. Here's my question. I'm inquiring
this. Will God save me? Isn't that
what you want to know? Will God save me? Will he? Well, here's my answer to that
question. Somebody's inquiring that this morning. Here's my
question. Or here's my answer to that question. Yes, God will
save you. If he gets all the glory for
doing it. See, you're gonna have to give up all. You're not gonna
share in his glory. If you give up all, you're willing
to give up all because you know what you got is horse manure. It's just, it's nothing but none.
God will save you if he can get all the glory in doing it. If
you can't do one thing to help save yourself, if there's not
one iota of any good in you, and you're in desperate need
for God to do all the saving for you, yes, God will save you. Yes, He will. Now that's the
answer of God's preacher to any inquiring sinner. No matter what
text the Lord brings us to, that's the answer. God will save you. for his glory's sake. That's
the answer. Now I'll give you four marks
of the message of God's preacher from Elijah's answer to them.
And the first one is this. God's preacher has a message
for God's elect. Verse 13. And Elijah said unto
the king of Israel, what have I to do with thee? Give thee
to the prophets of thy father and to the prophets of thy mother.
And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay, for the Lord has called
these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of
Moab. He knows this. There's no use going to talk
to the prophets of Baal. They don't have an answer. You
know, that's why he's come to Elisha at this time. And Elisha
said, as Lord of hosts live it, before whom I stand, surely,
were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the
king of Judah, I wouldn't even look toward thee, nor see thee. Now, It happens to be my opinion. I think I'm right about this.
Elisha has a bad attitude. Now this is just a bad, I understand
it, but it's a bad attitude that I pray that the Lord deliver
us from. Now these men, they've been enemies a long, long time.
They were enemies of Elisha's mentor, Elijah, and they're his
enemies now. But now they're in effects, and
now you want to hear from Elisha's God? Now you want to hear from
Elijah's God? And Elisha tells him, the only
reason I'm even speaking to you is I've got such high regard
for Jehoshaphat. There's a man, a preacher one
time told me, he said, I wish I could just keep all the lost
out and just only have God's sheep and just preach to God's
sheep. It's just so much more pleasant to preach, you know,
to the sheep, to believers. It's just sweeter that way. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That can't be our attitude at
all. The Lord told us to go into all the world and preach the
gospel. Preach the gospel to the lost. How are the lost ever
gonna hear of Christ if we don't go preach Christ to them, you
know? We're to preach to all men everywhere, and I hope and
pray it's with a good attitude. I hope and pray it's with a good
attitude, especially if God would ever give us the opportunity
to preach Christ to those who stood as our enemies. I hope
so. I hope so. There's a man lives
in another town. There's a faithful pastor in
that town. Good, good pastor. Excellent
preacher. But this man will not go hear
that pastor. He doesn't like him. He just, and you know, it's
what people say. I mean, he doesn't like him.
So he says, this man doesn't preach the gospel. But when I
go there, He comes to hear me preach and just slobbers all
over me. Just what a great message that is. And that's the gospel.
I mean, that irritates the fire out of me. I want to tell him,
now, wait a minute. Why are you coming to hear me
preach if you don't come hear this man preach? You know, we preach
the same gospel. I kind of think that's kind of
Elisha's attitude here. But I point all that out to get
to this important point. God's pastor has a message of
salvation in Christ. And I'll tell you who the message
is for. It's for God's elect. Now, I wish all men would hear
it. Many people hear the gospel,
but I won't tell you who believes it. Many people hear the gospel,
but you don't know who that message has a purpose of mercy and grace
for. It's God's elect. All men are dead in sin, but
God has a message of life for his elect. Now, we don't know
who the elect are, so we preach it to everybody. But you want
me to tell you who's going to believe it? You want me to tell
you who's going to receive life from that message? It's God's
elect. I try to say in every single message I preach, you
come to Christ. I don't care who you are. You
come to Christ right where you sit right now. You come to Christ. You cast your soul on him. You
depend on him alone. I must say that, as long as God
gives me breath. I hope, I hope I will. When we
tell you who's gonna come, the elect. They're the ones who can
be drawn with those bands of love that Brother David was talking
to us about. There are folks who might inquire
for a shelter in a time of storm. They have a trial, they have
a difficulty. They might inquire for a while. But they're just
looking for a shelter. They're just looking for a way
out. The elect. They're going to inquire of the
Lord. They're going to inquire for Christ. They're going to
come seeking salvation from their sin. They're going to come seeking
mercy and grace from God. And I'll tell you how they're
going to find it. God's going to send him a preacher with a
message that's just for you. That's how he's going to do it.
Alright, number two. God's preacher has a message
from the Lord. From the Lord, verse 15. But
now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass when the
minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. Now I
find this very interesting. Elisha received a message of
salvation. He received a message of deliverance. He received a message from the
Lord specifically for these three kings when he heard the music
playing, the minstrel. Now, I assume that that was music
of worship. It wasn't Billy Joel or somebody.
It was music of worship. I think I'm safe in making that
assumption. And don't we find that true for ourselves? I mean,
music helps prepare our hearts to worship. We enjoy singing
the songs of praise and worship. Our song service is not a placeholder. Our song service is meant to
prepare our hearts to worship. And it appears to me that that's
what went on here. But now the important thing is
this, don't get hung up on this minstrel. The important thing
is this, Elisha received a message from the Lord. From the Lord. Music is good, but a message
from the Lord is vital. Vital, vital. Because remember,
what are we doing here? We're inquiring of the Lord.
We're seeking the Lord. We're seeking a message from
the Lord for our needy hearts. And I tell you how God gives
that message to our hearts. It's by preaching. It's by preaching. Preaching the word, the preaching
of Christ. It's preaching of God's message.
And our message is not what men think. It's not what other men
have written. Our message is not preached with
psychological tricks and emotional methods and emotional tricks
to get people to do something. Our message is really not even
what the sheep think they want to hear right now. Our message
is from the Lord. Our message is from God's word.
Thus saith the Lord. Now that's the job of God's preacher. Thus saith the Lord. Preach the
word. This is the instruction to God,
preach the word and make Christ plain. Make salvation by Christ,
through Christ and in Christ, plain in every text that you
preach from. Preach the word. You know what
Paul told Timothy? In every season, in every situation,
preach the word. Paul also told Timothy this,
put people in remembrance of these things. Keep preaching
Christ over and over and over and over again. Keep reminding
God's people it's in Christ. Look to Christ. Trust Christ.
Trust His blood. Don't strive to words about no
profit. We're to strive, but we're to
strive to see Christ in the scriptures. We're to strive to inquire to
find Christ. Preach Christ. Just preach Christ.
That message answers every need. Preaching Christ will exhort
the unbeliever come to Christ and trust Him. In preaching Christ,
using that sound doctrine of the word, that will edify believers. That will strengthen them and
comfort them. Just preach Christ. That's God's message. This book
says that the Father chose the sinful people to save because
He loved them. There wasn't anything lovable
about them, but God chose to love them anyway. That's what this
book says. Preach it. Preach it. This book
says Christ came and he died for those people that God chose
to save and only for those people that God chose to save. It's
his Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, shed his blood
to put away their sin. Their sin is put away. They're
saved and they can never be lost because who died for them. That's
what this book says. Now preach that. That's good
news to send. Preach it. This book says that
the blood of Christ is the only way sin can be put away. The blood of Christ is so effectual. His blood cleanses all of his
people from all of their sin. Now preach that. Preach that
message over and over and over again. No other message will
draw sinners to come to Christ except the message of Christ
in Christian life. This book says that God the Holy
Spirit takes that message of Christ, the preaching of this
word. He uses this word as a seed to give spiritual life to his
people, to implant in them a new nature, a second nature that
cannot seed. Now preach that message. If there's somebody there that
doesn't believe it, preach it and preach it and preach it and
preach it and preach it till either God gives them faith to
believe it or they leave. but don't hold back because they
don't like it. I'm telling you, that's God's
message for his people. All right, number three. The message of God's preacher
is supernatural. And what I mean by that is this.
Our message is that salvation comes in such a mysterious way. It comes to us in such a way
that the flesh cannot understand it. But it's obvious to us, the
only way this could happen is if God did it. Because a mere
man can't do this. It's supernatural, something
only God can do. Look at verse 17. Or verse 16,
this message, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he said,
thus saith the Lord. See, there's the message, thus
saith the Lord. Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith
the Lord, you shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain, yet
that valley shall be filled with water. that you may drink both
ye and your cattle and your beasts. And this, this sending of water,
let's put a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He'll deliver
the mule by it's also into your hand. And you shall smite every
fence city and every choice city and you shall fell every good
tree and stop up all the wells of water and mar every good piece
of land with stones. Now you would never think that
a dry valley is gonna be filled with water just by digging ditches
in, would you? If there's no, the skies are
clear. Now if there's no wind blowing
in rain clouds, how's it gonna rain? Where's this water coming
from if there's no wind blowing in rain clouds? It's just impossible
for those ditches to be filled with water if there's no wind
and no rain. It can only happen supernaturally.
Only God can fill those ditches with water without clouds of
rain. Only God can, it's supernatural. And that's the way salvation
comes to a sinner. It's supernatural. It's outside
the realm of the flesh. You and I would never think that
a sinner could have their sin debt put away by the death of
another. But that's what happened. We
would never think that a sinner could be made righteous, even
though all they can do still yet is sin, that they could be
made righteous by the obedience of another. that the Lord would
make them righteous even though they never did one righteous
thing in their life. We'd never think that. But that's what happened. You'd never think that a dead
sinner could be given spiritual life even though the flesh is
still dead. I mean, you just would never
in your wildest imagination come up with that. But that's what
God did, isn't it? You'd never think that one person
could have two natures and not be schizophrenic. That they'd
be both flesh and spirit, old man and new man. You'd never
think that. It defies human logic. But that's what God did. You'd
never think that a sinner could be saved and that their souls
would be fed and strengthened and encouraged by hearing another
man who's totally sinful preach Christ. You think God's got to
send somebody on a higher spiritual plane to me so I can learn. No,
God sends somebody on the same plane as you to preach to. That's
what he does. You'd never think that. But that's what God does.
See, that's a supernatural work of God. It's just, it can't be
understood by the flesh. And it can't be loved by the
flesh either. You know, when a message becomes so understandable
to the flesh, I mean, you understand what I'm saying. The gospel is
so simple. The youngest child here can understand it. You understand. We fell in Adam. Christ came
to get us out of the mess My nephew Gavin said that a long
time ago. He first started in Sabrina's Sunday school class.
He told me, this is the bad news, Adam sinned. This is the good
news, Christ. He's three years old, he said,
this is the good news, Christ. Period. The youngest child understands
that, don't you? I mean, the gospel's understandable,
yet it can't be understood with flesh. I can't explain that if you know
Christ, you understand what I'm saying. If the gospel can be understood
and believed without the supernatural gift of faith, it's not the gospel. The gospel is only believed and
loved and Christ is only fed upon supernaturally. The supernatural gift of God.
Salvation is of the Lord. It's the only way something supernatural
can happen, isn't it? All right, here's the last thing.
The message of God's preacher is salvation's in the blood.
Verse 21. And when all the Moabites heard
that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered
all that were able to put on armor and upward and stood in
the border. And they rose up early in the
morning and the sun shone upon the water. And the Moabites saw
the water on the other side as red as blood. And they said,
this is blood. The kings are surely slain and
they've smitten one another, now therefore Moab to the spoil.
And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose
up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them. But
they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country.
And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land
cast every man a stone. And they filled it, they filled
it with stone, so that land would be so hard to plow and plant.
and they stopped up all the wells of water and felled all the good
trees. Only Kir-hasheth left they the stones thereof, albeit
the slingers went about it and smote it." Now I figure the Moabites,
they saw this, they thought that water was red blood and they
probably came to the camp of Israel kind of, at least mentally,
unprepared for battle. You know, they thought everybody
was already dead. They thought all they're going to do is, you
know, go pick up the spoil. They thought they saw blood.
They thought they did. And they came and boy, they met
with resistance, didn't they? The Israelites slaughtered them.
And it's all because of the blood that the Moabites thought that
they saw. Well, here's the picture. Spiritual Israel is given the
victory in the blood of Christ. It's not something we thought
we saw. It's not something imaginary. This is the blood, the blood
of God offered before the Father. offered on the altar before the
Father as an atonement for the sin of God's elect. The blood
of Christ has defeated every enemy God's people have. They're
already defeated. The blood of Christ put away
sin that's against us. The blood of Christ is what brews
Satan's heel. If Satan's the accuser of the
brethren, he's in the accusing business. Well, he can accuse
all he wants, can't he? But you know what Paul said?
Who is he to condemn him? Who is He that can make any of
those charges stick? And Paul's answer is, it's Christ that died. Nobody can condemn God's death.
It's Christ that died. It's His blood. Nobody can condemn.
If Christ died for you, He'd put your sin away. The blood
of Christ brought peace with God. It brought it and He bought
it. Peace with God. Because the blood of Christ took
away the sin that made God angry. And when the blood of Christ
is applied to your hearts, you quit being angry too. We're angry
with God. We don't like his gospel. We
don't like his way of salvation. We're not gonna have this man
reign over us. You're gonna change your tune when the blood of Christ
is applied to your heart. You have peace with God. The victory
is all in Christ. It's all because of Christ. The
victory's been bought and it's been earned by the blood of Christ. The good news is Christ. Now inquire of him. Inquire of
him. It is my fervent prayer. That
you don't hear this message. And go home. Go home unaffected. Inquire of him. Lord, show this to me. Lord,
do this for me. Put this in my heart. Reveal
Christ to me. Look to him. and trusting life's
in him. That's the message God's preaching. That's the message of the gospel.
And what good news God sent us. Isn't it good news you don't
have to do it yourself? The blood's already accomplished. That's
good news. All right. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ that he earned by his
obedience and his precious blood. And Father, I beg of you that
you would cause each heart here this morning to hunger and thirst
after Christ. Father, show us the mess we're
in. Cause us to inquire of the Lord, cause us to need him. And
Father, then in your mercy and in your grace, give us a fulfillment
of your precious promise that when you make us seek Christ
with all of our heart, we'll find him. but rather will be
found of him. Father, bless us for Christ's
sake. Bless this word to the glory of your son. It's in his
name, and for his sake we pray, amen. All right, Chris, come
lead us into closing hymn, if you would.