Good morning. It's good to be
with you all this morning. I'd ask you to open your Bibles
with me to 2 Kings chapter 6. 2 Kings chapter 6. Title of the message will come
from last few words of verse 15. Elisha's servant says, how
shall we do? That can be interpreted what,
what shall we do? In the previous chapter, the Lord had healed Naaman, the
leper. Some of you are familiar with
that account. And it healed him of that leprosy. But Elisha's servant, he had
a servant named Gehazi. And he went back and he took
a gift from Naaman. A gift that Elisha had refused. But Gehazi, he pursued after
Naaman. He went after him and he received
that gift. And when he returned, Elisha
asked him, he said, Gehazi, where have you been? And when he said
that, he asked him another question. He said, is it a time? Is it
a time to receive money? Is it a time to receive garments? olive yards, vineyards, sheep,
oxen, men's servants and maidservants. Is it a time to do that? Is that
what this is about? And that leprosy that claimed
to Naaman fell on his servant Gehazi. Well, here in chapter
6, we read of another servant. Elisha has another servant, and
we don't know this one's name. Unlike Gehazi, we know his name,
but this servant, we don't know his name. And that's truly not
important that we know his name. Almighty God knows his name.
Scripture says this, the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal. The Lord knoweth. He knows them
that are His. And I believe this one is one
of His. Let's look at this text starting
with verse 8 of 2 Kings. Look there beginning in verse
8. The king of Syria warred against Israel and took counsel with
his servants saying, in such and such a place shall be my
camp. And the man of God sent unto
the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place,
for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of Israel
sent to the place which the man of God told him, and warned him
of, and he saved himself there, not once or twice, more than
a few times he was delivered by this counsel. Therefore the heart of the king
of Syria was sore troubled, for this thing, and he called his
servants and he said to them, Will you not show me which of
us is for the king of Israel? He thought some folks among his
own people were betraying him. He said, Which of us is for the
king of Israel? And one of his servants said,
None, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel,
he telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest
in thy bedchamber." In the most private place of your home, he
knows what you're talking about. And he said, verse 13, "'Go and
spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him.' And it was told
him, saying, Behold, he's in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither
horses and chariots and a great host, And they came by night,
and they compassed the city. They surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host compassed
the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said
unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? So the king of Syria,
he sent this. Imagine, this is for one man. This is for Elisha. And the king
of Syria sent an entire army and surrounded this whole city
to capture him. And his servant gets up early
in the morning, for whatever reason, he gets up early and
he walks out and he looks up and the place is completely surrounded. The fear that must have filled
his heart. And he asked the question, how
shall we do? What, what shall we do? I'd ask you this morning to consider
this question. Have you ever asked that question
yourself? What shall we, what shall we do? In a time of how
often does difficulty, how often does trouble surround us? And we wring our hands and we
ask that same question, what shall I do? What am I going to
do? Trials are sent our way, heavy
trials, difficult trials. And we ask the question, what
are we going to do? We wring our hands. Times when
we can't see anything, there's times of plenty and times of
joy and times of peace. But there's times when our hearts
are heavy. There's times when we see nothing
but the enemy. Times when we can't see anything
but the trial, but the Lord's been pleased to see our way.
And we ask this question, what shall we do? Well, we're not
alone. We're not alone when we ask that
question. And I assure you, you're not
the first person to ask it. throughout the scriptures. Well,
back in the book of Exodus, remember when God met Moses there at that
burning bush? And he spoke to Moses. And he
said this, he said, I've seen, Moses, I've seen the affliction
of, and he said, my people. I've seen the affliction of my
people. I've heard their cry. He hears the cry of his people,
of his children. He said, I know their sorrows.
I know their sorrows. We forget that, don't we? The
Lord Jesus Christ, he's a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. He knew everything there was
to know about sorrow. He knows our sorrows. That's
what scripture says. He said, I've come down, I've
come down to deliver them. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus
Christ did? God robed Himself in human flesh
and He came down to deliver His people. He said, I'm not just
going to deliver, I'm going to bring them up out of a land,
out of a land where they were, listen, where they were slaves,
they had a miserable existence. He said, I'm going to bring them
up out of a land to a good land. He's going to deliver his people. And Moses asked this question.
He said, Who am I? Who am I that I should go stand
before Pharaoh and say these things? He said, I'll do that
and the people won't believe me. Pharaoh's not going to believe
me. I'm not eloquent of speech. He said, I'm of slow tongue. And over in Exodus 4.11, the
Lord said this, He said, Who hath made man's mouth? God created man, He created all
things. Or who maketh the dumb or the
deaf or the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the Lord, done this?
Moses, you don't worry about these things. He said, you go
and I'll be with you. I'll teach you what to say. You know how often, how often,
and I speak for myself and maybe you find yourself in this category
as well, but how often do we lean on the arm of the flesh? We look to ourselves or we look
to the things of this earth rather than looking to Christ, rather
than resting in the Savior and what He has done. Moses, You don't need to be, you don't
need to be afraid. That's what Elisha tells his
servant here, he said, don't be afraid. Oh, don't be afraid. How often we need to be reminded
that, right? Don't be afraid. And he says this, they that be
with us are more than they that be with them. The enemy's great,
absolutely, but don't be afraid. The trial is great. Is it more
than I can bear in and of myself? Yes. I'm helpless. But don't
be afraid. In Genesis 12, the Lord spoke
to Abraham. Now imagine this, Abraham was,
he was an old man. And the Lord tells him, he said,
get thee out of thy country. and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house unto a land that I'll show you." He didn't
even tell him. We don't have any record that
he even told him where he was going. He just said, you go and
leave everything that's dear to you. And you know what Abraham did?
He departed just as the Lord had spoken. Abraham, he believed God. Abraham was, I said, he was 75
years old when this happened. Now again, we look to this flesh
and say, 75, I'm not going anywhere, right? He departed. Just as knowing this, that what
God had promised, He was also able to perform. Wouldn't it
be great? Wouldn't it be great to have
that kind of faith? Again, not to lean on this arm
of flesh, but just to rest in Christ. To just rest in Him. Scripture says this, if God be
for us, who can be against us? Turn over
to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 32. 2 Chronicles 32. When the king
of Syria came against the people of Judah, listen to what Hezekiah
said to them. Look at verse 7. He said, be
strong and courageous. Be not afraid, nor dismayed for the king of
Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him. For there be
more with us than with him. Verse eight, with him is an arm of flesh. but with
us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And read on there, the people
rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. 62 times in scripture, this two-word
phrase is mentioned, fear not. Listen, he told Abraham, the
Lord told Abraham, fear not. David told Mephibosheth, remember
that when he went down to get him and they brought him back
and he, Mephibosheth must have been scared to death. Here's
an enemy bringing me to his home. He said, fear not. He told Paul,
fear not, thou must be brought to Jerusalem. 26 times, This three-letter, this three-word
phrase, be not afraid. And then five times, we're told
in God's word to take no thought. You know, for that to be repeated
that many times, a couple things I think are true. One, we're not the only ones that
need to hear it, but two, It's known that we need to be reminded
to not be afraid. And if we truly knew the scriptures,
if we truly knew what's written in God's Word, and if we truly
knew the power of God, we'd know this. There's no reason to fear
what man can do. David wrote in Psalm 56, he said,
what time I'm afraid, and that's often, what time I'm
afraid, I'll trust in Him. In God will I praise His Word,
in God have I put my trust, I will not fear what the flesh can do
to me. Now with that said, we do not
underestimate the power of Satan, the power of sin, the power of
this world. But listen, we know this, that
God is greater than all, and that he will deliver us. He will deliver his people. But
that must be revealed. You know, there are those of
our loved ones We desire nothing more than them to see this, to
see what's written in God's Word, to be able to hear it, to believe
it. Look at 2 Kings, back to our text here, 2 Kings 6, verse
17. Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray Thee,
open his eyes that he might see. Bartimaeus, he saw the Lord,
remember that? And he said, what would you have
me do for you? And he said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. I pray he'd be pleased to do
that for us, to continue to let us see. And if we've never seen
before that he had opened our eyes and let us, let us see. There's a lot of things we need
to see, but here's a few of them. One, we need to see ourselves. We need to see ourselves and
the truth about ourselves. Our inability. What do the scriptures say about
man? What do the scriptures say about
us? Here's a few things. There's
none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. In another place we read
this of man. Their throat is an open sepulcher. It's an open grave. It says,
with tongues they use deceit. The poise of asp is under their
tongue. Their mouths are full of bitterness
and cursing. Feet, swift to shed blood, every
part of us is sinful. Destruction and misery are in
our way. The way of peace, we have not known. And the natural
man has absolutely no fear of God. None. In Luke chapter 18, our Lord,
He told a parable. of two men. He said two men went
down to the temple. He said the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. And that Pharisee, he stood and
he prayed out loud for everybody to hear, no doubt. Probably stood
in the middle of the place so everybody could see him. And
he said, I thank thee that I'm not like other men. I'm not an
extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not like this publican."
That publican was probably standing close to the corner or back in
the back corner where no one can see him. He said, I'm thankful
I'm not like him. Talked about the things that
he hadn't done, but then he went on to talk about the things that
he had done. How fast. twice a week. I give tithes of
everything that I possess." That man didn't have eyes to see.
No. He didn't know anything. He did
not know the truth about himself. But boy, that publican did. Scripture
said that, our Lord said this, he said, standing afar off, he
wouldn't even so much lift his eyes up into heaven, And he beat
on his chest and he said, God, be merciful to me, to me, sinner. Open my eyes that I might see
something about myself, my sinful nature. Open my eyes that I might
see something about Almighty God, to behold Him. the greatness of his grace, his
power to deliver sinners. He said this, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. He's the eternal God. Back when
he appeared to Moses at the burning bush, Moses said, who should
I say sent me? When I go and do what you, when
I say who, people are going to ask, who sent you? He said, you
tell them, I am. Not I was, not I will be, not
someday I hope to, I am. He's the eternal God. I am the Lord that changed not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. And listen, he's the God with
whom we have to do. He is holy and just, and He's
going to judge sin. And we look to Him, we depend
on Him, and we cannot exist without Him. Open my eyes that I might
see myself, my sinful nature, my need of Him. Open my eyes
that I might see Almighty God, who's sovereign in all things,
who's King of kings and Lord of lords. Third, open my eyes
that I might see the Lord Jesus Christ. That I might see Him. Jesus Christ, who is very God
of very God. I want to see Him as He is. Not as this world sees Him. You know, the world says this,
the world says, He tried to save you, But he can't. They make him dependent upon
man. And that's just not the case. He needs nothing from man. He
needs no help from man. But listen, he prayed there in
John 17. He said, I have glorified thee
on earth. I have finished the work that
you gave me to do. Who finished the work? He did. It makes no mention of anybody
else doing anything for Him. Huh? I finished the work You
gave Me to do. On the cross, He said the same
thing again. He said, It is finished. In Isaiah, we read this. He said, I've trodden the winepress
alone. He needs nothing. He needs nothing
from man. Paul, writing to the Hebrews,
he said this of our Savior, who being the brightness of His glory
and the express image of His person, upholding all things
by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our
sins, He sat down. Sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. By himself. By himself purged
our sins. And he sat down. The work's finished. The work is complete. Open my eyes that I might see
Him. That I might behold Him. Jesus
Christ who loved me. and gave Himself for me." Listen,
to see Him like Simeon did there in the temple. Not just as a
Savior, but my Savior. My Savior. You know Simeon, talking about
all these different things we fear. Simeon didn't even fear
death. There in Luke chapter 2. Turn
there with me, Luke chapter 2. Look at verse 25. Luke chapter 2 verse 25. Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just and devout,
waiting on the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was
upon him, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death
before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit
into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child
Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took
he him up in his arms. And he blessed God and said,
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to
thy word. for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou
hast prepared before the face of the people to lighten the
Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel." Elisha's prayer
for his servant was this, open his eyes that he might see. Any doubt that Simeon's eyes
had been opened? Let thy servant depart in peace. Back home, Brady sings a special. Heard it sung in Lexington, too,
but there's a verse in it that goes like this. The title of
it's in Christ Alone, but there's a verse and it goes like this.
No guilt in life, no fear in death. Simeon had no fear in death.
servant, depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation." Huh? Who was he looking at? He was
looking at the Lord Jesus Christ. Mine eyes have seen Him. And
listen, we behold Him now with eyes of faith. Paul said
right now, we see through a glass darkly. But there's going to
be a time when we're going to behold Him face to face. And we're going to know Him even
as we're numb. Right now we can't even enter
into that, can we? Well, quickly, back to our text
in 2 Kings 6, verse 15. Alas, my master, how shall we
do? And he answered, Fear not. Fear not, be not afraid, for
they that be with us are more than they that be against us.
And Elisha prayed, verse 17, open his eyes that he might see
and read on. And the Lord opened that young
man's eyes. You see that? The Lord opened
his eyes. And when he did, This should
come as no surprise. He saw. He saw. He saw what Elisha had. Elisha wasn't worked up about
this, was he? He saw what Elisha, I believe,
saw all along. The mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. What had been there all
along. Back in the book of Genesis 21,
Sarah had told Abraham, cast out the bondwoman and her son. Hagar and Ishmael have got to
go. And this thing, Scripture says
it grieved Abraham, but the Lord told him, he said, you hearken.
You hearken to the words of your wife. And Abraham gave him some
water and some bread and she put that on her shoulder and
he sent them away out into the wilderness. And eventually that
water was all used up and that bread was all gone. And Scripture
said she took Ishmael and laid him under a shrub, under some
trees. And she went away. She didn't
want to see, her son was dying, they were out of food, they were
out of water, and she did not want to see that. Scripture says, God heard the
voice of the lad, and the angel of God called out of heaven and
said, what aileth thee, Hagar? What's troubling you? And the
angel of the Lord said this to her, he said, fear not. Can you imagine a more desperate
time? I mean, here she is with her
son out in the wilderness. They're out of food. She knows
he's going to die and takes him over there to the edge of the
woods and kind of leaves him alone. Can you imagine a more
desperate situation? Here's the command. Fear not. Fear not. And if you read on
in that passage, God opened her eyes. And when he did that, she
saw. And there was a well of water. She went over there and filled
that jug up or whatever she was carrying with that water and
took it and gave to the lad. He was there all along. God opened her eyes and she saw. Deliverance. Deliverance in the
Lord Jesus Christ is always present. He has saved His people from
their sin. We just need spiritual eyes to
see it. These blind eyes have to be open
that we can see. Back there in 2 Kings 6, verse
15, when surrounded by the enemy, how shall we do? What are we
going to do? Fear not. Fear not. Don't be afraid. They that be
with us are more than they that be with them. Elisha prayed. Isn't that our prayer? For our children, for our family,
for those we love, for ourselves. Lord, open. Open mine eyes. You know, there's some doctors,
we ask things from them that they, sometimes they promise
and they cannot perform. But the Lord's the great physician.
That's what scripture declares. He's the great physician. He
gives sight to the blind. He opens the eyes of the blind. Over in Luke 4.18, He says, The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance
to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind. Open. Open his eyes. Scripture says the Lord opened
his eyes And he saw. He saw like he had never seen
before. And you know, that's just like
the healing of leprosy, the recovery of sight to the blind. Only God
can give sight to the blind. Over there, I was thinking about
this this morning. Over there in John chapter 9, there was
a man that was born blind. Our Lord came across him one
day and he spit on the ground and he made a little mud and
he put it on his eyes. And he said, you go down there
and you wash in the pool of Siloam. And this one that was blind from
his birth, suddenly he could see again. And it troubled. It
just amazes me in Scripture when the Lord's pleased to show mercy,
how those around are But rather than rejoice in it, they're troubled
by it. Some of you have experienced
that. The Lord's been pleased to show mercy to you. And there's those in your family
and those you work with. It troubles them. That's what was going on here.
The Pharisees and the Jews, they just kept questioning Him about
this. And He'd retell that story about
what had happened. And these Jews and again these
Pharisees, they were going to throw his parents out of the
temple. They threatened with throwing
them out of the temple. Because what they were saying
went against what they believed, against their religious tradition,
against their religious rituals. And they were afraid, they said,
you just ask the boy. He's of age, he can answer you.
And John 9, 24, they called the man that was blind and they said
unto him, give God praise and know this man's a sinner. And
he said this, he said, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't
know. But this is what I do know. Whereas I was blind, now I see. Now I see. I believe that servant
could say the same thing. Every one of his sheep that he's
been pleased to show mercy to can say the same. It's what he
did. He opened my eyes. He gave me
sight. Well, I pray that would give us comfort. Listen, if he's
not opened our eyes, that he'd be pleased to do so. And if he
hadn't, he asked. One prayed for him, the other
one asked. Open my eyes. Oh, give me sight to see.