2 Kings chapter 7, chapter 8, 2
Kings chapter 8, I'll get it right here in a minute. We're going to look at verses
7 through 15, we're not going to read them all right now, we're
just going to read a section and do a section at a time. But this is lesson 21. I think
we're just about done with this study on Elisha. Less than 21. And here we're going to see depravity
times two. Depravity times two. And starting in verse 7, in the
first part, 7, 8, and 9. 7, 8, and 9. 2 Kings chapter 8. And Elisha
came to Damascus, and Benadad, the king of Syria, was sick.
And it was told him, saying, The man of God has come hither.
And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand,
and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him,
saying, Shall I recover of this disease? So Hazael went to meet
him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing
of Damascus, forty camels, burden, and it came and stood before
him and said, Thy son, Benadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to
thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? Let's stop there. Depravity number one. King Benadad. Do you remember this guy? Do
you remember who he is? Turn to chapter 6, verse 13 and
14. Well, in verse 8, Then the king
of Syria warred against Israel and took counsel of his servants,
saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And everywhere
he would go, Elisha told the king of Israel, Don't go there,
because this is where the king is at. And so the king, Benedab,
is who this is. This is the same king. Verse 12, he was all upset. He
thought somebody in his camp was a spy. And his servant said,
No, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet that is in Israel
tells the king of Israel, Thy words are the words that thou
speakest in your bedchamber. So this is the good king, sarcastically,
the good king, bad king. Then the king said, Go and spy
where he is that I may fetch him. And it was told the king
that, behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent the king, this
is Benadab, horses, chariots, great hosts, and they came by
the night and encompassed the city about." So they're going
to get him. They're going to kill him. He hates him. He has
no regard for the man of God. But now, he's sick. But now, he thinks he may die. He wanted to kill Elisha, he
hated Elisha, and he hated his message. He had no regard for
Elisha or his God. Rather, he served idols to his
own amusement. But now, in a time of bodily
sickness, a time of concern, a time of distress, a time of
conflict, a time of hardship, now let's go get the preacher.
Does this sound familiar? I can thankfully say that I have
not had this experience too often here. I have had it. I have had it. People have left. Things have happened. Call the
preacher. No regard for what's being preached
here. Actually left here. Walked away. And the men that
I read on this, they said the same thing. They said, you know,
if somebody wants me to come and pray with them, Not over
them. One preacher said, I'll do it.
He said, but they won't call you. They have no concern about
their spiritual state. But when they get sick, well,
let's call the preacher. Or, in my case, he can marry
somebody. Let's use him. Now let's go get
the preacher. Let's go fetch him. Perhaps he
has a word from the Lord, because I've heard about this one. Notice
the command or the concern is not for his spiritual well-being.
He says in verse 8, Benadab, he tells his second in command,
this is Hazael, his second in command, nobody greater than
him but the king. He sends him and says, go meet,
go get, not go get, but go meet, Elisha inquire the Lord by him
saying shall I recover of this disease? He did not have a single
concern for his spiritual Nature it was physical and that's what
human this is what the property does I'm okay This is just sick
I'm just a little bit sick and I hear this when I get around
older folks and they can't do what they used to do or they're
not feeling I just want you know, I just I I used to be able to
do this, and they just will not acknowledge age because of depravity
is catching up with us. It's catching up with them. They
will not acknowledge that. But also, He says, take some
stuff with you. Let's see if we can't bribe him
a little bit. Maybe that would help with his answer, perhaps. But he's not concerned for his
spiritual well-being, but only his physical condition. Am I
gonna live? Well, God's judgment on this
king is just and it's true, and this man will die how he lived. Without hope, without God, and
without grace. Because we'll see this as we
finish this lesson. The second point, That's depravity
number one. The second point is the man of
God, Elisha. Let's look forward, let's look
at verses 10 through 12. So Hazel meets Elisha, and verse
10, Elisha said unto him, Go and say unto your master, say
unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover, how be it the Lord hath
showed me that you're going to die. And Hazel, I'm sorry, he's going
to die. And Elisha settled his countenance
steadfastly. In other words, he's staring
a hole through Hazel. He's just looking at him. Staring
at him. I wouldn't have wanted to have
been on the other end of the stair because we'll see what happens. Until
Hazel was ashamed or embarrassed, is what that word is. And the
man of God wept. And Hazael said, why weepest
my lord? And he answered, because I know
the evil that you will do unto the children of Israel. Their
strongholds will you set on fire, their young men will you slay
with the sword, and you will dash their children and rip up
their women with child." Stop there. This man of God, if he's called, he's called to
do one thing. Tell the truth. No matter what. No matter to whom. If the Lord
would have me or would have any one of us have an audience with
the Mayor of Jackson, we don't change our message. Absolutely
not. This man, Elisha, was called
to tell the truth. He was called to tell it straight.
He was called to proclaim the Word from God to dying sinners. There's no watering it down,
this message, There's no worry if the truth, when spoken in
love, whether it offends men, women, boys or girls, whether
it offends their pride, or character, or their actions. Like John the
Baptist, he says, you know, it's unlawful for you to have this
woman. Woe is the preacher, the called
man of God, if he does not declare the full and free grace found
only in Christ Jesus. Woe is he if he pears off the
gospel edges or angles of the cross. Woe is he if he does not
declare the whole counsel of God. And yet, woe are they who
hear it and do not believe it." The message, and what we see
here in Elisha, is he said he's going to recover, how be it,
he's going to die. What he's saying is he's not
going to die from this disease, but he's going to die. The true
messenger, not the hireling, cannot be paid off, cannot be
bribed, cannot be bought out, be intimidated to not speak of
God's glory in electing a people, the Son dying only for those
people, and the Holy Spirit saving only those elect people. Perhaps,
and I certainly agree with this thought, one gospel preacher
that we know very well said, men and women cannot abide with
electing love, particular redemption, and discriminatory revelation
is because they do not know how depraved they are. They do not
own their total and complete fall or depravity in the garden. They always say, I'm not as bad
as this guy. I didn't do this. I'm okay. But when we compare
ourselves to God that is straight, we're crooked. We're crooked. We're dead. We're blind. We're
fallen. We're wicked. We're scheming.
We're lost. There's never any spiritual good
in us and we could look at Genesis 6 5 and he says only in the imaginations
Every imagination the thoughts of our hearts are wicked or evil.
That's Genesis. We go to Romans 3 We could go
to these all these different places in the scripture and show
how we will not seek Christ We will not see Christ and we
know that Well, let's look at the Parabody number 2, the third
point. The Parabody number 2, verses 13 through 15. Now, before
we turn there, let's turn to 1 Kings chapter 19. Let's see
who this Hazel is. 1 Kings chapter 19. 1 Kings 19. This is the Lord talking to Elijah. Elijah dies, or Elijah is taken
up in a whirlwind, and Elisha takes his place. So this is given
to Elisha. Elisha can't fulfill it because
he's taken by the chariots, but it's to be fulfilled by Elisha.
Verse 15, 1 Kings chapter 15, And the Lord said unto Elisha,
Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when
you come, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. So God's purpose
is going to be done. This was prophesied or this was
told that He was going to be King. He's the second in command. He
was prophesied to be anointed King. God is now fulfilling His
purpose of judgment upon King Ben-Hadad. by the wicked hands
of the second command. Let's read what he does. So Elisha tells him what he's
going to do. You're going to do this when
you're king? You're going to set things on fire? You're going
to kill men and women and children and rip up their women with child?
And this is what this man answered. Hazel said, but what? Is thy
servant a dog? That's the question. Are we dogs?
Are we dead dog sinners? Are we as the beasts of the field?
A believer would say, yes we are. But an unbeliever says, but he couldn't hide his shame
because Elisha knew what he was going to do and just stared at
him. He just stared at him and he began to cry. He said, Am I thy servant a dog
that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The
Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Israel. 1
Kings 19, we just saw that. So Hazael departed from Elisha
when he came to the king, his master, Benadab, who said unto
him, What saith Elisha to thee? Look at what he answered. He
didn't tell the whole thing. He answered, He told me that you're
going to recover. That's a lie. That's a half-truth. I'm sorry, half-truth. Half-truth,
we come up and we say half-truth is a whole lie? Exactly, when
it's regarding gospel truths. Now look at what else he does.
And it came to pass on the morrow that Hazel took a thick cloth
and dipped it in water and spread it over the king's face. So the
king died and Hazel reigned in his stead. Now here's something
that we don't know anything about. Before we start judging Hazel
too quickly, we've got to remember, he's second in charge of one
of the largest countries, areas in the world at this time. He
has opportunity, which means he has unlimited resources, power,
money, and the right moment came up
for him to act on it. We would do the same thing. We
would do the same thing. If we've been living like we
have and all of a sudden, lottery, whatever you want to say, we
don't know this kind of trial. Because the Lord is restraining,
He has restraining graces upon His people. But just wide open,
no accountability, who's going to see me? Who's going to know?
I'm going to be king? So He had the opportunity and
the inclination. and his depravity will run wild. God prophesied that he was going
to be king. So this is what God was now fulfilling,
his judgment on the wicked king. But he says in Psalms 76, even
the wrath of man shall praise the Lord. So God gets glory in
this one way or the other. He says
in Deuteronomy 32, I kill, I make alive. God does this. Yet Hazel, was fully responsible
in this despicable act, and Elijah knew this right well, and that's
why he wept, because he knew his people were going to suffer
greatly at this man's hands. It's almost as if Elijah was
saying, you can't help it, you can't help yourself, but this
you will do because your heart desires to do it. If God doesn't
restrain, we will be this bad. I would do this. Yes, we will.
I remember something Marvin Stoniker said probably 25 years ago, he
said, I've learned never to say, I wouldn't do that. He said, am I a dog? Well, he,
Hazel, nor would we by nature and by birth, we do not think
we are capable of such utterly vile, corrupt acts. But we know
we are. If God does not restrain us,
this is what we're going to do. We know we would, we know we
will, and we know we could. Our depravity is not conquered,
but it's divinely subdued by the new nature. Our old nature
does not get any better, But we have a new nature in place.
That's why there's a conflict. That's why there's a struggle.
Therefore, we can do what any other sinner can do. We can deny
the Lord. We can walk away. We can murder.
We can hate. We can extort. But the grace of God keeps us. And that, I'm so very thankful. So very thankful. That's why
what Ezekiel says in 36, The only remedy for this situation,
for us being found guilty here, is a new heart given by pure
grace alone, through blood alone, by faith alone, and this is by
the quickening Spirit alone. Truly, if we are left alone,
this is what we would do. And this is horrible. In the
man of God, He knew what was going to happen. And yet he knew
this was God's purpose being fulfilled as it was told his
mentor Elijah. So what I say is, O Lord, cause
us to own up our own sin. Children, don't pass it off. Own up your own sin. Ask the Lord to cause us to confess
our sins and forsake our sins, and may Christ take it all away
from us, or else we'll perish. There's no alternative. We either
act religious, or we are Christs. And it's just amazing how this
King Ben-Adab, the first depraved, all of a sudden his whole attitude
changed. outwardly. And Hazel, supporting
the king, the king's right-hand man, and in turn, Judas, betrayed
with a kiss. Betrayed with a kiss. May we
ask God to be merciful to us that we do not end up like this
guy Hazel or Benadab, but may we seek Him early, seek Him often. And in seeking, He will grant
mercy. He never turns away a true cry
for mercy. Nathan, would you close us?