Many and varied are the tasks
assigned to God's servants in this world. To some, gospel preachers are
made a saver of life unto life. To some, the same gospel preachers
are made a saver of death unto death. God's servants are sent, all
of God's servants, and their generations to gather in the
wheat and to the Savior's garner and to bind up the tares for
the burning. They're sent to comfort the Lord's
sheep and to denounce the wicked and warn the evildoers. They're
sent to build up and they're sent to tear down. They're sent
for the ingathering of God's elect and they're sent for the
hardening of the reprobate. Sometimes God's servant is sent
to pronounce the blessings of his grace upon his people as
our Lord did in Matthew chapter 5 when he gives us those great
Beatitudes. Sometimes they're sent to pronounce
God's curse and God's woe upon scribes, Pharisees, and religious
hypocrites, as our Lord did in Matthew chapter 23. Tonight,
I want us to look at Elijah's last work. We'll look at 1 Kings
chapter 22, begin at the very last of chapter 22, and go through
the first chapter of 2 Kings chapter 1. Come on in and sit
down, son. Don't get up again. We don't allow that here. Come
on in and sit down. Here is Elijah's last work. Elijah was made at the beginning
of his ministry a saver of life to the widow of Zarephath. But
at the end of his days, this same man of God was made a saver
of death to King Ahaziah, in the very last act he performed
as God's prophet. Are you there? First Kings chapter
22 verse 51. And Ahaziah the son of Ahab began
to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat
king of Judah and reigned two years over Israel. And he did
evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his
father and in the way of his mother. He was truly Ahab's son
and truly Jezebel's son. He behaved just like he was taught.
And in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel
to sin. For he served Baal and worshipped
him. and provoked to anger the Lord
God of Israel according to all that his father had done. Then
Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And
Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was
in Samaria and was sick and sent messengers and said unto them,
go inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron, the God of flies. whether I shall recover of this
disease. But the angel of the Lord said
to Elijah the Tishbite, arise, go up to meet the messengers
of the king of Samaria and say unto them, is it not because
there is not a God in Israel that you go to inquire at Beelzebub,
the God of Ekron? Now, therefore, thus saith the
Lord, thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art
grown up. but shall surely die. And Elijah
departed. And when the messengers turned
back unto him, he said unto them, Why are you now turned back?
And they said unto him, There came up a man to meet us and
said unto us, Go, turn again to the king that sent you and
say unto him, Thus saith the Lord. Is it not because there
is not a God in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Beelzebub,
the God of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come
down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but thou shalt surely
die. And Ahaziah, he said unto them,
what manner of man was he? What kind of man are you talking
about? What was he like? which came up to meet you and
told you these words. And they answered him, he was
a hairy man with a girdle of leather about his loins. And
he said, I know him. I've seen him often in my father's
house. I've heard my father speak of
him many times and heard him speak to my father. He is Elijah
the Tishbite. Then the king sent unto him a
captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up unto him, and
behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him,
Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered
and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let
fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And
there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his 50.
Again also he sent unto him another captain of 50 with his 50. And
he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus saith, thus
hath the king said, come down quickly. And Elijah answered
and said unto them, if I be a man of God, let fire come down from
heaven and consume thee and thy 50. And the fire of God came
down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. And he sent again
a captain of 50, the third 50, with his 50. And the third captain of 50 went
up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and besought him
and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life and
the life of these 50 thy servants be precious in thy sight. Behold,
there came fire down from heaven and burnt up the two captains
of the former 50s with their 50s. Therefore, let my life now
be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the Lord said
unto Elijah, go down with him, be not afraid of him. And he
arose and went down with him unto the king. And he said unto
him, thus saith the Lord, for as much as thou has sent messengers
to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron, is it not because
there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore
thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone
up, but shalt surely die. So he died according to the word
of the Lord, which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in
his stead in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat,
king of Judah, because he had no son. Now the rest of the acts
of Ahaziah, which he did. Are they not written in the book
of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Thus God the Holy
Spirit describes Elijah's last deed and Elijah departed. I had planned to preach to you
This evening from the book of second or first john as I had
announced and I had prepared all the past couple of weeks
to do so But before eight o'clock this morning, I got a note from
brother frank hall He said I have read second kings chapter 1 20
times I've read all I can find on it and I still have no idea
what it teaches If you'd take time to look it over for me,
I'd sure appreciate it. So I began looking it over, and
I've been looking it over all day, and I believe God's given
me a message for you. Let me show you five things in
this first chapter of 2 Kings. May God, the Holy Spirit, who's
given us this piece of history, now inscribe on our hearts the
lessons he intends for us from this piece of history. First,
let me remind you that there is always a just cause for divine
judgment. There is always a just cause
for divine judgment. The cause of God's judgment is
always found in man who sins against God. God does not arbitrarily
send judgment upon any. God does not arbitrarily damn
men and women. God does not arbitrarily sentence
folks to hell. When God sends judgment, He does
so justly. That is, for a just and righteous
reason. Yes, I fully understand and fully
believe that God Almighty orders all things in providence exactly
as He has decreed from eternity. Yes, I fully understand and I
fully believe that God's decree from eternity is unalterable. His elect shall be saved. The
reprobate shall be damned. But understand this and understand
it clearly. God will not save anyone except
to do so justly. He chose us, but he won't save
us except to do so justly. He predestinated his elect under
everlasting salvation, but he will not save predestination
notwithstanding, except he do so justly. God Almighty always
acts in strict justice. He is a just God and a savior,
or he's no savior at all. He saves us justly by the righteousness,
by the obedience, by the doing and dying of Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer. And God will not punish anyone
except to do so justly. God will not punish anyone except
to do so justly. God only sends folks to hell
who deserve to go to hell. God only sends people to hell
who have earned the wages of sin, which is everlasting death
in hell. The judgment of God upon Israel
and Ahaziah recorded in this passage we've read is clearly
set before us as acts of divine justice. These things fell upon
Ahaziah because he fully deserved them. These things fell upon
Israel because they fully deserved them. We read in chapter 22,
the last Section of first Kings 22 a Isaiah the son of Ahab began
to reign over Israel in Samaria The 17th year of the reign of
Jehoshaphat king of Judah and reigned two years over Israel
and he did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the
way of his father and in the way of his mother and And in
the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to
sin, for he served Baal and worshiped him and provoked to anger the
Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had done. Now, that declaration is unspeakably
solemn. The three and a half years of
famine the exposure of Baal's impotence, the slaying of the
prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel by God's prophet Elijah, the
all-inspiring way God dealt with Ahab all the days of his life
through Elijah and his work were fully known to Ahaziah. This
man saw it all. He was there when Elijah mocked
the prophets of Baal and they were slain. He was there when
God answered by fire and licked up the water. He was there when
God stopped the heavens. He was there when God opened
the heavens again. He saw it all and he heard it
all. And yet he persisted in his hardness of heart. Nothing
changed him. He refused to take these things
to heart. heedless of God's countless warnings,
he went on his reckless rebellion and idolatry and sin, serving
Baal and worshiping his name, and thereby provoked the Lord
God of Israel. His heart was fully set upon
iniquity. Therefore, he was cut off in
his youth. He reigned in Israel for just
two years. In fact, if you read the account
carefully, you'll find that he reigned just a little over one
year. Be part of it being counted for two years. He reigned just
for just a little over a year in Israel and was cut off in
his wickedness. Nevertheless, even in his case,
mercy was mingled with justice. As is usually the case, God gave
him space for repentance. Over and over again. He was warned
over and over again. He heard God's word over and
over again He heard God's prophet over and over again. He said
God get out of my way I'll have my own way. I'll not worship
you. I'll not serve you. I'll do my
own thing And then we read in the opening of verse opening
verse in chapter 20 of 2nd Kings 1 then Moab rebelled against Israel
after the death of Ahab. What a connection. In fulfillment
of Balaam's prophecy, back in the book of Numbers, David had
conquered the Moabites and the Moabites became servants to Israel
and they served Israel and paid annual tribute to Israel all
the days of David and through all the days of the kings of
Israel right up to the days of Ahab and when Ahab died then
Moab rebelled against Israel Moab turned against Israel and
fought against Israel and prevailed. Divine providence had crossed
Ahaziah's path again and again, and here it crosses Ahaziah's
path even more starkly. Moab has rebelled. Moab has gained
power over Israel. Israel has lost its influence. But Ahaziah went on in his rebellion. The king of Israel then fell
through a piece of lattice. Now you stop and consider that.
You stop and think about that. God brings judgment upon this
mighty king of Israel, and he falls off the balcony of his
palace in Samaria, obviously up on the second floor, down
to the lower floor, through a cracked piece of lattice. His father was stricken by a
man who drew a bow and venture. This man falls to a piece of
cracked lattice. I'll tell you what, I've not
done so. You read all you can about how men have died and find
me another full grown man who fell to his death through a piece
of lattice. Find me another one. Any man
with half-good sense has got better sense than to lean against
a whole piece of lattice, let alone one that's cracked. Just
a piece of latticework. Who leans against that? Only
a man marked for death by the finger of God. He fell to his
death through a piece of lattice, but he didn't die suddenly. He
fell down, and the result of his fall was sickness. A sickness
that caused him to be concerned about dying. not concerned about
his responsibility, not concerned about duty, not concerned about
what he ought to do, but rather concerned about dying. So he
sends not to the prophet of God, whom he knew, but he sends to
Baal, the prophet of Baal, the servants of Baal, the god of
flies. He sends after Baal, Baalzebub
he's called. In fact, in the New Testament,
our Lord Jesus uses this very name to refer to Satan himself. For all false gods are but the
representations on earth of Satan himself. And so this king in
Israel sends to Beelzebub to ask, am I going to die from this
sickness? Am I going to die from this sickness?
He wants to know what the future holds. He wants to know whether he's
going to die from this sickness. Now, I could spend a good bit
of time here talking to you ladies and some of you men about following
your horoscopes. Well, I don't think anything
about it. If you don't think anything about it, quit following it.
Quit looking at it. It's nothing but idolatry. He
wants to know what's going to happen tomorrow. Well, brother
Don, everybody wants to know that. No. No, oh no, no, no. I want to know what God's purposed,
and I want to know what God's will is now. And I want to know
what my responsibility is before God's will. You would be wise
to seek the same. Isaiah sent messengers to inquire
of Beelzebub, the god of flies, because that's all the God he
knew. The king of Israel acted as though there was no God in
Israel. And indeed, as far as he was
concerned, there was none. He worshipped Beelzebub, God
of flies. So it is in every generation
where men despise God, his gospel and his grace, and they pretend
still to be God's people and worshippers of God. They speak
of a God who doesn't really have a purpose that he will accomplish.
A Christ who doesn't really have the ability to redeem on his
own. A spirit who doesn't really have
the ability to give men life and preserve them in life because
there's no God in Israel. They'll go after the gods of
their own lust and their own imaginations. Now understand
me. There is always a therefore behind
God's judgment. If you go to hell, it will be
altogether your own fault. If you go to hell, it will be
because you fully deserve to go to hell. Vessels of wrath
are always fitted for destruction by their own ungodliness. Read
the book of God. Read the book of God. The wages
of sin is death. The Lord God speaks and says,
He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly
be destroyed, and that without remedy. Especially you here. Especially you here. If you go
to hell, you'll go to hell shoving God out of your way. Shoving
God out of your way. You'll go to hell with your fist
shoved in God's face. You'll go to hell with your fingers
in your ears. You'll go to hell because you
choose death rather than life. Because you choose not to worship
the God of glory. After your hardness and impenitent
heart, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. Second, we
see in Ahaziah an example of the utter hardness of the human
heart. Oh, how hard the heart of man
is. Elisiah was around to see and
hear the things that transpired in the king's palace. He was
around when Elijah appeared on Mount Carmel. He was around to
hear the prophet in various acts of judgment. He saw God perform
wonder after wonder by his servant Elijah. Isaiah heard the prophet's
message as it's recorded for us in this chapter. While he
was dying, he heard God's prophet again. He fell through this piece
of lattice and sends messengers. And Elijah said, you're going
to die. You're going to die. And when those men came back,
he sent messengers to fetch Elijah to him. He would not hear it.
The Lord God declares plainly that the heart of man is obstinate,
hard. We're told in Ezekiel three,
it's hard as adamant stone. Obdurate hardness. Oh, the hardness
of the human heart. Oh, the hardness of the human
heart. Our Lord Jesus was in Gethsemane
and the soldiers who came and saw the mighty display of his
power as God, when they fell away backward and he raised them
up. when he took by his hand and
touched Malchus's ear and healed the ear that Peter had taken,
had smitten off with his sword. Those very men hardened their
hearts harder still and crucified the Lord of glory. Oh, the obdurate hardness of
the human heart, our own hearts, hardened and stiff against God,
hardened and rebellious against God, hardened and would not come
to Him, would not bow to Him, would not believe God's Son,
except God Himself break the heart. You see, the heart of
man cannot be broken by judgment or affliction or trouble or trial
The heart of man will not be broken by weakness, by fall,
by sickness. The heart of man will not be
broken by bereavement, by sorrow of any kind. It will not happen.
Not broken in repentance. Not broken before God. Not broken
over sin. The heart of man will not be
broken. That's not possible. That's not
possible. I've said to you many times,
there's one reason That I don't chase ambulances, I don't run
to the hospital, run to the jail every time somebody gets sick
or gets in trouble. I recognize that judgment's inexperience
will never work repentance. It will not happen. It will not
happen. The Lord God compares the heart
of man to adamant stone. I can't find any record of such
a stone ever really existing. It was a legendary stone, a legendary
stone. It couldn't be broken with a
hammer or chisel. It couldn't be cut with any object. It couldn't even be heated with
any fire except on the surface. It couldn't be melted, adamant
stone. The legend has it the only way
the adamant stone could be melted was if you found some goat's
blood and poured it over the stone. and the blood of a goat
would melt the adamant stone. Oh, no wonder God used that legendary
stone as a picture of the hard heart of man. It is the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ, God's scapegoat, that melts the heart
of man and nothing else, nothing else. This man, Ahaziah, hardened
his heart and would not bow to God. Elijah is held here before us
as a man of God. Five times in this first chapter,
Elijah is referred to as man of God. Five times. Five times. Now let me briefly
tell you what we see here about a man of God. That which is true
of the man of God described here is true of the man of God in
any age, in any place. It is true of God's servants,
God's prophets, God's preachers, wherever you find them. Number
one, the man of God is commissioned by Christ. Up in verse three,
it was Christ, the angel of the Lord, who sent Elijah with his
message. Number two, The man of God is
known to be a man of God. The turning back of Ahaziah's
messengers proved that they were convinced that Elijah spoke as
a man of God. And then after describing his
appearance to the king, Ahaziah said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. I know the manner of that man.
I know exactly who you're talking about. He knew him well. The
man of God is a man commissioned by God, and he is known by friend
and foe. He is known by God's people and
those who oppose God's people as God's man. The man of God
is. And third, the man of God is
mocked. In verse 9, the captain of the
50s sent his men up and said, thou man of God. The next one
comes, and he's all man of God. But as obvious as the construction
of the language is, that both of them spoke in mockery. They
spoke in mockery. Much like men spoke to the Savior,
if thou be the son of God. He said he's the son of God,
let's see if God will have him. All man of God, thou man of God. And Elijah was totally unmoved. unaffected by the mocking of
these men. Totally unmoved. Look at what
scripture says here. Look at verse 9. Behold, he sat on the
top of a hill. Here these fellows come, soldiers
with the authority of the king of Israel. Elijah knew who they
were. He knew what power they had.
These men came, a captain of 50, and he brings 50 soldiers
with him. And they come with the authority
of the king of Israel. And they come mocking him and
say, come down, come down quickly. The king said so. And Elijah
just sat there. He just sat there. And he said,
if I'm a man of God, you're going to burn up right here. That's
all he said. That's all he said. You see,
the man of God will always be vindicated by God. He doesn't have to vindicate
himself. Happy is the preacher who knows that. The sooner he
learns it, the better off he will be. The man of God is always
vindicated by God. Elijah said twice, If I'm a man
of God, the fire of God is going to fall from heaven and you're
going to burn up right where you are. And so it came to pass. Over and over again, you read
a New Testament about the apostle Paul and how men mocked him and
derided him and spoke against him and all the stuff went on. He said on one occasion, he said,
it is no great thing to me if I be judged of you or a man's
judgment. Indeed, I don't even judge myself. He said there's a day coming
when everything will appear in its true light. I'm prepared
to wait till then. The man of God understands whose
servant he is, understand what calls he's involved with, and
he's prepared to wait for God to set all things right. Number
five. The man of God is feared. Even by those who mock him, and
despise his message. He's feared. I listened to folks talk about
Ralph Barnard. I didn't know the man. I only
met him once, and that was from a distance. But I didn't know
him. And folks who knew him are down in Sylacauga. Some of the
folks down there my age grew up listening to Ralph Barnard
preach. They were scared to death of him, scared to death of him. And that's pretty much universal
testimony. Scared to death, respected him,
but wouldn't cross him for the world. Scared to death, saying
the wrong thing to him. Respected him, but feared him. Respected him, feared him. I've
heard Brother Todd Nyberg say many times he was raised 13th
Street Church under Brother Mahan's ministry. Brother Henry was his
mother's pastor before she was married. And Todd said, I was
scared to death of that man. He called me in his office and
I just trembled, just scared to death of him. The fact is,
a man who is sent of God and speaks for God with the authority
of God is feared by folks who respect God and folks who don't. by folks who believe God and
folks who don't. Feared because he speaks for
God and serves him. Not feared because of any other
reason, just because he speaks for God and serves him. Sixth,
the man of God is obedient. The man of God's obedient. Merle
Hart, that was true in Elijah's day and is true today. If I'm
God's servant, I'm obedient to God and to nobody else. Obedient to God and nobody else. Brother Don, you've shown us
many times where God's servants weren't obedient. Yeah, I know. I know. But God fixed it so they
obeyed. And God fixes it so that they
obey. The man of God's obedient to him. The Lord said to Elijah,
all right, you speak to these messengers of Ahaziah. And he told him what God said.
And then he went and sat down on a hill. And the captains of
fifties came, and the captains of fifties came, and the captains
of fifties came. And the Lord said to Elijah, now you go with
that one. Don't be afraid to go. And speak to Ahaziah himself
and tell him you're gonna die. And Elijah did exactly what he
was told to do. You see, the man of God, seventh,
is faithful. He faithfully delivers God's
message as God gives it to the people he sent to speak God's
message to, the man of God. Number four, we have before us
a marvelous pre-incarnate revelation of Christ, our blessed Savior,
as the angel of the Lord. Verses 3 and 15 The angel of
the Lord appeared, the angel of the covenant, the angel of
God's presence. That's Christ, our Redeemer.
Throughout the Old Testament, our Savior is portrayed as the
angel of the Lord. He comes and shows himself in
pre-incarnate revelations of himself as the angel of the Lord.
He came to Abraham. And Abraham worshipped him. He
is one who came and brought life out of Sodom and Gomorrah. He
is that one before whom Manoah and his wife fell down and worshipped.
He's the angel of the Lord. He's the one who spoke to Moses.
He's the one who constantly reveals himself in the Old Testament.
The messenger of God. The one by whom God's covenant
is revealed and by whom God's covenant is fulfilled. He is
the angel of the Lord who's seated on the throne of glory. And he
wears a crown on his head. And he holds the book of God
in his right hand. And he rules the universe according
to it. This is the angel of the Lord. Number five. Look at verses 13 and 14 again.
Here is a marvelous picture of the sinner's only hope. The sinner's
only hope is mercy. And he sent again a captain of
the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty
went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and besought
him and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life
and the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down
from heaven and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties
with their fifties. Therefore, let my life now be
precious in thy sight. When the sinner, broken and humbled
with a sense of sin, conscious of guilt and deserve punishment,
comes to the Lord Jesus, this one who is the man of God, Elijah's
master and throws himself upon the altar of God's free bounty
and sovereign grace, suing for mercy. That sinner will be as
successful as this captain of the fifties was. Come and seek
his face, whose wrath you cannot bear. You see the Lord Jesus,
the man of God, that man who is God waits to be gracious. He will save. He will be Jesus,
the man of God, waiting to be gracious, having mercy upon sinners. This is what scripture says.
You can listen to this. You can look at it later. Isaiah
30. Therefore, will the Lord wait that he may be gracious
unto you. Therefore, will he be exalted
that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He
will joy over thee with singing. And when Elijah had finished
his last work, being faithful to the end, we read Elijah departed. Elijah departed when his work
was done. But I see here one other thing
that I find marvelous. This is the thing that flooded
my soul when I read this chapter today, early this morning. This
captain, this third captain of the 50s came out, and he feared
God. He sought mercy because you see
God in every age, are you listening to me? God in every age has his
elect everywhere. God has his elect everywhere. The Apostle Paul wrote to the
Philippians and spoke to them about some of God's saints of
Caesar's household. Imagine that. Folks in Caesar's household who
believed God. Folks who were slaves to Caesar,
but they believed God. Here are men who were captains
of fifties, under the orders of an idolatrous, heathen king
sitting on the throne in Israel by the name of Ahaziah, the son
of Ahab and Jezebel. This servant of Baal is above
this fool who worshiped a god of flies. But among them is a
people loved and chosen of God who must meet God's prophet. and hear God's word and bow to
God's throne. God has His elect everywhere.
Let us then seek them everywhere and wait for God to call them
from everywhere as He surely will. Amen.