I suppose probably no one looks
more forward to the months with five Sundays than I do. Today's
the day of our fellowship lunch together after our services.
And as always, the ladies and even some of the more talented
men have prepared some wonderful food. And there's never been
a time when we met together to eat that I didn't eat more than
I should. I've never left one of these
lunches hungry. But friends, we're living in
a city, a country, and a world. that is in great spiritual famine. I mean famine. Destitute. without spiritual food, without
God, and without hope in this world. And it seems to me in
the last 25 years, I seem to hear more people talk about grace,
more about the doctrines of grace even. Well, I remember 25 years
ago, I very seldom ever heard the word sovereign in religious
circles, but it seems to be a common word anymore. And doctrines of
that grace have become a common terminology among many so-called
Reformed churches. But where is the preaching of
Christ? You see, you can preach doctrine
and not preach Christ. Oh, you can't. But you cannot
preach Christ and not preach the marvelous doctrines of grace. Never forget, as I said in the
beginning, salvation is in a person. It don't matter how much you
know or have memorized of Scripture that speaks of election, predestination,
and all these marvelous doctrines that we love. If you don't know
Christ, you're without God and without hope in this world. Where
is the preaching of Christ? No man or woman has ever been
saved by preaching doctrine, even the doctrines of grace. Salvation, as I said again, and
I mean to be redundant, salvation is in a person, the Lord Jesus
Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. Now, if you will,
turn with me to 2 Kings. Old Testament book, 2 Kings,
chapter 6. 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings,
2 Kings. I want to read a couple of verses
here in chapter 6, and then we'll move into the beginning part
of chapter 7. Let's start reading here in chapter
6 and verse 24. And it came to pass, after this,
that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his hosts and went
up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine
in Samaria. And behold, they besieged it.
until an ass's head was sold for four score pieces of silver
and the fourth part of a cab of doves dung for five pieces
of silver. When speaking of this particular
famine here, many of the old writers say that it was by the
blockade of Samaria by the Syrians. I agree with this because as
we'll see that the Syrians themselves had food. and provisions. In other words, the Syrians were
starving them out so that they could not partake or store up
the provisions of their crops. But I will say this, that's the
second cause. You see, the first cause of everything
is God. And friends, there's a famine
in this land. And God is the first cause. Oh,
may he be pleased to reveal himself in the preaching of the gospel.
Regardless of the reason of this famine, things had gotten so
bad and the people had gotten so desperate that they were feeding
donkey heads and dove's dung. And I might add that the cost
of these horrible provisions were just as horrible. An ass's
head sold for 80 pieces of silver. And the dung of doves sold for
5 pieces of silver. And if that isn't bad enough,
look down at verse 26. And as the king of Israel was
passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying,
Help my lord, O king. And he said, If the Lord do not
help thee, when shall I help thee? Oh my, there's a message
in itself. If the Lord Do not help thee,
when shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor, or out
of the winepress? And the king said unto her, What
aileth thee? And she answered, This woman
said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and will
we eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did
eat him. And I said unto her on the next
day, Give thy son, that we may eat him, and she hath hid her
son. Oh, I'm telling you folks, unless
the Lord give a person grace and mercy, I suppose there is
no time that a man or woman's depravity is seen more than when
they're faced with life-threatening loss. Human nature is capable,
now listen, it's capable of doing many horrible things. The heart
of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
In chapters 6 and 7 of 2 Kings, there are many spiritual lessons
that we can profit from. But today I want to consider
the story found in verses 3 about four lepers who clearly and most
definitely give us a picture of redemption in Christ. While
the siege of the enemy along with the great famine that all
Samaria faced, we have a story here of four lepers. And if God
be our teacher, I think we can glean some valuable lessons from
these four men. So I've entitled this message,
Lessons from Lepers. Lessons from Lepers. Look at
verse three of chapter seven. And there were four lepers, four
leprous men at the entering in of the gate. So they weren't
allowed into the city because of their condition. And they
said to one another, why sit here until we die? Verse four,
if we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is
in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit still here,
we die also. Now, therefore, come and let
us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive,
we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall
but die. What do we have to lose? what
we have to lose. And they rose up in the twilight
to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the
uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man
there. For the Lord had made the host
of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses,
even the noise of a great host. And they said to one another,
Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites
and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they
arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their
horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled
for their life. And verse 8, when these lepers
came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one
tent, and did eat and drink, and they carried then silver
and gold and raiment, and went and hid it, and came again and
entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went
and hid it. And they said one to another,
We do not will. This day is a day of good tidings,
and we hold our peace. If we tarry to the morning light,
some mischief will come upon us. Now, therefore, come that
we may go and tell the king's household." Notice the first thing that these
four lepers reasoned among themselves. They said this, why do we sit here and starve
to death? If we sit here, we're going to
die. If we go into the city, we'll
die also because there's no food there. The thing for us to do
is to go to our enemies, the Syrians, and seek mercy. And
if they show mercy and spare us, we will live. But if they kill us, we're going
to die anyway. We see that in verses three and
four. So as we read, they arose that evening and they entered
into the camp of the Syrians, but to their surprise they found
no one there. I wonder if Lady Luck was behind
that. They found abundant food, drink,
clothes, silver, gold, and all the Syrians had fled. Why did
they flee? God. God had caused them to hear
the sound of chariots and horses. And they were so afraid, they
left everything they had and spaghettoed, as we say. Gone
out of there. That evening, the Lord had done
a marvelous work. Now, let's ask ourselves, what
does this story teach us? Well, like every story in Scripture,
if God enabled us to see, it teaches us something of the redemption
that we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It was bad enough that
these men had leprosy. But on top of that, they were
starving. These diseased, dying, starving lepers accurately, my
dear friends, represent the whole human race under the judgment
and curse of sin. Spiritually, we are wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, naked, plagued with a humanly incurable
disease called sin. Sadly, most people don't even
know it. In Revelation 3.17, I'm reminded
of the words that says, "...because thou sayest, I am rich and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing." Most people today have
a need of nothing, spiritually speaking especially. And knowest
not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And let me say that if you're
ever deceived, you're those things, God will have to reveal it to
you. Do you see that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked?
Oh, friends, there's multitudes of people who are without Christ,
without hope, without God in this world, according to Ephesians
chapter 2. And I confess to you that I could
spend all the allotted time that I have this morning and not even
come close to adequately describing the total ruin, complete poverty,
and spiritual helplessness of Adam's sons and daughters, you
and I. Scripture after Scripture tells
us of our depravity, of our unrighteousness, our self-righteousness, our inability. Until God shows you that, you'll
never have a need for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's just a fact. Those that are well have no need
of physician. And if I took all the time that
I had, I would have only begun to expound the depths of our
desperation and depravity outside of Christ. But these four desperate
men, if God permit, could shine some light on our spiritually
dead condition before thrice holy God." Now, I'm not going
to have you turn here, but you're very familiar with Romans chapter
3. It says these words, as it is
written, there is none righteous. None. Not one. That means all of us. Isn't that
what none means? Nobody. Not one. There is none
that understand that there is none that seeketh after God.
It's only when God seeks us that we seek Him. It's only when God
calls us and does a work of grace in our heart that we have any
desire at all. to seek and know God Almighty
and His Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those of you that
know Him know that so. When God came to you in mercy,
was you seeking Him? If you were, it was because He'd
already come to you in mercy. He'd already done a work of grace
in your heart. Paul goes on to say in Romans
3, verse 12, they are all... Now, does it all mean all? They've
gone out of the way. They've together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
And he reiterates and says, no, not one. He's going to make sure
here that we understand that there's nothing in us that we
can offer to God Almighty. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they've used
to see the poison of asp is under their lips. Under whose lips?
All of us. Every single one. Their mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness. Every time you complain against
God's problems, you're cursing. You're shaking your fist at God
and you're saying, I don't like the way you're doing things.
Now let's just be honest. Mouths full of cursing and bitterness.
Feet are swift to shed blood. And we by nature are just, we're
swift to run to shed blood and talk about others and judge others
and contend with others. I'm talking about me. And I would
venture to say it's no different with you. There's none of us.
All in the same boat. None that doeth good, no not
one. Destruction, misery are in our ways. Our ways and the
way of peace have we, they, not known. There's no fear of God
before their, our eyes. Oh, can you see this speaks of
you? And we know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law..." Who's
under the law? Every single one of us. Under
the law. "...that every mouth..." Every
mouth. may be stopped, and all the world
come guilty before God." This whole world, dear friends, is
guilty before God in and of themselves. Every single person born of woman
except Christ Himself, guilty in Adam. And only the Spirit
of God can reveal to sinners what happened in our Father Adam's
rebellious fall. Now, it's important. Now let
me just take the time briefly here to say it's very important
to remember that Adam was not deceived by the serpent. That's
what makes this fall of his so great. Adam wasn't deceived. Eve was deceived, but Adam was
fully aware, fully conscious of what he was doing when he
partook of God's forbidden tree. Do you know what Adam, in essence,
did? He said what men and women say
today. He said, I'm going to be my own
God. I'm going to do it my way. The Lord said, in the day you
eat of that fruit, you will die. And he did. And every child of
Adam since, born of woman, has been born condemned, born dead
in the trespasses of sin, in which the wages of sin is death."
Adam simply decided that he would be and become his own God. And
that truth alone should warn religious men and women that
salvation can never be in a decision of ours. Here we have a perfect
man. He was created perfect in the
likeness and image of God. And you know what his free will
was? I'm going to be my own God. What would make fallen men and
women think that their way, their will, their decision would be
the right way? They don't have a thing to do
with that. No, no, no. Salvation can never be a decision
of others. Our decisions, our wills, and
our ways are nothing but self-serving and evil. And the sooner that
you and I realize that, the better off we'll be. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned every one half to
his own way. I did it my way, the song says,
and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. There's
hope yet. Did you hear that? The Lord hath
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. We cannot come to Christ
because of our inability, but do you know what the most wicked
part of our indifference to God is as sinners? We will not come. We will not come that we might
have light. My will is not to come. My will,
like Adam's, is to be my own God. Do things my way. Men and women by nature simply
love darkness rather than light. Do you know why? John tells us. Because their deeds are evil.
Your deeds are evil. You're born in sin. There's none that doeth good. Now back to these lepers. These
lepers, knowing their helpless state, they considered three
things. The first thing, they said, if we stay here, we're
going to die. The second thing, they said,
if we go into the city, we're going to die. And the third thing,
they said, Syrians are our enemies, but they've got plenty of food.
We can go to them and we can seek mercy and help. If they
choose to show mercy to us, we're going to live. But if they don't,
we've lost nothing, but we're going to die anyway. Now, I have
to say that these four old boys have been enlightened somewhat,
somehow. They were smarter than the average
bear. Wisely, they chose to cast themselves
on the mercy of the Syrians, and they were delivered by the
providence of God. Now for a moment, let us consider
our hopeless, sinful state. Jeremiah says, Can an Ethiopian
change his skin? Can a leper change his spots?
Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doing evil?
What is there for us to do? Well, I know this, if we stay
where we are, and sin and indifference to God, we're going to perish
under the wrath of God. Friends, if you're here and you
are without Christ, staying where you are will benefit you nothing. It's appointed unto men once
to die, but after this, the judgment. Who then can be saved, you might
ask? Well, you know, the disciples
asked our Lord that in Matthew 19. And Jesus said unto them,
with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. These lepers said, if we stay
here, we're going to die. And if you stay in your sin and
remain indifferent to the grace of God, you're going to die. It's just that simple. You're
going to die. Second thing they say, if we go into the city,
we shall die there. Now let me tell you what I believe
this city represents in this story. I believe it represents
organized religion. Men and women organize efforts
to help themselves, but you cannot help yourself. You cannot help
yourself. One of the biggest lies in all
the world is that old saying. And I used to hear my mom say
it. And I thought, you know, that sounds good. But that old
saying says, God helps those that help themselves. That's
a lie. God doesn't help those that help
themselves. God helps those who cannot help
themselves. There's a big difference. God
helps those who can help themselves. Well, that sounds good. But what
if you're blind? What if you can't hear? What
if you can't speak? What if you can't walk? What
if you're dead? How are you going to help yourself? And that's what you and I are,
spiritually speaking. God helps those who help themselves.
No siree. He helps those who cannot help
themselves. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe. You see, to be ignorant is to
be uninformed. That's all that means. They're
ignorant of God's righteousness. They're uninformed. How does
the righteousness of God come to the center? Only one way.
Christ is righteous. It's the end of the law for righteousness.
I'll get it right here in a moment. To everyone that believes, you
cannot establish a righteousness for yourself. It's an impossibility. Only one way to be righteous,
and that is to submit, bow, agree, adhere to the righteousness of
God in Christ alone. What does the Scripture say?
He was made to be sin for us that what? We might become the
righteousness of God. Where? In Him. That's how it
comes. That's the only way it comes.
in your efforts to find righteousness any other way. You cannot obtain
righteousness by the keeping of the law. It was never given. The law was never given for you
to keep. I know you know that. Let me
say it again. The law was never given for you
to keep. You know why it was given? To
show you you couldn't keep it. And to shut you up to the sovereign
grace of God in Christ. I look at the law. I was alive
once. And I saw I couldn't keep God's
law. I thought I was being a good
boy. That's what we tell our kids. You be a good boy. I have
people tell me all the time now, you know, it's just a slang saying.
You be good. And I always say, give me something
I can do. I can't be good. There's none that do us good.
Oh, we're taught and trained from an early age. Oh, just be
good. Do the best you can. It's never
enough. It'll never be enough. Not to
a thrice holy God. Now listen to me, Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. God's a law fulfilled, completed. And in Him, I stand perfect before
it. Now that's the gospel, dear friend.
Salvation's in a person, and that person is Christ. This city, picture of religion. It had people, it had activity,
it had buildings, it had organizations, but they didn't have no food
for themselves, much less those lepers. And it's the same with
religion. You won't find spiritual food
in religion. Christ is the bread of life.
Christ is that rock that gives drink in a weary land. Jesus
is a rock in a weary land. Isn't that what the song said?
Oh, it's the same with religion. There's nothing there for us.
Now, we're in great famine, dear listener. Amos 8. I want to read
you just two verses. It says, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. And
then he says these words, Not a famine of bread, Not a famine
thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Amos 8 verses 11 and 12. Write
it down and look at it. And it says, And they shall wander
from sea to sea, and from north even to the east, they shall
run to and fro, and seek the word of the Lord, and shall not
find it. People aren't finding the word
of the Lord because very few are standing to proclaim it. When the master asked the disciples,
he said, you going to go away also? You know why all those
folks left? He said, I'm the bread that fell
from heaven. And people did not like that.
And they packed their bags and went home. And the Lord looks
around and there's the twelve. And He said, you going to leave
me also? And old Peter, oh bless his heart, he did a lot of things
wrong. But I'm telling you, he had some
insight. He said, Lord, where else are we going to go? You
have the words to life eternal. Where else are we going to go?
Men have nothing to offer. The law has nothing to offer.
Religion has nothing to offer except a refuge of lies. Wherefore,
hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people,
which is in Jerusalem, Isaiah 28, because ye have said, We
have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are in agreement,
when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. It shall
not come unto us, for we have made lies of our refuge. And
under falsehood have we hid ourselves. That is a picture of religion.
Religion won't save you, friends. Salvation is in Christ. So what
can sinners do then? Well, I'll tell you what they
can do. Like these lepers, we can cast ourselves on the mercy
of God. That's all we can do. That is
all we can do. Even though we've sinned against
God and our sins have brought His wrath and judgment, yet God
is merciful to all who are in Christ. He's a God who delights
in showing mercy. Do you ever get tired of hearing
that? No, your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and your sins have hid His face from you that you will not
hear." Oh, what am I going to do? There's no hope. Well, David
said, Lord, if Thou should mark iniquities, who shall stand? If God hold our iniquities and
our sin against us, who has any hope? None. But he didn't stop
there. He says, but there's forgiveness
with thee. There's forgiveness with thee. That's what those
lepers saw. We'll cast ourselves on the mercies
of our enemy. Now listen, by nature we're enemies
of God. We hate God by nature. We've
sinned against Him and Him only have we done this evil. It's
in His sight. But cast yourself upon your enemy. Cast and ask your enemy for mercy. That's what they did. It worked
out pretty good for them. Is there any hope for us? Oh,
yes. Yes, children of wrath. And God's angry with the wicked
every day, yet the Lord delights to show mercy. That's what I
want you to see. God delights to show mercy. Well, I don't deserve mercy.
I know that. I don't either. It wouldn't be mercy if we did.
Oh, who's a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth
not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. Micah
chapter 7 verse 18. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner?
That's who Christ died for. When these lepers decided to
turn to the only possible source of relief, they reasoned it may
be It may be that they will save us alive. God is certainly not
obligated to save anyone. But those who know their sin
in the light of His holiness and are persuaded to look to
Him and cast themselves on His mercy in Christ, always, always
find plenteous mercy. Every time. Every time. Yes? Sinner, leper, starving,
hopeless, destitute, as desperate as you are, there's hope for
you and there's hope for me. How do I know? I'll give you
just some quick things in closing. It's the gracious nature of God
to show mercy. That's what this book teaches.
That's right. You can read it all throughout.
The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. You can count on that. It's worthy
of all acceptation. Oh, when the fullness of time
has come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. Oh, by His righteousness and
sacrifice, Christ enables God to be both just and justifier. That's why you and I have hope.
Fourthly, it's the chief glory of God to save sinners. God receives
glory in the salvation of sinners. And the chief concern of this
book is that God gets the glory. To God be the glory, great things
He has done. And lastly, it's the command
of God for us. I didn't say invitation. I said
it's the command of God for us to come to Him. But now you think
about this for a moment. Would this holy and righteous
and perfectly good God command us to do anything that He would
not give us the grace to do? People misunderstand what we
who claim to believe in sovereign grace. They think that somehow
God delights in sending wicked folks to hell. That's far from
the truth. God would not command you to
do something that He would not grant and make a way for you
to do. Don't ever think that way. Isaiah
45, I'll leave you with this verse. Tell ye and bring them
near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there's no God else beside
me. I'm a just God and a Savior. And a Savior. And there's none
beside me. Look unto me. Look unto me. And be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Now I'm
going to ask you. I'm going to ask you that are
yet lost and without Christ. Will you stay where you are and
die? If you stay where you are, you're going to die there. Will
you run to religion, where there's no hope, and die also? Or will you run to God? and cast
yourself upon Him, begging for mercy. That's where mercy is
found. You consider these four men in
light of where you are, and may God grant you grace, mercy to
come to Him.