I should have told you to hold
your place there in 2 Kings. If you didn't, please turn back
there with me to chapter 6. The king of Syria warred against
God's chosen nation, Israel. He took counsel with his leaders,
his heads of war and devised a plan of battle according to
verse 8. And their plan was to camp in
strategic locations in hope of ambushing and attacking Israel
unaware. We'll camp here at such and such
place. This is the way they travel. We'll catch them off guard. But
Israel had a weapon, not a physical one, but a spiritual one. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. God was on their side. What a
weapon that was. And this secret weapon was a
man of God named Elijah. Every time that the warriors
of this nation would camp in a certain place and lay a wait
for Israel to pass by, Eliza would go tell the king what place
to avoid. Don't go this way. Don't go that
way. Don't travel that particular
way. They're lying in wait. And we're told in verse 10 that
this didn't happen once or twice, but it happened several times. It happened so many times that
the king was convinced that he had a spy of Israel, or for Israel,
in his own camp. And verse 11 tells us, "...therefore
the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing. And he called his servants, and
he said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the
king of Israel?" There's got to be something going on here.
This was a great plan. I thought of it myself. Why isn't
it working? There's got to be a spy in the
camp. Is there a traitor among us?
And one of the king's servants told him that wasn't the case.
And the servant told the king that their problem was with a
man named Elijah, a prophet in Israel. The servant
said that even the things that the king spoke privately in his
own bedroom, God made known to Elijah. What a sovereign God
we serve. God hears the things we say in
secret. He knows the thoughts and the
intents of our heart before we think say, speak them." God knows
what a God He is. And the king of Syria told his
servants to go and spy out where this Elijah fellow was. He said,
you go find him and he said, you bring him to me. And they told the king that he was
in a city called Dophin. So here's the scene in verse
14. They sent horses and they sent chariots and they sent a
multitude of soldiers to go get this one man. And they even sent
them at night, all for this one man. And there they are, if you can
picture it in your mind's eye, probably thousands of men surrounding
one little tent in Dauphin. which housed Elijah and his servant
only." The next morning we're told that
the servant of Elijah woke up early and he went out from the
tent. Can you imagine his surprise when he looked up? Verse 15 tells us there was a
host, there was a multitude of warriors compassed around them
in the city, both with horses and chariots. And this servant,
imagine he was just scared senseless, don't you? I would have been.
He ran back into the tent and he cried forth to Elijah, Alas,
my master, how shall we do? What are we going to do? You
know that word, alas, there, that sounds kind of non-urgent,
alas. You know what it really means?
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. That's what it means. How many
times have you said that? What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? What am I going to do? What are
we going to do? How are we going to get through this? That's what
that word means. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We're in trouble. We're in trouble. But notice that Elijah gave his
servant the same answer that our Master always gives us. In the midst of our trouble,
in the greatest trials of adversity, our Lord simply says to His people,
fear not. Fear not. And in verse 16, Elijah says,
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. This servant didn't see it. Friends, in times of trouble
and distress, heartache and extreme soul suffering, we must always
remember even the word of the Apostle Paul when he said, what
shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Oh, may I remember that the next
time that I'm in a heavy trial. The man of God who trusts Christ
by faith and understands something about the sovereignty of God,
he stays confident And He stays calm in times of despair. God does not deliver His people
out of Egypt and let them die in the wilderness. Why do we
think that way? As I said in Sunday school, because
we look within instead of to Him. That's why we do. And in the great calm and confidence,
Elijah prayed in verse 17, and he said, Lord, look at this,
Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elijah. Now there's an old proverb, an
old saying that we've all heard that says, seeing is believing. But that's not always true. But
you'll find it more often true if you turn that around and say,
believing is seeing. The believer in Christ sees much
more than any other man sees. You know why? God has opened
his eyes. Blessed is the man who has the
eyesight of faith. Elijah had it. And therefore,
when he saw the host of Syria with all their horses, all their
chariots, all their weapons, all those men, he also saw the host of heaven. with their horses and their chariots
of fire which God had sent to guard him from his enemy. You see, the eyesight of faith
produces in the man who has it a calm, a quiet frame of mind. I've seen men that have had that.
I desire to have it more myself. We're tossed to and fro by the
trials and tribulations that this world throws us. May we
as children of God rest, be calm and confident, and say, my Lord
doeth all things well. And he tells me to fear not. Now Elijah's servant said, Alas,
my Savior. Oh, he was beside himself. But
Elijah didn't say that. There was nothing, nothing to
cause him to be alarmed. He saw with eyes of faith. I'm convinced that when given
the eyes of faith, we can say with David, my heart is fixed,
O God. My heart is fixed. I'll sing
and give praise. And again, I believe we can say
with the psalmist, God is our refuge and strength and a very
present help in trouble. Present help in trouble. Therefore,
we will not fear, though the earth be removed, are though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea." You know why? The very next words
of Psalm 46 says, there is a river. I wonder who that is. There is
a river that flows from God above. There is a fountain filled with
His precious love, sovereign love. Oh, that we all had the eyes
of faith that we might enjoy such calm, such confidence, such
quiet patience. And if we could see as clearly
as he saw, maybe we too would be confident, calm, and quiet. God help us to see that way. And in this amazing story, I
pray that we'll realize the blindness of those who still do not have
their eyes open. And may we learn to be patient
with them and pray for them as Elijah did his young servant. Lord, open his eyes. I have children that I love dearly,
and my prayer is, Lord, open their eyes. And I also trust that He'll also
lead those whose eyes have already been opened to admire the rich
grace of God and see more clearly. That's something we could always
ask God for. Allow me to see just more clearly,
Lord. The mercies of our great God.
Now, I want to quickly give you four things to consider from
this story. The first is natural man. Unregenerated man is blind. He's blind to heavenly things. Many men and women boast that
they can see, but they can't. They can see natural things.
They can see the sun. They can see the moon. They can
see the stars. They can see the beauty of nature. They can enjoy
the seasons. spring, the fall, the beauty
of the leaves. They can observe and see many
things, but they're blind to heavenly things. You see, for natural things,
the natural eye is sufficient. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Now God is everywhere, yet sin-blinded
eyes cannot see Him. When God opens our eyes, we see
Him everywhere. Is that not right? I used to
not see God anywhere and didn't care if I did. And now I see
Him everywhere. I see Him in all things. It's
impossible to place a believer somewhere where he does not see
or feel the presence of his great Creator. We see Him in all things. Whatever landscape the believer
sees and he says in his heart, my Father made this. This is all His handiwork. When
God opens our eyes, we see heavenly things. Yet the natural man,
the blind and the dead in sin can go through the days of his
life and never ever see God at all. If we're ever to see, if
we're ever to see, God must open our eyes. Now you can open the
Bible. And you can find the place where
the Ten Commandments are in plain view. And you can read each and
every commandment clearly with your natural eyes. You can go
right down there and you say, Thou shalt not kill. Well, I've never killed anyone. I'm
clear on that one. And yet spiritually never see
that if you hate someone without a cause, that you've committed
murder in your heart. That's the difference. That's
what I'm trying to show you, the difference between natural
sight and spiritual sight. A child of God sees that he's
committed murder because he hated in his heart without cause. He doesn't have to see. He does not see because his eyes
haven't been opened, is what I mean to say. Our Lord Jesus
said in John 3 to Nicodemus, He said, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We can't see our sin and our
guilt before the law of God. We cannot see or understand the
law. We can't see the perfect righteousness
of Christ which shines perfect light on our sinfulness and exposes
our evil nature. being born blind. We can't see God. We can't see
our own condition. When men are not able to see
their sin and to see their danger, they don't see the way or the
need of salvation. God's got to open their eyes. This is the reason why men do
not admire and love and bless the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't
see His beautiness. They can't see the beauty in
Him. They can't see His perfect righteousness. They can't see
His divine holiness. They can't see His precious blood
that was shed to make the vilest of the vile. clean and whole. They can't see it. If they could
see themselves in the light that God sees them, they would continually
cry for mercy, but they can't see. The blindness of their Eyes
cause them great danger. If God and His sovereign mercy
does not open their eyes, dear friends, they're going to fall
into a ditch and more than likely drag others down with them. Oh, may we continue to pray for
those who still are spiritually blind, and may we continue to
pray for ourselves that we might see Christ more clearly in our
need of Him. Second thing, only God can open
men's eyes. That's right. Only God can open
men's eyes. We can bring men to hear the
gospel, but we can't open their eyes. We can preach, we can plant
water, but only God can give the increase. Do you know why
only God can open blind eyes? You see, to open the eyes of
a blind soul, is an act of creation. The ability to see is gone from
the fallen man and the fallen spirit. He's born blind. The
optic nerve is dead through sin. God will not merely clean the
dust out of a man's eyes or take cataracts away from him, and
that's what some think. I just need a little cataract
surgery. No, you're blind. You can't see. Old things must be passed away.
All things must become new. He gives new eyes to those who
have totally lost all power of sight. The act of creating a
new soul, dear friends, is as much a work of God's omnipotence
as when he spoke the worlds into existence. It's the same power. No big thing for God, but impossible
for man. God said, let there be light.
And what does the Scripture say? There was light. And yet a man
without Christ who is dead and can't see because of his darkness,
God says, let there be light and there is light. This is the
power of creation. Remember this, that all those
who've had their eyes opened by God were born blind. The believer was born blind.
There's a man in John chapter 9. You remember? It's the one
where the Lord got the dirt and made the spittle out of the clay
and put it on his eyes. That man was in a sad condition
of blindness. And you know what he said after
the Lord Jesus opened his eyes? He said, since the world began, Was it not heard that any man
opened the eyes of one that was born blind? You can read that
in John 9, 32. This wasn't any little thing. Today, even, maybe if a man saw
and lost his sight, maybe the doctor could do some operation
that would cause him to see. I know a man in Nashville, Tennessee
that that happened to. Dessie, you remember Brother
Watson's son. He was legally blind, and they
did some eye surgery and removed cataracts and some other things.
And when we saw him, he could see. I can remember when he couldn't
even walk without holding onto your arm. But a man that's born
blind, oh, that's a whole different thing. A whole different thing. You see, the blindness, now listen
to me, this is important. The blindness of fallen sinners
doesn't merely have something to do with the eyeballs and the
optic nerve, it has to do with the heart! It has to do with the will and
the conscience and the understanding and the perception of spiritual
things. And we're blind. We can't see
them. Divine power is needed to remove
such blindness as this. And we must remember too that
man is willfully blind. You see, there's another old
proverb that says, there are none so deaf as those that won't
hear, and there's none so blind as those that won't see. And
it's true that man cannot come to Christ. Man don't have the
ability to come to Christ. But I'm going to tell you something,
he will not come. He will not come to Christ that
he might have life, John 540. See, it's not merely that he
cannot see the truth, but that he loves darkness rather than
light and doesn't want to see. Only God, only God can open his
eyes. Only God can make him willing
in the day of his power. Only God makes the difference. Who makes thee to differ from
another? If you're sitting here this morning and God's given
you eyes to see, God made the difference. You didn't. God did. You and I cannot open
a sinner's eyes. So what can we do? If we can't
do it, why are we here? What can we do? We can do what
Elijah did. That's my third point. We can pray. We can pray that
God opens blind eyes. I'm convinced that's something
we don't do enough of. Oh, I think we have good intentions. I think when we're at church,
we say sincerely to one another, I'm going to pray for you, I'm
going to pray for him, I'm going to pray for them. And I think
if you're anything like me, you get out that back door and you
forget all about it. We can pray that God opens blind
eyes. That's what Elijah did, isn't
it? This young man couldn't see those horses and chariots of
fire. He couldn't see that God and His sovereign power was protecting
them. He couldn't see it. All he could
see was the trial. All he could see was the tribulation.
All he could see was those natural men and their weapons and their
chariots. And he said, oh my, what are
we going to do? But Elijah said, Lord, I pray
Thee, open his eyes that he may see. Cause him to see, Lord. And the very next word say, and
the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. No big task for God. Impossible
for us, but no big task for Him. How often we realize our helplessness
in dealing with sinners. to you believing parents this
morning. Have you not felt and realized
your inability to save your children? Man, it becomes more and more
apparent to me every day. Oh, I've preached to them. I've
begged them. I've encouraged them to go to church. I've encouraged
them to hear the gospel. So has my wife. But God's got
to open their eyes. I'm unable. And I'm convinced and we come
to that point and we say to ourselves, I can no more save a soul than
I can open the eyes of a blind man. And I surely can't do that. That is when we begin to pray. We realize our inability and
we see that only God, only God can make the difference. You
see, I believe that's when we're taught how to act, taught how
to serve. We earnestly then pray, plead,
beg God to open their eyes. I've heard men say things like,
well, if you believe in election and predestination, why do you
preach? Why do you pray? If God's going
to save His elect, then why preach and why pray? You know something? That's a ridiculous question.
It is. God knows His elect. I don't. Do you think that God equips
a preacher with some kind of a supernatural power where the
word elect flashes on their forehead? If that was the case, we'd just
preach to them. But God doesn't do it that way.
That's why the Apostle Paul says, I plant a palace water, but God's
got to give the increase. We're commanded to preach the
gospel to every creature. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. That's why Brother Cody and Walter
are in Mexico. That's why Brother Clark was
in England for years, and other missionaries, and Daniel Park's
in other places. We're preaching the gospel to
all creatures. We don't know who God's elect
are, but God does. And men say, well, if God's going
to save those He chose before the foundation of the world,
why pray for them? Maybe God. I've thought about
this now. I've given this considerable
thought. Maybe God and His wisdom ordained and predestined us to
pray that their eyes might be opened.
You ever think about that? I heard an illustration years
ago, and I'll be brief, but there was an old pilgrim who claimed
to believe in the sovereignty of God, election, and predestination,
and every day as he walked the same valley and meadows to get
to where he was going, he carried a shotgun. I don't know, did
they have shotguns back then? Anyway, he carried some way of
self-defense. And one day an old fellow said,
why do you carry that when you believe in predestination and
election? And he said, the Lord may have
predetermined an Indian to die today. The foolish things men say concerning
the things of God. opens blind eyes. That's my fourth point. God does. Just a moment before this young
man could see, he didn't see any horses and chariots of fire. He saw the ones with natural
eyes that were coming after him and Elijah. But immediately upon
Elijah's prayer to a sovereign God, once registered in heaven,
his servant could see what was invisible to him just seconds
before. The process of human surgery
is often slow. It's slow to perform. I hear
people being in surgery for hours, hours. It's slow to recover. But listen to me. The great operation
of the soul's salvation is instantaneous. The soul is dead and it's made
alive in a single moment. The soul is in total darkness
and it's in bright light the next instant. This surgery is performed by
the great physician. the moment anyone believes in
Christ, spiritual eyesight is given to him, and he can see
God. He can see the things of God.
He can see the things of heaven. And I'm going to tell you something,
friends. I delight to think that whenever
anyone comes into the house of prayer, and the gospel is preached,
that my Lord and Master can, at any moment, grant and give
blind eye sight.