And came and stood before him
and said, Thy son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to
thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? And Elisha said
unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover, howbeit
the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die. And he, Elisha, settled his countenance
steadfastly. He stared at Hazel, the man who
came from being hated, until he was ashamed. He felt awkward,
uncomfortable. And the man of God wept. And Hazel said, why weepest,
my lord? And he answered, because I know
the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel. Their
strongholds wilt thou set on fire. and their young men will
thou slay with the sword and thou will dash their children
and rip up the women with child. And Hazel said, but what is thy
servant, a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha
answered, the Lord has showed me that thou shalt be king over
Syria. So he departed from Elisha and
came to his master who said to him, what said Elisha to thee? And he answered, he told me that
thou should surely recover. And it came to pass on the morrow
that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread
it on his face so that he died. He smothered him to death and
Hazel reigned in his stead. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. Lord, we wouldn't dare come any
other way. We ask that you would cause us to be seen in him. We
ask that we might be found in him. We ask for his sake that
you would be pleased to meet with us and to speak in power
to our hearts from your word. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness. We pray for cleansing. We pray
for a new, fresh, glorious view of your son and enable us to
trust him completely. We give thanks for who you are.
We give thanks for the revelation of your person. Lord, how we thank you that you
have enabled us to be thankful. We give thanks. Be with all your
people wherever they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now this story that I just read
actually begins a long time before it took place. Turn with me for
a moment to 1 Kings 19. Now this is years and years before
this takes place. Elisha has not even become a
prophet yet. This is God's word to Elijah. And the Lord said unto him, go
return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when thou comest
anoint Hazel to be king over Syria. That's what we just read
about. Hazel becoming king. He murdered
Ben-Hadad and he became king. Now, it was Elijah who prophesied
of this years before it took place. Now, I love the fact that
everything is determined by God. Everything. There's no events
that take place that he is not completely sovereign over. Men
do what they want, and they're responsible for their actions,
which is important. Men do what they want, and they're responsible
for their actions. But God is completely sovereign
over those actions. He's God, and He controls everything
and everybody. Now, somebody says, well, I don't
agree with that. Well, He's sovereign over that
too. He controls everything, and we see this in this story
before us. Now, go back to our text, 2 Kings 8. And Elisha came to Damascus and
Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, was sick. Now, this is the same
Ben-Hadad who had his servant Naaman, and he sent him to be
healed in Israel. He had some experience with Elisha. He had seen what Elisha had been
used to do. And so he's sick. He's afraid
he's going to die. And he hears that Elisha has
come into Syria. So he sends his servant, Hazel,
the one who had already been determined years before that
he was going to be king. He sent his servant to find out
from Elisha, am I going to be healed of this disease? Now let's
go on reading. And Elisha came to Damascus and
had been hated. The king of Syria was sick, and
he told him, saying, the man of God has come hither. And the
king said unto Hazel, take a present in thine hand, and go and meet
the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, shall
I recover of this disease? If you'll remember, when he sent
a present the first time, Elisha wouldn't take it. He said, no,
I don't want it. This is when Naaman came with
all the gold and silver and changes of raiment, he wouldn't take
it. And I doubt that he would take it at this time, but let's,
let's go on reading. So Hazel went to meet him and
took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus,
40 camels burden. Now that's a lot, isn't it? 40
camels burden and came and stood before him and said, thy son
been hated. King of Syria has sent me to
thee saying, shall I recover this disease?" Now, I don't know
if this is Serapi language, thy son, or whether he really is
acknowledging the prophet of God and saying, I'm no more than
your son, you're superior to me. I don't know what is going
on at this time, but he says, thy son, been hated, comes to
find out if I'm going to recover from this disease. Verse 10,
and Elisha said unto him, go say unto him, Thou mayest certainly
recover, albeit the Lord has showed me that he shall surely
die. Now he knew how he was gonna
die, he knew he was going to die. And it wasn't gonna be of
this disease. As we read, maybe he did recover of the disease
in that 24 hour period, I don't know, but he didn't die because
of the disease, he died because he was murdered. He was smothered. Elisha said unto him, go unto
him, thou mayest certainly recover. Howbeit the Lord has showed me,
I'll surely die. And then verse 11, and this is Elisha, settled
his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed. It was awkward. It was awkward. I mean, he just
kept looking at him and staring at him and you know, he wouldn't
break his look at him. And so Hazel starts feeling embarrassed,
awkward. You know, one of those really
uncomfortable times. Always have those. At any rate, he actually started
weeping, started crying. Verse 12, and Hazel said, why
weepeth my Lord? And he answered, because I know
the evil that thou will do unto the children of Israel. Their strongholds will you set
on fire. Their young men will you slay
with the sword and will dash their children and rip up their
women with child. I mean, think of this, the pregnant
women, you're gonna rip them up and kill them. And look at
Hazel's reply. And Hazel said, but what is thy
servant, a dog? Do you think I'm so morally bankrupt
that I would do something so evil? What is thy servant? Do you look at me as nothing
more than a dog? Do you even think I'm capable
of committing such atrocities? And these are atrocities. What
is thy servant, a dog that he should do such things? And Elisha answered, the Lord
has showed me that thou will be king over Syria. He knew what
was gonna happen, so he departed from Elisha and came to his master
who said to him, what said Elisha to thee? He answered, he told
me that thou should surely recover. And it came to pass on the next
day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread
it on his face so that he died and Hazael reigned in his stead. Now, the Lord used Hazael. Look in 2 Kings 13, verse three. This is all a part of God's sovereign
workings and providence, verse three, and the anger of the Lord
was kindled against Israel. And he delivered them into the
hand of Hazael, king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-Hadad,
the son of Hazael, all their days. So we see that this man
who God had said years before he's gonna be king, he used him
as a way of punishing Israel for the things that they were
going to do. He was raised up for that purpose. But let's go
back to this question. Am I dog? Am I so morally bankrupt that
you actually think that I would rip up women with child? Am I a dog that I should do such
a thing? Now, I think it's interesting
when David came at Goliath. You remember what Goliath said?
Am I a dog that you come at me with such a weak person with
staves? What do you think of me? Am I
a dog? Now, dogs are not positive in the scripture. I know generally
when we think of them, we think of pets everybody loves and everything,
but the Bible doesn't generally prevent dogs in that light. False prophets are called by
Isaiah, dumb dogs and greedy dogs. The price of a dog was
an abomination and you couldn't offer it up to the Lord. Paul
said, when speaking of false prophets, beware of dogs. Christ said, give not that which
is holy, to the dogs. When someone leaves Christ, it's
represented like this, the dog returning to its vomit. Those are very sobering things
to think about. Am I a dog? Those outside of the New Jerusalem
are described as dogs, sorcerers. Whoremongers. Dog. Hazel did not believe himself
to be capable of this. Now, let me make this statement.
If God leaves me to myself. There is no sin that I will not
commit. You believe that about yourself?
If God leaves me to myself. I may start, gradually stop coming to worship.
And just if I have good reason, I'm gone. Or I might commit some
kind of horrible, unthinkable sin. If God leaves me to myself. Now, there are four views. I gave this not that long ago,
but it's helpful to me. There are four views of human
nature. The first is the evolutionary view. The evolutionary view. I guess a fish somehow crawled
out of the water and all of a sudden started breathing air and it
kept developing and developing. Life started in some primordial
stew. You know, it takes a lot of imagination
to believe this kind of stuff. It really does. Somebody says
it's scientific. No, it's not. No, it's not. But
still, the evolutionary view is men keep getting better. We're developing. We keep getting
better. And that's the evolutionary view. And, you know, what I was thinking
about this, I never thought of this before, you know, the view
of progressive sanctification, you become more and more holy,
that's evolution. That's all it is. That's the
evolutionary view of human nature. You keep getting better and better
and better, more holy, less sinful. And if that's the case, If the
evolutionary view would be true, man doesn't need a savior. He's
going to end up perfect. He's just going to keep getting better
and better and better and better. And then there's the view that
when you're born into this world, you're born morally neutral.
You're not born good. You're not born bad. But what
kind of education you get and what kind of example you set
is what kind of person you're going to be. If you're around
people that set good examples and if you're given the proper
information, you're going to end up fine. That's the view
of the Greek philosophers. Aristotle, Plato, those fellows,
they thought man needs to have proper education and proper example. Now, if that's the case, you
don't really need a savior, do you? You need somebody to set
you a good example and give you the right information, and everything
will be fine. And then the third view is that
man is a fallen creature. Like the Bible says, man is a
fallen creature, yet he has a free will. And he can choose to get
out of this situation if he'll accept what God has done. It's
up to him. It's up to his will. Now, if
that's the case, man doesn't need a savior. He needs somebody
to talk him into doing the right thing. He needs somebody to persuade
him. And really, if that's the case,
if free will is true, why pray to God? Pray to that man. Ask
him to change his mind and ask him to do better. And then there
is the view, the scriptural view, that man is dead in sins. Completely dead, unable to do
anything to save himself, and is totally dependent upon the
Lord to do something for him. And those are the four views
of human nature. And Hazel obviously did not believe
this. He said, am I a dog? Am I so
morally bankrupt that you think that I could do something like
this? Now, I want to ask myself this
question and I want to ask you this same simple question. Am I a dog? Am I a dog that I do something
like this? I'm not asking you right now
if you're a Christian. I'm not asking you if you've been born
again. I'm not asking you if you're one of the elect. We'll
deal with those at another time. But I am asking you this. Am
I a dog? Am I? Let's don't think about
anybody else. You think, well, so and so is.
No, let's don't think that way. Am I a dog that I would do such
a thing? I remember one time hearing Scott
Richardson preaching on something about dogs. But I don't remember
even what the context was, but this meant something to me. He
said, they're smart dogs and dumb dogs. They're fat dogs and
skinny dogs. They're ugly dogs and pretty
dogs. But here's what all dogs got in common. They're dogs.
That's it. They're dogs. Now, it can be
a good thing to be a dog. Do you know the New Testament
word for worship means to lick like a dog licks its master's
hand? It's good to be a dog like that,
isn't it? Hazel was not a dog, am I? Are you? Now, if I say, yes,
I'm a dog, that's an admission about myself. that apart from
God's restraining hand, I'm totally evil. That's what that admission
is. Now, let me look at a couple
of places in the scripture where we read about dogs. Turn with
me to 2 Samuel 9. I know you're familiar with this
story. It's one of my fa- If there's a passage in scripture
that I like more than this one, I don't know what it is. I mean,
there's a lot of them I love. I love them all. I love them
all, but I love this one especially. Verse one, and David said, is
there any that's left of the house of Saul that I may show
him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now, when David makes this statement,
he is the most powerful man on the planet. The scripture actually
says God put the fear of David before every nation. They were
scared to death of him. I mean, he had the military might
and power. He'd vanquished all of his enemies.
And he was, at this time, literally the most powerful man alive. I mean, you know that that doesn't
mean anything in the sense that power belonged to the Lord. And
when we talk about any powerful man, any power he has, God gave
it to him. But think of his position. And
when all of his enemies have been vanquished, he remembers
a covenant that he made with Jonathan years before when Jonathan,
Saul's son, David's best friend, said, I know that God is going
to make you Chief Rupert, and after I'm dead, I want you to
promise me that you'll show kindness to my family, my kids, even after
I'm dead. Now, Jonathan's been dead a long
time, and David remembers this covenant. God says, is there any of the
house of Adam that I can show kindness to for Christ's sake? That's the gospel. Let's go on
reading. And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, art thou Ziba? And
he said, thy servant is he. And the king said, is there any
yet of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God
unto him. And Ziba said it in the King,
Jonathan hath yet a son, but he's not worth anything. He's
laying on both of his feet. He can't work for you. He can't
fight for you. If you get this fellow, all he
can be is carried. That's it. All he can be is carried. He's laying on both his feet. And the king said unto him, verse
four, oh, let me give you this background. He was laying because
of a fall. I love the imagery of the scriptures,
but when it was announced that Saul was dead, his nurse picked
him up and ran and dropped him. He fell and became lame on both
of his feet. And he'd been in hiding, I suppose,
ever since, because in those days, the king would kill all
of the family of the previous king to make sure no insurrection
would take place. And where is he? And Ziba said
unto the king, behold, he's in the house of Makar, the son of
Emilio of Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him. You know, my grandfather used
to always say, go fetch it. We don't use that word much now,
but I remember, go fetch me that hammer, go fetch me that, you
know. I like what, I think it was, I don't know who said this,
I guess it was Henry Mahan. Fetching grace. You know, he
couldn't get to him. He couldn't walk to him. If he
said, come on over here, Mephibosheth, he couldn't do it. He was laying
on both of his feet, he couldn't. Go fetch him. Fetching grace. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Maker, the son of Amaliel from Lodabar.
Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was coming to David, he didn't know what was going to happen.
He fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth,
you know what his name means? Shameful thing. Why would somebody name their
son shameful thing? Because of this story. Perfect
name for him. Shameful thing. And David said, Mephibosheth,
And the answer, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, I will offer thee kindness if you'll just accept it. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake. Salvation for Christ's sake. No other reason is needed. No
other reason is wanted. Salvation for Christ's sake. And I will restore thee all the
land of Saul, thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually. And he bowed himself and said,
what is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead
dog as I am? Good thing to be a dog, isn't
it? Am I a dog? I am so thankful for verse 13
of this same chapter. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
for he did eat continually at the king's table. And what's
the last thing that's mentioned about him? His lameness was cured. No, he was lame on both his feet,
but his feet were covered at the king's table. Now real quickly
turn to Matthew Verse 15. Am I a dog? Am I a dog? Verse 21. Then Jesus went thence,
and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold,
a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto
him, saying, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou Son of David,
my daughter is grievously vexed. with the devil. Now this woman's
got a good resume. She comes knowing who he is.
He's the son of David. She comes for the right thing,
mercy. She comes with a great need. But what's the scripture
say? Verse 23, but he answered her
not a word. He ignored her. She cried and
he didn't answer. And his disciples came beside
him saying, send her away for she crieth after us. Evidently
she continued to cry, even though he didn't answer. And the disciples
show their ignorance at this time. She's crying after us.
No, no, no. Wasn't at all interested in you
guys. But he answered and said, verse
24, I'm not sent. but in the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. I have only come for the elect."
That's what that means. That's all that means. I have
only come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I've
not come for anybody but them. Now, somebody says, you can't
preach that way. Yeah, you can. It's highly the
way the gospel ought to be presented because I need to know that I
have no entitlement of this thing called grace. And this thing,
this is the way the gospel ought to be preached. Somebody says,
this will discourage people. Didn't discourage her. She kept
crying, didn't she? This didn't make her think, well,
there's no point in seeking the Lord. I mean, if that's the case,
I mean, no, she kept crying. Verse 25, then, came see and worshipped him. Although there ain't ever been
anybody that worshipped him that he turned away. You only worship
an absolute sovereign. You're in his hand. He can do
with you whatever he's pleased to do. And that's worship. Worship
him for who he is, not for what you think you can get out of
him. She didn't know if he's going to do anything for her.
Then she came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. If you
don't help me, I won't be helped. Now look at this, the way the
Lord answered her, but he answered and said, it's not meat to take
the children's bread and to cast it to what? Dogs. Dogs. Worthless canines. Dogs. He's saying it's not appropriate
for my gospel grace, the children's bread, to go to dogs. And how would you respond to
that if the Lord said that to you? Well, let's look how she
responded. Then she said, truth, Lord. That's
the truth. If I ever heard the truth, that's
it. That's the truth. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. I may be a dog, but I'm
your dog. And I am not asking for a place
setting with the children. I'd be so grateful to have any
crumbs of mercy fall my way. Now I realize that probably this
woman would be sent to a psychologist to get her self-esteem and image
built up. But look what the Lord says to
her. Then Jesus answered and said,
O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. That's the gospel. Am I a dog?
Yes, I am. Yes, I am. It's a good thing
to be a dog. You know, there was a movie that
came out 15 years ago, All Dogs Go to Heaven.