Would you turn to 2 Kings 6. Begin reading in verse 8. Then the king of Syria warred
against Israel. Took counsel with the servant
saying in such as such a place shall be my camp. That's where
I'm going to Ambush Israel and The man of
God sent unto the king of Israel Elisha Satan Elisha is the man
of God He sent unto the king of Israel saying beware that
thou pass not such a place for the Syrians are come down and
And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God
told him and warned him of and saved himself there not once
nor twice. This happened on numerous occasions.
Therefore, the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for
this thing. And he called his servants and
said unto them, will you not show me which of us is for the
king of Israel? He's thinking there's a traitor
in the camp. And one of his servants Said none, my lord, O king, but
Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel
the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. And he said,
go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And
it was told him, saying, behold, he's in Dothan. Therefore sent
he thither horses and chariots and a great host, and they came
by night and compassed the city about. And when the servant of
the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host
compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his
servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? And
he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than
they that be with him. And Elisha prayed and said, 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 Elisha. And when they came down to him,
Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said, smite this people, I pray
thee with blindness. And he smote them with blindness
according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, this
is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me and I'll
bring you to the man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria. That's where the King of Israel
was. And it came to pass when they were coming to Samaria,
that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they
may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and
behold, there they were in the midst of Samaria. And the King
of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, my father, shall
I smite them? Shall I smite them? Shall I kill
them all? And he answered, thou shalt not smite them. Wouldst
thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword
and with thy bow? sent bread and water before them that they
may eat and drink and go to their master. And he prepared great
provision for them. And when they had eaten and drunk,
he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands
of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the high and the holy name of thy son. And Lord, how we thank you for
him. How we thank you for the salvation
that's in him. How we thank you for the power
of his blood that actually made sin to go away. How we thank
you for the greatness, the freeness, the power of your grace. How we thank you that you're
Lord and that you rule all things and that you're in absolute control
of everything and everybody we give thanks. Lord, we pray that
we might be allowed to hear from you. We pray that your gospel
would be preached in the power of your spirit and that you'd
speak to everybody here, according to your will. Lord, we confess
our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. How we thank you for the forgiveness
of sins. Lord, how we thank you that you
made yourself known to us. We stand amazed at your grace.
Now bless us for the Lord's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Now, the king of Syria, had set
up an ambush and he was excited about being able to kill Israel,
that were his enemy. And wherever he set up an ambush,
Elisha would say to the king of Israel, don't go there because
they're there to get you. And he found out two or three
times, or more than twice, that this was the case. And he was
upset. The king of Syria, Ben-Hadad was his name, and he said, we
got a traitor in the camp. And his servant replied, no,
we don't have a traitor. Elisha knows what you say in
your bedroom, and he makes it known. And so he said, go get
Elisha. And I think it's almost funny
the way he says, you go get Elisha and fetch him, seize him, and
bring him back to me. You see, he didn't know the God
of Elisha. He wouldn't have spoke like that if he knew who the
God of Elisha really was. What I was thinking about, I
thought about when Pilate said to the Lord, don't you know that
I have power to crucify you and I have power to let you go? You
could have no power at all over me. I love the way he said that. You have no power at all over
me, except it be given thee from above. The Lord is always in
absolute control. And this king thought he could
go fetch Elisha. Now let's pick up reading verse
13. And he said, go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch
him. And it was told him, behold,
he's in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses
and chariots and a great host, a great army. And they came by
night and compassed the city about." Now, picture this in
your mind. Horses and chariots, a great
army circling this small town of Dothan, which Elisha lived
in. Verse 15, and when the servant
of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host
compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his
servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? We're
in trouble. And Elisha answered, fear not. Nothing to be afraid of. Fear
not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with
him. Now, this man couldn't see this,
but Elisha could. Turn with me for a moment to
2 Chronicles 32. Hezekiah said something very
similar, 2 Chronicles 32. Verse 7, okay. Now what had happened, there
was a king by the name of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria that came
and he had threatened Judah. And we read in verse 4, so there
were gathered much people together who stopped all the fountains
with the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying,
why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? And
he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was
broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without,
and repaired Milo and the city of David, and made darts and
shields in abundance. And he sent captains of war over
the people, and gathered them together to him in the street
of the gate of the city, and spake comfortably of him, saying,
be strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed for
the king of Syria, nor for all the multitude that's with him.
For there be more with us. with Him." That's the same thing
that Elisha said. With Him is an arm of flesh,
but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Now the scripture I
obviously thought about is if God be for us, who can be against
us? Now let's go on reading back
to our text in 2 Kings chapter Verse 17, and Elisha prayed. This is one of three times he
prays during this narrative. And every time, the Lord answered
his prayer. Now, don't forget of the importance
of prayer. Everything God does, he does
through the prayers of his people. Whatever he's gonna give you,
He's going to lead you to pray for it. Pray. I want to be a
man of prayer. I want us to be men and women
of prayer, actually depending upon the Lord to do for us what
we can't do for ourselves. The Lord said men ought always
to pray and not to faint, not to lose heart. Three times in
this passage of scripture, Elisha said to pray and the Lord answered
his prayer. Now, actually, the Lord moved
him to pray this prayer in the first place. He prayed it, and
the Lord answered it. Oh, may the Lord enable us to
be like Elisha, to pray regarding everything. Pray. He prayed. And Elisha prayed and said, 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 Elisha. Can you imagine that? He saw
these angelic beings. He saw chariots of fire. He saw what was already there,
but he didn't see it. His eyes were opened, and now
he saw what was already there, the mountain full of these beings
who could have obliterated, been hated so easily, just one of
them. But there they are. So let's
go on reading, verse 18. And they came down to him, and
Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said, smite this people, I pray
thee, with blindness. And he spoke them with blindness
according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, this
is not the way, neither is this a city. Follow me and I'll bring
you to the man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria. He
led them to where the king of Israel were. Now I think of these,
all these people are blind. This whole company is blind.
And somehow he's leading them back into Israel to Samaria,
where they're going to be facing the king of Israel. Verse 20,
and it came to pass, when they were coming to Samaria, that
Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.
And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and behold, they
were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto
Elisha, when he saw them, I hope we can learn something from this.
My father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? That's what
he wanted to do, they were his enemy. And he wanted to kill them. And
that's normally what would be done, but look what Elisha says. And he answered, thou shalt not
smite them, which thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive
with thy sword, with thy bow, set bread and water before them,
that they may eat and drink and go to their master. Be good to
them, be good to them, love your enemies, be good to them, feed
them. And that's precisely what happened.
Verse 23, and he prepared great provision for them. And when
they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away and they went
to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the
land of Israel. This was their response. They didn't want to
raid Israel anymore after this. And they didn't in response to
this good treatment. Now, what I want us to think
about though, is this thing of open his eyes. Open his eyes. I pray that the Lord opens my
eyes. I pray that the Lord opens your eyes so that we may see
what is already there. Now, the natural man is blind. He's just blind. Blind to who God is, blind to
who he is, blind to the Word of God. You can't see. You can't
see. Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes. Now, I think about this spirit. There's a spirit world that we
can't see. This man couldn't see it. He couldn't see these
chariots of fire, but they were already there, weren't they?
And I have no doubt in this room, there are spiritual beings we
can't see. Angels. Whatever other kind,
I don't know. I know Satan's always at work
when the gospel's preached. He always is. That's what he
does. But you think of the natural
man's blindness to God. Almost people, about everybody
believes in God, but they believe in such a small God. I think
of that scripture in Psalm 110.4, the wicked through the pride
of his countenance will not seek God. God is not in all of his
thoughts. God's not in all of anybody's thoughts in the sense
that we're always thinking about him, because we're not. We should,
but we're not. We might be thinking about other
things. We might go a whole day without even thinking about the
Lord. I'm ashamed that that happens, but it does. But that being said,
God is in all of our thoughts in this sense. With every believer,
we know God is in control of everything. Everything that takes
place, there's nothing outside of his absolute sovereign purpose
and will. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand. Or saying to him, what doest
thou? Can't be done, he's in absolute sovereign control. God
is in all of our thoughts, isn't he? We believe he's in control
of everything. The natural man is blind to the
scriptures. Now he can read the scriptures,
study, come up with maybe Armenianism or Calvinism or something. He
can come up with all these isms, but he can't really understand
the gospel. He can't understand grace. He's blind to the beauty
of Jesus Christ. He's blind to the glory of God
making a way to be just and yet justify the ungodly. He doesn't
see any beauty in that. He considers it theology, you
know, a dull and boring subject. Doesn't see any beauty in it.
The natural man is blind to the law of God. Now what do I mean
by that? If you, everybody here listen
to this real carefully. If you think that you've kept
one commandment one time, you are utterly blind to the law
of God. You don't see its breath, you
don't see its holiness. Natural man's blind to his own
sinfulness. If you think you can keep one of God's commandments,
that is a demonstration of that, but I was thinking of the Pharisee
in the temple. God, I thank thee. He believed
this about himself. I thank thee that I am not as
other men are. And then he goes on to talk about
his accomplishments. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
an unjust. I'm not an extortioner, even
as this disgusting Pharisee. I pay tithes of all that I possess. Just talk about all the good.
I fast twice in the week. That man was completely blind
to how evil he was. And anytime I don't see myself
in any other way than that, in and of myself, it's just because
I'm blind. The natural man is blind to who he is. He's blind
to how God saves sinners. Unless God opens our eyes, we
will not see. But when the Lord, this is what
I love thinking about. When the Lord opened up the eyes
of this man, he was made to see what was already there before
he saw it. It's not something new. When
you're made to see, you're made to see something that already
is there before you saw it. There's a lot that could be said
about that. You find out you've already been
forgiven. That's about the best way I know
how to put it. You find out that your salvation was completed
before you knew anything about it. That's what you find out. You see what already was, is,
and always shall be. I love thinking about this. When the Lord said, it is finished,
my salvation was completed. Now you think about that. It's
finished. You know what that means? That
means there's nothing for me or you to do. Don't even think
about doing. All the works, Hebrews 4, 3, all the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Now that man, when his eyes were
opened, he saw what was already there. And can you imagine how
he must have felt when he saw those chariots of fire and so
on? Now, there be more for us than there
be against us, is what Elijah said to this fellow. There'd
be more for us than there are that against us. And I think
about this. If God's for me, who can be against me? The answer
is nobody and nothing. You know, God's law is for me.
I can look at God's law and know, not guilty. That's all God's
law has got to say. He's never sinned. He's perfect
in my sight. God's providence is for me. All
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
that are called according to his purpose. Christ is for me. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. I do this willingly. Christ is
for me. Everything is for me. Everything. I don't feel that way most of
the time. I think, oh, this is against me. But you know, any thought
or fear we have like that is completely irrational and groundless. Worrying is always wrong. Looking at the worst possible
scenario is always wrong. I guess that's why I'm always
wrong. I do that so much. But the point is, anytime we
worry about anything, it's so dishonoring to the Lord. He's
in control. He rules. He reigns. Everything
that happens, He's the first cause behind. So any fears we
have, they're groundless. They're irrational. They're illogical. And they're really stupid, aren't
they? Very stupid. Lord, open his eyes. And his eyes were opened, and
he saw there wasn't anything to be worried about. We got these
chariots of fire around about us. They're just waiting for
a command of the Lord to come and smite these people. We're
not in trouble. If God be for us. who can be
against us. Amen.