Would you turn to 2 Kings chapter
2? 2 Kings chapter 2. While you're
turning there, Emily Dickerson's in the hospital
at UK, but she's doing well, little girl. She's doing well,
so I'm thankful for that. Savannah, any better? Last two days, much, much better. Well, we're very thankful for
that. And she's at Cardinal Hill. Cardinal Hill, yeah. 2 Kings 2, beginning in
verse 19. And the men of the city said
unto Elisha, behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is
pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water is not. And that's the word that's generally
translated evil. And the ground barren. It can't bring forth life. It causes miscarriages. And he
said, bring me a new cruise and put salt there. And they brought
it to him. And he went forth under the spring
of the waters and cast the salt in there and said, thus saith
the Lord. I have healed these waters. There
shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto
this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake." Let's
pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come into your presence in the name of thy Son. And Lord, we ask that we would
hear the gospel in the power of your Spirit, that you would
reveal yourself to us through the preaching of your word, that we might be enabled to see
thy blessed Son as all in our salvation. Lord, we confess our
sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. We pray that we might be found
in him. We pray that you'd give us the
grace, truly, Lord, by your grace, to love you more. We're ashamed
that we would even have to make such a request, but oh, the dullness
of this flesh that holds us down. Lord, we Pray for the hastening
of your return. Lord, be with all your people
wherever they meet together. And Lord, we pray for Savannah,
that your healing power would be upon her, that you'd use this
for her good and your glory. We pray for Emily, that your
healing hand might be upon her. We pray for these families. Bless
us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Elisha means God is salvation. What a name. God is salvation. And this is demonstrated in this
second miracle that he performs. Now the first was taking the
prophet's mantle and smiting the Jordan and it parted and
he demonstrated by that that he was the successor of Elijah. The Lord was showing everybody
that. And in this second miracle, he tells us what his name means. Jehovah is salvation. Now, look at verse 19 again.
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee. The situation of this city is
pleasant. It's agreeable. We like this
place. The situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord seeth.
I mean, look around, it looks good, but, but, and this is a
big but, but the water is not. It's evil. It's no good. And the land can't bring forth
any life. It can't bring forth any fruit.
Now here we have a beautiful, picture of man. Man is created
in the image of God. And there are plenty of good
things about men. The situation is pleasant. Now,
how many people do you know who are not believers that are, humanly
speaking, fine men and women? what we would call good people. They love their families. They
provide for their families. Good moms, good dads, good citizens. People who would help you if
they can. People who, just on a human level,
we would call them fine men and women. You know a lot of people
like that. You know a lot of people that
aren't like that too, don't you? But you know some really, quote,
Good people. Created in the image of God. People who perhaps would die
for their country. They'll stand up for what's right.
They have a sense of justice and fairness. Good people. Created in the image of God. Now, we all know people like
that, don't we? The situation of this city is
pleasant, as you can see. As far as the appearance goes,
you can see this. But, it's a big but. But the water is not. It's evil. And it cannot produce
life. The ground is barren. It can't
produce life. It actually says when the animals
have children in this environment, There's abortions, untimely deaths. No life comes from anything about
this place. Now, the waters are evil. That's what the word not is.
And the same word is used in Genesis chapter six, verse five,
when it says, and listen to this real carefully. And God saw that
the wickedness of man, not individual men, but all men, And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great. The word wickedness is
the same word translated not. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only, only evil continually. What about those
good people that you were just talking about? Well, before God,
you take the most moral man alive and you take the most evil man
alive. Before God, there's no difference. Scripture says that. There is
no difference. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now this description of man He's
evil. Do you believe that about yourself?
Do you believe yourself to be an evil person? I know I am. I have no question about it.
And the only way you're gonna know that about yourself is if
the Lord reveals it to you. You're gonna see that I've got
a heart that's desperately wicked. and deceitful above all things
and I can't even trust my own thoughts. All I can trust is
what God's word says. The waters are evil and the ground
can't bring forth life. There's nothing about me or you
that can produce spiritual life. You can't give yourself spiritual
life any more than you can give yourself physical life. You can't
do anything to give yourself physical life, can you? I mean,
absolutely nothing. Well, I think I'm gonna live. I think I'm gonna be born. Doesn't
work that way, does it? And these human natures of ours
are evil and can't do anything to bring forth life. Now, it's
what we call total depravity and total inability. When we
talk about total depravity, you've heard that term, that means every
faculty is under the dominion of sin. Your conscience, you
can't trust that. Your will, it's chained to an
evil nature. Your affections, you love what
you ought to hate. And by nature, we hate what we
ought to love. Total depravity and total inability
is seen in this inability to bring forth life. The Lord put
it this way. In John 6, 44, no man can come
to me. No man can. He lacks the ability
to come to me. If God leaves me and you to ourselves,
You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna go to hell. You believe
that? If God leaves me and you to ourselves,
we'll never come to Christ, we'll never see any beauty in him,
we'll never see our need of Christ, we'll never see the glory of
God, we'll go to hell. Romans 8, 7 says the carnal mind
is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God Neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. Now here we have this situation.
It's pleasant. Men can look great, can't they?
I mean, we're not going to deny that, and I'm thankful for that.
But the water is not. That, as we go in reading, we're
gonna find out where Elisha cast that salt into the springs, the
fountainhead of the water, because it made everything evil. No matter
what it was, no matter how good it may appear, it's evil. Now, I want me and you to believe
this, because it's what God's word teaches. And that's, The
reason, God has revealed himself in his word, the Bible. There's
none righteous, no not one. Psalm 14, Psalm 53, Romans 3. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeks after God. They've all together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Let me show you a scripture that
we don't use probably enough, but turn to Isaiah 64. I'm gonna begin in the, well,
verse five, thou meetest him that rejoices and worketh righteousness,
those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou art wroth,
for we have sinned in those is continuance. What's he saying? We have sinned and we're still
committing those sins. That's a sobering way to put
it, but that's what he says. We have sinned and we're still
committing those sins. Would that describe you? I'm
not asking anybody to answer out loud, but would that describe
you? Let's go on reading verse six.
But we are all as an unclean thing and all Our righteousnesses
are as, and the word is, minstrels rags. And this is the prophet
speaking. All our righteousnesses are as
minstrels rags, and we all do fade as a leaf. Our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away, and there's none, there's none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee,
for thou hast hid thy face from us and has consumed us because
of our iniquities. Now that is the confession of
the prophet, and it ought to be the confession of every one
of us, this description. Now let's go back to our text. Verse 19, And the men of the
city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of
this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth. But the water is
not, and the ground is barren. It can't bring forth life. And
he said, Bring me a new cruse, a new bowl, one that hadn't been
used before, one that had not been used by man. That's significant. This is not something man has
used. Bring me a new cruise and put salt therein. And they brought it to him and
he went forth under the spring of the waters, the fountainhead
where the waters came from. He went forth under the spring
of the waters and cast the salt in there and said, thus saith
the Lord, I have healed these waters. There shall not be from
thence any more death or barren land." Now, this was a curious
thing to think about. I mean, bring me a new bowl,
put salt in it. They brought him this bowl of
salt, and he cast the salt into the spring, the fountainhead
of the waters, and they were made fresh, made clean. You could
now drink them. The poison was gone. The land
could now bring forth fruit. Now, what is the significance
of the new bowl? It's not been touched by man.
You say, well, men made it. I know, but the point is, it's
not something that has been used by man. That's the reason. This
is of the Lord. This is not of man, the new bowl. And what about salt? What about
salt? What does salt signify in the
scripture? Well, let me give you some examples
of how it's used. What happened to Lot's wife when
she turned around and looked back towards Sodom? She turned
into a pillar of salt, didn't she? Judgment. When God rained fire and brimstone
down on Sodom and Gomorrah, it became a land of salt. And do you know with every Old
Testament sacrifice, what did you have to have with it? Salt. Salt. Salt signifies the judgment
of God. Now the only way that I can be
saved and that I can bring forth life. Well, I can't bring forth
life. He brings it forth in me if I'm
saved. First, my sin has to be judged. God is holy. God is righteous. God is going
to punish sin. If he did not punish sin, that
would make him like me and you, unjust. Now, I mean, even on
a human level, what if a judge found somebody guilty and said,
well, I'm gonna pardon them? Wouldn't happen, would it? If
you're guilty, you have to be judged. I mean, even in our court
systems, on a human level, it's gotta be that way. And if somebody
murdered my daughter and the judge says, well, they're guilty,
but I'm gonna forgive them, we got some problems, don't we?
Got some real problems. God is God and he must punish
sin. And that salt thrown in the water
signifies the complete sacrifice of Christ. That's what that's
talking about, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is everything, everything in our salvation. The only way God
can accept me and embrace me is if my sin is punished and
put away. And God has made a way to be
just and to actually justify, make not guilty, make righteous
people like me and you. That's the mystery of the gospel. I hope that I never preach one
time without saying something about this, maybe not using the
exact words, but how God can be just and justify the ungodly. The salt represents the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ because every sacrifice had to have salt,
the salt of the covenant. Salt, the judgment of God. And my sin was punished. And now life can come because
the sin is gone. Now the land can bring forth
fruit. God not only judges my sin, he
now has a reason to give me life. He couldn't do it, not he couldn't
in the sense of his inability, but as a just God, he could not
give me life as long as I have sin, but the sin is dealt with,
the sin is put away, it's eradicated by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And now I can bring forth life. Now let's go on reading,
verse 20. He said, bring me a new cruise
and put salt therein, the judgment. And they brought it to him and
he went forth into the spring of the waters and cast the salt
in there and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these
waters. Now that word healed is the same
word used in Isaiah 53, by his stripes we are healed. This is the work of God. He said,
I have healed these waters. He didn't say I've offered you
an opportunity to be healed. He didn't say I've left it up
to you as to whether or not you'll be healed. Here it is, it's available.
No, the salt was cast into the waters. This is the Lord's work.
I have healed these waters. And if you're a believer, listen
to me, the Lord has healed you. He has, make no doubt about it. He has healed you. You stand
before God without guilt. Now let's go on reading. Thus saith the Lord, I have healed
these waters and there shall not be from thence anymore death
or barren land. Now life is brought forth. Now
the reason you're born again, if you are, the reason you have
spiritual life, is not because you decided to accept Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior. That's ridiculous. The reason
you're born again is because Christ died for your sins and
God gave you life. That's why. That's the only reason. God gave you, and if you have
life, you know this. You know it. I don't have to
convince anybody of this that has life. You know it's the work
of God. Verse 22. So the waters were
healed unto this day. Now, I like that. When God heals,
it is irreversible. It's so unto this day, right
now, right now, this day. This day, you stand justified
before God, right now, this day. What God does is irreversible. So the waters were healed, and
to this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake."
Now this, once again, represents the preaching of the gospel.
The waters were healed. Now Elisha, what was Elisha?
He's a sinful man like me and you. How bad are you? That's how bad Elisha was. Most
of us don't really believe that. characters in the scripture,
and we think, well, we just aren't like them. Well, they're just
like you. As a matter of fact, it said of Elijah, he was a man
of like passions. And that word passions is always
used in the bad sense. Somebody says, I'm passionate
about doing good. That's not what that's talking about. That's
talking about the bad sense. He was a man of like passions.
All the wicked things that go on in your heart went on in his
heart. The bad things you do, he did. He was a sinner like
me and you. So this is not elevated. Why am I saying all this? We're
not elevating the preacher. I hate clergy laity with a passion.
We're not elevating the preacher. The preacher, but this is still
true, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Now this is Elisha's word. Waters were healed according
to the word of God. Now Elisha's just a man. I don't want to elevate. I don't want to elevate preachers.
Too many preachers do that. I don't want to elevate preachers.
Preachers are just Don't put them on a pedestal
in any way preachers are now respect him if the Lord's called
him if God has called a man to preach the gospel, I want to
hear what he says and you know, I So I don't want to Lower the
office Paul said I magnify mine office and I do I mean in that
sense I know I know that the Lord has called me to preach
the gospel, but what am I? altogether And Elisha understood
that, yet it was through his word, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them to believe. When the Ethiopian eunuch
is sitting there reading Isaiah 53, and that's what I'm gonna
preach on this morning, Isaiah 53. Frank's gonna preach tonight,
we're glad to have you here. Philip said, do you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I? except some man should
guide me. And that's what the Lord uses. And this happened according to
the saying of Elijah, the man of God.