First Kings, chapter 20. While you're turning there, Susan
Sly was admitted to the hospital yesterday, or the day before
yesterday, and she's out, and I think she's okay. Something
was wrong with her heart, and they think they can fix it with
medication. Where's Steve at, am I saying it right? Is that
about, okay. Okay, Susan's one of, if I had
a list of best people I know, she's one of them. I think so
much of her. 1 Kings chapter 20, beginning in
verse 31. And his servants said unto him,
been hated after he had been destroyed. 100,000 of his footmen
were killed. And then the last 27,000 men
that were alive when he took refuge, a wall came down and
killed them all. And he's left with nothing. And his servants said unto him,
Behold, now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel
our merciful kings, let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins
and ropes upon our heads and go out to the king of Israel.
Peradventure, he will save thy life. So they girded sackcloth
on their loins and put ropes on their heads. and came to the
king of Israel and said, Thy servant, Ben-Hadad saith, I pray
thee, let me live. And he, Ahab said, is he yet
alive? He is my brother. This man who had acted so wickedly
toward Ahab and said, I'm going to take everything you have and
I'm going to, well, he says, he's my brother. Now the men
did diligently observe whether anything would come from him
and did hastily catch it. They caught on to what he's saying.
And they said, thy brother been hated. Then he said, go ye, bring
him. Then Ben-Hadad came forth to
him, and he caused him to come up into the chariot and Ben-Hadad."
Now, notice Ben-Hadad is in italics there. That's really Ahab still
speaking. And if you look at the context,
you can see that. I don't know why the translators did that,
but this is still Ahab speaking, and this is Ahab speaking to
Ben-Hadad. And Ahab said unto him, the cities which my father
took from thy father, I will restore. And thou shalt make
streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.
Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he
made a covenant with him, and sent him away. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy Son, and we come with thanksgiving. Lord,
we're so thankful for the freeness of your grace. We're so thankful
for the excellency and the glory of thy son and that you would
be pleased to give him to save sinners. How we thank you for
the forgiveness of sins. How we thank you for the fellowship
we have in the gospel. Lord, accept our thanksgiving
through thy son. We confess our sins and we pray
for forgiveness and cleansing. Lord, we would remember Susan
that your hand of mercy might be upon her. We pray for your
healing hand upon her. Now, Lord, bless us for Christ's
sake. Give us grace to look to thy
dear son. In his name we pray, amen. Now, what I want us to consider
this morning is a very important subject. What does it look like
when a sinner comes to Christ. What a subject. What does it
really look like when a sinner comes to the Lord Jesus Christ? Now this passage of scripture
gives us a beautiful illustration of just what takes place when
a sinner comes to Christ. Now let me make some statements
about coming to Christ by way of introduction. Coming to Christ
is the act of spiritual life. It is the act of spiritual life. People who have spiritual life,
this is what they do. They come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. In coming to him, folks who come
to him have life. They have spiritual life. Cometh
to me shall never hunger, he that believeth on me shall never
thirst. These things of hungering and
thirsting are things of life and having that satisfied is
life. Coming to Christ is the act of spiritual life. Coming
to Christ, secondly, is not a one-time act. It's not something you do once.
It's something you do if you do it all the time. To whom coming? To whom coming? You came, but you're coming. If you came to Christ 10 years
ago, you're coming to him today the same way. To whom coming? Him that cometh to me. Not him who came to me, but him
who cometh. Right now, that's what you're
doing. You're coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. Thirdly, coming to Christ
is beyond the ability of the natural man. No man can come
to me. No man has the ability to come
to me. except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him." Invincibly, irresistibly, draw him. Well, who does come to Christ?
If no man naturally can come, if it is the act of spiritual
life, if it's a continual thing, who does come to Christ? Well,
the Lord told us, all that the Father giveth me, John 6.37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. And gospel preaching is essentially
calling upon men to come to Christ. Revelation 22, 17, the Spirit,
this is what God the Holy Spirit has to say, the Spirit and the
Bride, the Church, this is the message of the Church, the true
Church. You know, somebody asked me last
night, how big's your church? And I gave my reply and I told
him, the next time somebody asks me that question, I'm gonna say
10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. That's the church. the church of the living God,
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church of God's elect. Here is their message. The spirit
and the bride say, come. Come to Christ. Let him that
heareth say, come. Let him that's a thirst come.
Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. That's
our message. Not go and do. Not make yourself
ready, not do something. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, here's the question. What does that look like? It's a spiritual thing. It's
not a physical move. It's something done in the heart.
What does that look like? Well, let's talk about Ben-Haden
for a moment. He was a thoroughly wicked man. Look at the first of this chapter. And Ben-hated, the king of Syria,
gathered all his hosts together. And there were thirty and two
kings with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and
besieged Samaria, and warred against it. That's where Ahab
was. That's Israel. And he sent messengers
to Ahab, king of Israel, and to the city, and said unto them,
Thus saith it been hated, thy silver and thy gold is mine,
thy wives also, and thy children, even the good list, are mine. I'm coming and I'm taking everything
you have. And he actually sent another
message later on that day and said, Tomorrow I'm going to come
and everything you like, everything you love, I'm going to take.
Now this was a thoroughly wicked man. That's all you could say
about him. But he is totally defeated. The Lord defeated him. And remember
them saying, you know, their gods are gods of the hills and
our gods are gods of the valleys. If we fight them in the valleys,
we'll beat them. That was Ben-Hadad's people,
and they tried to humanize God and tried to limit God, and God
said, because you said that, I'm gonna destroy you. And he
killed 100,000 footmen. The 27,000 people that escaped,
they came into a city, and the wall fell on them and killed
all of them. And Ben-Hadad is left with nothing. No resources,
nothing. And he's a thoroughly sinful
man. This begins in verse 31. And his servants, been hated
servants, said unto him, Behold, now we have heard, here's what
we've heard, we've heard that the kings of Israel are merciful
kings. Now, this is what a sinner does
when he comes to Christ. He hears there's mercy in him. What I need I don't have any
resources. I don't have anything to bring
to the table, nothing. Everything's been destroyed.
God has demonstrated to me what I am. I've got nothing to bring
to the table. I've heard the kings of Israel
are merciful kings. Now understand this about mercy. People who are guilty need mercy. people who are guilty. Now, what
does that mean? You know, I use the term, and
I've used it so many times, and I wonder how much I've even thought
about it. I think it's something that I've
always heard Henry say, and I've always said it, and I think,
do I get this? Every man is by nature a sinner. Every man is by choice a sinner. Every man is by practice a sinner. Me and you were born sinners.
We choose to be sinners. That's why it's so bad. You can't
say, well, I just can't help it. I'm obeying my nature. No,
you're a sinner by choice. And you and I are sinners by
practice. And we have no claims on God. Guilty before God. Guilty. If God sent me and you to hell
right now, he'd be just. Amen? He'd be just, guilty before
God. Now somebody that's guilty, all
they want is mercy. You know, whenever I hear people
complain about God's sovereignty and dispensation of his grace. Well, how could it be fair for
God to elect some and pass by others? How could it be fair
for Christ to die for some and not die for others? Now, I don't
know if these people realize this, but they're coming into
God's presence as his judge, and they actually think, I deserve
this. It's not right for God to cut
me off. It's not right, but I deserve mercy. No, you don't. No, you
don't. That's a denial of what mercy
is in the first place. Now, Ben-Hadad, this wicked man,
he's lost every resource and he comes for mercy. He's heard, and that's the hearing
of the gospel. You hear that there's mercy in
Christ Jesus. God is a merciful God. He hears
that they're merciful. Now look in verse 31 again. And
his servant said unto him, Behold, now we've heard that the kings
of the house of Israel, merciful kings, let us, I pray thee, put
sackcloth on our loins and ropes upon our heads, and go out to
the king of Israel. Peradventure, he will save thy
life. It might just be that he'll show
you mercy. Now, I love the clothing. It's
highly significant. Let's put sackcloth on him. That's
the clothing of mourning and poverty. and let's put a noose
around our neck. We're coming into your present
knowing you can kill us if that's your will because whatever you
do is just. Now that's the way a sinner comes
into God's presence. Sackcloth, nothing, poverty,
nothing to bring. with a rope around his neck,
guilty as charged if you hang me and kill me, just and holy
is your name. That's the only way a sinner
comes into God's presence. Sackcloth and a rope around her
neck. And let me remind you, this is
not a one-time act. This thing of coming to Christ,
this is the way everybody comes every time who comes with this
posture, with this attitude. Guilty as charged, got nothing
to bring to the table, a rope around my neck. And notice the
way they say, if per adventure, if per adventure, if he's pleased
to show mercy. That's the way we will come. Peradventure, he will save thy
life. Verse 32, so they girded sackcloth on their loins and
put ropes on their heads. That's a noose to hang with. That's the way they came. And
came to the king of Israel and said, thy servant, Ben-haded,
saith, I pray thee, let me live. I'm in your sovereign hands,
I pray you, let me live. He didn't come saying, I've asked
for forgiveness, you need to give me forgiveness. I've asked
for mercy, you need to show me mercy. No, nothing like that.
He said, I pray thee, let me live, if it's your will. He came
the same way the leper did. Lord, if you will. You can make
me clean. Now that's the way he came. There's
no other way to come. Now let's go on reading. Look what Ahab said. The last sentence
of verse 32. And he, Ahab, said, is he yet
alive? He is my brother. Now, this doesn't even make sense. This man had said, everything
you have, I'm gonna take. Everything that's precious to
you, I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna take your wives, I'm
gonna take your children, I'm gonna take everything you got, and
I'm gonna make it mine. I mean, how wickedly he treated Ahab. And Ahab says, is he alive? He's
my brother. Now, where's that come from?
He's my brother. Everybody who comes to Christ
like Ben-Hadad came to Ahab is the brother of Christ. You come
that way, it's because you're his brother. And the big brother
always takes up for and has mercy on the little brother. That's
the way the big brother does. And every body that comes to
Christ like this, Christ counts, that's my brother coming. That's
my brother. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one, for the which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. What's Romans 8? He predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. All of God's elect, all who come
to Christ like this, he calls his brother. He's my brother. Now let's go on reading. Verse
33, now the men did diligently observe whether anything would
come from him, and they did hastily catch it. And they said, thy
brother been hated. They were listening, they were
listening. And this is what happens when somebody's hearing gospel,
they're listening. They're listening for something
from God that they can get a hold of. that they can get some kind
of hope from. They're listening. You know,
when you come to hear the gospel, you know what you do? You listen.
You listen. You want to hear what's being
said from the word of God. And they caught on to what he
said. They said, he said, brother,
they said, thy brother been hated. Now, when you hear the gospel,
you're listening for something that comes from God that you
can catch hold of. For instance, Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Lord, you said that. I'm a sinner. Save me. You catch hold, you
listen to find if there's something you can catch hold of. And that's
what They heard what Ahab said, thy brother, and they said, thy
brother Ben-Hadad. They caught hold of it, and they
pleaded this before Ahab. You plead to him what he has
said in his word. That's what you do. You find
out what he said in his word, and you bring it unto him. Lord,
you said this. You said this. Don't go, everything you say
is true. They sought to catch on anything he was saying. Then said he, Ahab. They said, thy brother Benhah
did. Then said he, Ahab's talking now, go ye bring him. That is the exact same word that's
translated when David said regarding Mephibosheth, go fetch him. Go
fetch him. Bring him to me. You see, all
this is going on when a sinner comes to Christ is because Christ
is causing it to take place. He's behind, he's the cause of
all this. And he says, go and bring him,
the command of the king, go and bring him. Then Benhaded came
forth to him and he caused him. to come up into the chariot.
Don't you love that language? He caused him to come. He's coming. How come? Because he caused him
to come. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. So he is coming because he is
being caused to come. You see, grace fetched him and
brought him there and caused him to be brought up into the
chariot. Now, this is utterly amazing. Verse 34. And Ben-Hadad
said, no, Ben-Hadad didn't say this. He wasn't striking a deal. He wouldn't say, now, I'm going
to give you back everything that I took from you if you'll just
have mercy on me. No, this is Ahab speaking. His daddy was
from Samaria, too. So the language doesn't even
allow this to be Ben-Hadad speaking. This is Ahab speaking. And look
what he says to this man who comes with a rope around his
neck, who confesses whatever you do is just, whatever you
do is right. Look what he says. and been hated
said unto him, or Ahab said unto him, the cities which my father
took from thy father I will restore. I'm just gonna give you back
everything. Now, you see how wicked he was toward Ahab, but
yet look what Ahab says to him. I'm gonna give you back everything. And they shall make streets for
thee in Damascus as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab,
and I'll send you away with this covenant, the covenant of grace. I'm going to send you away with
this covenant. So he made a covenant with him
and sent him away. You come to Christ. It's because
he fetched you and brought you to himself. And he lets you know
about the covenant that was made. And he makes this covenant with
you, a covenant of grace. Oh, thank God for the covenant
of grace. This man comes to him and he
sends him away. I thought of Bartimaeus. Go that
way. You're free. Set free. Do what you want to do. You're
free. What did Bartimaeus do? He followed
Jesus in the way. And that's what everyone does
who comes to Christ for mercy and Christ receives him and gives
him everything. And he says you're set free.
And he followed Jesus in the way. Now that's what it looks
like when a sinner comes to Christ. And I pray to the Lord God that
He will cause that to happen with every one of us, even now. Amen.