Good morning. Would you turn to 1 Kings chapter
20? I'm going to read these first
30 verses of 1 Kings chapter 20. And Benhated, the king of Syria,
gathered all his host together, and there were thirty and two
kings with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and
besieged Samaria, that's where Ahab was, the king of Israel,
and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab,
king of Israel, into the city, and said unto them, Thus saith
Ben-Hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine. Thy wives also
and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel
answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I'm
thine, and all that I have. And the messengers came again
and said, Thus speaketh men hated, saying, Although I've sent unto
thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold, and
thy wives and thy children, yet I'll send my servants unto thee
tomorrow about this time. And they shall search out thine
house and the houses of thy servants. And it shall be that whatsoever
is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand and
take it away." That's pretty severe, isn't it? Then the king
of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, Mark, I
pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief. For he sent
unto me for my wives and for my children and for my silver
and for my gold, and I denied him not. And all the elders and
all the people said unto him, hearken not unto him nor consent.
Wherefore he said unto the messengers that have been hated, tell my
lord the king all that thou didst send for me to thy servant at
the first I'll do, but this thing I will not do. I'm not going
to let you come and just take whatever is pleasant in mine
eyes. And the messengers departed and brought him word again, and
Ben-Hadad sent unto him and said, The gods do so unto me and more
also if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls of all the
people that follow me. And the king of Israel answered
and said, Tell him, let not him that girdeth on his harness boast
himself as he that putteth it off. Now what he's saying is,
Don't boast before the battle's over. When you're just getting
ready to war, you don't even know if you're going to win.
You can only boast after you put the sword back in the sheath
and everything's taken care of. Don't boast in a victory that
has not been accomplished yet. Verse 12, And it came to pass,
when Benhaded heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the
kings in the pavilions that he sent unto his servants, set yourselves
in array, and they set themselves in array against the city. And
behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab, king of Israel, saying,
who this prophet was, we're not sure. It could have been Micaiah.
I don't think it was Elijah. And behold, there came a prophet
unto Ahab, king of Israel, saying, thus saith the Lord, hast thou
seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into
thine hand this day, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
And Ahab said, by whom? And he said, thus saith the Lord,
even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then
he said, who shall order the battle? And he answered, thou.
And he numbered the young men of the princes of the province,
and there were 232. And after that, he numbered all
the people, even all the children of Israel, being 7,000. This
is a very small army. And they went out at noon, but
Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions. He and
the kings, and the thirty and two kings had helped him. And
the young men of the princes of the province went out first,
and Ben-Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, their men come
out of Samaria. And he said, whether they be come out for
peace, take them alive, or whether they be come out for war, take
them alive. So these young men of the princes of the province
came out of the city, and the army which followed them. And
they slew every one. His man and the Syrians fled.
And Israel pursued them. And Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria,
escaped on a horse with the horsemen. And the king of Israel went out
and smote the horses and chariots and slew the Syrians with a great
slaughter, just like the prophet said would take place. And the
prophet came to the king of Israel and said unto him, Go strengthen
thyself and mark and see what thou doest. For at the return
of the year, the king of Syria will come up against thee. And
the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Now this is, they're
speaking to Ben-Hadad, this is not Israel. Their gods, the gods
of Israel, are gods of the hills. Therefore they were stronger
than we. Let us fight against them in the plains, and surely
we shall be stronger than they. And do this thing, take the kings
away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their rooms.
And number thee an army like the army that thou hast lost,
horse for horse and chariot for chariot, and we will fight against
them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.
And he hearkened unto their voice and did so. And it came to pass
at the return of the year that Ben-Hadad numbered the Syrians
and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. And the children
of Israel were numbered and were all present and went against
them. And the children of Israel pitched before them like two
little flocks of kids. But the Syrians filled the country.
Their army was vastly larger than Israel's. And there came
a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said,
Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, The Lord
is God of the hills, but he is not the God of the valleys, therefore
will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and
you shall know that I am the Lord. And they pitched one over
against the other seven days. And so it was that in the seventh
day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel slew of
the Syrians a hundred thousand footmen. in one day." Now, this
was that army of 7,000. They slew 100,000 footmen, but
the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and there was a wall that
fell upon the city. There was a wall fell upon 20
and 7,000 of the men that were left, and Ben-Hadad fled and
came into the city into an inner chamber. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name with thanksgiving. We're so thankful for the mercy,
the grace, the salvation that's in your son. We're so thankful
for his beauty, for his righteousness. We're so thankful that we're
found in him. We're so thankful for the forgiveness
of sins that's in him. And we're so thankful that all
things work together for good to them that love you to them
who are called according to your purpose. Lord, make yourself
known to us through your word. Enable us to worship. Enable
us to hear your gospel. Oh, Lord, that we might be found
in Christ. Forgive us of our sins. Give
us grace to love you more and to love one another more. In
Christ's name we pray, amen. That's a long story. Took a long
time to read it, but this is the gospel. Now, every passage
of scripture we come across in the Old Testament, it's always
given to teach us something of the gospel. Now, Ben-Hadad was
the king of Syria, Israel's biggest threat at that time, and his
name means son of a false god. That's interesting, isn't it?
That gives us some idea of what this man typifies. He typifies
the natural man. And if you read this passage
of Scripture, he was such a wicked man. He was going to take everything
that belonged to Ahab, everything that was pleasant in his eyes.
He didn't care. He was an immoral man. He was
a Just a wicked man. You can see
all that from reading this passage of Scripture. That's why I wanted
to read the whole thing. He was a wicked man, and he represents
the natural man. Now, somebody says, all men aren't
like this. Well, they're nice people. I realize that. They're,
quote, good people and moral people. But this is how God sees
everybody, just like this man. Take away the facade, take away
the restraints, and this is the way everybody would be by nature,
just like Ben-Hadad. And he even tried to invent a
false god. He said their gods are gods of
the mountains, but our gods are gods of the plains. He put a
limitation. We can win if we're in the plains. We realize that
he is a god and he's very powerful, but he's got limitations. He
can only operate in the hills and our God can enable us to
defeat him if we operate in the plane. So we see what a man this
man was. Now, in verses two and three, he sent messengers, the Ahab
king of Israel, into the city and said unto them, thus saith
it been hated, thy silver and thy gold is mine, thy wives also,
and their children, even the goodliest are mine. Now that
kind of gives us a summary of history. This is, What you have,
I want. And that's what's behind so many
things. What you have, I want. And he
was going to take it. This is what is behind many wars. What you have, I want. And then
he took it even further. The next day, he said, I'm going
to send people into your home, and whatever you like, I'm going
to take. your silver, your gold, your wives, your children, I'm
gonna take them and they're gonna be mine. And Ahab said, okay,
I'm yours, but you're not gonna do that. I think it's interesting.
Well, he'd already said, all that I have is thine, but when
he comes to take it, hold on, let's don't go this direction.
I don't wanna do that. And he came to the elders and
said, look what he's saying to me. And they said, don't consent
to it. And I think it's interesting what he said in verse 11, And
the king of Israel answered, this is after Ben-Hadad said,
I'm going to bring thousands of people and destroy you. And the king of Israel answered
and said, tell him, let not him that girdeth on his harness boast
himself as he that putteth it off. Now it's kind of surprising
to see wisdom like that come out of Ahab's mouth. He said,
don't boast in this victory while you're pulling out the sword.
The only one that has a reason to boast is the one who's putting
a sword back in the sheath because the victory is already accomplished.
Now, that's the gospel. We are resting in a victory that
has already been accomplished. Sword's already been put back
into the sheath. The sword of God's justice slew
Christ. Christ satisfied all the debt
every believer owes. And we are resting in a finished
work. And we didn't have anything to
do with it. It's what he did on our behalf. Amen. It's what
he did. This was not a cooperative effort.
This is not something that he did his part and we do our part.
I love that. He by himself, with no help from
me or you, he by himself purged our sins. And we are resting
right now in a finished victory. Tell Israel, her warfare is accomplished. Well, Ben-Hadad took complete
offense at that. And then God sent a prophet to
Ahab, verse 13. And behold, there came a prophet
unto Ahab, king of Israel. I believe it was Micah, because
we read about him in the next chapter. And behold, there came
a prophet unto Ahab, king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the
Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will
deliver it into thine hand this day, and thou shalt know that
I am the Lord. Salvation, God's salvation, is
what He does. I will deliver, not I'm offering
you deliverance. You know, most preaching makes
the gospel an offer. I'm offering you my grace. I'm
offering you mercy. I'm sincerely offering you the
forgiveness of sins. Salvation is an offer. I cannot
sufficiently describe my contempt for that
kind of thinking. Salvation's not an offer. Salvation's
an accomplishment. It's what he actually did. Now, if salvation's an offer,
that means whether or not me or you are saved, is dependent
upon us whether we accept or reject God's offer. That, my
dear friends, is salvation by works, bottom line. God doesn't
offer salvation. He didn't say, I'm going to offer
you this victory. He said, you're going to have
it today and you're going to know that I am the Lord. And Ahab, verse 14, said, by
whom? And he said, thus saith the Lord, the young men of the
princes of the provinces, servants who are not trained in warfare. Then said he, who shall order
this battle? And he said, you will. And I'm sure he was very surprised
by that. So he numbered his people and
they went off in to battle. won a great victory. Look in verse 15, then he numbered
the young men and the princes of the province, there were 232,
and after them he numbered all the people, even all the children
of Israel, being 7,000. And they went out at noon, but
Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and
the kings, the thirty and two kings that had helped him. And
the young men of the provinces, the princes of the provinces,
went out first, had been hated, sent out, and they told him,
saying, their men come out of Samaria. And he said, whether
they come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they come
out for war, take them alive. So these young men, untrained
servants of the princes of the province, came out of the city,
and the army which followed them, and they slew every man Everyone,
his men, and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. But
Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, escaped on his horse with the
horsemen. And the king of Israel went out and smote the horses
and chariots and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter, just
like the prophet said." A victory, an accomplished, completed victory. Verse 22, "'And the prophet came
to the king of Israel and said unto him, Go strengthen thyself
and mark and see what thou doest. For at the return of the year,
The king of Syria will come up against them. He's going to come
back for war. And the servants of the king
of Syria said unto him, this is not Israel, this is the servants
have been hated, their gods are gods of the hills. Therefore,
they were stronger than we. After all, they are gods, but
let us fight against them in the plains and surely we shall
be stronger than they. Now, what being hated and the
Syrians were doing was putting limitations on God. He's God. He's real strong. No doubt about that. But he's
a God of the hills and we can't defeat them as long as we're
fighting them in the hills. But if we get him down on the
plains we can defeat him. Limitations placed upon God. Now, the first limitation I think
of that's placed upon God by religious people is free will.
Free will. That puts a limitation on what
God can do. You can thwart his will with
your own free will. You have a free will. Now, any
kind of limitation on God makes him less than what he is. It makes him less than all powerful. There are some circumstances
where his power won't work. It makes him less than absolutely
sovereign, one whose will is always done. No, there are some
situations where his will can't be done. He has certain limitations.
He's a God of the hills and not of the valleys. This summarizes
what most people think of God. He's less than successful. There
are some situations where he can't get what he wants. He's
less than independent. There are some things he needs
in order for his will to be done. He needs to be in the hills,
not in the valleys, or he can't do what he wants to do. He's
less than immutable. He can change. He's one way in
the hills and he's another way in the valleys. He's less than
omniscient. He's not all wise. He's less
than omnipresent. In other words, this is a false
man-made God. Any God that has limitations
like this is a false man-made God, a God that cannot save,
a God that's non-existent, a God that is not to be worshipped. Any God, and I want to say this
as strongly as I can, believing it to be so, knowing it so, any
God that's not exactly like the God of the Bible, The God of
absolute predestination, the God of absolute sovereignty,
the God of perfect holiness, the God of absolute justice is
a false God, is a non-existent God, is an idol. They had a man-made God. beginning in verse 24, or pick
up in verse 24, and do this thing, take the kings away, every man
out of his place and put captains in the rooms and number thee
an army like the army that thou has lost, horse for horse and
chariot for chariot. We will fight against them in
the plane and surely we should be stronger than they. And he hearkened into the voice and
did so. And it came to pass at the return of the year that Ben-Hadad
numbered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against
Israel. And the children of Israel were
numbered and were all present and went against them. And the
children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of
kids. But the Syrians filled the country.
The Israelites were vastly outnumbered, vastly. They looked like a couple
of little flocks against this huge army. Verse 28, and there
came a man of God and spake unto the king of Israel, and said,
Thus saith the Lord, because the Syrians have said, The Lord
is God of the hills, but he's not the God of the valleys. Therefore
will I, God, deliver all this great multitude into thine hand,
and you shall know that I'm the Lord. You're going to know that
the only reason this great multitude is delivered is because of me.
I am going to deliver them into your hand." And this was a battle
that was humanly impossible to win. We know there were at least
127,000 in this army that was all defeated against 7,000. Humanly
speaking, this was impossible. But is anything too hard for
the Lord? Does He need anybody's help? You're going to know that I'm
the Lord that did this. Verse 29, and they pitched over one
against the other seven days. And so it was in the seventh
day, the battle was joined and the children of Israel slew of
the Syrians 100,000 footmen in one day. But the rest fled to
Aphek into the city. They thought they were fine security
in this city. And there a wall fell upon 27,000
of the men that were left. They were all destroyed. They
thought they were going to find safety in this city, and the
wall came down and killed the rest of them, and Ben-Hadad was
left alone. Now next week, we're going to
look at how Ben-Hadad is going to show us what it means to come
to Christ. utterly defeated the way he came
to Ahab. So let's go ahead and read a
few verses. And somebody says, well, how can you use such a
wicked man as a type? Well, are there any that aren't
wicked men? I don't, if I've got to find
a perfect man to use as a type, there won't be any, but see if
you can see the gospel in this. Look, then we're going to consider
this next week. And his servant said unto him, Behold, now we
have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are 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. Your life is in his hands. So they girded sackcloth on their
loins and put ropes on their heads and came to the king of
Israel. and said, thy servant been hated,
saith, I pray thee, let me live. Now, this is Ahab speaking, and
he says, is he yet alive? He's my brother. Where'd that
come from? He's my brother. Ahab says have
been hated. He's my brother. After all the
wickedness that been hated, had done, yet he says, he's my brother. And that's what Christ says of
every one of his people. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all one, for the which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. He's my brother. Now the men did diligently observe
Anything that would come from him, they were listening to what
Ahab had to say, and they did haste to catch it. He's calling
him brother. They caught it. And they said,
thy brother, Benhaded. Then he said, go ye bring him.
Then Benhaded came forth to him, and he caused him to come up
into his chariot. And look, notice how Ben-Hadad is in italics.
The translators put it there, but that's not Ben-Hadad. This
is Ahab still speaking. This is Ahab still speaking.
And Ahab said unto him, the cities which my father took from thy
father, I'll 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. Now there we see the gospel that
came out of that, and that's what we're going to consider
next week.