2 Kings chapter 6. 2 Kings chapter 6. I'm entitling the message from
what Elisha, the man of God, prays in verse 17. He prayed an urgent prayer and
Elisha prayed and said, Lord, Lord, capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah,
God my Savior, Elisha prayed and said, Lord, what a privilege
it is to call the mighty God our Lord. God my Savior, I pray
Thee, I beg Thee, I beseech Thee. He didn't demand that the Lord
open the eyes of the young man. Open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man, and he saw, and behold, a mountain was full
of horses and chariots, chariots of fire round about Elisha. They were there all the time,
weren't they? Elisha saw them, but the young man, his eyes were
holding and didn't see. So the title of the message is,
Lord, open our eyes that we might see, that we may see. See what? Well, Elisha saw the
surrounding providential care in the mighty army of God sent
to protect him. And you know what? He was greatly
comforted, wasn't he? Remember what he said down here?
He said, fear not, verse 16. He was greatly comforted. The young man saw nothing but
the approaching Syrian army and was greatly terrified, greatly
terrified. Elisha was greatly comforted
when he beheld that heavenly host of angels waiting to avenge
if need be. The young man saw nothing and
was greatly alarmed. May we be blessed as the young
man was in that day to have our eyes open to the protecting loving
hand of our blessed Lord have our eyes open to see the providing
hand of the Lord. You know, that's his name. One
of his names, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide, and may
we see his protecting loving hand, and may we see his providing
hand, and be greatly comforted. Truly, we can say with the Apostle
Paul, if God before us, if God before us, Who can be against
us? I love the statement that Elisha
says, Fear not, for they that be with us are more, more than
they that be with them. That's a tremendous statement,
isn't it? Now here's how the story unfolded. Ben-Hadad, the wicked king of
Syria, it says there, And verse 8, warred against Israel. He brought battle against Israel. Now this was an ongoing conflict
between the Jews and these pagan Syrians, and it's a conflict
that yet today is still going on. And it will never end. They can sign all the peace cords
they want to. But Ishmael and Isaac still have
a conflict and it will always be that way. The king of Syria
warred against Israel and took counsel with his servant saying
in such and such a place we're going to attack and we're going
to get the victory over Israel. Ben-Hadad was a wicked man, a
wicked king who warred against the Israel of God. But think
about this. How did this come to pass? It
came to pass because God brought it to pass. I pointed out in
verse 24 of this same chapter, and it came to pass after this
that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all the host and went
up and besieged Syria. It came to pass because God brought
it to pass. And we could put it this way,
who started this fight? God did. He brought this judgment
on his own people and it came to pass because God brought it
to pass. Every battle plan that Ben-Hadad
put forth was fully known by the man of God, Elisha. He warned
the king of Israel on more than one occasion and Israel escaped
on several occasions when Ben-Hadad would lay a trap, Elisha would
tell the king about it, and he would go a different way. Ben-Hadad
was convinced that he had a spy among them, as we read in verse
11, therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled
for this thing, and he called his servants and said to them,
Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?"
He was convinced that he had a spy among them. Then one of
the servants said unto him, We don't have a spy or a traitor
among us. We are loyal to the king. But
Elisha, the man of God, the apostle of God, knows every word you
think and the secrets of your heart. You know, this must have
terrified Ben. Hey, Dad. He knows the words,
the prophet, the man of God, verse 12, tells the king of Israel
the words that you speak in your bedchamber. That is, those things
that you speak in secret. He knows everything. You remember
the proverb, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and
turns it like a river, wheresoever he will. All things are naked
and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. The Lord knows the thoughts and
minds of everyone's hearts." And he somehow relayed that to
Elisha. What God knew about Ben-Hadad,
He made that known to Elisha and he acted on it. Ben-Hadad
gathered and sent a great army to capture and fetch the man
of God who was residing at the time in the city of Dothan, verse
13. When they surrounded the city
with the great army that night, the next morning when Elisha's
servants saw the multitude, you can imagine what he thought.
We're in trouble. We're in big trouble. Verse 15,
he said, Alas, my master, How shall we do? The last part of
verse 15. I asked my master, how shall
we do? And he answered, fear not, for they that be with us
are more than be with them. Now, what could two men do against
a great army? Naturally speaking, they could
do nothing. Nothing. Maybe run, but they
couldn't fight. They knew that it would be a
useless battle. But notice the confidence of
the man of God, Elisha. He said, fear not. We don't need
to worry about a thing. Just settle down. Don't fear. What was the source of Elisha's
confidence. It wasn't confidence in himself,
was it? It was confidence in his God.
Fear not. Turn to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41. This is our confidence at all
times, is it not? Isaiah 41, verse 10. God said, I am God. Beside me
there is none other. Fear not. Isaiah 41 10, Fear
thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will help thee. I will strengthen
thee. I will help thee. I will uphold
thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Again, look at
verse 14. Fear not that worm, Jacob, ye
men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord.
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." I'm thinking of another
scripture here, if I can find it quickly. You look back at
2 Kings chapter 6. The Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? That's Psalm 27. That's a blessing,
isn't it? And I love this strange statement. They that be with us are more
than be with them. Elisha saw an understood thing
that the young servant did not see. Elisha rested, relied upon,
rejoiced in the unfailing promise of God. What was the unfailing
promise of God? You remember what the Lord promised
Joshua? Joshua chapter 1 verse 5, as
I was with Moses, I'll be with thee, I will not fail thee nor
forsake thee. We've studied in Hebrews chapter
13, the Lord said, I will never leave thee. I'll never forsake
thee. Think about this, wherever we
go, whatever we're going through, as God's people, as believers,
the Lord has promised to never leave us alone. in the hospital,
on the job, in the pulpit, in the pew, the Lord had promised
to never leave us alone. Elisha rested on the promise
of God. When Joshua first started his
ministry, the Lord said, I'll be with thee, I will not fail
thee, nor forsake thee. When Joshua was in his last days, Joshua 23, 14, he said, not one thing has failed
of all that God has promised. Not one thing. Abraham was fully
persuaded that of all that God has promised, God's able to perform. Every gospel promise the Lord
has given unto us is Certain and sure because all these promises
are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ He's given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers
of a divine nature verse 17 so Elisha his only recourse to help
the young man be comforted and And to know what he knew, he
prayed to the Lord that the Lord might open his eyes, and the
Lord did so. He opened the eyes of the young
man, verse 17, and he saw, and behold, a mountain was full of
horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. The Lord did open his eyes to
see what was already there, a mighty army of angels hovering over
to protect them, We studied in the book of Hebrews that the
angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them
who shall be the heirs of salvation. I don't think believers have
what they call a guardian angel. I believe believers are surrounded
with a host of angels that hover around ready to do the will of
God at all times concerning the Lord's people." Elisha, in verse
18, when they came down to him, that is, this mighty army, Elisha
prayed, Lord, smite them with blindness. And they were blinded. And he smote them with blindness
according to the word of Elisha. And he said, this is not the
way. You're not in the right place.
You're not in the right city. Follow me and I'll bring you
to the man whom you seek. He was the man whom they were
seeking. They were totally blinded to what was going on. And he
led them to the king and to the capital of Israel at that time,
which was Samaria. In this we see another vivid
picture of the gospel of Christ. He opened the eyes of one and
blinded the eyes of the others. Do you see that? In this we see
another vivid picture of the gospel. Our God will have mercy
on whom he will have mercy, he will open the eyes of his elect,
and he'll harden the hearts of the reprobate. And that's exactly
what he did. You see, the same message that
is preached is a saver of life unto life, unto God's elect,
and it's a saver of death unto death, unto those reprobates
that God is pleased to leave in the blindness of their wicked
heart. Now this is our prayer under
our great and sovereign King, is it not? Lord, open our eyes
that we may see. Now this is exactly turned to
Ephesians chapter 1. This is exactly what the Apostle
Paul prayed for those at Ephesus. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 16,
cease not, we cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. Now isn't that what we need?
We need the eyes of our understanding enlightened that you may know
what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints and what is exceeding greatness
of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his
mighty power. Lord, open the eyes of our understanding
that we might see him now. We preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I've been trying to do that for
almost better than 30 years. Been trying to preach the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I try to preach it as plainly
and clearly and truthfully and sincerely as I can, but I can't
make one sinner see or understand or believe the gospel. Can I? We preach and preach and preach,
but we cannot make a sinner see and understand and believe the
gospel, but we do do what Elisha Did, Lord, open their eyes that
they may see? And the Lord uses his preached
word, the power of God the Holy Spirit, to the hearts of his
elect. You see, the gospel is a mystery
that must be revealed unto us. That's what we read a moment
ago, wasn't it? Over here, don't turn, let me just read it again.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. must reveal these things unto
us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishest unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. God must open our eyes. I'll
give you several reasons why. The natural man's understanding
and the natural man's mind is blinded and dead to spiritual
things. Now he may be religious and he
may be full of tradition of the Father's and fullest ceremony,
but the natural man's understanding of spiritual things, he is blind
and dead." The Apostle put it this way in Ephesians chapter
4, their understanding is darkened. That's us by nature. because
we're born dead in sin, having no hope without God and without
Christ in this world. That's why the mystery of the
gospel must be revealed unto us. By nature, what do we love? By nature, we love darkness.
You know what darkness is there? Self. By nature, we love darkness
and we hate the light, John 3, 19. By nature, we drink iniquity
like the water and despise the Christ of God who is called the
water of life. By our sinful and depraved nature,
we despise the manna from heaven, Christ the bread of life, and
desire to feed upon the husk of this world. That's us by nature. We don't desire the things of
God. It's only when he reveals himself
to us that we have a spiritual appetite for God, the things
of God. The second thing is this, only
the sovereign almighty God can give life and spiritual understanding,
spiritual life, to cause us to see and to believe and to trust
Him for all understanding." Now you remember, Nicodemus came
to the Lord Jesus Christ by night. He was a very self-righteous,
self-centered Pharisee. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to him, except you're born from above, born again by the Spirit
of God, you're not going to see one thing, you're not going to
understand one thing that I'm going to tell you right now.
You must be born again. Huh? How can that be? Can I enter into my mother's
womb and be born again the second time? He had no understanding
of spiritual truth, did he? The Lord said, you must be born
again in order to believe the gospel, in order to understand,
in order to rest and trust in Him. You see, faith is not the
cause. of salvation, it is a fruit of
being born of God. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. God must give us an understanding
and teach us, and He does that when He gives us spiritual life
in Christ. We must and do try to preach
the gospel of Christ plainly and clearly as we can. As Paul
said, seeing we have such a hope, a good hope, we use great plainness
of speech. But we cannot give life. We cannot
give life. We cannot make blind men see
and to love the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the work of God alone. Now, from the last couple hundred
years, religious People in our day have tried to do the work
of God the Holy Spirit. Trying to tell men, oh, you're
saved. Oh, you're not saved. Join us. Oh, you join here and
you're saved. Do this and you're saved. Really? I thought that was the work of
God. We cannot give dead sinners life. We cannot make blind men
see and love the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work of God. You hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin. Only God
can give us ears to hear him who speaks from heaven. Only
God can give us eyes to see Him as He's revealed in the Word
of God. God must command the light to
shine in our hearts or we will remain in the dark. And that's
what happens when God saves a sinner. God who commands the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give us the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to give thanks to
God because he delivered us out of the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of God, dear son. Who did that? Well, the church
did that, the preacher did that, mama did that, daddy did that.
God is the one who saves his people and enlightens his people. Our Lord said this in Matthew
13, blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they
hear. That's the work of God. That's
the work of God the Holy Spirit. When the Lord opened the eyes
of this young servant, He saw things he could not naturally
see. When God opened his eyes, now
he's seeing what Elisha's seeing. He's seeing the mountains full
of chariots and horses and fire. The servants and the angels,
the ministering angels of the Lord come to the rescue. When the Lord is pleased to give
us life in Christ, what does he teach us? What does He reveal
unto us? What do we see and who do we
see with the eyes of faith? Several things. We see because He teaches us. We see because He reveals unto
us the absolute sovereignty of our God who rules and reigns
over all things. That's what He teaches us. He
teaches us that He is God. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven and earth see in all deep places. If God
be for us, who can be against us? God is sovereign in all things
in creation, created all things by the word of His power. He's
sovereign in all things in providence. Whatever He brings to pass in
your life right now is by the will of God. by the purpose of
God. And certainly God is sovereign
in salvation. I don't have any problem with
God saving whom he will. Do you? Well, he's God. You say,
well, that's not fair. If you have an argument, don't
argue with me. You argue with God if you want
to. You're going to lose. He's sovereign
in salvation. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. So that's what he teaches us.
When he opens our eyes, we see God as he's revealed in the word
of God. Secondly, we see the utter inability
of the flesh to satisfy or to please God. The utter inability
of the flesh. You see, the scriptures teach
us that there is none Righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. There is none that stir
up his heart to seek the Lord. We know and understand because
the Lord teaches us the utter inability and sinfulness of our
flesh to satisfy or to please God in any aspect of what He
demands. What does He demand? Well, He
demands that sin be paid for. He demands that atonement must
be made. We can't provide an atonement
for our sin. We cannot put away our sin. We cannot redeem ourselves from
the corruption of our flesh, nor put away our sin. We cannot
provide a justifying righteousness before God. Can we? You see,
when He teaches us that He is God who is holy, He also teaches
us that we're sinful and that we cannot satisfy the thrice
holy God. We cannot provide a justifying
righteousness. We can't satisfy the demands
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now wouldn't that be an awful
place to be put in, to know that God demands of us what we cannot
provide, and demands of us holiness, and we can't provide it. He demands
of us righteousness, and we can't provide it. But thank God we
have the good news of the gospel. Here's the third thing he teaches
us. We see the Lord Jesus Christ as all of our salvation before
God. Everything that God demands of
us, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of His fullness have
we all received grace for grace. In Him dwells all the fullness
of a Godhead bodily, and in the Lord Jesus Christ we stand complete. We see in the Lord Jesus Christ
that He is all And in all, that he's not just a part of salvation,
he's everything in salvation. We see his beauty and his glory,
the beauty and glory of his person, the beauty and glory of his power
and of his purpose. Saving faith is looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. To you who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ is, he's okay. No, he's precious to you who
believe. He is altogether, as the Song
of Solomon says, He's altogether lovely. We look to the Lord Jesus
Christ to provide everything God demands of us is provided
fully in the Lord Jesus Christ for us. We look to the Lord Jesus
Christ to provide for us and to perform all things for us.
God demands wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
The Lord Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ has performed
all things for us. Psalm 57 verse 2. My God shall
provide all your need. according to His riches in glory
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our blessed Savior is the designated
sin offering of His people. He's the designated sin offering
for His people. And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is that designated sin offering for us. Isn't that a... that's the beauty
of the gospel. Everything that God demands,
He supplies for us. We are accepted in the Beloved,
and only that which God provides will God accept. The eyes of
faith desires to see more of Him. Oh, we see Him. You remember
what the Apostle Paul, when he was writing in Philippians 3,
He said, oh, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ. And then he says in the next
breath, he says, oh, that I may know Him. Well, Paul, don't you
already know Him? Yeah, but I want to know more
of His resurrection, more of His power, more of His glory.
The eye of faith desire to see more of Him, desire to grow in
grace, and in the knowledge of our blessed Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, come unto me and rest
all you who are laboring and heavy laden. Come unto me and
I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and do
what? Learn. Learn. Learn of me. Oh, may we never
get to the point where we think we know everything. Well, I just
know everything. You can't teach me. Oh, I want
to learn more of Him. I want to grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, one last thought
and I'll let you go, if I can hold out here. One last thing. Back to our text. In verse 19,
Down through verse 23, something else marvelous happened here
in this story. Now, when I preached from this
text, one time I found a message I preached from this text 19
years ago. And I missed this last point
19 years ago. Maybe I'm growing a little bit
and maybe the Lord's teaching me. One last thing here we see
in verse 19 down through verse 23, At first these enemies were blinded,
and then 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, my father,
shall I smite them? Shall I kill them, smite them? And he said, Elisha said, no,
don't do that. Wouldst thou smite those whom
you've taken captive with a sword or with a bow? That wasn't even
ethical in that day to execute the captives. Set bread and water
before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.
And he prepared a great feast, a great provision for them. And
when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away. They went
to their master. So the band of the Syrians came
no more into the land of Israel. Now, here's the thought. Stay
with me now. This is not far-fetched. But
the gospel is here too. The gospel is here too. When
the enemy was subdued and conquered and broken, with blindness and
then they were recovered from their blindness. Elisha instructed
the king to prepare a great feast and they feasted on what the
king of Israel prepared for them. He prepared a great feast. This
too is a picture of the gospel. When the Lord opens our eyes
and conquers us He feeds us continually at the banquet of mercy. You
see, by nature, we're His enemy. He conquers us, and He brings
us to His own banqueting table, and He sets a feast before us,
and we feed upon Him. He feeds us continually at the
banquet of mercy, the banquet of mercy at His table of grace. Now remember from 2 Samuel 9,
Mephibosheth, when he was brought to David's house, what David
did for the son of King Saul, who was the enemy, he brought
him into his house, blessed him, claimed him at his own, conquered
him, who was once an enemy to the house of David, and Mephibosheth,
David said, you bring him to my table and Mephibosheth did
sit at the king's table as one of the king's son and ate bread
continually." The Lord Jesus Christ conquers us and brings
us to the table of grace Spreads a banquet of mercy, and he says,
here's a feast, enjoy it. We read recently in Luke 15,
this man receiveth sinners, and what does he do? He eats with
them. He eats with them. One scripture
back in Isaiah 40, if you'll turn there, and I'll let you
go. Isaiah 40, verse 11, he shall
feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with
his arms, verse 11, Isaiah 40. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arms and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. The Lord does provide for us. When he conquers us, he doesn't
leave us alone, does he? He brings us to the table of
grace and feeds us and provides for us and blesses us.