But I believe I do have a message
that the Lord gives us here in 2 Kings 4. 2 Kings 4. I want to look at verse 38 down
through verse 44 of 2 Kings 4. And I'm taking the title for
the message from that verse 40. O thou man of God, there is death,
there is death. in the pot and they could not
eat thereof. Evidently someone had tasted
of this pottage that was made and quickly someone discovered
that this is not something that we could eat and they determined
that it was something that was full of poison. Again, in these
verses that we study this evening, we're going to study, we see
two more miracles of the Lord, and the miracle of the Lord works
through His servant, the prophet of God. He's called, and I love
this statement here, the man of God. Elijah and Elisha were
both called the man of God. They were both men chosen of
God, specially chosen, blessed of God, and sent of God. This
poisonous soup was made safe, and the loaves of the bread were
multiplied to feed the hungry. Those two miracles, the poisonous
soup was made safe, and the loaves of bread were multiplied to feed
the hungry prophets in the school. When the Lord works, none can
hinder or obstruct. And when the Lord obstructs and
hinders, none can work. Our Lord said, without me, you
can do nothing. But with the Lord, all things
are possible. When the Lord works, none can
hinder or obstruct. When the Lord obstructs and hinders,
None can work. He said, without me you can do
nothing. The Lord can take our weakness,
our little, and use that for his great purpose that he might
receive all the honor and glory. We have this treasure of the
gospel in our earthen vessel. Our earthen vessel is weak, our
earthen vessel is sinful, but yet the Lord uses these earthen
vessels filled with the treasure of the gospel for His glory and
for His purpose. What are these earthen vessels?
They're not much. David said, Lord remember my
frame, what it is, it is just dust. The Lord teaches us in
Zechariah chapter 4 verse 10, teaches us not to despise the
day of small things. Small things. Now here's the
story. While Elisha was about the Lord's
business, as it says there in verse 38, Elisha came again from
Gilgal and there was a drought in the land, and the sons of
the prophets were sitting before him. He was about the Lord's
business, teaching these men about God who is sovereign, about
God who will provide. And he said unto his servant,
Set on the great pot, and seize or boil up pottage for the sons
of the prophet." Here is Elisha about the business of the Lord. teaching the young prophets about
the things of God. Maybe his lesson was from Genesis
chapter 22, how the Lord taught Abraham that He will provide. The Lord will provide for His
people, and He does. When it came time to eat, He
told them to set the great pot on the fire and cook up some
soup. Remember now, there was a great
famine in the land that lasted for seven years. That's what
it says in chapter 8 verse 1. There wasn't much food to be
had, but it did not diminish Elisha from telling the servant
of the Lord to put the great pot on the fire and let's make
some soup. Elisha expected the Lord to provide
the food for them and to fill the pot. And the lesson for us
is the Lord will provide. He will fill us with His word
and with His truth. Now, while the servant prepared
the pot, started the fire under the great pot, one of the young
men thought that God would need some help. Verse 39, and one
went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine. wild gourds, his lap full, came
and shred them in the pot, for they knew not, knew them not."
One of the young men, maybe one of the sons of the prophet, thought
that maybe God would need some help. He would need some help. to make some soup in the pot.
So we went out and gathered up a lap full of these wild gourds
that they didn't recognize. They looked, I'm sure they looked
good. Someone said they looked like
luscious cucumbers. And they brought them back and
said, look what I found. I've got these luscious looking
cucumbers. And they shred them up in a pot.
His help, rather, turned out to be poisonous. His help turned out to make the
soup poisonous. When they began to taste, they
cried out, as it says there in verse 40, so they poured out
for the men to eat, and it came to pass, as they were eating
the pottage, that they cried out and said, O thou man of God,
there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof. Elisha has the remedy, verse
41, he said, then bring the meal. Bring meal, and he cast it into
the pot, and he said, pour out for the people that they may
eat, and there was no harm in the pot. They ate all the soup
that was fixed. Elisha said to bring the meal,
he cast it in the pot, The meal neutralized and diffused the
poison and made the food wholesome. And there was no harm came to
anyone as they ate the fruit." That's the first miracle. The
second miracle found in verse 42 and 44. The second miracle,
some days later, Elisha took the small number of loaves, 20
loaves it said, of the first fruit that was given unto him.
They brought to the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty
loaves of barley, and four ears of corn and husk for them to
feed upon these one hundred prophets. Little food, the little food
was multiplied, the men were fed, and there was some left
over according, as it says, according, verse 44, according to the word
of the Lord. Not only is these stories most
interesting, and they are, just reading the facts and how the
Lord brought this miracle to pass, But as always, our goal
and object is to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ from
the word of God. All scripture is given of God,
including all scripture, Old Testament and New, given for
one reason, to teach us the gospel and show us the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, several points here, this
being the first one. In verse 38, We see there was
a famine in the land, a great dearth in the land. If we read
over in chapter 8 verse 1, this was a famine that lasted seven
years. We see there was famine in the
land, not, or lack of, there was a great famine in the land
and there was not much for them to eat. And we have a famine
in our land as well, not for lack of natural bread, but of
the preaching of the word of God. There is a great famine
in our land, as there was a natural famine in that land. We have
not just a few hundred suffering the lack of heavenly and spiritual
bread, but rather millions. There's a great famine in the
land of the preaching of the Word of God and the spiritual
bread that sinners need to feed upon. Perishing because of a
great spiritual drought, No true preaching of Christ in him crucified. There was a great famine in the
land. Now, there's a lot of preaching
going on. There's preaching everywhere,
radio, TV, internet. There's a lot of preaching going
on. You know on Sermon Audio now
there's 23,000 preachers, 23,000 preachers on Sermon Audio. When
we started Back 11 years ago, there just
was a handful. There are millions of sermons
on Sermon Audio. I doubt but just a few of them
are true gospel sermons. There is much preaching going
on in the land, but no gospel preaching for the most part. There's a great famine in the
land. Well, what are we to do? What
are we to do to feed such a multitude of perishing sinners? What are
we to do? We're to do exactly what Elisha
did. He said, take the great pot and
put a fire under it and make pottage for the sons of the prophet. He had not an abundance of great
natural resources to draw from, except a little bit of meal. But he said, set on the pot and
make a great pot of soup. And he was confident that the
Lord would fill the pot, that the Lord would provide. This is the confidence of faith,
is it not? The Lord will provide. Elisha
believed the Lord would somehow provide to fill the great pot. Faith is fully persuaded of all
that God had promised He will do. He's performed all things
for us. Faith always does as much as
it can do and then looks to God to provide the results. obedience to the word of the
Lord that is pleasing unto him, but we can't make things happen. That's when religious folks get
in trouble, when they try to make things happen, when they
try to do certain things. We can go and preach the gospel
as faithfully as we can. We can set out the great pot
of the gospel message, but we must wait upon God to fill the
pot and supply the need. We must look to God to bless
His people. We can go and we can preach and
we can preach and preach the truth and preach Christ. But
unless God the Holy Spirit sends forth the Word and the power
of God the Holy Spirit and to reveal Christ unto a heart and
to quicken us, we'll never see Christ in His beauty and in His
glory. The Lord had told his church
to go and preach the gospel. We can go and preach the gospel
as faithfully as we can and look to the Lord to supply our need. The Lord said our labors in preaching
will not be in vain. Take your Bible and find 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Remember verse 5, 1 Corinthians
3, who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers
by whom ye believe, even as the Lord gave to every man, 1 Corinthians
3, 5, I have planted Apollos at water, set on the great pot. But God must give the increase. That's exactly what Elisha believed. We can set the great pot, we
can preach the great message of the gospel, but we must wait
upon God, that He might get all the glory. So then, neither is
He that planteth anything, neither is He that watereth anything,
but God that giveth the increase. But our labors in the Lord are
not in vain. Find in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, First Corinthians chapter 15. Look at verse 9, verse Corinthians
15, 9. For I am the least of the apostles,
that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not
in vain. I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God. That was with me. We are to labor in the gospel.
We are to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He
will bless our efforts according to His own purpose and will.
First Corinthians 15, look at verse 57. Thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
We never labor in vain in preaching the gospel. The Lord said He
will bless our labors, ministering to God's people, preaching the
Word of God. He has said in Isaiah 55, He
said, that he will bless his word, it will not return unto
him void. He said, go and preach the gospel
into all the world. And then he said, lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the earth. We never have to go
and minister the gospel alone. He's always with us. We are not
to despise the day of small things. And I think of two things. recently
in the last 10-11 years, when the Lord has given us a ministry
to set on the great pot of the gospel. In 2005, when Pastor
Mahan brought all of his 4,000 some messages on cassette tapes
up here, And we started doing the conversion process into the
digital format. I had no idea that the Lord would
use this ministry here through sermon audio on the internet
to be such a blessing to the Lord's people around this world. We've been doing it now for 11
years. I had no idea. One of the reasons
that why we started doing the conversion from the cassette
tape into the digital was so that we could copy the messages
on CDs and send them out. We were copying and making copies
of audio cassettes as people sent in orders, but a lot of
people requested CDs. And about that time was when
Brother Tony Moody contacted me about the Sermon Audio ministry
and I had never heard of it. But that whole ministry for all
the grace preachers that we know started right here with Pastor
Mahan. Now we've been on Sermon Audio
for 11 years. Over 2,300,000 views of sermons, almost 1.5
million downloads of sermon. I had no idea. We started just
a little small thing, but it has mushroomed. I had no idea
when we started 10 years ago now, 10 years ago this month,
10 years ago this month, when we started traveling to Kingsport
Tennessee and preaching the gospel to some folks up there who wanted
to hear the gospel of God's grace. That's been 10 years ago now.
I had no idea what would come of that. All I knew is that there
was a handful of people there that wanted to hear the gospel,
who asked us to come up and preach to them. I had no idea what the
Lord was going to do. I know now. Ten years later,
the Lord has been pleased to raise up a gospel ministry there.
And it is thriving. It is growing. I'm quite amazed
how the Lord is blessing that ministry there. But I had no
idea. I had no idea. All I knew to
do was set on the great pot. To set the great pot and ask
the Lord to fill it to go preach the gospel. You see, that's the
charge that I take very personally. I take it very personally, because
the Lord has called me and put me in the ministry. He said,
I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to preach
the Word, to preach the Word. And we go and preach, and the
Lord will bless the preached Word of the Gospel. It is our
business that the Lord has given to His church, to His elect,
to feed the sheep of Christ. The Apostle Paul said that. If
you'll find, hold your place here and find Acts chapter 20.
The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is very, very serious
and concerned about preaching the gospel, not only here, but
wherever the Lord opens the door. We are to do the work of an evangelist,
to evangelize here and wherever the Lord sends us. In Acts chapter
20, verse 27, he said, I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God. Verse 28, Take heed therefore
unto yourself, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseer, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood. You remember the Lord asked Peter,
turn to 1 Peter chapter 5, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me
more than these? Remember what he said? Yeah,
Lord, you know, you know I love you. Remember what the Lord said?
Feed my sheep. Ask him three times. And the
Lord kept saying, Peter, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. And that's what we're to do.
Feed them the word of God. First Peter chapter five, verse
one. First Peter five one, the elders which are among you I
exhort, who am also an elder, a witness of the sufferings of
Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,
feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, out of love for his
glory, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, of a willingness
being ready to serve the Lord in season and out of season,
to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look back to
the text. The faith of Elisha. Elisha was
willing to set the great pot, set it on fire, and then wait
upon the Lord to fill it. But the faith of Elisha was not
shared by all the sons of the prophet. Verse 39, one went out
and gathered all these wild gourds, and had a lap full, and came
and shred them in a pot, and it poisoned the pot. Some thought,
or this one man thought, that God needed their help to fill
the pot. Fill the pot with something that
they might bring, something that they might provide. But it turned
out to be a disaster, didn't it? And some, making a gospel
application, some zealously gather up some wild gourds, And they
think that they will help God by adding their deeds, their
thoughts, their works, but it adds nothing but poison to the
pot. You get the picture here. We
can make a right gospel application to our day because many bring
their works or their doing or their righteousness and try to
add that to the gospel, and expect to fill the pot with their goodness,
with their righteousness, with their good thing, but it brings
nothing but death and judgment in the pot. Don't go out and
bring some wild works and righteousness and ceremony and try to fit that
in the pot of the gospel. What will that do to the pot?
It'll poison it. It'll ruin the gospel. You see those Jews that had a
zeal of God but not according to knowledge, they went about
to establish a righteousness of their own and presented it
to God as if he needed help. He is the Lord, our righteousness,
who provides all things for us. Don't poison the gospel message
trying to bring your works. You remember the apostle said,
if you be circumcised, that is, if you bring something, Christ
shall profit you nothing. You see, it's not by the deeds
of the law. Don't bring your obedience, don't
bring your righteousness to the gospel and present it to God
and say, look what I've done. You try to add your merit, add
your works to the gospel of God's grace, and you've got death in
the soup. Remember the scripture, a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And I've given this illustration
before, but you know that 99.5% percent of rat poisoning is good
food? It's just that half percent or
that one percent. The rats wouldn't eat it if it
was all poison. It's 98 percent good food. You just add two percent and
what do you have? You've got death in the pot.
And that's what folks are doing today in false religion. They've got their 2% or 1% or
however many or whatever the percentage may be. Most of the
time, it's much more than that. In false religion, it's 80% human
merit. And all you've got is death in
the pot. Salvation is all of grace, not
of works. It's not of him that willeth
or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Salvation
is either all of grace or all of works. It cannot be a mixture
of both. And we know that this book teaches
that salvation is all of grace, don't we? Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. For ye know of the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. We believe through the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Well, what was the remedy? Verse
41. Elisha said after he heard that
someone had added poison to the soup, and someone had tasted
and cried out their death in the pot. They could not eat it
and survive, and a false gospel will kill your soul. But he said,
then bring meal, and he cast it into the pot, and he said,
pour out for the people that they may eat, and there was no
harm. in the pot. Now what do you think
this pictures? What are we to do? Well cast
in the meal. There was death in the pot but
Elisha had the sure remedy for the problem. The Lord instructed
him to cast in the meal. Good wholesome food was cast
into the pot, and by the Lord's grace and power, the poison was
killed and neutralized, and the soup was made nutritious, and
they ate it, and no harm came to anyone. We too should imitate
Elisha. We are to look to God and use
what he has provided. What is that that the Lord has
provided for us? It's the meal of the Word of
God. We are to cast in the Word of
God. We are to go and preach Christ
and Him crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
bread of life. Preach Christ, His person. and
His work. The only way the Church of God
can cast out and kill the poisonous doctrine of works religion is
to cast in the blessed gospel of the glory of God, is it not? To preach Christ in Him crucified. The surest remedy for false doctrine
is what? Talk about the false doctrine?
The surest remedy for false doctrine and damning doctrine is the preaching
of the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said,
you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.
If you want to expose a crooked stick, Don't talk about the crooked
stick all day. Lay down a straight stick, and
the straight stick exposes the crooked stick. And that's what
we do in preaching of the gospel. We expose that which is fault
by preaching that which is true. The grossest error of our day
may be destroyed by preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How is the false gospel exposed? It's by declaring the truth of
God. You see, the gospel is the remedy,
the only remedy that God has provided. Christ is the remedy
for our sin. His salvation. He is salvation
from our sin. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. Christ is the only remedy. for
death. He is our life. He is our resurrection
and our life. He has delivered us from death.
He delivered us from the wrath to come by taking our judgment. This is how the false gospel
is to be exposed by declaring the truth. The apostle put it
this way, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. We are to tell
the truth of who God is. holy, sovereign, eternal, almighty,
none can stay His hand. That's how you expose the weak,
puny, peanut God of false religion is by declaring God as God that
does what He will in heaven, earth, seas, and all deep places.
Telling the truth of who God is, telling the truth of what
happened in the garden. How did we become sinners? Well,
I stole a piece of bubble gum one day and my mama caught me
and she said, you've been a bad little girl or a bad little boy. That happened to my wife. And
she got a spanking. But why did she steal that little
piece of bubble gum? Because she was a sinner. born
in sin, shapen in iniquity." You see, we must tell the truth
of who we are. We are sinners. Sinners, born
in sin, shapen in iniquity, and the only reason a man steals
is because he is already sinful in his heart. We are to tell
the truth, expose the false gospel by declaring the truth of who
God is, of how sin entered into us. And we talk a lot about Adam,
but how does that affect me? I was born sinful with a depraved,
totally depraved nature. Total, in the fact that it affects
my mind, my will, my heart, my thought, my eyes, everything
I touch. We're to tell the truth of what
Christ accomplished. You see, that will expose the
false gospel. By telling the truth of what
Christ accomplished. What did he accomplish? He put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He said, it is finished. The Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished
all redemption, all righteousness for us. He accomplished all reconciliation. He reconciled us unto God. Do you reckon He got the job
done? Or is He waiting on you to make
His work whole? God forbid. You see, when we
preach the accomplishment of Christ, that exposes that which
is false. How is the false gospel exposed? By casting in the meal. By preaching
Christ and Him crucified. how God saves sinners by His
grace alone. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, it is a gift of God. Who knows
what great things the Lord will be pleased to do using such simple
methods He has given us. Preaching Christ, setting forth
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul
calls that the simplicity, the singleness of the oneness of
the gospel in Christ. It pleased God through preaching
to call out His people. The only antidote for the false
gospel is the true gospel. I tell you what, you believe
the true gospel and find refuge and salvation in Christ and you
eat of Him, no harm will come to you. That's right. You eat of Him and no harm will
come to you because in the Lord Jesus Christ there is therefore
now no condemnation. We are complete in Christ. Nothing
lacking. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God the elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? Christ is already dying. He's
already been condemned for my sin. God's justice can't twice
demand. At my bleeding surety's hand
and then again at mine. God forbid. The gospel is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. In verse
42 and verse 44, here's the second thing we want to look at quickly
in closing. Elisha took what little was provided,
gave to the servant, and fed the 100 prophets. There came
a man from Baal, shall ashy, and brought the man of God bread
of firstfruits. The firstfruits belong to God. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
firstfruits. 20 loaves of barley, four ears
of corn, and the host they rubbed. And he said, Give unto the people
that they may eat. And the servant said, Well, what
is that among so many? What, should I set this before
a hundred men? And he said again, Give the people
that they may eat. For thus saith the Lord, They
shall eat. and shall leave thereof. They
shall eat and be full. So he said it before them, and
they did eat and left thereof according to the word of the
Lord. Thus saith the Lord. The servant
of the Lord did not think that the twenty loaves, the little
that was given, would supply the need. But it did, with much
left over. This is only a foreshadowing
picture of what we read about in John chapter 6, pointing to
the coming miracle of the prophet of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
How the Lord took what little was provided, five loaves and
two fishes, and fed five thousand men, not counting the women and
children, and took up twelve baskets full of food. What a
miracle of God's mercy! Our God shall supply all our
need according to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ. They took what little was given
and used it for the glory of God, and again God blessed it. Now here's a lesson for us. We
are to use what little the Lord has freely given to us. What little talent, what little
strength, what little means that we have been freely given to
the benefit of the Lord's church and to his elect. Serve the Lord
with whatever the Lord has been pleased to put into your hand
and has given to you and has blessed you. Serve the Lord in
whatever capacity He has been pleased to give you, in singing,
in giving, in praying, in helping, whatever it may be, in serving
Him. I'll give you a good example
of that. The Lord's church in the first century, in the beginning,
had just a handful of believers. It says in Acts chapter 1 that
there were 120 disciples. And the Lord took that 120 disciples,
like the two fishes and five loaves, and He blessed that,
and it multiplied, and it became what we have today. The Lord
took that handful of faithful believers, blessed their effort
in the preaching of the gospel to others. They were fishermen,
they were common people, yet the Lord turned the world upside
down and shook the world, the fruit of which we still enjoy
today in the preaching of the gospel. So then let us be faithful
wherewith the Lord has placed us, let us be faithful with what
the Lord has given to us, be it little or few, despise not
the day of small things. Let us serve the Lord in whatever
way we can to further promote the gospel of His sovereign purpose
and His sovereign grace and His glory, and He will bless us. but let us serve the Lord." The
Apostle Paul called himself repeatedly the servant of the Lord. And
he's given us the mighty weapons of the gospel. Let's read these
two references and I'll let you go. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. All that the Lord has promised,
He will do. He's promised to bless our labors,
In preaching of the gospel, he has promised to bless his word.
2 Corinthians chapter 10, look at verse 3. Although we walk
in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high
thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. One
other scripture, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Let us not be weary in well-doing. Let us serve the Lord with whatever
means He has given to us, whatever talent or gifts that we have.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7, lest I should be exalted above
measure, through the abundance of revelations there was given
to me a thorn in the flesh. the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I besought the Lord Christ, that it might depart from me. And
he said unto me, my grace is sufficient, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Remember what the apostle said,
I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. Therefore,
I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessity,
in persecution, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm
weak, that's when I am strong. You see, God can take our little,
our nothingness, And He can use us, and He does. He uses instruments. He uses means to accomplish His
purpose. And that is according to His
will and His way and according to His glory.