Let me say just a few words before
we turn to our text tonight. And I hope these are words of
encouragement to everyone here this evening. I know it's easy
to get discouraged because the fewness of our numbers on Wednesday
evening. But remember this, where God's
people gather, whether it's a large group or small group, the purpose
is to glorify God. And he's glorified when his people
worship him. He's glorified. And that's our
object. That's what we desire always,
that the Lord be glorified when we come together. Now, if you
will, let's open ours. And I'm thankful for each one
of you for your faithfulness. Let me say that. I thank the
Lord for your faithfulness. If you will now turn again with
me to 2nd Kings chapter 6. 2nd Kings chapter 6 and beginning
again this evening in verse 24. And it came to pass after this
that Benadad king of Syria gathered all his hosts and went up and
besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine
in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it until an ass's head
was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part
of a cab of doves dung for five pieces of silver. And as the
king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a
woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said,
If the lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out
of the barn floor or out of the wine press. And the king said
unto her, what aileth thee? And she answered, this woman
said unto me, give thy son that we may eat him today, and we
will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did
eat him. And I said unto her on the next
day, give thy son, that we may eat him. And she hath hid her
son. And it came to pass, when the
king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes. And
he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and behold,
he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God
do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of
Shaphat shall stand on him this day. But Elisha sat in his house,
and the elders sat with him, and the king sent a man from
before him. But ere the messenger came to
him, he said to the elders, see you how this son of a murderer
has sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messenger cometh,
shut the door and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound
of his master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with
them, behold, the messenger came down unto him and he said, Behold,
this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord
any longer? Then Elisha said, hear ye the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Tomorrow,
about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel,
two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Last Wednesday evening we looked
at these verses that I've just read, and I mentioned to us how
that Matthew Henry was of the opinion that these verses that
we read in chapter six should have been included in chapter
seven because we have one story, the whole story, beginning in
chapter six and running through chapter seven. Last week we looked
at three words. when, but, and then. When King Jehoram heard the words
of the woman describing the severity of the famine, he vowed to kill
Elisha that very day. He took a vow declaring that
Elisha's head would not be on him when that day ended. And then we looked at the word
but. But Elisha and the elders sat in their house projecting
to us calmness, serenity, all the turmoil and everything that
was going on outside, all the chaos and The king's oath to
kill Elisha, but Elisha and the elders sat calmly in their house. And then, the word then, in verse
one, we saw, then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord. Now I have two purposes tonight
in this message. First, I want to encourage all
of us to hear the Word of God and to believe the Word of the
Lord. To hear the Word of the Lord
and to believe the Word of the Lord. And second, to warn us
all of the consequences of not hearing the Word of the Lord
and not believing the Word of the Lord. the word of the Lord in verse
one. Then Elisha said, hear ye the
word of the Lord. Now here it is, this is the word
of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, tomorrow
about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel
and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Now look down to verse 18. And
it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king saying,
two measures of barley for a shekel and a measure of fine flour for
a shekel shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. The word of the Lord, the word
of the Lord which was given, the word of the Lord which was
fulfilled. The word of the Lord was that
tomorrow about this time, you will be able to purchase a measure
of flour for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel. And it came to pass just as the
word of the Lord declared. And it always will. It always
shall. Why? Because this is the word
of the Lord. God's word is not going to fall
to the ground. God's word is going to be accomplished. His purpose is going to be fulfilled. Now I want to point several things
out to us tonight as we go from verse one, where the word of
the Lord is given, to verse 18 in chapter seven here, where
we see the fulfillment of the word of the Lord. First, the
first thing that I point out to us is the king did not fulfill
his word. What was his word? Elisha's gonna
die. Elisha's head's coming off of
him today. It didn't. The king did not fulfill
his word for some reason. when he heard the word of the
Lord, and he was there, we see that, he sends his messenger,
and then his feet are right behind his messenger, and he's the one
who speaks, the king does, and he too hears the word of the
Lord, and for some reason, God, we know is the reason, he must
have decided, well, we'll let him live another day. We'll let
him live another day. And the sun set that day, and
Elisha still had his head upon his body. The Apostle Paul in
the New Testament told us and tells us, let God be true and
every man a liar. Now what does that mean, let
God be true and every man a liar? If every man in the world denies
the word of the Lord, Every man is a liar. That's what it means. That God's word is the truth. That God cannot lie, the scriptures
tell us. If every man in this world denies
the word of the Lord, it only proves, it only demonstrates
to us how that every man is a liar. But God is the truth. He is the
truth. I want you to listen to these
two verses that are found in Psalm 146. Now my point is, the
word of the king, it did not come to pass. He lied, the word
of the king. And men by nature are liars,
we know that. The scriptures tell us that we
go astray from the womb speaking lies. That's true of all of us
when we come into this world. But listen to these two verses
in Psalm 146. Put not your trust in princes.
Now here was a prince. He was a king. And his word was,
Elisha's going to die today. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man, in any other man, in whom there is no
help. Now listen, his breath, That
is, his breath, his life of kings, princes, and all men, his breath
goeth forth. He returneth to the earth, dust
to dust. And listen, in that very day,
the day that his breath goes forth out of his body, in that
very day, his thoughts perish. His thoughts perish. How many
men have plans, even today we have no way of knowing, but how
many men today in this world have plans for tomorrow, and
next month, and a year from now, but they won't come to pass? Why? Because He will be called
out of this world, and in that moment, His very thoughts shall
perish. I think about that man in our
Lord's parable in Luke chapter 12, who said, because his fields
have produced so much, he said, I know what I'm going to do.
I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger barns. He never
tore those barns down, did he? He never did build bigger barns.
Why? Because the Lord said, this night,
tonight. Thy soul shall be required of
thee. The king did not fulfill his
word. And that's just an indication
and a warning about trusting in the words of man rather than
in the word of God, the word of the Lord. Now the second thing
is, I want to point out is, here's a mighty man, he sneers at the
word of the Lord. Notice in verse two. Now here's
the word of the Lord. Tomorrow about this time shall
a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures
of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Then, now here's
this man, he's a lord, a lord on whose hand the king leaned.
Answer. Notice how he mocks the word
of the Lord. Sneeringly, he says, behold,
if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? Might this thing be? You see
how he mocks the word of the Lord? This was a great man, no
doubt. He's called the Lord, a judge. He was probably one of the king's
counselors. one of his confidants. And he
heard the word of the Lord, and to him it was ridiculous. It
was foolishness, this word of the Lord. Why, he said, for that
to happen, God would have to open up windows in heaven and
just rain down flour and barley. And he could. He could do that. For 40 years he rained down manna,
six days every week, six days of the week he rained down manna
to feed the Israelites, didn't he? But this man, in unbelief,
he says, that could not be. That's just foolishness. That's
just foolishness. That's what the world thinks
about the gospel, isn't it? That's what the world thinks
about the Bible, the word of the Lord. That's foolish. But
unto them which are called, it is a power of God unto salvation. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness unto them that perish. But unto them that are called,
it's a power of God unto salvation. Well, This reminds us when we say that
this was a Lord that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called. He wasn't. Elisha had a father word for
him, didn't he? Notice the remainder of verse
two, after he mockingly said what he had to say, then Elisha
said, behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt
not eat thereof. Now third, there's several things
that are going to take place, and all of these things seem
random as you read through them, but all of them are like spokes
in a wheel that are turning that are going to bring the word of
the Lord to fulfillment. So many random things, and I've
got five things down here that I want to point out. Number one,
four lepers, four lepers reason what is obvious. Notice that
beginning in verse three. They don't know anything about
what Elisha said. They haven't heard the word of
the Lord. There were four lepers men at the entering end of the
gate, and they said one to another, why sit we here till we die?
If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is
in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit still here,
we die also. Now therefore come and let us
fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall
live. And if they kill us, we shall
but die. And they rose up in the twilight
to go unto the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the
uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man
there." These four leprous men reasoned the obvious. If we sit here, we're going to
die. If we go into the city, because
there's such a siege of the city, they're starving in the city.
If we go in there, we're going to die. If we cast ourselves on the mercy,
that's basically what it is, on the mercy of the Syrians,
the army, the Syrian army, all they can do is put us to death
so we can stay here and die. We can go into the city and die,
or we can go into the camp of the Syrians, and if they don't
have mercy upon us, we can die there. But that's all that can
happen. We will die. You cannot fail to see the difference
here between these lepers and a sinner who is under conviction
of sin. These lepers, you cannot fail
to see the difference between a sinner who is under the conviction
of sin and his plight compared to the lepers. The lepers say,
if they save us alive, we shall live. There's an if there, if,
if they save us alive, we shall live. There is no if for sinners. There is no if for sinners coming
to Christ. Not at all. It is come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It is believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. So first of all, we see these
four leperish men. They reasoned the obvious. Number
two, the Syrians heard what no one else heard. Notice in verses
six and seven, for the Lord had made the host of the Syrians
to hear a noise of chariots. and a noise of horses, even the
noise of a great host. And they said one to another,
lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites
and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore, they
arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their
horses and their asses, even the camp as it was and fled for
their life. They heard what no one else heard. It's interesting, if you look
back, now notice what it says that they heard, and they heard
it. They didn't imagine they heard this, they heard it. Nobody
else heard it. People in Samaria didn't hear
it, but they heard it. What was it that they heard?
To hear the noise of chariots, noise of horses, and the noise
of a great army. Now look back to Chapter 6, verse
14. In this chapter, the Syrians
were coming to arrest Elisha. This happened sometime before.
Verse 14, it says, therefore sent he, that is the king, there
their horses and chariots and a great host, and they came by
night and compassed the city about. And when the servant of
the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host
compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his
servant said unto him, Alas, my master, How shall we do? And he answered, Fear not, for
they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee. Now notice, open
his eyes. It doesn't say anything about
hearing anything this time, does it? But it's the same host. It's the same army that camped
around about Elisha, the man of God. And when Elisha prayed
for his servant, God opened his eyes and what did he see? He
saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots
of fire round about Elisha. But now, in our text this evening,
God opened their ears. Before he opened that man's eyes,
now he opened their ears to hear. And what they heard, caused them
to surmise that the king of Israel, Jehoram, that he had hired armies
out of Egypt and that other place that's mentioned here, the Hittites,
and that they had come. There was no such thing. Nobody,
no armies had come. Jehoram probably didn't have
enough money to hire another army to come to begin with. No. God just caused them to hear
the noise of a great army. And not only did they hear, remember
when Paul saw a great light, he's the only one who heard the
voice of the Lord. Like I said at the beginning,
no one else, the lepers, they were outside the city, they didn't
hear. The people in the city didn't hear, but the Syrians
heard. They heard. God made them hear.
And they surmised that they were going to be overrun by these
foreign armies. And so what did they do? In fear,
they began to run. They began to run, leaving everything
behind. And that's the third point, plenty.
Plenty was found in verse eight. And when these leopards came
to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent
and did eat and drink, carried then silver and gold and raiment,
went and hid it, came again and entered into another tent and
carried thence also and went and hid it. Now, we saw last
time that the king of Syria, he besieged the city. He was
going to starve them out. He wasn't necessarily going to
shoot arrows or try to break through the wall of the city
or anything. He just put a ring around the city to starve
those people out. So what did he do? He brought
plenty. He brought plenty of supplies.
His army brought plenty of supplies because they were there for the
long haul. They were going to wait no matter
how long it took to starve those people to surrender. They had
plenty there. And you know, they didn't have
banks. These men who were soldiers, they couldn't put their money
in the bank, their gold in the bank, their silver in a bank
and come here to Israel to fight. No, they took everything with
them. They took all their gold and silver and everything that
was precious they took with them. And when they heard the noise
of this army, they left everything and took off running. Plenty,
plenty was heard, was left. So I looked at that, it made
me think of the words in one of our Lord's parables when there
was a feast made and those invited at first didn't come and the
master was sent out into the highways and the byways and invite
everyone to come. And he did. And then he told
his master this. He said, Yet there's room. Yet there's room. Isn't that
wonderful? After all these years of the
Lord saving sinners, yet there's room. Yet there's room. The blood of Jesus Christ is
still powerful to cleanse and to wash and to save his people. Yet there's room. There was plenty
here. Plenty for these lepers. The fourth thing is conscience
began to do its work. Notice in verses 9 through 12.
Here are these lepers. They were filling their bellies. They were taking gold and hiding
it. Men have a conscience, don't
they? Now, it's not good. You can't say, well, let your
conscience be your guide, because we know man's conscience has
been affected in the fall. But men do have a conscience.
And this is what we see begins to work on these men, these leprous
men. And you say, well, how do you
know it was their conscience? Well, let's read here, verses
nine through 12. Then they said one to another,
we do not wail. This day is a day of good tidings
and we hold our peace if we tarry till the morning light. Now notice,
they're not doing this because they're concerned for the people
in Samaria. They're not doing this out of
love in their hearts for their fellow man. No, if we don't tell
others, some mischief will come upon us. They're doing it for
themselves, you see that? That's the way conscience always
works. Now therefore come that we may
go and tell the king's household. So they came and called unto
the porter of the city, And they told them, saying, We came to
the camp of the Syrians. And behold, there was no man
there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied,
and the tents as they were. And he called the porters, and
they told it to the king's house within. And verse 12, And the
king arose in the night. Now, he heard, now listen, think
about this. He heard the word of the Lord.
He heard the word of the Lord. But now when he wakes up in the
middle of the night with this message, he doesn't believe. He doesn't believe the word of
the Lord. You see what he says? I will now show you what the
Syrians have done to us. He has no faith in God and God
accomplishing His word and His purpose in providing for the
city of Samaria? No. This is a trap. This is a trick, a trap. This is a trap. This is what
this is. I'll show you what the Syrians
have done to us. They know that we'd be hungry.
Therefore, are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves
in the field saying, when they come out of the city, we shall
catch them alive and get into the city. No faith there in God's
word and God's promise whatsoever. Here's the fifth thing. And this
is important here. Verses 13 through 15. The king
listened to one of his servants. You say, well, what's great about
that? That's amazing. that this man
took advice from anybody. One of his servants answered
and said, doesn't this remind us of one of those servants of
Naaman's? When Naaman was in a huff, Elisha
didn't even come out and speak to me. He just told me to go
wash in that muddy river of Jordan. I'm on my way home. One of his
servants reasoned with him. That was of the Lord, wasn't
it? This is of the Lord. What I'm saying, all these things
that we could, and there are many other things that we could
point out in these verses, but all of them have to take place
and do take place to fulfill the word of the Lord. Like I
said, so many spokes in a wheel. One of his servants answered
and said, Take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain,
which are left in the city. Behold, they are as all the multitude
of Israel that are left in it. Behold, I say, they are even
as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed. Let us send
and see. They took, therefore, two chariot
horses, and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying,
Go and see. And they went after them unto
Jordan, and lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels,
with the Syrians had cast away in their haste, and the messengers
returned and told the king. The king listened to one of his
servants. Who this man was, we're not told. But his counsel, his advice,
was just as necessary as the four leprous men going to the
camp for the word of the Lord to be fulfilled. And here's the last thing. All
of the word of the Lord was fulfilled. And the people went out and spoiled
the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour, what
was the word of the Lord? Here it is. So a measure of fine
flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for
a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. The word of the
Lord was fulfilled, and remember that second part of the word
of the Lord that Elisha spoke to that Lord? You'll see it, but you're not
going to eat of it. And wouldn't you know, Wouldn't
you know that the king honored this man so greatly, put him
in charge. Put him in charge at the gate.
And what happened? He was trampled, wasn't he? Stampede. People were hungry. People were
starving. Can you imagine? There was no
way to control this the city of people. And here he is, he's
given that responsibility. And the king appointed the Lord
on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate, and the
people trod upon him in the gate, and he died. Sure he did, as
the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down
to him. It came to pass, as the man of
God had spoken to the king, saying, two measures of barley for a
shekel and a measure of fine flour for a shekel shall be tomorrow
about this time in the gate of Samaria. And that Lord answered
the man of God and said, now behold, if the Lord should make
windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, behold,
thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
And so it fell out unto him. For the people trod upon him
in the gate, and he died. This passage tells us of God's
faithfulness, doesn't it? The word of the Lord, it was
fulfilled. God's faithful. Faithful to his
word, faithful to his promises, to fulfill all of his promises. And this also reminds us of the
punishment of unbelief. That man didn't believe God.
And he was killed, died in unbelief. Let me close with these words
of our Lord. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. This man didn't believe. And
his unbelief cost his life, didn't it? And if men will not believe
the gospel, They will not be saved, that we know for sure,
but shall be damned. I trust the Lord would bless
these words to all of us. I know we're all familiar with
this history, this story. I've preached from this, I know,
several times over the years. But it was a blessing preparing
the message again. God's word is different from
any other book, isn't it? Absolutely. You'll never, never
completely exhaust the Word of God. He's commanded us to preach,
but he's given us a book to preach, right? Brother Bill, if you will,
come.