Well, again, Second Kings chapter
7. Second Kings chapter 7. And tonight I have two questions
I want us to consider from this text. Two questions. The first question, which was
really a mocking question, but a question asked by one of the
king's lords, or one of his privileged servants, and his question was
this, might this thing be? Might this thing be? So let's
look at the context of this question first. If you would, look back
at 2 Kings 6, beginning in verse 24. And it came to pass after this
that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his host 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 four score pieces of silver and the fourth part of a cab
of doves dung for five pieces of silver. This sounds awful. This sounds awful. Doesn't it
to be trapped in a city during a famine? We use the phrase,
I'm starving all the time, but this was actual starving. The
famine was so bad that an ass's head was sold for four score
pieces of silver. Now, I'm not exactly sure what
the exchange rate would be in currency today. But the point
is this. It was an extraordinary amount
of money for what you were buying. I mean, how much meat could there
actually be on a donkey's head that you would want to eat it?
How desperate? people were desperate, so desperate
that two women had come to something so unnatural, such an unnatural
agreement. Look at this in verses 26-29. And as the king of Israel was
passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying,
help my lord oh king and he said if the lord did not help thee
whence shall i help thee out of the barn floor or out of the
wine press there's nothing left there's nothing left 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 from me to boil their children and eat them. Well, The king
was wroth, and he blamed Elisha. He blamed Elisha and wanted to
kill him. Look at this in verses 30 and 31. 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 Sapphath, shall stand on him this day." The situation
in Samaria was bad. It was desperate and the king
blamed Elisha and wanted to kill him. So he sends a messenger
to him And probably with this messenger, I believe the way
it reads is the king was there as well. It's probably at least
this messenger, maybe a couple other people. But let's see this
in verses 32 and 33. 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 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
him 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 So they were, picture this, the city of Samaria has
been besieged, we don't know for how long, but long enough
to where there's no food, people are starving, the king is angry,
he sends a messenger and they all show up. at Elisha's door. They show up at Elisha's door,
and this is where we begin in chapter 7, verse 1. They're angry,
and listen to the words of Elisha. 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 and
two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. From
a donkey's head costing four score pieces of silver to a measure
of fine flour for a shekel. In other words, not only is the
famine going to be over, there's going to be so much food, there's
going to be so much abundance that anybody in this city can
purchase it. Overnight. Now, if you can picture
yourself there in Samaria looking around at this horrible famine
and the terrible situation everyone was in, and you looked at the
circumstances Humanly speaking, this seems impossible. Humanly speaking, this seems
to be an impossibility, this kind of turnaround overnight.
How could this be? But Elisha said, hear ye the
word of the Lord. Hear ye the word of the Lord. These are not Elisha's words.
This is the word of the Lord. And it was a message of mercy. This was a message of mercy.
The people in Samaria, they had forsaken the Lord. They had forsaken
the Lord, but this was a message of mercy. God's going to perform
a great miracle and save this city from perishing. What if
you had been next to the messenger of the king? If you had been
standing there and you heard this? Well, I'll tell you what the
response of the flesh is. I'll show you what the response
of the flesh is. Look at verse number two. Then a Lord, on whose hand the
king leaned, answered the man of God and said, Behold, if the
Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" The flesh,
unbelief, and mocking. Unbelief and mocking. And this
is man's natural response to the gospel. Unless God gives
a man life and opens his eyes, he gives a man faith. His answer
to the word of the Lord is unbelief. Might this thing be? This is
the first question I want us to look at. What little regard
did this man have to the word of God? Elisha said, Hear ye the word
of the Lord. This is God's word. Get the response
from the flesh. The response from man is might
this thing be what an awful thing unbelief is. You mean to tell
me. You mean to tell me that God
elected a people before the foundation of the world and determined to
save them? That's what God's declared. Might
this thing be? That doesn't seem fair to me. Might this thing be? You mean to say that Christ was
made surety for those elect people and that God has always looked
to Christ to fulfill everything that is required to save them,
to pay for their sins, to justify them, to provide a righteousness
for them whereby they can be accepted? This is too good. Might this thing be? Maybe that's
why this messenger didn't believe it, right? To go from utter famine,
poverty, nothing to overnight, food for everybody. This is too
good to be. Might this thing be the gospel? That's man's by nature, their
response. How can you say that all my works
and my good deeds and my fasting and my church going and the fact
that I quit this and I've stopped this, that that's not enough
to save me? That's what God's declared. Might
this thing be? May God not leave any here today
in unbelief, because the end thereof is death. Read the rest
of verse number two. Well, let's start again. Then
a Lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of the
God and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven,
might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt
see it with thine eyes, but shall not eat thereof. And look down to verse number
18. And it came to pass. And it came to pass as the man
of God had spoken to the king." It came to pass. Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter
one time, and this is what he said. He said, "'Our new constitution
is now established and has an appearance that promises permanency. But in this world, nothing can
be said to be certain except death and taxes. You've probably
heard that phrase, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Well, unless the Lord comes before
our appointed time, then death is certain. And I suppose that
we're not going to be moving away from taxes anytime soon
in this country, but it could happen. But certain is the word
of God. Certain is the word of God. And
it came to pass, it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken
to the king. Think about it. What other possibility
could there have been? What other possibility could
have been? This is the Lord we're talking about, God Almighty,
ruler over heaven and earth. I know you're familiar with this,
but turn to Isaiah chapter 46. The God of the Bible, Isaiah 46 verse 9. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. And it came to pass. Let's go on reading. 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." The point is this, unbelief If God leaves
us in our unbelief, we will die. We will perish. Now, before we
move on to the lepers question, before we move on to the second
question, I want us to consider, to the believer's shame, to the
believer's shame, given all the promises in the Word of God,
that we have, how often do our thoughts also go to this questioning? Might this thing be? Consider the circumstances of
this declaration and how contrary it was to human reasoning to
go from an awful intense famine to food so cheap anyone could
buy it overnight for an entire city. Can we not use this example
as encouragement? What a display of God's power
and wisdom to bring to pass what he had said would be done. Well,
where's the food going to come from? Where's the food going to come
from? Is God limited in any way? He could have provided food from
heaven. He could have started multiplying one fine little speck
of flour until every house in Samaria was full. He could have
used thousands of birds to deliver food. But, you know, notice the
examples I could think of are all things that I know that he's
already done. I mean, I can only think of these
things because I've read of them. God provided manna from heaven.
He multiplied fish for 5,000 men and used a raven to feed
Elijah. My point is this, no matter what
circumstance we are in or the fact that we cannot see how a
certain promise can be fulfilled, it does not put it out of God's
reach. So how did the Lord make it so? How did the Lord make it so,
so a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel? Well, he made
the army of Assyria to hear noises and four lepers." Resources. Well, the second question I want
us to consider is found in verse number three. And there were four leprous men
at the entering in of the gate, and they said one to another,
why sit we here until we die? Why sit we here until we die? Now, it's important to consider
who asked this question, because Lord willing, you'll be able
to identify and see yourself in this type. They were lepers. These four men were lepers. And
leprosy in the scriptures is a picture of sin. And there are
many ways in which leprosy is a picture of sin, but I have
three of them that I want us to consider. First of all, it
was an awful disease to look at. It was an awful disease to
look at. It was a gross disease. It was
hard to look at someone who was full of leprosy. Just to look at somebody who
was full of leprosy and not be just put off. And sin is an awful disease to
look at, isn't it? We see the result of sin all
around us, and those of us who know the Lord, we see somewhat
of the awfulness of sin in us. But listen to what the scriptures
say about us by nature. Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 64,
verse number six, but we are all as an unclean thing. That
was actually one of the things the lepers had to, they had to
cover their mouth, right? You know, unclean, unclean. Well,
this is what the scriptures say, but we are all as an unclean
thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Gross to look at. And we all do fade as a leaf
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And no one
born of a woman escapes this disease. Only the Lord Jesus
Christ accepted. No one, none of us escaped this
disease. Romans 5 verse 12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into this world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Number two, when a person was
diagnosed with leprosy, it meant having to live outside of the
city. That's why these lepers were
outside of the gate of Samaria. They were unclean and unfit to
be within the city. And our sin has made us unfit
to be in the kingdom of God. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven? And we are all unrighteous
by nature and not fit, not meet by nature to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light. And finally, leprosy
was an incurable disease. There was no medicine for it.
Leprosy was incurable. And our sin condition is one
that cannot be cured with man-made remedies. cannot be cured. Well, the thing is, you need
to turn over a new leaf and follow these rules, says one religion. You need to do all these things
according to this other man's religion, but none of them will
cure the problem. None of them. It's just like
the story, you remember the woman with the issue of blood? She
went to every physician she could, every doctor that she could,
and she spent all that she had on every doctor, and she was
no more the better, but actually grew worse. But actually grew
worse. And our Lord said to the religious
leaders of his day, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear
beautiful outward. That's all man's religion is,
outwardly appealing, appealing to the flesh, soft music in the
background, dark lights, candles, smoke, beautiful to the flesh,
But it can't cure the problem. But are within full of dead man's
bones and of all uncleanness. So these lepers, they were in
a pitiful condition. This is a pitiful condition.
They had this awful disease. And on top of that, they were
starving. On top of that, they were starving. And so they asked
this question, why sit we here until we die? Why sit we here until we die? Are there any lepers here today?
Are there any lepers? Any sinners? I want you to listen
to what these men reasoned. In their mind, they had three
choices. There was three options. Let's
read verse number four. Why sit we here until 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 unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall
live. And if they kill us, we shall
but die. Option number one, we go into
the city. We go into the city, which is
against the law. They were forbidden, right? It
was against the law for them to go into the city. But option
one is we could probably get in. But even if we do, the famine's
there, and we die. The picture here is the law can
do nothing to cure our sin disease. That's the picture. The law can
do nothing to cure our sin disease. Romans 3 verse 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So option
number one, the only thing that is certain is that it leads to
death. Option number two, we could just sit here We can just
continue to sit here, but if we do, we also die. Well, God is sovereign. He elected
a people. There's nothing I can do about
it. If I'm saved, I'm saved. Otherwise, I'm lost. I'm just
going to do nothing. That also leads to death. Option number three, now therefore
come and let us fall onto the host of the Syrians. If they
save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we will
but die. We can go to the Syrians. The
four of us, we can go to the Syrians, and they might kill
us. They might kill us. Not only
are we lepers, but we're enemies. We're lepers and we're enemies.
And they could kill us. That is a possibility. But then
again, they might have pity on us. They might have pity on us
and give us some bread and we'll live. And we'll live. What's certain is that options
number one and two lead to death. But with option number three,
they had hope. Now, they didn't know anything
about the Syrians. these four lepers. They didn't
know anything about these Syrians. Maybe they were merciful people.
Maybe they weren't. But I have good news for sinners.
I have good news for sinners. Listen to these verses. I want
to read four verses to you. Isaiah 45 verse number 22. Look
unto me. Look unto me, and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 55. Ho, everyone that
thirsteth. Does that describe anybody? Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
Ye buy and eat, yea, come by wine and milk without money and
without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and labor for that which satisfieth
not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, incline your
ear, Come unto me here, and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Who is a God
like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. And Matthew 11, verse number
28, the words of our Lord, come unto me, all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, if you try and
approach God by the law, by the deeds that you have done, that
will certainly lead to death. And if you do nothing, that will
certainly lead to death. Your only hope is to cast yourself
upon the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know
what? Only when Christ is your only
hope will you come to Him. Only when He's your only hope
will you come. As long as there's another option,
you're going to hold on to that. May God cause you to drop everything,
drop everything else and run to Christ. I don't deserve to
be saved, and I don't deserve the least of his mercies. But
I know this. If there's any hope for me, it's
in Christ. I'm coming to him. I'm coming
to him. Well, Austin, I don't know if
I'm one of the elect. I don't know if I'm one of the
elect, and I'm not sure I understand everything. I don't know if the
Lord is dealing with me. And you don't know what kind
of sinner I am. You're right. I don't know. But I know this. Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner who can tell if
he will have mercy on me. I'm coming to Christ. Everything
I need is in Christ. everything I need, everything
you need, pardon of sins, peace with God, righteousness, everlasting
life. I'm coming to him. And this is
my only plea. This is my only plea. It's come
from another leper. And Luke chapter five, Lord,
if thou wilt, if thou wilt, thou can make me clean. I'm going to come with that plea. Or like the publican in our Lord's
parable, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Well, back to our
text here in closing. What did the lepers find? What
did the lepers find when they went to the Syrians? Verses 5-9. And they rose up in the twilight
to go into 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. 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. And when these lepers came to
the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent and did
eat and drink and and carried then silver and gold and raiment,
and went and hid it, and came again, and entered into another
tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it." They found
plenty. What did they find? They found,
they went, they got seconds. There was plenty. And every sinner who has ever
come to Christ has found plenty of pardon, plenty of grace, plenty
of righteousness. I pray that the Lord would cause
someone who has never come to Christ to ask this question,
why sit I here until I die?