If you have your Bibles, please
turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 2. I'm going to look at verses
19 through 25, the end of the chapter. The title of my message
tonight is, Saline Solution. Saline Solution. Verse 19, And the men of the city, that
is Jericho, said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation
of this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water
is not, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruise,
and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And
he went forth into the spring of waters, and cast the salt
in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these
waters. There shall not be from thence any more death or barren
land. So the waters were healed unto
this day, according to the saying of Elisha, of which he spake.
And he went up from thence to Bethel. And as he was going up
by the way, there came forth children out of the city, and
mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head, go up,
thou bald head. And he turned, and looked on
them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came
forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tarry forty and two
children of them. And he went from thence to Mount
Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria. Let us pray. Our
Father in heaven, we praise you and thank you for mercy and grace
for sinners such as we. We know, Father, that we have
nothing to offer thee. And even that which is our sacrifice
to offer, praise and thanksgiving unto thee is often hindered by
our own self and self-righteousness. Father, we ask tonight that you
might be pleased to reveal Christ to us. We need to see Him, to look to
Him, to ever be reminded that without Him there is no hope. We are thankful that you have
saved us by your grace and that you keep us by your grace. Cause us in our hearts to be
mindful that we are nothing and that
Christ is all. We pray for those of our company
who are sick, going through various trials. Remember Henry. Wayne, and Laverne, and Mickey,
and Ralph, and Jenny, and Sharon, as she's prepared for this operation.
We pray you give those doctors great skill, and she'll be returned
to a good measure of health. We pray for Dave. As the throes
of this cancer seem to be taking a greater course, we ask, Lord,
that you would be pleased to give him comfort and peace and
ease his pain. and be with Gloria, she ministers
to him, Stephen also. Father, we ask your help and
your comfort in these times. We know that what we can do is
pray and call upon you, and we do so in the name of Jesus Christ.
We know that nothing's too hard for you, but we also know that
you have a course and a purpose for this world. and for everyone
therein. And that will not change. We
also know that you say in your book that the effectual fervent
prayers of a righteous man availeth much. And we know that first
speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ. But you said in that same book
that the people of God should pray for the healing of the sick.
We ask your help. Father, tonight we pray that
as we look at this world, we'll be confronted with who you are
and be reminded of what Christ has done for us. We pray this
in his precious name. Amen. Now by the time this episode
occurs, the news of Elijah's glorious transport into heaven
on a chariot of fire with fiery horses has probably spread through
the populace of Jericho. And likewise, the news of Elisha,
now wearing the mantle of Elijah, has marked him out as a prophet
of God, and one that might be able, as many prophets of God
were, to perform miracles. So the men of Jericho come to
make a request of Elisha, and the request made by the men of
Jericho might have come from the knowledge that Elisha had
shown some great power over the waters of the Jordan, causing
them to divide. That knowledge might have prompted
them to approach the prophet about the problem with their
water in the city. Some theologians have called
Elisha the miracle prophet, for of all the prophets he performed
most of the miracles. The thing that is important to
remember is that Elisha's name means this, it means God is salvation. God is salvation. So we can know
this about His ministry on the earth. His ministry pictures
Christ and the Spirit of Christ. And being such, it pictures the
work of Christ and the salvation of the elect as revealed by the
Spirit through the gospel. And any opposition raised against
it is ultimately raised against salvation wrought by God. Because
unlike Elijah, whose name means God is my God, Elisha's name
means God is salvation. And so the subject of his ministry,
we need to keep that in mind as we look at this, and even
as we study the book of Zephaniah and Isaiah, except for Daniel
and Ezekiel, all the prophets from Isaiah to Zephaniah served
during this time of the second kings. One thing that needs to
be in our mind as we look at Elijah moving forth and doing
what he does in the name of the Lord is that his name means God
is salvation and that is really the subject of all that occurs. His ministry pictures that salvation
wrought by Christ and this being the case, we can be assured and
not be surprised that there will be natural opposition and hatred
expressed by the religion of men as pictured by these children
who come out and mock him. Just as Ahab hated Micaiah because
he told him the truth, so we find the children in the latter
part of this passage mocking Elisha in the end of this chapter
because he told men the truth. He said, God healed these waters. God healed these waters. The
gospel opposes all that is false. It opposes all that is false
by the fact that it is declared and that it is the truth. Now
we don't ultimately every time we preach the gospel point out
the error of men, but the gospel itself being the truth paints
religion into a corner and when you paint religion into a corner
it's going to come out fighting. All that is false naturally spawns
in actions and always the actions are for self-preservation. We
got to keep this thing going and you're interrupting my progress.
That's what happens when the Gospels preach. If the truth
declares that I have nothing, when I believe that I have something,
then the truth is perceived as my enemy. That's the way it's
always going to turn out. And the men of the city came
to Elijah with a request. As I read this over and over
again, I was kind of interested in the manner in which they did
it. They needed a miracle. The request or the manner in
which it was made is very interesting. They first stated that all was
well. And then came that but, that
little conjunction that changes everything. They said this, Behold,
they said, I pray thee, they said to Elijah, the situation
in the city is pleasant, but, or as my Lord saith, but the
water is not, and the ground baron. They did not come to give
a report of the condition of the city. In fact, the little
conjunction would not have been necessary, nor the phrase that
preceded it necessary, if they had simply stated what they came
for. The problem in the city was water. The problem in the
city was that the water was spoiled. There was a spring that they
used. There was a spring that fed the, irrigated the crops,
and it was spoiled. And that was their problem. But
why did they come the way they came? Why did they come before
they said, Elijah, I pray thee. Now, does this sound like a prayer?
Does this sound like someone who needs something? I pray thee.
The situation in the city is well. That's how they phrase
it. Then they said, we got a problem
with the water. Well, how does the situation
in the city even correspond with the words, I pray thee? There's
no correspondence there. This is a philosophical or rather
a psychological tactic that men have used since the beginning
of sin in the world. It is so ingrained in the human
psyche that people aren't even aware that they're doing it.
However, it's become a tool of religion. By stating first that
all is well and pleasant, Whatever the problem that follows is diminished
in importance. You can first establish that
everything's okay, but we got a little problem. Okay, but we
got a little problem. The truth is, they said everything
is good, but this one little thing. Everything is good, but
this one little thing. And the truth is that the one
little thing was killing them. The one little thing was death
in that place. The waters of the spring were
polluted. They were malignant and the gardens
that the spring irrigated were barren and those who drank the
water were sick and dying. The Jewish historians like Josephus
said the women were miscarried and right and left because of
the waters of this spring. Well, all is pleasant except
for that. You see what I'm saying? This
is a psychological thing. Thus men in religion have diminished
the necessity of the pure, unpolluted, and uncompromised water of life.
This thinking is the mother of the so-called simple plan of
salvation. Paul called salvation by Christ
the unsearchable riches of Christ. And if you know the gospel, and
you've been studying the gospel, and I don't care how old you
are, Wayne's been studying the gospel a lot longer than I have.
And he'll tell you flat out, he ain't touched the hem of the
garment. He ain't got close to what's there. The riches and
the depths, all the depths and the riches of the glorious gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And men come up with what? A
simple plan of salvation. A simple plan. Men's lives are
pleasant and good for the most part. All they need is just a
little dose of Jesus to round things out, and that's the language
they use. Listen to them. Preachers rarely
speak of death and hell anymore, and when they do, they do so
with a whetted appetite for vengeance against those who do not follow
their own personal moral conviction that has nothing to do with God
whatsoever. Their words betray them with little catchphrases
like, let Jesus into your life. Well, that sounds like your life's
okay to start with, but won't you let him in too? Everything's pleasant in the
city. We have a little problem. Problem's killing us, but it's
just a little problem. We're okay. Men say, won't you
invite Jesus into your heart? If you knew anything about your
heart, you wouldn't want to invite him into that dark hole. But
men talk about it. Why? Because their life is okay.
It's okay enough and pleasant enough that they can actually
invite God into their life. Or will you let Jesus be Lord
of your life? That's the language they use. All these presuppose
a life. A life that is pleasant except
for a little polluted water, a little issue. And that little
issue is religion. And it's an easily solved problem
for the miracle maker. And that's what they're looking
for. They're not looking for the Savior. They're looking for
somebody to perform a miracle. A miracle maker can resolve this,
and so they go to Elijah. The only thing you need is salvation.
And that is just an issue of simple acceptance and incorporation
of Jesus' religion into your life. While the truth, while
the substance, when the subterfuge is removed, is this. Life is
good and pleasant. And if you drink that polluted
water, you're going to end up dead. That's the truth. The polluted
gospel is not the gospel at all, but it's presented as such. It
is malignant. It is death that looks and tastes
like life. Paul called it another gospel
and said, but it's not another. It's not really another gospel.
It's a pollution of it, a poisoning of it. That's the situation there. Everything's
okay. But we need your help a little
bit, old prophet. Life is pretty good, but we could
use Jesus' help a little bit, couldn't we? That's how religion
works. Thank God that the prophet is
merciful and in spite of the subterfuge will heal the waters
anyway. And he does it in a way that
makes no sense at all to nature. Does it in a way that makes no
sense to nature. He pours salt into the water. They're going
to help the water. Salt water is not for drinking.
It'll kill you. That's why if you're in the ocean
on a raft, they say don't drink the water. Don't drink the water. Salt water is not good for irrigation
as it will kill plant life. I remember when I was a little
boy, we used to make homemade ice cream with a crank. And I
was always amazed that they'd put ice down in there and daddy
then would put rock salt down in there. And he told me that
it helped the ice melt faster and the ice cream solidify quicker
and we'd all take a hand at the crank. And then after it was
all over, we'd take out the race and we'd all lick the race because
we knew what was coming. And then we'd take that little
metal container in the house and we'd all have strawberry
or banana ice cream. And Dad would take that old bucket
of rock salt and pour it out on the ground. I remember the
first time I remember making ice cream, the next day I went
out and there was a yellow spot in the ground. And I said, Daddy, what happened
there? He said, that's where I poured
out the salt water. Salt water kills grass. So how
are we going to cure these, make these trees produce their fruit
and these squash plants produce squash and these pumpkin plants
produce pumpkin? How do we do it? Let's pour salt
water on them. That's not going to work. Is it? Is it? Salt water is not for irrigation.
Elisha and remember God is salvation. That's what his name means serves
the God whose thoughts and ways are not the thoughts of men His
thoughts and ways are as high high above men as the heavens
are high above the earth Think about this could it be That the
only way to live Is to die Could it be that drinking the
pure water of life is death to the flesh? These elements employed
must be viewed in a spiritual sense. They are a new cruise
and salt poured into this water. The new cruise is a picture of
the new creature in Jesus Christ. He is a vessel predestinated
to be so before the foundation of the world of that lump of
clay divided where one is a vessel of honor and another is a vessel
made to destroy. He's a new creature and he's
called a vessel prepared for glory. Yet he is but a vessel.
Paul described him as a dirt pot filled with the treasure
of the gospel. In both of those cases, whether it be Romans 9
or 2 Corinthians 4, Paul said the reason that he's a dirt pot,
the reason that he's made a vessel out of clay, the reason he's
a dirt pot with the treasure is that the glory might be of
God and not of men. So this is somewhat about the
glory of God, isn't it? And the glory of God is the salvation
of the elect by the substitution and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So they describe it as a vessel. A vessel filled with the gospel. Salt also is a preservative and
a seasoning or a savor in the world. As vessels, they pour
out the gospel. As vessels, the gospel is in
them. As salt, they preserve the world till the last of the
elect is brought into the fold. How come this world is not cast
into the lake of fire yet? Because there is still some elect
out there. We don't know where they are. We don't know who they
are. We send gospel missionaries out here and there to find out
who they are. The water is a picture of Christ. as well as the preached
word, for waters used to both speak of the preached word and
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said of himself, I am the
water of life. And these are in the world, and
though they bring death to nature, they bring life through the Spirit.
That's what they do. The gospel will kill you as it
gives you life. That's what it will do. The result
of the preaching of the gospel is not temporary. It is said
of the false prophets that they slightly healed the daughter
of my people over in Jeremiah. How do they do that? They cry,
peace, peace, when there is no peace. They say peace is established
by doing, by your doing, by your trying, by your keeping of the
edicts of the old covenant. And they say you'll be at peace.
It's a lie. There is no peace. Peace was
established only one way. That peace was established by
the blood of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and that peace
was the reconciliation of God's elect to Himself. And they are
at peace with God even now. You can't make peace with God.
Christ already did that for His elect 2,000 years ago. The gospel makes for pure water
and healing. That healing is permanent and
eternal. Look at verse 21. And he went
forth into the spring of the waters and cast the salt therein
and said, Thus saith the Lord. Notice capital L-O-R-D. Jehovah
God. I have healed these waters. This
is the Lord speaking. Thus saith the Lord. I have healed
these waters. There shall not be from thence
any more death or barren land. No more death or barren land. Notice well the words of Elijah,
he ascribes glory to God, thus saith the Lord, Jehovah, I have
healed these waters. What the Lord does, he does forever.
Nothing can be added to it or taken from it, but I'm telling
you this, if you're killed by the gospel, you're alive forevermore. You'll never die. You'll never
die. Then verses 23 through 25, we
have an interesting little bit of biblical history. The story
is pretty plain and simple. Elijah's going to Bethel. And some children come out. They're
called little children. Come out and mock him, saying,
thou bald head. Go up, thou bald head. They say
it twice. And then she-bears are sent and
tears up 42 of the children. And this is a pretty plain and
simple story. You don't have to add a lot or a lot of little
details, except just plain and simple details. But it is somewhat
shocking. I expect that even as you read
it, or read it the first time, and if you read it tonight for
the first time, when you heard that the she-bear was sent to kill
Lee's children, that something very visceral happened inside
of you. Something down, something that you mothers went, whoa,
wait a minute. You dads went, wait, something ain't right.
It's somewhat shocking and it has become fodder for the commentators
because of the word children. The word children. We believe in justice. And we
believe in what's right and true. But there's this thing in us
all that innately causes us to protect little children. And
want to protect little children. And it winces at the thought
of little children being torn apart by she-bears. Doesn't it?
Am I wrong in this? Doesn't that kind of Make you
feel uncomfortable? A couple of things are important
to remember here as we look at this passage of Scripture, this
part. First of all, in the Jewish economy, a man was considered
a child until he was 30. until he was 30 years old. At
30 he could become a priest and at 30 he was actually allowed
to read the Song of Solomon. He could not read the Song of
Solomon until he was 30 years old. Why? Because there was a
lot of sensuality in the language of the Song of Solomon and it
was used as a book to teach about marriage and so forth and what
love was between a man and a woman. A man couldn't read it until
he was 30 because they figured he wasn't mature enough to understand
and appreciate. Maybe we need a little more of
that today. No offense, honey, I know you're getting married
Saturday. I know you're not 30 yet. But to be called a child at 29
in the Jewish economy was not a pejorative. It was a common
and accepted thing. So these children could have
been just young men. And if you look up the original
language, that's one of the definitions given to it. Now what they said tends to suggest
that they were not little kids. We'll get to that in a moment.
Perhaps more important is the word little here. Because it
does say little children. Little children. Now this term
is often used to define substance rather than size or age. And generally throughout scripture
the most it's used is to mean something is insignificant or
unimportant. It's just a little thing. Just
a little thing. Their words reveal that they
were products of idolatry. The description of those whom
the sea bears tore up might be called, might be insignificant
young lads. But the words reveal that they
were products of the idolatry that permeated the land. Remember
the first king made two golden calves? Ahab had groves, had
openly worshipped the false gods Baal, Peor, Baal, Baal, Zebub,
all these. These kids, however old they
were, their homes, their moms and dads had grounded them in
the values of the golden calves and the worship of Baal, Zebub.
Their hatred for the prophets was evident. It was their way
of life. Every time the preacher came
to town, they had something bad to say. Now calling Elijah bald-headed
was just immature hazing, but it spoke of a more deep-rooted
evil. Remember that Isaiah ministered as a prophet in this time, this
time of rebellion in Israel. It was this time that he was
talking about when he wrote, Why should I correct them? They'll
just rebel more and more. They're sick from their head
to the foot in Isaiah chapter 1. Then in Isaiah chapter 3,
in Isaiah chapter 3, Isaiah describes the result of God lifting His
hand of restraint from His people, taking from them things that
are important and leaving them to themselves. And in verse 5
of that chapter, He says this, And the people shall be oppressed,
every one by another, and every one by his neighbor. And a child
shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, And the
base shall behave proudly against the honorable. It sounds like
you're reading a newspaper. Today's goings on. Disrespect for elders and those
with authority are a mark of rebellion against God. One thing
I appreciate about the Cherokee Nation in general is that generally
there is a great deal of respect still for the ancients and the
elders among the community. Some of it I know is just word,
it's just lip service, but I find it true also. But what is disrespect
for elders? It's a mark of rebellion against
God. It's a mark of rebellion against God. Their attitude and
their actions reveal what was in their heart. They were mocking
God. They were saying, why don't you do like Elijah did? Why don't
you go up? Why don't you go up? They were
content with the way things were. The situation in the city was
pleasant to them. They just needed a little bit of miracle to straighten
out this water thing. And this ball-headed prophet
was not welcome, though he had told them the truth about who
healed the waters. Religion would be fine and happy and rest-contented
if the truth and those who speak it would just disappear. Religion would go on. That enormous,
gigantic, well-oiled machine could operate without even the
mention of the name of Christ. And I know that's true, as is
evidenced by the fact that they hate the truth when they hear
it preached. You think churches would suffer if Christ was never
mentioned again? Ninety-nine percent of them would
go on because they're well-oiled business machines. They're not
families. They're not organisms. They're
organizations. They mocked the prophet because
of his age. He was bald headed. But they
were mocking God. And then when they said to him,
go up, they were saying, leave, get out of here. Why don't you
do like Elijah did and go up on a flaming chariot with some
horses into heaven and be gone and be out of our midst. And
God's response is quick, effectual, and it is vicious. He sent out
two she-bears. What are she-bears renowned for?
What do people tell you about bears? They tell you to stay
away from them, for sure. But which ones do they tell you
to stay specifically away from? Sows with cubs. If a sow's got
cubs, You don't go near them, you don't tease them, you don't
try to feed them, you try to get out of the area as quickly
as possible. Because a she-bear is renowned
for her fierceness when their cubs are threatened. What we
have here when these come out and mock Elisha, is one of God's
cubs are threatened. One of God's cubs is mocked and
God has said, touch not mine in order to do my prophets no
harm. And in a flash, 42 of the insignificant young lads paid
a painful and possibly fatal price. And the Lord said, but
those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over
them bring them hither and slay them before me. Those are the
words of Jesus Christ. God is jealous for His glory.
He's jealous for His glory. And His glory was mocked. His
glory was mocked. The glory that carried Elijah
to heaven in a chariot of fire. Elijah means God is my God and
Elijah means God is salvation and to mock God's salvation is
to mock that thing which glorifies Him the most. I don't give a
hoot about eschatology. Men can talk about it all they
want to. I had a young man came here for a couple of years and
then he left and he's all about eschatology. He wants to talk
to people about Preterism and all that type, you know, stuff
like that. And people want to talk about this idea about eschatology,
that idea, whether you're a premillennial or a pre-trib or a mid-trib rapturist
or you're a almavillianist or a post-millennialist like the
Puritans were. They want to argue about things.
I don't care about those things. And you can argue about them
all you want to. Listen, you can believe what
you want to about them. If you want to be a premillennialist
and believe that there's going to be a seven-year tribulation
before some rapture comes, I don't care. Go ahead. I won't break
fellowship over you with that. We can talk all day long about
those things. But don't mess with the gospel. Don't mess with
what glorifies God. And what glorifies God is the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mess with what you want, but
don't mess with the gospel. Tell me that we're not a church
because we're not a landmark and we didn't come out of some
other church. I don't care. You can tell me that all day. It don't
matter to me. It means nothing to me. That means nothing to
me. But don't mess with this gospel.
Because God said what glorifies Him. He said, make my goodness pass
before you. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before you. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious.
He said that's his glory. I'm going to take his word for
it. So don't mess with the gospel. These kids messed with the gospel. They messed with the prophet.
God is salvation. That's what his name is. They
messed with the salvation of God. So what happened? He sent two
she bears out and they tore them to shreds, 42 of them. So that's
the thing, mess with what you want to, but don't mess with
the gospel. All right, God bless you.