Gospel—Bill Brockmeier
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A Savior is willing to save now as ever. His arm is almighty, His love great and free. Number 10.
There is a stage.
In our world.
Of God Laurie's dream.
Nsnoise and.
My replay Sidney Dawn down the one.
And come back to the farmer burdens on the mall.
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A God and Father and thank you that there is a stager on my end glory and thank you our God and fathers and every goddess and my son is the savior of the world. We thank you Lord Jesus for and thy love coming down and going to the cross and there to become the sin bearer. Thou that just one for us the unjust that we might be crossing God. We thank thee for the eternal record of that soldier disappear person thy.
And forth with drawing forth blood and water, our daughter and father, to consider the sin and the guilt of this world.
Under which lie by nature the death of the Son of God. And yet our God and Father, to see in that mighty sacrifice the foundation for all of us, our time. And Fernandez, our God and Father, as we have the solemn responsibility tonight to open up Thy precious word, our God, and to speak well, Thy beloved Son, to set forth the truth as to the gospel of Thy grace, our God, we pray that by Thy Spirit now it's work in each heart.
That there will be a turning to the Savior. For unto you therefore, which believe He is precious and are gone for any bit, find themselves in the deep and in hostility towards my beloved Son even this night.
The dogs turn their hearts and draw them, and bow the forth, blessed Son of God. So our God and Father, seek thy health now if you open that precious word, and we ask thy blessing in the word, he May of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Like to.
33 brief references to begin with first in the Prophet Amos, chapter 8.
Amos, Chapter 8.
And verse 11.
Behold, the days comes, saith the Lord God, that I will send the famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north, even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord shall not find it.
Turn back to the prophet Jeremiah chapter 37 for an expression.
Jeremiah, chapter 37.
And verse 17.
Then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out, that is, took Jeremiah out of the prison, and the king asked him secretly.
In his house and said, Is there any word from the Lord?
Jeremiah said there is.
One verse more in Romans chapter 15.
Mm-hmm.
Romans chapter 15 and verse 29.
And I am sure that when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
Well, we say that's a curious verse and aimless about a famine of hearing the words of the Lord when this land is filled with Bibles. Last time I was asked to show up for jury duty, I walked in and all the new security systems they have, I walked through and the man was there pointed in my pocket said is that a pack of cigarettes? And I said no Sir, it's a New Testament. He smiled and says I know I'm an idiot. All I could say was keep up the good work brother. You know the word of God is distributed on next to school campuses. It's the motels.
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It's over the Airways. The Word of God is sounded forth very freely and very, very abundantly. And yet I believe we each have to own that there's a very solemn truth in these verses that we've read that despite the fact that we live in a land that's filled with copies of the Word of God, there is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
Perhaps you have two or three Bibles to your name, and yet if you're honest before God tonight, you say, yes, there's a famine in my own soul from hearing the words of the Lord. We find here in this day, this judgment that that Amos prophesized. They, they wander from sea to sea. They go from the north to the east. They go to and fro to hear the word of the Lord and they don't find it. They don't find it. What a solemn thing it is.
When the word of the Lord is not here heard intelligence in Luke that if the like that be in the the darkness. How great is that darkness there is that which positions itself in this world today is light. That was his knowledge that was you need to follow but it's nothing but darkness and if that is the light that you are following, which is simply the wisdom of man in the ideas and speculations of man.
If that light is, what you have is darkness, and how great is that darkness?
Highest demand, one time in conversation.
About health. And he said, well, I feel that.
Hell really is in this life and it's what we experience in the hard times of life and and those times that causes problems.
And then death ends at all. But hell really is in this life. And I said, well, is that something that you're saying based on what you've read in the Word of God, or is it just your own idea?
Well, it's just my own idea.
Well, let the light that be in thee be darkness. How great is that darkness? And you know, just as in Jeremiah's day, there were the elders of Israel that had gotten tired of hearing Jeremiah the prophet counting on that same drum over and over again. And they shut him up in the prison house. And there was a king. He really was a weak knee king, but he had a stiff neck. He had a sense that what Jeremiah said was the truth.
And he came to him in secret to get him out of the prison, and said, Is there a word from the Lord?
He had plenty of counselors, but he said, is there a word from the Lord? Jeremiah said the rich, and isn't it wonderful tonight that we can say there is a word from the Lord? There is something that we can rest upon that is not founded in man's mind of speculation and opinion and conjecture.
And testing it is the eternal God that has revealed Himself and revealed his mind to us. In the word of God there is a word from the Lord.
Further, we read in the 15th of Romans there when Paul could write to the assembly their enrollment. He says when he came to them, he purposed to come to them. I love this expression, the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. We sometimes sing that hymn trembling. We had hope for mercy. Some lone place within the door, but the crowd the throne of the mansion already long before.
Many of us came to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior because we did not want to face eternal doom in the lake of fire, and we fled for refuge, and that met our need, and we were glad to have our need met, but it would have never satisfied the heart of God. His heart is full of blessing indeed. He doesn't want any to go down to the pit. It is not God's desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God has no delight in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his wicked way and live.
With all God's heart is not only that you would turn from your wicked way, not only that you would be delivered from eternal doom and judgment, but that you might come to find the fullness of love and blessing he has in his heart for you. So tonight I'd like to go back to the Old Testament and look at a little picture of what to me sets before us the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
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In the Old Testament, in the language of the new, we find that it's referred to as figures.
For types or shadows.
And you know, you don't necessarily get all the detail in the shadow, but you get the outline of the thing. You know, we we get the details in the new, but we have a beautiful word picture, if I can put it this way, of the heart of God desiring the blessing of man and the wholeness of his heart coming out to man and blessing and to see various responses to the heart of God. We read that it was.
Going to be, as there is today, a famine for hearing the words of the Lord. And that's the context in which we find this story. Second Kings, chapter 6.
During this time Syria was coming against the Israelites, the 10 tribes, and the prophet Elijah was tipping off the king of Israel as to where the king of Syria was. And he was always one step ahead of him. And we find that the king of Syria took things into his own hands and thought he would he go get Elisha himself and Dolphin with all of his armies and surrounded him there.
What a foolish thing to do. But we find instead of him taking Elijah with his armies, Elijah took his armies captive into the city of Samaria. And I just want to pick up the end of that story just to contrast it with what immediately follows.
Second Kings chapter 6 and verse 21. And the king of Israel said unto Elijah, when he saw them, That is the Syrian Army, my father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? And he answered, our shall not smite them which thou smite those whom thou hast taken with thy sword and with thy bow set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them. And when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away.
And they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. I just read this for the point that what we find was in the heart of God is manifested by the man of God, the man of heavenly grace. Elijah, he said, set bread and water before them. It's so much reminded me of the verse that was read in the meeting this afternoon. If thine enemy hunger feed him, If he be thirsty, give him water to drink.
For in so doing thou shalt, He coals a fire upon his head. Oh, how many times we have perhaps sinned in the very presence of God, sinning against light and sinning against love. And we've been reminded not simply of our own corruption or depravity, but we've been reminded of the love of God, how in spite of what we were, He has come out in blessing. And that's the picture we have here. He brings them captive that He might lavish.
Blessing upon them and send them away with great provision. But that is a little insight as to what's in the heart of the man of God.
But now notice the contrast as we come to verse.
24 And it came to vast out for this. I don't know if it was two months or two years. What the time frame was that Ben Hey, dad, 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 Foursquare pieces of silver, and the 4th part of a cab of Doves dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, that tried a woman and him saying, Help, my Lord, O king.
And he said, If the Lord did not help thee, when shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor or out of the winepress?
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 will eat my son tomorrow. So he boiled my son, and did eat him. And I said in her, On the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him, and she hath hit her son. And it came to pass that 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 sack locked within.
Upon his flesh then he said, God, do so, and more also to me, if the head of Elijah, the son of Shaphan, shall stand on him this day.
But Elisha sat in his house, and the elder sat with him, and the king sent a man from before him. But ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders.
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See how the son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold him fast at the door. It's 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? We'll stop there and get the 7th chapter momentarily.
We find there's a a great family.
And it describes the condition of this world, and perhaps it describes the condition of your soul this afternoon, a famine, a desperate need, you say, well, I feel no need. But if you've never come to own the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you have a desperate need that's going to destroy you eternally.
He the believeth on the Son of everlasting life, and he's a believeth not. The Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abide upon him. Have you believed on the sun? Have you believed on the sun considered the eternal consequences if you do not?
What we had found that what was in the heart of the prophet is when the captives were before him and they're in Samaria, he said great provision and all. I just want to have this again right up front about the heart of God that yearns over this world that wants the blessing of man, that wants your personal blessing.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In that verse you have the scope of the gospel. It's the world, it is unto all, but it's to whosoever believe. It's only upon all them that believe. The gospel is for you, but it will do you no good unless you believe it, unless you take it and say, that's for me.
To say the Savior died for me. There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
And.
It is that man to whom you will one day give account, that man that you will one day stand before, because all judgment has been committed unto the Son of Man.
You know, I thought of this that some say, well, God just doesn't understand if I am to be a man that's going to be brought for God to be judged. How can the eternal Almighty God ever sit in judgment on a man? You know, that was jokes complaint. That was Job's complaint if you read the book. And so he's not a man as I am.
But you know, God became a man and the person of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He does understand. He came into this world.
Some have heard this little reference more than perhaps they care to, but I so enjoy passing on a little story. There was a.
Some years ago, I have a third cousin that lived in New Zealand and he was looking to try to find some relatives and he came with my grandmother and my mother to the house. And I immediately was intrigued by this fine young man and we immediately hit it off. But it seemed like the Lord's things hadn't been hadn't been approached at all. And so he went out to the went out to the kitchen for some cookies and I said that Ian, I said that you know, the Lord Savior and.
He gave me a rather abstract answer and I said, umm, are you an agnostic?
And he said, well, no, I don't know if I say that, he says, but if there is a God, I don't believe we can know him.
And I said, why is that? Because God is eternal and we're simply finite. He said, precisely, You know, I said, oh, that's the wonder of the incarnation, God manifest in the flesh, that God has come down in lowly grace in the person of his Son, born of a virgin into this world, that he might come down to where you and I were, that we might know God is revealed in his Son. How wonderful it is.
But it's that blessed one that you must have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the means by which all men are blessed. What we find here that there is this this situation of famine. You say, how could it ever have gotten into the situation? If God wants man to be blessed, why is there famine, not famine in Syria, but famine in Samaria among the professing people of God. And so desperate was this family, what were they feeding upon? And asked his head.
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And dubstep, all these things are representative, I believe what is the assets had to speak to itself.
Comedy.
It speaks to the wisdom of man and the foolish of man all in one, because Job tells us that so far in the book of Job tells us that vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ***** cult a.
A wild *** is called rebellion, and man's wisdom is what foolishness with God. But you know the *** represents falling and foolishness, and that's what these poor souls were feeding on to try to give themselves a little relief from their aching stomachs.
Food from often assets.
I remember.
At work one time.
Tragedy had occurred and it wasn't. But within hours of the tragedy that someone made some very crude joke about the whole thing. And perhaps I did not have the fact I should have had. I just said that. I said that's sick. But what the response was from this Jewish young man, he said, well, he said that's what comedy is, is to make light of tragedies, to try to find some humor in these tragedies, to take away the sting of it.
Yeah, that's the ***** head to try to take away a little bit of the ache and the pain of these starving souls they were feeding on the ***** head.
But they were feeding also on the dove zone. I understand this was literally eaten by an army at one time. It speaks of the corruption of the pure. The dove is that which is pure and dove is that which is defiling. And that's what they were seeking, to feed their souls on the the ***** head in the Dovestone comedy and the corruption of man in order to in some way take away the pain of their starving condition.
Behind this, for many years there was a very large field in Kitty corner too before they put the track of houses in there. But Kitty corner to us there was this house and this man had a umm, a large group of these beautiful white doves and they would go out at at times and fly in unison and then go back. They're really quite beautiful. One worked one day I went to I was heading out the front door to work to get him in the car and I saw one of these white doves.
Lying on the front lawn, torn, bloody and dead. You know, I hit. I saw that. I thought, oh, what a tragedy. How many, How so much like the life of many a young person, This beautiful pure white dove lying dead because there was a cat that was waiting apparently to attack and to kill it. Well, the corruption of the pure, this is what they were feeding on to try to give themselves some relief.
From their desperate need, well, further, it gets worse. They cry to the the king. He was a man of responsibility. They called him for help. But we find that despite his position, he was powerless to help. And when it comes to eternal matters, all men are powerless, can do you no good. There is only one man in that city that could do them any good. And that was the man of God, the life of the son of Shaphath. But at least the king we were giving credit for this, this.
We find that the condition is even worse. The tragedy is even worse because there's their condition was so desperate that these two women, I presume that these were young children and had given one of her children and they ate this child.
What an awful condition.
That they were found in but we find a couple things here. One is it reminds us of two women that once came before King Solomon and likewise in that condition. One had a dead child through her own neglect. She flip-flopped babies with the other woman and they came to Solomon who brought forth the sword and brought forth the wisdom of God that gave the answer for that situation. But you don't have any Solomon in this picture. You just have a godless helpless.
Arrogant king.
That can do no good. But you say, why would the people of God ever enter into this situation? Why would they be where they were?
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Turn back, if you would, to do it. Rhode Island 28.
How many times we hear this? If God is a God of love, why is the world and the condition that it is?
If God is the God of love, why it was Israel in this desperate situation?
Deuteronomy chapter 28.
And it says in verse, umm.
If you go back to earlier in the chapter, it speaks that they will not in verse 15.
If thou shalt, it shall come to passes. Thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe, to do all his commandments, and the statutes which I command thee of this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Now drop down to verse 49.
The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far from the end of the earth, as swift as eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old, or shall favor to the young. And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed, Which also shall not leave either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy pine or flocks, or thy sheep, until they have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates until thy high intense walls come down.
Wherein thou trust us throughout all thy land, and he shall besiege thee and all thy gates.
All thy land which the Lord thy God hath given thee, and thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege and in the straightness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee. So that the man that is tender among you and very delicate his eyes shall be evil toward his brother and toward the wiseness bosom, and toward the remnant of his children, which he shall leave. So that he will not give to any of them. Of the flesh of his children, whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the seeds.
And in the straightness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee and all thy gates.
We could go on in that chapter.
How it elaborates on this condition, The reason that condition came upon them is because they had departed from the Word of God. And that's the reason the world is in the condition that it is in is because of sin and because of departing from the Word of God. That's why Israel was in this desperate situation. Well, how do we reconcile that then with the heart of a God who is loved?
Well, they look in verse 30 at the king.
And they see he's read his clothes, and they see upon him he has sackcloth on. What does that speak to himself?
Speaks of repentance.
But every man walks into vain show.
And perhaps you thought, well, what we need in this situation is a good, healthy dose of religion.
Are we going to need to put on sackcloth and he did upon it, upon his flesh. It may not have been such an hour thing. He rents his clothes to express his powerlessness in the situation and they saw sackcloth. But you know it was a vain thing. It was an absolute vain thing for put on sackcloth because we find his heart was an enmity with a man of God, the man of heavenly grace. Verse 31. He said God do so, and we're also to me as the head of Eliza.
Elisha, the son of sheep, at shall stand on him this day. There was one man in the city of Samaria that could do them any good.
There was only one hole for that city.
The king said I'm gonna take his head off.
And man in his desperate need and his enmity towards God, and sees the corruption and the violence in the room that's in this world, and takes the blessed name of the Son of God as a curse.
Blames him for everything.
But is Elijah troubled by all of this? Is he fearful that this king doesn't understand him? Is he troubled that there's going to be problem for him? No, it says. But Elijah sat in his house.
He just stepped back and the Lord in eyes 18 says I will now take my rest. He steps back. He's not intervening in the scene. He's letting things go. He's letting things develop until it reaches the breaking point. Because there is a day when this world will be judged. Because God has a point of the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained. For of he hath given assurance to all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. No God will judge this world and he will judge it by the man Christ Jesus. But it's not that day yet. It's the day of His grace.
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And Elijah type of the risen Christ, the men of heavenly grace, he sits in his house, and things continue on as the king in his enmity towards the man of God is coming to take him. But Elijah sizes him up. He calls him a son of a murderer.
I believe the reason for that is I take it this was King Jehoram, whose father was Ahab. Ahab, who through the origin of his wife Jezebel, killed a man named Naboth.
In his own Vineyard Naval, the man that refused to give up the inheritance of his fathers, he killed him, a type of Christ.
Well, Johorum was the son of a murderer. Elijah is not cowed by the position this man occupied, the fact that he was a king of Israel. And God is not coward by any means, preeminence in this world or any man's boast of what his resume reads.
There is no respective persons with God.
No, God does not judge as man judges. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart and He sizes this man up. Not as he was politically, not as he was in an hour position, but he characterized him as to what he was morally. He was the son of a murderer. And now the son of a murderer was coming to get Elisha. Turn over for a moment to the 8th chapter of John.
In this chapter.
The Jews are laying claim to Abraham being their father.
Verse 39 They answered and said unto him, that Jesus, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto him unto them, If you are Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham, but now ye seek to kill me.
Just as Johor, I'm a son of a murderer, came to kill Elijah, now you come to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth. Why did they want to kill the blessed Lord Jesus? Because he was a man that had spoken.
To them, the truth. Do you want the truth or do you want to fight against it?
Which I have heard of God.
You do the deeds of your father, then said they to him. We be not born of fornication. What a slur against the virgin birth.
The Lord was reaching their conscience and what did they do? They would start to personally attack him. And what you do in the Word of God touches your conscience. Do you go after the one that brings it before you? That's what they did.
We have one Father, even God. Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself that he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech even because you cannot hear my word? Ye are of your Father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speak of the law, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar.
And the father of an.
We'll stop there. You see the moral picture? They wanted to claim Abraham as their father. They wanted to quote genealogy according to the flesh. He said no morally.
You're the son of a murderer, your father the devil.
Well, now we come to the 7th chapter. What a scene we have. You have the king with his entourage coming to kill the man of God, the only hope for that city, the only refuge from eternal doom for that city. But now the word of the man of grace comes. I know we want to make this point very clear. That's all that sinneth, it shall die.
For the wages of sin is death, for it is appointed in the men wants to die, but after this the judgment because there is wrath. Beware, God has set himself forth into God, a holy God that deals with evil. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness.
There is judgment for sin, but what about the man of grace? Well, that's what we come to now in Chapter 7. Then Elijah said, Hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flower be sold for a shackle, and two measures of barley for a shackle in the gate of Samaria. 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? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof.
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And there were four leprosy men at the entering into the gate, and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
If we say, We will enter into the city, and 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. 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. So the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of Chariots and the noise of horses.
Even the noise of a great host. And they said One to another, Law, The king of Israel hath fired 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 ***** 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 they eat and drink, and carried them silver and gold and raiment, and went and hit it, and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried tents also, and went and hit it.
Then they said one to another, We do not. Well, this day is a day of good fighting, and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now, therefore come, that we may go and tell the King's household. So they came and called into 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 ***** tied in the tents, as they were. And he called the porters, and they told it to the King's house within.
And the king arose in the night and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we'd be hungry. Therefore they've 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. And one of the servants answered and said, Let them take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain which are left in the city. Behold, they are all they are as all the multi individuals that are left in it. Behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed, and let us send and see.
They took therefore 2 Chariot horses, and the king sent after the host of the Syrian, saying, Go and see, and they went after them into Jordan. And lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had castaway on their face. And the messengers returned and told the king, And the people went out and spoiled the 10th of the Syrians. 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. And the king appointed the Lord, on whose hand he leaned, to have the charge of the gate.
The people trod upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake on the king came down to him. And they came to Paris as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, 2 measures of barley for a shekel, and the measure of fine flour for shekel shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. And that Lord answered the man of God, and said, Now beholdeth the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shall not eat thereof. And so it fell out to him.
So the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died.
What we find in these women and the people, we find a sense of their desperate need.
We find in the king one that was powerless to meet their needs, and in his weakness he turned an enmity against the man of God. But now we come into the house where Elijah is sitting quietly, and we find that he is going to open up now.
The fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. He tells them of this great blessing that's going to come to them. We find 4 leprous men that were four leprosy men that was good as dead and they stumble across as they go out to fall into the hands of the Syrian, feeling that some chance of mercy perhaps with them, otherwise we're just going to die.
You know God had stepped in and moved by this great noise and the Syrians were gone and all they had to do is walk in and eat and drink to their hearts content.
And that would have met their need, wouldn't it?
But you know, they came across more.
They came across much more. They found, as it says in verse 8, silver and gold and ramen. Turn for a moment to the book of Ephesians, chapter one.
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I'm gonna read 2 verses and I'm gonna read them.
A nonsequential order, Ephesians chapter one and verse 7.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, the.
Richards of his grace and what is it connected with the forgiveness of sins or to find the riches of God's grace that would meet us in our need, our deep need and through the precious blood of Christ would remove all of our sins and we would find the forgiveness of sins. What a blessing it met our need, it would meet our need and it does meet our need. It admits the need as they found that food and water to drink those leprosy and the needle is met.
But go down to verse 6.
Because if in verse seven we have the riches of his grace, in verse six we have the glory of his grace, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accept it in the Beloved.
Oh, how much more the heart of God is. This chapter begins with God coming out and blessing to man. And as we said perhaps before, we would unsatisfied many of us to know that we were saved from eternal hell, that our sins were forgiven to the blood of Christ. Our need would have been met, but God's heart would have been satisfied because the fullness of blessing in His heart, He wants us there in the likeness of His own Son, conformed to the image of His own Son.
And now he's brought us into favor. He's taken us into favor in his own son. In the place of the son before the father is the place of the believer before the father.
All that has nothing to do with being saved from eternal judgment. It's a place that answers to the heart of God, how much He loves a soul, how much he loves you. Not the riches of His grace, but the glory of His grace. They found not only this food to eat, but the silver and gold and raiment. A picture to us of the blessing we have is accepted in the Beloved 1 and so much more, in whom we have redemption.
Through his blood. Well, these lepers come, They say we do not well.
I believe that's one reason there's a gospel we do not well to keep this to ourselves. And that's why in our individual lives as believers, perhaps there's a word spoken to a a classmate, to a work associate, perhaps a little pocket calendar is just dropped off right there. You know, I just say this isn't aside. There's a man I worked with many years, Buddhist. I gave him a give him a calendar and he says Bill, look, he had saved him for the last 04 to five years.
Still not the Lords as far as I know, but how good to get the word of God into the hands of of all that we can Well we find in in the in closing here these leprous men, the picture of man's lost and ruined condition. These sinners, a type of sinners that come into this blessing, the three full blessing of God, they tell the city and now they come out to partake of the blessing that the man of God said there would be.
The king was as skeptical as they come. He wants to test, he wants to try. He wants to run a survey, so to speak, to see if this thing is good as true. But faith rests on the word of God.
And this man did not believe the word of God. Let's send a couple horses out. Let's see if the report is really true. Why did he do that? Because he didn't believe the word from the man of God. That's at the root of it. He said that sounds like good sense. But the underlying issue was he didn't believe the man of God. And that's why he said, let's send two horses out rather than those that heard the message of these poor leprous men and went together. Oh, unbelief always gets it wrong.
Well, we find that the people go out.
And there was one other man we want to notice, and that was the man in whom the king leaned.
He was a skeptic.
He was the cynic. He was the one that always had the smart remark, the cutting remark.
What's gonna end up with a man like that?
You know, those that were in desperate need, there was provision for the provision for them. Those leprous men, they came and they were the first ones to come into the blessing. But what about this man that scoffed at the man of God? If windows, if God made windows in heaven, could this thing be Well, the word was not only was the word given by the man of God that there would be full provision. The man of God also said, you'll see it with your eyes.
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But you're not gonna partake.
And this skeptic, this man that had mocked the man of God, indeed, he saw this rich provision as he stood by the gate, and the crowd just came and trampled it. He did not partake of the bounty. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We account that the long-suffering of God is salvation, God's heart.
Is full, his heart yearns.
Over the blessing of man. But he does not have unlimited patience. He will not plead with your soul forever. There is a time.
And God knows that time. You don't, and I don't. And God says that's it, that's it, Your time is coming.
Couple weeks ago I.
Alright, so let's take a look at it.
And it is a poem in my father's handwriting. I doubt that he wrote it. He did write some poetry. Maybe he did, I don't know. It's in his own handwriting.
And I would like to read it to you now.
And I would like to read it in the context of this man that stopped at the message of grace from the man of grace, Elisha, heavenly grace, the type of the risen Christ.
That he yearns for your blessing.
But as I say.
It is not forever and I just in that context like to read this little form.
Which must have impressed my father if he copied it from somewhere. It's called heaven or hell.
There is a time we know not when, a point we know not, where that marks the destiny of men to glory or despair. There is a line by us, unseen, that crosses every path, the hidden boundary between God's patience and His wrath. How long may I go on in sin? How long will God for bear? Where does hope end, and where begins the confines?
Of despair an answer from the sky has sent you, who from God depart while it is called today, Repent and harden not your heart, a point of time, a moment's face. The choice you make will tell, Will lend you in your heavenly place, or shut you up in hell.
It all comes down to a moment in time.
If you know not to save your tonight, will you have him or will you brush him by one more time?
Your eternal destiny hangs on this.
One question What then will I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?
We have him or we are rejected.
God bless me to bow before Him and receive Him as your Savior. Even tonight. Let's sing a song in closing.
#21.
Decide for price today.
The sun rises today.
And call the foundation king.
Clear the soul and body. Heart.
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Nsnoise.
Sweetness of it too, Thou just give the very best of heaven. Goddess, give the very Son of thy love, the One in whom all thy eternal, the light centered, send him into the world to die for lost and ruined sinners. We thank thee, our God and Father, for the grace of this cause, many of us.