2 Kings 7, I'm going to begin reading at verse 8. If you have found that, let's stand together, please, to hear the reading of God's Holy Word. And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, And they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. And they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, We came to the camp of the Syrians and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied in the tents as they were. And the gatekeepers called out and it was told within the king's household. And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore, they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking when they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city. And one of his servants said, Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let us send and see." So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste, and the messengers returned and told the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a sea of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seers of barley for a shekel according to the word of the Lord. Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gate so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. For when the man of God had said to the king, Two sea of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a sea of fine flour for a shekel about this time to-morrow in the gate of Samaria, the captain had answered the man of God, If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be? And he had said, You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it. And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died. May the Lord bless the reading of his word and the preaching of it this morning. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father, please wake us up this morning to have spiritual ears to hear. And may the soil of our hearts be fertile and ready for the implanted seed of your Word. That by this text you might admonish us to faith and obedience. That you might teach us about Your sovereign grace and Your mercy even to a people who deserve Your discipline and Your anger. And so, Father, teach us this morning for the sake of Christ and His great name. Amen. One of my favorite characters In C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, it's in the book, well he's in a number of the books, but the one book that I'm quoting from this morning is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And if you haven't read those books, it doesn't matter what age you are, you should really read them. And the character is not one of the humans. The character is a mouse. He's bigger than the average mouse. You know, he doesn't stand this tall from the top edge of the pulpit on his hind legs. According to C.S. Lewis, standing up and he's got his sword and his hat, you know, he's a warrior, you know. He stands about there to maybe the middle of your shin, maybe as high as your knee on a good day. Not very big. And yet the heart of Reepcheep the Mouse and the faith and the boldness and the conviction stands out larger than life and larger than any of the other characters around. You see, he loves Aslan, and he believes in Aslan. Yes, Aslan, but he's still only a mouse. The sailors came to a certain island, and many of them began to grumble, do we really have to go farther? They had been gone a long time. And some began to have doubts. And they needed most of the soldiers to go on if they were going to have a successful voyage. And at that time, Lucy turned as they were grumbling to Reepacheep, and she said, Reep, aren't you going to say anything? Because He always does. Whenever there's a doubt, He's the one who stands up and says, I have no doubts. He says, no, why should your majesty expect it? My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the dawn-treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan's country or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise, and Pipaseek will be head of the talking mice in Narnia. Oh, for such faith. His focus was Aslan. His focus was the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing will stop me. No matter what, I look unto Him and I pursue Him with all the strength that He supplies. That's faith. The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please Him, and yet we're looking at a very dark time in the history of Israel. And yet right in the midst of it, in the midst of the darkness, here's the proposition statement, here's what we see taking place. Grace flows from the perfect obedience of Christ to those who have merited nothing but wrath. God is reaching out to his apostate people. Remember now, God speaks through Elisha, his prophet, in chapter 7 and verse 1. They have been surrounded by the enemy. All kinds of awful things are taking place. We looked at that in chapter 6. The king wants the head of Elisha. And right in the middle of it, God gives His word faithfully through His prophet. He says, tomorrow, 24 hours from now, you're going to have more than you can eat and it's going to be so cheap you can't even imagine it. Well, let's look at the people involved in our text this morning. Point number one is simply this. Unbelief. Unbelief. Leprosy within Israel. Leprosy. within Israel. We looked at, in a couple weeks ago, the foolishness of the lepers, the futility as they came to the camp and they began to eat and drink and carry off silver and gold and clothing, probably as much as they could carry. They couldn't believe this. They went and hid it and then they went back to another one and did the very same thing and went and hid it. But how foolish it was. It's kind of like someone putting on rubber flippers and getting ready to run a marathon, you know, not too fruitful. It dawned on them. It's like someone getting swimming lessons after the boat sinks. It's like that rich fool in Luke chapter 12 who was blessed of the Lord and had all kinds of riches and he built more barns and he filled them up to overflowing and he says, now my plan is to eat and drink and enjoy life. He had all kinds of plans. He had this big future mapped out and that very night God says, no, I will require your soul of you. What a fool. You are not rich in the things of the Lord. And that's what these lepers are a picture of. And finally, it dawns on them after they get all this stuff, after they've eaten everything they could eat, and they say, wait a minute, we're not doing right. After their greed is satisfied somewhat, because it's never fully satisfied. After fear comes upon them and they say, you know what? If word ever gets out that we knew about this and it's sure to get out, we're in big trouble. We're in big trouble. And it's interesting because you see in verse 10, these four lepers come to the gate and they bring good news. You believe it? Would anybody in the city 24 hours prior to that, would they have thought that tomorrow morning we're going to have four lepers come up to the city and tell us, there's more food and stuff out there than you folks can imagine, and it's all free for the taking? No way. But the Lord said through His prophet, tomorrow, tomorrow, you will have more than you can handle. Amazing what God has done. It's ironic who He uses to deliver His message. Yes, lepers, sinners, those who need grace and mercy every single day. He has delivered it to you and to me, and we have happily seen the spoils. We've happily received of the blessings. We happily look forward to heaven and glory. We know His fatherly care. We know His provision. But do we keep it all to ourselves, like those lepers? Is that where you keep it? Have you put the good news of the Gospel under a bushel basket? Have you said, it's all mine. I'm grateful that I'm a Christian. Let's keep this little group just the way it is. New people make me nervous. Do we think, I can't keep this to myself. This is too good. I've got to tell my loved ones. I've got to tell my neighbors. We've got to get the word out. Since we were here about 12 years ago or so, 12, 13 years ago, when we leased this building, it didn't look like this. We tried to reach out. And there weren't as many homes, and it didn't even look like this. There wasn't a high school back there, and there was a hillside of cows right back over here. You couldn't miss them when you drove up on Sunday morning. How it has changed, how many more people live here, what opportunities we have before us. Are we going to keep it to ourselves and enjoy ourselves? No, we ought not. Now notice in the leper's statement there, They talk about this isn't the right thing to do and what if we get caught. But notice there's nothing there about God's promise. There's nothing about faith or gratefulness. You don't see anything about them turning to God and falling down before Him and giving thanks. Nothing like that. And what about us? Have we grown so accustomed to our Father's care and we know He will care for us? that we forget to thank Him and to praise Him? Or are you quick, even on a daily basis, even as you go through your work and your duties of the day, are you constantly praising and thanking Him as you think about what He's done for you through Jesus Christ and how He has provided for you? The little things of life, the good things to richly enjoy, is His praise quick to be on your lips and His thanksgiving? Well, they come to the gate, and they speak to the gatekeeper. We see it here in verse 10. We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were. Just like fire during fire season. Some of us know how fast the fire can spread. in the dry, hot winds. So, that news spread throughout that city. Incredible. First of all, it came to the king. We see his response in verse 12. Now, before we read his actual words, think about this. Unbelief is awful in any context, especially in those who have a position of power or great wealth or leadership. And the king's response here, he rose at night, it was not quite in the morning light yet, And his first response to his servants when he hears it is, I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we're hungry. They went away. They're hiding somewhere. They're watching us. We're going to open the gate. We're going to run outside and they're going to capture us. They're going to capture the city. That's what's going on here. The Westminster larger catechism talks about some sins that are greater than others. There's a whole section on it here starting with number 150, question 150 and going. You should look it up sometime. Here's what they say. What are those aggravations that make some sins more heinous than others? Their answer is Sins receive their aggravations from the person's offending if they be of riper age, greater experience or grace, eminent for profession, gifts, place, office, guides to others, and whose example is likely to be followed by others. from the parties offended if immediately, and I didn't think about this until I went to this a while ago and realized, now we know this, but realize that the first party offended is God. If immediately against God, His attributes and worship, and then they go on and they don't just stop there, they go against Christ and His grace, against the Holy Spirit, His witness and workings against superiors and against the brethren and any other. And then thirdly, They say it's a worse offense if, from the nature and quality of the offense, if it be against the express letter of the law, break many commandments, contain in it many sins, if not only conceived in the heart, but breaks forth in words and actions. There are greater sins. And we come to this passage of Scripture and we see the King of Israel. And he doesn't mention the word of Elisha. He was there. He heard the word. He knew the promise of God. No mention of the word of God. And sadly enough, this man is only concerned about his own mind, his own word. You think about it. Remember, we've studied his life. As we studied the life of Elisha together, way back in chapter 3, he was with two other kings, and they were with water in the wilderness. And remember, the first thing he said was what? Oh, let's trust in the Lord and pray together, men. So he talked to the other kings. He said, no, God's taken us out here so that we might die out here. Great word of faith from the king. When Naaman The Syrian, the leper, came to him with a letter from his king. He says, oh, the king is just trying to stir up trouble. That's what's going on here. I can't heal anybody. When Elisha led the blind soldiers to him, a whole company of soldiers came to him. He said, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? Elisha says, no. If you had taken some captive in war, you wouldn't kill them, would you? Feed them. And then in the last part of chapter 6, after hearing about the discussion of the two women, remember he's on the wall and a woman talks to him about the eating of her child. That's how bad it was inside the city. He said, I want to take Elisha's head and he said someone this very day. That's the king of Israel. And so what do you expect when he makes this statement of unbelief? But you know what? If no one else had spoken, if no one else had said a word, the city would have remained in darkness and despair under the word of the king. And what greater responsibility He bore because He was the King. And so we bear, if we have places of leadership in our homes, in the church, in a place of business, out in the world in some form of government. You know, Jesus in his own hometown that people just said, you know, who is this guy? That's Jesus, isn't it? Don't we know his parents? Don't we know his brothers and his sisters? And they wouldn't believe in him. And it says there in Mark chapter 6 that he couldn't do many miracles among them because of their hardness of heart, because of their unbelief. And it says he just marveled at their hardness of heart. Because that's what unbelief is all about. You see, it takes grace to change a heart. You think of the circumstances of the people of God dying within the walls of the city, surrounded by a great enemy. You think they all would have turned and repented of their sins and turned back to God as God put the heat on them. And then he gave the good news through Elisha, they should have turned to him. But it's the sovereign grace of God that turns a heart of stone into flesh, not great sorrow or joy or judgment or deliverance. As Alfred Edersheim writes, the application of these questions to many in our days needs not further illustration. But there is another lesson important for us all to learn. Many of our cares and difficulties are, like those of King Jehoram, imaginary. They spring from unbelief and distrust. You study the life of that king, and most of what he imagined never took place. In fact, none of it did. We do not rise to the heights of God's promises. And therefore we remain on the level of our own thoughts. One factor has been omitted from all such calculations. What is it? It's the promises of God. That's what is eliminated. And if we are down and struggling and don't know where to turn, it's because we haven't opened our Bibles and we're not taking hold of those promises and holding them up before the living God and saying, Father, You have promised and I hold to Your Word. Notice also in verse 13, the servant. The English Standard Version doesn't have the word please or its equivalent. Other versions do. And one of his servants said, please. And I think even in the midst of this whole situation, there's still a little bit of respect for the position. Although by now, I'm sure most people realize it was a fool who wore the crown. He uses the leper's logic. Notice in verse 13. Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel have already perished. Let us send and see. We sit here and do nothing, O King. These horses are going to die, and we're going to die with them, just like everybody else. So why can't we give it a try? Why would he even have to say that to the king? But he does. But notice again in the text. What's missing? What should he be saying? What should he be holding up before the king and the people? There's no mention of God's word. There's no mention of the of the prophet's promise. Hosea writes, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. No word. No faith. Great famine. Yes, there's a great famine here, but the famine is now past. Right outside the gates, out there in the fields, over the hill over there, there's food and clothing and gold and silver, but there's still a famine remaining in Israel. It's the famine for God's Word. It's a famine of faith and His promises. It's not because Elisha was not faithful. It's not because the prophets, the schools of the prophets were not trying to do what they were supposed to do. It's just that the people stopped up their ears and rejected that. They followed in the footsteps of their king. Shootings in a high school. The answer our society gives, the answer of unbelief is get rid of the guns. Prayer before sporting events. I remember when we first moved to San Marcos, we lived here years ago, I was given a call and there was a local, what do you call it, a little league beginning up and they called me and asked if I would open their whole season with prayer. Well, that was a surprise. And I said, sure I will. And I went down. I used to play Little League. I remember what a good experience that was. And I went down there and prayed for God's blessing, for the safety and the fellowship of all these families, etc. And I was really surprised because no one ever called me back to do that again. And I think that is just more and more as I get older, I don't think it's just me, I hope, I'm convinced it's not. It's just not happening anymore. And it's sad. It used to happen. We used to acknowledge God and seek His blessings upon our children and our lives. And it was actually public. And now that's being removed, you say. It's unbelief. Ten Commandments in the courtroom. Wouldn't that be a logical place for you to see the Ten Commandments? No, we can't have the Ten Commandments in the courtroom. That's contrary to what? The Constitution? I don't think so. You see, there is a famine of the Word of God in our nation. But at least this guy was willing to try something. And that brings us to the second point, the shorter point here. Blessed shall you be or cursed shall you be. blessed by the grace of God. We see it in verses 14 through 16. You see, two chariots are sent out. They were used in the time of war. The warriors went out, but they thought, we're dead men. If they're still waiting for us and we're going out there, we're dead men. But they thought, we're going to die here anyway. Let's go. We'll go at the order of the king. But they see all kinds of things as far as the Jordan they went. Look at verse 15. And behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers were excited, and they returned and told the king. Now this is a marvelous picture, you see. The Lord here did the conquering. The city was waiting on pins and needles. You'd think they were excited the night before when the promise of the Word of God went around and there were at least the remnant there believed it and rejoiced. Yes. But how excited do you think they were when these guys came back and they said, you know what? The story, the report is true. provisions everywhere. Their enemies just ran for fear of being encircled by an enemy from the north and the south and they ran toward the Jordan River and they threw food and clothing and everything and weapons. They just ran. Got to lighten the load. Got to get out of here before they get us. God did that. It's a picture of Our society today, a scene of confusion and fear and defeat, the wicked flee at nothing, you see, but the righteous man is as bold as a lion, says the proverb. And so, verse 16, the people burst forth to plunder. Now, what is plunder? It's not a word that we use today. We don't go out and plunder anybody, I hope. But, you see, plunder in Scripture and outside of Scripture is seen as what? It's seen as the context, within the context of triumph and victory over one's enemies. And there's all this plunder, and they have the spoils of war, and what did they do? They did nothing. The people are plundering an enemy that they didn't defeat. You see, the spoils are all of grace. And that's how it is for you and me. It's all of grace. We're here by the grace of God. We're here because God's sovereign mercy came down upon you and upon me. That's the reason. There's no other reason. It's not because you and I brought something in our hands. It's not because we won the battle. No, Jesus fought the battle on the cross. Turn to Isaiah 53. Notice the last few verses of Isaiah 53. Yet it says, Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. What an incredible picture, a prophetic picture of Christ's work on the cross. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. That's us. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities." We didn't do anything. But notice the blessings in verse 12 that flow through the atonement of Christ. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many. He shall divide the spoil with the strong. There's the spoil given to us. All of the benefits of the covenant of grace flow through our union with Christ. If you have an inheritance, and you do, because the Bible says you do, waiting for you in heaven, it's all by grace. Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession. That's what he's doing right now for the transgressors. There's no mention of God, His Word, His faithfulness, His grace. Again, the people go forth and they gorge themselves with food and they take clothing and silver. They cannot believe it. God has blessed them. But brothers and sisters, when God blesses us, it is the kindness of God that is to lead us to repentance, to gratitude, to faith, to humility, to ongoing service. I hope that's the main reason why you're here, is because you are grateful and that you can't hold yourself back from an opportunity to worship the Lord and to sing His praises with His people, you see. There's nothing we have done for our inheritance in Christ, for the blessing of His Spirit in our midst dwelling within us, for our understanding of the Scriptures, for a godly understanding of marriage and family and work. And on and on it goes. All the spoils, you see, of what Jesus Christ earned in that great battle on the cross. And He won. The tomb is empty. He is at the right hand of the Father. And so we have been blessed by grace, but you see, the Gospel is a two-edged sword. And if those people that day did not acknowledge His goodness, the Word of God went forth. It was fulfilled literally, exactly. He took care of His people. Did they fall down in worship? I think some did. The text doesn't tell us. What the text does tell us, though, it tells us about a man who rejected the statement of the Word of God, the promise, and what happened to him. The Word was fulfilled concerning him as well. That's the final point. Judged for unbelief. Verse 17, the king had appointed the captain, whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. Yeah, right. That wasn't the job to have on that day. You stand out there and you restrain all these starving people and tell them to go out in a neat, orderly, one-by-one fashion. Sure. When they got that news, they broke through that gate and they trampled that man. They didn't even see that man. He didn't exist. And it is the fulfillment of the Word of God as we see in the last verses. He died. But two seas of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a sea of fine flour for a shekel about this time tomorrow." It was fulfilled. And then the second half of the prophecy was fulfilled as well. You'll see it. You'll hear about it. But you won't partake of it because of your unbelief. He rejected the good news of the Gospel. And those who reject it, there is no other recourse, you see. The Word was eliminated in Israel, it was rejected, but God's Word goes forth and is still fulfilled. Man's unbelief, and yet God is so gracious, still drawing His people to Himself. You see it throughout the whole Bible. God calling to His people, turn back to Me. May God turn His people, even this day in this nation, back to Him. But you know what? when there is nothing left and man has said, no God, no God, no God. We read about the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20 and we read about the lake of fire. Turn to one final passage as I conclude here. Turn to 1 Peter. You see, God blesses us Because of the perfect obedience of Christ, He blesses us in spite of our sin and our depravity. He came to us and He made us His own. 1 Peter 1 Look at verse 3 and following. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter praises God. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus won the victory. He rose from the dead on the third day. And notice verse 4, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. What have you done for that? And our answer is, Lord, we have done nothing. It's just like the spoils there for the Israelites. They hadn't done anything for that. They hadn't even believed the Lord. And we have an inheritance and it's imperishable. It's undefiled. You know, there's all kinds of things here. And how many people, how many have you said in this room, well, I looked at my IRA last week. It's not what it used to be. Well, did you look at your inheritance in heaven last week? It's the same. You see, it's kept, look at verse 5, by God's power, it's being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. And what are you called to do? What am I called to do? It's right there in the text, through faith. We are to look outside of ourselves and keep holding on to Jesus Christ, for He is the obedient one. He's the perfect one. He's the generous one. And we receive all of it by grace. Incredible, isn't it? We don't get what we deserve because God has loved us with an everlasting love. Can we keep this good news to ourselves? I hope not. May God grant us the compassion and the concern and the grace and the boldness to talk to others, to invite them here, to let them see the life of Christ and to know the love of Christ through us. Let's pray. Lord and God, we praise You and we thank You for You, through Your blessed Son, have given Your church spoils. You've given us gifts and you have blessed us with an eternal inheritance and it's waiting for us. Does this not motivate us to worship and to serve? If it doesn't, I don't know what will. Please, Father, open our eyes and warm our hearts. Help us this day to leave this place singing your praises and giving thanks. For the good gifts that we have in abundance through our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for His faithfulness. In His name we pray, Amen.