Congregation, turn with me to 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 2, starting at verse 19 and we'll read through to verse 22. 2 Kings 2. And as you're turning to that, it's the story of Elisha healing the waters of Jericho. Just the context here is Elijah, that great prophet of the Lord, the great prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel, has just gone up to heaven. You'll recall, I'm sure most of you will recall how Elijah was taken up. Elisha saw him go up. There was chariots of fire and a whirlwind and Elijah was taken up. Elisha takes up Elijah's mantle, so to speak, and he comes across the Jordan. He hits the Jordan with Elijah's mantle. and the waters part and he walks across and then he goes up into Jericho and so we meet Elisha here in Jericho. Verse 19, the men of the city said to Elisha, look our Lord, this town is well situated as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive. Bring me a new bowl, he said, and put salt in it. So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw salt into it, saying, This is what the Lord says. I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive. And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken." Corrugation of Jesus Christ. Back in, when I was still dairy farming back in New Zealand, there was a time of the year which was by far the worst time of the year. It was right at the end of the winter as spring is about to break. And your weather patterns are quite different here than back home. But right at the end of winter, it always seems to be raining. It's probably not, but it just seems to be raining. Because what happens is the clouds are kind of always hanging heavy and low over the landscape. And the sun just doesn't seem to be able to penetrate through those clouds. And so nothing dries up. So as a dairy farmer or as any type of farmer really, the soil gets wet and things get muddy and so forth. The grass is still green, unlike what I've experienced here at the end of winter. The grass is still green, the trees are green, but nothing is growing. It's kind of like everything is stagnant and everything is wet and cold and dark and dreary. And this has its effect on not only, well, it has an effect on the stock, you know, like the cows kind of walk along with their head hung low. You know, they're sick of it as well. And for myself and the staff, it's not much fun either. You know, you're laying in bed early in the morning, and the alarm clock is going off, and you kind of hit the snooze button, and you know outside it's raining, and it's cold, and it's dark, and you've gotta face another day, and you wonder, will this ever end? And you know it will end. We know it will end. Because well, spring is around the corner. And when the spring does finally come, it's when those clouds that are hanging heavy and low kind of break up just a little bit. And the sun's rays are able to make it through. And once those sun's rays hit the ground, everything just looks different all of a sudden. I mean, the grass just looks greener. The air is warmer. The air is drier. You know, the cows almost have a spring in their step, and we as people definitely have a spring in our step as well. And I've often wondered, isn't our spiritual life so much like often the end of the winter as we go into the spring? You know, all those sins that we daily struggle with, the sins of the past maybe, The sins that we have committed in the past that affect us now, affect our relationship with the Lord now. Maybe there have been gross sins of the past, sexual sins. Things like pornography. We've asked the Lord for forgiveness, and we know He has forgiven, but the image is they always remain. Or an abortion. Or any other type of those gross sins which we know the Lord has forgiven. And yet, Yet does the Lord hear, and we feel estranged at times from the Lord. Or even just our daily sins, our sins that we committed as we came here, sins that we've committed in church here this morning already. They affect our relationship with the Lord, and sometimes it feels that those sins are like those dark and heavy clouds, and they press down on us, and they weigh on our lives. And we wonder, is the Lord still here? Does the Lord still hear us? Is He with us? Does He heal us? Well, we know He does, don't we? We know He does because of what Christ has done. God has not abandoned us. And just like Elisha and the waters of Jericho, God heals. God heals the waters and God heals us as well. So this morning, I'd like to look at this passage and see that our God's gracious word heals Jericho's waters. Our God's gracious word heals Jericho's waters. And I'd like to look at that under three points this morning. The need for healing, the manner of healing, and the extent of the healing. So the need, the manner, and the extent of healing. If you could just place yourself in the situation of these people in Jericho. It's an agrarian type society. You know, so most people have maybe a plot of land or at least some stock of some sort. And as a farmer or a market gardener or whatever, you stand on your plot of land and you look around and you know something is wrong. Something's not quite right because you've given these plants everything that you think they need to grow and they're not growing well. They look, they almost, I mean they're not withered, they're not dead, but they're not growing well. They're not growing as they should. and you look at your stock and they should be sleek and well-rounded and that kind of thing and instead they look gaunt and they're skinny and you can see their bones protruding and their fur, their hair and their fur is kind of shaggy looking and as we look in verse 19 it says the water is bad and the land is unproductive if you literally translate it, it says the land is miscarrying There's death all around. There's death all around them. You see, you try and get your stock pregnant, but they just miscarry. And you look around you, it doesn't just affect the stock and the animals and the land, it affects the people as well. You look at your children and they don't look right either. They're not growing well. And you look around and everybody's the same. Nobody's doing well. The women in the town are miscarrying more than they are bearing children. And so you think, well, I'll spruce the place up a bit. I'll wash the house and make it look a bit brighter and a bit perkier. But even that doesn't help. Everything has lost its sparkle and its shine. And I say lost because it wasn't always this way. You see, in Judges chapter 3, Jericho is referred to as the City of Palms, where the people of Israel lived and where they experienced the Lord's goodness and the Lord's love to them. You know, Moses had said, you are going into a land flowing with milk and honey. Remember that? And the people of the Jericho region at the time of the judges experienced that goodness and experienced that land flowing with milk and honey. There was much, everything grew and it grew well. But something's changed, something happened. Something has gone terribly wrong. Just turn back a few pages to 1 Kings chapter 16, and we read about this engineer called Hiel. 1 Kings 16 verse 34. In the time of this wicked king Ahab in the northern kingdom, this Heil, in Ahab's time, Heil of Bethel, rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son, Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Zegab, in accordance with the word of the Lord, spoken by Joshua, the son of Nun. You recall, no doubt, how when Israel came into Canaan and they destroyed Jericho, and Joshua placed a curse on Jericho and said, anybody that rebuilds those walls will lose his first son, his firstborn son and his youngest son. And so as Hyal does that, he has two monuments to mark that achievement. Two tombstones of his youngest and oldest son. And so God has placed a curse on Jericho because you see the word of the Lord came through Joshua and that word will be fulfilled. That word will come true because God's word always comes true. Never does it return void or empty. God's Word is true. And you see the depth of the curse, as we turn back to 2 Kings chapter 2. You see the depth of the curse. It's in the water. It's in the water. It's like it's in the very fabric of life. I'm sure you know, children, that water is used for basically everything in life. You know, when you go back home, you might have a drink of something, and most of that is water, right? Well, it basically is water. If you drink water, it's straight water, right? But water is used for everything. It's used for cooking. It's used for cleaning. So much of our bodies are made up of water. So if the water is bad, everything is affected. Everything is affected. And the situation that the people of Jericho are in is a reflection of the state of the kingdom of Israel. We know, don't we, the northern kingdom of Israel had broken away from the from the southern kingdom, I suppose you could say, and that followed Jeroboam. And what had Jeroboam done? He'd set up these golden calves. And we read throughout Kings and throughout Chronicles, and Samuel a little bit as well, about the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebad, with which he made Israel sin. It's like a constant refrain that goes on and on and on. And that's what the people of Israel had done, the northern kingdom, that followed Jeroboam. And as if this wasn't enough, Ahab comes along, this wicked king Ahab, which you read in 1 Kings 16 as well. In the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, this Ahab, the son of Omri, became king of Israel. And he reigned in Samaria over Israel 22 years. Ahab, the son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebad, but he also married Jezebel, daughter of Ephbaal, king of the Sidonians. And he began to serve Baal and worship him. And he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all of the kings of Israel who were before him. This was a wicked king, a very wicked king, very wicked in the eyes of the Lord. But all Israel had followed him. Ahab's son, Azariah, I mean, even when he was sick, he sent a messenger to one of the foreign gods, one of the kings, I think it was the king of Edom. He sent a messenger there, he said, go inquire of that god whether I'm gonna be healthy again. And Elijah says, is there no great god in Israel that can heal you? You see, Israel had totally abandoned God. And so what's going on in Jericho is like a living metaphor of what is going on in Israel. There's death all around them. They've got no hope. There's no hope left. They've prayed to their gods and their gods can't help them. And this great prophet Elijah, this great prophet who had been ministering to the people of Israel, Which is another amazing thing. If you think about what God had done for Israel. His northern kingdom had departed from God altogether. They were serving the Baals, and yet God sends his word to his people. They were so apostate, and yet God sends his word. It was a word of judgment, yes, but God still loved his people. You see, he was still calling them back. And so Elijah, he was like that representation of God in Israel. God was still among them. God still loved them. But now Elijah was gone. Elijah was gone. He'd gone up to heaven. So now who are they going to turn to? They've got no one left. They're in a desperate strait. There's death all around them, nothing left for them. And before we start pointing the fingers at this nation of Israel, we realize that we are no better than these people. We are no better at all than these people of Israel. Because what does God say in Romans chapter 3? There is no one who does good, not even one. All have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one who does good, not even one. And there's no escape. There's no escape from the sin that plagues us. There's death all around us, and where are we going to turn? We turn to our God. A God who loves us. A God who is so gracious. A God who heals. A wonderful God who heals. And how is God going to bring this healing? How is he going to bring this healing to these people of Jericho? First of all, and that's our second point then, the manner of this healing. The manner of healing. You see, God's raised up another prophet. Elijah had gone, yes. That word bearer of Israel had gone up to heaven. But now God raises up another prophet, Elisha, the prophet Elisha. And what is Elisha going to do? Look at verse 20 with me. Elisha says to the people of Israel, bring me a new bowl, he said, and put some salt in it. And he goes up to the spring where the water comes out of the ground or out of the hill, or we're not sure exactly where or how this water comes out. And he grabs the salt and he throws it into the spring. And we think, well, that's pretty strange. What's the deal with the salt? If anything is going to heal water, surely salt's not going to do it. If you're one of the people of Jericho, you'll realize that salt is no good for water. When you get home, I'd encourage you to have a look at, if you have one of those Bibles that has a, like an atlas at the back, and you look at the the map of Palestine. And you see you have Israel here and you have Jericho about here and then right underneath Jericho there's this big body of water. It's called the Dead Sea. And so these people of Jericho knew exactly what salt does to water. Because that Dead Sea is salty water and nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Nothing lives there. That's why it's called the Dead Sea. Nothing lives there at all. And so we think, well, this is a bit strange, Elisha. What's going on? What are you doing? Well, that's exactly the point. It's not what Elisha is doing, but it's what he says. Look at verse 21. This is what the Lord says, I have healed this water. This is what the Lord says, I have healed this water. And if you put yourselves in the minds of the people of Jericho, this is glorious news. This is wonderful news. Because you see, they think God has left them. Elijah had left them. That great prophet, that word bearer, he had left them. So was God's word still among them? Had God left them as well? No, he hadn't. God's word comes to them in this new prophet, Elisha. And he brings a word of grace and of love Elijah, the first words we hear from Elijah are words of judgment. Now there's going to be a famine in the land because you're serving the Baals. Now what does Elisha do? He brings words of healing, words of comfort. I have healed this water. That's what God's saying to his people. I have healed this water. And so you see, Elisha hadn't learned a few hocus-pocus type of tricks from from Elijah. He knew how to run a few tricks and that's how he did it. No, he's bringing God's Word to his people. Elisha is a messenger of the Lord. Just like Joshua and the people of Israel, they came across the Jordan and they go up to Jericho and they defeat Jericho and Joshua places a curse on anyone that would rebuild the walls of Jericho. So Elisha, he crosses the Jordan and he goes up to Jericho And he removes the curse and he brings healing, pointing to a one much greater who would come much later, who also crossed the Jordan with his eyes resolutely set on Jerusalem, ready there to do the Father's will. And would you know it? He goes through the city of Palms. He goes through Jericho. And what does he do there? He finds two men, one Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, The effects of the curse of sin are on him. And what does he do? He speaks the word and this man is healed. The word incarnate, the word become flesh, God himself with us speaks the word and this man is healed. Then there's Zacchaeus, a man who has been estranged from the Lord, a man who has wandered away from the Lord. The word speaks and he is healed. And the word continues on, and he goes to Jerusalem, and there he takes the curse, these cursed waters of Jericho, the curse of our sin. He takes it on his shoulders, and what does he do? He hangs on the cross, and he cries out his word. It is finished. It is all gone. Healing has been accomplished. There will be healing with our great God, and as we look to Him, And as we look to this, this One who heals, waters flow from Him and we drink deeply. We drink deeply of the waters that come from Him and they pass through us and we are cleansed, we are healed. All of our sins have been removed. We are completely healed. And that completeness of the healing is our third and final point, the extent of this healing. Look at verse 21 and 22. Elisha there, he says, this is what the Lord says, I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive. And what happens? Verse 22, the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken. Because you see, as we mentioned before, if God's word goes out, it will do what it says. God's Word will do what it says. What God says will happen. And you see all of the water has been healed. Right from the spring where it comes out of the ground, right down to wherever it ends up, probably in the Jordan River. All of that water has been healed. So wherever the children go and play, it is safe. Wherever the stock come and drink, it is safe. And wherever the farmer takes water out to irrigate his crops, it is good water. It is life-giving water. It will give life. Because that's what water does, doesn't it? Good, clean, pure water gives life. And that life, that life-giving water, Jesus touches on in John chapter 4 when He speaks to that Samaritan woman. You recall that Samaritan woman while Jesus was sitting at the well And he has this conversation with her and he says to her, do you want living water? Do you want water that when you drink it, you will never thirst again? Well, give me this water. I want that kind of water. Jesus says, I am he. I am that water. And then at the feast in John chapter seven, at one of the great feasts, just before his death, Jesus stands up and he says, if anyone is thirsty, Let Him come to me and drink. Let Him come to me and drink. You see, because Jesus is the one that cleanses that water, that makes that polluted water clean. But He's also the one who is that pure water. He is the pure water. He cleanses the water and He is the pure water. Turn with me as well to Revelation chapter 22. Right at the end of the Bible, very last chapter. We read, you know, John on the island of Patmos, he has these beautiful visions and he's in chapter 21, he's seen the New Jerusalem, this wonderful, great city of God. And in this New Jerusalem, in chapter 22, verse 1, the angel showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nation." What does this river of the water of life represent? It's flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. It represents salvation, that gracious gift of God to us as His people. It also represents life, eternal life. And what is eternal life? Eternal life is fellowship with God forever and ever. And so what God is saying to these people of Jericho, what God is saying to them, He's saying, look to me. I am the one that can heal you. Don't turn to those bales. Don't turn to those golden calves. I am the one that heals and I will heal you. But you must hear my word. Listen to me. Listen to that word. Follow that word. And so we too, congregation, we hear that Word, and we follow that Word. That Word incarnate, that Word become flesh, that Word that hung on the cross, Jesus Christ Himself, He is the One who heals. He is the One who heals us of our diseases, of the disease of sin and death. And He gives us complete, full healing. So do you see them, congregation? Do you see? Do you see those sins that constantly plague us? Those sins of the past that remain on our consciences or our minds? Those sins that we committed as we came here? Those sins that we've committed this morning? And that weigh us down, those dark clouds that seem to weigh us down? What does God say about those? Well, He says here, come. Come to Jericho. Come to Jericho and see your God. See this great God that heals. He heals the waters by His Word. And as you get down and as you drink that water, you get on your knees and you drink that water, and it passes through you, and it is cool, and it's refreshing. And you look, and the spring of that water is the cross of Jesus Christ. And you look to the cross, and you hear His Word, and He says, look to Me. Look to Me. Hear Me. is finished. It's all gone. You are completely healed. All that sin has been completely removed. The sun of God's face shines on you. You have complete forgiveness in Him. And so, my dear brother, dear sister, come. If you are thirsty, come to the waters and drink. come and drink of that life-giving stream that is Jesus Christ himself and drink deeply because his salvation is good and pure and everlasting. He will heal you of all your sins. Amen. It's come before this great God. Almighty God, what a wonderful salvation you have given us in Jesus Christ. May we ever drink, drink deeply of His fountain. Father, may we ever keep our eyes on Christ, never lose sight of Him. We thank You for the forgiveness that we have in Him. May we live this life in Him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.