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If you'd open your Bibles with
me to 2 Kings Chapter 6, Verse 24 through Chapter 7 and Verse
2. We're looking at the tragic consequences
of disobeying God. And as we do, I want us to look
at these last two verses that Pastor Larry read out of Chapter
7, Verses 1 and 2. Elisha now is talking to the
king because the king has hurried behind the master that he sent
to cut off Elisha's head. And he's hurried behind him apparently
begging off, don't cut off his head. This is the man that has
done all the miracles. 22 miracles he did in all. No,
I don't know if I want you to cut off his head. He's coming
right behind him as quickly as he can. They've stopped the door.
They've not let anyone in. And now the captain and the king
come in the house there in Samaria where Elisha and the sons of
the prophets and there the elders are. And Elisha finally has a
prophecy relating to the siege. because there had been a siege
by Syria now for an extended period of time. The famine was
not in the land. It was in Samaria. They could
not get out to get anything. They couldn't go out to the crops.
They couldn't do anything. They're completely, completely
surrounded. And Elisha says, Hear the word
of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, Tomorrow,
about this time, a say of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel,
and two sayers of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.
Then the captain, on whose hand the king leaned, said to the
man of God, If the Lord should make windows in heaven, could
this thing be? But Elisha said, you'll see it. You shall see it with your own
eyes, but you shall not taste it. You shall not eat of it.
Let's pray and ask the Lord to teach us from this powerful passage
of his word. Father, we bow down before you
for your Lord of all. Sing Hallelujah. Christ is risen. Lord, we need to hold on. We need to hold on to You in
difficult times and we need to learn. The Scripture says that
we're to learn from what happened in the past. These things were
given to us for our learning that we through perseverance and through the encouragement
of the Scriptures might have hope. Teach us, Lord, the consequences
of disobeying You. teach us to obey you for Jesus
sake we pray amen thank you Andrew today God is turning our attention
to the act the very act of obedience the gift of surrender to the
Lord. He is as well, He is introducing
to us the dire distress of disobedience, the solemn agony and consequence
of rebellion. To introduce our message, I want
to quote part of a poem by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets.
He wrote it to tell the American story of how we became a free
land when once we were a part of England. The poem is called
The Gift Outright. It's for me a picture of what
God can do for any people who will truly follow him. The poem
was written in 1936, but Robert Frost didn't publish it until
1941, a few months after the United States entered World War
II. Although it achieved a good level
of familiarity and fame, it really wasn't the poem everyone thought
it was until 1961 on January 20th, when the gift outright
was quoted by Robert Frost at the inauguration of President
John F. Kennedy. That was an interesting day because
of the glare of the sun and his poor eyesight, Robert Frost could
not read his own writing that was in front of him. He had written
an inauguration poem for John F. Kennedy. It was called Dedication. And since he couldn't read, all
he could do was quote. He was up there to give a poem.
And so he quoted The Gift Outright, which he had written many years
before and he knew so well. And I want you to listen to part
of the words. I won't give them all. But they
introduce something that I believe illustrates the Christian life
better than I've heard it in almost any other way by a secular
poet. Speaking of America, he said,
the land was ours before we were the lands. She was our land more
than 100 years before we were her people. She was ours in Massachusetts
and Virginia, but we were England's, still colonials, possessing what
we still were unpossessed by. Possessed by what we now no more
possessed. Something we were withholding
made us weak until we found that it was ourselves. We were withholding
from our land of living and forthwith found salvation in surrender. For me, Robert Frost pictures
how we as Christians can possess salvation, but not let salvation
possess us. I see it all the time. People
that are truly saved, but they won't let salvation possess them. He pictures how we can withhold
from ourselves what Jesus bought for us at Calvary. if we would
just only surrender. Oh, come to the altar. Oh, come
to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide.
We sang this morning. It's available. It's available
the moment we're saved by grace through faith. The front of our
bulletin cover says it in another way. Obey God and leave all the
consequences to Him. And you'll find that the consequences
are blessings. They're blessings beyond number.
Now this picture of having something given to us outright, a gift,
a gift, but not possessing it, reminds me of millions and millions
of American men and women who have received the gift of salvation. And they have received another
gift. They have received the gift of
marriage. And yet, in the absence in the
absence of loyalty to a wife or a husband. Millions upon millions
upon millions have taken this gift that was given outright
to them, this most satisfying state on earth. They bartered
it and relinquished it and forsaken it for a mess of pottage. As
Rudyard Kipling once said, the more you have of the others,
the less you settle for one. And I want you to know, beloved,
the same is true of the cross. Temptation makes us think, as
believers, we're stuck in a rut. Here I am, stuck in the rut.
I'm reading my Bible every day. I'm going to church. I'm going
to this. I'm going to that. I'm going
to small groups. I'm going to the Ladies Bible Study. I'm going
to the Revival Prayer Fellowship. I'm doing all of these things.
I'm stuck in a rut. I'm stuck in a rut being married
to my wife. Or stuck in a rut being married
to my husband. I'm stuck in a rut being faithful
in worshiping God and God alone. I'm stuck in a rut coming to
this church. I'm stuck in a rut. It's just same old, same old,
same old. This is the word of the devil
when you hear it. It's the word of the devil. But
he comes over and over. Just same old, same old, same
old. Spice up your life a little bit. And so with jaundiced eyes,
we begin to look at the gifts of God, the gifts that are outright
gifts, given by His grace. And we see them as no better
than moldy bread or clabbered milk or maggot-infested fresh
meat. Temptation leads us to believe
the devil's lies, just like Adam and Eve did. And then in bondage,
in bondage, For the first time in years, perhaps with repentant
eyes and open eyes, we say, Oh God, I've spurned the Son of
God. I've profaned the blood of your
covenantal love. I've outraged the Spirit of grace. That's what King Joram and the
people of Israel did with God. And in the face of their sin,
they were not repenting. It's one thing to sin terribly
and repent. It's another thing to sin terribly
and continue without repenting. That was King Joram, and that
was the land of Israel that were worshiping the Baals and the
Asherahs and the Molochs and the Qemashes, throwing their
own little children into the molten arms of these gods, these
gods who were no gods. Now, the land of Israel in the
days of Elisha was under the rule of one of Israel's most
wicked kings. He was the son of the most wicked
king Ahab, his name was Jehoram or Joram. The blessings of believing
God were over and over being illustrated in miracles that
had happened first in Elijah and now under Joram. under Elisha,
all the miracles. And yet Joram and the people
of God were slaves. They had committed spiritual
adultery with God. They had gone outside spiritual
union with God. They had become captives, faithless
prostitutes in bondage to Baal, Asherah, Malak, and Qamash. These
dead idols, they could do no miracles. They could do nothing.
I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember a
book that was written about 40-some years ago by Francis Schaeffer. It was called How Shall We Then
Live? How Shall We Then Live? And people,
they criticized the book because of what he prophesied. He was
a prophet in his day and from Switzerland, from Labrie, over
there where he trained many people that came. He said to them, the
path that America has taken will soon have Americans killing their
own babies, not just in abortion, before birth, and that's 63 plus
million, but they will kill them when they're young children,
infanticide. And people said, oh, that's wrong,
that's wrong. It's right, it's right, folks. You may be saying, how can things
ever get this bad? How can they ever get this bad
with God's people? Why would God's people ever stoop
to such awful actions as this text presents to us? I want to
tell you something, there is no limit to how low we can go
if we let go of the promises of God. There is no limit. to how low we can go if we let
go of the promises of God, if we disobey His Word, His will,
and His divine promptings, if we decide to do our own thing,
to do it our own way, and we reject obeying God's commands,
I want us to take time this morning to examine five consequences
of disobeying God. Five consequences. And the first
one is when we cling to sin, we make others to sin with us. And together we face the siege
of sin on our souls. You'll notice in verse 24 that
afterward, what's afterward? Well, you remember this great
miracle? They fed the Syrians, you remember
they fed the Syrians who had been blinded? Elijah blinded
them and afterwards Lord opened their eyes and they were inside
some area and Joram said, shall we kill my master? He said no,
give him a feast. So they gave him a feast. They
sent him home and there were no more raids. But now Ben-Hadad
says, let's get the whole thing done. Let's not make any more border
raids. Let's take all of Israel. Let's surround them. Let's Let's
just completely, let's completely smoke them out. Let's get them
out of their hole. Let's get them out of their capital.
And so he musters his entire army. He went up and besieged
Samaria, 2 Kings 6.24. And if you'll notice, who was
this King Joram in 2 Kings 3.2? He had not repented, though we
may not realize it. All of us are being watched.
If you think to yourself, well, I'm just 10 or 11 years old.
Nobody's watching me. I want you to know there's some
little children watching you. Nobody's watching me, my children
are grown. Many are watching you. We're
not just watched by our children, we're watched by our spouse,
we're watched by other believers, we're watched by many other unbelievers. When we sin, and especially then
after we've sinned, if we cling to our sin and we refuse to repent,
the result of our continued rebellion against God in sin takes a toll
not only on us, but on those who have been modeling us. Now, if you'll read in 2 Kings
3, 1 and 2, I want to tell you about King Joram. In the 18th
year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Jehoram, or Joram, the
son of Ahab, became king over Israel and Samaria. He reigned
12 years. He did what was evil in the sight
of the Lord. He clung to the son of Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. He did not depart
from it. He would not repent. He led a
nation who would not repent. Now that was 896 B.C. or somewhere
around there. Three years later, we have our
text in 893. And unrepentant sin in King Joram
led to unrepentant sin in all of Israel. And God promises us
that when we cling to sin, the consequences on us and others
will become awful. We'll face a siege of judgment. A siege of judgment. Here all
Israel, especially the capital city of Samaria, was under the
Syrian siege. They're completely locked in.
The walls weren't locking them in. Syria on the outside of the
walls was locking them in. They couldn't go to their crops.
Here all Israel was in distress. A siege that Elisha told them
was a siege not by the Syrians, but from God. This is the consequence
of disobedience. The Israelites knew the consequences
of disobeying God. They knew the law, Deuteronomy
28, 48, where God says, If you will not obey me, therefore you
shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you
in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and lacking everything. A city
besieged for months or years ultimately will fall. Once more
in Israel, this people of Samaria, they were in great straits. A
besieging army was at their gates, and the horror of famine was
inside their walls. Within, the people inside Samaria's
walls were reduced to insane extremities. Their women began
to cook and eat their own children. To open the gates to the Syrians
meant death or captivity, but the longer they remained inside,
the more certainly death and starvation was staring them in
the face. This is the promised consequence
of Israel forsaking God. Ultimately, our sin will bring
us to our knees. If you don't believe that, I'll
tell you this today, beloved. Sin will ALWAYS bring you to
your knees. Will it be in time? For the prodigal,
it was in time. He finally came to his knees,
eating hog slop. How many of you enjoy eating
hog slop? He had nothing else to eat. He
was to the end of himself. We sang, Have You Come to the
End of Yourself? Jesus is calling. They had forsaken
the living God. It's an evil day for us when
we turn our back on God's Word, His commandments, His will, and
His promptings. When we turn our back on the
Son of God, repeated sin always brings calamity. Sin hardens
our hearts, it blinds our eyes to hope or repentance. So number
one, when we cling to sin, we make others to sin with us, and
together we face the siege of sin on our souls. Number two,
When we walk away from God's commandments, we place ourselves
outside God's divine protection. If you'll notice here in verse
25, and there was a great famine in Samaria. Why? They couldn't
get outside the walls. They couldn't find any crops.
There was a great famine in Samaria as they besieged it, until a
donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth
part of a cab of doves dung for five shekels of silver. I want
you to know the blessings of believing are myriad. He said,
and I said, same old, same old, same old. Well, just let me tell
you what same old, same old is. Listen to same old, same old
from Deuteronomy 28, one to 14. What happens when you obey the
Lord and obey his word? It is same old, same old, it's
same wonderful. Listen, if you faithfully obey
the voice of the Lord your God, and you're careful to do all
his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God
will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all
these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey
the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city,
and blessed shall you be in the field. This is Deuteronomy 28.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your
ground, and the fruit of your cattle, and the increase of your
herds. and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your
basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you
come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. This is what
God gives for us. He says the Lord will cause your
enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They
shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven
ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns,
and in all that you undertake, and He'll bless you in the land
that the Lord your God has given you. The Lord will establish
you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you
keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in His
ways. And all the peoples of the earth
shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and
they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will make you abound
in prosperity in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of
your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground within the land
that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open
to you his good treasury, the heavens, and give you rain to
your land in its season. And bless all the work of your
hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not
borrow. And the Lord will make you the
head and not the tail. And you shall only go up and
not down if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God. which I
command you today, being careful to do them. And if you do not
turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to
the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve
them." If you want to call that same old, same old, is Lord,
pour it on. Pour it on. That's what we need. That's His hand of protective
blessing. That's His anointing. That's
His loving care. But listen to the word of the
Lord in Proverbs 13, 15. If you walk away from God, the Bible
says the way of the transgressor is hard. You won't be safe outside of
God's hand of protection. For Samaria, this long siege
of Syria was working like a neutron bomb inside Samaria's walls. Things were tragic, desperate,
and collapsing on their heads. Jeremiah the prophet, as he wrote,
told about a donkey's head being sold for 80 shekels of silver.
How many of you would pay a dime, a thin dime, for a donkey's head?
Well, if you were starving, you just might. Who today would even
want a donkey's head? And yet in desperate times, every
part of an animal is worth something. There's something there to eat.
Head cheese from a donkey, anyone? Can you imagine it? Can you imagine
it? Sounds pathetic. The price is
only 80 shekels of silver. A shekel of silver today is worth
$20.70. So a donkey's head was costing
the equivalent of $1,656. You didn't stay rich very long
in Samaria. And a cab of dove's dung. Now
I know a cab sounds like a taxi, but a cab is a pint. It's a pint. And so they were
making dove's dung soup or whatever you make with dove's dung. Can
you imagine it? Bird droppings. A cab is a pint,
so a fourth of a pint is half a cup. A dove's dung costs five
shekels of silver. That's the equivalent of $103.50
today. Beloved, you can minimize this
passage and you can say, I'll never let things get that bad
for me. I want to warn you, there's no LIMIT to how bad things will
get if you forsake God and His Word. How bad can they get? Worse than you ever imagined.
Like the prodigal, you can pick your food out of hog slop. Stay
inside God's will. Stay close to Jesus. Obey His
word. He says in Psalm 138, seven,
David says, though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve
my life. You stretch out your hand against
the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand delivers me.
Which is it for us? Do we want God's blessing or
a costly donkey's head or a half a cup of a dove's dung? It's
up to us. It's up to us. Number three,
the third consequence of disobeying God. When we rebel against God,
we become so adulterated, we turn in misdirected passion on
those we love. Notice what the king asked the
woman in distress. Now, you have to get the picture
of the wall here, because the picture of the wall here is that
the walls of these cities usually could have at least a chariot
go on top of them. Jericho was so thick, two chariots
could pass on it. And so this is a place where
people could walk and see the enemy way down below. And the
king's up there looking at the siege, looking down at his people,
and he's walking the wall. And it says, verse 26, As the
king of Israel, that's Joram, was passing by on the wall, a
woman cried out to him. saying, Help my Lord, O King!
And he said, If the Lord will not help you, which by the way
He doesn't appear to be helping, how shall I help you? The threshing
floor, there's nothing there, there's nothing from the wine
press, it's dry. And the king asked her, What
is your trouble? And she answered, this woman, there's a woman right
there beside her, this woman said to me, give your son that
we may eat him today and we'll eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled
my son and ate him. And on the next day, I said to
her, give your son that we may eat him. But she has hidden her
son. You say, Pastor, this is awful.
It really is. It really is awful. Here the
king says, don't ask me for help. Ask the Lord if he won't help
you. Just know inside these walls of Samaria, we have empty barn
floors. We have dry wine presses. And
then he hears her revolting tale when he says, what's wrong with
you? What's wrong with you? And now you can imagine anyone
would be, we're just emotionally busted. I know it's not the right
word to use, but that's what comes to me, just busted. He
can't believe what he's hearing, he's a wreck. Think of it, this
woman has made a proposal to eat her son and tomorrow we'll
eat your son and she has lived up to her part of the bargain
and the other lady has hidden her son. Can human nature in
dire extremities descend to such revolting deeds? And the answer
is, history records that the prophecies of God are true. The
instances in history are not a few, even Josephus. What Josephus
shares, it happened often. Can such consequences come on
us if we continue to rebel against God? Yes, they can. The Word
of the Lord promises that revolting passions take over in our lives
when we continue to sin. Now, in case you don't believe
what I'm going to say, I'm going to beg you to open your Bibles
to Deuteronomy 28, 52 to 57, so you don't think I'm just reading to be reading something. This
is the Bible. This is the holy word of God.
Hear the word of the Lord. Here is what will happen. Chapter
28, 45 says, all these curses will come upon you and pursue
you and overtake you till you're destroyed because you did not
obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments
and his statutes that he commanded you. Now, just six verses I want
to read you. Thus says the Lord, they shall
besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified
walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land."
That hadn't happened yet. And they shall besiege you in
all your towns, throughout all your land, which the Lord your
God has given you. And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the
flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given
you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies
shall distress you. The man who is the most tender
and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife
he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left.
so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his
children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left in the
siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress
you in all your towns. The most terrible and refined
woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her
feet on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will
be grudged to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her
daughter. her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet
and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything, she
will eat them secretly in the siege and in the distress with
which your enemies shall distress you in your towns. Thus saith
the Lord. It's a sacred blessing when we
walk with the Lord in the light of His word. What a glory He
sheds on our way. When we do His goodwill, He abides
with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and
obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to
trust and obey. It's a divine warning that we
have no idea how bad life can get if we choose to rebel against
the word and against the commandments of the Lord. Here's the most
tragic tale of consequence. We're rebelling against God.
The true story makes our stomachs turn. It makes our hearts quail
and quiver. It makes our spirits filled with
anger and horror. We revolt at it. And yet I want
to tell you, how many of you have been hungry lately? Every
one of us. That's why we've eaten breakfast.
That's why we've eaten lunch or dinner, whatever we call it.
That's why we had supper. Hunger means we're healthy. Hunger stimulates us into action. Hunger is the main spring that
keeps us alive and moving and working and living and loving. But when hunger becomes intense
and unappeasable, hunger will set aside all moral commandments
in defiance. Hunger will break through stone
walls. It'll shatter thrones. It'll break up empires. Hunger
is among the primary duties of rulers to keep their people appeased. to keep them filled. Alas for Joram, he got to know
now too vividly about the groans of his people becoming like the
grumblings and the rumblings underground of a soon volcanic
eruption. He's seen something happen in
Samaria that he can't believe his ears. God save us all from
rebelling against God and coming into his judgment. Oh, how strong
his judgment can be. Number four. When we see the awful results
of disobeying God, we blame God and his servants rather than
repent of sin. Isn't it amazing how often when
God judges us, when we begin to come under his discipline,
We have our finger pointed at Him and at others, rather than
confessing our own sins. Notice verses 30 through 33. When the king heard the words
of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the
wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth
beneath on his body. And he said, May God do so to
me, and woe also if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat,
remains on his shoulders today. Elisha was sitting in his house
and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched
a man from his presence, this is his captain, that he leans
on. He sent him out with a sword to kill Elisha. And before the
messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, Do you see how
this murderer, he's speaking of Joram, has sent to take off
my head? Look, when the messenger comes,
shut the door and hold the door fast behind him. Is not the sound
of his master's feet behind him? So here's the picture. Joram
kind of at least half repents. He's madder than the hops of
Elisha. But no, no, let's not take off his head. All the miracles
we've ever had have come through him. So he's running behind.
And while the captain was still speaking, or while Elisha was
still speaking with him, the messenger came down to him and
said, He had said what Joram had said. He had heard it from
the king, and what had he heard is this, THIS TROUBLE IS FROM
THE LORD! That's because Elisha TOLD HIM,
THIS TROUBLE IS FROM THE LORD! And then, this is ALSO what Joram
said, I'VE HAD IT WAITING ON THE LORD! WHY SHOULD I WAIT FOR
THE LORD ANY LONGER? I'M GOING TO TAKE YOUR HEAD OFF!
That's the implication. He's at the door saying, We've
waited on God long enough. Picture the scene. King Joram
was a hypocrite of a man. He's playing both sides of the
picture. He's worshiping Baal, the Asherahs, Moloch, and Chemos,
and yet he's also trying to play the part of at least partly repentant
king. Now do you know verse 30? When
he hears the words of the woman, he tears his clothes. He really
looks like he's in awful distress. Probably really was. And when
he does and he passes by on the wall, everybody looks up and
they sees when he tears off his royal robes, his undergarments,
his underclothes are sackcloth. He's got that underneath his
royal robes. He's got both. He's playing both
sides. He could play the part of worshiping
Almighty God or he could play the part of worshiping his idols.
The Bible says in Exodus 20 verse 3, you shall have no other gods
before me. So playing the part of a believing
Israelite, he tore his clothes, he revealed what he'd been covering
up. He was playing both ends against
the middle. He was pretending to support
both sides, God and Kamash or Malik or Baal or Asherah. Why? To gain an advantage. How many
of you have ever said, I'll play a little of the world, I'll play
a little of this and see where I get the most from. I'm going
to play both ends against the middle. Now, Joram did what millions
do today. He acted like a humble, humiliated
king, but his religion didn't go very deep. rather than repent
and call his nation to repentance, he immediately blamed God, and
he blamed his prophet, Elisha. There was a measure of mixed
sincerity in his penitence, or he wouldn't have run behind his
captain to stop him from beheading Elisha. He had learned to listen
some to the counsels of Elisha. He tried waiting on the Lord
for deliverance, but he was done with that. Trusting in his other
gods hadn't helped, and so in this outburst of angry passions,
He uttered a death threat on the prophet. And then after he
sent for his head, he repented and he hurried behind the captain
to reverse his order. Now I wanna tell you something
about what happens when we are sinning and we won't repent. We know we're still living in
unrepentant sin when we refuse to admit our guilt before God
and when we refuse to admit it to others. We know we're still
unrepentant when we blame God. And when we blame others, we
blame our spiritual leaders, we blame our pastors, we blame
our counselors, we blame everyone but ourselves for our own misery. We know we're still living in
unrepentant sin. God forgive us, God forgive us.
And last of all, when we hear God's word and we
don't believe it, We will see God's miracles, but we will never
taste them for ourselves. We'll never taste them for ourselves.
Notice verse one and two of chapter seven. And so Elisha finally
lets them in. He's talking now to the captain,
he's talking to the king. Hear the word of the Lord, thus
says the Lord. Tomorrow, about this time, a
saya of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two sayas of
barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. Then the captain
on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, ha, if
the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this
thing be? And Elisha said, you shall see it with your own eyes,
but you shall not taste of it. You shall not eat of it. Let's
look at this for a moment. God looked down on Elisha under
his death threat. He saw Israel in the awfulness
of his judgment. And this captain, this captain
whom Joram sent to cut off Elisha's head. He had quoted no doubt
what Joram said, �This trouble is from the Lord,� and Elisha
never corrected that a bit. It�s true. �But waiting at the
door held fast, the captain went on to say the king�s words, �Why
should I wait any longer for the king to act? Off with your
head!� Now, I want to tell you something
that�s one of the strongest warnings I�ve ever given, but I give it
to every last one of us. Waiting for the Lord. I rebuke these words. I've heard
them year after year after year among God's people who say to
God, I've waited long enough for a job. I've waited long enough
for a husband. I've waited long enough for a
wife. I'll take matters into my own hands. I've waited long
enough for God. I'll go find myself a man. I'll
go get me a woman. I'll get a house. I'll go into
deep debt. I'll get what I want. I'll live
in poverty in a house I can't even make the payments for. I'll
do what I'm going to do because God won't come through. And I
warn you when you say you won't wait on the Lord. I warn you. It will go badly for you. It
will go badly. It will go harshly for you. Now listen to the captain when
Elisha delivers. There's an answer. There's an
answer for Samaria. I've got another miracle. Hear
the word of the Lord, thus says the Lord tomorrow about this
time. Asaiah, seven quarts of fine flour will be sold for a
silver shekel. So seven quarts of fine flour
will cost $20.70, the equivalent. Still a bit high, but when you
think about for $103.50. Sounds pretty cheap. What a dramatic shift. Two sails
of barley, that's three and a half gallons for a silver shekel,
$20.70. What a dramatic reversal would
be by tomorrow. Then the captain said what he
believed. He countered the Word of the Lord. Have you ever countered
the Word of the Lord? When God says it clearly in His
Word, or you know God's telling you something and you counter
it. He mocked Elisha. Ha! If the
Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be? Notice verse 2. You'll see it with your own eyes.
You'll see the miracle, but you won't taste any of it. We'll
find that out in the next message. Joram had come to the end of
his waiting, He had come to the end of waiting for God. Just
like Saul when he wouldn't wait for Samuel. Couldn't wait any
longer. Gotta do it. It's dangerous. It was dangerous. He had his
kingdom snatched away from him because he wouldn't wait on the
Lord. Beloved, wait on the Lord. He had come to the end of his
waiting, but God's prophet said, guess what, King Joram? You gotta
wait 24 more hours. Tomorrow about this time. the
miracle will happen. The captain that had the sword
in his hand now turned from killing Elisha and mocked him. I want
to say in closing, to the humble heart that's open to the Word,
faith is generated by the Word, but to the proud the Word makes
the heart harder. The same sun that melts ice also
hardens clay. The captain would see the miracle,
but he would never taste it. That story is ahead for us. I
wanna read in closing. The word of the Lord out of Psalms
34, eight to 10. Psalm 34, eight to 10. I have to tell you, I hope you're never one of those
like Aaron that loved to hear the truth but wouldn't receive
it. He never got to taste it. Here's
what David says. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man who takes
refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer
want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 37, 25 says, I have been
young and now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken or his seed begging bread. God has blessings for
us. His blessings come when we obey,
when we disobey and we will not repent. There is no end to how
low we can go. May this resonate in our hearts.
May it create within us a reverence for obedience to the one who
died on the cross for our sins. Let's bow our heads. As our heads
are bowed and our eyes are closed, I just ask you, Have you countered
the word of the Lord? I ask you. Have you said, I'm
tired of waiting on God. I'm not gonna wait any longer. I rebuke that in you and in me.
Whenever we say, I won't wait on God. Oh, beloved, wait on the Lord. Be of good cheer and he'll comfort
your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. If
God is speaking to your heart and you say, I know God is preventing
me from dire consequences and I simply want to raise my hand
and say, I'm turning and repenting today. I'm turning and repenting
today. I don't want to have to wait
to see it grow worse. If God's speaking to you in that
way, just raise your hand and I'll pray for you. I know. Yes. Are there others? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Are there others? Yes. Anyone else? Yes. Father, I pray for each
one of us. Let us not quit waiting on you. Thank you that your timing is
perfect. And now, maybe God is speaking to your heart. And maybe
today you say, I'm done opposing the Lord. I need him in my life. I want him in my life. He died
for me. I'm gonna receive him today. And if you will, will
you share a prayer? He'll come into your life. Maybe just raise a hand or just
look at me and say, today's my day. Today. Yes, praise God. Anyone else? Thank you, Jesus. Just say this
prayer. Dear God, I need you. Thank you for dying
for me. Please come into my life. Be
my Savior and my Lord. I receive you by faith. Thank
you for coming into my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Jesus. Pastor Larry, just close us in prayer, would you? Father, we thank you for the
Word of the God, the Word of the Lord that charges us to be
obedient to us of consequences when we are disobedient. This
is a solemn warning to all of us, Lord, to walk in the light
as you are in the light, not to resent or to resist the checkings
or the leadings of the Holy Spirit. sensitize all of us deeply as
believers that we would walk in faith and in complete obedience
to every command and teaching of the Word of God in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name.
Consequences of Disobeying God
Series Elijah and Elisha
| Sermon ID | 1021191456141236 |
| Duration | 46:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | 2 Kings 6:24 |
| Language | English |
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