Let us next turn to 2 Kings chapter 4. At this time, for sake of time, we're going to read our text for today, found in verse 38. And we'll just read from verse 38 to 41. Let us hear the word of the Lord. 2 Kings 4, verse 38. And Elisha came again to Gilgal. And there was dearth in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he said unto his servant, who sat on the great pot, and seethed pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat, and it came to pass, as they were eating the pottage, that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof. And he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. Amen. May God bless the reading of His precious and infallible Word. Dear congregation, the passage which we read from 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 38 through 41, we recognize that this is a miracle that is done by the Lord through his servant Elisha as he heals the pot or pottage. And as we think about this miracle, you might have in your mind right now What does this have to do with baptism? As we acknowledged in our forum and also answering the questions for baptism, what is baptism all about? Well, first of all, it's an acknowledgment that we are born and conceived in sin, we and our children, under the judgment of God by nature. We also recognize that we are reminded in baptism to be diligent in bringing our children to the Lord, to be able to instruct them and to guide them, especially to the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the only hope for salvation. And as we look to the Lord, that's what baptism is directing us to, to look to the Lord who provides spiritual life and purification. And so as we think about this passage, think about the points that I have developed from this passage. Our theme will be death in the pot. But our points will be, first of all, God's judgment. Secondly, man's carelessness rather than diligence. And thirdly, God's purification. Now you see how there will be many applications also for baptism in this hour. First of all then as we, this theme, death in the pot, we see God's judgment. And that begins already in verse 38 as we look at God's judgment here in Israel. Elisha came again to Gilgal and there was a dearth in the land the word dearth means there was a famine in the land and For many of us we we can't comprehend what a famine or dearth is can we? We maybe have some inclination from kovat 19 when that just started you know how when all of the toilet paper was suddenly off the shelves and there was a famine of toilet paper as it were in the supermarkets or flour or various other things. And you began to even ration these things because you didn't know when you were going to be able to buy them. So we had maybe a taste of it then. Or maybe some of our elderly people who witnessed the horrors of World War II, especially in places like Rotterdam where there was no food and there was true famine. Or today as we look at Gaza and The people living in desperate situations, there's no food, but most of us don't worry about the supermarkets being completely empty, our freezers being empty, our refrigerators being empty, our cupboards being bare, except for maybe a little bit of flour and you're down to your last meal. of pottage. This famine, we know from the Old Testament, is God's judgment. We know that because this is what God promised when Israel would turn away from Him, that they would receive God's judgment. You find that in Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, and various other places. that when they turn away from God, God promises to bring them pestilence and famine and wars and all kinds of problems as they endure the wrath of God. And here, just think of Elijah, too, as he comes to Ahab, 1 Kings chapter 17, then the rain would be shut up, the heavens would be shut up, and there would be no more rain, because they have sinned against the Lord. You think of even how back in Solomon's day, as he dedicates the temple to the Lord, he spoke of a time when the heavens would be shut up and there would be no rain when Israel turned away from the Lord. Because they have polluted the land with whoredoms and with wickedness, as we find in Jeremiah. And there the latter rain and the rain has been withheld. And certainly this was true in the days of Elisha. There's plenty of reason for God's judgment. They had turned to Baal and they had not forsaken Baal. Baal was the God who was to provide fertility and prosperity and good crops. And here they had nothing. God is sending His judgment to remind them that Baal is not a God at all. And Baal ought not to be worshipped, but the Lord Jehovah ought to be worshipped. And so in this time of God's judgment and famine in the land, what do we find Elisha doing? Certainly, he would stay by this widow in Shunem, right? Where this widow was providing him with food and a place to lay his head and a lampstand so he could study and prepare himself for a better season of ministry. Certainly, Elisha should just stay in Shunem, right? What do we find him doing? He goes to Gilgal. He immerses Himself in the famine and with those who are in need. And what is He doing? Searching for food? Trying to make an extra dollar to provide? Oh, He's instructing. He's teaching. He's teaching the prophets. What an example of faithfulness in the midst of poverty, in the midst of pestilence. He is faithful. This is a suitable place for the prophet of the Lord to go. It's where God often blesses in amazing ways. I think of this as well in time of COVID, in time of what would ministers do if, you know, this disease was so deadly that, you know, you had a chance of Significant percentage the chance of dying if you contacted it and someone who's dying of covid. Would you go visit them? And the answer in my mind was pretty clear. That's what the servants of the lord do but But here we find elisha immersing himself in a similar way in the midst of their poverty and faithfulness And the prophets are also faithful They're at his feet learning I'm sure they were also busy seeking to provide for themselves and their families in various ways. But they had time yet, and we can learn from that, they had time to sit at Elisha's feet, to be instructed, studying the Word of God. Think of Mary and Martha, how when Jesus came to their home, Mary's is sitting at the feet of Jesus learning from him and Martha's busy in the kitchen because we need to provide, we need to provide for all of these guests and we need to provide for the disciples and Jesus himself and she begins to complain about Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus doing nothing. What does Jesus say? Jesus says, Ah, Martha, Martha, Mary has chosen the better portion. She's being fed at my feet, the Word of God. And that's also in times, in all times, also for families in baptism. They'll come to difficult times, but never neglect the spiritual food that we receive from the Word of God. We can learn from these examples. Then Jesus himself, when he's tempted by Satan, Matthew chapter 4, he's 40 days without food, starving. And Satan says, just take that stone and make it into bread and you'll have nourishment. And Jesus says, no, no, Satan. Man does not live by bread alone. We do live by bread. But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It's the Word of God that has preeminence. And the worst kind of famine is not a physical, material famine. The worst famine is a spiritual famine. Isn't that what Amos says? Amos chapter 8. It's not just Amos saying it, it's actually God Himself saying it. He says in verse 11, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread or of thirst for water, but a famine of the hearing of the words of God. That is a famine. He says they'll search for it and they won't find it. That's the worst of all famines. Isn't that what we see in our day and age as well? Certainly, these prophets didn't have a spiritual famine. They were feasting at Elisha's feet. We don't have a spiritual famine today either in our circles. We're here. We can hear the word of God. We have it in our schools. We have it in our homes. We have it in our church. I don't think we are experiencing personally a spiritual famine. But if you look broader into our communities, and into the churches, and into our nation, there indeed is a spiritual famine. The spiritual famine is evident in so many churches which no longer even bring the Word of God. I think of when I was back in farming, I'd listen to some Dr. David Jeremiah. in the tractor. And he had this ministerial that he would go to and the ministers were asking him, how do you have your church parking lots full morning and evening? How do you get people to come to church twice on the Lord's Day? Do you bring in choirs? Do you bring in all kinds of events? Entertainment. What draws them to your church so you can keep them coming to your church? Give us your secret. Says, I preach the word. I said, no, what do you do to get them to come? And he says, I preach the word. And I asked him a third time, what other things do you do? He says, you don't get the point. It's the word of God. That's the spiritual food. That's what people are going to come back. The word of God. keeps us from a spiritual famine. We need to recognize that in our churches. We need to recognize that in the midst of material blessings. Certainly, many times a spiritual famine happens because of too many material blessings. I think of that even sometimes in our own lives. We get so busy trying to accumulate and we get second homes and cottages and we go on extra vacations and suddenly we can become so consumed with all the stuff that we have that it's easy to neglect the Word of God, creating a spiritual famine. What about our society that has turned its back on God, that doesn't know its right hand from the left hand even anymore? It calls evil good and good evil. Let's get rid of the law of God. Let's get rid of the Word of God. Let's suppress the Word of God so that we can live how we want in our own identity, whether it be homosexuality or transgenderism or undermining the value of life in abortion and euthanasia. When we get rid of the Word of God and have a spiritual famine, this is where we go. It's not our society also experiencing a spiritual famine. And so what should we do? We need to be diligent and faithful. But even in the faithfulness of these sons of the prophets here in Elisha's time, it can also be met with carelessness. Carelessness. And this is what happens. They're going to provide a meal. And he says, get that great pot, a big pot, for everyone. And seed this pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one of them, in his carelessness, went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered thereof wild gourds, his lap full, and came and shared them and shred them into the pot of pottage. They didn't know. what they were putting in. They were careless. They knew them not. They were careless. Now imagine, you were experiencing that famine. Empty supermarkets. Empty freezers. Empty refrigerators. Empty cupboards. And all you had was some flour or some meal. You had maybe a few vegetables and a couple of soup bones to put into this pottage. And this was going to be your last big pot of pottage as a whole family. You're gathered together. And mom says, son, go get that spice. It's in that closet over there. I've been kind of hiding it and protecting it for a special event. Get that spice and bring it and put some in the soup. And the son goes and gets it and mom is unfortunately hit it by the rat poison. And he comes, and he brings it, and he sprinkles a little in. And so old, he couldn't even see the label. And he thought, you know what? A little is good. A little more. There's quite a bit left. And he puts more in. And now you sit down to eat the soup. This is kind of what's happened here in this passage. Very careless. didn't check the labels, didn't make sure it was the right stuff, good stuff. They went and gathered herbs and they found these wild gourds and sliced them up into this pottage. And the problem is, in the midst of this difficulty, you become a little bit delusional. You become desperate. Desperate to put anything in you you recognize the famine and so you think This looks good, and I'll follow my own human wisdom, and I'll put it in and it should be good It's a reality of this desperation So this seems so readily available and and and the and these wild gourds they'll give nutrition they'll give substance to this pottage and soup and it's going to be good and And they could even justify all of their actions for doing so, because after all, we're just we're just trying to make it the best we can and and to provide for ourselves. There's this this delusion, as it were, of of appearance, it looks good, and so let's put it in. Even in the midst of this desperation, there's there's all kinds of delusion. Isn't that true also in in in our own lives? Become desperate and we have these delusions that unreal realistic thinking you think of someone who's perishing a thirst in the desert and Sees this mirage in the distance and it looks like there's water and kids pressing using all of his energy Anything that he has left in himself to go after it Only to his own ruin because he never comes to it It's a desperate delusion here It looks so good It can be justified in so many ways. And yet, we need to be warned because deluded appearances of evil are still evil. And even Satan can be transformed into an angel of light, we read in Scripture. So we need to be careful. And we need to be very careful about what we mix in with the good. We need to make sure that we don't mix anything evil in with the good. And this was that the problem here is this syncretism that comes in in so many ways and so many forms also in spiritual life, where we we add some just a taste of something evil with the good. I think that it's going to somehow still be good. I think of maybe there's a hockey game on on Sunday. You say, well, I went to church twice on Sunday. And this hockey game is on and and I and I really love this team and and now they're in the Stanley Cup And it's the finals What are you going to do? We're going to blend The things of this world With God's Word that's truth what happens if if you know you're down to your last dollar and you don't have a job and now you have a job that is comes open in your community that it's going to require you to work almost every Sunday. And it's not a work of necessity. And you say, I have to provide for my family. This is the only option I have. You say, well, it's easy. It's good appearance. It's whatever it is. Your families, as you see your children grow, and you want to provide for them some entertainment and so on, and the VeggieTales are available to watch and to teach you, show your children, and you say, there's just a little bit of negative stuff in it, and there's just a little negative stuff in it as they grow up, and they want to watch other movies and entertainment and so on, and there's only a few bad words, and there's only a few bad themes, We can, we can, we can bring that in and mix it all together and it will all turn out well. Did it turn out well here? They sit down for their meal. This pottage has wild gourds in it. These wild gourds are little lemon type of things and they were like a laxative. They'd probably even be used for laxatives at a small level. Problem was if you had too many in your pot. The laxatives are going to be so bad that it's going to kill you. This is the situation here. And they sat down to eat this potage. As they began to eat this potage, it's like it just spewed right out of their mouth. They could taste it. They knew what was happening. Their stomachs were churning. They knew they were going to die if they continued eating this potage. What do they do? Proud old man of God. You've called us to make this potage for nourishment, but there's death in the pot. We can't eat it. Have you ever given thanks to God for your taste buds? And the nauseating experience you get if you eat something that's going to kill you? This is a gift from God, but it's also a spiritual gift from God. To have spiritual taste buds, to know when evil is evil and when good is good, and to be able to taste it and to spew it out of your mouth, out of your life immediately. when it's causing problems and keeping you away from God and keeping you away from His Word, to recognize what is happening is producing death. There's death in the pot. To recognize the sinfulness of who we are and who our children is, is to have that spiritual awareness that there's death in the pot. And we confess it even in baptism. We need these spiritual taste buds. We need these spiritual taste buds as we raise our children in the fear of the Lord. We need these spiritual taste buds as we grow older in life. At all times. The problem is, so often, in a world that is Enduring spiritual famine our taste buds get desensitized again and again and again and and we don't even acknowledge or recognize Our discernment is gone And we begin to eat a little poison a little more and a little more and pretty soon it kills us Spiritually kills families spiritually God removes his covenant promises even in such situations I trust knowing many of you and the Dutch community that we have, many of you probably have the pot of stew at home right now. That's our Sunday forte, right? I'm sure you would welcome me into your home. Just to put a little bit of rat poison in. Just a little bit. Won't hurt you. And then a little bit more. And the next Sunday a little bit more. And then one day you're all bleeding to death. But what's our spiritual appetite? How does that play out in our lives? Are we more spiritually concerned with the gods of this world and people and material? Or is our spiritual appetite for God and His Word? Is there death in our pots? Is it that a blessing as we gather together today and witness baptism and be reminded of God's covenant promises and His blessings? and how he calls us in his covenant that we are obliged to new obedience, this discernment and diligence in raising our children, and to be accountable in it. Isn't it a blessing to have families, parents, grandparents, and other extended family with us together today to hold us accountable to the promises that we made and the vow we make in baptism? Isn't it a blessing to have the elders and deacons to be able to provide that oversight through through accountability to them, as they come in home visits, and so on, to keep us from being careless. We're rather diligent, discerning, having true spiritual taste buds of what we do recognize, isn't it? So often we do become careless. Things slide in. We backslide a bit. We become desensitized. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. This isn't the end of the story. What does Elisha say? Elisha says, get some meal. He casts it in. And the pot is purified. And so thirdly we see God's purification. It says in verse 41, bring meal and he cast it into the pot and he said pour out for the people that they may eat and there was no harm in the pot. This is God's amazing purification. Elisha here is a representative of God's Word. And the meal or the flower that was cast into the pot is a representation of God's Word. It's a type of God's Word that provides purification. And Jesus Himself is the Living Word, and He ultimately provides purification. Isn't it true, as we find in 1 John 1, that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin? He is the one who ultimately purifies. And He does so as we believe the promises of His Word, as we trust Him, as we repent from our sins and turn to Him the bread of life. Now, could you imagine being these prophets? Bring me that meal, that little bit that we have left, and cast it into this pot, a pottage that's poisonous. You'd say, well, that doesn't seem to make sense, Elisha. Elisha, why would we cast this into the pot? It's all that we have left, probably. And you're going to cast this good in with the bad. You remember what I said? Putting the bad in with the good is never good. But when you put the good in with the bad, in God's equation, with God's blessing, It becomes good. This is exactly what happens here. This pot of stew. It's God's remedy. This flower didn't have any power. It was God's power. And when the directions of His Word were obeyed, He adds His blessing. They quickly bring it to Elisha, and he casts it into the pot, and the pot is healed. It's decontaminated. They're able to eat it. It's supporting for life. Why did he use flour? Why didn't Elijah just pray over this pot of stew? Why didn't he just say a few words and bless it and certainly then it would have been healed and God could have done it that way. There's no doubt about it. Why does he use flour? I believe he uses flour It's like Jesus, many times in his miracles, used things, like he would use mud and spit to heal somebody's eyesight. And there's no power in that, but Jesus had the power to heal them. Just also here with the flower, or I preached a sermon here not so long ago on Jericho and how they cast the salt in the water, and the salt didn't have any power, but it was God who had the power to purify the waters in Jericho. So also here this flower is just a type. It's just pointing us to God's power. You get where I'm going with this? What did we witness today? We witnessed baptism. We witnessed water. Water doesn't wash us from any of our sins. It doesn't have any power. There's no magical power here at the baptismal font. Water has no power. But to what it points to has power. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from all sin, that has a power. And when we repent and we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done, and His blood, then we have life. That's what it's pointing to. Can you imagine some years later, the sons of the prophets, sitting with Elisha. You remember that time when we were down to our last pot of stew? And Johnny over there brought these wild herbs back and these gourds and just about killed us all. And how the flower was cast into the pot and it was healed. God did a miracle in front of us. It would recall all of these memories. And that's what the flower was for, to cause them to be reminded and to remember. Isn't that what Jesus does not only in baptism, but in the sacrament to the Lord's Supper? He sets before us bread and wine, broken bread and poured out wine. Not that there's any spiritual nourishment in itself in that bread and wine, but by faith, when we see the broken body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, then we are strengthened in our faith. This is the purpose. And what it points us all to is that there's a great deliverance from sin. There's a great deliverance from the curse of sin. Famine was a curse of sin. The wild gourds themselves were a curse of sin. The day you eat of that tree, there will be death. And God's promise was that they would have to toil Man would have to toil. There would be weeds and thistles and wild gourds and there would be things that would poison you. Wild gourds themselves were an effect of sin, God's judgment, God's curse. And yet, here he shows there's a deliverance from the curse. And he gives us his direction in his word that when you repent and believe that you can be delivered from this curse. How many of you knowing that that pot was absolutely poisonous. There was death in the pot. And now just because Elisha cast a little bit of meal into it, now it was purified, and now you could eat it and there would be no harm? How many of you would have eaten that stew? Would have you believed? Would have you been skeptical? Isn't that maybe the problem for some of us? That we are a little bit skeptical that this death in the pot, cured by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, is just too good to be true, and I can't believe it. I can't trust it. I can't eat of it. But these sons of the prophets ate of it, and there was no harm in the pot. And because they repented, they cried out, oh, there's death in the pot! And they believed that that flower would provide the purification that was needed. Isn't that also to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ? The One who is the ultimate type of this flower or meal. He's the ultimate type. Where He Himself became the curse for us. He became the curse. He became a man under the curse. Who received exactly what we deserve. As He humbled Himself in obedience even to the death of the cross. Forsaken of God. to suffer and to die at the hands of men. And this is God's remedy for the curse of sin. And He calls unto us, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call. That's what we witness at baptism. That promise. is to you and to your children. And we're called to believe it. Like that Shunammite woman. It is well. It is well. Even though sometimes we don't see it's well. And we go back to the Lord and plead with Him. Cry out, don't deceive us. Be faithful to thy covenant's mercies. And we might know For us and our children, it is well. In this life, but also in eternal life. There was death in the pot, and now there's no harm. It's because of God's miraculous grace. A beautiful picture of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where do you stand with him? Today, as a visiting pastor, I've prepared a pottestew. Pastors are also careless at times. We're not infallible. Neither were these sons of the prophets. I prayed, Lord, purify this message. I believe he takes his word, which you have heard today, in this pot of stew. And he takes that, and he blesses it. How will you respond? Will you partake of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of God, believing his promises? and finding nourishment and strength in Him, because in Him there is no death in the pot. You can look everywhere else and you can mix the bad with the good, and it will lead to further death. But when you mix the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, He cleanses us from all sin. find your life in him. Amen. Let's pray. to trust Him as our only source of purification, that we may stand before Thee without spot or wrinkle, that we and our children would stand in the finished work, in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord, be gracious unto these parents, the Van Legen and Overbeek family, and all those who have gathered together with us Grant unto us, O Lord, true discernment, that we would not be careless as to how we handle thy word, but that we would trust it and believe it and live from it, knowing we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from thy mouth. Lord, be pleased to give us a spiritual hunger. Don't allow us to go into spiritual famine. Grant unto us spiritual taste buds, a spiritual palate to desire Thy Word and to taste Thy Word and Thy goodness and Thy mercy and Thy grace in Jesus Christ, but also to spew out those things that are contrary to it. Oh, be pleased, O Lord, to grant Thy purification in our lives. Sanctify us and our children and our families. to the honor and glory of thy name. And go with us now as we go to our homes, forgiving us of our sins and keeping us from sin. We pray it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.