God’s Gracious and Severe Deliverance: 2 Kings #10
This is an exposition of 2 Kings 6:24-7:20. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, August 14, 2016.
Intro:
I’m confident I’m on solid ground when I say that we all agree that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone because of Christ alone. We know that we are dead in trespass and sin and we are incapable of saving ourselves. Our condition as fallen sons and daughters of Adam is that of “total” or “radical” depravity. We are sinful to the core of our being. Sin affects our thinking, our actions, our emotions and our wills. Every aspect of our being is marred by sin. Thus whatever we do attempting to deliver ourselves is tainted by sin and therefore ineffectual. It is not that we are drowning and in need of a life preserver to keep our heads above water, we are dead on the bottom of the pool and our only hope is that another dives in, drags us out and breathes life into. That’s the biblical doctrine and if we are asked to define what salvation is we might give such a description but I’m not sure that we think that way on a daily basis. I’m not so sure that we understand that outside of Christ – that’s how desperate we really are. I’m not sure we are completely convinced that we are absolutely helpless and hopeless. Yet the Scripture is clear in both the Old and New Testaments that salvation is all of grace. God delivers his people because He is gracious. This is powerfully displayed in our text this evening found in the 6th and 7th chapters of 2 Kings.
Text: 2 Kings 6:24-7:20
In 2 Kings 5 we saw the power of God extended to a great man who had a great need. Naaman the commander of the Syrian army was sured of leprosy. At the beginning of 2 Kings 6 we saw the power of God extended to help a simple man with a simple need. An un-named student in Elisha’s seminary lost the axehead off his borrowed axe. God worked a miracle to restored the axehead. Then we were made aware of God’s preserving, protecting and perplexing grace with the story of the Syrian army surrounding Elisha’s house and Elisha’s prayer that his servant might see God’s protection all around. Then the power of God to deliver the army into the hands of Israel without any bloodshed, only to feed them and send them home! Some time has passed by the time we reach our text.
And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel. Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria…
Wait a minute. “The Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel. Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria? Oh, I see no more raids just total annihilation. God’s grace to the Syrians only brought a temporary relief. Now it was back to business as usual. Some time passed between 6:23 and 6:24.
Our text tells of the siege of Samaria and God’s dramatic deliverance of his people.
[Read the text]
As we work our way through this text I want to point out 4 principles for us to consider.
- God is gracious to his people even in the midst of judgment. (6:24-33)
- God’s promise often seems impossible. (7:1-2)
- The ways of God are astounding. (7:3-11, 12-15)
- The consequence of unbelief is tragic. (7:16-20)
Conclusion:
The captain’s unbelief did not nullify God’s promise but his unbelief assured he would not benefit from God’s promise. It is dangerous and foolish to think that God is not angered by unbelief.
As we look back over this passage we are reminded that…
God is gracious to His people even in the midst of judgment.
God’s promise often seems impossible.
The ways of God are astounding.
The consequence of unbelief is tragic.
This all serves to teach us that…
Thesis: While God is gracious beyond belief to His people, to refuse to believe proves disastrous.