A Message from the LORD

Today's scripture reading is second Kings chapter 1 After the death of Ahab more ever belled against Israel now I has I have fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and lay sick So he sent messengers telling them go inquire of B. L's above the God of Ecuador Whether I shall recover from this sickness But the angel the Lord said to Elijah the Tishpite arise go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of B. L's above the God of Ecuador? Now therefore that says the Lord you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up But you shall surely die. So Elijah went The messengers returned to the king and he said to them why have you returned and they said to him There came a man to meet us and said to us go back to the king who sent you and say to him that says the Lord Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of B. L's above the God of Ecuador? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die He said to them what kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things They answered him he wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather about his waist and he said it is Elijah the Tishpite Then the king sent him to a captain of 50 men with his 50 He went up to Elijah who was sitting on the top of the hill and said to him oh, man of God the king says come down But Elijah answered the captain of 50 if I am a man of God let fire come down from heaven and consume you And you're 50 then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50 Again the king sent to him another captain of 50 men with his 50 and he answered to him oh, man of God This is the king's order come down quickly But Elijah answered them if I am a man of God let fire come down from the heaven and consume you and your 50 Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50 Again the king sent the captain of a third 50 with his 50 and the third captain of 50 went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and Intreated him oh, man of God. Please let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight Behold fire came down from heaven and consume the two former captains of 50 men with their 50s But now let my life be precious in your sight Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah go down with him do not be afraid of him So he arose and went down with him to the king and said to him that says the Lord because you have said messenger to inquire Beels above the God of Echron is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up But you shall surely die So he died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken Jehovah became king in his place in the second year of Jehovah the son of Jehovah the fat king of Judah because I have had no son Now the rest of the acts of I have died that he did are they're not written in the book of the Chronicles of the king of Israel May the Lord add a blessing to the reading in the hearing of his words And there are myriad of ways you can receive messages these days There are text messages email messages direct messages voicemail messages video messages and so on and so forth Getting messages to each other in our day and time is not hard But getting people to respond to messages is a different story With our advancement in technology Regarding how we stand and receive messages and the plethora of messages that we receive It has become the increasing norm that many messages go unanswered or rejected or even ignored I won't I won't embarrass anyone by asking you how many unread emails you have in your inbox sadly Sadly this has bled over into the messages we receive from the Lord People assume That when the Lord speaks that when God speaks they have the option to ignore it to reject it to to let it go unanswered That however is not the case God's messages are meant to be responded to his his word when it goes forth it demands a response Our text this morning is about a message It's about God's message God's message delivered to the king of Israel and his response to That message that's what our text is concerned with but first a little bit a background Two kings second kings in many respects begins with where we left off last week with the death of a half remember that's how we ended the sermon last week a half judgment had come to a half's house And he was put to death and like we mentioned Last week the nation was in disrepair Living contrary to the commands of God under the The reign of a half Israel continued to break Covenant with Yahweh by following after other gods and this rebellion began Long long before a half took office it took took took the reign took the throne It began with Jeroboam the the first king of Israel when the kingdom split into the northern and the southern kingdom and We read that we know that in first king 16 verse 25 to 26 Amri who was the father of a have did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did more evil than all who were before him For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of nabat And in the sins that he made Israel to sin provoking the Lord the God of Israel to anger by their idols sadly It's the crime Had been going on for some time in the nation They they were not following after the commands that the Lord had set forth for them But as we know a have took it to another level then it is Remember it was said of him that he did more evil in the sight of the Lord than anyone than any king than any king that had come before him these wicked kings Had led God's people into a dark abyss But at the beginning of second kings we are Reminded that a have is now a dead Which is interesting transition and leadership often brings hope for new beginnings Hope for a better day perhaps perhaps The death of a have would mean that they kingly office would now turn back to the Lord where at once was doing evil perhaps now It would do good. What would the question is would the wickedness and rebellion come to an end now that a have Dead what we will see Is that unfortunately that is not the case at all We will see that a have legacy and influence will continue to march on through the rain of his son It's been said before in parent child relationships that sometimes the apple doesn't fall far from the tree Why does the adage that children often follow in the footsteps of Their parents and in some cases That is a good thing some of you are teachers today because your parents were teachers So in some cases this idea of the apple falling far not falling far from the tree is a Good thing, but in this case it was not good a Hiziya Who is mentioned in the first verse of our text who is now the king of Israel is the son of a have And we learn a little bit about his reign a little bit about him in first Kings 22 51 through 53. This is the end of first Kings It says a Hiziya the son of a had began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the 17th year of Jehosa fat king of Judah and He rained two years over Israel short time just two years But in those two years he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and Walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nabat Who made Israel to stand he served bail and worshiped him and provoked the Lord the God of Israel to anger in every way that his father had done a Hiziya Was following in the evil footsteps of his parents now This is not the point of the passage It's an aside, but I think this is a helpful aside and should be a sobering reminder to us It also it also I believe Gives us once again insight into the state of the nation of of what was actually happening and going on in Israel at the time Hiziya following in the wicked wicked footsteps of a had and Jezebel his parents should remind parents That your children are always watching They are listening They are following If If you are doing wrong Don't expect your children to do right

Do as I say And not as I do Doesn't work They are they are watching They are following after your Example listen you can't expect them to make church and the things of God a priority if you yourself are not making these things a priority in your life Now now hear me now hear me They May do right Even when you are doing wrong The Lord is able to make up for our mistakes and our shortcomings I'm sure you know it and you've met people like this maybe this is you Where you today are saved, but your parents are not Right Salvation as possible because salvation is according to the prerogative of God not according to whether or not parents are good or Or they're good or bad behavior And therefore the opposite is true as well You may do right And they still do wrong Right Yes, both those scenarios are possible But please don't think your faithfulness or lack thereof Has no significance in the lives of your children The example you set before them Matters it matters What does Paul tell Timothy and second Timothy one and five hey Timothy I'm reminded of your sincere face a face that dwelt first in your grandmother lowest and your mother Eunice and now I am sure dwells in you as well here here is Timothy Influence by the example set by his grandmother and his mother We'll think about the example of Abraham and Sarah the example they set for Isaac faithfulness You can and will have Influence for good or evil upon your children And Yahweh commanded Israel you do understand to Influence them for good to teach their children to follow after them And this this is again how we get now a glimpse into the state of the nation The the people were not following after the commands of the Lord and what he was what they were supposed to do Remember in Deuteronomy 6 and 7 The Lord says that he says that he is the Lord One that there's one God in Israel the Lord your God is one And he says you shall teach them diligently to your children And and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way And when you lie down and when you rise up that that this was it the instruction of the of the of the of the parents of Of God to the parents and how they would have teach their children the expectation Was that they would have teach their children the faith And to set an example for them in word and indeed they would have fear the Lord and serve him only But they failed to do so and if they failed to do so there would be consequences for their lack of faithfulness We read those consequences just a little later in Deuteronomy 6 verse 13 and 15 It is the Lord your God you shall fear Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear You shall not go after other gods the gods of the people who are around you for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God Less the anger of your Lord of the Lord your God be kindled against you and he destroy you from off the faith of the earth This was the fundamental issue with Omri Ahab and now Ahaziah They followed after other gods and in doing so the anger of the Lord was kindled against them It was kindled against Omri it was kindled against Ahab and now we're going to see that that that Ahaziah's house is going to be judged is going to be condemned For the same covenant disobedience judgment justice Punishment was coming now to the house of Ahaziah Ahab is dead His son Ahaziah is on the throne Following in the footsteps of his wicked parents And judgment is coming to his house That's the background of our text Now this is a narrative second king chapter one is a narrative There's a story and so we will look at it as such and and break down the story into episodes So we labeled at I've labeled episode one the accident The accident We are not given details surrounding this accident but the text tells us that Ahaziah was I guess chilling in his chambers Perhaps one morning or one evening and and he leaned up against some lattice and fell through the lattice work That was in his chamber and he injured himself Quite severely with this fall and he is now in his bed on Seeming like on his deathbed wondering whether or not he is going to live or he is going to die And so he's got a question he wants to know if he's going to live or is he going to die So he summons some messengers his messengers and he says Hey go Inquire of the pagan god bell Zibab of Ekran to see if I am going to live or if I am going to die He sends them to go in choir of this pagan god and in fact Ekran was territory that belonged to the Philistine He says go to the Philistine gods and inquire of them If I am going to live or die Based upon this injury. I am suffering from That's episode one Episode two episodes are not that short the other episodes are a little longer right so we're in episode two episode two the messenger and the message While these messengers the text tells us are on the way to to inquire of bell Zibab We are told that the angel of the Lord tells Elijah to interrupt this mission I've got a message for aheziah We learned that message in second kings one three through four But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite Arise go up meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them It is because there is no god in Israel that you are going to inquire of bell Zibab the god of Ekran Now therefore thus says the Lord you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up But you shall surely die So Elijah went Yahweh had been provoked to anger by the actions of aheziah Here is his actions here is the king of Israel seeking wisdom and inquiring about the future Not from the true and living god But from his pagan figment of his imagination This is a complete this is complete and utter rebellion We we might in our day equate this with reading the horoscopes Or getting terror cards out to get insight for into the future in terms of what's coming next This is like calling the psychic hotline to find out what is going to happen Then growing up it was it was miss Cleo that people would call right you remember that you some of you old enough to remember miss Cleo who would come on and tell you what was going to happen in the future Ah, this this type of behavior Was strictly forbidden of god's people not simply because it was a fool Aaron But be more importantly because the secret things belong to the lord They belong to Yahweh alone Only he knows whatever is to come to pass but oh We shouldn't be too quick to judge should we This is a real temptation for many of us I agree with a commentator I read this week when he said that To Austin when presented with a difficult situation We find ourselves consulting everyone and everything Rather than first consulting with the lord

We don't we don't feel well And our first step is to go to when web md To see if we are going to live or going to die Tell the truth tell the truth Some of you are saw our feet a bump on your skin and you thought oh, I've got mucky pox right come on

We want to we want to know the future We want to know what is going to happen Rather than taking it to the lord and trusting his purposes and plans We go searching for answers in other places to questions only the lord can answer

And as I had a need And instead of going to the lord He sought to take his need to bail

And so the lord is going to call as I out on this He's going to call him out on it and then it's going to demonstrate once again That there is only one god who is sovereign overall and there is only one god who controls life and death That is the message Elijah is told to give to a jaziah's messages messengers He he says tell a jaziah his actions have proven his rebellious heart and foolishness And he is going to receive a just punishment for his sin In a real sense a jaziah was going to be punished for acting like a fool He was acting like a fool The bible says that in Psalm 14 and 1 The fool says in his heart there is no god They are corrupt. They do a bonnable deed This was a jaziah He was going to a pagan god because he thought there was no god in Israel That is the sarcastic question he receives from the lord When when when he says is it because there is no god in Israel that you are going to inquire of bell Z-bub the god of echron Is that what you really believe a jaziah? Do you really believe that there is no god in Israel that you have to go to the to the god of the Philistines to inquire A jaziah was living his life like a fool

But god was now sending him a message That there was indeed a god in Israel and he was about to take a jaziah's very life from him A jaziah you will surely die that's the message You're going to die episode three The message delivered and rejected The messengers take the message back to a jaziah Who almost immediately knows who the message is from they they come back to him and they come back quickly And he's surprised that they're back so soon and they tell them that they were on their way And a man interrupted them the mission and has a gave them a message to give back to a jaziah He asked about this man and he no doubt knew exactly who it was For he had heard I'm sure the stories from his parents about this strange looking and strangely dressed prophet name Elijah Now but the message is clear they they deliver it correctly They say you provoked the Lord to anger and therefore you will not recover from this injury you are going to die Now this is not uh and eat this is not easy news to receive but but the interesting thing is It is the surest answer He would have Received The news he would have received from quote unquote bell zebra would be at best a guest That is a guest that his messengers made up But Yahweh intervenes and gives him a clear answer The one who holds the future in his hand Told a jaziah the future You're going to die How would how do you respond to news That you're going to die How would you respond? Well, we know how Has a chia reacted to such means He became ill We learned this in 2nd Kings 20 unto the point of death And the prophet Isaiah comes to has a chia And told him uh look the Lord says get your house in order Because I'm taking I'm taking your life You're you're going to die And so we read in 2nd Kings 20 and 3 Has a chia's response now oh Lord Please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight And has a chia wet bitterly Be pleaded with the Lord for mercy He cried out to the Lord for his help In 2nd Kings 25 we see how the Lord responds He tells Isaiah to turn back and say to has a chia The leader of my people thus says the Lord the god of David your father I have heard your prayer I have seen your tears Behold I will heal you On the third day You shall go up to the house of the Lord Has a chia pleaded for mercy when he got this news when he got this message from the Lord that he was about to die He he pleaded for mercy and and guess what the Lord was pleased to grant it He was pleased to grant this mercy

What was a haziah's response to the news of his death It produced anger and a heartening of his heart The news that he was not going to recover from the injury a haziah sent a captain and 50 of his men to go after Elijah and have him brought to him Now we don't know What a haziah plan to do with Elijah once he came to him But I can assure you a haziah did not have good intentions The hardness we see of a haziah's heart here Rather than seeing his foolishness and and his wickedness and the errors of his ways and turning and repenting At the news of his impending death his heart grew more and more and more Calus What is the response what is your response When you are confronted with a message from the Lord Or better yet How do you respond when confronted with the word of God the preached word When you're reading your Bible and come across something that challenges the way you are living You express a heart A repentance or do you heart in your heart even more like we see a haziah doing here God forbid You don't do what a haziah did and attack the messenger A haziah thought His issue was with Elijah Nope it was with God No brothers and sisters your issue is not with the preacher It is not with the evangelists Your parents and your friends are not the issue your issue is with the Lord He is the one who has been offended and sinned again It is his message that you are ultimately rejecting when the message of the Lord comes to you That is what Jesus told the 72 As he sent them house to house for claiming the message of repentance and the kingdom in Luke 10 16 what does Jesus tell his disciples that the one who hears you hears me and the one who rejects you reject me And the one who rejects me Rejects him who sent me Oh by insistence The messenger brings a message that is in accordance With the word of God if it's in accordance with the word of God I'm not talking about that person that comes to you on the street and tells you hey I've got a word from God for you. No, no, no, no, no that that person. It's got to be in accordance with the word of God then don't reject it Hear it Receive it don't get angry with the messenger go to the Lord He invites you to come and to hear and to receive this message as Isaiah one says Isaiah one and eighteen come now Come now let us reason together says the Lord Though your sins are like scarlet. They shall be white as snow. Though they are red light crimson They shall become like well when the Lord confronts you over your sin. He is welcoming you to come To come and to reason with him and to receive mercy Oh when the Lord brings a heart Messed a message of conviction. No, he is always willing to attend to our repentant and a humble heart That's the Lord That's the Lord Dames for in success But he gives grace More grace Therefore it says God opposes the proud But gives grace. He gives grace to the humble But if you insist you insist on hardening your heart And rejecting his message The Lord will show forth his power And his authority And that is what he does episode four Fire from heaven And his eye Thought bell Zibab had the power But God was going to show him just like he showed his father on Mount Carmo Who the real power Belong to you Aheziah Captain and 50 men Find Elijah up on a hill And they order him when they when they come to him when they find him they order him to come at Down at the request request of the king and to go with them Here is here is Elijah's response Second Kings 1 to verse 10 But Elijah answered the captain of 50 If I am a man of God Let fire come down from a heaven and consume you and your 50 Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50 He called down from a heaven and consume them Just like the fire he called down on Mount Carmo that that consumed the water so sacrifice The same fire that Elijah called down Was Elijah being rash here? Why no discussion? Why this response Well, remember bell worshippers believed bell to be the god of fire and rain But but once again god there was prophet was was proving otherwise This was a judgment upon Israel and aheziah for their idolatry and their wickedness god was completely just in doing this The nation was following after idols Strictly forbidden They were breaking god's law They deserved his wrath But perhaps even more The reason the lord brought fire upon aheziahs men Is that perhaps maybe this act Would produce repentance at aheziah

That's what it did out on Mount Carmo It produced repentance in the people of god you remember what happened that when when Elijah called down fire and and it and it lit up all the water there that was around the trenches and the sacrifice What did the people declare Oh the lord the lordy he is god they chose Yahweh that day it produced within them repentance Maybe this would happen with aheziah Maybe it would produce repentance in him but it didn't It didn't all the chances That aheziah had to repent He had plenty The clear message and word from the lord came to him you are going to die But that didn't do it That didn't cause him to repent So god showed forth his power with fire not once But but twice we see that in the text happened twice aheziahs i sent another captain and another 50 men And they succumbed to the same fate fire from heaven rain down on them

But that didn't cause him to repent either He continued Hardening his heart rejecting this message And the four sent another 50

He sent another Because he believed that there was no god In Israel But this time someone was paying attention Sadly it was not aheziah But the third captain Whom he sent with men He was paying attention He saw what happened To the other two contingencies That aheziah sent And he was the trace that man listened We saw what happened To the last two groups We are not letting that happen to us He approached Elijah Completely different Approached Elijah With a reverence And acknowledgement That he believed he was the messenger of the true and living god Second kings one and thirteenth again the king sent the captain of A third 50 with his 50 And the third captain of 50 went up and came And fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him Oh man of god please please Let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours Be precious in your sight That was That was his approach When he came up to Elijah And this response Was met with mercy and kindness It was a humble approach And what did we say God gives grace To the humble His life was spared Not not according to Elijah This was an Elijah's determination It was spared According to Yahweh Oh the Lord total Elijah Okay You can go now Go down with him Do not be afraid of him The Lord is the author of life and death No one else As Jesus says in Matthew 10 and 28 Do not fear those who kill the body But cannot kill the soul Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body In hell Episode 5 Elijah meets Eheziah The captain And Elijah knew who to fear Sadly Eheziah didn't Elijah goes before the king And the message is the same It doesn't change It's the same He tells Eheziah You are wicked You have provoked the Lord to anger You will surely die Listen brothers and sisters When the Lord sends a message He is not telling lies His word does not return void It accomplishes what is sent to accomplish Eheziah did not repent And therefore we read in 2 Kings 1 in 17 So he died According to the word of the Lord That Elijah had spoken Eheziah He heard a message from the Lord He thought he could ignore Or even worse Do away with But God's message was delivered And his word was brought to pass Brothers and sisters Jesus came to earth bearing a message A message And that message still remains clear today Repent And believe in Jesus For the salvation of your soul That's the only message Repent and believe in Jesus For the salvation of your soul And if you do If you do that You will not die But you shall live

Should you reject that message You You will surely die That's the message That's the message that's been delivered That's the message that can't be ignored That's the message that must be received You must repent and believe in Jesus Oh you will either die yet live in Christ You will reject that message And die That is the future of everyone born into this world Eternal life Or death and hell So what say you to this message You can't ignore it And I plead with you Do not reject it this morning Don't reject this message Humble your heart And receive the grace of God Today I'm just I'm just the messenger The message is from the Lord Don't reject it