Today's scripture reading is second king, chapter two, verses 19 through 25. Now the men of the city said to Elisha, behold, the situation of the city is pleasant as my Lord sees, but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful. He said, bring me a new bowl and put salt in it, so they brought it to him, then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, thus says the Lord, I have healed this water from now on, neither death nor miscarried shall come from it. So the water has been healed to this day, according to the words that Elisha spoke. He went out from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him saying, go up you ballhead, go up you ballhead, and he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she bears came out of the wood and tore 42 of the boys. And there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria, made the Lord out of blessing to the reading and the hearing of his words. Well the question I have for you this morning, I think is an interesting one, and no doubt it is provocative, the question is, do you believe in cursing? Do you believe in cursing? Now if I was to put that question to most of us this morning in a calm and intimate quiet setting, just the two of us, and we've had time to discuss it, and the intellectual side of yourself would take over, no doubt, most of us would say no, and for good reasons, beloved, because the idea of cursing for most of us probably seems primitive to our modern ears, and are evolved in light in mind. That's the kind of stuff that belongs to ancient religious cults and beliefs. Stuff of yesterday like the Salem witch trial, or Brutum down, or the tomb of King Tut, Black Cat, and Babe Ruth. In fact, there I say that when it comes to cursing, what most of us know, probably we've probably gotten from some old wives tale, or a movie, like Amity Villohora, or Pet Cemetery, or my wife's favorite, The Conjury, don't ask me why, or sometimes beloved, we wrongly associate, we wrongly associate habitual sins, like alcoholism, or pornography, or greed, or gluttony. We wrongfully associate these kind of habitual sins with curses, passed down from generation to generation, and so we call them generational curses. But I want to suggest to you this one, and that type of wrong-headed thinking is what led many to believe, that black men and black women in America were cursed in the cursing of ham, and thus justifying their enslavement in the minds of many white, so-called Christians. But the reality is that nothing could have been further from biblical truth. And I'll beloved, listen, okay, curses in the Bible are real, but they have nothing to do with superstition. They have nothing to do with black cats, or cemeteries, or weegee boards, they have nothing to do with childhood games, and bloody Mary, and candy men. Curses in the Bible are about redemption, and you hear what I said, curses in the Bible are about redemption. In fact, what I want us to understand this morning is that curses play an essential role in the Bible and the redemption of God's people. Don't look at me like that. That's a fit of fit of fit of fit of fit, what is he talking about? Beloved the Bible is a story of redemption, that's what it is. And you've got to understand that redemption is about blessing in curse, blessing in curse. What does it mean to be cursed? It means to fall out of favor with God, and to no longer be the recipient of his pledge of, not black cats, and boo-doo dogs, it's falling out of favor with God, and no longer be the recipient of his pledge of, when we see this illustrated with Jesus. In Mark chapter 11, when he comes across the victory, why does Jesus curse the victory? He curses the victory because he was not pleased that the church, that the tree had no fruit at a time with the tree should have had fruit. Verse 11 of Mark, verse 14 of Mark 11, the Bible says, and he said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again, the tree had fallen out of favor with Jesus, and would no longer be the recipient of his pledge of, but it's not just trees, we need to consider where it all begins, in the Garden of Eden. When God created Adam and Eve, the Bible says that he created him blessed. He created him good. They were blessed, and not only were they blessed, but God blessed all creation and spoke a word of blessing, declaring all things good, and Eve were blessed. They were in the favor of God. They were the recipients of his pleasure, and then they sinned. And when God came to get a curse, you get a curse, you get a curse, everybody gets a curse, everything. When Adam and Eve sinned, they first took the blessing, and they brought about the curse of death, and guess what, beloved? Everyone got it, they brought the curse of sickness, and everyone got it. They brought the curse of shame, and everyone got it. But do you know what the story and the glory of the Bible is this morning, beloved? The story and the glory of the Bible is God's redeeming all creation from the about difficulty and death. The second Adam Jesus brought life, the curse, this is the message of the Bible, it's what the Bible is explaining. This is what the Bible is revealing from beginning to end, it is God the curse, that's the point, and you read, that's what it's about, preincited in the Bible, it's illustrating how God is reversing the curse, how does the curse get reversed? The curse gets reversed through Jesus, and not just through Jesus, but through Jesus only, and this is why the Bible insists upon the uniqueness and the exclusivity of Jesus, because beloved, the curse of sin is only broken by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. There is no other way. This is why Jesus is so central, because without him, the curse still reigns, and you understand this. When you understand this, you see the Bible, it's filled with incidents and examples. You see calling and pointing to God reversing the curse, you understand that, and the revelation of God opens up, that's what's happening, yes, the curse is being reversed, our text is just another example, it's what our text is, reversing the curse of baldness, some of you brothers out, hope this morning, I'll be bald for all eternity, amen. Our text, the second king chapter 2, we witness, we witness the rise and the expansion of the prophet, Elijah, Elijah was gone from the scene, taken by God, and in his place, Elijah has been ordained, ordained as the prophet of God, ordained now as the people's prophet. As we were reminded by Pastor Phil last time, this idea of Elijah, replacing Elijah had now been accepted, it has become accepted that Elijah had received the mantle of prophetic ministry from Elijah, in fact, the Bible tells us that the men of Jericho went out searching for Elijah, Elijah God, Elijah said, don't go looking for him, and he said no, we want to go look for Elijah, and the Bible says that the men of Jericho searched for Elijah for three days, and they couldn't find him, and at that point it became clear, Elijah was now the man, Elijah was now the man, and being the man, and being the prophet of God, now when the people had a problem, they came to Elijah, they brought the problem to Elijah, and they had a problem, beloved, they had a water problem, like me, they had a water problem, the Bible says the second king, chapter 2 and verse 19, and the people of the city, this is Jericho, said to Elijah, look, our Lord, this town is well situated, and as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive, the water is bad, and the land is unproductive, Jericho looks good, Jericho is in a good place, Jericho is sunny, Jericho is pleasant, but Jericho is cursed, Jericho has a water problem, but it was not just the water problem, in reality Jericho was cursed, Jericho had a serious problem, beloved, the water was contaminated, and not only was the water contaminated, but apparently the water was even deadly, and yet we need to understand that the water problem was just a visible aspect of the problem, the real problem in Jericho is that Jericho represented the curse, the curse of sin, the curse of death, the falling out of favor with God, Jericho had fallen out of God's flesh, you might recall in Joshua, chapter 6, when Joshua leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land, and they come to Jericho, and God commends them to take Jericho, and everything in Jericho is to be devoted to the Lord, is to be destroyed for the Lord's sake and glory, and in chapter 6, in verse 26 of Joshua, the Bible says that at that time, Joshua invoked this curse, this is on Jericho, may the curse of the Lord fall on anyone who tries to rebuild the town of Jericho, at the cost of his first son, he will lay its foundation, at the cost of his youngest son, he will set up its gate, never since that time, beloved, Jericho had been cursed, and Jericho remained unbuilt until the time of Ahad, in particular, Ahad built it, Hael, and once Jericho was rebuilt, the Bible says that curse was for him, first king, chapter 16, the verse 34, in Ahad's time, Hael Bethel rebuilt Jericho, he laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn, Abraham, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Sega, in accordance with the word of the Lord, spoken by Joshua, son of nine. Now listen, Jericho was a night city, the Bible says it was pleasantly situated, it was a pleasant city, Jericho looked good, but like most of us, looks are deceiving,
South Sin is in the world, Sin is often dressed up in this one, most of us cover the sinfulness of Ahad's with smiles, nice hairdo, fine clothes, but underneath the curse is still there, Jericho was pleasant, but curse, like Sin, the water was deadly, it caused harm, deadly harm to the land, and to the people. Literally the word means miscarriage, the land was miscarrying, the land was unfruitful, the wounds in the land were damaged because of the water, it was bad for others, it was bad, but that's what Sin is, that's what Sin is, that's what Sin does, Sin contaminates, that's what Sin does, that's what the curse does, it turns upside down, it makes good bad and bad good, water is supposed to be good, means right, water is good, water is supposed to be a source of life, water is supposed to be a source of renewal, water is a source of restoration, what does the curse do, which is supposed to be good and makes it bad, takes that which is supposed to bring life, and now it brings death, that of life and renewal and restoration, now this water was the source of death and disease and destruction, and guess what, the men and the people of Jericho knew that something was wrong, knew that this isn't right, water shouldn't be this way, this is not how life should be, because we're not supposed to disobey it better, how it's supposed to be, something is wrong, something is not right with the world, and you know what, people know it, something isn't right, but what our world is filled with people, frustrated, and they protest, they protest, they get to the streets, and they get to the signs, and they protest, they protest war, they protest climate change, they protest hunger, they protest abuse, they protest poverty, etc., etc., etc., people protest what they think is wrong, you know what they are doing, they are assuming that there is a such thing as rights, and supposed to be contaminated, maybe that's the way it's supposed to be, Phil, isn't right, and whether they realize that or not, then they are assuming that there is a God who can make this, you know what they really want, you know what they really want, what they really want, it's for the curse to be reversed, something isn't right, I don't know what it is, but something isn't right, what I'll tell you what it is, you want the curse reversed, you want the curse of sickness and disease reversed, you want the curse of racism and injustice reversed, you want the curse of loneliness and pain reversed, but I am here to tell you this morning that the ultimate cure for these things is not picketing in the street, it is not electing the right politician, it is Jesus, that is the only way to love it, the curse gets reversed, the only way, so they come to Elijah, somebody write Elijah, the water is bad, it's not the water boy, it's the curse, it's the curse, it's the curse, you know what I'm going to do, notice that the Bible says that Elijah healed the water, he healed the water, why? because the love is, this is what God does, this is what Jesus came to do, Jesus came to heal, Jesus came to reverse the curse, in fact this is what miracles are, this is what miracles are, when you read about miracles in the Bible, this is all the miracles are doing, the miracles are demonstrating the reversing of the curse, when Jesus turns the water in the wine, he is illustrating how the curse is going to be reversed, when he casts out demons, he is illustrating how the curse is going to be reversed, when he reads Lazarus from the dead, he is illustrating how the curse is going to be reversed, when he healed that's what miracles are, miracles are the supernatural kingdom of God breaking forth versus going to be reversed, this is the point, this is the point of the cross of Jesus, what happened on the cross? the Bible tells you, in Galatians chapter 3, in verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, Christ became a curse for us, Christ became a curse for this world so that we might now enter into the favor of God again, the cross is God reversing the curse, that is what redemption is, that's what it means to be saved, that's what it means to be saved by Jesus, it is being brought from cursing to blessing, from sin to salvation, so Christ does, it is being brought from darkness to light, it is being brought from despair to hope, it is being brought from death to life, this is why I have to go around looking for miracles every day, because that's not the point, he will go around expecting miracles every day, I don't go around looking for miracles, what I'm looking for, is the evidence of what miracles reveal, that is the evidence of the kingdom of God, I want to see the evidence of redemption, the evidence of restoration, the evidence of reconciliation, that means the kingdom of God had broken forth, and healing is taking place, and the curse is being reversed, Elijah redeemed the people of Jericho, Elijah restored the fortunes of Jericho, Elijah reconciled the people of Jericho back to go, that's what Jesus does every day, that's what Jesus does every day into, wherever the curse is found, there you find Jesus, what, redeeming, redeeming people from the curse, doing what, restoring, restoring the fortunes of the people of God, there doing what, reconciling, reconciling the people of God back to God, reversing the curse, everywhere the curse is found in this world, there you find Jesus, reversing the curse, reversing the curse until one day when the curse will be no more, that's the point, the point of the Bible, this is the point of the Word of God, from Genesis you see the curse and in Revelation the curse is no more, that's the point, the curse is visited upon the garden in Genesis, you know what happened in Revelation, Revelation 21, verse 1, the curse that was visited in the garden is no more in the city, then I saw a new heaven, and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer in the city, and I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared at a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He was well with them, they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God, He will wipe every hear from their eyes, there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the older things have passed away, He who sits on the throne, all the curse will be no more, I came to reverse the curse, the new heavens and the new earth is a place where no curse is found, that's the point, a place where no curse is found, we sing it at Christmas, but we ought to sing it all year long, joy to the world, no more will sing us all grow, no more will thorns and fast the ground, because He has come to make its blessings flow, where, as far as the curse is found, as far as the curse is, the Lord is reversing the curse, the curse of Jericho, points to that, but so also the curse of Maki, we're almost done, after Elijah, after Elijah healed the water, and he was further confirmed, all he did was further confirmed the fact that he was God's man, that he was God's prophet, that he had received the mantle from Elijah, Elijah was making his way back to Carmel, by way of Bethel, and on the way he met up some young boys, some knucklehead, hardheaded boys, I've met them, I used to run with them, he met some knucklehead boys, who mocked him, verse 23, and from there Elijah went up to Bethel, and as he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town, and they jeered at him, get out of here, Boldie, they said, get out of here, Boldie, now love it apparently, you know, being bornhead wasn't in fashion, like it is today, I look around the church today, and the lights are just glittering, nice and shiny, in certain places, things to do now, I almost did it, but we gonna hold off on that little atmosphere, I think the curse is gonna be reversed, sooner than you may think, but apparently, beloved apparently this was not a thing back then, okay, and so they made fun, it's interesting that Elijah apparently had a full head of hair, but Elijah not so much, and he became the object of these boys ridiculed, these boys made fun of Elijah, they jeered at him, they mocked Elijah, what is mocking, mocking is making fun of in a public humiliating and derisive way, today comedians get paid to do it, and apparently these boys thought it was funny, but it was not funny to Elijah, believe it more important than that, it was not funny to God, God takes mocking seriously, he really does, and in fact the boys who cursed Elijah would soon find out that they themselves were the ones who were cursed, to mock the prophet was to mock the Word, and to mock the Word was to mock God, the God said in Psalm 105, in verse 15, do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets know harm, and here were the boys mocking and jeering at Elijah, but beloved it was not just the boys who were doing this because you gotta understand that these boys probably got it from somewhere, I'll tell you a secret, I'll tell you a secret, one day, I was coming in the church and, one of the kids were out there in the church and I walked in, and the child said hey pastor, I said hey, and the child said are you preaching today? And I said, yeah, I'm preaching today and I said, oh, man, had you preached so long? And I said, oh, I guess we know what your parents talk about. I guess we know what your parents think. Now, I'm not going to tell you who that was, but you ought to be careful that you don't touch guys annoying at one and you don't do it properly at all. You can't get it from somewhere. They always do beloved. So they kiddie, kid. I become out of Jericho. Having heard their parents mocking the property, filling in Bolton, to do the same. And the Bible says that God sent these bears, not to kill a mockingbird, but to kill a mockingbird. And this is a vivid reminder of how important our words are. The Bible tells us, the Proverbs 18 and 21, the death and life are in the power of those who love and will eat this fruit. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 37 says, For by your words you will be justified. And by your words you will be condemned. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 29 says, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth. But only such has his good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who see it. God takes mocking very seriously. Mocking is the evidence of the curse of sin. A few things in the world say curse like mockery. A few things are as detestable to God as human mocking. In Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 9, the Bible says that food mock at the guilt of God. Food mock the guilt of God. And this is what the world does. The world mocks the righteousness of God. The world mocks the holiness of God. The world mocks the truth of God. And how do we know this? Because when given the opportunity, the world mocks Jesus. So the Bible says on the cross, Matthew chapter 27 and verses 28 through 29, they stripped Jesus. They beat Jesus. They spit on Jesus and they mocked Jesus. It may seem a little cruel and unusual punishment. And mocking a Lysha. Those boys actually got what they asked for. They got what they deserve. But you know who didn't? Jesus didn't get what he deserved on the cross. Jesus got what we deserve. He got what we deserve. Because we love it. We deserve what those boys got. Now, question for you this morning. Have you ever mocked the things of God? Of course you have. Of course you have. I need you to answer me that question. Of course you have. I know you have. I have. Made light of God's Word. Made light of God's righteousness. Made light of God's holiness. Made light of God's shirts. Having mocked the holiness of God. And having made light of the righteousness of God. Having made light of the things of God. We deserve what those boys get. Now, cursing that we get this morning. It is black. Not the malice of God. But mercy. Not the anger of God. But grace. Why? Why is it that we don't receive what those boys received when we have essentially been doing the same thing? Because God sent Jesus to reverse the curse. And the songwriter is right when he says, He's bearing the shame and the mocking blood. In our place, condemned, he stood. Sealed our pardon with his blood. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What a savior. What a savior. He took my mocking and gave me his life. He took my curse and gave me God's favor. Hallelujah. What a savior. Hallelujah. What a savior. You want to think that this morning. And I hope you can sing it with a new, with new meaning and a greater sense of all that Christ has done for you this morning in reversing the curse. So that now you and I do not receive malice from God. We receive mercy. We are not the recipients of his anger, but of his grace. We now are in his pleasure as he is reversing the curse in all creation. Amen.