[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Back with us. Open your Bibles review to 2 Kings 7 and verse 9.
[0:14] 2 Kings 7 and verse 9. I want to preach an hour-long message, and I've got 23 minutes to do it. So, I'm going to skip a lot of it, but I'm going to tell you the great story. The Bible says in verse 9, Then they said one to another, We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.
[0:32] If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now, therefore, come that we may go and tell the king's household. Father, I pray that you would work tonight, and I pray that you would help us not to be quiet about what we know.
[0:48] I pray you would help us to do more to get the gospel message around the world, and I would give you great glory, great honor, and great praise for what you're doing in Jesus' name. Amen. This is one of the most famous missionary preaching chapters in the Bible.
[1:02] In 2 Kings 6, the Syrian king has now come and surrounded the city of Samaria, and he's been around the city of Samaria so long that they are eating donkey head and dove dung.
[1:18] So they got donkey head soup and dove poop that they're eating. And it gets so bad that one day two women are talking, and they said, I'm hungry, you're hungry, why don't we boil your kid today and eat your kid, and tomorrow we can boil my kid and eat my kid.
[1:36] And so they boil the first kid, and the second kid, it was her turn, she backed out. And so the king of Israel was walking across the wall there, and he heard them, and he heard them talking, and they hollered out, what are you going to do to help us?
[1:52] And he said, what are you talking about? And she said, well, we ate my kid, and it's turned to eat her kid, and she won't give her kid. And he got really angry because he hated God, and he hated Elisha.
[2:05] And he said, I'm telling you what, by the end of this day, just this little bit here, I'm going to take Elisha's head off of him because he was angry. Outside the city wall, there are four beggars.
[2:18] These guys are lepers, and they're going to eat whatever the people inside the city give away. So, you know, they'll throw their garbage out. Well, when you're down to eating dove dung and monkey head and heavy monkey donkey head, it just sounds so weird to me.
[2:36] But anyway, you're down to eating that, you're probably not throwing much over. And if it is, the bone's been bleached, and there's nothing left to eat there. And so they're in desperate straits. There's probably 100,000 soldiers of the Syrians surrounding the city.
[2:51] There's no way to eat. There's no way to live. And these four lepers get to talking. They said, you know, things are bad. We're starving to death. And if we go in the city, they're going to kill us. We stay here. We're going to die.
[3:02] Why don't we go talk to the Syrians and see if they'll feed us? Because either way, we're dead. And I'm hungry. And so why don't we go down here and see if they'll give us a quarter pounder? And so they walked into the Syrian camp.
[3:13] And as they went, they found armor thrown around and gold there and silver there and clothes there and food everywhere. Everywhere they went, there was all this food and all this stuff.
[3:24] And they're running around. They cannot believe it. Nobody's there to stop them. So they start eating. You can see these, you know, these lepers, parts of their body have fallen off. They're in bad shape. Their bellies are extended now because they're eating so much.
[3:37] They're having a blast. They're finding all the gold and the silver and the stuff and they're hiding it. And they're thinking, you know what? We're getting rich out of this deal. Everybody else is locked up in the city and nobody will come out. And then you get to this verse and this is the verse.
[3:49] And in this verse, they say, boy, today is one of the best days of anybody's life. Everybody in our city is dying of hunger. And we were dying of hunger just a few minutes ago, but we are in great shape.
[4:04] Now there's more food than we could ever eat. And there's money just laying on the ground. And this is just like a wonderful thing going on. And so one of them said, you know, what we're doing is not really good.
[4:16] We are really living it up. We have got everything we could ever possibly want. And the people in the city are still hungry and they're dying.
[4:26] And if we don't tell them, I don't know, something bad could end up happening to us. There's a whole lot going on in the story. There's a servant that worked for the king and he's the one that talks to Elisha.
[4:39] When he talks to Elisha, when he talks to Elisha, Elisha told him, let me just tell you about this time tomorrow, there's going to be food and it's going to be cheap. I know today everything's expensive.
[4:49] And I know today you can't, you got to eat dove dung and you got to eat donkey head soup. But tomorrow it's all going to be cheap and all the problems are going to be over. And the servant said, that is ridiculous.
[5:00] That is ridiculous. That is not going to happen. If God opened the windows of heaven, that couldn't happen. And so Elisha looked at him and said, okay, let me explain to you what's going to happen. You're going to see about it.
[5:11] You're going to hear about it, but you're not going to get to eat any of it. You're not going to get to enjoy any of it. And so what God had done was while the soldiers were out there, God caused it to sound like a whole army was marching against them.
[5:25] And they heard all this noise. And they thought that somehow the people inside the city of Samaria had called for other armies and they were all marching on them. And they thought, we're going to die.
[5:38] They're coming to get us. And so they got scared and they ran and left all their stuff. And the whole story was over. There's a ton of great stuff in this. I'm going to talk to you about missions in a second.
[5:49] One thing that's really great is this. What God says happens. And so the next day when the gates are finally open and everybody goes out to get the food, the servant that was standing next to the king and had the smart mouth and said God couldn't do it, they stomped him to death at the door.
[6:05] Poor old boy didn't get to enjoy any of it. He knew about it. And everything that was great was happening, but he missed it. But here's what happened. The next day, everything Elisha said came true. Can I just stop here and say this?
[6:17] Everything God says comes true. You never have to question. So when you read the Bible and you hear what the Bible says, you never have to say, I hope that's true.
[6:27] You can trust that we don't have a man book. We have a God book and it is a preserved book, a taken care of book. You can know God spoke to us. So I'd just like to say a few things to you real quickly.
[6:39] You know, we will never see the importance of gospel work until we see how bad things are. I thought about it as I was meditating on this and preparing and thinking.
[6:49] And I thought about if you could just make a movie of this. I don't know. It sounds funny to you. And you're laughing. But we're down to eating bird poop.
[7:01] We're down to eating bird poop. I mean, we'd rather die than eat bird poop. But if you get hungry enough, you'd probably eat bird poop.
[7:13] We're down to eating what's left on a donkey's head because that's all that's left. But you're down to eating your children. And by the way, false religion will always leave you hungry.
[7:26] It'll always leave you doing bad things to your children. You say, no, no, no. Here in America, we don't do bad things. Yes, we do. We send them to hell. How can you get any worse than that?
[7:37] People in America following their false gods, following their religion, they don't tell them about Jesus. And those people die and go to hell. These people really do die. Today, people die with no idea of God.
[7:52] I don't have any idea how many people you think died without Christ. But within the last hour, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 people. And 5,000 people died.
[8:03] And probably a good 3,500 of them had no witness of Jesus Christ. Had no idea there was a real heaven. There was a real hell. And they could really go to heaven.
[8:14] They died without Christ. People serve idols and false gods doing horrible things to their family because they do not know God. They will soon die and spend eternity in hell.
[8:24] They live waiting to die with no hope, no God, no future, just hell. No matter how we want to paint this, when we see that video, if we, in our heads, we could see a video of Samaria and see the soldiers surrounding and they're out eating and drinking and just waiting on Samaria to drop and die.
[8:44] Inside, they're eating their children. If we could see that, we'd realize how desperate times were. If we could realize there are four beggars, four lepers outside the gate, literally starving worse than the people inside, we could realize these guys were in horrible straits.
[9:00] They were in horrible straits. But you and I were in horrible straits. But it's hard for us to admit we were in horrible straits. So I got saved on May the 6th, 1962. I was seven years and nine months old or so.
[9:13] That was in May. I turned eight in August. And I was raised in church. I've heard the gospel all my life. I went to church nine months before I ever got outside and saw the light of day.
[9:24] And I went to church. Back then, they used to have revivals that went two and three weeks. And you just went to church. I can remember thinking I lived at that place. And in fact, my best friend was a pastor's kids.
[9:35] I grew up with that. At the age of seven, the pastor, a country preacher, preached on Jesus down on a cross and died for me. And I got saved. At the age of 11, I heard about the need for being a missionary.
[9:46] I surrendered my life to be a missionary. I met my wife at a school where I was studying to be in the ministry. I've been in church all my life. I am wealthy beyond all imagination.
[9:58] I have a Bible up here on the platform. I have Bibles on my iPad. Bibles on my telephone. Bibles on my computer. I got Bibles laying all around the house. I got Bibles I had when I was 15 and still got them around the house. I've had the gospel all around me.
[10:11] These people have no hope. This verse is the key verse. Look at what it says. As they then said to one another, we do not well. We do not well. We're not doing good.
[10:22] We're not doing right. We're not doing what's correct because this is a day of good tidings. Because today we found food. Today we found life. Today we found out we're going to continue to live.
[10:34] Today everything's going to work out. And we're not telling anybody else about it. Can you imagine them? Can you see them? They've been starving. They're weak. They go into that first tent and grab that food.
[10:44] Start eating that food and drinking the drink. And running around. And they're picking up energy. They're picking up strength. They're feeling better and better. Then they start hiding all the stuff. They're excited about what they got.
[10:55] And they said, hey guys. Guys, if we hold our peace, if we wait till morning light, something bad will happen to us. This is ridiculous. We need to go tell the king what's happened.
[11:06] We need to tell the city of Samaria there's a chance. There's something special for them. I do not remember when I memorized John 3.16. I do not remember when I memorized the books of the Bible.
[11:19] I do not remember when I learned how to tithe. I do not remember when I learned how to love Jesus. It was teachers like you in a Sunday school class teaching me. It was vacation Bible schools year after year of me hearing all of that.
[11:33] I have lived in the days of good tidings my entire life. I sat in my house and Victor Ocampo looked across the table and said, so you're telling me my grandmother went to hell when she died?
[11:48] And I said, I'm not telling you that. He said, but we've learned that if she didn't believe in Jesus as her only salvation, she had to go to hell. I said, well, Victor, what the Bible says is, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
[12:03] No man comes to the Father but by me. And so she believed anything else, but Jesus, she couldn't go to heaven. And Victor said, I, he started crying.
[12:15] He looked across the table and said, how long y'all known this? How long y'all known this? And I said, well, I've known it all my life. And my parents knew it.
[12:26] And my grandparents knew it. He said, well, why didn't y'all come tell us? And that's a true story. I didn't read that in a book. That happened in my office. Only one time, but it happened.
[12:40] Things are so bad, they're eating donkey head and dove dung. They're down to eating their children. The lepers are outside the city. They're worse off. They're hungry and they're thirsty and they're in need of good news.
[12:53] We were just as helpless. Had I died on May the 5th, 1962, I'd have gone to hell. By the way, I deserved hell as much as anybody in China.
[13:05] I deserved hell as much as anybody in India. I deserve hell today. There was only one thing that made a difference. It was a day of good tidings and somebody shared the gospel with me. I'll read the story here.
[13:17] And I got, I mean, I have 15 pages of notes. I'd like to walk you through them. But I would just like to say this. How many of us are kind of like the guy that stood at the gate and said, well, God couldn't give all that food.
[13:32] If he opened the heavens, he couldn't take care of this problem. How many of us stand like that guy saying, I don't believe God. I don't believe the word of God. I don't believe it could happen.
[13:43] And therefore, we really try to hinder what God would be doing all around the world. We're like, we're like, I get tired of vision. Always missionaries, missionaries, missionaries, care of the gospel, care of the gospel.
[13:55] I get tired of it. How many of us would be the guy standing at the gate and not interested in getting the gospel around the world? And I'll tell you how to find out.
[14:07] Check your bank book. Check your bank book. Because you see, if you're not tithing and taking care of your church, and if you're not giving to missions, if you're not helping the missionaries get out there, let's just be honest.
[14:25] You are holding out on what God gave you for the ministry. God didn't give those four guys all the wealth of all the army for them.
[14:39] Though for a moment, they had to be four of the richest men in the world. They had what a complete army would have had.
[14:50] They had all that food. They had all those tents. They had all that silver, all that gold, all that armor, all those weapons. They had all of that. It was all theirs. Was it theirs to keep?
[15:03] Or was God giving that to them to use for him? How many of us are like, I know what the Bible says. I know God says he loves everybody. I know God says he doesn't want anybody to go to heaven.
[15:15] I know, hell, I know God says he wants none to perish but all to be saved. I know he says he's a repitiation for our sins and not ours only but the sins of the whole world. I know he says all that but I just can't believe it.
[15:28] Cannot accept that. Kind of like that guy, huh? Kind of like that guy. And just because you're a part of a church that does what vision does doesn't mean you're a part of it.
[15:42] It's time for putting your shoulder against the load and helping push the load, helping carry the load, helping do your part. Did you know that God didn't give me the money he put in my hands so I could just be rich, fat, and sassy?
[15:58] Any more than he did that for those four lepers. I know what you'd say. Well, it wasn't their money. Well, they found it. They found it.
[16:09] They're the ones that risked their life to go get it. And you say, well, I risked my life. I get on 400 and drive to Atlanta. Bless God, I risked my life. These guys were risking their life thinking an army might kill them.
[16:20] It was their money. In the same sense, your salary is your money. But you're like, well, yeah, but they had more than they needed. Don't go there. Don't go there.
[16:31] Don't go there. Because most of us got more than we need. And I'm just going to be blunt honest with you. I don't think 180,000 years is enough missions from us. I think probably, I think probably we could get to 300,000 if we just get off of it.
[16:46] Just today, I was listening to a book as I was driving around. And some famous Christian economist said that they'd done a study.
[16:58] And if you reduced all Christians, all professing Christians to a minimum wage and had them tithe, the offerings in churches would triple. They've done the study.
[17:10] I don't know if that's true. I don't think it's as true at Vision because I think you do give. But I just want you to picture this for a second. I want you to picture a city with starving people so bad they eat their children.
[17:29] And I would like to say to you that there are places in the world where people have sacrificed their children to false gods. I would like to say to you that the dark places in the world, the habitations of cruelty, according to the book of Proverbs.
[17:45] I would just like to say to you, I would just like to say to you that we live in a world as bad off as that world because if they're hungry, it's okay.
[17:56] You can be hungry and die and go to heaven. But you can't be spiritually hungry and die and go to heaven. So today in a country called India, they're beating up people for eating beef or even thinking about eating beef.
[18:13] I mean, I'd have to be killed as soon as I got there. I had steak for lunch. And if you want to take me out, we'll get another one. I mean, I could eat steak every meal. It wouldn't bother me at least. And yet the cows are walking everywhere.
[18:25] False religion. People are hungry. False religion. Why? Same reason they'd eat a kid. The same reason a guy would doubt God. And I know the truth.
[18:37] And you know the truth. I just got a few questions and I quit. Do you believe God? How many of you literally, this is a serious, hard question.
[18:50] It's a Thursday night, the cream of the crops here. Do you really believe that there's a real, literal, eternal hell? If you believe it, say amen. Seriously, seriously. That'll make us really sad.
[19:04] That'll make us really sad. There is a place where people who don't know Jesus spend forever. In that place, their memories plague them.
[19:17] In that place, they're in agony and pain. They're gnashing their teeth. They're crying out. They wish they could get out in that place. If you believe that, it's got to be the most horrendous thing you can imagine.
[19:32] Then I have another question. How many of you believe that Jesus died on a cross, paid the sin debt, wants everybody everywhere to be saved? Do you believe that? Say amen. Amen. I mean, I know there's doctrines now that say, well, he doesn't even want everybody saved.
[19:46] But you can't only read the Bible and find it. You've got to have a book tell you that. You've got to get outside the book to find out God doesn't want people saved. They can't even agree amongst themselves, those that teach that.
[19:57] So there's a hell. And there's a savior of a whole world, especially those that believe.
[20:09] That's what the Bible says. He wants everybody saved. Propitiation for our sins and not ours, only sins of the whole world. He wants everybody saved. There's a hell.
[20:20] There's a heaven. And then right over here, there's a group of people that God gave wealth beyond measure. First off, I'll say this. I'm extremely wealthy financially. Now, I've been all over the world.
[20:33] And I have been places where people make a dollar to five dollars a day. In Ethiopia at a time, I'm not sure what the statistic is now, there were people living on 11 cents a day.
[20:44] There's always rich people in every country. But people are starving to death. I am extremely wealthy. I have missed some meals, but it was all intentional.
[20:57] Or I was on an airplane that wouldn't feed me what I want to eat. But I mean, other than that, other than that, I don't miss a meal. Unless I'm fasting or praying, I don't miss a meal. They miss meals.
[21:08] There was a kid in Peru who we buried because his daddy killed him. For real. So the little boy was all messed up in the stomach area.
[21:21] And his little brother was there. And he said, Dad didn't mean to. And I said, didn't mean to what? I thought, I'm not understanding Spanish.
[21:33] He said, Dad didn't mean to. And I said, what do you mean? He said, when we get really hungry. Daddy will punch us in the stomach to take the pain of hunger away. It helps for a while.
[21:45] He said, Daddy punched him too many times. He didn't mean to hurt him. I preached at little boy's funeral. That's dumb. I know. You say, well, that's terrible.
[21:55] That's horrible. That's how hungry they were. For real. I have known people in Peru that literally had bread that was old and stale and water. That's all they ate.
[22:06] And Peru's a pretty wealthy country. I mean, they were making a buck a day back then. I'm rich. I am rich spiritually. I mean, I was standing there thinking before the preaching.
[22:16] I look around. Look at all you people. Look at this beautiful place. Look at the place that God's given us. Look at all these people that love Jesus. Look at all these people that walked in here with the Bible. Look at all these missionaries that walked up here and talked.
[22:28] Look at the Sunday school classes that are going to take place. Look at deacons that are working out a deal to go out and buy a van and bring it to them. Just look at all this. We're rich spiritually. You have heard so many messages.
[22:41] You've heard so many messages. I've preached about 2,000 messages here since we started. That's not counting everybody else. We're rich. We have money.
[22:53] We have the gospel. We have young people. We have the means. How can we be quiet? Look at the verse for me one more time if you would. Then said they one to another, the lepers, we do not wail.
[23:08] This day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that we may go and tell the king's household.
[23:24] They knew we have the money. We have the food. We have life. They're dying. They're eating their children. They're eating donkey head and dove dung and we want to make a difference.
[23:37] They told them. It was such an exciting time when they told them inside the king's house. I don't believe a word of it. They're just playing a trick on us. They've acted like they've fallen back so we'll go out there and they can kill us.
[23:49] And one of the servants said, well, could you at least send one of the five horses we still got left? Isn't that amazing? They kept one of their five war machines while they were eating babies. Can we take one of those five horses and ride out and see if it's true?
[24:01] And they came back and said, it really is true. You and I don't need to know that. But you and I both know it is true. There's a hell. Jesus loves people.
[24:12] I have stuff that other people in the world don't have and I could give. I'm not trying to manipulate you, but you ought to ask God, how much do you want me to give? You ought to look at your faith promise and say, how much do you want me to give?
[24:24] How much can I do to help get missionaries around the world? And we ought to all be thinking, I can be used to do more. It's not a day to be quiet. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia.
[24:40] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[24:52] Thanks. Let's go.