From Starvation to Salvation

Folks, we're turning this morning to 2nd Kings and the

chapter 6, Second Kings, Chapter 6.

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

We're going to read a couple of verses there and then move into

Chapter 7. So the Old Testament Book of

Second Kings. Second Kings Chapter 6, just to

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

give you the background here, you'll find that the armies of

Syria have besieged Israel and they're starving them out.

People are literally dying of starvation.

So you think we're gathering this morning and for a harvest

Thanksgiving to thank the Lord for the harvest that has come

in, come in. And yet here's a situation where

people are dying of starvation and the situation is desperate.

If we go down, first of all to verse 24, Second Kings chapter

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

6, and we just want to read verses 24 and 25.

And it says, and it came to pass after this that Ben Haydad, king

of Syria, gathered all his host and went up and besieged

Samaria. And there was a great famine in

Samaria. And behold, they besieged it

until an ass's head was sold for four score pieces of silver, and

the fourth part of a Cove of dove's dung for five pieces of

silver. And then if we go down to

Chapter 7 and the first verse, second King 7 reading there at

the first verse, then Elisha said, He ye the word of the

Lord, Thus saith the Lord, tomorrow about this time shall a

measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures

of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.

Then a Lord, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of

God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in

heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt

see it with thine eyes, but shall not eat thereof.

And there were 4 leprous men at the entering of the gate.

And they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the

city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also.

Now therefore, come and let us fall onto the host of the

Syrians. If they save us alive we shall

live, and if they kill us we shall but die.

And they rose up in the twilight to go onto the camp of the

Syrians. And when they were come to the

uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man

there. For the Lord had made the host

of the Syrians to hear a noise of Chariots and a noise of

horses, even the noise of a great host.

And they said, one to another load, the king of Israel have

hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of

the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in

the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and

their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp,

they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried

thence silver and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it,

and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence

also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another,

We do not well, 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. So they came and called unto the

Porter of the city. And they told them, saying, We

came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no man

there, neither voice of man, but horses tied and asses tied, and

the tents as they were. And he called the porters, and

they told it to the King's house within.

And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I

will now show you what the Syrians have done to us.

They know that we be hungry, therefore are they gone out of

the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they

come out of the city, we shall catch them alive and get into

the city. And one of his servants answered

and said, Let some take, I pray thee. 5 of the horses that

remain which are left in the city, behold, they are all as

the multitude of Israel that are left in it.

Behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the

Israelites that are consumed. And let us send and see.

And they took therefore 2 chariot horses.

And the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and

see. And they went after them unto

Jordan, and lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels,

which the Syrians castaway in their haste.

And the messengers returned and told the king, And the people

went out and spoiled the tents of the Syrians.

So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two

measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the

Lord. And the king appointed the Lord,

on whose hand he leaned, to have the charge of the gate, and the

people trod upon him in the gate, And he died, as the man of

God had said, who spake, when the king came down to him?

And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king,

saying, 2 measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine

flour for a shekel shall be tomorrow about this time in the

gate of Samaria, that the Lord answered the man of God, and

said, Now behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven,

might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt

see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

And so it fell out unto him, for the people trod upon him in the

gate, and he died. Amen.

And we trust the Lord will bless for reading this word for his

own namesake. Let's bow together in a word of

prayer. Father in heaven, we lift up our

hearts afresh and anew this morning, even in our Saviour's

precious name. We thank you, Lord, again, even

for Thy precious word, for the privilege of having it open

before us. And Father, we pray now that

indeed our hearts and our minds would be as open as this book.

Draw near to us, we pray. Pour out the very spirit of God

upon us. Lord, we pray that today they

would prepare our hearts and minds that they would draw near.

And Lord, if there any here this morning that have not that

assurance of salvation, then even before this service comes

to a close, Lord, may you speak with that voice that wakes the

dead. To that end we do pray emptiest

now of sin and of self. Nail the old flesh to the cross.

Lord, anoint us with the spirit of the living God, and grant

that help and that power and that fire that cometh from

above, for we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Here in Second Kings Chapter 7,

2 Kings 7 · chapter mention

as I've said, the people of Israel are under siege by the

Syrian Army. Their supplies have been cut

off. The nation was starving to

death. There's no way out.

There's no way of escape. They were vastly outnumbered by

one of the most powerful armies in their day.

People are dying of starvation, foods running out.

As we've just seen in the chapter, they'd begun to eat the

horses. There was only a handful left

and therefore they're in a very fearful position.

But the Israelites had forgotten 2 very important things.

They'd forgotten the might of their heavenly Father to provide

a miracle, and they'd forgotten the right of a holy faith to

expect a miracle. And God did the unexpected.

God did the impossible because He specialises in both.

The Lord sent an invisible and jhalak army and He caused that

Syrian Army to turn tail and run and to leave behind them in

their haste. All the food, all the money, all

the clothing that they brought with them.

Everything that the nation of Israel needed was now left

behind as they heard this sound of a great army coming against

them and they ran and escaped back to their homeland.

And yet no one would ever have known as they were inside the

wall starving, if it wasn't for the faith of four lepers who had

the boldness and the audacity to discover what had happened and

then return to tell the people of Israel.

And because of what they did, an entire nation was saved.

They went from starvation to salvation.

That's really the theme that we see here in Chapter 7, from

starvation to salvation. Now, keeping that in mind, that

Old Testament miracles, they're a little bit like New Testament

parables. They're written for a purpose.

They have a heavenly meaning, and they're given to instruct us

and to teach us. And so as we come to look at the

7th chapter this morning, there's a couple of things I

want to point out. First of all, the situation that

they faced. The nation of Israel was

starving. In the previous chapter, in

those two verses, we read verses 24 and 25, we're told.

And it came to pass after this, the Binhaydad king of Syria

gathered all his host and went up and besieged Samaria.

And there was a great famine in Samaria.

And behold, they besieged it until and Ass's head was sold

for A4 score pieces of silver and the fourth part of a cab of

Dove's dung for five pieces of silver.

Now to pause there for a moment. The Holy Ghost here is

emphasising just how serious this famine was.

Things were so bad that a Donkey Head burger was being sold for

80 pieces of silver and the only thing for dessert was Dove

droppings. Now gents, I don't know what

you're going to get for your dinner when you get home from

church today. But you imagine if you go home

and you sit down and you say, dear, what's for dinner?

And out she comes and said it's a Donkey Head burger.

And if you're a good boy and you eat all of that, here's a plate

full of Dove's dung to wash it down.

You know, we can't really imagine, can we, this whole

situation of starvation because of the the country that we're

living in. But things were bad and they got

worse. Now you may be thinking, how can

they get worse? Donkey head burgers and Doves

dung? How can it get worse than that?

Well, it got so bad that some of the people even indeed resorted

to cannibalism. There was a mother who came

before the king to get a dispute between her and another mother

settled. And in chapter 6, there in

verses 28 and 29, we're told. And the king said unto her, What

aileth thee? And she answered, This woman

said unto me, Give me thy son, that we may eat him today, and

we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat

him. And I said unto her, On the next

day, Give me thy son, that we may eat him.

And she have hid her son. Can we even imagine the

desperation to get to that position where people are so

desperate that they'll eat anything they're so hungry?

And yet we live in a part of the world where we know nothing of

starvation. Well, the experts tell us that

to this day, 1/3 of the world's population goes to bed hungry

every night. But this whole picture here of

physical starvation reminds me of the greater famine that we

see in the world today. It's the famine the prophet Amos

spoke of in Amos chapter 8 and verse 11, when he said, Behold,

Amos 8 · chapter mention

the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the

land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of

hearing the words of the Lord. Now, if the answer to a physical

famine is food, but the answer to a spiritual famine is faith

in the word of God. And this world is hungry today.

And the reason why it is feeding on the filth and savouring on

the sin of this world is because we're living in a day when

there's a famine of the word of God.

If you're to drive down through the street of, of Carrie Duff

this morning, I wonder how many people there are, if even the

majority of the people in Carrie Duff never left their homes to

go out to the church to hear the word of God.

Today, we're living in a nation that has been blessed with the

gospel. We're living in a province that

in years gone by has seen great revival.

Back in the the 1857 revival, there was such a move in Carrie

Duff that they said that that the whiskey flowed down the

street as people were pouring it out as they got converted.

And yet today we look around and we see we're living in a day

when people have no interest in the things of God.

Yeah, worse than that, they spurn the things of God.

You seek to witness to people, just invite them along to

church, and you see the disdain in their face.

And then for those who do go out to church, there's so many

churches out there today that don't even deserve the name, the

Gospels not being preached. People are going from one to

another, just trying to find somewhere where the truth is

preached. Augustine was right when he said

the hard is restless and it will not rest until it finds its rest

in God. Today there's a spiritual famine

even in this province in which we live, but there's even

greater ones in other nations of the world.

So here they were. They were starving.

They are also susceptible. Looking again there at chapter

6, verses 26 and 27. And as the king of Israel was

passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying,

Help my Lord, O king. And he said, If the Lord do not

help thee, when shall I help thee?

In other words, as the King's passing by at this time of

famine, there's a woman crying out for food, crying out to the

king to help. And even the king was unable to

help. The king couldn't help, There

was nothing he could do. Money couldn't help.

There was no food to buy. The influence couldn't help.

The king couldn't do anything. The government was no help.

In fact, they were part of the problem.

Education was no help. The more they learnt about this

situation, the less they wish they knew.

And similarly, if you're here this morning and you're without

Christ, you're in a very susceptible situation

spiritually this morning, as susceptible as the people in

this passage of Scripture. Now, you may think this morning

that you're doing all right without the Lord.

Yes, you're sitting in church, you're not saved, but you're

going through life. You've got tomorrow planned,

this week planned. And you may think that you're

going through life and you're doing all right without the

Lord. But little do you know that

there's a day coming when the only thing that will matter is

whether or not you're in Christ. When you come to death's door,

it doesn't matter how much money you've got in the bank.

It doesn't matter indeed what other possessions you have in

this world. When you come to that door of

death and that Bony hand of the Angel of death knocks upon your

heart door, there'll be no one else can help you.

The king on the throne won't be able to help you.

Politicians won't be able to help you.

The only one that will be able to help you is Christ.

And that's what they're learning here in this passage of

Scripture. You may find out too late that

only God is our refuge and strength, a very present help

and trouble. So this is a very sad situation.

You look there at verse 30 of chapter 6, and it came to pass

when the king heard the words of the woman that he rent his

clothes and he passed by upon the wall and the people looked

and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

So even the king here could do nothing in this situation.

In those days when a man would tear his clothes, when a man

would put sackcloth on, it was a sign of utter desperation.

It was a sign that all hope was gone.

And someone once said, man can live about 40 days without food.

He can live about 3 days without water, he can live a few minutes

without air, but he can't live a second without hope.

What's your hope for eternity? Where will you spend eternity?

When the apostle Paul was writing to the Ephesians, he

reminded them of what they were before they came to know the

Lord. And he said that at the time you

were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of

Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no

hope, and without God in the world.

How many families in Carrie Duff could we ride over the front

door of that home, even though they're nice people, even though

they're good neighbours, even though they've got many

qualities that society would commend them for over?

How many homes could we write that there's no hope because

they're without God and without Christ?

This is the situation that they faced.

But then something happens. When you come into Chapter 7

here, you find that four men, they decide that they're going

to step out by faith. The story turns their attention

now to these 4 lepers. These 4 lepers are going to very

quickly go from rags to riches as they decide to take a step of

faith. Everyone else is behind the

walls, hiding from the enemy, and they're sitting there.

And because they're lepers, they're outside the gates.

They're not allowed in. And as these 4 lepers sit there,

they're a picture indeed of the Saint who by faith accepts the

riches that he's found in Christ.

Now notice the fantastic discovery they make in Chapter 7

and verse 3. And there were 4 leprous men at

the entering of the gate. And they said one to another,

why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into the

city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there.

And if we sit here, we die also. Now, therefore, come and let us

fall unto the host of the Syrians.

If they save us alive, we shall live.

And if they kill us, we shall but die.

I love the the, the logical way and the attitude that these men

have. They're saying, look, if we just

sit here with leprosy and do nothing, we'll die.

You know, what's the point of just sitting here being

miserable? Let's do something.

Even if we do the wrong thing, let's do something.

Now, of course they could have played it safe.

They could have just sat there and done nothing.

And if they'd sat there and done nothing, they would have

eventually died, either through starvation or through leprosy.

And isn't it a solemn thought to think that as far as God's

salvation is concerned, what do you have to do to perish in

eternity? And the answer is nothing.

Do nothing. Do nothing at all.

You know, you don't have to go and burn Bibles or tear down

churches. Just do nothing.

Just die as you've lived and you'll be in a lost eternity.

I came across a little poem some years ago about a man who did

nothing. It says he made no mistakes, he

took no wrong Rd. He never fumble the ball, he

never went down Neath the weight of a load.

He simply did nothing at all. He lost no hard fight in defence

of the right, he never bled with his back to the wall, he never

felt faint in his clone climb to the light.

He simply did nothing at all. So death came nigh, for life

slipped by and he feared for the judgement hall.

When they asked him why, he said with a sigh, I simply did

nothing at all. And doesn't that sum up a lot of

people today? They're going through life.

They're they're, they're eating, drinking, living, breathing.

They've got physical life, but spiritually there's no life in

them. They're without Christ.

And perhaps there's someone here this morning and you know, you

need to be saved, but so far that poem's all about you.

So far you've done nothing at all.

You're not saved. You haven't come to the Lord.

You haven't sought the Lord, You haven't got to that point where

you've prayed and said, Lord, give me Christ or I die.

You just do nothing. It's a solemn thing to think

doing nothing is all it takes to go out into a lost eternity.

But notice the desperation here of these men in verses 5 to 7.

And they rose up in the twilight to go onto the camp of the

Syrians. And when they come to the

uttermost part of the camp, behold, there was no man there.

For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise

of Chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a

great host. And they said, one to another,

Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of

the Hittites, the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their

tents and their horses and their asses, even the camp as it was,

And they fled for their If these 4 lepers had not decided to get

up and to go forward by faith to take that step of faith.

If we sit here at the gate, we'll die.

If we go into the city, we'll die of starvation.

So let's take a step of faith and let's go towards the the way

of what we think is the enemy. And if they hadn't have done

that, they would have missed out on the blessings that God had

for them. You see, the Lord had already

dealt with the enemy. He'd sent this noise into the

camp of the Assyrians. They thought a great army was

coming and they'd fled. And while everybody's dying of

starvation, the tents were full of food, full of drink, full of

raiment, full of gold and silver.

Great blessing was waiting for them.

And as I read that, I wonder, you know, how many people are

there. They're just ignore the gospel,

neglect the gospel and they don't realise the great great

blessings that are waiting for them if they got saved.

For those of you that know me and know my testimony, I was a

atheist until I was 23 years of age.

Never went to church as a child, never went to Sunday school,

never went to a Sunday service. I was 23 years of age before I

heard the gospel for the first time and got saved, and after

having lived indeed a life without Christ, thinking as an

atheist that I was in charge of my life and all was well, and

then getting saved, I can tell you after almost 40 years of

salvation, I would never ever want to go back to live that way

again. Having lived on both sides of

the fence as it were, I would never swap what I have in this

life. I remember speaking to a man

years ago and I was witnessing to him and he said to me one day

he said, he said, how do you know there there is a God?

How do you know there is a heaven and a hell?

He said, what happens if you die and you discover there's no

heaven? And I said to him, you know,

isn't that a great question? And I said to him, I said, let

me, let me answer that question. I said, if I was to die tomorrow

and find out that there is no heaven, I said, let me tell you

something. I still would not swap my

Christian life for anything because of the joy of salvation

and the presence of Christ and the blessedness that it is to

live for the Lord. And that's speaking with almost

40 years experience. But I said to him, but let me

tell you something, what if I'm right?

What if there is a heaven, there is a hell?

And I said, what if you die tomorrow?

As you've lived without Christ, you've lost everything.

Not only have you lost your immortal soul, but you've lost

out on the greatest blessing that any man, woman, or young

person could receive, that blessing of salvation in Christ

and eternal life. These men, if they hadn't have

taken just a step of faith, they would never have known what was

waiting for them and the blessings that were there.

And you know, the whole message of this chapter is that you need

to take a step of faith. These men were just lepers.

They had nothing. You're in better health

physically today than these lepers were and therefore you

need to take a step of faith. The situation they faced, the

man who stepped out by faith, but then noticed these men also

had to share their good news. Here they were.

They're enjoying everything. They come across these tents and

they're eating food, they're gorging themselves.

They're finding all of the these new clothes in the tents.

Now remember, they're lepers, they're in rags.

And so here they are, they're dressing in these new clothes.

Then they're finding gold and silver.

And So what do they do? Let's go over there and dig a

hole and bury it. So we've got it for the future.

Then they go into the next tent and again they eat and they

drink and they find some more treasure.

Let's go bury that over there. And then they think, just a

minute, everyone else is dying of starvation in Israel and

we've now got food, raiment and treasure.

We need to go back and tell them.

They knew that they were responsible in verse 9.

Then as they said, one to another, we do not.

Well, this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace.

Just imagine if they'd never told anybody.

Imagine all those that would have died, the men, the women,

the children that would have perished if these men had not

gone and shared the good news. And that's the same

responsibility that falls upon every believer.

Surely the most selfish person in the world is the Christian

who refuses to tell others the gospel, who refuses to tell

others about the love of Christ, the need of salvation, the

indeed the heaven to be won and the hell to be shunned.

Now, of course, some Christians have the attitude, you know, how

can I tell others about Christ? My attitude always is, you know,

if you love the Lord and you really glimpse even a little of

what awaits you in glory, how could you not want to tell

others about? It was Oscar Hammerstein who

said a bell isn't a bell until it's rung.

A song isn't a song until it's sung.

Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay.

Love isn't love until you give it away.

How much do you love the Lord? How much are you giving the

gospel and deed to others? And they knew also they were

accountable in verse 9. 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, You know, if you've been saved, and you've come into

the unsearchable riches of Christ, then, believer, you're

accountable to God the Father, who said, When I say unto the

wicked, Thou shalt surely die, And they'll give us to him, not

warning nor speakers to warn the wicked from his wicked way to

save his life. The same wicked man shall die in

his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Here's the Lord speaking to a believer saying his blood will I

require at thine hand. You know, that's one of the

verses the Lord used to call me into the ministry when I got

saved. Having no Christian background,

you know, it was the last thing in the world I wanted personally

was to give up my job and career and go into the ministry.

But you know, when I read that little verse, his blood will I

require at thine hand. If you don't warn him, that's

when I stopped arguing. And I knew that the Lord had

something for me to do. There was a Christian man who

was holidaying in the Middle East, and he was trying to

witness to his Arab guide, But the Arab just wasn't interested.

And the Christian just kept pestering him and persistently

trying to talk to him about the Lord and his need of salvation.

And what struck my attention was that eventually the Arab got

upset with him. So the Christian man said to

him, look, I just want you to know that I'm sharing the gospel

with you because I want you to be saved and I don't want you to

be lost. And the Arab didn't say anything

for a moment. And then finally the Arab said

this. He says, you don't want to

commit the sin of the desert, do you?

And the Christian man said to him, he said, what's the sin of

the desert? And the Arab said to him, the

sin of the desert is to know where there's water, not tell

anybody about it. In other words, just leave them

to perish. And I wonder today how many

Christians are spiritually committing the sin of the

desert. They know the way of salvation,

but they're not sharing it with others.

The situation they faced, the lepers who stepped out by faith,

These men just shared their good news.

But then notice last of all, the man who spurned the good news.

What amazes me in this passage of Scripture is that in the

midst of all this blessing, there's one man who didn't

believe the nation was saved. Everybody's eating and drinking

and making merry, except for one sceptic.

He didn't believe because of his unbelief, he missed out on the

blessing of God. How did he do it?

How does anyone miss out on the blessing of God?

Well, look at the opening 2 verses here of Chapter 7.

Then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord, tomorrow about this time shall a measure

of fine flour be sold for a shekel and two measures of

barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.

So what he's saying is here, look, you're in the midst of a

famine, you're being starved to death here.

But he's saying, listen, tomorrow there's going to be

such an abundance of, of flour and barley that it'll be sold

for those cheap prices. And then we're told then a Lord

on whose hand the king leaned, so here's a man of influence,

here's a man of position. He answered the man of God and

said, behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might

this thing be? In other words, even God

couldn't do that. And he said, Behold, thou shalt

see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

So Elisha preached that God had given his word that the next day

at this time there'd be specials going on barley and on indeed

the price of flour. As old Charles Spurgeon said,

God's word was fulfilled to the penny and to the hour.

But this man didn't believe. This man rejected the word of

God. And when you reject the Bible,

when you reject the word of God, you know you can't be saved.

Why? Because you can only be saved

through faith. And the New Testament says faith

cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

You reject the word of God. If you don't believe the word of

God, then you won't be saved. But before you condemn this man

too hard, I wonder how many people are in the same position

today. God has given His word to you

and to me that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord

shall be saved. But perhaps you're sitting here

this morning and you haven't done that.

Perhaps you're a little bit like this man in the gate who just

won't believe the preacher. And this man refused the work of

God. In verse 2, he said that he

would believe what would happen if God made windows in heaven.

Well, you know, bless this poor fool's heart, he didn't know the

Lord has made windows in heaven in the past.

If you go right back to the first book of the Bible, we're

told in Genesis 7, in the 6th, 100th year of Noah's life, in

the second month, in the 17th day of the month, the same day

where all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the

windows of heaven were opened. And you go to other passages as

well. You go to Malachi also and read

about the windows of heaven. This man could not receive what

God wanted to give him because he wouldn't believe.

There's a thief called unbelief. And why do we call unbelief a

thief? Because unbelief will rob you of

your soul. It'll rob you of God's

salvation. It'll rob you of an eternity

with the Lord. Instead of receiving the

blessing of God, this man fell under the judgement of God.

Verse 17. And the king appointed the Lord

on whose hand he leaned, the same man, to have the charge of

the gate. So this man who didn't believe

that all of a sudden food would be available tomorrow, that the

king providentially puts him in charge of the gate.

Now the people in the city, they hear that there's food out there

in those tents. And of course, as thousands, 10s

of thousands of people are now wanting to storm out that gate,

you can imagine this one little bureaucrat standing there just a

minute. And what happened?

They stampled upon him. The people trod upon him in the

gate and he died. As the man of God had said, who

spake when the king came down to him, The man who didn't believe,

think about it, was trampled to death by the multitudes who did.

And so if you're here this morning and you don't believe

there's a heaven, or if you don't want to go to heaven, then

my only message to you is step out of my way, because I'm on my

way. And that's where I'm going.

I've got my eyes upon glory. You're welcome to come too.

In fact, I beseech you, and I plead with you even to come this

morning and receive Christ as your Saviour.

If you're starving for salvation, if you're longing for

the love of Christ, if you want that gift of eternal life, if

you want to know the joy of salvation, a joy you've never,

ever had until this day, then don't leave this meeting without

Christ because you're invited to go from famine to feast, from

starvation to salvation. But you've got to come by faith.

These lepers stepped out by faith.

The crowds went through those gates by faith, for by grace are

you saved through faith. When you come this morning to

Christ and place your faith in Him, we're thinking about the

harvest. You can think about the faith a

farmer has. He plants that seed in the

ground and he has faith that it'll grow into whatever crop he

has planted. Will you have enough faith?

Even the faith has a grain of mustard seed this morning to

come and trust in Christ for the salvation of your soul for Jesus

sake, Amen. Let's bow together in prayer our

gracious God and eternal Father in heaven.

Lord, we thank you this morning for this Old Testament passage

of Scripture. Lord, there's much in it, and

we've gone over it very quickly this morning.

But Father, we pray that you'll bless that word to every heart.

We thank you for the faith of these lepers.

And Lord, we pray that every one of us in this meeting this

morning would be full of faith in the Holy Ghost.

Lord, may no one leave this morning without that knowledge

of sins forgiven and eternal life in Christ.

Come this morning. And Lord, grant fruit, grant

indeed a harvest to the gospel. We pray for Jesus sake.

Amen.