April 24, 2016 Where the Real Battle is Fought by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Suddenly a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands.

And he said to me, O Daniel, man bigly beloved, understand the

words that I speak to you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.

While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling.

Then he said to me, Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart

to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have

come because of your words.

But the prince of the kings of Persia withstood me twenty -one days.

And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I then left

along there with the kings of Persia.

Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision

refers to many days yet to come.

When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face to the ground and came to teach them.

And suddenly, one having likeness to the Son of Man, touched my lips.

Then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him, he said before me, My Lord,

because of the vision my sorrows have overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength.

For how can the servant of my Lord talk with you, my Lord, as for me no strength

remains in me now, nor is there any breath left in me.

Then again, the one having likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me.

And he said, O man, great and beloved, fear not, peace be to you,

be strong, yes, be strong.

So when he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak, for you

have strengthened me.

And please turn to 2 Corinthians 10, starting in verse 1 -6.

Then Paul to the Corinthian church.

Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,

who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent, am bold for you.

But I beg you, that when I am present, I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be

bold with some, who think of us as if we walk according to the flesh.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds,

casting down arguments, and every kind of thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,

bringing every thought into captivity to their redeeming success, and being ready to punish

all disobedience,.

Please be seated, and let's pray.

Dear Lord, we have come before you.

We acknowledge that when we talk to pray, we talk to pray our Father who lives in heaven,

hallowed be your name, and your kingdom come.

And we pray that you would give us our daily bread,

and frequently in our prayers and in our hopes, we concentrate on our daily bread, and we do not think about you or your heavenly

kingdom.

Lord, and we know that the battles that take place are spiritual,

and we just pray that you would strengthen our hearts, open the eyes of our hearts, that

you would prepare us to hear this message that Pastor Josh is bringing, and that

it would not just be empty words, Lord, that would come out,

but that your Spirit would empower them, and that you would speak your word in truth, and that we

would come out of this place with life's change, Lord, that we would live, held in

your word.

And we pray this in your holy name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Joseph.

We'll continue in our study, the preaching of the scripture from the

lives of the prophets Elijah, and now, this morning, continuing in

Elisha.

So if you would turn, please, to 2 Kings

6.

I'll read verses 8 through 23 of that chapter, though this

morning's preaching will probably end at about verse 17 of what I'm going to read, but I will

read the entire passage for you.

This is the word of God.

Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel, and he consulted with his servants, saying, My camp will be in such and such a

place.

And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you do not pass this place, for the

Syrians are coming down there.

Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him.

Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.

Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing, and he called his servants and said to them,

Will you not show me which one of us is for the king of Israel?

And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of

Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.

So he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.

And it was told to him, saying, Surely he is in Dothan.

Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and

chariots.

And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?

So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.

Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw.

And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, saying, Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.

And he struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.

Now Elisha said to them, This is not the way, nor is this the city.

Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.

But he led them to Samaria.

So it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see.

And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw.

And there they were inside Samaria.

Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, My father, shall I kill them?

Shall I kill them?

But he answered, You shall not kill them.

Would you kill those you have taken captive with your sword and your bow?

Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

Then he prepared a great feast for them, and after they ate and drank, he sent them away, and they went to their master.

So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.

You know, in an age when human reason is elevated above all

else, faith becomes an unreasonable mindset.

It becomes a worldview that is against the most common worldview that we're going to run into.

And since the so -called enlightenment of the 17th, the 18th centuries, when man's pride in his

discoveries, his accomplishments, virtually eliminated God from his thoughts, faith

has been seen as a crutch for the weak, as a diversion for the infantile.

Frederick Nietzsche summarized that whole movement very well when he declared God to be

dead.

You see, man's ability to reason killed him.

Our maturity made him unnecessary, and so he was consigned to the trash heap of history.

And men went and worshipped instead what they could see, what they could touch, what their

senses related to them.

In our land today, faith is regarded with suspicion or

amusement or condescension, sometimes even with violence.

But because we can't produce a physical being that is our God, because we believe in a

universal master who's above all and ruler of all, yet separate from all and invisible

to all, because we worship such a God as that, our faith is degraded in the

common parlance to being mere religion.

It's tolerated often the way children are tolerated when they have a special friend.

I ask you, do you believe that the God of Israel is with you?

That because of your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, that God is with you today and now

by His Spirit?

Do you believe such a thing?

That He is on your side?

Is your trust in the promises of God that He gives us in His Scripture, or is your trust in those promises as

extensive in your life as are the promises themselves?

He says, I will never leave you or forsake you.

That was first given to Israel through Moses.

They were on the brink of Canaan with nation after nation ready to oppose them to the death.

And Moses said this for God to them.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

And then that promise was given by God to Joshua who would lead them against those nations.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

Do you believe this?

It comes from a God you cannot see.

Do you believe this?

In Hebrews 13 .5, this commitment of God to protect His people is repeated to the church.

He who said, I will never leave you or forsake you.

Do you believe this?

Do you believe in this word, this promise from a God you cannot see?

Prove to me your faith, says your detractor.

You cannot produce God and show Him to them.

Do you believe He's with you, guarding and protecting His son's blood -bought child, if that indeed

be you?

When Jesus said, do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, were those just

nice -sounding words?

Was Jesus just finding a clever way to end a sermon?

Or do you hear there the unshakable, eternally established promise of God by His Son?

Is it just words, or is His promise a mighty fortress in times of stress or fear

or sorrow?

I ask these questions.

In your heart, answer them.

Because the alternative to saying, yes, I believe those promises, yes, the unseen God has made

promises to me through His Son Jesus, who also I can't for now see.

When the apostle says, but we see Jesus, he doesn't mean we see the physical man Jesus.

We see by faith the one who died for our sins.

The alternative to an affirmative answer to those kinds of questions is what Peter Lightheart rightly calls to be a

functional empiricist.

An empiricist, like a scientist, someone who can only believe in what I can see and touch and prove

mathematically or physically or scientifically.

I am sometimes amazed at the work that God does.

And many members of this congregation, we have mathematicians and scientists and engineers and

people who have been trained to think logically and sequentially in a linear fashion and to

prove theses with evidence, by doing experiments.

And yet God has gotten hold of your heart and made more important to you the

invisible God and the Christ who we believe was here, though we didn't see Him

and is now in heaven and we will one day see Him, but now we do not.

God has brought hearts of men with intellects like that.

Scientists, mathematicians, engineers all around us to know

the true and living God.

But if we can't answer affirmatively to those questions I started with, we're functionally empiricists,

believing only what we can have conveyed to us by senses, treating God as an unknowable

power, not a personal God, not a God who sent His Son

because He so loved the world.

He becomes just an unknowable power out there, something to be believed, not fully

trusted.

And if that is the case, if we're functionally un -empiricist as

Peter Lightheart says, if that is the case, then what happens in our

Christian walk?

When evil rears its head and threatens to undo us, fears indulge,

humanistic solutions are sought.

So children of God, hear me well.

2 Kings 6 verses 18 -23, they would rebuke

this kind of a practical deism.

It reminds us, this passage tells us that when Paul says we walk by faith and not by

sight, Paul meant here, he meant now, he meant in this life by

faith, not by sight.

And the powers that would dissuade us away from the gospel, though we cannot see them any more than we can see

God, those powers are real and they are powerful.

What did the angel tell Daniel?

The prince of Persia.

He doesn't mean the man who was the ruler of Persia rose up into the heavenlies and fought against the archangel

Michael.

He meant the dark forces that enlivened Persia.

That one.

Resisted them for these days.

Those forces are very real, they're very powerful.

No match for the God of the gospel.

But something that we need to take account of.

As this young man whose Elisha's servants saw when his eyes were opened, and he saw what?

We'll get to the description of what it was he actually saw in a little bit.

I would put it just as simply.

Reality.

He saw what was real.

He saw what was behind this physical world.

He saw what the real battle was really being fought.

He saw reality.

Do you know where the battle is fought?

Not the land battle in 2 Kings chapter 6 I just read about, where Syria has invaded Israel for this time.

I mean the real battle, the one being waged for your soul.

The battle is against principalities, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.

In a word, the battle is against demonic forces that are bent on evil and determined to lead you

astray.

If you are Christ's, to lead you astray.

If you're not Christ's, to keep you right where you are.

That's where the real battle is being fought.

And if we fail to know this, if for you the spiritual world is just something the Bible speaks of because it

was written so long ago, when men were so much more prone than we are to believe such things,

then I would propose to you that you're half defeated, if not fully defeated already.

Because you don't know where the real conflict is.

Excuse me.

Why is that?

Well first of all, because if your world is only what you can see and touch, there's huge chunks of the Bible that you've just denied.

So many parts of the Bible that speak of this, they try and set this before us.

That there is a spiritual realm.

And it is important, and that's where the wars are really fought.

If we don't believe this, there's a lot of pages that you have to tear out.

If not, use a marker and blank them out.

But also, if the world we cannot see is ignored, or if it's minimized, then what happens?

Our striving to be like Christ is fleshly striving.

Paul hammers this point home in several places.

He works to get Christians from 2 ,000 years ago to understand reality.

Just as Elisha did his servant.

They were no easier to convince about these things than we are.

I just want to note one of Paul's references in this matter, and then we're going to move on and get to our text.

In Colossians 2 .15, he writes this, speaking of Jesus Christ's work on the cross.

He says, Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them,

triumphing over them in it.

What is it?

It is the cross.

What are the principalities and powers?

Well, we know it's not Rome.

Jesus said explicitly it's not Rome that he came to destroy.

John says it's not a ruler sitting on a throne there on earth that he came to destroy.

It's the works of the devil.

Principalities and powers, as Paul says elsewhere, the prince of the power of the air.

It's a spiritual reality.

Our battle is a spiritual battle.

The forces against us are spiritual forces, and the forces for us, the

force of God, is spiritual force.

We even call him the Holy Spirit.

What happens here in this world is important.

The way we live while we're in these earthly tents, as Peter calls them, is crucial.

Our deeds will follow us all the way to the judgment seat of Christ.

But the issue is decided elsewhere.

It's in the heavenlies.

Jesus Christ, suffering on the cross, he triumphed over the forces of darkness.

Forces which we cannot see.

Forces which the servant of Elisha could not see.

Until God, in answer to Elisha's prayer, opened his eyes.

And then he saw reality.

One thing we don't get in the text is what the servant said next.

This just really stuns me.

If I was Elisha's servant, and I looked down and I saw this army coming after me, well, they're coming

after him, but I guess I'm going to get taken or hurt in the process.

And all of a sudden my eyes are open and I saw horses and chariots of fire all

around.

I'd probably say something.

We don't get his reaction.

Lord willing, that reaction was, ah, God is on our side.

Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

We can say, Christian, he who is with us is more than those who are with

them.

We can say, Jesus, who is with us, is greater than all.

Our text brings us to this Syrian campaign against Israel.

And in this campaign they run into trouble really fast, don't they?

The king's orders were made known to his opponent, who takes steps every time to frustrate him at whatever point he

is coming.

If he's coming on a pass, there's Israel, and they can block it.

If he's heading for the high ground, Israel can be there and take it first.

Wherever he's going, they know where it is and they can take steps.

So he wants to know who the traitor is, the king of Syria.

Who's against us?

And really in the context, he's looking at his generals and saying, which one of you

accepted the bribe from the king of Israel to betray me?

Something like that.

He's told by one of his generals, and by the way, Matthew Henry is convinced that it was Naaman, who we met a couple chapters

ago.

He only says that it must be Naaman.

He doesn't tell us why it must be Naaman.

So we won't go too far with that, but it's an interesting idea.

But one of his generals tells him, no, there are no traitors here.

We're all for you, king.

It's that prophet, that prophet of God, the prophet in Israel.

His name's Elisha.

He can tell the king what you say in the intimacy of your own bedroom.

He knows it all.

Because God is telling him.

It's implied by the text, though not explicitly stated.

So he found out where the prophet was.

These men knew right away.

Surely he's in Dothan.

We know where Dothan is.

They knew he was there.

And he sends a great force there to take him captive, most likely hoping to take him

alive, bring him back to his camp, and use this intelligence against the king of Israel.

Elisha's servant wakes up.

He goes on about his morning duties.

He sees this army surrounding the city, and what does he do?

He panics.

He panics.

Alas, my master, what shall we do?

It's hopeless.

Well, Elisha says, no, there's nothing to be afraid of.

You need to see reality.

You need to see what's really happening here.

He prays that he might see.

He gets this glimpse of reality.

The Syrians are then blinded, according to Elisha's prayer.

They're led to Samaria, led right to their enemy's camp, the king of Israel's capital city.

Their eyes are open, and there they are at their enemy's mercy.

And according to the word of Elisha, the king feeds them and sends them on their way.

That is this history in a nutshell.

And what do we take from this?

This unique passage.

And so many of the things that happened with Elisha before Elisha, now Elisha, are so unique in the

prophetic histories that we have.

What do we do with this?

This prophet telling the king where the army is, him sending an

army, trying to capture him.

And I think I spoke a few weeks ago about the Duke of Marlborough to make an illustration.

I'll use him one more time.

But he was England's commander -in -chief during the war against France in the early 18th

century.

And he had this knack for putting himself into his opponent's shoes and guessing what he would do in any given situation.

And he was able to maneuver his opponent all around the map until the opponent landed in the place where Marlborough

wanted him, where Marlborough's armies had all the advantage.

Then he would engage, and he was never wrong, and he never lost a battle.

And we sometimes wondered who was betraying the French plans to him because he

was so good at it.

The king of Syria is in this sort of trouble, but it's much, much worse.

You see, on Israel's side was more than a fine general and tactician.

They had the intelligence of God being mediated through the prophet.

The Syrian servant spoke truly when he said that there was no traitor in the camp, but it's Elisha, the prophet of God.

He's the one doing this.

And so Israel was able to respond.

At the time, they were much weaker than Syria.

And so having this intelligence, being able to get to the past before Syria invested it, or wherever it

was, was very, very important.

God sent warning to his people.

God, through the prophet, warned the people what was coming, of the danger that was approaching.

And we need to stop for a moment and think about this.

Because is it not just like God to warn his people of their peril?

And the Syrians seem to have come into the land unimpeded.

Now that means either that Jotham, who was the king of Israel at the time, totally

incompetent as commander -in -chief, or the watchmen were all asleep, but somehow they got all the way across the land and

almost to Samaria with no major conflict with an Israeli force.

Elisha, had he not warned them of the Syrian plans, Israel would have been decimated by them.

But over and over, not just a few times, they were told just where the enemy was so they could protect themselves, so they could guard

themselves.

God warning his people, not just once or twice, again and again and again,

giving his people warning.

And here we are, almost 3 ,000 years later,

still being warned by God, still being told by the prophetic word he's given us,

of the dangers we face.

Does not God warn us of the price we pay when, for example, money becomes an idol to us?

Are we not warned of that the same way Elisha warned Israel of the Syrian position?

It was Jesus who said,

The prophet Elisha warned Israel.

The prophetic word warns us.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Throughout Proverbs, we're warned again and again of the risks we take when we indulge greed, or

adultery, or dishonesty, or laziness, or disrespect of our elders.

We're told that these things are not just bad in and of themselves, which they are, but they are

abominations to God, who will repay us according to our works.

The prophets, among their many functions, was to warn, was

to tell of the peril that they faced.

And so with us, with the prophetic word before us, we're

warned.

I remember when the disciples told Jesus how Pilate had slaughtered some worshipers.

Do you remember how he answered?

He answered by warning them.

Jesus, prophet, priest, and king, prophet, with the capital P that none other could carry.

He said, I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

You might think of Dothan, this little city.

Why should Dothan be afraid?

It was about 10 miles north of the capital of Samaria.

It lay in a depression, so it was vulnerable to attack and siege.

It couldn't protect itself very well, but it didn't have to.

It wasn't a major crossroad.

It was not a big commercial center.

You didn't get access to the Mediterranean or anywhere else by taking Dothan.

It was just a place.

It was just a spot on the map.

No strategic value.

What did they have to fear?

Well, they knew.

They must have known that the man of God was there.

If the Syrian officers knew, they said, surely he's in Dothan, then the people of Dothan must have known.

And how surprised Elisha's servant must have been.

Rises up early to attend to his duty.

He hears the sound of the soldiers.

He looks, and there they are, all around the city, ready to attack, ready to

extract or kill Elisha and presumably him too.

Alas, my master.

Alas, my master, what shall we do?

The same cry that we heard a few chapters ago when the axe head went into the water.

The same cry God hears so often from us when the consequences of our choices come to bear.

It's a cry of desperation.

It's a cry of one whose eyes see only so far as the mechanism of sight allows us to see.

What shall we do?

Why was he so afraid?

He had to have been there to have seen at least some of Elisha's miracles.

If he didn't see them for himself, he had to have heard of them.

He knew who this man was he was serving.

He was the man of God.

The only prophet in Israel at the time.

Gehazi notwithstanding, Elisha's choice for an attendant would have to have been a man of faith like Paul's choice of

Timothy.

Yet immediately, he runs to Elisha in desperation.

What shall we do?

We can almost hear him saying, maybe there's a tunnel we can sneak out of town.

Well, no, you're in a depression.

Whoever's on the rim can see everything.

Maybe there's a place we can go to hide, cover ourselves up with something.

Elisha's answer is, do not fear.

He saw the servant, saw this army of Syria arrayed all around this small defenseless city.

And he seems to know why they're there immediately.

He knows they're there to kill his master or capture him.

He sees their horses.

He sees their chariots.

He sees their soldiers, swords, and shields.

There are archers.

There are spearmen.

And what happens to this young man?

What happens?

It's the same thing so often happens to us.

Fear overcomes faith.

Now, fear ought not overcome faith.

Faith in God is stronger than our fear, but we do let it overcome.

We do let it take control.

Why did that happen to him?

Why does it happen to us?

Why does he look out and see the Syrian and say, alas, alas, what are we going to do?

It's because he reacted to sight.

He didn't have the Apostle Paul yet saying we walk by faith, not by sight.

Walk by faith in the Word of God.

Walk by faith with the Spirit dwelling within us and amongst us.

He didn't have that yet, and yet it had to have been true.

He reacted to what he saw.

For that one panicked moment, God left his thoughts.

Elisha's miracles are forgotten.

This fleeting breath was all that mattered.

And how often we are that servant.

The parallels between him and us are really pretty clear.

Elisha represented God's presence in forlorn Israel.

Jesus, he's God in the flesh.

And he fulfills in us today, right here in this place this morning, what Elisha could only hint at

in terms of mediating the presence of God.

Because Elisha was a prophet.

As James says of Elijah, he's a man with a spirit like ours.

Not so Jesus.

Jesus is God in the flesh.

He was Elisha's committed servant, and we are Jesus's.

When trouble arose, he took his eyes off his master.

And we, we what?

What do we do?

Can any of us say that when troubles assail us, that we are rock steady in our faith every time?

That we never waver?

That whatever issue comes at us in this temporal world, in the here and now,

that we look to scripture?

That before we respond, before we say, alas, what shall I do with this tax return?

Well, they don't need all this reported there, do they?

Before we do that, do we open our scripture?

Do we open our Bibles?

Do we bend our knee?

Can any of us say we never falter and call out in fear like this servant did?

Then look to our flesh for a solution?

A worldly answer to whatever dilemma we might be in?

And the answer that he got was immediate.

Elisha said, do not fear.

You can ask, is it that simple?

Is it so simple, just don't be afraid?

Well, no, there's more to it than that.

Not just don't be afraid, there's a truth that supports that.

There's a truth behind that.

Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

And so Christ says to us today.

There's so many verses we can read about being afraid and what God says about that fear.

Just a couple this morning, just two.

Jesus said, peace I live with you, my peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

See, Jesus doesn't just say, well, don't be afraid, okay?

Now go on with your life.

Don't worry about those things.

No, there's more to it.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ has given us his peace.

He's given us himself.

He's given us his spirit.

He's given us his word.

Therefore, don't be afraid because what we have is more powerful than our fears.

Revelation 2 .10, writing to the church at Smyrne, I believe.

Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer.

Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days.

Be faithful unto death.

Just be faithful.

Just don't be afraid.

Don't be scared.

Stop being weak.

Is that what he says?

No, he says, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

These are both from the lips of our Lord Jesus.

The question is, do you believe them?

The unseen Jesus.

Not one of us in this place has ever seen him with our eyes.

Do you believe those kinds of words?

That we have this cause to not call out with the servant and say,

alas, what shall I do?

Do you believe what Jesus said?

Why?

If you say yes, I ask you why?

You can't see Jesus and you're not going to see him until he calls you to himself or he returns.

Yet we believe him.

We believe his word.

We're called to trust him who we cannot see with our very lives.

We're called to believe that Jesus is in heaven, not even knowing where heaven really is.

In fact, the most glorious of God's promises demand that we acknowledge that this here and now physical world

is not final, is not ultimate, that there is an unseen world beyond.

Peter and James and Paul, they all remind us that this life is a fleeting breath and that

eternity stretches beyond.

Faith, you see, faith is not what we can see and handle.

It's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

When I read 2 Kings 6, I think of that servant.

For myself, I'm sort of glad that God has not opened my eyes so that I can actually see the

spiritual conflict around me.

I think it would scare the bejabbers out of me.

I think I would faint from fright and I'm not being jokey at all about that.

Oh, I believe with the eyes of my understanding, with the eyes of faith, that

is exactly what the scripture says it is.

There's going on around us right now with a violence that we can only imagine, if we can imagine

it.

I don't think I could stand to have my eyes opened up to the point that I can actually see beings

of such hate and evil and malevolence.

I'm perfectly satisfied that the Bible says that they exist and we're to be on our lookout

and we're to fall back on the strength of God and that he is greater than them.

That's enough for me.

You need evidence?

God in his grace, knowing our weaknesses, gives us evidence.

What he did to them, opened his eyes, they may see.

Well, his vision was just fine, we know that.

We're talking about his spiritual vision.

The Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all

around Elisha.

Horses and chariots of fire all around.

This reminds us of Elijah, his master, Elisha's master, being taken up into heaven in a

chariot of fire.

And he sees the mountain full of them.

What was Elisha's prayer for the young man?

It was much like Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, for us.

Ephesians 1 .18, praying that the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened, might be opened.

See reality.

Not just what we take in this way, but what's really going on.

And this young man in 2 Kings 6, his eyes are now wide open, he sees clearly.

Might be the first time.

We need to ask for a moment of the text.

What did he actually see?

Commentators are virtually unanimous that he saw the host of heaven surrounding Elisha

to protect him.

But one man I read, T .R. Hobbes, he says that what the man saw was

only the spiritual forces that enlivened Syria.

In other words, the dark demonic forces, principalities,

powers, that sort of thing.

When I was talking about this with one of the brothers, I said, hey, look what this guy says.

Well, it's just a sentence.

He doesn't support it.

It's kind of like, he's got nothing, is what the other guy said.

But I was thinking about this.

Elisha had mentioned two things.

Those who are with us, those who are with them.

He said, don't worry because those who are with us, that's one, are more than those who are with them.

That's the second.

When the servant's eyes were opened, I think he saw the whole picture.

I think he saw the forces, the spiritual forces that enlivened Syria.

And I think he saw the host of heaven that was around Elisha.

Elisha mentioned them both.

Those with us, those with them.

Now the Lord opened his eyes.

And the Lord opened his eyes.

I believe he saw the whole picture.

He saw reality.

He saw the armies of heaven sent by God to guard his sole prophet in Israel.

He saw the minions of darkness trying to destroy the Lord's servant through their Syrian surrogates.

He saw a mighty army of angels with swords drawn against whom their adversary

had no chance.

He saw both.

To the natural eye, they're both unseen.

When that eye is opened by faith, then both are more real, aren't they?

We do ourselves great harm if we ignore the spiritual reality.

Deny implicitly or explicitly that there is a devil who is a literal, albeit spiritual, being.

We leave ourselves wide open to attack.

On the other hand, put too much attention here, lose sight of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, But I have prayed for you.

We err the other way.

We don't guard ourselves against the demonic.

Jesus prays for his people in constant intercession for us.

He stands guard over us as his own inheritance given to him by the Father and purchased by him

on the cross.

This is a difficult truth in this modern world.

I would suggest it's been difficult since the enlightenment that I spoke of in the introduction to this.

To actually say, I believe in the spiritual forces all around us.

Many people find it very acceptable that you believe in God.

Now if you mention Jesus, you're going to lose a lot of people.

Most people will tolerate that and talk to you about that in some reasonable fashion.

Now I add to that, by the way, did you know there's an actual literal devil?

Now you've gone too far.

Now you've just kind of stepped over the edge.

Now it's no longer a cute little religion that you've got.

And yet that's what the scripture clearly teaches.

As I said, get out your black marker.

There's a lot of verses to cross out if we're not going to believe that.

We didn't get very far in this chapter really.

You have the Syrian attack.

You have the young man in his panic.

His eyes open.

Presumably he became confident.

And Lord willing, we'll come back to this chapter next week or the week after.

Because we do need to discuss the capture of the Syrian army and Elisha leading them away.

And then sending them away from the King of Israel well fed.

There's an awful lot there for us to ponder.

A lot of good for our souls in the rest of this chapter.

Today I thought it would be good that we focus on the reality of the conflict that goes on beyond our sight.

To remind us that this is true.

That as hard as it might be to say in the office environment or to your neighbor, that

yes, along with Jesus, who is greater than all, never forget that, more powerful than all,

he rules over all.

But along with that we believe in a devil.

In the spiritual forces of darkness.

Not a silly red being with those horns and that funny tail and a pitchfork and all that nonsense.

Because that's just barely cute compared to what he really is.

We don't want to minimize him.

We don't want to overemphasize him.

Scripture speaks of him and all around him as a reality.

Just as it speaks of heaven and hell, neither of which we can see.

And yet, one, the destiny for those whose faith is in Jesus Christ, who have repented of their

sins.

And because of what Christ did on the cross, fled to God.

Asking for forgiveness and finding it because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

There awaits heaven.

Do you know exactly what heaven is?

Read the first chapter of Ezekiel, see if you can figure it out.

No, we only know it's a place where every tear has been made obsolete.

Where there's no more pain, no more suffering, no more sorrow.

Where the light is not the sun, but God himself in his son Jesus Christ.

But we can't see it.

It also teaches that there's a hell for those who will not repent, for those who blaspheme God, for those who will not turn

from their sin and flee to Christ.

I want to remind us this morning of these kind of realities.

I pray that the eyes of your understanding, as Paul says in Ephesians, your heart will be opened up.

And not to put the focus on that darkness.

Because we've been called out of that darkness and into God's marvelous light.

But just that we don't ignore it.

Because if we ignore it, we're not ready for it.

And God speaks over and again about being prepared.

I want us to know who the enemy is.

The enemy is not the Arminian.

The enemy is not the Pentecostal.

The enemy is not even our insane legislatures who can't figure out what a boy and a girl is.

Those are not the enemy.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2, verses 1 and 2,.

And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the

course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the

sons of disobedience.

There's reality.

That's where the enemy is.

That's the one who is trying with all his might and main to keep you in darkness.

And Jesus plucked you out of it according to his father's will.

The prince of the power of the air.

Clearly the devil.

Clearly all those forces at work in this way.

2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says,.

It's the God of this age who blinds men to the truth.

Who's the God of the age?

It's the prince of the power of the air.

Who is that?

It's the same one who sends chariots and horses of fire behind the Syrian army.

It's the one we read of in 1 John 3, verse 8,.

He who sins is of the devil.

For the devil has sinned from the beginning.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Paul says in Ephesians 6,.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this

age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.

None of this you can see.

And if a scientist comes to you and says, Well, prove it to me.

You're not going to reach up into the air and pull one of these beings down and show him.

No.

And yet we believe it because God in his word says it.

The struggles against our fleshly yearnings that our enemy so effectively

excites in us.

We don't say the devil made me do it.

We're not allowed that.

When we sin, who made me do it?

I made me do it.

I chose to do it.

Who sets this temptation before us?

Who gets us excited to the point that for a moment we believe that this is

going to be better than following Jesus.

For this moment I'll set my faith aside and indulge this momentary pleasure.

That's where the battle is.

That's what the fight's all about.

That's why Ephesians 6, 13 and 17 tells us, Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to

withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

Understand that God does not leave us on our own against this foe.

We don't have a chance.

I remember when I was first converted and I was in the Bible study fellowship

and one of the first questions the teaching leader asked in the first lecture I was at

was, What do you do when the devil comes pounding at your door and wants to have influence in your house with your family?

And my first thought, I was very young in the faith then, was, Oh, I know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to fight.

I'm going to bolt the door.

I'm going to get out my Bible.

I'm going to pray real hard.

He says, No.

Just fall down on your knees.

Forget all that other stuff.

Just get down and pray.

Put on the armor of God on our own.

Not a chance.

He's stronger than you, me, all of us.

Stand therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your

feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the

fiery darts of the wicked one.

Fiery darts, the temptations that are sent our way.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and

supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with

all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

I don't want to go through each piece of this armor this morning.

It's enough for now that God has given us what we need.

The reality is that these forces are against us.

A stronger reality is that God has given us all the resource to protect

us, to come out of whatever we face

victorious in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I would leave us with this this morning.

If the context is spiritual battle, the answer is really towards the end here, praying always

with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.

Do you believe that there are forces of darkness that are doing all they can to make you stumble, to take your eyes off of Christ,

to make us join Elisha's servant and cry out, Alas, what shall we do?

Before we even bend our knee or open our Bible.

I think sometimes so much of the turmoil that we have is because our belief in the spiritual is only an

intellectual assent.

Too often it's not a practical experiential confidence.

We step out in the morning and we cry, Alas, what am I to do?

Because something has happened.

The car won't start.

The job's going away.

The taxes are more than we can afford.

The scripture answers simply, pray.

Praying always in the spirit.

Do we stop to pray?

Do we understand the forces that are arrayed against us and the power of prayer?

Not the power of the words we speak, but the God who hears, the God who gave us all that armor that I

spoke of a moment ago.

What am I to do?

We say, no, I haven't got time to pray.

I need to act now.

I need to do what's best, what's practical.

And when I've solved things my way, then I'll offer up a prayer and thank God for his wonderful solution

when really God was in none of it.

We need to avoid the practical deism that I think

Elisha's servant had at first.

He was with the man of God.

He was serving God by serving Elisha.

He'd seen the miracles.

He was a Christian, right?

He was someone who comes in and he serves all the time.

He's there at all the meetings, doing all the work.

But when a little push comes to shove, alas, what shall we do?

It's Elisha's answer.

Pray God to keep your eyes open that you see the reality of what's coming at you, where it's from.

Pray God to keep your eyes open that you keep your scripture opened and

see God's answer.

Pray God to keep your eyes open that you understand and believe his word and respond to

whatever it is, his way.

And then Elisha's words make sense.

Fear not.

Those who are with them, excuse me, those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

He, Jesus, who is with us is more than all the forces that could be arrayed

against you.

Pray.

See what God will do.

We're so good at finding answers, at solving problems.

Scientists, mathematicians, engineers in this place, so good at working things out and

proving things.

It's what you're trained to do.

It's what you're paid to do.

Answers are logical.

They're practical.

They're quite often very effective.

They get the thing done, don't they?

Might even be right.

But let us make sure to follow the prophet.

Let us take heed to Paul's warnings.

Let us hear Jesus tell us that our dilemmas, all our trials, our tribulations, our persecutions,

all of this are in his hands.

His hands.

And let us remember that we are spiritual.

If you have the spirit of Christ, you are spiritual.

Walking by faith, not by sight.

And if we are spiritual, then so must our response be to everything.

Amen?

Heavenly Father, give you thanks, Lord, for the warnings that we gain in the Bible, that

the Bible gives us reality that we must understand and respond to.

And Lord, as hard as these powers are against us, we thank you, Father,

that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or fleshly, but mighty in the Lord for

casting down strongholds.

So, Father, I pray that we would avail ourselves of what you have given us, that we would have our eyes open

and not fear the Lord, just see things as they truly are.

And most of all, that we'd keep our sight upon Jesus Christ, who is greater than all, and will see us through.

Thank you for all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.