In this sermon, the preacher discusses a story from the Old Testament in 2nd Kings chapter 6. The story revolves around Ben Haydad, who was sending armies against the children of Israel. However, the king of Israel always seemed to be one step ahead, as he knew all of Ben Haydad's plans. Ben Haydad was frustrated and wanted to find out who was leaking the information. The preacher emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit and how it empowers believers to overcome challenges and opposition. He encourages the audience to seek God's guidance and power through prayer.

I want to refer again to that verse that's so familiar, I hope it never become too familiar to us, as our Lord goes back to heaven, those last words that we find not only, well our Lord last, He also gives up for the task. Listen what those divines said, and I say this to underscore that point, because one thing I hope to do, leave the scriptures apart from the Holy Spirit, think of the Spirit as the only agent in evangelism. Listen to this paragraph, to a high efficacy of the doctrines of the scripture, the consistent of all the parts of scripture, the full discovery of that scripture, and many other incomes and the entire perfection thereof, yet, yet notwithstanding the full persuasion of scripture, that is of the infallible, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts. No one will believe the Bible, saving from the work of the inward work of the hour, is the need of any hour, whether it's evangelism or worship or what it is. It's vain apart from the Holy Spirit. We Baptists aren't so sophisticated, and this hymnal, it's a hymn called, brethren we are, it's a hymn called, the name of it is, we have met to worship, and one of the lines go like this, brethren we have met to worship, and adore the Lord our God, will you pray with all your power, we need the Holy Spirit in the right place, to decide. Those of us who are serious about preaching the gospel, when he has come, the promise was, he'll reprove the world of sin, that's what we want to see, the world reproved of sin, wouldn't you like to see that? He'll reprove of righteousness, and of the people itching, if you look at what they meant, Peter answered, and that's the right between life and death, and heaven and hell, seeking to be obedient, teachable people, people who worship, they're all worshiping people, they're all witnessing people, Christians are made to love God, and to love the people of God, and to love the church of God, that's what the Spirit produces, well what is an apostolic church, stick out, continually devoted themselves to Acts 47, and then they were united to Christ, they would shake the assembling of themselves together, witnessing of the people to overflow, altogether, it can do a lot of things, human gifts, ability, God given organization, machinery can do a lot of things, but I'll tell you one thing it can't do, it can't add one saved person to the church, it's intellectually about Christian century, English, any other subject, you can learn religious truth the same way, the Holy Spirit, and I think I'll be able to show you that in a moment, is to point out to you what happens, real machine gun fashion, when Peter, what did Peter do when he was filled with the Spirit, Peter preached, he was filled with the Spirit, says they were filled with the Spirit, what did Peter do, he preached, and he didn't preach in an unknown tongue, Peter gave witness, Acts chapter 4, Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, the concert they do, well look at Acts chapter 4 verse 31, verse 5 again referring to Stephen, it says he was a man full of the Holy Spirit, well what did Stephen do, what does a man, well it tells us what he did, he preached, Acts 56, Peter preached, also called Paul, that's the first time his name is mentioned, he wanted the power, he wanted the power, he preached, and he didn't preach in an unknown tongue, Peter gave witness, Acts chapter 4, Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, the concert they do, well look at Acts chapter 4 verse 31, verse 5 again referring to Stephen, it says he was a man full of the Holy Spirit, well what did Stephen do, what does a man, well it tells us what he did, he preached, Acts 56, Peter preached, also called Paul, that's the first time his name is mentioned, he didn't preach in an unknown tongue, he didn't preach in an unknown tongue, Simon had witnessed these empowered men, they were empowered by the Spirit, he had witnessed them proclaiming Christ, verse 5, it's very clear what they were doing, then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached, he knew the apostles worked miracles that were not fraud, this one thing is very clear, that any serious reading of the book of Acts, you'll soon see, a class of, was given to empower the church to bear a faithful witness to Jesus Christ to the end of the earth, in words that people could understand, the Spirit is filled with the Spirit, that's the most common terminology, at least in the book of Acts, to express that relationship between the Spirit and the individual believer, now I'm not, not any time did they speak in tongues, but at every case, in every case it empowered them for gospel witness, the epistles in the New Testament say positively nothing about it, when we're given the qualifications for elders in Titus and in Timothy, one of the qualifications is not this, for officers, elders, preachers, surely it would have been one of the qualifications, now I don't say we can ignore this because it's in the Bible, but I'm not a temporary gift, and he told them he's gone away, he said because I've told you this, what happened to them, they were, that news to them, looked down on the organization doing to keep them, I pity these poor preachers and they got to keep that circus going boy, you got to keep that circus going or they'll be gone, if it's not this super duper special music and this and that, it all has its place, let me tell you, whatever you fill the church with, that's what you got to keep on doing to keep them, if you fill them with a religious circus, you got to keep the circus going, entertainment, if you fill them with biblical preaching and teaching, that'll keep them and you don't have to have the circus, but you better keep preaching, better keep your preachers on your toes, the condition of man burned into our soul, that is the biblical description of those to whom we're sent, it will drive us to our knees because we'll learn from the Bible that these people that we're sent to cannot understand, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish, he can't understand and I'm meant to preach to him who can't understand, furthermore he can't hear, Jesus said in John 8, why do you not understand my speech, because you cannot hear my word, now did he mean that they did not hear him physically, he said you don't understand my speech, because you cannot hear my word, except the man be born again, he cannot see, then he can't come, have to preach to people like that, and apparently not before, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken, where they assembled together together, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and what did they do, ask for what they want, and they spake the word of God with boldness, between a sovereign God and the cry of his people, that knows that relationship between a sovereign God and the cry of his people, they were men of prayer, and I turn to the New Testament, and I see that the men that were used, I see prayer in connection with what I'm talking about today, prayer in connection with evangelism, brethren pray for me, he meant it, because you see if you don't have a sovereign God, that appeal to God and his sovereign greatness, and that was the essence of the prayer itself, that they were convinced that God was sovereign in four areas, quickly, verse 24, he was sovereign Lord of creation, Lord you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all within is his, that's sovereignty, verse 25 and 26, he was sovereign in history, peoples, nations, kings, rulers, Lord you're sovereign in history, verses 27 and 28, he was a sovereign Lord in redemption, to do whatever you and your purposes determined beforehand, that's sovereign in redemption, verses 29, the prayer still reflects sovereignty in another area, the sovereign Lord over the contemporary scene, this very present hour he was sovereign, they said, they started to say, now Lord, now, this condition we're in now, sovereign in creation, sovereign, that's where you are right now, and if he's not sovereign over that, he's not sovereign at all, they say spirit, spirit, spirit, and then they knock down all the bridges by which the spirit might enter, well prayer is one of them, 2 Kings chapter 6, all the time, and he was, so he gathered all his people around him, and he thought I'm going to find out who's leaking this out, and he asked the question, which one of you, which one of you are the traitors, leaking all this information out, this confidential, in the presence of the enemy, and they answered, none of us Lord, none of us, none of us Lord, Lord the King, they said none of us, but they said, well who is it, well he said there's a prophet, Elisha, none of us Lord but the King, it's this prophet down there in Israel, and he's the culprit, he's the culprit, he's the one that's leaving it out, and he seemed to know all of our plans before they even came to thoughts themselves, he said this prophet knows our plans before they come into our thoughts, well he said, well Ben-Hadad, where is he, where is he, well he said, Dothan, and they said send an army, well send an army, you know this is really funny, could make a good cartoon, this picture, I really think, I'm so not ready, I just, I picture a cartoon, and when you're finished you'll see what I think would make a good cartoon, so they got the army ready, they're going to send an army down after this one little problem, so they got the cavalry, and the artillery, and the infantry, and they gathered this huge army, and boy, it's really something, and if it wouldn't be in the Bible, it would be a cartoon, who the prophet, and the young men went out, and they see this vast army of Syria, they see the cavalry, the artillery, the infantry, and wow, and the young man goes down, he turns to the right, and he says, my father, my father, what shall we do, oh, the wise says, don't fear, what do you mean with the enemy, and then he looked at Elijah, he looked at himself, he says, can't you just imagine what he's thinking, can you just imagine what he's thinking, I think he was thinking, the trouble with these old guys, he said, they should have retired long ago, that's what his father was thinking, well, they just didn't want to, he just didn't want to face up to the reality about this problem, he said, that's the problem, these old men don't face reality, he said, they ought to go off the scene, it takes young men to do this thing, well, but what did the old man, what the old man saw, he saw reality, and that's what Elijah did, in verse 17 of that chapter, Elijah prayed, and he said, Lord, I pray thee, this was his prayer, open the young man's eyes, that there is a relationship,