2nd Kings chapter 2. I'm going to read the first 15 verses. In the title of this message,
A CALL TO THE MINISTRY. This has to do with Elisha being
called to the ministry, taking the place of Elijah Let me read
these first 15 verses. And it came to pass when the
Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by whirlwind, that Elijah
went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha,
Terry here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.
And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul
liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.
And what's happening here, you'll see in verse 2, 4 and 6, Elijah
is TRYING Elisha. He's being tried here, doesn't
realize it, but Elijah, and he's making it evident that he's not
the one calling him to take his place. It's of God. And then he says in verse three,
And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth
to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will
take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yes,
yea, I know it. Hold your peace. And Elijah said
unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath
sent me to Jericho. And he said, as the Lord liveth
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came
to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets
that were at Jericho came to Elisha and said unto him, knowest
thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head
today? And he answered, yes, I know
it, hold your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Terry,
I pray thee here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he
said, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not
leave thee. And they too went on. And 50
men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off,
and they too stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, wrapped
it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither
and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground. And
it came to pass when they were gone over that Elijah said unto
Elisha, ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from
thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. It's evident he realized
that he was not sufficient. by himself for the ministry he
was called to. And there's no doubt that's one
of the things that God makes very clear to any man he calls
to the ministry, is no man is sufficient for these things. No man is sufficient to handle
God's glory, the gospel of God's glory, and no man is sufficient
to handle matters of eternity, of life and death. No man is
sufficient for that. But Paul said, and I'll read
it to you here in a little bit, God is our sufficiency. I look
to God, I look to God, I can say that with a good conscience. I look to God to enable me to
preach here every week. I look to Him to open the scriptures
to me in the study. I don't look to the commentaries
to open the scriptures to me. I read commentaries, I do. Henry
told us in the preacher school, you can read a lot of A Few Good
Men, because that's all there are is a few good men. But I
look to the Lord to enable me and to enable you to hear, to
really be fed when you come here, to really go home with something.
You don't have to remember the whole message, but there will
be something in the message that's for you. You say, that was so
good, that blessed me, that just opened so much up. Just a word,
sometimes it's just a word. And if it's of God, it's a powerful
word. And he said, thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless,
if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto
thee. But if not, it shall not be so.
And it came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold,
there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted
them both asunder. And Elijah went up by whirlwind
into heaven and Elisha saw it. And he cried, my father, my father,
the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, and he saw
him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes
and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank
of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and smote the waters and said, where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had And when he also
had smitten the water, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha
went over. And when the sons of the prophets,
which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The Spirit
of Elijah doth rest on him. And they came to meet him, and
bowed themselves to the ground before him. Here we have a call
to the ministry. Now the Lord made it known to
Elijah, Back over in 1 Kings 19, that he had chosen Elisha
to take his place to be a prophet of Israel. God made it known
to Elijah, but Elijah was very careful. He was very careful
that he himself didn't put Elisha in the ministry. That Elisha
would never say, Elijah called me to this position to take his
place. Elijah didn't call Elisha to
take his place, God did. God did. You didn't call me to
take Rupert's place, God did. If my ministry is true, if it's
of God, God called me to stand here. Nobody, no other man did. Even though He used you to call
me, the call is from God. We know that, the call is from
God. It says on 1 Kings 19, 16, And Jehu the son of Nimshi, shalt
thou anoint to be king over Israel. This is God speaking to Elijah.
And Elisha the son of Saphat of Abel-Mehola, shalt thou anoint
to be prophet in thy room. And then it says there in verse
19 in 1 Kings 19. So he departed thence and found
Elisha, the son of Saphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke
of oxen before him. And he was the twelfth, and Elijah
passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. But that doesn't mean
Elijah called him. Elijah just did what God said
to do. But there's something I noticed
here. He says he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. God
does not call lazy men to the ministry. Period. He's not calling a lazy man to
the ministry. Every man whom God calls, he's
busy doing something. And then God stops him and puts
him in the ministry. Now there is a real sense, there's
a real sense that every One whom God saves is in the ministry.
You're in the ministry. It's different than what I'm
doing. I'm standing here as a pastor and preaching. But you have a
ministry in giving, in praying, in supporting, in doing whatever
is needed to be done here. That's a ministry. You're in
the body of Christ and in the body of Christ you have a ministry
and it is where God has put you. right now at your ministry. Paul
said this in Romans 12, for as we have many members in one body
and all members have not the same office, you know, my hands
don't have the same office as my feet. They don't have the
same place in the body as my feet. I don't walk on my hands. But my hands have a different
position than my feet and my legs. But it's what? One body. There's one body here
that you're looking at. And there's one head on this
body. As there's one head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we be many are one body in
Christ and everyone members one of another. Were y'all one in
Christ? Having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us. Were the prophecy, let us
prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Whatever gift God's
given you, use it. Don't envy the other one's gifts. Use what God's given you. You
know, I don't know what it is about us in human nature. We
want what someone else has got, don't we? Having then gifts get differing
according to the grace that's given to us, whether prophecy,
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry,
let us wait on our ministry, let us be about it. Or he that
teaches on teaching, or he that exhorts on exhortation, he that
gives, let him do it with simplicity. That's a ministry, giving is
a ministry. A man told me one time, a millionaire, I mean,
he made a lot of money. And he told me one time after
he tried to retire when he was a younger man, in his 50s. And after about a year went by,
he stopped by and talked to me and he said, you know, God has
given me a gift of making money. He said, I recognize that. He
never took that ability to himself. He said, God's given me that
gift. And he's given me the gift of the ability to use it. And
he did, he was very liberal with it. And he said to me, he said,
I just don't think it's right for me to lay it down. It's not. We don't lay the gift
down. I tell you this, if we lay a
gift down and we're done with it, God's done with us. That's
the truth. Or he that exulteth in exhortation,
or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth
with diligence, and he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. We all have a position in the
body of Christ, but there are some whom God, some men, not
women. There are some men whom God has
chosen and set aside to be pastors, teachers, evangelists, missionaries.
You know, Walter Groover, one of them, I think, he has set
them aside for the ministry. And they are to come apart. I
mean, we're to come apart from the world as far as that goes,
but they are to really be separated to the ministry. Paul said, he
that woreth entangles not himself again with the affairs of this
life. We don't hang on to this trying to do this. We don't do
that. We have to trust the Lord to
provide. He will provide, the Lord will
provide. If he's called a man to the ministry,
I know something about, I know what I'm talking about. You know,
I'm almost 70 years old now, and I've been around doing this
since I was 23 years old. I know what I'm talking about.
You know, when I studied this this week,
I looked at it and I thought, I know what this was about. I
know what this was about. When God calls a man to the ministry,
he's separated to the ministry and the Lord will remove everything
else. When it comes time for him to be in the ministry, to
be at a place, he'll remove everything else. And that's where that man
will be. Now He has chosen some, as I
said, to be pastors and teachers, as it says in Ephesians 4, and
He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. God's
given that. God chose them. We don't choose them, God chooses
them. I'll get to this in a minute. And the ministry is not something
that a man seeks, although I have seen Several men seek the ministry
and fail at it. I've seen him seek it and fail
at it, but I've watched him. I've watched some who wanted
to get in Henry's back pocket because of the contacts. I've
watched it. We don't seek the ministry. We
seek the Lord and we seek to make him known. I remember I
started writing Henry when I was 22-23 years old about the ministry. And I spoke about a desire to
preach and so forth. And he wrote me a letter back
and he said, a desire to make Christ known does not necessarily
constitute a call to the ministry. And then he gave me an outline
of what a call to the ministry is. He said, all the Lord's People,
all His children want to make the Lord known. Everybody here,
everybody here who believes, you want to make Him known. But
that doesn't constitute a call to do what I'm doing here. That's
what you want to do because God saved you. You want to go and
tell people what the Lord has done for you. But it doesn't
constitute a call. But I'll give you some things
that does constitute a call here in a minute. But we don't seek
to become pastors or teachers. I had a man say to me some years
ago, he said, I have a burning desire to be a pastor. That troubled
me. I can understand a burning desire
to want to make Christ known, but to seek the office is a problem.
I know the Word of God says, he that desires the office of
a bishop desires a good work. I believe that for the most part
is after the Lord has put him in it. I like what I do. I enjoy what I do. this office
that I've been called to. It's got a heavy responsibility
to it, but I have a desire to it now. I have a real affection
for it. But to want to be a pastor, when
that man told me that, I thought, you have no idea what you're
talking about. You have no idea. Because I tell
you what, God's going to make a man, well, I'm not even going
to get to this, am I? But God's going to make a man
a pastor. He's going to put him through some real heartaches.
It's not an easy road. He's going to break his heart
because he's got to be able to minister to the people, to the
sheep he's speaking to, that he preaches to. He's got to be
able to sit down and weep with those who weep and rejoice with
those who rejoice. You have to be able to do that.
I thought, boy, would you want to go through
what David went through to be king? You know, I thought of
this. I thought, especially when I
was younger, when I was younger, I thought, boy, I wish I could
preach like Henry. I wish I could preach like that.
But I don't want to go through what he's gone through to do
it. He buried two of his children
and one grandchild. That's what it is to be made
a pastor. He told me when I, well, this is a few years after
I'd been there. I went there when he was about 52, 53. And he told me, he said, I didn't
become a pastor until I was 50 years old. I mean, he was a pastor
when he was like 25, 26. But he said, I didn't really
become a pastor until I was 50. God put him through some things.
He put him through some things. So we don't seek to be a pastor
or preacher. We seek to make Christ known.
Paul said in Colossians 4, he said, And say to Archippus, Take
heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord. That's
how you receive the ministry. You didn't just become one. You
didn't just become a pastor. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, And
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that
he calleth me faithful, putting me into the ministry. I can say with confidence the
Lord put me here in the ministry. He did that. I'm confident of it. Here's the evidence of a
call to the ministry. Here's an evidence of it. First
of all, and you're gonna say, well, that's obvious, like Mr. Obvious. God has to save a man. You know how many men are trying
to become pastors and teachers that are not saved? A bunch of
them. Seminaries are turning them out
by the groves, and God has never saved them. Mama talked him into
being a preacher. She wanted him to be a preacher,
so they ended up going to the seminary. Or Dad or somebody
talked him into it. Or they thought it was just a
good thing to do. God has to save a man. Then secondly, God
will teach that man. Out of His Word, sitting under
a pastor, He'll teach that man. And then God will give him the
message. Henry said this to me once, he said, you got the message.
And when he said that, I didn't know what he was saying then
like I know now. I know what he's saying now.
But he said, you got the message. Then God will give him the gift
to preach and handle the word of God. And when I say handle
the word of God, I mean rightly divide the word of truth. He'll
be able to use Scripture, to apply Scripture to Scripture
properly, and not take it out of context, but leave it in its
context, and not separate it. But able, and this is one of
the things that I think is so important, is when you listen
to a man preach, that he's handling the Scriptures with the Scriptures. That's important. And then fifthly,
God will give him a hearing. People will want to hear him.
There'll be a group of people. I mean, other people would like
to hear him. But there'll be a specific group of people that
will want to hear this man. And he'll give them an affection
for him and him for them. That doesn't happen with anybody
else. And then here's one of the things
I listen to when I listen to a man preach, and I'm very For me, I'm very strict with
this. God will give him power and authority in his preaching.
I've heard a lot of preaching that there's not enough power
in it to blow a candle out. Is there power and authority
in the man's preaching? When our Lord was speaking on
the mountain, you know what they said? He doesn't speak like the
scribes. He speaks with power and authority
and so do his preachers, his pastors. They speak with authority
and they speak with power. And it's not them, it's God.
It's God owning the message. When God owns the message, there's
power that's going to go with that message, His Word. Now there's a few evidences of
the call to a ministry. God will just basically cut that
man out from the herd and set him aside and he's going to work
on him. He's going to prepare him. And if you'll notice, go back
to this chapter, you'll notice Elijah didn't put any pressure
on him. Elijah didn't put any pressure on Elisha. In fact,
he discouraged him. I read it to him. He said, go
back, go back, go back. You know why? If you can go back,
you were never called to it. You were never called to it.
I used to go home, when Henry had that preacher school, I used
to go home in tears saying, why am I doing this? I can't preach. I cannot preach. Why am I doing
this? I felt like crawling under the table. There were men in
there so much more gifted and able than me. I mean, not even
a comparison. And yet next week I came back.
I'd go home and say, I'm not coming back. Next week I'd come
back. But Henry put no pressure on
me. He didn't put pressure on anybody in there to preach. In
fact, if you sat in that class, you'd realize It was totally
opposite. One time was in there and he
was teaching us how to sing. I may have told you this, but
he was teaching us how to lead singing. I mean, he taught us
how to dress. We're supposed to get everything
lined up. I mean, he didn't miss anything. If you're gonna stay
in the pulpit, you're gonna stay in the pulpit respectfully. And
if anything's gonna be offensive, let it be the gospel, not you. But he was teaching us how to
do your hands, like Mike Marshall. And so we had a Saturday night
service. And one would preach, and one would lead the singing.
Well, Joe Terrell, I think it was, Joe Terrell preached. And
I did the leading the singing. And I couldn't. I mean, I couldn't
do anything. I looked like an octopus up there. So I just basically ended up
just standing there and just leading the singing. In the class
the next Saturday, Henry said, if you're not going to do what
I say, get out of this class now. I went home in tears because
I knew he was talking to me because I didn't do it. I mean, he was
talking directly to me. He had us to baptize one time.
We all had to practice baptizing. He wanted to be a respectful,
don't just throw him down in the water like, up, you know.
And I would throw him down the water. And he was like, no, that's
not how you do it. And you just had to learn how
to. I look back at that, it was so much, he had every detail
of it. To be respectful and honoring,
honoring to God. But he put no pressure to be
a preacher. He discouraged. I was discouraged
there for a good while. Then one day he said, God made
a preacher out of you. Elijah here cast his mantle upon
him, and Elijah said, I will follow you there. And Elijah
said to him, go home, go home. He said, I can't put the mantle
on you, but I didn't call you. Go back home, go back home. And the reason Elijah told him
to go back home is he didn't want Elijah to have any thought
that he called him to the ministry. That's of God. He's gonna take
all flesh out of it. God gave Elijah some wisdom.
He's gonna take all flesh out of it. And told him to go back home. But Elijah wouldn't do it. You
know why? God called him to the ministry.
He couldn't. He couldn't. And I'll tell you
something else he did. Whenever Elijah went by and spoke
to him, he left, he was plowing with those 12 yoke of oxen, he
left everything. He left everything. He left everything, followed
Elijah, but he wouldn't leave Elijah. He knew he needed to
sit under Elijah. He knew he needed what Elijah
had and what Elijah knew. He knew he needed to sit under
that man. You see, that's how God trains
preachers, pastors. He doesn't train them in seminaries.
It's good to have an education. You know, it's good to be able
to sharpen your vocabulary and those things. It's like sharpening
the ax if you're going to cut wood. But there's no power in
that. That doesn't qualify a man to
the ministry. Just because a man can speak
well does not mean he's called to the ministry. Because I've
heard men who can speak well, and God wasn't with them. I mean,
it's evident, but listen, God wasn't with them. That's why you don't wanna be
fooled by that. Don't be fooled by that. Don't be fooled by wisdom
of words. Don't be fooled by that. Elijah knew he, Elisha knew he
needed Elijah, he knew he needed to sit under him, he knew he
needed the same one Elijah had, the Spirit of God. As Paul said
in 2 Corinthians, For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ,
in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one
we are the saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver
of life unto life. Who's sufficient for these things?
That's what he said. Who's sufficient? There was a
time when the Apostle Paul, when he was Saul, thought he was sufficient
for everything. And God said to him, he said,
I'm not sufficient for anything, but in Christ I can do all things.
Who strengthens me? Now that's putting it in its
proper place. I can't preach, but in Christ I can preach. I
can. But apart from him, I can't put
two words together. Now before Elijah, there in 9-15,
before Elijah was taken to heaven, he asked Elisha what he desired. What if you were asked what you
desired, just like Solomon was asked that? What if someone asked
you that? I know we don't know unless it
would happen, There's so many things we would probably naturally,
if the flesh took over, to ask for and it wouldn't be spiritual
things. But He asked for a double portion of His Spirit. He's talking about God. He's
talking about the Spirit of God. He's not talking about Elijah
himself. He's talking about the Spirit of God. I want a double
portion, now listen, of the presence of God. The One that's been with
you. I want a double portion of that. That's what he wanted and God
gave it to him. He gave it to him. Elisha knew
that without God he would be nothing and without God he's
not sufficient. He knew that without God he wouldn't
be able to remain faithful in the battle because the battle
was going to get hot. He wouldn't be able to remain
faithful. As Jude said, Now unto him that is able to keep you
from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy, but unto him that's able to keep
you from falling, I need a double portion of his spirit. That's
what I need. And he needed God to supply his
needs. I should say need. We just have
one need and the Lord takes care of it. I've seen men go into
ministry and I've seen them leave it because of insufficient funds. As one man told me once, he said,
my family comes first. No, they don't. Vicki's not first. My family's not first. The Lord
Jesus Christ is first. And then she's second. And then the kids are third.
He goes right on down the line. But Christ is first. And a man
going to be in the ministry, his family's not first. And God
will provide. And He'll try you. He'll test
you. He'll be tested. And the ones
who's in it for the money will leave. They'll leave. The hirelings will leave. When they see the wolf coming,
they see the covers getting bare, they leave. But God's preacher
doesn't leave. The shepherd feeds the sheep
and he protects them from the wolves. The Lord will provide. Elijah
knew he needed that Lord who provided. And he also knew he
needed the one that was with Elijah and gave him the courage
to stand before 450 prophets and 400 prophets of the groves. God gave him the courage to do
that. One man against 450 prophets
and 400 prophets of the groves. You know, that's not even 1%
average. 850 people standing there against
you, and you're one? No, he needed the God of Elijah
to be with him. He needed the very God who parted
the waters of Jordan. In a little while, you and I
have got to cross over, and we know what that represents, Jordan.
In a little while, we've got to cross over Jordan. I'm telling you what, looking
at my life is not going to give me the courage to go over it.
Looking to Christ will, having the Spirit of Christ will give
me the courage to lay down and die and say goodbye to this world. And it'll take the God of Elijah
to give us the courage to give God the glory in the face of
all opposition and not back down one inch. Not be afraid of the
fight. Now I'm going to close with these
questions real quickly. I got this from Henry's book
here. Where's the God of Elijah? He's in the heavens. Psalm 115. Where's the God of Elijah? He's
in Christ. Matthew 121. Where's the God
of Elijah? He's in His Word. That's where
He's at. He's in His Word in 1 Peter 1.
Where's the God of Elijah? He's on the throne of grace in
Hebrews 4, verse 16. Where's the God of Elijah? He's
in the midst of those who worship Him. He's here this morning.
If this is a worship service, He's here. Where's the God of
Elijah? He's in every act of providence,
especially in our lives. And last of all, where's the
God of Elijah? He's in everyone who believes. He's in you. All right.