Now, look back with me here in
2 Kings. 2 Kings. And you remember in our last
lesson that in chapter 12 of 1 Kings, the kingdoms were divided.
You know, they wasn't satisfied. Israel wasn't satisfied with
the king in Judah. Judah wasn't satisfied with Israel.
And God had told Solomon, I'm going to rend the kingdom from
you. I'm going to take it away from you. And because of your
sinfulness. And so the kingdom divided. They had the northern kingdom.
That became Israel. That became Israel. Ten tribes. And they had kings. And then
Judah was a tribe. And then David's sons. And David's
sons only reigned in Judah. And so there was this double
kingdom. Israel, they had their king. I don't like your king,
we're gonna make our own king. Well, I'm gonna have this king,
y'all don't want that king. So they all just decided, well,
I like this fella, y'all like that fella, so we'll go this
way and y'all go that way. And so they split the kingdom.
And that's a sad, sad history. Sad history of man. and his awful
sin, and his rebellion, his idolatry, especially after what God did
for Israel. Oh my, what God did. He kept
his promise to Abraham. He told him, says, your descendants
will go down into Egypt, into a strange country, and they'll
dwell there 430 years. He said, I'll go down and bring
every one of them out. Went down there, 70 souls, come
out over 2 million people. And God done miracle after miracle
after miracle, parted the Red Sea and brought them through
on dry land. And they wasn't going out of Egypt three days,
and they started finding fault with God. Started finding fault
with Moses. So man, by his very nature, I
don't care how good things are going, he'll find something wrong
with what's going on in his life. He'll find some reason to be
discontent. That's just his nature. That's
why we have to keep coming here in the gospel over and over and
over, to keep that old rotten, hellish nature at bay. To keep it held back, because
it'll break out on us. It'll break out on us. But anyway,
it's a sad history of man's rebellion, sin, and idolatry. Now, if so,
that northern kingdom, It was ruled 250 years by 19 different
men, and every single one of them were wicked. There wasn't
a good king that reigned over Israel. They were idolaters. They were men who were lovers
of themselves and self-serving, and God in His mercy sent them
prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet. And this book
deals with two in particular prophets, Elijah and Elisha.
And Elisha here performs about six or eight different miracles
in this second Kings. But anyway, here's some of the
prophets that he sent to them. He sent Elijah. Elijah was John
the Baptist of his day. He was a man of thunder. He was
a man of power. And he was a man hated and despised. And then there was Elisha. He
is a different type of preacher. He is a different type of prophet.
He wasn't as fire-breathing as Elijah was. And then there was
Amos. He sent Amos to them. He sent
Hosea to them. And Jonah to them, calling these men to repentance.
But none of them repented. They all followed the veil. They
followed them, the gods that these people created in their
own minds. And they walked after the lust
of their own heart. They walked in defiance of God
Himself and of God's right to be got over them. And when you
refuse to come under God's rule and deliberately go against God,
after He's made you a prophet and warned you time and time
and time and time again, there's nothing left to do but reprobation. God gave them up. And when God
gives a man up, he's a giver up for God. He said over in Romans,
he said, I've stretched forth my hands all day long. To a denying and gainsaying people. Here's God. You think God's playing
games with people when he presents himself as someone said, I stretch
forth my hands. To a gainsaying people, people
that deny me. Pleading with them to come to
me. Pleading with them to turn from their sin. Pleading with
them to turn from their rebellion. And they would not. And what's left for a nation,
what's left for a person, what's left for a family, what's left
for an individual, what's left for a church, what's left for
anybody, when they refuse to do what God says after He sends
prophets, after prophet, after prophet, God gave them up. And
when God gives up on you, that's a frightening thing to think
of. Huh? No one's more patient. No one's
more long-suffering. No one has more loving-kindness
and tenderness and pity than God. Nobody. It's through His long-suffering
that He endured the vessels of wrath. And then there's the southern
kingdom, Judah. Judah and Benjamin. Judah, the
southern kingdom, they survived for 104 years, longer than Israel
did. And Judah had 20 different kings,
and every single one of them was a descendant of David, right
down the line. And most of the kings were wicked
men, but there were several that walked in David's ways. And they
wore his name, some of these kings did, but they knew nothing
of the character of his God. And I want you to know, and I
read today, if you look with me over here in chapter 17, and
I read today that this is one of the saddest chapters in the
whole Bible. And I suppose it is. I suppose
it is. And after a long, long history
of hearing and despising God's Word, Israel was taken captive
by the Assyrians. The Assyrians came, took Israel
captive. And then 136 years later, Judah
was taken captive and carried into Babylonian captivity. And
that's where they were at when Jeremiah and Daniel talked about
them so many times, and they were in Babylonian captivity.
And Daniel, when Daniel talks about Daniel himself and Belshazzar
and Nebuchadnezzar and all these kings that were there, and that's
when Judah, all that tribe, the kingly tribe, was carried off
into Babylonian captivity. And that's when they were, you
know the story about the lion's den and the fiery furnace? Those
were Israelites, Jews, that were put in there because they were
despised. And so the reason, and God gives
the reason here. Look with me down here in 2 Kings
chapter 17. And look what happens now. Starting
at verse 9. And the children of Israel, The
children of Israel. I mean, this is centuries, centuries
of God sent preachers to these men. Centuries. And the children
of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against
the Lord their God. Well, they built them high places
in all their cities. You know what a high place is?
That's a place where they go up to worship. They call it a
high place, a holy place. It don't mean it's elevated.
That doesn't mean they consider this is a high place. This is
a place where we go up to worship. This is a high and holy place.
And then he goes on to say, And they built high places in all
their cities, from the Tower of the Washmen to the Fifth City,
and they set them up images, built them some groves to set
those images in, under an ever-high hill and under an evergreen tree.
And there they burned incense in all those high places, as
did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them, and
wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. They served
idols, and the Lord has said, I mean, you shall not do this
thing. I mean, they took gold and wood and stones and silver
and made idols out of them and sent them up and bowed down to
them after the true and living God brought them through the
Red Sea on dry land. And so they heard God speak on
Mount Sinai. After they went into Israel,
they went into the promised land, through the dry land, when they
went through Jordan. God tied up Jordan for them to
go through over there. And here they are, building and
setting up images. So listen to them.
Yet the Lord, in verse 13, yet the Lord testified against Israel. Oh, God testified. Who's going
to testify for me? God said, I'm going to testify
against you. And I'm going to testify against Judah. And how
did he do it? By all the prophets and by all
the seers saying, turn you from your evil ways. Keep my commandments
and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded
your fathers, by which I sent to you by my servants, the prophets. Notwithstanding, listen to it,
they would not hear. Well, what did they do? They
hardened their neck. Don't you bow up on me. That's
what, you know, somebody say, don't you bow up on me. Well,
that's what they're doing with God. They're bowing up on God.
Bowing up on God. And like to the neck of their
fathers that did not believe in the Lord their God, and they
rejected His statutes and His covenants that He made with their
fathers and testimonies which He testified against them. And,
O beloved, and then the heathen that were round about them concerning
whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like
them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God and made
them molded images. Now, if you can make your God,
if you can make Him, pour Him in a mold, and take Him out of
that mold, if you're the one that made Him, why in the world
would you bow down and worship Him when He's the works of your
own hands? But people are doing it every single day, all over
this world. Huh? And oh, beloved, they left
off in verse 16, the commandments of the Lord their God made them
molded images, even two calves, made them grow and worshiped
all the hosts of heaven, the stars, sun, moon, star, and served
them. And this is awful. Now listen
to this. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass
through the fire. They offered them as sacrifices
on altars and burned them to their gods. And they used divinations
and enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the
Lord, to provoke Him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry
with Israel and removed them out of His sight, and there was
none left but the tribe of Judah only. And also Judah kept not
the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the
statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all
the seed of Israel. Rejected them all. Now, that's frightening, ain't it?
That is sad news. That is sad. That people that
would know God, somebody came along and told them. And they've
done our Lord Jesus Christ exactly the same way. They said, we'll
not have this man to reign over us. We'll worship Moses. We'll worship the prophets, and
we have Abraham to our father, but as this man, we don't know
where in the world he come from. And then I'll tell you what's
why the Scriptures tells us, he that being often reproved
and hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy. And then, but God had a sovereign
purpose of His grace in all of this. And though God destroyed
the Northern Kingdom, swore that he had destroyed Judah just as
well, he preserved a remnant. He always has a remnant according
to the election of grace. He has sworn, he says, that the
lawgiver would not come, would not pass out of Judah. until
Shiloh should come. The light wouldn't even do it.
And when Christ came and fulfilled His mission on this earth and
did the work God gave Him to do, 70 A.D., a Roman general
named Titus went through there and wiped Israel off of the map. And they still don't hardly know
who they are. And let me show you something,
how they're treated. When they got over in Babylon in Texas,
let me show you over here in chapter 25. Chapter 25. And I
preached on this here a while back. how that God had mercy
on his elect has been scattered throughout the world. And when
they were down there, the king of Judah was taken captive, and
Jehorakim was the king of Judah at this time. And look what it
says here in chapter 25 and verse 27 now. And it came to pass in
the seven second Kings, 25, verse 27. 25, 27. And it came to pass in the seventh
and thirtieth year of the captivity of Joachim, king of Judah, in
the twelfth month, on the seven-twentieth day of the month, that evil Merodach,
king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did he
lift up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison."
This David's descended now. Going to raise up this guy. He
spake kindly to him. He's going to keep that reign
of Christ and that seed of Christ through Judah. And he spake kindly
to him and said his throne above the throne of the kings that
were with him in Babylon. Now watch this. And changed his
prison garments, and he did eat bread continually before him
all the days of his life. And his allowance was continual
allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day. So
he was treated very well. because he was the king of Judah,
and God's purpose of grace to save him there. And there's always
been a remnant according to the election of grace. And no wonder
the apostles said, oh, the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God. Oh, how unsearchable are His judgment, and ways past
finding out. Who's ever been His counselor?
Whoever gave to Him, and God's got to pay him back again. For
of Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. Now, we're going
to talk about the prophets. We're not going to talk about
these evil kings. We know in this evil people.
We know what evil's like. We know what sin's like. We know
how depraved we are. We know how depraved the human
race is. There's no if, ands, or buts
about it. But instead of talking about these kings and these wicked
kings, there's two prophets in this book. And they tell how
God used these two prophets in the ministry of all the faithful
prophets, especially the story of Elijah and Elisha. But all
the prophets that prophesied throughout the kings and the
chronicles was Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, Jonah, Obadiah,
Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Neo, Habakkuk, Cephaniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
and Daniel. All of these men prophesied to
these people, and lived in these days. In fact, Daniel was there
when Jecorahim was raised up. And in Judah there was. And so
you had all these prophets. God used all these prophets.
And it tells the story of God's grace and mercy in the ministries
of these men. And in Judah, and look over here
in 2 Kings 18, there was a few good kings. And there was several,
but I'll tell you two right off the top of my head. And this
one here is Hezekiah. Look in verse 4. Verse 1 says, It came to pass
in the third year of Hoshea, the lia, the king of Israel.
Now there's a king in Israel here. And Hezekiah, the son of
Ahaz, the king of Judah, began to reign. King in Israel, king
in Judah. And Ezekiel is twenty-five years
old, and he begins to reign. Look what it says there in verse
three. And he did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord, and accorded all that David his father did. He removed the
high places, break the images, cut down the groves, break in
pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. They're still
worshiping him. For unto those days the children
of Israel did birth incense to it, and he called it the heshetan,
that is, nothing but a piece of branch. And it says here that
in verse 6, 6, he claimed to the Lord and departed not from
following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.
And the Lord was with him, and he prospered with every wind.
And I tell you, beloved, he even rebelled against the king of
Assyria. So there was a few good. And then Josiah. He was eight
years old when he assumed the throne. Eight years old. And
then when he was 18, He said he wanted to rebuild the temple.
Started raising money to rebuild the temple. And while they were
looking through the temple, they found the book of God, the first
five book of Moses. They found the book of God, the
law of God. And they brought that to Josiah when he was 18
years old. He didn't know it existed. They
didn't, you know, then it had been lost. And he began, he had
that scribe to start reading that to him. And he said, oh
my, he called the pastors, he called all Israel together and
said, look here what I found. He said, do you know how far
we are off from this? Do you know how we're sinning
against the Lord? This is God's book, this is God's
word. And I heard Henry Mahan use that
very thing about when they brought the book to Josiah. And Josiah,
beloved, at that particular time, he stood up and he cleaned house
from top to bottom. He destroyed every false prophet.
He run the homosexuals out of the country. He run every false
priest out of the country. He tore down every idol. He destroyed
everything that was against God until he was an old man. He didn't
leave nothing that was false in Israel. If it was, it had
to be him. And then he executed them, he
purged the land, put away the wizards, the witches, and the
soothsayers, and he commanded Israel to start keeping the Passover.
But I heard Brother Henry use that one time, and he says, they
found a book they didn't know existed. He says, maybe some
of these preachers are preaching on recovering the gospel. And
maybe some of these preachers will discover that there's something
in this book, and this is God's book. Maybe they'll discover
God's book one of these days. Because most preachers don't
know anything about it. And he says, maybe that'll happen
like it did in your society. When they do, they'll start saying
something. They'll clean house. That's right.
Oh, my. But, O beloved, God's preacher,
God's mercy, a story of His mercy and grace in His people and His
blessings revolves around prophets, those men that God sends to proclaim
His word. Elijah was an Old Testament prophet. And our Lord Jesus Christ called
him John the Baptist, who was the greatest prophet that ever
was, born of a woman. And he says, you want to fill
up with us? They said, Elijah's going to come. He said, Elijah's
been here. And Elijah came back in the person
of John the Baptist, I believe that's who he said. He said,
Elijah's been here. Elijah's been here. And so Elijah, he's
back over here in chapter two. You know, the scriptures tells
us that It says in verse 1 that God's going to take Elijah up
to heaven in a whirlwind. He's going to test him. You know, there's two people
in the Old Testament that went to glory without going through
the grave. Enoch was out walking one day and he wasn't out for
God's sake. He's gone. And Elijah, God already told
him, He said, Elijah, I'm going to come and get you. I'm going
to come and get you, and I'm going to bring you up here where
I am." And Elisha knew that, and he followed him everywhere
he went. He would not leave him alone. He said, I'm going to
go with him. I'm going to go with him. I'm going to go here, I'm going
to go with him. I'm going to go here, I'm going to go with
him. And he did, and he said, and finally, he said in chapter
11, verse 11 and 12, in 2 Kings 2, And it came to pass that they
still went on, and as they talked, There appeared a chariot of fire.
Here comes this chariot out of it. You know, maybe that's what
they give that old song, Swing Down, Sweet Chariot. That old
chariot comes swinging down there, a chariot of fire. And look what
it said, and horses of fire. And it came down and put Elijah
this way and Elisha that way. And it took Elijah up, went up
into heaven in a whirlwind. Just like a tornado. With them
fiery chariots carrying him. Horses of fire carrying him up
there. And Elisha's standing there, whoa. And when he went,
Elisha's mantle fell off of him. His coat fell off of him. His
robe fell off of him. And oh, that's when he says,
oh, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen there,
they saw him no more. And then he took Elisha's mantle.
He took Elisha's mantle. And I tell you, beloved, that's
what's going to happen. That's a picture of the blessed
hope that we have. And we're awaiting our Lord's
gracious call, and He'll soon bring us home. But I mean, beloved,
and it'll be just like it was, it says this, but I would not
have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that you saw them not, even as others which have no hope. For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say
unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them or hinder
them that are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout." Boy, you reckon we'll hear his voice? I don't know what he's going
to shout, I don't know what he's going to say, but he's going to come
with a shout. And look what it says, "...with the voice of the
archangel." And the trumpet of God's gonna blow, just like when
they blew them when they went to war, blew them when they went
up on the map, they blew them when the walls of Jericho come
falling down. And watch this, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. And here's what's gonna happen
to us. Then we which are alive and remain shall be called up
together, and we will be called right up with them together.
Huh? We'll be like Elijah. And you know why we're going
up through there? We're going to be changed in
a moment. And we'll be changed from this body to that body like
Christ. When we get an inch off the ground. And then he says this. So you
comfort one another with them words. That's comforting words,
ain't it? Couraging words. And then we
have not only Elijah that the Lord took away. Now we've got
Elijah. Elijah was Elijah's servant,
served him for many years. And Elijah cast his mantle on
him, and that old prophet, he asked him what he wanted. He
said, just give me a double portion, double portion of your power
and your influence. And so he did. He gave him a double portion.
He had a double portion of the spirit and power of Christ. And
I'll tell you something, just like when Elijah went up to heaven,
and Elijah went up in that chariot, and that robe fell down on him,
that mantle fell down on him, and he followed him. And that's
the way we, Christ, he came here and he went back to glory and
he gave all of his children a robe of righteousness. And because
His Spirit came upon us, and we get a portion of Christ, and
Christ in us, the hope of glory. And now we walk with God forever,
and we walk in the power of His resurrection. And that's what
we, when we confess Christ and believers' baptism, that's what
we're saying. We're saying, I'm trusting Christ and His righteousness. And I'm going to be buried in
baptism. And I'm going to raise up and
walk in newness of life, even so the Scripture says that we're
buried with Him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we should walk in newness of life. Now listen to it. If we've
been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall
be also in the likeness of His resurrection. If we're buried with Him in His
death, and we were suffered with Him in His death, and we want
to be planted with Him in His death, and be identified with
Him in His death, well, whatever He is resurrected like, that's
the way we're going to be resurrected. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
and we should not serve sin. So now let me give you some of
these things that Elijah did, Elisha did. He does so many miracles
in here. And I'll let you look at them
at your own leisure, because it takes too long to read them
all. First of all, there's some waters that were him. There was
50 sons of the prophets, 50 prophets, and they dwelled in a pleasant
land. But he says, if the water was not, and the land was barren,
Elisha said, bring me a new cruise and put some salt in it. And
he took that salt and he went up to the head of that water
and poured it in there. And in just a little while, the next
morning, here comes water gushing out down through there. The land
became fruitful. Water comes gushing out. The
water was good. The land became fruitful. The
waters healed it, and it became full of life and abundant. And
Elijah says, the Lord has healed these waters. And it was like
when that tree was thrown in the waters of Marah, the bitter
waters of Marah, and saved that water through the death of Christ
and the tree there. And that's the way it was here.
And they have a covenant of salt, and you can see that for yourself.
And this is a picture of the gospel and its power in the lives
of God's elect. It's the power of the God, and
the power of God under salvation is the gospel. And just like
salt, and that's what I ordained and said, if the salt had lost
its savor, we're with it just to be salted in this covenant
of grace. Salt was to be put with all the
sacrifices and all of that. And the salt of the covenant
of grace has been applied to our death, and life, life springs
up out of our souls. And that Spirit of God, by this
covenant of salt, makes sinners who were dead in trespasses and
sin alive under God, just like He healed that water. And then
there was these ditches. Another time, the land, Moab
was going to come and attack Israel. Going to come and attack
Israel. And you know what Elisha said?
He said, dig ditches. Dig a big ditch right around
through here. So he dug a big ditch. Next morning, water was running
down through there. Moab come to attack, and they
couldn't get across the water. And they were just being thwarted
by that water. And all they done was just dig
a ditch, said, and I'll make the water. And they got up the
next morning, and water was rushing down through there. And they
defeated Moab just because of the ditches. And that's what
happens, beloved. God shows His work of grace in
chosen, redeemed sinners. And when God the Holy Spirit
does a work of grace in the heart of the sinner, the first thing
He does is like dig that ditch. You've got to break up that fallow
ground. You've got to break up that fallow ground before the
water of the gospel will work and the word of conviction will
come. And I'll tell you, beloved, and I'll tell you something else
about this. When that ditch was filled, water came in the time
of the morning sacrifice. And that's the way it is. When
God comes to bless somebody, they've done this thing in the
morning. the sacrifice, and grace and life comes to sinners by
the power of God as a result of Christ's sacrifice. That water.
He said, I'm the water of life. He told that woman at the well,
if you knew the gift of God, you'd have asked of Him. And
then you all know the story of the pot of oil that alighted.
You know that story, that poor woman, she has sons. And her
husband died, left her in debt, left her in great poverty, and
left her in debt. Some of the veterans were going
to come and take her sons and put them in bondage. So she sent
to Elijah and said, Elijah, what am I going to do? Elijah said
this. He said, I'll tell you what. He said, you send your
boys out and get pots, get vessels, get every vessel you can get.
And he said, you start pouring out of that oil. And boy, they
got pot after pot. They marched from all their neighbors
and they start pouring that oil out of that pot, pouring that
oil out of that pot, pouring that oil out of that pot. And
there was empty. And she had enough oil to pay
off the debt. And then that much oil she had
to start with. So her debt was paid. And the oil. And I tell you what,
and this is the thing about it. God only fills empty vessels.
To bring you an empty vessel, the Holy Spirit won't come upon
anybody but an empty vessel. And once she emptied her vessel,
she never lacked again. And when we're emptied of self,
that's when the Holy Spirit fills us up. And He fills us full of
the fullness of Christ. And Christ paid all of our debt
for us. And I do know this, that when that last drop of oil was
poured out, that debt was paid. And when that last sheep is brought
in, this thing's over. Just like that. And then there's
another thing that Elisha did. He raised the Shunammite woman's
son from the dead. A wealthy woman saw him passing
by one day, and she told her husband, said, I perceive that
man's a holy man. He's a prophet. Said, let's build
him a little room here, so when he passes by, he can stay here
at our place. So they built him a room, they
put him a table, put him a candle, put him a bed in there, and took
care of him when he'd come through there. But he left one day and
says, you know you're going to have a son about this time next
year. About this time next year, she did. That boy grew up, got
to be a young man, went out to the field with his daddy one
day, his head got to hurting, he went home, sat in his mother's
lap, and died. Dropped dead. She laid him out on the bed,
she'd run to get Elisha, and she found him, and He said, this
woman's upset, and God's hid it from me. She said, I'm here.
I didn't ask you for a son. I didn't ask you for a child,
but you told me I'd have one. And now you're mocking me. My
son's dead. I didn't ask for him. And you're mocking me. My son's
dead. I didn't ask for a child. And, boy, I ain't fathered her
home. And he went up in that room where that boy was, and
he laid himself down on that boy's body. Put his mouth on
his mouth, his nose on his nose, his eyes on his eyes, his hands
on his head, and he breathed. He got up, prayed, got back on
him. And he said, the scripture says,
when he got on him and spread over on him and started laying
his head on him, his hands on him, he said, the boy's body
began to get warm. And he sneezed seven times. And
he raised him up, took him out and said, here's your boy. That
woman says, no, no, he's a prophet of God. Oh, my. And in that resurrection of the
shoot of my son, that's typical of the new birth. And it's through
God, Christ, giving us the new birth. And he gives us life or
we don't have it. We got to be connected with him
to have life. And then I say, let me give you
three or four more. There was death in the pot. Mayhem
in the axe-head and the chariots that parted the four leopards.
Let me go through them real quick. The death in the pot. There was
all these prophets came around, and they was fishing a big pot
of soup, pot of stew. They went out, picked up a bunch
of stuff, put it in there, and they all got to eating, and the next
thing you said, oh my, some of them got real sick and said they
were going to die. There was death in that pot. And there
was death in a lot of pots. But anyway, Elijah, he took something
and threw it in there, stirred it up, and they ate it, and it
was fine. He filled that death in that
pot. And boy, it's like sin brings
poison into our lives. Christ, the bread of life, He's
the one that puts the poison out of us. And then there's Naaman.
Everybody knows the story of Naaman. Where Elijah, God sent
a little maiden woman over there and told that In fact, Naomi
said, you know, there's a prophet in Israel that could heal you
of that. And she gave him a word of hope. And when the time of
love came, Elisha went out and in graciousness humbled him. God humbled him and he healed
him in both of his leprosy in his mind and in his body. He's
made a new man. And this is something that you
just, if you didn't see it in the scriptures and didn't know
God, you'd say this couldn't happen. Those prophets one day
was building a house, a place, a schoolhouse. He was building
a place to learn. And they fell apart an axe, and
he was chopping. And the axe had come off and
fell in the river. And that son of the prophet,
that prophet went over there and told him, I said, oh, I had
that bar and said, I've lost it now. I can't restore it. I
said, where did you lose it at? He said, right there. He took
a stick and stuck it in there. and smoked the water, and the
scripture said that axe head didn't float to the top. But it said it swam. Wherever
he dropped it, it swam right back to the bay. And he picked
it up. The axe head don't swim. God caused that axe head to come
up and swim right back to the bay for that prophet to be able
to return it to him. And then there's the chariots
of fire. You know Elisha? All the kings
of Assyria, all the Assyrians got around him and said, we're
going to find out who's telling the king of Israel everything
that's going on. And boy, old Gehazi went out
one day and he said all he saw was this great big huge army
surrounding Elisha's house. And old Elisha went out and said,
Lord, open his eyes. And he opened his eyes and he
saw chariots of fire all around, twice as many as there was of
the Assyrian army. And he said, see, there's more
of them, more for us than they are against us. And then there was these four
lepers. These four lepers. When the Assyrians had Israel surrounded, starving them
to death, and they were starving to death. I mean, they were eating
their own mess. They was eating their own excrement.
They was eating anything they could get their hands on. People
were eating their own children. And these three, these four lepers
were sitting outside the gate, and they said, Well, if we go
inside, we'll starve to death with everybody else. And if we
go down to the Syrians, maybe they'll feed us and take care
of us. But either way, we're going to die. And they may kill
us, and they may let us live. So they went down among the Assyrians,
85,000 of them down there. Tents set up everywhere, gold
and silver and clothes. And God had caused a rumor to
start, and angels come through there. And that 85,000 got gone
just like that. And them lepers went down there,
and there was an Assyrian lord. And they started going through
there, and there was food. and silver, and gold, and water,
and clothes, more than you can imagine. And Elijah told them
the next day, he said, there'll be plenty of bread in Israel.
And boy, those old lepers went back and started banging on the
gate. He said, guess what? They're serious of gold. They're
going to get some food out of here. And sure enough, they went
out there and sold those lepers. And that's the way, that's what
I'm telling you is this, be like those lepers. If you don't, Go,
you're going to perish. And if you stay, you're going
to perish. So what are you going to do? You're going to cast it
all on the Lord? Huh? That's all you can do. And Ogehazi, the king of Israel,
asked him one day, tell me about yours. Master, Elijah, Elisha. And he told him a lot of things
about Elisha, and all the exploits of Elisha. And beloved, these
things and these prophets, they would have no power, they would
have no grace, no mercy, nothing would ever happen if it hadn't
been for the grace and mercy of God. And they all prefigured
Christ, for all the prophets gave Him witness. I hope that's
a blessing to you.